I would like to go one record and say I am sick of the Honda commercial with the Vampire Weekend "Holiday" song. I don't have a problem with Vampire Weekend, but they have successfully ruined that song. Also, it bugs me that I have no clue what he is singing at the end of it... it sounds like "Holiday oh holiday, and the best one of the year...[insert Honda verbiage]...Holiday, oh holiday 'ouldn' s'top 'y 'eeeere' "

Our food

About a month ago, maybe more, I watched a documentary called Food Inc. It was great, as far as documentaries go, and I felt they laid out the information quite well. Food Inc. is about the America food industry today; I believe it was made this year or in 2009, so it's pretty relevant. The basic message is: we as consumers have no idea where our food is coming from or what is in it. Neither do we band together and rise up to demand this info, we're all just kind of okay with our more-fat, worse-tasting foods we are being given. I could go on, but I will stop there.

Funny thing is that this completely coincides with a book I started reading over the summer called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle which is a great non-fiction book about a family's quest to eat local and grow their own food. Again, similar facts are presented about the food industry and how bad it has become in such a short time.

Well, I stumbled upon this article this evening and just had to post it. I loved it. I always like reading the posts that this guy writes. He is the author of the "Eat This, Not That" books and, although I am one of few who should eat "that" not "this", I still love reading these articles.

And what do you know, the first thing he writes about is the beef industry, which was a topic in Food Inc., which said the same thing: the beef you get at your supermarket, most likely, is actually made of many different cows. (Ew. I'm SO glad we buy part of a steer locally... now to find someone who has chickens...anyways...)

But the main reason I'm posting this is because of a bit of irony (or happenstance, or what have you.) The next thing he talks about is BacO's, those "bacon bits" that are somehow more like cereal than bacon pieces. Less than an hour ago, I was putting the cheese back in the fridge, and I saw our "Real Bacon Pieces" and thought to myself 'I wonder what those other, weird, bad bacon pieces are actually made of? It can't be bacon.' Now I have my answer.

Next bit of weirdness is that earlier tonight we played Fact or Crap and one of the questions was about the fat in avocados. I didn't realize they were so fatty! Anyhoo, the next thing he talks about in the article is avocado dips and how UN-avocadoey they are. Funny, because I thought that too last time mom got one for me (for a Mexican lunch thing at work) and I had her take it back because it A, looked gross, and B, avocado was one of the last ingredients on the list. That just didn't sound right.

So... in conclusion: go read that article, and if you're interest is peaked, as mine was, about this food-deception that seems to be happening, check out a book or documentary about it too. There's some definite shadiness going on, and I'm enjoying learning about it. You just have to be prepared for some things you might not want to know, because you WILL get grossed out at some point.

House-buying coming to a close

Christmas has come and gone, and now I am waiting for New Year's Eve. We had plans until this evening, when our hostess had to cancel her party because she has the flu. That's a shame, and now I don't know what we'll be doing, but I definitely appreciate her canceling now, versus later, and being mindful of getting everyone sick. Obviously, she earns a couple brownie points in my book for her consideration.

Anyhoo, Christmas was good and I got some wonderful gifts. Jarrod and I, together, got a garage door opener (something we needed for our house), which was quite exciting, and a Blu-Ray player. I got a nice KitchenAid stand mixer too! I also got some snowmen, a couple sweaters, a bath wrap, two pairs of earrings, Beauty and the Beast (yep, you read that right), a cook book, and some other things. Jarrod got me some flannel pajamas I asked for, and they are awesome. I've never owned flannel pajamas before, and I am reveling in the comfort and softness!

Now I am, as I said, waiting for New Year's Eve. But more than that, I'm waiting for next Monday. Next Monday is when we close on our house. I just want the day to come and be over with, honestly. This whole process has been stressful and kind of hectic, to say the least; I am so glad that it is coming to a close. After today, we are for sure locked in for our mortgage rate and so on, which means no more running here and there to sign this and that and somehow email it or fax it over to the right person by 5:00pm. Thank. God.

As I told a few people: Jarrod and I NOT living together during this was mega inconvenient. We are obviously not in favor of that anyways, as I am not moving in with him before June, but it was really difficult to be 35 minutes away during this process. Anyways, that part's over, so now we just have to "hang in there", as our realtor put it, until Monday.

Charity

This time of year calls to mind the idea of giving, and also giving to charity. Most wide-spread, probably, is the Salvation Army. The red kettles pop up around Thanksgiving every year since I can remember, and even now there are digital kettles you can donate to online in competition-like manner, supporting one radio host's kettle versus another.

Everyone has their charities they donate to and don't donate to; it's definitely personal preference. I am going to go out on a limb and take a slightly controversial stance against one that I see this time of year: The Little Wishes campaign for foster children.

