a close call

So this is probably the nearest to death I've ever been. We were driving home from my piano lesson yesterday afternoon. We were at an intersection, sitting at a stoplight - it just turned red when we arrived. There was a red car in front of us, and he thought he could make it across. Just when he was in the middle of the road crossing, a black car came from the left (it was green for him). He didn't bother looking, and the two cars collided. Well there were two lanes on side of the road. We had been driving on the left lane, but right as we glided to a stop at the stoplight we switched to the right lane. So when the two cars collided, the black car swerved onto the left lane (where we had been 10 seconds earlier), with pieces of metal everywhere, and was headed for us. He then managed to turn away and instead crashed into a pole. I cannot tell you how scared I was. I thought I was going to die when I heard that crash, and saw that the car was flipping towards us. Jeremiah had his window open - and it was facing the accident. It is a miracle that nothing happened to us. There are a million things that could have gone wrong. For one, the car could have drove straight into us. Or a piece of the car could have hit my brother, or hit the car. But NOTHING happened. And the driver of the black car seemed to be okay - there were many people who immediately called 911. The Lord was truly with us yesterday.

lillyisms

The rascal herself

These are a few of my favorite Lillyisms:

We have a password on our computer so Lilly can't get on it and mess everything up. Well one day she was bound and determined to play a computer game. So she goes up to Jeremiah and says, "J.J., write my name!"

J: "For what?" L: "Fora da computa!"

J: "Oh, you mean the password?"

L: Nod

J: "OK, I'll write your name."

Of course when her name didn't log her onto the computer, she got very upset! :D It's actually pretty smart - she's knows that when you play a computer game, you need to write your name to sign in. So she assumes that it's the same for the password! Cute!

....

Dad was brushing Lilly's teeth one night. He always has 3 mechanical pencils in his shirt pocket. Lilly see them and asks, "Papa, whya youa have does pencils ina you pocket?" Dad says, "For the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." (haha) Lilly replies, "Oh. Pastor a giva you dat?"

....

Lilly thinks that she can get anyway with anything when she says, "Mama a tolda me." So when I found her up in my room (which is very off-limits for her!) yesterday, with all my things spread out before her she says, naturally, "Mama a tolda me I do it!"

She is such an adorable girl!

chocolate truffles

This past weekend my mom was out of town due to a mother's conference in Dallas with two of her best friends. So we had to manage by ourselves! It was the first time ever that she had been away from Lilly for a whole night. On Saturday I had my state OBU hymn competition, out in Shawnee, OK. I drove down with my piano teacher and her 2 13-year old daughters. It was so much fun! I got an over-all superior, but the judges judged a lot harder than before. This is the end of the line - but I wish it could go onto national level...But I'm really glad I don't have to practice those songs anymore!!

Don't these truffles look amazing? I found this recipe on Simply Recipes, an fabulous site for every recipe imaginable - even Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream! When I find the time, I'm going to try to make a batch. And the photography is just fantastic! I wish I could shoot like that... :D

Chocolate Truffles

Makes about 30-40 truffles

What you need:

-8 ounces of semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate (high quality, 62% cacao or higher), well chopped into small pieces -1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream

-one teaspoon vanilla extract

-cocoa powder for coating

-finely chopped walnuts

-finely chopped almonds

NOTE: both the walnuts and almonds are optional, but if you do use them, use them instead of cocoa. Or, you could mix them in the chocolate batter and THEN roll them in the cocoa.

What you do:

-In a small, heavy saucepan bring the heavy whipping cream to a simmer (this may take a while, be sure to stir and scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula every few minutes).

-Place the chocolate in a separate bowl. Pour the cream over the chocolate, add the vanilla, and allow to stand for a few minutes then stir until smooth. (This chocolate base is called ganache.)

-Allow to cool, then place in the refrigerator for two hours. Remove and with a teaspoon roll out balls of the ganache. Roll in your hands quickly (as it will melt from the heat of your hands) and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Place in the refrigerator overnight.

-Roll in cocoa powder or chopped nuts and serve, or place back in the refrigerator until needed.

i love paris

Look what I made today... Of course it's going up in my room with a black frame...XD I had some trouble shaping the letters, as you can see. Sorry about the blurry picture....

I found the picture in the internet, but put the j'adore there with Picnik. I couldn't resist posting this! I know, you probably think I'm some kind of 'case' now....XD

This is my 14th post this month. I can't believe what I was thinking when I was the Lazy Girl Blogger! I'm loving this!

best. brownies. ever.

