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Fair Trade - Trade As One

have you ever stopped to consider how fortunate you were to be born in America? that because you were born to the parents you were, you are ultimately rich. you might not think this is true - but compared to the world your extremely rich. if you have the resources to read this blog, for my words to reach you, you are weathly. with wealth comes buying power. you have the power to choose what goods you spend your money on and who you will buy them from. i encourage you to participate in fair trade. fair trade means that the compapnies that are making the products you are spending your money on are treating their workers fairly. fair trade is essentially an organized social movement and marked-basked approach that aims to help producers in developing countries and promote sustainability. many of the worlds poorest people are just as smart and hard working as you or I, but they live in a country that is over run by unfair work practices: unfair wages, child labor, etc....this is an injustice. i encourage you to take a look at what you buying...and therefore what you are advocating. consumerism is power - you can choose to stand up against injustice or promote it in your everyday purchasing decisions. just think about it please...let it marinate...and then take a stand!

I learned about this through Trade As One - you can click here to find out more or to further your education on the matter.

Just Call Me Betty

so i always tell people that I'm not really a movie person - because i'm not - but i didn't see two movies this weekend! like at the theater...which i never never do! but i had a great time hanging out with some people i see everyday and others i havn't seen all summer!

friday night michael, travis, mary and I went to see The Ugly Truth. AWESOME movie! It is way funnier than I thought it would be...yes it is the typical romantic comedy but who doens't love that? oh and Katherine Heigl, love her! she is one of those hott girls that other girls don't hate! haha ya know what i mean? and she is great in this movie! so is gerad butler...the guy from 300! its a totally different look for him to not be oozing muscles and accents! after the movie we went to houlihans for drinks. btw everyone houlihans no longer has an 'happy hour' instead its always happy hour! the only thing that happy hour really does not is get you $6 appetizers.

saturday i finalllllly got to hang out with my big Jaclyn! She was in France and Switzerland for a month and just got back into town. It was so great to catch up and hear about her crazy adventures...haha! we had lunch at Panera - i love this place! it just moved here to SA but I was a fan when I lived in Houston. I got the choose 2 and got a Turkey Bravo sandwhich with Black Bean Soup! yummy! then we went to Marble Slab and enjoyed some milkshakes and then it was off to the movies. We saw Orphan. Now, i wasn't really excited to see this but Jaclyn suggested it so i was going along for the ride. I was quite impressed though. It was really really good and acutally scary..not like fake scary like a monster or something impossible happening...this was like a legit reason for a person to go crazy! idk...but you should give this movie a chance. then we went walking - i found this great trail by my house that is a 2.2 mile loop, smack dab in the middle of the med center! its perfect! omgsh this is the best part of the night - then we cooked. We made Grilled Salmon with Broccolli Rice...i already posted a picture of it 'cause I couldn't wait. It was to die for!




Sunday I went to church with Michael and then we went to Panera...i know...TWICE in one weekend...obessed much? this time I had the Black Bean Soup with the Sierra Turkey sandwhich! then he came over and we spent the afternoon reading and he was doing homework. then we cooked again - i know i know this is becoming a cooking blog! you can just call me betty! hahah! we made beef kabobs, broccolli, mashed potatoes and BLACKBERRY COBBLER! it was amazingggg!

hmm i wonder...was your weekend as tasty as mine?

Glazed Salmon with Broccolli Rice

yup...i made that!

Wednesdate!

so every Wednesday Corey and I are going to have a little Wednesdate where we will cook and then go to bible study together...so on thursdays you can expect a little recap!

[Me and Corey...accidental picture but i like the lighting...sorry this is me without makeup on - stop judging!]

This Wednesday we made Curried Eggplant with Tomatoes and Basil...sooo good! You can see the recipe here - it is a recipe from Real Simple! Our favorite! Corey got me hooked on the recipes in those magazines!

[Pre-Addition of yogurt....like it more with]

And this week we studied 2 Corinthians 4! loves you all!

