Married and No Longer Surrounded by Soy

I am now a blushing bride of 7 plus months. Jeremy and I have moved on and I am not currently maintaining a blog. We have created a new blog account and hope to get that up and running soon to chronicle our adventures. Thank you for joining me in the past and come on over and follow along with us as we explore the Last Frontier.

Just A Random Thought Based on a Week of Conversing With Believers and Non-believers

I have been created in God's image and I am beautiful. I am not talking about the 36-24-36 sense of beauty. I am talking about the kind of beauty that you see in a smile, a shared tear, whispered encouragement, laying on of hands, or a hug. I have been spoiled by the love of the Lord. I know friends who have struggled with feeling like He was far from them. I have never felt like He was far but rather I just ignored Him and looked to the world. I realized that my fallen nature and wounded heart were the ones leading me to the world. I have been reading a book about healing my wounded heart and it has awakened me to my love relationship with the Lord. It is an overwhelming love that continually amazes me. I may never experience the love of a spouse but the loves that I do have in my life are more than enough.

I am a child of God and I am loved. That love makes me beautiful. When you have that love you just want to share it with others because it is just that great. I hope you feel loved today.

Going to Japan

I will be traveling to Japan in January to visit a friend. I will be arriving in Tokyo. Does anyone have any suggestions for what I MUST do while I am there? Let me know so I can start planning.

My Father

I want to thank everyone who reads this blog and prays for my father and our family. As apparent as God has been in the healing of my father throughout the last couple of years, God has been even more apparent in my father's passing. My father is now without pain and constant physical limitations. He no longer requires oxygen 100% of the time and he does not have to wait for a new heart. I love my father very much and I have felt a peace that I can't possibly explain. I praise God for the last several years that my father and I had to heal our relationship and to get to know each other.

I miss my father but I am glad that he is no longer suffering. Thank you so very much for joining my family and I in prayer. If we can ever return the favor then please don't hesitate to let us know.

30 Things Before 30

My friend is making a list of 30 things to do before she turns 30. I am helping her with one of the items by reading through the Bible with her. I have decided to make a list of my own but I need your help. Any advice? Here is my list so far.

1. Read through Bible with my friend.
2. Travel to a foreign country.
3. Graduate.
4. Get a real job.
5. Reduce caffeine dependence (I am still contemplating this one)
6. Try skiing.
7. Brush up on my Spanish.
8. Watch the Cubs win a World Series (This is the year).
9. Visit my friends in Texas and Arizona.

What should I add?

International Travel

So here is my problem. I have never traveled outside the continental US. Outside of the military, neither has my family. I purchased a passport about a year ago so that I could travel if the occasion called for it. I grew up in small town USA and there are a lot of things about traveling that I just don't know about.

I have been invited to Brazil and I really want to go. I can speak some Spanish but I can only read some Portuguese. In theory, I will be meeting my Brazilian coworker at the airport. Am I stupid for even considering this? He was here from November to January and we worked together. I trusted him to perform my lab experiments while I was gone but do I trust him enough to visit him. I want to because quite frankly, I want to go to Brazil, but is this an unwise thing to do? My family says "Yes". Some friends say no. I don't know.

How best to do it?

So here is the problem. I want to post recipes on my blog because I like to share my food. I don't want to post recipes on the blog because I want to put them in the cookbook that I am writing. I have a granola recipe which I would argue makes the best granola ever. Kids love it. Adults love it. When you make it for people they love you so much that they call you at 6am to tell you "Thanks". I love my granola recipe and I want to share it with people. How many recipes do you need to make a cookbook? I don't think that I have quite enough recipes.

Here is another related problem. I want to post my thoughts after some of our department seminars. The thing is that I can't because people in the department have found my blog and posting about seminars would not be well received. I think that the solution to my problem is to have a blog which allows me to make some posts private. What blog services all ow this? Anyone know? I would appreciate the advice because I would post way more frequently if I could control the audience.