Being Thankful....In and For

I have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, and all year long.  Including, but not limited to all of the materialistic blessings of a house, car, food on the table, a job for both Peter and myself.  But more than that I am blessed with a loving and wonderful husband who I realize more and more each day was specifically designed for me by my God who loves me.  Peter is the ying to my yang.  The pretzels to my m&ms.  The soulmate God chose for me.  And I love him more each day.  But even more than that, I am blessed with the grace, mercy, forgiveness and love of the Lord Jesus Christ.  And nothing can top that.  Not even my awesome husband.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

Ephesians 5:20

"...always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Though these two verses seem to be saying the same thing, there is a great difference between the two.  This is something I've been learning through our prayer series at church.  One Tuesday night, Pastor Doug really hit this point home.  

I've only begin to decipher what this all means to me and how to actually apply it to my own life.  And I'm sure it's something I'll probably continue to learn for the rest of my life.  

They say hindsight is always 20/20 and when you can look back on bad times and see the good that's come from it, it's easy to thank God for those bad times.  When you see the benefits that come from negative things, it's easy to thank God for that negative circumstance.  Sometimes we are blessed with being able to see the good that comes from the bad.  To see how, in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28).  

But sometimes we don't get to see the good.  We are stuck living the bad and it seems like no good could ever come of the things we are going through.  Can you thank God in that moment?  Yeah, that's a tough pill to swallow.  It's something I'm working on myself.  I think I've gotten the for down a lot better than the in though.  I desire to be an obedient daughter to my Heavenly Father and so I press on trying to thank Him for and in all things.

And the very first part of the first verse I posted?  "Be joyful always"....that's a whole 'nother post for a whole 'nother time.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Two years?!  Has it really been two years already?  Wow!  It feels like only last weekend we were getting married and heading off to Naples for our honeymoon.  It's been a fabulous two years.  We've heard that the first year is the hardest and that one was a pretty easy one for us.  Same goes for year two.  I still credit that to the fact that God has blessed us with a great line of communication in which we talked about so much before we were married that it's made married life much easier.   

Sometimes we have so much fun together doing the silliest things that we wonder if all married couples act like us.  We quickly decide probably not because we're both extra silly.  :)  Sometimes we don't even feel old enough to be married, but we are loving being married and exploring life together!

This past weekend we drove up to get another mini wedding cake from the same lady who baked our wedding cake.  I think it's going to become a tradition.  So far we've had it 3 times-wedding and both anniversaries :)  It's sooooo good!  Marble cake with bavarian cream filling and butter cream icing-yum!  And it's a perfect little cake for $7 :)

We each enjoyed a piece with hot chocolate and marshmallows while watching Christmas movies on TV on Saturday before decorating the house.  

Today, on our actual anniversary, we both had to work, but took a break and went to lunch together.  Peter surprised me with 11 beautiful gerber daisies that he delivered to me at work when he picked me up for lunch at an awesome chinese restaurant!  It was comparable to the place I wanted to take him over the weekend with great food, soup and chinese tea.  And it had such a nice atmosphere.  :)  

Aren't these beautiful?  Gerbers are my favorite and he gave me 11 on the day he proposed.  It was so sweet!

I loved the stone walls and just the overall layout of this place.  The tables were so cute, but I'm more of a booth kinda gal so we opted for one of those.  :)

Here's my handsome husband of 2 years while we waited for our food:

And me:

Lunch was so delicious.  We both had soup, tea, and an entree and our bill, including tip was only $20.  The prices are very reasonable and the portions are huge.  We even came back with leftovers.  We'll definitely come back to this place since it's near where we both work and is a great restaurant.  It's very classy looking and even has a nice bar in the front.  I couldn't believe how good the food was, how well they were priced and how nice of an ambiance it was.  

