A few years ago my brother and I made some heart shaped sugar cookies for Valentine’s Day. Instead of decorating them pink with pretty sprinkles, we iced them black and wrote what most people really think of the opposite sex (you know you’ve thought these). Here are the contenders for Valentine’s Day 2012:
Some of these were repeats, some new, but all had us cracking up while we made them.
So…uh, what happened to November folks?? I don’t really know where to begin because the post I’ve been thinking about posting is irrelevant seeing as how Halloween is long over and gone. So just imagine, I walked around my neighborhood and took pictures of the decorations people put up and some of them were pretty cool. A lot of people around here did some sort of decorations even if it was minimal. One of my favorites was a ginormous spider a guy built out of PCP pipe with glowing green fangs and put up in the front yard. I’d post the pics but they didn’t turn out all that well now that I’m looking back at them. We even decorated our porch which was a cross between nice harvest with pumpkins and hay bales and typical Halloween with spider webs and ghosts. I even tried to make this:
It didn’t quite turn out exactly like this but good enough. Another reason I’m not posting pictures is because my computer is going through a freak out period. I just got it a few months ago and there’s already some sort of hardware glitch. Lovely. I’ve talked to tech support on two separate occasions and all I’m wanting them to do is send me a box to put my computer in so I can send it to be repaired. It is now a month after my initial call and I still don’t have a box. Grrr. I will be making yet another call tomorrow and may have to ask to be transferred to their complaints department or something. It’s frustrating and annoying. And I’m annoyed that I have to talk to some guy in India who I can’t understand and who can’t understand me. Double Grrr.
With the semester coming to an end I’ve been bombarded with papers, projects, assignments, etc. The good thing is I’m starting to see the end. Whoo hoo! We had family in for Thanksgiving which was fun. I was a cooking fool last weekend. I made a big dinner the night before then cooked the turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and made four pumpkin pies. I love pumpkin pie. All the cooking is just the warm up for the Christmas desserts that need to be made. Last year I baked a little over 400 cookies, 5 loaves of bread, three batches of fudge, 2 batches of cream cheese brownie bars, 2 or 3 batches of homemade oreo cake/cookies, and tried divinity which I ended up being sidelined for because that’s really hard to make. Maybe this year. Speaking of the Christmas season, all the holiday movies have started up which I’m apparently a sucker for. So odd because ordinarily I can’t stand Lifetime or Hallmark but sprinkle in Christmas and I can’t turn it off. Go figure.
Well for some stupid reason I woke up at 3:45 this morning and couldn’t go back to sleep. I hate that. So I”m going to go attempt to do that now. But I’m going to leave you with what I discovered making a web outside my window:
Ok, ok so it wasn’t really a goliath birdeating tarantula out there but it may as well have been. It was totally big and creepy. Well, pleasant dreams!
Oooh, call me! Call me! I was waiting to post these pics because I had some other pictures I was wanting to post but as it turns out I still haven’t taken them. Here are a few from my Halloween party last week.
The kids of course had no idea who or what I was but loved that I was walking around with a vacuum stuck on my back. And check out that gun. It’s an original toy from the 80’s I found in my brother’s stuff up in the attic. Am I a rock star or what…ok fine, but it’s still a good costume. By the way, this is my 300th post – whoo hoo!
I got a message from someone (ahem DJD) to update this little diddy of a blog and I told him I would by the weekend because I thought for sure I could think up enough fodder from the past two months to write about. Well…I’m not so sure. Now that it is officially fall (it is officially fall right?) there is a holiday smell in the air and a little bounce in my step. Spring/Summer are my favorite seasons but let’s face it, this past year felt like living in a crematorium so I welcome the lower temps and humidity. Not just welcome them, I have a spare bed and bath reserved and am prepared to be at their beck and call if they promise to stick around for a while.
We have now started the months of uppers – October, November, December – when everyone starts being nice and a little more charitable which will be followed by the months of downers – January and February – when everyone is annoyed and irritable. Ok maybe that’s just me. Regardless we’re in an upper and I’m actually excited it’s October. Colors will start becoming vibrant and of course Halloween is merely a few weeks away.
I won’t even attempt to write an entry on Halloween because compared to some of you who are Halloween enthusiasts, my entry would be pathetic and sad. And admittedly I haven’t always been so jazzed about it. I think working at a preschool has definitely helped. There are just so many cute crafts and songs and the kids are uber pumped about dressing up. Yesterday we went on a field trip to a pumpkin patch and I was probably more excited than they were.
