My Own Little Corner

Big Change of Plans

2011-08-31T21:39:00.003-05:00

Um, okay. Change of plans. I am now officially a kindergarten teacher! It's been super super crazy because school had already been going on for 2 weeks when they hired me. I interviewed at 9 on this past Friday morning, was offered the job at 11:45, and basically started working right away. I moved into a completely empty classroom and had to have it ready for a Meet the Teacher night on Tuesday. Can you say... insane??

I'll go into the rest of the details later, when my head isn't spinning quite so much. But for now, I'll leave you with a picture of my favorite part of my classroom - the library. I could just snuggle up here all day. Too bad these five year olds don't let me do that.

My Sponsor Story

2011-08-29T06:00:00.000-05:00

I’m not sure when or where I first heard of Compassion, but I do know it’s something I’ve been familiar with for quite a while now. I decided a long time ago that when I started teaching, I would sponsor a child through Compassion. Looking back on it now, I’m sure I could have managed to pay the $38 a month with the various part time jobs I’ve had. But I knew that when I started getting a set income, it was definitely something I wanted to do.

The day I got my first paycheck, I started browsing the Compassion website looking for a child to sponsor. And then I had a slight panic attack. Have you ever browsed through the pages of children looking for a sponsor? It’s overwhelming. I knew my cousins Curt and Amanda sponsor children through Compassion, and I spent a couple days looking through the kids before I sent an email to Amanda that basically said “HOW AM I SUPPOSE TO CHOOSE?” Except my email was a lot spazzier than that. But then, I didn’t even wait for her to reply back before I chose my sponsor child. (Sorry Amanda.) I think I just needed to get all of those worries out of my head, and then I was ready to go.

As I was looking through the children, I found a little girl named Jhannoly. She looked as sweet as can be, and I was drawn to her. I mulled it over for a while, and when I finally decided to move forward to be her sponsor, the website said “I’m sorry. While you were on the site, this child was sponsored by someone else.” (Or something to that affect.) I knew I should be really happy that this little girl now had a sponsor, but I couldn’t help being bummed that it wasn’t me.

The next day, I started looking through the children again. And after clicking through about 12 pages of kids, I spotted Jhannoly’s face. I clicked on her picture, and all of her information was right there again. It must have been a fluke.

Well, that decided it for me. I knew that Jhannoly was meant to be my sponsor child. I know this was just a simple little story of what happened, but I really believe God worked this way to affirm my choice. I was so indecisive about who to choose, and I was worried that I might wonder if I picked the right child or not. (Which is silly, because they all need help just the same.) I am so thankful for the way things worked out. I was so excited to tell Jhannoly in my first letter that God picked her out just for me.

So this is my sweet little Jhannoly.

She lives in the Dominican Republic, and she is 9 years old. She lives with her father and mother, and she is one of 7 children. Her father is employed as a laborer, and her mother maintains the home. Jhannoly’s family duties consist of running errands, making beds, and carrying water. I love her already, and I absolutely cannot wait to learn more about her as I receive letters from her!

Sometimes

2011-08-26T06:00:00.000-05:00

Sometimes it's just fun to have your own little mini photo session. Anyone else? Bueller? Bueller?

Some Quality Cookie Time

2011-08-25T06:00:00.000-05:00

I so appreciate that his first words in this video are, "Stop Auntie. Just leave me alone!"

My Big Girl Job

2011-08-24T06:00:00.001-05:00

Well, it's official. I'm a teacher! I am working at an elementary school as an Intervention Instructor, which is basically a Title I reading teacher. I work with struggling readers individually or in small groups. This is our third week of school already (I know!) and I'm loving it.

For the most part, I will be pushing into the classroom to work with small reading groups instead of bringing kids back to my classroom. So I didn't need to go crazy with room decorations, since kids won't be in there very often. But come on. I'm an elementary teacher. I have to at least decorate a little.

This is my desk. I loooove how those bright colors turned out against the black desk.

I could not be more proud of this bulletin board. All of those fishies were hand made with love!

Every teacher was given an "all about me" poster to hang outside of their classroom. I have way too much fun making things like this.

And now we have come to the best part of this post. These books are my pride and joy.

The thing I was most excited about when getting my own classroom was the fact that I could FINALLY dig all of those children's books out of closets and out from under beds. Few things make me happier than children's books. When you're a teacher, you pretty much have to provide your own classroom library. I've known this all along, so for years I've been stocking up on books.

Have we discussed how anal and organized I like to be? The books are divided into categories, and I made labels for each book that correspond with the label on the tub. That way, when I have a classroom teaching job, the kids can match the labels and be responsible for putting the book back in the tub they got it from. Yay!

Compassion

2011-08-23T06:00:00.001-05:00

I could not be more excited to tell you that I started sponsoring a little girl through Compassion last week! Later, I'm going to tell you all about sweet little Jhannoly and how I came to be her sponsor. But today, I wanted to tell you about Compassion.

Compassion's motto sums them up perfectly. "Releasing children from poverty in Jesus' name." They are an organization focused on helping children break free of poverty. The wonderful thing about Compassion is that they focus holistically on the child's needs. They don't just provide food for the children, they focus on every aspect of poverty.

When you pay $38 a month to sponsor a child, your money goes to helping that child spiritually, physically, socially, and economically. Compassion's website states, "Poverty sends a defeating, painful message into the heart of a child: a message that says, 'You don't matter.' Introducing children to their loving Heavenly Father is the most powerful way of reversing this message." The money you send helps these children grow into responsible, Christian adults.

After I signed up to sponsor Jhannoly, I sat and read things on the Compassion website for hours. I read about the organization, I read their blog, I read people's comments, I read discussion boards. I just couldn't get enough. The one thing I saw over and over was people stressing how important it is to write letters to your sponsor child. I'm going to be honest with you - I am practically giddy over this. I've been making lists like crazy of all the things I want to write to her about. I absolutely cannot wait to receive her full packet of information and get started!

Since I am going to be talking about Compassion and my sponsor child from time to time, I have created a Compassion tab at the top of my blog. Partly just so I can document and remember things I've sent and said to my sponsor child, and partly as a resource to other sponsors. I saw so many people on discussion boards struggling with what to write their child or what to send, and I hope I might be able to spark people's imaginations a little.

I will leave you with the picture of my sweet little Jhannoly. Be prepared. She will melt your heart into pieces.

Hello, Old Friends

2011-08-22T06:00:00.002-05:00

Okay. Let's revive this dead ole blog.

Well, the summer has disappeared, and it's officially time for school again! The difference is, this year I'm the teacher. But that's going to have its own post altogether. We've been in school for 7 days already, and I'm still breathing. Hallelujah!

This summer went by in a blur of children's books and libraries. And I LOVED it. Seriously, you've never had a great job until you've worked at our public library.

And in other news, Project 365 has died. And sorry, but I'm not reviving that. Unless you want to find me walking around in a daze shouting "TOO MUCH" over and over. And we don't want that, do we?

But if you keep your fingers crossed, Thursday 13 might live to see another day.

(Okay, is this post feeling morbid to anyone else? Maybe I should stop talking about bloggy things living and dieing.)

I feel like this post is getting out of control, so let's wrap things up. In conclusion - I'm back, summer was great, and I missed you!

And just for bonus - Another perk of this summer? My hair seemed to magically grow a lot longer.

Sweet Little Niece

2011-06-26T20:31:00.007-05:00

I am ashamed to crawl back on here and type anything. It's been too long! But I recently became an auntie to a little niece, and I needed to share her sweet pictures with you!

My brother and sister-in-law welcomed Eleda Mae Ward on June 13, and she is the sweetest little thing you've ever seen. Even her big brother seems to think so. Listening to Eli ask if he can hold "Eweeeda" is about the cutest thing I've ever heard.

Oh, How I Love Pizza

2011-06-06T22:56:00.003-05:00

Pizza is one of my all time favorite foods. Is that pathetic?

If you have a bread machine, you need to make this pizza. Pronto.

It was a great day when I stumbled across this recipe.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup lukewarm water (100° F)
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp minced garlic cloves
2 cups bread flour
1 tsp white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp active dry yeast

Directions:
Place the ingredients into the pan of a bread machine in the order listed. Select dough cycle, and press start. When finished, remove the dough and knead into a tight ball on a lightly floured surface. Let rest for about 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 400°. Stretch the dough out to fit your pizza pan. (13 inch pan works great.) Let rise for about 20 minutes. Top with sauce, cheese, and desired toppings. Bake around 20 minutes, or until crust is lightly browned on the bottom. (I think it works best to bake the crust and sauce for around 8 minutes, then add cheese and toppings.)

I knew the dentist wasn't fun.

2011-06-01T17:00:00.004-05:00

I had a dentist appointment this morning, and it was going surprisingly well. When the assistant was cleaning my teeth, she said, "Now, you had braces didn't you?" She just couldn't believe it when I said no. I've been tremendously lucky, and my teeth are pretty straight on their own.

Then the dentist came in and said, "What brand of whitening strips do you use?" And he couldn't believe it when I said I hadn't bleached my teeth. Score two for Erin.

Then, he pulled out the x-rays and said, "So, how are those wisdom teeth feeling?"

Um, excuse me? What? This dentist appointment just got a whole lot less fun.

Apparently it's normal for them to show up any time before you're 25. Great. They're just showing up on the x-ray. I have something to look forward to.

But for now, I'll just take comfort in the fact that I was blessed by the tooth fairy in at least one aspect.

Happy Birthday Ava

2011-05-25T19:43:00.012-05:00

I've been missing in action lately. We've had big event after big event, and I haven't ever stopped to blog about any of it! I'll catch up sooner or later.

But for now, I had to hop on and show you these precious pictures. For those of you that are new around here, let me just tell you that my cousin Lindsay is more like a sister to me than a cousin. She was my only girl relative growing up, and I'm kind of fond of her. Well, my wonderful cousin had her baby girl today. And she is stinking precious.

Let me introduce you to Ava Hope Wallace. She entered this world today at 1:17pm, weighing in at 7 pounds 9 ounces. She has the squishiest little baby cheeks I've ever seen, and I love her to pieces. People better watch out when she gets older, because you'll also see from these pictures that she has two already very protective older brothers. I can't believe I took these pictures when she was just minutes old. She's so beautiful, we can hardly stand it.

Missouri Tornadoes

2011-05-23T20:26:00.003-05:00

A sweet blog reader emailed me to make sure my family was okay after the tornadoes in Missouri. We are all doing well and didn't have any storm damage. I live in Springfield, which is about an hour away from Joplin. Thankfully, I've heard from friends in Joplin that they are doing good as well. I'm sure you've heard that Joplin was just devastated by the storm. As of now, the fatality count is up to 116 for that poor little town, with people still missing. Obviously, they would very much appreciate your prayers.

Some Things

2011-05-17T05:00:00.000-05:00

Some things that have happened since we last talked.

1. Stella graduated from college! During the ceremony, her husband and I were way across the auditorium from each other, and we both took pictures of the crowd and found each other by zooming in and looking through everyone. Clearly parts of the ceremony were not exactly riveting.

2. I got a fabulous new color of nail polish. I've had my eye out for a great gray color, and I found one I love!

3. I've been working a lot at the library! We have a big meeting on Wednesday that I've been trying to get things ready for. It's really exciting this year because I've gotten to do most of the planning for the whole summer. I love it!

4. We had an impromptu movie night at Stella's house. You'll be so pleased when you hear what movie we watched - Never Say Never. Oh yes. The Justin Bieber movie. Stella and I had already seen it, but we talked Stella's husband and bro-in-law into watching it. And they liked it! True story. See how excited they were? We've all had Justin Bieber songs stuck in our heads for days now.

5. Amanda and I had some more quality Mad Men marathon time. During which she ate country fried steak on the couch like a hillbilly.

6. I got a ridiculous find at a garage sale. Someone had a Canon PowerShot camera for 5 bucks. I took the risk, and after I charged up the battery it worked just fine! I love my nice camera, but I always wish I had a little one to just throw in my purse. And now I do! Here is a picture I took while testing out the camera. Works like a charm!

7. I cleaned out some of the kitchen drawers. I might have a slight obsession with measuring cups.

Thursday 13 - Picture Organizing Edition

2011-05-11T22:10:00.000-05:00

My last few days have been consumed with picture organizing. Some might call it obsessive. I call it well focused. Right now, I'm half way done sorting and labeling my printed pictures, and I'm almost half way done organizing my digital pictures. I like to switch back and forth between the two to prevent insanity.

So for this week's Thursday 13, since I can clearly think of nothing else, here are 13 pictures that I dug up over the past couple days.

1. July 2010 - Game night with some great girls.

2. At one point in 2005, my brother's beard was long enough to put in a pony tale.

3. November 2010 - Eli sure enjoys a good movie. I think when this picture was taken, he was sucked into Lilo & Stitch.

4. August 2008 - One of my first fondant cakes.

5. December 2008 - Grandma gave the best kisses.

6. October 2004 - Maximus sure makes a cute dinosaur.

7. March 2010 - The dogs can always count on getting food from Grandpa.

8. April 2009 - Nannying for this sweet little girl was so much fun.

9. February 2009 - Back when Eli was little bitty.

10. October 2008 - Lindsay and Eli, when she was getting ready to have Cael. (Can you see that big belly Eli is sitting on?) Now she's just a week or so away from having Cael's little sister.

11. March 2008 - Tal and I at a Michael Buble concert. We have tickets to see him again this summer. Woohoo!

12. June 2004 - We always had a blast on summer mission trips.

13. April 2006 - I was so happy to play the piano for Matt and Lindsay's wedding.

Organizing

2011-05-10T07:16:00.007-05:00

This post of Hannah's half inspired me and half stressed me out. When it comes to organizing, I'm usually on top of the game. I love love love to organize things. But for some reason, I've never quite gotten my pictures under control.

I haven't printed any pictures off in a LONG time. And the ones I've printed long ago are stuffed into picture boxes. You would never be able to find a certain picture. I blame scrapbooking. I decided not to print lots of pictures and instead scrapbook with a select few of them. But then I started to get super behind and stressed out by it. So I kind of just stopped all together.

I have all of my pictures saved on my computer, and I have them organized into folders. But now I have SO MANY folders, that it's starting to stress me out also. The post Hannah linked to talked about having a folder for each year, then having a folder for each month inside that folder. So I've decided that's what I'm going to do. Well, for the most part. Some of my older pictures are just going to be divided into years. After I get my pictures organized on my computer, I'm going to go through my boxes and put the pictures in order and in albums, and then print off any other pictures I don't have.

Whew. That's a lot of work. But I was feeling super inspired and started organizing last night. My mom has all of our childhood pictures in albums by order of date, and I love that I can easily flip through them and find what I need. So that's my goal.

When I was organizing pictures on my computer last night, I found some fun pictures from high school that I thought I'd share.

My brother and I. I'm pretty sure we were at the bowling alley when this picture was taken.

This was always my favorite picture of myself.

My brother and little cousin Gavin. I think this picture is hilarious.

My friend Amanda H. and I during jazz band. This pictures makes me super happy because we are way closer now than we ever were in high school. She's such a fun friend.

During a jazz band competition, Stella and I went into a single stall bathroom to get ready. When she pulled out her makeup bag, we saw that her foundation had exploded. So we kept ourselves locked in the bathroom for a verrrrrry long time trying to clean that up and get ready. People (that we didn't know) kept knocking and were starting to get mad at us.

My friend Hailey and I often kept ourselves entertained my spelling things with Arby's fries.

I'm not entirely certain, but I think we were all crammed in the car to go toilet paper our youth pastor's house.

Stella and I were making rice crispies to take to school, and part of our spatula broke off and got lost it in the rice crispies. Whoops. But don't worry, we found it before anyone ate it.

