Stupid Cupid...

Have any of y'all been watching that show on SOAP Network called Holidate?? It's basically 2 girls who switch cities, stay in each other's homes and set the other person up with 3 of their friends to try to make a love connection. I was skeptical at first, but most of the girls are great and most of the guys are really great too! It just opens up the dating world to a whole new city, a whole new set of guys and sometimes a whole new perspective. So it gave me an idea...last week I mentioned Dave's good friend Aaron was staying with us for a couple of days and that he is s-i-n-g-l-e! Well, on Friday, my sister and I decided that the appropriate thing to do would be to pimp him out on my blog! So the idea was pitched to Aaron over BBQ on Friday night and he's game! So game on!

Here's how it will work: I've asked him a series of questions that I will reveal about Aaron. If you have a special lady that you would like to set Aaron up with let a girl know! Just e-mail me at lifeisglamandfab@gmail.com and please include information about who you would like to set Aaron up with. Like where she (or you :) are from, what hobbies, interests, must haves/have nots you are looking for in a guy, etc. I really, truly would like to make a good match here. And, YOU might be that special lady that would like a date with Aaron. I can promise you that I know him VERY well, he wouldn't hurt a fly, this is a no-risk situation and worst case scenario you'll at least get a nice evening out of it. Best case scenario I'm losing weight for a wedding!

Without further ado....let's meet our bachelor!

*Editor's Note: My notes are in green. Some of it needed additional commentary!

Name: Aaron (I'm not gonna throw out his last name right now. If you go on a date with him I'll tell you his last name, but I hate to broadcast it to the universe)

Age: 29

Height: 5'9

Where did you go to college: THE University of Texas

Where do you live: Katy, TX

What do you do for a living: Commercial Real Estate

What physical qualities are you attracted to: A great smile.

What’s an ideal date night: Dinner, something fun and interactive like mini-golf and maybe end the night with a drink somewhere

What is an ideal Saturday morning like: Sleeping in

What religion are you: I'm a Christian

What’s your favorite meal: A rib eye, garlic mashed potatoes and a glass of Shiraz

Favorite movie: The Departed

Favorite band: Cory Morrow

If you could go anywhere on vacation, where would you go: I want to go anywhere I've never been. Preferable a beach with a cold drink.

What are your hobbies: Texas Longhorn Football, Golfing, hunting

How would your friends describe you: Loyal, laid back, easy going, happy, Generous. Would give you the shirt off his back.

If you could pick out certain personalities traits in a girl, what would you choose: A girl who would feel comfortable having a nice dinner with the President on Friday night, would have a blast at a football game on Saturday and enjoy chilling out on Sunday. (His point was a go-with the flow kinda girl who would be comfortable and have a good time doing any of the above....he has season tickets to UT football, so if you don't want to go with him, I will. :)

Do you want children: Yes

If so, how many: More than 1 and less than 20. I'm pretty open to discussion.

Matchmaker, matchmaker make me a match...find me a find...catch me a catch!
Ok ladies! Shoot me a comment or e-mail and let's make a match!!

Fabulous Find Friday!

T-8 hours until the weekend!! Woo-stinkin'-hoo!! I am looking forward to a bit of relaxation and some serious downtime. I have 2 magazines sitting on my coffee table that have come in in the last 2 weeks that I haven't touched and a new book that I am 2 chapters into that I cannot wait to read more.

We get 4 magazines at our house. I get Cooking Light and Southern Living and Dave gets ESPN the Magazine and we collectively get Texas Monthly. Although Mike Leach is on the cover of this month's issue (Texas Monthly) wearing a Pirate's eye patch so I was less than excited and Dave was the first one to the mailbox for 2 weeks. I haven't been able to flip through that one yet because he has it on lock down until he has memorized every page. Ahhh football season in Texas. There aren't many things sweeter.

But seriously, how fun is it when you know you're going to get mail once a month? Or once a week even?? I love, love, love getting mail and I know that with my magazine subscriptions there will be at least 2 days a month where I will be elated to head to the mailbox. Until about 8 months ago I got US Weekly. That meant I got something every week! I also used to get InStyle but I realized there were 2 years worth of unread magazines in my "magazine basket". Not because I don't like the mag....I do. I just never found the time to flip through it and they were stacking up fast! So now I'm faithful to only 2. And between those 2 I get amazing recipes and fun decorating ideas for all seasons. I have also found so many places I want to visit because of Southern Living. And when/if we ever get to go to those fabulous cities I will know all the best restaurants to try!

