Saturdays @6 on the 27th of 9th in 08

I really enjoyed this week's message. It was just really comforting to me because I struggle with constantly worrying about dying and if I'm truly "saved" or not. Well, this week's message kind of put some of those apprehensions behind me and I feel a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. The overall message was about what happens when I die. Let me tell ya, there's a little bit of a shocker at the end ;)

Okay, the message started with the point that when I was born, I was physically alive but spritually dead. This is because when I was a baby, I had no clue about God and I only cared about myself- getting fed and having my diaper changed. My physical arrow was pointing up but my spiritual arrow was pointing down. However, when I became a Christian, I was both physically and spiritually alive. Both arrows were pointing up. And then I will die. As one can imagine, I will obviously be physically dead. Here's the shocker (well, one of them): when I die, I will still be spiritually alive. Let me explain...

When I die my spiritual condition is fixed. What does this mean? NOW is the time (when I'm alive) to change my spiritual condition. Because after I die, I will either be spiritually ALIVE (with Jesus) or spiritually DEAD (not with Jesus).

The next point is that followers of Jesus (after they die) are with Jesus and only Jesus. No one else is with me. Not other dead family members or my dog that died a few years ago. Just Jesus. *gasp* WHAT?! I won't even meet up with my other family members who have died?! That's the 2nd shocker.

But the shocker of all shockers: After I die, I'm not going to Heaven. Followers of Jesus go to PARADISE after they die to be with only Jesus. I stay in Paradise with Jesus and wait for the 2nd coming. While I'm in Paradise, I am asleep. Think about it- when I am in a deep sleep now, I have not a care in the world. I am at peace and nothing can bother me. This is why I don't really care that I don't see my family. I am content being with just Jesus because I am asleep. I hope this makes sense.

Now, there becomes a HEAVEN when the 2nd coming of Jesus occurs. AND Heaven will not be in the sky somewhere, it will be here- on earth. The earth will be "restored" and Heaven will be here. I know that Heaven will be here, but I'm not exactly sure where Hell will be. :) C'mon, I don't have all the answers! :) But I do know that non-followers of Jesus, after they die, go to Hades where they are alone. They are not partying with their friends, they are pretty much in solitary confinement. And they weep and gnash their teeth because they wish they were with Jesus in Paradise. As for me, no thank you. I would much rather be asleep with Jesus in Paradise waiting for the earth to be restored into Heaven.

*sigh* Just thinking about this puts me at ease. I can't wait (but I will, I'm not about to commit suicide or anything!) to die and just be with Jesus. Most of all, I can't wait to SLEEP! I love sleep! Ahhhh so relaxing. Alright, I hope this post made a shred of sense to you. It makes perfect sense to me. :)

Abby

Pizza Extravaganza!

Trent and I were first-time homemade pizza makers as of today. Last night, we bought supplies from Woodie's to make the dough and sauce. It was so fun! He's got pictures on his blog from last night. We actually made the pizzas today after I got home from work. And I work at Pizza Hut. hhmmm... I brought home garlic bread at least. Anyway, our pizzas turned out fantastic! They were simple pepperoni and cheese. One thing we would change for next time though is to not make the crust so thick. But that's it! So while Trent is sleeping off his full pizza belly, I'm going to post the videos I took from today before he gets a chance to! HAHA I win.

In this video, I'm kinda interviewing Trent about our pizza day. p.s.- don't mind my burp at the end LOL I was eating a leftover Dairy Queen blizzard. oops.



And this is his first taste of our fabuloso pizza!



What a fun day.

Abby

I sure do love Psychology :D

Right now in my Social Psych class we are studying identity, self-esteem, dispositions, self-concepts and the like. During class on Tuesday, my professor did a little experiment and wrote on the chalk board 10 words that described him. Some of his were: suspenders (he always wears suspenders. He's a big guy), overweight (hence the suspenders), professor, engaged... and others. Then he asked someone in the class to come up with their 10 words. No one would participate so he asked the whole class if they would just tell him 1. Some responses were: hard-working, married, clumsy... etc. I raised my hand and said "twin." Now, there's a little trick to this experiment. What I'm asking from you, the reader, is to give me only 5 words that would describe YOU. Write them in a comment because I want to see if what you tell me goes along with the theory we talked about in class. Thanks for participating! :D ( ilovepsych )

Abs

p.s.- Once I get a few people to do this, I'll let you in on the experiment findings.

