to...

To the person who made these pots each have one less bloom,

Seriously? Glad you like them, but please don't treat yourself to my flowers.

To the drive through donut shop down the street,

You are too good to be true.

To the American Idol judges,

I couldn't believe you didn't love Chelsea Kane & Mark's jive. We love love loved it!

To my degree,

4 1/2 more weeks.

To the birds outside our bedroom window,

I'm glad its spring too, but please hold off your sounds until at least 7 am.

To my feet,

I'll get new shoes for you soon. Just hold tight a little bit longer.

To the iphone,

Looks like you'll probably be joining our household soon. Now the question is...do we stay with Verizon or go to AT&T?

this is getting serious.

our infatuation with pizza, that is.

welcome to the club, mr. deep dish.

deep dish pizza

1. put dough (either homemade or store bought) on floured cutting board & let rise for 20 minutes.

2. heat oven to 400.

3. put 2 T vegetable oil in bottom of 9 inch cake pan. coat bottom & sides evenly.

4. spread out dough and place in pan.

5. add all your goods.

6. bake in oven for 12 minutes. keep an eye on it- every dough cooks differently.

7. pop out of cake pan, slice & devour. (just try to wait for it to cool. i dare you.)

this is serious business, my friends. we're getting into deeper territory here.

(no pun intended.)

on paint.

The 3rd bedroom in our little blue house is a tricky little fella. That's why there have been no pictures as of yet. Our first step was new carpet...the navy blue smelly, stained carpet wasn't doin' it for us. So we replaced it with beige carpet we found in the leftover section at Home Depot. We also painted...the bottom half is a fresh white wainscoting. And we (temporarily) painted the top half the buttery-light yellow that is in the top half of our kitchen.

Anyhow, like I said it's a tricky room. There are windows covering the top half of 2 walls. There are also 3 doors. It's been sort of the storage/guitar/craft room. There is nothing on the walls and all the furniture in there is unfortunate. So...it's time to give it some life.

Our first plan is to paint the top half of the walls. The room is so... monotone right now. With white wainscoting and lots of windows letting in natural light, we can get away with a bold color. The problem is...I have my favorites and Danny has his. So HELP us!!! What would be your choice?!?

weekend menu.

This weekend's menu:

-dinner party with friends

-make pretty desserts

-eat lots of citrus

-hang out with our little red+white puppy dog

-morning & afternoon walks

-dance parties

-farmer's market & boomers

-movie marathon

-popcorn

-church

-guitar playing & grocery shopping

I love weekends. Hope you have a grand one!

i'd rather dance.

Today I am missing this dear friend.

We made this video over FOUR years ago...where has time gone?! Anyhow, it makes me smile and remember the good old days when we would spend hours trying to beat Lion King on Super Nintendo, make really good meals, go grocery shopping together, share our clothes and shoes, and have really funny sleepy conversations before bed. Oh, and in our spare time we would kill cockroaches (our other roommates) with Comet.

I love you, Steph. Be my friend forever.

(Sorry for the crazy camera moves at the end.)

(P.S. That first move is my trademark. It's always my go-to!)

to iphone or not to iphone.

Danny is hooked.

We're up for new phones in May and Danny's heart is set on an iPhone. I am a little more hesitant. What are all of your thoughts?? Pros? Cons?

la marathon.

Well, yesterday didn't turn out quite as planned. Let me explain:

12:40 - This lady woke up with no signs of falling back asleep. I sneezed maybe 100 times within 2 hours (I am not even joking) and tried so hard not to wake up my runner. I ended up leaving the room and hanging out with Denver and catching up on my blog reads.

3:45 - Danny wakes up. Coffee coffee coffee (for me). We get ready.

4:15 - My mom arrives at our house and we're off to the races!

5:20 - Made it to Santa Monica...drop Danny off...Danny takes the shuttle to Dodger stadium where the race begins. We park & rest.

