Happiness Eaten: Crockpot Pulled Pork

My friend, Melessa - another newlywed bride here in Texas, shared this recipe with me, and I make it almost every week.  

$$$$ TIP: I buy a pork loin at Sams Club once a month for about $12-$15.  I cut it up into about 2 or 3 roasts and several pork chops, which I bag in separate portions and freeze.  One loin goes a loooooooong ways.

This was me, showing my final 4-H pig as a senior.

I love pigs.  Always have, always will.  I loved raising them and showing them.  I also enjoy eating pork.  Sausage.  Bacon.  The occasional pork rinds.  Pork chops.  My Mom's Thanksgiving ham.  Bacon.  And now, pulled pork.  I love this recipe.  You can thicken the juice with flour or corn starch and have a gravy for rice or potatoes.  You can throw the meat in some tortillas with bell peppers, cheese and sour cream.  You can serve it over baked sweet potatoes with some Sweet Baby Ray's drizzled on top.... mmmmmhmmmm... that's what I'm talkin' bout!

Crockpot Pulled Pork

prep time: 2 minutes

cook time: 6-8 hours

(double recipe if desired)

2-3 lb - Either a boneless pork loin roast or boneless pork butt roast

1 pkg - Dry pork gravy

2 cubes - Chicken Bullion

1.5-2 cups - Water (start with 1.5)

Put all ingredients in crockpot, cover and cook on high 6-7 hours. Eat a filling snack before opening the crockpot lid or you will have to fight yourself off from eating the entire roast after getting home from work.

it lives

The blog lives!  It went into hibernation for a long while, but I'm bringing it back to life.  Its time.
There's so much to tell, and... basically I just love to write.  I need to begin again.

"about me" page has been updated, check it out.

pause

You may have noticed this blog is paused.
I am living in Moldova, and you can follow the journey at
www.thecabbagediaries.wordpress.com.

From there, you can subscribe to the blog (I think the button is "follow") to receive the new posts in your email.

Please forgive me for not updating this blog for awhile, for some odd reason I'd rather sing hymns with the orphans until 1 a.m under the summer stars than sit at the computer.  Weird, I know.

Lauren and Dana, please email me your phone numbers.

I hope everyone is doing so good, I love and miss you.

Good reads

Lately, now that I have pretty much zero time, I have been devouring books.  Makes sense.
Not fiction.
Child phsycology for dealing with foster and orphan children, sexually abused, abandoned, etc.
True stories about abandoned children.

I submit to you two books that you must read.  I purchased them used, very inexpensive, from www.betterworldbooks.com


Odyssey of a Romanian Street Child

You MUST read this book. A true-to-life picture of the reality the street children produced by communism face. This book follows a young man who meets a Christian who changed his life forever with simple compassion.




The Boy from Baby House 10

This book involves a Christian young woman as well.  You wouldn't know it right away, because she doesn't belong to "our" denomination.  But she is definitely a saved Christian.  She just doesn't know anything about denominations.  She instinctively knew she should be giving back after she met Christ, and that is how she met this little boy... abandoned and set aside as retarded in the orphanage and asylum system, his only crime was to be born with a problem with his legs.  His story is incredible, and his level of intelligence at a young age was astonishing.  This book is not written from a Christian perspective at all, but it is truly reality.

That's where I'm at.  I earnestly desire to understand the reality my kids live in.

relating

Life's pretty sweet.  Especially when you open up and learn to relate with people.


Little Turkey and his cousin finally met a few weeks ago.  Boys will be boys and I love it!



Squeakers was pretty sweet today at Bannack Days.  She was quite a trooper considering she was covered with spots by the end of the day.  We're thinking maybe Chicken Pox?  This is one of my favorite pictures of her yet, taken with my new camera today.

Yesterday, I met this very intelligent woman who happens to be on my block.  People have been telling us for months that we need to meet her, and apparently they've been telling her the same about us.  She and her husband adopted a Russian orphan girl about 5 years ago, and they are returning to Russia in a few weeks where she will be teaching for a period of time at a University.  She is a Christian and we spoke in length about the emotional needs of the orphans in Eastern Europe.  This wonderful woman armed me with a pile of books and some tearful advice.  I thank God so much for our meeting.  I plan to meet with her again soon.  She is writing a book and has the burden to tell the story of Russian orphans, just as I do for the Moldovan orphans.  We both grew up on ranches.  Its uncanny.

