The Daily Life of a Dallas Wife

New Blog Site!!

2010-03-18T20:25:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone! I hope you are all doing well! I wanted to let you know that my new blog site, Lovely Little Ruffles, is finally up and ready to go! I will be blogging regularly from there now, so please stop by and say hi! :)

You know you want to....

PS - please don't forget to update your blogroll and google reader to http://lovelylittleruffles.wordpress.com Thanks so much!!

Jaipur Rug

2010-03-05T12:35:00.003-06:00

We are moving in April and I am getting excited about having a new place. I may or may not have just bought this Jaipur rug on Rue La La for my new kitchen. :) I have been wanting a new rug for my kitchen for a while now and this one is just perfect! The colors match perfectly to all of the colors we are already using in our kitchen. The good thing is that it is an indoor/outdoor rug, so if I don't like it in my kitchen (doubtful) I can always use it outside. It's a win win situation!!

If you aren't already shopping online with Rue La La, leave me a comment with your email address, or shoot me an email to diaryofmrsd {at} gmail {dot} com and I will send you an invite! :)

GEAUX SAINTS!!!

2010-02-09T12:20:00.003-06:00

My heart melted when I saw this photo! It's just so sweet!!

I am SO HAPPY the Saints won the super bowl!! They completely deserved it in my eyes! My family was going crazy while watching the big game. Especially my cousin who lives in NOLA, and even my Mom was sending me text messages! Haha.. there were lots of texts and fb updates the whole night! I can only imagine how crazy it's going to be down there for a while. My sister-in-law lives in NOLA and we haven't heard back from her yet. Maybe she is still out partying! Haha!

HELP!! Please :)

2010-01-18T18:53:00.002-06:00

Hey everyone! I am still alive in case you were wondering. :)

I do have a problem that I would like your help with. Due to technical issues with this blog, I am going to have to shut it down. Sad, yes, I know! However, I am starting a brand spankin' new blog so I can join all of you in the blogging world again. YAY!!

The problem is that I have come to a creative block when it comes to my new blog. Normally I don't have any problem, but today I am completely stumped. I am at a complete loss for what to name my new blog or my domain. If you all could send me ideas, thoughts, words, or anything really that would help to get my creative juices flowing, I would GREATLY appreciate it! You can also email me a diaryofmrsd@gmail.com if you wish to do so.

PS - I think I am going to be switching to wordpress... I'm not buying my own domain or anything like that at the moment, but I am going to make the switch most likely. Any comments about wordpress would be helpful as well.

Thank you so much!! I've missed blogging and I can't wait to be back!

Happy Birthday!!

2009-07-13T20:56:00.004-05:00

Happy Birthday to my Daddy! :)

I miss you every day, I love you, and I hope today was wonderful!

PS - We went and got grape snow cones today!! They were pretty good. :)
PPS - We all went to eat dinner for your birthday. That was pretty good too. :)

Is this normal?

2009-07-03T12:54:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I came home to this...

Is it normal for a cat to smash her face so far into the couch that her ears fold back? You really don't have to answer that because nothing with my cats is normal! Haha! Everyday is something new and exciting with them.

Wishful Thinking...

2009-07-02T11:18:00.004-05:00

I wanna go here and watch the sunrise again.

Who's with me?

I have had a super busy week! We are getting ready for the 4th of July party Saturday night! :) We also had a great trip home to visit family. I took my camera but didn't take any pictures. :( There is always next time, right? So what are you 4th of July plans?

100

2009-06-18T23:09:00.005-05:00

So this is my 100th post and I don't have anything super duper exciting for you all. (oops) :) Right now I am about to start packing because we are going home this weekend. It is pretty exciting because my uncle from Canada, my cousins that also live in the DFW area, my cousins that live in Lubbock, and my brother and sis-in-law will all be there. It will be so great to see everyone, especially the new addition to our family that was born in March and we will get to see him for the first time. :)

Now to be honest with you all..
I am so happy to be able to go see my family, but tonight the emotions have finally hit me and it really sucks. I am going home for the first time since my dads funeral and to top it off it is Father's Day this Sunday. :( I'm not trying to dwell on the situation. I am just being real. I know that I will be fine around my family and we will have lots of fun hanging out. Everything will be pretty much normal, and this weekend will end up being really fun. But on the flip side of things, I know where I have to go (the cemetery) and who wont be there to give me a big bear hug as soon as I pull up to the house. It really hurts, but I know it will all be okay. It's just hard getting past those new firsts. Meaning, the first Father's Day without my dad, and so on, and so on.

I'm sorry my blog seems to have been a little sad lately with all of the events happening in my life here lately. When I come back from this weekend, I promise I will be posting all of the pictures from what has been going on lately that is a little more upbeat. :)

I hope you all have a good weekend! Yay for 100 posts! :)

PS - I am looking forward to seeing this guy this weekend!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

2009-06-18T11:19:00.004-05:00

So here is a recipe for some NO BAKE cookies. They are super easy to make, and you don't even have to worry about dealing with the oven. My grandma used to always make them for Christmas, and my mom would make them occasionally too. You can find a recipe for them online, but my family has been using this recipe for at least 30+ years.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:
1 stick of butter
3 cups of sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 heaping tablespoons Hershey's Baking Cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
3 - 4 cups oatmeal

Directions:
melt stick of butter
add sugar, milk, and cocoa, stirring frequently
boil for 1 minute and turn off heat
add vanilla flavoring, peanut butter, and oatmeal
stir until all ingredients are mixed evenly
lay out wax paper or foil for cooling
spoon cookies onto wax paper/foil for cooling (about 30 minutes)

Note: This recipe makes more than 5 cookies. I forgot to take a picture until there were only 5 left.

My grandma would mold her cookies into little balls and my mom would just spoon them out into oval shapes. I on the other hand was on the phone the entire time I was making these, so mine just got blobbed off a big cooking spoon and that was how they were left to dry. :)

Creamy Garlic Penne Pasta = Yumm :)

2009-06-17T22:15:00.003-05:00

Okay so for the last three or four days I have been wanting to make some kind of penne pasta with garlic sauce. That doesn't sound too strange does it? Well, when you have never eaten it before, never made it before, and sure as heck don't have a recipe for it, I would say it's a little strange. So today when I got home from work I browsed the web for a recipe that was simple and quick.

Creamy Garlic Penne Pasta

Ingredients:
1 lb penne pasta
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 garlic cloves, minced **I bought already minced garlic, so it would be 1 tablespoon if you do it that way**
2 tablespoons flour
3/4 cup chicken broth
3/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons parsley flakes
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup parmesan cheese

Directions:
Cook penne pasta according to directions on box
In a medium saucepan, melt butter and garlic
Cook on medium for 1 minute
Add flour and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly **I used a whisk and it made it easier**
Add chicken broth and milk, stirring frequently until sauce boils and thickens
Add parsley flakes, salt, pepper, and cheese
Stir until cheese is melted
Toss hot pasta with sauce and serve immediately

Serving suggestion:
Serve with 4 cheese garlic breadsticks. yum :)

This really was super easy to make. I measured out all of my ingredients while waiting for the water to boil for the pasta. Once I started cooking the pasta, I made the sauce in the 10 minutes it took for the pasta to be ready. Quick, easy, and delicious!

Recipe found here.

Jealous

2009-06-16T12:00:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to let it be known that I am jealous of all you with HBO! Especially those of you watching True Blood to be exact!

A little over a year ago we got rid of our DirecTV because we don't watch enough TV to justify the cost of the service. Between school, work, and a social life, there really isn't much time left for TV. Most of the shows that I watch anyway come on ABC, FOX, NBC, etc so there isn't much need for tv service when I get all of those channels for FREE. :)

source

Buttttt.... now I am really wanting satellite again. I'm reading the Sookie Stackhouse books, and I bought season 1 of True Blood, and now everyone is watching season 2 but ME!! :(

I think I might be hitting up my sister-in-law's offer on coming to her house and watching her DVR. I just don't think I can wait another year for season 2 dvd's to come out.

I'll quit pouting now :)

Friends make the world go 'round :)

2009-06-16T01:20:00.003-05:00

I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU for all of your thoughts and prayers about the loss of my friend. The funeral was Saturday and then we had an after party at the bar. It might sound kind of strange, but it really was amazing having everyone there celebrating Aaron's life.

There was a slide show rolling for the majority of the time with pictures of Aaron and everyone else in the photo above. It was also probably the only time that crying was allowed and/or appropriate in a bar. It really was an amazing night. I don't really know what else to say, except that Aaron would have been glad that we sent him with a bang! :)

Life is hard.

2009-06-10T01:08:00.006-05:00

It is 1am after a very long day, and let me just tell you that Tuesday sucked.

After a very bad morning of not feeling well, but making it to work, I found out that one of my friends passed away this (tue) morning.

His name is Aaron, he is 25, he is a great person, and very well the most physically fit and athletic person I know. He actually just completed a triathlon in May to give you an idea of how physically fit he was.

He suffered cardiac arrest while working out at the rec center on campus. The employees performed CPR and contacted 911 who then rushed him to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.

I am 1000% shocked, and none of this seems real. It doesn't seem possible, and life right now is feeling very hard. I have been somewhat of a basket case on and off all day.

Aaron is the first person to pass since my dad died in December, and the fact that he died of cardiac arrest makes the whole situation worse. I have had friends and young people pass around me before, and it hurts, but I am usually okay. However, I have never personally known a young adult to die of cardiac arrest. As soon as I read those words, all of the feelings and emotions from my dad just came rushing back.

I know it's normal, and it will get better with time, blah, blah, blah. Right now I am just upset and confused. My husbands uncle just spent a week in the hospital from a heart attack, and one of my managers at work had a stroke last week.

There have been many other heart related issues with people in my family, my husbands family, and just people I know in general during the past year. Can we quit with the heart problems now? Really, I don't know how much I can handle.

So at this point I don't really know if I am upset about Aaron passing, or if it is mainly all of the feeling and emotions stirring up again from my dad passing away. I wish this was just a bad dream and everything will be normal when I wake up again. Except it won't and that really sucks.

I don't know when I will be back to the rec center on campus to work out (probably august), but I know that the next time I step foot in that building, I will think of Aaron. It won't happen purposefully, but it will happen.. I know myself pretty well. I also know that it will sadden me and most likely I will shed a tear (or ten) at knowing that I am benefiting from exercising on the very ground that my friend passed away on. That sucks too.

I don't want to start rambling, I just needed to get this out. If you are the praying kind, will you please pray for Aaron, his family, my friends, and me and my husband. We will miss him and I am so thankful that we randomly had lunch with him last week.

Life is unexpected.

The message that my dad left for me when he died was that there is a time and a place for everything.

I guess it was Aaron's time, and I hope he is in a wonderful place.

I took this picture of him at our groups Halloween party. He was J.D. from Scrubs :)

tired...

2009-05-18T06:38:00.003-05:00

That pretty much sums me up this morning! I ended up only getting 3 hours of sleep last night. Now I'm trying to wake myself up so I will make it through the 4 hours of marketing I signed up for. Joy. The I get a 2 hour break, which at this point I think I will take a nap, before heading up to my first day back at work! I know I will make it once I get up, and I already know everything at work since I took my old position back at a brand new location. Until then, my eyelids feel like they weigh 1000 lbs. Oh, and lets not forget the sneezing and itchy eyes as a added bonus. Yay allergies!

Sorry if none of this makes sense.. I'm fairly certain I am still asleep. I hope you all have a good Monday!

Funny!

2009-05-14T16:45:00.003-05:00

So my friend posted this link on facebook today and I thought I would share it all with you. One of my very best friends is Indian, so I made sure to check with her to see if she found it offensive before I posted it. She said it was pretty funny so here goes..

I'm Alive!!

2009-05-13T19:38:00.002-05:00

So it's almost 2 weeks since I have blogged.. oops! I really do have things I want to share with you all and will hopefully be back into the swing of things tomorrow? Lets hope so! :) All you are getting for now are random updates:

I have zero laundry to do except for the clothes I am wearing! yay :)
We are completely unpacked!
When we moved we just kinda hung clothes in the closet without much organization so I have been fine tuning everything.
My closet is perfectly organized.. maybe I should take a pic to show you
My kitchen is completely in order
I only have to work on straightening up one cabinet in my bathroom. I pretty much just threw all of my hair and makeup stuff in there.
We hung stuff up on the walls but still have like 2 more pictures to hang and that will be done.
I TOOK MY LAST FINAL FOR SPRING SEMESTER TODAY!
I decided to take a 3 week summer class that starts on Monday... boo!
I know I will feel accomplished and happy when I finish it though.. it's only 3 weeks!
BUTTTT.. I'm also taking a 5 week class after that.. boo!
So after 8 more weeks of school then I will officially have like 6 more weeks of summer which is still awesome!
I START BACK TO WORK ON MONDAY!!
It's officially official! :) even though I had to do my fingerprints twice because they didn't like them the first time.
I've been laying out at the pool the past 2 days.. I WILL be tan this summer!
I can't wait for dinner tomorrow night in uptown with my best friend!
LOST season finale is tonight and I'm excited but sad at the same time!
We are watching the Chinese women's doubles championship PING PONG on tv right now..
It's way more intense than I thought ping pong ever was! Ha!

Sorry for the random not so great update, but that's all I have to give right now! I just had to stop everything and get my life in order and this seemed like a good time to do so. I'm sure you all understand! I haven't even logged in to try to catch up on my reader! I'll be caught up by Sunday, but I probably won't be commenting since I'm behind!

Anyway, I hope you all have a good evening! Until next time..

Is your thumb green?

2009-05-01T19:17:00.006-05:00

So this post was inspired by The New Mrs. over at NEWLYWEDS. She wrote this post a few days ago about not having any luck with keeping plants alive. I used to have the exact. same. problem. It did not matter what kind of plant you gave me, I just couldn't keep it alive no matter how hard I tried.

When my dad passed away at the end of last year, there were TONS of plants sent to the funeral home. After everything was done, I came back home with five plants determined to keep them alive! I immediately turned to the internet for help and I came across this website and it has saved my life! Well, my plants life, but you know what I mean. You can search for your plants in their Plant Encyclopedia and it will tell you exactly how to care for them. What temperature they like, lighting preferences, watering and planting instructions, and much more useful information.

This website has helped me tremendously and I just wanted to pass it along to you all. I know a lot of people are starting to get outside and do some gardening now that the weather is nice. The pictures do not include every plant I have, but I just wanted to share with you all that I have proudly kept these green babies alive for the past 4 months!!

These photos below were just for fun. I was playing with the different color effects on my camera. I thought they were pretty cool.

I just wanted to pass along this extremely helpful website (PlantCare.com) so hopefully it can help those of you that don't exactly have a "green" thumb. Good luck and happy gardening! :)

My Current Obsession Craving!!

2009-04-30T12:58:00.004-05:00

source

I cannot quit eating these! I blame it on my husband! He decided to pick them up at the store two weeks ago, and now I have gone back for more. My mom used to always buy these when I was little and I loved them just as much as then. At least they make them in 100 calorie snack packs!! I don't feel so bad about eating them since they only give you one at a time. The only problem is that they only give you one at a time! I will admit that I have snuck back into the pantry to grab a second, but I am fighting the urge as I type this! There is only one left and it's mocking me from inside its cardboard box! Last night I told my husband that we would not be purchasing these anymore because I can't quit eating them!

His response: "Well, that is why we should buy them since you like them so much!"

I think he will disagree when I turn into a giant Nutty Butty Bar!! haha! Thanks Little Debbie! Thankyouverymuch!

Answers to your Questions! Part 3

2009-04-28T22:42:00.000-05:00

Lil' Woman asked:

Where did you guys honeymoon?
We stayed at the Maui Hyatt Regency Resort & Spa in Kaanapali, Maui for a week! Everything about Maui is AMAZING!! I am going to do a post soon about what all we did on our honeymoon. The last three days we were there, we had a car and we ventured around Lahaina as well.

Mr. D, what made you fall for Mrs. D?
I am sure you are all expecting a lovey dovey answer, but if you know my husband, you already know that is not what you are going to get. I asked him this question and he said that it wasn't fair. Then I tried to rephrase the question by asking what made him fall in love with me. Again, he said that wasn't fair because there is more than one reason why he loves me. Well, that is fabulous that he loves me for several reasons, but for my lovely readers, that still didn't answer the question. I tried again by changing up the question to a point that I knew I could get an answer from my husband. (Sorry Lil' Woman your question is great, but my hubby was being complicated!)

