Prom Queen

Since it's May and all the high school kids are getting ready for prom, I thought it would be fun for my blog friends to post their prom pictures. Don't be shy, girls! Remember the bigger the hair and the poofier the dress, the better!

Here are the rules...

1. Upload your prom picture. If you don't have one, email your mom and have her send it to you. That's what I had to do. :)

2. Don't forget to include the year it was taken. Again, don't be shy. The older the better.

3. Grab the "Prom Queen" button on my sidebar and add to your post. Isn't the button adorable? Thank you Danielle, The Design Girl. You must check out her fabulous sale!

4. Copy and Paste the rules to your blog

5. Tag 5 others!

Now for my prom picture, taken in 1993.

Gotta love the sequin dress and BIG Texas hair. For the record, I was not the Prom Queen. My high school didn't have Prom King and Queen?

Since I'm starting the Prom Queen Tag, I decided to tag more than 5 people...

Well, That's Just Fabulous

Nautical by Nature

And Bai Li Makes 3

All Things Southern & Preppy

Monogram Chick

My Chihuahua Bites

According to Nina

Petunia in Paradise

The Love Affair

Baseball and Ballet

Signs of Hope~ Carrie

Wearing Mascara

Football and Fried Rice

Sweet Simplicity

A Balancing Act in Heels

A Sassy Engineer

Woman Interrupted

The Ever-Changing Life of a Military Wife

A Tid Bit of the Taylors

Chic and Pink

French Kiss

Different Kind of Southern Girl

Preppy 50 and Loving Lilly

Love.This.Show. and A Question

The Celebrity Apprentice (TCA) is SOOO funny. I look forward to watching it every Sunday night. I'm a little bummed about Melissa and Joan Rivers. I hope Joan returns next week. She definitely has the most star power.



If you're not familiar with TCA, the celebs are playing for cash prizes which will be donated to their favorite charity. Tonight the project manager from the winning team received $20,000 for charity.

I really didn't have a charity that I was passionate about until 2006. I had, and still have, many charities I care about and believe in but none that I was truly passionate about. You know... the kind of passion that you could talk about all day, the kind of passion that gets you fired up. If I had won the $20,000 tonight, I would donate it to New Day Foster Home.

What charity would you donate $20,000 to? Remember you can't keep it. ;) I love learning what people are passionate about.

Thank You

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You for the blog awards. If you haven't "met" these fabulous bloggers yet, check them out!

Chic and Pink for the Neno's Award

Boo and Hooties Mom for the Friendship Award

The Company She Keeps for the Kreative Blogger Award

Gracie Update

If you're new to my blog... Gracie is a baby I sponsor from New Day Foster Home in Beijing. I volunteered at New Day last fall. Gracie arrived at New Day with a heart problem the week I was there. From the moment I met her, I just loved her! Gracie had a successful surgery to repair her heart. I'm not in the processing of adopting her. I SO wish I could. As of May 2007, you have to be married to adopt from China.

Gracie is 1 Year 1 Month Old.

Gracie’s nanny wrote this update:
"Gracie’s appetite and sleep patterns are fairly normal recently. She can walk for more than a meter. Gracie can walk very fast with her hands on a banister to support her. She can pick up small pieces of food and put them in her mouth. She knows how to eat cookies and can use a bowl or cup to drink water with the help of others. Gracie likes to eat rice noodles, rice, noodles, and food that is easy to chew. She will turn and smile at you when you call her name. She recognizes familiar faces and she likes to listen to music and dance to the beat while clapping her hands. While dressing her, she will hold out her arms and legs to help out. Gracie can throw and pick up toys and plays with them with both hands. She is very smart and can flip the pages of books. Gracie is very active. She is very pretty and everyone loves her, but she just won’t let any strangers hold her. The visitors can play with her but not hug her. Her good appetite has made her a chubby and cute girl."

I love what Gracie's nanny wrote about her being chubby and having a good appetite. Ha Ha. I can't believe how much Gracie has changed since October. She was so tiny and "blue" when I met her. She doesn't even look like the same baby in these photos.

She doesn't let strangers hold her anymore.... ahhh!

My Quilt

A few years ago my Mom and Grandmaw decided to make my sis, my brother, and me a homemade quilt. My mom wanted to do this before my Grandmaw no longer could. She has dementia and it has slowly been progressing over the last 10 years. We call my Grandmaw "Mawmaw," if your Cajun you know how to say Mawmaw properly and you know what I mean by that. :)

My Mawmaw used to love quilting. She was in a quilting group at church or as my sister calls it, "A Stitch and B*tch." Mawmaw's quilting group made quilts for the troops, all the new babies born at the church, and the graduating seniors. Once someone broke into the church and stole some of the quilts. We later found out the thief sold them for drug money. I think it's kinda funny.

