Just Call me Betty Crocker

This weekend, I think I'm getting things back in order from the holidays, and it feels really good.  Granted, it's the end of January, but that's ok.

This morning, I made room in our kitchen for this:

I made a chocolate-chocolate-chip cake this morning with my new mixer.  

Let me just tell you it smells divine.  

I have a few "go to" meals that I cook, and I get tired of the same old stuff.  But desserts?  I can do that.  I'm so excited about this mixer!  The book has several recipes in it, and you can make pizza dough with it, which I've made before, but not with a stand-up mixer.  I loved how effortless it was to use.  (I guess that's the point, right?)  So yes, you can just call me Betty.

Now, moving on to another domestic item...

Socks.

Terribly exciting, right?  

Last night, SMoo and I went to dinner at Pei Wei and had every intention of coming back and watching Gilmore Girls.  We got as far as the couches, and proceeded to talk until 1:30 a.m.  Claire came in around 10:30 and joined in the fun.  We covered an incredibly wide-array of topics, per usual.  It was fabulous.

If I invite you over some time, I promise I won't start folding my laundry in front of you.  But I had a basket full of clean clothes and good friends to talk to, so I made a chore into less of one, and started in on the mound of clothes.  {Clearly I'm quite comfortable around this girls.}

As I got to my socks, Claire observed that I "folded" my socks funny.  Now, I've lived with Claire and Smoo at one point or another for two years, and we've never discussed the art of sock folding.  What ensued was a sock-folding demonstration.

In the above photo, the purple socks are mine--I fold them over each other.  I threw SMoo a pair to see what she'd do, and she did this tuck-one-sock-into-another business.  That's her mom does it.  Claire does some sort of roll-then-tuck action, which is...you guessed it...how her mom does the laundry.  Oh, the things you learn! 

Hope your weekend has been one of laughter, fun and friends.  It definitely made mine sweet.

{Nice, France}

Weekends are for... 

rejuvenating

relaxing

reconnecting

reorganizing

reflecting

rejoicing

Happy Weekending!

Happy Birthday, Adam!

Happy 26th Birthday, Adam!!  

You make me laugh every single day.  And I love it.

Perhaps it has something to do with your crazy faces??

I remember laughing through my entire dinner at Pei Wei with you the first time we went out after rock climbing.  Part of it was nerves, but part of it was I just thought you were really funny.  (And cute.)  Well, I was right.  (On both accounts.)

In college, Katie, SMoo and I would mention a guy and then ask our own question:  

"Is he smart?" (SMoo)

"Is he funny?" (Katie)

"Is he cute?" (Shay)

You are all three.  And more.  Most importantly to me, you pursue the Lord wholeheartedly.  You have made my friends your friends, and you know (and ask) all about the important people in my life, including my entire family, closest friends, and people at work.  

You encourage me when I need it most, you are a great listener, and you make me think about more than just myself.  You encourage me to run and workout, but don't demand it.  

You are hardworking and diligent in all that you do.  

You're compassionate, caring, intelligent, a great cook, 

and have I mentioned funny?

I must really like you, because otherwise I wouldn't send you photos like this after you run a half marathon while I was out of town for work & couldn't be there...

And you must really like me, because after I had a really horrible day this week and bawled my eyes out on your shoulder, I looked up and you had my mascara all over your cheek.  But you just sat there with me and talked and listened.  That meant a whole lot.  :-)

I hope today you feel extra special and very celebrated.

Love,

Shay 

ps--a birthday clue:  I hope you know your ABCs by now!

Inspiration Folder

It's no secret I enjoy reading blogs.  I just find so many little bits of inspiration--lots of things I just tuck away mentally, and some stuff I can actually incorporate into everyday life.  I thought I'd share a few snippits from my new folder on my desktop called "Inspiration," because that's just what it is...

First, I just found this from The Pioneer Woman this morning.  At Polyvore, you can make design boards of actual clothes, accessories and even interior decorating.  It's a cool visual tool, and you can actually purchase what you make...although it would definitely be detrimental to your pocket book, PW points out!  {Does anyone else call it that?  My very southern grandmother always called it a pocket book.}

Over at Kelly's Korner, she shared this really cool vinyl monogram that you can put on a mirror.  I thought this was really cool.  Her final product {left} came from inspiration on the right, which my mom and I decided was a really warm, fun, non-baby nursery.  {Take out the baby bed, and I'd totally move in with all those pinks and browns.  Yum.}

Finally, I came across a really cool way to keep stacks of Christmas cards over at The Poe Fam.  I don't have that  many Christmas cards quite yet, but I thought it was a really neat idea to be able to look through them and get them out around Christmas.  

