Almost completely done!!!

Nearly one year later, we have finished all but the last handful of thank you cards from our wedding. Monday we'll be sending them out and we'll be free! Thanks everyone for your patience and not hating us or thinking that we're not grateful for your kindness. And I'll be honest--I've been amazed at the people (like Melissa and Nate) who got their thank yous out in what seems like less than a week after their wedding. Props to you.

Yummy breakfast

Jess made some tasty scones for breakfast this morning (the baked kind, not the fried kind) and they were absolutely delicious! I think she's going to put the recipe up on the recipes blog so that anyone else who wants to try their yummyness will be able to do so.

The recipe made a lot more than six of the size she made, but six were all that were left...

Decluttering

I'll admit it... I'm a bit of a packrat. I tend to hold on to things "just in case I need it later" or because it has some sentimental value (hidden away in a closet...). I just finished a book called "It's All Too Much" by Peter Walsh. He's an organizational guru and was on a show on TLC called Clean Sweep where they help people declutter.

I got the book from the library and skimmed through it today. Essentially he tells people to imagine the life they want to live, and then get rid of anything they have sitting around the house that gets in the way of that life. He mentions that if we're not careful, the stuff we own will begin to own us. He also throws in common tips like "if you haven't used/worn it in a year, you should probably get rid of it."

Overall, I thought it had some good pointers, and hopefully I can take and apply them to become less attached to some of my old stuff.

Seven down, thirty-two more to go

I finished Judges in the OT tonight. Overall, there are more stories and "interesting things" than in the later books of Moses (take heart, Maren!)

I noticed that there wasn't much mention of prophets in the book, though. It was a time when Israel was ruled by Judges (hence the name), several of whom received inspiration, but there were no real prophets. As a result, Israel went through the pride cycle several times in the book and had some hard situations to work through.

The last verse says "In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes." I think that was part of the problem--no major spiritual guidance, just people doing things the way they felt they should. Sometimes it works, but sometimes it just drags the people down.

Go Speed Racer, Go!

Jess and I went to see Speed Racer at the (almost) dollar theater on Thursday night, and we enjoyed it. It hasn't gotten very good reviews (36% on the tomatometer), so we went with low expectations.

The movie was made by the same folks who did the Matrix trilogy, and they did a lot of CGI stuff once again. Cars and racetracks are all computer-generated, but that allows for a lot of special effects. We didn't take the movie seriously, and we found it both funny and exciting. One character, a little boy, we expected to be extremely annoying, and to our amusement he never was annoying at all--just funny. We were pleased after what had happened in other movies (see The Poseidon Adventure).

There were only a couple of minor swear words and one little birdie (it's rated PG). As another warning, there are a lot of bright flashing lights and rapidly changing colors. It's an epileptic's nightmare. In other words, Mom will have to wear sunglasses for about half of the movie. :) It was sort of like what I would imagine an LCD trip to be like without the bugs-under-your-skin feeling.

Final word: keep your expectations low, and go enjoy this fun movie. Two thumbs up.