Amanda's Adventures and New Product Reviews

I've seen more and more people with cute blogs, so I just went and added this new cute background. Love it!

I watched a special on CBS last about Edward Kennedy's remarkable life.  Here are the transcripts.  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/08/26/national/main5267991_page5.shtml This is amazing: After [Caroline's] wedding, Jackie wrote Ted a thank you letter - a token of gratitude for what he’d meant to all the Kennedys over the years. The letter read, "There have been 17 children besides your own - Bobby's, Pat's, Jack's and mine, for whom you have always been there. Every graduation, every big decision, every trouble, every sad and even every happy day. On you, the carefree youngest brother, fell a burden a hero would beg to be spared. Sick parents, lost children, desolate wives. You are a hero. Everyone is going to make it, because you are always there with your love. Jackie." As a dyed-in-the-wool conservative, I am not sure I would have agreed with Sen. Kennedy on very much, but one thing is the same: compassion. By all accounts, he matured into a kind-h

I borrowed the title of a lecture that I'm reading from Kathleen Norris, the marvelous poet and Christian thinker. Here's the book's Google Page, where you can read more: http://books.google.com/books?id=ETnB8B93otEC&dq=Kathleen+Norris&printsec=frontcover&source=an&hl=en&ei=p1-MSp2gCIisMJ2V3JMO&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10#v=onepage&q=&f=false Honestly, I purchased this book to round out a cart for free shipping. What a wonderful accident (or instance of providence, I should say). Quotidian was one of those words on the fringes on my consciousness. I had heard of it, but wasn't quite sure what it meant... It does mean "everyday, repeated actions." It comes from the same Latin root/Old English as "quote," from the question "how many." Entomology aside, that's exactly what I've been thinking about lately. Perhaps, I should message the subtitle: "Laundry, Liturgy, and 'Wom

I'm going to visit my parents in two weeks. I am getting very nervous about that. Everything I do is wrong...I never make the right plans...there's never enough room for me. I spend too much time with my friends...I don't help enough...I'm in the way.  Can you hear me rolling my eyes? I don't like conflict and there's a reason why I spend most of the year 700 miles away from my parents. That sounds crazy...but it's the way it is. I haven't even yet mentioned my grandmother. She is really getting on my mother's nerves. There's so much tension there....because they're both seriously passive-aggressive. My mother won't call out my grandma's bad behavior and my grandma won't stop acting like a petulant. I know there's 55 years of passive-aggressive past between them, but it just seems so crazy. I'm not sure how I'm going to fit into this. I'm hoping to be honest about how I feel and not hop on the crazy train. We will

Yesterday, I began this message, and all I typed was a "p".  I am wondering what I was thinking. Since I'm not sure, I will start over again.  It saddens me that I've only written a handful of posts this year. What have I been doing? Working and writing of course. I've said I was busy before, but I had no idea what that meant. I haven't been this busy since college. But those silly credit cards are almost paid off. Really...I've paid off 80 percent of the balance. That's a lot of money. And a lot of work behind it.  Anyway... balance is the key word. My wonderful friends that are part of the GSPN.tv community are working on living a more balanced life. You can visit  pursuingabalancedlife.com  to find out who's involved and read more about it. Thanks to Cliff's leadership, we've started talking about our goals and making real changes in our lives. Really, we're learning how to be happy with what we have. Being healthy, moderate, wise, a

I meant to post this last week when it happened. We did something strange in the office...we took a Thursday afternoon off to do some bowling. It was a reward, actually, for our month-long fitness challenge at work. There were only two days I couldn’t make it: nothing but water and no salt. If you didn’t make the challenge, you put a dollar into the pot. If not, you just had the satisfaction of doing something good for yourself. So, when it came to bowling, somehow it worked out that I was able to bowl first. I was really nervous about it. But everyone was milling about and I was ready. After being urged to go, I let the ball go. ... And knocked down 9 pins. And then I picked up the spare with everyone watching. Amazing! It went downhill from there, but I had a brief, fleeting moment of glory. And I was happy with the 81 I bowled.

  What a year 1977 was. Here I am at Easter. Notice the world's ugliest couch surrounded by the world's ugliest curtians. Did my mother ever think those matched? Actually, the clothes aren't too bad. I could see them being worn today. But thank goodness gold and green are no longer in style.  I don't think I've come to grips with being 32 years removed from this picture. How is that possible that so much time has passed? I'm just back from a trip to Virginia for work. I was going to blog about this, but I ran across this picture in Picasa, so I thought I'd comment on this first!

  Well, I was going through some pictures on my computer and found these. They're from a few years ago when I scanned all the pictures my grandma had. As you can see this parade of bad hair and dorky smiles shows wonderful school pictures. The one where I'm in the pink, I look so much like my dad, it's scary. That was second grade. The red and green dress with the bow tie is third grade. My mother made this one. I was embarassed. Now I think this is cool.  Next is the blue dress, Dorthy Hamel haircut and third grade. But I hated that hair cut and grew out my hair. That is the unfortunate mullet in the picture where I'm wearing a little grey dress with a skinny peach tie. That was 1985. can't you tell? Fifth grade is the feathered bangs and strips, while sixth grade is big sweater and really short bangs. Will today's Hannah Montanas be embarrased when they look back? I bet so!  

Lent has arrived again. The calender has circled back to February and Lent. It's a draining month; the reason why February only has 28 days is that the Romans didn't like this time of year either. It's wet, cold, dark, and lonely. Perhaps that's indicative of my spiritual condition. Actually, our spiritual condition is more accurate. I'm surely not the first person to feel down and draggy this time of year. And I can't be the first person who forgot God. Just as February ends, so does the season of Lent. I'm looking forward to better days.

I haven't said anything in 2009 yet? What have I been doing? Being cold, driving in the snow, and writing. That is all.