one productive day!

I have gotten so much done today ladies! (ok i'm going to put this out there, i don't think any guys read my blog. my own husband doesn't read so i'm thinking there aren't any boys who read out there. Actually i'm not sure that more than like three folks read my blog, so if you are reading, out yourself and comment)

So Audie needed to get the oil changed in the new car, and i gave him a list of stuff we needed at the store, so i got my errands done without even leaving the house, or my pajamas! We're having some friends over tonight to celebrate my new job news (also my friend Meridith applied for the same jobs i did, and got herself a job too! though she still hasn't decided between the two offers she got, she knows she'll take one of them!) so today i had to finish up some homework, clean up around here, and cook some yummy fingery foods for our party! So i'm already done with the majority of the homework, and cleaning, so now i just have to cook stuff. Nothing too hard, just chicken wing dip (recipe below) pigs in a blanket, sausage balls, and some pizza rolls ( i love them things!) It's kind of a BYO food and drink party, so i'm also serving pink lemonade spritzers ( equal parts pink lemonade and sprite, with a shot of citrus vodka in them if you want- such a yummy girly drink!)

So i'm just happy we got a ton of stuff done today, which is good because i have to get more homework done if we're going to have a homework free weekend at the biltmore.

Ok here's the recipe, i got it from lynsAU over at fluffy, fashionable and famous a while ago, and i love it! it's really easy, and i don't make it in the oven for parties, i like it in the crockpot!

Chicken Wing Dip


2 large cans of chicken
2 packages of cream cheese
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup hot wing sauce
1 cup ranch dressing
2 cup shredded cheddar cheese.

•Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray a 9x13 Pyrex with cooking spray
•Melt the butter in a small pan over the stove. Drain the chicken and stir with melted butter.
•In another pan melt the cream cheese until it is creamy. Stir in the ranch dressing, and wing sauce.
•Mix chicken in the cream cheese mixture and pour into the 9x13 Pyrex.
•Sprinkle shredded cheese on top, and bake for 30 minutes.
•Alternative directions: After the third step, mix the remaining ingredients, including cheese and pour into a crock pot and heat on low for 2-4 hours.

I also usually cut the recipe in half because there are a ton of leftovers if you don't, especially when there are pigs in a blanket and pizza rolls around too!

bye folks, hope you have a productive saturday!

Julia

last few days

We've been up to both lots and nothing at the same time. It feels like i've been working like crazy, but getting very little done, does that make sense?

I had a paper due yesterday morning, so Wednesday i wound up staying home from class (because i'm a slacker) to work on it and other work. I spent the day sort of working on the paper, and eating really weird. ( like i didn't eat lunch, just some cereal in the AM and then some microwave popcorn in the afternoon) and by the time Audie was on his way home i was beginning to get pretty stressed about not getting things done, and my head was hurting pretty bad. I had a Skullcrusher ( of Katie Fame) and nothing was helping. When Audie called to say he was on his way home, i lost it, i mean full toddler tantrum meltdown, tears and all. I didn't have the energy to cook dinner, and didn't want us to go out because we had the last two nights, and nothing was good enough, basically. SO Audie was like, calm down, i'm on my way and i'll cook dinner (i know, i have an awesome husband). He came home, made me lay down in a dark room while he cooked us chicken fettuccine alfredo, garlic bread and a salad. After i ate dinner, i felt 20 times better! I think i really had a sugar crash at exactly the wrong time.

That night i finished up my paper at midnight, an early night as far as paper writing goes, and then had class all day yesterday. Last night Audie picked up our new TV. It's awesome, a flat LCD screen, HD stuff and all. Loving it!! We set it all up and enjoyed some tv last night, grey's anatomy and Survivor! both were awesome!!

ok got to get back to a LONG to-do list for this week so that i can go on my weekend with Audie to the Biltmore without taking homework with me! i have to preach on Tuesday for my class, and have a big paper due the next tuesday, so i'll be doing a good amount of reading/writing/preaching this week to get it all ready!!

-hope you have a great weekend!

Julia

thoughts on Bachelor

i just realized that i never told you how i felt about the bachelor monday night. I know you were waiting to here what i think. ( you were wondering, you know you were)

I was really surprised that Jake told Ali to not come back! basically what happened was she went home last week because she was told that she would be fired if she didn't come home, and so she chose to go back home. This week she called Jake and said that she had made a mistake and she would like to come back. Jake told her that he didn't feel it was fair for her to come back since she decided to leave. I was really proud of him for not letting her come back, but was sad for Ali. She was totally my favorite girl but when she chose to go home i thought for sure that she would be back next week. I also thought that Jake would have a hard time picking her over a girl that didn't decide to go home. so way to go Jake for not bringing her back. BUT i think that Ali should be the next bachelorette!! i'm totally for her!

I think that all the three dates were good for them, it was totally awkward each time the fantasy sweet card came up, and i thought that Vienna with her 'outfit to make Jake know she's a woman' was especially awkward, because it looked like something you would wear on a wedding night. I'm pretty sure nobody did the deed, because i think Jake values waiting on sex until he's married. (he's never said that, but i get that vibe from him- i think that's great, but i was surprised that he didn't lay down the law a little better about what he expected to happen, or not happen in the fantasy suite, i think Vienna had another idea, for example) But i saw it coming that Gia was sent home, and she accepted it with so much class and was so nice. i have never seen a real connection between the two of them, like i see in the other girls.

Well between Tenley and Vienna i'm for sure going for Tenley, we'll see which one he chooses, but we'll have to wait until two weeks for now, because next week is one of my favorite things! the women tell all episode!! i love how they bring all the girls back to hear what they really think about all that has happened!!

ok there are my thoughts and reflections on it all!

Julia

I have a new skill!

Ok Guys I'm going to try this because my resident blog guru told me how to put links in my blog that are clickable. I realize this is probably like elementary education for most bloggers, but not me, i feel like i just got my master's of blogging!

SO last night audie and i went here to celebrate our new job wonderfulness. I did accept the job that was offered to me at the hospital in Raleigh. I don't want to name the hospital, just because there could be creepy people out there, and also i'm not sure they would like to be the subject of my blog. I do know people who have received offers from the other two hospitals i applied to and so that means that i probably won't get other offers from them. And that is totally ok by me, because i wanted to go to the hospital that already offered me a job.

I mean this is really a lesson for me in how God has such a perfect plan, that i have to just get out of the way and let God lead me and it's all going to work out. Like i only applied to my choice as a backup, and wound up loving it so much. and i kept kind of saying to myself, God make it really clear where i should go and work next year, help me out here. Even if you have to only give me one option, give me your plan. and you know what, God has got this! God totally knew what i needed more than i knew what i needed for myself. and THAT's why i serve a big good, wonderful God. really, because some people (myself included sometimes) get all caught up in how life isn't going the way they want it to, but God has a bigger plan, and that plan is for you to prosper (not in the earthly sense, but in God's prospering in you!) and for you not to be harmed! I think in the long run there is always the hope that God has a greater purpose behind all our pain and hurt, even if we never see the good results that come from it.

Ok sorry for the sermon, but it's a sign of my trade, i can't help it. i know you guys that know me don't mind! Ok i hope that you can see some hope in your life today! and i also hope that you get the privilege, honor and blessing to see the fruits of God's goodness that are the results in the hard times that you may be going through.

alright, got to get going on some homework!

Julia

love my new look!

So excited because my friend Amber gave me a link to get one of those new fangled cute blog background, and it was so easy! I went to this link and basically it was a step by step process!! SO easy, and free!

http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com


Ok i don't know how to make something a link yet, or to do that cool thing where there is a word in your sentence like "click here" and the here is the link to the place where they went, so you may have to just copy and paste, but i hope that if you are wondering how to make your blog cute that's how!

also: i got a phone call this morning and i have an official offer of a job at the hospital in Raleigh! and i pretty much accepted it so that they would know that i'm pretty set on working there.

SO that means in the next few months Audie and i will be working on moving toward raleigh and all that fun stuff!! woo hoo!! maybe we'll get a dishwasher in this apartment!

Also when Audie talked to his boss today and told him that we'd be around another year. He (the boss) said that there was a possibility that Audie could be made a supervisor! that's another thing to celebrate! we'll be going out to dinner (cheesecake factory) to enjoy a night out to celebrate our new job news!!

ok love to all!

Julia

New look and what i did Not do today!

So i decided to change up my look for the first time ever! i wish i was cool enough to have a beautiful background like some of my bloggy friends, but i'm not that talented, and i'm not sure where to put stuff to make that happen! so i just switched to another template from blogspot. but it's looking good, and i like it!

So today i definitely did NOT:

- get four boxes of girl scout cookies delivered (and i certainly did not eat like 7 right away)

- get audie to pick up fast food for dinner because i just didn't feel like cooking what i had planned on.

- watch 4.5 hours of olympic coverage that is DVR'd from this afternoon. (i also don't have 20 other DVR recordings scheduled for this week alone)

- decided that i was too nervous waiting for word tomorrow that i can't do homework.


Ok that's what i haven't been doing ;) now on to watch the Bachelor! You'll probably get my thoughts tomorrow as well as hear the final choices for my hospital jobs. i have already drafted an acceptance letter back to my first choice (that i got an offer from on Saturday) We'll see if i get any other offers tomorrow.

