Pound o Yarn: Take 2 & Sneak Peek

Remember how the yarn got longer and floppier as I ripped more of it's guts out...well this is what it looked like last night as I got tucked into bed and started the wait for the Royal Wedding.

And a rare occasion...a preview of my current project before the person has received it.

I won't say who it's for, but the person will know this is their preview. I'm just far too excited about learning something new to hold it in any longer. I've never made a blanket out of squares before (Reagan's was strips, like scarves.) But more interesting, these squares start out as a circle...then turn into a square....then back into a circle...and then finish off as a square. It's fascinating to me.

This particular "design" is called a Pineapple. I've seen it adapted in doilies and it's always so lovely that when I stumbled upon it as a blanket, it seemed perfect for what I had in mind.

I will say that the square I just finished was a wench.... I messed up so many times that by the time I had retraced my steps and fixed all the mistakes I could have made TWO squares.

My next ones I will take more time to pay attention to what I'm doing and hopefully not have to backtrack so much.

Pound o Yarn

I have started my next crochet project (the other one is currently in the "secret" folder until I can send it to the recipient.)

This new one I've started is shaping up to be the biggest project to date so I looked into buying the bigger balls of yarn. This particular one is Caron's ONE POUND of yarn.

When I brought it home, Lincoln just looked at me like "seriously? a POUND of yarn?"

Now the most entertaining aspect of this POUND of yarn is that it did not start out this long. It used to be more compact but as I slowly rip the guts out of it, it loses it's tightness and has gotten longer and longer. Now it's this floppy mass that I'm just waiting to fall apart.

Also, I can't read that last paragraph without giggling....I am a 13 year old.

Change

Right when we first moved into our apartment and we went to Kohls and bought everything we possibly needed for the apartment, Lincoln got a couple of toys. Like when you take the kid to the grocery store and you let them get piece of candy, or toy....same concept.

One of the things he picked out that I would never have bought myself but am so glad he picked it out is a change counter jar. It wasn't expensive and works really well. So when he comes home and empties the change out of his pockets it goes in the jar and generally if one of us was craving a coke late at night we could snatch some change and run down to the coke machines at the leasing office...but that hasn't happened lately and instead it got so full that Lincoln would have to take the top OFF the jar and snap the money through and then just place it back on top.

So he asked really nice if I would take it to the bank and cash it.

This is where the story splits.

Lincoln swore that all banks had change counters, after all they were banks.

I on the other hand Googled it first and read that they don't all have change counters and that they stick it in a bag and ship it off to their central office for counting and THEN they deposit it into your account generally a week later.

So when I arrived at the bank I was eager to see who won this one.

I did. No big deal :)

Oh and I also found four Wheat Pennies that are triple the value! Too bad triple a penny is still only three cents...BUT STILL!

Our New Addition

Lincoln would like to think that the new toy is for him...but really it's for me. I have always had a very special place in my heart for the Super Nintendo. No other video game has been able to come close. So when he suggested it and we found one for a good price we jumped on it.

I limit how much I can play b/c seriously I would never get ANYTHING done. I also don't let myself get stressed out when I get to a level I can't pass so I'll turn it off and do something else, or give it to Lincoln and see if he can pass it.

I love this game.

We have two more games on the way that I'm pretty stoked about...well one game, the other is for Lincoln.

Yoshi's Island. I might not be able to get anything done once that gets here :)

Spring Cleaning

Today is muffin Monday, but seeing as I made the "muffins" yesterday I totally forgot to document the goodness that is the lemon blossoms my mom introduced me to.

Here's the recipe, they're a big hit:
Paula Deen's Lemon Blossoms

I also decided that today I would clean everything...

This morning that seemed like a relatively simple task.

As I started it was like climbing a mountain.

When you're far away it's like "psh, I can climb that."

Then when you approach the mountain it's "ummm..."

then when you're halfway up the mountain and your back hurts and your hands are dry and your face is gross and you smell like cleaning products, you start to second guess how big that stupid mountain is but you're already halfway up and you might as well crawl to the finish.

I started strong with the easiest room in the house: The bathroom. Was done in minimal time.

Then I ventured to the laundry that has been accumulating on our kitchen table (b/c that's what we use it for.) I don't mind washing clothes...I don't even hate folding clothes...but I hate hate hate matching socks (especially since I married the one sock wonder) and I hate hate hate hate hate hate hangers. With a deep fiery passion. Fiery like I'd rather snap several hangers into several pieces than spend the time to untangle them.

