Senioritis

I have a test tomorrow.  Ask me how much I have studied.  Well let me tell you- not one single minute.  This is beginning to be a problem.  I only have one class this semester and it is my last one, but one I should have taken a long time ago.  I think I have senioritis.  Is it possible to have senioritis when you are a graduate student?

Tonight I have the EDGE with the 5th and 6th graders and then I guess I will have to buckle down and actually study.  I also got asked today to play flute in some Christmas music at church... have I mentioned that I will have to dust off the old flute first?  :)  I think I may have to squeeze in some practicing tonight too.  It has most definitely been a while.  I don't want to embarrass myself in front of all those people!!

Nashville

This weekend I went to Nashville for Laura's Bachelorette party.  I had a good time and I am so freaking exhausted.  :)

We left my house around 9ish on Friday night and started our drive to Nashville.  We had to leave so late because we were waiting on some of the other girls to get in from Fayetteville so that we could all ride together.  The car ride really was not that bad since we talked most of the way.  We got to bed around 4 am on Saturday morning and then got up and went shopping.  We made it back in time to watch the second half of the sad Alabama vs. Arkansas game where we were ahead until the very end when we lost it.  It was sad.  Then we went to eat at a Mexican place in Nashville called Lime.  It was good.  I had a Chipotle Chicken Chimichanga or something like that.  Here's a picture of me and the bride to be before dinner.

Then we went back to Desi's house for games and presents and cake and a lot of foolishness.  : )  After that we went out on the town in downtown Nashville.  So, for the second night in a row we got to bed after 4.  That is hard on an old lady who goes to bed by 10 every night. ha!  Here are Lauren, me, and Desi at Cadillac Ranch.

The original plan was to get up early Sunday morning and try to be on the road by noon.  That obviously did not happen.....  We got up around 11ish I think and we went over to Vanderbilt to see Desi's husband for a minute.  While we were there I took my picture with this random statue.

Please excuse the crazy hair.  haha that's what happens when you go to bed with wet hair.  I don't have any idea who that dude was, but I thought he was neat looking.

Then we went back to Dillards to get something really fast that they were holding for us, and then went to eat at the Pancake Pantry.  I had some crazy southwest pancakes with green chiles and bacon in them.  This place had a crazy long line too, so we went shopping while Desi held our place in line. yay!  Although I didn't buy anything.  I got home about 9 something last night, but I was so tired that I couldn't sleep.  I hate it when that happens.  So I caught up on all the drama on Facebook and whatnot.  Apparently I was really tired because today I woke up 15 minutes after I was supposed to be leaving for work.  Oops.  Good thing I took a shower last night.  I was able to get to work only 30 minutes late because the traffic was much better at 8:30 than at rush hour.  Who would have thought?

No people?

Apparently I didn't do anything with any people this weekend, since all of my pictures are of things, and not people.  I did get this cute sign for my front door as a Halloween decoration.

It is glittery, it is just hard to tell in this picture.  :)  I don't like scary or gross decorations, only cute ones!!  That has been seriously limiting my choice of decorations this year.  I also got a chalkboard for my kitchen:

The end of this cabinet has been bothering me since before I even moved in.  I bought a cross to put up there, but it was too big and ended up in the entryway, so I have been looking around for something, and I thought this would be perfect.  Unfortunately the chalk I bought is crap and I will have to buy some other kind of chalk for writing!

One project that I did finish up this weekend was my Razorback door sign.  I wanted something to support the Hogs, but I am poor, so I decided to make my own. haha.

First I got some scrap wood out of my mom's garage and had her cut it for me... I don't do so well with saws. haha.  Then I painted it red.  I was a little disappointed with this paint because it was supposed to be a metallic finish and it is not, but whatever- I think it worked out fine.

Luckily this scrap wood used to be the back of a calendar and already had 2 holes drilled in it for hanging.  Also please excuse my foot in the bottom of that picture. ha.

Then I decided to paint some polka dots on the board because polka dots are pretty much my favorite thing.

This actually took me a really long time because I like for everything to be lined up in a straight line. ha.  It is hard to be "random."  Then I painted "go hogs go" on it with white paint.

I ended up tracing around the edges of the letters with a silver paint pen because (a) I already had it so it was free, and (b) the letters were a little jagged from my less than stellar painting job, and (c) because I like for things to be shiny.  Then I put some ribbon through the holes to hang it on the door.