Saturdays @6 on the 20th of the 9th in 08

Last Saturday was somewhat odd. Jim had to leave Bremen to see his Mom in Arizona for the week. So instead of having someone else from our church speak, Fred videotaped Jim earlier and we just watched Jim on the projector giving the message. I'm not gonna lie, I was a little distracted by this and had a hard time paying attention to the message. Luckily we have outlines of the message printed out that we can write on, so that saved me. Although, I'm still having a hard time grasping what the message was about. I know that it was about Small Groups again and dealt with heaven. The only thing I wrote down was: comfort/encourage each other in order to love each other. I'm not quite sure what this has to do with heaven, but it's definetely something to take away and apply to my life. In order to love someone, I MUST comfort and encourage them in whatever they do. Yep. That's about it. Sorry guys, I was a little spacey last Saturday with the projector and all. :-/ Next week will be better, I promise! kbye.

Abs

I heart Wednesdays

As you may or may not have noticed, most of the time I blog on Wednesdays. That's because I have a break between my 2 classes from 12:45-2:30. However, today is different. On Monday and Wednesday mornings I come over to Trent's house, get on his computer, and do my homework that's due for that day. Yes, I do my homework the DAY it's due. Don't judge me. :) Like I said, today is different however. For both of my assignments that are due today, I thought they were either due last week or on Monday. Nope. They're due today. Therefore, they're already done! What a wonderful feeling!! *sigh of relief* I like this. A weight has been lifted off my shoulders and I can do anything this morning! I could've woken up at 9 instead of 7, but I didn't. I like coming over here in the mornings. But today I was wondering what I was going to do all morning. Then it hit me: BLOG! I've been slacking on the blogging lately. Oops :-/ So as I listen to James Blunt, be prepared to read, this may be a long one as I catch you up on my.....well, life.

A lot of people have been asking me how I like living in my new apartment. To be honest...... I love it! However, I don't really like the screaming kids that live below us and wake me up at 1:30am or the partiers that go on their balcony at 4:30am and talk/laugh very loud. Those, I could live without. But what makes up for it is the fact that I get to live with my sister. I've lost touch with my Mom and sister over the past few years. It wasn't anyone's fault, it just kinda happened. But anyway, we're beginning to mend those relationships and we've already had a few heart-felt talks with lots of crying. It's a new beginning for us as mother and her daughters. I just love it. I try to be home more often so I can start to develop an independent personality. But I really like being at home so I can see my sister and hear about her day. (I just took a little intermission to make egg sandwiches with Trent. We danced silly in the kitchen. We have fun.) I kinda lost my train of thought. Alright, I like talking and hanging out with my sister everyday but I especially like Wednesdays cuz we go and visit my Mom. You see, my sister used to live with my Mom, and now that my sister and I live together, my Mom is feeling a bit "empty-nested." So we came up with a plan to visit her every Wednesday. (fyi: last week my sister and I also visited my Dad in Granger where he now lives with his girlfriend. They cooked dinner for us, and my Dad took us for a ride in his new car. It was a nice time.) Anyway, we eat and talk and laugh and sometimes cry. It's great. To sum it up: no more awkwardness between us. I'm learning how to have a typical mother-daughter, sister-sister relationship. It just makes me feel so good, what can I say? Alright, enough of that.

So there you have it. Basically, moving into this apartment with my sister was probably the best thing that has happened to me in awhile. I feel different, like my life has a new direction. Many relationships are changing for the better and it's amazing. I haven't been this happy in a long time :)

Abby

Saturdays @6 on the 13th of the 9th in 08

Sorry so late about posting this 4 days later. I haven't had a whole lot of down time between school, homework, church, and social time. However, tonight I have some time to talk about last week's church service. I didn't post about last week because we had a baptism night last Saturday. We did it out at Huff's pond and it was great! I think about 8-10 people got baptized and there was food too! lol. Anyway, about this week...

The main point of it was about small groups and how being in groups keeps us accountable. It was a great message for me to hear because the message was a lot about being connected with other people. It just fit with what's going on in my life now. Things are changing and it's good. Basically, it's good to have...just.... PEOPLE around you! Especially ones you love :) but anyway! Back to the message. Some of the points were that God created for community or togetherness, because when God created man, he realized that man needed a companion. It's good for people to be and talk together. Another point was that people don't feel loved because they don't love others. And it's not love if I make it about myself. If I make it about others, then it's love. Does this make sense? Sorry, I'm watching a re-run of Friends and I can't really concentrate. :) Ok, the point that I really understood and could apply to my life was that I hold up a "DO NOT ENTER" sign to everyone except maybe 2 people. I need to learn to put the sign down and let people in to open myself up to love. So that was really the point that hit me the most.

Ok, time to go study for my social psych test tomorrow! It's gonna be a doozy. Good night world!

