You Gotta Try This

This is a great camera trick. All you have to do is get a friend to take your picture while you are shaking your head back and forth as fast as you can. The results are hilarious!
This is me, looking like I got punched in the face by a ghost:


This is Patrick, just havin' a good ole time!


Try it out - I dare you!

Top Ten Things I Love About Easter

I think this year, I will do a Top 10 Things I Love about each major holiday. I will not include Valentine's Day in this list because, well, it passed already, and I don't consider it a "major" holiday.
So, that being said, I am kicking off the year with Easter. I would be interested to hear other Top 10's!! Enjoy!

Again, in no particular order...

10. Flowers are usually starting to bloom.
9. It's starting to get warm.
8. The time I made dinner for Evan's dad & the boys (Evan and Chris) when Barbara was in the hospital. (He always said he appreciated that)
7. Being with family.
6. Jelly beans!
5. Finding the Easter eggs with money in them (always a favorite at Grandma Fleisher's house!)
4. Watching kids do Easter egg hunts.
3. CADBURY CREAM EGGS (ooooh yeah!)

2. Going to church and singing all the great Easter hymns.
1. Remembering that this was the day that Jesus rose from the dead.

A Fried Chicken Adventure

So this was the "Aubrey Adventure" for March: homemade fried chicken at my house. Becky, Alge and Erin came over after church and I whipped up some of my famous fried chicken and some tater tots (at the request of the girls).
See, I have been bragging about my fried chicken for quite some time, and the girls really wanted to try it. So, instead of going to a restaurant for the Aubrey Adventure, we stayed in and dined on yummy delicious fried chicken. The girls were quite impressed. And I must say, I make awesome fried chicken - after testing many many recipes, I made one up that is GREAT! They enjoyed the good food, and had fun playing with Max and Wilford.
After the food, we looked through a Dunellen High School yearbook from 1967. Evan's dad is pictured in there, as well as my uncle Gus. Turns out, Uncle Gus and Evan's dad were in Chess Club together. How cool is that? The girls loved looking at all the old pictures of DHS and seeing what looks exactly the same even today. None of the teachers that were there in '67 are there now, of course, but the memories are all there.
And that's exactly what I am making with these girls...memories. We have so much fun together, and I'm glad they get excited for the new Aubrey Adventures each month. I hope that my relationship with these girls continues to grow and we can keep on having good food and good times together!!
We will see what April holds for the next adventure....

Sick Days

Well, I managed to go all winter without getting sick. Everyone around me got sick, including colleagues at work, family members, and friends. People were dropping like flies while I skated by with my health in tact. Usually, at the beginning of winter I get a cold due to the drastic weather changes, but not this time. 

But alas, my reign of health came to and end last Wednesday. I woke up to a minor sore throat and a feeling of congested-ness. I let my supervisor know that I would most likely be taking a sick day the next day, and did I ever. The next day I awoke to an even sorer throat, more congestion, itchy eyes and achy all over. So I stumbled to my laptop, switched it on and sent the e-mail I had saved in my "drafts":  "Aubrey out sick. Call if you need me. NNTO" (NNTO stands for no need to open, in case you were wondering.) And that was that. I was officially SICK. 

That same night, I had committed to babysitting my pastor's kids overnight. Though I still felt lousy, I went over their house anyway. I told the kids ahead of time that I might not be as fun as I usually am due to the fact that I am really sick. They understood - I love them. I had anticipated not going to a work a second day (Friday). So, I woke up from a horrible night's sleep, got the kids ready, took them to school and headed home to send out another e-mail: "Aubrey still sick - staying home. Call if you need me. NNTO" I didn't even go to Cellar Friday night. Which prompted a bunch of the students to text me telling me they hope I feel better. That made me smile. 

I hate being sick. It is so debilitating. Even though it is good to get rest, I hate to just lie in bed all day. But that's what I did. I am feeling a bit better today. My sore throat is gone (thank GOD), but my nose is sooo clogged. I can't breathe, which also makes eating hard because I can't smell my food. My left eye is extremely itchy, so I believe that allergies have set in. 

