My 21st Birthday Letter

Dear friends and family,

I would ask, from my family especially that you take the time to read this letter all the way through.

Today is my 21st birthday and unlike many who turn 21, I will not be celebrating with alcohol and partying. Alcohol has taken hold and led to the ruining of many lives, including many of my family and those that I love. Many would argue that it is the abuse of alcohol and not just the drink itself that is wrong and I would have to partly agree, but can anyone tell me who first started off drinking with the intention to become a drunk, and ruin their own, and their families' lives? Drinking starts off mostly for fun and possibly will even be fun for a time. I have not been raised to think "alchohol tastes bad, and, partying is not fun". Some alchoholic drinks tastse great I am sure, and partying can be fun for a time, and as the bible says, sin will be pleasurable "for a season".  But the repercussions are clear and have been proven over and over again.

"But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." James 1:14-15

The book of Proverbs has 31 chapters and so every day of the month I read the matching chapter. Today of course I read chapter 20, and I found it interesting that the opening verse was this " Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; and whosoever is decieved thereby is not wise."

I wanted to make it clear today that my decision never to drink is not just because of the evil I have seen it cause among my family and others, nor is it because it is part of my "Baptist religion" to deny it. I make this decision because I believe and am personally convicted that the Lord views drinking as a sin and gives many warnings against it in his written word to men, the Bible. And as His child it is my duty to obey and heed the warnings given.

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Gal 6:7

On this my birthday I give thanks to God for giving me life and placing me with the family I have been given. I would like to quickly summarize my testimony of salvation and would appreciate if you would read on.

I know that many, if not most, of my family and others around me, think that I am the way I am and hold the standards that I do because I was raised that way or because my parents demand it of me. I would like to clearly state that I am my own person and have made, and will continue to make these decisions myself. My parents will not stand with me when I stand before my Creator and the way I live my life now will be mine to answer for alone.

Growing up everything I did was because my parents did it and because I was raised that way. By the time I was 15 I knew in my heart that nothing I was doing was truly because I believed it but rather because I loved my parents and did not want to disappoint them. I claimed salvation at the age of 12 but never had a true grasp on what it was. But, because I wanted to go to heaven and because I did believe there was a God I prayed and got baptized. At the age of 17 the Lord gave me true understanding and broke my heart about who I was before Him. Most others saw me as sweet and innocent and I held to that for a long time. That I "wasn't a bad person". In fact I considered myself better than most in the fact that I had not done anything "very bad" and was outwardly religious. But the day I was truly saved I realized that it did not matter how others viewed me but how a Holy God viewed me. I was full of sin and rebellion and had rejected Christ many years with understanding. I repented that day and trusted Jesus Christ to save me from my sins and the way, ultimately, my unsaved life would lead me. Which would have been, to Hell. He saved me and gave me a new heart and mind towards Him. To many my salvation does not look very different from what I was doing before because I was already outwardly religious. It could not be seen, but now it became a matter of my heart supporting my living a pure life for the Lord on the outside. No longer was it just to please my parents and others but because I loved the Lord and wanted to live for Him.

The apostle Paul wrote in the book of Timothy "Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity."

It is my desire to live that verse out in my own life which is why I take the stands that I do. I am a Bible believing Christian saved by the blood of Christ. I am not someone who chose the religion/denomination of Christianity because it is popular or even because I was raised in that atmosphere. Most of Americans are "Christians" but only with their mouths. Nothing has changed on the inside and the wicked, Godless way they continue to conduct their lives proves it. Christ said "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him."

I am thankful for the parents God gave me and the fact that he allowed me to be raised in what many have considered a "sheltered" life, where I grew up learning from a young age about Him. I am grateful to the Lord for saving my father and changing his life so that he would be convicted to raise his family as he did after his salvation. The "sheltered" way I have been brought up has saved me from experiencing alot of troubles and heartaches that I have seen many suffer.

This week at work, a cookie bouquet was being delivered to a girl who was the same age as me, 20. She was at home with hospice with only a certain amount of time given to live. When I heard about her I began to think long and hard about the life I have been so graciously allowed to live. I have not always lived it right nor am I perfect, but I do know this that I want to live to please the Lord and to be a light to others.

Summing up what I want to say is this. To my family, I want you to know that I love all of you and pray for you daily. I ask you to consider your own lives and condition before a Holy God. Salvation is not just a prayer or a choice of religion and then abiding by a bunch of rules just because you have to. It is not even enough to believe there is "a god". Salvation is  belief in  the one, true God. The God of the Bible. It is repentance for your sinful condition and faith in Jesus Christ as your Saviour. Salvation is a change of heart, which requires then, a change of the way you live your life.

