Light up the night

So I obviously have been slacking in the blogging department! There is so much going on and I will catch up later but I wanted to post this one before I forgot. Yesterday my coworker Casey and I did the Light Up The Night 5k through downtown Little Rock. I am proud that I ran the whole race. I was not super fast- but at least I didn't stop. That was my goal. I wanted to blog my time so that I can remember it for the future as a comparison. I was the 119th female finisher with a time of 39:39. Hopefully my next one will be faster, but I am still proud of myself. The race is at night and you are supposed to wear Christmas lights. I also had reindeer antlers, but it was so windy that I mainly just carried them.

Thankful 21!

Today I am thankful that my dad and brother cut down a big, ugly, dead tree in my back yard.  I was planning to pay someone to come cut it down, but my brother and dad came over today while I was at work and took care of it.  I appreciate saving that extra money!!!  I was nervous about them doing it because this particular tree was surrounded on three sides with a power line, my house, and my deck.  Luckily nobody was injured and nothing got broken!!  Anybody need some firewood?  :)

Thankful 20

Today I am thankful that I don't know what it is like to be truly hungry. I'm thankful that I was able to get most of the things for my Christmas baking (except perishables obviously) today. And also that I had the financial ability to get whatever food I wanted. I have gotten pretty bad about going out for lunch instead of bringing my lunch to save money. That is something I am going to try to work on to not be wasteful in my spending.

Thankful 19

Today I am thankful that I had plenty of work to do at the office today. I was kind of afraid that the thanksgiving holiday would slow things down to an excruciating pace, but it actually was quite pleasant.

Thankful 18

Today I am thankful that I got to go to dinner with my great great aunt speedy on her 89th birthday. By the time you are 89, you don't really need a lot of things! I got her some hazelnut cookies (those spiral ones that I can't think of the name) and I made her some peanut butter cookies. She always asks me to make her peanut butter cookies, so I thought this would be a good opportunity.

Thankful 17

Today I am thankful for relaxing Saturdays with nothing on the schedule!  I got a lot done- all the laundry, raked the front yard, ate dinner/visited my grandma, set up handbells for tomorrow's church service, and started another Christmas present project.  I can't tell you what it is, because it is for someone who reads this blog.  :)  I just hope that they like it because it is taking FOREVER and has resulted in many many MANY glue gun burns.  Ha!  I hope it turns out, but so far I think it looks amazing.  I may have to make one for myself too- but maybe I should go get some regular glue first so I don't have to keep using the glue gun!

Thankful 16

Today I am thankful for whoever swept the trail I run on! There has been an over abundance of pine needles on the trail, which was kind of pretty. However, I am pretty clumsy and was always a little scared that I would slip and fall. It does look a little strange now.

Thankful 15

Today I am thankful for my local alpha delta pi alumnae association. We met up for dinner tonight and I always enjoy seeing both old and new friends. It is a group of all different ages, which I appreciate! And today we collected items for the Ronald McDonald house here in our town. Hopefully it will be just the items that they needed!

Thankful 14

Today I'm thankful that I didn't get in trouble over my pumpkin pie balls!  Actually, nobody really cared at all.  Even the director of the agency came down and had one- and she didn't care.  I was pretty nervous about that part.  :)

I'm also thankful that I got a lot of work done today without any major issues!

Thankful 24 hour Kroger

Today I am thankful that Kroger is open 24 hours! I have a potluck tomorrow at work and I ran out of candy coating when I was halfway through my pecan pie balls.

I am a little nervous- I tasted one of the pecan pie balls, and it was gross to me. The alcohol is a little more prominent than I thought it would be. There is not very much in there at all but you can smell it. So I want to ask one of my coworkers who I trust tomorrow if she thinks it is too much for work or not. I bought some pecan pie tarts for a backup plan and I can send the pecan pie balls home with some of my coworkers if necessary. I also think that the pecan pie balls are too salty. I'm glad I forgot to put the salt on top... Oh well- we will see how it goes tomorrow.

