Well, the box cake turned out pretty good, I think. I don't like German chocolate cake so I didn't eat any, but we brought less than half of it home with us so I'd say that was a good sign that it was good. Thanks for the suggestion, Bean.

We had a good weekend and I think Mr enjoyed his birthday. On Saturday, friends of ours on the dock took their big boat out. I love houseboat rides the best. A pontoon ride is awesome in its own right, but there's nothing like a houseboat ride--cruisin' down the lake with this awesome 360 degree view of the water and the land, wind blowing from all sides, good music playing and an adult beverage in hand...now that's the life!

Unfortunately shortly after dinner, I had a killer stomachache and laid down for what I had planned was going to be a short time and turned into all night. I felt really bad that I didn't get to celebrate the rest of Mr's birthday with him, but he played cornhole and listened to a band that was playing at the marina so I'm sure he had a good time.

This week brings getting the rest of the thank you notes finished (I'm determined to have them all out by our 2 month anniversary which is quickly approaching) and getting J's baby shower invites out--probably today. The never-ending process of getting the house organized will still continue as well as little work at the shop. Hope all of you have a great week!

Hmmm, I think not

I was making the list of ingredients and various apparatus I would need to make this homemade cake, and it ain't gonna happen! I will wait and make it for him when we are at home where everything is already here. There's just too much crap to take to the lake. I will be buying a box German chocolate cake and make that. I hear they are really good.

Thankful Thursday revisited

Every year after Christmas I buy one of those daily calendars that has a quote every day. Every year I buy a different kind--just to mix it up some. This year I bought one called "Believing in Ourselves". It's quotes from famous women. Today's quote reminded me of when I was doing "Thankful Thursdays" and I decided to share it with you.

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.
It turns what we have into enough and more.
It turns denial into acceptance,
Chaos to order,
Confusion to clarity.
It can turn a meal into a feast,
A house into a home,
A stranger into a friend.
Gratitude makes sense of our past,
Brings peace for today,
And creates a vision for tomorrow.

It's by Melody Beattie. I thought it was nice and so true.

I forgot to tell you all that I finally did the drive-by at my old house on Tuesday. I'm sure some of you were wondering how long it would take. Mainly, I just wanted to see if he was living in it yet and if it looked any different. I did it under the excuse of seeing if he'd painted the house yet so we could get the money back that we put up for his painting escrow. You have to basically stop in the middle of the street, though, to see if the paint is still peeling so I couldn't tell anything because I didn't want anyone to think I was stalking him. It didn't look like he was home, though. At the closing he said he wasn't in any hurry to move in so he may not even be living there yet. He wanted to paint the purple living room before he moved in so that may not even be done yet.

Saturday is Mr's birthday. We are headed to the lake tonight after work so he can wax the boat tomorrow since he cleaned it last week. So this will be my last post until after the weekend--unless I find something cool today that I want to post later. I am going to attempt to make a homemade German chocolate cake which is a major challenge on two fronts. One, I've never made one before and if you've ever looked at a German chocolate cake recipe, there's a lot involved. Two, I am going to be making it at the lake. We have basic cooking apparatus there, but nothing too involved--we don't do a lot of baking when we're there--so I am going to have to transport a lot of stuff down so I can do this right. Maybe experimenting on his birthday isn't the best idea because if it sucks, we'll have no cake, but I really want to do it. I figure it will taste better than a box cake or a store-bought cake...if I do it right. Wish me luck.

Mr is a hard person to buy a gift for. I guess all men are, at least the ones I know. He says he considers the recliner his birthday/father's day gift from me, but I don't think that's fair. I have a couple of ideas, but none earth-shattering. What are some good gifts you've given in the past to the men in your life that they loved? I'm always open to ideas, plus, Christmas is just around the corner so getting ideas now always helps.

Can you believe that the 4th of July is only 2 weeks away? My great-grandma always said that once the 4th of July was here, summer was over. I can't believe how fast the summer is flying and it's not even officially summer yet. What are your plans for the 4th? Post them in the comments section--I'd love to see them.

The chair has arrived

Here it is. It's muy comfortable and so far, no fights. It looks really good in the living room and Mr really likes it so it's all good.

Last night I also did some shopping for J's shower. Here is a picture of the napkins.

