Monday Misc.

I've acquired some pictures that have no particular running thread...but I still wanted to share them with you. So...today's post is just a little hodge podge. Hope you enjoy!

Ronda came to my sale for a while on Saturday and brought with her some pictures she'd taken at my baptism. She was standing in a different spot than Rachel, who took the bulk of the pictures. This one was my favorite.
My friends Lori and Marty ran sound at Olivia's wedding last week, and they took some pictures from their perch in the sound booth. This is the beginning of the wedding. I thought the decorations were just lovely. (I'm the very last bridesmaid on the left.)

Lori and Marty took this one too - of the vows.

My attempt at the Macarena. Fail.

Do you know about Penguin Point? (I've heard it's not a nation-wide thing, so if you don't have one, I'm so sorry.) They have some of the best tenderloins on earth. And they don't exist in Kansas. (Penguin Point OR tenderloins.) So whenever Lori and Jeff come to visit, a trip to the Point is always on the schedule. This time we went on Saturday after the garage sale closed. Julie even came up to go with us!

Brother-in-law extraordinaire. :)

The Pointer Sisters. (Their idea, not mine. I just took the picture.)

Objects in picture are taller than they appear. I'm the tallest sister. I must start remembering to wear SHOES in our pictures!!

I took this one mostly for my friend Lois, who used to work at IWU and now lives in the great state of California. IWU's newest demo project. Know what it is? Old College Church.

And there you have it! A little Monday miscellany!

It's the Weekly Recap!

* Sunday afternoon, I was exhausted - after all the wedding hoopla. I fell asleep and had a dream in which I first drove off the end of a pier and drowned...and then accidentally (?!?) disconnected my toilet and couldn't get it reconnected. Note to self. Don't eat so much garlic bread for lunch before napping! Sunday evening I went to Mr. James' birthday party. It's been two years since I watched him take his very first breaths! Love this guy!
* You would THINK that when my Sunday recap started out "I was exhausted," Monday's recap would include rest. Let me think. No. I pulled an all nighter Sunday night, finally calling it a night TWENTY EIGHT MINUTES before my alarm went off. That was one thing when I worked a block from home. Doing that before an hour commute is NOT SMART. I intended to rest when I came home, but I'd just gotten home when the realtor who listed my house called and said someone wanted to see it Tuesday morning. So I spent all of Monday evening madly rushing about the house, cleaning it up. And because I know you've missed him...it was a new month:
* Tuesday was so much fun at work! It's still very odd to me to be able to do fun, creative stuff...and have that same stuff count as work! Poor Lynne has her work cut out for her, getting that point across to me. I actually had to be retrieved at the end of the work day. I was completely caught up in a brainstorming fest and forgot it was quitting time.

* Wednesday my sister, Lori, arrived!! She came all the way out here from Kansas just to do my moving sale. Can you believe that? Anyway, she arrived right before the end of my work day, so I showed her around the station, and then we went house hunting with my Ft. Wane realtor. We saw four houses (one of which I had seen before, but she wanted to see it in person), and y'all, I found a house I absolutely adore with all my being. I've been very calm about this whole selling/buying thing, but Jesus and I had a discussion about that house. There aren't words to describe that house's precious-ness. After we hunted, I took her out to dinner at Cheddars. I so very VERY rarely get a sister date with either of my sisters, so that was just such a fun night for me. Loved it.

* Thursday, while I was at work all day, Lori transformed my garage into sale-central. What would have taken me weeks to do...took her a day. In a single day, she sorted through all the stuff, organized it, and priced it. She should work for a TV show. She had a plan for everything. And before the sale even started, I'd made over sixty bucks! Here was the "before" (sorted, but cramped up into the garage so the door would close). * Friday was garage sale, day one. So weird to be at work while a party went on at my house! That evening, we all went out to eat at Culvers. The lady who waited on me called me "Sir." Must have been a worse hair day than I thought. Seriously...SIR????? THIS is a sir!!! * Saturday was day two of my yard sale:
Exhausting work, I tell you. Exhausting. I had to get up at 6 in the morning to get ready to help Lori get it all set up. Wore me out. The rest of the day was fun...lunch at Penguin Point...shopping at Cato...dinner at the parentals'...

Books I'm Reading: I read Jesus Calling and Sparkling Gems from the Greek and finished the next to the last chapter in Entrusting Your Dreams to God.

Favorite God Moment of the Whole Week: I think my favorite moment was actually the hardest. Friday afternoon, as I drove home from work, I was in some intense heart-battle. Satan was after me, and I knew it. Scary thing to be flying down the interstate at 70 miles an hour while doing some warfare. But what a great thing to know God was right there with me...and to sense Him saying it would be okay...to fight through it.

