It has arrived!

The info pack with the pastry program info came yesterday! I'm so excited! It has a little more about the full-on culinary program versus the pastry track, but it's still good! I really hope that this will happen in the future! We'll see! (I am very attached to the exclamation point apparently. (guess it should be "...apparently!")

Response

I got a response back about the pastry program! The email said that they are mailing me an information packet in the next few days and that I can call if I want to make an appointment to come to the campus and discuss the program. Yay!! I'll be in the area very soon so I'll probably be able to do that shortly! So excited!

Exciting Possibility

I have been doing a lot of thinking over the past few months and very in depth-ly over the last couple of weeks (yes, in-depthly) about what it is that the Lord has for me to do. I know that He has a special purpose for me in His plan and a place and task for me as a part of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:1-31). I have been praying for this to be revealed to me. I am not absolutely certain yet what my calling is, but I know that the Lord empowers us all with natural tendencies, talents, and gifts through which we are to contribute to the glory of God and the expanding of His kingdom, according to the scripture, as well as my own experiences (I have found that we are equipped to handle what we are led into).

So looking to what I feel are talents and interests of mine, I have such a strong desire and pull toward baking and culinary endeavors. I have no idea how or if the Lord plans to use this, but I am oh-so drawn to it. I feel that the Lord has really given me a heart for feeding people and perhaps He plans to use this as a way to help feed the hungry. Speculating about His plans, however, has proven to be quite futile in my walk (I say this with a little chuckle). He always blows my mind and my limited idea and comprehension of what He'll do by proving that He has something much larger or totally different in mind.

So without trying to figure it all out and leaving it in His hands, I have come to what I think may be the next step in cultivating a baking/food-related pursuit: culinary or pastry school. Now, what is interesting about this idea is that as a teenager in high school, my plan was to get a business degree while pursuing a culinary degree in order open a restaurant! Very interesting - this is quite a recurring theme in my life.

Of the two, I would MUCH prefer pastry school. I definitely ere on the side of desserts, decorating cakes, etc. There are some culinary education options relatively nearby, however the problem was that I could not find any pastry school options anywhere close enough to be able to stay even in the state...

UNTIL TODAY! I had resigned to the fact that if I wanted to stay close to home, I would need to go to culinary school, where I knew I could still learn a lot. So today, I decided to look at the website of the community college near my home town, just to read up on their culinary arts program. To my excited, ecstatic, elated surprise, they have a pastry/baking program!!! I still can't believe it! No search I've ever done online for pastry schools has ever shown this - and apparently, somehow, it's a really good program! I am SOOO excited!

Earlier today, I called the admissions office to find out if some of my undergraduate non-major courses (you know - the no getting around them Englishes, histories, and maths) would count toward the program (which would be an associate degree, a certificate, or a training certificate, depending on which one I chose to do). Unfortunately, I couldn't find out very much today, but I sent in an info request on the pastry program page. Hopefully I'll hear something soon!!! I'll report on that soon!

I don't how or when I'll do this, but I feel so ready for it. As I browsed the curriculum of the program, I just got more and more excited. I feel like that was confirmation - the fact that I really WANT to go to the classes. I can't say for sure truthfully that I ever felt that way about the classes I took during my previous college years.

Anyway, we'll see how/if the Lord opens that door! I'm just so relieved to know that I can count on Him to lead me where He wants me to go, even if I can't see where that is yet!

Inspired

Being new to the blogosphere, I started exploring other blogs yesterday. This was not on purpose, but I ran across one and from that one, I found another, then another, and so on. Not that it was surprising, but it became quite apparent what I like to read about. They were all sites that have to do with baking and decorative desserts. I am so inspired by all the ideas others are sharing! I have added a list of the blogs that I'm now following and spending way too much reading. I can't wait to open a bakery! (which by the way is now a bakery/candy shop/every kind of wedding and party dessert shop)

I do have a cake order coming up in a few weeks - the first in a while. Last year, I worked with a large group of people who when I started bringing cakes in for birthdays, started ordering cakes - really often. I was also a full-time student at that time and held that part-time job. It was a busy, but very fun time! Since finishing school and transitioning into the real world, however, my baking has become pretty sporadic. The cake I have coming up is for a graduation party and I'm so excited about it! After reading all of these other blogs, I really would like to create a complete dessert buffet. I'm not entirely sure at what formality level the party will be so this might not be quite what they need, but I hope it is! There are a lot of people coming so maybe they will want something like that. We'll see!

