Sunburn in Comparison to Life... YES, it does in fact relate!

I got FRIED over Spring Break. The new nicknames I've come to acquire consist of Cayaan Pepper, Cherry Tomato, Hot Sauce, Lobster, the list goes on and on.

So, inevitably, I've begun to peel. It's gross. First the sunburn is uncomfortable (it doesn't hurt. I don't think sunburn hurts, it's just annoying), then the peeling is itchy and irritating. Then, if you're like me, your skin is rubbed raw and gets "sore" (I still think it's just annoying). Aloe Vera helps out a ton when the burn does hurt. Finally your skin heels and you're fine again.

I've been told I make the weirdest analogies (especially in school when trying to memorize vocabulary or whatever) so this is not outta the ordinary.

The whole sunburn process is like life.

Yes, I will explain. For all who know I lost my best friend of 6 years a little over a year and a half ago. I'm usin that situation in my explanation.

You get in a fight with your friend and it hurts (sunburn). You try working things out and realize that no matter how much it hurts, you are better off without that person and they're just dragging you down (peeling). Then you feel lost and don't know how to move on. You feel guilty for what happened, and even though you know it's for the best, you're still hurt because you shared so much with this one person. It seems like there is nothing left for you to rely on and you're "rubbed raw" (Rawness). You turn to the only thing that won't ever ditch you or stab you in the back, God, and He provides comfort and relief from your troubles (Aloe Vera). After a while, you move past and form friendships that are so much stronger and are for the right reasons. (skin heeling).

Yes, I know, weird connection. But it's me we are talking about. Would you honestly expect anything different??

Hardest Year of my Life

I just found out my friend's Dad passed away from a heart attack this week. I wasn't particularly close to Regan or the Jenkins, but I still cannot imagine. So much has happened this year, from fights with friends, to friends diagnosed with cancer, to Clay and Mr Mark and Layla entering Heaven.

Through everything we have to have faith that Our God does indeed have a plan for all of us. Through it all, He is there.

Lake Brownwood--Spring Break 2010

This year for Spring Break we headed up to Lake Brownwood located north of Austin, a good 5 hours away from Cypress. We rented a cabin with the Krolczyk family (Tina, Shawn, Colton [9] and Avery [6]) Tuesday-Friday. This is the first time we've ever not tent-camped, but it was fun none-the-less.

We rented the Fisherman's Lodge cabin which had 5 bedrooms, a kitchen (well.. kinda), 2 bathrooms, and a living room/dining room/stomp all the mud off your shoes room. It was really nice that we could turn on a heater if we needed to, and that if it rained we wouldn't be stuck in a tent (been there, done that, don't care to do that again).

Tuesday we got up to Lake Brownwood around 3:00. We spent most of that day just unpacking and relaxing. Av and I went on a bike-ride and exploring which was fun. We grilled pork for dinner, and Mom, Tina, Av and I played Taboo. The boys went down to the lake and went fishing. The lake backed up to our cabin which was nice for them.

On Wednesday we all woke up and got ready and ate breakfast on our own. We then went out on what we thought was going to be a little 1.5 mile hike. HA! This isn't the first time we haven't read the map correctly though. It was a really pretty hike, and although the trail was muddy, it was fun. Dad navigated at one point and we ended up walking on some rocks by the lake, nowhere near the trail. He had a goal in mind though, to stand on top of some big rock he saw off in the distance. Well.. we did get up there! Daddy ripped his shorts too (take note: first thing broken/damaged). The rocks weren't very stable, so Av and I ended up holding hands and keeping each other from falling. At one point I let go of her hand and she said "NO! You can't let go! I'm going to fall if you don't hold on to me", it was so cute!! Mom found the trail though and we continued our hike. By this time we had been walking over 2 hours, and it was way past lunch-time. We finally made it up to the end of the trail which was at the WAY front of the park. We guesstimated we walked about 4 miles. Av ended up on my back and I gave her a piggy-back ride a ways. (When she was little she wouldn't talk to me at all, but she talked my ear off the entire time, so it was worth it). We got back to the cabin finally and made hotdogs and sausage for lunch. Then everybody loaded up in the back-end of my truck and we went over to some softball fields and the 3 softball/baseball kids had batting practice. I even got up there and realized exactly why I quit softball in the first place.. HA! That night Shawn made steaks, and we all hung out. The boys went fishing that night too. We made a pretty big campfire and everybody grilled smores (YUCKK!) and hung out.

