Da BEARS!!

Even though I live in Indiana, and am an AFC fan, I am going to be cheering for for Da BEARS!! I have been a Bear fan since the Super Bowl shuffle days. If you don't remember all the words to that fantastic song check out this site.

Well here she is!! My new little Niece, Ashlyn. She arrived on Wednesday Jan 17. She is just precious. Besides the fact that she pooped on me today.

TOO MUCH FOOD

The week before christmas, my Bible Study group got together at the Acropolis for lunch. The night before, my friend Kyle said that I should try the "name your own price" meal. So I asked about it. Oh, my gosh, talk about alot of food. Here's the description from their menu:

"Name your own price and enjoy an combination of dishes consisting of cold and hot appetizers, salad, assorted entrees and dessert. Remember to take your time to finish this and let us tell you that it is ok with the chef if you do not finish it. He knows that towards the end you will be begging for no more food.(minimum 2 people)"

Well let me tell you, we were begging for NO MORE food. Actually, one course that was brought out was immediately taken away and boxed-to-go.

Our Meal:
Platter of pita bread & various sauces including: Hummus; Melitzanosalata – blended eggplant with humus, tahini and olive oil; & Tzatziki – homemade creamy greek yogurt/cucumber dip with garlic and virgin olive oil

Dolmades – grapevine leaves stuffed with lean spiced ground beef, rice, & herbs

Greek Salad

Stifado – beef cubes cooked with onions red wine and red wine vinegar, served with rice pilaf

Gyros Platter – seasoned blended beef and lamb served w/tzatziki sauce & pita bread

Baklava

If you live in Evansville, then you really need to give the Acropolis a try

Holiday Edition

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Growing up the presents under the tree (wrapped) were from Family, and then on Christmas day the present "from Santa" were (unwrapped) in a pile. Each kid had their own pile.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? white
4. Do you hang mistletoe? No
5. When do you put your decorations up? Day after Thanksgiving
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Cranberry--with the mold of the can.
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: Christmas when I was twelve. I had really wanted a phone. Being the snoop that I am, I had found all my presents and knew that I was getting a phone. YEAH!! but that morning, it wasn't in my pile. my mom saw that I looked confused and asked if something was wrong, I said I was supposed to get a phone. she replied that I was too young. so I said no, I found it and I took the whole family up to the hiding place and opened the lid, and there was the phone box. I picked it up and it was empty. my parents started laughing and told me to look under my bed. Sure enough, for the last week the phone had been plugged in, in my room, but the ringer was off.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I'm not sure
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? when I was young we opened a small gift every weekend of December, then the rest on Christmas day. Since we have got older we started doing all our opening on Christmas Eve. But this year, we are doing it on Christmas Day.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Lights and ornaments (is there another way)
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Let it snow, let it snow, let in snow!
12. Can you ice skate? Ugh, NO!!! I have enough trouble on my own two feet, why would I put any thing like a skate under them and then try and walk on ice.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? No, I have had many favorites over the year
14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? The birth of Jesus
15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Fudge
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Fondue
17. What tops your tree? A Big Bow
18. Which do you prefer Giving or Receiving? Giving
19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? don't know that i have a favorite, but I do really like to hear Karen Carpenter sing them.
20. Candy Canes? Love them

Say Thank you

No matter how you feel about President Bush, or the war on Terrorism or anything else to do with politics, we all need to be supportive of our troops that are fighting overseas. These men and women are putting their lives on the line every day. Xerox has come up with a way for us to Say Thank you to the troops. visit this website to send a postcard to a military member.

Pass this on to everyone that you know.

Another one

I told you I'm a sucker for these questionaires. So here is another one. I did try to edit it for any duplicate questions.
1. What is your occupation? Teacher
2. What color are your socks right now? Red with red and black fish and a separate place for your big toe (like mittens)
3. What are you listening to right now? The hum of the computer
4. What is the last thing you ate? Peanut butter balls
5. Can you drive a stick shift? No
6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Green, even though my favorite color is pink
7. How old are you today? 32
8. Have you ever dyed your hair? yes, but always "normal colors"
9. favorite day of the year? My Birthday
10. What do you do to vent anger? Complain to my mom
11. What was your favorite toy as a child? cabbage patch kids
12. What is your favorite season? Fall
13. Hugs or kisses? It depends who from...ha..just kidding!
14. Cherries or Blueberries? Blueberries
15. Living arrangements? with the parental unit
16. When was the last time you cried? probably not recently enough
17. What is on the floor of your closet? shoes...lots of them
18. What did you do last night? Ate, laughed, played games..had a good time with friends!
19. Favorite smells? food
20. What inspires you? Love
21. What are you afraid of? Losing a loved one
22. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? Cheese
23. Number of keys on your key ring? 5
24. How many years at your current job? 1 1/2years
25. How many states have you lived in? 7 Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Colorado, Tennessee, Maryland
26. Favorite holiday? Christmas
27. Who's your favorite NFL team? Steelers
28. Do you have a house phone that is NOT cordless? yes
29. 10 inches of snow or 100 degree weather? 10 inches snow

