Mike and Dannon

Thanksgiving Weekend

2008-11-28T21:02:00.000-08:00

So, I read for 11 hours today and finished the last Harry Potter book. I'm kinda sad that they're over. It was a fun series to read.

Life has been kinda slow and now super great lately but I think that this happens every fall-to a point. Between the dreading of winter and the homesickness as my Christmas vacation approaches, I don't think that life could feel any slower. 3 more weeks.

On a happy note, I've been learning so much fun stuff at work lately! It's so weird to learn things about my personality and the way that I think. It's kind of entertaining.

Well, I got some new fish but 3 of them died already. It is sad. I really want a kitten and I'm trying to fill that "want". :) Someday...

Well, only 3 more weeks until Colorado. I think that I will be able to make it!

3.5 months of updates

2008-10-05T17:13:00.000-07:00

So, I haven't updated my blog in so long because I wanted to do an update on EVERYTHING that has happened. In the end, here were no updates so here is a run-through.

Work was overwhelmingly busy yet equally fun as I've been learning new things and receiving new responsibilities. My weeks are just now going back to normal and I'm realizing how much I really like the 10-12 hour days.

Mike was accepted into Wheaton College's biblical exegesis program and is working hard. He is mainly reading at this time but the big papers will come soon. We've been able to spend alot of time together and that has been fun.

Vacations/Out of town time

Mike and I went to Colorado in July and it was a very fun and relaxing trip back.

I turned 21 in August and Mike surprised me with a trip to Cincinnati. Also relaxing and fun to go on a road trip.

Other updates:

I got an ice cream maker and have made grapefruit sorbet almost daily. It's wonderful stuff.

Mike's high school friend John came to visit for the weekend. He's at a nearby Navy base and we're hoping that he'll visit again soon.

Well, there is an update. Now I feel alot less stress in updating more often. I'm off now to watch Robots and eat grapefruit sorbet!

My Day Home Sick

2008-06-22T15:55:00.000-07:00

So, I woke up Friday morning at the usual time of 4:45am and wasn't feeling well at all. My stomach was very upset and I didn't want to move. It was at that moment that I remembered the last evening... I ate a big plate of the-best-nachos-I've-ever-made and immediately fell asleep on the bed--at 7:00pm. My body wasn't very thrilled about the lack of after-dinner exercise and was punishing me.

I called Bill and told him I was not going into work that morning and then fell back asleep.

I awoke at 9:00am alone. Mike had gone into work at 6:00am, as usual. I sit up and begin planning my day. Since Mike had the car at Moody, my choices were few.

I could sit online and chat with friends or read a book. Both of those choices sounded invigorating and I began logging into my various chat programs (ie iChat and yahoo messenger) when all of a sudden I remembered a notice, on the front door to our building, that I hadn't cared about for the past few weeks

Repairing Pipes
water off daily from 8:00am-4:00pm

As I was remembering this horrid notice I realized that I needed to use the restroom (what can I say? it had been 14 hours since I fell asleep!). Immeidently I called my dad to see if the toilet would flush when the water is off. I knew that on toilets with tanks you have 1 chance BUT we don't have a tank.

He didn't answer.

I decided that this question was important enough to bother Mike and work so I called him. He said that I should test the water and, if the water was on, that it may work. Not a very encouraging answer but I thought I'd try it.

So, after I go I push down the knobby thing to flush and nothing happens.

Not a sound.

"What do I do know?" I thought

About that time my dad calls back. "No, of course it won't flush without the water on" he said... condescendingly... making me think "man, I'm such a loser" (but little did I know that this thought would go through my head again very soon).

Dad told me that if I had 1 to 1 1/2 gallons of water to pour into the toilet, it would flush.

"WHERE AM I SUPPOSED TO GET WATER FORM WHEN THE WATER IS TURNED OFF?? IF I HAD WATER, I WOULDN'T BE IN THIS SITUATION!" I calmly explained. He then said that there is still water in the pipes that I could use so I took down my 3-gallon pot and began filling it with water.

"Only 1-gallon, darn. Can I use a different liquid" I asked, eying the nasty 1/2 gallon of juice I had bought the weekend before (partially happy to have an excuse to throw it out without technically wasting it--it was seriously nasty stuff). He said that any liquid would work so I added the juice to my water and took it into the bathroom.

I pour it into the toilet and to my delight, it works! The toilet is "flushed" but I begin to realize, what I consider to be, a bigger problem...

The new, juice smell, is worse than the previous smell and I quickly left the bathroom before I vomited.

I now had a different situation and no way to solve it. There was no more water in the house to put down to toilet to eliminate the juice smell and I hadn't taken a shower after my intense soccer game on Thursday night and felt pretty nasty with all the sweat that had dried on my body overnight.

I decided to suck it up, put a handkerchief in my disheveled hair and walk to Walgreens. There I paid $3 for 2 gallons of water and began the trek home.

Man, 2 gallons of water is alot heavier when you have just under 1/2 mile to walk.

I get home, pour the water into the toilet, am alittle disappointed that the room still smells like juice but am hopeful that when Mike returns home he won't notice.

To make the next few hours not drag out, I drink alot of water when I'm not feeling well and about 45 minutes after the 2nd water experiment, I have to pee. With no more water in the house, I decided that pee isn't as bad as juice and just go--leaving the unflushed toilet for a couple hours until the water is back on.

The End.

Minneapolis

2008-06-08T16:50:00.000-07:00

So, it's been forever since I posted but luckily, not much has happened in the last few months. I'll shorten them to a few bullet points:

-Mike had tons of homework so I played alot of soccer
-We went to Dan and Susan's wedding
-Mike graduated
-Summer began. Mike is working the same job he has in the spring--as am I
Enough reminiscing.

So, I just got back from a little vacation with Beki Rohan to Minneapolis to see Tracy and Erin. It was extremely fun.

We began the 7 hour drive with lots of energy but both wanted to refuel with some blizzards at about 10:00pm. The service there was extremely bad but we didn't let it get us down. We weren't in that big of a hurry and were excited that DQ was even open. Here is a small glimpse of our excitedness:

Our first day in MN began with Beki and I looking for a Whole Foods. I didn't get lost but wondered a couple times if we would make it back home. :)

After that Tracy came home and we hung out, took naps and played games in eager anticipation for Erin's arrival home from work.

Once she arrived, we decided to go bowling. It was an old fashioned bowling alley and very neat. Beki won the first game and I WON THE 2ND! We enjoyed hanging out and ate nachos and artichoke dip.

A hard afternoon of bowling led us to Caribou Coffee to recharge and then we took a walk around Calhoun Lake. It's about 3 miles and was extremely beautiful--A very relaxing time of walking slowly and talking.

That night we ordered Domino's, watched Speed and went to bed.

Thursday: A day full of shopping began with lunch at Arby's, for me. I had been so excited for this meal and was very let down. I guess you can say it's no longer a craving of mine.

I did, however, eat my fist cheese curd shortly after lunch. Good stuff.

We walked around for what seemed like forever and then, when we couldn't stay on our feet any longer, stopped for a break. I almost fell asleep.

That night, we watched Matilda, played some games and got to bed early.

Friday was a sad day of goodbyes. I was able to see my friend Laura for a short time and then we were off to Chicago. We made good time during the stretch to Madison, WI where we picked up Mike's friend, Shannon, to visit for the weekend. The last 130 miles were absolutely miserable as they took almost 4 hours because of traffic. May I also mention that my a/c currently isn't working so we had the windows down. It was hot, stuffy and loud. Ick.

BUT, we made it home safely and had a great trip!

Here are a couple of my favorite pics:

Beki and I at the lake

Beki walking away from me, partially irritated from all the pictures (this picture was taken before I locked us out of the house--I won't elaborate on that one)

Random Realization

2008-02-10T20:53:00.000-08:00

Well, I sit here with very achy ankles, thawing nostrails and a smile on my face. Soccer was so fun tonite and I played well.

Oh, I thought the coldness was gone but today, I don't think that the temp (actual temp that is) got above 1 degree. Burrr.

Here's what I realized while driving to my soccer game tonite: When it's that cold outside, you have to be careful when you breathe. Why? Because if you breathe towards the front window, your breath will cause frost to form. This isn't just any frost (and shouldn't be confused with fogginess) but it's like a thin layer of ice that can only be removed by putting your hand on the insanely cold glass and melting the ice with your body heat.
Of course, after a few seconds it doesn't feel like there is any heat left in your hand and you may have to switch to the other one.

Be careful out there, Chicagoans!

