A Long Overdue Post!

The weather down in the valley has been so gloomy! It's given me no motivation to post at all! lol. Right now we're getting lots of rain from Tropical Storm Arlene.

This is what it looks like outside right now [06/30 - 4PM]

This past weekend we [the little sister, our dad and myself] took a trip up to Helotes, TX to surprise the older sister!! Her birthday was on Saturday [06/25]. We got to have family time and just hang around at their house :)

I asked Tina the golden question "Cake or death!?"

Confused? Watch this!!

 

I love Eddie Izzard! So funny!!

She being the rebel she is, chose cookies instead of cake. 

Here is my awesome nephew Jack helping me make the cookies for his momma. We made her some oatmeal, cranberry with pecan cookies. Some of the cookies even had pieces of dried pineapple chunks, per Tina's request. Sadly, this was the only pic I took of the cookie making :( but they were delicious!

We had a BBQ that evening, and I also made Pico-de-gallo with chunks of avocado. It wasn't too spicy, and oh so good! That bowl is huge and this picture was taken after everyone had already dug into it :)

Jack got to hang out with some friends of his, and did some crafts.

Meet "Santa Washington"

It was a short weekend :( I love going, but I always hate to leave.

The baking bug strikes again!

Yesterday at work, a vendor brought us a chocolate cake. She had brought one exactly like it a week or so ago, and while the flavor was good, it was a little too moist for my taste. I'm not sure what it was because it was fully baked through ... I don't really know. It was a double layer chocolate cake with a chocolate cool whip frosting. Right between the two layers is where it was really, really moist. Has anybody else had a cake that was like that?

I couldn't eat it, even though I really wanted to since I'd been craving chocolate cake for a couple days ... so I made up my mind that afternoon that I was going to go home and bake some really good chocolate cupcakes :D

Have you had cupcakes from "Hey Cupcake"??

The first time I had my first Hey Cupcake, we were visiting in Austin. I had the Red Velvet and my sister had the Michael Jackson.

She loved hers so much she insisted I make some of my own.

So I researched different chocolate cupcake recipes, until I finally developed my own.

I had to test one! Soooo good!

Here are the "MJ's" - all done! [Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate chips, and cream cheese frosting]

I finally got a pastry bag with tips to decorate the tops of the cupcakes; with all the kitchen tools that I have, I actually didn't have one of these! It's a cheapie one I got at HEB but it worked so well! And as you can see, I still need some practice on the frosting. Practice makes perfect! :)

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Now I generally make it a point not to bake anything from a box or a bag. Not because I believe it's evil, or think it's lazy - but because I like to challenge myself to make it from scratch.

I had this little guy hanging out in my pantry for a few months, good thing it's expiration date was not until later this year :)

***Bad picture lighting warning! I don't know why, but my pictures always come out with a yellow-ish tint in them :(

My Aunt had given it to me for Christmas

I think it was maybe last week that Danny mentioned to me that I should clean out our pantry since I'm weird and I like to do things like that. He saw this package and asked me if I was ever going to bake these. He was ready to go right on and throw it away.

I love cream cheese frosting on almost anything so that was the decision maker for me right there, I was going to bake them!

I finally remembered to buy some cream cheese, it was the only thing I didn't have! Shocker! I know. lol.

So away we went!

Here they are fresh out of the oven :) They smelled amazing!

The package said the yield was 12 cupcakes, but being since I'm me - I only have jumbo cupcake pans, haha. So I only ended up with 9

Here they are in their cream cheese frosting awesomeness:

The verdict?

Delicious!! Now I just have to figure out how to replicate the homemade version!

Wordless Wednesday ... and an award!!!

I was able to go to my dad's house this weekend and got a big dose of some poochy love from my Bella :) I REALLY missed that big, stinky punk.

And now, on to some not so wordless stuff! lol.

Jessica Renee Over at you are my color ....

... was soooo kind enough to award me this SUNSHINE AWARD!!

Thank you so much Jess for the award! Now I'm gonna be a good bloggy friend and participate in this :D

The rules for the Sunshine Award are:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them.


2. Tell us something about yourself.


3. Nominate 10 other bloggers.


4. And let them know you awarded them!



So, something about myself huh?
Let me think of a few things that I haven't mentioned before ...

