He's watching you...

Maybe pretty pictures can entice people to come visit our sad, sad little blog. Speaking of pictures, I made a photoblog awhile back for fun. Check it out.

Who blogs anymore anyways?

Hey all! I know you've been in utter misery without my presence on the net in the last.. uhh... year, so I thought I'd reappear. Is it still referred to as "the net" or is it "the web?" These things sneak up on you when you're not looking. I know "e" prefixes (e-mail, e-trade) have now been replaced by the new and fancier "i" (i-mail?), but maybe next year it will be "u" (if that's not trademarked by U-Haul).

Let's discuss recent updates:
The Daltons are moving to Maryville! We are fixing up a house that my parents bought in November and will move in at the end of January (granted we finish rennovations and kick out the homeless man). We'll live there while we save up money for our own house because we really don't want to become like Maryvillians (see the 'villain' in that word?). I'd like to keep all my teeth. Please don't maim me in the streets if you grew up in Maryville. To go on, we shall move in and all will be glorious! Hopefully we can get a cat (because cats are not the devil like some people believe) and name it Foofy, Gingkobiloba, or maybe Dog. I'll take a poll to decide the winner.

Speaking of voting, it seems that election '08 is upon us. Hillary Clinton? McCain? Barra... I can't even spell his name. How am I supposed to recognize it while voting? Good thing it's a multiple choice test. I'm not terribly political, but I have a feeling Hillary will try to cry her way into office. Sympathy votes shouldn't count. Too bad she didn't give a big hurrah after winning the democratic race like Howard Dean's crazy outburst.

What? There used to be a blog here?

Ok, ok... don't get all up in our faces. We're not indebted to you, Mr. Bloggy. Just because we dropped you like a plate in a Mexican restaurant (you know those things are straight out of the oven) doesn't mean we don't love you. Apology accepted? All right, let's move on.

So, now that I'm in the grown up world--working 8-5, going to bed by 10:30 every night, packing a lunch, and taking out kids on bikes--I seem to have lost the touch for blogging. Maybe it's the lack of internet in our abode.... or maybe it's that I feel very pre-teenish for spilling my guts to the world wide web (I am writing this in a library)...I KNOW! It's those silly PSAs on TV now-- "Hey Sarah-- when are you going to post something new?" They've tainted the world of blogging! It does make you freak out just a little bit thinking about all the creepy people who could be viewing your facebook/blog/bedroom RIGHT now. (Don't look now, but I just snuck up behind you....)

Anyways, life is currently good. I wonder how the phrase "married life" came about. People always use that when they talk to me. "How's married life?" It always pops into my head, but I figured it would rub people the wrong way if I replied with "How's single life?" It's just not as catchy either. Maybe it will catch on some day... Soo, about life-- James & I are still livin' up the Rain Tree in our ghetto, falling apart building. I'm convinced one day that we'll come home, and the porch will have fallen off the back of the building. Seriously! There's a gap that could hold a good-sized watermelon in between the bricks and the frame. I could probably spy on our neighbors if I were so inclined through that hole. So we were hunting up a house for a while, but we re-signed our lease when the last house we wanted had termite damage in the kitchen floors. That's probably a good lesson that you should plan on spending more money for a house if you don't want to fall into the basement while cooking your eggs. Yikes.

Ok, the person behind me in the library is rocking back and forth in a chair making a noise like a sad squeaky toy. AAAHHHHH.

Big gulps, eh? Welp, see ya.

TWO WEEKS.

TWO WEEKS. No, seriously. Two weeks until Vision Quest.

Be praying.

I'm excited.

Whhhhaaa?!

