I Love Food!!!!

It is after midnight and I should be asleep. However, I am awake blogging about food. If you could not tell by the title of this post, I love food! Seriously, to me, food is constantly running through my mind.

The other day, I forget what I was talking to Bryan about, but I told him that food consumes my thoughts like soccer and music consumes his. This is a very accurate statement because I remember I was at work thinking about how I was going to make potatoes that night while I was working away at my desk all.freakin.day.

Tonight, as I lay in my bed, I was thinking about all the different recipes I have tried making at home and the meals I have eaten in the recent past that have made me want to tell other people to try. So instead of promising that I will constantly be updating you on recipes and restaurants (because we both know that keeping on some kind of blogging topic/schedule is not my forte) I will just say that you should keep looking here if you want my opinion on food. Like I said before, food is always on my mind, so I will always have something to say about it.

Let me start off by listing off some of the most amazing things I have eaten, or my favorite things to make, or just favorites cooking topics in general (in no particular order).

FAVORITES

1) Best place I have eaten (so far)- Four Olives in Manhattan, KS http://www.fourolives.biz/

Bryan and I ate here for the first time on Valentine's Day 2010. He has a good friend that works there as a bartender that let him know of a cancellation for Valentine's night and we were able to be squeezed in. This restaurant books up quickly for special nights like 2/14, so you have to book early. The restaurant itself is tucked away in a small shopping center on the west side of town, so you hardly know it is there unless someone you know has been there or you have had to make a u-turn in their parking lot.

The interior has a glass encased wine cellar in the middle of room with tables around it. I am envious of this wine cellar because it is something that I may never have, but would really enjoy in my own home. While they do have tables you can sit at throughout the restaurant, and a newer addition has been added on recently, we sat at the bar. When most people think of sitting at a bar to eat, they think of people who are too impatient to wait for a table or people who eat alone or just want to watch a game on television. However, this was different. Maybe it was because we knew one of the guys behind the bar, but it did not feel like we were actually sitting at a bar in a fancy place. The bartenders are your waiter for the night and they are all very friendly. If the chance comes up they have to make an exotic drink with fire, you are in the front row to see if they singe their arm hair!

Besides the great food (which I will tell you about later) it really is a great atmosphere. For being so quaint, you don't feel like you are being stuffed into a small room, and you feel like you are some place very special.

2) Favorite Specialty Food-Lobster Ravioli with Crab Meat Sauce- Four Olives- Manhattan, KS.

My mouth is watering just thinking of this dish. The second time we went to Four Olives was for Bryan's birthday in 2010. We had just finished watching the Kentucky Derby and as a birthday present to him, I took him to one of our favorite places (see above paragraph). The first time we went to Four Olives, we had ordered off of a Prix fixe menu (meaning you have a choice of options that the chef has decided to cook that day. Generally those are your only options.), but this time, we were able to order from the regular menu since it was not a busy day like Valentine's Day. While everything looked wonderful, I decided on the Lobster Ravioli with Crab Meat Sauce. Bryan, on the other hand, went with the duck.

When I was younger, I was not a fan of any type of seafood. I don't know if it is because I was never pushed to try it or we did not have it that often, I just thought I didn't like it. As I grew older and my tastes matured, I found that I love salmon. While salmon is not the only fish out there, it is by far, my favorite fish. So for me to order lobster and crab in the same setting is kind of remarkable. Boy was I glad that I did order it though! The ravioli was baked just right and the ratio of lobster to cheese was balanced perfectly. The sauce was not overpowered with too much tomato or too much crab. At the bottom of my bowl, I realized that there were little black marks. I never asked, but I wondered if they used some kind of ink for an octopus to dye their noodles. That would have made the dish even more interesting!

3) Favorite Salad-North Coast Salmon Caesar Salad-Red Rock Canyon Grill-Wichita, KS http://redrockcanyongrill.ehsrg.com/sites/default/files/menus/redrockcanyongrill/Wichita.pdf

This is recent favorite. The last time I was in Wichita was to celebrate my sister's birthday whiles she was back for Spring Break. To my knowledge, this is one of her favorite places to eat in Wichita. I had not been since my sophomore or junior year of high school, so I could not understand why she wanted to go there so badly.

While they are known for their rotisserie chicken, I decided to spring for something I thought would be a little lighter on the stomach and ordered the salad of my choice. To my surprise, the salad was light, but not small by any means of the word. The piece of salmon that topped the salad was big enough for its own meal. While I could have easily eaten all of this dish, I decided to take some home so I could enjoy it a second day.

Before eating this particular dish, I had never heard of a remoulade sauce. Immediately after I began to eat my meal, I decided that I had to go home and try to make this sauce for myself. My in-laws were coming the following weekend, and I thought this sauce we make for a great addition to any meal I made. In the end, I never cooked at home that weekend, and I still have yet to try and make the sauce.

