Job Hunting

So today I applied for my first job this time around.  The job hunting season is officially upon us (or me).  Let me just say first of all that I forgot how much fun (not!!!) this whole process is.  However, I am graduating in December and happy to move on to bigger and better (and hopefully more fun and with better compensation) things, and this is a necessary evil.  Wish me luck!!

Photo books

Today was another awfully boring day at work.  I had about 8 minutes of work to do today.  The rest of the day I have just been sitting at my computer and waiting for people to update their blogs.  So for that my friends, you fail.  :)  There has not been a whole lot of action in the blogging world or on facebook today.  (or it may have to do with the fact that I have been checking it every 5 minutes.)  Seriously, I need a new job. I started today looking for real.  Here we go, I guess.

In other news, I had a coupon code for a free 8x8 photo book on Shutterfly (as in I only had to pay shipping).  Let me just tell you that I think this is amazing.  I made it for my Great-great- Aunt as part of her Christmas present.  It was so super easy!  All I had to do was log into my facebook page and pull the pictures off and it rearranged them in order and grouped them and placed them on the pages.  All I had to do was add the captions and pick out the page colors that I liked best.  I am telling you that I will definitely be doing this again!!  I am terrible about printing out pictures, since they are all just stored electronically. 

So now I need your opinions and advice.  Which sites do you like best for doing photo books?  And which do you think has the best deals?

Another busy weekend

This weekend was another busy one.  (And one in which no pictures were taken...)

Friday started out pretty laid back.  I ate dinner at my mom's house and went to the grocery store. 

Saturday I hit up a bunch of garage sales.  I am still looking for that perfect table/dresser for my entry way.  I can't seem to find one that I like that I can also afford.  Isn't that how it always works???  I drove all over town, and didn't buy one single thing.  Then I babysat littlest brother and little sister for a little while.  We played outside and tried to decorate a pumpkin.  Then it was time to watch my Hogs beat Houston Nutt's Ole Miss Rebel Black Bears.  I swear that is the dumbest mascot I have ever heard of.  Anyway, it was a crazy game, and lasted forever.  I am glad that we finally pulled off a win against ole Houston.  Then I had my birthday party with my dad's family.  We went to the Purple Cow and I ate way too much.  Who can turn down one of their milkshakes???

Sunday, we played handbells in church.  We played Blessed Assurance. Someone recorded us, so I am trying to insert the video in here.   I had to get it off of Facebook, and for some reason it only recorded the first few seconds to my computer, but anyway, here is a sample.  :)

I think we did ok in the first service, and much better in the second service.  After church, I went to serve food to the hungry at Stone Soup.  We served 109 people and passed out soup kits for 220 more people.  We had a lot of volunteers and it was fun.  After that, I headed back to church for the women's Bible study.  We had some bad weather, including a tornado warning.  I sure was glad to be home!

Today, I have to go early to handbells practice to play the Christmas music on my flute for the director.  Nervous!! Wish me luck!

So bored

I am so bored at work today.   Yesterday I had about 10 minutes of work to do, and today I have none.  You might think that is awesome, but really it is just boring.  Every now and again it is ok, but not all the time.  I hope that my next job is a little more exciting.  Don't worry- it is common knowledge around the office that I am looking for a new job upon my upcoming December graduation.  :)  It is not a secret. ha.

So not much has happened around here.  I did finally cook something at home.  I made this recipe that I got a really long time ago on Kelly's blog during a favorite recipes link-up.  Her's definitely looked better.  And please excuse the seasoning burnt on the side of the pan... I forgot to add it before I put it in the oven, and when I tried to put it on without taking out the dish, I got lemon pepper seasoning everywhere.

It was super easy and pretty good.  Just olive oil, salt, pepper, lemons, green beans, potatoes, chicken, and lemon pepper seasoning.  I am glad I finally cooked something so that I don't have to eat out of the cafeteria every day. 

I also made some cupcakes for my Wednesday night kids.

Now, I am an avid reader of Cake Wrecks, and I know that they always make fun of chocolate icing swirled like that because it looks like a pile of poo.  SO in my defense, I only had 30 minutes, and frankly, I didn't care.  :)  The cupcakes were delicious even if they did look like crap. (ha.)  They were chocolate and the ones on the left had cream cheese icing that I colored orange and they have Halloween sprinkles, and the ones on the right had chocolate buttercream icing with candy corn on top (obviously).  I think they were a hit, considering we had 5 kids, and none of the cupcakes made it home.

That is really all I have to share today.  Obviously both my work and personal lives have been very boring this week!!

