You can't be serious

Dad: So do you want me to fix y'all a vegetarian lunch?

Me: Sure

Dad: So what can y'all eat?

Me: Anything except meat and sweets.

Dad: Soooo, can y'all have salads with beans in it?

Me: Yes

****The next day***

Dad: Can y'all have lobster?

Me: No, nothing that walks, swims, flys or crawls- no meat.

Dad: Oh ok. But y'all can have lettuce, right?

Me: Yes (ok, this is getting annoying now)

****As we're fixing our salads***

Dad: So, no lobster in your salad, right?

Me, TheCount, Ma: Right!

Dad: So what can y'all eat?

Me: (rolling eyes and neck) anything except for meats and sweets.

***One hour later while driving in the car***

Dad: Can y'all have cheese toast?

Me, TheCount, Ma: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Ma: Are you serious?

Dad: It's not funny, I'm just trying to figure out what they can eat. How should I know what they can eat or not?

Ma: PapaTM, they can have anything except meat and dessert. Does that help?

***4 hours later at dinner***

Dad: Y'all want some of my steak and shrimp stew? (30 minutes later) How about some of this cheesecake?

 

I'm going to assume my daddy was absent the day they went over food groups in school.

Let's have a great week!

I had a good weekend, I hope you did too! Saturday I got to sleep in, which is always a good thing. TheCount agreed to run errands with me so we were gearing up to go out when his friend called and said he was in the neighborhood and he was going to stop by. We live 45 minutes away, why are you in our neighborhood!? Not only did he invite himself over, he invited himself on our errands. Surprisingly, the boys didn't complain as I took them on a typical errand day. TheCount is a one stop shopper. I'm a where is it on sale, ok that's where I'll go shopper. We went to Baltimore first so I could pick up some more Oyin Handmade products. FriendCount also got some stuff, he couldn't resist the smell. We went down the street to an African shop after that so FriendCount could get some more oils to mix with his shea butter. Then we went to pick up the pottery that my ma, sister, and I painted last week. It is soooooo cute! I have a boatload of pictures to upload, so those will be coming within the next month. Then we had to stop at Walmart because I needed some laundry detergent. From Walmart we went to Super Fresh so I could get some broccoli for .88 a pound and all Boca meat substitute products were $1.50. I couldn't pass that up, those are good meals for lazy days. My last stop was Target, so I could get a bookcase. I think FriendCount enjoyed having people to shop with, because he mostly hangs by himself. He was picking up dishes and toss pillows for his house too. We went and picked up dinner (the boys got Chipotle, I got Cosi- I like that place!) and went home and watched Lakeview Terrace. FriendCount finally went home and I twisted my hair while we watched He's just not that into you (I hated, hated, hated that stupid movie, it made me angry).

 

I tried to do a wash and go on Saturday with Kinky-Curly Curling Custard- it was a huge no ma'am. My hair looked neglected and was so dang dry by the end of the day. I'll try again next Saturday with a different product.

 

Sunday I worked the nursery at church, went to see "The Screwtape Letters" and had dinner at Rosa Mexicana with TheCount and my parents. It was a fun day! I picked the dinner location and everybody had such an issue with it.

 

TheCount: "I don't know why you always want Mexican, you always get the same thing" (cuz I like it you stupid turd)

Ma: "You know your father doesn't like Mexican, so don't tell him where we're going" (I ain't scared of him)

Daddy: "Oh, TheCount's going? Then I'll be there! Anywhere TheCount is, that's where I'll be!" (I only wish I was joking)

 

Dinner was sooooo good! I ordered chips and salsa and sweet potato fries and I shared my parent's rice and beans. Even my "I don't like Mexican food" daddy was talking about how good his food was. My ma was dancing in her seat, and TheCount and I killed their rice and beans, they ended up bring us some more and we just passed it around the table so everybody could have some. At one point I took my basket of chips of the table and was hiding them in my lap because everybody kept eating them all. The waiter looked at me like I was crazy and put a fresh basket out on the table. I'll admit it, I have a food hoarding problem. I was just scared I would be hungry! Lately I've found myself in the kitchen sneaking snacks at 1 am. Not a good look!