FREE tea!

hey guys! so today is FREE tea day at McAllister's Deli. i love me some good sweet tea! hahah so funny story...see the picture below? yes - well i was trying to take a picture of me sipping the tea but its way hard to do with an iPhone (the one thing I would change about my good ole tele) and my co-worker walks in and catches me! Also, when i was saving this image on my computer from my email inbox i typed rear instead of tea. yea its thursday...friday please come faster! soooo GO GET YA SOME TEA PEOPLE!

[Excuse my very dirty work space...and yes that is gross pink counter tops your seeing....we are redesigning soon though]

Also, on another note please keep my friend Corey in your prayers. I dont wanna tell the details about what is going on in her life on here i just would like the support of all you people in lifting her and her family up in prayer! love you corey....praying always!

weekend-a-roon-i

hahah dont ask me when i titled this post that absurd little name....just feeling a little spunky today :) soooo what did i do this weekend? good question!

[The Welcome to Tomball sing...at four corners]

friday after work i drove home to Tomball! i love Tomball - everytime I am driving up I just get this sense of peace...although all the change and buildings and highways and construction and lose of the country feel need to stop! now! anyways when I got home my parents were still out - they were at Main Street Crossing listening to Susan Gibson perform. She is a great songer writter...her most famous song is "Wide Open Spaces" by the Dixie Chicks. so anyways I let Maddie in....my dog...and she was going balistic! like spaz attack! my parents both work for schools so they said it's because she hasn't been locked up in the backyard all summer and she wasn't a happy camper when they made her go back there. i will post a picture of her when i get home..she is super cute! she was such a bad puppy and the day my parents were going to get rid of her she became good! Have you seen Marley and Me? well Maddie stands pretty even with Marley. and her and Zoey finally have seen each other enough that they like each other and play! its so stinkin cute!

[Maddie dog and I]

saturday my dad and i went to my friends wedding! it was a bueatiful ceremony! i will have to post pictures when she post some...i miss her so much! she went to a&m so it was in college station (puck in my mouth) but i enjoyed myself. my dad and her dad used to coach for the same football team and thats how we met. shes a great girl and her hubbie is a wonderful guy...it was really sweet! then that night my family and i went and tried out a new little Mexican food place in Rosehill called Julios....it was yum...and my old high school counselor was there... OH! I almost forgot but we rented Nights in Rodanthe from OnDemand. It was okay..nothing to rave about...but a good movie to watch on a rainy day!

[Dad and I at the wedding]

suuuuunday was drive back day....the most dreaded day of all...the drive back always seems worse than the drive there! but it was a great little trip! and i, zoey, and my car made it there safely so what more can you ask for?!?!

I'll bring You more than a song

For a song in itself

Is not what You have required

You search much deeper within

Through the ways things appear

You're looking into my heart

-Heart of Worship

Secert Sunday

hey ya'll..yesterday was Secert Sunday

checkitout

Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince

so last night my friends (corey, jen, cherish, isac and marc) went and saw Harry Potter at midnight! it was pretty crazy! EVERYONE was dresssed up and by everyone i mean like 1 in every 20 person.....hahah which is a lot for a movie premiere i would assume! I will have to add a picture of my future husband (yes i found him at the harry potter premiere) for you all to see....

but about the movie! i LOVED it! it makes you wish that you didn't have to wait for the next movie though....movie 6 is a lot of set up for movie 7 which is acutally gonna be two movies. Ron Weasley is so dang cute in this movie...just look at him....

ahhhhh so in love with him guys! hahaha on another note...don't you all think Harry can do better...homegirl is not cute! Luna is crazy in this movie! hahahha i LOVE when she puts the lion headress on!

so anyways i dont know what else to say because i dont want to talk about the acutal plot at all....HARRY POTTAH! go see it! this just end...MSN is reporting that Harry Potter made 22M just on midnight showings, setting a record! OUT OF CONTROL!

