Back in January, my friend Rachel invited me for dinner. And then it snowed. So we rescheduled. And then it snowed. And then we rescheduled. And then she got sick. And then we rescheduled. (Etc. Etc. Etc.) After the surprise ice storm this week knocked us back again, I was determined to get there...and I finally did, last night.
Rachel has two kids now, and they're a lot of fun. Because I don't see them all that often, it takes them a couple of minutes to warm up to me, but once they do - FUN!!!!!!
Mother and daughter...DARLING.
I was treated to an impromptu dance recital...I believe to a little Mary Mary music???
Rachel did not shy away from the dance action either...that's what I love about her. She's such a fun mom!!
This child makes me smile. Oh my word. How can you not LOVE THIS DARLING FACE??
And she's lovin' her mama just like her sister does!!
So thankful the weather finally let me get out there for dinner. YUMMO chicken enchiladas and salad and rice...and I didn't have to cook it! Bonus! (And I may or may not have gotten to peruse Rachel's jewelry...she has made most of what I wear. Love it.)
It's just such a tease to get a gorgeous day like we had Saturday...and then...the return of the wintry mix. It's not nice.
Not one bit.
Let me just give you a recap of yesterday.
* It was President's Day, so some of you might have enjoyed a day off work. Not so much for me. I not only went to work, but it was a HUGE visit day on campus because so many schools were out for the day. That meant I had to dress up...and I elected to wear an actual skirt, because, you know, spring is coming.
* When I left for lunch, I had a little Marilyn Monroe situation going on that very nearly gave a free show to all of Shatford Hall.
* While home for lunch, I changed into pants.
* On my way back in from lunch, my umbrella blew inside out. (My heavy duty umbrella that has NEVER blown inside out.) Fortunately, Greg from my office was leaving for lunch at that very moment, took pity on me, and drove me up to the door.
* By quitting time, the rain had turned to this: And this is how I felt about the workout that resulted from just getting INTO my car.
But I will say this for ice: great photo opps.
Pretty on trees. As long as branches stay far far from power lines.
Because my desire to have a Little House on the Prairie moment passed after Snowmageddon.
Please don't tell anyone this next part because you know how I feel about daylight savings...
(in case you're new here...I abhor daylight savings)
But the whole idea of longer evenings for things like photo opps...
Do you remember my friend Julie? She's the one who went to Brown County with me a couple of years ago. I really enjoy spending time with her and have sorely missed her this winter. We only live about an hour apart, but neither of us likes to drive on bad roads, so this winter we've been email buddies instead.
Late last week, she asked if I was busy Friday night and when I said no - she asked if she could bring the kids and come for a visit. I loved it that she wanted to make the trip! (Her husband couldn't come with her this time, but we still had fun.) So...here's a photo essay of our night!
We started with dinner. I made baked spaghetti and garlic bread, and she brought some salad. Perfect easy dinner! Esther loved the spaghetti - and kept asking for more please! She also fell in love with the cheese (and really, who wouldn't?) but all I had was shredded cheese. She didn't care. She ate it anyway. Have you ever served shredded cheese as an actual dish?
After dinner, Julie and I wanted some time to chat, so it was Veggie Ta-a-les to the rescue! Isn't this precious? Broccoliiiiiiiiiiiiiii...celeryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy....gotta beeeeeee...Veggietales.
Levi soon tired of the Veggie Tales entertainment, so he created his own. Get on all fours, rock (quickly) back and forth and see how close you can get your head to the glass without causing a concussion. Don't worry. It's not real fire. And he was monitored. And eventually removed from this game, which he found to be a great injustice.
He was so much smaller in November - when I last saw him! But he's just a sweet little snuggler and I loved holding him! (And best of all, I found my multi-tasking-while-holding-a-baby skills have not died. I did the last leg of dinner prep while holding him! Sweet!)
Some people eat popcorn during a movie. Others...cell phones.
And still others - animal crackers! BUSTED!!!!