Jam Packed weekend

Friday night on the way home from work, my mom called to see if I wanted to go to the fair.  I saw the monkey show, the alligator show, and some bad band that nobody knew the songs.  The monkey show was actually really cute and funny, and the alligator show was not.  We didn't stay really long because we knew that we had to get up early and go to the Race for the Cure.

On Saturday morning, I got up at 5:00, which is an hour that I haven't seen in a while.  :)  My mom and I went to the survivor breakfast.  We made it there, even though we couldn't find the survivor parking lot and I drove the WRONG WAY down a one way street.... The breakfast was nice and then we went to look around.  My mom missed the survivor picture because the line for the bathroom was so freaking long.  The walk was a success though.  Almost 46,000 people participated, making us move up to the #3 largest race in the country.  Woo-hoo!  There were people everywhere.  Here we are before the race started.

There were so many people that you seriously couldn't walk.  It took us forever to get started, and I am pretty sure that the runners finished before we even started walking.  There were several places where the sidewalk entertainment caused a traffic jam because people wanted to stop and watch, which slowed us up even more.  This is how long it took us:

Um yes, almost 2 hours.  It was only a 5K in case you were wondering. :)  Hopefully next year I can get closer to the front of the line and not be caught up so much in all the congestion.  At least we finished, though.  It took us so long that my mom actually missed the survivor parade.  We did at least find the survivor luncheon.  It was a long day all in all.  After the race, we hit up 2 estate sales, but didn't find anything.  I am still on the hunt for an entryway table or dresser that I can use for an entryway table.  Then I picked up my sister, and we settled in to watch the Razorbacks take on Auburn.  Let's just say that the officiating crew was less than stellar, and maybe we would have lost anyway, but man that was frustrating.  Our backup quarterback ended up playing for more than half of the game because Ryan Mallett got a concussion in the 2nd quarter.  I was actually pretty impressed with Tyler Wilson even though he did throw a couple of interceptions.  Since he has had virtually no playing time, I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  I'm glad he got the chance to show us what he can do, since Ryan has been getting all the attention, and he sure does get on my nerves!  After the game, we were going to go to Purple Cow for dinner because I have a free milkshake for my birthday, but we were too tired so we decided to eat at home.  Popcorn and brownies are a good dinner, right?  Sister of the year award, right here!

Sunday we went to church, and then to Tropical Smoothie (one of my favs!) for lunch.  Sundays are kids eat free days, at least in our area.  Woot!  I especially hate to take her to new places when I am not sure if she will like it, so I am glad at least it was free.  She is still too chicken to try a smoothie though.  I just don't get it.  :)

Then we went to Lily's 2nd birthday party.  It was good fun, and my sister jumped in the bounce house for probably a solid hour until cake time, and then played in the sand box.  All the adults where hiding in the shade.  Why is it still hot out?  I even ran the air conditioner yesterday.  Arkansas weather is just crazy.  Then Sunday night I had Bible study.  It was kind of a scary one.  We are going through Revelation with Beth Moore, and so far it is a good one.

Today is handbell practice.  It is our last practice before we perform in 2 services at church on Sunday.  I hope it goes well!!

Lately

Last Saturday was Laura & Hal's super fun wedding.  It was in Benton, and the reception was in Little Rock.  It actually worked out perfectly because we were able to watch the first quarter of the Hogs vs. Texas A&M game and then listen to the 2nd quarter on the radio while we drove to the wedding.  There even was a little fair or market or something across from the church that had cotton candy, but we thought it might be frowned upon to bring some cotton candy into the wedding.  Unfortunately they were gone by the time the wedding was over.  Sad day. Then the wedding happened during half time which was super and then we got to listen to most of the rest of the game driving to the reception.  We missed the very end because Andrea and I couldn't find how to get into the parking deck and so we parallel parked (yay me!) in front of the building and then ran inside because we were stupid.  Everyone was checking their phones for the rest of the time.  Rude, I know, but I don't think anyone really cared.  See:

This is Andrea, also known as Bandie Andie.  :)  She even caught the bouquet.  We had a little fight about it:

 Here is a picture of me and the bride:

After the wedding, some of us were invited back to the hotel with some of the groom's family, including his sister Desi.  This is me and Desi.  (And yes, I look crazy in all the pictures I took that night)

We stayed out way too late lol.  I had to get up the next morning and do the Sunday school lesson for my class, and man, I was dying. haha. 

In other and completely unrelated news, I got Lily's birthday present the other day, and I wapped it yesterday.  I decided to make a bow for it using the tutorial I found here.  I am pretty proud of how it turned out, considering that I made it. haha.

