IHOP and Apron

So...I forgot about this until I saw the pictures of it on my phone, but Drew and I went to IHOP a couple of weeks ago at midnight. That's right, I said midnight! It was a blast.Drew got some old person breakfast entree, but I got the International Crepe Breakfast! Mmmmm...you really can't beat yummy crepes filled with nutella chocolately goodness mixed with sliced bananas, only to be topped off with strawberries!! I think we about made ourselves sick with coffee and unhealthy amounts of breakfast at that time of night, but it was fun and we made a memory. Drew wants to go back once a month...does he mean at midnight or at a normal hour?!

Yesterday, I went over to Lindsey's house again for my next sewing lesson! I made another super cute apron. This time I made a skirt apron with pleats and two pockets. I love it and really think the material is fabulous. Hobby Lobby has the cutest fabrics, don't they?! We swam first with her super cute son, Luke (turns 2 on Wednesday!). Then, we ate a quick lunch and got busy. Lindsey sewed another really cute crayon roll for a birthday present. If you haven't seen these before, check them out on her blog! I might have heard her say that she is about to open up an account to sell things on Etsy if you are dying to have any of the cute-as-can-be things that she makes, too!

On the topic of sewing, I am getting SO excited because my mom just told me today that she would like to give me her sewing cabinet/table when we see each other for the 4th of July at their lakehouse!!! AND, to top it all off, she is getting me a sewing machine for an anniversary present!!! Our anniversary is July 5th--don't you think Drew would just LOVE that anniversary present too?! Haha! I can't stop smiling though...I am going to find the perfect place for it in Drew's, er, OUR office! What a great day!!

The Chair

We had a couch and a love seat but no chair for our living room! This was a problem. Why?

Reason #1: We absolutely love having guests over to our house and once the couch and love seat are all filled up we have to start bringing out the kitchen table chairs and bench. We wanted at least one more comfortable seat for guests to use while at our house.

Reason #2: I wanted a fun place to read a book next to good lighting. We almost never have on our overhead lights because we like the softer lighting of lamps in our living room. This created a problem, though, when trying to find a good place to read where you didn't have to squint to see the words!

Reason #3: Drew likes to play video games (PS3 currently but we are thinking about getting another XBOX after the horrible "red ring of death" on the last one we owned) and needs a good chair to sit on to play his games. The couches are too far away from the TV and so he has been previously using our ottoman to sit on for game playing purposes. However, this option was not the most comfortable as it has no back and isn't meant to be sat on for long amounts of time...let's face it, ottomans are for feet!

Because of reason #3, we had to make sure it was a light enough chair that it could easily be moved. We looked into comfortable recliners both leather and fabric at Sam's Club. However, after trying to pull the fabric recliner around on the floor at Sam's to see if it was moveable, we decided it was just too heavy to always be moving back and forth at our house. And......Drew may have accidentally pulled the entire top off of the leather recliner when trying to see if it was easy to move around at Sam's...oops! Thankfully he was able to put it back together and we decided to shop around at a few more stores to check out our options.

After shopping at Bass Direct, Weirs {love this store and their clearance selection upstairs...will be shopping there in the future}, and Pier One, we found the perfect chair! I absolutely LOVE it and so does Drew!! We found this jewel at Pier One and got it at a better price than all of the other chairs we had seen at the previous locations. Let me tell you, after all of those chairs we sat in to test them out, we were experts! So, to share our joy with you, I have included a picture of our precious chair. I am especially proud of this picture because I took it using Drew's complicated fancy camera...oh la la! Let me know what y'all think of our most recent purchase!!

I'm so sore!

I don't remember the last time I was this sore! I recently bought the Jillian Michael's (from Biggest Loser) 30 Day Shred video from Target for only $9. It had great online reviews and when I got it home and previewed it I saw that there were 3 levels. Being big-headed, I went for level 2 the first time I tried it because I just knew I would be too good for level 1, and would be on my way to level 3 in no time. WRONG!!!! The first time I tried it, I was out of breath the entire time and couldn't even finish the weight lifting part at the end...I had to just do the moves without the weights {shame}!
You see, I may have endurance and leg strength from running, but when it comes to arm or ab strength...forget it! I am a weakling. I think I was using too high of hand weights too...I was using 8lbs. when it looks like on the video that they are using either 2 or 3lbs. I went after the first time to get 5lb. hand weights. After encouragement from my mom and a partner in crime with Lara (she went and bought the DVD too!), I gave it another shot and was able to complete the whole thing without giving up the weights at any point! I decided to keep myself extra challenged and stay with level 2 instead of going back to level 1. Needless to say, I am worn out and took a day off today! :) If you want the workout of your life, get this video!!

bunco

Last night I had the best time playing Bunco with a bunch of ladies! A girlfriend of a co-worker of Drew's, that I meant once at a softball game invited me to join a new Bunco group with a couple of other coworkers' wives and some ladies that she works with as well. We had a ball chatting and getting to know each other while playing this new game {well, not new...but new to me!}. At the end of the game we drew names for when each of us will host a future game. There are 12 ladies. We play once a month on the second Tuesday of the month. My name got drawn for October! I love October!! That is my birthday month and someone even said we could all show up to play that month in our Halloween costumes...fabulous! Hmmm....what to be this year for Halloween. Hard to top being a flapper girl with a whoopie cushion husband!

