eary ewn

So 2011 is coming to a close. A lot has happened that when thinking about it day to day doesn't seem like a whole lot but sitting down coming up with words turns into a whole year. I don't want to take advantage of my experiences. I learned a lot and a lot of new opportunities have been presented to me this past year. In 2012 a lot will change from this past year. I got to go home twice, I got a new car, I went to North Carolina, Tampa, Indiana, Chicago (which doesn't follow the pattern of stating states) Atlanta (this doesn't either) Michigan, Louisana, and Alabama. My sister came to visit and go to Shine. I was at the church more than I wansn't. I found a better sense of my calling. I went to a lot of five dollar movie days in the Summer. I met a lot of new people. People who knew my face know my name now. I found out that O+. I baked a lot this year as well as home made a lot of my meals. I got three dreads. I still work at Panera but picked up a second job at a local coffee shop by my house. I paid off my first credit card. I became addicted to word games and pumpkin spiced chai's. I joined a spin class for the summer. I got a twitter account in hopes to contact Conan O'brien but I couldn't keep up with updating twitter. I got to see Tom after two years of snail mailing. I got to see Casey one of my room friends leave for Ireland. I was able to couchsurf :) I cried a lot. and I laughed a whole lot. Here's some pictures from 2011 :) My Room Friends.. They're awesome

My mommy :) I luvz her Fleet Foxes live for the first time

I made my own toothpaste.
Catalyst Conference in Atlanta. I learned a lot.

I was a dinosaur for Halloween

We had many Brinner nights.

I met Jared and he took me on a lot of adventures.

I got to see Tom after two years of writing eachother back in forth from Indiana, Florida, California, South Korea, and Africa.

I finally got my face painted.

I saw Sarena and we ran through fountains.

I got a combover during the summer.

Ah Listen and I drove to Tampa but unplanned to camp out along the way.

I went and served at ARC in Baton Rouge and became a twinsie

I got a really old film camera and this is a shot from it.

I skyped with Sarena lots while she was finishing school :)

I went to the Seer's tower and stood above the Earth.

I got to see Chloe and eat Noodles and get threatened to get kicked out of a bar with her. I'm hardcore.

I built a sandcastle and some random guy stopped by asked us if we needed a shovel and I thought he was joking but he pulled a shovel out of his backpack and helped us build it.

Don't Tell My Mom

I'll update this blog in a day and tell the story behind it...

Awake My Soul

Medium, On Cold, Gentle Cycle

From Psalm 51

Soak me in your laundry and I'll come out clean

Is My Life About to Change

There's this song I listen to sometimes and more than sometimes I sing loudly along with it. There's a line in the song and the guy sings, "Is my life about to change?" And I've been thinking about it for awhile and consider that my life is getting ready to change. I've decided there are certain things in my life that make me a little too comfortable. Even though I can get discouraged I still have a lot of materialistic things to rely on. I'm getting ready to step into some change. I'm getting ready to move into some areas where I can position myself to totally rely on Jesus. I want to get into being uncomfortable again. I want to be in the unknown now matter how much it might make me cry. I want to be able to look to Jesus for comfort FIRST not third or fifth. So be prepared for some more sappy blog entries. :)

My First Turkey

Someone gave me this turkey so that was nice to have a free turkey. I let him thaw out for three days. Some websites says not to rinse the bird due to a high risk of cross contamination but I was careful and I felt better if I could just rinse it. Plus there were a couple of feathers left or like the tips of feathers left in it. It was uh gross but I got through it. I took the neck, gizzards, and liver out and simmered them in a pot to the side for four hours with the ends of my celery, the parts of onions I wouldn't eat, two whole cloves of garlic, and I had a lot of basil left over from the week so that was my turkey stock. I used the turkey stock for my stuffing and my gravy.

I rubbed the inside down with cracked pepper and salt, half of a lemon for it's juice, quartered a sweet yellow onion, tops and bottoms of celery, two whole garlic cloves, a mixture of sage rosemary and basil, and I put a half a stick of butter inside of it. The outside I coated it with lemon juice, salt, cracked pepper, covered that thing with butter, and rosemary.

