The Amazing Race

Before I get to the main point, let me begin where the afternoon started:

Prior to "The show" beginning I attended a concert by the Fresno State choir: Robert Ray’s Gospel Mass.  Greg sang in the concert and it sure did make me miss performing.  Needless to say, this was an amazing concert and Fresno State just got taught the true gospel.  Robert Ray has been a composer for the past 30 years and he came and directed the choir performing his work; the Gospel Mass.  This mass is originally in Latin and there are works done by Beethoven, Schubert, and Haydn with this set.  Ray has taken this set and translated it to English (as many places perform it now) and added an African American rhythm and feeling.  It was incredible.  In this concert, I simultaneously spent 2 hours at a gospel church.  I don’t think I have ever seen a director teach the audience a song, teach them to stand, sway, and clap on the syncopated beat during a concert before.  WONDERFUL!  I wish every concert was so educational and inspiring. 

*As for "THE SHOW," I meant to make this post last Sunday, but this is the first chance I have gotten, so better late than never.

I would like to say that I am not addicted to T.V. shows, but I must be honest and admit that I am addicted to THE AMAZING RACE.  Before college began I watched this with show with my mother and sister at home after dad went to bed, next when I lived in the dorm and my first apartment with Stefani Ortiz, now since I have lived in the condo, I have watched the show with Makenna, Katie (before she moved to Seattle) and whoever seems to visit to watch it with us.  There are currently 8 people at my house watching the show.  SMILE (P.S. I love that there are people here, I do not mean this to diss the people that are here)

Throughout my experience watching this show, I have enjoyed the laughs at  the racers' expense because of their lack of attention to details.  After my recent trip to Europe backpacking with Makenna and Katie for nearly 4 weeks, I have a much greater understanding and appreciation for their blunders.  Here are a few of my favorite pictures, without displaying our blunders to the world.  Although we did have our fair share of them, but they are what make some of the best memories of the adventure: 

*My favorite door: this is what I hope to have at the enterance of my house when I am all grown up.

*even girls in Europe dream of being Cinderella

*Gelato: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

*Yes, we were allowed in...but some were not. 

*The blunder: my original purse strap ripped.  The bonus: an excuse to buy a new one.  

I apologize to those of you who do not know about the show, but this is how this applies to us: while watching, Makenna and I make a game out of deciding if we were on the show, who would do which challenge.  If you watched last week, I would have done the scuba diving with the sharks.  Meanwhile this week I would have relied completely on Makenna to understand the periodic table.  Someday, I think Makenna and I should try-out for the race together.  Personally, I think they should make a race for 3 people that way Makenna, Katie, and I can race together. 

So, life is an amazing race.  This is my conclusion.  Although I do not run a race to win a million dollars, and my race is, thankfully, slightly slower-paced with a little less pressure, I do have my own race to run.  My race at the moment consists of school, work, church, friends, food, and sleep.  The race of life is inconsistent, twisting, nerve-wracking, heartwarming, and a ride on the edge of your seat (thank you Matt and Makenna for the adjectives).  I am always excited to see where the next leg of the race will take me.  May I never take the race for granted and never be the last team to arrive to be eliminated from the race. 

By the way, by the end of the episode there were 11 people here. 

I will leave you with the lyrics of the song that Robert Ray taught us today, as they are very appropriate.  As you read, picture a concert hall packed full of about 500 people swaying, clapping, and singing, to the best of their abilities in a true gospel style; although not all are musicians singing in-tune.  This is in no way a reference to the people I was sitting with, just simply an observation to help you get the full vision of the room. 

Lord hold my hand while I run this race,

Lord hold my hand while I run this race,

Lord hold my hand while I run this race,

‘cause I don’t want to run this race in vain.

Lord guide my feel while I run this race,

Lord guide my feel while I run this race,

Lord guide my feel while I run this race,

I don’t want to run this race in vain.

Lord guide my tongue while I run this race,

Lord guide my tongue while I run this race,

Lord guide my tongue while I run this race,

‘cause I don’t want to run this race in vain.

