Love at first sight

I was thinking the other night - the coolest person alive when I was a kid was my cousin Shay. Don't get me wrong, my Grandma and Grandpa and Oma were cool. My parents were as cool as parents could be. I had (still have actually) awesome Aunts and Uncles. And my other cousins were cool too. But Shay, who's five or six years older then me, was the coolest person alive. On the entire planet really. And I didn't even know how big the planet was back then.

She and her sister and parents lived in the next town over from me (pre-Ontario) so I got to see her a lot. Some people had an awesome older sibling that taught them everything - I had an awesome older cousin. She played hockey, and so one day she tried to teach me how to play hockey in their driveway. I wasn't very good. I'm not really a sports oriented person, so it didn't end very well. I still don't know how to play hockey. She would let me jump on the trampoline with her and she would try her best not to double bounce me.

We did some pretty fun things together. Once I had spent the night and in the morning we decided we wanted pancakes. So she got a kids cookbook and we found a pancake recipe. Which is all fine and dandy, but we decided to modify it. We added in chocolate chips and marshmallows. And we added blue and green food colouring. I don't remember if it tasted well or not - I just remembered making them. We had round ones and then one shaped like an H for me and one shaped like an S for her.

Once we wanted to roast hotdogs over a fire but her mom wisely said we weren't allowed to start a fire in her backyard. So we improvised. We took the element off the gas stove and turned it on. And then proceeded to roast the hotdogs over that little flame.

If there was anyone I wanted to be when I was a kid it was my cousin Shay. I even wrote a speech about her in the fifth grade. She's just that awesome.

We live on opposite ends of the province now. However I have the opportunity to be that awesome older cousin to my little five year old cousin Adam. I swear that boy smile sunshine he's so darn cute. I'm sorry if you think your little cousin is cute, I will have to disagree. Adam is by far the cutest. That's just the truth.

This is a store bought cookie. Not homemade

We bake cookies, me and Adam. And we play with play dough, and watch Air Bud movies and play cars. But mainly we make cookies. It started out with sugar cookies when he was four. I really wasn't expecting him to stay interested for too long. It was a simple sugar cookie. I got the ingredients measured out and he poured them in. He did the mixing, I rolled out the dough, he cut the cookies. He was interested the entire time, and plastered himself to the fridge when I told him to stay away from the open oven. He left long enough to run into the living room and tell his mom and dad and my dad that he had a cookie for each of them.

The next time we made banana chocolate chip cookies. Seriously so good. You should try it. Go find a fun little cousin or sibling or only child friend and make banana chocolate chip cookies with them. Unless they are allergic to banana's then make a different cookie with them.

Then this summer, me and my dad were babysitting him and he asked if we could make cookies. How could I turn that down? So over dinner we plotted what kind of cookies we would make. After much deliberation and talking we decided to make M&M craisen oatmeal cookies. If you haven't guessed we take risks with our cookies. Let me tell you they were good.

But my favourite thing about the last set of making cookies was as we were buying the M&Ms and craisens was he looked up at me and went "Hollie, I know you love me cause you let me make cookies with you." I'm sure I melted into a puddle after that.

Have you ever been loved by someone, simply because they love you? I would say I have. If you asked me when I was a kid if Shay loved me and how did I know. I would say she did because she let me jump on the tramp with her, and have sleep overs, and make funny algae green pancakes with marshmallows and chocolate chips in it.

God loves me. "Hollie, how do you know?" you ask. Simple really. Complex and simple. Its little things. The other day I saw this stunning gorgeous breath taking sunrise. I'm slightly annoyed that I don't have a picture to show you. I was at work - in drive-thru taking orders, facing the rise. So I didn't have a camera or my iPod. And all my friends either didn't think of it, or couldn't get to their camera's. But my was it stunning. I wish you could have seen it.

"But Hollie, how does that show God loves you?" Well normally I'm not taking orders in drive-thru, I'm inside away from the window. It just so happens the ONE day that I'm that booth is the day there is that breath taking sunrise. And that I worked at 6am so I got to watch it rise at 7:30. I don't believe in coincidences and accidents.

I know He loves me for the same reason I knew Shay loved me, and that Adam knows I love him. Time spent. God doesn't say "Sorry Hollie, I'm too busy helping this person over here to have a nice conversation with you. I'm sorry but you'll just have to wait."

Romans 5:8

But God demonstrated His own love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

I don't think I need much more proof then that.

Now seriously - go make cookies with some little kid.

Hollie