The Meme Queen

First off, if you are unfamiliar with the word "meme" , allow me to clarify:

~meme 

(meem) noun

a.) a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition and replication in a manner analogous to the biological transmission of genes.

b.) a cultural item in the form of an image, video, phrase, etc., that is spread via the Internet and often altered in a creative or humorous way.

(definition from dictionary.com)

I love memes. I love texting with memes. They amusing and, as I found out today, are awesome for handling unknown texts. Allow me to elaborate.

See, I have this texting app on my iPod and when I am at home, I text my family and Sunny Jane with it. I don't give the number out, post it online, anything. On occasion, I have gotten texts and calls from people I don't know, which I either ignore or text back "Wrong Number".
Well, yesterday, someone texted my ipod:

Now, my parents are going out of town, but how does this person know? Or was it just a coincidence? Obviously, I wasn't just gonna tell them who I was? After all, I asked them first! Rude! So, I decided memes were the perfect passive aggressive response:

I started out simple. Patrick from Sponge Bob. What can I say, his retarded face makes me laugh! Then my sister suggested Inigo Montoya. Perfect! But what could I use next? I wanted to stick with the "This is.... " theme and (thank you Google!) found these gems:

SPARTA!!! I was laughing so hard at this point but I wasn't getting any response... Clearly I wasn't trying hard enough!

Good ol Liam Neeson finally got me an answer. Two in fact, the second being the best...

No. No I can not stop. But seriously, YOU text me and ask about my parents leaving but refuse to tell me who you are?? Come on.... But I couldn't leave things like that soooo

I guess the Meme Queen was too much... I can't decide if I want this to be an encounter with a complete stranger or someone I actually know... Either way, thank you random citizen! I loved talking with you, it made my day! In the words of the 9th Doctor:

~Rachel

(All characters/images belong to their respective owners, blah, blah, blah)

Happy Mail: Cupcake Edition

I am in love with Happy Mail! If you have never heard of Happy Mail, check out these websites:

The Giver's Log (Has super cute and unique ideas for 13oz or less packages to send)

and of course, Sunny Jane's blog, since she is the one who started me out on this idea!

Basically, Happy Mail is all about sending someone else a bit of happiness! And I thought "What could be happier than cupcakes?!" Thus, Cupcake-Party-in-a-Box became my first packages to send out. 

The Contents

1. Directions

2. Cupcake Wrappers (since this package was for a niece and 2 nephews, they got 2 different kinds)

3. Sprinkles, Candles, Cupcake Batter Bites, or whatever kind of cupcake fixings you like! But seriously, who doesn't like sprinkles?!? And mustache straws. Definitely add mustache straws.

The fun packaging is a must! Washi tape, little notes, stickers, it all adds to the charm!

Make each package unique, even if you do the same style of Happy Mail. This is my niece Hailey's Cupcake Party box. Same idea, different "ingredients"!

Finally, decorate your box. 

The stir my cute box caused at the Post Office was great! I ended up explaining Happy Mail to the Postal worker as well as the other customers!

The best part about Happy Mail? As you endeavor to brighten someone else's day, your day is brightened too!

My Secret Admirer

So Saturday evening I found this note that had been stuck in my car. (Well, technically, Sunny Jane's car, I'm just borrowing it right now.)

I was rather confused. "What? Who is 'Todd'? How long has this been here? Was it meant for me or Sunny Jane? Is there a library patron named Todd that I know? Is Todd cute? Be a man and talk to me Todd, don't stick creepy notes in my car! Wait, ARE you some sort of creeper?" I had no idea who Todd could be.

I was going over to stay the night with Sunny Jane and I knew she would get I kick out of it, so I brought it with me. We laughed about it for a while, and I suggested having Greg, my step dad, call the number, just to see what would happen. I knew I had to bring it to church Sunday so that Mom could see it.
At church, I went running up to her and said "Look! I have a secret admirer." She looked at me like this...
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Then she said "I put that note in the car! HAHAHAHAHA!!!"

Thanks Mom. Thanks.

Well, it just makes this pie chart all the more accurate:

Also, I would appreciate if everyone would call my mom "Todd" for a while.

50 Book Challenge: The List Begins

THE LIST

Fiction-

1. Sackett's Land by Louis L'amour

2. ? by James Patterson (Haven't decided on which book it will be yet)

3. Killing Floor by Lee Child (Book 1 in the Jack Reacher series)

4. The Innocent by Harlan Coben

5. North and South by Gaskell

6. Brave New World by Huxley

7. Dog On It by Spence Quinn

8.

9.

10.

