March

Last Thursday we went to see the midnight premiere of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. I've been waiting for this movie since I first saw the trailer last July. Back then it felt like it would never get here. I reserved tickets on Fandango a week in advance.

Earlier in the evening we had a couple of the guys from Classy Llama over and we watched Disney's Alice in Wonderland and enjoyed some snacked before heading to the movie. We got there 45 minutes before it started and we still ended up towards the end of the line. By the time we made it into the movie we ended up stuck on the front row. Not cool. Fortunately, right before the movie started we found a couple of seats in the very back row. I was so very happy. The movie was AWESOME and I wouldn't be surprised if we go see it at least once more while it's still in theatres. LOVED it. Even Jase like it...and he can't stand Alice.

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Us in February. *heart*

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A couple of weeks ago I pulled out the sewing machine for the first time in months to make the elephant pincushion that mom bought me the pattern for for my birthday. It ended up being a project that got spread over a couple of weeks. I had to order some buttons from Etsy.com cuz I didn't have any cute enough for the elephant.


At Christmas I started an afghan and finally finished it last month. It's a bit rough around the edges (literally) but considering that I haven't crocheted in years and it was my first try at an afghan I was pretty pleased. And I love the colors.


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Baby Edward's blessing was a few weeks ago. I baked a butter cake and Tyana's sister helped me cut it out and she piped Pooh onto it. It turned out pretty cute.


I also made cupcakes with honeybees. The bees were lemon flavored jelly beans drizzled in almond bark and the wings were sliced almonds. Very cute.


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Our lease is up at the end of next month. I can't believe we've been married almost a year. We're planning on moving to Coryell Courts which is another TLC apartment complex. We looked at a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment that's about 200 sq ft bigger than what we have now. It's also a newer building so it has wood floors, newer carpets, and the kitchen is gorgeous. More cabinet and counter space and new appliances. The breezeways are secured, and heated and air conditioned and there are elevators which will make moving in a ton easier if we get an upper floor apartment like we requested. The complex is gated, the apartments have keyless entry, there is a small private theatre that we can reserve for free for movies and parties, outdoor basketball, tennis and sand volleyball courts and a cozy little gym. It will be a much better location for us and will cut trips to church in about half. It also puts us only about 10-15 minutes away from Jase's parent's house instead of being about 35 min away and will make Jase's commute to the office shorter in the mornings. I'm very excited.

And yet I'm also very sad to be leaving our first little home. I kinda feel like I've just now fully settled in and I'm already looking at packing things up soon to move. I'm trying not to think about it for the time but I can't ignore it for much longer.

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Last week I found a recipe for almond honey-butter cookies. I wanted to avoid white flour so I replaced it with oat flour and almond flour that I ground myself in the blender.

The almond flour smelled soo yummy. The cookies had no sugar, white flour or oil and they were way yummy. I really enjoy cooking healthy. I just wish the ingredients weren't so much more expensive.

I'm gonna go cut into the fresh bread that I just pulled out of the oven. It smells wonderful...

Simplicity

How happy is the little stone
That rambles in the road alone,
And doesn't care about careers,
And exigencies never fears;
Whose coat of elemental brown
A passing universe put on;
And independent as the sun,
Associates or glows alone,
Fulfilling absolute decree
In casual simplicity



Birthday cake I made for Ethan's 2nd birthday...


Cupcakes for the Superbowl...


Pretty colors...


Best pizza I've made yet...


Fat quarters mom sent me... :)

The Love of God

I found myself this morning with bits of this tune running circles in my head as I fixed breakfast. Finally I recalled enough of the lyrics to find it in the hymnal. I even sat down at the piano and plucked out the treble clef. ( I haven't actually practiced in over a year. It's rather depressing that something that once felt so natural as breathing now feels so foreign:( I really need to start practicing again. Especially since I'm toying with the idea of picking up teaching sometime in the near future. )

~ The Love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell
It goes beyond the highest star
And reachest to the lowest hell
The guilty pair bowed down with care
God gave his Son to win
His erring child He reconciled
And pardoned from his sin

O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forever more endure
The saints' and angels' song.

