You're Busted

This morning my sister, Jenn, found this ad in USA Today. It is SO funny. The best part is Jenn sent the ad to my brother, who lives in Dallas, and titled the email "You're Busted."

Happy Weekend!

It's Fall Y'all & Happy Birthday

I don't usually decorate for the seasons. So sad. I don't have enough time for seasonal decorating and after the decorations come down, I have to store them. What a pain! :) However, this year I was inspired by Megan from In This Wonderful Life to decorate for fall. Basically, I completely copied Megan's idea of painting pumpkins and putting them on candle holders. I love the way they turned out and it was a cheap project. Thanks for the idea, Megan. Be sure to stop by Megan's blog. She always has great decorating and cooking ideas.





Today is Miss Nautical by Nature's Birthday! Happy Birthday, Kate. Be sure to stop by her blog and wish her a Happy Birthday and check out Kate's week of giveaways.

Lucky Me!

I’m so excited. I won a giveaway from my friend, Lexiloo at Tea and Crumpets. The giveaway was for a set of her favorite Penzeys Spices. I had never heard of Penzeys Spices until I entered her giveaway. For all my Houston and Dallas readers, Penzeys has a store in both cities. How did I not know about this when I lived in Houston?

This week I received the package of delicious spices from Tea and Crumpets. Not only did she send me Penzeys Spices, she included a few surprises. Thank you Tea and Crumpets! I can’t wait to try all the new spices.

Lexiloo also included a set of pot holders that she made herself! Aren't they cute? And~ she sent a cute set of recipe cards, cookies cutters, and seeds for flower planting.

Thank you so much!

Tonight I arrived home from ABQ. Oh yes, I just got home from Northern CA on Saturday evening. I’m tired. My sister is working in SAT this week. When I walked in the house at 8:30 PM, she had dinner ready. It was delicious. Even though it was later than I like to eat, it was much healthier and tastier than airport food. What a nice sister!

I’m so over airport food!

I’ve heard people say you can eat healthy while traveling. Sometimes I wonder how much these people actually travel. Yes, you can eat healthy but it is much harder than eating healthy at home.

Last week I was connecting at the Las Vegas airport from Sacramento. Packing a lunch was not an option because I was coming from a hotel. It was lunchtime and I was getting a little hungry. I picked up a sandwich at Wolfgang Puck Express. I chose the grilled chicken sandwich with pesto. I know the pesto is not super healthy but the sandwiches were pre-made so I couldn’t ask them to hold the pesto. I figured a little pesto wouldn’t be that bad and if the sandwich had too much pesto I could scrape it off. The grilled chicken sandwich and a diet coke rang up at $15.07. Yikes- good thing it was a work trip and my expense account was paying.

I found a place to sit and started opening the sandwich. I noticed a nutritional information sticker on the back. Most places in the airport don’t have the nutritional info listed, so I didn’t see it when I purchased the sandwich. The sandwich had 750 calories with 46 fat grams. OMG… I ate ¼ of it and threw the rest away.

Frustrating!

Really and Thank You

Really?

Thursday I traveled to Northern CA for work. On travel days, I usually don’t fly until noon or late afternoon. I spend the morning getting ready for the trip and doing paper work in my home office. I often turn on the Today Show and The View in the other room and listen to it in the background as I’m working.

Last Thursday the guest host on The View was Mrs. Spencer Pratt, Heidi Montag. Now y’all, brace yourselves for this one! Make sure you’re sitting down... Heidi said her and Spencer have been married for 4 months and they’re already having problems in their marriage. She is ready to have a baby and Spencer NEVER wants to have kids. Spencer was in the audience and said he has considered getting “fixed.” He also said he’s not that interested in having s*x with his wife right now because she might accidentally forget to take the pill and become pregnant.

Why don’t people discuss this stuff before they say "I Do?" Kids or no kids, adoption, working vs. not working, money, church, etc… I don’t get it!

Thank You, Thank You

I have received several blog awards over the last few months. Thank you so much to all these fabulous bloggers. Be sure to stop by their blogs and say Hello!

Thank you Mr. Jones and Me for the Honest Scrap Award

Thank you Kassie from The Girly Gallivanter for the You're a Gem Award

Thank you Suburban Princess for the Kreativ Blogger Award

Thank you Jules from Chic and Pink for the Dragon’s Loyalty Award

Company & Cake Balls

Last weekend my Houston friends, Lindsay, John and their daughter Caroline, visited me in San Anotnio. We had a nice, relaxing weekend. We thought about going to Sea World but my famous friend Leslie, who does the Shamu Show, was in Germany so we decided to wait until she’s working.

