3 Layer Mint Brownies and Free Pinkberry Yogurt...Life's GOOD

Well, the last few days have been quite eventful. Life is just full when you stay with a family of 9 people, making it 10. I LOVE it. This family is amazing and I feel like I am one of them! Wednesday was our homework/Starbucks/tacos/baseball game/relaxing day. It consisted of...well, everything I just mentioned. Wednesday night we spent several hours skyping some friends we've missed a TON. Yesterday afternoon Courtney and I babysat these kids that she watches every Thursday afternoon, but this time they came to her house. We played and watched Cinderella (with Brandy and Whitney Houston) and baked all afternoon. We made these amazing brownies. They were three layers and were pretty easy to make, just time consuming. The bottom layer is normal brownies-you make them the same as always. Then we made a frosting for the second layer, and put peppermint extract and green food coloring in it. The top layer was a mixture of melted butter and chocolate chips. Everything was chilled together (each time you add a layer, it gets refrigerated). We cut the rich brownies into bite-sized pieces and brought them to her Bible study, Generations. It was a potluck and she had signed up to bring dessert. The brownies were a hit! I also had a small piece of red velvet cake (my absolute favorite) that night.

Today was another homework day. I spent some time reading for Intro to Music and Art. I also worked on some summaries for my New Testament Survey class. We had a yummy dinner and while we ate Mrs. Brooks said that Pinkberry (a frozen yogurt place in the mall) was giving out free frozen yogurt. All ten of us hopped in their eleven passenger van and went to the mall. They gave out 3 oz. samples of their newest flavor, mango. Though I dislike real mangos, this yogurt was delicious. Then we walked around the mall for a little while. We went into the puppy store and those dogs are just precious! There was a baby Australian Shepherd and it just made me melt! At my mom's house one of our dogs is an Australian Shepherd and she is an extremely sweet and loyal dog.

One of the books I have to read for my Music and Art class is called O Worship the King. It's by Joni Eareckson Tada, John MacArthur, and Robert and Bobbie Wolgemuth. This book is really neat. There are 12 hymns in it, and each one has its own chapter. At the beginning of the chapter the lyrics to the hymn are printed. Then each author writes a little bit about the background of the hymn or a time that the hymn was really meaningful to them. It is one of those things that really helps you learn to think about what you are singing. So often I get distracted and do not concentrate on the words I am singing. This is not worship-God would prefer me to not sing at all. This book has helped me with that. I've learned about just what happened before Horatio Spafford sat down and penned "It Is Well With My Soul". That story is quite interesting. It is a great testimony that Spafford could say those words so soon after all of the suffering that he endured. It's thought-provoking and I am thoroughly enjoying reading this book.

These are some of my good friends! The one on the far right is Courtney, who I've been staying with. On the far left is Richard, then Nick, then Lindsay, then me. I mentioned skyping some of our friends-well Courtney and I have skyped all of the others in this picture multiple times, so I thought this pic was appropriate. In case you can't tell, it's right outside of It's a Small World, a ride that caused much debate. In the end, the girls won and we rode it :)

Bye now!