The only thing I would have done differently was use a paper that was not white on the back side, so that there was more color showing instead of the white.  Oh well, I think it is fine.  The only things that I did differently from the tutorial were that I used wrapping paper instead of a magazine page, and I didn't exactly measure the strips I cut- just sort of eyeballed it, and I used plain Elmer's glue instead of staples and glue dots.

I'm hoping to make some more of these for Christmas!

Sarah's giveaway

Sarah is having a giveaway on her blog.  Click here to visit her blog and see her cute daughter Ava!!  She is a Pampered Chef consultant and they have some awesome stuff, so go check it out!!  They even have polka dotted things, which you know gets me everytime.

And now I feel really old because I first met Sarah 7 years ago.  :)

Weekend

So, I had the most amazing weekend ever.  Unfortunately I forgot my camera cord today, so I will only tell you about what happened where I don't have pictures to document (or that I stole off Facebook).

Friday night we celebrated Ashley's birthday.  Here is a picture of me and the birthday girl:

We had a fun time.  The party was at 1620.  This was my first time to eat at 1620.  There were lots of friends there, so it was a good time.

Saturday I went to a wedding, which I will tell you about later when I have my camera cord.  Also the HOGS beat Texas A&M... woot!  We watched the first quarter and part of the second, then listened to the rest ofthe first half while we drove to the wedding.  Luckily the wedding took place during halftime, so we didn't miss anything.  :)  We got to listen to it while we drove to the reception, which was about 40 minutes away.  We didn't get to hear the very end, so everyone was looking it up on their phones during the reception... rude, I know, but necessary.  :)

And on Sunday, I was super tired because I stayed out WAY past my bedtime on Saturday, so I decided to hit up Starbucks before church.  Man, everyone else in town decided to do that too.  I was so frustrated because I had to wait 30 minutes, and also I had the Sunday School lesson for my class in my car.  I tried to call everyone I could think of to give them the lesson to start on, but of course nobody had their phone on.  If you know me, then you know the thing I hate most is being late.  I was pretty stressed out!  When I got up to the window, the lady said, "Your drink is free today!  The person in front of you paid for your drink!"  Woo-hoo!  That helped to make up for the fact that I spend 30 minutes in line.

I can't wait to tell you about Laura and Hal's wedding, but I will have to show you the pictures too!  Soon, I promise!

Busy Busy Bee

Ya'll- this weekend is so jam packed.  I can't wait to do a post afterwards to tell you all about it.  Right now I am trying to do some cleaning since Bandie Andie (haha) is coming to spend the night.  I still have to figure out what I am going to wear to Laura's wedding...... 

I just had to tell you how my test turned out:

Woot!  I was worried about how I did because I didn't think I talked enough about economics.  Our exam was very strange and was about school systems, but apparently the professor liked it.  Oh and my lack of studying scared me a little too!  :)

Check back in after the weekend to hear about all the happenings around here!

Kansas City

Last weekend, I went to Kansas City.  There were 6 of us in the car, one of whom is only 5 months old.  It went pretty well, all things considered.  We were going to visit my grandmother's aunt, Aunt Speedy. (and yes I have on a swimsuit in this picture (not naked, haha.) and no makeup and crazy waterpark hair.)

We drove up on Saturday, and spent the night in a hotel in Missouri. (The "Hamptonton Inn" if you ask my sister).  Nothing terribly exciting happened that day, except that I had to share a room with my dad and stepmom who I forgot snore like freight trains.  Never again, my friends, never again.  After getting 1 hour of sleep, and 2 football game endings, 3 episodes of Iron Chef, the Blind Side, and countless computer games, it was time to get up and complete our drive to Kansas City.  It really was only about 30-45 minutes away, but we couldn't get in our hotel there on Saturday night.  Sunday we checked into our hotel:

It was awesome and it even had a water park inside of our hotel.

See that big green bucket on the top?  Well it dumps out 1000 gallons of water every 5 minutes on unsuspecting guests who happen to walk by.  This is what it looks like:

I have a picture of me and my sister standing under the water, but unfortunately it is turned sideways and I still haven't figured that one out... ha.

We did eat some BBQ, not my favorite but whatever.  You do what you gotta do.  :)  We ate at Arthur Bryants, and they didn't have chicken, which is my preference, so I ended up with pork:

oh and this next picture cracks me up.  We were going back to our room when my dad said something about how bad my hair looked, so I had to take a picture to see it....  This is what you look like after having that bucket dump on your head 3 times:

Notice the "Thumbs- up" in the bottom. haha.  All for the blog, my friends.  Who else puts pictures of themself with no makeup and crazy hair?  Um me haha.  all for your laughing pleasure.

