Arboretum and Africa

Yesterday I went to the Dallas Arboretum with some of the girls from my church home group. It was absolutely beautiful and the weather was perfect at about 60 degrees (my favorite)! The brilliance of the Lord was overwhelming as I looked at all of the unique and gorgeous flowers that He has created. What a blessing it is to have a God that even cares about the flowers and bringing us joy through their presence!!! Here are a few photos of the beauty that is the Arboretum.

Now on to the best news of the day, or really the entire year...I have been chosen to go to Sudan on a mission trip this summer with my church!!!! I can not even explain how excited I am to have this opportunity! I'm positive that the Lord is going to use our team to do amazing things for His Kingdom!  

Sudan, Africa here I come!!!

We Do It Right Up In Here

In honor of Mardi Gras, Kristy made jambalaya and beer for dinner tonight! Okay, I lied. We do not, and I mean DO NOT, like the taste of beer in these parts that we kindly refer to as Parma Place. Personally, the "wheaty" smell is enough to make me gag, so we opted for the less wheat, more sugar version...root beer. Mmmmmm, tasty!

#20 March Dish

#20 Cook/bake a new dish every month

Last night I made this recipe from Rachael Ray's Look and Cook cookbook. 

I forgot to take pictures throughout the process, but here is what it looked like before we dished it up and devoured it. :)

Of course, I can not make it look as pretty as Rachael Ray's food stylist did but it sure was as tasty as I imagine hers was! 

This is the first meal I have ever made with egg noodles and ya know what, I liked 'em! I think you should try this recipe because it's super yummy!

#20 February Dish

#20 Cook/bake a new dish every month

Tonight I threw a bunch of ingredients in the pan, added some Asian components, and served it all over brown rice. The result was pretty delicious and healthy!

 The ingredients.

The end result. Not pretty, but tasty!

V-day Love!

My awesomely thoughtful parents brought me these beautiful roses on Valentine's Day. What a fun surprise and a great reminder that I am loved!

Cooped-up Crafting

Tomorrow will mark the 4th day that the school district in which I am student teaching has been closed!!!! In all of my years of Texas education I have NEVER missed school for this many days! So, it goes without saying that I do not know what to do with myself in the kind of weather that keeps you cooped-up in your house for days on end. The first day was spent being super lazy, the second was pretty much the same but I did manage to make dinner and get my roomie from the airport, today is the third day and I resigned to crafting. Here are some pictures of what I have made today.

 

Dishwasher magnets 

  

Hair bow hangers for a friend's little girls

Tomorrow's agenda: work on resume and taxes. Something tells me tomorrow will not be as fun as today; what do you think? ;)

#20 January Dish

#20 Cook/bake a new dish every month

Better last minute and without pictures than never at all...last night (Jan. 31st) I made Pasta a la Betsy from Pioneer Woman's recipe blog. It was super easy and pretty tasty, but I might have put a bit too much wine ;). Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pictures to document so you are going to have to take me at my word (or ask my roomies) that I made it. 

P.S. I substituted chicken for shrimp (I hate those little fishy critters!) and corkscrew noodles for penne.

This is what PW's final product looked like.