Abs

3 years later...

At the beginning of my freshman year at IUSB, I had a xanga website. It's pretty much the same as this, but for a younger generation. My first post in xanga was October 6, 2005. Wow. Almost 3 years ago. That seems like forever ago. But it's fun for me to go back and see what I was thinking/feeling/wondering about when I was only 18 years old. It's amazing how people change so much in so little time. Anyway, one post I made on November 7, 2005, contained a list of things I enjoyed. I looked at the list and a lot of those things I still enjoy. But now there are so many new things. Soooooo.... here's my updated, newer, September 10, 2008 list of things I enjoy. Here it goes! (the majority of them are actually from my old xanga post)

Things I enjoy:
shopping for other people
visiting relatives
napping with Trent
dressing down
falling asleep to the sound of rain (with no thunder, lightning, or wind)
game nights at my Mom's
going shopping with my mom and sister- "the girls"
the smell of Trent's deodorant
car rides to new places
taking hot showers on cold days
tight hugs
being alone
eating Chao Cajun at U.P.
singing very loud in my car
hugging my Mom
making my sister laugh
listening to Norah Jones at night when I get ready for bed
taking a shower in the middle of the afternoon
hearing my Mom's voice
making my brother laugh at me
Trent's big blue-grey eyes
my cute little toes
seeing my Dad smile
sneezing
brushing my teeth
lazy Sundays
hearing Trent's mom laugh
making Hutch "talk"
afternoon naps
being in the passenger seat
casual bike rides
listening to slow songs on my iPod while people watching
learning about anything and everything in my random classes
egg sandwiches before school
watching Trent grill
filling out surveys
making dough at work
"window shopping" at ae.com
deep conversations around campfires
and finally... thinking of things I enjoy

If you want to visit my xanga site just to see what I was into when I was 18-20 years old, the website is www.xanga.com/rellima05.

Abs

Friday mornings at the Hut

Since school has started and I have classes through the week from Mon-Thurs, that allows me to work only on the weekends. Working Saturdays and Sundays aren't the best, but it's a real treat to work on Fridays. How are they different? -you might be asking yourself. Well on Fridays, I get to make dough! Pizza dough that is. Bremen is one in only a handful of Pizza Hut's that actually make their dough fresh in the mornings instead of buying it pre-made frozen. That means that I have to wake up at 6am and be at work by 6:30am to make (15) 220oz bags of dough. But the thing is, I love it! It's like going to an art class. Portioning and mixing the water, oil, and bags of powder that contains all the bread-making ingredients (flour, yeast... you know, the usual). Then rolling it out and stretching it to fit the pan. *Sigh* I just love it. Being alone from 6:30am-9am with my dough. Just a little slice of heaven. I love it so much that I decided to give my readers a peek into Pizza Hut to see how things are done. Here is a gallery of my pizza dough-making sequence. This is how to make Hand Tossed dough.

Below is the powder with the water/oil mixture in the massive mixer. We've recently added oil to the mixture to make the crust less tough and taste sweeter.

And here's what it looks like after 6 minutes when it's done mixing. The big hook swirls around in circles and comes out of the mixer.

After the mixing is over, I take out the dough and put it on this table. This amount is only two bags of dough so it was easy to get out of the mixer :)

Next, I have to cut and weigh each individual piece of dough. I cut a piece off and weigh it: a small weighs 9oz, mediums are 16oz, and larges are 22oz. I only made smalls and mediums with this batch.

By hand, I have to get the dough as round as possible, making sure to get rid of all the rough edges. With this batch, I made 10 smalls and 25 mediums. Only 25 more mediums and 40 larges to go!

Now it's time to roll out the dough. We use a machine to roll it out flat and this is how they come out onto the pan.

Then, by hand, I have to stretch the dough to the edge and perforate it. The perforations keep the dough from rising in the cooler and also keeps it from getting huge bubbles in the oven. This dough is ready to be sauced, cheesed, topped, and put into the oven!

But until then, it will get a lid and be kept in the walk-in cooler to be used throughout the day.

So there you have it. My Friday mornings at the Hut. Fridays are our busiest days therefore we make the most dough on that day. Last Friday I made 1 bag of thin dough, 7 bags of pan dough, and 8 bags of hand tossed dough. That's 10 smalls, 50 mediums, and 30 larges of pan dough. Plus 10 smalls, 50 mediums, and 45 larges of hand tossed. To sum it up, it took me 3.5 hours to make. If you liked this post and want me to show you how I make pan dough, let me know in a comment. I would be happy to :)

-Abby

I should be in bed...

