Life has it's ups and downs.....sorta like a roller coaster.

  Most of you know that I, Victoria Utermoehlen, will find something to smile about in every situation no matter how discouraging it might be. 
  
   I'll be honest-this week has been hard! It was almost like I was on a spiritual high, maybe even a mountain top experience over the weekend and by yesterday I was in the pits!

    It was so nice to get away from Pennsylvania for 4 days! And even with the whole "check engine" situation, it was totally worth it.
....Did I mention that Monday I tutored 3 kids in Latin, baked cookies, jumped on the trampoline, had a tea party while wearing a lacy old lady hat, and finished my first ever friendship bracelet and enjoyed one of the prettiest sunsets I've seen all month(bad thing when you're driving).  I even made it home the back way, in the dark, without getting directions?! Thank you, God for a decent sense of direction!
    Tuesday dawned and Victoria was not ready. Chasing 9 kids around all weekend and staying up till 2am and driving over 8 hours works on one's body when they have to get up for work. GGAAH! Then computer problems at work made it worse. And I almost forgot to turn in my check for the missions trip to the Dominican Republic in January!
Wednesday morning I forgot my house key! Left it in my pants from the night before! Seriously!! I was locked out of the house for an hour and by the time I drove to MennoHaven, waited for Stephanie to get off break to bring me her key and drove back to the Van Kampens....they were home! Haha! Gotta love it...I should have just played on the swings. 
Thursday-the final straw. I overslept. And actually got into a FIGHT(yes, things like this actually happen) with Steph....over when to do the chores! Seriously! How stupid can we be!?!?!? I was so frustrated and tired and irritaed that my plans were not going the way I wanted them to. I went to the office. My mom texted me and wanted me to check my email, because it was urgent. YEAH IT WAS! My sister Rochelle got shot in the eye with an airsoft pellet and was in the eye docter getting it checked out. Apparently she couldn't see much out of it and stuff. I don't really know all the details yet, but I about collasped. What else could go wrong!? I could have a half blind sister! <--ok I was overreacting just a little.
    Ever get to the point where you feel like your whole world is spinning and crashing around you. So overwhelming that you start to shake? Yep that was me. Do you also ever notice that it's usually not till we can't do it on our own that we decide it would be a good time to pray. Haha...I wonder why I can be so dumb somedays?!

Let's change the mindset here. PRAYER. Surrender. Two things essential for a 'christian's' life!

Turns out Rochelle just has bascially like a bruise on her eye. 2 kinds of eye drops, cool compresses, NO PHYSICAL activity till Tuesday. Guess that means she'll be vegging in front of the TV this weekend.

Steph and I are back to being attached at the hip. Nothing that a good talk at C&C Coffee Company whilst enjoying mochas and latte's couldn't fix.  And I'm glad we got it worked out, because the rest of the day would have been crap.

So lets end this by saying all the good things that happened this week(so you can thank God with me)....

*The check engine light turned off! haha.

* I'm going to the DOMINICAN REPUBLIC in January!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I ended up only having to pay half of it! YAY JESUS!!!!!!!

* Six games of pool later and you really can't think of anything else except the 8 ball! haha! I am inproving my game....sorta...

*  "What a friend she is, making me talk to myself......heh heh...I crack myself up..." -Steph Eshleman folding her clothes while I was trying to sleep.   [We're making a quote board next week]

* Things like apple crisp, ice cream and cool whip! 

* Laughs. Sunshine.

* The supper table conversation Thursday night. <--somethings can be left unsaid.....:)

..............

* BLOKUS! Oh my goodness!!! I Love this game so much I want it for Christmas!!!!!!!! I think we played 10 games last night. I even stayed up late to keep playing!!!!!!!! AHHHH!!!! SO much fun!!!!!!! Steph randomly asked if I wanted to play, because neither of us had played before....saying Yes was the best decision of my day(well maybe 2 best, after deciding to give my frustration over to God)!!!!!!!!

*And tonight I'm actually having a girls night! It's been a while. A long while since this has happened! I'm excited!

In ending, my advice....don't get so caught up in the frustrations of life. They're like a roller coaster. It lasts maybe a minute. It's not worth the stress of worrying about it. It'll be over sooner than you think.  Let go of the bar, stick your hands in the air and enjoy the ride!

