cranberry bliss bars

Brandon's favorite Starbucks pastry is the cranberry bliss bar so this year when Christmas was over and they no longer carried them he was pretty sad. So he found a recipe for them and let me tell you they taste exactly the same and are ssoooo good!

i got the reciepe at:
http://www.topsecretrecipes.com/

christmas cards...

Brandon decided that for some of his relatives we could do cards and pictures for christmas, and of course i couldn't pass up the fun of making them! so here's how they turned out...
*notice the cute snowman one, Brandon decided he would let his creativity come out and make one...i love it!

6 months...

...some of the best months of my life.

: )

here are a few things that have been adding happiness to my life...

- house. i kept watching them out of order but Britt just bought me season 1 so me and Brandon have been watching it all the time. what can i say its a great show!

-a trip to la including rain, little toyko, farmers market, disneyland, and my momma! makes for one wonderful birthday trip.

-My birthday! i mean who wouldn't be happy on there bday! especially when it consisted of pizza for dinner and my favorite pumpkin cheese cake for dessert! (i guess britt thought i liked math and made my cake 9+8+3=20 :))

- dinner with the girls at my favorite Italian place...so yummy!

- Brandon is officially the best gift buyer i've ever met! he got me a white pea-coat, a pizza stone, a yellow hankie, an antique heart locket, and the best loose leaf tea i've ever had!

- and then the best discovery of the month! this amazing ice cream! its like heaven...its sweet cream ice cream with swirls of hawaiian lehua honey. its so delicious.

- my morning ritual has been combined with my obsession of playing hearts on the computer. and this morning billy joined in on the relaxing morning : )
needless to say my life has been busy and amazing. and i'm loving it : )

its true. i wanna be taylor swifts friend...

playing house...

i love bookstores! especially the kids section... : )

so my parents are in alaska on a cruise and i'm playing mom for the week...its not the easiest thing going from no children to 5 but its fun and exciting. : )
we've gone to olive garden, gone shopping, made pizza, bought lots of food, watched the hannah montana movie, made milkshakes, gone to the pool, went to farmers market, ate and drank lots of starbucks, went to mcdonalds, done a lot of cleaning, stayed up late, woken up early, laughed, cried, and now been sick. yup Jo decided to get a fever and Lydia decided to follow suit and do the same as well...
needless to say its been an exciting week!

handon.

yeah this has pretty much been my life lately...

and i find it quite amazing.

The Orphanage...

When I was staying in Nepal a couple came to see the orphanage I lived at, I totally forgot about it untill today when I was going through my letters from the kids and came across there card. They wrote a nice little page and posted some super cute pictures.
you should go see how adorable my family in nepal is...Our Father's House

this rain makes me want my tin roof in nepal back...

I tried my hand at making samosas the other day. The dough was a little to flaky for my liking but it still tasted delicious. I had never tried garbanzo beans before going to Nepal but now I really like them. I mean they kinda taste like nothing but I like the texture and the slight flavor they do have : ) I've learned that I really miss the flavours of Nepal. They use like the same 5 spices in everything, its become almost like a comfort food to me now. I couldn't even tell you how many garlic cloves I peeled and ginger roots a cut up at the orphanage!

this inspires me:
"The seasons remind me that I must keep changing, and I want to change because it is God's way. All my life I have been changing. I changed form a baby to a child, from soft toys to play daggers. I changed into a teenager to drive a car, into a worker to spend some money. I will change into a husband to love a woman, into a father to love a child, change houses so we are near water, and again so we are near mountains, and again so we are near friends, keep changing with my wife, getting our love so it dies and gets born again and again, like a garden, fed by four seasons, a cycle of change. Everybody has to change, or they expire. Everybody has to leave, everybody has to leave their home and come back so they can love it again for all new reasons."
-Donald Miller

David after the dentist

If you feel like a good laugh you need to watch this. I found it quite funny...

John Winthrop

So one of our bookstores in the mall went out of business so of course before it did I had to go check out the deals. I got this really cool book called The Greatest American Speeches. I love hearing speeches because there so inspiring and passionate. Kinda a random book for me to buy but so far I love it.
The first speech in the book is by John Winthrop. In 1645 he was accused of exceeding his power and him and other magistrates were impeached following an incident in which people believed that they had involved themselves unnecessarily in a local election. I thought the speech he gave when leaving office was really quite good.

"When you see infirmities in us, you should reflect upon your own, and that would make you bear the more with us, and not be severe censurers of the failings of your magistrates, when you have continual experience of the like infirmities in yourself and others.
...This liberty is maintained and exercised in a way of subjection to authority; it is of the same kinda of liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. The woman's own choice makes such a man her husband. Yet, being so chosen, he is her lord, and she is to be subject to him, yet in a way or liberty, not of bondage; and a true wife accounts her subjection her honor and freedom, and would not think her condition safe and free but in her subjection to her husband's authority. Such is the liberty of the church under the authority of Christ, her kinda and husband.
...If you stand for your natural corrupt liberties, and will do what is good in your own eyes, you will not endure the least weight of authority, but will murmur, and oppose, and be always striving to shake off that yoke. But if you will be satisfied to enjoy such civil and lawful liberties, such as Christ allows you, then will you quietly and cheerfully submit unto that authority which is set over you, in all the administrations of it, for your good. Wherein, if we fail at any time, we hope we shall be willing, by God's assistance, to hearken to good advice from any of you, of in any other way of God. So shall your liberties be preserved, in upholding the honor and power of authority amongst you."

love actully.

