How does a person go to walmart...

And buy only one thing??
That was what the cashier asked me when I was checking out today.
It was that or, "what kind of a person". Either way, my response was, "Lot's of self-control." Or was it discipline? Either way, same dif.
There are lots of things I'd like to buy, but I just don't see the NEED. And if there's a need (like a new lamp I'm thinking about buying), I go away, think about it for days, weeks and even months, and then finally purchase it.
I have a strict spending budget, you see, buy only what I need and then put everything else in savings to prevent me from buying more. If I want something extra, I've gotta SAVE UP FOR IT.
Okay, so I didn't NEED that box of Annie's macaroni.. (ON SALE), or those two Steaz Teaz.. (ON SALE, and one was for my bro, charity cases are excused, right?). But I did need the other stuff I bought (at the grocery store). And I don't always abide by these rules, mind you. They're more like.. GUIDELINES. Then I went to Walmart, because I'm one of those people that likes to just walk around Walmart and let her mind wander. Take your time, peruse the aisles... and then buy a 10 dollar tube of natural face wash.
You read me.
Say Yes to Blueberries. You might remember a blog post on April 13th (to be exact) where I bought dental floss and Say Yes to Carrots. Well, that face wash is not only super fantastic, but it's lasted me up until now. There's still a few more washes in it, yet! But I like to replace things before they run out.
The Blueberries is a little more expensive and for less! But it's spercial. It's gawt Blueberries (no duh) to fight free radicals, coconut oil to moisturize, apple to refresh and brighten and lemon peel to clean. I know, I'm strange, because I'm excited about a paraben-free natural (95%) facial wash. Oh well!
They also have moisturizers, which I've ignored until now. I'll have to pick some up next time!

Picture snatched off some ulta beauty website

So I tried this neat little curling trick, you take a stretchy headband and put it on over your hair and then twist your hair all around it and sleep with it in. In the morning you take it out and your hair is curly!
Well, my hair's already curly-ish.. but I'm obsessed with doing this, mostly because it's so simple. And then I get to walk around with curls in my hair all day long. Win-win!

Speaking of Facebook. Oh, no, we weren't. But we are now. Facebook is ruining the world. And, while it's a great way to meet new people and keep in touch with people, I think it's completely destroying us.
For instance. There's this picture that flies around facebook with two rolls of toilet paper on it, depicting the right way and wrong way to hang toilet paper.
Not that I care all that much on peoples' preferences, but now, when I meet someone, I can't just ask, "how do you hang your toilet paper? Over? Or under?" No, instead it's, "oh, yeah, that toilet paper thing on-" "yeah, facebook." "yeah, haha."
There's no personally getting to know anyone. It's getting to know people en masse. Learning about the whole world instead of personally. "*Like* if you remember this." "*Like* if you've ever done that." EVERYone (or almost) relates to it. Who knew we all did the same things? But, now, it takes all the surprise out of finding that out about individual people.
Say goodbye to conversations like, "I used to play that the floor was lava and you had to jump from couch to couch!" "What?? No way, so did I!"
Because now all you have to do is, "*Like*" and, somewhere in someone's brain they think, "oh, hey, that person did that once."
-_-

So, anyway, have ya'll heard of Kutless? I don't normally like all their music, but April's brother, Alex, got me their worship CD. And I love it. It's such a great CD. I like almost all of their songs.
One of my favorite songs is, "Give Us Clean Hands" and they do a great rendition. It's a little rock n rollish, but I appreciate it.
AUGH! I just bit my tongue. asdsdsdsjgk.
Crisis over.
Anyway, other songs of theirs that I appreciate are:
Amazed
What Faith Can Do
Everything I Need
You Save Me
Redeemer (Great version, Keith Green's still rocks though)
I'm Still Yours.
And, one of my absolute favorites, so favorite, in fact, that I'm putting up a video:

Taken by Love.

One of the best. Ah, I love it. Thanks, Alex, for buying it for me.
Ha, I remember when he did, too. It was, like, three years ago. I forgot to put it on my wishlist for my birthday and I was so disappointed that I did. But, what a guy, he bought it for me and it was a complete surprise! I was so happy. It's one of my favorite CD's.