We exchanged cards and gifts while eating lunch and had a nice time talking about our love for each other and our marriage.  In addition to the beautiful flowers, Peter gave me the new "Anniversary" figurine from Willow Tree.  I love Willow Tree so it was a perfect present!  I got him some new gloves, a santa magic box, and I made him a personalized calendar of us with bible verses and all important family birthdays, anniversaries, etc on it.  

We had a simple, but wonderful lunch time together celebrating our special day.  

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Last night I made Chicken Cordon Bleu and it was delicious!  Here's the recipe if you're interested in trying it.  It's super easy and super tasty!

Ingredients:

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts 

1/2 lb. ham (cubed)

1/2 lb. swiss cheese (cubed)

1/4 cup white wine

1 tsp. parsley

salt 

pepper

breadcrumbs

1/2 cup milk

***Tip:  At our last grocery shopping trip, I had Peter get a half pound of ham and swiss cheese from the deli, just a big chunk cut off.  And then when we got home that day I was making a few different things (chicken noodle soup, tuna noodle casserole and prepping beef stroganoff for the next day) s oI just took another minute and cubed up the ham and cheese and put them back in the baggy until I was ready to use them.  

1.  Cut a slit in each chicken breast lengthwise.

2.  Mix the swiss cheese, ham, white wine, and parsley in a small bowl.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

3.  Fill in the chicken pockets with the ham and cheese cubes.

4.  Dredge chicken in milk and then breadcrumbs.  Then place in a baking dish sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.

As you can see, I needed two pans.  And I only made 5 pieces of chicken because that's how much I had defrosted.

5.  Cook at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until chicken is golden brown.  

***Tip: Cut a piece of chicken open to make sure it's done if you're not sure.

Close-up shot.  Look how yummy with the melted cheese and ham flavor!

I served mine with fresh cut green beans (cut by my helpful hubby) and baby red mashed potatoes.  You can actually see the steam coming off the dinner in this picture.

And since this recipe makes 6 full chicken breasts, we had plenty for left overs.  I packed up one meal for my lunch today and put the rest in tupperware in the fridge for later.  These would also freeze well for quick meals later on if you want.

This, That and the Other Thing.

This weekend was a hodge podge of to-do's for us. Saturday morning we headed up to good ol' Beaver County to pick up mini recreation of our wedding cake from The Pastry Boutique. Marble cake with bavarian cream filling and butter cream icing. YUM! I was initially going to surprise Peter with the cake on Friday (I ordered it over a month ago), but with Light Up Night, I would've had to miss some work to get it and get back in time so I decided to tell him about it and we drove to pick it up together. Then we stopped at a few stores to get some things we needed. Nothing special. Cleaners, wiper blades, different things like that. Oh, and some disposable containers for Mercy Meals. We had plans to go to a chinese restaurant in Monaca that my family used to go to all the time. But it was closed! I was so disappointed, but we managed to find another place to eat :P

Upon arriving home, we did some cleaning and I put away all of my harvest decorations. And in their place? Christmas ones!! I didn't get everything up, but put a nice dent in the work. Nativity, knick knacks, dishes and the Christmas village are all proudly displayed. I have a few other inside things to get up (wreaths, garlands, stockings) and then all of our outside stuff. We'll probably put up the outside decorations on Sat Dec 6th when we also cut down our tree :) And hopefully sometime between now and then I'll get the rest of the inside stuff done. We decided to get them up now because we'll be gone for Thanksgiving through Saturday night and want to spend time relaxing on Sunday, but will be welcomed home to a nice Christmassy house. Plus, we want the inside decorations out before we get our tree. Probably more than you needed to know, but for some reason I felt the need to explain my decorating decisions for the blog world. Don't ask me why.

I also got my Mercy Meals portioned and in the freezer to take to church this morning. I've joined this ministry because I love to cook and thought it'd be a nice way to get more involved. It's basically providing frozen meals for the church freezer that they use to take to folks in our church who are sick/hospitalized/have a baby/etc. Peter of course was very concerned I was giving away his food :P Little did he know I made more than enough for everyone! I took 6 Mercy Meals to church and our fridge is still stocked with leftovers. And that's after we've eaten the meals at least once!

