Making a Birthday Cake in Africa

Normally, a task such as making a birthday cake in the shape of a shark wouldn't be a problem for my sister. She's created porcupine cakes, jet plane cakes, you name it. But this time, the new house in Sudan, mainly the kitchen, just wasn't ready for such an undertaking....

"Today I am attempting to make a shark cake minus an oven and real butter. So far I have microwaved five odd-sized chocolate cakes. Next I am going to churn my skimmed milk cream in my food processor and attempt to make frosting from it. I'm going for looks here, not taste. We shall see. I'm getting creative with the microwave. I've done meatloaf, scalloped potatoes, cake, brownies, chocolate chip cookie bars and muffins - things I never thought of microwaving."

The end result...


"Well, the cake part worked and I think the butter was good but I also forgot to buy powdered sugar and I think my homemade stuff made the frosting a flop. So, then I had to make a batch of marshmallow frosting which is pretty hard to work with. Thus our shark is not the sharpest looker in the ocean but he only needs to please an 8-year-old for three minutes so I think it will be okay."

The comments...
"It's a whale"
"It's a catfish!"
"It's a dolphin!"

Conclusion...
"Not only was he not a handsome shark, to some he didn't even look like a shark. But they all ate it, so he must have tasted better than a shark."

New Pictures of Elizabeth

My brother finally sent a couple pictures of Elizabeth....

The world's cutest bunny rabbit...




In this second picture, she looks like Jason, as she stares at his mug of coffee goodness so longingly. How appropriate that she has the Chapman look about her at this moment.

Skittles Singing Rabbit

OK, my buddy Jonathan from work (Starbucks) sent me this video as an ode to The Singing Barista we had working at our store. (The barista had a habit of singing non-stop during every shift and this commercial reminded him of her.) Please enjoy the Skittles Singing Rabbit.

Celebrity Look-alikes

Here are my celebrity look-alikes...though Jennifer Connelly is not on here...

Costume Party, Not a Halloween Party

Our young adults group had a costume party last weekend...too much fun!

My roommate and I (how appropriate are these costumes?)


The costume contest winners, Slim and Shady


The girls all dressed up

Oatmeal Cookies and Swearing

OK, so Aaron preached on Matthew 5 this past Sunday (10/29) about making oaths and swearing. It was a great message and I listened really well. It wasn't until the week started that I realized I actually did what the Bible tells me not to do more often than I thought. Basically, taking an oath, such as "I swear to God," is a no-no. Make your "yes" "yes" and your "no" "no."

Here's my story...from Starbucks naturally:

In the middle of yet another stressful night at Starbucks, I made myself laugh. Baristas at my store have a bad habit of just opening new packages of cookies (or muffins, scones, etc.) when they sell one, rather than looking in the pastry case or around the pastry case for a tray of said assorted pastries. Ugh. It irks me to no end.

So, I'm cleaning up the mess left me and I find TWO open packages of oatmeal cookies and TWO trays of oatmeal cookies, all within three feet of each other. I was so frustrated I picked up the packages of cookies to take them to the back and I said to no one in particular (though my friend Jonathan was standing there doing dishes), "I swear to God if someone opens one more package of cookies, I'll...." I didn't finish the sentence because I started laughing at myself.

See, I listened in church Sunday morning...now if I could just stop saying it.