Are you having a "dinner downer"?

Join Our Food Network! It's a blog just for sharing recipes! It's already filling up with yummy EASY recipes so please join us! Email me or leave me a comment with your email address if you want to join and I'll invite you. The more the merrier!

I'm trying the honey baked chicken tonight...YUM!

Baby Ethan

Ok I haven't updated on this little dude in quite a while, but this is the little baby boy that has Leukemia that many people have been fighting HARD for the past year with prayers for. Please continue to pray for this family and for this precious child. They just had some tests done to see if the Leukemia has returned, because from the outside looking in, it seems like it has. But they just got a preliminary test back saying NO LEUKEMIA!! Now there is another set of test results to come that are more telling, so please please hit your knees for this family right now. They have been through more than I can even begin to imagine. Thanks!

http://www.ethanpowell.com/ (click on Updates)

Tagged

10 years ago:- I was 17, Junior in high school, drove a red honda civic that I got for my 16th birthday, but if I remember correctly, I was soon going to bang that thing up to peices. I had already gotten stuck in several ditches, hit a mailbox (I actually hit it so hard I uprooted the thing and my dad made me paint them a new post) and it was a 5-speed so I would always forget to pull up the emergency break and it would roll out of our garage into whatever was behind me, like other people's cars and basketball goals.
My best friends were: The infamous "7": Ashley, Katie, Melissa, Griffin, Jill and Brittany, and then Keyla, Annie, and as always, Bethany.
I was dating: hmmm probably Damon Dumser. Griffin stole him from me that summer and we didn't speak for a few months until the fall musical and we made up back stage:) ah, memories! Wait, Bethany, didn't we have a little "tiff" and we made up during the "We Go Together" number in GREASE?? HAHA! What is it with me and making up with my friends during musicals??!
Favorite Stores to shop at then: hmm, probably Gadzooks, Maurices, and Gap. (we didn't have a lot to choose from, ok?!)

Things on my "to do" list today: Go to work, finish my weekly prospecting goals, make dinner, hang out with my hubby and possibly do some cleaning/organization to our new house. It's a little chaotic with boxes.
What I would do if I suddenly became a billionaire: Pay off all of our debt, pay off our friends' and family's debts, start having children, adopt some too, buy a house, go visit Kelee in Africa, go visit Eryn like once a month at least, help my sis open her own salon, help anyone in need, travel the world.
Three bad habits: I throw clothes all over the floor (me too Eryn...you know this) When my hair comes out in the shower I ALSO put it on the wall and sometimes forget about it!! Michael hates this. When we were first married I was adament about remembering to get it off. Now I'm a little less anal about it:) I lose so much hair that sometimes it's like, is that normal? I bite my cuticles. I absolutely DESPISE this habit of mine and it seems that I cannot stop. Any tips? I've tried putting a bandaid on each finger but that's not very practical for my job. My other bad habit is buying yogurt and fogetting to eat it before the expiriation date. This drives my husband crazy! haha. Whenever I buy yogurt he gives me this look like, you sure about that? hehe.

5 Jobs I've had: Server at Applebees, Title Curator at Richmond Title (I know you all didn't know that I was an expert in this) Barista at Starbuck's, Account Manager at 1Point Solutions (this is the company that went bankrupt because the owner stole millions of dollars of people's 401K money. Dirty dirty.) And now I'm in sales for Fontis Health.

That was fun! I tag anyone who wants to do this.

A New Blog...

Ok I decided to start a new blog simply for recipe-sharing!! Click here to view this blog, and let me know if you would like to be a contributer and I'll add you! The more the merrier...

Happy March!

How amazing was the WEATHER this weekend! Praise God for that. I can't believe that at the end of the month, Michael and I will have been married a YEAR! It has completely flown by.

Well, we bought a new townhome this weekend!! We love it. It feels good to actually own our own home! We have been moving in all weekend, thanks to our amazing friends and my parents! You all are so quick to help friends in need and we are blessed to have you in our lives. We also bought a new sofa and chair! Sofa Express is going out of business so you can negotiate prices (sort of). We still need to buy a china cabinet so if you have any suggestions, pass them on! There is this store called P.D.'s in Franklin that has really cool furniture so we may look there. I will post pictures of the house later when we get everything fixed up.

