monkey cupcake

2009-04-17T14:27:00.000-05:00

Feather Shoes!

2008-10-27T10:17:00.004-05:00

Oh J Crew, why do you do this to me? I am in love with these shoes!

The color above is my favorite, probably because of the blue! But I think if I were to get them I would get the black ones because they are more "practical".

At least jcrew.com gives me pretty things to look at!

Sunday Dinner

2008-10-26T19:29:00.003-05:00

Tonight I made the Lentil Soup from Martha Stewart's Everday Food cookbook and the Jalapeno, Cheddar Cornbread from Ina Garten. It was such a delicious combination and I am excited about leftovers! RAR was able to join us for dinner, though dad was busy in the OR.

This is a picture of the cornbread batter. It was so thick. I was sure something was wrong with it but it was fine. We couldn't find jalapenos at Central Market so we ended up using Serrano peepers. Those are much hotter so we used less than what Ina said to use. The cornbread is really good and different than the dry, boring cornbread that you usually get.

Here is a picture of the soup in our Apilco lions head bowls that I have been wanting to use! We also used our Spode Delamere plates that I love and they are perfect to use in the Fall!

RAR and I went to Smith and Hawkens yesterday and she bought me this woven tray that I saw and loved last year but never got. It's a blurry picture but I didn't take another. I'm excited about all of the things I can do with it!

The soup was delicious as was the cornbread! I would definitely make both again. RAR had made the cornbread several times and I swear that mine wasn't as good as hers. If I made the soup again I would try making it without the bacon to be on the healthier side. Even though it was in the high 70's and low 80's all day it was a delicious dinner for a Fall night! Thank you Ina and thank you Martha!

I really need to be grading right now but I just can't make myself do it. I had a busy day of running, grocery shopping, cleaning, cooking, and doing laundry that makes me feel grading would be just a little too much!

Lentil Soup from Martha Stewart

Ingredients:
Serves 4

3 strips (3 ounces) bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 large onion, chopped
3 medium carrots, peeled, halved lengthwise, and cut into 1/4-inch half-moons
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 1/2 cups lentils, picked over and rinsed
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 cans (14 1/2 ounces each) reduced-sodium chicken broth (3 1/2 cups)
1 tablespoon red-wine vinegar
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions:

In a Dutch oven (or other 5-quart pot with a tight-fitting lid), cook bacon over medium-low heat until browned and crisp, 8 to 10 minutes. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon fat.
Add onion and carrots; cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic, and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in tomato paste, and cook 1 minute.
Add lentils, thyme, broth, and 2 cups water. Bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer. Cover; cook until lentils are tender, 30 to 45 minutes.
Stir in vinegar, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Serve immediately.Note: If you prefer to leave out the bacon, skip step 1, and cook the onions and carrots in 1 tablespoon olive oil.

Ina Garten's Jalapeno, Cheddar Cornbread

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 cups milk
3 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted, plus extra to grease the pan
8 ounces aged extra-sharp Cheddar, grated, divided
1/3 cup chopped scallions, white and green parts, plus extra for garnish, 3 scallions
3 tablespoons seeded and minced fresh jalapeno peppers

Directions:

Combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the milk, eggs, and butter. With a wooden spoon, stir the wet ingredients into the dry until most of the lumps are dissolved. Don't over mix! Mix in 2 cups of the grated Cheddar, the scallions and jalapenos, and allow the mixture to sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 by 13 by 2-inch baking pan.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the top, and sprinkle with the remaining grated Cheddar and extra chopped scallions.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool and cut into large squares. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Sad news!

2008-10-16T09:46:00.003-05:00

Ok, I haven't had these in years, but I am sad to hear that Mother's Cookies company is going out of business! I love, love, love the circus animal cookies even though they are sickeningly sweet!
I remember a trip to Dallas when I was little where we had a bag of these in the car. I ate way too many and I don't regret it. They are awesome! The English Tea cookies were good too. I'm heading to the store after work to get a bag or two!

Last night's dinner!

