an undiscovered talent?

no, I did not make this cake...

but i'm going to try!

I have to say that I am so excited about this. I am working on planning my friends bridal shower and i don't have to do much except make sure there is food. So i decided on cake and punch and a fruit plate of some sort... that's an entirely different adventure.

As i have dabbled in cake baking and decorating for a while now, I know where my limits are. I wanted to make sure I picked a cake that was going to be attractive but at the same time doable. I didn't want to take on some super cake that was going to turn into a monster minutes before i had to leave with it! So i began looking for pictures online and found a few good ones to get some ideas from. I knew that I wanted to do black, white and red, which are the colors that she is using for the wedding. With all that in mind, I finally found this.

i've made a few changes, and when I make it, i will put up pictures. I am really excited about this baking adventure... I love so many different kinds of art and I decided a while back that i didn't have to just choose one! I can do it all!

But we'll have to wait and see if i can live up to the standard. They say that you can be a jack of all trades and master of none... but that doesn't mean i can't be pretty darn jacked, right? that doesn't sound right, oh well...

the most beautiful day in January

Today, January 8, will go down as the most beautiful day in upstate NY this early in the year I have ever lived through. I have been anticipating this day for about 4 days when I first read the weather report.

I decided that A and i would go to the zoo and let me tell you... everyone else in rochester had the same idea too. The place was PACKED. and there were soooo many new babies out! It was all i could do to not just relinquish my position as a decent citizen and take off with one!

During the summer, A liked me to make his hair "bikey" which means "spikey" all the time. However, the last couple months, he has totally resisted anything being done to his hair. So today I made a deal with him. If he let me do his hair, then he could do mine. I just absolutely love his hair when it's all spiked up in a little mohawk, it's almost more than i can handle. So the deal was made and when I got all done with his hair he pulled out the hair dryer and went to town. the do he gave me didn't look much different than what I started out with today, but he noticed all day what a nice job he had done. At one point he was riding on my shoulders and told me, "manna, you're hair look nice today."

I love that kid!

backtracking a bit

ps: since i learned how to upload the videos, you are going to be seeing a lot more of them. this particular video was indeed shot at the zoo, however, it was taken this summer. but since this post was about the zoo, i felt that it was an appropriate place to stick it. the adorable albeit almost scary laugh in the beginning of the video is my nephew nick.

notice the music in the background

this was supposed to be posted LONG ago around the time it was taken... that would be Christmastime. however, i am somewhat technologically challenged in some areas and it took me awhile to figure out just how to do this. So here it is.

--> For those of you who know my brother Dan at all will totally appreciate this clip. Heck, even if you don't know him you still might appreciate it. We were setting the table for Christmas dinner when this took place. He is completely OUT OF CONTROL... or am i because i took the video?

you must read the one in red

What’s your biggest dream?
to eventually become financially stable enough to be able to leave the country for a month at a time a few times a year doing missionary work in different countries.

Do you know who you are?
yes... i am amanda. need i say more?

Favorite childhood game?
dan and i decided to share a bedroom for about 6 months when we were around 7 and 9. we wanted to have an actual playroom, so we converted my room into the playroom (which consequently never got played in) and we put the bunk beds together in his room. we made up this elaborate story about a man and his son that were traveling from the florida keys to idaho in a tractor trailer truck... it got way more in depth than that, but i won't go into further details. i'll never forget that game!

What do you like most about your friends?
i like that they love me for who i am... and that i can be crazy around them

Favorite dessert?
oh my goodness, who knows... i seriously love dessert. right now, i would say that it would be peanut butter chocolate ice cream with peanut butter chocolate shell on top.

How do you handle arguments/disagreements with other people?
depends on the person. usually though i will try to figure out a way to smooth it over without getting into any kind of confrontation... and if that doesn't work then i run like hell. HA! well it's not too far from the truth... i need to work on that.

Last thing you dreamed about?
i can't remember... but i dream about the stupidest things every night and unless they are exceptionally stupid i don't remember them for long.

Where were you when 9/11 happened?
i was in my creative writing class

What is the largest amount of popsicles that you have eaten on one day?
maybe like 5 or 6

Would you ever consider living abroad? Where?
absolutely! i would totally love it, and i wouldn't care where... actually that's not entirely true. i wouldn't want to live somewhere colder than here... which isn't hard to do!

