My Saturday in pictures....

This is what I worked on today (this AND baking some desserts:))

This is what I did (with Kara!):

This is what I'm making right now, complete with homemade sauce!:
I also made bbq chicken sandwiches for lunch, went to the gym with Josh and organized a few things. Speaking of organizing, my next post, which is actually from last night, will be posted shortly!!

Dinner from an organized kitchen! (from FRIDAY NIGHT!)

Earlier this week, I had a Bree Van de Kamp moment (for those of you who watch Desperate Housewives) and reorganized my kitchen, labeling most of my cabinets (on the shelves) with my handy-dandy label maker! I am so happy to have this complete! It only took about 30-45 minutes and is well worth it. My breaking point came when every time I opened the cabinets, all of my cookie sheets would fall out onto the floor. Not good! So enjoy the pic, below! My next project to tackle....re-organize my HORRIBLE closet (complete with labels)! I'll post soon!

Tonight for dinner, from my well-organized kitchen, I made:

-DD hamburgers with organic beef and baby food carrots instead of homemade carrot puree...not enough time, but same results!

-Leftover Annie's organic mac n' cheese

-Fresh raspberries and blackberries (sadly we're out of whip:()

It was a hodge-podge dinner, but good. The burgers had a good flavor, but the meat was too soggyish. If I make them again, I'll use less milk or something.

I plan on enjoying a nice relaxing weekend, finally at home w/Josh!

Back with some random thoughts!

I have gotten some emails, etc. from readers (yay! people actually read this blog) of this blog, requesting more posts. I know it's been a very long time!!!

So, here goes--the most random blog!

Over the past several weeks, we celebrated Christmas with family, went to a New Year's Eve party, attending a wedding in TX, had my old college friends/roommate spend the night, babysat my precious niece, started back teaching, taught Bible class, took 2 weeks away from my Blessings and Bows business for Christmas break and filled orders after that. So, it's been busy, but fun!

Kristina's (friend from college) wedding in TX:

Serving punch with Ashley, a great friend from college:

Kara (roommate and Maid of Honor in my wedding) w/ her baby, Maida:


Me, Josh, Kara, Kristina and Ashley, December 2001 (aka...the week before Josh and I started dating). My, how we've all changed!:
Precious baby Viv:

My family Christmas was really fun! My big brother, Joe, surprised us and drove in from California to celebrate with us! We got lots of fun presents-I got a cute new coat and much more!!! Vivian made Christmas extra fun this year!! Of course, I indulged in my mom's BEST fudge, too!!!





We drove to TX to spend a few days with Josh's family to celebrate. I got a new sewing machine and supplies, which I'm very excited about!! I'm looking forward to making some things soon! Maybe pillows and curtains?!? We got lots of fun gifts there, too! Josh was excited to get a new mandolin and we all enjoyed his brother's new gift of a Wii. I enjoyed a few rounds of bowling!! We were able to drive down to Josh's aunt's house and celebrate his grandmother's 70th birthday with the whole family!

I have been cooking lots of meals from my Deceptively Delicious cookbook. I would pretty much recommend everything but the Tofu Nuggets....YUCK!!! We had to throw them out! I hated wasting them, but they were awful! I thought I could trick myself into eating tofu, but it DID NOT work! It tasted like extremely nasty battered eggs. I made the Chicken Nuggets this week and Josh LOVED those! He made a chicken sandwich with the leftovers on a wheat bun with pickles and mayo.

I have been working on New Year's resolutions, one including getting to bed early! So, now I'm getting ready for bed at 10:00 and then getting in bed by 11:00. I've done okay with that so far, for the most part!

I'm hoping that this new year brings us a baby, or at least a healthy pregnancy and some peace. I'm also hoping and praying that for my friends struggling with fertility, also, that 2008 can be THE year for them!! In my efforts to make this happen for me, since I have been rebellious about going back to the doctor for further treatments, I have purchased and read the book The Fertility Diet: Get Pregnant and Prevent Miscarriage. I have been surprised with how easy it is to throw some of the book's key ingredients into my food. Sunflower seeds are great on a salad, wheat germ is great to sneak into my DD (Deceptively Delicious) chicken nugget batter, yams are great to stick in my DD recipes, too! I'm not strictly following this eating plan, but I am trying to make some healthier options overall! Just adding things to what I already eat.But, I'm having an EXTREMELY hard time giving up my huge amounts of sweets that I eat on a DAILY basis! It doesn't help that I currently have in my house (from Christmas gifts): Twix, Reese's, Ghiradelli chocolates, Russel Stover's box of chocolates, plain M&Ms, Dark M&Ms, Hershey's dark chocolate sticks, Hershey's Kisses, and Hershey's Dark Chocolate w/ Almonds Nuggets, and other candy, too!. So, when I am double my weight by next month, you'll know why!! I will say, that I've been trying to go organic on my meat and dairy purchases or at least hormone-free. I do not need any extra hormones, that's for sure!!!

