Things that Made me Happy Today!

50% off of all Christmas decor here:


These little grocery carts. I just love them! They're the perfect size in between the regular cart and the basket. Genius!


I also love that the holidays bring out special, once a year food treats!



What made you happy today?

November's NEW

For my new for November, I attended a book signing!

If you know me, you know that I'm definitely not quite the book type. I love children's books and board books, but that's about it. I have recently found a new affection for cookbooks so I guess you could say that I am broadening my horizons! But don't hold your breath...I probably won't be cracking open Twilight any time soon.

I've been following a really fun blog called Cake Wrecks. You really have to go check it out. She basically makes fun of professional cakes. Go check out the site before you pass judgement...it's really hysterical! Here's a couple to whet your appetite:



Remember, these are PROFESSIONAL cakes! Someone paid money for these!! Yikes!

OK, on to the book signing.

My friend, Becky and I got there about 45 minutes early.

Just in time to grab the last few chairs. Good thing. The funniest part was the people watching!

This was the only one I got but trust me, there were puh-lenty of other characters there. The best was the husband who was sitting on the floor in front of us...popping zits on her back! Yep, you read that right. Disgusting.

After a little shpeal from Jen Yates and her husband John, we waited in line to get her to sign and get a picture.


At each of her signings, she has a contest where people replicate some of their favorite wrecks. Here were some that showed up last night.




But one of the best parts was the good cake! She also invites local bakers to come and bring some of their best work to share with everyone. So while we waited in line, we feasted on some yummy cake!



Afterwards, we were starving! This is where we ended up:


It was a lot of fun! Now, we can't wait for the next book signing!!

Halloween '09

So can you guess what I am??


"Peace & Quiet"

Peace = me as the hippie Quiet = the mime head

The original idea was a couples costume. One dresses up like a hippie and the other one dresses up like a mime. I improvised a little and put the mime's head on a popsicle stick. Sorry, I can't take credit for the idea, but I can't remember where I got it from. One of those halloween costume websites.

Happy Halloween!

October NEW

My new for this month is something that I'm pretty excited about!

I was hired to write some curriculum!

A friend of mine works at one of the best companies for christian curriculum, ReThink. He asked me to write some activities for their Core Essential curriculum. Core Essentials is used in the school setting to teach character values. I got to write the activities for RESPECT.

I'll also be writing some more in the next few months. It was neat to think that somewhere, some teacher is going to use the activities that I came up with!!

Birthday to Remember

My birthday was this week. Woo-hoo! It still hurts to say it, but I'm 33 years old. [The same age that Jesus was when he died, mind you]. My mom's church was hosting a "concert" the same day as my birthday. I use the word concert loosely. You'll understand why a little later. My mom was working at it and she thought I might like to go.

A concert on my birthday? Why not?!

The group performing was a trio of girls. My mom thought I might know them. Why? I don't know. She told me they were a young group of girls...maybe late 20's.

You tell me.

Well, let me just give a description of the night in pictures:

This little old lady was one of the first people we saw walking into the concert. You think she's there to here some 20 year olds?!?! Yikes!


We had to fill out information cards. Look at the age I had to check: "31-50" I'm in the same category as 50 year olds?!?! What?



They did serve dinner at the concert so that was nice. Cupcakes were the dessert and my sister brought candles. Awww...


I won a gift basket! Don't be jealous.


Beloved "rockin'" the house. Another term I use loosely.


After the concert, Mandi and I had to make a pit stop before our long ride home.

This is what we found inside:

Huh?? What kind of church is this?


Good times were had by all!

Contest

Like to read? Go to Violet Fig to win a book!!

September NEW

This new years resolution of doing something new every month is really beginning to get hard! This month's NEW was not very exciting, but..hey, it is new!

I tried a new recipe! I know, I know...try to contain yourself.

Cheesy Chicken Pot Pie

Doesn't this just look like a great fall time meal?! I was; however, a little disappointed. Not necessarily because of the meal, but of some mistakes I made. The biggest mistake was that I didn't let it cook long enough. Make sure it gets a real golden brown on top. And then, for some reason, I couldn't find just a normal, ordinary veggie mix. They were all some kind of specialty and the most normal one I could find was for gumbo. So I would definitely change that next time.

But the Velveeta cheese makes it yummy to the tummy! Kids would love this. Who doesn't love veggies smothered in cheese?!