One of my very favorite teachers - Mr. Latham. (We forced birthday hats on him one day. I don't exactly remember why.) He was a great teacher, and he is the only reason I ever learned any history.

Old Time Coffee Cake

2011-05-06T05:00:00.000-05:00

I've mentioned about a million times that I recently went through all of my grandma's recipes. Some of them were classics that she made for us over and over. Some recipes were ones she made every now and again. Some recipes she probably only made once or twice. And some recipes were given to her, and I don't know if she ever made them.

I found this coffee cake recipe in with her collection, and I don't know which of those categories it falls under. I had never had it before, but it sounded great so I had to give it a try.

It has a really nice buttery flavor, and the pecans in it are divine. Plus the glaze adds a wonderful texture (and flavor) to it. It's not really the prettiest cake in the world, but it's good. I had to get it out of the house so I didn't eat the whole thing!

Old Time Coffee Cake

Ingredients:
1 box yellow cake mix
1 (3.4 oz) box instant vanilla pudding
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup water
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 tsp butter extract
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup - 1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp butter extract

Directions:
Mix together yellow cake mix, instant vanilla pudding, vegetable oil, and water. Add one egg at a time, beating well after each. Add in 1 tsp vanilla and 3/4 tsp butter extract. Mix this for 8 full minutes. (I mixed for 4 minutes using my Kitchen Aid mixer.) Mix together sugar, cinnamon, and chopped pecans in separate bowl. Grease tube pan (can use Bundt pan or angel food cake pan). Put a thin layer of cake batter into greased pan. Sprinkle a layer of the sugar/pecan mixture. Alternate this 3 or 4 times, making sure there is cake batter on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-55 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean. After the cake is done, mix together powdered sugar, milk, 1/2 tsp vanilla, and 1/2 tsp butter extract. While cake is still warm, remove from pan and spread glaze over cake. Let cool.

The one where I talk about Hunger Games.

2011-05-05T05:00:00.001-05:00

I know this is my day to do Thursday 13. BUT. I have some more important things to discuss.

The Hunger Games.

If you haven't read the books, don't read on. I'm giving you a clear warning - spoiler alert!

Okay. Hardly any of my friends have read the series, so I'm DYING to discuss it with someone. I want to hear your thoughts too! Please don't judge me for being so completely invested in fiction books written for 14 year olds.

Some things I loved:

The characters. I felt like I knew them. I was completely invested in their fictional lives.

The story line. I know it's really weird and kind of gruesome. But it was original, and I liked it.

Peeta. I am team Peeta. He kind of made my heart melt.

That Katniss wasn't perfect. She was screwed up and indecisive and normal. I like characters like that.

All three books. Even though the series didn't end exactly like I wanted it to, I still thought all three books were great, and I couldn't put them down.

The fact that I was so completely invested in the story. I may have cried at a couple moments. It's true.

All the weird names. Katniss. Peeta. Prim. Boggs. Cinna. Haymitch. They're so weird and wonderful.

That you could relate to the characters. Even though the situations were weird and nothing like my life, I could still understand the emotions of all the characters.

Some things I didn't like:

The very end. I was just so disappointed that the ending wasn't very happy. Yes, she ended up with Peeta and they got to have a life together. But I don't feel like she ever got to be happy. Even in the epilogue, she's still having nightmares 20 years later and just seemed so tortured. It made me sad.

All the killing. As an adult, I really liked the story line and its originality. But as a teacher, I'm not sure I would want kids reading that much violence. I guess there are a lot of good points that can be made from it. But I'm just not sure I like it.

The author's shortcuts. One thing that really frustrated me was how a couple different times, Katniss blacked out and woke up to a completely different world. Like in the very end. She's in the battle, and all the sudden she wakes up to find that her sister is dead, the Capitol is overthrown, Snow isn't president, and on and on. I felt almost like the author got stuck and was just like "Okay, let's have her black out and I'll explain this all away." And again at the end of the 3rd book, when she's stuck in her room during the trial and after when she's wandering around in a stupor. We didn't know anything, and then it just lays it on and explains in one paragraph that all of these major things happened. I felt like that at the end of the 2nd book as well. After they snatched her from The Hunger Games, and then explained away the whole book and told all about the secret plots that had been happening. I know we're reading it from Katniss' perspective, so technically we wouldn't know about any of it. But I still felt like I was cheated out of reading a bunch of good stuff. Does that make sense? Did you guys feel like that?

Prim's death. I didn't like that she died. But I especially didn't like how the author handled it. I felt like they should have spent a lot more time talking about it. But instead, when Katniss woke up, it was kind of like "Oh by the way, your sister is dead. Okay. Let's move on." The entire ending felt a little rushed.

Both boys' endings. Even though I wasn't rooting for Gale, I still loved him and wanted him to be happy. But we got no closure. He just drifted off to another district, all sad and lonely and never got to talk to Katniss again. And I didn't really like Peeta's ending either. Yes, I'm glad he and Katniss ended up together and in the epilogue we found out he got to have a relitively happy life. But I feel like we never got to see him being "normal Petta" again. After we were disconnected from him through the whole 3rd book, I thought we'd get to see a little more of him at the end. Instead, the last real memory of him we have is all the way back in the 2nd book.

So PLEASE tell me. What did you think?

Project 365 - Week 17

2011-05-04T05:00:00.000-05:00

Saturday, April 23

A certain little nephew of mine left some teeny tiny Incredibles underwear at my house. Toddler underwear is so cute!

Sunday, April 24

My grandpa is quite the cardshark.

Monday, April 25

A cake for a sweet girl's baby shower.

Tuesday, April 26

We've gotten a TON of rain. There is normally a field there.

Wednesday, April 27

My pen holder was overflowing, so I got these little bins and divided them into pens/pencils and markers. I like it much better.

Thursday, April 28

During this crazy planning period, our work space at the library tends to get a little out of control.

Friday, April 29

Maximus finally got his cone off! As soon as we got home, he decided to take a celebratory nap.

My Feet

2011-05-03T05:00:00.000-05:00

This post is going to be about feet. Hope you don't mind.

For the last year or so, I've been having a lot of pain in the bottom of my feet when I walk. I ignored it for a long time (very unlike me - I tend to be a little dramatic about pain), but I finally decided I should go to the doctor.

Long story short - I have really flat feet. And apparently my arch collapses when I walk. Or something like that. The doc told me my heel bone rotates when I walk, making me put weight on the outsides of my feet and roll inward instead of walking from heel to toe like I should. The x-rays also showed that I have arthritis in both of my big toes. What? I don't even know.

So sometime soon I get to be fitted for orthotics - special shoe inserts that will correct the way I walk. Don't make fun, but I'm kind of excited! It will be fun to walk like a normal person.

Last week, this was a field.

2011-05-02T05:00:00.001-05:00

Clearly, we've had a lot of rain.

Peanut Butter Cookies

2011-04-29T05:00:00.000-05:00

This is the peanut butter cookie recipe my aunt submitted for our family cookbook. I've been really excited to try it because I've heard some marvelous things about these cookies. And they did not disappoint.

If you make them, make sure you make the cookie dough balls pretty big. It will give you a nice big chewy cookie. And even with cookies this size, it still made about 45 cookies.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup butter or margarine
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 365°. Thoroughly cream butter, peanut butter, both sugars, eggs, and vanilla. Sift together dry ingredients. Blend into creamed mixture. Shape into balls, and roll into sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Press down slightly with flat bottom of a glass. Bake for 10-11 minutes. Let cookies cool on pan for about 4 minutes. Move to cooling rack.

13 Recipes To Try Soon

2011-04-28T07:00:00.000-05:00

1. Donut Muffins

2. Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

3. Snickers Cupcakes

4. Cinnamon Bread

6. Homemade Cake Sprinkles

7. Chicken Cordon Bleu

8. Chocolate Covered Cookie Dough Balls

9. Cinnamon Sugar Pull Apart Bread

10. Low Fat Baked Onion Rings

11. No-Bake Vanilla Cheesecake with Thin Mint Crust

12. Coconut Chicken Salad

13. Dark Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

Project 365 - Week 16

2011-04-27T06:00:00.000-05:00

Saturday, April 16

Lindsay and I waiting to hear some great things from Beth Moore.

Sunday, April 17

The kitchen has run out of room, so some of my beloved vintage Pyrex are now relocated in the garage. One of my biggest day dreams about buying a house is all of the dishes I will display in my kitchen!

Monday, April 18
Max's bones keep getting lost and strewn all over the place, so they now have a home in this lovely little zebra striped container.

Tuesday, April 19
My friend Karen has a birthday and a graduation coming up, so I got to do a little shopping. Shopping for fellow flea market lovers is the best!

Wednesday, April 20

Apparently Maximus felt the need for a healthy snack. I swear, there are few things in this world my dog has not eaten.

Thursday, April 21

Went shopping at the Gap and found the best. shirt. ever.

Friday, April 22

Tried out my aunt's peanut butter cookie recipe. Yummm.

Oh $5 Movie Bin. I'm Not Sure We're Friends Anymore.

2011-04-26T05:00:00.000-05:00

I'm a sucker for Walmart's $5 movie bin. I just can't help digging around in there. What if I find a treasure, for only 5 dollars? It's usually a disappointing mixture, but the other day I was shocked to find a huge variety. It's usually the same 7 movies over and over. But when I looked the other day, I kept finding movie after movie. It was like I struck gold! But then I started to notice something, and it made me a little mad.

Let me back up and say that I have spent years buying classic movies. They are my favorite kind of movie, and sadly they usually cost the most. But it's been worth it. They are so wonderful.

But then. I'm standing at the $5 movie bin and start finding a plethora of classic movies. For five dollars! I would have been thrilled, except I already owned them all. Doesn't it just make you so mad when you find something on sale that you've spent double on? Well try triple. Or quadruple. If I had to spend at least 15-20 dollars apiece on these movies, they shouldn't just throw them away now for $5. It just shouldn't be allowed!

I couldn't believe what a big selection they had. Breakfast at Tiffany's. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Roman Holiday. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Paris When It Sizzles. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Sabrina. An American in Paris.

If you've ever had the inkling to own any great classic movies, you better head over to Walmart! (Before I buy them all and hoard them in my garage because I'm so bitter.)

Project 365 - Week 15

2011-04-25T05:00:00.000-05:00

I've managed to get a wee bit behind on my Project 365 posts, so you might just get a double (or triple) dose of P365 this week. Woops!

Saturday, April 9

I made some Hello Kitty cupcakes for a little girl's birthday party. I sure do love me some Hello Kitty.

Sunday, April 10

Some friends of mine had a baby, but I wasn't available to take a meal to them. So I made this cake and sent it along with someone else's meal. The cake was really simple to make! Here's the tutorial if you want to give it a try.

Monday, April 11

My first day back at the library!

Tuesday, April 12
I found this movie in the $5 bin at Walmart, and I almost had a little excitement fit right there in the store. Have you seen this movie?? It was a staple of my childhood, and I've never seen it released on DVD before. Let alone finding it for $5! I could hardly handle my excitement.

Wednesday, April 13

Home Boy sure knows how to relax. Please notice that he is essentially asleep while sitting up. He's got skill. (And yes, poor thing still has The Cone.)

Thursday, April 14

I went to the doctor because my feet have been hurting a lot when I exercise. Apparently I have extremely flat feet, so I'll be getting fitted for special shoe inserts in a couple weeks. After the doctor appointment, me and my flat feet consoled ourselves with some Leong's cashew chicken.

Friday, April 15

Cozy and Lindsay, enjoying lunch at The Purple Cow in Little Rock.

So That

2011-04-22T05:00:00.000-05:00

When we went to Little Rock, Beth Moore taught us out of 2 Timothy 4. She talked about how we all have a specific ministry in Christ and how we can fulfill that ministry. She gave us several steps, but one stuck out to me much more than the others.

2 Timothy 4:17 says "But the Lord stood with me and gave me strength so that I might preach the Good News in its entirety for all the Gentiles to hear. And he rescued me from certain death." NLT

She pointed out that Paul had a "so that." He was being put through pain and suffering so that he might preach the Good News and the Gentiles would hear. If you are going through something not so fun right now, it is so that something will happen. God has our lives perfectly planned out, and there are reasons things might not go the way you want them to.

My life isn't completely messed up. I'm not in a lot of pain, and I'm not exactly suffering. But there are still some things that I wish were different. But you know what? They don't need to be any different. I am exactly where I am right now so that the Lord can use me and make something great happen. If I had my life just how I wanted it, I bet those things wouldn't end up happening.

The Dixon Ladies' Cookbook

2011-04-20T05:00:00.000-05:00

My Grandma Wanda was an excellent cook. And not only was she a great cook, but she was very dedicated. She would cook for hours. Even after we all started the meal, she would still fuss around the kitchen to make sure we had fresh, hot food throughout the meal. I don't know how many times we would all say, "Grandma! Sit down!" It makes me smile just to think about it.

My grandma's recipes are precious to me. There are several of her signature dishes that I always take pride in making. Since I'm a fan of being sentimental, I decided the best way to preserve my grandma's recipes would be to make a family cookbook. I decided to include all of my grandma's recipes that I had, plus recipes submitted by all the other ladies in our family.

There are only 6 of us girls, so it's a nice, quaint little cookbook. (But don't be fooled - there are still 100 recipes!) I got recipes from my grandma's two daughters - my mom Belinda and my aunt Cozy. Each daughter had two kids, so there are recipes from me and from my brother's wife, Mindy. And recipes from my cousin Lindsay, and her brother's wife Amanda. I think it is just so special to have all of our family's favorite recipes in one place.

I feel like I'm being mushy already, but prepare for a little more. I decided to write this on the inside cover of the cookbooks, along with my favorite food related picture of my grandma and myself.

Grandma Wanda was always my favorite cook. She put so much love into her cooking and always made things just the way you liked it. Every grandkid had their favorite. Curt loved the cheesy mashed potatoes. Lindsay wasn’t ever satisfied without her noodles. Andy always requested Oreo cookie ice cream cake. And I was so pleased when she taught me how to make her spectacular onion rings.

Even though Grandma is no longer here with us, her recipes will stay with us forever. Included in this cookbook are recipes from Cozy Jones, Belinda Ward, Lindsay Wallace, Erin Ward, Amanda Jones, and Mindy Ward. But this cookbook would not be complete without Grandma Wanda’s recipes. I am so thankful she invested so much of her time in always making sure we were full and happy.

Okay, so enough with all the mushy, sentimental stuff. I'm really pleased with how the cookbooks turned out. I thought about having them printed and bound, but since I was just making 6 cookbooks, I decided I could do a lot of it by hand without going insane. It took a ridiculous amount of time (I mean ridiculous), but I'm so glad I decided to go this direction. I could not have been more pleased when I snapped shut the rings of the final cookbook.

Most of these aren't exactly "secret family recipes" so you can expect to see some pop up on the blog once in a while. I've posted a couple of my grandma's recipes already. Yellow icing and cheesy mashed potatoes. I just want to clarify that those are two separate recipes. Please don't put icing on your mashed potatoes.

Thanks again to the wonderful ladies in my family for taking the time to send me lots and lots of recipes! I really appreciate it and can't wait to try out all of your wonderful recipes!

Adventures At The Purple Cow

2011-04-18T05:00:00.001-05:00

Do you ever feel pressured to write an AMAZING post after you have a big event... and you never know what to say? Yeah, I'm having that feeling right now. Prepare to be underwhelmed.

