Love it

This will be in Rylee's room soon.



The wall art, not the chair.

Her room is actually that same color, what a coincidence.

Magic Time Machine

Why on earth are there (so far) SEVEN defective diapers in the box I have open right now?

SEVEN

SEVEN!

I just can't even comprehend how that could happen.

I mean, diapers are expensive and my kid can't wear the generic kind. We've tried, believe me. That resulted in giant welps on her tush which I can tell you, she did not appreciate.

I called Pampers to complain and I'm getting some coupons.

Big. Freaking. Deal.

Normally I would have made more of a fuss about it but I'm just so exhausted and stressed from the house stuff that I didn't even have the strength to yell at someone.

there's some weird stuff going on around here

I put the cabinets we just tore out of the house up on craigslist today - apparently I listed them at too low of a price (according to rodney) because I literally got my first email about them not even two minutes after I listed them. They haven't stopped since then. I've responded to 30 or more people to tell them they are gone.

Today for lunch I made Rylee and I some delicious homemade macaroni and cheese. She gobbled it right up. We've been having to eat quickly and easily the last two weeks because we've been at the other house every day and night. I plan on making us a big meal tomorrow night because we could all use it.

I've taken a lot of pictures of the girl lately and no chance to post them. I will, very soon.

I can't believe I'm to plan a party for a 2 year old soon. I'm excited because I love to throw parties and I love to cook but the thought of my daughter turning two in November is tortuous to me. It is nice that she tells me she loves me every 5 minutes though.

And the black and white party is coming.

Paint Shmaint

I seriously, seriously don't ever want to see a paint brush again.

Unfortunately for me, that's not an option for at least a few more days.

We got a lot done this weekend and that's a really good thing. I was getting really nervous about all of the work ahead of us.

Friday night the power finally got turned on around 10pm. Earlier that evening we had a visit from the Gruver-Hoovers. They came barring gifts. My super awesome best friend and her hubby brought us some really nice stuff. They brought Rylee a really cool sandbox! YES, a sandbox! It's pretty sweet, has a canopy and a cover for the sand. They got Rodney a universal remote for the fan in our new bedroom, which is REALLY, REALLY great. I got a cool mop which Jessica calls "fancy swiffer." It's a broom, mop, hardwood mop and she gave me all of the solutions that go with it. She also gave me some awesome party invitations for the black and white party I plan on having ;)

We went to the house shortly after and everyone had a look around. Amy came with us and after J&J left we started painting. We stayed until 2 and came home to work on the baby shower cake. Somehow we managed to be up until 4:30 working on that cake.

Got up earlyearly Saturday morning, delivered the cake (after a pit stop for coffee) and came back to start working on the house. We painted all day! Rylee and I finally left around 1 am. I fell asleep after showering and woke up at 5am to an empty bed next to me. I freaked a little and got up to find my husband snoozing on the couch. I poked him and found out he'd only been home for 10 minutes. Such a hard worker!

Today we were able to pick up the chair rail for Rylee's room from Lowe's and start working again. All of the painting is done save the kitchen and one wall in the hall bathroom. (the red in that bathroom needs THREE coats) All of the cabinets are out of the kitchen except for the sink and the cabinets under that. (need the sink until the kitchen is painted which will happen tomorrow) I have to do trim and ceiling touch ups and that's all of the painting left!!

Hopefully we'll be able to get a bunch of the cabinets put together this week. When Rylee and I go during the week, I'll do touch ups and start moving stuff over.

I can't wait to be done!

And I REALLY can't wait to do my before and after pictures!

Rylee broke her favorite Baby Einstein video today. :(

There's a green one and a pink one...

Oh. My. Gosh.

Things have been super crazy around here the last couple of days.

Monday and Tuesday Rylee and I were over at the house painting. Well, I painted. She watched Shrek 500 times. It's exhausting. I think I worked both of us into sickness. We were both feeling pretty run down by Tuesday afternoon, she had a bit of a fever.

The hardest part about it is having to load all of our stuff (food, snacks,water, my laptop, movies, ipod's, blankets, pillows, toys) and take it over there. We go over there early in the morning, work through lunch, come back here for naptime and then head back over. So I load and unload 4-6 times a day. It's a lot. It may not seem like a lot, but it is. Then we stay over there until it's pretty late and come back.

