Kreativ Blogger? Who, me?

What is it with these crazy people wanting to give me these blog awards? Don't they know I just write about random crap? Apparently random crap = creative blogging. Hell, I'll take it. So here is my Kreativ Blogger award. It's purposely misspelled so it's uber prestigious.

Kim at Little Rays of Sunshine has given me this award.  She has a super cute blog and is the mommy to a precious baby girl. 

Same rules as all of the other awards. Thank, share random interesting facts about yourself (this one requires 10 instead of the normal 7),  and pass on. 

So here we go. 10 interesting things? Yowzas. 

Cute, right? I would name him Bill.

1. I really want to own a donkey. I think they're uh-dor-able! We have a lot of farms around here, and there are always donkeys in with the cows. I looked it up one day, and apparently the donkeys protect the cows from predators. There is a cute donkey at one farm around here, I keep telling hubby that I'm going to stick it in my pocket one day and bring it home. Think of all the time it'll save him from having to mow the lawn. I keep using that as part of my argument, but hubby isn't going for it. Apparently our backyard is too small, blah blah blah.

2. I have the coolest parrot in existence. His name is Jack, and he's an eclectus parrot. He says a lot of words. Hello, Come here, step up, hey what are you doing, No no bad bird. Things like that. One of is favorite things is to take a shower, he'll stretch out his wings, flap, squawk, etc. He looks horrible in this pic. I normally do a very conservative wing clip (just take off the first 3 or 4 flight feathers) but I had the vet do it when he trimmed his nails. And the vet clipped off ALL of his flight feathers. All his pretty blue feathers, on the floor. I was pretty upset.

3. I just realized that I had no damn clue how to spell "squawk". Tried 4 or 5 different ways, and had to google it. Kept putting the q and the w in the wrong places. 

4. Law & Order SVU is one of my favorite shows. Besides Olivia and Eliott, my favorite characters are Agent Wong, Fin and Munch.

5. I bruise super easily. Most of the time, I don't even know where I got my bruises from. Two nights ago, I was drying off after the shower, and brought my arm down and hit the back of my arm on the shower door handle. And yup, the back of my arm has a huge black and blue mark on it. I think someone said I'm supposed to eat more bananas?

6. My favorite cereal is Basic 4. I heart it. And Walmart doesn't carry it, so I'll make a special trip to the grocery store just to buy it. And I'm a mean mommy and won't share it with my kids. A small box of it is like $5. Mommy is stingy. Here's a bowl of generic lucky charms. Eat up.

7. Coming up with 10 interesting things is really freaking hard. I've already done 3 posts before with seven interesting things. Apparently I'm only about 27 facts worth of interesting. 

8. I love playing Words with Friends on my phone. Wanna play me? My user name is jenfur427

9. I was not even kinda interested in the Royal Wedding. Hell, I only knew it happened today because of all the updates on facebook. I guess I'm missing the Fairy Tale gene or something. 

10. We went to Discovery Cove on our honeymoon. I've been wanting to do it for FOREVER. Hubby sprung for the Trainer for the Day program, which was awesome. Extra time in the water with the dolphins, behind the scenes tour, we were able to pet other animals not on the program (nurse shark, sloth, owl, etc)

Okay, so here is the part where I'm supposed to spread the blog love. Here are my picks in no particular order. 

Lesley at So Fabulously Flawed

Kristen at Who's Watching the Baby

Erin at Life in the Dub Lane

Julie at It's Sew Stinking Cute
Janice at Whimsy-Ma-Blog

Megan at Miss Madison's Charmed Life

Go check them out, I heart these ladies. Do it. Doooo eeetttttt.

I Spy: Jewelry and shoes edition

I'm hooking up with Ashley over at LMM for her new series, I Spy. 

Today's theme? Jewelry and shoes. 

I'm a shoe whore. Admittedly. I love them. Sparkly, strappy, platform, heels, wedges, boots, name brand, non name brand, I heart them all. This was originally my husband's DVD shelf, but I made asked him to move them so I could have more room for shoes. Sadly, this isn't even all of my shoes, I have 6 or 7 more pairs in the hallway closet. 

Can you see how much I love boots? I heart me some knee high boots. You know how you can buy those boot inserts so they stand up? Seriously, save your money. Shove some of those trashy celebrity gossip magazines National Geographic magazines that you've already read in them. Roll up, insert. Easy peasy, Japanesy.

