Fave Friday Five - TV Shows I'm Missing

If you stopped by the blog this week you saw me mention that I wanted to start something new this Friday. I'm not sure how long I can keep this up, but I thought it would be something do for a few weeks. On Fridays I'm goign to pick a category and give you 5 things that fit into it. No order necessarily, just five items on Friday. I'm going to start out this week with 5 TV shows I am missing now that EVERYTHING I watch is in summer hiatus.

1. Gossip Girl -- Let me tell you how happy this season made me. Well, at least the storyline with Blair and Chuck. The first episode of the season Blair tried to get Chuck to say "3 little words." All season we watched them battle back and forth and the season ended in the greatest way. I know this means that next sesaon will be all kinds of difficult, but I'm pulling for those two like I pulled for Joey and Pacey all those years ago.

2. NCIS -- My love for this show could be summed up in one word: Jethro. However, I'll give you more. The chemistry the actors on this show have with one another and the storylines keep me coming back week after week. From the quirkiness of Abby and Duckey to the underlying chemistry between Tony and Ziva this show is constantly putting more mystery in the storyline while keeping the interest level high.

3. Ugly Betty -- I love this show. I love that although they are making fun of the ugly duckling, that the character perseveres and does not let the rude comments get her down. Throw in the humor of Mark and Amanda, and the neverending adventures of Daniel and the scheming of Wilhelmina and it never gets dull.

4. How I Met Your Mother -- This show has some of the greatest one liners. Some of the funniest episodes of this show include the time Lily moved into Barney's apartment, the introduction of Robin Sparkles, and the episode where Ted tricked Barney and Marshall into thinking he had a crush on one of them. I look forward to when we find out exactly who the mother is, but in the interim it is fun to watch the group live and love in NYC.

5. LOST -- Only one season left. And honestly I think that is the only reason I miss it. I feel like I have invested too much of my life into this show to quit it, so I miss it because I want the next season to get here so it can be over. I know that sounds lame, but I'm team Sawyer and the time travel gets on my last nerve.

So, there you go. I can't promise the list will always be this long, but I'm going to try it for a few weeks. Have a great (and safe) weekend!

I <3 Fresh Veggies

One of the coolest things that I have had the opportunity to participate in since moving to my cool little community is a Community Support Agriculture (CSA) share with my neighbors. They actually signed up and were looking for someone to split the weekly vegetable box with them as it is a lot of food for 2 people. I was happy to have the opportunity. So for around $14 a week I get almost 1/2 a bushel of fresh, local vegetables. I'll admit some of the green, leafy vegetables are not my favorite but check out what I got this week:

I have already eaten each of these from earlier boxes and look forward to eating the newest delivery. I will pickle the beets, peel the carrots (yummy on their own or with hummus) and the squash will be grilled, fried, or sauteed. It is such a great feeling to be able to eat food that is good for me while supporting a local farm in their quest to provide fresh vegetables to the community. Especially since my dad's garden is 5 hours away and my sweet potatoes will not be ready for a couple of more months. (A big shoutout here to my dad who only planted the sweet potatoes because I like them. He loves me!) But until then, I am enjoying the early growing season the Charleston allows and the wonderfulness of the food I am eating.

Works for Me Wednesday

I have no idea where I'm supposed to put the link to this post. And unfortunately my internet is acting up (stupid local cable provider) so I cannot search for it. But I want to share with you one of the greatest time savers ever:

Seriously, if you are not using Magic Erasers to clean in your home, well, then shame. on. you. In my newest house I have a glass shower door and as someone who is anti-housework I did not know how I would ever keep it clean. But alas, I am smarter than the average not-so-smart person and came up with an idea. I keep a Magic Eraser in my shower. That way I can just wipe down the shower walls and the glass while I am in the shower and it keeps the soap scum at bay. Such a time saver to clean the shower while you are in it. Brilliant, I know.

