Mary had a little lamb....

(First, apologies to any animal lovers, I can vouch for the happy life of the second sheep, but unfortunately the first is a story I'll never know)

Ahh...the joys of being a married biology major. One minute your dissecting a sheep eyeball, carefully separating the muscles from the sclera, disconnecting the lens from the ciliary bodies, and slicing around the iris, not through it! The next minute your slicing and dicing another part of a sheep, but instead of throwing it into the bio-hazard bag, you throw it into your skillet.

So there I was cutting the fat off of some lamb shoulder for dinner. And this was NOT Mary's "little" lamb. This lamb must have looked like one big, rotund, squishy hairball with four little legs sticking out and not touching the ground. This lamb had FAT!

I entertained myself by trying to name the various muscles and tendons, figuring out where they had been attached, and contemplating the God who made such incredibly intricate things. After about 30 minutes of cutting fat off of 3/4 lb of lamb and still struggling (profusely sweating), an enlightening verse popped into my head:

What God has joined, let no man separate.

I've never understood that verse so well :)

clip art courtesy of www.clipartof.com

Snowy Dreams

I was reading a blog set in Norway and dreaming of my ancestral homeland, with out of the corner of my eye I spied a quiet flurry of white. Day dreams do come true! And now I must quickly get away and walk in this second time of snow. All baking projects are ceased to enjoy the perfect afternoon delight!

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Edit to update: You know you are a southerner when you grab your camera to go for a simple two hour hike in the snow and come back with 100 pictures of snow... just snow. To top it all off, somehow I found 20 short videos of it snowing. Yeah, nothing was going on but snow. Yeesh, I either need to get used to the snow or get a life. But it was fun!

It's a Zoo Out There!

Our house guest for the summer.

"Coo..."

Wow, it's been a small while since I last visited here. After many family members requesting me to write a bit more often, I thought I'd take that chance now. Actually what prompted me to write today was the sheer happiness I felt today.

It is an overcast day. Rain softly drains from the clouds, and the air has a chill in it. The mood is not depressing, but completely cozy. I spent today reading, cleaning, ironing, and doing laundry. I had finished doing the dishes a while ago, and everything in the kitchen was in it's place when I took a break for lunch. Opening the cupboard for a dish, I couldn't help but break into a smile! My white bowls looked like many doves nestled away and crowded together, ready to withstand the cold of the day. I could almost see them draw back to avoid the cold wind as I opened the cupboard door. Perhaps there is a bit of an overactive imagination here, but it had a cheerful effect none the less!

In other happenings, Lee and I returned from the November Lock-In this weekend. What a wonderful time! We had a brunch at church consisting of quiches, breakfast pastries, and all sorts of goodness. Then services included Matt, Nick, Lee, and Nathan who all gave really thoughtful messages. I was impressed and delighted, proud of all of them, and cramped in my hand from writing so fast! They all focused around baptism, what to do with your life, and how to live better (though it was not planned to be that way).

After church (there were so many friends present!), we socialized and munched on snacks of brownies, cookies, fruit, cheese, and crackers. Then Mr. Schurter led an interactive bible study, after which we had a spagetti dinner with salad, and garlic bread (this church can never be accused of not feeding the flock!!!).

After sunset, we drove over the mountains to the gym and spent the rest of the night munching on leftover goodies (see, I told you!), playing table tennis, raquetball, volleyball, and most importantly, basketball.

Late in the night the men reliquished the court to the ladies. Renita, Dennise, and I promptly started a half court game vs. Rosie (my MIL), Kathy, and Tim. The husbands, fathers, and friends sat on the benches in great amusement. I'm told that Ed taped these proceedings and also has the commentary of the benchsitters.

My sweet FIL was kind enough to tell me that Lee could rest easy about losing me, I wouldn't be drafted...ever! If I remember correctly he said this with a gigantic grin on his face!! What a great support. The ladies game was actually very hard to play!! With opponents like the Kathy, who makes you laugh so hard you simply cannot guard her, and the ever so scrappy Rosie, who can grab any ball within 4 feet of her, I didn't expect to do well. But it was GREAT fun!

