dear mr. obama

this is a really powerful video that has been circulating the internet and youtube for a few months. today, it made front page news on the fox news website. i have a couple friends that are posting it on their blogs as well. from my understanding (and that understanding includes men i have known directly involved in the iraqi war), the majority of the soldiers feel that the war has done good. and if we were to pull out now we would undo everything. this video is one soldier's opinion. it's a shame our mainstream liberal media can't find more of these soldiers, rather than the ones that are disgruntled. not that i am downplaying the tragedies of war. but, i am saying that our media finds the worst of the worst stories and refuse to balance it out with the good ones. anyway, i'll quit rambling (for now) and post the video.

pick a chef 2008

as many of you know (i think), i have several of my recipes posted on recipezaar. i mainly post them out there for easy access. when someone asks for a recipe, it's easy to direct them there. the ones posted are ones that i get requests for quite often. or ones that are a little different and not already on recipezaar. i do like to be the different one, you know. ;) last spring, i was "adopted" in the pick a chef event. a fellow recipezaar-ite chose three of my recipes to make, photograph, and then review. i was pleased to get such high comments from her that this year i decided to "adopt" myself. i made four recipes, but my by far favorite was the creme brulee. it's not quite as good as i've had in restuarants, but pretty darn close. and it was very easy to make. i was also "adopted" this year and once again my recipes were given high praise! pretty cool, eh? you can check out the rest of my recipes here.

vintage aprons

i just found this fun blog. i love vintage aprons! i'm just always too cheap to buy them. but this fun little contest could make me the winner of one! i guess you can go enter, too. just try not to hurt my chances too much. :) enter here.

lauren's wedding

i had the honor of attending lauren and russell's wedding this past weekend. liz and i have been friends since 5th grade. life often takes us down different paths and puts different people in our lives, but we are always in the background of each other. there are so many sweet memories of our friendship. and hilarious memories. and wild memories. and... well, you get the point. :)

i was so excited to get to see her family, as well. the boys (andy and john) are all grown up. and while i have semi kept up with them through the world of myspace and a random target run-in a couple years ago -- it was amazing to see them as young men. and so tall. i mean seriously. TALL. and lauren's mom, susan, looked incredible. she was so beautiful in her gold outfit, beaming in joy for lauren and russell.

the wedding was in dallas at arlington hall at lee park. wow. was this place ever amazing?! the chandeliers, the decor, the history -- the entire place was beautiful and exquisite. the ceremony was outside and then we all went across the path to arlington hall for dinner.

i drug amanda with me for the weekend. i needed someone to do my make up. ;) seriously, it was fun to get away for a couple days and just hang out. and besides, i needed someone to get lost with me every time we ventured out (stupid google maps and construction!). our hotel was really nice and we slept like queens in the fluffy beds. on sunday, we dropped in on the state fair on a whim. it was fun to walk around, but it was pretty hot and we were tired. so, we didn't last long, especially since the entertainment didn't start for a couple more hours and we had a long drive ahead of us. and besides, like ellie posted -- it's all about the people watching anyway! ha.

so, here is a sample of my favorite photos. go check out the rest of them here.

my mosaic

this was so fun! here's the rules:

Answer the following 12 questions about yourself:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you attend?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you?
12. Your Flickr name?
Type your answer to each of the above questions into Flickr’s search. Using only the images that appear on the first page, choose your favorite and copy and paste each of the URL’s into the Mosaic Maker (3 columns, 4 rows)… Enjoy!

mosiac maker is a cool website that lets you take photos from a flickr account or your computer and build them into a mosaic in a variety of sizes. you don't have to sign up to use the free service, just build your mosiac then save it to your computer.

here are my answers:

1. kelly
2. chips and salsa
3. tomball high school (i cheated on this one, went to page 2 because page 1 was mostly a kid's senior pictures)
4. black
5. wentworth miller (sigh)
6. coffee
7. italy
8. creme brulee
9. world traveler
10. friends
11. ecelectic
12. mcmullen (i cheated again. i don't have a flickr account, so i just used my last name. close enough, right?)

and the photo credits... you can click on the link to see the full photo, and if you're really curious, why it showed up in the search for my answer.
1. The "R.Kelly"- Song..., 2. homemade fresh tomato salsa & guacomole, 3. the Stage, 4. Aurorus Reflectus Colosseo, 5. 299496522_fffb454ec4_b, 6. coffee & the city, 7. Venice, 8. crème brûlée, 9. World Traveler, 10. Friends silhouetted, 11. Vienna - Hundertwasser Haus, 12. McMullen County Line Sign (McMullen County, Texas)

ok, now it's YOUR turn. and leave me a comment if you accept the challenge, so that i can come see them!