So that's what's in my folder today.  Please share more...I love adding things.  :-)

Anna Banana!

Happy Birthday, sweet Anna!  I love the more-sister-than-cousin friendship we've found ourselves in as we've grown up.  I'm so glad your fam moved back up here to Dallas so that our lunch dates and late night Starbucks runs can happen much more often.

You have such a love for life, a zillion friends who realize just how great you are, you're hard-working, and definitely one of the funniest girls I know.  And although I didn't have the choice to make you my cousin, I am honored to call you a dear friend.

I love seeing you come into your own and figure out what you want to do next in life.  You pursue the Lord on a daily basis, have such a heart for people and helping others.

I love that we're able to share the Baylor and Tri-Delta experiences together, even though you're three years behind me.  It's fun to hear your perspective on things I was involved in not too long ago.  Even though we've chosen some similar routes as our moms, you've made Baylor your own, and I know you'll look back on those four years with lots of happy memories.  Soak it all up, girl.  Soak it up.

You keep me up on all the latest iPhone apps and Google Reader options, show me new blogs and make sure I stay hip enough.  Thank you for that.

You taught me to shop (much to my chagrin, now!).  As a picky fourth grader, I couldn't find a thing I even wanted to try on to wear.  You showed me how to make a "yes," "no," and "maybe" pile that I still use to this day.  Thanks for that, too.  (I think.)

Enjoy your special day.  You are SO LOVED by so many...me included!

77 or 78? That is the question...

A couple of Tuesdays ago, we celebrated Papa's Birthday.  As we circled up to pray before our (yummy) meal Mom made, there was a great debate about which birthday Papa was actually celebrating.  He thought it was 77, but after some mathematics, turns out he was mistaken, and he actually turned 78 on January 9th.  I guess when you have so many birthdays, it's just hard to keep track!  :-)  Too bad he's been competing in the golf games for "Under 78."  Papa told Adam that he was really ticked off, because he could've won a few more golf tournaments in a different age bracket!  Ha.

Peach Cobbler is a family go-to for dessert, because it's so good...any time!  

Papa, you are so loved.  Celebrating you is always a treat.  You are a giver of your time, so helpful with home improvement projects, a great game player, a most helpful airport taker and picker-upper, and so many other things.  Thanks for being you.  WE LOVE YOU!

Leave it to the guys to start playing with the napkin rings.  Adam and my Uncle Mark have this uncanny ability to make me laugh like nobody's business.  And they do it without meaning to, but my laughter just encourages them more, I think.  

And although I don't have a pic of Troy and my Dad from this particular birthday celebration, I didn't want to leave them out of this "guy post."  {Just for the record, Mom, Aunt Laura, Jonita and I were there, too, but I don't have any pics of us.  Go figure.}

It's funny to me how much they look alike.  But the scariest part is when they're side by side and do the exact same mannerism--at the same time.  

Well, I guess I can wrap up this post by saying how grateful I am for all the guys in my life.  :-)  It would definitely be a different story with out them!

Why Girls are Awesome...

I get text messages with photos like this saying, "I wanted to show you my new nail polish--I wish we lived in the same city!"  Yes, I do to, Amanda.  I do too.  But at least we can instant message each other while we're working!  :-)

We can get really excited about dressing up and going out.  {Left and bottom photos from New Year's Eve 2011}.  Claire and I found a top and blazer on sale at Target with some sparkles on it, so we bought it for SMoo to wear on NYE.  Only girls would do that,  right?!

Top photo was from girls' night last week.  We sat around at dinner and talked about 90 miles a minute about all sorts of stuff.  {Lots of which were blogs, since Gentry, Molly and I all blog!} 

Needless to say, I'm blessed with lots of girlfriends around here {and far away}, and I'm so thankful for all of them.

Other highlights lately:

• Running with Lyndsy {I never used to be able to run along this Baylor Track Star!  Not that I'm anywhere near her abilities (ha!) but still fun to be able to do that now.}
• Waking up at 6:15 so I can run in and tell Claire something before she leaves for school. 
• Watching Toy Story 3 with SMoo last night and talking for an hour and a half before we even started the movie.  And we just spent all of last weekend together!