Yields: one 9x13 pan

What you'll need:
-1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter
-1 cup chocolate chips
-1 cup flour
-1 cup sugar
-4 eggs, room temperature
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-a pinch of salt

What you do:
-Melt the butter and chocolate in a double boiler on high. Once the water is boiling, reduce the temperature to just under medium. Make sure you do this at least 1 hour before you make the brownies, as the mixture needs to cool.

-Preheat the oven to 350
-Beat the eggs, salt, vanilla, and sugar until very foamy and frothy (you can use an electric mixer or by hand, I tend to choose the easy way! :D). The mixture should almost double in size.
-Gently combine the chocolate and butter you melter earlier, and mix with a wooden spoon. Do not mix fully - the batter should look like this:

-Add the flour and mix completely.
-Bake for 25 minutes, if you would like the brownies gooier. If you want them less gooey, set the timer to 25 minutes anyway. After it goes off, check every 5 minutes until you reach your desired consistency. TIP: If you make a mistake, and the brownies come out really dry, serve them with any ice cream. Enjoy!

multi-colored floor lamp

I adore this lamp from Target! And the best thing is - it's only $19.99. I'm thinking about getting for my room. In the plan that I have for my future room, this would also fit well. Yes, I will post the brownie recipe. I just have to get the pictures off my camera. I did make it on Monday - it was delish!

chocolate

I am really, REALLY in the mood for chocolate, especially brownies and truffles. Unfortunately I am in the middle of school....aka I'm took lazy right now to get up and go make brownies. My mom has this amazing brownie recipe that tastes glorious a little bit under-baked. I'll try to post the recipe when I get it from her. But for now, don't that truffle and brownie look amazing!? My mouth is watering just looking at the pictures. I got the truffle picture of a really expensive store, where a box of two or three cost $18.99 or something....Crazy! But they must be really good then, don't you think? I have a recipe for truffles too, maybe I'll make both later today.

handmade birthday card

I came across this idea in the newspaper a few days ago. This is a card that I sewed. Yes, sewed. I took some heavier paper (regular paper is too thin), needle, thread, and a button, and put it all together. I really like how it looks. PS Woohoo! This is my 100th post! Only my 100th? Over the course of 2 1/2 years? Wow. I must be really slow. If I had written 10+ posts per month (like this month!) I would have reached this number a loooong time ago. Oh well. Celebrate with me! :D

philbrook pictures

'Two Women Hailing a Cab'

'Livia'

'Migrant Mother, Nipomo, CA'

Today at Philbrook there was free second Saturday again. They have an exhibition right now called, 'Seeing Ourselves' that have some of the best pictures. These are probably my favorite. Please excuse any glare... :D

the birthday girl!

The princess...in the middle of putting on lipgloss.

The decoration...

Our little princess...

Lilly after getting her ears pierced - if you look closely, you can see one earring.

Our Lilly is 3 years old! She had a blast at her birthday party yesterday. So did I - I got to be the bad guy...how cool is that?! I dressed all in black, down to a black curly wig (which looked completely ridiculous) and I 'kidnapped' Lilly and hid her in the back yard. Then all the knights had to come and find her, and I threw pine cones at them. It was so much fun!

The birthday girl also got her ears pierced today! She had wanted them for so long. Our rule is each girl can get them at 3. She was super brave - there was only a little crying at the very end, but I think it was more shock than pain. It's so hard to believe little Lilly isn't little anymore!

polaroid love

I think this is such a cool idea! The heart consists of polaroid pictures....a very retro way of decorating. I absolutely love it! I got this idea from a really neat blog called The Haystack Needle I'm going to try that in the new house. :) Me and my decorating ideas. It's just been so long that we can do whatever we want with our house.... Today is Lilly's birthday - we have some friends coming over to celebrate. All of her presents were pink and had something to do with princesses. Can you tell what she likes? I will try and post some pictures in the near future.

The Pink Panther

I've always loved this song...Enjoy!

It's Spring..Or is it?

No, these aren't the flowers in our yard - I wish - they're from a photo shoot at the Botanical Gardens last summer.

A collage of MeMe, Anna Hintz, and Lilly

Little Miss Crazy!

I sincerely hope it is! The highs for all of this week aren't supposed to go below 55. Right now it's 69 and sunny, AND we have daffodils that the former home owners planted that are blooming. Yeah! I'm such a wimp though, aren't I? The coldest it got all winter here has been about 6. I was talking with my friend a few weeks ago, and it was twenty below where she lives in Iowa. Twenty below! I think I would have died.

Lilly cracks me up! I can't believe that our baby is going to be 3 on Friday. She sent out invitations for her princess party last week - she is so excited!

