Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

I hope your day was filled with love and family. 

Fun Times....

This past Saturday we got together with a few of our friends for some dinner and bowling. It was such a great time to relax and enjoy each others company. The boys decided back in November that they wouldn't shave their facial hair for the month and in December they would shave it into something interesting.

Here is Cray working on his beard.

Here are the boys all together.

 

My sister in-law and brother in-law came out bowling with us. It was a blast!! I love their little girls to bits.

Table Restore...

I have it set in my mind that Cray can fix just about anything. He's got the gift people. He sees the good in a piece of furniture where as I can't see anything good about a beat up broken piece of junk. What can I say I'm blind when it comes to that stuff. Take exhibit A.

This table had that brown paint all over it. Cray liked it though because it had the claw feet legs and it had drop leafs. So he got started on it. Most of the time we work on projects together but homework is what takes up most of my time these days so he didn't have the chance to make me do all the sanding my help.

He did a fantastic job on it, but that really goes without saying if you've ever seen anything that he's worked on. Here are a few shots of the work he had done.

 He took a router to the legs and added some class to them. When he explained his vision for the table I was not seeing the same thing but once again it turned out beautifully.

Here is what it looked like after he put in about 60 plus hours of work on it.

 

Beautiful right? Now I just need him to turn the garage into the dinning room.

Fall = Camping

I love fall. I think I could be happy if fall was year round. This week and next are mid-terms. I'm so not looking forward to this. I have my first mid-term on Thursday. I have to perform everything I've learned so far in clinical class. I keep telling myself if I've passed it once then I can pass it again. Let's hope that stands true.

So in honor of fall and the fact that I'm half way through with this semester of school I think it's time to go camping. There is nothing better than freezing your backside off while sleeping on hard ground. Any takers??

Words for the soul....

Work: A little
School work: A lot
Motivation: None


I’m having one of those days where I just can’t seem to get anything done. I’ve been looking at page 220 in my Anatomy & Physiology book for the past 15 minutes. It’s at this point that I want to give up and go home and see if I can accomplish something there. Unfortunately I can’t do that. So I took a minute to type into gateway.com (an online bible source) the word strength and see what it gave me. It gave me some wonderful reminders of God's love and strength. Enjoy!


Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always.
1 Chronicles 16:11


The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song. The LORD is the strength of his people, a fortress of salvation for his anointed one.
Psalm 28:7-8


She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.
Proverbs 31:25


But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.
2 Thessalonians 3:3

Apple Butter 101...

So first off here in North Carolina people love to can stuff. I heard about it from my friends about all the things they have canned and I went to a salsa canning party a couple months back. Since then I’ve been really interested in canning some apple butter. So over Labor Day weekend my friend, Kerri and I decided we need to try it.

What we didn’t realize is that our day project would turn into a week. Now granted we know now that we should cook the apple butter in a crock-pot….makes it cook a LOT faster. So next year if we decide to embark on this adventure again we’ll remember to bring out the crock-pots first.

First off we decided that we wanted to actually go to an apple orchard to pick our apples. That was a blast.

After we picked a ½ bushel each we headed back to Kerri’s and peeled and cut them up. I think my thumb was sore for a week after that.

Then we put the cooked apples in a food processor then back into the pot with the spices to cook.

This of course is where we should have used crock-pots because it took FOREVER. We ended up giving up on cooking it the rest of the way that day and went and had dinner with friends from small group.

The next day Kerri figured she could cook it the rest of the way and can it. That didn’t happen so I brought her my two crock-pots and it was easy sailing from there. Here is the finished project.

All in all it was a blast and I hope we try again next year.

A back up ring...

This week my ring is in the shop for its 6 month cleaning and inspection. My hand always feels so odd with out it.

So last night I nonchalantly asked Cray if I could have a back up ring for when mine is in the shop. He kindly but bluntly said no and went to sleep. I think it's a great idea but I think it's going to take a lot of begging to make it reality.

