A Dream

I am not sure when I started to love blogging, but I do remember that magic happened when I discovered there was a page  on the web where I could freely write and people could read about my musings.. I have always,always,ALWAYS wanted to write a book. I would probably write it on my life as a missionary kid because oddly enough, there are very few books out there on MKs. And as a former MK, I can honestly say that we think that no one has any idea what we go through, and it would have been good to read about people that grew up just like me. I wouldn't really know how to start it, I don't even know how I would title it, or if I would have enough material to write a full book, and would people even read it? Probably Not, but then that's the thing about writing, it takes courage and trust to write properly. Because as soon as your put your heart into words that end up on a piece of paper or on a web page, you are fully subject to what anyone thinks about you. Several weeks ago, I wrote about saving your first kiss until your wedding day, and saving every ounce of your being for your spouse. Let me just say that was incredibly personal, I would tell anyone on the street who asked about my first kiss. But when it goes into the written word, it's seems almost more permanent. And I've been subjected to ridicule and judgement for saving intimacy for marriage,but I've had to learn not to care. It's the same with writing, once you've written something that is pure and true, you must back your words up with strong actions, that is something else that is a learned talent.
But back to my book, when you go home on furlough to the states as a young kid or a teenager, you're popular...to all the adults. You're asked the same questions hundreds( yes,I said hundreds) of times; "Do you like living there??""What's your favorite food?""Tell me something in (insert second language here),please!!!""Do you live in a hut? (yes,I've gotten that one)""Is everyone poor there" and you're there for three months,and still you're asked the same questions.Your head spins,you learn to smile through it and answer and re answer the questions. By the time you get home on Sunday you're spent and you're ready to nap. And most of the time, these questions are asked with pure heart, everyone is just curious about your life across the ocean, it's mysterious. Though you kind of like having attention, there is a part of you that desperately wishes to blend into the background a little bit. You wonder what it would be like to live "a normal,American life", you wonder what it would be like just to have that set group of friends, you dream about going to youth camps or getting an annual pass to Disneyland.
But as soon as you take a step back and see their cravings to travel and see the world,to experience something new, you realize that you so privileged and bless,and kick yourself for ever desiring that normal,American life that looked so tantalizing.
This is just a very small part of being a missionary kid , and as I write this my fingers want to type more. I wish I would explain to you all in one blog post about my entire life,the good,the bad,and the sometimes pretty dang ugly. But hopefully,one day, I will have enough writer's courage to sit down and  write it all down. I hope that these words(if they are supposed to be written) would be blessed and ready for the taking in.
So please pray for me as I consider writing a book...even if it's ten years from now, those words and my heart still need to be ready to share them all with you.

-Autumn

{Roasted Vegetable Pizza Sauce}

Today, I had an amazing burst of energy!! I was able to wake up on my own, which is something my preggo body LOVES right now, and I have felt all day! I was able to get a time amount of school done and do a little cleaning, it felt good to feel like a useful housewife again! So, because of my recent burst of energy, I was going to do some cooking therapy.  In the recent months, I have come to love cooking more than baking (shock-horror!) I think it is because there is more freedom, you can be a little rebellious and usually nothing goes wrong and no one gets hurt, but I think that's the inner rebellious child that never came out( thank goodness). Anyways, I noticed that some of our veggies were on the verge of being useless, and I knew that pizza would be a great use for everything. The only thing we had to buy was cheese, and Travis got a nice block, so it'll last a while! Someone had left us a jar of spaghetti sauce, and though I am not a huge fan of ready-made food, I felt that I could dress it up and put it to good use.
I started with my pizza dough, which doesn't take very long and it's an excellent recipe,but it didn't cooperate with me on it's duty to rise. I blame it on the humid but not-so-hot day that we had, but it turned out very nicely and it was pliable and wonderful,just as pizza dough should be! I started to roast some peppers,mushrooms,garlic and tomatoes. Everything was smelling lovely and the smell of the roasted peppers was overtaking my house...oh gosh was I getting so excited.
After roasting my peppers, I began to slice them and I realized they were mushier than I had expected. I then looked at these roasted peppers,and I looked back at my sizzling tomatoes,and my beautiful crispy garlic and my glorious mushroom..and I had a stoke of genius.

