Count Down- 3 days

I am going to NASHVILLE on Friday to see my love Mariellen! I can't even explain how excited I am! I got a fairly good deal on a flight. I've always driven to Nashville in the past...and it's a BIG drive to make alone. Flights have always been too pricey, but they have dropped some. I try to keep a pretty good eye on them...you never know when a deal will come up. Bryan is never crazy about me taking off in Stella and driving that far.....so, courteous of Northwest Airlines I'll be zooming over there friday morning. I haven't been to Nashville since Mariellen's wedding in April of last year. I'm WAY overdue. Ok Mariellen...I will SEE you friday.

Once upon a time...in a pedi-cab race.....

Turning Around....

Saturday was suppose to be the big day. I was heading to Tulsa to finally BUY a wedding dress. I had my options narrowed down, I was going to spend the day making sure I found nothing else better...and then I was going to order my dress. I asked Lindsey and Kati to come, but Linds had a prior engagement (and mom was fighting a cold)....so Kati and I decided to leave saturday morning at 815. We knew the weather MIGHT become an issue, but I never put much stock into warnings of snow until I see the snow falling myself. I hopped in my car Saturday morning, drove to the donut place to buy us a coffee (ahem, and a sausage rolls and 2 donuts..bad, bad, bad) and that's when it started sleeting. Great. So I got to Kati's house and we sat in the car and drank our coffee and ate our food while discussing whether or not we were crazy. We decided after looking at the radar that we would try it. So we drove all the way to Siloam Springs where we saw our first wreck...and the road was covered in slush. We stopped in Siloam and checked the radar again on my phone...and it said it was raining in Siloam but it was clearly SNOWING very hard because we were there sitting in it. So after sitting in the Wal-Mart parking lot for 10 minutes debating on what to do...we decided us being stranded with nothing but 2 cups of coffee and a 100 cal pack of muffins in my purse wasn't worth it for THE dress. So back home we went. We will try again next weekend......

Siloam Springs Wal Mart Parking Lot! :)

Oaklawn 2009

Bryan and I have traveled to the races twice this season. We went the first time with our friends Linda, Jami and Greg in February! My dad and crew were there as well. We had a wonderful time. It was snowing, and it was fun to watch the races with snow falling on the ground. It was also SUPER cold, which goes hand in hand with that snow I mentioned! :) I didn't win on a single race, even with my Dad's hot tips!
Linda, myself and Jami
Backseat of the wonderful hot springs cab

The second trip was in March. We celebrated my friend Bryan W's birthday (And Kortney's!) and I also had some kind of 48 hour stomach bug...that made for an interesting weekend for me. Our group from Fayetteville went, my friend Jeane that lives in Little Rock and my little loves from Batesville came along with lots of other people we enjoyed seeing all weekend. I did win on the second race, I put 2 dollars to win on horse #2 (can't remember the horse's name) and won $26. I really get into the races when I have 2 dollars of my hard earned money riding on it. I bet $2 to win every time....I get confused if I start trifecta'ing, box'ing, blah blah blah....
Zeke, Bran and Bryan and I
Races
Jeane, Brandi, myself, Kati, Linds, and Christa

How do people with babies get anything done?

Hadleigh is having her first overnight trip to Gammaw's tonight. I have been helping mom take good care of her. Our evening involved some visitors (Uncle Bryan, Great Aunt Lorie and Great Aunt Janet) taking a walk in the stroller with Baki, taking some pictures, playing and laughing at Baki, eating rice cereal and pears, drinking a bottle, taking a bath and just hanging out. Her eating from a spoon is comical, she just spits it all right back out. She just has no idea yet what to do with it...but we tricked her into swallowing quite a bit of it. I was of course trying to assess her feeding/swallowing skills the whole time ...while mom just kept making airplane sounds..hee hee. It definitely helped when you got it on the spoon in the perfect amount and in the perfect spot:)

I will say this- I have done nothing this evening except for hang with Hadleigh. Nothing. I finally realized at about 830 I was dying of thirst. I hadn't had a drink of water all evening, I just forgot! :) She is now sleeping in her bassinet. I have to say, she is getting so long all of her clothes are getting to small. She is really into laughing and smiling and looking at the dog. She is fascinated with the dog, and when he barks she laughs. I think his bark is kinda loud and scary (he is a terrier) but she loves it.

Hadleigh looking at Baki
On our walk
Walking a dog and pushing a stroller is harder than it looks....

Messy

Celebrity Apprentice.....

So, I am not a big Apprentice watcher....but since I was there at the filming of the wedding dress episode in NYC in October...I have been watching this season.

First of all, Dennis Rodman......I don't EVEN know where to begin. The man is out of touch with reality and needs to take his cat/dog allergy and just go on home. I say DENNIS YOU ARE FIRED! As for Tom Green, he was friendly and pleasant when we met him, but he's also a nut and a terrible leader. Hey folks, he was just trying to keep it positive. Who cares that Dennis Rodman was at the hotel having an allergic reaction to a cat (or russian prostitute according to team Athena) instead of helping his team.