So I asked: At what point did you realize you loved me?
Mr. D: When you were in the hospital for a week in 2004.
The end. He got up and went back to what he was doing. So there you have it ladies.. short and to the point. That's my hubby and man do I love him! :)

At this point you are probably wondering what happened? Long story, very short:
In January 2004, I was in the hospital for a week. I was extremely ill and he slept in that uncomfortable fold out chair in my hospital room for the entire week. He only left to go to school and work. Every morning, my doctor would make his rounds very early before he went to his private office across town. He had to step over Mr. D (who was my boyfriend then) to get to my hospital bed. By day four, my doctor told me that he was a keeper! He said that anyone who vowed to sleep in those uncomfortable chair "beds" just to be with me must think that I am very special. I agreed! Mr. D thinks I'm pretty special, and I decided to keep him! :)

If you could take any vacation, where would you go and what would you want to do?
I sort of answered this in the Q&A Part 1 about going anywhere in the world. If I could take any vacation, I would have to say Japan since we have never been. Once I got to Japan, I would want to go sightseeing like crazy! Visit a Shinto and Buddhist Shrine, eat sushi, drink Japanese beer, buy a kimono, ~~climb~~ take pictures of Mt. Fuji, see the cherry blossoms, learn the Japanese tea ceremony, and visit the Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima.

私は日本を訪問するとき、私はすしを食べるのと日本のビールを飲むします。私は観光に行くと桜を表示します。富士さんの写真を撮影して、広島の平和記念資料館をご覧いただきたいと思います。私も着物を着用すると日本の茶道を学ぶようになる。

That basically just says what I said in the paragraph above. I know, I've got mad skills.. not really! Ha! I just have to try and use my Japanese knowledge where I can. It might not be 100% correct, and it will translate slightly different, but I try. What can I say.. I'm only in my second year of Japanese.

H asked:

Besides Texas, what is your favourite state and why?
My favorite state hands down is Hawaii. It is absolutely amazing! If you have not been, I highly recommend going there soon! Chic Runner just got back from her amazing trip to Hawaii and she just posted about her trip. The pictures are amazing!! I was so jealous (still am) of here trip. Check out her pics here: Part 1 and Part 2 :)

What is your favourite book?
Humm.. that's a tough one for me. Growing up I didn't like to read much because I was too busy playing every sport imaginable along with dance and twirling since I was 2. Now that I have gotten older, I am getting more into reading, but I don't think I have found that one book that is my absolute favorite. I do really enjoy books written by Nicholas Sparks and Jane Green. Currently I am reading the Sookie Stackhouse series written by Charaine Harris, which I recommend reading. For couples, Mr. D & I read the books by Shaunti Feldhahn, For Women Only and For Men Only. These were very insightful and funny at times. We enjoyed reading them together. I have about 6 other books on my bookshelf waiting for me to read them. I'll let you know when I find the one! :)

What is the hardest part of being married?
Wow, this is a tough one for me. I think a lot of people probably do this... at least I hope I am not the only one. You know when you have a bad day and you just want to let it all out when you come home? Well, for me, that person is Mr. D and sometimes I forget that he was not the cause for any part of my bad day. I am getting better, and I catch myself now, but I used to just let it all out and then wonder why my hubby wasn't happy as a clam when I got done griping about all of my problems.

What is the best part of being married?
I get to spend everyday with my best friend that I love and that loves me. He is there for me no matter what. I have a shoulder to cry on when I'm sad, an ear to listen when I need to talk, a friend to laugh and have fun with, and a partner for life. I love being married! :)

So there you go! I have answered all of your questions! I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit more about me. If you still have questions, feel free to ask/email and I will be more than happy to answer them. :)

Holla for a Dolla!!

2009-04-24T12:22:00.003-05:00

We interrupt this very informative Q&A posts for a very important announcement!!

I GOT MY JOB BACK!!

I will be working with my old, old boss!! Does that make sense? I love my previous boss, but she took the place of my awesome boss that moved to another location.

So now I'm going to be working at a brand new (as in new construction) location with my old awesome boss man and another manager that I love!! Yay!! Crazy thing is that I didn't even apply for this position exactly.. I applied for one at another location. The even weirder thing is that another one of my old bosses who works at an entirely different location that I have never worked at called me to tell me about the position I am getting. I hope I didn't loose you! I'm just so excited because all of my old bosses are trying to get me back with the company! That is just amazing to me!

Best part is that they are hiring me back like I never left. Still have all my benefits, seniority, everything! How's that for a little 6 month work vacation? Ha :)

I have to go talk to them later this afternoon to work out all the details. I have no clue when I start.. hopefully I will find that out today! :)

Answers to your Questions! Part 2

2009-04-24T00:16:00.000-05:00

Welcome to round 2 of the Question and Answer posts! Let's just dive right in!

yours truly... asked:

What do y'all do in Dallas?
This question could mean a couple of different things. I'm just going to take a shot at answering this! We moved up here because we are both finishing school. Mr. D has a job as a computer technician and I am currently looking for a job again. When we are not working or going to school, we enjoy going out with friends, eating out, going to movies, the occasional happy hour, and board games. :)

Do you have other Dallas blogs you follow?
I love reading everyone's blog because they are all so interesting! Some people don't specify where they live, so I'm pretty sure I have probably forgotten someone! If I did it is not intentional! Let me know and I'll add you to the list! :)

Here is a list of Dallas blogs that I read:
yours truly...
Full Circle - she just moved from Dallas to California, but we still love her anyway! :)
Adventures in Newlywed
Josh in real life
Make Mine a Mojito
The Manhattan Transfer
The McCrady's
Off the Beaten Path...
The Branches
bghroman photo
oh and another thing...

Just to give a little shout out to the other Texas bloggers I read:
According to Ashley
Keeping up with the Jones'
Life @ the White House
Texas Couture
The Mathis'
The Ratpack
The Sims Family
whatsthejillio?
I Pick Pretty

Wow, that was lots of links! Out of the two lists 6 of those blogs are IRL friends and 1 is family! :)

Favorite restaurant in Dallas?? (hard one, huh?)
Oh this is a tough one. Gloria's is definitely a fun place. Mr. D and I have gone salsa dancing there and had a blast! We also love Abuelos Mexican Embassy. This past weekend we went to The Original Pancake House with my mom, brother, and sis-in-law, and it was amazing!
I still have my fav restaurants back in East Texas though! It's hard for me to let them go!

Sarah @ The Ratpack asked:

What part of Dallas do you live in? Suburb, or city? N, S, E, or W?
I don't want to give away our exact location! I'm sorry! This blog isn't totally anonymous because I do post pictures, but I try to keep from using our names, current workplaces, where we live, etc.. You know.. just in case I piss someone off (just kidding)
Here is a very vague hint: draw a horizontal line through downtown Dallas.. we live North of that.

Where did you and the Mr. meet?
At work! When I was in high school I waited tables at the ever so awesome Cotton Patch Cafe! For those of you that have never heard of it, they are only in Texas and serve home cooking style food. During my senior year of high school, Mr. D got a job working there. The first day he walked in, I told my friend and coworker that I was going to date him! We started dating in February and that May I took him to my senior prom! awwwwww :)

Stay tuned for part 3 tomorrow! :)

Answers to your Questions! Part 1

2009-04-23T00:17:00.001-05:00

Sorry I took so long to post my answers to your questions! I didn't realize how much moving and school would keep me away from my computer. I loved answering all of your questions! This is the first of three answer posts.

*kimmie* @ Full Circle asked:

Have you always lived in Dallas? Where did you each live before there if not?
No, we have not always lived in Dallas. We are from the East Texas, piney woods, allergy capital of the world, area. I'm from a larger city and Mr. D is from a smaller city about 20 minutes away from where I grew up.

What would you miss the most if you were to live somewhere other than Dallas and what would you miss the least?
I love sports! I love the fact that we have the Dallas Cowboys, Texas Rangers, Dallas Stars, and the Dallas Mavericks all in one area. We also love going to concerts and there are multiple venues that you can usually find something that fits your interests.
As far as what I wouldn't miss, that simple. TRAFFIC! Say 635 for example! :)

What's your favorite thing to cook/bake?
Banana bread, muffins, and cupcakes. Did I ever mention that me and my sister-in-law made 72 cupcakes in one day a few weeks ago?

Blondie @ Blondie Goes Blog asked:

What is the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you?
There are two funny stories that both happened when I was working as a teller back home in East Texas.

1) I was working in the lobby and this woman (lesbian) came in and seriously looked like a man!! I was waiting on her and when I finished her transaction I was thanking her and well.. the conversation went something like this:
She-He: standing at the counter while I finished her transaction.
Me: "Thank you Sir, have a good day!"
Me: "Mam"
Me: "Sir"
Me: "Sorry, haveagoodday!"
Then I collapsed to the floor with embarrassment! My co-workers and I had a pretty good laugh at my expense!

2) This also happened while I was working at that same bank, but this time I was working in the drive-thru. A red truck pulled into one of my teller lanes. A guy was driving and in the passengers seat, there appeared to be a what looked like a little dog. We gave dog treats to the people that had dogs, but not everyone wanted them. After I finished the guys transaction, the conversation went a little something like this:
Me: "Okay Mr. (enter last name), you are all finished up. Can I send some dog treats for your little dog?"
UP POPS A WOMAN IN THE PASSENGERS SEAT!! What appeared to be a "little dog" was actually a woman with messy hair bent down looking for something in her purse in the floorboard.
Me: "OHMYGOSH! I'm so sorry..."
*panic*
Me: "I thought she was a.."
*CRAP*
Me: "OHMYGOSH! I'm not making it any better!"
I just said that? What? Not my best moment!
Guy: laughing histarically "HAHA, That's the best thing I heard all day! This is my wife.. HAHA!"
Once again I fell to the floor to hide my shame! At least he thought it was funny, however the other tellers said that she shot some dirty looks toward my window! Yikes..

If you could go anywhere in the world where would you go?
Japan and Hawaii! Mr. D and I are both minoring in Japanese and we are applying for the JET Program. If we get accepted, we will hopefully be leaving during the summer of 2011 to live in Japan and teach English for 1-3 years. I have also been dying to go back to Hawaii! I think about it all the time. I can't wait to go back, hopefully sooner than later! :)

Favorite quote?
“The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart” - Helen Keller

I also have another favorite that my Dad would always say.

"The time has come, the Walrus said"

It's a quote from his favorite childhood poem that was in Alice and Wonderland. I posted the poem on my blog a few months ago. You can read it here.

Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow! :)

Moving hurts my bones

2009-04-19T22:10:00.002-05:00

Hey friends!! Just wanted to drop in to say that we are alive. Moving is not fun anymore because every muscle in my body aches and I am exhausted!! We did end up doing some moving in the rain which sucked, but for the most part it was just cloudy. I'm off to unpack some more.. joy. I'm not sure when I will be back to blogging, but hopefully it will be soon. Sooner if you all want to come over and help unpack some boxes :) Any volunteers?

Didn't think so.

Moving Day!

2009-04-17T03:00:00.001-05:00

Today is moving day!! I am so excited! I can't wait to have a 'fresh' start after going through all of our ~~crap~~ stuff! My Mom is driving up this morning to help and my brother and sis-in-law will be helping when they get off of work! I am so thankful that they will be there to help us, because it would be really tough without them!

The only problem I am having now is this:

There is a 30-40% chance during the morning hours and then once lunch time gets here, it's basically going to pour down rain. Yay.. can't wait. Not only is the act of having to haul around furniture and heavy boxes bad enough, but to do it in the rain makes it that much worse!

At least I don't have to worry about packing the cat. She appears to have already done that. :)

My reader will be filling up over this busy weekend. Hopefully our internet will be transferred and ready to go when I'm ready to blog again! Cross your fingers! :) I won't be around too much, so I hope you all have a great weekend!

PS - I just wanted to say HI to all of my new followers! :) Welcome to my very small portion of the internet! I am doing a question and answer post, so feel free to ask me anything you like! You all might as well get to know me. :) I've had fun answering the questions I've gotten so far. I will be posting all of the answers next week!! You can leave your questions in the comments section of this post! Thanks friends!!

A little preview :)

2009-04-16T16:00:00.005-05:00

I had a fantastic birthday yesterday! Thank you all so much for all of the great birthday wishes!! You all brightened my day so much! I'll be posting about my birthday this weekend hopefully! We start moving tomorrow and I couldn't be more excited!

So here's what to expect this weekend (hopefully) and next week:

Click on any of the links for previous posts about these topics! Also, you can still Ask Me Anything through this weekend! Don't be shy! :)

I'll also leave you with this piece of awesomeness that I filmed on Mr. D's birthday. Consider it a preview of his birthday post! I put together a party for Mr. D and two of his friends. They all turned 25 in February.
Note: Pay attention to our friend on the left in the black shirt around 1:30! The entire time he was talking to these two Japanese girls sitting in front of the stage. Apparently they liked him because they gave him a tip!! Haha.. it's funny.. just watch!

04.15

2009-04-15T00:03:00.003-05:00

It's my BIRTHDAY!!

Not trying to toot my own horn or anything...

it is my blog though...

WOOT WOOT!! :)

A lot to do!

2009-04-13T15:02:00.004-05:00

I had a great weekend! I think I'll post my weekend wrap-up tomorrow. I have a ton of stuff on my plate right now..

Research paper due on Monday
Renew drivers license tomorrow... ugh
My birthday is Wednesday! :)
We start moving on Friday! :)
I need to do laundry...
need to get some things organized...
need to clean
My cat needs to go get groomed
I need to fix the flat on my bike
Oh, don't forget about paying bills and changing our address on all of them
I am still looking for a job

I have lots of exciting things happening this week, but lots of stuff I don't want to do at the same time! I wish I could just will my stuff to organize and clean itself! Ha!

Don't forget to ask me anything! Click on the ? at the top of my sidebar to ask your questions! It can be anything (within reason) so what are you curious about? Hobbies? Interests? Go for it! I have started working on answers and will post them by the end of the week probably!

Before I go, I must say that it's a happy day for the Blackberry users! Pandora released their application for blackberry! Yay! I love pandora.. I'm addicted! We do have an iPod but my hubby usually has it with him, so this is great for me!

Pandora lovers, what is your favorite station?

This is so exciting!

2009-04-13T08:03:00.006-05:00

Hey! Happy Monday everybody! I hope you had a good Easter weekend! My in real life friend, Katie @ The Mathis', provided us with a new recipe for the week. It is called Stacked Enchiladas and they are so good! (Click on the link to go to the recipe blog.) You must give them a try, they are delicious! Isn't that exciting? I though it was... maybe that means I eat too much!

I stole this picture from Katie's blog :)

Anyway, for the real exciting part! Katie and Bret's 1 year wedding anniversary is tomorrow! You must go check out her blog and say Hi! Katie starting blogging in December and she is a better blogger than me! Haha! She posts almost everyday about anything and everything. Head over to The Mathis' to get the scoop on what she is reading, her 30 Day Shred updates, and their life as newlyweds!

A little early birthday celebration!

2009-04-11T05:00:00.001-05:00

Tomorrow night Mr. D and I are going to see these guys

Nickelback

and

Seether

With one of my best friends and her boyfriend!
We are celebrating my birthday a little bit early! Yay! I'm excited!
Drinks will be consumed, songs will the sung, pictures will be taken, and fun will be had by all.
I cannot wait! :)

And just in case you were counting down the days until my birthday..
it's in 4 days!!

On The Hunt!

2009-04-10T16:48:00.004-05:00

Not for Easter eggs, silly! I'm on the hunt for my old job! :)

Today I met with my old boss and we discussed the possibility of me coming back to work for my old company. I would not be working at the same location I was at, but there is a position open at another location in town. Score! She made some phone calls to the hiring recruiter and to the manager of the building I would be working in. I was standing right there as she put in an amazing word for me. She even mentioned that she wished the position was available at my old location because she would love for me to work there again. I just love my old boss! She is so sweet to be helping me out, which I really appreciate!

Now for what I found out.. I had to reapply online as if I were a new candidate (ugh) but my resume and application would be fast tracked straight to my potential new bosses inbox! This is only if everything is okay with my application.. I'm not really sure what would be wrong.. I've already done this once before! Also, my old boss has been in constant contact with the recruiter to follow up and make sure this happens. She has also sent an email to my potential new boss about me because she is on vacation. Since she is on vacation, she will not be able to review my resume until Tuesday. This is the day she gets back from vacay so I'm not expecting a call that day, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a call on Wednesday!

I'm trying to not get my hopes up too much! My old boss said there isn't really any reason why I shouldn't get the job, but you never know. Our personalities could clash or whatnot. I don't know.. anyway I'm praying this all goes well! I am tired of looking for a job and I would love to go back to my old company! It's fabulous!!

PS - Don't forget to submit your questions for me or Mr. D! I am going to start working on them soon! Click on the link at the top of my sidebar or check out this post!

I hope you all have a great Easter weekend!!

You know you want to ask!

2009-04-09T20:39:00.005-05:00

The weekend is almost here and I am so excited! I am going to update you all on our walk we took yesterday soon.. with pictures :) Yay!

Anyway, I thought I would do something fun and let you all ask me anything! I have gotten a few questions here and there and I will answer them as well as questions left on this post early next week!

