Wednesday, December 12, 2012

The OHP Crush

Have you ever felt as if you just needed a day to yourself?
A day with no responsibilities, a day to just be young and free?
No? Just me? Hmm well okay then.
I'm 28 years old, thats all, definitely not old and lately I feel...like I'm old. No kidding.
Maybe it has something to do with all the running and obligations.
 Last night I was in the shower washing my hair and was like geez...this is just like the night before when I cleaned, showered, straightened everything back up then went to bed. Over and over again.
This morning I needed something different. My desire was to fish up a few bucks and go to the movies (I have no problem going by myself) and just having a free day (since I never get to be young or feel like myself anymore), but seeing as I'm flat broke that was a definite no go.
 I did the next best thing.
I slept in laid in bed later than normal, had hubby drop kids off at school, then got up after 8am and  fixed me some yummy chocolate coffee (aka coffee with a pack of hot chocolate mix...wow) then watched last weeks episode of The Vampire Diaries for the second time.
 
Here is where the crush part comes in.
(excuse my adolescent infatuation for a moment please)
Usually I don't watch the TVD epi's more than once (unlike Supernatural, I watch those over and over and over). However, last weeks episode "We'll Always Have Bourbon Street" was probably one of my favorite ones so far! There were so many things I loved about that episode! Such as:
 
Ehlena & Damon -
I have always been a Damon fan and I love the two of them together. Don't get me wrong I still love Stephan, but there is just something about Damon Salvatore that draws my attention. Personality, smile, the angst? Who knows but I love him! I also love the glimpses that you get of his past and the choices that he's made. He's not the bad guy he wants you to think he is.
 
Tyler Lockwood-
He is super cool and even more so now. I loved seeing him take command and becoming the alpha of the pack of hybrids. That was such a seriously cool part!
 
Ehlena, Caroline, & Bonnie-
I have missed seeing the three best friends being...well best friends. Who doesn't love a girls night and the fact that they had one (though it ended kind of rough) made me smile.
 
Damon "right choices"-
Back to Damon, he's not known for making the best decisions. He's a bit selfish and at the end of the episode he totally admits that becuase he doesn't want to do what he knows is right...but it kills me because I'm screaming at the T.V. "DON'T DO IT!!"
 
Now that I have decided to go into work I throw on a pair of jeans, t-shirt, and sandles (no make-up or neat hair either, it's raining and gloomy...don't judge). To dispell my melancholy I plug in my i-pod. I couldn't tell you the last time that I updated my i-pod but it's cool because when I want to lose myself in music I know just whats on there (even if it is a bit outdated) and just what to listen to that will get me out of my funk. So this morning's playlist went as follows:
 
Justin Timberlake - My Love
Rascal Flatts - How Strong Are You Now
Beyonce- Upgrade U
Jake Owen- Yee Haw
Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby
Crossfade- Cold
 
As you can see my taste in music is very ecclectic.
Now I will link up with Michelle @ The Vintage Apple for OHP

 








 
The Salvatore Brothers are ahhhmazing!
 




Caroline & Tyler (secretely I kind of like Caroline & Klaus too shh)
 


"We'll Always Have Bourbon Street" - Lol love it!
 



I love Caroline, she is hilarious.

 
OMG Damon! hahaha too funny



He's sincere lol 


I miss Alaric sooo much! I want them to bring him back somehow! 


Damon all the way!
 
Hope you guys have a great wednesday.
 For all ya'll in the southeast, don't forget your umbrella, your gonna need it. 

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Day 10 - Sugar Cookies

December 10th:
I had on my calendar that Monday night was cookie making night! Now the kids and I make sugar cookies every year, but I can't remember making them homemade from scratch until this year. I found a recipe on pinterest that you can find here. I thought, hey I have everything I need! About the time that I get the butter & sugar creamed and I'm sifting flour I realize that I have absolutely no salt. I had used every bit of it the previous night making play dough!
My hubby, darling man that he is, runs up to the dollar store and picks us up some salt.
Instead of using the icing that you can buy specifically for sugar cookies I purchased just plain ole white cake icing and added food coloring. Dad manned the rolling & supervised the cookie cutting and I mostly took over the baking & clean up and boy was there a lot of clean up to be done.
 
 
Luke's decorated cookie
Lukes candy cane cookie

Layla's decorated cookie


Some of the finished ones
Just some of the mess that I had to clean up

 
 
 
The cookie making business is a tiring one I'll tell you that, but it's also a super fun one. Just remember clean up from these kinds of cookie messes include sweeping & mopping the entire kitchen/dining room floors. By the way I was so excited that my cookies actually held their shape this year instead of rising and spreading! I've never had cookies that actually looked just like they did before I cooked them. If you want to know what I did just ask! I surely don't mind sharing since someone shared these tips with me!

