Learning to Dance in the Rain

So we were doing a claim and as we were walking through the house looking for interior damage I happened to glance up at a picture on the wall that had this quote...

"Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain."

 I fell in love with it!

I liked it so much I might even change the name of our blog. Recently I even said to Ben (as we were unloading a very LARGE amount of items from the truck into the hotel room for our stay)... "I dont think we have a very good name for our blog..." Haha!

The original name came from our premarital couseling. The pastor talked about "walking lightly" through life, and not allowing the ups and downs of life to have a huge affect on the way we live.  He spoke on having the ability to walk lightly through the storms, having fun, and enjoying every moment together no matter what comes.  So that, plus the fact that we travel quite a bit is where 'Traveling Light' came from. It just seems like an oxymoron when we load the truck completely full for our months of travels for work and the title of our blog is "Traveling Light!" So we will see... maybe a few days from now the blog will be titled "Learning to Dance in the Rain"??

Although it didnt have an actual picture on it, my mind swarmed with different images and I even googled it to see if I could find a good one. This one was my favorite...

This paints a picture of how I would like to live my life.  Life is never easy; there are always things that come up that are difficult, whether big or small.  I believe it is what we do in those situations and how we react that can make all the difference. Sure, it wont change the fact that the situation is difficult, but it will give a completely different perspective and allow us to have joy even in the midst of sorrow and difficulty.  I desire to have faith and joy like a child... and now it is my desire to learn how to run out and dance in the rain during the storms and difficulties of life.

It's great to feel like a kid again!

So after speaking of my proud cooking moment in the hotel, I have to share last nights dinner with you...

Yes, it was Mac N' Cheese! Macaroni and Cheese used to be a staple food in my diet when I was young. I swear I ate it a few times a WEEK! Well, since being gluten free I cannot remember the last time I had it and I talk about it all the time. So the other day I was at the grocery store and saw Annie's GLUTEN FREE mac and cheese and decided we had to give it a try! I loved being a kid again! ... Although it didnt taste as good as I remember, but it still brought back some fun childhood memories:)

A Proud Moment....

I have shared a few of our "on the road" meals with you over the course of this blog... Clearly they have not been anything special or gourmet! And neither is this... :) But Ben and I have found this cream cheese enchilada recipe that we really like, so I twisted the recipe a little bit and made them here in the hotel! They turned out great and it was really easy!

Here is the original recipe:

Cream Cheese Chicken Enchiladas: Pinterest

What you will Need:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup sour cream ( I used greek yogurt, it makes it healthier)

2 cups prepared salsa

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided
1 cup shredded pepper-jack cheese, divided ( used mozzarella because we didn’t have pepper-jack and I don’t think we would like the additional spiciness)
2 cups cooked shredded chicken

1 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1/4 teaspoon cumin
Salt and pepper
4 green onions, thinly sliced

8 8-inch flour tortillas

1. Preheat oven 325 degrees.

2. In a medium bowl cream together cream cheese and sour cream. Stir in 1/2 cup salsa. Stir in 1/2 cup of each type of cheese.

3. In a second bowl toss together the chicken, corn, cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, and half of the scallions. Add the chicken mixture to the cheese mixture and stir to combine.

4. Spread about 1/2 cup salsa in the bottom of a baking dish. Place 1/3 to 1/2 cup filling on a tortilla, roll up and put in dish seam side down. Repeat process for remaining tortillas.

5. Pour remaining salsa over enchiladas, spreading to coat all of them. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
6. Transfer to preheated oven and bake 20 to 25 minutes until hot and bubbly. Sprinkle with the remaining scallions and serve warm.

 

Trip to South Padre Island!

Last Saturday we were finished with all the claims that had been assigned to us and Ben's supervisor said that we might get more, but we would have to hang around the area until Tuesday to wait and see. We figured we would stay a few days to see what came through. So we werent quite sure what we were going to do until TUESDAY! We had a few days off?? CRAZY.

We have heard that South Padre Island is the nicest beach in Texas, and since we were only about an hour and a half away we decided to take a little trip there for the day!

We headed out on Sunday morning and stayed until Monday afternoon... it felt like a mini-vacation! It was so much fun and a nice little break after working for 3 weeks straight!

The Ocean!!

Welcome to South Padre Island

Sand sculpture inside the welcome center

We headed to Edwin King Atwood park because it was the beach that you could drive on:)

Ben got to use the four-wheel drive and drive all around on the beach... we had to get past the busy and crowded area first!

