Let It Snow

I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but I'm sick of snow. I wouldn't be if I had a four wheel drive really high off the ground vehicle. :D Like that would ever happen...hey, I can dream, can't I? It's STILL snowing here...very hard. And it has been for about 3 days now. Crazy crazy. I just hope we make it back to school on time...or do I wish that? ;) As the song goes...let it snow, let i snow, let it snow!

Christmas was nice and quiet. Rather uneventful, but a good time spent with family. The grandparents couldn't up as they usually do because of the snow, so we are postponing the traditional turkey dinner until the weather lets up a bit. and they are able to join us. For Christmas day (I laugh still), we had a true Janke dinner...fondue. How drole it is to me...maybe you have to be a Janke to understand. Well, I got sharpies (which I LOVE), a note pad and book of inspirational quotes, some yum yum and then some body wash, and a wee spot of money. There were only two things that I really wanted...a camera and to travel...but those were a little out of reach this Christmas what with school bills and all. What more could I ask for, though, than to be home with family...safe and loved. God is good.

God is still good. Very good. He's teaching me patience, thankfulness (lets just say I detest my job, but I'm working on being thankful for the money that I know I need and the job that God has so graciously given me.) I'm learning more about me and how I tick and a lot about how I communicate with God. This is good because I can tap into the positive aspects of my communication with Him and make them even better and stronger.

I NEED that relationship with God more than I need to breathe. I look around the world at people who have tragedy in their lives, and they cry out with the feeling of hopelessness. Well, here I am knowing full well that I don't have to worry about what life will bring because I have a God who is bigger than any problem that could come my way. Those who don't know this perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3+4) are lost in confusion and doubt, faithlessness and self-pity. I admit that I don't always fully trust what I know if fully there and ever-strong, but God forgives me when I doubt and makes me trust Him even more. Now, my job is to share with the rest of the dying world the hope that I possess inside. The hope that gets me through every hour and every day even when I feel like the world is falling in on me. Why would I not want to share that? Why would anyone not want to? How can I keep silent? My God, how can I keep from singing Your praise?

The Whole World

I'm more inspired every day, more changed. I'm more moved, more pulled by the force of love. Love. What do I know of love? How do I show love? The questions are too deep for me to answer. I feel a love, but it's more hidden than I'd like. It's more trapped by selfishness that I don't claim, but rather that I strongly deny. But, it's there. More care for myself than for others. More love for the things of me than the things of the world around me. A world lost and alone, without the greatest gift of all that I already posses. Should I still hold it up inside of me and not release it? No. I should fight to spread it around. To share love to its fullest degree. To break free of me and share in what I have. Oh, I know a great deal about love. Oh, I show love. I know more than I share. It's pulling me out of myself and into God. I vow to work on letting it out so that it can be the wind of truth over the world. The heat that warms the cold hearts. To give of me until I am given...completely emptied. To show, to know, love.

Home

I'm going home! I'm so excited to see the parents and puppy and church friends! :D :D :D :D :D We're sitting at the airport right now just waiting for our flight to board (soon!) and then it'll be a long treck to Cincinati and then Seattle...there's a snow storm back home so who knows if we'll be delayed or what might happen. It seems we always run into problems on the way home for Christmas.

Well, the Lord will keep us safe if He chooses to. He's got us in His hand so there's really nothing to worry about. He gives good gifts to His children. Makes me wish for Heaven, my real home. I can't WAIT to go there!! :) I can only imagine what it will be like....aaahhh!

So here I go home! Very tired but ready to escape the usual for a while. I managed to fit everything in a very small duffle bag, and I didn't even NEED to bring it all. I think I'm well on my way to easy travel. Peace!

Tears are passing

Well, today was the last day of student teaching. We had a party, I hugged all of my students goodbye, and gave them cards. They had all made cards for me yesterday, and they presented them to me today. I started to read one and had to stop because I had already started crying. I have yet to read them because I know I'm going to bawl! They also gave me gifts in sweet gestures of kindness. I'm surely going to miss them! I'm also going to miss my cooperating teacher. She taught me soooo much...more than a class could ever teach me. In actions and words. I learned so much this semester, and I'm grateful that God put her in my life and specially picked her to see me through my student teaching. I got an A! I was very happy because I knew I had done my very best, and I guess they thought it was A material.

