I heart Jessica Simpson!

I got to see Jessica Simpson in concert last Thursday, opening for Rascal Flatts!! Rascal Flatts was good – they are clearly some very talented guys. All the guys in the band had an opportunity to showcase their talent during the show. I was most impressed by Jay DeMarcus, who played bass through most of the show, but at one point took the stage by himself and sang while playing keyboard….he has an amazingly beautiful voice! But, honestly, I loved watching Jessica Simpson. I’ve been a fan of Jessica’s since before it was cool to be her fan and I’ve remained her fan after it became not-so-cool anymore. I don’t love her music, but I like her and feel sorry for the way the media attacks her. She looked great!!! Who cares if she isn’t Daisy Duke thin….she is still very thin! She seemed really happy and so excited to be singing at Madison Square Garden again…definitely not taking the opportunity for granted. I love her – she put a smile on my face! And she was not lip syncing and she really does have a good voice. She did start cracking on the last song….don’t know if her voice was worn out or what, but she sounded great on all the other songs.

I've done several fun things in the past week. Last week was really busy!! Last Monday night I stayed busy doing laundry and making chocolate chip cookies. It had been YEARS since I made plain old chocolate chip cookies. I went online and found a recipe on AllRecipes.com that got good reviews and made it. The cookies turned out really flat, but they were really tasty! I took them to my community group on Tuesday night. This semester, we are not doing a study together, but instead are discussing the Sunday sermons. The rest of the groups in our church have been doing that for about a year now, but we wanted to read the bible through last year, so we did that on our own. One of our pastor's puts together a detailed guide about the sermon each week so that we have something to get the discussion going. We are going to take turns reading the guide and leading the group. Last Sunday's sermon was great, so I was exited to hear what the girls had to say about it. The sermon spoke to me loud and clear that I’ve been trying to hard to turn myself into the person I think Jesus wants me to be, rather than allowing Him to transform me into that person. I have felt defeated trying to "fix" myself and it was good to be reminded why…I can’t do it on my own! The best quote from my pastor that really made some things click for me was, "It’s not behavior modification, but character transformation." I know that my relationship with Jesus has really suffered over the past few years and I need to get back on track. I need to spend more time with Him in prayer and scripture. The more time I spend with Him, the more like Him I will become…character transformation! I want so much to be who He created me to be!

This week I also had book club. We met at Kittichai to discuss "Forget About It", a very light chick-book we opted to read after our last book that was SO hard to get through. The book was okay - kind of silly, but a quick read and somewhat entertaining. Kittichai was amazing!!! I chose it because I’ve wanted to go there for a while and we could do their Restaurant Week menu. The atmosphere is soooo cool and we were in this little booth that was so fun and fancy. My favorite part of the meal was my appetizer…tuna tartar. Not only was it absolutely delicious, it was adorable! It came in these cute little petal-shaped shells. Presentation was excellent! For my entrée, I had pineapple braised short ribs in a green curry that was great, too. I’ve discovered recently that I really love green curry. My dessert was a flourless chocolate cake that was also good. This is definitely a restaurant I want to go back to…even just for a glass of wine and tuna tartar!

Saturday night, I met up with Mindy to go see Revolutionary Road and then eat at Corner Bistro. I really liked the movie, even though it wasn't a very happy one. I felt sorry for people who were there on Valentine's Dates! Not exactly a Valentine's movie. Mindy has been wanting a good burger in NYC, so I introduced her to Corner Bistro, which is in West Village and consistently ranked one of the best burgers in the U.S. It was really good and we had a lot of fun catching up that night. Mindy moved here last summer and is nannying for a little girl while trying to get her foot in the door of the acting world. She is really nervous about her nanny job ending this summer and not having some acting gigs or another job lined up when that happens. I think she's made some really great progress making contacts, taking classes, going to auditions, etc.... I hope she makes it!! And I am really praying that she'll have the courage to take the risks to stay here because she really thinks this is where God wants her....and I want her here, too!!

I had today off for President's Day and have to wonder why we don't have 3-day weekends all the time - or at least more often!! It is so refreshing! I was so productive around home, got in a really good workout, and then saved some time for fun! I went to the IFC Center to see the 5 Oscar Nominated Live-Action-Short Films. When I lived in Dallas, I would always see almost all of the movies nominated for any category of Oscar. I haven't done so well since moving to NYC, but this year, I will have seen a lot of them by the time Sunday rolls around. I have never, ever seen any of the Shorts, though! So, this was a treat and so fun! I really liked them all, but I have a favorite...Toyland. I hope it wins! I kind of hope to go back this week to see the Animated Shorts, but I don't know if I will make it there.

I started reading Twilight this weekend. There's nothing better on a Saturday morning than walking over to Starbucks and sitting down with a black tea latte and a book. I've been skeptical of this book....I'm not really into vampires or any kind of fantasy, really. But, I have way too many friends who loved it, so I gave in. It's good so far. I just hope I can read it as quickly as others have so that I have time to get through my book club book for March, too!

I babysat at church yesterday and had the babies. Kate is 1 & 1/2 and Aubrey is probably about 9 months. There was another girl with me, Megan, and she kind of took Kate and I took Aubrey who was not feeling well or something. She cried for an hour straight! And wouldn't let me put her down. Finally she fell asleep in my arms and I put her in a pack-n-play. I was proud of myself for not letting all the crying get to me or exhaust me!! Oh, and I served communion for the first time ever. One of the pastors asked me right before the service started if I would do it...I was like "um, sure. But, I've never done it before"! He gave me a quick run-down...it really isn't hard! I really love how our church does communion every week and really cherishes the act of remembering Christ's death and what that means for us. Everyone walks up to take a piece of bread and dips it in either wine or juice. The person holding the bread says "His body was broken for you" to each and every person as they take their bread and then the person with the wine & juice says "His blood was poured out for you". Often times, when I am taking communion, if the person who is passing out the bread or juice knows me, they will also tack my name on to the end of the statement (i.e. "His body was broken for you, Susan"). I didn't try to do that for anyone yesterday as I wanted to just get the basics down first!! I had the bread and was kind of nervous about messing up what I was supposed to say, but it went fine and went by so fast! It is very cool and meaningful.

So, it's back to work tomorrow and another pretty busy week. I'll catch you up after the Oscars!