6:15 - Mom naps & I take a walk to the beach. It was rainy & wet & cold! I walked around the finish line and took in all the excitement.

7:20 - Race starts!

8:35 - I get a text that says this: Daniel Unterkofler - 10K in 0:46:49. Pace: 7:32. Est: 3:17:30.

9:22 - I get a text that says this: Daniel Unterkofler - 20K in 1:35:24. Pace: 7:40. Est: 3:26:22.

10:13 - I get a text that says this: Daniel Unterkofler - 30K in 2:26:02. Pace: 7:50. Est: 3:37:42.

-Meanwhile, we are standing in the pouring rain and wind. We were ocean side of the finish line, screaming and yelling for all the runners & hand cyclists passing by. It was so fun and exciting!-

11:20 - I see Danny running towards the finish line and push my way to the front of the crowd yelling, "That's my husband!!!" But then it wasn't. Embarrassing.

11:30 - Waiting...knowing he should be coming soon...Meanwhile, my body is literally shaking from being cold and wet.

11:31 - Phone call from a strange number. Ignore it. Then for some reason pick it up. It's the UCLA ER telling me to come down right away- they have my husband..

11:41 - Walk and drive in the rain like a crazy lady trying to get by my husband's side.

11:45 - Make it to UCLA ER. The wrong UCLA ER. Go figure.

12:00 - Make it to the right UCLA ER. My poor husband was white with blue lips and totally lifeless.

12-4 - Danny gets loaded up on lots of medicines. Doctors explain to me that he has high creatinine kinase, or in other words, was experiencing muscle breakdown. Danny tries to explain what happened but can't really remember. Around mile 21 he collapsed on the course, vomiting. A couple guys tried to get him up and walk with him, but he kept falling to the ground. At that point it was out of Danny's hands- the paramedics picked him up and drove him to the ER. Meanwhile, lots of people are praying for us. Thank goodness for facebook- a seriously amazing way to ask a lot of people to pray.

4-5:30 - Released form the hospital. (Which, by the way, had marathon runners on beds in the hallways- so sad.) Stuck in LA traffic.

6:00-8:00 - Settled in our little blue house. He baths, I shower, our bro visits, I cook, we eat.

8:00 - Both of us passed out in bed.

So that was our experience. It was quite a day. Danny is pretty disappointed and bummed about the whole thing, but there was nothing he could have done. He ate right, he trained right, he paced right. His muscles just literally broke down- he couldn't have walked the last 5 miles if he'd tried. My poor husband is walking around today like an 80 year old man. Luckily we both have the day off so I can nurse him back to health. I am so proud of him for making it as far as he did! This guy is my hero. And the plus side of it all, the doctors gave us matching jammers:

Gotta go cuddle my man. Be back tomorrow.

pray for Japan.

Last night I broke down in front of my students about Japan. I mean it- tears and everything. & while I typically hate people watching me cry (really, there's not much that's more unattractive than cry-face), I just let it out. Because my heart has really been breaking over what is happening. So we prayed. 75 middle school and high school students prayed. For Japan. It was rad.

Pray- it's powerful.

15 on the 15th.

1. i hate the time change.

2. it's race week here. i'm trying to make sure husband is packing away all the good stuff for the run on Sunday.

3. have i told you? we are vitamin takers now!

4. friday night we'll be on a hot date in LA. time to pick up d's bib and carb load. anyone know of some great LA restaurants?

5. i cut my hairs. 2 inches. for $5 at the beauty school down the street. FIVE. DOLLARS!

6. this weekend we planted lots of flowers. my very favorite is ranunculus!

7. i can ride my bike for hours.

8. it's okay that i lost my favorite jeans at camp. its dress time.

9. last night i couldn't stop dreaming about thin mints. so Danny drove us to the store at 8:30 to get something similar. i love him.

10. am currently reading Mere Christianity. for the first time ever. don't wait like me. just read it. (i am a lover of illustrations and that Clive Staples is just full of them!)