Julie and I had a wonderful time talking, laughing, and catching up on life in general. Esther was so good and just sat and read while we talked. And Levi had many opinions on our words. I'm not quite sure what they were, but he voiced them.
Before they left, I insisted upon a group picture. (Of course.) Esther was not familiar with the practice of tripods (trepieds...see, Skyepuppy? I remembered!) and self timers. We hadn't really stopped to consider that. So here was take one:
As soon as the camera flashed, Esther shouted CHEESE!!!!! So we tried again - this time she said CHEESE over and over. She's a fast little learner. We declared round two to be perfect!
What a fun impromptu Friday night. (And I'm so sorry I was dressed for my workout. How un-photogenic!) Thanks, Julie, for coming over to hang out. Can't wait to take a field trip with you guys!
Before I begin my recap, I'd just like to say I truly DID do something this week besides eat...contrary to what the following post will lead you to believe.
* I love church for many reasons, but days like last Sunday are extra great. In addition to a fantastic sermon...I went home with chai and girl scout cookies! Happiness, my friends! This is, by the way, my favorite chai in the entire world. On the way home, I stopped at Mom and Dad's to show Mom the lion picture (since she'd already ordered one from me, I figured she should see what she's getting) and Dad presented me with these:
Aren't they lovely? I was so excited...I love flowers!!!!! * Monday was Valentine's Day, and I celebrated by inviting Amber over for a fondue palooza! You already got to read about that. I loved having her over for dinner and I can't wait to try out the fondue scenario again!
* Sometimes it's the little things, right? Tuesday I got to play secretary all afternoon. Both our front desk ladies called in sick, and I volunteered to take the afternoon shift in their place. I'd forgotten what fun it is to help two students in person while simultaneously holding the phone with my shoulder until my call was valued enough to be answered in the order it was received. I'm sorry the ladies were sick, but I loved having the chance to do their jobs
* Wednesday I had the surprise opportunity to have lunch with my friend Adela Hufford. She works where I do - though in a different office - and we both love to cook. (In fact, she even hosts a cooking show on TV through the school's station.) She'd seen my posts about fondue and wanted to try what I'd made, so in a completely spur-of-the-moment decision, she came over for lunch! (Great chance for me to NOT worry about what the house looked like and instead focus on a fun time with a friend I don't normally get to spend time with.) Thanks, Adela, for taking time to eat with me!
And then...as you know...cupcake class! (This one was delicious, by the way.)
* Thursday I got a free lunch! Can't beat that! One of my students took me to the dining hall for lunch and catch-up time. Then I branched out and tried blueberry crumble fresh brew. (Decided I didn't care for it, but was proud of myself for taking a coffee risk.) And in the afternoon, my binder for 2011-2012 got a makeover. I love seeing the ideas the designated binder-creators come up with every year. This year...my job as a book: * Friday evening, I had the pleasure of welcoming my friend Julie and her two kiddos for dinner and an evening of hanging out. (More on that tomorrow...) I've missed Julie and her whole family (including her husband, Jon, who makes one fabulous pot of coffee!) in these winter months. They don't live terribly far from me, but far enough that the bad roads have kept us apart. We are ready for warmer weather so we can hang out again!
* I got the worst case of spring fever Saturday. It was GORGEOUS here. Hard to believe that two weeks ago, I was shoveling six inches of snow out of my driveway and watching people dig their cars out of ditches. In honor of the day's beauty, I went "necessity shopping." That may or may not be justification for spending money. :) The focus of the day was shopping for things I needed vs. things I wanted. (Though one or two or six of the wants seemed to slip into the basket...)
Among my purchases were these two things I need for exercise! I noticed last weekend, while walking through melting ice, that my socks got wet. Sure enough...my workout shoes had worn through to my socks...in both shoes. So now I have brand new workout shoes...and I found this little warm-up hoodie jacket, too. I needed something in anticipation of being able to run outside soon - something that would keep me warm but wasn't too bulky. Clearance rack to the rescue!
