Thankful

This past month for one of our Life Group Igniters, I chose to make a list of things I am thankful for and why. It has been fun to see how God has blessed me lately! Sorry if it's kinda corny. Here's some of my list:

I am thankful for:

• A powerful God who loves me no matter what
• My family
• My job, even if it's not always my favorite
• My car, even when it's not working lol
• My friends, I have some of the best in the world...They love me, they challenge me and they encourage me.
• Reunions with college friends or other old friends
• My electric Blanket, soo cold in the mountains
• Facebook and texting, you might laugh at this one, but I have my reasons.
• My mac...it's pretty
• Santa Cruz weather
• The chance to change lives through teaching
• youth group kids
• My life group
• Second, third, fourth families...who all love me as if I was their own.
• triathalons...ok I'm not really thankful for those, but I'm thankful for exercise with Rachel!
• An awesome house
• The best roommates
• Scrapbooking
• Sports
• And many many other things.

What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?

Cooking!

I've decided that I need to do more cooking and way less eating out, if I am going to be ready for this crazy triathalon. (Did I mention I'm training with a friend for this?!?!) So I figured I'd post some recipes that were a hit! Enjoy. :)

Avocado Chicken Stir Fry

Ingredients

1/2 cup chicken broth

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into bite size pieces

2 cups snow peas

2 cups cremini mushrooms, stems discarded, caps thinly sliced

4 bunches green onions, cut into 1-inch pieces

2 large ripe but firm avocados - peeled, pitted, and cut into large chunks

Directions

In a bowl, stir together the chicken broth, soy sauce, cornstarch, and garlic until the cornstarch is smooth, and set aside.

Heat the oil in a wok or large skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering, and cook and stir thechicken until cooked through and no longer pink in the center, about 5 minutes. Remove from the wok and set aside. Place the snow peas into the hot wok, and cook and stir until bright green and still crisp, about 3 minutes. Stir in the mushrooms and green onions, and toss with the snow peas in the hot oil until the mushrooms are tender and have given up their juice, about 5 minutes. Pour off excess juices, if any.

Return the chicken to the wok, and stir briefly over medium heat to combine with the cooked vegetables. Stir the reserved sauce ingredients to recombine, if needed, and add to the wok. Gently stir in the avocado, and let the mixture bubble until the sauce thickens, about 3 minutes. Stir gently to coat everything in sauce, and serve.

Life without a car

2 weeks without a car. This reminds me of when I broke my right foot in college. I had to rely on everyone. I couldn't make it up the stairs in my apartment, and I got to live with the Nugents for 2 weeks. (which were some amazing weeks lol) Anyways, when you have to rely on other people, you learn some things. Here are the random things I learned:

- I need to be prepared at all times to talk about Jesus, even if I think 7 am is too early to talk about that stuff. The person who picks me up for work, wants to talk about it every morning. It's been good for me. :)

- I take so many things for granted, like going to the laundromat or to the store.

-I need to walk around Mt. Hermon more. It's so awesome and I have been enjoying it.

-I have amazing friends who drive me around or come to me, since I can't come to them.

-Not seeing people for 2 weeks feels like an eternity...I have been sad, on more than one occasion that I can't see the people I normally see during the week.

-My roommates are the best. They have driven me around a lot, and I have LOVED spending time with them, since I've been home more.

God usually gives me these kinds of things (broken feet, broken cars) at a time in my life when I need to slow down and get my priorities back in order. It's working, but can I please have my car back now?? :)

Life.

Again, pretty sure I say this everytime I update...wow it's been forever. I can barely keep up on work and life this year, let alone my blog. :(

Life has been busy, in a good way! At the end of September, I moved to a super cute cabin on Mt. Hermon, with 4 awesome girls. It is a little far from work, about 30 minutes, but it is SO worth it. The house is amazing, and the 4 of us have a lot of fun!

