the case of the sunken cake

so i decided yesterday to make this cake that i watched the barefoot contessa make the other day. she swore that it was the best chocolate cake in the world...and it didn't look THAT hard to make. so, i gathered my ingredients yesterday afternoon and began a cooking adventure. it was a homemade chocolate cake with a homemade chocolate buttercream icing. i think the pictures really say it all....


i will say, though, that it didn't taste terrible...it was very, very rich!! yummmmm....

five weeks and some...

well, we have almost made it through another sunday. we visited an evangelical free church this morning, which was a first...being from alabama, this is a pretty new denomination for us. turns out, it's pretty similar to the southern baptist denomination, from what i could tell. we got there way early (got a little confused on the starting time) and had a chance to chat with a few people...which was nice. this sweet old lady greeted us right after we sat down, gave us hugs (that's a first!) and told us she just had to talk to us "beautiful people"..lol. all the same, i think we are going to visit around still. i feel like we are never going to find the right place, and i'm aching so badly to get connected. not a good combination!!
we finally made it to our pool today! there were only a handful of people there, which was nice. it was super hot, though. (for some reason, up here, it feels like the sun is pelting down on you when it's out...) our pool area is a little strange-there are no lounge chairs-just wooden benches and picnic tables. which, as you might imagine, makes it a little hard to lay out. but, we decided to make the best of it and just laid our towels out right on the concrete. we sat and read/studied for a whole 10 minutes before we decided we needed to cool off (yes, it's THAT hot...my skin felt like it was burning right off...). so, we went to the edge of the pool and stuck our feet into the coldest pool water in the world (yes, in the whole world!). it was too cold to venture in any further, so we sat on the edge for a few...which really wasn't all that comfortable-the top halfs of our bodies roasting, and the bottom nearing frostbite! so, we went back to our towels...and then just gave up and came back to the house...
and the rest of our day has been kind of slow... we did go for a little run, which was nice. we have both had minimal exercise since we moved out here, but have started back slowly, but surely. there's a loop around our house that's exactly half a mile, so we walk/run around it twice together, and then my lazy boned-self goes back inside and ryan runs it four more times. it's really kind of funny and strange, i have continued to lose weight since we've moved out here, even though i haven't really been trying. in fact, i have eaten more sweets in the past month than i have in like the previous four months combined (ryan says it must be comfort food for me)... i have decided that it's the thin air and crazy effort it takes to simply walk around in this mile high city. anyway, anyone who wants to lose weight-come visit us for a month! you'll be amazed!!!! lol
well, one of my favorite shows (next food network star) is on, so i'm going to watch the rest of it...
until next time..

homesickness

it's just no fun!
we have been working at the house today, though we did escape for about 15 minutes to the grocery store. in colorado, or littleton, at least, there are no brunos, winn dixie, or publix. we have king soopers, andersons, safeways, and of course, target! we have been doing most of our shopping at target, but decided to venture to a few of the groceries this week.. today we went to the local king sooper and i was very impressed! it was HUGE and very, very organized...i think we will probably go back there!
tonight for dinner, we made taco pizza de christopher (my brother). he used to own a little pizza shop down in motown, and he had this amazing taco pizza. after he sold the business, i was bummed because i thought "no more taco pizza!" but, he made it for us last time we went to the beach together...and today, i decided that's just what we needed. so i called and he gave me his secret recipe and we made it! it was delicious! afterwards, i fixed ryan and i a bowl of ice cream and was being all silly as i took it to him... so silly, in fact, that i forgot the stone base of our fireplace sticks out into the walkway. as i was hopping along to give him the ice cream, i slammed the bottom of my foot right into it and then collapsed onto the sofa! apparently i barely made it to the couch, and sadly enough, the ice cream did not stay intact. i thought i had broken the bottom of my foot (if that's even possible) it hurt so bad! and the tears i have been trying to hold in all day came out in a fright...it was terrible. my sweet husband, grabbed the ice cream bowl and pretended (for a few moments) that he didn't care about it spilling on the couch. he got my some ice and put it on my foot and held me as i cried. after i settled down, he cracked up because he said i was jumping along all jolly and happy and then as soon as i hit the fireplace, my face became distorted...quite humorous to watch, he said! i felt so silly, i could only laugh myself. sometimes it's good for the tears to have an excuse to flow. i was telling him earlier today that i'm tired of being sad and missing home. i really want to enjoy our time in colorado...it's just hard being so far from home and trying to make decisions about what is going to be best for us... but, at the end of the day, i'm very thankful to be here with ryan in just the place we feel the Lord has called us, even if it is hard some days...
until next time..

