Thanksgiving: Taken by Storm

I think that would be an accurate movie title, if there were to be one made about the way our Thanksgiving went yesterday.

This being mine and Daniel's first Thanksgiving married, and also our first away from our families, pre-move, we knew it had to be special. So we decided to spend it with our dear friends Nathan and Jill, also transplants from far away and unable to connect with family for the holiday.

A few days before the grand event, Jill calls. Keep in mind that none of us have ever cooked anything "thanksgiving-ish" before. (this is the reader's digest version of the convo):

Jill: "So, what's our plan for Thanksgiving?"
Me: "I dunno...we've always had traditional turkey, cranberry, stuffing, etc..so I'm not sure what else works for turkey day"
Jill: "So you wanna go easy, or do you wanna go for it?"
Me: "I'm up for going for it. You wanna go for it?"
Jill: "I wanna go for it"
Me: "Ok, let's go for it:
Jill: "Ok!"

We decided to go for it. By the end of our phone conversation, I was in charge of the green bean casserole, the stuffing, the mashed potatoes, and the bread. Jill took the turkey, the cranberry sauce, and the salad. Oh, and the house. We had it at their place :)

So yesterday arrives. The night before I had spent an hour in the kitchen doing "prep":

3 onions, chopped. (Daniel cried like a baby, and I was the one chopping the onions)
12 corn bread muffins, baked (for the stuffing)
lots of groceries, including 3 cartons of heavy cream (yay clogged arteries) bought.
recipes, in hand.
supplies, packed and ready to go.

Thanksgiving, here we come.

We arrive at our destination at 11:30 am and come across Nathan and Jill having a hands-on turkey education class. There is a metal "thing" buried deep into the turkey legs holding them together or something, but we need to get it out to clean the turkey and it's not coming out and what do we do? We get pliers. Nathan and Jill get salmonella all over their hands. It is nasty. But in the end, Nathan and Jill prevail over the metal turkey-leg-holder-thing.

Immediately afterwards, we send the husbands to the store for extra supplies. Jill's cranberry chutney had almost a million ingredients, and we needed some bleach cleaner to get the turkey nasty out of the sink. Men out of the house, Jill and I sit down to plan out the day. Our goal? Eat around 6:30.

11:45, turkey in the oven.
12:45, walk to the beach to play frisbee, get lunch
1:45, check turkey, baste if necessary
2:00, eat lunch, commence "Speed Scrabble"--so fun. And I also discovered that eating pomegranates is my new favorite thing. It's so satisfying picking the little juice ball things out of there and eating them. Great. Man, I wish I could post pictures now. They are glorious.
3:30, start the cranberry chutney. More onions chopped, along with 2 apples and some ginger root. Jill is putting in the other million ingredients. Then the chutney simmers.
4:00, start the stuffing and green bean casserole
5:00, everything goes in the oven, start the mashed potatoes and bread.
5:00, is the turkey ready? Check the thermometer. Nope, not ready yet!
5:30, the turkey is ready. It needs to sit awhile.
5:31, the husbands stop playing their carcasonne game and do the dishes. Such lovely husbands.
6:00, rolls go in the oven, casseroles come out. Commence chopping for salad.
6:15, turkey is carved, casseroles on the table, bread in the basket, salad, done!
6:21, everything is not only out on the table, but so are the utensils and plates, our glasses of premium wine provided by nathan's brother Brian, and we are holding hands for the prayer.
6:23, Jill and I pause and look at our table and spread and think, "wow, we did that. WE DID THAT!" but wait, we haven't eaten it yet. Will it taste good?

6:25, we all take our first bites, and immediately think "OH YEAH BABY! THIS IS SOOOOOO GOOD!"

I'm sorry but Jill and I beamed. The green bean casserole was supreme. And it was not the recipe provided on the Fried Onion Strings container, thank you. The mashed potatoes, so creamy, the stuffing, divine. Turkey? Juicy, tender, and the cranberry chutney? A perfect compliment. And it just so happens that Brian is a wine connoisseur so it complemented everything perfectly.

After the initial 'goodness' shock, we then proceeded to stuff our faces. Completely full. It was ridiculous. There were surprisingly little leftovers, but we will enjoy those for dinner tonight. After we had eaten rounds one and 2, we sat and played a game before the turkey lethargy set in. And set in it did. Daniel and I arrived home around midnight and fell asleep with full bellies and happy hearts.

Happy Thanksgiving to all. Next year let's have it at my house!

