Epic Fail Cupcakes

Well today we had another pitch-in at work, and as most of you know, I'm still trying to find "my thing".

 Let me tell you...today was not the day.

Last night, I spent a boat-load of time making these little strawberry shortcake cupcakes.  They were absolutely adorable and only had 68 calories a piece!  I seriously thought that this could end up being my thing!  I mean, how can you beat cake + strawberries + whip cream?

So the cupcakes were super fun to make and I even cut up some fresh strawberries to put on top of each of them.  

Here is what they looked like right after I was done: (Well kind of, I forgot to take a picture so I found this one on google.) (I promise that mine looked equally as good.)

Well come to find out, apparently it is a horrible idea to ice something with whip cream and then leave it in the fridge all night.  Because when I woke up this morning, my cupcakes looked like this:

Bummer...all that hard work and I was too ashamed to even take these suckers to work and admit that I made them. :(  Even my husband was too embarrassed to bring these pitiful cupcakes to work. That's definitely bad...very, very bad.

On a completely unrelated note... I called one of my authors today and when their voicemail picked up, it went a little something like this (You have to say this in a sexy womans voice):  "Hi, you've reached Jan and Dave, we can't come out to play right now, but leave a message and we'll call you back."    eeewwww....gross... 

Will you be my friend?

Seriously, my bff and I were just talking the other day about how hard it is to make friends after college.  I mean, I have a lot of aquaintances at work that are super cool cats (I hear people say this all the time and I've always wanted to use it), and I'm sure we'd get along great as friends, but...

1.  I see them 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.
2.  Anytime we do hang out after work, we only talk about work.
3.  How do you ask a work buddy to be your friend?  (Gosh that sounds childish)

I think I would be way too embarassed to just walk up to someone and say, "Hey, I think we would make great friends.  Wanna hang out sometime?" 

That sounds embarrasing, and what if they don't think we would make good friends?  What if they are only nice to me because we work side-by-side every single day?

I've only lived in Bloomington for about a year and a half, and sometimes I will get together with the girls from work and have a ladies night, but those are few and far between.  Besides that, I haven't really made many friends here.  Which I've always been okay with because I feel like Jesse and I never get to spend any time together. 

But here recently... I've been really missing my girl friends.  Someone I can call up and see if they want to go get a pedicure or have lunch downtown, or do anything that doesn't involve laying around on the couch and watching ESPN.

So, I guess for now I will settle for seeing my BFF once a month, and traveling to different counties to visit all of my other girl friends...

Does anyone have any friends they'd like to hook me up with?  (I'm just kidding.....kind of)

What I'm loving Wednesday!

1.  I'm seriously loving the fact that I only have two days of work left.  For some reason, this week has been extremely stressful and I just can't get ahead.  Yesterday afternoon my right eyelid started twitching because I was so stressed out and I swear it lasted for hours.  I would get up from my desk to talk with a designer, and I'm almost positive they were staring at my out of control eyelid.

2.  I'm loving that I got to have lunch with my husband today.  It makes my day so much brighter when I get to see him right smack dab in the middle of it.  I'm pretty sure he likes it too, but I'm very aware of how much complaining about my day that I do, so most of the time I have to force myself to steer the conversations towards happy thoughts.

3.  I'm loving the awesome dinner I cooked.

  

This was SO yummy!  The breading was made up of dijon mustard, olive oil, panko bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, and fresh thyme.  I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but this is my very first time using fresh herbs, and WOW, they really make a difference!

4.  I'm loving the fact that my husband is going to the Big 10 tournament with some friends tomorrow afternoon.  That means I get a little bit of alone time with a glass of wine, a good book and probably some trashy TV.  :)

There's some serious slacking going on!

So, I'm super sorry for not posting anything within the last week.  I've been exhauseted lately!

We started the Biggest Loser Competition at work last week, so I have been going to the gym every night after work, and preparing all of our dinners and lunches and trying to keep up with the house. Plus, I had drill this weekend and had to work, so right now I am on day number 9 of work and seriously can't wait for the weekend to get here.

So back to the Biggest Loser...  Let me tell you, I've been working my butt off.  I went to the gym 4 days in a row and even took a kickboxing class on Friday.  We had a personal trainer come to work and teach a class on our lunch break.  I was super pumped about this, but I had some serious anxiety on Friday morning.  Did anyone else bring workout clothes or were they just wearing their regular work clothes? (It was casual Friday) I didn't want to change into workout gear and then walk in the auditorium like I was super hardcore, while everyone else just showed up in regular clothes. Anyway, it turned out that other people brought clothes to change into too, and thank goodness I did because that class kicked my bigger-than-it's-supposed-to-be butt.

Then yesterday morning we had our very first weigh in and guess how much I lost???

(Drum Roll please)

None.  Not a freakin pound.  It still makes me just a little bit upset.  I mean, I went out to dinner with friends on Saturday and they just HAD to go to Denny's.  Denny's?  What the heck was I going to eat at Denny's?  I'll tell you what I ate.  I ate a fresh bowl of fruit, a whole wheat blueberry pancake, and some turkey bacon.  And for what?  For freaking nothing!  I went to Denny's and ate turkey bacon for goodness sake!  &@!*

But then after our weigh-in, I got the most random call from my husband and that made my day just a little bit brighter. 

