NMHS 2011 All School Musical - DROWSY CHAPERONE

Connecticut friends - get your tickets!

The Drowsy Chaperone

Friday, March 18 - 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, March 19 - 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, March 20 - 3:00 p.m.

Friday, March 25 - 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, March 26 - 2:00 p.m.

Saturday, March 26 - 7:30 p.m.

New Milford High School Theater

Ticket Information:

Cost: $10

Box Office Phone: 860-350-6647, ext. 1552

Box Office Hours:

Monday-Friday, 2:15-4:00 p.m.

Monday-Thursday, 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Sorry :) - shameless family plug.  But really - my dad's kids do an AMAZING job!

Dinner was cheese ravioli and a meat sauce at my parent's house!  We came over for the UCONN women's basketball game.  It's senior night, aww ... 

Why do I never think to buy ravioli?

Tomorrow is WEAR A DRESS TUESDAY!  And the sun is supposed to shine!

Night! :)

London Fog

It's been FOGGY today!

Kind of feels like we're floating on a cloud!

Even though it wasn't cold per se (52 degrees!), Bruce thought it would be cozy on a dreary day to light a fire.  We haven't had one in awhile!

Bruce had to work early this morning (like - leave at 4:45 kind of early), so when he came home he was starving and made a huge batch of tuna.  He added hard boiled eggs and made his own relish to give the salad a sweet kick!

Yes, he made his own relish!  Seriously, sometimes I think he should be writing THIS blog and not and outdoors one.

We made sandwiches.  I piled tonnns of tuna on mine.  Thick sandwiches remind me of something you'd get at a deli, agreed?

I realize it's after 5 and I'm only posting about lunch, but it's been one of those days.  All good things, I promise!

:)

***

I had someone ask on facebook, so I thought I'd answer over here too.  Once we get our team put together for the CT Breast Health Initiative 2011 Race in the Park, we will put together a website that people can donate through.  I'm really excited about the race this year.  We can't erase the heartache of the past, but we can honor those we lost and fight to prevent future losses.

Free Car Wash Anyone?

Morning all!

Before I forget (because I have been known to), the second part of my series on women and friendships is up and cranking at Girl Talk - check it out here!

It is absolutely POURING here today, but rather than complain about the dreary day, I turned lemons into lemonade and pulled my car out of the garage ...

Rain = Free Car Wash.  Score.

I was giddily excited about my breakfast this morning!  My mom had a couple of muffins leftover from Saturday's workshop and she offered me one as I was leaving her house yesterday.  I took a coffee cake one!  Costco muffins are amazing.

I cut mine in half, threw it in the toaster oven and toasted it to "medium-dark".

It was PERFECT.  Crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside.  Not burnt!

And the butter that I topped it with instantly melted.

What a delicious way to start my morning!

***

My friend Amanda and I are putting together a team from our church to run in the CT Breast Health Initiative's 2011 Race In The Park.  Any of my CT blog friends running the race?  Church friends - if you are interested in being part of the team, please let me know!  We run in honor of Carol Conklin and Lynn Redgrave.

Have a great day everyone!

Touchdown Jesus

Quick back story.  I'm working with some people at the church on new techniques of hospitality and new ways of reaching out into the community.  One of the things that we are doing is putting together an up-to-date information brochure, complete with information about our worship, education, fellowship, outreach, etc. etc. 

So today after church my mom and I tried to stage a photo of her speaking from the pulpit.  The whole process was kind of comical, and I ended up with a photo stream that looks like this ...

"And then Jesus came tearing into Jerusalem, healing the sick, helping the oppressed, feeding the thousands and staring into the eyes of his betrayers!"

"And onto the cross, into the grave and OH MY GOD HE ROSE AGAIN!"

"A resurrection!  A resurrection!  I'VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS!"

Come on.  You'd totally come to our church, right?

In other news, my sweet husband cooked us dinner tonight!

Chicken Teriyaki for me,  Salmon Teriyaki for him.  But I did try a piece of his samon!  It was yummy - I may slowly start trying different types of seafood ...

Rice and green beans on the side.  I think the beans were frozen from my parents summer garden!  I love garden veggies.

Night all!

Photo Tutorial: Catching The Movement Of Water

The sun was casting rainbows today!

The sun was reflecting so much light off of all the snow today.  It was so bright and beautiful!

After church Bruce and I went up to my parents house to help them eat through some of their leftovers.

I made an open-faced barbecue chicken sandwich on a croissant (from Costco - leftover from yesterday's workshop on being an extravagant welcome).  I cut the chicken into thin slices, put them on the croissant and then shredded sharp cheddar cheese on the top.

Then I popped it into the toaster oven on 350 degrees until the cheese was melted!