inner dragonness

i have a terrible confession to make. it's terrible because i have shunned such practices for years and years... and here am i, getting into them myself. ready? i have been listening to books on tapes (ahhh...mom, i'm sorry!)! i got the complete audio set of the chronicles of narnia for my birthday and have been listening to it as i drive around town. (the radio stations in littleton are horrid, we cannot find one we like! oh how i miss rick and bubba!!!) right now, i am listening to the voyage of the dawn treader. i read the whole series a few years ago and truly enjoyed it... it seems i'm getting totally different things as i listen to it. so often i am struck by something in the story and just have to sit and mill on it a while. this morning, as i was driving into work, the story went on that one of the characters, eustes (who knows on the spelling of that?!), was somehow turned into a dragon. as it goes, it seems he actually became on the outside what he had been all along on the inside-an absolutele terror. when he first discovers his dragonness, he is frightened, but then immediately he is excited-he can finally get back at all of those people who have been mean to him...but then, very soon after that feeling comes another one all together-he gets very sad and lonely as he realized his dragonness separates him from all humans everywhere. he is only a dragon for a short time, but is absolutely miserable the entire time! he ends up meeting up with his "friends" (the "mean" ones) and somehow sharing with them that he is no dragon, but their friend/cousin eustes. they, at once, feel bad for him and as they interact with him...we find that his character has changed a good bit. no longer is he a whiney-hiney terror, now he is helpful and friendly to all...but he's still a dragon. he decides to run away, so the others can get on with their voyage...but as he is running he encounters a fierce lion, who says to him "follow me." eustes at once follows and is led to a pool, which he longs to swim in. but the lion, aslan, says that he first must undress himself-and take off his dragonness...eustes tears at his scales and skin and begins to peel layer after layer off. each time, he thinks he just might have rid himself of the dragonness, but as he looks down, each time, he sees that he is still a dragon! he looks at aslan and says that he will always be a dragon, it seems, since he cannot shake himself free of it. aslan tells him to lie down, and as he does, aslan reaches a sharp claw down deep into eustes... it hurts like nothing has ever hurt before, but as aslan pulls away the dragonness, he knows that it's a pain that is worth it. after a few moments, eustes is freed from his dragonness and dropped into the pool by aslan to be cleansed completely... afterwards, aslan dresses the boy so he can go on his way.
it's a beautiful, beautiful picture of redemption that i have been thinking about all morning. Jesus has painfully freed us from our "dragonness" and cleansed us and dressed us anew in His righteousness!

