Friday Four

What I'm Watching: I think the real question is, what am I NOT watching?! We have so much on our DVR right now, it's ridiculous. We haven't watched any of the brand new shows yet, but right now I've been enjoying the return of Switched at Birth, Saturday Night Live, Flipping Out, Up All Night, Parks and Recreation, etc, etc, etc. Have I mentioned how much I love fall premiere tv season? :-)

What I'm Reading: I just finished Mindy Kaling's Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? a couple of days ago. I am amazed that I actually started AND finished a book during school. However, to be fair, this book was not a full narrative, so it was easy to pick up and go after not having read it for a week. Funny book too!

 

What I'm Listening to: Thanks to Jamie, I am currently hooked on Imagine Dragons. They are a mix of The Killers, fun., SafetySuit, and are just plain catchy. Even if you have never heard OF them, chances are that you've heard their music. Two of their songs were played non-stop during the Olympics promoting the NBC show Chicago Fire. They were also covered last week on Glee. If you don't believe me that they are awesome, listen for yourself to two very different songs:

What I Ate: I had McDonald's for dinner last Friday night and then we ate at Fatz after church this week with Jamie's parents for his mom's birthday. (We're trying to save a little more money in this area!)

Friday Four - August 17

What I Watched: I finally finished up The Hills this week. I had DVRed them all when they came on MTV last month and had just been watching them here and there. I hadn't seen any of the last season previously, and I can't say I missed much. It was soooo over the top... and kind of hilarious :-)  It's been a good respite from thinking about school.

What I Read: I'm trying to finish Sisterhood Everlasting, especially with school starting in a few days!

What I Listened to: The radio and BOCA 2012

Where I Ate: We ate Zaxby's, Domino's and Cafe Caturra last weekend... definitely ate out more than normal, but it was yummy.

Friday Four - August 10

What I Watched: Besides more Olympics, I finally watched Waiting for Superman this week. I feel like I could write a whole blog post on it, but I'll spare you. It always is wise to remember that documentaries are not always completely objective. I understand the point of the film, but one thing it failed to address is motivation of parents. All of the families they followed WANTED to get their kids out of the situation they were in, and the school they were in. However, a majority of parents who have kids in failing schools don't care enough about school to worry about it. And that's the truth. End of rant.

What I Read: I started Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares.

What I Listened to: This week I worked to Stacie Orrico, Pentatonix, Toby Lightman and Shawn McDonald.

Where I Ate: We hit up Cookout after church this week. Can't say it was the best food of my life, but I didn't have a burger, so maybe that's why... I think I'll just stick with their milkshakes from now on :-) 

Friday Four - August 3

What I Watched: The Olympics. Duh :-)  My favorite is women's gymnastics, followed by swimming and track and field. We also went to see The Dark Knight Rises. What an excellent movie. It was totally worth the money!

What I Read: Still working on Pandemonium... almost done!

What I Listened to: This week's classroom soundtrack included Oasis, Pink and Paramore. Good stuff

Where I Ate: We went to Antai for our anniversary dinner and had chicken lettuce wraps, vegetable tempura and sushi. It was soooo yummy. We hit up Moe's after church before we went to the movies.

Friday Four - July 20

What I Watched: TNT has a new show that premiered last week called Perception. It's another crime show, but this time the main character is a bit of a schizo, who talks to people who aren't there and whatnot. Part of the reason I'm really enjoying it though is the cast, headed up by Eric McCormack, Rachel Leigh Cook, Kelly Rowan, Arjay Smith AND Levar Burton! If you like any of TNT's other crime dramas, like I do, you will probably like this one too :-)

What I Read: Still trying to finish up A Time to Kill... I have to get all my reading in before school starts!

What I Listened to: Nothing in particular this week, but I've been enjoying the shuffle on my IPod while I'm working on my classroom.

What I Ate: We went out of town this weekend for family reunions, so we had lots of good home cookin'! But we also had Dairy Queen on the way up where I got their delicious Blizzard of the Month, Chocolate Candy Shoppe. It was sooooo good! 

 

Friday Four

What I Watched: The remake of Dallas premiered last week. I never watched the original when it was on, as I was a tiny young thing, but Jamie had watched it some as a kid. So we decided to check out this new version. I must say, it definitely sucked us in!

      The best movie I watched this week was Crazy, Stupid Love. It definitely lived up to the hype. Smart, funny, charming... had it all! If you haven't seen it, you should :-)

What I Read: This week I started A Time to Kill by John Grisham. The first couple of chapters were difficult to get through, but now it's moving right along.

What I Listened to: I have started the long and arduous process of uploading our CDs to ITunes, but one fun thing is that I've been listening to all sorts of fun "old" music that I haven't listened to in a while. Here are a couple of those gems... enjoy your trip back to the nineties!