My mom let Jenn, Jarrett, and me each pick our colors, fabric, and the design of the quilt. My brother just said, "Blue" and left the rest up to my mom. LOL. My mom put the fabric pieces together, she's the more artistic one. Then Mawmaw and my mom quilted each masterpiece together. They gave me my quilt for my birthday in 2007. I LOVE it. These photos don't do the quilt justice.

I've been paranoid to bring the quilt to Houston. My apartment building is old, built in the 1930's. I have serious problems controlling the dust. Trust me I will be using it someday, just not in this apartment. Monday I had my mom take it out so I could see it again. I was starting to forget how it looked. Ooooo.... I love.

On the back my mom monogrammed one of my favorite Bible verses, Jeremiah 29:11.

I love it that they "signed" it and dated it. My great grand children will know who made it and when, no guessing.

I love the scalloped edges.

I requested a Shabby Chic Quilt. My mom said it reminds her of a strawberry milkshake.

Fiesta River Parade

Last night I attended the Fiesta River Parade in San Antonio on the Riverwalk. My family moved from the Houston area to San Antonio 9 years ago. When I’m in town during Fiesta, I always attend the River Parade. My sis works for the company that owns Riverc*nter Mall, so we have VIP passes that include, front row seating, dinner, and drinks. It’s SO fun.

Last night I asked Jenn what Fiesta is all about. She didn’t really know. I’ve been attending events for years and I don’t really know either. Ha Ha! I looked it up on-line. Here’s what I found out…

“Fiesta is an annual spring festival with origins dating to the late 1800’s. The festival started as a single event to honor the memory of the heroes of the battles of the Alamo and San Jacinto. Today there are 3 Parades to celebrate Fiesta and over 100 events around the city.”

Whatever… I just like the VIP passes at the parade.

This is Leslie, our great friend. Leslie has traveled to NYC with Jenn and Me. She works at Sea World. She's the girl that does the Shamu Show and dives from Shamu's nose into the water!

These are Cascarones or confetti filled eggs. You're supposed to break the egg over someones's head, letting the confetti scatter. It is suppose to bring good luck.

Windows & Cigar Boxes

In 2003 I started a small business, a tiny merchandising company. I don’t write about this often on my blog, probably because there isn’t much to say. LOL. I design windows for malls. When I have a project, I work on it on the weekends so it doesn’t interfere with my regular job. I have projects about 4 times a year. It’s nice to have a little extra cash and a creative outlet.

Over the weekend I had a project in San Antonio at Riv*rcenter Mall. A department store was recently bought out by the mall and until they decide what to do with the space, the windows are empty. The mall assigns different stores to each space. I pick up their merchandise and signage and create a window. I have a prop room at the mall with items I’ve accumulated over the years.

Here are a few examples of what I’ve done. These pictures are terrible because of the reflection on the windows. Also, there are black dividers between the windows but they're not installed yet. Sorry.

Over the weekend I did a window for a cigar store in the mall. When I arrived to get their merchandise, the owner gave me empty cigar boxes for the window design. I asked him if he ever sold the empty cigar boxes. He said, “Yes, come back when you’re done working.” Check out these very cool cigar boxes. The plain wood boxes were $2 each and the regular boxes were a $1 each. I can’t wait to do something crafty and fun with these! I’ve thought about painting them and adding embellishments. I’ve seen the cigar box purses but I know I’d never carry it, so I’ve ruled out that idea. Any suggestions?

Andrea, when I bought these I thought of you. I wish you were here to play!

The only bummer is the boxes smell like cigars... gross! If you're able to get some, don't forget to air them out.

Tagged

Natalie at The Brocks Rock tagged me in The Top 8. Here it goes...

Update~ After writing this I feel like a loser.

8 Things I Am looking Forward to:
1. Adopting from China, someday (you have to be married)

2. Fall Vacation~ I’m not sure where I’m going yet but I have a few ideas. I always take my vacation days in the fall. It’s my favorite season and kids are in school. Has anyone been on an airplane for a business to trip to Orlando in the summer? Don't do it, you'll hate yourself.

3. Having a huge kitchen someday

4. Seeing the new Miley Cyrus movie.

5. Getting a Mani and Pedi
6. Getting my iPod re-installed on my computer. I’m kinda lazy about it.
7. A good deep tissue massage. I’ve needed one for a looong time.
8. The new season of The Real Housewives of OC… nothing beats the original.

