Making Baking More Colorful!

Do you know what this is??? This, my dear friends, is a picture of sanding sugar in EVERY COLOR OF THE RAINBOW!! My parents have all kinds of cool grocery stores around them in Amish Country Pennsylvania, and I was shocked as can be to find this. I've never seen sanding sugar in so many colors. And, I didn't even purchase every color they had! I was excited.. now my cookies and cupcakes will be ten times more pretty! :)




















This is just my insanely cute puppyface... he was practically begging to have a picture taken while I took a pic of the sanding sugar! <3

Blurbs from Our Not So Intelligent Neighbor

We are truly, very fortunate to have such awesome neighbors. They are very nice, and will do anything for us. We've really enjoyed them in the last 2 years that we've been here. The older couple that lives to our right (if you're in our house) has a 29ish year old grandson that lives with them. While he is a super nice guy, he's not the brightest crayon in the box. Here are some wacky, yet hilarious things he has said to us over the course of the last few months:


* Adam was burning a really big brush pile, and since we were getting tons of rain, he figured it was the best time to go ahead and get rid of it. While he's burning, D comes up and goes "Hey, Adam, are you having a bar b que?" Adam was like.. huh???? He told D that, no, we were not having a bar b que, he was just getting rid of a brush pile. Then D was like "Oh, dude, I was excited for a neighborhood bar b que. Maybe some other time".


* Adam is a very large man; he stands about 6'6" tall, and weighs about 280lbs. Since he's so tall (and rather clutzy, I hate to admit), he always knocks his head off of the lower, smaller branches on the trees in our back yard while mowing. He decided that he was going to cut down some of the branches so he either 1) didn't hit his head or 2) while ducking to avoid hitting his head, scrape his back instead. So, he's out there sawing away, and D comes out of the house. He's like, "Yo, Adam, are you cutting down branches or somethin?" Adam, being the smart aleck that he is, wanted to say that he was getting ready to saw his arm off, but he just responded with a polite "Yes".

* Here's my all time favorite!!:

We have lived in this house for 2 years, meaning that I got preggers right after we moved in. Toward the end of my second trimester and beginning of my third, I got really huge. I seriously looked like I had my own little volleyball team inside me, when in actuality I had one, normal sized baby. The neighbors saw me quite a bit with my oversized belly, and congratulated both of us numerous times.

Well a few months ago (it's been a little while because it happened when the kiddo was still in her infant carrier, and she's been facing forward since she was 1 due to the fact that she's going to be a giant like her father) Adam and I were coming home from somewhere. He was carrying miss priss in to the house because she was so heavy I couldn't carry the infant seat anymore. D is getting in to his car and he's like, "Hey, what do you have there?" We're both like.. "A baby". Then, without missing a beat he's like.. "Oh, is it yours?". No, we just went and asked a store if we could borrow a kid for the day to cart around and pretend that we were parents. When we told him yes, the kid that we were carting around, and had been carting around for months was in fact ours, he looks at us and says "Dude, that's cool. I didn't know you had a baby".



Like I said, nicest guy ever, but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sense!

Why Are People So Cruel?

I just heard about the story pertaining to this bald eagle "Beauty". Her beak was shot off by a poacher. Fortunately, she has slowly been brought back to health, and is getting fitted for a prosthetic beak (not kidding). I really don't understand why people have to be so cruel and heartless. This animal is defenseless, they have just gotten off the endangered species list in the last however many years, and they are absolutely beautiful. I just see more and more stories about cruelty to animals (this, Michael Vick, The Kentucky Derby), and it just sickens me. I wish I could do something to help reduce the pain that animals have to go through due to heartless, stupid human beings!

Hey "Kikky"

My husband discovered that we have a mama and two baby "kikkies" living under one of our sheds. If you didn't figure it out "kikky" stands for "kitty". Our little one loves kikkies and goggies, so she is having fun looking out the window to watch the kittens play. She shrills "ohhhh kikky!!" every single time she sees them. It's absolutely adorable. My hubster also put some water out there for them considering it's going to be 100 degrees here throughout the remainder of this week and in to next week! I wonder how long they'll decide to chill under our shed! I'll try to get a pic of them cuz they're pretty darn cute.

My Present

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was supposed to get my Mother's Day present from the Harrisburg Art Festival. I didn't really find anything that made me get overly excited, and I had decided that I was just going to have a nice dinner be my present. Then, I saw exactly what I wanted on Nathan Lawrenson's blog.

I am a very unique person, and have my own taste in stuff. I'm not a typical 28 year old that is in to all the trendy clothes, purses, jewelry, etc. I'm very much an individual, and I like finding things that are not what other people can easily buy. Nate posted about a jeweler who makes unique pieces, and personalizes them for her clients. She is also very reasonably priced. My present is going to be from Lisa Leonard, and is this necklace that you see in the picture. It's the "teeny tiny initials" necklace. I will have two little circles on mine, and one will have a "m" that stands for my daughter's first name, and the other will have a heart to stand for my love for her. I'm also a huge pearl fanatic, and she has a place where you can customize your jewelry, so I asked for a couple extra pearls to be added to mine. Plus, she gives you a pretty rad discount for your first purchase (it was like I didn't even have to pay extra for shipping that's how much I got off). I'm hoping she does more fund raisers where she gives a percentage that she sells to the Lawrenson family for Cystic Fibrosis.

So, there's my Mother's Day present. It's simple, it's unique, and it's completely ME. I totally LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it.... and I will definitely be purchasing more of her necklaces soon-ish! Check her out!!

We <3 Our Beds

We spent an entire week in Pennsylvania with both of our families. It was a nice visit, and we did a couple of fun things. But, in reality, it was extremely nice to come back to my own house, and sleep in my own bed last night. My parents have a nice bed for us to sleep in, and a crib for the little one, but it's just not MY house. While we were up there, miss priss also started a ritual that really had me a little scared. I haven't had to hold her to put her to sleep since she was like 3 months old (she's 15 months old now). All we do is lay her down, and she's out in a matter of a couple seconds. Last week, that was not the case. Every single night I had to hold her and put her to sleep so she didn't scream bloody murder. I thought for sure it was going to be the same thing again last night when we got home; she was used to me holding her to sleep for a week, why would it be any different at home? Thankfully, I was wrong. I guess she missed her bed as much as her Mommy and Daddy missed our bed!

gimme a D gimme an O gimme a N gimme an E.. what's that spell?? DONE!

I am officially done with school!!! HOOOOOOOOORAAAYYYYY!!!! While I will miss some of the kiddos, I am glad some of them were on their way to a lovely summer vaca away from me via their glamorous bright yellow stretch taxis! It is a tradition that the teachers stand out on the bus landing and yell, wave, and cheer as the children are leaving us to bug their parents for the summer! The kids think it's great because we're out there giving them "love", when in reality, we're out there saying... thank goodness you're gone cuz I couldn't stand another second with you! Not the case with of the children, but man, we have some doozey's these days! We're off for a relaxing mini-vacation of our own to PA this weekend, and we'll be hitting up the Harrisburg Art Festival; which is where I get to purchse my Mother's Day gift of choice :)