The One before Camp

In a couple hours I'll be driving a couple of our teens and myself to SBC for Senior Teen Winter Retreat.  I've not been a "counselor" since 2005 so that's weirding me out a little.  I'm not sure if I'm going to have more than just my girls in my "cabin."  I love being out there.  I hate when Kevin can't be there with me.  It just doesn't feel right.  I know it'll be a great time for probably more reasons that I can count.  It always works that way.  I hate that I'm going to be gone from him all weekend..."our" time together.  I hope the weather cooperates.  I wonder if I'll get to use my ice skates?  Will it be warm enough Saturday morning to head out for a run (now that my muscles are no longer screaming after their most reason running experience).  I'm weird.  Why do I still get butterflies like this?  I'm a grown up aren't I?  I'm also a worry wort though.  Why in the world am I confessing all this?  *sigh*

You just wait.  In 3 days or so I'll come back with a beaming report of our time at the retreat.  Just you wait.  

The One with the Five Swimming Pools We Didn't Even Visit

Right now I'm annoyed.  Annoyed at ABC Family.  You see, this summer I started watching Gilmore Girls every afternoon at 5pm.  I had seen random orders of episodes during last school year as all of the girls in my house were big fans.  So when I found the show on daily I enjoyed watching the unfolding of events in chronological order.  Now there seems to be no problem with all of this.  And there isn't.  The problem began about 2 months ago when, just the day before I had been watching the first episode of season 6, the tv station suddenly decided to start all over again.  *sigh*SIGH*  I have not stopped watching the show though I am on round two of viewing.  They are just that good.  But still...the torture of not knowing what happens in the final seasons is just grating.  

*steps off soapbox*

On a much more mature note...Kevin and I headed out the door for Frankenmuth at 6:45am on Tuesday morning.  We made it to this quaint, intriguing, and quite unique tourist town by 8:20am leaving me with plenty of time to set up to lead worship with Pastor Dale at the 9:15am service.  It was a blessing to be able to join together with all the other conference pastors and spouses for a time of challenge, fellowship, and relaxation.  I was able to catch up with good friends, meet knew ones and become "real" friends with one of my blogger friends, Emily.  Kevin and I were a bit out of the loop for the morning session as the whole focus of the discussion and message by Dr. MoJo (Robert Moore-Jumonville from SAU) was based off the movie Groundhog Day which the whole group had watched the night before.  Oh well.  We had a great lunch all together then Kevin and I did some shopping and touring of the local area.  We stopped in Bronner's--the world's largest Christmas store which is fully operational 361 days of the year--and I had a little field day in the Kitchen Collection outlet store at the Birch Run Outlet Mall.  Some day we will need to spend an entire day exploring all of the stores at one of the most expansive outlet malls I've ever seen.  

For dinner the group gathered together for a delicious meal (during which I did not stuff myself...always proud of the little victories...).  Dr. MoJo sat next to Kevin and I and boy was that ever God-ordained.  He was such a blessing to talk with and catch up with (as he was a prof in my Phi/Rel dept) and he got my wheels cranking once again.  Spring Arbor offers a Master's in Spiritual Formation and Leadership (MSFL) and ever since the day it was established I desired to enroll.  Though I'm not sure it's financially feasible at this moment in time, it's a definite hope for the future (possibly if we would move back to the SA area for Kevin to start teaching.)  Not only that, but MoJo was definitely passionate about the possibility of both Kevin and myself one day teaching at the university.  Dr. Brewer (and others) have been encouraging me in that direction.  It should be interesting to see with the Lord leads me (and us) in the future.  

The final two group sessions at the retreat were quite transforming for my personal life.  I pray that my heart will be permanently changed and continue with the desires and the motivations that rose up these past two days.  

Kevin had to do even more driving this afternoon as he had a cume at 7pm on campus.  I have a quiet evening ahead of me and look forward to deciding on dinner.  Why is it that food is such a difficult decision for me?  

The One with the Souper Bowl

After the whole youth group made their mark on the chili and the tortilla chips and nacho dip, the boys headed downstairs to watch the big game as boys do.  The girls had the best night, though.  (In my extremely biased opinion.)  We spent our time frosting 100+ sugar cookies that we will be giving to the church ladies as a surprise on Valentine's weekend.  We had a great time and I learned alot about decorating with frosting from these three girls.  

Steph, Katie & Megan in action

The start of our hard work 

The four of us together:  I really love these girls!

Kevin "hiding" from the camera while watching the game

Chris, John and Chris in the guys' room

The finished product.  We were *proud*

The One with Another Blog

This just in--a recipe blog has been started by this homemaking wife.  If you're ever interested check it out at http://adorkablerecipes.blogspot.com/.  I will do my best to post whatever delicious items I am tempting you with in this blog.  Thanks to those great girls who encouraged me to start sharing my cooking and baking formulas with the world.  I am pretty excited about this endeavor.  I hope you all start getting as fun enjoyment out of the kitchen as I do!  

