“Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall.”

-Larry Wilde

I think Moo Moo is trying to tell me something - poor thing I think sat on that those Christmas decorations/tree box for most of the Tuesday while I was on vacation.

Lucky for him, our Christmas tree was put up that same evening - pictures will be on my next edition of Project 365 since we are now getting presents wrapped and under the tree as well. 

HOW IS YOUR CHRISTmas DECORATING COMING?

"Snoopy, you'll have to be all the animals in our play. Can you be a sheep?"

-Lucy Van Pelt


Snoopy: Baaa!
Lucy Van Pelt: How about a cow?
Snoopy: Moo!
Lucy Van Pelt: How about a penguin?
[Snoopy waddles like a penguin]
Lucy Van Pelt: Yes, he's even a good penguin.
Snoopy: Roar!
[Snoopy then fights like a boxer and jumps on Lucy's head, acting like a vulture]
Lucy Van Pelt: [throwing Snoopy off her head] No, no, no!
[Snoopy starts mocking Lucy]
Lucy Van Pelt: Listen, all of you! You've got to take direction! You've got to have discipline! You've got to have respect for your director!
[notices Snoopy]
Lucy Van Pelt: I oughta slug you!
Lucy Van Pelt: [Snoopy licks her face] Ugh! I've been kissed by a dog! I have dog germs! Get hot water! Get some disinfectant! Get some Iodine!
Snoopy: [Snoopy sticks out his tongue] Bleah!

I absolutely love Charlie Brown and all his little movies/books for the holidays..

The Gaylord Texan puts on ICE! during the Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year season every year, each year with a new "theme" for the display to be.  This year was "We Froze Charlie Brown!"

ICE! was quite a fun experience for most of us - Emilee would disagree, she made Amanda quite miserable as well..  She cried/screamed 99% of the time, because she didn't want to wear someone else's jacket or ride on the ice slide by herself.  Can't please them all.

Merry early Christmas everyone!

CHEERS!

Project 365

So I have decided I'm not very good at this Project 365 thing - maybe its because I was on vacation last week, and not motivated to take a single picture, I'm not sure...  but I can tell you this I have 4 pictures taken of what should be 12.  Meh I suck - but I will pick up the pace..  Now that I'm back into the regular routine of work, nights with my love and simple weekends, this should be easier to maintain.  And who says I can't be a little slacking in the photo department every now and again.

Here's to the first semi-week of picture taking!

1/365 Homeade tostadas are one of Damon and I's favorite meals - and what better way to start a picture project than with a picture of your favorite meal?

2/365 Getting all my work done before I can go on my Thanksgiving vacation - containers always on the move.  Japan and China specfically always have major freight moving.

3/365 The out of office message - nothing better than being able to put this up on a Friday afternoon.

4/365 Damon and I at ICE!   It was sooooooo cold - but then in Texas a nice chill is always welcome.   I will do a full post on ICE! here soon.

Til then, Cheers!



Project 365

Here lately I have found myself stubbling over so many interesting blogs, with so many lovely photos of places in the world I would love to one day visit, things I wish America - well Texas anyway could appreciate, and amazing amounts of food.  Oy vey!   Red-Boots & Recent Treats have both been taking part in this project, and after doing a quick search about the popularity of this project on Bing, I realized its more popular and common than I thought. - they call it Project 365.  EVERYDAY no matter what - you have a picture of something.  Pictures are posted week by week, until you find yourself with a history of sorts over the past 365 days capturing all that life holds in the cutest little snapshots a camera can possibly take.. 

So I told myself while my latest browsing of weekly photos, "hey! this is an awesome project!" So here I am - committing to something else. Making all these resolutions and goals for myself and it is not even New Years yet.  Hopefully, I can commit to it, capturing all that life has to hold every day.

Wish me luck!
CHEERS!

“If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.”