God Bless

♥

October 22-24: My Virginia Adventures

Friday 5:31pm.
I have decided to make ONE post instead of 500000000, because I'm sure I will have lots of stories to tell.

Notice the shirts? :)

I call this weekned my fall break and I'm spending it...ironically, at college. Haha! EMU to be exact, visiting my "cousin" Rachel. <--we decided we were cousins so I could go to some sports after party for families only. We are smart! After a 3 hour car ride, it's nice to chill. I'm still deciding whether I should take a power nap or not.....most likely not...I don't want to miss anything. 


9:06pm.
Volleyball is such an intense sport! I like it much better then soccer, hands down. The EMU girls team played Roanoke and even though they lost, the game was worth watching! Especially because I have a friend on the team!  
After the game I got to join the team families for a meal. Meatballs, pineapple, COOKIES and Apple cider! Amazing for the stomach of one who hadn't eaten all day! :)


9:50pm - Batman Begins and The Dark Knight! Two movie's I've wanted to see for a  couple months now! SOO epic!!!! The Joker is so funny, in a creepy sort of way. And Two face...whoa...that was a little disturbing, but not that scary. 


Saturday 11:11am- Good bright and shiny morning to you! I love sleeping in and I'm glad Rachel does too..especially on Saturdays! *sigh* so refreshing. 
The morning/afternoon adventure begins as we decided to eat brunch at IHOP. I had never been to IHOP, thus the reason for the trip. We got directions and found out it was only 4.5 miles away. And to the car we went. 
5 minutes went by, then 10.....we drove around, following the directions from mapquest......they didn't work.
30 minutes later we pulled into the IHOP.

WE FOUND IT!

It was totally worth getting lost through Harrisonburg and all the frustration we had. :) The food=amazing!! I got a Cheese-steak sub thinger = ♥. The funniest part...we spent less than a half hour in IHOP and it took us 35 minutes to find it! haha! But it's all good.

We made it back to EMU just in time to run to the science building to watch Despicable Me. HILARIOUS and good movie!!!!!

This was a sight for sore eyes!

5:22pm-Arrived at the Gossages. I missed them so much! I didn't even make it in the door before I was tackled and screamed at and surrounded by 5 energetic kids! It's been two months since I've seen them. I missed the hugs and the now 5 year old Kenna screaming "I love you Katoria" at the top of her lungs every 5 minutes! Three kids gave me a back massage...amazing! And spaghetti for supper with garlic bread and....walking nachos.
I had the brilliant idea because I didn't want to mix nacho cheese sauce with spaghetti, and the chips were in little bags. Ever heard of the Walking Taco? Well I got the idea from that. One massive spoonful of cheese sauce and a bag of chips later and you have the Walking Nacho. We played Sorry and ate Ice Cream and played music. Oh yea and who could forget the incredible and slightly embarrassing barefoot walk around the neighborhood. Janson with a hammer and Kenyon who had to pee so bad he wanted to do it "dog" style. Every tree and every fire hydrant. hahahaa. What fun! 


I ended the night by having 'quality girl time' with Kindle and Addison.

Sunday 7:30am -beep beep beep....I hate waking up on Sunday! But I dragged myself out of bed. There's something slightly humorous about big families getting ready for church! Oh my goodness the yelling and fighting that goes on is like no other day of the week. :) Being that I was planning heading home from their church, Kindle and I stayed home an extra hour. It worked out perfect, because she had to finish something for church and I proofed a paper Addison wrote and hour before that had to be turned in today. It was a first person story telling of the creation of the star spangled banner. I ended up practically re-writing it! :) 
    Blue Ridge Bible Church in Purcellville, VA was my destination. I found it from memory of going the last time I was here! Score!!! I was so proud of myself! 
    We sang Christmas Carols in church! They're doing a "Christmas in October" series...so we aren't so focused on all the other Christmas goo rue in December that we miss the real meaning of Christmas(kinda a neat idea). Caleb played the drums. He's pretty good if I do say so myself! ;) The message was on Luke 2:8-20(if you'd like to listen: http://brbible.org/resources/sermons/the-gospel-proclaimed).