You can imagine my surprise and excitement when I saw that through tomorrow at 11:59pm you can subscribe to Southern Living for only $5!!! And those of you who are already subscribing, you are not to be left out. You can renew your current subscription for the same price. Keep 'em comin'!!

Although that is the best deal that I found here are a few other goodies...

• Good Housekeeping $7.95
• Country Living $5 too!!
• Real Simple $20
• O, The Oprah Magazine $20 for 2 year subscription!
• Glamour $10
• Self $10
• InStyle $20

I think your mailbox just got happier!!

Be Our Guest...

I love having people over. I get excited when I can use my serving dishes, make fun appetizers and have a house abuzz with people. I have fun hosting and thinking through what people will want and what they might need while they are at our house. This is especially true when we have people stay the night. We have really only had a few overnight guests, but It's fun to put the guest bedroom to use every once in a while.

Last night was just such an occasion. One of Dave's best buds, Aaron (who is single and ready to mingle, ladies!) is in town for business and we offered for him to stay with us instead of a lonely old hotel room. We're always happy to have Dupree around! (*side story: Dave lived with Aaron for 2 years while we were dating and I would always make dinner and invite Dave over. I would tell him to just bring Aaron too because there was always more than enough. We would go to the movies and invite Aaron. The 3 of us hung out quite a bit so the whole You, Me and Dupree thing became our joke....so, he gave us a blowup air mattress for our wedding present to have when he came to visit! Love it.)

I digress....So in being the hostess with the mostess I always try to roll out the red carpet for my guests. I channel my inner Martha Stewart and I put a couple bottles of water in the guest bedroom, put out current magazines near their nightstand, fresh towels in the bathroom, a new toothbrush and toothpaste on the counter just in case they forgot, etc. So this brings me to last night....

I went upstairs to blow out the candles and turn on some of the lights for when Aaron decided to go to bed. I decided to go ahead and pull down the bed because I have a few (read: a lot!) of pillows on the guest bed. I'm pretty sure boys don't like to deal with things like "throw pillows" so I decided to deal with them myself. Boy was I glad! I pulled off the final layer of pillows and right there laying on the turned down portion of the comforter was a dog biscuit. My precious little devil dog had chosen our guest bed as the "hiding spot".

The finer hotels put a mint on your pillow...we prefer a MilkBone.

Comin' Up Roses...

Well, we graduated! Our final cake decorating class was last night and we survived and were walking out of the classroom at 8:35! We were still the last ones out, but we didn't shut Michael's down. We got a certificate and everything. I'm not gonna lie, I think we've improved! Week 1 we were just getting our feet wet. Week 2 we got in the pool and this week I'd like to think we did a back flip off the diving board. Maybe I should have graduated drama 101 instead of cake decorating 101. The big reveal is below, but first....allow me to explain my creation.

For those of you who know me, this will come as no surprise. For those of you that don't....here's a little background info. I graduated from Texas A&M, class of 2003....Whoop. I grew up a huge Longhorn fan....Hook'Em. I married a Red Raider....I can't even go there. Our kids will be totally and completely confused. Although game days can be interesting and my loyalties can change depending on who is in a race for the Roses there is one constant....I hate ou. :)

When we found out we would be learning roses in our final cake decorating class (just 101...there are still 3 more "levels" of classes) I began to think about my design. I needed to incorporate the roses...I'm excited about football season starting.....ding-ding-ding....the light bulb went off. One week from tomorrow the Race for the Roses begins and you know who I want to be standing in the end....

And Bradley's final masterpiece! Her roses were awesome!

Sista Friend, Teacher Friend....

Oh my word you couldn't have PAID me to go to the malls this weekend. And that is exactly what they were trying to do. To pay you 8.25% to battle the masses looking for backpacks, jean skirts and Hannah Montana T-shirts. I did, however, need to make a Target run, which is probably worse, and saw shopping carts filled with binders, #2 pencils and Elmer's glue along with the obligatory 2 boxes of Kleenex. When my mom and I were talking about the back to school rush this weekend and the fact that her cul-de-sac would soon be void between the hours of 8:00am and 3:00pm she got a little bit sad. She was hit with the realization that this is the first year in TWENTY-THREE (23) years that she has not had a child going "back to school." No crayons, map pencils, 3-ring binders, locker mirrors, gym shorts, year books, mattresses, rec letters, U-Hauls....the madness that is back to school is...just done.