Now it's time for the 24 2 hour event "Redemption"!  We're so excited for season 7 and not sure we can wait another 6 weeks til it starts!  It'll also be our first time of watching the episodes as they come out, which will be really difficult.  We started watching 24 after a few seasons had already aired so we rented dvds to see them.  And sometimes we'd spend an entire Saturday just vegging out watching endless hours of 24.  Seriously.  Who knows how we'll do this time around!

After church we had lunch and watched some Christmas movies on TV. At different points we each took brief naps too. Though mine was much briefer than Peter's. Checked off our list this afternoon and evening were cleaning the bathroom, organizing the linen closet, cleaning the kitchen and of course-making dinner! I made Chicken Cordon Bleu. (See other post for details.)

Light Up Night

This evening was the third time Peter and I ventured into the city for Pittsburgh's annual Light Up Night.

Of course, we started out by having a delicously yummy meal at Palomino's. Yum yum and yum! They were pretty busy. We made online reservations at the beginning of the month so we only had to wait a few minutes while they cleaned a table for us. But someone walked in behind us, asking how long of a wait and they were told the next open table wasn't until 9:30 PM. It was only 6 at that time! Insane.

Neither of us look thrilled in this picture, but it's the only one we took while at the restaurant. We always have trouble with other folks taking a picture of us. 90% of the time, they don't actually get the picture becuase you have to focus it then take the picture. But we don't realize it until after they hand us the camera back and walk away. Oh well. That explains all of the self-shots more, huh? I think in this one we were waiting for him to say "ready?" or "ok" or something hinting to the fact he was about to take the shot. We barely stood infront of the sign and boom, the picture was taken!


So we resorted to self-shots most of the evening :) Here's us with the tree on the corner of one of the buildings in the background.


We love going down and just listening to the Christmas music and enjoy the lights and the city. It wasn't as crowded this year for some reason. Maybe because the windchill made it feel like it was in the teens? We just bundled up and of course had some Starbucks to ward off the chill.


Thanks to Christy Aiken finding us in the crowd, we got another non-self-shot. (If I hyphenate that, can it be a word?) I look like a huge brown marshmallow in my multi-layers and puffy coat haha, but the hubby is looking handsome as ever :)


This is the tree that's on one of the corners of a building. Same as the self-shot above, but obviously a lot closer.



Having to work, we don't get to get to Light Up Night til about 6. Then we eat and it's after 7. Maybe next year, we'll take a half day and enjoy all of the other happenings too. We went to Macy's again and saw all the window displays. Here's a few of my favorites:




Time really flew while walking around the city. Before we knew it, lots of folks were packing up and tearing the stage down. It was barely 9:30 when this happened, but we decided to head home for the night and cuddle on the couch til bedtime :)

One Lucky Gal

It started snowing this weekend.  Not much, but just enough t really get me in the Christmas mood.  If winter included more snow, I'd be a happy gal.  I love snow.  Almost as much as I love Autumn.  However, I do not love cleaning the car off or having to wait for it to warm up in the mornings.  

Enter Peter.

My knight in shining armor.  The man who cleans off the car and gets it warm in the mornings for me.  All winter long I'm able to get in a warm car to work and by the time he gets to my office to pick me up in the evenings, it's warm then too.  What a blessing!  

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

A few weeks ago I made some Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies that were oh-so-tasty and after a few of my own personal modifications, I got even yummier results this time.  I cut out the nutmeg because I didn't like them being too spicy with that coupled with the pumpkin and cinnamon.  And this time I used puree from my own pumpkin instead of from the can, just because I had it to use.  Other than that, I modified the amount of margarine, pumpkin and chocolate chips.  As well as the baking time.  