Favorite God Moment of the Whole Week: Hard to narrow it down! Probably my favorite was Thursday when from the moment I got up until I went to bed that night, God sent whisper after whisper to me. Emails...Scripture...songs...blogs...words to my heart...I felt so loved! Books I'm Reading: More Sparkling Gems from the Greek for my devos. Started reading Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip House. This is a book for the reading course committee I'm on...it's about a fifteen year old girl who refused to give up her seat on a bus - nine months before Rosa Parks did the same. I also read some in Girls Gone Wise in a World Gone Wild and I FINISHEDBelieving God. (The book, not the act of doing so.) Update on Last Week's Goals: I did drink 3 glasses of water every day and I did not like it. (This doesn't mean I'll stop. I just wanted to complain for one minute. I'm done now.) I also learned I should not begin the day's consumption at 10 p.m. I have worked on the article for submission but so far have not been successful. Writer's block, you might say. Goals for the Coming Week: Survive? LOL. It is going to be a very busy week. I actually think I'd like make it a goal to be in bed by midnight every night. In recent weeks, my bedtime has ranged anywhere from 1-2 a.m., and that might explain why I've taken so many naps after work! If I can be in bed by midnight, that might help me survive the madness.
I'm so glad it's not a week ago. Last Friday I battled an ugly attitude all morning. (Let the record show, I was not alone in this; according to Facebook, last Friday was just a bad day all around for everyone.) But for me, it was so bad, I closed my door at work to try to preserve my friendships through sheer lack of contact.
By lunchtime, I knew my best bet would be driving the prayer path and hoping God had something good to say to redeem the day.
(Last summer, during the days when I couldn't bear to go home during my lunch hour, I devised a driving path that would consume most of the lunch hour and keep me away from traffic, so I could ponder and pray. That path has become truly sacred ground to me and when I need to meet the Lord, that's one of the places I go first.)
Going on the prayer path last week was risky, because it's made up mostly of back roads, and I had no idea if they were clear or still snow-covered, but at that point I frankly didn't care. I needed to drive and pray, so I told a couple of the guys at work that if I wasn't back in a couple of hours, chances were good I was in a ditch and I'd appreciate it if they'd come after me.
I hadn't even exited the parking lot before I began unloading on God all the injustices and annoyances of the day. (In case He wasn't aware.)
Just a little way outside of town, I was gathering speed (both with the gas pedal and with my monologue) when I noticed the car in front of me braking for no apparent reason. I paused my bitter diatribe and looked around...
...to see a deer loitering at the edge of the road. The car ahead of me moved past, but I slowed down almost to a stop. I figured a deer-mangled car would do little to improve my mood. While I waited, she leapt gracefully across the road - truly beautiful to watch! (And a great reminder of why the camera should always be OUT of the bag and IN the front seat...some moments are missed while digging for it!)
God took advantage of the breath I'd finally taken to remind me of Psalm 42:1 - As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. That's just like God. Get me to stop talking for one second and then quote irrefutable Scripture to me. I think I giggled and shook my head all at once.
Since He had my attention, He went on to remind me that while I had chosen to expend all my energy on being mad and being worried and...being Bekah...a better option would have been to work on desiring Him instead.
Point taken.
I did not resume my yap-session, but just kept driving and as I approached my turn onto country road number one, I remembered that a few weeks ago, on a Sunday afternoon, I'd spent some time on one of my favorite time-wasters: online house hunting. I'm not looking to move. But I do love scoping out houses for sale. And that day, I found (online) a darling A-frame that I knew by the address should be somewhere on my prayer path.
As soon as my car rounded the corner, I looked up and that house sat in the woods looking right back at me. Are you kidding me? That house had been there the whole time...first one on the right...and I'd never even seen it?
Since I couldn't talk due to a dropped jaw, God took advantage of that moment to remind me that sometimes I'm just blind to what's directly in front of me, but in due time, I'm able to see.
That was a lot to learn in one lunch hour. I had to get a sweet tea just to make the return trip.
God's good with the object lessons. I never cease to be amazed at what He finds to use, and I never cease to be thankful that He takes the time to bless me with lessons that I can understand and that stick with me.