I live my life the way I do because I find in the Bible that to live a pure and holy life set apart for God is glorifying and honoring to Him and I want everyone to know that.

"But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Galatians 6:14 KJV 

To my already saved friends who have read this, you know that I love all of you, and I thank all of you who have had a spiritual impact and influence on my life. 

Thank you for reading this.

Love,

Ashley

Angry Birds Wedding Toppers!

This will be a short post mainly just to post some pictures of a customized set I made. I was asked to make Angry Birds wedding toppers and this is what I ended up creating!

I made the bride bird a bouquet with crystal flowers in it! :) The veil also had edible sparkles on it but you can't see those in the picture.

The lady requested a long tie instead of a bow tie which actually turned out to be quite a challenge because it kept looking like a weird beard or something ;) So once I added the collar and jacket it came together and looked good!

Tie Dye Cookies! Crazy Swirly Fun!

I found the idea for tie dye cookies at this blog. I would suggest reading this post before you attempt to make these. I did do something different than she did. I dragged my tooth pick out and not in like she does in her tutorial and I think they look better that way.

 I had a blast making these cookies! They turned out awesome though I learned as I went along. Now I know how to get them all perfect looking because some of these aren't. I wrote below my mistakes so you can learn from them and make perfect cookies... the first time ;)

First mistake - outlining with out using a tip on my bag
In other words to outline I used a bag but just cut the end off. That made for a very unprofessional squiggly outline. All my pink ones were like this. When I used the other colors I did not outline I just used the flood icing. Which also worked though I want to try and get closer to the edge with that.

Example of mistake 1 -

Remedy for mistake 1 -

• Use a bag and circle tip to outline for a more professional look
• Or if you use just the flood icing to outline (which is probably easiest and looks just as good) my suggestion is to do it closer to the edge than I did mine just depending on how runny your flood icing is (I used flood icing on my blue, green and yellow outlined cookies)

Second mistake - Outlining a bunch of cookies at once then trying to fill in the cookies and add tie dye effect. Porblem with doing that was by  the time I was coming around to the last few outlined cookies the pink outlining had already set up and when I was dragging the tooth pick through it the icing was not flooding back together like it should have and there were these ugly poke marks at the end of my lines! So my cookies were not entirely smooth like they should be. :(

Example of mistake 2 - The top blue cookie is correct no poke marks and all icing flooded together to make a smooth cookie. The bottom one however is my mistake example. You can also see the same mistake in the cookies pictured above in mistake one. It happened to all my pink outlined cookies.

Remedy for mistake 2 -

• Make all colors and bottle them first THEN  do each cookie individually before moving on to the next.
• Tip for tie dye effect making - Be sure and clean your toothpick off with each stroke outward!!! So very important. I used a napkin and just wiped it on there after every stroke.

Third mistake - I can't really give you a picture for this because it had to do with the taste. I tried at first to make red but it ended up only turning out this dark pink. Problem was the pink ended up tasting a little funky because I had used too much food coloring!

Remedy for mistake 3 -

• To start don't use wilton food coloring! For red or any other color if you can help it. It does not give deep colors to the icing and tastes nasty if you use alot. Use Americolor gel food coloring. It works way better.
• When making red use americolor food coloring in tulip red. The tulip red shade is a no taste red so if you use alot it won't make it taste yucky.
• suggestion is to make it a few days ahead of time to let the color deepen. Read this post from a blog that gives alot of insight on color. I WISH I WOULD HAVE READ THIS FIRST

Helpful posts to read before making -

• This is the recipe for the royal icing I used (tastes better than wilton)
•  This post explains all things having to do with icing and consistencies (you use flood icing for these cookies)
• This is the sugar cookie recipe I used. Awesome recipe!

Now for some more pictures of the final products!

 Now, if you love these cookies but don't feel like making them yourself I sell them here in my Etsy Shop. Please check them out in my shop as well as the other items I have there!

I also have recently created a page for my Etsy business on facebook. Please click here to go to my facebook page and like my shop page! Soon I will be doing giveaways and deals!

Have a great day!!!

 

Cookies with a cause and a memory...

