Fromille Family Adventures

Healthy Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

2012-02-01T22:35:00.000-08:00

So I've been baking again! I bought a whole box of over-ripe bananas at the commissary for $1 last week so you know what that means... banana muffins! And for some reason, I am now never satisfied to just make a recipe the way it was intended. I am always attempting to "improve" it by making it healthier (or just plain yummier...). I actually think I succeeded with these banana chocolate chip muffins that I adapted from The Joy of Vegan Baking to include fewer refined carbs and sugar, more fiber and omega-3, and they are still just as yummy!

2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup agave nectar
1/3 cup canola oil
5 ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips (option: could substitute nuts if you really want to be healthy)

In a medium bowl, mix flour, flax seed, baking soda, and salt.

In a large bowl, mix bananas, agave, and oil. Stir in water and vanilla. Add flour mixture and chocolate chips. Stir to mix.

Fill 12 greased muffin tins 3/4 full and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Warning! Just because there is no refined sugar (well, other than chocolate...), doesn't mean these are "low-sugar" muffins, so I would advise against letting your 1 year old have one for a bedtime snack. It is possible that 1 year old might be interested in staying up all night :-)

PS- These are best warm, so I always pop mine in the microwave for 15 seconds if it is already cool when I want to enjoy it.

PPS- These freeze well!

GMG Week 2 Reflection {Ephesians 1:15-23}

2012-01-30T14:33:00.000-08:00

Last week the Good Morning Girls studied Ephesians 1:15-23;

"For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." (NASB)

How many times in my life have I prayed asking God for "wisdom" that is promised in James 1:5? How many times have I been disappointed because He didn't send some magical answer to whatever question or situation I was hoping to address? Many. I believe this disappointment stems from an inaccurate understanding of what is godly wisdom.

In the verses we studied this week, Paul is praying for his fellow believers. He asks for wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God. He prays that the eyes of their hearts would be enlightened to know the hope of God's calling, the riches of God's inheritance, and the greatness of God's power towards them. It sure seems as if wisdom relates to knowing God, as opposed to wisdom being the answer to a specific question. Based on these verses, I think that wisdom is a result of allowing my knowledge of God, and His character, to transform me so that my choices reflect God's heart.

The second half of these verses focuses on our understanding of Christ's headship and authority. While studying these verses I asked myself, "Why is it so important to Paul to elaborate on Christ's authority and headship over the church?" and "What does understanding Christ's authority have to do with wisdom?" I attempted to answer these questions by asking myself another question; "If I really understood what Paul is saying, how would it affect my life?"

I think if I really understood Christ's authority I would have peace and confidence in doing what is right (even if it is hard or scary) because I could rest in knowing that God is powerful and in control of all things. He will empower me to do what is right and regardless of the personal consequences (favorable or unfavorable for me personally), He is in control and I am on the winning team.

I think if I really understood Christ's headship over the church and my role as part of "the body," I would have a clearer sense of purpose. As part of the church, I am part of Christ's body, and the purpose of the body is to carry out the will of the head (Christ). If I really understood this, I would submit my life everyday to God, and I would live to carry out His purposes on earth.

As far as what an understanding of Christ's authority and headship have to do with wisdom, I think having confidence to do what is right and submitting my life to God for His purposes would probably naturally lead to wise choices.

-------------------------

I have been so blessed by these verses this week. Our family is currently making some big decisions and we have really needed some godly wisdom. I am so grateful that God gives wisdom generously when we ask (James 1:5). I know that by studying His Word and spending time in prayer and in fellowship with other believers that I am coming to know Him more and I can already see the effect my relationship with God is having regarding the development of godly wisdom in my life. Praise Him!

And finally, know that I've been praying for YOU my friends! That "the eyes of your heart may be enlightened" and that God would "give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him!"

A few of my favorite things...

2012-01-26T17:54:00.000-08:00

sunshine.

dogs.

the beach.

photography?

This morning was gorgeous here on the Cali central coast. Q and I couldn't resist taking the dogs to the beach for a little fun in the sun.

We got a DSLR camera last year for Christmas and I've very slowly been learning how to use it with the help of a talented photographer friend, Audra, of Simple Soul Photography based in Yorktown, VA. On a recent trip to VA to visit Audra and her family she showed me a couple basic things in Photoshop, which I've been toying with for a couple months trying to figure out (rather unsuccessfully).

So along with Q and two unruly beasts, I toted the camera and my current favorite lens (50mm f/1.8) to try and do a little photography practice. It was kinda tough since Q was strapped to my belly in the Ergo carrier (really must figure out how to use the Ergo on my back... too bad I threw away the instructions...). But I got a couple shots I was happy with. I played around with these in PSE with my limited knowledge of photo editing and attempted to understand layer masks (I still don't...). But here is the finished product none-the-less!

Winston is the happiest little guy, especially if he has something to chase, which he didn't today because I forgot to bring his ball. At least I remembered the leash (I have forgotten that before and it is a pain)!

I love this action shot of my two fur babies with Monterey in the background. It was sunny, but as is typical for Monterey Bay, there was a light haze hanging over the water- lovely!

Don't make too much fun on my beginners photography! It is a new year's revolution of sorts to learn more about photography and photo editing:-)

My Bread and Butter

2012-01-26T13:39:00.000-08:00

I have a particular fondness for Texas Roadhouse. It might have something to do with their delicious rolls and cinnamon butter. It might also have something to do with it being a frequent date location for me and my husband early in our marriage. Back then, when our budget was tighter, we would order the steak and ribs meal with two salads and two iced teas and could go out for a date for $20. I ate the ribs, he ate the steak, and we both gorged ourselves on the yummy yeast rolls! Since that first year of marriage, and a brief stint when we lived in New Hampshire, we have been deprived of living remotely near a Texas Roadhouse so I had to take matters into my own hands.

The following yeast roll recipe was passed onto me from our friend Tish. These rolls aren't exactly like TR's, but they are fluffy, moist, slightly sweet, and a perfect partner for honey-cinnamon butter. The honey-cinnamon butter was adapted from a recipe I found on another blog. The original version tasted way too much like honey and not enough like cinnamon so I doctored the portions significantly and I think I've got it close to right.

I hope some of you out there will appreciate this as much as I do:)

Tish's Sweet Yeast Rolls
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup water
1 egg

4 cups bread flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp yeast
1 Tbsp buttermilk powder
1/4 cup butter, softened

Microwave water and milk for 30-45 seconds. Beat in egg.

Place the remainder of the ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add, the water/milk/egg mixture. Mix with paddle attachment until moistened. Knead with dough hook until smooth and no longer sticking to the sides.

Remove from bowl, place on floured surface, cover and let rise until doubled. Cut dough in half, roll into logs, cut in half again, then again, then again. You should end up with 16 pieces. Form each into a ball and place in a greased 9x13 pan. Let rise until doubled.

Bake at 375 until browned, about 15-18 minutes.

Honey-Cinnamon Butter
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup honey (maybe less depending on how much you like honey...)
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Whip all with the whisk attachment in a stand mixer.

You + Me + The Navy = Love {our military marriage}

2012-01-23T18:19:00.000-08:00

I am not one who likes to acknowledge the differences between civilian and military life. I have always looked at the Navy as my husbands job and tried to keep it at that, not allowing it to work it's way into our family identity. But try as I may to pretend it is no different being a military wife than a civilian wife, finally after over five and half years of marriage I am coming to terms with some of the effects it has had on our relationship.

In some ways it is easier (yep, I said easier) to be a military wife than a civilian wife. When my husband was on sea tour he was gone roughly 75% of the time. While that absence brought it's own difficulties, mainly missing him, it also gave both of us a break from being full-time spouses. We could each choose to focus entirely on our careers (or whatever else we wanted/needed to do). Free from wifely duties, I was able to accomplish significantly more career-wise than I could have hoped to with him around.

For the record, my husband isn't a slave driver, expecting me to do all the housework. But because I love him, I want to be able to make him a warm, healthy meal each night and make sure he has clean clothes to wear and a clean toilet to sit on. And planning, shopping for, and preparing delicious and healthy meals takes time. Cleaning and doing laundry and ironing take time. Investing in our relationship by doing things together takes time. And even though I take pleasure in doing those things for and with my husband, sometimes it's nice to a have a break from being a "full-time wife" in addition to the many other roles I have.

During my husband's last deployment I was pregnant, teaching full time, and a full time graduate student. I was so tired when I got home from work that I would collapse on the couch, eat cereal for dinner, and go to bed. I was so grateful during the exhausting months of pregnancy that I did not have the pressure of continuing to cook and clean the way I tried to when my husband was actually home. I think I did laundry maybe four times the entire six months he was gone, and I didn't iron once! And I could bask in the joy of not feeling guilty about any of it!

Then my husband came home from deployment, we moved to shore tour (which is the closest thing to civilian life that we will know), and we had a baby. At first I was still finishing my graduate degree and I started two new full time jobs; full-time mommy and full-time wife. And I thought I was busy before- ha! Unfortunately, my role as full-time mommy often conflicts with my role as full-time wife. Some days (okay... a lot of days...) a fresh, healthy dinner doesn't get made and come meal time we are scrounging around in the freezer looking for a Stouffer's lasagna or a pizza. And some days when my husband gets home from work the house is even more of a mess than it was when he left and based on all appearances I haven't accomplished anything other than barely managing to keep alive a screaming baby.

This inability to be the "perfect wife" is really tough for me. Right now, taking care of our 1 year old and keeping my sanity are top priority. My husband is so understanding and supportive of that. But I am not use to failing, and it feels like failing when I can't accomplish things like making dinner and keeping the house clean. I'm getting better at figuring out how to "do it all," but it is hard!

All this to say, I am sure that if we were a civilian couple, and I didn't have these extended "breaks" from my role as a wife, I would have gotten over the need to be the perfect wife long ago. But because in the past I have only had to have enough energy to do all those "good wife" duties for relatively short periods of time (and I didn't have a baby vying for my attention), it has taken me a little longer to "fail" my mission.

I think this "failure" is a good thing though. I am learning to trust that our marriage will be okay (better than okay) even if I am not perfect. And I am learning humility in realizing that I can't do it all, all the time. This current period of shore tour is the closest thing we will ever have to civilian life. And I'm grateful for this uninterrupted time together so our relationship can grow in ways it didn't have the opportunity to with all the little "breaks" sea tour provided.

Best Ever Blueberry Muffins

2012-01-23T16:22:00.000-08:00

In an attempt to get out of my cooking slump I vegan-ized my favorite blueberry muffin recipe. The (very healthy) blueberry muffin recipe that I adapted came from my friend Heather, who got it out of "Eating Well." I had the (un-vegan) version at her house this past summer and was in love! Not only do these muffins taste delicious, but they are great for you; made with whole wheat flour, flax seed, and no refined sugar. They are the first thing my husband requested when he picked me up at the airport when I returned from the East coast a little over a week ago:)

1/5 cup ground flaxseeds

1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3 tsp Ener-G egg replacer mixed with 4 Tbsp water (or 2 eggs)

1/2 cup honey (or maple syrup or agave)

1 cup "buttermilk" (mix 1 Tbsp lemon juice with any non-dairy or dairy milk- I use Almond or Soy)

1/4 cup canola oil

2 tsp fresh orange zest

1 Tbsp orange juice

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup fresh blueberries

1 Tbsp raw sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 and coat 12 muffin cups with cooking spray.

Mix first 6 (dry) ingredients in a large bowl.

Mix next egg replacement and water with honey in a medium bowl. Add buttermilk, oil, orange zest and juice, and vanilla.

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredient and sit till just combined. Fold in blueberries. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups and sprinkle with raw sugar if desired. Bake for 20 minutes. Cool in pan 5 minutes and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

PS- These freeze well! After cooling I pop half of them in a ziplock and put it straight in the freezer. Thaw and enjoy any time:)

GMG Week 1 Reflection {Ephesians 1:1-14}

2012-01-22T21:22:00.000-08:00

This past week was the first week of Good Morning Girls (GMG) new session and we will be studying Ephesians for the next few months. I was so excited to get back into a regular Bible study and am super excited to have several real-life friends, near and far, that are going to be joining me through this study.

Ephesians is one of my favorite books of the Bible. It is one of those books that I come back to over and over again. If I am thirsty for God's Word and don't know where to start, I generally find myself in Ephesians. In college, I even took a wonderful class on Ephesians alone. Yet, God is still teaching me through studying Ephesians and I look forward to all He has planned for me to learn in the coming months.

This week we studied Ephesians 1:1-14;

"Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of you salvation-- having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory." (NASB)

He chose me, He adopted me, He redeemed me, He let me in on His plan, and He promises me an inheritance. Why? "To the praise of His glory." All of creation brings glory to the Creator, but He has chosen to show grace to me (and you) as a means to bring about that glory. He could bring glory upon Himself in any variety of ways. He is God, He does not need me (for glory, or anything else). But because of His "kind intention" He choses to give grace as a means of bringing glory to Himself.

God's choice to give free grace to an undeserving creation is pretty incredible. I want to live for the glory of a God like that. I want to be like Him, with kind intentions and full of free grace, even for those who do not deserve it.

As I have studied these passages this week, in addition to being overwhelmed by His grace, I have done a lot of thinking about God's will. This passage indicates that His will is the summing up of all things in Christ. But I know that God also has a specific plan (or will) for each of our lives. People often ask God to make known to them His will for their life. That seems like a good idea, but if I'm perfectly honest, it kind of scares me to ask for God's will. I mean, what if He tells me what He wants me to do and it is scary? I can't exactly say that this passage has me feeling cool, calm, and collected about asking God what He wants me to do with my life, but it has certainly helped build my trust a bit by reminding me that God has kind intentions. It has also reminded me that it is not about me, regardless of what God asks me to do, it is not about me, it is all about Him.

The Spirit of Christmas

2012-01-02T19:53:00.000-08:00

I love Christmas! Who doesn't? It truely is the most wonderful time of the year!

My husband and I were elated to be able to travel "home" to Maryland to spend Christmas with our families this year. The past couple of years my family has come to us because we were either living over seas with limited time off of work or we had just delievered a baby. We are so grateful that my family came to us when we couldn't come "home" but it still didn't quite feel like Christmas when we weren't back in Maryland. So this year has been a real treat for us despite missing my little sister who is currently living abroad in Italy and couldn't make it home (though she did join us for Christmas eve dinner and Christmas morning via Skype).

Dad giving my sister a skype kiss over Christmas Eve dinner

Q skyping with Zia (what he calls my sister) Christmas morning

This Christmas has been especially fun because Q is old enough to enjoy it! Last year, at a tender 3 weeks old we were lucky if he would wake up to peer at his presents. This year, he still doesn't really "get it" but he definitely had fun checking out the ornaments on the tree and very slowly ripping miniscule pieces of wrapping paper from his abundance of gifts.

What I look forward to most about Christmas is spending time with family and sharing traditions like searching for ornaments at Valley View Farms with my husband's family and the anticipation of waiting to open presents until after my Aunt Dale's sausage casserole and my mom's baked pears on Christmas morning. This year Q got to pick out his own ornament at Valley View for the first time (he chose a miniature snow globe) and we made some new traditions like going to my brother-in-law and his wife's Christmas Eve party at their new home.

There is also something about coming "home" that makes me feel like a child again and children seem to enjoy Christmas the most. Most likely this phenomenon has something to do with my lack of responsibility at home since our parents are happy to take over taking care of Q and I don't have to cook, clean, etc- it's fantastic!

As wonderful as it is to see our family, participate in traditions, and enjoy the "magic" of Christmas by becoming a kid again, in my family we are always aware of the real gift of Christmas. The reason for all the merriment and joy this time of year comes from a gift that we can enjoy no matter where we are, no matter who we are with, and no matter what season it is. That gift is God's love.

This year I was touched by my father's Christmas list. He asked for $5 Subway cards. My dad works in the city and will sometimes have homeless people ask him for money to get something to eat. He is hesitant to give them money since he has even smelled liquor on some of their breaths, but he does not want to turn away a hungry person, so he wants to be armed with something practical and loving that he can give them. I am so proud to have a father who considers it a personal gift to himself to be prepared to show God's love in a tangible way to others. Isn't this the true spirit of Christmas, recieving God's love and passing it on?

I have been privileged to grow up in a home were these sorts of acts are the norm, not the exception. I have grown up seeing my parents give and show love to others even when they didn't think we were watching. They live out the spirit of Christmas all year round. Now, as a parent myself, I'm asking myself, what will my children see in me and my husband? What little acts of love will they notice as they grow up? Will the spirit of Christmas live in our home and our family throughout the year? I hope it will. And I believe it will because of the legacy of my own parents who taught me to live in that way. And I hope and pray that the spirit of Christmas lives on in each of your homes too!

Bon Voyage?

2012-01-02T18:40:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I flew alone with my barely one-year-old son from our home in California to where our extended family live in Maryland. We flew a few days before my husband was finished with work so I could spend some extra time helping my mom get ready for Christmas.

Q is no stranger to traveling. He's been taking road trips since before he was a month old and this was his 5th cross country flight and it was the 2nd that I had done with him without my husband. He had always been an excellent traveler but that didn't keep the ball of anxiety from growing heavy in the pit of my stomach as the day of our flight approached. Something told me that now that Q is weaned and very mobile, that this flight might be more challenging than previous trips.

The key to traveling with young children (actually, the key to surviving with young children) seems to be patience, and lots of it. Unfortunately, patience is not typically a strength of mine and it has been a virtue that God continually tests me on as a mother. Knowing this, and anticipating that this trip might require an extra measure of patience, I prayed that even if Q gave me good reason, that I would not lose my cool with him and that I would show love and compassion to my son while also being as considerate as possible to other travelers.

I had confidence that God would provide this for me because of a passage I had recently studied in scripture. 1 John 5:14-15 says, "This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him."

In the past, I have had difficulty with this passage because, well, how I am supposed to know what is in God's will? I might pray earnestly for something that never happens because it wasn't part of His will. So what exactly can I have confidence in? Then it dawned on me several weeks ago as our pastor was talking about praying for the fruit of the Spirit in his loved one's lives. I know that it is God's will for me to become more like Him and to demonstrate the "fruit" of my relationship with Him ("But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." Galatians 5:22-23). And I know that God has the power to do things through me which I am not capable of on my own, such as keeping my cool for 10 plus hours of travel with an exhausted one-year-old and no help. So I can be confident that He will empower me when I request His help in demonstrating any of those virtues.

I am pleased to report that despite a miserable trip, with God's help, I did not lose my patience with my son. Throughout the flight I felt calm and capable of handling what my son was doling out. I did apologize to those around me and tried to demonstrate my efforts at being considerate as well as loving. And I am so thankful for the very gracious people sitting near me on both of my completely full flights!

God even offered me some much needed encouragement through the mouths of other passengers. I had several other travelers come up to me after both of my flights to compliment me on my parenting. Seriously, who compliments the parenting of a woman whose child just wailed for the last hour of the plane ride?!? But, thank you kind strangers, your encouragement helped me get through a trying day! And my prayer is that God recieved the glory for any good parenting that was noticed because it was only due to answered prayer that I made it through that day!

When relating my story to my mother after arriving safe and sound in Maryland, she laughed and asked if I had ever heard of the saying 'Never pray for patience' because God will give you an opportunity to use it. He sure gave me an opportunity that day, but I do not regret asking. I do not regret asking because He faithfully provided and I am more like Him now than I was before that trip.

Do you struggle with any of the fruit of the Spirit like I do? If so, I challenge you to pray with confidence for that virtue and watch how God will refine your character. And while you are at it, you can be praying for an extra measure of patience for me on my return trip to California soon...

I love Christmas! (and cute babies)

2011-12-08T14:34:00.000-08:00

I'm in a bit of a Christmas-y mood now that Q's birthday has passed. I think the mass quantities of Christmas cookies I've been consuming since my recent cookie exchange might also help;-) And this week alone I have four Christmas parties to attend... four! So due to my recent mood, I want to share the holiday cheer by sharing a few snap shots of some of my favorite babies all decked out for the season.

Let's start with my VERY favorite baby, my lil Q man!

I found this adorable elf hat on Etsy. Sadly, Q hates having anything on his head so in most shots he is pulling the hat off his head with a pained expression (see right photo above...).

Don't you just love his little candy cane legs in these leg warmers? My hubby rolls his eyes at baby leg warmers, but they make changing a squirmy 1 year old soooo much easier and they are just so darn cute!

The "backdrop" was an idea from pinterest. Buy 2 yards of fabric and tape 1 yard on a wall with painters tape and let the other yard lay on the ground. I was pretty pleased with the results.

Now, for my future daughter-in-law... yes, it's already been arranged and Q&D have no choice, they've been buddies since birth and we frequently trade babysitting services between our families. They've had multiple "sleep overs" and several shared baths. As a proud MIL-to-be (he he) I just think she is the cutest thing ever and I swear this girl never takes a bad picture!

Clearly D was much better with the hat than my little monster!!!

I also had the chance to snap a couple shots of sweet little newborn K!

I had so much fun hanging out with my friends and their sweet girls. Christmas is just so much more fun with babies around! Last year Q was too young to know what was going on, but this year I am looking forward to lots of fun with him. I hope if you took the time to look at these, it's puts you in a festive mood too:-)

Holiday Cookie Exchange

2011-12-07T14:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I hosted a little cookie exchange brunch for a few friends. I thought it would be a fun way for the ladies to get together before we all head our separate ways for the holidays. I thought it would be a nice low-key, low-stress opportunity to get together... but considering my friends are perfectionists, it turned out not to be so low-stress! I came to find out someone stayed up until 2am the night before perfecting their cookie recipe and another sent their husbands out at 11pm to pick up more butter because they didn't think their batch was large enough... But, all the cookies were delicious and we had a fantastic time enjoying each other's company.