12:45pm- LUNCH TIME! :) Pizza, sun chips, candy bars, and coke in glass bottles! The meal was for the 30+ people that stayed for the guitar workshop. The guitar workshop was interesting. I didn't really understand too much from the electric guitar part, but the acoustic section was helpful. I finally learned what the notes are on each fret of the guitar(I sorta skipped that part in teaching myself), and I think I'm understanding barr chords better. I also learned about the 4/4 and 3/4 rhythm strum patterns. 


Today has turned out to be a long day, but cool non the less. It's been such a God day. I got to talk to so many kids that were just asking me random questions about life and middle school drama, and relationships. So great! I also got to talk to this girl who was around my age while we made friendship braclets(I am working on my first one still, but I finally got the concept of how to do it!) about our gifts and hobbies. She asked me how I figured out what my gifts were and such. It was such a miraculousness opportunity for me to share parts of my testimony as well as give advice and encouragement to someone who's in such a similar place in life as I am. I was thinking of how amazing it is how God works. If I hadn't met the girls at camp, I wouldn't have been able to come down and visit...and I wouldn't have been there today, which means perhaps the people I talked to wouldn't be as encouraged! God thank you for using me! :D
   As I was leaving around 8pm my cars 'check engine' light came on! Not good! :( I figured the reason was probably that I needed to put oil in it, because I have a small tendency to forget that part...and I knew my oil was low already. Anywhos so I decided to go back to the Gossages church and find Mr. Gossage, who used  to be a mechanic. It so happened that he was in his office talking to a guy who loves to work on VW's! Such a God-thing! So they came out and checked my car over. No weird noises or anything...just low on oil. *grins sheepishly*  The closest wal-mart was at least 20 minutes away and I had no idea how to get there. Thankfully I always carry 1qt of oil with me. Enough to get me back to the Gossages, to stay another night(since my parents and I thought it wise I just waited till morning to drive home). Again, this was such a God thing, because it gave Kindle and I time to talk more on the way home about life and what God's been showing us and stuff. Love it! Even now, being the last one awake after talking for over an hour to Addison, I'm not taking this 'check engine' light problem as a bad thing. God's used it so much already! 
Seriously, He's so awesome! 
Thinking back over my day, and over this weekend. God is bringing to mind what He showed me last night in devotions. I was reading Psalm 23 and suddenly I saw it in a new way. Funny because I've read that chapter a billion times in my life. :)



                                         1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,


he leads me beside quiet waters,




3 he restores my soul.


He guides me in paths of righteousness


for his name's sake.




4 Even though I walk


through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,


for you are with me;


your rod and your staff,


they comfort me.




5 You prepare a table before me


in the presence of my enemies.


You anoint my head with oil;


my cup overflows.




6 Surely goodness and love will follow me


all the days of my life,


and I will dwell in the house of the LORD


forever.






Verses 4,5 really stuck out to me. Even though I walk to the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me. Usually, the first thing I think of when I read that is death, yanno like someone laying on their death bed...in the shadow of death.....but really this could mean you're biggest fear, or a trial that you're going through. Even though you walk through the valley....FEAR NOT for I AM with you! My rod and my staff they comfort you! 

And it gets better- you prepare a table before me, in the presence of my enemies! WHOA this it was got me....in the presence of my enemies. God's right there with us, right in the thick of whatever we're going though, whatever we're facing. He's there. And you know what...he's preparing a table of blessings and grace and love. RIGHT THERE in the middle of our struggles, whatever 'shadow of death' you're walking in right now, God is with you. And He is willing to prepare a table and better yet...anoint your head with oil...so much that it runs over! This is HUGGEE! If we're surrendering our lives to Christ, even when things aren't what we planned, when we face trials. Don't give up on God. Run to him. And he will pour so much blessing and love over you and it's gonna overflow onto everyone around you. People are gonna wonder how you're making it, and you can look them in the face and say: "even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for You are with me!"

God Bless.

♥

 

Chickens and Old Friends

Today I had the opportunity to help Nina serve lunch for her mother's 81 birthday. It was one of those things were I had other stuff planned, but she needed help so I decided that was more important then my plans.
It was my first time serving, or even eating a meal done in courses. I'm not even used to sitting down for a meal, much less one with 2 forks and spoons and yea. It was neat.

A meal with "old' people?

I must admit I was a little apprehensive, but I loved it!!! I thought it was so cool that these ladies have known eachother since grade school and still get together and talk about life. I listened to all their stories and how things have changed since they were my age. I couldn't help but think about what it will be like for me when I'm 81. I pray that my best friends now and I will still be able to get together and talk about everything, just like the 'old days'. haha!