In the midst of all of this, there are 3 orders this week. Two of which got moved up to Thursday instead of Friday. So I'm baking cakes and pies in between all of the back and forth to the house. Wednesday we went over to find that they had finally turned the electricity off. We called the energy company to get it turned on in our name and they said they could do it the next day for a $100 rush fee or Friday (today) for free. We opted for free. So Wednesday and Thursday we didn't go over. I hate that we lost two days but I'm kind of glad because it gave me some time to work on the cakes and rest up a bit.

Would you believe that I went to be between 10:30 and 11 almost every night this week? If you know me, that's pure insanity.

Last night I was browsing the net when I decided to check West Elm's site to make sure they still had the branch shelf I've been coveting for 4 or 5 months now. I've checked the site every week to see that they still have it - I checked last night and it was GONE. I nearly started crying. Rodney assured me that he would find me one and that we would call in the morning. When I told him there were only two locations in Texas (one being in Dallas and the other in Houston) he said that we'd find one no matter what.

This morning around 10, I realized that I needed to call and see if they had any.

West Elm Lady: Thank you for calling West Elm in Mockingbird Station, how can I help you?
Me: Yes, I was just calling to see if you guys had any of the branch shelves left in stock?
West Elm Lady: Yes, we have a few left.
Me: you do? okay, great. do you have 2 or 3 left? I'm going to have my husband run over and get one, I just want to make sure you have one for him.
West Elm Lady: Yeah, we have 4. Is your husband's name Rodney?
Me: ummmmmm, yessssssssss.
West Elm Lady: I figured when you said you were going to have your husband come and get one. He called earlier this morning and put one on hold. He said he'd be coming to get it soon.
Me: aww, isn't that nice? I had no idea he was going to call you guys!

So after I hung up with the West Elm lady, I called Rodney. I told him he was really sweet and he said that I ruined the surprise by being myself. (apparently I can't let him just take care of things)

It was really nice of him, I have a good husband.

So I own this now. It will look nice on my freshly painted smokey gray wall.



I hope the power is turned on soon. I need to get some work done. I checked a couple of hours ago and it wasn't on yet.

Home Sweet Home

We got our house.

YAY!

We own a home!

Not without drama, of course. Are all closings like this? Does everyone sit biting their nails, sceaming at their lenders, praying that things will go through?

I have to say, going into the title company was very nice. There were fresh cookies, coffee and a fridge that had every drink known to man stocked in it. They kept asking us if we needed anything. I felt special.

Friday night we went and bought a new garbage disposal and we also grabbed our new microhood. I'm pretty excited about the microwave, it matches my super gorgeous refrigerator.

You can view it here:

http://www.frigidaire.com/products/cooking/microwaves/over-the-range/prod_PLMV169DC.asp

Happy about that purchase.

Saturday we got up early and went to get our refrigerator out of my in-law's garage. We did that, met our new neighbor, stopped by home depot to buy new locks for the house and some painters tape/supplies, and then started taping things off in the living room. I did all of the edging in that room. The paint is a little lighter than I'd hoped. I tried to pick a color that wasn't too dark but I think I might have gone too light. I don't know, maybe it's just that there is still green on the walls (previous owners) and the grey looks light in comparison.

Today we got up early (again) and headed out to Ikea. We purchased our kitchen upstairs in the kitchen design area and had an hour or so (while it was being pulled) to shop for some other things. Did you know that Ikea gives you 1% back on purchases that you make with a debit card? We didn't know either! Came in super handy today though!

I bought a lot of stuff today - things including plates for my plate rack, some bowls, card boxes, a few hurricanes, a red vase, some candlesticks, 4 dining chairs, magazine boxes, a big shelf for the kitchen, shelves for one of the bathrooms, a few hand towels and a few other things I'm not remembering right now. Oh! We bought a flush mount and a 4-spot for the kitchen (lighting).

When we went over to the pick up area, we were told there were 5 carts full of boxes for us. It literally took over an hour and a half to pack the truck. It was crazy. I didn't think we were going to fit it all in the truck. We were packed to the brim in the cab too. This is an 8 foot bed we're talking about.

We made it back to our house, Richie came over with Miles and he helped Rodney unload everything while Miles and I played for a little bit.

We got the middle room taped off and I worked on getting that room edged while Rodney tried to figure out the paint sprayer thingie. It didn't work out so well.

I missed Rylee a lot today.

