cutie pies.

Also while we were in Missouri, we stopped in to see my favorite little munchkins. You just cannot deny their cuteness.

Yep, thats an empty gatorade bottle in my car.  Love that belly.

She loves riding Trent's skateboard like this, and I love her face.

Hands in the air! I'd be scared too, if I were him. . .
Jonny doesn't have the best track record with holding babies.

..................................................................................................................................................................

Trenton wouldn't hold still long enough to take a picture, but he was there and told me all about his recent detention. He is getting so old, you may remember him as the ring bearer who wouldn't smile. Ahh, the time sure flies. 

2005

2011

happy birthday grandma, hope you like carrot cake.

As I mentioned earlier, we took a trip to the Ozarks this weekend past to celebrate my grandmother Janie's 70th birthday.  We had a good ol' (short) time visiting and got back to Louisville at 3 AM today. In honor of my grandmother I wanted to bake something, so I did. . . a very large carrot cake. I'm talking a 3 layer carrot cake people. It was almost a disaster considering I was short one egg and have never baked a layered anything. 

The top layer only slightly, kinda, slipped off twice. 

I don't know what possessed me to make such a ginormous cake. . . but hey, you only turn 70 once!

There was so much batter that I needed the help of my muscly husband to stir it.

After the first layer was sloppily frosted, still two more layers to go.

Livin' it up Grandma!

the birthday present that will hopefully bring her photos into the digital age. 

the pumpkin patch.

Well, we went to Missouri this past weekend to visit my family and celebrate my Grandma Janie's 70th birthday. On Saturday afternoon we got all festive and went to a pumpkin patch. . . 

Jonny, cousin Bobbi, Mom aka Julie, Dad aka Jeff, and Aunt Janell

Jonny and I now have a large pumpkin at our doorstep, but if it was up to him we'd be making a soup or pie out of it. 

true happiness.

"If you seek happiness, you will never find it; it will always elude you, it will always escape you. You will think you have captured it, but suddenly it is gone. Chasing it is like trying to catch a bubble--the moment you catch it, it has vanished, broken in your hands, and there is nothing left." 


Know this: "Happiness is always an indirect result. It is always a byproduct of something infinitely greater. "


Question: "If you say you want to be happy, the first question is WHY ARE YOU UNHAPPY?"


Answer: "Because life as it is in this world is evil. There is no hope for men and women until they are convicted of sin. The first thing a man or woman must get hold of is that as they are, they are wrong, and their whole world is wrong and evil and vile."


But, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. 1 Timothy 1:15


That's us! (the wicked, wrong, vile, adulterous, selfish, proud, SINNERS) 


"Happiness is dependent on our relationship with God and HIS righteousness. 


Happiness is the blessedness of the knowledge of sins forgiven; the blessedness of knowing that everything that I did and said and thought in the past, that was unclean and unworthy and sinful, has been blotted out by God in His love because Christ died for me.


Oh, the blessedness of knowing that the past has been forgotten and will never be brought against me again! 
Oh, the wonders of God's forgiveness and pardon."


Think. . .


"Do you have this blessedness?
Do you know this happiness?
Do you delight in the Bible?
Do you delight in God?
Do you delight in the Lord Jesus Christ?
Do you delight in meditating about the joys and the glories of eternity?"


From 'The Search for Happiness, Psalm 1' by Martyn Lloyd-Jones

week in review.

Tuesday we went to a concert and Jonny was slightly awkward (as expected).

But, nonetheless we did have a good time.

Thursday some really INTENSE arborists' made a lot of racket at our house, repeatedly singing about "Davy, Davy Crockett"at the top of their lungs.

I had to snap a picture, this is what I watched from my kitchen while eating breakfast. 

And, this evening we had a lovely outing to J. Alexander's where a friend of ours (who works there) had given us a gift card as a wedding present. 

Our first dinner date since our honeymoon, aka . . . I ran out of things to cook!

pray.

About two months ago I mentioned our friends Jonathan and Bethany Meacham who have been in the process of adopting from the the Democratic Republic of Congo for more than six months. Since then, the Meacham's have encountered hurdle after hurdle in their adoption process. Today they were met with another trial as their recent referral, a 5 month old baby boy, has been hospitalized with a serious case of Malaria. 
Their journey, even thus far has been tremendous. They have faithfully persisted in their pursuit of adoption, despite heartache, knowing that the God they serve is sovereign. Our hearts have been heavy in the past weeks as we have grieved with the Meacham's, but our eyes are lifted to our God who knows all things, who created all things and is in control of all things. If you are a Christian, will you petition for this baby boy's health and for the Meacham's that they would find strength in this time?