I had fun making onesies for all the little ones. I appliqued "HO" on the butt so that when we lined them up we'd get "ho ho ho..." Only later did I think about the little girls running around with "HO" on their hiney's might be taken the wrong way... opps! I appliqued a Christmas tree with their first initial on the front. The mamas were all such good sports to dress their babies up in my little creations:)

These 3 mamas were all prego together and now they all have their little peanuts in their arms!

And aren't they all looking faaabulous?!

We have such a fun group! There may have been toys and babies and dogs alllll over the place, but I so much enjoyed having these lovely girls over for a little holiday fun! And I am still enjoying the yummy treats they worked so hard on:)

And since I didn't follow my own cookie exchange rule (make copies of the recipe to share) I'm including it here for anyone who wants it!

Harlequin Ice-Box Cookies

1 cup butter

2.5 cups flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

1.5 cups sugar

.5 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1.5 oz baker's unsweetened chocolate, melted

.25 cup candied cherries, diced

.25 cup pecans, diced

red and green food coloring

Mix flour, baking powder and salt. Cream butter and sugar. Add beaten egg and beat until fluffy. Add vanilla and flour mixture and mix thoroughly. Divide dough into three parts. Add cherries that have been diced, and a little red food coloring to one part; melted chocolate to another; and nuts and a little green coloring to the third. I divide each color dough in half to make too long bars. Shape half of each dough into a strip about 18-20 inches long. Place chocolate strip on bottom; cherry next, and green on top. Chill the well-wrapped bars in the refrigerator over night. Slice and bake 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees.

Q's Birthday Party!

2011-12-05T09:26:00.000-08:00

Birthday sign inspired by pintrest

Our little guy turned 1 on Friday and we threw him a party on Saturday. One year old birthday parties are kinda silly considering they don't really "get it" yet. But we couldn't let this special moment in time for our family pass without celebration! We are blessed to have wonderful friends in Cali that have been a huge part of Q's first year and we wanted to share the joy with them too.

Thanks Lizzie for snapping these of our family!

One thing 1 year olds do understand is fooooood! (well, at least our 1 year old:-P) So of course one of the main activities was cake! Our friend Lizzie is so good at decorating cakes and she made an adorable blue and white dog bone cake with dog paw prints to go along with our puppy themed party.

Little guy didn't quite get the whole "cake smash" thing right away and started out by daintily picking bits of icing off the cake to taste. Momma had to help him dig in by breaking some off with a fork.

In case you didn't know, there is absolutely no need to buy presents for a 1 year old. Just fill a gift bag with tissue paper to make one happy baby! But seriously, Q was so spoiled by all the fun gifts his friends and family sent him. Our house runneth over with baby toys now! He is loving all the new fun things to play with and I am loving how occupied they are keeping him so I can post this blog:-P

As party favors I made "doggie bags" full of "puppy chow" (chew mix muddy buddies) for the adult guests and "puppy bags" with little bath toys for the kiddie guests.

We kept the menu simple; grilled hot dogs, homemade mac n'cheese, veggies with homemade hummus dip, frosted sugar cookies (dog, bone, and paw shaped of course!), and oreo cupcakes. The mac n'cheese was a big hit (also inspired by pinterest) so I highly recommend checking out this link if you're a mac n'cheese lover. Q couldn't get enough of it!

We <3 tripods for getting a shot of the whole gang:)

Thank you sweet friends for coming and making this day special for us and for Q! And mostly thanks for being there over this past year when we needed and ear to listen, a shoulder to cry on, or quite often... a babysitter :-)

A year ago today...

2011-12-02T21:44:00.000-08:00

A year ago today I became a mommy.

The day after we moved to our current home in California I unexpectedly went into labor three and a half weeks early. It was a crazy night. We were staying in a hotel with the dogs getting ready to move into our new house the next morning. So when my water broke it was a little hectic trying to figure out what to do with the dogs and what to do about the movers showing up first thing in morning. I guess it was Q's way of letting us know that from here on out our best laid plans would be subject to his approval. The first of many reminders over this past year, that we are not really in control of things at all. Thank goodness we know that God is!

A year ago right now I was sitting in a rocker in the NICU staring at my precious firstborn.

Q had a bit of a rough start. Being a premie, he needed a little help breathing at first and he also had a bit of jaundice. I remember being overjoyed at the sight of his sweet face and precious little fingers and toes. I also remember not being able to hold back tears because I couldn't hold him and comfort him since he was hooked up to so many monitors and was getting oxygen.

Meeting Q instantly changed me. My life took on a new purpose, I was a mom. I could feel the weight of my new responsibility as I was helpless to do anything to help my child those first 12 days he was in the NICU. And I came to know a new kind of overwhelming maternal love the very moment I first laid eyes on him. It is impossible for me to even put into words the ways in which his arrival changed me.

We have both come so far in the past year. He is a healthy, happy (though still a bit small) one year old. And he has taught me so much about selfless love and patience and joy! I live for his smiles and his giggles. He is such a happy boy! He is very observant and cautious. He puts everything in his mouth. His best buddies are our two dogs whom he loves to play with. As soon as he was mobile, the first things he was interested in were the dog toys and bones and those are still his favorite toys. He loves to play tug with Bella and will go get her toy and hand it to her and laugh and laugh as she pulls him around. He loves to dance with mommy and play guitar with daddy. His favorite game is peek-a-boo. He hates the ocean but loves the bath tub. And he loves to read. If you get out a book and start reading aloud he will crawl right over and snuggle up to you (and offer to help turn the pages). It amazes me how much he has learned this year!

I can't believe it was only a year ago when I met our little guy. It feels like he has always been a part of our lives. It seems like ages ago when I was sitting in the NICU stroking his sweet little hand praying for the day when I could hold him in my arms.

I have been a mommy for a year and I can't imagine life without my sweet little boy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T12:26:00.000-08:00

I love logging onto facebook on Thanksgiving! Everyone's status lists the things they are thankful for and it just puts me in a good mood. I love reading about the little (and big) blessings in my friend's lives. It is particularly touching to read cheerful, thankful statuses from friends who have real reason not to be thankful this year; for example, friends with deployed spouses or friends who have recently lost loved ones. It is inspiring to see them choose thankfulness rather than bitterness. I just wonder what the world would be like if everyday was thanksgiving and if we intentionally looked for things to be thankful for no matter what other not-so-great things were going on?

I've been learning this lesson myself over the past couple of months. In fact, just recently I've needed an attitude adjustment in this department. My hubby and I are getting away just the two of us around Christmas time and have had plans for months for one set of our son's grandparents to watch him for us and recently the other set of grandparents let us know that they also wanted to watch him (we assumed they had to work) and thus ensued stress in trying to figure out how to fairly divide my son's time with his grandparents while we are away. Everything worked out and we are looking forward to some nice time away. What I need to remember is that having too many people that love our son and want to help us out is a good problem! I am so thankful that I have such wonderful parents and in-laws and am sooooo grateful that they are willing (and even eager) to watch our wild man so we can have some alone time!

Granted, my childcare dilemma is far from a serious problem, but I'd venture to say that there is something to be thankful for in almost any situation, as evidenced by my friends that are going through real heartache this holiday and have still found things to be thankful for!

As for me, there are so many things that I am thankful for that it would be impossible for me to list them all in a facebook status, or even capture them all in a single blog post. So I'll just mention one thanks I have today and that is that my husband is home and not deployed and for those who are deployed away from their family today.

Pay It Forward {GMG Week 9 Reflection}

2011-11-22T13:09:00.000-08:00

Last week the Good Morning Girls studied 1 John 4:7-21;

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know that have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also." (NASB, emphasis mine)

That is a lot of talk about love! Does anyone else feel like saying, "I GET IT! We are supposed to love. Now, can we move on?!" I'll admit, day after day of reading the same thing over and over last week kind of got to me. I knoooow this is important, but it also makes me feel pretty discouraged at times. Especially when I'm sitting down to do my Bible study right after speaking harshly to my cranky son or losing my temper with the dogs. It is completely beyond my power to love in the way that God loves me. If I'm honest, I have a hard enough time always acting out of love towards those I'm close to, much less, those who reject me or are rude to me. I fail at this simple and most important commandment every.single.day. So this week as it has been time for Bible study each day I've been hoping to open up the Word and see something else... something I might actually be able to accomplish! And yet, that is exactly the point, I cannot accomplish this on my own. It is only by His Spirit abiding in me that I can truly love my (hypothetical) brother (or son, or husband, or friend, or enemy for that matter...).

"By [love] we know that we abide in Him and He is us, because He has given us of His Spirit."

God's Spirit empowers me to love my son even when he is throwing a major tantrum. God's Spirit empowers me to love my husband when he tweaks my last nerve after a long day dealing with a cranky baby and two unruly dogs. God's Spirit empowers me to love my friends and family when they say or do something insensitive or hurtful and I feel like retaliating. And it is in these moments of supernatural love that I am assured of my salvation and the extreme difference that my choice to abide in Him makes in my everyday life (and in the lives of those around me).

God loved me first. He still loves me even when I am (extremely) unlovable. He loves me when I reject Him and choose to do the exact opposite of what He is calling me to do. He loves me so much He sent His perfect Son to pay the price for all the wrong, mean, downright evil things I've done. A sacrifice that, as a mother, I cannot fathom. If He did that for me, I can at least show a little grace and love towards others. I may require a little supernatural help, but I will Pay It Forward. Will you?

Go Navy!

2011-11-19T20:47:00.000-08:00

The Naval Academy Midshipmen played the San Jose State Spartans in San Jose today. Of course we jumped at the chance to be able to go to a Navy game! Despite the disappointing loss, we had a great time tailgating with some good friends and fellow '06 USNA grads!

The boys passed a little pigskin during the tailgater. I love this photo of J in action!

Of course L had the newest lil Navy fan dressed appropriately for her first game!

Hubby manned the grill and our lil Q was not a big fan of tailgating (and missing his morning nap) but he did love the actual game (especially the pep band)!

This is such a fun group of USNA classmates, fellow submariners and wives! We always have a blast with these guys and today was no exception! All 3 babies even made it through the days festivities :-)

Here's hoping for a Navy win next time... Go Navy! Beat Army!

Advice Overload! {GMG Week 8 Reflection}

2011-11-16T11:10:00.000-08:00

Last week the Good Morning Girls studied 1 John 4:1-6;

"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error." (NASB)

There is all kinds of advice out there. It comes in the form of friendly conversation, magazines by the check out counter at the grocery store, books, blogs, etc, etc. As a new parent, the sheer amount of advice you receive from parents, friends, parenting books and magazines, and even total strangers is mind boggling. And it is amazing (and completely confusing) how so much of it is contradictory! Co-sleeping is dangerous. Co-sleeping is good for bonding. Breastfeeding is the healthiest option. Formula helps babies sleep better and gain weight. Cry-it-out helps babies learn to self-soothe and get a good nights rest. Cry-it-out is cruel. And it goes on and on and on. And the plethora of advice is not just limited to parenting issues... there is also plenty of advice available on how to have a good marriage, a good sex life, a hot body, etc, etc.

One thing I need to be careful about is discerning what is godly advice from that which is not. A lot of things seem to make sense and don't seem to be contradictory to Christian values at first glance, but when the philosophy behind the advice is examined, it isn't necessarily godly. I think that is exactly what these verses are talking about. Satan is the father of lies and he is crafty. He knows we won't take the bait if it looks like pure evil, but if something seems innocent enough even though it would give the tempter a foothold into our hearts and minds, then that is how he tries to get us. So I need to guard my heart and my mind by testing the advice that comes my way. Does the advice (and the philosophy behind it) align with Scripture? Is the giver of the advice a Christ-follower?

My prayer this week has been for wisdom to discern godly advice and to have the courage to act on that wisdom.

PS- A big thanks to all my wonderful friends and family that have provided so much good advice to me over the years, Christian and non-Christian, I value you all and have learned so much from each and every one of you! Thank you for caring.

Love is a Verb

2011-11-07T11:21:00.000-08:00

I just posted a blog about what I have been studying in my GMG Bible study this past week. The passage I've been studying in 1 John 3:11-24 is about love. Specifically, verse 17 says, "But whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?" (NASB)

I've been thinking a lot about this verse lately. With the holidays (and Q's birthday) coming up I've gotten several requests for me to make a Christmas wish list. In the midst of racking my brain for what I want, I read this verse. Oooo, conviction! We are so blessed with "the world's goods" at this point in our lives and so are most of the people that we know which sometimes makes me forget about all those who are really struggling to make ends meet right now.

One of the only times I am confronted with this fact is when driving around the city where we live and occasionally seeing people with signs requesting food or money. I don't usually have cash on me, but some of us in our church small group were compelled to do something so we put together bags to keep in our cars.

For the cost of $12 per couple in our small group we assembled 100 brown paper bags that each have a bottle of water, a granola bar, a fruit cup, and a flyer with information on our church's food pantry. We each keep several bags in our cars to hand out when we see people who need them.

This is just a small gesture, but I pray that it is communicating love to those who are hungry. To quote DC Talk (and thus, age myself...) "love is a verb" and I can't claim to love people and not do something when I see a need that I am perfectly capable of addressing. 1 John 3:18 says, "let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth."

Does your family have any creative ways to intentionally show love to others? I'd love to hear them and maybe implement them!

My bad day {GMG Week 7 Reflection}

2011-11-07T10:51:00.000-08:00

This week the Good Morning Girls studied 1 John 3:11-24;

"For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother's were righteous. Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever had the world's goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him. In whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us." (NASB)

During my reflection time on this passage, I was looking back over my journal from this week and I want to share a quick prayer I had written;

God, I'm having a rough morning. I'm finding it nearly impossible to keep my temper in check with Q and I'm having a hard time controlling my emotions. I'm cranky and sad and am feeling selfish but I don't even know what I want. Please help me to put Q's needs first and to act out of love for him and everyone else unfortunate enough to cross my path today! Sorry for my lack of focus studying Your Word this morning- I can't seem to get in the right frame of mind.

I was having a bad morning but when the baby finally went down for his nap I habitually opened up my Bible and journal to do my quiet time even though all I really wanted to do was eat chocolate and veg out in front of the TV. As mentioned in my prayer, it definitely wasn't the most productive and enlightening quiet time due to my lack of focus, but God was faithful to use His Word to change me even if I didn't know it was happening.

This passage is all about love. Loving one another as a sign of abiding in God's love. I was not feeling very loving that morning. And when the baby woke up from his nap (still inexplicably cranky) my circumstances had not changed, but my heart had. By the grace of God and the power of His Word, I had a much better afternoon than I did morning. Life didn't become all rainbows and unicorns and it certainly wasn't the best day I'd ever had, but I felt peace instead of turmoil, strength instead of weariness, and love instead of frustration.

Have you ever felt like I did that morning? Maybe once a month ladies...? haha! Next time, try spending some time in God's Word, even if you don't feel like it, and see how He is able to overcome your bad mood:-)

It's a Girl!

2011-11-06T12:19:00.000-08:00

Our dear friends, C and W finally had their baby late Thursday evening. We have all been anxiously awaiting the arrival of little miss K who was very content to stay nice and cozy in mama's tummy for as long as mama's OB would let her! As high as C was carrying right up until the day she was induced, I liked to joke that K was hangin on to mama's ribs for dear life resisting her entrance to the world and the big reveal that she is a girl!

And a lucky little lady at that to be born into this wonderful family! C and W have been praying for her since they found out they were pregnant (and probably before). C was laughing as she told me how when W would talk to her belly and pray for baby girl, baby girl would get all excited even in utero. Thanks to those prayers, you can tell this little lady knows the sound of her daddy's voice because when little miss was fussing after a little meal, daddy scooped her right up and danced her around the living room and she snuggled right into his chest and was as content as could be!

On another note, I seriously don't think I have ever met a more natural first-time mom than C! K wasn't even two days old when I visited and C was as relaxed as could be. She is the antithesis of a nervous parent. She doesn't try to control every little situation like how you hold the baby or how you swaddle the baby, etc. And when K woke up hungry, I offered to leave to give them some privacy while figuring out the whole nursing thing, but C just whipped out her nursing cover and continued our conversation while little girl ate as if she'd been nursing for months. Such a far cry from how stressed I felt when first learning to nurse Q! But I shouldn't be surprised at this, I knew she'd be an awesome mommy and it is my joy to see that dream fulfilled!

Thank you G family for letting me share in the joy of K's arrival! And thanks for letting me "go all paparazzi," as W says :-) I have not stopped smiling since I got to meet precious K and we could not be any happier for your family! All three of you are very loved!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T20:19:00.000-07:00

Last night we hosted a Halloween costume party and game night for a few friends. We had a great time decorating the house in cobwebs, spiders, and candles. And I had fun making some spooky treats like mummy wrapped sausages, cobweb pizza, deviled egg "eyeballs," frankenstein rice krispy treats, and graveyard oreo dirt cake with the help of some friends.

The guest list included; a past due bill (our overdue preggo friend) and bill collector (her hubby), race car drivers complete with a race track and stop light, a farmer with scarecrow and flower, 20's flappers, the crew from Gilligan's island, ballerinas, ghostbusters, the "good night moon" bunny, a clown, Waldo, and even Popeye and Olive Oil.

Popeye and Olive Oil were the lucky winners of the costume contest and received a lovely prize ghost mug full of slime!

As is custom with this wonderful group of friends, we had a little male vs. female competitive Catch Phrase game. And as if we needed the extra incentive, the winners received homemade caramel apples. Of course the ladies bested the guys two out of three times but I think our husbands are pretty lucky because I'm sure all the sweet ladies at this party shared... maybe a little bite... :-P

Such a fun night made special by being surrounded by good friends, good conversation, and lots of laughter. Gotta love Halloween for bringing out the kid in all of us:)

Practice Makes Perfect {GMG Week 6 Reflection}

2011-10-31T11:34:00.000-07:00

Last week the Good Morning Girls studied 1 John 3:1-10:

"See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin in lawlessness. You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins had seen Him or knows Him. Little children, made sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil had sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother." (NASB)

On first glance this passage seemed confusing to me because no one is perfect, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23) so it seems impossible to attain what John is suggesting. Upon further meditation on the passage I think the main point is that as a Christian I should be practicing righteousness. According to dictionary.com, practice means "to perform (an activity) or exercise (a skill) repeatedly or regularly in order to improve or maintain one's proficiency." So certainly if I am regularly and repeated practicing sin, that would be a pretty good indication that I am not abiding in God. Sin, John calls "lawlessness" which I take to mean having and attitude of I-do-whatever-I-want without regard for what is right or how my actions might affect others. Jesus came to take away sin, and the more I get to know Him, the more I become like Him, and the more I am like Him, the less I am able to sin.

I think I personally needed to hear these words John wrote because sometimes I don't take sin nearly as seriously as I should. Since I believe that Christ's righteousness covers my sin, I sometimes feel like sin is just not that big of a deal. But sin is a big deal. And habitual sin is evidence that I'm not really walking with God. So I have really been focusing on verse 3 this week, "And everyone who has this hoped fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." I want to purify myself and get into the habit of practicing righteousness. Because as the saying goes, practice makes perfect!

One area where I can work on purifying myself which I think will go a long way towards helping me practice righteousness is in my thoughts. Driving around in my car I often let my mind wander and often it unfortunately settles on playing the "comparison game" in which I compare various aspects of myself with those of other women which generally only leads to either jealousy or pride, neither of which are really qualities I desire for myself. The other day while driving around I started to play this game and the Spirit reminded me of verse 3 so I shifted gears from comparing myself to other women to thinking of why I am so thankful for the influence other women have in my life. By the end of the short car ride I was even plotting ways to bless them for being so wonderful! Amazing what a little dose of God's Word can do:)

ch-ch-ch-changes...

2011-10-29T00:41:00.000-07:00

As a military family we are very familiar with change. We rarely live in one place longer than a year and we have almost no control over where we will end up next. Additionally, since many of our friends are military as well, they also come and go such that we are always saying goodbye to somebody. I am use to this and I have accepted it and I honestly even like it this way most of the time. Sure, I miss our friends who move away and I am sad to leave friends when we move away but there are always new friendships to look forward to as well.

Despite my acceptance regarding this fact of our life, I've been kind of sad about it lately. A few months ago an opportunity came up for my husband to apply for a graduate program in Singapore. He applied and was selected so we will be temporarily moving to Singapore early next spring. I've always wanted to live overseas and this short 6 month program seems like the perfect opportunity. Plus, it means an extra 6 months of coveted shore tour time before he has to go back to a boat!

Now I can't really "complain" about this change because it was our choice to apply to this program and thus break up our continuous 2 years living in the same location. And I am super excited for the adventure I know it will be! But I have never lived in one place, moved away, and then come back to that place, which is what we will be doing. And while we are gone of course things are going to change and many of our closest friends will be gone or shortly leaving this duty station when we return and I am already having anxiety about missing my dear girlfriends!

These girls mean the world to me. Becoming a mom this past year has totally changed me in ways I never expected or could have anticipated and I have relied so much on my friends here to help me learn and grow without becoming totally overwhelmed. The ladies in this picture are the wives in our small group through our church. I had the waitress snap this shot on my phone camera this evening during our weekly pho date (pho is a Vietnamese noodle soup for those of you that haven't had it).

