Big Dreams. Big Leagues

Let me just catch my breath for two seconds. Got it. Now.. lets see where to even begin this post. I was in Memphis the last time I caught up with you and today as of about, enough-time-to-unpack-my-car ago, I am back at my house in MO.


48 Hours ago I set off on what I thought was going to be a great five day visit with the future hubs. I made it there safely and he returned back to his apartment at four o'clock in the morning. He grabbed a quick four hour nap before we hit the road at 8:45 en route to Montgomery, AL to visit his Granddad in the hospital. He had surgery Monday and we knew with Brandon's off day on Wednesday we would drive down for the day. We needed to be at the hospital by two for special visiting hours minutes. Law enforcement was out in full force leaving us no chance but to obey the limit. We arrived about 2:07 thinking we already missed half of the twenty minutes we would be allowed to visit. Things working in our favor (only the beginning) they were running late and we were allotted the FULL twenty minutes. He is doing great and got moved out of critical care as of this morning! Yahoo. As for us, we had four hours to kill until we could visit again, for twenty minutes, at six o'clock that evening. 


We were sitting in the waiting room (around 2:30) debating how to spend our time and Brandon's phone rings. I had assumed it was pretty important by his posture, tone of voice, and responses of, "Yes, Sir" and "No,Sir."  Then I began to listen to other end of the call....


Coach - Hey, Brandon, do you think you can come by the field for a couple minutes.


Brandon - No Sir... I am actually in Alabama right now. I drove down for the day to visit my Granddad in the hospital.


Coach - Ok, alright..... pause.....well..... I guess I just have to give you the news over the phone then. Congrats man! You're going to the big leagues!


I could write in what I thought the two of them said after that but it would be lies. It was something about catching a flight and... yeah like I said I'm not quite sure. Tears of joy streamed down my face.


Brandon got to go back in and tell his Papa the exciting news. I will never, ever forget that moment the rest of my life. It truly was priceless. 


So there we were in Alabama. And there his flight was waiting for him in Memphis. We were left with no choice but to jump back in the car and head back. We may have pulled over to throw up because we could not actually believe what happened. Really? No, not really but we both thought about it. We stopped by his parents house to share the great news. They thought he was joking. Then we met up with his sister so he could tell her and by five o'clock we were back on the road heading north to Memphis. 


We made calls. Lots and lots of calls. We got text messages. Lots and lots of text messages. We answered each question the same, "We don't know yet." "We only know what time his flight leaves." "Thank you we are excited too!" We laughed A LOT! We I may have acted delirious and goofy. I cried more tears of joy. He grinned a lot. I sneaked several glances over at him in the rear view mirror to see if his eyes could tell his feelings. The ride seemed like it took forever. 


We made a quick detour by the field to get all his equipment and headed to the apartment to pack up. His bags were still packed from his previous road trip full with dirty laundry. His roommate who has been to STL gave him some advice, none of which I listened to. I was so in shock seeing these men so excited over their boyhood dreams coming true. It was awesome and I am so glad I was there. 

We hit the sack around one. I passed out from the excitement. I like to think Brandon slept but I never thought to ask him this morning. Alarms sounded at 6:15 sharp to what will probably be another one of Brandon's most memorable days of his life. We packed the car, again, and we were off the the airport. It was a silent ride. A good silent. He knew I was beyond excited for him. I knew he was nervous. I felt like a mom taking their kid to kindergarten for the very first time. I was so proud of what he has already done, excited for what was to come, and not ready to leave him just yet.  Instead of asking for a "First Day in the Bigs" cheesy pose and smile pic... I snapped this shot as he walked off into what is going to be a very blessed future in the Big Leagues. 

To be continued...

Colossians 3:23 

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.

TV Talk

Greetings from the south. I am in Memphis. Made the nice five hour jaunt earlier this evening and arrived about two and a half hours ago. My other half should be rolling in here around 3:30 or 4 in the morning. Oh the joys of AAA bus rides. 


While I was driving I got to see this. Don't worry I actually pulled onto the shoulder to snap a view of this gorgeous sunset. 

So because I got to see that, I missed this

 and my favorite contestant-- Dia Frampton.

I love this show for a couple reasons. It is not American Idol number one. Second is because I always watch it with my roommates. Remember them. Yep, I like the family bonding time. Every Tuesday from eight until ten. Normally I will cook some dinner and we will channel surf between The Voice and the Cardinal game.  The third reason I enjoy this show is because the pure talent these artist have. Ahh... wait for it....Mazing! If you watch HIMYM you know what I'm saying. Up top? Ha Ha. And finally the one of my favorite reasons to watch the voice is the comic relief by Blake Shelton, that and he is easy on the eyes, along with Adam Levine. 