When years of time shall pass away
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall
When men who here refuse to pray
On rocks and hills and mountains call
God's love so sure shall still endure
All measureless and strong
Redeeming grace to Adam's race
The saints' and angels' song

O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forever more endure
The saints' and angels' song.

Could we with ink the oceans fill
And were the skies of parchment made
Were every stalk on earth a quill
And every man a scribe by trade
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky

O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forever more endure
The saints' and angels' song.

~~~~~

Cozy Days

Woke up this morning to our second snow of the year. Jase stayed in and worked from home. It's so very wonderful to not have to worry about him being forced to go to work in icky weather. I remember last winter when I would spend the day worrying myself literally sick, knowing that he was out in the slick nasty weather trying to make his way to and from Chase to keep from losing his bonus pay. It's such a relief to not have to deal with that anymore. The snow came down pretty steadily all day long. I took this pic around 5:00 pm and it's been snowing ever since. It's supposed to keep snowing all night. We're under a winter weather warning until about midnight and the total snow accumulation is supposed to be around 4-6 inches.



It was super cozy to spend all day inside. I'm honestly not sure where my day went. I didn't seem to get much done and yet the day seemed to fly by so fast. I spent my morning napping on the couch and then putting off doing the dishes and instead made some major progress on my current puzzle. It's 1000 pieces and probably one of the hardest I've done yet. It's so close to being done and it's bugging me. Every time I walk by I have to stop and try to get a few pieces in place. That's probly part of the reason why I still have a pile of laundry in the living room that has yet to be folded and a mess in the kitchen from dinner. Oh well. :)



The beautiful red roses that Jase brought home for me on Monday. :)



For dinner I made baked potato soup. While it was cooking I decided that the day called for some yummy muffins too. 30 min later I pulled out these warm apple cinnamon muffins topped with a crunchy brown sugar and cinnamon mix.

Well, my puzzle is calling me. Maybe I'll finish it tonight so that I can begin my next project.

Goodnight all,

~Antoni

So the vehicle troubles never seem to end. We finally got our van licensed after a month of hassles, and on the way home I told Jase, " Watch it fall apart now that it's legal."

I should've kept my mouth shut. Jase barely made it home Thursday evening, and then didn't make it out of the parking lot Friday morning. He coasted it into a parking space and there it sits. So we started scouting around and made some phone calls. The next day mom and dad made a trip over to bring us their extra car to use for a month or two. We were planning on spending our next bonus check on a cheap vehicle to make do until we could save up for something more reliable. But mom and dad's sweet offer to loan us their car is going to give us a month's head start on that plan. It's such a blessing.

I think I'm going to order pizza tonight for dinner. I always feel guilty about 'throwing' money away like that but today I'm totally willing. There is only one day out of every month, that I hate being female. Today would be that day. 'Nough said. I've been absolutely worthless today. I still even have dishes piled on the counter from yesterday morning's brunch with mom and dad. Oh, well.

One day last week I broke down and gave into my craving for sugar cookies. I found an awesome icing glaze that hardens and is pretty tasty too. I bookmarked it and have plans for it in the near future.



I found this snowman cookie idea while picking out recipes to make this last christmas. I never got a chance to make them so I just had to try a few. These turned out abominably ugly, but I wasn't surprised considering that I'm completely out of christmasy baking supplies to make them cute. But at least I now have an idea how to make them, and I'll hopefully turn out a cuter batch when my pantry is better stocked.



My Beloved just walked through the door bearing gifts. Thermacare heatwraps (for the above mentioned misery), Reese's hearts, a dozen gorgeous red roses and a backgammon set that I've been wanting for a while. He's so wonderful. Time to settle in for a nice cozy evening with my man, pizza, chocolate, soda and backgammon. The day just got about ten times better. :)

Update...Finally

So...'tis Monday. Actually...'tis about three Mondays after the Monday that I intended to pick up blogging again. I'm so very bad at keeping a consistent blog. I sometimes wonder why I even try, and yet there's always something (or someone) that brings me back, time and again. This time it was a friendly post on my facebook wall from a friend wondering if I had given up, that inspired me to promise an update soon. It's always nice to be reminded from time to time that someone does actually read my blog and misses it when I'm negligent. So Alyssa...thanks. :)

