"Pool Party"

My sister, Julie, has a pool at her house. I don't get the chance to visit her very often, but a few weeks ago, I told her we should schedule a day for me to come down and swim. We consulted our calendars and picked yesterday.

It POURED all day.

So here's our pool party, plan B.

She took me out to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. I'd never been there before, and I've decided it's good for my calorie intake and my spending habits that I don't live any closer to it than I do! WOW that was some good food! I had the chicken artichoke soup...and it was fabulous. It seemed improper to leave without at least trying the cheesecake, so I chose the Snickers cheesecake. YUM.

Did I mention it POURED? When we finally landed in the mall (after shuffling together under my tiny umbrella), we had to pause for Julie's shoes to dry out...

...and my umbrella to stop dripping. I'm talking to Mom on the phone here...who was informing me that at home, the sun was out. SUPER.

By the time we were done shopping, the sun was out at her house too, but by that time, we didn't have enough time left for pool lounging. Sad, sad day for Bekah.

So here we are...at our "pool party." Sigh. Maybe next time.

Happy Thursday!!

Well let's see....what's happening in Bekahland??

* Last night I got a SUPER cute pair of pink shoes at Wal Mart. We are smack in the middle of freshman registration this week, and the dress code for it is black/khaki. I've decided to spruce it up for a couple of the days with an accent color for my purse/jewelry/shoes. Yesterday was red day. Today I wanted to go pink...but I didn't have pink shoes. So I was very excited to find a little pair of WHOA MAMA pink ballerina flats.

* After leaving the Wal Mart, I had the joy of watching some random citizen of my town giving the pond next to Taco Bell a major "what-for." I don't know what the pond did to offend him, but he stood over it and yelled with all his might - and gestured wildly. Some guy in a white convertible was gawking, so I didn't feel as bad following suit as I drove along behind him.

* After THAT, I spent 25 more minutes on the phone with AT&T to once again correct my once again crashed internet.

* Then I went for a run, which was disastrous. My shorts were riding up (hate that) and my shirt was falling down (making it look like I wasn't WEARING shorts), I forgot my pony tail holder, and it started raining. LOVELY.

* I spent 55 minutes watching the new "Best of Larry Ford" Gaither taping....mostly because I could. Larry has a really powerful voice, and while I am not as much of a fan as I am of...say...David Phelps...I did enjoy watching.

* New recipe coming soon. I'm baking either tonight or tomorrow night, so that will be posted whenever I decide to go for it!

* Hoping to finish my Hershey scrapbook tonight and tomorrow night. I'm seeing my sister this weekend and wanted to show her. (She''ll be thrilled...KIDDING!) I'm all the way to the final event I attended before going home, so hopefully 10 or so pages and I'll be done.

I think that's about it!

Writing Because I Can

I'm still offline at home and becoming increasingly frustrated about it. It's a great "opportunity" to work on my character, but I'm still frustrated. The whole getting up early and staying late after work to be able to use the wireless here is...not my first choice of the way to spend my time! But I am very thankful I have a backup.

Last night I spent an hour on the phone with AT&T and received...no answers. They said a technician would come out between 8-12 today, but I had no phone call, no note on the door that one had been there, no green light, and no dial tone, so I think I'm still where I was before.

Except now I've added "provider shopping" to my list.

This whole mess has consumed most of my non-working time, so I really have nothing to report. It just seemed that while I COULD post...I SHOULD post.

The Weekend in Review

Being offline all weekend (see post below) has me all out of sorts. I've been valiantly reading, trying to catch up on everyone's lives, but I'm afraid I have more reading to do.....

Anyway, here's a few pictures from my weekend.

On the 4th, I went to the Gas City parade with my friend Faith and her kids. It rained, but not so hard that we couldn't have fun. Just hard enough to frizz up the hair. Here we are waiting for the parade to start.

More waiting for the parade to start....

And of course, the main reason any kid goes to a parade: CANDY!!!!! This kiddo cleaned right up on the candy!

And this little sweetie had been hoping for a sucker. It's all she wanted to make her life complete, and she got her wish!!

The day before the 4th (which would make it the 3rd), Marie and I went putt-putting. Here we are waiting in line for our turn at the second course.

Marie won. (By a lot.)

But I had a lot of fun losing!

Sign of the day - next to the putt-putt course. Forks? There's a forks store? Not until I got to the other side of the course did I see it really said "fireworks" - but it was wrapped around the building.

Bits for Sunday, July 5, 2009

At the risk of sounding old and somewhat reminiscent, I have to say…what did we do in the days before home internet access? I have now been without it for three days and twenty-three hours, not that I’m counting, and quite frankly, I’m not sure what to do with myself!

Wednesday I had a very long day at work, so I looked forward to my get-rid-of-the-grays evening followed by settling in on the couch to peruse the new stamp catalog that was supposed to be available online beginning that day. After my hair had marinated away the grays, I grabbed the computer and settled in for a glorious evening of screen-shopping.