Here I am typing my second post of the day. It's a little past 10:30, my teeth have been brushed, my face has been washed, and I took out my eyes (a phrase my Mom always uses when she means 'I took out my contacts.') Speaking of my Mom, she is the reason I am actually staying awake to type this post. I was just on my way to my bedroom when a phrase popped into my head: There's no praise like a Mother's praise. It's just something that came to me, it's not famous or anything. Anyway, my Mom took my sister and I out to dinner tonight (I'm still full, by the way) and she met us at our apartment after she got done with work. A few minutes after I got home, my Mom says something along the lines of "Nice lamps, Ab!" I nonchalantly (dictionary.com, I actually spelled it right!) responded with "Thanks! Rachel and I are good decorators." Although my Mom's comment didn't mean much to me at the time, tonight while I was doing my nightly 'going to bed' routine, her comment sank in and it made me just feel so good! It's good to get praised every once in awhile, but when I know it comes from a genuine person like my Mom, it made me feel so good. And she wasn't even saying something like "Abby you still look great even though you've gained 14lbs over the summer" or "Your hair looks cute no matter how short I cut it" or "Good job making the Dean's List for the second time." No cliche self-esteem boosting praises at all, just "nice lamps." I have no idea why, but it just made me feel so loved. :)

The funny thing is, at dinner we were talking about my earlier post about how there's nothing I can do to make God love me more or less. My Mom said that that's true for parents too and I agree. Even picking out good lamps at Walmart makes my Mom proud. I think God would be proud of our lamps too :)

-Abby

p.s.- this post probably just made my Mom's day...or even week! :) Thanks Mom, I can rest easy tonight knowing that there's nothing I can do to make you love me more or less. I love you!

Saturdays @6 on the 30th of the 8th in 08

I lied. I did remember to bring home my notes from the service last Saturday. But I have a good excuse for lying! Amongst all the hustle and bustle of moving, my notes got lost in the black hole I like to call 'my purse'. So here is my recap of last week's message: Old Self-New Self

(This will be brief)
Considering we are approaching our baptism night this coming Saturday, last week's message was about just that- baptism. Some of the main points were that baptism means that I am immersed in Jesus. When I am baptized, I get into Jesus, not Jesus into me. God says, "come and live with me." Not "let me live in you." A few more points are that when I am baptized I: die to my old self and am raised to new life(self). I take off my old self and put on my new self. Basically, the old me is gone and there is a new me. I am a new creation. Lastly, followers of Jesus: (1) are new people and (2) get a do-over/fresh start. The point is that Jesus doesn't want me to carry my old junk around because I am a new creation. What's in the past doesn't matter. It's wiped clean according to Him. Does this mean that my future sins will send me to Hell? Nope. Everyday I can get a fresh start by saying, "Today I die to myself and I live to Christ."
I hope I interpreted this okay in my little mind. :-/

Sorry Guys

Today is the first day since my last posting that I've even looked at my blog. To say that least, it's been a CrAzY time since last wednesday. Thursday night I pretty much packed up my whole life and moved into my new apartment Friday morning. Finished moving Friday night and hung out with some friends til the wee hours of the night. (*laughing* because as I am typing this, Trent is singing/playing his piano behind me; singing about me "clickity-clack her fingers as they roll!"... and now he has discovered that I am typing this and now he's singing about what I just typed) LOL anyway! Saturday morning I had an eye appointment at 9am (not good considering I went to bed at 1:30am) and went shopping with my roomate (my sister) to buy groceries and other "homey" things for our apartment. Saturday night was church night and it was good as usual. After church, Trent and I went back to my apartment to sort through boxes and put my bed together. Sunday morning I worked from 10am-2pm and FINALLY got a chance to relax after work. I took a nap at Trent's then went back to my apartment to help my sister move some of her things in. We were gonna go to the blueberry festival fireworks Sunday night but decided we had enough excitement for one weekend and seeing fireworks was just another thing to do. Today was so great because we had nothing planned. We just hung up some curtains and shelves at my place and came back to Trent's house to study for our day back to school tomorrow.

I will probably make another post in the near future containing a more in-depth description of my big move. But for now, I'm utterly exhausted from this weekend. Wow! It was busy. Also, I'm sorry to say that I won't be posting about the church service from this past Saturday. I feel so bad that I forgot to do it yesterday; but today I realized that I even forgot to bring home the outline that had all my notes from the message on it. Oops. The second week of trying to do this thing and I forget to bring my notes home. *sigh* what am I gonna do? I will tell you that it was about baptism though. Maybe I can squeeze in some time this week and blog about it. We'll see! Ok I need to go home and let Trent get some studying done. kbye.

-Abs