A good book to read:

The Family Fortune By Laurie Horowitz

I just read it, and loved it.

Synopsis:
Jane Fortune's fortunes have taken a downturn. Thanks to the profligate habits of her father and older sister, the family's money has evaporated and Jane has to move out of the only home she's ever known: a stately brick town house on Boston's prestigious Beacon Hill. Thirty-eight and terminally single, Jane has never pursued idle pleasures like her sibling and father. Instead, she has devoted her time to running the Fortune Family Foundation, a revered philanthropic institution that has helped spark the careers of many a budding writer, including Max Wellman, Jane's first—and only—love.
Now Jane has lost her luster. Max, meanwhile, has become a bestselling novelist and a renowned literary lothario. But change is afoot. And in the process of saving her family and reigniting the flames of true love, Jane might just find herself becoming the woman she was always meant to be.

Based loosely on Jane Austen's Persuasion, Horowitz's. This is pure chick lit, featuring characters with the depth of a teacup and a "girl loses boy, girl finds boy" plot. Horowitz continues the tradition ably, promising plenty as soon as she ditches the lit-crit posturing and embraces her inner Lauren Weisberger. (from Barnes and Nobles website)

And the Winners ARE:

Allie
Melissa
and MRMD_GRL

Congrats!
Email me with you address and I'll get it in the mail to you.

Marie

For my birthday, Dallas got tickets to the ballet (as I had hinted that I wanted). I'm very excited, we're going to the opening night, Thursday, of Marie. I've never been to the real ballet, meaning not four year olds attempting to twirl around. It also seems like it's going to be a very interesting (and girly) story. I'm very proud of my husband for doing something so un-dude like for me. I'm a lucky girl.

So there is a little preview I guess...Either way I'm not sure what to expect, but just the same I am looking foward to it big time!

Today is my Birthday!

To me! Ha ha, but seriously that means that today is the last day to leave a comment for the Yoplus Giveaway! I'm going to draw my three winners tonight, so get over there and tell me your favorite flavor, and forward the link to all your friends in your email address book!
So check back tomorrow to see if you're one of the lucky three!

A Beach In February?!

Saturday night after realizing what a huge disappointment our room was (Please do go to the link for the room if you missed yesterday's post!), we decided to get out of there for as long as we could (without falling asleep). We headed over to the Iguana Grill for dinner. It was great food, a nice sunset, and we got to listen to the lovely tunes of the Dust Devils, a local band. That is one thing I love about Austin, everyone is some sort of artist, or they try to be. We left the restaurant and went to Bee Cave to the Barnes and Noble, we're book junkies. I picked up two new books (Megan Hart) and we walked around the outdoor mall there. We went back to our room...to fight the shower curtains, and dust bunnies.
The next morning we decided to take a drive around Lake Travis and take in some of the hill country views. It was such a beautiful drive. I don't know how anyone couldn't live there and not feel inspired.

We made our first stop at Marble Falls, it's a very nice small town. We drove around, checked out some of the over priced boutiques down town, while we waited for the incredibly long line to die down at the Bluebonnet Cafe. Luckily we snuck in there just in time before they closed at 1:45 to give this little gem a try. Honestly the best home cooked meal I can recall having since I was young and my grandmother would cook for me. (Check back soon for more on this great place.)

We left Marble Falls and headed for Largo Vista...but on the way we got distracted by a sign that said "Flat Creek Vineyard"so we went there. However we got there right at three when they were ending tours for the winter hours, so I felt very uncomfortable about going into the tasting room, plus being frugal as I am and stuffed to the gills, I didn't want to be forced to pay more than a few bucks, or feel compelled to buy an expensive bottle of wine. - The good news is after some google time today, it fits my budget, and it sounds like they have great wines that I plan to look for next time I hit the store. Next time I'm going to brave it and go in!

We continued our journey back around to Hippy Hollow. If you're from Texas I'm sure you've heard of it. It's the only real public beach type access to the lake, and it's beautiful! Since it was a nice 68* day we decided to get some sun. It gave me a great chance to take some pictures, and read my book in the quiet while listening to the water hit the rocks. True relaxation.