All the praise, however, has to go to God. He's the heart and soul of what I do. Without Him, I would be lost in nervousness and stress, confused and frustrated. He keeps me calm, gives me joy (even when times aren't happy) and leaves me with no regrets. I love Him so much, and I'm so thankful for the strength that He gave me this semester and all the other semesters. I have one more road ahead of me before I'm done school, and I know He's going to get me down that one too. Holding me up, leading me, and loving me. Only through Him...so all the glory, praise, and thanks goes straight to Him.

I've been becoming more and more aware of how much more I need to SHOW GOd in what I do. I love Him, I talk to Him, I read His word, but most of it is in private. I don't join in with things I don't agree with, but I don't really speak up for my faith all that much unless prompted to. I need to show God on the outside more. That is one of the things I'm going to start really working on very hard. With God's help, I can.

Have a great day! God bless! Peace.

To Do Before I Die!

In no particular order...1. Ride a camel
2. See the blue footed booby bird
3. Swim with dolphins (and not in a stupid pool)
4. Climb a volcano (Vesuvius preferrably)
5. Sleep under the stars while backpacking
6. Go on a gondola ride
7. Cliff jump in another country (Greece?)
8. Catch a fish in the deep sea
9. Participate in a festival
10. Create an ethnic craft
11. Watch the sunrise over the ocean
12. Pet a snake
13. Send a message in a bottle
14. Crack a wild coconut and drink the milk
15. Shower in a waterfall
16. See a lion in real life (and not at the zoo)
17. Spend the night in a castle
18. Go in a hot air balloon
19. Do a festive dance with the natives
20. Start a food fight (If I leave, they'll never know it was me :)
21. Ride on top of a double decker bus
22. Drink tea and eat pastries at a café
23. Climb a pyramid and do the Egyptian dance
24. Pet an elephant's trunk
25. Sail on a tall ship in the Mediterranean (oh blue water!)
26. Pet a penguin (Antartica works)
27. Help fly a plane without crashing
28. Dance in the rain29. Fly first class
30. Ride an elephant
31. Play bag pipes
32. Ride a moped
33. Toss a coin into the Trevi Fountain facing forwards and still come back to Italy :)
34. Perform something on a random stage
35. Make a total stranger laugh
36. Sleep in a hammock overnight
37. Get lost in a city and ask directions through gestures
38. Dance under the stars while live music plays in the background
39. Yodel in Switzerland
40. Take a picture of the Mona Lisa (hope you're allowed to cause I'm doin it!)
41. Hold a monkey
42. Go to all 7 continents
43. Sit on a beach all day long and do nothing
44. Go whale watching (no harpoons, please!)
45. Play in the mud and get someone else muddy
46. See the Nile river
47. Volunteer
48. Plant something somewhere
49. See Stonehenge
50. Pray in a great church
51. Pet a sheep dog (maybe help herd sheep too)
52. Twirl in the rain while laughing and stepping in puddles
53. Take a picture with a famous statue (David?)
54. Help a person in need (maybe a begger or a child with one leg)
55. Be spontaneous...enough said
56. Prank call someone and attempt to speak their language...hang up on them
57. Tour a vineyard and eat grapes from it (if possible, help foot press the grapes)
58. Climb a cool tree
59. Have a sing along with people you don't know
60. Make a bunch a strangers raise a toast to destiny
61. Ride a bike for a day
62. Sing at the top of my lungs on a mountain
63. Help a vendor sell something (make someone actually buy it)
64. Haggle till I get it for free ;)
65. Hold or pet a panda
66. Participate in a contest (I never win)
67. Go to the top floor of a really tall building and spit off the top
68. Play an unusual instrument (I mean, really unusual)
69. Rock climb
70. Hug a child in need...orphans?
71. Buy an original drawing or painting (if someone is painting outside, ask for it)
72. Find someone with the same name as me who speaks a different language than me
73. Ride in a police car (without being in trouble)
74. See an outdoor movie
75. See a movie in a diff. language
76. Go to/build a bonfire
77. See the 7 wonders of the world
78. Get a full body massage
79. Sleep ALL day and stay up ALL night
80. Strike up a conversation with a random stranger about the color pink
81. Feed ducks in another country...maybe with an old lady in a great sweater
82. Get your nails painted by an authentic asian
83 Buy a CD in a foreign language and listen to the whole thing...sing along
84. Ask for an autograph from a stranger in each country you visit
85. Get a souvenier from each country you visit
86. Go nightfishing (Japan or South America)
87. See the Great Barrier Reef
88. Make a London guard smile or laugh
89. Sleep in a mud hut
90. Help make a traditional food
91. Get in a local newspaper
92. Be on television in another country
93. Meet a foreign celebrity that you have no idea who they are
94. See the place where the Pacific and Atlantic oceans meet
95. Go cave exploring
96. Coin a new phrase (that you say...other people might say it if you're lucky)
97. Get a REAL flower lei
98. Surf
99. Sail the Amazon River
100. Complete this list