Ashley posted an individual pic of all of her shoes, but considering that I'm clocking in at over 70 pairs, I don't have the time or energy (nor do I think you'd have the patience) for that. So I'm sharing my top favorite 5 pairs (not including the Old Navy flip flops that I buy every year in practically every color)

I heart this pair. Got them from Shoedazzle.

I got these from Kohls, the brand is Candies. Ridiculously uncomfortable, but I don't care. The more uncomfortable they are, they cuter you look, right?

This pair, I just got. They are Carlos by Carlos Santana. Got them from CSN (even though I hate CSN) thanks to a giveaway I won.

Another pair of Candies. I heart wedges. I just notice that I say I heart stuff a lot.

And one of my favorite pairs of boots. Got these bad boys off of ebay.

I don't wear a ton of jewelry. I have my ears pierced I think ten times in all sorts of weird places, I figure that's enough jewelry. I love long necklaces, but haven't worn them lately cause of a certain grabby 8 month old. I really should go thru my earrings and get rid of some. I mean, am I really going to wear cherry print plastic circle earrings? Prolly not, I mean, I'm not 15.

The jewelry I always wear? My wedding ring set.

Do sunglasses count as jewelry? Probably not. They're both accessories, so in my part of Blogland, they count. While I don't care if my shoes are designer (hell, I'll rock a pair of $15 shoes from Forever 21), I do love designer shades. Versace, Coach, D&G, Christian Dior, oh be still my beating heart! The three pairs of Oakleys in the upper left are hubby's, the rest are mine. I heart them. I really need to find a better place for them though, they get dusty sitting on the shelf. Makes me sad. 

My favorite pair are these Versaces. But the lens on them is pretty light, so I don't wear these when it's really sunny out.

My other favorite go to pair are these. I feel like a rock star in these. Minus the whole, baby fingerprints on the lens thang.

And my last favorite? My pimp shades. Gold Oakleys, baby.

Mommies aren't allowed to get sick.

I'm alive. Somewhat. Sore throat, slight fever. And I have a cough that is trying to kill me, one ab aching spasm at a time. Normally if I get sick, it's a 24 hour thang, and it's over and done with. This has been going on for a week. That, combined with the dental work (4 crowns) I had last Wednesday, and I think my body is just trying to heal too many things at once. 

One of my temporary crowns came loose on Saturday night. Hubby went to the store and got me some denture cream until I was seen this morning to reattach it. So I was then dealing with tooth sensitivity to temperature. Seriously, in tears. It hurt so bad to eat or drink anything that wasn't the exact same temperature as my mouth. I had it reattached this morning, and my pain meds refilled, so I'm doing somewhat better. As long as I take a pill every 4 hours on the dot, I'm good. Anything more than that, and yowzas. Ended up taking a 3 hour nap yesterday, just to sleep off some of the pain. Thankfully my hubby put the parrot in the backyard so the sound of "Hello! Come here!" wouldn't wake me up, and the girls were all quiet too. It was just hard, that morning. It's Easter, you want to be excited for your kids, and run around with them and be silly and hunt for eggs. But if you've ever had a tooth ache, you know how it just totally consumes anything that you try to do. It's like it doesn't want your attention on anything else. Geez, selfish. 

I'm in such a funk today. Usually if I'm feeling blah like this, I try and go for a jog. Clear my mind, listen to some music. But with the toothache, sickness, and weather, it's not really working in my favor. 

We have family pictures scheduled for the end of May with one of my favorite photographers. I'm basing our outfits around a dress I got for Ava from Old Navy. Adorable, right? 

I ordered two dresses for myself off of Ebay. Got them both in today. Completely convinced that I look three months pregnant in one dress, and my boobs are falling out of the other dress. And last I checked, cleavage and boobage aren't appropriate in family pictures. So now I think I just wasted $50. I'm sure my mood isn't helping. I'm going to think on it for a day or two. If I still hate how I look in them, be prepared to see a post about how to jazz up a plain tank top. I'd normally just stick some fabric flowers on one side of the neckline, but I'm doing that for my middle daughters shirt. I want to be cohesive in the pics, not matchy matchy, ya know? 

So thank you, dear friends, for letting me check in and vent. Hubby is making dinner right now, and I have a feeling that an early bedtime is in my future tonight. Stayed up until midnight last night catching up on old episodes of Parenthood. That 3 hour nap threw off my bedtime.

Send some happy, feel better, no toothache vibes my way, wouldja? I'm usually such a positive person, I hate feeling so blah.

