Thanksgiving with out taste!

Being sick on Thanksgiving is probably worse than being sick on Christmas. The main event of Thanksgiving is the feast! My nose is so stuffy I cant taste anything!!! Last night I was making cranberry sauce for the Herbert House Glorious Thanksgiving Feast of 2011 coming up this Sunday and I had to have Jordanne taste it to tell me if it was good or not. I am all about cooking and making sure my food tastes amazing. How am I supposed to do that if I cant taste :-( I am sure some how I will get through it. I will need a lot of taste testers and I am never short on those haha.

I ll give you an update on how the HHGTF2011 went. Cooking for 30+ people will be a new experience for me. It will be fun.

What did your Thanksgiving look like this year?

Knits for Baby Elizabeth

One of the best things about living with Baby Elizabeth is that she give me a excuse to knit for her. I picked up knitting about 8 months ago and found out that I am a complete natural. I love it and I am advancing with every project.

Right now I am knitting 2 things for Baby Elizabeth. Another bib and a hat.

The bib is made from cotton yard and knits up beautiful!!! This one is bright blue, the other one I made for her is bright pink with cute flower buttons on it. The pattern for the bib is really easy, actually to easy for me. I keep getting bored with it so it is taking me forever to finish it. Once it is done Ill post pictures of it.

The hat that I just started is a cupcake hat. This is for Elizabeth's 1st birthday!!! It has chocolate cake and pink frosting with a red pom pom on top. It is super cute!!!! I cant wait to finish it and see it on her. Don't worrie there will be pictures!

Frolicking in the Meadows

Yesterday afternoon with nothing to do we decided to drive out to Hope Valley and see what we could see. This was a very spontaneous trip with no real plan or goal. I went with Michelle, Ben, Sean, Josh, Daniel, & Luke. The drive over there was spectacular as always and I found my self thinking back to how life was the last time I was driving out there.

It was about a month ago when Ben and I went out there to see the fall colors of the aspens. It was unbelievable!!!! The trees were on fire with color! Now just a short month later everything was so different. The trees are ready for winter, no leaves, the bright white of the aspen trunks stood out amongst the dark forest behind them and everything was so quiet like it was bracing its self for the snow that was hours away. Just like the aspens in Hope Valley I to have changed and prepared myself for the next season that is coming in my life. I am learning and growing in my walk with God by the hour. It has not been easy I am up and down but after working through some big challenges in the past few weeks I am on the other side. I am happy!!! I am ready to take on more challenges with the new found strength I have in Christ.

We got to a meadow and parked the cars. Immediately all the boys got out and start running around being boys. Michelle and I got bundled up because with a snow storm only hours away the air was very cool and crisp. All the boys start throwing rocks into a frozen pond, laughing, joking and messing around. It was awesome to see my boys playing freely with out any worries in the world. Michelle and I were cold so we started walking to try and keep warm. We walked past the pond out into the middle of the meadow.

I looked around me and all I saw was the meadow and beautiful mountains topped with snow!!! Instantly my spirit was set free! I had freedom from the world. I was filled with joy and happiness that I hadent experienced in a long time. Out in that meadow we were silly, childish, funny, and most of all we were all free. We laughed and giggled as we ran across the meadow like we were little kids. The boys ran after us and pretended to be a army coming to take our land. There was a sword fight between Michelle and Luke with golf clubs. Then we all joined on one quest to get all the way across the meadow to the Rock. We made it and claimed the land as our own.

It was a day where we were all taken back to our childhood with imagination, quests, fun, laughing, and no worries what so ever. The boys were boys and the girls were girls. We get so caught up in out "adult" lives that we forget to have fun and act like a kid again. I cant wait until we can do that again!

Comparing Between Siblings

Siblings are the greatest thing ever! I have one younger brother, Drew, who means the world to me and I have no idea what I would do with out him. Because he is my brother we are required to love each other (not like, love) always no mater what and we have been bonded to each other since the day he was born and for the rest of our days. Although despite the responsibilities I have to my brother just because he is my brother, loving him and liking him is very easy. I can always go to him for love and support in any situation and he can always come to me. Over the years our relationship has had its ups and downs but over all it has been fantastic and we are never mad at each other for very long. As we have gotten older we have gotten closer and our relationship is stronger now than it has ever been. We know each other so well now that if one of us is upset about something we usually know what the real reason is with out even saying it. We also know how to push each others buttons like we are working the microwave. Annoying your siblings is part of the job description I think. Drew is growing up to be an amazing man of God and I am so Proud of him!

But no mater how proud I am, or how much I have loved him or liked him throughout the years I am always comparing everything to him. Most of the time it is absoutly ridiculous. Like: Mom loves you more, Dad loves you more, you got more ___ for you birthday/Christmas then I did, etc... totally lies and absoutly ridiculous. But sometimes I get really jealous and then ultimately get really upset over it. I don't know why I do this and I wish I didn't. I am working on recognizing when I am and letting it go with out it affecting me.