Market Totes

One thing this blogosphere has provided to me is a friendship (if I may call it that) with Kerri of Living with a Labradoodle. I'm pretty sure the reason I read her blog the first time is because I wanted a Labradoodle, but I kept coming back because she reminded me so much of myself. It's almost eerie sometimes how similar we are, though I know we also have our differences. Recently I checked out Kerri's other website Designed by Kerri. I had been wanting a market basket and was excited when I found out she sold them as well as monogramming them! My roomie had a birthday and I needed an upcoming wedding gift. SOLD! I also ordered one for me. As soon as I get the energy to dig out the camera I'll take a picture for all 2 readers. I can't wait to use mine and know that it will come in so handy for so many different uses. And I can't wait to put the wedding gift together and show you what it is. The bride/groom don't read my blog (because that would increase the readers to 4) so I can show you the gift before I go home for the wedding in a few weeks.

Oh, and I have a new idea for Fridays so come back then for something I hope to try for the next several weeks.

Hope Garden

I have never been huge on name brands and material things.  However, I am willing to pay full price for an outfit in a name brand store because to me time is money and if I can buy the outfit and be done in 10 minutes it is more cost effective to me than spending 4 hours looking for that great dress that is 60-80% off on the sale rack.  With those 4 hours I could read a book, lay in my  hammock, read a book laying in my hammock, or go to the beach.  That said, I have a new addiction to something that costs money.  It's the new Hope Garden collection from Vera Bradley.  Up until 3 years ago I had never even owned a Vera Bradley purse because I didn't see the point in spending that much money on something I would rarely carry.  However, I splurged on a purse in this pattern before Shanle's wedding because I loved the pattern and it matched our bridesmaid dresses.  And matching just seemed like a good idea.  That was 3 years ago.  That bag and I have been through a lot together.  A couple of months ago I decided I needed a new purse and stumbled across this one:

And that leads me to my new obsession.  I want everything in this pattern.  Ok, not everything because I really don't need 14 different purses.  However, I would like to have some more pieces of this collection.  So, don't be surprised in the next few weeks if you see me sporting some additional items in the lovely Hope Garden pattern.  It's my new obsession. 

Today's Thoughts Brought to You By Leslie

Leslie said it so much more eloquently than I ever could.  Click here.

Not All Habits Are Bad Habits

The below email just went out to this friend:

And then tonight I went with my mother and niece to the grocery store.  As has become my obsession I went down the toothpaste aisle expecting to once again be disappointed as some stores do not even carry Kiss Me Mint in the old fashioned tubes.  I have this fear the flavor has become discontinued.  But I digress.  Back to the grocery store.  I went down the aisle and low and behold they had the flavor.  And they had the GOOD STAND UP BOTTLES!  Not one, not two, not three, but SIX.  So I said "[Doodlebug], get over here and hold these."  I handed her three.  I then grabbed the other three.  She said "Carrie, you're buying them all."  "Yes, [Doodlebug], I am."  So I proceeded to the self-checkout so as to preserve some of my dignity and not let the cashier think I had a dental problem or was serving toothpaste pie for dessert tonight.  So I can gradually mail them to you over the next two years or until they run out.  However, do not think I will be stopping  my toothpaste obsession just because I hit what I consider the motherload of Kiss Me Mint toothpaste.  I will keep fighting the good fight and buying it all up as I find it.  

43 Things I'm Sure You Didn't Want to Know

I totally stole this from Amy Beth's blog.  I never do these on Facebook and since I am taking a sabbatical from said website for a bit I'm just going to answer these questions so you can learn more about me.  Like you wanted to know more about me.  But my brain is tired, my body is shutting down, and this is my attemt at keeping my readers above 3.  So here goes:

1. What color is your toothbrush?

White.  It may have some blue on it, but it's predominantly white.  

2. Name one person who made you smile today?

My friend's 3 year old.  She told me she was going to take a nap and when she woke up she would be a big girl with a husband.  

3. What were you doing at 8 a.m. today?

Rolling out of bed and logging onto my work computer

4. What were you doing 45 minutes ago?

Assisting the payroll clerk with processing a special check

5. What is your favorite candy bar?

3 Musketeers.

6. What is the last thing you said aloud?

That would be rude not to take Granny any ice cream.

7. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?

Pet used to make a flavor Dulce de Leche, but they quit.  So now I'll have to say World Class Chocolate from BR

8. What was the last thing you had to drink?

Water.  For real.

9. Do you like your wallet?

Actually, I do.  I went looking for a different wallet and came home with this one.  It has served me better than the other one I actually went looking for.  Oh, and I only paid $12 for it.  The price was right!

