It's Like Bubble Gum

This month marked the 30th birthday of my good friend E. A few of us decided that she needed to celebrate the start of her fourth decade of life in style. The first surprise was a visit from her mom. We had been scheming for weeks. Mama C flew in late Wednesday night (a few days before her actual birthday) and stayed at my place. The next day we made a pit stop at the wonderful Dunkin' Donuts and headed to work. I told E that I brought her a coffee and donuts and her mom! She was speechless.

The next surprise was the party on Saturday afternoon. Since E's birthday was on Easter weekend she'd asked for a bunny cake. Little did she know that our dear friend LadyBoyd was slaving away on the most awesome bunny cake ever. And since it was Easter after all, a carrot cake accompanied it. Have I ever said how much I love LadyBoyd (and her cake skills)? E has a small obsession with kitchen gadgets, cookbooks, Rachel Ray, and all things cooking related. So, we (LadyBoyd, R, & I) came up with the perfect gift: a Taste of Italy cooking class at the local Viking Cooking School. It was a test of patience for E since she had to wait until last night for all the action. It was a lot of fun. The mouth-watering menu consisted of grilled portabella mushrooms with herb butter, herb and cheese flan, pan seared veal with fennel tomato sauce, herb pasta, and almond cake. We all worked together on the meal.

Reading the menu before starting the chopping.

Having a little fun at the mixer.

Food processors are fun!

Dinner's ready!

My favorite part of the meal was the herb cheese flan. I've always been a fan of sweet caramel flan, but this light, savory flan we made is without comparison. I will be making it again even if it's just for me and the cats. And since I learned how to make it, I had to try the veal. Sorry to report I wasn't impressed. Being a vegetarian (more out of habit than the whole PETA angle), I wasn't happy with the lack of flavor or the texture. Just like the time I tried filet mignon at the meat palace, the texture reminded me of (please don't laugh!) old bubble gum--lots of chewing, but no bubbles. But all in all we had a blast!

Cheers! Here's to your 4th decade, E!

Jasmine

The Jasmine blooming on the mailbox out front.

See You Next Year

It's hard to believe that my little Daly is already a year old. I remember anxiously awaiting the news of her birth and then waiting another 7 weeks for her to be weaned. How much difference a year makes.

The first pic of Daly and her little mates Getting bigger, but not yet weaned

8 weeks old: Finally got to bring her home

My long sleek girl the night before her birthday. She's not a kitten anymore!

And so it begins

I've been fighting with my home warranty company for over a year about a leak from my shower that drips into my kitchen. I finally got them to agree that a valve needs to be replaced (this is not the main problem, just a minor one), but it was up to me to open the wall. On Tuesday I borrowed a husband (thanks Chris) to take out the double vanity and part of the drywall. Here is the fruit of that labor. I'll let you know how it ends up next week.

Year of Evangelism - part 2

As promised, here is the prayer part of the Prayer & Fasting handout that I worked on. From what I could tell, the presentation I made on Sabbath was well received. I was also pleasantly surprised at the amount of people who stuck around and participated in the prayer walk that we did around the church building.

A Short Guide to Prayer

It is common to have prayer without fasting and you can even fast without prayer, but when prayer and fasting are used together a whole other level of communion with God can be reached. During this Year of Evangelism, it is important not to neglect the opportunity being given to ask God’s blessing on the series and programs that are being presented both locally and around the country. Paul encourages Christians to “pray without ceasing “(1 Thes 5:17). One way everyone can take part is with purposeful praying. Below is a list of a few ways to incorporate purpose driven prayer into your day.

