February 8, 2010

Drew Brees Family at Super Bowl

Happy Monday-after-Super-Bowl, everyone!  LilSis is still in Big D, and without Big T's influence, we wouldn't have watched the Super Bowl at all.  We were watching “Death at a Funeral” during the game, so we recorded it.  Our plan was to forward through the plays to just watch the commercials, but it became clear that the Saints had showed up!  We ended up watching most of the 4th quarter, and were actually more impressed with the game than with the commercials!

So congratulations to the New Orleans Saints this morning!  It's always fun to see the underdog prevail, and it's especially nice to see New Orleans get a much-needed boost!

Photo credit: Getty Images

~BigSis

February 1, 2010

Did you watch the Grammy Awards last night?  I'm a big fan of Pink, so her performance blew me away, as usual!  It also made me want to run for the gym!  Can you imagine being in front of all those people in that *outfit*?  Wow!

I like watching awards shows, but the Red Carpet is my favorite part by far.  Here are some photos from the Grammys Red Carpet 2010.  As you might imagine, it was not a boring evening!

Adam Lambert

Beyonce

Blackeyed Peas

Carrie Underwood

Heidi Klum and Seal

Keri Hilson

Lady Gaga

Lea Michele

Mary J Blige

Pink

~BigSis

January 4, 2010

Happy new year, everyone!  I hope that you had a wonderful holiday time, and that you're fired up about the new year and ready to get it rolling!  I love that it always feel like a fresh start to me.  Who among us doesn't need a fresh start in some area of their life?

I talked last year about how I don't really like resolutions because I feel like I'm setting myself up to fail somehow if I make official “resolutions”.  Instead, I like to think about what I did the previous year…what worked, what was a disaster, what do I want to do differently, what do I want to add to my life.  For me, a new year is about reflection and reevaluation.

This new year, I can see that it's going to take extra workouts to achieve and maintain the level of fitness I'm comfortable with.  I was on that train for several months in 2009, but wandered off it and have to get back on now.  I'm not totally out in the weeds, but I'm a bit off course, and that slight veering off the path can quickly turn into a full-blown physical train wreck when you're forty-plus!  If you don't know what I mean, you will eventually!

The biggest change for 2010 is one I've been seriously contemplating for the last few months, after having it in the back of my mind for 15 years. It's time for me to stop fiddling around and finally go vegan.

When I first stopped eating all meat products, I also stayed away from eggs and dairy for quite a while, but finally succumbed and adopted a purely vegetarian diet rather than vegan.  Since I know that the egg and dairy industries are probably more abusive than the factory meat farms, I'm going to put my money where my mouth is and stop putting eggs and dairy there.

I started out telling myself that this vegan business was going to be really hard; harder than going vegetarian was since that was pretty darn easy for me.  The biggest challenge is definitely going to be learning how to bake in a completely different way, and for me this is pretty major since I love to bake more than I like to cook.

I've decided this change will be fun, as well as the right thing for me to do, and one thing I'm going to do from square one to make it funner is to blog about it.  I realize that most BigSisLilSis readers aren't vegan or even vegetarian, so I'm going to start a brand new blog for my vegan ramblings. I'm still noodling it around, so I'll bust it out when it's a bit more finalized.  I do know it's going to be a little adventure, and I'm excited to start.  I'm in the process of cleaning all the butter and eggs and other holiday baking remnants from my kitchen, along with the holiday leftovers.  Once that's gone, away we go to Vegan Land! Wheeee haw!

So, my goals or resolutions or whatever I'm calling them, are to:

• Exercise with a new motivation and keep it up, with the goal of building more muscle and getting stronger. That means getting back to Jillian Michaels' videos, yoga class, and using the new Wii Fit I just bought myself with Christmas money.  I also joined RecipeGirl's 10 in 2010 program as LilSis did.

• Adopt a vegan diet asap and blog about it.  You'll notice a lot of new cookbooks in my left sidebar reading list now, since I'm going to need some help to keep my food interesting and nutritious!

• Learn how to bake without eggs and dairy!  The 2010 SPCA Bake Sale is only 11.5 months away!

• Find a new church and plug in.  It's time already; stop messing around and commit to one.