Monday, December 10, 2012

Weekend Review & 5 for Five

Hey Ya'll! I'm linking up first thing with Jenn for this week's edition of...
 

PartyOfOne

Last week's Goals:

1. Clean my entire room & organize the junk under my bed
Negative. This I was supposed to get done in my free time. Ha! Free time? What's free time? I was super busy every night!

2.Make Layla's scarf for Christmas
Didn't get this done either. I am working on another project that I have to finish first and this past week didn't allow much time to finish it so I'm giving this a red. Poo.

3.Go to bed before midnight every night this week
 I actually did this! Mind you it was only half an hour or so before midnight each night but still a success!

4.Take off bags of donation items and get them out of my way
Total fail. I didn't even have time to think about loading them up and taking them off. Maybe next time lol

5.Start packing lunches to bring to work.
Yes half and half because I did bring my lunch once last week (someone bought me lunch 2 times last week). I did bring my lunch today so does that count?  lol

New Week Goals!

1.Finish current knitting project
I really need to finish up so I can get the other 2 completed before Christmas

2.clean bathroom & bedroom
Maybe I can actually get to the bedroom part this week and the bathroom is a must! Dirty bathrooms...ick!

3.Watch some of the Christmas movies that I've been stockpiling on my DVR
I totally need to watch & delete some because everytime I turn around I'm recording more and more! So yes, make time for those movies, perhaps with hot chocolate and a yummy snack lol

4.Re-polish toe nails
Don't laugh. This is serious. I am horrible about not finding time to take off old nail polish and apply new and I hate chippy nails (though I'm having that problem right now).

5.Find something cute to wear to my hubbys work Christmas party
I don't get to shope much and when I do it's not for me, so therefore my wardrobe consists of items that I've had for years. Sad isn't it? I want to look super cute for the S.D Christmas party so I need to find something new!
 
 Moving right along into my weekend Review
 
I thought weekends couldn't be busier than my previous weekends.
I was so wrong.
It wasn't bad though, I had a good time and I took pictures so I could share with you guys! I have been waiting for two days to be able to share my weekend fun (the internet at my house is really slow so uploading pictures has to wait until I get to work). Our 25 Days of Christmas are combined with the weekend activities.
 
December 7th:
Friday night included a trip up to Georgia to my cousin's house to have the Steele family Christmas get-together. Mom, dad, my sis, my BIL, my three munchkins and I piled in mom's van and drove the hour and a half up there. I so wish we would've gotten picutres or at least videod the 12 Days of Christmas that the whole family did, or the story that my dad read that had him laughing so hard he was nearly crying. Alas, we were all too caught up in conversation with people we don't get to see very much to do the snap & flash.
 
December 8th:
Saturday morning began by taking my son up to meet his music teacher, Mrs. Gayle, at a super gorgeous house in the ritzy part of town where they would perform background music for the Tour of Homes. The Tour of Homes is done every year as a fundraiser for the Symphony and Mrs. Gayle wanted Luke and his friend Ella to sing while she and her sister played for them.
 
Aren't they adorable?
 
Right after leaving the Tour of Homes we ran to CiCi's Pizza for my nephew's b-day party. Once we left there we rushed home to wash the car because the 6th grade band (which my son is a member of. He plays saxophone) was riding in the Christmas parade that night in our home town. My husband and I were able to procure a trailer for them and decorate it (hugs and kisses to Darrell getting the trailer ready) then pull them in the parade. My kids were stoked because the whole family was getting to ride in the parade and throw candy. 
My little Lauren Elf
 
My little Layla Elf

 
Most of W.R. Tolar's 6th grade band! (luke is in the back holding up his sax)

 
The pretty lights, bows, & garland on the trailer
They won 3rd place for best parade entry!
 
 The kids had a blasty blast and you know what...us adults had a blast as well!
December 9th:
Was our night to make homemade red & green playdough. My 3 love getting together in the kitchen to create something new and last night was no different. 
 
Luke had to make him some blue dough since the girls had red & green
Lauren & Layla kneading their dough
The finished product!
Busy using their imaginations
My snowman creation!
 We had a great weekend and I hope you guys did too!
 
 


Friday, December 7, 2012

Day 6

December 6th
Was our homemade peppermint hot chocolate night. I was super excited about this seeing as I've never done any hot chocolate except the Swiss Miss kind. I've always loved the idea of making the rich, velvety, hot chocolate from scratch
(thanks to watching Chocolate with Johnny Depp years ago)
After chuch we came home and used an amazing recipe (found on Pinterest of course) to create our yummy drinks!
 