And this trip helped me check one thing off of my 30 before 30 list.  I have never been to Kansas before, so that checks off #26, visit a new state.

One down, 29 to go.

30 before 30

So I recently turned 25.  In honor of my birthday, I decided to make a list of 30 things to do before I turn 30.  Here they are in no particular order.  (and some are strange/dumb but really, you try to come up with 30 attainable things to do, and then we'll talk.)

1. Get Married
2. Finish all the cookie recipes in my first cookie cookbook (500+ recipes)
3. Get a job I actually enjoy
4. Get to my goal weight
5. Finish the cake decorating classes that I started
6. Get a new car
7. Get a master's degree
8. Get a pet
9. Become a regular volunteer at Stone Soup
10. Learn how to mow the yard
11. Read the whole Bible
12. Learn to sew
13. Remember to bring my reusable bags to the grocery store on a regular basis
14. Get into the habit of flossing my teeth everyday (maybe TMI?)
15. Run (not walk) a 5K
16. Get a pedicure
17. Get eyebrows threaded
18. Be a bridesmaid in someone's wedding
19. Go to some sort of "pick your own" farm
20. Learn to parallel park without looking like an idiot
21. Go deep sea fishing
22. Attend my high school reunion
23. Take a picture with someone famous
24. Be truly 100% surprised
25. Ride in a helicopter
26. Visit a new state
27. Visit a new country
28. Ride a horse
29. Make a good meringue
30. See Beth Moore in person

So that is my list.  If you want to help me do anything on this list, let me know!  And technically I have already done one of these last weekend when I was on vacation, so I will talk about that one in my next post.

Show us your life- My Dining Room

Today I am participating (for the first time ever!!) in Kelly's Show Us Your Life Tour.  Today's topic is dining rooms.  My dining room is not all that spectacular, but I'll show it to you anyway.  And please excuse any dirt on the floor... forgot to vacuum before taking the pictures.  Oh well, this is what it actually looks like.

This is the view from the kitchen.  My books and laptop are not normally on the table, but I just had finished taking an exam last night when I took these pictures.  Although I must say that I have probably sat at that table with my computer many more times than with a plate of food.  That is sad.  Maybe I will have to start eating at the table.  I am just simply not home a lot around meal times because I just have so much going on.  I was very lucky when I moved into my house to have so much hand-me-down furniture.  The only things in this room that I actually bought are that plate on the baker's rack (which we will talk about later) and the curtain rod and curtains.  Well and I guess technically my laptop and textbook, but those don't belong in the dining room.

This is the view from the living room:

My aunt and uncle gave me that table when their business closed.  My mom bought me that awesome light hanging above the table.  I wish I would have taken a picture of the awful chandelier that was hanging there before I moved in.  I actually gave it to my cousin Megan to hang in her room because apparently that is the cool thing to do, but it ended up getting broken before they could hang it up (something about wild little brothers, I think).  And I just now noticed the weird shadows on the floor from the chairs.  I promise my carpet doesn't have weird stripes in it. ha.

When I moved in to this house in April, it had some oh so lovely vertical blinds hanging over that door, which leads to the back yard that I think I have been in 3 times since I moved in.  I thought they were ugly, but it wasn't bothering me too much until the stick thing broke off, and when I tried to open the blinds using my hand, it cut my finger pretty bad.  So that was the end of the vertical blinds.  These curtains were on sale at Target.

This is probably my most prized possession in the dining room:

It is a plate that I got in Tlaquepaque, which I must say is my favorite town ever to say.  I went there in March on a trip with my International Business Class; and were in Guadalajara for 9 days.  It was a fun time!
Anyway I saw this plate and I was like oh I really like it but I don't know if it would make my suitcase over the weight limit plus it might break and blah blah blah trying to talk myself out of it.  Well, we ended up walking by it again and I just loved it, so I had to buy it.  And then one of my classmates wanted to buy it from me for even more than I paid to give to his fiance to complete her collection or something like that, but I was mean and didn't take the deal.  I even found this plate stand there in Guadalajara as well.  I just really stinking love this plate!!! (although the relection in this picture does look kind of weird.)  Oh and while we were shopping at another place I found a serving fork and serving spoon that are pewter that have this same pattern.  I haven't actually used them but they are good to look at!

Well that's my dining room!  I hope to one day put down hardwood floors on this level (entry way, living room, dining room, kitchen), but that will have to wait a little while.