Basketball on April Fool's Day

I guess I forgot to blog about this earlier, but on April Fool's Day, my friend Colleen and I went to a Mavericks basketball game at the American Airlines Center in downtown Dallas. I'm not really a basketball fan, but Colleen really likes the Mavs and I wanted to go for the experience!

She got some pretty good tickets and we met in Arlington and headed into downtown with time to spare.

Even though the American Airlines Center hosts both Dallas Stars hockey and Dallas Mavericks basketball, the feel at the two games is very different, in my opinion. I have been to 4 Stars games and I absolutely loved them. The Mavericks game was a different atmostphere, but it was still fun.

The music they play is more classic rock during the hockey games and hip-hop during the basketball games. Both are fun at a big event, so a good time can be had at each game!

Here is a pic of Mark Cuban - the billionaire-owner of the Mavericks (courtside - the guy who is standing up in a blue t-shirt and black jeans). Just a few nights before this game, Cuban got a $25,000 fine from the NBA because he Twittered about the bad officiating. I didn't see him on his phone at all during the game, so maybe he toned it down a little bit....although a $25K fine is like fining us $5 for something - not really a deterrent!

Here's a timeout team meeting!

People In Your Life

I got an email from an acquaintence recently that had a very interesting quote. I had to read it over and over - I guess I was just drawn to it...

Here it is:

God doesn't give you the people you want, He gives you the people you NEED - To help you, to hurt you, to leave you, to love you and to make you into the person you were meant to be.

I know that I have done a lot of thinking about the people in my life and why I had to go through some bad times and betrayals, and also some amazing people that have come into my life who taught (and are currently teaching) me so many wonderful things. I guess I just never saw it in print in front of my face that the people who hurt or leave you are just as important as those that nurture you, love you and support you - as far as the 'molding' process is concerned.

God wants to make us better and I think that trials in life are meant to ultimately refine us and teach us things that we couldn't have learned any other way...kind of like an oyster being polished by the rough abrasion of the sea until it shines!

I Love Me Some Beck

Has anyone/everyone been watching Glenn Beck's show now that he's on Fox News (since January)??? I have been watching him every day (he's on at 4pm CST - I DVR it) and he has been SO GOOD lately!

He has been starting each show with the Top 5 stories that the "mainstream media" are covering that day. Then he goes into all of the things that are going on that the mainstream media are NOT covering that are WAY more important. Basically, he's saying that the media picks certain things to cover heavily...in order to divert attention from what's really going on that they don't want people to notice.

For example: On one particular day recently, the AIG bonuses were a big deal and how the government was going to force them to give the money back by taxing the bonuses at a very high rate. Glenn said that they were covering that like crazy for like the 4th day in a row....in order to downplay the fact that the government just printed $1 trillion dollars, further devaluing our dollar and pulling out the last stop, the last ditch effort to save the economy (basically an indication of government panicking).

Anyway, no matter which side of politics or social issues you are on, Glenn is SOOOO thought provoking! Check him out!!!

The Office (Where's Dwight Schrute??)

When my Mom was in town over Easter weekend, I decided to tackle painting another room in my house - the office! It's a small room, so it would seem easy, but there is a weird architectural challenge in this one. I figured it would be good to have another person in the house while I try and balance on the ladder to accomplish it! I told Mom that she didn't have to help me paint.....she just had to be there to call 911 when I fell off the ladder! She didn't like that too much. In the end, she was a fabulous painting assistant and kept filling up the roller or brush when I was up on the ladder - greatly speeding up the process!

Here are a couple BEFORE pics from this last year:



I LOVE the color, but when I went to take pictures, the camera never could get the 'true' color! Half of these pics were taken in the morning (the lighter version of the yellow) and half were taken at night with overhead lighting. What a difference lighting makes! The REAL color is somewhere in between these two extremes....I guess you'll have to visit to see it! :)

I promise these next pics aren't capturing the REAL color - it's not that bright! And this first picture is the 'architectural' problem that I was dealing with - the top of the closet has a ledge/ceiling on it and I had to use a long pole to get to the top of that vaulted ceiling behind that flat closet ceiling. It was interesting to say the least - Mom was nervous!

Next up: The master bathroom!

Wieners Selling Hamburgers!

