Gingerbread houses with a best friend...

Time to add another 'first' to my every growing list of things I've never done before!
That's right people...I have never made a gingerbread house!


*collective gasp from all readers who are thinking "oh that poor deprived child"*


I had the opportunity to chill with my friend Kelsey and make Gingerbread houses! It's so nice to have college friends home one Christmas Break! We used graham crackers instead of actual gingerbread, so I guess they should be called graham cracker houses...

Now that's what I'm talking about!

Anyway, so we got out all the candy and frosting and were getting ready to start, but we couldn't find the graham crackers! Someone ate them for breakfast!!!!! *gasp* :)
This catastrophe meant a trip to Food Lion, in Kelsey's supercharged Grand Prix jamming out to the Straight No Chasers Christmas cd!! <--yeah we did!

We finally had graham crackers, but then it was time to make supper. And Kelsey had to get Ethan from the barn. Oh will this gingerbread house ever get done!? I started putting my frame up and got my roof on.....then....it collapsed! I think the candy was just too heavy for the graham crackers. I then had to redesign my house and start all over again! This time, I added an extra roof support and used M&M's instead of butter mints(at least I think that's what they were). This one turned out much better! 

House number one - before the roof collapsed and destroyed it!

House number two. The completed project!

My gummy bear family is getting their picture taken by the yellow gummy bear photographer.

Roof number two--blue M&Ms!

I attempted a chimney, but it's not too great...

And here you have it. Victoria's first ever gingerbread...graham cracker house! 

*insert applause*

More important than achieving another "first'', was the blessing of being able to spend time with one of my best friends(ok...and Ethan too! haha). I was thinking about how in high school, I was always so concerned about keeping my friends forever. But now, the majority of the people I spent my high school years with, I rarely talk to anymore. Funny...I remember my parents telling me that. :) However, those 4 girls I call my best friends....I've never ever even worried about losing them. I just knew they would always be there, no matter what. No matter where we are in the country, or world, we're still friends. Yeah, we've all had our ups and our downs, we've gone through drama and the whole high school scene, but ultimately, we've grown in Christ together. We've experienced things together and we've always been there to encourage and listen to each other. And who could forget sharing millions of laughs!

  I am so blessed with amazing best friends and I'm looking forward to seeing just where God takes us and what He'll accomplish through us! 

Before I say Adios....last night was topped off with a very special event.......

MY First cup of Egg Nog this Christmas season!!!!!!!! Gotta love this time of year! 

God Bless!

♥

toeside, heelside, toeside, heelside

Anticipation ran through every vein in my body as I walked quickly to the car to put my snowpants on. 
The red paper in my coat pocket held adventures beyond imagination in its fibers.
I buckled my belt, zipped my coat and headed to get my tickets and rentals.
With boots on and bindings ready, I boarded the lift at Velvet to warm up. As I got off the lift adrenaline flowed freely through my body. I buckled my binding and started to slide. 


What's wrong with me?! What's happening to my board!? 
I fell, I crashed, and I got frustrated! 

I had to figure out why this wasn't working.
I got to the top, sat down in the snow and gave myself a peptalk.
Then I took a deep breath and stood up. 
As I went down the trail I repeated: 'Toeside turn, heelside turn, stay off the back leg, toeside turn, heelside turn...'

It worked! I didn't fall! SCORE! To Sidewinder I went. Once I got on Sidewinder, I realized the biggest reason I couldn't for the life of me go down the bunny slope was because I was turning too fast. :) OOHHH how excited that made me! 

I am ready to advance! And advance I shall! To think that I passed my level of boarding from the end of last season in one simple night!? Thank you Jesus! This will be a fun 3 months!


Hello Whitetail Season!

SNOW, SNOW Beautiful SNOW!

Snow, snow, beautiful snow!
You make my face shine like the sun.
Oh how I wish you would stay awhile!
You make my feet dance with excitement
And my eyes light up like Christmas lights on a tree
Oh beautiful snow!

