East Coast Trip: Top 10 List

#10 – The Leaves – We were there a little too early for the full change of the fall colors, but we did see the beginning and there were spots of color here and there. It was so beautiful, so I can only imagine how gorgeous it must be in full orange, red and yellow!

#9 – Papa Driving in NYC - We were all quite proud of his maneuvering through the crazy streets of the city. We laughed (and gasped) several times throughout the journey. The best part was when we were stopped at a light, and Sally rolled down her window and touched the truck next to us.

#8 – Empire State Building - If you didn’t see the pictures from this post, check it out. It was a crisp, clear night … the view was amazing! When I asked my friends what to do in NYC, they all agreed that I had to do the Empire State Building at night. I definitely agree.

#7 – Tea & Carriage Ride. In honor of my grandma’s birthday, we surprised her by going to tea at The Plaza Hotel and then taking a carriage ride through Central Park. It was so much fun! I absolutely loved Central Park … it’s such a beautiful, calm place.

#6 – North End: Boston’s Little Italy – LoVeD it here! I wonder why?! Mike’s Pastry was just amazing, as I already mentioned in my previous post. And Caffe Vittoria is a legit Italian bar (and by bar I mean coffee shop). My latte macchiato took me back to Venice … it was just grand!

#5 – Sea Swirl!! We were in Mystic, Connecticut (way cute little town with fun shops), and I was craving ice cream. One of the tourist guides to Mystic recommended a few ice cream places, one of which was Sea Swirl. The thing about this place that caught my eye was that Rachael Ray had eaten there on her show “$40 a Day,” and I LoVe Rachael Ray. So my quest … find Sea Swirl and have ice cream there. Well we found it, and I’m not gonna lie it wasn’t what I was expecting. It was just this little hole-in-the-wall kind of place on the side of the street. It was the kind of place where you go up to the window and order and there are picnic tables outside. I told the girl I was a big dork and I was only there because Rachael Ray had been there, haha. She had actually been there when Rachael Ray was there and she told me what she ordered – the codfish sandwich. So all this effort … and she didn’t even get the ice cream! But since I was hungry I decided to be brave and try the sandwich. Note to keep in mind: I do not like fish! Oh. my. goodness. The sandwich was InCrEdIbLe!!! In fact, it’s just before lunch as I’m writing this, and now I want one for lunch. Do you think I can make it to Connecticut and back in 1/2 an hour?!

#4 – Ear piercing! I told Heidi months ago that I wanted to get second holes in my ears. We decided we wanted to get it done on this trip if we could find a place. The process of trying to get our ears pierced was hilarious … we tried to do it our 1 night in Providence, and after 3 piercing and tattoo parlors (or is it a shop – I do not know), more lessons in piercing and gauges than I care to know, and several thoughts of “Am I going to die in here?!” … we did not get it done. In Boston, right before we had to leave (literally … I was afraid we were going to miss our plane, haha!) Heidi and I spotted a Claire’s … and we came out of there with second holes, permanent souvenirs, and a mission accomplished.

#3 – Hot cocoa and talking. On the last night of our trip (in Boston), Heidi and I really wanted some hot chocolate to drink. There was a downpour, we were soaked, we were cold … we wanted to drink warmth. We were back at our hotel, and we weren’t really sure where to go at that late hour to drink hot chocolate. So Heidi, Sally and I headed down to the “lounge” in our hotel to see if they could satisfy our craving … and sure enough, they had hot cocoa … and whipped cream! The three of us sat and talked for a long time and had great conversation. 

#2 – Story time with Papa and Grandma. There were lots of stories and fun conversations and memories throughout the trip, but the highlight was in the car driving from New York to Connecticut. Sally asked Papa and Grandma to tell us the story of their relationship. We got to hear everything from when they first met to their first date to their first kiss to their wedding to their honeymoon to their anniversaries and much, much more. So fun!

