Tonight I decided to cook something new. I found a recipe online for Spicy Pesto Chicken & Pasta that looked promising. I was a little nervous because it called for basil pesto, and sometimes basil is too much for me. The dinner was easy to make, but the basil was overwhelming so I didn't love it. I think I'll try it again, but with a tomato pesto next time.
I've been a Rangers fan my whole life. Seriously, all 29 years, 1 month, and 6 days. The Rangers have always been my team. I'm a hometown fan, I love the Rangers, the Mavs, the Stars, and the Cowboys. As some of you know, it hasn't always been easy being a Rangers fan. Although, after a while you get used to the disappointment. I've witnessed some great Rangers moments in my time. I saw Pudge's first game when he was 19, he was so cute :) I saw Nolan throw no-hitters, and I saw Kenny Rogers perfect game, which included an amazing catch by Rusty Greer.I was in the stands when Nolan Ryan showed a young Robin Ventura that age is just a number and you don't try to fight a guy who throws a baseball 100 mph. I have cheered for countless players with Texas across their chests, some you know, some you may not. Geno Petralli, Rafael Palmeiro, Steve Buechele, of course Nolan Ryan, Pudge Rodriguez, Will Clark, Mark McLemore, even though he took over for my favorite player growing up-Jeff Frye. For those who care, Jeff is now Ian Kinsler's agent, so let's all tell him thank you! Can't forget Rusty Greer, Juan GON-ZALEZ, Kenny Rogers, Gabe Kapler, and Darren Oliver, both the first time he played here, and now. We went to the playoffs in 1996, 1998, and 1999 but never made it out of the first round, losing to the Yankees all three times. But that was the past, and it's over now.
A few posts ago, in the off season, I wrote a blog about how I didn't understand all the moves the Rangers were making and how I was afraid they were messing up the great team they had put together. Last year was pretty good and things seemed to be heading in the right direction. I was devastated for the second time in my life that they let my all time favorite player Pudge go to another team, among other moves I didn't agree with at the time. A few days after that post, things started coming together and their decisions became clearer. I went to the final Spring Training game of the year at the ballpark with Nicki and Erin, and I said then, and Nicki will back me up, that I thought this team would make it to the World Series.
This season has obviously been amazing. I have watched a lot of sports in my lifetime and I have never seen a team as close as this one. It's amazing the talent and the class that Jon Daniels was able to assemble with no money and a team in bankruptcy court. If he doesn't win executive of the year, something is seriously wrong. It was one of my happiest moments as a sports fan to see Michael Young's smile after the Rangers clinched the A.L. West. The unofficial captain, the guy who stayed when he didn't have to and has always led by example, finally got to realize his dream. No one deserved to be in the playoffs more than him, and his team's love and respect for him was awesome to watch. There are a million different storylines on this team; the manager who could have been fired for cocaine use but was given a second chance, the inexperience of our young kids who played such a vital role in the success of the team, the "natural", Josh Hamilton who has overcome serious drug and alcohol abuse and is an amazing example of what God's love can do. This team is truly that, a team. Out of respect for Hamilton's past, and CJ Wilson's straightedge lifestyle, after winning the Division series and the Championship series they had a ginger ale celebration so everyone could be included. They still popped the champagne, but that was later, after making sure that Josh and CJ got to celebrate too. This run through the playoffs has made baseball fans out of people who never watched a single game before. I always thought I'd be the 100 year old lady in the stands when my team finally made the World Series, but here I am at 29 years, 1 month, and 6 days old and in less than two hours my Texas Rangers will play in their first World Series game. It's an awesome feeling. I have my claw and antlers ready! It's Time! Rangers in 5...
This is the last week of regular classes, and then exams start on the 12th. I am very ready to be done with Biology, but it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. I am glad that I only had to deal with it for a month, although that's a lot of learning crammed into a short period of time, which tends to add to the difficulty level. Both of my professor's are extremely intelligent, it's obvious in the way they speak. They are very different, seeing as how one is like 27 and the other is probably in his 40's, but you can tell they are both very smart. My lab professor, the older one, is quite funny and very soft spoken. Combine that with his accent and he is very hard to understand sometimes. He said something the other day though, that really made me think. He said there are no smart or dumb people in the world, only prepared and unprepared. He was telling us that there is a certain way the brain learns things, and that like anything else, you have to train it. He said focus is the most important part of learning, and that once you can train your brain to really focus, you can learn even the most difficult things very quickly. I'm paraphrasing here, his explanation was much more detailed and made a lot of sense. The problem is learning how to really focus. I have a hard time with that, and I'm not sure how you go about training yourself to really focus, but I'm going to see if I can figure it out.
