Out of the mouths of babes...

At Sunday School the other day Leah made a little nativity set that can be played with freely, and she has been having a lot of fun with it. Yesterday she even wanted to put it in my purse so that we could take it with us to go to my sister's and then meet Mike at work for lunch.

On our way home, Leah asked where Mary and Joseph were. "In my purse," I responded. My sister and I were just laughing at the absurdity of that statement when Leah said, "And where's their kid?" That did it. We busted out in laughter, as I asked Leah, "You mean, Baby Jesus?"

So we're having a fun Christmas season...celebrating the fact that Mary and Joseph and their kid spent a night in a stable in Bethlehem. Somehow, I imagine that a Christ-child born in a lowly stable might not be offended when he's referred to as one of the kids...especially by another kid who, just the other night, said this before going to bed:

"I feel my heart! I feel Jesus in my heart!"

Oh Come, Let us Adore Him.

Snow much fun!

We had so much fun getting outside today! Leah has been begging for new snowpants to play in the snow, so when I came home with them today she was very excited. Our original plan was to build a snowman, but the snow wasn't cooperating, so we just did the sledding thing instead. Regardless, it was a lot of fun, and we enjoyed both getting outside and having hot cocoa when we came in.

As an aside, I made this video using my Christmas gift from Mike, a Flip Video. I am so excited to be using it, and I'm sure you will be treated to more movies as I get the hang of it. Enjoy!

Love has come...

I have started and stopped a million entries since the event of the mall shooting in Omaha just two days ago. I eventually have come to realize that trying to make sense of it is not possible. It makes no sense that so much heartache could be inflicted in six minutes. From the initial shock of seeing something like this happening at a place where I have often been, to seeing the faces of those whose lives were taken, there is just no sense. My heart hurts.

Von Maur is a store that I love to walk through during the Christmas season. While it's not a store that I frequently make purchases from, they deck themselves out to the hilt for Christmas. Every year since I've lived here, I've made it a point to walk through there during this season. One of the special treats of the store is the playing of the grand piano that you can hear almost anywhere in the store. In a place where you normally would expect to see only consumer frenzy, you surprisingly get a moment of peace.

Until Wednesday. As I think about those minutes, I imagine the beauty of the scene being broken by unimaginable hurt. First, the hurt and pain in the boy's life that led to his actions that day. And the hurt and pain that has now impacted so many in our community. I have heard it said that the joyful spirit of the Christmas season has been taken away because of this senseless act. We are hurting. How can we celebrate?

But, we do celebrate. We celebrate because Love has come, a light in the darkness. We celebrate because during this time of advent, we have been reminded just how acutely we need a Savior who pierces the darkness with peace. We celebrate because even in this time of pain, we are comforted.

Oh Come, let us adore Him.

Woof, woof!

One of Leah's favorite games is to pretend that she is a dog, as she crawls around on her hands and knees, barks, and plays fetch. She then proceeds to jump on the couch, stick her tongue out, and lick me on the face.

Does it make me a bad mom to say that this totally grosses me out?

Simple Things...

This past weekend was no doubt a crazy one to be out and about, as we "kicked off" the Christmas season. I chose to ring in the day by sleeping in (Leah was at her grandparent's house) and going out to breakfast with my husband. It was a lovely, lovely day, and I wasn't dead tired by the end of it. However, on Sunday I was in the grocery store with Leah, fighting the crowd there as well. I wanted to just get in/get out, and Leah wanted to look at everything. I was trying to rush her along, and admittedly became frustrated with her lack of rush. All of a sudden, while I was trying to maneuver my cart through the aisle, Leah stopped dead in her tracks, and said, "Mommy, it's my song from church!". In my rush, I hadn't even heard the music playing overhead. "Away in the manger, no crib for a bed," sang Leah, complete with actions, in the middle of the grocery store. Suddenly, I too was stopped in my tracks. A lesson of peace learned from my four year old daughter. How quickly we get swept up in the insanity, and forget to focus on the Christ-child. For a few brief moments in the middle of busy day I was able to re-focus myself, and enjoy the simple things of the season.

Thank you, Jesus, for muzak. And thank you for a child who still hears you above all the noise.

It's the snow's fault!

Today, I broke my hard and fast holiday rule, and I listened to Christmas music before Thanksgiving.

Whatever, I blame it on the snow.

Wanna Bet?

