Dinosaurs, Murder and Dinosaurs that are Murderers.

One of the best things about summer is being outside. For any reason.

Once a month from May to September, a local shopping, dining, entertainment complex, Heritage Station, shows a movie outside on the patio. In May it was Rear Window, June brought The Goonies, and this past Friday was Jurassic Park.


Jurassic. Park.

No one loves dinosaurs quite like I do. I have like six dinosaur tee-shirts, no lie. When I got my wisdom teeth out about 10 years ago I was obsessed with watching Jurassic Parks 1, 2 and 3. It was my sole reason for living for about two days. Well, that and The American President. Anesthesia man. It'll make you wacky.

I also recently discovered that in the next county over, they also show a movie outside at the local pool  once a month. I sadly missed the first one or two because I didn't know, but I found out that they were showing Dial M for Murder last night. The one thing I might love more than dinos are Hitchcock movies, and if one is being shown, I am there!

Nothing to do with the movie, but someone stuck this funny sticker on a sign near where the movie was shown!

The thing about Hitchcock movies -- and for me, a lot of old movies in general -- is that watching them is like being wrapped in a warm blanket. Know what I mean? When I watch them, it's like visiting an old friend I haven't seen in a while. That might be weird, but they are so familiar and comforting in that way.

If you're local, Heritage Station will show Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone the First Friday in August and We Are Marshall the first Friday in September. The movies are just $1 to see! Dreamland Pool will show Vertigo the second Saturday in August ... and it's FREE, which is my favorite word!

Funny Kids and Not-So-Funny Legislatures.

I babysat for a new family tonight that has three boys. They lived in this area before and then moved away and have now come back. They go to my church, and the littlest boy had been in my Vacation Bible School class earlier this summer. They were sweet kids and definitely rowdy boys! It was fun to be with them.

I'm saying all this to say the middle boy, who is going into second grade, looks at me and goes "Do you have a boyfriend?" And I was like, "No I don't, but thank you for asking." To which he says, "Um ... you might want to think about getting one!"

Duly noted. :)

They also asked me what I did, and I told them I was in school to be a teacher. Later in the afternoon, the youngest boy asked me to do something, and I said, "I didn't hear a nice word in there!" And he said, "Oh! Please!" And then the middle boy was like, "You are going to be a really good teacher!"

Loved it!

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In less fun news, the State of West Virginia is developing legislation, known as the "Dangerous Wild Animal Act," that would prohibit certain animals from being owned in the state. Like a lot of people, I (incorrectly) assumed that this list was created to prohibit ownership of things like mountain lions, bears and certain breeds of snakes.

As it turns out, the list includes, among other things, all breeds of rabbit. Not just wild rabbits, but ALL rabbits, meaning Baby Snicks. (You can read the full list here.) What's curious is that things like Komodo Dragons are allowed, while my house rabbit is not.

A photo of the "dangerous wild animal."

I know it might seem silly to ask, but if you are a resident of West Virginia (or have a vested interest in the lives of precious West Virginia bunnies), I was hoping you might be willing to email the Department of Agriculture and voice an opinion about rabbits. At this time, I think it's rabbit breeders (that sell rabbits as pets and for meat) that are most concerned since it's their livelihood, but obviously in my case it's because I'd prefer to keep Snicks alive and where he is -- with me. The proper person to email is Jodee Martin at jodeemartin@wvda.us. You have until noon on August 1. Something to mention might be that rabbits are the third most popular companion mammal in the United States after dogs and cats. (Source) And, personally, Snicks is neutered, litter box trained, lives inside, is free of disease and sees a vet once a year for a physical.

I think Snicks may be grandfathered in since I already have him, but there was also talk of applications and $100 fees. My questions are things like would they require me to cage him or keep him outside? I don't know. That's not his life. And when Snicks dies one day, which I don't like to think about but he's not immortal, I can't adopt another homeless bunny?

When I emailed Ms. Martin I told her I'd be happy to bring Baby S by to meet her at her convenience so she can see what he's like in person. Maybe she'll take me up on it! :) I'm prepared to argue that Snicks is calmer, better behaved and less of a threat than some people's dogs and cats.

I Followed a Recipe! Cookie Dough Dip and Salad Dressing.

Yum! Looks like a big bowl of heaping chocolate chip cookie dough, right?

WRONG! So wrong.

Let me explain. I recently stumbled across a blog called Chocolate Covered Katie. Basically, she develops recipes that allow you to eat your favorite desserts in a healthy way. The first recipe I saw of hers was on Pinterest and it was for cookie dough dip. I decided to try it.

The first surprise of this dessert is that it contains an entire can of chickpeas. You heard me. When I first opened the can and rinsed them, I was like no way. These things smell pretty strong and there is no way that this is going to work. But I pressed on.

I tossed them in the food processor with salt, baking soda, vanilla, 1/4 cup of almond butter, brown sugar, some oats and a little flax. I processed and processed. And then took it out and threw some chocolate chips in. Low and behold, I got cookie dough!

Can you believe it? I put it in the fridge to chill, since the food processor spinning made it kind of warm. Now it looks even more like cookie dough!

