No Guilt in Life, No Fear in Death

We lost a wonderful co-worker and friend this week. In times like these, when I just can't make sense of the why's, I'm so grateful to have what we know to be true to lean on, and isn't it good to know?

I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15-50-57

I came across one of my favorite passages from The Purpose Driven Life, and have read it a few times this week. I always find myself going back to this passage and never get tired of its message.

In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven. One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me. I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act-the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense. Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy. We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.

Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.

Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.

Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.

Painful moments, TRUST GOD.

Every moment, THANK GOD.

Country Roads, Take Me.... On Vacation

At the end of football season, MS came out victorious in his fantasy football pool. Instead of rolling around in all the cash, he thought it was a good idea to take Namath on vacation. He let me tag along too, in order to document.

So off we went.

First stop - Walgreens, where we blew $20 on candy and magazines. Second stop - the mountains. I was too excited to fix my hair. Or even run a brush through it.

It was all fun and games until we had to drive across this -

I pink puffy heart electricity - besides salvation I think air conditioning may be one of God's greatest blessings - but I do. not. like. dams. I used to have nightmares I was getting sucked in the turbines and wake up nearly screaming. I'm not making this up.

Which raises the question, what are these fools doing?

We held on for dear life and made it safely across.

We arrived, unpacked and had a little quality family time.

After the dam and the dam curvy mountain roads, I was never so happy for a glass of wine.

Namath wasn't so sure about my pool game. It is frightening.

I think him and MS were even whispering about it.

Saturday morning after heading into town for pancakes and telling MS 492 times we weren't taking old time pictures in costume, we headed out to see some wildlife.

Unfortunately, the closest Namath got to nature was the leather in the back seat.

After a relaxing dinner Saturday, Sunday morning we headed back down the mountain and towards the city. After stopping for more caffeine and candy.

Our first family vacation was a success. We both had quite the food hangover Sunday night. I can't imagine why.

Thoughts Barely Worth a Penny

1. Tonight is the muscial episode of Grey's. I think they've been promoting this episode since well before George died, therefore I expect it to be about as entertaining as Bob Ross, and I won't even have a naturescape to show off at the end of the hour.

2. The Grizz has a yeast infection. Yes, you read that right. Before your mind goes to some bad places, let me clarify, its in his nose wrinkle. What? Your dog doesn't have a nose wrinkle? I feel bad for you.

I've been cleaning it with some medicated ointment. My google research suggested Monistat. I love this dog, but he'll have to stick to the aforementioned treatment plan for his embarrasing and uncomfortable feminine itch.

3. Thinking about chopping my hair circa de summer 2008. Opinions? Suggestions? Warnings? Speak now or forever hold your peace.

Not sure what I was doing in 2008 to get me this shade of brown, but I wish my past self would have written it down.

It has Protein and Calcium

Who needs a protein shake after a run when you can refuel with cheese, sausage and buttermilk?

Saturday I made these sausage cheese puffs for Mrs. Smith's baby shower. I think they are definitely worth having a baby for. I was hoping to bring a couple home for MS to taste, but

no such luck.

I didn't feel too bad for him as he was busy eating here.

I borrowed this photo and now am curious to know who in their right mind drinks Corona with ribs? Surely not this guy...

False alarm. Just MS in a little costume he put together in the hotel gift shop. This is what happens when men are left to their own vices, I assume.

Back at the homestead, I was mixing up previous ingredients. It looked something like this.

Scoop onto an ungreased cookie sheet. I first scooped them out with a cookie scoop, but those made nice dainty little balls, and there is nothing dainty about sausage and cheese, so I washed my hands for a full 30 seconds under hot water and then rolled them myself. With love.

Ta-da.

I think I'm going to make these for MS this weekend, because that's just the kind of wife I am.

In case your into exact measurements:

1/2 pound sausage

1 1/2 cups biscuit/baking mix

2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

6-7 Tbps buttermilk

In a skillet, cook and crumble sausage until no longer pink; drain. In a bowl, combine biscuit mix and cheese; stir in sausage. Add buttermilk and toss with a fork until just moistened. Shape into 1-1/2-in. balls. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 400 degrees F for 12-15 minutes or until puffed and golden brown.

For reference, I doubled the recipe and baked for 12 minutes and they were just right.

Iron Chef

For my birthday, one of my gifts from the in-laws was a cast iron skillet. Mostly I’ve used it as an upper body workout moving it in and out of the oven - because where do you keep a 30 lb skillet – but decided when making this week’s menu to put it in the lineup. And the crowd went wild.