I heard a quote the other day that I really liked. It said something like, the most successful people are not always the most talented, but the most passionate. Again, I'm paraphrasing. So I guess the key is to figure out what you're passionate about and make that your career. It's harder than it sounds. I think I know what I really and truly am passionate about and what I want to do with the rest of my life, but I keep talking myself out of it. Whether it's fear of failure, or a lack of belief in myself, I'm not sure, but something keeps holding me back. I think in the end, it's going to be pointless to go to school and end up back in a job I don't have any heart for. If that's the end game, I might as well just bail on the school thing and get into a job I hate now. It would just save me the increasing financial aid debt. It would be amazing to wake up everyday and go to a job that you love, to get to be a part of something everyday that makes a real difference, something that you really believe in. I have some ideas, and I know the path that I have to take to make these things a reality. For now, I'm going to keep them to myself, but I think it's time to stop lying to myself and start down the path I really want to be on. It's not going to be easy, but the best things never are. So I'll leave you with my new motto, and new favorite quote...
"Nothing is impossible. The word itself says "I'm possible". -Audrey Hepburn
Ok, I realize it has been 5 months since I last blogged and I'm sorry. However, you should be used to it by now.
I was recently reading my good pal Andrea's blog and she had posted her "Bucket List". I have been keeping a running "bucket list" myself on my good ol' iphone ever since I saw the show the Buried Life. That is a great show and if you've never seen it you should go to MTV and look up the episodes. Anyway, after reading Andrea's list, ours have many similarities btw, I decided I should post mine as well. So here is my list to date, in no particular order:
Write a children's book Learn to surf Swim w/ dolphins Change my own oil Play catch on a major league baseball field Dance with Maks Finish my brother's scrapbook Swing on a trapeze Learn to sail Attend a taping of Ellen Workout with Bob/Jillian Go to a World Series game Cook with Curtis Stone Search for buried treasure Explore a sunken ship Snowboard Graduate college Buy a house Be debt free Take spur of the moment road trip Lay on the beach of every major ocean Visit every continent Hug a baby bear or tiger Get married Learn another language Visit all 50 states (especially Hawaii) Own a house with a big porch overlooking the ocean Build a house with Habitat for Humanity Go scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef Watch them change the floor at the AAC from baseketball to ice hockey Open a summer camp for kids
This is an ongoing list. Obviously some of these items are a bit more ambitious than others, but whatever. I think they will all be fun. If anyone would like to help me accomplish any of these goals, let me know :)
I would just like to know what your plan for next season is. So far your offseason moves are less than thrilling. Rudy Jaramillo is the best hitting coach in baseball and you just let him walk away. Omar Vizquel is amazing, and a great veteran presence for our young guys. He filled in everywhere he was needed last season and with more talent and ability than some team's starters. He too is now gone. Pudge coming back last season was one of my best moments as a Rangers fan. I know that I'm not the only person who felt that way, and now you let him go as well. He is one of the best catchers the game has ever seen, and more than capable of playing everyday. He brought out some of the best performances our young pitchers have had. He knows how to win, and how to win in the postseason. Now the newest press release is how the rangers are looking for veteran catching. Really? You had that in Pudge, a better catcher than you will find in the free agent market, so that makes zero sense to me. Now we trade Millwood. The guy who led the way and set the example for the young guys with the new system and expectations placed on them from Nolan and Maddux in the offseason, which led to one of the better pitching seasons in a LONG time. We trade him for a guy with a losing record and a 7.27 ERA last season? Now I see we also were trying to free up some money to aquire Rich Harden, who is a talented guy but has been hampered with injuries the past few seasons. Now, Mike Maddux is an amazing pitching coach and he definately changed things in Texas last season, so maybe these guys will be everything the management hopes them to be, but right now I'm not thrilled with these moves. Marlon Byrd is another guy we may not see back in a Rangers uniform next season and I think that would be a big loss. No one plays harder than him, he gives 110% with everything he does. Period. And he wants to stay in Texas. He would be the 3rd guy who wanted to be a Ranger who was sent away this offseason. Millwood and Pudge are the other two. I hope that I'm wrong and that these moves pay off next season. We have amazingly talented young guys, with some great "older" guys in Young, Kinsler, Hamilton, etc... It would be a real shame to take the progress we made this past season and start going backwards once again. Anyway, I just needed to vent a bit, I'm pretty sure none of you care, lol, but thanks for reading. :)
So I realize it's been two months since my last post and I'm sorry. As I mentioned last time, I'm terrible at this, so you are just going to have to lower your expectations of me.
