Thank God Almighty, We're Free at Last!

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During the last week of school, Morristown lost a great young man.  His name was Matt Seals.  He was adopted and had struggled with serious health problems all his life, but until it really got bad, you would never have known by just meeting him; he was such a trooper!  Matt had a great attitude and was so kind and sweet, always smiling.  I'd never known anyone to have anything bad to say about him.  Above are pictures from middle school when he ran cross country for East Ridge.  He also played many other sports when he was younger until his eyesight got too weak.  He was a great athlete, too!  In the bottom picture is us with our top 3 plaques at the conference meet.  Middle school was when we got to know each other quite well, texting almost daily and having great fun.  In high school, his health started to deteriorate quickly, and they moved him from East to West, and eventually, he was put on homebound.  Everyone's hearts were broken to hear the news of his passing.  Before his burial service, we held a Trojan Train of students from both high schools, leaving school at 1:30 to go to the graveside service to show our love and support.  Sadly, not everyone who personally knew him got to attend, but some who didn't even know him did.  I thought that it would be great to start off this post dedicated to someone who I truly respect and believe that his spirit will encourage people for a long time!  It is calming to know that Matt is no longer suffering, but is joyfully worshipping The Lord in heaven!

This is the summer life I have grown up with every year!  A couple visit at times, and one has been added to our group (Magan's husband Austin), but the core of this "family" has been together since before the kids came along.  Magan is behind the camera in this photo, and Austin is in the back center.  Her brother Preston, who is two years out of high school now, is in front with the hat.  He treats me like a sister, and I am so thankful to have him here for me!  Jack and Jody, their mom and dad are the two sitting one on the other's lap.  My mom is next to them and Patty next to her.  Erika is Patty's daughter, to the right of her.  Will is the one behind Erika, who is her new man for now.  I approve of him so far!  My Dad is in the bright trunks on the left side.  Patty and Jody are sisters, so this family sticks together all the time, and we have always been included.  My Dad and Patty were great friends most of their lives.

The going got windy for sure during that last bit til school was out!  Knowing that the end was near was what kept me going.

I thought this was really cute, short, and sweet.  With God, we can make it through anything and everything!

I love summer because I get to pleasure read!  Unfortunately, I have to do summer reading for school, too, but it doesn't take up my entire summer.  I had started Catching Fire on Christmas break (or maybe before even?) and finally got to where I could continue!  I hadn't gotten far yet, but boy was it intense!  I'm not much into fiction books, but this trilogy has kept me on my toes so far! 

How often do you see an entire house picked up and moved?

Mom had to run by her office at school to pick up some things that were left for her, and while I waited in the car, someone else pulled in.  Apparently they were too lazy to walk across the parking lot and had to park two feet away from the door.

I made muffins!  These actually started out as the Martha White made with whole grain blueberry muffin mix, but I added some bananas and oatmeal, too.  They came out so much better!  Super moist and satisfying as well!  In these fancy, no mess muffin cups, I also thought that they looked too cute.

I just love this picture!  Frisco is such a loving dog, always wanting attention.  Even though he smells bad, Mom actually loves on him sometimes, like this day when she let him jump up halfway on her lap.  To be as wild as he is, he's actually very photogenic!

I was reading a story one night in one of the many magazines I get (not sure if it was World Vision or Decision) about the conflicts between the Hutu and Tutsis of Rwanda.  We had learned a lot about these ethnic battles in one of the best classes I have taken, AP Human Geography.  The teacher, Coach Morgan, is one of the best teachers I've ever had, too!  He knew his stuff and was always willing to help us and go into great detail to tell us what we needed to know and help us understand.

I just have to share the joys of cool whip (at least in a picture).  Whenever I plop some out to have with a dessert, I think of the little girl in Despicable Me who says about her stuffed animal, "It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!"  That's how I feel about cool whip.

Poor Frisco freaks out whenever he gets in a car because he thinks he's going to the vet.  In this case, he was correct.  He pants up a storm back there.

He also freaks out so much that he refuses to walk to or from any doors or vehicles, so I have to pick him up and carry him back and forth.  This is not an easy task!  Yes, I'm strong, but he's not a lightweight pooch!

