this is a test...

candy cane cupcake
Originally uploaded by retrocowgirl

for some reason, i can't post photos on my blog right. i've tried everything.. looking at old photos, searching the "help" sections on blogger and flickr, which were not very helpful. so if you use blogger AND flickr to post your photos... can you tell me how you do that?! at least multiple photos? thanks! :)

P-Dub came to town....

.... and i kinda-sorta met her. well, let's put it this way: we were in the same building, at the same time, breathing the same air, and probably thinking the same thing... "where did all these people come from?"

yea, it was crazy! by the time we got there over 250 wrist bands were giving out and there was still over 2 hours of waiting. i took some funny "people watching" photos, but i can't remember how to load photos on here... blogger and i are both being weird.

so i'm going to think on it and re-post. because without the photos, well this post is kinda dull.

you would think....

.... that i would learn to NOT rub my eyes when i'm wearing mascara... nice.

yes, it's been a monday!

but i'm going to meet her tomorrow! so i need to make sure to not have racoon-eyes tomorrow. or maybe i should and she would make some silly comment about me on her uber-fantastic blog. and that's how i became famous!

ha! a simple girl can dream big right?
;)

hardwood floor.

i love hardwood floor. i love the way it feels under my feet. the way it sounds when you walk on it. and my sweet lil' almost 60 year old home has it from wall to wall. beautiful hardwood floors.

until....

someone decided that they didn't like it and put ugly beige carpet on top of it. i would love to meet this person and shake some sense into him/her.


the house purging is going well. i make those "michael jackson" face masks look good while i'm hauling out the aforementioned carpet to the curb. i'm sure my neighbors are laughing at me from their window. "there's that weird girl again.... wonder what she's up to?"

hehe... nothing like having the neighbors talk about you. ;)

why, hello again....

kinda forgot i even had a blog! wow, where have i been:

well. let's see.....
#1: the twilight books. yes! i read every word in all four books. LOVED them! however, i wasn't very impressed with the movie. :\ i've heard that "new moon" was much better, but i won't be breaking my neck to stand in line with all the "edward groupies" to watch. i prefer renting in off the redbox at wal-mart, popping my own popcorn, and donning my jammies for that type of fine entertainment.

#2: school started. yes! i am "that crazy first grade teacher" that wears bright colored knee socks with her skirts on chapel day; her hair sticks straight up (and i mean on end!); funky sassy glasses; and has all the other teachers wondering what is really in her "bubba keg"... it's ice water, i swear! i have nine crazy kiddos this year... love every one of them. along with all the art work, hugs, "good morning teacher", tying of shoes, fixing ponytails, turning cartwheels in the gym, and the mispronunciation of my last name... all on a daily basis.

#3: life. yes! i do have one. however, it may be kinda boring at times; it does take a lot of my time. the mr. and i have started "remodeling" the house. i use that term loosely since i'm not quite sure what we are doing other than making a HUGE mess (of the house and my allergies). but the cute picture i have in my head when the house is finished is awesome! bright, make you smile colors and lots of antiques! can't wait, can't wait!

so yes! we're still here. still breathing in between choir practices, reading books about teenage vampires, kleenex, and cupcakes. oh, i've made some cute ones! i'll have to have a show and tell feature after thanksgiving. ;)

my dream...

to have my husband's boots waiting for him in the hallway. i dreamed that i would marry some rancher and live on some 1,000 acres out in the middle of nowhere in a beautiful stone house with a wrap-around porch with rocking chairs. i've dreamed this for as long as i can remember. i'm cowboy, well... as much as i can be. my family is cowboy, thru and thru. it's in my blood. it's home. i guess that's why living in the city is "cramping my style" if you will.

but this is what i wanted. a tall, rugged cowboy wearing wranglers, pearl-snap shirts, and his favorite cowboy hat to call me his. and i waited. and waited. and waited some more.

