Pysch : Not Even Close...Encounters

I am not a huge fan of Pysch but my husband likes to watch it. I was going to go read the other day when he turned it on but then I got sucked in, especially after Freddie made an appearance. As you can see from the video above, he is not the greatest actor but something about his character drew me in. And I would have to say it was my favorite episode ever. It was all about being a closet nerd and it was hilarious. Anyways, I tried to find my favorite part of it on youtube but couldn't. The clip above is the beginning of Freddies part, not the best part but the only clip I could find.

I have a unique sense of humor and as with many things, I found this episode so enjoyable because I was able to draw on experiences I have had and compare the characters with people I have met throughout life. With that said, and warning you that you might not find it as funny as I did, I still recommend watching it on Hulu if you have any free time and need something to do.

To finish this post up, all I have to say is this was the perfect episode to air soon after Comic Con got over.

Alarm Mishap

We don't often have relatives from my side of the family visit so it's always a treat when they do.  I am usually out of town when that happens so it's an even bigger treat for me when I actually get to see them. My cousin is in town and I was supposed to go to the Washington D.C. Temple with her and a few others today, then Arlington National Cemetery, and then into D.C. to see some of the monuments. I was pretty excited about spending the day with her. But then my alarm clock decided not to cooperate. So instead I spent the morning deep in sleep dreaming about church, ghosts, creepy nursery rooms, people I knew in the past, and disgusting bugs. Joy!!!!

On the bright side I went swimming, something that I was unable to do yesterday because the rain decided to show up 5 minutes after I got to the pool and left a few hours later, right after I got out of the shower. And I might get together with an old high school friend this afternoon for a few hours. So the day was not a complete loss.

Take that alarm clock!!!! Hate your face!!

I have no other concrete plans for the next few days but I think it could end up being a good weekend anyways.  Do you have any fun plans for this weekend?

How Do You Make Your Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich?

Sophomore year of college I had a debate with my roommates about how to correctly make a peanut butter & jelly sandwich. They all made it by putting peanut butter on one side of the bread only. I made it by putting peanut butter on both sides of the bread. I thought they were crazy as I had always put peanut butter on both sides. They ended up singing the peanut butter and jelly song to prove to me that they were correct.

I am unsure if it was my mom who taught me to put peanut butter on both sides or if I started doing it on my own. If I eat my sandwich right away I try to remember to put peanut butter on just one side, though remembering in time is nearly impossible for me. I always remember after I've spread it on both sides. But whenever I might have to wait to eat the sandwich and it has the chance of sitting out for a while, I still put peanut butter on both sides as it keeps my bread from getting soggy. I would do about anything to never have to eat a piece of soggy bread again in this lifetime.

I Once Was A Midget

Another Lazy Saturday

Saturday has always been a bit of a hard day for me. I like to be socially busy on Saturdays because of course I don't want to waste my one good social day of the week. If nothing is going on and I have nothing on my to do list I go crazy. After one bad Saturday a few weeks ago, my husband said we should make some sort of descent plan for the next Saturday (that being this past Saturday). So we did, but all the plans failed, partly due to weather and partly due to other events. So I was forced to have another lazy Saturday but it ended up not being too bad because it included many of my favorite things:

1. A Nap

2. Antique Shops

On Saturday we visited On A Whim Home Antiques and Decor. It was a very enjoyable visit and they had many interesting and pretty things to look at. They also had quite a bit of vintage wedding clothing which I have not before seen at an antique store in the area.
The other one we visited that I really enjoyed was Old Luckets Store. This one was in a really cool old house and had a lot of vintage pieces and sold hardware like door knobs and hooks. They had these really pretty bird hooks that were hard not to buy.

3. Kabobs
 
If you live in the Northern Virginia/Maryland region you should visit Charcoal Kabobs. It is our favorite Kabob place around and we usually end up going about once a month.

4. Phase 10

Though I lost to my husband again. I always loved playing him in this game because I can win so easily but the last two times I have lost. Not cool!!!

I AM A NERD

I've always been a bit nerdy and have been okay with it. But this nerdiness has developed rapidly over the last year. For example, Saturday night was spent catching up on :

And I loved every minute of it, except for maybe that really boring episode we watched. But the point is that I am so glad our friend introduced us to this show. It is so entertaining and good. And I am also happy I no  longer dream at night that I am in a spaceship that may crash any minute (as I did after watching the first few episodes).