I love it!  But now I have a problem because I have to choose between this one and the Halloween one.  My front door will definitely be sporting the hogs one for this Saturday when my #10 Hogs take on #1 Alabama at 2:30 on CBS!!!  So excited for game day this week!

My day off

I took Friday off.  I was going to be the only one in my office, so I decided I would just stay home.  I was housesitting, so I got up bright and early on my day off to go back to my house.  A few weeks ago, my church had a fish fry and silent auction to raise some money, and I donated a gift certificate for 2 dozen jumbo cupcakes.  After talking to the person that won them, we decided to have them ready on Friday.  So I decided to take off work and bake them and not be bored in my office by myself.  I got home about 7:30ish and started baking.  Here are the cupcakes cooling:

Yellow butter cake

 Pumpkin.

 I would like to mention to you that there are no cans of pumpkin in central Arkansas.  I finally found some Pumpkin Pie mix which I decided would have to do.  I hope the grocery stores get some pumpkin soon!!  And they were not burnt, they just look more brown than they actually were in these pictures.

While they were cooling, my grandmother called and said she bought me some shoes and wanted me to come try them on.  (Plus I had her credit card because we were going to go up to Fayetteville for a Razorback football game, but it turns out we can't go now because the only game I can make it to falls on opening day of hunting season or something and so my brother who is in school there will be gone hunting.  figures.)  So I went and got the shoes, and on my way home I passed a garage sale.  I have been looking for a table for my entry way for quite some time, and I happened to see that they had some furniture.  They did have a table, but I was afraid it was too long and that my door wouldn't be able to open all the way.  It was on sale for only $15, so it was such a good deal.  I called my grandmother and she went over there to measure the table (it was right down her street) and I measured my space, and unfortunately it was too long.  :(  So I am still on the lookout for a new entry table.

Anyway, back to the cupcakes. haha.  They turned out pretty well.  The chocolate frosting was a little thicker than I wanted, but I made it work.   I was pretty proud of them.

Yellow butter cake with chocolate icing

Pumpkin with cream cheese icing

When the lady came to my house to pick the cupcakes up, my house looked like a bomb exploded.  I was so embarrassed.  I had laundry (folded at least) all over my living room, a bowl of icing on the counter with the beater still in it, dishes in the sink, and icing all over the floor.  I was hoping to have time to clean some before she came over, but I barely finished them in time.  The whole table drama threw me off schedule. :)  Anyway she got her cupcakes and I think she was happy with them!

always an adventure

First off, let me mention that I have not been able to get up out of the bed on time even one single day this week.  So today, of course I was rushing around and when I went to the bathroom, I discovered that the toilet won't flush.  Fabulous.  And the chain had not slipped off, but instead was broken.  Are you kidding me?  And I have class tonight, so it will have to wait until I get done with my night class at 9 to deal with it.  I just can't seem to catch a break lately.

And, yesterday I got a bill from the hospital from when I had some routine blood work done back in July.  I thought it was strange so I called the hospital, and they said we don't know anything, and that I would have to call the insurance company.  After waiting through about a million options, I finally talked to someone and they said that my lab work was billed improperly.  I'm glad I didn't just go ahead and pay the bill!  That's $140 that I would have paid that I am not responsible for!!  She said that my insurance should pay and that it would take at least 3 weeks.  I am glad that I called and now I don't have to pay that money!

In other news, I currently have two craft projects in the making and I am super excited to show you one of them when I get done!  I am making a "go hogs" sign for my front door to support the Razorbacks, and I am super excited about it!  I am about a third done with it.  I just need a little more free time to finish it up.  I am taking off work tomorrow so maybe I will have time to do some then.  My church had a silent auction a few weeks ago to raise some money and I donated 2 dozen jumbo cupcakes.  The people that bought them want them by tomorrow afternoon, so hopefully I can get them done on time.  :)  It shouldn't be a problem since I am taking off.  The longest part is waiting on the cupcakes to cool, so hopefully during that time I can finish up some projects and get everything done!  And I need to vaccuum my house like none other. ha!  I'll take some pictures of the cupcakes when I get them done.  I hope they will turn out super cute!  The last ones that I made, everyone said that they looked like boobs.  ha.  I will try to avoid that this time, even though I didn't think of that until someone mentioned it.....

Cookie Cutters

I bought 3 new cookie cutters today!  I am super excited for them to come in the mail!  I got a onesie (for baby showers), a pig (for a razorback), and the state of Arkansas.  I used to be a cookie-making machine, but I haven't made any in a while,with the exception of the snowballs I made this weekend.  The pig and the Arkansas cutters are for game days.  I thought that would be festive!  And of course the onesie is for making cookies for baby showers.  I have seen so many of these onesie cookies on other people's blogs and I always thought they were so cute, so when I saw them on Off the beaten path, I knew I had to get one!  So now I just need a reason to use them!!

