Where In The World...?

I'm going somewhere FAR, FAR away for work...

Somewhere in Europe...


A place that has lots of mountains and coastlines...



Whose flag looks something like this...


A place that has a famous leaning tower...


And a REALLY famous colosseum...


I'm going to Italy!! In November!! I will have to work but I'll have some time to play and I can't wait!

Pumpkins A Plenty!

This weekend our friends Jill and Michael came to visit us - we had SO much fun. You know the kind of friends where you can sit around in your PJs with and lay around the living room with? These are those friends!

They even brought their two cats, which is so funny because I don't know if Boomer realized such an animal existed on the sweet Earth. He was pretty much convulsing the entire weekend! Haha!

On Saturday, the boys went paintballing (is that a word? why does it say it's misspelled??) for Joe's birthday and us girls sat around and talked in our pajamas until about 2 in the afternoon!

We finally got around and all of us went to eat and then went to the local pumpkin farm. I guess it's still a little early in the season because we were the only ones out. We rode a hay ride out to pick a punkin'.

We also got to feed baby goats. This one had a striking resemblance to our dog!

Then we did the corn maze. Which. Oh my goodness. We got so lost. And separated from the boys (who have all the navigation genes). I would have taken pictures. But, well, I was too busy screaming! And I had to pee! So we cheated. Yes cheated. And I have no regrets.

Have you gotten a pumpkin yet??

Idaho

I've been on a whirlwind since Thursday!

My Mom and I did our road trip and what I forgot to tell you was that our road trip was centered around the Annual I-36 Treasure Hunt, which is basically a 400 mile fall-festival and garage sale along northern Kansas. Hello, heaven! We had so much fun!

The bad news is I forgot my camera. We literally drove along the highway, stopping at lots of little towns, going through the local garage sales and checking out the festivals or getting something to eat. When we bought something, we would just toss it in the backseat. And you can tell, we weren't conservative with the shopping! Haha! This is one of the only pictures I took on my cell because it cracks me up! What a mess!

I promise we got some good stuff though!

We came home last night and when I got home Joe had decorated our entire living room with candles because 7 years ago yesterday we had our first date! And 4 years ago yesterday he proposed! September 19th is very special to us.

Do you celebrate any other anniversaries besides your wedding anniversary???

Unfortunately, I was home for less than 24 hours because I had to get up for a 6am flight to Idaho this morning for work. I think Boomer was confused why we were waking up while it was still dark outside. Joe sent me this picture this afternoon, I guess he has been sleeping like this all day. Don't mess with a dog and his sleeping habits!


Idaho is a state I have never visited and it's so different than I thought. They have real life tumbleweed here that blows all over the highway. It's very desolate. The town I'm staying in pretty much has a military base and a Wal-Mart. Oh boy it's going to be a fun week! Haha!

Look at this view from my hotel room. Literally NOTHING as far as the eye can see...

ROAD TRIP

I'm going on a ROAD TRIP leaving today. Every time I say or type ROAD TRIP I totally imagine it in the voice of 30 college kids. Or like the Elle Woods' friends say when she declares she's going to Harvard. Yes, I'm going on a road trip. But with my momma!! Haha! Just us girls on the open roads of Kansas. No real plan. It should be fun and I'll share all the details when I get back.

Traditional Home Magazine

I am obsessed with home and decorating magazines. I read them while I'm waiting in line at the supermarket and I subscribe to the ones I can never find in stores. This month's Traditional Home had some things I really liked!!
Apparently, Jaclyn Smith has some new fabrics out (didn't she used to design clothes for Walmart??) and the one to the far left reminds me of the fabric I used for my living room curtains!! I wish I would have known about this cheaper option when I made them...!

Jaclyn Smith vs. P Kaufmann Florabunda Sea Glass

And pewter. Don't you love pewter?

Look at this kitchen. Love the white cabinets and the island with that cool lantern light!


And I LOVE these tiles. When I win the lottery I'm going to deck my bathroom out in these!!

Last night Joe and I went to bed at 8:30 to watch a movie. Have you seen the movie Shutter? It's a horror that could only be described as a comedy it's SO BAD. Haha!!

What home decorating magazines are your FAVORITES??

Party Time

This weekend I hosted an engagement party in Oklahoma for my friend from college. Joe got the entire weekend off so we booked Boomer into "Doggy Daycare" and headed down on Saturday morning. The party went so well! The cupcakes I had been baking were an absolute hit - I think everyone had at least two or three of them!