This weekend, the girls in my family went on a little road trip to see Beth Moore in Little Rock, Arkansas. It's a 4-5 hour drive from here, and we had lots of fun the whole way there. Road trips are always interesting with my cousin Lindsay and I. We both get car sick really easily, so we both always claim the front seats. So eight-months-pregnant-Lindsay drove us around, with both our moms stuck in the back seat.

I'm not sure what got into me, but seeing all the road signs got me very intrigued in all of the Arkansas names we saw. Lots of the city names are just mashed up versions of other names. Well, first of all - Arkansas. Why exactly is the state named arKANSAS? Does it in fact have anything to do with Kansas? I really wanted to know, but didn't feel the immediate need to risk motion sickness and google it on Lindsay's phone. Then we saw signs for Texarkana. I'm guessing Texas, Arkansas... Louisiana? That was the only "ana" I could think of. Then Arkadelphia. The Arkansas version of Philadelphia? I'm going to be honest and tell you that I wondered about these names all weekend. But clearly it wasn't a life or death situation for me, because I still haven't googled any of them.

When we got into town, we wanted to go somewhere fun for lunch. And what is more fun than a place called The Purple Cow? We got to act like dorky out of town people and look at the menu for forever and ask the waiter what he thought was best and take pictures of ourselves.

We made sure we got into town a couple hours early. Because of course we needed to do some shopping. And I have some very exciting news for you. I had my first encounter with Williams Sonoma. Oh. My. Word. I could just live in that store. Really and truly.

And, oh. What's that? I haven't talked about one spiritual thing in this post about a Beth Moore conference? Well, let me just say that Beth definitely said some things I needed to hear. I'll be back sometime later this week with more details.

For now, I'll just leave you with the fact that it was a great weekend. These are some of my favorite ladies in the whole world.

Thursday 13: Library Edition

2011-04-14T05:00:00.000-05:00

On Monday, I started back working at our public library. I worked there last summer for a program called Summer Reading To Go. A small group of us planned and conducted story times all summer. But instead of doing it at the library, we took our story times to lots of various summer day camp programs. Mostly in areas where the kids wouldn't normally get the chance to come visit the library. It was literally the best job I've ever had.

This year, they created a position so that someone could be hired a couple months before the others to get all of the planning and preparation done before the summer starts. And I get to be that person! So I'll be spending this month and next furiously planning the summer program, and then we'll all start with our traveling story times at the very end of May. I am beyond happy to be back at the library for the summer. And here are 13 reasons why.

1) Monday I literally spent 5 hours reading and flipping through children's books. Hello! How could it get any better than that?

2) The Outreach department only has about 9 people in it. We're a happy, weird little family.

3) Everyone at the library is super nice. Like, ridiculously nice. It's not even an option - you have to say hello to people when you walk down the hall. Even if you've never seen them before in your life.

4) My coworkers make fun of me for having my (14 digit) library card number memorized. Apparently I'm queen of the nerds.

5) The people there share my ridiculous love of children's books. Well, let's be honest. My ridiculous love of books in general.

6) I absolutely love my coworker Jessica. She's a great person to be stuck in a room with all day. Last summer, she tried to bribe me with free room and board to ditch the whole teaching idea and work with her at the library year round. She said she'd just take me on as her third child.

7) Our name tags are also fancy badges that unlock all the library doors. There's just something super cool about whipping out your badge and having the little door light go from red to green. Oh no? Is that just me?

8) My fellow Stories To Go ladies are super chatty. It's usually dead quite in the Outreach room... unless we're in there. We like to think that the others are amused and not annoyed by all of our story telling.

9) I feel all official when my library account gets changed over to a "staff" account. But then all the pages of the library catalog come up in weird code that I can never figure out. So I always have to hit the "Public View" button. Because apparently I'm not cool enough to figure out library code.

10) I have a ridiculously long job title. I am a Summer Reading To Go Youth Outreach Assistant.

11) I am literally surrounded by stacks and stacks of books. It is my happy place.

12) When I put something on hold at the library, it comes right to my desk now! I don't have to make a trip to the library to go pick it up. Score!

13) This job just makes me so happy! I'm only working 2 days a week during the planning phase, and I was actually a little sad when I left work Tuesday because I wouldn't be back until the next week. How often does that happen? I feel so blessed to be in such a great work environment for the summer.

Win a Date with Tad Hamilton

2011-04-13T05:00:00.000-05:00

It's no secret that I am a big fan of movies. I like basically all kinds. But do you have any movies that you could watch over and over, back to back, and never get tired of it? Win a Date with Tad Hamilton is that movie for me. I know it's a super cheesy romantic comedy. It's one of those movies that's $2.99 everywhere and they have a million copies, because everyone it just too cool for it.

But I just can't get over how much I like it. My all time favorite movie line comes from this movie. It's really obscure, and nothing special, but I think it's hilarious. Kate Bosworth plays a small town girl who wins a date with a big movie star. And Topher Grace is her best friend, who is (of course) madly in love with her. When she gets back from her fantasy date, she recaps it in excruciating detail. And Topher Grace responds, "I cannot remember a time... before you started telling that story."

Skip the first 14 seconds of this video, and you will see one of my very favorite movie moments.

It's a very handy movie line to recite. My mom and I like to say it to each other when someone goes on and on with their story. But don't worry, we're not mean enough to actually say that to the person. But just know - if you're telling me a ridiculously long story, there's no doubt that I am thinking, "I cannot remember a time... before you started telling that story."

Project 365 - Week 14

2011-04-12T05:00:00.000-05:00

Saturday, April 2

Eli playing frisbee with Grandpa. So stinking sweet.

Sunday, April 3

Eli and I had a "play in the hose" kind of afternoon. I was not actually planning to play in the water until he innocently picked up the hose and drenched me with it. Then it was on.

Monday, April 4

Oh my word. I could not put this book down. Makes me swoon.

Tuesday, April 5

I got to spend the day babysitting this little cutie pie. He is the happiest little guy.

Wednesday, April 6

Got to spend another day with Ean. We made a big mess... but we had lots of fun doing it!

Thursday, April 7

I got a couple inches trimmed off. My hair feels so short!

Friday, April 8

My friend Leslie and I were headed into a movie, when she saw on Facebook that someone had tickets to a play and couldn't use them after all. So we skipped the movie and got to see Chicago for free! It was amazing.

What I Like About Spring

2011-04-11T05:00:00.000-05:00

I absolutely adore cold weather. I have an obsession with jackets and a love affair with pea coats. While I keep hearing everyone twittering on about how they love spring, I can't help but think about how hot it's going to get. I can't help it. I just don't like warm weather. But don't worry, I'm not a complete witch. I do like springtime. And here are a few reasons why.

1) flip flops

2) crisp spring mornings

3) the combination of capris and a light jacket

4) my skin becoming slightly less pale

5) lilac bushes

6) my dog sunbathing on the porch

7) fresh toenail polish

8) watching my cat sit in open windows

9) bright colors

10) garage sales

{pic}

Wild Animal Safari

2011-04-08T05:00:00.001-05:00

When my little nephew, Eli, was staying with us last week, my mom and I wanted to make sure we had lots of really fun things to do. So one day, we decided to visit Wild Animal Safari. It's basically a winding 2 mile stretch of road that has animals living all around it. There are all kinds - deer, buffalo, zebras, llamas, camels, pigs, yaks, ostriches, and a lot of exotic animals I've never heard of before. All of these animals are used to being around people, and will come up to your window as your driving along. The place even sells bags of food so you can roll down your window and feed them.

I hadn't been there since I was a little kid. But I have distinct memories of very large animals sticking their whole heads inside our car. Talk about a strange experience! We had told Eli the day before that we were going to go see some big animals the next day. He was very willing to go to bed that night because we told him that in the morning, we were going to go see the big animals. In the morning, I asked if he was ready for breakfast, and he said, "No! I want to see the big animals!" Clearly we were all very excited, and we definitely weren't let down!

Since you're driving at snail speed, we let Eli out of his car seat to come sit up front with us. He really did not understand why the animals were in the road. It was very concerning to him at first. We found out soon that while Eli loved the animals, and liked it when we fed them, he certainly did not want to sit in the seat that had the window down. So he would hop back and forth between my mom and I, depending on which one of us was not feeding an animal. And then if they got too invasive, he would make the move to the back seat. Like in this video, when we mention rolling his window down, he says, "I just want to sit in back!" Ha! But don't worry, we didn't scar him for life. We only rolled the windows down when he wanted us to. And as long as he wasn't right next to the animal, he stinking loved it. Also, please ignore our squeaky baby talk voices in the video.

We saw all sorts of strange animals. We knew what some of them were. But most of the time we didn't really have a clue. But I'm pretty sure this guy was a yak. A very invasive yak. He just kept coming in the car.

And coming.

Although Eli didn't really want to feed the animals out of his hand, he really liked the animals that would just let him throw the food on the ground. The deer were his favorite! They would stand a few feet away from the car and wait for him to throw treats on the ground. He loved it so much, that I'm fairly certain he starts actually hanging out of the car window in these pictures.

At one point, there were a bunch of little animals that wouldn't get out of the road. (Gazelle? Antelope?) So I inched the car along, and honked at them once in a while. They just wouldn't budge completely. But I promise I never hit one of them. No matter what my little stinker of a nephew might say. "You hurt that fing!" was our favorite moment of the day.

Here are a few other animals we saw that day. It's so crazy to see them all close up!

After we got done with the drive through safari, we went to their little walk through part. They had some animals in cages that would not have gotten along with the animals out on the road. (Tigers, baboons, exotic birds, kangaroos) They also had a little area of goats. But not just any goats. Cute little pigmy goats. We walked up to the pen to pet them, and pretty soon we realized that there was a little goat on our side of the fence. At first we thought we needed to go tell someone who worked there, but we then realized that they must do this all the time. There was a little spot in the fence where the dirt was dug out, and the tiny little goats could just pop out of there. Eli loved it! They were so sweet.

The whole day was so much fun! The whole rest of the week, Eli kept talking and talking about the all of the animals we saw. It's so fun to listen to him chatter. But I might be a little biased.

Thursday 13 - Workout Mix Edition

2011-04-07T05:00:00.001-05:00

I got tired to listening to the same workout cd over and over, so I decided to make a big long workout playlist on my ipod. It has over a hundred songs on it so I'll never get tired of hearing the same songs over and over. Here are a few of my favorite songs on the mix.

(On number 8, I would have posted a video with better song quaility, but the live one made me laugh.)

(I hope you smile when you see number 11. I mean, who wouldn't want to work out to that?)

(I would also like to add that I'm writing this at a friend's house on their Mac. And I had to google how to copy and paste on a Mac. Because I'm just that lame.)

1. It's Raining Men by Geri Halliwell (Bridget Jones Diary Soundtrack)

2. I'm Taking You With Me by Relient K (Five Score and Seven Years Ago)

3. Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson (Bad)

4. Forsaken by Skillet (Collide)

5. Just Dance by Lady Gaga (The Fame)

6. Don't Stop Me Now by Queen (Greatest Hits I)

7. Mess Of Me by Switchfoot (Hello Hurricane)

8. Space Cowboy by NSYNC (No Strings Attached)

9. Somebody to Love by Justin Bieber (My World 2.0)

10. Worth The Wait by Philmore (Philmore)

11. Gonna Fly Now by Bill Conti (Rocky 30th Anniversary Soundtrack)

12. Forget You by Cee Lo Green (The Lady Killer)

13. See You Again by Miley Cyrus (Breakout)

So what are some of your favorite songs to work out to? It wouldn't hurt to add a few more to my list!

Chocolate Chip Muffins

2011-04-06T05:00:00.000-05:00

I know I said I would show you the ridiculous pictures from our hillbilly safari. They're coming, I promise. But in the mean time, here is a lovely recipe. I am a big fan of chocolate chip muffins. I messed around with a lot of different recipes before discovering this one. Love love love it.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup oil
1 egg
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 Tbsp white sugar
1 Tbsp brown sugar

Heat oven to 375°. Grease muffin cups or line with baking cups. In a medium bowl, combine flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix well. Add in milk, vanilla, oil, and egg. Batter will be lumpy. Mix in chocolate chips. Fill cups 2/3 full. Before baking, sprinkle tops of muffins with a mixture of white sugar and brown sugar. Bake 16-20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool slightly before removing from pan. Serve warm.

Oh, The Drama Of Bangs

2011-04-05T05:00:00.000-05:00

Bangs are sort of a new thing for me. For the longest time, I didn't have bangs at all. But my hair would never stay out of my face, so I usually ended up pinning back my "non-bangs." (AKA: hair in my face that would have been bangs, had I cut them.) My favorite way to wear it was in a pouf. Sometimes it was big. Sometimes it was little. But it was always cute.

When I didn't have my hair in a pouf, I used bobby pins to get my hair out of my face. I would either use 2 bobby pins to make an X, like in the outside pictures. Or sometimes I would just stick a bobby pin in my hair, like in the middle picture. Even when I made the switch to side-swept bangs, I could still pin them back like this if I got tired of them.

Well. Now I have these lovely bangs. I really love them. But there is one problem. There is no way on earth that I can pin them back. At least no way on earth that I have found. Once in a while I just don't feel like having my hair in my face, and there's nothing I can do about it!

Well, I can do this. But it's not really the fanciest of hair styles.

So can my bloggy friends help a girl out? Is there sometime I'm missing? How can I get these bangs pulled back or in a pouf? I've tried hair spray, mousse, water, bobby pins, hair clips. The middle will pull back and the rest will just stick out all over the place. It's a hot mess. And I'd rather not leave the house looking like a hot mess.

Project 365 - Week 13

2011-04-04T05:00:00.000-05:00

I missed you guys! And not only have I missed talking to you, I've missed reading your blogs as well! I need to majorly get caught up. I had a great week playing with my little nephew, and I can't wait to share it all with you! This Project 365 post will be a little overview for you, but be prepared for some details later this week! (Clearly I really must have missed you, because I keep using exclamation marks!)

Saturday, March 26

Stella came over for a much needed best friend movie date. She also came to give Pixie some lovin.

Sunday, March 27

Eli came to stay for a whole week! We started the week off right by playing in a big puddle.

Monday, March 28

Eli was introduced to Wonder Pets via Netflix. Don't let that face fool you - he loved it. He just gets in a trance when he finds something good on TV.

Tuesday, March 29

I have a big tub of random school stuff for when I start teaching. Well, that big tub fell out of the closet and exploded, leaving it looking like this. Luckily, I'm a big nerd and I really love organizing things. It didn't look like this for long.

Wednesday, March 30

My mom and I took Eli to Wild Animal Safari. It's totally awesome, and I have about a zillion pictures to show you later. Including this one I posted on Twitter the other day. But this was by far the sweetest picture of the day.

Thursday, March 31

You get a video today instead of a picture! This is Eli singing along with Wonder Pets. He actually knew every word to the song, but he was being a little bashful for the camera.

"The phone, the phone is ringing. The phone, we'll be right there. The phone, the phone is ringing. There's an animal in trouble. There's an animal in trouble! There's an animal in trouble somewhere."

Friday, April 1

My brother and his little man working on their t-ball skills.

The Nephew

2011-03-30T05:00:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to let you know that I'll be on a little blogging hiatus for the rest of the week. I'm going to go spend some more time with this little man while he's in town.

Play Time

2011-03-29T05:00:00.000-05:00

There's nothing like throwing rocks into a puddle.

Project 365 - Week 12

2011-03-28T05:00:00.000-05:00

Saturday, March 19

I love getting to use my vintage cake carrier! Angel food cake worked beautifully in here.

Sunday, March 20

Picture time!

Monday, March 21

This is super wonderful. You definitely need some.

Tuesday, March 22

Ah, spring break. This is where I spent the majority of the day.