The Dentist's Chair

I had a dentist appointment today. The dentist is not a huge deal for me, now that I've reached my adult years, but it for sure has been in the past.

You know the hygienist who asks you questions the whole time...not yes or no questions, but "What's your biggest fear?" type questions.

And you know the hygienist who takes the big metal hook they use and pretends you are the fish she's just caught for dinner, yanking your mouth around and tearing through your gums...

You know?

Well, enter Mavis, the dental hygienist from heaven. This woman did not cause me one ounce of pain, and she probably gave me the most thorough cleaning I've ever had. And she taught me how to floss properly.
Did you know you're actually supposed to brush your teeth for FIVE minutes twice a day? The average person brushes for a minute and a half.

And on top of that, Mavis gave me a $5 Starbucks card. She told me to go get a Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate....I believe I will, thank you very much.

And for being a new patient, I got a mug filled with chocolate. From the DENTIST!!! How cool is that? I can't eat it of course, per our no-dessert regulations, but I mean, a dentist that will hand out chocolate to his new patients is definitely worth a second visit...or even a third.

So all in all my pearly whites are even more pearly than they were before, and I highly recommend Mavis. If we weren't moving next month, I'd want to see her again.

Speaking of moving (how's that for transition?) Our house is now in boxes. And we've still got about 3 weeks to pack, so that's good....wait a minute...we're moving in THREE WEEKS!!! That is so weird! It's going to fly by. Really quickly. We are trying to figure out, currently, how we are going to move across the country. We're selling one car, so we'll have our suv and a truck with our stuff. It looks like Daniel will take the truck and I'll take the Kia and we'll go it separately....all 23 long hours. great.

Daniel is in the process of beginning to look for a job, and he's already begun school, which he is super excited about! If you know of anyone who would like to offer Daniel employment, let me know :)

Well, that's the latest from Proffitteer land. It's amazing how excited my trip to the dentist made me today. I'm telling you, a good dental hygienist is worth getting excited over. My gums are grateful for Mavis :)

If I May Have Your Attention Please

Well, folks, there's no easy way to say this except just to say it. So I'll say it and then give you some background:

At the beginning of December, Daniel and I will be moving to Texas.

What?! You ask?

In July, about 4 months ago, I was approached about a job at Trinity, the church I worked for before Daniel and I got married. The job would encompass everything I am passionate about and want to do with life----leading worship. At the time we were in the middle of summer camp and were not looking to move back to Texas, though we imagined we might end up there at some point in the future. Needless to say, we were a little caught off guard by the possibility of a job I would love to do and a possible invitation back to Texas, home to both our families and a church that we both love.

Over the next 3 months, I kept in touch with the church as things continued to develop with the position. As Daniel and I were praying about the job and what to do, I realized I really wanted the job...and not only that, but to be back in Amarillo. And I really felt like God was saying "This is what I have for you. Go"....all the while recognizing my own desires and dreams to go and fill this position...

In October, 3 months after we initially were approached, Daniel and I sat down with a few Pastors at the church, and they offered me a job...a different job than the one I had originally been approached about, but one that still encompasses what I love and feel called to do--lead worship!

And it boils down to the tons of things God has been doing in both me and Daniel, together and separately, and it boils down to where God has called us to be.

So I have accepted the job at Trinity as the children's worship pastor (not sure exactly what I'll be called), and we will be moving after the first week of December, and I will start work after that.

Our time out here in California has been amazing, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. It has been a defining part of mine and Daniel's first year of marriage, and I am thankful for the opportunity we've had to be apart from the world, out here by ourselves, working together and learning about each other---while at the same time being in a community of people out here who have loved us and been true friends. For us as a couple it is a closing of a season of life in the mountains and the beginning of one on the plains...uncertain and yet exciting, and one that we've been being prepared for. We know God will take care of us, and we know we've got friendships out here that will continue for a lifetime.

For those of you out here in Cali, we will miss you a lot. For those of you in Texas, we've missed you a lot.

If you have questions, let me know!!

love love

Notes on a Breather

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...........

That is the sound of me exhaling a tad.
It is wonderful.

We finished Future Life, season 1 (not a tv series, but real life), and we finished well. Our last retreat was 4 days long, and that, for me equals a lot of leading worship. 6 full-blown sets to be exact. I am tired, but my voice is still intact, which means (hopefully) all those vocal warmups and practicing is really paying off!