#1 – My favorite moment from my trip … the end of my plane ride to New Jersey. It was sunset … there were beautiful, huge, white, puffy clouds … there were amazing colors dancing across the sky … I was listening to the Sovereign Grace song “Glorious & Mighty.” It was one of those mountain top experiences of seeing God’s greatness through His creation and worshipping Him. He is truly amazing!

 

East Coast Trip, Pt 2

I had to dedicate a whole post to Boston, because it was my favorite part of the trip. I LoVe the city of Boston! We got into Boston on a rainy Sunday afternoon, got settled into our hotel, and then I went out with a friend from college who now lives there. I got to spend an hour and a half on a personal guided tour of the city (we drove around, because it was raining), which was awesome! I learned a lot of random facts about places and got to see all the highlights. We then met up with my grandparents and cousins at Union Oyster House - the oldest restaurant in the United States.

View from Papa and Grandma's hotel room - so beautiful! Heidi, Sally & I ended up with a private balcony with that view!

Enjoying our lovely seafood dinner

On Monday, we took a trolley tour around the city. The trolley stops at all the hot spots and you can get off for as long as you want and hop on another trolley when you’re ready to move on. It was a good way to get around if you’re not inclined to walk. Boston Common and Boston Gardens are beautiful! We had a lot of fun taking pictures there, and thanks to photographer Sally, we got a lot of good ones. We had a fun dinner that night with my friend and saw some more sights. Good times!

The original Cheers bar (the food smelled amazing!)

Heidi and I made a new friend, hehe

Enjoying our new friend!

So cute!!

Papa and his twins

Kisses for Papa

Heid & Han

In the gardens

On Tuesday, Papa and Grandma parted ways with us and headed up to Maine. Sally, Heidi, and I went to Harvard and walked around for a bit. Then Heidi indulged me, and the two of us went to Little Italy! We went to Mike’s Pastry, which I was told not to miss (So true - I later enjoyed the amazing creme puff I purchased there). Then we went to Caffe Vittoria, which was recommended to me, and I had a delicious iced caffe macchiato. So yummy and tasted like Italy to me. We met up with Sally and headed back to our hotel and then to the airport. We were all so sad to say goodbye and to be leaving these wonderful places we got to experience. I am so thankful for the opportunity to take this trip – it was a blessing in many ways! I will still post my “Top 10″ list … I purposely left some things out of these last 2 posts so as not to overlap too much. For now, I leave you with one final picture …

These are EvErYwHeRe and EvErYoNe loves them!!

 

East Coast Trip – Pt 1

Many of you may know that I went on a trip to the East Coast a few weeks ago. I was supposed to go on a trip to Italy, but that did not work out and the Lord had other things in store for me. There’s too much to put everything we did and all the pictures we took … but here’s an overview and lots of pics (I will try to get more pics up on Facebook for those of you who want to see more).

 On Wednesday the 23rd of September, I flew to Newark, NJ, where I met up with my grandparents. Thursday we went to New York City and saw the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and the Empire State Building. I stayed in town a little longer and walked through Time Square to see the lights and the buzz.

At the Statue of Liberty with NYC in the background

My Foot Picture for the trip! Can you believe how big Lady Liberty's foot is?!

NYC was so beautiful from the top of the Empire State Building!!

Me & Grandma

Thursday night, my cousins – Heidi & Sally – flew in. The next morning, we drove into New York City (go Papa, go!). We surprised my Grandma for her birthday and took her to tea at the Plaza Hotel and then went for a carriage ride through Central Park.

Tea at the Plaza

Heidi & Me in front of the pretty bridge in Central Park!

I HaD to do a fish lips picture ... I couldn't resist!

 We then headed up to Connecticut, and Heidi & I became the official navigators, hence the picture with the map and the worried look of wondering how we were going to get from point A to point B (which I think was actually taken heading into NYC from New Jersey). We spent the night in Connecticut and spent Saturday morning at Mystic, CT. It is a beautiful area with quaint shops AND … Sea Swirl. What you might ask is Sea Swirl?! Well … it’s part of my ”10 Top Highlights from my East Coast Trip” so … you’ll have to check back and read a later post to find out!! Man, I am so mean, haha. But continuing on …  

Uh oh

Having fun, hehe

Still having fun ...