Roasted Pepper Sauce.

Bam.

I threw everything in the blender and added just a little bit of the jarred stuff because the veggies didn't want to blend. I threw in some salt and pepper and pulsed it a few times. It smelt lovely and tasted heavenly...this was going to be goooood!

And oh yes..it was good. It was very good.

Anyways, I thought I would share my delicious pizza sauce recipe with you and hopefully encourage you to find your inner culinary artist and make something yummy and homemade!

Much Love,

Autumn

Here's the recipe


3 to 4 bell peppers- They can be any color or variety
5 mushrooms, sliced
3 big cloves of garlic, cut into large chunks
1 small red onion ,sliced
1 large tomato,sliced medium thick!
Plain ol' tomato sauce, or the jarred stuff...whatever you have on hand is fine and you'll use a half a cup or so. Eyeball it
Salt and pepper

-Heat a large skillet or griddle for about three minutes
-Place peppers on skillet and allow to burn and soften, turn so all sides are well burnt
-Remove and set aside
- Add some olive oil and wait about 30 seconds and add your garlic and mushrooms. You want your garlic to be browned, but not black and your mushrooms should not shrivel up to nothing. Remove from pan and set aside
-Place your slice tomatoes in your pan and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Let them get a little black on both sides. Turn off stove and remove from heat
- Roughly chop your peppers and place them along with everything else in your blender, including some salt & pepper and tomato sauce.
-Pulse it up a few times and check the texture, it can be however you like it, I like mine a  o the smoother side with a feel chunks.
- Lay it on thick with on your dough, and add any toppings or cheese that suits your fancy, we used pepperoni, but chicken would be an awesome choice because it wouldn't interfere with the aroma of sauce.
-Cook for about 15-20 minutes in a very hot oven, using a spatuala you can see how brown the bottom is,it should be patchy brown.
-Share with your family and friends and you will find that they will love you forever!

Let me know how it turns out!

On Being An Expectant Mother

As many of you know, Travis and I are expecting mini Wallace in March! We cannot begin to tell you how excited we are to have this blessing in our lives! I want to you open and honest with you my readers because I expect the same from others, and I don't share anything on my blog that I wouldn't tell you in person ( obviously). It was the day of our friend's Illes & Evi wedding, Travis had made her dress so of course my genius husband of a designer had to be there! Anyways, through the course of the day, we were talking how I hadn't felt good lately. But I blamed it on the heat and blah blah blah. Then Travis looked at me " Maybe you're pregnant"... I said " Heck to no, impossible!!"...we dropped it for a bit,and I really tried hard to ignore the fact...but I couldn't, I felt worse and worse every day. So I took a pregnancy test,and to my relief it was negative,but in the back of my mind I knew it could have been to early to take one.  For the next few weeks, I was upset, I was annoyed and just frustrated! I didn't want a baby yet! I wasn't ready! I wasn't ready to feel tired,sick, or disgusting 24/7. I wasn't ready to lose my newlywed body to the  inevitable pregnancy weight gain.  And I was most certianly not ready to be a mom, because I knew that would change a lot of things.  It would not longer just be Travis and I, there would be a +1 involved. I was a newlywed, and I just wanted to be a newlywed! I cried about it ,(another obvious sign of pregnancy, hysterical emotions) and I was upset with God. I told Him "this was NOT in our plan,Lord! What are you thinking!?!" I think I thought that everyday for nearly two weeks. As you can see I really struggled with this, my sweet husband, not so much, he was excited about being the prospect of being dad, and he was rightfully sad that I was not. But he was patient with me day after day, reminding me that God had it own agenda for us.  I knew that I had to let it all go because what's done is done,but I really didn't want to . That very day we had a staff meeting, and I had been throwing a fit about this whole deal just moments earlier, but I put on a face and calmed myself  and acted like an adult. And then suddenly, quite randomly someone said to another staff member " You know, sometime God's plan for us is not what we want but He knows it's what we need". This struck my heart, and I began to cry, Travis was looking at me and I just nodded at him. At that moment, I had peace with the Lord, and I decided that whatever came, I would trust that He knew.

