Hi

Long time no talk, I know! I have been pretty busy, so when I've had much time to blog is when I've been updating my makeup blog, quackspassionpit.blogspot.com. Check it out, it's fun :)

Anyways, I just have something kind of interesting to share with you. I am watching a documentary called A Case for Christ (thanks to netflix, otherwise I'd never even know about this movie!), trying to prove via historians and such, the existence and being of Christ. In it, one of the scholars shares the following passage:

 "For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth."

This scholar, shared this passage with dozens of friends and associates (christians, jews, and so forth) and asked them who this passage was about, and who wrote it. All of the people answered that this scripture is about Christ, and is in the New Testament.

However...it is not from the New Testament.

It is from Isaiah 53. Written thousands of years before Christ came to the earth. 

I think it's very cool to see prophecies of Christ and how he fulfilled those prophecies. I am not super religious but this film is convincing for sure.

'Til next time! 

I'll have a #9 with Ranch and Sweet 'n Sour Sauce

Every year when I come up to Skagway, the thing I miss the most from the real world is Wendy's. I am a sucker for chicken nuggets with ranch and sweet n sour sauce! I don't know why, but I always seem to miss this the most. Because of this, every summer I have had multiple dreams where I discover a town in the middle of nowhere, and it has a Wendy's. I am tormented in the morning when I wake up only to discover that I really didn't consume 400 calories of chickeny nugget goodness. Anyways, this year I decided I was done with the dreams and I was going to put them to rest for good. Since we drove up here, we were able to stop at a Wendy's far north in Alberta- coincidentally the last one we ended up seeing. I was so excited to have my "last supper"! While there, I bought a bag full of sauces to enjoy up here with chicken nuggets.

So anyways, Trent, my sister and some friends went on a road trip to Denali yesterday. I couldn't go because I have to work, but I digress. Today, my sister texts me to say they found a Wendy's- in the middle of nowhere in a town called North Pole (very clever huh)!! WTF!? My dream came true! Sure, it's still a day's drive from me, but so random huh! Not even Juneau, the capital, has a Wendy's (although if it did, I very well might spend the $200 to fly there).

Crazy!

I can rent a car now!

Well...I turned 25 last week. 25! I have always kind of looked forward 25, because it seemed like a turning point age or something. But as the date got closer and closer, I started getting weird and nervous. I think it's because I realized that I will only continue getting older and older...and older. Plus, I think we forget sometimes that we will never be able to go back to a certain age- like we'll never be 16 again- which can definitely be good (who really wants to be 16 again?), but still, we spend all of our youth being excited to get older so we can date or go to college or rent a car, but then when we get there it's like "oh poo, can I be 20 again?"

However, I have heard that the older you get, the better life gets- that the thirties are better than the twenties, and the forties are better than the thirties. I hope it's true. But when I woke up one day after I turned 25, I actually felt different. As if a new leaf had been turned, and I had a fresh start.

Anyways enough of my ramblings!

So, as far as my birthday celebrations-- Trent is always so awesome at putting fun and creative parties together. It is almost always a "surprise party", but as you could imagine, by now I am used to it so it's not really a surprise. I just say "tell me when to be there and I'll act surprised". :P

But this year, he took me on to the ship (Zuiderdam) for dinner. We were joined by my friends Logan, Wil, Casey and Gabby. The dining room is somewhat "fancy"- every single staff that you walk by says "good evening", and it is a multiple course dinner with multiple silverware. You can have as much food as you want- 2 appetizers, 2 entrees, etc- whatever you want! And the names of the items are very "fancy shcmancy". For appetizer I had a goat cheese & tomato tart, followed by a caeser salad. Then I had veal cordon bleu as my entree. And for dessert, I had fresh fruit plate and a cheese platter. But of course there are all sorts of sweets and stuff.

After that, we headed over to our house, where the rest of my friends were congregating. My good friend Suzi decorated the place with pink and purple streamers and balloons. We played a couple games-- "Mafia", and "the name game".

And probably the best part is, Bethany made me a DELICIOUS cake!

Now when I say delicious, I am not just being nice-- this cake was sooo good! It had cream cheese frosting and vanilla cake w/ raspberries! Mmm, yummy! Thank you, Bethany!

Anyways it was just a really fun night and I was so grateful for everyone who came out and celebrated with me- I didn't realize that many people cared about me :)

Yea so 25...

Update

Hi guys! I know it's been forever since I last posted. I've been having a wonderful summer here in Alaska- very very busy, but awesome nonetheless! I'm learning a lot, too. The weather was absolutely gorgeous all throughout May, but in early June, it took a turn for the worst, and it has been kinda frigid since. It has basically been rainy, cloudy and windy. My tan is definitely gone! But somehow we muddle through. :)

Trent and I have been discussing our plans after the summer season. We will hopefully be going on a Caribbean cruise in November, and then after that, we are hopefully going to Japan for a couple of months! How awesome is that? We can only go for 90 days, but that's plenty of time for now.