The 5 of us get together every Sunday afternoon for pho and generally sit in the restaurant gabbing for at least 4 hours. And if the restaurant closes, we stand outside on the sidewalk talking some more for sometimes over an hour. And this is not idle gossip. We talk about the deep, meaningful aspects of our lives. We talk about our hopes, and dreams, and struggles, and fears. And we are becoming better women because of each others influence in our lives. My friend J who was visiting last week joined us for pho last weekend and commented to me how we all have strikingly different personalities and yet are so obviously close knit. This is true, we are all very different and even at different stages of life with children of varying ages and some with no children yet or expecting children, and yet we all have something to offer.

This week we met for our pho date on Friday night instead of Sunday afternoon because C is 40+ weeks pregnant and could be having her baby any day and we wanted to squeeze in "one more" Pho date before baby shows up, at which point we plan to move our pho date to pho-carry-out in C's living room! The impending arrival of C's little one is just the first of a long series of changes coming up for our group which I think we are all in denial about. C's having a baby, then C is moving near Christmas time, then L is moving in the spring right around the time we leave for Singapore, and then S will be moving at the same time we get back from Singapore shortly followed by J and then I will be the only one left out of this little group which I'm really trying not to think about!

I was relaying my sentiments about this over pho tonight and second guessing our choice to go to Singapore and miss 6 months that I could be spending with S and J who will still be in the area while we are gone. And C reminded me what another friend had said regarding their decision not to pursue the graduate program in Singapore. A deciding factor in their choice not to apply was that they love their life here and they didn't want it to change. But know, with 4 of their close friends leaving for Singapore (us and another family) everything is changing anyway.

I think this is a good point. Change is inevitable. Even when we try to keep things the same, life goes on and things change. And I'm grateful for this; for the opportunity to learn and grow, for the blessing of new experiences and new friends, and for the sweet memories I am making with my friends now.

I feel so incredibly blessed to share this little sliver of time with these amazing women. I know God put them in my life for a reason. I have really needed their support, encouragement and wisdom this year. And though I don't want to let them go, I know that God has big plans for all of us and I trust that He will continue to bless us with other friends that will come into our lives in the future.

(okay, that may have been a little melodramatic considering I'm not moving for another 5 months... but I love these ladies! ... and all my other wonderful friends here!)

Herbivore/Omnivore Mixed Menu

2011-10-25T17:03:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been on a bit of a hiatus from veganism due to my love of fall favorites like chili and pumpkin mousse. So for this season I will attempt to take a more moderate approach allowing myself to indulge in my favorites now and then while still incorporating many of the things I've learned over the past 6 months since I've been exploring veganism.

Aside from fall favorite foods another big reason I've been on a break from veganism is that it is a lot of work constantly seeking out new satisfying recipes for a whole new lifestyle and I was getting weary of always worrying about what we are going to eat. I've always loved to cook and it was making cooking more of a dreaded chore. AND I was beginning to feel bad about depriving my poor husband of the food he loves (even though he always said he was on board with the vegan thing). This became apparent last week when I made an old favorite burger recipe for dinner and he was giddy as a school boy with excitement from the moment he came in the door and smelled me cooking.

So to simplify things I made this 7 night menu with complementing herbivore and omnivore options so that I could potentially cook both vegan and non-vegan food without having to plan two completely separate meals. I also stuck to simple recipes for weeks I don't have the time/energy/motivation to plan or cook anything fancy.

For example, on "grill night" I can marinate some portobellas and some tri tip steak and cook them at the same time to make me and hubby happy or on "pasta night" I can cook whole wheat pasta and make marinara and then add some mushrooms to mine and ground meat to hubby's. Hopefully this will help me to stick to my new eating habits as well as keep my man happy:)

If you are interested in any of the specific recipes on the menu, please leave a comment and I'll be happy to get them to you!

Pizza Night	Burger Night	Pasta Night	Veggie Pie Night	Mexican Night	Grill Night	Soup Night
Amy’s frozen roasted veggie pizza Make your own	Morning Star Southwest Black Bean Burgers Make your own black bean burgers	Marinara w/mushrooms Garlic & Olive Oil w/ zucchini & squash risotto chilled veggie pasta	Galette w/ spinach, butternut squash, carrots, onions, tomatoes Galette w/ kale, sweet potatoes, onion, mushrooms Zucchini cakes	Fajitas w/ marinated grilled veggies, black beans and corn Tacos w/ seasoned tofu, salsa, corn, guac Burritos w/ rice, refried beans, grilled veggies, salsa, guac Quesidilla w/ beans and veggies	Marinated portobellas over arugula w/ basalmic and pita Chick’n patties Terriyaki eggplant sandwiches	Sweet Potato, Apple, Carrot & Lentil Soup Veggie Chili
Your favorite frozen pizza Takeout Make your own	Bubba burgers (frozen) Turkey burgers w/ apple and brie Rachel Ray burgers: spinach and herd big bistro swordfish	Marinara w/ meat sauce Alfredo w/ brocolli & chicken Pesto w/ chicken seared scallops w/ risotto chilled veggie pasta w/ tuna	Crock Pot recipe: Beer BBQ Chicken Dr Pepper Pork Pot Roast Kalua Pork	Fajitas w/ grilled meat Tacos w/ seasoned ground meat & cheese Burritos w/ shredded chicken Quesidilla w/ black beans & cheese	Fish Tri-tip Ribs Steak & portobella ciabatta lemon chicken sandwich	Italian Sub Stoup Black Bean Chili

GMG Week 5 Reflection

2011-10-25T12:34:00.000-07:00

I'm a little behind in posting my Good Morning Girls reflection for week 5 because I had a good friend visiting this weekend. We did enjoy some beautiful quiet time on the beach together Sunday morning (well... as quiet as it gets with a 10 month old and 2 wild dogs...) but I haven't had the chance to write about what I've been learning until now.

"Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life. These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him. Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him." ~1 John 2:18-29 (NASB)

The major theme that jumped out at me day after day as I was studying these verses was the importance of truth. If the truth abides in me then I am in a relationship with God and will get to participate in the promise of eternal life.

Truth seems like such a simple thing. And it is a simple thing... something is either true or it is false, those are the only two options. The problem is there are so many deceiving things in the world that make such a simple concept seem very confusing. Thank God for the anointing of the Holy Spirit to give us discernment!

As I've already learned in 1 John, God is light and that light exposes the truth. When I come into His presence, whether I willingly come into His presence now, or whether I come into His presence on the last day when He returns, or I come into His presence on judgement day, His light will expose me for who I really am. If I am not walking in the light, then this exposure will be cause for shame. If I am walking in the light and confessing and repenting of my shortcomings, then I can be confident with no cause for shame because my shortcomings will have been covered with Christ's righteousness.

I personally needed the reminder of my anointing this week. I sometimes get bogged down in studying Scripture or in theological discussions with friends in which it all seems so confusing and complicated and I just want to give up trying to understand and rest in knowing "the basics." But I don't just want to be casual friends with God, I want a deep relationship and that means getting to know Him more and more through His Word. The passage this week was so encouraging to me to keep pursuing an understanding of truth because I have God's own Spirit teaching me.

Princess Crab visits California

2011-10-24T10:59:00.000-07:00

(The Fromille Family}

{Princess Brat, Q & Princess Crab}

This weekend my good friend J (who I lovingly refer to as "Princess Crab" due to her *shining* personality when she first wakes up in the morning) has been visiting. Princess Crab and I met when we worked on the waterfront staff as camp counselors at Sandy Hill Camp and lived together for two awesome summers on the Chesapeake Bay. We bonded through shared experiences waterskiing, teaching campers to sail (and our favorite sailing game of pirates) and allowing campers to cover us head to toe in mud. We have seen each other at our best and at our worst, for example, the nickname I earned is "Princess Brat."

Our lives have taken different turns since our college summers working at camp. J owns her own condo near a big city and works in corporate America and still invests in youth through volunteering with Young Life. And I am a military wife and stay-at-home-mommy. But even though our lives look very different, our bond still remains strong. Some people you are friends with because you are at the same stage in life and share a lot in common and that is great, I am so grateful for friends in my life like that! But then there are those friends with whom you share more, and J is one of those. In addition to being old camp buddies, we are also sisters in Christ and she is the kind of friend that despite distance and time I can rely on to call me out when I need to be called out on something and who I can always rely on for godly conversation and advice when needed.

J has been so faithful about visiting me wherever the Navy sends our family but has always come to visit while hubby has been away for work because I'm always grateful to have the company when he is gone! This visit though it was my pleasure to finally introduce one of my dearest friends to my husband and son and get to share my family life with J. Always up for adventure, we've had a great weekend exploring the central Cali coast. The above pictures were taken on a hike to Pfeiffer Falls yesterday.

While hiking, J and I were discussing how we are baffled by how anyone could experience the breathtaking beauty of nature and still deny the existence of the Creator. Later, while driving back from the hike along the Pacific coast highway at sunset we were marveling at some light fluffy fog beginning to blanket the shimmering Pacific and cover an offshore island like swirly whipped topping. As we marveled, my son pulled his pacifier out of his mouth, distressed that J's attention was not solely on him, and let out a yell as if to say, "hey, I'm the real masterpiece here!" And I think that is so fitting, because it is so true. As beautiful as nature is, humans, created in the image of God, are the masterpiece of all creation. And friendships, like Princess Crab and Princess Brat, are far more beautiful than any waterfall or sea cliff or sunset.

Fall is... pumpkins, football, chili

2011-10-17T16:37:00.000-07:00

I love fall! Even though here on the central coast of California we are having our belated summer right now (finally) there is something about the air that just feels like fall. I remember walking out of my house last week heading to take our pups for a walk and fall hit me. I can't put my finger on it because it was a warm sunny day, but fall was definitely in the air! So after our walk I came home and made my shopping list to cook up some delicious fall food. (see some of my favorite recipes later in the post!!!) Of those delicious fall foods pumpkin is a staple. I came home from the grocery store with 6 cans of pumpkin last week and hubby laughed, but I am now down to just 1 left!

Since Halloween is approaching and since the weather has been so glorious, we took Q to the pumpkin patch, picked out this beauty and carved our first family pumpkin! How is it that we have been married over 5 years and yet to carve a pumpkin??? Oh right... we're a Navy family and for some reason our relocations typically leave us homeless during the fall/pumpkin carving season:-P

Our inspiration for our pumpkin design is another fall staple... football! The background noise to our life on fall weekends is football on the TV. I am not one that likes always having the TV on but for some reason in the fall the sound of a game broadcast is almost as comforting as a big bowl of chili. Even better if I can eat the big bowl of chili while watching a good game! (see my favorite chili recipe later in this post!)

Since we are so fortunate to be from Maryland, home of the BEST NFL team in the country... we carved a Raven on our pumpkin. (I use the term "we" here very loosely... what I actually mean is my husband carved a raven on the pumpkin. He's pretty good with a knife don't ya think?)

If you need a little inspiration for fall cooking, look no further! I've included my favorite chili recipe and a yummy (and easy) pumpkin mousse recipe passed on to me from a good friend. Enjoy!

Black Bean Chili (adapted from Boston Uncommon cookbook)
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 lb ground turkey
1 large onion
2 carrots, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
4 cans black beans
4 cups chicken broth
1 6oz can tomato paste
1 Tbsp cumin
1 tsp ground red pepper
1 can corn
1 cup cooked brown rice

Heat oil in a large pot. Add turkey, crumble and brown till cooked through. Add onion, carrots, celery, garlic and cook for 10 minutes or until veggies are tender. Add beans, broth, tomato paste, cumin, and red pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours, adding more broth if the chili gets to thick. Stir in the corn and rice and enjoy!

Anna's Pumpkin Mousse

1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 16-ounce can solid-pack pumpkin (not pumpkin-pie mix)
1 package vanilla flavor instant pudding and pie filling for 4 servings
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
2 cups heavy or whipping cream

In large bowl with wire whisk, mix pumpkin, pudding mix, milk, vanilla extract, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and 1/3 cup packed brown sugar until well blended. In another bowl, with mixer at medium speed, beat heavy or whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Fold 2/3 of the whipped cream into pumpkin mixture. Spoon pumpkin mixture into 8 10- ounce goblets or into a large serving bowl. Top with reserved 1/3 of the whipped cream. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Pumpkin mixture tastes best if refrigerated for at least 30 minutes before serving.

GMG Week 4 Reflection

2011-10-17T11:30:00.000-07:00

The second half of Good Morning Girls week 4 study of 1John was on the following verses;

"Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever." ~1 John 2:15-17 (NASB)

Yikes! That definitely puts the fear of God in me! "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Whoa!

I know that this life and everything in it is temporary. Regardless of what you believe about God, no one can deny that. We all die and our current circumstances will no longer matter. But, sometimes just knowing that something is true still doesn't change my heart. I know that this world is passing away and nothing lasts, buuuut I want to enjoy it while I can! I don't know how to make myself not love this world. In theory, I am totally on board with this passage, but in practice I find it impossible to implement.

I think one of the main things I am learning through this study of 1 John is that living out the commands in the Bible takes supernatural power. Being a Christian is about more than just following "the rules" because it is impossible to follow the rules in my own power. The Bible says "love your neighbor" and in my own power I might be able to, for the most part, act lovingly toward others, but the Bible doesn't say "act like you love your neighbor" it just says "love your neighbor" and I can't really make myself do that in the full sense of the word love. Just like I can't make myself hate worldly things. I can deny myself worldly things... but again, that isn't the same as hating them.

Coming up against this realization that I cannot, in my own power, be the person that God wants me to be... that I cannot be the person that I want to be... is humbling. I must confess, I am a pretty prideful person and I have always taken pride in the fact that when I set my mind to something, I have always been able to achieve it. I am a total "American" and like the feeling of having control over my own destiny. I guess what I am describing is what John refers to as "the boastful pride of life."

So now, finding that I actually cannot just set my mind to "be a good Christian" and achieve it based on my own hard work is both frustrating and freeing. Frustrating, because I find great satisfaction in accomplishing tasks, and because I like things to get done on my time (which means, NOW). Freeing, because it takes some of the self-impossed pressure off of me to be perfect.

In whatever ways my character and heart look like Christ's, it is because of His power working in me, not my own. So instead of the glory going to me, it goes to Him. Which is exactly how it should be. So this week (and every week...) I am trusting in the supernatural power of God to change my heart in regards to loving the things of this world.

This reminds me of one of my favorite worship songs;

"Glory to God, Glory to God, Glory to God forever.

Take my life and let it be all for You and for Your glory,

Take my life and let it be Yours."

Baby MBK is punctual!

2011-10-16T10:25:00.000-07:00

My girlfriend L had her sweet baby girl Friday evening! MBK was right on time, one of those extremely rare babies who decided to show up on her actual due date:-P

When I woke up Friday morning to the news that L was in labor I spent the entire day checking my phone and facebook constantly for updates awaiting the happy news. I was so elated to get a call from L soon after MB's arrival to hear how absolutely perfect the little princess is. And we were so overjoyed to get to meet little miss MB yesterday when we visited them at the hospital. Of course you wouldn't know it was the hospital because lil miss was all decked out in her precious monogramed attire without a stitch of standard hospital attire in sight. But we didn't expect any different from a little princess like MB!

The greatest part for me (other than getting to hold sweet baby girl) was to see the transformation in my dear friend L. I haven't had many friends that I've known (and been around- thanks Navy...) before, during, and after pregnancy. So watching L go from woman to mother was amazing. And being a new mom myself, it brought back memories of my own recent transformation that was only 10 short months ago but somehow feels like a lifetime ago. The instant you meet your baby for the first time it's like your life has a whole new meaning and purpose. Your responsibility doubles from taking care of yourself to caring for a helpless new little human. And your heart fills with more love than you ever thought possible. I could hear it the moment I picked up the phone when L called after MB's birth that she is different, forever changed, she is a mother.

Congrats L and J on your sweet baby girl! And thank you for letting us share in the joy of her arrival!

(the cutest "happy birthday" sign L made for MB)

Life = Growth {GMG Reflection}

2011-10-12T12:08:00.000-07:00

This week the Good Morning Girls are studying 1 John 2:12-17. I am only half way through so far:

"I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name's sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because you know the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one." (1 John 2:12-14, NASB)

This little section has me thinking about spiritual maturity because John talks about children, young men, and fathers and their growing relationships with God. I was reading a commentary on these verses that said, "...life is equal to growth. Growth is evidence of life." My poor herb garden is a perfect example of this concept; the herbs aren't growing, and the herbs aren't living. Yep, the sad story of my black thumb! On the other hand, I have two overflowing bins of children's clothing that my son has outgrown in his short 10 months of life. He is growing like a weed, learning new things everyday, and very much alive! So apparently it must be easier to keep a baby human alive than to keep plants alive?

Anyway... to grow in my relationship with God I need to know Him better and allow His word to abide in me like the young men in the passage. This is a scary concept to me because in my experience coming to know God better generally prompts me to action. And the actions I am prompted to take are generally not easy.

It seems to me that the truth always requires a response. If you follow this blog at all, you know that in the past year I've experimented with a vegan lifestyle. At first I didn't know anything about it, but as I learned the truth about the American food system, and the truth about what our bodies were designed to eat, it became difficult to ignore the truth and continue eating a "healthy" omnivorous diet. Now that I know the truth, I can't un-know it and it does make it difficult for me to enjoy some of my old favorite foods that I use to consider healthy. So in some respects, ignorance is bliss. But do I really want to be ignorant?

Furthermore, do I really want to be ignorant with regards to God? No, I don't. I want to keep growing and I want to live the life God has designed for me. Because I trust that the life God has designed for me is greater and more fulfilling than whatever plans I make for myself. I know this from experience because every time following God has led me to something scary or difficult and I actually did it, He has rewarded me beyond what I could imagine.

So, even though I am still scared of how God will challenge me and how far out of my comfort zone He is going to take me, today I am praying for courage. Courage to really open myself up and ask God to show me how I need to change so that I can become more like Him.

GMG Week 3 Reflection

2011-10-09T18:12:00.000-07:00

This week Good Morning Girls studied 1 John 2:1-11:

"My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have and Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked. Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard. One the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining. The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes."

About a year and a half ago I was really blindsided and hurt by someone I considered to be a very close friend. I don't know why this person did what they did because after hours and days and months of racking my brain about what I did to her to make her dislike me so much that she would hurt me in the way that she did, I still haven't come up with anything. I never confronted her about it (I hate confrontation) and just backed away from the friendship. I never betrayed her trust, but when others asked me what happened, in my hurt and confusion, I would relay my side of the story. I am not particularly proud of how I handled that situation. When it all happened I was physically tense for days, emotionally tense for months, and even up until this week, over a year later, when I thought about this person or came across a picture of us, my heart would seize with hurt. I didn't necessarily want bad things to happen to her, but I certainly didn't want good things to happen to her.

I obviously tried my best to "get over it" and forgive her because I of course didn't enjoy the bitter feelings and hurt I experienced every time I was reminded of the her. With time my emotions about the situation became a little less intense. And with an overseas move (away from many of the things that reminded me of her) I thought of her less and less and thus the hurt, anger, and resentment would stay at bay more and more to the point where I thought I was "over it." But when I recently learned of her pregnancy (which would definitely be in the good-things-happening-to-her category) the familiar resentful feelings returned. I was completely incapable of forgiving this girl by my own power, the hurt was too deep.

However, this week I've been studying 1 John with the Good Morning Girls and in the passage I studied this week John says that one of the key evidences of true faith is keeping God's commandments. These commandments actually boil down to one ~simple~ task: love. If I love someone I will not slander them, I will not lie to them, I will not intentionally bring harm to them in any way. In this way, "love covers a multitude of sins" 1 Peter 4:8. If I love someone, I will desire good things for them, help to bring about good things for them, and rejoice when good things happen to them. I say this is "simple" but loving is not always so simple after all. It is easy to love our friends, but much more difficult to love those that hate us and intentionally hurt us. This kind of love, love for those who hate us, is the kind that is only supernaturally possible. And thus, this kind of love is evidence of salvation because it represents God's power working in our life.

I don't know what brought my old friend to mind this week while I was at the gym in a spinning class, but her pregnancy popped into my head during a particularly intense hill climb (the kind where you think your body can't possibly push any further, but then you turn up the resistance and your body does indeed push further) and without even thinking about it, I was genuinely happy for her. These sentiments caught me off guard because I was not use to feeling that way about her. I know for a fact that it was not of my own will that I was able to get to this place of love for her. And I thank God for letting me struggle with this issue for as long as I have just to make His magnificent power abundantly clear to me when He finally decided to use the verses in 1 John that I studied this week to change my heart to be more like His in regards to my old friend. To God be the glory for relieving me of my bitterness and replacing it with His love!

GMG Week 2 Reflection

2011-10-01T15:29:00.006-07:00

This week the Good Morning Girls studied 1 John 1:5-10.

"This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us." (NASB)

Confession... Sometimes I like living in the darkness. I want to cover up those parts of my character that I am not proud of. I like not having the accountability of the light exposing some of my thoughts and deeds. But God is light, and I want to be near Him, I want to become more like Him. So I am challenged this week to leave the "comfort" of hiding in the darkness.

I am reminded of a silly little habit of my sister's. My gorgeous sister Megan only wants to have her picture taken on her "good side." If we are posing for a photo and she realizes that her body is angled such that her "bad side" is facing the camera she will hurriedly reorganize everyone or strike some awkward pose so that only her "good side" is showing. This habit cracks me up because in all honesty, my sister doesn't have a "bad side" and no one understands this silly little quirk of hers! But when the topic of living in the light comes up I feel kind of like my sister, scrambling to get into position so that the light shines on my good qualities, while those aspects of my character that I am ashamed of stay hidden in the shadows.

