I'm not that significant

Sorry about the lack of posting; it has been one heck of a start to the semester. I still don't have time to post anything interesting (from my perspective) or witty. Instead, here's a passage from Francis Chan's book, Crazy Love that a friend sent me:

"Worry implies that we don't quite trust that God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what's happening in our lives. Stress says that the things we are involved in are important enough to merit our impatience, our lack of grace toward others, or our tight grip of control. Basically, these two behaviors communicate that it's okay to sin and not trust God because the stuff in my life is somehow exceptional. Both worry and stress reek of arrogance. They declare our tendency to forget that we've been forgiven, that our lives here are brief, that we are headed to a place where we won't be lonely, afraid, or hurt ever again, and that in the context of God's strength, our problems are small, indeed."

This was perfect for the way things have been going for me lately and definitely put me in my place. Perhaps it will do the same for you.

Baby, it's cold outside...

Matt and I (and his parents, of course) went to New Orleans for New Year's. It was AMAZING!! We had a great place to stay and had beignets for breakfast every morning. Though there were some frustrating moments, it turned out quite nicely. Now, for those promised pictures....



This is by far, my favorite picture from the trip. Matt looks like he just stepped off a yacht.

Yep, that's us. On the balcony of the condo we were staying in. Pretty amazing.

Matt's parents - Dr. Frank and Mrs. Susan. Mrs. Susan doesn't look particularly happy here, but it was the best picture and she'll never see this blog. Don't tell her about it.

Me and JUDITH at the Hornets' game. She and Kyle practically swam to the game.

Oh those tasty powder-sugar covered confections. How I love thee.

This was on our walk to the Aquarium. That's a bridge. Don't know which one. I just liked way it looked and forced Matt to let me take his picture. At gunpoint.

Hehe, they were necking. Get it?

It wasn't Sunday morning, but these penguins were having church. See, there's a preacher and three little congregants. They stayed like this for about fifteen minutes and then Matt and I got bored and moved on.

He was in very real danger.

Yeah, we were "those" people. I also have some pictures by a giant seahorse and in a shark's mouth. I have a bit too much self-respect to post those...

I swear, I had on make-up that day. That penguin may have had a crush on me. Or may have just wanted food, either way, Matt and I felt quite special.

We also went to Sucre and ate some amazing desserts. No pictures though. Sad face.

Leggo my Eggo!!

So apparently, Kellogg's is having trouble meeting the demand for the Eggo waffles due to the closing of two of their four plants.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Leggo-my-Eggo-Kellogg-fights-apf-2866532730.html?x=0

Personally, I am devastated. To think, I am going to have to go without waffles until the summer of 2010. How in the world will I go on? I may die.

Oh wait a minute. I can make waffles myself!! Incredible!! How silly of me to think that my waffle supply would be cut off forever.

This may be a good time to tell you that I have never eaten an Eggo waffle in my life. Know why? Well, let's see... my mother made waffles from scratch. What's that you may ask. It is this amazing process where one takes all of the ingredients for a dish and combines them and heats them in such a way as to create an edible product. Granted, usually my mom would add not so edible ingredients like dried apricots or flax seed, but all in all, she can make a pretty mean waffle. In fact, now that I have flown the nest, I make a mean waffle myself. And no, it doesn't come from a cardboard box.

The linked article above shares the story of one mom who bought a box and planned to ration the waffles for her four-year old daughter. I wish that I knew that woman. First I would shake her. Then I would take her a few aisles back in the store and show her flour, eggs, milk, and the lovely waffle-iron. Happily, in this technological world we live in, there is actually a piece of equipment known as the Belgian waffle maker that makes exact replicas of the treasured Eggo waffle. Then I would teach her the correct waffle-making process.

What's that saying - If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.

I think this woman, and perhaps most of America, needs to invest in a good rod and reel.

pictures, as promised.

Well, here they are; the pictures from Christmas. I have a few more in an actual camera instead of off my phone. Maybe I'll get those up later. The captions are BELOW the pictures, you know, in case you get confused.

Here's the 'forest' of trees. It is kind of hard to see the trees for the forest, but there are five trees there. One large one - about six feet, one medium one - five feet, two small ones - three feet, and one tiny one - about a foot. Mom insisted that we have an odd number of trees. She said it was more "organic" that way. Personally, I think her HGTV privileges should be revoked.

And now for Matt's present. And, yes. I am still quite nervous that he doesn't like it.

This is what Matt's present looked like before I started work on it. Again, it is kind of hard to tell, but it is a bench. This is only the top, the legs are really heavy and too short to let me work on it without getting a serious backache. Daddy did all my heavy-lifting and I wasn't about to look that gift horse in the mouth by insisting that he go ahead and put the legs on too. Sadly, I never took a picture of the finished product. But here was the beginning.





This is once I got the 'H' (you know, for 'Hoffmann' - his last name) cemented on - step 5 in a series of about one million. Before this, I had to go pick out and buy the tile and get the tile cement, grout, and nippers (those are just fancy tile-cutting scissors) - Kat helped me there via my mobile telecommunications device. Thank goodness for cell phones. Then I broke up the tile with a hammer, while wearing safety glasses of course. I'm a safety girl. But not exactly in a Julia Roberts, Pretty Woman kind of way. More like a Norm Abrams, This Old House kind of way. Next, I drew the outline of the 'H' and the fleur de lis (not pictured). Then I placed the tile and nipped the pieces until I got them they way I wanted. Wait. That is a lie. I nipped them until I settled for less than perfect. I'm a realist too. Then I cemented the 'H' and let it dry for 24 hours to make sure everything worked correctly.

Okay, 'H' down and FDLs cemented. As were those seemingly random background tiles, Trust me, there was nothing random about them. Marla helped me some with cementing in the background tiles. Then she said that she was going in to get some lunch and would be back. She never returned. Can't imagine why. I may have been cursing myself and my stupid ideas at this point. Well, my scratched and slightly bloody fingers were for sure. Did I mention that I did all of this outside? In the cold. Yeah, there may have been some silent cursing.

Okay, all the tiles were cemented and had to dry for 24 hours. I let them go a bit longer because it got below freezing that night. But I was happy, hard part over.

So there is undoubtedly a better way to do it, but I figured that covering the entire surface with grout was the best way to fill in all those little cracks and crevices. At one point, Daddy came out to look and started laughing. There was so much grout on it, he couldn't even see the design underneath. I may have had a bit of a heavy hand with the grout. The more the merrier right? Wrong. It took me forever to get the excess off.

This is, for the most part, the finished present. Mom and I went in and caulked and grouted the sides so that if some poor soul decided to sit on it, they wouldn't get cut. So just imagine concrete legs and a linen colored, leg protecting border and voila! Finito. Merry Christmas Matt.

That's all for now. I also have some pretty amazing pictures from New Orleans to post. Later though.