The timeline....

Wow..this is hilarious and awesome at the same time. I was looking back on my FACEBOOK Timeline (which is a neat way to reminisce), and I came across this note.  I wish I could have read this several months ago, and I would have been reminded that God provides. I wish I would just learn the first time and not have gone through the same doubts over and over.

This letter was written before we moved to PEI and shortly after we got married (2007). We were on our way to move to the big town of Kensington (insert sarcasm here) and were in no way able to purchase a house. We were at a point where we had no idea where we were gonna live in this small town. (sound familiar???)  I guess I was just on the verge of growing up and learning things about God..but here I am still learning, and being reminded.

So why is it that we continue to have to go through things time and time again (sometimes almost the most identical things). Why can't we all get it through our thick skulls that we can trust in God? How do the same reminders keep coming back time and time again?

Maybe I have REALLY learned my lesson this time. Maybe this time I can know that God provides all of our needs..including a house...even if it's with time, and challenges along the way.

How many times do you need to be slapped in the face by God to be reminded? How many times do you go through similar things in order to be taught a good lesson? Am I the only one here...????

Read on.....

My Dilemna

by Amanda Dunham on Thursday, April 5, 2007 at 11:22pm

It's weird. Everything has been put into place..well except for a new place. Tyler got accepted into Journalism at Holland College in PEI, and today I got my job with flying colors. So now we really would need a place to live, and we need to know that it is going to be convienent and affordable. We really want to get a dog and be able to have good living arrangements. This is the problem with moving into a small town, smaller choice.
The point is, the job provides a lot of opportunity. I can teach Kindergarden and grow even more into a teaching profession. I really love what I'm doing and do want to grow. This is an excellent opportunity. I just hate making mistakes.
So what I'm asking, is that if you believe in God, or even if you don't say a little prayer for Tyler and I, that things will come together the way they are supposed to.
We know what we want for a house and for a life, (at least for the next 2 years) but really hope that it will all happen with no regrets.
Thank you for listening, and most definatly thank you for the positive feeling that we will recieve back for all of this.

Amanda

So now...let's fast forward a few months from that letter....as you can see in this photo below...God provided....(of course he did)

Look at this back yard...we were blessed..we went from a one bedroom apartment to this small but more then adequate house with a lovely back yard....

And out of this came another wonderful blessing in our lives.... She was my princess then and she still is...oh Jazz. Sounds ridiculous to some, but Ty and I can't imagine our lives without her. Wasn't she the cutest puppy??

So yeah....God provides all our needs. That house was the starting point for our lives. And I don't think I really knew until today, how much God was trying to teach me back then. Perhaps I was too absorb with new married life, new dog, new community, new job, that I took my eyes off the most important thing, how God provided for us.

So will I forgot again our experience in Labrador? Well it's very easy to forgot, but I try to keep reminding myself. I try to wake up and jump in my shower every morning, and thank God. I try to thank God every time I turn on my dishwasher, or go in and sit on my couch in a nice warm house. But that's it I believe..you do have to remind yourself, you have to look back sometimes to realize where you have been and now where you can go and what you can do with that teaching. Hmmm...perhaps God has finally gotten through my thick skull??

Survival of the fittest

You ever walk into a room, and immediately just look for a safe spot to sit?? A spot where nothing or no one will really notice you, and you can just sort of blend in. That's me. I stand back, scope the place out, see who would be sitting around me, wonder if they are friendly. I also try to check out and make sure that I can appear comfortable but on the inside I'm aching with uncomfortable feelings. I've got so many thoughts racing, and I've got so many mixed emotions. My stomach is usually in knots, and I'm usually sweating like crazy. I'm trying hard just to keep my head low, but at the point where I can still appear approachable.

APPROACHABLE...there's the key word for me. I don't want to look like I don't want to meet anyone, but I know that I'm not super comfortable just to start randomly walking up to people I've never seen before in my life. If someone were to walk up to me and start chatting, I would start chatting with them like as if I knew them my whole life. I listen and ask questions, that's what I do for a living, once I'm approached the chatting is not hard to do. And in my role you soon learn that most people are ok with talking about themselves once they are given permission.

