God is good.....all the time

It's been one of those weeks....

One of those weeks that makes you rethink some things.  One of those weeks that makes you realize that life is way too short to sit around and waste all your time just dreaming about the future.  One that makes you cherish things a little more....hug loved ones a little harder....let go of the little things a little easier and take action on the important things a little faster.

This week the world lost an amazing guy.  My friend David Collas lost his life in a car accident Sunday night.  It's so hard not to dwell on the "why's" or "what-if's".  It's hard not to question what God was thinking...how this could possibly be in His plan.  At the age of 19...with so much life left to live and so many experiences left to be had....how could this possibly have been his time to go?  This is one of those times when I truly resent my natural human lack of knowledge and understanding.  The fact is, here on Earth, none of us may ever know why things like this happen...or when they're going to happen.  What a perfect opportunity to practice trading in doubt and resentment for faith and trust that God has it all under control.  Even though these tragic experiences hurt like crazy, how comforting it is to know that our Creator can see the whole picture!  He knew exactly when and how this would happen....and He knows exactly how He's going to help us through it and ultimately bring glory to His kingdom because of it.  An incredible number of people are hurting because of the loss of David, but that in and of itself brings glory to God in that in just under two decades, David was able to bless and influence hundreds of lives around him.  On top of that, what a blessing it is to know that because of David's faith in Christ, we as believers will be reunited with him once again!  I hate that this happened...and I'm gonna miss that guy here on Earth.  May God flood David's family and friends with peace and comfort in the sadness...but also with joy and hope in the promise of eternity.  God is good.....all the time.

An orange peanut...for me?!

If you don't understand the title of this post, go watch THIS now.

It's hilarious.

Seriously...go watch it.

Alright...all silliness aside, I'm not much of a sports fan.  You'll never find me hanging out around the house with "the game" on in the background...nor will you ever catch me checking my phone for the latest scores or stats...but there ARE a few sporting events that I truly can appreciate.  I spent a mere three years of my life living in San Antonio, Texas which is responsible for my undying love of brisket and the San Antonio Spurs. <3 I love a good basketball game...I LOVE watching my Spurs specifically (whether in person or on TV), but I also enjoy watching other teams do their thing on the court.  My hubby came up with a grand idea to go see the Air Force Falcons take on San Diego State this weekend at the Academy.  I don't think I've ever been to a college game before...in ANY sport....so I wasn't sure what to expect.  Typically, I'm an NBA fan....I don't follow any college teams...I couldn't even tell you more than about five college team names...but we went, and I truly enjoyed myself!  Patrick "splurged" and got us 3rd row seats, so we had an excellent view of the court and I felt so much more involved in all the excitement!  I was also quite impressed by the obsessed insanity enthusiasm of all the college students...I don't think I saw a single one of them sit down the entire game (no wonder they get their own designated section).

                                                                   I love my hubby <3....He so good to me....

Another sporting event I rather look forward to each year is the superbowl (obviously).  I typically don't enjoy much football, mainly because I've never understood the game (blonde, girly girl)...but last year I asked my sport-minded parents to sit down and give me an official lesson on the game so that I might form some sort of bond with the football-lovers in my life.  After sitting through a few games which my parents recorded, rewinded, paused, and used laser pointers on, I felt I had a pretty good grasp on the sport...enough to at least add my two cents to a football-centered conversation here and there.  I watched a lot of games last season, and just a few this season...so now I feel semi-capable of enjoying the superbowl for more than just the tasty snacks involved!  It also helps that my mom throws a kick-butt superbowl party every year complete with games, prizes and FANTASTIC foodage.  Pretty sure I gained about 12 lbs yesterday in game munchies alone...but it was worth it.  One snack in particular just made my day (however rather ruined my night....holy heartburn, batman!).  Bacon-wrapped sweet and spicy jalapeno poppers (is what I shall call them).  I'll have to make them sometime soon and post some pics.  Pretty sure this would take me to another level of awesomeness in my office if I brought them to the next potluck....*yesssssss*

                                               Proud moment of the evening - I totally called the final point spread :D

Snowball fight

I was chasing my sweet puppy around the yard throwing snowballs at her yesterday when I looked down and I had dog poo all over my work shoes.  Serves me right for exploding freezing cold balls of frost on my little corg's face....she couldn't throw any in return, but she could plant land mines to get me back!  *sigh*....and that's just about how my life seems to have gone all week. 

This week was a tough one at work...and I'm feeling a little burned out.  I think this is half due to work itself with the stressful, crazy-busy environment that is my office these days...and half due to this skin treatment I'm on that makes it nearly impossible to keep my eyes open past noon.  I'm insanely grateful that this is the worst of my side-effects thus far, but I can not WAIT for these next few months of treatment to be over.  This afternoon fog that takes over my vision and holds hostage the ever-important common sense side of my brain is making life a little challenging.  I got home from work relatively early yesterday in order to work out and clean house a bit, but after my workout accompanied by the latest Biggest Loser episode (the guilt helps me keep running) I sat down on the couch to cool down and ended up sleeping for an hour an a half.  When I finally woke up and realized I needed to start dinner, it took EVERYTHING I had to get my big booty off the couch and up to the kitchen.  I managed to do it though...and kept my eyes open long enough to make a new recipe for dinner.  I'm not sure what it's called...so let's name it Yummy Pesto Veggies and Pasta with Italian Chicken Sausage.  It actually turned out pretty good! (It just looked weird)

Ingredients:
12 oz pasta (we used whole wheat shells)
1/2 lb fresh green beans (trimmed and cut)
1 cup frozen peas
8 oz Italian-style chicken sausage links
1/2 cup pesto
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 bottle or can of beer (optional)











I've never worked with sausage links before (I know, sad), so as I do with all things I'm unfamiliar with, I googled how to cook them.  I decided to go with the half-boil, half fry method (you could really cook them however you want....just slice them thinly afterward).  First, I put the links in a pan and covered them with a mixture of beer and water (good thing Patrick had a bottle left over from who-knows-when).  I boiled them in the mixture for about 10 minutes. Apparently boiling beer makes this weird foam... :P

Then I transferred the links to another pan coated in cooking spray.  I cooked the links on medium-high heat for about 20 minutes, rotating every few minutes (I don't have a meat thermometer yet, so I went a little long to be on the safe side...they were a little dry but still yummy!).

I sliced the links thinly and put them back in the pan and poured the leftover beer/water over them.  This was a good idea, methinks...it helped give the dried-out sausage some of its moisture back...

When it was close to eating time, I cooked the shells according to the package directions and just added the peas and green beans into the water for the last 3 minutes of cooking.  Then drained the pasta, added the sausage/juice, pesto and parmesan and Voila!  Easy food.  Patrick really liked this one.  I don't think it was super healthy, but hey....at least we got some veggies in there and used chicken sausage instead of the pork stuff.  Also, it made a TON!  We'll have a few extra lunches and dinners outta this one.

So with any luck, I'll be able to wake myself up enough after work to go home and start that cleaning I've been meaning to do.  That way, I can free up the rest of my weekend for fun times with the hubby!  I'm pretty excited to try a homemade carpet stain remover that I found on pinterest...I'll take some pics and share if it's as magical as it claims to be!