my week in a nutshell

Since I have some "spare" time (haha!! aka...I don't FEEL like doing anything that I should be doing!) I figured I'd blog a bit about stuff I've completed this week, and part of last week!

 

Work has been slow, which for me being PRN = No hours for me. Financially we are okay, BUT boredom sets in! When I get bored, I bake, when I bake, I eat, ahhhh! Nah, it's not THAT bad. It's acutally kind of nice to be home this time of year, so many projects going on and my husband is home so it's all good :) Prayers that I get hours in January-throughout the year!

 

Anyways. SO, one of my co-workers is having a baby! Well, multiple of them are (it's in the water!) but we had a shower this past Thursday for her. She & her husband chose not to find out the sex until the baby is born, kudos to them, I'm WAY too impatient! Here are the cupcakes I made to go along with the cake they ordered! I tried my best to do uni-sex cupcakes, but man, I sure do LOVE pink stuff so it was hard! The yellow with the "grass" had little cardboard lions (similar to the elephants but I put them on at the last minute since they wouldn't fit with the carrier!) Everyone loved them, and I must say, I'm proud of myself!

 

 

Last week I was crafty-crafty! I broke out the Cricut to work on Christmas cards just to find out that the online craft room was temporarily down!! BOO! And for those who don't know, our bedroom isn't huge, so I had to move everything out of the way to break out my sewing machine and teach myself to sew a button! Wahooo I did it!! I made our dogs some bandanas for Christmas with a button to secure them around their neck! I even MEASURED their necks and got an accurate fit **GO ME!** :) 

 

 

Once the Cricut craft room was opened up and running again, I was a card-making fool! Well, getting them "prepped" anyways, my husband got put to work on helping me decorate and complete them! We only made 20, so we didn't send to as many as last year, but hopefully next year will get an earlier start on them!

 

Since we're preparing for our upcoming anniversary trip to New Orleans, I decided I needed a hair cut (as did my husband, but he's not one for 'mirror' pictures :P) So here I am with 2" cut off the length, relayered & side bangs! Woohoo, feels better! AND I even gave our little Barkley dog a hair cut (his hind legs, feet, ears, tail...he just looks so shaggy when I don't keep up with his haircuts!) and my parents dog Missy got a hair cut as well!

 

As you can see in the above picture, I'm somewhat dressed up. I went to a "Pure Romance" party one of my friends hosted, it was...interesting! LOL! It was a good, fun time with fun people. I get there and one of my bridesmaids, Brett, came walking in with her neighbor! Small world! So we went to dinner after the party, it was nice to visit with good friends :)

 

 

 

Today, Saturday, we decided to hang out in Port Lavaca. Usually we'd go to Victoria and piddle around up there, but we'll be up there for church tomorrow and I had a mountian of laundry to do! We helped out in the back yard. My parents have TONS of plants, and some stuff was just needing to be cleaned up and so we did that! My husband cleaned out behind the shed, organized the wood pieces that just get thrown back there in a hurry, we raked up the leaves, I mowed (what little there was to mow!), and then I tackled the tangerine tree!!! My parents have 2, and they are LOADED. The one closest in picture is the one I pretty much de-tangerined, the other is another story. lol.

 



After I finished, I decided to indulge in one myself, and it was gooooood :) Wish they were seedless, but sooo worth it! My Mom juiced a bunch of them and the juice is quite tasty!

 

OH and how could I forget? When I rolled over at 8am, my husband asked if I wanted to go fishing! We got up and went fishing with my Dad, good news is NO HARD HEADS!! YEAH!! Bad news is, NO keepers :( I caught a pretty red that gave me a little fight, and I caught a drum. My dad caught a drum and my husband caught a red. Too bad no keepers, but now that I FINALLY got my fishing pole back in the salt water I am hooked! :)

 

 

 

Till next time... :)

Kemah Boat Parade

So last weekend was Travis' last weekend to be in Galveston! My parents drove down on Saturday and we all went to the Kemah boardwalk, ate at Joe's Crab Shack and then watched the lighted Christmas boat parade. It was a good time, but the parade was ridiculously crowded. Here are some pictures from our fun weekend!

 

 

So now I'm officially super duper happy to have my husband home for a month!

 



Dicken's on the Strand!

I can't believe my husband is almost finished with his 2nd 8 week clinical, it seems like just yesterday I was not wanting to tell him goodbye after just a short weekend between Lubbock and Galveston. Now he gets to come home for a MONTH! YAY! I'm excited. Then there's the thought that if things hadn't changed the way they did back in May, we could still be living in Amarillo, about to move down here just now! Man, I'm SO thankful things happened the way they did and they brought us home sooner!!!