Having begun reading my pile of books, I am very stirred up about purposeful parenting, and have such a desire for the Lord to give us wisdom.  The needs of these girls are deep and complex.  This morning on the way to church, I was talking to God and telling Him, "If ONLY money were no issue.  We could truly be limitless and without distractions."  Then I realized who I was talking to, and Duh!  Money is no issue for Him.  Its ALL His.  He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the wealth in every mine.  So I laughed and said "Okay God.  Sorry I lapsed into worry for a sec.  You've got this."  Well, over the next two hours this morning in church, 5 different people came up and handed me money.  I wanted to laugh and cry.  They were paying me for odd jobs, photography jobs, jobs I'd forgotten about, and just plain being generous.

Last week I bit the bullet and purchased a new camera.  I have debated for months what to do about equipment in Moldova.  I desperately needed something to capture video AND sound if I am going to tell God's story of Moldova.  After much deliberation, not wanting to take a camera AND a video camera, I finally stumbled upon the Canon T4i.  Its 3 upgrades from my previous model, but it is highly geared towards video capture.  It has TWO built in mics, plus an external mic input.  For a few minutes I anguished over the seeming foolishness of investing several hundred dollars into this equipment right before launching into the chapter of life where I have no income and plenty of expenses.  But, then I realized that I have never ever regretted purchasing any of the big things in the past.  God has used all of them greatly for His glory.  Today at church, God gave me every cent back that I spent on that equipment, and then some... in a matter of 20 minutes.  The new equipment: Canon Rebel T4i, Rode external shotgun mic, 40 mm Canon STM lens (this is  a special quiet lens for video so the mics won't pic up the noise from focusing)

Oh yeah.  And if that weren't all enough, we got a call saying we will very likely be getting an offer on the house tomorrow.

Isn't He so good?!  "Trust me."  He seems to say that to me in so many ways every day.

Thank you everyone for your prayers.  We are very aware of them.

Mr. & Mrs.

Another beautiful wedding.
Mom was at a different wedding this weekend, so I had Brittany as my second shooter.  I haven't looked at her photos yet, but what I saw on her camera was looking fantastic.

I haven't started the wedding edit process yet, but I couldn't resist posting this picture from my folder.
Congrats, AJ and Leah!

It's a date!

Well folks, I have a date.  August 6th I fly out.  I purchased my very first one-way ticket the other day!


(This post was originally much longer and newsier, however I lost it all)

a day in the life of

I've been working on wedding photos all day. This is how a wedding-edit day goes... Shut out the world, play sappy happy music on repeat, edit edit edit, stop to paint your nails, "FOCUS ANNA!", edit edit edit, notice a gopher outside your window and stop to watch him... thinking to yourself "he's actually cute, aww" (this is ONLY due to the mushy gushy mindset of editing wedding photos), "FOCUS ANNA!", edit, find knitting - pick it up - knit a row, contemplate love, "FOCUS ANNA!", edit, break at McDonalds to get the wifi hookup to write about your ADD tendancies. :-)

I love...

... lemonade stands.  I cannot resist little entreprenuers.

<3

Unless they want to watch me drink it, I usually pour it out later.  Today's lemonade def. had floaters. It was so stinkin' cute.  I drove by this little girl about 4 times today running various errands.  Finally I stopped.  Actually, I drove totally out of my way to go back to her stand.

Upon arrival, I was given the options of cherry, pink, strawberry or regular.  I chose regular.  She assertively handed me her sign and told me to hold it up where people would see it while she poured my lemonade.  I complied.

I gave her 30 cents and told her to keep the change.  She was starry-eyed.

Have a nice day. :-)

The Cabbage Diaries

Kristy and I have started a new blog, The Cabbage Diaries.  This is a very public journal where people from our community and life can follow along on our Moldova journey.

www.thecabbagediaries.wordpress.com
As you can see, I'm giving wordpress a try.

I plan to use my blog still for more personal purposes.  Things are going well, I still don't have an exact departure date yet as the real estate process is still in progress.