Incase you're interested in making your own pumpkin puree, here's how I did mine.  Since I had the two pumpkins from my harvest decorations on the porch that were still not carved, the pumpkins were still fresh enough to do this with.  I generally just buy the cans of pumpkin puree, but I felt wasteful just throwing away these perfectly good pumpkins.  Especially when I can freeze it for later uses.

After cutting the top off the pumpkin and cleaning out all of the insides, I cut the pumpkin into smaller pieces and then put them on baking sheets lined with foil.  I also saved the seeds to bake later.  The pumpkin pieces baked at 350 degrees for about 2 hours and looked like this:

I didn't feel like letting the pumpkin cool before moving on, so I just took the skin off the pumpkin with a fork and knife and put the pieces in my new food processor from Peter.  :) 

**Sidenote:  When Peter saw I was starting this project with the intention of using my mini chopper food processor, he decided to surprise me with one of my Christmas presents early!  We sometimes struggle to keep the presents we buy for each other.  Especially when the other person can use said gift.  He bought me a new blender that has a big food processor attachment.  Just what I needed (and secretly wanted)!  My blender from the 70's that is older than me, not exaggerating, has seen better days.

Check out my new appliance:

After pureeing the pumpkin, I measured out 2/3 cup increments and put into Ziplock freezer bags.  I chose 2/3 because that's how much each pumpkin roll I make uses and that's also how much I use in one batch of cookies.  So I made a few 2/3 cup baggies as well as 1 double portion bag for making a double batch of cookies.  All this from one pumpkin and I still have a whole 'nother one to chop up and puree-whew!

Now, onto the cookie recipe...

Ingredients:

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup margarine
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 egg
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease cookie sheets.

2.  In a large bowl, cream together the shortening, margarine sugar and egg until light and fluffy.  

3.  Stir in the pumpkin and vanilla. 

4.  Add the baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and flour.  

**Tip: I added half of the flour and mixed that in and then added the remaining flour until everything was evenly mixed.  I also used a hand blender :)

5.  Stir in the chocolate chips. 

6.  Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto the greased cookie sheets.

7.  Bake at 350 for 13 minutes or toothpick inserted in the center of a cookie comes out clean.  For crispier cookies, back for 15 minutes.

I got 5 1/2 dozen cookies from this recipe so I have more than enough to take some with me tomorrow to work to share and also to keep some at home.

Don't they look delicious?  Let me tell you, they are!

Saturday Savings!

Everyone who knows me knows that I clip coupons, get free gift cards through various offers (ie: free $25 gift card with prescription, etc) and love to save money.  It's almost become a game for me to see how much I can save.  Sure, it takes a little bit of effort, but not much.  And when you see the savings, it's so worth it.  

The other day while shopping at Giant Eagle, the 2 guys behind us watched as I saved over $50 in groceries (Paid $89 for over $140 of groceries) and asked Peter if they could hire me to do their grocery shopping!  My answer of course is no.  This thrifty wife is only for one man :)  Well, unless the paid me?  But then they wouldn't really be saving as much as they could if they'd just get off their bums and clip their own coupons.  :P

Today I actually impressed myself with how well we did while shopping.  

Take a look:

$381.93-the value of all the items we purchased today while shopping

$104.29-the amount we paid for the items we purchased

$277.64-how much we saved today :)

21-the number of items purchased today.  Several of them were very good quality sweaters, boots and other Christmas presents.  I also purchased 2 tops for myself from JCP ($82 originally, $5.04 total after all discounts and $0 out of pocket thanks to still having money on my free $50 JCP gift card redeemed 2 months ago through the points from our debit card).  In addition, we got some Christmas decorations, candy, and other various items.

Except for incurring 2 injuries today (a swollen knee and bruised toe), it was a great money-saving day!