We left the beach once it started getting dark/ closing time, and headed home, listening to old country songs and laughing about them.
It was a great weekend...and it seemed like it was more than just a few days. I truly enjoyed spending quality time with my wonderful husband, as well as taking in the beauty of the area.

I know this post consist of a lot of links, but check them out!

Don't forget the YoPlus giveaway, time is almost up!

And the WORST B&B award goes to...

Robins Nest Bed and Breakfast, Lake Travis

Saturday we met up with Dal's grandparents (in Madisonville, TX) and gave them our little angel for the week. We decided to hit the road and head to Austin to spend the weekend. I'm thinking, we'll get there and we'll get a crap hotel room we can afford, and buy a toothbrush and deodorant at Wal-Mart and enjoy our weekend in our favorite town. Well, apparently Dallas had something already in mind. He called this little place and reserved a room on Lake Travis. So..we drive, and we arrive at the Robin's Nest around 5 in the afternoon. Of coarse he checked with me for my okay before we even left Madisonville to Austin to get my approval on the room (I Phones are the best). I was delighted. Because this is what I see online:Anyhow, we drive up to this place and it looks so cute and eclectic. I'm excited. We meet the front desk girl, and she shows us to our room.

HOLY CRAP, what is wrong with this place? Seriously? This is what $200+ got me? Oh man, your website is a HUGE FRAUD!

Here is what the room actually looks like...

and I can't even discribe the filth on the floors (thank God I wore flipflops in February) or the musty smell it had.
We kept thinking, "How is this supposed to make you feel romantic, when all I want to do is run?" And "Why wouldn't you keep the room clean, and where the heck to you get this ugly junk from?" We were holding out hope that breakfast would redeem the situation...but instead this is what we ended up with:

Cold eggs, undercooked bacon, cold mushy potatoes, and rotting fruit salad on paper plates. YUM! Needless to say I give this place a negative 10 on my hotel stars rating!
Stay tuned for the good part of our weekend...

Chocolate Covered Cherries

It's another cupcake post! I also made cherry filled cupcakes. Oh yeah, and they taste as good as they sound! I used the devils food cake mix, and filled them with melted cherry chips mixed with vanilla icing. I decided to cover these with Cherry flavoried icing. Having a three year old girl, means you use pink sprinkles on EVERYTHING!

Cupcakes Oh la la!

Lately I'm in love with cupcakes. If I were to list ten jobs I'd love love love, owning my own cupcake shop would be like number 3. Sometimes I get ideas about the things I could do to the cupcakes to make them over the top. I must admit that I'm mostly lazy about them, I always use a box mix. Perhaps someday (in my old age) I will have the motivation to mix up my own batter from scratch. So this past weekend I decided that a raspberry chocolate cupcake sounds divine..and romantic. (sigh) So I sat out to mix up my devils food cake and bake 'em up!

Now where would I get this raspberry flavor? I know that jar of preserves in my fridge that I rarely find a use for...mix it with some vanilla icing (from a jar of coarse) and wallah!

Once my cupcakes cooled I simply used a melon baller to scoop out a small amount from the top, and filled it with a little bit of my magic mix. I let the icing set up for just a bit, and proceeded to top with chocolate icing. I failed to take an after pic...but you get the idea.

A great change for your ho hum cupcakes. And in a way a little sophisticated.

Bums! Freaking Bums!