Please continue to pray for Kristy's house to sell, and for the missionaries as they are raising support for this ministry.

Prayer request

Hello all 5 of you.

I ask that you please pray that God will help the AOH get the Hannah House purchased.  Today is really important, the purchase is almost complete and that old serpent is trying to stop the real estate transaction.

My departure, and the Hannah House, is on hold until they have the house in possession.

To know my purpose

I sit here, at someone else's kitchen table, weeping.  I am housesitting and I always seem to find the Lord a little closer when I'm here.  Life is slightly put on hold, just me and the 3 dogs.  It is snowing outside, my cup of coffee sits beside me.

As I prepare to move to Moldova, I struggle to know the big picture.  What is His purpose for me?  To love the girls, yes.  To train the missionaries to be able to use their printing press, yes.  To give of myself, yes.

But... still, I struggle to know the BIG picture.  As I've researched trafficking, my heart has swelled with the horror these girls face, and the NEED my soul has to tell their story.  I know that is a big part of God's purpose in getting me involved.  In giving me a job I never sought, working at a newspaper for 7 years, being PAID to learn graphic design.  His purpose in giving me a role much bigger than myself as an 18 year old, leading teenagers across the state as part of the 5-person state 4-H Officer team... my title - Montana State 4-H Publicity Officer.  Both were a part of my life, a part of His plan, before I was even saved.

This morning, I found this video on a Montana Photographers Group.  And that is why I sit here weeping.  This is it.  My purpose.  To advocate for a cure for cancer?  No.  To tell the story of Moldova.  Beautifully.  Simply.  The style of the first 2 minutes of this video is powerful.

This morning, I prayed with arms outstretched that the Lord would take the talents He gave me, and use every last drop of them for His purpose.  I prayed that He would guide my hands and my thoughts to create the story that will touch people's hearts to pray for Moldova; to give financially to the work that the Lord is doing there to bring Christ to these who have no other hope in this world.

Project M: Bee, my Buddy

Love, love {LOVE!} laying in the grass for macro shots! I am so glad to finally be forcing myself to shoot manual.

50 mm lens, Manual
Left: f/2.2, ISO 400, 1/2000 sec.
Right: f/4, ISO 200, 1/1250 sec.
(in the large file, you can see an ant right in front of the bee's face.  Awesome!)

I believe that God and I have the same delight for tiny details. Its all important and beautiful.

I recently purchased 2 exteeeeeensive sets of Florabella actions, to help speed up my post production workflow.  I can tell already that they were an excellent investment, and there's a very large online community of Florabella users who share their different uses of the actions. Classic Film below, 10 seconds max.

Sponges

I teach Sunday School to 2 & 3 year olds.
I teach AWANA to Cubbies, 3-4-5 year olds.

Occasionally I wonder if it makes any difference.  Are they picking anything up at all?
I adore these little sweet peas, but is God accomplishing anything more through me than simply corraling them for an hour or two?  We tell them about Jesus and God, but do they remember?

Yes.  They do.

I met the big sister of one of my "non-church" Cubbies the other night.  She's a bit of a rebel teen, a.k.a. NORMAL.  I asked her if she was K's sister, and told her I taught him in Cubbies and that I just loved him.  She told me that yes, that is her little brother.  "He loves Cubbies.  Its his favorite thing.  He talks about it non-stop and is waiting for the summer break to be over."

"The other day, in the car, my mom said she was allergic to something.  K spoke up from the back seat and said.... I'm not allergic to anything!  And that's okay, because that is exactly how God made me."

Once, when she (big sister) was sick, K told his mom "She will get better.  I will pray for her."

Without Cubbies, K wouldn't know about prayer.  K wouldn't know that God created him EXACTLY as He wanted to.  K wouldn't know that God created him to need those adorable glasses.

I don't know how little K will grow up.  But, I do know that seeds have been planted, and God has given me the gift of being able to see that some have fallen on good ground.  May they take root and GROW! GROW! GROW!

It's the little things.

So, a story...
Yesterday, leaving work, I spotted some garbage on the dental clinic lawn. A still, small voice {a.k.a. God} said "Go pick that up Anna." Unlike what the rest of you would have done, I ignored it and got in my car... thinking only of getting home and eating a cookie.

