Confusion

Last night I was rummaging through a box of old papers and things. I found a lot of random stuff that I forgot about and laughed at. For example I found some papers from when I was in kindergarten and first grade, and the random things I wrote just made me laugh! I also found some poems and stories that I have written across my 18 years and thought it would be cool if I shared some instead of keeping them all to myself. This poem that you are about to read is one of favorites that I wrote, I think, in 8th or 9th grade. It's kind of silly but also kind of true....

Titled: Confusion

Tornadoes are natures destroying
Funnel. They are windy and
Out of control. Though they
Are nature, sometimes
They're in my mind.
Like when big
Words be-
wilder
Me
.


-Bri
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

"Today is a gift..."

"Today is a gift, that's why it is called the present."
I'm sure we have all heard that quote before, but sometimes we need to be reminded of it. Today I am just feeling extremely grateful and happy to be healthy and alive. Many days I know I take it for granted. But I want that quote to remind me of how precious life is and that everyday God gives us is a gift indeed.
Today I am thankful for my handsome, Sebastian. I am also thankful for my loving family. And I am very thankful for the situation I am in right now and where I am at in my life.

I am also thankful of Sebastian's new obsession, The Hunger Games, because I could never get him to read anything before, and now he's reading like a champ!

-Bri
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Top 5 Things That Fill Me With Happiness

(not in any specific order)

1. My wonderful cats, Nemo & Nibbles. Every time I look at them I can't help but smile because they are such wonderful creatures. They look at me with their big eyes and I know that they need and love me. They do silly things to make me laugh and they sometimes can be a helping hand when I'm feeling blue. I love them so much!

Nemo & Nibbles

2. Sebastian, of course! He is absolutely wonderful and so amazing that I can't even describe the complete happiness he brings me in words. I believe the thing that makes me the most happy when I am with him (besides the fact that he loves me so much!), is the fact that we can talk about anything. I love knowing that when ever I have a problem or he has a  problem that we can go to each other. And after talking to him about whatever, I usually feel so happy by just knowing that we can share our concerns or wonders.

Our love in chocolate form :)

He sits on me when times are hard... lol

3. Making my family proud. I feel the most happy when I do something that makes my family proud of me such as, graduating high school or offering to lend a hand. I know that my family is proud of me by being the person who I am today and that fills me with utmost happiness.

My irreplaceable family :) The only people missing are my Grammy and Paapa, but I know I will see them again one day.

4. God's Love. Knowing God loves and forgives so much, fills me with happiness and complete joy. Because of His love for us, His creations, we will one day get to live for eternity with our loved ones. Because of His love, we will one day get to live without sickness, without fear, and without any of these earthly bothers we have now. Because of His love we will one day live in peace and harmony. And for that, I am eternally happy and grateful.

5. The beauty of nature. When I am hiking in the woods or taking a walk, whether it be alone or with a friend, I am always taken aback by the beautiful of the world outside that most people only pass by. I am filled with happiness when I look at the beauty of the tall trees and when I see the forest animals scurrying along. Nature brings me happiness because of the peace and serenity I feel when being in it.

Me in the woods behind my grandparent's house.

"We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have." -Frederick Keonig

~Bri

Happy Birthday to my 96 Year Old Great Grandma!

I would like to wish my great grandma Happy Birthday! Yesterday, Elizabeth Wampler turned 96 years old! God has blessed her with many years to live and she has taught me so many things. Recently she has been in the hospital because of fluid in her lungs and a hole in her heart but she is now back home and trying to become stronger again day by day. I pray God continues to bless me and my family with her presence.

We all call her Little Grandma, because when I was little, she was the littlest Grandma I had out of 4 grandma's!

Little Grandma, Nyke and Myself (2010, I think)

 ~Bri

P.S. Here's a nice thought for today:

Happy 18th Birthday Sebastian!

Can you believe he was this little and cute about 17 and half years ago?!

His aspirations of becoming a chef started young...

And now here he is... just turned 18 about a minute ago!

Happy Birthday! I love you Bastian! I hope you have a wonderful day! I'm sure that you will only get more dorky the older you get!

~Bri

Happy Valentine's Day!

Show the love! It's Valentine's Day! I believe people should show their love year round but I think Valentine's Day should be a day where you put a little extra umph into something special for your loved ones. I remember so many loving and happy times I had with my family when I was young. I decided to share some photo's of when my brother and I were younger that displayed some love, since today is of course, Valentine's Day!

Me & my mommy :) I think I was 4 in that picture.