Now different situation, put me in a small group, or in a leadership role of any type, I'm going to make every effort I can to make everyone else not feel uncomfortable. I'm going to help people feel important, and hopefully "break the ice".

You would think at my age, that meeting and making new friends becomes all natural and easy. I mean I should be confident and secure in myself by now right and be able to approach anyone?  Well for some people, they probably just have always been good at it, but if your like me, it's always been a push. It doesn't just come naturally like others. And now I'm at a stage in my life, where I wonder if because I consider my husband my best friend, and I have my two "kids" to take care of, if I've become comfortable with that.

I went to University where I didn't know anyone. I had to just learn to survive on my own. And I did. In my first year I met one of my best friends, who still remains that way. She is one of my main go to people. And my other best friend, well I had known her since I was young, and we immediately got reacquainted there in town. I still even had to get to know her all over again. So from those two, we met a few other people, some at church, and some at school, but we got comfortable.

 I recall sitting together with my three friends during supper at the University Cafeteria, and there were more chairs at the table, but normally we sat just us 4 and we were happy with that. Were we unapproachable? Were we wrapped up in our own little friendship that we didn't let anyone else in? It's hard to recall what people may have thought of us, but now I wonder if as you age, and you get married, if people assume that you don't need anyone else and you become unapproachable. Yeah you might know a few other people, and you might acquaint yourself with them, but really overall, you are just comfortable with your significant other, and therefore unless you can find another couple who conveniently has all the same interests as you and your husband, and you somehow have all the same senses of humor you just go out treading water on your own. So then you have children (or dogs in my case) and they become your world. Your home is child and/ or dog friendly, and so then unless you meet other couples who has a child that yours can be best friends with, so they grow up having someone in their lives that they are close to, and the parents are close and friendly and enjoy each other's company, but it's never the same as when you met that first best friend back in University. (now perhaps this is a different scenario then with dogs :)

So what am I getting at? Well how do I appear approachable, even though I'm happily married with two wonderful dogs? How do we meet new people naturally? Do we have to have kids? Do we need dogs? And although I'm never expecting to replace any friendships that I already have (because even with distance, I always feel close to them), is it possible to reconnect with people in the same way that we did back in University, when you had relationships, and school work, and fashions and stuff to talk about.

I will always remember how I met my husband. My best friend and I went to church, and on the way out the door, a group of guys came and APPROACHED us and tried to find out some stuff about us, and asked us to hang out. Sure there was ulterior motives, but they approached us. And if you asked my friend today, she would think that we were not exactly the most approachable people. But here we were, people wanted to make friends, guys wanted to meet new girls. So what now? I've been married for 5 years, and have moved around, and met many different wonderful people, but have never really developed the same types of relationships like I had in University. Does this mean I'm unapproachable? Does this mean that I'm just too comfortable? Does this mean I compare too much?

I would love to be able to just walk up to someone and say "blah blah blah..would you be my friend?" like we did back in the old school days. But that's just probably not acceptable anymore. Plus my personality doesn't do well with it. Have I lost my survival instinct? When we first arrived in Labrador the first thing we did was go to church, where we could be around people and try to look "normal" despite our living circumstances. We are here now, and we are living a more normal life with a house and our own bed, but we are still far from normal. Our survival instincts have to click in a new way. We are not trying to survive with water and heat, but trying to blend into our surroundings, and feel as if we have been here our whole lives. We need to give ourselves some time, and we need to allow ourselves opportunity, so for now I suppose I'm just trying to appear approachable.

So for those of you who are trained "APPROACHERS", well please understand that there's always more then meets the eye, one step out could mean a significant lasting friendship (even if that person doesn't seem so approachable at first). And the next time you are like me, and you get a whole sense of anxiety over meeting new people, and a simple thing of trying to choose a place to sit becomes a big deal, just take a deep breath, look around...your not going to replace your other friends, your just going to reconnect with new ones, even if its over having to wipe a baby's bum, or pick up dog poop. It's a battle ground out there, and only the fittest survive.