Wednesday, March 23

A successful flea marketing day! I got all this Pyrex ridiculously cheap.

Thursday, March 24

Poor pitiful little guy.

Friday, March 25

Time for some cake pops!

Meet Max, The Conehead

2011-03-25T05:00:00.000-05:00

Blog Challenge, Day 13 - Show us a photo that makes you laugh.

Well, the situation doesn't make me laugh. But the picture sure does.

Poor Maxi has a bad ulcer on his eye. We're treating it with 3 different types of drops that we have to put in around the clock. The vet said he has about a 50/50 chance of keeping his eye. Poor baby's in a lot of pain, but he's still so well behaved. He's so chilled out all the time.

This is the first time in 10 years that he's had to wear a cone. He really does not like it one bit. But doesn't it make you chuckle, just a little?

The Kardashians

2011-03-24T05:00:00.000-05:00

Blog Challenge, Day 12 - Is there a TV show you're currently addicted to?

It's no secret that I love a good TV show. My DVR gets filled up with a variety of TV shows every week. But there is a show I love to watch, and I'm slightly ashamed to admit it.

I just cannot get enough of Keeping Up With The Kardashians. I originally got hooked on Netflix. They have the first 3 seasons on Instant Watch. I'm the kind of person who refuses to watch TV episodes out of order, so I've been DVRing repeats from the 4th and 5th seasons. I finally got them all recorded, so I've been making my way through the 4th season. Tuesday was my only completely free day during spring break, and I may or may not have watched the entire 5th season in one day.

I know the show is ridiculous. But I just get so sucked into it! They're not exactly a wholesome family, but I actually think that the Kardashians seem like nice people, for the most part. But don't even get me started on how much I dislike Scott!

So, do you ever watch The Kardashians? Is there an embarrassing TV show you'll admit to watching? Surely I'm not the only one.

The Story Of Sterin

2011-03-23T05:00:00.006-05:00

Blog Challenge, Day 11 - Let's see your favorite photograph of your best friend.

My best friend in the world is Stella. Go ahead and get it out of your system. I just know you're dying to yell her name.

"SSSTTEEEEEEEELLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

In my whole life, I have probably taken more pictures of Stella than anyone else. So when I have to choose my favorite photo, that makes it a little challenging. But I have to say, my all time favorite photo of her is this one. It's the photo with the best story behind it. Too bad that story isn't exactly blog appropriate.

So we'll call this one my favorite instead. And the next one is a close second. But it won't mean nearly as much to you if you don't know the story of Sterin.

Stella and I met in Jr. High. I was in 8th grade, and she was one of the new little 7th graders coming into Jr. High percussion. Ok, yes. Let's get it out there for the world to see. We were band nerds. BIG band nerds. But we'll get to that later. My 8th grade year passed, and Stella and I were only acquaintances. A couple girls in a sea of boy percussionists. I went on to high school, and didn't really see her much until my sophomore year when she came in as a freshman.

Stella and I had an instant bond in high school. In middle school, everyone has to play every percussion instrument. But in high school, they put you on the instruments you're good at. We both had a long background of playing the piano, which made us naturals at playing the marimba, xylophone, and vibraphone. (I realize that this picture is ridiculously blurry, but somehow it's the only picture I can find to show you the instruments I'm talking about. In this picture, I'm playing the marimba and Stella is playing the vibraphone.)

To say we were inseparable in high school would be an understatement. Our high school had a phenomenal band program, and we were involved in every part of it you can imagine. Stella and I were together in percussion class, jazz band, early morning marching band practice, weekend marching band competitions, jazz competitions, section leader meetings, winter drumline practice, winter drumline contests, basketball games where the jazz band played, early morning concert band, concert band competitions, solo and ensemble practice, solo and ensemble districts, state competition. We were together All. The. Time. And we loved every minute of it.

Stella and I were chosen to be percussion section leaders, which basically put us in charge together. We were together so much and were so much alike, that the kids in our section started referring to us as one person and calling us Sterin. (Stella + Erin)

The great part of our friendship is that we pushed each other to be better. Since the marimba is exactly like a piano, it came so easily to us. Not to discredit the rest of the people we played with, but Stella and I were on a different level than most of them. We would practice together and push each other to play ridiculously fast. We would constantly beg our teacher to give us harder music, and sometimes he would give in and write some ridiculous stuff for us. Looking back, I'm so thankful we never felt like we needed to compete against each other. I don't even think that thought ever entered our minds. We just loved playing together.

Our proudest moment together was playing a quartet called Metric Lips. It was originally a bluegrass song that got turned into a mallet quartet. We stinking loved it. We got 1s at districts (the highest rating), 1s at state, were asked to perform at Missouri State, and were asked to play at my high school graduation.

Some notes about this video:

1) I've been trying for years to get these videos off my dad's old video camera and onto my computer. For some reason, it just did not want to cooperate. It wouldn't load onto any video editing software, so all 4 recordings ended up on this one youtube video. So don't worry, it's not a 15 minute song. You can just watch the first part.
2) Stella is the one on the far left, and I'm the one right next to her.
3) I'm not sure what's up with the sumo wrestler bun in my hair.
4) Don't be concerned that you can't hear anything for the first 12 seconds.
5) Yes, I have tape wrapped around both of my hands. When you play with 4 mallets instead of just 2, you get some wicked blisters on the palms of your hands and on the insides of your pinkies.
6) In case you're curious, I'm playing a marimba and Stella is playing a xylophone.
7) Stella and I never smiled while we played. Ever. We knew it, but we were just always so concentrated that we just couldn't smile. Because of this, we liked to tell each other "You looked like death." after we got done playing.

I have about a million other stories I could share from high school, but I think you've had enough for one day. Which brings us back to my favorite photos of us. The first picture is at my high school graduation, and the second picture is at my last band competition. They are both pictures that we labeled "The end of Sterin." Stella and I took that first picture right after my high school graduation. I'm pretty sure we were feeling every emotion there is to feel. We were so happy, because one of us had finally made it to the end. We were unbelievably sad, because we knew it would never quite be the same after high school. We were scared that we might drift apart and never be as close as we were at that moment. We had to wipe away some tears right before we took that picture.

But those pictures are even more precious to me now that I'm looking back on them. Because we are closer now than we've ever been. We've been through so much since we took those pictures. Birthday celebrations, college classes that we manged to schedule together, the unexpected death of her big brother, road trips, my college graduation (hers is in May!), movie marathons, job hunting, her wedding to Danny. She is my true best friend, and I love her so much.

Blog Challenge - Day 10

2011-03-22T05:00:00.001-05:00

Share one of your favorite recipes.

This is my absolute favorite cookie recipe. You'll be tempted to eat the whole bowl of cookie dough. But make sure at least a few of them make it to the oven. Because they are pretty dang tasty.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup shortening
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
2 cups oatmeal
6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°. Combine all ingredients in order given. Mix thoroughly. Drop onto cookie sheet. Bake 8 minutes.

Project 365 - Week 11

2011-03-20T22:09:00.002-05:00

Saturday, March 12

Busy day! Loved getting to celebrate this little cutie's first birthday.

Sunday, March 13

Babysitting Andy and Mindy's dogs while they're in Texas. Let me introduce you to Bentley and Hercules.

Monday, March 14

My friend Alicyn was cleaning out her cabinets and found some Spring Blossom dinner plates. She was so sweet to give them to me! She made me happy like you wouldn't believe. I hadn't found any dinner plates yet! Thanks Alicyn!

Tuesday, March 15

I finally finished up all of the family cookbooks I've been working on! So happy and proud to have them complete.

Wednesday, March 16

I got this water bottle in the mail today! Love it to pieces. You should go buy one. It will help give someone clean water for life!

Thursday, March 17

My mom took me to lunch and flea marketing to celebrate my birthday. At one flea market, I turned the corner and my vintage Pyrex loving heart just about stopped. A booth with Pyrex and Corelle from ceiling to floor! Oh, it was wonderful. I can't even describe.

Friday, March 18

The family came over to celebrate mine and my brother's birthdays. I love it when our family gets together! Curt and Amanda, we missed you!

March 18

2011-03-18T05:00:00.001-05:00

Well, according to the blog challenge, I'm suppose to tell you my favorite place to eat today. (Cheddars. Yum.)

But I'm going to do what I want today. Because today is my birthday. I'm 22 today! I thought it would be fun to dig out pictures from birthdays past. My mom and I had fun laughing at my ugly birthday cakes. Feel free to do the same.

Blog Challenge - Day 9

2011-03-17T05:00:00.000-05:00

No matter what it was, show us a photo of the last item you purchased.

Can you believe the last thing I bought was on Monday? Good for me.

On Monday, my friend Leslie and I went out for frozen yogurt and a little shopping. We were pulling into Target and discussing what we should eat for dinner.

Leslie: Popcorn sounds good. I really just want to eat some popcorn.
Erin: Target has popcorn. We could eat while we shopped!
Leslie: Yeah! Let's do that.
Erin: Or... we could go see a movie. That's the best popcorn.

So we literally went to a movie just so we could eat popcorn for dinner. Don't tell me you've never done it.

Blog Challenge - Day 8

2011-03-16T05:00:00.002-05:00

Find a post you wrote a long time ago that you still really like. Repost it!

Later on in this blog challenge, you'll get a good long post about my best friend Stella. But for now, I'll share one of the craziest moments of our friendship. This was originally posted on November 26, 2007. Let me just say, the movie Footloose has never been the same for us. (By the way, I use the word "puke" about 73 times in this post. I didn't write it very tactfully. Just a warning, in case you want to avoid reading it.)

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We Bonded A Little More That Night

On Saturday night, Stella came over to eat pizza and watch movies with me. We were extremely excited because it'd been about a month since we'd gotten to hang out. We watched the first movie and were about halfway into the second movie when disaster stuck.

I had let my dog Max out to the bathroom and noticed that he'd been out there longer than usual. But I decided to just wait until he came back to scratch at the back door. We're watching our second movie, and he scratched to get back in the house. He came in the house and hopped up onto the couch with Stella. I noticed that he was acting kind of funny and then warned Stella "Oh no! He's getting ready to puke."

Max throws up every so often, so this wasn't a huge deal. But then I noticed that this didn't look at all like his normal dog puke. There was no liquid to this - just a ball of brown and red puke. What in the world?

I suggest the idea that maybe he ate something weird. It kind of looks like he ate some sort of little animal. Then as we turn around, we notice Max has just thrown up again in the floor. The mystery is solved. Because there is now a regurgitated BIRD BODY in my living room floor.

Commence the screaming.

Plan A: I call my mom - freaking out. The conversation went something like this. "You'd better come home right now because there's a puked up bird in our house and I am NOT touching it!" Then she found out that part of it was on our fairly-new couch and her reaction was "It is on my couch? I don't care what you say, you are cleaning that up right now!"

Plan B: Let's just say it involved latex gloves, lysol, a trash bag, and two spatulas.

As Stella and I are freaking out about having to clean this up, Max goes at it for a third time. I guess he felt we needed a grand finale. It was the biggest and the smelliest. He must have eaten a pterodactyl.

Stella, being the weirdo that she is, had grabbed my cell phone after the first two pukes so she could "document" this. She is in the process of taking a video of the bird-puke when Max starts to puke for the third time. The video sounds something like this.

Erin: "My mom was freaking out that it's on the couch."

Stella: "Oh my gosh, it smells."

Erin: "Oh no. He's going to puke again!"

Stella: "OH MY GOSH!!!!"

Stella and I strap on our rubber gloves and spray the air with a nice, fresh lysol scent. We then pick out two sturdy spatulas and form our plan. Being the great friend that she is, she volunteered to take charge of the spatula work while I held the trash bag open. There was a lot of screaming going on during the clean up process.

We dispose of the nastiness in the garage and throw the spatulas out into the grass. We then look for some good cleaner to clean up the blood stains that are now on the carpet.

Oh. My. Gosh. It was just too much.

But now we can just look at it as one more good story that evolved out of our friendship. I have to say, if I'm forced to clean up bird-puke with someone, I'm glad it was Stella.

And don't worry, I won't even go into the story of bird-puke number 4 and number 5 that happened later on that night. That boy ate a whole lot of bird.

And I know you're wondering how he got all these birds. Feel free to thank the neighbor's cats.

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Blog Challenge - Day 7

2011-03-15T05:00:00.001-05:00

Your dream wedding. You know you've thought about it.

I've never really sat and daydreamed about my perfect wedding. But I'm a planner by nature, so anytime I see a good idea, I file it away in my mind. While writing this post, I was trying to think of all the little wedding ideas I'd thought of before, and I was actually really surprised by how much I'd thought about it! So here's what my perfect wedding would look like.

1) Any time I think about getting married, I picture it at my church. I've gone to the same church for my whole life. It is definitely my church home, and I honestly can't picture a wedding anywhere else.

2) I really like strapless dresses. Ones that are fitted at the top and poof out at the bottom. I think I'm envisioning a white version of this dress I wore in my brother's wedding.

3) My cousin Curt is a pastor, and I think it would be fun if he did the ceremony. I just love the idea of my family being the one to perform the wedding. He was the pastor for my cousin Lindsay's wedding, and it was so special.

4) A couple years ago, I bought the Pride and Prejudice piano sheet music, and I completely fell in love with it. It's so simple and beautiful. I remember thinking that it would be wonderful wedding music. I've kind of dreamed about having strictly songs from this book at my wedding, instead of the traditional wedding marches. Not only do I love this music, but as a piano player myself, I most definitely want live music at my wedding. My Aunt Cozy is a fabulous pianist, and I've always just assumed she would play for my wedding. Got that, Cozy? I'll let you borrow the book!

5) There is one exception to the Pride and Prejudice music. My all time favorite song is The Way You Look Tonight by Frank Sinatra. I think it would be just wonderful in a wedding. I'm going to go ahead and admit to you that I've already thought about who I want to sing it. I think my friend / our worship leader Matt would do such a great job. (Emily, is that going to weird him out? Maybe we'll keep it a secret for now. Ha!)

6) I love the classic look of black and white, and I think they'd be such pretty wedding colors. With maybe a tiny bit of light pink thrown in. I just love the idea of white roses!

Blog Challenge - Day 6

2011-03-14T05:00:00.000-05:00

Post a photo of your mom.

My mom is...

1) My shopping companion. She's always perfectly willing to sit outside the dressing room while I try on thing after thing.

2) My baking assistant. Whenever I get really busy with cakes, she helps me mix them up and wash dishes without even being asked.

3)My comforter. She sure knows how to talk me down from a hysterical breakdown.

4) My TV watching partner. We love a good TV show. Especially if it's on DVD and we can watch episode after episode without stopping. So far together we've watched all of Friends, Gilmore Girls, Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock, The Office, The Big Bang Theory, and Prison Break.

5) My conscience. She helps me make the right choices, even when I don't want to.

6) My second pair of eyes at flea markets. She's always sure to spot anything I miss. And she doesn't even complain that I always have to go to the right, making a loop around the store, then go down the aisles. She does make fun of me a bit, but she doesn't complain.

I love you Mom!

Project 365 - Week 10

2011-03-12T19:16:00.002-06:00

Saturday, March 5

Brownie covered Oreos. Yes, please. Click over here for the recipe!

Sunday, March 6

Don't these Spring Blossom dishes just make you smile?

Monday, March 7

Picture time!

Tuesday, March 8
Nothing makes me happy like a box full of ribbon.

Wednesday, March 9
Apparently I got a little careless with the brownie batter.

Thursday, March 10

Helping his daddy open his birthday gifts.

Friday, March 11

This picture is a little chaotic, but I love it! In case you aren't sure, that's my dad shooting my nephew with a banana.