Six months ago we bought our house...on the Houston side of Katy. It's very close to the busiest intersection in the area. I-10 and Fry if you're familiar with the area. Every single day it's like bum central around there. I find it highly annoying that I see the same people out there day in and day out with the same sign. And how do the homeless always seem to have a sharpie?!
A few of my favorites include a middle aged to older man, seems to be in perfectly good health...chain smoking name brand cigarettes on his way to the middle of the road. Then he whips out his sign he stole from a restaurant that paid a lot of money to have those signs made, and with a black marker wrote: "Stranded, anything will help" I think to myself every time I see him, how are you stranded? You clearly don't have a broken down beater on the side of the road, you've been rocking the same sign/ excuse for months now, and how can you afford your habit. You walk so obviously you live close by. My second favorite is the couple, for a sign they have the white side of a children's folder (spider man) with a long sad story about how they are about to be evicted, lost their jobs, and they even have a couple of pictures of their kids on it. Sad! They take turns, sometimes the girl is out there, some times the man. Pretty much every nice day they are out there. I have respect for the less fortunate that are out there selling the Chron. I get that. Good for them for doing something. I have been slowly getting more and more annoyed by the Bums, it seems there are more of them, more often. What bothers me the most is that they stare at you right into your car window like you're a piece of crap for not rolling down your window and giving them your hard earned dough. I'm a firm believer in helping people out, but when your out there everyday for as often and as long as the recently mentioned bums, you have ample time to find a job. I know it's a really bad economy...people fall on hard times, but I also pass about a zillion places that say "We're hiring" within 3 miles of said intersection. In example: Pizza Hut, the car wash, Jack in the Box.
I try not to be a snob, but we've all seen the dateline or whatever showing the "panhandlers" who make 100G's a year doing just that. The radio station was even talking about a website today that someone put out to support a local bum. http://www.ascendgence.com/pimpthisbum/index.aspx yes that's right, you can pay for "stuff" that he wants to go into a trust fund to get him off the streets...you can watch him on the live cam. How freaking nuts is this? It's going too far. The intersection he works is not too far from where I live.
What brought this on? Why is this white girl getting all crazy over something that happens all day in every city? Well...today I'm at a trashy gas station/ post office mailing off a few packages. I walk out to my car and I'm flagged down by two young enough ladies in a NEW as in a 2008 model Tahoe and the driver says to me "Sweetie, can you do me a favor? See we're trying to buy groceries, and I just lost my job..." I being the nice girl that I am, not wanting to get attacked and dragged to the back of a ghetto gas station and killed, I simply say (the truth) "I don't carry cash, sorry!" and continue on. SERIOUSLY?! Did you not just see the car I'm getting into vs. your brand freaking new really expensive gas guzzling environment killing machine? Sell your car, get out there and turn some tricks, I don't care, but how dare you have the gall to ask me for money!? Trash!

Buckeyes

Over the weekend I decided to try out the Buckeyes that I saw on Schweet 'N Savory. I highly recommend any of Melissa's recipes. She's an amazing girl! So here's how mine turned out: I also decided to dip a few pretzel rods in chocolate while I had a batch heated up already. I included these in a special package that will show up in a later post!

YoPlus Giveaway

The great people at Yo-Plus have sent me 3 Yo-Plus gift bag that includes a coupon for a free 4-pack of Yo-Plus yogurt, Yoplait cooler tote bag, water bottle and a nutrition journal to share with my readers so that they can try the new flavor of Yo-Plus:
Blueberry Acaí!Blueberry Acaí Yo-Plus is a creamy, fruit-flavored yogurt with live and active probiotic cultures that help regulate your digestive health year-round. Yo-Plus also is a good source of fiber, calcium and vitamins A & D.
Even better, Yo-Plus is now offering a $1.50 off downloadable coupon for a 4-pack of yogurt here. Also visit www.Yo-Plus.com for tips on how to maintain a balanced life and additional information.
All you have to do is tell me in a comment if you eat yogurt to stay healthy, and your favorite flavor.
For a second entry, become a follower (or be a follower) and leave a second comment.
For a third entry, blog a link back to the giveaway, and leave me a comment that you did.
Hurry, random drawing will occur February 25th!
(For non-Blogland people, please leave your email address in case you win!)

To Little Stars Dancers:

$117?! Really?!
And for what? A "trophy" and a leotard that she can obviously never wear again because guess what she's 3, she's growing, and I highly doubt you'll choose the same color scheme for next year (if your "company" stayed open that long to begin with).
I pay you $40 a month for you to come in for 30 minutes a week to teach my daughter to spin around and blow kisses. As if the Christmas pageant wasn't enough of a hassle, and might I add fairly expensive as well, you expect me to cough up more than a monthly gas bill for you to allow my daughter to shake it on stage (providing her three year old mind doesn't get distracted and stop all together) for 3.5 minutes while another little girl keeps running around like a chicken on stage ruining my photo ops. Complete bull!
It's bad enough that she thinks you're cool and looks up to you, and the one time I ever even see you you're dressed like a 15 year old slut, except you're almost middle aged! Put some freaking clothes on. Clearly you're not a parent, or have much respect for the parents and guests that were attending the Christmas show.
I believe by this point you can expect to no longer see my monthly payments to you or your company. And I'm pretty sure that after the nice little note about paying you out the rear for something now that doesn't happen 'til June you sent home with all the little kiddo's I won't be the only parent dropping this mess during these economic hard times.

