Nearly ready...for the trip anyway

I think I've just about got everyone packed up for the next couple of days! Cassie and Joshua are going to my parent's house tonight and Mike and I are leaving here for Washington D.C. at 2:30 in the morning. I'm SO excited I can't sit still! I more excited about this trip than I was about the trip to Chicago. there are so many things I want to see and I know we'll have to be really quick about it but I think we can get to most of what we want to. I can't wait to report back with what we did accomplish in the short amount of time that we'll be there. Hopefully our flights will be on time and uneventful. Mike hasn't flown in a really long time and I can tell he's pretty nervous about it even though he doesn't say so. I feel like a little kid right before something big. I'm SO excited to be going with him! I think all I have left to do is print out our boarding passes. I'm betting you money that I'm the one who will end up driving to Dallas. Mike is not a morning person. Especially not a 2 o'clock in the morning person..lol. Oh well, I'd might as well drive. I can't stitch in the dark now can I...lol.

Cassie and I both had hair appointments today. We both have really long hair and she popped in yesterday and said "Mom, I wanna get my hair cut to here. Now, I know that's a lot but I've looked at myself in the mirror and I know it'll be cute." WOW! LOL! She's not had short hair in FOREVER!! I tried to talk her out of it at first and reminded her that once it was cut it was a done deal, you can't put it back. I decided if she really wanted it cut then I wasn't gonna hold her back. Long thick hair is a hard thing to have in Texas in the summer anyway. When we got to the salon and my hair dresser asked her how much she wanted off and she told her, she interrogated her for about 10 minutes to make sure. LOL! She took off over 9 inches! She looks so much more grown up. Mike's gonna hate it! LOL! It's SO cute on her! She really really loves it. She also inquired about getting her ears pierced. HUH? Come again??? I think she's evolving in to something today and I'm not sure that I like it...LOL! We got her hair done & I painted her finger and toe nails...I think we're gonna have to stop at that for now..lol.


I got quite a bit of stitching done on my fairy this past Friday night for the Friday fairy SAL. I'm not gonna get in to my rant about the wings again. It's done...I'm annoyed about the situation but I've fixed it and shall move on...lol. I stayed up half the night fixing it but I did and now I only have 1/2 a wing left to stitch in that horrid Dandelion Stem. If there would've been enough of it in the kit to begin with I wouldn't have had a problem. See...there I go again...I really need to let it go..lol.

I guess I better scamper off. Mike's getting off work in about an hour and I need to do a few more things. I can't wait till he sees Cassie's hair. I might have to sit by the door with the camera...LOL!! Hopefully this time tomorrow I'll be somewhere by The White House ot the National Archives. How cool is that?! Be good and I'll look forward to posting pictures when I get back. Keep your fingers crossed for Mike at his interview! If one of these jobs is what he's really wanting then I really hope he gets it. I'm a firm believer in if it's meant to be then it will be and if it's not then it won't.

Getting ready for another trip!

Mike got a call yesterday and will be leaving for Washington D.C super early Tuesday morning for 2 job interviews! And the best part is.............I'm going too! YAY! Mike asked me to go with him this morning before he bought his ticket and I was thrilled that he did! I've wanted to go to D.C. for a really long time! I'm really in to history and so is he. It should be a really fun little trip together. We'll only be there for a short time. We'll be coming back really late Wednesday night. We won't have a lot of time to do touristy type stuff but we do plan on seeing The White House, the Pentagon, and Arlington National Cemetery. We're hoping to swing by the Smithsonian to go to at least one of the museums. I bet you're wondering how we're gonna do all that in such a short amount of time, aren't ya? The hotel we're staying at is in Arlington, Va. According to the website, it's right down the street from the cemetery, within walking distance of the Pentagon, AND the White House is supposely really close as well. How great is that?! We're both pretty fast and don't mind footing it so I know we'll get to see quite a bit even though we'll only be there a short time. Well, that's assuming our flights won't be delayed, ect...Speaking of....we have a layover in Milwaukee each way so guess what that means?! Yep, it means I'll probably get to see my stitching buddy Jodi that I met in Chicago last month! She doesn't live too far from there so hopefully she'll be able to swing by during our layover time. I'm not too terribly excited to hop on a plane again...not two times but four. I think Mike's even less excited than I am...lol. I'm really looking forward to the two of us going alone. Do you know we've not been anywhere alone in 10 years? The last time we went somewhere alone together was when I was pregnant with Cassie. That's horrible...lol. I've REALLY been wanting to go somewhere alone with him and this was the perfect opportunity. Hopefully all will be well with the kids and the dogs while we're gone. Cassie wasn't happy at all that we're going and she's not. I reminded her that if he gets one of those jobs she can see the White House every day if she wants too...lol. I feel bad that they can't go but it was too expensive for 2 more last minute plane tickets.

