The Friendship Challenge

Pictured above is Jen, Nicole, and Allison (with me laying behind them, of course).

The friendship challenge is a challenge of whether your friendship will withstand this ten-day process of making bread. How it works is you receive a starter bag of goo on day 1. One might think to oneself, "Hey, this doesn't seem so tough."

On days two to five, you mush the goo and maybe even burp the goo. Once again you might think to yourself, "Alright, this is taking a little bit of a commitment, but so does being friends with Aimee...I think I can handle it."

Now day six is here. You read in the instructions that you are supposed to add 1 cup of flour, sugar, and milk. This seems okay so you go to the frig, pull out the milk, measure it, and pour it in. Next is the flour and sugar. You open the canisters and start measuring and come to find that you only have 3/4 of a cup of flour and a 1/2 cup of sugar. This is where you start questioning your friendship with the person that pawned this challenge off on you. So you get in the car and make an extra trip to the store to buy more flour and sugar. Now you begin to think that on the one hand this might be a little bit more work than you signed on for; but on the other hand, you think that anything in life takes a little work and usually in the end it is well worth it. So you decide to plow forward.

Day seven comes and you read mush the goo. The Hallelujah Chorus is playing over in your head. Day eight comes and goes. Day nine comes and goes. Day ten comes and goes and day eleven the same.

On day twelve, you open the cupboard and realize that you forgot all about your goo; and you throw the bag in the trash. You think, "Crap, all this work for nothing. I am so disappointed in myself." You curse Aimee for conning you into taking this challenge and in essence making you feel bad about yourself. You then call Aimee, your so-called friend who was supposed to call and hold you accountable in the bread-making process, to let her know that you had failed. She picks up her phone; and as you begin to tell her your story and how you failed in your attempts in the bread challenge, she laughs and says there is no need to be in despair. She says take your bag of goo out of the garbage and pick up where you left off. A few extra days of fermenting won't hurt a thing. You go to the garbage only to see that for the first time in your husband's life during marriage he listened to you and took out the garbage. Your heart sinks. You shrug your shoulders and think better luck next time and go about the rest of your day.

The story I just retold is based on some true events but was dramatized for desired effect.

In all actuality, the goo is called friendship bread because it gets passed on from friend to friend like a chain letter. But unlike a pesky chain letter, you can enjoy the end product.

Here I am doing just that. Mmm, mmm, good.

In all seriousness, there are some real life applications that you can take from the experience of making friendship bread in case you couldn't pick them out in the dramatized story from above. In life, you can find yourself in situations or experiences either by your choosing or by the choices made by others. At times, things can be tough; and you doubt if you want to continue in this course. You find yourself questioning things. At this point, you find yourself at a crossroads. You can either turn away/run from this course, or you can stay the course and let these "challenges" burn and refine you to be better than you ever thought was possible. Mistakes happen. That's just life. However, we need to be able to learn from them, not let them define us, and let God do His handy work and transform them into a precious treasure. God is at work in all of us, and He uses life to accomplish His mighty work.

Who's 2?

Two years ago yesterday on February 23, 2007, a miracle took place in Henderson, Minnesota. Penelope was born to Kahlua (a black pug) and Wilbur (a fawn pug). It is amazing how time flies and how we have been blessed by the excitable and loving personality of our pug dog Penelope.

In the picture above, we are singing "Happy Birthday" to Penelope, and she is cocking her head in enjoyment of the song (or simply trying to understand what we are singing).

Pictured above is Penelope playing with her new friend, Buddy, a post Valentine's Day super discount present for her birthday. She loves Buddy!

Club 31...Book #4

Have you ever wondered if there is really a difference between Catholicism and Biblical Christianity? Why Mormonism's founder, Mr. Smith, believed what he believed. And what ever happened to him? And what's the deal with Wicca and Hinduism? Are they really religions? Can Biblical Christians practice yoga/meditation? The next book on the list to read was called "What's the Big Deal About Other Religions?" When I read the title of this book, I must admit that I was a little nervous that this might be a little over my head; but to my surprise, it was a real easy read. I found myself really enjoying learning about all these other religions. The book started out seeming to paint an unbias view of these religions compared to Christianity; but the further I read, I found that this is not the case. But all in all, it is a good easy read if you are interested in learning about other religions, their founders, and where they stand on the seven major core beliefs of Christianity.

Scapbooking Weekend

At the end of January, my mom and I got together for the weekend. We spent all day Saturday with about 144 some women scrapbooking at a local church in North Branch. To be honest, I was unsure about how much I would like spending 12 hours scrapbooking without getting bored. But to my surprise, I found that I enjoyed myself very much. I had a wonderful time hanging out with my mom, talking and catching up on life, as well as getting caught up on my long overdue scrapbooking.

Here we are about 11 hours into it. Bright eyed and bushy tailed and still going strong. I got my Capitol scrapbook all caught up and my Everyday Life scrapebook caught up to my birthday. It's amazing what you can get done when you just commit a little bit of time and creativity to something.But it was not all hard work without any fun and games. We were able to take some time out of our busy scrapbooking schedule and make some fun of the fact that my mom lost one of her front bottom teeth and how she now looks...well, a little back woodsy.

When the weekend was all said and done, we had a wonderful time and are planning on doing this again.

Othello Wants a Pretty Kitty Smile

Okay, so most of you know that we are crazy cat people. Our cats love the bathroom sink and the magical waterfall that comes out of the faucet. Every time we get ready in the morning and when we brush our teeth before going to bed, all three cats frantically scurry into the bathroom and jump up onto the sink to get some water. Over Christmas, Aimee and I got new pulsating toothbrushes from Aimee's parents. Well, one night while getting ready for bed, Othello stretched out his left paw (yes, even Othello is left-pawed) to grab Aimee's toothbrush and began brushing his own teeth, gums, and tongue!

Cheering on the Underdog

Aimee and I both generally cheer for the underdog when it comes to most sporting events unless the Vikings or the Hawkeyes happen to be the favorite (which does not happen that often). That was the case for this year's Super Bowl...we were both cheering for the Cardinals especially since Pittsburgh had just won the Super Bowl three years ago. We enjoyed the party (even though the Steelers won) at Tom and Candace Gommels' house with about 15 or so other couples from our church. They have three TVs, and many of the husbands watched the game on the big-screen TV in the heated garage.

Aimee and I along with some friends from our immediate small group watched the game on the TV in the living room.

Many of the wives watched the game on the TV in the family room with the comfortable leather couches.

There was a ton of great food (lots of desserts...heaven for me), and it was good to catch up with some of the friends we do not see as often these days.