Homeless in Dallas

We arrived to Dallas late last night after an uneventful (that's the way we like 'em) drive. I can say that I am beginning to lose my voice from an all out jam session in my car last night and talking for hours to different people. It definitely made the drive through no-man's-land a lot more enjoyable. After our horrendous drive to Georgia last year, I was very nervous for another cross country drive. The weather channel definitely didn't soothe my nerves because Dallas has been all over the news for tornadoes and other craziness. Needless to say, we packed up anyways and headed out. We left at about 7 pm (what kind of crazy people start a 20 hour drive at night, right?) and drove about 6 hours to the middle of nowhere to stay in a "podunk" little town. We woke up at about 8am the next day to shove off by 9 and drove the rest of the way until about 11:30 pm (12:30 local time because of the time change). Overall, we drove through about everything, a little bit of rain, hail, snow, and a lotta bit of wind. Nothing we couldn't handle!
Anyways, we arrived in Dallas late last night to our extended stay hotel. This is because the company still has not found us apartments to stay in! I was a little bugged about the whole situation but knew there was nothing I could do to hurry the process up. The extended-stays are actually very nice suites. The only downfall is that we had to unload both of our cars because we didn't want to get anything stolen. In a week or so we'll have to load everything back up and re-unload everything into our actual apartments. Luckily our suite it on the first floor right next to one of the exits and right by the pet area for Rush! Definitely the best-case for this specific scenario! Other than the fact that we have to pack, unpack, repack, and unpack again, there is nothing to complain about! These suites have kitchenettes, a nice little gym, a big pool, courtyards, internet, housekeeping, etc.

So this will be our home for the next little bit! I'll update you with our actual apartments!

Family Pictures 2011

I feel so blessed to have Greg and Mckenzie (photographybymckenzie) as in-laws. They are so great to us and we just love them. Not only do we hang out pretty much all of the time, we have a hootin-hollerin good time when we do! It's an added bonus that they are both the most talented photographers around. I asked them if they could take some updated pictures of our little family because it's been a year and a half since our wedding (crazy, I know) and it's always nice to have great quality pictures to look back at. We decided to make a trip out of it and went to the Great Salt Lake. Mckenzie wanted to take Ellie's 4 year old pictures out there and wanted another reason to justify the long drive.

Harrison Danger Deakins

Harrison (Devin and my nephew) turned one on February 22. He is the freaking cutest kid around with the biggest brown eyes and the sweetest smile. If you don't believe me, you can find out yourself!

This is a video that the talented Lilly McDowell made to commemorate Harrison's first birthday! It's so precious that I've watched it several times (mainly because Ellie has been slightly obsessed with it and thinks that it should be played at her house non-stop).

http://picketfencefilms.blogspot.com/2011/03/harrison-day-in-life.html

He's such a stud and he's ALWAYS happy! Lilly is in my Bunco group and I'm proud to say that she did my wedding video as well! Her work is never a disappointment!

Anyways, Harrison, birthday...back on track! McKenzie trusted me enough to make the birthday cake for Harrison's first birthday. It was a monkey theme and I wanted to make something other than a tiered cake. I've done that tons of times before and I never seem to have time to make cakes anymore so I wanted to challenge myself. I found a cake online that I thought was too cute for words and wanted to use that cake as the inspiration for Harrison's Monkey Cake (I'm not going to post the inspiration photo because it was professionally done and would definitely put my cake to shame)

Here's the end product :)



This was my first attempt at shaping a cake, meaning I made a bunch of cakes, put filling between each layer and then had to carve the shape of the monkey's body out of the tower of cake...not as easy as it sounds but it went off without a hitch! I was surprised at my undiscovered shaping skills.

The problem was in trying to cover the head with the fondant. The head was obviously a circle and gravity wanted to remind of its continual pull on everything including monkey heads made out of cake. The head was one of the last things that I created for the cake so it was late and I was running out of patience. I felt defeated when the head eventually crumbled in my hands. I knew that baking another cake would take close to an hour and I knew that even if I baked a whole new cake, gravity would still crumble that darn head. I sank defeated into the couch and watched an entire episode of Ugly Betty before I had an epiphany. I used to cater weddings and I remembered all of the people that had a layer of their wedding cake made out of Rice Krispy Treats. (Note: this is an EVIL thing to do to caterers or whoever plans on cutting the said Rice Krispy Treat layer because 4 inches of rice krispies simply shouldn't ever be cut!)Bad idea for wedding cakes but GREAT idea for Monkey heads! I knew that I could probably go outside and play baseball with the monkey head which meant that covering the head in fondant would be a "piece of cake." (lame, sorry-I had to!)I was right. The rest of the cake went off without a hitch and I was very proud of the end result considering all of the obstacles I ran into!

The only thing that I would have liked to find out ahead of time would be that the homemade chocolate fondant is a lot drier than the regular marshmallow fondant that I usually make. This made it a lot more difficult to roll out and cover the giant cake. Also, the spots that seemed fine when I covered the cake dried out and cracked a little over night...no biggie but just made my heart hurt a little bit.
It was also good to know that (homemade) chocolate fondant is SO good. McKenzie and I decided that it tasted like tootsie rolls. I may just have to make an extra batch just to make little bite-sized balls of goodness.

One of my favorite sayings about making cakes is, "There's no such thing as a perfect cake, you just have to know how to cover up or fix the mistakes." So, don't get sad when things don't turn out perfect, just get a little creative. I did have to do some damage control. The head was pretty lumpy because the rice krispy treat head was a lot bumpier than cake would have been. I covered most of it up by adding a little baseball cap for the monkey to wear. I also covered up some of the cracks in the chocolate fondant by making a little blankie to drape over the monkey's shoulder.