Later that night, Renita, Dennise, Vanea, and I found a quite room, poured some warm drinks, pulled a sleeping bag over our legs and chatted away a good portion of the night. Rosie and Kathy found us later and joined in. It turned out to be the best conversation I've had in a while. At 6 o'clock a.m., after my last cup of warm, wonderful fruit tea, I succumbed to sleep.

Turns out that Kathy, Rosie, and Renita perserved through the whole night and then went to work cleaning up, and cooking breakfast for everyone (with Katrina doing a good bit of the cooking). Rosie woke Lee and I up around 9, and we had time to finish off the last omelet (THANK YOU katrina!) and some of Rachel and Justin's bacon (now everyone not there is jealous!!). It was perfect.

Lee and I went to his family home afterwards and while he slept for a few hours, my in laws and I went for a blustery, evening walk that wound through a corn field planted between a river and train tracks. Dinner was a treat with wholesome chili and fluffy biscuits, finished off by a generous heap of ice cream.

So, in essence, my weekend was delightful, and my week is continuing as such. Which has really been a most enjoyable gift.

Thus, you have been updated.

Last week was Lee's birthday, so we went out to eat at a Brazilian steakhouse for the first time. There was meat galore! After we had finished we practically had to roll ourselves out the door. Even Lee, meat lover that he is, talked about not eating meat for a while. :) So happy birthday to him, yay!

About midweek, Lee and I met with his parents and ate at a Cracker Barrel together. Be prepared, when you order pancakes, they give you massive quantities! Then I went to their house and spent the rest of the week with them, my sister-in-law, and her 7 month old baby.

I enjoyed the luxury of a large garden that I didn't have to plant and enjoyed canning lots of salsa to take home with me. I also got in plenty of play time with my little nephew and experienced the changed temperament of a child who's teething. He wasn't the happiest camper around, but still so very sweet!

An Evil Sickness Creeps In

Lee and I had to miss church this weekend. It all started Friday with Lee knowing that he was getting a cold. Saturday he felt quite sick, and I actually started to get those hot, pressurized headaches as well. Problem was that I had already made TWO pans of fudge, and one LARGE pan of lasagna for potluck. So we had a three-fold duty this past weekend.

1. Get well
2. Get well while eating as much lasagna as possible (i.e. brunch, lunch, dinner, midnight snack, repeat...)
3. Pawn fudge off on everyone we knew! (No one has accepted so far, but Lee came up with the brilliant plan to bring it to his office.)

I vanquished my cold by Monday morning (lucky me!), but Lee has singlehandedly wiped out 2 1/2 Kleenex boxes thus far. I believe he's going for all three.

Yesterday I did all the grocery shopping, by bike of course. :) I do enjoy my bike. I got in about 12 1/2 miles and hit a top speed of 27.5 mph on a backwoods trail. Maybe not incredibly smart, but OH so fun!

Well I'm off to try and talk my way into in-state tuition. Otherwise I shall be substituting this fall, which would almost be more fun. So however it turns out, it will be just right.

photo cortesy of amazon.com. I have always wanted one of these. They are gross, disgusting, repulsive, yet I strongly believe that if my head feels likely to blow to bits because of incredible amounts of mucoid pressure and I reach for a tissue from this particular box, I will laugh so much that I'll immediately feel 50% better. This is only a hypothesis of course, and Lee won't let me buy it just to prove this. Always squashing my scientific inquiries...bah!

Identity Crisis?

I had so much fun yesterday! I had a hard time choosing whether to spend the day as Betty Crocker or the Home Depot Regular, so I chose the very modern and hip choice of both. :)

After doning an apron to make some whole wheat bread for hamburgers last night (I absolutely love cooking for someone!), I was cleaning and putting away some supplies I had just bought, such as paper towels and a towel rack. This particular rack was one that hangs on a wall. It came with two screws, two drywall screw holders and no instructions. I've used these before, but for someone who has never screwed things into drywall, I this would have been very confusing!!