If you decide to go to this restaurant, I would suggest skipping on the chicken (it is dry no matter how they make it) and get this meal or the steak with bleu cheese. This version of their steak is actually not on the menu, but they will make it for you if you request it.

4) Favorite Place To Eat Outside of Kansas- Alice's Tea Cup- New York, New York- http://alicesteacup.com/

Thank goodness someone I know moved to New York so I would have a reason to find them and eat with them somewhere other than fast food while in New York. This past December, Bryan and I went to New York so he could audition for some opera programs, and while we were there, we met up with my former roommate, Adam Luke. Adam was kind enough to take us out to dinner, which also happened to be his place of employment.

Alice's Tea Cup is for anyone who enjoys the whimsicleness (I know that is not a word) of Alice In Wonderland or enjoys food and tea in general. The decor is wonderful and makes you feel like you really are inside the children's book. Luckily for me, I had taken a children's literature class at Kansas State the semester I graduated, and we had read Alice In Wonderland, so it was neat to be there so close to having read the book. Usually when you walk in, they will sprinkle fairy dust on you and make you feel like you are a character while you eat there. The color are bright and the smell of the place is sugary and fluffy at the same time.

Since Adam worked there, we asked him what he suggested we eat. He ordered us some scones (pumpkin, mixed berry and chocolate chip) with cream and jam. We also ordered our own pots of tea (mine was Silver Needle Jasmine which I instantly fell in love with) and then our meals. I had the grilled steak salad. While eating steak on a salad seems counter productive, this was the best mixture of warm meat on a pile of vegetables that I have ever had. The dressing itself was something to remember. Never before had I thought to order a sweet chili vinaigrette.

As soon as we got home from our mini vacation, I told everyone who wanted a Christmas list from me that I wanted the recipe book from this restaurant. Now I make scones that are softer than anyone you have ever eaten before. My co workers have been able to sample those and some Oreo creme filled cupcakes from their recipe book.

Now that it is 1 o'clock in the morning, I feel like it is time for me to go to bed. But if I cannot sleep due to thinking about food all night, I will definitely be writing something tomorrow. However, as I stated before, I am not good at keeping up with writing regularly, so come back on another spontaneous day and hopefully I will have more food insight to share with you.

Until then...

Love Is In The Air!

Most people write off Valentine's Day as just a "Hallmark Holiday". Personally, Valentine's Day is one of my most absolute faaaaavorite holidays. I don't believe you have to have a significant other in order to enjoy the day. You don't even have to buy a card or chocolates for anyone. To me, Valentine's Day is about celebrating love not only for our special someone, but celebrating the love of your family and other friends that you are not romantically connected to.

Without even bringing up Valentine's Day (which is next Monday if you forgot), two of my co-workers and I were talking about how we met the person we are closest to and love more than anyone else we have ever dated (that is tricky to word!). One girl, who has dated her boyfriend for less than a year, mentioned that she and her boyfriend dispute when they first met. One says they met at a bar, the other says they met elsewhere. Turns out they did in fact meet at a bar (it isn't as bad as it sounds) but there are some details that make the other person right about how they met as well. The other co-worker is married to her husband and has been for many years now. She reminisced about meeting her husband in a tile store. A tile store for goodness sake! What are the odds of meeting someone in such a random area? And then finally, I had my story about meeting my future husband.

Some people may not know our story. Some people may not care about our story. However, I am going to tell it anyway.

Bryan and I both started working at the Dillon's Grocery Store in Manhattan Kansas in 2006. Both of us were going to K-State (BEST college in the WORLD!!!) full time and working part time; mostly at night. I worked in customer service and got to know the people I worked with pretty well. One night I was talking to one of my co-workers about needing a boyfriend. Since we were at work, he scanned the front end area and asked me what my type of guy was based on who was working that night. Bryan happened to be working, and I mentioned that I thought he was kind of cute. My co-worker looked at me and said "He's kind of dorky" (I love you, babe, whether you are dorky or not, which you are not). I smiled and said that it didn't matter, I thought he was cute. Word got around in customer service and my other co-worker, Chris, wanted to help Bryan and I get together. We devised a plan that when I was not at work but Bryan was, Chris would ask him what he thought of me. This was so elementary that I should have just slipped him a note and asked him to mark a box indicating whether he liked me or not. Anyway, Chris said he would call me later that night and tell me what he found out. So I went to the gym and when I got home, I saw that Chris had called me. I called him back and work, and when he picked up the phone, all he said was "Bingo." I was confused because I had no idea what he was talking about. He finally told me that he had questioned Bryan, and Bryan had said something along the lines that he thought I was nice. Chris encouraged me to ask him to coffee or something, but I was pretty shy so I had to work up the nerve.