So what burning questions do you have for me? Mr D? He will answer questions too.. if you leave him any! Leave your questions in the comment section of this post, or you can email them to diaryofmrsd@gmail.com

So what are you waiting for? Ask me anything! :)

Do you know what today is?

2009-04-08T16:07:00.004-05:00

Please read! This is important to me!

Today is the National Start! Walking Day! It was created to help fight heart disease, the number one killer in the country (Stroke being the #3 killer), and all proceeds benefit the American Heart Association. It is sponsored by Subway, Healthy Choice, and AstraZeneca.

Start! is hosting heart walks all across the country. Click here to search and find one in your city and state. I know a lot of bloggers out there are runners.. I think you could probably run, but wouldn't it be nice to slow down for a bit to help support a good cause!

There is no entry fee to participate in the Start! Heart Walk, but there are individuals and teams that accept donations to give to the American Heart Association. The main goal is to get people out walking 30 minutes a day to increase the longevity of your life!

They even have a tracker program you can use to keep track of your walking progress. :)

My father passed away on December 31, 2008 from heart disease. On October 31, 2009, my Mom, Brother, Sister-in-law, Husband, and myself will be walking in honor of my dad. If any of you have family members that have died from heart disease, or are currently battling it, I encourage you to walk as well. I have also noticed that a lot of you have the Praying for Stellan button on your blogs and are following along with MckMama's blog. If you feel inclined to do so and don't have a particular person you would like to get out and walk for, you could walk for baby Stellan and support his current battle with SVT.

I enjoy walking a lot! In fact, sometimes I drive my husband crazy because I always want to go walk so much. I am going to start tracking my progress as I look forward to the walk in my hometown. I encourage you all to walk.. it's free! Why not enjoy a nice morning/afternoon walking through your city streets! :)

For more information, visit the American Heart Association website

Dream Job?

2009-04-07T21:06:00.003-05:00

So I'm sure you all know that I have decided to work again and have been looking for a job. It's hard to find a part time job that I can work a school schedule around. I sure do wish I was a nurse though.. there are 84637292 jobs for nurses!

Anyway.. as I was doing my daily browsing for a job, you know Career builder, monster, etc., I saw it! Could this be it? A part time wedding coordinator at a local bed and breakfast! OMG.. dream job! Haha..

I'm not sure if I am what they are looking for, but it is worth a shot! I am going to make an appointment tomorrow! I'm nervous and trying not to get over excited. It would be an awesome job because I do LOVE weddings! Hopefully after tomorrow I will have a better idea of what they are looking for. I just hope that it is something I would want to do.. better yet, that they would want me to do it!

Otherwise, I'll still be on the lookout. I put in some applications at the end of last week so maybe I will hear something soon. Wish me luck!

PS - thanks for all of the tv show recommendations yesterday and today! If I start watching them and suddenly they get canceled, please don't come looking for me!

I think TV hates me

2009-04-06T16:17:00.010-05:00

Okay, let me start by saying this..

We don't have tv!

Yes, we do have a tv, two actually, but we choose to no longer have satellite or cable service anymore. With work and school, we do not have enough time to watch TV to justify the cost. I do get all of the regular ABC, NBC, Fox, etc channels crystal clear and that is good enough for me. Most of the stuff I like comes on those channels anyway. Also because I am so busy, I can be bad about remembering when certain shows come on, so we like to just buy seasons on dvd. It's easier, no commercials, I can watch them at any time I want. It's great!

Except when the show I like gets cancelled...

Example number one: Dirty Sexy Money

Example number two: Arrested Development

Example number three: Lipstick Jungle

Example number five: The O.C. (at least it had 4 seasons before it got cancelled)

Example number four: What About Brian? (does anyone even remember this show? it aired in 2006)

Why does this keep happening to me?

The good thing is that my absolute favorite shows are not getting cancelled anytime soon. I hope I didn't just jinx them!

Favorite number one: LOST

Favorite number two: Greys Anatomy

Favorite number three: Private Practice

Does this happen to anyone else? What do you all watch? Any recommendations?

Cookin' Blogger of the Week #3

2009-04-06T05:00:00.000-05:00

Yay, it's Monday! There is a new recipe available for you all to see on my recipe blog, Dinner to Devour! Lisa from Don't Drink After Monkeys submitted this weeks recipe, Poppy Seed Chicken, and it looks delicious!! So... what are you waiting for? Head on over and check it out!

I hope you all had a great weekend! Happy Monday! :)

Come out, come out, wherever you are!

2009-04-02T21:39:00.004-05:00

Today is the day to come out from behind your google reader and check out my new blog design! :) A few weeks back, Marina at Penny Lane Designs was giving away a free blog makeover, so I crossed my fingers and entered my name into the drawing. I had been wanting a new blog design for a while and I literally let out a tiny scream when I saw my name posted as a winner! I am so excited about my new look and I think it fits me perfectly!

When we went to Maui on our honeymoon, we both fell in love with the island and have been dying to go back. The picture in the header was taken in Maui just after we boarded the boat for our sunset dinner cruise. It's one of our favorite pictures of us and I thought it would go well with the design idea I had in mind.

Marina does more than just blog designs, so take a look at her design website to see how talented she is! Also, don't forget to check out her blog! She posts finished designs on there as well, and there are quite a few new ones up right now that you can check out!

So what do you all think? Don't you love it too? :)

Thanks again Marina!!

Broken Blogger?

2009-04-02T06:00:00.002-05:00

Dear Blogger,

I am very frustrated with you right now! In fact, I think I am downright mad at you. You see, it all started when you changed my cute little "Followers" box to this ugly Google Friend Connect widget that I do. not. like.

After the switch, for about one week it worked just fine. ONE WEEK! Now, I can't do anything! I try to follow other peoples blogs and when I click on the Follow button, a little window pops up saying:

"We're sorry...

We were unable to handle your request. Please try again or return a bit later."

Well, it has been a month now and I still cannot do anything with this stupid widget! It's not like it's the end of the world or anything, but it makes me frustrated that this has been like this for so long and there is no fix. Today when I logged in, I became even more frustrated because when I click on the link to view my followers, it tells me this:

An internal error has occurred

An unexpected error occurred while processing your request. Please try after sometime.

LOVELY BLOGGER!! Just lovely! I am tired of this not working right, so please fix it NOW!

Sincerely,

You frustrated blogger

PS - Has anyone else had this problem? Do you know how to fix it?

Sorry for the rant, but I need some help... it's been over a month and that's not cool.

Edited to Add: This happens to me on any computer I try to use... and I have been on at least 4 different computers.

My random, this really bothered me post...

2009-04-01T12:29:00.003-05:00

Okay so today is finally APRIL!! Yay! It is now officially 2 weeks until my birthday!! Yeah, I know.. I was born on Income Tax Day.. get over it people! Do you taxes and celebrate my birthday! Ha! Most of the time when people ask me when my birthday is, the usual response I get is "Ohh, Income Tax Day.. poor you." Really?!? Poor me? I beg to differ. You see, I was given birth on income tax day, therefore I am really thankful. If my mother didn't give birth to me, well, I just wouldn't be here now would I? I have heard my entire life about how I am bad luck because of my birthdate. In return for my entire life, I think those telling me this are probably behind on their taxes or whatnot. Otherwise, why would you say that?Anyway, off that soapbox and on to what I was going to post about..

My husband was picking at me that I was officially going to be in my mid 20's since I am turning 24. Which he then said that was close enough to 25, that I would then be a quarter of a century old, therefore probably 1/4 of my life has already passed. We always joke with each other, because I sorta did the same thing to him when he turned 25 this past February. So I finally got him to stop picking at me and we went out to dinner.

So at dinner, Mr. D orders a margarita and the waitress jots it down. Then I also order a margarita, and the waitress gives me a weird look and asks for my ID. Well, why didn't you ask for my husbands ID as well.. we are sitting at the same table.. we both ordered alcohol.. makes sense to me! Oh wait, that's right.. is it because I look like I'm 12 and my husband doesn't? That must be it! So I proceed to get out my ID and the waitress seriously, SERIOUSLY scans it for a full 20 seconds. Most of the time they glance at your birthday and give it back. I watched her.. she read the entire thing, then I could see her adding in her head to make sure I was at least 21, then she compared me to the picture. What?? Are you serious? It made me feel really uncomfortable, even though I wasn't doing anything wrong.

After she left our table, my husband commented that no one ever looks at ID's that long. He said that maybe the restaurant was having an issue with underage people trying to order alcohol. I don't know either way, but I was a little upset. Normally I wouldn't be because I get carded all the time, but last night bothered me. I think it bothered me because my hubby was picking at me about how OLD I'm going to be, and the fact that I was having dinner with my husband and he didn't get carded. Oh well! I know when I'm older I will be wishing I was getting carded and all that blah blah blah.

Would this have bothered you? Has this happened to you? For as long as she examined my ID, she probably has my address and DL# memorized! Ha!

Mr. D in the Hot Seat

2009-03-31T06:00:00.001-05:00

So this little questionnaire has been floating around amongst a few bloggers. I was bored the other day, so I though why not give it a try. I wasn't sure if Mr. D would do it or not, so I just asked.

Me: "Hey, do you wanna do a quiz about me?"

Mr. D: "Is there a quiz for you to take about me too?" (Haha.. what??)

Me: "Umm.. no. I guess I could answer the same questions about you. It's just a short list of questions for you to answer about me. Nothing big.. I'm just bored."

Mr. D: "Okay, I can do that."

(I was just wandering around the house while having this conversation. I was about to grab a snack when..)

Mr. D: "So give me the questions."

Me: "Oh! Okay.. I wasn't ready yet.. let me look them up!"

Whoops.. I guess I should be more on top of things. I can't blame him for wanting to do something as soon as I ask. I just wasn't prepared.. my bad! I looked up the questions and then handed him the laptop so he could answer. My comments are in red.

What is your wife’s favorite…

Song: Landslide by Fleetwood Mac

I asked him why he picked this and he said that it was the first song that popped into his head and that every time I hear it, I always sing along and tell him that I like this song. Humm.. true, I never thought about that. I actually don't have a favorite song, I have a collection of favorite songs for different reasons.

Food: Lupe’s cheese enchiladas

Ohh man! I do love these!!

Color: purple

He told me he wasn't sure about this either. Well, he is half right.. I do love that deep jewel tone shade of purple, but my all time would have to be aqua.. teal.. turquoise.. skyblue shades of blue!

Time of day: Night time or bed time

I love going on walks at night!

Alcohol: Birthday cake martini

Pour me another please...

Store: Target

Oh I do love me some Target, yes Sir!

City: Lahaina Maui Hawaii

So when do we go back? I fell in love with Hawaii on our honeymoon, and I can't wait to go back!

Candy: Ande’s Mints

Short story.. when we go to restaurants that give these out at the end of the meal, I make this crazy MMmmmMm moaning noise as it melts in my mouth! ha.. yeah, weird I know, but I just love them so!

Flower: Orchids or roses

After he answered this, he said that he didn't know flower names, so he wasn't sure this was right. The he asked me what orchids were.. haha! I showed him a picture online and he said that's not what he meant. Tulips maybe? The roses were right, and I love carnations too!

Holiday: Christmas

Yes, yes, yes! Income tax day would be correct too! I don't think too many people consider that a holiday, but I do..It's my birthday! :)

Restaurant: Lupe’s

This is a Mexican restaurant back home. I could pratically drink the hot sauce! Oh it's so good!!

I think my hubby did pretty good! :)

Cookin' Blogger of the Week #2

2009-03-30T18:17:00.005-05:00

So it's Monday again and that means it's time for a new recipe! Yay!!

Alyia submitted a delicious recipe for Chicken Cheese Steaks! Just hearing the name makes ~~my mouth water~~ me hungry. Head over to Dinner to Devour to pick up the recipe for yourself!

Happy Monday!!

Talking in your sleep

2009-03-27T12:10:00.003-05:00

I had so much trouble getting up this morning! I don't know what is wrong with me, but I have been having trouble going to sleep lately. Well, I say lately.. more like the past. three. months! Yeah.. not cool! I will say that it is getting better, thanks to some sleeping medicine, but I'm really tired of it! no pun intended..

So moving on to last nights activities while I was trying to go to sleep:
1. I read my book until I was tired of reading
2. so then I started reading some boring news on my phone to try to make myself sleepy
3. as soon as I started to get tired, my cat started SNORING!!
4. not cute little kitty cat snoring, but full on human style snoring. (is this normal?)
5. once that calmed down, Goat (my other kitty) came to visit me for some attention
6. this was great until she kept head butting me in the face. (She head butts EVERYTHING - it's funny, but not last night)
7. when I turned to move her, she stuck her whiskers up my nose. Lovely.. thankyouverymuch!
8. so then the sneezing began for a little bit.
9. then my eye started to itch...
10. then I got hot.
11. REALLY HOT
12. then cold.. okay, I was getting frustrated now!
13. then my hubby started talking to me in his sleep!

It went a little something like this:

Hubs: (rolling over) "Get me some trash pans."
Me: ... "What? Why do you need trash pans?"
Hubs: "To stand in"
Me: laughing.. and thinking what are trash PANS? "Why do you need to stand in trash pans?"
Hubs: "For the torture."
Me: I just started laughing out loud! I couldn't help it
Hubs: waking up.. "What's so funny?"

So I told him what he said to me and he told me that he was dreaming about the book he was reading just before he went to sleep. It takes place in the future, so maybe trash cans will be trash pans several years from now. Now for the torture? I dunno what to say about that except he got the book out of the Sci-Fi section. I'm thinking not my kind of book? I think so.

This creeps me out a little...

2009-03-26T18:26:00.004-05:00

I came across this today...

The picture was taken with a robotic camera at 1,474 megapixel. (295 times the standard 5 megapixel camera)

You can scan, double click and zoom to any section of the crowd... wait a few seconds... and the focus adjusts.

Check it out here

It's pretty cool, but a little creepy at the same time. You can even see the peoples faces that are standing in the back of the crowd!! If you were there, I guess it would be pretty cool if you could spot yourself!

I was on vacation?

2009-03-25T19:28:00.003-05:00

Yeah, so I just realized today that I have not blogged in an entire week! Whoops! I haven't even read any blogs, email, twitter, anything for that matter! I got on Facebook a few times and that's about it. I didn't post any of my Friday Favorites, or a new recipe this week on the cooking blog. Did I fall off the face of the earth? Well, no.. I just drifted out of the world of the interwebs for a little bit. We had unexpected friends come in town from Midland, then this past weekend my mom and one of Mr. D's best friends (a groomsman in our wedding) came up to visit the Dallas area. Then school happened.. bye bye spring break! I've also had my nose stuck in a book every spare second of my day too! I (finally) just finished the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse series, "Dead Until Dark," and it was amazing! I am completely hooked and I am starting the 2nd book tonight!! I can't wait to get started as soon as LOST is over! Oh, I almost forgot.. Mr. D and I finished signing the paperwork for us to move! Yay!! We will be moving on April 17th!! My birthday is on the 15th, so happy birthday to me, right? It's okay though because my mom is going to come back to help us move, so we can have a little birthday celebration that weekend, perhaps? Humm.. we shall see I guess! Anyway, I am going to grab some dinner before LOST comes on. I hope you all had a good week, and I will be updating you about what I have been doing on my unannounced blogging vacation. Life just snuck up on me! :)

Before I go, I have a prayer request for this sweet baby Stellan. I have been reading MckMama's blog for a while now and her son who is only a few months old is in the hospital with a serious heart condition. Click on the button and it will take you to her blog and you can see how he is doing. Send up a prayer or two for baby Stellan if you feel so inclined to do! It breaks my heart to see a little baby having to go through all of this.

If you live in DFW, I need your help!

2009-03-18T14:40:00.001-05:00

Okay so one of our BEST FRIENDS and his new wife that live in Midland are in DFW for a mini vacation! They called us up and are wanting to meet up for dinner somewhere in the area. They said that we could pick where we eat and I have no clue where to go! I need your help of picking a restaurant somewhere in DFW!

They went to Ft. Worth today to go to the zoo, so I am going to say probably not Ft. Worth since they spent the day there. Oh, they also have a 5 yr. old son, so we need to go somewhere that we can bring a little kid with us! We haven't spent time with them since they got married and we need to be able to talk, so not somewhere super loud!

Maybe something in the Grapevine area? Or anywhere else is good too.. just not Ft Worth or Arlington!

Help!

Suggestions!! Anything.. please! :)

The doctor gave me a good report... sort of

2009-03-17T16:24:00.009-05:00

I went to the neurologist for my 6 month check up today. I was happy to report that I only had 3 migraines within the last 6 months! This was amazing and my doctor seemed to be surprised. I got all of my prescriptions refilled and since I am doing so well, I don't have to go back for a year!! Yay :) He said I was doing very well and was pleased with my response to the medication. He also told me that migraines is in my genes... CRAP! Doesn't that suck?! He said that you either get them or you don't. It's all a part of our genetic makeup. I just hope I don't pass the headache gene along to my future kids.