Find out more about the Meacham's adoption journey, and hear from them how you can specifically be praying by visiting their blog.

"meal of champions."

Last week we made a big purchase. 

I'm talking, REALLY big. Jonny's been missing what he has termed the "meal of champions" aka beans on toast. Now, I've hung around enough internationals in my day to realize that this is a common craving for some. The family I last lived with, who hail from New Zealand ate beans on toast a lot, they even ordered their beans in bulk from Amazon (pictured below), because its hard to find the right kind of beans in your average American grocer, without paying an extortionate price.

I have to admit, I do really like the color of the can. Who says a can of beans must be boring?

So maybe you're thinking we've done the same as our friends and bought Heinz beans in bulk? Well, thats not correct. Nope, instead we've gone out on a limb and tried an American classic version of beans. (When I say "we" don't actually think that I'm eating beans on toast . . . trust me, I am not partaking). I did however suggest to Jonny VanCamp's Pork and Beans.

I unashamedly loved these as a child and it looks like this guy did too, 

I just couldn't resist, gotta love vintage ads.

Jonny was easily persuaded to try my beloved childhood beans, so much so that he bought a massive 7lb 2oz can of them. All week they were sitting on our pantry shelf looking so out of place and seemed to stare at me while I tried to enjoy coffee or tea. Until today, when Jonny finally enjoyed his "meal of champions" for lunch. Too bad we have a very old, very dinky hand crank can-opener not made for the likes of this 7lb monster. 

Alas, he succeeded. 

Now, go ahead and laugh because yes, I just did an entire post about beans and yes, you just read an entire post about beans. Happy Monday!

candy floss.

 Southern Seminary hosted their annual 'Fall Festival' this weekend. This particularly thrilled my husband as he was able to eat lots of sweets, specifically candy floss, aka cotton candy. I personally can't stand the stuff...just meaning, all the more for Jonny!

I think I broke the bread machine.

Well, as you may or may not know, I've recently been using a hand-me-down West Bend Automatic Dough and Breadmaker. It's been wonderful. No more bread buying and it fills the house with beautiful smells (or, scents?). I've found a few recipes that we've really enjoyed BUT recently (as in the last two loaves) the pan inside the machine is shaking violently during the kneading cycle. You know, like washing machines do when you've put waaaayy too big of a load in it. 
The loaves have turned out alright I guess, a bit on the small side but nothing seems to be horribly wrong with them. I'm just not sure what is going on, one thing is for sure. . . I really don't want to see the West Bend dilapidate so soon, I've only just begun my adventures in bread-making!

bluegrass.

 This weekend Jonny and I ventured to the...

at the water-tower on the banks of the Ohio River...

we even brought our own chairs like married folks do...

we enjoyed ourselves and the mosquitoes enjoyed us too . . .

Have a listen to a fun band we heard.

And for those of you wondering about the pav, it turned out great! I'm even making another one tomorrow for a Labor Day bbq.

pavlova.

Today's the day! The day I finally try to make a pavlova, solo. It's not finished yet, but I will say, so far so good.

Now for those of you who don't know, pavlova is a British dessert, or Austrailian or something, I've heard many different stories but  what you need to know is that it's kind of wonderful. It's like a meringue [but better] topped with cream and fruit or what have you. Jonny was pretty much brought up on it, and his mom's pavlovas are AMAZING. So needless to say, I've got a lot to live up to. 

Oh well, I won't cry if it goes kaput.

If you were at our wedding, you might have snatched a piece of Wendy's famous pav there. 

So here's a look at what my first attempt looked like...

Step into our kitchen, 

 The separated egg yolks looked like a flower, it was cute. Ya know, if flower shaped eggs are your thing. 

Alas, I've found a sugar I can use to replace "caster sugar." Thank you, Domino!

Reassurance on the side of the box is always nice.

So after a lot of mixing of egg whites, a pinch of salt and a generous amount of sugar, you get something that looks like this

A wonderful lump of goodness, ready to go in the oven.

Looks like marshmallow fluff, and tastes even better!

After the Oven:

 Later, once it has cooled, I will top it off with these things,

and take it to a gathering of friends where we shall devour it.

The end.