Final verdict? Pretty good. It's not as sweet as regular cookie dough, and mine is darker than Katie's, but I'm wondering if she used another nut butter that wasn't almond, which is what I used. Other than it not being as sweet as traditional cookie dough, I'd say it's pretty darn close! If I did it again, I wouldn't add the chocolate chips till after I had chilled it for awhile since they got a little melty due to the dough being warm from the food processor. I might also try agave syrup instead of brown sugar to make it even more healthy. Katie suggests to eat with graham crackers, so that's what I'm going to do! There are a ton of other recipes on her blog that I hope to try too!

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I've talked about Amy's blog a lot because I love it, I love reading about her family and their adoption journey and lifestyle. But the other day she put up a recipe for a salad dressing she and her daughter concocted. Concocted is probably too fancy a word since this dressing involves two ingredients! That's right, just two. She decided that even her "natural" dressings had too much nonsense in them, so she threw two little cucumbers and a mango in the food processor and called it a day.

So I did too.

And it tastes pretty good! I think I messed up and added too much cucumber and I only had one mango, so I couldn't keep messing with the proportions. Amy's is more orange and mine is more green, so my goal is to go get another mango (or two!) and put it all back in the food processor again to make it more mango-y and less cucumber-y, which I think will make it even tastier. And think of how much you can use since it's just cucumbers and mangos!

Thanks Katie and Amy!

And If Life is a Game, Aren't We On the Same Team?

I mean really, right? I'm on your team, be on my team.

I love Kid President. Okay, who doesn't? I actually had the privilege of sharing his videos with someone for the first time yesterday. There is really nothing else like the joy of bringing Kid President to a new fan. The thing is, this world needs more Kid President.

It's kind of amazing that we, as adults, need a 10-year-old kid to remind us what's really important. You know what adults do? Yell. Yell and argue. Argue and yell. Work. Talk about how tired they are. Talk about how they don't want to go to work. Talk about their weight. Passively aggressively argue about politics on Facebook. Forget about their friends' birthdays. Tell everyone to hurry up. Get an attitude with the check out girl at Kroger. Complain about the water bill and the rising cost of gas.

Shew, boy, that sounds like a thrilling way to live life.

Right?

Um, no.

This time of year, summertime, when the living is easy -- or maybe easier since at least you're not outside in -18 degrees driving through 6" of snow to work -- is the time of year when you really realize we're adults ... and we are BORING.

As Kid President says, The world needs you to stop being boring. Yeah, you. Boring is easy. Everybody can be boring.

Remember when you were a kid and it was the first day of summer vacation and it was still light at 9 p.m. and you stayed outside playing flashlight tag till all hours? Or the feeling of cracking open a fresh Nancy Drew mystery from the library curled up in your windowseat. How excited you got when your mom got you a Happy Meal. Or staying up to watch Snick? Going to the movies when the newest Disney animated movie came out and seeing a new princess you could be. Catching fireflies or spotting a turtle in your backyard.

When did our lives become only about doing laundry and being tired? We've heard the phrase "work hard, play hard," but it seems we all got stuck on "work hard." We got stuck on "work hard, then go home and watch TV on your couch till bedtime, then get up and do it all over again."

The thing is, does that make you happy? It does not make me happy. So maybe let's stop talking about the upcoming election ("upcoming") and go blow up a balloon. Who's with me?

Some words of wisdom from our sage, KP:

- But what if there really were two roads? I'd want to be on the one that leads to awesome.

- What if Michael Jordan would have quit? He never would have made Space Jam. And I love Space Jam.

- What will you create to make the world awesome? Nothing if you keep sitting there.

- We can cry about it, or we can dance about it.

- Here's a surprise corn dog I got you because you're my friend.

- Before you say something about the barbecue sauce on someone else's shirt, take a look at the barbecue  sauce on your own shirt.

- "I don't know" ... I know a lot of people who need to say that.

- My sports team is not always the best sports team. It takes a big man to say that.

- I disagree with you, but I still like you as a person. Because you are a human being. (Sounds familiar.)

- If you can't think of something nice to say, you're not thinking hard enough.

- A title doesn't make you more important.

- Some days your kite will fly high, some days it will get stuck in a tree.

- There's plenty of reasons to dance, you just gotta look for them.

- The biggest mess up? Not forgiving each other's mess ups.

- Amazing things will happen every day.

- You're made from love to be loved to spread love. Even if hate has a bullhorn, love is louder.

I Followed a Recipe! No Bake Energy Bites.

As has been stated many a time on this blog, I am not known for my kitchen skills. Sure, I can wash a dish or organize a pantry with the best of them, but when it comes to cooking and baking, I just ... don't. But I've also been attempting to put more effort into making some healthy dinners and just trying to eat better overall.

I know myself, and I know that I can't just give up sweets and dessert. I truly believe that it's not a slice of cake that makes you unhealthy, it's the whole cake, or a couple slices every day. Dessert is not the devil, overeating is.

I was browsing Pinterest the other day, and saw a recipe for these No Bake Energy Bites. They looked tasty, so I investigated further and found myself at the Cooking Classy blog. Awesome! I was so excited to find out that these Bites were made with healthy ingredients. Seriously! The author claimed that not only were they healthy, but they were good enough to be a dessert. Best part? No baking of course! I decided to try it for myself.