RaMbLiNgS

i didn't have to work today, so i spent a lot of time working on things around the house. in fact, i'm STILL working on our study...but just got to the point where it's totally overwhelming and decided to blog a bit. as we moved ourselves into each room in our house, all of our extra boxes came to the smallest room in our house: the study! so, now, trying to get things organized in here in just a huge headache. the problem is, it's a lot of study we'll need/want at some point or another. one major thing i just can't quite figure out a place for is all our notes from undergrad classes. honestly, i just threw some of them away, but some of the classes were lifechanging for ryan and i-and i feel like we might want to go back over those notes sometime!! i just came across a paper i wrote when i applied for the counseling program at sebc (in 2005!!). it was neat to read it and see the ways in which i've grown and changed since then..and the ways God has refined my future, too! the past few days, i've really been doing a lot of thinking about life matters, mostly graduate school and what i'm hoping to get out of it and what i'm hoping to do when i finish. my heart is really going two different places, which i have a feeling will connect at some point (though right now, my brain's having a hard time figuring out exactly how...): play therapy and hispanic counseling. i emailed with a very knowledgable source concerning play therapy this week and got some great advice. i had a bit of a freak out the other day at work when someone asked me what i'm studying in grad school. i said, "counseling licensure" and they went on and on about how they'd never heard of such a thing. i've been wondering if i need to be a little more specific in my studies.. but my knowledgable source seemed pretty positive about the track i'm on...i'll just need to take a few extra classes at another school at some point. but it's not a HUGE deal! the hispanic counseling is a little more tricky. the biggie right now is the language...which was so easy to learn while in guatemala, but not so much at home with the busyness of life. but every time i think about hispanic counseling, my heart just screams "yessss!!!" it's a little strange.. i'm not sure i've ever even heard of any counseling services specifically offered to hispanics, but there definitely should be one! they are dealing with some tough things; and those tough things are different in some ways than what "native" americans deal with. anyway, that's where i am right now...we'll see where the Lord leads. something kind of cool: i spoke with our professor at d.s. who is part Guatemalan and he gave me a little direction on us getting involved with a church that has hispanic ministry...so i'm pretty SIKED about that!!
other than my busy brain, things aren't too bad out here...though, don't be fooled! we still miss home terribly! ryan is still looking for a good job fit...he got offered a job at a local ymca yesterday, but the hours weren't really optimal. we are holding out, trusting that the Lord has something just right for him. :)
we were totally excited to find out earlier this week that we are going to be aunts! i have no idea what movie/tv show that came from, but if you've seen it-you surely know what i'm talking about. you know where someone is about to find out if they are going to have a boy or a girl and that person's brother says, "i can't wait to find out if i'm going to be an aunt or an uncle!!" (okay, note, much funnier if you actually see it!). so, yah, my sister-in-law is having a baby girl!!! we can now start planning and looking more specifically.. i almost had ryan talked into stopping by babies 'r us last night just to look for things! ALMOST!! :)
i am getting back into knitting.. i took some time off, especially since it's so warm out, but decided to jump back into it! i really do enjoy it so much. i'm working on my sweater still..hoping to finish it before winter comes! i started another project yesterday that i'm excited about, but frustrated with right now. i'm making some mittens for my sweet mimi for her birthday (sidenote: her birthday is in a few weeks and i know it's going to be WAY too warm for mittens, but she's always enjoyed homemade things...and since we are tight on money, i figured i could make a neat gift for her). i've gotten pretty far on my first mitten, but i'm stuck on the thumb. the pattern called for me to pretty much knit the whole thing and then come back to the thumb...well, now i'm there and i can't get it back going right! (help carol!!! ;))
well, i'm going to get back to my cleaning/organizing!
until next time..
ps check out this rainbow we saw yesterday! it is faint in this picture, but when we first saw it, it was HUGE and brilliant! such a beautiful thing... indeed God's promises are TRUE!!!

vbs...

i'm missing being a part of it TERRIBLY this week!!! :(

church hunting

well, we didn't find our new church home this morning, yet again. let me begin at the beginning. all week we have been talking about visiting a baptist church that we found online, not too far from our house. this morning, before i even got out of the bed (but quite a while after ryan had gotten out of bed), ryan came and asked me about church this morning. i got snappy and said we better be going to the baptist church that we've been talking about all week...at least to give it a try. he says okay, but then tells me how he thinks it's a purpose-driven church (as in rick warren, not just generally speaking) and how he hasn't really had very good experiences at those kind of churches (as in, they are driven to be too much like any other company in the world...not the purpose of the church!). i tell him we are going to at least try it this morning... well, ironically, once we got there (and were not greeted by anyone even though we sat RIGHT in the middle of the church AND got bulletins as we wandered in from two chatty-cathy's at the door--who we had to ask where to go!), the pastor shared how he JUST got back from a Rick Warren conference and...the whole sermon was a Rick Warren sermon. he mostly just chatted about this and that...and threw in a verse here and there. a couple of great lessons we heard:
1-helping a little old lady get her cat down from a tree=NOT kingdom work, a waste of time!
2-if you are thinking about what the pastor has said when you leave church or talking with your family about it (and the lessons you learned--you need to confess because you are guilty of sin!
3-the sole purpose of the church is go out and tell people about Jesus.
i won't go on...the things we heard are just not things that ryan and i believe.. we have no idea what could be "kingdom work", think the church's purpose is to worship Christ, and think it's of utmost importance to use your brain at church (no need to check it at the door!!). needless to say, this church will probably not being seeing us again. honestly, our search has been a little disheartening. i miss our sweet church family so so much (i know if you read this often enough you are probably sick and tired of hearing about it-sorry)! every week i end up breaking down because i feel like we are NEVER going to find the right place. i know, i know-we will... but the search is so frustratingly slow at times. i'm ready to connect with other believers again, to have a new family in our new town!
well, until next time...