It was delicious.  Open-faced hot sandwiches always remind me of cute cafes!  I heated up some rice on the side.

After lunch I took a little walk through Kent Falls, a state park near my parent's house.  The falls are so gorgeous right now!  The big blocks of ice are nowhere near melting yet (I walked out onto some of them!) but it isn't so cold that there isn't any movement at all.

In order to capture the movement of the water, I used a tripod to steady my hand and a slow shutter speed.  I thought I would use these photos as an opportunity for a quick photo tutorial!  My camera settings are below ...

Setting: Manual

ISO: 100

F/Stop: 29.0

Shutter Speed: 1/6

Setting: Manual

ISO: 100

F/Stop: 32

Shutter Speed: 1/8

 Setting: Manual

ISO: 100

F/Stop: 32.0

Shutter Speed: 1/5

 

Setting: Manual

ISO: 100

F/Stop: 29.0

Shutter Speed: 1/10

Setting: Manual

ISO: 100

F/Stop: 29.0

Shutter Speed: 1/10

When I am getting ready to shoot something I always try to think about what I want the photo to look like - and then go from there.  So when I arrived at the falls and decided that I wanted to capture the movement of the water, I knew that my starting point would be a slow shutter speed.  I adjusted my settings from there.

My biggest issue today was that the sun was shining and I had TONS of light.  Ironic, right?  A photographer complaining about light?  But with a slow shutter speed, lots of light gets let in already.  So I lowered my ISO as low as it would go and cranked up my F/Stop as high as it would go.  With those two settings letting in the least light as possible I could get away with a slower shutter speed.

It sounds complicated, but I promise it's not!  Photography is all about (1) light and (2) knowing what you want your final outcome to be and thinking backwards.

Alright, I'm going to quit and hit publish before I confuse y'all even further.  Good luck!

Sunny Snowy Sunday

It snowed last night!  But the sun is shining this morning and it looks like it is going to be a beautiful day!

I made a quick bowl of oatmeal for breakfast with chopped walnuts, brown sugar and a dash of white sugar because I didn't have a lot of brown sugar.

Didn't seem to make a difference in the taste!

I hate to post and run, but I have to leave for church in 7 minutes!

Have a great day!

xoxo
Sarah

Scarf Progress

Progress.

I forgot how relaxing knitting can be.  I love the repetitive motion, the feeling of the yarn moving through my fingers and the instantly gratifying results of watching a project grow.

I love the colors in this scarf.  I have been inspired by the bold color choices Young House Love has been making on their new house and have been trying to integrate colors like that into my life as well.  Bold = Beautiful.  In colors and in life.

I should be done tomorrow!

Night all. :)

Being A Church Of Extravagant Welcome

What a FABULOUS morning!

We had a workshop at my church this morning on how to be a church of "Extravagant Welcome".  One of my passions - in study and in practice - is finding ways to integrate old faith and traditions into the 21st century and this definitely spoke to a lot of my interests!

Continental breakfast spread of muffins, croissants, yogurt, fruit and danishes.  Bribe with food - church people will come!

I got home around 1:30 and made an amaaaaazing bowl of fried rice.

It was non-traditional in a way (I had no eggs or already cooked chicken), but still delicious!

I started by sauteing a small can of mushrooms and some minced onion in butter.  When they were nice and brown I threw in some frozen vegetables and tossed everything in soy sauce.  Then I chopped up some walnuts and threw those in.  Once the veggies and walnuts were warm I dumped in some rice, threw in more soy sauce and a few sprinkles of sugar.  It was delicious!

I'm trying to decide what to do next.  I was up late last night and when my alarm went off at 6 I was not feeling well rested!  Maybe I'll just relax ...

What have you all been up to today?

A List

1. It's been pouring all day.

2. Because of #1 I've been resisting the urge to run around in the rain.

3. Also because of #1 I have been watching One Tree Hill reruns all day.  I think my brain needed a break.  Although I am a good multi-tasker - so the day hasn't been a complete loss, productivity-wise.

4. Bruce made me lunch today.  He's pretty much the best husband ever.

5. That was our last can of tuna.  All we have left to eat at this point is peanut butter & jelly and an assortment of leftovers that probably aren't good anymore.  I should probably go to the grocery store.

6. Have I mentioned lately that I live 15 minutes from the nearest grocery store?  There are some parts of city life that I miss.  Convenience is one of them.

7. I wish I could hire someone to do my grocery shopping for me.

8. My amazingly-talented husband etched a Wear a Dress Tuesday glass for me!  Coolest gift EVER!

9. Because of #1 I decided to knit myself a scarf.

9. I'm hoping that the fact that I'm making myself a scarf will jinx the weather and spring will come.

10. In the time that it took me to write this blog post it stopped pouring rain and started pouring snow.  I need to stop talking about the weather.