2008-10-15T18:49:00.002-05:00

The linguine with turkey sausage and peppers was delicious! It was very easy to make and it made enough that PW and I will get several meals out of it! We used spicy Italian sausage from Central Market. (I never want to live without a Central Market within a few miles. I love that place!) We both like spicy things so the red pepper flakes were great.

We used yellow peppers which were delicious. I didn't slice them as thinly as Martha did so it took longer than the 6 minutes it said it would take for the peppers to get soft. And PW was a HUGE fan of the 6 cloves of garlic sliced thinly throughout!

After going to the social security office (I am now officially RRW!) PW and I decided we should reward ourselves for spending an hour there so we went two blocks down the street to the downtown Spec's to get a bottle of Chianti (I don't mind making an excuse to get out the Juliska!) I mean we were cooking Italian food . . .

My camera is not the best for taking pictures with flash so I had to play around and take a bunch. This one came out ok. We ended up using whole wheat linguine and it was delicious, though it looks all one color in this picture! Some arugula would have changed that . . .

I made the full recipe and still can't get over how much a pound of pasta is. We will definitely make it again and we even immediately started to discuss how we could play with the recipe. We both want to try it with yellow AND red peppers next time. I would definitely add the arugula. It was nice and light and I didn't feel stuffed after eating it. It was also fun to get to use our pasta bowls and even though we could have served it out of the pot it was fun to serve it in the tulip bowl we got from Williams Sonoma for our wedding!

PS-I just ate some for dinner and it is delicious the next day!

If I knew someone who needed a nap mat . . .

2008-10-14T12:09:00.002-05:00

I'd get them one of these! You can pick from a ton of different fabrics and you can get a name monogrammed on it. Plus it has a built in pillow! So cute! I personally love the sock monkey fabric on this one but there are a ton of other cute fabrics! I know my kindergarteners would have loved one of these when I taught kindergarten!

Too cute for words!

2008-10-14T10:14:00.003-05:00

I guess I am biased but I think that my niece is the cutest thing on this planet! I just got back from spending three nights up in NYC with Bee and RHRB and I already miss them so badly! Look at that face!

Dinner tonight . . .

2008-10-14T10:06:00.004-05:00

Tonight for dinner I will be making this from the Martha Stewart Everyday Food cookbook!
I hope it is as good as it looks! I am leaving the arugula out since a certain boy doesn't like it.

Linguine with Turkey Sausage and Peppers

Ingredients
Serves 6
1 pound linguine
1 pound turkey sausage, casings removed
6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
4 yellow (or red) bell peppers, thinly sliced
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons arugula, torn
Coarse salt and ground pepper, for seasoning

Directions
Cook linguine. Drain, reserving 1 1/2 cups pasta water; return pasta to pot.
Meanwhile, cook sausage and 2 tablespoons water in a large covered nonstick skillet over medium until fat renders, 5 minutes. Uncover; raise heat to medium-high. Brown sausage, breaking it up with a spoon, 7 minutes.
Add garlic, bell peppers, and 1/4 cup reserved pasta water; cook until peppers soften, 6 minutes. Add 3/4 cup pasta water and butter; swirl to combine.
Transfer to pot. Add arugula; season with salt and pepper. Toss; add more pasta water as desired. Serve.

I legally changed my name at the DPS yesterday and today I head to the Social Security office to change it on my social security card! The DPS went very smoothly yesterday and I'm crossing my fingers that the SS office will go the same! Then I get to change my name on everything else. I wish it was an easier process, but it's worth it!

Ahh, she is just so cute!

2008-09-12T16:52:00.002-05:00

Bee is not happy that her Aunt B and Uncle P are stuck in Houston waiting for Ike to come!
Oh I hope the power doesn't go out . . .

Ike . . .