Now onto the second show I enjoy watching just any old time. I catch reruns because I don't even know on which channel the show aired.  (Does that last sentence sound funny? I tried not ending with a preposition and it still sounds funky. I know I have some journalistic friends out there. Help a sista out!) Oh yeah.. The New Adventures of Old Christine.

It always, always makes me laugh. Unfortunately this show comes on late and if I start to watch I can't turn it off. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is funnier as Old Christine than Elaine in my opinion but maybe I am comparing apples to oranges. If you close your eyes when the show is on you may think her ex husband Richard is actually McDreamy aka Patrick Dempsey. Greys was a college phase and is no more. They are voice twins, just listen and you will see. Don't even get me started on Wanda Sykes. Funny. Funny. Funny. Mental note: Ask for dvds for Christmas. 

And finally I catch the ridiculous HIMYM that I referenced earlier. I'll keep it on in the background maybe while I blog or fold laundry or do something productive. 

Other than the late night tv reruns, The Voice, is the only television show that I try to watch on a regular basis. It used to be Dancing With the Stars or even The Biggest Loser but after one season of dedication it is nice to switch it up.  

Now I need to go read a book because I feel like I spend waaay to much time in front of the tube. Any suggestions on some must reads?

Okay, I have one other show that is my guilty pleasure - Keeping Up with the Kardashians. I admitted it now someone make me stop. Paaaalease!

All images were found on Google Images, with exception of the sunset.

Misery Loves Company

Sad thing happened on Saturday. My dog Dozer got ran over. Want to know what makes this worse, my mom ran over him. It was an accident. One of Dozer's outside spots is on a leash on a tree in the front yard near the driveway. He has gotten pretty used to knowing when a cars comes to stay back. This has never been an issue, until Saturday. We are not sure exactly what happened but the cute little beagle was out of the way and then at the last minute decided to get back in the way.  Poor guy. Nothing is more pitiful than an injured pet. Beagles look sad as it is, now to have one that is crippled and sad looking. Today he visited the vet to get some proper care since over the weekend we had no where to take him. It appears that his pelvic bone is broke and has some ligament damage in one of his back legs. Anyways at least he has a friend to sit bedside with him. 

Ah Ha Moment

I do most of my thinking two different times of the day. The first being in the shower. The second is late at night. Usually from the hours of nine - one p.m. We will call this 'peak time.' That being said, the other times of the day I just play reruns of those thoughts and ideas from my 'peak' time and try to expand and grow them. 


Today I had an AH HA moment in the shower. TMI? Sorry pals. It is going to take some time and energy, lots of hours online, and the assistance of several people who have NO idea who I am. I will probably need a business plan so I will call in one of my great buddies from college to help in this area. Strangely enough I don't think my idea is profitable, however it may be completely opposite. Whether it is or not, I think I owe it a shot and I will not have to spend one dime to start this so called project. I might have to purchase some resources but that is what Amazon.com is for. 


I haven't had much time to think this one over, yes my hair is still wet, but I'm gonna work on it. Nourish it, develop it, and treat it like my baby. So it can grow and grow until I can't tell it what to do anymore. 


As soon as I can share more details I will. Until then, please be patient. It will be worth the wait. 

Oh by the way, thanks fiancee for planting that seed in my mind. I am gonna blame this one on you.

Easy Cheesy Lasagna

Has anyone else ever been bored on vacation? Well I am not quite there yet. It was just a question people. It is only day two and I was successful at being a bum again. That is until I got really hungry and the roommates (Mom & Dad) had prior engagements and were not home most the day. That means no home cooked dinner. Then around nine o'clock I get the bright idea to cook lasagna. I knew when I first got this recipe I wanted to share it. Its delicious, easy, and negative in calories. Okay small confession. This recipe is not really negative in calories, but I'll just continue to tell you that. 


What you will need:

Sauce 

1-2 lbs cooked ground beef

2 cans Tomato sauce - more if you want it saucy

1 pkg McCormick 

spaghetti 

seasoning mix

Mix together 

Cheese mixture

3 cups cottage cheese

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

2 eggs

Mix together in bowl

Other

9-10 no boil lasagna noodles

4 cups mozzarella cheese

Begin by layering bottom of 9x13 dish with no boil lasagna noodles. Next pour part of meat/sauce mixture. Add Cheese mixture on top of that. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese. Repeat from beginning with noodles,meat sauce,cheese mix, and mozzarella until you use all mixtures. Bake at 350 degrees for thirty minutes. After baking for 20 minutes sprinkle any unused mozzarella cheese over top. 