Ok, I just made that up in the last 30 seconds. BUT I did write a song about the snow while I was cleaning at the Van Kampens today! Surprise snows are the greatest. I walked downstairs at 10:15, sleepy eyed and yawning. THEN I noticed it, I looked out the window and saw snow falling. Just a little at first, so I didn't pay much attention, till I heard Nina exclaim "It's snowing!" This time I ran to the window and squealed as I watched the snow fall....and stick to the ground!!! Everyone in the house knew how excited I was, being that I was dancing around singing about it!
Everything looked so pretty covered in the 1 1/2 inchish of snow we got. The roads even looked nice, until cars drove over them! Haha! The beauty in snow is one of my favorite things to capture through the camera lense and I love walking through the peacefulness of falling snow. God you're creation is so wonderful!

Narnia anyone?

View from the creek

...and nothings gonna hold me back!

Do you ever have days where you just want to run to the top of a mountain, jump off and say "Jesus catch me!" Flying is something I always wanted to be able to do! :P


Sunday night I went to Keepers of the Flame International Church for their Thrive service! AMMMAAZZZIIINNG! I was looking forward to it all week! To put it bluntly..last week was a bunch of crap. I was so discouraged and worn down, which....when I think back -duah! The devil loves to wear me down and get me discouraged, because then I don't have a worship mindset. And when I'm not in a worship mindset...I'm not a happy person! I gotta work on fighting that. 


I will overcome, by the blood of the Lamb!


Anyway, so I went to church. I love worship there! I knew I needed to have a clear head to enter into worship, so I just kept praying: God clear my mind. Tonight it's all for you. I will NOT focus on those around me, I will NOT worry about anything in my life. I'm alive to worship you.
I think that's a major key to worship. Entering into your time of worship with all the cares of your life behind you. Then you can jump right into the throne room of God and worship your heart out! :) I've been thinking about that alot this week. How often do we LOOK FORWARD to going to church to worship? Like really? Do you come to church on Sunday ready to worship? Are all the things going wrong in your life left at the cross? I had so much going on in my mind last week, lots of stresses and just the things of life. I didn't really care about anything. I just wanted to go to sleep and wake up when the world was right. Then God reminded me of good 'ol Mr. Job in the Bible. Dude that guy lost EVERYTHING and he didn't stop praising God! Could I do that? Would you do that? 
What is our purpose in life? To bring honor and glory to God in everything we do, right? The one thing we can give back to God is our worship! That's why worship is my passion! God has blessed us with so much, he has blessed me with so much and all I really want to do is give it all back to him. I want to become a sweet fragrance in the throne room of God. I want my life to be a life of worship. 
So when we feel like our lives are falling apart and we're going through our "Job" times. That's when we need to worship most! When we DON'T feel like it. When it's the farthest thing from our minds. We shouldn't be complaining and worrying about how we're gonna make it, we should walk(or crawl) boldly in and saying "God, I don't know what's going on. I don't feel you here with me, BUT I'm not going to stop praising you!"


That's my challenge this week. Keep a mindset of worship, even when I don't feel like it.

♫Take me past the outer courts, into the Holy place

   Past the brazen alter

   Lord, I want to see your face

  Pass me by the crowds of people

  The priests who sing your praise

  I hunger and thirst for your righteousness

  But it's only found one place

 Take me into the holy of holies,

 Take be in by the blood of the Lamb

 Take me into the Holy of holies

 Take the coal, touch my lips, here I am♫

Sometimes you gotta see life through the eyes of a child.

8:30am and all I can hear is non-stop talking by 6 year old Kenton(spell check on that) who was downstairs. Oh boy, I'm so used to a quiet house, but needless to say knowing there was someone to play with waiting downstairs, I rolled out of bed.
We played Blokus....in a round about way. Haha. And of course he won both times. :) 
Kenton kept asking to jump on the indoor trampoline....and after having to finish and PUT AWAY Blokus, we donned our hoodies and headed to the "tramp room."
   

For a whole hour all we did was jump jump jump! But fun it was! Kenton liked to scream and make weird faces. While we were taking a bit of a break from jumping, he said "Uh Oh! My silly face is running off. I have to go change faces." He then proceeded to show me his screaming face, silly face, smiling face, mean face, monster face, laughing face and so on. 