I have a bit of a competitive streak. Mike knows this well. I like to make little bets with him, and I like to win. However, Mike does not like to take my bets unless he knows he will win. Usually they are stupid little things where we both think we are right, so we bet on it, and have a little fun with it. I apparently haven't learned my lesson yet, since Mike is usually the winner in the bets that he takes. I haven't figured out how to trick him yet! Anyway, this week we bet on something rather silly, but the terms of the bet was that the loser would cook the winner breakfast on Saturday morning. Of course, I lost. So.....this morning I woke up and started on the breakfast. Saturday morning breakfasts are one of my favorite meals to eat together because it just has the feeling of vacation, and of taking a moment to spend time together. Mike was still in bed when I started frying the bacon. I also made really delicious coffee, a flavor called "Autumn Nights". How good does that sound? I made some eggs to go with the bacon, and then started in on the "special treat" of the morning. I had seen this week Paula Deen make fried cranberry fritters, so I thought I would give it a try. Basically, they were cranberry sauce dipped in batter and deep fried, so it was like a cranberry donut. It was so good! I was going to take a picture of mine, but I forgot, so you can check it out
here. They were delicious, and kind of a fun thing to have for my lost bet of a breakfast.

Mike is now outside mowing up the massive amounts of leaves that we have in our yard, and I'm getting ready to frost a cake we're bringing to a get-together tonight with friends from church. The cake is called "Country Bumpkin Pumpkin Torte", and it looks wonderful! I realize so many of my posts lately are about cooking...this time of year just makes me want to try all sorts of new recipes! If the cake is a hit I will post the recipe up here later.

So, in the spirit of the great Southern Paula Deen, Happy Fall, Ya'll!

Talking Turkey...

(For those of you who also read/know about my other blog on xanga, I will be cross-posting for a little while until I phase over here for good, so if you go there and think you are seeing double, you are!)

As I mentioned a few days ago, Mike and I decided to take advantage of the pre-Thanksgiving turkey specials and buy a big one to cook up and use to make several different meals. Kind of like using turkey leftovers, without the firstover, I guess! So I bought a 15 lb. turkey at .57/lb. and Mike graciously made it on Sunday. I have been making turkey dinners ever since, but I think we have a great variety of meals for really very little money. For under $100, I have made six turkey meals, one pork roast meal, and two non-turkey soups. All of the meals are good for at least two meals for our family, so we are set for at least 18 meals!

In case any of you are interested, the turkey meals I made came from either cookbooks that I have or from googling "turkey leftovers". I ended up with the following meals: turkey chili, turkey a la king (to be put over rice or pasta later), turkey/cranberry wraps, turkey crescent roll pockets, white bean and turkey stew, and turkey santa fe soup (kind of a taco-type soup). All this, and I have two bags of turkey left that I've frozen to pull out for a soup or other dish. If you would like any of my recipes, just leave me a comment and I'll get them to you.

I think I'm going to buy another turkey while the prices are still good to use for later on in the winter. I just hope that we're not all turkey-ed out by Thanksgiving!

Gobble Gobble...

Getting involved...

Mike and I have been making a renewed effort to get more involved in our community, specifically the neighborhood where we live. We moved here a little over 2 years ago and time and time again are amazed at the community feel that this neighborhood has. We have summer picnics, Christmas parties, Easter egg hunts, babysitting co-ops...good things to get involved with. Mike is going to start with the citizen patrol next weekend, driving around the neighborhood one weekend night to make sure everything is what it should be. We are excited for the chances to get to know our neighbhors, and be a real part of this place.

One thing that started up last week was a wine club involving about 12 people from our neighborhood. We plan on meeting at least bi-monthly to taste different wines, which is something Mike and I enjoy very much. Last week our theme was "Holiday wines", so each couple brought a bottle that they thought would go well with a holiday meal. We brought a red zinfandel made by Cline of California, and it was really good. We tasted each of seven wines, and then rated them. The winning wine was a 2005 Cabernet from California as well...it was really delicious and seemed to please a variety of people. The evening started off just about wine, and ended up with everyone having great conversation. I think a glass or two of wine helped us along! We are looking forward to getting together again, this time bringing a wine with the theme of "funky labels". It's nice that we don't take ourselves too seriously! You can expect more wine reviews as the club continues...

Busy day...