The thing that sorta worried me the most was what would the conversation be like at the table. I come from a family where anything and everything is talked about when we sit down together. I didn't want to be bored with them talking about the weather.

I don't even know if the weather was even mentioned till the last 10 minutes of me being there.  Eighty-one or eighteen girls are girls and that means you get them together and they talk about 'girl' things!! :) The most memorable conversation was about chickens and cutting their heads off and cleaning them out and all that fun stuff. AT THE LUNCH TABLE! I couldn't help but laugh. I even got to share a few stories, but I actually...ok...yes I'm serious here....I liked being the quiet one! They had so many funny stories and memories and they are so spunky. I hope I'm that full of energy and humor when I'm in my 80s! 
The thing that impressed me the most was that through all these years they didn't lose contact. I'm sure they've had their disagreements and such, just like all friends, but they moved on and didn't allow that to ruin the friendship. I pray that I will be able to do the same.

....and that is my two cents of the day....


God Bless.

Chainsaws and Christmas

Even as I'm typing this, Christmas music is already playing in the Utermoehlen household. Tradition is that the day after dad's birthday is the day we can start listening to Christmas music. By Christmas I am so tired of hearing the same songs over and over again, but somehow when October 17th rolls around and we start talking about our Christmas playlist, I get excited all over again. Songs like Home for the Holidays, and Elvis's Blue Christmas bring a smile to my face. And there's the Boston Pops version of Sleigh ride, and Linus and Lucy and who could forget Bing Crosby's White Christmas!? Oh boy, I'm getting excited for the winter season! I realized this morning that in 8 weeks, I'll be tearing up the snow on the slopes of Whitetail and working on jumping ramps! 

With winter coming sooner than we think, the job of cutting firewood is in full swing..haha yeah cause you gotta swing the ax! :) Today I added another 'firsts' to my ever growing list. Using a chainsaw. 

 It's harder than it looks! I doubt I'll use one very often, I'll stick with the assembly line and stacking part of the job. :) Chainsaws still kinda scare me......

Note for the future: take the key out of the ignition!

 The guard took me to the interrogation room. As I walked, a thousand questions rolled over in my mind, the most ominous "Why do they want to talk to me?" "What have I done?"....

As I entered, they stared at me. Three odd looking gentlemen, with stern looks on their faces. I was in for it! My insides were shaking with fear, but I had to keep composed. I HAD to! 

"Kneel!" they said.  

I was on my knees in 5 seconds, staring at the three men. The three judges.

SUDDENLY they spoke...


"We are three solemn judges.." said the first.

"We demand honesty for an answer.." said the middle one.


The man on the right jumped at me, with eyes that struck terror into my very soul and shouted into my face "WHO IS YOUR TRUE LOVE!?"

With all the courage I could muster, and trying to keep as straight a face as I could,  I looked Owen straight in the eyes and said "You are Owen." :D


Hahaha! Oh how I crack myself up! I didn't want to say Jesus(even though He is my true love), everyone else seemed to use that. Church kids. Hah. And being I didn't know what the answer was, I had a brilliant 2 second idea. :)

 The Hawbaker Harvest Hoedown. Probably the biggest christian barn party in Franklin Co.  And something I've been looking forward to for weeks! Barn parties are my favorite fall activity, and what could be better then when a bunch of friends get together for a hay maze, campfire, barn games and a hay ride where they throw dog food at you!? Ah yes. Good times! 
It was great getting to see so many people I haven't seen in long while. I didn't get to talk to all of them, but I did pretty good. :)
Wink'ems was in the mix again this year. Oh how I love that game, even though today my entire torso hurts from being tackled and tackled and....tackled again trying to escape from my partner.  But it's all good.

The hay ride was memorable as well, talking with Steph, Caleb, Olivia and Josiah(along with the 10000 other people smashed into the wagon). Caleb was quite the entertainment as we drove along at 2mph, wondering if the tractor would make it up the next hill. We got lollipops thrown at us as well as dog food. Dog food-this was my favorite part of the ride, as we watched Caleb eat a piece then exclaim "HOW DO DOGS EAT THIS STUFF?" :)

Chad threw me into a calf house after I slapped him for no reason. That was fun. HAH. :P The campfire was warm yes, but for some reason it burned my eyes so bad! I've never been at a fire that burned my eyes before! Odd. Olivia and I made the best of it by having an emotional breakdown and making a song for the smoke.  ;) I enjoyed getting to know her better and I have a feeling we'll be having a few more adventures this coming year!

