A Day for a Chef

Today, we went to a wonderful birthday party for Colin's favorite newly minted 5 year old red-head, Avery. She is my good friend Wendy's daughter and she is brilliant and adorable and loves Giada from Food Network. Therefore, her party theme was cooking and they made chefs hats and cooked their own pizzas and cupcakes. It was so brilliant and Colin had the best time.  I am loving Avery in this shot!  She knows how to throw a party, that girl! 

The favor was a tiny rolling pin, cookie cutters and a recipe for sugar cookies! Colin used the cookie cutter as soon as we got home and made his first batch of cookies "almost" by himself. Now, granted, they were made from store-bought pie dough (which I hate) and mint Hershey Kisses (which I hate), so you should take it with a grain of salt when I say that they were horrible. But Colin had a blast and was SO proud of himself that I ate two. And promised myself to stop impulsively making things that look pretty on Pinterest. :-)

Slow Down, December!

It's already December 8th. I find this totally unacceptable. I LOVE THIS MONTH. I DON'T WANT IT TO END! It feels like I waited forever for it to get here and now I am blinking and it is flying by. Sure, maybe I am being slightly melodramatic. Not that I'm prone to that or anything. Anyway, we are having the most wonderful time around here and I have now decided that four is the perfect age for Christmas. I will probably say that every year for at least the next several. But Colin is so full of joy right now and I am trying to soak up every single moment. Last night, we attended an ornament exchange party with all of our friends and Colin took a nasty spill on their ceramic tile stairs. He busted his chin up pretty badly and I had moments of wondering if we were in for an ER visit. Good lord, the mouth can BLEED! Luckily he appears to be okay today, but the right side of his chin and cheek is seriously swollen, to the point that he talks funny and looks like he is a chipmunk with acorns stuck in his lip. The poor peanut! We had a great time tonight taking "glowy" tree pictures with the SLR camera and I wanted to make this one a close-up shot, but his poor face is a bit too messed up.

Jer took this one and I think it will probably go down as one of my all time favorite pictures. I am so in love with Christmas and I think this shows EXACTLY why. :-)

Breakfast With Santa!

The Christmas season has started off with a BIG bang! What a fantastic week we have had! My parents couldn't come for Thanksgiving, so my dad took some time off work and they BOTH came here for several days. It was absolutely amazing! They were here Wednesday through Sunday and I can't even express how wonderful it was. We just laid around, shopped and ate. Perfection. :-) Saturday was a big day...we woke up bright and early to head over to Breakfast with Santa! The event was hosted out at Jer's parents country club and he ended up having to work at the last minute. Since my mom was here, she took his ticket and joined us. Colin LOVED having both of his grandmothers at one event and we had the best time! He was all smiles and having a blast. He was counting down the days and this year did not disappoint! I was sick last year and missed the festivities, so I had an especially good time seeing Mom Mom dressed up like an elf! I am so thankful for the wonderful pictures we got. Originally, Colin was adamant that he was not going to go anywhere near Santa. He has asked me LOTS of logistical questions last year (big surprise!) and we told him that all the Santa's in the malls were Santa's helpers, since he can't be in that many places at once. Well, I forgot all about that until the night before the breakfast. I asked Colin during our bedtime routine what he was planning to ask Santa for. He said, "Mom, is this the REAL Santa or an actor?"....lovely. I stumbled at first and then recalled our conversations from last Christmas. I told him that it would be Santa's helper, who works DIRECTLY with Santa. That was when he told me that he was not going to get near him, but would allow me to tell him what Colin wanted. Only me. SO, I was not surprised when he absolutely refused to get near the stage where the Santa pictures were taking place. Jer's mom employed all kinds of tricks to get him up on stage and it finally worked. He decided at literally the very last minute that he would go up and get a picture. And it just happened to end up being the most wonderful, precious, amazing, fantastic picture with Santa ever. At least according to me. I LOVE IT. I don't think I will ever top this one.
Here are some more cute shots from the festivities...here is Colin with his Mom Mom, the elf. They were checking out the trains, which is always his favorite part. I think he looks so big and grown-up here!

Colin and Mom Mom and Mimi (my mom)...how cool that they are both together with Colin!

Here we are writing a letter to Santa. This was serious business, folks. Colin is dictating.

He was VERY focused. :-)

This face means "Can someone help me memorize this list before he drops it in the mailbox?! PLEASE?!"

Super cute Colin and Mom Mom!

I just love this one! My mom, Jer's mom, Colin and me. What a great morning!

