Snowed In

Today marks day 3 of the Winter Weather Extravaganza here in good ole North Texas. We've been iced in since Tuesday and the forecast is calling for snow.

...

What's going on??? I've lived in Texas my whole life. I've only seen it REALLY snow like, twice. I've only had to drive on ice a handful of times. I've NEVER seen school be closed for more than two days at a time. This is like living in the Twilight Zone.

Or maybe the TwilICE Zone.

Haha.

No, please don't go. I promise, no more corny jokes. It's just the cabin fever talking. I hope it's going well for all of you out there in bloggerville! Stay warm and dry!

~Allie~ 

Pictures!!!

Hello everyone! It's been a week since I last blogged. I was so excited about cooking last week that it was all I really thought about and I didn't want to bore y'all with constant talk about food. So here I am, a week later, with pictures of everything I cooked this week.

Tuesday: Salmon Croquettes with Baked Asparagus and Angel Hair Pasta in Herb Sauce

With this, I discovered that trying to cook in oil on an electric stove in a nonstick pan is not a good idea... But it turned out really well. The sauce on the asparagus is a mix of balsamic vinegar, soy sauce and butter.



Wednesday: Beef Stroganoff

I made this in the crockpot and served it over wide egg noodles. The recipe called for cream cheese to be stirred in before serving. I think next time, I'm going to use sour cream.

Thursday: Swiss Chicken Casserole

Another crockpot meal. SO GOOD! I got the recipe from a friend, and I will definitely be making this again.

I made this on Thursday, too. My fiance had a long day at work, so I surprised him with his favorite: butter cake with chocolate icing.

Friday, we had leftovers Well... I had leftovers, Matt had hot dogs grilled on the George Foreman Grill. They smelled really good, but since I had so much leftover from the week, I wanted to eat it before it went to waste.

Saturday morning, I got up and made scrambled eggs with sliced olives and cheese, bacon and toast. As you can see, I was hungry and took a bite out of the toast before I remembered to take the picture. I also discovered that the four and 3.5 settings on my toaster severely burn bread.

Yikes!

So that's my week in the kitchen! I've got a plan for this week, but with the ice junk that has recently come to town, I can't get to the store, and I'm not sure it would be very wise to even try to drive home until the temperature rises above freezing. Just in case though, here's my plan, and I will be posting pictures of anything I cook this week. If you want any of my recipes, just ask: I'm more than willing to share!

Please leave comments and your site locations!

 

Menu Planning

Alright. So now that I'm all moved in to my own apartment and I have pots and pans I have no excuse. It's time to get a handle on the way I eat at home. I have created a menu plan and a grocery list and am planning to hit the grocery store after work this afternoon. This is my plan. I'm going to try to take pictures and maybe post some of my masterpieces. We'll see. No promises. But here's what we're having this week:

• Tuesday: Salmon Patties, baked asparagus with balsamic butter and angel hair pasta with herb sauce
• Wednesday: Crockpot beef stroganoff over egg noodles with salad
• Thursday: Crockpot Swiss Chicken Casserole
• Friday: Crockpot Pot Roast with potatoes, carrots and green salad
• Saturday: Tuna Noodle Casserole
• Sunday: Roast on Toast (leftovers)

I think that looks pretty good for my first attempt at menu planning. Now I've just gotta follow through and execute the plan. I'll let you know how I do. Wish me luck!

What a Weekend

Dontcha just love it when Monday rolls around and you feel like the weekend was more like a weekextension? And the sad thing is, it really wasn't a bad weeked. It was just busy and full.

Friday
-Work
-Pre-marital counselling
-Dinner at Red Lobster, thanks to a raffle Matt won. (I was good, I had grilled fish and more broccoli than I ever want to see again in my life.)

Saturday
-Bridesmaid dress shopping with Amanda Jo
-Lunch at Chickfila
-Quick stop at Aldi, where I discovered I didn't have any quarters, so I couldn't rent a buggy
-Read 6 chapters of the book we were assigned for pre-marital counselling
-Dinner with Matt's family
-Hanging out at the Mauk's

Sunday
-Church in the morning
-Lunch with friends
-Walmart run, to return duplicate Christmas gifts
-Home, to clean up living room and kitchen
-Grocery store
-Made dinner for a friend while she let me use her laundry room
-Played MarioKart and Pit while waiting for clothes to dry (at 11:00pm)

And then up again at 6:40 this morning to get to school on time. I believe Darryl Worley put it best in his song, "I love this crazy, tragic, sometimes almost magic, awful, beautiful life."

