A heart-stopping reminder

Thank you, Lord.

I just saw online that a plane crashed at the Amsterdam airport today, leaving nine people dead and many injured. Normally, ashamedly, I would quickly move on from this story.

Except that my brother is flying out of Amsterdam today. I was on IM with him until late last night... he had a layover for several hours and was hanging out in the airport, wondering why he couldn't seem to find a single pack of chewing gum anywhere.

After seeing the devastating headline, with shaking hands, I checked Austin's blog. He's ok. He was somehow able to update the blog while sitting in his plane on the runway. His flight will be postponed for hours because of the crash.

Wow.

All of a sudden, I'm reminded that although my brother isn't one of the nine dead from that crash, someone's brother is. Someone's son, someone's daughter, someone's husband. I pray that next time I hear of such a tragedy, I won't be so quick to move on to the next story before lifting those involved to the Lord.

Now, although Austin is safe for now, he is heading into dangerous territory. Whenever his plane in Amsterdam is cleared for departure, he'll fly first to Uganda, and will then travel via a 4-seater charter plane into Sudan.  An organization called Aid Sudan has commissioned him to photograph several different projects in the southern part of the country. He'll focus mainly on the construction of a 200-foot radio tower that will be used to broadcast Christian radio, health & hygiene training and local news to 1 million Sudanites.

You can understand why we are trying to smother Austin in prayers while he is in Sudan... politically, socially, it's a bit scary. Gives his family at home a perfect opportunity to trust in the Lord's protection and perfect will. If you want to keep up with Austin's travels, be sure to check his blog. Thanks for remembering him in your prayers.

Uh oh.

Just had to join another boycott. This time, Pepsi's made the decision I can't support, meaning that unfortunately, I won't be able to purchase their products (which include Frito Lay and Quaker).

Not only has this company recently produced two TV ads promoting the gay lifestyle, they've also:

 - given $1 million to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) to promote the homosexual lifestyle in the workplace. HRC and PFLAG used most of this money to try to defeat Proposition 8 in California.

 - started forcing their employees to attend sexual orientation and gender diversity training where the employees are taught to accept homosexuality

 - joined the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce

After watching the Oscars last night and seeing the outpouring of support for Milk (a movie based on the life of California's first openly gay elected official, Harvey Milk), Brian and I spent some time discussing this issue that seems to be more and more prevalent, and more and more accepted in our culture today. We don't want to become desensitized to a lifestyle that the Lord blatantly names as sin.

Based on Scripture, I believe we are ALL sinners. I don't believe that God names one sin as worse than another (1 Cor. 6:9-11, Gal. 5:19-21, Eze. 18:20, Is. 59), so in His eyes, a lie from me is equally as "sinful" as two guys living together in a romantic relationship. Granted, some sins may be more immediately harmful than others, but when it's all said and done, any sin, apart from the cleansing blood of Jesus, is enough to separate a person from the Lord.

I think it is crucial that believers ALWAYS respond in love to those in sin. After all, each one of us will struggle with our sin nature until God calls us home. However, I believe that one of the most loving things we can do for those caught up in the homosexual lifestyle is to stand up against it. 

If Pepsi were releasing ads promoting murder, you better believe that people would have plenty to say about it. But we are increasingly becoming "ok" with homosexuality. It's quickly becoming a new normal, and I think that is partly due to the lack of Christian voices who are willing to take a stand against this dangerous behavior. 

If you'd like to push back against Pepsi's decision, you can sign the Boycott Pepsi Pledge and/or call 1-800-433-2652 to tell the company that you will be boycotting their products until they stop promoting the homosexual agenda. (Boycotts do work!)

May sin, whether it is homosexuality, hatred or selfishness, always SHOCK us. May we never be content with the sin in us and around us. May we always do whatever we can to further righteousness in ourselves and in our culture.

Not ALL gals drive like this...

.... but this compilation of "women drivers" is really funny.

Valentines recap

So, I'm a little embarrassed that I am once again writing about food. My last, um, three posts have centered around culinary creations. I guess that's what happens when you don't have kids and you're taking a cake decorating class! But no more. After this, I am determined to get a life.

Brian always does such a great job of making Valentines Day special for me. This year he had the best intentions of making me breakfast in bed. Although his blueberry french toast didn't make it out of the oven until noon, he sure did try, bless his heart. :) I have been sick the past week with a cold, so I very much appreciated the effort. He even got some of those yummy little weinies for me. What a guy!