Update on Last Week's Goals: I did begin to establish some new routines this week - with exercise, sleep, and journaling. And I have COMPLETELY enjoyed having Lori and Jeff here this weekend.

Goals for the Coming Week: After several weeks of running, running, running, my goals this week are to read...scrapbook...and spend some good time in prayer. I need all those things.

Snickerdoodles

Olivia's wedding reception was a dessert buffet, and she asked if I'd make snickerdoodles for her. I said SURE!! Then I realized I'd never made them before. Never fear...there had to be a good recipe on the internet somewhere...right?

I hunted one down, made it...and four-cookies-consumed-in-ten-minutes later, declared it a good find. In fact...I made another batch this last week and took them to work. Friday afternoon, I got an email from one of the guys at work. The subject line said "alert!" - and I thought....oh no...what did I do? I opened the email. "Just wanted you to know we're out of snickerdoodles." I giggled right there in my seat!

So apparently these ARE really good. Make a batch and ENJOY.

The Recipe:
1 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl, cream together the shortening and 1 1/2 cups sugar. Stir in the eggs. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture until well blended. In a small bowl, stir together the 2 tablespoons of sugar, and the cinnamon. Roll dough into walnut sized balls, then roll the balls in the cinnamon-sugar. Place them onto an ungreased cookie sheet, two inches apart. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Edges should be slightly brown. Remove from sheets to cool on wire racks.
I used the butter flavored Crisco shortening sticks. I dearly hate measuring shortening, so this makes it much easier. You'll also notice vanilla in this picture. There's no vanilla in the recipe. Guess I thought there should be! PAY ATTENTION, BEKAH!!

I cut up the shortening stick into small pieces and put it in the bowl with the sugar. (I sort of forgot to take a picture of it before I started beating it with the mixer...thrown off by the presence of the vanilla. Rough start. It got better.)
This is what it looks like after it's all mixed together. Kinda like scrambled eggs!

Added the eggs...

Then it started to resemble regular batter.

I put the rest of the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and and mixed it together.

I added the dry ingredients a little at a time.

I don't (yet) have a fancy pants KitchenAid mixer, so my little hand mixer only works in mixing the dry ingredients in for so long. It starts to look like this and then it gets too thick to use the beaters and I have to do the rest with a spoon.

This was the batter after all the flour was added...pretty thick.

I took a little bowl and put in the cinnamon and sugar.

Mixed them up.

Rolled the dough into small balls...you could make them bigger if you want big cookies.

They kind of look like doughnut holes after they're rolled in the cinnamon/sugar mixture.

Space them apart on the cookie sheet...

Bake and enjoy!

I'd recommend storing them with a slice of bread in the bag or dish with them...to keep them from getting crunchy. I forgot that the second time around. Woops! They really were so good!

30 Days of You and Me: Day Twenty-Three

I started to write this post about two weeks ago, but I kept putting it off...

...because it's a very uncomfortable one. I'd ten times rather tell you a super embarrassing story about myself than write this post.

But I'm too OCD to skip over number 23...so I will do it. Today's post: A Love Letter to Myself

Here goes!

Dear Bekah...

You demand a lot from yourself...too much, probably, sometimes. Okay, most of the time. But today you need to open wide some arms of grace and think about what you love about yourself.

...I love the way I've taken a house and made it a home. I love this place and the comfort it offers, even if it just offers it to Braeya and me. I love the warm colors, the comfy chairs, the cozy bed, the coffee candles...and the actual unlimited coffee itself.

...I love knowing that when this place sells and I have a new house, it can be home too. I love knowing I can transform that place and make it every bit the haven this one has been for the last eleven years.

...I love the way I write. Many classroom hours in college left me wishing I had the talent of this writer or that. I wanted to sound smarter or have more deeper thoughts, but now I'm very happy with my writing voice. It suits me.

...I love the way God has put in me a desire to love others. Sure, sometimes that brings its own brand of heartache, but most of the time it brings its own brand of joy.

...I love my quirks. Everyone else may roll their eyes at the things that bring me joy, but I don't care. I love the unique blend that is Bekah.

...I love this life. Many years ago, I never thought life could be good if lived alone, but I was wrong. I enjoy these days and the way I've been able to bring fun to this life. I love the way I learned to get up and make things happen rather than sitting back thinking I didn't deserve fun.

And that...is what I love about my life. On to more comfortable topics tomorrow!!

Bekah's Day as A Bridesmaid

I'm not quite to the place where I can star in 27 dresses. In fact, this was "just" my fifth time to be a bridesmaid. (One of the other bridesmaids in Olivia's wedding is in seven weddings this summer!) But I wanted to show you the day.