Joining the Cool Kids, my first link party

Have you ever seen that movie, The Story of Us? If you have, you either love it or hate it. Basically, Ben (Bruce Willis) and Katie (Michelle Pfeiffer) are married and trying to decide if they should end it or not. But kids, and their past together makes it a harder decision than just yes or no.

One part of the movie that I love is the dinner scene. No, not the tense, awkwardness of it, but the game that they play. They play a game called "Highs and Lows". Basically, you share the highs and lows of your day. We play it around our dinner table when we remember  most nights.

I thought it'd be a fun link party. Not daily, but a weekly thing. I'm going to do it on Saturdays, but wanted to give this one an extra day since it's new. I'll close it out on Sunday nights. I even made hubby put his freelance on hold so he could make me a shiny new button. Wives take priority over paying clients, right?

So your week is Sunday thru Saturday, think back and share your highs and lows. I know there are similar parties out there, but this one doesn't have to be what's awesome or not to you personally. Your hubby got a new job? Share it. Your kid made a home run? Share that too! Lost your favorite irreplaceable lipstick? Vent it, sista.

I hope you'll play along! It'll make me cry if you don't. Seriously. I hope I set up the link thing right, eek. I even made the button easy to grab fer ya.

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Highs

• We celebrated our three year anniversary on Tuesday. Hubby surprised me with a horse drawn carriage and dinner at my favorite restaurant. 
• Hubby bought us a Wii. Awesomeness.
• My momma's birthday was yesterday. Today I'm taking her to lunch at Joe's Crab Shack and going shopping. I heart my mom and love that she lives so close.
• Except for attaching the permanent crowns in two weeks, my teeth are finished! 9 crowns total.
• Hubby got the call that his car is almost finished. We've been a single car family for 8 or 9 months. His car's computer went out, and since we're getting the work done at a discount thanks to the church, it's the lowest priority. 
• I've had a great time going shopping. We're doing family photos in a few weeks, which means new clothes! Got Ava's dress, Arielle's shirt, my dress... Jake already has a shirt to wear, and I'm picking up Jasmin's shirt today. Just need to make the hair accessories.
• My mom came over on Wednesday to watch the girls during my dental torture appointment, and brought me a huge box of vintage buttons. Any crafter knows how awesome that is. It's pretty cool to see the price of ten cents on a pack of buttons. Some of the packaging is so pretty. 

Lows

• Dental work made my TMJ hurt pretty bad. Trying to avoid taking vicodin.
• I'm dealing with a cold right now. Coughing, stuffy head, sore throat. Booooooo.
• I cannot find the jumbo pack of glue sticks I have, anywhere in the house. Which means all of my crafting has been put on hold for the past couple of days. And being a one car family means that I haven't been able to make it to the store, until today. I might buy three bags and place them in different places around the house, just so this doesn't happen again.

I hope you'll play along! Seriously, do it. Doooo iiittttttt. Please?

Drilling and buttons and Wii's, Oh My.

Today is DDDRRRAAAAGGGGIIINNNNNGGGGG. I was held hostage in the dentists chair yesterday. Again. It was for my top teeth this time, four crowns. Ugh. I know, you think I brush my teeth with sugar right? Nope, I actually brush my teeth a lot, just are prone to cavities. Lamesauce. But that means in two weeks after my permanent crowns are on, I'll be ALL DONE with dental appts (besides regular cleanings). But with my stupid teeth, I'm sure they'll throw a kink in those plans. 

I did the conscious sedation again. Two pills a half hour before the appt, hubby drives me to the appt, I take another pill under my tongue, and bing bang boom, I don't remember anything except waking up at home. My appt was at 8, I was done at 11, and came home and slept until 4. My teeth and jaw are pretty sore (I have a pretty decent case of TMJ, ya know, where your jaw pops, clicks, locks open, etc). So dental appts always leave me pretty sore. I have vicodin, but I'm not a fan of taking meds unless I have to. But I cannot complain. I'm thankful that we can afford to fix my teeth. 

But with that extra long nap yesterday, I didn't go to bed until 2am. And then woke up at 6am. I fully expect to crash here at any moment. 

On top of that, I'm fighting a cold or something. It started on Sunday night, (thank goodness) after our anniversary celebration. Hubby told me he was setting it all up, and I was to know nothing. He arranged for my mom to watch the girls, and we drove to downtown Dallas. He parks, hops out of the car, and walks off down the street. Ten minutes later, still no hubby. I finally see this coming down the street. 

Yuppers! Hubby set up a horse and carriage ride for us. An hour long ride, around Dallas, showing up all the historic sights. I've lived in Dallas off and on since '89 and I've never done the carriage ride. Nor did I know we had so much historic stuff down there. 