-Napoleon Bonaparte



With the holiday season upon us, lists and lists are compiling in my busy, over analytical head.  Determining what to get everyone is always somewhat a task for Damon and I - kids are never a problem, they can list off everything they want in 10 seconds FLAT! And Emilee - oh she is very specific these days.  She tells me, "I want a horse, but not a real horse, just a toy horse."  LOL Thanks for the clarification dear sweet one - oh how I love her so.  The adults are different - they typically will tell you the same thing every year - socks, underwear or a movie.  Really?  That's all you could POSSIBLY want?  I don't think so!  But then again I'm the same way in that regard.  

And wrapping paper - I love wrapping paper, but man the price is such a rip for the quality and amount you get these days... Maybe its just my way of finding something about the holidays to grumble about. Thus a project has been formed!





via



via





I'm going to attempt my own wrapping paper this year, full of creativity and personalization!  I can't wait to start!  Now I just need stamps, fun ribbon, tape and brown butcher paper!

This Is My Tuesday.....

This week's "This Is My Tuesday" theme is >>> HAPPINESS 

Happiness, especially during this time of year, isn't hard to come by.  I mean food, ALL KINDS OF FOOD, for the holidays, shopping, CHRISTMAS lights, all the holiday music.  Seriously, if those things can't make a person smile, I don't know what can.

Thanks to Red-Boots, I have a really hard time deciding week to week which picture will be the "lucky" winner and be selected for display.  So many simple things make me happy.. Real simple things, thus my picture below, explain how simple my happiness can be to achieve.  



Yep, you saw it.  Diet Coke! No hidden message here..  I can be in the grouchiest mood and give me Diet Coke, and whammo, whole  NEW  Bethani!  Ask Damon, he will tell you -its like magic or something!

WHAT THINGS MAKE YOU OOZE WITH HAPPINESS??

"Everyone smiles in the same language"

-Anonymous

 

With Autumn in the air and November in full swing, I thought it would only be appropriate to blog my November issue of "Things that Make Me Terribly Happy".. So here goes....
 

• Damon in jeans - I don't know what it is, but I LOVE IT!
• The smell of cinnamon sticks/pinecones in the entrance to stores!



via







• The city getting all the decorations out for Christmas!



<3



•  The changing colors of leaves and brisk air that rustles them around
• Holiday sales!
• Baking & Eating- and not feeling guilty about all the calories
• Brazos de Dios Thanksgiving Fair



more <3



What are some November things that MAKE YOU TERRIBLY HAPPY?!



This is my Tuesday...

This week's "This is my Tuesday" is >>>> FAMILY

Over at the blog of Red Boots, on Tuesdays she throws out a "theme" to post pictures about.  I told myself I was participating this week and for weeks to come. So CHEERS to the first "This is MY Tuesday!"

I found it very difficult to select one picture as most of all my family pictures typically are my favorites, because they are usually the ones full of fun memories and moments of nonstop laughter.

But I finally managed to settle on a picture.....

Left to Right:  Damon, Mom, Dad

This picture was taken this year at the Halloween on Main Street.  I selected this picture because it contains three of the most important people for my existence.  My Mom and Dad are pretty self explanatory coming to my existence without the creeping oogey images coming back to forever haunt me.   And then Damon.. Oh my Damon - he is what you consider my new family, the new chapter to my life- the one I'm gonna have my own little family with, which I'm forever excited about.  Basically without these three people, Bethani wouldn't be Bethani.

THANK YOU FOR FAMILY!

"A bachelor is one who enjoys the chase but does not eat the game"

-Anonymous


My cousin Beverly is getting married in 5 days - so the traditional bachelorette party took place over the weekend.  One word - memorable!



