Here it is!  My first written recipe.  It's called "Cranutkin" because it has cranberries, nuts (pecans), and pumpkin in it.



Ingredients
3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, lightly beaten
16 ounces canned pumpkin
3 ½ cups flour
1/3 cup chopped pecans
½ cup dried cranberries (chopped or unchopped, you pick)
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons orange zest
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg (optional, because I never have any)
2/3 cup water (half is 1/3)

1. Butter and lightly flour 2 9x5 loaf pans or a large 13x9 baking pan.
2.  In a large bowl, stir together sugar, oil, eggs, and pumpkin. (wet ingredients)
3. Combine the dry ingredients, including the cranberries and pecans, in another bowl.
4. Mix the dry ingredients into the bowl of wet ingredients, adding the water in increments as you go.
5. Pour the batter into the pan(s).
6. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Let stand for 10 minutes to cool. 

Optional: Orange Cream Cheese Glaze

Ingredients
1 cup softened cream cheese
¼ cup fresh orange juice
¼ cup honey
½ vanilla extract

Directions
Beat glaze ingredients at medium speed with an electric mixer until it is creamy.

Allison: Saerom, will you pass the sugar?
Me: "Sugar, sugar...Ohhh honey honey...You are my candy girllllll, and you got me wanting youuuuu..."
(10 minutes pass)
patio speakers play "Sugar, Sugar" by the Archies
Me, surprised: Hey, did they just play this?!...
Oh wait.  That was me.

Mmm...Beautiful Saturdays, beautiful weekends. 
Lately, I've gotten these moments when I smile and just think, "Wow.  I am happy, thankful, and at peace with my life right now.  It's been such a long time."

And it feels so good to finally get here.

My friend asked me--- If there was one verse in the bible. just one that you believe/feel defines what you're about, what would it be?

And here's my reply...

I wish that a Bible verse that defined what I was about!  If anything, it would probably end up being from the Old Testament that tells about how the Jews traveling to the Promised Land kept complaining. =X

In all seriousness, what a wonderful question!  There are a ton of verses that I like, so I'm not sure that I can narrow it down.  It reminds me a lot of the sermon I heard this past Sunday.  The pastor said that someone people base their happiness on prosperity or a principle or a saying or whatever else.  But the point is to base your happiness and your life on one man: Jesus Christ.  I think that is probably why it is terribly difficult to find that one verse that can define it all---we are so complex that we need it all, don't we?!  haha but here's my top verses:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
-Philippians 4:6-7

This is one of the few Bible verses I have memorized, mostly because my mom had it written on a heart on our bathroom mirror at home.  "Do not be anxious about anything" really confounds me, because who doesn't worry?!  I really like this verse because it doesn't say "pray about your worries and God will answer your prayers just they way you want Him to!"  It promises that if you truly gave your worries to God, while recognizing that there is still so much for you to be thankful for, God will grant you peace.  Even though the cause of your worries might not go away, somehow, if you do all these things, God will grant peace in your heart even if you can't understand how or why it comes about.

God is not a man, that he should lie,
nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and not act?
Does he promise and not fulfill?
-Numbers 23:19

This verse reminds me of the constancy and goodness of God.  He doesn't make excuses or false promises.  He doesn't say mean things to hurt you nor does he say nice things just to make you feel better.  He speaks the truth---whether it pains you or lifts you up---but whenever He speaks, it's out of whole-hearted and completely pure love that doesn't wane with time or disobedience or reciprocity.

I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.
I will remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.
Yet I call this to mind and therefore I have HOPE:
Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his passions never fail.
They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."
-Lamentations 3:19-24

If you devote your heart to him and stretch out your hands to him,
If you put away the sin that is in your hand and allow no evil to dwell in your tent,
then you will lift up your face without shame;
you will stand firm and without fear.
You will surely forget your trouble, recalling it only as waters gone by.
Life will be brighter than noonday, and darkness will become like morning.
You will be secure, because there is hope;
you will look about you and take your rest in safety.
You will lie down, with no one to make you afraid,
and many will court your favor.
-Job 11:13-20

I love these verses from Lamentations and Job, not just because they're beautiful and hopeful, but because they are beautiful and hopeful and from what can be argued as the "saddest" books in the Bible.  When I was going through a particular rough period in my life, I wished that I could be like Job.  I felt tortured like him (Sorry to diminish your suffering, man.), but I didn't have that "Yay, boils!" mentality (like Joanne would say) that he did.  I wanted to be some sort of strong righteousness that I swore that I didn't have.  Anyway, reading these verses remind me of all the hope and strength that I can find while "suffering" because it isn't really in the suffering that qualities such as these are found, but in the surrendering of everything (boils and all!) to God.