I also wanted to share with you a little project I did to jazz up the cupcakes. These are paper flags I made for each of the cupcakes. I picked out some cute paper from Hobby Lobby and created a stencil for a small flag. Then I traced out a couple rows of them on the back of the paper.
Then, I cut it out and used double stick tape to tape it around a toothpick.
Super easy and I thought the cupcakes looked pretty festive. I ordered the brown cupcake liners from Etsy.
Sunday afternoon I went wedding dress shopping with the new bride and then Joe and I drove back home. We DID NOT leave Oklahoma without stopping by our favorite French bakery to get one of my favorite treats: mice! I know it looks weird, but these babies are filled with chocolate-y goodness.

Spotted at Walmart

Yesterday I was at Walmart to get the last minute necessities for the party I'm hosting today.

While I was waiting on a prescription, I decided to browse the clothing section because I had heard that Miley Cyrus had a new Walmart clothing line and I wanted to look at it or really, mock it in my head to pass the time. Also, I needed a new shirt to wear to the party. Like I said, we're shopping for necessary items here.

And I actually think, for the most part, Walmart has decent clothes. And really some of Miley's stuff wasn't that bad.

So, I decided to do a feature on cute clothes at Walmart.

Like this shirt I got for $12, Miley Cyrus line...

This tank bought, I love the metal studs with ruffles, perfect under a cardigan this fall, Faded Glory, $9

This dress is fab. It totally reminds me of that dress that Mandy Moore wore on the cover of Lucky a couple years ago, except that dress was like $3000. This one, $16. I would have bought it too but they didn't have my size.

And I like this shirt for work, from George for $12.99. This would look cute with simple black trousers.

And what wardrobe is complete without a nice pair of leopard JEANS. SKINNY JEANS. We can all thank Miley for that.

September 11th

Please don't forget that today is September 11 and take a few minutes to think about and pray for our troops overseas.

I haven't talked about my job much on here. I will say that I have spent a great deal of time with members of all of our armed forces (Air Force, Army, Marines, Navy*edit* AND guard! Thanks Sarah Ann!!) in the months, weeks and days leading up to their deployment. Sometimes I'm one of the last faces they see before they get on the plane.

I have so much respect for them. And their families.

About a month ago, right after Michael Jackson died, I was sitting in a hospital lobby with 40 troops who were getting on their plane the following day for war. The lobby had about 32234 tvs that were all playing coverage of MJ's death. One of the soldiers looked at me and said "I can't watch this. I know so many people who deserve this kind of attention in the media because they died, they died for our country and they were good people."

Anyway, on a lighter (ha!) topic...

A lot of you requested the recipe for the Best Cupcakes In The Entire World. It's true and since I never exaggerate I know you'll believe me. I consider myself a cupcake connoisseur and these really are #1 in my book.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Whipped Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting
Yield: 24 cupcakes

For the filling and cupcakes:
~2/3 cup confectioners' sugar
~1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
~10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
~1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
~1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
~3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
~1 teaspoon baking soda
~1/2 teaspoon salt
~1 cup sour cream
~2 tablespoons milk
~1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
~2 large eggs

For the frosting:
~8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
~4 tablespoons butter, softened
~1/2 cup peanut butter
~3 1/4 cups powdered sugar
~1 cup cool whip

1. Prepare Filling: In bowl, with mixer on medium speed, mix confectioners' sugar, peanut butter, 2 tablespoons butter, and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla until blended. Shape mixture into 24 balls using heaping measuring teaspoons. (Balls will be sticky and don't need to be perfectly shaped.) Place balls on waxed paper-lined cookie sheet; set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24 standard muffin-pan cups with fluted paper liners.

3. Prepare Cupcakes: On waxed paper, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. In 2-cup liquid measuring cup, mix sour cream, milk, and remaining vanilla; set aside. In large bowl, with mixer on low speed, beat granulated sugar and remaining 8 tablespoons butter just until blended. Increase speed to high; beat 1 minute. Reduce speed to low; add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat 1 to 2 minutes more or until light and fluffy. Add flour mixture alternately with sour cream mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat just until ingredients are combined, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula.

4. Spoon 1 heaping measuring tablespoon batter into each muffin-pan cup. Drop 1 peanut butter ball in center of each cup and top with another heaping tablespoon batter. Bake cupcakes 25 to 28 minutes or until toothpick inserted in cupcake comes out clean. (I baked mine for about 20 minutes and they were done!) Immediately remove cupcakes from pans and cool completely on wire rack.

5. When cupcakes are cool, prepare frosting: In large bowl, with mixer on medium-low speed, beat butter, cream cheese, and peanut butter until smooth and blended. Add powdered sugar slowly, incorporating fully after each addition. Add cool whip and beat until smooth and creamy. Frost cupcakes.

