A Lovely Day

So, my Friday was not off to a super-great start. I had a lot to do and not a clue in how to prioritize it all as it all seemed time-sensitive and important. On top of all of that stress, my house smelled like a GIANT BEEF FAJITA! I had made them for dinner the night before and the smell permeated the whole house--it was gross!

But my day got better and ended up being great! My sweet friend, Tracy, called and asked if I would run some errands with her down in Dallas. She promised to use our car time tutoring me for a BIG EXAM I had to take for work the next day. Study for my exam, check; get out of my beefy smelling house, check check. Things were looking up. We had a great time visiting, studying, eating a most delicious lunch here and poking around one of my all time favorite stores. We realized that we spend most of our time together serving--which is great--but not enough time doing regular friend things. Hopefully we will have more days like this in the future--so fun!

Then, Craig and I were off to have dinner with friends. ASC is one of those special people God puts in your life for "such a time as this." I met her while finishing my degree at UNT--I had recently gotten married and had just transferred from a school of 1,100 to a school of 27,000. It was a scary time. But I remember meeting her in one or our PR or journalism classes and immediately thinking THAT'S MY UNT FRIEND. I could sense she was serious about school and level headed and just knew she was a Christian, too. I was right and she proved to be a wonderful friend and later once we were in the real world a great resource to talk about business and bounce ideas off of--she is so smart! Anyway, as time has marched on we found ourselves seeing and talking to each other all of the time--only it was through e-mail and blogs. So, it was high time to get together for real! We had a great time visiting and eating a most awesome apricot glazed chicken and talking a little shop as our husbands chatted it up about who knows what. So fun! We will not have to wait so long to do it again!

Something Yummy

I was telling a friend the other day that I would love to shut down our household for the week and stay in the house while Craig is gone. There are so many projects and piles to tend to and having one less person in the house seems like a great opportunity to catch up. But that was a crazy, unrealistic wish--with school, work, tennis, basketball and church commitments there is no hope of a lock-down.

But, today my wish is coming true--at least for 24 hours. Ice storms and freezing rain are in our forecast. It is already a home school day, and tennis has been cancelled. So, we have wonderful plans of a fire in the fireplace, comfy clothes, catching up on a few things and this soup--a modification of a few recipes. WHK and I are anxious to have a bowl of this tonight--I wish I could post a picture, but Craig has the camera...

BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP

2 whole butternut squash

1 large carton of chicken broth

1 package of cream cheese

1/2 carrot or 5-6 baby carrots

2 stalks of celery

1/2 white onion

4T butter

Cut the squash in half (lengthwise) and scoop out the seeds. Bake face down in a 350 oven until soft (this took me about an hour). Meanwhile finely chop the veggies and saute in butter--I used a large soup pot to do this. Once the carrot/celery/onion mix is tender add chicken broth and let simmer. Once the squash is done, flip them over to cool slightly. Scoop out all of the yummy squash and add to the broth. Add the cream cheese to the squash and broth and mix with a hand blender. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!

An Update From Craig!

Editor's Note: Mack is WHK's Webkinz who is along for the ride in Ethiopia--WHK thought it would be nice to keep Craig company. :)

hey kristin and whk, i am at an internet cafe. only have a few minutes. it's pretty awesome. i am even keeping a journal. and Mack has visited several places, he is having a great trip! i already have so many story to tells. i wish you were both here to experience the how God is working. today we traveled to a small village of grass huts outside of town. wait till you see the pictures. the people have nothing.

i miss you and look forward to my return.

and WHK, your wisdom of when you said to let God do the speaking through me is working.

We have much work to do to help the people over here so watch out.

love, craig. pS my keyboard does not work too well.

Craig's Excellent Adventure

So, Craig is spending the week on mission in Ethiopia. Very exciting. I don't have the time to explain all of the details of this trip, but my friend Cyndi (whose husband is also on the trip) has done an excellent job on her blog. Check Cyndi's blog out here. To check out the time and weather in Addis Ababa check out this site here. If you listen to my playlist you may wonder what is up with this first song...it is just another testament to God's goodness and clear direction for this trip. Like I said, life is busy here but I promise to share all of the details and updates from Craig very soon.

Fly Eagles, Fly!

Go Eagles. I have happy people in my house, which is very nice. Yes, I have a lot of catching up to do...all coming soon. I need to find my camera cord first...oops. Happy Monday!