God is Light. And just like when we turn on the lights in a dark room, the light exposes the room for what it is; when I let the word of God shine on my life, I am exposed for who I am. And the truth is, I am just a sinner and there are things about me that I would rather not show off. In fact, there are things about me that I don't even want to think about or deal with myself.

But, if I choose to hide part of myself in darkness I cannot have true fellowship with God or others. One of the things I love about my marriage is that I feel like my husband knows me really well. He knows my faults probably better than anyone and he still chooses to love me. The "full disclosure" between my husband and myself is one of the reasons I feel like we have such a close relationship. I don't have to hide those parts of myself I am ashamed of because I am worried he won't love me, because he already knows those parts of me and has proven his faithfulness and love despite those things (side note: what an awesome example of how marriage reflects Christ's love for the church!).

I don't just want to have authentic fellowship with my husband though. As amazing as he is, he doesn't fulfill every relational need I have. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I fully believe we were created for community, and that includes people outside of my little family! Which reminds me of my high school small group. Starting out our group didn't know each other that well and we were somewhat awkward together, offering safe cookie cutter answers to discussion questions, until one courageous girl confessed to cheating on a test at school. The vulnerability that she showed making that confession spread around the group and we all began to open up to each other and really pull into a deep fellowship with one another. And to this day, that time in my life was one of the most intense times of spiritual growth for me and I contribute much of that growth to my experience in that small group. An experience which would not have been the same if we had not allowed the light to shine on our shortcomings and supported each other in allowing Christ to overcome those sins in our lives.

It is extremely scary to open up to others and allow parts of you to show that you aren't necessarily proud of. It takes a lot of courage because the possibility of harsh judgement and rejection is always a concern (at least for me). And I do think that it is wise to be discerning about who we choose to be vulnerable with, but that is a whole 'nother can of worms. However, in my experience, opening up to others generally comes with great blessing, like the experience of true fellowship!

Furthermore, God promises to forgive me and cleanse me from my sins when I walk in the light and own up to my shortcomings. I think it is significant to note that in this passage walking in the light (verse 7) and confessing (verse 9) precede forgiveness. I have to acknowledge my shortcomings before God will forgive me and cleanse me from them.

I regularly acknowledge that I am a sinner and ask for God's forgiveness which I think is probably minimally sufficient. But I know I would learn so much more if I were to be more specific in my requests for forgiveness. Sometimes I (very wrongly) think, "well, actually I've been pretty good lately... I can't really think of anything specific to ask forgiveness for... but I know I'm not perfect so I'll just ask for a 'blanket' of forgiveness anyway." And oh boy was verse 10 convicting for times like those! When I start feeling like "I can't really think of any sins" it most likely means that His word is not in me. Because guaranteed, when I spend time reading the word of God, I am always humbled and reminded of my utter dependence on His faithfulness and righteousness to forgive me!

So my goal for this week is to be intentional about walking in the light! I hope you'll join me so we can both experience true fellowship and God's gracious forgiveness.

GMG Week 1 Reflection

2011-09-26T10:51:00.006-07:00

A good friend from our small group in Charleston recently shared a blog that was helping her with her quiet times and after checking it out I thought it would also be helpful to me too. So I've started studying 1 John with the Good Morning Girls group. One of the things the group encourages is for participants to blog about what they are learning through the study, so here goes!

Week 1: 1 John 1:1-4 (NASB)

"What was from the beginning what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the Word of Life-- and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us-- what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and His Son Jesus Christ. These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete."

Two things stuck out to me this week as I studied these verses:

1) The author makes a big deal out of his personal experience with Jesus. He was not just relaying stories he heard from someone else. He had first hand experience with Jesus. We too can have first hand experience with Jesus! That is what the author here is inviting us to- into fellowship with the Word of Life, the One who spoke all of creation into existence, the Savior of our souls.

I feel like I can get into a spiritual rut where I rely on other people (our pastor, our small group leader, my mentor, etc) to teach me about Jesus. Just last week I was complaining to my girlfriends that I was really missing our church in Hawaii because I felt like I was really learning and continually being challenged by the messages our pastor in Hawaii would give and how I didn't really get that at our church here. And as I was complaining it dawned on me again (this is one of those lessons that I have to re-learn every so often because I'm kinda dense) that I am the one responsible for my relationship with God, and I am perfectly capable of studying His Word myself, but I have just been lazy lately and just wanted to rely on someone else to tell me.

The problem is that no matter how wonderfully crafted and powerful a sermon is, listen to someone else talk about what they have learned in their relationship with God is not the same as experiencing that relationship for yourself. It would be ridiculous for me to rely on a mutual friend to tell me what is going on with husband rather than spending time with him myself. It would even be ridiculous to rely on a mutual friend to tell me how another friend is doing when I could just speak with that friend myself. Those relationships would eventually die if that is how I treated them. But sometimes that is how I treat God. Thank goodness for His faithfulness even when I do not invest in our relationship like I should!

2) We are created for community. Community including God and other people. God creates us with this need for one another. Whether you are a Christian or not, everyone feels it. No one wants to be alone. We all want to share at least some part of our lives with other people. I believe it is even more than that, I believe we were all created with a deep longing and need for a relationship with God, whether we recognize it as such or not.

When something good happens, when we achieve a goal, or when we find a really good deal on something we've been wanting for awhile (girls, you know what I'm talking about!) we have the urge to share it with someone. When we get a new job or a promotion we celebrate by going out with our spouse or our friends. When we get married we throw a big party known as a wedding. When a new baby is on the way we have a baby shower. Just the other day one of my girlfriends was excited to show me a darling little outfit she had just gotten to bring her baby home from the hospital in a few weeks from now. Big things, little things, they are more fun and exciting when we can share them. Which is exactly what the author of 1 John meant when he said "these things we write, so that our joy may be made complete."

Meeting Jesus and having a relationship with Him is a big deal. It is life changing for those of us who know Him. It is natural to share that joy with others. We were created to be in community with one another and to share our joys and struggles. For me, it is so helpful to have other women who share my faith that are willing to listen to all of my triumphs and trials related to faith or not. I need their support and perspective and wisdom.

Personally, I am so incredibly grateful for the wonderful women in my small group. We get together at least twice a week. Once with all our husbands and kids for an actual planned "small group meeting" in which we study the Bible or discuss a book. And then the ladies get together every Sunday afternoon for Vietnamese Pho at this little restaurant in our town. We are generally there for a good four hours and we talk about everything under the sun- our marriages, motherhood, our dreams, our fears, what we are learning, how we are failing, my fear of Hawaiian centipedes... I always leave our weekly Pho dates rejuvenated, encouraged, and often challenged.

It amazes me how God created us to need one another. My relationships with my family and friends are the most cherished things I have in life. My joy is complete when I spend time sharing life with those I love.

2011-09-20T18:42:00.006-07:00

beauty. noun. the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind.

Today was an incredibly gorgeous day in Monterey so we drove down the Pacific coast highway into Big Sur to do a short hike Sam's been wanting to do for a long time where you can see a waterfall spilling out onto an unspoiled beach. Driving the 30 miles down to the trail was a gorgeous drive. Despite the beautiful sunny weather, along parts of the coast there was a thick layer of fog over the ocean that sometimes creeped up the sea cliffs and over Route 1. Looking down at the ocean you couldn't see any hint of the water in certain areas and it reminded me of driving through the mountains in Ecuador when you were up so high that you looked down at the tops of the clouds. It was beautiful. However, during those patches of highway where the fog had creeped up over the road and it was so thick you could barely see the next curve in the road, it didn't seem so beautiful. In fact, the fog was so thick at our destination we weren't able to see the waterfall at all! What a bummer!

The fog was both beautiful and dreary depending on our perspective. Inside the fog it was dreary and bleak. It seemed like the fog was hiding the natural beauty of the landscape. But above the fog, the fog itself was beautiful and mysterious appearing to have a life of it's own as it climbed up the sea cliffs and drifted into the crevices of the landscape.

It got me thinking about life. Sometimes as a stay-at-home mom I feel like my life is about as beautiful as living inside the fog. I do laundry, go to the grocery store, change diapers, walk the dogs, clean the kitchen, and a bunch of other monotonous, less-than-exciting daily tasks. But with a little change of perspective I realize that my life is so incredibly beautiful and blessed. I get to see my son smile, and I get to be there for every "first," and I get to watch him learn and grow and explore his ever expanding world. I get to read to him, sing with him, and dance with him on a daily basis. When I think about my life in those terms I can't imagine a more beautiful life!

On the way back up to Monterey the fog had burned up enough for us to stop at a beautiful beach and stretch a little. Doesn't get much more beautiful than this little guy's smile when he's hangin with his dad!

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

2011-09-19T20:33:00.005-07:00

... that is what Morgan Belle Kirkpatrick is made of!

I had the privilege of throwing a baby shower for my sweet friend Lauren who is expecting her very first little bundle of joy. I was so thrilled to host her shower, not only because I love Lauren but also because she is having a precious little girl so I could go all out girlie! I had a blast planning, prepping, and hosting this shower.

The theme was sugar and spice. So in keeping with the theme we played "Guess the Spice" which was more difficult than originally planned thanks to my husband who thought my original spice selections were too easy and took it upon himself to make things a little more challenging... median score was 3/8 correct- thanks babe!

We had a yummy vegetarian lunch complete with pink lemonade, pink frosted strawberry buttercream and vanilla cupcakes and pink frosted sugar cookies. And since I knew my guests were all creative ladies I planned a fun craft of decorating onesies for little MBK with fabric appliques. It was really special because even though some friends couldn't attend the shower, they were still able to contribute by making onesies that I had hanging as decoration and examples. And we had another friend skype in from across the country!

Even big sister, Elle, Lauren's sweet pup, joined in on the fun! And our friend's adorable daughter helped Lauren unwrap Morgan Belle's presents :-)

It was such a fun day and we all just can't wait to meet little miss Morgan Belle in a few short weeks!

Meet Sarah: Inspiration for a healthy lifestyle

2011-09-10T12:58:00.004-07:00

I'd like to introduce you to my good friend Sarah. Sarah is the kind of woman that women would love to hate- blonde bombshell that looks like a Victoria's Secret model- except that after meeting the friendly, unassuming Sarah who doesn't have an ounce of pretentiousness in her, you can't help but adore her!

I met Sarah a little over a year and a half ago at a Superbowl party. Her husband had just gotten assigned to Sam's submarine and this was their first wardroom get together. She showed up in a Ravens jersey and I just knew we would be good friends:-P We bonded over our childlessness (wives without children were a rarity in our wardroom), our mutual love for our dogs, Navy and Ravens football, sunshine, beautiful Hawaiian beaches, and all things Maryland.

Ours was a friendship meant to be. I have been, and continue to be, so inspired by Sarah. She is one of the few people who isn't completely bored with my obsession with The Omnivore's Dilemma and I've really enjoyed discussing health and nutrition with her many times. My idea of "the vegan experiment" is due to her influence because though she was already a vegetarian, she also went vegan for a month and then accidentally became one.

Recently Sarah blogged about becoming a vegan (she refers to it as her accidental lifestyle change) and her story is so powerful and touching I really encourage you to read it and even share it. Despite Sarah's stunning looks, she has struggled with self image and eating healthy. Now she is a completely happy vegan! But don't let me spoil her story... check it out for yourself at Blonde at the Beach Blog.

Thanks Sarah for making yourself so vulnerable to share your story in order to inspire and motivate others to pursue a healthy lifestyle! I'm so proud to have you as a friend and am grateful for your influence to get me to try veganism without your even knowing it:-P

Accidentally almost Vegan

2011-09-08T09:33:00.004-07:00

If you keep up with my blog at all you know that a few months ago I tried a "vegan experiment" in which for a month I cooked and ate vegan for dinner. My motivations for the experiment were many, but mainly to break some unhealthy food addictions and to incorporate more veggies into my diet. I never intended to continue eating a plant-based (ie. vegan) diet after the experiment was complete but I more or less have. I've been meaning to blog about my motivations for continuing this way of life for awhile now but the task just seemed overwhelming. But my recently-vegan girlfriend Sarah, just published an inspiring blog post about her reasons for sticking with her vegan lifestyle which also started out as a month-long experiment and has thus inspired me to do the same!

First, for a little bit of history. A little over a year ago I finally read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, a book that was recommended to me five years ago when I was writing a research paper on the health benefits of eating organic. The book totally opened my eyes to the disaster that the American food system is and immediately lead me to change certain things in my diet, mainly switching to organic milk, cutting out most processed foods, and intentions of switching to free-range, organic meats. (I lived in Hawaii at the time so it was difficult to find free-range, organic meat.) That book planted the seed in me that something was drastically wrong with the way we eat (at least regarding the way we go about farming the food we eat). But, I wasn't ready to completely overhaul the eating habits I'd been developing since childhood, such as drinking lots of "healthy" calcium-rich skim milk and cheese, and eating lots of "healthy" lean meat, and consuming "healthy protein" in eggs. Plus The Omnivore's Dilemma didn't even suggest how to change eating habits based on the information in the book and certainly didn't push a vegetarian or vegan diet. So I just let the knowledge that I had gained just simmer in the back of my mind while I went on with life.

After having my son in December of 2010, cooking and meal planning got a lot more hectic. Trying to plan, shop for, and cook well-balanced meals with a newborn who demanded constant attention while also attempting to complete the last term of my graduate degree and train for a couple of half marathons was difficult to say the least. So I found that we would typically end up eating something very simple, like a grilled piece of meat, or a simple pasta dish, and I would not have time to get around to rounding out the meal with nutritious vegetable side dishes. I would routinely eat cheese and crackers for lunch because it required no time or effort on my part. I knew for a fact that this hap-hazard way of eating was not healthy and at the time I remembered my friend Sarah saying that she was going vegan for a month and thought that sounded like a pretty good idea to help me get out of my eating rut. But, I didn't think I could go totally vegan, so I just went vegan for dinner and tried a new vegan recipe every night.

At first it was hard. Vegan food doesn't taste the same as the food I was used to- duh! It took a couple of weeks for my taste buds to adjust to more subtle, less rich flavors. But once they did, I actually started enjoying the food I was making full of whole grains and vegetables. Some of the immediate results were surprising to me. I consistently felt full longer. As a breast-feeding mom I would frequently wake up at 3am starving but that stopped immediately when I started eating vegan for dinner even though I wasn't consuming any greater volume of food and in fact was consuming significantly less calories. My vegan dinner even fueled me enough to get through an hour of exercise in the morning before breakfast! I also use to have a problem with frequent headaches which resolved itself immediately.

Other results were slightly more gradual but just as wonderful. I found that after the first couple of weeks I very rarely had food cravings. Previously I would crave a certain food despite not actually being hungry and now I feel satisfied when I'm full without the constant draw to return to the pantry. My complexion also improved (even more so once I eventually completely gave up milk and cheese). And the last few pounds of baby fat came off even though I was still eating tons of carbs and routinely baking yummy vegan desserts!

Due to these surprisingly noticeable results I was interested to learn more about a plant based diet. I also came across a blog a friend of mine had shared titled "I have cancer. And I've never felt better." which regards a cancer patient's transition to a plant based diet and how it has completely halted the spread of cancer and has her feeling great. This had me intrigued to further research the health benefits of a vegan lifestyle. My friend Sarah recommended to me the book Veganist by Kathy Freston which, among other things, outlines the research that has been done regarding the impact of a vegan diet on health. Coming from the perspective of someone who fully believed in the merit of dairy and lean meats, the results of the research I was reading about was mind-blowing to me.

I read Veganist on the plane on the way to and from a summer vacation in Italy. This vacation occurred right after I had finished my month-long "vegan experiment" and though I was still attempting to incorporate some of the things I'd learned during that month, I was pretty much back to my omnivorous ways due to eating out every meal. I was acutely aware of how much worse my body felt after eating what most would consider a "healthy" meal. And that awareness of how what I put in my body affects how I feel, coupled with the knowledge I'd gained from reading The Omnivore's Dilemma and Veganist was enough to put me back on the path to becoming a vegan.

Now I am not totally vegan. I still eat meat and dairy when I go out to eat and if I am at other people's homes. I still want to be able to enjoy traditional holiday foods and family recipes on occasion so I have no intention of becoming a total vegan. But in my everyday life I am choosing a plant-based diet and couldn't be happier about it! For me, the key is to never "forbid" myself from having something. If I really want something that has cheese on it, I'll eat it. The difference is that now I am not addicted to cheese so having a little bit does not make me crave more. I look at animal products how I look at cake, having some now and then isn't bad, it just shouldn't be a main staple of my diet.

People ask me all the time why I changed and there are too many reasons to explain, but it can be summed up in these three points:

1) I feel so much better and healthier when I stick to a plant-based diet

2) The myriad of proven health benefits associated with a plant-based diet

2) I do not want to support the meat and dairy industry (side note: I am okay with killing animals for food... but I'm not okay with abusing them their entire lives.)

I hope this post helps any of you that are interested understand more about why I've chosen to become *mostly* vegan. I know my family is baffled by, and even initially annoyed by, this choice, but I can't ignore everything that I've learned and what my own body is telling me. If anyone reading this is interested in learning more, I highly recommend the books I've mentioned and I'd be happy to pass along some good cookbook and vegan product recommendations as well.

Vegetable Galette #2

2011-08-16T21:12:00.003-07:00

So, this recipe is pretty much an exact copy of my favorite farmer's market galette that I fell I love with months ago except better according to my husband (who is my biggest cooking critic). So enjoy:)

Crust:

1 1/3 cups white whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter flavored crisco

4 Tbsp cold water

Measure flour and salt into a bowl. Cut in shortening thoroughly. Sprinkle in water, 1 Tbsp at a time, mixing until flour is moistened and dough almost cleans the side of the bowl (1-2 Tbsp water can be added if needed). Form dough into a ball, flatten, roll out on a floured surface. Place in a quiche or tart pan and trim off excess. Set aside (cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate to keep from drying out if filling isn't ready yet).

Filling:

3 cups butternut squash, cubed

4 carrots, peeled, chopped

1 sweet onion, chopped

12 oz spinach

8 oz ricotta

1 large tomato, sliced

oregano

salt & pepper

olive oil

Put squash, carrots, and onion on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and oregano and bake at 400 degrees for 35-45 minutes stirring every 10 minutes till veggies are soft. Steam and drain spinach. Mix half the ricotta with the spinach.

Layer spinach mixture, butternut squash, carrots, and onions in the crust. Dab the rest of the ricotta on top and then lay the tomato slices on top and top with additional salt, pepper, and oregano.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, and then 350 for an additional 30 minutes.

This is great reheated too:)

Vegan Baltimore Peach Cake

2011-07-28T16:17:00.003-07:00

Peaches. Fresh, ripe, juicy peaches are my favorite food in the whole world. I buy 5 pounds of them every single week during the summer at the farmer's market and I eat almost every single one before time to go back to the farmer's market a week later. Sam probably doesn't even realize this, but it is one of the most sacrificial acts of love when I offer him one of my sweet, juicy, golden balls of pure joy and deliciousness!

Lately I've been having a hankering for a recipe my mom-mom used to make. The trouble is, I didn't know what it was called, and even if I did, I don't have her recipe and sadly my mom-mom isn't around anymore to ask. (Although I did send a message to my Aunt to see if she has the recipe… which I now notice she replied to after I already made my own version... next time!)

Here's the thing, my mom-mom is a great cook! It is a wonder that her four children didn't weigh 500 pounds while living in her house. I remember making the drive up to mom-mom's house in Towson, just outside of Baltimore, MD, as a kid. It seemed like the 3-4 hour drive from my childhood home in VA took fooooorever, but I always knew that no matter what hour we arrived there would be delicious treats awaiting us- because that is what good grandmothers do!

And so, this week, staring at my pile of peaches wondering what to do with them all I was transported back to my mom-mom's Towson kitchen and all the wonderful memories I have associated with that kitchen and my mom-mom. The memories and emotions we attach to food are so incredible, aren't they? I remember not only the peach cake thing-y, but standing on a stool so I could reach the counter with a giant apron on sifting flour for whatever delicious concoction my mom-mom was cooking up. One thing I do not remember is ever feeling like I was in the way, which I am sure that I was, but my mom-mom so delighted in her grandchildren that even if we were making a huge mess and slowing her down, she was always happy to have us in her kitchen "helping."

I think this emotional connection to food from my past is one of the more difficult things about transitioning to vegan cooking. It's one thing to give up meat, it's another to give up my mom-mom's roulade or Sam's grandm

om's german sour beef. So when I stumbled upon a recipe for "Baltimore Peach Cake" online that seemed quite similar to the "peach cake thing-y" I remember my Baltimorean mom-mom making, I decided to try my hand at converting it to vegan (as well as making a few other adjustments to suit my tastes). And I must say, I am delighted at the results! First of all, you'd never know it's vegan, and if you're an omnivore, feel free to use butter instead of vegan margarine and milk instead of almond milk if that is what you have on hand (though I doubt it will improve the results).

Molly's Vegan B-more Peach Cake

1 Tbsp vegan margarine (Earth Balance vegan buttery spread), softened

2 1/2 cups unbleached white whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups almond milk

1 cup sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup sugar mixed with 1 tsp cinnamon

2 Tbsp vegan margarine, melted

3-4 peaches, peeled and sliced

Preheat over to 350. Mix first 6 ingredients. Spread in a greased 15"x10" jelly roll pan. Sprinkle with half the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Arrange peach slices in rows. Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon/sugar mixture and drizzle melted margarine over all. Bake 25-30 minutes.

Enjoy!