I'm sticking with the baby feet theme since I used her ultrasound with the baby's feet. It bothers me that the invitations are plaid--blue and green--and the napkins aren't. Sometimes I can be so anal. Anyway, I got pale yellow tableware--tablecloth, plates, cups-- to go with it because I want to do that diaper cake and I think if I matched it all together, it would be too much going on. After I got home I found some even cuter stuff on the internet so now, of course, I'm having second thoughts. It's so hard to narrow it down because there's just so much cute baby stuff out there.


Tonight I'm having my dad over for dinner and for him to see the wedding pictures. Nothing too fancy for dinner--just grilling out.


It's great weather here--low 70's and no humidity. Gotta love it. Hope it's good weather where all of you are, too. Not much else to talk about today so I will sign off. Have a great day!

I'm baaaaack!

Sorry for the lull in postings. I had a busy end of the week and just couldn't find the time to blog. I know all my readers are jonesing for a post so I was sure to make time today...yeah, "all of my readers".

Anyway, I owe you some updates. First off, I got J's invitations yesterday. They are adorable! I can't post pictures because after I looked at them I realized by the time I covered up all the info that weirdos would use off the internet to find out who we are and where we live, you wouldn't be able to see hardly any of the invitation. If you are REALLY interested, email me and I'll send you a picture because you know I took one. God help me if I ever get a really good digital camera. I'll be taking pictures of the wall. I am happy with them, though, and if you ever need something printed that looks really good, but is really cheap, go to Vistaprint. I've gotten several things printed there and I am super happy with the quality.

On to other things--I made the "Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich" last week and both Mr and I loved it. It is so unbelievably tasty--probably because all of the butter she says to use--but, whatever. This time I followed the recipe exactly and it turned out yum extraordinaire.

Here it is cooking in my great-grandma's cast iron skillet.

Here's the bread browning on our new griddle that we hadn't used yet. Notice the copious amount of butter...this is key to making the bread taste good.

Here's my plate. We also had "Crash Potatoes" which I gotta say are also very yummy. I used fresh oregano on top. I put a little too much sea salt on them, but they were very tasty and I would definitely make them again.

Here is Mr's plate. He was a little too hungry to pose so we'll call this one an action shot. Hop over to Pioneer Woman and get the recipe and try it tonight. I promise you you won't be sorry.

Tonight we get our new recliner. We ended up buying it on the way to the lake on Friday. It is super comfortable. I think there will be a lot more fights in Mr and Mrs-ville once it gets here over who gets to sit in it! I told you that Mr has been major jonesing to get a recliner so I guess I will be reduced to using it when he's not around...for the sake of our marriage.

Speaking of the lake, we drove through a hellacious storm on the way down. It was the kind where you get what I call "tornado" clouds. You know, that majorly dark cloud that kinda hangs over you and doesn't quit fit in with the rest of the storm clouds. A couple of weeks ago we had just watched live footage of a tornado going through the midwest so I was watching the edge of those clouds with an eagle eye just waiting for a funnel to drop out of them. Thankfully none did, but it was raining and lightning like hell. I'm glad Mr was driving because if it had been me, we'd have pulled over and may just be on the side of 75 still.

One other update--I still haven't watched the video from the library and it was due back yesterday. I also haven't started the 2 novels. Those of you who had bets, collect your winnings now.

Baby shower stuff!

No, the invitations didn't make it here today, but the little stickers did. I am putting these on the backs of the envelopes where it seals. My love of stickers falls under my love of stationery. I love putting stickers on the back of every envelope I send. I think it adds a little "something"--sometimes whimsy, sometimes a heartfelt sentiment--I just like stickers, okay? These are just adorable! I found the rhyme in all my internet searches.

Online the green looked like a really light green but in person it's about grass green. Oh well. I still think they're really cute and will be a nice touch on the envelopes.

I was also looking online for some more baby shower ideas and ran across these:

This is called a diaper wreath. Everything on there is useable for the mother, plus it's a shower decoration.

Here's another idea:

Yes, it's the dreaded diaper cake. I think there was an episode of "Sex and the City" when they went to that baby shower out in the 'burbs and Charlotte bought one of these. Anyway, I think they're simply precious. Again, everything on them is useable to the mommy. I like the smaller ones since I don't have a lot of table space here and the cake would probably be more of the centerpiece, although, maybe not if this were on there. I don't know, whaddya think? Obviously options 2, 3 and 4 are applicable to this baby shower, but I couldn't resist the top once since it's, of course, pink and brown. It is too cute. Look at what the same people made for the same shower as toppers to the cupcakes:

Those pacis are made with lifesavers held together with icing and a jelly bean on the end. Oh yes, I'm definitely doing this one. It's too easy and it gives such a great effect. Look at the spread they had at this shower. Very elegant for a baby shower, I think:

I love pink. I mean, just look at how pretty this spread is? You don't get the same effect with blue. I guess it doesn't matter either way with this shower since we're not going to know what it is anyway. I just love, love, love it!