There you have it. That is the easy cheesy lasagna I love. Let me tell you something, whether you eat it at seven or eleven its still taste the same. Plus I was practicing for years down the road when I have to prepare meals for the week for the fam on Sunday nights. Now I may have that ice cream Snickers I snagged while picking up groceries. It is vacation after all and I just had a huge plate of negative calorie lasagna.

Tomorrow I plan to put in some time at work and take care of some business that must be done. That is not cheating my vacay. I promise. Then Tuesday I will hit the road. I better get my ipod updated with some good summer tunes. What are you favorite summer jams?

All Dressed Up, Again

If you are here reading this, I'm going to be honest right up front. This post was originally written back in April of 2010. I have expanded and become more active with my blog and other blogs in the blogosphere. I can not get enough of the creativeness out there on the web. I have been dying to have a good great 'craft' to link up on a link party. That is probably how you found me, unless you are one of my gracious ten followers which in reality might be six who read what I have to say on a regular basis. Thank you if you do!

I am sure there are many of you trying to make it as a professional blogger. I never intended to love my blog as much as I have grown to. I am not a writer as you have probably already found several grammatical errors. I just wanted a place to show my friends and family some different small craft projects. This is one from the very beginning.

I used to make paper shoes. Huh? Here take a peek. Ironically that was my first ever post at heaLD which has grown into kind.heARTed. I had to go back and change the original post's font color to black so you could read it. Like most things in life this has been a great process and time occupier for me and I have to say I am pretty proud of what it has become. I hope that I can continue to use my blog to keep my friends, family, and complete strangers updated on my journey ahead, whatever that may be. 

So this is my craft. My idea I have had tucked away from a year ago that I now realize I probably should invest more time in to see where it can go. Especially since many at the Chocolate Ball asked, "Hey aren't you the girl that had the paper dresses last year?"  

They are paper dresses that evolved from paper shoes. Inspired by a little princess who is growing quickly before my eyes. I know moms out there can't get enough of adorable kids clothes or is that just me the obsessive nanny? I hear friends of mine say they will buy stuff for their kids before they buy things for themselves. Is that true, boy do I hope to find out some day soon. Not too soon though.

What you will need. 

Scrapbook paper

Scissors

Ribbon

Other Embellishments

What you will do.

Choose what shape and style dress you like. Glue or sew embellishments to your liking.

My dresses are small, less than 5", I'm not sure the exact measurement because styles vary. You can make them whatever size you want. That is whats so great about them.

I love these dresses. Any body type can wear them because they will just be hanging on your wall for you or your very only little girl to admire. I drew the patterns for dress styles I liked. Here I the first five dresses I made.

I created a wedding dress, nothing like the real dress I purchased for my upcoming wedding, a prom dress, and a camouflage dress. I recently did a style for a college graduate with a fashion degree and that is what made me realized I should share this project. They work for small kids or college grads as you can see one size fits all.

I hope you enjoyed my project. Now go on and get dressed or poke around kind.heARTed and see what I'm all about. 

Thanks for reading!

Stuff

Today I slept in and it was glorious. I feel like I am caught up on sleep, that is until Sunday night rolls around and I refuse to go to sleep at a decent hour. Although this week that will not happen. I can stay up late and sleep in late for the next 10 days. I would make a 'Vacation To Do List' but feel that defeats the purpose of a vacation. Here is what I have planned and then I'll get to the reason for this post, not that I need one. 


Church. Laundry. Clean. Complete cball orders. Drive to AL to visit Papa (future grandpa-in-law) and family. Drive to Memphis. Spend five days with my fiancee! Cook. Go to the movies. Pool. Blog. I know July fifth will be here in no time flat but I thoroughly plan to enjoy the next ten days not being a jungle gym. 


Ok so let me get on with it. I started to do laundry this afternoon and pick up some clutter and put some clutter away to realize I have so much stuff. NO, TOO MUCH STUFF. All kinds of stuff. Clothes. Shoes. Health and beauty products of which I may use only 10%. Movies. CDs. DVDs. Books. Gym equipment. Bills and paperwork. Nick Knacks. My whole college apartment is here in one not apartment sized room. Well that is fine and dandy to have all this stuff now and in it's place here but in less than six months, I will have to move ALL of this stuff. It makes me sick to think about.


