Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from...

Jen and Moss from The IT Crowd! 

Notice the Internet (black box with red button) and the milk in the beer glass.

And just so you can see how spot on our costumes are:

The real Moss, Roy, and Jen

Bonus: full length photo of Isaac as Moss

What were you for Halloween this year?

Goals Update: October

It's almost the end of October, and I feel as though Kentuckiana still hasn't experienced a true autumn season.  It was too dry this year for the leaves to turn those deliciously bright shades of yellow, orange, and red.  And it was just too bloody warm to really feel as though summer had finally released its grasp.  It is finally starting to cool down a bit (and I mean a bit), but when I realize November and December are rapidly approaching, I feel as though I should be needing to wear my winter coat every now and then.  Of course, I realize that in a few months time, I will probably be complaining about the cold and how I'm tired of wearing seven different layers of clothing at a time.  Okay, I exaggerate.  This part of the world doesn't exactly require seven layers of clothing during the winter months...but you get the idea.  Now that I've rambled on about our lack of autumn and my desire to wear a winter coat, how about an update on those goals?

Become a faithful member of the 5 am club.  So maybe not 5 am every day (or any day for that matter), but there were definitely several days which I got up fairly early.  For instance, on Wednesday I was up at 5:30 baking a birthday cake.  How many people are up at 5:30 to bake a birthday cake?  That's what I thought. 

Memorize 52 verses. Pass...

Memorize (the first half) of the book of James. No excuse; I just suck.

Continue in the SWI program. I finished term one (Cross Cultural Ministries) and am now halfway through my term two class, Baptist Beliefs.  On Monday, I will be registering for next semester.  I'm hoping to take Biblical Parenting (no, we are not pregnant and are not planning to be any time soon, so just put that question back inside your mouth where it came from) and Old Testament/New Testament Survey.

Read through the Bible. Fail...I have confessed this to the girls in my community group and they are starting to hold me accountable.  That, dear friends, is hard.

Continue to think through our family traditions. Again, it's hard to quantify this one, but I feel we have great holiday traditions (our Jesus tree, Advent celebrations, cream cheese Christmas cookies) and am excited to experience them again this year. 

Communicate with our family (and friends) more. A fair success; I should probably still take some more time to call some individuals with whom I haven't spoken in a while.

Build up our emergency fund. Nada...but we will be adding to that very soon.

Make a huge dent in our car loan. Dent?  What dent?  There is NO LOAN!!!!  Because we paid it!  I'm removing this goal from the list for updates now.  YES.

Cut our grocery bill. The hubs is going to help me with this one...I am going shopping once a month for everything, but am allowing myself to go mid-month for milk and additional fruit and veggies if needed.  Anything else has to wait for next month.  I already went shopping for November's meals; I was so on top of things I even remembered to get enough frozen pie crusts for all the pumpkin pies I will be making for work, family, etc in the nest few weeks.

Develop a consistent and workable cleaning schedule. I pretty much just pick up in the morning and evening, and then try to do a thorough cleaning once a week.  It's worked out really well, except our spare bedroom is getting a bit hectic...the Christmas presents are starting to pile up in there, but I am not letting myself wrap them until about mid-way through November.  I love wrapping Christmas presents...

Read 30 books.  I reviewed several books for different blogging programmes this month, and I finished A Prayer for Owen Meany.  I'm enjoying Tess of the D'Urbervilles right now, and I am also hoping to finish a few more books on my 2010 Reading List.

Scrapbook.  So...I think I might join my friend Liz and try out the digital scrapbooking.  She pretty much convinced me the last time we chatted...so, I'll let you know how that goes.

Continue blogging. All right; I apologize for the video-laden blogging recently.  But, all in all, I felt this month was a good blogging month.  I am been a wretched blog-reader and blog-commenter and am going to work diligently on that next month, bloggy friends.

Today Is National Chocolate Day!

Yes, it's true.  There is a National Chocolate Day.  Praise the good Lord in heaven it is so!  Here is how I celebrated:

Milka Chocolate with Toffee...my new addiction

Coconut M&M's...but limited edition?  Make them a permanent staple of the M&M's family!

Kinder Chocolate, perfection itself.

Would You Like To Know...

...whose birthday it is today?  It's this girl's:

That is, it's Jen's birthday.  I'm not even sure when Jack's birthday is.  This chica (also known as smuckabeine, skank, and hoochie mama- all lovingly endearing terms) is one of my best friends.  We were roommates basically from 2002-2007 (in two different states, two different dorm rooms, and two different apartments).  She moved out of the country right after Isaac and I got married, but I was able to convince her to move to Louisville when she came back to the States.  Let me tell you, it's weird to be living in the same city but not in the same house as Jen.  Still, I'm glad I get to celebrate her birthday with her- in the flesh- for the first time since 2006.

Happy 27th Jen!

Voices Behind the Veil

Yet again, I've slipped into posting way too many video clips recently.  The autumn months tend to be the busiest for me- not just because of all the holiday preparations approaching- but because of the continuously-expanding list of reports and service plans at work.  So while I apologize for my lack of creativity (not that my posts are particularly creative in the first place) in recent days, I'm not offering any promises of it improving any time soon.  But for now, I have an actual book review-not a video- for you.

Voices Behind the Veil claims to explain women's experience with the religion of Islam.  The book is edited by one of the authors of a book I finished a few months ago: Unveiling Islam.  Each of the chapters is written by a different woman; some chapters discuss the history of Islam while other chapters deal with more practical and daily living for women of the Islamic faith.

Honestly, the book was not all that helpful.  Most of the information found in the book is not new information to most people, and it's definitely not worth purchasing the book just for that.  In addition, I felt the same way as I did about Unveiling Islam; the tone throughout the book was pretty negative and derogatory.  I've read and heard more details about Ergun Mehmet Caner (the editor of this particular book and one of the authors of Unveiling Islam), and I don't think that I will be reading any other books which he authors.  While I don't recommend this book on the whole, there were some parts that were wonderfully written and expressed.  My favourite few lines:

"Until we stop being casual Christians, Muslim women will never know Jesus.  Until we are broken for the lost, Muslim women will continue to die in their sins.  Until we grieve as Jesus did for His lost children, we are ignoring the greatest opportunity God has ever afforded us- to share Jesus's love with a world that is listening.  Until we can look into our Savior's eyes and realize that He died for Muslim women as well as for us, we will never see the depth of his love."

United Nations Day

Today is United Nations Day, which celebrates the day the United Nations Charter entered into force in 1945 after five member-states signed the resolution.  To date, 192 nations are members of the United Nations.  Though not many people in the United States even know of this day's existence, it has actually been an international holiday since 1971.  So how am I going to celebrate United Nations Day?

By watching this amazing (and terribly outdated) clip from my childhood:



Happy United Nations Day, friends!  I hope peace will be the sentiment of the day for you and others around the world.

'It's That Throw Up Orange'

You might have seen this in the past, but in honor of Alabama traveling to Knoxville for their game against Tennessee today, I thought I would share this hilarious interview with a Bama fan explaining his reasons for disliking Tennessee.



We all know how I feel about Tennessee, but the Gators have been playing too horribly to watch, so I've pretty much chucked their season out the window.  I'm going to start watching cricket and curling instead of collegiate football.