Adam, Elaine, Allie, & Levi
Congratulations to the whole family!
I wasn't going to blog about our Memorial Day camping trip since Karen already did, but then I started thinking that "Go camping" might have been on my 101 in 1001 list...sure enough when I looked I found that it was! Trevor and I got a tent for our wedding, and I think we've only been camping a couple times since then, so I had been thinking we should do it more often.
Sunday night a group of us headed out to Hillsdale Lake to go camping. Well, actually only us and the Hathaway's "camped," and the rest of the group left to go sleep in their own beds because of lame excuses like "working the next day," "allergies," and "CPA Exams." Just kidding. :) We're so glad you guys came and joined us!
I actually really wish we had left when everyone else went home after midnight, since we ended up being right next to a group of very rowdy drunk people that had a very limited vocabulary made up almost solely of 4-letter words that they insisted on yelling as loudly as possible (even though they had a two-year old with them). I think we finally got to sleep at about 3:30 in the morning and we woke up and headed home at about 6:30.
Here are some pictures of the fun:
I'm so thankful for such great friends. We'll have to do this again sometime soon guys!
A co-worker brought this to work recently and after trying it I had to get the recipe. So good! I gave it a try the other night and it turned out great! Definitely another keeper.
| ___________________________________________ Chocolate Turtle Cheesecake | |
| Ingredients: | |
| -1 ½ cups crushed Nilla Wafers (about 50) | |
| -¾ cup chopped pecans, divided | |
| -¼ cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted | |
| -32 Kraft Caramels | |
| -3 T. milk | |
| -4 pkgs. (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened | |
| -1 cup sugar | |
| -1 cup sour cream | |
| -4 eggs | |
| -1 pkg. (8 squares) Baker’s Semi-Sweet Chocolate, divided | |
| 1 | Heat oven to 300°. Mix wafer crumbs, ½ cup nuts and butter; press onto bottom of 13 x 9-inch baking dish. Microwave caramels and milk in microwaveable bowl on medium (50%) 4-5 min. or until caramels are melted and mixture is well blended, stirring every 2 min. Pour over crust; spread to within 1 inch of edge. Cool. |
| 2 | Beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl with mixer until blended. Add sour cream; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended. Melt 7 chocolate squares. Stir into cream cheese batter; pour over caramel layer. |
| 3 | Bake 45-50 min. or until center is almost set. Refrigerate 4 hours. Sprinkle with remaining nuts just before serving. Melt remaining chocolate square; drizzle over cheesecake. |
Trevor and I just watched the Season 7 finale of "24" on Monday night. It was a great season with lots of twists and turns! This season seemed especially relevant with the current debate about the Bush administration and the interrogation techniques they authorized. Jack Bauer is currently on trial for his torture of terrorists in order to get them to give up important information quickly (he does only have 24 hours, you know!). This season seemed to emphasize even more the hard choice of deciding to sacrifice the rights of one person in order to save hundreds of thousands of people.
Anyway, after we finished the show, I realized I never had blogged about how we had caught up on all the past seasons. Trevor had watched the show off and on during college, but I had never seen it until we started watching Season 5 in 2006. Since then we've been watching faithfully and trying to catch up on the past seasons. Lucky for us, Blair & Rachel are also die-hard "24" fans and have the complete collection on DVD that they let us borrow. It also worked out well that we had time to watch them since the writer's strike meant no new season in 2008. I do admit that after being spoiled with the DVD's that I definitely prefer watching the episodes back-to-back with no commercials. That way, when they leave you with a cliff-hanger ending, you can just watch the next one. This did, however, cause some sleep deprivation when we would sit down with the intention of watching "only 2 episodes" and we'd finally decide to go to bed six hours later after saying "let's just watch one more to find out what happens" over and over again. After some late nights, we finished Season 4 right before this season started.
I'll leave you with some Jack Bauer "Facts" I just found on the Internet.
At least that's what Trevor's been trying to get me to call him the past few days... :)
Trevor graduated today from Baker University with his Masters of Science in School Leadership (a.k.a. Administration). We were so excited for him to finish up this program! Hopefully he'll have a little more free time now with no classes and no papers to write. He's looking forward to applying for Assistant Principal jobs sometime in the next few years.