It's so good to know that in the midst of the craziness, God is in control. Happy Monday, everyone!

Verdict? Guilty

An interesting thing has happened to me in the last few weeks. I've begun reading my Bible almost every day, following a reading plan that my Bible study group is doing. It's been longer than I'd care to admit since I've read my Bible on a daily basis, so I am really excited with the consistency I've so far achieved. I know it's gotta be God making this important to me. And I love knowing that He is enabling me to do what He's called me to do.

But that's not the thing that gets me the most. To tell you what that is, I've got to tell you what happened last Wednesday night at praise team practice.

Basically, I got into an arguement with one of the other ladies on the team. We argued about who was right about a certain part of a song and when I didn't agree with her she said, "Well, Allison, I guess you just know everything," and turned away from me. I knew I should've let it go, but I let my temper take over and I sarcastically replied, "Yeah, I do. Thanks for noticing." This led to more unpleasantness on the part of both parties and I left church that night feeling angry and insulted.

Trying to sleep that night, I kept replaying the argument over in my head, trying to convince myself that I was right. During the next few days, I managed to keep the incident out of my head while I was out in public with other people, but at home, or when I was trying to read my Bible, I kept going back to this spat I'd had with a sister in Christ. I couldn't concentrate on what I was reading, and I kept thinking about how I could've avoided the whole mess if I'd just squashed my pride and quietly thanked her for her advice and then even more quietly, ignored it. Instead, I chose to lash out and be rude and disrespectful. And I was feeling convicted about it!!!

It may seem strange to be excited about conviction, but that conviction is a sign of life! It's a sign that God is working in my heart to mold me into the woman that He has called me to be! And even though I had to swallow my pride and go to my fellow team member and tell her that I was sorry I'd disrespected her, I rejoiced! I realized that, in doing so, I was overcoming my own selfish nature and following Christ.

How cool to see conviction in such a positive light. Yay, God! :-D

Four Letter Word

Welp, it's time to jump on the wagon. The dreaded DIET wagon, that is.

I bought my wedding dress a few weeks ago. It's absolutely gorgeous, and it fits almost perfectly. "Almost" is the key word. It's just a smidge too tight around my tummy and I have now realized that I simply cannot afford to gain any weight at all between now and June. And since I've been steadily, albeit slowly, gaining weight almost constantly over the last two years, I need to put a stop to the madness.

My plan is to cut back my daily calorie intake (nixing my carb intake the most) by trying the SPecial K thing; eat regular, planned meals and snacks so I don't go diving into the ice cream container when I get home or running by the golden arches on my way to church; begin exercising at the gym 3 days a week and doing Pilates at home on the days that I don't go to the gym, minus Sunday.

I think it's a good plan. I've got a work out buddy for my days at the gym, and my computer is cued up to some pictures I took two years ago when I weighed 50lbs less than I do now. I' m just praying I can stay strong.

I've never done this before, and I think that the key to success is going to be changing my mindset, reshaping the way I view eating. I need to stop eating because I'm bored, or eating just because it tastes good. I think that realizing those things just might be the first step in making better nutritional choices.

Wish me luck!

Metamorphosis

Hello all! I hope you're having a happy Wednesday. Mine's been kinda crazy, but when you work at an elementary school, pretty much every day is kinda crazy. :-)

I wanted to take a moment or two to address the new look and blog name.

When I started this blog, I was getting ready to embark upon an adventure in my life. This blog was a way to stay connected with my friends and family as I spent the summer travelling and working at several youth camps and doing mission work in Honduras. "living loudly in the light of the Truth" was exactly what I was doing at that time in my life.

That was 2 years ago. Today, I am settled in a job that I love, I'm engaged to be married to a wonderful man in June, I'm about to be 24 years old and my life has quieted down a bit. This season of my life is one of growth and change. As a believer, I know that God will forever be changing and molding me into a woman after His heart, and this season is just the beginning of the changes that He will bring. Hence my new title: "Metamorphosis". Rather than running from and being scared of the changes that are coming, I want to embrace the things to which Christ is calling me.

This is only the beginning.