We're All Puffy!

tonight i left work early because i got really sick....i really just needed medicine....so when i went home i took so meds and took an hour nap. Corey had called me on my way home and wanted to finally have our My Sister's Keeper date night so we met up. We went to Goro's Sushi for dinner. I was so brave ya'll....i had a roll with salmon in it and i tried Corey's that had like 3 raw fish in the center and then a big fleshy peice around the outside. the flavor was pretty good but the big junk of raw was a little too fleshy for me...i need to get used to it i think.

[That is my spider roll on the left and Corey's craziness on the right...we had another roll not pictured]

Then we went to the movies and saw My Sister's Keeper. We read the book together so we knew we were in for a sob fest. It was a great movie....but the book is so much better. I wish the movie had Jesse's story line played out better...but what can you do! i really enjoyed it though! GO SEE IT! we cried our eyes out and were all puffy! you could totally tell everyone that had just seen our movie when we were in the bathroom afterwards.....and then we went to Brindle's (that's ice cream)...i had Coffee Heath and Cinnamon. yummm yummmm yummmm! great date night with my girl Corey hahahha! (she reads this too soooo SHOUT OUT! ilysm)

Tomorrows plan: HARRY POTTER MIDNIGHT PREMIERE! i will of course blog about it...but that does mean that i will have to DVR big brother soooo my recap will be a tad late...haha...kinda like this one was!

goodnight all! im exhausted and crampy...the price of being a girl...

BB11 Episode 2

so im watching big brtoher after dark right now and blogging about last nights episode...kinda trippy...

so the episode starts off with Ronnie trying to strike a deal with Jesse and the Athletes...it would be a perfect alliance since no one would suspect that the Brians and the Athletes would form an alliance and they also each have what the other is lacking...Jesse seems open to the idea

Jesse then goes up to Jeff and ask him to watch the house since everyone will be sucking up to his face and talking down on the lower level of the house (since the HOH room is upstairs), Jeff doesn't feel comfortable with the idea because he feels as if Jesse wants him to do his dirty work and he isn't ready to have blood on his hands...but the opposite happens and Jeff creates a little hostility between him and the rest of the athletes.

the Athletes seem really tightly bonded and like they will be a strong team if they can stick together (minus Jeff of course...but this might help him....i predict he will be the last Athlete in the house if his own team doesn't backdoor him)

so big suprise of episode 2 is there are no more food competitions...they have been replaced with have or have not competitions.....which means more than food is at stake...we learn that the team that loses will be on slop, have only cold showers, and will sleep in a steel plated room whose beds are just slabs with a blanket and pillow. the competition requires the clicks to use piping to light up the work H A V E - neon paint liquid stuff is running through the pipes. The competiton looks really awesome because they use a black light and the houseguest get white outfits to decorate so it was all neon and crazy 80's. good job big brother! suprisingly, the brians lose. Chima freaks out and totally puts a target on her back...she says that she can't live like this and that this is totally different than the life she leads at home (duhhhhhh thats kinda the point) and that she wants to leave the house. HELLO TARGET!

[Jessie and Lydia talking about the comp]

Laura keeps trying to talk to Jesse but he isn't having it (i think this is being played up though because they talked a lot on after dark...or Jesse is playing her...havn't figured it out quite yet) he thinks that she is super fake.

Jesse is talking to Russel and says that he is thinking about nominating Laura and Lydia for eviction. Russel kinda talks Jesse into testing the Brian alliance and putting up one of them as a pawn and keep Lydia because she is actually 'playing' the game.

so at the nomination ceremony Jesse does what Russell wants and Chima goes up against Lydia.!

whats gonna happen in the power of veto comp? will the veto be used? who would be the replacement nominee? whooo knows fool! (i of course do from after dark...the downside of watching it)

Quote of the Episode: "If your being chased by bears and you can trip them [your competitors] your gonna make it out alive." -Jesse

Monday Blues

sooo my car didn't start this morning...luckily i work at an automotive repair business so i brought it in to the shop next to the corporate office. my battery had less than 10volts of power and would not maintain a charge...soooo had to get that replaced. $183.76! ::heartattack:: but i did tack on an air filter and oil change!