Blog Challenge - Day 5

2011-03-11T05:00:00.000-06:00

Oh how time flies. Show us a photo of yourself from two years ago.

For Christmas two years ago, I couldn't think of any good gifts to get for my mom and dad. So I decided to do something a little different and have pictures taken of my brother and I. Since my brother was already married with a family, it was definitely something we wouldn't normally have done. We gave our parents a big photo album with all the pictures in it, then had some framed for them. They loved it! And of course we had a blast having Jen take pictures of us. I would take any excuse to have pictures taken by her! (By the way, my hair was a horrible length in these pictures, but I still like them!)

Blog Challenge - Day 4

2011-03-10T05:00:00.000-06:00

Day 4 - Is there something you don't leave the house without?

That would be my lovely blackberry, of course. Although it's not too fancy, because I don't even have the internet on it. But I still love it.

Even though it is severely scratched up. Poor thing.

Are you wondering what that glowing blue picture is on my background? That is a picture of a teeny tiny Elton John and Billy Joel. Now are you asking why I didn't post about this concert yesterday? Don't worry, I'll make it up to you. Because clearly it would be more exciting to talk about Elton and Billy than to talk about my cell phone.

My favorite Elton John song. It was a great night when I got to hear this live.

And of course, this post would not be complete without Bennie and the Jets.

Do you think Billy Joel is feeling left out? Ok, we'll do one of his songs too.

Blog Challenge - Day 3

2011-03-09T05:00:00.000-06:00

Been to any great concerts? Tell us about it!

Let me preface this by telling you about my friend Whitney. We met each other a few years ago and instantly became friends. She got a nursing job in Tennessee last year, so she now lives 9 hours away from me. I miss her like crazy! This concert is my favorite for two reasons. First, Needtobreathe is now my favorite band. Second, it was one of the first times Whitney and I hung out. Such good memories of this night!

My friend Whitney has always loved Needtobreathe. She has a friend who works in the music business, and she sent Whitney a prerelease of their first cd. So she literally has loved them since the beginning. Pretty soon after Whitney and I met, we found out that Needtobreathe was coming to town. I knew that I liked Needtobreathe, but I hadn't listened to them that much. But I knew Whitney loved them, so I went to the concert with her.

And oh my goodness. That was the night I officially fell in love with Needtobreathe. I literally can't even think of words to write that would express how wonderful they are. We even got their autographs that night! It couldn't have been more perfect. And lucky for you, I took some (illegal) video footage that night.

Some other things you should know.
1. This technically wasn't even their concert. They were opening for someone else. But we came just for them.
2. Since they were the opening band, we were able to squish ourselves extremely close to the stage, and no one really cared.
3. Whitney got to see Needtobreathe a couple months ago in Tennessee. Like the good friend she is, she called me when they played my favorite song (More Time) so I could listen to it through her cell phone.
4. We both have that song as our ringtone.
5. In that video down there - Yes, that is sweat dripping from his hat. It was stinking hot in there. And yes, the drummer is beating on a guitar case. They were singing completely acoustic. And yes, they did mess up and sing the first verse twice. But we still love them.

Blog Challenge - Day 2

2011-03-08T05:00:00.000-06:00

Day 2 - Let's see a photo of something you ate today.

Little Caesars pizza. Yummmm.

Not only is it just $5, but it's so tasty.

I was real classy and ate it on a paper plate. Cause I'm a lady.

I may or may not be eating a leftover piece right now.

Blog Challenge: Day 1

2011-03-07T05:00:00.002-06:00

Day 1 - Intro! Show us a photo of yourself and tell us how your day was.

Ok, so I decided to show you more than "a" photo. These are all fairly recent photos (except the senior picture in the bottom right corner.) Is it just me, or do I look extremely different in each photo? I think I might photograph weird. I'm like a chameleon. Ever changing.

But anyway. Moving on.

Since it's morning, and nothing has happened yet today, I thought I'd share how my day was yesterday. It was a good day! Here are a few things I did.

A) March is my "off" month for teaching Jr. Church, so I actually got to go into the church service today! Normally, I go to Sunday School, then head down to wrangle all the kiddos. But I'm on a break this month, so I got to sit by two of my favorite people (hello, Matt and Em!) and listen to The Word being preached. As I stood up to worship, I just couldn't seem to get my head clear of other things. But then I got to spend an hour listening to our pastor encourage us to protect our thoughts. If my mind is filled with the right things, there's no room for anything else. So wonderful!

B) My parents and I normally eat lunch with my grandpa after church, but he had other plans today. So we totally hit up the Price Cutter deli. Oh. My. Word. Have you ever had their macaroni? It was sent straight from Heaven.

C) A couple of my friends hosted a super cute baby shower yesterday for some friends of ours. I'm pretty sure I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. My friend Tal is perhaps the funniest person in the world. Too bad you can't all meet her.

D) We normally have small groups on Sunday nights, but since most of us were at the baby shower yesterday afternoon, we didn't have it last night. So I came home and watched Good Will Hunting while I worked on editing the family cookbook I'm making. I watched Conviction the other day, and seeing Minnie Driver with a Boston accent made me in the mood to see Minnie Driver with Matt Damon with a Boston accent. You follow that?

I hope you had a great Sunday as well!

Some Handwritten Love

2011-03-06T07:00:00.000-06:00

Project 365 - Week 9

2011-03-05T18:11:00.003-06:00

Saturday, February 26

Ok, I told myself I would stop taking so many pictures of my dog. But look at that little squishy face. I just couldn't help it!

Sunday, February 27

On my way to the Oscar party!

Monday, February 28

Maurices always has the best dresses.

Tuesday, March 1

Self portrait time!

Wednesday, March 2
Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Thursday, March 3
Homemade fudge. Yum.

Friday, March 4

My mom never lets me take pictures of her, so I had to sneak up on her when she was laughing. Love you, mom! Don't get mad at me for posting your picture!

30 Day Blog Challenge - The Rundown

2011-03-04T05:00:00.003-06:00

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On Monday, I will be starting a 30 day blog challenge! I am so excited. I've been looking forward to it for quite a while now. I will still do my project 365 posts on the weekends, but will stick to the challenge during the week. Most of the post topics say "a photo of..." something. But you know I'm not one to just post a picture and call it good. Some might say I'm a fan of being wordy. So consider the photo as starting points to my posts. There are so many of these topics that I am already anxious to write about!

I have seen some 30 day blog challenges floating around lately. So I took one and kind of changed it around a little. Hey, it's my blog. I make the rules around here! Ahem. Anyway, if you'd like to play along (now or down the road) feel free to steal this challenge! I would love to hear your answers.

Day 1 - Intro! Show us a photo of yourself and tell us how your day was.

Day 2 - Let's see a photo of something you ate today.

Day 3 - Been to any great concerts? Tell us about it!

Day 4 - Is there something you don't leave the house without?

Day 5 - Oh how time flies. Show us a photo of yourself from two years ago.

Day 6 - Post a photo of your mom.

Day 7 - Your dream wedding. You know you've thought about it.

Day 8 - Find a post you wrote a long time ago that you still really like. Repost it!

Day 9 - No matter what it was, show us a photo of the last item you purchased.

Day 10 - Let's see a photo of your favorite place to eat.

Day 11 - What's in your makeup bag?

Day 12 - What town do you live in? Show us a photo!

Day 13 - Who is your favorite musical artist? Have you seen them in person?

Day 14 - Is there a TV show you're currently addicted to?

Day 15 - Show us a photo of your family.

Day 16 - Who is your celebrity crush?

Day 17 - Let's see your favorite photograph of your best friend.

Day 18 - What is your guilty pleasure?

Day 19 - Let's see pictures of yourself throughout the years.

Day 20 - What is the meaning behind your blog name?

Day 21 - Show us a photo that makes you laugh.

Day 22 - Share one of your favorite recipes.

Day 23 - Show us a photo of something that means a lot to you.

Day 24 - Share 15 facts about yourself.

Day 25 - What's in your purse?

Day 26 - Show us a photo of somewhere you've been.

Day 27 - Let's see a picture of you last year compared to a picture from now. What's changed?

Day 28 - What is your favorite movie?

Day 29 - Tell us something you could never get tired of doing.

Day 30 - Show us a photograph of yourself today. Plus 5 things you were dying to blog about from the past 30 days, but of course you couldn't, because you were doing this instead!

13 Memories From My Childhood

2011-03-03T05:00:00.002-06:00

1. My brother always used to talk me into playing "crash dummies" on our bikes. Sounds safe, I know. The game basically consisted of us riding around in circles in the driveway, and him ramming into my back tire, causing me to fall down off my bike. Yet for some reason, I always agreed to play the next time. Thanks a lot, Andy.

2. I loved playing with my Littlest Pet Shop animals and Barbies. Clearly you can see that sometimes I even dressed up the animals in Barbie clothes. I would also like to point out how many Barbies I have crammed into that Barbie Jeep. I don't think they were all wearing their seat belts.

3. I have a lot of fond memories playing video games with my brother. We would spend endless hours playing Mario Kart on our N64. I'm pretty sure we can still whoop some butt at that game. We also played Golden Eye a lot, and he would beat me every. single. time. Now that they have it for Wii, we decided to rematch. He beat me about 18 times in a row, and then it finally happened. I was winning! Like, seriously no-cheating kind of winning. We had about 1 minute of play left, and I was totally going to win. I was up like 6 kills. And then his stinking bulldog barreled through the living room and knocked the Wii over, unplugging it and killing our game. I'm pretty certain I woke the whole house up with my cries of indignation. But no matter what he says, I count that as a victory!

4. I had a Mickey Mouse tent I loved to play in. I always begged to sleep in the tent, but it was all plastic and my mom didn't want me to accidentally suffocate. I always got so mad that my mom wouldn't let me sleep in it. I still like to tease her about it!

5. I got Maximus for my 12th birthday. Best birthday present ever! I begged and begged for a puppy, and honestly didn't think I was getting one. What a great surprise!

6. We spent a lot of time at Silver Dollar City. It's an 1800s themed amusement park. Which sounds kind of weird, but it's pretty amazing there. We always had season passes when I was a kid. Whenever I go now, it feels like I've stepped back into my childhood! This picture is at Silver Dollar City, when my brother and I took a group of friends there one time. I picked this picture in particular because I knew Hannah would be so proud to see it. Ha! Sorry friend, I couldn't help myself.

7. The fire hydrant on our street was in our front yard. Every so often, they would come to flush it out. Before they started, they would always let us know they were starting so we could go play in it. Is that weird? It seems like a normal part of my childhood.

8. I have this habit where I always have to have a pillow to hug when I go to sleep. I seriously don't know what to do with my arms without a pillow! It no longer matters what pillow it is, but boy did it use to! My Grandma Bessie made me a little pillow when I was about 3 years old. And up until I was in junior high, I just had to sleep with that pillow. I'm in 6th grade in that picture, and I've still got the pillow. You can tell it's seen better days.

9. When I was little, my Grandma Wanda used to tickle me and poke around on my tummy and "feel" what I ate for lunch that day. She would say things like "I think I feel some chicken nuggets in there." I was always so amazed that she guessed right every time! It never even occurred to me that she might have talked to my mom earlier that day.

10. I told you that my grandparents used to breed beagles. I remember there always being cute little beagle puppies at their house. My love for dogs sure started young. I loved those little puppies! And I think I named each and every one of them in every litter.

11. My cousins lived up the street from me, so I remember countless times of running up and down our street to go play with them. Looking back, it amazes me how lucky I was to have such a close family. I know they are my cousins, but Lindsay and Curt were basically part of my immediate family. It was like having an extra brother and sister.

12. When I was 6, I had to get stitches right between my eyes. We were at a public swimming pool, and I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I was trying to jump into the pool backwards. I didn't jump out far enough, and I smacked my head right against the concrete. Ouch! Luckily, I happened to get my stitches done by a plastic surgeon, so my scar isn't too noticeable. But it's definitely still there!

13. I had (well, I still have) a great older brother, who played with me a lot. Even though I was probably super annoying. I'm not really sure what's happening in this picture, but it's my favorite picture of Andy and I.

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I'm going to honest with you and tell you that I basically stole this post from a Thursday 13 I wrote three years ago. (I did change a few of the items.) I was being super sneaky/lazy, and I went in to edit it and set it to publish on a new date. I was going through and deleting the few comments I had, so it would look like a new post, but there was one I just couldn't delete. You know that I loved my Grandma Wanda dearly, and she passed away last year. My sweet Grandma Wanda didn't really understand the whole computer thing, but she would faithfully get on her computer to read my blog. She never left comments, but I always knew she was reading. Well I had forgotten that for this particular post, she had my mom help her leave a comment. I clicked onto the comments and read these sweet words from her, making me instantly burst into tears.

"i loved time with you when we played so many games with you also when you stayed the night. still love you dearly. grandma"

The Answers

2011-03-02T05:00:00.000-06:00

Thanks for asking me such fun questions! Here are the answers.

What got you into the cake making business?

I'd say it was mostly curiosity. I would always see the Wilton Cake Decorating Class posters hanging at Hobby Lobby and Michaels, and I thought it always sounded fun. I tried several times to get various friends to take the classes with me, and it never worked out. So I finally just decided to take them by myself. I didn't start out thinking anyone would actually ever pay me to make a cake. I don't even really remember thinking I would like to do it as a hobby. I was always just intrigued by those class posters. It looked like fun. So I signed up!

My first cake from that first decorating class.

Tell us 7 random facts!

1. I'm not good at letting my nails grow out to be very long.

2. My favorite translation of The Bible to read is New Living Translation.

3. I enjoy the Wii more for Netflix than I do for games.

4. I like everything to be alphabetized.

5. I have a written out, ongoing list of movies I want to purchase. Of course it's in alphabetical order.

6. I use lotion on my hands all the time. I can't stand to wash my hands and then not put lotion on.

7. I've been meaning to change out some of the records on my wall. I've had a stack of new records sitting in my room for months now.

What animal are you most afraid of?

I have an irrational fear of sharks. I'm not really sure why. I don't like to go into the ocean. Or into any sort of foggy water. (lakes, ponds, etc.) You can't see what's in there!

What are your favorites?

movie - Singin' in the Rain (I even have it autographed by Debbie Reynolds!)

book - Pride and Prejudice

food - potatoes

color - purple

dessert - cheesecake

actor - Paul Newman vs. Robert Redford (it's impossible to decide!)

actress - Audrey Hepburn

band - Needtobreathe

recording artist - Frank Sinatra

clothing store - Maurices

pastime - flea marketing / thrifting

drink - Diet Dr. Pepper

restaurant - Cheddars

Have you ever had a behind the scenes, major cake disaster?

Yes! Thankfully only once though. I was making a caterpillar cake for a friend's daughter's 1st birthday party. (See picture below.) I knew the body wouldn't support much weight, so instead of the head being made out of cake, I made it out of a styrofoam ball (not edible of course.) It was then attached down through the cake with a dowel rod. I was planning to drive the cake over to their house the night before the party, so it would be all ready for the next day. I don't know what I was thinking, but I put the head on and finished the cake before I drove over there. When I got there, the head had fallen off and the first ball of the body was kind of smashed and falling apart. Ah! It was a good thing these were good friends of mine, or I wouldn't have been able to face them. I was able to patch up the body, and I left the head sitting on top of a vase overnight. Right before the party, I stuck the head back on and fixed the icing smudges. So in the end, I guess it all turned out ok. But I was definitely freaking out! I still tell them that their cake was my major cake disaster, and they always feign innocence and act like it wasn't that big of a deal. But it totally was!

What would you do if you knew it was your last day on Earth?

I think I'd try to spend it with all of my family and close friends and make them have a giant movie marathon with me. I guess I could try to go do adventurous things, but the first option sounds much better to me. A great day of family relaxation!