• Work toward balance between all aspects of my life: work, blogging, social, health, and spiritual. This is a toughie when you're an all-or-nothing personality like me!

There you have it.  I bet that some of my goals and LilSis' goals are the same as yours, so let's all rally around each other, and make some positive changes in 2010!  We can do it!

~BigSis

November 27, 2009

I really don't like the fact that somewhere along the line, the biggest shopping day of the year was named Black Friday! I just don't like it. I never go shopping the day after Thanksgiving. I guess if there was an amazing sale on a specific large ticket item that I needed for someone, I might venture out, but not at 4 a.m! Never!

I'm sure most people are out shopping and not at home reading, but that is exactly what I should be doing today. I recently received two of my favorite magazines, both which have some beautiful Christmas cookies on the cover.

I'm dying to find time to sit down and look through both of these, but I have a problem. I'm a little behind on my reading!

And, there's more.

And, still more!

I don't know how I let this happen AGAIN! I guess there's just too much going on each day that prevents me from being able to leisurely sit down and thumb through each of these as they arrive.

In the summer, one of my favorite things to do is to sit down at the beach and thumb through a really good magazine. And I love all of these that I subscribe to but something's gotta give. I just canceled my subscription to Food & Wine (gasp!) because I realized that out of all the magazines I receive, it has the most unread issues.

When my stacks become overwhelming, like they are now, it stresses me out because it becomes just another chore that I'm behind on and then it's no fun at all!

So, I need a plan. I wonder if it would help me dig into them if I put them in nice little stacks like these in order by issue?

I think I'm going to have to start with the most current and go backwards because otherwise, I won't get to my December issues until next Summer!

~LilSis

October 16, 2009

LilSis and I are still in Sin City, so we're super excited to have an awesome guest poster today!  SAA is a coworker of mine, and she had the incredible opportunity to see U2 live in Dallas the other day.  Call me jealous!  She's agreed to share her experience with us all, so take it away, SAA!

Photo by SAA!

It's hard to describe a concert experience like U2's 360 Tour in the new Cowboys' Stadium Monday night.  Was it epic?  That's close, but it falls short.  Life changing?  Well, I don't want to be dramatic…but that might be more like it.

The story started when I lucked into a last-minute ticket for the Dallas stop on U2's 360 Tour on Monday.  Basically, a friend figured out he wouldn't be able to make it because of work, and $65 and 24 hours later I found myself a mere ten yards from the 2-inch platform shoes of Bono himself.  Yes, Bono wears 2-inch platform shoes because, yes, he has a bad case of Short Man's syndrome.  But I digress.

If the Cowboys' Stadium isn't staggering in and of itself, walking inside and seeing the towering, alien-like 360 Tour stage will make your jaw drop (see http://360.u2.com).  Add 70,000 people and the era's greatest (arguably) rock band, and, well…the phrase “life-changing” doesn't seem as dramatic.

I could try to go into detail about what it felt like when The Edge strummed the first note of With or Without You (my personal favorite), or when Bono made eye contact with me from only eight feet away and I went weak in the knees, or when the stadium sounded like it was about to burst during Where the Streets Have No Name.  But I'd be setting myself up for failure.  Words just can't do it justice.

I will say that U2's old stuff will always be nearer and dearer to my heart than their more recent songs.  They actually opened with two songs I didn't know from their newest album, and I had the sinking feeling that the concert might be a let-down.  But, happily, the set list only got better from there.  BigSis had predicted that Bono would find a way to throw in a political issue, and she wasn't wrong: before the concert started, event staff passed out rather creepy masks of Aung San Suu Kyi (picture here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:U2360-Suu_Kyi-tribute.JPG), an imprisoned Burmese democracy advocate, for those of us on the floor to wear during Walk On.  But really, Bono wasn't preachy about it, and it was a worthwhile issue.  I can't say I'd personally like for thousands of people to be wearing my face on a mask, but maybe that's just me…

Unfortunately, time won't permit a longer post.  But I will leave you with this advice: if the 360 Tour is coming to a city near you, go.  It will be something you tell your kids and/or grandkids about some day.  Thank you, BigSis and LilSis, for the posting space.  And, in the spirit of U2, walk– err, blog on 🙂

September 30, 2009

Hippo birdies art by monettenriquez on Flickr

Hippo birdies to us, hippo birdies to us, hippo birdies BigSisLilSis, hippo birdies to us!  Today is BigSisLilSis' first birthday!  Woo hoo!!  We're so excited that we made it our first blogiversary!  Plus, a big bonus is that we're still speaking to each other.  It's been a crazy, hectic, fun, challenging and sometimes stressful year of learning new technology, working together on design and ideas, and making compromises since both of us are stubborn independent control freaks!  😀

After all that, and with 394 posts published, we're still totally committed to the mission we started with, which is to:

• Write for women like us.