- Julia

weekend activities

So this weekend was pretty calm and quiet. We slept in and then went grocery shopping (our typical weekend activity) and then settled in to watch the olympics and for me to do some homework! I have a paper due on Thursday, so I'm trying to get my stuff down so i can settle in Tuesday night and get a good start on it. I also have to anticipate that i have two big papers due next week, so as soon as i'm done with this week's stuff i'll be getting right on next week! It never ends! Audie went out to do some shopping for some technology for our house, and when he got back he got the mail for us. In the mail there was a letter from one of the hospitals that i applied for a job at for next year. It was an acceptance letter offering me the job!! I was totally shocked, because we weren't supposed to hear back until Tuesday! So i'm really excited that i have a job for next year, but still waiting to get an official phone call on tuesday before we go out to dinner to celebrate! Also there is still the possibility that i get other offers. The hospital that sent me the letter is who i want to choose over any other offers, so that takes a lot of pressure of the waiting for Tuesday.

Today, we did more olympic watching (i'm official obsessed, and DVR helps me to catch all the coverage!) and more homework, including blogging for my class, which i'm taking a break from to write this.

I hope all you had a great weekend and enjoy your week!

Julia

yep his gift rocked!

The chicken turned out really great everyone! what i did was basically pound chicken breast until they were pretty thin. Ok and can i say that they make this task look really easy on the food network, but it was a little harder than it looked. it wasn't too bad though, but i was glad i only had to do two. I then layered the swiss cheese and ham in the center and rolled the chicken up. I dipped them in flour and then egg and then italian bread crumbs (i think regular would have been better, the italian herbs didn't really hit the flavors right) and then i kind of tucked in the ends and baked them for 30 minutes on 350 degrees. They turned out so yummy!! they will probably be a part of our regular menu from now on, or something we make for special occasions.

Audie totally outdid me on the gifts by the way!! i got this:



I KNOW! i have the best husband ever! I had hinted that i would like this ring as either a valentine's/birthday/graduation/ or save it and get it for me as a push present even, because i loved this ring!! AND i got it today!! I'm so excited! it looks beautiful in person too!

Audie also revealed to me where we're going on a romantic weekend! in two weeks we're going to Asheville to tour the Biltmore!! I'm so pumped about that too. I'm not sure if i mentioned this trip or not, but Audie has been planning this trip in secret. I knew that we were going somewhere and when, but i didn't know where we were going. I really have been wanting to go to the biltmore for a long time, even before i moved to NC, but have never been. I'm so excited! and i don't have to plan anything for this weekend. the only condition for Audie planning everything was that i'm not allowed to bring one book on the weekend and not allowed to bring any homework with us. I'm so excited to have a weekend to spend to my husband and get to see such an awesome landmark. If any of you have ever been to Asheville, any suggestions about what to do while we're there. We have tickets for the house tour for sure, but anything else that is there that we should make sure to do?


Ok now i'm going to quit blogging and go back to watching the opening ceremonies!! loving the olympics so far!!!

-julia

plans for tonight!

WOW, thanks so much for all the support in my stress over de-friending. I think i put way too much thought into the whole thing, because he probably doesn't even know that i defriended him. I feel a lot better about it for sure thought. And in the midst i don't think i realized how many people read my blog! I just kind of write this thing to get out my feelings about stuff, chronicle what is going on in our lives and stuff, but i don't really think about that people actually read it.

My sister asked me about what i actually decided to cook tonight to go with the opening ceremonies, so i'll give you an update. After googling what kind of things were canadian food i decided to go with more 'french canadian' stuff. the canadian recipes not only looked really hard to make and didn't look like things that Audie and i would eat. (we're a bit picky) so i decided to go with chicken cordon blue (not sure how to spell that but you know what i mean), garlic mashed potatoes, ceaser salad, and crescent rolls (i mean croissants are french right?). So i'm not sure if that really qualifies as Canandian food or not, but it works for me!

in other news, Audie and i had planned on celebrating Valentine's day tonight before we realized it was the opening ceremonies. So we're combining my yummy dinner for the olympics as a valentine's day dinner. OF course i had to go get Audie a gift, so i went to target today and got him a video game. I know that's not super romantic, but i'm cooking him dinner too! i'm sure he'll get me a killer gift, so i'll report back once i see what i'm getting!!

Ok i have to go pound chicken breasts, never done that before so we'll see how it goes.

hope you enjoy your valentine's day, and if you don't have a significant other to celebrate with you can always celebrate Ferris Wheel day instead, it's Feb. 14th as well. Have a great weekend!!

Julia

Unfriending people

Ok guys i had to unfriend someone on facebook! i don't think that person reads my blog, so i'm going to vent here if that's ok.

Let me just say that i'm a total weinny when it comes to insulting people on facebook. If i get offended by someone on FB i just get angry in real life and vent to audie. Well last night this guy pissed me off for the like third time, and i was complaining to audie about it. He told me to man up and just defriend him because everything that this guy says pisses me off and them i'm mad for days but never do anything about it.

So this morning i defriended him!! it was very nerve wracking, because this guy is a friend of my mom's back home and i was afraid that he'll be mad and tell her. I know, I know i need to not get too worked up about what other people think of me, but i do worry about that, so i was worried. But i decided that i need to be strong and to maintain my sanity rather than dealing with my anger over his posts all day.

So what did he do to piss me off, so that you don't do them, for fear of not being defriended??

Well first off he's always making snide comments about the Obama administration. NOW i'm all for you disagreeing with the government, and i don't agree with everything that the Pres. has done, AND i realize that he is a sore loser (the guy, not the pres.) and he's just still mad that his person didn't win. I just think that at this point you need to get over it! if you didn't want Obama to win, fine! but he did and you can't just get livid over EVERY thing that he does, because it can't ALL be bad!! That is just frustrating to me when people are babies about everything. AND if you have a real like political reason for opposing healthcare or whatever then we can talk about it, but Facebook is NOT the forum for that! because people don't care that much on Facebook, FYI! especially not me, it gets you defriended.


Second, a few weeks ago when we had all that snow, i complained on FB about how Duke did not give us a day off, or a delay of any kind while literally EVERY school in the tri-county area got at least a delay, and some got three (THREE!!) snow days in a row. and he commented "well that's what happens in the real world" Then this week i said something about hating school, and he said "I wish i were back in school." OK so i know that being in school is not the same as being a 'full fledged adult' but graduate school is not the same as say, elementary school where your mom gets you all ready and reminds you to do your one page of homework and lays out your clothes the night before. Grad school means that you read 500-1000 pages a week, write papers and midterms at least every other week (including, my former friend, a 30 page midterm coming up in a few weeks, that you may certainly do for me if you like) that keep you up to midnight or later every night. All while stressing about job choices, graduation, working around the house to make sure that we both have clean clothes to wear and food to eat. Now i know that you guys out there with kids and 'real world' folks have hard days too! i KNOW you do though and i don't go around telling you guys to man up! I'm sorry but this is my pet peeve! because seriously if you (i.e. the people who say that they want to be in school) want to trade places by all means come on, because you certainly can. I realize that you envision my school to be like college where you party all the time and still make A's, but that's not what it is like OK! I get stress headaches and actually had to go to the dr. last semester because i was so stressed that i had stomach aches, chills and elevated heart rates. that's why you aren't my friend anymore, because you caught me on a bad week, and just hit the wrong/right buttons!!!!

ok now that i have that off my chest, i hope you (and i) have a great day!! and i hope you have the guts to tell people how you really feel, i obviously don't because i just de-friended him without telling him all that! (though maybe he reads the blog, we'll see)


julia

Robe Day!

I am so excited about what i ordered today from the Robe sale!! So I got a black preaching robe like this:



mine is the black one, but I ordered it in a lighter fabric (for breathability and coolness) and i got black trim instead of red trim. I also got full pockets put in and a button hole on the right side above the pocket for a microphone cord!

I also got a white alb like this:



I also upgraded to the lighter fabric but got it lined so that it wouldn't be as thin (i.e. not see through - 'cause it annoys me to see a pastor's choice of loud patterned shirt under his/her alb) I also got the full pockets and microphone hole, and a white cincture ( rope like thing that wraps around the waist.

All that is going to be custom made for my measurements and will be sent to the store on campus in a few weeks! I'll take some photos when i get them in, if i remember to do so.

I also ordered my graduation hood and i got to take that home with me today which is so awesome! I got a free garment bag and stole because i ordered over a certain price. I got 25% off because i ordered today! So excited to see all my fun stuff for my future career, and preparing for graduation! I'm loving this because it got me through this week and it helps me keep going through the rest of the school year.

ok i hope you got to have an exciting thing happen to you today!!

Julia

bachelor thoughts!

wow two posts in a day! that's like almost a new record! it was a lot easier to do this time because i just wrote down my thoughts as i watched the episode.

Here are my thoughts on the hometown dates:

Gia's hometown: nice date, parents/family seemed really nice/open to Jake, no drama but no sparks either

Ali's hometown: sweet how she 'introduced' him to her grandmother. Asked for mom's blessing to marry her, that bodes well for Ali's chances.

Tenley's hometown: her dance was cheesy and awkward, but i think that he really dug it, he's a cheesy guy too. Asked for her parent's approval to marry her, bodes well.

