Let me catch you up!

Well, as always, the semester has gotten away from me and I have left my loyal readers behind!  Well, I have about 30 minutes to spare to catch you up and add some photos from the life of the Ishmaels.  So... here goes!

Starting with last night, I have to tell you about the Apple Butter I made last night!  It is fabulous!!
3 lbs Red Delicious Apples
1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
3/4 Brown Sugar
5 tsps Cinnamon
1 tsp ground clove

1. Peel, core and slice apples into 8ths.
2. Throw them in the crock pot with the vanilla on low. (My setting was low/8hrs)
3. Stir every 30 minutes.
4. After about 2 hours, they become soft.  You can use a potato-masher to get a more desirable consistency.
5. Add the brown sugar, cinnamon, and ground clove.
6. Let cook on same setting for another 2 hours storing about every 30 minutes.
7. Then fill jars, let cool and seal.  Store in refrigerator.  



Eddie and at the N. TX game

8. You can use a canning technique here to keep from having to refrigerate. 

Now, let's talk about some FOOTBALL!  How 'bout those RED WOLVES!  The ASU football team is the number 1 team in the Sun Belt.  We are so excited.  Coach Freeze has done amazing things with our football program.  It is sort of funny that the whole selection of universities in the south comes down to football, but I think that this season is going to be the turn-around for Arkansas State University.  I really hope that the community comes out to support the team next Saturday.  It would be great for it to be sold out.  

Brock clearly thinks his uncle Eddie is a little goofy!

Bryant and "Mom"

 A couple of Saturdays ago, Eddie was in charge of planning our day.  It was fun.  We went to Pinnacle Mountain and climbed to the top.  Then we went to the Firefly place to paint each other a coffee mug.  We will be picking those up this weekend, hopefully they turned out alright.  Anyway, take a look at the pictures from our mountain adventure!

 

Moving on... Youth Group has been extremely busy.  We've come a long way though!  We took 7 kids to Sr. High Youth Rally in Little Rock.  We are going to pray at the abortion clinic for 40 Days for Life on Saturday.  We are in progress of getting a band together to lead the music before Youth and at the Youth Mass we have each month.  At any given time, we could have 60 kids in the Youth House.  It is kind of sad that we've only been in the house for 2 months and we've already out grown it!  But it is also extremely awesome that we've out grown it!  We are so excited to have so many kids coming each week.  We have created an award for "Peter", to recognize a Youth member who "got off the boat."  The kids have great ideas to improve a grow our ministry.  Also, we are working on our plans for Brazil for World Youth Day 2013!

Well that is all I can come up with in the 30 minutes that I allowed myself.  Thanks for reading my blog.  It is nice to know there are people out there who care for us enough to read it and who are praying for the work we are doing with the Youth.  Have a great weekend!

Living the call...

I know that my last post was less than encouraging.  It was a little depressing but it gave me an outlet to express my frustration at the time.  That's what a blog is for, right?

Well, tonight, after a meeting with the CRE teachers at church, I have to say I have something a little brighter to write about.  I know that the bigger picture of being a pharmacist is to help people when they are sick, to be an ear for those who need to talk about their illness, and to be a resource of answers for those with questions.  Hopefully, I will be able to do all this from the business that my father started.  But in addition to my calling to be a pharmacist to help my patients, I think that it is also to support my family so that we are able to fulfill God's other calls to us for service.

We have been very blessed to be apart of the St. James Parish.  Eddie has been blessed with the position of Youth Director, it is a part time position, but nonetheless it helps to buy the groceries from time to time.  We have also had the opportunity to meet wonderful teens who have a lot to teach us and a lot that we can help them learn.  They've all come with outstanding parents!  We couldn't do any of the things that we've done in the last year without them.  They get the kids where they need to be, enforce the values of our faith at home, volunteer to chaperon and to provide dinner for 40 kids some nights.

In addition, I believe that Eddie might, possibly have found his niche in the world.  Since his experience at Steubinville, he has been on fire!  He has a new blog where he is sharing all of his thoughts on our faith. He has new ambitions to fulfill in Youth Ministry.  It is refreshing for him to have such a big voice in our religion and faith these days.