· Appointment Prayer – Every member is encouraged to stop and pray at 7am and 7pm every day. These can be quick one sentence prayers asking for God’s blessing on the upcoming evangelistic series. Pray not only for the leaders, but those who are making a decision about coming to the series as well. Just imagine, our entire church spread out all over the Memphis metro area in prayer at the exact same time! · Trigger Prayer – Think about committing to pray throughout the day each time you see a specific trigger. The trigger you choose is up to you. If you do a lot of non-highway driving you may want to stop and pray at every red light you come to. If you are in an office, you might want to choose a specific time trigger. Consider praying each time you notice the clock repeating numbers such as 10:10, 2:02 or each time you check your email. Your trigger should be something that you can easily come across and will serve as a reminder to pray throughout even the most hectic day. · Prayer Partners – Find someone who will pray with you over the phone or in person. You can also serve as an accountability partner for each other. You may also want to write down or email prayers throughout the day to encourage one another. · Prayer Walk/Drive – Pray as you walk or drive around a neighborhood for those living and working in the area. Take your time to stop and observe the neighborhood for specific needs. For example, if there are toys in the yard pray for the children in the home; if you come across a business pray for the customers and the financial needs of the business.

The Year of Evangelism

The Seventh-day Adventist Church (of which I am a member) has dubbed 2009 the Year of Evangelism for the North American Division. This means that every church in North America is focusing on bringing people to Christ and enlisting every church member. There will be seminars throughout the year as well as other friendship based activities for sharing. One of the things that churches throughout the country are doing to support the work of evangelism is through prayer in fasting. I've been asked to help spearhead this initiative in my local church. Below is the handout I worked on about fasting. One on prayer will be forthcoming.

A Short Guide to Fasting

Complete fasting traditionally refers to a period of time when someone willingly goes without food and drink—with the exception of water. (The morning meal, breakfast, is to literally “break fasting”.) The basic idea of a religiously motivated fast is to do without something that is a major part of your life for a set amount of time and for the specific purpose of humbling or afflicting our souls (Leviticus 16:29) in communion with God. As a result, fasting is not limited to just denying yourself food. In fact, a complete fast is not something that all people can do. Some individuals have medical conditions which make fasting for several days detrimental to their health.

Another option is a partial fast. One example of a partial fast is intentionally leaving certain foods—such as dairy, meat, highly processed or fast food, etc—out of your diet much like the Catholic tradition of not eating meat on Fridays during Lent. Other types of fasting that can be done in conjunction with or in place of a dietary fast could involve abstaining from watching television, surfing the internet , sexual relations, shopping, working, hobbies, or any other activity which may distract you from fully focusing on communing with God.

According to the Bible fasting was done both individually and communally. People are recorded as fasting on many diverse occasions such as to ask for God’s favor (2 Samuel 12:16-23), to ward off crisis and ask for protection (Esther 4:16), to mourn a death (2 Samuel 1:12), to ask for repentance (Jonah 3:5, Psalms 69:10), and to ask for the revelation of God’s will (Acts 13:2-3, 2 Chronicles 20: 3-4).

The Bible also mentions the misuse of fasting. A couple of examples can be seen in Acts 23: 12-14 when a group of Jews made an oath to fast until the death of Paul. Another is mentioned in Jeremiah 14:12 when the nation fasted in mock repentance. A fast is not a hunger strike neither is it a way for us to convince God of our plans, but a way for us to hear to God. Remember, fasting is a humbling of oneself and should not be used to show spiritual superiority as was the case for the Pharisees (Luke 18:12).

For more information about fasting:

Exodus 34:28, 1 Kings 19:8, 1 Kings 21:27, Nehemiah 1:4, Matthew 4:2, Matthew 6:16, Matthew 9:15, Acts 9:9, Acts 14:23, 1 Samuel 31:13, Ezra 8:21-23, Ezra 10:6, Deuteronomy 9:9-18, Job 33:19-20, Psalms 102:2, 1 Corinthians 7:5, 2 Corinthians 11; 27-28, Joel 2:15, Isaiah 58:2 http://www.spirithome.com/fasting.html http://www.new-life.net/fasting.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasting http://www.adventistreview.org/2001-1537/story3.html There are also several books on the topic of Christian fasting.

Photo Stories

Like the proud mama of two beautiful furbabies that I am, I thought I'd share some pictures.

Since she was born in March of 2008, this was Daly's first Christmas. She took advantage of the new areas to explore that the Christmas tree provided, as seen above. This is probably how she got the hole in her cornea. At least that's what O'Malley would have us believe.