A super fun thing happened to me today. I was running errands and while I was at the mall I decided to go up to the food court and get some Chick-fil-a for lunch. The cashier took my order then handed me my receipt and a typed letter without ever taking my money. The little note said I was chosen for a random act of kindness and instead of paying it back I was to pay it forward. It also said to remember "He is the reason for CHRISTmas". I love that. I don't know if this is something chick-fil-a is doing, or the just the cashier, but I thought it was awesome. It totally brightened my day and now I am on the lookout for an opportunity to pay it forward!
I had a great Thanksgiving, and hope you all did as well. My mom, brother, and I went to my aunt and uncle's house in Stephenville with my mom's side of the family. It was good to see everyone and catch up, and of course play with all the sweet kiddos. There are some awesome kids in my family, that's for sure! My mom and I went shopping on Black Friday. We did not get out early for all the crazy doorbusters, but we headed out about 8am. We found some good sales and had a good time, and I am actually done with my Christmas shopping already! I have a few little bitty things to pick up to finish off a couple of gifts, but otherwise I am finished! I have never finished my Christmas shopping early. I am usually still shopping on Christmas Eve so this is quite an accomplishment. :)
Saturday Riss and I went to our good pals, Sarah and Jason's, house. Jenni Powell came over to catch up since she was home for the holidays! It was sooooooooo good to see her. It's hard when you grow up and people get busy with life and work and family and you tend to lose touch with people who were are very important to you. We spent a few hours chatting and catching up. It was definitely the highlight of my holiday weekend and hopefully we won't wait so long to see each other again!
This is the last week of this semester for me! I have both finals next week, so wish me luck. There is a very good chance I can get an A in both classes, which would be wonderful. Next semester is going to be much more difficult, but its just another step towards the finish line. I have learned this semester that I do not like online classes because I am not good with self motivation. I tend to forget to even go online and check what's going in my classes so the fact that I'm doing so well is quite a mystery to me, but I'll definately take it!
It's now December 1st and Christmas is in full gear! Our house is completely decorated and beautiful. :) Also, I would like to throw a little decorating shoutout to Jason Miles. Your house looks wonderful as well, I really think the added color in the bushes really finishes it off, lol! Obviously whoever gave you that idea is a genius. Coming up on December 12th is Traci's big birthday bash. It's a 1920's gangster/flapper theme and I'm really excited! Traci throws awesome parties and I've always wanted to do a murder mystery dinner. I can't wait :) Then comes New Year's and it looks as though Andrea will be coming to town, and we like her so that should be a good time. Then, a week after we kick off 2010, I will be heading to fabulous Grand Cayman for 8 days! It's been far too long since I've seen the ocean and I am so ready. Of course after a week of paradise it will be back to reality and school will start again. BOO! At least for now there are lots of great things coming up and I am really looking forward to the next month.
So like the title says, I am a terrible blogger. I really thought I would be better at this, but it doesn't appear so. I apologize for my lengthy absence.
There is nothing major to discuss here today, so I will just give a little update of the past few weeks...
First off, I would just like to say that I got an A in my algebra class! That's a big relief. I am actually quite proud of myself, I was really just hoping for a C, but as the class wore on I realized an A was an actual possibility and I really wanted it. Good grades came very easy for me in high school, so learning to study is still pretty new for me, but I got it done and came through with my A! I just started the fall semester and I am taking two online classes. General Nutrition and Personal Health. So far, so good. Online classes are very different but it seems to be going well right now. I really like the nutrition class!
I am still looking for a job. That's not going well right now, but I'm sure something will pop up. If anyone knows of anything, especially in the McKinney, Frisco, Plano area please let me know.
Three weeks ago the Miles family and I decided we'd hit up our old youth minister's church. He is the pastor of Crossridge Church in Little Elm. I've gone on occasion over the past few years but just a random Sunday here and there. I live in McKinney so the church is not far from me and now that the new toll bridge is open its pretty close for Sarah and Jason also. So the first Sunday we went Marc and Kim were on vacation so I was a little bummed because I was looking forward to seeing them. However, there were plenty of old FBC Corinth pals there to say hello to. Marion literally ran out the doors to greet us as we came in, lol. Then we saw Jason Lee and his wife and 3 children! And also Ben Venable and his wife, and Amy Wiese (Stark) and her family, including her new precious baby girl, so that was fun. The past two Sundays have been really good, you can tell God is really working in that church and Marc is an amazing pastor. We were very lucky to have him and Kim in our lives growing up.
