Scavenging Dunellen

What happens when you let a youth group loose in Dunellen with a list of 50 things to find and/or do?
Well, this:

And this:

And this too:


It was time once again for the annual youth group scavenger hunt! This year, we made it a photo scavenger hunt. We gave each group a list of things to find and/or do, and then they had to take a picture of it to prove they got it. The groups returned with their pictures, and added up their points to see who the winners were.
My group was awesome. Seen here, from left to right, I had Joshua, Becky, Gino, Charlie S., Charlie W., Erin, Amy & Jenn.

We called ourselves "Team Tacos at Midnight." (By the way, if you have not tried that new flavor of Doritos, we highly recommend it.)
We ran all around Dunellen trying to find the things on the list. You can see some of them above. My favorite is the one where they are jumping. For the picture to count, everyone had to be midair. It was so cool.
When all the points were added up, the winners were announced from 4th place to 1st place. It came down to my team and Evan's team in 2nd and 1st place. "And in 2nd place....Evan's team!" My team was jumping up and down - we won!!! We couldn't believe it. I really didn't think we won because I saw the things that other teams got that we didn't, and I thought for sure we were beat. But not so!
And the prize? Each student in the group gets a free breakfast/lunch/dinner with a leader of their choice. My team chose me, and chose to go to the Grease Trucks! I smell an Aubrey Adventure coming on....

Good times.

Adventures at the Clinton Station Diner

That's right, it's time for another "Aubrey Adventure!" This time, we ventured all the way to the Clinton Station Diner, right off of Rt. 78 West.
Clinton Station Diner is famous for making the world's largest hamburger, called Mt. Olympus. This burger weighs in at an astonishing 50 lbs., and costs a whopping $250.00. However, if you and four friends can eat the whole thing in under 3 hours, it's free! Well, we were intrigued, but being that we were four girls with not-so-big appetites, we opted not to go for the mondo-burger. CSD also does burgers at 25 lbs., 7 lbs., 3 lbs., and 1 lb. They are all named after Greek gods - it's pretty funny.
So instead, we each got something delectable to eat on our own. I went for the hot pastrami sandwich:
Yum. Alge opted for a "normal" size hamburger, and ironically enough did not finish even half of it. Becky got a chicken fajita wrap, and Erin got cheesy ravioli. We even got to sit in the train-car part of the diner!
We were stuffed after we finished what we could of our food (good thing we didn't order the Mt. Olympus!) CSD did offer some yummy looking desserts, but instead, we decided to make this a double Aubrey Adventure and go to Stewart's for root beer floats. Halfway between CSD and Stewart's, I realized that I had left my jacket at the diner. By the way, why is it that every time you need to turn around on the highway, the next exit seems like it will never come?? So anyway, we turned around and the jacket was right where I left it. (Did anyone even clean the table after we left??) So, back to Stewart's we went. "Four small root beer floats!" we chirped to the girl at the window. They were so delicious. It brought back memories of working with my brother at our grandfather's factory, and we used to go to Stewart's for lunch.

This was probably my favorite Aubrey Adventure so far. The CSD was very good, and Stewart's was just like I remembered it. I'm so glad these girls are a part of my life - they all remind me of me when I was that age. Good times!!

Those Amish really know their stuff

Last Monday at work, I was given by my friends Tim and Matt, a bag that looked like this:


Just a plain Zip-Loc bag with a mushy, pale goo inside. Along with this bag, I was given directions and a recipe to follow for 10 days. This recipe was for Amish Friendship Bread (it's actually more of a coffee cake).
So, the idea is that for the first 4 days, all you do is mush the bag. Then on the 5th day, you add some ingredients. Then for 4 more days, you mush the bag some more. Then on the 10th day, you have to follow the recipe. The recipe creates 4 additional "starters," much like the bag I was handed last Monday, that you can give away to friends (hence the name). Once you have mixed all the ingredients together and baked it, you come out with this:


You go from a bag of goo, to a delectable cinnamon-sugary treat! If you can get your hands on a bag of goo - called a "starter" - I highly recommend it! And I'm no baker, and this came out good.
There are also recipes on the web to make your own starter, but it's just not as fun. The Amish got it goin' on!

The difference between dating and marriage?

Being able to use the bathroom with the door still open.

American "Idle"

I have always watched American Idol, but only the auditions. Evan and I love to watch the auditions and get a good hearty laugh at those that *swear* they are good singers and then totally blow it in front of the judges. I do give them credit for trying, though. I have never watched Idol past Hollywood Week, because it's just not fun after that. Beyond that point, most, if not all the contestants are very good and it would be great to see any of them win.
But this season, I find myself addicted to the show, well past Hollywood Week! Why? Because of this guy right here:

Adam Lambert. He is no doubt a singer. He was in the cast of "Wicked" for a while, and he has been in other stage productions. He is just so stinkin' good, that I have to watch every week to see what else he will do. His voice is infectious. He has great stage presence too, which makes the show even better.
Last week, they voted off the girl that was my least favorite, so from here on out, I really don't care who wins...as long as it's Adam. And if he doesn't win, I hope he gets picked up by a record label - a la Chris Daughtry - so that I can go buy his CD.
I feel like a teeny bopper, but this guy is so good.
There are currently 8 more contestants to go - we shall see who they vote off tomorrow night.

It's Up!

In case you didn't know, my friends Steve, Carlos and I had been working on building a new website for our church. The one we had was a bit outdated, and we were paying someone who lived down in Florida to keep the information current. We brought our proposal to build a new website to the elders of the church, and it was approved with little to no questions asked!
Having a new website would allow us to build a fresher, more modern site and would enable those with the password to update content almost immediately. For example, if our pastor wanted to load his sermon from Sunday morning, by the old process he would have to convert it to MP3 format, and send it via e-mail to Florida and then it would be posted on the web within a day or two. With the new website, he can upload it himself right after church if he wanted to. And what's cool, is that the website editor is really easy to use and changes can be made effective immediately, or saved for later.
Steve, Evan, Carlos and I worked really late last Sunday trying to enter as much content as we could and finding pictures to put up on each page. We were planning to launch the new page on April 1st because we were sending out invitations to our Easter service, and the invitations have the website URL on them. So, by keeping up through e-mails and phone calls, we somehow managed to finish up the website.
The coolest part was this: the web server that we were using gave us a temporary URL to work with while we were editing the site. When we were all finished, all we had to do was call them and let them know and they would switch us over to our current URL. It was just that easy! Within one hour, the new page was up and running under our current URL.
We did it! The new website that we built is fully functional. We are breathing a sigh of relief, however, now we have to figure out who is going to keep it updated!

Wanna check out our hard work? Visit www.dunellenpres.org