I made these cookies to sell on Etsy with a portion of the proceeds to go to the Childhood Brain Cancer Foundation. I picked Brain Cancer instead of  Breast Cancer because I have lost someone special to brain cancer. You can purchase them here and I am able to do them in any cancer color specified from the chart (see the Etsy isting for full chart of colors)

My cousin Justin was 12 when he passed away. He had been in remission for a while but the second time he was diagnosed with cancer it had spread to various parts of his body and we knew that he was probably not going to make it through. I used to go with him when he had to have his chemo treatments. I was thirteen at the time. We would play this game in the hospital waiting room. It was a matching game and he would always beat me because he knew where the matches were and he would take extra turns on the sly and I would pretend not to notice :) His chemo treatments were long normally three hours or more and most times he would just fall asleep during his treatment and I would sit there in his hospital room watching a movie or sometimes, if he was awake, I would talk to him.

I used to make him homeade Nestle Toll House cookies by the buckets. No, literally by the buckets! He lived out in Algonac so he would need them to last a bit and he ate them constantly and would call to ask and make sure that I was bringing him his cookies! So even making chocolate chip cookies is special to me and I remember him every time I do so, even now, 7 years later.

He lived at my house with his parents during his lasts few months. He was so far gone and could barely walk or talk. We tried an alternative healthy diet that was very extreme but after a couple weeks eating this way he was able to walk, talk, and actually had energy to do things.

He enjoyed pranks and Jack from Garden Fresh Salsa took him on a shopping spree and bought him all kinds. He played them on all our relatives! The shocking gum was his favorite. :) He also loved this pig that when you pressed it, went crazy laughing! The pig is actually pretty annoying but he would play it over and over! He gave me that pig before he died and I have it and I would not let it go now for anything.

The October before he died he was rushed to the hospital and they were certain he was dying until another doctor looked him over. It turns out he was badly dehydrated and after a few days in the hospital he was ok. When he came home (my house at  the time) he gave me his hospital band and told me "to wear it as a bracelet". I still have it and wear it every year around his anniversary.

He had a very short term memory towards  the end of his life which was very trying to him because he could remember people and who they were but he could not remember what he just said to you or what happened 5 minutes ago and often it would make him very cross and impatient. Sometimes though it was amusing especially when my dad took his McDonalds order (toward the very end we dropped the diet because he had such a short time) My dad would ask him what he wanted and he told him "Chicken, fries, and a coke" my dad said ok and headed for the door and Justin yelled "Uncle Tom! I have not told you what I want yet!" So my dad retook his order "Chicken, fries and a coke" then headed for the door... "Uncle Tom! Let me tell you what I want!" This happened several times before we just made a run for it! :)

Earlier in his sickness Justin asked my dad to baptize him. He told us his testimony and said he was saved while reading a tract in t he hospital the year before. He was baptized which I know was very special for my dad to be able to baptize him. (I will mention here that baptism is NOT part of salvation and it was Justin that asked to be baptized because he had already been saved)

Losing my cousin at such a young age was very difficult for me. I had become so close to him over those years and it was the first time that I had lost someone that I loved very much. I know based on his testimony of Christ that he is in heaven with the Lord and that one day I will see him again. I continue to pray for his parents, and his two older brothers.

The song sung as he was being lowered into his grave was Nearer My God To Thee. The video below is of me, my brother and some ladies from my church singing this song recently. After he died I was not able to sing this song without being very emotional for some time. I still have a hard time but I am able to sing it now without crying.

In Memory of Justin Hermansen February 18th, 1992 - December 13th, 2004

In God We Trust?

I am thankful to be an American because of the freedom to worship and other valueable freedoms that it allows me. Also because our nation has a Christian heritage! Unfortunately many are trying to discredit the fact that our Founding Fathers were God fearing men. I have found there are two main types of people when it comes America and the Christian heritage.

1. Those who try to destroy and discredit by claiming everyone was a Deist or some such other religion because they were too well educated to blindly believe in the God of the Bible.

2. Those who hold fast the heritage but over exaggerate the facts about it. They insist that every Founding Father was Christian (which is not true, some were not) and even in this current day act like America is God's chosen nation. That being an American makes them superior to any other race and that God has more favor for Americans because just about everyone says "God bless America" right?