Now that's more like it!

We found a great spot and parked there for a picnic in the bed of the truck:)

Ben likes the shade, I like the sun... so we compromised:)

After the beach we headed over to find out a little more about sea turtles at the Sea Turtle Reservation...

AND we got to meet some pirates:)

We took a shuttle around town and made a few stops along the way...

The lighthouse

Ben:)

Bird watching...

We didnt really see any birds...

Hail Storm!

Insurance Adjusters are supposed to get to the locations AFTER the storm... Well, we did get here after the FIRST storm; but didnt quite leave in time to miss the second hail storm here in McAllen.

The storm was not nearly as big as the first, but it was the biggest hail I have ever seen. We were watching the storm out the window while it happened and it was crazy! It looked like people were throwing baseballs around outside.

It wasnt until after the hail had stopped that we went out to check on the cars to see how they survived. With only a few minor and a couple of medium sized dents... no big harm was done, thank goodness!

Here was a piece that hit the truck:

Todd went out while it was still raining to make sure that the windows werent broken.

Updates: Created a NEW Blog

Hello there:)

Sorry for the lack of posts on here recently. Sometimes I am really good at keeping up with it, while other times I am absolutely horrible. This is mostly because there really hasnt been anything exciting to share with you recently! I could give you updates each day about what we are doing, but you would get bored and stop following us after about the first day. Our lives look the same just about every day when we are working. We wake up and go to work, come back and Ben writes up the claims, then we have dinner together, watch movies, eat ice cream, hang out, play games and than go to sleep and do it all again the next day! We enjoy it, but it's not to thrilling for those of you out there who are reading it!

So currently we are still working in McAllen, Texas from the large hail storm that happened a few weeks ago. We are actually only booked through tomorrow, so potentially we could be out of here very soon, but that just depends on if they have more work here for us or not... So we will see! ( I maybe take that back... it is hailing baseball size hail right now...)

About all that has happened since I last posted was Easter... For Easter Ben and I decided to stay true to our tradition of "Holidays On The Road"... yes, we had our Easter dinner at Cracker Barrel!:) After church we had one claim to do andTodd went out to lunch with some friends of his who are also here working, so we missed out on lunch andinstead had an Easter dinner feast after the claim. It was very sweet though, as we were leaving the claim, the neighbor came over and invited us for Easter dinner with his family! He knew we were away from home and didnt even know us but wanted us to have a place to go for the holiday. He was a Christian man and it was really neat to see him welcoming strangers in to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior together! (He didnt even know we were Christians)...

We didnt go to his house though, we had to go write the claim up and he didnt tell us what time to be there. So we headed to Cracker Barrel. We enjoy going to Cracker Barrel for holidays when we are away from family. It is probably the closest thing to Home-Holiday-Cooking that we can get away from home. They have all sorts of different side-dishes and it is a really fun and family environment, so we really enjoy it!

Easter dinner at Cracker Barrel!

Always have to sit and rock on the rocking chairs when we go to Cracker Barrel!

And what better way to celebrate our Savior's resurrection then some Dairy Queen Blizzards?? Yes please!! Cant wait to eat ice cream in heaven with Jesus! There has got to be ice cream in heaven right?!?! I sure hope so!

The internet is a little better today... so here a a few pictures that I couldnt post before:

Ben on his make-shift desk hard at work in our hotel room: they only had one desk and Todd's computer screen doesnt quite fit on the small ironing board!

Yes, the best part of this hotel room: it has a kitchenette!

Some of the hail damage we are seeing here in McAllen...

So I havent been all that great about posting recipes and ideas on here because I havent been home cooking! Cooking is still much different even when you have a kitchenette because you dont have all the spices and everything you need to cook! Plus our stove burners dont ACTUALLY work! haha, I guess they are just to make the room look better. Good news is that Melissa Harris in all her wisdom (and her wonderful husband) gave us a little portable burner so we have that with us and I have used that just about every night! So thank you Melissa and Kyle!

I have been able to make chicken, burgers, spaghetti, tacos, macaroni and cheese,grilled cheese,.... Man oh man have we broadened our horizons since last years travels! No more brats and potatoes, gourmet cooking we have arrived! Not really...

The funny thing is that we hadnt been married very long when we began working, so brats and potatoes werent really a big deal to have EVERY night. Once we got back to our apartment and I began cooking a different meal every night I think we got a little spoiled and picky. So now we do quite a bit more and try to mix it up just about every night. Lucky for Todd, we arent JUST doing brats and potatoes this time!