I got a little overwhelmed after we got the truck packed. We have a lot to do. The painting alone is pretty tough. If the wide shot sprayer starts working a little better, things will go faster. We could also use the electric roller that Rodney's dad has. The only problem with both of those is how hard they are to clean. I guess that's the price you pay if you want something done fast though. Tomorrow Rylee and I are going over to vaccum (new carpet is spreading fuzz balls all over the hardwoods and throughout the house) and I'm going to roll the rest of the living room by myself. I should be able to get it done.

Things are kind of weird right now. I've had to put a lot of things into perspective and I'm really not sure where that leaves me. I realized today that Rodney and I are pretty much on our own with this stuff. Most people we would ask for help just don't care. It really bothers me because we try really hard to help people when they ask us and even more often when they don't. Rodney offers to help people constantly and I know I'm always volunteering him/us for something. I'm not complaining, I'm just a little sad. I understand that people are busy and have things to do, I really do.

Anyway, I just realized today that we have a lot of work ahead of us. We make a good team though, so I'm pretty sure we'll get it all done.

That was my rant and I'm done complaining. Complaining is stupid and I have a lot to be happy/thankful for.

So back to what I was saying about Rylee. I really missed her today. I missed her as a mother and I missed her as a friend. That might sound weird but you have to understand, I spend my entire day, every day with her. She listens to me talk, she sees me cry, we have breakfast, lunch and dinner together.

When we walked into Rodney's parents house this evening, her face lit up so brightly. She jumped off the couch and said, "MOMMY!!!!!" "DADDY!!!!!!" "HIIIII GUUUUYYYSSSS!!!!!" Then she ran and jumped up into my arms and gave me a huge hug. She kissed me and squeezed my neck. Then she reached over and grabbed Rodney with her other neck and squeezed us both really tightly. She kept kissing each of our cheeks. I started talking to her, asking her if she'd had a good day - she interrupted me and said, "Go home?" It was very cute. I love that girl.

Yay for our new house! I'll be sure to post lots of before and after pictures! Hopefully I will get at least one room painted completely this week. I have 3 orders so we'll have to see what I can do!

Marriage Meme

I've been tagged, so I'll oblige. Superman Returns is on and we're both burried behind our laptops, so it's a good time.

Where did you meet your husband?

I met Rodney at a little club in Denton called Rubbergloves. My friend Angela was in town from Oklahoma and we were driving to Louisianna the next day to check out the dude I was sort seeing/crushing on play in his band. Rodney plays drums for Man Before Mars and Angela wanted to check them out because his brother (Richie) and the lead singer are in another band that we saw frequently. I knew everyone else in that band/circle for a long time but had never even seen Rodney until that night. After the show my friend Angela told Rodney that it would be really funny to call me a "Doosu whore." (doosu is a band that I used to do merch for/love) When he did, I looked at him like I was REALLY mad. I told him in the most stern voice, "that was a REALLY rude thing to say. you're a jerk." He looked shocked! Angela stood behind him laughing and I stood firm. He started backtracking and telling me that it wasn't a bad thing - he explained that he is a "candy whore" and I should take no offense to it. I broke into laughter and told him it was a joke. After that, I helped him load some stuff and I couldn't help but notice how incredibly cute he was. Soon after we started emailing and eventually hanging out!




What was the first thing you said to your husband?

I think I touched on that a bit in the first question, but before he called me a "doosu whore," I introduced myself.

Where was the first kiss? First date?

Our first kiss was in the bedroom of my apartment on Gaston. There was a bit of secrecy going on in our relationship - my friend kind of liked him, his friends didn't want him seeing anyone because he was going through a divorce. (yes a divorce. they'd been seperated for 6 months) We both ditched a show we were supposed to go to and stayed in. It was raining very heavily that night and hailing even. We had some candles lit and some music on. We'd been talking and hanging out for over a month and our first kiss happened! It was lovely. I don't really know what our first date was - we went to a movie once in the beginning if you can count that. Kill Bill vol. 2! I paid!

Did you have a long courtship?

I suppose not. We'd been dating for a year when we found out we were going to be parents. We'd known since the beginning that we wanted to be together for the rest of our lives and this was just something that confirmed it even more!

Where did you get engaged?

