A couple of weeks ago, my friend Dan hit me up about doing a cake for his wife for her birthday. He requested we bring it to dive club meeting last week. I said, okay… any ideas. He said no. I said, okay what does she like or what doesn’t she like? He told me chocolate and coconut. That immediately made me think of German Chocolate Cake. But I wasn’t sure, so I went on a hunt for cakes.
That lead me to send him 10 different recipe ideas. Okay, now, which one? He narrowed my 10 down to 2. One was a Cannoli Cake and the other was a Strawberry Dulce de Leche cake from Life Love and Sugar. I looked back and forth and finally decided on the Strawberry Dulce de Leche cake. (more…)
Last week I described the cake on the left of the above picture. If you need a reminder, that’s a Chocolate Dulce de Leche cake. Yum! It really was an exceptional cake and I was extremely pleased with how it turned out. Although… maybe the bright birthday candles on it look weird… who knows.
Right now I’m sitting here watching recorded shows of Best Baker America. Their challenge was a mind-bending cake with Vanilla being present. Looking at my cakes above… I fail. Oh well! haha.
But today, let’s focus on that Funfetti cake on the right. And wow, there’s a lot of thoughts covered above in just a short period of time. haha… some days that’s how my mind goes. My husband jokes that I am the queen of Random! (more…)
The picture above showed up in my Facebook newsfeed this morning. Now it wasn’t a still photo, it was a video, but it wouldn’t let me add the video, so you get a screenshot.
Those words, “Never stop trusting God and His plans.” Wow, they ring soooooooo true right now. Since December there has been a lot of ifs, ands, or buts in my future and it’s really been stressing me out. I’ve mentioned it a few times but said how much of a hypocrite I am because I wasn’t ready to talk but was asking for prayers. That’s the thing that annoys me the most when people do that. Yet, here I was, doing just that. Shame on me.
But one aspect that I’ve been dealing with, I’m finally ready to talk about. I told you I would and I’m going to try and do this as openly but as honestly as I can without whatever. I’m not really sure, I don’t want it to sound like I’m petty and childish or something. But… Here we go. Bear with me! I’ll give you some back details too. It’ll help fill in some of the dots missing.
Backstory
When my parents bought the property they (we) live on, we became really good friends with the neighbors. At that time, we lived in a rental house just on the west side of the property. That house shouldn’t have had tenants living in it 20+ years ago, yet we did and more people have since then. Another story for another day.
Around 2009 he was losing the house to the bank. At that time, my dad told me I should have bought it. They wanted something like $67K for it. I was afraid then, being a single girl, that I couldn’t make the payments. The guy I was dating wasn’t close to even proposing to me and I wasn’t about to live with him, unwed. So I had no one to help with the bills. Needless to say, someone else bought it. Looking back, I should have bought it, but with what I made at the time, I couldn’t do it and didn’t want to get myself into a bind.
Ugh! Try the My Pillow they said. It’s the best they said. Who is this they? I really want to know because I want to tell this they that they are CRAZAY. Holy cow.
I guess Pillows don’t last forever. This one has hardly lasted over a year. It sucks and I have two. They don’t support my head. They are almost like a feather pillow and they didn’t start out that way. Yuck! By the way, I can’t do feather pillows. They don’t give my head any support at all.
If there’s one thing I hate doing, it’s Pillow Shopping. Hate it with a passion. I think the best way to pick a pillow would be to lay down on the floor and try to sleep with it. But that’s part of the problem… have you seen public floors in stores. Yuck! I was annoyed the other day when I lost my balance at Sam’s and fell on the floor when I squatted down. I shuttered.
I might have a slight phobia of germs. Not a bad one, but yuck! (more…)
Do I have any University of Arkansas fans out there? No? Bueller, Bueller? haha.
A couple weeks ago I was asked if I could do some U of A cookies. I thought, well maybe, what do you have in mind. We discussed it back and forth, she sent me a few ideas and bam! the magic began. Okay… well, the “magic” began a couple weeks later because obviously, I had a little planning/prep time.
Now, if you don’t know, U of A’s mascot is the Razorback. And apparently at all football games anyway (or sometimes just in a large crowd of Arkansas fans), you hear them yell Woooo Pig Sooie! Truthfully, I have no idea what that means, but it’s funny to hear a crowd of them yell it. I kind of assume it’s a lot like being at a Chiefs game when all of the fans start chanting the Tomahawk chant. A few years ago, at a Houston Texan’s game when we shut them out, you could hear Chiefs fans on the tv. I assume, the Woooo Pig Sooie! might be something like that. Just a guess. (more…)
I’m a couple weeks behind sharing these cookies. It happens. Life happens. I’ve had a lot going on in my life and I promise that a lot of things will have light shed on them very soon. Truthfully, just waiting on a couple more pieces to fall into place.