No on to my rant for the day...

Attention drivers in DFW:
If a corvette is pulled over on the side of the road for speeding, you DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT have to slow down, gawk, and stop traffic! I was already not really wanting to have to drive all the way to the doctors office, so I obviously do not want to sit on the interstate while you stare down the guy in the corvette.

End rant.

So what is everyone's St. Paddy's Day plans? I hope you all have fun and don't consume too much green beer!

Cookin' Blogger of the Week #1

2009-03-16T02:56:00.006-05:00

Hey everyone! It's Monday again and I hope you all had a good weekend! This Monday marks the very first Cookin' Blogger of the Week for Dinner to Devour!! (If you have no idea what I am referring to, you can catch up real quick here or here!) Moving right along, this weeks cookin' blogger is Jen from Meet the McCradys!Her chicken dinner recipe is fabulous and easy, in fact I made it for dinner last night! Grab the recipe here! Jen and her husband, Ryan, just celebrated their 1 year wedding anniversary! They have a wonderful blog, so pay them a visit to congratulate them! I hope you all have a wonderful Monday, and to those on Spring Break (I am! I am!) I hope you have fun and be safe!

Friday Favorites!

2009-03-13T21:49:00.007-05:00

As promised, here are my Friday Favorites for this week! The two products for this week both come from...
Every year my grandmother buys up little samples of Avon products and puts them in our stockings for Christmas. My absolute favorite product that I look forward to every year is my Avon Moisture Therapy Intensive Moisturizing Lip Treatment aka Chapstick or Lip Balm.. whatever you prefer to call it!
This stuff is awesome! I love it because it doesn't have some funky taste, and you don't have to reapply it frequently. It goes on smooth and creamy and you can apply lipstick or lip gloss on top without any worries. It is basically odorless as well as clear, so it's perfect for combining with whatever lipstick you are wearing for the day. You can also tack on some bonus points for the SPF 15 and the very low price! You can order it online, from an Avon store, or an Avon representative. Price: $1.49 on Avon's website, but it is currently on sale for $0.99!! How awesome is that? Click on the picture and it will take you directly to this product on Avon's website!

My second most favorite Avon product is their Moisture Therapy Intensive Body Lotion.Let me just say that this stuff is great! I don't always have time to put lotion all over, or maybe it's that I don't always remember... Anyway, it's perfect because one application will do the trick! I have had lotions that you put on and after it seeps into your skin, it looks ashy again! Eww.. nobody likes ashy skin, right? When you put this on, it dries without leaving residue or any sticky feeling, and it provides 24 hour moisturization! It's also suitable for sensitive skin. :) Price: $7.99 for the 13.5 fl. oz. size that is pictured above (again, click photo to be linked directly to this product on Avon's website)

For an even better deal, you can snag this larger version that is currently on sale! Price: $12.99 for 33.8 fl. oz. Sale Price: $7.99!! That's more than twice the size for the same price! Is that a good deal or what?? If I didn't already have two bottles of this stuff, I would be purchasing some more right now!!Click Photo for link!

Not only do they sell the Intensive kind, but they also have this lotion available in Oatmeal, Shea Butter, and A-C-E Provitamin Complex. The ACE Provitamin Complex just so happens to be an Elle Top 5 Pick!

Thanks for all of the well wishes with my migraine I had today. I hope you are all having a good weekend!! Don't forget to check out the recipe blog on Monday for a new recipe from one of you all!! I wonder who it's gonna be??

It's Friday and I've got a headache... Boo!

2009-03-13T16:54:00.005-05:00

I know you all are expecting another edition of my Friday Favorites today, but that will have to be delayed until this evening. I have had a migraine for 16 hours and it just now broke. There is still a tiny pain lingering in my head, but at least I don't feel like someone is stabbing at my brain! After spending 10 pm yesterday to 2 pm today crying, throwing up, and in agonizing pain, I am spent! Lets just say that I am looking forward to my Neurologist appointment on Tuesday! So for now, I am just going to relax, take things extremely easy, read some blogs, watch some movies/tv, and post my Friday Favorites a little bit later. Sorry to disappoint, but I am sure you all understand!

I hope you are all having a great Friday!

Thank You and a Happy Dance!

2009-03-11T22:08:00.005-05:00

I would like to say a big

Thank You!!

to all of you that are excited about my new recipe blog! I think this will be a great way for us to share our favorite recipes together. Who knows, something you might find could be a staple meal in your family for years to come. I don't know about you, but I'm super excited!! I have already gotten in some recipes for Budget Meals (THANK YOU) and I am excited to post them. They all look so delicious! If you have a good idea for a meal on a tight budget, be sure to submit them as soon as possible, otherwise the theme will be changing soon! I put up a poll on the right sidebar of the recipe blog, so don't forget to cast your vote on what cooking theme you would like to see next! :)

Moving on, I had two tests today and they both went well. My first test was pretty normal, but I aced my accounting test!!! YESSS!! **happy dance**I was so excited while taking the test because it was just so easy, and that my friend is very exciting for me!

Sorry I don't have too much to report on tonight. I promise all of my posts will not be about the recipe blog, I just wanted to say thanks to all of you who want to participate!

Cooking Fun!

2009-03-09T00:57:00.009-05:00

Hey everyone! I've been reading your blogs for quite a while now and I have come across a reoccurring topic that is being tossed around here and there. What's the topic? Oh, why thanks for asking, the topic is cooking!

That's right, cooking... and recipes!

Now to the exciting part - I have created a recipe blog that I would like you all to participate in!!

My reason for doing this is simple. I know I have been married for 2 years now, but I still struggle with cooking at home, as well as coming up with ideas of things to cook at home. There have been many other bloggers that struggle with this same problem.

This is my attempt to help put delicious food on the table while making it fun and easy at the same time! :)

Here's how it's going to work:
- The recipe blog will update every Monday (or twice a week if there are lots of entries) with recipes and dinner ideas from YOU!
- Entries will be submitted via email. {diaryofmrsd@gmail.com} It is also listed in the top left hand corner of the recipe blog.
- There will be a theme! This is listed just below the title and it will change every month or quarter, depending on how many submissions there are.
- Your recipes will appear on the blog in the order they are received.
- The person whose recipes are posted for that week will be the Cookin' Blogger of the Week. Your blog will then be added to the Blogroll on the recipe blog, and you will be recognized on this blog as well... So get your entries in QUICK!!
- I encourage you all to Follow or Subscribe to the recipe blog. Updates will be posted on there. (I may post some updates on this blog) This will also be an easy way to remind you when a new recipe is posted so you can head over and check it out!

The theme for this month will be: Budget Meals

It doesn't have to be anything fancy, it can be anything at all! Whatever you like for this theme is perfectly fine. I have posted my Budget Meal so you can check that out and get a good idea of how this will work. The next Budget Meal will be posted next Monday (March 16) so get your entries in ASAP and you can be the first blogger to be recognized!

Some future theme ideas are: Mexican dishes, Italian dishes, Cupcakes, Salads, etc.. you get the idea! I placed a poll in the right sidebar so you can vote on the theme you want to see next!

So what are you waiting for? Take 5 and jot down your favorite Budget Meal!! :)

**I need to say this:
I know there are a couple of bloggers that list their menu for the week, their shopping list, or just the occasional recipe on their blog. This is in no way an attempt to take away from that! I enjoy reading your weekly menu or recipe because it honestly helps me come up with ideas on items to cook.
Also, know that your recipes you submit WILL be linked back to YOUR blog. I am not taking credit for any of the recipes listed on the recipe blog! I am only hosting this "Recipe Carnival" to have a fun way of sharing and helping out fellow bloggers.

Need a good laugh?

2009-03-06T17:44:00.003-06:00

I'm a serious animal lover, and I feel bad for the dog, but this was too funny!

Friday Favorites!

2009-03-06T01:37:00.012-06:00

Wow! I can't believe that it's Friday already! This week really flew by, but I'm so glad that it's over. It's always nice to get a couple of days off to relax and take a break from the everyday hustle and bustle.

On this weeks edition of Friday Favorites, I am going to shift gears from facial products to hair products. I love Biosilk's Silk Therapy! It really makes my hair so silky and soft everyday. I can honestly tell a difference if I forget to put it on. You can put in on wet or dry hair, or skin. I only use it for my hair, but one of my old bosses would rub it on her legs and elbows when they would start to get dry. I'm more of a lotion kind of gal for my legs and elbows, but whatever!

Biosilk recently changed their packaging. I am still seeing both types in stores, so I thought I would post a picture of both so you can recognize them if you do decide to go out and purchase this product. (The bottle with the black top is the old packaging.)

My second Friday Favorite of the day would be my beloved CHI flat iron!! I use this little guy pretty much everyday and I have had it for 6 years!! I don't remember my hair before this lovely product came along, or maybe I just choose not to! Ha!I have this black version, but they also come is these other lovely colors! They didn't start making the pretty colored ones until after I had mine for a while, but that's okay. You can pick up the pink one and help fight breast cancer!! If mine ever does decide to croak or if I break it, I am going to get one of the pink ones, because who doesn't love pink! :)

All of the products are from Farouk Systems and you can check them out, as well as other great products, on their website! Happy Friday Everybody!! :)

Welcome to the world...

2009-03-05T16:01:00.004-06:00

My cousin and his wife gave birth to their third child at 1:17am, weighing 5lbs 13oz and is 18 1/4" long! I am so excited for them, and about the new addition to the family!

Let me introduce to you this precious baby boy

Isaiah Daniel

A wee bit of heaven
drifted down from above-
A handful of happiness,
a heart full of love.
- Unknown

Feel free to head over to their blog to congratulate them! You may also leave comments and messages here, which they will be passed along. :)

I hope you all are having a good week! Stay tuned for my workout updates tonight, I realize I have not updated you all in a while. Whoops!! Also, tomorrow is Friday, and that means more Friday Favorites coming your way!

Lost Generation

2009-03-03T17:37:00.003-06:00

My best friend just sent me an email with a link to this video. It's amazing and I thought I would share it with you. Such a great message, but you must watch until the end to get the whole message! Just give me 1:44 of your time!

Just in case anyone has trouble viewing the video, or if you want to share it with anyone else, you can get the link here.

I just got my motivation back!!

2009-03-02T18:17:00.005-06:00

I am so super excited right now!! We finally got to see our new place and in about a month *hopefully* we will be moving right on in! I am so super excited, I can't wait!!

I have mentioned before about my want and need to do things like clean out my closet for example, but I have lacked the necessary motivation needed to complete the task. Well, I am happy to say that it is back and I am so ready to start tackling the little stuff. I wan't to be as ready as possible for this move, and that means getting on top of the laundry and making more room in the closet. It's time to get out with the old and in with the new. Spring is right around the corner, and I am now ready to start my spring cleaning! Please pray that this motivation stays with me!! Haha.. I am not kidding!

This new excitement for today has given me an extra boost, I think I could actually go run around the block a few times... but... I'm not. Instead I am getting excited about tonight's workout, and I am really going to try and push myself. I have learned my lesson for taking 2 days off, and I feel bad about not doing so well last night, so I am going to kick some Jillian Michael's workout dvd butt tonight! I also got a message today via Twitter that Kaitlin @ Life of a Busy Wife also bought the same workout dvd and will be giving it a test run in the near future. So feel free to send her some words of encouragement. ((If you aren't already following her, you should. She has a great blog, an adorable dog, and some great cleaning and organizing tips!!)) If you really go at it and do the exercises right, you are so sore for the first 1-3 days and it will make you question why you even started this whole journey! It gets better over time, but I will say that the encouragement that I have recieved on here has helped keep me going. I want to finish this workout journey so I can update you all, because so many of you are interested in the results of all 3 levels to this workout. With that being said, thank you for your kind words and maintaining interest in my workout journey.

So who is ready for The Bachelor tonight? I know there have been tons of spoilers, and I have seen a few, but I am still ready to see how it all goes down. I hope you all have a great evening, and to Kaitlin - if you start your workout tonight or tomorrow, Good Luck!! :)

Workout Woes

2009-03-01T23:32:00.004-06:00

Lets start off here...

Workout update 5/30:
This workout went really, really well!! When I was done, I felt like I was ready to move up to level 2 of this program, but I am really wanting to stick to my plan of 10 days on each level. It was much easier to do all of the moves, and I was doing them with ease. So by the time the workout was done, I was pumped at how good we were both doing.

Moving on to what happened over the weekend...

Nothing. No workout at all! That's what happened.. until today. I know, I know, I totally got off track and I paid for it today! On Friday, Mr. D actually came home from work sick so he told me he would not be participating in that evenings workout. I vowed to stay on track and complete the workout with, or without a partner. Then, I started to feel a little bit under the weather as well. My stomach was killing me, so I decided to take the night off with plans to pick up on Saturday. So Saturday rolls around and we got so caught up in being out and about all day that we totally forgot to workout. We had plans to go out with friends Saturday night, which was lots of fun, but we didn't even get the chance to workout. This is the first weekend that we have come upon since starting this workout business, so I can't say I'm not surprised that we didn't think about it. I don't feel bad about missing the workout on Friday since we were sick, but I now know to schedule time during the day on Saturdays.

Sorry this post is just me rambling on how we missed 2 days or working out. I'll have something better to write about tomorrow!

So about tonight...

Workout update 6/30:
I totally sucked at this workout. Bad! I wasn't keeping up that well, and I wasn't doing the moves as good as I did on Thursday. I really just felt like I was more less bouncing around my living room. Mr. D however said that he felt like he did a lot better. He said that the two day break helped him get through today's workout much better. That just made me frustrated because I don't feel like I did much of anything.

Has this ever happened to you after taking a break for a couple of days? My deep lunges and high endurance levels for cardio better be back tomorrow night!

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend!!

Friday Favorites!

2009-02-27T12:45:00.007-06:00

Hey everybody, and welcome to the weekend!! It's finally here and I am so glad. I have decided to share with you all some of my favorite products that I love and use frequently, if not daily. If you missed last week, you can catch up on 3 of my favorite products that I introduced to you all. Now let me say that every post will not necessarily be about beauty products, but that was a good starting place for me, and I'm sure you don't mind. :) To continue on with my daily face and skincare products, let me introduce to you my 2 favorite makeup removal products!
Step 1 in my makeup removal process is done with Clinique Take the Day Off makeup remover for lids, lashes, & lips. It is by far the best makeup remover I have ever used, and it is the only thing that will completely take away waterproof mascara. Just dab a little on a cotton ball and gently swipe it over your eyelids and it's gone! It is also safe for contact lens wearers, which can be very important. Just because you are taking off your makeup doesn't necessarily mean that you are ready to take out your contact lenses. There is nothing worse than using a product that requires you to take out your contacts just to use it. I like to take my contacts out and my makeup off when I want to, and that just might not be at the same time! That is why this was a key selling feature for me!
Step 2 in the makeup removal process is done with Clinique Take the Day Off Cleansing Milk. This makeup remover is so simple and easy to use. Just massage a little over your entire face and then you can either rinse with water, or you can use a tissue to wipe it off. I choose to rinse with water, because after this is complete, I begin my 3-Step process with the products mentioned in last weeks post. I have done the "tissue off" method before for reasons I can't recall, but both ways work just fine. It's quick, gentle, easy, and best of all, it can be used with any skin type.

So there you have it! These are my 2 favorite makeup removal products. I highly recommend them both! Let me know if you have tried these products and what your reactions are to them. Do you have any special makeup removal tips or tricks?

Good Deals on Shoes & Purses!!

2009-02-26T17:03:00.009-06:00

I decided to get out of the house for a little bit last night while Mr. D was still at work. The word has been going around about people finding J.Crew products at their local TJMaxx stores. I decided to drop in to see what kind of things had arrived. While my store didn't have any J.Crew, I did find these super cute shoes!

Those aren't the exact wedge heels that they had. I couldn't find a picture of them, but it was the same shoe, just in the patchwork design.

They also had these purses in stock. I was a little shocked when I walked in and saw them, because they have never sold these there before.

They had some cute Lilly Pulitzer makeup bags and wristlets. Lets just say that I was very tempted to buy myself a new purse and some cute shoes, but I resisted the urge. Instead I just browsed and left empty handed. As much as I wanted to buy something, I knew that I probably should save my money. :)

Workout update 4/30:
This was by far the best workout we have had yet! The increased endurance levels were obvious during the cardio sets of the workout, and my ability of squat deeper and lunge further surprised me. I didn't realize that I would see and feel results so quickly, but I think I am going to be ready for level 2 when it comes time to move up. :)

Stay tuned for some more of my favorite products in tomorrows Friday Favorites!

Bad Cats!!