Thursday we all slept in. About 11:00 we were all up and ready to go, but ended up eating lunch before heading off on another "adventure excursion". We made deli-sandwiches and had leftovers. Then we went on another hike, luckily this one was shaded, non-muddy, and ended up being 3 miles. This trail though was interesting.. it had many different forks or paths you could take. On the way back we split up girls/guys and raced back to the cabin. I carried Av a little while and in the end THE GIRLS WON!! (We didn't even bribe the boys playing on the unstably sound bridge [as Colton and Kole named it] to slow down the boys... Or did we?). We came back and the boys went fishing. Mom and Tina read books, Av played on her DS, and I chilled. I read a little bit of The Moon in the Mango tree, possibly napped a little bit. Av and I drew pictures (well, I drew my stupid sketch for art class), and went down to the pier to walk on the rocks on the water and skip rocks. It was times when it was just Avery and I where she talked and talked and GIGGLED so much that I absolutley loved. Thursday night we went out for a "night on the town". Note: Brownwood the town is VERY small and out-of-date. We stopped at a Mexican restaurant named "Mexican Restaurant", I kid you not. Mom ordered a margarita (the whole reason we wanted Mexican, the parents wanted margaritas) and the waitress looked at her like she had never heard of one before. She ended up getting a water. Colton said "How can you not know what a margarita is? What kind of town is this?" It was pretty funny. Oh! And then the restaurant didn't have fajitas. I ended up ordering a hamburger. It ended up okay though, because Kole's enchiladas were practically fajitas and he didn't eat all of them anyways. We then made a pit-stop over to Walgreens because Colton had some weird bite of some sort on his ear that was bothering him, and Mom and I were in need of some Aloe gel. When I walked in the store the lady at the checkout counter said (very loudly) "Ouch! Looks like that girl hurts pretty bad!". In all honesty my sunburn didn't hurt very bad. Oh wells. Whatever makes people laugh! We then headed back to the lake, the boys went fishing and the girls hung out by the fire. There was a marshmallow fight--YUCK-- and many funny stories. My favorite line of the entire night came from Avery- "boys have a penis. girls have a vagina" which she took from Kindergarten Cop. Coming from her it was priceless! We were rolling with laughter.

This morning we woke up and packed up to head back home.

It was a really fun break, and a much needed relaxation. When we finally got cell phone service back I had 23 new text messages. It was nice though not having to worry about that for a while, although knowing if something happened I couldn't call Renee or Megan to talk didn't make me too happy.

All in all it was a great few days! I'm so blessed to have awesome family friends like the Krolczyk's to go hang out with and have a great time!

Now off to swim practice. Blah! Back to reality.

Our Wally World Experience

We are heading to Lake Brownswood tomorrow, and since we haven't been camping since our disasterous experience in subfreezing temps, we needed to make a Wally World run.

As dad said "it all started off when that lady parked in te handicapped parking spot when she wasn't handicapped" and it all went down hill from there.

Side note: marshmallows are in the weirdest locations at Walmart.

It only took us about half an hour to get everything we needed (thankfully groceries can be bought at Wally World so we could make a super-run) and we were actually surprised.

All of the checkout lines were full so we picked the shortest line. Well. Let. Me. Tell. You. Us Suddendorf's are HORRIBLE at picking lines.

Wally World honors competitors coupons. Well. The lady in front of us took that to the max. I'm pretty sure we stood behind her for atleast 20 minutes. It. Was. Horrible. Patience ran low and the fact that the lady spoke little to no English didn't help much.

When we finally got out of Wally World Dad was already frusterated beyond belief. And then when nobody was working the parking lot and shopping carts were askew, oh my.

I was going to end this blog post here. Key word: WAS.

As we drive home a car is being an idiot and holding up traffic. All we can do is laugh.

