Snow Day

Welp, here I am cooped up in my apartment for the fourth day in a row. Here are a few stats:

Days in Captivity: 4
Average Outside Temp: 20 degrees
Snow Fall: 4 inches
Pounds Gained: 4-5 (ok, I don't really know, but it feels like it)
Movies Watched: 4

This was the snow fall this morning. Last night it began around midnight and when I took a peek outside at 1:30am, I decided I had to go for a walk in it. So I bundled up and headed out. The snow coming down glistened like glitter in the moonlight. The quietness of the night was calming to my soul. I loved being out when no one else was, enjoying the snow fall. And when I woke up, there was twice as much and it was twice as beautiful!

2010.

I thought I would be a good blogger because I like to write. I see that I was wrong. Apparently you're supposed to update multiple times a week and you're supposed to post on one central topic. I see I have failed at this. Miserably.

Today I wanted to blog and when I went to get on, it had been so long I couldn't remember how to get in my account. I had to call my blog savvy friend (and by call, I mean text) to figure it out! Luckily, she gave me instructions to get back into my blog. Yay!

So since I haven't updated in FOREVER...I decided to recap my 2010 through photos. I figure this is the easiest way to update my fair readers as to what I have been up to for the past year or so...

So here goes...



Feb. 11, 2010: Snow Day in Texas!! Here I am, almost exactly one year later sitting at home for the same reason! Yay for snow!!



March 12, 2010: Disney World! Me and my friend Rachel took our drill team girls to Disney World. The first day (as you see here) was ridiculously rainy! But the rest of the time it was sunny and perfect! I had so much fun on this trip and I love how Disney World always makes you feel like a kid again. I did not, however, get to meet Cinderella, which was my goal. Looks like I'll have to make another trip there to meet her!



June 7-21, 2010: Yei, Sudan. I had the opportunity to go with a group from my church to Yei, Sudan where we worked in two orphanages and taught the kids about God. This trip could take up a whole post in itself. Let's just say, it was amazing!



July 2-9, 2010: New Mexico. My sweet friend Valerie and her husband, Wesley, invited a few of us to his family cabin in New Mexico. This was my second trip to the cabin and I love getting to go visit. I actually had less connection with the world in the mountains of New Mexico than I did in Yei, Sudan!! This is a pic from when the boys headed up to the summit of Pecos Baldy, us girls just got to this point and turned back. Valerie couldn't make the hike though because she was pregnant with Carter. I love spending time up there and was glad to spend it with such good friends!



July 11-14, 2010: Concan, TX. My DFW family all packed into one 15 passenger van and headed down south to meet up with our Charlotte family (just call us the Griswolds). We all spent a couple of days in Concan, TX where we floated the Frio River. I had such a fun time and I love floating the river. The only downside was the second day of floating when I tubed down a little waterfall and fell out of my tube! My foot scraped the bottom and I got quite the gash. I tried real hard not to cry, but it hurt SO bad! I survived though and I STILL have a huge scar from it on my foot.



August 27, 2010: Ranger game with Cassie, Jesse, Rachel, and Scott. This is one of my favorite things to do in the summer, head out to the ballpark, watch the game and then stay for the Friday night fireworks! I LOVE fireworks!! And, to top it off, the Rangers went to the World Series for the first time ever, it was so much fun to watch!! (And also excruciating to lose.)



November 20, 2010: Guyer makes it into the playoffs again and we ended up going all the way to the State Championship. This is one month before the state game, we got to play at Cowboys Stadium a lot, so of course I had to get my picture on "the" star.



December 21, 2010: Lunar eclipse. This is some of my church community. We all headed out to a friend's house in the "country" to watch the lunar eclipse. I have gotten to know many of these friends more over the past year and so I thought it would be fitting to include them in a review of my year. This night was also just a fun night!



December 31, 2010: More church family. We all got together to ring in 2011. Another fun night!

So there's my year in an nutshell. I'm hoping I'll remember to post some more things later.

How Great the Father's Love for Us

So I've been completely terrible about adding posts to my blog. It seems that ever since Spring Break (and perhaps even before), I've been so busy! This weekend was no different, but I felt the need to post for today.