Friday was a spectacular day! As it marked the half-way point for my Facebook fast. Wow, this is going faster than I thought....and it's getting so much easier! 
     Before I go, I would like to share the news that I GOT TO RIDE THE ROPE SWING yesterday!!!! Stephanie brought Ben back for the barn party and I made use of this to get a ride on my favorite swing in the whole wide world!

 

And...I managed to pull Steph(although it wasn't good), without falling down the hill! More practice to come. :)



This morning as we were leaving, I noticed that my radio was on in my car. NOT GOOD! Apparently I had left my key in the ignition for almost 24 hours!!! I NEVER LEAVE MY KEY IN THE IGNITION!! <--there's a first time for everything. ........so I had my first experience with jumper cables this morning. haha.  


God Bless.
♥

Shower Revalations

Can we get a show of hands of people who get their biggest revelations from God in the shower!? I think I should write a book titled: Showertime with God. haha. I'm sure it'll be a bestseller!

I was thinking about fire. I was thinking about the process of lighting campfires. And suddenly I thought of James 3:5 ...."consider what a great forest is set on fire by a tiny spark..." Now I know that's only part of the verse and the passage talks about the taming of the tongue, bare with me on this...

When we read this verse, what's the first thing we think of? I know for me, I usually think of the horrors of the tongue. The small things we can say to hurt people that might be the spark that sets the forest on fire. I've done that, and I'm sure you have too, we're all human here.

 What if that spark was something good? What if you said something encouraging to someone and eventually it changed their life. That word would be the spark that set the forest on fire.

I want to change the world.

Honestly, I do. That's my goal in life. High standards, I know! But with God all things are possible.
Too often, however, I find myself complaining because it's not turning out like I want it to be. I'm not the next Billy Graham or Randy Clark, I know that, but still sometimes, I just want to be recognized for all the work I THINK I'm doing, while God's sitting up there chuckling at me driving myself insane.
 We want to do big things for God, but in the climb to reach that goal, we miss oppurtunities to change one person's day.

We want to be the FIRE, but not the SPARK.

Picture with me, if you will a massive forest...maybe the redwoods in Cali. Ok got it. Now walk into that forest and strike a match. Lets zoom out really fast(I'm a video editor can you tell), and look at you from the outside of that forest. Kinda small right? Do you think you can see the lit match in your hand? I doubt it.
There's a pile of brush in front of you. Oops, you accidently drop the match and in a matter of seconds the brush becomes full of orangish, redish, yellowish light, life and energy. You have started a fire. Lets zoom out again. This brush fire you might be able to see looking in from the outside, but that depends on where you're standing. Give it an hour or two and smoke starts to billow out and the trees start to burn. You're in trouble now! You've started a forest fire!!
The trees start to light. There's fire everywhere. People can see it from miles around. There's no hiding it!

What do you do?

Walk away with a smile on your face of course. You were the one who started it. You held the spark in your hand.

Can you get that concept in your head about daily life? Think about it! Something you do or say, just by letting God flow through you, can be the spark that starts a fire in someone's heart. That fire could spread to that persons family, and friends and so forth. The impact you made on one persons life affected countless others. That goes for both the good things we do and say as well as the bad things.

It's our choice which kind of spark we want to be.


God Bless.
♥

aahhccchhhoo. croak croak. *sigh* Hello Fall.

Before I go any farther, a word of wisdom: DO NOT WALK OUTSIDE IN 40 DEGREE WEATHER IN THE RAIN WITHOUT A COAT OR SHOES! YOU WILL WAKE UP WITH A FROG IN YOUR THOAT!

Hello beautiful fall weather.   :)
Fall is hands down my favorite time of year! Barn parties, apple cider, BONDfires, crunching leaves, the smell, the crispness of the blue sky. Beautiful.
BUT the thing I don't like is when the weather changes everyday. Like 50 one day 80 the next. HOW am I supposed to pack for next week when I don't know how the weather is going to react. Is the 50 degree day gonna be a hot 50 or a damp 50? Ugh. I came to the consensus that I will just pack double the amount of clothes and go day by day. 


