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...*

More Guest Room Fabulousness

As it turns out I'm one of those people who just can't leave well enough alone because I'm still tinkering with our guest room. See, that's more fun than doing something practical like mopping the floor or fitting in a workout. I just go with it. So, I convinced Joe to let me buy a set of nightstands because you know what? I stay in A LOT of hotels because I travel for a living and I like the idea of having nightstands next to the bed like all the fancy hotels do.


Y'all, these nightstands are from Bed, Bath & Beyond and they were only $35 apiece. You can't beat that with a stick, and really Joe couldn't argue with a deal like that! ;-) Well, then he had to assemble both of them (immediately when we got them home) but that actually wasn't too bad either. Except for when he was cursing because they forgot to include a piece. But I digress.

I also did a little project with some frames I got for $0.85 for the set of three. I don't even remember where the heck I got them. I painted them a pretty ivory color and then printed out some butterfly images from the internet. I actually used resume paper to print them out on because that made it look fancier and all. I hung them in the hall - voila!


I've also been hard at work determining the perfect cupcake combinations to serve at the upcoming engagement party I'm hosting. That means I have to make a whole bunch of cupcakes and do a very thorough taste-test of each one. Hey, it's a hard job but someone's got to do it. I started with "Pink Lemonade" which is basically lemon cake out of a box and then whipped up a homemade pink lemonade icing.

And finally, can I just post a cute picture on here? I told you Joe and I went away last weekend to help our friends move and here they are with their new pad! I SOO BADLY wanted a picture like this when we moved into our first house in June but we never even had a real estate sign in our yard we hopped on this house so fast! They weren't too thrilled to have their picture made but I told Jill I had to vicariously live through her. And her grandchildren will want to see this picture one day. Ha!! Also, when Joe and I got to their house on Saturday we pulled up RIGHT when they were carrying the last piece of furniture off of the UHaul. Don't we have great timing?? ;-)

My Wildly Important Day

I hope you realize that title is a complete bunch of sarcasm. The biggest thing I did today was re-organize my recipe box. The world is back in order now. Yesterday I cleaned the house from top to bottom, did laundry, ran errands and put a healthy and steaming meal on the table when Joe got off work. I did a lot today, except not so much.

Yes, I'm still working but we are so slow now my next assignment isn't until September 20. All I can say is thank God I'm salaried.

Complete switch of stories but that reminded me of a HILarious story. About a year ago Joe and I were at my parents house hanging out with my nice and nephew. We were playing some completely useless board game where you have to write down the name of 8 people on a dry-erase board and then you do something with the characteristics of those people. Game not so much fun, but when we were asking the kids for ideas on who to put on our board, my niece Ellie kept insisting we put "DEE-OH-GEE" on there. A who A what?? I kept asking her to repeat it and even resorted to asking Trent, my nephew, "What is she saying??". He said the same thing, "DEE-OH-GEE". I was bewildered. Was this some weird kid she knew from school? Finally, Trent says it's the name of a dog in his neighborhood. Okay, it's a weird name but to each his own. Then, Joe bursts up laughing. I'm trying to figure out how to spell the name to put it on our board. Obviously, the joke is on me. Joe goes, "Babe. d-o-g." Haha!! No one ever accused me of being clever. And who would name their dog that!?