and then i met "him". i'll never forget the day that he came to pick me up for our first date. wranglers.. check. hat... check (well it was a baseball hat, but that works too). boots... check, but they weren't the retro squared toe with a riding heel that i had invisioned. shirt.... a nice t-shirt. okay, half check. it wasn't a panhandle slim, but that's alright, we can work on that.

and nine years later, he still wears his t-shirts with his wranglers. and he looks really good in a cowboy hat. we don't have that nice ranch house with land and some hundred head of cattle. but we dream about it. maybe one day when we say goodbye to the little city where both of our parents grew up just walking distance from where we live now. maybe he'll have that dream job of being a "cowboy"... hey, men have dreams of what they want to be when they grow up too!

and even though it's not the "dream come true" that i whole-heartedly wanted some ten years ago... it's exactly what i needed. and when it comes down to it, it doesn't matter that he doesn't wear pearl-snaps and rides a horse to work each morning. he calls me "his".

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

evidence..

... of a very crazy busy week:






that would be my window over my kitchen sink looking into the back yard. an empty diet coke and my wedding ring... and yes, i have the window cracked because we have a gas stove and i'm afraid of us getting sick off of smelling gas.. one of those weird things that you do because your mom told you to. love ya mom!

if i had three wishes....

... i would want to be like her

... if i had another wedding, i would want this dress

... and i want any of this for lunch

so yea, back to laundry i go. along with the lil' "mini Mr." fussing that his "bed is RUINED!" because i took off his sheets to wash them. dang, i'm such a horrible, horrible mother for washing the kids sheets.... ::sigh::

3 birthdays in 3 days...

... and i'm wiped. and to think that i've had cake each day too!! wowziers! "hello weight watchers, i need immediate assistance..." yes ma'am, back to counting points tomorrow. so anyways, thought i would share with you some photos of the past three days:

my sweet nanny's birthday was on friday... took her to cici's pizza and to walmart, but had the shin-dig on saturday at my parents. love this photo of her. my plan is to frame it and set it somewhere in the house... probably in the kitchen somewhere. and yes, these were her fresh strawberry cupcakes that i made for her. strawberry anything is her absolute favorite! i remember going to braum's when i was little and she always, always ordered strawberry. now i like strawberry too, but when they have something with chocolate and something made of chocolate added to it with chocolate drizzled on top... well sorry nanny, the strawberry is all yours!

and it was independence day for us americans! woo-hoo... a national holiday to grill out hotdogs and hamburgers, go swimming, eat watermelon, all that kind of good stuff. i love america.. i love this history, the heroes, the wars, blah blah blah... and i'll be generous and save you from my history lesson. that's was the history channel is for. which i LOVE.. almost more than braum's chocolate ice cream.

and to wrap up the festivities, it was noah's 5th birthday today. noah is the son of my best friends, sheri and jeremy... which on a day when i'm talking fast, they are referred to as "sheremy". but anyways, they put together an amazing party and an even more amazing cake! so thanks to them, we had our fill of pizza, cake, and arcade games for the summer. thanks you guys! we had a blast!!

so now i'm back to eating healthy after all this sinful eating i have done for three days. and no the tofu noodles are not on the menu, but that could change in desperation...

number 80

today, my sweet lil' nanny turned 80. can you imagine, 80 years: lived in 3 different states, married to her best friend for 43 years, mother of 2 children, 4 grandchildren, and 2 great-grandchildren all the while keeping the same phone number for almost 50 of those years. my nanny. i have some of my best childhood memories with her... going to the library in the summer, the grocery store on thursday and the beauty parlor on fridays. i probably know every short cut in haltom city and fort worth, because she never drove on the highway. i'll never forget her telling me that "boys like girls who curl their hair and wear make-up".. i lovingly told her that's why i don't. (i had recently broke up with "the stalker" for the... 2nd or 3rd time).

but i love her! i can still smell her pot roast on a sunday afternoon after church, her popcorn balls for halloween, and poppy's coffee cooking on the stove. and i love the way that she always left the light on in the bathroom. i remember being little and her waking me up to watch princess diana get married. her showing me who to jitterbug to old elvis records and sewing my first skirt that i wore everywhere proudly. i was her "pride and joy" and love it that she still calls me that today.