• Strive to be encouraging, and as positive as we can be (with the inevitable occasional Sis rant!)

• Pass along info that we hope will be helpful.

• Share our humor, however odd and twisted it might be!

When we look back over the last year, it has literally flown by on wings, but we're really happy about some of the enhancements we've added to BigSisLilSis:

• We're finally twittering!  Yes!  Finally!

• To show our appreciation, we added Comment Luv to provide a link to our commenters' last post.

• Every 2 or 3 weeks, we feature one of our favorite bloggers in our “We're Crazy About” feature to let everyone else know how awesome they are!

• We're sharing links to the books (and cookbooks) that we're reading at the moment.

• You can see our most popular posts in our sidebar, based on the number of comments received.

• Related posts also show up for each post, so if you liked a particular post, you can see more like it.

So that's where we've been.  Where the heck are we going?  We have a few ideas!  First, we're going to Vegas, baby, for BlogWorld!  But once we get back and recuperate, we have a bunch of things that we're noodling around:

• The BigSisLilSis Facebook page is in the works; yep, another belated overdue foray into current technology for us!

• Our “Shop” page will be a comprehensive list of our favorite things, all gathered in one place.

• We're both working on ideas for some fun individual blogs.

• And, we're super-duper excited about starting a new joint blog exclusively devoted to food!

The most important thing we can say about the last year is that we're abundantly grateful for the support our readers have shown us!  There would be no point in us writing if you weren't reading! So THANK YOU all so very much!  We appreciate you, and hope that you'll stick around for another year!  God willing, we definitely will!

~BigSis

September 25, 2009

I've never been an early adopter.  I don't buy the newest car, TV, camera, phone or computer operating system until long after all of the bugs have been worked out.  I didn't even get my first iPod til last year!

So, I'm also not cool.  Intentionally.  If everyone is buying or doing some fabulous new trendy thing, then I really don't want to do it at all.  I guess I don't want to feel like a trend-captive lemming, just going along with what everyone else has decided I should do or buy.

That's how it was with belly button piercing.  I wanted to do it really badly years ago, and was about to do it when the piercer/tattoo artist told me I couldn't get in the water for 2 weeks afterward, but I was in ding dang Hawaii so I knew that wasn't going to fly.  Once I got back home though, it seemed like everybody and their dog were getting their belly buttons pierced, and I lost my interest in it for good.

I have to admit that I've had that same stubborn don't-wanna-do-it attitude about Twitter.  Everyone else's been tweeting like crazy, and I just haven't had the desire to do it.  I didn't see the point.  Who cares what I'm doing right now?  Most of the time, I don't even care about what I'm doing!  Honestly, it's just not very interesting to think about what I'm having for lunch, or how long I've been in line at the cleaners, or how my mammogram went (btw, it hurt like a son of a gun, thanks for asking).  I also couldn't imagine how I could find any time in my day to put this stuff out there.

I've caved though, in fact, I've joined in with fervor!  I'm a happy little lemming!  And so is LilSis.  We're tweeting and it's so much fun!!  Who knew!  What happened?  Well, we started exploring a little and followed a couple of people.  Then we hesitantly tweeted once, and then twitted a couple of times, and then twittered like crazy, and by then we were hooked! 😀

We've made a promise to each other though.  We want to only tweet about things we would like to read.  That might be an article we think is valuable, a great inspiring quote, a delicious recipe, some important news, or maybe something just full of ridiculous fun!  We want our Twitter time to bring a little something more to BigSisLilSis, and we would love for you to come join in and follow us!