Here's my current list of favorite things:

-Horizon Organic Chocolate Milk: I'm usually a chocolate syrup kind of gal, but this is SO good! It has vanilla, real chocolate and creamy milk! I strongly recommend it!

-My Scumbuster: No more scrubbing and reaching!

-Brown Sugar and Fig Wallflower from Bath and Body Works

-Etsy.com: fun handmade finds for all of your gifting needs!

-Strawberries, blackberries and raspberries w/ frozen fat-free Cool Whip...the BEST!!!

-My new coffee maker!

I'm sure I'll think of more later.....

I will TRY to post more often in the next few weeks!

We couldn't wait!

Josh and I were too excited to wait for our Christmas (yes, we're like little 5 year olds:)), so we had our impromptu Christmas last night! It was lots of fun! We opened presents, ate finger foods and then drove around for almost 2 hours (yes, we wasted gas, but, it's cheaper than going to a movie) looking at Christmas lights in OKC and Edmond, while drinking peppermint mochas and listening to each of our new collections of CDs that we got for Christmas! I think that will be our new tradition! It turned out to be a great evening!

Just a few pics of opening presents (we decided to take pics of each gift we opened, because I always forget what I have gotten Josh from year to year!):

Josh is a wonderful shopper and fulfilled my list and then some! Thanks, Josh! I couldn't wait to use my new Deceptively Delicious cookbook, so this morning I made the doughnuts. I didn't have a donut pan, so I used mini bundt pans instead, and cut out the middle of each, after baking. Josh really liked them and thought they tasted more like pumpkin bread, which I agree, they were tasty!

Here's what they looked like:

Being Tacky

Well I just got back from a fun night out with the girls from school for our staff Christmas party! We had a yummy dinner at Ted's, with the bill picked up by the school...thank you!!! Then, we headed over to one of my co-workers' homes for desserts and Dirty Santa. After a large Sonic coke, a peppermint mocha from Starbucks (thanks, Josh!!) and tons of sugary treats all day, I was a little crazy tonight! I couldn't stop laughing all night and was just delirious! When we played Dirty Santa, I was number 19 out of 19 players and I of course didn't want to open the last gift, so I snooped around at the gifts that weren't "frozen" and remembered the bucket that included the Blockbuster gift card, popcorn, movie candy and Christmas hand towel. Without thinking, I leaned down and asked, "how much is the gift card for", not even thinking that I was being tacky or that anyone would think twice about what I just asked. But, everyone on that side of the room was laughing hysterically and couldn't believe that I asked such a question. I think they thought I was pretty tacky. But, hey, I was just being a "smart shopper". It's all about a good value:) And, I ended up with a great present that I can share with my husband!

Anyway, it was a fun evening of food, laughter, good times and both arms filled with presents from our directors, the host and the Dirty Santa gift, of course!

I think I'm going to head to bed now, unless I'm too geared up on caffeine!

This is what I woke up to this morning....

The first pic is the view from our front window. It is of an ice-covered tree that is just a bit close to our house and sagging very low.

The second pic is an upclose pic of the huge limb that now resides in our pool, followed by the 3rd pic, which is the same thing.

Yay for big trees, coved in ice, that now reside in our pool! (please note the extreme sarcasm!)

I'm back!

My MESSY kitchen (worse than the pictures capture)

while working on my orders.

Church Christmas banquet-Friday Night

Gran came in town and we had a family dinner on Thursday night. She got to hold Viv for the first time!

Babysitting Viv on Sunday night

Vivian's Baby Dedication at church-Sunday night

(she looked SOO cute!!)

It's been a crazy week! Rather than go on and on about the week, I'll just hit on a few highlights and post pics.

My business and new website (Blessings and Bows) kept me extra busy this week with several holiday orders to fill. It was fun, but time consuming.

Sunday was Vivian's baby dedication at church and we got to babysit her Sunday, too! Monday was chorus practice, Tuesday was school, Wednesday I taught class at church and had chorus practice, Thursday was school and family dinner with my grandmother, Friday I kept Aidan and performed at our church's Christmas banquet, and today we had a chorus performance in Guthrie. I took a 4 hour nap this afternoon and am feeling revived!!

I hope to post more often now! Enjoy my "week in pictures".

By the way, you'll be pleased to know that my kitchen is now cleaned up:)