Of Sex Education And Such...

I boarded a plane for Vegas yesterday. I was running behind because I went to work. I've learned that if I go, I never leave. Well, not never, but you get what I'm saying. It was a crazy weekend around that place, thus I was sleep deprived and behind so there were things that needed to get done. Long story short, my good friend at work offered to drive me to the airport and it's a good thing she did. I would've missed my plane otherwise an if I had, I would've missed out on a great conversation.

Let me set this up for you.

Front row, aisle seat. Middle seat empty, window seat taken by a dog. And his service trainer, a girl in her mid-to-late 20s.

Lots of people walk by, nobody wants to sit between two young, attractive if I must say so myself, ladies.

And then, he sits down. A 20-something dude.

"This seat taken?"
"Nope, all yours."

We take off, fairly bumpy ascension and things are great. I whip out my "Ladies' Home Journal" and "Woman's Day" magazines and get to reading about how to get my body back to it's 20s (oh, wait), how to balance life as a stay-at-home mom with three kids who have 15 differed activities a day (not so much), and the best fall paint colors for your built-in reading nook (if only). In all honesty, I bought the magazines because one cover had a tasty-looking chicken pot pie (it was 3:00pm and I hadn't eaten lunch) and the other had Miranda Lambert (she's from Texas, isn't stick thin and seems like a normal 28-year old).

I digress. I'm reading and he breaks the silence with service dog training cute 20-something year old. We'll call her Beth. He can be Yao because he had some Asian descent in him.

"Cute dog." (Really, that's all you've got?) "what's his name?"

"Thanks, Niko."

"That's cool. He's a service dog, huh?" (What, the blue best with the embroidered "service animal" in yellow didn't give it away?)

"Yeah, we're getting there. He's obviously still in training."

They continue on...what do you do? Where do you live? What is your ultimate career goal? They actually had quite a bit in common. Both engineers, one electrical, the other software. Both have had opportunities to go into management but turned it down because the extra work and stress wasn't worth the small pay increase to them (and could I have added to THAT conversation). Both had parents that were awesome but a little pushy in terms of the direction of their career. In my head, I was thinking, "this could actually be a really neat match." And it was at this point that I was reminded of how extremely glad I wasn't in the dating world anymore.

They kept talking, I may have dozed off for a few minutes and when I came to again, it all went downhill.

I must have missed how they got to this point, but he began talking about sexual activity in young people. I whipped my head around a quick 90 degrees with my jaw on the floor. Okay, maybe not. And it went something like this.

"I was reading this study about how there's been a decline in out-of-wedlock intercourse in younger people. The people on the 'right' believe it has to do with abstinence education and of course, those on the 'left' think it has everything to do with basic sex education in the school system." She's kind of nodding, mm-hmm'ing along and I'm thinking, "dude, you just killed the conversation."

He continues, "I have my own theory, and maybe it's because of my job. I think it has something to do with the increase of usage of video games. I mean, think about it. Kids these days aren't running outside, playing creative made-up games or reading and writing. They're in front of the TV trying to beat another kid at Madden." SERIOUSLY?!? Did you just bring sex AND video games into the same conversation?

I mean, I couldn't agree with him more about the non creative play, But that's an entire other blog entry.

"I truly believe they are too busy thumbing their way through aliens and combat to thunk about sex."

I tried really really hard to not laugh out loud. Not because I thought it was necessarily funny, but it was definitely entertaining. Had I been sitting in her seat I am not sure what I would've done.

I think the thing that most surprised me is that she actually continued on with being engaged in conversation and started talking about Super Nintendo and her favorite games - Donkey Kong, Super Mario 3, etc. I think she and I could probably be good friends.

I'm not sure why I was so caught off guard but I was. I just find it interesting that his theory revolved around another guy obsession. They're suppressing their hormonal tendencies and thoughts on sex with other barbaric and possible hormonal ideations like violence. I wonder if it would be basis for a study...

He concluded the overall conversation with a question on whether training a service dog could be compared with training a boyfriend. And then he asked if the boys got a vest, too. That's when I checked out because I just couldn't take it anymore. Needless to say, I'm not so sure Beth and Yao will be exchanging vows but at least it helped the two hours fly by. Pun intended.

Ten Days...Five Students

Ten years and twelve days ago, I was asleep in my bed in room 3-something in Mosher Hall. It was my freshman year at Texas A&M and Tuesdays were a late date for me. My first class wasn't until 0935 or so and every last second of sleep was coveted. I woke up shortly after 0800 seconds before my alarm went off and rolled over to see my roommate staring at the TV. Eyes wide. Jaw dropped. Hand clasped. I reached for my glasses and when I looked up, I saw the burning tower.

"Sara, what is that?"

"The World Trade Center in New York."

"What happened?"

"They're not sure."