So I got a job. I know you're thinking, "Whhhaaaa?!" Please-- no sounds of astonishment. I got called about a job in necropsy and histology at UT's vet school, so I had an interview with them 2 weeks ago, waited a week, and got offered the job. Woo woo! Monday was my first day on the job, which I spent in UT's HR orientation until 12:15 before ever going to work. I then played on the necropsy floor where vet students and pathologists were cutting up some animals. There were 3 beagles, a himalayan cat, a 5 lb puppy, a horse, and a beaver. Yes, a beaver. It was pretty cool, I must say. My boss and I worked on chopping up the horse for disposal, and, amazingly, I didn't gag or vomit while doing this. I didn't really handle much of the cutting-- I mainly worked the wench that lifted the body off the ground. I realize that I probably won't get to talk about this position much if I value all of our readers' stomachs, soooo I'll just sum it up as "lots o' blood and guts." I didn't really mind all of the nasty stuff. Also, my boss is pretty awesome, so we can make light of all the gore. The other half of my job (necropsy is going to be my morning job) is working in the histology department helping with the biopsy samples that are sent in by different clincians. I haven't really done anything in that department yet, but I'm guessing it will be a good learning experience if I want to continue in the scientific field. Mmkay, well, my lunch break is almost up, so peace.

Forgot about bloggy.

Wow, it's been an insanely long amount of time since either of us have blogged. I guess married life and school for Gabby and me, respectively, have taken up the majority of our time. Plus, not a lot has happened that would be deemed as blogolicious.

I just was reminded about my dear bloggy when I saw the war going on over at the ManSpeak blog. It's amazing... it truly brings to my attention how different a biblical view of manhood and womanhood is from the world's view.

But anyways, life is wonderful. I am excited about all the work that the Lord has done in the past month or so. I know He'll continue to work too, which is even more exciting. It always hurts when the Lord rips idols out of my firm grasp... but it's always for my good and always so freeing!

I'm going to go clean up my house now... it looks like Hurricane Dirty Clothes and Dishes (category 5) came through this weekend.

xoxXOXoxxOXOXoXox

Countdown to Vision Quest: 6 weeks!! YAY.

Oh, the wonders of Paint.

Hey, I never claimed to be an artist.

What are everyone's favorite Thanksgiving foods? Mine's the turkey, mashed potatoes, and green-bean casserole. Mmmm, I'm drooling just thinking about it.

...And they came in threes

Well, I wasn't quite expecting them so early, but my Mormon buddies came by today with their chauffeur for the day (apparently biking is out in the late fall). I had written about some things I disagreed with on their pamphlet (all over it, actually), and we talked about them for a bit-- about the Gospel being "restored" after the "apostasy" and "priesthood authority" being given to Joseph Smith and all that. They got down to the point asking if I would read over the book of Mormon and pray about it to believe, and I said no, so that kind of hurried their departure. I just kept saying that I believe the book of Mormon is an addition to the Bible and that all we need is Jesus Christ to receive salvation and an eternity in heaven. I asked why they were asking people to accept book of Mormon instead of Jesus Christ and why they ask people to accept that a man-- Joseph Smith-- was a prophet and believe in the book of Mormon. They said it was a testament of Jesus Christ, and it spoke of the Gospel like the Bible. I don't think they believe in perserverance with their evangelizing if they give up so quickly. I asked if I could pray for them before they left, and I just prayed with all my might that they would believe in Jesus Christ as the way to salvation and that no good works could save them. I said how we are all sinners and that nothing we do can ever earn our salvation except faith alone. I felt like I fumbled over the topics we discussed (possibly because I just didn't believe in any of them and didn't really have a specific references to rebuttal them), but I just wanted to show them the faith that I have in Jesus Christ without their book. Hopefully our encounter will be of interest to them, and maybe I'll see them again-- I invited them to the concert Friday because of church yesterday when they said to be faithful to invite people. Who knows-- they might come.

The best "blonde" moment ever...

Tonight we were playing Guesstures, and it was Loren's turn to go. She was looking at the cards and trying to pick out which ones she wanted to do, and she was like "Well I got these three, but this one... I just... I just don't know what this is! What is this word? Larry-nijits?" Andy Carr looked at it and was like, "Umm, I don't know either..." So the rest of us looked at it....

Laryngitis.

Go out in twos and threes...