I don't know how long passed that Bryan and I would work together and flirt but not mention hanging out or anything outside of working together. At the time, I was taking a Spanish class and one of our assignments was to attend a Mexican ballet and write a paper about it. Not being one to do things alone, I decided that now would be the perfect time to ask Bryan to hang out with me. So I went into Dillon's where I knew he would be working that night (stalk much?) and told Chris my plan. Instead of letting me ease into asking Bryan on a "date", Chris yells for Bryan to join us from across the floor. Bryan comes over and Chris automatically puts me on the spot to ask Bryan on a date. Bryan accepts. He said he would be going to Baylor, Texas that day to watch K-State play the Baylor bears in football, but he should be back in time.

The day of our date rolls around and I am excited. For whatever reason, I was in Wichita for the day visiting family or something. I look at my phone in the afternoon and see that I have a voicemail from Bryan. He called to say that he and his friends had a flat tire in Oklahoma on their way home, and he was trying to make it back to Manhattan in time for our date. I was crushed. I was sure that he would not make it. My mom encouraged me to drive back to Manhattan and get ready like I normally would to go on a date. I took her advice and went on home. The entire time I thought I was setting myself up to be stood up. So when I got home, I got ready, put on the new dress that I had bought that day especially for this date, and waited. Bryan called about half an hour before we were supposed to meet and suggested that I meet him at the auditorium since he was running behind.

We met like we planned and went inside to witness the most odd ballet either of us will probably ever see. It wasn't so much a ballet as it was watching traditional Mexican dances. At one point, all of the dancers came out in gigantic paper mache heads that were supposed to represent all the different cultures of the world. One stood out in particular. It was supposed to represent the Middle East, but the face looked like a gigantic Osama Bin Laden head. What was funny was that we both noticed it and mentioned it at the same time.

After the ballet, we went and had dinner in Aggieville and then sat in City Park and talked for a while. It was one of the best nights. What I remember most was wondering if he would hold my hand or kiss me. He did neither of those things. At first I thought it was kind of weird, but then I realized that it was actually very gentlemanly of him.

We hung out for a few more weeks before we started dating. The day he asked me out, I had gone to the K-State vs. OSU game with my friend Alex and we met up with Bryan at Buffalo Wild Wings afterward. Some of Bryan's friends had asked him to go see the movie "The Departed" later that night and he asked me if I wanted to go. I said yes, but it would be weird with Alex there, so we had to politely tell him that we had made plans to go out together later that night. I think Alex had a crush on me, but that didn't matter at the time because obviously I liked Bryan. That night I met Bryan's very good friend (and now a friend of mine as well), Jay. We watched the very light-hearted and romantic *sarcasm* movie. Afterward, Bryan and I got into my car and I started to take him home. He was being unusually quiet so I said "Penny for your thoughts?" Trust me, I can be cheesy with the best of them. I handed him a dime, realized it was a dime and not a penny, took it back, and then gave him an actual penny. He said that he had been thinking that it would be nice if we were a couple. I said yes and the rest is history.

Bryan hung onto that penny that I gave him for year and a half until we got engaged. The day we got engaged was the day of the big KSU vs KU basketball game. Everyone knew that this was a huge game because this was the year we were going to beat KU with our amazing basketball team. We had planned on skipping our last classes in order to stand in line with all of the other fans. Bryan was going to pick me up and we were going to meet his friend Gabe in line. I left work and went home to change clothes before Bryan showed up. I happened to be on the phone with my best friend Jenn when Bryan showed up to get me. I told her I would call her the next day and hung up. Bryan asked me if we could make a stop before the game. A few blocks from my house, there is a road that you can take to the top of this hill where they spell out "Manhattan" in big white letters. This seemed like an odd thing to do right before the game. I wanted to stand in line to get the best seat, and Bryan was taking me to the top of the hill? What was up with that. He took me to the side of the hill that overlooks the K-State campus and you can see the coliseum where everyone was lining up for the game as well. He had me stand on a huge rock and pointed his arm out over my shoulder in front of me. I thought it was pointing at the line of people waiting to get into the game. I kept telling him that I could not see what he was pointing at. He told me to look closer. Once again, I said I could not see what he was pointing at. Finally my eyes focused on his hand where he was holding a penny. He asked me if I knew where that penny was from. I said that it was the penny I gave him when he asked me out. He then helped me down from the rock, grabbed a rose from said rock, got down on one knee, and asked me to marry him. We have differing ideas of what happened at that moment. I will stand by my story that I was not laughing, but half crying, half laughing. I was crying because it was emotional, and laughing because I did not see this coming at all. Obviously I said yes, and we have been married for a year and a half.