Technically it is now September 1st, which starts my favorite time of year! September is full of wonderful things such as, National Courtney Day (the 21st) so mark your calendars people! Also, all the good t.v. comes back on, lol. And Hockey, Basketball, and Football come back to us! Hooray! It's the only time of year I can see all 4 of my teams at the same time. AND if my little Rangers will pick it up a bit, we may actually have some October baseball in these parts and that will be FANTASTIC!!!!!!! Also in September I will be going with my bff's to see Brad Paisley. I LOVE him and I am very excited because I have missed him the last few times he's been in TX. Of course after the wonderful month of September starts the holidays and who doesn't love the holiday season? Riss and I are going to see Kings of Leon in October and hopefully some Ranger playoff games! Then comes Halloween, Thanksgiving, and my personal favorite...CHRISTMAS!!! Today starts the best time of year and I couldn't be happier about that! And this year I won't have to be sad when the holidays end because in January I am headed to Grand Cayman. If you haven't been there, I suggest you go. It's a little slice of heaven!
So there you go. As you can see nothing terribly exciting is happening in my life, but I guess that's not always a bad thing. :)
I have officially gone back to school. I'm only taking one class and it's only a month long. How hard can it be right? Well it's been almost two weeks now and it's kicking my butt! I haven't been in college in about 4 years and when I was there I didn't take it seriously, which is why i'm having to go back now. High school was easy for me, I never had to study and I breezed through it. I loved that then, but looking back now I realize how completely unprepared I was for life past high school. I've been wanting to go back to school for awhile now, it's always bugged me that I didn't finish, so when I got laid off in May I figured this was my oppurtunity. I'm taking Algebra, which I haven't taken since the 8th grade. I took it in the 8th grade instead of my freshman year becuase I was "advanced" in math. Ha! I don't feel too advanced these days. We had our first test yesterday and I studied a lot. I felt relatively prepared and hopeful. After taking the test I thought I did pretty well. This concerned me a bit becuase I always tend to do well on tests I think I bombed and vice versa, but I remained hopeful that I did alright. Unfortunately that trend seems to still be in effect. I got a 60 on my test, needless to say, not what I was hoping for. Apparently the whole class did horrible with the exception of the usual one or two geniuses, but I don't take a lot of comfort in that. We get to drop our lowest test score so all I can do now is stop dwelling on it and work even harder so that this is the lowest one and it becomes a non issue. Wish me luck, I'm gonna need it!
There are certain days in your life you will never forget. July 11th is one of those days for me, and it will never again be just a random summer day. One year ago today I was sitting in the movie theater watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall and got a text message from a friend saying "Jason Powell died today." Seconds later my brother called and I knew it was true. It's the day one of the best people I've ever had the privilege of knowing was taken from this earth. I've know Jason since the 5th grade. He was a rock in my life, someone who was always there with a smile and just the perfect thing to say to make me laugh. I have more memories of him then I can possibly list, and I cling to them everyday. I will share just a few...I remember brainstorming with him all the best possible arguments so his parents would let him go to public school, and how thrilled he was when they agreed. I remember his first day of high school with us in LD and how happy I was he was there, but not as happy as he was. I remember sitting in his room watching him play his flight simulator game and talking for hours. He was great at talking. Every week he brought the Baseball Weekly to school and we would go through it, him looking for info on his teams, me looking for my favorite players, which usually consisted of who I thought was the cutest in their baseball pants. I remember countless hours of him talking about planes and girls. I remember countless hours of him talking, lol. I remember the ski trip where he crashed into the tree trying to impress a girl and we all chipped in to buy him a big book about planes so he'd have something to do while he was laid up. So many ski trips, World Changers, and youth trips and he was always there. I still have the encouragrams from World Changers and the notes he wrote me at school. I have kept them all this time and now I'm so thankful that I still have them. Jason was more than a friend to me, he was a brother and I love him and I miss him every single day. I take comfort in knowing he lived his dreams; he was a pilot, married to the woman of his dreams, and he was a daddy to the most precious little boy. Those are the things Jason always wanted. I know I'll see you again J, and I look forward to that day. Until then please know you are loved and missed. My brother and Jason on our ski trip March 2000.