I knew Rodney was doing some ring shopping. We'd talked about marriage and deciding if it was the right thing for us to do as a couple. We'd looked at some rings and I found one that I really liked. Rodney set himself up with an indepedant jeweler who helped him customize my ring. He designed it based on the ring I liked but made his own changes based on what he wanted for me. One night we went to the store to get some discount tickets for some event we were going to that weekend and I said I wanted to get some ice cream. Rodney insisted that I not get any ice cream. I asked him why he didn't want me to get any and he said he would take me somewhere to get some. (I was 2 months preggers at the time). We drove into the very old, very beautiful Highland Park area of Dallas. Rodney pulled up to my most favorite house in the entire world. The house I used to drive him by every other day because I loved it so much. It's incredibly old and just...beautiful. He told me something was wrong with his tire and got out to check on it. I looked in the side view mirror and could see him coming up along the side of the truck. He opened my door and got down on one knee -- there he said a bunch of wonderful and romantic things. Private things that only he and I share. He did ask me to marry him though and as we were both crying, I accepted.

Where did you get married?

We decided to have a very small, family only wedding in my parents backyard. We didn't want to spend a lot of money or time on a wedding when the most important thing in our lives was going to happen a few months later. Jess was my right arm during that time, making sure we got everything done from the flowers to the music. 16 people were in attendance that day. Four were close friends. My flowers were beautiful, white callas and pink orchids. I walked down the aisle to "Oh My Love" by John Lennon, we wrote our own very personal vows and were married near sunset.

Flowers! (they didn't have the green tissue paper around them when I carried them)



Handsome man!



Pretty candles!



How did the reception go?

We didn't have one, really! We had a big dinner afterwards at Blue Mesa Grill, complete with wedding cake but that was it and it was fine with me!





How was the honeymoon?

We didn't have a honeymoon persay. We stayed three nights at Zaza
and did fun things during the time were there. Rodney ordered me an in-room massage, we ate at lots of fancy restaurants, took bubble baths and had room service every day! A year later we went on a trip to Playa Del Carmen, it was sort of a belated honeymoon!





Mine is totally boring compared to some, but it's mine, I wouldn't have it any other way!

Help, I need somebody

To get me out of this state!

(this is me being very complain-y and whiney)

It's so hot. It's so hot.

Apparently it was 104 yesterday and 102 today but I feel like it's hotter today.

I just can't live in this heat, my body doesn't function properly. I feel sick to my stomach every time I walk outside, like I'm going to pass right out.

Last night Rylee and I went outside to wait for Rodney to get home. Rylee LOVES going outside, what kid doesn't? She loves waiting for Daddy in the afternoons and because I sent him 40 minutes away to pick up a table for me, he got home pretty late. We went out there after the sun had already set, around 8:40. We were sweating by 8:45. Around 8:50 Rylee pointed at the door and said, "back inside momma." She never does that! Usually we drag her back in kicking and screaming. I couldn't believe how hot we were just from SITTING on the porch. No activity, no walking, just sitting and singing.

Getting her in and out of the car on days like this is not fun either.

I think, at least in this state, there should be underground parking or awnings at places of business for our cars. I know that's probably not as asthetically or enviromentally pleasing but seriously, people die here from the heat.

I'm just sayin'

Anyway, moving on...

I got the best deal on craigslist, ever. I've been wanting to buy a certain dining table from Ikea, I've been saving cake money on my own to buy certain things for the house so that we would have money for other things and I'd planned to buy said dining table this weekend. The one I wanted is $299.

I was having a hard time thinking about parting with that money for some reason. There are some other things I've been wanting to buy, some things that have popped up and I have a hard time waiting. This is a fault of mine, I know. Anyway, I started looking on craigslist the other day, just browsing to see what had been listed.

I happened to spend a bit of time looking through the furniture section and found a listing that had been put up a few weeks ago. A nicer, bigger, more expensive table from Ikea. Just in a different color. I originally wanted something black, this one is birch. I figured I could probably re-finish it if I wanted to. So I emailed the poster about the table asking about how old it was and if there were any visible scratches or dents on it. He said they'd had it for less than a year and they had only used it once or twice because it was too big for them. He said he would sell it to me for $50. I showed Rodney and he told me to get it.

Last night after he picked it up, he gave me a call. I totally expected to hear, "this table sucks, this is why you can't trust people on craigslist, blah blah blah." Instead I got, "um, this table is NICE. you did a really good job."

It's HUGE! I couldn't believe how big it is! There are NO scratches, no dents, no stains, NOTHING. It's really heavy and made pretty well too. Sometimes I get a little skeptical about things from Ikea - some of their items can be a little on the cheap side. Not this table. It retails for $350 and I got it for $50!!! YES!

I'm not going to refinish it, I like the color a lot.