Favorite quote:
a man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling "darkness" on the wall of his cell... - CS Lewis

Do you look more like your mom or dad?
mom

Most missed memory:
summers before i was a teenager

Most over asked question on a survey?
questions about favorites

Have you ever done something really stupid that you still laugh at today?
yes... the time that i fell out of my bed and broke my foot.

What color is your mailbox?
white

Ever hit a deer?
nope, but i had a deer run along side my car the other night. it was so scary.

What aspect of your personality do you like best?
my ability to laugh

What are some things about you that might annoy people?
i am too outspoken sometimes... i say what i am thinking a little too often.

Who has had the greatest impact on your life?
Jesus

What song reflects your current mood?
i have been listening to the song just another day in paradise by phil vassar all day... i don't think it reflects a mood necessarily but it makes me feel good.

What happened the last time you were completely speechless?
usually when you are speechless you don't have anything to say... not a whole lot you can do from there.

Favorite year of school?
my junior year in high school... the year of beka and rebekah and i... it was amazing.

Ever been bitten by a dog?
probably, but nothing that was worth remembering.

Whats the movie you could watch over and over again?
how to lose a guy in 10 days

What is your most embarrassing childhood memory?
well it's not so embarassing now, but then it totally was. i was about 8 and i called my friend but i forgot that she was in school all day (i was homeschooled) i was going to just leave a message but her dad picked up the phone. i panicked and didn't know what to do so i just said that i had the wrong number... and her dad was like "hi amanda" when i asked him how he knew it was me, he said that it was my number on the caller id... i almost died... and really thinking back on it, it wasn't even bad lol

Did you go to preschool?
nopers

Do you consider yourself creative?
totally. i love to make things that are artsy and even fartsy. i like to write too and i think that is creative.

What kind of shampoo do you use?
literally whatever is in the shower... i have been trying different ones to see if i can make my hair less greasy... i hate the word greasy by the way... it just sounds soo, well... greasy.

DK2

I have been thinking lately that i haven't posted any random and or crazy stories... which after all, I am known for. So i thought i would post one now to remedy that.

let's talk about my benevolently acquired super nintendo game system. if you were born in the 80's then you will for sure know what I am talking about here, but if not then i will explain a little.

Nintendo made it's debut in 1978 in the form of an arcade game Computer Othello. In 1981 Donkey Kong was created and instantly became hugely popular. Then the first NES (nintendo entertainment system) finally came out in 1985. After a few years the original NES, nintendo got pushed aside as we moved on to what we knew then as the greatest advancement in gaming history, the Super NES.Welcome to the early 90's.

I had a friend who lived a few houses down on my street and we would spend hours playing on her SNES. Our favorite game to play was Donkey Kong, and when DK2 came out, we invested a large part of our memory space into that.

So here I am, 16 years later in the year 2008 still playing DK2. I don't know for sure how many times I have beaten the game. After you beat a game once then there is always the challenge of beating it better the next time! Well at least that's how I think. So last night, my brother Dan and I began yet again a team game of DK2 and worked our way almost through Krem Quay before we hit the deck. In non-gaming terms, that means world 3... still a game term... oh well.

So there is a pathetic and random story about a piece of my childhood that I still carry with me today.

more self-reflection

I am doing a Bible study right now online, and tonight as i was reading through and answering the questions, this one came up. Sometimes i don't really think too hard about the questions, but this one really hit home for me, and brought forth some emotions that i didn't really know i had. The question was basically this:

Matthew 6:24 says you cannot serve two masters,
you will love the one and hate the other,
or be devoted to the one and despise the other.
if you continue in your sin, one of two things will eventually happen:
you will come to despise God, or repent of your sin.
have you ever come to the point where you hated God because of the sin you were in?

So i wrote my answer:

no, i can honestly say that i've never gotten to a place where i've hated God. i have always held a place in my heart that belongs to Him, but i have made so many mistakes throughout the years. this past year was a really good one for me in a lot of areas. i began to really grab hold of who God is in my life, and how i can let him be who he is and not who i think he should be. i am becoming comfortable in my skin and the fact that i'm not perfect. i've never been ok with that before. i felt that if i couldn't be perfect that God wouldn't want me. that he couldn't just keep forgiving me day after day... but what i've realized is that no matter how hard i try, i'm still not going to be perfect. so why waste my time punishing myself for the things that God took care of on the cross. i realize that God is so much bigger than me or my sin and he has forgiven so much... i could never hate him. he's saved my life, and i owe it to him to do my best... if that means giving up the sinful areas in my life so that i don't ever get to that place of hating him, then i can certainly do that.