The end of the month came and went, and I knew it was time for the ultimate test! Travis went out to get some flour, I well.. peed on the stick, stuck on the cap and flipped it upside down. I started to make brownies, I giggled to myself and thought "You might be a mother, and here you are casually making brownies!".  I looked at my iPod, it had been nearly ten minutes since I took the test... I took it deep breath,closed my eyes and turned it over...and there it was...a very prominent dark line! In that moment, I felt so much joy and happiness I couldn't even take it all in. I relished those few moments where the news of this miracle that was going inside of me was all my own. Any previous thoughts of being upset or angry that I was potentially a mom had completely gone away. I was going to be a mom! A few tears came to my eyes...

Travis came home...asked me how I was ... I said " Oh, you know, just a little pregnant!" That was a happy moment for us, and I think the peace and joy that was in my eyes was a relief for him. We were going to be parents... which is really the most exhilarating yet terrifying thought in the entire world.

As of today, I am exactly ten weeks pregnant, my blueberry is now the size of a kumquat. There are faint hairs growing on his tender and translucent skin, his little limbs can bend! Wow! That's just purely amazing!

Now, as wonderful pregnancy can be and the thought of bringing life into this world is, there are days where it basically,well,sucks. Since becoming pregnant, I have become a picky eater. Eating is usually a chore, and having almost zero energy really gets on my vibrant 20 year old body! But God gives me grace for that, and He gives my husband an extra special dose of patience to deal with it all!

Thank you again for reading... you have NO idea what it means to me when I see how many times people read my blog... it encourages and inspires me to share more!

Much Love,

Autumn Wallace

Vienna {Wien}

It was Friday morning at 5:25, Travis had woken me up, I stared at the clock and begged to sleep for 15 more minutes. Our train to Vienna, Austria was leaving at 7:10 so we had to get an early start.  I closed my eyes, but I am not sure if he woke me up in five minutes or fifteen, I rolled out of bed and went to shower.  As I started to wake up, I remember what I was doing today! I was going to Vienna! I have wanted to go there for a really long time, something about Vienna just called to me. I am not sure what it was, but I really wanted to go. Growing up, I went to Millstaat, a castle an hour or so drive outside of Salzburg. The castle used to be a bible college but now it is used at a conference center year round, and my family would go to the conference that they had in July. It was magical. I remembered that Austria was very clean,no pristine! They had certian products in Austria that we couldn't find in Romania, so it was a very special treat to just go and enjoy the perfection of Austria. 

Anyways back to Friday morning, we left the house exactly on time and walked to Keleti, the major train station in Budapest. It was really nice to see my city so quiet and cool, I think it's always good to see your city in different parts of the day, it gives you prespective I think. Once arriving, we got on our super cool train, though the seats weren't as comfortable as they should have been, the train was clean,air conditioned, and wasn't rickity-rackety or too loud. It was nice.

We arrived in Vienna at ten am, we then were on a mission to find Cinnabon, it was about  12 minute walk away. By this time, I felt really crumby! It was getting really warm outside,and the 12 minute walk was all uphill. Not fun. The mall was really old, and almost creepy, but hey if Cinnabon was inside, it can't be that bad! I then had to use the restroom...and if you know me at all, I can't enjoy ANYTHING if I have to pee, bathroom stops always come first! So finding the bathroom was an adventure, there weren't any clear signs, and then we did find it but to get there you had to go through these HUGE scary doors that led to a long,semi-dark hallway that twisted and turned. Finally we arrived to the bathroom, and we booked it on out of the scary dark hallway and back to the bright and happy Cinnabon. And then both Travis and I could enjoy a nice,warm,non-caloric of course, cinnamon rolll. I got a small one, and Travis got the biggest one he could find with extra frosting, of course he would. We then both realized that we NEVER go to Cinnabon in America, ever, we walk right by it all of the time. Huh, I guess it's the , you want what you can't have kind of thing. It took forever to get out of the mall, it was like a creepy maze, and I just wanted to get out! My awesome husband bravely led me out of the creepy mall and back into sunlight. 