It's standing upright in our bedroom for now. We'll move it after we get our keys Friday. It's 87 inches without the leaf and 105 with it. I'm not sure I will ever use that leaf!

Rylee's cute in her dress.





I love Elton John.

Don't drop it

Rylee and I got an early start today.

As soon as she woke up, two hours early in fact, we got ready and hit the door. I stopped by the bank and QT to get some coffee and then we made our way over to the Crate and Barrel Outlet in the industrial district of Dallas. It was hard to keep Rylee from breaking EVERYTHING in site but I did manage to pick up a few things.

I got these bowls, which I love. $2.50 a piece! I'll probably go back and get a few more next week.



A few of these white bowls,



These tiny little spice dishes.



And these dish towels,



I'll probably go back when I have either Rodney or my mom with me. It would be really hard to get my stroller in there (even though I have one of the smallest and lightest umbrella strollers, the Combi) and it was just insanity trying to keep her from touching and grabbing everything. I felt rushed.

Once we left there we stopped over at Tango to see Rodney/Daddy. He wasn't too busy at the time so it was fun for Rylee to run around. And she got to see Amy, which she is always excited about. In fact, we pulled into the parking garage and I said, "Rylee, do you want to see Daddy?" Her response was, "YEAH! AND SEE AMY????"

After we had been there for an hour and we were both getting hungry, we left and headed over to NorthPark. We were close and I figured I could pick Rylee's comforter up and peek in here, here, and here. We grabbed a bite to eat and then headed down to Jacadi to pick up the comforter. I wasn't sure if I was going to have to order it or not but I wanted to go ahead and do that now if that were the case. They had some in the store - it looked a lot different than it does on the site. I thought it was more of a pale purple but it's a dark, deep purple. I also realized that they only come in crib sizes. They make a duvet and I considered getting it but the saleswoman said it wasn't much larger. I mean, it's bigger than the normal crib sized comforters but not very big still. I thought about it for a minute but decided to go ahead and get it.

After Jacadi, I spent some time in Babystyle. Boy did I go in there on the wrong day. Huge sale. Monster sale. I got Rylee this
but it was only $10 and I picked up the butterfly print swimsuit for Hannah that Rylee has. There were so many other things I wanted to get but I had to limit myself.

We went up to Urban Outfitters next. They too were having a giant sale. What is this, sale day?

I poked around and started looking at the linens section. I found a really, really pretty blanket that I immediately thought would be perfect for Rylee's room. It's big, pretty and the same price as the crib blanket I'd bought for her an hour before. I mulled over it for a bit and then headed downstairs to return the Jacadi blanket. That was sort of hard for me. I've been waiting and waiting to buy it for her but I just couldn't justify buying her something so small when she's only getting bigger.

Back up to Urban Outfitters to purchase the new blanket. And here it is ...

The store pictures




At home, a few out of the bag.




Rodney wondered what the point of buying our 21 month old a $100 blanket was. I think, this blanket is one she can grow with. I mean, it's not kiddy but it's girly enough that she can hang onto it for the rest of her life. I probably won't buy her another blanket for a while. I'm glad I went with this one vs. the smaller one from Jacadi. Maybe for the next kid, when we have one. Providing it's a girl anyway.

Once we were done with that, I decided it was time to start heading towards the car. Not without stopping at Anthropologie though.

Again I ask, what is the deal with the sales? Big sale there too. All of the pretty little aprons I love were on sale, dishes, tableclothes, tons of stuff. I rumaged through a bunch of things and decided to wait until after the big Ikea trip this weekend. Better decision. Right decision.

We left the building after spending 3 hours there and as I got up to my car and went to get Rylee out of her stroller, I noticed that she was holding something I did not purchase. I grabbed it out of her hand. At some point during our visit to Anthropologie, Rylee decided she needed this:



I was dumbfounded. I just looked at her and stared for a second. I was standing in the middle of the parking garage at Neiman's, where 2 other cars were waiting it out for my spot and I had just realized that my kid was a thief! I know it's horrible but, I didn't take it back in. I should have, I know. And if she were old enough to realize what she had done, we would have absolutely taken it back in but, it's over 102 today, people were waiting on me and well...I just didn't feel like dealing with the embarassment.

Once I was in the car and was able to take a closer look at it, I figured out that what she had taken was dish soap. A very expensive bottle of dish soap. Lemony-fruit scent dish soap. I looked back at her and said, "Rylee the next time you want to steal something, at least get me something good!"