Baking Extravaganza

I'm not one to typically step foot into the kitchen unless I'm grabbing a glass of apple juice and some crackers, so spending 3+ hours baking today was not a typical experience!

333 cookies/pretzel things later...

4 cups of butter (3 boxes)
2 bags of chocolate chips
5 cups of sugar
8 large eggs (didn't know you could buy different sizes of eggs)
11 cups of flour
3 cups of brown sugar
1 large bag of M&M's
1 bag of Hershey's Kisses
1 pound of "Bach's Star Candies"
3/4 cup of Peanut Butter
1 Can of chocolate syrup
1 bag of pretzels

Plus the vanilla, salt (who puts SALT in desserts??), and baking soda (not to be confused with baking powder... which was used also).

After I realized that "creaming", "beating", and a bunch of other words simply meant MIX, I was on a roll.

Here's the breakdown:
71 of the unnamed pretzel/hershey kiss/m&m snacks
34 of the unnamed pretzel/bach star/m&m snacks (using the leftover star's since we ran out of kisses since I was told "you only need a small bag")
68 M&M cookies
56 Peanut Butter Bach Star cookies
50 Spritz Cookies
54 Chocolate Chip Cookies

And we're not quite done yet!! Brownies are to be made tomorrow a long with some chocolate-powdered sugar cookie thing.

And to top it all off, there wasn't any major baking catastrophes, aside from Kole accidentally bumping into me causing me to burn myself. Oh yes, I'm just talented that I burn myself!

Now, for the rest of Spring Break: going camping with the Krolczyk family Tuesday-Friday. I have 2 books down so far... only 11 more to go!! (Guess what I'm going to be doing on the 5 hour car-ride to Lake Brownsville)??

Hope everybody is enjoying their Spring Break/Weekend!

Sweet Sweet Layla Grace

Sweet Sweet Layla Grace

Sweet Layla Grace is with our Father now,
at two years old, she already fulfilled God's plan.
Sent to Earth to change our hearts,
and oh did she succeed.
Sweet Sweet Layla Grace

Sweet Layla Grace taught many lessons,
and brought us closer to our families.
We learned to love, we learned to cry,
we learned to laugh, and learned to pray.
Sweet Sweet Layla Grace

Sweet Layla Grace's work here is done,
forever with our Father she will be.
And as we cry for her and those she loved,
she smiles from Heaven; her blue eyes watching over us through our days.
Sweet Sweet Layla Grace

Sweet Layla Grace you are such a fighter,
and now we will fight for you.
Through your story we will follow in your footprints,
changing hearts of this world as you changed ours.
Sweet Sweet Layla Grace

Sweet Layla Grace we will miss you,
but one day we will join you up above.
Forever we will stay there with our great Father,
forever and ever in Heaven.
Sweet Sweet Layla Grace

--Kylie Jene

Take Your Candle, Go Light Your World

Take Your Candle
by: Chris Rice

"There is a candle in every soul
Some brightly burning, some dark and cold
There is a Spirit who brings a fire
Ignites a candle and makes His home

So carry your candle, run to the darkness
Seek out the helpless, confused and torn
Hold out your candle for all to see it
Take your candle, and go light your world
Take your candle, and go light your world

Frustrated brother, see how he's tried to
Light his own candle some other way
See now your sister, she's been robbed and lied to
Still holds a candle without a flame

So Carry your candle, run to the darkness
Seek out the lonely, the tired and worn
Hold out your candle for all to see it
Take your candle, and go light your world
Take your candle, and go light your world

Cause We are a family whose hearts are blazing
So let's raise our candles and light up the sky
Praying to our Father, in the name of Jesus
Make us a beacon in darkest times

So Carry your candle, run to the darkness
Seek out the helpless, deceived and poor
Hold out your candle for all to see it
Take your candle, and go light your world

Carry your candle, run to the darkness
Seek out the hepeless, confused and torn
Hold out your candle for all to see it
Take your candle, and go light your world
Take your candle, and go light your world
Take your candle, and go light your world"

Have fun playing with all the angels, sweet Layla, and being with our God. We'll all be with you again one day. We love you Layla