So after I folded everything and laid out the clothes that would later go on hangers I ventured to the closet to put up folded clothes. That's when I discovered the return of the military stuff.

Lincoln has like 3 bodies worth of equipment that he has to keep here in the apartment. Equipment which includes a gas mask, several uniforms, stuff I don't even know what it is but it takes up TWO huge duffel bags...plus more. Anyway, he cleaned all that out of his car and in turn it appeared like magic in a mess in the closet.

This was about the middle of the mountain for me b/c I lost my momentum. I tried to rearrange stuff...only to have MORE stuff fall on me so I gave up and sat on the floor and listened to my mellow music playing in the background while I tried to come up with a "next step."

I ended up just shoving everything in and moving onto another project.

I changed the sheets on the bed to the smelly good ones, picked up clothes, did several more loads of laundry and subsequently folded and put them up, then dusted all the surfaces in the apartment including the fan in the bedroom, then vacuumed everything, did ALL the dishes (literally there were NO dishes dirty as of this afternoon), and the last two things I did....the absolute last things I did were

Match socks.

Then hung up clothes.

I also made the One Sock Wonder throw away all of his lonely single socks that I swear I've washed everything in this house and have never found matches for like 15 of his socks.

I feel very productive....my back feels very productive.

Oh yeah, and before I tackled spring cleaning, I also managed to catch up on recorded shows, AND play some video games.

This apartment hasn't been this clean since probably BEFORE we moved in. No lie. It's kind of amazing how clean this place is right now. Almost worth going around and taking pictures except I'm way too tired for that now.

Any bets on how long it'll take to undo 6 hours of cleaning?

Oh and I almost forgot, while doing all the dishes I realized that the dishwasher was playing a song.

Happy Earth Day 2011

Today is Earth Day and Good Friday.

I will say that for a while I was collecting cans and bottles to recycle. Then I got two trash bags full and couldn't find a drop spot which seems ridiculous since our neighborhood has curbside pickup for houses.

I still have the bags but have stopped filling more bags until I can figure out where they're supposed to go. I hate to say I'm about to give up and just put them in the dumpster but I've called several numbers listed on websites that say they have drop spots in this area, but every one I called didn't know what I was talking about. And the dumpsters on base that take recycling, take it a bottle or a can at a time...which when you have as many as we do, that's kind of a pain in the butt.

Today also means baseball this afternoon. I'm hoping that after the day off our boys can figure out how to play baseball again and win this one. When they don't win it makes our apartment a bit of an unpleasant place. Neither Lincoln or myself are very happy after a loss...so, here's hoping for a WIN!

I've been cheating...

First, I've decided to drop the "songs as titles" thing b/c sometimes it takes forever to think of something and I realized the other day that I've already doubled up on one. So I'm giving that up.

Second...I've been cheating on my laundry detergent. I honestly don't remember what detergent we used as kids. The only detergent I can remember feeling loyalty towards is Gain b/c my mom loved it so much. I remember using Downy softener back before Gain had fabric softener but I personally have always either bought Gain or Bounce.

Now...well, I live with a stinky military boy that has to wear those green shirts that seem to absorb odor with the opposite affect of baking soda. It's like they hold onto the smell and never let go. When I moved in he used Tide Sport with Febreeze b/c well, he's a stinky boy and it worked. So I would use that on his clothes and stick to Gain for all the other stuff.

Well I've gone to the dark side. I noticed that the Tide would keep things smelling fresher longer, I don't know if it's just the Tide or that it has Febreeze in it. I washed our sheets in it one time and it was so lovely to have them smell so good long after they'd been washed. So since my loyalty had been broken from Gain, I decided to smell the many many different fabric softener options WalMart had multiple times and see if one of them struck my fancy.

By the time I was done I had a headache BUT I found the one. I'm talking THE one.

Though I still smelled every other one many more times over this one stuck with me. I also liked the idea of the time release "beads" or w/e it was that said you'd have fresh sheet smell for a week.

The first thing I thought of when I smelled this sunshine wonderfulness was Summer Camp when I was a kid. I don't know if it's something we used to use when I was a kid/teenager or someone else used it and it stuck with me, but good grief. Flood of memories of Camp and Rec Time and cafeteria food, cabins, being ridiculously stupid and not caring one bit, memories of simpler times. It's a nice feeling to have when I drift off at night.

