Dirt Pudding Graveyard

This Dirt Pudding Graveyard is delicious!! It includes white chocolate gravestones.  I was jumping for joy in the store isle when I found molds to make chocolate bones for this year's rendition!  Such a fun treat to share with others.  Try it out!!

Dirt Pudding Graveyard
2 one lb packages or oreo cookies
1/2 stick butter
8 oz cream cheese
1 Cup powdered sugar
3 1/2 Cups milk
2 small packages of french vanilla instant pudding
12 oz cool whip
Gravestones or bones:  Wilton chocolate melts and molds (find at local craft stores)

1.  Mix with a blender:   Butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar.
2.  Mix in separate bowl:   Milk, pudding mix, cool whip
3.  Combine the above two mixtures.
4.  Crush:   Oreos (blender or chopper)

In pan layer the crushed Oreos and then layer the creamed mixture.  Continue to layer mixtures until they are gone.  The last layer should be Oreos.

Decorate with chocolate gravestones and or bones.

Store in the Refrigerator and Serve!  Yumm!

Forever Like That

I have been loving “love” lately.  Not me being in love or longing for it but just the whole idea of love: the good, the bad, the commitment, and the securities and insecurities of being with another person.  Ultimately the whole idea of love and being human and able to build a relationship is beautiful.

I had a fun girls’ weekend over the past few days.  It was a blast.  We had a great time involved eating, shopping, eating, a concert, eating, and movies.  I love girl weekends….because I love laughing and eating…a lot.

At the concert we went to the opening act blew me away and I overwhelmingly felt a sense of how amazing it is that we have the ability to build relationships.  I do mean romantic relationships when I refer to building relationships however I have been building friendships lately, and even those amaze me sometimes with how we are able to connect with certain people.  

I was inspired at the concert I went to with the girls to really just appreciate all that is “love” even while not being in a romantic relationship.  Couples make me smile nowadays and not out of jealousy and want for my own love story to be written but out of joy that they have found something worth working for.  I think that is what it ultimately comes down to, finding someone that makes you want to work on a relationship even when you can drive each other crazy and still love and stick with through the crazy times of life.

All that to say, here is a beautiful song called Forever Like That by Ben Rector that was played at the concert this weekend.  It is currently unreleased and unrecorded but I hope it is soon.

Embracing Awkwardness

I always have random adventures with my friends.  I love being part of multiple unique groups of people and have enjoyed how my groups of friends have morphed over the years. 

I seem to have had many awkward experiences with my friends.  I’m beginning to wonder if things just happen to me in general or if these different groups of people tend allow awkwardness to occur more freely.  I have to admit that I kind of like awkwardness.  It makes life feel more real rather than pretending that we all have perfect lives.

Many of these awkward experiences stories I have had with my friends would cause me to die laughing while trying to reminisce about them. If people heard them we would probably have to attribute them to a “you had to be there” moment.  My friends do on occasion swap “Awkward Moments with Andrea” stories and I am still unsure how I feel about that.

I have come to the conclusion that awkward moments are good for you.  I’ve been trying to figure out if I am awkward lately, and maybe the answer is yes.  But then, who isn’t?  Who doesn’t have stories about tugging on mouse tales while thinking it was a piece of tire, accidentally strattling a guy while trying to climb on bleachers (while having string cheese breathe of course), getting lost repeatedly with directions and ending up who knows where, and embarrassing Dance Dance Revolution finales.

Sometimes embracing awkward moments rather than sulking away in embarrassment may be the better option.  It creates more friendships….or at least creates more stories for your friends to compare and have a common ground to talk about when meeting each other…

Mourning and Rejoicing

The Bible talks about mourning with those who mourn and rejoicing with those who rejoice.  Even though it is from the Bible this is an interesting concept for both Christians and non-Christians.

This came up recently for me when a friend asked if it hurt me that she was getting married.  I was taken aback a little because I didn’t realize what she was asking and at first thought she was insulting me.  I eventually put together that she was asking me if I was hurt because she was getting married and I am not married.  She was trying to be thoughtful but didn’t quite know how to approach the subject.

She felt bad sharing her wedding plans and excitement with me and worried that I in turn would be sad that I was not getting married.  I am actually thrilled when people get married (unless I feel I was supposed to be the one to marry that person and that God didn’t answer my prayers and that my life is ruined and….oh wait….different topic).

I may on occasion mourn being single.  If I marry someday I will probably on occasion mourn NOT being single.

I gladly get excited with my friends when they begin exciting new phases of their lives.  This does not just include marriage but other life changing journeys as well.

A big part of life is not only mourning with each other but also rejoicing with each other.  I would say that anyone close to me in my life has experienced not only mourning with me but also some amazing excitement.

Ironically we can mourn and rejoice in the same experiences and situations.  Sometimes we don’t know how to mourn with others so we avoid the situation entirely, or we don’t know how to rejoice with others for their excitement when our own pain can be so strong.