Travis bought us weekend passes for the public transportation system, which he basically knows by heart, we easily made our way to our hotel. It was a little bit of a walk to our hotel from our metro stop, so I was able to see a few things. There is the illustruously beautiful state opeara house, the retro-pink Aida cafe, and I could see down the walking street. The archetexture of Vienna reminded me a lot Budapest, but I think that Vienna was much cleaner. The buildings were in better shape, they decoration on the outside were manicured, and they seemed freshly painted. We checked into our hotel, which was amazing by the way, and I laid on our bed and just died. It was air conditioned, and it smelt good, no neighbors to smoke up my bedroom, no, it was wonderful. We freshend up and explorded the walking street. I was hot and I felt gross, but Travis led me to the amazing place in the world, it changed my life--- Zanoni & Zanoni... they have at least fifty flavors of gelato, and they do really good scoops there. Like HUGE scoops. It was amazing. We may or may not have gone there every single day of our time in Vienna. If you ever get to go to Vienna, you MUST go there, you'll fall in love!

On Saturday, we slept in ( hearing the angelic chourus sing? I did) and then visited the amazing Naschmarkt. It is one of the largest outdoor markets in Vienna, and easily the best one I've ever been too. It was my heaven. They had every kind of produce,spice,meat,cheese you could possibly want.  I bought six euros worth of Irish cheedar...yummy:)And it smelt fresh, everywhere smelt good and it was just beautiful to look at, they had so many kinds of funky looking exotic fruits that were just beautiful. After the produce section, there were about twenty antique stands. I gushed over the cooper bundt pans,the vintage scales, and the beautiful services,and flatware. I just wanted it all.

Then Travis took me to a wonderful Meditterien...Jewish maybe...restaurant. They had quick kebaps and felafel, their pitas were SO soft and boy did they stuff my pita with yummy lamb,cabbage,tomatos,hummus,and some of their other signature sauces. This was place super simple and super delicious, I found it odd that it's tucked away in a alley of Swedenplatz. I would have gone there again,but we didn't and I don't know why we didnt. I guess we have to go again!!

Sunday, we got up a little early and went to Calvary Chapel Vienna. We saw some friends we knew from bible college and really just enjoyed the service. Everyone there was so welcoming and hospitalble, I felt loved. Halfway through the message I felt pretty,um, well green. So we didn't get to stay and hang out as much as I would have liked, but it was so wonderful to go to church and meet some fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

That evening, I was feeling hungry so I visited our fridge to snack on the cheese I had bought. To my shock and horror, it wasn't there! I felt sad that somone had taken our cheese... it sounds ridiculous,but in Hungary you can't really get good cheedar cheese, so this was a crisis. Now, before I go further, I have to say this, my in laws are in the customer service business, they know what it's like to treat someone well, and so they rightfully expect it when they go and pay good money. Travis calls the front desk and tells them that we think the housekeeper took our cheese from the fridge. In about five minutes the Housekeeping manager comes up and with cheese in hand and tells us that the housekeeper found it by the trash can( why in the world would I put my beautiful cheese in the trash can!!!???) In about 20 minutes, THE manger comes and profusly apologizes and says that he doesn't believe it was in the trash can either, he offers us fruit, in about 30 minutes a beautiful plate of chocolate dipped pineapple with truffles is at our door. Apology accepted :)

Monday morning was going to be our touring morning! We packed up our bags and headed out to see some sights of Vienna. We took the subway to Schloss Schronburn. This is where Marie Anoittneete lived until sher moved to France. SO COOl! This palace was amazing, it was originally a small hunting lodge but Empress Maria Theresa( Marie A's mother) made it into the Habsburg dynsty summer home. I really love visiting castles and palaces, it's a magical, and I love seeing how they lived day to day.

We left Schronbrun and had a tour of the Opera house, this place is really cool! Considering that 80 percent of this building was destroyed in WWII, it looks beautiful. Thankfully a lot of the original rooms weren't destroyed,  so we were able to enjoy the splendor of the building. The tour guide informed us that the acoustic are incredible, this is because there is no vocal amplication for opera singers, the singers must be able to project their voices so all may hear!