I'm in a birthday group and got word that two of my stitching friends received their gifts so I can post pictures now. This first one was for Peg. I made a needlebook for her using Blackbird Designs latest book called With Needle and Thread. The piece is called "Bluebird's Needle's and Pins". I also sent her a pair of scissors, some needles, a chart off of her stitching wish list.

The next gift is for my stitching friend, Dane. She loves the color blue so I made a blue needlebook for her. I stitched Abbey Lane's "In a Quaker Fashion" for her on a blue linen in a very dark blue DMC. I really love how it turned out and hope she does too. I forgot to take a pic of the goodies I sent along with it. In addition to the needlebook, I also sent her some needles, a pair of scissors, and 6 or 7 skeins of variegated threads.

Well, I decided to make some more of those Chips Ahoy Cheesecake Sandwiches yesterday since I still had enough stuff to make another batch. They came out much better the second time! This time I made the sandwiches & froze them for 3 hours. After they were frozen I took them out and dipped them in the chocolate and then put them back in the freezer. They look a lot better this time and were much easier to dip when they were frozen.

I have a lot of cleaning to do, so until next time..........

Cassie's back and other stuff

Cassie got home late yesterday afternoon! You know what that means?!?!? I didn't have to puppy sit anymore! YAY! To celebrate that I baked a couple of cakes. I made a chocolate cake for Mike and a German chocolate cake for my parents. Aren't they pretty? I love making double layered round cakes.

While I was baking Mike called me outside to look at a really neat spider. She had made a web on the inside of a gate in our backyard. He noticed her when he was trying to open it. She scared the poo out of him..lol. I got the best pic I could of her. Anybody know what kind of spider she is? I think she's really pretty. At least I assume it's a she..lol.

Cassie had a really great time in Branson! I can't beleive all the things that my parents took her to do! They took her to do more in 3 days than they took me to do my entire childhood! LOL! She got to ride the ducks twice. She got to drive the boat while it was in the water and thought that was really cool. They even gave her a certificate that says, "Captain Cassie Coss is a certified duck captain." How cute is that? They also took her to the Titanic attraction, the Butterfly Palace, the Hollywood Wax Museum, Ripley's Believe it or Not, some kind of dinosaur museum, and a haunted house thing next door to the dino museum. That doesn't even count all the shopping they did. Get this...I've been going on an on about how I've been having needlework shop withdrawals and really want to go to a shop. We don't have one here and the closest is 2 hours away. It's been about 4 months since I went to one. They call me Saturday from here. Man...lol. At least the brought me something back..lol. Cassie did a really good job shopping! Here's what she brought home for me. Didn't she do good?! She knows that I love The Prairie Schooler so they picked up one of their latest charts for me called Thanksgiving Comes again. It's a really great chart and I'm looking forward to stitching the piece. Check out that necklace! Isn't it fun! Just like the one Rose had! Well..not exactly..this is costume jewelry..lol. My dad did buy my mom a real one though. They did the Titanic thing on their anniversary so he bought it for her. How neat is that?! They also got me a package of replica boarding passes. They're pretty neat! The inside of the has info on a passenger and it tell you all about them. I believe there are 6 in the box. I really enjoyed reading them. Cassie got me that very neat I Love Lucy musical snowglobe while they were there! It's a very limited edition and I'm thrilled to have it! There were only 5,000 of them made. She knows that I really do love Lucy..lol. Last but certainly not least she got me that yummy Yankee candle. It's so pretty that I just hate to burn it! It looks like a jar of fruit..lol. OMG it smells SO good! I had my face stuffed in the jar last night and she said that I reminded her of the woman on the Febreeze commercial who has her faced stuffed in the couch sniffing it..lol. That candle smells good enough to eat...lol.