Other than that, I have been SO busy with work. I feel really overworked this year. We never get a break, until about 4 pm. It has really been affecting my whole life. I'm working on trying to leave work things at work, but it's hard for a teacher!

I can't believe it is already November!! Where did the time go? This past weekend, I went to youth convention in Sactown with our youth group. We had a great time, and it was fun to spend time with the kids. Next month brings birthdays, Disneyland and INDIA! So crazy.

So there's the short update on life. Most importantly, God is good and has blessed me in ways I can never comprehend. I'm looking forward to everything He is going to do in the next few months!

And for grandma....some pictures from the last few months (AND the Chargers/Raiders game where I almost lost my life) :)

Wow...

I never have time to update my blog anymore. And when I do, I don't have pictures because I lost my camera cord so i have to put them on my pc which has a card slot and transfer them to my mac. phew. too much work.

Anyways, I started back to work 2 weeks ago. So far it has been nothing but crazy. I LOVE that I get to work with Ashley this year. Things are going so smoothly, but with 35 students there is never a break in the day. We have yard duty 3 days a week in the morning and then we run a math club at lunch for kids who don't know their times tables. It's crazy, but it is paying off. After 5 days of math club, my class went from 3% of them knowing their times tables to 35%. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. I love my job and every second is worth it, but at 3:30 when I finally get to sit down, I am exhausted!

But all that aside, I have a fairly good class, even if they are Chatty McChattersons. I enjoy them. We are trying to plan a field trip for every month of the school year. So far we have Sept, Oct, and Nov covered! It's going to be a fun year, and I'm really looking forward to science camp in april! I found some pictures I had on twitter of 2 paintings we did. One is a Van Gogh self portrait and another is a Picasso (two different students) I love teaching them about art and artists. I love that we have made time for it this year! Although it was interesting fitting 68 self portraits on the wall....

In other news...my last post was about my friend who is doing an awesomely long bike ride for a cool cause, and he was giving away an iphone or $200 gift card to Apple. Check out the video of who won here: (Spoiler: I won, but the video is pretty funny anyways)

http://www.myworshiprevolution.com/bobbym/2009/08/time-to-give-away-an-iphone.html

Coastal Ride 09

My friend, and the worship pastor at my church, Bobby is riding his bike from San Francisco to San Diego for an amazing cause!

Check out his blog and the give away he is doing!

http://www.myworshiprevolution.com/bobbym/iphone.html

Gleanings for the Hungry

The first week of July, I went on a short missions trip with the youth group at my church. We were a small group of 6, but we had TONS of fun. We went to Dinuba,Ca(central valley) to serve at Gleanings for the Hungry. This is a YWAM ministry that packages food to send to third world countries that need it. In the summer, they make dried peaches. Days start at 6:45 am and don't end until 11 pm.

The days consist of 2 hours of work in the field laying out peaches and then 4-5 hours in the fruit plant, processing peaches. By the end of the day, you are exhausted and can't wait to get the peaches out of your hair! I loved it because I had SO much time to spend with the Lord. I got to pray for things that had been on my heart, and the Lord told me a lot about my future in missions. It was an amazing experience. My favorite day was water park day and a day when we got to pray over a truck going to Honduras.

I built some awesome relationships with the students I went with, and it was nice to get away. We stayed up late talking and getting to know each other. We got to go to a waterpark, we went bowling, and made up lots of songs about peaches. It was an awesome time! I encourage you to check it out and take your family! It is hard work, but it is so rewarding. :) Enjoy the pictures of our week.

Our crazy bunk beds
Bryan on the cup up station, making sure the peaches are all facing the right way.
The cutters--so boring :) All you have to do is turn your row of peaches right side up.
At the love feast, our group drank 8 pitchers of punch--which is now a Gleanings record! haha
Brandon, Bryan, Ed
more fun on the cutters
The final product--dried peaches
Looking for bad peaches
Our awesome team!
The field of peaches! There was about 3 times this many, but I couldn't get them all in