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summer storms

it's raining....praise the Lord! we definitely need it.

i spent the day cleaning my room because i'm going to be packing for a trip soon and i hate packing and leaving when everything's not clean. i found a lot of fun stuff that i had forgotten i had kept. cards, programs, pictures, ticket stubs....mostly from college. it was cool to get to walk down memory lane a little....i miss you, my friends!

so, i'm going to baltimore next week with west ridge to help out a new church (the gallery church -- check it out!). we're (my parents and i) are leaving saturday morning to drive the big, rented van up there and be there in time to meet the rest of the team on sunday morning (thery're coming by train....i've never done that, but i think it would be an interesting way to travel :)). although i'm not really sure what to expect, i mostly excited about it. of course i'm a tad nervous and anxious as well, but anyone who knows me knows that's normal.
most of the team is around my age, and a couple of friends are even on the trip, so i'm pumped about spending time with them this week and getting to know everyone on the team better, as well as getting to know those involved with the church in baltimore. all in all, i think it's going to be a good week and i'm choosing to have faith that God is going to do amazing things, rather than focus on the things i'm nervous about.

i'm watching food network challenge: cookies right now. i love food network challenge. they have challenges for everything -- cookies, cakes decorated like everything you can imagine, ice sculptures, sugar sculptures. bbq, mac n' cheese, and so on. usually the chefs on challenge are chefs who have been in the business for awhile -- pretty well known people. today, however, they are just your average, everyday, "i bake for families and friends" people. they've had to make chocolate chip, spice cookies, fruit cookies and then a signature cookie. most of them are looking pretty good...and i might want to try some of their recipes (good old foodnetwork.com -- recipes for everything). while i'm enjoying this episode, i think a couple of these people missed the boat on the signature cookie....one of the ladies made a plain and simple sugar cookie decorated as a wedding cake. now, she had a sweet story about the cookie (it's how she taught her son to talk and it's everyone's favorite cookie back home), but if i were in a cookie competition, i would have stepped it up just a little. something other than sugar cookies. that said, her decorations were incredible....18 fondant rosettes on each little cookie....time consuming, yet worth it in the end if it looks good, which is true for many things in life.

now i'm going to go b/c my battery is going to die and because lightning is very close....electricity and lightning aren't a good mix....

so long for now.....

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