I was pondering as I drove home from Wal-Mart what exactly I would write about in today’s post, and to be honest, you really aren’t gonna get much. There are many little stories and pictures that I have to share from the past few days… The Format concert… the final day of preparation for the big Thanksgiving Dinner… a new JM song. But tonight I need sleep, and before I can be horizontal I still need to create a schedule of when twenty turkeys and eight hams need to go into and be removed from nine ovens all in seven and a half hours. So tonight all I wanna tell you is I’m excited. I’m little tired. More than anything, I’m happier and more content than I can remember being in a long time despite the stresses of tomorrow and the weariness of today, and that’s a really great place to be.

Baked 47 pies. Shopped for 4.5 hours. Left 832 rolls to rise overnight. This is what 200 of those rising rolls look like…

So the Thanksgiving Dinner shopping began tonight. Nothing like purchasing 47 pies and 832 rolls for $178. Amazing!! Also, always… always… always check out in the Self-Check Out Line when you have huge amounts of one item. The machine loves to make you strategically pile pie after pie after pie in a 5 cubic foot area while constantly beeping to inform you that an ‘item has been removed the bagging area’. The managers are equally thrilled when you ignore the only purchase four pies at a time rule, but know deep down if they enforce the rule you’re just going to walk your four pies out the car and walk back in to buy four more until you have all you need. Then after the stress of making sure your pumpkin to cherry to peach ratio is perfect….. you’ll need to figure out how to shove all of the pies and rolls into three freezers… I can’t wait for tomorrow’s shopping trip… gallons of green beans… here we come!

So I’m not the biggest Sugarland fan, but when I saw their latest video, “Stay”, I was in awe of how raw and emotionally vulnerable the lead singer, Jennifer Nettles is. I won’t lie… I teared up a bit when I first saw it… This video is why I love the storytellers in country music. Who needs layers of makeup, fancy outfits, and elaborate sets when you have a singer, a song, and a powerful story. Good music makes you sing-a-long. Great music moves you.
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Sugarland – Stay
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I took a nap tonight. For the first time in a long time, I crawled into bed before 9 pm and just slept. I try not to take naps because 1) I hate having to wake up and 2) I always wake up cranky. I am not a napper. I can’t imagine how my mom dealt with that when I was a child but I hope for her sake this nap-phobia is something I developed as I have grown older. So back to the nap itself… I’m pretty sure that the nap was my brain’s last ditch effort to avoid a total nuclear meltdown. Things have been a bit out of control here in LaurelLand, and while I’m pretending that things are running smoothly… it’s total make-believe.

I don’t really want to ever speak too in-depth about work in this venue…. but just to give you a hint at what’s been going on… I swear there have been a few moments where I have balled my fist and unconsciously calculated the approximate location of an ovary to punch it for a real ‘feel-good time’. So you’d think I’d welcome the chance to relax, kick back, and enjoy Veteran’s Day three-day weekend. And, I did. Don’t get me wrong. But there really wasn’t much relaxing or kicking back. Saturday started off quite well. I slept in and had lunch with Lauren. Click To Continue Reading…

Never tell the neighborhood kids that you are baking cookies and they can help with they want.  You’ll end up with no help and 10,000 little orange dots on your living room floor.  Plus, they’ll come over 30 times the next day asking for a cookie…

I’ll post more tomorrow.  I promise.  I really have a lot I want to discuss.  But I’m just too tired tonight.  My legs are aching.  My hands are burned.  I have cuts all over them from the wire brush and my 3 hour battle vs the oven.  (I won, of course.)  Today was supposed to be simple enough.  I was going to go to church, go cookie supply shopping, and relax and bake a few dozen cookies.  However, that must have been too easy.  Because instead I let four kids have arts and crafts hour in my living room while baking 20 dozen cookies.  Yes… over 240 cookies have been created from my kitchen today.  This was no relaxing baking session but a chaotic 9 hour undertaking that left my home full of Peanut Butter, Pumpkin, Cranberry Pecan, Oatmeal Raisin, and Oatmeal Pecan Raisin cookies.  So if you’ve got a sweet tooth, let me know I might be able to provide.

Ingredients:
• 3/4 cup margarine
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3 3/4 cup flour
• 1 1/2 cups pumpkin
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup chopped nuts
• 1 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 6 oz chocolate chips
• 6 oz white chips

Combine everything except chips. Mix until smooth. Stir chips in. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Share with everyone around you. Bake more when these are all gone.

Where is this laptop’s other half?!?!? It’s days like these… I so love my job…

Alicia Keys and JM – Lesson Learned

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Guess what songs been on repeat for days??? Oh and how excited am I to have figured out this audio player and configured it to the perfect shade of pink…

I have been pondering all day what the topic of today’s post should be and have a interesting problem…. I don’t know what to talk about. Not because I can’t think of anything but because I have too much floating around in my head. I’ve started this post at least 5 times, and each time my words have disappeared with a simple Ctrl+A… delete. Each of these posts will eventually make their way to this site; they just aren’t ready yet. Maybe they haven’t matured or maybe I’m not ready to make them real. You’ll just have to be patient.

So…instead of blogging and putting my fragmented thoughts into complete sentences, I escaped with Lauren to see a movie, Martian Child, to be exact. Now let’s be honest, this movie isn’t going to be up for any Oscars next April, but it was perfect for tonight. A feel-good, chick flick with an equal and heart-warming blend of laughter and tears. It was a total cliche’, and I loved every minute of it. A little boy so afraid of where the world around him has left him that he convinces himself that he’s not a part of this world. He hides, builds walls, and seeks comfort in not being one of the masses. Who of us hasn’t done that or at least wanted to? Not me. Remember I escaped reality with a John Cusack movie. So keep your eyes peeled for more substance between these two pink columns, but tonight… I was a Martian.

There are very few things in life that women take as seriously as their hair. As a majority, we don’t just trust our tresses to just anyone. The process of finding a stylist is one of the most grueling undertakings known to mankind or, actually, womankind. To prove their competency, we must see examples of their masterpieces, consult friends who have trusted their skill (kind of like our own hair guinea pigs), and have each of the finalists fill out a 17 page application that includes an “If you screw up my hair and make me cry, you will quit your job and move to Omaha”, legally-binding document. So you can just imagine the sheer panic I felt back in August as I walked through the Flagstaff mall and discovered that Regis Salon where my hair-genius, Stevie, resided had disappeared. I promise you, if there were less people around, I would have grabbed hold of those bars blocking the entryway and cried out for her… hoping she would magically appear from the back of the darkened store. But, alas, I have some dignity. Click To Continue Reading…

I wooted tonight! Greatest gag gifts ever for those stressed-out geeks!!