That is a pretty crazy realization. She informed me that for "all her life" (and honestly, it is all of her life as long as she can remember it) she has been sending kids back to school. So this morning I am thinking of all of you mothers who are sending your kiddos back to school either for the first time or the 10th time. I hope you have peace that you are sending them to a place of learning and fun. I hope you have joy that you get 8 hours all to yourself!! I hope you have comfort that their teachers are loving on them and they are having fun with their friends. I hope you have a great day...

And to all of my teacher friends....bless your hearts! I hope I have told you all how much I appreciate what you do each day for children. Man, you have a tough job. Thank you for teaching kids. Thank you for loving kids, disciplining kids, listening to kids. Thank you for laughing with them and being an example. Unfortunately we can't even fathom the number of children who are lacking something at home and I am so honored to know at least 8 AMAZING women and men who give of themselves day in and day out so that a child might feel important, smart, funny, that they can do whatever it is they want to do, and even feel loved.

Thank you for doing what you do. I would be so blessed to have a child in any of your classrooms. And I want to tell you that I am praying for you as you start a new year. I pray that your hearts would be full of love for your new students. I pray that when the going gets tough that you would have a renewed strength and passion for the fantastic charge you have been given. I pray that you will know how appreciated and needed you are when you feel completely under appreciated. I pray you would not have to strike 3 more names off of your "potential children's names list" because you have a new little friend that likes to push the limits.

Thank you for being on the front lines day in and day out with our kiddos. I can't think of a better battalion.

XOXO,

T-Rog

The September Issue...

Friends, I'm so sorry to let you down with no FFF post, but I need a week off. I'm heading out to the doctor right now and I didn't have a chance to get to a post in the last 2 days. I'm having knee and back issues...I'll let you know what the trusty Doc says...

In the meantime, you guys discuss our plans to see this when it comes out. It's real life Devil Wears Prada!!

Ice Queen...

Last night was round 2 for showing off our new found cake decorating skills and I wouldn't say I did much better than round 1. Bradley, however, made a vast improvement because she actually showed up with her own icing this time. And she only had to take 1.5 hours of vacation to go home early and make it! Bravo!

She really did outdo herself this time because she was not going to let the teacher's pet show her up this time! In fact, she actually said the words, "I'm going to be the teacher's pet this week!" as she pulled her apron out of her goodie bag when she walked into class.

We thought we were SO ahead of the curve since we were a few minutes early and we began our crumb layer before the other students arrived. My goal was to have my entire cake iced and then I would be ready to decorate when we got time at the end of class to actually play with our own cakes. It's always better in my head than it turns out in real life....

Just like last week we spent the entire class learning silly icing tricks like how to make an icing clown and the beginning stages of a rose (which I was pretty terrible at) and we had very little time at the end to actually make our cakes beautiful which is what we all want to spend our time doing! I even found inspiration for my design before class and had taken print outs and everything! So the time read 8:10 and we were given the green light to begin our masterpieces. With only one piping bag and 2 colors of icing needed I was going to be cutting it close.

Now before the big reveal, let me just say that my brown didn't turn out the way I had envisioned it. I didn't want to do black because I hate black icing and what it does to your teeth, so I opted to use brown. I was thinking it would be a bit more of a rich brown....instead it's more of a "mucky" brown. In all I think this cake is an improvement over last week, but I'll keep trying!

Bradley, on the other hand, used her new "border" skill and did a fine job on her chopsticks. :)

Next week is our last class and I really feel like I have something special in me. I might even practice my roses this weekend so I'm all set and ready to go on Tuesday!

PS...if you need a good laugh read mom's posts on www.oursolepurpose.blogspot.com. I'm not even kidding that drama follows her! Finally, I leave you with this exchange from last night:

"Do I have this all over my back?" ~Bradley

"What? The icing??" ~Me

"Yeah. Last week I had it all over me and I don't want to sit up against my car seats if it's on my back." ~ Bradley

Me wondering how in the WORLD you could get icing on your back. Then remembering with her, anything is possible.