Here's a few pictures of the day:
Baker University has bagpipe players for the procession...
Trevor's parents and his sister Heather came to show their support...
Congratulations Trevor! I'm so PROUD of all your hard work!
The other morning on the way to work I heard on the radio that Cory Morrow was going to be in Kansas City. I recognized the name as one of the lesser-known (at least to me!) musicians that Trevor listens to. He'd gotten turned onto what is called "Texas Country" by some of his college friends and from when he spent a couple summers down in Texas doing youth ministry. Some of the other Texas Country names you might recognize are Jack Ingram and Pat Green (who was Cory's friend in college.)
I'd been trying to think of something to get him for his graduation this month and I thought tickets to this would be perfect! So I surprised him with tickets and we headed to Knuckleheads Saloon this past Thursday night. It was in the most obscure location by the river and the railroad tracks that was very hard to find. You could hear the trains the whole time you were in there. We pulled up to this warehouse and I wasn't sure what we were getting into!
We got there early enough that we had front row seats and I ended up having a really good time! I didn't know many of the songs except for the two I had listened to on Cory Morrow's website a couple times during the past week, but I did actually like most of his stuff. Trevor really enjoyed himself - which is what really mattered!
A conversation between my sister, Kim, and her almost 3-year-old daughter, Victoria:
(After Victoria steals a toy from her baby sister Alexandra)
Kim: You know Victoria, you are going to have to learn how to share.
Victoria: I don't want to share. It's not fair!
Kim: Life's not fair.
Victoria: I don't want to DO life anymore!!____________________________________________
My other sister, Rachel, passed this story along to me about a week ago. I'm sure Victoria didn't even really understand what "life" is, but she knew that whatever it was, she didn't want to do it anymore!
It's just a funny little story, but for some reason that phrase, "I don't want to DO life anymore!!", keeps ringing in my head all week. I don't know if I'm just in a "funk" lately, but I'm just kind of tired of life right now. Sometimes it just seems like all I do is go to work, clean, pay bills, eat, sleep (with many other responsibilities in there) and then do it all over again. Seriously, is this what life is all about?!? (I know it isn't and I'll get there in a minute…) Not to mention, all the horrible, sad things that I've been hearing about recently. I can't count how many people I've heard of with cancer or other terrible diseases lately. My friend, Karen, had one of her elementary school students die just the other day. Can you imagine what that family is feeling right now? It just seems like there is so much pain in this world. I guess I've just been longing for those care-free days of youth recently. I'm sure it was just ignorance and less responsibility, but life just seemed so different then. I think your eyes are opened when you become an adult, and along with "adult-hood" comes the realization that we live in a very flawed world. It isn't always fun. It isn't always fair. It isn't always good- there is definitely some very real evil in this world (just read the news!).
I know I sound like I'm all doom and gloom right now, but a lot of times when I feel this way I actually feel closer to my God. I can see that this life is not how God intended it to be. I know that our sin as humans is what caused this world to be flawed and it makes me even all the more thankful that God sent his son to save us from this world. It makes me long for heaven. Why would I want to go to heaven if this world were all that I'd like it to be?!
This verse pretty much sums up my thoughts lately:
22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. 24 We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. 25 But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)
Romans 8:22-25 (New Living Translation)
So, that's what I do. I enjoy the blessings that God has given me in this life, and when the world seems overwhelming, I wait patiently and confidently for the day when this world will pass away.
It's times like this that I just can't understand the despair that people must feel who don't believe this. How must it feel to not have a hope that there IS something better to come? Sure, there are some good, wonderful things in this world to live for (and I am truly blessed), but if my short 80-or-so years on this earth is all there is, it just doesn't make sense to me!
Sorry for the little "mini-sermon". I promise I'll be back with some light-hearted 101 goal completions soon!
Disclaimer: Trevor said I need to say that I am a happy person who enjoys life. I have a wonderful husband, amazing family, and great friends. Really. :)
