Friendship is...

Friendship is...

... someone who stands next to you in good times and in bad.  

...a person you can count on.

...love.

...a person that does not lie to you. 

...memories.

...time spent laughing together. 

...planning the next trip. 

...reminiscing over coffee or drinks. 

...wasting a Saturday afternoon together. 

...understanding one another. 

...being excited for what life may bring to both of you. 

...watching out for your friend.

...helping out whenever needed. 

...sharing a meal together. 

...enjoying each other's company.

 ...not being able to wait for the weekend to spend time together. 

...mutual interests. 

...filled with compliments. 

...admiration. 

...hopeful. 

...open and giving. 

...honest.

...ready for any bend in the road that may come. 

...someone who helps you move. 

...a person you can call when you need to vent. 

...trusted. 

...one who makes the effort to keep in touch. 

...someone who checks in on you. 

... making sure you text when you get home. 

...communicating your feelings. 

...sometimes strong in an argument or disagreement. 

...worth fighting for. 

RT: Quick and Easy Peasy

This one is right up my alley...

That's right it's time for my weekly Random Thursday post! 

I love to cook and so this one might be just what i need to end my day (I am, of course writing this post on Wednesday night!) 

|one|

Dump Cake

This is so easy a gnat could do it! I don't have my own picture of one of my hand crafted beauties, but i am totally kicking myself, because i made a beautiful one the other night for some of our friends! 

But here are some links to some awesomeness! 

All Recipes: Dump Cake I & Blueberry Dumpcake (a little more prep, but still easy!)

And leave it to The Pioneer Woman to get it right: Dump Cake

Oh, BTW, it truly is a can of crushed pineapple, a can of pie filling (your choice of flavor), a boxed cake mix, and a stick of butter (melted). Add nuts if you feel nutty! And i swear one of the easiest and most delish dessert you will have with really noooooo fuss!

|two|

Taco Beans and Rice

I found this in a cookbook and have added ground turkey to it.... check out my blog post about it! (link above)

                                                                                                                                             |three|

Flat Bread Pizza

Here's a sneak peak ... with a recipe to come on July 10th!  

What are your quick recipes? 

So much to cook and soooo little time! 

Check out other's quick recipes! 

Summer Field Trip Fun

I usually teach summer school, despite the burn out! 

Every year, each teach chooses a theme and then builds from there. I then develop lessons related to that theme as well as plan a weekly field trip to take the students on! 

This year my class has been studying 

Health! 

It's been fun to teach such little ones about the way they should eat and stay healthy. For some reason they all would rather eat potato chips and play video games, but they can never say that i contributed to their possible obesity. Let's hope that they all remain pretty active! 

Thought i would share a few of those ideas with you when it comes down to finding a destination for a field trip! 

Have a great day! 

Stomach Sleeper No More

For as long as I can remember I have been a stomach sleeper. And as of a couple months ago, I would wake up with a pretty sore lower back. After several weeks of stretching and using my trusty foam roller, i decided enough was enough. It was time to look into more of a solution. 

I talked to my massage therapist who said it was probably a combination of things causing my pain, but the stomach sleeping was definitely not helping. She promptly suggested a body pillow. 

And that is just what I got. 

I even contemplated getting this pregnancy pillow, but decided to wait until that was a valid need. 

Either way, after a few months of sleeping with the body pillow, my back has been soooo much better. My lower back still tends to be pretty tight, but i think its mostly from work and all that kickboxing that i do. 

Do you have back pain? 

What do you do to help your back health? 

A Summer o' Fun

Last summer I did a bucket list.... or at least I think I may have. Even if I didn't this summer will be all about my bucket list. So here it is:

What's on your bucket list? 

How are you going to fill those long, hot summer days? 

Finally Thursday

It's FINALLY actually THURSDAY! 

(It has felt like Thursday to me for the last 2 mornings!)

