Spiders that can eat ya face...or your dog!

So, this week was rough for our sweet little angel. LOOOOONNNGGGGG story short, the vet is pretty sure she was bit by a black widow and it irritated her so much that she took matters into her own paws. Basically scratched at it so much that she tore a huge chunk out of the back of her neck/shoulder area. Kirk found her bloody and shaking in the backyard. She is the toughest pup of all time. She did not bark, whine or cry...which almost made it worse because she holds her pain in and you don't really know how bad it is. But according to Dan, Bulldogs are built tough - thank the Lord!

Because she continued to go after her massive wound any chance she got, she had to be on house arrest and we could not leave her alone. She did not eat or drink for about 3 days...just slept and looked super depressed. It was a long week...

...filled with this...

 ....and this...

 ...and more of this...

 ...and when she eventually started to eat and drink again, this!

Get better Stella! And stay away from spiders.



Cookies and porn? You're the best mom ever.

Note: There will be no porn in this post ;) - Just had to use that quote!

A few weekends ago we headed south for another fun-filled day with our cook-off crew. Some of us stayed up late the night before and some woke up early to start baking. That's right folks - Cookie-Off Round 2! (Round 1 went to Candie, who sadly could not make it down to defend her title)...but there is always Round 3!

There were not only a CRAP-load of cookies...

...but we also had a cook-off first. Every person that came made an entry! It takes massive amounts of sugar to get 100% participation with this group. There were traditional, non-traditional and unconventional cookies all around.

First Place went to...ME! Here they are, my little beauties.

Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwiches with Bourbon Ganache

Yes, some people may say adding liquor is cheating. I say it is just playing to my audience. They turned out better than I expected, but are very rich...so I only had room for one.

Second Place was a TIE between Kirk & David.

Kirk's "cookie" - PeanutButterScotch Crunches

They are his grandma's recipe and were his favorite things to eat growing up, still might be his favorite. He made a double batch and took ALL of the leftovers home with him.

David's Carameldoodles (Snickerdoodles with caramel sauce)

Third Place went to Darrin...

Double Chocolate Chocolate Goodness!

The other entries were amazing as well. We actually agreed that this may have been the hardest one to vote on thus far. Everything was so good!

Barbara's Mexican Wedding Cookies

 Dan's GORGEOUS Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

 Wendy's Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies

 Troy's Chocolate Chocolate Chips Cookies

 Erin's Famous Magic Bars

It should also be noted that we had deep-dish pizza as well, although we ate and judged cookies before the pizza...and actually ate mass amounts of salami and cheese that Dan served for appetizers before the cookies. I think I wouldn't bother getting out of bed if I lost my sense of taste.

Oh, and the puppies were there too!

A Little DIY

A little sneak peek into the homemade crayons and yarn chandeliers we made for Karis' party.

The twinners crayon party favors! First things first, preheat the oven to 250 F, then start peeling! We are ballers on a budget so we bought the cheapest crayons we could find. They worked, but it was not the best idea. Mostly because poor Wendy got fingers full of paper cuts peeling the wrappers off all of them. Good ol' Crayola wrappers come off a lot easier. While she peeled, I broke/cut them into small pieces and mixed them all in a large bowl. Note: she did not use black or brown because she wanted the crayons to be really bright.

Then you distribute the crayon pieces evenly into silicone baking molds. Wendy filled them to the top to make thicker crayons, less likely for the kiddos to break. She did a mix of stars, flowers and hearts. Then you pop those suckers in the oven until they are completely melted.

Use a toothpick to stir one around a bit if you are not sure they are done yet. Then pull them out and let them cool in the molds overnight. They look pretty dark when they first come out, but they become more vibrant as they cool.

The next morning, pop those suckers out, trim/break off any rigid edges and you're ready to go. Super fun for your own kiddos or for party favors like Wendy made them into with some clear bags and ribbon.

Then there are the yarn chandeliers! These were a labor of love and I do not know if I would do them again. It's not that they were that hard, it's more that I started them at 8:00 pm on a work night and did not finish until 1:45 am. I think if I do them again it will go much faster and I will make them a few days in advance instead...and I would have to make them for someone super special.

It all starts with balloons. Once again we went cheap, which I will not do if I make these again.You want good quality balloons to make sure they don't pop on their own before everything dries long enough. Blow them up in varying sizes, the more round and less oblong the better.

Then find places to hang them. Since it was late at night I had to find places in the twin's house...so they were hung from curtain rods, chandeliers and lighting fixtures.

If you do them inside, make sure you put some paper underneath where they hang incase they drip. Once hung, you give each balloon a light coating of Vaseline. This part was slightly annoying as I had them too close together and once I coated one with Vaseline it would make the static electricity go crazy and they would try to attach themselves to the other balloons...and the walls...and my arms... The Vaseline helps prevent any damage to the dried chandeliers when you eventually pop the balloons and they pull away from the yarn.

 Next comes the yarn. Fill a bucket with a mixture of regular school glue, corn starch and some water. I did not do exact measurements, but I didn't use too much water at first. Only added more if it got too thick. Precut the strips of yarn (pretty long as you can always cut if you have too much, but it gets annoying to add a second string if you are short). Dip the yarn completely in the glue mixture and then ring it out. Tie the end of the dipped yarn to the string that the balloon is hanging from and then start wrapping it around and around.

 It took me a few times on the first balloon to get the hang of it...and then I started doing them faster and faster. The only thing that got me a few times was the yarn got tangled and I had to take time to undo all of the knots.