Where I Ate: We ate out slightly more this week than normal. In addition to our normal Friday night fast food (Chick fil a) and after church lunch (Texas Roadhouse for Father's Day), I ate out two additional times. We picked up some Wendy's on Monday night and I went to Takosushi for lunch on Tuesday with Tara. I think I could eat Asian food everyday; it is so yummy!

Friday Four

What I Watched: New summer tv! Among my favorites that have returned: The Glee Project, Pretty Little Liars, and Rizolli and Isles. I may write more on my summer schedule later. The movies this week ranged from good to awful: The Bling Ring:good (based on the teens that stole from celeb houses); Just Like Heaven: decent (Reese can't do much wrong in my book); Bad Teacher: bad (I can't begin to talk about the ridiculousness of this movie); and Blue Crush 2: awful (I loved the first one!) What I Read: I started Delirium by Lauren Miller. It's a YA dystopian novel, so you know it's good! What I Listened to: I've been watching a lot of VH1 this week, and two songs they (and I) are digging right now are "The A Team" by Ed Sheeren and "Next to Me" by Emeli Sande. Where I Ate: TGI Friday's was our after church choice this week and Bojangle's was our Friday night treat :-)

Friday Four

What I Watched: Veronica Mars finished up its run on SOAP net this week. I really wish that show had lasted longer. But it was fun watching Kristen Bell on Heroes (although I hated her character!).
Anyway, I watched a bunch of movies this week, since most of our shows have ended. The two best ones were Inglorious Basterds and The Lincoln Lawyer. I'd never seen a Quentin Tarantino film, and I'm glad I saw this one (IB) on TV, as it spared me a lot of the language and probably some of the gore. TLL was good too, although I got confused at times, as Josh Lucas plays the DA in this movie (but is a laywer in the tv series The Firm). I would recommend them both!

What I Listened to: I was lucky enough to get the new Jon Mclaughlin CD for my birthday. If you haven't heard him before, you are really missing out! I think he has one of the most gorgeous voices in music. This album is more like his first one, in the style and tempo, which is a slight disappointment, as I really enjoyed his second, more upbeat album. He has a duet with Sara Barielles, which I previously wrote about here, as well as Xenia, who was on the first season of The Voice.

 

What I Read: I fnished up The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold this week. Haven't yet decided what to read next.

Where I Ate: I think the only time we ate out this week was Moe's after church. Oh, and we had McDonald's last Friday night... don't judge ;-)

Friday Four

What I Watched: Duets premiered last night, and thanks to DVR, I am currently enjoying it. I can't say that I've seen the best singers on this show. However, I like watching Kelly Clarkson and John Legend, soooo that's all that matters :-)

I watched three movies this week: It's Complicated, Just my Luck and Click. They were good movies for helping me pass some time as I was organizing. I liked Click the best of the three (which isn't saying much!)

What I Listened to: I was really looking forward to listening to some things on my new Spotify IPad app, but streaming is only available to paying customers-- LAME! I'll try to find something interesting for next week.

What I Read: I finished 13 Little Blue Envelopes and started The Lovely Bones... two very different reads!!

Where I Ate: Mikino's (teriyaki chicken) after the cornhole tournament, Beezer's (t-bird) after church, and California Dreaming (chicken strips platter) for my birthday... and I was given a cupcake from Cupcake!

Friday Four

What I Watched: One of my guilty pleasures, Sister Wives, started back this week, and it did not disappoint! I don't know why I find this family so fascinating, but I really do!
On the movie front, I watched The Help and North by Northwest. I think I need to stop watching movies so soon after reading the books though because I am analyzing them WAY too much. With that said, I did enjoy The Help and it touched me in all the right places. N by N is a classic Hitchcock film that I've never seen (I love Hitchcock movies) and I really liked it-- well worth my time.

What I Read: I started a new book this week called 13 Little Blue Envelopes and am already almost halfway through. It's very suspenseful, and so easy to read compared to what I was previously slugging through!

What I Listened to: I've had a very diverse mix this week, from Kelly Clarkson to Toby Lightman to Hanson to Adele. I've had music ADD :-)

What I Ate: Let's see, we went out three times last weekend since there was lots to celebrate. We went to Antai, with my mom, for some delicious sushi and spring rolls. On Sunday we went to Rockaway's after church (delicious fried zucchini and okra!), and then Fatz with Jamie's parents that night. 