In other news, today was lovely.  We "slept in" (relatively speaking of course...7:30am...) and around 11:45 headed for Saline High School.  We met up with Megan--one of our great teens in the lobby and she was so excited to have us there to support her.  She was in an 8 member female vocal ensemble that sang beautifully and went on to secure a I (one=top score).  We also met two of her best friends and had a blast getting to know them.  One of the girls just auditioned for choir at SAU last week and was eager to learn all she could about the university and the music department.  Kevin and I should totally get compensation from Admissions.  *wink wink*  This girl's mom showed up as well and was thrilled to have all her questions answered by us.  I think we may have added to the student body of next year's freshman class...not to mention the population of our youth group. =D

After excitedly screaming upon hearing the ensemble's great score, we headed to Sam's Club and Megan was more than exited to spend the afternoon hanging out with us.  :)  We had the typical fun at the store (though we were less than impressed with sample selections.)  Around 3:30 we headed for Megan's home and stopped off at Arby's for a late lunch.  I'm a huge fan of the chicken shakers--very meaty, very flavorful--and of course the curly fries!  

Now Kevin & I are back home watching Friends and enjoying the rest of our Saturday together.  

The One with the Free Food

Yesterday was great.  It was great with the enormous exception of watching two of our three fishies die.  I was just trying to be a good caretaker.  I was cleaning their filthy tank.  Apparently I'm a horrible caretaker.  I thought they would be happy.  Instead I was very sad.  I watched as they floated upside down--Sprinkles on the water's surface and Bluestreak on the stones--each struggling to keep their gills moving.  Then, it was over.  I'm not so sure Princess is going to make it either.  Kevin offered to stop at Meijer last night to pick up new fish.  I said no.  I am still grieving.

The great part of yesterday started after the funerals.  I whipped up a batch of chewy fudge brownies to take with us to Britt & Nick's legal wedding ceremony (necessary paperwork prior to filing for the Canadian-American marriage stuff.)  Oh and speaking of the brownies I'm really stoked about my newfound desire to bake cakes and brownies completely from scratch.  I don't think I ever had the inability to try this, but for the most part my mind told me that when you bake a cake or brownies you just whip out the mix and go to town.  Well, now that my kitchen skills are soaring I can throw together a delicious mix of my own in almost the same time.  And the rewards are that much more satisfying.  

Anywho...once Kevin got home we took off for Spring Arbor where we met at the Brewer's house.  Many of our friends were there with Britt & Nick to support them in this stage of their steps toward marital bliss.  We got to fellowship with the Brewer's which was so refreshing after months apart.  (Ken was the officiant at our wedding and had an incredible impact on both of our lives at SAU.  He was my professor and advisor and became our mentor during our senior year.)  After the very intimate ceremony we all shared in the sparkling cider and brownie action then headed out in the snow for Outback Steakhouse.  Hours later we were stuffed to the gills (ohhhhh....my fishies....they're dead............) and overflowing with great laughter and conversation.  Around 11pm Kevin and I made a sleepy drive back to our home where we quickly tumbled into bed at 1am.  

This morning I took the next step in the multiple-day long process of sourdough bread.  It's my husband's favorite form of carbs in loaf form and I must admit I enjoy it as well.  My goal is to make breadbowls to house our chili for tonight's dinner.  

Maybe this weekend, we will bring new fishies home.  Also I'm looking forward to attending one of our youth's choir contest and then heading to Sam's Club for shopping and partaking of Super Bowl weekend samples.  YES!!!!! 

The One with the Creamy-ness

A lovely evening.  It all began this morning when I decided to try my hand at homemade pasta.  When the fettuccini looked presentable I figured why not go homemade all the way.  Alfredo sauce from scratch.  Everything cooked up beautifully and tasted even better.  *pats self on the back*  

I finished Twilight just now.  It was good.  Intriguing at times.  Slow at others.  Not exactly my favorite book ever but I did enjoy it and I'm trying to figure out if I enjoyed it enough to read the other three books in the series.  Kevin buzzed through about 500 pages every day in his spare time (mostly while I was asleep next to him in our bed.)  I don't like reading at the speed of light so that's probably why a relatively slow-going novel was even slower going for me. :)

Speaking of slow, the snow fell today.  (It rhymes, people!)  Kevin got almost to work after hours in the car without his cell phone and was at a standstill when he gave up realizing he'd never make class on time.  At 11am I heard him waltz in the garage door.  Yay for me.  

I'm not really sure what else I was going to write about so I will sign off now instead of boring you further. ;)