A geometry teacher's musings on CS Lewis's discussion of reasoning

2011-07-25T22:03:00.004-07:00

Disclaimer: I'm a nerd. This post is just proof.

Our small group is reading CS Lewis's book, "The Weight of Glory" which is a compilation of various lectures he had given during WWII. The lecture we will discuss this week is titled "Why I am not a pacifist" which has very little to do with why it has me so excited but is very interesting considering all of the men in our small group are active duty military. ANYWAY, there is a wonderful discussion of reasoning that has the geometry teacher in me all excited. I am blogging about it now so that in the future if I ever return to teaching, I will remember this! (I wonder if I could make my students read CS Lewis in geometry class? hum...)

Lewis says that there are 3 elements of reasoning:

1) The reception of facts via either experience or authority

2) Intuition (perceiving self-evident truth)

3) The skill of arranging facts to yield a series of intuitions which produce a proof of truth or falsehood

I am particularly interested in #3 considering my graduate thesis is a formative evaluation of an instructional unit I created on proving geometric theorems which is possibly my favorite topic in all of math (and one of the most important topics in all of education IMHO...).

I LOVE the following quote:

"Thus in a geometrical proof each step is seen by intuition, and to fail to see it is to be not a bad geometrician but an idiot." (excuse me, but LOL! wouldn't I love to say this to my students sometimes? I'd probably be fired...) "The skill comes in arranging the material into a series of intuitable 'steps.' Failure to do this does not mean idiocy, but only lack of ingenuity or invention. Failure to follow it need not mean idiocy, but either inattention or a defect of memory which forbids us to hold all the intuitions together."

I personally can empathize with the defect of memory making it difficult to hold all the intuitions together. I guess I have my ADD to thank for that. But I so enjoy the process of untangling logic that once seemed jumbled and confusing in my head.

Furthermore, Lewis notes that corrections of errors in reasoning are corrections of either the 1st or 3rd element of reasoning because the 2nd element (intuition) cannot be corrected, nor supplied if lacking. At first thought, this was a depressing idea to me. I spent a considerable amount of time during my graduate research trying to uncover how to successfully develop deductive reasoning skills in students and to read someone so logically brilliant as CS Lewis claim that logical intuition cannot be taught was initially somewhat disheartening. Except that he follows it up by noting that it is extremely rare for intuition to truly be lacking, which brings me to the next quote I want to store for use with future students:

"Every teacher knows that people are constantly protesting that they 'can't see' some self-evident inference, but the supposed inability is usually a refusal to see, resulting either from some passion which wants not to see the truth in question or else from sloth which does not want to think at all." [emphasis mine]

Yes! One of the most frustrating things as a teacher is the inability to make a student "see" something that is self-evident (i.e. obvious)! And I couldn't agree more with Lewis' statement attributing the problem to sloth! I know that at times I have claimed not to understand something when really, I just didn't care to put in the necessary effort to exercise my brain to work hard enough to understand it.

This may seem like a nasty thing to say to a student, like something a lazy teacher who doesn't want to take responsibility for their student's success would say... but I actually kind of find this idea hopeful. Hopefully because it means that people most likely DO have the ability to understand logic if they are motivated to try. So my objective as a teacher is not so much to impart logical ability to my students as it is to motivate them to utilize the God-given logical reasoning they already have.

My very own vegetable galette recipe!

2011-07-18T21:28:00.002-07:00

If you've been following my blog through the "vegan experiment" then you've likely noticed that I have a slight addiction to these vegetable "pies" (which I learned are actually "galettes"- technically...) from Sweet Elena's booth at the farmer's market. I've been meaning for ages to try to replicate them at home and finally got around to my first attempt today. None of the recipes I found online where really what I wanted so I made my own! Which is a big deal for me because I am a shameless copycat and not really creative at all! Anyway, this didn't turn out exactly like the farmer's market one because I omitted the feta, used yellow onions instead of green onions, added mushrooms, and omitted the tomato because we were out, and I still don't know how to make the crust exactly the same... But despite all that, Sam likes my galette better! I don't know that I like it better or worse, it is just different. But very, very good and will definitely become a staple recipe for us. So without further ado...

Molly's Vegetable Galette:

Crust:

1 1/4 cups unbleached white whole wheat flour (I'm sure you could use all purpose)

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

6 tbsp chilled unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1/4 cup all-vegetable shortening

3-4 tbsp ice cold water

Combine flour, salt, and sugar in food processor with 2 pulses. Add butter cubes and pulse. Add shortening in tablespoonful clumps and pulse. Drizzle 3 tbsp water and pulse. If dough holds together well when pinched, it is done, if not, add more ice water. Form into a disc and refrigerate for an hour. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface till it is large enough to fill a pie plate. Lay in pie plate and cut off excess. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes, remove from oven, layer with filling, and return to oven at 350 for 30 minutes.

Filling:

Butternut squash, peeled, seeded, cubed

Yellow onion, peeled, roughly chopped

4 carrots, peeled, roughly chopped

box of brown mushrooms

6 cups spinach

2 tbsp butter

olive oil

oregano

salt and pepper

grated parmesan

Place butternut squash cubes, onion, and carrots on a baking sheet. Drizzle of oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and oregano. Bake at 400 for 35 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes till veggies are soft. Saute spinach in butter till just wilted. Saute mushrooms in butter till just cooked. In partially cooked pie shell layer spinach, grate parmesan over spinach, then butternut squash, onions, carrots, and mushrooms and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

The great thing about this recipe is that you can use whatever veggies that are in season or that you prefer, and you can add whatever herbs or spices you like. So try it with your favorite veggies and spices and let me know what good combos you come up with!

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream

2011-07-18T20:34:00.002-07:00

There are two types of people in the world, those who eat the cupcake for the cake and those who eat the cupcake for the frosting. Until I came upon this tasty little cake I was definitely the later and now I am teetering on the edge of becoming a cake person! Yes, this vanilla bean cake is THAT good!

I came upon this combo while testing recipes for a baby shower that I am throwing for a friend, and fellow buttercream-lover, in a couple months. She is having a sweet little girl so I needed something sweet and PINK to bake! And I couldn't think of anything more delicious than the strawberry buttercream filling of our wedding cake which I've never been able to replicate. But with the new knowledge I learned from the oreo buttercream I recently posted about I knew what to look for in a good buttercream recipe (cooking egg whites with sugar and creaming them with butter, NO powdered sugar). Anyway, while searching for an acceptable strawberry buttercream I came across this vanilla bean cake recipe that sounded tempting. I did not try the strawberry buttercream that accompanies the cake recipe because it uses powdered sugar which makes buttercream sickeningly sweet in my opinion so I kept searching and found a Martha Stewart strawberry buttercream recipe that meet my approval.

Vanilla Bean Cake (did NOT use this icing recipe):

http://www.sophistimom.com/vanilla-bean-cupcakes-with-strawberry-buttercream/

Strawberry Buttercream:

http://www.marthastewart.com/314981/strawberry-buttercream

The cake is fluffy and moist, the kind of moist I've only previously achieved with store-bought cake mixes, and the vanilla flavor is incredible. The strawberry buttercream is slightly tart, very light and creamy, and tasted just like fresh, ripe, strawberries- just like our wedding cake! Even Sam, who is definitely not a cake (or frosting) person, loved them!

How to throw an awesome croquet party...

2011-06-15T21:42:00.004-07:00

Step 1: Find friends that own a croquet set

Step 2: Force all your friends to dress up 20's style

Step 3: Make lots of cute finger foods for munching

Step 4: Break out the champagne!

This idea was a tribute to the annual 20's style USNA vs. St John's croquet match. I love any excuse to get our friends together and play games and eat good food and thought this would be a fun, slightly different event. Of course I picked a date in June so that it would be nice and warm for an outdoor event, but thanks to the "awesome" Monterey weather, it was actually freezing! But look what good sports our friends were to come and dress up so adorable despite the chill!
The Menu:

Deviled Eggs

http://www.pamperedchef.com/our_products/recipesearch/recipedetail.jsp?recipeId=37001

Savory Blue Cranberry Shortbread w/ Caramelized Onion Cranberry Jam

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/savory-blue-cranberry-shortbread-with-caramelized-onion-cranberry-jam/detail.aspx

Turkey Club Pinwheels

*my own recipe: italian seasoned "flatout" wraps with spreadable garlic and herb cheese, topped with oven roasted turkey deli meat, lettuce, tomato, and bacon, rolled up and sliced into pinwheels

Filo Cups with Chocolate Mousse and Olallie berries

Filo cups: 4-5 sheets of filo dough with melted butter and sugar between each layer, cut into small squares and baked in a mini muffin tin 12 mins till light brown

Chocolate Mousse: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/chocolate-mousse-recipe/index.html

Olallie berries: raspberry/blackberry hybrid berry from the farmer's market

Red Velvet Mini Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream

Red Velvet:http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/grandmother-pauls-red-velvet-cake-recipe/index.html

Buttercream: adapted from the oreo buttercream in previous blog post (minus oreos, plus vanilla extract and 1 cup powdered sugar)

Cheese and Crackers!

Havarti w/ Dill

Baby Swiss

Assorted Water Crackers

Plus, yummy smoked salmon canapes, cucumber sandwiches, and egg salad finger sandwiches courtesy of my awesome friends! Yea... we had lots of food... it was yummy!

We'll definitely be doing this event again next year! Hopefully with better weather:-P

Oreo Cupcakes!

2011-06-12T11:53:00.003-07:00

For Valentine's Day Sam brought home this amazing Oreo cupcake from Ms. Delish's Bakery and since then I have been obsessed with Oreos. (Yes hubby, I am blaming you for my obsession!) I have bought Oreo cupcakes from Ms. Delish at the farmer's market more than once and at $3 a pop I figured I should just learn how to make them myself. The problem is, I'm an icing person and perfect buttercream icing has been an illusive challenge for me over the past 5 years (since I officially became obsessed with buttercream after tasting our wedding cake). And I'm of the opinion that if icing isn't buttercream, there is no point in even eating it. ANYWAY... I searched the internet for an Oreo cupcake recipe and found the following icing recipe on a food blog which I very slightly modified. I used a boxed Devil's food cake mix for the cupcakes and next time, if I have enough Oreos I will drop an Oreo in each cupcake before baking. I've made my own chocolate cupcakes before and somehow they never turn out as delicious as the box kind, so I just don't fight it anymore!

From myfoodaffair.blogspot.com
Oreo buttercream frosting (see note)
adapted from Nick Malgieri’s Perfect Cakes

4 large egg whites
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups of unsalted butter, softened
12 oreo cookies, coarsely crushed
6 oreo cookies, quartered for decoration

1. Whisk the egg whites and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer. Set the bowl over simmering water and whisk gently until the sugar is dissolved and the egg whites are hot (approximately 160 degrees).

2. Attach the bowl to the mixer and whip with the whisk on medium speed until cooled. Switch to the paddle and beat in the softened butter and continue beating until the buttercream is smooth. Stir in crushed Oreos.

Tip- you definitely need a candy thermometer to determine when the egg white have reached 160 degrees and are finished.

WARNING! This icing is daaaangerous! So good I could sit there and eat it with a spoon. Even Sam loved these cupcakes and he isn't a cake person at all. I think it is because there isn't loads of sugar in the icing so it isn't overly sweet. I did have to store the iced cupcakes in the refrigerator because due to the massive quantities of butter in the frosting, the frosting gets really soft if left out at room temperature.

Vegan fajitas & Sam's Favorite Vegan Soup

2011-06-12T11:35:00.003-07:00

Since my "experiment" ended I've still been cooking mostly vegan and we've come across a couple new recipes that are definitely worth sharing! Both of these are super simple and require very little work, but are "simply" delicious!

Vegan Fajitas

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Vegan-Fajitas/Detail.aspx

I love these fajitas! And they are extra awesome because you could really just use any veggies you have on hand or prefer and they would be just as good. I took the advice of one of the reviewers and added some lime juice to the marinade. They are great just like the recipe says but would also be good with a little more "heat" so next time I might add a packet of fajita seasoning while the veggies are sauteing. But maybe not, since they were so good anyway.

I think I even prefer these vegan fajitas to fajitas with meat because fajitas with meat are kind of hard to eat. At least for a very un-graceful eater like myself... I bite down and pull and entire piece of meat out of the fajita and have it hanging out of my mouth (pretty picture, right?). And I certainly didn't miss any taste, the marinade made them so flavorful. Will be making these again soon!

Sam's Favorite Vegan Soup:

Sweet Potato, Carrot, Apple & Red Lentil Soup

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sweet-Potato-Carrot-Apple-and-Red-Lentil-Soup/Detail.aspx

Yum Yum! Make this recipe vegan by substituting oil for the butter and leaving out the dairy topping- you won't miss it! I made this on our anniversary because we needed a quick dinner before we headed out to our church small group. It was soooo easy! And I got to use my immersion blender, which is always fun for me:) I used precooked lentils (they weren't "red" either) so I just added them 5 minutes before pureeing so they could just get warm but not overcook.

There isn't much more to say about this soup... it's really easy and really delicious. Sam loved it and it would be awesome on a cool fall day, which is pretty much what it feels like here in Monterey right now :-/

Camille's Awesome Veggie Enchiladas

2011-06-12T11:26:00.002-07:00

I promised to share this recipe once I got it so here it is!

Today is actually Camille's 27th birthday! So in honor of her b-day, I'm finally posting this:)

If you love tomatillos like I do, you definitely need to try this.

Stacked Vegetable Enchiladas with Tomatillo Sauce

1 pound tomatillos, husks removed and rinsed
1 medium white onion, sliced ¼-inch thick, divided
3 garlic cloves
2 serrano chiles, stemmed
2 tablespoons canola oil, divided
2 cups vegetable or chicken broth
½ cup Mexican crema (or creme fraiche or sour cream)
2 cups mushrooms (cremini are best, but any will work), cleaned, stems removed, and cut into ½-inch cubes
2 poblano peppers, diced into ½-inch cubes
1 ½ cups corn (fresh or frozen)
1 tsp cumin
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 handfuls spinach
10 corn tortillas
1 cup Cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese
Salt and Pepper

For Tomatillo Sauce:

Adjust oven racks to lower middle and upper middle positions and preheat broiler. Toss tomatillos, ½ onion, garlic, and serranos on large baking sheet and place in oven. Roast for four to five minutes, or until tomatillos soften and start to turn black. Flip everything over with pair of 12-inch tongs. Return to oven and cook for another four to five minutes. Some black is okay, but adjust vegetables if they simply start to burn. Remove and let cool. Adjust heat in oven to 400 degrees.

Transfer all contents on baking sheet to a blender or food processor. Process until smooth.

Pour 1 ½ tablespoons canola oil into large dutch oven set over medium-high heat. When hot, dump contents of blender in. It should immediately start to sizzle and bubble. Cook, stirring often with wooden spoon, until darker, about three minutes. Pour in broth and crema, turn heat to medium-low, and stir until mixture is smooth. Partially cover dutch oven, and simmer for 30 minutes. Season to taste with salt.

While sauce is simmering, toss ½ onion, mushrooms, poblano peppers, and corn with remaining oil, cumin and a pinch of salt. Roast for about 15 minutes, stirring halfway through to ensure even cooking.

Remove vegetables from oven, add to a bowl, mixing in black beans.

Spread 1/3 sauce in bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Add a layer of tortilla pieces to cover sauce. Top with ½ vegetable mixture, a handful of spinach and 1/3 cup cheese. Make a second layer with tortillas, 1/3 sauce, remaining vegetables, handful spinach and 1/3 cup cheese. Top with remaining tortillas, remaining sauce and remaining cheese.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly. Enjoy!

In case you don't already have an awesome guacamole recipe, Camille's guacamole is probably my favorite ever. I feel like there are so many guac recipes that are just mediocre, but this one is really great!

4 Haas Avocados, mashed
1-2 Jalapeños, ribs and seeds removed, diced small
1 tomato, seeded and diced
handful cilantro, chopped
1 lime, juiced
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne
salt to taste

Add the ingredients together, taste and add spices as necessary/desired.

A New Career! (kind of)

2011-06-06T12:52:00.002-07:00

I believe God created each of us with a purpose. I believe that purpose is to bring glory and honor to Him. And I believe He made each of us with certain gifts and abilities such that the way we bring glory and honor to Him will be uniquely personal.

For me, I am a teacher. There is no question about that calling in my life. Whether I am actually employed in the formal act of "teaching" is another question, but being a teacher is part of who I am, it is part of how God made me. I didn't always know this, but over the years it has become abundantly clear.

Every single job I have ever sought after has involved teaching. One of my first jobs was as a life guard and swim instructor. I have been a swimmer my entire life and it is a passion of mine. And... as most of you who know me can attest, I am passionate about sharing my passions! (Which I am sure can be down right annoying for some of you who have ever gotten me on a subject I am passionate about-haha!) I am also a "people-person" so teaching kids to swim was so much fun for me because I got to share something I loved with little people.

One of my most-loved jobs, which I worked at during the summers during college, was on the waterfront staff at a summer camp teaching sailing and waterskiing. When I showed up at camp I didn't know how to sail or waterski, but since I was already a lifeguard with an obvious affinity for the water, I learned, and then had the opportunity to teach my new skills all summer. There are few things more exhilarating than gliding across the glassy surface of the Chesapeake Bay, whether in a sailboat or standing on a thin strip of fiberglass. And it was such a joy to be a part of the moment a kid first gets up on skis and gets to experience that for the first time.

My first college degree was in youth ministry and Christian education, and during college I volunteered at a local church with the middle school ministry leading a small group of girls. I loved it! I felt like there was nothing more important that I could be sharing with others than a love for God and spending time in His Word learning to be more like the person He created us be. I interned full-time at the same church right after college before marrying into the military. Interning was a great experience but I realized that I spent more time in the office planning and managing programs and volunteers than I did with the students.

During my time following my new husband around for his career, I often worked as a substitute teacher and fell in love with secondary education. This led me to go back to school for my second degree in mathematics education. I then had the opportunity to teach at a few different schools when we were stationed in Hawaii for a couple of years. I felt like my life was complete. I loved my job. It required lots of time outside of "work" and was physically and emotionally exhausting at times but every moment I felt like I was doing what I was created to do.

Towards the end of our time in Hawaii we got pregnant with Quinn and then as soon as we arrived in California, he was born! And what a blessing he is! It is a privilege and a joy to be his mommy and I am so incredibly grateful for the opportunity to be a stay-at-home mom who gets to be part of every little milestone in my child's life. That said, I did have a bit of an identity crisis after he arrived because I just didn't know who I was if I wasn't a school teacher. God had to gently remind me that my identity does NOT come from my career, but from being a child of God. He had to remind me that my purpose in life is first and foremost to bring glory and honor to Him, and at this time in my life raising my child is the best way for me to bring glory and honor to Him.

Finally, this brings me to the new "career" that I am so excited about! I love being a stay-at-home mom and feel fulfilled in my role. And I am a bit of a group exercise fitness fanatic and still want to maintain a bit of 'myself' outside of being a mommy. So I am super excited to start training to be a TurboKick and PiYo instructor! This is the perfect balance for me at this time in my life. I get to combine my love of group-x fitness and my love of teaching, and it requires only minimal time away from Quinn (time that I already spend away from him anyway, because whether I am teaching or not, I still go to the gym).

I just ordered the home-study materials so I cannot wait to get them and get started! I've also spoken to the TurboKick instructors at my gym who say they are really in need of new instructors and that they will be happy to help me train by letting me team teach classes with them and will help with my audition when I am ready. I also know that my gym needs a new PiYo instructor after our most recent one left.

So here I am, almost (but not quite) done with my third degree (M.Ed. in Instructional Design) and I'm already starting the next thing... I think Sam was already taking bets on how long it would take me to start something new after finishing my Masters, but I bet none of you put your money on before I finished my Masters :-P

*PS- TurboKick is a high-intensity, choreographed, cardio kick-boxing class, and PiYo is a blend of pilates and yoga.

Day 26-31

2011-05-31T20:27:00.002-07:00

My final post regarding THE VEGAN EXPERIMENT!

Let me preface this by saying that even by my extremely lax definition of veganism, I totally failed my commitment in these last few days! Opps:( But, none the less, I have learned a lot and have created some new habits during this month.

Day 26: Potato & Garlic Soup

This recipe came from The Complete Vegan Cookbook and I will try to get a picture of it later to include because it was really good and extremely simple. I basically boiled potatoes, garlic, and seasonings in veggie broth and then pureed it. It was a little thick and turned out closer in consistency to mashed potatoes, but it was still really yummy and creamy (without any dairy) and had lots of flavor. I probably just didn't use enough broth (I didn't measure). The key is definitely to use a really full flavored broth or stock. I am in love with Trader's Joe's low sodium veggie broth, it is so much richer and flavorful than other varieties I've tried.

Day 27: Scott Hib's Whiskey Baby Back Ribs and Veggie Skewers

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/scott-hibbs-amazing-whisky-grilled-baby-back-ribs/Detail.aspx

Um yea, so thus begins my utter failure at any attempt of vegan eating... Sam had been talking about wanting ribs so I ate a vegan salad for lunch and ate vegan the rest of the day so we could have ribs for dinner. We had attempting ribs before and they never came out quite right but this recipe definitely hits the mark! The ribs were falling off the bones and the sauce was spicy with great flavor. Totally worth the rather ill feeling I experienced after eating so much meat when I hadn't had much at all over the past month...

In an attempt to still get our veggies in we grilled up some yummy veggie kabobs! Just sliced some mushrooms, zucchini, yellow squash, red pepper, and red onion and skewered them and grilled them! Deeeelicious! No seasoning or anything... perfect!