In case you need a spot of worship music for your day...here's the song based on that Psalm:
It's been so busy around Bekahland that I haven't done a 30 days post for a while! Today's post is the cuteness of my pets. Isn't that precious? I used to post about my pets quite often, but I don't as much anymore...not sure why. Those of you who are new to the blog might not even know about them. So...I shall tell you today.
First of all, allow me to dispel the myth that I hate dogs. I actually love dogs and would dearly love to have one someday. The only reason I don't now is because when I became a pet owner, I was not home enough to pay proper attention to a dog...and I also couldn't afford the upkeep (or diet!) of a dog. So...I got cats.
My firm rule is - no more than two cats. If I get more than two, I become the crazy cat lady, and I'm simply not willing to cross that line. So here are my two sweetie pies.
Meet Kaegan:
* Kaegan was a gift from my college roommate, Christi. He was at a pet store here in town that she and I used to go visit just for fun. One night when we went inside, he was in a little cage and we asked to see him. He nuzzled right up next to my neck and I was in love. She bought him for me secretly and surprised me with him for my birthday.
* Since he was a gift from her, I asked her to name him. She made up the name Kaegan. (Pronounced Kay-gun.)
* Kaegan will be 10 in less than a month. He's my big boy. (He's literally an enormous cat. Long, long, long, and getting kind of chubby. But we don't talk about that.)
* He's been banned from the vet. He gets so traumatized when he has to go that we both end up crying the whole time. Since he's strictly an indoor cat and the only other animal he ever sees is Braeya, the vet said he didn't need to come in unless he seemed to be ill. (All occupants of this residence are banned from becoming ill - yours truly included.)
* He used to be kind of spunky as a kitten, but after the vet trauma a few years back, he's become the classic old man. He spends probably 80% of his days right where you see him in that picture - on my bed. When he does get up from the bed, he goes into the bathroom and sleeps on the rug.
* It was Kaegan's idea to start drinking water from my decorative vase...resulting in the disappearance of traditional water bowls in this house. Both cats now drink out of the vase.
* He is the sweetest guy. He does not like to be held at all (sadness!) but when I get in bed every night, he is right there beside me to nuzzle my face (his version of kisses) and wants my undivided attention. And anytime I cry, he's the one who shows up to issue some kisses! He's very tenderhearted.
* He hates loud noises and runs every time he hears one. (Doorbell, vacuum, small children...)
Meet Braeya: * When Kaegan was five, I thought he needed a sister. He was quick to explain he did not agree. Braeya came from my friend Kari's house. She was born to Kari's mama cat. She was the only cat in the litter who looked like this...and the vet says that means she has a different father than the rest of the litter. I called Kari up and told her she had a trampy cat. :)
* I think Braeya is one of the most beautiful cats I've ever seen in my life. Her eyes are stunning and her coloring is gorgeous. (And she knows it. Such a girl.) And I'm often ask if she's cross-eyed. I don't think so. I think it just looks that way.
* She will be five in May, but she shows no signs of getting old. She is pure kitten inside. (That is sometimes cute and sometimes annoying (remember the toilet paper incident??).
* I made up her name to coordinate with Kaegan's. Actually it was a name I'd been saving for a daughter, but at the time I got Braeya I was in a phase where I figured I'd never have kids, so I used the name. (It's pronounced Bray-uh.)
* Braeya is very busy. She is literally underfoot wherever I go and it's a small wonder either of us are still intact, given the number of times I have tripped over her. She loves to beg for food in the kitchen, sit right behind me on the couch while I watch TV, sit on the bookshelf while I write, sleep in the bed (under the covers, even, in the winter) when I sleep, and if I'm not careful to latch the bathroom door, she'll come in to help with that, too!
* She's all about table scraps (but is uber picky about real kitty treats), thinks the dryer was made to be her personal cubby hole, and sits in the window to monitor the lawn mowing.
* She, too, hates to be held, but she does love being right with me wherever I go. And she's very vocal. If I say something to her (yes, I talk to them) she responds.
* Rachel sent me this link a while back. This is totally Braeya. I laughed and laughed.