Hope your Monday started off better than mine :)

PS: I read this blog called Grown Up Shoes....her last post was really amazing...check it out here.

weekend recap

this was a great weekend! but it flew by! i dont know what my problem is but i feel completely jimped of my weekend....i need another :)

on Friday Michael cooked dinner! we had Greek-Style Lamb Burgers with Couscous Tabbouleh. thats right guys...i ate lamb! it tasted just like beef though just a tad softer and like more tightly packed together than ground beef. it was surprisingly way yummy...i LOOOOVE when Michael cooks! hahaha at HEB they didn't have ground lamb so we had to ask for it so the butcher brought it out for us...and in the car the seal hadn't been put on very well and it bleed in my trunk - GROSS right? hahaha

Recipe found in 30 Minute Meals by Sandra Lee

on Saturday we (Michael, Mike, Mary, Travis, Alex and I) went and saw Bruno. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE save your money and do not go see that movie. Afterwards, we went to Michael & Mary's apartment and played some games and stuff!

today was lazy Sunday...im gonna watch Big Brother and then call it a night. work in the am!

OOC!!!! [out of control]

last night i had dinner with Maddie at Buffalo Wild Wings...enjoying 60 cent wing nite! anyways we were waiting to be seated and this walks in....



...a ten year old with one of those poppy lawn mower toys. YIKES! those might be the loudest most annoying toys ever created and i, for one, will never buy them for my childern for fear i would strangle them (im not patient enough to be a mom yet...obviously) and secondly you are in a resteraunt....parents please just make your childern mind! theres a crazy concept!

Big Brother 11 Premiere

so Big Brother premiered tonight and this season is sure not to disappoint! I am absolutely obessed with this show and will do a recap blog after every episode. should you want to tune in you can catch it on CBS tuesdays at 8, thursdays at 7 and sundays at 7. (thats texas time btw - yes i just say texas time...get over it)

so they episode starts off with Julie saying that the theme this year will be "Back to School"...and then proceeds to say "If you expecting the unexpected or just expecting"...does that mean someone one the show might be preggo or get pregnant? mmmmm

then the houseguest are introduced to us as they receive their keys to the big brother house in their hometowns and meet on the steps of the house to enter. the first group to enter the house is Kevin, Ronnie, Russel and Laura. We learn that one of the rooms in the house is decorated in a pool theme and the beds are basically tile slabs with pool floaties on them for mattresses. haha so everyone runs for any other room. the next group to enter is Natalie, Chima, Braden, and Casey. and then finally the last group; Jeff, Jordan, Michelle and Lydia all end up in the pool room buuuut there are only three beds so Jordan and Lydia volunteer to sleep together since Michelle is married and Jeff is well a guy!

First Impression Time:
Russell (athlete): houseguest first impression is that he is intimidating....i think we have another big muscle small brian syndrome going on...









Laura (popular):big huge fake boobs - already has the guys drooling, young 21, surprised by her athleticism in the HOH comp










Kevin (off beat): super GAY, "blackanese"











Ronnie (brain): very geeky, lives at home with parents at the age of 30, cried when leaving his mom, catches on to twist of game quickly










Natalie (athlete): told houseguest that she is 18 and just graduated high school but its acutally 24, Kevin calls her out on it immediately










Chima (brains): didn't really rub me as a force to be reckoned with or a very fun out going person










Braden (popular): dumb, makes up really weird crazy words, interested in a showmance










Casey (off beat): left his family, has a baby son and will miss his first birthday due to being in the house










Michele (brians): is a neuroscientist but told the houseguest that she is lab tech so they wont know she has a phD










Lydia (off beat): admits to being bisexual and is willing to have a showmance with a man or woman










Jordan (popular): best first impression, former Homecoming Queen











Jeff (athlete): ladies name him the heart throb of the house











the houseguest learn that this year the twist is that they will be playing in cliques....hence the high shcool theme....the four cliques are the athletes, the brains, the off beats and the popular crowd. next to my first impressions i put the clique each houseguest was put in.