These are stories that I will never forget. These are also stories that I would want to pass down to my children and then tell my grandchildren. Part of our stories at work today dealt with how our grandparents met and how we do things differently now than how they did them then. My grandparents on my mother's side were married after a very short time of dating. They eloped and no one knew that they were doing it. They were together for almost 60 years before my grandpa passed away five years ago. Unfortunately, I do not know much about my dad's side of the family and how my granny and grandpa met because he passed away when my dad was younger. If things had turned out differently, I am sure that they would have lived a very long life together.

All in all, what I really want to say is despite whether it is Valentine's Day or just a random Tuesday, you should celebrate the people you love, and tell them that you were just talking about how much you love them.

-Dusti

Apparently I Can't Support 125 Pounds.

As promised, here is the follow up blog to my aerial skills class (I also learned how to spell "aerial" correctly too!)

Really I should have Bryan type this because that is how sore my arms and hands are. Let me say that this experience was nothing like what I thought it would be. There was nothing wrong with what I went through today, but I guess I thought it would be different. By different, I mean that I thought I would be a natural.

So lets start from the beginning, because like the Sound of Music says, it's a very good place to start.

The class started at 1:00. For my own benefit, I decided to leave my place around noon because I am still not completely acquainted with Kansas City and still need the GPS to get around. The area that the class was held in can only be described as industrial. The Union Pacific Railroad passes right by the building where the class was being taught, so there really is no great way to find your way to the building.

I finally got to the front door, and there were 3 women about 40ish standing there wondering what to do. I told them that we are supposed to call the teacher when we get there so she can come down and get us. So I call and we wait in a very cold lobby until one of the instructors comes to get us. While we are waiting for the instructor to come downstairs, I kind of do a quick scan of the people I am waiting with. These women, like I said before, were probably about 40 and in good shape. They must have used the Groupon available and decided to come try aerial skills on this Saturday afternoon. The instructor showed up downstairs and told us to follow her. So we did. She then opens up some wooden gates and tells us to step into the freight elevator. I don't know about you, but freight elevators are not my first choice of ways to go from one floor to another. She must have noticed our uneasiness because she told us that the elevator is very well maintained and they have never had any problems with it before.

We get up to the top level of this alleged abandoned building, and it turns out that it is someones living loft. There are white Christmas lights dropping down from the ceiling, random knick knacks like mannequins, a prosthetic leg, and bikes hanging on walls or from the ceiling. Someone very eclectic lives here. That kind of makes sense seeing as how you are an instructor of aerial skills. Going further into the "classroom" (if you can call it that) you can see that there are a few people already practicing on the silks. It was neat to see what more experience people can do on the silks. After putting my purse down and taking off my shoes, I really started to look around. Remember in my previous blog where I questioned the safety of this activity? Would there be nets or mats or something to catch us if we fall. Guess what! All that would be catching us if we fell would be a wood floors with some throw rugs strung around. Of course, the good thing is that we would not be that high off the ground in this first class, but could you imagine being almost 20 ft off the ground and swinging around knowing that there is nothing to catch your fall?

There were about 9-10 people in the introductory class. One of the students in the class is actually an intern who has only been on staff for a few weeks, but she is there to help with the bigger classes. We started off by doing warm-up stretches. This consisted of a mix of yoga and pilates to strengthen your core. I am all good with yoga, but pilates? Not so much. I don't like to count and hold my breath and hold a pose at the same time. It is just something that is not interesting for me. So we warm up for about 5 minutes. The warm up was so intense in the pilates area of stretching that I was worn out just doing the warm-up!

After the warm up, we split ourselves up into different areas of the room. They had four silk ropes hanging from the ceiling spaced out in the room. Each silk has two ropes to hold. You can do exercises where you put the two ropes together, or you can use them seperately. The first exercise we did was to wrap the silks around our arms and let our hips fall forward. Then you just kind of sway in a circle. This is to help you get used to holding onto the silk and to feel what it is like to use the silks to hold yourself up.

The next step is to pull yourself up in between the silks kind of like a pull up. Have you done a pull up recently? Me either. I cannot pin point the last time I did a pull up, but I think it was in 5th grade. This did not help me feel great about being a natural aerial silks performer. I could not hold myself up to save my life! I would go to do a pull up and would fall right down to the floor. The instructor came up to me and said that if I could not do a pull up, then maybe I should try to just lift my feet off the floor and hang. So I did what I was told, but while I did that, I looked around and saw that the 40 year old women I had waited in the lobby with were able to not only pull themselves up in a pull up, but hold it for a while too. By this time, the intern (her name is TJ) came over to help me. She reassured me that she had problems doing the pull up too and it just takes practice.