We enjoy lunch at a Thai Restaurant, Travis had Mango Curry chicken, I had ramen soup with crispy duck... oh my wowness amazing.

We left Vienna around 6:55 that evening. I was sad to go.

Overall, Vienna is an beatiful and amazing city, full of rich history and beautiful sights! I will be honest, it did not capture my heart like Venice,but it is special in it's own way. I love being around people who are proud of their nationality, and you get that feel in Austria. They take pride in where they live, and who they are as a nation.

Visit Vienna..or Wien depending on where you are from!!

Much love

Autumn Wallace


ps- visit my instagram to see the pictures from the weekend klarewallace or my facebook !

So Worth The Wait

It was the morning of June 9th,2012. I was going to kiss someone today, and not just anyone, but my handsome groom that awaited me at the alter! This was a day that I had waited for, and not just since Travis and I started our relationship, but a day in January 7 years earlier. I had taken a mini seminary on  purity when I was in jr.high. At the end of the seminar, a ceremony was held we all made a promise not only to our future husband, but most importantly to God. I promise that I would remain pure until marriage, that I would save my whole self for my husband. Though I did not say the words out loud, I made another promise within my heart. I promise that the first man I would kiss would be my husband, on our wedding day. Looking back, I did not know all what that promise would entail, I thought it was going to be easy. But let me tell you, it most certainly was not easy. During the of my jr. high and high school years, people gave me well, a lot of crap, for having "virgin lips". Not a lot of people believed I could do it, and very few encouraged me to do it. People loved giving me worst cast scenarios of what my first kiss was going to be like if waited. " What if he's a bad kisser??""What if he's breath stinks!!!??""And what if you mess up in front of EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!!". I would simply smile and say that I had made this promise to God and God would honor that promise and work out all of the details. Now, in my junior and senior years of high school, that promise got harder and harder to keep. It would have been so much easier to give in, but every time I would contemplate giving in, a picture of a perfect wedding kiss would appear in my mind, with I as the bride and there was a faceless groom before me. And then I waited, and I waited...and I waited....

     Now, fast forward to the summer of my 19th year, it was June 17th, 2011. I met Travis Scott Wallace. I had no interest in him whatsoever, he was a nice guy, a missionary to Croatia, and a former student/intern at the school. So I had heard a lot about him, but I still had no interest. I was in no place to seek out a husband at the moment, my eyes were on Jesus and I was running the race, and I was content. Now, about a month earlier, the Lord had given me a vision of what I was to be doing. He showed me running as fast as I could towards him, not looking side to side or behind me, but what was ahead. Then another runner ,a man,came up( side note...Travis likes to run...I detest it with everything in me) besides me, we both began running together, always at the same pace towards the Lord. I knew that the Lord was telling me to run towards Him, and he would bring my husband to me in His timing. I was content with this...but then He told me that my husband was coming soon, and than it would happen very fast, but I was not to look for him, but to be pursued. Okay I said, I can totally do that!

Now back to June of 2011, so this guy Travis seemed very nice, he seemed friendly, he seemed to like me as a friend. Truthfully, we hit it off, we agreed how housekeeping/laundry should be run that summer, so we thought of ourselves as a team. Which I thought was cool,but Travis thought it was really,really cool. Within the first week of meeting this guy, I notice that he was pursuing me. I felt awkward, oh no, could this be the man for me! It's too soon Lord. I heard nothing, so I went on, just as I was before. Then, two weeks after meeting Travis, he spilled the beans. He really liked me, he wanted to someday marry me, he saw special things in me, he saw my heart and what I wanted to do. But I asked him for some time to pray and to seek the Lord, but I knew deep in my heart that this had God's name written all over it. I knew that Travis was a special man because he too at the age of 13 made a promise to wait until marriage to kiss, my heart leapt. Travis was special, not once in our relationship did we talk about not waiting to kiss, not once did he ask me to dump a promise that I had made. This was the first person in a long time that had finally encouraged me to keep this promise.