The Bride



Left to Right: Paula and Melissa

Left to Right:  Amy, Mom, and Amanda

 



Somehow we convinced Grandma to don the hat



I also whipped up some mini strawberry cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting.  They were super delicious, like always!  I was also told that I should own my own bakery - one day maybe, but for now I can only afford to do out of the apartment orders...  If interested lemme know what I can whip up for you and I'll give ya a price!  I'm working on making/ordering business cards...  We'll see how all this pans out!  *crosses fingers*

"Strange to see how a good dinner and feasting reconciles everybody"

-Samuel Pepys






cupcakes are so amazingly delicious - they make anything beter





mmmmm homeade buttercream is the BEST!





Since moving out of my parents home and then my grandparents home (yea long story there) and moving in with Damon, the love of my life, I have grown to have this amazing and wonderful obsession with baking, cooking and all things food.  I have this crazy sense of madness when I get in the kitchen - I'm always the one who has to be touching the pots and pans, mixing, cooking, everything.  Ask Damon - I'm a phene for being the one in control of the kitchen.. It probably drives him up the wall, because I have a hard time giving up control in the kitchen - even on nights where he tells me he's cooking I have a very hard time letting him.  Is this a BAD thing??

And since then, if you are a loyal reader and saw my post about Mrs. Paula Deen, you will find I'm reading her book.  Doesn't make my so called Kitchen Problem any better.... I was born to be in the kitchen! I was born to cook!  I live for it!  I am a younger version of Paula, I'm convinced.

Its my dream, my goal, my aspirations to be like Paula - and be known for cooking..  I want people to enjoy my food, LOVE my food even.   It's just getting there that's the hard part.  I tell myself over and over again that I can do this - but my mind always gets the best of me and convinces me that I shouldn't waste my time...  Where would I find the money to get started? Where would I find that person that believes in me and invests in me? I think its quite possible that I'm just off in one of my crazy little worlds that I go so often.  

I just don't want to grow up wishing and regretting what that I would have done more or done what I wanted to do - I want to grow up knowing I've fufilled that dream - cooking, baking and pleasing everyone's taste buds...

Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.

- Stanley Horowitz


November is a such a glorious month of numerous stuffyourfacetilyouexplode moments, leaving you feeling extremely guilt ridden, sleepy, and loosening your belt..  If anyone knows me, this is my time of year. 

Time for ridiculous amounts of sweet potato casserole, cranberry relish (not that nasty canned crap), and lots and lots of SHOPPING!

courtesy C'est La Vegan

Courtesy Instrutables.com

Who could NOTlike November?!  Because after November, its full swing CHRISTmas TIME! 

Oh the smells in the air, the food in the oven and the sales to be seen! 



"Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble."

 - Shakespeare "Macbeth

Happy belated Halloween everyone!  Its hard to do on time Holiday posts without a home computer - I know I'm sitting in cave man days.  I just havent had the urge to get a computer for the home yet.

Over the ghoulish weekend, Grapevine puts on a few different Halloween activities for families to participate in.  Last year was our first year to participate in the Halloween on Main Street - the kids loved it last year, so we figured we would repeat and go again this year.  This year there were TONS and I mean TONS of kids everywhere - it was very difficult if you went in a large group to stay together, so we just stayed in with our little group, rather than trying to meet up and wander with everyone - it just wasnt going to work out.  

The kids had a good time - Grapevine has trick or treating down main street at the stores and resteraunts, free games, free kettle corn, bounce houses, those blow-up obstacle courses, hay bale mazes, etc for the kids to do - enough that they never got bored.  Emilee particularly liked the blow up slides.   She is very brave for two..

They managed to find the mobile Ice Cream/Sno-Cone Truck

Emilee loves sharing with Damon - they are best buds!

My absolute favorite picture of her EVER! She never smiles and this one melts my heart  <3

Spongebob Ice cream and Coke Sno Cones for Halloween of all things!

I've also done some more baking!!!   I FINALLY got around to making the black bottom goat cheese cupcakes I have been talking about... 

courtesy - cupcake project

I would have taken pictures had they lasted - swooped up like buzzards on fresh road kill.  Will have to remake these bad boys!

Happy Bloggin & Let's Go Rangers!