Today, you should hear me. I am a new type of animal. The Sheepfrog. Yes. I sound like a mix between a sheep and a croaking frog. I'm popping cough drops like they are drugs and I've had cups of tea...without honey BECAUSE SOMEONE USED ALL MY HONEY WHILE I WAS GONE!  :(
I should not attribute my voice only to the weather. Last night was a Coffee House at my home church. 
Random note: oddly, decaf coffee seems to affect me more than the caffeinated stuff. hahaha.
To start the evening out, Aaron Amstutz was preforming 'social experiments'  on people at our table. Such as switching cups, changing seats every time someone got up and so forth. It was good to laugh!! It's also good to play games like Uno!! Especially when I finally beat Walisa after 4 games! I'm also glad I won, because I said I would beat her if it was the last thing I did. 
It wasn't.
I learned a new game: Bohnanza, or 'THE BEAN GAME!!!!!!' as Chevy calls it. Basically you trade and plant beans. It may sound boring, but it is really tons of fun! And everyone sorta works together, but in order to get what they want for themselves. I'm thinking it will be the new game of the year. 
Stephanie and I both wanted to get to bed at a decent hour so we headed out after only one round of Bohnanza. Well Steph left...I talked to Dave(the other D word...haha), the assistant pastor, for a good 45 minutes about my life.
Guys I am soooooo blessed! You have no idea! Like seriously, as I was telling Dave all about the different things God's been doing...even though they may not seem extremely big...wow... God you are amazing! Right down to having a snowboarding buddy for the winter(hopefully)!!! And it's cool because I may not know where God is taking me, or what He's calling me to, but I am seeing Him work in my life every single day. And I know I'm where He wants me right now. I don't exactly know WHY. But I will someday.  :)

I'm gonna go grab another cough drop and some more tea. 
God Bless. ♥

Apple crisp, Irish people, molasses cookies and Oria 15!

Tuesday evening began with the following:

24 apples
9 cups of oatmeal
Lots of honey.
YOU KNOW HOW LONG IT TAKES TO THINLY SLICE 24 APPLES!?!?! Well, I don't know exactly how long it took, but it seemed like forever! I felt like I was in rehab. JUST KIDDING. I enjoyed most of the slicing, except when I missed the apple and got my finger. Not so good. And the radio was on so I could sing while I worked. Better yet..I knew the majority of the songs! And Claude even played Our God...yes I personally know one of our local christian radio station's DJ's. :)
We decided to triple the recipe and make 3 pans of Apple Crisp. Well needless to say, the 24 apples I cut up filled 5 pans instead of 3!
But it's good, because I like apple crisp for breakfast....lunch....or supper....maybe snack time in between too.
This apple crisp is different however. It's made without sugar. We used honey instead! Which is fine by me, because I love apples and honey, chicken nuggets and honey, toast and honey, plain honey. I don't like honey cough drops though!
The apple crisp tasted just right. The apples weren't too soft or too crispy. Delicious.

   
  Wednesday is becoming my favorite day of the week. We eat supper with 2 foreign exchange students and whoever else shows up. Did I already mention that one is from Ireland! Oh HOW I'M FALLING MADLY IN LOVE WITH THE IRISH ACCENT!! It's been really cool to get to know how things are different in our countries too. :)
Last night was an especially fun night. After church, Sara and I decided to do some baking. More pumpkin whoopie pies and molasses cookies! We didn't get pumpkin at our trip to Giant, because supposedly there was some in the pantry.
WRONG!
Eggs were also lacking.

Guess what that meant?! That's right...a trip to Grandmas house!
I'm pretty sure there's a certain scent that goes with Grandparents houses. And they always seem to have the things you need.
Armed with a can of pumpkin and some three week old eggs, we began our baking.

OH WAIT! I forgot the epic part. The new Karate Kid movie. YAY for Redbox!
....Armed with a can of pumpkin, those three week old eggs, and Karate Kid, we commensed our baking.
For the record, I think these molasses cookies are my favorite in the whole world. Not too hard, not too soft, perfect flavor. DELICIOUS.

Wow. Food has been a big part of my week. I gotta do something else exciting.....

