Deep Fried Oreos!

On saturday evening Jake and I had Joey and Lindsey over for some good hang out time! Back during our time at Biola the four of us have enjoyed many good times together, so it was time for a little mini reunion!

We walked over to our neighborhood BJ’s Brewery next to our place and enjoyed some good appetizers and barbecue chicken chicken pizza.. and ate way too much!

Then we paroozed to target on our walk home and bought ingredients to make an awesome experimental dessert… wait for it…

DEEP FRIED OREOS!!!

healthy, right?

You might ask, “why deep fried oreos??” Well here is the short story- I was wandering the land of Pinterest earlier in the evening looking at potential desserts, and came across a recipe for “oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies”!! I shared my discoveries with Jake.. if that couldn’t be enough, he suggested the ultimate: Deep Fried Oreos!!

WINNER.

We were excited for a good deep frying experience!

After we got home Linds and I took a gander at deep frying them!! Jake was the only one of us who had had them before so we were super excited!!

The best method included us tripple frying them because the batter was a bit thin. Check out the awesomeness!!

The chefs!

they fried so fast!

Lindsey was the powder sugar girl.. looks good huh?

yuuummm

And they were actually SO delicious!!!!

We had lots of fun with them!

We finished our evening by working off our fatty foods by playing Kinect “Just Dance 3″ for an hour!!!!

Hah- if you haven’t gotten the chance to try this out, its fantastic, hilarious and quite the work out!!

the boys dancing the night away!

It was a good night!

Thanks for coming over guys!!

Happy community!

Mute Math!

On thursday night Jake and I finally got to go to our long awaited concert.. MUTEMATH!

Here is the story: Back in October Jake was keeping an eye on MuteMath’s “pre-season” sale of tickets.. when the day came up to release them, he was stuck at work. SO with specific and urgent instruction we sat and waited minutes before the release time on Gmail chat with each other.. until he got us a “secret pre-season code”!! He sent it to me then said “GO GO GO!!!!” It was a battle against every other avid MuteMath fan in LA for tickets.. BUUT we got our tickets for two!!!! So back in October the glorious date was set in our lives for February 2nd, 2012, MUTEMATH.

Well morning of February 2nd, 2012 snuck around as we anticipated this (I took off work and everything! *sorry CORE!) and Jake asked if I knew where the tickets were (because like any REAL avid fan- the hard copy box office tickets that get mailed to you, are FAR superior than the ones you could print!). So that morning I browsed the file that we keep important documents in and couldn’t find them. Jake left for work with promises from me that I would find them… OH MAN.

I scoured and scoured the house- with final instructions from Jake of “ok its time to tear the house apart!” Two hours later.. I found them. Right back in the first place they were supposed to be (the file).. turns out a few surrounding bank envelops had hidden them from three previous searching times!!

So we were finally able to be actually excited about going!

"the gold"- what was once lost, when is found is so much more valuable!

I met Jake up near Biola and we went out to Red Robin for dinner before, then headed up to LA to the Nokia Club for the rest of our date!

We got up there, parked and wandered through a very busy “Nokia Live” city block due to a clippers game happening at the Staples Center, and an “Events Show” taking place at the nearby convention center. The place was hopping! .. Except for the building where out concert was supposed to be at!

LA Nokia Live!

The doors were closed. NO ONE was standing out side or in a line, and it was completely dark inside! We were there 45 minutes before it began. And so confused as to what was going on!

We decided to wander the block twice, and kept passing this line to the Nokia Club. Which seemed like.. a club. We enjoyed our stroll, assuming we must have just been so early. Then we bumped into Kyle White and his girlfriend Joy, along with another couple from Forest Home! Good thing because much to our non-knowledge… Club Nokia was actually our location!!

So we waited in our “club line” and finally got into our concert!!! We took the liberty of not standing in the back but trying to get as up close and personal as we could to the sound and action!! Right in front of the sound booth!

Awaiting the magic from our chosen location!

The concert was awesome!!

MuteMath really does perform a show.. they do not just “play music” thats for sure!!!

Complete with back stage 3D projection, entertaining performers and a kicking bass- it was epic!!

3D Projection!

This was also just cool.. because we love concerts, and it’s been sometime since we have gotten to go to one! We love getting to rock out while standing close and dancing together- so fun! Plus.. what is concert with out sweaty people trying to push and get your “view” while you plant your feet to keep your position?? We fought together .

"Drum-Surfing!"

They crowd surfed, crowd surfed on light up mattresses, played instruments with the crowd, jumped on instruments, ruined instruments, and shot out tons of confetti!! They are so intense the drummer literally DUCT TAPES his head phones on his head every time the played!!

Crowd-surfing on the light up mattress!

I was so into the "back-drop show" hah!

Confetti!!

We had so much fun. I snuck out right as it was ending to get at the front of the merch line to buy us shirts! So we now have “Odd Soul” 2012 tour matching shirts! So exciting!

Happy Ending!

We loved our night!!

but not so much the early working friday morning the next day- but it was worth it!