So those are my kiddos! How about you? Do you have any pets?
Remember in December (hey that rhymed!) when I went to the cookie decorating class? Made some pretty scary looking stuff at that thing. But I had fun, so when Angi invited me to this: ...I said yes please! Actually this class was supposed to take place at the beginning of February but Snowmageddon lovingly rescheduled it to last night. Angi and I got to leave work a half hour early (isn't it amazing what a treat that feels like?) to go to class. All about cupcakes!!
This was my MOST FAVORITE cupcake we made:
Yes! It really is a cupcake! The Tiramisu. It was a jumbo white cupcake with instant coffee powder mixed in, filled with coffee cream cheese filling. We put it down inside a coffee cup and drizzled real coffee over it to let it soak in. Then we topped it with a whipped cream frosting, sprinkled cocoa powder on top and stuck a wafer cookie stick in for good measure. (It was delish. It was the only one I ate.)
This was the prettiest one I made. The Red Velvet. It was red velvet cake with cream cheese icing (with a bit of vanilla bean in it) and then we made these darling fondant flowers for the top. And we got to try out the cupcake wrappers.
The Raspberry Coconut. Yellow cake with coconut in it, filled with raspberry pastry filling and topped with buttercream icing. I dipped it in coconut and edible glitter flakes and then topped it with a fondant butterfly.
The Caramel. Butter pecan cake with caramel filling and icing. Then we embossed fondant to decorate it. It was a lot like stamping! :)
The Lemon Cardamom. White cake with ground cardamom, cream cheese, and lemon in it. These were baked in heart shaped tins and then decorated with red and white candy coating. I liked this one! Easy!
The Orange Dream. White cake with orange icing fruit, filled with cream cheese and topped with orange ganache. I added a fondant flower embossed with a B! (For Bekah!) (or Better Luck Next Time!)
The Chocolate Truffle. Dark chocolate with truffle filling, chocolate buttercream icing, and candy hearts embellished with edible transfer paper!
The Chocolate Hazelnut! Devils food cake with hazelnut filling, chocolate hazelnut buttercream, an edible paper top, and sprinkles.
The very last project was The Mini Cupcake Bouquet. White cake with strawberry pastry filling and buttercream icing. Unfortunately the cupcakes weren't very sturdy and they...um...were impaled.
It was kind of funny.
And yet very sad.
I had MUCH fun at this class. Learned a lot and will probably make some of these again! Thanks, Angi, for inviting me to go!!
Monday, as you know, was Valentine's Day. In years gone by (remember this, Jenna?) I'd go to work decked out in black from head to toe and watch with some bitterness as all the ladies around me received flowers from their men.
Well...a decade or so has gone by and most of them don't get anything from the men anymore...and I now wear red in hopes that one day I'll have a Valentine of my own. Baby steps.
Actually, I loved the way the day began. As you may remember (from the 6 a.m. serenade stories), I wake up to the radio, and yesterday, the song playing when the alarm went off was Mandisa'sGod Speaking. The song was almost over and the words that awakened me were "God is speaking, 'I love you.'" Isn't He great?
I wore my sparkly red shirt to work, and it's a good thing I did because I received a little sparkly in campus mail too! Isn't that hysterical? My Monday lunch date sent that to me. I think she was trying to get back in my good graces after bailing on me to spend time with her husband. (Just kidding, Jenny! I love you!!)
After work, I had a friend over for dinner. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you might remember her from the Hershey, PA chronicles. Amber was my traveling buddy when I vacationed there. (She's not in the pictures to come today.) I'd decided a while ago that it would be more fun to spend the evening with someone, and I thought preparing a meal would help keep my mind occupied, so I invited her over and planned...
...a fondue palooza!!
I'd had fondue once in my life. I'd never made it. Kind of a gamble to invite company for it then, wasn't it? But in my opinion, it was also a success!
My first problem in hosting a fondue party was...um...I don't own a fondue pot.
Details.
My Mom, chocolate-making-queen-of-my-life, allowed me to borrow two of her chocolate melting pots. That worked!
