A couple of months ago, while watching The Talk on the elliptical, I heard about an essay/photo contest sponsored by MORE Magazine. When they mentioned that it was only for women over 30, I decided it was worth checking out! The 2012 theme is “why I’m beautiful inside and out.” Even though the idea of me in a beauty contest is laughable, I felt compelled to enter for the experience and writing exposure. I’ve learned that nothing happens if you don’t put yourself out there, and this seemed like a positive step.
Writing the piece was more difficult than I expected. I struggled with the spiritual implications of writing an essay publicly proclaiming that I’m beautiful (a scary thing to do regardless – I’m very aware that I’m not a supermodel). I saw my words through the eyes of everyone I know. I worried that other Christians would see the whole thing as boastful, or judge me for not saying, “I have no beauty except in my Lord and Savior.” True self-confidence is still a newish experience for me, so I don’t have a good sense of what’s healthy and what’s conceited. But I believe that you can know that your inner and outer beauty comes from God and still appreciate the way He created you. Reflecting on that helps me when all I can see are the ugly things about myself.
So: here’s my entry in the MORE Magazine 2012 Beauty Search! The overall winners will be chosen by judges, but there’s also a Reader’s Choice prize based on number of votes. If you’re so inclined, you can vote once a day until May 9. :)
Thanks in advance!
I took my cats to the vet yesterday for a checkup. Wrangling both of them by myself is usually I-need-a-drink exhausting, but it turned out to be the easiest vet visit ever. No one needed shots this year… and Gandalf was howling and hissing like a banshee, so the vet and I agreed he didn’t really need to be examined after all. LOL! (Gandalf is high-strung, so he can get murderous when anyone or anything disturbs his space uninvited. It’s too bad that no one really gets what a wonderful cat he is alone with me.)
Peach did need an exam, though. She’s lost a lot of weight, and for a month or so I’ve sensed that she doesn’t feel good. For reasons that already seem silly to me, I was convinced that she had feline diabetes. I got myself all worked up figuring out how to cope with the situation. Thankfully, it’s not that serious. Her mouth is rejecting her two front teeth for some mysterious reason, so the vet recommended removing them. Apparently this is somewhat common in cats. I feel sad to think of her losing her teeth, but the vet assured me that her quality of life won’t suffer and will probably even improve. So we’ll get that done in a couple of weeks.
I know you’re all waiting with bated breath for a follow-up about my air conditioner. Well, it was dead, and I had to replace the entire outside unit (the tower thing with the fan) to the tune of A LOT. But I have now replaced every major appliance and electrical-type thing in my house, so I should be entering a period of peace.
7 Comments + Posted in: cats, domestic
Just a recap of what’s going on in my kitchen lately…
This fantastic salad combo is courtesy of my friend Kelly in Knoxville. I enjoyed it many times last summer. When I had a sudden craving for it this week, I couldn’t remember the ingredients and had to search high and low for the recipe. Here’s what you need to know:
My Kroger had NO peaches, so I used oranges instead. I topped it all with a quick balsamic vinaigrette. So good!
On Monday I raided the herb garden to make the long-anticipated Green Couscous. It was as good as I’d hoped and may be a new favorite this summer!
I’ve also been looking for a good strawberry muffin recipe (as usual, something under 150 calories per muffin). Last night I excitedly tried this recipe. It said to use whole wheat pastry flour, but I used regular whole wheat (because who has a variety of pastry flours sitting around?), thinking it wouldn’t matter. Um, IT DID. They turned out strawberry hockey pucks. Aside from that, they were kind of bland, even with all that strawberry puree and Splenda sprinkled on top. Back to the drawing board.
I’m about to lose all patience with the machines in my life. The past few months have been a rising crescendo of everyday, but important, things not working like they’re supposed to. Behold my First World Problems:
– At work, I’m required to save all my work to a shared drive rather than my own computer. The network is so bad these days that at the end of the document’s five minutes of thinking, I usually get an error message that the filepath has been lost. Then I have to click through to the folder all over again. I draft documents for a living, so this happens about 50 times a day, which is a lot of cumulative annoyance. Especially when it could save to disk in two seconds.
– About six months ago, the cable went out in my company’s exercise room. I found a major-network show to watch on the elliptical and made peace with the situation. Last week, the TVs on the machines stopped picking up any signal at all. According to my sources, it’s unlikely that this will ever be fixed. So from now on I have to hustle in place for 40 minutes while staring at the wall. Even with music, that’s pretty lame. And sadly, I can’t read on an exercise machine – it makes me motion-sick.
– I’ve had an HTC Eris for several years. Lately it’s been sluggish and unreliable, sometimes not even registering calls. I also have to recharge it every afternoon because of bad reception in my building. It’s almost enough to make me go back to an actual telephone. I could have gone many more years without a smartphone, but my ex forced the issue (long story) and now I like and am accustomed to having one.
– My home internet doesn’t work more often than it does. Even with Comcast, that seems excessive. I’m wondering if I need a new router.
– My heating and air system broke down last night. I replaced the whole shebang so it would stop breaking down twice a year, but so far it hasn’t made any difference. I like a toasty environment, so I didn’t even notice a problem until I woke up because I was too hot. Then I realized I had never heard the compressor kick on and the fan had been running for hours. Thankfully, my HVAC guy can come by tonight. I really hope it’s something minor.
What are your current technological annoyances? Any suggestions for me?
5 Comments + Posted in: what i'm into
As I keep mentioning (sorry), my yard is in full bloom! I know it’s not that exciting to most people, but it makes me so happy. My Encore azaleas put on a beautiful show this year:
Over time, I’ve planted a variety of things in the front bed to ensure that something is always happening. The daffodils and hyacinths have already come and gone, and the azaleas are starting to fade, so now it’s time for the hostas and salvia. I planted a whole row of salvia a couple of years ago, but this plant was the only one that took off.
The front bed doesn’t get much sun and the soil is terrible (apparently the builders used the area as a brickyard :P), so planting there is always a gamble. I special ordered a dozen tiger lily bulbs last fall and can’t wait to see how they do. They’re already starting to pop up!
Meanwhile, I’ve never had such a crop of roses! I have three rose bushes – a Tropicana, a Don Juan climbing rose, and a hot pink Knock Out. Usually, we have a short window of nice weather, so I only get a few blooms before the two fussier plants give up in the heat. (The Knock Out is practically zero maintenance and will do its own thing until October.) But they’re loving this early spring. I go out back to enjoy them every day.
I bought this trellis at the same time I bought the Don Juan, since climbing roses need support. But this is the first time I’ve actually used it. I think the narrow part is supposed to go in the ground, but that way, it kept falling over no matter how much I reinforced it. About a week ago, I was worried that the plant would break under the weight of its blooms, so I tried the trellis upside down and secured the stem to it. Success! Let’s hope it holds.
Last weekend my brother took some portraits of me for a contest I’m entering (more info to come). We wanted to incorporate the roses somehow, but the shots in front of them just didn’t look right. So he came up with this!
Happy weekend!
3 Comments + Posted in: gardening, spring