We sat there in silence for a good 15 minutes or so, then walked over the our suitemates' room. Same reaction. I don't remember much more about that day except that classes were called off and the entire campus had a somber feel to it.

If my memory serves me correctly, we didn't have a football game that weekend and I probably made the 3-hour trip to Marshall. When I got back, I remember walking into the Commons and people were selling t-shirts. Red. White. Blue. Then I read The Battalion and heard somewhere about a couple of students attempting to have Kyle Field to be a sea of red, white and blue. Third deck = red. Freshman = third deck. I bought a red shirt emblazoned with the words "Standing for America". My dad was planning on joining me for that football game so on Friday, I ensured he knew to wear a red shirt. I think I briefly explained what the plan was and he went with it.

Fast forward to Saturday afternoon. It was hot. The OSU Cowboys were in town. We spiraled up ramp after ramp after ramp until we finally reached the third deck...towards the south end zone. As we walked out of the corridor, I stopped. Chills raced down my spine. The air in my lungs quickly disappeared. Tears in my eyes. I think I heard Dad say, "Wow."

It. Was. Incredible.

It was one of the top three memorable events during my 5.5 years in Aggieland. (The other two were putting on my Aggie ring for the first time and walking across the stage to have President Gates hand me my diploma.)

The band put on one hell of a show, celebrating the school's 125th anniversary and commemorating the first responders who continued working at Ground Zero. I couldn't help but think of all the people whose lives were lost and the amount of despair in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington DC that day. I was never more proud to be an American. And an Aggie.

I think if you asked my dad today his thoughts on the Red, White and Blue Out at Kyle Field, he would tell you he didn't think it would've been pulled out to that extent. He'd probably say, "Sure, I expected a few hundred people cooperating and for it be sort of neat, but nothing like it turned out."

The most amazing thing? It came from five students. They had ten days. CC Creations printed the shirts and worked 24/7 to get them printed. They ran out several times and had to reprint. Students volunteered at all hours during the late night and early morning to ensure everyone knew of the event. They sold 30,000...30 THOUSAND...t-shirts on Game Day alone! They raised almost $180,000, flew to New York City and handed it over to the Fire and Police crews themselves.

It. Was. Incredible.

(And there's a really good article here)

10 hours + 10 recipes = 1 CARES Event

Last year in the fall, we held a CARES event called Coffeehouse Night. The idea was to have the lights down low, serve all kinds of dessert, have coffee (regular and decaf) available and get into good coffeehouse-type conversations with our neighbors. The turn out wasn't the best we'd had, but I think it made for one of our better events. It was easier to at least acknowledge every person there and we were really able to sit down and talk to quite a few people. It was popular and my love for baking become known to those in attendance. We decided to do it again and this time, it did not disappoint. Luckily, I have random days off during the week and am able to do almost ALL of the baking myself. We had 13 different desserts and I baked 10 of them (the pies came from House of Pies -- where I actually need to go and eat one day because I hear it's awesome. It also looks like the type of place that will clog your arteries just by stepping through the door).

Here's the run-down and my sidebar comments that probably don't mean anything.

Banana Pudding
From AllRecipes.com

This was really good. With the sweetened condensed milk, cream cheese and whipped cream folded in, it was super creamy! I made it last time and got such great feedback, it was a must-have this go 'round, too! I used extra Nilla wafers to garnish -- crushed and sprinkled on top. Next time, I think I'll do a trifle version and layer it a couple of times to get more bananas.


Lemon Ricotta Tea Cookies
from Katie at theGDkitchen

Katie and I date back to Marshall days growing up. And one of the things I remember about Katie is that she would bake and cook and bring us treats in Calculus (cinnamon rolls to die for!). She started this blog a few years ago and I am an avid follower, always waiting to see what comes next. I made these cookies back in December shortly after she posted the recipe for our physicians work. BIG hit! They have actually become my absolute FAVORITE cookie because they're light and airy and have a little bit of zing to them with the icing on top. A+ in my book!


Fruit Salad
from my head

Every time we have an event and I bake, someone always requests something "healthy". I respect their requests as much as possible, so this time I added some fruit salad. There's nothing to this as I just chopped up some fresh pineapple, strawberries, bananas and red grapes and served fresh. It was gone fairly quickly.


Oreo Truffles
from Bakerella

I've had these a couple of times and parties and whatnot and they're always a hit. Brad loves them and apparently, so do our residents! They're easy to make with just three ingredients and super delicious! I actually used milk chocolate bark instead of white chocolate because I'm not a fan of the white stuff. Also, I highly recommend you use a food processor to crush the cookies because it's really hard to get the fine dust-like consistency you want from just a ziploc bag and rolling pin. I also highly recommend you place the rolled balls into the freezer for about an hour before dipping them in chocolate. This gives them a chance to set and makes them a LOT easier to handle when coating them up!