Recipe number one...cheese fondue with French bread to dip....probably my favorite fondue of the night. But then again, I'm a cheese addict. Okay this is not pretty but it sure did taste good. Pizza fondue! (Dipped bread in that too)
And to conclude the adventure...chocolate marshmallow fondue with strawberry slices and mini caramel cupcakes. YUM YUM YUM.
I even brought out the festive tablecloth and snatched up Meijer's next-to-the-last bottle of sparkling grape juice!
After dinner, we gathered round the laptop to look at where-are-they-today pictures of people we graduated with (thanks, Facebook!), talked about places we could possibly travel to in the future, watched some funny YouTube videos, and caught up on some sitcoms. (She introduced me to Mike and Molly - do y'all watch that?)
I'm so glad she came over and I'm so glad the fondue rocked! I didn't even have frozen pizzas on standby so it's a good thing the recipes did not fail.
It's February 15th! Time for a new memory verse! I always look forward to the verse God pushes me to learn. I thought I knew which one He was pointing me to for this round and then - surprise! - on Sunday, He changed courses entirely. So this one holds some pretty special meaning for me right now.
I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;
be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
~ Psalm 27:13-14 ~
According to my Bible, my sweet Julie Crandall sent me this verse on June 16th, 2010, when I was smack in the middle of my desert. I haven't consulted the journal to see what happened that day, but I know that was right about the deepest, darkest time, and I was rapidly losing hope that God even saw, heard, or cared for me anymore.
So the verse is colored yellow in my Bible with her name and the date written next to it. But this past Sunday, God used the verse in a big way to remind me of new hope and a new future for me. My pastor read all of Psalm 27 right before our time of open worship at church. (Open worship is a quiet time where you can just sit and commune silently with God...and if you feel led to share something with the congregation, you can.) As the words of these verses soaked into my heart, I whispered to the Lord that I needed some goodness right then. I needed to know that something good could come to me despite the hurt in my heart. And boy did He ever give me that right on the spot. He is AWESOME!
So...while saving the extended version of that story for another time...here's what I have learned about this verse.
I am still confident of this: The word confident means believe, trust, stand still, be enduring.Hmmm. Stand still. Not my best gift, but certainly one God has been teaching me in desert (and post-desert) boot camp. The verse doesn't say I can be cautiously optimistic of the good things. I can count on them. I can trust. I can believe. And I can be so trusting that I can even stand still and wait for Him to move. (Gulp.)
I will see the goodness of the Lord: Goodness means beauty, excellence, prosperity. I will be honest...I love the inclusion of the word beauty. Sunday night I called Ronda to spill the great God story, and at the end, she told me she loved God's attention to detail in my life...and frankly, so do I. I love the beauty He throws into every day...every adventure...every step of my journey. Even the painful steps. And I love being able to sit here and say (genuinely!) to you today that I AM confident that God is still good in my life. Even when life totally fell apart and I wanted to die. PRAYED to die. He kept right on being good.
...in the land of the living: Our pastor talked specifically in his sermon about how it's great to have the hope of eternal life, but we also need to remember God isn't done being good HERE. I think this phrase might be one of the reasons Julie sent me this verse in the first place. I needed to know that God still had use for me on this earth.
Wait for the Lord: Wait. Isn't it a fun word? (Insert eyeroll here.) But I have learned that the words wait and hope in Scripture usually mean to expect. Not optimism. Not crossing fingers. EXPECTATION. And so as I sit in the confidence of God's goodness, I can expect He's cooking up some good, good things for me.
...be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord: The phrase be strong means to be courageous, to encourage, to preserve, to make firm, to strengthen, to conquer. My sister told me in a letter once that I'm stronger than I know. I didn't believe her then, but after the desert, I agreed. I had no idea I had quite that much in me. My job right now is to buck up. To find that courage God has placed within me, and to push forward.
And did you notice that part about encouraging? It's true...when you feel you're just a mess, you sometimes have no idea who is encouraged by your mess. Some of my desert cheerleaders told me over and over (as I apologized profusely for my constant tears and questions) that they were so encouraged in their faith by watching me struggle - and find victory - in mine.