11. 7 weeks and school is out. for the summer. & for ever.

12. my bangs officially go to the side. hooray!

13. i love dreaming about my future children.

14. i think about donuts an embarrassing amount of time.

15. in 115 days, my father in law will be marrying the most wonderful woman. our hearts swell with joy for them both.

spring has arrived.

& i love it!

what makes me come alive.

My dear friend Eri used to have a quote on the bottom of her emails. It read: "Don't ask what the world needs, ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." - Howard Thurman

Well...youth ministry makes me come alive. Sure, they may be silly and goofy and sometimes a little bit smelly, but working with youth makes my heart beat. They make me laugh and they bring me joy. You should watch them worship. You should hear them yearning for God. You should see them striving with all their might to follow in the footsteps of Christ. Ahhhh, just thinking about it makes me come alive.

These students are hungry for the Lord. They are radical disciples. I can't wait to see what the church looks like in 20 years because of them.

I hope you're doing what makes you come alive, too.

diy: heidi braids.

Heidi braids have been my go-to lately. It takes less than 5 minutes and 4 bobby pins- my kind of hair style! (The shorter & more layered your hair, the more pins you'll likely need.) Here's a little tutorial. Please forgive the terrible lighting & pictures. We all make goofy faces while doing hair, right?! (Please say I'm not the only one!) Oh, and my bangs...they're in the in-between phase. Im trying to persevere and grow them out. Okay, here we go!

highlights.

We spent the weekend up in the mountains for high school winter camp! It was a beautiful weekend in many ways. Here are some highlights:

-Getting lost on the way up.

-Making a rap song with the students in my car.

-Car games. Lots of car games!

-Fitting 30 of us in a tiny fast food restaurant on the way up.

-Having our 2 shady church vans actually make it up the mountain.

-Speaking on Friday night and saying, "some people's junk is bigger than others". (Awesome.)

-Having that be the most over-used quote all weekend. (Awesome again.)

-Rock climbing, zip lining, and playing on a ropes course.

-Creating lots and lots of memories with my students.

-Really, really good camp food. Surprise surprise!

-Having some really amazing conversations in our small group.

-Taking a really, really cold shower.

-Hearing about the boys' cabin getting attacked by snowballs at 3:30 in the morning.

-Enjoying my sleep with the girls.

-Overdosing on flaming hot cheetos & sour patch kids.

-Snow.

-Laughing a ton.

-Watching my students worship and worshipping alongside them.

-Great speakers & great musicians.

-Falling more and more in love with Jesus.

-Falling more and more in love with youth ministry.

-Doing all of it alongside my husband.

our newest way to eat pizza.

Can I tell you a secret? We can eat pizza. I mean, really, we can eat pizza! Homemade pizza would be on our weekly menu if we let it. So I thought we could try to eat pizza in a different form. Introducing:

French Bread Pizza

step 1. buy a loaf of french bread

step 2. top with a thin layer of pizza sauce

step 3. smother with mozzarella.

step 4. add your toppings. (we chose bell peppers, mushroom, onion, and pepperoni*)

step 5. bake at 350 for 10 minutes, then broil for 3 minutes.

step 6. slice, eat, and enjoy! feel free to dip in marinara sauce for an extra little somethin!

Want to know another secret? Every night after dinner I sit on the floor and Denver comes and sits in my crook. It's our thing. Last night, my love caught us in action.

*just in case you dislike the pools of oil that gather on your pepperonis during baking, try this trick. fold a paper towel in half and place pepperonis on top. microwave for 20 seconds. then add to pizza before baking.

we like to bike.

This is a terrible phone picture of me and my bike. Isn't she beautiful!? She has taken me lots of places already...I can hardly believe that I scored her for $50!!!

This is Danny and his bike. He popped his tire a block away from home last night! Poor guy...

In other news, I have 4 assignments left until I graduate. FOUR!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh man, life is going to change really quick here...