Tuesday, July 26, 2011

P.E. OF THE WORLD!

My brother done went and got his professional engineer certificate. Well, I actually have no idea if there is a certificate involved. I do know that there is a massive test involved which took literally months of studying for. I know because Beau missed book club to study. LAME. Ah well, at he least swapped out one intellectual thing for another.

My second attempt at fondant.

It looked "pretty", but the consistency and flavor of fondant just can't beat out regular frosting.

I attempted an electrical board since he was getting his professional engineer certificate/award/honor/right of passage. I know nothing about electrical boards, so I kind of just drew a lot of lines and hoped for the best.

I tried a new frosting inside the cake as well. Mint. Also, I put mint extract in the fondant to give it a little flavoring. Everyone said it tasted like toothpaste. Waaawaaaaa... At least I was giving everyone that nice, freshly brushed mouth taste. Which I have right now. Score.

To my brother who never ever reads this: Congratulations... and stuff.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Settling Back In

While this may be disjointed and entirely unhelpful to anyone reading it, I am still going to just write whatever is coming to mind at the moment. Kind of a cathartic exercise for the mind.

My attempts, or lack thereof, at keeping up with this "project" is dismal at the moment and not at all on my mind when I return home at the end of a work day. Nor is it on my mind when I am on the computer, connected to the Internet. I lost the steam that was pushing me, nay, throttling me forward. I have hit what may be referred to as the "one-year slump." Let's be unequivocally truthful in this moment. This collapse is false. I just made it up. Like that. With the snap of my finger. When in moments of mindful clarity, I am actually quite talented at inventing truth on the spot. Only those who know my facial expressions can read through the bull that settles upon my face. Smirking gets me every time. 

What am I supposed to write about? How awesome my life is. How perfect everything is. How I go on these wonderfully adventurous escapades in my free time wherein I naturally look cute and adorable in whatever outfit I have happened to throw together. How well I cook and bake without even trying. Well, we all know that my cakes often fall over. Not many of us know this, but I have a tendency to wear not so cute outfits. In fact, I really need to take a shower right now. So no pictures from today will be posted on this stream-of-consciousness rant. 

So I was watching the Bachelorette last night. Go ahead and mock me now. I dare you.  One of the bachelors explained some insight he had recently discovered in himself and then was promptly voted off the island, or chopped. For all his soul-searching, intuitive and well educated ways, the bachelorette simply could not be that well-informed on a daily basis. The bachelor, still a bachelor by the way since he was kicked off, spoke about the Renaissance ideal of making every moment in life beautiful and romantic. He explained that you take the ordinary things, making breakfast for example, an act of romance.

Now before you get all mushy gushy thinking that I've fallen in love... Okay, I have. 

Not really. But that's not the point. The point is that I want to make day to day living more magical and special and beautiful. I want to enjoy life to the fullest and not have any regrets. I may not know where my life is going from here on out, but I never have been given longevity of clarity. Instead I act on instinct and what seems to have been given to me. I desire to act in every stage of my life like the journey is a gift that I don't deserve. Which I don't. But I excited to see where I am taken.

What does this have to do at all with how this post started? Amidst the insecurities that my life demands more adventure in order to lure other people into thinking that it is at all interesting, there lies a gem of hope that everything I do can be wonderfully beautiful. 

Thus I now share with you one of those moments that makes life beautiful.

Plus a picture of a homemade pretzel dog for good measure:

Friday, July 15, 2011

Flashback Fridays - Five Years Ago

Sitting on the steps of an outdoor ampitheater, basking in the sun, I thought to myself, "Soak it all in. This adventure will quickly dissapate leaving a renewed and changed soul." In reality my seventeen year old self was not that eloquent by any means. In all probability my thoughts went something like this; "Awesome! I'm here and I should enjoy it... dude." Confused yet? Five years ago I departed in July for my first overseas mission trip with an organization called Global Expeditions. My trip came about this way: I had a core group of friends in my homeschooler group in highschool. One weekend we decided to live it up and have a sleep over. The next morning while joking about drinking coffee [because i would never actually partake of it] I spied a magazine on the counter of my friends kitchen. Filled with colorful pictures and words like "Go" and "Adventure of a lifetime" I was soon filled with the desire to go to Romania and minister to those orphans.

After applying and raising over $3,000.00, I was off on a plane to Texas and then Romania. It was month filled with newly made friends, good looking translators named Sebi, dramas on the street complete with bruised hips and scraped ligaments, cuddling babies in a hospital, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches everyday, whole loaves of bread for breakfast, quiet times, exploring a humongous boarding school, meeting Jesus and sharing him with those I encountered. I miss this. I miss being in an unfamiliar environment and being stretched. I miss being thrown together into a team where none of the faces are familiar, but they are all wonderful.

My little sister departed last Saturday to go on a trip with the same organization that I had gone with to Romania all those years ago. At 15 years old, she wisely decided to stick with a two week trip instead of a month or two months. She is basking in the sun of Trinidad as I write, ministering to the locals and loving little children. It would be so wonderful to be in her place right now, but it's not my time. It is her time to have adventures and explore new places.

I will always remember that trip. I made lifetime friendships and made eternal memories.

Monday, July 11, 2011

HP7.2

Excitement caused by others excitement. Feeling old because the characters you have grown up with are coming to a close on the big screen. Their story has run its course, and despite the fact that it leaves us wanting more, we are instead turned loose upon the world hoping to have gained insight from their adventures. I greatly dislike that feeling. Wanting more but not having it. Coming to the end of a wonderfully engaging book and being left dissatisfied with the epilogue. Certainly there is more to their lives. But no. We are left wondering, dreaming up the possibilities of what happened next.

Oh Harry Potter. Why does it have to end so soon? Reminiscing back four years to when the last Potter book was released is bittersweet. I had just returned from a two month missions trip in Africa where all I heard was that Harry Potter was an evil book series, and Christians should not read stories with magic and witchcraft. Being the rebellious [yeah right] eighteen year old I was, the first book I picked up upon my return was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I read it in two days staying up to un-seen hours in order to finish it. I cried multiple times. When the book ended I cried again. I couldn't believe it was over. I wanted more.

So here we are again. Why do endings have to occur multiple times. It is like rubbing salt in the wound. I am hosting a pre-movie watching party before the midnight showing. I am trying desperately to be creative and throw together some cute Potter decorations and food. There are plenty of ideas out there, I just have to scale back and figure out what will work best!

Any other Potter fans going to the midnight showing?