the prettiest tree in Waco

He gives me hope

Today I'm praising God...
-For Stellan's Victory.
-that even when life looks bleak, I am confident He holds my future.

And I trust in Him.

-for reminding me that PF is not a lways a death sentence*.
-because I know Jesus has the power to restore me.
-that on my first day at BSF, God's already talking to me.
-because I know He's not finished with me yet.
Today I've been reminded that even when there is no hope, there is God. And He always comes through. Sometimes it is not on our terms, but that's okay because He is God and He's in control.

"You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you." Isaiah 26:3


*Tonight I heard about a man who just got his 2nd lung transplant. He is 65 years old, diabetic, and was less than 100 lbs when he went in for it. They told his family he may not make it off the table, and he did. Praise God!

43 families.

The title for this post was going to be "Every day is someone's last" - but that seemed a bit too morbid for a title. You may have guessed I'm writing about the tragedy that took place at Ft. Hood today. My heart goes out to the 43 families who were personally impacted by this senseless shooting. Loss of a loved one is so hard to deal with, especially when it is sudden and unexpected. I don't think I'll ever understand how anyone makes it through losing a child. One thing I've learned over these past 2 years is that there is a day that each and every one of us will leave this life on earth, and we have to be ready on that day. We don't know when it is, and we have no control over when it will come. And when our time does come, we have to be ready to go. I don't know if this is something most people learn at 26, but for me it has really hit home these past few years since losing Uncle Jim, Mama Dara, Aunt Peggy, and Uncle Dan so close together. During Uncle Dan's last week of life (if you can call it that when you are dependent on life support), I heard the Chris Tomlin song I will rise about a hundred times. It reminded me that we all will face "our time" and when it comes we should be ready and willing to go. The harder part of that is letting the people we love go when it is their time. The truth is that any day can be anyone's last, and every day is someone's. One day ours too will come. Will you be ready?

Fun at work

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October in pictures!

I know it's not over yet, but I couldn't resist. Here's what I've been up to!

October 3rd: FC Anniversary and Staff Reunion

October 10th: Houston to see Ben march and run cross country!
October 17th: Dallas for Rae & Liv's Birthday Party!

October 24th: Baylor Homecoming!

And next weekend I'm off to Little Rock... so perhaps more pictures to follow!

a zumba!

So some awesome and generous ladies at my church decided to start up a zumba class just for kicks. Turned out to be a huge hit and people flock to it! Some are good at it, some are pretty bad (like myself), but we all have a great time. Church is a totally safe place to work out, where it is okay to have fun while making a fool of yourself in the company of friends. It was such a hit that they decided to offer it three times a week, so that is where I'm headed tonight! Look out, world ;-)

Marching Mustangs

This weekend I went to Houston to watch Ben march in the band. It's so wild to see him in high school, because he was so young when I was in band myself. He looks great when he marches and this week he was named marcher of the week! AND (drumroll please) he was the 1st JV finisher from Memorial HS at the cross country meet on Saturday! Way to go Ben!

(He is the trumpet player on the far right.)

Random

Well, I am locked out of the house again so I figured why not blog a little? Thank goodness for this nifty iPhone... We'll see how long the battery holds out! I sometimes share recipes on here but today I will share something I do NOT suggest making. Crock pot broccoli cheese soup. Ick, weirdest looking stuff ever. Actually didn't taste too horribly though. Just not something I'll try again.

I received a call today from the national bone marrow registry saying that I am a possible match for someone with a rare form of leukemia. Transplant is usually a last ditch effort when all other treatments have failed. When I joined the registry last spring they told us that we would most likely never be called so when it happened I was quite taken aback. I have decided to go forward with the process for now to see if I might be a suitable donor for this person. There is about a 5% chance, I am told. So, I will leave it in God's hands. After all, he made me... And him.

Not much is going on in my life right now other than work, which I do enjoy. I have lived here long enough that it is officially past time for me to find some friends and hobbies. Not sure what that will entail, because I don't just want to jump into something for the sake of doing something. I want to find something that I am passionate about that has Purpose. I'm keeping my mind open and waiting to see what is next. If it's not getting married and having kids, that is fine, but what is it? I know that is blunt but that's where I am right now. A real life grown up without a real sense of purpose. And I hate that.

So anyway, that's it for now. I guess it's about time to hide a key!! :)

Monterey

I just got back from a whirlwind weekend in Monterey, CA!

Check out the pictures in my Picasa album. Hint: it's the 'my Photos' link --->

mine!

Homemade hummus

I am not the person who would normally create my own homemade hummus, but this week I decided to try this new recipe from MckMama. Long story short, I ended up cooking my own garbanzo beans. I know, strange. (P.S. Did you know beans take like 10 hrs to make if you use the proper method?) Anyway, I ended up with extra beans because, low and behold, after you cook them they practically triple in size. So,.. in the process I found out that garbanzo beans are the same as chickpeas which meant that I could try this recipe for hummus. I'm not sure how it really tasted because A) I didn't have any tahini, and B) the three cheese panetini crackers I ate it with were really tasty!

Oh, and the corn and bean salad turned out okay, too.