Second of all, stop pretending that you need to HUSTLE up business for whatever thing you are trying to sell. We all know you could just have all the celebrities sit in a room, and use their cell phones to call their other celebrity friends to donate money to whatever cause they are raising money for. Seriously, the average person they get to spend money isn't a drop in the bucket compared to what they can get from Tim McGraw if they call him for a donation. So, why don't we just sit them all in a hotel room with their cell phones and let them call everyone in their phonebook for a donation? I guess that wouldn't make for as interesting television.

When they were trying to sell me a sample wedding dress that had a rip in the back of the dress on the seam for $500 dollars, they kept saying "It's only $500 dollars, it's for charity, it's only $500 dollars." Well, mainly Jesse James kept saying that. My dear celebrity friends, $500 is a lot of money to this little ole girl from Arkansas. And if I WAS going to spend $500 dollars, I'd prefer the dress to not look like it had been through it.... One more thing, Brian McKnight was looking pretty sharp in his suit, and he was very nice. Niceness gets you everywhere with me. Well, except it doesn't get me to buy a wedding dress I am unsure of...sorry Brian! :)

I will end by saying....I think raising money for charity is excellent. They should keep it up. Also, being there and meeting many of them was very fun! Even if I was SO excited to meet Clint Black that I almost busted out into my own rendition of Desperado and come to find out he was totally more into his bluetooth than seeing anyone who they were trying to sell a dress to. Which who can blame him, Tim McGraw does have more money than I do! :)

Tom Green, you are fired! So, just get out of here! Get out! (I felt a little sorry for him)

Mr Clint Black/I love my bluetooth with Linda and Mariellen

To end my celebrity apprentice post, I will say that the ladies team was very cool, but just didn't have any dresses that I really loved. I was super nervous watching the show last night because I was scared of having a national television debut. I was quite relieved that there were just a couple of glimpses of me in the background. That's as close to stardom as I ever hope to come.

Clint talking with ole what's his name from apprentice
The girls side definitely won as far as decor goes....here's Linda posing at Athena's dress sale.

**A couple of sidenotes, we had no idea that we were going to be at a filming of celebrity apprentice. We just happened upon it while walking around that morning, but it sure was fun! And we all got our makeup done at team Athena's dress sale...the makeup lady just kept saying how gorgeous Linda was...and isn't she? Mariellen, Linda and I had so much fun meeting everyone, and they helped me try on about 50 dresses...what wonderful bridesmaids they both are! And in conclusion, I still do not have a wedding dress. The search continues.

"Bangs are dangerous!"

First of all, one of the best things I have learned from my job is that kids do and say the funniest things!

This past Thursday I was working with one of my kids on sequencing 3 pictures in order to tell a story. One of the sets of pictures was of a girl getting a hair cut. And I asked my kiddo "Who cuts your hair?" And she said "You better not cut my hair!!" (looks like some work on "wh" questions is in order) And I said "No, I mean, who is the person that cuts your hair?" She said "No one!" Well, she has bangs, that are always trimmed the same length so I know that she must get her hair cut. So I said, "Who cuts your bangs?" And she looks straight at me and says "Bangs are dangerous!" I started cracking up. Bangs are dangerous. :)

I made apple pie!

I forgot to take a picture of my finished product before we destroyed it! :)

So, I have never "baked" a pie before. I have made peanut butter pie...but you don't bake it..so I'm not counting it. :) So, I did some researching for recipes and got to work Saturday afternoon. I really want to be a good cook, but I'd settle for being a good baker, because that's what I really like to do.

Here's my recipe:
Crust

2 cups all-purpose flour

I teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

6 tablespoons butter

6 tablespoons shortening

6 to 8 tablespoons ice water

Warm the butter in the microwave until it is soft, but not melted.

Mix in a large bowl:

2 cups all-purpose flour

I teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

Then cut in using the dough blender:

6 tablespoons butter

6 tablespoons shortening

6 to 8 tablespoons ice water

Refrigerate dough for atleast 20 minutes

For the apple pie filling you need:

5 Tart Peeled Apples

1 Cup Sugar

2 Tablespoons Flour

1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon

1/4 Teaspoon Salt

1 Tablespoon Cider Vinegar

1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice

Second Step: Mix Filling

Mix in large mixing bowl:

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon vinegar

Third Step: Mix Apples

Now, drain the water off of the apples and mix them with the spices.

To assemble divide pie dough in half. Roll out dough, put one half in bottom of pie plate, pour in apples and add four chunks of butter on top of the apples. Roll out the other part of the dough, lay over the top and seal the edges.

Bake for 50-60 minutes at 400 degrees. Cover the edges of the pie with foil until the last 10 minutes and then remove them to keep the edges from burning.

Ukraine Updates

The gals have made it to Ukraine, completed one presentation and are doing well. If you want updates go to Carmen's Blog or Karen's blog. Keep praying for their trip!