NFC Champions

THE SEAHAWKS ARE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!

Just have to get that out there.  Yesterday was the most excited I have ever been for a football game, or any game in general, or probably anything to watch on TV.  I was literally shaking yesterday morning as I was putting on my Thomas III jersey.  Perhaps it was because I only had 4.5 hours of sleep the night before and had just drank a cup of coffee, but I think that the upcoming game had a lot to do with it.  

The day has come.  This is when it matters.  

And we pulled it off. 

The screams, the glory, we had won.

Wilson, you're incredible, Sherman...what can I say, you are a student of the game, the best reader of plays, and the best corner in the game.  It was a defensive struggle from that fumble on the first play.  And the defense stepped up to the plate.  But the 49ers weren't going to just give us the ball.  We fought hard.  But I still have that inherent faith in the Seahawks that no matter what it looks like, no matter what happens, we will find a way to win.  

I will continue to the superbowl with that faith.  

See you in 82 Days

Hi everyone, just giving you a little update.

This year I am in the Masters Commission program and as part of the course, we are embarking on a media fast for 82 days. I am really excited to see all that the Lord is going to do and how my relationship with Him will grow during this time of eliminating distractions and bringing my focus onto the Lord.  All your support in this would be greatly appreciated!

So, here's to an entirely new adventure!

Seattle Seahawks

I don't think that I have made this known to the internet world yet, but I am a HUGE Seahawks fan.  And this isn't just a this season kind of thing. I have been a fan for most of my life. 

My dad raised his two girly-daughters right--he taught us to love football.  

And not just enjoy supporting my dad and watching the game with him.  We get into it.  We cheer, cry, pray, and scream just as loud as any other Seahawks fan.  

I think I scared my new classmates a little bit today when I was driving home and listening to the game go into overtime.  I just get a little excited. 

My sister and I are big Sherman fans.

Basically just big legion of boom fas. 

This just makes me happy:

An Update

Yes, I haven't blogged in forever, I seem to say that every time that I write a post.

But, I have been a little busy.

I was accepted to the Kirkland Master's Commission! I even had my interview this morning and it is all official now.  I am going to be living with an awesome family, sharing a room with a great sister.

In the meantime, I have been working like crazy to make money; trying to come up with creative ways to supplement my part time job. My first successful project was a bake sale at family camp.  

Why not, I thought.  Everyone needs cookies for family camp and no one wants to have to bake in 80 degree weather.  Why shouldn't I do all the baking in 80 degree weather!

So I made a Facebook event and got quite a few responses, many more than I was expecting! So thank you to everyone who ordered! Your donations are much appreciated. 

Thanks to my "perfect cupcakes, cookies, and muffins" cookbook, Food Network, and Pintrest I was able to create a nice little menu of my favorite desserts that I have made before and love.  

My signature items included a pear gruyere pie inspired by the amazing but short lived TV show Pushing Daisies. Thanks Chuck for the recipe!

This pie is amazing.  Cheese baked into the crust, pears simmered in spices and port wine.  You can't get much better than that when it comes to a pie. 

[My little menu; if you are reading this and want to order something, leave a comment and I will fit that in my schedule :) ]

That's my little update of what I have been doing during Summer Holiday, and here is to baking!

Whovian

This post has been a long time in coming,  but here it is at last.

Doctor Who?

Yes, I am officially a Whovian.  But not the screamy-fangirl kind.  I watch Doctor Who because I appreciate the talent of the actors and the brilliance of the writers.  It is enduring and the kind of show that can span every part of one's emotions in a single 45 minute episode.  

When I got into the world of Doctor Who, I entered with extreme caution.  I had seen it for a while on the suggestions for Netflix and thought it must be really strange and cheesy when the description said "The ninth incarnation of everybody's favorite time-traveling doctor sets about fighting nefarious aliens and other foes in this epic sci fi series." 

But despite my caution I decided to watch the first episode of season 1.  

It was awful.  I'm sorry those of you Whovians out there who really like Christopher Eccleston.  I am sure that he is great, I just stopped watching him after the first episode, so none of this is a comment on his acting ability or how he was able to portray the doctor.  I am sure that he is excellent. But that first episode was...let me just say, interesting.  The acting was mediocre, the writing was flawed, and the effects were horrible.     

Needless to say, I wasn't impressed.  

So I didn't go back for a while.  But thank's to the geek section of pintrest, I decided to give it another shot. But this time I did my research-- the top best episodes of Doctor Who.  

And it came up with a David Tennant episode.  

It was decent, kind of creepy because I didn't know what was supposed to be happening, but good.  I enjoyed Tennant's performance way better than Eccleston's.  But I still wasn't convinced. 