So anyways, December is going to be yet another BUSY month for us! Last weekend, the first weekend of December, I went to Galveston. Travis & I met up with my Aunt Nancy, Uncle Ken, Aunt Teena & Uncle Walt for Dicken's on the Strand! It was HOT, BUT it was still pretty awesome! I went once before years ago, but it seemed so much better now! Here are some pictures from the strand! :)

 

 



Thanksgiving/Black Friday!

Thank God we're back in South Texas this Thanksgiving to spend it with our families first of all!

On Thanksgiving Day Travis & I spent the day in Victoria, we had Thanksgiving Dinner at his Grandma & Grandpa's house, lots of food, family, and fun!

 

 

 

After dinner we went to my in-laws house, we were looking through the black Friday ad's, and after a phone call to my Mom and off we were to Wal Mart! Travis & I waited for said item until 10pm, then we waited in the check out line another hour! Crazy! It was fun, worth it, eh...but fun! By the time we got out of there I was like "ooo lets pull an all nighter!" That changed QUICKLY when I saw the lines to check out of the stores! CRAZY! We went to my in laws, slept a few hours and then up & at em! We had breakfast at ihop, then hit PetSmart up! :) we got some AWESOME deals for our pet kids! Then off to work I went for a couple of hours! Had some Vera Cruz ( YUM! ) and then we came back to Port Lavaca. I ended up taking a 3 hour nap lol.

 

Saturday (today!) we spent the day with my parents. Mom taught me how to make her yummy dressing and how to "properly stuff the bird", and we had it all. Turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and pumpkin, pecan, and apple pie!

 

Mom let me crumble the corn bread & bread :)

My Mom showing me how to "stuff the bird"

Ready to go!

After dinner we played UNO (Dad won!) and then we had fun decorating the "Gingerbread village", kind of a "contest" but not really! It was fun though, we all enjoyed it and hopefully will make it a tradition!



 

Fun times :) Tomorrow is church & then we'll spend the day in Victoria with my in laws. I am looking forward to December! LOTS going on! Dickens on the Strand in Galveston, Boat parade at Kemah Boardwalk, move my husband back HOME for a month, New Orleans for our TWO year anniversary, CHRISTMAS and lots of fun! :) Hope everyone has a safe Holiday Season...I'm sure I'll post more of our happenings before Christmas!



Cake Decorating

So...I've been taking a cake decorating class at Hobby Lobby on Monday evenings! I REALLY love it. Sure, you could buy the book and teach yourself...but what fun is that!? Plus I'm a hands-on learner! First class I was intimidated, 2nd class discouraged since my icing was like cement and my cake was TOO moist and my icing literally PEELED my cake up! OH well, a little help from the instructor and all worked out.

Before class started (the day before) my husband took a picture of me with my CUTE cupcake apron one of my former co-workers from Amarillo made me! :) (Cupcake pattern, SO me!)

So, week one we did basics! We decorated "practiced" the star tip with sugar cookies.

 

 

Week 2 we had to bring a cake, make our own icing (week before with cookies it was Wilton's icing!), and we had to FILL our cake. I made a yellow cake and filled it with pineapple. It was "Okay". I used almond extract in my icing...never again. I'm more of a vanilla extract girl! Here's my finished cake (My cake had "freckles" like me...yep, the crumbs were ALL in my icing! Ohhh well!)We had to pipe the outline on, and use our new pointers we learned in class to decorate!


                                      

After week 2 I felt more "confident" and we had a pot-luck luncheon at work. SO I decided to make a Fall cake! It started off slow...and I just kept going. I wasn't going to do a gel outline, but when I decided to go for it, it went and I just went with it! Here's my "step-by step", and honestly...it was picture by picture JUST in case something got screwed up, I'd have PROOF it started good. HAH!

 

It was a strawberry cake, double layered, with pineapple filling. Everyone LOVED it, taste wise AND decoration wise! :) YAY!

 

 

 

 

Week THREE was cupcake week! YAY! When we learned how to "ice a cupcake", all I could think is..."Wow...had I just KNOWN it was so easy!" I did some of these in class, then came home to finish them and by now I'm sure they are HISTORY! (I took them to work!) They are confetti cake (my favorite!) with the buttercream icing. We learned how to do leaves, flowers, "shaggy flowers" and swirl roses :)

 

I personally think it's going GREAT. I'm loving it and I plan to continue the classes...hopefully Santa brings me some of the "wish list" items I have for my upcoming classes to do awesome stuff!