It's funny to me, I mean she's not even two. But seriously, I do realize that stealing is wrong okay?

I forgot to share the pictures of my pillow covers, here they are.




Rodney is going to pick up the table I bought this afternoon. I'm so very excited about the deal I got on it!

Have you guys had any grapes lately? I've been picking up a bag here and there from Target recently and they are HUGE!

Huge and delicious! Rylee and I eat them all day long!

In my hand



In hers




Having some time off from cakes is really nice. Tomorrow we go looking for curtains!

Cake week is over

That's right, crazy cake week 2007 is over!

Woo Hoo!

I can sucessfully say that I made it through it unscathed.

Rylee's not feeling well right now, she started with the waking up stuff she does Friday night and I knew something was up. Saturday she woke up with some fever and a runny nose. Poor kid, seems like she catches every summer cold there is sometimes. Although, she's only had 2 this summer. I suppose that's not a lot.

I think she'll make it through without having to go in, she seems a little better today.



Saturday we went to Best Buy to return the dvd player we bought recently. Even though everything we own is sony (concerning the tv's/stereo equipment), we decided to go with a Toshiba players. It blew. Worst player ever. So, we took it back and got the Sony.

We left and decided to make a quick stop half a mile away at Babies R Us so we could grab Rylee a new sippy cup. Once we got to Babies R Us, Rodney figured out that he didn't have his keys. We drove back over to Best Buy and looked around the parking lot for a while, I went in and asked around but there were no keys to be found. We drove back over to Babies R Us and as we turned into the middle of the intersection on Pipeline (those of you who know the Northeast Mall/Pipeline area know what I am talking about here), I noticed that there will specs of silver smashed in the street. I screamed at Rodney to stop at the gas station across the intersection and he got out and (daringly) ran into the street to retrieve the keys. They were pretty beat up. The key that goes to the CX-7 is totally screwed. It's one of those keys that has the unlock/lock housing around it and you push the button to make the key open -- yeah, they cost about $100. GUH.

We were able to go into our house later that afternoon and take some more measurements, which was a lot of fun actually.

Since Rylee was sick I was unable to take her over to my parents house that afternoon. We thought we weren't going to be able to go to Jamie's party but then Ramona offered to come and watch her for a few hours so we could at least go to dinner. We made it out there on time and enjoyed a nice dinner with our very good friends. The very nice thing about Spiral Diner is that they have Blue Sky on tap there. I absolutely love Blue Sky drinks and this was an ENORMOUS plus for me.

We had to leave shortly after so that Ramona didn't have to drive late at night and we spent the rest of the evening working on a cake and watching Fast Food Nation - which, incidently is a great movie but very graphic. VERY, VERY, VERY graphic. If you are thinking about becoming a vegetarian or even if you aren't, this movie will definitely make you become one. So...if you like meat, do not watch it.

We went to Ikea AGAIN yesterday. Jamie and Lisa followed us out there. We got completely stuck in the kitchen design area and didn't get to hang out with them at all. It was really uncool but unfortunately we had to get it done. We go back this Sunday to pick everything up for the kitchen (all of the cabinets and counter tops) and to the rest of what I need to get. One of my wonderful and very best friends Jessica will be accompanying us out there. She's buying a dining table and we're going to be storing it in our garage. Yeah, our garage. I'm so glad she's going - the ordering process for this kitchen is supposed to take a few hours so I'll have some company and good advice on things that I want to get.

I did get some pillow covers for the cushions on the couch and a pillow for the girl. Oh! And the very large shelf that will hang on the fireplace!

Weeds is such a good show.

My kid makes me laugh a lot, move over Beethoven!



Pretty.



She laughs.

.

I'm thinking of hitting up the Crate and Barrel outlet tomorrow and then stopping into Tango to say hello and eat some lunch with the hubs. Gotta buy the paint for the house tomorrow or Wednesday - I have a total of 7 different colors to get. I also have to pick a dining table up from Frisco.

Like Sands Through The Hour Glass...

True incident that occured 11:17 pm, Central Standard Time.

The Place: My kitchen
The Players: Myself, Rodney
On the tv: Old school Beverly Hills 90210

Stephanie: So yeah, all that's left is filling and crumb coating this cake and finishing the fondant on...
Rodney: Hey! What other show was that guy on? (referring to Dylan's dad)
Stephanie: Days of Our Lives
Rodney: (almost instaneously) Yes, he was Roman Brady. The second Roman.