Vienna's hometown: Went on a pontoon boat down the river. she seems really fake in many times on the date

then came the drama of Ali showing up on Jake's hotel room doorstep and telling him that she had to choose between staying on the bachelor or keeping her job back home. Sad day, because i love her and i think that jake and she are like perfect for one another! Basically I think she wanted to say "are you going to choose me because if not I can go ahead and go home." I mean i can totally understand her wanting to make sure that she had a reason to stay before she decided to go home or not. the previews of the episode on the commercials said 'there is no rose ceremony' that made me think that she was going home after i knew that was what the drama was this week.

She did decide to go home in the end, which i thought sucked. I mean i know in this economy she should really think about keeping her job above all else, but come on! if you really love him then you would have stayed Ali!

most of all i hated that it meant that Vienna was still there, i mean really Ali, take one for the team so that she'll go home. it will be interesting to see if Ali does the whole Ed/Reid thing from last season and comes back. AND the phone call scene from next week shows that she does something like that!!! drama, so much drama!!

ok i hope you enjoy my musings!

Julia

monday!

i hate mondays, going back to school each week just makes me cringe! so i have 38 more days of class left and i'm not loving it right now! i can't wait until spring break/ graduation!

i do have a few things to look forward to this week:
- the Bachelor tonight - um hometown dates! and hopefully Vienna going home!

- Robe day is tomorrow! that is when the bookstore has preaching robes on sale 25% off for the day. most people wear a preaching robe for baccalaureate and our hooding ceremony. So excited! I'm getting a white alb and a black preaching robe with a little red trim.

- this thursday Survivor premiers and i'm so excited, then you can look forward to my weekly thoughts/ musings about the episodes!

- this weekend in V-day!! yay! i look forward to valentine's day because Audie Rocks at giving gifts!! I however am not so good at getting gifts for folks, but you know we'll work it out, i'm expecting a run to target friday/saturday to get something. last year i did not do so well!

- also i'm so excited about the olympics! last olympics audie and i got chinese food (obviously) and watched the opening ceremonies, so fun! i haven't figured out what we'll eat because i'm not sure what is considered Canadian food so we'll see what we eat on Friday night, but i want to do a Canadian food theme!

ok i'm going to get dinner together so we can eat something.

Also: i was pumped that the Saints won the Super Bowl last night! i never want the same person/team to win multiple times so i like it that the team that had never been to the super bowl before won! and that quarter back guy and his little baby and wife were so stinking cute!!

ok done! love to all!

Julia

today's activities:

Included:

Finishing some homework.

Audie working and then getting home at 3pm. (which means that he's cheated out of like 30 bucks on his paycheck, but still has to work saturday!)

We decided to plan an impromptu super bowl party, invited five friends, two of which can come.

Went to the grocery store and Sam's to get groceries for the week and said party.

Decided that we are going to get each other Valentine's gifts this year (scrambling begins now! let it be said that my husband will come up with an awesome gift!) I know i may have thrown you off by saying 'decided' but Audie is planning a weekend off for us in a few weekends on the condition that i not bring one school related thing to do. I promised and then cried! SO i was hoping that would count as our valentine gift to one another because i suck at valentine's (and all) gifts for him! and he rocks at it which makes me really happy, yet depressed at the same time.

i started reading the archives of barefootfoodie.com, a new blog that amber told me about! hilarious, can't stop laughing or hitting the previous post button!

After a while i realized that i wanted to help out the fun at our super bowl party by making my pink lemonade spritzers ( citrus vodka, sprite and pink lemonade! yummy!!) but then realized that tomorrow is sunday and the liquor stores are closed, and they are already closed tonight, i guess we'll have to do with Mike's hard, parrot bay wine coolers, and the bud light my friend is bringing. well since it's only three of us drinking that should be fine!

realized that my house is probably too dirty to have folks over tomorrow, so we'll see if it gets cleaned before folks come over to watch the game/ really the commercials!!

i'm really excited about watching these commercials with DVR, so that i can rewind and watch the funniest ones again and again!!

Love to all!!

Julia

UGH!

Ok So i interrupt this day of homework to bring you a story from my day.

So i was up in the bed, reading for class next week, listening to the rain. (i know that's not a good study habit, but it helps the naps that happen when i read for class be better if i'm in the bed to begin with!) ANYway! So i'm having a really awesome dream, and then my phone rings, waking me up!

SO i reach for the phone ready to see what emergency meant that someone had to call me in the middle of the day! It was a number i didn't recognize but i answered it anyway ( probably because i'm on pins and needles waiting to hear about jobs from the hospitals, even though i won't find out until the 16th) When i quickly say hello, i hear the dreaded, "we have an important offer for you on the line, please stay on the line." OK so it's a telemarketer. in the second it takes me to think about hanging up i hear their 'important offer' speech begin. There is a sound like a bull horn, and then an offer of a cruise. OK so now i'm really mad! i have gotten calls from this particular group of folks about 4 or 5 times in the last few months. Usually i hang up right after the cruise horn, but this time they had woken me up from an awesome nap!


So i pressed 0 - hoping to get an operator i could tell to take me off the call list, if i got there quick they would be lucky enough not to hear me yell.

I got to a survey that they wanted me to take. after the question began i press 0 as my answer to it about 10-15 more times, finally it told me that i was now going to receive two tickets to Nassau and to stay on the line. I push 0 again, and then am told i will be talking to someone soon. after about a 30 second wait, a lady answers the phone by asking me if i would like to give her my full name.

I Promptly responded "NO, i want you guys to never call' click, automated voice: "You have been automatically put on our do not call list." Thank you very much!

End of story- unless they call again next month.

ok guys catch you later!

Cookies and Homework!

Hi ya'll I don't have much going on to update you on. Friday is homework day in my house so i'm trying to read up for this week. Audie and I are headed over to a friend's house for a game night party tonight, and i'm excited to get to have a ton of fun with them. Boo on the fact that Audie has to work tomorrow so we'll have to leave relatively early.

So in other news last night my friend, who is a youth minister, was telling me how stressed she is right now. Next weekend her kids are going skiing and they had a fundraiser dinner to make money for the trip planned for last weekend. Because of the snow they canceled and rescheduled for THIS weekend. She also was supposed to have a district lock-in tonight, the fundraiser tomorrow, preach sunday, and like a million other things. The lock-in was moved thankfully. So I asked her what i could to do to help and Last night i baked 50 cookies for her to use for desert for the dinner for tomorrow. The were really cute and "valentinesy" so i thought i would share them with you! ( you can also use hersey's kisses but the heart shaped chocolate is what makes them valentine)


Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Candies

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)
¾ cup peanut butter
2 cups Original Bisquick® mix
1 teaspoon vanilla
Sugar
About 36 heart-shaped milk chocolate candies or heresy’s kisses

•Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl, stir milk and peanut butter until smooth.
•Stir in Bisquick mix and vanilla.
•Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Roll tops in sugar.
•Place sugar side up 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
•Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until bottoms of cookies just begin to brown.
•Immediately press chocolate candy into top of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack.

They came out really good! So i hope you enjoy, and have a great weekend folks!!

Julia

111

Today is my 111th post. I know it's probably more conventional to celebrate post 100, but i got behind and didn't notice i was in the hundreds until a few days ago. SO i have been blogging for almost a year and 1/2 but have only done 111 posts. Which means that the streak i have been on lately is even more impressive!! Be proud please!

So today i didn't have class until 2:30, usually i go in at 1:45-2 to get to my classroom and get settled before class actually starts. My three good friends, Meridith, Danny, and Sarah, all have class/ work on Wednesday morning. We usually try to find a day of the week that works for the four of us to go to lunch together. Wednesday is shaking out to be the best day for everyone but me. SO today i hauled my cookies to school 2 hours early for us all to have lunch only to have Meridith bail on us!! not fun! I mean she wasn't feeling well, but still she could have come out for us!!!

Anyway the real amazing part of the day was that i made it from my house to the meeting place on campus, the chapel in 15 minutes! I parked my car in a VERY slushy parking spot (i had to really work to get out because there were some bad people who basically parked right behind me!) Then i made my self walk/hike/briskly get up to the chapel in only the remaining 7 minutes. This is actually quite a feat, because i am the world's slowest walker! I usually take the walk in about 15 minutes (if i don't wait for the bus, which takes at least 10-12) SO it's good to know that i can book it to class next time i oversleep! (not for the 2:30 class, but the 10:00 one on tuesday/thursday) ANYway i was proud! But of course i was all kind of winded, glistening with sweat and had definitely had increased my heart rate! That probably means i should make the walk faster more often!!

Ok i hope you had as exciting a day as i did!

Julia

today!

Oh good! Durham Public schools and all the other counties in our area have their third day off of school for snow tomorrow! And did Duke give us ANY of that time off??? NOPE!! am i a little bit bitter??? YEP! i mean i know that each school has to do what is right for them, and i didn't have a hard time getting to school these last two days, but it still sucks.

In other news, not much is going on because of the snow. We're going to school and work like normal now. The snow that we had from Saturday is all icy and a bit mushy. This morning it began raining which did not help at all. So i had some real issues getting out of my parking space this morning and this afternoon, but the roads were fairly clear, so it wasn't bad driving.

In other news i got my first grade back on one of my papers due last week. I got a B but she did say that she was going to grade this first paper a bit harder than normal, so maybe that bodes well for my grade in the class. This was the class i was really on the fence about taking it pass/fail or not, so now i think i made the best decision.

Ok guys, going to watch Biggest Loser, Teen Mom, and Little Couple. Actually all that in being recorded so i have to do some homework too!