2008-09-12T11:18:00.003-05:00

We are getting ready for Ike to come! School was canceled today so lat night we had a little hurricane party with some friends. It's amazing that people aren't freaking out the way they did when Rita came. The roads are actually clear and they were able to refill all of the gas stations over night.
This is what it looks like in Galveston right now! I can't believe that people are even still on the island.
RAR and dad are up in New York visiting RHRB and little baby Bee. They were supposed to come home today but they can't so now PW and I are going to have to face the storm without them. We are about to lock up and head over to their house to face the storm there. Luckily we have some ingredients for queso and a full supply of wine to get us through the night! Cross your fingers we don't blow away!
Our family friend was supposed to be getting married tomorrow and had to cancel her wedding. I feel so bad and know she must be heartbroken! Thanks Ike!

Happy Week Old Birthday Baby Bee!

2008-09-10T10:35:00.003-05:00

Dear Bee,
Happy one week Bee-day. Ha ha!
You will be getting a present when I am up in New York in October!

And the best part (or maybe the dorkiest part) is that your Aunt B has a sweater that matches so we will be twins! After I bought mine and saw on the Old Navy website that they had a tiny one in your size I knew I had to buy it! You also have another present coming that I saw while I was there and had to buy it, but I couldn't find it in your size so you will have to wait till next summer!
I love you,

Aunt B

Fact or opinion

2008-09-04T08:29:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was a big day! RHRB had her baby!!! I am so excited to be an aunt though it is killing me that I don't get to see her for a whole month! I hope she doesn't grow up too much!

So yesterday during our morning meeting I posed a probability question to my class. "Will Mrs. W become an aunt today?" 18 kids said yes and 3 (all boys) said no. Later that day we discussed fact and opinion at length. This age is an age where opinion really feels like fact to them!

This morning they were all excited to hear if I was an aunt or not. I let them know by showing them a picture of the baby up on my white board. Of course they all thought she was adorable! So I decided to tie it into our discussion of fact or opinion. I asked them "Fact or opinion, Mrs. W's niece is the cutest baby in the world?" Everyone yelled "opinion" except for one little girl (who is one of the sweetest little girls on the planet, fact) who said "fact" and gave me a smile to let me know she was just siding with me! She gets an A for the day!

These poor kids who have to deal with me getting married and becoming an aunt all within a month of each other!

Hmm, I wonder if my new niece needs a dress with a monkey on it?

Le Cruset, I love you!

2008-08-26T12:32:00.002-05:00

This weekend I picked up this little beauty a long with a few other items left on our registry at Williams Sonoma using some gift cards! Plus WS gives you 10% off all purchases for 6 months after your wedding so I got it for less! I can't wait to use it!
I survived the first day of school and I have a wonderful new class! Lots of free spirits! Tomorrow is my b-day (as well as Mother Theresa's, coincidence, I think not) and today is my father in law's birthday (as well as McCauley Culken) . I get to go spend the afternoon renewing my drivers licence, yuck!

monkey butler service

2008-08-19T14:17:00.002-05:00

God bless the internet. Please click through.

Could this be a useful tool for managing husbands? RRW, please experiment with the PW and get back to me. I'm afraid mine may be too recalcitrant.

Mmm home made banana bread!

2008-08-17T19:03:00.003-05:00

Sometimes I don't mind buying bananas and not eating them because that means they get to turn into banana bread!

Why does it really have to be over?!

2008-08-17T18:31:00.004-05:00

On Friday night I received a slide show from my photographer with about 65 pictures from the wedding day/night. I have since watched it about a million times, no exaggeration. Every time PW walks in and sees me watching it AGAIN he laughs! I wanted to use one photographer and she was unfortunately busy that day. However she was able to hook us up with a photographer who just so happened to be someone who went to our K-12 school. She is amazing and the first time I watched the slide show that she put together I cried my eyes out and have proceeded to cry several times while watching it. Here are a few of the pictures!

Our beautiful church

Just married!
Trying not to wilt from the heat!
One of the best parts of the wedding!
Leaving the reception! I tossed the bouquet when I got to the car instead of stopping the reception to do it and it was so much nicer! I made sure to turn around and aim at one of my best friends!