Well, I just had my first encounter with some Mormon missionaries. I got to hear the whole pitch-- from Adam to Jesus to Joseph Smith. Somewhere around Lehi the prophet sailing to South America between 600B.C. and 400 A.D. did I have something I really didn't believe. Every other argument I said, they agreed with-- that the Bible is the breath of God, infallible, and shouldn't be added to or subtracted from was totally fine with them... BUT-- they believe that modern-day prophets exist and are accepted via 12 modern-day apostles that they have who pray and unanimously select a new prophet when the old one dies. What do you all believe about their idea that prophets are around today? I always thought that the Old Testament was very separate once the veil was torn and the church was formed, so I didn't think modern prophets were called after that. The only real hole in their pitch for Mormonism (if I were gullible enough to believe it) is that I am supposed to "pray about it" to determine if the book is real, and they said it wouldn't hurt me any if it were a false book. I wouldn't pitch Christianity by saying, "hey, if you don't believe it-- just trash it." I'd be shouting, "THIS IS THE TRUTH!" Anyways, help me out here so I can give them something to think about for our date next Thursday.

I was way cooler than Holly in high school...

What? We weren't cool and popular in high school? I beg to differ. Holly always thought she was too cool for school, but she could never compare to my coolness. I mean-- I was in the band. How much cooler can you get?!

Anyways, Holly said I would be kicked off the blog, drawn & quartered, and have my toes nibbled on by man-eating ants if I didn't post again. I don't have too much to say, though. Nothing has changed in recent days. James and I are 5 days away from being married for 3 months (although it feels like 3 years already), I still haven't found a job, and we still have no tv, internet, or a Roomba to entertain us at home. I've got an interview today for a job with the large animal department of the vet school where I would most likely be knocked unconscious by an angry heifer, but I'm desperate! I don't think it would be as trying as working in a small animal clinic-- one time we had a dog named Princess Vincent who once whimpered while getting her temperature taken, and the owner banned all of the assistants from even touching the dog. It was a rectal thermometer, but c'mon! It's a DOG. And who names a female dog Princess VINCENT? Honestly.

In recent Dalton projects, we've almost finished building an entertainment center for our imaginary television. Only the staining and varnishing are left to do this week and then it will come home with us! James designed it a few months ago, and his uncles cut boards to make the frame and they knocked it together last week. Woodworking is painstakingly slow for my taste, though. Last Saturday while they were out in the woodshop, I used his uncle's friend's expertise in sewing to start a dress pattern that I'd bought months ago. I bought a pattern that said "easy" on it, but MAN-- it was awful! We couldn't understand the directions at all. The pictures were deceiving and a lot of the directions weren't written well. We had one heck of a time just getting the bodice of the dress done. I ripped out so many portions that I had already sewn that I thought we'd never get it together. I still have to add the zipper to the top half and sew on the skirt, which I think will be MUCH more straightforward.... and then I'll have a dress that I may only wear to a Christmas party, but at least I made one! Dannnng.

Now's time for a request to anyone who's still reading this: James is bent on training for triathalon season in January, and I think I can finally commit myself to trying this year. I can train with him, but I'm not exactly challenging to ride bikes with or run with since I'm not as fast as guys are. Soooo, I need some buddies who would like to swim, run, and/or bike with me! I don't have a membership to a pool, but I'll probably get one so I can practice swimming. Did I mention I can't swim? Yeah. I can't. I sink. Like a body with cinder blocks attached to it. You know the kind. A patient buddy to work out with would be good. So if there are some ladies who would like to get together to do this, give me a holla.

Well, I'm going to go back to job surfing in case the interview today doesn't work out... or if I get kicked by a cow in the near future... ouch.

Bring out the parkas...

I just wanted to encourage my brosephs and sistas in the Lord to keep fighting the good fight... swim upstream! I have been so aware lately of my tendency to lose my footing and begin floating with the current of our world. But, by God's grace, we can make Christ look GREAT.