Beautiful Mystic

How cute is this place?!

 We ended up in Providence, Rhode Island that night, where Heidi and I discovered their Little Italy and the cutest cafe with the most amazing crepes!! The two of us ate there Saturday night and then made Papa and Grandma go with us for breakfast the following morning (we let Sally sleep in). I got to have one of my favorite Italian pastries – sfogliatella. It was yumm-o!

If I could remember the name of this place, I'd totally recommend it, haha!

From Providence we headed on up to Boston, Massachusetts … which I will tell about in Pt 2! Then I will post my “Top 10″ list … so stay tuned!

 

It all caught up with me …

So the last few weeks have been pretty busy for me. A couple weeks ago I was in charge of planning food for about 60 people for our Bible Study retreat. Yeah, that was a whole lot more work than I realized … but it was great! Then a couple days after retreat, I flew to the East Coast, where I met up with my grandparents and two cousins. We traveled through 5 states in 7 days. Needless to say … it was not exactly a restful vacation. This week the exhaustion of the past few weeks finally caught up with me … especially Friday afternoon. Allow me to explain what happened …

On my afternoon break I decided to lay down for a few minutes, because I was so stinkin’ tired! I went down to the comfortable couch in the lounge, set my alarm for 10 minutes, and enjoyed a nice rest. When my alarm went off, I was very sad because I had not fallen asleep (which was not a surprise … I’m not one of those people to lay down and immediately fall asleep). I thought to myself … “Self, you have a couple minutes of break left, just lay here a minute more … it’s not like you will fall asleep or anything.” Next thing I remember: waking up (a little confused by my surroundings), seeing the lounge door open and someone walk in, and hearing the words: “Rita (my boss) just wanted me to check to see if you were in here.” I quickly realized what had happened, looked at the clock, and was alarmed to find out my alarm had gone off 45 minutes earlier!! I ran upstairs to customer service and apologized to my boss and sat down and tried to work. Problem was, I was dizzy and so disoriented from my long, deep sleep that I could barely function! And the day was almost over anyways, haha.

Moral of the story … always get up to your alarm at work

 

Zucchini Frittata for Jenn

This post is dedicated to my dear friend, Jenn, who got me hooked on the most amazing blog! This blog, combined with seeing the movie Julie and Julia(“What is it that you really like to do?” “Eat!” “And you are so good at it.” “I am good at it … I’m practically growing in front of you!”), has inspired me to cook. I already loved to cook … but now I just feel more and more like doing it! I recently made a zucchini frittata (a frittata is like the Italian version of an omelet, but way, way better!), and I had leftover ingredients to make another. So last night for dinner, I decided to make this scrumptious dish and to document and to blog about my experience. I realized in the process, I’m not a photographer, haha. I have no clue how to take good pics of food … oh well.

Chopping made so much easier with a Cutco knife!! Love it!!!

Oh, and I love my wooden spoon from Sur la Table.

Buon Appetito!

Here’s the recipe I made (I modified it from The Silver Spoon recipe – added onion, thanks to a friend’s teaching) ….

Zucchini Frittata

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup butter

2 and 1/2 cups zucchini, thinly sliced

1 small or 1/2 large white onion, chopped

6 eggs

Salt and pepper

Heat the oil and half the butter in a pan, add the onion and the zucchini and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10-12 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and remove from the heat. Lightly beat the eggs with a pinch of salt and stir in the zucchini. Melt the remaining butter in a skillet, pour in the mixture and cook until lightly browned *on both sides. This frittata may be served hot or cold.

*My sweet friend, Cristina, taught me the trick of how to cook it on both sides. You can try to flip it with a spatuala … but good luck. The easier route … place the lid on the skillet (I recommend doing this over the sink, just in case of a catastrophe) and flip it upside down. Result: the frittata will now be in the lid, cooked side up. Slide the frittata back into the skillet, resulting in the uncooked side down … allowing for it to get cooked!