It Only Stings for a Second....

A few weeks ago my friend was dealing with a dreadful neighborhood nuisance and found quite the contraption to control the problem. Bradley complained about the dog barking issue on her blog and threatened to buy the "Dog Silencer Pro" if the problem wasn't nipped in the bud ASAP. Well, my darling husband read that blog and had the bright idea that this is just what we needed to control a certain yappy Yorkie!

You see, we have very active neighbors across the street with 2 high school aged daughters. There is constantly someone going somewhere over there. EVERY TIME the red tail lights flash on, Rookie is flying off the couch, full on bark in neighborhood watch mode. While I feel so very safe and secure, I also feel annoyed when I have to rewind my DVR to hear the line of bull Jillian just spewed on the Bachelorette. You can see the quandary.

Well, Friday was D-day and homeboy didn't even see it comin'. We got home from work to the brown package on the front door steps. no doubt he barked at the UPS guy....oh the irony. The way it works is it is "bark activated" and it sets off a high frequency noise that only the dog can hear (although Dave and I can hear it ever so faintly...) and it supposed to stop them in their tracks. The website promised that your dog would be trained not to bark in 2-3 weeks.

So Dave got to work putting the batteries in the contraption and setting it up in the living room and when he turned up the volume it apparently went off because Rookie darted in the other room like he had been shot out of a rocket and hid under the kitchen table. I guess it works! That entire night when he would start to bark it would "zap" him and he quickly stopped barking. Pretty soon when the neighbors headlights would go on he would perk up and start to run and then he would quickly remember he was about the get zapped and he wouldn't bark! Dave and I high fived and were so stinkin' proud of how smart we are....and then....

My parents and grandparents came over for dinner and to hang out and when they came to the front door he started barking. You could tell he was hearing the noise because he was stopping a little bit but then he would just start again. It was in that moment that he realized it only stings for a second....

He's a stubborn little thing. I think he gets it from his dad.

Fabulous Find Friday! And a WINNER!!

***UPDATE: Y'all, not even kidding I went to the outlet mall on Saturday to find a dress for the wedding I went to Saturday night and dresses 2 AND 3 on this post were at the BCBG MaxAZRIA outlet store!! #2 was $70 (!!!) and #3 was $55!!! Bottom line, they are cute, but they are MaxAZRIA dresses and they are at the outlet on super sale!! ModCloth is still selling these bad boys full price!

Well hello Friday! How I've missed you! How I look forward to you from Sunday evening until my eyes open on you, my beloved day of the week. And just because I am so excited it's Friday I have found you some adorable Friday-night-date-night dresses that are sure to WOW! I'm not kidding that I have found my new favorite Summer dress website. Unfortunately they do not sell in stores....it is an Internet company. How fitting since I just did an entire post about why I don't shop online!! But that just goes to show just how much I adore these dresses! Without further ado....

I love you Miss Sunshine! Honestly, this is the cutest thing I've seen in a while. If I would have found it before Wednesday and would have had the time to order and receive it I would be wearing it with a smile to the wedding I am going to on Saturday!

And I HAD to put this dress on here because the minute I saw it I thought of my friend Courtney. She loves patterns and colors and I figured this was just right up her alley!

How cute will you be going straight from work to wine tasting in this number? She's called Darling by Day...isn't she though??

And the one that started the whole thing....I saw this dress and was led to the website for Mod Cloth. From there I found tons of great dresses like the one below called Pralines and Creme. How cute is that? Each dress is named something fun like Prep School, the Bow Must Go On and Dancing in Manhattan. It looks to me like I'm about to kick my online shopping up a notch! I'm sure I could live without these dresses, but why would I want to??

And in other fun news....the WINNER is.....drum roll please.... comment #6 which was Courtney! Here is the comment and here is the proof! :)

Courtney said...
I LOVE #2! Classic....

Monday, August 10, 2009

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:

6

Timestamp: 2009-08-14 13:03:21 UTC

Congratulations, Courtney! E-mail me at lifeisglamandfab@gmail.com to send me your address. YAY! And with that....Have a fabulous Friday!

Offline...

For starters, this is my 200th post! Holy moly. Who knew I'd have that much to say?? Don't answer that.