Back to my original inspiration for this blog though.  I'm sitting here making powerpoint lessons for our Confirmation class.  I'm realizing how much I have learned from this whole experience in Youth Group and now in Confirmation.  A few things I've learned:
1.  It is a lot of work to make lesson plans.  Props to you teachers out there!
2.  Teenagers are mean!  They stare at you like you're talking to a brick wall sometimes.  Even had candy thrown at me last year.  But this is all ok!  It just draws attention to the areas in ministry that need improvement.  If they look like they don't care what you're saying, then they probably don't.  There is something I should be doing differently to get their attention and keep it.  Also, if they're throwing candy at you, you should probably be praying for them.  And also, give them the attention they are looking for. Whether that be praying with them in the hall way, talking with them one-on-one, or telling their parents.  Either way, it highlights the areas that need attention.
3.  I seemed to have missed a lot of this during my religious education!  I have learned more in the last year than I think I ever learned as a Catholic kid.
4.  I'm not sure where, but we are losing our Catholic kids at some point between 8th grade and adulthood.  Where are all the Catholics in their 20s?
5.  God has a plan.
Anyway,  I'm hoping that these things will come with more knowledge and more answers in the next few years.  I hope that Eddie and I will continue to have this opportunity to fulfill this call in our faith.
If you ever have the chance to be a CRE teacher, I highly recommend it!  It isn't always rewarding (i.e. when you're looking at 10 brick walls), but if nothing else, you can walk away from the experience with a great knowledge of our faith and maybe, just maybe, you were able to get the attention of one student.

It's been way too long, friend!

It has been a while since my last post.  It has been a pretty busy summer!
I've been working at my dad's pharmacy this summer and I have actually enjoyed the experience.  Granted, my dad can be difficult to work for... but this seems true for most kids working for their parents.  They hold you to higher standards than the other employees, but I guess it is only to make you better at what you do.  Anyway, I feel like I've learned more about his business and more about retail pharmacy in general.  I've gotten to do a lot of counseling and it has been nice seeing his patients that remember me from when he opened the store 11 years ago.
Other than working, I've been taking a class the PCCA Institute in Houston, TX.  It is an advanced compounding course that I took online and then went to the lab portion for 2 days last week.  I got to see their amazing training facility and make several dosage forms that I had no previous experience with.
After the lab, I flew to Florida to meet Eddie and my mom in Destin for my friend's wedding.  She had a beautiful wedding on the beach.
We've had a pretty exciting summer, lots of traveling, or driving anyway.
In addition to this, Eddie and I have been working on getting organized for Youth Group and the Confirmation class that we are teaching this year.  We have some exciting events planned for our amazing group of teenagers!  God willing, it will all work out and we will be able to recruit even more Catholic kids to strengthen their faith.
Oh!  Almost forgot!  Eddie took a group of our Youth members to Springfield, MO to Steubenville!  It was an amazing experience and the kids that went came back renewed with the Holy Spirit.  The conference has a way of making an impact on the teenagers who attend.  We're so excited about the 2012 Steubinville!  We already have it on our calendar and hope that we can take 50 kids with us!

Oh Gosh... Where to begin!

What happens when you go so long with out making a post is that you don't even know where to begin. 
Well, let's begin with today and work our way back a little bit to update you on the life of the Ishmaels here lately.

Today, I took my third midterm of the semester, and it marks the beginning of my spring break!  I've been looking forward to this break for a while now!  It would be even better if Searcy Schools (where Eddie works) had the same break.  Oh well, I guess that's life.

So... what's on the agenda for my spring break?
Well I'll be in Jonesboro some, of course.  There might be a quick trip to Cherokee one day.  I will probably do a little shopping and scrapbooking.  I plan to sleep in, clean, and if I have an ambitious day towards the end of the break, I might start studying for our therapy test that is the next week... but we'll see. ;-)

I'm not sure I've blogged about this yet, but Eddie is the new Youth Director at our church!  This is way exciting for us!  We've been able to make lots of changes and recruit more kids.  We've got some amazing support from the parents of the youth members.  We had a bake sale last weekend after Mass and raised almost $300!  We got a grant from the Diocese and we've been able to buy a TV, DVD player, and a new youth program for Catholics called Life Teen.  Also new to the Parish is the Youth Mass that we are having on the third Wednesday of every month.  I can't wait to see how our new priest contributes to this event.

Well, I know that I'm missing a lot of updates that have happened in the last few months.  I promise to be more dedicated to my loyal readers.  Life is good. 

If you know me very well, you know I don't quote scripture very often, if ever.  But I would like to leave you with this... it will be on the back of our new youth group t-shirts:

Do not fear, for I am with you, Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you, surely I will help you.  Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand. 
Isaiah 41:10

Basically, it is the best thing since scissors and glue!

To my fellow crafters, scrappers, and creative ones... I wonder how I've had a Cricut for a year and not known about this software!

http://www.craftedge.com/index.html

This is called Sure Cuts Alot.  Basically you can download files to cut from online... NO MORE CARTRIDGES!  Buy and download the software, today!  You can use ANY FONT that is on your computer!  No more spending $50 for a font cartridge!