I just finished making my grocery list for the day, and I'm going to be heading out here this morning to brave the grocery store in the hopes that I can cook the afternoon away. Last fall Mike and I started making a month of meals at a time, since I work in the evenings and it was just getting hard to figure out a quick, nutritious meal. We loved it but due to a variety of things we got away from doing it for the last several months. Well, I decided it's time to get back to it, so this week I've been gathering things up to do it again. It's quite a production on the day of cooking, but it's so worth it when we're all done. I don't know how many meals will get made today...we're all still getting over the cold/flu junk that has plagued our home for the last few weeks, so we do what our energy allows us to do. I also picked up a turkey that we're going to bake either today or tomorrow and then cut up for a bunch of meals. It's nice to do when they are so cheap, and since we're not having Thanksgiving at our house this year we won't have any turkey leftovers. So that's on tap for the weekend.

We also have a backyard full of leaves which need to be dealt with today. A friend of mine who lives in a neighborhood with very few trees remarked to me that driving through our neighborhood makes her feel like it really is fall. We love our neighborhood because of all the trees, but in the fall our four big ones in the backyard create quite a lot of work. It's worth it, and they are so beautiful as they change colors.

Alright, enough procrastination....I should get stuff done this morning before the stores get too crazy. Gotta love the holidays!

A tip for sick kids!

With all the cautions in the news these days about cold medicine and children, I have been very careful with the things that I give to my daughter to battle her cold. Last week I was talking with a friend who mentioned that she wanted her kids to get a cough so that she could try out a new idea to combat it. She had read, and someone from her church confirmed, that putting Vick's Vapor Rub on the bottoms of the feet would help a cough. Now, I'm a bit skeptical, but it sounded like something reasonable to try should the occasion ever arise. Well, last night it did. I was doped up on Nyquil (a lovely, lovely invention), but still woke up to Leah coughing in the middle of the night. I went over to her bed and tried to soothe her with a back rub, some water, etc. She still coughed and coughed, for easily 20 minutes. Finally, somewhere in my brain I remembered the Vick's idea, so I went scrounging around and found some with the help of my sleepy husband. I rubbed it on Leah's feet, doubting that it would work since the cough was really really bad. But....within a minute her cough had stopped completely and she was sound asleep! I was amazed, and very thankful. I quickly succumbed to the powers of the Nyquil once again.

Why does it work? I have no idea. But, in a desperate moment it was worth a try, and now it's worth passing along. Here's hoping it's something that you never have to use, but in the event that you do, here's hoping that you can remember it! :)

Adventures in grocery shopping...

Grocery shopping has never ever been one of my favorite household tasks, but it is something I find myself doing far too often. I have tried to cut my trips down to once a week by cooking meals once a month, I have tried making a menu for a week and just shopping once a week, I have tried budgeting out just so much cash and then just spending that amount. But no matter what, I find myself wandering back to the store at least 2 times in week, many times more. Apart from moving to the country, or taking away my driving privileges, I don't exactly know how to fix this. I guess I could just use good ol' self-control, but that would take work! :)

At any rate, this morning I found myself back in the store with Leah in tow, and that is always an experience. She love to help bag the fruit and veggies, and now that she's counting everything, I often have her count four apples, or three oranges. That keeps her occupied for a little while. She loves the grocery store, and loves to experience all the colors and new things. And of course, I'm just trying to get through the place! When we finally get all the groceries in the cart, she announces her need for a bathroom, which has us running halfway across the store. That emergency taken care of, we can finally purchase our groceries. Leah loves to "help buy", so she has her little pink purse ready to go, with her .29 to purchase a yogurt. She helps load all the groceries on the belt, and since this store is a self-bagging store, she runs to the end to help bag as well. So...we have now restocked all our grocery bag supply, since Leah insisted on bagging one thing per bag. I caught up with her and started "helping", but this is something she loves to do, and takes great pride in. So there wasn't much I could do. :)

Overall, it's a fun time together...but harrowing at times. Adventures, indeed.

When to say when...

The other day we had the express pleasure of attending a birthday party for one of our neighbors who was turning 2 years old. This little girl is a fun friend in the neighborhood and I have enjoyed getting to know her grandparents with whom she and her mom live. However, when I received in the mail not only her invitation but also a card to let us know where she was registered, I was sickened. When is bringing pleasure to a child just a show of a sick kind of extravangance? When, in essence, should we say "when"?

This precious little girl had more presents than I have had in all my birthdays combined I believe...and not one of them did she really enjoy. They are just piled on top of everything else she already has, and simply become riff-raff. When we brought her little gift over she didn't even want to open it...she was on sensory overload by this point. This fun celebration was soured because of the fact that nobody is telling this child "when".