Do you buy a lot of things online sight unseen? I have never been much of an online shopper. I must be a glutton for a punishment because I can't seem to end my affair with actually going to the stores, sifting through sale racks, trying on 10 things to have most of them look terribly unflattering on me and then piling back into my 170 degree car with my purchases. Wouldn't it be so much easier to sit in my air conditioned study, click through sale pages while sipping on my mango tea and wait impatiently for my package to arrive? I mean, who else loves the thrill of driving home and looking in your mail box for the package slip or glancing at your front door as you pull into the driveway for that big brown box? Am I alone here?

But I have to be honest....I have RARELY had a successful online shopping experience. There. I said it. I can't say I've bought too many things online, but I also can't tell you of one single time when I received something that I bought sight unseen and wasn't slightly surprised at how small, not cute, different than I though, rhinestones on the pockets or I was just downright duped.

Like the one time I bought these jeans from White House Black Market. Now, I wear there clothes and I've worn their jeans. They fit me great, I know my size, so I figured it was foolproof. I found some great deals online, bragged about it in a fabulous find and then bought most of it for myself. :) What can I say? I practice what I preach! So I ordered the jeans, they were a great dark wash and when they came in and I opened the package....gasp! They had these red and black rhinestone flower things on the back pocket!! I mean, honestly. Truth be told I would have never bought them in the store, but they were mine now so I wore them with pride. They ended up being one of my favorite pair of jeans.

A not-so-successful purchase were the individual hand soaps I purchased for my guest bathroom when Dave and I first got married. I literally didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I opened the box. I think I cried and I think EVERYONE else who saw them laughed! It was the TINNIEST thing you have EVER SEEN! Ever. I literally could not believe I had spent one dime on it. (And I had spent about $35-$40!!! I even e-mailed the company telling them that their marketing was totally misleading and that I was very disappointed in the product. Of course I never heard anything back from them. And because it was "personalized" with our name on the paper surrounding the tiny sliver of soap I couldn't return it. I was burned.

Online shopping seems SO easy, I just can't seem to completely get on board. I guess I don't totally trust it after the unfortunate soap incident and I also don't enjoy paying the additional shipping and handling when I feel like I can just run to the mall and get virtually the same thing. So what about you? Do you do most of your shopping in the stores or online? Am I missing the boat here?

PS....don't forget to enter the giveaway before 8:00am CST tomorrow! I'll be using the Random Integer Generator. Sign up now! As a side note....I will be ordering your stamp ONLINE! All of the fabulous tamps were found on ETSY, but don't worry....I ordered one for myself and have already received it and it is just fabulous! I couldn't help it, I needed to try it out! After all of those online ordering horror stories I just told you you didn't think I would let YOU be the guinny pig did you? I took it for the team. :)

Teacher's Pet...

What do you get when Bradley's co-worker shows her amazing cakes that she made in cake decorating class? An envious Bradley on a mission to find friends dumb enough to take the class with her. Insert me.

Our brilliant idea to join cake decorating 101 at the local Michael's has proved to be....well, interesting. Last week was our first week and we watched intently as our instructor evened out her cake with perfection and iced it with the "crumb layer" and then her double layer with not a crumb in sight. Our charge for this week was to bring our own cake, bring a double batch of homemade icing and our "course 1" kit complete with piping bags and tips and be ready to rock'n roll. I would be going to cake decorating straight from work so I had to bring my cake and icing and store it in the break room and put sticky notes warning the loss of limbs if either were touched! Thankfully my co-workers showed fantastic self-control and off I went to make my masterpiece.

Don't you worry that I was standing in line at 6:29pm paying for my "course 1" kit when Bradley ran by, cake in hand, towards the decorating aisle to purchase her kit with the words, "I don't even have icing!!" shouting from her lips. WHAT? You don't have icing? I would say that is the single most important ingredient in cake decorating. I mean, even without a cake she could have come and practiced on a card board box, but no icing? Luckily Michael's sells it in a can so she was good to go.


I'll just throw out that the following things may or may not have happened during our 2 hour session:

• Teacher's Pet: She.Had.Everything. in a little kit and was totally prepared. The water bottle to perfectly smooth the icing, the Pringle's can to fill her piping bag, extra bowls. Needless to say her and Bradley were BFF because Bradley had none of the above. :)


• Bradley may or may not have completely colored her hands red with her food coloring. As a side note: no one else seemed to have this problem. In fact, I used yellow food coloring and I didn't have so much as a drip of icing on me. I'm just sayin....