This is half way through the cooking process. We started it out on 425 for half an hour, 350 for two hours, and 255 for and hour and a half. I read a lot of website that said if we roasted it breast side down all the juices would go there so we did it that way. I put it on a double broiler so I could use the drippings for my gravy. I put foil on the bottom so it'd be easy for me to pour the oil into another pan. I tied the legs and the wings in (I feel like that's a given but just in case.) After the first half hour I realized I should have covered it with foil to maybe keep the juices in so I ended up covering it with foil half way through. I don't know if that made a difference

Ta-Da! My first turkey and it turned out awesome!

Can you tell I ended up switching to a better camera? ha

Happy Thanksgiving!

Chocolate Pumpkin 3.14

It's a Picnic Darling, It's Your Picnic

Jared and I went on a picnic today! It was lots of fun and a nice break from working so much. There's a random picture from Chamberline's book store we went to after. ha. Anyways not much to say but you can look at the pictures!

Why Don't We Just Sit and Stare into Nothing?

I haven't wrote a blog in awhile. Mostly because I don't have a laptop of my own. I call it a Laprador. So when I do get on a laprador I just check my mail or get onto Pinterest. (So addicting) I have a laptop right now and I have awhile to type. I don't have anything worth saying or worth reading but I can tell you where I've been. If it's not an interest to you you can stop at any period and go back to your previous page. It won't offend me mostly because I won't know. I'm 22 this year and this year is almost over. I can't remember my past but I don't think I ever thought I'd be living in Florida. I don't know what I dreamed of for my life. I don't think I expected where I'm at. I don't think I expected I'd feel the way I do. It's been a new realization to me that I need to start writing a better life story or at least let God write more paragraphs in my life book than I do.

Once January comes around this blog will be seeing more action. Alright blog get your hopes up. I am planning on going on my first ever international mission trip to our church campus in Northern Ireland. It's going to cost a bit o money but.. I'm believing that more than half of my trip will be donated to me. So I will start writing more on this to tell more of my story.

I'm not boring... I've been told before.. "There is more to you than I thought there was." I take it as a compliment. I suppose I look boring but am quite interesting? I'll try and prove it to someone but then I'll get hung up on, "I'm not proving myself to anyone!"

Ok I'm finished...

I Don't Want Dentures..

I made my own toothpaste not too long ago and posted it on Pinterest and today a stranger repinned it so I just now decided to upload it to my blog... so here's the pic.

Those are my teeth in the backround. When my mom came to visit I asked her if she liked them, as in the picture. She said, "Uh ya I better like them I paid a lot of money for them." :)

booberry

It's funny to me that a lot of of the people who believed a Messiah was coming didn't believe it was Jesus. Jesus was fulfilling all of the prophecies they had been taught and believed. But I think they had their own ideas of how this said Messiah was going to fulfill them. So when Jesus did it in God's way they were confused and disbelieved. but isn't it easier to have disbelief than believe?

I made all of this for a friends new to the world offspring... I took an older atlas I had and cut it in squares to make the pinwheels. I took a lot of note cards and wrote each day of the year down so each year you write down a memory. Just like a sentence for the day. I went to the farmer's market and got three scrabble boards for a dollar each and I've been making things with them and my hot glue gun. :)

What we are..

I was talking to a guy at work the other day and he asked me if I was religious. I said no not at all. Without explaining anything than realized I probably should. I told him that I didn't like religion. I thought it was all these rules and regulations and that's not who Jesus is. I told him I liked Christ but this religion he asks if I'm a part of it, I am not. I asked him what he thought and he told me that he believes that we are essentially all gods. We talked more and more but last night during our encounter night I was thinking of that. Because I hear people all the time say that we are all gods. We do what we want, we make our own choices. And I started to think I agree with them. To the people who say we are all gods, I agree with you... We are all God's.

I decided since it was a beautiful day I'd go to the beach and just sit. I started re-reading the book, "The Greatest Thing in the World" by Henry Drummond. It's all about what Love really is. Just in case you didn't know the world has it all wrong... I had posted this little rant about guys and girls but it's not what the picture is about.... so I'm starting over...

Basically I was sitting on the beach staring at all these people walking by. and this is what I wrote down... "I just have to wonder do any of these bodies have a clue the secret is love? Not the love we've distorted it to be. The greatest thing in the world's love? I feel as if I'm holding a secret no one wants to help keep."