Peanut Butter Blondies
from Joy the Baker

These might be my favorite dessert I made for this event (aside from the cookies, because you can't really categorize the two together). They're rich, they're creamy and we all know that the combination of peanut butter and milk chocolate is the ultimate marriage of food groups!


Neiman Marcus Cake
from theGDkitchen

This was pretty easy to make, as it uses a box cake mix. I honestly didn't get a chance to try this so I can't really comment much on it. It seemed to be a hit with those in attendance, though. Looked really good and chewy and delicious -- and I'm sure it was!


Milky Way Cake
from The Pioneer Woman

Oh. My. Heavens. To. Betsy. This cake is out of control. First of all, it uses 11 Milky Way Candy bars. ELEVEN! I think the checker at HEB thought I was a bit obsessed with Milky Ways as she scanned every last one of them and then lost count. It's rich. And to be honest, I could only try one bite (okay, maybe two if you count the fact that I licked the bowl clean). The frosting didn't set up as well as I had hoped, but the gooey-ness of it all was the best part. Props to you, Ree Drummond.


Sopapilla Cheesecake
from Blessings in Abundance

I've had this a couple of times at work and it's pretty much addicting. It's rich and creamy and has cinnamon and sugar on top. Yum-o! It's also super easy :)


Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
from Lick the Bowl Good

It's been a really long time since I've had a slice of pineapple upside down cake. When I ran across this recipe from Monica, I just had to try it out because I've never made one before. For some reason, mine didn't bake all the way through even though the toothpick came out clean (?). Who knows. Either way, the edges were delish!


Red Velvet Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting
from Joy the Baker

I think this is the overall winner from the evening. These bad boys were gone in a minute and I think it has everything to do with the frosting. Not too sweet, but just enough so that it compliments the red velvet chocolate cake. I've made these before and had the same reaction so it's a new go-to for me. It takes a little bit of doing, but it's totally worth it in the end!

The only picture I got (my camera is at a friend's house and I REALLY need to go get it!):


And that's a wrap, folks. I spent three hours on Monday and seven hours on Tuesday in the kitchen behind an apron and stove. It's days like those that I wish I had two stand mixers and much more counter space! Or you know, my own bakery. One day. Another career.

Bake-a-Thon

I'm not really sure what's gotten into me lately, but I've been quite the bake-a-holic. Here's the deal. I'm not at all trying to lose weight, but I'm definitely being more careful about what goes into my body and trying to work out more. I've read more and more about the affects processed foods and fake sugars and all those good things have on our insides (and outsides, for that matter) and I really don't like what I've read. But I digress. Problem is, I LOVE to bake. L-O-V-E. And my coworkers LOVE for me to bake, too! Actually, I think they secretly cuss me under their breath, but they eat it so I guess it's good enough. So I've literally taken something sweet to work almost every week for the past two months. I wish I had taken pictures of everything, but I get into a "zone" and don't even think about it until it's too late. But I do have this picture:


You see, I love Italian Cream Cake. Almost as much as I love to bake. A dear friend of mine from work was returning from an 11-month, 11-country mission trip around the world and we were having a welcome home dinner for her. Spaghetti, meatballs, salad, bread and wine were on the menu so I wanted to do something Italian to go with it all. I realize there is nothing Italian about this cake, but I really wanted to try it out and found this recipe from Monica at Lick the Bowl Good. I received quite a few compliments, but if I am being honest I found the cake a bit dry. I have a feeling it had something to do with beating the egg whites and folding them in. I may not have beaten them long enough. I'm not discouraged, though. I will get this one right eventually ;)

Where Art Thou, Blog?

Oh, blog, how I long for thee....


Actually, I don't but I really do want to be better about blogging consistently. There have been many instances when I'm driving down the road or walking through the grocery store and have a brilliant idea and think to myself, "I could make that one FUNNY blog post". Then I get home, eat dinner, watch TV, read hundreds (or at least ten) other blogs and realize that I in fact, am not that great of a blogger. I digress.


We've been busy. Still. I realize that we're young and don't have kids and this is the time to really do life and enjoy ourselves, but goodness gracious sakes alive. We've been busy.

Brad got a new job and in doing so, pretty much changed careers. He packed up (or really just relocated) his massive toolbox of wrenches and other gadgets and is now working for a continuous emissions monitoring company. They do all sorts of things related to the stuff plants emit out of their smoke stacks and it requires him to travel 25-50% of the time. So far, he hasn't been gone too much but the longer he works there and the more he learns, I have a feeling he'll be traveling more often.

I was accepted to grad school at UT Tyler for my MSN in Nursing Administration and will start in August. I'm freaking out and excited all at once but if I don't do it now (you know, before kids and whatnot) I'm afraid I never will. So I'm enjoying the three months I have left before I become a student once again. Hisssss. ;)

I haven't been blogging much but I HAVE been baking. Which leads me to my next post so stay tuned...