I hadn’t even been online five minutes before the now-familiar kicking-out of the internet happened. I waited a respectable amount of time and then called AT&T (now officially a permanent resident in my phone’s “recent calls” list.) I’ve been calling at least weekly for the past couple of months. This time, however, they weren’t able to resolve my issue on the phone and promised to send a repair guy on Friday.

Long story short, it is now Sunday, and I still don’t have my internet. And if I were to go to a wi-fi location every time I wanted to check something, I’d be completely bankrupt from obligatory shopping in exchange for internet use.

Funny, though, how much stuff depends on being able to hop online.

· I feel completely behind in everyone’s lives. I haven’t been able to read blogs or status updates. People have probably been having babies and getting engaged…and I am none the wiser. And after three days and twenty-three hours of disconnect, the chances of me successfully reading far enough back to consider myself truly “caught up” is slim.

· I still have no idea about the new stamps that came out, and while I hadn’t planned to place an order today, it’s the principle. I want to know what I could be buying if I so desired.

· My email inbox had 18 messages in it yesterday when I was able to be online at a friends’ house long enough to look for things like that. Of course another 24 hours have since passed, so who knows how full it might be now!

· I wanted to check the radar yesterday to see how soon it was going to rain on our parade (literally) – but then I remembered I couldn’t do that.

· Today was my scheduled day (brand new schedule, no less) to devote to writing a Bible study, but I couldn’t because I do all my word-studies for Greek and Hebrew online.

· And speaking of Bible studies…tomorrow is my day to begin an online Bible study…so this should be REALLY interesting.

· I can’t post the pictures of my weekend – which actually was fun after all!

· I’m writing this…which I can promptly NOT post or email to anyone. Why am I even writing??

I was going to call to see if they could switch me back to dial up until this could be resolved – IF this can ever be resolved, but it turns out my phone has been disconnected in the mayhem.

Needless to say, I’m extremely frustrated. Sometimes that’s an understatement and I’m just flat out mad. It would be nice if I had some great words of wisdom for you…but after this weekend of frustration…I don’t. And now I’m going to go in search of someplace with a strong enough signal to post this. If it doesn’t work, I guess you’ll hear from me in the morning! (As will AT&T.)

Just Say No

My mind's been on money lately. Not in an obsessive sort of way. Just in an observation sort of way.

I work with money all day...hey, maybe that's why it's in my thoughts all the time!...and I see people making a variety of decisions that cause me to raise an eyebrow. It's not my money, so I try to keep opinions to myself, but here's something I've observed despite the economic downturn.

People don't know how to say no.

Last Saturday I really wanted to leave town and shop at the Gaither store. I haven't been there since February or March...and I wanted a couple of things...and they were having a sale...you know how it goes. I didn't have any plans for the day, so I was free to go.

But I stayed.

I stayed because I realized my gas tank was precariously close to empty and while I technically "had" money I could have used to refill it, that money was marked for something else. I did not need to "borrow" it to take a frivolous trip. I stayed because while I also "had" money for random shopping, I really didn't have undesignated money, and the chances of coming home without a purchase were...none. I stayed because there were better uses of 2-3 hours in my day than driving and spending.

Instead I took four bucks and went to Starbucks - to at least take advantage of the drink I would have purchased there.

And by the time the day was done, I was really glad I'd stayed. Glad I accomplished more at home. Glad I still had gas in my tank and money in my purse.

When I was first out of college, I lived on a ridiculously tight budget. I didn't make much and I lived on very few spare pennies. I didn't go to movies or eat out (at places that didn't have dollar menus) or shop often or take vacations. And while I'm able to live a little bit more "freely" now, and I'm thankful for that, it was good for me to be reminded of the days when I just said no. There were times people invited me to things and I had to say no because I couldn't afford to go. And it's a good reality check to remember those days.

The Scrapbook Pages

I was completing my scrapbook page tonight and thought I'd take some pictures to show you what I talked about Sunday.

Here is the calendar my sister gave me. The lower half is a normal calendar, and the top half can be cut off and used as a background page in a 12x12 album. The large white box at the bottom is actually a journaling box.

Here is the calendar page I make for the scrapbook. When I bought the page, it was plain white with only the boxes and the days of the week printed on it. I added the month, the pictures, and the numbers in the boxes.

And here is a spread of a completed month/picture page. I stamp (or rarely add a sticker) in the calendar page boxes, and then the pictures on the right are either the only picture taken at an event or they're overflow from a full page.

I love this method and plan to keep using it year after year!

Bits for Sunday, June 28, 2009

In two days, I will complete my June summary scrapbook page. This is a new method I’ve developed this year. I should share it for you scrapper people. Allow me to interrupt my own story long enough to do that.

At the beginning of the year, I bought 12x12 calendar pages at Hobby Lobby. The pages are plain white with calendar boxes on them. I stamp the dates into the boxes each month and decorate the top of the page with the name of the month and stamps that correspond with the month’s theme. Then, throughout the month, I list in the boxes any events that seem noteworthy. I write down everything…births…dinners with friends…the Super Bowl score…holidays…church activities…the first mowing of the season…American Idol winners…free root beer at the Sonic…and even the day my house was struck by lightning, frying my phone line. Nothing escapes importance on the calendar pages of Bekah.