i could rattle on and on about my nanny.. i could honestly write a book about her. so here's one of my favorite photos of us. yes, it's our shoes but we were crossing our feet exactly the same. that's just one of the many things that her and i do alike. and i love that about us.

childhood checklist for the summer....

to wear a cowboy hat every where you go... even if you're wearing shorts and flip flops.




to play in the mud. to the point where you can't even ride home in the truck because you're so dirty and you have to be sprayed off with the water hose before you can go in the house.

to make friends with the roly polys. God's little friends for the summer. :)

whatcha cookin' good lookin'?

i love to cook. i'm not an expert.. i HAVE to follow the directions to the letter. that would be why i can make a rachael ray 30 minute meal turn into a good hour's worth of cooking. but i do it anyways. another "enjoy the process" kind of things. so here's the latest that graced it's presence in my kitchen: my super quick fettuccine. looks normal right? well, it's made from tofu noddles. it's a hungry girl recipe. love that girl! when you can come up with a cupcake recipe that is less than 200 calories per cupcake?? you're a hero in my book! anyways, the whole bowl was less than 200 calories and it was actually really good. the noodles... well they had a funny texture. a little on the rubbery side for me. but i ate it! not sure if that gives me a gold star from trying something new or a "wow, you're not right in the head" stamped across my forehead?

now! let's get to the GOOOOD stuff! enough of this tofu mess. enter stage right: the mr's kind of meal... bbq pork ribs and mac-n-cheese. yes ma'am! lovin' me some crock pots meals this week! i cooked a roast on monday... not near as good as nanny's but these ribs will give you a run for her money! i would much rather have coleslaw, baked beans, potato salad, something else other than mac-n-cheese to go along with this... however the mr. sits on the picky side of the fence, so the mac won out. and i will give all the credit to my fabulous crock pot for this meal! don't know what i would do without you this week! the crock pot and i have a loving relationship... we LOVE food! and a good hot bath when we're doing working. :)

and this is where it all went wrong. *raising my right hand* "betty crocker, i apologize for not following the directions that you printed beautifully on the back of your butter recipe cake mix. i acknowledge my foolishness and will never replace any ingredient you have listed for one that i think is better..." IDIOT! yes ma'am! learned my lesson in baking 101 this afternoon. thought i would be all "miss know-it-all" and swap out the oil for a cup of applesauce. yes ma'am! betty crocker mocked me in the face when these cupcakes came out heavy and crunchy in the top! and i didn't even see the red flag when my ice cream scoop turned cake batter dipper outer thing broke while dipping the batter that weighed 10 pounds! so nooo, not again, will i swap oil for apple sauce!! may tomorrow be the day when i redeem myself with martha stewart's strawberry cupcakes with strawberry meringue buttercream... oh how i wish i could have juila child for a fairy godmother!

it is to a man's job!

at least in my house it is! a recent conversation with the mr. we decided that if i cook dinner, then he'll do the dishes. alright fair enough.

well.... i think the mr. forgot his part of the deal. however, he's been swamped with work. i believe that retail managers should have a special place in heaven after dealing with the general public day and and day out. so i washed the dishes today. no biggie. i actually like washing dishes and cleaning my house for that matter. however i am slow as christmas when it comes to these every day tasks. i tend to get lost in the moment. i let my ADD take over my thoughts and i'm lost until the sink is clean. so with today's washing: i thought about the next post i would put on here, that i need to email my sister and see what kind of country music she needs for a party, that i need to call the dentist and see what is up with a tooth that is bothering me, that i need to wash/bleach the whites in the bathroom floor, that i need to give wyatt his second round of eardrops for the day, all the while james brown "papa's got a brand new bag" song stuck in my head! nice! and to think that all of this was going on at once. crazy-ness. i think it goes along with the medical weirdness that i'm already attributing to.