We had to be at the church at 8:00 for hair. That's eight IN THE MORNING. I post this picture because I either am more secure than I thought...or I'm really stupid. Could go either way. This is me mid-caffeination...pre-hair, pre-face. This is why I have to get up so long before I leave the house, y'all!
I was so thankful to have my friend Tiffany there doing hair that day. She took such good care of me. I told her "I want it up and out of my face...and anything you can do to hide the grays, please." And she did a MAGNIFICENT job.

Yesterday you saw my dress from the front...here it is from the back. (I stopped at Ronda's house on the way home so she could take the back picture. While I was there, I fed Silas his peas. That's why he's sitting on the table in this picture.)

Here's a closer view of the hair. It had so many bobby pins (53 to be exact) and so much hairspray - it was my Sunday look too! :)

After we all got ready, it was time for pictures! The wedding was inside (thank You, JESUS!) but we did quite a few of the pictures outside. So we were sweating like crazy when we got back in. Time to bathe in body spray and stand in front of fans!

This is Lyra, one of the bridesmaids. I didn't know her until this adventure, but I have to say she has one of the most beautiful spirits of anyone I've ever met. I just adored her.

And this is Jill. My word, she was fun. The two of us got in all sorts of trouble together. I mean...no we didn't. (PS our jewelry was made by my friend Rachel. We all had different designs - same pearls - and I thought they all turned out amazing.)

She had one ring bearer and three flower girls, and those flower girls were TOO CUTE. During the "please try to eat and calm down" hour before the wedding, they sorted all the petals by color.

This is Lisa, the matron of honor. Cool dress, isn't it? We did have one dress mishap prior to the wedding. One of the bridesmaids sat down and her skirt ripped. Fortunately the dress maker was almost to the church and she whipped it back into shape just in time for the wedding!

Obviously I have no pictures of the wedding yet. I elected to NOT carry my camera down the aisle. (Yes, that was hard for me.) But here are some things you should know about the ceremony.

* It was 2837482937489372983487239 degrees in the sanctuary. Approximately.

* I took off my shoes the minute I got to the front of the church (I stood on the floor by the front row the entire time) and left them off until the kiss.

* The kiss was plenty long enough for me to get back into my shoes even though my feet were swollen from the heat and it was hard to get them back on.

* It was one of the most meaningful ceremonies I've ever been to in my life. They'd thought through the symbolism of every detail and I loved it.

* No one played any tricks on them (losing the ring, etc) or anything, but after Lisa straightened Olivia's dress at one point, Tom's brother, who was the best man, reached over and straightened his coat. I thought that was hilarious.

* The kiss may actually still be going on. It really was that long. (And I hear, from other vantage points, quite fun to watch! I had a veil in my way.)

* I did not fall going out. I gave my groomsman strict instructions to be careful with me because my shoes were slick.

After the wedding, we had more pictures, and then it was time for the reception!! They were so nice to each other. :)

The reception was all dessert. Cake, cookies, brownies, pies, candies, a MILKSHAKE STATION, all sorts of SUGAR!!!!!!!

First dance as husband and wife. Loved it. I actually don't know how to dance. So after miserable failures at the electric slide and the Macarena and the hokey pokey, I sat down. The best man came over to me and asked where the nearest grocery store was, because he hadn't gotten the stuff to decorate the getaway car...I mean Tom's truck.

I tried to explain it to him and then I just said, "Do you want me to show you?" So I climbed (and I do mean CLIMBED...that thing was a beast!) into his massive pickup truck, in my bridesmaid dress and heels, and off we went to the grocery store.

On our way back to the church where the reception was being held, we may or may not have been pulled over by the state police. You can only imagine my joy at facing a cop. (I'm PETRIFIED of the police if you didn't know that about me.) Anyway, he let us go because we looked cute. (Sorry...but just callin' it like it was!) So then we picked up Tom's other brother, who was also a best man - and his wife, and we went over to decorate the truck. It was also 2983409238409283402384092834029842093 outside, so we smelled GOOD by the time we were done with that! Even so, blowing up balloons with sweat running from all sorts of places was preferable to dismal dancing attempts.

We went back to the reception site to deliver the truck for the bride and groom!
Doesn't she look lovely - even barefoot??

Tom and his cute wife...leaving the reception!!!

And that, my friends, was a wedding! :)

So very, very honored to have been part of their day. It was truly lovely in every way.

Rehearsal Time!

Last Friday night was Tom and Olivia's rehearsal and dinner. I just had such a fun night with everyone...starting the minute I walked in the door.

I wore my Easter dress (which I realized ON my way to work Friday...I totally forgot to iron. My mother raised me better than that. Please make a note of it.) - and lookie here - I had a match!
That's Rich...we used to go to church together. His wife was quick to assure me the outfit was entirely of his choosing. Hmmmm....wonder why she wanted that noted? LOL!! Anyway, there we were in our matching yellow ruffles.