This morning I awoke to snow flurries. As you can see it actually stuck. Daly was sitting in the bedroom window and trying to figure out why there was white stuff floating around. So, I decided to let the girls out to enjoy the first (and hopefully last) snow of the year.

O'Malley, being a New England born lass, was right at home. She sniffed out the holly trees and put up quite a fight when I decided it was time to go back inside. Next, it was Daly's turn. This is the first time I have ever let her outside. Once she got to the step she was mortified to find out that I closed the door behind us. She started crying like she was on the way to the vet to get her eye stained again.

She did venture off the step very briefly. When I knelt down to get a pic, she jumped (literally) at the chance to get off of the cold ground. She quickly made her way up my leg and onto my shoulder, crying all the way. That was our cue to head back inside. Something tells me my Memphis born girl won't be begging to go outside anytime soon.

So Soon?

I’m a little surprised that this is happening so soon. I had expected it to happen sometime after I had children; or even after I’d gotten married (since I am getting a late start—assuming I start at all—on that one). No such luck. I feel like I’m too young for this to be happening. The signs were all there, but I refused to see them. It wasn’t until a friend’s husband, a navy corpsman, made a comment over Friday’s Christmas brunch that it hit me. My friend E, the accountant, seconded his observation. How could this be? I’m a single girl, just 30 years old. And yet, it’s undeniable. I’m turning into my mother! And here is photographic evidence:

Happy Holidays!

It's That Time of Year

I knew it was coming. There's a chill in the air. I've started my shopping. I even plugged in and turned on the electric blanket last night. And now I have my tree up. I came home (after a very long 4 day work week) tonight to a box of goodies sitting by the front door. My WIR Secret Santa sent me lots of Christmas goodies which got me in a festive mood.

I also pulled out my Irish Nativity. As you can see, this is only part of the set. The shepherds, goats, more lambs, another angel, donkey, and the little drummer boy are still at my mom's house. (Nanny started the subscription for me so all of the items ship to her.) I was able to look them over Thanksgiving day and am quite pleased. Now I just need to convince my mother to ship them out to me before Christmas! And imagine my surprise at the three nails poking out of my mantle. Back when my parents came for Christmas in 2005, I had purchased three stockings. True, it's two years later and they've never been used. But I do have a stocking for all of the house's residents. The fact that the other two are quadrupeds and have slightly more fur than I do is irrelevant.

One and Only

A devil-eyed Daly, an indifferent O'Malley and a wonderful view of the inside of my nose. Is this really destined to be our Christmas photo for 2008? It just might be.

Melancholy

I can’t put my finger on the cause, but today is a melancholy day. It is likely an assortment of things: Take one part SAD, two parts fond memories of friendships which have been lost—those intentionally lost mingling with those which have faded with time, sprinkle in seeing the motherhood of my friends followed with a dash of holding their precious young ones. Top with your choice of a backlog of unused cleaning days, an overabundance of nightly church expectations, a lack of social commitments, and no work out days. I have all of the above available.

Enough Said

Weekends Update

I know I am long overdue on reporting back on the Women's Retreat from the end of September, so I will start with that. On Friday afternoon, Sept 26, S and I made the 4 hour drive to Indian Creek Camp. I had never been there before and was pleasantly surprised at the ease of the trip. My favorite part of the drive--aside from the pit stop in Jackson to get some Dunkin Donuts coffee--was the rolling hills as we got closer to Nashville. I almost forgot that I was in Tennessee and not New England. We got to the camp just in time to get settled and make our way to dinner. The weekend was very refreshing and uplifting. I enjoyed the energy our speakers brought to their topics. One of the reasons why S was wanting to go this particular weekend was that she had known the main speaker, Lynn Ortel, several years earlier. And of course due to the incestuous nature of the SDA community, I had a connection to her as well. Lynn, an AUC alumni, is friends will my family in Maine. S and I wrapped up the weekend with a School Board Seminar at the conference office which was much more interesting and informative then I was expecting. I even managed to stay on my meal plan for all of the breakfasts and lunches and come home the exact same weight as when I left. As you can see from my previous post, my relaxing and refreshing weekend was followed by over a week of sickness. Once I realized that this wasn't a simple cold, I went to the doctor and received a beautiful Z Pack. With the exception of a lingering dry cough and an outgoing voicemail message created on a sick day (my voice always changes when I'm sick), everything is back to normal. So normal in fact that Saturday night I hosted a group of 5 teens and tweens for a movie night at my house. We watched the classics--Uncle Buck and The Goonies. It was a bit strange to see Josh Brolin on the Today Show talking about his latest movie this morning. All I could picture was him wearing sweat pants under his running shorts.