This week's topic for Random Thursday:

First things first, I am interpretting this to mean a deserted island - meaning one with no civilization on it rather than an island with the terrain of a desert. Next, I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed by technology lately. I blame it on the house hunt! So I made a rule for myself: none of these items could require plugging in to a wall. 

With that said, I still got stuck a bit. I then asked hubs what her thought. So today you are getting not just my items, but also his items. Should throw a new twist on the weekly randomness! 

My 5 Items:

1. A really long good book! - after all, who wouldn't like to read on some beach where there is no.one. 

2. A really big warm blanket. - its bound to get a little chilly right? 

3. Hubby and Lily - he's one item i personally like to keep around and Lily is just too cute to leave behind!  

4. A knife - because it will never run out of bullets and will probably come in handy when i get snacky! 

5. Magnesium fire starter - to start a fire to cook the meat that i so barbarically kill! 

And now for hubby's 5 items...

1. Wife

2. Lily

3. Knife

4. Bow and arrow set

5. Magnesium fire starter

My husband definitely would be hunting, maybe with Lily at his side! While i would be curled up with a blanket and a book by the fire! And yes, he told me about the magnesium fire starter, which i added to the list in case he didnt get to bring 5 items. he he! 

Wanna post for Random Thursday? Click! 

Hope you all have a great Thursday! 

Learning Still

I haven't been "in school" since 2008. One thing i learned while in school, however, that learning never ends! We learn our entire lives. Which is exactly why I have taken an interest in all the iTunes University content! 

My alma mater, Biola University, has so much content that I can't wait to listen to it all but totally realize that there aren't enough hours in the day! I did get a chance to listen to/watch one group of programs that i truly enjoyed and learned from. 

I watched "Hipster Christianity" which was a few sessions all about the book with the same title. The first session was a talk that the author gave to explain the book and his reasons for writing the book. The second session was then another professor adding his comments and then a final segment was a panel of several Christian professors giving their take on the whole thing. 

I learned a lot and even without having read the book! It was really a great amount of information that I was intrigued by. It gave food for thought even for this 33 year old who has long left the college classroom! 

If you are at all interested in this program it is available on the Biola University iTunes U page within the app. But there really is such a wealth of programs that are out there and mostly FREE!

Have you listened to or watched any of the programs on iTunes U? 

Do you Hulu?

Hulu made an appearance in our home in December when we moved into a new apartment. We bought a Roku and began subscribing to begin our watching! At first were a bit disappointed to give up DirecTV, but we quickly realized we could watch TV for hours! On that note, here's my top ten reasons Hulu is not to be missed!  

1. Cost

This subscription service is EXTREMELY low cost. It's a whole whopping $7.99 a month an you can cancel at any time! no contract! The best part is gift certificates are available and make great gifts for prevent from family!

2. Fun shows

There really is so much out there to entertain us, but Hulu offers a great backlog of full seasons of so many shows. It also allows you to discover new shows that can offer a ton of variety and fun. Here's some favorites that are sure to entertain:

3. Pausing TV

One of the modern conveniences while watching TV is to be able to pause while watching! Along with satellite providers, Hulu makes this possible as well! Watching TV shows in segments is possible with this feature! It also helps people like me who may only have 15 minutes to watch a show and then more time later! I often watch a little and then come back and watch the rest of the show later!

4. Minimal commercials

Now here's the thing, ALL commercials are annoying, but with recorded TV you have to fast forward through them which takes as much time as watching 2-3 short commercial breaks. This actually means I can get up and go grab a snack, take a potty break, or check my email real quick during the commercial breaks instead of holding the remote to zoom past all the commercials. It's nice to have a breather instead of having to be glued to the remote!

5. New shows

Hulu has truly introduced me to some shows that I don't think I would have found without it! Here are some of my finds that I have enjoyed:

Insert clips of hot in Cleveland, ready for love and save me.

Another I have watched that i can't find a good clip for is Ready For Love, Mistresses, and many others! Check 'em out on Hulu! 