On the page opposite this running tally of events is the summary page. This came about as the result of a wall calendar my sister gave me for Christmas. The “top” page (where the picture should be) is actually a 12x12 background page for a scrapbook. When each month ends, I take the page down, add random pictures from the month that either didn’t fit onto a scrapped event page or didn’t have any other pictures to warrant a page of that event, and I journal about the highlights of the month.

When I do the June page, I will begin with “June was the most disorganized month ever.” Because it truly was. I don’t know if it was so disorganized because I came sailing into the month straight from an away-from-home vacation, and I didn’t have time to think about what needed to be done…or because I was tired from five other months of organization…or if evil daylight savings finally caught up with me…I’m not sure.

All I know is that all month, I have run from event to event, barely showing up on time, barely able to remember my next move (despite the pink day planner ever at my side), and often declaring a lack of interest.

As a result, I stayed home this weekend. I slept. I caught up on some scrapping. I did some cleaning. I planned ahead. And it was beautiful.

I would like to say, however, that there are some pitfalls to being home too much. When I’m home, doing chores of any sort, my mind has entirely too much time to wander here and there. By the end of the time at home, I’m mentally half a million in debt and bummed that I’m not a real life half-a-millionaire to allow my dreams to become reality.

Let me just give you some examples.

I was informed by someone at church that anyone who was getting married, did so yesterday. Apparently it was the day in 2009 to exchange vows. I knew of three couples tying the knot. I lucked out of all three weddings and scrapped instead. But in honor of their nuptials, I spent some time online searching for the perfect wedding dress. I didn’t find it. But of the dresses I saw that I would have deemed tolerable, I learned that I have a much richer taste than budget.

Sorry, Mom and Dad.

Once I declared that a pointless waste of time – since I am not even remotely on track to get married – I moved on to plan B. The scrapping of my vacation pictures so enthralled me that I began thinking of future vacation destinations. Truth be told, I already have two in mind, but a new one came to me, so I hopped online to look at pictures of the location. After twenty minutes, I was ready to pack my suitcase. Then I looked up the price of plane tickets. The low end was $800. Maybe I’ll go back to preplanned destinations and hope that someday, if I ever get married, I can go to my dream location for my honeymoon. I’d even be willing to give up the dress.

So today, I quarantined myself in my office to write a Bible study. After spending several hours poring over the stack of Bibles and my trusty reference sites, I found myself wondering how things would look if I would just change the furniture this way. By 8:00 tonight I’d been through 75 pages of home offices on HGTV’s Rate my Space page and had bookmarked several affordable pieces of accent furniture on store sites.

STOP THINKING, BEKAH. In fact, just go ahead and leave for a bit. You can’t afford to stay home.

Hair and Stuff

My hair is a topic all its own. It has been every length from clear down to my waist...to just a couple inches long all over. It has been blonde...red...brown...gray...orange...you name it. I've had layers, I've had all one length...I've had layers...I've had highlights...I've had thin hair...I've had thick hair.

You get the point.

Right now I'm in a growing out phase. I'm just barely past the threatening-to-shave-it-all-off days. I was so excited when it got long enough to pull back into a pony tail without the assistance of bobby pins. And today I hit another milestone - officially long enough for an up-do. Since it is 412 degrees with 412 percent humidity around here, I was desperate for anything to remain cool.

I have to tell you - it's not particularly easy to take pictures of the back of your own head.

Christina, this particular hair made me think of you - you used to do something like this in college!

The idea of this (in addition to staying cool) was that it would be faster than the flat-iron adventure. Well...in theory. But it's been so long since I did an up-do, it actually took five minutes longer than normal.

So much for that.

It's A Mad Lib Monday...Updated

AND THE ANSWERS ARE....

(pretty cute!)

Sometimes you need to hurriedly chop and say "Over the hill!"

Sometimes you need to angrily trip and say "Curiosity killed the cat!"

Sometimes you need to joyfully dance and say "No time like the present!"

Sometimes you need to lovingly chortle and say "Kick the bucket!"

Sometimes you need to surreptitiously hang and say "Up the creek without a paddle!"

Sometimes you need to freshly fart and say "Talk to the hand!"

Thanks for playing, guys! This was fun!

***************************************

I remember a few years ago, I got a phone call from my friend Julie...who was traveling home from Pennsylvania with her husband...and was doing a mad lib via phone. She called all her friends to get a word or two here and there. I thought it was the coolest idea.

Last month, I received a card from my pastor's wife...and it's a mad lib card! She wrote me the sweetest note inside, but I decided to save the front to have some fun with you!

So leave me the following...

Adverb
Verb
Phrase

...and I'll post the mad lib later with your contributions!

Bits for Sunday, June 21, 2009

It’s kind of refreshing to be sitting here writing instead of getting ready to cook – which was the plan at this time last night. I hosted the family Father’s Day extravaganza (which was really on the small side, so I’m not sure extravaganza is the right word to use) and after cleaning up the kitchen, I promptly took a three hour nap.

