My commute

For those of us that work we all have a commute that we have to deal with. Some are shorter than others, but most generally have one thing in common a boring view. HA HA, not me! Just as I rounded the corner to head on to my work I turned to see the sun breaking through the clouds. There was just a twinge of that autumn feeling in the air too. You know that feeling right?! The kind that makes you want to put on some apple cider and curl up with a good book. The feeling that lets turkeys know they better hide because Thanksgiving is right around the corner. And the feeling that makes you look at the calendar and count down how many shopping days are left until Christmas, which is 116 days (just so you know).

Anyway, this was the view on my commute to work this morning, breath taking right! Eat it freeway...God paints a much better canvas and he has the whole sky to do it in too.

Psalm 97:6 - The heavens declare his righteousness, and all the people see his glory.

I know you're jealous. Try not to hate me to much.

Dinner

It's been a long time since I posted any food pics or recipes hasn't it! I realized that tonight as I was making dinner. So here we go.

I was inspired this afternoon by Pioneer Woman's blog for fried round steak. If you're not GF this is a good recipe for you, but if you're like me and can't have all purpose four it might not be the best one for you so I decided to work on one for myself tonight. And boy it was Mmmm good!

So here's how it goes...

Season your cube steak. I used salt, pepper and onion powder, but use what you like best. Then dredge your cubed steak ing your fave all purpose GF flour. I like the mix over at Hey, that tastes good! You may have to do this a couple of times don't worry the more flour the crunchier it tastes.

Make sure that the skillet you use is nice and hot and has lots and lots of butter in it! Hey, I never said that this was a healthy meal, I just said it was good. Then plop the steaks in the pan and fry it up about 4 min on each side gets it nice and golden brown. Yummy!!!

While my steak was cooking I also had a bag of peas cooking up in the microwave and had already started some potatoes up in the oven ahead of time. I'm one of those people that likes everything done at the same time and planning is the key there. So if you want to do the same make sure that you start it all when needed so that your food finishes up within the same time.

After my steaks were done frying, and my peas were done heating up, and my potatoes were nice and golden crispy this was what I had! Dinner!!!

I was a little worried after I offered to make my roommate one, just because she's from Texas and knows her country steak, but this garnered two enthuastic thumbs up from her as she enjoyed her dinner. I wish I had thought ahead to making the drippings into gravy, but I've never really been good at making pan gravy so it was no major loss, but my steak was nice & crispy, just like I like it.

I really love cooking for people this will definitely be a keeper for my family one day, prolly for a Sunday afternoon or evening when some comefort food is needed. I hope all you GF friends enjoy it too. Thanks Ree for the inspiration!

MIni Epics

Once upon a time there was a girl who loved going to the movies and that girl was me. Like I said that was once upon a time and I just didn't love going to the movies, I practically lived there. I mean what white 13 year old girl do you know that will voluntarily go and sit through Malcom X for two and a half hours, by herself. Not many I'm sure. Nowdays I don't really go, which is a good thing because, while some movies can be entertaining most of what is out there is not worth paying $7 a pop (back in the day it was on $4) save a few. The last movie I remember seeing at the movie theater was March of the Penguins, and that was only because I wanted to see the cinematography, which was worth it. If I want to watch a movie these days I just stay home ans watch one of mine or pull one up on Netflix through my roommates Wii (boy I'm gonna miss that, but a friend at church says I can get a DVD player that will do the same thing, but I digress).

However if YouTube had been in existance during my youth I would have been advantageous of me to save my money and watch these mini epics of Forest Gump & Titanic

Hahaha, aren't those funny! I wish I could get that money back that I spent on those movies, especially since I saw Titanic 4 times! O boy, what can I say I was 18 and lost.

My life today

I know it took a while for me to post on my days spent in LTIA thanks for hanging in there. I also know that my stories and life has been kind of quiet up to this point for other things that have been going on. So let me see if I can play catch up.