No sleep weekend

Man, this weekend was super busy!  Friday night I went to the card ministry meeting at my church.  We started working on our Christmas cards.  All I did was cut approximately 1 million green strips of paper at 5.25 inches.  OK maybe not a million, but a whole lot!!  I did that for an hour and a half, so no telling how many I actually did....  Afterwards we went to Alley Oops for dinner.  It was very good!  Then when I got home I had to cook all of my tailgating food for Saturday's game.  I made Tamari Cashews and Devil's food Oreo cupcakes.  (p.s. this was not a picture taking weekend... I think I took 5 pictures the whole weekend.)  Both of these were super simple, so I can tell you the recipe even though I didn't bring them with me to work.  :)

For the cashews, you put a tablespoon of oil in a baking dish, then put in 1 pound of cashews.  Stir them until all the cashews get coated with the oil, then bake at 350 for 15 minutes, then put in 2 tablespoons of soy sauce.  Stir again until all cashews are coated, and then bake for 5 more minutes. 

The cupcakes are easy too.  All you need to do is prepare a devil's food cake mix according to package directions and crush up a box of Oreos and add to the mix.  Then bake according to directions on box.  I only did 2/3 of the Oreos because I wanted to eat some (ha! imagine that!), but I think they would have been better if I would have added all of them. I thought that these would be good to take tailgating since they didn't have icing and wouldn't melt too much.

Saturday morning I took the food over to Karen's house since they were going to tailgate early and I couldn't go with them.  Then I went to a wedding shower.  It should have taken me about half an hour to get there, but it actually took me almost an hour because I got lost.  Luckily my brother called me and he was by a computer ( I don't have internet on my phone... I know I am stuck in the dark ages), so he was able to help me get there after driving up and down the same road about 4 times.  It was interesting, that's for sure.  At the wedding shower, I only knew 3 people:  the bride, her mother, and the maid of honor.  It was a nice shower and I ended up only being able to stay about 45 minutes since I was late.  Here we are at the shower:

Then I went over to tailgate at the golf course next to the football stadium.  That was quite entertaining too, because the people in the row across from us were doing keg stands on top of a hummer.  It was all fun and games until some people fell off and they broke the keg and then some boy and girl broke up.... Free entertainment at its finest. 

The girls out tailgating:

Me and my brother:

I was there from about 11:30 until I left for the game about 4:30.   I wanted to make sure that I was there in time to see the band do their pregame show and have time to go to the bathroom before that in the stadium because I was NOT going to use a Port-a-Potty or pee in the grass.  :)  Of course, in my typical fashion, I was waaaayyy to early and sat bored in my seat for a while.

Here's my favorite part of the pregame show: The Big A!

The Razorbacks beat ULM 31-7.  It was a little scary there in the first half when we were only up by 7, but I guess Coach Petrino talked some sense into them at halftime.  I was a little surprised that the band did not do a patriotic halftime show since it was September 11, but I did enjoy the show.  I was a little sick at the game (probably from being so hot and eating only crap that day) and the girl next to me kept elbowing me in the stomach.  I actually had to miss the Go Hogs spellout because I had to go to the bathroom since I felt like I was either going to pass out or throw up.  Luckily there was not a line.  :)

Sunday morning I got up with the chickens at 5:45 am (ok so I don't really know what time chickens get up.)  I had to play handbells in church and we had to be there at 7:15.  I had to leave a little early since I had to run by Starbucks (yum- Pumpkin Spice!) and then get there in time to put out some fliers at church before we practiced.

After church I had to run home and start cooking again!  The Women's Bible study at my church started up yesterday and I had to bring snacks.  Luckily Ashley (who needs to update her blog) helped me do the snacks!  I "made" tacquitos, which was the easiest thing since they are frozen and all you have to do is throw them in a pan and stick it in the oven.  However, the package lies when it says they will be done in 15 minutes.  Just so you know.

I also made snowballs, which are some cookies covered in powdered sugar and that have a hershey's kiss in the middle.  Those were a pain haha.  And then I made spinach dip, which was super yummy.  I happen to have the recipe because my grandmother loved it so much that she had me email her the recipe:

Spinach Dip:

10 ounce package frozen spinach, thawed

2 cups sour cream

1 cup mayonnaise

1 envelope vegetable soup mix

1 small white onion, chopped

8 ounce can water chestnuts, drained and chopped

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Squeeze out water from thawed spinach and do NOT cook. Add all other ingredients and mix.