Julia

NO!!!

He kept Vienna! I wasn't really surprised based on how the show has been going. BUT i was pretty disappointed personally!

I'm hoping that the hometown dates will open his eyes to the fact that she's not ready to be his wife. I thought that her idea of marriage: Where you get up everyday and say "i love you!!!" was a bit immature. Not that audie and i don't love each other every day, but you can't expect yourself to be that kiddy kind of love everyday!

but i was so proud of Corrie for being really open and real about her choices about not having sex before marriage. I'm glad that she was honest about it to Jake. I'm sad that it didn't work out between the two of them, because i liked her from the get go!

Sorry there wasn't much drama this week, looks like there will be tons of drama next week. I'm not sure what's up with the no rose ceremony, and what's on the other side of the door that sets things off, but i'm excited about it!!

Ok girls (pretty sure you're all that is out there) I'll keep you updated on what's up!

Julia

Snow Day - Monday

Ok so Audie got today off, his boss called and told him that they would be closed today because of the weather. So Audie spent the day at home. We ventured out for chic-fil-a today. Mostly because we NEEDED to get out of the house and i wanted to check out the roads to see if i should go to class.

Audie decided that if i wanted to go to class he could drive me. So here i am. Waiting for my class to start. At least i have a chauffeur.

TTFN,

Julia

still inside!

so last night we got another inch of snow, and today the sun came out. The sun is like death to snow, and it started to melt off of everywhere but the ground. So we went out and helped out the sun, by getting the big patches of snow off our cars so that if we went to school/work tomorrow we wouldn't have to do that before going.

Public schools and many colleges have closed tomorrow already, or are on delays. But not Duke, we're still supposed to have classes. If audie stays home i may stay home too, just because it's not worth it to go for my one class tomorrow if it's still this snowy.

So we're kind of preparing for work/class and really hoping we get a day off. Apparently campus has been cleaned up enough to walk around on the the walkways and drive on the roads, so i should probably go to class tomorrow. Mostly we have been just hanging out, watching TV, cleaning the house up a little bit. Playing some Wii and Playstation 3. same old same old. The only difference between this weekend and last weekend is that we didn't go to target/sam's/grocery store this afternoon. And church was canceled, so we didn't get there either.

Ok that's the daily report from Snowed in 2010!

Julia

SNOW!!!

We woke up to 6-8 inches of snow! the reason we don't know exactly how much is because it is still sleeting/snowing outside and so it's still coming down! it is so awesome!! but we haven't gone outside, we're still just looking at it!! yay for a snow day, though i haven't gotten out of school for it. We're going to have muffins for dinner and have a good "roomate saturday" - that's where you don't shower, eat muffins for breakfast and then sit around watching tv all day!

see ya later!

Julia

let it snow!

We have a forecast for 1-6 inches of snow for this weekend, it's supposed to start tonight around 7, hopefully after Audie gets home from work. I am off on Fridays from classes so I was going to do a ton of homework today. I realized last night that in my sleepy haze i forgot to print the articles i need to read today. SO this morning i braved the 30 degree weather (not quite that bad, but it was cold, i wore my new red coat from target!) to go to the library to print out my stuff. Got that all done and figured that i should go on to the grocery store and get gas in my car.

Audie and i grocery shop nearly every weekend, but we only buy what we specifically need to cook that week. This works to keep our bill lower and we don't have a ton of random stuff in the cabinets (well not as much). but we normally shop on sunday afternoons, and apparently it's going to be bad this weekend, so I went ahead and bought our normal list. I will point out that i did not buy any extra 'snow food' like extra bread or milk. (though both of those things were on my list, and were getting low on the shelves.) except for hot chocolate! you can't have a snow day without hot chocolate!

So i'm really hoping that the snow lasts until monday to give us a snow day, but it's supposed to get above freezing and be sunny on monday so it will probably melt before tuesday. People about 2 hours north west of us are supposed to get 15 inches, lucky devils, but we won't get that much. the last time it snowed, a few weeks ago, we were forecast to have 1-3 inches and it all melted before we woke up! i'm just hoping i at least get to see some snow this time!

Ok i need to go get on that reading for next week's classes! i hope you all have good snow days too!!

Julia

Did i do what i said i would?

Well i did get both of my papers done and everything read for my classes this week, but i didn't keep my promise to myself to not stay up too late working on them. I worked on my first paper on Monday,and finished about half that night. then i finished the other half while in between classes. Tuesday night i started to go through the commentaries that i had photocopied from the library to use as sources. by the time i got done at 11 i had a good idea of how this sermon/paper was going to go but didn't know about how to format it.

So i emailed my professor my question and got the response i wanted, how i was planning on writing this thing was how she wanted us to do it. So that meant i could start working for real. So i got an outline together of exactly what I wanted to talk about in the sermon, and also what i wanted to mention in my exegetical notes (basically all the stuff that i learned through research, that may or may not impact the sermon directly, but is important background for me to know before preaching -this was where i had some trouble with formatting) But i got all my stuff outlined and wrote a 2 page description of my context for 'preaching' this sermon. (which actually will never be preached) and went off to class yesterday afternoon.

When i got home I sat down to really kick out the sermon and notes, but figured i should finish the sermon first because that is the point of the assignment and if the notes aren't good then it will be ok. I finished the sermon about 10 PM. yeah it took me 6 hours to write a 16 minute sermon. then i had to work on the notes, and that took about 4 hours. I basically did my writing part while i was in the groove and decided to do the footnotes of where i got my information in between classes the next day. It was 2 am when i got in bed and i was tired!

So today after lunch i finished off my notes by putting in the footnotes! that wasn't that bad and it's always the most tedious part of any paper so i usually make it wait until last. Well now i'm just trying to stay awake until my next round of classes. The two papers are all printed and stapled and ready to be taken off my hands.

tonight's plan: rest and relaxation! and dinner with some good friends of our at Elmo's (an awesome diner in Durham) (and i'm pumped because the friends are taking us to dinner!! it's a thanks for doing all you do kind of thing, so i'm not complaining.)

ok love to all!

Julia

the bachelor

Oh my gosh the drama was awesome. I love the dramatic music and the girls freaking out over everything!

So Jake our bachelor went on some good dates. Gia went on a one-on-one, and let me tell you the coverage of her date made me like her a lot more because she showed that she's not just a spoiled city girl but that she can camp and cook hotdogs on the campfire. I think that Jake really liked her, obviously he kept her around. I liked her a lot better, but i don't think that she will make it to the final two.

He also went on a two on one date, where two girls go on the date and one goes home and the other gets to stay. Jake surprised Ella and Kathryn by sending them both home because he didn't feel like there was a connection with either of them. I felt like they didn't have a connection with him, though they were both really sweet. I was surprised that they went home before some of the other girls but i got why he did it.

I was really surprised that Jake wanted to go ahead and send more girls home than he had to. he only had to send home one other girl since he sent two girls home already. BUT that being said, i think that Ashleigh and Jessie both didn't have as strong a connection with Jake as the others. So i think he was right to go ahead and send them home.

Now my thoughts on Vienna! so i don't really love her, but i think that the other girls need to just back off! let Vienna show Jake who she really is, and he's a smart guy and can figure it out, or he'll pay the price by being engaged to her. I think that Jake is starting to think that they don't have a connection but wants to spend more time thinking about it and spending more time with her. I wouldn't be surprised if she goes on a one on one this next week and goes home. the only thing that makes me not see that happening is that jake might not waste a one on one on a girl that he has already had one with.

Ok that's what that i think of all the drama!!

Julia

busy with homework!

So i'm breaking in my homework crazy weekend/week to say hi to everyone! i have two papers due this week on Thursday. One is actually a written sermon, but still is written so i figure it's the same as a paper. (and don't get me started on how it's only the first full week of school, since we had a holiday last week and a shortened week the week before) so i planned to read as much as i could for this week on friday and saturday so i could enjoy sunday and then work on these papers in the first few days of the week.

But i babysat on Friday afternoon and Saturday night, so i worked on homework all day sunday and more this morning. at this point i have one more article to read. I am planning on writing my first paper tonight while watching the bachelor (watching now and loving it so far, so much drama this season!)

Tomorrow i have a break in my classes when i'm going to read my commentaries for my sermon prep and the last article for my wednesday class. I hope to get a good start on my sermon on Tuesday evening and then continue to do good work on Wednesday morning and evening so that i'm done before bedtime! i am determined to not stress myself out like i did last semester. My plan for that is to give myself good boundaries with school work, and plenty of start time for my papers so that i can finish them without staying up until 2 the night before they are due.

ok, byee guys, i have gotten rid of my writer's block by going through this with you! hope you have a great week, and that this was a fantabulastic monday!!

-julia

this weekend

So thursday i was in class all day like normal, not too many exciting things going on there! friday i had off of classes and got to talk to one of my good friends on the phone, we hadn't done that in a while so it was good to hear from her. Then i went and babysat one of my fav. little girls. It was really fun because she is incredibly cute and sweet. I hardly ever have to get on to her. I picked her up from daycare and then we ate lunch, then went to the NC life and science museum. If you are ever in Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill and have kids, or just want a fun place to go you should stop by. it's like Fernbank in Atlanta, with really fun exhibits, but it has a petting zoo, and a butterfly house, and life size dinosaur display. It's pretty cool. and it's not too expensive either. We are members of an association of science museums (when we went to huntsville last year we got the memberships because it was cheaper than paying full price to go tot the air and space museum) so we get in free anytime. The girl's parents are members too, so they go about once a week with her.