So while still in my flour smudged apron I pull out my lever, line up the towel holder, get out my drill (thanks Dad!) and fit it with the drywall bit. Drill through the drywall, which mingles drywall dust with flour on my apron. :) Come back to the drywall, hammer in the little plastic things. Mount the towel holder, screw in the screws and whalla! Then I look around pretty proud of myself and realize there is a chance that going from bread making to drilling through drywall may not be a completely normal for a lot of people.

Wedded Bliss

I wanted to assure everyone that Lee is also doing well under his new circumstances. I hope this puts everyone's mind to rest. :)

Update on My Sweet Ride and Sweet Life

I must say, I'm enjoying life with Lee! Just getting to see him EVERY day is a wonderful change from the past six years of living five states away. :)

I love the city we are living in as well. There are bike paths galore (although none that extend to my school). Instead of biking on highways with exit and entrance ramps, I zip through a woodsy scene which restores one's calmness in this busy place. I can easily bike to one of five surrounding grocery stores, almost each of which is diverse enough to warrant the trip (the cheap standard, the international, and the organic and healthy).

Our house is slowly being set up, mainly because I'm easily distracted, especially by the books; whenever I try to put some away or organize them I alway end up sucked into reading one for an hour or so.

The library is a very quick bike trip away. Actually there was one day that Lee and I were both at the library, him with the car, me with my bike. Leaving at the same time, I managed to beat the car home by a minute and thirty-one seconds! Had he gotten all the lights just right he would have beat me, but I'm still pretty proud of that! :)

The church group around here is great. There are a lot of teens and young adults and they actually get together for activities often! We've attempted to see Pirates of the Caribbean, gone out to dinner, grilled out at a friend's house in Georgetown, had a friday night dinner at another friend's. This past weekend, six of us who headed up to the Greenwood campout, and this next weekend we are hoping to get together for dinner and then go white water rafting on Sunday. All of that is just in the past month I've been here. Whoo-hoo! :)

So basically I love living here, enjoy the people here, and absolutely love being married to Lee. :)


Well Said:
"The morning is the gate of the day, and it should be well guarded with prayer. It is one end of the thread on which the day's actions are strung, and should be well knotted with devotion." Charles Spurgeon

I don't dye my hair, I swear!

Last night was the Culture Show for the International Students Association at my college. I over committed myself and was doing a line dance, Indian dance, and a swing dance. Seeing as how it was a relatively short program, one had to be quick backstage. Dance, change costumes, dance, change, dance, change, ect. But I had no fear; I excel at high pressure, quick situations. Will those who know me please stop laughing.


I was psyched about the show and had just finished passing out programs in the foyer. The line dance number was up in about 1.5 minutes so I ran out the side door, down the walkway, and towards the backstage.

Let me pause and set the scene for you: Imagine a walkway that leads to a large (5' x 8') pane of glass, with a glass door beside it. They create the wall. On the inside of this wall is the dark backstage area where Shea, friends, and about 20 members of the step team were waiting to perform.

I rapidly run down the path with the intent to fly through the open glass door and run to my position ready to dance. As I was running "through" the "door" I felt my entire body smash into something solid...very solid! I'd chosen the glass wall to go through instead of the door and I can now tell you, that doesn't work.

Pain, swelling, and deeply concerned friends were instantaneous. The pain stayed, but the concern quickly turned into badly muffled histarics when my "friends" saw the nose and mouth imprint on the glass wall. Okay, I admit, I was cracking up too, who would do such a stupid thing?!

Shea, best friend that she is, laughed hardest of all, but quickly redeemed herself by applying some 30 second makeup magic to conceal the brilliant colors of white, green, and purple that had instantly sprung up on my nose. And so the show went on.

As it turns out, one of my good friends did the exact same thing last year except she hit it with the side of her face and cracked the glass. I guess I'm not as abnormally clumsy as I supposed!