check this out...

our new recipe blog: soyummyinmytummy.blogspot.com! the honey wheat bread recipe is there and more will come SOON!! :)

trip to the springs

we went and visited the united states air force academy, which was a pretty neat place! the chapel was, by far, the coolest part:

then, we headed over to this place called "the garden of the gods." it's basically just tons of huge rock formations that were amazing! we took lots of pictures...i picked some of my favorites to share:



this one is called the kissing camels...see their head and part of their bodies?

ryan and dustin (who is one of ryan's oldest bestest friends, who's visiting this weekend from the west side of CO)saw this rock formation and decided to climb it. once they got up there, they decided it felt a lot higher than it looked from the ground. i, as the photographer, said that once they got up there, it looked even smaller than before.

then they climbed out on this one, which a far bigger feat! very impressive!

while they were climbing, these young scouts walked by (btw: there were boy scouts EVERYWHERE!)..i got a few shots of them for ruthie-just in case things don't work out with david-lol!

just some more pictures...


ryan made me take a picture of this:
notice the tiny auburn decal-all the way out in CO!!! hooray!
finally, there was this lady that we happened to notice at the air force academy and then again at the garden of the gods (which was about 10 or 15 minutes from the academy). for some reason she stood out to all three of us. we cracked up every time we saw her...gave us that feel of a theme park or something. it was very strange and she looked very out of place. see if you can spot her:

christianity and immigration

we heard a wonderful talk tonight on this subject! it is such a hot topic and it was so refreshing to hear someone talk about it from the Christian perspective. he pointed out that the topic seems to be discussed quite a bit, but that you never really hear it talked about from the Christian's point of view. anyway, the speaker, dr. danny carroll is a professor at our seminary. he is part guatemalan, part american. i am super excited about the prospect of studying under him....just because he has a different perspective than most! he recently wrote a book called christians at the border: immigration, the church, and the bible. we bought it a few weeks ago, but i haven't gotten to start on it yet..it's next on my list, though! i will let you know how it turns out...

i heart cooking

i am really enjoying cooking and baking these days! i have a little more time on my hands, which means plenty of time to try new things. when hannah came last week, she brought some of my mom's favorite cookbooks for me to look through...and on top of that, i have like 50 other cookbooks, so it's been a lot of fun. yesterday i made homemade scones and they taste incredible! tomorrow i'm going to work on a creme fresh that compliments them! :) we have had some tasty meals over the past month and it has been so much fun planning and making them! as we speak, some homemade honey wheat bread is in the oven baking! yum yum yum! also, since we have a tv, we find ourselves mostly watching food network (okay, actually, this usually only happens when i have the remote)...there are some GREAT shows on, though! okay, we are going to get back to our movie now--dan in real life!

grace and smelly garlic

odd title, i know, but those are the things on my mind right now. i have been doing some reading for this class i took last week, and i came across this quote..which i thought was noteworthy enough to write about in my paper..and thought-provoking enough to write about here:

Grace provides the daily strength for the Christian’s spiritual journey. The believer begins a relationship with God as one who is accepted, loved, and delighted in. Much as a new mother beams with joy when the infant is first placed in her arms, so God delights in each of us as a proud Father. In the security of unconditional love I am free to grow and develop my life with God. I am not hindered by a need to win approval because it has been freely given. I am not entangled by doubts of my worthiness, for God gives me worth in Christ. If God is for me, who can be against me? It is God who has declared me righteous; who can condemn me?