Blueberry Hill

So I mentioned on Monday that I was disheartened by the deliciousness of the "just add water" muffins b/c I work really hard on homemade from scratch muffins.

These are those delectable, stupidly easy, muffins I made to go with the rather complex but worth the time Carrot Cake muffins.

I have decided to keep a couple bags of these in the cabinet just as backup...oh, and they're fifty-five cents a bag that makes 12 mini muffins. FIFTY-FIVE cents!

Take My Sweater

I've been waiting to post these pictures for a while and seeing as Reagan has informed me that she received the package here goes!

After I crocheted the blanket for Luke, I had a fever...and the only cure was more blankets.


I ran across this pattern during my browsing and loved the color. It reminded me of my Reagan so I decided it would be my next project as a housewarming present for her new apartment and real job and all those fun things that being a college grad with your first real job brings (like real paychecks.)

Once I get my mind set on something, there's no changing it, and I loved THIS color. Well, they discontinued it...or at least that's what Michaels said so I found a wholesale yarn store online and ordered what I needed.

When you look at it, you probably imagine it feels like a floppy, soft, wonderful sweater...you're right. I couldn't imagine there being any way to improve this blanket unless it was to make it huge so you could physically wrap yourself up in it like a burrito and immediately fall into some blissful coma of perfection.

It is by far the biggest knitting project I've finished to date. There is a really nice cable knit sweater in my craft box that I started for Lincoln oh....4 years ago that I lost interest in somewhere along the way and gave up. I think I got a real job and didn't have time for it anymore.

I'd like to finish it one day, if not for him, for me. It was comfy yarn and would end up being a nice lounge sweater...but I don't even know where the pattern is. Maybe I'll dig it up and bring that thing back to life.

Truly Scrumptious

Today as always is Muffin Monday.

I made two different kinds today b/c what I had planned wasn't going to be everyone's cup of tea and I like to be accommodating.

SO, I made some Betty Crocker (just add water) blueberry mini muffins and was a bit disheartened that something so simple turned out so lovely and delicious because I was about to embark on a relatively elaborate muffin that potentially wouldn't be as tasty as the packet of dry stuff I added water to...

ANYWAY then I set off on making these:

Inside Out Carrot Cake Muffins

This one was the prettiest

The recipe was sent to me by my friend Taryn and I've been waiting for about 2 1/2 weeks now to make them. Next week I'm going to try to find and tackle my sister-in-law Ashley's request of Banana Nutella Muffins.

Anyway, if you care to hear my review of these tasty treats here goes:

They're awesome.

When you bite into it the gooey sweet cream cheese is a wonderful surprise. Not SO sweet like icing on the cake but just the right balance to go with the tasty carrot cake surrounding it.

I sacrificed one of the "ugly" ones to show the inside

I was quite hesitant b/c they say to fill the muffin cup up so high and I know how terrible that can turn out BUT I trusted the website b/c it shows the progress and her's turned out okay. I was amazed at how high up they baked, very cool.

I have never made anything with a filling like this so I was a bit scared of what was going to happen. Luckily disaster didn't strike and I was able to get good results and make some notes. Less is more when putting the batter on the bottom. On some of mine I didn't have enough room to put a sufficient amount of batter on the top so after they had baked up so lovely you could kinda get a peak at the cream cheese gooey deliciousness inside.

Still wonderful, even the ugly ones.

I hope the boys hate them so Lincoln brings some home with him :)

Snape, Snape, Severus Snape....

and then I hear my sister's voice, "Ron WEAsley!" Explanation is at the bottom.

Anyway, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is released on DVD (already in Texas) but in a mere hour and a half so I've compiled things that show I'm a Potter fan.


First I should give credit where credit is due, Reagan introduced me to Harry Potter in the summer of 2004. It seemed to skip my generation in reading, it came out when I was in high school and I was having a hard enough time avoiding reading the boring novels my GT/Honors classes were assigning, I didn't find time to read leisurely.

But once I started I never stopped, so wonderful. The best part about reading Harry Potter is that while reading, my dreams incorporate all things Harry Potter. So while I sleep, I get to be a witch and cast spells and go to Hogwarts...make all the fun you want but those dreams are AWESOME!

The summer that the 7th book released I was pumped! I'd just graduated from college so I already felt pretty awesome (the future would fix that for me.) So my super cool, talented, and beautiful friend Kayla started knitting and offered to make me a Harry Potter themed scarf. First, I was amazed that she could knit, in fact I think watching her is how I started out. Second, how cool is it that she offered not only to make me a scarf...but a HARRY POTTER scarf?!? Third....I don't really have a third, but still!