Day 28: Kalua Pork w/ Jasmine Rice and Veggie Skewers

I guess due to my failure on day 27 I figured it didn't matter anymore so I might as well just go all out... haha! Again, due to Sam's request, we made our favorite Hawaiian dish. Easiest and most delicious recipe ever! Take a pork butt and coat it in hawaiian sea salt and liquid smoke and put it in your crock pot on low in the morning. In the afternoon, drain and reserve the fat/juices and shred the pork (discarding any fat) and return to the crock pot with the juice (pour off the fat before returning juices to the pot) and let it warm until you're ready to serve. Tastes JUST like kalua pork from an imu, only without the gritty pieces of sand:)

We liked the veggie skewers from the night before so much that we made them again!

Day 29: Camille's Veggie Enchiladas

It was girl's night for the ladies in our small group and my girlfriend Camille made some awesome veggie enchilada's with spinach, mushrooms, beans, corn, and a yummy tomatillo sauce! She promised to share the recipe so when I get it, I'll pass it along:)

Day 30: Homemade Black Bean Veggie Burgers

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Homemade-Black-Bean-Veggie-Burgers/Detail.aspx

We had some fellow submariner friends over for a fun memorial day cookout and I made these burgers for me and my vegetarian friend. (More accurately, Sam made these burgers upon my my request while I made him apple pie!) They are really yummy! I didn't miss eating beef burgers at all. The comments on the website offer some good suggestions like freezing the burgers before grilling to help them hold together better. We doubled the recipe and did everything in the food processor. I still have half the burgers in the freezer for a quick, easy lunch or dinner when I don't feel like having to cook.

Day 31: Falafel Sandwich from the farmer's market

Yum yum, I love me some falafel! And no body does falafel like "Mr. Falafel and Hummus" at the Monterey farmer's market! I brought at sandwich home for Sam too and he loved it as well:) I've looked up falafel recipes so I can make it at home, but it's honestly just so cheap and so good at the farmer's market, I think it would probably cost more to buy all the ingredients and not likely taste as good!

And that concludes my Not-So-Vegan Experiment:)

Now, as for what I will take away from this...

I plan to continue eating pretty much as I have been throughout this experiment (i.e.- not exactly vegan, but a little stricter than vegetarian) because I feel fuller and healthier than before I began this. I thought I would really miss meat and cheese, but I don't. I now sometimes want a taste of meat, but a whole meal of meat is not appealing anymore. My new "plan" is to eat meat at most at one meal a day and the same for cheese. This way I can still enjoy our favorite recipes and foods, but still benefit from the vegan lifestyle as well.

I also plan to continue sharing good, healthy recipes via this blog because I know at least a few people have been trying some of these and enjoying them! I doubt I will post every, single meal I eat... but I promise to share some of the good ones:) And as always... please pass your good recipes on to me too!

Thanks to those who have been reading and offering encouragement and accountability along the way, especially my hubby who has been enduring my new cooking habits without any complaint:)

Day 23-25

2011-05-25T21:04:00.002-07:00

Day 23: White Bean, Kabocha, and Kale Soup

www.veganchef.com

It's official, I love veganchef.com! So far, the recipes I've found there have been consistently good. This dish was good and had a good amount of flavor which is sometimes something I find lacking in vegan food. I'd never had Kabocha squash before but it was really good, very sweet. Sam even liked this dish despite the lima beans (I couldn't find butter beans so I used limas, which Sam hates).

*Apple, Oatmeal, Raisin, and Walnut "Cookies"

www.veganchef.com

I wasn't really intending on making cookies but when Quinn is cranky he likes to sit in him bumbo and watch mommy cook, so we baked cookies to cheer him up:) I say "cookies" because these aren't really like cookies to me. They are more like little chewy granola bites. A nice completely healthy snack. And if you love any excuse to "play" with your food processor like I do, try these out.

Day 24: Veggie Pie from the farmer's market

*Honey Wheat & Oat Bread

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/honey-wheat-bread-ii/Detail.aspx

Again, this is not technically vegan because it has honey in it and no self-respecting vegan would condone the slaughter of innocent little bees to steel their honey... As I was contemplating this my hubby was running around the house with the fly swatter stalking the foolish flies that decided to swoop in during one of the countless time we open the back door to let Bella and Winston in and out (because they never seem to be happy about being stuck on whatever side of the door they are on...) and I was wondering if vegans are okay with killing flies? Because in my opinion flies are less evil than bees, I mean, bees sting! Anyway, needless to say, I am allowing myself ANOTHER exception with regards to honey. (You may be asking yourself, why does she even pretend to be eating vegan with all her "exceptions"? And you're right, I'm a total cheater!)

Anyway, this bread may be a little TOO good... just one day later and we are getting close to finishing off loaf #1 and unlike last week when I gave one of my two loaves away, you'd be lucky if I even offer you a slice if you come to my house! (JK, I'd totally let you try it!... maybe...) I doubled the honey as per the suggestions in the reviews. I also substituted 1 cup rolled oats for 1 cup white flour which I added to the wet ingredients first, before the whole wheat flour. So easy, so delicious, my mouth is watering just thinking about it!

Day 25: Indian Samosa Casserole

http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/11149

This recipe was a suggestion from a friend and it probably would have been better if I'd been more diligent about following directions :-/ After going to 2 stores, I couldn't find mustard seeds, so I just used ground mustard (but not as much). And I forgot to put the agave/sugar in:( Sooo, it turned out okay but kind of bland. I think if I'd followed the recipe properly it would have been better. One plus though, I put in a bunch on fresh peas from the farmers market and as much as I abhor peas (only put them in cos Sam likes them) I honestly kinda liked them in this (gasp!). Grateful for the recommendation, just wish I had not been such an airhead when cooking today!

Day 15-22

2011-05-22T20:35:00.002-07:00

Opps, it's been awhile and now I've got so many days to catch up on! This week has been a little crazy because we finally decided to try "cry it out" after Quinn has been waking more and more progressively over the past couple weeks. His night time routine is getting better now but I was a little stressed and sleep deprived this week so a couple of days meals didn't exactly go as planned.

Day 15: Homemade Sauceless Pizza with Vegan Dough and Eggplant Spread

http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=5701.0

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/roasted-eggplant-spread-recipe/index.html

Deeeelicious! The vegan pizza dough recipe couldn't have been simpler and it made a delicious thin, slightly crispy, slightly chewy, pizza crust. Instead of sauce, I brushed the half-cooked dough with olive oil, and sprinkled with garlic powder, and topped with fresh sliced tomatoes, fresh basil, and a tiny bit of mozzarella (yea yea... not exactly vegan...). It turned out great and I love the idea of eating a quick, easy, yummy pizza in which I control the ingredients so I know they are fresh, local, and organic, as opposed to my old lazy stand-by of frozen pizza.

As of the eggplant spread... let me start by saying, I hate eggplant and I don't care of red pepper either, the two main ingredients in this spread. At least I thought I did! A friend introduced me to this recipe at a dinner party she threw recently and I fell in love. It is the simplest thing to make too. Chop a few things up and roast them in the oven then toss everything in the food processor for a quick chop and wa-laa, a scrumptious spread! If you are not an eggplant lover, I highly recommend giving this recipe a try for a quick and delicious appetizer served with some pita chips:)

Day 16: Leftover Black Bean Chili with Butternut Squash (from Day 14)

*Green Smoothie:

I tried making a green smoothie for breakfast for the first time on Day 16 and yum yum yum! I've made several since and think it is such a wonderful, delicious way of getting those greens! I blended 2 cups baby spinach, 1/2 avocado, 1/2 cup frozen pineapple, frozen banana chunks, dash of ginger, and enough OJ to get it all moving. I couldn't taste the spinach or avocado at all:)

*Vegan 100% Whole Wheat Bread:

http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=12628.0

I am not a fan of store bought bread and I have been meaning to start baking my own for awhile but thought it would be difficult/time consuming. Furthermore, I didn't know you could make bread without eggs so I didn't know I had a vegan option. But I found this recipe and it was so easy and made really great bread! The kitchenaid mixer did all the work. I don't think I'll be buying bread for a long time now that I've discovered how easy and delicious homemade is!

Day 17: Veggie Pie from the Farmer's Market

Considering I buy and enjoy these pies every single week... I absolutely must learn to make them. Maybe I'll give it a shot this coming week, I think I've got all the ingredients down...

Day 18: Baja Black Bean Cakes with Sweet Potato Sauce

http://www.veganchef.com/

This is our favorite vegan recipe yet!!! So much flavor. All I can say about this is... yum! Vegan or not, this is a must-try! Would be excellent with fish:)

Day 19: Frozen Pizza :(

This was the day after the first night of "cry it out" when we got maybe 3 hours of sleep total... I had no energy to do anything and this was all I had in the freezer for an easy meal. Guess this is a lesson to have a back up vegan meal in the freezer... I am trying not to eat processed foods, vegan or not, so I haven't really explored vegan junk food because that would kind of defeat the purpose for me. But it would be simple to keep some of the black bean cakes I made on Day 18 in the freezer to cook on nights like this one.

Day 20: Mom's Favorite Salad

This is an old favorite, and is great with grilled chicken for you omnivore's out there:)

Romaine, sugar snap peas, sliced strawberries, mandarin orange slices, toasted walnuts, and red wine vinaigrette. I am one of those people who thinks lettuce is boring so I really load up on all the yummy toppings on this to make it a fruity, sweet, delicious salad! Also good with raspberry vinaigrette.

Day 21: Dinner with friends- Vegetarian Lasagna

Sam and I almost died from cheese overload Saturday! We went to lunch with friends at one of our favorite places in Carmel, The Forge in the Forest. On top of great food and a fabulous atmosphere, it is dog friendly, so it is the perfect spot for a delicious, sophisticated lunch after a doggie play date on Carmel beach (which is leash-free). And they have a swiss fondue bread bowl appetizer that is to die for! THEN, friends of ours made a delicious vegetarian lasagna for dinner also laden with yummy cheese. However, after eating very little cheese for the past 20 days, both our tummies were not too happy with us after a full day of delectable cheese dishes! As delicious as everything was, I was happy to get back to vegan cooking on day 22:)

Day 22: Roman Style Artichoke and Asparagus Bake served over Brown Jasmine Rice

http://www.veganchef.com/

For artichoke and asparagus lovers like us, this dish was a home-run! Very fast and easy too. Sam made the comment that it would be an excellent side for grilled food too, and I agree.

New Habits:

This experiment has been about more than just vegan cooking for me. As a result of reading the Omnivore's Dilemma, among other articles, I've been making a much greater effort to shop for local, sustainable, and organic food. A friend recommended the iphone app, "grocery IQ," which has been really helpful in that pursuit. The app lets me store multiple grocery lists, broken down by store, which is such a simple thing, but has really helped me organize my shopping to make the most of my time and money. I now make Tuesday my grocery day because that is the day of our local farmer's market. First I go to the farmer's market for all my produce and anything else I can buy there. For things I can't find there, I then go to Trader Joe's where I can get cheap, fresh, and delicious, natural and organic products. Then, I stop by Whole Foods and the commissary for the few items I can't get at one of the other two places. This process is much more time consuming that just going to the commissary right down the street from us but I feel much better about what the money we spend on groceries supports now. And I feel much better knowing what I am feeding myself and my family is (mostly) free of harmful pesticides, food additives and preservatives. I'm worried I'm getting a little spoiled living here with all these grocery options!

Day 12-14

2011-05-14T21:10:00.003-07:00

Day 12: Wild Mushroom and Roasted Garlic Sandwich

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Wild-Mushroom-and-Roasted-Garlic-Sandwich-358375

I modified this a tad to make it vegan. Namely, used oil instead of butter. I used roasted garlic that I'd gotten at the farmer's market to save myself some time roasting it myself. It was pretty good. I could have done without the parsley, but Sam liked the parsley. And of course, it would be better with cheese... (but isn't EVERYTHING better with cheese?!?)

Treat: Citrus Rosemary Olive Oil Cakes

http://www.thegluttonousvegan.com/2009/11/lemon-rosemary-and-olive-oil-cake.html

A few weeks ago our good friends De and John were visiting us from Maryland and one day I took them for a drive down the coastal scenic Route 1 to Big Sur south of Monterey. We stopped at Big Sur Bakery for a snack before our drive home. The bakery is known for being very "granola" and creating delicious dishes from seasonal ingredients. This particular morning I settled on a Citrus Olive Oil cake that was so delicious I went back in and bought another for Sam who couldn't go with us. Ever since that delicious taste of heaven I have been scouring the internet for a comparable recipe and came across this recipe and was impressed to see it on a vegan blog.

Thursday morning Quinn was in no mood to play on this tummy while I worked on grad school but as usual was perfectly content to sit in his Bumbo and "help" me cook. So I finally decided to test out this recipe and it did not disappoint! I don't know what was better, the intoxicating smell of rosemary and citrus filling my house or the first warm bite of these delicious little cakes! I made cupcakes instead of one large cake and used orange zest instead of lemon because it is what I had. Vegan or not, this recipe is a must try!

*Special bonus- since there is no egg in the batter you can lick the bowl guilt free ;)

Day 13: Eating "out"

Technically we did not actually eat out... It had been a very very long night and day of complete teething misery and I had zero energy to cook but there was no way we were taking Q out to a restaurant in all his teething glory so Sam went out and picked up dinner from Island's and brought back some Coldstone as well. What a great hubby! Just the treat I needed. Except since I haven't been eating sugar at all in the evenings and haven't been eating much at all, it gave me a ridiculous sugar high and I couldn't get to sleep for a long time! Worth it though...

Day 14: Black Bean Chili with Butternut Squash over Brown Jasmine Rice

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Black-Bean-Chili-with-Butternut-Squash-363715

Hearty. Flavorful. Satisfying. Delicious. A few words that come to mind after eating this for dinner tonight. Takes awhile to cook so not exactly a quick weeknight dinner. But it wasn't difficult, other than trying to figure out the best technique for chopping up butternut squash :-P I didn't bother with any of the garnishes toppings and honestly the dish had a depth of flavor such that it didn't need it. I definitely didn't miss the typical meat in chili. I will be making this again for sure, vegan or not.

Motivation? I am starting to forget my reasons for starting this experiment and just thinking of what I am learning and how I want it to impact me eating habit post-experiment. So for the remainder of the month I think I will stop reflecting I why I started this and start figuring out how it is affecting me. Starting next time...

Day 9-11

2011-05-11T16:25:00.000-07:00

Day 9: Celebration Lentil Loaf

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/2808

This recipe had lots of ingredients and though it wasn't difficult to make, it took a long time and made a lot of dishes. By the time we sat down to eat at 8pm after a long, busy day and after I'd finally gotten Quinn to bed, I was exhausted and starving. I wasn't expecting this recipe to be amazing or anything, but it was really underwhelming. So bland and boring that after two bites I just couldn't eat anymore. I threw the entire loaf away but was too tired at this point to make anything else so I ended up eating half of an undercooked biscuit which I rationalized was "okay" because I had actual eaten vegan all day long unintentionally. Needless to say, I went to bed unsatisfied and hungry and when I woke up the next morning I was so starved I couldn't go for my scheduled run. Soooo, this was a major fail!

Day 10: Greek Salad with Falafel

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/classic-greek-salad-topped-with-grilled-calamari-skewers-recipe/index.html

After the disappointment on Day 9 I turned to a familiar favorite. We've been making this greek salad recipe from Tyler Florence for years and it is one of our go-to favorites. I obviously left the calamari out this time but was a bad girl and still allowed myself the feta cheese, cos what is greek salad without a little feta? All the veggies for the salad and the falafel came from our local farmers market that day so they were incredibly fresh and delicious.

Day 11: Vegetable Pie from the farmer's market

Today I get my weekly treat for dinner! A delectable veggie pie from the farmers market:) We volunteer with the student ministry at our church and have youth group on Wednesday nights so it is the perfect night not to have to cook... just pop my pie in the oven to warm up a bit and enjoy! This is especially nice considering Quinn had little interest in sleeping last night so it has been a struggle to even get my tired butt off the couch today, so not having to cook is a relief.

Motivation #5 (I think I'm on #5...):

After having a baby I was thrilled with how quickly I got back into my clothes. After being huge with child for awhile, I felt so thin after giving birth, despite the fact, that I was no where near my pre-pregnancy physique. Things improved for a couple of months and then I hit a plateau. Probably because as a breastfeeding mom I am hungry ALL the time. (side note: did you know you have to eat more calories when you are breastfeeding than when you are in your 3rd trimester of pregnancy?! I didn't...) So the challenge is, how do I eat enough healthy food to satisfy my hunger in order to feed Quinn, but still make progress on getting my body back? The vegan diet includes lots of high fiber foods and complex carbs to fill me up (hopefully) without filling me out:-P

Day 8: A Vegan Mother's Day Treat!

2011-05-08T21:00:00.003-07:00

Day 8: Southwest Corn, Chard, and Potato Soup

What a treat! First of all... hubby surprised me by cooking vegan for me tonight in honor of Mother's Day! Second of all... this recipe is deeeelicious! He did a couple modifications...

Used 5 small-medium red potatoes

Used a 14 oz can diced tomatoes

Used only 6 cups veggie broth

Vegan or Omnivore, this recipe is a keeper!

Motivation #4: In honor of mother's day... one of the reasons I wanted to do this experiment which involves eating more veggies and less processed food is because as a breastfed baby, Quinn eats what I eat and of course I only want the very best nutrition for my little guy! I also want him to grow up with healthy eating habits and that starts with what I cook. So learning to cook healthy and delicious food will hopefully go a long way to teach him to love those veggies. Bon Appetite little guy:)

The Privilege of Motherhood

2011-05-08T18:44:00.002-07:00

Today is my first official Mother's Day. Last year I was pregnant, which I think totally counts since there is nothing like the responsibility of growing a baby inside you! But to be technically correct, this is my first real mother's day and while everyone is celebrating mom's everywhere it has me feeling reflective about the privilege of motherhood.

Becoming a mother is something that we can't really control. We can prevent it, but we can't make it happen. God is the only author of life and despite our best efforts and careful planning, only He decides when life begins. I cannot make myself a mother, my husband cannot make me a mother, only God can make me a mother. And all praise be to Him, He DID! My child can only be described as a miracle and every time I think of his little life I cannot help but thank God for the privilege of being his mom.

Becoming a mom was a humbling experience for me. When Sam and I first decided we were ready to have a baby and the timing was right it was right before Sam was supposed to leave for a six month deployment. We had a two month window in which to get pregnant so that the baby would not be due while he was still gone. Talk about PRESSURE! And as much as I tried to tell myself that I was okay with it if we didn't get pregnant before deployment, it was really disappointing when my monthly "visitor" arrived the first month in our window. I am a bit of a control freak and I am use to getting what I want if I work for it. Against all odds though, the second month we were pregnant with Quinn. (by "against all odds," I mean... "in despite of a busy pre-deployment boat schedule in which Sam was gone all but a couple weekends of month #2")

Pregnancy was extremely humbling as well. I am an active person and pregnancy totally zapped my energy such that I was exhausted and unable to do some of the activities that I loved and that I felt like partially "defined" me. One of those things was running, which I had to give up during pregnancy because something about pregnancy made my heart rate soar after even 1/2 a mile at a leisurely pace and I would almost black out.

Then Quinn arrived, a little unexpectedly before we were ready (still living in a hotel with none of our house hold goods...) as if I needed a reminder of how out of control we were of the situation. Then he was in the NICU for 12 excruciating days. There is NOTHING worse than being a new mommy and not being able to do a thing to help your child. Then he came home, praise God, and we had to learn over and over again that we will never "figure him out." Try as we might to get him on a schedule and detect what the problem could possibly be when he cries, he kept throwing us curve balls every time we thought we'd figured it out.

Despite the humility, and how often times it is exhausting taking care of an infant's every need 24/7, it is the most amazing experience in the world to be a mommy. There is nothing like seeing your baby look at you with recognition in their eyes and give you a big 'ole smile just because you are their mommy! My heart literally melts every time my little guy gives me a grin.

So today as people talk about thanking mother's for their sacrificial love, all I can think of is thanks be to a gracious God who chose to give a totally undeserving me the ultimate privilege of raising one of His precious children. And my heart goes out to all those women aching with a desire to be called 'mommy' and I pray for God's grace and blessing in their lives. My heart is yearning with a couple of my dear friends today that God would give them the same privilege He has given me.

Quinn, it is a privilege and honor to be your mommy. I love you today and always. ~Mommy

Vegan Bread?

2011-05-07T16:34:00.000-07:00

Think I'm gonna try this recipe for making vegan bread so I can make veggie sandwiches:)

100% Whole Grain Wheat Bread

I've just recently experimented with baking bread and I just love love love fresh baked bread! I didn't know there was a vegan alternative because all previous bread recipes I've encountered have eggs. Now the goal is to not become addicted to this... because eating a bunch of bread to fill me up as opposed to veggies kind of misses the entire point of eating vegan for a month!

Day 5-7

2011-05-07T14:02:00.002-07:00

Day 5: Ancient Grains Stuffed Peppers

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/2880

This dish was beautiful! BUT the flavor was pretty bland. Of course I couldn't find the arame seaweed it calls for so I left it out which probably left out a bunch of the flavor. I was reading over the reviews afterwards and some of the reviews had some good suggestions for adding flavor, so next time I think I'll try adding some soy sauce and maybe some mushrooms.

Day 6: SUSHI!