2009-02-25T19:34:00.012-06:00

I don't what it is about hump day, but I am just SO ready for the weekend to get here. I am just really not feeling this day at all! It started out good because I got out of school early, which is always exciting. Then I got home and I am just not feeling motivated to do much of anything. I made a to do list today of everything that I need to get done, and I think that's what did me in. I have a lot of stuff I need to do like clean out the closet, do laundry, etc and I just don't want to do it! I think it's just the mid-week funk, but I am ready for it to go away!! So tell me ladies, how do you get motivated to get things done? I can use your secrets right now!!

For those of you following me on twitter, then you will know that my cat has been driving me nuts today!! For my new readers that haven't "met" him yet, let me introduce to you my pride and joy. His name is Fuzz and he loves to pose for pictures..obviously. You are probably also noticing his little puff at the end of his tail, which you can find out more about our grooming experience here. He has been acting like a 2 year old today, and he wants to do this...

He is obsessed with any kind of living plant or flower, and HE WANTS TO EAT MY TULIPS!! As soon as Mr. D walked in the door with them, his eyes grew wide as he followed me around the house trying to find a place to put them. He has also been doing a ton of other things that are currently driving me crazy, but for lack of boring you with my cat stories, I'll just keep those to myself. :)

Don't forget tonight is LOST night!! Mr. D is working when he is usually off, so I promised not to watch it without him. I am so tempted to watch it though, but I'm going to be a good wife and wait for him to come home so we can watch it online. Thank goodness for being able to watch tv online right?

Now for the workout update: 3/30
We are still working on level 1 and it was difficult for both of us to keep up for some reason. We just didn't have the endurance, and we slacked a little. I'm not sure if it was because we ate a late dinner and then worked out, or if it was because we were sore. Either way, we still pushed through it and we are both feeling much better today. The soreness isn't nearly as bad today, so I think it will make tonights workout a little more pain free. I noticed that some other bloggers are doing this video as well. What do you all think of it so far? Are you having much progress?

PS - Don't forget to share your motivation tips!! Please :)

Happy Fat Tuesday and a Workout Update

2009-02-24T14:53:00.009-06:00

Yay, it's Fat Tuesday and I want some of this!!

I have been craving king cake so badly this year and still haven't gotten any!! I think I am actually going to make some today... or maybe make some king cake cupcakes! Doesn't that sound yummy? If it comes out alright, I will post some pictures.

A lot of you asked if I would keep you updated on how the daily workouts were going. Today will be day 3, but we have only done 2 workouts so far. We do our workouts in the evening because that is when we are both guaranteed to be at home. I must say that I felt a little silly at first working out to a DVD. It just seems a little cheesy to me, but I'm over that now.

The way the workout is set up is as follows:
- 2-minute warm up
- three 6-minute sections of the 3-2-1 system *more on this later
- 2-minute cool down
Totaling 22 minutes of your time everyday for 30 days.

It's really not that long when you think about it, and given the way that the workout is structures, it really does go by fast.

Now to explain the 3-2-1 system:
3 minutes of strength
2 minutes of cardio
1 minute of abs

Each 3-2-1 section is different, meaning that you will not do the same exercises during the 2nd 3-2-1 as you did during the 1st 3-2-1. To further break it down, during each set you will do 2 different exercises. So, during the first 3 minute strength section, those 3 minutes will be divided up between 2 different moves, then the same with the cardio, and then again with the abs. (ex. 2 minutes of cardio might consist of 1 min of jumping jacks and 1 min of butt kicks) Got it? I sure hope so.. I don't think I am confusing anyone, but everyone will read this differently, so who knows! If I have confused you or you have more questions about the DVD, please ask! I will be happy to answer any questions you all have.

The DVD has 3 different levels. You begin doing the level 1 exercises, and then whenever you feel comfortable, you can move up a level. I don't know how I will feel until I get further into my workouts, but my "plan" for right now is to do 10 days of each level. As of right now, I am EXTREMELY SORE!! I was really feeling the burn in my muscles while doing this workout, but it seems to be working. I have only done 2 days, but I can feel the muscles in my abs coming back and my leg muscles getting stronger. Mr. D is also doing this with me and it has helped having someone there to push you, as well as watch you to make sure the other person is doing the exercises correctly. I wasn't holding my arms right at one point and he made sure to correct me of that. Haha!

I got these from Mr. D yesterday for our anniversary! I LOVE getting flowers, and I LOVE tulips, so these obviously made my day! The color is so vibrant and brightens the room! (the pic doesn't do them much justice) They started to open up a little today :)

I hope you all have a great Fat Tuesday, even if you aren't in New Orleans! Don't forget to post any questions you have about the workout DVD!

2 Years!!

2009-02-23T18:37:00.004-06:00

Two years ago today, I married my best friend. I could not have asked for a better partner to spend my life with, and I am so thankful to have found someone so patient, loving, and kind. I can't wait to see what the future holds for us! Happy Anniversary!! I love you so much! :)

I have attached a few pictures from our reception. I am currently using our laptop, (all of our wedding photos are saved on our desktop) so I will post more later.

This was taken during our first dance. It was the first time that we really got the chance to talk all day. Song: Aerosmith - I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing. It was the first song we ever danced to, which just so happened to be at my high school prom :)

We also ate the best cake I have seriously ever had in my entire life. Mr. D doesn't like cake, but he LOVED this one! Brides cake: Red Velvet cake, white butter cream icing, black detailing, decorated with red roses & a scripted letter D adorned with swarovski crystals. It's my favorite kind of cake, and it just so happened to go perfectly with our wedding colors: Cranberry, Black, White, and Silver. Grooms ~~cake~~ cookies: Chocolate chip cookie sandwiches. His favorite cookie with butter cream icing in between. :)

Dancing the night away!

The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart.
- Helen Keller

My goal for the next 30 days

2009-02-22T17:49:00.007-06:00

Starts with this fun, new workout DVD!

I even talked Mr. D into doing it with me! Even better :) So for the next 30 days, I will be spending 20 minutes of each day getting my butt kicked. I'm so excited! Haha.. I'm not overweight at all, but I need something to stimulate my body everyday, and I think this will do the trick. I don't drink coffee or energy drinks, so I've got to get some mojo from somewhere, right? Spring is just around the corner and I am really wanting to get back into running again. I also will be riding my bike much more this Spring/Summer season, and I don't want to croak as soon as the temperature decides to heat up.

I will update you on my progress, as well as any results that will hopefully come out of this. The journey begins tonight and I am anxious to see how difficult it will actually be. I am also dreading the sorness that I will most likely be experiencing in my butt, abs, and thighs. It will all be worth it though I am sure. :)

P.S. - My 2 year wedding anniversary is TOMORROW!!! I am so excited! I can't believe it has been two years already.

***Updated***
Mr. D and I just finished our first 20 minute workout. It was a lot harder than I thought and it definitely got our heart rates up. My muscles kinda feel like jello now, but I feel really good! It is going to be a challenge, but it helped having someone there to workout with me. I just wonder how sore I am going to be tomorrow.. humm...

Friday Favorites!

2009-02-20T11:59:00.007-06:00

So the weekend is here and I am soooo happy! I just want to start off by saying thank you to all of you who took time out to leave me sweet comments on the post I wrote about some of my frustrations with Social Security after my fathers passing. I really appreciate them all! It's so hard at times, and your comments really brightened my day. I would also like to say thank you for all of the well wishes I have recieved over the past couple of days. This strep throat business came out of no where! I got some medicine fromt the doctor which has helped, but now Mr. D has passed along his head cold to me. Not quite what I was wanting, but it's better than strep I guess. I am just hoping that this set of antibiotics will knock out both and I can be well in a few days.

Now, on to bigger and better things! I thought that I would share with you some of my favorite products that I use. I like to try new things here and there, but when I find something that I like, I tend to stay on that bandwagon until forced to get off.

Let me introduce to you my favorite products that I use for my face daily.

I have combination oily/dry skin on my face. (dry on my cheeks and oily in the T zone) and I absolutely LOVE this face wash! Clinique's mild liquid facial soap is not too abrasive when washing my face and it never leaves it feeling dry. Let me tell you, I have had some bad face washes in the past! You know the ones that make you feel like you just peeled off a layer of skin, or the ones that make your face so dry that it itches? Yeah no more of that now that I have found this!This next product is my favorite part of the whole face washing routine. Just dab a little bit of clarifying lotion onto a cotton ball and wipe it across your face and neck and it just feels. so. good. I'm not quite sure why I love this part so much. I think it might just be the moist cooling effect that it gives, but it makes my face feel great!
And the final step to the whole 3-step process is done with Clinique's dramatically different moisturizing lotion. It makes my face feel so soft and smooth, I never leave home without applying this first.
My skin always becomes dry in the winter and stays normal during the summer which drives me nuts! I am always switching between products because I can't find a happy medium. I'll use one type of product for half a year and then another product for the other half of the year and it gets old after a while. I have been searching for something that I can use year-round, and this is it! I used Clinique products when I was in high school, but never their facial cleansers. I decided to go back a few months ago, and I am glad that I did. The price isn't that bad and it really does keep my skin in the best shape through the changing seasons.

Have you had the same troubles finding the perfect facial scrub? Feel free to share what products you love. Happy Friday! :)

Short and Sweet!

2009-02-19T23:53:00.003-06:00

Mr. D and I are FINALLY starting to feel a little bit better! Yay!! I'm about to head to bed, but I will be back with a new (and much better) post tomorrow! The weekend is finally here!! :)

I wish I was this cute little cat

2009-02-17T12:18:00.003-06:00

I had a very busy weekend with Mr. D's birthday and Valentine's Day. I took a little weekend absence from the blogging world with all intentions of coming back to life on Monday. Well, as you can see that did not happen. I began to feel sick on Monday, so I rested thinking that I would be back today. Let me just tell you that I feel like death today. I talked to my doctor on the phone and he so kindly informed me that I have strep throat. Oh the joy! I was really hoping that I was done with this strep business in 2004 (that's a whole different story) but apparently I'm not. I am going to probably sleep a lot today. My doctor's nurse just called to inform me that they called in a few prescriptions for me. I'm about to go pick those up. Hopefully I'll be feeling a little bit better by tomorrow. I hope you all are having a good week!

I feel like I've been kicked in the butt.

2009-02-12T15:36:00.002-06:00

I am so frustrated with our ever so wonderful US government, and more specifically the Social Security Administration, I could scream.. or cry.. whatever!

Let me explain...

Note: For my new readers and followers, if you didn't already know, my dad passed away December 31, 2008.

In case you are not aware, after someone passes away, social security issues a check to the family (spouse, child, whatever) in the amount of $255. My grandmother said that this was originally started to help cover the cost of a monument at the grave site. I'm not really sure what the purpose of the check is now, but they still issue it.

2nd note: My parents have been separated for a few years, but were not divorced, and they have remained close. Everything is seriously like normal when we come into town to visit. We are still a complete family.

Well, since my mom and dad did not live in the same house at the time of my dad's death, we do not get the check. Even though she is still legally his wife and they were together 25 or so years before they separated. Okay... no big deal... it's only $255 that's fine. It's just frustrating that there is a loophole for everything when it comes to anything having to do with the government.

3rd note: After finding out about my dad's worsening heart condition in March of 2008, my dad was declared disabled according to the government and was instructed by his doctors to never return to work. He was not physically capable of doing anything that required too much physical exertion without doing further harm to himself.

So after going through the whole applying for disability process and everything that that entails, my dad received his first disability check in November that was for the month of October. They run a month behind for whatever reason. Can I say that it was so nice for my dad to live without income from March - November. The disability process makes you wait 5 or 6 months before they will give you anything so that way people who aren't really disabled will get up and go back to work. I sure hope that someone who seriously is disabled doesn't go back to work because they are so desperate for money. That could end up very badly.

Moving on, my dad received his direct deposit for his disability in January (which is for the month of December, remember) and then we got a letter in the mail from the bank. It stated that the funds were being placed on hold for now because the bank has to send the money back to social security. Okay, wait.. Excuse me?? I called the bank so check on the situation and they said that we needed to contact the social security office about the status of the funds and whether or not we could have them. Well, according to me, we can have them. It was for December and my dad passed away on the last day of the month. I think that he was entitled to them.

So, my mom talks to the social security office the other day.

Final note (sorry): The first time we talked to the social security office when dealing with the $255 check, they informed us that we would get to keep the December disability check that would come in January.

While on the phone with them, the lady so kindly informed her that she was told wrong and that we would not be able to keep the December disability check. WHY, you ask? Well, according to the Social Security Administration, they do not, and will not, prorate checks. This means that you must be alive at midnight on the last day of the month in order to be eligible to receive payment for that month. (My dad passed away shortly after 7am on the last day of the month)

Are you freaking kidding me?!?! When I found this out today I was angry and wanted to cry all at the same time. I feel like this crappy government is screwing my family over. It literally feels like the just slapped me in the face. I understand that they have their rules and policies for whatever but in our situation, we are really getting screwed. Now if he would have passed away at the beginning of the month, I would understand a little bit more as to why they would say we can't have the money. And please don't get me wrong, it's not the money that I really care about. I'm not greedy.. it's what we were going to use the money for is what I care about. We were waiting on that last check because that was the money that we were going to use to buy my dad's headstone for his grave site. Now we must figure out something else. Thank you social security, thankyouverymuch. I hate you right now, I really do!

So finally, I am sorry to rant and rave so much on this post. I hope you will understand that I just had to get that out while Mr. D is still at work. Besides, I really don't want to make his birthday a downer by me being upset about this. It's nice to have a place to come and let things out, so thank you to whoever reads this.

It's almost his birthday!!

2009-02-11T22:39:00.008-06:00

Tomorrow, February 12, is Mr. D's birthday!! :) Yay! I love birthdays and I can't wait for midnight to get here so I can give him his present! He still has to go to work but I am going to do a little baking tomorrow and take it up to his work for everyone to enjoy. I'm such a good wife right? Haha. So we aren't really doing much tomorrow since Mr. D has to work, we will probably just go out to dinner.

The real party is on Friday. :)

Two of Mr. D's friends also share February birthdays (one just so happens to be today - Happy Birthday) so I have organized a best friend birthday party for the three of them! I'm such a good friend too? Haha.. just kidding. Back to the birthday party details - we are going to Hyena's Comedy Club in Dallas to see Tom Rhodes perform.

This is Tom Rhodes :)

It is going to be their grand opening weekend for the Dallas location, and I am pretty excited! There will be 18 of us and after the show we are going to hit up the Dallas nightlife for some more birthday fun! I can't wait and I will post pictures!!

Do you all have any exciting Valentine's Day plans, or is it a surprise? I usually never know what we are doing for the holiday, I just go along for the ride. We tend to be a little low key on this holiday because on Valentine's Day, our anniversary will be only 9 days away!

We tend to celebrate that a little bit more. Humm, I wonder why? :)

This is going to be a pretty busy weekend for us, so I might be a little MIA. The lineup so far is as follows:
Friday - School, Birthday Party
Saturday - Valentine's Secret Plans
Sunday - Mr. D's Dad is coming to visit for the day!
Monday - Accounting Test - bleh!

What are your plans?

Boo You, Stupid Economy!

2009-02-10T18:24:00.008-06:00

I want to get an allowance again!!

Yeah, so I just did some major budgeting.

I haven't really sat down and done that in a while. Let me just say that money sucks. Why does it seem like the world revolves around money? One of my new years resolutions was to pay off credit cards. We don't have a million or anything like that. I just want to do everything that I can to be debt free, with the exception of the car payment, student loans, etc. I want to rid myself of all the other unnecessary debt - aka credit cards.

Sorry this post is short and kinda blah but I'm just not in the posting mood really. Now I am about to start on my Accounting financial statement project.

I say boo to that too but it's just not going away until I make it. I have a goal to be done within 2.5 - 3 hours. Wish me luck! I hope you all are having a good evening!

Weekend Recap

2009-02-09T18:28:00.006-06:00

Wow! I just finished reading all of your blogs from this past weekend! It took me a little longer than I thought it would. Anyway, Mr. D and I had a really good weekend. Friday night we went out with some friends and played darts again.

I actually won a game of darts!!!

Can you believe it?! I was so excited that I took a picture of the scoreboard. I'll have to post that later though because I'm too lazy right now to find the camera. I'm not lying either - I totally won! So then on Saturday, Mr. D and I relaxed at home until it was time for our evening festivities. Mr. D went with a friend to see Tesla who was playing at the House of Blues here in Dallas. I went out with 2 of my best girlfriends! We met up at Chili's at 8pm for dinner and margaritas before we headed over to the movie theater to see He's Just Not That Into You!