The scarf is beautiful, I still have it and wish I lived somewhere where scarves were actually practical...even in Texas I only got good use out of scarves a couple days out of the year.

I admired Kayla so much that I did this:


These were my first knitted things. The new style of scarf in the movies had two small yellow with crimson background so I did that with a hat to match. The bobble on top is detachable, sometimes you want a bobble...sometimes you don't.

I know I still have the scarf, I honestly don't know if the hat is still with the scarf...it may have gotten lost...it got more use than the hat.

Also around the time I knit the scarf and hat was while Lincoln was doing all of his basic training, boot camp, school stuff for the military so it kept me busy...even though we weren't "together" together.

So:

All together now: "awwww"

This was around the time (Jan 2008ish) that we decided to start completely over. We'd been broken up for years at this point and were having fun hanging out and actually dating so we had a do-over.

So we started "dating"...then he left for Japan...a year later he came home for Christmas and we made it official "boyfriend/girlfriend" and then he went BACK to Japan, I went to see him that summer in August and we got engaged and then a year after that we got married. Woot for a Lincoln & Casey History lesson. Did you learn something?

And lastly, Here is the explanation for the title, as always it is a song :) We used to walk around the house and "sing" it over and over. Reagan always used to do the Ron Weasley part, cracked me up.



Now go buy Harry Potter!

Arise My Love

I went to the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor where they have strict rules and even stricter traditions.

One of these said traditions is that every year around this time they have the Annual Easter Pageant. I don't even know what year they're up to, but I think it's in the 60s (I was wrong, I just looked and it's 72.) I got the e-mail notice the other day that it was coming up so I pulled into the picture archives and got this one.

Little known fact, I was actually a participant in the Easter Pageant my freshman year. This may come as a shocker b/c my freshman year doesn't come with many fond memories. Most of them are not happy and involve a hatred for the school I learned to love, I now miss it quite often.

Anyway, I played a boy (I know, right?!) and I was a late joiner. My long time friend Chelsie (who lived above me at the time) had invited me to one of the practices and promised it'd be fun and we'd get out of class for a day and the optimistic side of me hoped that maybe in the process I would meet some new friends...well I didn't, but it was still lots of fun and I'm super glad I did it.

To give the impression of middle eastern skin tones, we bathed in watered down tempera paint...that over time would flake off and make us look more like lepers which I guess fits the time period also.

They would also cake on dark makeup and shade in beards or for those of us lucky enough to be the REAL men, we got fake beards glued onto our faces....there are no words to describe how gross/painful it was getting that business off my face.

The best compliment I've probably ever gotten was during a rehearsal where we were about to get assigned our costumes and they asked who was playing boys, I'd been given the roll previously so I raised my hand or stepped forward and the girl says, "Really? You're too pretty to play a man, but okay."

Best. Compliment. EVER!

I didn't participate in the Easter Pageant my other years at UMHB...it kinda seemed like a clique I wasn't in so I went about my non-joiner activities and made a point to attend at least one showing a year and cry like a baby during certain scenes.

I've done 3 performances myself, and seen it at least 5 other times after that but this part gets me every time...well this part and the part where Jesus brings the dead girl back to life...*sigh* memories.

Anyway, the main parts involve singing and the Angel Gabriel always sings the song "Arise My Love" and I swear, even if you're heart is made of stone, it'll move you. The guy who sings it always has the prettiest voice (well the years I can attest to.) Jesus comes out, and everyone hugs, and it's happy happy and I dunno, it's good stuff.

So, if you're in the Belton area on April 20th of this year, there are shows at 12, 3, and 5:30...give it a go. Though it's generally the same program every year, there are slight changes that always change things up a bit (sometimes for the better...sometimes not.)

Here's a video of the song in case you've ever heard it...forgive the tacky PowerPoint that goes with it, I didn't make it.

Cleburne, TX (yup, that's right, it is a song lyric)

While taking pictures for my mom out at the good old Lake Pat Cleburne we ran across the historical marker talking about Wardville (which is now under water...now known as Lake Pat Cleburne.) If you zoom in you can read most of what the marker says.

Founded by our distant relative William Ward...

Not really, but wouldn't that be cool?!