Naturally, I started with something as close to fried as possible – baked chicken parmesan. I let Matt handle the gross part of the chicken while I took this picture of the Grizz. See, I did listen in the 'sharing household responsibilities' portion of pre-marital counseling.

I thought he looked svelte and would appreciate being shown off. He’s rocking his new exercise routine – one full block 3x a week – ever since a neighbor called him a fatty.

After dipping the chicken in egg and coating with Italian bread crumbs, do a quick swirl in the skillet of EVOO. Add chicken. Sear chicken on each side for about 3 minutes.

Pour a glass of wine. Yes, I buy most wines because of the labels.

Admire new spring kitchen towel while ignoring the fact its 48 degrees out.

Spoon some pasta sauce onto the chicken. The beauty of the cast iron – move directly to the oven for 25 minutes. With a few minutes left, sprinkle on cheese. We were out of parmesan, so I used cheddar. Livin’ on the edge. At some point in your prep, boil some pasta, toss with some basil and oregano.

Tip: If you wait to eat dinner until 9 p.m., even a sub-par meal gets a happy plate. Next time I would probably take fewer pictures of the dog and pound out the chicken breasts so they are a little flatter, cook more evenly and seem like more food.

Took this picture as an afterthought, so my apologies the presentation isn't cookbook worthy.

Case of the Mondays

Well, this weekend flew by at breakneck speed. Coupled with last night’s thunderstorms that nearly made me need to change the sheets, I think I spent the majority of my morning shower under the water wondering where I was.

Fortunately, the grey cube walls have jolted me back to reality just in time for me to recap the weekend. Go ahead and breathe a sigh of relief.

I met my favorite Birmingham twins for some patio drinking after work on Friday. They dragged me kicking and screaming into the world of Twitter. Let’s be honest, after last week and two drinks, there was no kicking and very little screaming. But you can go ahead and congratulate me for bravely stepping into 2009.

After being assured a 90% chance of rain Saturday I had resigned myself to 6 miles on the dreadmill. Lest I forget accuracy isn’t a critical component of weather prediction, it had dropped to 10% on Saturday morning, so I headed out for an easy 10 miler. Easy long runs are kind of new to me. I’m not fast by anyone’s standards, but the concept that not every run has to be done at near race pace has made running a lot more enjoyable – if you don’t count last Saturday. (ETA – runs over 5 miles are never “easy”, I believe this is terminology used by running magazines to make you feel bad when you’re thinking about bumming a ride home at mile 8).

not my hand

I’m not used to running alone, so it didn’t hit me until I was deep into north Birmingham that maybe I should have at least tucked my license in my shorts. You know, to make it easier to identify my body. No need to have to pull out my dental records. Though they are stellar.

not my teeth

Afterwards, I headed to a baby shower for Mrs. Smith. I have no pictures, as I was busy ,eating sausage cheese puffs hosting, but momma to be got some cute stuff. She’ll be set even if she has surprise twins. Wouldn’t that be fun, Christina?!

Saturday night, in order to one up my brother-in-law for favorite, I went solo with the in-laws to a family friends 60th birthday. I usually hang back and let the Mayor do his shaking hands and kissing babies thing - so it was nice to get a little out of my comfort zone. Whenever I got nervous, I just hit the buffet. I recommend this plan. I had some ham and cheese sandwiches that changed my life. I mean for real – I don’t even like ham. Since I made it out of the north Birmingham alive - I just might share that recipe later this week.

Friday Funday

It's been a long week. Like, I'm not sure how it's not July. To celebrate the fact that it is indeed Friday, I weaved a few treats into my day.

$3.50 is perfectly reasonable for something I could probably make for approximately 9 cents. But, $2.41 worth of festivity seemed like a good investment this a.m.

Sidenote -isn't interesting how you can pair the most hideous shade of the rainbow - orange - with pink and it just glosses over all the ugliness?

My love affair with Publix continues. Not only did the man point me to the aisle where the bisquick was located, he actually walked me over to make sure I found it ok. Take notes, Wal-Mart. I rewarded their good customer service with some more business in the way of brown rice sushi.

While I was on a roll, I ran by Walgreens. Did you know they carry Essie nail polish now? I've been soley an OPI girl, but I'm willing to stick my toe in the waters. Especially when those waters have a pale pink spring hue.

I'm flying solo this weekend. Which means a solo 10 miler. The forecast looks something like this.

Is Teen Mom a good substitute for a long run? Sometimes it's just as painful.