Though it was an eventful week in Bekahland, tonight I’m going to share with you just a peek inside a Bible study I’m doing with my friend, Kari. Last year, she and I studied Psalm 119 (via email) together. And by studied, I mean we dissected it, looked up root words, checked into various versions, chatted, discussed, and learned. This year we’ve been doing the same thing with the book of James. Clearly we go at our own pace, since the whole book is only five chapters long and at the end of June, we’re just starting the fourth chapter. I know I can’t speak for Kari, but I’ve been learning so much from the study and the discussion we share. And if you were to glance over my shoulder at the book of James in my Bible, you’d see one very highlighted, underlined, margin-scribbled, starred set of pages.

The verse I want to share with you tonight is James 4:9. I’ve read this verse before, but I never stopped to really absorb it.

The verse says “Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.” I would imagine this is why it’s not a popular verse for sermon texts and memorization cards. I realize it doesn’t sound very uplifting. But this verse follows words about submitting to God, resisting the devil, and purifying the heart. A key part of doing those things involves heart-searching and confession.

It’s not a cozy sort of feeling to grieve. In fact, when I did a word study, it said “to feel miserable.” I don’t think we set out to purposely feel miserable. But sometimes we need to. Sometimes we need to realize just where we’ve landed, and we need to feel miserable about it. We need to grieve poor choices. We need to take time to actually mourn those things. And if you’re like me, wailing will be involved – followed by a Rudolph nose for the greater part of a day.

Sometimes we need to stop laughing and start crying, because that’s part of the process of allowing God to work in our hearts and change them to follow His leading.

When Kari and I started studying James, I told her one thing I was going to keep in mind as I studied was James’ relationship to Jesus. (He was Jesus’ half-brother.) When I read this verse tonight, I wondered if this was something James learned from watching Jesus in action. He probably saw people who came to Jesus wanting a quick fix for their problems, but they didn’t want to grieve, mourn, and wail about the mess their lives had become. And likewise, he probably saw those who did come to Jesus, who genuinely mourned their ways, and who then began a new (and joy-filled) way of life.

Don’t forget the joy! Even though this verse seems to be a downer, the great news is that the very next verse says “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” The grieving, the mourning, the wailing…they aren’t supposed to be a daily way of life. But they’re a part of the process we’re not supposed to skip. God promises to lift us back up – but He can’t do that until we do our part!

Happy Father's Day!

Normally Mom hosts Father's Day, but I figured she shouldn't have to be responsible to be the hostess just because she is the wife. :) So I invited Mom and Dad and my Aunt B over for Father's Day lunch.

Dad's a bit of a selective soul when it comes to food, so today we had breakfast food. I made a breakfast casserole (which will eventually appear on here in the recipe section - GREAT new recipe) and cinnamon rolls. They were cinnamon rolls that wouldn't quit...never seen them raise (rise?) so high before! The dough must have been extra fresh!!

This weekend was insanely busy - and in fact, I did most of the cooking for this lunch from midnight - 1:00 this morning. The one thing I forgot to do ahead was make ice, so Mom brought some from her house. Apparently it melted together on the ride over...

Dad and the grandcats. he really does love them. Braeya loves attention whenever and wherever she can get it. And Kaegan, who doesn't usually emerge from his napping post, came right out to join the fun.

Dad's gift from me: some of the close-ups of flowers I took on vacation. I also experimented with a black/white/spot of color picture thing on my computer for one of the pictures.

My Head is Full...

...but not of snot. Just in case you were concerned. :)

I had no idea the shopping post would spark such controversy! So I thought I'd change directions a little bit and talk about something else for a minute or two. Warning: randomness below.

First of all - if you've not already been there, you must go over to Christina's blog and read her post "Where There's Smoke." Loved it.

And speaking of sites, I have another one I need to add to my list of faves. A few posts ago, I did my own rant on a blog post from Stuff Christians Like. I'd never been to the blog before, but my friend Rachel sent me the link to that post and I ended up reading other posts - and nodding my head quite often! The writer addresses great topics like the perils of trying to purchase rum for a cake, trying to sound super holy on Twitter, and making up a prayer request because everyone else has one. I've got a lot of catching up to do on that blog!

This is also speaking of sites, but let me give you some background. The last week or so has been extremely spiritually frustrating. The busyness of registration days last week got to me, and I didn't work hard at my quality time with God. That, in turn, annoyed me, because I hate it when people use busyness or tiredness or (anything really, if I'm being honest) as a reason to skip/skimp on devo time. I found I had plenty of time to sleep or scrap or read blogs, but not much time to really dig into the Word. Bad Bekah.

In my frustration, I found my way back to a site I'd not been to for a while: The Set Apart Life. This is the site of Eric and Leslie Ludy, who wrote When God Writes Your Love Story (and several other books as well). I have great respect for their approach to life, their ministries, their relationship, and their parenting. In fact, a while back, I went through a rough patch where I struggled with the concept of adoption. I didn't post about it because I could only imagine the backlash. But they have adopted two children now, and their explanations, their written journey of seeking God's will for that part of their lives...helped me better understand my struggles and how to look past them.