Free Tea

I don't drink coffee.  Ever.  I love the smell of it, but hate the taste.  But I do drink tea.  Especially chai tea.  I stumbled across this free offer:  http://www.teasta.com/free-samples.  If you like tea, check it out.  I've never had their tea, but what better way to try it out than with a free samples.  And you can pick two flavors.  And no, there's no shipping cost.  Enjoy!

He's sweet too!

Not only is my husband sexy, but he's super sweet too!  He sent me 1 single red rose to let me know he was thinking of me while at work today.  He explained later that like the 1 rose, I'm his one and only.  

The note that came with the flower he ordered was so simple and just brought a huge smile to my face.

And it was beautifully displayed at my desk:

Sweet and sexy.  He sure is a keeper :)

My Sexy Husband

That's right, I said sexy. Of course all, or at least most women thinks of her husband as sexy. I know I sure do. Above appearances though, my husband chases after the Lord and really, there's nothing sexier about a man than that. Tonight at bible study, we had 30 minutes to practice a prayer technique of meditation on small pieces of scripture. This was an individual activity and we could go anywere in the Barclay building to do this. Peter and I chose the same room, but sat in opposite corners. I chose this particular room because of the comfy chair it has. My back (and now hips/tailbone thanks to the chiropractic adjustment I needed) has been killing me. My back is getting better each day, but since I just got adjusted yesterday, I'm more sore now in my hips/tailbone. Apparently I have un-even hips. Something I've always none, but have recently been keeping in-line, no pun intended, thanks to my chiropractor. The first time I was adjusted, I was sore for days. Very sore. Sore to the touch. But this has only been the second adjustment on that area needed since then, and so it hasn't been as bad, at least not yet.



Back to the reason for this post...my sexy husband.



While doing our prayer exercise, I kept getting distracted by Peter. Not that he was doing anything intentionally, but I kept stealing glances of Peter. Whether it was when he was flipping through the pages of his bible or closing his eyes in meditation, it was just super attractive to see. And as I did my own meditating, I found myself thanking God for creating Peter to be my soulmate. I've been so lucky to have such a wonderful husband like Peter. Someone who truly cares about me like he does, who loves me as much as he does, and who most importantly, loves the Lord. There's just something sexy about a man after God's own heart. Plus my husband has the hot bod to boot!

The Dinner Rush

Since we had arrived home a little later than usual tonight after getting a late start from work, dinner was more rushed than usual since we had bible study starting at 7. We had 50 minutes to cook dinner, eat dinner, and get to church. Lucky for us church is only 2 minutes away. And double lucky that I had already taken chicken out of the freeze to defrost during the day. 3 boneless/skinless chicken breasts, 5 bell peppers (3 green, 1 yellow, 1 red), a bunch of sliced baby bello mushrooms, and 2 bags of cheese tortellini later...and we have dinner! Oh yeah, and add some basil and oregano. Yummy! Anyone who thinks a yummy dinner is hard to make, or takes a long time, needs to check out my recipes box, a lot of which I've just made up :)

While we were packing dinner after bible study, I snapped 2 quick pictures. Tell me you don't wish this was your lunch tomorrow. If you did, I'd call you a liar :P

All the yummy "nubbins":


And all mixed up:

49 Cents Entertainment

While shopping over the weekend, Peter and I bought Cadi this little mohawk kind of halloween hat for pets. It was only 49 cents at Target, but it's provided some fun watching Cadi in it. Though, she's gotten pretty good at getting it off faster.

Reading Galore!

Peter and I have recently got back into reading a book we started together a while back. It's lots of fun and we've become more intentional about making time to read. For a while we sunk into a habit after work of just vegging out, for too long. Nothing wrong with vegging out, of course. Especially after long days at work. But we had become lazy about things like reading together. Getting back into it has been fun. It's a nice time to share and grow together and our marriage is surely blessed by it.