This movie was really cute and is a perfect for Girls Night Out movie choice! We laughed so much at all of the different characters and the crazy things that they were doing. Oh, and I do still love Jennifer Aniston! I will be adding this movie to my collection when it comes out on DVD. :) The only downer part of the night was definitely the crazy laughing guy in the row behind us. He was sitting a few seats down and had the most retarded, LOUD, laugh that it really was pretty funny. He laughed at the stupidest moments and even whistled at one point. Most of the time this would seem like a big annoyance, but for some reason we were all just laughing really hard at him because for some reason he just seemed to add a little extra humor to the movie. He was there alone and we almost thought that he was just doing it to be funny or to mess with everyone in the theater. He wasn't. He was just genuinely corney. We laughed about him all the way out to the car and then on the ride home. I am still laughing about him.

He better not be at the next movie I go to see.

If he is, I will be mad. This movie was lighthearted so it didn't really matter, but that is not always the case with every movie as you all know. Then on Sunday, Mr. D and I made our weekly trip to Target for some groceries. Nothing too exciting there. Then we did some more relaxing, movie watching, cooking, etc. Overall, it was a very nice relaxing weekend. I can't wait until next weekend. Mr. D's birthday is on Thursday and we are celebrating on Saturday! I can't wait... more on that later though. Time to prepare for the rest of the week and a lovely accounting financial statement project for school. Oh, the joy!

PS - When In Rome is having a giveaway for some great perfume. She is only 3 posts away from the giveaway deadline, so check out her blog and try to snag yourself some sweet perfume!

Weekends are good

2009-02-09T12:15:00.003-06:00

So many of you are checking in on me and want to know how the movie was on Saturday. Well I will tell you this now - it was cute! I took a little break from blogging this weekend and now I am trying to catch up on all of your posts. As soon as I get done reading and commenting back to all of you I will be back with my weekend recap! Promise :)

Thanks for all of your comments over the weekend! I hope you all had a good weekend and I should be posting late afternoon/evening. I can't wait to read what all of you have been doing! :)

Happy Monday!

TGIF!! :)

2009-02-06T12:45:00.003-06:00

Thank Goodness It's Friday!! I am so excited that the weekend is here! :) I had my first psychology test today and I think it went pretty well. Mr. D has to work tonight (he gets off around 10pm) and then I think we are heading over to one of our favorite hangout spots with some friends. Then Saturday, Mr. D is going to a concert with a friend from work and I will be participating in Girls Night Out!! I am so excited to get together with two of my friends that I love so dearly but I have not seen in 2 months or more. We are going out to eat (I'm not really sure where yet) and then we are going to see He's Just Not That Into You!! I am so super excited about this movie because I think it will be pretty funny. I love a good chick flick! Oh, and I LOVE Jennifer Aniston!! She is really one of my favorite actresses of all time. I have never seen a movie or TV show with her that I did not like. I'm pretty sure that's the second time I have said that on this blog.. oh well! She was on Jay Leno last night and she was stunning! Is it just me, or does she get prettier the older she gets. I wanna be just. like. her. Haha!

I hope you all have a great weekend!! Do you have any exciting plans?

Shopping Deals!

2009-02-04T19:23:00.008-06:00

Mr. D and I went on an outing today to spend some of his birthday money he got in the mail from his Mom. We stopped by Old Navy to check out the new spring clothes that they put out and to see what kind of deals they had on the winter stuff. I am so excited because I got this:

A blue cashmere zip up hooded sweater today for $10!!
Check out the price tag!!

I wanted this when I saw it the first time but it was in December and all of my extra money was going towards Christmas shopping so I passed it up. I couldn't believe it when I saw it on the clearance rack at the back of the store. I know my jaw must have dropped to the floor when I saw the price tag and Mr. D said, "You have to get that!!"

I totally agreed! :) It was the last one left in my size.

This wasn't the only thing that I got an awesome deal on. I also bought a blue striped 3/4 length long sleeved v-neck shirt for $4.50 and a teal camisole for $2.50!! I was really kind of having a blah day and this brightened it up! :)

If you are still needing some winter clothes for cheap, you should run to Old Navy too! Until then... it's less than 10 minutes until LOST comes on! I hope you all have a fabulous evening!!

I Love LOST!!

2009-02-04T12:43:00.009-06:00

I can't wait for it to come on tonight, but seriously, watching it on TV is driving me nuts!! You see, I have seen every episode of every season, but I have never watched it on TV. Mr. D and I are usually too busy to even know what day of the week it is, let alone remember what time and day a show comes on. So every year around Christmas time when the DVD's come out, we just buy them and then sit down and have a little LOST veg out session for a few days and it is FABULOUS!! The shows are set up so well and they leave you with so many unanswered questions every episode that watching them on DVD is really (I think) the better way to go with this show. As soon as it ends, we are so quick to hit the play next episode button because, you do even have time for a bathroom break!

We. Are. Addicted. :)

Since everything is changing so much, we didn't want to wait another year before we saw what was going to happen so we are making a serious effort to remember when the show comes on so we can watch it. We haven't missed an episode yet, but every time it ends, Mr. D usually says something to the likes of, "But I'm not ready for it to end. PLAY NEXT EPISODE!" Haha.. and I am usually sitting right next to him totally agreeing. We are pathetic, eh? (That's for you Cheryl)

After the first of the year, while we were still on Christmas break from school, we were at the mall and found these awesome LOST puzzles!

They are each 1,000 pieces and they DO NOT show you what the puzzle looks like at all. Let me just say that they were pretty hard. This was my first experience with doing a puzzle without knowing what the finished product would look like. The store only had the first 3 puzzles.. so we purchased all 3!

Puzzle #1 was all about the hatch.

Puzzle #2 was all about the Others

Puzzle # 3 had the numbers theme.

Please ignore the missing piece on the left hand side (which has now been found) it somehow found its way under my couch cussion. Seriously?! Was my frist response when I found it because I have no idea how it got there! Serisouly!

We can't wait to do puzzle #4, we are just waiting to find it! Until then my friends... I'll have to settle for the one hour a week I get for one of my favorite shows ever!

I WON!!

2009-02-03T20:06:00.005-06:00

I am so excited!! There are always so many girls giving away great gifts here in the blog world and I have never actually entered to win until now. Thank you Mrs. Jetplane for hosting this fabulous giveaway and I can't wait to read this book! I love reading your blog and if any of my readers are not familiar with who Mrs. Jetplane is, you need to hop of over to her blog find out!

And... to keep up the spirit of fun giveaways, check out Mrs. Newlywed's site to enter her Lilly Pulitzer stationary giveaway! It ends tomorrow! You know you want some...

Nina has finally got her new site up and running and to celebrate, she is having a TON of giveaways all week long! Check out her new site and sign up for some cute prizes! :)

PS - Thanks again Mrs. Jetplane!! :)

Not Me! Monday

2009-02-02T13:18:00.006-06:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

So it's Monday again and that means it's time to spill the beans on what I did NOT do this past week. Here goes nothing:

When the "ice storm" blew into Texas earlier in the week and all the schools were closed, I certainly did NOT choose to stay in PJ's all day. Since my classes were canceled and I didn't have anywhere to be, why not stay comfortable all day? And then after having such a nice relaxing day of watching Lipstick Jungle episodes on DVD, I certainly did NOT decide to do it again the next day when there was even more ice. Just in case you are wondering, I did take a shower! haha.. I'm not that lazy!

To fuel my entertainment on those "lazy days" I not only watched said episodes of Lipstick Jungle, but I also did NOT kill a few more hours reading blogs all. day. long. Nope! Not me.. that would just be crazy to read blogs all day instead of do something like laundry perhaps.

I also did NOT totally ACCOMPLISH my goal of eating at home for every meal except for one. I am so proud of us because we do eat out a lot and we are trying really hard to stop that. I certainly didn't cook every meal, but I NEVER said that that was a requirement. Eating at home was the only requirement, NOT getting all specific about who was supposed to be cooking said meals. And with that being said, I totally did NOT eat two Lean Cuisine Fettuccine Alfredo dinners throughout the week. I just love those things!

On a more sad note, I did NOT pick up my cell and type in call Dad because I had a story that I was just dying to tell him. I used to talk to him everyday and now that he's gone, this is the first time that I tried to call him. I obviously was in my own little world for a moment. Miss ya daddy!

So what did you NOT do this week?

The Weekend is Over

2009-02-01T22:04:00.006-06:00

The weekend is coming to an end. :( They just don't ever seem to be long enough do they? Our weekend was pretty low key for the most part. Friday night, Mr. D and I decided to stay in and hang out with each other. We pretty much just lounged around the house and watched movies. Last night, we met up with some friends for drinks and darts. I am not very good at darts just so you know. I tried so hard all night to win a game and it seemed like I just got worse as the night went on. Maybe I'll do better next time... hopefully. Today, we made our weekly trip to Target for some groceries and whatever else we ~~need~~ think we need. I bought some super cute foam scrapbooking letters and number stickers, and some adorable paisley stationary! I can't wait to use them both! Then it was back to the house for some more lounging around and cleaning up before the Super Bowl came on. We didn't go anywhere this year to watch the big game, instead we opted for a more relaxing night in our pj's. Oh, and don't forget the 3D glasses for the commercials! I can totally rock me some 3D glasses! :) I should post some pictures.. or maybe not.

So as you can see, we didn't really do anything too exciting this weekend so that's about it for me. However, I am looking forward to next weekend two reasons:
1. It's going to be the weekend again and who doesn't love the weekend.
2. I think this movie is going to be pretty cute... and I do love me some Jennifer Aniston. I have yet to watch a movie with her in it that I didn't like.

I hope you all have a great Monday!

I've been tagged! :)

2009-01-31T16:15:00.004-06:00

Step 1: respond and rework—answer the questions on your own blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your own invention, add one more question of your own.

Step 2: tag—eight other un-tagged people.

Make a list of things you can see without getting up: Given that I am at my computer desk in my room... My computer, pen cups, post-it notes, my bed, and TV.

Favorite football team: Texas Longhorns for sure!! Hook Em! :)

What are you wearing now? Jeans and a T-shirt.. it's a lazy day for me today! :)

What color is your bedroom? Creme w/white molding

What’s the last thing you read/are currently reading? Chapters in my psychology book for school, Marie Claire magazine :)

Do you nap a lot? I've been known to take a nap or two in my lifetime.

Who was the last person you hugged? Mr. D before he left for work. I just love hugging him :)

What’s your current obsession/addiction? Cleaning and organizing my house. I have really been going through some stuff. My next big project is the closet.. Oh joy!

What was the last thing you said aloud? "What's the temperature outside?" Living in Texas you never know what the weather is going to be like. Let me give you an example: Tue & Wed this week the schools were closed because there was an ice storm that blew in. Now, 3 days later, it's Sat and it's 70 degrees outside. I could seriously be wearing shorts, flip flops, and a tank top.

What websites do you always visit when you go online? iGoogle/Gmail, Facebook, Blogger, CNN

What was the last thing you bought? groceries @ Target - because I'm cooking at home! :)

What are you listening to right now? I'm listening to Pandora.com (BEST THING EVER BTW) and it is currently playing "Say It Aint So" by Weezer

If you could be on any TV show, what would it be? Well, I love LOST & Grey's Anatomy but I don't think I would want to be on that island and I don't think I could handle surgery.. humm The Hills people always seem to be going somewhere and doing something interesting. Let's not forget the cute clothes too! :) I guess I'll say that one - just no drama!

What is your favorite weather, and why? Being in TX you can experience any weather during any season.. literally. But I would have to say I like the weather during spring and fall the best!

What time do you usually get up? It depends.. If I am going to school 7

What is your most challenging goal right now? Cooking @ home and then there is always school (that's usually a given though for anybody I think)

Say something to the person who tagged you: One Hot Dish - I love your blog for many reasons: you put recipes up, we have similar interests, you are close to being from my neck of the woods haha, and I just like reading what you post in general. I think it's interesting! :)

If you could have a house–totally paid for, fully furnished–anywhere in the world, where would you want it to be? Japan so we could just go visit there whenever we wanted without having to worry about travel plans.

Favorite vacation spot? Where we went on our honeymoon for sure! *Maui* It's sooooo pretty there and the weather is perfect!! I can't wait to go back! :)

What is your favorite children’s book? When I was in elementary school I read the American Girl books and LOVED them! haha

Name one thing you just can’t resist no matter how bad it is for you: queso dip! I'm sure it doesn't hold a whole lot of nutrional value.

What is your favorite hair product? BioSilk - Silk Therapy

What kind of cell phone do you have or what kind do you want? I have a pink Blackberry Pearl

***Added the one here***What's your favorite dish to fix for dinner? Spaghetti for now.. I am working on perfecting everything else as well as finding a few other! :)

I'm tagging:

Keeping up with the Jones'

The Mathis'

Actually my name is Frances...

The Latest News on Sooz

The Sims Family

whatsthejillio?

Have fun! I can't wait to read your answers! :)

First comes love...

2009-01-30T00:53:00.009-06:00

Then comes marriage
The comes ~~the baby in the baby carriage~~ my 2nd anniversary!!

WOW! Time flies when your in love! It's about 3 1/2 weeks until my wedding anniversary and I still feel like a newlywed! Just this week while cooking (something I am working on) I used some of my wedding gifts for the first time! It only took me two years to use them once, but they are getting used aren't they. Now we have pretty much used everything we have gotten as a wedding gift at least once. Some I use on a weekly or even daily basis. My problem is that we got a lot of gifts for our kitchen because we literally didn't have anything for a kitchen when we got married. We registered for a ton of stuff because we knew that we would need and use it. There is however one key part to using those awesome kitchen gifts that I got at all my bridal showers...

You have to cook.

Well, lets just say that we are working on that. Mr. D and I struggle with cooking at home on a regular basis because we are both full time college students, and when Mr. D works, his schedule is usually something similar to 3pm-9pm. It just gets hard when we are both all over the place and aren't always going to be eating dinner together. Oh, and I know what you are thinking.. leftovers right? Wrong.. we pretty much suck at that too. Sooo.. this week we made a pact to eat every meal but one at home. This is huge for us in case you haven't figured that out already. We got tons of good food at the grocery store and we have been cooking together which has been fun. I have been eating leftover for lunch and it's not so bad. You just have to remember that they are there, which I usually forget that they are. However, we have made it to Friday and I am pretty darn proud of us! This eating at home thing seems to be much healthier and it saves a lot of money too. :)

Everybody loves money, right?

I sure could use a little bit more of it right about now. Mr. D's birthday is coming up in 11 days (Feb. 12), the lets us not forget Valentines Day, then there is MY 2ND ANNIVERSARY!!!! I am so excited.. I feel like I am about to get a prize or something for being married two years. By the way, does anyone know when the "Newlywed" status ends? I still want to be a newlywed. Am I still one or did that end after the 1st anniversary? Somebody needs to let me know, and until then, I'M STILL A NEWLYWED! :) I mean I feel like one after all. We haven't even gotten the whole cooking thing down yet.. that should count for something I think. So back to the whole needing money thing and my 2nd anniversary. We decided that instead of getting each other anniversary gifts each year, we would much rather travel. For our first anniversary, we took a vacation down in San Antonio and had a blast down on the Riverwalk. Well, we were starting to plan our trip for this year when my father passed away and I was totally sidetracked with everything else life has handed me. Then I realized the other day that we still don't have a clue as to what we are doing. I am thinking that we are going to drive somewhere fairly close (5hrs or less) and stay for a little while. We live in the north part of the DFW metroplex so I'm thinking that Dallas or Ft. Worth are out of the question.

HELP!! I need your ideas, tips, anything!! If there is something cool around DFW then we could consider it. Let me know what you all think please!

Are you ready for some football?

2009-01-29T23:30:00.007-06:00

Super Bowl 43 is just around the corner! (February 1, 2009) If you aren't already planning to attend a super bowl party, I bet you are planning on hosting one. I came across this today and thought that I would share it with you.

This has got to be the ultimate snack/dipping tray I have ever seen. I have no desire to make this, but it did remind me of something I haven't had in a while - 7 layer dip! Humm.. maybe I will make some soon. So anyway, I just wanted to pass along this very creative idea to all of you. Who knows, maybe you will be inspired to make something clever but maybe not a detailed as this.

Oh, and I almost for the most important part...

Which team are you pulling for to win Super Bowl 43? I wanna know! Happy Snacking! :)

Yummy!

2009-01-29T14:11:00.008-06:00

Growing up in Texas and living there your whole life pretty much means that you are going to have your fair share of Mexican food. I just so happen to LOVE Mexican food!! I love, love, love enchiladas, fajitas, chips and queso, and I could practically drink the hot sauce! Oh, and don't forget the margaritas too! :)

Well, almost 2 years ago I moved a little more north in the state and the quality of the Mexican food has changed drastically! Where I am from, there are quite a bit of mom and pop Mexican restaurants and they are delicious! However, being in DFW, the restaurants are more commercialized and they are not as good. I have been to one here and there that is decent but every time I make a trip home, me and my hubby have a list of places we have to eat at while we are there.