Me and my little man...I was so glad that it FINALLY got cold over the weekend. It was a rainy day and very Christmasy!

I will always cherish this picture of me and my mom with Colin! ALWAYS!

How cute is this one with Jer's mom?! You can really tell how happy Colin was to have both of his grandmothers there...he was glowing!

The perfect end to a great morning!

THANKSGIVING 2011

Today is Thanksgiving. ALREADY. It's over. It was different and wonderful and now it is finally politically correct to have my entire house decorated for Christmas. Not that I decorated two weeks ago or anything crazy like that.

I am going to write all about the details because this is the stuff that I like to look back on...all the little things about my favorite holidays that seem like a big deal now, but I won't remember in a few years. This year, my parents are busy renovating their house and it is completely torn up right now, which means that they were unable to host our usual family meal. And for what I think is the first time ever, our family separated for festivities. My sister Meredith hosted at her house in Tyler for her in-laws and my parents went there, along with my other sister Alieson. I hosted here at my house for my in-laws and us (obviously). With Meredith and I both being married with children who are getting older, the holidays have started to slowly change. It is hard for me to do things differently because I keep forgetting that I am a grown up now we treasure our traditions so much, but I have been making a real effort to think positively about doing things outside the box. My parents are coming to visit on Sunday and will stay for a few days next week, so we are still getting to celebrate with them.

This month, I have had the BEST time deciding on my menu and planning out the big feast. I will be the first to say it...my first hosting gig in 2009 was not very good. In fact, if I am being honest, I didn't really end up liking anything that I served. It was my first time ever hosting a big group...heck, more than two people...and I was destined to screw a lot of things up. I made a lot of rookie mistakes and I ended up feeling sad that I hadn't pulled off very good food. I was just starting to be really proud of my work in the kitchen at that point, but lord knows that I didn't know how hard it was to pull off Thanksgiving for 12. Or 13. A lot. My biggest mistake was trying to make dishes that I thought people wanted to see, rather than things I knew and loved and was good at. I also didn't try everything before I made it, which is the classic rookie mistake. No recipe is how you want it the first time...it's just a base point for creating what you like. I clearly didn't have that completely figured out a couple of years ago. Just because a recipe sounds good in a magazine or food blog does not mean that it actually IS good. The fresh green bean casserole I made was absolutely horrible that year and I don't even LIKE green bean casserole. What was I thinking? I also made EVERYTHING the day before, completely, which turned everything into leftovers before anyone had a chance to taste it. I was so nervous about having it all done before everyone arrived, that I did too much in advance. I didn't have enough knowledge to know which steps were acceptable the day before and which weren't. It was all just blah and I even managed to screw up the pies, which I am generally great at. SOOOO, this year I felt a thousand times better about things. I had a much smaller group and I made things I knew were good. Road tested, if you will. And, in what will probably be the only time ever, everything was perfect and ready on time! I love food and cooking with such a serious passion and it felt so amazing to have the Thanksgiving dream meal in my head actually turn into reality. Here is the menu for posterity.

Marinated Cheese Appetizer with cranberry pecan relish, crackers and wine
Roasted Turkey Breast with Truffle Butter
Leek and Wild Mushroom Stuffing
Glazed Pearl Onions
Four Cheese Scalloped Potatoes (with GOOD cheese!)
Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Pomegranate and Hazelnuts
Jalapeno Cranberry Sauce
Jalapeno Cornbread
Parker House Rolls
Pecan Pie
Chocolate Pie

I am still gloating that I managed to make all aspects of the meal from scratch and actually complete them on time today. The Parker House Rolls were a real labor of love. I got it into my head that I needed to make homemade rolls this year. I have never attempted this before. I made THREE - count 'em - THREE batches of dough before I found what I wanted. And these are yeast rolls with lots of sitting and rising and kneading and waiting. Thank GOD I started making the dough last weekend. I was planning to make it ahead and freeze the rolls before baking them, which gave me plenty of time to curse all the idiot recipes I tried before finding the sweet spot. I was smoking pissed when the second batch didn't work, either. But the third was perfection. They rose into pillows of joy, I tell you. :-) Now that I know what to do, I plan to make them from scratch every year. It's easy to freeze ahead and they are so amazing. But, I am a bread-aholic, so this may be a bigger deal to me than others. I only remembered to take pictures of a couple of things, and luckily these were one of them. HEAVEN!

I also loved the glazed pearl onions and this was my first year to make those myself, too. I was on the fence about serving creamed or glazed and which of the thousands of recipes I found to use and after trial and error, I decided on these guys. They seriously turned out like pieces of candy. So yummy!! They will also stay on the menu in the future.