We have a birthday in our house coming up too...my little girl is very excited to turn 4, and is excited for her Curious George cake. There will be presents, yes, but I am more convicted than ever that the greatest gift I can give is a lesson in simplicity. To enjoy the things we have, and to enjoy them fully. Everything else is simply riff-raff.

My newest addiction....

I have been accused of being addicted to a few wonderful things that have actually been mostly beneficial in our house...Craigslist and Freecycle. However, my newest addiction has nothing to do with the computer, and instead brings me back to the television! :) TLC has a great show, Take Home Chef, and I seriously cannot get enough of it. I don't know what it is about it, but I would watch 3 a day if could. The premise is that this young chef picks up some woman in a store, most often a Whole Foods-type place, and offers to go home with her to cook her and her family/boyfriend/roommate etc. a fabulous meal. He plans the menu, buys the groceries, and takes over her kitchen in short order. Some of his creations have been interesting...he loves to cook with lamb and seafood, which are both a stretch for me. But... I have decided that should the day ever come where he finds me shopping at Whole Foods, I will embrace the opportunity and let him go crazy. Mike would love it, as he is a much more adventurous eater than I am. Maybe something seafood/mushroom related, since those are things you rarely see in my house. And I would try it willingly, as long as dessert resembled the chocolate mousse/creme brulee concoction he made on a show I watched last night.

See??? I'm opening myself up to new horizons...and I'm getting ready for the sushi that Mike wants to eat on his birthday next month. Look for a post on that in a few weeks...I'm sure I'll have something to say!

I love my church....

But....

We have had a wonderful, quite relaxing summer. Yes, we have been all over the country, gone many weekends, and now are finally getting back into the swing of things, but it's been a wonderful summer. Now, as school gets back underway, so do church activities, and I'm starting to remember why summer was such a needed respite. Mike and I were talking last night about when we could meet his parents for dinner on Sunday afternoon, something that we try to do a few times a year. We had scheduled it for this Sunday, but scheduling conflicts arose, so now we're looking for another day. Well, already, before the summer has even ended, that is getting difficult, mostly because of church activities.

Part of it is our fault. We like to be involved, and going to a small church like ours means you have to be involved. And everything sounds good, until I start jumping in and can't quite doggy-paddle to Respite Island. I'm starting to feel that way already, as I look at our calendar and realize how busy we've made ourselves again.

Sunday School (I've decided to teach this year). Small groups (Mike is coordinator, and we host one at our home 2-3 times a month). Bible Study (Every Thursday). Choir (Sunday evenings, before small group at our home). Outreach committee (I've been tasked with setting up an ESL program, which once it is set up I will have to find/train volunteers, or do the tutoring myself!). Worship team (Wed. evenings, early Sunday mornings). Friday Night Live (our young adult group that I coordinate). Everything very well-intentioned, and meaningful, but put together in one lump sum, can be seen as quite a load.

I think it's because we love our church family that we want to be a part of making her ministry exciting, and we want to share our gifts in these ways. But is it a problem when Sundays, our "day of rest", becomes a day when you can't even fit in a dinner with family? Is that meaningful ministry, or an inability to say no? And what about my duties as homemaker, wife, mother, and employee? Do they get put on the back burner because of church? Is that what church should be? Busy?

Where would the early church be placing their priorities? They took care of each other. Isn't that what I'm doing when I get involved in church?

Questions, not easily answered. But regardless, here we go....

Lansky's Pizza...

Mike and I have been doing wonderfully on our new healthy eating initiative, and so far I've lost three pounds, which is good for a week in. Saturday night I had planned on grilling chicken and making a lovely salad, but after a day spent working in 100 degree heat, moving furniture around the house to make room for new furniture, vacuuming, cleaning, mowing, etc. etc., neither of us was really in the mood to make a nice meal. In fact, the only thing that really sounded good was our old pizza joint, Lansky's. Back when we lived 2 parking lots away from this fabulous Omaha institution, we would have Lansky's at least 2 times a month, many times more. Now we live 20 minutes away and we don't head there nearly as often. But Saturday night it just sounded perfect, and we both figured that we had burned enough calories that day to warrant a splurge on our favorite pizza. And I must say, every bite was fabulous. We had the Butcher's Special, which is basically meat, meat, and more meat. It was fantastic. There's something about a hot, productive Saturday that ends with excellent pizza.

And the grilled chicken salad was delicious for Sunday dinner!

Organically speaking...