Well here's to yet another Monday...this seems crazy to me, but it seems like by the time Friday gets here I can't even stand the thought of work, and the whole weekend I'm thinking I can't possibly go back. But by the time Monday gets here, I'm really ready to be at work again! I guess we are just conditioned that way.

Have a great week, bloggers and blog-readers!

A Response to the Social Club Frenzy at LU...

Ok, I'm going to use this outlet to do a little venting about something I feel pretty strongly about, that some of you may not agree with. I do not wish to offend anyone in saying how I feel about this, but only to speak the truth I know in my own heart on the subject, and if the Lord chooses to use my words to change someones heart, then may I be a vessel for Him.


My college years were spent at Lipscomb University, a wonderful school with amazing teachers and just all around great students. At Lipscomb, we did not have "sororities" like they do at state schools; rather, "Social Clubs" which were sororities/fraternities on a MUCH smaller scale. Because our social clubs did not have to adhere to certain state mandates regarding pledging, active members of our clubs could pretty much do anything they wanted to as far as pledging goes, including hazing the pledges. The defination of hazing, as found on Wikipedia.com is as follows: Hazing is an often ritualistic test and a task, which may constitute harrassment, abuse or humiliation with requirements to perform random, often meaningless tasks, sometimes as a way of initiation into a social group. The definition can refer to either physical (sometimes violent) or mental (possibly degrading) practices.

I would have to say most social clubs at LU participated in this very definition of hazing on some level. Some were more on a mental level, others were more physical, and some consisted of both. Active members justified this type of behavior, usually because of one or two reasons; 1. "We went through it, so everyone else who joins has to go through the same exact treatment," or 2. "Pledges need to go through hard times together so that they will bond as a group." There have been many, many debates as to whether pledging went against the key foundations of the school, like portraying Christ in every activity, ethical practices and service to others, but above all, living to the highest standards in Jesus Christ.

About 2 years ago, Lipscomb elected a new president, Randy Lowry. One of the big changes President Lowry wanted to make, after seeing the process himself, was to change the way pledging was handled at LU alltogether, the goal being to make the pledging process more in line with Christian practices. Oh man did this cause the uproar of the decade. Alumni started coming out of the woodwork in opposition to this new change. There is even now an online petition of currently 162 alumni (and counting) that have signed saying they will no longer support Lipscomb financially because of this. I realize I am in the minority among social club alumni that supports President Lowry and the deans at Lipscomb who are helping to bring about this (much needed) change, but I must stand up for what I believe in no matter what. I want to ask you that are so opposed to the decision of the deans...what in your heart truly is leading you to believe that the way we have done pledging all these years truly glorifies God? To me, there is no question that it is a breeding ground for elitism and domination over another human being. And to those of you who truly believe that hard pledging promotes closeness among a pledge class...I agree to a point. I definitely bonded with my pledge sisters, but the TRUE bonding happened when/if I experienced life at a spiritual level with those girls. One of my very very best friends in the entire world was in Delta Sigma (a different club than me) and I'm closer to her than many of the girls I pledged with, and I know many people who could say the same thing. A social club is just that: a THING. An orginization. Don't get me wrong, I loved my time in Pi Delta. ButI can tell you for sure that I was never comfortable with being on the "active" end of pledging. I am not saying I was perfect, I'm human. But I can't deny the turmoil in my spirit during that time. To me, what really is important here is reaching others for Christ. Serving others. Impacting someone by putting them BEFORE yourself. Loving others despite any fault. These are some of the key elements Jesus Christ lived by, so what about this mirrors the pledging process we all went through? It's crazy to me how we can easily throw these beliefs out the window for the sake of tradition.
For those of you who actually read this entire post, thanks:) I don't want to use this as a way to start a knock down drag out argument at all. I do, however welcome your thoughts, even if you never even went to LU, and even if you disagree with me.
Thanks.

Welcome Parker!

Announcing the arrival of PRECIOUS baby Parker Gabriel Houston! Kristy (Brinker) Houston's new baby, if you don't know who the heck I'm talking about!

Here's a picture of proud daddy:) I wish I had a picture of mommie but we didn't get one. She had a rough day!

Stats:

born 2/17/08

7lbs, 7oz

dark brown hair, and lots of it!

I can't believe my friends are starting to be PARENTS! So weird...but awesome!