Reading their blogs and immersing myself (even momentarily) in their passion for life, love, and the Lord reminded me of what I was choosing to miss by not spending the time with Him that I should.

That, in turn, reminded me of the responsibility we have to each other when we share (whether verbally or in writing). Kinda made me feel bad for complaining about shopping. When people visit here, I want them to leave with passion, not frustration. That is not to say I'll never vent again...I'm sure I will. But I hope the ventings and the funnies and the "this-could-only-happen-to-Bekah" moments are all secondary to things that point back to God and His love.

Told you my head was full.

Be glad it isn't snot.

One last thought:

I'm helping out with Sunday's church service, and our worship leader called tonight to fill me in on some details. I grabbed a paper out of my Bible to scribble notes and found it was a bulletin insert I kept from a few weeks ago, because I loved the song written on it. This is a song I never heard until I started attending this church, and it has quickly become a favorite. I'm going to share the chorus with you, because I need these words tonight. Believe it or not, all this that I've written is just about 15% of my head-not-snottiness. There are dramas and traumas I haven't even gotten to yet.

Lord of all
Of all seen and unseen things
Of the universe that sings
And calls You Lord of all
Lord of all
Of the power not to sin
You have always been
And always will be Lord of all

And She Started Spelling...

...I haven't said this nearly enough after all my previous complaining, but ever since our precious Meijer opened, shopping at the Wal Mart has been just...well...beautiful. I know, I know. Who would have thought such words would leave my mouth (or hands)? But it's true. I've been able to find good parking spaces, carts abound, lines are not backed up into clothing...it's beautiful.

And now they're remodeling.

Tonight when I arrived, I had a specific mental plan, which was demolished in all of two seconds. I had a path to follow...one that would take me past the nail polish, on to the band aids, back to the cat food, and then to the regular food.

I turned into the cosmetics corner to find rows of empty shelves. I went in search of the missing items...and found shampoo in the toys, bikes in the pet food...and worker bees painstakingly checking bottles of nail polish against inventory sheets in aisles formerly occupied by hair products. I said under my breath, "Boy this is gonna be a long night." I asked a worker bee where I might find the pet food and she said, "Oh, back by shoes. Doesn't that make sense?" Normally I would have joked with her, but unfortunately the loss of the first four items on my list had sucked the last of the humor out of my body. I said, "Um, actually no, but thanks."

After trekking across the entire store for my cat food, I decided to give the nail polish one more shot. The bottle I searched for is called "Petites." Does that tell you how very little hope I had of ever finding it in the massive eruption of makeup that scattered over what should have been the shampoo aisle?

I called Mom on the way back across the store and said, "I just started spelling. Does that tell you how much I have h-a-d-i-t with this s-t-o-r-e?"

Bits for Sunday, June 14, 2009

My mind has been hopelessly overwhelmed by thoughts this week. So overwhelmed, in fact, that I sat down to journal (several times) and could not get the thoughts to transfer from brain to paper. They just swirled around up there and never found an exit.

Monday evening, as I huffed and puffed my way through a run, my phone rang. It was my friend Kristin, calling to tell me she’d just heard that someone we went to college with had died unexpectedly that afternoon. She was my age. She had just gotten married two weeks before. And that news was the very last bit of news I expected to hear in the middle of a run. After I heard it, I wasn’t sure if I should run harder or stop running entirely. And suddenly the things I’d been praying about as I made my way through the lap seemed dreadfully unimportant.

But the news of Jana’s death brought about a mental pause for me...one that I think was long overdue. I read the memories people shared about her online and was reminded that it’s the common moments that matter most. Those are the ones that stick in people’s minds and perhaps even mold them just a bit.

I love people. I love to spend time with them and share life – the pivotal moments and the pitiful ones, too. Whether it’s goofy chats or going out for ice cream or a day of hard-core scrapping or meeting a new significant other…I want to be there. I want to experience those moments with them and make a memory that they can grasp if one day they should get a phone call about me.

Later in the week, as I caught up on my scrapbook, I flipped through the pages from this year and smiled. Smiled because I saw within the pages exactly the sorts of things I’d always hoped I would see. When I was young and dreaming ahead about life, I figured the pictures would be of a husband and kids – and they’re not. Maybe someday they will be and maybe they won’t. But they are full of life. Full of fun moments and friendships and laughter and joy and…making the most of everything.

I’m thankful for my friends. For those who have made a place for me in their lives, invited me to be a piece of their family even though I’m not really such, and loved me despite my sometimes stupid actions. I’m thankful to have their smiling faces captured in my scrapbook as a reminder of the great times we’ve shared together.

When I read Jana’s obituary in her hometown newspaper, I saw an article about a 26 year old woman who died during her wedding reception…an aneurysm no one knew she had. They said she had been a healthy, active woman her entire life, but in a second, she was gone forever.