Loren, the wife of one of Drew's coworkers, picked me up since we live in the same neighborhood, and drove us to and from the game. She is the cutest pregnant lady ever! I probably bombarded her with pregnancy questions because I am so curious about it all. What a treat to get to know her better on the way there and back!

Ok...got a random question: I am seriously looking into getting a sewing machine so that I can venture further into this new passion for sewing that I have developed! Does anyone have a good recommendation for a sewing machine? So far, in all my research, I am very impressed with the electronic sewing machines out there. So many options....

Learning to Sew

I decided that this summer I wanted to learn how to sew! Who better to ask for their teaching expertise than Lindsey Carver!? I went for my first lesson on Wednesday at 4pm. Little did I know that I would still be hard at work around 10:40pm!! This sewing stuff takes a lot of time and patience, I quickly realized. I had a blast! First we layed out the fabric {damask of course...I am obsessed with it!} and cut according to the pattern. Ahhhh! I was doing it! I was starting the first step to sewing something!! Then, I sewed the abnormally mile long ties together for the back tie and the around the neck tie part. Oh...did I mention I chose to make an apron?! This might make more sense now! Next, I sewed the hems on the apron and the ties. The cutest part was last...the pink pocket! Lindsey is so creative and she suggested cutting out a fork from the damask fabric and sewing it with zig-zag stitching onto the pocket. Once I saw how cute the fork was, I had to have a spoon and knife also! I sewed the pocket on, and attempted at one of the damask utensils, but I won't lie...I begged for help! :)

Lindsey was the best teacher because she was so patient with my questions and guided me but also left me alone to give it a whirl by myself! Thanks Lindsey!!! I loved my new apron so much I put it on and wore it all the way home to show Drew! Now I have it hanging up in my kitchen and it's kind of like playing "Where's Waldo" because it blends in so much with my matching black and white damask curtains...thank goodness it has the cute pink pocket on it so I can find it. I will be wearing it tonight when I am cooking dinner for a potluck party I am throwing at our house.

I invited a few of our favorite couples over and asked them to bring some sort of dish. I am making barbeque pulled pork sandwiches. It is so easy to make, delicious, and effortlessly feeds a crowd. I first fell in love with the recipe when my friend Denise brought it to a school potluck. She told me the recipe is on the back of one of those McCormick's seasoning mixes! All it takes is the mix, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, and ketchup. Throw a pork shoulder roast in the crockpot and set it on low...YUMMY! They are best when served on bouillon rolls. Lindsey and Cody are coming and bringing blackberry cobbler {I have the perfect Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla icecream for that}! Lara and Tony are coming and bringing a fabulous side dish! I can't wait to hang out tonight with two of our favorite couples!!

We have a new car!!

Yes! It's true! We have a new car!! Good riddens to the old two-seater Ford Ranger ('02)--we won't miss your "midnight blue"/purplish color, your sorry AC, or your old school roll down windows.

(I couldn't find a picture so I got one off of the internet)

Hello to our new Honda Element (well new to us: '06)! We love your safety, wonderful reports, gas mileage, head room, back seat!!!, and MP3 player jack! We know we may be mistaken as a UPS driver if wearing brown clothes while driving you, but we don't care!

Doesn't Drew look so happy in his new Honda Element?! He is such a stud!!

Cake Balls & Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

So, now that you know I have a sweet tooth, let me just tell you how WONDERFUL cake balls are! I had heard about them in casual teacher conversation, but trying them out for myself did them SO much more justice. You should try them out too. It is very easy to make them. Here's how:

Take a box of your favorite cake mix and bake it according to the directions on the box. Let it cool for a bit and then crumble it back into your mixer. Dump into the cake crumbles any can of frosting you like. My personal favorite combination is red velvet cake with cream cheese icing! Mmmmm!! Mix these two together until it turns into dough. Freeze the new dough you formed for a few hours (I think it is best to keep it in the freezer overnight). When you are ready, scoop small pieces of the dough out with a spoon and roll into balls using your hands. It may be best to freeze them on a plate or cookie sheet after doing this because they get kind of soft after being rolled. Melt chocolate in a bowl in 30 second increments. I have used all different types of chocolate (semi-sweet chips, melting chocolate, bakers white chocolate, bakers dark chocolate, almond bark, white almond bark) and the best one so far has been the almond bark and white almond bark. Not really sure why it is even called that because I didn't taste any almond in it! Roll the frozen cake balls in the melted chocolate and place immediately on wax paper to cool. Refrigerate and enjoy--these won't last long because they go so fast!

Then, I ran across this recipe in my Nestle Tollhouse Cook Book for a chocolate chip cookie pie and had to try it. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Get a deep dish 9" pie crust and let thaw if frozen. Mix two eggs until foamy. Throw in 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, and 1 1/2 sticks of softened butter. Mix in 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1 cup of finely ground pecans. I thought it needed an extra touch that wasn't in the recipe...vanilla! I poured in about a teaspoon of vanilla and mixed it all together. Using a spatula, pour mixture into pie crust. Bake for 55-60 minutes.

When you can insert a knife in the pie and it comes out clean--you know you are ready to take that bad boy out! Cool on a wire rack and serve warm with...Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla icecream of course!!