I'm proud to say

Alright quick post... before our double date-ish thing tonight

One day... years ago I needed a book to read at work. I liked to read during my lunch break and I was really getting into fun reading things (after college I really took a break from reading) Well anywho, I was out of things to read and didn't have any ideas for what was next.

I was at CostCo with Chad and decided I would look at their book table b/c there at to be something. I ended up picking up this book:

I mostly picked it up b/c of it's cover... it was pink and had glitter (on the ring part) I figured it might be stupid but I would at least be entertained.

Well... I was partially right... I LOVED the book... I ended up recommending it to a lot of my friends and family and reading all of her other books. I'm actually excited to read things by her.

What makes me proud is usually I follow trends and read what I hear other people are reading. And this time I picked up a book I didn't know anything about and enjoyed it to no end. I also got other people hooked on her books as well. It's like with music, I usually jump on board but I happened to listen to Maroon 5 before everyone did... and that make me feel special.

Emily Giffin is the same way for me... while I know I'm not the first to pick up her book, I did introduce her to a lot of people and now I see that she is very popular... on display at Target... people talking about her... just makes me feel special... like I knew of something long before everyone else. Makes me smile :)

One More Post Tonight...

These pictures are pretty much all backward, but I'm a little lazy, and I'm the only one who knows they are backwards I'm going to go with it. (crap... did I blow my cover?!?)

This weekend I went and visited my friend Christina... It was her birthday so I went up to celebrate with her... We always have a great time when we're together, and this was no exception... plus I got to see Claire... the most adorable little girl I know!! She will always have a special place in my heart!! She's amazing and she's so smart already... she's so freaking cute!!

Here she is playing in the sprinkler... I took so many pictures, I decided to just include them all












Here's her adorable smile
Dancing around
Christina is a wonderful momma
Here's a picture from our night... Christina and her boyfriend tried to take me to a satanic church, but it had been knocked down... they wouldn't get out of the car... I wanted to... Here we are after we tried to go see the covered bridge, but it was flooding
I didn't know we were going to take a walk in the woods... so I had worn flip flops... My foot got all muddy
And finally here's our classic car picture

Quick

Here's some quick Rowdy pictures... I wrote a blog about him the other day so I thought you deserved some pictures


Look at that tongue...

Topic #2

CUPCAKE BITES!!

I came across this recipe online on Bakerella's Blog... I thought they were too adorable and they didn't sound too hard. My step-sister Adriane's wedding shower was last weekend so I thought it might be a good time to try out this recipe. And I'm so glad I did... they went over extremely well. They are extremely cute and they actually taste really good too... like you don't know exactly what to expect biting into them. I would totally recommend making them!!

First off you bake a 9 x 13 cake... I made chocolate


Then you take that perfectly good cake and crumble it up


Then you mix in some some icing... I choose cream cheese icing

Here's what it looks like all mixed in... I thought this part was going to be hard... but it ended up being pretty not hard


Then you roll the mixture into balls... this part was messy... I wanted to take a picture of my messy messy hands... but I didn't want to touch my camera... and I was home alone


The next step is using a flower shaped cookie cutter to mold the balls into something that resembles a cupcake... I forgot to take a picture of that step

Then you dip the bottoms into almond bark


I used pink candy melts I got at Michaels for the tops


And the decorations (secret... I dipped the tops while Chad helped me decorate... go hubby!!) And yes, that's right I separated the red M&Ms out... I thought they were the only ones that looked right on top... I get anal about some things


Here's the finished product... I asked Chad to make sure the M on the M&Ms were all facing down, he did a wonderful job


While mine don't look as good as Bakerella's do... I think I did a pretty good job. I'll be making these again!!

Topic #1

Since meeting Chad there have been two issues that were once not that important to me, but now they are near and dear to my heart. The first is motorcycle awareness (watching for our two wheeled friends on the road) and the second is pit bulls. Today I will rant about the second one...

Last week sometime (maybe Friday) I read a very short article on StLToday about a pit bull who attacked a one year old boy... (here is the article) As you can see it is very short and not very informative... The part of this story that bothers me is the comments made by people about pit bulls.

