Sarah Palin / Hillary Clinton SNL spoof...

Okay, so I had decided that videos look ugly on my blog and I was going to take a break from posting them...until I saw this SNL video and cracked up laughing. I am a big Sarah Palin fan, but this impersonation was spot-on!

New Developements...

New Job: Yup, it's true. I just got hired for my first official writing job, and to say I am excited would be a gross understatement. I am helping to write scripts for Wii and DS video games. After my first day when I came home with a DS and a few video games that I'm supposed to "research" as part of the job, my husband pretty much turned green with jealousy. It's sort-of funny that I'm one of the least interested people when it comes to video games...but I am interested in getting paid to write in a creative venue, and it's super fun so far. I just pitched some ideas to my boss for the All Star Cheer Squad sequal (the first one doesn't even come out until October, featuring yours truly as the voices of a couple characters=) We'll see what the boss thinks. I get to work from home, which is going to work out great with my second new developement:

New Family members: No, I'm not pregnant, but we are going to be expanding our family. Kaden and Allen are 2 and 4 (next month), and are currently staying with my cousins Natalie and Aaron. They were removed from their family for reasons too sad and lengthy to name here, but the good news is that they are most likely going to be moving in with us until the trial, at which point we find out if we'll be able to adopt them. We went to be fingerprinted and visit them this weekend. We took them to the beach and had such a fun time. They are the sweetest, cutest little angels in the world! We are both quite smitten, and left them Saturday with tears in our eyes. I'll post some pics here. Everyone please pray for God to protect these boys, and that justice would be done at the upcoming trial.

New Office Season 4 on DVD: What more can I say? There will SO be yet another office marathon, and I can guarantee there will be chocolate chip pancakes involved again. Michael's bizarre office conduct, Shrutisms, Jim and Pam as a couple, and , of course, their arch-nemesis, Ryan? What more could I ask for? It's just such a beautiful thing...I'm tearing up again.

New Apartment: Here are some pics from the balcony of our new apartment. Now you'll see why I call it the treehouse. Enjoy!

Water Logged

So...Tuesday I babysat the daughter of some friends. Their nanny was sick, and I was their only hope. They dropped her off at 6:45am, so it was a good thing she took a 2 1/2-hr nap, because I snoozed right along with her. She's 2 and oh-so-cute. Later in the afternoon, my sister Meghan came over and brought a bathing suit of my niece's for the little girl to wear, and we all went swimming at the apartment complex we just moved to (pictures to follow...as soon as we finally get the last room completed!)

Things had gone well that day...almost too well. We swam for a while and were about to leave when the little girl ran over to the steps of the pool again and got in. She can't swim and didn't have water wings. We were leaving, so we told her not to get in, but...2-year-olds will be 2-year-olds, so she got in anyway. I walked over to help her out when she tumbled down into the water. I was right beside her, so I reached in to grab her arm, but I couldn't get ahold of it for a second, and Meghan panicked and yelled "Get her!" So, phone in hand and Vera Bradley purse on shoulder, I jumped in and grabbed her out. When I pulled her up (it had been a total of about 4 seconds, so don't worry), she was smiling and just said "Sorry!"...Sorry...as if she could see my Chocolate phone sinking beneath the water...sorry...as if watching the chlorine water stealing the color from my new Java Blue tote. I also skinned my knee pretty badly on the steps when I heaved my body in. I emerged from the pool fully clothed, dripping wet, bleeding, and getting a blank white screen from my non-responsive cell phone. I was not a happy camper. Could have been much worse...or a whole lot better. I'm hoping her parents don't read this, because I didn't happen to mention it to them when they picked her up later.

I am happy to report, however, that the water has officially evaporated from my cell phone and it is almost completely functional again. My knee is looking less like that of an 8-year-old's, and my Vera looks fine.

To the parents of that little girl: I reserve the right to create fictional stories portrayed as reality for my blog. To all other readers: This is a not one of those times.

You, Me and DC

Incase you haven't seen these from my Myspace or Facebook, I'll post some pics from our trip to DC for The Call. It may take me a little bit to get them into album form so I can post em (I took over 600 pics!), so check back later if you don't see them now...here are some videos explaining the Call incase you don't know what it's all about. It was an amazing day of prayer and fasting for the ending of abortion and revival for our nation.

ASCS Trailer!

Hey everybody, here's a trailer for All Star Cheer Squad--the new Wii game I'm doing some voices for! Coming to stores in October! And we've got the green light for the sequal, so I'll keep you updated on that!

Talk about speaking something into being...

So, I may have been a tad melodramatic on my last post, but I think I must have spoken my "worst day" theory into being...here's how the rest of my day played out: I decided to get over my pitty party and make a big dinner and try to get the house reasonably picked up (we're STILL unpacking!) so it would be nice for Zack when he got home. I went (you guessed it, down and up the stairs) to get Zack from school, and didn't stop to get gas because, you guessed it, we had no money! Well, I picked him up and, yup, ran out of gas on the way home! So, we had a big fight as we pushed the car to the gas station. He stopped to get the mail at the front of the apartments and I said I was going to walk home from there. About 10 (literally) steps afterward, the bottom fell out and it started to pour on me. So, then I had to get back in the car with Zack even though I was still mad, which totally meant I lost! I went home and got in the bath again to drown my sorrows. What a day! Now I'm practicing: today is going to be the best day ever!