Non Fiction

11. Obsession: The Nick Stevens Story (Biography about hunting with Terriers)

12. There and Back Again: An Actors Tale by Sean Astin (Bio about filming the Lord of the Rings trilogy)

13. The Profiler: My Life hunting serial killers and Psychopaths

14.

15.

Juniors

16. Warriors book 1 by Erin Hunter

17. Diary of a Wimpy Kid

18. Fever by Anderson

19. 

20.

Teen (really struggling with this category)

21. Ranger’s Apprentice- Ruins of Gorlan by Flanagan

22. Pathfinder by Orson S Card

23.

24.

25.

Spritual Non Fiction

26. Stewarding Life

27, One Small Barking Dog

28. The Great Divorce by CS Lewis

29. 

30.

Inspirational Fiction

31. Full Disclosure by Dee Henderson

32. Blinded by Travis Thrasher

33. Martyr of the Catacombs

34. ? by Francine Rivers 

35. 

Scifi/Fantasy

36. 

37. Ender's Game by OS Card

38. Rover by Mel Odum

39. Some random Star Wars book

40. The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton 

Classics

41. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

42. Dante's Divine Comedy

43. Alice in Wonderland by Carroll

44. Peter Pan by Barrie

45. 

Whatever-catches-my-eye

46. The Moor by Laurie King

47.

48.

49.

50.

MY DISCLAIMER: (To be read really quickly in a mumbly voice, just like the disclaimers in commercials)

As I said before, these are books that I have NOT read yet so I can not be held responsible for any questionable content you find in them if you read one before I review it. At this point I AM NOT recommending these books yet; I am simply reading and reviewing them. Then I will decide whether I recommend them or not. If any of them contain questionable content, language, etc.,  I will make you aware of it ASAP, removing them from my list if I deem them too unacceptable to finish reading. Thank you for your understanding. 

I'm not reading these in any particular order but I have started a few of them already. Hopefully, I will have my first review done in the next week or so.... 

What are you reading right now?

Rachel

Book Challenge

I have decided that I'm want to do a book challenge. You are welcome to join me, or just read about mine, or make up your own challenge! But here's my question: What should I read?? I looked at several book challenges online and couldn't find any that I liked so I made up my own outline. I am setting my goal at 50 books with no set time limit and now I need some input. My categories are:
-10 Fiction
-5 Non Fiction
-5 Kids/Juniors
-5 Teen
-5 Missionary/Non Fiction Spiritual
-5 Inspirational Fiction
-5 Sci-fi/ Fantasy
-5 Classics
-5 What-ever-happens-to catch-my-eye

I want all of the books I choose to be ones I have never read before and my goal is to blog a review about each of them. Have some suggestions? Tell me them! Want to join in? Please do!
Thanks!

3 Day Military Diet

I'm not usually one to get caught up in new "fad" diets but I decided to give this one a try. (I figured if I could have ice cream on a diet and still loose up to 10 lbs in three days it was worth a shot!) I did some reading up on it and there are mixed reviews which I will discuss but first: the diet

Day 1
Breakfast- 1/2 grapefruit, 1 Slice of toast with 2tbsp Peanut Butter, 1 cup coffee or tea
Lunch- 1/2 cup of Tuna, 1 slice Toast, coffee or tea
Dinner- 3oz of meat, 1 cup Green Beans, 1/2 banana, 1 small apple, and 1 cup vanilla ice cream

Day 2
Breakfast- 1 egg, 1 slice of toast, 1/2 banana
Lunch- 1 cup cottage cheese, 1 hard boiled egg, 5 Saltine crackers
Dinner- 2 hot dogs (no buns), 1 cup broccoli, 1/2 cup carrots, 1/2 banana, 1/2 cup vanilla ice cream

Day 3
Breakfast- 5 Saltines, 1 slice of cheddar cheese, 1 small apple
Lunch- 1 hard boiled egg, 1 slice of toast
Dinner- 1 cup tuna, 1/2 banana, 1 cup vanilla ice cream

Salt and pepper are ok, no other additions. No substitutions. Drink lots of water. You can alternate 3 days on 4 days off, 3 days on until you reach your goal weight.

That's what you're supposed to do. Sounds pretty good right? I can't follow it exactly for one reason: Dry tuna is NASTY. So I modified it. 1 tsp of mayo and 1 tsp of mustard and it was edible. Mom also brought home delicious cheese spread that we never buy so I also added 2 saltines with 1 tsp cheese spread to my lunch. I made up for that by doing an hour long workout class at the Kroc Center though..... I also slightly modify the toast with a tsp of butter. Who wants to eat dry toast? Or dry tuna?  Still, even with my modifications I lost 1 1/2 lbs already!

