The Birthday Chair

Allen bought my mom a pink lawn chair for her birthday. He did it on his way to work. She'd been saying that she wanted one. Well some people are just too impatient for their birthday presents. Later that day, me and mom went to find a lawn chair for her birthday, we found one and bought it. Pretty funny when we all got home and found that Allen and Mom had bought the same chair. Ha ha! We ended up with TWO lawn chairs! And they're pink: the best color. So I think I may get to keep one;).

End of Summer Sweetness

What do lemons and blackberries...and pound cake mean? Lemon-Berry Trifles!!! For my mother's birthday we had and end-of-the-summer barbecue. Shishkabobs of grilled steak, shrimp, and chicken with garden veggies, and rosemary and garlic roasted russet potatoes. Yum. I thought the flavors of tangy lemon curd (made from scratch thank you very much) and ripe blackberries layered with pound cake and whipped cream was the perfect end of summer party treat. Light, sweet, and dainty-looking, the colors and flavors were a great combination! Happy Birthday Mom!

P.S. Sorry about the food critic writing, I get really into my desserts. :)

Wax On, Wax Off

I debated putting a picture with this post, but then just decided to leave it to your imagination.

Did I tell you that I started waxing? I got waxed. Mom started it, she is seriously hard core. She has waxed everything! All by herself no less! I was like Mom you are my hero. Then my curiosity got the best of me and so I had to try it too.

Anyway, we got it all out one night. You need all these supplies to get the job done, pre-wax cleanser, pre-wax powder, applicators (which are actually just Popsicle sticks), muslin waxing strips, wax warmer, wax (duh), and then wax-off (because the wax is seriously sticky beyond belief). I made her do little patches of muslin strips because I was fearful of the pain.

SO I sat there and Mom waxed my legs. Yeah it does kinda hurt. Seriously, it sounded like trees getting yanked up out of their roots. RRRRIIIPPPPP! Then Mom would exclaim 'Wow! Look at all that hair!'

I too was in total awe of this whole honey/wax concoction that could yank out my leg hair that seemed to be longer underneath my skin than on top.

The Egyptians probably invented this whole system. It just seems like something they would have done.

At first it's just so shocking how much hair is coming out of your body. But then I think your legs catch on and it seems to hurt more, probably because you know what's coming. And mom can't see super great, so there's all these little hairs that somehow escaped the waxing.

Allen hovered nearby, observing this bizarre ritual with a combination of fascination and disgust until we told him he could get waxed too if he wanted.

It took us 2 hours JUST to do my shins and calves. At one point Allen had come back into the room to find us still sprawled out all over the kitchen floor getting sticky wax everywhere, and Mom goes,"Look Allen, I'm totally a professional now!....OOOPS!" Me: "Yyaaaaahhhh! What are you doing back there?!" We're really going to have to fine tune our technique. But dude, there's this Lidocane spray you can get that NUMBS the area. Oh baby, that stuff is mine next time.

Overall it's a pretty delicate operation. The wax is definitely a hard to control variable, don't be getting that stuff where you do not want it! But the results aren't bad. Furthermore, I feel pretty darn accomplished once the whole ordeal is over with.

5 Reasons I'm Awesome:

1. I still haven't bought anything from Victoria's Secret, even after working there for the past 30 days. Guys, this is big. (I would tell you if I did).

2. I'm going on a blind date this week with a man I met on the INTERNET of all places.

3. I decided to help Allen out with all his snitching and snacking and ate the last cinnamon roll so he didn't have to feel guilty about eating it later. I'm so nice.

4. I tricked my step-brother into letting me wax his eyebrow. Now he has two. Yep, just making the world a better place, one uni-brow at a time.

5. I put flax seed in my smoothie today. I don't know what flax seed is, but I'm sure it's healthy.

Death by Cinnamon Rolls

I worked a kitchen miracle today!

My mom has been in CA for a couple of weeks and she's coming back tonight, so I wanted to make an extra special treat for her because I missed her so much.

So. I made some cinnamon rolls. They turned out to be the most awesome cinnamon rolls on the planet earth. Seriously. Most of my family members will give you a personal testimonial on this fact.

Diane took the first bite, and there was a moment of silence. She was speechless...in awe. Was it good? No, not just good: life changing.

Combine perfectly perfect cinnamon rolls, a little on the thick side...
with ravenous family members...
A frenzy ensued. We proceeded to devour the freshly baked batch of sweet rolls, still warm from the oven, dripping with creamy sauce of vanilla-buttery sweetness. If you were there, you would have witnessed an icing-dripping, fluffy-doughed savoring, cinnamon-infused dream state compete with moans of taste bud pleasure. In moments, the entire plate was gone. After eating one, we were in nirvana. My brother Geoff went back for more - twice. I think he overdid it, just a little. Death by cinnamon roll. The process takes time, but is TOTALLY worth it. And it's fun. I am fully convinced that I could feed someone these sweet rolls and then get them to do whatever I wanted. I could probably get a marriage proposal. Thanks to Bakerella and Pioneer Woman for awesomeizing my dessert repertoire.

April 1st

Today was my glorious day off. I slept in, praising the Lord just for the opportunity to really enjoy a good sleep in. I wobble upstairs around 11:30 and I look out the slider doors. I can't see anything but a total white-out, I didn't have my contacts in my eyes so all I saw was just bright white. I thought for a millisecond that it might be the Second Coming.

Then I REALIZED that it was a blizzard. And that 2 inches of snow had already accumulated on the deck. I hate you April 1st.

Then I did my budget. Which is only slightly less depressing than a winter that will never end.

Happily, Season 3 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is finally available on Hulu. Thank goodness there's SOMEthing going right today.

German Pancake Love

I am in love with German pancakes. Seriously, this food, if I even think about it briefly, I start wanting it until I have to go and make them. If I was ever on death row, this would be my last request of a meal. Come to think of it, I love German pancakes MORE than I love French toast.

Simple ingredients, simple to make, 20 minutes later all you need is some butter and maple syrup. It bugs me when people put berry syrup or other toppings on there, what the heck? Keep it pure! Savor the flavor! So today Mom and I were at Sams Club buying ingredients for our semi-annual conference crepes event, so we're buying eggs. We could either get the 5-dozen package or the 18 count package. Mom says, we've never used 5-dozen eggs before, what are we going to do with all those extra eggs? So I say, I'll just make french toast or German pancakes or something... Then I start THINKING about German pancakes...well you know how that goes.

So I made a batch. And while Rachel was busy eating her first piece and texting on her cell phone, I pounded down SEVEN pieces. Shameful. But my craving has been satisfied. SIGH.