Bread

On Saturday Mitchell and I had a few hours to spend together in the afternoon. We decided to make some breads out of our cookbook that looked good. So, we went to Walmart to buy the random ingredients that we of course did not have and then spent the afternoon baking. We made homemade whole wheat bread and lemon walnut bread. When we made the whole wheat bread, we were convinced it would not turn out. It took 4 hours in total and was very complicated to make (and also very sticky as you can see from the picture). We figured it would just be a fun experience but that it would be a disaster (since unfortunatley, we are not bread masters). Well, shockingly the bread turned out DELICIOUS! It must have just been on accident because we had no idea what we were doing. We ate a whole loaf (with butter and honey!) at once though because it was so tasty. The lemon walnut bread was also excellent. It was supposed to be lemon poppy seed bread then we decided that poppy seeds were too expensive and we already had walnuts. It is fun to make random things from cookbooks (although I still think allrecipes.com is the best). Cookbooks are also fun because we like to write in the book what we thought and what date we made it on. Both of our moms did that and now it is fun to see cookbooks they have had for 20 years that have so many notes in them. Also, when you make things that turn out disgusting, you will remember to not make it again:) This happened with some broccoli cheese soup a few weeks ago. I wrote "Disgusting, don't make again" next to the recipe!

Right now I am starting to work on several big papers that are due in the next few weeks. One is a paper on mother daughter relationships based on a book we had to read. It is pretty interesting. Another paper I am about to start should be especially interesting. My professor of my global communication class told us yesterday that our midterm would be a 20 page paper on a topic of our choice but it had to cross international borders. I decided to write mine on sex trafficking,something I researched for another short paper that I found I wanted to learn more about. The statistics about this topic are shocking and tragic. Sex trafficking (aka sex slavery, sex trade) accounts for 80% of slavery in the world, and slavery is very much still alive. Here are some sad but true facts that I have found so far:

-There are 375,000 children in the United States that working as prostitutes or performing in pornography
-Sex trafficking is just as prominent in the United States as it is in many developing countries -Most women are lured into sex trade with promises of a lucrative job as a model or hostess and are then held in debt bondage (surprise travel expenses, "rent") that they owe their "owners" and can in reality never pay off
-Over 10,000 new women and children are trafficked into the U.S. every year for sexual exploitation
-Many victims are forced to engage in sexual labor with men 30-40 times a day
-Most of the time, women and children are lured into sex trade in order to make money for their family, only to vanish completely
-San Francisco is one of the biggest commercial centers for sex trade in the world
-Over 200,000 children are at risk for sex trafficking and commercial sex trafficking each year -Modern day slavery is the 2nd largest criminal industry in the world
-The average age of entry into prostitution in the U.S. is 12-13

The statistics could go on and on. It is shocking and heartbreaking. It makes me realize how small I am and how much goes on in this world that we live in. I am thankful for the gospel and yet I wish this wasn't happening. There are different organizations and projects throughout the world (i.e. Polaris Project) that fight to stop human trafficking, but sadly it is such an underground business that it is hard to find and prove that most of these women are being held as slaves. I think it is something that is important to be aware of and to be constantly praying for. Slavery has definitely not been abolished.

This weekend Mitchell and I are going to Ft. Worth for a young couples' retreat. We are really excited about it! Also OU is playing Miami on Saturday-my sweet friend Lisel goes to UM and we always talk back and forth about our football teams so I am excited to watch the game! I also found out that I am going to go visit my sister in Charlotesville sometime in the next month-I can't wait to meet all her friends and hang out with her:) Have I mentioned how much I love fall? I have a new obsession with candles and got some autumn scented candles at Bath and Body Works with a gift card from my Mom...I burn them all the time! As for now, I should stop avoiding studying for my test by blogging....