Oh, and "The Love Dare" book...fabulous so far! It's short and sweet but we can both foresee it being a growning and learning experience for each of us. We've been extremely blessed with good communication between us. Even during the friends/dating part of our relationship, we just openly talked for hours on end. We've also delved into deep areas before even getting engaged or married. It's saved us a lot of heartache and hurt in the long run and we've had a great first + year of marriage because of it. All this to say that I think there's always room for improvement and we're looking forward to seeing how this book, like the other one we are currently reading, will challenge us and help us grow.

The Love Dare

Obviously I'm having a hard time waiting to give Peter his anniversary gifts. Last night I gave him another one :) It's the book "The Love Dare". While I don't think there's anything wrong with giving your spouse something for their anniversary that they want, I try to gear my presents to include something about us or something we can do. After all, it's celebrating our anniversary and the day we got married. :)

"The Love Dare" is a book that was featured in a recent movie called "Fireproof" which we want to still see. I just thought it'd be a fun book to explore together. They have short, and by short I mean 2-3 pages each day to read together. And at the end there is a dare of some sort that each spouse participates in. We've decided to read this on our way to work each morning. Since we have a 30-45 min commute together, we're going to take advantage of it and do something fun. I'll read it aloud while Peter drives. Tomorrow is day 1!

Shop Til We Drop!

We didn't quite drop, but we were close by the time we arrived home at nearly 10 PM last night after venturing out a little after noon. But what a fun day! After doing some Saturday morning fall clean up in the yard (raking leaves, taking down windchimes, etc), we went to Pittsburgh Mills to shop with my aunt Paula and then Ashley and Drew drove over and joined us. I was able to check a few more items off my Christmas presents list and really enjoyed seeing shops start putting up Christmas decorations and playing music. I also really enjoyed spending time with all 5 of us. We ate dinner at Olive Garden and shared quite a few laughs :) It was really a fun day and I can't believe we spent the entire day out and about. The only bad thing was that by the time we got home, my back was killing me. I twisted or pulled it or something on Friday and then when Peter and I were raking leaves Saturday morning it flared up. Oh well, a few days and hopefully it'll be gone :)

In other news...

Pardon the brief hiatus. Life is getting increasingly busy each day here at 123 Orin Street. We spent this past weekend out of town visiting my parents in Hollidaysburg. We arrived Friday night and delivered birthday presents to my mom and dad (from July since I haven't seen him) and my nephew Bryson. Afterwards, we watched episodes of "The Office" with Ash, Drew and my mom well past our normal bedtimes. On Saturday we went shopping and got a few more items crossed off our Christmas presents (for others) list. Thanks to big sales and coupons, we got great deals on everything. I even managed to purchase a few items for myself haha. These items were 2 tops from JCP since my mom had a $10 coupon on anything with no minimum purchase that she wasn't going to use, as well as a Christmas creamer/sugar set with matching bowl for my Christmas decor this year. All items totaled less than $20 though so I was pleased. :) We continued shopping most of Saturday and then had a small gathering with cake for Bryson's birthday that evening. Mark's girlfiend and son came as well as her nephew so Bryson had 2 kids to run around and play with. After a late run to Target/Circuit City, we retired from shopping for the rest of the weekend.

On Sunday, we lounged around the house and played with Bryson for a while. We also watched the cartoon version of "101 Dalmations" with him. Then we met up with Erik and saw his new apt and went to lunch at TGI Fridays. We also got to visit with Pat for a while which was really nice. We don't get to see her often and it was good to catch up for a while and just visit and see how she was doing. All in all it was a fun weekend, but as is always the case, it went by very quickly.

This week we went grocery shopping after work Monday, saving over $50 thanks to coupon clipping, and had Chick-Fil-A for dinner. You can pretty much guarantee that one day a week, or every other week, we spend the evening grocery shopping after work and grabbing dinner out. There's really no other way to get it done haha. If we grocery shop after work, it's too late for dinner by the time we get home. And if we go home for dinner first, we back track to get back to the grocery store haha. We have gone a few times Saturday mornings which is fun, but it's usually pretty crowded.