• She also might have impressed us all with her tie-die icing because she failed to clean out her piping bag before putting in her red icing.


• Out of 9 people we may or may not have been the last 2 people in the room and we may or may not have actually closed Michael's down.


• I stopped by my parent's house on the way home to pick up Rookie's medicine that my mom stopped by and got from the vet today and I showed her my cake. I had my leftover icing in my piping bag with my cake because we ran out of time to clean everything out and mom may or may not have eaten some of the icing straight out of the piping bag. Waste not want not...

Dress it up! GIVEAWAY!!

Y'all know my deep affection for a great monogram and fabulous stationary. Well, there is nothing like combining the 2. I mentioned a while back about great address stamps and how I think they are just the cutest and easiest thing in the world. Well, I have found a few more that I really really love. And I think the most wonderful way to end the Summer would be to give one to one of YOU! Let's dress up your mail!

You have until this Friday (8/14) at 8:00am CST to comment on this post and tell me which stamp you would like to win. I picked out a few of my favorites! I will announce the winner in my Fabulous Find Friday post and contact you to get your address to complete your stamp. Simple! Best of luck!

#1

#2

#3

#4

Fabulous Find Friday!

Vacations are winding down, kids are getting restless and Sears has started their annual hard core campaign to outfit the masses. I remember clearly this time of year when I was a child. I was overly dramatic wondering which teacher I would get. We all knew the teacher everyone wanted and that usually meant I would have the other teacher. On a certain date and time about one week before school started we would all go up to the elementary school and the class lists would be posted on the doors of the school. We would go to the all-star-teacher's roster and look frantically for my name. When we didn't see it we would obviously think we just read the list to fast and go immediately back to the "R" section of the class list. No dice. Once we found my name and I knew my fate for the following 9 months I would get my school supply list and off we went.

I would beg my parents for a Trapper Keeper and they would insist I would be just fine with a regular binder. I would probably start pouting and explain to them they were most certainly ruining my reputation and thereby most certainly ruining my entire life. You know when you just NEED items like locker mirrors, folder tabs and desk organizers? The thought of the latest and greatest organizational products just grips you and won't let you go? Well, some things never change. I might not be embarking on those pivotal middle school years but I still love a good browse down the "supplies" aisle. Here are a few of my favorite "back to school" things...

Sharpie Pens. Can't.Live.Without.Them. Amen. I've been a huge fan of Sharpie for years and years now, but they have straight up struck gold with the Sharpie Pen. I always wrote with the fine tip Sharpies but just hated that they would bleed through my calendar and checkbook. What a joy kill! But some Sharpie genius has saved the day with the new pens. They write amazing, they don't bleed through...they honestly make my handwriting better. It's pretty much a miracle worker. My only suggestion to the sharpie people....please oh please make them in all of the great colors you make the fine tip ones with. Like that fun green and hot pink. Maybe even a great turquoise blue....I'll loveyoulongtime.

Next are these utterly fantastic file folders. If these don't say sassy then I don't know what does. How great is this bulletin board? It would look great in a home office and would also be a perfect gift for college girls. I L.O.V.E. these paperclips! The bees are my favorite!

Have y'all found anything that I must have? Do share!

Also, just in time for back to school check out this blog for a fun giveaway! Chapters

Martha Crocker...

I was trying to think of something for dinner the other night and the same old things were popping into my head. I didn't want tacos or spaghetti or pork tenderloin....so I started thinking about some of the thing my mom used to do. But I didn't really want to order a pizza either ...(kidding mom!)....so then I thought about what my dad used to make when my mom was gone. It became clear that my choices were Frito chili pie or breakfast for dinner.

Breakfast for dinner it is! I decided to make a breakfast casserole, Tammy's Treats and fruit. Let's not forget the mimosas...

Breakfast Casserole:

• 6 Eggs
• 6 bread slices
• 1/2 lb. Sausage
• 1 cup shredded cheese

*First of all, I used a smaller pan because I was only making enough for Dave and I. I used the medium size round Pyrex dish. So if you want to make it in a 9x9 or larger pan just double the recipe.