So Fishing Cookies. My friend Jody hit me up and asked if I’d do some cookies for her cute little boy. Hey, who am I to turn down that cutie! haha. He just had his birthday last month. They are totally into fishing. Now… the one way I would tell her NO is if she made me touch a real fish. Now… I have touched a real fish, I screamed, made the boat captain think I fell overboard. It was great. I’m not a fan of fish. haha.
But these weren’t real fish so we were good. We discussed a few different ideas/options and came up with fishing bobbers. Easy peasy. haha. But seriously, they turned out soooooo darn cute! If I do say so myself. (more…)
Normally I post photos and stories of our newest babies on the farm. Those babies typically are horses of course. This morning I went back through to see about Bucky’s post and… I guess I screwed up and didn’t post his. Shame on me. I posted the colt we sold earlier this year and I posted Little Brother 2 Spot‘s post, but not Bucky’s. Shame on me! He was born April 7, 2016. Just a couple days after Little Brother 2 Spot. If you’ll remember, I was swamped with trying to finish up my Master’s, graduating, and leaving for Cozumel. Maybe that’s how I brushed over this post?
Bucky is out of our mare we call Blondie, for obvious reasons… she’s a Palomino… aka Blonde. In the beginning, we thought we might have had him sold so I didn’t mess with him too much. I didn’t want to fall in love with him and then be heartbroken when he went bye bye. It happens. A lot!
Like I said, since I thought we had him sold, I really didn’t mess with him much. One night though I decided I was going to go play with the colts. We had three that year. I opened up the pen where they were and though, I’ll see which one comes out first. Lo and behold, it was Bucky.
Up to this point, none of the colts had really been messed with. It was only less than 5 minutes and he was loving on me and nuzzling me for attention. I decided to go to the barn and get a halter and see if I could get it on him. Now, remember, at this point, I hadn’t had a halter on any of them. The only messing with they really had was when we did chores and fed them. By this time it was early fall, just for a frame of reference in timing. (more…)
Happy Mother’s Day! Mother’s Day is an interesting day, truly. Some people even choose not to celebrate it thinking that it is a Hallmark Holiday, however, those same people are willing to celebrate International Women’s Day. Just a thought. haha. I choose to celebrate Mother’s Day. It might be a Hallmark Holiday but you know… I like Hallmark movies. haha. I wonder if Hallmark tv channel and Hallmark Cards are one in the same… Google… I’ll be for you in a minute.
Now… I was a step-mother long before I was a mother. In fact, 6 years. There is a lot of debate if I got included in that celebration. There’s sometimes a debate if any step-mother’s are included. My husband included me although I didn’t feel like I should. But that’s neither here nor there. I am now a mom too. I guess I do get to celebrate Mother’s Day. Although I should clarify, earlier when I said I celebrated, don’t worry, I celebrated my own mother and my grandmothers.
Anyway, this year I invited my grandma, my mother in law, and of course my mother (after all right now we live in her house) for Mother’s Day dinner. The week leading up, I had no idea what I would make. I like to cook after all! But I was still at a loss for what to make. (more…)
Today is Mother’s Day. Happy Mother’s Day. This goes to ALL mothers! Mother’s who have given birth, mothers who have taken other’s kids to raise or help raise, those who have lost, those who have never been able to have their own. Have a great day!
I’m going to end this with a cute little questionnaire from my sweetheart! I’d ask my 15-year-old, but she’d probably get all the answers right, so I’ll stick with the 3-year-old.
Here it is, midnight. My family is sleeping and I’m sitting here typing away. Why? I just finished book number 10 for my 12 book challenge this year.
Ok first off… let’s address the 12 book challenge. My sister in law challenged me to 52 books. I knew I couldn’t do that. Truthfully I wasn’t sure I could do 12. Most of them have been on the Kindle that I’ve finished so far. I can read in the dark while my husband snores and keeps me awake. #truth. And yes, I still love the feel of real books, but the Kindle is nice when it comes to nighttime reading. Plus you can carry multiple books around with you at once. Win-Win!
Okay, now… when I went into reading tonight, I was at 74% of the book read. I couldn’t put the friggin thing down. I got to the point, even though I knew what was going to happen, I couldn’t wait to see how it played out.
Finally, this was another one of those Hallmark movies… although it would have been on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries while the other two would have been on regular Hallmark. Royal Date would have been a Christmas movie. Royal Chase would have been a spring fling movie. This one would possibly be a Christmas movie or else maybe a fall movie or a January, just after all the Christmas movies go back into the vault for the year. I’ll have to get back to you on that thought… (more…)