You said you've gone through a couple CHI's. Curious as to why considering how pricey they are and their quality is better than most.

Well, when I say a couple, I literally do mean two. And I guess I've only "gone through" one, since I still am using my second one. I had a silver CHI that I used for quite a while, but it started short circuiting. I had to hold the cord in exactly the right place for it to stay on. I checked with the company about the warranty, but they told me since it was a "special edition" CHI it didn't have a very long warranty. I got it repaired at a local shop, but it eventually stopped being usable. So I got a new one on sale the day after Thanksgiving one year. I do love my CHI, but was super frustrated when I found out the first one had an extremely short warranty. So I definitely bought a normal black one the next time!

What is your favorite cake that you have made so far?

My favorite cake I've made is the jungle cake I made for my nephew's first birthday party. Since this was the first birthday of the first little kid born into our immediate family, it was definitely a big deal. My sister-in-law and I planned out this cake for a long time. It was basically the first big and intricate cake I made, and I worked on it for days! I was really pleased with how it turned out.

What type of blogs/websites inspire you? What catches your eye?

I think that humor is what catches my eye the most. My favorite blog is Melanie's Big Mama. I can't get enough of her writing style. Everything she writes is so amusing and comical. Not to say that a blog has to be funny all the time, but I love it how she shows the humor in everyday situations. I find her writing style to be very inspiring, and I sometimes catch myself hoping I sound a little bit like her. That blog is definitely a happy place for me. I also love a good crafty lady, and the style and wit of these two ladies (Jami and Danielle) never disappoint.

Homemade Girl Scout Cookies: Samoas

2011-03-01T05:00:00.001-06:00

Samoas (aka: Caramel Delights) are definitely one of the best Girl Scout cookies. They're the perfect combination of shortbread, caramel, coconut, and chocolate. So yummy! This homemade version is one of my very favorite recipes. They take a sweet forever to make, but it's totally worth it. These cookies even helped me win our church's cooking competition last week!

{The homemade compared to the original.}

Homemade Girl Scout Cookies: Samoas

Ingredients:

Cookies:
1 cup butter, soft
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp milk

Topping:
4 cups shredded coconut (sweet or unsweet)
16 1/2 oz Werthers chewy caramels (3 bags. Must use a good quality caramel.)
1/4 tsp salt
4 Tbsp milk

Coating:
Wilton light cocoa candy melts

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Mix in flour, baking powder, and salt at a low speed, followed by the vanilla and milk. The dough should come together in a soft, not-too-sticky ball. (Add in a bit of extra flour if your dough is very sticky.) Roll the dough (in 2-3 batches) out between pieces of wax paper to about 1/4 inch. Use a 1 1/2 inch cookie cutter to make rounds. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes, until bottoms are lightly browned and cookies are set. Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack.
For topping, heat oven to 300°. Spread coconut evenly onto baking sheet. Toast for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. Cool on baking sheet, stirring occasionally. Set aside. Unwrap the caramels and place in large bowl with milk and salt. Heat for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally. When smooth, fold in toasted coconut. Using a spatula, spread topping on cooled cookies, using 2-3 tsp per cookie. While topping sets up, heat chocolate. Dip base of each cookie into chocolate and place on wax paper. Drizzle finished cookies with chocolate and let harden.

(This is a slightly altered version of this recipe.)

Clearly, Missouri Is Not Fit For The Oscars

2011-02-28T05:00:00.002-06:00

{This is a post about The Oscars that isn't going to mention a single movie or actor.}

We've been looking forward to The Oscars for quite some time. Usually my mom, cousin Lindsay, and I head over to my Aunt Cozy's house to have our own little Oscar party. But this year, my aunt scored tickets for the fancy Oscar party they have downtown every year. Springfield is one of only 51 cities to have an official, sanctioned Oscar viewing party, so we felt kind of special. My aunt and I are huge movie buffs, so we've been extra excited about this. Plus, who doesn't love to get all dressed up once in a while?

I was warned by friends that I needed to document my clothes in great detail. And since my readership (all 6 of you) is about 100% female, I didn't think you'd mind.

{Lindsay and I. Look at her cute baby bump!}

{I wanted to do something slightly different with my hair, and I thought this was pretty cute. Too bad I soon realized that in pictures, it kind of looks like I have no hair. Oh well, I still liked it.}

{Lindsay and Cozy}

{The whole gang.}

Since this was also a fundraiser to support a local charity, they had a silent auction throughout the evening. There was a long list of autographed items I really wish I could have bid on. Including an autographed picture of The Rat Pack with a starting bid of half my car. I was also extremely lusting after that autographed Robert Redford poster. Oh, how I love him.

We knew this event was going to be a fundraiser, but we soon discovered instead of mainly being an Oscar viewing party, it was much more of an "I have a lot of money, so I'm going to show up at this fancy fundraiser" type of a thing. Before The Oscars started, they had free appetizers and drinks out in the foyer. Because of that, throughout the entire evening, this is what the auditorium looked like. Completely empty.

And this is the mob of people still out by the bar in the lobby. Clearly these people were much bigger fans of alcohol than of movies.

Since the majority of people never actually came into the auditorium to watch The Oscars, the DJ just kept right on going in the lobby. So through the entire show, there was loud techno music in the background. Then a little while later, The Oscars kept getting interrupted for tornado warnings. Clearly, it was a classy evening. This picture shows you what our party turned into. But since we're used to living in tornado ally, we just wanted the weather man to get off the screen so we could get back to The Oscars.

We still definitely had a great time, but we eventually gave up on the party. This is how I finished out The Oscars. In my pajamas, with my pup, and a large Diet Dr. Pepper. Now that's the way to party.

So what have we learned today? Missouri is clearly not fit for The Oscars. Between all the drunk people, the complete lack of interest in movies, and the tornadoes... it just doesn't work.

Project 365 - Week 8

2011-02-26T21:18:00.004-06:00

Saturday, February 19

My mom and grandma always had a mug full of bacon grease. They would keep it in the freezer and pull it out when they made green beans or gravy. Well, I decided to kick my mug up a notch, and paid a visit to Firehouse Pottery.

Sunday, February 20

Sweet little Clara, showing off her full belly.

Monday, February 21

My lovely friend Karen gave me this little surprise. She knows me too well!

Tuesday, February 22
Having a Skype party with my brother and nephew. Eli is proudly showing off Buzz Lightyear.

Wednesday, February 23
Found a new chocolate chip muffin recipe. So yummy!

Thursday, February 24
When all else fails, take a picture of the pooch.
(And yes, people. Those are his toenails - not fangs. Ha!)

Friday, February 25
My brother made me this fabulous camera strap. Yes, my brother. He's even more crafty than I am.

Chocolate Truffle Recipe

2011-02-25T05:00:00.001-06:00

Clearly it's no secret that I love to bake. Even when I was young, I was in the kitchen all the time. My mom often laughs at a chocolate truffle recipe I used to have. I checked out a cooking video from the library one time, and it taught you how to make these chocolate truffles. I absolutely loved them, and I would beg to make them all. the. time.

A few years ago, my mom finally admitted to me that she hated that chocolate truffle recipe. I always made a huge chocolate mess, and they usually ended up being chocolate blobs instead of "truffles." But she let me make them anyway. I like to tease her that she was such a horrible mother for not liking my lovely creations. But even though she didn't like them, she still always let me make them. If she wasn't the great mother that always let me make a cooking mess, I'm quite certain I never would have ended up making anything like this.

Last week, I stumbled across that old truffle recipe. The paper was severely chocolate stained, and it made me so happy. After finding that recipe, I was dying to make them again! I needed to see if they were as wonderful as I remembered. And guess what. They were! They tasted like my childhood. My mom even said she likes them now. Now that they're not blobs or getting chocolate all over her kitchen. (Although, they do get your hands severely chocolatey while you're rolling them into balls.)

It's a really simple recipe. You know that anything made solely of cream cheese, powdered sugar, and cocoa is going to be wonderful.

Chocolate Truffles

8 oz cream cheese, soft
2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup cocoa powder

Beat together cream cheese and powdered sugar. Mix in cocoa powder until well blended. Chill overnight (or for several hours). Roll into balls, and roll in chocolate sprinkles. Keep refrigerated. (If you want your truffles to be more sophisticated, I suppose you could roll them in something else besides sprinkles. But I definitely prefer the sprinkles.)

Thursday 13: Super Random Edition

2011-02-24T05:00:00.002-06:00

1. I've admitted to you already that I really like mix cds. So, I was thinking of having a mix cd exchange. Everyone would get paired up with someone, and you mail each other a cd you made with your favorite songs on it. I really like bloggy exchanges, and I thought this could be a fun way to keep it cheap and get some great new music. But I'm kind of afraid I'll be a big loser and no one will want to do it, so I also thought about making a fun mix cd and having a giveaway where every one wins. AKA: mailing it out to those who wanted it. So what do you think? Do either of those sound fun to you?

2. You know that cute picture of Max I took for Project 365 last week? I thought you might want to see some of the outtakes. Every time he moved, the heart would fall all over the place.

3. I was talking to my friend Courtney, who is also a teacher, about sick days and personal days. And then this sentence came out of her mouth. "Well, you never know. You could meet a guy this summer and end up needing maternity leave the next school year." Thank you Courtney, for scaring the life out of me. Ha!

Courtney and her super cute little family.

4. I was at Bed Bath & Beyond buying some lovely new cookie sheets, and I somehow managed to slice my finger open on the lip of the cookie sheet. How does that even happen?

5. I'm not sure exactly why, but for some reason I really love tragic movies. (The Way We Were, Moulin Rouge, Titanic, From The Terrace, anything by Nicholas Sparks or Tennessee Williams.) I saw this movie recently and just can't get over how much I love it. It's so beautiful and heartbreaking. A friend of mine (who shares my love of tragic movies) said that the book was good also, so of course I had to get my hands on it.

6. There is a 30 day blog challenge that I think I may do soon. It gives you a specific thing to write about for each of the 30 days. The only thing I don't like about it is that I wouldn't be able to write about any current happenings while I do it. So I may have to break the rules and throw in a random list post like this once in a while.

7. I have a deep love of nail polish. When I was younger, I always had a rainbow collection of nail polish. My older cousin Lindsay would always come over to paint her toenails anytime she had a date or somewhere to go. I remember one time, she spoke some truth into my life when told me, "Any time you are ever going to wear sandals, you have to have your toe nails painted." I'm pretty sure she doesn't even remember telling me that. But apparently it was a life changing moment for me, because you will not ever find me without polish on my toenails.

8. I've always known that I like to make lists. I guess I'm just that type of person. But I was a little surprised at how many lists I make. Because I gathered them all up from around my computer desk, and this is what I found. And I even threw a few lists away a couple days ago. (There's even one in there that lists what things I wanted to write about in this post. Oh boy.)

9. I really love to read. I can start reading a book and block out the rest of the world. Side note - In high school, I played piano in jazz band. We played at all of the home basketball games, and one time I read a book through the entire basketball championships. What can I say? The book was much more interesting to me than the game. But anyway, back to the point. I love to read. But I mainly only read fiction books. I just cannot get into nonfiction books. Unless it's a memoir or something, I'm not really interested. I'm not sure why that is, though. I think the fact that it's not a "story" just loses me. Is anyone else like this? I find it very frustrating.

10. I have been loving participating in the Siesta Scripture Memory Team. I know it has basically just started, but it hasn't been nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I just needed to make the decision to do it! We have done 4 verses so far, and it's already made a huge difference in my life (and in my attitude.) I chose verses that I specifically knew I needed to hear over and over again. In case you're curious, my verses so far are Philippians 4:6, Philippians 4:13, Psalm 56:3, and Jeremiah 29:11.

11. Most people feel very strongly about Justin Beiber. They either really love him, or they really hate him. I've never really listened to any of his music, so I actually don't have much of an opinion of him. I mean, I am a little proned to disliking teen idols, but who isn't? All this to say, my friend Stella and I are going to see Never Say Never on Friday. I am not ashamed. Ok, maybe I am a little ashamed. I secretly wanted to see it, so I hung my head and texted Stella:

Erin: "I kind of want to see the Justin Beiber movie. You should go with me sometime. :)"

Stella: "No way!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Because I do too!!!"

I should of known I had nothing to worry about.

12. I made this cake last night. I'm kind of smitten with these ice cream cone trees.

13. Somehow, I had never heard of Mumford & Sons until I saw them on The Grammys. And then I bought this song on iTunes and listened to it about 17 times in a row. In love.

***********************************************************************************

Don't forget to hop over to my Q&A post and ask me a question if you haven't yet!

Calling All Crafties

2011-02-23T05:00:00.000-06:00

For the most part when I'm at thrift stores, I try not to buy stuff unless I have a specific plan to use it. But this time, I couldn't help myself. Just look at this wonderfulness.

Three matching, vintage suitcases - in great condition. (And in fabulous colors. Hello, blue and orange!) I love love love them! But I am in need of your crafty assistance. Because I don't know what I should do with them! I just knew I really wanted to own them.

So what do you think? Any suggestions?

I suppose if I can't think of anything, I can always convert them into cat beds.

The Healing Process

2011-02-22T05:00:00.000-06:00

Most of you have heard me mention from time to time about my back problems, but I've never really written in detail about it. Not because I'm being private about it. Just because the majority of those problems happened during the blogging hiatus I took. So in the spirit of capturing memories through blogging, I've decided to tell my story. Now, just a warning. This is going to be long. And probably really boring. And hopefully I don't sound too complain-ey. I don't really expect most people to actually read this, but I wanted to get it all down in writing just so I would always remember the details of it.

In June of 2009, I was teaching preschool one day, when I started having sudden and intense pain in my right calf. Strangely enough, it only hurt when I was sitting down. Standing or laying, I was fine. But I absolutely could not stand to sit down. My dad came and picked me up from work, and I laid in the seat all the way home. My back had started hurting about a month before, and now since I was having this sudden pain in my leg, we thought a trip to the doctor was definitely necessary.

I went to my regular doctor, a chiropractor, and eventually was sent to a specialist. After finally getting an MRI, I was told that I had a ruptured disc. In between each section of your spine, you have discs that basically cushion the bone. The picture below shows you what is happening during a ruptured (or herniated) disc. The disc basically bursts, lessening the space between the bone and projecting liquid outward. It makes for a very painful back situation. With mine, the disc had ruptured so far out, that it was not only causing back pain, but was also putting pressure on my sciatic nerve. This nerve goes down from your back, into your legs, and was the reason for the pain in my leg. (Normally a ruptured disc happens when you pick up something really heavy, or bend down the wrong way. But I never knew what caused mine to rupture.)

During the summer, I quit my job at the preschool, had many doctor visits, and tried out different kinds of medication for the pain. I'm not exactly sure of the time frame of it all, but I know those first doctor visits took a long time to get scheduled. That pain in my leg subsided in about a week, and I was left with just the back pain. Then a little while later, the intense leg pain was back. But this time, it was opposite. It hurt so bad to stand or lay, and I could only find relief while sitting. I think this period was the worst of anything I went through. Not only was the pain terrible, but I had to stay sitting upright for 5 days. My legs and feet were so swollen from staying upright, and I even had to sleep sitting up in a chair. It was horrible. But eventually the pain went down, and I was able to lay again. A couple weeks after that, the nerve pain came back one more time, and again I couldn't sit for about a week, then it eventually subsided again.

The doctor said the leg pain was due to the sciatic nerve being pushed on, and he put me on some sort of nerve pain medicine. He told me I needed to let it build up gradually before I started taking full doses. But even letting it gradually build up, it threw my hormones all out of whack. It made me super emotional, moody, and I had hot flashes a lot. But after it finally got in my system, it wasn't too bad, and it did help a little.