Spray your pan with PAM. Cut crust off bread slices and then use it to line the bottom of your pan. Mix eggs and 1/2 cup shredded cheese in a mixing bowl. (I also added some pepper because I put pepper on everything!) Brown 1/2 lb of sausage and drain. (I browned an entire lb and used the other 1/2 pound for my next recipe!) cover the bread with the sausage and pour your egg and cheese mixture over the sausage. I sprinkled a little more cheese on top for good measure. :) Bake uncovered at 350 for approximately 40 minutes. I like mine with a little salsa so that's what you see in the bowl in the picture.

Tammy's Treats:

• 1 can reduced fat croissant rolls
• 1/2-3/4 of a package pkg cream cheese (I use the reduced fat or fat free. Any of them will work.)
• 1/2 lb of sausage

*Note: This is how much I used the other night because I only made one batch. I just wanted to use 1 lb of sausage for the entire meal. You can use the entire package of cream cheese and the entire lb of sausage and get 2 packages of the croissant rolls for the entire recipe.

Let cream cheese sit out while you brown the sausage so it gets close to room temp. Brown sausage and drain. Mix sausage and cream cheese. Roll out the individual croissant triangles. Place a spoonful of the cream cheese mixture in the croissant and roll. Follow baking instructions on croissant package. Serve warm. (Guys LOVE these. What's not to love? Meat..check. Cheese...check. Bread...check.)

And I just added this picture because it's stinkin' cute. My parents have been out of town so we have brought the Gyllenhaals over to play several times. This was Jake sitting in Rookie's spot on the couch thinking he ruled the roost. Is he not the cutest thing?

Lady Luck...

So I'm not one who is dripping in luck. If there were 25 people present and 24 door prizes yours truly would be going home with nothing but a handful of business cards and regret for trying the sushi. I'm not complaining...the way I look at it is that I came in with nothing and I'm leaving with nothing. No harm no foul. I'm just stating the facts that if I'm your traveling companion we're probably not randomly going to be upgraded to first class or a luxury suite because they just "have an extra one going unused!" At Project Graduation kids were going home with computers and home entertainment systems and I got a laundry basket and laundry detergent....I'm just sayin'.

So you can imagine my surprise when I (or my friends and they just let me share the joy...) just so happened to have won SEVERAL things from a local radio station lately. And by lately I mean in the last year or so. It all started one fateful day when I was driving home from work and I heard an advertisement for one of the local theatre group putting on a production of High School Musical. My beloved radio station, 102.3 The River, was giving out FREE tickets at a Taco Bell totally across town. As (my) luck would have it I was no where near the TB (even though my house was about 5 miles from it) and was not hading home. I would never make it in time. I had to call for backup. Luckily, Bradley was there to save the day and was able to not only get there to get our tickets, but sweet talked them into giving us a total of SIX tickets so we could make a night of it. And boy did we. We had dinner, saw HS Musical, watched the Loj dance in the aisles because she knew EVERY WORD to EVERY SONG. This will explain everything....

My next run-in with lady luck came on October when they had their pet costume contest. A few of you may remember my plea for your votes. Well, it worked! And the very scary spider and Miss Mardi Gras Maggie were the proud winners of a $200 gift card to a local pet store! Rookie is still reaping the benefits.

Next came mom's turn to play her hand at this game of luck. She was driving to tennis and heard Miss Lindsey Kane on the radio. Lindsey is from Austin, a fellow Aggie, and was the worship leader at our church at the time and they were asking trivia questions about her new album. Look at mom being all "in-the-know". She called in, answered the question correctly and won 4 tickets and backstage passes to see Mercy Me! AND, when she got to tennis one of her friends had heard her on the radio. It was like she was a mini-celeb for a minute. Needless to say, the Mercy Me concert was AMAZING and I was beginning to like how the tides had turned in my favor.

Fast forward to last week....Roxanne who is one of the morning co-hosts on my beloved radio station was giving away tickets to the SYTYCD tour that will be in Austin in October! The Loj, being the lady of leisure that she is, played her cards right and won a pair of tickets early in the day and was poised and ready for the round 2 giveaway. We needed both pairs. SO, with a 4pm giveaway Bradley and I were ready and waiting on Twitter for the next question. With only seconds separating us we won the 2nd pair!! So now we can all go see the SYTYCD tour courtesy of the River!

