Leavin' on a jet plane...

Well the car is packed and we are headed to the airport. First stop - California (aka home). We are taking the laptop so if I have time I will post pictures from my gma's party. Monday we head to Maui.



I hope everyone has a great time while I am gone! I can't wait to catch up on your blogs when I get back!

Meet the Kids...

I am a huge animal lover, and I've rescued as many animals as Chris will allow! So, let me introduce you!

These are "The Boys," otherwise known as Buster and Mossy. I bet you can't guess who named Mossy.... =)

Yup, Chris named him after camo (mossy oak). We adopted him about 2 years ago from a family that was moving. We adopted Buster about a year ago. His story is long and sad. The short version is that he was friends with a neighbor boy who ended up drowning. Police reports show that Buster tries to pull him from the water but was unsuccessful. His previous owner felt terrible and wanted to get rid of him. The grandparents of the child took him but couldn't keep him. Chris had Mossy with him (the boys go to work with Chris, who is a project manager) and ended up at Buster's owners business and ended up bringing him home.

Buster (right) and Mossy (left) fighting over their favorite duck.

These are the cats. In order from left to right there is Sox, Roscoe and Gracie.

I rescued Sox from a falling down barn when he was 3 weeks (about 5 years ago). Roscoe was a stray in our neighborhood and we got him about 8 months ago. Gracie has a funny story. When we were building our house we stopped by to check on it every night when I got off work. One night, after the painters has just finished painting the inside of the house, we stopped by and our builder was here (which was odd because it was 7pm or so). I walked in and heard a terrible noise. Gracie and her brother (who didn't make it) had been trapped in between the first and second floor of our house. She was about 4 weeks old. I asked the builder to rip out the wall in the closet to rescue them, and I took her home. Chris nursed her back to health (since I was working 70+++ hours a week) and that's that!

I also feed all the strays in the neighborhood (which I don't think my neighbors like, but that's too bad!). Right now I have "Mama Kitty" and a litter of four living in a cat bed on my porch!

Do you have any pets? Any great stories? Are you thinking of adding pets to your family?

Ring Shopping!

I'm so excited! Our friends son, who is also our friend (if that makes sense) is going to get engaged! He was home from college a few weeks ago and he asked me at church if I would go ring shopping with him. (Lonnnng story short, I used to work in jewelry product and trend development before moving on to clothing). Anyway, I jumped at the chance!

Yesterday we went to my FAVORITE jewelry store, Heart's Desire in Rogers. I have a great relationship with the owner, and he is a wonderful Christian man. He was so excited to help us find the perfect ring. The diamonds we requested should be in tomorrow for viewing!

So Seth's girlfriend is pretty contemporary, so we are going to go with a princess or cushion cut solitare in a band setting similar to the Lucida from Tiffany's.

I love jewelry shopping (what good shopaholic doesn't?!) and I love it even more when it's coupled with lunch! My mom, Seth, his parents and I went to one of my favorite resturants, Granite City for lunch. Yummm. If you have one near you, you HAVE to go on Thursday for the Chicken Tortilla Soup. It is soooo worth the trip. Well, that's all for now! Have a great Tuesday!

Bag Update....

I posted about the bag that I ordered for my camera (I have a pic but surprise, surprise, it's not yet uploaded).

Anyway, I love the products that I got but was MAJORLY disappointed in the service. I removed that particular company from my "list". I had ordered Mother's Day gifts and they JUST arrived to the MIL's! I'm so disappointed in their service, not to mention the lady that I dealt with wasn't very professional. Anyway, I added some other, similar companies and wondered if you have any experience with them? I need to order my SIL's gifts for her bday (she's going to be 15) and want to make sure that they will actually deliver them on time...

The companies I'm interested in are Lovely Stitches and Pink Monogram.

Thanks for your input!

Donuts.

So I was debating on posting, because I don't have my pictures on this computer! I will post about my weekend later!

For the last three weeks I have wanted a white cake donut with chocolate icing. Every single day. I think about it at night too. I haven't had a donut in FOREVER. When I was a kid my mom couldn't get me to eat breakfast foods so she would let me have those little Hostess Donuts. Yum.

Anyway, Chris took me to our local Krispy Kreme about 2 weeks ago thinking they might have one (their website said they did....yes, I checked their website!). Well, long story short our KK is not corporate owned and therefore the only donuts they have are those ones that are covered in that sticky (icky) glaze. Strike one.

A few days later, Chris wanted to go to a golf shop that's near a bakery. Yay! I thought I was finally going to get my donut! Well, apparently this bakery (I'd never been there before) is a Greek bakery (I'm guessing). They only had about 10 desserts, most of which I'd never heard of, and none of which even resembled a donut. Strike two.

Today I was determined to get my donut. I called a local shop that I had looked up on yellow pages, and found out that they close at 11:30am. Great! I had to run to my doctor's office to drop something off and then to the dry cleaners, but I knew I could get there before they closed. I pulled up with 10 min's to spare and went to open the door.....and they have moved. You think they would have mentioned that. I don't even know how to get to their new location! Strike three.

So I guess I am out. Anyone know how to make a good cake donut?!?

A Jumbled Post

Thank you all so much for your suggestions on the Beth Moore studies! I need to make a trip to Lifeway and check them all out!

Today my grandmother is coming in from California to visit. We are headed to Tulsa tomorrow to see the Gaithers perform (my dad and grandma both love them). The tickets were actually my dads Christmas gift from us.

