Early Morning Weirdness...And Blog Hop

Hmmm... are you all aware at how much I'm NOT a morning person? Well let me tell you... I'm not. This probably has something to do with the fact that I stay up until I can't keep my eyes open any longer and then crash. But even when I do go to bed "early"... say 10:30, I still can't seem to be motivated to get up. Hmmm... I need to start working on that possibly...............nah. I won't be a college student forever! *grin*

SO... that being said...

I woke up at 5:33 this morning. Yes... 5:33AM! WHOOPEE FOR ME. I'll probably be exhausted later. For some reason, I woke up and couldn't fall back asleep. Unusual, eh? However, I think it might have been God... because I was able to chat with a few dear friends from back home... since it was 11:30pm their time. :)

AND NOW... for an update on the book progress. I'm currently at 42,642 words... hoping to reach at least 44,000 by the end of the day. Perhaps it's a good thing that I'm getting an early start!

Oh oh OH...and another one of my textbooks arrived yesterday! It's called "Crossroads - Creative Writing Exercises in Four Genres"..... exciting, huh? I thought so too! :)

Oh yes, and this weeks theme for the blog hop is "Favorite Kid Photos".... but how in the world am I supposed to pick just a few out of ALL the photos of children that I have? Impossible! So, I'm officially changing the title to read "Favorite Photos of My Cousin Maya":

Doesn't she have the cutest little cheesy grin in the world? I think so... but I'm biased. :)

36,464 words, Oxford, etc...

Yes, I now have 36,464 words done on my book. Only....uh... around 24,000 more to go! YAY! I told myself that I would treat myself to some Facebook time after hitting the 30,000 word mark... and then I forgot. How lovely, eh? Well, it must really not be that important to me anymore otherwise I'm sure that I would have remembered. I'm breaking my FB addiction... and it's been good for me. :)

I realized today that I had promised to post some pictures from my trip to Oxford... I forgot that too. Yikes... I thought that people weren't supposed to start forgetting things until they were like 95? Hmmm...

ANYWAY... pictures. Yes, here are some of my favorites:

A random alley in Oxford...

Christ Church College...

A museum that we didn't go into... but I thought the sign looked cool. :)

This is my dear friend Allison and I! We spent the day trekking around Oxford with her and it was SUCH fun. Right here we are in the bell tower of a church:

If you are a CS Lewis or a JRR Tolkien fan, then you probably know this pub. We ate fish and chips there for lunch...

The two following pictures were taken at Christ Church College in the heart of Oxford... it's a beautiful place. There was even a wedding going on while we were there! What a place to get married, eh?

This lovely bridge is called the "Bridge of Sighs".... *sigh*... isn't it beautiful? Yep... I love it. It's a replica of the one in Venice I believe.

Isn't this just the cutest thing ever? I mean really... this couple has to win the cuteness award of all time. They were sitting right in front of us at the evening concert and kept snuggling especially when the raindrops started lightly coming down. Man... to still be in love at 80... *sigh*...

Well there you go my friends. Until next time... cheers!

Blog Hop - Breakfast Casserole

Well hello blog hoppers! Today is Tuesday and I was totally thrilled to discover that the theme for today is favorite recipes! Unfortunately, all of my mom's precious recipe books are back at home in the states, but I have made this casserole several times since moving here... and it is DELICIOUS. Breakfast's can get boring after awhile if you eat the same cereal day in and day out (I'm not a cereal fan anyways), so I like to switch it up sometimes. I'm not a huge egg person either, so it was great to find this recipe which focuses on the cheese, ham, and potatoes instead. YUMMY! This is also a wonderful recipe to make the night before you need it. Then, simply take the bowl of mixed ingredients out of the fridge in the morning and place it in the pan to bake. Mornings are hectic enough as it is for us, which is why I always make it the night before. So without further ado... here it is:

Ham and Cheese Breakfast Casserole

Ingredients:

• 
  
  32 ounce package of frozen hash brown potatoes


• 
  
  8 ounces of diced ham


• 
  
  2 cans of condensed cream of potato soup (if you like mushrooms I enjoy doing one can cream of mushroom and one can cream of potato)


• 
  
  16 ounces of sour cream


• 
  
  2 1/2 cups of sharp Cheddar cheese


• 
  
  1 1/2 cups of grated Parmesan cheese


• 
  
  a pinch of salt and pepper

Directions:

1. 
   
   Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.


2. 
   
   In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients together except the Parmesan cheese. Once it's adequately mixed, spread all of it in the prepared dish and then sprinkle the leftover Parmesan cheese on top.


3. 
   
   Bake for 1 hour in preheated oven, or until bubbly and lightly brown.

Enjoy! And thanks for visiting today!

3 Exciting Things...

I have three fun bits of news to share with you all today! Are you ready?

1. I'm officially halfway done writing my book! I crossed the 30,000 word mark this morning! YAYAYAYAYAYAY! You have no idea how excited I am! Thanks for your continued prayers and encouragement in this area... God is faithful.



2. I received one of my college textbooks for a fall class in the mail yesterday!!!! Wait. What? YES... it's true!!! It's called "The Process of Parenting" and it's for my class on parents and young children that I'm taking... and I'm SO EXCITED TO READ IT! Yes, I'm weird... but I love learning about children and parenting and everything else that goes along with it. I'm forcing myself to not read it until my class actually starts though... otherwise I would probably have it completely read by the first day of class! :)



3. My family and I are going to Oxford tomorrow to visit a friend and look around the colleges! I'm pretty excited about that one too... I'll have to post a few pictures when we get back. Pray for good weather... we're probably going to an outdoor classical concert and fireworks display in the evening... I can't wait!

Well, that's all I have for today! Ta ta!

Midnight Writing and More...

HI HI HI! It's currently midnight in jolly ol' England and I'm sitting here enjoying a good cup a' "tay". Hmmm... I wish that were true, but unfortunately, it's only me, myself, and I sitting on the couch contemplating why I didn't go to bed before midnight (again), why I forgot about the MckLinky blog hop today, and if I will reach 28,000 words on my book before I let sleep claim me. I'm at 27,954 currently... do I have the courage to write 56 more?..........yep. It will bug me all night if I don't. I tend to have perfectionist tendencies sometimes... yikes.

OH OH OH.... guess what? I am now past 20 followers! WOOHOO... makes me happy it does that you all would take the time to read my random thoughts. They haven't been very deep and thought provoking lately... but there actually is a good reason for that. Since I'm writing constantly on my book...which is all about the year that my mom had cancer, I have to think seriously, cry often, write vivid...sometimes painful details, and pray for help and inspiration. This wears me out during the day, to tell you the truth and I don't like the idea of sitting down for more thinking at night. So blogging gets to be my fun... goofy... silly outlet for now. I hope you all don't mind. To celebrate that fact, I'm posting a goofy picture... have a good laugh why don't you:

WELL WELL WELL... I must end this... why am I starting paragraphs in capital groups of three? I have no idea... it's midnight...well, 12:15 now...time is slipping away. If I were really Cinderella like I always dreamed of being, I wouldn't have made my midnight deadline. I mean, really! I love the movie... but Cinderella running off from her one true love at midnight? Sadness... I would just stay and have the spell broken. It'd be more fun that way. :) To see the look on his face!

WOW WOW WOW... this is my crazy hour. I probably scared more people than I inspired this evening. My apologies. No more writing at midnight for me. I must bid you all cheers and good evening.

Haircuts and Glasses of Milk

WELL... you will never guess what Shauna and I did yesterday...we went and got our haircuts! Ha ha... exciting huh? The split ends were shouting at me and I couldn't take it anymore...

Isn't Shauna's hair cute? I just love it!

And this is mine...granted it hardly looks different except for being very straight. But the split ends have gone bye bye and I'm very happy about that!

Now, on to other random thoughts. I probably shouldn't be blogging today since I didn't make my word count of 1,800 words on my book yesterday. I need to write close to 4,000 today I think... hopefully I can do it! That's why I'm keeping this post short.