Am I the only one...

who thinks her lips are totally gross? Everyone goes on and on about her luscious, full lips. I think they're disgusting looking. At least in this picture she's got them lubed up. Normally they're all cracked and chapped looking which really grosses me out. No doubt she's beautiful, but the lips...

A shopping we will go!

We went looking for furniture last night to replace all of the stuff we sold from our living room. Although we didn't buy anything, I think we found what we were looking for. Mr has been talking about and jonesing for a recliner forever now. We found a really comfortable one at La-Z-Boy. We also found this cool-shaped coffee table that matches the tv stand which we will probably get as well.

I also went to Macy's yesterday to see if I could use some gift cards for some stuff for the house while they were having their 1-day sale. I got some stuff, but the sales weren't as great as I had hoped. I love gift cards. I get the thrill of shopping without spending any money. Love it!

I also was looking for stuff for J's shower. I found some cute stuff, but only ended up buying a tablecloth and some napkins. I still can't decide on a theme--everything is so cute. Her invites have the ultrasound picture of the baby's feet (I'll show pics when I get them) so I thought baby feet would be a good theme, especially, as you all know, because I love little baby feet! They actually have decorations with baby feet! Here I thought I was being creative and came up with an idea no one else would have...yeah, right. Anyway, I'm trying to stick to the green and yellow colors since she's not finding out the sex. I got a generic mint green tablecloth with some pastel yellow napkins. It looks like Easter, but they are pretty.

I didn't end up fixing dinner last night since we were out shopping, but I'm definitely doing the Marlboro man sandwich and potatoes tonight. I've got to use the meat or it's going to go bad. I'll let you know how it turns out. If we're not starving, I may even get some pictures beforehand.

I can't believe how fast the summer is going already and it's not even officially summer. We are trying to plan different things during the weekends and I realized that we've got very few free weekends until the middle of August already! Where does the time go? Looks like it's going to be a busy summer.

Old friends are the best friends

It's weird that in yesterday's blog I was talking about memories and things I treasure and then out of the blue I get a phone call from an old friend. One of my best friends from high school was driving through town on her way to her new home in New York and I got to spend the afternoon with her. Her husband is in the Army and was transferred from San Antonio to upper state New York. Her husband moved ahead of them by about a month, but she and her 2 boys came through here. I can't remember the last time I saw her--it's been several years. She was one of my closest friends in high school and through college, too, since we ended up going to the same college. We had a great day together--lunch, some shopping, brought her back here to show her the house. It was a really lovely day and so good to see her and her boys.


I forgot to tell you all about the recipe I tried a couple of nights ago. The good 'ole Pioneer woman came through again. I tried her chicken spaghetti casserole and it was really good. We ended up having it again last night as leftovers. I added some things she didn't add and took out some things I didn't like and it turned out really good. Tonight I'm going to try her "Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich" along with some potato recipe she had as well. I'll let you know how it turns out. I wanted to take a picture of the casserole when it was done, but forgot and we were too hungry to wait anyway! I also made some killer banana bread a couple of days ago, too. It's been hard for me to find a recipe that works, but I think I finally did. The first time I made banana bread it was really dry for some reason. This one is so moist you could wring it out like a sponge. Yum!


On our afternoon out yesterday, I took some wedding gifts back to BBB--things I thought we would use, but won't. I bought some more things off the registry and some things that weren't... one of which was a little doggie bed for Daisy. We don't have room for her cage in our bedroom, so she's been sleeping on a pile of blankets in the corner. I really like to use those blankets so I figured she needed a bed of her own. She slept in it last night, but I left 1 of the blankets in there, thinking that would "lure" her to sleep in the bed. Here's a picture:

Yes, it's pink and brown even though our bedroom is blue and brown. It fits her, though. After all, she is a little girl and pink and brown are good colors for little girls. As you can see, I left the tags on it in case we needed to return it. I think I will cut them off today since I think it's a keeper.

I got another set of thank you cards done yesterday. I probably have another 2 sets before we're completely finished. So those of you who haven't gotten one, please hang on a little longer!

I love baby feet and dogs

Borrowed from Cindy Wagner Photography blog.