I sat there for a moment and then sighed. "How hard is it to pick up a few pieces of garbage? Don't be so stinkin' lazy ANNA!" (Yes, I talk to myself like this. And you don't?)

Under one of those garbage pieces, I found a really dirty $10. HA! Isn't God awesome? :-) If I will only do what He asks me to, He will take care of me. He will even treat Kendra and I to a $9.85 adventure at Dairy Queen.

Project M: Lobsters (and stuff)

Little Turkey is spending the night.  Just 'cause.  He and I went for a photo walk tonight.
Actually, I'm the only one who was on a photo walk.  Little Turkey was hunting lions and bad guys.
At one point he said to me... "I'm so afraid of pictures Aunt Anna!  Please don't shoot me."  A little high on the drama there, Bud.

When you put a friendly Auntie together with a friendly Superman, you're bound to meet people.  We met these brothers on our walk.

I totally forgot about my white balance while shooting, I left it on flourescent lighting. I believe that's why there's such a blue hue.

Big Brother
Rim lighting, almost a silhouette
50mm lens, Manual

Meet Noah.  Crawdad expert, just ask him.
Noah exhuberantly demonstrated his prowess at finding crawdads.  I have to admit, he was good.
I even caught one.  Braxton wouldn't touch them.
50mm lens, Manual

Braxton insists that these were lobsters.
50mm lens, Manual

So, I'm starting to figure this manual stuff out.  There's really just 3 basic elements you have to control.

ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture.  Decide what is most important to you in the shot.

Do you want to freeze action?  Set shutter speed first.

Do you want dreamy shallow DOF, or crystal clear for miles DOF?  Set Aperture first.  Lower number, wider open (more light), shallower depth of field.  Higher number, smaller opening (less light), sharper depth of field.

As I said, decide if depth of field or shutter speed is more important.  Set that first.  THEN go to your remaining two elements and adjust as necessary.  The name of the game is to zero out.  On your meter, you want that little line to be at zero.  Or just below, or just above, depending on your personal preference.  A good rule of thumb is that you can ALWAYS find detail in a photo that's under-exposed, but you can't bring back detail in an over-exposed shot.  The data just isn't there in the blown out areas.  When in doubt, underexpose.

If I want a shallow depth of field, I'll set my aperture to, oh, 3.5ish or lower.  Then, I need to adjust my shutter speed and ISO to compensate.  They say you can hand-hold at 1/30th, but not slower without camera shake.  If you have to go slower than 1/30th, you're in trouble.  Now you need to bring in that other tool, ISO.  ISO controls how sensitive your image sensor is to light.  My camera goes up to 3200, but the higher you go, the grainier your images.  I try to avoid going higher than 1600.  If there is a lot of available light, I usually stay around 400.

*Project M photos are shot in manual mode, displayed as SOOC (straight out of camera a.k.a. no retouch).

home is where the deodorant is...

:-)

What a whirlwind these days are.  Please pray for us.  My brain is so scrambled that I'm more absentminded than ever.  If I had a penny for every time I've forgotten to zip up my pants the last week I'd have a dime.  I lose my keys on a daily basis.  I've had to have Kristy come jumpstart me because I left my car lights on, again.  I locked my keys in my car at church, again.  I worry so much about forgetting deodorant that I found a stockpile of 3 full size containers in my travel bag.

I was housesitting for a week and a half.  Then I went straight to a Photo Class weekend in Billings, I could write a whole chapter about that.  I'm so excited, SO excited about photography.  Particularly journalistic style, as I have a burden to tell Moldova's story.  And Dana, I met another girl JUST like us.  We do need to work on our Project M, she would be so on board! :-)  This weekend I'll catch up.

Kristy leaves in 4 days for Moldova.  She will be there for 2 weeks this time.  She is going with a group of dentists from Oregon, and they will be doing dental work in the villages.  She's taking as much baggage as possible so she can leave things there for when she moves later.