Symphony

I hate being late. I really do. In fact, I like to be early. My dad used to tell me that his dad said this: If you don't leave early enough to have a flat tire, fix it and get somewhere on time, you're late. Considering I've never in my life changed a flat tire, I would have to leave at least 1.5 hours early in order for that to happen. But I like my sleep too much for that. Nonetheless, timing is important.

I have to be honest, here. I've struggled the last few months with faith and trust and letting go in order to let God. I'm a type A need-to-know when-and-who-and-what-and-why-and-how planning freak. I like organization and when something is out of sync, I try desparately to get all the players on the same sheet of music.

I've had an urge for a while now that it's time I move on from my current nursing role and take on another.

I struggle with when to apply to graduate school. And for that matter, which degree to pursue.

Brad and I still have a desire to move to Colorado.

I see my friends getting pregnant and bringing life into this world and feel it tugging at my heart strings.

Brad really wants a truck and expresses those dreams periodically.

We really want to get out of Houston.

But what role does timing play in all of those? Do I jump on the first leadership opportunity at work and risk being satisfied? Do I start pursuing my MSN in the fall or spring? If we move to Colorado, what about school and CARES and our friends and family back in Texas? Do I really want to sacrifice my coveted sleep for crying and pooping? Do we need a truck and what are our financial goals and how will those be affected? Can small town life can wait?

And just when you think you've got everything figured out, life throws you a curve ball. A punch to the gut. A blow to the ego. A rejection. A test result that could change your life completely. A big, fat "Not yet".

And then I remember, I'm not the conductor here. I'm not ultimately in control of my life. Sure, I make decisions and pursue opportunities that affect me long-term, but God is the orchestrator.

He's the one with the baton in hand bringing in one instrument, one skilled player at just the right time to make the melody oh so beautiful.

He's the metronome.

The time keeper.

And His timing is always right.

Where Does the Time Go?!?

I swear (except I really try not to) that Thanksgiving was literally last weekend. No? Oops! I follow a lot of blogs and you'd think that after reading those updates, I would be reminded and/or inspired to write my own. However, it seems that a few months have come and gone and I have yet to update. So are you ready? Hold on tight as this post will cover those months, mainly in photos...

I worked Thanksgiving Day and then we drove to Marshall to spend time with my family. It was beautiful...see?

(I LOVE me some East Texas piney woods!!!)

The following weekend began Christmas party season with our Sunday School soiree at the Klasings. I envy this woman just a smidge. She has an entire storage unit dedicated to Christmas decorations. Literally, every nook and cranny has something Christmas-related in it. And somehow, it's not overdone. I think Brad sweats a little every year knowing that we have to go over there for me to gawk :)

(Most of our small group ladies! Love them!!!)

(Me, Brad and his five o'clock shadow :))

That same weekend, we celebrated our second anniversary. I'm really not sure where the time has gone, but December 6 came around quickly! I have to admit, our second year was much better than the first and I'm hoping that is how it continues :) To celebrate, we ate dinner at a very nice restaurant (the same one we ate at right before we got engaged!) and stayed at a fancy hotel here in Houston. I don't have any pictures, so here is one of my favorites from our wedding day, instead.

I decorated the apartment for Christmas:

(Dining room table decor w/ tree in background)

(No more fireplace, so the entertainment center will have to do)

We held a few CARES events before Christmas day:

(One of our residents is an EXCELLENT cook, so she did a demonstration/class for us)

(Our Gingerbread House!)

We spent time with the Fischers at Mamaw's (Brad's grandmother's) the weekend before Christmas. We got some good stuff from the gift exchange (a steam mop -- the most coveted gift -- and some DVDs) and had fun playing with Callum "ouside"!

We attended a going-away party for one of my dear coworkers. Shannon has beome a great friend over the last few years and she and her husband moved to Tyler (her hometown). I'm a little happy it's at least Tyler because there are possibilities of seeing her when I go visit my parents! She's an awesome person!

(Ashley, Shannon and me)

We then made the six-hour trek to Wichita Falls (after I spent Christmas Eve eve doing ALL of my shopping :)) to spend Christmas Day with Brad's family. We stayed in a really cool cabin (because there wasn't much room in the Litteken Inn), opened some presents and visited with the Darnells and Spurlocks.


The weekend between Christmas and New Year's, I went to Marshall to help host a bridal shower for one of my oldest friends' sisters. We had so much fun! I can't believe she's getting married :)

Me, Miranda, Alissa (the bride-to-be) and Colby

We hope you ALL had a fantastic Christmas centered around Christ and family and that 2011 brings you much peace, joy and love!!!