Trailer: The Men Who Stare at Goats

I think it looks funny! George Clooney seems to be in lots of movies like this now.

What do you think?

Menu Plan for the Week

Follow along if you want to! I'd love to see how other people's recipes turn out!!

Tuesday: Chicken Tortilla Soup
Wednesday: Chicken & Rice
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Fettucini Alfredo
Saturday: Potato Soup (personal recipe)
Sunday: Crock Pot Chicken & Brown Rice Casserole

My 2 new favorite things...

So I bought tons of new makeup yesterday for my birthday!! My grandfather gave me birthday money, so I went to MAC & Sephora!! I ended up getting 8 eye shadows, a paint pot, the eyeliner that you put on with a brush, a set of brushes from Sephora & Tina got me some blush from Sephora for my bday! It was the best day!!! But now I've developed 2 new obsessions online...

Kandee the MakeUp Artist!

and MakeUp Geek!

You HAVE to check them out!!!! They both do YouTube videos & show you how to do makeup & Kandee shows you how to do hair!! I am also getting my hair cut tomorrow & I think I'm going to cut it like Kandee's. Not to be a copycat or anything, but I'm about to be a mom & I want a fancy new haircut to go with my fancy new makeup so I'll be a cute mom!!

PostSecret 8/30/2009

PostSecret

8 Things I Want to do Before I'm 30

I turned 25 yesterday!!! Apparently today I'm closer to 30 than I am to 20. Somehow that just doesn't bother me at all! But it does make me think about my long-term plans! So I decided to make a list of the things I want to do before I'm 30!

1. Get my Masters Degree.
I know that as a teacher, I have 10 years from the time I start teaching to get it, but I'd like it to be done in 5 so that before I'm 40 I can have my Rank 1!

2. Finish having children.
By this I mean finish GIVING BIRTH to children. I'd be okay if I was pregnant when I'm 30, but I don't want to get pregnant after 30. Also, this doesn't include adopting children. Lewis and I have talked about adoption a lot. I could see us having 2 or 3 biological children and then adopting 1. I think adoption is a really incredible thing and I believe that if you have the resources & most importantly the heart to do it, you absolutely should.

3. Be in a home I could stay in.
I don't want to move around every couple of years. I want to end up in the home I could just stay in for 10, 15, 40 years. I want to be in this home by the time I'm 30.

4. Travel overseas.
I've never been anywhere that requires a passport. I would like to travel to Japan or Europe before I'm 30. Just once. Maybe I'll go again later in life, but I want to go at least once before I'm 30.

5. Learn a 2nd language.
I really probably need to learn to speak Spanish. But I'm also interested in learning Sign Language. Or reviving my French from High School.

6. Learn to make the best something.
Lewis always says, "my mom makes the best _______" or others will say "my grandmother makes the best _______." I want to make the best something! It can be as easy as chocolate chip cookies! But I want to find my signature meal!!

7. Develop a list of must-see movies & watch them all.
So far, off the top of my head, I need to watch these: Reservoir Dogs, Goodfellas, Trainspotting, Blade Runner, Life is Beautiful

8. Develop a list of must-read books & read them all.
So far, again off the top of my head, I need to read these: The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Trainspotting, On the Road, Of Mice and Men, A Tale of Two Cities, The Great Gatsby


That's all I've got for now. If I think of more, I'll add them.

Intro to me & my Blog (for Emily & Tyler)

I made 2 new friends tonight! Well, one of them I had technically already met, but I think we cemented our friendship tonight. They are both going to be checking out my blog! My friend Katie made a big deal about it to them which of course made me nervous! What if I'm just not as interesting to other people as I think I am! What is people just accidentally stumble upon my posts because of randomly googling "Buffy" or something? It's very intimidating.

So I thought maybe I could give you a little intro to me & my blog...

First of all, I have the most wonderful friends and I love to talk about them whenever I can! I used to do this "i see you" thing - which is not nearly as creepy as it sounds - more my way of saying I notice you, I recognize you, I see what you're doing & how you try & how you live & I love you. So check that out. I also think that my friends are absolutely hilarious & I will post my favorite quotes by my friends whenever they say funny things! I need to start remembering to post these more often again because my friends are frequently cracking me up!

