I kind of refuse to believe that summer is over, only because I feel like it JUST got here. We went from coooool weather and rain to HOT heat, and barely got the in-between, beautiful spring days that make my heart skip a beat (maybe add a beat?). Now, really...Autum is my favorite time of year. I'm a school nerd, so it always reminds me of the beginning of the school year. And it also means, as my neighbor so perfectly put it, football, pumkin spice latte's, and boots!! And my birthday. It's a time of year that I look forward to ALL year. Except where work is involved. The kiddos really pick back up in the autum, what with school meetings and all, but I'm not quite important enough yet to blow school off for, in the "appointment" sense of the word. Although I believe some of my kiddos would BEG their parents to differ. Which means, I have no excuses to when telling my boss that "I can't see adult clients right now", because I have a full day open while kids are where they naturally should be. And I do NOT like working with the adults. But....there is only so much a person can control, unfortunately. Ok, enough babbling, on with the structure!
Our featured recipe today is Peanut Butter Banana Bread, that I found on allrecipes.com. LOVE it. I take the cook-time way down, because I cook in a gas oven. But I also took it way down the first time I made it in an electric oven. Just watch the bread, because it's not delicious all dried out......as most things are not.
1/2 c butter
1 c sugar
2 eggs
3/4 c peanut butter (chunky is fun)
2 c flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
Ripe bananas (I normally use 3 regular sized ones)
Cream butter and sugar together, beat in the eggs one at a time. Mix in the bananas (smashed) and peanut butter. Ad in flour, salt, and baking soda. Bake at 350 for 70-75 minutes. CAUTION: I normally check this at about 25, and judge from there, all ovens are different. I have never used the recommended 75, or even come close. Also be warned, the batter is excellent.....don't say I didn't warn you of it's dangerous powers.
Matthew 9:10-13
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, man tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees (note: religious leaders of the secular world) saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?" On hear this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." -- This is a good illustrative point on how Christians are to treat fellow man. A Christian is a representitive of Christ, and is supposed to carry out His will on earth. Christ did not come to the earth to be with righteous men, and commune with them. He came to spread the love of God, and we can only do this by opening our arms to those who do not neccesarily agree with our way of life or beliefs. It is these people who need God. And so we have a responsibility to reach out to those in need of a God, and show them His love.
Soooo......wrapping up the summer. It's been SO busy, what with the getting married and all. But Sean and I have done pretty well. We managed to get our yard pulled together and get some seed laid, in hopes that we wouldn't have to dish out major money for sod. And today, we were blessed with the most beautiful site in the world....our first blades of perfectly green grass. YAY!! Hopefully we have enough of a grow season left to get a good mow or two in, and have a pretty good start for Abby; we don't want her digging up our perfectly green grass! This also means that we have to start thinking pretty seriously about building our fence....oy. It's so expensive!! But we've managed to establish a good relationship with our "normal" neighbors, and are in agreeance that, at least one side, of the fence should go up in the next couple of weeks. Our "normal" neighbors are actually kind of rad, and have season tickets to the Seahawks, and told us that we are able to buy the tickets off of them that they are not going to use. However, Sean got into a bit of an arguement with them about Pete Carrol vs Holmgren. So they might hate us now.
We had a great time wrapping up this, "Last Weekend of Summer", with my good high school friend, Jenna. And we did it in true "end of summer" fashion. We went to Silverwood, and rode the roller coasters. We had full intention of hanging out at the water park, but of course, it was 65 degrees the day we managed to get there....not exactly water park and floating margharita bar weather......bummer. Let me tell you about the roller coasters. We started off with the run of the mill, high-intensity corkscrew roller coaster. WHOO!!! Jenna was the "odd man out" on this one, but was lucky enough to pick up a stray. What I mean by stray is weirdo. A weirdo who started off normal, but then started talking about "coasters", and I'm pretty sure she talked through the whole ride. Jenna was a good sport. I was pretty sure that I wouldn't be getting motion sickness on the roller coasters, but I was wrong. Getting of the cork screw, I felt faintly neausious, but decided to push through. On to Tremors! A super fast "jarring" wooden coaster that dives down under ground three times. After waiting in line for over an hour, and debating on whether or not one really WOULD stand up on the coaster and risk decapitation, or if losing a hand might be a bigger risk (hands up), we got on this little terror coaster, and proceeded to show our age by not only screaming the whole way, but also by saying things such as, "Oh my head, oh my back, oh my stomach" on exit. So we had lunch. We also rode the log flume, which is what it is.....but had a good time pretending to be the US bobsled team. Hey, mellow ride, had to spice it up somehow. And then Jenna proclaimed, "Ok, time to ride the blue and green one!" The Aftershock. Pretty much what I imagine riding a crashing plane would feel like. We get in, strapped in, and about the time they blow the semi-truck horn and drop the floor.....I start to rethink my decision. And about the time we were hanging 150 feet in the air, and a 90 degree angle, with all of my body weight on the harness holding me into the seat (this is a roller coaster than you ride hanging under the track) I KNEW that this was a really bad idea, and I needed off. But, my wish was not granted. Rather, I was dropped straight down, and through three inversions before they sent us STRAIGHT up the other side, looking straight into the sky, not to our delight. This little devil doesn't stop.......once you've hit the peak, you do all three inversions again.....backward. If we take out the terror factor, we're left with nothing but PURE neausea (I don't know how to spell this word) and a feeling like I had no legs (ok, that is terror related). And I'm pretty sure that my hair was standing on end. But, not to be defeated by fear, we decided to go ahead and hit one last "coaster", the Panic Plunge. A 140ft tower that drops you 120 feet from the top.....no big deal, right? That's what I thought the entire time I stood in line, and watched every group slowly climb to the top, then drop. After the Aftershock, quite honestly, it was child's play. Not really. The thing you don't realize while you are watching from the ground is that while you are in the seat, climbing up the tower, you don't see the top, therefore, you don't know when you are going to stop. For all you know, the tower DOUBLED in height from the last ride. As the ground got further and further away, and my seat felt smaller and smaller, and my harness was less and less reliable, I felt absolutely certain that I would die. Irrational, maybe.....but quite real. And the drop. Oh the drop. I'm pretty sure that the minute the ride started the drop, my butt left the seat and didn't hit it again until we were slowed down a mere 20 feet before the ground. After that, feeling particularly old and fragile, we left. And proceeded to eat nachos and drink 3 rum barrels EACH at Ceders. If that's not the way to wrap up a summer folks, I don't know what is!!
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