New Recipes We Like

I really liked the Mini Meatball Sliders. I think I liked them more than Jon though he did like them enough to eat them. I actually used Costco meatballs rather than make them because I adore Costco meatballs (Kirkland brand I think). But because I used the small dinner roles it was hard to fit the meatballs in them. They tasted fine but it made the meal a bit more messy than it would have been if I made smaller meatballs. I thought they made decent leftovers too.

The strawberry watermelon slushies were good. Easy to make too. Just remember you need ice for them. I forgot and ended up postponing making them until I could go get ice (we recently shut off our ice machine.).

Finally, I made my first homemade chicken pot pie last night. I don like to buy them because they are soo high in fat and can be a bit expensive. So I decided to try my hand at making one. Not sure the fat content was too much lower but I do believe it was some what healthier. I do recommend though reading the reviews and comments and follow some of the suggestions on how to make it better. I followed a few and all turned out delicious.  basically boiled everything in chicken stock, added a bit more garlic and other seasonings, and added some extra liquid in the pot pie. It makes okay leftovers, but was just a bit less creamy/juicy.

Inception

On Friday our friends asked us if we wanted to see Inception with them. I usually veto going to the movies unless im super excited about a movie because it is so expensive, but we had been needing to hang out with these friends so I said we could go. I also don't have a television so I am often behind on what movies are coming out and thus knew nothing about Inception. My hubby was nice enough to show me the preview and while the preview looked cool I was a bit skeptical about how the movie really would be and if it would be too hard to follow. But thankfully we went.

I have not seen such a good movie in sooo long. The acting was great. The story line was great and original. The action was pretty good. Some of the special effects were awesome. And beyond some violence, it was very clean. Overall it had everything you could want in a movie.

As for being hard to understand, it depends on who you are. For me, I didn't really come out of the Inception with any questions about what occured beyond scenes I thought were incorrect. My hubby on the other hand, had many questions. I think it depends on how hard you think about what you saw because often the harder you think about it the less it makes sense. Also, I think I caught onto a lot of things and tied it all together a lot better than my husband did. I am not always able to do that but for some reason Inception was so intense and intriguing to me that I was able to follow it all. But for many of you that wont occur, and that's why some people recommend going to see the movie once just to see it and a second time to catch everything and tie it all together.

It's not a perfect movie. As I said above, the harder you thought about certain things, the less they made sense. And I still stand by the fact that they made a few mistakes in it. But overall the movie is awesome. I give it an A++.

It is a Topic I know Nothing About and Have Not Researched At All

but that I am intrigued by. The topic basically being about the green movement, the healthy eating movement, the local produce movement, etc. etc. A large part of each of these movements focus on getting produce and meats that have less pesticides in them and are therefore inherently more healthier for you to consume. But what if it ends up, at least for a few generations, being less healthy for us to consume?

I have always believed that a small dose of bacteria is good for everyone in order to help build their immune systems. If you stay in your house all the time, you will become more susceptible to germs when you do leave your house for those few hours each week as your immune system is no longer built to defend against the germs. Now this may not be true at all but I do sort of believe it. So back to my theory. If we, as parents, begin to remove every possible harmful thing from food, will it slowly weaken our immune systems. Add the anti bacterial soap, the lack of time kids play outside these days, face masks being worn when you are sick and need to leave your home, etc. etc. We are all about trying to prevent people from getting sick and from decreasing the amount of bacteria we come in contact with. Now there is nothing really wrong with this. I for one do not want to come in contact with someone who has the flue, or get near a virus that could possibly be deadly.  But the question here is, are we taking it too far? Or could we end up taking it to far? Will it begin to have the opposite effect and will our kids begin to get sick more often? Taking it to the extreme, could people start dying at a younger age again (at least until the human race adapts) because we protected them too much? Is it possible at all?

I have no research to back any of this up. It's just something that I have been wondering about. If you think I am full of crap and should just stop thinking altogether, feel free to let me know. But please let me know why. I am interested in peoples opinions about this.

Life's Little Burdens

Have you ever had a problem in life that really depresses you but you know you can't talk much about it to many people? And it's not because you don't want to but because it's not appropriate? So instead you feel depressed, and lonely, and like your the only one with this problem?

I have one of those problems. Most days I am okay but not all days. And on those days I just wish I could call someone and tell them what's going on and perhaps get some advice. And sometimes when I listen or read about other peoples problems I inappropriately think, "at least you don't have my problem." But instead I pray that soon all things will be solved and that this problem will just disappear.

And now that I have left you wondering what that problem is, just know that though you probably won't figure it out, it's probably a lot less strange or awkward than anything you can think of. But it's still a taboo subject. So for now, I won't talk about it. Maybe sometime in the future.