Next we were to put the silks together and put them under our right armpit and hold ourselves that way too. Guess what?!?! It's not that I just couldn't pull myself up having one silk in each hand, but I also can't do it using my right side. THEN she wanted us to use our left side! Well if I could not pull myself up using my right side, I sure as heck could not pull myself up using my left side. TJ and I rotated doing the exercises and she would give me pointers on how to maybe help get myself up off the ground.

Then came the tricky stuff. Next we had to learn how to wrap the silks around our ankle and stand in the air using the silk. This is easy for some, but for people like me with small feet, it is actually pretty difficult. I can wrap the silk around my ankle fine, but only once because my foot is too small to keep the silk around my ankle. You are supposed to wrap the silk around your ankle, extend your leg that has the wrapped ankle in front of you, do not put any weight on that leg that is extended, and bring your left leg up so your foot goes in between the silks you are holding onto and your right foot that is wrapped. Then you take your right foot and stand on your left foot and then you have a little knot to stand on. Whew. This is a lot more difficult than it sounds. Like I said before, wrapping my foot is hard because my feet are so small so it cannot support all of the fabric, but also, I cannot fully extend my leg out in front of me. I have just never been able to do this. Well I finally did it right after about 15 tries and with the help of TJ.

After everyone had done as best they could to make the knot, we moved on to some of the fancy poses. We did things like stand up and fall between the silks like this girl.

Then we would move onto other poses like the following:

I couldn't do the pose here. It looks like the easiest one, but I have never been able to fall backwards voluntarily. Plus at this time, I was getting really worn out.

This may come as a surprise, but I could do all of these poses (of course not the last picture like I have already mentioned)! The only problem I had was getting my foot wrapped and locked. After you get by that part, you can really do anything. I should mention though, that TJ left me half way through the class, so I had the silk all to myself. This is not the best scenario though because I was not giving myself time to rest in between. The instructor came over when we were doing the last pose (last picture) and said I should probably stop because I had not let my body rest and was bordering getting an injury. So I stopped. It was also time for class to end, so it was not like I had to miss anything.

Over all, the class was good. The entire time I thought that it probably would not be a terrible idea to either loose some weight so I can pull myself up, or go and work harder on my upper body strength so I can pull myself up.

I have a few more classes before I decide whether this is something I would like to continue. Even if it is not something I will continue after my prepaid classes, it was a great time and I do not know too many people who have done this before. If this is something you would like to do, I would suggest really getting into shape before the first class. You really need to be able to hold your own weight and even be able to hold on to something for more than a few seconds at a time.

-Dusti

I'm Batman!

It has only taken about 3 months, but here I am, writing about my life and everything that has happened in it or just random thought about it. I would loooove to update you on everything going on or tell you about my particular opinions on different life issues, but I don't have time and cannot really get my thoughts together right now (maybe that has to do with listening to "Me and Julio Down By The School Yard" by Paul Simon while I write this? Such a good song).

What I am doing here is what I like to call "pre-writing". You see, tomorrow I start some Ariel Skills classes that I received as a Christmas/birthday present from Bryan and his family this year. You may be asking yourself "What is that?" Well it is this beautiful form of performance and exercise where you use silk ropes to pretty much dance in the air. I have enjoyed things like that since seeing Cirqu de Soleil in Las Vegas about 5 years ago. It is just so graceful and different that I automatically fell in love with it. However, I thought it was something you had to be highly trained in and you have to be from a country like Yugoslavia to be good at. Turns out there are two places here in Kansas City where you can take classes to learn this art. My friends Susannah and I decided that is something we would like to try, and Bryan must have picked up on it because this past holiday, he surprised me by signing me up for a few classes. So tomorrow is my very first class.

It might sound like I am super excited (because I am!), but deep down, I do have a few questions or general concerns. It has absolutely nothing to do with safety, but more to do with myself. Like right now, I wonder if I can even climb a rope. Honestly, I don't even remember having to climb a rope in elementary school. The other night I told Bryan that I probably good climb a rope if I really tried. You just put one hand on top of the other right? He brought me crashing down to reality when he reminded me that you also have to be able to pull yourself up. I haven't checked recently, but I am fairly sure I cannot life 125 pounds on any given day.

Also, if I do fall off of this "rope", what am I going to land on? Do they have a net? A pit of foam blocks? Cement? And, if I do fall, how am I supposed to fall? This question took up a good majority of my thoughts at work today. If you fall onto a net, do you let your butt hit first, your back? your front? Even though you probably are not falling on anything hard, could it hurt your tail-bone? OH! And when I am first doing this, am I harnessed into something or do they just let you climb and hope that your hands do no get too sweaty that you don't slide all the way to the ground?