Thankful. Clothes

Today I am thankful that I have never been in need of clothes. Today I donated two bags of dresses (and a couple of tops) to charity because they no longer fit due to my weight loss. So I am also thankful for that!

Thankful- Veterans

Today I am thankful for our veterans.  I don't actually know too many people in active service now, but I am grateful that we have holidays to remind us to think about others and their sacrifices for our freedom.

Thankful 10

Today I'm thankful that I finally found some chocolate covered pomogranates!  And that I was able to keep myself from eating the whole bag tonight!  :)

I am also thankful that I have coworkers who will bring me ingredients I need for our work Thanksgiving potluck so that I don't have to buy a whole bottle for a small amount!

Thankful

So apparently this blogger app has been eating my posts and also rearranging them. Oh well- I hope you read them before they got deleted.

Today I am thankful that tonight is Asbury night at the UALR Trojans basketball game and I get free tickets. This will be my first UaLR game to attend, which is kind of sad since that is where I got my masters degree...

Thankful- Voting!

Obviously today is election day.  I am thankful that I live in a country in which all citizens have the right to vote.  I am also thankful for those who fought for the right to vote for women!  I did not vote in the last presidential election.  I don't really feel that who the president is greatly affects my daily life.  I'm not on government assistance, and I don't make millions of dollars.  However, a couple of my coworkers made me feel like a bad American for not voting.  So I looked up the candidates, and did some research.  Today was my first time to vote in a polling place.  I voted in the 2004 election when I was in college- but it was absentee.

I am disappointed in many of my facebook friends because of some really hateful comments.  I believe that we can disagree and still be respectful.  Granted, some of the people running for office may be idiots, and may have said inappopriate things, but I just hate how rude so many people are being.  The whole election process always ends up so negative.  I would much prefer to hear why I should vote for someone, instead of nasty remarks about why I should not vote for someone.

And no matter who wins today, I like this quote that I saw floating around the internet.  If only we could remember this:

Thankful- Razorback Basketball

Today I am thankful that I can watch the Razorback basketball team take on Lemoyne-Owen for free online!  Although my computer is having a hard time streaming the video.... it keeps overheating.  I can't wait until Christmas when I hopefully won't have to use this computer anymore!

I sure love my Razorbacks, especially when I can watch a non-televised game for free!

Woo Pig Sooie! 

I'm pretty sure we're going to win this one.  Hopefully our basketball team will fare better than our football team this year. 

Thankful- handy brother

Today I am thankful for my handy brother who helps me around my house when he is in town and mows my yard. This weekend he drilled holes and shortened some screws so that I could make this set of jars for my bathroom. This is a Pinterest project- turning spaghetti sauce jars into pretty little jars to hold little things. Mine hold hair items and cotton swabs.

Thankful- business trip

Today I am thankful for the business trip that ended today. I am thankful that the trip took me to Fayetteville where I was able to see my brother Kyle and my friend Lyndsey. We had a nice hotel and we had a decent time. Not too bad for a business trip. Too bad the hogs weren't playing while I was there!!

Thankful- Card Ministry

Today I am thankful for the card ministry at my church.  We meet once a month on a Friday evening and make cards for various occasions for people in the life of our church.  We also make Christmas cards to sell to raise money for the supplies we need to make the cards during the year.

I have made some great friends, and we always have a fun time chatting while we make the cards and afterwards when we go out to dinner.  I love the creative outlet- even if I do always volunteer for the easy jobs, such as cutting straight lines.  I feel like I am being creative, although I certainly have instruction.

I look forward to our meetings each month!

Thankful

I hope this works! I just downloaded a blogging app and I am trying to post from my phone. Hopefully I can be better about blogging more consistently since I always have my phone with me.

So here is what I want to do. I've been in kind of a funk lately and I want to be thankful for all the things I do have instead of worrying about what I want but don't have. What better time than the month of November to focus on being thankful? So each day in November, I am going to try to post something that I am thankful for- in no particular order.

Today I am thankful for my new iPhone 5! I have been anxiously awaiting its arrival for the past three weeks! I know that is a very superficial thing... But it makes me happy! And my old phone was wearing out and the home button kept going out, which was very frustrating!