(p.s. the Chicagoans is actually not misspelled according to Blogger's spell check but it wasn't found in the dictionary)

"Yea, I'm a loser"

2008-02-08T14:56:00.000-08:00

That's my responce when someone comments about my week. I worked 2 days and stayed home 3. Here are the entertainingly boring details:

This week went by quickly but it seems that every day sure did drag. Here's my whining story but it's not really that bad. I got to sleep in.

So, I missed church on Sunday because I was feeling cold-like symptoms. I was okay but not wonderful. Monday morning I woke up, feeling good and happy that the cold had left without too much inconvenience. Boy was I wrong.

3 hours later I went home feeling awful and ended up sleeping all day. That evening I was still feeling okay and went to a Bible study-where I sniffed and sneezed alot but felt okay.

Tuesday I couldn't talk when I woke up. That's not very helpful when you work in an office.

Wednesday I went to work-amazed at how great part-time employees I have in my office but feeling alittle bad that they can go 2 days without me totally. I think that is a blessing though.

Found out after lunch that my soccer friends were playing after work so I joined in-but having not played on the gym floor with those guy sin a couple months I felt more in the way than on the team. We all have those days though.

Thursday looked very similar to Wednesday. Worked hard and got alot done. Found out about soccer at lunchtime and was determined to play better. Boy was I fooling myself ;)

Disclaimer about the guys I play with: they're so good. They can dribble circles around me and I'm finally learning how to defend. No mercy on the field-which I appreciate and learn from.

I was playing okay-still alittle not-focused though... when all of a sudden (while the ball is about as far away as it can be) I turned funny and rolled my left ankle. Now, since these are a bunch of nice, Christian guys everyone stops playing and asks if I'm alright. Yea, I'm alright but embarrassed that I fell over nothing and hurt myself. I keep playing, with alittle pain but it was tolerable, when in the very next play BAM! I get tagged in the nose with the ball. (by the way, that hurts today too... just not enough o whine too much about)

I was somewhat relieved that no one really noticed-other than the kicker (who apologized) and I really wasn't crying from the pain, my eyes were only watering because that's normal when your nose is shoved back into your skull. ;)

Once again, I push on, through the pain and embarassment and score a goal. It was a good goal. I felt like my game was back and I was ready to play.

I went up against another good guy (the type who begins to juggle because he's so good he can hold onto it and get away from the defense) but I messed him up. He ended up popping it up into the air, above out heads and I jump to head it away. I GET IT! I thought for sure he'd jump higher but I don't think he jumped. :) I head it towards the goal and I don't remember what happened with it because when I came down, I landed on the invisible step that caused me pain a few minutes earlier and I sprain my othar ankle.

Well, I stayed home from work today because you cannot do much when you can't walk, ya know. So I sat around all day.

On the bright side: I was just now waddling through the house (that's what I feel like) when my right ankle popped and I could actually straighten it. I had been walking with it sideways because that was the only way it didn't hurt.

So, now I can walk with 2 feet-flat on the floor and I'm planning on taping my ankle and playing soccer again Sunday night.

Burrr

2008-01-29T20:12:00.000-08:00

Some days I'm thankful that Chicago is such a fun city to live in. Today is one of those days.

We left our home about 7:00pm to walk a mile and study at Argo Tea. The trek was uneventful. It was alittle chilly but the 31 degrees was pretty nice.

While we were there, weird things began happening... The condensation from the window began to freeze once it settled on the window ledge. The wind kept pulling the front door open only to cool down the store with the 28 mph winds.

After a couple hours, the door was frozen shut. Customers had to wait, freezing and wet, 3-4 minutes to get inside the store while the baristas tried to push the door open for them. It was actually frozen shut.

About 10:00pm Mike and I decided to brace the coldness. It has only been a few hours so I didn't expect it to be as cold as it was. The wind was so hard that you couldn't look up while walking--and of course, since it's Chicago, turning to walk a different direction meant nothing. The wind was still against you.

We made it home with icy eyelashes and an icy mustache (on Mike), my shoes had kicked up snow onto my legs so my socks were frozen and my legs were so cold they looked like they were sunburned.

I don't always think about the wind chill but with the temp being 6 degrees, wind at 30 mph, it feeling like -17 can really get you. I think that I need thermal pants... and a mask that covers my whole face with little holes for the eyes.

Soccer Club

2008-01-24T22:23:00.000-08:00

So, I've been playing with Moody's Women's Soccer Club since the beginning of last semester. In the fall, it wasn't as structured and there wasn't very good attendance. Indoor has been alot different.

We have a Coach: Coach Worrall. He's English (I think) and a very good player and coach. It seems like he pushes us (or at least me) further than I think that I can go and then allows us to break. It's been very trying but I feel my soccer skills are improving.

We play Thursday nights from 10:00pm-11:30pm so I end up getting home about midnight. It makes for a long Friday but it has been very "worth it" so far.

Well, there's my soccer excitement for the night.

Oh, we ran and I didn't lose! I got 3rd from the end (out of 10). I think that I could've gone alittle faster but wanted to pace myself because I didn't know how long I could last! It was really encouraging though.

Okay, enough rambling. Mike just finished his chapter in his book so we're going to bed.

Life or Death Situation

2008-01-19T09:05:00.000-08:00

So, it's been so busy since we got back from Colorado.

I feel like work is finally slowing down. I was almost bored yesterday and that is a nice feeling.

I've also been busy at home. We have a 3-day weekend now and I'm excited to get alot done.

Here is my scary story from last night:

I got a new fish bowl while in CO so I decided to move Sakana to the big bowl and my 2 baby platies into the smaller one. I took alot of time to filter the water before putting it into the bowls. I also rearranged the rocks so they looked nice. I expected Sakana to be patient and sit in his measuring cut for 10-15 minutes while I was doctoring up his bowl and all of a sudden I see something dark fall onto the ground. Everything was very quiet, no splash or anything! Well, there was my fish. It was very difficult to pick up his wiggily, slimy body off of my wood floor but I got him and scooped him back into the measuring cup. I managed to finish his bowl very quickly and (not very gently) tossed him in.

He's now happily swimming around his big bowl and enjoying his second chance at life.

Soccer has been fun. My indoor team doesn't usually win but they're fun to play with. I play on Sunday nights with games starting between 7pm and 11:45pm. I'm glad I only have one late game. :)

I'm also playing indoor with Moody's Women's Soccer Club. We play on Thursday nights at 10:00pm and we're "coached" by a prof that's from england. He's a very good player and I'm having alot of fun (though it's hard to get up on Friday mornings after getting home at midnight).

Well, I'm off to make some chili, scones, biscotti, bread, anything I feel like cooking because I have all day to waste. I'm afraid to brave the beautiful blue sky outside because I know that it's still -2 degrees. Only 8 weeks until spring!

anniversary

2007-12-19T14:40:00.001-08:00

Cooking with Dannon

2007-11-25T16:14:00.000-08:00

Tonite's meal is called dessert. I decided to skip dinner and make a yellow cake with chocolate frosting and then blend it into a milkshake with Andes Mint ice cream!

What to do:

purchase these items:
yellow cake mix
chocolate frosting
Andes Mint ice cream

Make the cake mix as instructed on the box but replace the oil with apple sauce. You cannot taste the difference and don't need the extra calories.

Cook it as directed on the box. When it's done, let it cool-also take out the ice cream so it can begin to soften (multi-task!).

Let it cool as long as you can handle to wait and then cut a piece out. Put frosting on that piece alone-it will not go neatly as the piece will still be warm. (we only frost one piece because the rest of the cake will still be too hot to frost-you're not very patient either.)

Put your piece of cake into a blender with some ice cream and alittle milk. Add sprinkles for prettiness.

Put into a cup and eat with a spoon-or just drink it... if you're really impatient, the cake will have melted the ice cream to make a more liguidy texture.

Don't leave the kitchen a mess..

After you've enjoyed your shake, frost the rest of the cake once it cools and then freeze it. Once it's frozen, cut it into cubes and throw it into a bag so you can get out mini cakes as often as you want!

Thanksgiving

2007-11-23T10:15:00.000-08:00

Well, yesterday was Thanksgiving and it was alot more fun than I expected it to be. We woke up (me about 9:30am and Mike about 11:30pm) to a fresh blanket of wetness. It snowed and snowed but the ground is too warm for it to stick. Yea, that won't last long... High today is like 30. Either way, I took a picture using a different color mode on my camera. The only colors are red, the rest is grayscale. Guess that's what happens when Mike sleeps in, I'm bored, and it's too cold to do anything. :)

Oh, and here's a pic of my street with the same sort of effect. The leaves finially fell last/this week and it's so pretty!

