Product Review: Western Bagel Alternative Bagels™

As of today, I have paid for three months of Weight Watchers…and have lost a total of 2.4 pounds. This is not good. Fortunately, WW’s fall campaign, Lose for Good, has inspired me to renew my dedication to losing weight and improving my health.

Lose for Good is a national campaign promising that for every pound lost with WW between September 7 and October 18, WW will donate the equivalent of one pound of food to someone who needs it. In addition, local offices are collecting food for local hunger relief programs. The meeting I attend will be donating food to Harvesters.

As part of my new and improved attitude toward eating healthy and losing weight, I bought some new bagels. I’d read about 1-point bagels several times, but had never gotten around to buying any. After all, they’re more expensive and only sold at Hy-Vee (while I normally buy most my groceries at Walmart). But this week…this week, I’m being healthy. So, new bagels it is.
Western Bagel Alternative Bagels™ are very good. I got the Sweet Wheat variety, and they’re quite yummy. Sweet and wheaty. The bagel is definitely smaller than the ones I like to buy at Einstein Brothers (check out their site – it’s a really good one). But it tastes good, and when I add my fake cream cheese, it’s a pretty good breakfast. And thanks to the extra fiber in the bagel, it lasts longer than a bowl of my favorite, not-as-healthy-as-it-seems cereal.

Princess Rant #1

Before I had my daughter, I would chuckle at sarcastic or even rude baby clothes. Then I would think – or sometimes say to my husband – “I will never let my kid wear something like that.” Now that I have a child to clothe, I have to admit that it’s been tempting on occasion. When I saw the onesie at Walmart that said, “Teething bites,” well, not only did I have to agree, but I wanted to wear that shirt myself!

But while some of these shirts (hats, onesies, etc.) are cute and funny, I still don’t think rude statements are appropriate for children to wear. (I imagine this will ensure at least one fight with a teenager down the road – don’t even get me started on the appalling phrases I see teens wearing these days! Hmm…"these days"…how old am I?)

The princess trend is also annoying to me, for reasons I will expound on later, so clothing that combines sarcasm and princess attitude is just too much. Too. Much.

You know me as Photo...

...but sometimes I go by other names, too.

Disclaimer: I was not a fan of Beverly Hills 90210. And I'm not promoting the new version, either.

However, I know that if I'd watched the original series, I would have loved it. I didn’t watch it because at the time, my family only had one TV. And I was not allowed to watch that kind of "garbage." (In case you’re wondering, I was also not allowed to watch The Simpsons. That one, I’m okay with, as even now, I think that show is pointless and annoying.)

Anyway, back to my point. (What was it again?) Last week, the much-buzzed-about revival of 90210 premiered. I caught the second half, partly because nothing else was on and partly because I was curious. And partly because I loved Jennie Garth in What I Like About You. (Chalk that one up to things I secretly love!)

It was okay. Turns out, I would have been offended if I’d seen the first half, but since I didn’t, I thought it was okay. But that's a topic for another post. Because my point after all this rambling is this: how did my names get on this show?! My whole life, I’ve thought I had a weird (or unique, as I’ve come to see it) middle name. Occasionally – no, rarely – I’d see another girl with that name. But now, here it is, on the CW! One of the characters is named Adrianna.

And then. And THEN! I found out the next day, when I was reading reviews of the show (and learned about the icky scene in the first half), that one of the main characters is played by an actress named Annalynne. That’s Photobaby’s name! Spelled differently, but still, I really kind of thought I’d made that name up myself! And there it was, on the CW!

Okay, so this isn’t really a big deal. But it is kind of interesting. Two of my family’s uncommon names in one show. Huh.

Do you have any unique names in your family? Do you like unique names or hate them? After a lifetime of being embarrassed by my “weird” middle name but also aware of how irritating it can be to have the same name as five other girls in your class, I really stressed out about giving Photobaby a unique but not weird name. I think I did okay, but only time will tell. Check back with me when she's 12...

Where Were You?

I was driving to my temp job, running late as I often do, when I heard the news.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was in my car trying to beat traffic on my way to the Pitch office. Pitch is an alternative newspaper, and I was temping in their accounting office. My duties including fun projects like filing and answering the phone, but it was a week of guaranteed pay, something my recent-graduate bank account needed desperately.

The radio station I was listening to must have had a TV nearby, because they began talking about the first tower being hit immediately. At first, I wasn’t concerned or even interested. It seems crazy to think about that now, but the truth is, I didn’t realize it was such a big deal. Quickly, I realized this was not a “normal” accident and that something bad was happening.

Now my heart was pounding, and not just because I was late for work.

