A Whole Bunch of Stuffff

This is going to be an update post. As I said in my last blog, I've been super busy lately and haven't had time to update too much. I guess that's what summer does to you! But here are a few things that have been going on:

I made a couple new 'recipes' this week. They're not realllllly recipes, but they're new meals for that I haven't made before (even though they're super easy), so I'm going to count them! The first one is chicken and cheese quesadillas! Yummmmm. I even made some extras of these to eat as leftovers for lunch. All you need is chicken, shredded cheese, and some tortillas and you're good to go. I made them on my griddle and they turned out just fine. I supppose you can use an actual quesadilla maker, but I see no need for it. To make them even better, dip them in sour cream and/or guacamole and your meal is complete!

The second new 'recipe' I made this week is marinated chicken. Why didn't I think of this before!?! Wayyyy better than regular grilled chicken. I just bought a marinade in a bottle from the grocery store and poured it into a big baggie, put a few chicken breasts in, and let it sit in my fridge overnight. The next night for dinner, I grilled them on our George Foreman grill and they were very lemon-peppery! :) I wanted to make them on an actual grill, but Josh didn't come home from work until later, and I was too nervous to attach the propone to the grill myself. I would probably blow everything up. :)

On to update #2. I have now finished the second Twilight book: 'New Moon.' It was as good as the first, and now I can start on book #3! On a related note--Josh and I rented the Twilight movie on our Apple TV last night. I do have to say that I was not as impressed with the movie as the books. We didn't even finish the whole thing. I thought the acting and lines were pretty choppy and they just stared at each other a lot. I might have to try watching the rest of the movie by myself tonight to see if it gets better.

If you've seen the movie and read the books--what do you think?

And lastly, I have now completed #87: Volunteer for something with Josh. We volunteered in the beer tent at Fiesta Waukesha--which is put on by La Casa de Esperanza. It was a very nice day for it and it looked like there was a decent turn out for the event yesterday.

Here's a picture of Josh in the coooool t-shirt we got:

Edward is mine again

I finalllly got the second Twilight book, 'New Moon'. And my sister gave me her copies of the third and fourth books, so I am good to go! Let's see how long it'll take me to read all three. I'm going to guess that I'll be done with them by the end of July! Which may seem like a long time to some, but I can't remember the last time I read three books in that amount of time. And I also can't remember the last time I read a 700-something page book..if ever! This just might be a new record for me. Now...Edward is waiting...so I must go.

I got sucked in..

to the Twilight books. I needed a new book to read and asked my sister if she had any I could borrow. And I got Twilight. I will admit that I absolutely did not want to read this book., so I let it sit on my nightstand for a while. Then, I just really wanted something to read. So I started reading it. And as you guessed, I could not put it down. I think that's the fastest I've ever read a 400-500 page book. And now I'm wanting to read the 2nd one. I mean, it kind of left me hanging at the end, and now I'm pretty anxious to see what happens in the next book. Hopefully my sister has that one for me to borrow as well. Welll, this is one book checked off my list for the year in #58: Read 5 new books a year. How many Twilight books are there anyway? Maybe I can get all 5 for the year taken care of with these book.


In other news, I forgot to report a couple weeks ago that I finalllly got new running shoes! This completes #73: Get new running shoes. I'll admit, it's been 2 years since I got new running shoes. And as much as I work out, that's probably not good. But I finally got some. And now that I've been running in them for a few weeks, I can say that I have broken them in and I really like them.


Here they are in all their glory:

The Case For Faith

I've decided to start working on #58: Read 5 new books a year. If I want to actually finish 5 this year, I need to get going! I'm not a big reader, which is why I set the goal to only 5. And even that seems like a lot to me!

My first book this year is 'The Case for Faith'. My 20-Somethings group at church read this book and discussed it last summer. However, Josh and I didn't join this group until they were on the very last part of the book, so we missed reading it and having the discussion. However, we did come in on the final day of the discussion, and it seemed very interesting! First, I started reading this book last fall, but my school work started to build up, and soon this book moved to the back burner. So, now I'm trying again. I better get the majority of my books in this year before school starts full time in the fall!

I'm only on page 37 right now, but so far, I'm very intrigued. As a person who has faith in God, I find it interesting to read what holds other people back from having that relationship with Him. As it says in the first pages of the book, "But faith isn't easy, even for people who desperately want it. Some people hunger for spiritual certainty, yet something hinders them from experiencing it. They wish they could taste that kind of freedom, but obstacles block their paths. Objections pester them. Doubts mock them. Their hearts want to soar to God; their intellects keep them securely tied down."

Here are the 8 objections to faith that this book will discuss:

• If there's a loving God, why does this pain-wracked world groan under so much suffering and evil?
• If the miracles of God contradict science, then how can any rational person believe that they're true?
• If God really created the universe, why does the persuasive evidence of science compel so many to conclude that the unguided process of evolution accounts for life?
• If God is morally pure, how can he sanction the slaughter of innocent children as the Old Testament says he did?
• If Jesus is the only way to heaven, then what about the millions of people who have never heard of him?
• If God cares about the people he created, how could he consign so many of them to an eternity of torture in hell just because they didn't believe the right things about him?
• If God is the ultimate overseer of the church, why has it been rife with hypocrisy and brutality throughout the ages?
• If I'm still plagued by doubts, then is it still possible to be a Christian?

The first objection is something I've always wondered about. While it never stopped me from believing and having faith in God, it is an issue that has come up in my head from time to time. If there is a loving God, how can He allow their to be such suffering in the world? I'm hoping this question is answered for me after I read through the first objection. I'll let you know!