We went over to Jim and Barb Castro's house and there were about 20 other people. Oh, we brought Jarrod with us.

Jarrod was kind enough to take some pictures of Mike and I before we left to drive out to their house (40 miles/75 minutes). Out of about 20, here are the best ones... Note that Mike isn't very good at having a "normal" expression.

The drive out wasn't awful but we didn't expect it to take as long as it took. Once we got there, we were welcomed with hugs and kisses (they're Italian, guess it's normal) and then we hung out for a couple hours in eager anticipation for the wonderful food that was being provided.

After dinner, all of the guys jumped up to do the dishes. It was very sweet of them but soon after everything had been collected Barb told them they were welcome to do something else. I think that she was worried that the china would be broken. :)

We went downstairs and played ping pong. I enjoyed playing against Mike and almost beat him once. When more competition came downstairs, though, I retired to a nearby chair to laugh at everyone else.

Mike had been anticipating taking on Tony Falco at ping pong all week.(not to be confused with his son Anthony or grandson little Anthony) Tony won and Mike will not be able to hear the end of it!

They also played Bingo. Barb's dad calls out Bingo at the local McDonalds so it sounded like a real game. It was very funny.

Before we left, Jarrod chose to show off his artistic abilities and draw a picture of David (yes, on the wall) without looking. I was surprised that everything was in the right place--it didn't really look like David though.

It was a great night. We left about 9:00pm to take the long trek home. We expected it to take longer to get back into the city but it only took an hour. Don't really know how that happened because the traffic was very slow.

We played Christmas/Oldies music and the guys sang dumb and were entertaining.

After the long trip home, we rented Pan's Labyrinth and had Jarrod over to watch it. Interesting movie. Doing things with an artist is always interesting because they think so differently... He brought a whole different perspective to the movie and I was like "what?". I guess they think differently... more abstract... odd.

Oh, the blurry pics were taken by my phone... The nice ones were my camera-though my phone doesn't do too bad.

Fun Week

2007-11-04T15:24:00.001-08:00

This was a fun week.

Work is going very well. Lots of areas where I'm growing but alot areas where I can look back at how I handled situations and see how the Lord has grown me. It's been encouraging.

I went to Supper Solutions yesterday. I was nervous about how it would be an it was fun. --In case you don't know what that is, it is a place where you go make a certain number of meals. They have all the ingredients and recipes and you just cook. They even clean up! I'm not sure whether it's as cost effective but it will help us have actual meals instead of just ground beef with cheese on it or something. :)

I played soccer with the Moody Women's Soccer Club yesterday. I've been playing with them on Saturday afternoons all semester and it's fun. Not very "high intensity" but enjoyable. We did my favorite drill: me kick corner kicks and everyone else try to get them into the goal

Since soccer brings me such joy, I will allow it 2 paragraphs. I played again today on my city team. It was our last game and we only had 8 players. Luckily, I had invited a friend from Moody to play with us and that put us at 9 people-which is the minimum you can play with. I think that I played well, considering the circumstances. I can always see areas where I need to grow though.

After soccer I rollerbladed to Moody (because it was a BEAUTIFUL day) and hung out with my friend Beki for a couple hours.

Came home and ate some chocolate (not just chocolate, but chocolate with caramel and brownies) ice cream for dinner.

Life is good. :)

Update on my life

2007-10-27T18:30:00.000-07:00

First off, no pics for this post. Sorry.

Life has been going by very quickly! So much has happened this month but nothing really all that important.

Sharon had her baby, Brielle Christine on 10/2--yea, makes me want one. This child is perfect!

I got my hair cut. One of these days I'll take a picture but it's not much different. He cut a few inches off of the top layer so it would lay better without me "looking like a Christmas tree" (his words). I really like it and it's so easy. I will choose him next time. Thanks, Mom, for the gift certificates!

Cannot remember anything in the last 2 weeks so we'll skip alittle time.

Monday I made cinnamon rolls with Tanya that were just okay... I want another try at them.

Last night Beki Rohan and Faith Fullmer (both Moody students) came over and we made pizza and watched The Lake House. It was okay... Not "girly" enough for a girl's night.

TODAY WAS SO FUN! I went to Moody to play in an indoor soccer tournament. The Women's Soccer Club (oh yea, I'm in it... I play with them a couple times a week) had a team and we were the only girl's team out there. We lost every game but played really well together. It was 3 hours of soccer straight! Okay, 2 hours straight then an hour break and then another hour straight. Anyway, I'm very sore now. I'm still planning on playing my final Spanglish Armada game tomorrow but I hope that I don't let anyone down. It's not until 8:00pm though so we should be fine.

Well, Mike is super super busy writing a paper and reading and after that he'll study and then read some more so I'm alittle bored. I guess I shouldn't complain because I have been very busy and actually need a rest.

Oh, and I got a new cell phone!

That's all. Goodnight friends.

Hey, how about if anyone actually reads this, you comment or something so I know.

Laura's Visit

2007-10-04T14:33:00.001-07:00

So, Laura and I met in YWAM 3 years ago. She came to visit and we hung out for like 2 weeks. We've since kept in touch and it was so fun to have her visit for a few days.

She attended classes with Mike all day Monday and (said) that she really enjoyed it. Afterwards we just hung out and relaxed because it had been a long day. We rented The Bourne Supremacy from Blockbuster and I got it for FREE because I had an old movie ticket. (That promotion expired the day we went--just in time.)

On Tuesday we slept in. It was extremely fun. We then took the "L" to downtown and ate lunch at The Signature Room in the John Hancock Building.

Afterwards we raced to meet Jarod at his school so he could give us a tour of the Art Museum. It was so fun! It took us about 3 hours to get through the paintings alone. He knew so many fun things about them that the time just flew by!

After the museum, we went to Millennium Park and hung out for a little while.

Here is a view from the side of "the bean"

After taking way too many dumb pictures at the park, we proceeded to Jarod's school where we hung out and drank coffee in his room.

It was fun to meet his "very artsy" roommate. His roommate was cooking dinner and it smelled so good so we rushed out to go to Ghiordano's for dinner (where we had to waste 45 minutes waiting to be seated--at least we were able to order the pizza so it was done as soon as we sat down).

After stuffing our faces, we drank coffee (I had tea) at Borders in anticipation for the next section of our journey: The Bourne Ultimatium. Yea, we went to a 10:20pm movie and then walked home in the pouring rain.

Anyway, it was like 2 hours that we wasted total...

It was a great weekend. I sure hope that it's not another 3 years before we get to hang out again.

Sushi with Maria

2007-10-04T14:28:00.000-07:00

Maria came over to make sushi a couple of weeks ago. We thought that we'd be experimental and bought Unagi from the Korean Market we get our sushi stuff from. It was NOT a good thing. It was okay... They looked very pretty though.

I will still forever favor Unigi when someone else is cooking it. :)

Selling our Jeep

2007-09-18T14:41:00.000-07:00

Anyone want it?

Mike and I babysitting Caileigh

2007-08-26T11:49:00.000-07:00

Mike and I got to babysit Caileigh a few weeks ago and I'm just now able to post the pics. Caileigh loves Mike the most because he'll feed her junk. ;)

What's wrong with this?

2007-08-26T10:06:00.001-07:00

I just noticed that an electrical outlet in my house looks very rusted. I don't think it's rust because it's sticky and rubs off. It has melted the area it was touching on the plug. It is the outlet that my window a/c unit is plugged into.

I immediately turned off the unit and unplugged it and the plug is like that too. There is no way that anything could've been spilled onto it because of the location. What could be wrong?

I want to find out quickly because I'm not turning it back on until I do and it's getting hot in my little house!

Hirshy Trip 2

2007-08-19T18:50:00.001-07:00

We went to visit the Hirshey family again on the first weekend in August. It was very relaxing--not as busy as last time.

We stayed up until 3am the first night playing a board game called Carcassonne. It's another fun German game. Here's a link: It was very fun! Andrew's dad even joined us until about 2am.

The next morning, the Mike and the Hirschy's went golfing and Tanya and I watched the movie The Island. It's an interesting movie. Another link

In the afternoon, we helped pick and shuck corn for dinner.

Mike enjoyed feeding the cows while we were there.

One of the cats had kittens just after our last visit so we played with the 6 week old kittens. They were pretty afraid of people.

I blame Mike for this.

That evening we rode horses! I got the nicest horse. Andrew got the hardest one and was "bucked" uff but not really because he landed on his feet. Mike didn't want to be left out so he got bucked off too--and landed on his back. He's tough though and got back on.

