Just a Few Misadventures

My husband Samuel's birthday was the 20th!!  (HAPPY 24th BIRTHDAY SHOUT OUT TO THE BEST HUSBAND!)

Knowing that a birthday cake was in order, I found a recipe for wacky cake that my mom gave me for my bridal shower and decided to give it a go.  It's SUPPOSED to make a very delicious and moist (almost wet) cake.  My mother was shocked at my misfortune, for this recipe has been well received for generations.  Here is what it is supposed to look like, which actually looks almost just like what it actually  turned out to be.  But it is NOT what I bet this cake tasted like...

To my dismay, the cake was not moist at all, not even a little bit!  It actually tasted bitter (after eating one of his bites Sam even asked, "did you forget the sugar?").  I don't know what happened!  My only hunch is that when the recipe says "vinegar," I should assume "white vinegar."  Not apple cider vinegar.  But who knew!!!!!  Poor sammy.

In other news, I work at the hospital two blocks away from my apartment.  I walk to work (thank the Lord for His many blessings and provisions!) and spend my time either in the nutrition office or delivering patient's food trays to them (it's a work out, for reals.)  The other night I was working as a tray passer.  After delivering all of the trays, I have to go back and pick them up when the patients are done eating.  Towing my huge metal cart encasing the numerous food trays tucked safely inside the cart's closed door, I walked into the elevator to travel 5 floors to the basement to finally drop off to the kitchen the last of my carts for the day.  When the elevator reached the lower level, the doors opened and I exited...that is, I almost did until the cart's front wheels got wedged within the elevator door tracks.  In horror I lunged my body forward to grasp the cart firmly before it would have opportunity to either crash on the floor or onto me.  Success, except, the lone food tray sitting atop the cart resulted in failure.  In a blink of an eye the whole tray flew through the air and landed feet away from a doctor (innocently awaiting an elevator ride).  Plates broken.  Vanilla pudding all over the walls.  Cleaning crews.  Embarrassment.

(cart. empty, unlike mine)

The next little story I want to tell you all involves a very important lesson to be learned about COFFEE!  (The water of the North).  Let me just premise my experience by saying that I was fasting this day, or at least attempting to, for a family request that still needs prayer.  (If you want to lift this need up for a few seconds right now I would appreciate it :)  So anyway, Sam and I decided that caffeine headaches are NOT a good thing to experience all day while classes and jobs had to happen all day.  So we innocently each had some coffee in the morning just to get our caffeine fix so we could wake up and live.  The whole day went well...but fast forward to 5:00.  Sitting in my Media with a Christian Worldview class, I suddenly felt nauseated.  I WILL spare you any more detailing except that 4 hours later, I had by then suffered violent vomiting totaling of 5 separate times.  I guess that if you have coffee on an empty stomach, it's pretty harmful.  Yeah, case in point, my tummy.  But my loving hubby was spared of all sickness and disease and bought me gatorade and tums.  By the next morning, I was healed.  However, my feelings for coffee have been a tad soiled these past few days of post-illness.

May the peace of God be with you!  Seek His face, not His hand!  He wants to get to know you, yes, He wants fellowship with you!  Follow after peace.

Cake recipe!  If any of you try to make this, please tell me how it turns out for you!  (Hopefully better than mine...)

Wacky Cake:
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, 2 cups sugar, 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa, 2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp vanilla extract, 1 1/2 tbsp vinegar, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 2 cups cold water

Preheat the oven to 350F. In a large mixing bowl, mix flour, sugar, cocoa, soda and salt. Make three wells in the flour mixture. In one put vanilla; in another the vinegar, and in the third the oil. Pour the water over the mixture. Stir until smooth. Divide evenly into cake pan.  Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Cool in pan on wire racks for 15 minutes.

Nothing

Greetings! 

I am at work right now with literally nothing to do.  There hasn't been anything to do for like, an hour now.  I could read my book for class, but I'm not feeling that well and don't want to use my brain too much (lol).  I tried wasting time on facebook, but my work recently blocked it. 

So, blogging it is.  About what?  Oh, nothing.

In other news, I'm 24 as of yesterday!  I'm almost to the point of being embarrassed to share my age.  By next year, I think I will for sure be silent on the matter.  Mid-twenties!!  Uffda.

Praise Jesus for my sweetheart husband who made the day soo happy and meaningful!  We went to Stillwater, MN, where he proposed last year. :)

I miss my family terribly.  Joey's visiting from school in Alabama and I'm not there for it.  December can't come soon enough!

I ate some beef barley soup from the hospital shortly before I started feeling sick.  Is that the reason?  Hospital food...you can never be too sure about it.

Minneapolis is not the place for me for very much longer.  It gives me sadness.  Either Missouri with my family or Moorhead, MN, with Sam's family; that's my goal.  But the Lord will bring us where He wants us.  I just pray we won't end up in Timbucktu...or someplace foreign like Texas. ;)

Well, here ends my post about nothing.  Well, it certainly has many somethings to it, but I feel like it's really about nothing.  Haha!  I need to go home.

Here I go!