6. New interface

The interface on Hulu recently changed and I LOVE IT! It has so many new features and it is organized in a much better way! Previously it was difficult to figure out what shows had been viewed and which shows were or were not in queue. Now there are progress bars on the little images for each episode and it is organized by movies, TV shows, previews, and clips. There's even a section of recommended shows and shows that you watch! It's so nice to know hulu knows me!

7. Continuous play back

This feature is great, especially when marathoning shows! I used to be frustrated with the fact that I'd have to put whatever I was doing down to start the next show (especially if I was playing a bunch of episodes in the background!). Now, there's continuous playback, which starts the next episode when the one you are watching ends! But don't worry, if you don't want to have this feature, it is easily turned off!

8. Watch on several devices

This is quite common these days, but you can watch on you computer, phone, smart tv, Apple TV, Roku, or tablet! It's really quite convenient and I imagine would be great for vacations, entertaining children, and taking entertainment really anywhere with you!

9. Watch old favorites

The show Cheers has been off the air for quite sometime, but with Hulu, you can catch up, replay or even start watching the show from the beginning. And the best part is that Cheers is not the only show that this is possible for! There's a whole bunch! Summers don't have to be so boring and folding laundry with the TV on can be made fun again!

10. Recommended shows

I mentioned this above, but it truly is a great part of Hulu! I am so glad that Hulu suggests shows based on your watching practices before! I have found several shows is way recently and I love catching one that I really wouldn't have found without the recommendation! Try it, you may like it!

If you are a Hulu subscriber, what do you like/love about the service? What shows do you marathon?

PS. This is NOT a sponsored post! I wrote this because i have become a true fan of Hulu! I do enjoy using it and know that many people have contemplated signing up and ditching the huge cable bills! Eventually, my hubs and i will make our way back to the huge bill just so we can watch sports again! We do miss a good baseball game on every night! 

Reading the Day Away

Summer is just about here! And that makes me a bit giddy... if only i didn't have to survive through 5+ weeks of summer school, then I would be one happy camper! If only!

Well, with long summer afternoons fast approaching my mind is wandering to reading lazily on my balcony, by the pool, at a coffee shop, or even as my husband is driving! Curled up on the couch wouldn't be so bad either! This also reminds me of the time i spent an entire Friday reading in my mother's backyard just so we could go see the movie for the same book that very night. (It was Nicholas Sparks' The Notebook!)

While I have loved reading the whole day away, it seems that as I have gotten older, these moments of not having to be anywhere to do anything seem few and far between. This will definitely become one of my items on my summer to-do list.... relax and read! 

This weekend I began reading The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve and so far have enjoyed it, though i will say it has a depressing beginning. Let's see if it ends on a high note! 

I have read other books that have led me to llllllllllloooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnngggggg hours with a book in hand. Here are a few titles that kept me more than captivated for hours on end:

The Book of Ruth

The Fourth Hand by John Irving

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells

The Dive from Clausen’s Pier by Ann Packer

What books have you sat and read the whole day away with? 

Random Thursday: Photo Dump!

I'm back, so, that means I'm back to participating in the Random Thursday link up! 

Topic for the day:

Ok are you ready for this ... these pics go back a ways! 

I loved the card i gave to my mom for mother's day!

Sitting in a box suite at the Angel game! Thanks to my hubby's job!

A hike to Holy Jim Falls with these friends... see the little one passed out?

The falls weren't much, but it sure was a cool hike!

A bird flew into my classroom a few weeks ago! He's pledging allegiance! 

A Memorial day weekend brew-ski at a new restaurant that we tried! 

 It's called Memphis! And the food was good! 

Another Memorial Day weekend activity: We went and looked for a couch. Here are some fabric samples. 

The kitty must be a part of a good photo dump!

 New shampoo to help my awful scalp! A post on this stuff is coming soon! 

 This girl... love her! 

Hope you enojoyed my photo dump! that was a ton! And might I add that this topic was perfectly timed for me! 

Head over to see other photo dumps!