(from Good Housekeeping)

Have a great Friday!

The Vet

Yesterday, Boomer and I had an appointment with our new vet so we could get a refill for his prescription to Xanax. Don't think I haven't considered taking one for myself over the years, but really they're for his storm anxiety. For a long time I wasn't into drugging my dog even though he literally freaked out every time it rained. But I finally drew the line when I woke up at 3am one morning during a storm with him sitting on my head. Good morning, sunshine. So we've been pill-popping ever since and we've finally drained our supply.

I even brought the old prescription bottle in my hopes to make the visit as routine as possible.

I can hear you laughing.

We did all the normal checks: weight, teeth, thermometer in the bum and they left us alone in the exam room for a "few minutes". Enough time to play with Boomer, text Joe and grow my bangs out. I really thought they had forgotten about us when I stood up and noticed the poster on the wall. If anyone from Indian Hills Vet is reading this, I want you to know I'm on to you. An entire poster about ringworm, hookworm and tapeworm with real. live. pictures, y'all.

If you ever need a reason to lose your appetite, please Google "ringworm in the human eye" and you'll never eat again. And that's a promise.

As if on cue, the vet came back in. I asked her to check if Boomer was up-to-date on all of his shots, given the propaganda on the wall. Fine marketing scheme.

We were up to date, but I like to take extra measures when it means preventing your organs from WORMS. BIG LONG WORMS.

Ya'll I signed us up for every vaccine and treatment in a five mile radius. Three more shots, a full blood workup and we even have to collect a stool sample at home this week for testing.

Best $250 I ever spent.

Oh yeah, and we got the Xanax.

I had forgotten all about the vet (that's called repressing a memory) and later that night Joe and I went to Pei Wei for dinner. I started telling him about my day and then remembered the vet. And THE WORMS. BIG LONG WORMS. Joe started acting shifty and he looked down at my plate. And then I remembered I had ordered this for dinner.


And I wish I were kidding.

Labor Day Weekend

No more white pants for a while - Labor Day has come and gone. I had a seriously busy weekend!

I left early on Saturday morning to drive to Missouri for my BFF's daughter Isabelle's first birthday. Those of you with kids, I don't know how you do it. There was running. There was crawling. There was laughing and crying and general food shoving in face. And Isabelle was even worse.

This picture absolutely cracks.me.up! It's a total range of baby emotions.
(from left to right). Confused. Content. Terrified. Angry.

On Sunday my parents came down for the night. I was hoping we would sit around and have some good food and relax but evidently my parents came down to WORK. We planted trees and flowers and actually cleaned out our 3-car garage that was packed wall-to-wall from moving.

Planting our first tree in the front yard. An Oklahoma Redbud.

Don't you love 3-day weekends?

Birthdays and Cupcakes (but not together)

As a resident, Joe spends each month on a different rotation during his first year. This month he is on Surgery, which is supposed to be one of the most EVIL months ever. So far though, not that bad! In fact, today he even got to come to come home for 2.5 hours for a long lunch! Do you know how excited I get over 2.5 hours?!

We ordered pizza and ate until we were stuffed. Then. He. Fell. Asleep. Poor guy. I didn't have the heart to wake him up so I let him get a little nap in before he had to go back.
Then look what he did when he came home - he picked me a sunflower from the yard. Doesn't that crack you up?
Today is my BFF's daughter's birthday. She is ONE and I can't believe it! On September 2nd of last year I got a call at work from her mom that she had gone to the hospital. I immediately called Southwest Airlines, and got on the next flight from Oklahoma City to Kansas City. Then, I landed in Kansas City (by this time I was freaking out that I would miss the whole thing), got a car and drove 1.5 hours to the hospital. Isabelle was born just after midnight. It was SO worth being there because I got to hear her first cry and be one of the first people in the world to hold her. There is NOTHING like being there with your childhood best friend when she has a baby!

Me holding Isabelle, one month old

Isabelle, 4 months old

Her momma sent me this picture this morning, 1 year old!

Because I'm obsessed with all things monogrammed I just HAD to make a couple t-shirts for the birthday girl. I hope she'll never forget her name ;-)

Iron-on transfers from Hobby Lobby (where else!)
Her nickname

Are you still with me? Today was DAY 2 of "Operation Cupcake". Today I tried homemade chocolate cake with peanut-butter-cream-cheese frosting. Oh, and a little surprise inside. I think I gained 15 pounds just typing that.

What we have here is peanut butter filling. *You're drooling...*