I decided to get involved in the campaigns for this years mid term elections in my county. I pretty much support most of the conservative candidates, except for two running for local offices. In those cases the best qualified candidates really are from the opposite party. The one candidate that I'm actively involved with is Kelly Emerson, running for Island County Commissioner. Our current leadership within those offices needs to be reigned in, and Kelly's just the person to hold Island County accountable for how it spends it's money. For more information click on her link on my sidebar, or check out her blog at our news papers website. In conjunction with this endeavor I'm also working with the local women's republican group. I've stepped up to be the secretary for the club and besides promoting our political candidates we also have a program call pieces of home, which I love! Basically we get together and fill boxes of goodies to send to the troops that are stationed overseas. Naturally having served in the military this is a cause near and dear to my heart.

After the primary's on Tuesday Kelly is also ahead of the incumbent John Dean, in the polls 59% to 40%, and that was just for her district, which is a pretty Democratic one at that. Now that the primary's are over her race opens up to all of Island County. GO KELLY!!!

I'm also in the process of taking photos for some friends and their business so that they can create new brochures. If you haven't found the link yet, in my favorite tabs, check out their website here at A Knot in Thyme. This also opened up a new opportunity for me to take pictures of the Vertical Garden for Alyssa for a great opportunity that came her way to have the wall show up in book on vertical gardening! I took those pics last weekend and it was a lot of fun, even if it was HOT outside! I'll post some of them later for you to take a look.

This weekend I'll be walking with Kelly in the local Island County Fair Parade, while my friends are away on the HWY 20 camp out. It's weird not being able to go this year, but in choosing to take my vacation to DC earlier in the summer that also left me with not enough time to take off for a little while. Actually there are quite a few of the SPG's that fell into this category. I've made it a point to try and go to each one since the inception of the HWY 20 project, but if I were to leave here on Friday afternoon, by the time I got to the camp ground it would be time for me to leave again, and I don't know about all of you, but if I have to drive 4 hours to get somewhere I might as well get to stay for a spell.

I think that's about it for now, not a whole lot to say, just enough to keep the update real rather than focusing on the past.

Oh and if you're in the mood for a good sermon on what God says about changing click here "Change, but never change". This sermon comes from a previous Pastor of mine. Here is his synopsis of the message: Heb 6:1-20 God never changes because He is perfect, so to change would be to leave perfection. We are to strive for perfection. Hence, we ought always to be "changing" to be better, but NEVER "changing" in a backsliding direction. How many of God's people have surrendered precious ground to the devil? Allow this sermon to, at minimum, bring you back to where you once were in your Christian walk.

LTIA Part 6...Thoughts on Thursday, a Fantastic Friday & Sianara Saturday

Thursday arrived and it was the last day that I had to memorize my verse.

Proverbs 16:13 - "Righteous lips are the delight of kings; and they love him that speaketh right."

Our morning lectures were on how to answer those people that would criticize the Bible, Defending the Gospel and Humanism in education.

Today was the day that we also got to go to CWA (Concerned Women of America) headquarters and meet Wendy Wright, the President of CWA. Her testimony was pretty amazing. She was arrested once for praying across the street from an abortion clinic. She wasn’t even talking to the people, yet her concern for their welfare and the welfare of the unborn children were enough to cause her to pray and yet she was arrested and found guilty for her actions. Her words to us though were very encouraging and some of us at the end got to talk to her personally.

A print in the hall at LI
Karline signing the Declaration of Independence
Waiting for the elevator at CWA

Wendy Wright speaks

The Quilt Wall

Here are is a clip of her being interviewed by CNN last week over California’s decision on Prop 8.

She has another series of clips that I plan on putting up with her “debate” Richard Dawkins on the theory of evolution, but that’s for another time.

