A Rather Busy Weekend

Thursday ~
Yes, I know, Thursday is technically not part of the weekend. However, when school is out and work has not yet commenced the line between weekday and weekend can be blurred slightly. My Thursday was spent, to my great enjoyment, in the kitchen. I managed to end the day with 24+ cupcakes for the end-of-the year kids' program at church,

a Jewish apple cake (don't know quite why it's called that but it's quite good nonetheless),


two brownie-bottom cheesecakes (my personal favorite) drizzled with chocolate,


and dinner for my family. I certainly enjoyed myself and I think it all tasted pretty good :)

Friday~
Friday we celebrated my highschool graduation. While I was technically done in December and have completed a semester of college, we waited till the spring to have a party. Even though many of my friends couldn't make it, it was still a great party. My grandparent were able to come from Pennsylvania and my cousin came with them.
We had a wonderful dinner of turkey barbecue, potato salad, and seven layer salad.

And of course, I can't forget the chocolate fountain......Yum! One of the young men from our church who came to the party managed to get a fair amount of chocolate on his clothes as well as in his mouth. His mother told me when he came home Friday night the first thing she said to him was, "I see you had chocolate." :D

We had lots of different types of fruit to dip in the chocolate, as well as pretzels.

I had a wonderful time. I'm so thankful to my mommy for all the hard work she put in to making this a special day! Thanks, mom!


Saturday~
As I mentioned before, my cousin, Carol Jean, from Pennsylvania came for my graduation party and she and my grandparents stayed until Sunday. We decided to take a trip to Times Square on Saturday.
We got a little bored on the subway, so we took a picture :)

Times Square in black and white.


We didn't see either of these but we're making plans for the fall.....yay Wicked!


I don't think she believed me at first when I told her there was a Starbucks on practically every corner......Now she does.And of course, although we had grandiose plans for not buying food at ridiculously high Times Square prices, we broke down and got some New York pizza!


Later that evening we curled up with bowls (or, I guess, mugs) of ice cream. Ice cream that we got for free....... double yum! Monkey Butter (Banana flavored ice cream with peanut butter) is probably just about the best ice cream I've ever had.

Oh, and who can resist flipping on Pride and Prejudice to close the evening. Cousins, Darcy, and ice cream, *sigh* it was a good day.

Sunday ~
Although I do not have pictures of Sunday, it was still a pretty eventful day. We went to church in the morning and afterwards a Chinese buffet for lunch. After managing to get my grandfather to the restaurant (I don't do so well with directions), I proceeded to exemplify grace and took a marvelous little tumble onto the sidewalk. Well, it really wasn't much of a tumble, it was a flat out fall, complete with bloody knee....... I don't know how I did it, but despite the blood and pain it was a fun day. As my grandfather said, "unfortunatley knees heel faster than egos."

Love

Aristotle once said that, “Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.” However, for the Christian, love is composed of two souls cohabiting in one flesh.

Ephesians 5:31 "For this reason a man shall. . .be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."

Pastors and PMS

Did you know that pastors get PMS?? Every pastor of a small church that I’ve known (and that’s quite a few since my dad is a pastor in a small denomination) gets something I like to call PMS or Pastoral Morning Syndrome. I happens every Sunday morning and it goes a little something like this…..

“Did you bring that vase from home like I told you to?” “No, you simply mentioned that we should bring it so I didn’t remember….” Well what am I supposed to do NOW??” “There’s a vase in the kitchen, dad.” “Where?” “Right in the bottom cabinet.” (opens cabinet) “I don’t see it!” “It’s right there, dad.” “*heavy sigh* This one’s not as pretty as the red one at home.”

Following that there’s the huge discussion of how best to arrange the flowers and whether or to put the water in before or after the flowers. Next there’s the OCD arranging of the chairs and the constant rushing around until everything is just so. Seriously, it’s just like the normal kind of PMS (swift mood changes, obsessions, and annoying everyone around them) only it’s once every week instead of once a month, but luckily it also only lasts for about an hour instead of a week.

Some Thoughts on My 1st Semester of College

So it's hard to believe as I sit here typing this, that I've completed my first semester of college! It's funny, as much as college was always a part of my plans it seems so weird to be where I am right now. I'm only 17 and have a full 15 college credits!

Anyway, I took my last final today! The knowledge that I'm done gives me the most amazing feeling! I couldn't help thinking back over my first college classes, my first classes with teachers other than my parents. I'll never forget the feeling of shock when the first thing we studied in my College Writing I Class was what a noun was! I felt like I was back in 1^st grade! Not that I'm complaining, I got all As J From that class I moved on to Old Testament. Again, I was slightly shocked when we spent the first hour memorizing the books of the Old Testament, again something I did in 1^st grade! Though Old Testament did end up being my favorite class, the beginning was rather humorous.

My Monday classes weren't quite as shocking, and they didn't make me feel quite as juvenile. However, by the end of the semester, I'm so glad that my New Testament class is over. Some of the most boring three-hour time chunks ever! Foundations of Education was neither juvenile nor boring, but I'm still glad it's over. It's funny how I can enjoy teaching and yet hate school.

So all in all the like/hate ratio was fair. I LOVED Old Testament and enjoyed Foundations of Education, while I HATED College Writing (more about that at a different time perhaps) and barely tolerated New Testament. Let me say again though that I am SOOOOO glad to be done! And get this!!! I think I even have a 4.0!!!