I'm having a fun time playing with my new toy!

Fall Festivities

The first "fall" activity that I did was go to the Arkansas State Fair!  I really didn't want to go, but my mom wanted to see Kansas.  Obviously calorie counting was thrown out the window on fair day.  First up was dinner- loaded cheese fries.  Delicious.  Look at all the grease... ha!

Then for dinner- a Red Velvet Funnel Cake.  And a hot chocolate- because it was freaking cold!

 

I was dissapointed in the funnel cake- it reminded me of a bandaid.  I think the idea of a funnel cake was much better than the real thing.  The cream cheese icing on it was pretty good.

 

Here's a really bad picture of Kansas.

 

 

Then, I went to a Pumpkin Patch about 45 minutes away.  It was really awesome (and I got a great deal on DealChicken), except for the fifty million bees that were hanging around the food area.  Aparently bees really like snow cones.  Here I am in the pumpkin patch.

 

 

Two of the pumpkins we got:

 

 

The pumpkin that my sister designed (and I carved):

 

 

The pumpkin I carved for my brother:

 

 

There was a small crisis with this pumpkin, which was for the party at his school.  I accidentally busted out the bottom of the "H" when I was carving.  I finally got some toothpicks in there so that I could get everything back in place, but I was freaking out for a few minutes. 

 

My Sunday School class had a Halloween party.  I made these pretzels with a Hug and candy corn melted on there.  It was amazing.  I got the idea from Pinterest of course.

 

 

I also made these witch fingers (chocolate covered pretzels).  The fingernail was made from an almond. I got this idea from Pinterest also.  I think they turned out great.

 

 

The only thing that I didn't like about how they turned out was the knuckles.  I tried to draw the knuckles on with a toothpick right after I got done dipping all of them, and it was too runny to set.  So I put them in the fridge for a while- and when I got them out, they were too hard and the toothpick wouldn't even make a mark in the chocolate.

 

This was my costume: Honey Boo Boo!

 

 

My mom refashioned my old prom dress to make it shorter and fluffier.  And I wrote Honey Boo Boo on my sash just in case people didn't know who I was.  I borrowed a pig from my friend's daughter to be Glitzy the pig, and my mom made Glitzy a tutu.  My grandmother rolled my hair in foam rollers and I had som crazy curly hair.  The crown was fabulous... but I lost it in the mud run.  I was too tired to deal with my hair after the party, so I decided to leave it that way for the run.  Here I am- Half Mud Runner, Half Honey Boo Boo!

 

 

This is me, Shannon, and Casey before the run:

 

 

And here we are after the run (with Kathy now):

 

 

The Mud Run was super fun.  I did not know that there was also mud at the beginning- I thought there was only the mud at the end.  Also there was a hay bale obstacle.  I did not do as well in the running as I had hoped.  I have a lot more training to do before the 10K in March!  At the end, the mud pit had a mud mountain that we had to climb.  The guys helping us climb the mountain also conveniently helped us slide face first down the mountain.  That is where I got the messiest.  And then my foot got stuck in the mud.  Like all the way to my knee stuck in the mud.  That was hilarious.  I was pulling my leg from under my thigh and one of my friends got a hold by my knee and it took us quite a while to pull me out.  I had a good time and I think I will take my sister next year.

 

The mud run was at 9:00 in the morning, and the Razorbacks were taking on Ole Miss on the complete opposite side of town at 11:21.  So I rushed home from the Mud Run and took a shower and then hurried to the game.  I made it there about 1/3 through the first quarter.  I was exhausted so the game was not as fun as usual. And then the Hogs lost at the last second.  It was sad.

 

And I forgot the sunscreen.  This is what happened:

 

Raccoon eyes.  Awesome. 

 

Does Honey Boo Boo have raccoon eyes?  Because I'm dressing up again on Wednesday for work... and this is what my face looks like.  Even with a ton of makeup on, you can still see the sunburn.  Oh well.  The life of having fair skin.  This is the second bad sunburn I have had in two weeks.  You would think I would learn my lesson...

