"Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved" Mark 16:16

This past weekend was a very eventful one! Jason's papa came to visit on Thursday and stayed until Monday morning. Saturday we drive 4 hours north to South Bend, Indiana to watch Air Force get beat by Notre Dame. It was such a gorgeous day, we didn't mind losing too much :) Notre Dame is such an amazing campus, there is so much history there. I wish we had more time to walk around, but we drove up and back the same day, so didn't have too much extra time. Here are some pictures from our trip!

Sunday is a day that our family will remember forever. It was the day Jason was baptized! He has been talking about being baptized for as long as we have been together (almost 6 years) so it was about time :) I am so proud of him, it was definitely an emotional moment.

"Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." - Acts 2:38

Sunday was also the day that my beautiful niece, Zoey Ann, got dedicated. It was a wonderful day here in Indiana and back home in California. I just wish we could have all been together for both events, but pictures will have to do!

Jason's school schedule has become pretty routine and so has my work schedule, we nothing too exciting in that department. Jason is still putting stories out about once or twice a week. I will try and post them on here when they come out. I got the number for a lady who owns a temp service for dental offices, I might contact her so I can work on my days off (Tuesday and Thursday) for some extra money and something to do.

Walks, Serving and Veggie Pizza!

Today Jason and I had church in the morning which was amazing, as usual. After church we went to Which Wich for lunch and then took a nice walk around Indiana University. It's such a nice time of year around here. The leaves are starting to change and it looks so much like fall. It's funny, after living in Colorado for 4 years, 60 degrees is long sleeve shirt and jeans weather. A lot of people out here were in winter coats today. I saw some girls with gloves and winter boots on :) I would have been that way if I still lived in California. It's crazy how your body temperature acclimates itself to where you live. Here are some pictures from out walk today :) I love how IU has so many limestone buildings. They are so old and gorgeous!

The arches that get you to the campus from downtown Bloomington

Such a gorgeous walk!



Tonight we are going to church for Team High Rock where we can learn about serving at High Rock Church. We have been anxious about starting to serve, we just haven't yet. Jason wants to help out with setting up and tearing down for service (since we have church in the convention center) and I want to help out in the children's program. We just need to figure out where we fit and what Sunday's we can start helping out.

I made a vegetarian type pizza the other night and it was delicious. It took a little convincing to get Jason on board with it, but he like it when it was done. I just used mushrooms and asparagus for the toppings, but it would have been great with any veggies. Here is my recipe :)

Pillsbury Pizza Crust

1 jar pizza sauce

2 cups mozzarella cheese

2 packages fresh mushrooms

1 bunch fresh asparagus

Roll the dough out into a square. We rolled the sides up a bit to give it more of a crust to hold onto. Spoon pizza sauce into the middle of the dough, use as much or as little as you desire. Saute mushrooms and asparagus in skillet for about 10 mins. Adding olive oil as needed. Sprinkle cheese on pizza dough and sauce then spoon mushroom/asparagus mixture onto the middle of the dough. Bake in oven at 400 degrees for about 10-15 mins or until crust is golden brown around edges.

I usually don't make pizza, but my two posted recipes were pizza related haha. I made Almond Crusted Chicken this week too, but it wasn't worth posting =/



Hobby Lobby = Love

This week has been very eventful, even though it's only Thursday.  Jason had a story published on the front page of the station he works for website. You can read the story here: http://indianapublicmedia.org/news/fema-compensate-2008-spencer-flood-victims-20972/

I've been working a lot more than I expected to, which is very nice! I'm not working more days, just worked more hours in the days that I am scheduled. I really enjoy my job still :) The two other assistants and I get along really well. It's rare when you put a bunch of girls in a room and have them all get along, but thankfully we do.

We took a trip to Hobby Lobby this week and FINALLY finished our living room. We had a huge blank wall above our couch and could not find anything large enough to fit there... without spend way too much. We are trying to keep with the underplayed American theme in the living room and this is what we came up with for the wall...

Had to get the entire family in a picture :)

Once we put it up, it tied the entire room together. I also had a crafty type day on Tuesday. I made a fall looking wreath for the front window with our initial in it. Here is my finished product! I am so proud of myself :)

Jason and I saw Contagion last weekend and it made me terrified to get sick! In case you don't know what it is about, it's a disease that spreads through the world and kills people within 10 days of catching it. It killed like 60 million people in the movie. It was done really well! But we had a patient at work yesterday coughing a lot and I was standing off a bit ;)

Letters From War

After a long break, I took a trip to Barnes and Noble today to pick out a couple books. One book that really caught my eye was Letters From War by Mark Schultz. It is written about his song that came out back in 2005. The song talks about a soldier who is overseas and writes letters back and forth to his mom back home. Then, she doesn't get any letters for a long period of time from him, but gets one from a man who told her that her son saved him and asked him to write to her telling her goodbye. At the end of the song the son comes home safe and sound. The book seems  a bit different, but I am so excited to read it! Jason and I have always loved that song, so the book holds a special place in my heart already. Here is a link to the video on YouTube http://youtu.be/KRFXXiMxpR4. I also picked up Karen Kingsbury's Take One. I've heard her series' are great, so I decided to give them a whirl!



With the Holidays quickly approaching, I have started my shopping list already! I really want to get done by the day after Thanksgiving this year so that I can get everything in the mail in time for Christmas. It's going to be a tough holiday season this year. It will be my first year away from home and I am not really looking forward to it =/ I know there are MANY family Christmases to come, but this one won't be one of the easy ones. I am still excited for the wintertime and season of love and giving.