Bottom line...Girls have A LOT of words.  I'm so thankful I can talk it all out with them.  {And I'm sure Adam appreciates this, too, because sometimes I just talk and talk and talk.  Thankfully he's a great listener!}  

Happy Weekending!

Marathon Man: Disney Style

Last Sunday, Dad finished 26.2 miles, and we couldn't be more proud!

Finished!!

There's another photo of me, SMoo and Dad running when we met up with him at mile 23 (our 6 mile plan was thwarted by the super-controlled Disney race map), but it's not loading at the moment.  We ran with him to the end and got to be there as he crossed the finish line.

He pushed through and made it, despite the unexpected knee and hip pain that began on mile 12.  We got text updates at miles 5, 10, 13.2 and 20, so we kind of knew where he was.  Isn't modern technology grand?! 

We caught him coming out of MGM/Hollywood Studios, and I swear I looked like a complete idiot jumping up and down, yelling, "Go Dad!  Woohoo!  Come on Gary!"  It was really exciting, and I didn't care.  Everyone around us started cheering, too.  SMoo and I jumped in (which is technically banditing a run!) and got to run behind Disney and through Epcot.  We tried to come up with anything and everything imaginable to talk about and try and keep Dad's mind occupied.  I'm pretty sure I even said, "Look!  There's England!  Hey, We're in France!" as we were running through all the countries.  At least we tried.

After you cross the finish line, they give you a space blanket to stay warm, then your medal, and then you stop at the medical tent. They have people ready to help you with ice packs.  We determined that saran-wrap is only good for attaching ice packs to knees, nothing else!  Dad said if he could've run with those, that would've been perfect!

The whole experience was really inspiring.  Mom was saying that as an adult, you don't have many opportunities to hear people cheering you on like it was happening on race day.  People were lining the route, and everyone had names on their bibs, so you could cheer for them by name, even if you didn't know them.  Mom, SMoo and I nearly froze as we waited, but we kept warm by jumping up and down and walking along the route waiting for Dad and cheering others on.  We even got a few Delta should outs, since SMoo was wearing a DDD fleece.  Fun stuff.   

SMoo is ready to run the half marathon there, but I haven't quite caught the bug yet.  I'm just going to stick to my 5k for now and hopefully add a 10k this year. 

Dad, we are so proud of you!  Thanks for letting us tag along and visit Disney World with you.  Love you bunches.

Five For Friday

Happy Friday, friends!  Here are Five things from my week:

1.  Wednesday's Girls' night with Gentry, Molly, Smoo and Claire was so much fun.  I'm thinking we'll have to make it a more regular occurance! {Photo coming soon} 2.  I loved this Valentine's poem and photos from author John Piper to his wife.  I realize it's only January, but I just happened upon it and thought I'd share.  3.  Thursday night, Adam and I ran the longest I've ever run!  And then we had spaghetti--it never tasted so good.  I'm getting ready to leave this afternoon for Disney World to finish the last 6 miles of my dad's marathon with him.  We are excited!  SMoo is coming along to run and be my roller coaster buddy--mom and dad opted out of that part.  :-)  4.  I designed my new blog header on Monday, and the Bible Verse in it is from the NET Bible.  I thought it was fitting for January.  {And if you want help desiging a blog-topper or just help with your blog design in general, let me know.  I'd really love to help!} 5.  MCP Actions is starting Project 52, where you upload a photo each week to  flicr account, in hopes that practice will help us improve over time.  I'm going to try it, so we'll see!

Mickey, here I come!

A December to Remember

As if posting eight times in seven days isn't a dead giveaway, I've had all but one day off from work, which I worked in my jammies.  This time has been amazing.  {And if I could blog for a living, I totally would.}  I've spent lots of time sleeping, some of it running, a lot with the roomdog, and hanging out with friends I don't get to see all the time, catching Adam when he's not working, and cleaning out and organizing a lot.

Can you say g-l-o-r-i-o-u-s?!  

Besides hanging out with Claire, recently I've celebrated Mom's Birthday, Cheered on the Hogs & the Bears with Smoo, Recapped our Family Trip to Mexico, said goodbye to the most loved dog--Skip, Covered Christmas Eve with the whole fam, then Christmas Day, and relived our date to hear Mannheim Steamroller at the Meyerson Symphony Hall.  