Okay, so that isn't vegan... but part of my "deal" with myself was that I didn't have to eat vegan if we went out. And last night we went out to Crystal Fish in Pacific Grove and had some delicious sushi! Almost as good as our favorite sushi place in Hawaii, Sansei. And I may or may not have had a little Coldstone afterwards... :-P

Day 7: Lentil Soup with Ancient Grains from TJ's

Since it is the weekend, today I had my vegan meal for lunch so that I can enjoy some grilled lamb and parmesan risotto for dinner with friends tonight:) I picked up this delicious vegan lentil soup from Trader Joe's this week and it did not disappoint! Soooo yummy! But then again, you can never go wrong with Trader Joe's. I must learn to cook this stuff!!!

Motivation #3:

I read this book, The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, about a year ago (I can already see my husband's eye's rolling as I mention this book AGAIN). I apologize to those of you who have ever gotten on the topic of food with me and have been subjected to my raving about this book! BUT, it is a must read! I truly believe it should be required reading for any American. Pollan basically follows our food from the farm to the table and it was so enlightening to learn about the American food system and the ethical/moral/nutritional dilemma's that are raised regarding how we eat. Pollan doesn't suggest how we should respond to the knowledge he presents about our food system but I have already made some changes to my diet as a result of the things I learned in that book such as only drinking organic milk and buying "natural" chicken, etc. The book does not advocate a vegan diet by any means, but my response to what I've read is that I should be aiming to eat more whole, organic, local, and sustainable foods and the vegan lifestyle lends itself naturally to that. It has been a slow process, but now that we live in an area where whole, organic, local, sustainable foods are readily available, I am able to move closer to that goal.

I am currently reading Pollan's next book, In Defense of Food, which is a follow-up to The Omnivore's Dilemma, and so far it is fascinating. The theme of the book is "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants."

Day 2-4

2011-05-05T17:35:00.002-07:00

Okay, so clearly I am not good at this blogging thing... but I have been keeping up with my little commitment:)

Day 2: Pineapple-Ginger Rice with Edamame

This was quite delicious and extremely easy, especially when you use a rice cooker:) Although, I wish I did not know what miso actually is... aged, fermented soy beans doesn't sound appealing, but gave this dish a nice subtle flavor. Sam (who is NOT doing this little vegan experiment) sauteed some Mahi in ginger and ginger flavored vinegar that I was little jealous of... will be trying that when I'm not a dinner vegan anymore!

Day 3: Falafel and Potato & Spinach Lebanese Pies from the Monterey farmers market

One of my FAVORITE things about Monterey is the AMAZING Tuesday evening farmer's market downtown. I think I could probably grocery shop exclusively there if I was a better planner (as in, I didn't wait till the last minute to decide what to cook so that I end up needing to run to the store multiple times a week...). Currently it is strawberry season here so the air throughout the market smelled sweet and delicious like fresh picked strawberries! And you can buy anything from local produce and flowers, to local grass-fed beef, to locally caught fish and seafood, to gourmet cupcakes, and a whole variety of ethnic foods. After stocking up on veggies and herbs, we stopped at Maha's for some lebanese food which was delicious!

Day 4: Vegetable pie from the farmers market

Every time I go to the farmer's market I buy one of these little treats to take home and reheat. I could eat one of these everyday I am convinced... I've never loved veggies so much! Basically it is a pie shell stuffed with cooked veggies like spinach, carrots, squash, leeks and tomatoes with a little ricotta and fresh herbs. Soooo, technically it isn't vegan due to the cheese (but it's only a tiny bit of cheese...) and I'm not really sure about the crust, that probably disqualifies it too. But so what, I cheated a little... it was worth it:)

Motivation #2: I eat way too much cheese! I have a seriously unhealthy love of dairy products in general and need to have a little self control in that regard. This is my main motivation for choosing vegan as opposed to vegetarian because vegetarians can eat cheese. I'm hoping keeping cheese out of my evening diet for a month will help to break the habit a little. I am also trying to limit my cheese consumption during the rest of the day too. Now, of course... I've already cheated with the cheese on Day 4... but oh well... not trying to be legalistic here!

Gotta go... my stuffed pepper for Day 5 are coming out of the oven now! I'll let you know how they are next time:)

Exploring Vegan Cooking

2011-05-01T20:27:00.002-07:00

I've been interested in exploring vegetarianism for awhile but am shamelessly addicted to meat which has prevented me thus far. However, for a variety of reasons, I've decided to take this month to do a little experiment. And why stop with vegetarianism? Why not try vegan?

So for the month of May I will be cooking and eating vegan dinner (on the nights we eat at home- if we go out or are at a friends house, I will eat "normal"). I'm not dedicated enough to go completely vegan... so I will still enjoy my eggs for breakfast and deli sandwiches for lunch, but from dinner until the following morning, I'm going vegan. *except I still get to drink my organic skim milk with dinner... I love it too much... I'm not giving that up!*

I plan to blog through this experiment if only as a journal for myself. My plan is to share the recipe I cooked with my comments on it as well as one of the my many motivations for trying this in the first place.

Day 1: Greens and Beans with Rosemary and Thyme

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/2888

I used a southern greens mix from Trader Joe's that included kale, mustard greens, collard greens, and spinach. I have never had mustard or collard greens, so that was a new experience. Let's say, it wasn't terrible... it just takes some getting use to the bitter taste. And mustard greens DO actually taste a little bit like mustard!

I was a little worried due to the low calorie count indicated on the recipe that I would still be hungry after dinner despite all the fiber, but it has been awhile since dinner and I actually still feel quite full and satisfied! We'll see if it carries me through my morning run tomorrow...

I did have a little "palate cleanser" of a small scoop of raspberry sorbet after dinner to get rid of the lingering bitter taste, which worked great:)

Motivation: It's hard to say what the greatest motivating factor for me to try this little experiment was because there are so many... but the most general is probably just that I KNOW I need to eat more vegetables (don't we all?) and I am bored with the vegetable preparations I have used in the past. I want to branch out and learn how to cook vegetables I haven't had much (or any) experience with as well as learn new ways to cook the old familiar veggies I've eaten all my life. I have NO intentions of actually becoming a vegan after this experiment is over, but hopefully I will have made some new healthy habits and learned some new healthy recipes I can keep using once I return to my carnivorous ways!

If anyone actually reads this and has some good vegan recipes, please pass them on!

Preparing for Quinn

2010-09-01T20:33:00.003-07:00

Our little guy is on the way! Slowly but surely we are getting ready for his arrival. Wanted to upload some pics for the grandmoms-to-be to see my style/decorating preferences, cos they were asking:)

I could not resist the boston terrier and frenchie onesies and burp cloths! I know Quinn is gonna love his puppy dogs. I joke with Sam that we're gonna have to get Bella to sleep in his room cos he is probably use to hearing her snore cos she's always laying her head on my belly and snoring away (what she is doing currently...).

Our awesome stroller thanks to Grandma and Grandpa O'Connor:)

My friend Chela makes the cutest baby stuff and she made me these adorable onsies, the blanket and pillow below AND the cute wall hangings! The turtles are my favorite:)

Quinn is gonna be so snuggly in his turtle blanket with the super soft nubby side!

I LOVE these adorable wall hangings! Considering using them as inspiration for decorating his room... but I am not good at coordinating on my own so maybe the bathroom?

Mommy's gift to herself :) Who would know the purpose of this cute bag is carrying stinky diapers?

Sub Ball

2010-04-11T14:24:00.005-07:00

Last weekend was Submarine Birthday Ball here in Hawaii. It was a lot of fun as usual. But anytime our wardroom (officers on Sam's submarine and their spouses/girlfriends) get together it is always are guarenteed good time! The Ball was held at Hawaiian Hilton Village in Waikiki.

Us at the pre-party for the USS Louisville Wardroom

The handsome guys Sam works (and pretty much lives) with:)

Some of the wives. We had such a variety of colorful dresses without even planning!

Us at dinner. Of course our whole wardroom was having such a great time at the pre-party we were a little late for dinner... whoops! We were seated at what I can only describe as the "kids table" which turned out to be a blast!
All the boats have to introduce their captains. Someone had the bright idea of doing "air push-ups" with CO Sisco which looks pretty cool in this shot... but they weren't so good about catching him after he came down... It takes a very trusting captain to let his (slightly inebriated) officers toss him in the air like that!

The proud Academy grads of the USS Louisville (and their rings...)

The wardroom wahines getting ready to hit the dance floor!

A fun time was had by all :-)

Simple Soul Photography Photo Shoot

2009-12-19T15:22:00.002-08:00

A friend of ours is a really talented photographer. She is building her portfolio and took a few pictures for us recently. Check out her site at simplesoulphotography.com

Here are a few of our favorite shots she took of us!

Life

2009-10-03T12:02:00.002-07:00

My mom recently (okay, probably about a month ago) complained that I never update this thing anymore. So here is my attempt at catching up any lingering blog readers that haven't given up on us in the months of silence!

This has been a busy year for us! Since my last post way back in the spring, Sam's been in and out of port for various underways, and I finished my teaching degree, taught summer school, started graduate school, and am now teaching high school geometry. Other than work and school, we've both learned to surf and take any chance we get to take our boards out and catch a few waves! I've also been running in a few races and have talked Sam into running a half marathon with me next month.

And now, you are all caught up:) Sorry, no pictures... we've been too busy to think about taking pictures! We miss all y'all on the mainland and can't wait to get back there!

Submarine Birthday Ball

2009-04-20T23:09:00.002-07:00

The Submarine Birthday Ball was held at the Hawaiian Hilton Village this weekend. We had a wonderful time enjoying a formal evening out with not only the wardroom from the USS Louisville, but all the submarine officers and spouses stationed in Hawaii. The guys all looked so handsome in their dinner dress uniforms and all the spouses and girlfriends were beautiful! Notice Sam's new "chest candy"... the little gold pin above the medals are his "dolphins" indicating he is a fully qualified officer.

The USS Louisville wardroom! What a bunch of handsome (and goofy) men! We feel very blessed to be part of this wardroom. As I was taking this picture I was chatting with a friend of ours from power school who was jealous of how much fun the guys seemed to have together.

Before and after the ball we all hung out up in the Captain's suite with this amazing view of Waikiki and Diamond Head.

Dolphins!

2009-04-20T23:04:00.004-07:00

Sam earned his "dolphins" last week! Which means he is a fully qualified submarine Junior Officer. His Captain and I "pinned" him Saturday night at the Submarine Birthday Ball. And Sam got to cut the cake for the ball because he was one of the two newest qualified officers.

(I'm not sure what happened to that cake cake cos I never got any.... haha!)

The new bedroom furniture

2009-04-20T22:54:00.002-07:00

My mom's been bugging me to see pictures of our new bedroom furniture ;-) So here it is Mom! It is kind of hard to see I think in these pictures. It is dark brown and distressed. You can't really tell it's distressed in the pictures I don't think though. I think Sam's favorite part is the new matress. He has a much harder time getting out of bed now than usual because he is "so comfortable" :-)

Painting Project

2009-04-08T00:53:00.003-07:00

When we got married we had generous families that gave us their old furniture so we wouldn't have to buy new bedroom furniture right away. I've always had an issue with our bedroom furniture because it didn't match since we got different pieces from different people. So I recently finally decided to paint it all one color and get new matching hardware. We were pleasantly surprised with how it turned out. Sam also took the opportunity to patch up some holes Bella chewed in our footboard when she was a puppy...

Now that we re-made our furniture so we like it... we bought a new bedroom suite... haha! That arrives this weekend so I'll post pictures then. So this is currently our guest room and will become my sister's room when she moves out to live with us. A step up from the aerobed I think;)

Spring Break!

2009-04-06T00:40:00.005-07:00

Just when we thought we were too old for spring break...

I had two LOVELY weeks off from teaching. Yea... Hawaii spoils their teachers like that:) And Sam had 10 days of leave which is unheard of! We had our good friends from Charleston, SC, Art and Leanne visit us for a week which was a total blast! We also did some things around the house and painted all our bedroom furniture so that it matches now... yay!

Here's a pic of Art and Leanne in front of the famous Matsumato's Shave Ice on the North Shore. We waited in line for probably 45 minutes for this shave ice but it was amazing and worth the wait:)

We went to a luau while our friends were visiting which was pretty cool. My favorite part was getting to see them un-bury the Kalua Pig from the imu. They cook a pig in a whole in the ground surrounded by hot rocks. Then they shred it like BBQ and it is delicious!

Here's another picture of us at the luau. I discovered that I love Mai Tai's... so yummy!

We had heard such great things about Sunday brunch at the officer's club on the Kaneohe Bay Marine Corp Base that we took Art and Leanne and it was a-mazing! The food was delicious and the view was even better.

We also took a quick flight over to the Big Island one day to see the volcano. We found this gorgeous spot while driving along the coast and had to stop for a picture.

This is the four of us at the lava park watching the steam plumes as the lava hit the ocean. It was pretty neat as it started to get dark out cos you could see the orange glow of lava in the steam plumes.

We took a couple of hours to hike through the lava tubes in Volcano National Park while on the Big Island.

This is on the South Shore of Oahu while we were showing Art and Leanne around the island.

Another pic of the four of us at the South Shore.

And we did finally go see the Arizona Memorial. It was pretty amazing and heart wrenching.

And now it's back to work for both me and Sam tomorrow. Which means I should be getting to bed...

Life on the Islands

2009-03-25T09:53:00.010-07:00

Now that I've been in Hawaii almost 3 months I suppose it is time for an update:)

I can't tell you how much I am loving life here on Oahu. After 6 months in New Hampshire I think I had forgotten what it feels like to live somewhere that feels like home. I am still in awe that most places are just getting over their winter season but here I've been laying out in the hot sun on the beach since January when I arrived! I LOVE eternal summer:) I'm already trying to convince Sam to try and stay here for his follow-on shore tour!

It's been super busy since I arrived. The first couple of weeks were a whirlwind of appointments and house hunting and car shopping. I was fortunate to find a little "island beater" car in my price range and the crazy thing is that as I was test driving it I found out the previour owners were both Cedarville graduates! Small world! After much strife with Navy housing I ended up accepting a home in Pearl City Penninsula that I was pretty bummed about at first, but now am happy with. The best part of the first couple of weeks was the dogs arriving safely with no problems, that was what I was having the most anxiety about during this move.

As soon as I got things kind of settled, I started student teaching at Castle HS. I adore my host teacher. I have learned so much from her. We have lower level classes which I enjoy but often get frustrated with the extreme lack of motivation in most of our students. The culture in Hawaii is a lot different than the mainland and education is just not a priority for many native families which I feel is unfortunate but a reality I have to constantly deal with in my job. Teaching has totally consumed my life at this point and my current battle is to balance my personal life with my profressional life. Most of you know I love to run and take spinning classes and I haven't had time to do either in the past two months. That is not something I can deal with if teaching is going to be my career so something has got to give, I just don't know what yet!

For the first two months I was here, me and the dogs lived with my very gracious best friend from college and her husband and son. It was so much fun hanging out with Molly every day and Bella and Dietrich (their 1 year old) had the best time playing. When I finally moved into our house to get all moved in before Sam arrived I was pretty lonely at first without the hustle and bustle of the Larson house. We'll be returning the favor to them shortly as they are about to move to San Diego for Josh to go through SEAL training and will be staying with us their last few weeks on the island. I can't wait to have us all under one roof again!

Sam finally arrived a couple of weeks ago. It was pretty neat watching the submarine pull into port. He said it was kind of weird since I did the entire move on my own from packing out in NH to moving in in HI, to leave our place in NH with all our stuff there and to show up a few months later half way around the world and all our stuff was unpacked and waiting for him to arrive here. Fortunately he was happy with my paint color selections which turned out a bit brighter than I had imagined

We have already had vistors! My good friend since way back in middle school Teenie and her boyfriend Max came out to visit the week after Sam got home. Teenie knows the island so they were able to guide themselves around since both Sam and I had to work. We did get to enjoy a couple of dinners together though which was really nice!

Today some of our good friends from Charleston, Art and Leanne, are arriving to spend the week with us and we cannot wait! I am on spring break from school for these 2 weeks (yes, we get 2 weeks off in HI... awesome!) and Sam goes on leave for a week starting Thursday, so it's gonna be a big vacation for all of us and we can't wait to spend some quality time with our good friends from our favorite part of the country (yes Charleston is still my favorite place... even over Hawaii!)

I hope all of you faithful blog readers are doing well and hopefully it won't take me another 3 months to post the next update...

Here are a few picture of the house. Nice colors huh? I can't decide if my favorite thing is having a fenced yard (even though it's tiny) or having tons of storage which is awesome. I guess I'd have to say my favorite thing is probably not having white walls anymore!

My next project (when I have some spare time... ha) is to paint our old bedroom furniture which is a hodge podge of stuff given to us from various relatives who didn't want it anymore when we got married. That is why our bed currently is not assembled!

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T14:26:00.004-08:00

It's New Year's Eve and it is my last night on the mainland. My sister keeps asking me how I am feeling, but it is hard to explain, it just seems normal to me, moving around and all. I think she is looking for more of an emotional reaction like "I'm going to miss it here" or "I'm scared" or "I can't wait!" And all of those things are true to some degree I suppose (well... I won't miss it here... just our friends and family!), but to me moving half way around the world doesn't seem that odd or like something to get all emotional over. Sure I am excited to discover a new place that is a little out of the ordinary compared to my East coast life, but I have so much to do when I get there I haven't really had time to think about laying on the beach soaking up the sun in paradise (although I plan to do my fair share of that!). Plus, I am one of those people that it just takes awhile for things to sink in. After I've been there for a couple months I'll probably realize "ok, I really live here..."

Anyway, enough of that... I really got on here to post a couple holiday pictures and wish everyone a happy and safe New Year!

This is the whole gang that went to Deep Creek with Sam's family in this tiny 6-lane bowling alley somewhere in Western Maryland. They drive and hour every year to go to this place because it is always so much fun. This was my and Sam's first year.

My family took us out to dinner at Sakura, this Japenese hibachi place when we got back from vacation with Sam's family. It was sooo yummy! There's nothing like good hibachi with good company!

I hope all of you are ringing in the New Year with loved ones. Sadly Sam is working (surprise, surprise), but I will be visiting some good friends and then spending the rest of the evening with my family and my doggies :-)

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-28T11:53:00.005-08:00

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed time with family and friends. This was our first Christmas apart. Sam volunteered to stand duty Christmas day in order to get several days off after Christmas. It wasn't as bad as I imagined it would be. I had a lovely day with our families and Sam had an easy duty day complete with a gourmet Christmas meal on the boat. Since we are in the middle of a move and all our stuff has been sent with the movers and everything we have fits into 3 suit cases we didn't expect much in the way of presents because everyone knew we couldn't have anything! But, our families were overly generous as usual and now I don't know how I will get all these things to Hawaii with me! I was particularly excited about the GPS system Sam's parents gave me to help me navigate our new home in Hawaii. I was also thrilled that my mom found the particular linen hemstitched napkins I have been wanting to go with our china and had them monogramed for us. My sister says I have definitely become and "old person" because I get excited over napkins!

Here are a couple pics from the Christmas day festivities at my parents house.

Even Bella and Winston were feeling festive in their red Christmas sweaters!

Sam flew down to MD the day after Christmas so we could go with his family out to Deep Creek Lake for their annual after Christmas ski vacation. The night we arrived Sam went with his brother and cousins out skiing in the pouring rain! I opted to read by the fire :-) Since then not much skiing has been going on... it has been unusually warm and as you will see in the following pictures from our hike to the falls, it was even warm enough for me to wear short sleeves!

Tomorrow we will be heading back to my parents house and then Sam flys back to NH the following day to stand duty on New Year's Eve. As for me, I am getting pretty excited/anxious about my move to Hawaii New Year's Day!

Take care everyone and have a wonderful New Year!

Moving

2008-12-09T19:25:00.002-08:00

It's time for us to be moving along again! I can't say I'm sorry to leave New Hampshire behind, although I will miss some of the wonderful people I have met here. This will be our third military move (well 5th if you count the 3 months in CT and 6 months in MD) and so far it has definitely been the worst! For the past 2 weeks not a day has gone by that something unexpected (generally bad) has happened either with moving plans, our apartment complex, or Sam's boat schedule. I don't feel to stressed out about anything but I know the stress is lurking somewhere underneath the surface of my psyche just waiting to rear it's ugly head when I've gotten just one too many "surprises." On top of the many unwelcome surpises, Sam has been at work and unreachable for pretty much the entire process so I am left to deal with anything that may come up on my own.

Today was December 9th. There is a big banner hanging on Sam's submarine with the departure date of the sub. According to the banner they should have left today. Where are they you might ask? Still tied up to the pier. When will they actually leave you might ask? As of today, not for at least another month. Now you might think that is good news... that they will be "home" over Christmas... but you would be wrong... they will be working straight through Christmas, at least the nukes will be.

Anyway, it is good to have the household goods move over with. Our movers came Friday and Monday and now we have nothing but the 3 suitcases I have for my flight to Hawaii in a few weeks. It will be good to get out of this awful apartment complex in less than a week and go home and see my family, even though Sam can't come.

This has been a crazy couple of weeks but I can honestly say that I LOVE this life! I love being a military spouse and I love moving and getting to experience new places. I even love the challenge of dealing with everything on my own. I have a silly sense of pride that I have not lost it and have remained calm and flexible throughout this move so far. I know I have even bigger challenges ahead (shipping the car, shipping the dogs, finding a place to live in HI, buying a car, starting student teaching, accepting our HHG and dealing with damages, etc) but at the end of this move, if I have not lost my mind, I will be a stronger and better person for having done it.