So after about an hour she was getting tired so we went back to her house for a nap (which she insisted she did not want to take or need, but she slept for 2.5 hours) I'm babysitting her again tonight. it was an easy afternoon and i made 60 bucks. Audie and i went out to eat last night and walked around target for a while, just to have something to do.

ok today- homework is on the course for today, until i babysit at five and i'll be doing more of the same tomorrow. the semester has hit for sure. I have 7 books that i have to read part of - which equals about 1000 pages of reading, and two papers due this week. NOT fun!!!

Julia

what a wednesday!

Ok it wasn't that exciting, but i got you interested right?? please say yes!

So today i slept in, glorious, and had to go to class at 2:30. it is one of those classes that you have to listen and take notes the whole time. I realize that you would think that all classes are like that but we all know that they are not. but this class is pretty good, i like it so far. One thing that stresses me about this class is that i have to blog for it.

I know that it shouldn't stress me out, because i blog as a hobby. But it's not the same. We as a class have a private blog out in the world and we have to each post 2 times a week and respond to another person's blog. It's basically like us doing a reflection paper each class time, but everyone gets to read our thoughts about what we're reading and talking about in class. That stresses me out. I hate reflection papers, i think that they are just busy work for grad. students!! and i don't like the thought of people talking about what i'm posting. Not to mention there are 45 people in my class. that means 90 posts a week and 45 comments spread around. that's a lot to read, on top of all the other stuff we're reading for class. not fun!!

But other than class not much happened today. i made some creamy italian chicken and Fettuccine for dinner. one of my favorites! yummy. now i'm catching up on my DVR, and i blogged for class for the first time - wish me luck!

Julia

Bachelor last night.

so i was too excited about the bachelor to wait through the day! i had a few moments in the midst of the day so i figured i would go ahead and post!

So michelle, wow i think she is really crazy!! she was like bipolar acting the whole time, or drunk the whole time one, both could be possible for sure! i was glad for her to go home, though i always think that the girls in the house spend way too much time thinking/worrying about the other girls than they do about their own selves. I didn't like her, and when she kissed Jake and then complained about the lack of passion in it she was like 'well why don't you just send me home' then Jake said "ok, well if you don't want to be here you should probably should go home then." I thought he handled it with grace and integrity, but it was shocking to send her home that way. but the other girls were certainly surprised of his actions.

Valisha- she was sent home and i could see that coming a mile away! the editing of the show didn't show much about her, which makes me think that she wasn't going to make it. that makes me worried for some of the other girls that haven't had a lot of air time too.

Elizabeth - the non-kisser. She had asked Jake NOT to kiss her until she is the last girl standing, and he knew that she was THE girl. But then she would say like 'i really want to kiss you' etc. and kind of be a tease about the whole thing. I think that she was doing this just to stand out in his mind and to have a gimmick that made her different. one of my friends on Facebook said she was disappointed because this was the only girl that showed any kind of morals and she got kicked off. BUT Jake asked her last night about this whole thing, and called her out for teasing him with the not kissing. he asked if this was out of religious beliefs and her face said that was no where in her reasoning, and she said of course not. AND her comedy club performance made her sound like a potty mouth, because they bleeped every other word. so overall i think she was just teasing him, or she knew that he'd be kissing all the other girls and really didn't want him to, but was regretting that choice. I think if she was really real about the whole thing, he would have respected it, but since she was wavering back and forth he got frustrated.

SO that's my thoughts about the events of last nights episode for what it is worth, probably not a lot. Other things going on today: not much, i have classes scheduled throughout the day so that means i have to be at school all day, which stinks!

Ok ta ta for now!

Julia

weekend update!

So i know i'm falling into my old patterns of not blogging frequently! i'm really sorry guys, but i was trying to get a jump on some homework for the coming week. I want to utilize my free fridays by reading for the coming week, before i get drawn into enjoying my weekend. But there was a wrench in that plan because Audie was off of work on Friday.

SO friday we did a TON of errands, we went to Target, the thrift store, WalMart, SAM's, the grocery store. It was so nice to fill our cabinets with food. We haven't gone grocery shopping in the last two weeks and we were scrapping the bottom of the barrel of our cabinets! That night we made reservations at a really nice hibachi place near our house. A friend of Audie's at work recommended it because it was good and fairly cheap. They had a early dinner special, so we ate at 6:00 and both got chicken, steak, shrimp, rice, veggies, soup and salad for $40 total, after drinks and tip. that's a good deal in my book!

Saturday i made up my friday off of homework by doing some reading. I got a good amount done because Audie was at work and out of my hair. At around 4 a friend of ours called. He and his wife wanted to go see a movie. We went to Carolina Ale House, a great sports bar. I had a great burger and fries, so yummy. We then went and split off to see different movies. The girls went and saw Leap Year, which was good, but i didn't love it. it was a pretty typical romantic comedy. I would say netflick, redbox, or rent it rather than going to see it in the theater. The boys went and saw Book Of Eli. Which they both loved! i think it was a good story line and had some unexpected things that kept you on your toes. It was not my kind of movie, so i won't be seeing it.

Sunday we had a lacy and quiet day, i read more on my homework and napped a bit. Audie was excited for the beginning of 24. again that show is not my cup of tea, so i spent my time continuing to read. I was reading a book for one of my classes that was so good i stayed up late to finish it. It was a novel called Jesus Land. It was pretty graphic and had some disturbing themes in it. i had a nightmare after staying up to read it, but it was still a good book, one of the best assignments yet.

Today i had my third job interview for chaplain jobs. This interview i think went well, and i wasn't surprised by too much. I did my internship last semester at this hospital, so i knew the people that were interviewing me and knew where i was going so i was a lot more calm and collected during the interview i think. But it was not really a surprising interview, because i knew what to expect. i didn't have to go on the tour and knew that the residency would just be very similar to my internship. I'm still just hoping for a good result in Feb. when they call and let me know what the results of these interviews are!

Ok this has been a really long post, but i needed to catch up! So tomorrow you can get my thoughts on the Bachelor, i'm just starting to watch it, so excited!!

Julia

new classes, new semester!

SO sorry i haven't posted in the last few days, but the new semester has hit! I am taking four classes this semester but not working so it is a different pace from last semester where i was only taking 2 classes, but had to work 20-30 hours a week at the hospital.

So the reading load was a surprise, many of my classes have a lot of reading to do! so i'll be jumping right in, but I'll have fridays off and i think i'll be able to read for the coming week on fridays. I will have to be very self-disciplined to get up and do that but i have done that other semesters so i think i'll be fine.

I was seriously considering taking three of the four classes pass/fail, but now that i have seen the syllabi for my classes i don't think i will. Two of the three i'm allowed to take pass/fail have pretty easy loads, so i think i can get an A or A- if i try really hard. the third i don't think i will fail it and i think i can pull at least a B, it will all depend on how difficult a grader the professor is. In the class there are 5 students, which i think will help because the professor will be able to get to know me personally. It's a preaching course as well which is not my comfort zone, but i got an A in my first preaching course. So overall i think i can handle all three without the pass/fail. and if i wind up getting a B or A/A- I can raise my GPA a bit.

the fourth class that i have is going to stretch me a good amount! i can't take that one pass fail, though i wish i could because i think it will be a difficult class!

anyway, it feels good to have my first few days under my belt! I have 50 class days until i'm done, so i'm excited!!

TTFN

Julia

last day off of school!

I can't believe it but that is true! tomorrow is my last first day of school, the last day of a new semester i guess is more descriptive. Today is the last day of Christmas break, and while i will have days off every month or so, and actually i have every friday off of classes the next time that i have extended time off will be after graduation! ooohh wow! that's kind of crazy! but i think it's time, i've been in school since kindergarten so i'm ready to be done for good!

So an update on TV this week. yesterday evening we watched Chuck and it was awesome! audie got season one for Christmas and this friday i'm getting him season two for his belated birthday gift, so i can get all caught up on the show for this season. We watched it together for a majority of the first season, but then i got involved in the bachelor and dancing with the stars, which come on at the same time frame. Now with DVR our problems are solved! we love it! it was a great start to the season, though i'm looking forward to seeing what i missed over the season that i didn't watch.

We also watched Castle, which is another good series that we like to watch together. It's really funny and totally worth staying up until 11 to watch the whole thing. love it too!

So the drama was all over the Bachelor last night!! I love the girl, Ali that he took on the one on one date! i also love Tenley and Corrie, both (well all three) are such sweethearts! There are a whole lot of girls on the show that i think are sneaky and kind of slutty! i hate to say that about someone that i don't know, but that's all i can think when i see these girls making out with him and throwing themselves at him. The Rozlyn girl was one of them, so i'm glad that she got sent home! (and the drama with what an 'inappropriate' relationship entails- don't get me started! I'm not sure what that means she did, but she got sent home for having one with a staff person who was promptly fired! there you go) I was happy to see her go because she seemed really fake and didn't actually seem like she was that interested in dating Jake. The Michelle girl (who packed her stuff to go home when she didn't get a date with Jake this week, and then the other girls talked her out of going home - i mean if you want to go home, go for it, one less person competing for the guy if you ask me!) i don't like her either, i think she's a bit unstable! of course the show is probably editing it to be like that, but they only have stuff on film that you really do, so she set herself up for that one! there are some other girls that i just don't get a good feeling about, but can't really put my finger on why they don't sit well with me. Anyway, the 2 other girls that went home, i was kind of sad to see go, but i don't think that Jake had a huge connection with either one of them, and that's why they went home.

well i'm glad that you all care about how i feel about reality tv! i hope you like the updates! and hope that you have a great day too! I'm excited about getting lunch with a friend tomorrow before going to my class at 2:30 (also i'll give you the run down on which classes i'm taking tomorrow)

Julia

i survived!