PAUSE.

(Stephanie turns to look at Rodney)

Rodney: I mean, I have no idea what show that guy was on.

Is it weird for your husband to know the names and characters of a soap opera?

Not if you know my husband.


In other news, crazy cake week 2007 is nearly over. As I type this the 5th cake is being finished. My (ahem) assistant, is crumb coating and filling the 6th and I will finish that one up tomorrow afternoon. Thank goodnesss for that.

The roof is probably being put on our house tomorrow. The pallets are in the driveway, I can only assume that means it will be put on within a day or so.

We have a busybusybusy weekend ahead of us. Two birthday celebrations, ANOTHER trip to Ikea, a cake to finish and...wait, that might be it. I should get used to busy weekends, the next 2 months are going to be crazy times 100.

I bought Rylee the sheets that will go with her comforter in her new room today. They were on sale at Target. I friggin' love that place. I'm looking for a pillow for her and I'm having a hard time finding one. Anyone have any suggestions? I don't want a regular pillow, I want something small, almost like a decorative pillow but even a little smaller than that. And something that fits in with the style of the comforter (see two posts below). So, I'm open if anyone's got anything for me.

Rylee's getting moved up to the next level in swimming. No more waterbabies, look out aquababies! With this, I'll be in the water with her one or two more times to get her adjusted and then she's on her own. I'll be sitting on the side, but I won't be dancing, singing and swimming with my little girl anymore! I'm glad in some ways - it's such a workout and task to get myself and her dressed when we are sopping wet, it'll be nice to not have to do that anymore. I am sad though, that Rylee and Hannah won't be in the same class any longer. I bet if Hannah were just a little bit older, they would move her. Lisa's going to keep her class on Thursday and Rylee will be in a new class on Thursday as well. Their times are 30 minutes apart but at least we will still be able to hang out afterwards.

Stay tuned for: The crazy thing my kid did to me yesterday at swim class. It involves poop.

I have not gone to bed before 2 this entire week, crazy cake week is killing me!

G'night all!

This is not your Average post

This is Leila.



Leila is on tour with/the merch girl for Shiny Toy Guns. She's also the girlfriend of the drummer, Mikey.



Leila has been on tour for almost a year now.

She's in town for a few weeks and today we had lunch and went to the mall.

For a long time, Leila was the one constant in my life and it's very strange for her to be so far away sometimes. She was my "show buddy" and we used to dream of being the merch girls/manager of some big band. We achieved that locally a bit but now she's doing it for real.

I miss her a lot. Her life is so different than mine now, which is strange because we were inseperable for a long, long time.

Some awesome times spent with Leiler:

Ditching class to watch BOTR or to go to Ihop.
Getting stuck in Stephenville (though at the time, this was not an awesome moment)
Shopping for show clothes
Sleeping in the car in the parking lot of hotels in Austin
Driving to Houston many, many times.
Going to Six Flags and eating Cheddars afterwards
Playing hide and go seek at the theater after hours
After parties
Warped Tours
Driving around for hours looking for a random hotel
Late night Bennigans or Snookies
Shopping
Charm Bracelets (BeFri/StEnds)

and so very much more.

I don't want her to move to LA. I know that she is hardly home now but at least I can hold on to the fact that this is still her home.

Leila, I miss you very, very much. I'm so happy for you and how completely blissful you are. All I've ever wanted is to see you as happy as you are now and you are finally there. Even though we used to fight a WHOLE lot, you will always be one of my best friends! I love you Leiler!

Call Me Betty

Making cakes with an injury is especially difficult. I imagine if it were my ankle or a toe it wouldn't be so bad. Upper back/shoulder/neck injuries make cake baking not as fun and definitely harder.

Doing anything at all with this injury is hard.

I managed to make dinner last night, black bean flautas and quesadillas. Of course, I forgot to take a photo. Of course, of course. You can take my word for it though, they were excellent.

Everything is set with the house. It will be ours next Friday. Rodney made me wait all day to tell me when he got home that they had accepted the addendums. I cannot wait. The next month is going to be rockin' with construction, painting and moving. I never thought I'd be so excited about paint and appliances.

I've signed Rylee up for a dance class. It's a ballet/tap/jazz/personality singing combination class. I honestly have no idea what "personality singing" is but it sounds good. Since she's not yet two, I will be participating in the class with her for half of the year. She'll do the remaining on her own and then there's a recital in June. Providing that she likes the class and doesn't scream the entire time anyway.

