I've officially found my dream home. Almost.

Castle Victorian Dream Home (<---------- clicky)

I just saw this place is for sale, too y'all! For less than a $Mil!

Several years ago, my parents bought their own dream home. It was an old victorian house in Wagoner, OK. Some day I will do a longer post on this house but I absolutely loved it. There's a long fantastic story about how it came to be "our's" but that, too is a story for another day. My parents poured their heart, soul, blood and tears into this house, and we all really thought we'd grow old here. But, they sold it a few years back, and as you all know, they have are on an awesome adventure right now, living in Egypt. But my dream home would definitely be a combination of our Wagoner Gibson house, and this Castle Victorian.

The staircase on the Castle Victorian reminds me of the Wagoner home's entryway... all the Castle Victorian is missing is a fire pole, from the 3rd floor to the second floor's library landing! (Yes, we had a fire pole in our house!! It was amazing!)

*le sigh*

I love this picture of me and my daddy... I snapped it just before he and I went out for a ride in his 1960 MGA that he rebuilt from nothing but a rusted frame. I have such great memories of that car, and the 18 years it took him to fix it!! This is the perfect picture for this week's I Heart Faces challenge!

Check out more wonderful entries HERE!

Kristina and I were BEST friends... like, BEST friends with a capital B-E-S-T! We met in 7th grade, both the new kids in a small private school; both equally disgruntled with our parents for taking us out of our 'perfect' life in public school. We clicked immediately. And one day, we made a list. A list of things we wanted to do before we died. But not only was it a list of things we wanted to accomplish, we wanted to accomplish them together. It was a really cool list, and I wish I knew where it was... I'm going to do some digging and try to find it tomorrow. Kris has always been the daring one... skydiving, hang gliding, bungee jumping, etc. I'm the more travel-oriented one... visit Paris, Italy, etc. So it made for an interesting list, that's for sure. The fun thing was, though, by the time we'd graduated High School, we'd actually accomplished quite a few of the things on our list. We went to Florida together one year on Spring Break. We ran track together. Built a giant blender for homecoming (not that that was on our list... it was just something fun we did). We volunteered at a hospital as candy stripers one summer... and we were always trying to find the morgue but were too scared to actually go beyond the door where we thought it was. Good times. I really hope I can find that list... If I do, I'm going to send it to her and see how many things we've collectively crossed off it!

Ok, so now, here's my list (at least, all that I can think of at midnight)....

- Visit Europe (Italy, France, Germany, England, Switzerland, Spain)

- Go on the Pauline Missionary Journey

- Go to Israel

- Work in an AIDS hospital

- Live in a muslim country

- Learn to speak Arabic

- Write a book

- Climb Mt. Whitney

- Climb Half Dome

- See a sunset at the Grand Canyon

- Learn to quilt

- See Garth Brooks in concert

- Visit Morocco

- Fly first class on a really long flight :-) (a girl can dream right?)

- Sew a dress (like one I'd actually wear)

- Throw a really great party for a friend

- Be in ministry with the man I love :-) (this is only half-crossed out, not because I'm not married to the man I love, but because its not finished yet! God's still got a lot for us to do!)

- Wear red lipstick

- Have my pictures done professionally... hair, make-up, clothes, photoshop... the whole 9 yards. Its my theory anyone can look like Sandra Bullock with all that magic....

- Lead a complete stranger to Christ

Hmmmm.... ok that's good for now. So, what's on your list? Has it changed as you've grown?

When we were in Egypt, our fave driver, Zaki took us to a wonderful restaurant for a traditional meal called Koshary. (Or Kusheri, Kosheri, Kushery, etc.... multiple spellings!) Sean and I tried to make it tonight and this was one meal that was a delicious success! So here's the step by step.

Start by stirring two cups of rice into 1 Tablespoon of vegetable oil. Stir the rice around until its all coated. Then add three cups of water. Bring the water to a boil. Cover and reduce heat. Cook for 20-25 minutes. Also, cook a bag of short elbow macaroni. (I didn't have a picture of this.)

Next, put some lentils on! Add one cup of Lentils to two cups of boiling water. (Salt the water a little bit while its boiling.) Cover and reduce heat. Cook for about 15-20 minutes, or until they are the desired consistency.

Next, chop up two onions and 4 cloves of garlic.

Oh yeah, add a can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans) to a pot and heat them up, too.

Add the onion/garlic chop to 2 Tablespoons of vegetable oil. Cook and stir these for about 10 minutes until they are golden brown. (Its starting to smell reeeallllly good now, right?!)

Once the onions are browned, add 3 Tablespoons of white distilled vinegar.

Add in a can of diced tomatoes and a can of tomato sauce.

Its so easy and super yummy! And its a vegetarian meal. (Not that I really care about that, but its nice to switch things up with a meatless alternative every now and then.) And here's the best part about this meal: its cheap! It makes a TON of food, and all the ingredients are fairly inexpensive-- often things we have on hand in our pantry. I couldn't even eat my who bowl of food-- enough for my lunch tomorrow. AND we have a ton of leftovers for the rest of the week, too.