road trip weekend

the ginormous otter in fergus falls of otter tail county, mn

mom, grandpa, ilse the dog and i hit the road this weekend for fergus falls, mn. grandma and grandpa grew up about 8 miles outside fergus, and two of grandpas' sisters still live there. he hasn't seen them in a while, mom didn't have school (she's a teacher) due to presidents day, and Husby worked the whole weekend, so up we went!

it was a good visit. we went to the nursing home to visit with great-aunt L - who used to be a dead ringer for the church lady of saturday night live - and her husband. great-aunt L has some dementia and her husband has parkinsons disease, so conversation was a little lagging. but it was a nice visit nonetheless, and i know it was a well-timed one.

we stayed with great-aunt V. she is one wild 75 year old! she just retired from her job as a sexuality nurse - she actually was also a professor who taught other sex nurses. =) she actually moved back to fergus from detroit to take care of her sister (great-aunt L). every piece - pottery, paintings, cookware - in her home belonged to some relative and has a story. her daughter married a man from algeria, converted to muslim and moved to algiers. great-aunt V just got back from her 3rd visit to them. she's a wonderful, savvy lady.

it was grandpa's first trip to fergus without grandma, so naturally it was a toughie. we made burial arrangements for grandma, which was hard. both sets of grandma & grandpas' grandparents and parents, as well as other family members (including their 2 babies and adult son) are buried at swan lake cemetary. they grew up at swan lake church, which is in the absolute middle of the country - you can't even see a farmhouse from the church! when we bury grandma in the spring, it will be beautiful.

besides sad things, we had a great time. sharing the backseat of mom's car with the dog, eating out more times in 2 days than i have in 2 months, using the internet of my new pink blackberry from the car, staying up til 1am with my great-aunt and mom, sharing a futon bed with mom... all in all, it was a good trip.
aer<><

best of both worlds

Husby says one of his favorite things about me is my ability to easily transition between camp-princess-cowgirl-grownup-kid. i love being all these things and refuse to just pick one. so when the show hannah montana came on the scene, i fell hard. i love it! and can semi-relate. i mean, youth director by day (tirelessly praying for, playing with, and leading kids) and wife-sister-daughter-friend by night (tirelessly hacking at the proverbial to-do list)? totally like hannah montana!

when her best of both worlds tour tickets went on sale, scalpers scooped them up in the first seconds, leaving starstruck little girls sad. so disney came up with the idea of filming the concert in 3D, producing it as a feature length film, and charging $18 a ticket at a movie theater.

it worked. i totally went yesterday to the hannah montana/miley cyrus best of both worlds concert movie in disney 3D. it was great! the 3D glasses were a little hard to get used to, but after a while it worked. Husby didn't have to be dragged to the film - i went with a couple 13 year old girls from church. love my job!

in other news, happy valentines day! this was our first v-day together ever, and it was great. i made Husby almond bark dipped strawberries that turned out beautifully. we slept in, made brunch, ran a few errands, had supper with grandpa, came home and ate candy, drank champagne, and went to sleep. a lovely romantic valentine's was had by all.

aer<><

no more dick's (heehee)

yeah, i went there :)

so since he moved to the cities in august, Husby has been working at dick's sporting goods. and he has been miserable. he has so many gifts in ministry, and has really missed being involved in people's lives. so he's applied for several jobs, and today he accepted one and put in his two weeks at dick's! he's going to be a personal care assistant for a high school student who is disabled, and hopefully coach volleyball at this same school. the hours are totally regulated, and he'll be paid more for working less hours than he worked at dick's. nights, weekends, and the summer off. yipee!! the best part? he is so excited. just pumped. and that's great to see.
aer<><

confessions of a foodie wannabe

i have to come clean. when i first created this blog, i wasn't sure why. yes, it's therapeutic. yes, it's calming. yes, it's great to have friends in the computer. but i have come to believe that the real reason for my blog is to open my eyes to the food blog world. in less than 3 months, i have become a closet cook - a foodie wannabe.

i try to feed my addiction. i adore the food network (especially good ol' iron chef, 30 minute meals, and ace of cakes). i read cookbooks as though they were novels. i grin at the sight of my "baking cupboard" (mom's former a/v cabinet). i linger in the kitchen aisles, making wish lists in my head. i peruse craig's list daily for cheap stand mixer. i dream of having a non-apartment kitchen with miles of cupboard space and an island with a butchers' slab. for my last birthday i received recipe cards, the matching recipe box and book, my first cookbook, and my grandma's recipes for her gravy and infamous chocolate frosting. for Christmas, 2 more cookbooks came my way! my brother, who had given me a fuzzy cozy fleece blanket, said "nobody told me about the theme..."

and i read food blogs. every night. i try their recipes out. i drool over their yummy treats. i am awed by their creations.

even with all the gear and the blogs, i remain a closet foodie. besides my family, nobody really knows about my love for culinary creating. Husby sure loves it though. anything on a grill, he's got. eggs and pancakes, he rocks. anything else is all me. and actually, while i don't claim to be rachael, an iron chef, or shazam, i can hold my own! Husby has gained weight (as for me, we're not going there) and brags about his wife's cooking. i can follow any recipe (at least any one so far), am picking up techniques, and truly enjoy creating in the kitchen.

someday i'll invest in a camera that photographs decently enough so others can see the results of my closet love. but til then, a foodie wannabe i'll remain. sigh... feels good to 'fess up. =)
aer<><

lazy sunday links

i am not at church. i pushed the snooze button for an hour and finally considered it oversleeping, which we were both content with, until Husby said "crap! it's leadership installation day today!" (he's joining the adult ministries commission) which meant him frantically dressing and me looking for two matching socks and lots of hair goop because there wasn't time for a shower. now he's off and i'm contentedly not there, but home in my bathrobe, blissfully blogging away. =)

this weekend was the 30 Hour Famine. its a really cool event through a really cool organization called World Vision. The participants spend a few weeks raising money, i organize a lock-in, and we all go without food for 30 hours to raise awareness and money for hunger*. my first Famine experience was with my youth group growing up. our selfless rockstar volunteer youth leader arranged activities so we wouldn't be thinking about how hungry we were, fun projects so we could learn about hunger, slept on the church floor (or a crappy couch, i don't remember) with us, and made us homemade chicken soup and bread to gently break our fast with. when i was in school for youth & family ministry, a group of us went back to my little church to help lead the famine for new youth. it's become a really important event to me, and luckily to the kids i serve at church.

so from friday at 9:30am til saturday at 3:30 pm, i was hanging out with 25 foodless teenagers. and they. did. not. complain. not once! they were such rockstars. we played games, made a banner of 29,000 handprints (to represent the 29000 kids will die this year of hunger & malnutrition - it's an incredible visual), went on a canned food scavenger hunt (they collected 13 grocery bags full!), made meals at Feed My Starving Children (my kiddos made 13,000 meals!), drank lots and lots of water and juice, had mini-Bible studies, dealt with a girl whose mom kicked her out, dried tears as a newly "going out" couple had to be apart for the weekend, yelled at the boys who threw the ball too hard in dodgeball.... it was a great weekend! we broke the fast with communion, then ate a couple packets of the FMSC food that they had packaged. after cleanup, etc., Husby and i went home, ordered pizza (yep, we were that lazy), and watched a movie. a nice finish to the weekend.

and today is the big annual SuperBowl party in the youth room! should be fun - tons of kids, a big screen, old couches, and lots of junk food. good times! happy superbowl sunday, everyone!
aer<><

*will post the amount the kids raised in about a week- a few of them wanted extra fundraising time, so who am i to argue with that?!