This was one of the first things I cut using this software! 

Download Inkscape for free and you can take any image and convert it to an svg file (the type of files used by the Sure Cuts Alot software).  www.inkscape.org

Here is the file for the Red Wolf.  There are two layers, so two files:
Red Wolf Red Layer.svg

Red Walf Black Layer.svg


There are lots of videos on Youtube that you must check out to fully understand the awesomeness of Sure Cuts Alot (SCAL)!

Looking back at 2010

So it has been a quite some time since my last post.  Life got a little crazy with Eddie's new job, finals, and of course the holidays. 

Finals turned out wonderful for me... well maybe "wonderful" isn't quite the word, but I was very pleased with my grades and a huge improvement from last year.  It is always good to have some encouragement and a reminder as to why I'm torturing myself for 8 long years of my life!  It would call this semester a complete success!

Eddie started a new job at Searcy Schools just after Thanksgiving.  He's working with the special needs kids.  He always has a story about the kids in his class.  Some stories are hilarious, particularly how he argues with the 8 year olds.  Some stories are sad and remind me to be very thankful for the blessing in our life.  Good days and bad days, he loves his new job and the people he's working with.  Hopefully it'll be one step closer to a social studies/coach position.  Also, he's starting his Master's in June at Harding, which is exciting and scary all at the same time. 

The holidays were simply fabulous!  We went to Cherokee for the week before Christmas.  I worked for Dad most of the week.  Good news... he didn't fire me before Christmas!  It is always eventful when I work with my dad, especially for a week.

We spent Christmas Eve with my mom, went to church, and dinner at Pizza Hut (of course!).  Christmas Day we went back to my mom's house for lunch and presents with the Malones, Granny, Shirley, and Mom.  The twins had a blast with all of the attention and new toys to play with.  I'm the best aunt ever!  I got them build-a-bear wolves with ASU shirts... however, Brock enjoyed the box that his came in more than the Red Wolf itself.  Should've just bought them the boxes, I guess.  Haha!  We did dinner at Dad's.  More toys and attention for the boys.  It was such a wonderful Christmas with them around and it will only continue to get more fun.  Next, year they'll be more excited and understanding about the whole event.

Oh!  Eddie got me and iPad for Christmas!  That was exciting!  I love it.  I haven't figured out the extent of coolness, but enjoying what I know so far.

I have a new book recommendation! 

Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble, a Paranormal Romance / Urban Fantasy (Book 1 of the Jolie Wilkins Series) by H.P. Mallory


 If you like the Sookie Stackhouse Series, you'll love this.  The main character, Jolie, finds herself in the middle of an underworld war and in love with a charming warlock.  She's clumsy, awkward, and not quite sure of herself, something that most girls can relate to.  I finished this in a couple days and moved on to the second in the series.  I highly recommend it!  It is only $0.99 on the Nook at BarnesandNoble.com.  I'll let you know more about the second book when I finish it!

Anyway, I hope that 2011 will be just as wonderful as 2010!  We've had several changes and adjustments in our lives.  But, isn't that what makes life exciting?!  Without the unexpected it would just be so boring!  God won't give you anything that you can't handle. 
Things to look forward to in 2011:
4th & 5th semester of pharmacy school
Eddie's Master's program
Disney World (Christmas Goal)
A teaching/coaching position for Eddie
and all the unexpected blessings in life!

Happy New Year from the Ishmaels!

Birthday, Babies, Witches, and Wizards

This will take a while to update you all on the life of the Ishmaels lately.  But, let's start with Eddie's birthday!!  Eddie and I are notorious for not being able to keep a secret.  I was pretty impressed with myself for planning a surprise 25th birthday dinner for him in Jonesboro.  A secret for a whole month... very  impressive!

We all had fun with his friends and family.  I got to see a couple of my besties, too!  Mandi and Lauren came!  So excited to see both of them.  Too much time goes between our visits for sure! 

Last Friday was such a wonderful day!  Heidi came to Little Rock and we had lunch with our "long-lost-cousin" Jason and went shopping.  Fun day!

Then that night Eddie had bought me WICKED tickets for my birthday (keep in mind my birthday isn't 'til Dec. 3rd... told ya we can't keep secrets!).  The show was amazing! 

Sunday, we drove to Greers to meet the Malones for lunch and play with the boys.  They are so adorable!  They change so much between visits:s  This video are just a little bit of our play time with Brock and Byant.

Brock crawling on Uncle Eddie

Bryant