I spent some of my Christmas money on Blog-it Boards from MCP Actions, which is why a lot of my posts now have photos that look like this...

And this...

{These were pics I found on my phone from our first few hours in Iowa.  How much fun can YOU have in an airport in Iowa?  The camo is from when we stopped at The Great Outdoors with Adam's brother to get some shotgun shells for hunting the next day.}

I also found a new FREE app for my iPhone called Instagram that has several different filters and borders that can give you the look of the photos above.

The MCP Actions let you choose several different layouts depending on the number of openings and the arrangement of them.  You can add color boxes and text as well.  I'm loving it!  If you have Photoshop, you can try a sample blog-it board for free.  It's just one, and it got me hooked.

It's been a full two weeks away from work in real life and on this blog, and I am so thankful for every minute.  Hope you've had a wonderful break as well, and Happy Monday, my friends!

A Christmas Date

Dear AMP, thanks for stretching my Christmas out as long as possible.  Giving me your Christmas gift in Iowa let me anticipate our Christmas date, which I loved.  {The anticipation and the date!}  After a long run, I think we clean up pretty well!  Dinner at Spaghetti Warehouse was delicious.  And then we got to the Meyerson Symphony Center downtown feeling oh-so-cultured.  We settled into our wonderful seats and the performance began.

I think my eyes were as wide as saucers the entire time, 

my smile even bigger.    

Mannheim Steamroller was amazing...nothing compares to live music, especially in the symphony hall.  I think half of the time I was thinking how cool it was to be there, and the other half was wondering how I found a guy that makes me feel so special (all the time!).

Christmas Day

Christmas morning is always just the four of us.  We open stockings and then gifts.  This year, Troy and I got Mom and Dad Baylor t-shirts since they were headed to the bowl game later that week in Houston.  (We don't need to talk about the outcome of that...)

Then, I decided this was the year for coupons.  I gave Mom 3 games of Words With Friends, 2 Sleepovers and a Mom & Daughter lunch date anywhere she chooses.  Yes, I'm 24 and I still give homemade gifts.  :-)

For Dad, I gave him 6 coupons labeled "Mile 20, 21, 22" and "Mile 24, 25, 26."  Apparently I can't count, and Dad was really confused!  But when I explained that I was going to run the last six miles of his marathon next week, he got really excited!  I'd promised to run at least three, but I've been working with Adam to run more than that.  So that's the plan for next weekend...I'll be sure to start at Mile 21 so I don't end up running SEVEN miles!

Our other tradition is that Dad and I cook breakfast on Christmas morning.  We have many a photo in the kitchen together growing up.  We had a late breakfast and I stayed in my jammies as long as possible!

Troy was there too, just not as "in" to all the photos.  One of his gifts was this license plate guitar and a Texas flag, since he's so far from home.  Funny how Texas roots get stronger sometimes when you go away...

After breakfast, we went to see True Grit.  It was a lot of blood, guns, guts and gore.  I think I kept waiting for a love story, and there just wasn't one.  I spent some quality time on Facebook during the movie, haha.  But that's another one of our traditions to see a movie on Christmas Day!

Papa and Jonita and Adam came over for a steak dinner later Christmas Day.  They played games, and I made brownies.  It was fun to all be together again!  Games aren't really my thing (or Dad's, either), so I was more than thrilled to bake.  

The Flaggs came over after they spent time with Mark's side of the family, and we sat around laughing and talking and playing on Dad's new iPad.  It was a fun, relaxing and joyful day!

Christmas Eve

We got to celebrate Christmas Eve at my Aunt & Uncle's new house.  They just moved back after 14 years in Houston, and we are l-o-v-i-n-g having them so close.  We went to the Christmas Eve service at Stonebriar Community Church and all crammed into Troy's Yukon.  It was cozy, to say the least.  The service is a neat one because they tell the Christmas Story and mix in Christmas Carols along the way.  It's casual and lasts about an hour, so it was just perfect for us.

Then we came home to have dinner, played a Christmas trivia game and the opened gifts and hung out.  It's moments like this where I have to sit back and just be so grateful for my precious family.

(And don't get confused...Austin's pants are as red as the bag he's opening.  He thought he'd surprise us all with a Christmas outfit.  Well done.)