Sunday we went to church and then BBQed and it was fun. The weekend was very relaxing. Sorry it's taken so long to post!

Recipes

2007-07-26T05:05:00.001-07:00

So, I haven't taken many pictures lately but I have been cooking Mexican food quite a bit. Here are my 2 favorites (this week at least):

Dannon's Enchiladas

Here’s my recipe for my (what I call) enchiladas:

1lb ground beef
½ large onion
1 glass jar of enchilada sauce from Trader Joe’s (divided)
¼ lb. pepper jack cheese
¼ lb. Colby jack cheese
6 large, authentic tortillas from Sunflower Market

Cook ground beef (I season with salt, pepper and cayenne pepper)
Chop the onion in large chunks and add to beef when it only has 1-2 minutes left (I like the onion to be cooked but crunchy at the end)
Shred the cheese together and add half of the cheese mixture to the beef mixture
Add alittle less than ½ of the enchilada sauce to the beef mixture and mix it all together
Pour about 1/8th of a cup of sauce onto the bottom of a 6x6 glass pan and spread it around the bottom (this will help keep the tortillas from sticking)
Spoon 1/6th of the beefy, cheesy, saucy mixture into the first tortilla and roll-place in glass pan
Repeat last step until the pan is full—sometimes I have 1-2 tortillas left over. I usually put the meaty goodness into them and roll them up, seal them with saran wrap and eat them for breakfast)
Empty remaining sauce on top of tortilla mixture
Sprinkle wheeze on top of sauce
Bake at 400 degrees for 12ish minutes (until the sauce is bubbly)
Cut them all in half to make it easier to serve
Enjoy

I gave my enchiladas recipe to a friend and he gave me a yummy, semi-healthy Tortilla Soup recipe:

1 tbs cooking oil
2 pc. Boneless skinless Chicken Breast (But if you like little skin, leave it on)
2 cans Chicken broth
1 can diced tomatoes
1 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Garlic Salt
1 white onion (diced)
2 Jalapenos (seeded and sliced)
1/2 cup Cilantro (chopped)
Black pepper

CONDIMENTS
• Sour Cream
• Shredded Cheddar or Mexican cheese
• Authentic plain or salted tortilla chips broken into pieces
o If there is not authentic tortilla chips, plain tortilla chips will do.
• Avocado sliced (Optional)

Slice chicken breast into good bite size pieces.
In a pot on medium-high heat, add the oil and brown the chicken until it loses its opaqueness (Be careful to not let the chicken stick to the pot. This will tear the chicken up).
Add Chicken broth, Rotel, cumin, garlic salt, onion, and Jalapeno. Turn-up the heat until it starts boiling.
Reduce heat to simmer (for about 10 minutes).
Add Cilantro and continue to cook to an additional 10 minutes.
Add fresh cracked pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

the beach with Caileigh

2007-07-14T11:46:00.001-07:00

Sharon and I took Caileigh to the beach today. We went to Montrose beach because it's a pretty quiet beach. It was fun. Caileigh was alittle nervous at first because she had never been on sand before. It didn't take her long to get used to it and she enjoyed running around. She DID NOT want to get in the water though!

Here are some pics.

East Chicago

2007-06-24T14:18:00.001-07:00

Mike and I spent Friday/Saturday with friends. On Friday, we went to East Chicago (which is walking distance away from the Indiana border) to have a BBQ with the Bielawski's (a guy I work with). We got there early to take some pictures on the beach.

The beach was just "okay". The sand was pretty dirty and it was SO WINDY! Amazing.

We took TONS of pics and they were so fun to play with in iPhoto. Here is one of Mike on a bench. I took a nap on that bench later while Mike sat. There was only 1 other group of people and they were further north-swimming.

This pic reminds me of how all the girls in my family are alike. I think that we all have some sort of smart-alek pic like this. I think that my dad is this way too. I love my family.

Here is Mike on the beach. It was a beautiful day. God cold and rainy after about an hour though.

I love the water on my feet. I could stand there for hours. :)

Mike enjoys taking pics. He was taking so many, I got bored and went to stand on the Jeep to wait. I love him. :)

And everyone needs a pic of flowers. These were the only ones around but they were beautiful!

Winchester, IN

2007-06-24T13:39:00.000-07:00

Mike and I went to Winchester, IN last weekend to hang out with some friends and their family. It was very fun, hanging out on the farm, swimming, riding the 4-wheeler--relaxing.

Here is a picture of Andrew's sister Sarah, I and Tanya oin the lake. We were in there for a few hours chatting and tanning. It was very fun. Alittle cold.

Here is a picture of Andrew's parents: Beth and Roger. They were so much fun to hang out with!

These were my friends while I was there They're brother-sister. The orange one is a boy and the black one is a girl (she's a few weeks pregnant... but the orange one isn't the daddy) :)

We played this game called Hillbilly Golf quite a bit. It was very competitive. Mike was pretty good at it.

Well, there was out trip. Alot of hanging out. On the drive back, we all rode in the Hirschy's red 2-door Cavilier with no a/c. The 6 hour drive was quite windy but, suprisingly, not too unbarable. It actually took about 8 hours because we took long stops.

:)

new pics

2007-06-09T18:45:00.001-07:00

Miek took some pics this evening that I LOVE! Here they are!

Anniversary, rollerblading, zoo, gardens and soccer

2007-06-02T08:48:00.001-07:00

Mike and I had a wonderful anniversary. He suprised me with dinner at The Melting Pot and then we went to Pirates of the Caribbean 3. It was very fun. Here is a picture from just before dinner.

Here are the flowers that Mike gave me. I love how bright they are!

Amanda and I went rollerblading this week for a couple hours. It was fun hanging out at Lincoln Park and taking pictures.

Here is a pretty tunnel we went through. It looked like a castle.

Here is the top of said tunnel. It was really just a goofy castle-looking place but was still fun

We went to the Chicago Zoo but none of my pictures looked very good. I have a couple videos but they won't be posted. :)

After the zoo we went to a botanical garden-since we had never been there. This creature welcomed us:

This place wasn't too great but here is one pretty flower that I saw.

Amanda and I then had dinner at Chipotle and I went home and slept. I was worn out from skating all evening. I think that our adventure was about 4 hours total...

Now to my plans last night. I saw signs around Moody that said soccer would be played at 7:30pm so I went. I haven't played played outdoor soccer in a few ears and indoor in about 9 months so I thought that I was pretty out of shape... I actually played very well.

There were 4 girls and 6 guys playing and it was very fun. It started out pretty warm and then poured and poured. Lightning was alittle scary but it wasn't too close.

It would get to the point where you couldn't even see because of the rain and then it would let up for a little while. We were all soaking wet and muddy. So fun.

I now have blisters on the bottoms of my feet. I'm tempted to play again tonite but think that I will wait until next time. It was so fun.

Secret Sister!

2007-05-23T19:32:00.000-07:00

I just got a package from my secret sister! Here are some pics:

I got a lot of cute, pink rub-ons and alphabet stickers, cute "love" stickers, various ribbons, little tags with cute string, and a lot of super soft, cute, pink (with other colors) yarn!The personalized item was SO CUTE!! It's a light pink lunch tin. I LOVE the "d" on the front with the flowers! Can't forget all of the fun ribbons on top! I think that I'm going to fill it with the sweet notes that Mike has given me.

Wow, this has been so much fun! Thank you Robin!

update on my babies

2007-05-19T10:42:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated on my babies for a while so I have 2.

Beginning of this month, I went out and bought a 12" pot to move my basil and cilantro into as the smaller pots were getting too small.

I've also added to my porch a little bird that Brenda McCord gave me. It was to remind me of the time Jesus was speaking about the birds and how God provides and cares for them. How much more will he provide for us?
The move was pretty hard on my cilantro but they are getting accustomed to the new setup.

I then planted some more cilantro and basil (as those are the only seeds I have and Home Depot didn't have a big variety at the time) so I need to get some good recipes soon.

---*---*---*---*---*---*---Update 2 is two weeks later---*---*---*---*---*---*---

My cilantro and basil have sprouted. They are so fun because they come up so much every day that it's very fun to watch!

My flowers are growing as well but not as much or as fast so they don't get many updates. Here is a pic though. The seeds that I planted have been "sprouted" but haven't done anything exciting...

Mike and I went to a suburb called Elmhurst to have dinner with a guy I work with and his wife. They live right by a huge park and we had fun taking pics by the lake.Dinner was fun with Mike, Jaime and I went on a short walk before dessert.

We walked, we hiked, we explored.