I told myself to calm down. After all, I was going to the best possible place – a newspaper office. Surely, if anyone would know what was happening, they would.

But when I got to the office – yes, a few minutes late – nobody had heard. And when I tried to tell the people in the accounting office, they didn’t understand the seriousness of the situation. I even suggested that we turn on a radio, but they didn’t.

I realized then how silly I’d been, thinking of this as a regular newspaper office. I wasn’t at a major daily; I was in the accounting office of an opinion paper.

They finally realized what was going on and did turn on the radio. As we heard about the second tower and the Pentagon, I sat on the floor of the office and filed, numb and scared. A few people started crying and called relatives or friends who lived in New York and DC. One girl found out that her cousin had missed the train and therefore, was late to work. He was supposed to be in one of the Towers, but he wasn’t.

As I covered the receptionist desk over lunch, I sat glued to the radio. I looked online for news, but back then, the information highway was just a four-lane, you know? I listened to the radio news announcers tell us what the President was doing, and I wondered why they would share that information with the whole world.

And I sat there, wondering if I should ask my temporary co-workers if they’d like to pray. Sure, I didn’t know them and they worked for a newspaper that has very different values than I do. But maybe today would be what it took for them to turn to God. And maybe I could be the one to show them the way!

Um, yeah. I was too scared to suggest anything like that. After all, they had already rejected my original idea to turn on the radio. How could I even think about asking them to pray?

So I didn’t. I prayed, of course. But I didn’t take that opportunity to talk about serious things with these people I would know for just five days.

That’s where I was when the world stopped turning. Where were you?

Home Sweet Home

Have you ever seen the old movie, The Money Pit? Some days…no, some weeks…I feel like I’m living that movie.

A few weeks ago, our air conditioner broke. The HVAC guys wanted to basically gut our house and do $6500 worth of work. We just got a new blower for the A/C instead, for about 1/4 of the cost. Of course, 1/4 of that amount is still a pretty hefty chunk of our savings!

Shortly after we got that problem taken care of, our washing machine overflowed. Thankfully, our washer and dryer are located in the garage. That’s not normally convenient, but when it overflows (this was not the first time for us), it is. Anyway, so we had the plumber come out last week and snake our pipes. It mostly solved the laundry issue and completely fixed our bathroom sink that hadn’t been draining, but the bathtub still has some issues. But I am starting to get caught up on laundry and last night, I even washed and dried the mats that had gotten soaked during the garage flood.

And then last night, after I’d gone to bed and Mark had gotten home from work, I was abruptly woken up by him saying, “We’ve got big trouble.” That couldn’t be good, right?

No, it wasn’t good.

Apparently, he’d been sitting in the living room when he heard a GUSH! The best we could tell, at 11:30 at night, is that our water heater was spewing water into our crawl space. He went outside and looked into the crawl space and sure enough, it was full of water. (Side note: Our A/C and heater are in the crawl space, so they don’t work and sometimes break when the crawl space gets flooded. Found that out on one of the coldest days of winter a couple years ago.) So, he got out our sump pump, realized he needed a different hose to hook it up, went to Walmart to buy the hose, hooked it up and finally went to bed around 2 a.m.

He’s called the plumber today and they’re supposed to come out and see what the problem is. We probably need a new water heater, and I’m just hoping that we don’t have water damage in the walls or anything.

The good news, Mark tells me, is that we might be able to get a different type of water heater that would allow us to knock out a wall in our bathroom and make it bigger.

Right. Another project. That’s the good news?

Finding the Cure for Cancer

This Friday, September 12, my family will be walking as a team in Kansas City's Light the Night Walk for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

The organization is close to my heart for several reasons. One, I worked there and know firsthand the good work they do. Not only do they raise money for research, trying to find a cure and put an end to blood cancers (leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma), but they also provide outstanding patient services at the local level to those living with blood cancers, including financial aid, support groups and educational programs.

The second reason I walk in Light the Night is that my grandpa died of leukemia 15 years ago, and sadly, the stats haven't changed much since then. Despite the good work that the Society has done, hundreds of thousands of people are still diagnosed with blood cancers every year. Treatment and understanding of the diseases have improved, but still, every 10 minutes, someone dies from a blood cancer.

Light the Night is a nationwide fundraising event that celebrates and commemorates lives touched by cancer. Participants walk along a 2-3 mile course while carrying illuminated balloons – white for survivors, red for supporters and gold for teams walking in memory of a loved one.

My hope – and the hope of everyone who walks in Light the Night – is that someday, we will no longer have a reason for this event. If you’d like to join the fight against blood cancers, you can donate to my team here. Every dollar counts – so a BIG THANK YOU to anyone who can help!

