Birthday weekend in the Big "D"

I had a great weekend in Dallas celebrating my mom's 50th birthday. I left here Friday morning and arrived in Dallas around 3, and met up with Julie who was one of my roommates in college. We had some errands to run before my mom and the rest of the gang got there that night. The first thing on our to do list was to pick up the birthday desserts.

Sprinkles cupcakes are probably the best cupcakes I have ever eaten! Hillary, Kelly and I discovered them a couple of years ago at the originaly store in Beverly Hills. I am so happy they opened a branch in Dallas; it made for a great birthday surprise for my mom. After we picked up the cupcakes, Julie and I went back to the hotel and did a little decorating before my mom got there.

She was really surprised and excited! We all unpacked and realized that we were starving!!! One of my mom's favorite places to eat is Pappasitos and there was one close to our hotel, so off we went!

This is Brenda (my mom's best friend), my mom, me, Julie, and Laresa (both were my roommates in college). We had a great time at dinner. The food was really good and we had a lot of fun catching up! After dinner, we went back to the hotel for the cupcakes and to get some sleep for the busy day of shopping we had ahead of us.

Our first stop on Saturday was the Dallas Farmer's Market. It is huge and has the best fruits and veggies! They also have a beautiful selection of flowers and plants. It was great for some photo ops too!

Julie and I were the two single girls on the trip, so when we saw the frog statue we thought it might turn into a prince for one of us! Ha!

It was 98 degrees outside when we left the farmer's market and it was only 11 am!!!!! That is something I do not miss about Texas!!! We wanted to go to the outlet mall, but we were all dripping we were so hot. So instead we went back to the hotel and hung out at the pool! We went to the outlet mall later in the day and definitely shopped till we dropped!!! We ended the day with a fabulous dinner at PF Changs and left over cupcakes. We were all so tired that we slept in this morning and then had to hit the road. All in all, it was such a great weekend!!! My mom was really happy about everything and it was so much fun hanging out with old friends!

Red Velvet

On Tuesday, I got volunteered to make a red velvet cake for my boss' birthday today. I've made red velvet cupcakes before, but I used a cake mix. I decided that I wanted to try my hand at a "real" one, so I headed to the one place I knew wouldn't let me down....Paula Deen's website of course!!!! I was hoping I was up to the challenge and wouldn't let Paula down! This cake is three layers and fortunately I had just been watching an episode of Paula's Party and she was talking about her tips for pouring and baking even layers.

Here they are about to go in the oven. I took a moment and said a little prayer for them before I put them in! Next, came my favorite part of baking.......

...licking the spatual!!!!! So, the cakes were done and they came out great! I made the icing while the cakes cooled, and then I was ready for the layering and cake icing process.

Ta Da!!! The bad thing was that the party wasn't until after lunch today, so I had to wait to see if it was any good. Then, I ended up having to be in a meeting so I didn't even get to be at the party! I practically sprinted to the break room when the meeting was over to get me a piece of cake.

Yum, yum, yum!!! I think this is the richest cake I have ever eaten! But I expected nothing less coming from Paula!

The Big 5-0!

Today is my mom's 50th birthday! My mom lives in Texas and I don't see her very often, so sadly I don't have any recent pictures of the two of us together. That will all change this weekend though!!! I am so excited because we are going to have a girls weekend in Dallas. My mom, her best friend, two of my roommates from college, and I are all meeting in Dallas on Friday and will get to hang out until Sunday...I can't wait! So, I will leave this post as a "to be continued" until Monday!!!

Welcome to the digital age!!!!

Over the weekend, I finally made the move up in the world and purchased a new tv!!!

While I was at it, I had my cable upgraded and added the DVR. I am a little overwhelmed by all these new additions in my life!!!! The guy at Cox laughed at me because I was very concerned that all the changes wouldn't be in place by Saturday afternoon when the College World Series started. He assured me that they would be and that I would be amazed at the difference in picture quality.

I am in LOVE (with the tv, not the player even though he is an SEC boy)!!!!! I also am a big fan of the DVR! I watched my first recorded show when I got home from work today and it was awesome!

I also had to purchase a new tv stand. I really like it! There are a few more changes I want to make, then I will post some pictures of my newly decorated living room. As many of you probably know, I have wanted to buy a house and get out of an apartment for over a year now. But the Lord keeps closing that door, sometimes in the most dramatic of ways. The last house I looked at, I fell in love with! That VERY day, I fell and messed up my knee. By the time I knew that I was going to have to have surgery, the house was already gone. I told God all He had to do was tell me "no" in a less painful and expensive way!!! I've been too scared to look at another house since then! Ha!!! Anyway, it was really nice to be able to change some things up this weekend and at least give a little bit of a new feel to my apartment. It makes me feel less stir crazy and makes the waiting for something other than a "no" a lot easier!

Two of my favs!

Last night and tonight two of my favorite shows had season premiers.

Lifetime started a new show last spring called Army Wives. I was instantly hooked! I'm pretty sure I laughed and cried in every single episode. It's one of those shows that makes you feel like you personally know the characters! The season finale was a huge cliffhanger and I was so ready for the new season to start last night to find out what happened!!! I was shocked! This show is definitely not predictable, which is another reason I like it. One of my friends from home watches Army Wives too, so we had been talking about how excited we were for the premiere. We called each other twice during the show last night!!! It was so good!

When I was still living in Abilene, I was part of a singles Bible study small group. We met on Tuesday nights for the Bible study and then started a tradition of meeting at someone's house on Saturday nights to watch a show on the USA network called Nashville Star! It is like a country music version of American Idol. I love this show because most of the contestants can play multiple instruments as well as have great voices. I also like that in one of the weeks of the show, the contestants will have to perform a song that they wrote themselves. That is usually the single that the winner gets to release and there have been some really good ones in the past 5 seasons. This year, there are some changes that I'm not so sure about. The first is that it is now airing on NBC. It could be a good thing that the contestants will get more exposure being on a major network. But, I just hope that the framework of the show doesn't get changed. Another change is that Billy Ray Cyrus is the host. I'm afraid he's going to get on my nerves! I am pretty excited about a lot of the contestants though. There are definitely some great voices in the mix!

West Texas Wind

I have felt like I was back home in West Texas today because the wind has been blowing 100 miles per hour all day!!!!! Most days, once I'm in my office I don't ever leave. But today I had to be out and about a lot and was fighting the wind every time! Of all days, I got my hair done today too. By the time I got home tonight, this is what it ended up looking like...Arrrgggghhhh.....I'm so glad I paid money for this look!!! Stupid wind!!!