I'm Game...(pun intended)

I seriously would play board games all day, everyday if someone would play with me. I think I might have burned Devin out so I'm available for new board game buddies. It's probably one of my favoritest (yes, I know it is not a word, but I think it truly expresses how I feel about the subject) things to do. I've decided to post the most recent additions to my board game collection so that all of you potential board gamers out there will know my opinion on them. Let's get real, no one wants to spend $30 on something that might be fun. Another reason for posting I guess would be so that you know which games I have so that you can go buy other games. Then you can call me over and I play with you (night or day, I'm there).

Monopoly Deal ($5)
Your house is not a home without this game. You don't have to like Monopoly AT ALL, you just have to like something called "fun." For $5 do you really have an excuse not to own it?


Monopoly-Electronic Banking ($24)
Throw your old board away and upgrade. I have never in my life had so much fun playing Monopoly. I've never been a fan of the tediously long game, but when you have debit cards instead of cash, it is SO fun. Also, all of the properties are US landmarks, the utilities are now cellphones and internet, and the railroads are now airports. It's my newest purchase and definitely one of my favorites.


Ligretto ($10 each set)
This is on my wishlist. Even though I don't own it, I've played it enough to know that this is another game that no one should live without. I've only been able to find it online. Each set is a different color and can accommodate up to 4 people. The more sets you have, the more people can play at once!


Blokus ($20)
This is up to 4 players and is only 20 maybe 30 minutes per round. This game is a slower paced game and definitely makes you think strategically. We played it the other night with a 5 year old (the youngest listed age recommended to play) and she did pretty well considering her age. So all of you with kiddles, it definitely gets them thinking! Love it!



Parcheesi ($8-Walmart)
I grew up playing this game but Devin had never heard of it until I brought it home a couple of months ago. I've always loved this game and it's SUPER cheap at Walmart. It's fun with adults and children catch on pretty quick with a little bit of help. I played with my nieces and nephews (ages 5-8) and they all loved it. Adults have just as much fun! 2-4 players


Cranium ($25)
I got this for my birthday and I love it! I'd played it a ton before but I was so happy to get one of my own. I also love party games that a lot of people can be included in. The best part is that out of all of the friends that we know of that already has the game, we have the newest edition with brand new questions and a cool new board. The board can be folded three different ways to make the length of the game longer or shorter.


Imaginiff ($13)
This game is such a fun party game. You need to play with people that you know, but lets get real, you play games with people you know, right?




Okay so...who wants to have a game night?


(I think I should get some advertising money for all of the good things I said about all of those board games!)

Disconnected

I'm feeling strangely out of touch with myself lately. Maybe it's because this last week was filled with study groups and exams. I hated how fast time was going because that meant that I was that much closer to entering the dreaded testing center again for yet another three hour exam. I studied my heart out and still never felt quite prepared enough walking through those doors. This is not some plea for pity because I feel very capable, overwhelmed at times, but capable. For that I am very blessed. Even though the week was hard and I haven't gotten all of my test scores back, I knew all of the material on each of my four tests. Nothing came as a surprise to me and I feel like I got really good scores. I won't have another week like this for a couple more weeks so I'm luckily able to breathe. When I got done with my classes today and I knew I was done for the week I seriously felt like skipping.
I do have to say, I feel like I've learned and retained more in the last few weeks of this semester than I have in the last two semesters combined. I love my major and I'm starting to meet people that are in multiple classes of mine. By meeting these people and forming study groups, studying hasn't been nearly as tedious and it's been SO productive. Ironically, I feel like that is the reason I've felt so unprepared for the tests. Studying hasn't felt like studying and learning hasn't even felt like learning!
I'm so grateful for Devin for understanding when I'm stressed out and doing anything he can to help me feel better. He knows when I need to set my books down and play some Wii. He knows when to say a prayer for me to help me fall asleep at night. He knows when to laugh at me when I'm being completely illogical and we both know it. I just love him.
After a week of having every second of my life being scheduled out and feel like I'm on fast-forward, I'm ready to relax and live life at a normal speed! So now, I need something to do! Who wants to hang out?

When Devin's away...

I craft all day! Okay not ALL day, but this whole evening. I had to watch a 4 hour movie for my Humanities class so I stocked up on crafts to get me through it! I got the idea for these from my blog-surfing adventures! I am SO excited about how they turned out! These all started as plain blocks of wood that I picked up from Hobby Lobby. I used crackle glaze to achieve the distressed look.

The new addition for my wall




I made these for our nephew, Harrison. I'm hoping that McKenzie won't see this before Harrison's birthday on the 22nd of February, but I knew that if I didn't post these pictures now then I wouldn't remember later. I'm just too excited to wait :) The colors match his nursery! The colors look a lot better in person, but you get the idea.

My DI craft

I found these frames at DI and I saw past their 90's gaudiness and saw their potential. I paid $5 for all three frames and I paid $1 for the paint!


Before

Here are the frames in all their glory!


This is "The Living Christ" message that I just had framed in a plain black frame before.


After

I LOVE them! I painted the two frames yellow and then distressed them around the edges to give them that vintage look that is so fabulous right now. I painted the middle frame a pale blue color that I found for 50 cents in the "mistint" pile at Lowe's. I then took scrapbook paper and mod podge them onto the frame and then placed "The Living Christ" in the middle. It's an upgrade from the plain black frame I was using before! It was my first time "mod podging" so it's kind of bubbled, but now I know what to do better next time!


This is my favorite picture from our engagements and now it's in a cute frame ready to be hung!




What do you think?!