Now, we are back to the pre-summer nothingness...except this time it's a little different. I still have no job, but I am at least more comfortable in my surroundings and therefore, am able to venture out and find things to amuse myself with. I still am in a little disbelief, that at 24 and a newlywed, I am able to have no job and live in California, and support my husband. It's a rare, but somewhat challenging treasure!

For the next few days the boys (the husbands of camp) are off debriefing the summer and fall seasons, so we wives shall play. I'll let you know what 'play' means after we've actually done it. Because right now I have no clue what we'll end up doing. Probably eating and watching movies. Those are pretty girly things to do, right? My toes are already pedicured, so that's out of the picture...we have coffee at home, so Starbucks might have to wait....so I dunno. But believe you me, it will be fun. And it will be playing.

Speaking of playing, did I tell you about Daniel's birthday last week? Talk about fun. He's 26 now, which means he's getting up there, so we had to do some things to make him still feel like a kid. I made breakfast (a casserole--recipe courtesy of Daniel's mom--thanks Paula!), and while it was in the oven I went and woke Daniel up with 2 presents, both of which were some of his favorite beverages. One was acai green tea (it's pronounced ah-sigh-ee), and the other was Oregon Chai. He chose the green tea. So, we ate breakfast and had tea, and then we went over the hill (to San Jose) where we shopped around and looked for him some birthday presents...we didn't find any.....why?
It seems that anything Daniel finds in person that he likes, he is determined not to pay full price for it because "I can find it somewhere online for half that price." Actually, even if it's on sale he will still go and look for it cheaper online.
The funny thing is...he ALWAYS finds it cheaper online.

Anyways, so we shop. We go to dinner at this place called the Loft. It's a really cool bistro. One of the things Daniel wanted to do on his day was go to a restaurant we've never been to (one of his fav. things). I took it upon myself to pick the restaurant, and I chose well. Funny story:

I order the "Panko Crusted Chicken Breast" with garlic mashed potatoes, vegetables, and honey mustard sauce.

When it arrives, I am in shock at the large portion. The chicken was HUGE!!! It had to lay across both the potatoes and the vegetables. Granted, it had been pounded really thin, but it was still quite large. So I've got a lot of food on my plate.

I eat maybe half the chicken, a little potatoes, and half the veggies. Daniel eats all of his plate as well as the rest of mine. So we're both sitting there with empty plates, when the waitress walks back up, takes a look at MY plate, and goes "wow, you stuffed?" WOW, YOU STUFFED?!

What on earth is that supposed to mean? Daniel and I laughed so hard, and then we started coming up with other ways she could have said that....none of which would have been any better:

"Geez, you sure put that away"
"You must not have eaten at ALL today"
"Gonna go for a run later, huh?"


We still gave her a generous tip. And had a laugh. But really, that is ridiculous.

Anyways, moving on. After dinner, we went to the Cheesecake Factory.
Hold on: you may be thinking "Cheesecake Factory AFTER dinner can only mean one thing: dessert. And aren't you guys boycotting dessert for a year?"

Yes, yes, yes......but remember, we make our own rules. And our own rules include a clause that says "on your birthday, you must eat birthday cake"And because we pigged out on my birthday, it was only fitting that we at least let the man have some cake!

We got Chris's Outrageous Chocolate Cake. See entry from June 14th.....same cake. In case you missed what is in this cake, let me tell you:

It is the size of a brick.
It is 8 layers:
2 chocolate cake
2 fudge brownie
1 coconut cheesecake
2 german chocolate ganache
1 fudge ganache
Then the whole thing is drenched in chocolate ganache, with more ganache, and more chocolate, then it's rolled in chocolate shavings. And topped with whipped cream.

When you haven't had any dessert in 3 1/2 months, Chris's Outrageous Chocolate Cake is heaven on earth.....we ate the whole thing and felt so sick...in a good way. We of course, didn't feel sick enough to not get birthday ice cream on the way home. Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough, and Moose Tracks. It was the little tiny cups. Don't freak out.

Our stomachs rumbled all day the next day. Not pretty, but TOTALLY worth it. I, however, do not want to think about dessert for about 8 more months. Which is fitting.

We rang in Daniels' 26th birthday with lots of style and pizzazz, and lots of food...how else should you ring in a birthday?

We head to Texas in 2 weeks! I cannot wait. I need it, big time. Til then you know I will keep you updated on the happenings in Cali.

Miss you all!!

I took my husband out on the town!

"What did you do when you took him out on the town?" you might be asking.

