1.26.2012

What's 4 Supper?

I love our teens. they are a good group of kids. Last weekend, we took 26 teenagers to up state Pennsylvania to Snow Camp. Now I realize I'm from maine, but spending a whole weekend playing in the snow is not my idea of a fun time. Neither is staying up late listening to giggling girls till 1 in the morning. THANKFULLY, it was not my girls that were loud.

Upon returning from snow camp, both brian and i spent the next few days in bed sick. when I say a few days I mean Brian is still fighting to get rid of a cold. that being said, thats why the lack of posts for the past almost two weeks. But i'm back. So ANYWAYS.


Ok, so I did this post a while ago. but it needs to be done again.

So for those of you who own an, ipod touch, iphone, or ipad, or WANT one. You need to read this.

There is this awesome app called "What's 4 Supper". It's got all of these great features.

You can plan out the means for, well really as far in advance as you like.


You can put in your grocery list and check it off as you put it in your cart. NOW. not only can you do that, but it will also organize the data for you based on where it's found (example Cheese would be in the Dairy isle). That way you never have to back track.

Also, you can program it to list the items by isle. So it gets even more organized. WOAH!


PLUS, on top of that. It has a "Kitchen Helper" it's got tips and tricks, measurements, substitutions and more.

I love this thing.

However, it's not free.

It is (i think) 5 bucks. But it's TOTALLY worth it. I carry my phone with my to the store and just check things off my list. and I always know what we will have for dinner and I never end up spending more money than needed.

That and I never lose my grocery list because well, it's my phone.

If you dont have it. you totally have to. it's awesome.

ok thats all, you have to get it. it'll change your life!

-j

1.13.2012

It's a party!



Note: the party is actually at 10648 Long Leaf Ln. Waldorf MD 20601.
thats all for now
-j

1.12.2012

Just another day being a pastor's wife.

I love my husband. And I love our youth kids.

I love my husbands creative mind. His relational personality. (He's why I go to dinner parties, he talks and I just sit there. It's glorious.) I love that he's a dreamer. ( I also love that I'm a doer). I love that he has the ability to see the world differently than I do......

With that being said.

Brian last week put on a youth conferance for the youth in the area. It was at the college. And let me tell you it was a blast. The kids played a huge game of capture the flag over the college campus which  I think is at least 6 acres.

Friday afternoon I asked Brian,

"So hunny, what are you going to do about flags for capture the flag"....

You know those moments where you immediately regret saying something. Like you knew it was going to come back to bite you?

yeah, it was one of those moments.

For those of you who don't know. Brian and I moved last weekend. A lot of stuff we got rid of or left in our apartment for the next people to use.....


Brian looked at me... looked past me at the window. Looked at me again and said... "How attached are you to your curtains.

..yup word regret. like word vomit only not......





So there ya have it. My curtains were turned into flags for capture the flag.

I love my husband. I really do. And I love my wife life.

thats all for now.
-j

1.05.2012

pomp and circumstance and party

ok everyone, i have a question. And I need some feed back.

In May both Brian and I will be  walking for graduation. I will be turning 23 and my outta town bestie will be walking with us at graduation as well.....

What do people do for college graduations?

My friend mary had a party, and invited our professors and I gotta tell you, it was fun. We sat around the table and swapped stories and remember whens and gained last bits of wisdom from our profs.

So again I ask...

What do people do for College graduations?

What the norm?

I will make any excuse to throw a party. I love hosting and theres nothing more then having every one you love in once place at one time.

Do people throw parties? Is it just a word of mouth? Is it a formal thing? Am I allowed to do whatever the heck I want because it's my party? Is it silly to go all out?

Let me know you're thoughts, I'd be interested to know. Ok thats all for now.

-j

The Craft of Christmas Past

hehe. I hope the title made you laugh. cuz it made me laugh. and yes, I do realize how lame that is.

Anyway. Because Brian and I are so poor, I have to get "crafty" (no pun intended) with our gifts. So this year I made a lot of my gifts.



