Why "Rohal Call"?

Funny story flashback....

So, after we had just started dating, Patrick sat me down....

P: "I need to talk to you about something." 

me: (thinking) Ohhhhh no!  What terrible thing from his past is he about to confess to me?  Does he want to break up with me already?  Did I hurt his feelings?

P:  "So I thought if we are going to date, I should make sure you know how to pronounce my last name."

me:  sigh of relief...  "Are you kidding me?  That's it?!?!"

P:  "It is pronounced like "roll"... ya know, "tootsie roll", "roll down a hill", "dinner roll"

me:  (laughing)  "Why don't you correct people when they say it wrong?"  ...mind you, I didn't say it wrong...I think I just avoided saying it....sheer brilliance there.  :o)

P:  "I don't know.  It just doesn't really bother me when they get it wrong."

Fast forward to today...

After several people have asked me recently how to correctly pronounce my last name, I thought this may be post worthy.  It may help you understand why my title is in fact catchy...get it....pronounced "Roll Call"...NOT "row-hall call"

Sunday finest

Happy Birthday My Love....

Sweetie,

Today is the day we celebrate YOU!  This day is a reminder of the day God brought you into this world, and I remember how thankful I am for that blessing.  May you feel loved, respected, and cherished in every way.

I Love You,

Dear Daddy,

Mommy said you are celebrating your 34th birthday today.  That is a REALLY long time!!!  We should do something fun to celebrate like playing chase games, reading books, or eating ice cream.  You are the best daddy of all the daddies, and I love you very much.

aDeLiNe

Happy Birthday!!!

Oh....and, Happy Birthday to you too, Uncle Eric (Patrick's twin brother)!  We love and miss you!

Hinds Feet on High Places

Hinds Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard

My college roommate, Sarah, lists this book on her sidebar as one of her favorites. She loved this book even in those days (sigh...seems like just yesterday), so I read it a few times before.  However, I just finished it again for a book club, and I loved it even more after living a little longer and experiencing a few more trials that God has used to mold me and draw me closer to Him.  It is an allegory about "Much-Afraid" who follows the Shepherd on a spiritual journey to the high places with her companions, "Sorrow" and "Suffering."  Through the journey, the Shepherd teaches her to overcome her fears, replaces her crippled feet with hind's feet, and gives her a new name.  She is tempted and tortured along the way by her relatives from "The Valley of Humiliation":  "Craven Fear","Self-pity", "Pride", and "Bitterness" to name a few.  I love Hurnard's incorporation of Scripture into the dialogue of the characters (especially Song of Solomon).  I could relate to "Much-Afraid" on each part of her journey.  She had a lot of lessons to learn...and SO DO I!!!  She learns to trust her Savior more and more, even in difficult times.  I highly recommend this book to any Christian who desires to be led by the Good Shepherd to new heights of love, joy, and victory.  

Yummy!!!

Gotta start with the story....

Very soon after we arrived in Korea, a man passed me in the post office and said, "Do you want this? (handing me a magazine) It is addressed to the people that had my mailbox before I got here and I don't cook."

It turns out to be a Kraft magazine. I like to cook/bake, and since my Taste of Home magazines were all sliced and diced with the recipes I wanted to try, I thought I would take a look. OH MY GOODNESS, PEOPLE!!! I am AMAZED by how quick and how good the recipes are that I have tried. You NEED to go here and fill out a profile. The magazine is FREE. It comes 5x per year, seasonally and then a holiday issue. You can get recipes over email, but I clicked the box saying I only wanted the magazine. This week alone, I made the three recipes below, and they are ALL ones I will make again. I love to try new recipes, and at this point, I have collected so many that I ONLY keep the ones that we LOVE. Even if my husband and I like a meal (meaning we will eat the leftovers without them turning to science projects in our fridge), I still say, "make again?" That is what determines if the recipe will make it into my keep box or just enjoyed this time.

Chicken Lo Mein

SO quick and SO easy!  You only need one pan (I cooked and drained the noodles and then drained them and cooked the rest in the same pot).  I used fresh veggies.

Shortcut Chicken Manicotti

Don't have to cook the pasta...don't have to cook the chicken....EASY people...E-A-S-Y

Heidi, this one's for you!

Strawberry Jam Bars

I love anything with cream cheese, and this recipe uses my favorite cereal (I eat it in vanilla yogurt with fruit almost every morning).  This is WAY yummy!

If you make any of them, let me know what you think.