So, I'm working on a study. Normally I just write motivational little studies and put them up here, but this thing is an actual study with an outline.. and Bible verses that you actually have to LOOK UP. o_O
I do FaithTech studies, and this study is formatted like a FaithTech study. I've never really done something like this before, but I was all excited because it looks all serious and stuff.
Now to actually STUDY. Ha. You wouldn't believe how difficult it has been for me to organize myself enough to start the study. I'm way better at listening to people teach than teaching it myself. But I need to study to show myself approved and not let everyone else do it for me! Are YOU studying to show yourselves approved? It's an important part in your walk. You fill your mind up with God's word so that you can easily fight off Satan's attacks. Anytime you're tempted you can respond with, "it is written." Just as Jesus Christ did when He was tempted, and did you ever see Him sin? NO. Because He didn't give INTO the temptation. That's what it's all about, Jesus freeing us from sin so that we don't ever have to give into temptation again! It doesn't make us invincible to temptation or even sinning, we'll always have a choice and sometimes we might mess up and sin. But you don't have to be a slave to sin any longer! Isn't that wonderful?
Of course, this isn't what my study is about, but it's still a good thing to remind you guys of.
My study is on words, as I think I've said a few times before.
After I'm finished with it I think I'll make a summery and post it on here so that ya'll can read it right quick. I'll put up the outlines, too. But something tells me it will be a while. As I want to to be just right! And gathering such things can take a while.

So--I say so a lot at the beginning of paragraphs, don't I? Who noticed that besides me? Or did no one notice? Either way, by now I've posted pictures of my two different painting areas. The outside one and the inside one.
The outside works when it's warm but not too hot, and not freezing. The indoors one works only when I'm desperate. My brilliant parents created that space for me and I appreciate it! But it's become cramped. Back outside, folks! I need to get back into painting, I truly do. I appreciate art so much and, really, I think I'm an artist under the guise of a writer. I don't dedicate much time to art, but in the depths of my soul I long to. I just lack the motivation. You know what I did to find that word? It was on the tip of my brain but I just couldn't think of it, so I googled, "I lack the" and there it was. Bahahaha. And here I am complaining about technology. Oh but I'm so terrible at thinking of the words I'm thinking. You should hear me talking to BFF, I'm always like, "what's that word?" And she's like "this?" And I'm like "YEAAH!" Such a great pair.
Anyways, woe is to me. Well, not really, the sun is shining and Jesus saves, so no woe! Woe to those who take evil for good and good for evil. That's Biblical right there.

You know, I've noticed that my first letters are only the second largest. I used to do them the largest. Have you noticed? I downsized. It's the economy. But perhaps I'll make them larger again.
Anyway, right now my project is to not be lethargic. I've been quite, lately, and it's got to stop. So I've been working out a lot and *TRYING* to get into writing. I write tid-bits here and there, so that's good. I have so many ideas it shouldn't be that hard. But it is. I let the worries of, "will anyone ever publish this?" stunt my creativity. I oughtta stop that right now and just go write whatever the heck I want!
Well, anyways, that's all for now, folks.

The Indecency of it All!

I went to the lake today.
It was nice.
Okay, there's nothing indecent about that, and I know you saw the title of this blog and thought, "oh, interesting! What's indecent?"
So I guess I won't disappoint and talk about it!

At the lake there were people and, of course, these people were there to swim. Which involves swimwear. Catch my drift?
No, I was actually pleasantly surprised. A lot of the bathing suits (in fact most of them) were pretty decent! I was amazed. Mostly shorts and tank tops. I wanted to congratulate those ladies. Good job! If you've seen me swimming, you'd know I look like a nun. I wear bermuda shorts and a running shirt over a swimming suit. I can explain, normally I wear board shorts but I don't fit into my old ones so I just stick with my extra long running shorts :p. And then I normally wear a tank top, but I've been wearing shirts with sleeves because I like to cover my shoulders from the sun (been burned there too many times as a child, yeouch). I'm not one of those people who are like, "you MUST cover every single part of your body!" I wear jeans (not skirts) but I like being modest. In my point of view, if most of the upper thigh is covered and no cleavage is showing, you're good to go. You want to cover up but I'm not going to wear long pants and long sleeved shirts in 95 degree weather :)

Oh, but the men, on the other hand, they were all mostly shirtless. I don't want to see a guy's chest. Cover it up, please!
Women catch flack for causing men to stumble. But they never seem to think the other way around? It'd be better if everyone just covered up so then there would be no distractions.
And everybody needs to get control of themselves! That doesn't give us all excuses to be indecent, no, no. I'd be decent anyway. I don't want people to see my body. That's private! Ladies AND gentlemen, cover yourselves up, have some dignity, for crying out loud. Some bathing suits cover less than your underwear. Underwear is something you shouldn't walk around in public in. Think about it guyyys.

But the bottom line, I was very proud of those ladies at the lake who wore mostly decent swimwear. Bravo to you, ladies! And, well, a least the guys weren't wearing speedos, that would have been extremely distracting, talk about a Luke-face moment right there. Pss, Loud audio, turn down the speaks.