 Trent and I have been watching a lot of "anime"- which sounds totally nerdy- and it is! I always imagined that anime was all sci-fi and totally lame, but there are so many different shows, that it's like comparing "The Bachelor" to "Glee"- they're all very different! I guess in Japan, anime is more popular than real shows, so they create all sorts of shows in anime form. Anyways, there are a couple that I really like, and it is getting me even more stoked to visit Japan. I am also slowly learning new phrases everyday so I can be ready when I go there! Oh and I have now made sushi 3 times, the last two times have been really delicious, so I almost feel like a professional sushi chef at this point, hehe.

Oh and speaking of nerdiness, Trent has organized "Nerd Night", which meets every Sunday night- basically a bunch of the kids here get together and do really nerdy things, like yes, watch anime, and play "Magic: the Gathering". I can't believe how many of them have gotten into it though, like how many closet nerds there are in this town!

I've also been getting all my friends addicted to True Blood, and enjoying the third season! :)

That's pretty much all for now, but yea, things are good!

Louisiana

I was very fortunate to visit Louisiana and much of the south this year- particularly New Orleans area- and I was very smitten with it. I think Trent agrees that it was one of the highlights of our travels. The area, in and out of the city is pretty, charming, and reflects a unique sense of the south. Also, who can complain about the very forgiving winters? So basically I liked it a lot.

What's become rather interesting to me though, is how "chic" Louisiana is in pop culture right now- Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie moved there a couple years ago, Sandra Bullock just moved there, and Scarlett Johannson just bought a house too! And of course my favorite show, True Blood, takes place in Louisiana.

I am not going to be surprised if we see an influx of celebs and people heading that way soon. But I wonder why it's all of a sudden popular? Because I liked it a lot, but it seems like after Hurricane Katrina, people didn't want to be there anymore...so why now?

Another great place is Gulfport MS. 40 minutes out of New Orleans, and super amazing. True south. 

The BEST 5-Minute Recipe Ever!

Ok so I am not really a chef; in fact, I am quite a novice when it comes to the kitchen. I even have a hard time cooking hamburger patties, haha. But I am kinda sick of the traditional foods (since I ate out for 8 months), and so I'm combing the web for really tasty recipes. One thing I love is bleu cheese. I found a whole page of recipes here, all about using bleu cheese. Tonight, I was trying to think of a quick meal that consisted of few ingredients (since we're in ak folks!), and I remembered this recipe. Now, being the beginner chef, this took me 5 minutes- literally- to put together:

Bleu Cheese and Sundried Tomato Stuffed Chicken Breasts

4 6 to 8 ounce boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 ounces bleu cheese, crumbled
8 sundried tomatoes, marinated in oil (you can find these already in oil at the store)

Preheat oven to 375F. Pound chicken breasts flat. Sprinkle 1 ounce bleu cheese and 2 sundried tomatoes in the center of each breast. Fold breasts in half and roll, securing with string or toothpicks. Place rolled breasts in a nonstick or lightly oiled baking pan and bake for 20 minutes. Serves 4.

Truly, this was so quick to prepare! I served it with a lovely strawberry & bleu cheese topped mixed green salad, and it was soooo good. I am craving more already and I just finished eating it like 10 minutes ago. Even Trent liked it, which was a good sign since he doesn't generally care for sundried tomatoes. And as easy as it is to make, it "looks" complicated and tastes like something at a really fancy shmancy restaurant, so it's a good idea for a dinner party! hehe.

Anyways I just wanted to share my "win".

What about you, what are some of your favorite 5 min recipes? 

My Love/Hate Relationship with Living in Alaska

Lately I'm like, it's kinda cool living in a small town where you don't have to lock your door or heck, even take the keys out of the ignition. It's weird to not have anonymity sometimes, but for the most part I love that I know everyone and that everyone waves as they pass each other driving, even though half the time I'm like "hmm do I know you?". I love that it's like one big happy family. I love that I don't get all sweaty and gross in the summers- I have practically forgotten what that feels like. Even on "hot" days, there is usually a comfortable breeze.

But, the one thing that I absolutely detest about living up here is...

...how much online retailers charge to ship stuff!!! It's ridiculous, they usually want between $15-50 for shipping! Even if you qualify for free shipping. Like today, I was stoked to find that walmart.com had Kashi bars online, and were free shipping too. Then I go to check out and they want to charge me $24- so basically it was going to be $50 for 8 boxes of granola bars! hahah ridiculous.

Now, you may be thinking it's because it's more expensive to ship to Alaska, but USPS is the same here as it is in the states. Granted, a lot of companies use UPS or Fedex, so that could explain the high shipping, but still.

Some sites that are nice: Maccosmetics.com (thank goodness!), nordstrom.com (awesome!) and forever21.com. THEY don't have surcharges. Victoria's Secret.com only charges like $10 which is still a bit but less than what the rest charge.

It just stinks because things are so friggin hard to get here anyways, and the selection is so limited. I was just so stoked to see my Kashi Go Lean bars on walmart's site, only to be rejected! Grr...

Anyways yea, that's my rant of the day.