The Color Run- Memphis style

A couple of weeks ago, I went to the Color Run in Memphis with my friends Shannon and Kathy.

 

Here we are waiting at the start line.  It wasn't really crowded at this point, but it filled up fast.  We were a little early- like 2 hours early. :)  Between myself and Shannon, we were not going to be late.  We had to get there early to pick up our race packets, and we severely overestimated the number of people who would also be getting their packets.

 

We took a picture right after we finished the race.  We finished in about 34ish minutes (give or take since we forgot to look at the clock when we finished until after we had a water break), so I was proud of us.  Not too shabby, especially since I was not where I wanted to be in my training.

 

After the race, there was a color festival.  That is where I definitely got the most colorful.  Here's an action shot-  I was trying to take a video but obviously that didn't happen.

 

 

This is what my face looked like when we got back to the hotel:

 

 

It took about 3 showers before I finally got all the color off of my skin.  My shoes still are a little colored, but just enough that they look dingy.  :/  Oh well. 

 

The water stations at the race were very interesting to me.  They had a hose connected to the fire hydrants, and then into these ice chests (I'm thinking a filter maybe?) and then into the dispenser.  It was neat.  The first cup I had was tasty- but then the second cup tasted like a cup full of chlorine.   Luckily by the end of the race, I think all the kinks had been worked out and it tasted fine when we really needed the water.

 

The Color Run is coming to Little Rock soon, and I haven't decided if I am going to do it again or not.  It was a super fun time in Memphis, but it also was very tiring.  I'm sure the one in Little Rock would not be as bad since I would not have to drive 2 hours there and 2 hours back, and also we wouldn't have to be rushed to get checked out of the hotel in time.  We got to the race 2 hours early and then stayed for a while afterward for the color festival.  So I haven't made up my mind yet, but I am glad that the Color Run is coming to Little Rock so all of my friends who couldn't make the trip to Memphis are able to participate!

September & Part of October

Football season started!  I love football.

My sister and I went to an Arkansas Traveler's baseball game. 

The Hogs played at War Memorial stadium.  It was a very embarrassing loss to ULM.  We will not talk about that.  Here's a picture of me and my grandmother.

 

Also during the game weekend, I was without power for 3 days.  I was mainly mad that I was going to have to throw out a lot of food.  I could deal without a hairdryer.  Although it would have been nice to have the air conditioner too.

 

My liver tests came back perfect two times in a row.  Hallelujah!

 

I discovered Candy Corn Oreos.  They are amazing.  And bad for my diet.

 

My family went to Kansas City for my sister's school break, and my brother and I met them there for the weekend.  On the way, I got to see my bff Lyndsey and her son.  It was good to catch up, and of course eat at my old college favorite restaurant.

 

 

We ate at Arthur Bryant's one meal- nothing there sounded good.  I sometimes can't even handle the thought of meat, and this was the worst day for that!  This is what I ended up with for dinner- it has carrots!  :)

 

 

My office had our annual picnic.  The theme was Mardi Gras.  One of the competitions was a "float" contest.  I was on the float team for my division, and since I work in the water division, we went for an aquarium theme.  Please keep in mind that we had to use a wagon as the base and as many recyclable or reused items as possible.

 

 

We were the proud winners.  Our prize was a pizza party and a cool trophy.

 

 

I went to a bachelorette party for this sweet girl.  And I almost got abducted walking back to my car, but that's a fun story for another day.

 

 

And then she got married.

 

 

How about the beginning of October too?!?  Ya'll I am finally getting caught up.

 

So my garage door broke.  Three times.  In one week.  Including on my birthday.  It was very frustrating, but hopefully I am done playing fix the garage door for a long time.  It has cost me about $500 in the past couple of months.

 

I ate cake and ice cream for breakfast on my birthday.

 

I turned 27.  (Hopefully I will remember to do a 30 before 30 update soon.) We ate more cake.

 

I went to Scott and Amanda's wedding at the Arkansas Arts Center.  I didn't take any pictures.