And we did, we did not kiss when had been apart for a long time, or when we got engaged, we did not have a "practice run" the day before we got married. Nope, we waited until June 9th,2012 at around 11:30 in the morning. Our ceremony leading up to the kiss was so beautiful, it was a real testimony to what God had done in our lives as a couple and a promise of what He was going to do. Then, finally the moment had come, everyone there knew of the promises and they were just SO stoked to be the ones to see it.

That kiss was perfect,seem less, and pure. Just as I had imagine it would be, and more.

 And I think we both fell harder into Love. My heart danced,raced,leapt,spun around! God had proven Himself faithful and good not only to us, but to those who had witnessed every step of our story.

Why to do I write my story to you? If you are single, I encourage you to wait to give your first kiss to your bride or groom, or ask God to renew you,mind and body. I know that God can cover anything you've done, He can and will make you whole. If you are married, I encourage you to remove anything that stands in the way of you and your spouse, past mistakes or relationship,money, or whatever it may be! Throw it away, and draw closer to the one you love most on this earth, renew that relationship with one another.

Remember, it can be done, because you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

Truthfully,

Autumn Klare Wallace

Ps- I thought you guys would enjoy our kiss sequence from our wedding, photo credit to the amazing Erica Shubin!

Perfect

Oops.... some red lipstick got on his face... :)

Just one more,love.

Making Broth

For those of you who know me, I love to cook, some might even go so far as to say that I am pretty good at it. But I have to accredited all to my mom, who taught me just about everything that I know! I grew up in a house where mostly everything was made from scratch. In Romania, store bought pie crust, pre-packaged egg noodles,peanut butter just really wasn't available. But looking back now, I don't remember missing those things very much, there were days where I would have done anything for  a PB&J, but my mom was  ( and still is today) at being ingenious and creative in the kitchen Every week "our" interns come over once a week and we make a meal together and eat it! I have been dreaming of chicken pot pie, and I thought that would be a good choice considering it consists of making your own pie crust, this is an invaluable skill! This recipe calls for chicken broth, which of course can be store bought easily in America. Though here in Hungary, chicken bouillon cubes are easily available, but there is nothing quite like homemade broth. So I set out to do what I'd never done before, it was probably the easiest thing in the world cooking-wise. But I felt absolutely accomplished, and our home was filled with the comfort aroma of chicken broth.  Colder days  of my childhood came back to me, and I hoped that there would be some left over broth and chicken to make chicken noodle soup soon!  The chicken pot pie turn out fantastic, and I'd like to accredit it to the chicken broth :)

And I did have some broth and chicken left over, so I will be making chicken noodle soup, very soon. I'll let you know how that turns out!

-Oh for those of you who want to know, my pickles  turned out fantastically!!!

-Autumn 

What a Summer

Hello Friends,

Well, there is so much to say! In the period of two months, I've gotten married,went on a wonderfully planned honeymoon, had our apartment robbed in middle of the night, and got pregnant! I've never experienced such a whirlwind in my life!! But I've learned that God's plan for us is great, and He so wants to take us on the ride of our lives!

I have loved my new title in life;Wife! It's been fantastic, and a true blessing to have my home with my wonderful husband. I will be honest, it has been a recent challenge to keep up with the things that I want to get done, being 7 weeks pregnant and housework, don't generally mix! Taking breaks every five minutes, and getting nauseous from just about anything makes a simple task longer. I know that this season of not feeling myself will only last a while,and in a little more than 7 months I will have a sweet bundle of love in my arms! I try to look at every symptom of pregnancy as a positive thing and that my baby is getting cuter every day!

My hope for this blog is that I can share you with about my day, the day of a missionary wife in Eastern  Europe. I hope to be real with you all. I hope that you can know more about me, the real me. I am only 20 years old, I'm a young wife and I will be a  young mother, but frankly I could not be more excited about the life that Lord has for my husband and I, and our growing family!

Thank you for reading, your time is so precious to me!

much love,

Autumn Wallace

Thought you might enjoy a picture of what is currently growing inside of me!