It's so thought-provoking that i don't even really have much to say about it. it was a good reminder for me (and much needed!), so hopefully it will do the same for someone out there!
now to the garlic...is it not crazy how you can't seem to get rid of that smell? i have made the mistake of cooking with garlic two nights in row now. last night, i put some in my enchiladas...and while i couldn't really smell it on me, i could smell it in ryan's breath as we woke up this morning. and let me just tell you: it's a lovely thing to wake up to! =) tonite, i made homemade hummus with the recipe from a sweet friend (thanks deena!)...and it was so yummy (though not quite as yummy as deena's-i'm going to have to keep practicing)! while making it, though, i had to mash some garlic, which probably wouldn't have been so bad if i had a masher...but i don't. so, i just used my knife (like sometimes they do on tv), which worked-but got garlic juices all over me! and now i cannot escape from them!! i tried the good old "rub a lemon on you" trick, but still have that faint smell stuck on me... =\ oh well!
today i worked my first shift by myself (if i knew how to play some background music, here begins "all by myselelelf) and it wasn't so bad! it was pretty busy, which i really enjoyed! it's super humbling being in a place where you don't have answers for people...in three hours, i probably said, "i'm so sorry, i'm new and i have no idea what the answer to that is..." like a hundred times!! but thankfully people today were gracious and kind!
well, it's back to reading for me...
until next time!

missing home!

we've had a pretty good day today. it's been kind of slow, but we got to enjoy each other's company, which is always nice. ryan had class this morning and i worked for a few hours...then we just kind of chilled at the house. i tried to make granola and failed miserably twice! i used a recipe from the barefoot contesa, and it burned. then i used a recipe from a fellow blogger's site and it just didn't really cook quite right-turned out overly floury, too! :\ i did, however, experience success with dinner tonite. we watched a show called rescue chef yesterday (or saturday) on tv and he made enchiladas with cilantro lime rice..it looked so yummy, so we decided to have it at home:


they turned out pretty yummy, if i do say so myself. =)
like i said earlier, i have really been missing home today, for some reason. we waited to check our mail until a few minutes ago and there was one lonely little letter in there-from two of the sweet little girls from king (that were flower girls in the wedding). the other little girl sent me a letter on saturday...anyway, it was SO precious to read their notes and to know that they haven't forgotten us! precious, precious girls... and i miss them so much! such a joy to be around. it was a sweet little gift from God to get a note tonite from them...

happy day!

happy father's day to my sweet daddy! i couldn't ask for a better one... love you, dad!

new haircut

i got it all chopped off yesterday... i wish i could have taken a picture of all the hair on the floor because there was a WHOLE lot of it-kinda crazy! anyway, here's the new doo:

just living the dream!

my dear little sister made it to denver yesterday, along with my stepdad!!! it was SO nice to get to be around people we really know for a while.. i know it's a little surprising, but we REALLY miss our family! i only wish my sweet mama could have made the trip with them..but alas, she is speaking at a conference this weekend in NC, which is GREAT for her really...we just miss her! we got to meet up with hannah and dale last night for denver (and sadly enough, we forgot our camera!)...we rode the light rail down and walked around a while trying to figure out where to eat. we finally decided on this place called "lime", supposedly an american cantina. the name really sounded great, but it was decent, at best. the meet tasted almost like chinese food (not a good thing, if you ask me) and i'm pretty sure they made the rice last week and just microwaved it for us. yuck! their chips and salsa were redeeming, though!
as ryan and i were driving to school this morning, i was thinking about how crazy it is that we are grad students now. he is working his way well through his first grad school class and i am very close to being finished with mine! i can't believe we actually made it...i told him that when people ask how we are doing, we should start responding, "just living the dream, dude!" of course, i was halfway kidding! it sounds so silly to say, but this really is something we dreamed about doing. we didn't want to settle in to mundane jobs that we didn't enjoy, we wanted to follow our dream-and we actually did! we are attending a top of the line seminary, preparing to embark on a new journey of education. so, as cliche and silly as it sounds, we really are living the dream, man....

quick update on the day

it's been a busy day! ryan and i both had class this morning, then we went out to lunch-i was feeling kind of blue and REALLY wanted mexican food (i don't know what they put in that stuff! ;))! so, we went to lunch, then ran back home and took a brief nap..then i had to head to my first day of work-which i'll get back to, then after work, we went out to dinner with one of my birthday giftcards (red robin-thanks mom!) and then came home and have been working on school stuff for the past 2 hours..and now we are pooped and about to head to bed...
but before we do, i just wanted to let all my readers know that my first day of work went really well (i only was there a few hours, just training and stuff). i have the same sense i did yesterday about it being a little outside easy for me, but i'm really very excited about it! i enjoyed the people i met that i will be working with-they seem very genuine, which is a trait i value!
i have had a really anxious feeling that i've been carrying with me for a while now, just general nervousness about life...i was nervous today about going to work-oddly enough, it was my first time not to be around ryan since we've moved here (a little scary!), anyway, as i was driving along i had this real feeling of peace within me..i know it was straight from the Lord. even as we've been talking in my class this week about the Lord going before us and with us...
well, ryan is ready for bed, so off i go!