In other news yesterday was the end of my 3rd week of school. I've alrady had 6 tests and one pop quiz (that was NOT fun). I'm getting into a nice groove and everything is kind of starting to balance out. Thankfully it didn't take long at all. My family is coming in this weekend. I'm so excited to see everyone...it should be a great weekend!! Hope yours is great as well.

School check list....

1) School books. Check

2) Scrubs. Check

3) Stethoscope. Check

4) Records completed. Almost

5) Office done. Check

6) Lost my mind. Not yet!

School starts on Monday for me. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. I received an email today from one of my advisers saying that I could go ahead and take my communications class since I don't have a full school load. I may not have a full school load but with school and work I'm full up. We will see though, as of right now all classes are booked but something might open up next week.

On a different note. Cray had an interview yesterday with the school for a programming position. He was the last person they interviewed and they said once they make their choice HR will contact him. So thankfully we will know no matter what. He feels like he did a good job and I'm sure that he did. It's all in God's hands now.

Best parts of summer...

I love summer! I love the warm sun, the smell after it rains, the vacations, ice, summer camp. One of the best parts of summer is VBS. I loved VBS growing up and now that I'm an adult I get to help out with VBS and see all the children enjoy it. This year our theme was IPODS for Jesus. Our church staff did such a great job of putting it together. I'm truly blessed to have all of them in my life.

Here we are running through the music before the children show up.

We had a goal for the children this past week. We do homeroom hope project every year through our church. Our goal this year was 225 backpacks. They needed to bring in some to help us reach our goal. They went over our goal...we had a total of 322!! They did such an amazing job and in return yesterday all of our ministers got a pie in the face. Classic!

Here are our ministers taking the pie.

New do....

This past week I decided I wanted to do something new with my hair. I'd been rocking the same hairstyle since I was nine and it needed to change. So Friday after work I went and had this done.

Reminder this is what it looked like.

I love it so much more now. It's shorter but I can still pull it back and I like the new part.

Well hope everyone had a great weekend!!

Pie Crust & Pecan Pie....

My first attempt at making pie crust crashed and burned. It was horrible! So after chucking the dried out dough in the trash I called my mother and cried to her and asked what in the world I did wrong. Okay maybe I didn't cry. In the end really not sure what I did wrong but mom said when Cray and I came up on the July 4th weekend she and I would make pies together.

Making them with her was a total success!! Maybe my first attempt failed because I didn't have a pastry cutter or maybe I didn't add enough Crisco or maybe too much flour. Who knows!

Last night I tried making the crust on my own. S-U-C-C-E-S-S again!!! I was so very proud of myself. Cray had to endure me jumping up and down clapping my hands like a silly school girl.

Next I made a pecan pie. I found the recipe on The Pioneer Woman blog. It looks oh so good and I can't wait to try a piece tonight.

Blackberry Cobbler...

Last night I made a very yummy blackberry cobbler. I found the recipe over at The Pioneer Woman. I've never read her blog until this week and I think she is amazing! She tells such great stories and has made some very wonderful dishes. I can't wait to try more!!

More Random Flowers

So we have some more random flowers around our house. This one stumps me because we have lived in the house for two years, have never ever planted anything and these decided to come out this year. On top of that last year there was this flower bush looking thing and it died so Cray pulled it up from this spot. Lovely!

Quote of the Day

"Those were deer…but not pretty ones."

Cray Hill

Colorado Vacation.....Day 7 & 8

Thursday morning we finished up our one night camping trip. I think the best part was that morning we had smores for breakfast and the kids where over the moon excited about having sweets for breakfast. lol. I'm sure they are still asking if they can have smores for breakfast, poor Desha.

That afternoon Stephen, Cray and I went on a hike down the Black Cannon. First off this is now my number one favorite hike. It was so beautiful. First as you are walking down you see nothing but rocks, dirt, and sage. Then you start to hear some running water and before you know it a beautiful waterfall is running next to the path you are walking on. It was amazing!! The hike down was easy but back up not so much since we of course had to walk up out of the cannon. So worth it though.