Quick Sister Update

Apparently she did know his name. The name he told her is his wrestling name that he now goes by. Hahaha!!! The whole situation just cracks me up.

Strange Events are Going Down

The strangest things happened today.

I was chilling at the pool with my sister. There are usually a lot of pigeons that fly back and forth between the apartment buildings on either side of the pool. That in it self is usually creepy and they like to poop over all the pool chairs which is just nasty. But today one bird came, grazed the water, and then chilled on the side of the pool for a bit. It then decided to graze  the water again and it ended up right on top of the water flapping its wings. It couldn't get up in the air again and ended up running into this girl who was floating on her back. The girl jumps up to see what was going on. The bird got back near the edge of the pool but it still couldn't fly. It was just flapping its wing, trying to stay above water. The lifeguard came and removed it with the pool cleaning tool but the bird wouldn't move off of the tool so finally he just had to put it on the pool house roof. We were all laughing pretty hard but I felt bad for the girl because we could all see it coming and nobody called out to her. One guy did say he would avenge the bird for her so that was kind of nice. I am impressed though how she handled it. She barely seemed fazed. I would have about flipped.

Then we were driving to get ice cream. Within a minute of leaving our apartment complex, we saw the following: a guy walking in the middle of the road, a girl at the side of the road with a Darth Vader mask on, and a purple truck with a barney stuffed animal and another purple animal tied to the front of it.

I Want To Say I Taught Her All She Knows, But It's Just Not True

I never much understood why guys cared so much about who their younger sisters were dating. It wasn't really like that in my family so I just couldn't understand why they cared so much. But now my sister is at the stage of life where she seems to go on dates quite often and kisses a boy here and there. I was at that same stage of life when I was her age so it's really not that strange. And though I know that, I can't seem to get past the fact that she dates and kisses guys.

 It got even worse today when she proceeded to tell me that she met a guy I went to high school with named "Joe." After a bit of questioning I figured out who it was she was talking about, because his name is not Joe, and that she had went on a date with him the other day. My 19 year old sister went on a date with a guy that not only graduated with me in 2004, but a guy who I used to have a crush on. So strange and I can't seem to get past it. Maybe I am slightly jealous. Not only did this guy never ask me out, no guy I liked in high school did. But mainly I am just scared. Scared for my sister in the same way every brother is for his little sister. I think I understand it now and I am really glad I only have one little sister.

As the title of this blog says, I want to say I taught her all she knows, but it's just not true. She found her own way in life. She went from being antisocial to social on her own. She found and worked on mastering her talents on her own. She started dating guys without me giving her advice or picking out her date outfits. She never really needed me, and when she did, if I was not around, anybody could have taken my place. But this does not make me sad at all. It makes me incredibly happy for her. She is a good example of why my family is made up of 4 kids who seem so different from each other. Because we love each other and are good friends but at the same time have each found our own way in life.

But maybe this once I can give her some life changing advice: Know the name of the guy you are going out with before you go. It usually makes things less awkward.

Money Dilemma

Before I got married, there was always something that I needed to save money for. First it was school, then it was a car and student loans, and then it was my wedding. And while I did a decent job saving up, I also spent a bit of money every year on myself with almost no hesitation. A pair of 50$ shoes that I loved, no problem.  A dress though I don't really need another one, sure why not. I always said that I couldn't wait for the day when I no longer had to be working towards something and when I could spend all the money I wanted. But then I got married and my debt was all gone and things changed.

Now I get a bit of spending money each month. But rather than go and spend it on a new pair of shoes or a new dress or a new book, it just keeps building in my own personal account. I've never had so much spending money in all my life. And yet I can't seem to spend it. It is as if I am saving up for something that I am completely unaware of yet. I found two awesome pair of shoes at Nordstrom Rack today and rather than buy them right away, I decided I would wait and see how I feel after a few days. WHAT??? What about buying and then telling yourself you will possibly return them though secretly knowing you won't return them? Nope I don't even do that anymore.

I am not sure if it has to do with all those financial books and blogs I read, or just the fact that normal married life costs so much that I can't get myself to spend anymore. It seems every month there is some big expensive whether it be tires, work clothes, boy scout uniforms (yup my husband got stuck in boyscouts), vacations, or medical bills. Expensives just never end. If my husband wasn't so good at balancing me out, I might have ended up as some frugal lady who never stepped out of her house in fear of how much money it would cost.  On the other hand, my husband is a tiny bit too unfrugal at times, so I guess the balancing act continues.

By the way...how many pairs of shoes can a girl have until she has too many? Is it possible to have too many? Cause I really do want those shoes....