Ok I have officially become too old for lock-ins! I know i was so excited about going to the lock-in and it was so fun to see my friend and get to meet her youth and help her out. We stayed up until like 5AM, which was SO past my bedtime. It was really fun and when i got home at 10AM i felt right asleep (actually i fell asleep on the ride home) and stayed asleep until 1 then again from 4-7 then from midnight until noon today! i definitely recovered, but was a pill all day yesterday when i wasn't asleep. So i guess i can do about one a year or so, but any more than those and i'm not a happy camper.

Also i realize that being an on-call chaplain for a 24 hour shift (where many times you don't sleep most of the night) is like signing up to do lock-ins all year round! but i don't think it's quite THAT bad!!

So besides sleeping away most of the day nothing else really is going on, we stayed at home most of the day, but went out to grocery shop for this week so we can eat at home all week again. now i'm looking forward to a quiet night of TV with Audie.

This is one of my last quiet weekends for a while, because class starts back on Wednesday! i'm excited for sure! ready for May and graduation though!!

Ok i'll give you further updates as things get going this week!

Julia

Friday night!!

Hi ya'll,

Sorry you got a hiatus from my posting since tuesday, but really it's just been much of the same, very little going on! Today I went by the school and bought my books for my last semester of school! I was so glad to get that behind me and know that i'm starting my last semester. It feels so weird! but good too, of course. I also stopped by the hospital to see a couple from my home town that are up here having some surgery and treatments done for the husband's illness. It was really nice to see some folks from back home, and i'm sure seeing a familiar face was nice for them too.

Tonight Audie and I have big plans! (oh yeah are you getting excited??) We're going out to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings! yummy, it's such a good place, they have awesome buffalo wings and i'm really excited because we are going with some good friends of ours. After that Audie is going to drop me off at a friend's church for me to chaperone a lock-in. My friend is the youth minister there and was really in a bind because she's been working really hard to get her ordination paperwork into her conference and she needed a hand, and i'm really excited. Maybe i should be more worried. wow that's big plans huh? i know we're exciting folks.

other than that we're not up to a lot. I babysat for a sweet little girl yesterday who's parents are hoping to adopt a new baby soon! so there's the update for what we have been up to, as little as that has been.

ok hope you guys have a great weekend!

julia

good interview and good tv!

So i told you guys i would keep you updated on my job search. I interviewed today at a hospital in our area. It is Number 3 on my list (of three) mostly because it is a 45 minute drive without traffic, and the route to get there gets a LOT of traffic! Well i wasn't too worried about this interview, but it went really well I think. More importantly i really enjoyed getting to see another hospital and see how another chaplaincy department does things. I actually think that i would like to work there if the commute wasn't as bad. BUT if i did work there next year we would probably move to Raleigh. mostly because there is no reason for both audie and i to drive 45 minutes to basically the same area of Raleigh. We could move and pay a little more in rent but only have about a 10 minute drive. Positives about this hospital that i realized today: free employee parking at the hospital, which the other two do NOT! the pay is actually better than the #2 hospital but not as much as #1. So after my interview at two places I think that i would be happy working at either place. I think i would be happy working at any of the three for sure so we'll see what God (and the selection committees) have in store.

On to good TV! i love the new seasons of reality and other TV that are starting up soon, or have just started! IF you know me at all you know i have an unnatural obsession with Television! so this weekend i watched the iron chef special with Michelle Obama (she was so stylish in a red/coral sun dress and green cardigan with a flower on it! say what you will about her husband or their politics, but that woman can dress!) And afterward I wound up watching Worst Cooks in America, which was really funny. It's a show about these people that CANNOT cook being taught how to cook by two food network chefs! hilarity ensues, because these people are really bad at this!! pretty good show, DVR it for sure.

the next show i have seen in the last few days was the bachelor! I definitely watched watched the last few seasons, and Jake is a pretty cute bachelor for the show ( i mean some of those guys are NOT attractive) but his personality gets on my nerves! I know that he gets some flack from ladies about being a good guy, but i don't think that's what bothers them Jake, i think it's that you are a goody goody and are kind of wimpy guy. i think that good guys don't always finish last, but i think that most women (myself included) like a good guy that is a man's man, and can have the nerves to stand up to us or for themselves. i think Jake has that, but not enough of it is on the surface for women to see it. But he doesn't get on my nerves enough to not watch the show (though i know that Lyndsay at fluffy, famous and fashionable has decided not to watch this season because he's so annoying!) ANYway, the girls overall were nice, I really liked some of them, but others i thought were kind of skanky, too slutty or were downright crazy! as usual the bachelor did not keep or get rid of all the girls that i wanted him to keep or get rid of, but he kept some of them that i wanted and got rid of some of the crazies. Though there are some girls that i cannot wait to see what drama they will start. overall i think that Jake will see through some of the crap and get a really good girl out of the deal. I also loved the 'this season on the bachelor' scenes because they showed a good bunch of trash talking, drama from the ladies, including some secrets, women who are having relationships while being on the show (not sure how that happens?) and a girl that possibly leaves, al la Ed from last season! I'll keep watching for sure! and I like the DVR so i can fast forward through the oodles of repeating what happened last week and recapping during the show!

OK so after the bachelor aired a new crappy reality show called conveyor belt of Love, I watched, I laughed, I loved it!! it was so cheesy and kooky it was hilarious!! so on this show a conveyor belt parades 30 or so guys in front of 5 single ladies who have signs. The guys get 30 seconds to present themselves in whatever way they wanted to the girls. (some got really creative, some fell flat, there were magic tricks and other craziness present!) the ladies then get to hold up a 'interested' or 'not interested' sign! if they are the only one that is interested the guy goes and stands in a box with her name on it. if there are multiple women interested then the guy decides which girl he wants to go out with and goes and stands in her box. If none of the girls are interested then the conveyor goes on it's way, with the guy on it. AND if a girl wanted to 'upgrade' their guy from their box for another one they could! at the end of the parade o' guys the girls go off on a date with the guy in their box. It was really funny/ cute to see these guys working hard to get and keep a date with their lady! Overall a pretty good crappy reality show! right up my alley!!

Ok i think that's enough for now guys! expect more updates as the job hunt keeps going, and as spring tv gives me more fun things to share with you! also i'm excited because Audie is picking up chicfila for dinner on his way home (yes we ate that on saturday again, but come on it's amazing!!)

TTFN,

Julia

just another (not so) Manic Monday!

Ok so my life right now is pretty much one day like the next for now. This weekend Audie worked on Saturday to make up for his sick day he took on Tuesday. Which means that his paycheck won't suffer by taking that day off as much. but he wound up only working half a day, which doesn't help the paycheck as much, but it is nice that he didn't have to work all day!

I did some laundry this weekend, we had some friends over for dinner on Friday night, and we watched a movie with them. I also finally took my winter clothes out to be sorted and pack up my fall clothes. If I had a million dollars one of the things i would do is get a large enough closet to never have to do this! I HATE going through my winter clothes and putting away my short sleeve stuff, because weather is such a finicky thing that it never stays cold or hot for long. So i haven't needed heavy sweaters just yet this year, but I also don't think that days where i can wear a short sleeve + cardigan are gone for the year either! does anyone else hate this chore? i put it off every year until I can't stand it anymore.

In other news: Audie and I went out for a free date (don't get too excited) on Saturday night. I was getting a bit stir crazy from not getting out of the house except for to go to the UPS shipping office (story for later!!) So we went to Target and just window shopped, didn't cost a dime, but i got to look around which helped me not go crazy! And then we took a Chic-fil-a gift card and two coupons and got dinner to go, it was awesome to eat out (we've been staying in to save money after the holidays) and not spend any cash.

so today i have to trek to the UPS shipping office again. It's a really long story but basically UPS tried to deliver a package to us on the 24th, and then didn't try again. finally Thursday we called and asked them to just hold it at the shipping office until we came and picked it up. Well Thursday I went over there, only to realize that they were closed for New Year's Eve. I talked to a man there and he said it was basically impossible for them to find my box while i waited. But i could come back on Monday. Well i got a phone call today (at the butt crack of dawn) and they told me that they had located my box and it was all ready for me to come and get it. Thank you very much! (not really!) thanks for nothing!

ok now that my frustrations are aired I can enjoy my day of doing very little, and will be going to the UPS place again to finally finish receiving all my christmas gifts!

Hope your monday is going well!!

Julia

first day of the new year!

Hello 2010! I'm glad to see this year come because in May I ill be graduating from Div. School and hopefully for the last time! It's a milestone I've been waiting for since my first day here, ready to move into the work force and 'begin' my 'real' life.