Let me fill you in.

When I heard about the Joyce Meyer conference going on in San Jose this weekend, I thought "Wow, Daniel would LOVE to go to that." And when I heard that Darlene Zschech from Hillsong would be leading worship, I thought "Oh man. If we DON'T go to the conference, Daniel will probably be so upset that he missed it. It's in his best interest that I suck it up and take him to the conference."

So, being the lovely wife that I am, I suffered through the Joyce Meyer conference for the sake of my husband's utmost happiness and enjoyment.

Something tells me you're not buying all this...am I right?

Okay okay. So I like Joyce Meyer, but when I found out that Darlene Zschech was going to lead worship, I was like "oh my gosh. I HAVE to go to this conference!" And I'm kind of hesitant to ask women to things of this nature because I've found that a lot of women don't enjoy conferences. So I thought I'd take Daniel. I am exposed. He graciously went with me to the conference last night...it was so good he actually suggested that we come back this morning, which we did!

Like I said before, I like Joyce Meyer. But this weekend I was thoroughly impressed with her, actually. She did an amazing job of speaking practical, simple truth and entertaining her audience as well. She's really funny and fun to listen to in person.

And I was soooo interested to see how Darlene Zschech leads worship. She's a female vocalist worship leader (no instrument), which is how I like to lead worship as well and did at Trinity. I've never gotten to see another female worship leader lead as just a vocalist, and I was so excited to see how she does it. I did notice a lot of things about her that I believe are important in a worship leader, and probably the thing I noticed the most about her was that she wasn't performing. She was worshiping. And there is a huge difference. And she invited the Spirit into the room and created an environment that made it easy to feel the freedom to worship as we chose. It was really amazing. I've never worshiped like that in a large arena full of people and felt like it was so intimate. God was definitely in that place!!! It was the same thing this morning as well. I was so thankful for the opportunity to go and I was also grateful to Daniel for coming with me---and it blessed me that he wanted to come back!


And Joyce did say she welcomed men at her conferences....Daniel was a little afraid he'd be the only guy there. Not the case. And his masculinity is protected :)

Afterwards, I had the biggest craving for the Quesadilla Explosion salad from Chili's. Weird, huh? It's so good and I hadn't had one since Texas. It was a Chili's night. For those of you who get sick of Chili's, don't take it for granted. There will come a day when all you'll want is Chili's.

So, that's our newest news...I must run to the kitchen at camp. We have a group up here and it's pasta night! It doesn't really matter what it is, actually. It's free.

Magic Band of Mountain Brothers

Are you confused by the title of this post? Well, don't be. It's merely a compilation of the newest things going on in Proffitteer-land.

Daniel and I went on a marriage vision retreat this past weekend--Marriage Today has a vision booklet and encourages couples to go on a vision retreat once a year. In honor of our 6 month anniversary of marriage (woohoo!! ha) We went on our inaugural retreat.

Now, normally when you think of "retreat", you picture a serene setting, like the woods maybe, and a small cabin or a hotel or whatever....someplace quiet.

In case you are unaware, Daniel and I live in the woods at a retreat center. But were we going to stay perched in our cabin in the woods in order to maintain the quiet stillness that is typically a retreat?

no way jose.

We went to Six Flags Magic Mountain! It's down south on the outskirts of LA...I knew early on in life that I would need to marry a man who enjoyed roller coasters as much as I do. One time when I was in 7th or 8th grade, my dad and I caught a red-eye to Dallas and spent the day at Six Flags riding roller coaster after roller coaster...then we flew home that night. SOOOOO FUN! That's one of my favorite memories.
Now fast-forward 12 or so years to married, grown-up, mature Bree and her mature, grown-up husband Daniel.

When we woke up on Magic Mountain morning, we could hardly contain ourselves. And by the time we got to the park, I was getting antsy because too many people were taking the Magic Mountain exit, which meant there would be competition for the amazing AMAZING roller coasters. And by the time we got through the gate and the clock struck 10:04, I was anxious because the park was supposed to open at 10 am SHARP. It said it online. And you should have seen Daniel and I sprint through the gate to the premier ride of the year...the X2.

It's a roller coaster that is supposedly 5 dimensions. Not only are you corkscrewing and flipping like a normal roller coaster, but your individual seat is also flipping. So really you have no idea what's going on. AND there are speakers by your head so you get to listen to a commentary the whole time, and at one point the ride shoots flame and you feel a burst of heat radiate across your face.