"Come, let us return to the Lord... let us know; let us press on to know the Lord..." Hosea 6:1, 3

In weather news, BRRRRRRR!! I think we just skipped fall and moved straight into winter. Oh well, at this rate it'll be snowing in no time. And I'm a girl who loves her snow. I fondly remember one day in February in the year of 2002... the day when Memphis received a whopping 2 inches of snow (they closed the schools, too... then again, they also closed school once for just the threat of snow, which ended up just being drizzle). Gabby and I made this humongus snow caterpillar using every bit of snow in my front yard. We then spray-painted him all kinds of crazy colors and named him Snowy. Our local newspaper came and took our picture by it, and we were on the front page of the "Neighborhood" section the next day. Did I mention we were really cool and popular in high school? No? Well, good, because we weren't.

SNAKES ON A PLANE.

Okay, so there really weren't any snakes on this plane. I just couldn't think of a better title.

First of all, I'M ALIVE. And yes, skydiving was INCREDIBLE. Definitely ranks up there about second to my salvation. The ride up there was really fun... even though we got stuck in insane amounts of interstate traffic once we got to Georgia. We were supposed to get there arond 10am, but we rolled in at around 12:30pm. We then registered and basically signed our life away (one of the sections of the waiver literally said "You may be dismembered, decapitated, electrocuted, etc... but you can't sue. Sucks for you."). Then we waited around for a few hours... and FINALLY at around 4:30 they started calling our names and we got suited up. Katie Roach and Bonnie Japp went first, then on the next plane it was me, Ashley Adcock, John Douglass, Zach Varnell, Andrew Thornbury, and his friend from ROTC. The last guys to finish us out were Kevin Harris and Daniel Jinks. Even though we were sad we couldn't all go together, it worked out great for getting to watch everyone and take pictures.

In case you're wondering what skydiving feels like (mainly because you're too scared to go and you just want to live vicariously through me), let me tell you. It's cold. After I did my two backflips out of the plane and I started free falling, wow... all I could think of was how freezing it was and how it was hard to breathe. The air rushing in my nose and lungs was so cold and so forceful. It was insane. And you can move your arms around, which causes you to spin all crazy-like. I could feel my chipmunk cheeks doing some serious flapping in the wind. Once we deployed the chute, it was so peaceful and quiet. You could look out and see Atlanta and some mountains in the distance. I was in awe of all of God's creation. We got to go in the late afternoon, too... so the sun was casting these incredible shadows on everything. Then we steered the chute and did some spinning tricks before the tandem instructor took control to guide us down. The landing wasn't difficult at all (but of course I wasn't the one in control of it... if I'd been steering, we would have ate it... hard). We just stuck out our feet and slid on in. Nice and easy.

And then that was it. 145 bucks and 5 minutes later, I had backflipped out of a plane at 14,000 feet and lived to tell about it.

The ride home was also really fun, especially because we stopped by Zach's parents' house in Chattanooga for some home-cooked grub. It was delicious... my favorite part was the homemade chocolate ice cream. Mmmm.

And if that isn't enough, we might go skydiving again in the spring. Yesssssssss.

Check out John Douglass's video that he took himself. Crazy.

GERONIMOOOOOOO.

Roughly 15 other people from VFC and I are going skydiving on Saturday in Georgia. I AM SO STINKIN' EXCITED. Even though I have no doubts that all will go well, please pray that we don't become smears on the ground (but if we do, to die is gain, right?).

Since I'm too stingy to pay the $85 to have a guy videotape me, here's what I guess it will look like.

Are ya kiddin' me?

I got home from work today and went into my room to change into some comfy clothes. As I walked into our master bathroom to look in the mirror, I heard what sounded like a helicopter fly by my ear. I then proceeded to watch this HUGE bee---no, DINOSAUR--- land on my UT shirt across the bathroom. A bee? Are ya kiddin' me? If it's not centipedes, it's humongus flying insects.