yay!

i got the job! my interview went surprisingly well and ended with the guy saying, "well, i never do this, but i think you are a great fit for us, i want to offer you the job!" i was like "okay, great!" it's for a counseling office that offers help for people who have drug or alcohol addictions or domestic violence problems. almost all, if not all, of the people who go there go because the court is making them-so they aren't necessarily stoked about it. i will be working as a receptionist, kind of-greeting clients, making appointments, billing..that sort of thing. but, i will also do breath and urine tests...which is kind of crazy! anyway, i think the job is a little outside of my comfort zone, but it's a GREAT opportunity that i think the Lord has laid before me. ryan and i have dropped off resumes and applied at a handful of different places and have heard not a peep! i even applied for a waitressing job and heard NOTHING (which seems crazy to me...)! i happened upon the posting for this job, sent my resume late sunday evening and received an email back within a few hours... set up an interview yesterday afternoon and went in for it today-and bing-bang-boom! i now have a job!! and one i am really excited about, too. and, even better news, i start training tomorrow! =) now...we are just trying to find the right job for ryan!!
until...

furry little friends

i saw the angel in the marble and carved until i set him free. -michaelangelo

my first day as a graduate student was not too bad. after only 3 hours of class, i can tell i'm really going to like it. it just feels right! my class is introduction to christian formation and training/mentoring. the class is very personal, there are only 6 students and 2 teachers...and has very much the feel of some of my sebc classes. we have to read two books for the class, one of which is written by one of my professors. it's called soul keeping by howard baker and it is very, very good. i started on it this weekend and am thoroughly enjoying it. i'll hold off my highest recommendations on the book until i actually finish it, but so far so good.

we went out for a little walk yesterday to capture some pictures of what i have officially named furry little guys, or more affectionately, at times, my furry little friends. they are all over the place out here-only not in our yard because of the sod (we think). the press is still out on exactly what they are..let me know if you know! we captured some really great pictures with our new sweet zoom lense!

notice the little baby's head! SO cute!!


i just thought this picture turned out really well..you won't find any furry friends in it, but i wanted to share it all the same...

and this last picture is for magen-notice the platter!

i have an interview tomorrow afternoon, so be praying if you think about it. it's not the job i was hoping for, but it could be even better..more to come on that.

until next time..

wonderful weather

it is 47 degrees outside this morning, on the lovely 9th of June!!!

church

finding a church home might not be as easy as i was hoping. i was hoping that we would, within our first couple of sundays, "happen" upon just the church the Lord has for us...but it hasn't happened just yet. we actually ended up leaving a church service this morning. for all who know ryan and i, you would likely agree with me when i say i make many a decision based on my feelings, while ryan usually tends to make his decisions by thinking things through. as the service began this morning, an feeling of uneasiness came over me, but i thought that since we were already there, we should give the church a try. but, after two songs (familiar songs, i might add..songs that i actually like-though the pace was WAY fast..but still, songs i like), ryan leaned over and said he had a weird feeling about the place...that he was just uneasy. i quickly agreed and a few moments later, he asked if i wanted to leave. i was very surprised, but thought since we both had a weird feeling about the place-maybe we should. and, so, we whispered about it a minute more and ended up leaving. that was a first for both of us...in the past, we've always just stuck it out at odd churches. and i have been to some strange places before. we decided, as we were walking back to our house (the church was SUPER close), to go try a small baptist church we had noticed down the road. so, we hopped in the car and headed down there, thinking we could be just like 10 minutes late, but unfortunately, the baptist church started before the one we had left, so we would have been like 40 minutes late... so, we drove around and looked at some other churches, but the time was not right for any of them. we actually thought at one point that we had found a place-but it turned out to be morman-interestingly enough, right across the street from it was a unitarian universalist church. and the morman church had no big sign with it's name on it, just a little sign by the door that my super-vision husband noticed. so that's how they get people to come?? anyway, ryan looked up some churches on the internet and we are all set with places to visit over the next few weeks, thankfully. =) but all that to say, we both really missed southcrest once again this morning...we missed hearing geunine people share their faith, being encouraged in the Word, and worshipping with fellow believers. :\

finally!