Sickly

I had a great time last weekend at the Women's Retreat. (I'll do a post about it this weekend. The speaker went to AUC with my Aunt Winnie. Yet another example of how incestuously small the Adventist community is.) Then on Tuesday I started feeling a little sickly but still made it out to Avenue Q with LadyBoyd and her hubband. I don't remember the last time I laughed that much--the car ride home was just as amusing as the show. By Wednesday the sickness had hit. Massive sore throat, sinus pressure and inflamed vocal cords which make me sound like a grown up. I had to leave work early on Thursday and am taking a half day today. I don't even want to think about all of the house work that needs to be done this week before I open my house up for another Teen Movie Night on the 11th. Hopefully with enough water and cat hair this cold won't stick around. On a good note, I weighed in today and I'm down a total of 9.2 pounds since I started doing Nutrisystem. Now if I could just find the energy to get off my rump and walk. I can't let the MOANers down!

Weekend To Be

Tonight I will be gearing up for a weekend away. Laundry and packing are on the top of the list. Once I dig out my sleeping bag and slippers I'll be halfway packed. I'll also need to bring along my main dish foods for the trip. No, this is not a romantic weekend away (I don't see that happening in any near future scenario.), but a weekend away nonetheless. Tomorrow I will be driving to Podunk, TN* to the KY-TN Conference campgrounds for their Women's Retreat. The theme this year is Worship with Abandon. I have only been to a young adult retreat so I'm looking forward to this new experience. I'll be driving up with one of my friends from church and once the retreat wraps up we are heading down to the conference offices for a school board seminar. I don't expect Sunday to be as stimulating. Maybe I'll be surprised. *Name has been changed to more accurately describe the town. According to wiki, the population is 367.

The Week that Was and Is

This has turned out to be a good week after all. I was worried on Monday when my budget got blown out because Commerce hasn’t quite figured out that I shouldn’t still be paying for a cancelled policy. True, the cost was minimal and I was able to cover the budget variance with savings, but I did have to put off registering my car for another two weeks. It appears that I will have to take things into my own hands and not rely on my insurance guy’s confirmation. In addition, I was asked to add a third hat--running sound and burning CDs--to my already scheduled announcement and children's story duties at church tomorrow. This can only go well, right? As the week wore on, I saw my lawn being mowed by a local pathfinder (I pay her for this, but it was still a nice surprise to see her come out one evening after school without being asked.), received my brand new silver digital scale and my new food shipment from Nutrisystem—mashed potatoes how I have missed you. This time UPS left my 30 pound box at the back door so I wouldn’t have to wake up any earlier to pick it up. Wednesday night prayer meeting was an uplifting study of “Prayer” in the Bible and last night’s school board meeting was drama free and only an hour and a half long. We got out so early that another member and I were able to hit Starbucks—which is usually closed by the time we get there (they close at 10p)—for a tall non-fat no whip pumpkin spice latte and some good conversation. Other than the small Starbucks indulgence, I’ve stayed true to my meal plan and even managed to not cheat when I took the staff out Tuesday morning for breakfast at Brother Juniper's. If only ordering one fried egg over easy and a bowl of grapes is not a testament to my new found will power I don’t know what is. I’ve only worked out once this week, but am planning on at least walking some today. The fact that my shiny new scale told me this morning that I’ve lost 7 pounds (6.6 to be exact, but hey, that rounds up to 7) in four weeks is a real motivator. Look out size 10 jeans, here I come!