Sometimes, although rarely, I will post my political opinions. I am the type of person who enjoys hearing other's opinions. I think it's an important part of the process of me developing my own political opinions. Maybe you'll bring up a point I hadn't thought of or bring a new perspective I hadn't seen. It may not change my opinion, but it will definitely at the very least give me a better understanding of my own opinion because I've been able to see it from another perspective as well. So if you read any of my political thoughts, post your comments! I'm interested! Just be nice. I'll try to reply with the same amount of respect. Here are a few in particular to check out if you are interested:
Food for Thought
President-elect Barack Obama
McCain on Letterman

I also love Jesus. That relationship is the biggest part of my life & influences every area of who I am. I'm not the poster-child for Christianity. I'm still definitely struggling with my own issues as I'm sure everyone is & I'm still working toward the person I want to be. I just know that my heart & my soul & my brain & my thoughts & convictions all point in the direction of Jesus. So sometimes I talk about that. Here are some specific posts to check out on that topic:
Thought for Sunday
Breaking the Chains
Because it's on my mind
Favorite Friend Quote of the Day 11-20-2007
Bravery
to the broken

Also, I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer! It is one of 2 of my favorite shows! The other show is Friends. I love Friends too. But Buffy holds a special place in my heart. I love the relationships & the cheesy hilariousness of it all! I just think it's fabulous!! I talk about it a lot! Check out a couple of my favorite Buffy posts:
Andrew tweeted me!!!!!
Buffy Tweets Top 10 (okay, 15) Buffy Episodes
1 more Joss post...
Buffy Birthday!!!
Laugh if you must
Aw I love people!!
Ahem, Attention all Buffy Fans

I love quotes. Not too much to say about that. I just post them from time to time because they inspire me! I also love PostSecret!

Finally, here are a bunch of posts that I think just reflect who I am! It's a long list & I stopped somehwere around March 2008 because I felt like it was long enough. But check them out!
Top 10 Examples of How I Am Super Dorky
7 Reasons Why I'm Crazy
5 Minutes: Tattoos & Jesus Freaks
TV Characters We're Thankful For
Quote for the Day (11/26/2008)
10 Directors
Quotes for the Day (11/24/2008)
Approval Rating
Live Passionately
Me...
Ten on Tuesday - On Thursday
10 Things I Love About My Life Right Now

There's my general overview of myself & my blog!! Hope you enjoy & keep reading!!!
Also check out my fairly new Ingenue Mom blog!!

Trailer: Youth in Revolt

We all know by now that I just love Michael Cera!! This one will end up being a rental for me, but I can pretty much guarantee I still see it!! Yay!

SNL Premiere Host: Megan Fox!

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Megan Fox will be hosting the season premiere of Saturday Night Live! It premieres September 26. I'm interested to see how funny she is! And of course how hot she looks. She's fabulous!

Trailer: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Heath Ledger's final film. I miss him. I think the movie looks a little too strange for me. But I think Heath looks fabulous as always.

One Tree Hill Season 7

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I'm still nervous about One Tree Hill next season. I just don't know how it'll be, but here's a promo pic from BethanySource.net! It makes me excited!!

Trailer: Me & Orson Welles

Zac Efron's new movie with Claire Danes! I actually think he's a good actor & I like him - beyond the musicals! I think he's made a good move doing more movies like this. I'll definitely be seeing it!

Trailer: The Lovely Bones

I loved this book & I've been so excited about the movie!! The trailer came out a while ago, but I just got around to watching it! What do you think??

PostSecret 8/22/2009

PostSecret

Trailer: Avatar

There has been a lot of hype for this movie. Now, after seeing the trailer, I'm majorly disappointed. I mean special effects look like good special effects, but I'm not interested at all in some mainly CGI looking movie. It looks silly to me. How does it look to you?

Binge & Purge TV time...

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It's summer and I miss tv a lot when it's summer. I end up watching tv shows on DVD. This summer I finally watched the entire series of The OC. I enjoyed it! I love Seth Cohen. Now I'm working on Dexter. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to watch more than the first season, but I'm at least watching Season 1. I've got 4 more episodes in Season 1, then I'll decide about Season 2. Any Dexter watchers reading my blog??

So last year I got rid of several tv shows: Heroes, Ugly Betty, The Office, Prison Break, 24 & Desperate Housewives. I just decided I needed to cut back. This year I'm going to try to do the same thing - partly because I just get embarrassed sometimes by my obsession with tv and partly because I'm about to have a baby and I'm just not going to have time to watch all the shows!

First, here are the shows I currently watch. The ones in bold are the ones I'm thinking about not watching anymore:
90210
American Idol
Big Love
Bones
Dollhouse
Gossip Girl
Grey's Anatomy
House
How I Met Your Mother
Lost
One Tree Hill
The Philanthropist
Saturday Night Live
The Soup
Weeds

These are the new shows I'm interested in watching next season. I'll at least watch the season premiere & see what I think. I don't really have high hopes for MP or Community (except for Joel McHale):
Community
Cougar Town
Melrose Place

These are the shows (currently on) that I've tried watching in the past & just didn't keep watching for whatever reason:
24
Army Wives
Chuck
Desperate Housewives
Entourage
Heroes
Law & Order: SVU
The Office
Project Runway
True Blood
The Tudors
Ugly Betty

What do you think? Any suggestions or arguments why I shouldn't stop watching certain shows? Or why I should pick some back up? I just have to be picky because I watch SO many!! I have been interested in The Big Bang Theory & Burn Notice & I see myself watching more Entourage someday. We'll just see how it goes!!