These two women are proof that you just never know when your life’s work is complete. They were done far too soon in my opinion. It’s proof that God’s timetable and ours do not always match. And I long ago stopped trying to figure out His reasoning.

I hope to live many years and add a whole room of scrapbooks onto my house, but I hope the moments I have, however long or short they might be, are filled with love and serve a lasting…an eternal…purpose.

I Think My Computer Outsmarted Me

I am trying to post Bits...and it won't take the copy/paste!!! I had this problem last week when I was trying to copy the text from the blog about singleness, and I thought it had something to do with that guy's site. But tonight I'm just trying to copy from Word and it won't take it. RRRR. I'll keep trying and if it won't work tonight, I'll try tomorrow from another computer.

(By the way - last week the singleness post BECAME "Bits" after my internet died and I couldn't write anything new on Sunday.)

Cherry Crisp

My Grandma died my senior year of high school, so when the family divided the household possessions, I inherited several things from her kitchen, including a couple of cookbooks. My Grandma was a GREAT cook, and I love being able to cook each day in the kitchen that used to be hers.

While I don't remember that Grandma ever made this recipe, it was one of my favorite finds in the cookbooks. It's a very tasty dessert, and since you don't make it in a 9x13 dish, it's not as overwhelming when you feed a smaller group of people. It also makes a fabulous breakfast (HEY! It has FRUIT! It counts as healthy!) if you have any left over. After about 2 days in the leftover world, the "crisp" loses its crispiness, but it's still tasty...just slightly mushy. This also tastes great with ice cream on top.

The Recipe

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup melted shortening
1 cup quick-cook oats
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 can cherry pie filling

Cream brown sugar, white sugar, butter, and shortening. Add oatmeal and stir together. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Add to other mixture and stir. Press half this mixture into an 11x7 pan. Pour pie filling on top. Cover with rest of mixture. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

My sister makes this recipe using a pie filling other than cherry...and she says it is quite yummy. So if you're not a big fan of cherry pie filling, you can use apple or blueberry or anything else.

I usually start by mixing together all the dry ingredients while the butter and shortening are melting in the microwave.

Here they are mixed...

I use the butter flavored shortening sticks because, as I have mentioned before, I HATE measuring shortening in a cup.

Once the butter and shortening are melted, I dump in both kinds of sugar.

...and stir...

...and add the oatmeal...

...and stir some more...

...then I add the dry ingredients to the big bowl...

This recipe isn't super messy, but I usually put a sandwich bag over my hand to reduce whatever mess exists. I press half the mixture into the bottom of the dish.

...this is what it looks like when it's all in there...

...add the pie filling. I've used the sugar free kind before and it works just fine. Although the other CUP of sugar might negate that move. :)

...add the rest of the mixture on top. I don't press this down. I just crumble it over the top.

...the finished product - straight from the oven!

Where oh Where Have I Been?

RIGHT HERE!!!!

Unfortunately, right after I posted my singles diatribe last Friday night...my internet gave out. I had a message when I got home that said I was up for repair first thing tomorrow morning. However, just a few minutes ago, I noticed it seemed to be working again, so HERE I AM!!! It has been very hard to be disconnected...didn't realize how accustomed I'd become to being online at will.

Anyway, what have I been up to? SO SO MUCH.

* This week is registration week at work, so we'll be welcoming hundreds (literally) of new students and their parents in the next few days. I love registration weeks because I love to meet people, but these weeks do lead to exhaustion.

* I learned yesterday that my RA from my sophomore year of college passed away. It was extremely unexpected and I don't even know very much about it yet. She and I were the same age, so that makes it extra jarring. And she'd just gotten married a couple of weeks ago.

* PHATS!!! Check this out!
Yep! That was me on my way to my first tennis lesson. Yes, tennis. As in the sport. My main goal was to make contact with the ball, and I was successful. Sometimes. I actually had a blast and can't wait to take another swing at it! (ha ha)

* Baked...I don't even know how many dozen cookies Saturday and tonight. It's been a chocolate chip/peanut butter festival around here.

* And on Sunday - a personal victory. More city driving. I went with my friend Faith (and by went, I mean drove) and her two daughters to visit my college roommate, Jenny, who just had her first baby.

He had previously been much happier but was getting tired by this time. Jenny says he HATES going to sleep because he might miss something. Apparently four visitors were worthy of fighting sleep!

So that's been life since I was disconnected. And of course I would reconnect right when I'm supposed to sleep!! So I'm back...and hopefully I'll catch up on reading soon. I feel so behind on everybody's lives!

OH how true...

...the fact that I spent my Friday night meticulously tending to my yard...receiving mosquito bites in the oddest of places...and doing my own pedicure (because it's cheaper) makes this even better.

While said pedicure "sets," I'm watching Conan take pot-shots at celebrities and reading this blog entry sent to me by my good friend, Rachel. She and I understand these things. I'm not going to post the whole blog here, because obviously you can go read it yourself, but I am picking my favorites for further commentary.