But I do have a funny story to tell:

This morning I received a letter from a friend back home which my sister wanted to read. When I said no, she got this mischievous grin on her face (like all little sisters do) and ran into the living room. I pretended to chase her in there, but I knew that the letter was upstairs in my room, so I wasn't too annoyed. I went back into the kitchen and was in the middle of eating my English muffin when suddenly, I heard footsteps running up the stairs. I knew that she was running up to my room to try to find the letter, so I walked out of the kitchen and was just starting to walk up the stairs when a huge couch cushion came flying from up above me. Unfortunately for Shauna, I was carrying a full glass of milk at the time and it went spraying all over me, the stairs, and the wall! Whoops... sorry landlord!

Wednesday's Walk - Dentures and Delirious Laughter

Hello dear friends! For the first time ever, I'm participating in:

hosted by Lynnette Kraft's blog - Dancing Barefoot On Weathered Ground. I'm SO excited to start joining in on this every Wednesday that I can! Even though I'm not a momma yet (like I know a lot of you are that already read Lynnette's blog), I hope you will still enjoy my special memories.

This Wednesday's Memory:

Well... this is a really wacky memory of something that actually happened just last night. Shauna, my thirteen year old sister who I love with my WHOLE heart said something that made me die laughing! I was sitting at my computer, chatting on messenger with a few friends, and listening to her constant chattering (in an effort to get my attention drawn away from the computer no doubt). Suddenly, I glanced over and she was pulling her pajama pant drawstrings straight up towards her shoulders. She laughed at me and then said "Look! They're... they're dentures!" I couldn't contain my glee any longer and burst out laughing. Between giggles, I eventually said "Shauna... those aren't called dentures! They're ummm... ummm" and my mind went blank because I was laughing so hard. I finally said "Suspenders!!! That's what they're called!". We both got a huge laugh out of it. I love her so much... she brings smiles into my life.

Happy Wednesday! Thanks for dropping by!

Mcklinky Blog Hop... Favorite Photo Tuesday!

"Scared Eyes Masking a Timid Heart"

***Hello Friends! I'm currently trying to figure out how to link up to other blogs and participate in stuff like this...and frankly, I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing! So bear with me here... I'm trying! This week on Tuesday, 7/7/09, the theme is a "favorite photograph"! I'm excited to try this out because you know how much I LOVE photography! I took this picture when I was in Kenya a few weeks ago. Happy Tuesday to all of you! And if you're here for the first time: welcome welcome WELCOME!I hope you enjoy your visit!***

10 Excuses

Well... it's 12:04am...again. To quote my dad, I've been staying up "too late" for the past couple of days. He's probably right.

But sometimes life just gets too exciting and I can't sleep! For instance:

1. To put it quite plainly...I've been eating, sleeping and breathing writing. Attempting to write 12,000 words a week has been quite the experience so far. My deadline is the end of July... I'm EXCITED...and scared... and full of... oh, I don't know. Excitement! How original, eh?
2. Living in England - a country full of history and culture - can be extremely sleep depriving.
3. I've been spending time with my family instead of wasting it on Facebook. This Facebook fast is going really well so far. And surprisingly... I'm loving my time OFF of FB. I seem to get more done...imagine that! :)
4. Just so you all know, number three was not a slam at Facebook. I love all my Facebook friends and family very much... the crazy application's tend to pull me into their time wasting black holes.
5. I've been spending some time catching up on my reading. My "need to read" books have been staring me in the face.
6. I have been finding that Jesus continues to amaze me. Even after I have spent my life attempting to get to know him better, I have fallen on my face in humbleness at how much I still need to learn. Yet, he is still so gentle and patient with me. Amazing Grace...how sweet the sound... that SAVED a wretch like me.
7. Some incredible music has been playing via my computer lately. I'm currently listening to the "Blood Diamond" movie soundtrack...even though I've never watched the movie! I can recommend the music... it's beautiful. AND I just finished listening to "The Dark Knight" soundtrack. Another inspiring one. Can you tell that I'm a soundtrack person?
8. We went to the zoo today! I mean... how can that NOT be exciting? As to what that has to do with staying up late... I'm not exactly sure.
9. I love babies. Again, I have no idea what this has to do with staying up, but I'm out of ideas at this point. We saw so many cute little kids today at the zoo, running around in their little sundresses and white sun hats. Just thinking about them all would keep me up late I'm sure...
10. And it's now 12:38am...now I have a wonderful list of perfectly valid excuses for staying up. :)