It was a very fun day.

Herbs

2007-04-24T20:10:00.000-07:00

So, I took pics of my herbs last night because I was bored and excited about how fast they were growing. I watered them and then went to bed. When I got home from work today, they had grown A TON! The middle one, cilantro, amazed me! I wonder if I can watch it grow with my own eyes! So fast! Here is my last night/tonite pics. The last night is kinda dark and blurry because I ran out of battery and only took one...

So, the pic from last night, the cilantro has 3 stems (is that what they're called?). I can't even count tonite!

Here is another pic of just the cilantro. I'm so proud :-D

Modge Podge Projects

2007-04-21T07:17:00.000-07:00

My secret sister project for this month was to modge-podge an item for her. I did an Altoids tin with the help and patience of my mom. I also made an insert for my secret sister to add photos to.

Last night I was bored so I took a picture frame that I have never really liked and went to work. Here is the outcome. I like it alot and I'm excited to do more this afternoon!

Bunny and parsley update

2007-04-10T15:48:00.000-07:00

I made this bunny for Caileigh's 1st birthday. It's not for 2 more weeks but I can't wait any longer so I'll give it to her tonite. I'll update with pics. -if she likes it. I make a face for it but it's just okay so I didn't want it to be in the picture. hee heeMy parsley is getting big!

I also noticed that my basil is beginning to come up. I think that the cilantro is too but it's not green-more clear/whitish...

My flowers that I planted with my panseys are beginning to come up too... too bad I forgot what it was. Guess I'll have to be patient until it comes up more...

Wonder how long until I can cook with this stuff...

gardening

2007-04-06T13:43:00.000-07:00

I did it!! I began growing plans!! Here is my pic from last week. The flowering ones a re Panseys (I cheated and bought them that way). I also planted another flower but don't remember what... The one in the green is Organic Parsley.

I looked at the Parsley yesterday and here's what it looked like:

So I went and bought 2 more pots for Organic Basil and Organic Cilantro (with organic potting soil... hee hee)

I'm so excited that I can grow things!!

met my goal!!! (almost)

2007-04-04T10:57:00.000-07:00

So, my goal for march was to get to funning 2 miles (not all together but with onlly stopping once)

I mentally prepared myself on Thursday night and on Friday morning, I got ready to run. .5 mile into it, I'm DYING and long story short: the incline was WAY up (4.0) so that totally messed me up. I know I would've done it so I game myself a second chance today and did it!! Here's how it went:

walk .25 mile (15 min. mile)
run 1.5 miles (10 min. mile)
walk .25 mile (15 min. mile)
run .5 mile (9 min. mile)
walk .5 mile (15 minute mile)

Whoopeeeee I did it!!

Oh yea, it's snowing outside :(

small update

2007-03-23T08:21:00.000-07:00

Well, it's almost been one week since our trip to CO. It was a great trip! Now just working hard to catch up but since the students are on spring break, it's pretty quiet around the Institute.

I've been running for 3 weeks now and it looks like I will be able to meet my goal of running 2 miles (consistently) by the end of March. It doesn't feel like very long but I guess I'm taking it slow. I get SOOOOOO bored when running but I've begun to count forward/backwards and it helps. My ipod saves me often. :)

Fingerless Gloves

2007-03-05T18:37:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics of the fingerless gloves that I made... and one of me with my sweet, darling, kind, attractive, smart, goofy, cool, friend Mike. He's my favorite.This one is kinda blurry but you can see the cabling and the pink beads.

I gave them to Casey tonite so too bad if anyone else likes them.

Blistery days!!

2007-03-02T12:39:00.000-08:00

So, snow in Chicago is so strange. I walk outside this morning and there is about an inch and a half of snow outside my door. I look across the street and there is NO SNOW accumulation on the sidewalk at all. The Wind here is amazing. At one time there were snow drifts a few feet high very near bare areas. Chicago is so fun.

I've begun taking Tai Chi and Kung Fu classes. They're very fun. Yesterday he made us do push-ups... I'm not very good at those... I'm pretty sore today.

Boring day. Fridays aren't very fun as they are very slow. We're having some friends over tonite for dinner. Ash and Tree Hodges. I'll cook pasta with chicken, broccoli and alfredo sauce. Yummmmm.

9 days until Colorado!

Friday afternoon boredness

2007-02-23T12:01:00.000-08:00

Well, it's Friday afternoon and I'm pretty ready to go home. Tried to get stuff done at work but Fridays are so hard! I just want to go home and no NOTHING!!

So, as I was surfing 2peas, I got to a cat picture site and saw this. Made me smile.

recent pics

2007-02-19T18:54:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day was wonderful. Mike brought me BEAUTIFUL pink tulips with 1 pink rose. After work we went home and took a nap and then we to sushi. It was wonderful sushi!

Nothing has really been going on. I've learned alot lately that my husband isn't only a "meat and potatos" kind of guy--he's a "traditional with no spices" "if it tasted fine last time, don't change it" "you can't get me to eat veggies" type of guy. I love him.

Work is going well. Very, very busy but I feel like I'm really growing and learning so that's good.

I'm very excited to go to Colorado in a few weeks!

I uploaded some more pics to my shutterfly. Here's the link: zureks.shutterfly.com

back!

2007-02-11T15:52:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a while and I bet all of the 2 people who read my blog are wondering what's up... (I know that because one of them asked me)

Life is busy. It's so wierd to think that a year ago this weekend I had just interviewed at Moody and was waiting for a response on whether I was hired or not. Luckily, on Valentine's Day last year, I was! This past year has just flown by! I'm amazed at how much I've grown and learned.

Here is my project for the weekend. I finished the other one just now but haven't taken a picture yet. Think of exactly the same with an opposite pattern. Yea, fun, I know. I used almost 2 balls of Big Mexiko that I got for knitting socks. Haven't found a good sock pattern that I like...

Here's a picture that I took of Mike while we were reading/knitting at Borders. It's a sight I see often. I thank the Lord that he's constantly studying instead of wasting time. :) I love him. He's so handsome.

And one last one from the Double Tree Suite we stayed in last weekend. We were alittle bored while waiting for the plumber to fix our toilet. (Mike!) We're a pretty exciting couple!

Exactly 1 month until we'll be in Colorado!!

un-named recipe

2006-12-23T17:02:00.000-08:00

So, I made this recipe today and need a name for it... Here it is:

crust: (breadmaker directions--if you know how to make it homemade you're way beyond my skill level and can figure it out)
1 1/4 cup white flour
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup flax seed
1 1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons oil
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast

throw it all in the breadmaker on dough and sit tight while it makes itself

filling:

1 pound ground beef
1/2 onion
1 cup bell peppers (I get the frozen assortment that has green, red, yellow and orange... already chopped up!)
1 jalapeno
1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves
1 teaspoon tumeric
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
3 cups mozzarella cheese
1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Chop veggies and parsley and cook on top of stove with ground beef until almost finished. Be sure not to overcook as there will be plenty of cooking time once it's in the oven.

Once dough is cooked, separate it into 2 even-sized chunks and roll them each out separately to be a rectangle. Lay the first one on the bottom of a greased 9x14 pan. Scoop veggie mix in the middle and spread out evenly--making sure to leave a border for the top crust to attach to the bottom. Spread cheese over veggie mix. (I know it's alot but that makes it SOOOO good!) Place top dough piece on mixture and press the edges of both doughs together as you would a pie. Cut butter into 4 small slices and place on top of crust. (would also be good with egg white on top BUT I'm out... sorry)

Cook at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until done. Take small bites and savor each one as there are too many calories to not appreciate it. ;)

Let me know if you can think of a name!

picture from my birthday

2006-12-22T20:29:00.000-08:00

Mike and I had this done on my birthday and I finally brought it into photoshop to make changes. They original was very dark "Russian" looking Mike says and I like this better. Not positive about the colors but they make me smile.

COLD

2006-12-04T06:32:00.000-08:00

Burrrrrr

11 degrees this morning on my way to work and it's not supposed to heat up too much at all today. Winter in Chicago, it's a beautiful thing.

My condo isn't as unbearably hot as it was last year so that's nice. I think it's because there are people below us now to control the heat... and we left in the window unit so that lets in plenty of cold air.

Fuuuuun stuff.

Another Christmas Present

2006-12-03T06:52:00.000-08:00

Not too clear but here is the golf club cove for my dad. It's very strechy because I seem to underestimate the size of them. Not this time!! Here it is!

Berry Pie

2006-11-18T17:29:00.000-08:00

Here is a recipe that I just made up. Okay, not totally from my head but from different recipes and advice. Thought I'd post it but I will have to wait 20 more minutes to taste the final product.

