Me

Cinnamon Roll Birthday Cake

Guys, I truly believe this! My dad’s birthday is today. In all the world I couldn’t have asked for a better daddy! I know a lot of people say that, but gosh it’s true. I’m sitting here writing this while watching last night’s Dancing with the Stars which was a turning point in all their lives. I don’t know if the tears streaming down my face are because of my daddy or those stories… Truthfully it could be both. My daddy is the absolute best daddy a girl could have. I’ve always been a daddy’s girl. And I just want to wish my daddy the absolute best day he could possibly have.

So as most of you know… or maybe you don’t so I’ll tell you now… I’ve spent this year falling back in love with making cakes. Beautiful cakes. Cakes for every occasion I can. So of course, my dad’s birthday would be no different. I went through a lot of different recipes trying to find the absolute BEST recipe for my dad. That’s when I stumbled across a recipe for a Birthday Cinnamon Roll Cake. WHAT? I should inform you now that my dad loves cinnamon rolls so it’s perfect, right? (more…)

Sesame Street Sugar Cookies

One day last month I got a PM from a friend asking if I could do Sesame Street Sugar Cookies for her friend’s little girl’s birthday. Can I? That’s a good question… but I believe the answer is, YES, Yes I can. That is after she said they could be any of the characters. Also… I went to my friend Google. Google gave me some confidence.

I decided I needed a frog cookie cutter. Frog head for clarification. (more…)

Pumpkin Spice Sugar Cookies

Let’s dust off the cobwebs around here with a nice little fall/pumpkiny/Halloweenie type post. haha. Like that do ya? Have you noticed that this time of year you can walk outside and there are spider webs it seems like everywhere? It’s like doing kungfu ninja type stuff. I’m not afraid of spiders. I can’t just say I like them, but I’m not afraid of them. Now, we all know that is a different story with snakes. I saw a couple of those here lately too. It’s getting too cold. Go into the hibernation. Ugh!

By the way, I got a new laptop and we’re arguing. I say one thing and then it does something completely opposite. Ugh! I might be able to type better if I’d cut my pesky nails. That’s how I always know my nails are getting too long… it interferes with my typing. But I guess that’s another story for another day. Just know, it types differently. It smells different (haha!). And well… it is different. Even Photoshop and I are arguing because I have a different version. sigh!

But let’s not focus on all of that. Instead… look at these gorgeous cookies!!!

Pumpkin Spice Sugar Cookies

(more…)

Book Review: Paris Time Capsule

Earlier this year I wound up picking a book to read on Kindle Unlimited called From a Paris Balcony. It was just a random book I picked. I think it had audio to go with it and I was on a trip. I can’t read in a vehicle, gosh I wish I could! It would make a lot of trips more fun… but alas, that car sickness crap will really get me. So tmi but I’ve never thrown up in a vehicle… I just get a headache bad enough I wish I could throw up. And I hate throwing up if we’re being real here for a minute.

Anyway, back to the book. I wound up picking that book just on a whim. I like lots of different genre’s of books and sometimes I get tired of the same type. This was more on the romance side of the spectrum. There were a few holes in the story. Not main holes or anything that would really make a difference one way or the other really… but holes none the less. That’s because it was the second book in a short series. So I decided that I should read the first book. I wanted to fill in those little insignificant details (details that really weren’t pertinent to the second book… you know). (more…)

Finding My New Norm

Hi guys. I show up here every day, open a new post, and stare at a blank page. They say that successful people adapt to change easily. I sometimes wonder if I’m successful or not. I adapt, but I also resist a little. Sometimes I prefer the safe, comfortable feeling of normalcy.

What am I babbling about? My sidekick started school. Every morning 4 days a week we’re up at 7 am. We brush our teeth, get dressed (sometimes argue about this), and hit the door running.

I might have cried a little on that first day. I’ll leave that for you to decide. As I was trying to take some photos, hubby was trying to shew me out the door. I might have been annoyed with him… a little a lot. My friend Tiffiny gave me advice to not be by myself in those first few days and to keep myself busy. I went to the gym and took out my sadness on the treadmill. That day I also conquered the elliptical and started on this stair climber that hurt way to bad so I moved to a stationary bike. I came home in a better mood. But I was also ready the minute it was time to fly to the school to get her. (more…)

Mudslide Cake (It’s a Birthday Thang!)

Today is my Mother-in-Law’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Memaw. Yes, we all call her Memaw which confuses some people. There’s actually a little confusion that goes along with that.

  1. My mother-in-law (MIL) was 35 when she had my husband. She was an “older” mom just like my mom was. (My mom was 28 for her first and only). When we all call her Memaw, people sometimes confuse her for being my husband’s grandma. I’m not totally sure why because I don’t think that’s possible!
  2. We all call her Memaw so when people call her by her real name, they don’t know who we’re talking about.