Jared Anderson in Chapel

Today in chapel at North Central University (we meet every weekday as a whole university for a time of musical worship and teaching), we had the pleasure of having Christian singer/songwriter/worship leader Jared Anderson.

The music was anointed by the Holy Spirit as the students and faculty totally surrendered their hearts to Jesus.  The songs were not "me" focused (oh you love me, fill me, help me, bless me, give me....), they all glorified God just because HE IS GOD.

All of the songs song of His majesty in Heaven and on earth.  The presence was strong as it felt like the Heavens were opening up to reveal to each person more of the awesome power of God.

My favorite part of the hour long service was that it was an hour.  It wasn't all crammed in 20-30 minutes like so many churches try to do.

Don't you feel that when evangelical churches keep to a tight worship schedule, it quenches the Spirit?  Where is there time to just worship Him with our own words?  Where is there time to just rest in His presence and let Him speak to us?  Where is there prophecy?  Where is there true healing?  Where are people turning around and praying for each other?

I saw that today when more time was devoted to just praising the Lord and allowing the Holy Spirit to move.  For about 10 minutes there was just instrumental music as each person in attendance were encouraged to sing to the Lord new songs that come from within their souls.  

The Bible is full of verses that encourage singing new songs to the Lord from your heart and from your soul as the Spirit leads you.  (Psalm 33:3, 40:3, 96:1, 98:1, 144:9; Isaiah 42:10; Revelation 5:9, 14:3).

I believe that in those free times during worship sessions that allow the congregation to speak/sing to the Lord on their own is crucial.  It teaches them to not always rely on the words on the screen to speak their hearts for them, and it teaches them to mature and talk to Jesus on their own.  Jesus will answer.  And if we are open enough, He may lead us to pray for/speak to others around us, as we allow Him to work through us to bring healing, restoration, and love.

That is what church should be about.  Love.  For God.  For others.  Unashamed.  Unhindered.

P.S. Sam was in the choir, I am a proud wife!

Starry Night

In reading the book The Divine Commodity, I have learned some interesting facts about Vincent Van Gogh!  He had imagined his most famous painting, "Starry Night," for years before he actually painted the beautiful scene.

The story behind the painting is this: Vincent always designated the color yellow to represent God and all things holy.  Blue represented mystery.  Thus, the sky itself is a portrait of the holiness and mystery of God that is present throughout the earth.

If you notice the small buildings in the painting, you will see that every house has lights on, illustrating God's love and peace throughout the earth.  But one building ironically does not have lights on, and that is the church.

Why?  Because Vincent felt that the church in his day were too cold towards the less fortunate.  The church became too stuck in religion and not relationship (with God and with other people), that truly the source of God's light shown brighter through people who cared deeply about other people, as he himself had.

Do you know that for a part of his life Vincent gave up all material possessions that he could have easily enjoyed so that he could live with and be as one with poor miners?  He lived with them, loved the people, helped them heal from mining accidents when the doctors refused to, and he was their friend.  Through this wonderful act of sacrifice and love, he had embodied the true love of Christ.  Through showing the love of Jesus, he lead many of these spiritually lost people to the Lord.  Many are in Heaven right now, praising Jesus forever, because of Vincent's sacrificial love.

I can't even write the words "sacrificial love" without thinking of my dear Lord Jesus.  He paid the ultimate sacrifice for the people He loved (loves).  He died on the cross AND rose again!  He was the sacrifice paid for our sins, and people no longer have to sacrifice animals for their sins to be forgiven as was the custom.  Jesus was the Lamb that covered all of man's sins for eternity!

Now all we have to do to accept this payment for our sins is to ask Him to forgive us and ask Him to be the Lord of our lives.  We now have to sacrifice our lives of sinful and selfish desires and act according to His will, which is exactly what Vincent did to the community of miners.

What are you going to do to show Jesus' love today?

The Lord Has Made All Things Good

My name is no longer Jaclyn Trieb, for it is now Jaclyn Luthi!!!

That's right, I am married.  Samuel Luthi and I got married July 16, 2011!  Best day of my life.  Everything went perfectly, was beautiful, we all cried (especially my dad and me, I couldn't even talk to say my vows at first).  I wore the locket that my grandma and my mom wore at their weddings.  Sam and I got married at the same church that both sets of parents got married at.  My father in law sang as he sang at my parents' wedding.  My brothers played and sang a song that one of them wrote.  My sister was my maid of honor.  My dress was ivory and the bridesmaids' dark blue.  Half the candelabras blew out by a ceiling fan right away, but that was the worst of the day!  God surely gave us a beautiful wedding.

The best part, of course, was walking down the isle and looking into the face of my love, my husband.  He was always meant to be my one true love.  From when we met when we were babies, to when he wrote me secret love notes in 8th grade, God was orchestrating our lives to now be one.

I love my darling husband soo much!  Every day I love him more and cherish him deeper.  He is truly my gift from the Most High!  I am soo blessed to have the best husband ever.  I can't wait to see where all God will take us in this journey of life together!

I still feel like a newb to blogger.  Eventually, I want to add all sorts of cute items here and there to make it look attractive, and write in here a lot about my life, Jesus, and things I am learning about His greatness throughout history and today for us.