Hilarious Videos w/ Tom Lenk!

Tom Lenk (remember, my Tweet from Andrew!) posted a new Trudy video on his YouTube page. As I was lurking around on there, I saw that he was in some other videos with Jack Plotnick, who played the Deputy Mayor in Buffy Season 3. They are so funny!! Watch all the videos below!!

Grey's Anatomy Starter Kit

What you need to know before Season 5!



Grey's Anatomy Season Premiere, September 24

Cougar Town Series Premiere Promo!

I will watch it because she was in Friends.
Cougar Town premieres September 23!

House Season 6 Promo!

House Season 6!!! Yay!!!!! August 17!

Bones Season 5 Promo!

I'm excited about the new season of Bones!!! September 17!

New Recipe! Crispy Noodle Chicken

I tried out a new recipe tonight! I thought it was awesome! Lewis liked it, but still liked the Mexican Rice Casserole better. Here's the recipe:

Crispy Noodle Casserole
1 frying chicken, cut up (I used 2 large chicken breasts cut up into cubes)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup sour cream
3 Tbsp onion soup mix (I just bought one of those Lipton Onion Soup packages that has 3 packets in it & I just used one whole packet)
1/8 tsp pepper
1 (3 oz) can chow mein noodles

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Place chicken in single layer in a shallow casserole dish.
In a bowl, combine soup, sour cream, soup mix and pepper, blend thoroughly. Spread over chicken. Sprinkle with noodles. Bake for 1 hour or until chicken is tender.

*Can also use cream of celery or cream of chicken soup instead of cream of mushroom.


I cooked this and served it over brown rice. It looks like it's going to last us 2+ meals. We will probably both be able to eat it for dinner for 2 nights and then it will be lunch another day for someone, too.

The Time Travelers Wife

I am so excited about this movie! I read the book last summer and it was one of the few books that I fell in love with before I was even half-way into the first chapter. It's definitely in my top 5 books of all time. And what is so great about the trailer is that everything looks exactly like I pictured it! Which is so rare for me in movies from books. I'm just really excited about it!!!

Incubus on Jimmy Fallon

I loved watching Incubus on Jimmy Fallon the other day!!!

Meal Planning

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What have I been up to lately? Meal Planning. Yep, I've broken down into the mom-groove & I'm making an additional effort to be a good wife & mom - because apparently cooking meals at home is involved(?). Partly because I won't be working much this fall and then possibly not at all after that due to practicums at school and then student teaching. So I'm trying to make it easier on Lewis who will be providing our main source of income for the next year. Also, I'd like to be a little healthier and junk. It's just positive all the way around.

So here's what I did: I made a spreadsheet. It's super-nerdy and embarrassing, but that's the story of my life. It organizes 24 recipes that I found so far that seemed easy and didn't have too many ingredients. The ingredients are listed alphabetically on the left and they go in order of non-perishable items through perishable items. Then I labeled which recipes only use non-perishable items. So then I went to the grocery and bought all the non-perishable items and have started cooking the recipes that only use those items. (It's 17 recipes!!) And so far, I've only made 1 recipe because it's lasted us 3 days already and we haven't even eaten all of it! So from time to time, I decided to share my recipes with you! Also, you need to check out all the cool new blogs I found about recipes!! I love them! And please share your recipes with me! I'm going for few ingredients & easy!!

Mexican Rice Casserole
**Note: I used ground turkey meat instead of ground beef & I added corn & chopped onions to this recipe.**
Ingredients
1 package ground beef
1 package taco seasoning
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
2 cups rice
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Directions
1. Cook 2 cups rice with 4 3/4 cup water. Bring water to boil, add rice, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes.
2. Brown ground beef. Drain. Return to skillet, add 3/4 cup water, taco seasoning and tomato sauce. Stir through.
3. Add ground beef to rice. Put into 9×13 baking dish. Top with shredded cheese. Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes until cheese melts.


Check out some recipe sites!
5 Dollar Dinners
Recipes to Go
A Year of Slow Cooking

Honestly, kiddos...

My blog apparently just withers & dies in the summer. Here's the thing: I'm not on much of a schedule in the summer, all my tv shows aren't on & this summer in particular I've been pretty dissapointed with the choices in movies. With a few exceptions (Harry Potter & others), there just hasn't been much to talk about.

I'm one of those people that actually does better when I have a set schedule that I have to follow each week. Like for me, busy = good. This is why I think I could never be a stay-at-home mom. I admire most of the women who can, but it's just not for me. I think it would be better for me & my baby if I keep myself on a schedule. I just get way more done.

And I miss my tv shows!!! In particular, I've been missing House, Bones & Grey's Anatomy! I can't wait for them to start back up! I also can't wait for movies to start coming out that will be Oscar nomination-worthy! I love that time of year!!! Good birthday gifts for me (my bday is August 29) would be movie gift certificates!!! Yay!

Well, let's catch up. I'll try to post some crap tonight.