 

More Unwanted Visitors

You may recall my former roommate, Karrie, and I having an unwanted visitor back in November. Well … let me tell you about the latest unwanted visitors … yes, that is visitors in the plural form.

A month ago, I went downstairs on a Thursday night just before going to bed. I started to enter the kitchen to check the garage door, and I flipped on the light. When I did that, I saw something jump off the stove onto the counter and go behind the stove. I definitely freaked out! I tried to imagine it away … I was on NyQuil at the time … so I wondered if I was hallucinating. But then I examined the ground and found the evidence (little mouse poops). Of course the mouse did a vanishing act on me and I couldn’t find it. To make a long story short … Polly got some mouse traps the next day and set those up. We finally caught it a couple days later on one of the sticky traps, which of course doesn’t kill it. Well, thanks to her brother, we now know that mice die quickly if you drown them. A couple weeks later (also on a Thursday … please notice this trend), another roommate was in the kitchen and “thinks” she saw “something.” I haven’t seen any more evidence of mice, and we haven’t caught any more. We are hoping they are no longer around … but there’s no knowing for sure. Unfortunately, I don’t have pics to show … I really wish I did. But for my next unwanted visitors, there are pictures showing them in all their glory!

Thursday night (yes, that’s right … these accounts all took place on Thursday nights), I went out to my roommate’s car because I left my phone in it. As I started down our walkway, I noticed a big, ugly, malicious, black spider. I took a closer look, and of course, it was a giant (i might be exaggerating a tad) black widow! What in the world?! Am I like cursed by critters on Thursday nights or something?!? So, I ran inside and got the trusty can of Raid. I probably said this in my other black widow post … I love Raid because you can kill a nasty insect from far away!! And there’s no gross guts left on your shoe … it’s brilliant! So I come back, and of course the thing has disappeared (it’s part of the Thurs. night curse). so I just start spraying all over the area where that beast was … and then it came out and I used about half the can on it (you can never use too much Raid, in my professional opinion). Here are the lovely pics.

The Beast before Raid

The Beast after Raid ... much better!!!

Mini Beast that I unknowingly killed too ... found him today!

Mini Beast and The Beast together ... in all their dead, Raided glory. Sick-o!!!!

 

6 Years Ago …

This weekend, things were abuzz at The Master’s College due to one thing … WOW. Week of Welcome began on Saturday, as all the new students arrived, unpacked their belongings, met their roommates, said good-byes to family and friends, and were overwhelmed with crazy, energetic, sleep-deprived SLSers. I had the privilege of picking up a friend at the airport Friday and then taking her to the college the following morning to begin her college experience. As we made a Target run Friday night, thought through things she might need, checked into college, set up her room, met her RA and roommate … I was rushed with the sense of “I have been here and done this.” Despite several people assuming I was a new student as well, I actually graduated two years ago. That means my WOW experience occurred 6 years ago. Did you hear (I mean, read) that … 6 years?! I know to some people (anyone older than me who’s reading this), 6 years is not a long time. But to my little mind, 6 years seems like forever ago! This got me to thinking about a couple things … I can’t believe how time flies, and I can’t believe all that’s happened in those 6 years. Take a trip down memory lane with me …

- While I was excited to be at Master’s my first semester and enjoyed it immensely, I was terribly homesick. I missed my family, my friends, my church, my dog … everything! At Christmas break, I did not want to come back to school. I shed many tears during my first months at Master’s. But by the end of my four year college experience, I shed tears over leaving (actually, it was by my second semester that I loved and missed it).

- I met the people who have had the biggest impact on my life – from RAs to RDs to roommates to wingmates to bosses to classmates to professors. I cherish these people God placed in my life, and I am so incredibly thankful for them.

- I made the greatest and most lasting friendships at TMC. Pretty much all of my close friends now are people that I know through Master’s.