Tuesday was our weekly trip to the eye doctor for Peter's eye. I'm happy to report that he doesn't have to go back for 2 weeks this time because it's healing nicely! And if nothing happens within the next two weeks, she'll take the contact out and see how he does on his own. Otherwise, if something does happen, he'll have to get laser surgery. So please continue to keep him in your prayers. While Peter was in with the eye doctor, I drove over to Target to pass some time. I can't believe how much Christmas stuff is out in the stores now. I even purchased some wrapping paper haha. But for $1 a roll for 40 sq ft, it was a good deal.

Speaking of Christmas, I gave Peter some of his anniversary gift early, so that he could enjoy it all during this season. It was 3 Christmas CDs because he's been saying he wants some more Christmas music than what we collectively have already, so I went on the hunt and ordered them a few weeks ago from FamilyChristian.com and thanks to special sales and my coupon and 99 cents shipping on every order, I scored a great deal with getting all 3 for less than $30. I purchased:

1. Casting Crowns - Peace on Earth (just released)
2. Bebo Norman - Christmas From the Realms of Glory
3. Third Day - Christmas Offerings

If you're looking for some great Christmas music, these 3 are awesome. We listened to them on Halloween haha, on our way to my parent's house and then again on the drive home. They have some very traditional songs with different arrangements and some new songs with just great lyrics. If you're reading this and want me to burn you a copy, just let me know :)

Back to Tuesday...after Peter's eye appointment we went to vote. It was great, short and sweet. No lines. Only took a few minutes which is good compared to some stories I've heard of waiting in line for hours. Then we came home and ate some yummy dinner. We grilled chicken and had it with some seasoned rice and fresh aspargus. Then I took a nap. Yes, a nap. It was very much needed and felt great. I forgot how much I loved naps. Then it was off to Bible Study where we heard another great and encouraging message on prayer and the power in praise. I'll blog more about this later after having time to digest it more.

Oh, and check out my new layout. I especially love the sun shining through the tree on the picture at the top. And I added music. Let me know what you think. Is it good? Is it bad?

So anyways that about sums up what's been going on recently with us.

One Time Political Rant

Needless to say, I'm a bit disappointed with the election this year. Not because a black man is now president, that's beside the point. Unfortunately for many though, it was the point. And the only point of interest for them. It's rather disheartening knowing that so many people voted for him solely because he's black. I mean, yeah, that's great. Very historic. But there's so much more to electing a president than that. It is exciting for a black man to become president. To break down even more racial barriers. But like I posted on my facebook status last night...I think it's just as racist to vote for black man just because he's black as it is not to vote for him because he's black. It's sad that I know numerous people, friends and family included, who voted for him without evening knowing what he really stood for. Who only listened to things like what they heard on "Opera" or "The View" and didn't delve into the issues themselves. Or people who voted because they don't like President Bush and so they used that as a reason not to vote for McCain. There are so many, and I mean so many things I don't agree on with Obama. I won't go into all the details because I'd be typing for days. But suffice it to say that I am extremely pro-life, I think the war is a good thing because good things have come from it, and I think that McCain would have done a better job as President. McCain had passion when he spoke. Passion that hit right to the core of a person, if they only listened. Obama was passionate too...but passionate about being the first black president. Not about saving lifes. Passionate about making a "change". Well either candidate would have provided that. Yes, Mr. Obama and all of your Obama electors, we will have change, but right now it doesn't appear to be good change.

It is a proud day for America to have a black president. But it's also an incredibly, incredibly sad time for America when gay marriage is on the rise, abortion is legal, and race is the deciding factor for a president. Incredibly sad.



As I write this, I am reminded of God's sovereignty and that Obama has no authority, except that which is given to him by the Lord. And that is a comforting fact, not only in the results of this year's elections, but in every situation.