Thank you all of you oh-so-helpful, inspiring, and talented bloggers that are sharing ideas!

Challenges

I have learned that I like challenges. I get inspired by a success story or have a “light bulb” moment and decide to begin pursuing some new goal. I usually write down the target, make a list of the steps or benchmarks that lead up to the target, and then off I go. Day one. Excited. Motivated. Focused. This is a great day. I’ve found, however, that inevitably day two comes. Hmm. Herein lies the problem. I have therefore also learned that I have a tendency to not see challenges through to the target. I wonder if anyone can relate to this? I am assuming so since just about everyone has “lose 20 pounds” as their New Year’s Resolution…every year.

(This realization has brought me to a new challenge idea: maybe I should see how long i can go without giving up on challenge?)

I would like to make a list of goals that I really want to achieve (I completely admit that some of these are quite random and that some may make you ask, “is that really a goal of yours?” ) 

• Read the Bible in a year

• Lose around 40 pounds

• Learn to make meals that are healthy, delicious, easy, and cheap (you usually have to pick two)

• I’d like to see if I can achieve the above by only using items on the Publix buy-one-get-one and sale list

• Play The Sims for only 15 minutes

• Make a collection of dummy wedding cakes and create a portfolio of them

• Plant a garden with veggies, herbs, and fruit trees/bushes

• Keep the house clean for one whole week – 7 days, every room

• Commit to and stick with picking a certain day every week to do certain house chores, i.e. every Tuesday, clean the bathroom, every Thursday clean the floors, etc. Perhaps this would keep down the big overwhelming cleaning day that after a while becomes inevitable once you can’t see the TV over the stuff on the coffee table

• Vacation in Europe

• Cheer up a basset hound

• Try every recipe in my smallish/medium-sized cookbook collection

• Find out how long we can go using only the food we currently have without buying any new groceries (with the exception of milk, bread, and eggs – or maybe not!)

• Volunteer at a soup kitchen

• Go camping, again – I’d really like to get my money out of all that camping equipment we bought so enthusiastically last fall and used once

• Eat only one potato chip

• Tour Israel

• Watch an infomercial and at no point think to myself “that’s cool, I could use that” (I do not need a combination hair brush/plant stand, even though it comes with a second one for free as well as a set of steak knives)

• Leave no room for Jello

About Me

Hi everyone. My name is Mallory Friese and I have never blogged before. (Pause for, "Hi Mallory.") I'm from the sunny south, I'm a Capricorn, and I like long walks on the beach...honestly. I'm married to my best friend and love of my life Eric, who I can't believe I met when I was only 14. The Lord really knew what He was doing! To Eric - When God made you, He must have been thinking about me. I love you!

I work in the financial industry, I have a bachelor's degree in Communication, and I love to decorate cakes. Yes, I realize that those have nothing to do with one another. I'm what you would call "well rounded," (or maybe confused).

I would absolutely love to one day own a bakery, specializing in cake decorating. As many dreams begin, it started as just a hobby and is now a life time goal. We shall see... 

My husband and I cannot communicate without movie quotes. You'll also probably see them appear in my posts relatively often, again for the inability-to-communicate-without-them problem. Actually, I'll pose a challenge: see if you can identify any of them. If you recognize a quote (and they may or may not have quotation marks), post who said it and in what movie or tv show.

Some posts will be me just jotting down and sharing my thoughts and others will be more thought out and researched. I'm excited about this outlet and I thought Paul's words to the Philippians were the perfect jumping off point. They are uplifting and cover just about anything I'd want to write about. I hope you enjoy!