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...