Well that is about it for updates! I do want to share one last thing with you before I go. I am still getting used to this whole blogging thing, and I'm still learning... but I do know that I'm not so great at just talking about what we are doing, or atleast I have a hard time doing it...I am a deeper person that typically has a hard time just making small talk. I love when I am able to share my thoughts and my heart with others... so since I am not able to add much to the cooking part of this blog right now, I decided to start a new blog. Feel free to check it out! It's on http://yourwordisalampuntomyfeet2.blogspot.com

Hinds’ Feet on High Places

April 6, 2012

 “For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God? It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great.  You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn” (Psalm 18:31-36, italics mine).   (Also see Habakkuk 3:19)

“‘Hinds’ feet’, a commonly-used phrase that derives from the Bible, and it is used in the Holy Text to describe a person’s ability to overcome a challenge that has been affecting them or worrying them with ease and success…”

“A hind is a female red deer. This kind of deer is able to move easily and rapidly across the rocks and uneven terrain of the mountains and mountainous landscape. It will leap from rocks without losing footing, suggesting that those with hinds’ feet are able to overcome things easily, and elegantly” (niv.scripturetext.com).

I don’t know how many of you have read the book “Hinds’ Feet on High Places”; if you haven’t, you really should. It is an allegory of a young girl name Much-Afraid, who is on a spiritual journey with her loving Shepherd. Much Afraid has heard that at the top of the mountain, “the high places”, people are made perfect; to a girl with a crippled, imperfect and distorted body, nothing sounds better! Though she has many fears, she has always loved and trusted her Shepherd. She knows that he wants to take her to the high places, but many of her fears hold her back. She also knows that when she reaches the high places she will get a new name… and for a person defined by the name “Much Afraid,” she must long for a new, more flattering name! The difficult thing for her is that she lives in the “Valley of Humiliation”, with the “Fearings” family, her cousin Craven Fear, and other relatives such as doubt, worry, and discouragement. They are all the sources of what is holding her down and keeping her from choosing to walk with the Shepherd and travel to the High Places with him.

This book is beautifully written and has so many messages of the Christian faith woven all throughout.  How many of us let our fears, our worries, our doubts, our pasts, regrets, and our humiliations keep us from walking with God and reaching the high places with him? What could hold us back from going to the high places with our almighty Shepherd, being made perfect and receiving a NEW and GLORIOUS name?!

The Thing I LOVE about this book is that it helped me understand a little better the process of walking with the Lord. I see where I want to go, I know what I want to be and who I want to become… but yet the process to get their seems so impossible, difficult, hard, discouraging, confusing, frustrating… and so often I feel like I am headed in the wrong direction! Often I feel like I am trying my hardest to seek and follow the Lord, and yet things are getting harder, or I feel more lost and confused than I did when I started. I often find myself wondering why the ugliness in me continues to be brought out when I feel that my desire is truly to do good for the Lord. I have begun to realize that it is part of the refining process. I am so far from perfect, and the Lord is the ultimate perfect. The closer I get to him, the more it magnifies the fact that I am so completely imperfect and cannot even come close to standing in the presence of such a mighty and wonderfully perfect God. I have such a long way to go, and yet he chooses to walk with me through it all to get me there. This life is about a journey. We will never fully get to our final “high places” and become perfect in this life. It is all in preparation for heaven and what we will receive when we get there. How discouraging it is to know that we will never on this earth, be what we were originally created to be. Yet how great it is to know that this journey we are on right now does matter. We are on our way to the high places with our shepherd, and the final day when we leave this earth will be the day we will receive our new name and will be made perfect!

I journal quite a bit… and I actually came across this journal entry just yesterday. I wrote the entry on March 2, 2010 and I am talking and praying to God. (Side note: Ben is always curiously trying to read my journals and wondering what I’m writing about… so now he, along with the rest of you, can join along for a little taste of my inner thoughts from my “mysterious” journalJ…)