Our photographer owns her own company called Casa de Camera and she is amazing! Now I cannot wait to see the rest of the pictures from the wedding.

RRR is now RRW

2008-08-16T21:24:00.006-05:00

Well after a long time not posting anything due to wedding stress it's time to put up some pictures from the event that took up all of my time. Our wedding day was pretty much the best day ever. The church was beautiful, the reception was amazing, the food was tasty, the cake was insanely good, the photographer took amazing pictures. It was all good (minus some issues with the florist not living up to her ability). At the country club where we had our reception they make sure that the bride and groom get to sit down and have dinner so as soon as we go there they took us to a private room and let us eat dinner. I think it is such a great idea because we wouldn't have eaten otherwise. Here we are having our private dinner.
Here is a self portrait of me and PW after the wedding on the way up to our hotel room.
When the wedding was over we were not even close to being ready to end the night. So it just so happened that everyone went to the bar in the hotel that we were staying in. So I convinced RAR to go pick up a dress for me to change in to so that I could go hang out. Here is a picture of me and my friend Kev who is about to marry one of my best friends/room mate from college Jen next June! That's Jen in the bottom left.
After a wonderful night spent with our friends and family we got on a plane to Dallas and then to Maui. After 9 hours of flying we got to Maui!!
Our honeymoon was amazing. If you haven't gone to Maui you must make plans to go there right now. We sat by the beach and ate and had some pina coladas. We snorkeled and did some scuba diving. It was wonderful!

I am sad it is all over. 11 months of planning ends up in one day that ends very quickly. An amazing day, but a very fast day. I just got a slide show from my amazing photographer showing a few of the pictures from the wedding. I got it a little over 24 hours ago and have probably watched it over 24 times! I can't wait for the rest of the pictures to be ready to view.

I just finished a week of inservice and have one more week till the kids get to school. PW just had a full day of orientation for his MBA program. The thing that makes me that happiest right now is that PW is officially a Houstonian! No more Southwest flights back and forth!

It's FINALLY here!

2008-08-01T09:57:00.003-05:00

It's wedding time tomorrow! Here is a preview of what my cake will look like, but all white not pink and with a W instead of a M! The cake from Who Made the Cake is SO tasty and I can't wait to have a big slice of the bride's cake and the groom's cake! Now if only I can manage to get some sleep before tomorrow . . .

Babies on the mind!

2008-06-19T20:06:00.006-05:00

Not for me! For my future niece! So I've been looking at baby things online just to see what my amazing new niece will need for when she is born and for Christmas, and New Years Eve, and Valentines Day, etc. Basically I'm excited to buy her some fun things! I have found the cutest website that I could spend WAY too much money on right now! It's called The Letter Tree . I am not going to talk about everything I found because it would be way too long but here are some highlights!
Here is an amazing monkey themed gift set. You get a stuffed monkey, a banana rattle, a blanket (or lovie as they call it, how cute is that?), a sign for the nursery that says "Shh Baby Sleeping", and a cute little basket. Now while I would really like to get this for my niece I think I really just might want it for myself!
Once again, this is something that I love, it is the color that would be appropriate for a niece but is it just something that I want for my babies that I will have one day? It's a set of three burp cloths and the middle one is sock monkeys!!! Niece might receive this but don't tell her that!
And here are some monogrammed baby scrubs. I don't know if Dr. Andrew would find these funny/cute or just stupid but I think they are funny/cute. I might save these till she is walking!
And OH MY GOSH! I can't even get over this! It is a crayon apron! Do you know how much I would have loved this when I was little. As soon as she is old enough to color she will get this from me because I love it so much. Though it might be something I keep at my house for when she visits. That way she can always remember that cool crayon apron that she got to wear at Aunt B and Uncle P's house! I remember I had this blue wooden crayon/craft caddy when I was little that I still to this day remember fondly. I think I got it for my 5th birthday!

And on a note seperate from babies, I think this would be a cute gift to bring to a couples wedding shower. How perfect for a couple that likes to tailgate or entertain. These are beverage coolers that you can gave monogrammed and they even have bottle openers attached to them!