Everyone, especially you young ladies; You should not be embarrassed of covering too much! Don't give into the pressure of this world to show more of your skin. Hold your heads high and dress appropriately!! :)

TECHNICALLY

I did something tonight that I haven't done in a long time..
I measured the vanilla when I was making cookies.
I did, I really did.
And then proceeded to dump a little extra in. Well, it was a short-lived progress. But progress nonetheless! By now you've guessed it, I hardly ever measure the vanilla.
There's only one explanation, really, that being that I love vanilla. Everything should be vanilla flavored. Okay, not really. I appreciate vanilla in cooking, but I do not appreciate it anywhere else. Body washes, soaps, lotions, candles. No thanks. I don't enjoy sugary, sweet smells. I enjoy the tastes, not the smells. Candles, soaps and lotions should be floral and/or fresh. You shouldn't feel like you're bathing in 800 calories of sugar and fat. Well, that's just my opinion.

Two songs I keep listening to:
No One Would Listen

This song is so sweet. If you've not seen Phantom of the Opera, well, I don't feel like explaining. But most of the movie you're like, "man, that guy's kind of evil." But you can't help but feel sorry for the poor guy. This song isn't in the movie, it got cut, but I think it best conveys just how he feels, and really bridges that gap between the viewer and his little wittle heart.
And, might I say, Gerard Butler does a smashing job as the Phantom. I enjoy the music in that movie a lot, but upon my recent revisiting of this wonderful movie, I realized just how seductive and sensual it is. *Single eyebrow raise* But that's the magic of tv! You don't HAVE to watch ANYthing! :D

Then, there's this wonderful song:
Ride to Death

If you haven't seen the new True Grit yet, go watch it. At least once.
Jeff Bridges is one of my favorite actors. He plays in Surf's Up, and that's one of my favorite movies. Anyway, he does a swell job and so does that girl. The best part is the ending (hey, don't read if you don't want to spoil the end!!) when she falls down a chasm and he saves her after she gets snakebit. Best part, so gripping, so moving. And this music plays at that part. And it's just.. so dramatic and spectacular. It holds your heart and pulls you along for the ride and you--aaah, I can't even describe it well enough. And I expect to be a writer? Well, back to studying the SAURUS for me. <<- see what I did there? Thesaurus? Get it? GET IT?

So, between those two songs and just finishing Catching Fire and Mockingjay (rereading them anyway), I've been swarmed with brilliance. Again, the writer of the Hunger Games series has a rare gift of putting together words, plot and emotions and capturing your attention with it and not letting go until the end. That is the sort of writing I aspire to.
Sadly, it's the type of writing that does not come naturally to me. I'm not a dramatic, gripping-type writer (at least I don't think). I'm more of a humorist, at heart. And fantastical at my greatest. I'm a story-teller, a narrator. I like to make things fun, pretend as though I'm talking to a good group of friends, entertaining them. Definitely not what you find in war-hardened romances such as the Hunger Games series. Oh well, I shall aspire to be the best Andrea writer and that shall be good enough for me!

I was watching Ice Cream: Unwrapped on the cooking channel (Cooking Channel, not Food Network), and I find myself, once again, wanting to get a job at an ice cream shop. It's really probably not as glamorous as I imagine. But there's something fun about serving ice cream. At least I think so. And if I had to work with any sort of food, ice cream would be my choice.
Or, if you want to be technical, frozen dairy products, as FroYo isn't ice cream, TECHNICALLY.

Anyway, I think that'll be all for tonight. You're lucky, I was just going to go to bed, but then I wanted to tell you all about the vanilla that I had to sit down and write this little tidbit. I wanna know, does anyone else ever notice that I *usually* color the first letter/word of my paragraph? HMM?? I do it, alll the time. Do you notice, do you? If not, then I give up!! I do all these nice things, hoping to make you notice me and give me a little credit for once, and what do I get? You ingrates. Okay, sorry, sorry! No, baby don't be like that! Baby!!
Sorry, moment of midnight insanity right there. Anyways, you know I love you guys! Until later, ciao! (which means GOODBYE in Italian.)

Here you are, precious! I got a GOOD picture.

 Now you know.

I've used it for numerous dishes now, and I couldn't be happier.
I'm going to go back and make another one, probably green. It'll say something equally smart like, Fantastically Tasty. Any ideas?
It may look a little like this:

But not so yellow. That's a plate I made for my bff. Isn't it snug? Yes. I know you're jealous.
So the plan for today is, clean the kitchen, go to work, come back and WRITE.
Speaking of work, I was thinking of getting a job a Jamms. It's a frozen yogurt place that I love! (Better than Top This <_< ). Just a consideration I'll be praying about. I started reading in Ephesians, too. I haven't read it in a while so I'm rediscovering all this little goodies.
Now, for a moment to be honest with you: This is how my bed looks when I roll out of it in the morning..

 I know.. I guess I might toss and turn a little.. Just a little?
Anyway, I thought it was so funny that my covers were so completely mangled, that I snapped a picture of it. I know, it may be weird to you, but I think it's hilarious. Probably something only ten or eight people in the world might find humorous. Let me know if you're one of them, I'd like to shake your hand.