I'm hoping that this year I will begin a job as a full time chaplain resident at a local hospital (hopefully at my first choice one!!) We're also putting on hold some things this year, like my ordination, our moving back to GA, and our starting a family. That last one is really not that big a deal I just know that if we lived in GA next year we would definitely be trying to start a family. Now it seems like it's going to be a long time until those things happen, when in actuality it's just one more year. I just hate feeling like my life is on hold. But this year is going to be pretty awesome too! for the first time ever I will be out of school!

Though the internships that i'll be doing will require a good amount of reading, writing and 'class' with my fellow interns. it will be like easing into the shallow end of the real world instead of jumping off the diving board, but i'm ok with that!

Well our new year is off to a good start, Audie got off work early today because things were so slow, so we spent the afternoon cleaning up around here. We have two friends coming over for a dinner and a movie/game night. It should be awesome for sure, though i wish other friends were able to come, though they are all either out of town or they didn't want to drive to NC for a dinner party (not that i can blame them!)

Ok that's all for now! Enjoy the new year and the new decade.

Julia

Tasty Thursday!

So back when i updated my blog i would sometimes post yummy recipes. I am always looking for awesome recipes that are easy, cheap and are something that you don't need every dish in the kitchen to make, so that's what kind of things I cook and I like to share them with you!

So tonight for dinner is:

Baked Penne Rigote

2 26 ounce jars of pasta sauce (any kind)
1 box Penne pasta
1 lb. Mozzarella Cheese grated
1 package Italian Sausage

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cook Pasta according to the package instructions and drain. Cook the sausage in a skillet until they are fully cooked. Slice the sausage and stir it, the pasta sauce and 1/2 of the cheese into the drained pasta. Spread into greased pyrex dish and bake for 50 minutes. Spread the rest of the cheese on top and bake another 10 minutes.

Ok so my veggie loving friends won't be happy with this one, but i know you can leave out the sausage and it still be yummy or you could add roasted veggies. Tonight I used spicy sausage, and I'm hoping it turns out well, what i tasted before it went in the oven was really yummy!!

The best part of this recipe in my mind?? This recipe makes a TON of it, like enough to fill two small rectangle pyrex (maybe 9x11?) So it perfect if you have to take dinner to someone (you can make two pyrex and eat one yourself and do your neighbor a favor at the same time) What I did tonight was freeze the other pyrex, and some day I can pull it out in the morning and pop it in after i get home from school and then we have a ready made dinner!

So I hope that you try it out, and if you love it then you can thank my greatest friend, Jessica for her awesome recipe!

Julia

what's been going on?

not a lot of anything!! And it has been awesome!! I love being at home for Christmas break and so very little has been happening around here. We got back from Christmas on Sunday, after an awesome time with family. We flew to New Orleans and then drove to my Aunt and Uncle's house for the holidays. We spent the time really just hanging out with family. we got some awesome presents. Audie and I decided to get a Wii for ourselves for Christmas, which has been an awesome gift, and we have enjoyed it a lot! Audie got some good DVDs and Blue Ray movies that he has wanted for a while. I got some shoes, earings and a few measuring cups. They are really cool because they are the same kind that Alton Brown (i love him) uses for sticky liquids. I LOVE them, i want to make something with honey or mayo in it just so i can use them!! I also got to do a bit of shopping and i got some TOMS shoes!! So that brings my total up to 5 pairs!! I love wearing them for work because i have to wear closed toed shoes and they are super comfy, like wearing flip flops all day!

But definitly the best time was just sitting and hanging out with family and getting to see all my cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and my sisters and mom and marcus! but now that we have been home it has been a boring kind of week. I really need to be cleaning our house up and getting everything settled in for the next semester, but I haven't really been motivated to do that stuff yet! so we've just been chilling out. Audie did catch a cold and stayed home from work yesterday to recuperate, which never happens, so it was nice to have him home, but sad that he was sick feeling!

well i know you were glad for the update, even if it was pretty boring. So i'll get back to catching up on my DVR and sitting around in my PJs!!

TTFN!

Julia

Job interviews!!

so if you know me, or heck even read my blog you know I was thinking and planning on applying for full time chaplain jobs in NC hoping to finish up here quicker than i would with chaplain jobs in GA. So i put in applications recently at 3 area hospitals. I got calls back to do interviews with all three, which is really encouraging (though i just got the last call today). I have ranked the three hospitals in case I get multiple offers, but I think that I would be happy basically at any of them, so i'm trying not to put too much stock in getting one over another.

So I had my first interview today (with the #2 hospital on my list) and I think that it went well. They seemed to ask me some tough questions, but also to understand and appreciate my answers. I really liked their office area, but the hospital where i did my internship seemed better. (like prettier, which is really arbitrary, it doesn't matter what kind of rooms i'm visiting in, just the people i visit.) But the people i encountered were really nice and I think i would be happy there at least. They pay a good amount, but 2000 less than the #1 hospital.

So we'll see as the other interviews unfold. the next is on the 5th of Jan. and another on the 18th of Jan. But no matter how well they go I won't hear from any of them until Feb. 16th. The area hospitals have an agreement to notify all of the applicants on the same day. So if any of the hospitals put me in their top choices (about 5-6 per hospital) they will give me a call and offer me a position on that day. If I don't get the top spot at any of them that doesn't mean i'm out completely, just that i'll have to wait and see after the top folks make their decisions. I think that these hospitals kind of figure that many of the applicants are also applying at the other places too so they know that they may offer a position to a person that decides to go somewhere else.

So that's what is up. By the way: Audie and I both had a very blessed Christmas, we traveled to Louisiana to be with my family, but that blog is for another day i guess. The job stuff was just way more on my mind!

ok ta ta for now!!

Julia

Merry (Early) Christmas!

So i know i have been MIA for the last four months, but i have a good excuse, my last post (i have never been so busy in my LIFE) was true for the last four months. BUT i'm setting all that aside to say hi to all my bloggy folks, if there are any readers left! maybe there are some folks that are still reading, and maybe i'll be better this coming semester about posting. I worked really hard at the hospital this semester, about 25 hours a week on top of taking two classes. Grades came back last week and I wound up with an A- and an A!! that is pretty difficult to accomplish in grad school so you can be impressed and i will be bragging about it. Since school let out I've been working on "chillaxing" and submitting applications for jobs for after graduation.

Right now I'm continuing to focus on chaplain jobs in this area. I hate that we'll not be back in GA as soon as we hoped, but i think that it is where God is leading me. I had a meeting recently in my hometown and they approved me for another year and gave me the go ahead to stay and continue doing chaplaincy for now. So I put in my applications at Duke Hospitals, UNC Hospitals and WakeMed (which is in Raleigh for you folks that don't know) and I have gotten interviews with two of them so far. In fact my first interview is next week! Ahh, kinda crazy! I'm really trying to focus on just putting this in God's hands, because i know his plan is to prosper me and not to harm me! So I put in my applications and will do as well as I can on the interviews, and have ranked them in my preference, but wherever God wants me to be I know he'll give me the green light to go there. Whatever place that is highest on my list, and offers me a job, that's where I'm going to go and trust that it is God's plan!

In other news: We got a new car! it happened about a two months ago, but Audie's car completely died on us (it had a messed up transmission) and we had to have a new car. It was really fun to pick out a new car, but it is way not fun paying for it!

We're definitely excited about the coming holidays. We spent Thanksgiving with Audie's parents in Atlanta and so we're spending Christmas with my mom's whole family in Baton Rouge! I'm really excited to get to fly with Audie this week (we haven't done that in a really long time- three weeks after we were married to Puerto Rico(fyi NOT our honeymoon, but a mission trip with 20 youth)) i think it will be really fun to get to sit next to my hubby on a flight and not some stranger.

Ok so we've been really busy, so don't judge the fact that we haven't sent out Christmas cards, finished our shopping or put up any decorations!! but that doesn't mean that we don't know and appreciate the real reason for the season!

TTFN

- Julia

wow

i have never been so busy in my LIFE!!! i had a great weekend at the wedding/ baptism, but now it's back to work! I've had some great times at work this week, i'm getting better at 'cold calls' were you just go and introduce yourself to a patient/family. This has worked out pretty well.

Today i had my first pretty hard case. I can't give any details, but it was hard to be this family's spiritual rock in the hard and difficult situation they were in. so your prayers would be greatly appreciated!! also this weekend I am on call for the first time. That means for 24 hours i am the only chaplain in the whole hospital! AAHHH!! i hope it goes ok.

in other news i spoke with my DS today, and asked him about if i could put off ordination for a year and do a chaplaincy residency for a year. He was very supportive. I'm still not sure if i will do that or not, because if i do that means that we have to stay in NC for an extra year. But there is a bit more security in us doing that because audie has a job that he likes, i would have a job that i like, we're happy with where we live, etc. the only sad part is that most of our friends would be moving back and we would be staying for a while. what do you think? is it crazy to put off ordination for a year? my DS seemed to think it was ok, and then i'll try for ordination in 2011. wow that seems so far away.

Ok that's all for now- i have TONS of homework to do because i was off doing great things all weekend.

Julia

today:

today I had poppyseed dressing on my salad at lunch. When i got in my car at 5:30 i realized that i had a poppyseed in my teeth. Why o Why can you not tell me i have something in my teeth when i am talking to you?

today i booked tickets to go see my family for Christmas! we're going to Baton Rouge, by way of New Orleans!! we got two round trip tickets for $420 total, for the week of Christmas!! i love good deals

today i looked at blogs instead of cooking dinner and then rushed to get something together so i wouldn't have to admit to the level of my blog addiction!

