Car Drama

For the past week or so it seems that technology or really anything mechanical has been in rebellion against me. It started with my car, Super Bowl Sunday. I was about five minutes from my parents house in Fulshear when the oil light came on. No big deal. In theory. We took it in the next morning and I borrowed my mother's car. By Tuesday my mom got the car back only to watch as the oil light turned on again. She took it back and after changing the type of oil, we attempted to drive it again. As "luck" would have it, the oil light continued to flash though we had changed the oil twice. After some discussions with mechanically minded guys I decided it was just a short but kept an ear open for any strange sounds.

I drove to Fulshear again Sunday night with no trouble, but today, as I was getting off on the Kirkwood I heard a strange clicking sound. At first I wasn't that worried, after all, it wasn't a banging, just a light click, but then I stopped at the stop light. When I tried to hit the gas again I got nowhere. No matter what I tried I was stuck. I put on my hazards (which did nothing to deter the driver's behind me from honking as if I wanted to be sitting in the middle of the road) and called Allsate, only to be informed that I was not on the policy. My mother, however, called and was given different information, that yes, I was on the policy, but I was better off calling the police because they would get there faster. Forty five minutes later my parents arrive, still no truck. We fought for another ten minutes with the Allstate people and my dad eventually walked into the Chevy place to ask for a truck. Five minutes later, just as promised, the tow truck belonging to the Chevy dealership arrived and towed my pig to the Toyota dealership across the highway (thank goodness they are close).

It was a crazy afternoon. I sat in my car for about an hour and a half watching my hazards stop working and thanking God for the blessings of the situation. Here's a little list:

1. I wasn't on the highway when I broke down
2. It wasn't raining
3. It happened on my day off
4. I had a charged cell phone
5. A sweet lady stopped and helped me push my car up into the little driveway by the Chevy dealership.
6. Both of my parents have cars
7. My mom is retired and doesn't need her car for work
8. I had a coat
9. It didn't happen at night

So while it was a big pain in the butt, and will continue to be until they fix it all up, I did have a ton to be thankful for. Hopefully they will get back to me soon and my mom will have a car to drive again.

As for the other technological mishap? I dropped my computer last Monday and dented the side. Still waiting for the new part to come in. My thankful list?

1. I had a protective cover on it
2. It wasn't raining yet
3. It still closes... sort of

In summation, always better to be thankful.

Redeeming Love

Sunday night around 4 A.M. I finished reading Redeeming Love. About my sophomore year in college I gave up on modern Christian fiction. Most of it was badly written and teetered more towards cheesy romance than actual good literature and therefore I decided not to waste my time. Besides, I reasoned, only Christians read Christian fiction, and that severely limits the witness you could have if you chose instead to simply be a writer who was a Christian. I had been told in high school, however, that I absolutely had to read Redeeming Love. It was beautiful, wonderful, amazing and so on and so forth. I hardly remember the arguments now, but it wasn't until a few weeks ago that I finally decided to buy the book and get down to it. I bought it because I dog ear everything I read and didn't want to destroy someone else's book. That night I was up until about 2 AM reading, almost unable to put it down. The story describes a young woman named Sarah, born out of wedlock with a father who wishes she had never been born and a mother who spirals quickly down at the loss of his love, selling her body for money until she dies on the docks in New York. Sarah is then unwittingly sold into prostitution at the age of 8 and begins a ten year struggle to survive, growing more and more hard and distrustful as time passes. The first chapter picks up with her arrival in California during the gold rush. Now called "Angel" for her beauty, the young prostitute is considered quite the commodity to the men coming back from panning gold, separated from women for extended periods of time. Then we meet Michael Hosea. Having come into town to sell the produce of his land and buy supplies, the farmer catches sight of Angel walking through the streets, guarded by a man with a gun. At this moment he receives a clear message from God: "Marry her." The story goes on to describe how Michael's love softens the hardened girl and how his faith drives her to the foot of the cross. It is the story of Hosea, the story of Israel, my story. I would recommend this to anyone, even an unbeliever as it paints such a strong picture of our depravity and God's grace.

7 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Mess with Children

Just for a good laugh.

A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales. The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because even though it was a very large mammal its throat was very small. The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. Irritated, the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was physically impossible. The little girl said, "When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah." The teacher asked,"What if Jonah went to hell?"
The little girl replied,"Then you ask him."

* * *

A Kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they were drawing. She would occasionally walk around to see each child's work. As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was.

The girl replied, "I'm drawing God."

The teacher paused and said, "But no one knows what God looks like."

Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied, "They will in a minute."

* * *

A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds.

After explaining the commandment to "honour" thy Father and thy Mother, she asked, "Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?"

Without missing a beat one little boy (the oldest of a family) answered, "Thou shalt not kill."

* * *

One day a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink. She suddenly noticed that her mother had several strands of white hair sticking out in contrast on her brunette head.

She looked at her mother and inquisitively asked, "Why are some of your hairs white, Mum?"

Her mother replied, "Well, every time that you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white."

The little girl thought about this revelation for a while and then said, "Mummy, how come ALL of grandma's hairs are white?"

* * *

The children had all been photographed, and the teacher was trying to persuade them each to buy a copy of the group picture.

"Just think how nice it will be to look at it when you are all grown up and say, "There's Jennifer, she's a lawyer," or, "That's Michael, he's a doctor."

A small voice at the back of the room rang out, "And there's the teacher, she's dead."

* * *

A teacher was giving a lesson on the circulation of the blood. Trying to make the matter clearer, she said, "Now, class, if I stood on my head, the blood, as you know, would run into it, and I would turn red in the face."

"Yes," the class said.

"Then why is it that while I am standing upright in the ordinary position the blood doesn't run into my feet?"

A little fellow shouted, "Cause your feet ain't empty."

* * *

The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary school for lunch. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples. The nun made a note, and posted on the apple tray:

"Take only ONE. God is watching."

Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies.

A child had written a note, "Take all you want. God is watching the apples.!"

Breaking News!

Ok, maybe not the most exciting news in the world, but for a girl who really enjoys to cook it's quite exciting: I just poached an egg. Ever since watching Julie and Julia I've been wanting to try and poach an egg but have been a bit... apprehensive. I didn't have normal vinegar so I used red wine vinegar and while it tasted a little strange it was still very good atop turkey bacon. Next challenge: hollandaise sauce!

Cooking Obsession: Goat Cheese Quesadillas

Perhaps this blog should be entitled "Goat Cheese obsession" because I LOVE goat cheese. This is a recipe I found on fitnessmagazine.com, I just added chicken!

Ingredients:

1 boneless chicken breast

1 tsp of sugar

1 tbs of olive oil

1/3 cup of chopped onions

1/2 cup of chopped spinach

Balsamic vinegar

2 tbs of goat cheese

2 HEB tortillas (because, let's face it, they are the bomb.com)

Instructions:

1. Salt and pepper the chicken and then marinate in balsamic vinegar for about half and hour. Place in pan coated with olive oil and cook on medium high for about 20 minutes or until it's cooked all the way through.

2. As the chicken is cooking, saute the onions in the sugar and olive oil until they turn light brown.

3. Set the onions aside and saute spinach in the same pan you caramelized the onions in until they are slightly reduced.

4. Cover the tortillas with goat cheese, onions, spinach and chicken, then place back in the pan until both sides are crispy.

5. Enjoy!