Breaking Down for Breaking Dawn...

Look carefully at the above picture...and answer me this: Do you know what wonderful thing happens in ONE WEEK??? Give up? BREAKING DAWN, PART 1!!! Now, let me start off by saying that my excitement and slight obsession with all things Twilight Saga are not dangerous, or borderline crazy. You will not find me locked in my parents basement, with vampire bite marks permanently tattooed on my neck, rolling myself in glitter. In fact, I just have a deep appreciation for a good, CLEAN romance. I still remember the first time I read the Twilight books. Here is how I finally caved into the Twilight phenomenon:
I am incredibly active in working with my church's youth group, and try to pay attention to what they are watching and listening to. I am not one of those people who tries to like everything teenagers like to be "cool"...but I do like to know what I am spiritually up against. Let's be honest...there are certain things in pop culture today that have complete "dumbed down" our teenagers. An excellent example of this is the RIDICULOUS show, Jersey Shore. Basically, it's an hour-long reality disaster that follows around this group of young adults from the Jersey Shore who stumble around drunk, making out with each other, sleeping around randomly, and saying things that would make our ancestors roll over in their graves. It's terrible. And our teenagers today eat it up! They laugh at it...they talk about it...they even mimic it. It's absolutely embarrassing. So, this is something that I keep in mind when talking to them and encouraging them to be good, Godly young men and women. I try to present the OPPOSITE example of what things like Jersey Shore offer. Well, around the Summer of 2008, I had started to hear my youth kids talking about this vampire love story. They were all caught up in some story where a normal, human girl falls in love with a vampire...and how he struggles with not killing her because he loves her...and how her best friend, a werewolf, tries to keep her from the vampire because they are mortal enemies. I was THOROUGHLY confused. And...a little disturbed. I couldn't figure out why my youth girls were so in love with a VAMPIRE STORY!!! It just did NOT make any sense to me. So, one day...I borrowed the 1st of the four books from one of the youth girls. I decided to just flip through it and make sure it was clean. Keep in mind, I was INCREDIBLY skeptical at this point. I will never forget it...I sat in my brother's recliner, all curled up under a blanket, with just the lamp on, and some Gavin DeGraw playing softly in the background. It was almost midnight, and I was about to head to bed. I was simply going to skim through it...or so I thought. It wasn't until I was about 3 pages in that I realized I wasn't going to be able to flip through it. By the end of the first chapter, I was hooked. That's right...it took ONE CHAPTER. That's all. About 3 hours later, I was half-way through reading the book. I finally had to MAKE myself put it down...and it was ONLY because I knew I had to work the next morning. Anytime I had a spare moment, I continued my reading...and it literally took me just under 2 weeks to read all four books. As previously discussed in my last post, it doesn't take much for me to get addicted to something. Not long after reading the books, the first movie came out. I watched it 11 times. That's right...ELEVEN TIMES. Thankfully, I calmed down after the movie. I saw the second and third movies only twice each. Haha...
So, there it is. The story of how I began my love-affair with Edward Cullen. This next movie will be packed with all of the things I've been waiting for: Wedding, Honeymoon, Baby. THIS is why I am so excited. Seriously, my absolute favorite thing about the Twilight Saga is how innocent it is. Yes...there are vampires and werewolves. But, the love between Edward and Bella is so pure. The innocent romance between them is, sadly, something we don't see anymore. I cannot tell you the last time I watched a movie where the main couple made it a point to practice ABSTINENCE. That alone is something I truly love my youth kids seeing. I love how this book series made it OK to stay a virgin until marriage. The way they take things slowly, and just have a sweet romance has my youth girls wanting nothing less for themselves. Even though there is the OBVIOUS unrealistic aspect of it (with the mythical creatures)...I try to use it as an example. I try to point out how sweet Edward is, and how waiting until marriage for consummating the relationship just makes their story that much more amazing. To me, more love stories should take a cue from these stories.
So, when does all this excitement take place? ONE WEEK!!! That's right...November 18. This is when it all happens...when FOREVER is just the beginning...

