Month in Review

Month in Review? It's been that long? Geez....

I can say the holidays are a busy time, but in all honesty, I'm just not an exciting person. The last month has been pretty eventful though: Thanksgiving, a wedding, my birthday, our 5 year anniversary (5 years!)...

I spent my birthday flaunting my tiara from my wedding and hanging out with a couple friends and got a few sweet gifts. Including the final canopic jar for my collection. So we got shelves and Chris lovingly hung them to display my innards holders.

Now accepting donations of one stomach, lungs, liver and partial tract of intestines.

Right after Thanksgiving, which was delici-I mean wonderful to spend time with family, we had a wedding. Our friends got married at the state capital so we headed that way to enjoy the service followed by some awesome food (which I'm pretty sure the bride was more excited about than the actual wedding , hehe) and then spent time hanging out until later than I'm used to being out (cause I'm totally old now).

Good times with a beautiful bride and also there was a groom (he is family so I have to mention him too I suppose). 

For our anniversary I wanted to do something a little special. On our wedding day, the only bite of the chocolate cake we got was the bite for our pictures. It was so delicious and it was all we got. The white cake was good too, but man did I overestimate what we needed. 
Here is my #1 piece of wedding advice: Get whatever you want! It's your cake! If someone is cutting it for you, make sure they save a slice of each flavor for you.

We didn't do this. I got a 2 tier cake and the smallest was chocolate. My thought was that old people (which is what 90% of my family is made of) would want white. I was wrong. I have my regrets and now I digress.

Soooooo..... I ordered us a small chocolate cake from the same baker. It wasn't exact and I didn't care for the sprinkles on the sides, but it was yummy and we cut it together. It was a very memorable moment.

Nom nom nom

Chris gets me roses every year too, one for each year. This year they were yellow and smelled wonderful.

To be economically savvy he buys a dozen and gives the rest to his mother so we both get pretty flowers every year. Until our 12th anniversary I guess...

In addition to our anniversary, we also attended a pottery party again so I made cookies and went to paint a little owl plate.

I made my go-to crackles (which I think I posted a recipe for in the past.... I should check that), but instead of just Devil's Food, I made strawberry ones and also some that were strawberry and chocolate! I had made some red velvet ones before, but they were super sticky and I had more on my hands that the baking sheets. The strawberry was also sticky, but holy crap were they delicious!!!! They tasted exactly like Frankenberry cereal and were so fluffy and ooooooooohhhhh so good.

I know you want to eat me.... but I am just a picture.

I hope I look better after firing.

I plan to make lots of different crackles for Christmas to give out including: Chocolate, Strawberry, Funfetti, Orange, Lemon and maybe some combinations.
The problem with combinations and making multiple batches in the same day is the enormous amount of dishes and fast paced work in-between. They are only in the oven for 9 minutes which doesn't give me much time in between to roll more cookies and put them on a baking sheet that I just had to wash and re-prep.

By the end of the strawberry, chocolate and combo batches, I was tired and feeling yucky.

We post-poned our anniversary dinner (which is always at Olive Garden, yum!) till Sunday since the rest of the weekend was filled with cookies and painting and what-not, but it was worth it because Sunday evenings are the best time to go. We had a great server and wonderful food and leftovers for lunch on Monday. We then pranced into Lowe's in our formal wear to get a wheel for my free desk (pics soon I hope).

Fanciest home improvement store customers ever...

If I don't post before Christmas (I hope I do)...

Merry Christmas! Go have a grand time with friends and family and presents and food and all that!

Been Awhile

It's been awhile since I've posted. But it's been an even longer time since I've seen my friend who visited last month and it was the first time meeting another friend face to face.

This was our first time having house guests and I was very paranoid about the house being clean and having everything they could need. I hope it turned out okay! It was a big eye-opener as it has always been just myself or me and another person in a living area. The garbage and dishes doubled and I'm still getting caught up on laundry, but after having a non-stop August and a stressful time at work this week. I lack all motivation to really do much of anything.

My Sunday School class decided to have a party at the Pottery Place so the 4 of us went to paint again.

Chris made a treasure chest box (and was very meticulous.... we were there 3 hours!):


Andy made a giant mug and Sarah made a cute face with seashells.


I made a mug because that was the whole point of our class going. We have coffee every Sunday morning and we drink out of disposable cups, so we decided to Go Green and make mugs.
Oh yea... I have to throw this in for a few people "Booch".




Sarah's Pretty Vase


Andy's Mug o' Crab


Chris' Chest



My fantastic friend Lissa works at the Pottery Place too. We pay her in cupcakes. And she eats them whole. Mmmmm!!!

"How can I enjoy this cupcake with a mug in my face?"

We spent a lot of time relaxing at home, playing games, and lots of Andy team-killing me in Halo Reach.


We played Apples to Apples (the greatest game of all time) and Cranium.
There was a card that demanded these two crab walk with a ball on their stomach down the hall. It actually only called for one person to do it, but Andy opted to turn it into a demolition derby about 1/2 way down the hall.


Hopefully we will get to see them again soon and maybe be able to visit them and other friends in NY. Oh how I miss it there....

I'm glad they were able to come and visit and I hope they had a good time. Xerxes misses the extra bodies in the house too I think.

Busy Month Part 2

It's so hard to type with a cat chewing on my fingers and attacking my face...

This is angry Xerxes. He lays his ears back and looks a bit like a fuzzy imp and HE'S MEAN.
So mean that while I was typing that, he turned on the caps lock on.


Xerxes: "Yoooou Shall Not Blog!!!"

Anyhoo... today we made some tentative plans for a bunch of us to go to the Pottery Place and paint ceramics. While some other plans came up, Chris and I still went and it was so fun! Chris and I don't really have dates, and I didn't think he would go for it, but he agreed! So instead of packing for a trip (which needs done badly, yet I'm still typing this blog...) we ate lunch at Pita Pit (YUM!) and painted at the Pottery Place.

Chris' Project:


My Project:


Works in Progress:


Ready for Firing!

They are gonna be fantastic! Mine will be Orange and Teal. I'm so excited and totally addicted. I wanna go back again!

The month still has a lot of busy days. First a trip to Chicago for work, then friends coming in from New York!

I made a list of some places I want to visit in Chicago so hopefully I will be able to blog about them when I get back.

Now it's time to do some packing then bedtime.

Sweet Dreams!