There was a lot of hype about this ride. It was cool, but not my favorite.

The amazing thing was that because all the people in the park spent their whole day waiting in line for the X2, there were no other people on any other roller coasters! So the rest of the day Daniel and I spent riding coaster after coaster in the blistering heat. We were sweaty, we were tired, and it was glorious.

Now you may be thinking that sounds like fun and all, but what about the retreat? Don't worry...in the booklet it specifically says "have fun"...so we did. But we were very intentional about sitting down and writing visions for our marriage in every area possible, from finances to children to housework. And it was exhausting, but incredibly beneficial.

Since we were so close to LA and I'd never been there, Daniel took me through his old stomping grounds during grad school.

I have to say, TV makes LA look pretty good. LA makes LA look really gross.
There was trash and graffiti everywhere, and the haze was so thick you couldn't read the names of the businesses occupying downtown. It amazes me that it's such a hotspot for entertainment and seems so glamorous, because it doesn't have a glamorous package. Plus, on Sunday afternoon all 6 lanes of the freeway were jammed with people...ALL SIX LANES. It was stressful!!

From there we drove on up to Santa Barbara. Talk about a glamorous package: Santa Barbara is beautiful! It was a lot slower-paced than LA, and it was clean and well-taken care of and just...well, beautiful! We stayed there one night and then headed back on Monday afternoon! It was a really great weekend--great to see things I hadn't seen, ride roller coasters, be away with camp, and create more vision for our marriage!

So that's the first part of the strange title. Get it? Magic Mountain.

The second part is what we've been doing in our wind-down time after the Future Life Retreat is done for the day....we've been watching Band of Brothers. If you've never heard of it, it's a miniseries HBO did about the 101st Airborne during WWII--more specifically, E-Company of the airborne. It's sooooooo good. I'm not usually a war-movie buff, but this is an actual true story of the Normandy invasion and beyond during WWII. It's kind of graphic, and really long--there are 10 hour-long parts to it. But if you haven't seen it or heard of it, net-flix it, buy it, borrow it, beg for it, don't steal it though. But get it. And watch it. It's so good.

So, that's where we sit currently!

In other news, I've been leading worship for the retreats going on up here. In case I didn't say it already, Future Life Retreats are 6 fall retreats where private Christian schools bring their kids up for a few days and we run them through a camp-like program. It's been so refreshing to be back leading worship. It's so different---I've had to learn to set up all the sound equipment and run sound (NEVER done that before) and I type up the power points and get them ready (never done that before either). That has been interesting. I thought I knew a lot about power point. but it turns out that's a lie. ha.

I've really really missed leading worship though since I've been out here, so it's amazing to get back into it. I really do feel the most alive whenever I'm leading worship. I just love it and I love creating an environment where people are able to freely worship God. I love to worship God and I love inviting people to do that with me. Did I mention I just love it? And it's interesting because in the last 6 months of transition and really discovering more of who I am, I feel I've become a different worship leader--more myself, more vulnerable, more purposeful. Those things make the difficulty in transition more powerful, because I realize how beneficial it's been....

Anyways, that's what's new in our world! Daniel's birthday is coming up. He'll be 26! That's so old. It's also his first birthday since we've been married. He really went all out for mine. I don't know how I'm going to top that, but believe you me, I will try.

lots of love!

and...we're...done...sort of.

The camp season has come to a close here at the Hammer, and it's as if my body knew it before my brain. I still can't believe that tomorrow we aren't getting new campers, that I actually can clean my house and it will stay that way, and that I can cook my own meals once more. My body, on the other hand, feels like lead. It's like it's just been waiting for camp to be over so it can collapse into a pile of sleep for hours upon end.

I'm not gonna lie, I like the sleep part.

What's next, you ask? Future Life retreats. They start next week, and so we'll have private schools bringing their students up for a few days and we'll run them through a camp-like program, only with about a third of our staff. Nifty! I'm looking forward to it, though. It looks like I'm going to be the worship leader for FL, which will be really fun and a cool opportunity in an environment I can't say I've ever lead worship in before.

So, that's where we sit. There are other things going on in life that I will not comment on, but in which your prayers are greatly appreciated as these next few months reveal themselves....

a short blog, I know. But dinner calls. woohoo!!

I am slightly overwhelmed by the amount of calls I need to return from the course of the summer. So please be patient with me and give me some time. It's still not my first nature to be a 'phone person', but I do want to talk to you :) So be waiting by the phone for that call. k?

love love,