 

How was your weekend?

Fasting without prayer is just a hunger strike

This month our church is doing a fast. I've participated the past few years, but I think I'm taking it more seriously this year. Yesterday I wrote out my plan for the decade. For each year I wrote out the main things I want to accomplish. Buying a house and having kids were the main "big ticket" items on the list. Last night during our Bible study time, I asked TheCount to do the same. We'll put our lists together and pray over them. That way we'll let God know our desires, but ultimately it's in His hands. We're going to tape the list to the back of our vision board. I may or may not share our list here, sometimes, everything ain't for everybody.

 

Another thing I'm doing is changing how I spend my personal time with God. So often I feel the pressure to have long drawn out Bible reading sessions where I can say I read the book of such and such- but what did I really learn? A lot of the time when we have Bible study at home, I don't really enjoy it because TheCount has me reading this and that, then we need to discuss what we got out of it, then we have praise and worship time, and then we pray. Two hours later I am tired and I hope we don't have to do it the next night. Clearly that's not the right attitude to have- but I'm just being honest with y'all. Yesterday as I was reading the studies I have emailed to me each morning, Philippians 4:6 was put on my heart. I looked it up and I only ready Philippians 4:6-7. When I finished reading it, I opened a word document and pasted it in there. Then I looked up key words in the verse for their definition and typed it in parenthesis right into the verse. I learned more in that simple study time, than in all my marathon chapter reading sessions. Breaking down the words "fret," "supplication," and "keep" were the biggest eye openers. I also read the verse in different translations (biblegateway.com) just to make sure I fully understood what it meant. Today, I'm going to study Hebrews 4: 15-16.

 

If you have a hard time with personal Bible studies, try to do it this way. Simple, yet effective, one verse at a time. You can look up an issue you're dealing with and tackle it one verse at a time until you get it. Are any of y'all fasting with your church this month? What are you giving up? How do you handle your Bible study time?

 

{My title is something my pastor said 3 years ago during the fast. I typed it up, put it up on my wall and still didn't do any praying or Bible reading during the fast. I guess I was really just digging the weight loss from fasting, lol}

I'm too busy singing in my head to come up with a title

This morning when I got to work I wrote a letter of apology to a coworker. I said some things to him yesterday that I shouldn't have, and I felt bad about it. I've rethought how I responded to him so if he asks me to clarify what I meant yesterday, I'll be ready. I still stand by my decision that he can't date my sister (and this is a totally different dude from last week) but my reasons why were quite rude, off putting, and wrong.

 

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Can somebody explain to me why my office mate just strolled in here bare legged with capri's on? It is 28 degrees outside- no ma'am.

 

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Am I the only grown female that wears undershirts every day? I always have a cami on underneath my clothes. Winter, summer, spring, and fall. They're only $2.50 from Forever 21, so why not?

 

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This morning as I looked in the mirror, I said aloud to myself, "you can't tell me I'm not cute, I mean, you could try, but I won't believe it!" Sigh, I say the most arrogant things to myself in the mirror. At least this time I didn't say it in a public restroom, with people around!

 

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TheCount helped me twist my hair last night while we watched HGTV. As soon as we finished we promptly fell asleep on the couch snuggled up together- it was a great night. However, when I woke up at midnight I left his sleeping, snoring, sick behind right on that couch and I got in the bed.

 

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A male coworker asked me if I cut my hair. Y'all have seen pictures of me, right? My hair was down past my shoulders before. Were we just making small talk, or was that an honest question?

 

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I made myself a green smoothie for breakfast it was so easy and they're so good, I think I'll try to make one every morning. The only downside is they make me have to go to the bathroom. Was that TMI? Probably, just wanted you to know in case you decide to make one! Just add a few spinach leaves to your fruit smoothie- you can't even taste it, trust me.

 

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I'm off to find some more meatless recipes- if you have some good ones, leave me a link! I made chipotle bean burritos last night that were really good, I'll share the recipe soon.

Big Chop Pictures!