so the sink is clean. with the exception of two pans, but that's only because i didn't have room in the dish drainer for them. and as for the diet coke in the sink, that was from yesterday. i put it in the freezer to get cold while we were at the doctor. however after 6 hours of us running around town, the soda froze solid. i tried to thaw it out and save it however it just fuzzed all over the place so in the sink it went. so with that i leave you with a new favorite quote of mine: "cleaniness is not next to godliness. it's no where in the neighborhood. because who has ever had a religious experience from scrapping burnt cheese off of a toaster oven"... thank you erma bombeck! you are my hero!

cheating off of facebook...

i love facebook. i believe it's the best source of gossip from all the " debbie do gooders" and rebellious bad boys high school.. i think it's the "rag mag" of reality for us normal folk. so anyways, i have recently made some of my facebook friends scratch their head and say "something is not right with that girl" after a horribly mis-typed status. so in order to gracefully redeem myself, i posted a "note" of explanation. so i'm going to cheat and make that my first official post on here, only because i'm a little on the lazy side today and i don't think i could retype everything from memory:

well let's say that my life mission of "going against the norm" has found its way in the medical arena, along with tailgating my four year old. so let's see if this will clear up any "that girl is just weird/not right/wrong/crazy" statements that you may have mumbled to yourself while reading my facebook statuses.
case #1: yes i am only 30 years old and yes i have dropped over 30 pounds in weight and yes i still have a blood pressure problem. nice! so anyways, with the excessive heat that we have had here in texas, my blood pressure has made a loud and clear petition that it doesn't NOT want me to function on these days. i asked my doctor yesterday about why i feel slow, sluggish, unmotivated, and want to sleep the day away and his answer: you need to stay cool and make sure that you take your meds everyday. well thank you doctor for your harvard medical school answer! :P so i will be staying inside with a quick trip to sonic happy hour for my 1/2 price relief of diet coke with lime.
case #2: my little wyatt. bless his heart, the apple didn't fall too far from the tree with the medical weirdness. let's back up to march 2008 when we had tubes put in both of his ears. the ENT said that his ears were so infected that the "junk" had the consistency of jell-o. (i now think of that each time i eat jell-o) and no wonder the pour guy had a speech problem! he was listening to his crazy mother's high pitched voice thru jell-o! no anyways, haven't had any problems until this past weekend. wyatt had a fun filled afternoon of swimming at my mom's. and mom did what every other mother in america did after swimming, she put a drop or two of rubbing alcohol in his left ear to get the water out. enter in scene from pretty woman where julia roberts goes back to the rude dress shop and yells "BIG MISTAKE. HUGE!" note to self: if a child or adult has tubes in his ears DO NOT put ANYTHING in the ears!! (i will now remember that for the rest of my life). well wyatt came unhinged! screamed for 20 minutes. my mom was flipping out while i was leisurely walking around a cool temperated albertson's getting groceries. so i made him an appointment with our family doctor yesterday and the result was $20 of meds for a very infected left ear. "wow" was the doctor's exact words and said that he couldn't identify the parts of his ear from all the junk inside. hmm.. nice. the jell-o status has returned. well something told me to call the ENT and see what he had to say. was able to get in and the verdict was the same. "wow". seems to be the new word for all the doctors to say these days. so after a quick "vacuuming" out of his left ear, there was something still in there. so out comes the funky surgical tweezers things (that i secretly want) and he pulls out a ..... "how weird... i don't know what that is". i'm sure that my face and the doctor's face was identical. after further looking under his scope that i'm sure cost more than my house, he figured out that is was a polyp. yep, my kid had a polyp in his ear from the chronic inflammation! nice. followed by "i've never seen that before". i can only imagine what this man has seen in ears of all ages. at least i didn't have to explain how that got in wyatt's ear. :) so home we came, with another script for ear drops since the first round of meds are null and void because it was for treating something else.
so what a day! i do believe it should go down in the record books under "medical weirdness".

alright, back to normal for the day. at least as normal as i can get. and back to cleaning my house. i'll report back with progress, or lack there of.