Anyway, some people claim this diet is not enough calories and that you are essentially starving yourself, which means the weight will come back once you get off the diet. Others said that it works great and is not dangerous or unhealthy and that as long as you don't go crazy afterwards and eat humongous portions, the weight should stay off. . I decided to would go ahead and try it. I am currently on day 2 and everything seems to be going great. I am drinking more water than I usually do but I didn't drink enough to begin with so that's not a bad thing! I haven't felt like I am starving myself at all. What's hard is watching my family eat cheesy garlic bread with spaghetti sauce while I sit in the corner telling myself that I LOVE hot dogs..... (I did end up snagging one bite off of the cheesy bread. SO worth it!) So, even with the little bit of cheating I did I still lost weight! Seems like a pretty good diet to me!

Rachel Rae

My Cup Runneth Over

My cup truly runneth over after this meeting and so I want to try to let some of it overflow onto paper, or rather, my blog. This week was the 30th anniversary for Heritage Baptist Church and in my opinion, was one of the best meetings ever. EVER. If I didn’t know better, I’d think these preachers all call each other up before these meetings and say “So, what are you preaching on? Ok, I’ll preach on that too!” It never ceases to amaze me how the sermons are all related. They all come from different men with a variety of preaching styles but is always a common thread that binds them all together. Let me show you what I mean….

Monday, 1st Preacher: Br. Russell Hoover- Following in Dad's Footsteps

Text- Deut. 17:14-20

Solomon represtents many 2nd generation Christians. He started out well but lacked the closeness to God that David his father had. The older he got the more he allowed things to turn his heart away from the Lord.

2nd Preacher: Br. Rocko Shanks- The Approach to Supplication

Text- Eph 6:6-7, Est. 4:8

Esther approaching the King is a picture of the Christian approaching the Lord.

When you approach the Lord, you need the right Target (God), the right Timing (Be patient when necessary), and the right Tone (IF it pleases you, not I, I, I)

3rd Preacher: Br.Wall-

Text- Phi.1:27

What is your behavior telling others about you and your God? Does your conduct reflect Christ? We should be standing fast, for Christ is coming soon, and we ought to be unified with other Christians. Strife and Vain-glory is what destroys that harmony.

4th Preacher- Br. Terrance Calvin

Text- Gen. 24

Eliezer as a picture of the Holy Ghost- He: 1)Performs the will of the Father, 2) Preached of the Father and the Son, 3)Presses you into a Choice, 4)Presents you with gifts, 5) Preserves Rebekah on her journey, 6)Leads her on the right Path, 7)Puts her together with the Son. The focus was on point 4- The Holy Spirit is SUPPOSED to convict you, but he can be rejected, point 7- With out the Holy Spirit you can not have fellowship with the Son. When the Spirit moves on you, don't hinder him, respond.

5th Preacher- Br. Tim Shanks-

Text- Ex.33:1-3

God's presence is everything. Why would you want to do "God's work" if He isnt in it? 1. The presence of the Lord requires a softening of your heart and neck (v3), 2. The presence of the Lord requires separation (v16), and 3. The presence of the Lord requires scripture (34:1) Dont replace a relationship with an empty routine.

6th Preacher- Br. Tom Bard-

Text- Ps68: 1-8

Trouble is what draws us close to God. We have this "I'll call you if I need you" mentality towards God and so it takes trouble for us to desire His presence. You cannot manufacture Gods presence in your life. However, we often restrict His presence. You must determine for yourself that you want God.

7th Preacher- Br. Bill Anchor

Text- Is. 52:13-15

Our problem is that we do not see sin as exceedingly sinful. Our sin hung Him on the cross and we act like its no big deal. Then, we ignore when He tries to draw close and remove the sin in our lives. He is A-Z (He had a really great A-Z list of titles for the Lord but I couldnt get them all written down).

8th Preacher- Br. Mike Fluech

Text- Luke 15:24-32

Are you the older brother? He was a grump on a stump, a kill joy. We are Christians and should have the joy of the Lord! What killed his joy?: v29- Complaining, v29 Coveteousness, v30-Criticism of others, and v31 Complacency

And that was just day one! I've never heard so much preaching on the presence of God before and it certainly hit the nail on the head. I have found that sometimes I do things for the Lord but I'm doing it without Him and then thinking myself "Well, I did fill-in-the-blank so I must be pleasing the Lord". I had forgotten that he wants friendship and closeness with me, not just my doing things to be a "good little Christian" as one of the preacher's said. I'm so thankful that God knows right where I am and what I needed to hear. And I'm thankful that He cares enough about me that He will work so hard to get my attention.

I love you Lord. <3