I love fresh fruits and vegetables, but my neighbor is no longer having a garden at his mom's house where they always gave me tons of fresh things all summer.  I decided to plant some seeds out of some plants that I had gotten from the store (apricot, apple, cucumber), but by now, almost a month later, nothing has happened, and I believe that was a failure.  At least I tried!

I had to take a selfie because I really loved my bun and my outfit.  I was on my no-running time after state track for 10 days, so I went to the Jeff City Community Center for a long swim and then time on the cross ramp.  While I was on that, I worked on my summer reading on one of the books,

Ethan Frome, that I found for free on iBooks on my iPod touch.

This photo was in a Tennessee Magazine my mom got in the mail that she showed me as she was flipping through.  I love pumpkins and squash, so I totally need this in my backyard!

A Long but Wonderful Day

This was a very long time ago, but I have not had any time this second semester to update anything.  I had saved pictures to share about, so now I am adding the words!

My school does a job shadowing day for sophomores, so on March 6th, I went to work with my dad at Rich's, where he is the head cost accountant for the Morristown plants.  He has been working there for several years now, and I have learned lots of interesting things.  They make all kinds of foods for stores all across America.  The most well-known item they produce is probably the muffins for Dunkin Donuts!  They also make the best carrot cake I have ever had in my life.  It is full of real carrots, raisins, spices, and nuts.  That was even my birthday cake last year.  Whenever a product is being tested or has the slightest imperfection, they leave them on carts in the testing or break room for employees to have.  Sometimes they also sell them for a dollar or two to raise money for charities.  While I was there, dad sent me on tours of both of the plants to see the foods being made.  That is some industrial-sized cooking for sure!  That's not the job that I want to have, but it worked out getting to spend the morning with my dad.



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Below is my favorite muffin:  honey bran raisin!  They were running on the day I took my tour, so they let me bring a couple home.

When it was lunch time, Dad took me out to Subway to grab a big sandwich.  Then we also went to TCBY for dessert to fill the extra time before I had to go back to school.  My fourth block class has mixed grade levels, so there were still going to be people in there to have class with.  After school, I had to get out fast to do my track speed workout, because I had a concert to catch!  I ended up getting in a warm up and cool down, with 6 800s and 3 300s, all in time to be changed and ready when my mom and dad pulled in the parking lot at 4:15.  From there we headed to Cheddar's in Johnson City to meet some people from my parents' Sunday School class for dinner.  After that we went to Freedom Hall to see Casting Crowns on their Thrive tour.  I saw them in my first concert ever a couple years ago, and I was so excited to hear some new music from them!  Since I have been going to concerts, I have realized that people perform way more music than what we hear on the radio!  I had never even heard the song that is the theme for the tour, Thrive.  Another great song I heard for the first time was Just be Held.

Here are some of my favorite quotes/song lyrics from the night, that I also tweeted.  I found these very applicable to my life!

"Just to know You and to make You known

we life Your name on high

...

We know we were made for so much more than ordinary lives

It's time for us to more than just survive.

We were made to thrive!

...

Joy unspeakable, faith unsinkable, love unstoppable, anything is possible!"

The other band who was with Casting Crowns on this tour was For King & Country.  I didn't know much about them before the concert except for some of their songs.   They are such a cool group of guys!  Very unselfish, humble, and focused on doing for others.

This was during one of Casting Crowns's most popular songs, Glorious Day.  It's one of my mom's favorites, too, so she was singing loud!  It's a beautiful song about how the love of Christ has saved us, His story, beginning to end, and one day ultimately when He comes back!

Snow Day!

Like I said last night, getting a text message that we were out of school absolutely thrilled me.  I'm usually the kind of girl who is looking forward to school, working hard and learning.  Not this time.  Although I tried so hard over the weekend, I couldn't help but dread it.  I've never been like that!  Fortunately, God helped us out and sent some "heavenly dandruff," as my Honors English II teacher from last semester liked to call it.  I am very thankful to have an extra day to relax and get things done here at home.