Heart Day

Many of people tell me they love me on a regular basis, if not with words than with actions.  Yesterday was another one of those days….times infinity.  The day started with tricking Greg.  He was borrowing my parking pass for the day and I had asked to have his spare key, in case I could borrow his car instead of waiting for my sister’s class to finish (I don’t even have class on Monday’s…no reason to go to campus). At 5am I put heart window stickers all over his car windows.  He promises he will never fall for that again…LOVE.

On Sunday, us girls, made cupcakes for the ones we love.  I have already linked this website for the recipe before, but this time we actually followed the entire thing, start to finish.  “Thank you” and “darn you” to my dear friend Amy for introducing me to this website which will forever cause me to spend way too much time baking cupcakes.  I can’t even begin to explain the process so here are some pictures…LOVE in a cupcake.  We delivered some of this love all throughout the day, saving some for Matt and Greg at some point in the evening.

                         

*LOVE*

           Then off to work.  As a waitress, Valentine’s Day is one of the longest days.  The restaurants stay open later than usual, every server GETS to work for the day, and people are all about how they can save the most money for the largest quantity of food (not to mention that most guys have already spent their budget on the gift, and they don’t want to add in the price of dinner).  I am suddenly fearing sounding like a cynic, so back to the good stuff…LOVE.

Matt W. and Greg had kicked poor Makenna out of our house while I was at work.  Only a mere 5 hours.  When I called to say I was off, they called Makenna saying she could come home.  We met each other at our own front door step and had to knock to enter.  A very strange concept by the way, to knock on your own front door.  Our house smelled amazing, two bouquets of flowers were set on our table, red candles (which we did not previously own) were lit, and a message was written on our table cloth, and the table was set…LOVE.

*In case I have failed to mention this before, our table cloth is made of chalk fabric.   We can write on our table with any stick of chalk we so desire and wash it off whenever we would like. 

They had cooked us dinner!  It was delicious!!!  They had it all figured out…salad, corn on the cob, steak, wine; the whole works.  Maybe we should have them cook more often, although we did conclude that we know why they enjoy coming over for a good meal…it was really nice.  I cannot continue to tell you with words how amazing it was, so I will add more pictures instead…since they are worth 1,000 words…LOVE.

One Way

Although seemingly simple in the blog form it was rather impacting.  I just want to take a few minutes to share with you the blessing that I received today. 

As I was getting ready for church this morning, Matt Markarian (peeps pastor) called me and asked if I would help with the 3-year-olds today instead of the Jr. High because they were severely understaffed in the kids department.  In case you don’t know, I never turn down the chance to play with the little littles as we so fondly call them.   There were quite a few jokes about me with the kids this morning, as some are afraid I will never return to Jr. High, some are worried that I would want kids sooner (and by some, I mean one – Greg), but I will leave out those details for the purity of the point of today’s blog.  So here I am, Sunday morning at 10:00 and 11:30 jumping up and down, dancing around, making the hand motions, and worshiping with these children.  I was touched by the purity of their joy for the Lord.  Why don’t I worship like that normally?  That is the mission, and here is the song:

One Way

Hillsong United

I lay my life down at Your feet

Cause You're the only one I need

I turn to You and You are always there

In troubled times it's You I seek

I put You first that's all I need

I humble all I am, all to You

(Here we go!)

One way

Jesus

You're the only one that I could live for

One Way

Jesus

You're the only one that I could live for

You are always, always there

Every how and everywhere

Your grace abounds so deeply within me

You will never ever change

Yesterday today the same

Forever till forever meets no end

(Here we go!)

One way

Jesus

You're the only one that I could live for

One Way

Jesus

You're the only one that I could live for

One way

Jesus

You're the only one that I could live for

One Way

Jesus

You're the only one that I could live for

You are the Way the Truth and the Life

We live by faith and not by sight

For You, we're living all for You

You are the Way the Truth and the Life

We live by faith and not by sight

For You, we're living all for You

Thank you little littles for reminding me of how to purely praise.  May we all be pure of heart, just as you are. 

Sceurity In Poatoes

There is security in potatoes…did you know that?  According to Makenna and me last night, there is.  Let me start from the beginning. 

Yesterday was Greg’s birthday.  Happy birthday to him!  Just so you know, he is now 22.  I am so blessed to have him in my life for 2 years now, one day shy.  I decided to cook something yummy from my wonderful Julia Child cookbook that he gave me for Christmas in honor of his birthday.  Something new I decided.  So here we are…PRAWNS.