Think of us these next few weeks! We hope to be able to spend a little time together over the holidays and would love if Sam were able to get a few days off to come home and see his family. All the guys working hard on Sam's sub could use prayers as well... they are working very long hours and many will not get to see their families this Christmas season.

Update

2008-11-10T13:02:00.003-08:00

I guess it is about time to update this!

Since I last wrote my parents came up to visit for my birthday weekend. We explored downtown Portsmouth and went on a tour of historic Strawberry Bank. However the highlight of the visit had to be me locking us out of the car when we went to a farm to walk the dogs. I thought the keys must have fallen out of my pocket while we were walking so we spent an hour retracing our steps all over the farm. Fortunately my dad had his cell phone in his pocket so I was able to call a friend to come pick us up and my apartment complex was able to let me back in my apartment to get my spare key. It turns out I had locked my keys in the car after all! Sam worked most of the time my parents were here but was able to get off Saturday night when my parents treated us to a delicious dinner at Riverworks, a delicious restaurant downtown in our little town.

This weekend Sam had Sunday off so after I worked at church in the morning we went to Boston for the afternoon. Before we even moved here I told him he had to take me to Boston before we left New England because I never planned to come back and I wanted to see it. So yesterday we went to Boston and took a walking tour of the Freedom Trail and went to Fenial Hall and Old North Church. And can I say... I am in love with Boston! It was a gorgeous day and we didn't even need coats. It is such a clean city with beautiful architechture and so much going on everywhere. Sam has the opportunity to go to MIT for grad school after he gets done with this sea tour in a couple years. So now I wouldn't mind that so much!

Sorry I haven't been good about pictures lately. I'll post a couple recent ones of the dogs to spice this post up a bit!

Bella picking raspberries at Apple Crest Farms

Winston hangin out with Sam

Interview in NYC

2008-10-17T19:22:00.004-07:00

This past weekend I had a teaching interview in NYC for the HI Dept. of Education. Those of you who know me well no that big cities make me paranoid and anxious. So I talked some Navy wife friends into making the trip down with me. The interview went great and it was the most fun I've ever had in NYC and now I am not so scared of the city!

It was great to see the girls. Our husbands all went to nuke school in SC together and the three of them all live around Groton so I miss seeing them! I have not laughed so much in ages. It is wonderful to have good girlfriends... the weekend was just want I needed!

Update

2008-10-09T08:45:00.002-07:00

Okay, so I have been bad about keeping up with this! So here are my excuses... our life is not that exciting AND we have been really busy!

Sam is back to working crazy hours. They are in shift work and he is on swing shift so he works from noon to midnight seven days a week. BUT he also has collateral (sp?) duties, boat testing, inspections and qualifying to work on too so for the past few days he has only been home an average of 6 hours/day and the rest of the time he is either in transit or at work. He is getting to the point of exhaustion for sure because when he talks it is all mummbled and his eyes are never completely open anymore. Additionally, for some reason the left side of his back is really hurting him and he can't turn his head to the left at all because of it. So, please pray for him and all the guys on their boat who are in similar states!

The good news is that their boat is miracuously on schedule! We had a command meeting on Monday night and the captain told us they have broken several records for the speed at which they are completing things during this phase of shipyard work. So good job USS Louisville! At this rate they may actually make their planned departure date for the transit to Hawaii... but it only takes one set back to ruin that... so our fingers are crossed!

Speaking of Hawaii, we are finally planning the move we have been anticipating for over a year now! We have requested our pack-out and shipment dates, gotten the doggie quarentine checklist done, planned our car shipment, notified our apartment complex we'll be leaving (hallelujah!), and I am about to make the air travel arrangements for me and the dogs next week. As beautiful as New England is in the fall, I can't wait to get out of here and on to paradise!

As for me... what have I been doing? Well aside from all the moving logistics... I am still working on completing my last term of classes, I have been observing and teaching geometry and algebra in a local high school for the past few weeks, and I am still working at our church running the 5th and 6th grade program. So, I am keeping myself busy! In fact, this weekend I have an interview in NYC for a teaching job beginning in January in Hawaii! So pray that goes well! And since I'm going down "South" (haha) anyway, I planned a fun girls weekend with some military wife/fiance friends in the CT area :-)

I hope everyone who actually reads this is doing well! As soon as I download pictures off my camera I'll post some of Sam's parents recent visit.

Weekend Off!

2008-09-17T05:44:00.004-07:00

Sam finally had a weekend off! It was wonderful! We went camping, we went shopping, we watched football, we went out to eat, and we went to bed before 9pm every single night:)
My favorite part of camping is definitely the campfire... cos that means s'mores!
Sam and the doggies spent Saturday afternoon cheering for Navy football. Unfortunately it didn't do a lot of good cos they lost anyway... oh well! At least the they all look cute in their Navy gear!

New friends and new memories

2008-08-24T12:20:00.003-07:00

Despite Sam never getting a day off... we are loving being a part of the USS Louisville family if only for one reason... the people! I am convinced the Louisville has the best wardroom of any submarine... or any other boat for that matter! We have so much enjoyed getting to know the guys Sam works with and their wives and children. A couple of weeks ago the wardroom had a "Hail and Farewell" for our friends Steve and Marisol who are leaving the boat for Steve to go on shore tour back in Hawaii. It is sad to see them go but we will see them again when the boat gets to Hawaii! Then the ladies all got together and took Marisol out for her last night out on the town in Portsmouth and here are a couple pictures from the occasion.
We will miss you, Steve and Natalia! Can't wait to see you guys in Hawaii!

Cape May with the O'Connors

2008-08-24T12:01:00.004-07:00

Since Sam has been working his butt off and hasn't had a day off to spend with me for 2 weeks and running now... I went on a little mini vacation with my parents and sister. We use to go to Cape May, NJ when we were little kids. We always stayed at this old historic victorian inn called The Chalfonte. The place is so neat and with no air conditioning or other "white noise" you can hear the original wood floors creak as people walk up and down the halls and you can sleep with the windows open and listen to the sounds of the carriage horses walking the streets, little kids laughing and the ocean breeze blowing. There also are no private baths in your room so you always meet new people while using the shared hallway baths! Breakfast and dinner are included in your stay and they are delicious... particularly the homemade yeast rolls! This is the first time we've been to Cape May since we were kids and it is the first time we've gotten to eat in the formal dining room with the adults... as children we were always banished to the "children's dining room" which was our parent's favorite part of the vacation! We had a great time reliving old memories and relaxing on the porch of The Chalfonte and on the beach. It would have been perfect if only Sam had been there! I was even gone for his birthday (bad wife) although it didn't matter since he had duty which means he went to work at 5:30am and didn't come home until after the work day the NEXT day! We were going to celebrate his birthday this weekend, but he hasn't been home before 10pm yet this weekend to make it happen!

My sister is good with a camera and uses some website to edit pictures and add cool words and such. Here are a couple she took when we went for a walk on Cape May Point one evening.

New Job

2008-08-21T16:40:00.002-07:00

So today I started my new awesome job!

How this whole thing came about is totally a "God-thing" because I wouldn't have even dreamed it up on my own! We found a great new church here in New Hampshire, Bethany Church at Breakfast Hill, and I noticed about a month ago they were advertising for a some new children's ministry part time positions. One of the positions seemed like something I would enjoy and God wouldn't let me forget about it so I ended up applying and interviewing. I didn't expect to get the job because I told them up front I would be moving after Christmas. A couple of days later I get a call back from the Children's Director asking if I could come back in to talk with her. I was shocked and so excited.

During our second talk she said they had a need for someone to create and coordinate a 5th and 6th grade Sunday morning program that would eventually be volunteer lead. It was something they have dreamed about for awhile but haven't had the resources or the right person to make it happen. She said after meeting with me and looking over my resume and all the experience I had working with youth and discussing my passion for student ministry God put it on her heart during prayer to create the position for me. So she rearranged some of the other positions she was hiring for so she could afford to offer me this job.

I was sooo blown away and elated! 5th and 6th graders are my absolute favorite and this is pretty much my dream job. I get to create, from scratch, a specific program for them and develop a volunteer team that can ultimately take it over when I leave! Plus it is only part time which leaves me time to get my school work done as well. I am a little overwhelmed right now because the program kicks off September 7th and I have so much to do... painting and decorating our huge room, meeting with my volunteers, preparing a great kick-off week to get students hooked... but I am so excited because I love it all!

Please pray for me and this new ministry! That the right volunteers are draw to it and are able to commit to it, that I am able to get everything done for an amazing kick-off, and that this will really reach this age group of students in a relevant way to their lives. I feel a lot of responsibility regarding this because it was soooo clearly a "God thing" and He has really given me this amazing opportunity and I feel so blessed and want to really make the most of it!

Weekend in Cape Cod

2008-07-28T14:38:00.003-07:00

Since we live in New England we have a few things we want to do while we're in this area of the country and going to Cape Cod was one of them. So a couple of weekends ago we checked that off the list!

Sam was already in Groton, CT for some training so I went down Friday afternoon to see him and hang out with some Academy/Nuke school friends and their wives/fiances. We had such a blast with them. It makes me so jealous they all live near each other and we are a good three hours away.

Saturday morning we left CT and drove all the way out to Provincetown on the tip of the Cape for a delicious lunch at The Lobster Pot and a stroll around the very "interesting" town. A very cute little town with a heavy gay influence. After an afternoon there we drove back to Hyannis where we were staying and went to The Black Cat restaurant right on the harbor and then for a sunset sail in Nantucket Sound.

Sunday we were in for a real treat and went whale watching which was absolutely amazing! (Other than forgetting our sunblock... whoops!) Then we had lunch at the Lobster Boat which was my favorite of all the places we ate and then drove back to Groton and met up with some friends for dinner. What a wonderful weekend!

College Roomie!

2008-07-28T14:31:00.004-07:00

My college roommate, Megan, was visiting her family in NH over the 4th of July and we were able to meet up in Concord for a little shopping. I was sooo excited to see her and meet her hubby and son for the first time! Brady is the cutest little baby, such a sweetheart, and I am so impressed how fabulous Megan looks for having a 5 month old and supposedly not even working out after the baby!

It wouldn't be a roomie reunion without some mall food court Chinese!
Look at that happy baby face!
Brady looks just like a little mini-Chris!

Our Apartment

2008-07-28T13:56:00.003-07:00

So, this is kinda late... but I thought I would post some pics of our apartment here for those of you who are interested. The apartment itself is pretty nice, it is just a little small for us (as you will notice from the pic of the extra bedroom!) and it is difficult with the dogs not having a yard and having to go out four doors to get outside. It may not seem too exciting... but I adore our kitchen! If you have ever seen our kitchen in Charleston, you would understand! I actually have enough cabinet and pantry space to keep all my kitchen stuff in the kitchen and Sam and I can both be in there without running into one another. Plus HELLO counter space!
This is actually our patio furniture but it is larger than our kitchen table and we don't have a big enough patio for it... so it is now our kitchen table. I am looking forward to living in Hawaii when we can use it outside!
So the living room is a little cramped with our massive sofa and love seat... but it works for us.
And that is only ONE wall of our "junk" room which also doubles as our gym/office. Imagine me trying to be productive on school work in all this clutter!

Vacation in Punta Cana, DR

2008-06-30T16:30:00.003-07:00

So I am finally getting around to downloading our Dominican vacation pictures. We went to Natura Park Resort in Punta Cana earlier this month during Sam's leave for 5 nights. It was wonderful! We just layed around on the beach or by the pool, drank lots of pina colada's (Molly) and margarita's (Sam). It was the perfect relaxing vacation and we even got to go sailing every day while we were there!

Our room and the view from our balcony.

On "Dominican night" the resort had a big outdoor feast of traditional Dominican cuisine and a bunch of local vendors came to sell things like jewelry, paintings and cigars.

The beach was so beautiful and the water was so clear and warm. Sam enjoyed spending some time snorkling while I enjoyed sitting under the little cabanas with a nice tropical breeze blowing! Why can't the US be this beautiful?

Trip to Charleston

2008-06-25T12:57:00.010-07:00

After Sam returned home we had two weeks of vacation. The first week we spent in the Dominican Repulic which I will post about later after downloading pictures. The second week we spent at my favorite place in the whole world... Charleston, SC!

On our drive down we stopped to visit some good friends who just recently moved to Fayetteville, NC. Matt recently graduated from MUSC dental school and is now an Army dentist. We were so delighted to spend the evening with these guys and to finally meet their adorable little daughter Millie! We miss you guys tons!

Doesn't Brooke look awesome for having a 3 month old?!

Next stop... the Surratt home! Our good friends Josh and Lisa and their 1 year old son, Miles, where gracious enough to allow us AND the dogs to stay with them while we were in town. Their dog Otis is from the same breeder Winston came from and Bella and Otis use to be best buds but now I think Winston stole Otis from Bella. But Bella didn't care cos she was so interested in Miles, she was very gentle but wanted to give him LOTS of kisses! It was a riot with all of them running around. We had some great quality time with the Surratts, cooking out, playing cards, going to the beach, and taking Josh's dad's boat out for a little drive over to Shem Creek for dinner.

Winston loved the beach as you can tell!

Picture of Shem Creek from the water and our view from dinner.

I also got a chance to have lunch with some of my previous co-workers from Garden Zone. It was great catching up with those ladies!

We were also so thrilled to be able to share in the celebration of Matt and Heather Alt's wedding while we were there. We even got to have lunch with them and some other Navy friends during our trip.

And we got to go to church at Seacoast Sunday morning which was really special for both of us. We miss Seacoast so incredibly much and were thrilled to be back! Plus we ran into several friends from our old small group at church and got to have lunch afterwards with our friends Brad and Jan and one of our favorite restaurants with the best view, California Dreamin.

We had such a wonderful visit and are so happy we got to see everyone that we did. Although it wasn't long enough and we really missed seeing several other friends in the area that we weren't able to hook up with due to time.

Sam's Home!

2008-06-24T18:00:00.006-07:00

Okay... so this post is a little late... Sam actually got home almost 3 weeks ago. After spending 27 hours traveling from Greece I finally got to pick him up in Manchester in the middle of the night. It is funny that even though he had been gone 5.5 months as soon as he was back it seemed like no time had gone by at all. After a few days laying low in NH we went back to MD and had a nice Welcome Home party for Sam. Here are some pictures from the party.

My sister made this awesome sign even though she couldn't be there. But unfortunately it decided to pour rain with high winds so the sign didn't last long.

I had to put this picture of my parents in cos as I was taking it my dad said "Is this going to end up on the internet?" Yep Dad... it is!

That's Sam's family on the right. I can't believe I got a picture with ALL the boys smiling at once!

More to come soon about our vacations:)

The move to New Hampshire

2008-06-02T14:49:00.007-07:00

I have very mixed feelings about moving to NH. I am so excited to be getting my husband home soon! And I am glad to have our own place to live again with all our own stuff. I am also super happy to be near the other families on Sam's boat. I've meet a few of them and love them already! But it was hard leaving family as I mentioned in my previous post. And it is always hard moving to a colder climate... but it will make Hawaii all the sweeter when we finally relocate there!

I drove up to NH on Wednesday and stayed with new friends from Sam's boat. They have been so great to me... letting me stay with them last week when I came up for the meeting and then again this week with the dogs in tow! Bella and Winston did great on the drive and had a blast playing with Zac and Rebekah's dog, Aidan. Thursday we had some time to burn before we could get into the apartment so I took the dogs for a ride up the coast and we checked out the Maine beaches. It was beautiful, but I will take SC beaches over these any day! It's kind of annoying because even though there is hardly anone on the beach (probably due to the fact that it never really gets warm enough here), dogs aren't allowed on the beaches here:( Bella was pretty upset... Winston still doesn't know what he is missing but will find out shortly on our trip to SC!

Despite the disappointing dog rules, it was a very pretty drive. And after getting into our apartment I explored Newmarket (our new town) a little bit. It is kind of a cute little town with several restaurants and little shops.

After exploring I found the nearest town with a real grocery store (as opposed to the little general store in Newmarket). Then I sat in our empty apartment trying to imagine how all our stuff was going to fit.

The next day the movers came and sure enough everything got into the apartment... however tight it may be! My WONDERFUL father-in-law drove up that day as well with a van full of stuff I had at their house. He was a total life saver! He helped me unpack and he put together our new patio furniture that is currently serving as our kitchen furniture. We went down to Portsmouth after spending a long day unpacking even though it didn't appear to make much difference since the place was still a giant mess! We had a delicious dinner at Jumpin Jay's Fish Cafe. I highly recommend the seafood chowder! Yum! Portsmouth is a pretty neat town... like the New England version of Annapolis. People are pretty nice but a little nuts... they are all wearing shorts and tank tops and it is definitely not warm enough for that here!

Saturday we drove around the Southern Maine coast and checked out a gorgeous light house but I forgot my camera... sorry! Then we did a little more unpacking and my father-in-law left to go home. Since then I have just been unpacking and cleaning and doing mountains of laundry. I had all te best intentions of trying a new church on Sunday, but it didn't happen... I was so exhausted and still had so much to do!

Today I am starting to feel better about the state of our apartment. Things are pretty much put away and now I just need to do a really thorough cleaning and find "homes" for some random things I don't know what to do with. This apartment literally has NO storage space so our second bedroom has turned into a large closet. There is pretty much only room for the treadmill and the desk and the rest is packed full of our stuff that doesn't have anywhere else to be! But it is okay cos it is at least organized now.

Today is also our two year wedding anniversary which I keep forgetting because Sam isn't home. In some ways I feel like the time has flown by and in other ways it feels like we have been married forever. Either way, I love being married... probably cos I have the BEST husband in the whole world (even though he adandon's me for months at a time... haha)! I really do thank God every day for blessing me with such a wonderful husband, I couldn't ask for a better marriage:)

Dad's Birthday Party

2008-06-02T14:33:00.008-07:00

My dad's 55th birthday was a week ago and my mom had a cookout for him. It was so fun getting together with family as it always is. Here are a few pics of the occasion.

My Dad had to cook his own dinner while my mom snuggled with Winston. Haha... to my mom's credit, she spent the previous two days preparing for the party and getting the porch ready for summer and guests.

My dad is at the point where his candles no longer represent his age... they represent years till retirement. He told my mom 11 more years. But... my mom only put 10 candles on there cos she is already ready for him to retire!

My mom did have a little help preparing for the party. I made the cake:) Spice cake with mocha icing... it's our family's favorite and it was yummy! All-in-all it was a great night. I was feeling pretty sad as I left the party because it was only a couple days till I would move to NH. I've never gotten emotional about leaving home before but I've so much enjoyed these few months being near family and reality is sinking in that I will probably never live so near them again and that is a sad thought. I am just glad that I have had this time while Sam has been gone to spend with some of my favorite people in the world... my family!

Congrats Lt JG Fromille!

2008-05-26T07:25:00.002-07:00

Today is promotion day for Sam! Not to mention a hefty little pay raise:) This is kind of an "automatic promotion" that everyone gets two years from commissioning, but I am still really proud of him. He has now been through all his training and has almost completed his first deployment... I'd say he deserves the promotion! Congrats to all our friends being promoted today as well:)

It also happens to be my Dad's 55th birthday and Memorial day! So Happy Birthday Dad! And I hope everyone has a lovely Memorial day and enjoys some yummy grilled food!

Fromille Family Adventures

*Healthy* Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

GMG Week 2 Reflection {Ephesians 1:15-23}

A few of my favorite things...

My Bread and Butter

You + Me + The Navy = Love {our military marriage}

Best Ever Blueberry Muffins

GMG Week 1 Reflection {Ephesians 1:1-14}

The Spirit of Christmas

Bon Voyage?

I love Christmas! (and cute babies)

Holiday Cookie Exchange

Q's Birthday Party!

A year ago today...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pay It Forward {GMG Week 9 Reflection}

Go Navy!

Advice Overload! {GMG Week 8 Reflection}

Love is a Verb

My bad day {GMG Week 7 Reflection}

It's a Girl!

Happy Halloween!

Practice Makes Perfect {GMG Week 6 Reflection}

ch-ch-ch-changes...

Herbivore/Omnivore Mixed Menu

GMG Week 5 Reflection

Princess Crab visits California

Fall is... pumpkins, football, chili

GMG Week 4 Reflection

Baby MBK is punctual!

Life = Growth {GMG Reflection}

GMG Week 3 Reflection

GMG Week 2 Reflection

GMG Week 1 Reflection

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

Meet Sarah: Inspiration for a healthy lifestyle

Accidentally *almost* Vegan

Vegetable Galette #2

Vegan Baltimore Peach Cake

A geometry teacher's musings on CS Lewis's discussion of reasoning

My very own vegetable galette recipe!

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream

How to throw an awesome croquet party...

Oreo Cupcakes!

Vegan fajitas & Sam's Favorite Vegan Soup

Camille's Awesome Veggie Enchiladas

A New Career! (kind of)

Day 26-31

Day 23-25

Day 15-22

Day 12-14

Day 9-11

Day 8: A Vegan Mother's Day Treat!

The Privilege of Motherhood

Vegan Bread?

Day 5-7

Day 2-4

Exploring Vegan Cooking

Preparing for Quinn

Sub Ball

Simple Soul Photography Photo Shoot

Life

Submarine Birthday Ball

Dolphins!

The new bedroom furniture

Painting Project

Spring Break!

Life on the Islands

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Moving

Update

Interview in NYC

Update

Weekend Off!

New friends and new memories

Cape May with the O'Connors

New Job

Weekend in Cape Cod

College Roomie!

Healthy Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Accidentally almost Vegan