Well, it was my time. I had managed to allude being sick all winter, and it finally got me. 

Happy Spring!!!

Tuesday Night

I got the unique opportunity to relive my college days last night for just a few hours. Evan was asked to be a guest speaker at a film class at Raritan Valley Community College. The professor that teaches the class was Evan's professor when he took the class, and they are now good friends. So, the professor (Mark) asked Evan to come in and share his insights on movies with the class.
Now, anyone that knows Evan knows that he is freakin' brilliant when it comes to film. He always wins the Oscar pools, and he has a ton of movies in his DVD collection...everything from Apocalypse Now to Zoolander. So I went with him for moral support. He did this same thing last year for the same class, and I went then too. It's fun for me because I get to experience what it would be like if Evan were a professor, and I get to put my two sense in too. The class asks him questions, and he gets them really engaged in what he's saying.
Evan began talking about the film as a subversive art, and the discussions grew from there. We eventually got to talking about horror movies - of which I am a big fan. And anyone that knows Evan knows he is a HUGE fan of horror movies. Not just because they are cool and gross or scary, but because they say so much. And I'm not talking about movies like "Final Destination" where it is just about cool ways for people to die. I'm talking about REAL horror movies like Halloween and Friday the 13th. Campy and a bit cheesy? Yes, but good nonetheless. We talked about the portrayal of women in horror movies and Mark asked my opinion, so I got a chance to share how much I love horror movies.
The class ended up talking so much that we actually went almost an hour overtime. I felt so proud of Evan. He is so stinkin' smart, and he doesn't give himself enough credit. It has gotten to the point where Evan is the only movie critic I trust. Of course, I have my owen guilty pleasures like "A Bug's Life" or "The Devil Wears Prada," but I have such a deeper appreciation of movies after being with Evan. There's so much going on in a movie that the average Joe does not realize.
Evan even got an article of his published in the Brooklyn Rail! If you would like to check it out, visit http://www.brooklynrail.org/2009/03/film/ and look under "Japanese Cult Cinema and Abjection"

It was good to be back in the classroom, especially with my husband as the professor. I must admit though, I don't miss school whatsoever!

Air Band Contest 2009

I'm sure most of us, if not all of us, have heard of people doing air guitar right? You know, that thing that Bill & Ted made famous in their movie. Well, at youth group last Friday, we held and air BAND contest. We told the students to get together with their friends, form a band, and pick a song to rock out to. We didn't know exactly what to expect. We didn't know if the students would actually go for it, or how much they would actually be into it. But as it turned out, they really came up with some creative stuff. Even the leaders did some air band-ing of their own.
So, here is just a taste of what the air bands had to offer:

This was "Small Group"


This was "The Awkward Cats"


Our solo act - "DC"


Then we had "Large Group"


My personal favorite - "The Cellar Dwellers"


And finally, "Neighborhood Watch"


A good time was had by all. Unfortunately, there are no pictures of the leaders' air band. But we rocked out to the O.C. Supertones "Forever." We gave out prizes to our favorite bands. Awkward Cats won free tickets to a concert we are having at the church at the end of the month.
Maybe YOU could hold an air band contest of your own. You never know what might happen...

And one more was added to their numbers

Last night at youth group, I got an opportunity to do something that I have never done before...I helped one of our students accept Christ!! I will not say her name here for her own privacy, but it was totally awesome.
Last weekend, as you know, we hosted the 30 Hour Famine. Saturday evening, right before it was time to eat, our Pastor came and gave a short message and also served communion to break our fast. He had offered what we call "the salvation message," and asked that anyone who wanted to accept Christ raise their hand while everyone had their eyes closed in prayer. 5 of our students raised their hands - woo hoo!! I took a mental note of who had their hand up, and later on, the youth leaders discussed a follow-up plan. There was only one girl who raised her hand, so I took the task to follow-up with her.
Last night was my chance. We had finished up youth group and there was some time left over, so I pulled her into a room (I think she thought she was in trouble!), and I started talking to her about her decision.
I asked her why she decided to raise her hand and if she knew what that meant. She said yes, and that she wanted to be a Christian. So, I explained that all she had to do was pray and ask God into her heart but that she also needed to acknowledge that she is a sinner and ask God to forgive her. We talked a little bit more, and then I asked if she was ready to pray. She seemed a little nervous, so we did the "repeat after me" prayer. I walked her through it, and just like that, she was saved! It was so cool!
I told her I would get her a bible, but she said she already had one. So, I encouraged her to read it and get to know a little more about what she had just done. And I told her that if she had any questions, she could certainly come to me.