Here's the song if you've never had the pleasure of hearing it.
Love that Cleburne represents...such class, always.

Top of the World

So tonight Lincoln has duty, which means he left for work at 7 and will sit in a little office for 24 hours, then go to work tomorrow and come home tomorrow afternoon and feel like death. Nights he has to stay at work I get all bummed out and kinda mope around the apartment not quite sure what to do next. It's ridiculous but true.

This is the first overnight duty shift he's had since we found out he's NOT deploying and I'm realizing now how thankful I am that he's not deploying. Now that I can feel comfortable in the decision and not have to worry it'll change. I get lonely and mildly depressed when he's just gone for a full day...I dunno what I would have done for a year. I guess we served our separation time while he was in Japan, I really don't want to do that again if we can avoid it.

Today was weird, I don't love these afternoon baseball games on the west coast...b/c it means during breakfast I watch the Rangers (I eat a late breakfast, once I start eating I find that I like to continue eating so I put it off till about 10.)

Anyway, then the game is over around lunch...which today, I had the plan to get the grocery list together, make Lincoln dinner, take it to him, and then stop at the store on the way home.

Well that didn't happen.

I was sitting here watching tv after I'd just eaten some SmartOne and said to myself, "Alright, in about an hour I need to get this plan rolling."

Then I thought, "I could take a nap."

Next thing I know it's an hour later and I'd fallen asleep watching Law and Order: SVU in the middle of an episode and was confused b/c it was now in the middle of a different episode.

I was awake long enough to register that I'd dozed off...then I fell asleep again...next time I woke up, it was in the middle of a DIFFERENT episode causing a bit of confusion before I realized I'd fallen asleep again for another hour.

At this point I gave up on grocery shopping and decided to just make Lincoln some tuna helper for dinner and take it up to him.

I love sleep, I love the idea of naps, I even enjoy naps, but after wards I always feel hungover. Like I SHOULD go back to sleep...but now I'm not tired.

What a predicament.

Tag Team

I noticed that both mom and dad were hanging around the nest tonight. They seemed very alert about something...I didn't hang around all night to see what went down.

Fast forward 12 hours

There was an OWL hanging out around the nest waiting for the right moment to zoom in and snatch a baby. So mom and dad were keeping extra close eyes on the babies.

Here's the video of when they went on full alert:

Three Little [Birds] Went Out To Play

Free video chat by Ustream

I know this isn't a picture but other than watching Rangers baseball all weekend, this is what we've been doing.

We are addicted to keeping track of these little birds.

At first you may think, "Seriously? This is kinda lame."

But then one of the eagles brings back a dead bunny, then rips it up into little pieces and feeds all the baby birds who are in a cute little row "cheep, cheep"ing away. And they feed them each little bits of food till they're all full.

And then **BAM** the other parent comes swooshing in from the sky to take over caring for the babies so the other one can go be awesome in the sky.

Also interesting to see that even animals have a lack of sleep from babies. They're wiggling around all night long, cheeping, and moving.

It's also funny.

Mama bird covered one of the babies with nesting stuff and when Daddy bird came back and she took off to go have some lunch. He was looking and looking and looking...would look at the other two babies...and then look and look and look....he looked over the sides of the nest....was digging in the nest, then he stepped on the covered up baby and it went "CHEEP!" so he uncovered the baby and cuddled up with all the babies relaxed to know that he hadn't lost one. whew!

Believe me, it's cute.

Good Life

Rangers had a rain delay yesterday so we had a double header today. It was a baseball night so we didn't go out, we ordered BBQ takeout.

So good.

There's nothing better than eating good southern food while drinking sweet tea and watching the rangers stomp on the Orioles that second game!!! (we're not going to talk about the first shutout we suffered...)

Here's hoping we repeat the second game tomorrow and come out of this series 2-1.

STOP in the name of love

Before I go nuts....


(This is from a military perspective, I understand the shutdown will affect others to, this is just what seems to be the most misunderstood piece of information I've heard over and over and over)

I have tried really hard to ignore the mass panic on facebook and twitter and the news about this government shutdown business that seems to be going down in a mere 7 hours.

Maybe I've inherited my mom's optimism and hope that everyone's just playing this up as way bigger of a deal than it needs to be...or maybe I'm just oblivious and it's not until we can't pay rent that I'll think, "crap...guess I should have panicked with the rest of America."

But I can't take it anymore.