More Sailor Girl Pictures

Some of these pictures just make me go 'awwww'!!!

Sailor Girl

I think she looks like an angel here... A mixture of emotions - sad, happy, and scared (like she's done something bad! XD) It was time for Lilly's sailor picture today! Each of us, when we're were 3, have our picture taken in the sailor suit - every time the same one. Then we send them to our grandma (Dad's mom), which she in turn frames and hangs them in her house. These are the very best one of our little photo shoot today. :)

Paris

I've always wanted to go to Paris. Especially the Eiffel Tower. I went to Icing a couple days ago, and they had an Eiffel Tower earring holder! Can you imagine how much I wanted that?? I've also know what I'm going to do for my room in the new house. I think I'm going to paint it a pinkish/reddish/orange, if that makes any sense, (at Benjamin Moore, I'm thinking Berry Wine, Raspberry Pudding, or Rosy Apple) and I want to put pictures of Paris in black frames on the walls. I'm also saving the covers of Gourmet magazines that I'd like to frame as well. I think the black frames would look really nice against the pink. I don't know why, but I just have a thing for Paris. Just like I have a thing for London and Italy, especially Venice. I actually was in London. In 2007, on our way to Germany. But it was only in the airport (which was positively AWFUL!!! Thankfully, they've updated it now) then. And I spent the 2 or 3 hour layover that we had there sleeping in the waiting room airport chairs. So I didn't see ANYTHING. Well, I think I caught a glimpse of Big Ben when we were flying out. But other than that nothing. Nada. Zip. Nix. Sorry about that! I'm still kind of put out about that, as you can see! :D But I do hope to go to all three of those cities sometime in life. I've always really wanted to go the Venice, too. I just think it's so cool that they use canals to get around (well at least in the old part)! I would love, love, LOVE to go there. I played a Nancy Drew game that took place there - the Phantom of Venice. I've also played ND games in Paris and England (although not London). Actually, I'd never realized that I'd played games in all three of my dream countries!

Alright, enough random talk. That was probably my most random post ever!

Winter Wonderland

Can you see the ice on there?? (You might need to click on it to see it bigger.)

Check out the icicles that were on our bushes in front! Look at that rocker chick! MeMe dressed Lilly that day...I'm in love with this picture!!!

We were covered in ice and snow last week. Everyone was afraid that we would have another power outage - like there was in 2007, no power for 2 weeks in the winter! - but luckily we didn't. It was super slippery outside, though! We also got snow - enough to go sledding! WOOHOO! There was a really good hill at the high school by out house. I think it was the best I've ever gone on!! We were sledding on Wednesday there, when all of a sudden, our friends the Hintzes pull up! It wasn't planned or anything, but they had been in town and decided to drop by. So they went sledding with us. It was sooo much fun! We had 7 of us piled on a cardboard box. It was crazy!

Speaking of crazy, Lilly is our crazy one right now. :) I can't believe she'll be 3 in 1 1/2 weeks! I remember when she was born. As soon as I found out she was a girl, I went screaming to all our friends to tell them the good news. I was pretty excited. :) Anyway, she has decided that she wants to have a princess party for her birthday. When ask what she wants, she'll immediately say, "A pinka cake fora mya birthday." and no, those 'a's are not typos! That's really how she talks! It's so cute.

On Saturday, I had the OBU (Oklahoma Baptist University) Oklahoma Keyboard Festival (it's SUCH a creative name, isn't it?? XD) Competition. I had to play a hymn from the Baptist Hymnal (How Firm a Foundation), and I had to improvise the 2nd verse. Then a hymn arranged for piano, and one classical. On How Firm, they had a baritone sing with my playing. The whole purpose is to train future church musicians. Anyway, if I scored a superior on one or more of my pieces, I would get to go to state level in Shawnee (near Oklahoma City), OK, where OBU is located. I scored superior on all three of my pieces! I was so excited. So now I get to go to Shawnee on February 21st. It's pretty neat - you can attend all kinds of workshops while you're there. Like you can take a college class on improvisation, exactly what the students that in college there learn! Or you can take a 15 minute lesson on a organ, and there are couple other activities, as well. I'm going to try to get in the class and organ lesson for sure.

Yesterday was the first Super Bowl for us in years! I was personally for the Cardinals - it was so close! - but I thought the game was pretty boring for the most part. GO COMMERCIALS! :D My favorite was the snow globe Doritos one.

I laughed sooo hard on that one! I love the look on the tall guy's face when he says, "Nuhuh, it's real."

Ok, I'm done rambling! You can take a sigh of relief. XD

PS In case you're wondering, yes I'm STILL obsessed with Picnik!