one more day!!!

must…finish…strong…!

note to self: stick to tylenol for headaches. andrea should not take excedrin (sp?). especially when andrea has an empty stomach. the caffiene rush really threw me. oi vey. i think my heart rate is just now starting to get back to normal… whew…

i haven’t had much of an appetite lately…  like, at ALL. 
and for me, that’s very no bueno.  b/c my blood sugar issues don’t
go away just b/c i don’t FEEL hungry.    i’ve started
“eating in faith”…  lol

THIS ^^ is a fantastic book!!!  if there are any females (pronounced as The Big Kahuna says it, “fe-MALL-ays”) out there who have NOT read this book – you MUST!  it is just chock full of wonderful truths.  elisabeth elliot has just become my favorite female writer. 

a few treasures from the pages of this book for you all:
“the fact that i am a woman does not make me a different kind of Christian, but the fact that i am a Christian does make me a different kind of woman.” (p 43)

“Moses, the Bible tells us, was a “very meek man.”  I don’t think of him at all as meek in the popular sense – timid, self-abnegating, colorless.  Far from it.  But to be meek is to have a sane and proper estimate of one’s place in the scheme of things.  It is a sense of proportion.” (p 55)

and there is much more where that came from!  i just can’t find them b/c i was so eager to keep reading that i didn’t stop to grab my pencil and actually mark the book…  seriously though girls, i would recommend this book for your reading with great enthusiasm!  and it’s only like, $3.75 in the (SGC) bookstore!  if you really want to read it and don’t have the money – talk to me because i would gladly buy it for you, that’s how great i think it is!

in other news…  it’s almost here!!  there is massive excitement ensuing in my head over:

 

Robin

hello friends!  i would like to introduce you to my new friend!  this is Robin – say “hi!”:

robin is my new (to me) ’95 toyota camry that i just bought!  yay!  what?  what happened to ralph?  oh yes.  you all remember ralph, right? 

ralph has now been passed along to his new owner – luz!    which is very nice because not only does luz need a car, but i don’t have to part with ralph so suddenly.  he has become quite endeared to me, you know.  good ol’ ralph.

but anyway, back to robin.  oh, why did i name her robin, you ask?  well, see, this was one of those situations where the name had already been picked out and we were waiting for the right car to come along and claim the name.  see, when my parents bought their santa fe, we nicknamed it ‘the bat mobile.’  and i decided then that when i got a car, we would name it robin, since it would probably be a smaller car and would like very much a like a sidekick (see the batman theme?).  however, when ralph came along we all agreed that he just wasn’t a robin.  he was a ralph.  thus we named him ralph and i decided to save the name robin until i got a newer, zippy-er, spunkier car. 

and now that time has come!  the ironic thing is, the name should be robin, a male, in keeping with the batman/robin theme.  but my new car just doesn’t look like a guy!  so i decided that it will be robin, the girl.  what is even more ironic, is that i immensely dislike gender neutral names – especially when they are used for the less common gender (like “jordan” or “danny” or “alex” for a girl.  no offense to anyone out there with any of those names.  or, if you’re going to name your child a more gender neutral name, at least give it a spelling that clearly indicates the gender – like “jordyn” or “dani” or “alyx.”  okay, end rant. ahem.) so it’s rather ironic that i’m naming my car a relatively gender neutral name, AND i’m giving it the gender it really shouldn’t have, given the context!  so yeah.  i found that oddly funny. 

but nevertheless, robin is now my dear companion and chum.    tomorrow we’re going to take a little trip to the DMV together and make it all official.  sunday i’ll actually hand over the cash-ola to pay for her.   

so, i really want “under the sea” as my cell phone ringtone, but i
can’t find it ANYWHERE for my verizon phone.  i’m very sad…

in other news… i was over at the mackays last night and we made a
video.  about a wolf who wants to sign a music recording contract
but is turned down by 3 little pigs who have very different musical
styles…  and we made it all in mime… yes, you read that right
– a movie about music in mime.   it was hilarious! 

back row from L-R: Kiley (wolf), Brynn (opera singer), Me (country singer)
front row L-R: Noah (anonymous observer who ends up offering the wolf a fat contract), Drew (rapper)

mother’s day pictures!

here are some fun snapshots from our mother’s day yesterday…  (i had to sieze the opportunity to employ my new toy!)

here are my grandparents (mom’s side):

my Grammy laughing:

a candid shot of my parents:

the parental units again:

the mothers:

the mothers having a moment:

3 generations of women…:

my brother and i:

ryan being…ryan:

me being goofy so ryan can try out the camera:

 

this weekend

 although he was quite the little stinker for me before the wedding, he IS still my 2nd favorite little man…  (2nd to my nephew, drew)

trevor daukas and me.  isn’t he CUTE?!  i love that grin of his…

more pictures from mother’s day to come…. (i’m having WAY too much fun with my new digital camera)

(photo courtesy of the wonderful Mark Converti, who said my smile is ‘devastatingly beautiful.’    i knew i always liked that guy…)

for mother’s day, i got to make the special dessert for our family.   
i wanted to try something new, and it needed to be non-chocolate since
my mom’s not a chocolate person.  so i found this recipe for
“lemon ginger cake with raspberry curd filling.”  that’s it!
i thought.  so yesterday i made the cake and the filling. 
this afternoon i assembled the cake and filling and frosted the
cake.  oh my.  for a while there the cake bore a frightening
resemblance to the cake the fairies in “Sleeping Beauty” make for
Aurora/Rose….before they bust out the magic wands. 
yeah…  but don’t worry.  i didn’t have to use any brooms to
prop it up.  once i realized that the frosting was just too warm,
and once i had put the cake and frosting in the fridge for about 45
minutes, all was well.  it turned out quite nicely.    now i just hope it tastes decent…  haha!

oh and the picture above was brought to you courtesy of my NEW digital camera!  woo-hoo!!  check it out:

i got it yesterday and so far i completely love it!  the thing
is smaller than my ipod (in length and height at least – it’s about
twice the width)!  and my favorite feature – what really sold me
on it – is that there is practically NO delay when you take the
picture!  i feel like i’m using a 35mm, not a digital!  so
yes, andrea is very happy. 

happy mother’s day to all y’all’s moms! 

finally!  after several pitiful failures at making lemon bars, a dear friend’s mom gave me her mother’s recipe, accompanied by firm and absolute promises that it was the best and completely failproof.  needless to say, i was skeptical but hopeful.  so with cautious hopes this evening, i decided to give those lucious lemon bars one last try, vowing that if THIS recipe didn’t work, i was forever giving up on making lemon bars from scratch and would just stick to the box mixes.  and…

::drummroll please::

they worked!!!  perfectly!!  hooray! 

in other news – they have FINALLY gotten episodes of Alias and 24 on itunes!  and of course they get them a week after my long trip with 7 hours of travel time each way.  figures…