So that is my find of the day! A wonderful new website full of fun gifts for my future niece and friends who will get married soon!

Don't do it!

2008-06-18T20:56:00.003-05:00

I didn't want to do it but unfortunately I found myself at home tonight and nothing was on TV. I am just now remembering that I had wanted to watch part of When Harry Met Sally for the millionth time! Anyway, I got sucked into watching the Lohan "reality" TV show on E! and I have to say that it is awful times ten. Who knew that Lindsey Lohan's sister was recording a record, what, who is going to buy that? She is way too overdone for someone her age and the mom just makes me sad because she thinks that she is still 20 something. In fact, the mother and daughter seem to think that they are the same age. I don't want to be mean about them but I have to, they are just awful! Seriously I just lost about 20 minutes of my life! Should have stuck to HGTV even if I didn't like the show that was on!

8 year olds are great!

2008-06-18T19:13:00.003-05:00

Today I had my bridal portraits taken and I think they went really well. Our photographer is amazing and I can't wait to see them! I tutor the two most adorable little girls from my school on Monday and Wednesdays all this summer and I had enough time to make it today after my portraits. On Monday I had warned them that I would probably have more makeup on than usual and that my hair might look fancy because I was having pictures taken in my wedding dress. When I got to the house today one of the little girls looked at me and asked "Where is your wedding dress?" It was so cute. She thought I was going to be showing up in my wedding dress today! Even after all of the smiling that I had just done, I was so happy to have her put such a big smile on my face!

preppy

2008-06-17T21:39:00.000-05:00

I discovered this superprep blog through the Kate Spade website. Love it!

Happy Father's Day!

2008-06-15T19:46:00.002-05:00

Happy Father's Day Dad! I wanted to download some pictures in honor of Father's Day (would've done it for Mother's Day but was deep into the end of the year at school!).
Here are dad and RHRB at our uncle and aunt's wedding when she was the flower girl! Nice stash dad! How cute is little RHRB?!
I love this picture of me and dad! It is one in a series of pictures of us sitting on the deck of our old house. The caption I always give it is "You make the money dad, and give it to me!" Ha ha!
And here I am with dad and RHRB in Hawaii in 2000. Sorry for the bathing suit picture from when I am in college after gaining the freshman 15 and then the sophomore 5! Note the towel hiding the most important parts! I love this picture though because it was such a fun trip and I love the colors in this picture!
Dad and I have always been twins! It is why we always think the other is so good looking. This is at RHRB and Mr. Andrew's wedding in November 2006! Look how cute we are! See, never fails! I limited myself to uploading only 5 pictures because that is all that I could upload at once and I could have uploaded a ton more!
And here is to the future fathers! Here is to my brother in law, "Mr. Andrew" as our dad would call him, who is going to be a dad in about 2 1/2 months! You are are a fun brother in law who I like to hang out with, and apparently drink whiskey with! You are going to be a great dad! (And I might add that you are actually no longer Mr. Andrew but Dr. Andrew!) Look at how much fun we have!
I am so excited for my dad to walk me down the aisle in 48 DAYS!! We have joked about this day since I was little. We have always joked that I would be elbowing dad the whole way down the aisle because he would be saying something that would be intended to annoy me or make me feel embarassed. WARNING DAD-Do not make me elbow you or I will be blushing and beet red in all of my wedding pictures! I know it will be perfect and maybe we will stage some elbowing pictures just to be silly!

A job I would NOT be good at!

2008-06-12T17:10:00.003-05:00

PW and I are lucky enough to be getting some furniture reupholstered so that our place will all go together and look semi-adult vs. looking like a 27 year old girl lives there alone! One of the things I had planned to do was to reupholster a bench that I was lucky to inherit from my grandmother. I spent about 4 hours reupholstering it on Tuesday and I am really excited about it. It took the majority of my time to rip off the old upholstery. Once I had it all off the hardest part was finishing the corners so that they didn’t look horrible. I know it doesn’t look professional but I am actually pretty excited for how well my first home upholstery project went! Here are some pictures!