I combined the peanut butter, vanilla and honey in a bowl, then stirred in the oats, the flax and the coconut. (Although, I will admit, it called for toasted coconut, but I am impatient so I just used the raw.) Then I added the chocolate chips.

I then let it sit in the fridge to chill for about 90 minutes or so. I then took the "dough" out of the fridge and formed my bites. Easy peasy!

And they taste GREAT! They remind me of a no-bake oatmeal cookie or even raw cookie dough. They are definitely good enough to be a little dessert, and I'm so happy to know that they are full of healthy ingredients and not loaded with sugar or wacky ingredients.

I made my balls a little smaller, so my batch yielded about 25 of them. The author said she liked to use mini chocolate chips, and I definitely agree. I wasn't able to find the mini ones at the store today, so I had to go with regular, and they are harder to form since the the size of the chocolate chip and the size of the completed snack are so close. I'll definitely try minis next time! This is super delish, especially if you're like me and you like a sweet treat, don't like to bake and don't want to have to buy crazy ingredients you'll only use once.

I've been scouting out some other healthy dessert recipes and plan to try them out in the future. I'll post about them here!

Thanks Cooking Classy! Follow the recipe for yourself here: No Bake Energy Bites

Two Dimes and a Nickel. (Get it? Change.)

A couple of months ago I wrote this post about allowing people to change. Allowing people to grow and improve without reminding them of the shortcomings they used to have and mistakes they've made.

And there's a very important sister post to that piece and it's this: allowing yourself to change.

I think that we all have things in our past we wish we hadn't done (or failed to do). If you've never made mistakes or said or done something you regret, I wish I knew your secret. I think most of us also have personality traits that we don't like. I'll go first: I am highly critical, I am uptight, I can be judgmental and I'm demanding. Yikes. That's hard to admit. The thing is, I am critical and demanding of others, but if I'm honest with myself I realize that I turn those things mostly on myself. That finger is always, always, always pointing in. I am also capable of laying a guilt trip on myself so thick that I can't see my hand in front of my face, if you know what I mean. And guilt is what is inevitably the outcome if I don't live up to my own judgmental, critical, demanding standards.

The biggest problem is, guilt is a constant companion. Just when you start feeling good about yourself, or feeling like you've been on a road of good choices and actions, guilt over past actions is enough to pull you down and make you feel like you're a horrible person. It's that voice that says, as soon as someone compliments you or thanks you for something kind you've done, "If they only knew the kind of person I really am, they wouldn't think I'm so great."

The thing is -- as I said before, we have to allow people to change. But it's so important that we let ourselves change too. Just because you did something in the past or were someone in the past, doesn't mean that you are or have to be that person today too. Our lives are composed of our actions every day -- the things we choose to say and do every day. It's important that we recognize the hard work we've done to change things we don't like about ourselves and to continue to move forward to the person we really want to be and the life we really want to have.

Past behavior may sometimes be an indicator of who someone is. But really, I think it's more of a comparison to show us how far we've come.

That Girl Who Disagrees With You? She's a Person Too.

On days like today I like to stay off Facebook. Days when a controversial issue is super big news, and everyone has their own opinion. I debated with myself over whether to blog about this, but then I got this survey in the mail today and it seemed like a sign. It's not opinions that I mind -- we all have them -- but it's the way in which people share them that bothers me.

I think it's really easy to hide behind our computer monitors and phone screens and forget about the fact that we're addressing other human beings. The truth is, people on both sides of an issue usually believe that they are honestly right and that their opinion is in the best interest of women/death row inmates/drug addicts/whatever the thing is. But I think when we're using our keyboards to pontificate about any issue, it is really very easy to forget that the people who disagree with us aren't demons, they are other human beings. They are people with moms and brothers and kids who probably donate to charities and do community service. I think it's perfectly fine to hold an opinion -- I actually don't really love fence-sitters -- and I think it's totally okay to voice your opinion ... in a loving manner. Also, has anyone ever changed their mind on a hot-button issue because one of their Facebook friends lectured them and told them they didn't care about individual freedom or whatever? I honestly bet that no one ever read a post like that, or a comment, and thought, "You know what? Sally is totally right. I am a woman-hater who is on the wrong side of history. I'm totally changing my mind 180 degrees. I am SO glad she yelled at me so rudely on Facebook."

As they say in The American President, "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating, at the top of his lungs, that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours." 

And, there is that little matter of loving your neighbor as yourself.  No one wants to be lectured or shouted at or demeaned. Especially on Facebook. The fact that we all have different opinions and ideas is what makes this nation great. And I understand that these are BIG issues with outcomes that wound people's hearts and people feel I-N-C-R-E-D-I-B-L-Y passionate about them. There are many issues I feel incredibly strongly about too and there are also things that hurt my heart. But before I say anything publicly, I always try and remind myself that the person to whom (not AT whom) I'm speaking is a person. Like I am.

Just my opinion. Hopefully shared in a loving manner because you are a person too.