confession

I admit it. I'm hooked. I didn't think I would end up on this road, but I'm here. I have joined the thousands of others. I have given in. I am hooked on "Twilight."

I feel like a high-school girl who is obsessed. But to my defense I know several other woman my age that are sucked in as much as I am. ...don't laugh at me.

I heard about the rave and thought it was a little ridiculous, I'm not usually one to buy in. I had no intentions of reading the books... but then I saw the movie, and I couldn't resist. The story fascinated me and I had to go buy the first book. I literally just finished the second book (its been just over a week since I started the saga) and I am desperate for the third... I need to start reading it now. I ordered the third and fourth book online last week but didn't realize that it won't get shipped until May. May! I don't think I can wait that long... I think I may borrow a copy from someone so I can start (and possibly finish) before it arrives on my door.

Yes...I told you, I'm addicted.

mushrooms, eggs, and baseball- equals life in Indiana

Every year that I live in Indiana I learn something new and different about the way of life for the inhabitants of this state. It never ceases to intrigue me how different the way of life is from one state to the next, in big and small ways. It's the little things that crack me up. Like the inexplicable tradition of tea. Iced. Sweetened or not. Hands down it is served at every potluck and social gathering. And is the common drink found in most people's refrigerators. I've never been a big fan of it.

I will also never understand the constant obsession with baseball. I compare the obsession to what football, hockey, and basketball combined, is to Minnesota. Yes, crazy. :)

Though my favorite odd-habitual activity is mushroom hunting. I remember the first spring we moved here and someone asked me if I had looked for any mushrooms yet. Um....I guess I didn't know I was suppose to be looking for any? They then explained to me that every spring everyone goes mushroom hunting in the woods, looking for these deliciously tasty, rare and valuable mushrooms. In my head I was thinking... "okay, this has got to be some kind of gathering where everyone goes into the woods to get high." Right? I mean come on, if you had never heard of such a thing in your life isn't that what you would think too? Well, need-less-to-say I didn't get what the big deal was. One day our next door neighbor walks over to us and gives a bread bag about 1/4 full of something that looked like dirty sponges. They were mushrooms. He figured since we'd never had them before he would share some of his findings. My in-laws were visiting at the time and I think they were even more skeptical than we were, especially when they saw how unappealing they looked. But my theory is you can't decide you don't like something until you try it- so I cooked up the mushrooms according to a friends' directions, and to my amazement they were extremely delicious. At the time I didn't know how valuable my neighbors' gift was- people hunt for the mushrooms and sell them for an unbelievable amount of money. Just for a few pounds you can make a lot of cash. So after tasting the mushrooms and realizing that hunting them could be a source of income, I now get why mushroom-hunting is so anticipated. Spring is full-on here, so the hunting has already begun-though I still have yet to venture into the woods myself and take a turn at it.

The most recent traditional discovery happened just yesterday on Easter. This new discovery I'm sure isn't as uncommon as I think, but Andy and I had never heard of it before- so it was new to us. A thing called: Egg baseball. Where you literally use a hard-boiled egg instead of a baseball. Well, let's just say it can get a little messy. Here's a little video clipping I took of Andy taking his first hit.

And this is a picture of our friend Ronal taking a taste of the end result. I might add that this is not part of the tradition, this is just disgusting.

On a side note:

I've decided that it's quite a bit different celebrating Holidays when you're no longer a kid. Or don't have kids of your own yet. Or don't live near immediate family. It's just not the same. But this year the Easter bunny visited us! Apparently we are not too old to get Easter baskets. :) On Easter morning we hop (no pun intended) in our car to go to church and are surprised to find an Easter basket in our seats! Our friends, Ronal and Braionna, snuck them into our car earlier that morning. It was a nice surprise, and Andy was as excited as a little kid. It was a very thoughtful gesture and made us feel special. :)

I'm not one of those girls

It was my birthday a little less than two weeks ago, and for my birthday my husband surprised me with a pair of princess cut diamond earrings! I've always wanted a pair, but I definitely did not expect such a gift for my birthday. I love them and have worn them constantly since.

Yesterday morning I got ready in a hurry to get to church early for practice. I put on my new earrings, downed the rest of my green smoothie and walked out the door. My Sunday morning progressed as normal: practice, coffee and sunday school, then service. It wasn't until the end of service that I noticed... I lifted my hands up to move my hair behind my ears and suddenly realized there was no fancy earring in my right ear! I lost an earring! It was gone! Two thoughts immediately crossed my mind: "Oh crap," and "Andy's going to kill me!"

The minute service was over I bolted from my seat, scanned the ground where I was sitting, anxiously looking for my earring. The second place I looked was the stage, that would be the most likely place I would have lost it. To my utter disappointment it wasn't there. By this point I was slightly freaked out that I would never find it. With tears brimming my eyes I told Andy that I had lost one of the earrings he'd given me. He of course wasn't mad, just felt bad that I was upset. I surprised myself at how upset I got over an earring...after all, it's just an earring. I wasn't one of those girls that cries over losing a piece of jewelry. Was I?

It wasn't long before people started to notice that I was bent over searching the floor for something. Once one person heard that I lost a diamond earring everyone started looking for it. A very good and generous friend of mine, Braionna, even had her face on the floor, crawling on her belly looking for it. We found glitter, plastic pellets and other random items, but no earring. I was beginning to accept the fact that I had lost it for good. All the obvious places to look were checked off: stage...check. Seat...check. Soundroom...check. Car...check. Bathroom...check. My clothes...check. Everywhere was checked multiple times with the amount of people that joined the search party. It was gone. Stuck to the bottom of someone's shoe for all I knew.

I went home, defeated.

Andy was first to walk through the door, "Kristy..." he called out in a reprimanding tone. I turned the corner, and there lying on the kitchen table was a single diamond earring. I realized two things at that moment: the first was that I had only put on one earring that morning and had completely forgotten that fact. The second was that I now had to explain to everyone of my thoughtlessness and while they were searching diligently for my earring it was in fact sitting at home on my table, not lost after all. Needless-to-say, I felt pretty dumb. Who almost loses diamond earrings, a gift from your husband, after only two weeks of ownership? Who forgets to put on an earring, and then doesn't notice she only has one earring in her ear until three hours later? Who then gets a search party looking for a needle in a haystack, when really there is no needle in that haystack? ...NOT ME! :)