Pinter-vention...please?

So I've been trying to decide what I want my first blog post to be about. I finally decided to write about my latest obsession - PINTEREST. Now, I will be the first to say that it does not take much for me to get horribly addicted to something. Not like cocaine, or anything like that...but like...mind-numbing, time-wasting things. Remember when Myspace was cool? I was hooked. I thought it was the most amazing thing in the world! Then, one sunny afternoon...my old college friend, Kacee, introduced me to a little thing I'd like to call Facebook. Needless to say, the minute I filled out the registration information on that slate blue web-site...I was addicted. Having an avenue to keep in touch with old friends I hadn't seen since my glorious days at good ole' Spiro High, along with all the ones I've made along the way...it was WONDERFUL!!! My favorite thing about the old Facebook was getting to update my status with whatever random-ness I could think of. So, a few months ago, Facebook changed their formatting...AGAIN. It's new home page now has a creepy feed that gives you constant updates of all of your friends. Through this, I kept seeing people talk something called Pinterest. I was intrigued. I found out that it had fun recipes, and craft ideas. As you can imagine...I NEEDED to find out more...ASAP!!! I soon figured out that it was a popular iPhone app, which broke my heart. I searched far and wide to see if there could have been an Android app, since this is the phone I have. Sadly, no such thing existed. One day, I saw a picture on a Facebook friend's feed of some yummy dessert they had made from a recipe they found on Pinterest. I decided to investigate when a possible Android app would become available. It was then that I stumbled upon the actual Pinterest web-site ((Sound the Hallelujah chorus)). Now, I can honestly say my life is that much more technologically complete. My dear friends and co-workers (KaCee and Donna) and myself have attempted several of the recipes already. Let me just be honest and say some of them were DELIGHTFUL. HOWEVER...there were a select few that were EPIC FAILS. One recipe in particular was for these little ditties called Resurrection Rolls. Basically, it was marshmallows dipped in butter, rolled in cinnamon and sugar, and wrapped in a crescent roll. Now, keep in mind that when I finally printed the recipe for them, it came complete with a Bible story of the resurrection of Jesus. Now, please do not get me wrong when I say what I am about to say...but...REALLY??? As we made these bite-size desserts, we laughed, and laughed...and laughed some more. It was just comical. I love Jesus. I really do. But comparing Jesus to marshmallows?? That was just a bit much. So, we followed the direction to a T. We ended up with 32 of those bad boys. How did they turn out? AWFUL. Here is what they were SUPPOSED to look like:

Cute, right??? WRONG!!! This picture looks like they are tiny and precious. Lies. COMPLETE lies. This is how they ACTUALLY turned out:

They were MASSIVE!!! And awful. They burned on the bottom because all of the buttery-sugary goodness rolled OFF of the marshmallow, and stuck to the bottom. PLUS...the crescent rolls didn't catch ANY of the taste. They were SUPER bland. And hard. It was TERRIBLE. After we picked the marshmallow out a few of them...we realized we couldn't make ourselves like them...and tossed them.


Like I said earlier...not ALL recipes turned out like those sweet Resurrection Rolls. I got this recipe for this amazing iced drink called Frozen Hot Chocolate. For me to find the perfect words to describe it would be nearly impossible. Let's just say it was like a tiny, chocolaty miracle in a mug. Here is how it turned out for us:

Looks amazing doesn't it? It tasted even BETTER than it looks!!! Anyhow...there it is. I find myself scouring Pinterest high and low for more and more recipes to try. And on top of that, I find myself looking for fun projects to do. I have never had a NEED to be so creative in my life...until Pinterest.


For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of being introduced to all that is Pinterest...I suggest you stop what you are doing RIGHT NOW...and join this ever-addicting bandwagon. Trust me...you'll waste so much time...and LOVE EVERY MINUTE OF IT!!!

http://pinterest.com/