It's That Time...

It's that time of night again. That time when I want to stay awake, but I really know I should go to sleep. The result of which is usually me writing about random things.

We went to the Tacoma Rainiers game with the youth group tonight. It was a lot of fun! I totally forgot to take pictures, though...and my camera was sitting in my purse. Maybe next time? Regardless, we still had a great time hanging out, watching the game and seeing fireworks at the end.

I've started re-reading the Circle series by Ted Dekker. It's a fantastic trilogy. Well, technically there's a 4th book too, but I never got around to finishing that one. I just couldn't get into it...anyway, the original trilogy is so good! I don't want to give too much away, so I'll just say that it's worth your time to read. If you want to know more, read the description on Amazon (I don't think it gives away any spoilers).

I've been rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generation on Netflix recently, too. That's also been fun. I remember so much from childhood, but understand so much more now. It adds another level of depth to the characters I met as a young lass. Plus it takes me back to when a roommate from college and I watched them (although I don't think we made it through all 7 seasons).

I'm going to cut myself off from writing random thoughts and updates. It's time for bed. I have plans to be productive tomorrow and I want to see them come to fruition!

National S’mores Day, Chocolate and Julie & Julia

First of all, happy National S’mores Day everyone! I won’t really be celebrating because we don’t have access to an open flame, there are no marshmallows in the house and I’m allergic to graham crackers. I might be able to dig up some chocolate to eat, though…

One of my favorite types of chocolate is 70% dark chocolate “Concerto Batons” from Trader Joe's. Unfortunately they discontinued them a few months ago, but my mom is awesome and drove around to several local Trader Joe's to get them while she could and while they were cheap. When Matt and I moved to Washington, she rode up with me in the car and brought an entire box for the trip, which she let me keep upon our arrival at the new apartment. We (or rather, I) did a really good job of not eating the whole thing all at once, but then the heat wave hit a few weeks ago and we didn’t think to put them in the refrigerator before they melted =( They just don’t taste as good anymore, although that hasn’t stopped me from eating them. The only chocolate we have in the apartment is now the last baton…and I think today might just be the day to finish it off. It is National S’mores Day, after all.

Today is my parents’ 35th wedding anniversary, too. Yay – go Mom and Dad! Congrats on being happily married for so long.

So last night Matt took me to see a movie he had no interest in seeing: Julie & Julia. I really liked it. For those of you that haven’t heard of it, Julie & Julia is the story of a woman named Julie who decides to cook every recipe in Julia Child’s cookbook in a year. It also tells Julia Child’s story of getting into French cooking and creating her cookbook. I really identified with Julie’s character because I could see myself reacting the same way in similar situations, and Meryl Streep portrayed Julia Child as such a wonderful, vibrant woman. I have to say, the movie inspired me to cook. We desperately need to go to the grocery store (which we’re planning to do today), so I’m planning to pick up a few items to help with one of my favorite things to make: Oatmeal Raisin Cookies! I know it’s a much easier dish, but I’m more of a casual cook so I think that’s okay. I’m excited to try out the recipe in my America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook that my aunt gave me for Christmas a few years ago. It’s by far my favorite cookbook ever. Not only does it include recipes they tried out and recommend, but it tells you how long things should take, which brands they recommend you buy and why food reacts certain ways. Everything I’ve made from it has been easy to cook (which is good for the casual cook) and tasted delicious.

I also finished reading BoneMan’s Daughters yesterday. It’s not my favorite of Ted Dekker’s books, but I still enjoyed it. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being amazing) I’d give it a solid 8. I haven’t decided what I’m going to read next. Matt decided he wanted to read through Harry Potter, which I think sounds fun too, but I want to give him enough of a head start so we won’t both be in the same book at the same time…so we’ll see.

Recent Activies, Books and Movies

This post is going to be a bit of a hodge-podge of thoughts:

Recent activities
Matt and I went to the Mariner's game last night with some of my friends from college. I had a great time. Not only did I get to see Nissa, Dan, Laura and Amanda (and meet Amanda's friend Sarah who was really nice), but I also found out they sell chocolate covered strawberries at the park (which I thoroughly enjoyed in the 6th inning) AND Nissa and I made it onto the screen during the 9th inning!! We were dancing to Mambo #5, and I looked over and saw us. It was amazing. We were both so excited we started moving our hands/arms uncontrollably while Matt and Dan moved with the music (at least a little bit). That's one life dream that's been completed.

Recent books
I recently finished the book "Blessed Child" by Ted Dekker and Bill Bright. I have to say that Ted Dekker is one of my favorite authors. If I don't get into a book a chapter or two in, I'm never going to finish it, but Ted Dekker has never let me down. My all-time favorite of his was "The Circle Series," a series of three books that Matt bought me when we were engaged and I finished reading a few months after we were married. Since then I've also read "Blink" and "Blessed Child," and am almost done with "BoneMan's Daughters." Anyway,"Blessed Child" was really good. I don't want to ruin it, but I will share that I liked the descriptions of the Kingdom of God and the way one of the main characters understood God's love.

I'm excited to finish "BoneMan's Daughters" - it's much more mainstream than Dekker's other books that I've read, but I've really been enjoying it so far.

If you haven't read any of Ted Dekker's books, I would highly recommend "The Circle Series." It is probably my favorite fiction series ever.

Recent movies
Matt and I recently joined Netflix since we don't have that much to do right now and both like to watch movies. One of my favorite features is their "Instant Queue," which allows users to download movies/TV shows right away (we download them to Matt's Xbox). Although not all movies are available in the Instant Queue, it helps make up for the disappointment of receiving a DVD in the mail that wasn't as good as you anticipated. A recent example of this was when we went through our Will Smith phase (or at least I did). I really wanted to see Seven Pounds and The Pursuit of Happyness because I heard they were really good. Although I seemed to like them more than Matt, they weren't as good as I expected them to be, which actually disappointed me a little bit (I was also glad I didn't need to pay theater prices to see them, though). Fortunately we were able to hop on our Instant Queue and watch other movies that left us (or at least me) feeling less like I'd just wasted time.