Once upon a time I was scared of these dogs... all I knew about them was they attacked people and were used in dog fighting... I did not know much else... mostly b/c you don't hear those stories. Then my cousin Ashley had to her rid of her pit b/c she just didn't have the room for it anymore... Chad and I decided that we would take him in. He was the sweetest dog... Ashley has two kids and those kids could do practically anything to that dog and he wouldn't mind. While I was nervous at first about having him in our home I quickly got over that... Bear was the sweetest and sadly had a rough life and we had to put him to sleep.

Shortly there after Chad brought home another pit... Rowdy. Rowdy has been with us for a few months now... he's still a puppy but looking at his pictures in that post it's amazing how big he is now. He is the same loving, sweet dog that Bear was. He loves to play catch and tug-of-war... him and Bozley get along wonderfully... and he loves being next to people. When we have people over everyone falls in love with Rowdy... we hear "I'm going to steal your dog" out of almost every single one of our friend's mouths.

So I read the above article and more notably the comments... It's just another case of sheer ignorance... seriously. People get scared of these wonderful dogs b/c of selective reporting... Whenever it is a pit bull in question the breed gets named, but if it is another type of dog it's just 'a dog'... going further on this Chad informed me that our neighbor's dog attacked the elderly sick mother... and she had to get like 37 stitches in her face... that dog was NOT a pit.

I feel like I'm jumping all over the place with this post...

Anyway... it's just sad that there are ignorant people out there... people that want to breed these wonderful dogs out of existence... or ban breeds in certain areas... meaning they could pass a law in my town banning me from having our wonderful dog. I wish people (like I once was) could understand that pits can be amazing dogs... and the reason a lot 'go bad' is b/c of careless owners... or worse owners that train their dogs to do that... They give these loving dogs a bad name.

This is all about closed-mindedness... like other topics I will not go into today.

I hope everyone can realize that pits are great dogs... they are not all bad... they can be loving and caring and amazing pets... I love my pit!!

**Edit**
I wanted to add that the only thing dangerous about my pit bull is his tail... (it's like a whip when he's wagging it) and I just noticed he attacked Boz with kisses... how freaking cute.

I'm behind...

I know I'm behind... like way behind in posting... and so I don't forget what I want to write about and something for you to look forward to here are the upcoming topics...

1. Pitbulls
2. Cupcake Bites
3. Weddings/Randomness

That's what you have to look forward to...

Dear Chad,

Dear Chad,

I had a really fun night with you tonight...

Love,
Jenn

Monday Rant

I really needed a place that I could just let it out... bitch and moan a little... just say what's on my mind and not feel stupid or redundant for doing so... I was thinking to myself... who could I do that to?? And then it dawned on me... I have a blog to do those kinds of things... duh!!

Well... here's my rant... At work I get to travel and help facilitate conferences. Typically (in years past, I've heard) that a real life PSA takes you on your first couple of conferences in order for you to figure out the ins and outs of being at a conference. Well this year they are trying to keep spending down and travelling hasn't been as big a part of the job as it has been in years past.

I really feel like I'm missing out on this important piece. My supervisor wants me to come to this conference I've been working on for my orientation, which is great b/c I've been working on this project all along so it will be nice to see it from start to finish. The problem is there is no actual PSA going on the conference... there is a contract PSA which is completely different... There are a lot of things that a contract PSA doesn't understand... for instance what needs to be done at the conference in order to make the after conference wrap-up a smoother process.

My supervisor thinks that this is a wonderful idea, that taking me on this conference will get me all the training I need... but I don't think it will... she's training me on a job she doesn't even do... I just feel like I'm losing out on something important... something that may come around and bite me in the ass at some point... I feel like I have to learn the job of being on-site from people telling me about it here instead of there... on-site... when it would matter... I feel like the way I'm going to have to learn some stuff is by messing up and then knowing better for next time. Plus I know I'm not going to feel as comfortable asking questions and getting the answer I want/need.