4 cups of milk
4 oz of milk chocolate chips
4 tbsp of sugar
A pinch of salt
 
Now the recipe called for a homemade whipped topping with peppermint extract but I forgot to pick up the whipping cream (I really have too many things on my mind these days) so we just left that part out, but I can post the ingredients and instructions for that later if you guys like...so just ask!
Turns out Lauren realized that she doesn't like peppermint mixed with chocolate. She likes candy canes/peppermints and she likes chocolate, but she wants to keep them seperate.
The other two munchkins loved it!
 
Excuse me & my pajamas lol The kids look adorable though

My disney world cup filled with chocolatey goodness!
Ya'll have a blessed day and a great weekend!
 
 

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Its Ok Thursday

'ello gov'nuh.
Howdy pardner.
Hola Amigos.
 
Hey Ya'll!
How's it going this Thursday for everyone? Good? Yes? Awesome!
Its my favorite link up day which is why Thursdays excite me, other than the fact that its the day that precedes Friday. Before we get into the "Its Ok" madness, I'll share with you guys Day 5 of our 25 days of Christmas.
 
December 5th
The kiddos and I picked up dinner at KFC (it came with mad yummy cookies) and trucked it over to my Nanie's house. My Nanie is actually my great, great aunt. She had no grandchildred before I was born and she had always been close to my mother and grandmother (whom she had helped raise) so my mother asked if I could call her Nanie and thats is how she became Nanie to everyone. She isn't just Nanie to me and my siblings and cousins, she is Nanie to our chuch family, extended family ect.
Anyways she lives in Tallahassee, an hour away from me, and I rarely get to spend time with her.
So we decided that last night we were going to spend quality time with her.
 
We had a great dinner (Nanie made muffins). It was eventful. Lauren accidentally ran through Nanie's screen door because it was dark outside and she couldn't see it so yeah...she broke it, but it will be repaired by their maintenance man, fear not! I spilled the beans on the kitchen floor, literal beans haha. All in all we had a nice night. I was too exhausted (see Lazy) to drive home so we crashed at my mom in law's place. I honestly couldn't have picked a better MIL. She is my second mother and I love her soooo much! Day 5 was a success!
 
 Now I am linking up with Neely & Amber

Its Ok Thursdays
Its Ok
 
...That I have had 2 cups of coffee & 2 diet mountain dews already this morning
 
...to be obsessed with cheesy christmas movies and the old rudolph shows (I have recorded idk how many movies already)
 
...that time with my hubby is rare and that I miss him like crazy (he works nights, I work days and our days off are different. Always moving in opposite directions...boo)
 
...That once again I am not going to have a weekend. Busy busy busy...bleh
 
...that I ate like four of those cookies we got last night and some pork skins, I definitely need to stop pigging out. gah.
 
...to be in love with Damon & Ehlena together and I'm haven't watched last night's epi of TVD so I am not sure what happened with the whole vampire/sire bond thing and I'm pissed that there even has to be an outside reason for why she loves him in there. Damon frickin rocks...kay? JS
 
...to always go for the character with emotional issues. I love layers (no not like onions, like cakes), a character who seems tough and yet is a marshmellow underneath all the coldness? Yes please!
 
...That the previous "its ok" is why Edward Cullen falls low on my list of fav Twilight characters. He's too perfect. Perfect people (or characters) are irritating. Not saying I don't like Edward, he's just not my fav.
 
...That I want to skip work and go see a movie right now. I would really like some time to do something fun on my own is that so bad?
 
...that this picture below is so me
 


Join us in the Its Ok Thursday fun! We're All MAd Here!
 Happy Thursday ya'll! 

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

OHP & Paper Snowflakes

 
I've been scrolling through Pinterest this morning trying to figure out what I want to post.
I have so many boards and great pins its not even funny.
While I'm scrolling I'm thinking "I should post something cute, no something christmasy, or neat"
Then I see a board titled "hilarious" and I'm stuck on so many funny pins and I want to share them with the world. Really who doesn't need a good laugh?
 
 







Totally what I wanted to say to my extrememly loud kids last night






Had to throw in some snacks during the hilarity



haha Effie Trinket/Pocahontas



I would never tell my husband this but I actualy like this show because Si & Jase are SO FUNNY!



Lord of the Rings...this is too funny


December 4th activitiy - Paper Snowflakes
The kids were super excited about making paper snowflakes and it took a few tries (and the internet) to help us remember how to do it but after about six pieces of paper (or more) and a mess later we were successful!
 
Daddy even enjoyed cutting out the snowflakes
 

Just a few of our creations
 




Tater made her own creations and this one...
She is showing you what it looked like to her...a bra haha

 
Our finished project
I wanted to string and hang them but I didn't have the supplies to do that and I've mentioned before how when I start a project I want to finish it right then lol.
So I used good old fashioned scotch tape.
Works like a charm.