I hate new year's resolutions. Mainly because any resolution I make usually ends up in an epic fail. So I make goals instead. That way when I do fail, it doesn't seem so drastic. 'Cuz it wasn't actually a resolution...just a goal. Lol.

So far I've had a pretty decent start on my goal of eating healthier and getting rid of the weight that slowly crept back after my wedding. I absolutely refuse to weigh what I weighed last summer. Refuse. Since New Year's day I've lost about four pounds. Excercising on the other hand, hasn't started yet. I did one session of T-tapp last week and that's about it. I meant to start today, but once again, life interfered. Instead I spent my day cleaning house. I must say I'm quite happy with today's accomplishments. They are as follows:

- picked up everything off of the floors in the entire apartment except for furniture in preparation for vacuuming...

- vacuumed the entire apartment including bathrooms, kitchen, utility closet floor and door frame, and in front of and around the washer and dryer in the hallway closet...

- washed, dried, folded and hung up all (ALL) of my laundry except for one load of whites which is still sitting in the dryer needing to be put away...

- cleaned out Jase's side of the closet and dresser, sorting, organizing and weeding out pieces that he never wears...I did my side on saturday and there are two big trash bags of clothes waiting to be sent home to Burks kids...

- Washed all of my dishes and counters every (EVERY) time I cooked or dirtied anything all day....

- straightened up and decluttered our bedroom...

- straightened up the bathrooms...

- went to a much needed chiro appt with my hubby at 5:30...

- went grocery shopping for the next two weeks...

- put away groceries...

I think will sleep well tonight.

Earlier today Jase decided that the only thing that sounded good for his not happy tummy was...um....cinnamon sugar potatos. And try as I might to convince him that it probly wasn't a good idea, he insisted that I give it a try. Lol.

I tried to keep them in nice pretty slices, but as they cooked the slices kept sticking together and the end result was more of a scrambled potato mess.

He took about two bites and pushed them away. :) He claimed that they were almost good, but lacked something. I refused to try them, so I can't honestly say what they may have been needing. Although I can't imagine that anything would make them taste good. Poor Babe...usually he has pretty good ideas. Not sure what happened this time. Lol.

Happy Birthday to my wonderful Mother-in-law today, and an early Happy Birthday to my awesome Dad tomorrow.

Time to curl up on the couch with the afgahn I've been crocheting and watch me some Cake Boss...

G'night all.

~Antonia

Moment by Moment...

My second sewing project after my napkins ... The pillow inside isn't quite the right size or shape so I'll have to work on that. But I really like the way the cover turned out...

Eilis's birthday present...

They ended up being a bit more work than I thought they would be, but they turned out really cute and everyone loved them, so it was totally worth it. And I very much enjoyed the project...

They are too fluffy to stack well, but I made them more for their cute factor, not really expecting them to stack at all...

Last week we bought a bushel of apples from a discount grocery in Marshfield...

My apartment has smelled like apples and cinnamon for about a week. I love it. It's so cozy and yummy smelling. I've dried some for potpourri and this is my first crisp for the fall...

This coming weekend I'm hoping to take the rest with us to Mom and Dad's and mom is going to help me can them...I'm hoping for applesauce and maybe some apple pie filling and/or apple butter...

Mom Burks had mentioned a while back that my hair was growing fast. I hadn't actually noticed until yesterday and I was rather surprised at how much it has grown. I got it cut only just over three months ago and it's quite a difference...

I've loved having it short, but I am very glad it's growing fast. I like having longer hair in the winter...

And yes, that's football in the background...*sigh*

I adore fall, but football is a very trying aspect of an otherwise perfect season...oh, and halloween...:D

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Dying with Jesus, by death reckoned mine;

Living with Jesus a new life divine;

Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine,

Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine.

Never a trial that He is not there,

Never a burden that He doth not bear,

Never a sorrow that He doth not share,

Moment by moment, I'm under His care.

Never a weakness that He doth not feel,

Never a sickness that He cannot heal;

Moment by moment, in woe or in weal,

Jesus my Savior abides with me still.

Moment by moment I'm kept in His love;

Moment by moment I've life from above;

Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine;

Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine.