Monday, November 29, 2010

Bear

Jeffrey Phillip Bishop
--> Jeffreybear, Mr. Bear, Bear: that is the progressive evolution of Jeff's nicknames. Each one of them is still currently used in some fashion by someone in his life. I hop around but generally like to stick with the throwback and original, Jeffreybear. Also not included is what my mom calls him- "feffernooten"...nobody knows.

Moving on, Jeff is SO weird. Seriously. But mostly it is endearing. Jeff is the least like the rest of us Bishop kids. But that is probably a good thing. It just means his humor is nicer and he isn't as loud.
Mr. Bear is such a sweet heart. When I think about him I think of him as my protector and a good listener. Growing up, if my parents were fighting or if I was really upset about family stuff, Jeff was always the one to come to my room and sit with me or see if I was alright. 
He never makes me feel stupid or talks down to me, ever. It is so easy to talk to him about my life or the Lord. I guess I would put it as this: he really shows me that he is so happy to have a sister. I feel loved. 

Bear loves movies, he loves books, and he loves music. He knows so much about actors, directors and just film in general. I always go to him when I want to know if a movie is any good. And talk about a book worm! He will challenge himself in what he reads, and that might mean he reads Don Quixote or it might mean he reads Twilight. If something has received fame or accreditation then Jeffreybear is interested in finding out why. His music taste is bizarre and eclectic. Most of my family do not like (some might even say hates) what he listens to. I probably have the most overlap with him as far as music taste goes (and I still can't stand much of his stuff).



Jeff loves the Lord so much. He can be more of a timid guy, but when I see him most out going is when he is loving the Lord, praying, or talking about what he has received from Christ. I am so confident in his steadfastness with Jesus. The Lord has his heart and I am confident will always hold his heart, because that is how Jeff wants it.

Bear likes dragons. Bear likes Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings. Bear loves manly movies with war and violence and action sequences but he has been known to watch Gilmore Girls and a Freddie Prince Jr. movie with me (Boys and Girls). Bear likes to play Frisbee and basketball. And something many people don't know something about Jeffrey Phillip Bishop...he likes to dance. Especially with ME.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

ready, set, BRO

This time at home has been good so far. If you know me then you know how much I enjoy my family. My family consists of 4 brothers. I have decided to make 4 separate posts each describing one of my brudders and their wonderful traits and qualities. Get excited, they are pretty fascinating young men.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

what a day

Balance. I think today was a balanced day. 

I wake up early to go to the school and it's raining. I am not particularly fond of rain but whatever because it means I get to wear my favorite shoes- my pink rain boots! Silver lining. 

I go to class and watch a depressing movie. Literally...it was about a quadriplegic of 20 years who wanted Euthanasia legalized for himself. 
It's okay because in that same class I find out I really only have 2 more classes I have to attend for the rest of the semester!! BOO YAH. 

Spent some wonderful time in prayer and praising the Lord. He showed me a lot of hard stuff but you know I'm just thankful I serve such a real, loving and teaching God. Good stuff.

I had a tough conversation with someone but it needed to be had. 

Then I go to pick up one of my wyldlife girls for dinner and my car ONCE AGAIN has the check engine light on and begins bouncing every time I try to accelerate too much. I'm worried Martha is dying. I'm not a very good owner :/
(a nice young man with a very thick country accent did stop & really wanted to be sure we were alright and didn't need help...my 8th grade friend then proceeded to call him my boyfriend the next 10 minutes haha)

As much as that sucks it's okay because I am headed to celebrate the wonderful engagement of a friend who I am so happy for :)

....then I have to study for a test tomorrow.

ohhhhhhh life.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

watch this

http://vimeo.com/16663435

My brother showed me this link and told me about this band some time ago. They are great. 
The song is truly my desire and my plea.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Singin' sweet songs of melodies pure and true

I'm thankful for friends that listen. 
I'm thankful for sympathy and kindness when I need it. I'm thankful for friends who show grace and understanding when I offer none to myself. 
I'm thankful for the Lord and His promises to me. I am thankful for His love and even though there are plenty of times when I seem to think it is not enough, I know there are just as many times when I know in my heart that it IS enough.
I'm thankful for fun, and friends that indulge in the fun with me and we can be free and not judge one another for having a drink or being honest about something. (But also knowing there is a line not to cross and keeping one another mindful of it ;)

Even in my sadness and confusion I can find peace and that peace is always rooted in the Lord. Even if that peace does not come directly from the Bible, prayer, or what have you it always at least indirectly comes from Him. 
I'm working through a lot & I tend to get frustrated when it takes me a while to overcome something but I know there is a rainbow at the end of the storm (maybe even a double...what does it mean?!?!)

So for this weekend I will be okay with not having everything together or not understanding people or my life and just be thankful. I have a lot to be thankful for.

(p.s.- it totally did not cross my mind when writing this post that it is a week until Thanksgiving. HAH how appropriate!)

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Same thing next week, please

It's a real treat having a friend of mine and fellow young lifer as a professor. Kristi Doubet is my professor for an instructional methods class (secondary education course). I enjoy her as a person and equally as much as a teacher. I suppose sometimes I forget she is my professor and tell her things as Kristi, not as Dr. Doubet. This is a story about the result of said actions.

Last class we were put into groups to work on our knowledge of proper assessment making...yadda yadda yadda. Well, I was in a group with a young man in my class who I happen to find quite attractive (understatement). Yes, yes that's right how funny Kelly admitted to finding a guy in class good looking, something I am sure none of you have thought right?
WELL, after class I received a text. It was from Kristi (Dr. Doubet). Kristi was asking me if I enjoyed how she strategically placed me in a group with the aforementioned good looking peer. "WHAT? Oh shoot did I tell you about that?" was my response. "I did enjoy it but I was also quite distracted from the task". Kristi apologizes for that & says "but you didn't seem to mind ;)"

And those are the privileges of knowing your professor on a personal level outside of class. She just might be your best matchmaker.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Yeah you got that somethin

My lovely teammate and I were in the car listening to "I wanna hold your hand" by the Beatles and I believe we were both just thinking- "awwww".  I told her I thought this song was so perfect for Christians because we can sing it and not feel bad about wanting the lyrics to be true. There is nothing inappropriate, sexy or vulgar about the simple joy of wanting to hold the hand of someone you like. Ahh life. 

The first time I held a boys hand was freshman year of high school. I found out Brian Russel liked me and boy was I thrilled. I had never heard of a boy liking me enough to want me to be his girlfriend! So even though I didn't know Brian very well (we both loved Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and he went to the same youth group I did) I decided to be his girlfriend. Honestly, I mainly did it because it felt so nice to be liked and to have someone. Hey I was 15 okay? Anyway, so Brian took me to the movies (with my best friend and her boyfriend OF COURSE I couldn't go with just him!!) and we saw...ah I can't remember...I feel like it wasn't a movie I totally enjoyed. Whatever, Brian had real bad breath that night. To this day still a big turn off for me. And I knew he was going to go for the hand holding. I think one of my friends may have even told me that he wanted to hold my hand. 
So of course he grabs my hand and we're interlocked, very still, for the entire movie. Like I think my hand was numb because I was just so nervous so I just let my hand sit in his, and by the conclusion of the movie both of our palms were extremely sweaty. As the movie ended I was dying to wipe mine off on my pants, which I did as soon as I stood up. But we wouldn't dare joke about that to each other.
After that I got used to holding his hand everyday during lunch time. Unfortunately Brian and I did not go the distance in our ever-so-deep relationship. Clearly I'm still wounded. 

Thanks for takin a walk with me down nostalgia lane :)

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

apron tied & oven preheated

My dream is to go to culinary school. Buuuuttt that is where culinary school will have to stay- in my dreams. Because it cost mucho dinero and doesn't really fit in with the rest of my life, and yeah it's just a silly desire of mine, I don't think I fully comprehend all that culinary school entails anyway.

Anywho, I will have to just stick to baking (mostly) and (some) cooking in my own kitchen. 
My most recent recipe to tackle: pumpkin cornbread (from scratch of course). Sounds...interesting, right? I thought so too. 
Well corn and pumpkin are 2 great autumn ingredients why not see if they work well together? Plus I bought my corn meal from the farmer's market yessss legit stuff.

First decision in the kitchen: nix the onions. GROSS. I detest onions. Almost all the time. They are almost as bad as nasty mushrooms ...but alas I am straying from story time. SO after solving the problem of those disgusting parasites I soldiered on to complete my bread. After measuring ingredients, combining the dry mix with the liquidy stuff (I've got the terminology down pat) I have my batter completed. Time to taste it. 
Okay, now granted this is unfinished cornbread batter, so it is not going to be as delectable as cookie dough or anything. But still. It was...I dunno...not good. To be frank. A quick call to my mom and she explained that because it called for no sugar, but yes to onions- that means it is not your typical sweet cornbread it's more like a side for something spicy or stew or something. In order to remedy that problem I need more honey and sugar. Clearly I am not going to put up a fight there. Add sugar? No problem.
In the end the pumpkin puree made the bread fantastically moist and the pumpkin, while not extremely recognizable in the taste, did not overpower the cornbread. Pretty decent results for my first try, especially with the slight concluding fiasco. 
And I think my housemates were pleased :)

I love creating something out of a bunch of nothings- some flour, corn meal, salt, honey, pumpkin, eggs etc. I love that in baking you can mess something up but remedy it your next time around. You can experiment with something new and get excited when it turns out well because YOU created that, you made that good decision. And the smells that swirl around and even the mess I make and the final product- it's all so exciting to me. And I especially love pleasing people with treats, seeing them get really excited when they walk in the kitchen to a free dessert, bread, what have you. And then enjoying my creation so much that they sneak back in the kitchen later and sheepishly slice off another piece. Perfect.