Cruise Video

FINALLY!  Here is the video from our vacation.  Patrick finished it ages ago, but we had a hard time finding a site to host large files.  We finally just split it into three videos.  He did SUCH a great job!  Enjoy your visit to New Zealand/ Australia with us!

A Book Review and a Soapbox

If you are looking for something light and springy, then you came to the wrong blog today.  I'm fired up, and I feel another soapbox coming on (what is happening to me?!?!).  To start, I will give you a glimpse into my latest reading venture.  Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert was a book club selection.  To be honest, I didn't expect to like it based on some of the reviews on Amazon, but a friend in the book club told me she was really enjoying it, so I picked it up.  

Basically, the author is living the American dream (great husband, job, home), and then after an "open and exploratory dialogue" with God, she decides to divorce her husband.  "Following (the) divorce and a crushing depression, Gilbert set out to examine three different aspects of her nature, set against the backdrop of three different cultures: pleasure in Italy, devotion in India, and on the Indonesian island of Bali, a balance between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence." 

The book is divided into three sections, based on the three places she visits.  I was pleasantly surprised that I really enjoyed the first section.  I don't agree with her life view AT ALL, but her writing style is witty and fun, and she is a great story teller, so I kept going.  It is not the type of book I would have picked up on my own, and that is the beauty of a book club.  You expand your horizons to discover things you wouldn't necessarily read otherwise.   I was so frustrated with her through the second section where she tries to "connect with God" in an Ashram in India.  There were just WAY too many pages of her meditating and discovering complete bunk that I finally gave up a few chapters before the end of that section.  You need to know that as a general rule, I always finish the book....I can only think of a hand full of books that I haven't finished.  I am of the opinion that if you don't finish it, you don't have the right to criticize it (goes hand-in-hand with my view that you can't complain about the president, or politicians in general, if you don't vote).   I realized I just didn't want to spend any more of my time pouring the lies from that book into my brain.

This New Age view that is so pervasive in our society just makes me ill.  I was just coming down from my soapbox about the book when my friend sent me an email with a link to this video on You Tube.  Take a few minutes to watch it.  They teach that God is in us (which for those who have accepted Christ is true), but they twist this truth to teach that God in you means that God is a feeling in you, and you can know God's will based on what you feel is truth for you.  What is true for you may not be true for someone else and there are many paths to God.  These are LIES, ALL LIES!!!  Oh Father, forgive us, for we know not what we do......

Fellow readers, please join me in praying for our nation, for our elections, and for our churches.  Spread the word that there is danger in these teachings.  May the world come to know the ONE true God.  

Sunday finest

I'm one of "those" people...

I have a confession to make...and I hate it...it's just killing my pride.  One pet peeve I have is when people don't write thank you cards.  I don't mean for every menial occasion, but for weddings, baby showers, birthdays, or when someone goes out of their way to do something special for you, I think a personal note is common courtesy.  Some people send mass produced cards that say, "thank you for coming to my wedding and thank you for the gift."  HORRIBLE!!!  If you can't take the time to write a simple thank you naming the gift the person so carefully thought to purchase for you (or were kind enough to get off your registry so it was something you actually wanted), then you don't deserve their kindness.  I realize it is the 21st century, and I am not so old school that I think you actually have to put ink to paper.  For most occasions, an email acknowledging their kindness will suffice.  But to do NOTHING, is selfish.

Now that I have been on my soapbox and made my position clear......I have become one of *those* people!!!  I really hate to admit this.  I had a list of thank you's to write after Adeline's 1st birthday (yes, I know that was the end of Feb!!!).  The list has been lost in the same vacuum where baby girl socks and pens disappear.  I was trying to get most of them done before we left for vacation.  The list had at least 10 names, and I think I only completed 4.  I can remember at least two more I need to write, but I KNOW there are more of you out there.  If you are one of the wonderful gift givers that I missed, PLEASE know that I am thankful for your thoughtfulness and generosity (not only am I one of "those" people, but I just offered one of those catch-all thank you's that is impersonal and reeks of selfishness...Ugh!).

The other day, one of my best friends Skyped me (you know who you are).  In the course of our conversation, she said, "I just want to make sure you got the package I sent."  OH...um....(I know I composed the thank you in my head...did I REALLY not send a card?).... double Ugh!!!  Of course I remember getting the package.  I thanked her profusely and admitted to my complete embarrassment.  She has known me for a VERY long time and is like a sister to me, so she has seen me make MUCH bigger mistakes and treat her with varying degrees of kindness, yet loves me in spite of myself.  She made me look her in the eyes and told me NOT to send a thank you card.