The entry (in case you haven't looked yet) covers "the different stereotypes and challenges singles have to navigate when they go to church." I don't post this out of bitterness. Being single at 31 isn't where I thought I'd be when I made my own life plan at age four. But it's not so bad. I post this simply because I've been on the receiving end of some of these comments and some are...unpleasant. Some are stinkin' funny. But most of them just get old.

#5. Someone pays you the world's most backhanded compliment: I just don't understand how someone as great as you isn't married yet. Well....clearly I'm either not that great after all, or it's just one of life's great mysteries. And thanks for reminding me I'm single. I'd forgotten.

#6. Someone told you, "If you stop looking for love, you'll find it." In this case, I will never find love. I adore stories and I do not want to miss one second of my love story. So no, I won't quit looking for it, because when I find it, I want to know when that moment happened. I will journal it and treasure it.

#10. Your friends that have been married for 15 minutes act like they suddenly don't remember anything about dating and therefore can't give you any advice. "It's been so long since I dated; things have changed so much. I'm just out of that whole scene." I think my experience has been more that a friend who has been married for 15 minutes says to me "I'm just so glad I'm done dating. That was such a hard time in life." Mmmm thanks. I'll send you a postcard when I arrive to let you know how I feel about it.

#11. People are constantly volunteering you for things, because "you're single...you've got so much free time." I would like to contend that those who are single are twice as busy because they have no one with whom to divide the chores. When you're married (hypothetically speaking of course) there are more options for things like...who will mow the lawn...who will do the laundry...who will clean the house...who will grocery shop...who will service the car...who will pay the bills. When you're single - you win by default!

#15. Whenever married friends call you at noon on a Saturday, they start the conversation by saying, "Did I just wake you up?" You better believe you did! This is the one thing I love the MOST about being single and childless. Saturday mornings? If I choose to sleep til noon, I can.

#16. You assume that if you don't get married by final exams of your senior year in college, you'll never get married. Oh you mean that isn't true?

#17. You've secretly always wanted your own cat but are afraid that ownership of a single kitten will become some sort of gateway drug to becoming "the cat lady." Truly, truly, truly the reason I stopped at 2 cats. I got Braeya to give Kaegan someone to play with...but after that I told everyone that if I got a 3rd cat, I would officially be the crazy cat lady.

#23. Your married friends tiptoe around you during February because they think you're too delicate to handle the made-up holiday, Valentine's Day. I actually LOVE Valentine's Day. I love the excuse to tell people how much they mean to me...and I have been sorely disappointed by my married friends who meet my offerings with a shrug and "It's no big deal. It's just a day." HEY! Let me believe a holiday of love could be a good thing someday.

#30. Your best friend of 15 years gets married and then suddenly acts like a magical gap has opened up between you and decides that until you get married too you can't be close again because you just don't understand each other anymore. OH MY WORD. Actually I need to first say that my best friend has not changed ONE BIT since she got married. And I love hanging out with her and her husband...and I don't feel like the third wheel. It is so refreshing. But in relation to this comment, I would like to say that the gap hit big time when kids began appearing in my friends' homes. It has been probably the single hardest transition in my friendships.

#36. You've ever said the rhyme, "I'm a bachelor 'til the rapture." I haven't said this, actually, because I'd never heard it. But it cracks me up!

#39. You've developed a highly sensitive, "They're about to throw the bouquet" radar and know exactly when to leave a wedding." There will be NO bouquet toss at my wedding. I hate it, hate it, hate it, and what I hate even worse is when I hide from it and the entire toss is put on hold until the crowd has been carefully combed to extract all single hiding girls to force them into the front.

Okay I'm done now. :)

Happy Birthday, Phats!

Are you seeing a theme for June? :)

Phats has a birthday today! Hope your birthday is great...thanks for being a my good friend in blogland and in real life!

Happy Birthday, Brian!

Today is Brian Holland's birthday, and yesterday the Holland's Blog said to celebrate...everyone should go to Sonic for a free root beer float.

I thought it would be rude to not celebrate when invited...

...so happy birthday, Brian! :)

Thankful

We had some pretty nasty storms here yesterday. I hate storms. But I was out of food from being gone on vacation, so I had to rise above the fear just enough to go grocery shopping. I figured with my luck, I'd get struck by lightning while pushing the grocery cart to my car or something like that.

Call me paranoid....

...but while I was out worrying about that, my house actually did take a hit. Right to the phone. I came home to no phone. No internet. I waited for the storm to pass to see if it would fix itself, and when it did not, I called my new best friends at the troubleshooting department.

They informed me I'd probably taken a hit, and they'd send someone to fix it. The very nice man came today and told me I had indeed been struck by lightning...and it had completely fried the connections. Easily fixed...which he did.

I'm just thankful it took out my phone instead of my home!

Bits for Sunday, May 31, 2009

One hour and thirty seven minutes. That’s all the freedom I have left in a glorious vacation.

Tomorrow I re-enter the world of alarm clocks, the pink day planner, grocery shopping, cleaning, and financial aid.

I’ve written before about Bekah-vacations, which usually include a significant list of chores to be done around the house, scrapbooks to complete, cards to make, and naps to savor.

Not this time.