If I have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
If I give all I posses to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but I have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered. 
It keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails.
But where there are prophecies, they will cease;
where there are tongues, they will be stilled;
where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.
-1 Corinthians 13: 2-10

A lot of people love these verses because they are beautiful and poetic and who doesn't love hearing quotes about love?  I imagine that if a person heard this verse for the very first time at their wedding, they would be astounded at how daunting a task Love really is---"Wait, I'm supposed to do/be all this?!"  But for all it's loftiness, I love all the implications that this chapter does imply.  There is so much more to Love than just love, and it is an awakening that only God can offer this perfect love but we should all hope to give and, therefore, experience this Love.
Ok, and this is also one of my favorite chapters because Lauryn Hill produced an amazing song from it.  It's playing at my wedding, thank you very much. 

This evening, I removed my nose stud.  I miss it already, but I knew it wouldn't last since a career is on the horizon, so why not remove it now?  Besides there were several precipitating factors to take it out now, like the fact that taking the stud in and out for football games probably traumatized my nose because it's been pretty swollen and gross for some time now.  Or that I have to work around that spot every time I wash my face or put on makeup. 

I knew that I would take it out when I started interviewing for jobs because although a nose piercing isn't viewed as rebellious a faux pas as in the past, it's more important to me to be trusted and respected by my patients and their families than to have a little sparkle of self-expression that polarizes people's opinions.

*Sigh* I just have to remind myself that I could always be less vain. 

BUT, in homage to my little sparkle and the fun that it was these past 10 months or so, here's some pictures:
On Black Friday, Kat and I convinced each other to get our noses pierced, so we ventured down to Deep Ellum to interview the place I had gotten my cartilage pierced.  But sadly, it was closed:

This is me as I am watching Kat getting her nose pierced, thinking, "Why did I make her go first?! Now I'm doubly scared!"

And then as I am waiting, this is what I do.  What a dork:

I make Kat and Joanne hold my hands for support.  Jenny, claiming that she fears I will kick out from the pain, holds my feet down.  I'm convinced that she only does this because she wants to be included.  By the way, Christina is the photographer of all of this and Julia is taking a video.  It's a hilarious video if you haven't seen it on Facebook.  Basically, I'm saying, "Oh my gosh, lying here like this makes me look pregnant! Am I pregnant?!"


And here's Kat and me, the finished products.

It was such a fun event because not only did Kat and I got our noses pierced, but Joanne, Jenny, and Christina got their cartilages pierced.  See?  Everything is an adventure!

Here's random pictures of my nose and me...You will be missed (my piercing, not my nose---it's still there)
    

I just had a weird thought.
My brother's girlfriend sees my parents more often than I do.
It's not that I don't spend enough time with my parents (I would hope) or that she lives at my house, just that she is visiting my brother and consequently, visiting my parents, and I am living apart from my family now (and most likely always will).
Not good, not bad.  Just weird.

On a side note, I'm super excited about Halloween tonight! Too bad I can't go trick-or-treating, though.  I'm too much of an adult for that, right?  But not for dressing up! I'll post pictures of my costume later.
For now, I've been spending my Saturday afternoon in the kitchen, making avocado shakes and baking Cranutkin bread!  It's my first authored recipe, a cranberry nut (pecan) pumpkin bread with an orange cream cheese glaze.  I'm so excited about bringing it to my friend's house tonight.  I hope everyone likes it!  I'll post the recipe, pictures, and response soon...

Thanks, guys, for your support via the www the other day.  I complained, I cried, and I got over it.  That is, until I return to work on Tuesday...?  I just need to stick it out in that job for another semester, then I'm home free!

It helps, too, being in an internship that offsets work.  My supervisor, Cortney, emailed me my midterm review yesterday.  Even though my summer practicum was a very different experience in the past, I was still nervous to receive my review.  To my pleasant surprise, Cortney gave glowing comments on some of the very points that my last supervisors chewed me out on.

Here's some pictures of when my roommates and I carved pumpkins.  Saerom blogged about the whole experience in NeighborsGo, so I don't have to, right?  It was so funny because they had never carved pumpkins before, so they were surprised how hollow the pumpkin was and how difficult it was to physically carve a pumpkin.  What a work-out!  But all of us were very pleased with the results:

My pumpkin! Even though it's unbelievably awesome, I have to admit that it wasn't my original idea.  I got it from a picture I saw while looking for pumpkin stencils on Google.

Allison's pumpkin is in the middle and Saerom's is the cat on the right. :)

I dropped my pumpkin off at my parents' house last night, since my roommates and I won't be available to hand out candy.  Plus, no one can really see our pumpkins from our patio, the way our apartment faces.  It needs to be fully appreciated by trick-or-treaters, don't you think?  My dad used his new, fancy camera and tripod just to take a picture, haha:


Time is a man-made construct.  Just let life happen.