Well, I didn't get to stitch on my fairy with Rachel on Friday so I stitched on her yesterday instead. I tried to stitch on her at my parent's house but every time I pulled the thread through Sparky was jumping for it...lol. I did spend a lot of time on her but part of it was ripping out stitches. I ripped out all of the green that I had stitched in the left part of her wing. I had stitched it horizontally and wasn't happy at all with the way it looked. I went back and fourth and the stitches laid differently each row I did. It was really bugging me so I figured I might as well redo it so it didn't keep bugging me. I ripped it out and restitched it vertically. It looks much better now so I'm really glad I did that. Here's what she looks like this week. The pic came out a bit blurry but you get the idea. I'm looking forward to stitching on her agin this Friday.

I finished stitching on one of my PIF gifts this weekend! This one is going to Missy! I hope to do the finishing within the next week or 2 and then I'll see about getting it off to her. I really like what I stitched for her and hope that she does too. Every time I look at that piece I think of her :). Missy, I'll let you know as soon as I mail it :).

It's pretty quiet with one

I've noticed since Cassie's been gone it's pretty quiet...lol. Don't get me wrong, I love her to pieces but it's been a nice break to not have to listen to constant arguing. I'm really looking forward to her coming back tomorrow. The break was nice but I'm starting to miss her. I talked to her a little bit ago and she said she's not ready to come back yet. I think she's just been having so much fun that she wishes she was gonna be there a little longer.

We took Joshua to see Transformers today and it was FANTASTIC! We all LOVED it! This is definately one that we'll be buying when it comes out on DVD. It was a lot better than I thought it was gonna be. Joshua was on the edge of his seat the entire time. I don't think I've ever seen him that interested in a movie. Afterwards we took him shopping for a transformer. He didn't have any so we thought it would be fun to take him shopping for his first one. I think Mike's the one who really wants them. He's mentioned that he really wanted one when he was a kid but never had any. I remeber when ET was re-released I bought myself an ET doll. I really wanted one of those when I was a kid but never got one. Isn't that funny how you remember those things? One other thing I wanted that I never had was an ALF doll. I really loved ALF. I remember thinking he was real for the longest time...LOL! I think my favorite thing I had when I was a kid was my Peaches N Cream Barbie. YAY! THis is the last night at my parents house and my puppy sitting duties are over. You have no idea how happy I am about that. I'm half way tempted to buy a bottle of something to celebrate and I don't even drink... LOL!!

Chips Ahoy Cheesecake Sandwiches

I made some Chips Ahoy Cheesecake Sandwiches Wednesday night and they were SO good! While they were fantastic I discovered that if you follow their directions they don't come out as pretty as they are in the pic on their site. If you dip the sandwiches in to the chocolate immediately after assembling them, the filling oozes out from you holding the 2 cookies together to dip them. The next time I make these I'll lay one cookie down, add the filling, add the top cookie, and then freeze them overnight. After freezing them I'll get a knife and run it along the edges to make them nice and smooth. After that I'll dip them in the chocolate and then put them back in to the freezer. By doing this you'll keep the filling from oozing out when you dip them because it'll be nice and solid. The chocolatey sides stuck to the bottom so if using a glass dish be sure to line it first. Everyone here loved these and they only lasted a day. Here's a pic of my first batch -the 3 that were eaten..LOL! They're a really nice summertime treat. I'm thinking I might make some more of them this weekend :)