Speaking of exciting, this morning I got to talk to my Oria 15 twin: Gloria Showalter!!!!! Bascially it made my day to catch up on eachothers lives on different continents. Even more than anticipating the CASHS Soccer game tonight. :) Today has been and WILL BE a good day!

God Bless.♥

To Make a Father Proud

It's Saturday evening, and I'm sitting on a pile of dirty laundry in the middle of my bedroom floor(hey when you don't have a chair, ya gotta improvise). I was playing guitar to keep myself from going crazy waiting for AJ to pick  me up for the Shalom homecoming game. Recently, I've been working on making smooth transitions between songs and finding songs within the same key that sound good together when transitioned into. Fun stuff right?! :)
ANYHOW.
I was playing Chris Tomlin's:Our God and just having a ton of fun jamming out. All of a sudden, Daniel comes running into my room and says "Dad wants you!!".  I was a little worried, and totally thought I was busted and in trouble for something. As I walked down the hall, I thought of any and every possible thing I could be getting in trouble for, or asked to do...
 
When I walked into my parents room, dad was sitting there with a huge smile on his face and says: "THAT guitar playing was good. Very good! Full of life. You are starting to hear the sounds and rhythms. Excellent. You're becoming quite the guitar player."
I couldn't help but smile at that one, especially because I've always considered my dad an amazing guitar player and I doubt I'll ever reach the same skill as he. Needless to say, it makes me proud of myself in a way, when I play guitar knowing that dad thinks it's good, even if I get frustrated because it doesn't sound the way I want it to, or my chord transitions are choppy. I know other people don't hear that stuff.

If my earthly father can be proud of me for using my gifts, HOW MUCH MORE is my heavenly father proud of me for using my gifts to bring glory and praise to Him!?  I just imagined Him sitting up there on his glorious throne, looking down on me with a hugemungous(if that's a word) smile on his face and saying "Everyone come look at this, look how she's using her talents! See what she can do if she does is for me!  I am so proud of you for taking what I have given you and using it for me! You make me smile." :)

So the question I'm posing today: AM I using my gifts for God's glory??

Are we living to make our Father proud?

Simply Silly Sundays.

Sometimes I wonder about my family's sanity...but I love every minute of it! It's a rarity for us to be home together, so when we are, it's very entertaining. 

The setting is the family room. Mom and Josiah were telling us about their day in Palmyra for Josiah's baseball tournament. 

Josiah: Yeah, mom tried to get me to go to Sonic, but I didn't want to go with someone 'not experienced' with that type of restaurant.
Dad and me: WHAT!!! HOW COULD YOU NOT WANT TO GO TO SONIC!!??!??!
Dad: I would have been all over that, drive in restaurant, where cute girls come out on roller skates with your food. Oh man. :)
Mom: Honey, you shouldn't be putting those ideas in his head.
Dad:Well he's 16 years....14years
Mom: ...15 years..
Dad: ...15 years old, he's old enough to know what type of girl he wants.
Me: Yeah mom! Don't you want Josiah to marry someone with enough coordination and balance to be able to roller skate?!?
*Dad falls off couch laughing*
.........

Me: Mom, Mom, Mom! Random story! So last night at Kristi's we were talking to Matt Chen about Taiwan..:
Kristi:Do you guys have marshmallows in Taiwan?
Matt: yes..but we can't have fires like this.
Me:What?! You can't have fire's in Taiwan?
Matt: I live in the city.
Kristi and me: Oh. Makes sense.
AJ: Oh, do you live in Tokyo?!
*Kristi and me fall over in a fit of laughter*


Mom: hahahahahahahahahaha! Poor AJ.

..........

Mom got some microwavable cookies and I was getting ready to cook them. The directions said "roll bag and seal" "cook for 4-5 minutes"
So I stick the bag in the microwave and start the timer for 3:26. About 1:30 into it, I pulled it out to check it. The cookies were soft and hot and kinda weird. They were done, so I brought them over to mom.
Mom: Victoria! What are you doing?! You're supposed to take the cookies out of the bag! 
Me: Nah uh! Look it says right here.."roll up the bag"
Mom: That's the storing directions if you don't eat all the cookies!
Me: Ohh well then why the hec was I supposed to cook them for 4 minutes....(looks at package)..OH wait, it says cook at 350 for 4 minutes! That's not the microwave directions!! :) HAHAHAHA! Yes, even I can have a 'blonde' moment. 