This intrigued me so much.

We do the same thing in 'real life'. We change our faces depending on who we're with, what we're doing, where we're at and so on. How often are we hiding behind a 'smiling face', or a 'i've got it all together' face? The masks need to go. 
We need to start being honest with each other. And forgive the wrongs. Forget the past. Move into the future God has for us!

*This random piece of brain food is brought to you by Victoria Utermoehlen*

Who put matches in the dishwasher?

My apologies for not writing sooner, it's been pretty hectic in my mind recently. And alot has happened since the last time I wrote.


First-it's good to be back in my house of solitude! I was kind of sad that Joel was back for thanksgiving break, because it meant that I wouldn't be at his house! Haha! I know--I can be sooo pathetic sometimes! I was so excited to go back on Saturday, even though it was weird walking in and NOT being able to throw my coat and purse in the guest room, because it was being occupied by Joel's roommate, Tyler, not us girls!  I felt slightly lost. haha.
But not for long, because the dishes needed washed and the kitchen was a wreck. *sigh* yes, i cleaned the kitchen while all the other youth were playing soccer and swinging on the swings. I wasn't dressed to play outside.
Saturday night we went swing dancing! I'm glad I decided to go, much much more fun than the last time I went!! It was sorta beyond words fun. :)


Sunday I went to Pastor Robinson's church in Westminister Md. African church I call it. :) And do they know how to dance! Even makes me jealous.  The speaker was from Zambia Africa, and wow, such a man of God! Church went from 6:30-11:15pm! I don't even know where to begin with the message. It was amazing, but now leaves me with so many questions and wondering where I  really am. UGH! Sometimes I hate my life! The main things I remember are the verse in 1 Peter 1:13- "Therefore prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled set your hope fully on the grace to be given  you when Jesus Christ is revealed. "  The phrase "prepare your minds for action" has been in my head all week. Our minds are a battlefield. We have to fight through all the things of man and the distractions and...well you know what I'm talking about. The challenge to prepare your mind for action has got me thinking...how much am I cultivating my mind with the things of God? So that I'm prepared for action when the battles come? 


The preacher also talked about how there are 3 kinds of relationships:
1-One time meetings.
2- Seasonal meetings.
3. Lifetime.


There are people in our lives God brings in as one time things, like a special speaker etc.
There are people who can be in our lives for a season, then they or we move on.
And there are people who are in our lives for a lifetime. 
  In my sometimes over thinking mind I started going through all the relationships I have and which ones might be which. So dumb I know! 

So that's everything I had in my mind when I went to the Van Kampens this week. And the adventures started. We have a dog this week! Rasko is his name, but I don't know if that's how it's spelled. Anyway, nicest dog ever! Princess the kitty hates him. So funny to watch her go crazy when she sees him! I like taking him out for walks, but sadly was unprepared shoe wise. Sneakers are good for dog walking. :) We really have no problems with him! 
    
Wednesday night, we skipped out on church to have a girls night at Panera with our Irish friend Sarah! So much fun just relaxing! That's one thing I miss....girls nights! So we're having more of them! Next week an ELF date at Kayla's apartment!  
  Thursday evening I began a new adventure. The painting of slate! Sara was working on an art show, painting on pieces of slate from someones roof. I myself do not have any of the artistic ability she has, but I still wanted to paint some slate because it's probably a once in a lifetime experience! I thought about it all day long, while we house cleaned the family room. What should I paint? What did I want to convey through my picture. Perfectionist at work here. I ended up painting a snowman. haha. I also painted a somewhat prophetic picture of fire and water, symbolizing the cleansing and refining that happens in a persons life when they accept Jesus.  Painting is so much fun!
During my painting break, I watched Dan fix the dishwasher! Oh, did it ever bring back memories of chilling with my daddy when he fixed cars and whatever else we broke! 


As this week comes to a close, I'm looking ahead to the month of December and realizing...it's so packed already! Thus begins the snowboarding season, christmas season, winter season, and whatever other season you want to add. I wonder where I'll go, what I'll do, and most importantly what God will teach me.......


God Bless.
♥