Happy Concerts!!

Photo-shoot and Sanctification

On tuesday night I got home from work about an hour after Jake and found him playing around with his cameral and lenses, taking pictures of things and playing around with coloring correcting lighting etc afterwards on his comp- then he asked if we wanted to head down to our near by tunnel (this awesome super well-kept trail that runs for miles along our complex has a sweet tunnel not too far down) and do a photo-shoot! He has been eyeing this location for photos for a while so tonight was the night!! Although it was a bit cold, leather jackets where the dress code so we headed down to have some fun!

Here are the results of my great photographer husband!!

The instructions were: “No smiles!” hense the feel for the photographers work!! Good job husband!!

Aren’t they awesome?? That tunnel just totally rocks.

On an entirely different note, yesterday I started my second Talbot class “Introduction to Spiritual Theology and Formation” I am very excited about this class! Although it does have this “co-hort time” for the last hour of every class period, (Basically they split the class into three smaller groups in which we will spend time discussing and sharing personal things in response to the class) and as of right now it is awesome.. at least four people in my group have originated from San Diego like me!  But I do have to say I am that I am curious as to how the rest will play out, but I am starting with a positive outlook!

The professor (Biola’s undergrad dean of spiritual formation- Todd Picket) lectured on sanctification and the sanctification gap and how we respond to sin when confronted with it.. and “why do we sin when we know so much?” Needless to say.. I am more than ready to soak up every ounce of this one! During the class I felt like I just wanted to jump up and down because I was stoked to bring this further knowledge into my life and ministry. Jesus is good! So notes of response on that particular class: I think it will be a good starter class- not to0 difficult but spiritually nurturing .

Happy life!

Talbot Seminary!

So on monday I started my first semester as a grad student at Talbot Seminary!!

So welcoming!!

My first class is Historical Theology Survey- WHICH I really wasn’t sure what to expect from it based off of that title- SO It was bit interesting when my professor began class without any intro, and simply by jumping in and impersonating a heretical author named Dan Brown and went on for 30 minutes with his view points on biblical theology, asking how we can really believe that Jesus Christ was in fact the deity of God and where we base our knowledge from (with a bit more than that obviously) and then ended 30 minutes later by praying to the virgin mary all the while referring to my actually professor as some other man .. Needless to say I was totally lost and very confused as to what was going on, and to my relief so was half the class and we had to clarify from him after he had completed his diologue as to whether or not he was really “Doctor Gomes” (Our real professor) or not! He apologized.. hah and said he didn’t mean to throw us off so badly!

Whew! Seminary almost scared me for a moment! In all though- I believe the class will be good. I believe it will be great in challenging my knowledge and providing and even stronger biblical basis and argument for what I believe in.. so applicable to the life Jesus has called me to!

back at a desk again after 6 months!

On my class break I got the chance to visit Jake during his work which was awesome! I am very excited to get to be in the same place a bit more now! And after I got out (around the same time he gets off work) he gave me a tour of the new Talbot building! WHICH is so beautiful and amazing.. but no unfortunately neither of my two classes this semester are in that shiny new place, so I suppose I will dream of my future years and gaze at it from afar

SO beautiful!

It’s good and weird to back on campus. I feel like I am re-doing my past four years.. except there are waaay many more men and less women than before, and they are all a bit older than I am. Although feeling quite the minority, I am determined to rise above and do my best in this new season! Woo!

Off to my second class this evening of “Intro to Spiritual Theology and Formation”… Super excited about this one .

Happy Learning!

New Hair!

Last week I decided to give some change to my hair!

I added (well my hair-stylist did) “Dark auburn” to the bottom half, with my straight down bangs! Woo!

Excited for the change, its been a while

Forest Home Adventure!

 Happy 2012!

Yes it has been that long since I have posted… BUT February is now the new January and I am hoping to get back into it a little bit more consistently now (I just got an Iphone so instagram is certainly convenient!)!

This past weekend Jake and I went up to Forest Home together! Jake commited to working January weekends doing video for Kyle White at camp. So this month has been a bit long being apart on weekends since I work church Sundays, but this past weekend I got the chance to join him and just hang out and come along with him as he worked so it was super fun! Here are some recap pics of our time!

Chatting in the video room upon first arrival!

We hung out with Kyle waiting for the night meeting to start.

Our Cabin!

This was our little cabin for the weekend! It was much nicer than I had expected inside and to my hoping, there was heating!! It was very cold out at night and since both of us are still recovery with coughs from being sick the cold can be pretty brutal!

Getting footage of the jousting!

On saturday during free-time Jake was to video kids on the main camp side of the creek! Since it wasn’t rainy, most the kids ended up being on the Zip-lines and sky-trail all afternoon leaving not too many kids on this side to film. So we hung out at the indoor jousting for the first half of the afternoon. We got to play a little too!

Clubhouse!

After jousting we ventured to the stagecoach to get me some coffee, then to club house for soda and for Jake to video kids there! So fun to re-live some old memories there.