This year, we’ve been attempting to get together with my husband’s family at least once a month. It hasn’t totally happened, but we’ve tried. We just get together, have dinner, and play games. I think we’ve missed a couple months, but at least we’re trying. Family is important.

Last month (August) we got together the last weekend of the month to celebrate Memaw’s birthday. I guess I (hubby and I really) forgot we had Tbug Labor Day weekend (note to self… every even year we have her :)), so we wanted to get together to celebrate Memaw’s birthday when she (Tbug) was around. We won’t be in town the next weekend we have Tbug, so it seemed like we’d celebrate early instead of late.

Now if there’s another thing I can tell you about my MIL, she loves a good Mudslide. So with my Cake excursions this year, I went in search of a good Mudslide recipe. When I didn’t find what I wanted, I set out to make my own. And that’s just what I did. I made a Mudslide Cake in honor of my MIL. (more…)

Summer: Currently…

Listening to…

The air conditioning running. It’s so peaceful and keeps the house cool… Well… usually. This summer the AC hasn’t totally worked right, but it got better. Thinking that before long we will turn the AC off and maybe open windows until it gets to cool out and we have to either start burning wood or turn the heater on or both. The only thing I think winter is good for is Christmas. I like snow on Christmas. Otherwise, I’m a summer girl through and through.

I’ve been posting on Facebook a lot about x number of days until Christmas. Christmas is my absolute favorite season and I absolutely LOATH January. Poor January. But truth be told… my birthday is in the summer so it’s like Christmas in July (literally since my birthday is in July). I’m cool with that sans snow.

I’ve also seen a couple “Farmer’s Almanac” predictions. Either way, we’re predicted to be extremely cold and snowy. But both Farmer’s Almanac predictions I’ve seen are different. That leaves me scratching my head just a little. (more…)

Kansas City: Where We Stayed, Where We Ate, What We Did

Wow, it’s been quite a while since we actually went to Kansas City, but still, it’s worth mentioning.

Last month we made a weekend trip, actually just an overnight trip to Kansas City. The goal was to go to the Farmer’s Market and get Jalapeños. I know that sounds funny, but hubby makes these things called candied jalapeños and the best place to get bulk jalapeños at a decent price is the City Market in Kansas City. Gosh, I love that place. The first time we went, I wound up buying 20 pounds of jalapeños. This time we only bought 15 pounds. haha. You still get just as many weird looks buying 5 pounds fewer jalapeños.

But, because we went, we decided to make it a weekend trip. This summer’s goal has been to Have Fun!

Where We Stayed

4600 Summit St. Kansas City, MO

We stayed at the Hampton Inn & Suites Kansas City Country Club Plaza. (more…)

Book Review: Royal Design

Royal Design by Sariah Wilson Book Cover

Guys, I did it. I’ve gone above and beyond my Good Reads book challenge for sure. It’s either Book 13 or Book 14. Remember, yesterday’s blog post I discussed how it could be 13, but that one of the original 12 was a novella and I wasn’t sure I wanted to count that as a true book.

But… I also finished another book. WHAT?!?! My husband picks on me because he thought I just kept starting books but never finished them. See, he used to read my blog, but he doesn’t anymore. If he’d have read my blog, he’d know I was actually finishing books. Yes, I have a few started, but they are all different genre’s so when I get tired of one type, I have a fallback.

I truly didn’t intend on finishing this book yesterday, I just got to the point I didn’t put it down apparently. Because, well, I finished it. I have now read 4 books boy Sariah Wilson. Royal Date, Royal Chase, Royal Games, and now Royal Design. It doesn’t appear that she has any more in this sequence, yet anyway. (more…)

Book Review: Scrappy Little Nobody

Wow, look at me… I’m on a roll! This would be Book number 12 or if you ask Good Reads Book 13. I’m not sure I count the novella that tied up the Just One series as an actual book because it was like maybe 60ish pages or something like that. I can’t remember. Either way, for sure, I have now met the 12 book challenge for 2018 I set on Good Reads. Look at me go! It’s only just August too which means, I could easily surpass that, right?

I’m kind of giggling at myself because I’ve read a lot of memoirs. I guess I like learning about people. Celebrities are people too. I’m not sure why I guess I just do. I actually took a memoir class in college. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before. But the funny thing is, I wish we would have read this book during that class. This book had me thinking, ooooo I could have written about this or I could have written about that. I’m pretty sure my memoirs in that class sucked! I mean, yes, I got an A in that class, but the funny part of that is the professor was about to retire and I’m sure as long as you did the work you’d get an A.

The professor had written his memoir and self-published it. A lot of the class seemed put off by his memoir, but why? I’m not sure. There were parts that were weird/interesting and he always wanted the juicy details of our lives. Most of us weren’t really comfortable giving those. {raises hand} I was one of them! I have a habit of worrying about people judging me. (more…)