“…It’s a weird process… the fact that when you are growing and changing us it feels like we are so far from where we wish we were. It feels like the exact opposite of where we hope we would be. But I know I am heading in the right direction because you are what I want, you are what I seek and what I desire;  I know that you know my heart, and my desires.   I believe you are leading me in the process of growth and change. It may not be the easiest path but it is how I will learn and grow. And I am ok with going through difficult situations as long as you hold my hand, lead me through and give me strength and joy throughout the journey. It reminds me of the book “Hinds feet on high places”! I feel so much like “Much Afraid” (the main character). I feel like I have all these insecurities and fears… and I am trying to go on this journey following the Lord with my limp and distorted self. I am broken and I am working my hardest to follow the Lord but there are steep hills and valleys; and I am slow! I see myself in a negative way and I don’t believe that I can actually get up these hills. At times I don’t believe in myself or that God is powerful enough to bring me through. And my fears and insecurities are creeping up at every corner waiting to whisper lies into my ear. I may be walking fine and good and then all of the sudden they will jump out and I will return to my fear and my previous way of thinking.

This journey sounds exactly like the one I have been on for quite some time now. Much Afraid will get a little bit of hope as she sees she is getting closer to the mountain… but then gets discouraged when the path she is on is only going farther away from the high places where she is headed. She feels that she will never truly reach that place and doesn’t understand why the Shepherd is leading her down this path that is not leading where he promised. I feel like that. I feel like I am on that path and heading in the wrong direction, away from where I want to be headed and where I feel I should be headed. I wonder whether or not my Shepherd sees this and knows that I am only heading farther away. It seems like he doesn’t care and that he has left me and forgotten that I am on this path. So I begin to think about making my own path and heading back the way of the high places on my own.  I begin to listen to the lies around me and think that maybe I am walking in circles… and that the only way to get out is to take my own path. But that is not true. I am on the right path and it is through this path that I will see beauty. It is through this path that I will grow and become who I am supposed to be. It is through this experience that I will be able to turn this sadness and confusion into something good… something for the glory and praise of God. It is through this that I will encounter the beautiful flower in the middle of the desert; the one that is being watered by little drops of rain… there is life here. I will find beauty in the midst of this. There is beauty here, I will not miss it. With each step I am growing stronger and learning to embrace my sadness and sorrow and receive joy in the midst of it. I am able to see the things that have hurt me and deal with those. God is showing me these things as I walk with him. I will call on him in the midst of my trouble and he will show up, but he does allow me to walk through the dark at times. He knows when I need him and he hears me when I call out to him; sometimes I need to learn things on my own and allow the growth in myself in order to change” (March 2, 2010).

“If you make the Most High your dwelling-- even the LORD, who is my refuge--  then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent.  For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent. "Because he loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him” Psalm 91:9-15, emphasis mine).

Wisdom... one of the greatest things you can seek

April 4, 2012

"My son (daughter), if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for Silver and search for it as for hidden Treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God."

A big part of me does not even want to comment after because those verses are powerful and say really all there is to say. But I read those verses today and it hit me and drew out such passion within my heart. I want to write them all over the place to remind myself. I want to tell everyone about them and say, "Look, Look how easy it is! ALL we have to do is desire and seek wisdom and understanding. All I have to do is spend time in the Word with the Lord and obey the truth of what His Word says and I will find the knowledge of God and begin to understand the Fear of the Lord. The more I ask him to give me a greater passion and desire for him and for His wisdom, the more he will give it in abundance. The more I seek him, the more I will find him; it is no trick... He desires to be desired by us, his children, so when we seek him with all of our hearts, we will find him. He longs to spend time with us. Just like any other relationship we have, we cannot come to know him more and develop a stronger relationship if we never spend time with him, getting to know him and loving him more deeply through that time together. Our faith will never grow and we will not be blessed spiritually or in any way if we neglect our God and Savior, and then expect him to come through for us in the hard times.

There are a few different places throughout scripture that talk about seeking God and his wisdom as if it were hidden treasure. (For the life of me I cannot remember where they are, so if you recall them PLEASE let me know where to find them, thanks!)

 Can you imagine if you found out there there was a huge chest of hidden treasure buried somewhere in your backyard? I dont know about you, but my guess is that MOST of us would run to Home Depot (or your local tool store) to buy shovels, if we didnt already have them, and head out to the backyard!! Not only that, I'm sure we would grab our family and friends for help (though not TOO many of them because let's be honest, the more people that help dig, the more we have to split the treasture).