"It was just the season"--Norah Jones

Today? Not the greatest day...well, at least it hasn't started out that way. I guess there's still the chance the people with the big check could show up on my doorstep...but with my luck today, they'd say, "Oops, we're at the wrong house, sorry we ran over your dog." I got up early to take Zack to work since we only have one car and I needed desperately to go grocery shopping. No such luck. Some...ahem...person parked in front of our garage at our apartment, blocking us in. That...ahem...person was apparently not home. I know because Zack was banging on their door at 7:15am loud enough that I heard it in the next apartment building over. So, an hour later, we were waiting in the pouring rain for the tow truck to move their car. Meanwhile, Zack has to call for a substitute to watch his class b/c he's going to be late, very late, the first week of school. We were not happy people. So, all-in-all, that took about 3 trips up and down the stairs to our 3rd floor apartment...not terrible.

I realize after dropping him off that I forgot one of the items I wanted to bring to the post office to mail for our business. No problem, I just run home, up the stairs, back down, and to the post office to drop it off along with payments for some bills, since Zack's getting his first paycheck today.

So, I'm at Wal-Mart with a truck-load of groceries in my cart, since we just moved and have almost nothing in our frige, when Zack calls to let me know he isn't getting paid today like he thought--one more week to the next paycheck! Not to worry, we just got the final check in the mail from the fireworks tent we worked this summer...oh, wait, strangely it is made out to the wrong name? Interesting. The guy at TNT says they put a stop-payment on the check? Intriguing. They'll cut me another one and send it to me sometime this week? Convenient, since I decided an hour ealier to drop off at the Post Office the last huge payment to the ER for Zack's face-plant on the basketball court last year!

Only 7 more trips up and down the stairs to get all the groceries in the house IN THE POURING RAIN, and I am dripping rain and sweat and tears. Off to empty almost all the money from our business account (these have been the 2 slowest months ever!) to write ourselves a check so the others don't bounce and head for the stairs for a trip to the bank.

One more trip up the dreaded stairs (that makes 12, if you weren't counting), and I did what any good Christian who can't, in good conscience, get sloppy drunk and hurt someone, would do. I drowned my sorrows in the bathtub and got out some old Norah. Man, does she know me. "Summer days are gone too soon, you shoot the moon and miss completely. Now you're left to face the gloom of an empty room that once smelled sweetly. Of all the flowers you plucked, if only you knew the reason why we had to each be lonely. It was just the season." So, with the music that reminds me of simpler times, and bubble bath that smells like my honeymoon, and my thighs feeling pretty much like jello, I've fallen into a sentimental, sad little stuper. There's so much wrong with this period in our lives...so much I didn't plan on in my little dreams of what my life would be like. But it is a chapter I'll never get back. I know you think I meant that as "I'll never get it back, so I'd better appreciate it and not take this time for granted." You'd be wrong.

A Writer's Dream

When I was young--maybe 6 or 7--I had a very vivid dream. In the dream, I needed desperately to write something down. Just before I woke up, I found a notebook and a pen to use. When I opened my eyes, I was clenching what I thought were the items that had seemed so real to me, and I remember being so excited when I woke up, thinking I still had them in my hands. I don't remember what it was I needed to write down so badly, but I never forgot that dream or that feeling. I always think about it when I think about being a writer. I always wanted to tell stories even when I was young. I remember writing stories about flamingoes and elephants and drawing illustrations to go with them in my room on Paris Street. In school, I loved writing book reports even when I didn't bother to read the books. I would just make up my own plot and hope the teacher didn't realize. And in High School English, instead of writing my vocab words and definitions, I would use them all in a story I would write in which all my classmates were the characters. Mrs. Blackwell would always read it out loud and everyone would get excited to hear their name in the story. I loved to write poetry and music lyrics and journal entries and letters. In community college, I realized in my second semester that creative writing was my favorite subject, and the one I spent most of my time working on. But when novelists in my Creative Writing II class made me feel insecure and open class critiques drove my perfectionist personality crazy, I started to question if I was capable of becoming a successful writer. My academic advisor shared my intrepidation and suggested I use my creativity and writing interests toward a career with more stability like advertising or public relations. I could go for advertising if not for all the selling and deception. So, I left Jr College with an AA in Communications with an emphasis in PR and absolutely no idea what that meant. When I started back at USF, I figured Journalism would be a good way to write and get paid for it. Turns out I hate journalism, reporting, and I think the media in general. My last semester there, I needed some electives, and decided to give Creative Writing 3 a go. Favorite class in 2 years at USF, hands down. So, here I am, graduated from USF with a Journalism degree. No intentions of being a Journalist. Looking into going to a school to be a children's book author. Not sure if that's a scam though. No real writing prospects...nothing but a blog and a dream.

Need to Breathe

I know I haven't blogged in a while...you know how life is. The first days of fireworks season are upon us, which is always fun and crazy hectic =). I have completely fallen in love with this song by Need to Breathe called "Washed by the Water." When I first heard this band, I was annoyed, as I often am by the fact that it seems as soon as an artist becomes popular in secular music...bam!...up pops their clone in the Christian music realm. That was my first reaction to the Gavin Degraw sound of the lead singer of this band. But last week when I was listening to "Washed by the Water," the truth of the chorus struck me so profoundly--it was a God moment. The chorus says: "Even when the rain falls, even when the flood starts rising, even when the storm comes, I am washed by the water." The verses describe a hard time a family in the ministry goes through. The meaning hit me so hard: even when it's as bad as you think it can be, God is still doing a good work in you, using all things for your good. Even when the storm comes, I am washed by the water. It's something I needed to hear since I've been going through a hard time lately--you know, trying to find my place in this world (thanks, Michael W Smith). Here's the song:

The Very Windy City

So, we got back from Chicago Sunday night. It was fun--Micah and Amy tied the knot, and we got to see Chicago, which I now think they should call the VERY windy city. I'll post some pics from the trip. Incase anyone was wondering how the marathon training is coming...just don't ask! =/