Oh the adventures of cooking in the Barnett house!!

So my mom had to try out a Baked Alaska recipe for sunday school this week. We figured, "hey, baked alaska.... can't be too hard. Pound cake, ice cream, and meringue." We even decided to just buy the pound cake and the ice cream, so all we had to make was the meringue. But the catch was that the recipe for the meringue was totally different. The first time we made it the meringue was too watery and slid right off the top of the ice cream. So, it looked horrible, but tasted fine. The second attempt we used a different recipe, and it looked great and baked wonderfully. It looked so amazing when we took it out of the oven. But something went wrong with the meringue and it tasted so bitter. My sister's fiance thought it tasted like lemon meringue. But oh no, there was no lemon anywhere to be found.
So we tried a third time. This time a completely different recipe. No cream of tarter, more sugar, and less vanilla. Surely this one would work. Again, it looked great, and it didn't taste AS bad. But still something about it wasn't right. Turns out it was the vanilla. Who knew vanilla could go bad, but apparently it does. The first recipe tasted good because it had no vanilla. So now we've got the recipe down and the Baked Alaska is ready to go for next Sunday. Hopefully nothing like our experience will happen for the kids in Sunday School.

I get a verse of the day in my inbox every morning. It's usually something encouraging and beneficial to start my day with. The other day I opened the e-mail to find Isaiah 52:7 "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news." Every time I read this verse I am reminded of a song I was introduced to at Beltway based on the verse.
Here are the lyrics:

How lovely on
the mountains are the feet of Him
Who brings good news, good news;
Anouncing peace,
proclaiming news of happiness,
Our God reigns, our God reigns

Our God reigns, our God reigns!
Our God reigns, our God reigns!

He had no stately form, He had no majesty
That we should be drawn to Him.
He was despised and we took no account of Him.
Our God reigns, our God reigns!

Our God reigns, our God reigns!
Our God reigns, our God reigns!

Out of the tomb
He came with grace and majesty;
He is alive, He’s alive.
God loves us so,
see here His hands, His feet, His side
Yes, we know He’s alive.

Our God reigns, our God reigns!
Our God reigns, our God reigns!

My memories of this song are sweet. It is such a great reminder that through all and in all our God reigns! It no longer matters what trial, obstacle, or hurdle I face - I know that my God reigns. He reigns over all the earth. He reigns over all situations. He reigns over all decisions. And he reigns over my heart. It is here that I find the ability to surrender. It is here that I can finally let go of all the things I so closely cling to. All that I have convinced myself that I NEED to hold onto. I find comfort in knowing that it is no longer I who has control but Him. All I have to do is walk in it. It's quite an oxymoron that in order to find control and order in our lives we first have to surrender all of our control. But the wisdom of the cross is foolishness.
There is nothing more intimate about our walk with Jesus than saying "Jesus I trust you to be the Maker of my day, the Maker of my joy, and the Maker of my peace" and to actually wholeheartedly mean what you say. It is His glory for us to walk this out daily. And His glory to cover us with grace when we don't.
Here I am challenged to lay down my agenda. My desires to find a specific kind of job, to work at this kind of place or be involved with that kind of church....... Jesus wants more for me that to find a good job. Even the right job or church or town or whatever. Jesus is calling, beckoning me to know Him better. to walk closer with Him today, right now. To find my joy, my satisfaction, all my comfort in Him.
May we all chose this. May we all come running, walking, crawling, or even falling before Him because we want more of Him. We have to know Him deeper. We need Him, dare, we even want and LONG for Him. He is our life-sustainer.

Graduation weekend

So it's official! I'm done with school and graduation is over. My family came in on Friday to help me pack and move and of course, go to graduation. When they came they brought a wonderful surprise - my brother! I was told that he wouldn't be able to make it to graduation because it would be too much to fly in for that as well as my sister's wedding this summer. Practically everyone I knew was in on the surprise. It was so good to have the whole family there, as well as my mentor since middle school. Packing and such was crazy. I still am not really sure how we managed to get everything packed into our cars. But somehow it all worked.

Sunday my dad, brother, and I drove to Dallas to see Rent. I've never been to see anything on Broadway, so I was pumped and my brother LOVES Rent so he was excited too. During intermission we were invited down to the Executive office downstairs and got to meet the president of the Dallas Summer Musicals. During conversation I mentioned that I was a graphic design major... or rather now I should say I'm a Graphic Designer since I'm no longer in school. Anyway, he wants me to send him my resume so he can pass it on to people in Dallas that are hiring. Very flattering indeed. The whole time I was just hoping I wouldn't do something stupid like spill my drink all over the place. :) Luckily that didn't happen.

So now I'm back home. It hasn't really hit yet that I'm done with school and I won't be going back soon. Or that I won't have tons of homework waiting for me after the break. None of that seems real yet. All I know is that I have a room full of stuff that needs to be sorted through and repacked so it can be put into a storage unit and a job that still has yet to be found. I'm not sure things will ever slow down. But they will change, that's for sure.

Alright, I don't have all of the graduation pictures up yet. They weren't all taken with my camera. So there are still many more that haven't been added to my computer. But of the ones I do have.... here's a few.














Graduation Dinner on Friday and Graduation Ceremony

Me and Sam and All Three of the Siblings




















Me and Michelle being silly... what a shocker.... :)
And my brother..... well.... let's just say that he told all his friends back in Indiana that he was going to Texas to get an honorary degree in Theoretical Physics. So he stole my robe and cap. Good times, good times! :)

Well, I'm about to take my last final.... crazy thought. All of Michelle's family is here and helping pack. It's a little intense to have that many people in your apartment sorting through your things and none of those people being your family. My family should be here soon... by the time I'm done with my last final hopefully. Between Michelle's family and my family we have 17 people that will be helping us move. And then tomorrow we'll have somewhere around 30 people going to graduation. It's a little insane. But also very exciting.
A couple of weeks ago I found a perfect excuse to do some senior portraits. We were making a self-promo piece for our portfolio class. So I got all dressed up and we took close to 300 pictures. I'll spare you all the ones where my eyes are closed or my face is blurry. But here are a couple of the really cute ones. :) Enjoy!!
























Alright, I'm off to take my last final... more like turn in the last project, clean out my locker and all my stuff from the art building... and then go eat lunch. Graduation pictures will be uploaded once I have some to upload. :)