I made this for my Sister in law. She's an elementary school teacher. Ok here is how I did it.

I took a canvas. And hot glued crayons on it. For this one I took the paper off. For the bottom one, I left the paper on. It all depends on what you want. 


ERRRRRRRRR

Rewind. 


FIRST, I printed out the words. "Mrs. Duncan" from my computer. I taped it to the back side of the canvas and took a paint pen and traced the letters. I am sure a sharpie would work. But I liked the paint texture of the paint pen. 

NOTE: I had to use my phones flash light to see the letters through the canvas. 

THEN. I glued the crayons. or if your brian (Kray-ns)... *I love him, he's my favorite*

After you glue them to the canvas next comes the fun part. Blow drying them. Thats what makes the colors run. It's important for all you OCD people out there (me included at times) that there is no wrong  way to do art. There are no mistakes. It doesn't always end up looking like you want, but it will always be cool.

So i heated the wax until it was a big puddle, then i stood the canvas on it's end and let the colors run down. 

It turned out pretty cool. I covered her name with a piece of paper so the wax wouldn't flow onto her name...

For this one vvv... I did the same thing. Only I glued flowers to the end of the wax. See isn't it pretty. I made this for my other sister in law. 






I made one for my mommy. It looks kinda like a snow flake but I guess I never took a picture of it. Fail.

If you haven't tried this, you should. I must confess however.

I stole the idea from brians little sister. She's the real art genius in the family. So shout out to Jesse. You Rock!

Thats all for now. 
-j

Soup, It's whats for supper.

Brian and I are in the process of moving. Not only are we in the process of moving but we just returned from Maine. Not only are we in the process of moving and just returned from maine but Brian started full time this week, so he's been gone..... a lot...

My Point?

We have no food in our house. No Joke. I'd show you a picture but I'm to lazy to get up, find my camera, and take a picture.

We've eaten out or had a frozen meal since we got back to our apartment last Sunday night. (We've had chipotle twice already).

We have milk, but no cereal. Peanut butter and jelly but no bread. A freezer full of frozen vegetables but just that one piece of chicken.

Ok I digress.

One of the meals I bought was this .

Tomato Florentine & Tortellini with Chicken...

Oh.

My.

GOSH!

It was so good. Like Olive Garden Good. It was just enough for Brian and I to be full and still enough he took some to work this morning. If I was thinking I would have gotten some bread and a salad. That would have made the soup go a little further.

It'd be perfect for a sunday afternoon. Or a crazy night. We have a lot of crazy nights. Like tonight, I dont plan to see brian until 9pm.

Anyway, you should try them. They are amazing... Now I want to go to Olive Garden... Soup, Salad and Breadsticks for 7 bucks. Any takers?


Thats all for now
-j

1.03.2012

New Years Intentions.

I stole the idea from another blog I read. But I couldn't tell you who it was because I've looked at so many different blogs over the last 24 hours. So not resolutions, but intentions.

I have things I want to accomplish this year. Practical goals, that at this point if I could accomplish one I'd be happy. Ok so here goes.

1. Never stop growing in the Lord
2. I want to get back into shape by graduation (May)
3. Succeed at selling Pampered Chef
4. Generate enough interest in this blog to get out of blogger. Maybe onto wordpress?
5. Make a divider curtain for our apartment
6. Go to Maine at least once before Christmas.
7. Organize my crafting supplies
8. Have a big girl camera to take better photos.
9. Get my church to accept the C.R.U.D. and hold to it.
10. Save up to buy a photo editing program

... anyway thats all i can think of.

right now my goal is just to have this house packed up before saturday with out going crazy....


.... i'm totally going crazy...

thats all for now
-j

1.02.2012

The Colligan try at Cake Balls

Last week Brian and I were in Maine. No, not the maine you see in a magazine. This Maine. Aroostook county. (Ah-Ru-St-u-k) - it's french indian i think..


See that dot that says limestone? I live just about there. The Maine you're thinking of looks like this.