Our school Halloween party is a week from tomorrow and I’m still trying to put together my costume. Last year I went as a Ninja Turtle and this year I want to go as a Ghostbuster. I’m borrowing a pack back vacuum to serve as my proton pack but am having a hard time locating a jumpsuit to wear. Today a friend said he would mail me one of his old flight suits from when he was in the Marine Corps which would be perfect but I’m a little nervous it won’t get here in time. Fingers crossed.
This year I’m even planning on helping to decorate the outside of the house and have already bought a few things to get the ball rolling. Who knows, with this festive attitude I may even go to a haunted house. Yeah right. I had a traumatic experience (oh it was traumatic alright don’t you worry, that is if you’re a wimpy 10 year old girl) when I was in the 6th grade and have never gotten over it. I tried going to one in the 9th grade but it didn’t work out to well and I break into a sweat and start having heart palpitations just thinking about it.
There won’t be any watching of scary movies either as I will most likely stick to the lame TV crap available on ABC Family this holiday season. Baby steps, baby steps. I “watched” Quarantine a few months ago but that viewing was done at high noon through my fingers with the remote firmly in hand ready to change the channel with the click of a button. I also tried to watch The Strangers but only made it about 2/3rds of the way through. Had to read the ending on IMDB. A wimp I am.
On to something happier about the fall season, I made caramel apples today and am going to get apples tomorrow to make applesauce. And while I’m mentioning food, I made some homemade chicken noodle soup last weekend that was to die for. Another great thing about fall, hearty soups and a kitchen that smells heavenly. Well there you have it. Stay tuned this next week for pics of (cross your fingers) my ghostbuster costume.
The title may be a tad misleading but it got you here right? Naturally with Valentines around the corner our lives have all been saturated with (or in my case commercials that contain) cards, flowers, heart shaped candy, pink, red, love, …well you get the point. I’m not a hater of the holiday but I honestly think it’s sort of ridiculous.
But then I caught a snippit of a morning news show that said something so wonderful I thought I heard it wrong. So I made a beeline to google and found this article confirming the joyous news! Chocolate is better for you than fruit!!!
Holy crap – I am the healthiest person alive!!
And if this wasn’t good enough news, I read that white chocolate isn’t REALLY chocolate. Thus confirming what I’ve always suspected. Of course my suspicions were based on the fact that “white chocolate” is disgusting and vile but now I have scientific confirmation that it’s an impostor to the chocolate family.
This is shaping up to be quite the Valentine’s Day.
Hey remember when I used to do updates all the time? No? Well I did. I haven’t logged on to wordpress for a few weeks so I thought if one was appropriate I guess it would be now.
Thanksgiving was nice. My oldest sister and her family came down for a few days and it was nice to see them. I even went shopping on Black Friday. This is HUGE for me because I hate shopping on regular Fridays (and every other day for that matter) so to go on the busiest shopping day of the year is a little mind blowing. No I didn’t get up early or camp out at a store. Matter of fact, I don’t think we even went until 10:30 the next morning. At most places “early bird” sales were still going on and there was still plenty of stuff still in stock so ha ha all of you who got up and stood in line in the cold all night.
School, school, school. What can I say except I can’t wait for you to be over this semester. Only two weeks to go and I hope the time flies. Thanksgiving really messed me up motivation wise and for that I almost wish we hadn’t had a week off. Trying to get back into this week has sucked. Tonight I turned in an assignment not due until Saturday. Which would be awesome except I submitted it to the wrong place and couldn’t take it back. I emailed my professor and hope she’s cool and fixes it for me. It’s an easy fix for her but she may want to teach me some lesson or something. Hope not. I’m really not interested in learning anymore lessons of any kind, especially a life one and it could really screw up my grade which would be a shame because for the first time ever, I’m actually doing really well in school.
And the preschool, what can I say about that? Except ’tis the season…for coughing in my face and wiping snotty noses on my sweatshirts. If I don’t end up sick it’ll be a Christmas miracle for sure.
I got my hair done last week. I had the girl cut almost 4 inches off, shorten up the layers, thicken the bang area, and do an overall darken. It feels so much better and it’s still kind of long which is good b/c I prefer my hair pulled back most of the time.