finally we get to the HOH competition. it was called "The Wedgie" and the houseguest were put in big underwear holders and had to hold on to toilet seats in front of them, seeing who could hold on the longest. Julie tells the houseguest that they will compete as clicks so if a member of your click wins you are not eligible to put up for eviction. but you are voted off and put on the block separate from your team.

also - another twist - there are four former houseguest that are associated with each click and the click that wins will allow the corresponding houseguest to enter the house, that person will assume the role as HOH for the first week and that click with out number any other click in the house. the athletes win with Natalie and Russell still hanging on to their toliet seat after everyone else has already given up. so guess who comes back in the house? JESSE from season BB10....and he is bigger than he was last season....CRAZY TOWN!

(Jessica from BB8 was the canidate for the popular crowd - wish she was back in the house - BOOYAH....hahaha just a lil shout out)

so who will be up for eviction first? and will they win the power of veto? another fun exciting season! whoooooo!

cbs.com i love thee

today i took my DAT...did pretty well but will still probably take it again to try to improve my score a little bit...i am SOOO close to my goal...i want to prove to myself that i can reach it! so anyways no work for me today! the test started at 9am and lasted until about 130pm. after that i came home, ate and crashed. i had the best nap....man i miss those...my advice to any college student: savor your naps! working all day long is harrrrrrd! (hahaha im kind of pathetic) then i met T for some coffee at Its A Grind. yummm! they had this coffee mug and I think I might make a trip back for it...cuz it is the truth..and the alarm is apparently set for 530am these days....


speaking of the cat....she tried to run away today.....really - she ran all the way up to the third floor. does that mean that she doesn't love me anymore? its 'cause i ran out of food for her but i went and bought some tonite! and i even took an oatmeal bath for her...lol she loves to sit on the side and drink oatmeal water....it was acutally for my sunburn but she doesn't know the difference!

BTW did you see the new host for How Do I Look? [iloveasians]


OKAYYYYY big brother starts thursday people! i will be doing episode recaps cuz i am in love with that show! the new cast has finally been annouonced on CBS.com! ahhh im soooo excited!

Cinco de Julio

Sunday i went floated the Comal with Lana, Paul, Lori, Adam and Michael (basically my co-workers). It was sooo much fun except that when it is 106 degrees outside you get really sunburned! yay for texas summers! below you can see Michael and I's wrist band tan lines....hahah....pretty funny :)

Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz

last saturday i saw the broadway show WICKED here in San Antonio with the traveling company. it was really really good. my parents came up from Houston and we met two sets of my aunts and uncles there. i LOOOOOOVED the first half of the show. it was brillant. the second half isn't written as good - it jumps around really quickly and you kind of have to put a lot together in your head from the traditional Wizard of Oz story. For those of you that don't know, Wicked is the story before the Wizard of Oz and tells how Elphaba become the Wicked Witch of the West and how Glenda isn't really so good. the music was so good, i really want to get the soundtrack, Eric (cousin) has it and is burning it for me. i can't wait to jam out hahaha! my three favorite songs are Popular, Defying Gravity and I Knew You!

ya dont say

so guys i just had to tell you this outrageous little tid-bit...

my boss today tells me that the reason that the hair on your arms does not grow as long as the hair on your hands is because it falls out before it can grow that long. do you believe this? i think its a pretty sketch conclusion...i literally laughed out loud when he told me this and then stopped when i noticed he wasn't laughing along with me but had a completely serious look on his face...really....really?

[siiiiick, eh?]

hmm so my iPhone is el broken :( excuse me as i fall into a deep depession...

Barber Shop

the other night Michael gave Patrick a mohawk! Michael made us all REALLY REALLY yummy chicken tacos with cilantro ranch and Patrick bought some clippers on his way home from work and the rest is history! Travis even came to watch! Here is my documentation:

fun summer stuff man