Happy Dancing! NOT!

Obviously I'd never give this real letter to her, soo I'll write a nice short not like such: thanks for the opportunity to allow Neely to dance with you, however at this time we feel it is best that she no longer is enrolled in Little Stars.

Zoo

Saturday we decided to go to the Zoo, we've never been to the Houston Zoo, and 39online has a list of free things to do about town, so we picked a few museums we wanted to check out in that area as well.
1st we broke our "no eating out at all this month" policy to try Cafe Adobe (the best margarita in town). It was not, and our waiter sucked. I'd rather eat crap food that have a crap waiter. So that set the tone for the rest of the day I think. We were mad at ourselves for breaking our rule for something that didn't turn out so great.
We head to the Herman park area, where we sat in bumper to bumper traffic for 1 whole hour to only find out that they have all the parking lots closed off. It was packed, and we were royally angry. Neely knew that there was a surprise but we didn't tell her it was the zoo.
So we hit up two museums, which weren't terrible, okay the first one was crap (but it was free) I just expected more. And during the second one, which is rumored to have a real Dali, Neely got all grumpy and pouty so we had to leave before we even got to it. Grr, somewhat annoyed, but truth is it was supposed to be a fun day for her and not me...so on we go. We walked around the neighborhood, which again is something I love. Me and Dallas are house looking junkies. We love to drive around and just look at houses and talk about what we like about 'em and guess how much they are typically going for. Probably if I wasn't so lazy and the market wasn't so bad I'd dream of being a realtor. In any case I love love a craftsman/ bungalow/ 1930's style house. LOVE THEM! My absolute dream is a cute somewhat updated one in a ecliptic neighborhood.
I took a few pics of the few I liked the most and the features I love about that style of house...besides a claw foot tub and wood floors.
Later we visited the big wall fountain next to the William's building in the Galleria area. It's amazing if you've never seen it. A bit cold when the wind blows the water on you. but worth it!If you've never seen the William's building (i.e. non-Houston folk) it's "the largest non-downtown building" in the state. Click the link it's got all that info. Dal's great great uncle (or something) used to be the president of the company that owned it and he occupied the top floor, YIKES! It really is freakishly tall, and I got sick just thinking about being that high...well Dallas of course tricks Miss Gullible/ Miss Not Scarred into thinking she can climb to the top, so I took a pic of her attempt. She kept saying "Come on, just give me a push, we can do it together." So I guess it's okay that we never made it to the zoo, it turned out to be an alright day in spite of the crap waiter, simi-okay margarita, and the hour of traffic to no where.

kEeLy RiPpA!

Let me just share with you my dream: Kelly Rippa makes me want to own this, the commercial makes me believe that it will change my life and put me back in control of my laundry problems. 18 minutes of wash time!? Wash and Dry in 32 minute?! It's like a gift from the laundry fairy herself.
Ohhh if only!

In the mean time 'til we win the lottery that we don't play....I will continue to wash 5 items at a time, and dry them 2 times at 70 minutes each. Lay out on the back of every freestanding chair and wait for them to continue to dry out.

JUST IN CASE

YOU WERE WONDERING " WHAT DOES LAURA WANT FOR HER BIRTHDAY?"
'cause I'm sure everyone wants to know
A grill pan (soo not an expensive one, walmart brand prefered)
A dremel drill
a gift card to hobby lobby or to home depot
Dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (yeah prob not)
Hour Massage (okay just wishful thinking)

Feb 25th!

TV JUNKY?