Calzones

Tonight I made Calzones made with pepperoni, mushrooms, black olives and cheese. They were so easy to make and turned out delicious! This is a direct quote from Jason: "This is better than restaurant quality!" He was very pleased. The dough I used was very sticky and I had some issues folding them, but once they baked they were fine.

Ingredients:

Pillsbury Pizza Dough (I used thin crust to keep the carbs down a bit)

Pepperoni (as much or as little as you want)

1 can sliced mushrooms (or 1 package fresh mushrooms)

1 small can black olives

1 small jar pizza sauce

You can add whatever ingredients you want inside the pizza dough. We were thinking about making some kind of chicken calzone next :)

I used fresh mushrooms, so I cooked them in a skillet for about 15 mins. I cooked them in a little olive oil and added some garlic powder to make them delicious.

Photographer credit goes to my wonderful husband, Jason

Then, I rolled the dough out and cut it into fourths. You can cut it in half for larger calzones or into eights or smaller. Whatever works best for you.

Then, I put the pizza sauce on the dough (be sure not to go all the way to the edge so that the dough can stick together when folding them... I made that mistake.) Add any toppings you want on top of the sauce. Try to spread it evenly on the dough, but keep away from edges.

Bake in oven for about 10 mins at 400 degrees. I sprinkled cheese on top of them before I put them in the oven, but it burned a bit, so I wouldn't recommend it.

YAY FOR COOKING!!



Surprise in Ohio

This past weekend I drove up to Ohio to join in on a surprise baby shower/going away party for one of my best friends, Valerie. I saw her over Labor Day weekend and had to pretend I was so sad that I wouldn't see her again before she moved to New Mexico. Little did she know that I was driving up just 2 weeks later :) It was so great to be able to surprise her and have lots of people that love her under one roof... including her mom all the way from California! It was a wonderful weekend full of love :) It's been so nice to have Val within driving distance, even for the short time we've been here.

The cutest pregnant lady ever!

Boo Boo's

Gorgeous day in Corn Country ;)

Diana and Valerie

The AMAZING cake that was made for Val.

When I was living in Colorado and Jason was still at USAFA, I used to listen to this song called "Far From Here" which was the theme song for Army Wives when it first started. I used to think that being far from USAFA and all that it comes with would be great and we would be so happy, but I am finding it the exact opposite! I miss Colorado and all the wonderful friends I made there like crazy. While we were in the middle of it it seemed awful, but now looking back, they were some of the best years of my life. I made some amazing friends that I will keep with me for the rest of my life and it made mine and Jason's relationship very strong. Here are some of the lyrics to the song:

Far From Here by Alissa Moreno

Fight hard on a night like this
Look for a star and wish
You could get out of it

Bite down and then pray, pray, pray
You'll make it through this to sing and say
You hold life dear

Moments turn to hours which become years...
And now I'm

Far from here, and we are happy
Far from here, we are all right
Far from here, things are peaceful
Far from here, we have insight
Far from here, we've detangled
Our strangled hold
And I hope to see you there

Rise high out of this whole scene
Look down and separate yourself
From your worst dream

Then fly far and then stay, stay, stay
Out of the way until the coast
Is clear and safe

I finally got a set schedule at work! I now work 8-5 Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Which is nice to have a day off every other day, but it's also only 24 hours per week which I was promised at least 30 =/ Oh well.

Jason has had a ton of stories on the radio and local television here! I am so proud of him. He is doing really well in his Jounalism program. We found out he got an A and a B+ in his two summer courses! They were really tough, but he did outstanding!

I am going to start documenting the things I cook and bake on here. I will document my recipe, where I got it and what we thought of it. I will try to remember to put pictures up of the process. Tonight I am making Calzone's so check back for the recipe and hopefully good reviews by the hubs ;)

Remembering 10 Years Ago

Jason and I have been home all day due to me being sick and Jason having a reaction to a flu shot he got on Friday. Because we are home, we've been watching a lot of television today and seeing a lot of footage from that horrible day in American history ten years ago. I think I told Jason 5 times that I can't believe it's been 10 years already. I feel like it just happened. I remember every detail of that day like it was yesterday. I was 14 years old and at the beginning of my Sophomore year of high school at Fairfield High. It was 6am in California and my brother and I were about to get up to get ready for school. My mom came into our rooms, trying not to sound too panicked, woke us up and told us to come out to the living room because history is being made. Little did we know what was happening across the country in New York.

I don't remember eating anything that day, I just remember sitting in front of the TV all day long. It was shocking, even to me, a young teenager who really didn't seem to care about anyone but myself. I remember when the first tower fell, it was silent in the living room. My mom would make periodic phone calls to my dad who was at work, but was watching on his TV there. Even though we were a country away from this terrorist attack, it was terrifying! We stayed home from school, my mom stayed home from work and my dad came home as soon as possible. It was a day that you were very thankful for the ones you love and grieve for strangers in New York who lost so many people on a normal work day.

Later that evening, we went to our local church and had a prayer meeting for all that were lost and hurting. I remember going with my mom and friend. Everyone was crying and felt so helpless. My brother was 16 at the time and wanted to join the Military at the moment to help find the people that did this to America. He ended up not joining the military, but became a Firefighter instead which is equally as heroic. Watching all the different shows from different perspectives from tons of different people makes it seem like it just happened and it still happening. I heard a story that I had never heard before about a blind man in one of the WTC towers and his seeing eye dog lead him down the stairs from the 77th floor and outside to safety. Even though he was blind, he was able to keep others and his dog calm while escaping the horror. I could go on and on about how many different stories I have heard, but I won't. Instead, here are some amazing photos from 10 years ago.

The Air Force Falcons had this symbol (above) on the back of their

helmets at yesterday's football game

The memorial where the WTC footprints are still there.