So then I tried my hand (or head, rather) at his hat...

The rehearsal was...well it was a rehearsal. Not much to report! My favorite run through was the one where we actually ran. In and out. I was groomsman-less that night. He was still en route.

After the rehearsal was the dinner. Tom and Olivia's favorite meal is breakfast, so that's what we had. Breakfast burritos, biscuits and gravy, pancakes, breakfast casserole, fruit and dip, French toast casserole, bacon and sausage...probably more things that I've forgotten. My friends Chris and Trudy did all the cooking and it was fantastic. They are good cooks, those two.

I think these two are cute enough to get married...don't you?

After that...time to try on the dress to make sure it fit! Yes - the unveiling of the dress! Did I tell you about this dress? We all (as you'll see tomorrow) had different dresses. Same fabric...and knee length for everyone...but otherwise, we could pick out whatever we wanted. Mine is actually three different dress patterns...plus a twist we threw in just for fun. I loved it.

Cracked me up when I saw it hanging in the church. I seriously thought it was the junior bridesmaid's dress. I'm used to much larger dresses!

My favorite part of the night was the end. Tom and Olivia had invited any of us who wanted to...to pray over the sanctuary. So I prayed over the room, and then I had a chance to pray with Olivia and then over the two of them together. That was really a very special moment that I'll always treasure.

Come back tomorrow to see the wedding! :)

Bachelorette Party!!

Last week I went to Olivia's bachelorette party. My first one ever. (Can you believe that!?!)

We all met up at a hotel in town and Olivia's sister (who was in charge of the party) had ordered pizza for us. (YUM. I do so love pizza. I could seriously eat it at every meal.)

Then we set out on a scavenger hunt. Want to hear a stupid-Bekah-moment story?

Olivia's sister passed out copies of the scavenger hunt list to all of us. I have to admit I was kind of surprised. The list had us going to bars and having Olivia asking random strangers for really awkward stuff. While I sat there trying to figure out how two underage girls thought they were going to get in to bars, Olivia was trying to figure out how to be gracious about her party when 90% of the stuff on the list went against her values.

Then we received a second list - the REAL scavenger hunt list. The first one was just to freak Olivia out! Her sister thanked us for playing along. I said, "I was supposed to know that was a fake?" She said, "Didn't you get the email?" Guess not! HA! Way to go Bekah!

So anyway. We set out traipsing about Marion, collecting the items on the hunt. This was one of my favorite moments. She was supposed to find a couple who had been married more than 40 years and ask them the secret of their success. We found these two couples sitting in the mall. One couple had been married 55 years and the other 62 years! The husband of the 62 year couple told Olivia the secret of their marriage was Jesus. I loved that. I loved it that God showed up in a bachelorette party scavenger hunt!
Then we had to find someone to tell us an in-law joke. Do you know that no one has an in-law joke? This lady told us something funny her mother-in-law said, and we let that count.

Mission: Find Tom a ring at a hardware store. Budget cuts, people. Budget cuts.

Last stop of the night...find a dress and have a member of the wedding party try it on. So I present to you - my backup dress. I look like a Halloween nightmare.

Gag gift for Tom - a rather significant belt buckle.

After the scavenger hunt, we went back to the hotel, where Olivia gave us some very thought-filled gifts, and I handed out backrubs.

They booked the hotel for the night, but I had to work on Friday, so I went home before the karaoke (whew!) and movies.

I loved the party. This group of girls is MUCH FUN. I loved time with them!

SSMT: Verse 15

As you saw on Saturday, busy doesn't quite begin to cover my July. Insane, perhaps? All normalcy has been gone from my life. I flew from one activity to the next, hoping I wouldn't forget something...at least something major.

It was one of those months when I was sorely tempted to just buy more underwear because I didn't have time to do laundry.

And sadly, my time withe the Lord took a hit. I hate that. I really really hate that. I was convicted beyond words at Olivia's wedding on Saturday when, 30 minutes before walking down the aisle, she gathered up her train and disappeared into a classroom to do her devotions. I am pretty sure that means I have no excuse.

God and I do a lot of talking on my commute, but my times of sitting at His feet...reading...studying...journaling...took a hit this month. Did I mention I hate that?

I'm sure this is a by-product of that, but even in all the busyness this month, it has been a lonely month. I have struggled more than I even want to admit to myself with that great sadness. The temptation to contact people I know I shouldn't be contacting has been intense. And I've shed more than a few tears in those discussions with God.

So this verse that I've chosen is picked from a rather desperate heart. I haven't done word studies. I haven't dissected. I just need it.

As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him. - 2 Samuel 22:31

I don't understand His ways right now. But I do have an incredible peace that His way is perfect. Even when I don't get it. And right now I'm falling into His arms for refuge. Comfort.

Not profound today. But that's my heart.