Nyke's 1st birthday party! He's covering his face with a panda plate but other than that, it's a nice family pic!

I was 8 and reading to Nyke one of my favorite books! A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein.

Mom and Nyke on his first day of Kindergarten!

Nyke and our friend Paige hugging :)

Sebastian and I decided to share our 2012 Valentine's Day together starting at Midnight. In a timeline of pictures, here is what our Valentine's celebration consisted of!

He came home to this surprise! (He has been wanting apple butter so that's why there's a jar sitting there! lol)

He bought the most beautiful card! (And wrote the cutest message!)

Then we had an intense balloon fight with the balloon's you saw earlier!

Finally, we played a game of Sorry and I kicked his butt! :)

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you have found your Valentine!

~Bri

Cheap/Easy Way to Make Glazed Donuts!

Hello everyone! Want to learn a CHEAP and EASY way to make glazed donuts?! Yeah, sure donuts are bad for you but once in a while doesn't hurt! Get in the kitchen and start makin' an American favorite!

You will need:

• a fryer w/oil


• a small pan


• a medium sized bowl

Ingredients for donuts:

• canned biscuits

Ingredients for donut glaze:

• 2 cups powdered sugar


• 1/4 cup milk


• 1 tsp. vanilla


• 1 tbsp. honey (optional, if you want a honey glaze) 

Here's how to do it!
Directions: Unwrap the canned biscuits and form the dough into about 1/2 inch diameter balls. Warm up the fryer. As the fryer is warming up, take a small pan and mix the milk, vanilla and honey (if you chose a honey glaze) and put it on medium heat. You do not need to bring this mixture to a boil, just so that it is hot to the touch. Then sift the powdered sugar into the pan and mix until the glaze is nice and smooth. Once again, heat the glaze so that it is hot to the touch. Place warm water in a medium sized bowl and place the small pan with glaze in it, into the bowl of water. When the fryer is ready, begin placing the dough balls into the oil and it should only take about 3-5 minutes for them to become golden brown. When the donuts are golden brown, take them out and place them on a cookie sheet. Then proceed to dip them individually into the glaze and back onto the cookie sheet. Let them cool before you them!
And there you have it! A cheap and easy way to make glazed donuts! Enjoy!

Thanks for reading! Happy Wednesday/Thursday everyone!

~Bri

A Monopoly Game, A Ditch & A Lobster

As you know Monopoly is one of the most famous games in the entire world and I am sure every person has played it or (or tried to!) at least once in their lives. Recently, Sebastian and I started a Monopoly game using the Disney themed version where you can buy things like Bubbles Treasure Chest (from Finding Nemo) and Andy's Room (from Toy Story). We love using the Disney themed version versus the regular one because anything that references the movie, Finding Nemo, is AWESOME! But anyways... Sebastian and I started this game of Monopoly on Wednesday night (2-8-12) and it finally ended last night at 12:19 am (2-11-12)! Yes, this game took us 3 days and 19 minutes to complete! Obviously, we didn't play all day for all 3 days but we played till Sebastian had to go to work and we played when he came back from work. Sebastian was the winner but obviously I was still a pretty tough competitor. During the middle of the game is actually got boring because we had our properties all built up to hotels and the bank went bankrupt and was out of money and both of us were rich! Eventually, the game caught up to me and my empire fell but it was still an awesome game and I can't wait to play again!

Handin' me money! (Not a lot, but still...)

The 500 bill is the highest bill in the Disney version. Go me!

He's so tired from earning all the money! HA!

Moving on...
This morning we had a little bit of a scare when we were driving on Whales Road. It was snowing and it didn't seem that slippery but we ended up in a ditch! This was the first time I was ever in a ditch! I didn't freak out though like I would have thought. Luckily, there was a man with a truck that was driving past us at the time and saw what happened. He pulled us out and we decided that we were going to go back home and that we had enough snowy scares for the day! But I believe that God was watching over us and provided us that man with the truck. Praise God that no one got hurt! The car only got a couple scratches too! No dents or real damage! So we came home and had some lunch. Sebastian made me an African Lobster Tail (I never had African Lobster before) and I never really want to have it again. I prefer just the regular American kind I guess because that African lobster was weird tasting and was just not good (lol).

The African Lobster with butter...

So, the moral of the story is, don't drive on Whales road while it's snowing and never eat African Lobster!


Here are some cute pictures I took of my babies within the past couple days:

My Sweet Kitty :)

My Little Sweet Kitty :)

My Little Sweet Kitty again :)

Psalms 111:5
He provides food for those who fear him; he remembers his covenant forever.