Stupid Questionnaire

Ok, so I'm a sucker for these stupid question and answer things and I don't know why! Ok, here's what you're supposed to do... and please don't spoil the fun :) Copy the questions below and paste them into the comment section,then delete my answers, and type in your answers.
1. What time is it? 9:45 pm
2. What is your name? Katie
3. Nickname? Kate
4. Any piercings? ears
5. What is the most recent movie you've seen in the theater? Happy Feet
6. Eye color? Blue
7. Place of birth? Pittsburgh, PA
8. Favorite food? Pretty much anything ethnic
9. Ever been to Africa? not yet
10. Ever been toilet papering? yes
11. Love someone so much it made you cry? yeah
12. Been in a car accident? yeah,
13. Croutons or bacon bits? Croutons
14. Favorite day of week? Friday
15. Favorite restaurant? Taco Loco in Hong Kong
16. Favorite flower? Gerber Daisy
17. Favorite sport to watch? Football
18. Favorite drink? Cosmo
19. Favorite ice cream? Chubby Hubby or Phish Food by Ben & Jerry's
20. Disney or Warner Brothers? disney
21. What kind or car do you have? Daewoo Leganza
22. Color of bedroom carpet? beige.
23. How many times you failed your driver's test? never, I got a waiver
24. From whom did you get your last e-mail? Nikki
25. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Bombay Company
26. What do you do most often when you are bored? Online games
27. What's your bedtime? should be 10:30 but lately it's been around 1am
28. Favorite season? the fall, perfect weather and the trees are so beautiful
29. Favorite TV shows? Law & Order (all of them)
30. Last person you went to dinner with? Julie
31. Ford or Chevy? chevy Ford was a Nazi
32. What are you listening to right now? I'm watching TV.
33. What is your favorite color? Pink
34. How many tattoos do you have? NONE!!
35. How many pets do you have? NONE!!
36. Which came first the chicken or the egg? the chicken
37. What time is it now? 9:55

Funny Joke from Lucky

A Nun gets in a cab in New York City. After the Nun tells the driver where to go, the driver says "I have a confession, I have always wanted to kiss a Nun." The Nun is shocked. The driver pleads for a kiss. Finally the Nun says, that is would be ok if the taxi driver can meet two conditions. First, that he must be catholic and second that he must be single. The driver says that he meets both, and the Nun gives in. The driver gets out of the front and climbs into the back seat for his kiss. After the passionate kiss, the driver tells the nun that he must confess again. "I am not actually Catholic and I'm married." The Nun replies "Thats ok, I'm not really a Nun, my name is Frank and I'm on my way to a Costume Party."


Do you have any funny jokes, leave me a comment with them!

Driving GRRR

I don't know how many times in the last week I have seen some form of the following situation: In a parking lot, there is a great big arrow pointing in one direction, the direction that traffic should go and there is an idiot driving the other direction. How hard is it to go to the next aisle to drive the direction that you want to go. It just GRRR's me. At school, the drive next to the building has multiple huge arrows pointing towards the back of the lot, but every day drivers insist on driving the wrong way. Also they just painted brand new arrows in the entrance off First Ave. These arrows along with the sign attached to the stop sign show that it's a right turn only. Yet the other day, I was behind 3 people who decided they were too important, and had to make left hand turns at Rush Hour. We sat there forever.

So what's your big GRRR? Leave me a comment with yours.

Voice mail/Answering Machine Messages

First the GRRR...When you call someone and end up getting their voicemail. They have a nice message saying "I'm not available, leave a message." You expect the beep to be next, but NO! it's now the automated lady telling you "if you would like to page this person press 5, if you want to text them press 2, if you want to leave a message record after the beep, after recording press pound to send your message and press star for more options." My gosh, do I really need to hear all of that. I just want to leave a message. Actually, I probably really just want to talk to the person I'm calling. And what are these additional options anyways? I know there are some of you out there who "need" those additional options, like "Priority" All that does is put your voicemail to the front and now it's the first one that I delete rather than the last. I will make my own list of priorities for returning phone calls. (don't worry dear friends, I always call people back)

Now for the funny...I love when people are creative on their answering machine. It's funny to get a machine like my mom got today. Let me share the side of the conversation that I heard and then I'll share what the machine said.

Margie: Hi, Lee, this is Margie Moore, Donna's friend (pause)...Yes it does seem(stops due to interuption)... oh, ugh, Donna this is margie, call me when you get this message.