Jesse:  Hey are you busy?

Me:  Not too busy. Why? What’s up?

Jesse:  I just wanted to call and tell you about the sign that’s posted in front of the strip club.

Me:  Oh… Okay. What does it say?

Jesse: “Half price dances between 3pm-6pm.”  Hahaha, that’s disgusting!  Who would go to the strip club between 3 and 6?

Me:  I don’t know, but that is pretty disgusting.  I’m sure they only have the B team out between 3 and 6.

Jesse:  Hahahahahaha….This is why I love you.  Have a good day.

Me: Love you too. Bye

Greek food...yummy

Let me start this by telling you a little bit about my weekend...

So, I spent most of my weekend sprawled out on the couch with my pajamas, my favorite quilt, reality television, and a box of tissues.  I called in to work on Friday and I think I only got off of the couch on two seperate occasions.  I showered right before Jesse came home and then I got up once to make a chicken pot pie.  That's it.  Although I felt like complete dog poop, it was kind of nice to be so extremely lazy.

Well, on Sunday I was finally starting to feel a little bit better, so I hoisted my fat arse up off of the couch and decided it was probably time to get some things done. My pile of tissues kept growing, and I'm pretty sure Jesse was secretly disgusted by me.  Plus we had no food in the house and we were both starving.

So I did something completely out of ordinary... 

I made a grocery list.

I know, I know...I have no idea what got into me. If you know me, you know that I do not make lists, and I do not plan things.  I normally go into the grocery store with nothing in mind and just kind of walk through every aisle and grab whatever looks good.  This never really works out all that well though, so I'm not sure why I continue to do this.

Anyway, not only did I make a grocery list, but I planned out every meal for two whole weeks.  Crazy!

Jesse and I have both started to enjoy ethnic food.  Especially since moving to Bloomington because there is just such a wide variety of restaurants to choose from!  Well, we have an ethnic grocery store in town and I decided to stop in and grab some stuff to make gyros.  My all-time favorite greek food!

And let me tell you...they were amazing!  Jesse and I made them after work last night and now I really need to invite someone over for dinner, so I can impress them with my awesome greek cooking skills!  Seriously, these things were authentic.  Greek pitas, gyro meat (which is what the package said.  I'm almost positive this is lamb, but I can't be sure), and even feta cheese.

Okay, so I found this picture on google, but our gyros looked even better than this!  I completely meant to take a picture of them, but I was so extremely excited to take a bite. And then once I took one bite, I couldn't stop eating.

mmm...I hope these things are in my diet because I would really like to make them again this week!


Let me leave you with a few more pictures of my neice and nephew.   My sister-in-law has been posting the most adorable pictures online and I feel like I need to share them with everyone I know!

In sickness and in health

Yuck.  I feel like death.  I knew this was going to happen.  Jesse was sick last week, and my co-workers are dropping like flies.

I have not been able to work out all week, which already makes me feel horrible.  Yesterday, as soon as I got home from work, I curled up on the couch with a pillow and blanket and didn't move until 8 pm.  Then at eight o'clock, I took a shot of Nyquil, slathered some Vicks on my chest, and climbed into bed.  

Jesse said I smelled like an old woman.  Which in my Nyquil induced state, I took as a compliment.

I woke up this morning and felt like a three hundred pound man was sitting on my chest.  It hurt just to cough.  I was really considering calling into work, but it's the end of the month and heaven forbid we don't hit our numbers.  Luckily I hit all of my goals today, so if I still feel like death tomorrow, I will not be going to work.

Anyway, I made it through the day and even came home and started the laundry and cleaned up the kitchen.  Now I'm curled up on the couch with 'The Monster', and Jesse is picking me up a sandwich and cup of soup from McCallisters.  yummy...

The rest of the night will be made up of  last night's episode of "Parenthood" (my favorite show on television), the IU and Purdue game, another shot of Nyquil, and most definitely some more Vicks.

Gosh, I don't just smell like an old lady, I am an old lady!

The coolest kids I know

This weekend we got the chance to babysit the most adorable children in my whole-wide world.

My niece and nephew.

I'm pretty sure my brother and sister-in-law really needed a break, and we are always up for babysitting.  Plus, we got to keep them for the entire night!   It cracks me up to think how incredibly excited we were about spending our whole Saturday night babysitting.  Wow!  We are really getting old.

Anyway, they were perfect little angels!  Taylor just wanted to play inside the dog crate.  The only time he ever came out of there was to get more of his toys to take in there to play with.  And Maddie just sat in her little bouncer thing and smiled a lot.  She did not cry one single time. 

This baby stuff is easy. The kiddos were asleep by 9:00.  Taylor woke up at 7:00 and Maddie slept in until 8:00.  Is it normal for kids their age to sleep that long?  Probably not...You can go ahead and start calling me the baby whisperer.  I think I've got the touch.

I was kind of sad when we had to bring them back, and I miss them already!

She was very concerned about what I was doing.

 Taylor getting ready to climb into the dog's crate.

I got one of them to look at the camera.  Let's try again...

The ladies kept calling Taylor's phone. This must have made Maddie extremely happy.  Maybe I'll give it one more try...

Nope...Oh well, they still look adorable!

I made that blanket for Taylor right after he was born.  See...I dabble in a little bit of craftiness! :)