Then we went to Three Forks for dinner, one of my favorite restaurants. Dinner for two will run ya about $130, before tip. Which is why we eat there only on special occasions. We had agreed on no presents, but yesterday, this shows up on my front porch. 

I've wanted one for forever! When I asked hubby about our no presents deal, he tells me it's a "I love you, you're cool" present. Nerd. I heart my hubby. 

I should be working on some crafts. Making some headbands for one of my favorite photographers. She's doing our family pictures in May, and I'm SO excited.  But currently ALL of the glue sticks in my house are in hiding. This is why I tell my husband that I don't clean/organize. Used to be that I could find at LEAST two glue sticks in every junk drawer/craft box/random dark corner. But then I had to get all "I'm going to be super duper organized!" and put them all in a zip lock bag, and then I hid said zip lock bag, and now I can't find it anywhere. Spent half an hour looking for it, and nada. It would probably help if my craft cabinet didn't look like this. 

Yeah, I know, don't judge me. I've attempted to organize this. Even bought a bunch of little boxes and such. But those boxes sit empty and mocking me, and I can't still can't find those damn glue sticks. Oh, and see that sparkly bag in the white basket on the right. A bag of 10,000 iron on rhinestones. And I have two bags, one silver, one iridescent. My aunt in Korea sent me those. Awesomeness. I've used them here and there, I love having those on hand and not having to spend $5 on a small pouch of them at a craft store. They're perfect for jazzing up those cheap blah boring shirts I get on clearance. 

So, with me being sick, I had to put my workout on hold. I wanted to try that Couch to 5K program. You know, the program to help non-runners be able to run 5k in 9 weeks. I SUCK at running. I have this big ugly knee brace for my wonky left knee. And I used to get stress fractures back in tech school when I had to run, and the places on my shins where they were at start to throb after a bit. But I'm determined to be able to run more than 45 seconds without feeling like I'm going to puke or die. But again, thankful that I have the ability to run. Always a bright side, right? 

Waiting on hubby to finish up my button, I'm going to join the cool kids and do a link party. Not the kind where you link up crafts, but a different kind. I've told a few of my bloggy besties about it, swearing them to participate. I hope you will too! 

Fingers and toes crossed that I feel better tomorrow. Unless those cancel each other out. Then just one of them.

Happy Anniversary to.... me!

Three years ago today, I married the man of my dreams.

The man I've loved for the past four and a half years. The man who put me before his family, his job, everything. Packed up and moved 700 miles, leaving everyone and everything he knew, just to be with me.

The man who loves my children, never calling them his "step-daughters". Always accepting them as his own.

The man who's been the type of daddy that my girls deserve.

The man who's always been my shoulder to lean on.

The man who always makes me laugh, no matter what life throws my way.

The man who helped me through the hardest time in my life, those long months in the NICU. He showed me that I could be stronger than I ever imagined.

The man who makes me fall in love with him all over again, every time I see him with our baby.

The man who makes my life complete.

Happy Anniversary, bebe! Don't know what I would do without you. Looking forward to so many more years!

Art Majors: The Hidden Treasure

You know what's the best part about being married to an art major (besides the uber sexiness)? He usually has awesome craft supplies. And for me, being a crafter, that totally rocks.

So the father in law (Hiya Steve) came down last weekend. And he decided to bring along most of hubby's crap memories that had accumulated from his childhood thru college years. Old medals, comic books, more baseball cards than you can imagine. 

So we were digging thru the boxes tonight, and guess what I came across? Take a guess. Think of something that is epically....

Yes, you guessed right. He had a TON of metal stamp sets. All sorts of different fonts. And yes, I totally shrieked like a little girl when I found the bag. And the best part? Hubby got them all for FREE. One of his graphic designer college professors brought in a huge box of them and told the students that they could take what they wanted. And hubby, being physic and somehow knowing that his future wife would love these, went and took a bunch of them. He was the only one to take any home. These kids are crazy, they didn't know what they were missing. Hell, I would have been throwing some elbows to get to these bad boys.

So today I'll be going through the bag, separating all of these by letter. That totally takes priority over cleaning, right? 

He's not sure if he has complete sets of fonts, but I don't care. I tend to like random things anyway. Now I just need to find something to stamp. 

Oversized food rocks my socks

So, I attempted made a cake for hubby's birthday on Tuesday. The Dr Pepper can is stuck there for reference.