As soon as I heard the second part of what my mom was saying I put it together, she got fooled by the machine. Here's the entire conversation:
AMM: Hello
Margie: Hi, Lee, this is Margie Moore, Donna's Friend.
AMM: How are you? It looks like it's going to be a great day.
Margie: Yes it does seem
AMM: And we are out enjoying the beautiful weather. Leave us a message.

My one thought on these funny machines is "don't leave it like that forever," after awhile people do get a bit fed up with the "funny" and it just seems to be annoying. So be creative people!! just don't be annoying!!

Religion during the week

(to hear me tell this story click here)

Are you wondering what I might be getting ready to write about with a title like that? Well let me set the stage for this post...1. my mom is crazy (I love her anyways)2. The following was said in the hallway of our house around 11pm. 3. my mom is crazy 4. I was walking down the hallway towards my mom and when she saw me this is what happened.

Margie: You remind me of a Catholic on Wednesdays, I, I, I mean, a Catholic on Wednesdays.

Katie: (confused)Well, you remind me of Buddhist on Saturday.

Margie: I mean a Catholic on Ash Wednesday.

(Apparently I had a mark on my forehead)

September was a boring month

Today I was talking to my good friend Cindi and she mentioned that I hadn't updated my blog for the entire month of September. She said that I needed to or else September wouldn't be listed on my long ago posts section. I couldn't believe that I hadn't posted anything this month. But sure enough, she was right. Nothing was posted for September.
So now comes the problem, what to blog about. I mentioned this to my mom and she started to think of things for me to blog about. Here were some of her suggestions:
1. my dislike of the fall festival
2. my students
3. being free from my driving my mom around
4. the party I had when my parents were both out of town at the same time.(there wasn't one)

Then she came up with a crazy story that my brother could blog about(if he had a blog) Apparently, while visiting my brother last weekend, they went to Target and since my mom is still recovering from knee surgury, she had to use one of their electric scooters. Well the whole time she was using it, she couldn't control the stopping very well and she kept giving herself whiplash. After watching my mom suffer with the controls, my brother told her to stay put and he would get the last thing they needed. When he came back she was gone, and he had to start looking for her. When he found her he asked her what part of "Stay put" didn't she understand, the "stay" or the "put". I know that story might not be funny to you readers, but it was hysterical when my mom told it. She was laughing so hard she almost couldn't get thru the story.

I hope you enjoyed my September blog.

Holy Land In Newburgh

As some of you know, my mom broke her leg a few weeks ago and she had to have surgury to repair the break. As part of the surgury, the doctor had to do a bone graft. Rather than taking part of her own bone, he took Coral from the Red Sea and placed that in her leg. When my mom found out that she had the coral in her, her response was "I've always wanted to go to the Holy Land and now it has come to me."

A bit deeper than usual

This post is a bit deeper than I usually like to post, but I really thought that this guy had good insight into the war on Terrorism. (I made one modification to his article and that is the biblical passage. I put it in NIV rather than the translation that he originally used...easier to read this way)

Remember Amalek
What the Bible says about fighting terrorism
By Rabbi Marc Gellman

The Bible is the greatest collection of books, and I believe it to be the complex but discernable word of God. However, the Bible can also be a dangerous book when it is used as a blueprint for any particular political or military stance seeking sanction and support through a few carefully selected and often misleading segments.

On both sides of any war debate, both pacifists and provocateurs can use the Bible's authority. The same is true for the Qur'an and for the Vedas. God's will and God's ways, we must always remember if we are to be true to the message of faith, are not our own. As Abraham Lincoln cautioned, the important question is not whether God is on our side but whether we are on God's side. However, we ought not conclude from this humble caution that the Bible is utterly recondite and irrelevant to the wars we fight. I believe that the key to the Bible's message to us in this moment is remembering Amalek.

In Deut. 25:17-19 we read: "Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and cut off all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God. When the LORD your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!

What made Amalek so dastardly was that unlike any other enemy who attacked the Israelites fleeing slavery in Egypt from the front, Amalek attacked the rear. This meant that his soldiers could kill women and children, the elderly and the infirm and in so doing avoid engagement with the soldiers at the front. In this way he could produce maximum carnage and maximum terror. The moral problem the Bible addresses is that this is not warfare, it is the slaughter of innocents—it is terrorism.

Why, I wondered, would God command us to remember the terrorist Amalek? There are other villains in the Bible, but there is no biblical command to remember Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar, or Cyrus. We are commanded only to remember Amalek. I believe this is because the planned and plotted slaughter of innocents even during wartime cannot be condoned and must be remembered as a bright moral line which can never be crossed. Indeed our remembrance of Amalek is combined with a chilling pledge from God that is also unique in the Bible: “The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation” (Exod. 17:16). Our enemies are just our enemies except if our enemy is Amalek. In that case our enemy is also the enemy of God. Amalek thus becomes the symbol of terrorism in every generation. He is the symbol not of evil but of radical evil.