Labor Day

My mom finally figured out how to email photos from a CD (she goes to Walgreens for a photo CD because she hasn’t quite figured out how to download them directly from her camera to the computer) and sent these my way. On Labor Day Mom and I went for a stroll at the Memphis Botanic Gardens. Our first stop was their herb garden. You could tell that this garden was in the middle of being redone as the majority of the herbs were overgrown and dying. Mom was still able to identify all of the ones still alive and many that were past their prime. (Note to self: stay away from bee balm, but try to find some lemon balm to plant inside the house.) My favorite sections were the Japanese Garden and the Serenity Garden. The Japanese Garden had a beautiful red bridge that crossed over a koi filled stream. Due to my fascination with the fish (as evidenced by tattoo number 8), I promptly went over to the fish food machine and made my way to the stream's edge. I have never seen koi this large or in this great of a number. Of course the fact that many had a bright cobalt blue coloring didn't hurt. There was a mad dash for us once the food hit the water with many of them catching the pellets before they even hit the water. The Serenity Garden held true to its name. The serene water fountains and lotus flowers were tucked away under wood awnings. We took some time to just relax and listen to the water and birds. I may have to consider an annual membership.

Just Another Day in the South

Thankfully the heat of August is fading away and I no longer need to fear the 100* weather. Even though we are still hitting 90* most days, I'm ready for the fall. I can't wait until I can wear a light sweater to work and smell the neighborhood fireplaces when I come home. I will also be happy when the Palmetto bugs stop thinking that my back room is a fine and dandy place to hang out. Daly helps out some, but she would rather play than kill. Why, oh why, couldn't I get a killer kitty? At least she does something and lets me know when I need to come by with a sneaker to flatten and flush the buggers. O'Malley won't give them the time of day. Little do the critters know that I have a plan. The lovely guys at Terminix are coming over tomorrow for the annual indoor spraying. Take that! As for my diet, things are going well. I've eaten more lettuce in the 18 days since starting Nutrisystem then I had in all of 2008 previously. I promise that it's not all lettuce and rabbit food. I get good entrees that take little to no effort and it's just the sides (salads, fruit, veggies & dairy/protein) that I need to worry about. I've not once gone hungry and some of their desserts are quite good. As cliche as it sounds, I feel better, too. Since starting I've lost 4 pounds (according to the lines I squint at to read on my non-digital scale) and have worked out (and yes, walking the Botanic Gardens with my mom for an hour and a half in 90*+ weather IS working out) three times. Now if I can convince myself to exercise tonight I'll be on a roll.

Testing My Follow Through

Let me just start off my saying that I am not good with routines. I may be able to stick to a routine for a few weeks, but then I stop. I’m not sure why this is. Sometimes, like when I was walking at Shelby Farms after work or anything requiring me to set my alarm early and actually get out of bed, my body refuses to continue. Other times I just get distracted or lose interest. For some reason I have a real problem with consistency. Apparently, good intentions don’t count. Why does this little tidbit matter? It matters because on Friday morning I started the NutriSystem Vegetarian meal plan. The amount of pre-packaged food for 35 days (28 days plus one free week) is a bit alarming. On top of all the food that is shipped I am supposed to supplement it with fresh fruit, veggies, dairy/protein and of course lots of water. So far, so good—only one small 24 hour period of eating off plan (but that’s another post). I’m enjoying putting together my fresh options and planning out my food for the day. I’m also making a list of the items to order next month (almond biscotti and pasta primavera with tofu are on the list) and which ones I hopefully will never see after this month is up (BBQ Soy chips, fettuccini alfredo, the chocolate raspberry lunch bar). I am even mastering the difficult task of drinking at least 64 oz of water day. While this may not seem like a big deal, keep in mind that I usually only drink a cup or two of coffee a day and maybe a small glass of water/juice if I remember. (If this is the same problem you have, keep in mind that the amount of trips you make to empty your bladder will greatly increase. By the end of the day I feel like I'm going every 30 minutes! Thank goodness for DVRs.) The next thing to add is that silly thing called exercise. Tonight I am going to try out the Walking DVD that came with my kit. It’s one of the Leslie Sansone DVDs and I’ve only seen good reviews of her things. I’ll let you know how it goes. And because I’m a girl, I’m going to track it like this and not mention the depressing starting weight: Workout Days: 0 Pounds lost: 0