Friday Four

What I Watched: I would like to take this opportunity to talk about the finale of The Voice. HOW IN THE WORLD DID JERMAINE PAUL WIN THAT?!! I have nothing against him, as he is a good singer, but how he beat Juliet and Tony, I will never know. Out of the top 4, I feel that he will have the least success from here. Speaking of Tony, the vendetta that Christina Aguilera has against him is insane. I used to looooooove Xtina, from day one, through her 'dirrty' days and beyond. However, over the course of this season, I have increasingly lost respect for her. She clearly had it out for Tony, as was unnecessarily brutal. This may be a reason why: I'm just sayin' (click it)  So, for your enjoyment, here is Tony's blind audition.

Oh, and I also watched the movie Gran Torino this week and was very disappointed. Don't understand the hype! Horrible ending.

What I Read: I finally finished Jane Eyre yesterday! Onto other books after three months :-)

What I Listened to: I know this CD is at least a year old, but I'm really digging Selena Gomez and the Scene's When the Sun Goes Down. It's a good pop record without all the trash/electronic/auto-tune mess that is so popular these days. I am also still more than slightly obsessed with Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe." I found out yesterday that she is opening for Hanson on tour, so she just shot way up in my book :-)  Also, she is only a few months younger than me, but has that (mis)fortune of looking way younger than that. Check her out:

What I Ate: Only ate at Moe's this week after church. Hopefully will eat out more this weekend, as we have lots to celebrate!

Friday Four

What I Watched: Mostly my regular shows this week. I checked out the new ABC show Scandal. It seems pretty decent so far-- kept my attention at least. We'll see how it does!

What I Read: yep... still Jane Eyre!

What I Listened to: Jamie made an Easter Mix a couple of weeks ago, full of great Christian modern music. If you want a copy, let us know!

What I Ate: We picked up some pasta from The Villa last weekend. It's always fun to get take out from there because we each get two meals out of it! Our after church meal this week was at Jamie's grandparents house for Easter dinner. 


Sorry I was so boring this week, I'll try to do better next time :-)

Friday Four

What I Watched: I've watched several movies the past couple of weeks in addition to our normal tv shows. Most recently I saw My Sister's Keeper. I thought the topic was really interesting, and now I wonder if that really happens. Do couples have additional children to help sick older siblings? Has anyone ever heard of this in real life?

What I Read: I'm still working on Jane Eyre. I also have a backlog of about five or six Entertainment Weeklys that I'm working through!

What I Listened to: Lots of new stuff this week added to my Spotify playlist. Some highlights:
                                  Alex Clare "Too Close"
                                  Taylor Swift & The Civil Wars "Safe and Sound"
                                  Carly Rae Jepson "Call Me Maybe"
                                  Andy Grammer "Fine by Me"
                                  Jason Mraz "I Won't Give Up"

What I Ate: Last Saturday we our Living Social deal for Chicago Uno Grill. I had a Harvest Vegetable pizza, which was decent, but I'm not a huge fan of cheese on top of my toppings, especially when it's thick! Sunday after church we went to Moe's, where I got my usual Joey Jr. burrito... yum!

Friday Four

What I Watched:  Have I mentioned that I have a TON of guilty pleasure shows? Bethanny Ever After came back on a couple of weeks ago, and thanks to my new DVR (thanks AT&T U-Verse!), now I can watch it!!

What I Read: Dr. Seuss! We read classics like Green Eggs and Ham and The Cat in the Hat, all the way to the longer reads such as And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street and Horton Hatches the Egg. I love it!!

What I Listened to: Safetysuit's new CD, "These Times" has been in my car rotation this week. Although I don't think it's as good as their first one, it helps the drive to Chapin go by faster :-)   Check out their first single:

What I Ate: We had Miyo's after church on Sunday, YUM! My wonderful teaching assistant brought me a Bojangle's chicken biscuit this morning, and I'm currently waiting for Jamie to bring me a Subway sandwich.


**I'm taking off the separate "watched" categories because I rarely watch movies anymore! "What I Ate" is all I could come up with on short notice, so if you have any suggestions, let me know :-)

Friday Four

What I Watched (TV): Alcatraz premiered this week, from JJ Abrams (producer of Lost), and it was expectedly awesome!!

What I Read: Still working on Tina Fey's Bossypants

What I Listened to: Kelly Clarkson "Stronger" ... love it!

What I Watched (movies): I think the only movie I watched this week was Wild Hogs when it was on tv. It was kind of funny :-)

Friday Four

What I Watched (TV): NBC's new Thursday night lineup. While I enjoy Community, I was really glad to see 30 Rock back!!

What I Read: I just started Tina Fey's Bossypants... as funny as expected

What I Listened to: Still "movin' like Jagger" this week :-)

What I Watched (movies): Jamie and I watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1&2 (on Blu-ray!) back to back on Saturday. It was epic.