In our generation Amalek is alive and well and killing the weak ones at the rear of the march. Amalek has attacked the rear of our line of march in Madrid and Bombay, in Jakarta and London, in Haifa and Tel Aviv, in New York and Washington, in a quiet field in Pennsylvania and in a hundred other homes and families—leaving them covered with blood and tears. Yes, one can disagree and debate how Amalek must be fought, but not that Amalek must be fought. One must report and mourn the innocents who are inadvertently killed by our soldiers in our battle against Amalek, but that remembrance must always make the spiritual moral and political distinction that our victims were killed by mistake and Amalek's victims were killed by design.

I have no new or fresh or insightful take on the latest battle in the worldwide war on Islamic fascism except the message of our president: victory is the only way. In my heart and prayers, I thank President Bush for remembering Amalek. And to all the world leaders who are used to thinking about war as just a struggle for land or oil or power, remember that this war is different and this enemy is different. If you can, come to realize that this is a war against a lover of slaughter. If you join us, then we shall not have to fight Amalek alone and he cannot again attack the weak ones at the rear of the line.

© 2006 Newsweek, Inc.

It's been along time

Well it has been along time since I have blogged, I have been told by a few friends that I need to keep up on my blogging. I'm sorry for the void that I created in your life. I hope you enjoy the below posts.

ANNOYING to just GROSS

At 6:30pm every night, you can find my mom and me watching her favorite show: "Wheel of Fortune" Recently, WOF has gotten a new sponsor...It's called HEAD-ON. The Commercial consist of a woman rubbing what looks like a glue stick to her forhead and the voice-over saying "Head-on, apply directly to the forehead. Head-on, apply directly to the forehead. Head-on, apply directly to the forehead." No, that's not a typo. The commercial repeats the phrase three times. At first the commercial ran just the one product, then they added another product: Activ-On This is for Arthritis. "Apply directly where it hurts." These commercials have become so annoying. Everynight, this commercial runs during WOF and now it's starting to run during other shows. If you haven't seen it then you just don't watch TV. Here's a link to a YouTube of it. Today was the worst, they have added another product. It's for Hemorrhoids, FREEdHEM. "Freedom from Hemorrhoids, FREEdHEM Hemorrhoid Cream. Freedom from Hemorrhoids, FREEdHEM Hemorrhoid Cream. Freedom from Hemorrhoids, FREEdHEM Hemorrhoid Cream." Now here's the question, why didn't they say..."FREEdHem, apply directly to the Hemorrhoids" I found a really funny commentary on these products. so if you have the time, take a listen to what Brian Unger has to say.

Changing Noses

(to hear me tell this story click here)
Last friday, my mom, sister, niece and I went to the farmer's market. While we were sitting in the car waiting for the rain to stop, my niece was playing the "Got your nose game" (you grab the other persons nose with your first and middle finger, and then when you pull your hand away you stick your thumb inbetween the fingers so it looks like you have the nose in your hand.) So she took my nose off and then she took my mom's nose off and put my mom's nose on my face. I pretended to cry that I didn't have my own nose. My niece said to me "Don't cry, it's not like you have her whole face."

Stalking Reversed

Ok, So I blogged a while back about "Stalking" someone at Starbucks. Well, tonight when Julie and I got together, I suggested that we just get together at the starbucks closer to us...there really wasn't a reason to go to the one that was out of the way just to see that guy.(especially since I wasn't going to make a move to get to know him) So here we are at out Starbucks and who walks in? YES, you are right. It was him. He ended up sitting at the table right by us. I think he is now stalking me.

Mother, Sit down!!!!!

(to hear me tell this story click here.)
Today while using a public bathroom with my mom, I was reminded of something that happened to us a few years ago. My mom and I were in the bathroom at Barnes and Noble. While we were washing out hands, a lady (about my mom's age) and her elderly mom came into the bathroom. The mom went into the first stall and the daughter went into the second stall. Next thing we know, the daughter is looking over the stall wall into the first stall and speaking very strickly to her mom. "Mother, sit. down. Sit. Down, Mother. MOTHER, SIT! DOWN!! SIT! DOWN, MOTHER!!" It was so funny, it took all the self-control we had to not bust out laughing right there in the bathroom. After we left the bathroom, my mom turned to me and said, "That's us in 30 years!"

playing around

So, I thought I would try out this feature with Blogger.  It's where I can send an email to Blogger and it will be posted on my blog.  That seems to be pretty cool.  That way when I get a funny thing sent to me, all I will have to do is forward it on.  If you are reading this on my blog, then it worked.