 

I got my case for my iPhone 5.  Too bad I still don't have the actual phone.  Hopefully it will get delivered soon.

 

 

I am looking for a case to hold the iPhone 5 while I run.  I don't want to take off this case.  Any ideas?  I haven't found anything yet.

 

I also got a new turqoiuse, yellow, and grey chevron comforter that same day.  I guess I'm liking the chevron these days.

 

Today I did the Color Run in Memphis.  It was an amazingly colorful and fun day.  I took a million pics though, so maybe I'll do a whole post later on the race!

August... two months later

Are you seeing the theme here?  Wait FOREVER before you post about what you did ages ago??

Anyway- August.

Facebook is telling me that my most visited place in August was the doctor's office.  How's that for exciting.  Ha!

Y'all- ok so I am reliving some scary stuff on my facebook right now.  There was this really creepy wasp that was stalking me.  I'm not really a fan of bugs/insects/whatever a wasp is.  And this crazy thing was parked right outside my bedroom door, trying to attack me whenever I went out.   I was doing laundry and so I have to leave my room a couple of times, but luckily he didn't get me.  I had to turn out the hall light and so I rigged up a hanger to reach the light switch to keep as much of my body inside my bedroom as possible.  Then the next morning when I left for work, he was still sitting there right outside my door waiting to get me.  I've never made it out the door so fast. Ha!  I stopped by the store that day and got some wasp spray, and he hasn't been seen again.  Now that I am armed with my wasp spray, I'll be ready if he should ever come back.  :)

I made some cheddar tomato soup, and dumped it all in my bed.  Smart, right?

A strip of grass in my dad's neighborhood caught on fire behind his house (and 5 others).  It was a crazy time.  No damage to anything but grass and a fence, thank goodness.  But it was definitely scary.  An electrical pole sparked and caused the fire.

I started watching Honey Boo Boo- and so did several others in my office.  We had some interesting conversations every Thursday morning...  (and I'm totally going to be Honey Boo Boo for Halloween.  Hopefully I can find my old prom dress!)

I chaperoned a group of kids to Wild River Country.  It was not nearly as chaotic as I thought it would be.  It was kind of a trip down memory lane since we would go there all the time with my daycare when I was a kid in the summers.

I got in my first real accident.  Luckily there was not much damage and everyone was fine.  Unfortunately it happened at the exit from the church parking lot right after church got out.  So practically everyone saw it...  I had to get a new front license plate, but other than that, not too bad.

I used a port-a-potty for the first time in my adult life.  I was running on the trail behind my office, and I decided that I couldn't make it back to my car, so I had to tough it out.  That was a terrible, nasty experience that I hope to not repeat for a very long time.  Even at Riverfest. 

I made a very quick trip to Fayetteville so my cousin to have a campus tour of the University of Arkansas, my alma mater.  It is always fun to be in Fayetteville.  It was also bid day for sororities, so we went up and I got to see some of my sorority sisters that I haven't seen in a while.

<>  First.  Finest.  Forever.  <>

Glittery, chevron, pink.  Perfect letters.  Ha!

We went to the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville.  I'm not a big fan of paintings and such, but I like to look as sculptures. This one reminded me of pinnochio.

 

I finally got some Razorback running shorts that I was wanting.  And they were even 25% off, which is even better!

 

I started playing this year's fantasy football league at my office.  I have only won one game, so I think I am going to be the laughing stock.  :)  Oh well, it is all for fun right?  Hopefully I will win this week, because the girl I am playing has an even worse record than me.  :)

 

I officially lost 20 pounds.  You have no idea how happy I am about that.  Unfortunately, I really haven't lost much more than that now.  But every little bit counts.  I got my calories recalculated today, and although that stinks because I have to be even more cautious of what I eat, I know that it will help the weight keep coming off.  I would like to lose 15 more pounds if possible.  Already I can tell a big difference in how I feel and how my blood work has improved.  And once football season is over, it will be easier to lose I think!  I am not counting calories on the weekends because I refuse to not eat tailgating food or game day food.  And there is more to life than calorie counting...  I am over my calories today, and not just a little.  We went out to dinner to Pei Wei to celebrate my birthday, and I ate what I wanted.  Who cares?  :) 

 

Anyway, that was August.  September's coming up next!