Tonight at church was something wonderful. I know the Spirit is there each time we meet (and in between), but you know how sometimes you are more attuned to his overwhelming power? Tonight was like that. I listened as my pastor talked about the maturing believer. I listened as he reminded us that so few of us really take our sin for what it is, and what punishment it requires...death. It is in this realization that the beauty and awesomeness of the Lord is most evident. How gracious and merciful is he to save a "wretch like me"? It's not just words to a song, it's the reality of my life. The life I was given because of Christ.

A Poem

I haven't written much in a while, I've been busy and worn out!! So I give you this snippet. I often like to write poetry. I'm no Shakespeare or Tennyson, I am quite the amateur. I sometimes write silly things, like my Ode to a Scarf, but today I give you this...

Fear

Wave over me, eroding the dirt
Crash into me and break me
O ocean, deep, and vast,
I cannot know your depths.
The surface is serene and beautiful,
But in the fathoms below, the complexities of your being are far too great to number.

I stand in careful awe of your power and might
In awe of your beauty and majesty.
Do not hold back your power,
O ocean crash into me and swallow me whole
Carry me into your depths, into the loveliness of your being

May I drown in you, in all of you…

snow, Snow, SNOW!!

Today is a snow day here in North Texas. I can honestly say that in my twenty seven years of life I have never had such a snowy winter as this winter. And I LOVE it. Now, come weekend of Good Friday when we were supposed to have a day off, I may curse this snow, but for now, I'm just enjoying the beauty of it! And it IS beautiful!!




Oh and I'm working on my sewing...pics to come soon!

Sew...Here I Go!!

Well, I've been wanting to get a sewing machine for quite a while. So for my birthday today, my family was nice enough to give me gifts to go towards purchasing a machine. I'm not the kind of girl who likes to wait, so I immediately went shopping for one with my mom and sister. And so, I give you, my very first sewing machine!


At this point in time, I know how to get it out of the box and that's about it. So, I'm hoping I can periodically let you in on my progress. I'm also really excited about all the new sewing supplies that I purchased! Except I completely forgot to use the gift card my sister gave me!! Oh well, that means I'll have it to use the next time I need supplies!





On an unrelated note, my sister also found my favorite icing and brought it to me today! Yay for Rainbow Chip!!

At least it all worked out...

So I got The Pioneer Woman's cookbook over the Christmas holidays and decided to have a dinner party.

I invited a bunch of girls from church and flipped through the book deciding on the menu. Though everything in the book looked amazing, I decided on Beef Tenderloin and Roasted Potatoes.


The Sunday before my Tuesday dinner, I head to the store with two friends to pick up the ingredients. I didn't make a list beforehand, so I looked up the recipes as quick as I could on my iphone. I made my quickie list and then we headed in to get the food.

We stroll through the store picking up a few things here and there and then I head to the meats. I'm checking out the meat and having a hard time finding the tenderloin. Finally, I spot it...and then I spot the price. I'm fairly new to the cooking scene, so I had no idea that beef tenderloin was about $15/lb!!! And the recipe called for 3-5 lbs! I love my friends, but not enough to go broke! So I spot another meat, it looks similar, the name has "tender" in it...it's red...it's in the beef section...surely it will work, right? Wrong.

I picked up chuck roast. You cannot cook chuck roast like you cook beef tenderloin. (I came to this conclusion after much Google research) So menu changed to pot roast, still in PW's cookbook.

Once I got home and realized I had to change the menu, I took a look at the potato recipe. Yep. Definitely was looking at the wrong recipe and got red potatoes instead of gold or russett. Awesome. This is going so well.

I decide to switch to the mashed potato recipe (disregarding the fact that it, too, calls for gold or russett potatoes).

So all in all, I had a complete change of menu, a few other things weren't working perfectly as well (needed dutch oven and had to use crock pot, had outbreak of allergies and had to take NyQuil before the party--you can imagine how lively I was), but overall I would say the result was fabulous! My girls came over and we had a great dinner! I absolutely love having people over and playing hostess...and I got to wear my new apron! Yay!

Below you can see my finished pot roast...it was quite tasty, if I do say so myself!