Genuinely Loving is hard!

Here's my thoughts as I read Romans 12:9-18Genuinely love one another!This is something I struggle with. Loving someone genuinely...how do you do that? It's easy to love someone that is nice or helpful or has beauty but what about someone who is mean or rude or doesn't have a pleasant odor! How is it possible to love then? Choosing to love one another is hard...sometimes! I remember a hard moment I was having with my mom, who was terminally ill. She had become what I thought was bitter and rude but looking back she was still the very same stubborn person I knew and loved. We were having a pretty difficult day and she was not allowing me to help her...pushing me away, yelling, looking at me with disgust! So finally I told her with my hands thrown to the ground "you are making it hard to love you!" what a statement to say. How could that be possible? I already loved her. Why did I allow my thoughts go pass my lips? Why did I feel that I could unlove her? Was I only pretending to love her? She was just as surprised by my comment, as I was, that I could actually say that to her, out loud! Romans 12:9-10 convicts me always! I don't want to just pretend to love people, I want to love them! I want to be able to deny myself in order to love someone else. I want to be able to see a person and genuinely love them the same way Jesus sees me and LOVES me! I regret that moment I had with my mom because I hurt her feelings. But what the enemy doesnt want me to remember what took place after that day...God gave me many more days with her. Days filled with silly laughter, days filled with naps together, nights of watching Emit Smith on Dancing with the stars. days of her listening to me sing Grease lightening for the thousandth time. Days filled with love. Often times I forget about my victories and only focus on my struggles. Thank you Jesus that there is no condemnation for those who are in you. And thank you for your Grace in reminding me of our victorious future. Lord help me to love like you love. Fill me with more of you everyday. Give me your eyes so that I can see what you see. Forgive me Father. Help me to be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to get irritated.

Instagram

Photography

For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated with photographers.  There's something about a person holding a camera, whether it's a little child holding a play camera, a mother whipping out her point and shoot to capture her child doing something "pretty amazing" to a professional with all their lenses, flashes and all the other gizmos and gadgets they lug around.  To be able to capture a single second in someone's life is amazing to me.

I remember the first camera I got as a kid...it was a polaroid!  My first subject was of my sister in our front yard.  Waiting as the colors slowing populated the little film.  Oh I forgot to mention how I had to shake it too!  (shake it like a polaroid picture)  hahaha  To see the moment actually coming to life on a little square piece of paper brought excitement to two little Kaneohe girls.

see i'm sleeping!

I've never been comfortable in front of the camera.  Most pictures of me end up either looking as if I'm stiff, fake smiling or sleeping.  Watching celebrities on the red carpet trips me out...they don't blink!!!  Some pose then look down or to the side then once they look up again they keep their eyes open.  Even with all those flashes....I wish I could to that.  Now behind the camera is fun!  I wouldn't say I'm any better at being behind the camera than in front but I feel more comfortable when I'm trying to capture a moment rather than being the moment.  I wouldn't say that I have an eye for photography either but I will say, that when I'm holding a camera most of my photos will be over exposed, out of focus, too close and down right terrible.  However, every once and awhile, I will find a gem of a photo and just be amazed that my eye actually captured it.  Maybe I'm being a little hard on myself...maybe not!  We are our own worst critics, right?!

I've recently left Facebook for another social networking site, it's called Instagram!  If you have an iphone, love photography and can't or won't keep up with all the workings of fb, get Instagram!  It's a fun way to share your photography skills or in my case, my lack of photography skills in a non creepy way!  Have you every heard of Facebook stalking?!?

This weekend will be a little interesting.  I've been asked to be an assistant to a photographer for a fundraiser event.  I'm hoping, well, more like praying that God gives me his strength and his creative artistic ability to be able to get some good shots.  It should be somewhat simple...I hope!  My instructions were, one, take as many pictures as possible and two, of everything!

Great!  I think I can do that!

More Cakes

I've always had a love for all things desert...pies, tarts, cupcakes, cakes, cookies....brownies, ice cream!  Oh my sweet tooth!  As a kid, I loved helping my mom bake sweet treats, as a teenager I made a lot of cakes, cookies and even more brownies than someone should ever eat in their lifetime!  hehehe

While making the camera cake for Ilikea my love for baking flooded my being!  It was all I could think about, I wanted an excuse to make another cake.  That opportunity came with Tiffany's baby shower.  I not only made her a belly cake but I also made her a tricycle diaper cake.

some kid poked the boob!

 

my first tricycle diaper cake

After Tiffany came Susan!  She was having a girl so a pink cake was is order.  I tried making my own fondant...bad idea!  It was hard to work with and it didn't taste any better than the Wilton's fondant in a box. 

Then Kawika's Halloween themed birthday party!!  Most of the kids dressed up.  My favorite was the Papa Smurf kid!  (wish i got a picture with him)

Kawika was really happy with his cake even if he doesn't look like it in the picture!!!  I should have taken an after photo of the cake....the kids tore it up!  happily!!

I had so much fun making all of the cakes and they were really yummy!  I found a banana bread receipe online from cooks.com and I made cream cheese frosting and after my experience with homemade fondant, I used the Wilton's fondant for the mummy and frank!  I decided to go with a bread receipe because I thought it would hold up better,  I was right!  I love it when going with my intuition pays off.  

Happy Baking!

lights...Camera...cakes!!!

A few months ago my best little 17 year old turned 18! She asked me to make her a giant cupcake and I was happy to oblige. However what she did not know was that I had a surprise for her. I decided to channel the creative baker in me and created a banana cake shaped as a camera.

Daily Photo

Today I came across an interesting tweet by Alyssa Milano. She talked about this guy who took a Polaroid everyday for 18 years. I thought how cool! I've always been fascinated with Polaroid cameras. I remember having one as a young girl, taking a picture then waiting as the colors magically appeared to reveal the moment of my life that I chose to freeze in time. The difference between myself and this Polaroid picture taking guy is that he managed to save all of his pictures with the exception of a few that were misplaced or no picture was taken and I don't have even one.
This reminds me of DailyBooth. DailyBooth is a website where you post pictures daily or like some people whenever you want. You must go to their website, create a user name and password and you can upload pictures to your hearts delight! If you have friends, unlike me, they can follow you and are notified when you upload a photo.

I think the Polaroid guy was on to something!

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Since i finished the Twilight Saga in 2009 I have read 2 books. One is My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult which was made into a disappointing movie. The second is Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I absolutely love this book. It took me a while to read the first 4 chapters but chapter 5, 6, 7 faster then I couldn't put the little 374 pager down til the end! Suzanne Collins is brilliant! Her writing is perfect, I can hear every word her characters are speaking and thinking too! If I can't hear the characters I can't read it!! I have fallen in love with Peeta Mellark. A gentleman that believes in love at first sound! A boy that would sacrifice his life to protect someone that doesn't trust him and will probably think of killing him in this game. When the game rules change that's when it gets even more exciting! Hence the not being able to put the book down til the end!! My only problem now is that I do not have the second book in the trilogy...I've "tracked" it down and will go in for the "kill" tomorrow after work! Catching Fire promises to be just as irresistible as it's predecessor.