My friends Michelle and Melissa

Today I'm linking up with Kelly for Show Us Your Singles Day!

I have two beautiful friends (inside and out) to introduce today: Michelle and Melissa.  And I totally stole these pictures from their facebooks.... sorry friends.  :)  That should also explain the picture quality...

This is Michelle:

I have known Michelle for the past 8 (ish) years since we were both in the same sorority at the University of Arkansas.  Michelle is 25 and from Benton, AR.

She is a nurse and is a fun girl!  She is always up for anything and is super outgoing.   She has recently gotten into running which is something we are both just getting started into- mainly 5k's like the Color Run- which is coming up soon and I am super excited!


This is Melissa:

I have known Melissa for the past 4 (ish) years through some mutual friends.  She is 33 and is also from Benton, AR.

Melissa is an occupational therapist and a fellow Razorback fan.  She is a fun tailgating buddy.  :)  She has this crazy dog named Masai who is the center of her world right now.   We have been in a Bible study together for a long time, but we are not this time so I don't get to see Melissa as often as before.  We always have a good time together.

This is me and Melissa in Eureka Springs when we went on a ghost tour of the Cresent Hotel (for the record I was scared to do it and the rest of my friends made me do it!):

Writing about my friends is harder than I thought!  I considered writing about myself too, but in the end decided against it.  But this is my blog and there is a lot of stuff about me on here- just scroll down!  Ha!

Both of these girls are super fun and I would love to be a part of helping them find somebody!  If you are interested, or know someone who might be a good match, please leave a comment! 

A little bit closer to being caught up

And here we go again.  :)

My coworker posted this picture on my facebook wall, so I had to print it out and make a decoration to hang on my cubicle.  This cracked me up.  I just happened to have a little Arkansas scrapbook paper and ribbon leftover from a previous project, so this happened:

 

I had a Bachelorette Finale watch party at my house on a whim.  Because you know, once something is on facebook, it is official. Ha.  I invited a ton of people, and it was good that a lot of people I invited were watching somewhere else because I thought after I invited all those people that I didn't have enough room in my house for that many people!  Ha!  I found some free Bachelorette printables online, so of course I had to make cupcake toppers!

 

 

Obviously there were more cupcakes than this- these are just the ones that wouldn't fit in my cupcake holder.

 

The question of the day:

 

I was Team Arie.  Oh well.  And you can't have a Bachelorette watch party without roses!  Duh! :)

 

I may have bought a few too many veggies.  Oh well- they were colorful!  And tasty- I had raw veggies in my lunch for many days after this!

 

I also made some brownie batter dip that I found on pinterest.  It was amazing.  I took the leftovers to work twice and shared with my coworkers at lunch, and they all loved it too.  Probably not that healthy- but delicious.  And it just so happened that the punch I made matched the drink bucket.  It was accidental, but cute.

 

 

I bought this peacock shirt from The Limited a while back before I lost weight, and I didn't get a lot of wear out of it.  It was not terribly expensive, but definitely not cheap.  I love it and just never wore it alot for some reason.  But now I am wearing it alot, even though it is a little too big now.  I love peacock colors!

 

 

While we are on the self portrait kick.... here's another.  I bought this shirt at the Fayetteville visitor's center.  It was actually a little too small when I got it, but it fits now, woo!

 

 

And one more, just for laughs.  This one is from when I was at the eye doctor and my eyes were dilated.  I was really freaking bored as they left in there for a long time, so this is how I was entertaining myself:

 

 

Technically I went to the eye doctor on August 1, but we can pretend that happend in July.  Close enough right?  The funny thing with this appointment is that I was glad it was in the mid-morning so that I could sleep in- I wasn't going to go into work for a short time and then drive back past my house to go to the hospital.  But- I forgot about my appointment until I was already at work at 7am.  No sleeping in for me!  But I did at least remember in time to make it to my appointment.  Finally caught up with July!  An August post is coming soon and then I will be caught up!