After seeing this specialist, I was scheduled to have an epidural. This kind of epidural is not exactly like the kind when you have a baby. It's the same kind of process, but it doesn't make you numb. It's more of a steroid shot directly into the spine. The point of this is to make the inflammation go down and hopefully take the pressure off of the nerve. You are only allowed to have three epidurals (each two weeks apart) before they make you wait 6 months to have more. I ended up needing all three epidurals, and thankfully that did make some of the inflammation go down. Praise the Lord, I never had that super intense leg pain after that.

Although the epidurals helped with the intense pain, I still had a lot of nerve pain in my leg. (Not to mention the back pain I was still having.) The nerve damage had caused my right leg to be weak, and I walked with a limp. Instead of the sharp pain, it ached all the time, and my leg was numb from the knee down. About this time, the summer ended and I started another semester of college. The Lord has perfect timing, because my first week of classes was basically the first time I was up and able to move around.

Since I was still having problems, the doctor decided I needed to try something else. I was so glad to be moving on to a new specialist because I thought this doctor was mean. He had horrible bed side manners, and he made me feel even worse about everything. Between the pain and the way he made me feel, I think I just sat and cried through most of my doctor appointments with him. He was a great doctor, the best one I could have had for the epidurals, but I was so pleased to move on from him. He sent me to another specialist, and he said before we talked surgery, I should try spinal decompression.

Spinal decompression is basically where they slowly stretch out the spine, in hopes of allowing the disc to move back into place between the vertebrates. From the get go, the doctor told me that my ruptured disc was so large, it was unlikely that this would be successful, but we should try it before we decided on surgery. So I went to the physical therapist every single weekday morning for a month, to have my spine stretched out. Ok, that sounds crazy. But it happens so extremely slowly, that you honestly can't feel anything happening. This was in October, and I had a full load of classes at the time. I had to be at the physical therapist's for an hour and a half each morning, which definitely interfered with my classes. But thankfully, I had an amazing professor that let me miss half of our 3 hour class every day. While I was doing spinal decompression, I had to wear a back brace at all times (except in the shower and at night). So awesome. Lucky for me, it was fall, so I could usually hide it under a jacket. And, something good did come from it. For Halloween that year, I was Rocky and I fashioned my back brace into a heavyweight champion belt. Best costume ever.

(This is the only picture I could find where you can see the back brace.)

The spinal decompression came and went, and nothing was getting better. In fact, I was one of the rare cases where the spinal decompression actually aggravated my back and made it get slightly worse. So I was sent to a surgeon to discuss options. He said that especially in a young person (all the docs couldn't get over how young I was - 20 at the time), a ruptured disc would heal on its own. The only problem is, you have no idea if it's going to take 2 months or 6 years. Surgery wouldn't completely solve the problem, but it should speed up the healing process. After having another MRI to see that the ruptured disc had not gotten any smaller in the past 6 months, the doctor said he would definitely be willing to do the surgery, but it was my choice. After much debating and consideration, I finally decided to have back surgery.

The funny thing about the surgery is, that it actually wouldn't help my back pain much. It would mainly help my nerve/leg problem (which had started to slightly affect my left leg also). During surgery, the doctor would remove a portion of the ruptured disc, which would remove the pressure from my sciatic nerve. Since the nerve had been under that pressure for so long, the nerve would be bruised for a while, and it might take up to three months for the aching and numbness in my leg to go away. It wouldn't be an instant fix, but it would definitely speed up the healing process.

Since I was obviously still in college, we scheduled the surgery for Christmas break. I convinced my professors to let me take my finals a week early so I would have a full four weeks for recovery, and I had surgery on December 9, 2009. The surgery went extremely well, and I only spent one night in the hospital. The only hiccup was that the doctors in the hospital made me abruptly stop taking that nerve pain medicine, instead of weaning off it like I was suppose to. So for a few days after surgery, I went through the hormonal craziness again. Moods. Hot flashes. No good. But it didn't last too long, and I was out of the house by Christmas. Although, clearly from this picture, it wasn't my finest holiday. I'm the ghostly, bloated one one the end, wearing sweat pants to Christmas dinner. (I'd also like to add that I've lost 20 pounds since this picture was taken, thank you very much.)

By the time classes started in January, I was up and moving around. But it was definitely rough. I am so extremely thankful for all the people that helped me get through that semester. Most of the professors I had that semester, I had for previous semesters also, so they knew my situation and were completely willing for me to get up and walk around every 15 or 20 minutes when I started getting stiff. And I had two of the sweetest friends who carried my backpack, toted around my books, and would bend down and pick things up for me when I dropped them. Of course, this was all in exchange for the fact that I got a handicap parking tag that semester, and would let them ride with me so we could park only a few steps away from our classes. Ha!

All in all, I am very glad I ended up deciding to have surgery. I knew it wouldn't be a complete fix, and it hasn't been. But it sure did speed things up. It's been over a year since I had surgery, and I am still not completely better. I still do my physical therapy exercises every night, and I walk to make my back muscles stronger. I'm paranoid to do any bending, lifting, or twisting. (Those were the big no-nos from my doctors. No BLT!) My legs still ache once in a while, my back hurts when I sit too long, I am only comfortable sitting up completely straight, and I still can't feel my toes. (On my right foot, my toes, bottom of foot, and heal are all numb still.) But honestly? I hardly even notice those things any more. The Lord has healed me, and I am so grateful. But I must admit, it's hard for me not to worry about it happening again. It's definitely been a lesson in trusting The Lord. A lesson which I am definitely still learning. I try to always look for the growth that occurred during these moments of pain, and I am thankful that He loves me so. The pain is still a process that I'm going through, and sometimes it's really hard not to worry, but I know He loves me completely, and I belong to Him. What more could I ask for?

Question & Answer

2011-02-21T05:00:00.001-06:00

Don't you just love the blog world? It's so fun to get to know people that you wouldn't ordinarily meet. There are so many bloggy friends that I feel like I know so well. I wanted to give you the chance to get to know me better, and what better way to do that than to have a Q&A? So if you've got a question for me, ask away. Anything you want.

They can be silly questions: Are you Team Edward or Team Jacob?

Edward in the books, Jacob in the movies. Is that allowed?

They can be nosey questions: Are you dating anyone?

The answer to that would be a big ole nope.

They can be serious questions: What are you most thankful for?

My Saviour Jesus Christ. And the fact that He loves me unconditionally.

They can be super random questions: What is your hair care essential?

Couldn't live without my Chi. I've gone through a couple of them already.

So go ahead, ask me as many things as you like!

Project 365 - Week 7

2011-02-19T10:17:00.005-06:00

Saturday, February 12

Making Valentine's treats while babysitting two of my favorite kiddos.

Sunday, February 13

Cutting out heart shaped pepperoni for the Valentine's pizza I took to small groups.

Monday, February 14

Happy Valentine's Day!

Tuesday, February 15
I babysat this little miss all week while her babysitter was out of town. I can't believe how big she's gotten! Remember when she was first born and I was her nanny?

Wednesday, February 16
It was on sale. I'm pretty sure that makes it ok to spend that much money.

Thursday, February 17
It was really warm outside, so we headed to the zoo. What a little princess!

Friday, February 18
Made a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake for some friends' little mister.

For all you other Project 365 / Project Life people, are you printing out your pictures, or just leaving it for the blog? I decided to put mine in an album. Just curious about what you were doing!

P365 Album

2011-02-18T05:00:00.000-06:00

I am very much a person that likes to save things for sentimental reasons. I have a box with all my movie stubs in it. I have another box full of cards from sweet friends. I even have a lot of the notes my friends and I passed back and forth in Jr. High. I write all of my recipes out by hand - partly because I like the homey way they look, and partly because when my grandkids look at them someday, I want them to see it in my handwriting.

I love the fact that blogging captures so many memories. But lately I've decided that I want a concrete, tangible way to capture my life at this stage. I do really like to scrapbook, but it gets overwhelming when I think of all the things I'm leaving out. It also takes lots and lots of time (because I get really anal about it), so I honestly haven't scrapbooked in a long time.

So I've decided to print out all of my Project 365 pictures and put them in an album. Nothing fancy. Just a boring old photo album with a short, handwritten caption for each picture. If I'm going to take a picture a day for my blog, I might as well print them out!

At first, I got a little panicky, because my P365 pictures are really random. And not many of them have people in them. But then I decided that was ok. Because someday, I bet I'll like to look back and see what my bedroom looked like. Or what types of things I liked to buy at flea markets. (But I've also made a little deal with myself to try to take more people pictures.)

The problem is, I couldn't find any photo albums that held more than 300 pictures and had a place to write captions. So I improvised. I just got a big, normal photo album that holds 600 pictures. The kind that line the bottom of my parent's entertainment center and hold all of my childhood pictures.

(I couldn't let it be completely boring. I had to add just a little on the inside cover.)

And instead of putting a picture in every slot, I put a piece of paper in the middle slot of each page to write captions. Not the greatest thing I've ever seen, but it works!

I'm already imagining having one of these albums for each year. Mushing sentimental memories, here we come!

Thursday 13: Spring Blossom Edition

2011-02-17T05:00:00.002-06:00

I absolutely adore vintage Pyrex dishes. There's a line of dishes from the early 70s called Spring Blossom, and it is definitely my favorite. Someday, I hope to have an entire set of the Spring Blossom dishes. But for now, I just pick up a piece at a time. They're not exactly collectibles, but they're not extremely common either. Most of the time I'll just find one dish in the whole flea market, and sometimes I don't find any. But that's perfectly fine with me, because if I found them very often, I'd never be able to afford buying them.

The great thing about this pattern is that it also has a matching set of Corelle dishes. So while most of the Pyrex are just serving and preparation dishes, Corelle has a matching dinner set. I love them all!

A lot of people call this pattern Crazy Daisy as well as Spring Blossom, but I've done my research and have found out that none of the dishes were originally sold as Crazy Daisy. Now that they are vintage, they're gotten stuck with this name as well. But when they were sold, there was no such thing as "Crazy Daisy" Pyrex dishes. So even though people call some of them Crazy Daisy, they are all actually Spring Blossom. Not that you care. But I do.

And even though I'm "collecting" them, doesn't mean I will never use them. I already use these dishes all the time! What fun would it be to just have them sitting around?

1. The one that started it all. (It has a lid, but it somehow got left out of the picture.) I got this baking dish at a garage sale, where the lady was super annoyed that I tried to barter with her when I asked if she'd take $5 instead of $7. But I left with this beauty and got it for $6, so whatev.

2. Some of the items overlap, being made by both Corelle and Pyrex. Here are the Corelle teacups. I have three.

3. And I also have three of the Pyrex tea cups. I don't actually drink tea, but I love to eat ice cream out of these. They're the perfect size for a little ice cream snack. Does that make me seem like a hillbilly?

4. I have two of these bowls. One was my mom's, and the other I found at a flea market.

5. My friend Karen spotted this cream and sugar set at a flea market for me. Super duper cute!

6. I'm not sure that I actually have any use for this tiny little platter, but it was just a couple dollars, and I couldn't pass it up! I think it's actually the base for a gravy boat or maybe a creamer pitcher.

7. You already know how excited I was when I found this serving set.

8. A small mixing bowl. I love that most of the dishes are dark green, while just a few are lime green.

9. Love the butter dish. So simple and pretty.

10. A set of mixing bowls. It was a great day when I found these tucked away in the corner of a flea market.

11. Some of the Spring Blossom dishes produced in later years had a slightly different pattern. The flowers are bigger, and the green is a slightly different color. I don't like these quite as well, but still very cute.

12. Don't these salt and pepper shakers just melt your heart? I am so in love.

13. And I don't technically own this last one. My grandpa has a set of the matching dinner plates, and he said I could have them someday. I'm pretty sure he thought I was more than a little strange for taking his plates out of the cabinet and taking pictures of them. Oh well.

Most of the people I talk to have at least a few of these dishes, or they tell me that their mom or grandma had them. So what about you? Do you have any of these lovelies tucked away at your house?

Turning Worry Into Praise

2011-02-16T05:00:00.003-06:00

I think that worry is a normal part of everyone's life. It's something that shouldn't be there, but we all find that it is. For so much of my life, this worry has consumed time that should have been spent on other, more important things.

I worry about my back and what I would do if my disk ruptured again. I worry about meeting the right person and falling in love. I worry about what people think of me. I worry about my little old dog staying healthy. I worry that my life won't end up how I've always expected it to. I worry about being alone. I worry about finding a job and getting started in my career. I worry about the ones that I love.

But I have no reason to worry. In Philippians 4:6, it says "Don't worry about anything.." I am going to stop right there and repeat that for myself. "Don't worry about anything."

It goes on to say, "Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done."

This is by far my favorite verse. And the one I have to repeat to myself most often. It's so practical, and I so often need to hear it in my life. I know we all have things we could worry about. But God doesn't want us to. Instead of spending that time worrying, we should spend it in prayer. I love that it not only stops my worries, but it turns me to praise instead. There are so many things that God has blessed me with, and instead of worrying, I need to be thankful.

Thank You that my back problems have healed. Thank You that You have a plan for my life. Thank You for the amazing group of friends I am surrounded with. Thank You for loving me unconditionally. Thank You for the gifts and talents You have given me. Thank You for the everyday blessings I receive. Thank You for my loving, supportive family. Thank You that You are always with me, and I am never alone.

Twitter

2011-02-15T05:00:00.002-06:00

I've decided to hop on the Twitter bandwagon. Well, technically, I did that quite some time ago. But then I forgot I had a Twitter account. So I'm re-hopping on.

I must admit, I enjoy following several celebrities. But I actually don't know that many people on Twitter. Apparently my circle of friends is not pro-twitter. What's it like for you? Are most of your friends on Twitter?

But I still enjoy it, so I guess that's all that matters. And this time, I'll try not to forget I have a Twitter account.

So do you tweet? Twit? Whatever?

My name is @erinward. Feel free to follow me!

For Your Honey

2011-02-14T05:00:00.000-06:00

I know you want something really good for Valentine's Day, so you should probably send your hubby over to this garage sale.

For real, my friends. I took this picture not too far from my house.

Project 365 - Week 6

2011-02-13T14:06:00.004-06:00

Saturday, February 5

We made good use of the hotel's pool in Kansas City.

Also, please notice that there is a little Buzz Lightyear in Eli's hand. We couldn't go swimming without him.

Sunday, February 6

Loving my new headband from Danielle's headband exchange.

Monday, February 7

Sometimes Pixie likes to be a little too adventurous.

Tuesday, February 8
I got these adorable puffy cupcake stickers to mark my calendar when I have a cake to make. Super cute!

Wednesday, February 9
I made this for my cousin Lindsay's class project. She had to make something that represented collaboration. When I'm in grad school one day, I think she owes me a project.

Thursday, February 10
I think Max found a new best friend.

Friday, February 11
On my way to our family's February birthday dinner.

Headband Swap!

2011-02-11T05:00:00.000-06:00

A little while ago, Danielle hosted a headband swap. So much fun!

(The first time, I accidentally typed "So fun fun!" Oh boy.)

I was paired with the lovely Ali. She sent me this fabulous headband. Isn't it just about the best thing you've ever seen?

And the best part is, it's metal so I can bend the ends so it doesn't squish my brains out. Because I tend to suffer from a little thing called "sensitive head". (Official term, I'm pretty sure.) I get headaches so easily from headbands, but I can stretch this one, so it's the perfect headband!

But forget about my headache issues. Look how cute it is!