I also got a shot of the table last night after I finished putting it together. I think it turned out cute, considering I rigged it from a paper tablecloth and the fall mantle decorations that I just took apart. :-)


I really wish that I had remembered to take pictures of everything else, but it was so busy and I totally forgot before we started eating. The stuffing was a recipe that was given to me by my amazing best friend Kimberly Roberts and it was so. insanely. good. I have heard her raving about it for years and finally decided to listen to someone that I KNOW has excellent taste and boy, was that the right choice! I made it with the most fantastic bread that I could find in Central Market and it turned out absolutely fantastic. Jer says he wants it every year and I agree. This one will become a family tradition! And let me HIGHLY recommend roasting a bird with white truffle butter! It took some hunting around Central Market (which is our very high end grocery store), but I found it and it was worth it! The breast was moist and delicious and just a yummy treat. I am very thankful that I roasted that breast, because we ordered a Greenberg Smoked Turkey this year and we got a horrible one! I couldn't believe it! I have been eating those for years and I don't know how we got the short end of the stick this time. It was waaaay too smokey and literally tasted like a forest fire in my mouth. YUCK. So strange! Everything else on the menu was a tried and true favorite and turned out great. This year, I did all the prep for each recipe (like chopping veggies and herbs and combining sauces and seasonings into little cups) and then actually prepared all the dishes today, instead of the day before. That turned out to work perfectly. All the time consuming stuff was done and the cooking part was easy! I actually was finished a little too early and ended up needing to keep everything in the oven to stay warm. It took less time than I thought and I will continue with prepping the day before and cooking the day of. MUCH better! Jer's mom also brought my favorite Chambord sweet potatoes, so the day had all my favorites.

After we ate like crazy, we all sat around to watch the Cowboys WIN and Colin had the best time. He got a little over tired at the end and needed to lay down with me in bed for a few minutes, but overall it was a perfect day for all of us. I am so thankful for all of the wonderful family and friends in my life. I have a lot of blessings, that's for sure!

Here are a few more shots from our week before Thanksgiving...this is a self-portrait shoot that we did one afternoon with the timer on the camera. I love my handsome boy and I need to work on getting in more pictures with him.

We made turkey cookies one afternoon after school and Colin had the best time! Look at that orange icing grin!

Three of my best boys all cozy on the couch while I cooked yesterday morning. It was the best sight to see in the world! We are just missing a couple of cats to complete the family...and they don't do paparazzi very well. You will also love the addition of baby Lucy to this shot. Colin takes very good care of his "daughter". He felt she needed to watch shows with them. AND her "grandfather" needed to hold her. I love my son. :-)

And now...let's do some Christmas, shall we?? WOO HOO!!

A Tree

There is a giant Christmas tree in my living room. I'm not kidding. I can explain. Really. I know that today is November 8th and there is absolutely no plausible reason for my tree to already be standing in my living room, lights ablaze. But it kind of is.

We needed a new tree this year. After seven glorious Christmas seasons with my tall, skinny fabulous tree, it decided to turn it's lights out for the final time. Jer tried to fix it, but it was just done. My mom got a new tree and gave us her old one, which lasted for 2 seasons, but then decided that 2010 was the end. SOOO, I had to have a new tree this year. Yesterday, Colin went to school and I bribed convinced Jer to go with me to Garden Ridge to get the official replacement.

On a side note...I love Garden Ridge at Christmas! I walked in that store and almost died and went to heaven. I spent about 15 minutes just staring at the aisle of Christmas ribbon before I noticed that Jer was about to internally combust, but also trying very hard to keep his mouth shut and let me look. I was merciful and took him home, but vowed that I would be back, unencumbered by husband, to spend as many hours as I wanted looking at glitter.