- I was blessed to sit under what I believe is the best teaching in our nation – in the classroom, chapel, and church. I was introduced to Rick Holland, John MacArthur, Steve Lawson, CJ Mahaney, John Piper, and many others I am not thinking of at the moment. I was challenged in my faith, grown in my sanctification, and stretched in my thinking. There are certain sermons that still resonate in my mind and heart.

- I experienced IBEX (Israel Bible Extension), which were the best 4 months of my life thus far! I got to study God’s Word where it all took place, made some of my best friends, was so challenged in every way possible (no American Dream!), experienced other cultures, had my heart greatly softened toward missions, shared the Gospel with an Israeli and a Muslim, travelled to Italy for a week and saw everywhere Paul went (plus more), ate falafel and half shekel pita, and laughed a lot. I could go on and on about this semester in which my life was changed, but this post is not all about IBEX … so moving on ….

- On a less serious note … I had so much fun in college!! It’s all about steam rolling in the halls of Dixon, food on the trash can, 80’s parties, Year End Shows, games, Starbucks and Golden Spoon runs, movie nights, Disney Day, etc. etc. etc.

- I was an RA for one year in Dixon … talk about a humbling growth experience … and a whole lot of fun!! This time was invaluable in training me in my philosophy of ministry and in understanding the importance of discipleship and life on life relationships.

- I fell in love with Italy! I met some of the dearest Italians, whom I have come to love so much! After college, I spent 3 months in Italy! It was 2 years ago that I was preparing for this missions trip in the Venice area. (I can’t believe it was 2 years ago – unreal!) The Lord taught me so much during that time … read my past posts cuz I’m definitely not going into any more here.

- And to sum up the last year and a half … I worked at Starbucks, moved to SoCal, got hired at GTY, got laid off from GTY, moved a few times, and got re-hired at GTY. Today, I am enjoying my job and looking forward to college ministry in Crossroads.

As I think back on the past 6 years, I think of God’s sovereignty and His amazing goodness. Everything that has happened has been an exact part of His plan for me. Nothing has been a mistake. I praise God for the last 6 years, and I look forward to reminiscing after the next 6.

 

A month?

The other day my roommate said to me “You need to blog!” I thought to myself … “Yes, I do. But I just did one a week or two ago.” I stand corrected … it’s definitely been a month. Oops.

So, this is a brief note to satisfy Polly … I’m back in the blogging sphere. Actually, we just got the internet at home, so I will (hopefully) start faithfully blogging once again. I was writing something to post today, but it ended up being longer than anticipated. Therefore, I set it aside to write this brief post to make Polly happy. More to come soon … I promise.

 

Worship 1/2 CD

Check out the Worship 1/2 CD … so funny, but also so sad because it’s true!

 

The Certainty of Death

Death is something we all deal with. Whether we have lost someone close or know others who have lost someone dear to them … we will all die. Lately I have been reflecting on death a lot. With the death of several big stars and a fellow employee at Grace to You, as well as the anniversaries of the deaths of some people I knew and was connected to … I feel like I have not been able to get away from the reality of death. Most of these deaths were sudden, which reminds me of the brevity of life.

At work we had our own little memorial for Mike, and I was so blessed to hear what everyone remembered him by. Most everyone’s memories included his laugh and his love for the Lord. Being remembered  for songs, dance moves, movies, etc. is no match for a legacy of pointing others to Christ.  It caused me to stop and think … what will people remember me by?

Reminders of death and the uncertainty of life are good. They cause us to reflect on our lives and how we are living. Ecclesiastes says, “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, because that is the end of every man, and the living takes it to heart” (Ecc. 7:2). A Bible teacher I had in high school used to say, “The only breath you’re assured of is the one you just took.” Our lives can end at any moment, which is such a sobering thought. This motivates me to pour into others more, evangelize, and live every moment to the fullest for the glory of God. You don’t know when your life, or the life of someone you know, will end.