Lots of people not even affected by this shutdown are going to the airwaves to rant their furiousness over this event and nobody seems to have Googled some facts or asked a single person "in the know" what's going on.

If you are one of the ones that this will drastically affect and your groceries and rent for the next month kind of hang in the balance, then by all means now's the time to panic.

But for the rest of you who don't really get what's going on but feel the need to panic anyway, here are some facts that have trickled down the line of communication from the head haunchos on the East coast to the lowly civilian wives like myself on the West coast.

First, I've trimmed the fat and only relayed the biggest issue on everyone's minds

• If there is a government shutdown at midnight on April 8th, Marines will receive midmonth pay (on April 15th) for the 8 days of April covered by the current continuing resolution (CR).
• If there is a 1 week extension of the current CR through April 15th, Marines will receive their normal midmonth pay for the first 15 days of April.
• If there is a shutdown, Marines will continue to work and will continue to earn pay for the period of the shutdown but will not receive that pay until the Congress provides appropriations.

So even though Lincoln and I have saved up enough money that this skipping a paycheck or skipping a paycheck and a half won't affect us too much and were thinking we'd just go vacation in Texas while Congress sorted this out, he will continue to work as normal.

All active duty military will continue to work as normal. All deployed military will continue to work as normal.

Second
A quote from Defense Secretary Robert Gates:

"First of all, let me say you will be paid," he said. "As a historian it always occurred to me the smart thing for government was always to pay the guys with guns first. But in all seriousness, based on some stuff I read this morning, if the government shuts down starts on the 8th and goes for a week, you'd get a half a check. If it goes from the 15th to the 30th, you wouldn't get a pay check on the 30th but you would be back paid for all of it."

Taken from a CBS article I just now Googled to double check my facts.

Now, this will really suck for those people that live check to check and really won't have money to pay rent or mortgage payments or electricity bills or buy food.

BUT for those people spouting off on the airwaves that it's an outrage that the military isn't getting paid, THEY WILL GET PAID....it'll just be later than scheduled. I find it hard to believe (even with a bunch of wackadoos running the place) that Congress will rule that the troops don't get paid for their current service. History states they'll get back pay which sucks but it's not "no pay" like so many people are raving about.

Now something that shocked me from a different article was that if a soldier dies during this shutdown their family will not receive the 100,000 to pay for funeral arrangements and burial costs. It said they will get the money...it'll just be later...which in the case of a funeral, it's not like they can put those things on hold till the wackadoos figure out what to do.

So in conclusion... if you feel the need to panic, that's fine, but please get your ducks in a row first and be considerate to those that this will affect. Your outrageous claims kind of take focus away from the true needs and problems that this shutdown will create.

Thank you, I feel better.

Take it Easy

Today is a travel day for the Rangers so we'll have more downtime today than we've had the past 6 days... the past 6 days of VICTORIES!!!

Here's hoping for a good...

no, GREAT...

no, FANTASTIC...

(can't think of anything better than fantastic)

...SEASON!!!

I am the Walrus

As you can see...this is the head of a monkey...with arms.

I was surprised the pattern for this wonderful child's toy wasn't located near this display at Michaels.

Anyway...it's a morbid lead in but apparently Paul McCartney is dead...

at least according to conspiracy people and the documentary I just watched that played the George Harrison tapes and pointed out all of the clues that lead to this conclusion. He apparently died in some horrific car crash after the band's first album and was decapitated (hence the monkey....yes...morbid, I get it.)

I pretty much love conspiracy stuff. I get that most of it is making something out of nothing or is only telling half the story, but I like it.

Speaking of making something out of nothing, in the documentary the guy pointed out dots in a picture...DOTS...and how they were purposefully placed their to form a 3 (which was kind of a stretch) and how that 3 symbolized the 3 TRUE Beatles.

I find it hard to believe that somebody put THAT much thought into some dots in a tiny picture inside an album cover. Most of the stuff pointed out seemed deliberate enough and sells the story. The downside is not only have we all believed a lie for years and years but it also makes all of the Beatles stuff very very morbid and really depressing now. I guess I never paid much attention to the words and what they were REALLY saying.

Anyway.

Why I love conspiracy stuff: most of the time it makes you question what's on the surface. Makes you think outside the box. Makes you think twice about immediately believing the story someone just told you merely b/c that's what they told you and heck, why on earth would they lie?!?

I like to think it stretches my understanding of the world. I get that it's probably not real, but just to imagine for a moment that all these documentaries I'm watching, no matter the context or their purpose, are molding my brain to dig a little deeper.