So, friend, be strong! Take heart. Expect good things. And know that He is still good - right now.
A year ago today, my life changed forever. That was when I found out a man named Isaac existed on this earth...and I began to pray for God to guide me in that journey...and for my heart to be changed. I clearly had no idea that my heart would change the way it did.
I wasn't sure how I'd handle the one year anniversary of this day - and I guess the full answer to that remains to be seen as the day unfolds. But I can tell you that God has been so good to me this year - hearing my cries and holding me through both the joy and the pain.
I've asked God to carry me through today...to keep me from hurting and questioning the what-if's and why-couldn't-we's...but I know with full assurance that even if I'm riddled with all that, I'll be carried and loved.
Valentine's Day, of course, is wildly embraced by some and just as wildly disdained by others. I happen to love it (while sometimes hating what it doesn't mean for me). I love the hope of one day getting flowers on this day. Being a hopeless romantic, I love the dinner and candlelight theme that I envision. And being Bekah, I love an excuse for a party!
And Saturday night, that's exactly what I got!
You all remember Jamie, right? She's my new friend I met through my WBCL interview? Well, a few weeks ago, she asked what I thought about the idea of a Valentine's Day party for the single girls...something to celebrate God's love for us and to give us a reason to smile on a day when we might otherwise feel forgotten or left out.
So...Saturday night I drove up to Ft. Wayne for an early Valentine's Day celebration at her house! There were six of us there...all different personalities and occupations...brought together by friendship and a love for the Lord.
Jamie had not one, but two tables full of appetizers. Spinach artichoke dip...grapes...orange slices...little heart cakes...M&Ms...conversation hearts...s'more cups (okay that was my contribution...)...do you know how hard it is to be good around such a spread??? Those were just the appetizers. Then we sat down to salad (one of those fancy pants salads with the fruit mixed in with not-your-average-iceburg-lettuce) and one of the most fabulous homemade pizzas I've ever eaten.
One of Jamie's roommates (a hilariously fun girl) had risked life and KitchenAid to concoct this lovely - and yummy - red velvet cake made from a Paula Deen recipe. (Can we say butter and cream cheese? Yes please!) Apparently there had been a bit of a mishap in melting marshmallows...which should NOT be done in the microwave, because rather than melting, they just expand...and the ceremonial dumping of the powdered sugar, followed by turning the KitchenAid on medium. It's a small wonder the kitchen wasn't still covered in bloated marshmallow and a powdered sugar blizzard.
Believe it or not, this was my first experience in tasting red velvet cake (that I can remember anyway) and I'm told it tastes better chilled. So a piece may or may not have migrated home with me for such an experiment later.
After dinner, we played games. We tried one called (I think) Would You Rather? Everyone had to pick between two equally distasteful options and see if the consensus answer matched what the reader guessed it would be. Six girls can come up with some really interesting reasoning for their viewpoints. My favorite question (that I posed to the group) was "Would you rather constantly emit a slimy trail everywhere you go or constantly emit exhaust fumes?" They cracked me up figuring out that one!
And then we played Mad Gab - where you read phrases that are supposed to sound like other phrases. For example: Keel Her Beast Ink = Killer Bee Sting.
But while we were busy having fun and laughing hysterically over the games and some random YouTube funnies like this, I loved the way Jamie kept reminding us of the Lord and His adoration for us.
All night long, this paper chain draped over the coffee table where we gathered:
Anytime someone said the word "it," she had to pull a link off the chain and read the verse listed on the link. Each verse centered on hope and love...and was a comforting reminder of the Love of our lives. (And by the way, "it" plays into conversations much more frequently than you'd think.)
I didn't take any pictures of the people because I'd just met them and didn't want them to talk at future parties about "that time Jamie invited the freaky picture chick." But I had a blast - and I'm so thankful she included me on the evening. And as I go through this day, I'm going to resolve to keep my focus on the Love who chose me.