we got our internet up and running..well, kind of. the cable guy came today and got our modem all set up. we had purchased a wireless router a few days ago and ryan spent much of the afternoon trying to get it set up....to no avail! it was very frustrating because neither of us really knows all that much about computers! :\ needless to say, we ended up giving up and it still isn't working. so so sad!!
i made my first ever crockpot dish today. for those of you who don't know, my mom is the crockpot queen! she can make anything and everything in the crockpot, and most of it-she actually has. she makes the best chicken ever...and some pretty delicious roast! she's also been known to try some other things, none quite as infamous as the crockpot oatmeal. i mean, it sounded like a good idea-letting the oatmeal cook all through the night and spread it's delicious aroma throughout the house. and then, when you wake up the next morning, breakfast is already ready! all you have to do is scoop some out and enjoy! well, while i didn't have the privilege (i can never spell that word for some reason) of having some myself, i have heard enough to be thankful that i wasn't there! let me just say one sister said she had the runs for days... t.m.i., i know! ANYWAY, back to my chicken-i called my mom and got one of her crockpot recipes and went at it...i don't know the actual name for it, but it was a lemon chicken with potatoes and croutons. it turned out pretty yummy for my first ever! i was going to take a picture to show all my fans out there (lol), but ryan was hacking away at it before i had a chance (in all fairness, i actually forgot that i intended to take a picture and asked him to find me some white meat to eat!). so, you'll just have to imagine what it looked like...
until next time...

another year older

these beautiful things were delivered to our doorstep yesterday morning from my sweet mom and family... tulips are my FAVORITE and these are some of the prettiest i've ever seen! i love all the colors!!!

we had a wonderful day celebrating my birthday yesterday, though it didn't start out too great! we spent much of the morning crying together, sad that we weren't at home. i missed my sweet family more yesterday than i have before...but, ryan was a trooper and we enjoyed the rest of our day. he made me a delicious breakfast-eggs, toast, and egg in toast with some of my mimi's yummy spiced tea. then, later on in the day, we got to ride to Ltrain for the first time here in Littleton and it was a GREAT experience! it was a super easy and convienient way to get downtown denver.


once we got downtown, we went and had a late lunch/early dinner at my favorite place--the cheesecake factory! ryan got the biggest burrito i've ever seen...and almost finished it!!


(it's kind of a bummer picture-wise that it was just the two of us, because we could only get shots of each other, and then, of course, those silly shots with ryan sticking his arm way out holding the camera and shooting us-not so great for seeing the scenery...though for all of those out there who like only one of us, you can enjoy these pictures! ;)

i really loved the part of downtown that we were in. it's called the 16th street mall, but it's not a mall like the galleria or the summit. it's just a street that goes on for blocks and blocks with different shops and restaurants. the middle of the street is kept up really nicely with benches and everything. the only traffic allowed on this particular street are buses that will take you up and down the blocks for free! it's really a very nice place. i think maybe for the first time since we've gotten here, i thought, "i really, really love this place!" it's definitely my favorite so far! so, we had lunch and then we kind of meandered.. i got a few pictures.







we did something VERY exciting! we have this FABULOUS camera that takes amazing pictures that sometimes come out looking like we are professionals...we have been looking at getting a new zoom lense for it (we have been jealously eyeing my brothers for months now). the price on it has been great, but we just haven't really had the extra money. well, my grandmother sent me a birthday card this past week and inside was not only some money for me, but also some for ryan (because she missed his birthday)...and it was enough for us to buy the lense for OUR birthdays!!! so, we finally got it! =) i'll have to post some pictures that we take with it soon. it's a pretty sweet dealio!

