Wall art...from your own backyard

I really want to have the cutest apartment ever. But having the cutest apartment ever requires money of which is not in our budget and of which I would rather spend on travel or on a date with Benny or giving it away to people who need it more than us. But that still didn't help the fact that I was totally devastated that our beautiful mantle (and above wall) in our family room was unadorned. I didn't want to "just buy something" and the artwork that we own that I do love (all made by our good friend Niky, check out her out here) didn't work above the mantle.



I also really didn't want "clutter" (anyone who has actually been to my apartment won't believe that I don't want/like clutter, but it's true). I don't want to go to Target and buy a picture of turquoise pots that I don't even care about. This other blog that I read, (check it out, it's one of my favorites) posted today on only having things in your home that are personal or functional--cutting down on meaningless, functionless clutter.

Well, in April I was visiting my friend Loren in Philadelphia and she took me to an awesome restaurant (name?) that was in a greenhouse and had it's own florist. Well, part of the decor were these sticks, covered in white lights and framed by copper plumbing. I thought they were SO beautiful. I thought that I could do something similar above our mantle. Well we don't have any outlets that are close by and I found out that copper wiring is very expensive but I was still inspired.



Around our parking lot are lots of trees and therefore also lot's of twigs/branches laying around, just waiting to be chosen for a beloved art project. So one Thursday, before work (and hopefully before my neighbors were awake) I collected a LOT of branches and dragged them up our stairs onto our family room floor, then I was off to work. Benny was very confused when he got home from work, and explaining to him that I was going to make something to go above our mantle did not provide much reassurance.

Well, that weekend, or maybe next, I got to work: sawing four branches to nearly equal size and tying them together at the ends with hemp using a figure eight motion (like you are wrapping a twisted ankle). I then glued a bunch of twinkly beads on the ends with a hot glue gun that don't really twinkle because we don't have the right lighting. BUT, this project was free and I like it and our family room certainly doesn't look boring any more, though I don't know about the cutest apartment ever.





Cheers to your own free home improvement projects!

Keeping up with the Moser's

This is our TV.



Which is just fine with us. Especially since, (much to the dismay of my brothers-in-law who have affectionately nick-named me "cable hater") we are about to cut our cable .

So when my good friend Amanda was in town for the weekend I really wasn't too ashamed about planning to watch several movies on our TV from our Netflix "view instantly" via our Wii. If this sounds like a confusing process to you, it was for us too. We spent at least an hour trying to get the movie to play on our TV to find out later that I need a free DVD from Netflix that ships in one business day (one day too late for Amanda) in order to watch live Netflix movies on our Wii.

So our next best option was watching the movies on my work lap top. So this is how Amanda and I spent the weekend, curled up on the couch with kitty in our 80 degree apartment.



Notice the surround sound.

But let me tell you, the power of Food Inc. was not lost on my tiny lap top. If you haven't seen it, it will make you either want to become a vegetarian or buy and eat all organic food. After watching it I told Benny we were going to become vegetarians (much cheaper that way). That was until I went to Kroger today and my moral back bone became osteoporotic in the face of chicken on sale for $1.99 per pound.

Anyway, I ate organic bulgur wheat with organic button mushrooms for dinner tonight (no meat) since Benny still isn't home from Germany. Which, by the way, is a great single lady meal (or side dish for when the men are home). I'll post the easy and delicious recipe soon.

Eating like pigs...I mean cows

Okay...I know that was a really cheesy title...and maybe it's also way cheesy to post some material on something that happened over a year ago (back when I didn't even know what a blog was). But as much as my blog has lately been about espousing on all things serious I want it to be catalogue of memories for Benny and me. And this is one of my favorites.



We both really love chick-fil-a. Really love it. We had been traveling a LOT lately and inevitably on Sunday after we start driving home one of us (usually me with a really pout-y face) will lean over and say, "Oh no...do you know what I just remembered?" And the other one of us will knowingly nod our head say, "Yes, I know it's terrible...it's Sunday and chick-fil-a will be closed." We are instead going to have to eat pre-packed sandwiches or stop...I don't even like thinking about it...somewhere else.

Well, last summer the stars aligned and Benny and I were traveling on a Friday on chick-fil-a's dress like a cow and get a meal for free day. We were driving after Ben's work to my parent's place in Ponte Vedra, Florida--about a 6 hour trek. And Benny and I, dressed like cows, stopped at every chick-fil-a from Atlanta to PV.



Ben and I missed this year's opportunity for free chick-fil-a because we were in Europe but I hope next year we will be on the road again :)

What Now?

Christianity is not for the faint of heart.

Ben got his new MCAT score a few weeks ago...which is exactly the same MCAT score he had before. So we are in the same position of no man's land that we have been living in for several years. We have been praying all along for direction: a stellar MCAT score that would assure a position in a medical school and confirm to us that this is God's plan AND/OR we have been praying for such an atrocious score that we would KNOW that we could never get into medical school and hence know that God's plan is to stop pursuing this dream. But the same score...what does that mean? And maybe I am just playing a contemporary game of casting lots and reading tea leaves but I thought the score was going to tell us something.

And maybe it does and maybe it doesn't. And maybe what's more important is not that whether or not we decide to keep chasing after medical school but whether or not we keep praying. Sometimes I feel like giving up on prayer, like I'll just do it--just figure it out myself. It's like when Ben says he will fix something around the house (and I know he will do a better job than I am going to do) but I don't want to wait because I am in that kind of mood so I fix it myself and turns out to be a mess. Maybe that's what it looks like when I grow impatient.

But I do really trust that God has a better plan than I do (most hours of most days). So whatever happens...more tries at medical school, getting a job as a line chef, moving to Germany for a bit of fresh air...we are going to keep praying. After all, no one said this life was going to be easy. It was never promised that we would always understand everything that happens to us. We have been promised that we aren't going this alone. Thank God for that.