.....
Family. Can't live without them. I am so thankful for the whacked out family that God gave me. My life is never boring, that's for sure! And my reason for telling you just a few of this evening's stories(if you want to hear the dream i had, you'll have to ask me in person...i can't type that one out and it have the same humor to it) is because I'm enjoying family time. Instead of sitting on facebook all night, I actually sat down and chilled with my parents and sibs. We don't get to do that much anymore, because we're all so busy. Makes me miss being a little kid, of course our family conversations are twice as hilarious now that there are 4 teenagers in the house. :)

I leave you with two things:::

 
The boy was tired and chilly. Pink hearts look good on him! haha.


And lastly, Britt got home from his hike and was telling us stories. He bursts out with "OHHH I have a great FACEBOOK status!!"

Me: Your mom eats facebook for breakfast. 

Both mom and dad proceed to look oddly at me and snicker...then laugh. Realizing what I said, and that it made NO SENSE whatsoever...I just lost it. :)




I hope you got at least 1 laugh out of my adventures in the last 2 hours! 
God Bless.

Pink shirts, 007 fires, and zombie dances

24 hours have passed since I have checked my Facebook! *applause*


So far I have realized that I use facebook/the computer as an outlet when I get frustrated, or bored. And the thing I miss most about facebook, honestly, is just updating my status and reading the comments. Friday was such an epic day, and things kept happening that I immediately thought would make a great facebook status, but I couldn't update! :( 

Things such as the following stories:::


Pink Shirts
My afternoon started out by going thrift store shopping with my brother Josiah. Goodwill had tons of clothes his size and I kid you not, I couldn't carry all of them myself. I had 2 baskets of stuff for him to try on, and he tried it all on(that's a boy after my own heart)! Now for the record, I do not pick items on the racks unless they are a name brand, or just hilarious. Everything he tried on was either Aeropostale, American Eagle, Hollister, or Abercrombie. I plopped myself down in some little sheepy chair, in front of the dressing rooms, with three piles of clothes in front of me: 1-YES. 2-NO. 3-MAYBE. Josiah ended the trip with 2 pairs of pants and a few shirts, one of which is a PINK POLO--that he actually is going to wear!!!!!!!!!!!! ....I mean I did sit on the floor and beg him to get it, with the help of some guy who told him that "real men have enough confidence in themselves that pink is just another color."  BUT HE STILL GOT IT!!! :D


Fryer, VeggieTales, and just 'doin yo thang'
Also known as the Variety Show at Shalom. Which was hilarious! I could devote an entire post to this show, but I'm not. There was Skillet impersonations, Sillysongs with Larry, dances, music video and lots of laughs! 
And the best part...friends and CAMP PEOPLE!! It's been almost 3 months since summer camp ended and I still get so excited when I see members of my 'staff family'. You'd think after working with them all summer I'd never want to see them again! haha. But truth be told, we are a family and I love hanging out with these cool people! 
..............

Grantley:"Guys, we're having a 007 fire!!" 
*collective H-whhaatt?? from the rest of us*
Grantley: "It's a BONDfire...haha like James Bond...007.."  


haha. He's a funny one. :)


But yes, a BONDfire it was. We call them BONDfires because it bonds our friendships together. The random fires we have at Kristi's house are becoming some of the highlights of my year. We decided to have a fire, because it was cold outside....and "Little Skrobie" assured us he could start it with one match, because him and Joel did it all summer.  
He did. 
We had cookies, muffins, s'mores, and great conversations about camp, soccer, and Grantley. It turns out it was his birthday!!! We did sing to him too. In manly voices. :)

Smoke follows beauty...and it loved Grantley...*insert zombie dance* "yeah it does!"

But in all seriousness, there's just something about campfires/BONDfires...whatever you call them...that make this time of year extra special. We made friendships over the summer and worked together, lived together, ate together, sweated together, and pretty much became a family. Getting together later and just hanging out...those friendships aren't fake. We still have just as much fun!! 
That's something you can't get from facebook. Quality time, with amazing people, sitting in front of a fire, roasting your toes. On Facebook you only get to see what your friends WANT you to see. It's in real life when you see WHO your friends are. What makes them...them.

There are many types of ships. Wooden ships, plastic ships, and metal ships. But the best and most important ships are FRIENDSHIPS.