Sleepovers at my parents house are not fun

It's 6:50 in the morning here and I've been up for nearly 2 hours. I have a huge problem with this! When I dropped Cassie off Wednesday night my parents handed me a nice amount of money and told me it was for taking care of their furbabies. I tried to give it back to them as it wasn't necessary and they've watched mine on several occassions but they insisted. Now I know why they gave it to me. Because they knew what I was in store for. All their fault nonetheless. Mind you, this is the first time I've slept over at this house with these animals because my mother doesn't usually ever want to go anywhere. She doesn't want to leave her dogs. As a matter of fact, if I'm not mistaken it's been about 7 years I think since she and my dad did go somewhere together. So, she has 2 Pomeranians. A really chubby and fluffy grouchy one named Rocky and a 7 month old dainty little sweetheart named Sparky. If I so much as look at Rocky cross eyed he growls at me. He's too fat to jump on anything but every time I try to help him he growls at me. Sod ya, ya ungrateful little beast..sleep on the floor then. No, I can't leave him on the floor because he sits on the floor right by the bed howling at me until I pick him up. I pick him up and he growls at me. Right after I put him on the bed and go to lay back down he has already taken over my pillow. I try to move him and he growls at me more. I finally talk fatty in to going to the foot of the bed with a beggin strip. So I lay back down and..oh..I think I forgot to mention Joshua was in the bed too. This is a king size bed, mind you. Let me tell you why I don't like sleeping with him. I don't know what it is but when I sleep with him he feels like he has to be sandwiched up against me. I DON'T like to be touched when I'm sleeping by anybody/anything. It drives me nuts. If there's ever a time when I need personal space it's when I'm trying to sleep. That's not too much to ask for, right? Oh, and to make it a little more fun I don't believe I mentioned that this bed we're in is a waterbed. Ain't that great? So every time the kid moves or a dog feels like walking around...whoooooosh. *sigh*. So at about 5 till 5 this morning I wake up to something chewing on my fingers. My dad gets up for work in the mornings at about 4:30 and apparently Sparky does too. I rolled over which apparently ticked him off because he jumped on my head and started rolling in my hair. By that time Joshua was up (for the day!). I tried to talk him in to going back to sleep but he was bright eyed and bushy tailed. Not that it would have mattered. Did I mention my mother likes clocks? You know, the kind that make noise every hour? When you have 3 or 4 of those going off at the same time, it gets pretty loud! It was like having a constant alarm clock last night. Before she left I asked her if those clocks did that all night. She told me they were light sensitive and when it gets dark they don't do that. She was wrong! I've got to spend 2 more nights here. She might be clockless when she gets back. I talked to Cassie last night and she seems to be having a really great time (much better than me!!). They have a lot of really fun things planned for today. I can't wait to hear about their Titanic adventure.

I did end up making some really yummy goodies the other night. I'll post a pic of what I made along with the recipe when I get home. I forgot to bring my camera with me and the pic is on there.

Packing up the kiddo

I'm packing Cassie's things up for her trip with my parents to Branson. They're leaving pretty early in the morning so I'm taking her over there tonight. She's so excited! They're staying at the Hotel Grand Victorian. I took her to the website and let her do the online tour so now she's counting down the hours :). It'll be really good for her to spend some time alone with them. I know she could also use a break from Joshua and I could use some time alone with him. I try to do things alone with her but rarely do things alone with him. I know we're going to see Transformers on Saturday. I think he wants to go bowling as well and we may pop in to Chuck E Cheese. I'm sure the time will fly by. I know he's gonna miss her when she's gone. They're taking our DVD player for the car and I bought her some new books to read so hopefully the drive will go fast. I think it's only about 6 or 7 hours. Joshua and I will be staying the night at my parent's house Thurs, Fri, and Sat. She's got a couple of furbabies that need tending to.

I was looking at sandwich recipes the other day on the Food Network's website. I found a yummy looking recipe for a grilled peanut butter, jelly, and banana sandwich. I made some yesterday and they were SO good! I didn't have a panini press or a brick (LOL!) so I just used a spatula and pressed down firmly on the sandwich. I thought they turned out really great! They're pretty messy though so if you make them you better have a napkin handy! The next sandwich I want to make is a Monte Cristo. That one lookes really good and simple so I think I'll shoot for that one. Instead of blackberry jam, I'll get some raspberry jam and I'll also sprinkle some powdered sugar on top of the sandwiches. I've really been in a cooking mood lately and I think sandwiches are fun to make :). I think this recipe for a California BLT looks really good. I love that it has avocados in it. I'm probably gonna have to give that one a try. After I drop Cassie off at my parent's house I'm gonna stop at the market and get some goodies to make some things. I'm not sure if I'll make anything tonight but if I do I'll be sure to post pics. I'm really craving avocados so may have to make one of those BLT's. I'd love to go to cooking school :).