Bible in a Year

In November of 2010, around Thanksgiving, I will have been a Christian for 10 years. When I thought about this milestone, one thing bugged me. Even though I firmly believe that the Bible is the word of God and that we as Christians need to read, study and meditate on the truths that we find in it in order to know God and to be transformed into more Christ-like individuals, I find that I've read some books of the Bible multiple times, while others I've ignored entirely. It's time to read the Bible - the whole Bible - before ten more years pass by!

The plan is to start November 1st, 2009 and finish on October 31st, 2010. I have created a schedule that runs through one book at a time, alternating between the Old and New Testaments, reading 3-4 chapters a day. (Most of the days with 4 chapters are Saturdays and Sundays, 3 chapters of a book and a Psalm.)

So why the post about this new adventure? Consider it an invitation. Dana and Val are already on board, some others are considering it, and anyone else is welcome to jump on board! If you're interested in checking out the schedule, let me know and I'll email it to you. I fully expect that it will be a challenging, yet fruitful journey!

Birthday Cakewreck

There are a few important things that you need to know before reading this post:

1. There are two websites that my sister recently shared with us for a daily dose of laughter: Cakewrecks (a photo gallery/blog of deformed, distasteful and bizarrely decorated cakes) and People of Walmart (a collection of the elite clientele of the ever-classy Walmart) . (**Warning: neither are for children...)
2. Dana finds these websites to be pretty hysterical.
3. Dana's birthday was this week.

So, what would make a great birthday gift for my wonderful husband? That's right, a homemade birthday cakewreck made entirely of items purchased at Walmart, with a homemade card featuring a Walmart shopper dressed entirely in form-fitting gold lamay fabric (think shiny tinsel colored clothing). Classy! Here's the final product:

Let's zoom in a bit so that you can enjoy the comedy of this ridiculous work of art with us:

The first thing you might notice is the odd shape. That's because it is a Cupcake Cake (a "CCC" if you will) which is a huge pet-peeve of the blog author. If you ever want to make a deformed cake, shove two dozen cupcakes together and frost the whole thing into one giant mass. But perhaps it wasn't the shape, but rather the thick smearing of (pardon my language) poop-colored frosting that first caught your eye... Appetizing, no? The handwriting is beyond terrible, the word Birthday is misspelled, and the fact that it was his 29th birthday seems to have been forgotten and then added in later with the clever use of a messily drawn caret. The word many is surrounded by mysteriously inexplicable quotation marks, and the words in green were instructions to the baker (aka, please write that in green frosting) that should never have made it on the cake in the first place. It was a Reese's candy themed cake, so there are two Reese's peanut butter cups with awkward smiley faces piped on them (because anything circular in shape needs a smile on it) and two others that were cut in half and are standing up in the frosting in random spots (which are hard to see in this picture, unfortunately). These bits of candy are interspersed with pieces of inedible orange curling ribbon (which should be restricted entirely to gift wrap, if you ask me). I had planned on adding an unseen element to the ridiculousness by drawing a present on one cupcake, which would have some Reese's pieces baked into it, but cakewrecks never turn out like you would hope... I ended up filling two cupcakes with the candy and then promptly forgetting which two they were... so then it turned into a treasure hunt surprise! Lucky for the birthday boy, his first choice of cupcakes was one of the two winners! The best part of the whole baking and decorating adventure was knowing that no matter what I did, I simply could not and would not mess it up. Well, that and seeing his reaction to it, which was really quite rewarding. :o) Happy (29th) Brithday, Dana!

Rutting around in Estes Park

Last weekend was Elk Fest in Estes Park - something that you wouldn't be able to find in Southern California if you tried! Why is there a festival for elk, you ask? Because it is mating season (aka the rutting season) and you've probably not ever seen or heard anything like it. The mature male elk (bulls) compete for the attention of the female elk (cows). The bulls will challenge any other males that come near their harem, which ends in a match of antler wrestling if neither one backs down. Part of the attention-grabbing process is bugling, or screaming loudly and frequently. Females are apparently attracted to those that they hear bugling the loudest and the most often.

We drove up with Tyler and Kim and parked our car next a large meadow that was home to one of the huge harems and we sat for a surprisingly long time, enjoying the unique interactions of the elk. Below is a brief video of what we observed. You'll see one of the elk trot off to the right, and I believe he's the one that you hear bugling at the end. You'll have to have your speakers up though - we were far enough away that the camera didn't do the greatest job. You'll see a bunch of brown dots to the right at the end - that's the harem!! Oh and it's snowing/raining, so you'll notice that too.

Beautiful Colorado

So this month has been pretty uneventful. I've been doing a variety of projects around the house and I even read a book (gasp!) and have started another this past week. It thrills Dana to no end to see me reading, as this is something he loves to do himself. He has started rehearsals with the Laudamus choir and is well into his teaching schedule as a vocal coach with Lost Marbles Theatrics, a group that teaches theater skills to home-schooled high schoolers. Fall is on it's way, and the trees are beginning to turn, which is beautiful! I thought I would share some beautiful pictures of Colorado landscape that we recently used to fill a set of frames that have been hanging empty on our guestroom wall for over a year. Disclaimer: we did not take any of these. Enjoy!

Reunited and It Feels So Good!

Ahh home... We spent last weekend in Southern California for Dana's 10 year high school reunion. This is a shot of the sky in Lancaster that greeted us Saturday afternoon. The smoke from the huge LA fires crept over us and dropped ash everywhere. Glorious...

I've missed you, California sunshine.... At least I think that's you - it's hard to tell through the nasty fire haze that is filling the sky. Gross.

Bad weather aside, we had a great time. This is a shot of most of the alumni that were a part of the weekend. (His graduating class had 53 students, so it's not a bad ratio in reality!) I had already met a handful of these people: Dana's best man John & his wife Sara, his roommate from Biola Ray & his wife Amy, and Amberley & Josh who introduced us to our friends the Meades out here in Fort Collins. I had even met a few others at Amberley's wedding a few years back, so it was fun to catch up with so many people that night!

We surprised my mom with a pre-reunion birthday lunch in Lancaster. Craig, Kristin & Chris brought her down and we enjoyed Chipotle and Cold Stone! Delicious!

The eating didn't stop there, though. Val, Jess, Esther and Steph came up to Ventura to have dinner at the harbor on Sunday. We reminisced over a pitcher of raspberry margaritas and enjoyed the sunset over the Pacific. Some things never change!

We had a wonderful time staying with Dana's family, but we somehow missed all the photo opportunities. Sorry Trejos!! We'll have to make up for it at Christmas! Thanks for letting us take over your kitchen and for sharing so many recipes and In-n-Out burgers with us!