I LOVE THIS JOB!!!

Soup Suppers are Upon Us Once Again

Yes, the beloved soup suppers. This is the time of the year where I get to stretch my culinary muscles and make every kind of soup I can think of. I ALWAYS donate a soup to the soup supper, and in fact, my "New Jersey Clam Chowder" has become something of a legend at Dunellen Pres. It is usually the first soup to go.
I have signed up to make soup for the next 4 soup suppers. Yay!! I am so happy when I am making soup. It's so relaxing and enjoyable. Plus I love that you can pretty much throw anything into some broth and call it a soup. I am trying to think of my own soup recipes, so that maybe one day, I can open a soup kitchen!

Any ideas on what kind of soup I should make next? I would love to hear them!!

Hungry? I was...

Well, the 30 Hour Famine is now behind us. We had a great weekend...let me tell you more about it!

On Friday evening, the students were divided into 5 tribes representing countries from the Amazon: Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. These would serve as not only their teams for the weekend, but also, their families. We started by playing some games teaching them about the struggles that these families go through each day just to get a mere bite to eat. A lot of them complained that the rules "weren't fair," but that just drove home the point that life isn't fair for most people. While we sit at home and get fat on whatever food we want, others in the world wonder if they're even going to live to see tomorrow because they have no food. We had a short worship service, which was great because a good portion of the students had never witnessed that before.
We called it quits around 1am and went to our separate rooms to sleep on the hard, concrete floor. We did let them sleep in, but once they were awake, we divided into teams to go "canning." We basically went out into Dunellen door to door asking for donations of canned food for the FISH program run by our church. Karl advised us to "stick with houses that we knew," but my team totally ignored that and went to every house. We ended up collecting over 300 food items to donate.
We played some more tribe games with them to keep their spirits up and their minds off food - by lunch time, you really start to feel the hunger pangs. Then we put on a movie: "The End of the Spear" for them. Most of the students took this opportunity to take a much needed nap...including me. After the movie, we played crab soccer, which they liked. The last game we played was called "Endurance." In this, one girl and one guy would hold a bucket of water at a 90 degree angle at shoulder height and the moment they started to drop, they were out. The one with the highest time wins.
All of the games awarded Survival Cards to the winning tribe. The tribe with the most survival cards at the end of the weekend got to eat first!
Our pastor held a communion service for us, which was awesome. Something came over me, and I was so moved to see all of our students graciously accepting the bread and the wine as a symbol of faith. In fact, 5 of our students raised their hand to accept Christ into their life! Praise God! I couldn't help but get a little teary-eyed.
Finally, it was time to eat. Parents started dropping off food for us ranging from pizza to Planet Chicken to White Castle. We didn't care, we just wanted to eat. The food never tasted so good. It really gave us a deeper appreciation for food. I never really realized how easy it is for us to get food. While, for the kids in most parts of the world risk their lives for food everyday. I was so thankful for the weekend. Of course, we had some hiccups - but that's to be expected in youth ministry. It was a great weekend. We had a great time, and grew closer to each other as well as to God. Overall, we raised over $2,000 to send to these kids in the Amazon. That will feed about 5 or 6 kids for a year. Amen!
Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to post because my camera wasn't working :-( Hopefully, I can scrounge up some pictures from some of the students to post for you all.
So, the next time you sit down to eat, whatever it is, thank God for your food, and say a prayer for those that are struggling for theirs.