Every year, channel 5 here has this "Little Wishes" campaign. Year-round, they support things with foster care, which is fine. But the Little Wishes really bugs me, and here's why: it's expensive. If a person wants to grant a "Little Wish" for a child, you better expect to pay a minimum of $35. Why? Because they don't offer any gifts to choose that cost any less than that. The cheapest toys on their website are 35 dollars. I'm sure some would argue that is not much, but I'm sorry: beggars can't be choosers. Maybe this is not the right attitude to have about it, especially in light of Christmas, but that's just how I feel. This year, I am not even spending $35 on gifts for people I KNOW. I just feel that asking for the things these kids ask for (which span all the way up to $200 toys) is a little much. I would gladly donate to St. Vincent de Paul Society, who helps people who are probably in worse shape than foster children, and they don't ask for $35 items. I can easily afford to give a little girl a sweatshirt that has a cute animal on it, which was one of the ornaments our family pulled off the giving tree this year.

I guess it's all in how a charity is run, but I just don't understand how the child can't be happy with a $20 or $15 toy.

Oh happy day

God works in strange ways, that is for certain. Yesterday, I actually received a call about a job application (after I wrote that blog) for a Front Desk person at Club Fitness. I was excited that I finally had heard SOMETHING from SOMEONE on a job. I called the woman back and had a successful mini-phone interview (phew), but then she said that she actually wasn't in need of a front desk attendant but a babysitter. So she said I should think about it and I could let her know. Well, that was a let down because me watching kids does not work; kids have many germs, and it would not work out good for me.

So I was disappointed, obviously, but reassured at the same time that 'Yes, I am doing something right here.'

Well, today my plan was to spend the day in my pajamas and clean my room a bit. I didn't really clean anything, but instead I started to go through some things. As in: my huge assortment of stuffed animals. I realized that I have never gone through them, so I currently have every animal I've ever had, plus a few of mom's, haha. I found a cat with a "I <3 Lynn" shirt on and her Mary Poppins doll from when she was a kid (which is awesome, I must say; it's this great hand-made doll from the 60s.) But then I got a call from Mary, who I went on CRHP retreat with and who my parents have also known for years. She said they were short on help at her company and wanted to know if I could come in today to talk with her.

Sure! Of course I can! I met Mary at 2:00, we talked, and was offered a job doing part time random office work. This is kinda funny because at my previous job, I ended up doing a lot of random things too. But, I am so excited about this. I think this will be so refreshing. I can just tell already that the atmosphere there is different from my former workplace; much more friendly and warm.

God works in strange ways... My parents ran into Mary and her husband on Black Friday at a local bakery. Had that not happened, she might have not realized I was out of work... and so on and so on. It's so wonderful. I am SO thankful I have something for now. The schedule I'll be on works out great, too. It'll be about 24 hours a week.

I start tomorrow!

Can we say 'stress'?

1. I think we need to start praying to St. Joseph for some intercession on the house hunting. He is the patron saint of house hunting, so... yeah!

2. I'm not quite sure how my body is handling all this stress right now. I don't feel overly stressed, but I'm sure it is taking its tole on me. I have barely been getting any sleep because nightly I wake up coughing at least once for 2 hours. Two nights ago I think I got two hours of sleep, after waking of 5 separate times. So not much sleep. Next is that I'm pretty darn busy: I'm looking for a job, looking for a house (which takes up way more time than I thought it would), planning a wedding, trying to keep in contact with people, watching my bank account go down because of Christmas presents, and trying to stay healthy too. I have been out of work for a month now, and I haven't received one call or email or reply whatsoever about any job I've applied to. So that's encouraging... So add that worrying to all of this, and I just don't know when or what day I'm finally going to snap, whether it's mentally or by way of getting sick. I figure my body can only handle so much. The only plus in this is that I'm NOT at work, thus not exposed to as many germs.

Crazy house hunting

So Jarrod and I found a house that we both really liked. It met all of the things we wanted in a house and was in a great location in Wentzville, not to mention at a great price. It had a nice sized master bedroom and bathroom, double sinks, a good yard, a nice big kitchen with tons of counter space, a great open floor plan, and just plenty of room overall. The miraculous thing about the great price, too, what that this house was not a foreclosure or even a short sale. The folks trying to sell it just needed to get out from under it and were trying to sell it for cheap.

We first looked at it on Friday, decided we wanted to take our parents through on Saturday, so we all met there at 9am that morning. Everyone liked it, which was wonderful. We decided we wanted to put a contract on it that day, so we hung around in Wentzville while our realtor showed another house. Then we went over to her office in O'Fallon and wrote up the contract. The only thing we were waiting on with this house was the sellers disclosures, which was worded into the contract so if anything was terribly wrong, we would have the ability to back out (since it was being sold as is.) We finished up around 1:30 or so and came back here, since Jarrod's car was parked here.

So, around 2:30 or so we got a call from our realtor saying she had received the sellers disclosures and emailed them to us. She wanted us to look it over and let her know what we wanted to do; she had not yet sent our contract over since these were faxed to her right away. I was doing a neb and reading them on my laptop while Jarrod read them over at my computer. As I kept reading it, I got this sinking feeling in my stomach. I'm not kidding you, every section of this thing had something wrong with it. There were problems with the plumbing; the kitchen appliances; the furnace supposedly turned on and off randomly and there weren't parts available to fix it; water got in the basement because the gutters didn't drain properly; he suspected movement in the house. A moving house is never a good situation. Also on this thing he wrote that a sewage pipe under the basement floor was cracked and sometimes backed up and that a PVC pipe in the wall of the house had been damaged due to movement. Oh, and he suspected termites. We were (or at least I was) stunned that it had this many problems. The house was fairly clean and in really good condition, it hadn't been totally neglected, so it was hard to believe that much was wrong underneath it all.