Easy Homemade Caramel Apples

Ok, so I drew up this recipe for caramel apples. They taste awful yummy, but the caramel was a bit too hard when I cooked it to 250 degrees (basically, the apple will never see the light of day), so change that and they'd be perfect. Here's what to do:

This recipe make about 5 good sized apples.

1. Put jumbo popsicle sticks (if they're too small, they might snap) into the apples after removing the stem. Take each apple and roll it in boiling water for about 5 seconds to remove some of the wax. Set apples aside on a piece of foil or parchment paper.

2. In a large sauce pan (the big ole ones...if its not big enough, the stuff will boil over...use the biggest you have) mix these ingredients:

2 cups of light brown sugar
1 1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup cream (whipping works well)
4 tablespoons butter

3. Stir ingredients on medium heat (not too high or it'll burn) until they reach a boil. Once they reach a boil, do not stir them anymore. Insert a candy thermometer and allow mixture to keep boiling on medium heat unti it reaches 230 to 240 degrees (not past the soft ball stage.) Remove from heat.

When I first made this recipe, I let it boil until it reached 250...big mistake. The candy was almost as hard as a Werther's Original candy. The poor apple had no chance. Make sure it doesn't boil for too long.

4. The mixture might still seem kind of liquidy, but it will harden fast. Take the apples and roll them in the caramel. Continue to roll the apple in your hands so that the caramel has time to solidfy and doesn't pool at the bottom of the apple. Place apples on foil. Some people like to spoon the caramel onto the apple, but do whatever you like best. Do this quickly so that it doesnt harden.

5. Enjoy the apples please.


Hope y'all like the recipe. It's a tasty one, and it really doesn't take that long. Peace.

Where You Lead Me

I will follow.

I have...3 days of student teaching left! Then I'm DONE. I still have one more semester of acdemics, but I'm done student teaching forever! (hopefully) I have no idea what my grade will be, but I'm ok with whatever it is. I've given my best, and that is all that God or anyone asks of me. The grade He choose to let me have is just fine with me.

Sooo...one more semester and then the time is here. The time to *continue* following (because I have been doing so already) my Lord to wherever he might lead me. It's soooo exciting to think about. ANYWHERE in the whole world where people need to hear him, He take me there. Wherever it is, whatever I face, no matter how hard, I refuse to give up and be selfish, because God is coming back and the world needs to hear. Only a little more time on this earth, and then I'll be home. But during this time, I need to use it wisely. I need to use it ALL for God. Go into all the world. I will follow.

What about those times when it seems like the road is too hard or long and I feel very alone? Walk by faith. Faith is sometimes a hard thing to grasp and accept, but my faith is getting a whole lot stronger in my God, so I can follow Him even when I can't see or understand and trust in Him. It's a great thing to be able to do.

I'm applying for Korea this Christmas...we'll see if that's where God will lead. If not, I'm not worried! I'll get where He's going.

Have a great weekend, people! Peace.