I also had leftovers from the tailgate party so I brought that stuff too.  My stupid air conditioner overflowed the drip pan, and so I had to do some laundry from the towels that I used to clean up the mess.  I can't seem to get the water to drip into a trash can.... instead it seems to like to go anywhere else.  Apparently this is common after the fan motor goes out, and I saw on the internet that it said to pour a cup of bleach down the pipe. So I tried that and I'll let you know if it worked!  I sure hope so because I am sick of calling the air conditioner people to my house!!

Blink

This is one of my favorite songs right now: Blink by Revive.  I think so many times I am in such a hurry that I don't slow down to enjoy where I am at that moment.  I'm trying to work on that!


Teach me to number my days



And count every moment


Before it slips away


Take in all the colors


Before they fade to grey






I don't want to miss


Even just a second


More of this






It happens in a blink it happens in a flash


It happens in the time it took to look back


I try to hold on tight but there's no stopping time


What is it i've done with my life?






It happens in a blink


It happens in a blink






When it's all said and done


No one remembers


How far we have run


The only thing that matters


Is how we have loved






I don't want to miss


Even just a second


More of this






It happens in a blink it happens in a flash


It happens in the time it took to look back


I try to hold on tight but there's no stopping time


What is it i've done with my life?






It happens in a blink


It happens in a blink


It happens in a blink


It happens in a blink






Slow down


Slow down


Before today becomes


Our yesterday






Slow down


Slow down


Before today becomes


Our yesterday






It happens in a blink it happens in a flash


It happens in the time it took to look back


I try to hold on tight but there's no stopping time


What is it i've done with my life?






It happens in a blink it happens in a flash


It happens in the time it took to look back


I try to hold on tight but there's no stopping time


What is it i've done with my life?






It happens in a blink


It happens in a blink


It happens in a blink


It happens in a blink


In other news, I applied for GRADUATION today!!!  So hopefully in December I will graduate with my Graduate Certificate in Management and Masters in Business Administration.  I had some trouble applying since I had to apply for 2 things at the same time, but I finally got it taken care of!!!

Ronald McDonald House Day of Change

Today is the Ronald McDonald House Day of Change!  If you get a chance, swing by your local McDonalds and drop a little spare change in the box for the Ronald McDonald House.  (You can do it every other day too at McDonalds). 

The nickels, dimes and quarters dropped into RMHC Donation Boxes at McDonald’s restaurants last year added up to more than $19 million.  All that change made it possible for Ronald McDonald House Charities to keep 4 million sick children and their families together in communities across the country. And sick children cope better and heal faster when surrounded by their family.

Labor Day Fun

Better late than never....

Monday I went to my grandmother's house for lunch.  We were all supposed to bring something, so I brought some stuffed mushrooms and I tried to make some peppermint petit fors.  This is one baking experiment that did not go well.  Although I'm not so sure that we can even call it a baking experiment because I didn't use the oven, only the microwave.
This is what they looked like before the icing:

Unfortunately this is about as good as it gets.  The icing did not work properly, even though I used my new candy thermometer and followed the directions exactly!  Every time I try to make something with cream of tartar as an ingredient, it never works out.  Pretty soon I am going to boycot all recipes with this as an ingredient!!  I still took them to the lunch, and they really were not that good. haha.  What a waste of a perfectly good pound cake.  :)

After lunch, my mom and I went to see the Traveler's last baseball game of the season.  It was really freaking hot.  I got pretty sunburned on my chest and arms and legs because I forgot sunscreen....

Here we are:

We actually broke the rules because we were supposed to sit in the berm, but who wants to sit on the grass?  I didn't mean to buy berm tickets.... luckily nobody cared and probably thought we were stupid for sitting in the burning hot sun instead of standing back in the shade behind all the seats.

This was the first event in the RazorRock Festivities and after the game there was some kind of food festival.  We stayed because it was free, but then you had to pay for food and like I have already said, we were about to die because it was so hot, so we looked at some jewelry and then went to Sam's to pick up some necessities (i.e. Vitamin water and Flinstones vitamins... ha!).  I also had handbell practice on Monday night, where I proceeded to give myself bruises from dampening my bells.  I looked pretty funny yesterday with my sunburn and bruises.  Both are starting to fade now, so you can't really see it, otherwise I would take a picture to show you.  :)

Unfortunately nothing exciting has happened since then.....