• I have a teensy problem: I like to/try to rescue stray dogs. There have been times before where I "rescued" a few in my old neighborhood. They deserved better!! Just the other night I tried to pick up a little puppy that was walking along the road when I was on my way home from the store .. but my loud car scared the little guy off :(  I hope he's ok.
• I <3 JOSH GROBAN! lol. 'Nuff said.
• I cannot cook/bake anything in my kitchen if its' dirty. By dirty I mean: dishes in the sink, dirty countertops, dishes that can be put away in minutes ... I will litterally pick up a little bit before I even start making anything.
• I don't shop at Wal-Mart ever since I saw a documentary on Netflix called "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price" .. I can tell you that it's very hard to resist convenience and extrememly low prices though :(
• I love fresh flowers. I try to get some as often as I can to put in a vase in our dining room. Danny will sometimes buy some for me too :) He bought these for me on Monday:
  
  
   

Here are my 10 picks to pass this award on to [and in no particular order]:
Maura @Adventures of a Self-Proclaimed Princess
The Confused @In the Eyes of the Confused
Carol @Everyday Delights
Tangles @Tangled in Texas
Faith @The Adventures of Faith
Lyndsay @Just a Glimpse
Manda @My Life in the Making
Mrs EyeCanSee @The juice is worth the squeeze
Rachel @Rachel and John
Shaylyn @The Nelson Diaries
And because Blogger is still being a punk ... if for some reason I can't comment to you on your blog - I really hope you read this post!! I'll try e-mailing if I can too!!
Thanks again Jess!!

Scars - Pt 2

According to webmd:


A ganglion cyst is a tumor or swelling on top of a joint or the covering of a tendon (tissue that connects muscle to bone). It looks like a sac of liquid (cyst). Inside the cyst is a thick, sticky, clear, colorless, jellylike material. Depending on the size, cysts may feel firm or spongy.






I was a sophomore in high school when I first noticed my cyst, mostly because of the pain I was experiencing :( Luckily, it appeared in my left wrist - which isn't my dominant hand - we had medical insurance at the time so I was able to see a Hand Surgeon. At the first consultation he tried to drain the cyst with a syringe.


During the next week, it reappeared.


So back we went to see the hand surgeon. At the next appointment he went ahead and scheduled an outpatient surgery at the beginning of my Christmas break so that I would have some time to heal.


I played the flute in high school, so I was going to need my left hand to be ready to go again at some point, lol.


The operation went well, and for the longest time it looked like I had a little dip in my wrist where the cyst used to be. I'm kinda bummed I don't have a picture of that to show you.


Here is my cool scar:

And guess what?

It came back!!

"Say hello to my little friend"

Do you have any "cool" scars?

Scars - Pt 1

I think that the whole unable to comment on blogs thing has left me kind of frustrated :-/

I've had almost absolutely no motivation to blog because of it. I get really annoyed :(

But I digress..

:D I will just email comments on posts that blogger won't allow me to post!

Recently a friend of mine was talking about a scar on his belly - I didn't get all the gory details, just that he had had surgery ... and then I began to tell him about a scar I had on my inner left arm.

Does anyone remember this generation of washing machines? :

 

Or maybe something similar??

My grandma has one similar, not exact - her's plugged into a electric outlet.

So many, many years ago when I was about 6ish I saw this fascinating thing in my grandma's storage. It was running and the rollers were turning. I must've had an "Oooh shiny" moment, because I just stood there in utter amazement! Next thing I know, I'm freaking touching the stupid rollers and before I know it my hand begins to go in between the rollers. I tried pulling back to get my hand free.

That didnt' work.

So then I tried to pull my left hand out with my right. That didn't work either, the right hand just became stuck right along with the left :(

The whole time I was screaming my little lungs out, only to find out later my parents heard the screaming and only thought that I was fighting with my little sister as we would frequently.

They heard enough screaming and finally came outside, which at this point I was past my elbows in. They panicked a bit, until they finally tried to calmy figure out how to get my arms out.

A couple hours later and a trip to the hospital, I got all bandaged up and sent home.

I didn't break any bones, I just tore up my skin pretty bad.

Here is my arm today:

And here's where I got that picture of the old machine from above:

 My loving older sister sent it to me. lol.