After sleeping in and getting a morning workout done, I dug into some of the Toffee Figgy Muffins I made yesterday.  They are a success!  So yummy, healthy, and moist!  Everything you want in a muffin, right?

 

No way!! I just received another message already cancelling school tomorrow, too!  This is great!  Even though it is not supposed to snow much more, the temperatures are the coldest we've had all year (and maybe last year, too).  Wind chills are also sub zero.

This was the noon-time weather on my iPhone.

We're walkin in a winter wonderland....

This is off my back porch.

This is down my street in one direction from the front porch.

And the other way!  I never get my hopes up for snow anymore, because our weather people don't always accurately (or even relatively close sometimes) predict the weather.  I woke up to go to the bathroom around 5:00 this morning, and decided to walk to the kitchen to get an ice pack to cool me down, and looked out the window to a very pleasant surprise! 

 

Time to get to work around here!

 

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Okay, I'm back.  Yeah, that seemed fast to you because I just saved this page and came back to it around 7 hours later.

This is a project that I had been wanting to do all winter, but couldn't find a cold stretch to make it last until today!  I started it last night so it would be good and frozen by today.  I used to do this when I was really little.  The idea came from either a magazine or show I used to watch that had examples with a couple drawings like this, but most of it was a bird feeder.  They froze bird feed and hung it up so the birdees wouldn't starve in the cold weather!

Last night when I chose this verse, I began to like it even more when I realized how ironic it was.  God "is a consuming fire," and I was freezing the verse and hanging it outside in the single digits.

All you do to make these simple decorations or deck ornaments, as I said in this case, is tear off some clear saran wrap, like what you use to cover food.  Decorate it, freeze it in a plate, bowl, or any container, stick a wire, string, or anything to use as a hanger into the water, and there you have it!  Everything freezes together, then you can bend the sides of the container when it thaws a little, and take it out and hang it up!

The verse on this one got frozen a little deep in the water, but it is Ecclesiastes 11:9.

Isn't he just precious?

Frisco is inside now; Dad bought a kennel to put him in in the basement to save him from the cold.

Dogs can photobomb, too!

I just love the innocence of a sweet pet.

 

Now it's almost time for that BCS National Championship game!

Oh Happy Day!

Church is always a good way to start out a Sunday, but today ended up being an even better one.  My Christmas break has just been awesome in general.

When we came home from church I had a snack and got to work on some Sticky Toffee Muffins from the Runner's World Magazine I got last month.  They were originally cupcakes, but they aren't too sweet, so I made them without icing to have as breakfast.

In the book I have just finished reading, I Still Belive by Jeremy Camp, I found something that made a lot of sense to me. Jeremy was describing how he had gotten super busy with so many things in his music ministry career.  It is a good thing because he had such a platform to share with others from.  However, it was getting him distracted and stressed.  I often feel this way, too.  I get involved in so many things.  Although they may be good things, they consume me too much.  I need to remember the words of Jeremy’s dad, Tom, “We can get so busy doing the work of the Lord that we forget the Lord of the work.”  My work for Him won’t be efficient until I am connected with Him and fully trusting Him to guide me in the work.

Later in the afternoon, Dad and I went on a nice, long run!

Then he made his amazing chili for our dinner!  I absolutely love this stuff.  I mixed some corn bread in, too.  Now, an even better part...There's no school tomorrow!  They called it off because of weather!  Made my day.  Whooooo!

Corn bread

This is my favorite corn bread ever.  It is moist, not crumbly, like most corn breads.  Dry bread is not my thing, so this is just right!  The recipe came from my Aunt who lives in Richmond, Virginia.  I don't know where she may have gotten the recipe (or made it herself), but I can't take credit for this masterpiece!  We usually make it in a pan, but for Thanksgiving, I had the idea to bake them in individual candy corn cups to give to friends with a little note telling them how thankful I am for them.

 

 

Here is the recipe:

3 eggs

2 boxes Jiffy mix

1 can (16oz) creamed corn

1 cup sour cream

 1/2 cup oil

**bake at 375 degrees for around 45 minutes (preferably in a 9x12 cake pan for this amount of time.  Other shapes vary cooking time.)