And since Gabby and I like food-related posts around here (I think you can HEAR us getting fatter), I made banana bread for the first time tonight and got to enjoy it with the lovely Kittrell family. I am just thankful it didn't turn out to be a banana-flavored brick. Props to Food Network for a scrumptrulescent recipe.

And last but not least, go Vols.

Food time!

Ok, so I've decided to pursue new culinary arts since I'm the main chef in the Dalton household (I think that's blasphemy to everyone who knows of James's skills... haha). Last night I was going through the Betty Crocker cookbook and saw a dessert that I'd seen on Food Network, so I decided I had to make it. I made two last night because we only had two containers to bake the dessert in, and I used the remainder of the mix this morning and had a tasty dessert with my lunch. I decided to photograph the experience for added salivation. Here it is!

Welcome to Baby Lava Cakes and 400 calories of pure goodness:

Here it is as a whole lil' cake

Here is the first peak into the yummy goodness inside

Here's a better view of the gooeyness... mmm...

Look at that lava pour out!

Good to the last bite

Quite easy and verrrrry tasty. Hope you all are drooling by now :)

UPDATE:
Ok, so I guess I'll type up the recipe for you to appease the hungry readers out there.

Lava Baby Cakes
Prep: 15 minutes Bake: 13 minutes Oven: 400 degrees F
Chill: 45 minutes Makes: 6 servings

1 3/4 cups (10.5 oz) semisweet chocolate pieces
2 tablespoons whipping cream (I used half-and-half b/c we didn't have any cream)
3/4 cup butter
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
Powdered sugar (optional)
Raspberries (optional)

1. For filling, in a small heavy saucepan combine 3/4 cup of the chocolate pieces and whipping cream. Cook and stir over low heat until chocolate melts. Remove from heat. Cool, stirring occasionally. Cover; chill about 45 minutes or until firm.
2. Meanwhile, in a medium heavy saucepan cook and stir the remaining 1 cup chocolate pieces and the butter over low heat until melted. Remove from heat; cool.
3. Form filling into 6 equal-size balls; set aside. Lightly grease and flour six 3/4-cup soufflé dishes or six 6-ounce custard cups. Place dishes or cups in a 15x10x1-inch baking pan; set aside.
4. In a mixing bowl beat eggs, egg yolks, granulated sugar, andd vanilla with an electric mixer [we're missing our mixer beaters right now, so I just did this by hand and added 2 minutes to the time] on high speed for 5 minutes or until lemon colored. Beat in cooled chocolate mixture [the butter & chocolate one you made 2nd] on medium speed. Sift flour and cocoa powder over mixture; beat on low speed just until combined. Spoon 1/3 cup batter into dishes. Place 1 ball of filling into each dish. Spoon remaining batter into dishes.
5. Bake in a 400 degree F oven about 13 minutes or until cakes feel firm at edges. Cool in dishes 2 to 3 minutes. Using a knife, loosen cakes from sides of dishes. Invert onto dessert plates. If desired, dust with powdered sugar and garnish with raspberries. Serve immediately.

Make-Ahead Directions: Prepare as above through step 4. Cover and chill until ready to bake or up to 4 hours. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before baking as directed.

Nutrition facts per serving: 621 cal., 47 g total fat (27 g saturated fat), 285 mg chol., 291 mg sodium, 50 g carbo., 3 g fiber, 8 g pro. 26% Vit. A, 8% Ca, 16% iron

Chef's notes: I prepared these last night starting at 4:30 p.m., served them at 8:00 after dinner, and had one left over which I ate at noon today. The cake rose a little more after sitting overnight, but tasted pretty much the same. I think the filling wasn't quite as runny as last night. I filled the dish 3/4 of the way up and it only rose a few centimeters, so don't worry about it baking over the top. Beware of using Corningware soufflé dishes if you don't have a rubber pot holder! After inverting on a plate, those things are too heavy to pick up with a normal terry cloth pot holder. If you have ramekins with corners, those might work well to hang onto. The cakes hold together well, and our first attempt at freeing them from the dish didn't destroy them. For those "balls" they tell you to form with the filling, I just cooled the filling in a 10-oz. Pyrex bowl and used a spoon to scoop up the filling. I didn't touch it with my hands, and it warmed up very quickly anyways. You can just scoop it out with a spoon like ice cream and plop it in the middle of the cake. If you'd like to only make this for two people, these are the proportions I used:

1/4 cup chocolate pieces for the filling; 1/3 cup chocolate pieces for the mix.
1 tablespoon whipping cream (or half-and-half)
1/4 cup butter
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1.75 tablespoons granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1.75 tablespoons cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
Powdered sugar (optional)
Raspberries (optional)

Happy baking!

This bugs...

Ummm... if Gabby thinks her fruit fly infestation is bad, I think I can one-up her.

Last night I was getting in bed and I looked at my sheets and saw what I thought was a piece of lint or string or something (I didn't have my contacts in, so it could have been a bear for all I knew). So I went to flick it... and it MOVED. It was a CENTIPEDE. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I had a centipede ROMPING AROUND IN MY BED. Uggggh, barf. Luckily, Julie's the man of the house and she squished it. It could have latched onto my pupil or something.

HELP!

Ok... they've found me. 3 years and 10 miles away, I've been found out... by the horrid fruit flies. Once inhabiting apartment 215 CD in Humes Dormitory for endless months (all because of some rotten apple and rotten orange that we got move-in weekend that never left our fridge)-- they have found me out in Rain Tree. I wrote about our infestations in North Knoxville earlier, but apparently West Knoxville is just as prone to having annoying and infuriating pests. You can blame it on our building-- it has *quite possibly* the most unsound structure (as evidenced by the curve in the back wall on the porch where you can see underneath the bricks or the fact that none of the doors shut right-- or you can blame our kitchen, which is currently holding bananas, open watermelon, open cantaloupe, grapes, apples, and peaches-- hey, we like fruit-- what of it?! Many a fruit fly has died just trying to enter the heaven that is our refrigerator. I find their cold little carcasses SOOOO close to the goodness of the fruit, but alas-- one can't fly when one'sbody temperature is a mere 40 degrees farenheit. Muahaha. I sound evil now, don't I? Well, they wouldn't be such a pain if they weren't so darn bold! They fly right up in your face and into your eyeballs every five seconds without a care in the world. You'd think they'd fear the creature that is 2000 times bigger than them, but they don't! It's amazing. God made some fearless creatures... for me to squash. James got so tired of me staring off in the distance and crouching like a cat before going *SMACK* with hands that I think he has deemed fruit flies out of season for hunting. I'll have to find new prey now... please send bug spray...

Short people got... no reason...

I read a news article on MSN yesterday that said researchers discovered evidence proving that tall people are smarter than short people. Also, they said that research has shown that short people make significantly less salary than their taller coworkers.

Clocking in at a whopping 5'2"..... I'm doomed to remain a broke-as-a-joke idiot.

Just thought you should know.

I talk goood and everythang...

I've officially decided, based on many proven instances, that I am by far the worst at making conversation with new people. Sometimes I'm bad at conversation with people I only know slightly, but with new people-- random stuff just flows out of my mouth, and I can't seem to stop it. I just met my neighbor across the hall [She's the one stinking our hallway up by starting her cigarette inside and then walking through the hall with it. Ick. I don't think Febreeze can mask that.] and all this stuff flew out at once, so I just backed away and said, "Have a good day!" and shut my door. I think I was just taken by surprise that she was actually leaving the apt. building since her car is always here (so is mine until I get a job...), so I didn't know quite what to say. At least I didn't say, "Oh, so you smoke?.... That gives you cancer..... Just thought I'd tell you in case the Surgeon General's warning wasn't big enough..." That would've been a pretty awkward conversation as well. I don't think I can bare to repeat what I really said for the sake of it being so stupid on my part (I need to save face somehow!), but I just thought I'd let you all know how dumb I am.

Fin.