Filling:
3 cups fresh organic raspberries
2 cups fresh organic cranberries
3 T white flour
1/2 C sugar
1/8 t salt
1 T lime juice
1 T butter (the real stuff, no margarine for me!)

In a large Ziploc bag, mix flour, sugar and salt. Add fruit and lemon juice. Zip closed and shake until fruit is covered. Set aside.

Crust:
1 1/4 C whole wheat flour
1 C white flour (unbleached)
3/4 t salt
2/3 C coconut oil
about 7 T water

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix flours and salt thoroughly. Add coconut oil and use a pastry blender to cut the shortening until the pieces are very small. Sprinkle 1 T at a time over mixture; gently toss with a fork and then move the moisturized dough to one side of the bowl. Do this until all of the dough mixture is moistened.

Use your hands to form dough into two even balls and place in refrigerator.

Sprinkle alittle whole wheat flour on the table and begin to roll out the dough into a circle. Make sure that the dough will fit the bottom and sides on pan. Place it into the pan and cut the edges around the outside; mix leftover dough with 2nd dough ball and repeat.

After the second dough ball has been rolled out, pour the fruit from the Ziploc bag into the bottom pie crust. Place the butter on top of the fruit and cover with the top crust. Cut away the extras and fold sides under, being sure to pinch the upper and lower crust together so that the fruit mixture doesn't leak. Cut a design in the top to allow airflow and throw it into the oven!

Cook pie at 425 degrees for 10 minutes and then lower the temperature to 350 degrees and continue cooking for 30-40 minutes.

Now, what should you do with the extra dough? My favorite thing is to make mini cinnamon rolls! Melt 1 t cinnamon, 1 t sugar and 2 t butter in the microwave for 15 seconds. Roll out extra dough in a rectangle and then spread sugar mixture all the way to the sides. Roll up and cut into small pieces. (usually makes 5-6) Put into the oven for 10-12 minutes (with the pie of course) and you have a great snack while waiting for your pie to finish cooking!

Note: the pie smells somewhat like coconut but the taste is minimal. I use coconut oil rather than shortening for many reasons:

it's all natural
it's melting point is 75 degrees so it's just as easy to mold
no hydrogenated oils!

Of course, when using coconut oil, the only way to go is extra virgin, organic coconut oil. Let me know if you want more into and I'll make another post! Also, let me know if you try this recipe and tell me how it tasted or how you made it better!

God's Guidence

2006-11-18T17:16:00.000-08:00

I was amazed last weekend at the grace that God showed towards me as I was heading back to Chicago from my week stay in Colorado.

I flew into Denver on a buddy pass (meaning standby) and was able to have great conversations with friends and family during the 4 hour drive to Grand Junction. The week was very good. Relaxing. Seeing my family was very fun, it was hard to be away from my husband but also provided much more time to sit and talk with my mom. (one of my favorite things)

I was planning all week to get a ride back to Denver on Saturday evening in order to spend the night with my friends Mike and Aimee. As Friday rolled around, there was a surprising change in plans: Michael and Casey were going to bring me to Denver but we would leave on Friday to spend the night in Breckenridge with really good friends. Very exciting to me.

Saturday afternoon, Michael and Casey drove the 2 hour drive from the mountains to Mike and Aimee's house and I was very anxious to arrive and see Aimee and the baby.

After spending 45 minutes talking to Mike (Aimee was taking a nap), I decided to call the airport to change the Sunday light from 1:30 to 3:00 in order to join M&A at church the following morning. The Frontier employee was very kind and helpful but eventually let me know that all of the flights on Sunday were booked and that it would be unlikely that I would be able to make any of them.

Scared for a moment, then I asked if there were any Saturday night flights. Fortunately, there was a flight in 2 hours and I made it there on time (thank you Mike). I got to see my Mike a day sooner and all was well.

On the drive home, I was thinking about what would've happened if the circumstances were just alittle different...

What if the original flight was already after church? Then I wouldn't need to call and confirm. What if I had decided to drive up on Sunday or I had made that phone call just 30 minutes later?

I wouldn't have been able to be home in time for work on Monday and it would've been a miserable day at the airport.

Thank you Lord for guiding my steps and allowing me a safe flight back to Chicago.

biggest knitting project yet!

2006-11-13T08:52:00.000-08:00

I just finished my fingerless gloves for Nancy! I got the pattern from pretendingsanity.com.

I followed the pattern exactly except a "few" mistakes. It is my first time with gloves, what do you expect?

I used Misti Alpaca Chunky in an egg plant color and they're so soft!

babies everywhere!

2006-11-09T18:37:00.000-08:00

So, my week in Colorado is almost finished. It has been a very fun week to hang out with my family and friends. Here are the adorable little boys that I'm staying with:

Joseph

and NoahHere are the cute beanies that I knitted them. GO BRONCOS!

And we can't forget Isaiah!

It has certainly been a fun week to see my family but I am very excited to get back to the windy city and see my husband again. Though, I will miss the saldal weather that we still have here in Colorado!

Happy knitting!! I will begin to post Christmas presents soon for your enjoyment! :)

SATURDAY!

2006-10-28T09:29:00.000-07:00

It's Saturday at last! This week went by very quickly. It was pretty busy. I talked to the management team on Thursday and requested to change the office hours. No one had any problems with that so I will now be working from 7:00am-3:30pm. I'm not super excited about the getting up early part but I know that it will be better for the office since it's actually busy in the morning-and not in the afternoon.

I'm eating papaya and boiling water for some oatmeal. Weekends are fun because I don't usually cook unless I want to. Exciting! I'm thinking fish for dinner.

So, I'm debating bringing my rollerblades to Colorado next week. I think that would be a fun way to get around--but it is super cold? That would be helpful because I won't have a gym to go to all week long. Maybe I'll go with Casey once or twice. Opinions about the rollerblades?

Mike was so excited about the HUGE apple that he picked when we went apple picking in MI. Here he is!

Distorted Beauty

2006-10-19T07:03:00.000-07:00

There is a blog that I visit frequently... okay, daily... called Girl Talk. It's a mother and her 3 grown daughters talking about being woman, mothers and wives. It is very informative. I have learned and grown alot though it. Here is a link to a recent post that was partially convicting but reminds me of the grace that the Lord has shown to me-through my sinfulness. Here it is: Distorted Beauty

Enjoy!

A Faith for All Seasons

2006-10-16T20:01:00.000-07:00

I just finished the book A Faith for All Seasons by Ted M. Dorman. The last chapter was on escatology (the study of last things) and it ended with this beautiful picture of heaven. I know it's legnthy but it's worth reading at least once. Hope you're as blessed as I have been through it!

Revelation 21:1-3
Then I saw new heaven and new earth... I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself with be with them and be their God."

With these words John tells us that the heavenly city is not an attainment after all. It is, in the end, a gift. And this gift does not consist so much on God's bringing us up to himself as it does in God's condescending to come live with us. The divine condescension first revealed in the incarnation will become the reality of both God's existence and ours throughout eternity. This is platonic dualism turned on it's head. The material world is not cast off, but remade and inhabited by God himself.
Such a promise defies description. For this reason the author of Revelation uses brilliant metaphor upon brilliant metaphor to disclose the inscrutable, so that we might be motivated to embrace that which we cannot see. To call heaven the "final state" does not do justice to the vision of the apostle. He portrays heaven not so much as a final state as a pulsating eternity of joyous activity in the presence of God and his people. There is no temple; there are no priests. God's people have immediate access to their Redeemer. Even if Thomas Aquinas was right when he said that people cannot have immediate knowledge of God by divine illumination in this present evil age This will not be the case in heaven. The curse that has separated humanity from the divine presence shall at last be lifted. The tree of life will no longer be off limits.
The various colors of stones that adorn the heavenly city reflect a diversity that belies popular notions of heaven as a dull place whose inhabitants sit on cloud and strum harps. It may also reflect the New Testament's indications that there will be differences in heavenly rewards, a view echoed by Papias the disciple of John and the great forth century preacher John Chrysostom. Yet despite this diversity there will be no envy among the citizens of the celestial city. It would appear that every person's cup will be full, even while their cups are different sizes. No one shall sense a lack of the joy of the Lord. For God has promised:

"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new." Revelation 21:4-5

halfway!