(My hair is in a ponytail in these pictures. But I feel like it's hard to tell that, and instead looks like I'm growing some sort of thing out of the back of my neck. So I thought I'd just tell you. It's the bottom of a ponytail.)

Thanks Ali!

Thursday 13: iTunes Edition

2011-02-10T05:00:00.002-06:00

I thought I'd do Thursday 13 a little different today. I've put my iTunes on shuffle, and these are the first 13 songs I came across! Read into it what you would like.

1. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. It's from my friend Whitney's Christmas mix she made me. I don't even know who it's by. But I can tell you, it's not Dean Martin's version. I can't stand that one!

2. Still Breathing by Allison Iraheta. I really liked her on American Idol, but I honestly haven't really listened to her cd much. Although her voice does remind me a lot of Pink, which I like.

3. Health and Wealth by The O.C. Supertones. Oh yes, The Supertones. This is from my punk rock / ska collection of Christian music from the 90s.

4. Endless Love by Lionel Richie. I cannot listen to this song without picturing Chandler and Phoebe.

5. The Long Way Home by Norah Jones. Love her voice! Although, I don't ever listen to her for too long because I think her cds get a tad boring. But I love to throw in a song by her on a mix cd. Yes, I make mix cds.

6. Do You Know Me by John Mayer. I was hoping that a song from this album would pop onto this list. One of my favorites. And no, I didn't rig the shuffle.

7. Don't Throw It All Away by By The Tree. A great Christian band from my early teen years. My friends and I were so in love with these boys.

8. It's OK by T-Bone. My friend and I bought this cd on clearance one time, and we had so much fun making fun of it.

9. 4:12 by Switchfoot. One of my all time favorite bands. I don't think I'll ever get tired of listening to Switchfoot.

10. Haley by Needtobreathe. iTunes is really picking what I like today! Needtobreathe IS my all time favorite band. And I really love this song. If you haven't listened to Needtobreathe, you need to. I think The Heat is my favorite cd of theirs. (Click on that link and listen to number 7. I can't get enough of that song.)

11. Write it Down by Bleach. On one mission trip, we listened to this cd over and over and over. It's not my favorite cd ever, but I do really like this song.

12. Believe by Elton John. Out of all the Elton John my iTunes has to choose from, it picks a song that I don't really care about. But I do love me some Elton!

13. Too Much Food by Jason Mraz. I was going to be upset is the wonderful Mr. Mraz didn't make the cut. I like to turn on my Jason Mraz playlist and leave it on all day.

I'm surprised to say that I think this actually gave an accurate look at the music I like! Although, it was missing my beloved Frank Sinatra. And Billy Joel. And Michael Buble. And it included T-Bone. So maybe I'll take that statement back.

DIY: Paper Rose Bouquet

2011-02-09T05:00:00.000-06:00

This idea was inspired by this post at Take Heart. Thanks Danielle!

It's super easy to make and it doesn't take tons of supplies. This is what you need.

1. Some dowel rods. I think I used 6. I had some leftover dowel rods, and most of them weren't the same size. Which doesn't matter at all. In fact, if yours are all the same size, I would recommend cutting them to be different heights.

2. A cute vase. I got this one at a flea market for a few dollars.

3. An old book that you don't mind cutting up. If you don't have one of those laying around, you can pick one up at the dollar store for a buck.

4. Scissors. You have to cut out circles to make the roses, and I actually used my scrapbook circle cutter thing (official term, I'm sure) and it saved me a lot of time. But scissors will work just fine!

5. Hot glue gun. Make sure you have one that works. Because I have tried many a project with my old, broken glue gun before I got this one. Those projects resulted in a lot of anger.

To start making a rose, you need to cut out a circle. The bigger the circle, the bigger the rose. I made mine lots of different sizes and then it was easy to fill in the gaps when I needed to. After you cut out a circle, take your scissors and start cutting a long spiral, like depicted below. At the end, make sure you leave a small circle/oval to be the base of the flower.

After your spiral is cut, take the end where you started cutting, and start rolling up the spiral. Continue to roll until you get all the way to the base.

I got a little worried at first because mine wasn't looking like a flower at all. But I kind of figured out that you can just roll it up pretty tight, then let go of it, and it springs into the shape of a flower. Put some glue on the base, and it will hold your flower together.

After you get lots of flowers made, start gluing them onto your dowel rods. I glued one rose on the top, then glued them down the sides, leaving no gaps. I would recommend periodically sticking the dowel rod in the vase while you're gluing on flowers, so you know how far down you like them.

Stick them all in the vase, and you're done!

Easy Peasy.

I'm A Little Bit Strange

2011-02-08T05:00:00.001-06:00

I thought it would be fun today to share some strange and interesting facts about myself. Please don't judge me too much.

I hiccup extremely loudly. Always. One time my little nephew Eli heard me hiccup and said, "What's that sound? (insert 2 year old's fake hiccup sound) Hahaha!" I can't even help it. It just happens. In high school, I hiccuped during a history test, and my teacher said, "There goes Erin with her earth shattering hiccups..." And I almost always only hiccup one time. Just one extremely loud hiccup, then I'm done. Maybe there's something wrong with my esophagus.

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I have insane dreams. Pretty much every night. Actually, I usually have multiple dreams every night. And the later I sleep in, the weirder my dreams get. I mean, not like scary-insane dreams. Just really weird. They don't always stick with me for a long time, but I can always remember them when I wake up.

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I get motion sick very easily. If I'm riding with you, I call dibs on the front seat. It really is the most miserable feeling, don't you think? The nauseous feeling just doesn't go away. I can't even watch 3D movies without feeling sick. I took Dramamine before I went to the movies, and I still had to sit with my eyes closed for the later 3/4 of the movie. I'm sure I was really good company on that outing. 3D movies = never again.

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I will not buy a book that has pictures from the movie version on the cover. After the movie comes out, I'm already forced to picture those people in my mind when I read the book. I don't want them on the cover also. I want the original cover, thank you very much.

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I have a very high tolerance for medicine that makes you drowsy. I think it's my super power. During the height of my back problems, I would take full doses of hydrocodone every day, then drive to campus and sit through class. No problem. (I feel like I should clarify that I no longer take any pain medicine. I'm not a junkie, I promise!) And when I was in the hospital right after back surgery, I remember asking the doctor, "Isn't this morphine suppose to make me tired? I want to go to sleep." So, what should my super hero name be?

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I love to take naps, but I hardly ever let myself. If I take a nap during the day, it takes me an eternity to fall asleep that night. Then I just lay in bed wishing I had never taken a nap that day.

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Are we still friends now that you know how weird I am?

Grandma Wanda's Cheesy Mashed Potatoes

2011-02-07T05:00:00.001-06:00

Are you ready for this? This is my favorite recipe of all time. I don't feel like I got really flattering pictures of it, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

This was one of my Grandma Wanda's signature recipes. If I had to pick one food to eat for the rest of my life, it would be this. Do you think I'm over hyping this recipe? Because I don't even think that's possible. My grandma knew how to cook.

Grandma Wanda's Cheesy Mashed Potatoes

5 lb. potatoes (8-10 med/large potatoes)

1/2 stick margarine

8 oz sour cream

8 oz cream cheese

2 - 2 1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1-2 Tbsp garlic powder (to taste)

1 Tbsp milk

shredded cheddar cheese (I like to use colby & monterey jack cheese)

Pare, cut, and boil potatoes until done. Drain and mash until smooth. Add all ingredients to potatoes and beat until light and fluffy. Put in 9x13 casserole dish. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes. Sprinkle cheese over potatoes, and bake until cheese is melted.

(I even usually make it with light sour cream and reduced fat cream cheese, and it's still awesome.)

We Have A Winner

2011-02-06T17:44:00.004-06:00

Congratulations to Stephanie!

She is in the process of sending me her address, and her cupcake care package will soon be on its way!

Thanks to everyone who entered. All of you made my day!

Project 365 - Week 5

2011-02-05T05:00:00.000-06:00

Saturday, January 29

Best garage sale find ever.

Sunday, January 30

Come on Hong Kong Inn. This is pathetic.

Monday, January 31

My lunch. I think I was channeling Ron Swanson's love of breakfast food.

Tuesday, February 1
Cleaning out my bookshelves. Don't worry Nicholas Sparks. All of your books made the final cut.

Wednesday, February 2
Helped Grandpa clean out his basement. He let me have a lot of my grandma's old dishes. This was my favorite thing we found down there.

Thursday, February 3
Ok boys. Don't tell your mom I let you do this.

Friday, February 4
All packed and ready to go. Headed to KC to visit my bro's family.

Cupcake Care Package Giveaway

2011-02-04T05:00:00.001-06:00

Since I love cupcakes so much, I thought I'd spread the love and do a cupcake giveaway! This cupcake care package consists of my favorite cupcake items. I can't wait to share the cupcake love!

(click to enlarge photo)

1. Wilton tip 1M. My favorite tip for making swirly cupcakes.

2. Some cute cupcake liners. I know I said I like white, but what fun is that in a giveaway?

3. My favorite sprinkles. So cute!

4. Wilton angled spatula. In case you want to ice your cupcakes smooth. Also great for icing cakes.

5. A piping bag. To go along with your new 1M tip.

6. My top secret buttercream icing recipe. Notice I was tricky and laid the piping bag on top of it. Ok, so it's not exactly top secret. But it's one of the few recipes that I've never shared with anyone before. Take good care of it!

To enter, all you need to do is leave a comment telling me your name, email address, and favorite cake/icing combo. Mine is white cake with chocolate icing.

For a second chance to enter, become a follower of my blog and leave a 2nd comment telling me. If you're already a follower (thanks!) just tell me in your 2nd comment.

The winner will be announced this Sunday night.

Happy Cupcaking!

13 Cupcake Favorites

2011-02-03T05:00:00.001-06:00

I have acquired many cupcake doodads over the past few years.

These are my cupcake must haves.

1. You have to start with a good recipe.

This is where my lovely little recipes live.

2. My beautiful pink Kitchen Aid. Love.

3. Wilton cupcake pans.

In my opinion, Wilton trumps all.

4. I'm weird and typically only ever use white baking cups.

I think they look classy.

5. My favorite cupcake tip.

Wilton 1M.

6. I have regular piping bags.

But I almost always opt for the disposable ones.

No washing involved.

7. Icing Colors.

Again with the Wilton.

8. My favorite sprinkles.

I'm a fan of the confetti.

9. Although, I have become partial to these pearl sprinkles lately.

10. The best spatula for icing smooth top cupcakes.

Wilton 9 inch angled spatula.

11. Adore the wire cupcake stands.

12. Finally, a carrier that holds more than 12 cupcakes.

A must have.

13. I recently made these little cupcake stands.

I'm in love.

{Tutorial here.}

And guess what.

Tomorrow there's going to be a cupcake related giveaway.

And it's possible it might involve some of these things.

But I can tell you right now - it's not the Kitchen Aid.

Sorry.

The Big Find

2011-02-02T05:00:00.000-06:00

Here is the lovely little piece of furniture I told you about yesterday.

It's an old buffet, and I am so in love.

It's a good thing I took these pictures a couple days ago.

Because this is what my backyard looked like today.

It Was Intense

2011-02-01T05:00:00.000-06:00

Every year the fair grounds host a monster garage sale. There are over 400 booths in one building. I had never been before, but my mom and I decided to give it a go this year.

Oh. My. Word. There were a zillion people there. Maybe not quite that many, but I'm certain it had to be close. We literally couldn't walk down the aisles. And when I would find something to buy, it was nearly impossible to even make it a few steps across the booth to pay the person.

But I did find this little treasure. I've been collecting the Spring Blossom pattern of Pyrex dishes, and I might have audibly gasped when I saw this. Totally worth being squished with hundreds of other Ozarkians.

I didn't get too many things at the sale (because let's be honest, I gave up pretty fast) but I did stumble across this. I've had my eye out for a good vintage cake carrier, and I found the perfect one. This one is old but still completely usable, unlike most I find. I looked it up online when I got home, and it's from the 1950s. So happy!

When we were there in the morning, I spotted something that I fell in love with. But I was being good with my money, so I left without it. My mom could see that I was still thinking about it for the next several hours (Maybe because I kept mentioning it. Not sure.) so she told me I could have it for an early birthday gift.

So we went back into the madness. There weren't quite as many people there when we got back, but it was still insane. And it was so hot in there. As soon as you step in the door, you're hit with this hot, sticky air. I had this horrible feeling that I was breathing nothing but other people's discarded air. Eww.

But it was totally worth it, because we left with the cutest piece of furniture I've ever seen. Pictures tomorrow!

My Surprise Friend

2011-01-31T05:00:00.000-06:00

Last week, my sweet friend Karen invited me over for a night of making cake pops. She had never made them before, and we had tons of fun during the learning process.

But you know what was the best part of the cake-pop-night? The 4 solid hours of great conversation.

Have you ever had a friend that you knew kind of well, then all of a sudden you discover she's one of your best friends? That's basically what happened with Karen and I. Karen said we were each other's "surprise friend." We've known each other for several years but over the last year, we've become increasingly close. And I don't know about her, but I'm loving it.

Project 365 - Week 4

2011-01-29T14:57:00.005-06:00

Saturday, January 22

Oh my word. It's like heaven in a bowl.

Sunday, January 23

This picture makes me laugh.

Monday, January 24

Max was starting to get quite the collection of toys by his bed. After seeing this, I felt the need to clean out his toy bin.

Tuesday, January 25
I've noticed that our local Chinese place has changed from having fortunes in their fortune cookies, to having statements in their fortune cookies. Not that I believe in fortune cookie fortunes... but it's just not a fortune cookie if it says "be nice to everyone you meet." Well, when I got Chinese food on Tuesday, they hit an all time low. Not only it was it a statement, it was a quote from Ronald Reagan. Come on, people. They're fortune cookies!

Wednesday, January 26
I was taking pictures of my books to share in this post, and I really liked the reflection in this picture.

Thursday, January 27
I love this dear, sweet friend.
Even if she is cake pop challenged.

Friday, January 28
Amanda decided to bust out the hot rollers to make Mad Men night even more exciting.

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Click over there to meet some new bloggy friends!

Kettle Corn Recipe

2011-01-28T05:00:00.001-06:00

Popcorn is probably my favorite snack food. But sometimes it's fun to mix things up a bit and make kettle corn instead. I think it is so yummy!

For those of you who live around here, I always thought Silver Dollar City had the best kettle corn around. But I think this recipe beats it. Just saying.

I wrote down the recipe on a post-it a couple years ago and stuck it to the side of my fridge. And there it has lived ever since.

So those are the ingredients you'll need.

1/4 cup oil, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1/2 cup popcorn.

Put 1/4 cup oil into a dutch oven (or large pan) and turn the stove to med-high. To make sure the oil gets heated to the right temperature, put 3 kernels of popcorn into the heating oil. When those 3 kernels pop, you're ready to start!

Pour in the sugar, and stir quickly and briefly with a wooden spoon. It doesn't have to be completely stirred up, since you don't want it to burn. Pour in the popcorn and put the lid on.

Shake the pot (up and down) for 3 seconds. Then return to the burner for 3 seconds. Continue this pattern. Shake 3 seconds, stove for 3 seconds. Shake for 3 seconds, stove for 3 seconds. This helps the sugar and popcorn mix, and it keeps it from sticking and burning.

FYI, I wear potholders while doing this, because that lid gets kind of toasty!

After popping slows, immediately remove from heat and pour into a large bowl.

Salt the kettle corn - I like a lot of salt, some people don't like much. Just taste it to see how you like it!

Stir occasionally while cooling to break up the clumps.

(This big bowl makes it look like not much kettle corn. But it makes plenty!)

Enjoy!