We went to the Riverwalk for a boat ride and dinner. We also shopped at a posh boutique (not on the Riverwalk). I purchase my first pair of Hanky Panky panties. I’ve heard so much about Hanky Panky and how comfortable they are. I was a little worried about the “one size fits all.” How is it possible for everyone’s butt to be comfortable in the same size panties? I don’t know how it works but I love them; I’m hooked.

Lindsay brought me this cute, vintage curtain holder. I love it! They also brought candied pecans~ very good and very dangerous.

Everyone that reads my blog knows how I feel about being outdoors. Since moving into the town house, I have to water the yard and plants. It's terrible. Caroline enjoys watering the grass and plants, so I decided to be nice and let her.

Since I had company for the weekend, I decided to try the famous Cake Ball Recipe that all my blogger friends are baking. The Cake Balls were a little time consuming but it was worth it. I had planned on decorating the Cake Balls but, as always, I didn’t have enough time. Next time I’ll get more creative.

If you’re not familiar with Cake Balls, here are the steps. As I was researching how to make Cake Balls, I found several variations in the steps.

Bake a Cake- Use any cake mix and bake according to package instructions. You can bake in round pans or a 9x13 pan, whatever you want.

Crumble the Cake- Some recipes say to crumble the cake while it’s warm and others said to crumble it after it has cooled. I waited for the cake to cool and crumbled it with two forks. As I was crumbling the cake with the forks, my arms started to hurt. I realized I should be working out and not baking.

Icing- Add a container of store bought icing. I know, store bought icing, gross… but it’s not bad in this recipe. Some online recipes said to add only ¾ of the icing, some said to add the entire container, some sites said to add the icing at room temperature, and others said to zap it in the microwave for 25 seconds. I added the entire container and zapped it in the microwave. Since my arms were sore from crumbling the cake, I thought if the icing were a little warm it might help with the blending process. Stir the icing into the cake mix until it is completely blended and you can no longer see the icing. I used a fork. As I was blending, I would mash the icing into the crumbled cake.

Roll- Roll the mixture into balls. Put the Cake Balls on a wax paper lined cookie sheet. I read it was helpful to use a tablespoon or cookie scoop when scooping and rolling the balls. I tried using a tablespoon and it was messy. I ended up using my hands; I thought it was easier and faster. I had to rinse my hands a few times during the process because they were too sticky.


Freeze- Freeze the Cake Balls for at least 30 minutes.

Dip- Using a double boiler or the microwave, melt “dipping” chocolate or candy. I bought the German Chocolate Bar on the baking aisle. Using a fork, gently dip the Cake Ball into the chocolate and set aside on wax paper.

Decorate and Package- You can decorate with sprinkles, white chocolate, icing, anything you want. I added a stick but you can also put each ball into a mini cupcake liner. The fun part is being creative. I packaged a few Cake Balls in clear bags and tied the bags with ribbon for my Pawpaw's birthday. If you make cake balls, let me know. I want to see your creations.

Odds~n~Ends

Girl's Night

Last week while I working in North Houston, I met up with Amy and Maria for a Girl’s Night. We met while working at Kodak and used to have Girl’s Nights once a month. Since I’ve moved to San Antonio, we haven’t had the chance to meet up. It was great to get together again and catch up. It was a night of good wine, good food, and good company… great combo!

Happy Birthday, Jarrett

Yesterday was my brother’s 30th birthday. I can’t believe he’s 30! Happy Birthday, Jarrett. Jarrett was the was the cutest baby boy I've ever seen. When I was in junior high and high school I used to carry his baby picture in my wallet.

Happy Birthday, Pawpaw

Today is my Pawpaw’s 87th birthday. My sister was in town for the afternoon and we took Pawpaw to lunch. We told him to pick any place he wanted to have lunch; Pawpaw picked Popeye's Fried Chicken. So funny… it was a greasy mess, my sis and I shared something, my stomach hurt after lunch but Pawpaw loved it! He asked for a DVD player for his birthday. I guess after 87 years of life and serving in World War II, everyone deserves a DVD player. :) My sister found some really cool vintage magazines from the 40's at an antique shop in Omaha, NE. He loved them!