Goals

GBB Bucket List

Those blue smoldering eyes. Gosh… They are almost intimidating. But the handshake would be awesome, am I right? Not a clue what I’m talking about? Well… The Great British Bake Off obviously. And who has those eyes? That would be Paul Hollywood, duh. haha. 

Truth be told, I’d love to go to culinary school, but it’s not an option. That doesn’t mean I can’t learn to cook/bake at home, right? I’ve really gotten into watching The Great British Bake Off. Actually, the first one I saw was the American version when Jeff Foxworthy was the host. Man, that was a few years ago. Then I saw there was a British version and it seems to have taken off better than the American version. I’m ready to move to Britain so that I can join in… however, I’m definitely not as good as those guys. Wow! So impressive!

I’m pretty sure that if I were to get some of the technical challenges that they do, I’d cry because I wouldn’t have the first clue where to start. And while a lot of them say, I don’t know what that is… they do a very good job! It’s impressive.

The Judges

Paul Hollywood & Mary Berry were the original judges of the British version. Then starting with series (I assume season ;)) 8, Prue Leith took Mary Berry’s place. But those blue eyes are still wandering the tent. While Paul Hollywood is older than me by a bit, he’s still a very good looking man! And those eyes… wow! haha.

Technical Challenges

If you’ve never watched the show… They do a signature bake, a technical bake, and a showstopper.

Each week has a theme. The contestants can practice the signature and showstopper, but the technical is done blind. No one knows what the technical challenge will be. The looks on everyone’s face and their reactions are quite priceless really. And some of that is the editing department/videoing, but you know that’s how the contestants reacted… It was just caught on tape and edited correctly to make it even more entertaining.

I really want to be on this show… but until then, especially because I’m not British, I can always try to make their technical bakes. And my husband has blue eyes… maybe he can give me those smoldering looks. haha.

Technical Challenge Bucket List

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Look for the Good

Here we are… the last day of the year. We’re about to complete another trip around the sun. And while there is a lot to be upset about in 2020… there’s a lot of good that came out of 2020 as well. What?

One thing that keeps coming running through my mind was a fight that my husband and I had. It revolved around time. Not enough time. Not enough time to do what we wanted. It was a bad fight and I truthfully don’t want to go into detail… but still… it was a bad fight. I can’t remember when it happened. I know it was after Christmas, but before the shut down in March.

You know when they say, will the fight matter in an hour, a day, a month, or even a year, should you fight for it? This particular fight really did seem to matter. It kind of feels like it still matters. (more…)

Smoke off Prep

I’m pretty sure these days I meet myself coming and going. I try not to but dang. Anyway, last week I mentioned something about a BBQ/Smoked meats thing. Well here are the details… FINALLY! 

So we started hanging out with our dive friends in 2013 when we met them. It wasn’t an immediate BAM, we’re friends, but pretty darn close. So throughout the last couple of years, hubby and Jared have been smoking different types of meats for different events. Events include just a night in with friends to dive club meetings to events for the Red Coaters at Chiefs Stadium. The big leagues… in our books anyway.

They have been honing in on our their meat preparations. Wow, that sounds weird. ha! Anyway, last fall they went to Kansas City to a Chiefs game and actually cooked for 60+ Red Coaters and family. Then the leftover meats, they tried passing out to passer byes. A lot of people around our hangouts really like their brisket and pulled pork and chicken, etc, so they told them they needed to start entering contests. (more…)

Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel Bites

Over the weekend I found myself in Gravette, Arkansas. We were at a BBQ Smoking contest called Smoke on the Border. I’ll delve into that more in another post, but… as Hubby and Jared were moving stuff down on Friday afternoon, I found myself in the kitchen. I had it in my head I wanted to make something on the sweeter side, simply because of all that savory food I knew we were going to be eating over the weekend. That’s when I decided on Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel Bites. Still a little savory from the dough, but that sweet side from the sugar and the heat from the cinnamon. Just seemed like the perfect combination.