Plus they've gotta be doing more good than watching daytime television b/c that stuff is just toxic.

Bubbly Toes

The day before I got married my wonderful girl friends took me to get a pedicure. It was only the second time I'd ever gotten one, it was joyous. It was even better given that my closest friends got to be there for all the pre-wedding girl talk.

Now for today:
I had just eaten lunch and was struck with a crazy bad migraine. It was probably from not having drank 3 Diet Pepsi's by noon, but I digress...

For those that know me and know I always complain BEFORE I take medicine to help things, I HAD taken Excedrin and it wasn't working. I was nauseous, my head was pounding, my eyes hurt, I was dizzy...I wanted it fixed. So I thought maybe a shower would help.

Generally when the shampoo bottle falls in the shower you dodge out of the way or do some spider man move to catch it mid fall.

Well in my stupor of pain I somehow thought I could "catch" the bottle with my big toe. So I deliberately stuck my left big toe EXACTLY where the bottle fell, and thus splitting my toe open.

On the plus side, it took my mind off my head for a minute.

Monday, Monday, daaa daaa, daaa, da, da, da

As a tradition we have here in the Barnes House (our first tradition, whoo!) I make muffins for Lincoln's buddies at work on Mondays (and sometimes a different kind of baked breakfast goody.) It has been lovingly named Muffin Monday.

Today's muffins were the best muffins I've made yet from scratch. They were so tasty...if I hadn't given them away I would have eaten all 24 mini bites of heaven. They were cinnamon apple with a streusel topping. When the boys make a request I generally just go to Google and type in something and sift through whatever pops up. I have learned to always read the reviews. Not just some of them, probably most of them and take what they have to say into consideration.

I replaced part of the vegetable oil with cinnamon apple sauce and despite the reviews I used all the streusel topping. Baking common sense says never fill the cups all the way so all the people that complain about that must not bake much. I filled the cups about 2/3 (baking rule 1) and then filled the rest of the cup with the streusel topping and lightly tapped it to keep it from all falling off once it baked up a bit.

The end result was super tasty and I bet would be even tastier if they were full size muffins. The streusel topping came out crunchy and the inside was a lovely cinnamon apple explosion. I did put 2 tsp instead of the suggested 1 in the batter.

I would definitely make these again, I hope the boys request them again soon.

Going to the Chapel

We've been reminiscing about our wedding lately after we realized that we'd been married for 8 months. It has FLOWN by!

8 months after it's all over I wouldn't change a thing. It was perfect. We did so much of it ourselves. I take it back...we did MOST of it ourselves. I designed the programs, Reagan designed the invitations, I stamped the to go boxes with "thank you," mom and I tied bows to the boxes, mom and Aint Sue cut up all the lemons, all the girls put the centerpieces together the night before/the day of, mom dreamed up the candy buffet, and a lot of stuff I ordered online for cheap cheap. With the help of awesome people the day of we took that room and turned it into a fairy tale. My friends can tie a bow like nobody's business :)

The only thing we paid to have done was the cake, bouquets, and the boutonnieres.
I look back and wouldn't change a thing (except maybe have a DJ so my bridesmaids didn't have to go play disc jockey while Lincoln and I mingled with all of our guests.)


It was good times, very good times :)

Roll The Dice

I love our lazy weekends where we just do whatever comes to mind. We generally wake up earlier than we'd like and then lounge around. This Saturday we managed to wake up early and then take a nap before we even got up. That nap was the best I've slept in a while. Then our usual Sunrise Cafe breakfast (which was more so around lunch time due to the nap) and then we came home and watched movies waiting for the game to come on.

We've had Trivial Pursuit since like November but we've never even opened it so we decided to break it in. It was a very close game, but the dumb rule that you have to land exactly on the middle space or whatever put Lincoln ahead and he got an easy question so he beat me.

I love board games, I love that we're the people that have board games.

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

In honor of Opening Day in Texas: GO RANGERS!


I love The Ballpark in Arlington. It's one of my favorite places to be in Texas.



Season before last (Spring of 09) they started out cutting the grass into a star around the pitching mound...I wish they had kept that up....it was awesome.

And then there's Josh Hamilton, MVP on the field and MVP in America's hearts.

Although if we're talking looks....I'm a sucker for Kinsler :)
Who just hit a homerun his first at bat for the season. *sigh*