So we run for the treasure! We race to it, we seek it, we dig for it, we spend hours and hours of hard back breaking labor to get to it... and the treasure that we pursue with that kind of excitement and passion may all too often be the worldly sorts of treasure... the treasure that fades and ultimately leads and comes to nothing. "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and dust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven; where moth and rust do not destroy, and where theives do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also". (Matthew 6:19-21)

When you hear that the Wisdom and the Fear of the Lord is a treasure that should be sought out as if it were silver, and searched for as gold, do you run to the Lord or to His Word in order to seek and search for it? Do you grab your family to tell them about it and ask them for their help in the search?? This is the treasure that matters, it is attainable and within reach and yet I think I forget about its true value and worth in my life. It is such an easy thing to do and yet sometimes business and LIFE gets in the way. But the thing to think about is... if it were a literal treasure chest hidden in the backyard in your dirt would it take top priority?  Would you seek that treasure and the business of life that was there before suddenly can be pushed aside??

If the answer is yes, than there is a much higher, greater and unfathomable treasure that is real and is within our grasps. All we have to do is seek it, search for it, ask for it... All we need to do is spend time with the Lord, in His Word.

To be completely honest with you, I don't understand the importance and meaning of gaining Godly wisdom, understanding and the fear of the Lord. My little mind cannot quite grasp what it even means. I understand in my mind how it can be very important, but dont grasp how important it truly is. But since the Bible has a entire book on attaining Wisdom and understanding (Proverbs) and scripture speaks of its importance in many places... I am going to assume that I can only benefit and gain from seeking and searching for it. I may not even SEE any results or notice any transformation, but I can be sure that I am following God's Word and there is some heavenly benefit sometime down the road I'm sure!

Now... didnt that make you want to go search for some hidden treasure?

"On the Road Again!"

March April 1, 2012

Happy April! I cannot believe how fast this year is going...the beautiful weather here in Texas makes me fully aware that summer is coming and feels like it is already here (it is about 90 degrees here today!) .

Well as you probably noticed by the title, (and if you are like me and everything makes you think of a song you probably have a very familiar song in your head that continues as... "I just cant wait to get on the road again...) we are on the road again. On Friday morning as I was walking back to the apartment to get ready to go to a women's retreat with church, I saw that I missed a call from Ben.He called with some exciting news! He told me he was looking up McAllen, Texas on the gps and asked me if I wanted to go there with him... of course I said yes:)

There was a huge hail storm there on Thursday evening and Ben got a call Friday morning for deployment to head down asap. The drive is about 6 hours South of where we live, so we planned to leave Saturday morning after we had everything packed and ready to go! Luckily I had made most of my meals a few days before... but I did spend Friday afternoon packing up stuff, making appointments for work, and COOKing! The nice thing is that I'm getting REALLY good at knowing what you can freeze and what you cannot freeze since we could never have enough room to bring everything with us from our refrigerator! I learned that you CAN freeze peppers, jalepeno peppers and chopped onion without blanching, and to freeze asparagus you just need to blanch it and stick it in cold water right after.

So our freezer is PACKED full, our refrigerator is emptied of all items besides condiments (and I only had to throw 1 thing away!... a little bit of cabbage...) our car is weighed down to the ground with all our stuff, and we are ready to go!

We headed out around 10:30am Saturday morning and made a stop by Todd and Shaina's house, which is right on the way. It was Shaina's birthday so we got to say hi, happy birthday and see her, and the kids. Linda and her boys were there to celebrate her birthday as well, so we stayed for a little while to visit. Then we headed South with Todd following right behind in his truck. Todd (our cousin, who is also an insurance adjuster) is also working claims in McAllen, so we got a hotel room with him again (we worked a snowstorm together last November in Connecticut).

Not sure how long we will be here... but I will keep you posted! The hail here was the size of baseballs and the damage is crazy. Most of the roofs we have seen so far are completely torn up from the hail, and we have seen so many broken and shattered windows. One guy today showed us a spot where the hail literally went through his CAR... no, not his car window, but his actual car! I've never seen hail do that before. And it definitely feels like summer down here! Up on the roofs we were already sweating after just a few minutes! We are hoping to leave here and go someplace cooler before the Texas heat REALLY kicks in!

On a very positive note... Our hotel has a kitchenette!! which I am super excited about. Not that I will really do much cooking while we are here, since we dont really have the spices and all of that, but it is really nice to have more space and not have to use the bathroom sink to wash dishes! I did bring along about 6 different meals that I cooked beforehand and will last us a little while... but once those are gone I think it's back to brats and potatoes:)...poor Todd.

As soon as I get the chance I will post the meals that I cooked for this week, so stay tuned!
(and all picures will be postponed because the internet here isnt fast enough to upload them!)