Although I love to eat prawns, I have never cooked a prawn.  Neither might I had has Makenna.  Little did we know, this was going to be a large project of a dinner.  The process began at 6:45pm…

To begin the dinner process you cannot have only prawns you must have something delicious to go with them.  Also from Julia…OIGNONS FARCIS AU RIZ [Onions stuffed with Rice, Cheese, and Herbs].  This requires coring and blanching, which I found out means to cook the onion in a pot of boiling water until near tenderness.  The blanching part - easy.  Coring part - not so much.  Coring an onion requires cutting a triangle in the top as to not put a hole through the bottom and scraping the edges inside to hollow out the onion.  Lots of tears were involved in this process, let’s just say they were tears of joy for Greg’s birthday.  As to not give away the recipe, I will only tell you that the next 30 minutes consisted of cooking the remaining ingredients to stuff the onions and place them in the oven for 1 hour. 

Here lies a pause in the cooking process in order to deliver a batch of green cupcakes to Greg’s soccer team after they arrived home from their game.  Soccer and green just seem to go together, plus it is his favorite color.  Here is where I found the recipe for delicious frosting in case you would like to see.  I did however make a substitution of strawberry laffy taffy for watermelon air heads.  Success!

                http://bakeitinacake.com/recipes/heartinacupcake

On returning home, the smell of onions was so thick in the air, I nearly started crying again as I walked through the door (upon entering our house, you basically arrive into the kitchen).  Back to cooking…next comes the PRAWNS and the their simmering stew.  I will not bore you with the details, but our kitchen was certainly an adventure last night.  Lots of snorts, laughs, questions to have the boys (Greg and Matt) look up on their phones to verify we were doing things correctly, doubt, and uncertainty.  Then the potatoes, and here is the security.  As we sit down to eat, totally uncertain if this is going to taste delicious or disgusting (we did verify that the boys would take us out to dinner if it was disgusting) and concluded that we would at least have potatoes to eat.  It is difficult to destroy a potato.

The only true flaw is the amount of prawns we have left to eat today.  Ok, don’t jump to any conclusions, we do not have leftovers because they were terrible, only because the young kid at the counter was completely wrong about the weight-per-person ratio.  They were delicious!!  As any cook would tell you, I will alter a few things differently next time, but it was delicious! 

If I remember the time correctly, we finished eating dinner and cleaning the kitchen around 11:20pm.  I told you it was a larger project then we were prepared for.  At 11:58 Greg blew out the candles on his cupcake and  we called it an evening, the day finished, his birthday over,  and dinner a success. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GREG!!  Thank you for allowing me to cook for you and preparing to eat something that has potential to be awful, but hoping for the best. 

A BREATH OF FRESH AIR

“A BREATH OF FRESH AIR”: a welcome relief; a change for the better.

Although I realize I am in Fresno and it is not nearly as winterie (yes, it is now a word) here as it is in other places, but today was a breath of fresh air.   Since my window curtain is slightly too narrow for my window, I woke up to the sun shining through...BEAUTIFUL!  Also someone setting off a car alarm directly on the other side of my head, but we will ignore that fact for now.  Our hot water was, at least temporarily, fixed. Who knew there was a dial to turn up the heat from warm to hot?  Hehe.  Ok, from the people I have been talking to, apparently everyone but the three of us.  But, now we know.  I was blessed with a toasty warm shower. 

Following this, I aced a test!  100% as a matter of fact, but when it is only 15 multiple choice questions it wasn’t too difficult to do; I’ll take it anyway. 

Now time for lunch.  Sweet Tomatoes with Greg’s family.  OH WHAT FUN!  The best and biggest salad ever right in the middle of the day with people I love.  I am still stuffed.

Next, a cake.  We girls baked a strawberry cake.  It has yet to be frosted because we can’t seem to decide what to put on it, but a cake was baked. 

Now, I am sitting on my couch with the door open, allowing the fresh air to flow through our living room and it is off to J-HI to hang with the peeps.  I forget if I have stated this before, but the peeps are Jr. High students that I am blessed to spend time with on Sunday mornings, Wednesday nights, and other various activities throughout the week.

May God BLESS you all and give you a breath of fresh air!