I composed it today and it will be in the mail tomorrow.....

Everland

On Monday, we went with our friends, Emil & Kristin, their boys (Noah and Eli), and Emil's siblings (Elsa Jenny and Ethan) to Everland.  This is the Korean (almost right) version of Disney.  SO FUN!!!

Playing Cinderella

This was Adeline and Eli for most of the morning.

There was this AMAZING safari ride...that would NEVER fly in the US.  There was nothing between us and the lions, tiger, and bears (oh my) except for the windows on the bus.  The bus driver was throwing treats to the bears, and at one point a bear actually had his face inside the driver's window!

The ball room...there were canons and rifles and nets and lots of places to hold, drop, and shoot BALLS.  We had the hardest time getting the "big" boys to leave...yes that is Emil and Patrick shooting at each other.

This is the "It's a Small World" ride, that was politically NOT correct on so many levels.  Adeline loved it though with all the lights, moving dolls and music playing.

Kristin and Noah as monkeys...

Ice cream break...

Yes, yes we did ride the pedal-it-yourself helicopter ride.

and yes, yes we did turn it into a bumper-copter ride.

They even have a zoo!!!  Kristin and I took the kids to the zoo while the other adults rode the BIG rollercoasters.

Thanks guys, we had a great day!

Almond Wild Rice

My friend, Miriam, asked me to post this recipe...oh...months ago (sorry Miriam).  It may seem like a somewhat strange combo of ingredients, but I have been asked for this recipe every time I've made it.  I was about to type it out for you when I realized this is a Taste of Home recipe.  I searched their website and found it, so just click here for the recipe.

Now, let me tell you how I've modified it to make it easier...

1.  I use my rice cooker, and I cook all the rice together.  I use a box of the wild rice (like Uncle Ben's), with the seasoning packet.   I do put the brown rice in a little bit earlier than the wild rice because it takes longer to cook, but you just need to judge by the directions on your rice.

2.  Just use the amount of chicken broth that you need to make the rice by using broth instead of water.

3.  I cut the butter in half.  I use two tablespoons with the rice and one for the almonds.

4.  Instead of boiling broth for the raisins (because that would require using an extra pan....WRONG!), I heat some broth in the microwave and then add the raisins.  Don't skip this step though because soaking the raisins helps them to soak up the broth adding flavor and moisture to the dish.

5.  I frequently double the recipe.

This picture was taken several months ago of Adeline and Miriam's daughter, Maggie, who is about 6 weeks older than Adeline....and one of her favorite playmates.

Cold Tangerines

My good friend, and college roommate, Sarah from Short Stop gave this reading challenge about a month ago.  Sarah is brilliant and has a way with words herself, but she is a self-confessed non-reader.  So, when she fell in love with this book, I just KNEW it had to be good.  She offered 10 books in a giveaway to anyone who left a comment on her blog wanting to participate.  But because she is generous (and convincing enough to sell ice cubes to an Eskimo), she arranged to have the publisher, Zondervan, send a copy to ALL 30 of us who commented.  

Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist is a delightful read.  It is "a collection of stories about God, and about life, and about the thousands of daily ways in which an awareness of God changes and infuses everything."  It does not read like a novel.  Each chapter reads like a magazine article or blog post.  This makes it easy to read if you only have a few minutes to spare, but I found at the end of some chapters, I wanted the next one to be a continuation.  What it lacks in continuity, it makes up for in writing style.  She is honest, vulnerable, wise, and at the same time witty.

“I feel powerless, and prayer reminds me that I may be powerless, but there is power, and the one who holds the power is good.”

“Today I am desperate enough to pray. When I think about prayer, about what it is and what it brings to my life and what it tells me about the way life is, I realize, for the thousandth time that the alternative is about as smart as building your house on marshmallow fluff or taking Flintstone vitamins to cure cancer.”

I found myself reminiscing, laughing, and at times contemplating as I read.   I highly recommend this book.  Even if you don't consider yourself "a reader," you will not regret this purchase.  Put on your comfy clothes, grab a cup of something warm, and enjoy some time with your new girlfriend, Shauna.  That's what it feels like after reading her work...like you just had some great girl-bonding time with a good friend.

Thank you to Sarah and to Zondervan for this opportunity.  It was a lot of fun.  To read more reviews, click on over to Short Stop.