10. What was the last thing you ate?

Mayfield's Brown Cow

11. Have you bought any new clothing items this week?

No, but since I came to town for a weekend and have stayed for the week I need to find something appropriate to wear with my skirt to a funeral/graveside service

12. What was the last sporting event you watched?

The first half of the final Men's NCAA game.  I went to bed at halftime because the team I don't like was going to win.  And they did.  I don't like losing sleep over stuff like that.

13.  What is your favorite flavor of popcorn?

Kettle Corn

14. Who is the last person you sent a text message to?

My mama

15. Ever go camping?

Every Father's Day.  I wish I could go more often, but it hasn't worked out for my family lately.  Hopefully we can get a few more trips in this year.

16. Do you take vitamins daily?

No.  Please don't text my mama and tell her though.

17. Do you go to church every Sunday?

I used to but I've been slacking lately.  I really need to pray about where I am supposed to be going/serving

18. Do you have a tan?

Have you ever seen me?  I sport the following two colors.  White and off-white.  Sometimes I do manage to throw in some red though. 

19. Do you prefer Chinese food over pizza?

No.  But making me choose between sushi and pizza would just be mean.

20. Do you drink your soda with a straw?

Yes, esp since I prefer fountain drinks.  And I drink Coke.  Even though I am currently drinking this.  

21. What did your last text message say?

Hard at work.  (It included a picture of a dog sitting next to me sleeping.)

22. What are you doing tomorrow?

Working.

23. Look to your left.  What do you see?

Work mobile.

24. What color is your watch?

When I wear one it is silver.

25. What do you think of when you hear Australia?

Long plane flight.

26. Do you go in at a fast food place or just hit the drive-thru?

Drive-thru unless Doodlebug is with me

27. What is your favorite number?

Um, am I supposed to have a favorite numer?

28. Who’s the last person you talked to on the phone?

Mr. Collins (He actually wanted to talk to my dad.  Poor man.)

29. Any plans today?

More work and then the LOST season finale (I hope)...I may fall asleep

30. How many states have you lived in?

Two.

31. Biggest annoyance right now?

That my grandparents have the world's loudest washer and dryer

32. Last song listened to?

Something on the Francesca Battistelli CD.  She's awesome.  You should check her out.  Free to be Me and Beautiful, Beautiful are my favorites.

33. Can you say the alphabet backwards?

Yes.  And my Granddaddy T paid me $1 to say it backward when I was in the first grade.  Go me!

34. Do you have a maid service clean your house?

No, but I have a roommate whom I assign chores to.  :-)

35. Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time?

I prefer barefoot, but if not my Old Navy flip flops.  I have even hiked up a mountain in Scotland in them.

36. Are you jealous of anyone?

I try not to be jealous of people.  I have had this conversation with a good friend lately and I really try not to be jealous.  Do I envy what some people have, yes.  But am I jealous of them, no.

37. Is anyone jealous of you?

I seriously doubt it.

38. Do you love anyone?

Yes.  My family and close friends more than they can imagine.

39. Do any of your friends have children?

Yes.  See #2

40. What do you usually do during the day?

Walk the dog. Work. Walk the Dog. Work.  Sleep.  I need to work some therapy in there somewhere I believe.

41. Do you like cats?

They are not my first choice, but there is this one that has moved in on my parents back porch who makes me laugh.

42. How did you get your worst scar?

I was trying to open the window in the old house we lived in as a child.  The pane of glass broke and jabbed me in the leg.  My funniest scar though is on my left pointer finger.  Our pet raccoon bit me.  No joke.

43.  Are you thinking about someone right now?

No.  I'm thinking I should be working rather than filling in this survey (even though I am techincally "off the clock")

Home

"[South Carolina] is home now.  I am home wherever God puts me, becuase I am in God's hands."

...."Home is family.  Home is friends."...

"Perhaps.  But to psend your entire life yearning for omething else, instead of surrendering to God's plans seems like a foreign land to me.  Home is peace.  And peace is being where God puts you."

-- excerpts from conversation between Heinrick and Lilly in the book Letters from the Enemy by Susan May Warren.  Location changed by me to apply to me.