8 Things I Did Yesterday: (I started writing this on Monday)

1. Went to church… amazing Easter Sunday service
2. Had Easter lunch with my family

3. Drove from San Antonio to Houston
4. Talked on the phone
5. Did an expense report

6. Took a hot bath
7. Read blogs

8. Went to bed early

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:

1. Consistently go to the gym. People say to find an exercise you really enjoy. People, I’ve tried everything and I just don’t enjoy it that much. I go to the gym but it’s similar to taking out the trash or putting gas in your car…you have to do it but it’s not fun.
2. I’ve always wanted to travel to Dubai and Vietnam. Recently, I’ve added Egypt to my list. Our blog friend, Casey, just went to Egypt and I want to go soooo bad.
3. Sew!
4. Have a little self control in front of a basket of tortilla chips and queso or guacamole

5. Sing. In church I sing softly b/c my voice is not good. Every now and then I feel like the person sitting next to me thinks I’m not singing or I’m in a bad mood so I’ll kick it up a notch. Not good.
6. I wish I could sit down with a book. It’s hard for me to sit still. The only time I can focus on reading is on an airplane b/c there’s nothing else to do. Oh except for T*ri Spelling's book, I couldn't put it down.
7. Stop picking at my hair. This is often a distraction on airplanes when I’m trying to read.
8. I wish I was more outgoing in a crowd of strangers

8 Shows I Watch:

1. Gossip Girl

2. The Hills

3. The Real Housewives of NYC

4. Celebrity Apprentice

5. Desperate Housewives
6. Greek

7. Keeping Up With The Kardashians

8. Days of Our Lives

Tag 8 Friends:

Well That's Just Fabulous

Nautical by Nature

The Shiny Penny

The Love Affair

A Sassy Engineer

Baseball and Ballet

Chic and Pink

Jenji and T

Tagged

I was tagged by Well That's Just Fabulous and Love Affair.

Here are the rules:
Take a picture of yourself RIGHT now.
No primping or preparing.
Just snap a picture.
Load the picture onto your blog.
Tag some people to play.

I was tagged while I was in San Antonio last weekend. I took this photo right away... no cheating. It's not cute. That day I woke up early, packed the car, and drove 3.5 hours.

I tag...

Sisters... Abbi and Amy

French Kiss

Shore Aesthetic

Sweet Simplicity

Olivia and Gracie

The spring package I sent to China arrived. Thank you Carrie for adorable pictures! Great news... Olivia has been matched with a family. From the day I met her, I have prayed she would have a family soon. When I was in China, I wrote my sister and asked/begged her and Ryan to adopt Olivia (I can't b/c you have to be married). I'm so happy for Olivia and her new name is Victoria. She looks like a Victoria!

My friend, Carrie, is an incredible person and a talented writer. Carrie wrote a story about an experience she had with Olivia, here. It's so hard to imagine how these kids must feel.

I love it that all little girls, even little girls in a Chinese Foster Home, know how to hold a baby.

She is so stinkin' cute and she's just as sweet as she is cute!

I sent Victoria a dozen pair of sunglasses to pass out to her friends. Who wants the sun in your eyes while you're playing on the playgroud?

Fun Dip to share with friends

Gracie is getting SO big! She is such a doll! I just wish I could reach into my computer screen and hug her.

Easter Weekend

I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend. I was in San Antonio to visit the family. We had a great weekend and church on Sunday was wonderful.

Jarrett (brother), Me, Ryan (brother-in-law), and Jenn (sister) after church on Sunday. We all match, which was not planned. The guys would NEVER go for that.

My Parents

My Niece, Daisy, posing as the Easter Bunny in her basket.

My Mom and I made a Bunny Cake on Saturday. My mom has been making this cake every Easter for as long as I can remember. It's so, so, easy!

~Bunny Cake Directions~

Use any flavor cake mix you like and bake in 2-8 or 9 inch pans as directed on the box.

After the cake has cooled, cut one cake into the following shapes. You can lightly trace the shapes onto the cake with the knife before cutting. This will prevent mistakes.

Use your cut shapes to form a bunny on a serving tray or platter.

Next ice the cake with vanilla or cream cheese icing. We made homemade butter cream icing but any basic icing recipe will work or store bought icing.

The fun part is decorating the bunny and being creative. We covered the bunny in coconut. Next we dyed a small amount of coconut for the ears and the bow. Our goal was to make the ears and bow pink but we added a little too much food coloring and we were out of coconut. The result was a hot pink (or a least that's what we're telling ourselves).



For the polka dots on the bow and the whiskers, we used rainbow colored Air Heads. We cut the polka dots and whiskers out with kitchen scissors. For the nose we used pink sprinkles and the eyes are chocolate candies we found in the pantry. This cake is so easy, much easier than the gingerbread house we made at Christmas.