after this, we hopped back on the Ltrain (i don't think that's actually the name of it, i just like to call it that...) and headed back to littleton. it was a much more crowded ride (being later in the afternoon), but so much better than fighting traffic! after getting back home, we hung out for a while, then went to the library for a few and then went to see prince caspian. can i just say i was terribly disappointed. i mean, i actually dis-enjoyed it so much that i wanted to leave in the middle of the movie. it's been a few years since i've read the book, but certainly it wasn't ALL fighting, was it? i mean, i felt like i was watching braveheart or lord of the rings. terrible, terrible, terrible... but, we did get student tickets, since we are in seminary (the lady was like, "well, i guess you have to study there like anywhere else.."), so it didn't cost us an arm and a leg to get in (just an arm!).
so, my first birthday as a married woman was not too bad. i loved being with ryan and celebrating with him-he is absolutely the BEST husband in the world...he even made me a birthday cake because i couldn't find one i liked at the store. it's been a very, very long time since i've had a homemade birthday cake, and it was my absolute favorite in the whole world-party cake (the funfetti kind). it was even better than the cheesecake! (we had the birthday cake on wednesday night, since we knew we'd have cheesecake at the CF).

(we got the honey bee kind because for every carton you buy, money is donated to the research on why the honey bees are disappearing. did you know that 1/3 of the honeybees in america died in 2007-that's an ALARMING number..and no one knows why! so, buy some honey bee ice cream and do what you can to help this cause...)
(notice ryan's new doo)

the hunt is on!

i hate job-hunting! it's just not fun at all... ryan and i have been at it, though not extremely seriously, since we got here. neither of us really know what we want to do, but we need to do something...and we want to do something we will enjoy. we don't want to be stuck doing something that makes us miserable (umm been there, done that, got the t-shirt!). there's some balance, though...between needing a job and finding something we'd enjoy. i mentioned the other day that there's a really great prospect for me, but i haven't heard anything yet. one of our friends told us that they tend to be slow in getting back with people...which is kind of a bummer. i really would LOVE this job, but i need to go ahead and get started at something kind of soon. ryan is looking at a few different places, but hasn't really found anything GREAT, you know? so...pray for us when you think about it. that God would lead us to the PERFECT jobs.
i actually am going to take a class this summer, after all. i got to looking at the schedule on monday and found a class that i needed. i hadn't really considered taking one, because i figured i'd be working a lot...but alas! i'm free still! it's just a one week class, but i can go ahead and get a little "under my belt." ryan is doing well in his class...he is studying a WHOLE lot! i'm so proud of him...Hebrew is NOT easy, but he's working hard! and he's doing well... he has to memorize 40 vocab words for each class time-that's 120 words a week!! that's pretty stinking crazy!!!!
oh well...until next time!

caught

the clouds have been rolling in all morning. as ryan and i finished our delicious lunch, i decided that we should run to the mailbox really quick to drop some things off and see if we had anything. note: our mailbox is not far from our house...maybe like a city block (even though we live in a neighborhood, not a city!). we got about five steps off our porch and noticed some really large raindrops falling, kind of sporatically. all of a sudden, it got a little bit harder and we realized those drops were actually hitting us pretty hard...turns out-hail! i took off running for our mail box and ryan just laughed at me...then, as it started hailing harder, he started sprinting, too. we got to our little covered mailbox area and got our mail...and looked out to see the hail coming down even bigger and harder...we had no choice, but to run to our house, so off we went.. i put our mail on my head for a little protection, but unfortunately, we both got pelted all the way home!! we aren't talking little hail either... like softball size, i'm sure!! okay, actually more like nickel size, but chunks of ice falling hard from the sky sting a little regardless the size! and wouldn't you know, not 5 minutes after we got back into our safe little house, the storm ended! anyway, just thought i'd share... it's actually supposed to start cooling off here, which is awesome! it's already cooler after the storm...




ps i can tell i'm not quite used to the thin air (and that i haven't ran in a while), my lungs were hurting terribly after our little run!

also, i know i posted pictures of our townhouse before we actually moved all of our stuff in. as we get things unpacked and set up, i thought i'd share some pictures. these are from our kitchen (the flowers are the ones from glenn and carol, that apparently didn't upload last time!).



and one last picture.. the clouds near our house looked INCREDIBLE last night..we tried to get a good picture, but ended up with only decent ones...