I just felt i should share that with whoever reads this. It's so true that God has done so much for us. it's so awesome to be experiencing God the way that I am right now, and he is opening my eyes to see how much i was missing as i allowed certain sins to keep me from where i am now.

Yay God!

gettin back in the groove

All of yesterday was spent doing... well nothing. it was so boring, and i didn't really care. but i did think a lot about how i wouldn't want every day to be like yesterday. Today A and i are going to the strong museum and i'm happy about that. i'm hoping that it will be fun. well i'm sure that A will have fun, i'm thinking selfishly, because it's just the two of us and i think that i will get bored. oh well though. i've been looking forward to getting back to taking trips up there since the end of the summer. We had a membership the expired at the end of august, and when i came in yesterday i found a brand new one on the counter.

Anyways, i've been feeling like i need to write some reflective thoughts down. I mean that's what you're supposed to do this time of year right? Well i'm not going to write the whole new year's resolution bit, or the one about how i'm not going to write about new year's resolutions. i'm just going to write about my life and how things have changed and how i am praying that it will continue.

i am a very analytical person, and for so long this has been a huge thorn in my side. it's taken me a long time to get comfortable in my own skin. So here is a sort of "list" of things that have happened for me this past year.

> this is the first year that i've really begun to realize who i am and what i was made for.
> i have begun to let go of my obsessive tendencies that tell me i have to do things perfectly, or not at all.
> i have started realizing who God is in my life, and that is huge because for a long time i had no idea where he fit.
> i feel stable and like i am learning how to commit to the things i am doing.
> i stopped obsessing about finishing school and decided to just do it at my own pace.
> i began my life as a jet-setter... and it changed my life.

Those are pretty much the big things. There's like a million other little things, but i can save that for now. I am praying that in large part, this past year repeats itself in a lot of ways. i feel like this past year has really enriched my life. I wouldn't wish for a year to repeat itself often, because i realize that that's not always a good thing. But there were a lot of cool things that began that i would like to see continue on

the real new year's eve

i've already posted about one event that occurred last night, but this next thing i felt needed it's own post.

I went down to avoca last night to spend the night with alicia. we went to some people from her church's house where we played games and laughed about the most ridiculous things ever. things not worth mentioning here... or ever, HA!

well midnight came and went, and aside from the fact that verizon went down for about 2 hours straight and noone could text or call we had a great time. it was alicia's first time to actually watch the ball drop. we thought about tricking her into being out of the room when it happened, but realized that she would have been truly devastated if we had done that.

shortly after all that, we left and went to the local truck stop to have some late night grease. and i do mean grease. i swear, it's one of those places where you have to suppress every fraction of neurotocism in your mind to be able to even drink the water. it's NASTY. I had a brownie sundae and alicia and beth had french fries. none of which were very good but that's not the point.

throughout this time, none of us had been drinking and didn't have any plans to (besides the bars had already given the last call) I had this "feeling" that i was going to get pulled over and i was kinda worried because i didn't have my license with me. but i was telling myself that it was ridiculous, i wasn't going to get pulled over.

well sure enough. I got pulled over.

he pulled me over because apparently i crossed both the white and yellow lines while he was following me. i think i crossed the white line when i went around a curve, but not excessively. beth was driving behind me and said she never saw me go over the yellow one.

the cop was really friendly, i am pretty sure he was a newbie, and i almost asked him... but i didn't HA!

So that's my great story for new years eve. if you made it through, good for you! wow, i am rhyming... i am tired. later on i'm going to post about some more reflective thoughts, since that's what you're supposed to do this time of year.

from my mom

I just got home from a wild night of rousing and fun new years eve activities to find this email in my inbox. It's from my mother, and it made me laugh.

Human interest story -- this morning when we came home (about 1:30), I found a small baggie on the floor -- nearly shredded. I thought the cats had gotten something from the trash and had a "picnic" with it. I bent over to pick it up and realized it was the bag I'd had in the cupboard that HAD been full of CATNIP. It was ALL OVER the kitchen floor! They were very happy cats! They had climbed up on the counter and grabbed it out of the cupboard (apparently) and had had themselves quite the party!

I love my cats, they are great. Last year was sophie's first Christmas and after we put up our tree she found a little lamb ornament that i had had since i was little and since it was made out of cotton it was the perfect thing for her to shred into pieces. my mom was more upset than i was, but instead of being distraught, she just took the ornament and put it in a ziploc bag and wrote "Sophie's first Christmas" on it.

My mom rox my sox!