Finally, the instructions that they send up before the classes mentions that you should bring a bottle of water "just in case." Just in case of what? Do people loose massive amounts of water doing this? Do they pee it out of fright of being so high or do they expect you to sweat that much while trying to climb a rope?

Hopefully all of these questions and more are answered tomorrow. I would not be surprised if they don't even let us on the rope tomorrow. Actually, I hope they do, and I hope that I am such a natural that they send me straight to Cirqu de Soleil. I don't know why God would make me 5'2 for any other reason.

Also, below is a video of the company I will be going through to learn these new skills. I will update you tomorrow and give a comparison between what I can do and what they do in the video.

-Dusti

Lovely Sunday

Currently, I am experiencing a Sunday that you really only see in movies. Sitting in a coffee shop (well Barnes & Noble, but close enough), writing a blog and looking out at the fall....well really looking at the mall parking lot. But still there are leaves outside our window, but that is because a man doing lawn care blew them over here. It is pleasant nevertheless.

Bryan and I have been having relaxing Sundays since we moved up here. It is nice to be able to stay in a new town over the weekend and try new things. For example, we went to the Plaza Art Fair a few weeks ago which was really great. They had a lot of art vendors and food lining the streets of the Country Club Plaza. It was one of the first cool days of fall which made it even better to be walking around. Then, today, as I type, we are sitting inside Barnes & Noble while Bryan studies for an exam on Monday and I write. We are listening to an orchestra play pop music covers and smelling the wonderful smell of coffee.

On the way to B&N, I took notice of people in other cars sitting at the stop light next to us. The car to our right had a man in a suit. Surely he had just come from church. People don't normally dress up on Sundays unless they are going to church or a Jewish wedding. That got me to thinking: If I noticed him in his suit, did he notice me in my "Not Everything In Kansas Is Flat" t-shirt? Would he wonder if I went to church while wearing this strategically placed saying on my shirt?

These thoughts somehow transported me back to my days at K-State taking a Religion and Culture anthropology class. The entire semester was focused on the idea of people being spiritual and religious. We did exercises where everyone would stand in the middle of the room and if you considered yourself more spiritual, you would move to one side of the room. If you considered yourself more religious, you would stand to the other side. If you did not know, you stood in the middle. Then we would move on to other topics like why you felt this way. Were you more liberal with your beliefs or pretty straightforward?

I had never thought about the difference between spirituality and being religious. To me, religion is going to church, having someone preach to you, and doing all the holidays in accordance with your beliefs. Spirituality to me is setting your own standard of what you believe in and practicing on your own. In my opinion, I am more spiritual than I am religious. I do incorporate some religion into my spirituality, but for the most part, I am looking just to feel good and not have a standard of what is right and what is wrong.

I know that there are people I am close to who might not agree with me, or might think I need to do more, but that is not what I believe. For example, when Bryan and I first moved up here, my mom would ask me repeatedly if we were going to find a church home. I would then explain that I do not believe that you need to go to church in order to have some kind of relationship with God. I did not mean this to insult her, but I just do not need organized religion to tell me what to do. Finally she stopped asking me, not because I am stubborn, but because I think she knew that this is what I wanted to do and maybe someday I would decide to go back to church. I don't have a problem with people going to church, it's just not something I need to feel like I am being a Christian.

When I was little, my family belonged to a church that my dad and granny had been going to since before I was born. My mom was raised in the Methodist church, and when she married my dad, she started going to the Church of Christ. This was a change for her, but one she accepted. We would not go every Sunday, but for the most part, we were regular attendees. Then some things happened and we ended up leaving the church. My granny stayed, but my mom, sister and I started going to Haysville Christian Church after my friend Austin invited me to a youth group outing. We found this to be our church home after everyone was so welcoming to us. My dad joined the church a little later. Soon we were involved with the church and it was really nice. My sister and I had our friends that we hung out with the most and my parents had found more adult friends. Plus we saved on gas because we were driving only about 3 miles from home instead of 45 minutes from home. My dad took a position as the adult-bible study teacher and my mom started planning groups with the other women of the church. Sonny and I were just old enough to help out with VBS which we found to be really fun.

As I moved on with my education and moved out of the house, I started taking my life into my hands. I felt free to do whatever I wanted to do. Church was not at the top of my list. I only lived about 30 minutes from home, but that is far enough to tell yourself that it is too long of a drive to go to church or I would work on Sunday mornings and study the rest of the day for school. When I did go home for a weekend visit, we would go to church and it felt good to be back. Then I moved to Manhattan, met my future husband, and now he was getting paid to go to church in Salina since he was the music director for that church. We would get up at 5:45 every Sunday morning to make an hour drive to Salina, spend the entire day there, and get home in time to finish whatever homework we had left to do. Most of the time it was really hard to get out of bed so early on the weekend. But then you meet all of the people within the church and you are glad you went.