Beautiful roses from my valentine

Brian's latest food of choice is Thai, so we decided to get a little crazy and try to make some ourselves at home. We settled on a peanut curry chicken, even though it included something called fish juice (of which the main ingredient is "anchovy paste"). Despite the fish juice, it turned out to be pretty tasty.

I had been waiting for the perfect occasion to try a peanut butter fudge cake I saw on Bakerella's site a few months ago. What better holiday than Valentines to indulge? So I made it. And just as I dreamed, it's worth every calorie. Here's the recipe if you're drooling. (I went a little overboard with the crushed Reese's - doubled what the recipe calls for so I could smother the whole thing. Yum!!!)

The Starry Sunflower

One of my favorite Christmas gifts this year was cake decorating classes from my grandparents. After long admiring the work of Duff and his team on Ace of Cakes, I decided I was ready to take on the challenge of frosting. It can't be that hard, right?

Well, I started the first Wilton course at Michael's last week. Don't get me wrong: I absolutely love it. Decorating is just a lot more prep and work than Food Network makes it seem. Tonight we had to bring to class a cake, at least three different consistencies of icing (stiff, medium and thin), and a bag full of supplies including an assortment of icing tips, parchment triangles, spatulas, powdered sugar, piping gel, etc. etc.... it was crazy! I could hardly carry it all inside in one trip.

In our class tonight we learned how to work with the star-shaped tip. I got to practice the star hundreds, if not thousands, of times on my sunflower cake (yes I'm a Kansas girl, through and through). This took me three hours to finish. And it won't even be around tomorrow - I'm making Brian take it to the office so I won't eat it all.

Even though I am just now getting feeling back into my right forearm, it was totally worth it. I already can't wait for next week. We're doing clowns. Bet you're looking forward to those pictures!

Oh, and while we're talking crafty, I really want to make a t-shirt quilt with some of my old college shirts. My cousin is going to attempt this with me, but neither of us has ever quilted anything before. Don't even own a sewing machine. Has anyone else ever tried a quilt? If so, do you have any tips? Is it possible to do it by hand, or are we crazy?

Kurt, arepas and cupcakes

I'll admit it - I'm not much of a football fan. However, I do get pretty excited about the Super Bowl every year (although I didn't know until Saturday who was playing)! You can't beat the food, friends and great commercials. 

I will say that I'm more inclined to care about the game if I hear something positive about one of the players. Like if they overcame a hardship or did something nice for someone. After receiving several e-mail forwards about Kurt Warner and his faith, I decided that I like him, so I would root for his team. Sadly, they lost. But Brian tells me that he has already won a Super Bowl, so I guess its ok.

We had a few couples over to watch Kurt with us - our new neighbors, Matt and Ashley, and our dear friends, Austin and Danielle. The game turned out to be pretty good - after halftime, it actually held my attention. And the Office episode afterward was hysterical. The part where they were doing CPR on the dummy and all ended up singing and dancing... and Angela's cat falling through the ceiling... this one has to be in my top five.

Anyway, back to the important part of the night: the food. A year or so ago, our friends Steven and Cristina introduced us to this wonderful South American specialty called "arepas." I've been dying to make them ever since. They're basically cornbread muffins - you serve them piping hot, cut a slot in the center, and stuff them with ham, shredded cheese, jelly, butter - really whatever you can fit inside. A glorified sandwich, I guess, but they're sooooo good (and healthy). I'm convinced they will soon follow cupcakes as the trendy "it" food.

(In case you're wondering, this is not one of my arepas. It looks a lot prettier than mine did.)

I got an official arepa maker for Christmas, so I decided to make my first batch for the Super Bowl. The only problem with arepas is that their main ingredient - pre-cooked yellow cornmeal - is EXTREMELY  hard to find. We spent several hours on Saturday traipsing all over Wichita looking for it - all to no avail. After church on Sunday, we tried a couple more places and I was on the verge of dispair when a wrong number dialed by my husband (I think he might have called an angel) led us to a little Hispanic grocery. We were so elated to see it on the shelf that we bought five bags of the stuff. 

The big game also gave me a great excuse to break out my Sprinkles cupcake mix. For anyone who hasn't yet discovered this - Sprinkles has bottled their magic and made it available to the common folk as a mix (available at any Sprinkles store or Williams Sonoma). I have now made three different mix flavors and I think they are just as good as the real thing. They even include their signature dots!

(In case you're wondering, these are my cupcakes. Didn't they turn out cute?)

Matt and Ashley

Danielle and Austin

Brian and Em