Rewind to July

Blogging this far behind is really hard.  I'm having to raid my facebook to remember what all happened.

Looks like I went to see Magic Mike with my friends Karen and Ashley.  I was supposed to dog sit for my friend Cherry, but the dogs got sick and I had to board them instead.  That worked out better for me anyway- less work.  Ha.  But on the downside, there was some ex drama.  Of course.  Somehow we just can't manage to get along.  Something about not doing what you tell me you are going to do just pisses me off.  :)

I found a freaking scorpion in my garage!!! I knew that we have them in Arkansas, but I like to pretend that we don't.  I've never seen one in real life, so all I knew was from the movies and such, where they kill you.  I didn't know if their stinger could go through your shoes or not, so I thought it might be a bad idea to step on it.  So I threw my shoe at it- and of course missed!  Those suckers are fast.  But I got him on my second try.  Luckily I have not seen any more.  I did look it up on the internet, and it appears that the one in Arkansas will not kill you.  Good to know- but I'm still going to throw my shoe at the next one I see anyway.

I went to the lake with my family.  That is not my favorite place to be, but I tried to make the best of it.  My aunt and I took a half day excursion to the outlet mall about 45 minutes away from the lake and I scored some pretty good deals, including a dress and necklace from Banana Republic that I'm pretty sure people are getting sick of seeing since I wear it so often!

I made these chocolate covered strawberries.  They were a big hit.  Definitely making them again next year!  I got the idea from Pinterest- can't take credit for this one.

I made a "secret" cake and wouldn't tell anyone about it.  I also got this recipe from pinterest.  Here's what it looked like on the outside:

 

And here's the inside:

I was super excited about this cake!!! :)

 

We had a cactus dog competition.  Apparently my dad and sister went to an air show and they had cactus dogs, which was a hot dog that was cut and then boiled so that it looked like a cactus.  So we had to have a competition.  This was my entry:

I was going for pickle relish to make the cactus green, and the crackers were supposed to be sand.  I either won or got runner up, the judging was kind of sketchy since it was coming from an 8 year old.  I think the winner changed a couple of times.

I tried a chocolate chip cookie dough popsicle recipe from Pinterest.  It was not my fav but my sister liked them.  I think I want to try more popsicle recipes with juice or something for the base instead of milk.

My car had it's first birthday.  Everyone was making fun of me and asking how in the world I remembered that.  I actually didn't remember- the car dealership sent me a happy birthday email. Ha!

I got some fancy new running shoes.   The jury is still out on if they help or not.  They have more support in them than I am used to, and I think it feels kind of weird. 

My sister and I went to the skating rink with my friend Mary and two of her kids.  I had a Groupon that included our admission plus pizza and soda.  Let me just warn you- do not order pizza at the skating rink.  It was so disgusting that we could not even give it away to teenagers. 

I got a new garage door opener.  I was really trying to tough it out and deal with the one I had, but its little attitude finally got to me.  It would just decide when it wanted to work or not, and the day I had to manually open and close the door to get to work was the last straw.  I absolutely love my new one.  It is so quiet and has a motion detecting light and kid smashing sensors and all that.  I only wish I would have gotten it sooner.  oh well.  Better late than never?

I am clumsy.  I often spill things.  Especially my water at work.  One day I spilled water all over the papers on my desk, and right into my lap.  My pants looked like I peed myself, and my chair was so wet that I had to stand to work for the last hour of the day.  At least I gave everyone a good laugh...

Another Pinterest project:

 

I met up with some other ladies in my area from my sorority to have a recommendation letter writing party.  I made these cupcakes.  Our sorority's colors are white and blue, so I wanted the cupcake liners to go along with that.  I had white liners, and then I saw something on Pinterest about dying the edges a different color with food coloring.  It was more difficult than I thought it would be, but I was very happy with the results.

 

This post is getting pretty long, so I think I will do the rest of the month another time in another post.