Here is a close up of what the checks look like. I think the bench needs some pillows on it. I went and looked for some today but found nothing . . .

Here is the bench with the swatches of the other fabrics we are using. Thank goodness I am marrying a boy who understands my love of the color blue! I think he was not a fan of the checks at first but I love the checks. The print on the left will be for two wing back chairs that we are inheriting from PW’s mom. The big check is what will be table skirt for a round end table I have. And the cream color fabric will be an arm chair and ottoman and the piping will be in the small check! I can’t wait to see it all put together!
So I was going to do another at home reupholstery job on some dining chairs that I inherited from my grandmother but after my bench job I changed my mind. First off I have always loved chairs that have covers with little skirts. Second the chairs are not straight on all sides and I just didn’t want to waste fabric doing a horrible job. SO we are going to get little chair covers like the ones on the Shabby Chic website (below) that are oh so cute. We are going to get them made in the small check fabric that the bench is in!

Front of skirt:
Back of skirt (ties on with little bows!):

I love Shabby Chic and if I was able to continue living in a space filled with light fabric and painted furniture I would! Trust me, if it were up to me I would be painting that bench an ivory color and destressing it! Unfortunately I have to agree with PW that it might just be a touch too girly for him. However when we have a house big enough to do it I will have my Shabby Chic room!

US Post Office . . . you need to give your employees some intelligent information so that they can help people

2008-06-06T21:31:00.004-05:00

. . . otherwise you are just goint to be critisized for your lack of information, lack of help, and lack of intelligence and those of you who are good in those areas, I am sorry. I don't want you to have to make up for those who can't do their job well. Just be glad you don't work with the miserable women who work at the West Gray location in Houston, Texas!! Let's not think about their lack of help or intelligence I am sure that one day someone can help them to achieve that (seriously if you are in Houston, go somewhere else . . . hint Greenbriar)

Oh, look below, pretty!

So, I guess I need to update the fact that the down town US postal employees that helped us earlier this week were one in a million. Today we got the rest of the million who apparently hate life and don't want to help out anyone or make life easier for anyon. With that said, we had a horrible chase today looking to find a post office that would let us hand cancel the invitations so that we could get them out. West Gray said "We don't do that or let you do that but down town does" After we drove down town we found out once again that the Houston West Gray Post Office is awful and ignorant. Sorry, I don't want to be mean but they have told us so many false bits of info that I will NEVER return there. So after going to down town and finding out that they won't do it but if we leave our invitations on a counter the woman in the pasport office would "get to them if she got a chance and if not she would send them upstairs" yawn. Seriously, I'd rather leave my invitations on the street and hope they would get to the correct place the way I wanted rather than trust this lady. So, after reading numerous blogs about brides going to post offices and challenging the employes who eventually let them hand cancel, I wish I lived in you city. We finally found the best post office in Houston. The same one that was used to hand cancel RHRB's invitations yet we didn't go to them originally because they used to use red ink. Well, they use black now. We love them and I would love to go back and give the woman who not only helped us get a hand canceler but got us and EXTRA one, and give her a nice present. Seriously I wish I could tell her thank you in a good way.

Other than that, PW is on his bachelor weekend this weekend. They are in Austin and I just hope it is going ok! Tomorrow mom, dad, and I drive to Dallas to go to our last girly shower.

Today before he headed out to his big weekend PW picked up our wedding bands and above is a shot of them! I am so in love with both of them. PW's says RRR 8-2-08 PBW on the inside! I want to get my engagement ring engraved with that one day since I can't get my wedding band engraved with anything. I LOVE my wedding band. I haven't even tried it on yet but I helped design it and it looks just like what I wanted. Yay!

I am sorry to be mean toward US Postal workers. It is unfortunate that the employees of that company seem to be unwilling to help the public. I realize that this is not true of all US Postal workers but I have found this to be true with three of the locations I have tried out. I have also read many blogs that have had the same info that I have so at least it isn't just in Houston!