(Southwest Harbor, ME - Photo by me)






So yes, Brian and I went to maine for Christmas. And we needed to make a yankee swap gift



(White elephant for those of you Marylanders)




So we made Red Velvet Cake Balls.






You start out by making a cake Like you normally would.








Sorry, I ate a little before I took a picture. It was just soooo good!




Then. You break it up in to your Kitchen-Aid (If you have one).






Just between you and me, I'm bitter that my mom has one and I don't cuz they are WAY cool.




Ok so anway. you need to crumble it so it's this crumbly cake mush.








Then, You take a can of store bought frosting. We used Cream cheese and used the whole tub



of it, you could get away with less. ours had a little too much. yes i said too much frosting, shoot


me.





So you mix the icing and cake together in your kitchen-aid (you know, if you had one)






Then, you have to make them into balls. We tried a mellon-baller, but it was too tough to get the





cake out due to all the frosting. SO, we use an ice cream scoop. I think this was a 2 Tbs scoop.





However, I am probably wrong.



Then you stick this out side... Oh right. most people dont live in


maine and convert your entry way into a walk in freezer. Ok so you put them in the refrigerator.





I almost think we let these chill over night.






Next you melt some chocolate....




.


Now.





there's something you need to know about my family, we are serious chocolate makers. none of


this heat in microwave crap. nope tooooo snobby for that.....



So, we melted some chocolate...




on the stove... over water... with crisco in it...




NOTE: you can use wax, which is what we'd use forever, yes they make special bakers wax.



However, I had a friend tell me she used crisco in her chocolate. My oh My does it make a



difference... .they take longer to set up with crisco, but my dad said "it's not nearly as waxy as




before" .








And, you dip.









We did both dark and white chocolate. the white was extremely tasty... However....




When using too much frosting, the cake balls are very mushy even after spending the night in


the entry way... i mean freezer...



So. tiny bits of cake ended up in the white chocolate after dipping...... which ended up turning the


chocolate pink........ which then we had to put sprinkles on them so you wouldn't notice.





Let set. and enjoy. we made a bazillion cake balls and even gave tons away. so note that you'll


end up making alot.




these are wicked (yes i just said wicked) easy. If you haven't tried them, you should.




thats all for now.
-j

1.01.2012

A Bachelors of Arts in Biblical something er rather.

I realized today that the theme for my blog is fall...... blog fail. If i have energy to change it I will. But I love being lazy and I have a house to pack before Saturday....

But thats not the point of this blog.

I have unofficially graduated from Washington Bible College...

I say unofficially because I still have an exit test and a few things of paperwork left. BUT. I no longer have to take classes.

Now I have a Choice. I have a choice to become stagnant and plateau or keep growing.

In Bible College we hear stories of people that graduated who.... you'd never guess went to Bible College. I hear stories of people who have turned bitter and vulgar. Or you hear about the graduate who knows everything and brags about it, but doesn't live their life like they know everything. Another horror story you hear is about families that are ripping apart at the seams.

I dont want to be one of those.

Today a man in my church got up to preach. He's not the pastor, just a man with a Bible College degree. (WBC graduate at that!)I'm not sure if he graduated from seminary or not. He stood at the pulpit and preached ... an amazing one at that.

Anyway. The point is. He has chosen day after day to follow Christ. To pick up his cross and have a continuous relationship with Jesus.

I don't want my degree to just be a degree.. (Because I will never be paid for what I went to school for-- but thats a whole other thing)...

Its easy. Bible college acts like a crutch to get you through your Christian walk. We go to Bible classes. Have chapel. We are surrounded by other believers. It's a bubble . ...

Well in 6 days my bubble will burst. And I'll be out in the real world.

I want to "live" past Bible College.......I want to run with endurance.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and wsin which clings so closely, and xlet us runywith endurance the race that is zset before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, awho for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising bthe shame, and cis seated at the right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:1-2)

Gets me every time.

Thats all for now.
j