~Bri

The Healthy, The Unhealthy, & The Indifferent

THE HEALTHY: Bell pepper, carrots, celery and steamed cauliflower with some Wishbone Ranch!

Last night I ate the healthiest snack I probably ever made before and it was good!



THE UNHEALTHY: Last night, Sebastian and I set ribs in the oven to cook along with some BBQ sauce. This afternoon (after they had been cooking all night!) we had them for lunch and boy, where they good!

The Ribs!



Sebastian enjoying the first few bites!

THE INDIFFERENT: Sebastian had some bonding time with Max, our turtle, today! Today, we also bought him 35 small goldfish for his delight! Nemo and Nibbles, our cats, were very active today and I got a weird picture of Nibbles coming out from under our roll-away pantry. Silly cat!

Another thing that happened today, is that I finished the book, Faking Faith by Josie Bloss. It was so good that I finished it in 2 days! I never wanted to put it down! Woohoo!



Sebastian and Max bonding time...awe!





Nibbles and Max bonding time...yikes!



Nibbles coming out from under the roll-away pantry!



Nemo and Nibbles following me!

 Thank God for this great day! :)

~Bri

A Good Book and an Elliptical

Today my day so far has consisted of, as the title states, a good book and an elliptical. If you are looking for a good book to read, one by Lurlene McDaniel should suffice. This morning I finished a two-novel series by McDaniel titled, The End of Forever. Excellent book I must say! This novel series is basically about a family of 4 that suddenly turns into a family of 3 when Amy, a 16 year old daughter and sister, has a terrible car accident one night. The family learns that Amy is "somewhere between life and death" when the docotors inform them that Amy is in a comma. The struggle this family faces when realizing after weeks that Amy isn't coming back is heart breaking and really tugs at your heart when Erin, Amy's living sister, can not face the fact that donating Amy's organs is what Amy would have wanted them to do if something like this happened. Amy was always helping other people and it took days for Erin to realize that Amy would still want to help others, even in death. Don't worry! I haven't told you the entire story! But I do encourage you to read it whenever you have time. I like books that make me cry and I know this one definitely did. The book I am now reading is called, Faking Faith by Josie Bloss. I don't think this book will make me cry but it does seem like a good one to read so far.

I decided to do my workout today on the Elliptical my grandparents have. I found that really fun and a struggle when it got to the higher levels of resistance. But, no pain, no gain! Right?! I am glad that I have been mostly keeping up with my exercise and trying to eat really healthy. Popcorn is my weakness and I have deemed that my reward for a good day's work.

By the way, my grandma had such a good idea for making a big batch of egg salad today. She took the hard boiled eggs and put them through a meat grinder! It came out so perfect for egg salad! Who knew?! Why spend a bunch of time chopping each egg when you basically get the same effect through a meat grinder?! I just thought that was such a good idea, I just had to share it! Thanks Grandma!

Happy blogging!

~Bri

Venus Transit!!!

Today I had the awesome experience of getting to enjoy the Edinboro Planetarium. I went there when I was in middle school but it was really cool to see it again. I learned something that I just thought was so cool and it's a once in lifetime thing! The man that presented the planetarium talked about something called a Venus Transit. A Venus Transit is when Venus passes in between the earth and the sun and when we can see the black outline of the planet. So, it's kind of like a solar eclipse except with Venus! (There's more to it than that, but I can not explain it for the life of me!) The man also said something about how when a Venus Transit happens, it will be towards the top of the sun and then 8 years later, it will be near the bottom. Apparently, the cycle only happens every 105 years, and lucky us, we will get to see it happen in June of this year! June 5th exactly around 5 o'clock! Once in a lifetime thing happening then! Get ready! I know it's as close to Venus as I'll ever get!


Here are dates when a Venus Transit happened & will happen again.

~Bri

Running is...

Mark Will-Weber once said, "Running is real and relatively simple…but it ain't easy." Boy, was he right! I decided to go for a walk/run today and realized how much I need to get back into shape! So, I have decided to start with the walk/run challenge where I will walk for 3 minutes, then run for 2 and repeat for about 30 minutes every couple days. Then eventually, I will be able to run longer and walk less. AND THEN, hopefully I will be able to just run. But I must not get ahead of myself too quickly, otherwise I might get discouraged and quit. I have a tendency to do that. Maybe blogging about it, might help me stick to it better? I think on the days that I don't run, I will make myself play 30 minutes of Just Dance 3! LOL!

I definitely need some hope right now!

~Bri