In Action!

Jake found a group that ordered an Adventure Mountain Sundae- a huge ice cream sundae with 20 scoops of ice cream, cookies, whipped cream and strawberry syrup! Needless to say its classic for camp video footage.

Editing station!

he is the video magic!

This is where he spent time and late into the night editing and color correcting most weekends at camp! He got to show me skills at color correcting! That boy is quite talented I must say!!

New hair!

I decided to capture some new hair pics while I waited as they worked into the night on the video!

Classic clubhouse milk shake and fries!

And what would be a weekend at Forest Home with out some of their famous fries and milkshakes?? So Jake and I took an editing break (well I wasn’t doing anything really =) and headed to the club house before close for some of our own!

at work

They finished the video around 1am, and then we worked to burn the DVDs and stuff them into their cases for the churches to take home the next morning! It was awesome to get to be up close with a routine that is so familiar to Jake-  Unfortunately I was pretty pooped by the time we got to bed though around 1:45am!

Chapel!

 We enjoyed worship and chapel in the morning where we also got to see their final camp video on the big screen shown to all the kids. They LOVED it! Everyone was cheering the whole time and the camp directors gave many thanks to the video crew for their hard work- way to go team!

Together!

We enjoyed our little getaway weekend! But we so glad to get home to sleep and relax all afternoon sunday.

Yay Forest Home!

Festive Fall Pumpkin Carving!

So last night Jake and I had some great friends over for some yummy treats, pumpkin carving and games!! It was lovely and festive!!

:-)

Thanks to Chelsea, Tiffany and Harris for joining us!! Here are some pictures of our evening!

I decided to make Apple Cider Carmel Cookies.. (thanks to a whole new world of life that Pinterest has given me!!) and man were they amazing!!! Just like they sound.. Here is the recipe,  enjoy my documented process!

Carmel Apple Cider Cookies!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 (7.4 ounce) box Alpine Spiced Apple Cider Instant Original Drink Mix (*not sugar free*)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 (14 ounce) bag Kraft Caramels, unwrapped

Method:

Preheat oven to 350° F. Line cookie sheets with parchment or a silpat.  (The melted caramel may stick to the bottom if you just use cooking spray on a plain baking sheet.)

In a small bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon

sugar, salt, cider

cream together butter, sugar, salt and all 10 packages of apple cider drink mix powder, until light and fluffy

all together

Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla and mix well.  Gradually add flour mixture to butter/egg mixture. Mix until just combined.

roll, smash, insert and seal!

 Scoop out cookie dough ball about the size of a walnut (about 2 tablespoons).  Flatten the ball of dough slightly in the palm of your hand. Press the unwrapped caramel into the center of your dough and seal the dough around it, covering it completely. Shape the dough into a ball, and place on parchment covered cookie sheets (I just used butter and it worked fine!) about 3 inches apart.

Bake 12-14 minutes, or until very lightly browned around the edges. Once the cookies are done, carefully slide the parchment or silpat off of the baking sheet right out onto the counter.  Allow cookies to partially cool on the parchment/silpat. When cookies are cool enough to be firm but still slightly warm, carefully twist off of parchment and allow to finish cooling upside down (either on the parchment/silpat or on a rack).

On the rack to cool

SO YUMMY!

Yield: Approximately 4 dozen, depending on the size of your dough.

ah! fresh.. and the carmel just melts like a dream!

 The Enjoyment and the rest of the evening went like this..

Chels loved it! And even helped us out by taking a goody bag home!

oh it was just fantastic!

annd Jake isn’t crazy about fruit in his dessert (hence his face hah!) but he tried it anyways!

Then the actual pumpkin creationing began!

Tiff and Harris joined!

the lid master

Chels aspired for the most elaborate….

trashin the guts! heck yes!

Candy Skull in the works!

MIssion Accomplished! Welcome to the fam little gourd man!

The final friends (Chels was to be continued)

Winner.. Miss Scarlet in the kitchen with wrench!! Knew it was true!

Played a little clue! And I beat Jake.. the master mind at clue thanks to his Grandma apparently! It was quite the honor to beat such a running champion!

A little Phase 10! (In honor of Lindsey!)

Chelsea won this one!

That concluded our great evening! Thanks to Chelsea, Tiffany, and Harris for coming out to join us!!!

Happy fall everyone!!

A new life!!

Well this is officially my first blog post as a married woman living in our new apartment! We love our little place, and so I thought I would show off a few of my favorite things about it!

The Mantle above our fire place!

Our Living Room!

Jake built the entertainment center from Ikea!

:-)

KITCHEN!

 

I use my teapot every morning for Jake's Cappuccinos! Thanks Mom!!

so precious!

We love our bedroom!

"Put the Pop!" Yellow!

Our darling bathroom with my Mint Chip ice cream sign from our wedding painted by my sister Rachel Pearsey!

Well I hope you have all enjoyed the preview of our home! In person is always 10 times better, and we love company!

Happy Homemaking!!