ANYWAY, the tree. We found a reasonable tree (despite me trying very hard to up sell Jer to the 12 foot version..."We can just put it in the kitchen where the ceiling is higher!") and put the box in the car. Then we picked up Colin from school. He went crazy over the tree that was filling up all the space beside his seat. When we got home, we clearly weren't going to put the huge box in the attic, only to take it down again in a couple of weeks. (Yes, I decorate for Christmas in the days before Thanksgiving. It's more efficient. Leave me alone.) We had no room in the garage and pulled the box into the house, wondering what to do with it. Then Colin started chanting, "OPEN THE TREE! LET ME SEE THE TREE! OPEN IT! PLEASE! HURRY! NOW? NOW? OPEN THE TREE! TREE! OPEN THE TREE!! MOMMMMYYYY, PLEASE!". I don't know where he gets the Christmas obsession from! We opened the tree. I told Jer that we might as well just put the tree up where it is going to go and be done with it. I will wait to decorate it. So that's what we did. It's way too big for our living room. You can't exactly walk past it. It's fabulous. And then, of course I had to fluff the branches. And Colin wanted to turn it on. And the sun went down and the living room started to glow and I went to my happy place. And I left the lights on. Just for the night. (Jer was more than a little embarrassed when the pizza guy came.) And then maybe they are on right now. At least I didn't get down the decorations. Because that would be weird.

I am probably not going to get the decorations down this weekend. More than likely I won't. Maybe there is a 50-ish percent chance I won't get them down. I think. What?

Halloween 2011

We just made it through one heck of a holiday weekend! I was very happy to wake up this morning to November and a break in all the action! We had so much fun this year! Let's recap the festivities, shall we?

Last weekend, we had a blast at the McGehearty's annual kids Halloween party. My friend Heather throws the absolute best parties in the world...she is just a natural at it! The kids had a blast making homemade slime, eating all sorts of ghoulish treats and going for "spider hunts" in the backyard (tons of plastic spiders were spread everywhere!). They even had a pinata, which is always a HUGE hit with our crowd. :-) Colin spent the majority of the party with Lindsey's sweet baby boy Nolan. He LOVES that baby! He also loves Lindsey...as we were leaving, he said, "WAIT! I can't leave without telling Lindsey goodbye!". It was so sweet!

This past week was when things really kicked up a notch on the busy scale. My mom came to town on Wednesday and spent the rest of the week staying with us, which was awesome! I LOVE that she is retired now and can come and spend time with us whenever she wants to. Colin was over the moon about it and every morning that she was here, Colin got up in the morning and got in her bed, rather than coming to wake me up. Which leads me to the part of the post where I ask my mother to move in permanently. ;-) We really had the greatest week ever. On Thursday, she took me and my sister Alieson to lunch at Brio's and then we spent way too much time in the Yankee Candle Store. That place is heaven on earth, I tell you! On Friday, Jer had a random day off and my mom and I got to spend literally the whole day together while he babysat. I honestly can't remember the last time that I spent a day with my mom like that and it was heavenly! The first place we stopped was Gap so that she could pick up a pair of pants. I was milling around and saw the cutest hat in the world. I snatched it up and showed my mom that it was exactly what I was talking about in my last blog post. She kept telling me that it was fabulous and that I should get it and that I was being an idiot by not wearing one if I liked it. The two sales people overheard our conversation and immediately chimed in about my hat debate. I had the whole store involved at this point. ;-) They both said the hat was fantastic and that I should get it. One of them even snapped the tags off right there and stuck the hat on my head, telling me to wear it out the door right then. So, what else could I do?! I wore it! I got a huge kick from the big response I got on the blog post and it was cracking me up that I turned around and bought the hat. I was determined to make a go of it! As soon as I walked out the door with my mom, a woman who was in the parking lot called out to me, telling me that she loved my hat. My mom was all, "SEE?!". It was hysterical. Now determined, I wore that hat for all of the next half hour. The problem with wool hats in Texas is that by noon, it is too damn hot to wear them. I begrudgingly abandoned the hat to the car, but I promise you that I am going to rock that thing this winter, along with the cashmere beret that sits gathering dust in my closet! Who cares what other people think! I like it! At 34 years old, I figure I should stop worrying so much about what other people think, anyway. My mom took this shot with my phone...not a great picture, but a FABULOUS hat!

We kept making our rounds after that and hit several more stores. I didn't really buy anything else, but had a great time drooling over all the awesome fall clothes. We had lunch at Cafe Express and then I took my mom over to see the giant dutch oven that I want for Christmas. It was a perfect day! I then spent the remainder of the afternoon and night making my homemade cinnamon rolls to take to Tanya's baby shower the next morning. Tanya is due with little Vivian Ruth on Thanksgiving day and we gave her a shower on Saturday morning. Kim hosted at her house and we all contributed dishes. I made the cinnamon rolls for everyone last Christmas and they were requested again, so I got down to business on Friday afternoon. :-) They take forever to make, but aren't hard to do at all. The reward for your time is SO WORTH IT and let's just say that my diet was NOT followed on Saturday. I ate my fair share of those babies. I have a major problem with pastry. MAJOR. Anyway, the shower was so much fun and my mom got to go with me! It felt great to have my mom finally meet and hang out with some of my friends. I am always so jealous of my friends who have their parents living close by. She took the following picture for us...Tanya is the pregnant red-headed supermodel standing behind me, in case you didn't know. :-) What a great morning!