I was okay with this plan to go to Denver without a real PSA b/c I was under the impression that I was going to go to another conference in July with possibly 2 real PSAs. This is a huge conference and I was really excited to see what it was all about and really get some training that I wanted and needed.

Well today I found out I don't get to go... that it "doesn't make sense for me to go" and frankly I'm really becoming pissed off about it. My supervisor does. not. get. it. She thinks that she's right and I feel like I'm missing out on something important. I don't really have the authority yet to say I think I should be able to go and here's why... b/c in her head I'll get everything I need out of the June trip. I think this would have been a GREAT chance... and she squashed that hope.

I just needed to rant about it... I already did a little but really I wanted more time to say what I felt... I just really wanted to go and I'm missing out... like seriously... for real... grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Thoughts...

As you've heard me write about we are in the (very) long process of 'redefining' our house... decorating it to be more like us. We are starting with our living... we've already painted the room a yellow (Behr's Cheerful Hue) we are strongly thinking of dark brown furniture... now we just need to figure out our accent color... I'm thinking either a pool blue (but we already have browns and light blues in our comforter in the bedroom.) or a purple. The reason why I'm thinking purple is b/c I'm already thinking about doing the hallways in a light purple-ish gray... so having a splash of purple in the living room might help bring in the hallway... especially since you can see the hallway from the room... here's a picture... you can see the yellow already on the walls in the living room... I'm thinking purple for the hallway... so would it be smart to bring in an element of purple into the living room?


I'm thinking down the front hallway of painting stripes on the top part... like lighter and darker purple... here's a picture... what do you think? Or with the tile floor would that be too much?

If I did the stripes down the front hallway I would just paint the rest of the hallway the lighter of the two purples... down this hallway...
Yeah... it much tougher making decisions like this... I really just wanted to write them out... you can let me know if you'd like... in a week I'll probably have a whole new idea... I also have big white canvas that I plan on painting for the living room for a little art work. I could also add in some purple that way...

Okay... I'm probably not making any sense at this point... it made sense while I was writing it... okay... I'm done going to bed...

Arrrgggghhhhh

So I know it's Tuesday but I wanted to talk about my weekend...

Friday
Chad and I were invited to my cousin (and our flower girl's) first grade play/musical. So we went... it was at Affton High School... it was entitled Pirates! (very timely don't you think)... it was pretty adorable... I haven't been to anything for younger kids in awhile and I really enjoyed the silly humor and the kids dancing. I'm really happy that we went... Also, I watched Chad during it and he was enjoying himself as well... someday... years and years from now I think he's going to make a very good dad... he is so amazing with kids... it is stunning!! After the play we got some White Castles and came home and spent our typical lounging evening at home.

Saturday
We didn't do a whole lot... my cousin came down and helped us with our AC... he is so very nice to help us out!! After that we went and got Mexican... it was yummy... we found a place closer to our house... yummy.

Sunday
Okay... I'm not exactly sure why I wrote this blog in this format... it makes it seem like there was a lot going on, when in reality there wasn't... I am becoming really good at Monopoly online... I mean seriously I win at least 2 out of 3 games.

Monday
Okay... Monday was my AWS day and I was really productive. I went to the eye doctor first... I've been needing to go for at least six months... after this, that, and whatever I finally had a chance to go. Of course I need a stronger prescription... no surprise to me!! Luckily I was able to save some dough and they are just getting me new lens for my old frames... I still like my frames so this worked out perfectly!! This is the first time I've used my eye insurance... and it helped!! Next we took the d-o-gs to the vet. Rowdy was able to get his adult shots... he weighed in at around 40lbs... they say at this age you can double their weight and that's how much they will weigh as an adult... we're going to have a big guy on our hands!! Bozley did really well at the vet as well... they are both in healthy condition. After that we dropped the dogs off and went out to a late lunch at B-Dubs. It was very nice... we drank beer in the middle of the day. We then went and looked around a couple of stores which made me VERY happy... then Chad took me to Spanky's... he's so freaking sweet!! Then we came home... Chad had his first night back to work which I know sucked for him.

Overall it was a FABULOUS weekend with my honeybear!!