I have decided to share with you a list of the CURRENT TV shows I watch EVERY week. Let me just say that it's a challenge for us to keep our DVR's from being too full, and we have to have two to be able to record 4 shows at a time. I'm a total tv junky...and probably my quality of life as well as my kids would improve if I could give up a few of these:

CHUCK- 1hr NBC

NIP/TUCK- 1 hr FX

90210- 1 hr CW

HOUSE- 1 hr FOX

CSI- 1hr CBS

PRIVLIDGED- 1hr CW

SECRET LIFE OF THE AMERICAN TEENAGER- 1hr ABC FAM

ELEVENTH HOUR- 1hr CBS

COLD CASE- 1 hr CBS

BONES- 1hr FOX

CRIMINAL MINDS- 1hr CBS

MEDIUM- 1hr NBC

THE OFFICE- 30 min NBC

30 ROCK- 30 min NBC

WITHOUT A TRACE- 1hr CBS

FRINGE- 1hr FOX

UGLY BETTY- 1hr ABC

CONFESSIONS OF A CALL GIRL- 30 min SHO

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE- 1.5hr NBC

What shows do you love and can't live without?

Love Day Meltdowns

During my few seconds of Internet searching...I found a link to this on MSN:
V-day horror stories. So I want to share with you mine, and I'd love to hear a few of yours
Fuzzy dreamy squiggly lines:
Valentines 2003:
Me and Dallas had just started "dating" as much dating as you can do when one of you lives in Boston and the other one lives in Tyler (TX). Lets just say IM is the best in the world for long distance. Dallas surprised me and came home for Valentines. So he's heading over to my house and we're gonna go out for dinner. I'm in the bathroom doing my hair when he shows up. So I invite him in, and start talking to him about how I'd gotten an early birthday gift from an unnamed source earlier that day. Gold (I never wear gold) heart shaped earrings. I was so not in a girly state of mind, and although they were a great expensive gift, one I'd never use. I go on and on about "I think heart shaped jewelery is tacky" (which I do, it's like the equivalent of the hoop earrings with your name across 'em in flashy cheap gold) "I'll never wear 'em because they are stupid hearts." I go on and on 'til I'm done curling my hair. Then we are about to head out the door and he gives me his gift.
A heart box with a necklace, with you guessed it, a heart shaped pendent! Oh I felt awful. Ashamed. I could see his fear of my disappointment in his eyes. The rest of the night went great...but I've always felt terrible for saying that. And now anytime he buys me anything he's always afraid I'll hate it.
P.S. A few weeks later my dog's toenail got caught on the chain and broke it so I had to stop wearing it, which didn't look good since he'd stayed home from Boston for the whole month of February to spend more time with me.
Okay squiggly lines back to reality.... tell me your horror story for a past love day!

Bleeding Love

These are my bleeding love cupcakes.

Basically I just used the box mix, and added the cherry chips into the batter. The cherry chips look like a bloody mess when they melted up, hence my name for 'em.

They are so delish! And I plan on making another batch up for Valentines.

Giveaway

http://priscillabakes.blogspot.com/2009/02/valentines-day-giveaway.html

PRISCILLA HAS ANOTHER GIVEAWAY! CHECK IT OUT. AND GOOD LUCK.

Yorkie

I saw this being made on a Food Network show during the holiday's and was dying to try it. I actually made this a while back and I'm just now getting around to sharing. It's so easy I was in shock.

Yorkie Puddings - Desert Style
Preheat Oven 450*
Fill muffin tin with 2 tsp of vegie oil and place in oven to get nice and hot.
3/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 c. milk
(I added Orange Zest and a pinch of sugar)
Mix it up.
Pull the muffin tin out and fill each cup with equal portions of the batter. This is my favorite part they start to fry and it looks like a tiny funnel cake.
Place back in the hot oven and bake for 20-30 minutes. These puppies get HUGE!
Take 'em out, and punch a hole in the top. Fill with marmalade, and whipping cream, drizzle with raspberry preserves, eat while warm if possible.
DIVINE! You can use any size muffin tin you wish, I used the jumbo size.

New Creations

I have got the inspiration running through me. I want to craft my bum off, and let me just say it's very difficult to worry with the house cleaning and laundry when all I want to do is craft! Anyhow, I have decided I want to try my hand and jewelry making. So here's my first two creations. You can check them out on my Etsy store, please share with your friends, as I have added a few more items this week. Keep checking back as I'll add new stuff as soon as I get it made up.
I also want to share the winner of my Giveaway- Misty! Congrats! Thanks to the very few people who entered.