Saturday and Sunday

Before we head into the events of Saturday and Sunday, I forgot to mention one tiny little detail of my sick day on Friday.  I was so sick that I had to go shopping.  I got a new dress, 5 new bras, a new pair of fancy shoes, a pair of jeans, and 2 new shirts.  Woot!  It was even better because my grandmother went with me and bought most of my stuff for me!!  :)

Saturday I went to the grocery store two times.  (Yes the same store!)  They had Willy Wonka candy on sale for 49 cents!  and I had a coupon that if you bought 3 then you get $1.50 off, so they were free.  My mom and I went back to the store and stocked up on Halloween candy. haha.  It actually is pretty good.  (of course I had to taste it to make sure it was ok!)

I can't remember what else I did in the morning, but in the afternoon I made some chocolate chip cookies to take over to Andrea's house.  We bought the Razorback game on Pay-Per-View and watched Razorbacks win over Tennessee Tech 44-3.  Woooo pig sooie!  I took my cookies on the cutest little Razorback platter that my grandmother gave me. 

I was so tired when I got home.  It has been a very full weekend.  Sunday we did not have Sunday School because hardly anyone was in town.  I was taking care of feeding my grandmother's and cousin's dogs while they were away for the weekend.  I went there before church and my grandmother's dog tried to escape.  I had to chase him around the driveway, and after I finally caught him, I decided that I deserved McDonalds. ha!  I like their Mocha frappe, and it is cheaper than Starbucks!

At church, Mary asked if my sister and I wanted to go to Wild River Country (a water park) with two kids of her kids.  Of course we went!  Who would turn down free tickets to WRC??  :)  Anyway, we had a super time, and I didn't take any pictures because I left my camera in the car.  I have a funny looking sunburn on my back where I couldn't reach to put on the sunscreen. haha.  Story of my life.  :)

After I took my sister home, I went to eat at my favorite Greek restaurant: Taziki's!  I had a greek salad gyro with chicken.  I love that place.  Then we went to Target to look for some stuff and I got some really great deals!

I can't believe that I only had one picture from all of that.... don't worry, there will be more to come tomorrow!

Blog Slacker and Fake Illness

So much has happened since I wrote my last post that I think it will have to be done in a couple of different posts.  I think for this one I will stick to Wednesday-Friday.

Wednesday I wasn't feeling really great in the afternoon, so I took my temperature at work (yes I am a hypochondriac and carry a thermometer in my purse.  I also have a blood pressure meter.  So what??) and it said I had a low fever, so I decided to go home so I didn't infect anyone else.  I did decide to make the stuffed mushrooms and I got lots of compliments on them.  (I'll post the recipe at the bottom of the post.)  Then on Thursday morning, I took my temperature at home before work and it was normal, so I went in.  After lunch I took my temp again out of curiosity and it was high again, so I went home early again.  It was high on Friday morning, so I called in sick then too.  Then I was curious so I found another thermometer in my house and compared the results.... One told me that I have a fever, and the other was exactly normal.  I forgot to take a picture, but I just took one so you can see the difference.  (they are not acurate as I am drinking some juice now)

The blue one is the one I was using in the beginning, and it has been consistently reading higher than the white one. lol.  I haven't been feeling bad so I think the blue one just reads too high.... so all this time I thought I was sick, I really wasn't. ha!

Friday night I went to Loca Luna with some friends to celebrate Ashley and Andrea's birthday.  We had a good time!

Me and one of the birthday girls!  Forgot to take a picture with Andrea...

The whole table.

We ended our meal with dessert... 3 of us all got the same thing.  It wasn't as good as it sounded, but I liked it. 

Now for the Mushroom Recipe:

Triple Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms

2 lbs white mushrooms

10oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed

4 oz crumbled feta cheese

2 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup finely chopped green onions

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/4 tsp salt

Clean mushroom caps; remove and discard stems.

In case you were wondering, 2lbs of mushrooms is a lot!  I took them to 3 parties!

In colander, squeeze liquid out of spinach until dry.  In large bowl, mix spinach, feta, cream cheese, green onions, and salt until well combined.  Fill each mushroom with spinach mixture; top with Parmesan.  Transfer to pan, bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until mushrooms are tender and filling is golden brown.

These were not hard to make at all, and everyone liked them!  My grandmother even requested that I bring them again to our next get together. 

The rest of the long weekend may come tomorrow.....