After our meeting with Wendy we made our way over to the Smithsonian, where Bro. Briney wanted us to see the display on evolution and its false teachings. But we spent so much time at CWA that by the time we got there we were running short on time and some of us had a hard time finding the display. On a personal note, museums of natural history are never really that interesting to me. When I was at the one in NYC, when I was in HS, the only real reason I thought it was cool was because one of my favorite shows back then was friends and that was where the character Ross worked at. Anyway, I found Tim & Bro. McHenry and started waiting with them, until he told me that the Hope Diamond was on display. Well, though I’m not voted “most likely to be distracted by something shiny” that was all I needed to hightail it up to the 2nd floor and take a couple pics of it. You know, just so that Mr. Right has an idea of what I like;) J/K Something smaller will do just fine, but isn’t it beautiful. 45 karats!

After that side of the Smithsonian we went to that American History side, which was across the street. Here was much more enjoyable for me, Although we couldn’t take pics of the actual flag, here is where they have stored the original Star Spangled Banner, yes the very on that Francis Scott Key penned out national anthem about. It really was a sight to behold at 30’ x 34’. I also got to see the ball gowns of our first ladies, the Ruby Slippers, Carol Burnett’s dress from her “Went With the Wind” skit (if you haven’t seen it yet you need to, it’s a classic! I’ve provided clips below for your enjoyment). I saw the Bradford Dollhouse as well as the diner counter from the first civil rights sit in (sorry no pics of that one, the battery in my camera died by that time).

The Star Spangled Banner

Mrs. Tafts nagural Ball gown

Mrs. Bushes Inagural Ball gown

Went With The Wind

The Ruby Slippers

The Bradford Doll House

After the Smithsonian it was back to LI for dinner and a short rest before we were off to meet with Congressman Boozman from Arkansas at the Capital building. Here we got to have a private after hours tour. It was really quiet without all the tourists and the Congressman actually had to come and go a bit during the tour because they were in the middle of a vote. We learned some pretty interesting facts, like how in the old Senate floor there is a whisper spot, where a person standing on the opposite end of the room can clearly hear “secret conversations”. It’s said that John Adams, known for falling asleep during senate meetings on the floor, was seated in that spot and because of it he could know what was still going on though he was not awake.

We also got to go up and sit in the Senate gallery. While Senate was not in session, there was a Senator that was arguing, for the C-SPAN cameras, against Obama care. Plastered above the seating area are profiled faced of different heads of state which vary from Napoleon to Washington. However, the only face which is allowed to face the Speaker of the House is the face of Moses, the first judge. A note of irony here is that the government would very much like to deny God in their actions, yet there are proofs of our founding fathers reverence for Him and His guidance everywhere in Washington.

The coridor walking towards the Senate

The Capital Rotunda

The Whisper Spot

Walking up to the Senate Floor

Paul working a deal with the Congressman

Upon our return to LI we had one last chance to work on our project before the following day’s presentation.

A fantastic Friday was how our last full day started and ended.
Brother Jim Love brought us a special devotion on the influence of Baptists in the founding of our country, and after it was time for our presentations. We were the first group up and actually it made me happy to just get it over with. Everyone else did an excellent job on their presentations as well.

After the presentations it was time to split up to take a tour of things that we wanted to see but didn’t have the time to see during the week. Some went back to the Smithsonian. Some went to go take pics outside the White House, while some still went shopping. Me and my group, comprised of Tim, Josh, Joel, Joyka, Grace and Anna, went to Arlington cemetery. I never realized how close it is to the rest of the National Mall. The place is huge and there so much more there I want to see, but we did get to see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which was very moving in its silence.

The Marine Memorial a.k.a. The Iwo Jima Memorial

By this time my feet were so swollen and it just hurt to walk, but I made it and I’m glad that was the tour that I chose to go on.

After our day it was time to freshen up for graduation. All but 2 people graduated with honors. It was a great evening. After graduation we went to Barnes & Noble around the corner from where we were at and hung out in the little park that was in the middle of the stores.

Finally Saturday we left, but not before I finally got to meet my friend Julie. We started our friendship as E-buddies on FB, and started following each other’s blogs. Her brother has been a guest preacher at out church a couple of times and so finally after 3 years, though it was a short lunch meeting I’m glad that we finally got the chance to meet. It was a great afternoon.

My head finally hid my pillow at home around midnight, tired but happy that the week had been fulfilling both spiritually and personally.