Today i 'paper-cut' myself on a CD while driving!

that's all!

Julia

I LOVE my Job!!

So can i tell you guys that I love my job!! I'm working as a chaplain for the Labor and Delivery unit at a hospital. I have completed my first week! I worked 12 hours on my floor, directly working with some awesome nurses, doctors, and other hospital folks. I also made 9 pastoral care visits!! most were just routine visits where I simply introduced myself and told them what we chaplains are here for. But I got to pray with two lovely families/ ladies. So i also spent a good amount of my time charting all that I did and i spent about an hour on the phone with IT people trying to get computer access for different things (doesn't that happen every time you start a new school/job!) Anyway! it has been awesome so far. it's not just good times though, there are some families that have experienced some deep loss and are in a good amount of pain when their babies have to be in the ICU or stay when they get to go home. It's a really hard job, but wow do i love being with these people in their happy and sad times, and bringing the name of the Lord into their days!

So another thing that i am really excited about is that in a week one of my BFF's is getting married!! and then a month later another one of my BFF's is getting married. The really cool pat of both of these weddings is that Audie and I are very good friends with both people so that always makes the wedding better! also i'm excited because we won't have to drive a mega long way to the weddings so we can stay as long as we want and the receptions. I hate having to leave before the couple does, and the last few weddings we have gone to it seems like we don't get to stay too long because we have to get back for some reason or another.

So classes also started back this week, and they look good. The chaplain classes I'm taking along with my time on the floor are going to be tough with a lot of work, but it seems like my other two will be ok!

alright that's enough for now, i'm going to go sleep and rev up for Friday! i also have to work really hard this weekend to make up for the fact that we're going to be in ATL for five days for Jessica's wedding and my niece's baptism.

Also on that note- our niece's parents (audie's sister and brother-in-law) asked us to be her godparents. What does that mean to you? everyone i have asked says something different and i'm not sure what they have asked us to do! Also Leah- if you are reading this i really want know your opinion.

TTFN-

Julia

my aassignment!!

Oh my lordy ya'll i know i haven't posted in FOREVER!! but you know how it goes, and i'm so sorry i've been too busy for blogging.

I just wanted to pop in and tell ya'll i'm busy and to forgive me! i started orientation this week at the hospital where I'm a chaplain. I'll be working there this semester 20 hours a week and also taking two classes- Evangelism and Christian Worship. but this week we're doing orientation with the hospital all day every day!

so far we've just been finding out where things are and basics and we'll be learning a WHOLE lot more the rest of this week. Today we selected our units. I'll basically work around that one unit of 32 beds or so, answering to the pastoral needs for any patient is in those beds! So i'm excited because I am assigned to the Birthing Center!! where most of the other chaplains will have more somber and hard emotionally driven areas, i get to spend my time with ladies in labor, their families, and thier babies!!!

TOO EXCITED about spending my time with the labor and delivery patients!!!

TTFN,

Julia

annifestabuel

so yesterday and today make audie and my annifestabuel!  so audie and I's first date was on July 1st and then we got married a year later on June 30.   So we refer to these two days as our annifestabuel (it rhymes with fuel in case you were wondering about pronunciation) We got the idea from a friend of mine and her ex who had a diagreement over when they're first date actually was so they celebrated both and called it annifestabuel.   It works for us. 

this year we pulled out all the stops and both went to work all day yesterday!  when working at the church Tuesday becomes my busiest day, because i lead bible study in the evening.  We don't get home until late and i plan our discussion all day + yesterday i made some pastoral visits and went to a VBS meeting.  all went well.  

Today for annifestabuel we're celebrating by me doing laundry all day and audie going to work again!  i know we are some wild folks!   

but we're going on vacation for a week starting on Friday afternoon (as soon as Audie gets off from work, so pray for a slow day!)  so we have got to clean our house and pack and a million other things that need to happen!  So i'm spending the next three days cleaning so that when we come home from vacation we have a clean house.  

i'm really excited about seeing all my fam for vacation, and more importantly having a week where i won't have to do anything work related.  

well TTFN, 

Julia 

i think i created a monster!

ok so after i posted about how amber had not posted in a while, then she posted again!! So not to be outdone, here's post number 2 of the day!

By the way audie if you read this blog, please act like you are surprised with your present in about 30 minutes when you get home! i worked really hard to make sure that you had no clue that it was coming to the house today, so if i screwed up by posting on my blog about your gift i'm gonna be pissed!

almost as pissed as i was when Jillian kicked off Jake the Pilot, but it's all good it looks like he comes back swinging this week!!

Julia

don't freak out!

the world is not ending just because i'm posting for the first time in about forever.
Let's just say that Amber over at Tweet Tweet Chirp Chirp was basically my excuse for not posting for a while. I kept saying to myself, well i know i havent' posted in about a million years, but she hasn't posted in about 9.6 million so it's ok. Surely i'll get back on the horse before Amber does! Yeah right, amber posted earlier today, so i figured i needed to get my act together!

so what's been going on?? well i started my chruch interneship, that's been going great, but making me much busier than i though i would be. this week is definitely my busiest so far.

We're going to a wedding this weekend! so excited to see two good friends get married. This will be the first wedding i have gone to in a while that i'm not in, so it should be great to just observe things!

Audie and my anniversary is this coming week. 2 years of marriage is kind of crazy. I can't believe that we've beeen married that long, and at the same time it seems like we've been together forever. it's timeless, like any great relationship!

For our anniversary Audie got me a Kitchen Aid stand mixer! i have totally wanted one forever, and so it was really nice to get one! last year we didn't get each other gifts because we were kind of strapped for cash, we just went out for a nice dinner. This year we're giving each other gifts, but not going to dinner together specifically to celebrate.

Also we just got cable, internet and dvr set up! another reason to post, because i can do it from a internet connection that i paid for! so pumped!

so i'm going today to get audie's present for our anniversary, so excited about surpising him with a macbook pro laptop. We're replacing our old desktop computer. We're going to donate the old one because it's still working, but not working good for our puporses. Since you get an iPod Touch for getting a laptop at the Mac store with your student discount, he's getting both as a surprise!

ok that's enough for now, lots of love folks!

Julia

bachlorette thoughts

the bachlorette last night was pretty great! i have started to like some of the guys and really dislike some of them. so Jillian here are my thoughts on some of the guys:

Jake the Pilot: i love him so far! i really liked how goofy he was on their date last week, and how he wasn't afraid to look kind of stupid in front of her. also you could tell that he was nervous- too cute! so we'll see how things work out but i think that he's my front-runner right now.

Kyptin- I'm not sure if that's how you spell his name but i really think he is a cutie! i think that he's just an all around nice guy, and so i want him to continue!

Wes the Country music guy: so i know that Jillian really thinks that his singing is really sweet/sexy/cool. But i disagree! first off to the producers: stop showing the same part of that song to us!! if you are going to continue to show him singing the same freaking song over and over then show some other parts of the song!! please!! Jillian- don't you think it's a bit strange/weird that this guy's song is so similar to a garth brooks song? also do you think it's weird that he only plays his own music and not anyone else's? he just seems like he doesn't have any other qualities than his music. i think it's a bit fake feeling, and some of the other guys think he's just here for his music, and i agree.

Tanner the foot guy: this guy has a weird thing with her feet! it is getting a bit ridiculous!! i mean i get it that some folks have things that they really like on a woman's body, but come on, talk about something else! during last night's episode she put her feet into his lap (i think adding fuel to the fire) and he could barely string together like 4 words he was so distracted by the loveliness of her feet! WEIRD!! i mean if a guy is a but/boob guy that's not all he talks about- so he needs to get it together and get in the game 'cause we're getting a bit tired of the foot thing.

Dave the angry guy: So at first i really liked him because he got so nervous the first night he really forgot what he was supposed to say, kind of cute! but now i have reconsidered!! he reminds me of all the nasty/disgusting/mindless frat guys i knew in college, and the stupid/cocky cops/military guys i know now. i just think he is full of himself!! and his anger issues are quite concerning- because i don't think its ever ok to even think about beating up another person- much less voicing that desire outloud in a real conversation! i think that last night he had way too much to drink, and got angry over the stupidest thing- the other guys that are participating- he knew when he signed up for this that there would be other guys involved, so you can't get mad now!

Juan- now there is a lot of controversy about this guy 'cause Dave the angry guy got all pissed at him because he didn't think that Juan was being for real, that he was acting fake. Now i disagree with how Dave went about voicing his concerns- see above! - but i kind of see what Dave is talking about. Juan is just too calculating. every time he approaches another guy to pull jillian away he brings her another drink, or a blanket. he also always has a line about her dress, her eyes and the rest of the stuff. i mean i appreciate the thoughtfulness, etc. but he's just a bit too slick for my tastes! i like a guy that allows the imperfections to show at least a little bit. He's just oily feeling and a little fake.

ok so not that my oppinion of these guys is what matters, but you know i have to do the commentary to the show that i love to watch, and about those boys that i just love to hate!

so hopefully next week will bring more drama- i love the confrontation between juan and dave this week- though i want to know how jillian didn't get wind of all that happening- and i wish some of these guys would speak up about hwo they feel about these crazy guys! apparently next week they call out some guys who have girlfriends back home! oooohhhh i love drama filled summer reality TV!!

so loving the summer,

Julia