What can I say? I need some GOOD Mexican food! :)

So, since we have moved I have been on a search for good Mexican recipes. I have cooked Mexican dishes over and over and I am getting better, but I just haven't gotten it the way we like it. Well, I came across Kelly, a fellow blogger, who also has a recipe blog that listed a wonderful concoction of beef enchiladas that the hubby and I made together last night. :)

This is her recipe:

Beef Enchiladas

1 lb hamburger meat
1 small onion, chopped
1 can of chopped black olives
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1 can of Enchilada sauce
8 oz of shredded cheddar cheese
6-8 flour tortillas

Brown the meat and saute the onions in with it. Once that is done, add in the olives and let it heat and then add in 3/4 of the cheese and let it melt - mix it all together. Fill tortillas with the meat mixture and roll up. Combine the mushroom soup and enchilada sauce and pour on top. Top with remaining cheese. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.

Mr. D and I don't like black olives so we decided to leave those out. Oh and we used corn tortillas instead of flour, as well as Old El Paso brand of enchilada sauce. This recipe is so simple and easy you must try it. So far these have been the best beef enchiladas that we have made at home yet! There is also plenty of room to toss in whatever else you might like to spice up the meat or the sauce a little bit.

This is what ours looked like straight out of the oven. I know it kind of looks like a big blog of brown, cheezy, goodness instead of enchiladas, but I promise you they are delicious! Oh, one more thing.. be careful when taking them out of the oven. The enchilada sauce was bubbling!

If you give these a try (which I strongly recommend) please let me know how they came out and what you did different. Be sure to let Kelly know too!

Clocks

2009-01-23T22:01:00.012-06:00

**Originally posted as a note on Facebook, January 9, 2009. This will explain the reference of the song Clocks in my "Today Was Tough" post that follows this post.**

My dad passed away on December 31, 2008 after a 9 month struggle with his failing heart. Before he passed, on a trip to Denton to visit my brother, sis-in-law, Mr. D, and I, we downloaded music and burned CDs for him. He had a list of songs he had picked for different family members and close friends. At the time I did not know what the list was, I just thought he wanted to make some CDs of his favorite music. He would never let me see the list, and it wasn't until I went into his room after he passed away that I saw it placed on his bed. My dad picked the Coldplay song Clocks for me. He made sure to tell a close friend why he picked that song for me. He said that there was a time and a place for everything and that is the message he wanted to leave me with. As I read over the lyrics to this song, it all makes sense to me now. As you read the first four lines of the song, it describes the last 9 months of my dads life. He died at the young age of 50, but he fought his way through this last year and had some really good times and a different outlook on life in general. He knows that I didn't want to see him go, but it was his time and his place in life to leave us now. Almost every night for the last 9 days, I have asked to feel his presence in my life in some shape, form, or fashion. Whether it be me hearing him talking to me, dreams, whatever, I just wanted to feel that he is with me. I know that sometimes these things never happen for some people, and for others it takes time, but my daddy called me last night in my sleep. I dreamed of him last night! My cell phone rang and it said Dad mobile calling and after I answered, I heard his voice on the other side clear, and plain as day. It was almost as he was talking to me face to face. He asked me what I was up to and I told him, then I asked how he was feeling and he told me that he felt good. Then he told me that he would talk to me later and I told him that I loved him. I woke up as soon as the phone hung up. All day I have felt this excitement inside that I haven't felt in a while. I feel at peace because I honestly believe that my dad was letting me know that he is truly okay and feeling fine. I can only pray that he will come back to talk to me some more and that he will be sure to visit and watch over all of us. I miss my daddy terribly, and I love him more every day.

I love you daddy,
Favorite Daughter
KP

Coldplay - Clocks

The lights go out and I can't be saved
Tides that I tried to swim against
Have brought me down upon my knees
Oh I beg, I beg and plead singing

Come out of things unsaid
Shoot an apple off my head and a
Trouble that cant be named
A tiger's waiting to be tamed singing

You are
You are

Confusion never stops
Closing walls and ticking clocks
Gonna come back and take you home
I could not stop that you now know singing

Come out upon my seas,
Cursed missed opportunities
Am I a part of the cure
Or am I part of the disease, singing

You are, you are, you are
You are, you are, you are

And nothing else compares
And nothing else compares
And nothing else compares

You are
You are

Home, home where I wanted to go
Home, home where I wanted to go
Home, home where I wanted to go
Home, home where I wanted to go

Father - Daughter dance at my wedding reception on Friday, February 23, 2007
Song: A String of Pearls by Glenn Miller

My brother, his wife, and my Dad
photo taken Sunday, October 12, 2008 at my brother's new house while it was still being built.

Me and Dad at my brother's new house. It was a very bright, windy day.

My Dad and Brother at the Texas vs. OU football game this year. Dad said he had the time of his life and that it was so awesome!

One of the last pictures I took of my dad. It was taken in November 2008. We had a really good time just me and him that day. :)

I L-O-V-E Love You all the T-I-M-E Time

Today Was Tough

2009-01-23T20:08:00.005-06:00

Okay, so I have been somewhat absent from the blogging world for a while now. I have been around reading everyone's blogs, but I just haven't had it in me to write my own blog. I have pictures to upload and post on here because I want to write about them, but I just don't feel like it. Everyday I keep thinking that today is the day. I will upload my pictures and then I will blog about it and everything will be back to normal, but it won't. I want to do these things but then when it comes time to do it, I really just don't want to at all. I feel like I want to write some special post about my dad, or for my dad, or whatever, but I can't. Then I want to write about other stuff that I normally write about on here, but I can't seem to do that either. It is all just so frustrating.

I saw my dad, spent time with him, and even talked to him a little bit in my dreams today while I was taking a nap. I was happy when I woke up. I am always excited to have dreams about my dad because they always make me feel better. It always seems like he is talking to me and telling me how he is doing. This is the second dream that I have had like this where my dad was talking to me, and the third dream that I have had about him since I came back home. (While I was in Longview after his death I had several dreams pretty much every night) I am taking a psychology class this semester and we are supposed to learn about dreams and memories, so I am hoping to gain some insight to some of this. Really I am just looking forward to learning about why we dream and why we dream about certain things. I'm not too sure what chapter that is so it could be a while until I get to that point of the class, but when I do get there I will make sure to let you all know what I learn. :) So back to my ramblings on my dreams and my dad, right after I woke up I went to meet Mr. D for his dinner break. We ate at this new Italian place (very good) and then I headed to Target to pick up a few things. The whole time I was in the store I just couldn't stop thinking about my dad and I had tears in my eyes for the majority of my trip through the store. I really do get like this often and it just seems to hit me out of nowhere. Anyway, I made it through the store and then to my house. I parked, turned off the headlights, was about to turn off the car when all of a sudden Clocks by Coldplay starting playing on the radio. I just burst into tears as I sat in the dark listening to the lyrics and just wondering about my dad.

Some days are just harder than others.

I know that my life is forever changed now that my dad is gone. I know that there will be many sleepless nights, dreams, memories, birthdays, anniversaries, etc that are directly related to him. Those days will most likely be the most difficult. I just hope that I deal with everything well. As far as people in my family, I have lost 3 uncles and a grandfather. During the times after their deaths, the greiving process didn't seem to last too long really. The hardest by far was when my grandpa, Henry, passed away, but it was nothing compared to this. I don't know a whole lot about greiving, but I do know that there are several steps to the whole process. I don't know if I will experience all of the steps or how long it will even take for that matter. I just hope that I can grieve properly but also maintain myself at the same time. I am pretty sure that I can do this, but I am just slightly concerned especially since I am a student. I want to keep my focus.

Ohh there is just so much that I think about and that wonders in and out of my head throughout the passing days. Right now I feel like I am just kind of rambling and not making a whole lot of sense. I don't know, I have been crying while writing different parts of this post and I am not going to proof read this either. It is what it is and that is good enough for me. I can't believe that I actually kept writing because when I started this post I thought it would only be one small paragraph. Maybe this is what I needed to get over the hump and maybe tomorrow I will upload my photos. Getting them from the camera to the actual computer is the first step. So don't hold your breath because who knows when you will see the pictures that I have to share. They aren't super exciting anyway, but you all know that I like to post pictures of my family, friends, and things that I am doing. Anyway, that is all for tonight. Mr. D will be home from work soon. I hope you all have a good weekend.

The Walrus and the Carpenter

2009-01-10T15:55:00.002-06:00

By: Lewis Carroll

The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright—
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.

The moon was shining sulkily,
Because she thought the sun
Had got no business to be there,
After the day was done—
"It's very rude of him," she said,
"To come and spoil the fun!"

The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
No cloud was in the sky:
No birds were flying overhead-
There were no birds to fly.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Were walking close at hand;
They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand:
"If this were only cleared away,"
They said, "it would be grand!"

"If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year,
Do you suppose," the Walrus said,
"That they could get it clear?"
"I doubt it," said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.

"O Oysters, come and walk with us!"
The Walrus did beseech.
"A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
Along the briny beach:
We cannot do with more than four,
To give a hand to each."

The eldest Oyster looked at him,
But never a word he said:
The eldest Oyster winked his eye,
And shook his heavy head—
Meaning to say he did not choose
To leave the oyster-bed.

But four young Oysters hurried up,
All eager for the treat:
Their coats were brushed, their faces washed,
Their shoes were clean and neat—
And this was odd, because, you know,
They hadn't any feet.

Four other Oysters followed them,
And yet another four;
And thick and fast they came at last,
And more, and more, and more—
All hopping through the frothy waves,
And scrambling to the shore.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Walked on a mile or so,
And then they rested on a rock
Conveniently low:
And all the little Oysters stood
And waited in a row.

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes- and ships- and sealing wax-
Of cabbages- and kings—
And why the sea is boiling hot-
And whether pigs have wings."

"But wait a bit," the Oysters cried,
"Before we have our chat;
For some of us are out of breath,
And all of us are fat!"
"No hurry!" said the Carpenter.
They thanked him much for that.

"A loaf of bread," the Walrus said,
"Is what we chiefly need:
Pepper and vinegar besides
Are very good indeed—
Now if you're ready, Oysters dear,
We can begin to feed."

"But not on us!" the Oysters cried,
Turning a little blue.
"After such kindness, that would be
A dismal thing to do!"
"The night is fine," the Walrus said.
"Do you admire the view?"

"It was so kind of you to come!
And you are very nice!"
The Carpenter said nothing but
"Cut us another slice:
I wish you were not quite so deaf—
I've had to ask you twice!"

"It seems a shame," the Walrus said,
"To play them such a trick,
After we've brought them out so far,
And made them trot so quick!"
The Carpenter said nothing but
"The butter's spread too thick!"

"I weep for you," the Walrus said:
"I deeply sympathize."
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size,
Holding his pocket-handkerchiefs
Before his streaming eyes.

"O Oysters," said the Carpenter,
"You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?"
But answer came there none—
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one.

I read this poem at my dad's funeral. He called me about a month ago and read it to me over the phone. He said that it was his favorite poem growing up as a child. For as long as I can remember he has always said "The time has come," the Walrus said. My dad had lots of lines like that but I never knew where that one came from until he read it to me that day.

That's all I have for now. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Details

2009-01-01T11:08:00.004-06:00

Hello to those that read my blog. In case you didn't already know, I wanted to post the information on here so you will know what is going on and all of the details.

Yesterday, December 31, 2008, my daddy passed away at Longview Regional Hospital. I am not going to go into any details at this time because it is just too hard to put into words right now. His visitation services will be at Rader Funeral Home on Judson Rd. here in Longview this Friday from 6-8pm. The funeral will be held in the chapel at the funeral home on Saturday at 2pm. You can find out all of the details, address information, view the obituary, and sign the guestbook at www.raderfh.com. Right now it shows in the upper right corner of the page it lists the current services and you can just click on his name. If that comes down then you can still find everything by searching for his name on the website.

For those that have already called, written, visited, etc I just want to say thank you. We appreciate everything you have done and thank you for being a part of my family, and my daddy's life.

The General is Back!!

2008-12-23T00:42:00.010-06:00

So while we were in town for the whole lot approval thing, (read previous post if you don't know what I'm talking about) we had some time to hang out at the ever so awesome McCann St Bar and Grill. Given that it is one of the only bars left in Longview these days, the decision of where to go grab a drink with some friends was pretty much made. Rather quickly at that! This doesn't happen too much with me and Mr. D. We like to ponder over all of our options for a while before deciding on the best place to go buttt... Longview doesn't seem to give you too many options for an exciting night life so you just kind of have to deal with what you got. Anyway, Mr. D's cousin Steve, one of our best friends Jay (aka Justin), Mr. D and I headed up to McCann St and we had a really good time. Oh, and this is important.. we reurned the "General" back to its rightful owner.You see this little blue guy Jay is holding in this picture? That my friend is the ever so sacred General which is Jay's good luck charm...uhh toy, man, whatever. It brings him good luck, or it is supposed to anyway. The last couple of times he brought out the General around us, well lets just say that his luck wasn't so lucky. We can save those stories for some other time though. Moving on with the story...
Mr. D and I have had Jay's General for almost a year now and when we moved this past summer, we packed him up with Mr. D's most prized possessions. Well, on December 4, 2008 the General was returned back to Jay and judging by the picture, I think you will agree with my by saying he was pretty excited to see the little blue guy back in his control.
Even Steve was happy to get a chance to play with this ever so awesome piece of blue plastic! And then throughout the night as we all played with the General for a while, Mr. D actually discovered that the General was in fact not a general at all. He is a police officer! Maybe that's why Jay didn't ever have much luck with this little guy because he was tricking him all along!!
So we all had a good time playing with this little blue guy while others looked on like we were retarded. Those people might be correct... after all, we all thought this police officer was an army general for the longest.

I know this little story about a piece of blue molded plastic is less than entertaining, but he has been the topic of many conversations over the past year and he always seems to come out when drinks are being passed around. He is Jay's good luck thing and I had these pictures to post and I feel like I had to say sometime about him. Otherwise it would just be a couple of pictures of everyone and this blue thing and no one would know what was going on. I'll try for a more interesting story some other time when it's not 1:30 in the morning. Goodnight!

The Lake House

2008-12-21T19:31:00.013-06:00

Early in December, Mr. D and I traveled back to East Texas to visit for a couple of days. We didn't tell anyone, except for my grandma, so it was a big surprise to my parents when they walked into Pizza King and saw Mr. D and I sitting there. I was SUPER excited about surprising my dad, and we were VERY excited to chow down on the best pizza on the planet. :) There isn't any good pizza where we live, so every time we go home, Pizza King is on the list of places to stop and eat. It was fresh, hot, filling, and delicious as ever.

After having a nice visit with my parents, we headed to Kilgore to get some rest before the big, exciting journey to Quitman, TX. Mr. D's dad was planning on purchasing a lot along the water at Lake Fork, and wanted our seal of approval. It seems like these days we are being asked for our input or opinion on major decisions. After all, according to Mr. D's dad, "this is going to be yours one day, so I want to know if you like it." So we drove out to Lake Fork to see this...
I think it's beautiful, peaceful, and COLD!!!! Haha! It would obviously be much greener (and WARMER) during the spring and summer months, but during the fall and winter months, well, everything looks a little dead.The wind coming in off the water was absolutely FREEZING!! I couldn't feel my body for the most part, but we managed to stay out there long enough to get the rundown of the place and to snap a couple of pictures.
This picture is one of my favorites. Mr. D and his dad freezing their butts off on the pier. I know they are father and son and have the whole name sharing thing going on, but GEEZ they look like the same person!! They even stand the same when they are cold... it's crazy... just crazy!!
Here is another one of my favorites from that day. I'm not really sure why exactly... maybe it's because you will hardly ever see Mr. D wandering through the middle of nowhere in East Texas. Let alone Quitman, Tx for that matter. I'm pretty sure that's why I hurried to catch this shot of my hubby because there probably won't be too many like this. :) He's more of the city type I guess you could say. After all, he does want to go live in Japan.

So anyway, we approved of the lot and sometime in the future Mr. D's dad will start having his brand new lake house built. It will probably be a couple of years, but we are still excited for him anyway.

日本語のスキット

2008-12-02T21:41:00.007-06:00

That says Japanese skit in case you were wondering. Me and Mr. D had to do a skit as a final project for the course and the requirement was that we had to tell how to make something. Me and Mr. D decided to have a little fun with it and made a completely ridiculous skit... How to make a delicious deli sandwich which was actually a cat sandwich. It's pretty funny for a little 4 minute skit for school. To set it up for you, I am supposed to be a morning news show anchor and Mr. D, aka Chef Bob, is supposed to be this crazy chef that does a guest appearance on the show. You know how they always have people on in the morning cooking awesome food... well, Chef Bob is going to be that guy. Enjoy and feel free to leave a comment telling me what you think!!

