We did it!

For many months I've been wanting to make these cupcake pops from Bakerella. With the rainy weekend we had, I knew this weekend would be the perfect time to try them. Hubs helped out and he deserves just as much credit for their success.

They are quite a bit of work, but well worth it!

I think they turned out cute, don't you?











We also made just a few regular cupcake bites and here's our pre-consumption cheers!



It definitely seemed like a two person job. I'm not sure how Bakerella does it by herself.

We will for sure make these again. In fact, I hope to be known for them within our family. Craig's Aunt Carol makes these awesomely decorated sugar cookies and everyone looks forward to holidays because they know they'll get to eat some of her cookies. Maybe as I practice making these cupcake bites and become good at them, they'll make me popular at family functions, too :)

 

It's a deal!

If you're addicted to organizing and sorting like I am, then chances are, you'll love this deal too!

At OfficeMax you can get a Brother label maker for $10! It originally retails for $40, but it's on sale for $10 right now. It is the exact labeler I use at work:



Here's the catch: it's a higher end machine and the tape for it is approx $25/roll. So depending on how much you plan on using a label maker, a $25 recurring expense could be cost-prohibitive (as it was for me).

HOWEVER- while looking at label makers, I found a Brother Home and Kitchen labeler for $20 and the replacement tape is only $11. Even though the actual label maker was twice the cost of the other Brother, the recurring costs will be much less; therefore, I went with the Kitchen and Home label maker:



This one really is made for Kitchen and Home as it has a Date/Time stamp. If you're someone that labels your food prior to storing it in the freezer, this feature would be helpful. Just click the date/time stamp then print and slap it on the container.

I haven't actually used the labeler yet, but will let you know when I do!

Blogging has taken a back seat lately....life remains busy for us. We've got family coming into town at the end of the week for Rebecca's Baptism, so Hubs and I have spent some time preparing the house for our guests. I'm SO excited that my Aunt Janet is coming out! My grandparents never made it out to see our house before they passed away, but with Aunt Janet coming, I feel like I would if they were coming. I want everything to be perfect!

Ben and Becca are coming over today since Jennie has to work (we have today off for President's day). Ben and Craig will play video games (mostly Mass Effect) and Becca and I will hang out together. She's the bestest goddaughter in the history of goddaughterness.

Welcome Home

He's left his camp!

Soldier has left his camp in Iraq!!!!

He's currently in Baghdad where he'll stay for a few days and then they'll catch a flight to Kuwait. From Kuwait, they'll fly the 16 hour route to Laguardia Airport in New York. From there, they'll catch another flight to Georgia.

If all goes as planned, they'll arrive in Georgia and we'll have their welcome home ceremony on Thursday night.

Pray for safe travels and a speedy trip HOME!

 

Soldier is coming home!

He should land on US soil sometime during the first few days of December!

We cannot wait for him to be home!!

 

It's what I do

A few things I'm working on:

1) Christmas Planning- it's coming along. I'm not as far along as I'd like to be, but I'm getting there. My primary goal at this point is to focus on the annual Christmas Card. I'm wondering what upcoming events we could take a picture at to use for the card. I'm pretty much done updating my address list. Throughout the year, I keep all of the "we've moved" emails in a folder in Outlook and as we approach the holidays, I match those emails against my Excel spreadsheet that has a tab for our Christmas List. It's actually the list we used for our wedding invites back in 2004 and each year I copy the spreadsheet into a new tab and update it. It's fun seeing how the list has evolved over the years. Nearly everyone from our wedding list is still on the Christmas Card list- but the Christmas list is much bigger than our wedding list. We've added names of friends we've made over the years (and, friends we've reconnected with...mainly Zein!)

2) Home Inventory. I've been wanting to do this for a while now and just this morning downloaded free software to inventory our household goods. Its software that you use to store information that would be extremely valuable if anything were to happen to your home (break in, fire, flood, tornado, etc). My goal is to inventory one room every few weeks. I photograph several angles of the room and then inventory the large or hard to replace items (electronics, pictures, etc). I don't worry about inventorying the little things (knickknacks and such). I inventoried most of the living room today. I just need to find receipts for the furniture and the big screen TV so I can scan those into the program.

3) Get-Rid. This time of year is perfecting for purging and getting rid of excess in the home. Hubs and I have clothing that we need to part with; No matter how delusional we are in thinking we can ever fit into them again, reality is, the clothing needs to go. And fast.

Those are what keep me busy right now. Of course, we're all preparing for the arrival of Jennie and Ben's little one who is scheduled to bless us sometime in the next 4 weeks. They had another baby shower last night that Ben's family hosted. My favorite part of the evening was sitting outside in the cold enjoying the fire pit and catching up with Ben's sisters. They're a great family.

Time to get the day started in the usual Sunday fashion- Sunday ads from the paper and a glass of milk.

 

The Pregnant One

Here are some pics of Jennie and Ben's Open House. She's due in 31 days!

The Preggers

Here's a picture of my sister. I think she's about 6 months pregnant. I lose track!

Cute, isn't she?!

Day in pictures

St. Louis Zoo 2008

Hubbs vs. Mary Kay

Today I laughed so hard I cried.

We were sitting in the living room watching TV when the doorbell rang. Hubs always answers the door and this time was no exception. He opened the door and I could hear him speaking with a female. After a couple of seconds, he leaned back into the house and said, "uh, honey, why don't you come here?"

I made my way over to the door and spoke with the Mary Kay lady who was roaming the neighborhood handing out her business card (I had actually met her many years ago at a MK party my sister held at my moms house). I thanked her for coming by, but let her know I already have a MK consultant.

I closed the door and headed back towards the living room. Hubs greeted me at the entrance to the room and said, "well, that was awkward."

"Oh. Really? Whys that?"

"Well, I opened the door, the lady smiled at me and said, 'Hi. Is your mom home?'"

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

She asked my husband if his mom was home!!! I haven't laughed that hard in many, many years!

I immediately called his mother to relate the story. I knew she'd get a kick out of it!