I didn't plan on doing a tutorial. Hell, I was more than mildly surprised when it actually resembled a hamburger. But a nice reader decided to humor me and ask me for a tutorial. 

I don't pretend to be the Grand Poobah of cake making/decorating. I did a ton of research online, seeing what worked (and what didn't). So here is my mock tutorial and tips. 

I used an 8 inch pan for both the patty and the bun. Some people online used an oven safe domed bowl for the top bun, but I didn't like how round it looked. 

The bun is made of yellow box cake mix. Some people use two boxes, one for the top bun, one for the bottom. I used one, and sliced it in half. Just scored a line around the edges, and then started cutting through. 

The patty is made of chocolate box cake mix. When it was finished in the oven and it had cooled, there was a slight dome on the top. I chose not to shave that off, so more of the "toppings" would be shown. I read about some people using brownie mix to make the middle, but there were a lot of complaints about it not being moist enough. 

One lady used red velvet cake mix, so when the cake was sliced, it looked more like "meat". But, as much as I love my steaks medium rare, undercooked hamburger meat is the last thing I want to think of before I eat a cake.

The "ketchup" and "mustard" are just white frosting tinted with food coloring, and the "shredded lettuce" is just flaked coconut tinted with green food coloring. I just threw it in a ziplock bag and kneaded the bag to mix it up. Same with the ketchup and mustard. Frosting in a bag + food coloring + kneading. Then on those two, I just snipped the corner off of the bag and drizzled it on. 

The cheese? Just orange airhead candy, cut into triangles. I didn't put it all the way across, just stuck the triangles around the edges. Looked like melted cheddar. 

Frosting the patty was pretty easy, just chocolate frosting. Slather it on. Done. Some ladies online added crushed up dark cookies (like oreos without the frosting) to the edge that shows, for more of a char broiled look.

For the bun, I would have loved for it to be more "bun" colored, but hey, what can you do. I got a can of cream colored frosting, and added drops of red, yellow and green until it was close to what I want. Remember it's always easier to add more. I probably should have added another drop of red and yellow, but hey, what can you do. A lot of women said that if you can get the Wilton "Dora the Explorer" cake coloring kit, that the "skin tone" is a perfect color for a bun. After it was frosted, I added some chopped up nuts to the top for a "sesame seed" look.

Now, if you're a cake pro, and you like the look of fondant, you can use that of course. The cakes that you see online that are totally smooth and gorgeous and fabulous are done with fondant. However, we don't care much for the taste of it. Plus, I didn't want to spring for the supplies. No sense in paying for a bunch of supplies I'll never use again. I'm cheap smart like that.

Oh, and did you notice the paper it's on? Hubby's favorite fast food joint is Penn Station, but we don't have those in Texas. So I had my father in law swing by there and ask for some wrappers. Then just taped those around a thick piece of cardboard. Technically Penn Station is a sub shop, but hey, it's the thought that counts. And I totally scored "My wife ROCKS!" points.

Breaking News: World's Sexiest Man turns 28

So my super amazing hubby turned the big 2-8 yesterday. We kept it pretty low key. My father in law came into town from St Louis to help us celebrate.

You all know we love UFC in this household. He's even wearing a Lyoto Machida shirt in this pic. He got three new MMA figures. Wanderlei Silva (the Pride and the Limited Edition) and Lyoto Machida (the Limited Edition). And some new shirts.

This is the cake I made. And surprisingly it even ended up looking somewhat like a hamburger. And it was yummy and so far no one has gotten food poisoning.

Happy Birthday to my Bebe!

Our weekend jaunt to San Antonio

My father in law came down to visit for hubby's birthday (Mr. Life Crafts and Whatever is the big 2-8 today). We packed up the heathens and drove down to San Antonio for the weekend. 

Miss Avers did pretty good on the 5 hour drive. Not bad for an 8 month old. Here she is, just chillaxing.

Here is a pic of hubby and myself in front of the Alamo. Not too shabby for a self portrait, huh?

And a pic of my older girls.

I didn't notice it until I got home and was looking at the pic, but hubby and his dad matched their clothes unintentionally. Just flip flopped.

We did a LOT of walking around. Sucks that my pedometer wasn't working right so I wasn't able to see how many steps I took. Lamesauce.

We took the girls to the RainForest Cafe. Pretty cool. Food was whatever, but you definitely pay for the atmosphere.

We hit up Ripley's Believe it or Not and the wax museum....

where I totally tried to make out with Johnny Depp....

and I tried to avoid getting run over by the Beverly Hillbillies.