2006-10-13T12:08:00.000-07:00

So, Mike had midterms last week and they went well! YAY! Halfway through this semester and it's been a very fun one. Mike is learning a ton but isn't overwhelmed or stressed at all. I think that it's because he's stuck at Moody until I get off work so he sits and studies all day. The evenings, lately, have been relaxing. We get home and I cook dinner and then we sit on the bed and listen to sermons online. John Piper recently had a pastor's conference on postmodernism so we're going through those right now. They are very good.

Work is going well. It's definently slowing down and I can't tell if that's a good thing or bad. I know that it will pick up again in a couple weeks. Why? you may ask? Because I've been looking for a program to organize our work orders in for the past 6 months--and I found a good one! The tech guy in my department, (Paul) looked into it for a couple weeks to be sure that it would be good and we bought it yesterday! IT SHOULD BE UP WITHIN A MONTH! It gets better. I hinted to the tech guy that I didn't mind helping with the setup and guess what he said: Oh, I wasn't planning on doing any of it!! That means I get to set it up on my own! Of course Paul will help if I need it but still...

Going to Ed Devick's for dinner with some friends and then we're babysitting for some other friends. Cute little boys. Nothing planned this weekend and that's the way I like it. :)

big changes

2006-10-08T20:37:00.000-07:00

So, I have been thinking a lot lately about taking classes toward a bachelor's degree. It has been something going through my head but I know that I don't want to quit my job and go to school-I want to allow my husband to finish first. I brought it up so Mike today and I'm going to talk with my friend in admissions this week! Of course Mike offered to take a break from school so that I can go full-time but I really don't want that. I am planning on taking a basic course next semester and in the fall, taking 2. Then just go through slowly as I will be "around" colleges for the next few years. I know I want to bring glory to the Lord in my life-I think that this would be a great opportunity to meet people (other than at Moody) because most of the students already know our Lord. Just because we're "preparing for ministry", I don't want to wait to witness to unbelievers until we're done. So many decisions. I have a lot of prayer before I will even make the final decision. Mike is very encouraging though. He's a nice boy. :)

I got some shelves and drawers for my SB stuff. I decided that a desk would be too much of a pain. I think that it looks pretty good. I need to go back for a couple more things though. The Container Store is such a fun place. Tons of stuff that you don't need but everything would make your home so much more organized. :)

Well, off to bed for tonite. Thanks for your prayers through our time of decision!

Sunday afternoon

2006-10-01T14:28:00.000-07:00

Well, it's a beautiful Sunday afternoon! I just finished my CJ and I'm excited to see how my mom likes it.

I broke down and entered another scrapbooking swp thing. It's a recipe one and I'm pretty excited. I'm looking to get a scrapbooking desk so that I don't have to keep everything out on my table anymore. Yea, that would be nice. Any ideas? I want it to be white and not cheap looking.

Well, I think that I'll listen to one of Dr. Zuber's sermons that I missed... and take a nap. :)

UPDATES:
Mike's recorder thing STILL hasn't arrived. They "forgot" to let me know that is was on backorder... but I'm being patient.

My purse still looks exactly as it did last week. I'm hoping ot have time to work on it tomorrow though.

VN 3100pc (update)

2006-09-21T14:12:00.000-07:00

So, it still hasn't come in but I'm practicing patience. I did, by the way, order Mike a battery charger and rechargable batters. That will save us a fortune on that thing!

I also have a pic of my purse that I'm knitting.

There are many mistakes but it's mine so I don't mind. I really like the suaede yarn! Very soft and fun!

Well, of to clean up the office and go home! Have a good night!

VN 3100pc

2006-09-20T10:14:00.000-07:00

So, I'm so excited! I ordered Mike a voice recorder because I love him and it will be in today, hopefully. He has wanted one to record some of his classes and I told him I found one but he doesn't know that I ordered it on Monday with 1-2 day shipping. AHHH I'm horrible with surprises because I get to excited! Here it is:

http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1272

He's going to be so happy! I like to make him happy. Now I just need to get him some rechargable batteries so taht we don't waste a fortune on those. It's not as expensive as I thought it would be but we don't need an mp3 so that cuts the cost drastically. I love my Michael.

Well, work is going. I'm very excited to go home and knit and it's hard to stay focused. I'm knitting a purse with suaede. Here's a picture of the pattern I'm using.

The pattern is for a scarf but I'm just shortening it a bit. It is fun and challenging. It's hard with the yarn I chose but will be worth it when it's done. I'll post a pic when it is.

YAY FOR KNITTING

Tuesday

2006-09-19T11:41:00.001-07:00

Well, I'm at work on Tuesday and it's pretty busy. I really enjoy working at Moody Bible Institute. My current exciting project is Microsoft Outlook. It is a program that helps organize your email, calendar and tasks. I think that I can run my whole job through this program--it's amazing.

So, I'm hoping to get to a knitting store tonite. There is a certain yarn that I want so that I can knit something pretty. I'll post it when I'm done. Actually, there are 2 things on my list... so exciting.

Nancy sent me some beautifully fun yarn and I'm excited to knit Mike a hat with some of it. Thanks, Nancy!

Well, I've also taken up scrapbooking. I will try to post pics here. I am very excited and it is very fun-though I'm nervous because I'm new. I joined a "circle journal" which means I make my book, give it a theme and do the first page and then send my book to someone else. There are like 10 people total and in the end, your book is full and you do a page in everyone's. It is pretty exciting I think. I need to finish my page though and get it sent. Maybe I'll do that tonite.

Well, there's my schedule. I know there isn't anything too exciting this time but if I only post when it's exciting, I won't write too much.

This post is dedicated to Elijah Lindsay Archer because he's cute.

friday night

2006-09-15T21:23:00.000-07:00

triple small
sugar-free vanilla
non-fat latte

ast 11:00pm

that means Mikes computer isn't doing well and I'm trying to fix it.

I don't know which is worse... the espresso or my skillz
...

rollerblading

2006-09-02T12:55:00.000-07:00

So, I got up this morning/afternoon and went rollerblaging up the lake. It's about 75 degrees outside-perfect-and the water was very pretty. I had a consistant eastern breeze the entire time. (that's means going against the wind both ways) Anyway, it was fun. I got home and looked up how far I had gone... Yea 10 miles on the path plus 2.5 getting to/from the path. Got to the end of the path even--one of my "someday" goals.

Map of Lake Shore

Look there if you want. I went from Fullerton (5) to the very top (0) and back to Fullerton. Yea, I'm in need of a shower.

Brandon and Sharon are coming over tonite to begin our LIFE group for this semister. It's small but we hope that it will grow.

Later--

taxi drivers

2006-09-01T21:12:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a busy week but Friday is finally here. Work is going great! Lots of fun project that I'm working on--I'll try to post my newsletter on Tuesday when I return to work.

We had one of Mike's friends over with his girlfriend tonite. Man was I nervous!! Ken and Audrey are their names. I cooked taco salad and it was very good. Not to brag or anything but I make some mean ground beef. :) Seriously though, I have finally found the seasonings I like: salt, pepper, cayenne and tabasco. Then we ate brownies that she brought (very tasty) and played Mexican Train. I WON! The scores looked like this after 6 rounds (1/2 a game):
Audrey 171
Mike 170
Ken 151
Dannon 15
CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!? I ACTUALLY WON ALL BUT 2 OF THE GAMES!! YES!!

Well, it'll be a fun day tomorrow. We'll kinda clean up for my parents' arrival but there isn't much to do. I think I'll scrub the bathtub and clean the curtain as it's looking alittle brown. Maybe go rollerblading.

I changed the cover for my IPOD to green. It looks alien-like. Listened to The Frey and Gavin DeGraw all day. My new favorite song is by Gavin DeGraw: Just Friends but I have Dancing Shoes stuck in my head. Yea, I pretty much like all but a couple of the songs. good cd. Mike doesn't really like it but he's still my favorite.

Well, I guess that's it for tonite. Have a good night, people.

Oh yea, I guess I'll comment about the title. When you're driving in the city after like 10:30pm you look around and it's very much 5:1 taxi drivers. That's 5 taxis for every 1 normal car. reason enough to stay inside at night... I guess for each taxi, that's a group of drunk drivers off the road but you don't really think about that in the fear of hitting a taxi. I guess that's something you have to see in real life to understand... kinda like my parents who will be here in only 2 more days will have the opportunity to see and believe!

The spell check on here is almost as bad as my spelling... it ALWAYS guesses the wrong word :(

VEGGIE CHIPS

2006-08-27T16:18:00.000-07:00

So my new healthy favorite is veggie chips. They don't taste like chips really, they're a little bit fluffy but they're very good. Add some hummus or spinach dip and you're good to go!