While going to the United Methodist Church in Salina, I was asked to teach a 2nd-6th grade Sunday School class. I was hesitant at first because I am not a teacher. Then I met the kids and it became a little more enjoyable. However, I was teaching these kids from the very basics of the Bible. They had never had a Sunday School class before and had never learned anything about the Bible, so this was very difficult for me. I started with teaching them what the difference between a verse and chapter was and how to find different books of the Bible. When Bryan and I moved, the only thing I had really taught them that stuck was a song I had learned to memorize the books of the New Testament.

By the time I was teaching this class of young kids, I had come into my own thought on religion. I did not agree with everything that was in the Bible or some of the thinking that I was taught to believe. One of my biggest causes is equality for everyone including LGTB rights (which is quite obvious from my past posts). I also had been taught that people who did not believe had no moral values and were not people we should associate ourselves with. This sermon came from my parents church and it was after I had been married for almost a year. I guess I was just beside myself that someone would tell a group of people that people who do not believe or go to church had no morals or any place in our lives. This made my reasoning for being spiritual a little more evident. I know plenty of people who do not believe in a higher power or any power that know the difference between right and wrong. I did not think it was right for this preacher to tell people who they should befriend and who they should not. In church, aren't you taught to go and make disciples for Christ? How are you going to be that example if you don't have someone with a different belief in your life?

I am not saying that religion is bad, but I enjoy feeling free to think what I want and do what I want. I enjoy sleeping in until 9 or 10 a.m and going to art shows or book stores and not feeling bad for not going to church. I do not feel like religion is brainwashing, but I feel like sometimes you cannot have your own thought process.

Just to clarify, I feel like I should point out what I do believe:

1) I do believe in God. I enjoy praying, but I do not pray to have him produce a miracle for me. I pray to him kind of like how you would give a pep talk to yourself. I know that I can do everything, sometimes I just need to say it to get me going. I don't think he puts things in front of me by divine intervention. I think that when I talk to him, I realize that I can make things happen. I just want to be able to air my concerns. Kind of like when you talk to your best friend about the problems you are having. You don't want them to fix it for you, you just need to vent. That is what I do with God.

2) I believe in the power of prayer. I pray because I need to center myself again. I just need to focus, get my head back in order and do what I need to do to get things done. I feel like yoga is my prayer. I don't do yoga all the time, but the concept of calming yourself down and listening is my form of prayer.

3) Jesus. This is hard. I believe that he was alive. I came to my conclusion about Jesus after taking many classes dealing with religion. Once again, while at K-State, I took a History of Christianity class. My professor is very smart and educated in religion. He did not tell me what to think, but what we learned helped me form my opinion. We focused a lot on all the different saints and how they contributed to religion and how they are celebrated today. Obviously we did talk about Jesus and how he had an impact on religion. People called themselves Christians because they would listen to him teach, but Jesus did not enjoy having people call themselves Christians because he did not want people to follow him. He wanted people to learn about God. This really helped me come to my conclusion that Jesus was a man helping to get the word out on God. He was very good at teaching, but so was Paul. Why are they not on level playing fields if they did almost the same thing? Christmas to me is a celebration of family and the importance of being together.

4) Everyone knows what is right and wrong and I don't think that you need to go somewhere once or twice a week to have someone tell you this. I learned the first few times I was told what was right and what was wrong. I also have an opinion which sometimes people do not agree with, and that is fine, but they don't need to tell me just like I don't need to tell them what I believe. I can reassure myself whether what I am doing is right or wrong because I have a voice in my head that will make me feel guilty or make me feel good.

So to sum is all up, I believe that everyone knows what they need to do to get things done. I believe that having strength in yourself makes you stronger and sometimes you just need to meditate to get where you need to go. I believe in a personal relationship with God and in not having to go somewhere with others to make yourself feel good for a day. I believe in open minds and open hearts.

This was a tough blog to write because I know that there are people who read this who do not necessarily follow me constantly on here, and there are people who do. All of this just made my mind start churning when I saw that man in his suit.

Have a lovely Sunday!

-Dusti

THIS IS RIDICULOUS!

I am appalled. Absolutely aghast. Beside myself. Disappointed.

If anyone has been watching the news lately, via Internet or television, you have heard about the 5 suicides in the last 3 weeks of homosexual teenagers. All five of these precious people had been bullied or tormented in some way that they thought it was better to die than to go on living.

The ages of the boys range from 13 to 19. Most of the boys were bullied at school. One boy had his privacy completely invaded by his dorm roommate who thought it would be fun to secretly tape his private time with a webcam. None of these boys had done anything to harm their fellow classmates or anyone they lived with. They were completely innocent.