And finally, what’s with everyone searching the word gumby? And why does that bring them to my blog? I checked my stats for the first time in forever and 61 people alone used that to find my blog today. Is this the seasonal-comeback-retro-fad toy this year? I’m so out of the loop.
Last year I was the grim reaper for Halloween but this year I went as something much cooler…a Ninja Turtle!
“Raphael is cool but crude..Gimmie a break”
Turtle Power!
At the Preschool party I’m about to be attacked by Shrek while Fiona pretends not to notice
Yeah!! I love Halloween!
We’re having a Halloween party for the 8-11 yr. old girls I’m a leader over at church this week. I decided to do something a little different in the way of an invitation so I borrowed this idea I found and voila!
Later today or tomorrow I’ll start on the first round of pumpkin sugar cookies. I love Halloween!
This year my mom and I did something a little different. We wanted to keep it low key but still go out and do something to celebrate the holiday, so we decided to go to a nearby small town and check out the local scene. I figured since I live in Arkansas, right in the middle of the I Love America bible belt, there should be something good going on. I envisioned local shops selling homemade pies and fudge, artwork depicting our American heritage, and who knows, maybe some cool antique collections of American memorabilia on display. Wishful thinking is what that was.
We saw that a small town about 40 -45 min. away was going to have a parade and though I’m sort of bah humbug when it comes to parades, I sort of thought it might be fun to check out. We got there about 40 min. before the parade was to start and there were already people lining up on the street (for the record, we were there that early b/c I couldn’t remember how to get there or how long it was going to take).
The parade started at exactly 10:00 and went as follows:
I was there and I still don’t know what the golf cart was for.
As far as I know, Arkansas isn’t known for its pioneer heritage so I’m not sure why those girls in front are dressed like that
I don’t know what those girls and that lady have to do with the fire department or why she’s in a wife beater
I think that first vehicle used to be a part of a tractor. I don’t know why old men are driving either one of those things.
Random kids riding their bikes. Yeah, I don’t get why either.
Nascar represented of course
That’s how we do floats up here in these parts
FFA represent! I thought there would be more kids on this one.
That’s a bulldog mascot in the truck so, maybe something to do with the high school?
Again, not so sure about this pioneer heritage they’ve got going on here
What the hell??
That’s it. That was the WHOLE parade. By 10:12 it was over. There’s only one street that goes through the town and it took three times as long to get out of there than was the actual length of the parade. I think my favorite part wasn’t the actual parade itself but watching the local people.
I knew I was in for a treat when not even 10 seconds after the road had been blocked, a beat up old car came and swerved around the road block, cut across the parking lot where we were parked. The lady driving was missing a couple of teeth, wearing a small tank top over her slightly larger frame, her teenage passenger smoking a cigarette, and with her windows rolled down yelled (with her southern accent adding two extra syllables to the last word), “This is g@#damn bullshit!” Ahh, America.
*Sorry the pics are small and crappy. Of course, the same can be said about the parade.
What is totally awesome about this picture? Is it the orange/brown carpet? The fact all of us were wearing footie pajamas? Me rock’n the bed head hairdo? Christmas presents from Santa? The Spiderman Big Wheel? Uh, How about all 5 of those things? That’s what I’m talking about! This picture is so classic, you just have to love it.
But seriously, what ever happened to Big Wheels? What a total ingenious product. Here I am at the age of 2 being given the greatest gift life can give, the gift of freedom. And it was all made possible because of Big Wheels.
See you later mom and dad. It’s just the open road and me from here on out.
Nice socks and sandal combo. I remember riding this thing so much that the front tire busted open and rocks got inside but you still couldn’t pry me off. I either out grew it, or it became so busted because two years later I got this:
No. Bypass the Stuff Your Face clown game. And the very styling jean leisure suit. Good grief, no way did I wear that thing to bed the night before. That means I actually CHOSE to wear that special get- up for Christmas morning 1984. And is it any wonder I still have wardrobe issues? I was doomed from the start.
Look on the right side, middle of the picture. Yep, a box to another Big Wheel. This fabulous toy had quite the run. I know my sisters had one when they were little, before I was born. As you saw, I christened my first at the ripe age of 2 and was still holding strong to the wheel at age 4. They just don’t make toys like that anymore. Big Wheel, I salute you.
Nandango 