There are 3 random emails floating around cyberspace of me trying to email these pictures to the blog. I don't know what happened. The top picture is on Saturday, after the big chop. She put a TON of setting lotion stuff in my hair because she had to keep rewetting it since it kept getting dry as she worked on other people. My hair was literally sticky to the touch.

 

The second picture is how I went to work today. I really like it now! I went to Forever 21 tonight and got some headbands and hair clips. I am downright giddy, because I've also been pairing up my clothes to look cute lately, so you can't tell me nothing! I'm pretty sure I'm going to look like pure awesomeness tomorrow.

I did it!

On Saturday morning, I did the big chop! Nobody actually believed I would go through with it. I liked the salon I went to, but I didn't really like the stylist. My appointment was at 8am. I got there a bit early, and I didn't even get my hair shampooed until 8:30. When I got finished with the steamer, I went back out to the waiting area and waited until about 9:30 for my stylist. As she was cutting my hair, she kept stopping to work with other people leaving me sitting there with half a head of hair and stuff running all down my face. Twitter helped me out so much Saturday. I was panicking and the lovely ladies on twitter kept me calm and reassured me I would be ok, because my stylist certainly wasn't doing that! I didn't leave the shop until around 11. I've been reading natural hair blogs for a long time and when people describe their big chop experience they often say things like, "I felt so free," or "I was in love with my hair." I am not going to lie, I didn't feel that way. I missed my hair. I hated this new hair on my head. I actually considered crashing my car into a dang wall so I wouldn't have to go home. Thankfully as I walked down the street a man driving the trash truck honked his horn at me and gave me a thumbs up. When I got home, TheCount's reaction let me know he didn't like it. Of course he would never say that, but I've known TheCount for 11 years, I know his personality well. I put on some jewelery and make up and we ran out to the store. When we pulled back up my mom and sister were standing outside of our apartment door waiting. My mom's face lit up, and my sister smiled and told me she liked it. Of course all the lovely ladies of twitter were sending me encouragement, so I stayed calm and was confident enough to walk out the house. Before I left, TheCount pulled me into the room and gave me a present he had for me. He told me he was proud I had the guts to cut my hair and he gave me some diamond earrings!

 

My ma, sister, and I hung out all day Saturday which was tons of fun (pictures to come). On Sunday morning I got up to go to church, looked in the mirror, and said "what the heck have I done?" TheCount, who isn't known for his compassion, saw my distress and said, "well you knew you were going to cut it and it would be short. Didn't you prepare for this." I'll give you 1 guess as to what happened next. I started crying, but not just crying, great heaving sobs. TheCount walked me over to the couch and just sat and held me until I stopped. When I finished, I got back in the bed. I wasn't ready to face people yet. My sister came downstairs (we had spent the night at my parent's house) and told me that she wanted me to get up, part my hair in 4 sections, and try 4 different hairstyles by the time she came home from church. I rolled over and went back to sleep. After awhile I got myself together, read my Bible and prayed, and got on the computer. I went to my hair blogs and to Serenity23's blog. I looked through her hair tab and then got to the post right after she did her big chop. She had a moment of "what have I done" too (though nowhere near as dramatic as me, lol) but her approach was, "well, we gonna roll with it." I repeated that to myself, and hopped out of bed. I spent the day experimenting and game planning. Before we left my parent's house, my momma helped me twist my hair. This morning I looked in the mirror and smiled. I took my twists out and smiled some more! I like it! During my lunch break I'm going to go get some hair accessories and products to help jazz up my short haircut.

 

So far at work today, 3 people have complimented me, telling me how much they love it, 3 have completely ignored it, and 2 people are still trying to figure out who I am.

 

**Picture to come, I've been waiting all dang day for it to load, and it won't**

Happy New Year!

This is how I brought in the new year :) Enjoy this before and after shot of my room at church. I had the 15-24 month olds, thank God I only had 10 kids! Mary Mary performed at our church and they sounded amazing. I turned off all the lights in the room and we all just sat and listened through the walls. We finally left church around 2:30am, went to my parent's house for breakfast, and now we're on our way home!

How did you bring in the new year?