Ending on a happy note: Have I told you, lately, that I love my room? Look at this..

 Sparkles.. Everywhere!! <3

Just.. just, there aren't words for how beautiful it is.  Sigh. Farewell.

I did something naughty yesterday. A lot of somethings. I will name them for you.

• I spent money.
• I spent money on frozen yogurt.
• I ate at Wendy's.
• Not only did I eat at Wendy's, but I drank Dr. Pepper, too.
• And I ate all the french fries..
• I baked, and ate, cookies.

Now that we've got that out of the way. How are you?
Oh, I'm alright. I just rearranged my furniture for the bazillionth time.
But you don't want to hear about that, you want to hear about my adventure in town!
Well, I started out going into toown. Town, town, not that town that's just 4 minutes away, but that one over THERE. Ok, it's only 20 minutes away, but it's away!
I went into town to pick up pottery that I painted with my mother last Saturday. I'd post pictures, only my camera is way over there.. and I'm chilaxing in my green chair. No can do, Commander.
So, since I was in TOWN, I figured I might as well go to Fred Meyer! Such a neat store with desks and stuff. Oh, and food, and clothes, too. Well, it's like Walmart or Target but cooler. And I bought my purse there, so I wanted to shop for a new purse.
Ok, so my phone rang and I got up anyway.. but that's because it was my mom. And I don't care how comfortable or lazy you are, if your mama's calling, you answer! Which resulted in my making chili dip (chili + desired amount of cream cheese = chili dip), eating it, bartering with Jeff about taking my car as long as he brings me back tea, sitting at the piano and playing a short (short) tune and then grabbing my music books so I could recatalog them. Only to return to my room with three volumes of sheet music and remember that I abandoned you. Sadly, this is a typical Andrea thing to do.

ANYWAY, after retrieving the pottery, I got some froyo (Rachelle hates that term) because it was lunch time and I figured I should have a snack before shopping, otherwise I get cranky and tired and just go home.  But froyo wasn't enough. Impulsively, I turn into a Wendy's drive-thru and before I can rethink this terrible act, I not only ordered a chicken sandwich--but fries and GASPGASPGASP, a soda.
Let's examine this, shall we?
Chicken sandwich: Not such a terrible choice, chicken, sure, from Wendy's, a little better.
Add fries: Greasy, fried sticks of fat and starch. That's... ok, it was just a small!
But then, the greatest wrong of them all.. did I order lemonade? No. Or even a frosty? No. I order.. Dr. Pepper.
I shall take this moment to say, I don't drink soda. Sure, once in a long while. For instance, I had some at a friend's bday party in May and then on the way home from Rachelle's house I had a few sips of Nick's Mr. Pibb (or was it Dr. Pepper? IDK, my bff, Jill?)
Soda's simply not meant to be consumed by humans. And then, fast food! I never eat fast food--well, not never, but I do avoid it.
Either way, it was all just a bunch of tomfoolery and I shant be drinking soda for a while now! Or eating fast food for that matter.

So, after doing that evil, I went to find Fred Meyer, only I'm sure they moved it somewhere else, because I couldn't find it. I should take this time to note that I never remember exactly where Fred Meyer is. In this case, I went the back way to Wendy's and passed it, got on the highway, went further up, didn't see it, went to Walmart (more on that later) then turned around and went home, only I took a shortcut home which went around where Fred Meyer is so I ended up avoiding it in my grand scheme of stupidity. But let's talk about Walmart. This Walmart I almost never go to because it's so farrr awaaay. So I go there looking for shampoo, conditioner, fish oil and eye drops.
I end up buying shampoo and conditioner and then leaving in a cold sweat to get out of there because I can't find anything in that place!
There is another Walmart on my way home, which I know like the back of my hand. Ahhh. So I finish my shopping there and return home where my new wireless keyboard and mouse set are waiting for me.
But I need batteries and my family is known for not having batteries. So I go back to Walmart. But to the other one that's closer to home. This one I know almost as well as the other. The reason being, it's newer so I haven't been going as long. It took me a full rotation around the store to finally find the batteries. It should be noted that I was carrying around a package of toilet paper while looking incredibly lost.
Note to all: Batteries are usually in a big huge thing in the main aisle up front where the checkout lanes are. D'oh!
I also looked at some sterling silver earrings and promised myself I would buy some someday.
I rented Mirror Mirror, which is a hilarious movie, and watched it with my family.
So now you know where I was yesterday.. bumbling around town trying to find Fred Meyer and batteries. Sigh, what am I going to do with myself?

Oh, and here's a picture of the bowl I painted. Don't flatter yourself, I just stole it off of my facebook.