AND THE OSCAR GOES TO....DEBBIE AND DARREN AGAIN!!

We attended the annual Darrenn and Jenny Platt Academy Awards party last night. It's quite a competitive night! For all those who want to participate we turn in ballots on the Wednesday before the Oscars guessing who will win and we put them into a spread sheet. The person who gets the most correct wins the Academy Award at the end of the evening. For the third year running Darren and I have won. We won an Oscar that is 'engraved' with a gold craft marker with our names as well as some cool prizes. The Oscar gets passed from year to year to the winner. Dan and Terri Erichson won four years ago - and then us and us and us!! I'm thinking next year we should just get a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award and stop playing - give someone else a chance. We like movies, we go to movies, we rent movies, we read about movies, we listen to talk radio about movies - so we are 'educated players' in the game!!! Or maybe it's because Darren is in charge of the spreadsheet!! :-) Actually, we have two big screens, one for the Show and the other with the spreadsheet so everyone can see where they stand throughout the evening, so if we did try to cheat, we'd be found out!

I am in charge of Oscar Bingo! That makes the evening a lot of fun too! (at least I think so!) I put things in the bingo like, "Winner trips on stairs," things like that! Some people had that and everytime someone got up to accept an award they were yelling - "C'mon, I only need one more, trip, fall!!" Boy, we miss a Sunday evening church service to party and look what happens to us!! Anyway, then I buy prizes that go along with nominated movies - like for "The Illusionist" I bought a magician's hat and a bunny rabbit!! How fun is that?! Robin Garvin won that one!

So we all just hang out in comfy clothes, eat too much, and criticize everyone!! "Can you believe she's wearing THAT!!" Some of those celebs obviously didn't look in the mirror before they left the house! Us common folk could do better than some of them by shopping at our favorite store - Target!!

So I have returned our Academy Award next to our DVD collection! Oh yea, my acceptance speech, "I can't believe I won!"

Is it cheating if I borrow from other blogs??!! Several bloggers have been posting "50 favorite things" list - so I'm going to do the same. I wonder how many things we all have in common out there!

1. My relationship with God.
2. Darren, my husband.
3. Simon, my cat. (okay so I'm one of those freaks who considers me a mommy to Simon!!)
4. My parents, The Hookers! (sorry, couldn't refuse!)
5. My 10 nieces and nephews.
6. Donna and Charlie - my bro. and sis.
7. Great friendships.
8. Snow, snow, and more snow!
9. Cool weather.
10. Coach purses.
11. Dishes - all kinds!
12. Bon Jovi.
13. Chicken and dumplins with fried okra.
14. Butter becan icecream.
15. Doing transcription.
16. Listening to Darren sing.
17. Kids Church.
18. My Family Room.
19. The Academy Awards - and the Annual Platt Academy Awards party!
20. Longaberger baskets.
21. Daisies.
22. Purple tulips.
23. Gardening.
24. Keith Urban.
25. It's a Grind Carmel Macchiato with whipped cream.
26. My Bunko buddies.
27. My Missionettes Class - Friends!
28. My E-group - such wise women!
29. Carnivals.
30. Every Reese Witherspoon movie.
31. Thursday nights with Darren - our picnic on the floor/movie night!!
32. Cracker Barrel.
33. Sunday lunch with friends.
34. Kitchen Gadgets.
35. Cheesy gifts from the dollar store!
36. Target.
37. Coupons and when I save over 50% at the store!
38. Iced sweet tea.
39. Spending time back home in Southern Illinois.
40. Dancing/dance music.
41. Stitch (from Lilo and Stitch).
42. Going to movies.
43. New York City.
44. Live concerts/plays/musicals.
45. Spending Sunday afternoons going through open houses.
46. Marco Island, Florida (my honeymoon destination)
47. Darren's legs!
48. Water - swimming, skiing, boating!
49. Hugs from kids at church.
50. My new appliances!

Any surprises?? That was actually pretty fun for me. If you haven't made your list yet - do it! It's not just a 'favorite' thing, but as I was thinking about it, I realized this could be a list of my many blessings as well.

Okay, so everyone I know has a blog and a couple of my friends have been urging me to 'just do it' so here I am!! I don't have pictures of any cute kids and funny stories to share like they do, so you'll have to hear about my crazed cat and my hubby Darren!! I'll do my best to make this entertaining!

I'll begin with my day today! I had breakfast with my E-group - it's a "home fellowship" on-line for those of us who teach or serve in other areas of the church and can't attend a regular home fellowship. Our wonderful leader Gwen begins each Monday with a new topic, scripture, and some very thought provoking questions which we all e-mail back and forth all week pondering, responding, and learning from each other. It was great to get together and talk face to face today. Plus I love going out for breakfast! I ordered chocolate milk with my meal - which embarrasses Darren because I'm 40, not 10! But I like my chocolate milk!!

Now to the fun housework stuff! I'll be posting a lot about the trials and tribulations of remodeling that we are beginning next Monday - I'll keep you posted with pictures!

Okay friends - now it's your turn....

This is a test blog - just playing around!