"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaking suspicion...

love actually is all around."

"we’re called partners, because it’s not just a job, it’s our passion." -starbucks

So lately i've been in the crafty mood. For my birthday in oct. i got a adjustable dress form which is simply amazing! it makes fitting and sewing tops super easy! So my first project was this dress. Usually i end up never wearing the things i make because i see all that is imperfect with it but i actually wear this all the time. this isn't the finished product, i don't have a camera at the moment so its kinda hard to get pictures of everything.

So i always just look at the patterns at the thrift store but they are usually crazy patterns from the 80's and 90's but the other day when i was there they had some awesome patterns that are all mostly from late 60's. And at only 10cents a pattern i couldn't pass any of them up!

Then this last saturday was the civil war ball and so i made myself a new top for my dress. the last one was a last min rush so i wasn't really a fan of it so somehow i made a new top without a pattern (thanks to my dress form!) and it turned out pretty good, not perfect, but way better then the last one.

In other news did you guys know starbucks came out with a new mission statement. It is amazing i think. the last one was just blah but this one just sounds so starbuckish : )

To inspire and nurture the human spirit— one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.

onward.

Emma comes home today...

its been almost 6 months...

red cups.

its right around the corner...

apple scones and quotes...

So I don't have much to say but I was reading my friends blog the other day and found some good quotes. And also I wanted to share these amazing apple scones. They were oh so delicious.


“I have but one passion: It is He, it is He alone. The world is the field and the field is the world; and henceforth that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ."
Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf

“‘Not called!’ did you say? ‘Not heard the call,’ I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father’s house and bid their brothers and sisters and servants and masters not to come there. Then look Christ in the face — whose mercy you have professed to obey — and tell Him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish His mercy to the world.William Booth

"I truly believed there is a higher being if I ever had a doubt. It can't always be around for everyone soo that's why he made family and friends.. Which I thank everyone who has been prayin and keepin me and zephyr in their thoughts.

It was ur thoughts & prayers that saved him I know it.. Cuz I almost lost my most valuable treasure. Little things do count. Every little thing. And the last 9 mos are fully worth every second. I cannot explain to u the feeling of lookin into ur childs eyes or holding them for the first time. I feel whole for the first time and am the happiest I've ever been. He's so amazing already.. What a soldier.. Just like his mama. I love like I never have loved before. And my promise to him is that I wil live everyday workin my ass off to make the best life for him and make it worth his fight.

Thank you soup mom dad ash & kate for bein there every step of the wayy {thou u probably saw things u never wanted to see :)} I love you guys so much.

He can't wait to meet all his aunt && uncles well be out of the hospital soon I hope with ur continous love support & prayers/ thoughts.

Zephyr jahke

7lbs 12 lbzs 21 inches.

10. 02.08

The day life began.

<3xxb"

I am so proud of you Brittany Rose and I cannot wait to met lil Zephyr.

You both are such fighters and I love you two so much!

Colossians 1:24-29

"Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me."

I read this passage while I was trekking through Mustang and it quickly became the passage I kept coming back to for the remainder of the trip.


I walked through villages with out a single believer, you could walk up to people and ask them if they knew who Jesus Christ was and they had never heard that name before. They are so lost in darkness. They believe if you read that bible you go crazy. I never though I'd see a demon possessed person. I also never thought I'd have to amazing privilege to see people come to Christ, to see people get baptised in those villages. God is working. You know how you will share the gospel with someone and then just pray that someone will come along to water it. Well we got to be the ones to water the seed.
There was one village in particular that was so ready for harvest. But we weren't able to stay and that was the hardest place to leave. Knowing that you're leaving baby Christians in a pack of wolfs. We covered that village in prayer and still are. But our God is great. What he started He won't let die. We just had to learn that God is bigger then us. And He has a plan for them and there growth.
The people in Nepal are so beautiful. I pray that God will continue working in there lives.

Home is where the heart is.

If that phrase is true then I guess I have homes all over because pieces of my heart are all over the world. Sometimes it hurts not to be everywhere my heart is but most of the time I feel so blessed to have had the chance to go and see and learn and love.

First, of course, it went with my family. I miss them so much every time I go away.

Then I went to Ireland. Oh the beauty. And the precious kids I got to spend time with. And the family of believers I got to spend time with. (oh and is it ok to mention the amazing ice cream : ))

Then there was that hayfield in Illinois and of course Minnesota. I know those aren't any amazing overseas place but really, they were amazing also.

Haiti. (yeah sorry I didn't have an actual pic in Haiti on my computer and I didn't want to go search for one) That was amazing. The sweat. The bug bites. No really I loved it. But those memory's seem to stick out in my mind sometimes : )

Israel. I walked to roads Jesus and His disciples walked. Need I say more?











Oh Nepal. I know I've been a few places, but really, will I ever go anywhere else so beautiful.
The people are the most welcoming people I've ever met, the mountains are amazing, the food is so delicious. I left I big piece of my heart in that orphanage with my kids.


But those are only the places I've been so far. I'm only 18 I've got a lot of adventures left to go on and a lot more places to see and so many more people to love.


Oh I can't wait...

Oh how i miss you Nepal...