We have so many things to get done.  So many.  Legal paperwork.  Media projects for the Hamiltons as they continue to raise support for the Hannah House.  Bank accounts for transferring money internationally.  Garage sale.  Dates with Superman.  One-on-One time with Squeakers.  Time with friends.  I want to hike.  I want to fish.  I want to SOAK IT UP.  This Montana, this United States of America.  This love I am surrounded with.  The smell of country.  Hugging my dad.  The baby calves.  The weathered old ranchers who I've known since I can remember, I want to memorize the lines in their leathery faces and the twinkle in their eyes.  The lines of the majestic mountains stretching out underneath our big blue sky.  Mentally recording my Mom's stinker giggle.  Spending time, spending time, spending time...

I'm learning as much as I can, trying to be a sponge.  Everything we can learn is something we can teach those orphans.  They NEED that.

The one thing I wish I could have learned before leaving is singing.  Oh I wish I knew more about 4 part harmony.  The girls (and the boys) would SO enjoy singing.  I just wish I knew more of the science behind parts.  I need to find someone to glean this knowledge from.

Eventually, I'll start a photojournal of this journey.  Thanks for praying!

The M ladies dressed all matchy-matchy in our home-sewn gingham finery.
Resurrection Sunday

Squeakers turned 1!

My first ever storage unit.
Weekend goal: 4 more boxes to storage!

The lost generation: Moldova

Thousands of orphans in Moldova are without Christ and without love.  Thousands of orphans in Moldova will continue to be trafficked if we do nothing.

For a little background info on how we are involved with the Hannah House, read this previous post.

HappinessCaptured just finished producing this video for the Hamiltons as a tool to raise support for The Hannah House.  Please be in prayer for God to send the support needed to purchase the right house in Moldova.  Feel free to share this video with people who may have an interest in supporting this ministry.

Moving

I am moving to Moldova in June. Kristy is coming later this year. The missionaries we visited in October are starting a home for teen orphan girls there, The Hannah House.

Moldova is home to approx. 12,000 orphans, most are abandoned by their parents who cannot afford to care for them; Moldova is the poorest country in Europe.  They would like to join the European Union, but cannot do so until they have shut down their orphanages.  At the age of 16, the orphans must leave the state orphanages, but they cannot legally work until they are 18.  This leaves them with nowhere to go and nothing.  Statistics show that 1 in 4 of these teen orphan girls are pressed into a life of human trafficking, often in muslim countries.   The Hannah House will begin taking in these girls, a few at a time.  Kristy, myself and Joann (from North Carolina) will live there as the House Mothers.  The orphan foundation that the missionaries founded will provide them with higher education, food, a home and other needs.  We will teach them what family and love is, how to cook and sew, how to be ladies, and most importantly... about Jesus Christ.  He truly is their only hope.


Yep!

You just NEVER know where God will take your little (or big, in my case) feet when you're willing to move them. We covet your prayers. Pray that the house sells. And for me, I ask that you pray for God to help me efficiently use my time. I've been a little overwhelmed lately, working on some big projects for the Hannah House and the missionaries, work, getting the house ready to sell (Kristy has done most of that, but I DO have to make my bed every day), life, trying to sort through 27 years worth of "stuff." Ugg, I wish I wasn't so emotionally attached to rediculous stuff.   Case in point: I found my wisdom teeth today.

God is so very good. I will tell you more later, but please do pray for us. :-) And pray for our family, as we spread our wings halfway across the world.  This is probably about the most unselfish and loving gesture a parent can display, to let their children go so far out of reach.
We will be 9 hours ahead of you all.

It's excitin'!

BE {in love} .... wedding

Shooting weddings... I have a love/hate struggle inside me everytime I'm asked. I never intended to taking wedding photos. Its intimidating. Scary. This is one of the biggest days of your life, and you want ME to capture it?!

You must not know that I am so absentminded that I lock my keys in my car often, get so deep in thought that I walk into walls, set my purse on a hot stove, wash my hair 3 times because I can't remember if I did it once....

You must not know that I feel sick to my stomach every wedding morning, that I wait for 4-5 days to even go through your pictures because I dread opening them up to find that I blurred your moments, blew out your special glances.

You must know that in the end, I cry. I LOVE this. After all of that, I love it. I love hanging out in the background, getting a special glance into the heart of every deeply special moment. I love thinking about God's almighty plan, and how he brings 2 people together.