Recently I have been comparing my relationship with God to Drew relationship with God. I have been getting jealous of how much Drew is growing in his walk with God and how close they are getting. I haven't expressed this to many people but I look at my life and then his and I see so many things God is doing in his life I feel like I am not moving at all. It hasn't been bothering me too much but every time I am reminded of it I get disheartened.

Well last week I realized that I have no reason at all to be jealous over Drew! First of all it is completely ridiculous and I shouldn't be comparing at all especially Drew's relationship with God! Second, I realized is that God has a different calling on Drew's life than he has on mine. This means that God will work in Drew differently than he will mine to prepare him for his calling. This is reflective of every other aspect of our lives. The reason I compare and get jealous over everything else is because I am only looking at the here and now not the past and future aka big picture. Every time I feel like comparing my self to Drew (or any one else) I am going to stop and take a step back and look at everything God has done in my life and where Drew is going and where I am going. I have no reason to compare my life to anyone else's.

I love him so much and I am learning that God has a special plan that is unique to me and my life. If anything Drew inspires me to get closer to God, to maintain a level head, to be fun and silly, to be true to your self always, and to fallow your heart.

Trust and Love

Trust and Love are two of the most powerful pieces in any relationship that we can have. With out either one the relationship will either crumble or never move forward.

Trust and Love are also two of the most sensitive pieces in any relationship. It requires us to expose out selves and be vulnerable with that person. With different people that we have relationships with we have different levels of trust and love we will allow for that relationship.

So what happens when you get hurt and the trust is broken and the love is damaged? What happens if you trust someone completely, love them unconditionally, and are completely vulnerable with them and something goes wrong? How do you move forward? How do you love again? How do you trust again? What happens when you have been hurt so badly that you loose trust in the words "I Love You"? What happens when you loose trust in the truest meaning of love and every way it is expressed in every relationship you are in?

I recently discovered that, that was me. I didn't know it but I had lost all trust in love. I had given everything and I got hurt and everything I knew about love got smashed and I lost all my trust in it. I wanted to believe people when they told me they loved me but in the back of my mind I always had this doubt that kept me from fully trusting that their love for me was true and real. Each and every time I was faced with some one telling me I was loved or that they loved me in such a real and true way I would burst into tears. I had no idea why those three little words affected me so much that every time I herd them and knew that they were true it struck me to my core and all I could do was cry. I longed to know in my heart that those words were true and I could trust them. I longed to know in my heart that I was in fact Loved.

The vale that was over me that was keeping me from trusting in love was lifted. I was able to see the filter that I was looking through. I was able to see and recognize that the reason I was feeling this way was because I had been wounded and it need to be healed. God is so good! He shined light on this wound that I never though I had. He did this so He could heal it and restore me to complete fullness in Him.

I am not completely healed yet but I am working on it with God. I am so thankful that he loved me enough to show me where I needed healing. I know I am loved and I also know it is going to be a long hard road before my heart is completely healed from this wound and I am able to love and receive love from other again. It is going to be even harder for me to trust someone down the road with my heart again. But I believe that God will restore me and prepare me for my husband when we are both ready in His timing.

What I am Reading

Right now I am reading a book I am borrowing from Noah, my Pastor at Sierra Community Church up here in Tahoe.

It is called "The Best Question Ever" by Andy Stanley

So far it is really good. It is easy to read and I am learning a lot. It says that it has 1 question that if applied will change how you make decisions for the rest of your life. Ill let you know more once I get further into the book.

It is going along with what we are studding in College Group, Ephesians. Paul is writing letters to the Church of Ephesus helping them to live their lives as imitators of God. Pretty crazy right... To know that we can live our lives as Imitators of God! Working through Ephesians is really awesome. I think it is the first time I am reading all the way through it not just one verse here or there. It is most defiantly not a easy book to read but it raises questions that challenge you in your walk with Christ. It forces you to figure out where you stand on really hard issues. It also encourages you and tells you that the God of the universe really and truly LOVES you! With every section we read and study in Ephesians I can feel my faith getting stronger and stronger.

Stay tuned for more updates on how the book is.

I now have a Blog!

Hello Everyone,

Well Natalie finally convinced me to create a blog of my very own!

This is going to be a fun adventure and I will bring you with me as I try and find my place in this crazy thing we call life. It will be filled with baking (of course ill include the recipes), knitting, other various crafts, my travels and adventures, new things I learn along the way, and finally I will keep you updated an all the amazing things God is doing in my life!

Well for my first post it is a little short but there will be more to come I promise!

Love,

Alyse