Dull Moments

What? You didn't go to a black tie, mad-hatter themed fundraiser for an art foundation this weekend? Welcome, once again, to my life. A big thanks to SWC for the tickets, and a bigger thanks to our awesome, dance-animal guests -- our friends, Jen & Kiel. Their "costume" theme was queen of hearts, and they looked adorable, trust me. My goal was to get this teacup in my hair for my costume. It worked! This is post-dnace party, so it's a little messy, but it held up great! This is Robert, pretending like he's going to get away with not facing forward for a photo. He looks great in a tux, right?

Too. busy. SIGH. Will April end already? It's been a great month, but just too crazy! Here's what happening in our life: + Our church is doing an awesome sermon series right now. It's called "What does God say about ___ ?" You should listen, like, even if you don't go to our church.  Even if you want to disagree - it's a good thinking / discussion series. (www.geist.org/church/MessageArchive.aspx). Last week's sermon on forgiveness was really good . +In March, I went to my good friend's wedding in Boston . I had the honor of being her matron-of-honor (and sounding like I'm a hundred years old by having to be a "matron"). I also had the pleasure of staying with some other friends of mine. It was a blast. + We went to San Diego in April. It was also fun. I was lame and took no pictures, but it was fun to get to know some of Robert's friends and their friends. + Nephew had his fourth birthday . Four, people!!! Four...

I hope you had a wonderful Easter, we did! Here are the cupcakes I made for Abram and Jane. Well, cupcakes were shared with lots of people, but only A&J and their little cousins got the bunnies. They are really difficult because the ears are marshmallows, but they LOVE them. It's once a year, so I'll deal with the sticky. Also, we are headed to San Diego this weekend. SO excited. It's been a rough couple of weeks around here, both in good and bad ways. Our April is jammed full of wonderful things, but that hasn't stopped more difficult things from happening. No dull moments, right? San Diego will be nice. I was PSYCHED to find a new tankini swimsuit that I loved at Old Navy for $10 a piece (that is unheard of guys, in case you don't know. The last swimsuit I found that I liked was about $100. I didn't buy it.). I also successfully altered my cutest one piece so the straps now fit and keep the suit on (a good thing, right?). I am so glad that I learned ...

If you have been to our new house, you have probably thought, "What do they do with all this space?" Honestly, most days, we ignore a good portion of it. But that's not why we bought our house, to ignore it. We bought it because it was the kind of home we could live in no matter what, a home we could open up to those around us. The kind of home in which we could, say, throw a catered party for 30. And that's exactly what we did last weekend. We hosted a party for a friend's 30th birthday, a surprise put together by her husband and several of her devoted friends. Our normally bare, quiet house was transformed into a venue. It was awesome!!!! We had so much fun -- great food, fantastic company, a dance party, a talent show, and even a few {happy} tears. The birthday girl table And I thought, "Lord, fill our years here with nights like these." Nights in which total strangers show up to our house and become friends. Nights where we share ev...

The more I talk to other people, the more I realize Robert is a surprising genius.  Other people are always telling me how great his solutions are, how he fixed something no one else could, how he was way funnier than they thought. {I'm allowed to brag about him, right?!} Today, I am grateful for the fact that Robert is a financial genius. And he is a financial genius that married a financial idiot. In a room of co-workers today, I was the only person who did not assume a car payment was a permanent way of life. That, my friends, is financial genius. I knew more about financial planning than any of them. Me, the financial idiot -- all because I married him! A few weeks ago, I told Robert I could not handle the way we did our budget anymore. Like, I hated it. Robert, who hates change and has been doing the budget the same way for 10 years, re-vamped the whole system for me. And now, I am excited (which almost never happens when it comes to the topic of budgeting). It's...

We've been busy. We've had repair people coming through the house. We've had a lot go on. But this face. Is so sweet. Is always loyal, trusting, and faithful. Never holds a grudge. Makes me forgive him even when he's been a pain. Somedays, this face gives me just a little bit of sanity when I can't find any. PS: As a doggie-momma, I constantly amazed at how much people love Otis. Family, friends, guests, the repair guy, people we walk by in the neighborhood adore  this dog. I guess he's one of the many things I take for granted. Sorry, buddy. I'll try to be better.

Once a month, we have a dinner with Robert's cousins and siblings here in town, potluck/pitch-in style It's fun. This month's theme was Irish, since we held it right after St. Patrick's Day. I made a Dark Chocolate Guinness Cake. That was healthy. I KNOW, RIGHT?! For the record, I don't like beer, and a stout has no appeal to me, but I didn't mind the cake. It did take a lot of will power to dump in beer to a cake that looked perfectly fine on it's own. The cake was little dry since it's low fat, but not too bad! I did throw in a 1/3 cup powdered sugar and milk (instead of Guinness) into the glaze to make a butter cream chocolate glaze, but I figured the cake wouldn't be very rich and would need a boost. Though it wasn't a life changing cake, it wasn't bad! Have a lucky week, friends! Dark Chocolate Guinness Cake Serves 8  Prep time : 10 minutes Cook time : 35 minutes Ingredients:   For the cake: 1 1/2 cups flour 3/4 cup br...