I read this book a couple of weeks ago and this conversation really struck me.  In the conversation the two discuss the differences in God's plan verses their own plan for their life.  This is such an area in which I struggle.  I long to be back in Tennessee with my family and friends there.  But I know if I were there I would be out of God's will for me.  However, here, I long to know what that will is.  I know that if I could see my whole life plan for me I would not want to because half the joy in getting there is the experience along the way.  But still I wonder.  I have recently been reading through 1 Samual and it is really challenging me.  I love the story and am trying to just learn more about the Lord.  The thing that strikes me again and again and again as I read His word is that He didn't choose the rich and famous.  He didn't choose the well educated.  God chooses people.  As the song says "red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight."  God loves us all.  And He has BIG plans for us all.  As long as we stay home.  Home where He calls us to be.  Not where we desire to be.  

Pieces of Me

Do you know those people are are so intricately entwined in who you are that when they aren't there it is obvious a piece of you is missing?  Lately I have been missing this friend more than I care to admit to anyone.  Especially her.  It would not be fair to her to tell her.  After all, she's half-way around the world doing work that is so important to her without anyone she has known for more than a couple of months.  

I'm not sure why I miss her so much now.  Maybe it's because this is the time of year she and I started hanging out last year.  Maybe it is because So You Think You Can Dance commercials have started airing.  Maybe it is because it is beach weather and we went every single Saturday morning to walk on the beach for the last couple of months she was here.  Maybe it is because when things with work or my personal life were weird she always knew and listened and waited until I was ready to talk about it.  

I also have a bad habit now.  She was addicted to Colgate Kiss Me Mint toothpaste.  She also likes the bottles rather than the tubes.  So every drug store/super center I go into I look for it.  I actually found a bottle of it last month.  I was stoked.  But guess what?  I think it has been discontinued.  How do you tell your friend who is half way around the world that when she comes back, she will no longer have access to her favorite toothpaste?  Or that after this bottle I may not be able to ever ship her any, even in a tube?  Is it crazy that I just googled it and I could buy 10 bottles from a store online?  And I think I will buy it?  Maybe I should get 20 just in case.  Does toothpaste have an expiration date?

But the bottom line is I miss her.  I feel an emptiness in my life now that I am not sure I have experienced in a long time.  And I know that I will see her again.  Hopefully on her turf before she comes back here.  But if not, then I will see her again.  At some point.  Until then, I will just trust God with this piece of my life.  And know she is safe in His hands.  And so am I.

Nothing But Trouble

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Nothing But Trouble
Tyndale House Publishers (May 1, 2009)
by
Susan May Warren


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Susan grew up in Wayzata, a suburb of Minneapolis, and became an avid camper from an early age. Her favorite fir-lined spot is the north shore of Minnesota is where she met her husband, honeymooned and dreamed of living.

The north woods easily became the foundation for her first series, The Deep Haven series, based on a little tourist town along the shores of Lake Superior. Her first full-length book, Happily Ever After, became a Christy Award Finalist published in 2004 with Tyndale/Heartquest.

As an award winning author, Susan returned home in 2004, to her native Minnesota after serving for eight years with her husband and four children as missionaries with SEND International in Far East Russia. She now writes full time from Minnesota's north woods and the beautiful town that she always dreamed of living in.

You can sample a chapter of each and every one of Susan's novels, on her website, HERE.



ABOUT THE BOOK

PJ Sugar knows three things for sure:

1) After traveling the country for ten years hoping to shake free from the trail of disaster that's become her life, she needs a fresh start.

2) The last person she wants to see when she heads home for her sister's wedding is Boone-her former flame and the reason she left town.

3) Her best friend's husband absolutely did not commit the first murder Kellogg, Minnesota, has seen in more than a decade.

What PJ doesn't know is that when she starts digging for evidence, she'll uncover much more than she bargained for-a deadly conspiracy, a knack for investigation, and maybe, just maybe, that fresh start she's been longing for.

It's not fair to say that trouble happens every time PJ Sugar is around, but it feels that way when she returns to her home town, looking for a fresh start. Within a week, her former teacher is murdered and her best friend's husband is arrested as the number-one suspect. Although the police detective investigating the murder—who also happens to be PJ's former flame—is convinced it's an open-and-shut case, PJ's not so sure. She begins digging for clues in an effort to clear her friend’s husband and ends up reigniting old passions, uncovering an international conspiracy, and solving a murder along the way. She also discovers that maybe God can use a woman who never seems to get it right

If you would like to read the first chapter of Nothing But Trouble, go HERE