I'm not sure who will be reading (if anyone at all), but I can even share things like recipes and decorating tips!  You know, wifely elements :P

I'm off to edit articles for the North Central newspaper!

Grace and peace be with you

Wedding, Videos, and Magazines

Hey everyone!

Well, since I wrote, I got engaged!!

Samuel John Luthi asked me to be his wife on October 2nd.

We will tie the knot on July 16th!

Three months away already!!!!!

I'm so excited.

My mom and sister have been putting together the invitations all day. I wish I was there to help! We live states away and it sucks.

Right now I am in the process of editing one of my lovely video creations for my video production class. It's a news story on WOVEN, a music program at my college. It's going pretty well. I'm amazed at how long post production is. Uffda!

I have a new internship at school in the marketing department. I'm the contributing editor for the NCU Magazine which is coming out soon! I'm pretty excited about that. :)

Every time I see a penny or other coin on the floor, I pick it up and thank God for His goodness in my life. It's a great practice that keeps me thinking and praising the Lord! He's so good to me. If you don't know Jesus, you should.

Well, with my newly painted bright red nails and my coconut flavored coffee, I am off to continue my video.

Thanks and have a great night!

minneapolis for me once again

hey y'all!

this is my last day living at home for the summer! :) :( it's really sad, and really happy. i'm going to miss my FAMILY and kitties and house and church a TON! buuuut i know that college will quickly be super fun and exciting, and i get to see friends and my precious lover boy samuel again every day!!!!!!! :D

well, that's kinda all i have/want to say right now.

oh yeah, i bought a pedometer today! it will be kinda interesting to see how far i go with monitoring my steps throughout the day.

shasha ALMOST bought this adorableeee cat bed with walls called a "love bucket!" oh my goodness it's the cutest thing ever! she didn't want to spend $20. eh, i don't blame her.

i hate constantly moving. since i have graduated high school, i have moved 10 times, this time being the number 10 time. ahhhh! yeah, it's a lot. i have had a LOT of fun being in the college dorm/apartment scene, but then i really appreciate and love being home each time in between. now i just really want to finally be done with college and settle down somewhere for good. in the mean time, life is good and happy and i love Jesus and He makes every day a good one because He made it for us to live in! :D

yummy chicken tonight!

internship

Good morning! Did you have a nice cup of coffee yet? I did...or tried to. We ran out of any kind of creamer, so I added sugar and experimented with a tiny bit of vanilla extract. The result? Not as good as vanilla coffee creamer. In fact I ended up tossing half of it in the grass. Creamer is now added to the grocery list.

Someday I want to update my blog design and actually make it a little pleasing to the eye. Maybe if I posted more than once in my life, it would help motivate me. Well, here is my second post so we'll see if the redesign idea comes about.

My internship at Joyce Meyer Ministries is about to start. I'm a marketing intern located in the print department. It's fun....but not really what I was expecting when I first signed up. Let's just say I read a lot of novels at my desk. I have about 20 hours left out of 200, so that's good.

I dyed my hair last week. It's pretty dang dark. It's fading slowly, but at least right now it's not as tragic of a change as before.

I got to see my Sammy Luthi for 5 days last week!!!!! MAN he is just, suchhhh a sweet loveable handsome man whom I am in love with. It's true. We had so much fun: biking, jumping on the trampoline, walking on trails, running in the park, going to a baseball game, seeing his grandma, seeing my aunts, eating free samples at Sam's Club, and going to my good friend Jessica (Stulken)'s wedding!!!!! OOO I am soo happy for her, praise God!! She was such a gorgeous bride! Man, the trip ended entirely way too fast. Why does that always happen with vacations?! The only bad that came about the week was now I am suffering from 3498572 mosquito bites. They are trying to take over the whole state of Minnesota, I tell you what. Missouri doesn't even know what mosquitos are.

Time to go! Make the most of your day today! God gave this day to you, ask Him what He would like you to do with it :)

Jaclyn

well this is exciting!

I wanted to be cool like everyone else and have a blogger (or is this blogspot...but it's also google, right?) too! teehee!

Let me break it down for you what my life is like right now. Here is the basic outline:

- I go to North Central University in Minneapolis and am a Media Communications major and Biblical Studies minor. I will graduate a year and a half later than I ever thought I would before the Honor Academy, but that's okay! So, I'll be out of here by December 2011.

- I have the most AMAZING boyfriend named Samuel John Luthi. I will have to make a separate blog and tell you all about our adorable story sometime :) He's going to be a music pastor and will graduate from the same college at the same time. We are only 6 days apart in age! The Lord has DEFINITELY brought us together, and I couldn't be more blessed!

- I love Jesus. A lot! I love learning more and more about Him. By the way, the Bible classes here are legit. My favorite so far is Old Testament History and Literature. My eyes have become so opened to so many things.

- I live on a really fun dorm floor with the best girls ever! We have a ton of fun :) Yeah 5 North!

- Well, that's basically about it right now, as far as the basics.

Time for coffee and a 2 Corinthians research paper!

God bless,

~ Jackie