“Why does Sea World have a seafood restaurant?? I'm halfway through my fish burger and I realize, Oh my God....I could be eating a slow learner.”

Quote by Linda Montgomery...awesome.

So Stephen has been working really hard on his Salon for school. Salon is not something that involves hair. Salon is the yearly food competition where students create the most interesting and complex recipes and painstakingly work to have a killer presentation. Taste is not a factor...which I think is stupid. But what do I know. Because their menu is decided by their current "salon" class, Stephen, who is presently in Garde Manger, ( see previous post with pics of food for definitions) had to choose between cold or hot appetizers. He decided he wanted to go with hot appetizers and decided to work with shrimp. For real though...this is a serious competition. There are all sorts of rules about things looking "beautiful and attractive to eat". So the solution, (whoever came up with this really needs to rethink it in my humblest opinion) is to cover anything moist ( i.e. liquid, veggies, fruit, meat...ect.) in a gelatin film called aspic to "preserve" it's scrumptious aesthetic quality. YUK...that's all I have to say about that.

There are medals given to the highest scores and Stephen was hopeful. Unfortunately hope was not enough, although he did receive a very high score and was within 1 and half points of getting a medal. All the medals went to the desserts. The upswing was that Stephen's food became local celebrity later that evening with a newscast about the competition. Stephen's food is ALL OVER IT and I was very proud. See pics below of Stephen's food all plated up. Shrimp Nori Strudel Rolls

Shrimp Toast with Jicama Slaw

Grilled Shrimp Cocktail with Romesco Sauce

and our favorite.....Chipotle Shrimp Tostada Stacks ( doesn't that pic look like something out of Bon Appetite?!!)

Here is the video we are so proud of. : )

And just a little slide in...here are some pics from Anna recently swinging in her swing that her J-Paw made her. She loves her swing and her Daddy.There is that cheeseball grin again! Have a great week!

Memoir

At the request of my sister-in-law Holly, here is my six word memoir.

Jesus, Stephen, Anna, all I needed.


The rules: Write your own six word memoir, and post it on your blog. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to the original post, if possible, so that it can be tracked as it travels across the blogosphere. Tag at least five more blogs with links. Leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.

I tag...

Jessy, Jeremy ( cause I know you will rock this ), Kristi, Corrie L, and Candi.

And for real if you don't want to do this, I ain't mad at ya...your choice. If you are curious where this came from, check out this link....it's a book...pretty cool. Some of the memoirs are pretty sad but on the same token quite hysterical.

Beauty for ashes...

So I watched the Diane Sawyer special on the gentleman who has terminal cancer and is known world wide for his You Tube video titled "The Last Lecture." This man is an amazing professor, a phenom of a father and husband from the way they portrayed it, an all around awesome human being and he is going to die in give or take two months. I sat watching this program wanting to know why on earth the good Lord would allow this man to be taken from us, knowing all the good he could do, while the drug dealer on the corner would probably live to be 100. I know that sounds cynical, but it is hard not to be when you see a story like this one. The end of the program brought some clarity for me. There were about 2 dozen people who gave interviews or wrote letters talking about how this video had completely changed their lives. (The video was actually only recorded because there were some family members who were not able to attend the lecture). The video has had over 15 million hits. One woman wrote that she had thought of taking her own life 10 days ago and since seeing his lecture, is thankful for every breath she is given. That 2 dozen was just the tip of the iceberg in the masses he has reached with this lecture. The scripture came to me, and I was very much happy with God's answer to my question. Romans 8:28...and we know in all things God works for the good....
As I am watching this, Stephen is in the other room talking to his sister. This is how the story goes.
Karen ( Stephen's sister ) has a friend named Marcus. Marcus' brother Nick was diagnosed with a brain tumor in November of 05. He was 29 years old with a sweet young family. He had surgery and things looked good. The next October, it had returned and things did not look so good. He passed away two months later in December. His family, obviously devastated, decided they wanted to raise money to fund a research grant in Nick's name. Apparently this tumor is the most common brain tumor that afflicts young people, including children. Nick, prior to his death, had traveled to Italy with his wife and some friends and they had a wonderful time. A friend (I believe...it may have been a family member) purchased a trip to Italy to honor Nick and raffle off to raise money in order to fund this research grant. Karen (my sister-in-law) purchased some of these tickets. And oh yeah, you know what I am going to say, she won it. She, being the AWESOME person she is, has traveled quite a bit, and has lots of frequent flyer miles. So, she would not have to buy a ticket to Italy....and the trip is payed for two....and the stay is in a villa with two rooms....SO WE ARE GETTING TO GO TO ITALY! WOO HOO! All we will have to pay is sight seeing and food. AMAZING! I am SO pumped I cannot even explain. I have wanted to travel to Italy since I fell in love with Renaissance art in my art history classes freshman year of college. Karen is an amazing person for giving this gift to us. We would not be able to afford this in a million years...or at least till we were retired. Of course Stephen is so excited about the culinary opportunity in traveling to that part of the world...the food is crazy amazing. Needless to say we are overwhelmed and SO excited. Have a great week!

This picture was taken on my way to work...even though the quality isn't that great ( camera phone ), you can see how amazing that sunrise was. God was definitly shining that morning.

Examples and responsibility.....

Anna has been pretty sick again lately. She got another ear infection Easter weekend and we have been trying to re coop. In the midst of that, she got a virus, probably from the stupid playground...oh well. Anyway, she has been home mostly this week and today I was taking her with me to Rockport so my mother-in-law could watch her at the vacation house. As we were driving, I was putting on my makeup, yeah yeah I know...but I was running late, so back off. Anyway, as I was putting on my makeup I saw her in the rear view mirror mimicking me. She was rubbing her face like I was...she was doing what I was doing. It hit me like a ton O bricks that she is emulating me, that everything I do, she will want to do it too. SCARY. I mean she has copied me before, but I guess it took her doing a female thing for me to realize that I have a different role than Stephen. She is going to look to me for knowledge on how to be a woman. That is an EXTREMELY overwhelming feeling just in case you were wondering.

So, I stopped putting on my makeup and prayed for some strength and guidance. I want to do the best job by letting Jesus be her example and letting Him make me the best woman I can be and by proxy teaching Anna to be the best woman she can be. It is a huge responsibility and I don't want to look back years from now and see the sins I have passed down to her, but the blessings God has bestowed upon her because of my obedience to Him. Anyway, thought I would share that....it was a pretty heavy 40 minutes to work this morning, but WAY worth the lesson He shared with me.

SO, on another note that is kind of in line with this post, talking about responsibility and all... Not to get too political, but I saw this today and was a little frightened. I am not sure about the connection with Obama, but the stuff that comes straight from the horses mouth is pretty scary. My mom sent this to me in an email titled, "what do YOU think?"

And I am asking the same question, out of curiosity....so if you feel like it, let me know...
http://heartofflesh.wordpress.com/2008/03/27/the-church-of-oprah-exposed/

Have a great week!