Church was vey good today. I feel like I'm learning a growing a ton every week. Who knew that there was this much to learn in the beginning chapters of Romans? Today we did an exposition of Genesis 15 (because Romans 4 is all about Abraham) and it was fun to studdy a different passage--since we've been in Romans for over a yea now--but also to see how God worked then, even before Christ died. Good job Dr. Zuber.

It'll be up on the website next week (because I won't get it until next Sunday).

www.gracebiblechurchnorthwest.com

Pampered chef (update)

2006-08-26T17:55:00.000-07:00

Yea, the dessert was so good!! Each piece (1/8 of a pie) has only 125 calories and it fills you up. It's breakfasty because it's mainly eggs... Probably low in carbs too. Good job PC

Pampered Chef

2006-08-26T17:33:00.000-07:00

So, I used my Pampered Chef Cookbook for the first and second time today. (thanks mom!)

Made us Curly Pasta and Chicken Toss (with spaghetti rather than curly pasta) and in the oven for dessert is Apple Oven Pancake.

The pasta was very good and pretty healthy. The sauce was made from chicken broth and cornstarch and it has veggies. Tasted very Thai and if I had peanuts, they would have completed it. The dessert is still cooking but I'm sure it ill be equally as good.

Don't have a camera so I can't post pics of this one but trust me, it's tasty!

Just hanging out today. Mike took a couple naps while I baked and looked at a knitting book. Need to buy some yarn for gifts but it's so expensive and what if it's not exactly perfect? So much stress I suppose.

Well, 8 more days until my parents come! YEA!

unknown

2006-08-22T17:35:00.000-07:00

Well, I still have a headache from yesterday. Oh well, here's my latest fun picture. It looks betting b&w but I'll put both. I had to superimpose 2 guys into it because they weren't available for the original and one last guy is taking the picture. I'm not sure where to put him...

This is Mike's crew that he worked with all summer. Robert, Elliott, MIKE, Jim (the supervisor) and Michael. Mike had a blast and is excited for next summer. Of course, after next summer we only have 1 more semester here so that's bittersweet--now--I'll let you know if that changes.

eating healthy

2006-08-21T20:12:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wonder why Mike and I eat so healthy. They say that it's good for you to eat healthy but I don't go to the doctor to find out how "healthy" I am. Maybe it's because when I don't eat healthy it makes me sick--yet if I ate unhealthy, more often I'd become immune. Odd. I ate a mini Kit Kat today and have had a headache ever since. Yea, dumb but I'm torn. I like eating healthy but does it really pay off I wonder... Maybe in 50 years, when I'm old, it will be obvious who ate fast food and who didn't. I sure hope that there's long-term effects or something.

Didn't rollerblade to the gym this morning but I did some kickboxing this afternoon so that makes up for it. I watched Runaway Jury over the weekend and the girl on there totally beat up that guy--at least she put up a fight. I think that I will need alittle more kickboxing to do that. Kickboxing is more a workout than self-defense. I can punch someone with very good technique. ;)

Mike is on the couch studying. Maybe I should get out my coloring books... I think that I need new ones because the old ones were put in a safe place out of the way...

It's very fun to be back in the swing of things. No more wondering what we'll do tonite or feeling guilty about staying home on a beautiful night. I know that we're going to read and now that I've finally come to that realization, I am happy about it. I have fun things planned this semester to get out of the house and I'm ready for that all to begin. YAY! Chicago is the best! The Lord has really blessed us here.

Last Day of Summer

2006-08-20T19:15:00.000-07:00

Well, we've waited all summer for tomorrow. The reason that we're in Chicago, that's I'm working at Moody and that Mike reads to much: school. Tomorrow is the big day. I've been looking forward to it (strangely) for the past few weeks. I really like the summer as Mike and I seem to spend more money on fun and less time being responsible. I guess it all has to come to an end sometime and that sometime begins at 8:00am.

We went out to dinner and then to Coldstone tonite to talk about this next semister. It was very fun. During the school year we don't go out to eat vey much--not vey healthy and if we "splurge" all of the time we won't have anything left.

Well, it's 9:41pm and I should get to bed. The gym finially opens at 6:30am again rather than the 9:00am summer hours. YES! Rollerblade to the gym!

Raindrops falling on my head...

2006-08-18T20:36:00.000-07:00

It's pouring here. Funny, it's either little sprinkles or downfall-- often times without notice. Chicago is so fun.

Work was good today. I got a whole new project plopped in my lap and part of me began to feel stressed... then I remembered how much grace is in my office and how blessed I am to be able to learn and grow in an environment where I'm allowed to make mistakes. Konrad (the highest up facilities manager) told me the other day that if I didn't make mistakes 10-20% of the time, I wasn't working hard enough. Wow, that sure made me feel better. I was gonna go rollerblading with Amanda today but, as mentioned above, it was raining. She came over for pita tacos and a feisty game of Mexican Train instead. Fuuuuun stuff. Oh, I got a new bag today! It's SO CUTE! It'll be good to rollerblade and stuff because with my side bag, I'm a little off balance. The brand is Timbuk2 and it's very sturdy and durable. Mike got a bag for school that is, eh, very large. Good thing because he has alot of books. Well, I'm off for a snack of Edamame (soy beans in their pods) and Mike and I are watching a documentary on... uh, I think ecstasy. He likes learning about drugs. I love him.

Goodnight

(only 4 "accidental" spelling errors in this one!)

Ashley Wilkes Stockingdale

2006-08-17T17:51:00.000-07:00

I just finished part 3 of my fun, new novel series. Unfortunately, three is the lucky number the writer came up with to end the series. But, Ashley has married the handsome Kevin and lives happily ever after.

http://www.kristinbillerbeck.com/chick_lit.htm

It's wired how much you can get into the lives of "fake characters". I have to be careful after I'm done with my emotions... to come back to earth for a time. You get so wrapped up in it-- I don't have a TV but it's just like a soap opera except you can "see what happens next" WHENEVER YOU WANT!

Well, I think that I'm through with the novels for a while. You can't hold a conversation about a novel very well--rather, my husband would talk to me about theology for hours. I miss have everything to fresh in my mind. It's like, there's so much information out there that, even at the speed Mike reads, he'll never be able to get through it all. Amazing. God is so good. Anyway, A Faith for All Seasons is my current read and it's a toughie. I wanted a book that would stretch my academically so that I would be able to grow in my reading skills but also in my everyday communication skills. Working at a school where the students, in 5 months, will read almost as many books as I've read in my whole life I need to be able to communicate. I don't understand how reading can do that to you. It's like, my whole vocabulary changes when I'm stretching myself. (too bad my spelling doesn't improve as well)

Well, that's my ramble for tonite. I have worked some overtime this week so I'm not going in until 9 tomorrow. YES! I've been up at 5:00am (and occasionally snooze to 5:30am) everyday this week. Mike and I are sleeping in!!

Love you Mom. 2 weeks and 3 days.

grocery day

2006-08-14T15:41:00.000-07:00

Well, it's grocery day and that is very obvious seeing that I just made stew with the last of the food in my house. I added it up today and realized that we spend just over $7 a day on groceries. Here in Chicago, that would buy you half of a meal at an average restaurant. I guess it encourages me to grocery shop... tomorrow. My stew is smelling goooooood. It's got:

black beans
pinto beans
broccoli
basil
tomatoes
jalapeno peppers
cayenne
snap peas
a veggie mix that has been sitting in my freezer
and brown rice

all of which is organic

this is fun! All that's left in my house is some milk... that has probably gone bad by now. yuck.

Mike is in the shower. He just cut his hair, which is nice. It was getting shaggy but he's keeping the beard equal length with the hair-had to be specific this time... don't want another goateein my house!

Oh and the goatee got longer than that!
Adorable child, don't you think? Kaylee is her name. She's not his though I think that the look fits. She's coming to visit me in a few more days! Man am I excited to have Brandon and Sharon back in town! My friend, we can go to the beach and go on walks... to Portillo's to get a cake shake!! They take the best piece of chocolate cake that you'll ever have (second maybe to the Grand Lux) and throw it in a milkshake!! Frosting and everything!

Well, off to finish the stew.
Dannon

Apple Cider Vinegar

2006-04-16T20:58:00.000-07:00

Well, it's my first blog so I suppose I should admit something... I just soaked my hair in apple cider vinegar because since I've been growing out my hair, my scalp is so dry!! I now smell awful and wonder if I've been fooled-yet I sure do hope it works as well as people say it does.

I must add that my Michael is so helpful to me as he is the one who spend 20 minutes putting this stuff on my scalp a spoonful at a time. He's the best.