Winter Wonderland!

This morning I had to get up at 4:45…when I did, it was raining cats and dogs.  When I left for work, 30 minutes later, the ground was covered in snow.  It hasn’t stopped since!  This is currently the view from my balcony:

BEAUTIFUL!  I never fail to get excited about snow whether it’s a little bit that doesn’t even stick or more like what we’re getting today.  I don’t know what it is about the blanket of white.

I love the juxtaposition of the white against the stark brown of the trees.

I’m pretty sure my excitement has something to do with the fact that I grew up in Africa and NEVER saw snow.  In fact, my parents had to take us up into the mountains in Colorado one furlough so that we wouldn’t be TOTALLY ignorant.  At my 10th (I think) birthday slumber party we got so excited in the morning when we woke up to snow that we went running outside in our flimsy nightgowns and bare feet.  I’m a little more sensible these days…I’d prefer a hat, scarf, 3 shirts, a coat, warm pants, and boots.

Anyway, I’m going to curl up with a hot beverage, something chocolate, and a good book.  The perfect thing for a cold, snowy day!

REWIND

Well…I figured I would catch you up a bit on the last like 4 months of life around here…really all you probably care about were the holidays since that’s pretty much the highlight so we’ll start (and end) there.  We were so blessed to have my parents and little sister in town for most of December and January which meant that we all got to be together for Christmas!  It’s always been such a fun time full of traditions so to be able to have everyone together was just wonderful.   We even had a white Christmas (a first for this African).

We aren’t very used to the cold weather.

My sisters beside our beautiful tree.

I think we all had the most fun watching Luke figure out what presents were.

But most importantly, we were able to slow down and celebrate the birth of our Savior and marvel at the wonder of God become man.

Another hiatus

I hope this isn’t going to be a habit for me…you know…the writing for awhile and then dropping off the face of the earth for awhile and then coming back.  This time I seriously considered just letting my blog languish forever or even deleting it…BUT my sister kept bugging me so I am back again.  Look forward to a couple cooking posts, a crafting post, a birthday shout-out, and of course a re-visit of the holidays coming soon!

October 31st…

I’m not a big fan of Halloween.  Dressing up can be fun, and fall festivals and carnivals are fun, but so much of the “celebration” seems evil and dark.  However, there are two things that I want to mention here.  First is that Stephen, in order to get free ice cream, dressed up as what he likes to think is his alter ego.

In case you can’t tell, that is foil on his ears.

Second is this video.  I laugh every time I see it.

Two yums and an ouchie

This is the view outside our windows.  It’s actually fall in Texas!  To me, fall means pumpkins and pumpkins mean yummy deliciousness.  A few days ago I made pumpkin pancakes which officially are very yummy.  I even got to use wheat flour to make them a little healthier.  Yesterday, I used the leftover pumpkin to make pumpkin bread.  The recipe I use yields the moistest most fall-spicy pumpkin bread I have ever had.  Plus I got to use my lovely RED bread pan.

The recipe yields two loaves which is good because it does not last long around here…even though there are only two of us.  As of today, there is only one loaf left.

YUM!  Such moist, spicy, raisiny deliciousness!  I have a feeling that this will be around alot in the next few months.

On another note, this is what happened to my foot last night:

The bread knife viciously attacked me…I’m not quite sure why.  All I was trying to do was get an apple out of the fridge.  Why it had to jump me is still a mystery. Fortunately my medical daddy was online and able to advice me in the best course of action.  A few minutes later my foot looked like this:

My sweet husband finished my mission and brought me these as I sat incapacitated with bleeding.

Apples and peanut butter…pretty much the best snack…and he even made them look pretty!

The sounds of a foreign language

One of the funny things that I experienced in Mali was my siblings singing American songs.  They didn’t speak English so the results were sometimes hilarious.  I sometimes wonder what I have sounded like singing songs in African languages that I don’t speak.  Did I say anything intelligible or was it all gobble-de-gook like this unfortunate singer?

Two months ago…

I married my best friend.  It’s been a wonderful, blessed two months and I know that it will only get better.  Anyway, I thought I’d throw some pictures up here to commemorate the day.

It was a happy and worshipful occasion.  We are both immensely thankful to God who brought us together and blessed us for His glory and His purpose.

MRS.A back together again

Two weekends ago I was blessed with some girl time.  My roommates from college and I had a weekend reunion full of fun times.  We went to an Aggie football game at the new Cowboys Stadium (which is monstrous).

Before the game, we were very excited.  Aggie football is a big deal and our team had played pretty well in the pre-season.

After the game, the atmosphere had changed just a bit.

These were the looks that we wanted to give the rude Arkansas fans  after they threw dirty napkins at us.

The next day we did the typical Texas thing and went to the State Fair!

We ate “fair food” like fried oreos and fried snickers

and tried out all the cool new cars.

We also did a shout-out on MTV TR3S, test drove the new Camaro, tried out all the massage chairs we could find, and went to a pirate show.  It was a great weekend full of laughter, silliness, and the reminder of how blessed I was to live with these girls.

A Nobel Prize winner?

The big news around the world today seems to be that President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.  Reactions range from excitement to anger to everything in between.  I do support some of what Obama is working toward…this world needs more international cooperation and less aggression but what has he really accomplished?  He has spent less than a year in office and was nominated for the prize after only two weeks in office.  Yes, he has pursued an international agenda that includes peace talks in the Middle East and negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program but what president hasn’t?  What has President Obama done to end the war in Iraq and Afghanistan?  What has he done to fight the gross human rights abuses in Darfur, Congo, Zimbabwe, China, North Korea, and other nations?  Has he spent years fighting and faced intense personal hardship for his promotion of peace and human rights as some of the other candidates have?

The Nobel committee does not release the names of the other candidates but two of the favorites were Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Hu Jia, a Chinese dissident.  I am not familiar with the work of Hu Jia but Tsvangirai has worked for years to promote democracy and human rights in a country oppressed by a dictatorial regime with no regard for its people.  He has been jailed, beaten, faced personal loss, seen his followers and friends murdered and tortured, but through it all has persevered and has brought hope to Zimbabweans and wrought small, but important governmental changes which have loosened the grip of the regime.  He has worked with other countries to promote the good and protect the rights of the people in Zimbabwe.

The consensus seems to be that President Obama was awarded the prize because of his rhetoric and what he promises to do and promises to work towards.  To me, it would be more logical and more in line with what the Peace Prize stands for to wait until the end of his term in office when he perhaps has concrete results.  There are other years for him to win the prize.  To pass over men and women who have campaigned tirelessly for years and faced personal hardship and turn to a man with more rhetoric than results cheapens the Prize.

oh dear

Yes, I do realize that it’s been two months since my last blog post.  Can I help it?!  Alot has happened!  I got married, started a new job, my parents moved back to Africa, I moved and had to set up my own apartment…blah, blah, blah.  Actually, just put it down to me being too lazy and unmotivated.  I did start a lovely blog post last week about my experiment with cooking the oh-so-yummy steak au poivre vert but then my husband’s computer went whack-o and unfortunately the pictures were stored there and now I can’t get at them.  boo.  anyway, to my readers (who are few but I hope faithful) I am sorry and I hope you won’t drop me completely.  This is my acknowledgment of the problem and promise to try to do better.  Please stick with me!