Ransom

A couple of weeks ago when I heard this song on the radio, one particular word popped out at me. It's a word I've heard probably hundreds of times in this context, but that time it really grabbed my attention and I've been thinking about it ever since. The word is ransom. We hear it in church all the time, that Jesus paid our ransom. If you're like me and you've been in church your whole life, a lot of these words and phrases, what I like to call Christianese, sound so familiar and casual that we can easily miss the impact of these foundational words. I started thinking about the literal definition of the word "ransom" and I suddenly saw the picture of Christ in a whole new light. Miriam Webster defines ransom as a price paid or demanded for the release of someone or something from captivity.

The truth of the matter is this: all of us have been held captive by the enemy. Imagine for just a moment being kidnapped and held captive against your will. In order to be released from this bondage, a price must be paid: our ransom. What is the ransom, in this case? Life. Blood. Jesus. A life for a life. "For it is blood that makes an atonement for the soul." (Leviticus 17:11b) God in his mercy offered his Son as the ransom (or payment) for me. When I deserved God's wrath and punishment, he instead offered to pay my ransom. He set me free.

Dinnertime!

Well, I finally made it to the store and was able to cook dinner at home this week. I'm hoping to eat out less, even though it's hard while living with college students! I have a basic rule I follow when choosing recipes: no more than 5 ingredients, not including basics like salt, pepper, butter and flour. So for those who, like me, appreciate quick and easy recipes, here you go...

Beef Tenderloin with Peppercorns (only I used pork chops)
-2 beef tenderloin steaks (1 inch thick)
-2 tsp. cracked whole black peppercorns
-2 Tbsp. butter
-1 tsp. all-purpose flour
-salt & pepper
-1/3 cup light cream or milk
-1 Tbsp. horseradish mustard (I used dijon mustard b/c that's what I had)

1. Trim fat from steaks. Sprinkle cracked black pepper evenly over both sides of steaks; rub in with your fingers.
2. Cook steaks for 10-13 minutes in a heavy skillet or on the grill, turning once. Transfer steaks to dinner plates. Cover & keep warm.
3. Meanwhile, for sauce: In small saucepan melt 2 teaspoons butter over medium heat. Stir in flour, salt, and ground black pepper. Slowly stir in milk. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir for 1 minute more. Stir in mustard.
4. Spoon sauce over steaks.

Squash Casserole
-2 lb. summer squash, sliced, cooked and drained
-1/2 cup onion, chopped and cooked with squash
-8 oz. herb-flavored stuffing mix
-1/3 cup butter, melted
-1 can cream of chicken soup
-1 cup grated Cheddar cheese

1. Melt butter and add to stuffing mix.
2. Mix remaining ingredients with half the stuffing mixture and place in greased casserole dish or 9X13 baking dish.
3. Top with remaining stuffing mix and bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes. (I sprinkled on some grated cheese during the last 10 minutes of cooking.)

Mashed Potatoes (always a classic!)
-5 small potatoes
-1/2 cup milk
-1/4 cup butter

1. Boil 6 cups of water.
2. Peel and chop potatoes and place in boiling water.
3. Blend potatoes, milk and butter with a mixer.

ENJOY!

Sweet little brown bear

 

Um...thanks?

 

A little gift Sadie brought me last week :)

August Pics

It hit like a storm

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am a compulsive vacuumer. I can be watching TV, or cooking dinner, and then all of the sudden I am vacuuming... the whole house. I used to vacuum our house in Dallas at least 3 times a week. (Due mostly to our 2 dogs and the dirt they tracked in through the doggy door.) Well. My new house comes with a maid so we don't even have a vacuum. Only she doesn't come in the summer months. I have a tiny hand one that sucks (or doesn't suck...however you want to put it) and a handheld canister vacuum that I inherited from my grandmother. Which is an ORECK. Wow!

But... On moving day back in May, my mom asked me if I had any bags for the little Oreck, which I did, and I got them out for her. She never ended up changing the bag for some reason and then they got lost in the move, so I was left with an incredibly overstuffed vacuum bag upon arriving in Waco which I promptly threw away expecting to find the fresh bags reasonably soon. Needless to say, I have been unable to vacuum since moving to Waco. (Tragedy, I know.) I have tried to sweep every couple weeks just because Sadie's hair is kind of ALL OVER the floor, but it's just not as rewarding. So, one night after work I finally made my way over to the Oreck store to pick up some new bags. And WALLA! I was back in business. I quickly vacuumed around all the baseboards, the bottom of the pantry, the perimeter of my bedroom, the stairs. Oh it was so much fun. I know, I'm crazy, but hey - what can I say? :)


In other news... I've been picking stickers out of Sadie's paws all summer during walks around our extremely dry and somewhat unkempt neighborhood. But today, I learned that she not only knows how to get them out herself, but is actually quite skilled at it. She never stops surprising me.

On our recent trip to Corpus (more pics to come).

Is she spoiled or what?

Fancy feast (not the cat food)

I recently discovered this recipe in a magazine and decided it looked simple enough to try. (I tend to stick to 5 ingredients or fewer.) Despite the fairly easy recipe, it turned out looking like possibly the fanciest thing I've ever made. And it was quite delicious, I might add.

Schlitterbahnnnn!!!

With our exchange students Jack and Max!

Sadie vs Cat

Sadie spotted a cat in our backyard tonight so I decided to let her go after it, assuming the cat would clear the fence long before she could catch it. After 3 failed attempts, the cat decided to go under the fence instead and then climbed up in a tree. Sadie spent the next half hour trying to jump the fence. I cannot believe how high she can jump.