The greatest thing I admire in other people is open genuine honesty.  It shows strength to be vulnerable. I continually question when I am being open with someone with my struggles if they are the type of person to use that vulnerability against me.  They may use them against me, but sometimes being vulnerable also opens up a door for the other person to relate and be vulnerable as well.

It is easier to bottle up our pain and frustrations from each other and protect ourselves.  But is that really better in the long run?  And isn’t it more divisive to hide our struggles than to use them to build each other up and encourage each other?

Some of my most encouraging moments have come from when people have been vulnerable with me and talked about what they struggle with.  Most of the time I think “No way!! You too?” in these moments. 

Mourning and rejoicing with each other builds bonds.  It builds community and unity.  So why do we try to avoid being vulnerable with each other so much?  It seems like we should embrace mourning and rejoicing with each other head on. 

I know that anyone who has mourned with me over my singleness will be the first to rejoice with me someday when I am no loner single.  They are also the ones that know it is a weakness of mine and creates self-esteem issues for me and have continually been there for me. And they have been able to see how God has been able to use this weakness of mine for His purposes.  With that being said how can they not mourn with me in my weaknesses but rejoice with me in them all at the same time?

Christmas Newsletter ---New Years ---Happy Birthday Newsletter…..

(I should preface this by saying that it was originally going to be a Christmas letter, and then I was too busy and it was going to be New Years….and then a Birthday one)

I love receiving Christmas news letters and cards.  I don’t receive them that often anymore because I think the practice of sending out Christmas newsletters and cards is slowly dying.  We now have facebook and texting to simultaneously update friends throughout the years or send well wishes to on holidays.

When debating sending out a newsletter I decided that I would of course include a glamor shot of myself with it taken from the perfect angle to make me look attractively single so that when people received the newsletter they would think “Wow, Andrea is looking good, why has some lucky guy not snatched her up?” rather than “Oh, no wonder she is single”.  I’d probably have to rent or borrow a cute puppy for this photo session in order to replace the picture perfect family in matching khakis and sweaters with perfect smiles that I don’t as of yet have.


I realized something while going over the past year and trying to think of newsletter type updates.  This has been an intense year that has completely changed a lot about me and I’ve had to make some decisions about what to hold onto in life and what to let go of.

If I were going to do a positive newsletter snap shot of the past year I would have to include:  I got a promotion at work, I’ve been hanging out with some pretty amazing youth, I’ve been involved in planning camps and weekly lessons, I have some new amazing friends that I have learned to just be myself around, I took a few road trips to Canada to see some awesome godsons worth bragging about, I’ve been enjoying my family rather than tolerating, and I’ve really been enjoying life and where I am at in it.

All that would be true, but the thing about newsletters and updating friends is we always try to showcase the good and edit out the painful, the bad, and the ugly mess that we can sometimes be.  It’s easier that way and we don’t feel as judged.  Doesn’t everyone else have it all together after all?

I was serious when I said I have been enjoying life and where I am at in it.  The truth is though that my life is not where I would have wanted it to be were it up to me.  Thank goodness it is not up to me.  I think it is the “grass is greener on the other side” syndrome that makes us always want to be somewhere else in life than where we are right now.

The thing is though, the plans that I would have made for me, are plans that wouldn’t necessarily instantly make me happy.  I’ve tried to tell God that I’m sure of what would make me happy.  But perhaps my version of happy is not God’s ultimate goal for me.  But joy is.


Realizing the difference between joy in life and just happiness is a long painful road to learn.  Joy for me has been learning that God loves me in the midst of my pain, and that knowing when doors are shut in one direction there is a reason for that.  It can be pretty freeing when being able to look back and see what God has done vs. what I would have planned for my life.  Amazingly enough…God seems to always have bigger and better plans than mine.  The joy I have been experiencing has come from confidence in knowing what God has done for me and that He ultimately does know better.

I wouldn’t say it has just been this year that has made me realize this. It has been a culmination of the past five years and finally being able to look back and see what God has been doing through all my resistance to His plans and desires by using what I would have considered weaknesses, and scraps of my life.

I would say the biggest thing I will take from 2011 is that God knows better.  I got to experience that.  I experienced pain with close friends moving away…and then more close friends moving away.  I got to experience hurt when having to realize a guy I was interested in was not what God wanted for me at this point in my life….again, and again.  I experienced health diagnostics that weren’t exactly ideal.  Most of all this past year I experienced emotional healing though…..which sounds very kooky and mother earthish.


It would take a long time to go into that, but suffice it to say that it is amazing to not feel trapped in the past or held down and to see how God can bring us out of our past pain and rebellion and use it for something beautiful when we don’t try to edit out what He has done for us by shoving it all under a carpet.

So there you have it.  I don’t have a perfect newsletter life I realized.  I have something better.  I have a life that I am learning to be open and willing to let God use. Obviously it has been a while since I have blogged, and I miss it.  I think more so because it allows me to piece together what I am going through and thinking.