My friend Erin gave me the hard copy of this Burger King ad recently - isn't it cute? Finally they got rid of the CREEPY, gross King guy in their advertising (or have they?) and replaced him with this cute little wiener fur baby in a pot! Maggie looked just like this when she was a wee-pup. How could you possibly be angry at her when she goes poo in your shoe - with those eyes?!

PS - She did just that when she was about 12 weeks old.....and I didn't see it.......slipped my bare foot right into that sandal! UGH!!!!

Guest Bathroom Makeover! (Still in progress...)

OK, I finally took some pictures of my newly painted guest bathroom (reluctantly....since I haven't finished the changeover to the new color scheme). I still have to get new rugs and towels that match, so you'll just have to forgive the purple towels that are still in there, as well as the incorrect rugs for the room (they are blue and not the right combination of size/shape right now).

I didn't really like how the wall color turned out at first, but it's starting to grow on me. And it looks very different at different lighting levels (during the day and at night)....weird!

Here is the "BEFORE" picture from when I moved in last year:

And here are the (SEMI) AFTER pics from yesterday (again, forgive the rugs and towel colors!):

Bringing Easter to Life

This past Friday, the church that I attend put on an interactive 'journey' through the last hours and days of Jesus' life on Earth. It wasn't a lecture, a presentation, a movie or a sermon....it was something that got you involved in the experience. I'm a very visual person - and I want to touch and feel everything in order to really 'get it'. This was perfect! It made such a bigger impact to go through this rather than just talk about it.

There were 12 stations that you progressed through at your own pace and you had something to touch, smell, listen to, etc. at each one. For example, in one of them, they wanted to emphasize the impact of the torture Jesus went through on the cross, so they had a paragraph you had to read and then had an actual crown of thorns on a table for you to touch and feel. Another station was a plaster form of a foot and then scented oils in glass jars. There were long Q-tips and you were told to dip a Q-tip in the scented oil and 'wash' the feet of 'Jesus' like the woman did with her hair in the Bible.

It was a very powerful experience and I would highly recommend going to something like this next year at Easter if you have the opportunity!

This is how they described it when promoting the event:

Good Friday, April 10

The Journey - The Journey is a self-paced, experiential journey through the last days and hours of Jesus' life. This journey consists of 12 stations at various locations throughout the worship center and lobby. Each station will contain artistic representations of a scene from the Biblical account of Jesus' final days and hours. While at each station you may be asked to pray, write down a thought, touch or smell something. This journey is a time to slow down and focus on Jesus' journey to the cross. The Journey will be available for you to experience between 5:30 and 8:30 PM on Friday, April 10. Feel free to arrive at any time between those hours. The Journey will probably take about an hour to fully experience.

No Help At All!

Lately, I have realized that my dog is not helpful as far as tasks go. Maybe it's the whole 'lack of opposable thumbs' thing, maybe it's the lack of language skills, maybe it's just her stubborn will? OK, by now you think I'm the 'crazy dog lady'! Well, anyway, here are some pictures of Maggie 'trying to help'...errrrr NOT. hahaha!

Here is Maggie refusing to put on the gardening gloves and get to work:

Here she is trying to help put away groceries.......or rather dress herself in grocery bags.......

Visiting Green-Thumb

This past weekend, my Mom was here to visit for a few days on her way from south Texas back to her house in northern Minnesota. We ate out, went shopping, played with Maggie, and got a TON of gardening work done!

My Mom is soooo good at growing things and all-things-gardening, so I took advantage of her expertise and we went to the nursery to pick out flowers for my big pot that I bought in Mexico when I was visiting her in February (Maggie pretended to help, but she really just got in the way!).

We also laid down grass seed in the front yard and planted some aloe plants that my Mom gave me from south Texas. I hope they grow!

My Mom says that you can actually break the little arms off and there's liquid aloe inside to put on sunburn! She said to wait until they grow a little bit bigger, though....

Here's my pot full of bright flowers - I hope they stay alive, since the opening of the pot is at a weird angle....I put verbenas, marigolds and a wave petunia in there.

I'm pretty excited to see my 'baby' shrubs are growing new branches and leaves! This is their first spring (since I had them planted during the hot summer last year). YAY!

I also recently invested in some soaker hoses that I snaked through my shrubs so that I could water them and not waste a bunch of water by spraying the driveway/sidewalk as well! I love that they blend in with the mulch!