Ampersand Mountain

This past weekend my family was up at Camp Cherokee for work camp. On Monday we hiked Ampersand Mountain. It was pretty cool :)

Here's a cool little frog we saw on the way up.


Views from the top:

Yay!! [A Photo Essay]

Ok, so, this might not seem like a very big deal to some of you. I mean, it's only my NY learners permit. But it's taken a lot to get it and i'm very happy! Now I just need to get my license...

The Blueberry Buckle that, well...., buckled!

As I was looking through Cook's Illustrated this morning, I ran across a recipe for Blueberry Buckle. It looked really good and for once, I had all the ingredients that it called for! So I set out the frozen blueberries to thaw and made plans to make a yummy dessert for supper. Well, everything went super until I was just about to add the blueberries to the batter. As I measured the blueberries into the 1 cup measuring cup, I thought to myself "Self, this 1 cup measuring utensil seems a little bit small!" I looked at the handle. Oh shucks, the number had washed off. It was on a ring that held all the other sizes of measuring cups and I had automatically picked the biggest one to measure out the 4 cups of blueberries. I compared it to another measuring cup that I had and sure enough, it was only a 1/2 a cup! Phew, I caught my error in time! ...uh oh... I had measured out the flour using that measuring cup! Now, according to my calculations, flour is a pretty important ingredient. And I had measured out cups with 1/2 cups! Oh goodness. Now, you might be asking, "Why didn't silly chef Christy just add the flour then?" Well, that's a mighty good question! You see, my memory isn't anything to brag about. I think it was probably due to one too many tussles with my brother. (ok, joking, joking) Anyways, I couldn't remember if I had noticed that it was only a 1/2 cup when I was adding the flour and if I had compensated by adding twice the amount. And so, I wasn't sure if I should add more! Anyway, I was tired of baking so I just threw in the towel (ok, not literally guys! That would have made for one disgusting Blueberry Buckle) and added the blueberries and stuck it in the oven, hoping that there really was the right amount of flour. An hour later, when it was supposed to be coming out of the oven ready for immediate devouring, it was still quite the battery mess. So, what does a sensible girl do except to turn up the heat and stick it back in for a while longer? (This is not meant to be a debate on my sensibility. I think we all know what the outcome would be) Well, needless to say, my Blueberry Buckle finally came out of the oven more "cake-like" than "soup-like". The topping that was supposed to be soft a crumbly turned out like hard-candy. But, amazingly, the inside wasn't all that bad! If the taffy-like topping was pushed aside, my Blueberry Buckle wasn't half bad (even though it only had 1/2 the flour)! So, that's the story of my baking adventure for today. I guess I'll just have to make it again ;)

*Note: Unfortunately, the picture shown here is what my blueberry buckle was supposed to look like, rather than an actual picture of it's appearance.

pantspantspants

This photo makes me laugh. (sorry for the stock photo, it was the only one I could find) I'm sure the deer pay special attention to only cross in the next 2 miles and no where else. lol.

My brother posted a blog!

This is just to let anyone who looks at my blog know that Joel FINALLY posted a blog. And it's very nice. So you should go look at it :D :D (You can view it here.)

Vertical Worming... ;)

Cemetary Pit:




Cagles:





Kristin says this picture below needs an explanations. So here it is :)
This picture is really cool because Kristin is right below me. That might not seem like much but it's REALLY hard to climb up a rope with someone below you. The added weight makes for lots of extra work. Usually it's not done, but it's good to know how in case you're in a big hurry or there's an emergency. Yay for Kristin who is braving my muddy caving boots to take a picture!

Mystery Toes...

9:10 pm--These are my feet. Why are they bandaged? That's a good question. The current hypothesis is that when I was sleeping in my sleeping-bag on Thursday night (my sheets and blankets were all packed) a spider decided to feast on my toes. Hence, several of my toes are covered in bites. But what's really weird is that I didn't realize that they were there all at once. First I noticed something weird on my left big toe, then on my right big toe, then on my left little toe, and then on my right next-to-little toe. And they just keep appearing! I have counted 4 bites on my right big toe, and 5 on my left. Thankfully, they're not extremely itchy. However, they hurt pretty bad and it makes walking quite difficult. All I can do is hobble around on my heels. I missed out on a beautiful walk with my family because of my swollen toes. If anyone has any ideas on what can be done, let me know :) The picture shows my feet bandaged in a charcoal paste. I'm not sure if it's helping but at least it makes me feel like something is being done. Any ideas?

10:06 pm--New Hypothesis: Chiggers! My dad has had chiggers before and had an abnormally bad reaction to them similar to the reaction I'm having. I could have gotten chiggers when changing into flip flops after vertical caving on Thursday. Except for the main symptom of a chigger bite is extreme itchiness. For me, the pain overrides any itchiness that may be present. They hurt a lot worse now. I wish you guys were here to make me laugh and forget about the pain. You can just write me funny comments :)

7:24 pm--Newer Hypothesesis: We Don't Know! It's spreading! (it's now on 5 toes). I don't want to go to the DR!

Faith as big as a mustard seed...

What are you doing today, that unless God directly intervenes, will most certainly fail?

-Pastor Shane Anderson

For Kelsey

Stumbling into her dorm room after writing her brain out for nearly two hours, Christy slumped into her chair. Her headache waged war with her exhaustion. Deciding that a drink of cool water would be a good thing for her tired brain, Christy walked over to the sink. She was interrupted by knocking on her door. "Why hello, Kelsey".
What ensued afterwards was a mixture of Christy doing silly, unintelligent things (such as pouring water all over the floor as she attempted to fill her cup with water but missed) and Kelsey laughing at Christy. Thankfully Kelsey was able to cheer Christy up.
Then Kelsey decided that it would be a fun thing to for Christy to put on Caitlin's cheerful hat. That's where this picture comes in. This is a picture of a mentally exhausted Christy and a cheerful energetic Kelsey posing for Christy's most-awesomest mac.

Our Role in the Great Controversy

"The pages of history are full of heroes who created for themselves roles of glorious valor which they played at decisive moments. Likewise the pages of history are also full of heroic and glorious roles which never found heroes to perform them. For some reason it seems to me that within the Arab circle there is a role, wandering aimlessly in search of a hero. And I do not know why it seems to me that this role, exhausted by its wandering, has at last settled down, tired and weary, near the borders of our country and is beckoning to us to move, to take up its lines, to put on its costume, since no one else is qualified to play it."

-Gamal Abd al-Nasser, 1955

As I was studying for my exams, this quote from Nasser, the Egyptian leader from 1952-1970, caught my eye. In order to understand fully what he's saying, one must have a better grasp on what is happening in the Middle East during this time--something that would take a while to explain. However, his last sentence has interesting ramifications when applied to the SDA church and more specifically, the SDA youth. (that would be US!) I believe that the time has come (and in fact has been here for quite some time) for energetic young people to take up the cause for Christ. WE are the generation that God wants to play a major role in preparing the world for His SOON return! No one else can play our part. Each of us has individual characteristics and dreams that are completely unique. God has placed us each in our current situations for a reason. YOU have a part to play! What will you do about it?