Weekend Synopsis

We had a great Thanksgiving. We made the journey up to Indiana and loved seeing my family. It was especially awesome to get together with my best high school friends; Jenny, Steph, Susan, and Michelle. They are such wonderful girls in my life. Another highlight was getting to see the Burkholders. It had been too long, and it was our first time meeting AnnaMary Ruth. Elias is just so big and I was surprised at how much Aidan is talking now. They are good people...good for the soul. The trip back was so exhausting and we even got ourselves almost caught up in tornado weather, on the eastern side of Oklahoma. There was hail and 70 mile hour wind gusts that moved the car while I was driving. It made me feel like my heart jumped out of my mouth, then retreated back into my stomach. It stayed there until I pulled over and handed over the wheel to Chris, with his persistence. You know how over the holidays you always feel like you've eaten too much? Well, traveling does that, too. We sit in the car all day long and do nothing but move occasionally from the position of sitting to maybe turning our heads every now and then to look at the scenery or check the cross traffic. It's easy to feel lazy, but when we stopped for Arby's and Subway, and with Panda Express to top it off, I felt almost sick by the time we got home. It was a late return, and we knew that the morning with work and school would come all too soon as we laid our heads down to sleep.

I've decided to go to culinary school. I will be earning a degree from the Le Cordon Bleu program based out of Paris, from Texas Culinary Academy. Classes begin January 9th, so I'm super excited about it. It is a 60-week program, so I will be finished in March of 2007; that includes the required intern/externship. Man, that sure beats 3 1/2 more years of normal book work, papers, homework, projects, etc. to become a teacher. All those "Why I Want to Be a Teacher" essays are going down the drain. :) I have always loved cooking, but culinary school will really help enhance, enrich, and encourage my skills. I am looking forward to learning to make wedding cakes, and especially carving ice sculptures...with a chainsaw!

2 weeks left until this semester is over. It is especially hard to find the motivation to keep doing well in school, now that I know I will be doing something completely different. I have learned a lot this semester though and I'm glad I got to take the classes I did. I met a lot of interesting people, and although it seems like since the summer I have been in the 'waiting room,' I think God has shown me direction with all of this. Praise His name.

"If we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as he himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin." (1 John 1:7)