We're coming up on our first Blogiversary in a few days (woo hoo), and are excited to start our second year as Tweeters!  We'll be at BlogWorld in Vegas in 3 weeks, and plan to tweet up a storm!  Oh, and we both also just got our first smart phone last week!  Aren't you proud of us?

What's next for these two wild and crazy women?  Flat panel televisions?  BluRay players?  Stay tuned to our Twitter accounts (BigSisTX and LilSisCA) and find out!

~BigSis

September 8, 2009

After a very stressful week, a long three day holiday weekend, and way too much fun in the sun, unfortunately, I have to get back to work today.  And as much as I dread Mondays, today not only feels like a Monday but is going to be even more difficult because I've let myself take a few days off from all my normal chores.

What I need to start this work week off on the right foot is a funny video. It just so happens that last Tuesday BigSis posted the Marshmallow Murder video and also asked for recommendations for other funny videos.

I have a few that I really like, but I wanted some input so I asked HayHay about some of his favorites. These are his Top Three.  Granted, he is only 16 years old, but these make me laugh too. I hope you might get a chuckle out of one of them.

Disclaimer: On this next video, we don't think it's funny because the model fell down, (that looks like it hurt) we just think it's hilarious that the news anchors can't stop laughing.

Make sure you watch this last one until the very end. It's only a little over a minute long, but pretty darn funny. Notice how the female news anchor at the end is trying not to laugh? 🙂

~LilSis

September 4, 2009

I don't see a lot of movies at the movie theater and most of the time, I don't even see them when they first come out on DVD. I'll usually end up seeing a movie a couple of years after it was first released. But, I've wanted to see Julie and Julia ever since I first heard about it, so one of my good friends and I finally managed to squeeze in a night last week for the two of us to go see the movie.

There is no doubt that Meryl Streep is absolutely amazing as Julia Child, Stanley Tucci was wonderful as her husband, Paul Child, and together they were brilliant. Streep doesn't just play Julia Child, you actually begin to believe that she is Julia Child!

The movie has great moments that will make you burst out into laughter and moments that will instantly bring tears to your eyes. The movie really manages to portray how much in love Julia and Paul were with each other.

I love when Julia says to Paul, “I need something to doooooo.” After trying her hand at hat making and learning to play bridge, Julia decides that eating and cooking are her true passions and she finally decides to enroll in the infamous Cordon Bleu School. There are some great scenes during that period when she's in the cooking school with all the French men.

Meryl Streep as Julia Child

I've read quite a few reviews that say Amy Adams wasn't the right choice for the part of Julie. Of course, she didn't blow me away like Meryl Streep did, but I thought she did a great job at portraying Powell as the slightly neurotic cubicle worker and aspiring writer. There are some touching moments between her and her husband and I loved the way they decided to start the Julie/Julia Project blog. I still want to get a copy of Julie & Julia so I can read all her posts about her experiences in cooking the 524 recipes in 365 days.

I really enjoyed most of the movie but, I have to say that I was a teensy bit disappointed at the end. There seemed to be some huge gaps in time later in the movie as they were flipping back and forth between the two story lines. All of the sudden, Julie only has one recipe left to make and Julia mentions that she has been working on her book for eight years. It just ended too abruptly for me. As the credits rolled, my friend and I just looked at each other and said “it's over?”

I do have a new-found respect for Julie Child. I had no idea that the book was eight years in the making and you could see that it was such a labor of love for her. Not that I will ever bone a duck or make Beef Bourguignon, but I am going to buy a copy of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.”

One of my other good friends had something come up the night we went to the movie so she couldn't join us. I'll admit, if she wants me to go see it with her, I'll go see it again. It still gets a ‘thumbs up' even if I was a little disappointed.

~LilSis

September 1, 2009

How about a hilarious video for Tuesday?  If your Monday beat the stuffin' outta you like mine did, you could use a laugh or twelve today!  I like all of the cute kiddo and crazy cat videos, but after a while they all start to look the same.  This video…not the same.  And that's a good thing!  Trust me; this may be the best video to hit YouTube in years!  It's certainly the most creative that I've seen!  It's short so give it a watch…I'll wait…

Did I exaggerate?  If you know of a better video…please send me the link.  Til then, this rules!  I'm watching it again.

~BigSis