As part of our renewed healthy eating initiative, I'm trying to get creative with what I eat. I think part of the problem with trying to lose weight is that sometimes one can get stuck in an eating rut and then one just gets sick of eating that way. And then...back come the old eating habits. So, I am making it my goal to not only eat healthy foods but also to eat a variety of them. I'm also trying very hard to not give in to eating things like diet bars and the like. I think they are good, and do help make it easy for a meal, but they are expensive, for one, and I feel a lot better putting more organic, natural things in my body. In fact, I'm becoming a bit of an organic junky lately, for better or for worse. I have been buying and eating a lot more fresh fruits and veggies and even loaded up a little at a farm stand near where I buy bread. I just really want to be conscious of what I feed myself and my family, and I think that buying and eating fresh is the way to go. Unfortunately, this way of eating can cost a lot of money as well. In fact, there was an article in our newspaper this morning talking about a woman on food stamps trying to feed her family of five for $500 a month. She said that on this budget buying fresh veggies and fruit sometimes is out, because the cost of these items has just gone up and up. So it's a difficult quandry, I'm afraid. As much as I'd like to do all my shopping at Whole Foods, it wouldn't be good on our budget I don't think. I have thought about doing one shopping trip there and getting all the things that I would normally buy at our regular store just to compare the final outcome. Mike says it would cheaper if I just wrote down all the prices instead and compared it that way! :)

So...any tips on how to eat "organically" yet still maintain a reasonable budget?

Shrek The Third...

This afternoon was a steamy one outside, so we thought the best place to spend a little time was the movie theater. We had been promising Leah all summer long that we would take her to see Shrek the Third and it finally came to the cheap theater last weekend. So today, at $2 a ticket, it was a pretty inexpensive way to keep cool. As expected, the cheap theater was packed. We bought Leah a kid's popcorn and into the theater we went.

Leah enjoyed the movie simply because it was Shrek, and she has watched Shrek 2 no less than 50 times. Mike and I also enjoyed the movie...probably not as much as the first two, but there were still some good laughs and fun times. The magic that is Shrek seems to appropriately come to an end in this movie, and that's probably good. I remember I took a large group of 4 year olds to the first movie when I was living in Atlanta, so seeing the 3rd movie with my husband and daughter was a much better experience.

All in all, not a bad way to spend a hot summer afternon. Two thumbs up from me for that fact alone.

Today, a recipe...

I just put one of my favorite, easy, use things that you might have in your pantry recipes in the oven. Well, I didn't put the recipe in, but I put the result of using the recipe in! I started with a whole chicken. We like to buy these, since Mike likes dark meat, I like white meat, and Leah likes legs, so this keeps us all happy. After thawing it out, prepare 1/4 c. butter, 2 cloves garlic, some fresh parsely, and thyme. Take this butter spread and spread it between the skin and the meat, and then season with salt and pepper. I bake it at 400 degrees with a loose tinfoil cover for 1 hour, and then another 30-40 minutes uncovered. The result is amazing. I will probably serve it tonight with fresh tomatoes from our garden, and either potatoes or rice. The best thing about it is that I don't have to cook tomorrow night since there will be plenty for leftovers! Yum!

Not a diet...

Last night we decided to eat terribly one last time before our healthy eating initiative began today. I refuse to call it a diet, because I hate being on a diet. Plus, this initiative is more about feeding my family well, and I don't need to put my 3 year old daughter on a diet. So, we splurged and went to CiCi's pizza...it's difficult to find a better place to kick off the initiative than a pizza buffet where you can also have cinnamon rolls for dessert. We enjoyed ourselves immensely, and went home stuffed. We went grocery shopping after supper and I even passed up buying Baby Ruth ice cream (I love ice cream, and Baby Ruth is my favorite candy bar) because I knew I couldn't finish it all last night. So, the intiative began this morning with a healthy bowl of bran cereal and blueberries. I think we are having BLT's for supper....bacon, you say? No, we are not doing Atkins, but because this is not a diet, we are trying to eat balanced meals, and bacon in small amounts is fine. So I'm looking forward to my first BLT of the season!

Bed and Breakfast...

This weekend my husband and I had the pleasure of celebrating our anniversary at Anniversary Mansion, a bed and breakfast in Lincoln, NE. We have never stayed at a B & B so we weren't quite sure what to expect, but the website description sounded wonderful, so we thought it would be worth a try.

Well, it was better than we could have imagined. The suite was fanastic, the home was beautiful, the sheets were luxurious, the chocolates were delicious, the fresh flowers were beautiful, the whirlpool was therapeutic....I could go on and on. We enjoyed every part of our stay. The breakfast in the morning was out of this world, and we really felt like royalty being served a candlelight breakfast on fine English china. Every part of our weekend was very special because of the wonderful hospitality we found at Anniversary Mansion.