I'm pretty excited about that, I think she'll really love it. She knows all of the words to most of the cd's we have in the car. She requests that we play The Killers for her constantly and she loves to wiggle and dance around. I can't imagine that she won't like it. Guess we'll see.

I can't believe that kid will be two in a little over 3 months. It's insane to me to think that I will have a two year old.

I've been buying things for her room lately because once we move, we're moving her down to the toddler bed. (her bed is still in crib form currently).

I can't wait to buy this for her. I've been eyeing it for a while and waiting for the right time to get it. I need to go an order it soon, I don't think they carry these things in the store. The only Jacadi store I know of in DFW is in Northpark so I'll have to venture out there in the next week or two. I don't think I'll buy the matching sheets. I LOVELOVELOVE the comforter but I feel like the sheets are a bit drab, I'm thinking more along the lines of an aqua or pale blue for the sheets.

I'm going to be knee deep in cakes for the next couple of days, wish me luck!!

What is going on around here?

I can't believe it's taken me this long to post, AGAIN.

Things have seriously been crazy around here. I know, I say that quite frequently but it's the truth.

I made a big dinner Wednesday night and it turned out very well. One of Rodney's favorite things to eat is chicken (when we ate meat) or eggplant parmigiana. Going upon my friend Lisa's advice, I decided to try using the morningstar soy patties in place of the eggplant/chicken.

I spread some marinara sauce in the bottom of a casserole dish and placed 4 soy patties in the bottom. I spread some more marinara on top of the patties and then covered that with a piece of mozzarella cheese. I repeated this process once more so that there were two patties stacked in each place, giving me 8 servings. Cooked at 425 degress for 15 minutes and voila!



I was very surprised at how well this turned out, it was absolutely delicious! Rodney said he couldn't even tell that it was made from soy patties.

I also made one of Lindsey's recipes to go along with this dish, summer beans. This recipe was VERY good. I can't rave about it enough! If you haven't tried it yet, definitely check it out!



I made pumpkin cheesecake for dessert but somehow forgot to take pictures of it :(

Now this is where it gets crazy.

Ready?

This is the crazy part, I'm not kidding.

Somehow, someway, Wednesday evening, I managed to pull/dislocate some muscles in my back and my shoulder. Like, I couldn't move it hurt so badly. I couldn't sleep at all and spent the entire night trying to find a comfortable position to lay in. It didn't happen. Thursday morning Rodney called and made an appointment for me to see our doctor because I am not kidding you, I could not move. Luckily he was off that day (to go to a concert) and could drive me because I'm not sure I would have been able to.

I saw the doctor and she said it was pretty bad. She gave me a shot for the pain and wrote me three prescriptions. One for pain, one for inflammation and a muscle relaxer. She told me to see how I did over the weekend and to come back in next week for some x-rays. (Okay, so maybe this was not that crazy to you but it's a crazy thing to ramdonly happen to me)

So that is why Rodney is swimming with the kid. There was no possible way that I could handle it this week. It was very funny to see him singing songs and jumping around in the pool. He had no idea what he was doing and it was hilarious.





My baby goes down the big slide!



That afternoon she went to the zoo with Rodney's family that was in town from Mississippi. I couldn't go :(

I went with Lisa to look at some houses and then passed out cold when I got home. The pain pills they gave me knock me out. Good thing Rylee wasn't home.

Friday Rodney took Rylee over to his parents house so she could play with Maddy (Rodney's cousin's daughter) while everyone else went to Six Flags. Again, I could not go. I didn't really feel like paying to walk around in the heat either, so it was okay with me that I stayed home. Me + heat = no bueno. I did manage to get some cupcakes made for Rodney's aunt. It was her birthday so it was the least I could do. I met up with everyone later in the afternoon and we all went to dinner. Rodney's cousin's and Richie came over and played the Wii after that and I just kind of sat here watching.

Today we got up and went to the cake shop. I have 6 MAJOR cakes this week and to be honest, I'm a little bit nervous. I've never had that many in one week. We'll see how that works out for me. We also went back out to Ikea. We've been to Ikea more in the last month than we have in 2 years. I bought a few things including two dining chairs, a swing for Rylee's room, a bath mat, some tiny white vases, a print and a frame.

We're supposed to close on the house in two weeks.

Two weeks.

I'm literally counting down the hours. I just want to sign those papers!