On the last day the boys went on one last bike ride and Desha and I went on a hike close to town. Unfortunately the camera died at the end of our large hike down the black cannon. Someone left the charger at home. Not sure whose responsibility it was to grab it but oh well the camera stayed faithful and lasted almost the whole week.

So that concludes our amazing trip to Colorado. Can't wait to visit again!!

Colorado Vacation....Day 6

Thursday was rafting day. I'll tell you the truth I was scared about rafting. I was so worried that I'd fall out of the raft and get washed down the river. My brother was so excited and every time he'd bring it up he'd look at me and say "Amber you look more worried then anything". LOL.

So we got a great deal on a raft from the college, and an extra bonus Stephen has a friend that is a tour guide for a local rafting place and he came along with us for free. I think I can say at this point that my brother knows everyone in Gunnison and so we got some great deals. Rafting was a BLAST!! First off I didn't fall out...YAY...and second it was just fun. We didn't take the camera on the trip but took some photos before we went on our way.

After our trip down the river we made a last minute decision to go camping with Matt and Christina. So glad that we made that choice. We traveled back up into the Crested Butte mountains and found a great camping space by the river.

We had an amazing time eating and talking by the camp fire. Of course by morning my back was killing me but hey I camped in Colorado :)

Colorado Vacation....Day 5

On Wednesday we all hopped in my brothers truck and headed up to Crested Butte. It is at a higher elevation then Gunnison and they still have a lot of snow. We were hoping to go sledding but my brother forgot the sleds. No big deal we still played in the snow and had a great time. I was amazed at how much snow they still had. Here in Charlotte the snow stays for maybe a day if that. So here we are in June and I was standing on snow that was almost as tall as Cray. CRAZY!!

So our goal was to make it to the top of the mountain in the truck and then do a little hike to this lake that is on top but the snow stopped us from getting to the lake that way. Thankfully there is always more then one way to get somewhere. The lake was so beautiful and peaceful. I could have spent hours up there just taking it all in.

After the hike we went to Peta Paradise. They have amazing peta sandwiches. I had the hummus peta. So very yum-o!

That concludes day 5.

Colorado Vacation....Day 3 & 4

Monday morning the guys got up at 5 and went out to the Blue Mesa to fish. I was going to go with them but decided spending 8 hours on a boat with 5 boys didn't sound like so much fun. So Desha, the kids, and I went to the park and walked around town.

Here is one of Cray's catches.

That night we went to a cookout with their small group. Of course we all had to try the fish, it was very yummy.

Tuesday was another easy day for me. We went on a little bike ride with the children and played by the river. After lunch at the Blue Iguana, a great Mexican restaurant, the boys went for another bike ride in the mountains. At this point I'm guessing Cray thought Stephen was trying to kill him.

That concludes day 3 & 4. Some very relaxing days but don't worry some really fun trips are about to come up!

Colorado Vacation....Day 2

So the next day was Sunday. My brother is the music/youth minister at this great local church. If I didn't think the people would have looked at me funny I would have taken some pictures of where they worship. They don't have a building so they meet in this really cute coffee shop.

Their congregation is around 30 or so people. It's great...I'm so accustom to a very large worship service with a large praise team and all. It was nice to go to something very simple for a change.

After church we went back to my families house and had lunch with some of their friends from small group. It was cool to meet the people my brother hangs out with all the time. I love it that he is close to his friends in small group. I feel so blessed to have such great friends in my small group here at home and it makes my heart happy that my brother and his wife have that as well.

After a great lunch prepared by Desha (my sister in-law) Steve, Cray and I went mountain biking. Now I'm not great on a bike. 99% of the time I'm going to get hurt if I ride a bike. I wanted to give it a try though and check off mountain biking from my list for our week of vacationing.