I do not care who you are, what you do or where you come from or even what you believe, but there is no excuse for tormenting someone because they are different from you. ANYONE who decides that they are better than someone else because of sexual preference, race, national origin or religious belief is completely ignorant.

There is a national campaign happening in America right now called "It Gets Better." This organization was developed to help those who have been teased or mocked for being gay, help get support. How sad is it that we have to have an organization dedicated to people giving support to people who love but love "the wrong people" because there is so much hate in our country that they cannot be proud of who they are? Being an alcoholic is a problem and that is why we have AA. Being gay is not a problem. We should not need support groups for LGBT people, but unfortunately, people cannot be open-minded enough to support them and their lifestyle.

To everyone out there having a problem accepting who you are or are being teased for being you, I encourage you to go to look up the videos on YouTube.com for "It Gets Better" videos. Not everyone is filled with hate. There are many people out there who love and support you. Watch the videos and know that life does get better. You can leave your abusers and find other to surround yourself who accept you for who you are. Be tough and keep your head held high.

I have never had a hard time with being teased so I do not know the torment that these people are going through, but if you are having a hard time, look in the mirror, be confident, throw on some glitter and know YOU ARE FIERCE!!

I love each and everyone of you.

If you need help finding glitter, I will put you in contact with my granny.

-Dusti

It is a great day to be an American and to know that you have more freedoms than most people do in some countries.

For instance, we have the freedom of religion, speech, and our right to choose. Even American women have more freedoms than women in certain countries who choose to degrade them because of their gender. We tend to look down on these people because it is different from ours and we just do not understand it. To the people practicing traditions or religions that we may not understand, their way of life is normal to them.

In recent days, it has been nationwide news that the state of California is over ruling the ban on gay marriage. Some people celebrated while others hissed and yelled that this was wrong. What I don't understand is why in a country so proud of their freedoms, we will not let EVERYONE be free. We pride ourselves on being equals, yet only some people are equal enough to be married. We are excited to show our affection to the ones we love, but they must be of the opposite gender. We take our full pages of newspapers to announce weddings, but only a male and female couple can pay for the ad space.

What is wrong with this picture? I'm not saying that we are like the countries that only let men vote or where women have to walk five feet behind a man. I am saying that if we are so proud of our freedom, why not let EVERYONE be free?

Marriage is not a something that should have been voted on. Marriage is showing the person that you love that you want to be with them forever. A judge cannot go up to a heterosexual couple and say "I give you permission to be married." He can officiate a wedding, but that is just showing that it is a legal, binding step. Some people I know are upset that the ruling was overturned because everyone had voted and they thought that the vote should stick. Did anyone vote to say if they could be married? Do we have to vote if they want to get divorced?

Honestly, there is nothing wrong with people of the same sex being married. It does not ruin the family structure. It does not degrade marriage. Nothing happens when two people of the same sex get married. Just because it is legal does not mean I am going to go out and marry a woman (obviously because I am heterosexual and already married). Also, many people say that they do not want to see homosexual couples showing their affection. Do you remember how I mentioned that we took out full page ads to announce how much we love someone? Do you hear anyone complaining about that? Plus, don't you think that a homosexual couple wants to see us displaying our affection? I don't want to hear how something is or is not "normal". The way I eat my M&M's is not normal and no one has a problem with that.

Then there is the argument about homosexual couples having babies. Some people argue that homosexual couples adopting or having a baby is not good because their needs to be both a male and female presence in a babies life. Hold the phone!!!! What about families where the parents are divorced and one or the other parents are not their to take care of the kids and neither parent gets remarried? How is that different? I know plenty of people who are raising their kids alone and their children turn out perfectly fine. Or what about the military families that have one member of the family gone for a year at a time? I know the person overseas will come back home, but what if the baby is in a crucial developmental time in their lives and they only have one parent to raise them? I support the armed forces, but that is not an ideal situation to be in either.

I have also heard that excuse that if a child grows up with two parents that are both male or female, they will tend to have the characteristics of those parents. Well aren't we all like that? However, you cannot contract homosexuality. It is not a choice, it is not learned. It just happens. I had a good friend in college who was gay and one night at work we were talking about how difficult it is to be gay in a small town. He was telling me some of his stories and I asked him "What do you think when someone asks you why you chose to be gay?" He said "That is crazy. Why would I choose to be something so many people hate?" Well said.

I know that my arguments are not strong, but I just want you to think about how groups of people feel when they are told that they cannot marry the one they love because they are just like you and me, only they love another man or woman. It is not fair, it is not right. We are not completely free until everyone is free to be who they are on the inside and out.

Until next time...