Asian Connection Party

So last night was the asian connection party that my new Bible study was having. Actually, it was open to all the different Bible studies that are in the Covenant Fellowship Church, so I got to meet a lot of new people last night. It was so much fun! There was a lot of great asian dishes to try, such as wontons, dumplings, sweet rice with mango and kiwi (that was delicious!) kimchi, and other things I don't remember the names of, but were good nonetheless. :) The food was delicious and the fellowship was superb! I really really enjoyed myself. In fact, I'm going to try out their Church service in the next few weeks to see if I like it, and if I do, I might start attending there regularly. Which saddens me in that I love my Church in Lansdale and will miss everyone there, but lately, I've felt very disconnected from it, since I haven't been able to be a real part of it since I left Lansdale. I really only go and see people on Sundays, and since I don't attend every week, (since I go visit my parents a lot) it makes it even harder. Covenant Fellowship Church may be better for me since I'd be much nearer to people who attend, so I could have more fellowship and become more involved in the Church itself. I've really missed that. We'll see though. Either way, I'll update the blog to let everyone know!

Anyway, the night ended with sharing of delicious desserts (none were really asian though) including the brownie-cookie bars I brought, sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and DELICIOUS warm chocolate chip banana bread. Thank you, Christina!!! (Maker of the delicious banana bread :) And thanks to Phil, who opened his home to the party. I can't wait until the Indian Connection party next month!

Dances and Parties

So an update on my bellydance class:

When the spring session started last week, I started taking the two hour class, not just the one hour. I love it! In the second half of class, we're learning a full routine, and it's so much fun. Another awesome thing is that two bellydance stars, Jehan Kamal and Sahra Saeeda, are both coming to Ardmore to give workshops and special dance sessions. I'm really excited! I'm saving up my money and cutting out other "extras" so that I can take at least one class with each of them. Jehan is coming at the end of April, and Sahra is coming the end of July. I'll update more once it gets closer to the classes!

Also, I've still been taking the hiphop dance class at my gym, and really liking it, so I was seriously bummed to miss it today. Lankenau only has one way in/out, so if anything happens on Rt 1 or Lancaster Ave (both pretty major roads) it's nearly impossible to get out of Lankenau. Today there happened to be some hold up on Rt 1 so I was stuck at work an extra hour, and by the time I got home, class already started. :( Boo. So I'm going to dance to a new bellydance tape I got instead, starring... Jehan! Whom I will meet in April! It's kind of surreal to dance with people in real life that you've seen dance on DVD (my current instructor Najia has DVDs out too, which she's showed us before). But it's also really cool, too.

Oh another update. Back in the end of January, I attended at Bible study near my house with my friend Jennifer- she's been looking for a new Church and saw that they had this singles Bible study every other Monday so she asked me to go with her. I liked it, and finally made it back this past Monday. Everyone is really friendly and fun, it's nice to meet some Christians in my area. This Saturday I'm going to an "Asian Connection" party they're having (title is because it's centered around Asian cusine.... apparently they already had a middle eastern one, which I'm super sad I missed, and next month is an Indian one.) I'm excited to go and meet some more people, and of course, chow down on asian food! With my upbringing and where I grew up, I don't know how I've managed to develop a palate for all sorts of foods from different countries and cultures, but I'm so glad I did! :)

So those are a few updates, since I haven't written in over a week. Still bummed I missed the free Rita's water ice last Friday.... but I did get a dozen heath bar Hope's Cookies for Britty's bday, so I guess that was a good trade off! Those cookies are practically sinful, they're so good. :) It was nice to spend the weekend with Britty for her bday... Sat night we headed to Lebanon with my mom and our friends Pearl and Rene for a disco dance... yup, a disco dance! I didn't know there was so much different disco music out there! Some people even dressed up in disco attire, guys and girls.... it was hilarious. We dressed normally, for the record. :) We had a good time, though it would have been a little better had I not been feeling a bit sick. :( I've been eating really healthy lately so falling off the wagon on Saturday did NOT make me feel good. :P Luckily I ate better on Sunday, so I was feeling well enough to enjoy a piece of Britty's birthday cake! Ahhh... cake. I just love cake. It can make even the worst day seem better. :)

So that's about it for the updates! Enjoy the weekend, I know I will!

Mercy and Grace

I went home to see my parents this weekend, as I like and often do, and recently they've started attending a new Church in Hamburg, called Bethany United Methodist Church. I really like it, not just the people and the pastor and the teaching, but the Church building itself. I personally don't prefer modern, contemporary Church buildings. Especially ones that don't believe in outward decorations, like images in stained glass windows and pictures of Jesus and things. Personally, I think that sucks. I absolutely love and adore old Churches, they have so much character, and they're just so beautiful. Bethany Methodist is no exception. The architecture of the Church is just amazing. The old wood, the style of the pews, the fact that the Church is round on the inside, the GLORIOUS stained glass windows they have... it's so pretty. On the outside it looks like a castle or fortress sort of. Here's their website so you can see a picture. http://www.gbgm-umc.org/bethanyhamburgpa/

But as much as I love and admire the old Church buildings, I do know that worship is not about the building, which is why I still love my Presbyterian Church in Lansdale- despite the fact that they're remodeling it, I still think it's plain and ugly. But I love it there because I love the people there. They are such fabulous examples of what it means to be the body of Christ. And Bethany United Methodist is great because not only is it a great building ;) the people and the Pastor are great, too.

I attended a Methodist Church while at college, and I loved it. My favorite pastor in the world, Pastor Steve Taylor, preached there while I was at school, and I miss him a lot. He's at a Church in Ephrata now (Methodists move their pastors pretty frequently). Anyway, one cool thing about Methodists is that they're open to not just men preachers, but women as well. If you have a heart for preaching, your gender doesn't matter. And it just so happens that Bethany Methodist has a woman Pastor, Pastor Andrea. She's actually still in seminary, but for being a new Pastor, she's really great. I really enjoyed her sermon today. One of the things she mentioned really struck me. It was about mercy and grace, and how they differ. She said,

"Mercy is God NOT giving us what we actually deserve, and Grace is God GIVING us what we don't deserve."

I really loved that, and it really is true. What we all deserve is pain and suffering and punishment for all our sins, yet God took that on himself so we don't have to- his mercy is so great. And in doing that, he offers us the opportunity to accept that gift so we can freely be and walk with him, pure and blameless- his grace is so abounding.

Thank you Father, for your infinite mercy and grace!

A taste of Heaven.... Hope's Cookies

Just had lunch with my mom and her friends Pearl and Rene, with whom she went to Jamaica with.... they were driving by the Ardmore exit on the way home from the airport so I asked them if they wanted to stop for lunch with me, that way I could hear about the trip. We ate at Kelly's, a cute airy Pub in Bryn Mawr. Right next to it happens to be a Hope's Cookies/ Peace of Pizza store.... so I picked up three Hope's cookies for dessert.... a sugar cookie, a triple chocolate chunk cookie, and a Heath Bar Crunch cookie. They are soooo delicious, and without meaning to, I just ate them all. :P They're addicting! Good thing I didn't buy more than three! (Which was already too much as it is!)

But seriously, if you ever pass a Hope's Cookies store.... go for it. I don't care if you're dieting or what, get yourself a cookie! It's like a little bit of Heaven. And the Peace of Pizza is really good, too. Mmm-mmm! :D

Bellydance in the Middle East

So last night was my special small group bellydance class and traditional middle eastern dinner at my instructors house. I was really looking forward to it. I'd never been to my instructors house before, so I didn't know what to expect. She and her husband have a duplex and they live on the first floor, her studio is on the second floor. And it. is. AMAZING!! I felt like I was actually in a middle eastern house. She had such beautiful things- rugs, tapestries, paintings, scarves, potteries, silver, she had so many of her absolutely GORGEOUS bellydance costumes and veils on display... it was beyond description.

The food was absolutely delicious, as well. Surprisingly, though I come from Pennsylvania Dutch country (notorious for bland, meat and potato type people who eat the same bland foods and do NOT like variety) I love to try new foods, and usually end up really enjoying them. My sisters, especially my older sister, is the same way. Everything was vegan, so no animal products whatsoever.... but we still had a delicious selection. We had various types of hummus (the black bean hummus was my personal fave) these delicous dates with coconuts, pita, tabouli (made by yours truly, with great reviews, yes! ;) kachuri (I'm sure I'm spelling it wrong but it's my FAVORITE type of Indian food ever) peach mango salso with guacamole chips, grapes and other fruits... the list went on. Najia (my instructor) also had a variety of middle eastern teas, some she brewed expressly herself. They were delicious.

Upon arriving, we actually had more of the middle eastern appetizers and teas, while chatting and getting to know each other (Najia has many different classes in different areas and these small private parties are open to everyone from these classes, so I didn't know many of the women there). There were ten of us altogether, including Najia. We all gave personal input on things we'd like to practice and learn more about.... we wanted to go over the chest shimmy (one of the hardest moves for me) various shimmies and figure eights, belly rolls and vibrations (this is so much harder than it looks!!) and veil work. We worked for about two hours, and I'm pleased to say that I had a HUGE breakthrough in my bellyrolls! It takes so much control with not only your breathing but actually isolating and controlling the actual ab muscle you want to move. I think it helped that I was a singer for so many years.... you learn to really use your diaphragm as a singer, which greatly helps for bellyrolls. Bellyrolls are also hard for women because you're doing the exact opposite you normally do in real life- women are also holding their stomachs in to appear thinner! So it's weird to just let it all go. :)

We ended with veil work, which, like everything in bellydance, appears easy, effortless, and graceful, when in reality, it can be pretty hard. We learned veil exchanges, which I really liked. After the veil work, we enjoyed the middle eastern dinner, and Gretchen performed in costume for us (Gretchen is a student of Najia's who's been studying bellydance for 3.5 years.... she's really good! And her yellow sparkly costume looked so gorgeous on her). Then Najia performed for us, using veil and sword as props.... Najia is so talented, she can dance while balancing a sword on her head, keeping it there as she slowly dances down into a split! Wow! I've also seen her do that move while balancing a HUGE serving plate of LIT CANDLES on her head! It is so amazing to see. And then.... I was asked/prodded to try an improv veil dance! So I tried it... it wasn't that fabulous, but it wasn't that bad either! Not bad for never really hearing the music before, and still being pretty new to bellydance. I was glad to do it though. It was great to get feedback from the other women there.

At the very end, we "shopped" through some of Najia's things she has for us to buy, and I bought a gorgeous new hip scarf. I only had one black one that isn't that great, so I could use a new one. This one is a shimmery aqua color with royal blue and gold bangles on it. It's so pretty and makes up my favorite colors, so that's why it caught my eye. :)

Overall, the night lasted four hours which seemed to fly by. I had such a great time and can't wait to do it again. I'm so glad I ended up picking Najia's bellydance class for Main Line School Night.... it's been so great and I'm loving every minute of it! Who knew that what I thought would just be a fun thing to do for four weeks whould end up being my new hobby? :)

Click on this link to see a picture of my instructor, Najia, in one of her beautiful bellydance costumes with the tray of candles on her head! http://s95204971.onlinehome.us/najia/index.htm

Cardinal Hip-hop

Ha, I like all my post titles to match what I talk about... this title sounds interesting, no?

When I came home from the gym this morning, I saw two beautiful cardinals hopping about and chirping at each other in the bushes by my house. I was just stopped for a moment by the beauty of them. I think cardinals are some of my favorite birds.... they're rare to see sometimes, but when you do, they're breathtaking. Such a vivid red. It reminds me of the beauty of the black widow spiders I took care of at college... they're dangerous when provoked, but they are glorious spiders, honestly. They are the deepest, fathomless black you can imagine, and on the abdomen is their trademark, vivid red hourglass. It's amazing how God works. You would think to yourself, "now, if the trademark hourglass is on the abdomen, how does that help me see it? Wouldn't I just see a plain black spider?" NO! Because the black widows hang upside down in their webs... so their vivid warning sign is apparent for all to see. How clever. :)

On to the hip-hop part of my post..... my gym offers many different classes, and when I joined, I noticed one called Hip-hop funk, a dance class offered Thursday nights. I wanted to try it, but always chickened out. This week, I finally bucked up and went for it. And I had a BLAST! It was so much fun, and I actually wasn't that bad! It's like a hip-hop line dance class. And I've been a country line dancer for years and years, so I pick up on line dances super quickly. The music and moves were just different, that's all. It was a lot of fun and a great workout. I'm definitely going to make it a weekly thing, I can't wait till next Thursday! :)

Snow, chocolate chip cookies and llama cacti

Sooo....

I was so excited last weekend for Sunday and Monday, when I'd be shopping and going to the movies and hanging with my cousin and my sister and just having a great time.

However.....

Apparently, my cousin either didn't get the memo about Sunday, or (and it was most likely this) my sister and I were trumped by a boy. Dee had some boy she likes over at her house to celebrate her bday with her, so Britt and I decided to forgo shopping so we could pick Dee up at 6:30 and go to the movies. Well, the boy then decided to stay later, so not only did Britt and I not get to go shopping, we didn't get to the movies, because my Dad came back from dropping my mom off for the airport and told us to stay in due to an incoming snowstorm.

Gaaa!!! I was really annoyed at the change of plans, but yet, we still had a great evening anyway. My dad made his delicious homemade pizza, and we watched Eagle Eye, which was really good. Plus Britt and I had picked up some Ben & Jerry's ice cream (on sale, sweet!) so that made the night a lot better too. We awoke on Monday to lots of snow, so Britt and I stayed in and watched movies and played Disney Scene-It. While it wasn't my original plans, it was a nice relaxing day where I had fun and best of all, got to spend quality time with my sister and Dad. It was nice. I ended up staying over till Tuesday morning and just drove back super early for work. So because of that, yesterday evening was my first official night with my new roomie.

And we had a blast! He's great, and we really do get along super well. We ended up making homemade chocolate chip cookies, yummy! And then we watched the Emperor's New Groove, which we both LOVE and can literally quote almost word for word. Seriously. Plus, Chris pointed out some funny things in the movie that I had never seen before.... for instance, at the dinner were Yzma and Kronk are going to poison Kuzco, and Kronk gives them all "poisoned wine", Yzma throws her wine on the cactus she's standing next to. Of course, it's actually extract of llama, so when Kuzco turns into a llama and the screen goes back to Yzma, you see the cactus is now in the shape of a llama! I loved it! So great and I totally missed it before. :)

So I'm really happy with my roommate decision, and thankful that everything has worked out so well. I need to remember this the next time I start to stress about something!

Oooh, only two more days till my special bellydance class and dinner. I'm excited! I could definitely use the one on one instruction.... I know I've said it before, but if you want to do it right, bellydance is MUCH harder than it looks. And I use lots of muscles I never knew I had.... my back always screams at me whenever I'm done with class. :P

Ok, signing off for now... I'm exhausted and will probably fall asleep super early tonight... it's what I get for staying up late yesterday stuffing myself with cookies and watching the Emperor's New Groove. :)

P.S. Thankfully, the snow didn't cause any problems for my mom and her friends headed to Jamaica. They got there fine with no problems. Whew!