That night, we had our annual "grown-ups only" Halloween party to attend and I was yet again so thankful to my mom for staying with us all weekend and taking care of the little man. We had the best time ever and didn't make it home until 1:30am, which is LATE for us old folks. Jer and I managed to snag "sexiest couple", but since he threatened to murder me, I don't have any pictures to show. HA!! I do have one of me with a couple of friends, but I cropped them out because I need express written consent to share grown-up Halloween party pictures on the worldwide web. :-) I think I was a very good "Brownie", if i do say so myself. I thought my addition of bows with the beret pretty much made it.

So, FINALLY, we come to yesterday...HALLOWEEN! Colin went to school and they had their big Halloween party. They did a "trunk-or-treat" this year where the cars line up in the parking lot and decorate their trunks and hand out candy. They also had two bounce houses set up and a photo op that was adorable. I volunteered to work, so I had the first shift and got to see a ton of precious little cuties. I ran home afterwards, picked up Jer and came back for Colin's turn. He was so precious in his "builder" costume and had a great time trick-or-treating to all the trunks. After that, I ran to the store and stocked up for the trick-or-treat get together that we hosted here at the house. I made chili with cornbread and spiked cider and we had the Parkers and Turners over for some dinner and trick-or-treating. It was a blast!! Colin loved having his buddies to walk around with and the kids all had the most fun. All in all, we had a PERFECT Halloween this year! Here are some of the great shots from yesterdays festivities:

I am so thankful this year, more than ever before, to have my wonderful family. My son and husband are my whole world and my blessings are endless. I am a very lucky girl.

Watch Out World...She's Ready to Overshare!

Things that are on my mind in no particular order:

1. I don't understand hats. Americans in general don't understand them, I suppose. Cute hats are the trend right now, but I can't figure out how to wear them. I was in Charming Charlie the other day and there were so many cute hats, but buying one gives me a panic attack. I bought the cutest cashmere winter beret last year which I wore zero times. I couldn't figure out when to wear it. When it's cold...sure...but then do you keep it on inside? Do you take it off? If you wear one of the new fedora type hats, when the heck do you take that off? Do you wear it all the time? Do you look like a giant dork if you're 34 years old and rocking one in the middle of Bed Bath and Beyond? I am going to put money on that answer being "yes". I always secretly like trends that I don't think I am cool enough or British enough to pull off. This section also applies to scarves. I love scarves. I cannot bring myself to wear one. I always look like a giant walking scarf with a head. Do they sell scarves for short girls? Below is what I don't look like in a scarf:
Did she take this off when she got to her destination? I just don't know.

2. I look and (more importantly) feel like an idiot when I wear a necklace. I put this into the category of "things that are wrong with Chalna". I love necklaces...all those big, chunky, fabulous things hanging in every store...but when I get one home, it sits without ever being worn. I talk myself out of wearing one 99.9% of the time. First of all, I feel like they are too dressy for almost everywhere I ever go. If I am going out for girls night or a date with Jer, I will put one on and wear it for about 15 minutes around the house and then take it off before I leave. I always decide that I don't like something about it. Just the feeling of a big necklace around my throat is oddly uncomfortable to me. And regardless of the outfit or necklace, I always find the look overwhelming on me. I think this also goes back to being petite. Things that I love in magazines never look right on me. Add necklaces to this. I also hate the feeling of anything around my wrist, though I love the look of watches and bracelets. When I wear one, I always take it off in the car as soon as I head for home. I am so weird.

3. I need a haircut in a bad way. I also need to get it colored. I started going grey at the ripe old age of 22 (thanks, genetics!) and now I have serious grey tufts of hair around my face. I don't mind the random streaks on the rest of my head, but seeing white around my ears and temples makes me want to poke my eyes out. I have taken to braiding my bangs back into my ponytail, but that has to stop for now because the flipping braid is GREY. That's super hot. I hate coloring my own hair because I was cursed blessed with the thickest hair in the world. I have to buy 3 bottles of color for one all over coloring. And even then, I make a giant mess, get it all over myself and the bathroom, destroy at least two towels, and end up with hair that is several different colors because I always miss spots in the back. And it makes my arms hurt. But it costs an arm and a leg to get all that done and I have to waste one of Colin's entire school days to accomplish it. And there is always something else that needs to get done during those few precious child-free hours. And you can't let just anyone cut very thick hair. You can't imagine how horribly it can go wrong. And of course, my trusted Leslie is 40 minutes from my house and always booked a month in advance. Sigh. Maybe now is a good time to really give that fedora thing a try. :-)