 Wrap them with more yarn if you want less open spaces in the chandeliers, but not too much because if you don't leave enough room it will be hard to get your hands in them later to hang them. Note: the drop paper below came in really handy while wrapping because I could let the gluey yarn just sit in a pile below each balloon while I was wrapping without it getting super messy.

 Let these little beauties dry completely, I would recommend a full 24 hours to be sure they look their best. Like I mentioned before, I did have 2 or 3 pop too early and although I did still use them, they looked a little wonky. On that note, you might want to make a few extra to ensure you have enough beautiful ones to use.

 They were also drying directly in the sunlight the next morning and since they were cheap balloons, the heat might have contributed to the popping.

When you are ready, take a needle and pop the balloons. Carefully take the balloon tops out by the knots and tap the chandeliers around a bit to get the excess glue/cornstarch mixture off of them. I even let Karis kick a few of them around to help get the white flakes off.

After that I took fishing line and hung them all around and was very happy with the result. They looked like super fun floating balls of fun, perfect for a kid's party!

Hummus is Yummus

Enjoy another gem from one of our loyal customers...

I do not know why you call your hummus Tuscan hummus. There is nothing Italian about hummus. In America, ten years ago you all here knew noting about hummus. Yet, it had been a popular dish in the Middle East for hundreds of years (esp Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan). I wish instead of Tuscan, you would say Middle Eastern or Lebanese, something more true to the origin. Besides, the  name hummus is clearly Arabic, not Italian or Greek. I feel like in America, all people want to give us credit for in the Middle East is terrorism, and not our really delicious food.

Note: We use Tuscan White Beans in our recipe...hence the name :)
Note: She had 3 pretty horrible typos/mispellings in her "comment" which I corrected.

Cravings?

REAL conversation from lunch today...

[Sitting with SIX other people at lunch for a co-worker's birthday...the birthday dessert is being passed around...it contains a whole lotta dark chocolate...I took one bite and passed it along...]

Billy: Hey Julie, take another bite?
Me: No thanks, I don't really like chocolate and dark chocolate is my least favorite.
Brady: You don't really like chocolate?
Me: Not really, no.
Brady: Hmmm, do you crave chocolate when you're on your period?
Whole Table: (RADIO SILENCE)
Me: Excuse me??? (as I am told I am turning beet red) What makes you think it is ok to ask someone if they have period cravings?
Brady: Is that weird?
Me: Umm, would your wife think that was a weird question?
Brady: Well, yes. But she is super modest.
Me: And I am...

Good times at lunch. I will be brown-bagging it the rest of the week.

Karis is ONE!!!

Guess who turned one last week??? The BEAR - Kare Bear - Little Miss Karis!

And I got the pleasure and honor of throwing her First Birthday Party! Because her momma trained her in utero that Cheeseburgers are a quintessential part of life, we decided I should throw her a Cheeseburger Party. There were a crap load of people there to celebrate with her and she was in a great mood...at least for a while ;)

Here are a ton of pictures (most of which were taken by the amazing Mariah) to memorex the party!

The cake I made for Karis might be my favorite part of the party. It turned out even better than I had hoped. A big shout out to Kelsey for doing all of the frosting dying.

 For the rest of the peeps, I made burger cupcakes. Vanilla cupcakes cut in half, then made brownies for the burger patties, then frosting for the ketchup, lettuce and cheese - topped them off with t few sesame seeds.

 I tired to use photos of Karis as much as possible in the decor. Mostly because she is so stinkin cute I could not help myself!

 Wendy made the party favors for the kiddos. Homemade crayons in different shapes and we got fun In-n-Out hats for the munchies to wear.

 Of course Karis already owned a Burger Piggy Bank...so we used it!

 Desserts!

 I really wanted the party to be as colorful as possible. I made yarn chandeliers and did blow-ups from her burger photo shoot to hang around the party area.

I love that some of the kids took home chandeliers to put in their rooms!

I used the back wall to hang a ton of her FIRSTS in photos.

Izzes and fun straws...a must!

Rainbow fruit kabobs. Another shout out to Christy, Kenzie, Kelsey and Twinner for helping assemble these bad boys.

 Burgers, Dogs and French Fries for lunch with all the fixins.

 David and Jay worked up quite a sweat working the grill!

Twinner!!!

 Lots o' guests...lots o' food, lots o' baskets!

Party-goers!

 Every one year old party should involve bubbles!

 Baby Bum!

 Wendy, Kelsey and Anita designed and made Karis' party outfit.

 This was Karis' first time experiencing bubbles.

Mya had a great idea to do face painting - which also turned into arm and leg painting.

 Jack was NOT the biggest fan of Mariah turning him into a tiger. But he might be the cutest tiger I have ever seen.

 Owen and Iz were quite the artists!

 So much so, that we became their works of art! What kind of hostess would I be if I told them NO when they asked if they could paint my face? And Jessica - what a trooper!

Time for cake! As you can see, she was really excited about it.

 She's a yeller! The cutest yeller I have ever seen!

 Go get that cake Kare!

After she calmed down from her little sassiness she was good to go. Opened some presents, went swimming and gave out some kisses!

 The Wilson Fam!

 This girl looks like she partied hard!

 Jay & David putting together the trampoline the Culvers got for the Bear.

 Splashing daddy in the pool.

 Birthday Pool Catch-Yous!

 Hello!

 Karis trying out her trampoline!

I would pretty much do anything for this little munchie as she IS my bestest friend in the world. I can't believe you are 1 already Kare Bear. I can't wait to see what an amazing little girl you are going to grow in to.