I thought that I had been proactive when I moved the first time. I had my closet organized and boxes ready to be moved. Then I moved back this February I think I completely and utterly ruined any and all progress I had made. If only I could start packing it all up now I think it would ease the pain doing little bits at a time.


 Why do I have all this stuff? What stuff can I let go of? How is my fiancee going to react when he sees my boxes and boxes of stuff take over his bachelor pad? 

Color of the Week

Remember when I told you about my obsession. Here is my color pick of the week.

tart deco

Yum. Doesn't this make you want an orange push-up ice cream treat? Matches perfectly with a summer tan. Guess I just won't match. Haha.

I will be on vacation next week but I think I'm going to use my free time to invest in working on my bloggy blog blog, hit up the pool, and catch a few baseball games. I think I still owe you an update from the Chocolate Ball. I've been having some internet issues so hopefully that will be resolved and I can post more than once a week. Until then my friends...

DIO Edible Arrangment

Prepare your taste buds y'all cause your mouth will be watering by the time you finish reading. On our road trip the other day my dad pointed out an Edible Arrangement store location and asked if my mom or I had ever had one. We hadn't. I told them we should pick one up for Father's Day since my grandparents (Dad's side) were coming out for dinner. On our way back we stopped by, but the store was already closed.  Whaa waa. After picking up a brochure and seeing how pricey these yummy sensations were we decided to DIO (do it ourselves). We made a quick trip into Sams Club to pick our favorite fruits for what becomes our own masterpiece.

 Our base was a hollowed out watermelon basket with a head of lettuce. You can probably just use half a watermelon instead of hollowing the whole thing. You learn as you go, we know for next time and will make adjustments. But then we just mixed and match fruits and filled the thing up using kabob skewers. It is that easy!! We used strawberries, watermelon, grapes, pineapple, cantaloupe, and bananas. We used a star cookie cutter for the fun watermelon shapes. I decided to indulge just a bit and dip some strawberries in chocolate. Alright alright, I dipped some bananas too but they did not last long enough to make the arrangement. Oops. Yum. Ya. YUM YUM! All the fruit we used was so fresh and juicy. Of course I snacked and prepared at the same time. Isn't that why the cook never eats a lot? 

If you have any summer parties or picnics coming up, here is your dish. I'm telling you this will be a HIT and for waaaaay less than the name brand arrangements.  It is a healthy snack too and kids can even help prepare. Oh yeah did I forget to tell you that it was DELICIOUS!! Well let me just say one more time it was AMAZINGLY good. 

What are some of your favorite summer treats?

Wrinkles

This post was written on Thursday but due to technical difficulties and a quick road trip I wasn't able to post until today.

I got in a fight with my hot glue gun. We had become best of friends and then she turns on me. Good thing we will be seeing a little less of each other after today.

Immediate following betrayal. Not too bad right?

Ten minutes later, I tried to forgive you...

and I will, even though I woke up to THIS. OUCH! The worst part was since it was hot glue I couldn't touch it or it would just burn my other hand. I just had to let it burn.

Its better than when I fell in the hot ashes twelve years ago catching my fall with both hands. The blisters then were inches long all over the palms of my hands. This just brought back those awful memories!

And after that nice little burn I quickly realized I should not try to do math at midnight. I could not get this lined up how I wanted. URG! This wrinkle was smoothed out thanks to my momma and all is well today.

I'm behind on the formal update of the Chocolate Ball because my mom, dad and I made a quick road trip to Memphis to watch Brandon throw a GEM! Check out this article. We left around two yesterday and returned tonight around six. Told you it was quick. It was great to see him!! Twenty weeks until our big day! 

Ohhh yeah and I have something else GREAT (actually a few different things) to share with you this week. One is yummy, perfect for summer, and colorful. Can you guess what it is? Check back to see. 

Chocolate Ball Preview

There are three working days left until the CHOCOLATE BALL.  Last year this time I had no clue that I would be spending the nights leading up to the ball staying up late drinking way too much Mtn. Dew and O.D-ing on chocolate. Last year it was just little ol' me flying solo in my booth.This year I am doing things a bit different. Change is good right? Right! My mom Becky and I are teaming up and doing a booth together.  I am solely focusing on my blossoms. She is focusing on her embroidery business, Thread Expressions and newly showcasing her rhinestone apparel, Bling-N-Letters. Less stress for me and less stress for her. We both have SO many different things we could bring to our table (pun intended), but we knew with the amount of time we had, we had to pick and choose.  Here is a tiny preview.

