The Bread of Life

When I was in high school, I attended an early morning seminary class before school. This entailed setting my alarm to wake me up by 5am, so I would have time to get ready before my friends came around the corner in 'Old Yeller' and honked for me to get my tired self out the door by 6. Now that I have kids and stay home with them in the morning, I've realized that my neighbors probably would have appreciated me setting my alarm ten minutes earlier and watching for my ride, so they didn't have to be awoken by an obnoxious car horn. Not that it mattered anyway. I usually didn't wake up by 5, and usually wasn't ready when the horn honked, and spent many-a-day applying make-up in the bathroom of the church with Callie, waiting for the teacher to come find us, so we could act like we had no idea what time it was and that class had started ten minutes earlier. We had more important things to talk about anyway, like Sheldon. (Note to self: Remember that teenagers don't realize how transparent they really are. They really think they are fooling the world.)

I realized the other day what it was that got me up so early in the morning. Every morning. Monday through Friday. For four years. Okay, well, maybe only three and a half years. I suffered a pretty acute case of senioritis that fourth year. It kept me out of a lot of classes, not just seminary. I don't discriminate. So, what was it that got me up when that tricky dark of the early morning would tell me to wear a heavy coat, even though I knew I would end up lugging it around when that southern California high desert sun came blazing up over the horizon? Was it the theological instruction? No. I would like to say yes, but as a matter of fact, I didn't glean much in the way of scriptural knowledge from those years, and it wasn't until they were far over that I recognized the spiritual benefit I got just from showing up. So, no. I'm going to say definitely no on that. Was it my parents heavy hand. Absolutely not. I had no fear of my parents hands. I thought I was all powerful in manipulation and could do whatever I wanted (See note above on Teenage Transparency). Was it hanging out with my friends? Um, I don't know any teenagers that would wake up before the crack of dawn to hang out with friends. Especially when they can just ditch fifth period and hang out in the car in the school parking lot eating pizza. No, I think it was Fridays. Friday was the thing that got me up all week. Oh, and probably a little something in the back of my mind and the bottom of my heart that told me I knew I should be there, but Fridays were the day to look forward to for sure.

Fridays we would play games to practice the things we had learned during the week. Friday was the day that everyone was on time. Everyone, except the person in charge of getting the donuts. That's right. Donuts. We took turns bringing fresh donuts every Friday morning. And that is what brought me to seminary. It didn't have to be donuts. Sugar in any form is my weakness and ultimate temptation, but in seminary it happened to be donuts. My favorite were from Spudnuts - donuts made with potatoes. Weird, I know. But they were delicious! And now, I have a new favorite donut shop - or "Donut Shoppe," if you will. This is the place I was telling you that Sarah took us to up in Hershey. It is the coolest Donut Shoppe I've ever seen. You kind of... design your own donut.

And now that you've heard that, you are ready for this:

Yeah, so the name and the graphics are a little quirky, but just pay attention to the part that says "Donut Shoppe," because that's the important part.

And as long as we were on Turkey Hill's home turf, I took advantage and got a lemonade. I love that stuff! If you get a chance, buy a gallon. It will be gone before you know it.

So, basically, you go in and order a donut, and then they make it. In that order. Isn't that great! And on top of that, you get to choose from a whole list of glazes (like lemon, blueberry, strawberry, honey, chocolate) and toppings (like Oreo cookie, mini peanut butter chips, graham cracker crumbs) to create your own donut! Really, can donuts get any better than this?

We all chose from the Specialty Donuts menu - their list of creations. These are the ones Sarah took home. Strawberry Shortcake and Blueberry Hill. Evie and Owen and I shared Rolo, Reese Cup, and Strawberry Shortcake. The Strawberry Shortcake was my favorite - so fresh and yummy. The ones with chocolate toppings were yummy too, but I couldn't taste much of a difference between the two, and because they were fresh and warm, the chocolate was all melty and melty means messy. Oh, and I took an O.C. Sand to sweeten the ride home. It was also delicious, but kind of boring given the choices.

Looks like Amy had one too many donuts.

Anyway, you can check out their website here to see a menu, a list of locations (I was surprised at how many there were), and the story behind their... quirky... name. Fractured Prune? And go try them!