Hot day...

Today my applause goes to sun tea. I've heard from a lot of people that making a jar of sun tea is difficult, but I grew up having it almost daily and have continued the tradition in my home. There is nothing better in the summertime than bringing in the jar of tea and pouring it over a glass full of ice. Refreshing and delicious. And today, at 95+ degrees, is a perfect day to enjoy a glass.

Which I think I will go do right now...

Flushed Away...

This morning Leah and I went with friends to see Flushed Away in the theater. AMC movie theater have a summer movie camp where they offer a free movie each Wed. morning in the summer, and this morning the movie was Flushed Away. It was Leah's theater movie, so I was hoping it would capture her attention for the duration. She loved it! Combine the movie with their special kid pack snack (small popcorn, drink, and candy for $3...not bad theater prices) it was an inexpensive morning out. I'm going to go tomorrow morning to pick up tickets for next week, as I've found out it's best to get these in advance.

Flushed Away was not a movie I'd heard a whole lot about, but I found it to be very entertaining. There were even things that made me laugh...not quite up to Shrek-standard, but still a fun movie. I thought Kate Winslet did a remarkable job voicing the sewer rat "Rita". I remember seeing her interviewed about this movie and she said she was glad that she had a movie she could bring her kids to. On a slightly deeper level, I thought the movie portrayed nicely the need that we have for relationships, and the benefit of befriending someone not exactly like us.

All in all...a good, inexpensive way to stay cool on a hot July morning.

Bohemian Highway...

Mike and I enjoy trying different wines, but we try to keep the cost of the wines we purchase down. Lately I've been stuck on Barefoot wines, which are very good and reasonably priced (usually between 5 and 6 dollars). A few weeks ago we took wine to a family reunion and I decided to bring a bottle of Bohemian Highway California Merlot. It was a little bit more money (about $8) but I thought for a reunion it was worth it. :) It was a hit...both to our tastes and other people there who enjoy wine as well. Last week I noticed that a local grocery store had Bohemian Highway on sale for $4.77 a bottle, so I went and picked a few up. The last few nights I drank their Chardonnay, and while I'm not always a big fan of whites, I really did enjoy this wine. It's always fun to try new things, but it's also nice to know that there is something to be a guaranteed hit as well.

Cheers!

United 93...

I finished watching this movie this weekend. Mike also tuned into the last part of it, and we both were struck by how well the movie was made. Sometimes movies like this can get almost campy, but this one was dignified and almost seemed like we were watching a documentary. Because it was so well-made, it was almost harder to watch I think.

On a much lighter note, we are also keeping up with Entourage. I think this season is one of my favorites. I love what they are doing with the relationship between Ari and Lloyd, and Eric and Billy Walsh. It definitely keeps us laughing, and we keep tuning in.

The Devil Wears Prada...

Mike and I had a chance last night to finally sit down and watch a movie together...a rare treat. So in between our babysitting duties we managed to watch The Devil Wears Prada starring Meryl Streep (fantastic as always) and Anne Hathaway (also very good). Mike's comment was that at first he thought it was going to be just another chick-flick type movie, but he was pleasantly surprised when there was some actual depth thrown in. I enjoyed it as well. The thing I kept thinking about was that there are people who are actually like Miranda, Streep's character. And there are people who will give their lives to be at her service. It's not the life for me, certainly. I was really glad that the movie showed not only the "glamour" of this lifestyle, but also the sadness that goes along with forsaking all else in the name of a career. I think those of us who watch from the outside can find freedom in knowing that our lives can be so rich when they are not encumbered by a false sense of what is real.

All in all, a good movie...perfect for a Friday night at home.

Starting a new thing...

It's time to head in a new direction blog-wise. I am still keeping my xanga account, but will now be using blogger for other things, such as books I'm reading, things I'm watching, thoughts I'm thinking. Tonight we're sitting at home, watching a friend's baby, and enjoying watching Leah be the "big girl". I started watching the movie United 93 today, something I recorded off of HBO several months ago. Mike was saying tonight that he still doesn't feel like he's ready to watch it. I made it half way through and had to stop, although I think I will finish it this weekend. It's amazing how after nearly 6 years the emotions are still quite raw and very real. The movie is very good, which is probably why it's so difficult to watch. But, on a weekend where we have nothing planned, it's something that I can watch in bits throughout the day.