Two Thumbs Up

Smart People – I never saw a promo for this movie in theater, but I saw a commercial for it being out on DVD. So when Smitty and I decided to rent a movie on Friday night, this was my choice. (She’d already seen Nim’s Island, and we agreed that for various reasons, What Happens in Vegas would be just too terrible to watch.)

Overall, it was good. There was some weirdness between an adult character and a child character that I could have done without. And it definitely took the slow and steady wins the race attitude. I wouldn’t quite say “plodding,” but fast-paced it was not. However, we laughed a lot during the movie, even though it focused on serious topics (a family of “smart people” trying to learn how to live again after losing their mother).

I will say that I worry a bit about Ellen Page. Her character in this movie was not much different, personality-wise, as her character in Juno. You all know how much I loved Juno, so that’s not a criticism. I just hope she doesn’t get stuck playing only one type of character. Have you all seen her in any other movies?

21 – I liked this one a lot. My husband had told me about this story a long time ago; apparently there’s a book about it and I think he saw something on ESPN. I wasn’t overly enthused about this; we were disappointed with Lucky You, another gambling movie we saw a while back, and I was afraid 21 would be similar.

I’m happy to say I was wrong. This movie was really good. It didn’t drag out the actual gambling scenes (like they did in the last James Bond movie), and it didn’t go overboard with the slick editing and plot reveals (like they do – a bit – in the Oceans 11 movies). And the thing I most appreciated – the characters didn’t behave like they belonged in trashy CW shows. Sure, the characters started enjoying the money they were making, and they made some bad choices. But they didn’t act ridiculous – instead, I think they acted just like kids their age would act if they suddenly found themselves “printing money.”

And on top of all that, there really is a good moral to the story about losing yourself and your priorities by associating with the wrong people and placing value on the wrong things.

I could say more, but I don’t want to give away anything for those of you who want to watch it. I’ll just say, in response to a question asked in the movie: yes, 21, you dazzled me.

Aruba, Jamaica, Ooohh, I Wanna Take Ya...

Being responsible is not always the fun thing to do.

I realize that’s an obvious statement, but it needed to be said. I want to celebrate my 30th birthday and our 10th anniversary by going to an all-inclusive resort in Jamaica. Is that asking too much?

Okay, so maybe it is. At least, it is when you have too much debt and want to someday (soon?) buy a bigger house and have more kids. And when you want to travel to another city to take weekend classes to change your career. And when you're trying to be a better steward of all that God has blessed you with.

[Insert heavy, dramatic, unnecessary sigh here.]

So, instead, I’m looking at San Diego. There’s still a beach. And lots of fun things to do. And oh yeah, it would cost about $1000 less than Jamaica! Has anyone else been to San Diego before?

I have an update on the woman whose car broke down in front of us in the drive-thru lane…

It turns out…she works with my husband!! Is that not too crazy?!

He thought he recognized her as the new security guard at work. So he finally asked her yesterday and sure enough, it was her. He said she wasn’t apologetic or embarrassed. Nope, she just said she’d been having a bad day, her stupid car breaks down when it overheats, and oh yeah, she had three screaming kids in the car with her.

Three children.

For the record, we heard screaming, but it was coming out of her mouth.

The weirdest part – to me – is that my husband was wearing his work uniform when he approached her car to help. Sure, he’s one of many who wear that uniform, but it’s odd that she didn’t even notice. Or if she did notice, she didn’t even consider that she might be screaming profanity at a co-worker. Or if she did consider that, she didn’t care.

The whole thing makes me think of a song that always makes me smile anyway. And now, I think it’s the only response I have to this situation. I’ll just sing what I think: “How bizarre!”

Finally – a step forward in my journey to becoming an editor. I’m going to Nashville next month to visit some friends, and I’ve been hoping to set up an informational interview with someone at one of the four Christian publishing houses there. I e-mailed someone at my first choice, Thomas Nelson, but never heard back. (Boo!) Then I read that my previous fourth choice, Abingdon Press, is developing a new fiction line. (Yay!) So, I contacted the editor in charge of that new department. And what do you know, but that woman e-mailed me back right away!

Unfortunately, she says she became an editor 30 years ago, so she wouldn’t be the best person to give me advice.

BUT, she told me about an online course that other editors have taken. AND, she referred me to a freelance company that might be able to help me get started in the industry. (BIG yay!!)

So, this goes back to my comments about a goal without a plan just being a wish. I’m trying to move forward and have a plan and actually DO this thing. But, it’s a slow process. And, I won’t deny, really scary. But, I’ve taken a step.

Next goal: sign up for that online course and contact the freelance company!