I would also like to ask for your prayers...I really can't talk about the situation now, but soon I think I will share. =)

My mom has requested the gooey butter cake for mother's day so I will be making yet another (oh darn!) this Sunday. I don't want to think about all the calories I've eaten lately!

I leave for my CA/Hawaii trip in 14 days!!!! YAY! I'm so excited. Is anyone else going on a trip soon? I hope you are! Leave a comment and tell me your plans!

Bye for now!

Beth Moore studies?

Have you done a Beth Moore study? I haven't, and I am interested in doing one, but there are so many choices! Tell me your favorite and why you liked it! I don't have children (see profile) so one aimed at a family perspective wouldn't really work for me. Something to do with God's plans, or emotional struggle or something would be great. Anyway, let me know your favorite!

My Weekend Adventures...

First, let me apologize for my lack of pictures. I am pretty sure my hubby uploaded them...but I can't figure out where he saved them. They aren't where they are supposed to be...!!


So, my FIL (father in law) and BIL (brother in law) came to stay this weekend. We had a great time. FIL is recovering from a total hip replacement and a few years ago he had a quad bypass so I was doing my best to cook healthy, well rounded meals (which I usually do anyway). We had salad, fresh fruit salad (just strawberries, cantaloupe, honeydew and grapes cut up), grilled chicken and fresh whole grain bread.


But, I met my downfall with dessert. I had fully intended to cook something healthy, I really did! But, alas, it was not meant to be. So I made this:


AKA: Chocolate Gooey Butter Cake. That Paula Deen really knows what she’s doing! I even wore my "Put Some South in Your Mouth!" apron that I bought at her restaurant, "The Lady and Sons."

Yesterday we played in a charity golf tournament to benefit the Arkansas Children’s Hospital. The little girls whose parents started the tournament was able to be there for the first time since it began, three years ago. It was such a touching moment. I had to work hard to keep from sobbing. Several other children who have sought out the help of doctors at the hospital were also present, and even one of the doctors was there. It was a wonderful day for a wonderful cause. They even had an auction at the end and we got some cool stuff!

The only bad thing is my arms got WAYYYYYY burnt. I'm white as a ghost naturally and I don't tan well. It's usually white or red for me. Chris went and got some great topical medicine for me that really, really helped with the pain!

So, that brings me to today. Today hasn't been so great for a lot of reasons. One is that I had to go back to my knee surgeon. Two years ago I had surgery on my left knee. Since November my right knee has been killing me. They thought it was hamstring tendonitis, but now he thinks it's possible that it is a torn meniscus. Lovely. I will know more after my MRI. Please pray that this is not the case! That knee surgery was NO FUN!

I hope you all had outstanding weekends! Did you do anything fun? Let me know! Leave a comment!

Have a wonderful day!

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday all!

Well, I've been doing pretty good with posting and uploading pictures. I still have to learn how to get pics off of my new camera and onto the computer.

Last night a bad storm rolled in. My husband called my family (I had taken some allergy medication before bed and I never really woke all the way up!) to warn them that there was a possibility of a tornado. Times like this make me miss California. There's usually not warning with an earthquake and it's over quickly. These storms we get can drag on for hours (and cause you to miss perfectly good reality tv!!).

This weekend my husbands dad and 15 year old brother are coming to stay with us. On Monday we all play in a charity golf tournament together. We've played in a handful of tournaments together. Wow, reading that back makes it sound like I actually know what I'm doing when it comes to golf. I don't. I just like wearing my pink polo's and carrying my bright pink golf bag (Chris says it looks like an Easter egg). Occasionally I will hit a great shot - last time we played I almost won the long drive competition - but those are pretty rare.

I hope everyone has a great Friday and a even better weekend!

Update to Help!

I think I've found "the bag." I was on http://www.preppymonogrammedgifts.com/ and found they have these cute little wristlets. I wrote to them to see if I can get it in this fabric:

and with pink monogram stitching.

This is the actual product, just the wrong fabric (though I like this one too!):

What do you think?

Help!

My hubby bought me a cute little camera to carry in my purse. We have a really nice camera that takes great pics but I don't like carrying it around because it's so heavy! Anyway, I want to find a really cute camera case/sleeve that I can put it in to keep in protected in my purse.

It doesn't even have to be a true "camera case" just something that would fit the bill. I like the cute bags at Toss and Kate Spade but I didn't find anything that worked. If you know of somewhere/site please let me know!

A Few Of My Favorite Things

So today I thought I would share a few of my food related favorite things with you. I hope you will share some of yours with me!


Favorite Marinade: Yoshida's Gourmet Sauce AND Masterpiece Fajita Marinade.

Favorite Food Network TV stars dessert recipe: Giada de Laurentiis Chocolate Chip Biscotti (though I do tweak it a little bit).

Favorite Spread: Nutella

Favorite Meat: Prosciutto de Parma

If you could have any grocer relocate to your area....: Dean and Deluca or Whole Foods.

The recipe I make most often: Depends on the time of year. I make a lot of chicken dishes because they are healthy (in general).

Dessert I make most often: COOKIES. I love chocolate chip cookies. Thes best one I've ever had was at Levain Bakery in NYC. You can visit them here: http://www.levainbakery.com/ They competed on Throwdown with Bobby Flay (re-airing this Sunday). I also make chocolate sheet cake (my grandmothers recipe) and double layer yellow cake a lot.

So tell me...what are a few of your favorite food things?


PS - Sidenote: I just went back and re-read what I had written and noticed that one second I am talking about eating healthy (chicken) and then the next thing I say is that I am addicted to cookies. Hmmmmm.