Handheld little bites of yumminess. Although as you can see on my hand above, being in a zip lock bag, I brought some of that topping out on my hand for a nice dose of stickiness too. Hey… you win some… you lose some… and in this case, I’m pretty sure I won because hello YUM! (more…)

Remodeling Journal: Demo Day, Part 1

I’ve been back and forth and back and forth again. Do I want to post all while this is happening or not? So many questions. I finally decided I’d love to have a journal of it all and why not post it here. So we’re going backward, back to November 29, 2018, to be exact. That’s the date that we closed on our house.

Hubby and I may have been a little excited to sign on the house if you can imagine. We got to the place early and there is a coffee shop around the corner so I convinced him to get coffee. A morning coffee date :). He also sent our realtor a message asking if she’d like coffee. She said she was good. Can’t say we didn’t try.

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The House

I’ve been back and forth on do I share these before pictures now or wait until I have finished pictures of each room. Now or wait? Hmm… now or wait? I couldn’t decide. Finally, I decided… I guess now. A lot of people have been asking me what the house looks/looked like. Let’s just do this thing.

Here is where I also state that the house was described in terrible terms to us. If you look at these pictures, the house really isn’t “terrible.” We are remodeling it. In fact, as you saw the other day I had a kitchen/bathroom combo. Luckily, that has gone away. There is now a dividing wall again. We even have a bathroom floor!! There’s no plumbing so don’t plan on using the bathroom or kitchen for that matter any time soon.

My bathroom vanity is now in along with the sink. I have a bathroom mirror. We know what potty (yuck I hate that word… haha) we are going to get, but we haven’t yet. Our bathroom won’t have a bathtub, just a shower but we know what we want.

Kitchen appliances have been ordered as well as kitchen cabinets. So we’re making progress. Oh… my bathroom faucet should be in any day. The shower um… spout (word??) is in. So we’re making progress.

So without further ado, here are the before pictures I actually took before we even signed for the house. They had accepted our offer at this point, but we hadn’t signed. Our realtor came out and let us in so I could get some measurements and I went ahead and took pictures too while I was at it. This was the Monday before Thanksgiving.

Bedroom 1 (only because it’s the first one I’m showing you :))

So here’s the good thing about this bedroom… our plans are to repaint the walls, tear up the flooring, new lighting/fan, get rid of the window AC unit, and do something about the trim. Oh and curtains or something for window covering. Otherwise, it’s not in terrible shape.

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Dinosaur Sugar Cookies

A couple weeks ago Abug had to have some dental work done. Either while I was sitting there waiting or just after I got a text from my mom asking if I had any dinosaur sugar cookies. I told her no and that we’d probably have to go on Amazon to find them. She mentioned a kitchen supply store there in town and asked if they’d have them. Truthfully, I figured the answer was no.

Abug did so well during her dental work and didn’t have any pain/issues afterward, that we decided to go to the store and see if we could find a dinosaur cookie cutter. They were getting ready for customer appreciation days the next day so they had them set up in the back. One of the workers helped me look for a dinosaur and Abug found it almost immediately.

I let my mom know we found one and she said great. Guys, I think I paid $1.50 for it… maybe… Amazon’s weren’t that cheap. Although I love Amazon and they had a lot of different dinosaurs than this one. (more…)

NCHA Hall of Fame

Oh goodness, this month has flown by! Gosh! We’re already at the end of the month and now I’m going to tell you something that happened the first weekend of this month. That was 20 some days ago… But sometimes I get to play catch up and this is one of those things I want on this blog, so that’s what you get… playing catch up.

My uncle has had a goal his whole cutting horse showing career of making the NCHA Hall of Fame. I’m pleased to announce he finally made his goal come true! Woot woot! One of the criteria is for you to win $ 500,000-lifetime earnings. Let’s just say, he made it! And this year he was inducted into the NCHA Non-Pro Hall of Fame.

The awards banquet was held in Grapevine, Texas, the first weekend of June during the NCHA Convention. We loaded up first thing Saturday morning and hit the road for a long 6 hour trip to Grapevine which is just outside of Dallas. We pulled in around 3 pm or so because we actually got on the road earlier than we planned on. What? 6 of us and we got on the road earlier than normal. That’s totally unheard of! Especially for my family… not going to lie. Usually, we get on the road later than planned. (more…)

Woooo Pig Sooie! UofA Sugar Cookies

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…)

Fishing Sugar Cookies

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…)