Thus begins PHASE 2 of our journey.......

Some good treats for later...

Every year I usually try some new yummies for Christmas, and even though Christmas is long over, and all the sweets are gone, these are treats that could be made any time of the year. So I thought I would share some of my treats that I tried.

I love sugar way more then I probably should, but at Christmas time especially. These treats I'm already thinking about making again. Chocolate chip cookie dough truffles. Biggest issue with these was it was hard to coat them in chocolate. I found the best way was to play the dough on a spoon and then dip, but then you don't get that perfect truffle look. But they all tasted the same way going down. And I LOVE chocolate chip cookie dough. This way it's safe and delicious to eat.

Here is the recipe link:

http://www.loveandoliveoil.com/2010/01/chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-truffles.html

My discovery has been that there are so many chocolate chip cookie dough recipes, so my fun is just beginning.


Chocolate Cookie Dough Truffles
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup milk or soy milk
1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

14 oz dark chocolate candy coating
directions:

Beat butter and sugars and in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add soymilk and vanilla. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt and mix on low speed (or by hand) until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips.

Cover and chill dough for 1 hour.

When dough is firm enough to handle (it may help to lightly flour your hands), form dough into 1" balls and arrange on a baking sheet lined with waxed paper. Place sheets in freezer and let chill for 30 minutes.

Melt chocolate candy coating in a double boiler or in microwave according to package directions. Using forks or a dipping tool, dip cookie balls into candy coating to cover. Tap fork on side of pan to remove any excess coating, and return to waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Chill until set. Store, chilled, in an airtight container for up to 1 week (though good luck making them last that long).

My next experience was snowball cookies ( www.anutinanutshell.com ). But not the newfie type of snowballs (which I do hope to try at some point). These did not make a big batch for me.



Ingredients
1 cup butter
1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar
1 tsp McCormick pure vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup finely chopped nuts (optional, but recommended)

Directions

1. Mix butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla thoroughly.

2. Stir flour and salt together; blend in. If adding nuts, mix those in as well.

3. Roll dough in 1-inch balls, and place on ungreased baking sheet.

4. Bake 10 to 12 minutes at 400 degrees, or until set but not brown.

5. While still warm, roll in powdered sugar. Cool completely, and then roll in powdered sugar again.

**These were a tasty treat with some tea or coffee. Not really sweet, which is nice sometimes. The one mistake was I used margarine instead of butter. They should have been lighter and fluffier.

Finally I decided to roast my own almonds.



http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/candied-almonds/

I made my own adjustments to this recipe as some of the ingredients I didn't have. But for the most part they were done as the recipe states. These were addictive and tasty. It made a whole lot of them. Big thing is to keep them fresh, so make sure they are in a good container.

Back to Living....

After a much needed trip home, and visit with family and friends, and well let's be honest, some major shopping, we are back to life. We essentially said Goodbye to our life in Moncton as we knew it. Our house from back there is gone, and we drove by to cut our ties (it's amazing how attached you can get to something...even if it's just a house). We loved being back there, around people that we were more then comfortable around, and we shed tears when we left, but it was a joyful feeling to come home to my own bed! To know that we were going to our new to us home.

So what am I going to write about now, where does this blog go from here? Well our journey is far from over. We are happy to be just living now, and now being able to live normally, but we are far from normal. Our journey always has curves and challenges, and I never think that we are done of this journey.

So as part of our continuing journey I would like to include the things that I think about, the things that we do, the culture of Labrador, and the ever creative side of our brains. We will now get back to more writing, more creativity, and one thing that we really want to do more of now is cooking.

This blog could take an interesting twist, one that I'm very excited about. I don't want it to just be about us either, I want it to be about life in general and how we are all common in our living, and I want to make it interesting. I want people to take something from it, and think...or act...or something along those lines.
 Any ideas on how to make this blog more interesting and creative?? I'm open.....

So onto a new year, onto new thoughts, new happenings, new corners to turn, and new adventures to go on! I'm excited for what may be coming! I feel like I'm prepared to face anything now!!! My eyes have been opened, and my heart has been changed.