How do you think I should display these? Do they need to go on cards like most bows or just leave them free on the table? What would make you want to buy one? Help please! Check out my sign too! I designed that myself and cut it out on my new birthday gift. Hopefully you'll be seeing that sweet logo more on this page. Going to try to do some blog revamping after this week.

Embroidered finger tip towels by Thread Expressions

In the works: Adorable 'made in america' onesie in rhinestones! To-die-for!

Since the Fourth of July is only about two weeks after the ball we are using that as the theme for our table. I told her today I think I am as sickly in love with RED,WHITE, and BLUE as she is. =) Don't believe me? Look at this cake we she made. I am so excited for her because her stuff is AWESOME! I am biased but she really is so talented and I hope this can generate some business for her.

Don't worry I promise to give you a full run down of the booth live from the ball. Okay maybe not live but as quick as I can get home and upload some footage.

Dear Future Husband

Tonight I am not loving being five hours or more away from you because who knows what city or state you are playing in now. I could name ten things right off the bat we could be doing this summer. You would also need to have a different job that did not require you to work pretty much every summer day and night providing others with their entertainment. 

But you do have a job (thankful) that is going to provide for our future (thank you) that you love playing (bonus for you) and is fun (bonus for us) and you get to wear a uniform (bonus for me) that lets us meet lots of friends (bonus for them). Just kidding on the last one. No really though we are fun to hang out with aren't we? Remember last year we went to the movies with three other couples, now it is just you and me. How did that happen? I digress...

What I am trying to say is although that list below is really really appealing, I'll enjoy those five hour rides on 55. I will enjoy it so we can spend the weekend together. Half of it you're at work, a quarter of it we spend sleeping, and the other quarter I spend cooking so you do not have to eat the fine clubhouse cuisine, doing your laundry you tell me NOT to do, and squeezing in as many possible hugs and kisses. 

One day it won't be like this. So for now I realize it could be a lot worse. I am thankful it isn't. We are learning to love one another through the distance and challenges. We are growing closer even though we are far apart. We are hopefully helping others realize they are blessed to have the summer months to spend doing fun activities with ones they love. So here is the list of things that will probably bum you out that we can't do unless we do them at extremely strange hours of the day or on our own without one another.

1. Go hit golf balls at the driving range
2. Sit/walk by the lake
3. Hang out by the pool
4. BBQ
5. Shoot guns
6. Go fishing
7. Go out for ice cream
8. Have a camp fire with S'mores
9. Go camping at the beach
10. Take a float trip


Looking forward to our next short visit, whenever that may be. Maybe we can BBQ some breakfast kabobs.


Love

Late Birthday Present

Can you guess what I got? Huh, huh, can you, can you? My oh so wonderful Momma bought me my very own ---insert drum roll here---

SILHOUETTE SD!

Bam- does it get much better than that? For me, NO! Ahhh the simple things in life. My mom always thinks it is so amusing that it takes such tiny things to excite me, especially craft stuff. She found one for almost half price at The O.co. That would be Overstock.com just wanted to try their new "Oh Dot Co" ad. Pretty catchy.

So if you wonder what this bad boy can do I will show you. Not a long tutorial or anything just a few quick practice designs. Lets just say I am pumped and this could be pretty profitable, if I make it that way. I'll make it that way! 

Don't you love how I took these on my lap? I don't have time to make it all look good folks.

I love this bad boy already! I can use plain vinyl as seen above. Heat transfer material to put on clothing - onesies, lots and lots of onesies. You know I love baby stuff! Oh and I will probably have this puppy by my side for some wedding needs. A glass etching project will be thrown in there as well to try my winnings from another blog giveaway. 


I have been brainstorming names for a legit real money making business that can go where I go. Until then my new toy is cutting into Blossom making time. Kind of glad though I really needed a break. I could make those babies in my sleep.

Speaking of sleep (totally random) I was awakened last night by a tremor. As in an earthquake tremor. I thought their was a bomb, an airplane crash, the world was ending, and that I was just dreaming and it was not even real. It was real. CRAZY too. Next time I prefer to be awake to witness it, not awakened.

One more quick favor, please excuse the un-manicure? Obviously this tells you how much I love my new gift if I have neglected regular nail maintenance. 
Ew! =)