This time, I took a for-real, leave-the-state, book-a-hotel vacation. I know. It boggles the mind, but it’s true.

Growing up, I watched my mom plan our family vacations. She pored over AAA books, made hotel reservations weeks in advance, saved money from all the budgets to cover things like food and gas, bought little presents to keep me entertained along the route, filled a cooler with snacks and drinks, and made sure the camera was at the ready to capture each vacation-y moment.
I learned well.

I won’t bother to tell you how many hours I spent poring over AAA books, reading dozens of hotel reviews, and searching any site I could find for fun things to do. An entire page in my day planner was devoted to the budget, the packing list, and the things-to-do-before-I-go reminders.

There are times when it pays to have some OCD blood and other times it gets really annoying. This was kind of a combo of the two. I lovingly sealed and stamped all the cards that would need to be mailed while I was gone and left them in the capable care of a co-worker…with little purple sticky notes informing her of the day each should be mailed. I divided my funds into little envelopes, each carefully marked with its designation. I typed out two pages of instructions for my house sitter and monitored the levels of cat litter and food to make sure they were well-stocked. The car enjoyed a tire rotation, a bit of repair for the death rattle it had begun to make, and even a new windshield wiper for the passenger. I stalked the weather channel to make informed packing decisions. I pre-chilled the water bottles for the cooler and purchased health-conscious snacks for the snack bag.

And promptly at 7:30 on Tuesday morning, I deposited the last of my luggage in the living room to await the arrival of my friend who had so graciously agreed to travel with me. We strategically packed my car, scurried through a drive-thru for the must-have traveling caffeine and within an hour were blissfully unaware that we were lost, despite an atlas and OCD-induced printed instructions from my front porch to the hotel’s lobby.

Once we found our way back to the right road…we ventured forth, and ten hours and four states later, we arrived in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Land of the chocolate and home of the sweet. We spent a couple of days there, touring gorgeous gardens, sampling the healthy antioxidant loaded chocolate treats, getting lost (thanks to the lousy local map provided at the hotel…though not published by the hotel) and making our very own waffles at the hotel breakfast bar. We took a combined total of almost 300 pictures, laughed at the road signs littering the state of Pennsylvania, learned we do not look good in hairnets, dodged the massive herds of field trip participants, and developed an idea for the new and improved car horn, which should have various sounds for various situations.

I would prattle on about the trip, but I already did in the 17 posts below!! Over on the right is a Virtual Vacation list if you want to look at posts in order.

Enjoy!

Meanwhile, I must begin to think about getting to bed at a decent hour.

Virtual Vacation: The End!

** I made a side bar called "Virtual Vacation" if you want to look at the posts in order. They are somewhat backwards if you go through them like I have them here. **

Well, all good things must come to an end. So after loading up on treasures at the scrapbook store, Amber and I headed home. We intended to only drive halfway, stay at some random hotel, and then drive on in Friday morning. But we were both ready to come home, and saving the other night's hotel money didn't sound so bad either, so we came all the way home Thursday night.

I drove the turnpike this time, and about halfway through, we could tell a storm was about to let loose. Driving 70 in a rainstorm in the mountains did not sound fun to me.


The guy in front of me put on his flashers, and I was so glad he did. I might have hit him otherwise. I was too afraid to pull over - afraid someone wouldn't see me and would wipe me out.

But we made it through the rainstorm, through a couple more...and all the way home.

Here were some of our favorite road signs:

There is also a Husband, PA, and an Intercourse, PA, but we only saw a sign for Lover.

We arrived home about 12:30. By the time I carried things out of the car and sat on my bed, the clock said 12:41.

Amber and I are still friends, we had fun, and I'd visit Hershey again if I ever have the chance!

Virtual Vacation: Last Stop - Chocolate World!

Thursday was our last day to be in Hershey, so we saved our trip to Chocolate World for then. I had no idea it was such a popular field trip destination. Pretty sure we didn't take field trips to such places when I was in school. At times we were overwhelmed by massive herds of children, but overall it was a fun place to go.

Nice bonus: 2 hours and under = free parking. Love that! We made sure to get in and out right at two hours.

Our first stop in Chocolate World was the tour. We sat in little cars that resembled sleighs, and rode through a factory tour of how chocolate is made from cocoa beans clear through until packaging. It was great, but I needed to ride it about three times. Trying to take in all the sights (and smells!) can't be done in one trip.

These lovely cows serenaded us at different points throughout the ride.

A vat of chocolate. Seriously - can life be any better?

Filling the syrup bottles. Again I say...can life be any better?

The production counter. I knew this world contains a lot of chocolate, but these numbers blew my mind. We were there at 11:30 in the morning!

If I could have reached through the glass......

Amber on the ride...

Me on the ride. At the end, they told you to look up for a picture, and then the pictures were available for purchase. Unfortunately I was talking (shocker!) during ours so we opted out of the $9.95 and just used these that we took.

At the end of the ride, we were given our very own tiny candy bar. I'd learned about that part of the adventure from watching Jon and Kate Plus 8. They did an episode at Chocolate World.