Then, I came home one day to find out that my sister (who was even more skeptical than I--see her blog at http://sincerely-janine.blogspot.com/ ) had watched the first episode of season 5.  

She said it was incredible.  So I watched it, still not convinced. But by the end, I was swepped up in it.   Matt Smith won me over.  His performances episode after episode were equally impressive.  

He somehow discovered the magic to playing this extremely complicated character of the Doctor.  Matt Smith is a young man, but he plays someone who is 900 years old in a young man's body.  He captures the deep sadness in his expression and one gets the sense of the many lives that he has seen come and go out of the world.  But he also captures the humor and wittiness that makes up much of the show.  

He is old, powerful, and goofy.  How does that even work? I don't know, but it does.  

Try it out for yourself. Maybe you will think I am just crazy or maybe you will be captured by the brilliance of the story just as I was.  

But whatever you do, just be sure to begin this incredible journey at the right place--Season 5 Episode 1, "The Eleventh Hour."

Now, a few of my favorite pictures. 

Forth of July

Happy Fourth of July, from Houston, TX!

This time of the year, I am reminded how grateful I am for this nation and the freedom that we have.  This is one of my favorite pictures of all time.  

I Graduated!!!

[To get the full effect of this post, listen to this song while you read]

Hi, it has been a REALLY long time.  I have been a little busy...graduating! Yes, I am now completely done with high school.  What a strange feeling.  It hasn't really hit me yet; it probably won't hit me until school starts next year.  

I have the best friends in the world, I am so proud of my class and grateful to have been in the most amazing class to graduate Christ Church Academy (in my opinion). 

I am also so proud of the junior class who has spent the last year taking most of their classes with us.  They are amazing, and I am so glad that they won the overcomer's award this year at the school.  

They deserved it.

They have become some of my best friends this last year, and my senior year would not have been as fun without them.  I will miss them so much next year, but I am glad that I will not be going far.  We will visit often :)

Here is the speech that I gave at graduation about our past years at CCA.

Good evening family, friends, and class of 2013! It is an absolute privilege to speak to you tonight about the many years that we have invested here at Christ Church Academy.  Class of 2013, you are the most incredible, adventurous, yet caring class.  You are my best friends.  Our years here have certainly been hard at times, but the journey was worth it, the investment into the school was worth it, and the pay-off is worth it. 

Looking back, we were quite the rambunctious group of kids.  There were so many different personalities squished together in one class that it would take us a while to figure out how to get along.  There were the loud ones, the quite ones, the crazy ones, the reserved ones, the troublemakers, the tattle-tailers, and everything between.  Through our elementary years, we grew together as a class as we learned, most often the hard way, how to get along.  Those were our training years that began to build the foundations for a unified class.   As we learned how to be unified, we were also being trained to make the most of every moment in school because it wasn’t going to last forever.  And now standing here at our graduation ceremony, wearing the cap and gown, about to receive our diplomas, we certainly know that. 

Looking a bit more recently, our secondary years were times of testing to ensure that we really owned the truths that we had gained in elementary as our foundation.  We lost several classmates through the transition of elementary to secondary, but these original seven that had been there since Basic Skills remained.  Over the secondary years, Aunt Marcy prophesied over us, we were leaders, we were called to unity, we were ambassadors, we were refined gold.  In secondary, we had to make conscious decisions each year. Would we be leaders or just try to make it through each year without leaving any investment into the younger kids? Would we be unified or would we just each do our own thing to make it through? Would we be Christ’s ambassadors or would we decide what was right for ourselves? Would we be that refined gold that has proven itself or would we accomplish little and just try to make it through each year?  Each year we had to decide, and each year it was difficult.  BUT each year we found victory.  We are leaders, we are unified, we are ambassadors, we are refined gold. 

This year was unlike any year I have had at CCA. Just before the year started, our friend, mentor, teacher, pastor, and couch Dennis Trout passed away.  This began the year with sadness and uncertainty, but as a senior class, we wanted to go through this year, honoring Coach’s legacy.  Just before this year, the junior class lost a number of classmates. As a result, we received three incredible, sweet friends into our class from the 11^th grade, and it has only grown us and made this year even better than it would have been with just us seven. Through these apparent setbacks, we have still found victory this year.

This class of 2013 are your friends, sons, daughters, and grandchildren.  With your help, we have found victory this year and all of the years before in CCA and for that we are truly grateful.  We love all of you dearly.  

So here is to the last thirteen years that I have invested at Christ Church Academy! 

Here is to my graduated class!