I have issues with both groups. When I look at my country in its current state I mourn for her because she has turned against God in a terrible fashion. Even the majority of "Christians" in America are those who have created their own God because they surely do not follow the God of the Bible! Perhaps the sin of our nation turning against God is even worse considering the knowledge we have had about God and the blessings He has given this nation. What is amazing is that in America we have turned our "God given rights" into things that in their entirety are AGAINST God and everything in His word.
Many fail to realize the state that America is in. And for the record it is true that not all who signed the Declaration or formed our nation were Christian, God fearing men. That I will admit. But the fact is that MANY of them were and the influence of God, Jesus Christ, and the Bible in the founding of this nation is incredible. God had a hand in forming this nation and that is evident to anyone who would look at actual history. But modern America is much different than it was then...

Those influental had alot of wisdom and insight on how to live. We have lost most of this today.

George Washington The most influential founding father

"Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence."

"It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible."

 (Thats right Washington the "Deist" said that) Below is a description of a Deist
"Deists believe in the existence of a god without any reliance on revealed religion, religious authority or holy books. "
The Bible is definitely considered a Holy Book so the fact that Washington was a Deist and His own personal quote widely contradict each other.

"The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing is a vice so mean and low that every person of sense and character detests and despises it."


"We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience."

Abraham Lincoln

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

"I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong. "

Noah Webster  A great man who was responsible for much of the early education material that was taught to children. A far cry from what is taught today and if we stop and think, with all this new liberal thinking, has this nation moved forward or is it sinking? And why?

"All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible."

"The Bible must be considered as the great source of all the truth by which men are to be guided in government as well as in all social transactions."


I will conclude this post by saying this. I believe that most our founding fathers and those influential in our early nation were men who feared God and followed the Bible. I see it by what I read of their own words. I would not waste my time arguing the fact with anyone who believes otherwise. It is the same as arguing the fact that Jesus is the only way to heaven and the Bible is God's inspired words for man to live by. These things cannot be "proven" nor do they need to be. Salvation comes by faith and faith by the hearing of the word of God. Americans have hardened their hearts and pridefully demand from  their Creator a sign to prove himself. God shows himself through the changed lives of those who have repented of their sins and surrendered their lives to Him. He shows himself through his word and the preaching of sincere men of God. He shows himself through the beauty of creation and life itself. God showed himself when he sent His only Son Jesus Christ to die for a wicked world that was and that has continued til today. His grace still stands, even today, even in this nation that has rejected Him. Jesus Christ died for all. Not only for Americans but for the world if they would only turn from their ways and call upon Him.

I pledge Allegiance to the flag,

Of the United States of America,

And to the Republic for which it stands,

One nation under God, Indivisible,

With liberty and justice to all.

It is the "Under God" that makes us indivisible.

4th stanza of  the Star Spangled Banner -

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation.
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust;
”And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave

Yellow, Strawberry, and Chocolate cake ball experiments!

So after making my cake ball banana splits yesterday I still had a whole lot of each flavor left. So I decided to test out some things I have been thinking of and this is what I got!

1. Strawberry/Toasted Coconut cake balls!

I mixed toasted coconut I had on hand into the strawberry and yellow cake ball mixes and layered them side by side, dipped then and then topped  them off with more yummy coconut!

2. Chocolate Fudge/Pepermint cake balls

I did not have enough of the white candy melts to dip these in so I decided to use some peppermint candy melts my mom had bought for me on clearance a couple months back. It is actually one of the best flavor combos! I topped it with crushed peppermint to make it look pretty :)

Now for my favorite ...

3. Neapolitan Cake Balls!!!

I thought of these a couple weeks ago and prided myself that they were my very own idea. I mean I had not seen it anywhere but created it myself... Well, it turns out that other people have made them too but no matter they are still awesome! And I just love them layered in circles like this, so pretty!!!

Chocolate cake, then strawberry, then yellow, dipped in vanilla coating and drizzled for presentation :)

 I sell these cake balls and other great stuff in my Etsy shop.

I would love it if you would check out my shop here!

Well thats all for now. I will keep you posted or at least I will try! :)

The Banana Split that cannot melt!

Yes thats right not only "will" it not melt but it just can't! Why? Because it's made with cake balls! Instead of the ice cream it is cake balls scooped out with a ice cream/cookie dough scooper.

I found these on a blog and just had to try them! The full tutorial on how to make these can be found here. Mine vary slightly from hers in the fact that I put three scoops of cake in mine opposed to her two. You can do whichever is best for you also depending on the size of your scoop. Mine was kinda small which I liked :)

Here is a size comparison with a banana

Perfect idea for birthday parties, baby showers and get togethers!

Cake balls truly have endless possibilities!