This house was so perfect for us, except everything was wrong with it. We shared the disclosures with dad, who kept saying "Oh boy..." as he read it, and unanimously decided we didn't want to put a contract on the house any more.

It was such a long day, I was so exhausted from it all. Here we were excited we had found the perfect house at a great price, only to have our hopes dashed a couple hours later once we found out all that was wrong with the house. I just wish we would have had these disclosures sooner because then we wouldn't have wasted our time. I was definitely disappointed, but I've moved on. If it wasn't the right one, then it just wasn't the right one.

"Going Green" is not new

I love old things, and especially if they are semi-old things from my childhood.

For a few years now (really, I don't think it's been much more than that, and I feel last year was the worst ever for "green" marketing) our society has been bombarded by "green" messages of saving our planet because, guess what, we're polluting it and that can't go on forever. But the funny thing many people forgot is: this is not a new idea.

Enter Exhibit A. My bookmark. I have an old little paper bookmark from [at the very least] 15 years ago. I believe I got it one time because of a book order in grade school. Anyways, I love this bookmark and keep it because it is 1, cute, and 2, about the earth. The front has a cute little illustration of a smiling earth and it says "Save the Earth", followed by the illustration of the earth, and "It's the only one we've got." at the bottom in what looks to be either Century Gothic or Avant Garde type. Then (ready for the best part?!) the back has 5 tips to saving our earth. They read;

1. Avoid "disposable" products that are used once, then thrown away.
2. Recycle. Reuse things if possible. Before you throw away games, books, or clothes, remember someone else might like them.
3. Organize a clean-up committee for a littered park or street in your community.
4. Encourage your friends and family to be more Earth-conscious. Then set an example yourself.
5. Read all about it. The more you know about the environment, the more you'll realize why it's important to save it.

Funny how those same things still ring true today, yet now they are shoved down our throats, sadly. I also really like how the first tip addresses "disposable" products. This bookmark is from the days before bottled water, mind you. How times have changed... Well, the message hasn't changed, but our habits have changed for the worse.

Happy birthday

Today is the 41st birthday of my beloved childhood television program: Sesame Street. Therefore, most of the morning I have been whisked away to a much simpler time watching old clips. Enjoy. (If you're having trouble loading them, try quitting your browser and starting over.)



















Kids just don't know what they're missing these days...

Read a book!

Hanging out with my good friend Marie is always a ton of fun. But along with the fun, many times we find ourselves deep in conversation about very serious topics. Frequent topics include the demise of the world due to facebook, the yearning for a simpler life, stereotypes, and a plethora of other things effecting the world right now and how saddened we are by them.

I feel that the mark of a good conversation/debate is if you get something out of it. When a person is talking about deep issues such as these, there should be a little bit of introspection with it. How does this apply to me? How can I change? How do I feel about this?

Hopefully this is making sense, and if not hopefully I'll clear it up in this paragraph. Today we were talking about facebook, a semi-frequent pondering, and how we both wish we could either: 1, lessen our time on there, or 2, drop facebook completely. It is clear that facebook has become a sort of addiction for both of us, though we are by no means the worst at fault for this. I know for certain that there are many, many, many people in the world who are on it more than we are. But the reason we feel it has an 'addiction' sort of status is because of all the time wasted on there. Here's the scenario: I log on, just to check if any numbers are at the top of my page basically.


I only intend to be on there for a harmless minute, right? So I check. And then, I click on someone. One minute has turned into 5, then 15, then 30. And before you know it, it's 2:00 in the afternoon! What happened to all that time? I compare this facebook addiction, in a way, to drinking. A person wants JUST ONE drink. Then that turns into two. Then three. Then four. And before you know it, they are drunk. Same with facebook. You intend to only be there for a minute; you just want that one little sip, that one drink of information on everyone. And before you know it, an hour has gone by.

So, here comes the introspection part! Stay with me here...

I myself feel I have not been reading as much as I used to, and this really saddens me. I love to read. I love getting lost in a good book. But I have not been doing this a whole lot lately and I realized why: my laptop. Ever since I got my laptop back up and running with Ubuntu, I have been using it a lot more. Typically in the past, I would read while I was doing my vest. With two vest sessions a day, that would equal an hour of reading every day, which is pretty darn good for most people. But now, I keep my laptop by my vest, too, and more times than not I will pick up the laptop, play a game, or check all my anti-social network stuff and before I know it, I am on my last vest setting with 2 minutes left. I can't read now! There's no more time, I think to myself. Once again, time has passed and another opportunity for me to spend some good family time with my books is lost.

So, even though writing this blog is taking some time, haha, I intend to read tonight while I vest. I am so glad we had this conversation because it made me more aware as to WHY I am not reading as much. Hopefully I can turn things around and my books will be back in my hands more!