Friday Five - 5 Random Favorites

It appears that I am getting very good at posting on Friday's for the Friday Five, but I am lacking on the other days of the week. Maybe I need to come up with an alliteration theme for each day. Feel free to give a shout out if you have any good ideas!

Today, I thought I would share with you some random favorite things.

1. Favorite Blog - While I do enjoy me some P-dub, my go-to-can't-miss-a-post blog is Katie over at Marriage Confessions. She is down right hilarious, PLUS she has such a great and genuine heart. I just love how deeply she shares. Oh and she has two of the cutest little kiddos -- Bean Man and Gracie-Girl! So, if you haven't checked her out, DO IT!
2. Favorite Appliance - Weird huh? Well, I recently received an Iced Tea Maker from my parents. It's a whole lot of wonderful! It's an understatement to say that I love sun tea. (I just returned from a 5 week vacation visiting the parents in Nebraska, we went through at least 1 gallon of tea per day -- we're tea people, but it must be straight up...no lemon, no sugar!) The problem is I have a spider-infested patio off of my wee-bit-sketchy apartment, so I don't enjoy putting my jar outside in such conditions. This Iced Tea Maker is just the ticket.

3. Favorite Author/Book Series - Remember how I told you that I got rid of my cable? It's going great so far, mostly because now I can read! I've always enjoyed reading, but lately it's almost consuming me and that's because I'm reading the Baxter Family Series by Karen Kingsbury. If you are any sort of fan of Christian Fiction, pick these up. You won't be disappointed!
4. Favorite Aunt - Okay, so I really don't play favorites. She is just my favorite aunt right now because I haven't seen her in over a year and she is coming to visit in just a few short weeks and I am beyond excited. My Aunt Desi is wonderful. A wonderful mom, a christian wife, a beautiful friend. Without a doubt, one of my biggest role models. I loved when we lived a mere hour away from each other, but last year they moved all the way to Washington, and now I miss her something fierce. I can't wait to see her!
5. Favorite Song - This changes almost by the minute, but for the last week it has stayed the same. It's not a new song, in fact, I've known it for quite some time. However, last week we sang this song at our VBS and every time I had chills and tears from watching those beautiful children sing and do the actions for this song. Now, I just can't stop listening to it!

Friday Five: Things I Love About My Sister

This coming Saturday will mark the end of my 4th week of being back in Nebraska to visit for the summer. On Monday, I will try to locate all of my belongings and start the trek back to Wisconsin. These last 4 weeks have been spent at home doing a whole slew of things, all of which have been spent with my little sister, Johanna, at my side. So, I figured as a good bye to home, I would give her the spotlight for my Friday Five!

(Update -- just snapped last night post showers because I realized I still needed a picture for this post! Oh boy...)

1. Her Laugh. No joke, this girl has got one crazy laugh. It usually involves her snorting and ending up on the floor, which just makes everything even more hilarious.

2. Her Gentle Spirit. Johanna has always been the sweet girl who will do everything she can to make sure she doesn't hurt someone else. In our house of 5 siblings, she was always the peacemaker and never once took sides.

3. Her Diva-ness. While she is a sweetheart to her core, this girl can rock some serious "Diva-ness," especially if she is lacking in sleep. The good part is that it's turned into the running joke now, and she just laughs it off when we call her on it! Last week I scored a silicone bracelet which reads "DIVA" so, of course, I needed to snatch it up for her, but the best part is that she actually wears it! Love her.

4. Her Nicknames. I love nicknames. However, I only like nicknames that come for the original name. Johanna has so many and I love that she answers to all of them even in public! Things like -- Jo-Jo, Jo-Johanna, Joj, Jo, Hannah-Jo, Jo-Be, and the list just goes on!

5. Her Love of Home. Johanna has always been the one who struggles with being away from home the most. Her first 2 years of attending camp, she bawled every night, even though my mom was a cook, I was a counselor, and 2 other siblings were also campers. She just missed being at home. Now that she attends school in Eau Claire -- 10 hours away, this girl is known for having a ROUGH time transitioning back into being away from home. While a big part of it comes back to missing mom and dad, I think the things she misses the most come back to just being in her home environment. I love that she loves home!

Friday Five: Favorite TV Shows

In approximately 10 days, I will be no longer have Dish. This means that my biggest form of entertainment will be gone. Over the last 2 years, I have found quite a few TV shows to watch. (read: become addicted to) I decided to get rid of Cable/Dish for a few reasons. 1 - Money (Doesn't it always come back to money???) 2 - Lifestyle (I feel like I need to find other ways to occupy my extra time)

Therefore, in honor of my last few days as a TV watcher, I thought I would share with everyone my current favorite shows.

NOTE: These are in no particular order....as that would have been way too tough for my analytical-self!

1. Dancing With The Stars
I love this show in so many ways! It never fails, my favorite star is never the one to actually win and there is always one who makes it to the finals that is not a great dancer, but I still love it! I think this might be one of the few shows I will continue to follow online!

2. Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice

I have been watching Grey's since the beginning and I might love the spin off of Private Practice even more than I like Grey's. Although, I will be happy to not have to watch Addison's crazy drama anymore!

3. The Bachelor / The Bachelorette
A-D-D-I-C-T-I-N-G! Oh boy. Every season I tell myself I'm not going to watch and next thing I know I'm hooked! It doesn't help that one of my best friends, Megan, and I like to share notes and thoughts each season. Ali's season I even went so far as to to take ACTUAL notes on each of the guys -- pathetic? Yes. But still so wonderful!

4. Biggest Loser
I just love me some Bob and Jillian. Plus there is always one person that I just fall in love with each season!

5. One Tree Hill
This is another show that I've been watching since it started. Each week, they find something else crazy to happen and yet I still come back to find out more!

What about you? Any favorite TV shows?

News...

Let me start off this post by telling all of you that I have a hard time watching the news on TV. Some call me "ignorant," but for me, watching the news just makes me crabby. It's always so one-sided and quite frankly, I'm okay with being "ignorant."

My dad on the other hand, he watches it every time he has the remote. Which in our house is anytime he's home. Naturally, he's been watching the Casey Anthony case. A case which has brought a LOT of coverage. While I usually try to find somewhere else to go, I have had to be upstairs working on project meaning I have been hearing the news coverage for the last week.

By now, even my ignorant self couldn't have missed the fact that Casey Anthony was found to be not guilty of manslaughter. While it appears that many people are quite upset by this decision, I couldn't help but think about those poor jurors. My prayers go out to all of them as I am sure they probably hated the fact that they were called on to be on that jury. Oh Lord, I'm not sure I have the strength to be a member of a jury. If you ever see fit for me to be in that situation please give me that strength. Until then, please grant all those who are called upon to serve in that capacity the ability to do so with an unbiased viewpoint.

But this afternoon as I was driving my sister to work and listening to a Christian Radio station, I happened to hear one lady make a stunning comment. A comment that I just can't get out of my head. She said, "Casey Anthony will probably be released soon and will possibly relocate and perhaps feel like she needs to find a church. What if it's yours? What if she's in your small group? In your living room?" WOW!! That will make you think...

So fellow bloggers/friends, your thoughts on the news in general? Casey Anthony? Welcoming her into your congregation? Give it to me!