4. There needs to be a system of checks and balances for food bloggers. There is some horrible stuff out there. It is clear to me that I am a raging food snob and I am trying to get over it, but I can almost always assure you that if a recipe calls for a can of "cream of anything" soup, I will hate it. I know...it is almost un-American of me. I am even embarrassed to admit it to people. I hate King Ranch Chicken. It is probably some type of sacrilege. But I keep trying stuff that sounds easy and calls for cans of soup because I spend a fortune on groceries and spend hours in my kitchen and I need to have simple days, too. Being a food snob takes up a lot of time. I found a food blogger on Pinterest the other day who listed several hummus recipes, none of which used tahini paste. There is no such thing as hummus without tahini. Sure, maybe it is a tasty dip of some kind, but it's not hummus. What if someone had never made hummus and was going to give it their first shot after reading her blog? They would probably think immediately that they did something wrong because it didn't taste like hummus and would assume that hummus is just one of those things that can't be made at home. And they would be so wrong because hummus is so easy and so much better made at home! I know...I need to take up yoga or meditation. I think way too much. (and I promise that I don't mind folks who like stuff with cream soup. I am well aware that I am strange.) I also don't really like ice cream. Or ketchup. Or processed cheese on burgers. Or peas. It is amazing that I have friends. ;-)

5. As of this week, I officially lost all the weight that I gained on those fertility drugs! I am back down to exactly where I was when I lost my weight in the summer of 2010. I feel a thousand times better! Gaining that much weight that fast was unsettling and it feels good to be back to normal. I need to start doing some serious strength training now...I am feeling a little bit saggy this time around. I can tell that I am getting older because things don't seem to pop back into place like they did in years past. I feel great about the big weight loss, but now I would like to tone up. I am horrible at working out and I am determined to change that. I am so flaky when it comes to the gym.

6. I am now obsessed with making cute lunches for Colin. I have started a new mission to make him something exciting and wonderful every time. I blame this entirely on Pinterest. And the fact that I have a personal goal to make Colin the happiest kid on the planet. I know that he struggles with certain things, so I find myself wanting to bring him joy in unexpected places. I like the idea of lunch being a happy surprise, so I keep trying to make it cuter and better and more delicious. And as it turns out, there are tons of blogs that are dedicated solely to packing lunches! Damn you, Pinterest.

7. My child is the strangest kid sometimes. Today, I made him homemade waffles for breakfast. He started crying because he didn't want them. My husband, who had already eaten, came in and ate two of them in the hopes that I wouldn't set our house on fire with my mind.

8. They opened a Yankee Candle Store in Southlake Town Center. I just happen to be obsessed with holiday scented candles. And now there is a whole speciality store dedicated to them. With hundreds of scents that you can't find in other stores. So, if you need me, you know where to look.

9. I went to the live show of "So You Think You Can Dance" for the 3rd year in a row this week. I have the most wonderful friends in the whole world and find myself extremely lucky to have a group of best girls who share my goal of being a dancer when we grow up. Because it could totally still happen. You don't know! It could!

10. I am not a fan of grumpy people. I have a few friends on Facebook who do nothing but update their status with how much everything sucks. I feel sad for people who can't think positively. Which begs the point, do grumpy people hate seeing all my happy posts? Probably so. I always think about ones threshold for stuff like that. For example, I have one Facebook acquaintance (a family member of a friend...rather obscure) who drives me absolutely bonkers with her updates. She ends everything she writes with 2 exclamation points and her posts are only a couple of glitter unicorn stickers short of making my head explode. She says stuff like, "Going to Chick-Fil-A!!", "Standing in line at Target!!", "Drinking a pumpkin spice latte while my 2 year old practices her calligraphy and I put my feet up after feeding the homeless and curing cancer!!" Okay, maybe the last one is an exaggeration, but not by much. ;-) She drives me absolutely insane. So, I have my own personal threshold established, and I am sure that some of my more cynical friends are annoyed by my usually upbeat posts. And I know that my childless friends probably think that my frequent posts about Colin are the most annoying thing ever. But I quit worrying about it. I gotta be me!

And thus concludes the most random blog post of all time. If you read all of this, you are even more aware that I am a crazy girl. :-)