Not Me! Monday

2008-12-01T02:30:00.013-06:00

So this is my first time to actually do a Not Me! Monday post as compared to just reading random peoples Not Me! posts. If you are confused at what I am even talking about, just click on the orange Not Me! button above for further clarification and to check out MckMama's Not Me! Monday post as well. These things are usually fairly entertaining, especially if you are just needing to kill a little bit of time.

So, here goes nothing...

This past weekend Mr. D's cousin Steve, who coaches a little league soccer team that was playing in a soccer tournament in Garland, was crashing on our couch for a few days. Since he had to be out on the soccer field by 7:30am Saturday morning, he had to leave our house by 6:30 at the latest. Even though Steve set his alarm on his cell phone and his alarm clock, I most certainly did not lay in bed wide awake at 5am waiting to make sure he got up. Nope, it was not me that got out of the bed to wake up a seemingly capable adult (who can wake up on their own) and wake them up!! Then, on Sunday, I surely was not the one who slept in and did not even get up to tell Steve goodbye and thanks for visiting us. That just doesn't sound like something I would do now is it?

When Mr. D and I were hanging up our stockings, I did not think it was a great idea to write our names on them in Japanese. You know, because everyone that comes over to our house can read Japanese... right?!

I know it's cheesy but we use what we can here and there. It keeps things interesting at the least.

Now for Thanksgiving, I did not buy sliced turkey and ham from the butcher at Target because I am too lazy to cook a turkey. You know, being that it was just the two of us, who needs a whole turkey anyway? Not me!

I absolutely did not write a post this week making fun of my precious baby Fuzz and his awesome hair cut! We all know that secretly inside I love it and think he is strangely adorable!!

And finally, I did not sit and watch Goat as she licked and chewed on the Christmas tree after Mr. D told her No. Haha, that really wasn't me!
Well, that was fun and I hope everyone has a good week ahead of them! Happy Monday! :)

Christmas is coming!!

2008-11-30T21:24:00.007-06:00

You know a few posts back I mentioned wanting to make something but I didn't know what. Well, I finally made something!! Not only did I make one, but I made two Christmas wreaths to hang on the front door. The first one I made was for my house and it looks like this..

Then my grandmother saw mine, and well, she wanted one too. Turns out she had been looking around town for a new wreath and just could find what she was looking for. So, me being the awesome granddaughter I am, I made her this..

I got everything I needed at Michaels Arts & Crafts and went to town with the hot glue gun. It was actually a pretty fun project and fairly inexpensive. Who knows, maybe this will inspire you to do something crafty for the holidays.

FYI: I'm on a mission

2008-11-29T20:21:00.006-06:00

**UPDATE**
So, it actually didn't take me that long to create the background. Since it was pretty easy once I got going, I decided to do a Christmas themed background real quick. I know it's not perfect, but it's my first time and I am trying, so everyone can just deal with my imperfections. :) I am open to any advice, tips, ideas, or whatever else you want to give me. I hope to get better as time progresses. Now, I want to try to make a header... wish me luck!
********************************************************

Hey everyone! I just wanted to let you all know that my blog might be looking a little crazy and mismatched within the near future. I am trying something new that I hope to have complete by the New Year! I am trying my hand with photoshop (which I have never used in my LIFE) and I hopefully will end up with a new blog style. Hopefully being the key word... that is if I don't go crazy mad and quit. I am just getting used to the program and trying out new ideas here and there so that's why I am not doing a Christmas design. However, I found it necessary to warn you because there might be things showing up one minute and gone the next. It's going to be a fun little trial and error process. So, with that being said, I am going to get back to my fun little project! :)

Check out that hair!

2008-11-28T01:48:00.005-06:00

Wow! I had a lot of fun with this whole yearbook yourself thing. You can try it for yourself and have a few good laughs here. I saved several photos, but my favorite was from the year 1968. So now I've got myself thinking... What happened in 1968 that would have me smiling like this?

Well, I found a few things that would make me smile.
1. Green Bay Packers won Super Bowl II
2. The 1968 Winter Olympics held in Grenoble, France. - you can't tell me you don't LOVE to watch the olympics!!
3. The U.S. Congress repealed the requirement for a gold reserve to back the U.S. currency.
4. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
5. The Beatles announced their creation of Apple Records.
6. James Earl Ray was arrested for the murder of Martin Luther King Jr.
7. One Life to Live premiers on ABC. Haha!
8. Richard M. Nixon was nominated for U.S. President by the Republican National Convention.
9. Mattel's Hot Wheels toy cars are introduced! I LOVED those things!! :)
10. NASA launched Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission.
11. Richard M. Nixon becomes president.
12. Apollo 8 entered orbit around the moon allowing the astronauts on board to be the first people to see the far side of the moon and planet Earth as a whole.

So there it is, something from every month during 1968 that would make me smile. Now I could write a list about things that don't make me smile during this same time period, but that would be much longer and filled with the Vietnam War, civil rights protests, etc, etc. Lets just settle with some of the good that took place, and for those few older (than me, not meaning old as in ancient or elderly) adults that might read this blog, I hope this served as a nice little flash back for you! :)

Fuzz looks awful.. Ahem.. I mean AWESOME!!

2008-11-28T00:23:00.013-06:00

My cat, Fuzz, looks totally ridiculous it's AMAZING!!

Let me explain...

You see, Fuzz was this cute, absolutely adorable, precious little fuzz ball sitting in a cage at Wet Pets N Critters some 4 years and 5 months ago. I fell in love with his cute face, his loud purring, his personality, his affection.

I fell in love with him.

So the decision had pretty much been made... by ME! I had to have him and we took him home. The End.

Yeah right! Oh how I wish that was the end of the story. Given that it's not, lets continue...

Fuzz was and still is great. He is everything I wanted in a cat and more probably. I wanted a cat that was spoiled rotten, adorable, playful, and completely obsessed with me. Hey, it's my cat and he can be whatever I want him to be right? Anyway, I was lucky and Fuzz turned out to be all of these things I wanted, and then he turned into this.

One big, giant, chunk, and I mean CHUNK, of fuzz. Looking at this picture he looks precious, but he won't ever let me brush him and gradually over time his undercoat started to become rather matted.

So there really was only one solution.

Let me present to you the most ridiculous cut you could ever give a cat, the lion cut.

He looks a little weird in this picture because his hair isn't perfectly even since it was so matted. It looks much better now that it has had a week to grow out some. I would not recommend grooming your own or anyone else cat for that matter like this. I agree with my vet that this choice of hair style for feline animals looks stupid, but we really had no other choice. So even though Fuzz looks completely retarded walking around our house, it's hilarious and fantastic at the same time!! I can't help but laugh at the poor animal every time I look at him. :) Now that he is getting used to his new hairstyle, he really seems to like it. He is actually feeling things he has never felt before and it's funny just watching him adapt to the new "do." At least now he can bathe himself. Yay!

So I hope you all get a good crack about my cat, because I sure did. Please feel free to leave your humorous thoughts or anything else you think about my cat! I think the best comment I have gotten yet is one from my brother when he said,
"He looks like he got a head transplant!"
Then there is always the comment from my grandmother,
"Well doesn't he just look awful."

My response...Yes, yes he does look completely ridiculous. Awful, no. Ridiculous, yes and I think its AWESOME!!! :) Ha!

Warm Chewy Goodness

2008-11-02T01:33:00.006-05:00

That's right! I made my very first loaf of banana nut bread and it was delicious! Warm, chewy, moist, and very satisfying to my belly. I have wanted to make banana bread for so long but I have just never gotten around to it until the other day. I actually got the urge to make cupcakes but once I got to the store I decided on bread instead. I personally think it was a wiser, more healthy choice than cupcakes... especially since I took Target up on their offer of putting the extra Halloween candy on sale.

Moving on, I went to Michaels Arts and Craft store today looking for something to do. I got the sudden urge to make something but I didn't know what. The Michael's store near my house is currently being rearranged so the entire store is a wreck. I browsed the store for almost an hour until I had to leave because they were closing, only finding myself leaving empty handed.

I hate that feeling.

You know the feeling where you want to do something but you don't know what. I have pretty much had that feeling all day. Now that I actually went to the store and became overwhelmed with all the possibilities of things to create, I can't put my finger down on one thing to do for the time being to satisfy my urge to complete something. Then I thought, I have stuff at home that I could work with... but what will I do? It is just so frustrating sometimes. Just to satisfy myself for the moment, I am going to blame it on Michael's for now. If there store was in order and I knew where everything was, then I would have found something for sure. As I walked around tonight I thought of ideas, but I couldn't piece everything together because everything wasn't out or where it could be found. Perhaps maybe I could blame it on myself for not knowing exactly what it was that I wanted to do, but then that just wouldn't be any fun. I never know what I really want to do when I go into that store. I usually just figure it out when I get there. Anyway, the point is that my urge to create something is still there and I probably won't have time to do anything about it until who knows when.

If anyone has any good ideas on a small craft project, please pass them along. I need something to do!!

Happy Halloween!!

2008-10-31T12:30:00.022-05:00

Yay for Halloween!! I think it is such a fun holiday for everyone to enjoy in some way or another. Just being around town lately, I have run into a couple of kiddos here and there that are all dressed up and it just makes me smile. I remember when I was that young and I loved dressing up. Too bad I can't jump right back into the days when me and my best friend went out as a pair of dice!! Or the year that I went dressed up as a picnic table... OHH SCARY huh?! (If I can get my hands on a picture or two I will post them for sure!)

Mr. D and I went to the Coalition Halloween Party last night and had a pretty good time. Mr. D went as the Joker (obviously...) and I was a gangster. His costume was actually a little bit creepy because if any of you know Mr. D, then you know that his facial expressions are a large part in his personality. Well, last night that was all taken away. The face paint hid every eyebrow raise and his lips blended in with the "smile" so you couldn't ever tell what he was actually doing with his mouth.

The good thing about the party was that there was a costume requirement to come. Therefore we got to see lots of fun and interesting costumes. For example, this person above is Pee Wee Herman. Ohh yay for more childhood memories! He looks pretty good though right?? =)

The most creative costume of the night I must say was my friends peacock costume. She made the whole thing herself and it took about 3 weeks to make. She has around 50 real peacock feathers on her total. Her costume got the most attention while out walking around campus. I think my favorite comment from some random person walking down the street was, "Wow! That's a peacock! That's different!!" Haha... yes, yes indeed. She is a peacock, and a very pretty one at that! =)

We also had almost the entire cast of Scrubs in attendance. I do not watch Scrubs, so I have no clue what all of their names are. I know the guy drinking the apple martini, was J.D. and the "black" guy, was Turk. Other than that, I don't know who everyone else was, but I know they are on the show.

However, the funniest guy of the night had to be this guy! While we were hanging out on the front porch, we sent him out to the curb to see if he could get any drivers to stop and say hello. One car did slow down almost to a complete stop, but then suddenly took off once they got a glimpse of who they were stopping for. That was probably the most successful he got. We thought it was pretty hilarious!

(He told me this was his good side)

I hope you all enjoyed the photos! Have a very Happy Halloween!

What's going on in Harlem?

2008-10-27T14:06:00.008-05:00

So my uncle posted this on his blog and I thought I would post it on mine as well. It is quite humorous but very ridiculous at the same time. Please, have a listen before you continue anymore reading!

Howard Stern: Sal in Harlem

WOW!! Just listening to that makes you realize how uneducated the people in this country really are! Worst part about it all... these people allowed to vote for the next president of our country!!! I will say that I might not be as in tune as I should be, but I read the news and I keep up with the presidential race enough to know what is really going on. These people don't even know who Obama or McCain's running mates are! So please, read up and educate yourselves folks!! Find out what everyone is about before you vote.

Intermural Volleyball Coalition Style

2008-10-27T13:36:00.014-05:00

Team Record: 0-3
Sets Won: 3
Sets Lost: 6

We seem to have this pattern we keep repeating every game... lost first set, win the second, and then loose the third. But hey, at least we are being consistent!! We are having a good time and we have our next game tomorrow at 10:30pm. The team we are playing has a similar record to ours (I think they have won one game) so it should be a pretty good match. Who knows, maybe we can pull this one off. I've included some shots that were taken during a game to give anyone who is interested a look at how AWESOME we look sporting the Coalition Red! We at least look like we somewhat know what we are doing right?!?

So if you can't tell because the pictures are a little small, I am the one in the black knee pads playing on the front row and Mr. D is front center right in front of the net.

I'll be sure to keep everyone updated on the Coalition volleyball record because I know you are dying to know if we will ever win... GO COCKS!!

LOVE THIS

2008-10-26T21:05:00.004-05:00

So this is my new favorite song right now! I am actually performing to it in my lyrical jazz class and thought I would share it with you. The video is a little different but the song is relaxing to me.

Artist: S I A
Song: Breathe me

Entertain you eyes and ears here =)

Bonfires make me all warm and fuzzy inside

2008-10-26T18:00:00.014-05:00

I know it's been a long time and hopefully this week I will get to blog more because I have a lot to say actually. For now though, this will be short because I have a Japanese test in the morning and some serious studying in my immediate future.

Last Friday I went with a friend to the Yell Like Hell Bonfire for UNT's homecoming game this week. It was a lot of fun and very very warm you could say. Once they lit the bonfire it pretty much provided heat for hundreds of people which was pretty cool.

I've never been to a bonfire that large before so It was a fun experience and a great way to get into the fall spirit! Now that Texas A&M had that whole bonfire thing a few years back, UNT actually now hosts the largest man made bonfire in Texas now. =)

So that is about it for now. Look for more posts in the next couple of days.
**Thanks to Lindsey for the blog background info!! I love it!!**

Blackberries on the balcony

2008-10-06T01:44:00.008-05:00

So it's been a while and it's also late, so I'll make it quick tonight.

We went back home to East Texas for Mr. D's cousins wedding and we had SO MUCH FUN!! The ceremony was nice and the reception was a blast. It was great to get to hang out with everyone and get to actually spend more time with the family. I will post some pictures later when it is not 1:45am!

Mr. D and I had a great afternoon/evening today. I just love Sundays because we get to spend more time together relaxing after a busy week. It's quite refreshing actually. We went to buy groceries this afternoon and spotted some blackberries so of course we had to buy them. Neither of us had eaten any since we were children so as soon as we got home we went straight out to the balcony to enjoy the great weather and our blackberries. As you can see from the photo, Timmy is enjoying his visits onto the balcony as well.

To update anyone who read a few posts earlier about my kitty, Goat...she is doing AWESOME! I guess she was in a funk or I was worrying about her too much. She has been youthful, vibrant, and talkative lately and I love it! She is still getting old but at least I don't feel like she's about to catch the next train outta here... hopefully =)

Gotta get to bed so I can rest up before my class presentation tomorrow.
Goodnight!!

Sunday Blues

2008-09-21T17:33:00.017-05:00

So I have been sick for a few days now and I am pretty sure I got Mr. D sick too. I am hoping that he doesn't get as bad as I was because this week needs to be a really good week for us. I've got a Japanese quiz tomorrow, a WWII history test on Wednesday, Coalition meeting on Thursday, a Japanese History test on Friday, and a wedding to attend on Saturday. There is just going to be a lot going on these next couple of days with all the laundry, work, and studying that needs to be done. I think I just might go crazy before the week is up!!

We got word this morning from my father-in-law saying that Mr. D's uncle had passed away yesterday. We don't really know any details except that he died and my father-in-law is now in South Texas to be with his family for a few days. He will be back in home by Thursday so he will be able to see us when we come in town for the weekend. I just feel bad for all the family down in the south because Hurricane Ike just came through and knocked out their electricity (which wont be back on for probably another week or so because they live in the middle of nowhere) and now they lost a family member. :(

On another sad note, I feel like my Goat has started to count down her days with us. She has started acting differently and these last two days she has seemed really distant. You know they say that when you have an inside cat they will most likely just run out the door when they are ready to go.
Well, here lately every time we come home she is at the door now and this afternoon she started making her way out until Mr. D was able to grab her to keep her in. I almost wanted to cry because I don't want to let her go. I wish there was just some way for me to know when it was time. Who knows, maybe I am just being crazy but I think about these things because she is a 14 yr old cat.

So... when we went to Target today I picked up some extra cat toys to bring home to maybe cheer everyone up and it went over quite well. Goat took a particular liking to the "mouse" and Fuzz and Timmy are enjoying the new mouse shaped laser pointer! The top picture was taken after Goat wore herself out playing with her new mouse friend. It was pretty funny watching her play because she doesn't play too much these days. I just hope that she is in a funk and will get out of it soon! She showed some life in her today while she was playing so maybe it will continue. :)
The picture above illustrates just how exciting a little red dot on the floor is! It's amazing to me how much fun cats can have with a laser pointer. Maybe next time I can get some video to post.

Anyway, I hope this week will go well with all the tests coming up! Please say a prayer for Mr. D's family as they mourn the loss of Uncle R. I hope everyone enjoys their week ahead!