The catch is that you can only win something every 30 days. And now they are giving away family 4 packs of Circus tickets....I would LOVE to go to the circus but I'm maxed out of freaking owning the River for this month. So, if you win will you take me? :)

Thanks The River! You have single handedly helped me see that I am a winner! (Even if as I wrote this I realized I didn't actually win one single thing by myself........) XOXO

Karaoke...

This weekend we had a slumber party. We ate obscene amounts of guacamole, queso and creamy jalapeno and then washed it down with some amazing enchiladas, we attempted to learn the parts of "Beat It" where we usually just stand there and "freestyle", and we you tubed a lot of the classic songs that we still brag about knowing all the words to. It's one of those things where if our husbands could be flies on the wall they would probably.....well, I actually can't even speculate as to their thoughts and actions because I have no idea what they would have thought. I have to feel they wouldn't be TERRIBLY surprised. In any event, furniture was moved, microphones were created (thank you Wii controllers) and we had a repeat performance of "Music Video" which we had not seen since college.

While we were wrapping up our defeated attempt to learn the really tricky parts of "Beat it" and "Oops I Did it Again" we decided to stick to what we know. And what we know just happens to be every.single.word. to "Fancy" by Reba and "Stay" by Lisa Loeb. I will say that it's amazing that 4 girls, growing up in very separate lives can still remember every word, every inflection, every sigh. We were so proud of ourselves that we decided to continue.

So here are a few songs that without a shadow of a doubt, I know every word to. Some I haven't heard in 10 years (until Saturday night) and it still comes rushing back like a flood. Like TLC "Waterfalls". Man, I can't believe that rap part never left me. "I seen a rainbow yesterday but too many storms have come and gone leavin' a trace of not one God given ray is it because my life is 10 shades of gray I pray all 10 fade away..." You get the point. So in the event that my time was up and I had to Karaoke....I would want to choose from this list. And I wouldn't need the words! Take that.

• Fancy. Reba.
• Stay. Lisa Loeb
• I saw the Sign. Ace of Base
• We Didn't Start the Fire. Billy Freaking Joel.
• Anything by Elton John. Anything.
• Elephant Love Song Medley. From Moulan Rouge.
• Garth Brooks. All of it.
• Love Shack. B52s
• A Moment Like This. Kelly Clarkson.
• Shoop. Salt and Peppa.
• Baby Got Back. Who sings that?
• Popular. Wicked.
• Hold On. Wilson Phillips.
• 80's Madonna.
• Ice Ice Baby. Vanilla Ice.
• You do now this list could go on and on and on.......

"In the event that we ever have to karaoke we need to be prepared! I think we all need to pick our 'go to' song!" ~ Bradley

So what's yours??

Just Three?

So we've all played the "what 3 things would you take if you were stranded on an island" game. And the most popular items are generally stated first like "The Bible", "Water", "Hershey's Nuggets"...oh wait, that last one was just my mom's answer. Anyways, there are the must haves.

When we were on Decade of Friendship we played a game called "Loaded Questions" and among really getting to the heart of matters like which celebrity we most think we resemble and what bumper sticker we would put on our cars (Yes, we were all a little shocked when Reams' answer was: Keep Honking. I'm reloading.) the question was asked: "What 2 items could you not live without?" It didn't take anyone long to write down their answers. I will say, our answers ALL changed at the end of our stay when our running water ceased working. We all deleted Diet Coke from our list and replaced it with running water. Amen.

But in the interest of....well, being interesting....I decided to list a few of my "must have" items in my day to day life. Like for real...can't function without it.

• Burt's Bees. Period.
• My Chi.
• My Phone. I crave human contact/interaction. I think being alone (if we're assuming the whole stranded on an island thing) is what would kill me. I would end up like Tom Hanks...talking to a volleyball and going half insane. As a side note: Dave teases that my car won't go into drive without my phone to my ear. That is not at all true. He's so dramatic!
• Snacks. I need to eat at decent times. If I start fading and don't have food....it's not very pretty. Although my tolerance is pretty strong when it's fading....it's not pretty. Get this girl some cheese nips STAT!
• My iPod. I mean, if I were going to have to entertain myself I would at least like to have a dance party to "Gold digger" or "Yeah". (PS....I realized just how much I love my iPod when I forgot it yesterday and had to walk my 6 miles without it.....almost 2 hours with only the voices in my head. Not.Fun.)

Those are the only things I can think of right now that I for sure could not live without. What items make your list?