The smushed rolo pretzels

Apparently Teri doesn't like not knowing how things turn out so for her....

Cookie Decorating!

Few Notes about cookie decorating before photos...
1. I tried several different cookie recipes for this and did not find any that I really liked so I'm still looking for the perfect cookie cutter cookie recipe.
2. The plan was the make cookies and give them to our neighbors, ya know, to be neighborly. We ended up with a grand total of 33 cookies after 6 kids and 2 adults finished almost 2 hours of decorating. I think more were eaten than were decorated!
3. The rolo pretzles were excellent. THanks, Teri, for the idea!
4. The adult cookie just looked weird. The kids cookies were totally cute.
5. A good time was had by all and that's really the point!

Why I love Physical therapy

So I saw the orthopedist for this annoying pain in my hip and she sent me to Physcial Therapy to figure out exactly what was going on and how to fix it. So at PT it was determined that my pelvis is shifting in and out of alignment. The two sides of the pelvis are not fused but are connected with soft tissue. This allows the pelvis to move independently when you walk and to stretch when you have a baby. If the pelvis is out of alignment then the muscles in the back, butt and legs have to try and compensate and eventually some get weak, others get strong and others just cramp up. That's what happened to me. I also remembered during all this that I fell while running in August and landed on that hip really hard. So during PT my therapist can manually put me back in alignment and then massage the muscles that are hurting (love that part), stretch me out (passive stretching is almost as good as massage) and then supervise a program to strengthen my weak core which will help prevent my pelvis from shifting around so much. The work out part is really cool. Basically, I am getting personal training with my insurance company paying for 80% of it. The bummer part is that my pelvis is still unstable so I need to keep going. But on January 1 when my deductible resets it will get pretty expensive! But I want to get back to running and I want to be pain free sooooooo I guess we will figure it out. In the meantime, I can tell my core is getting stronger and it is really cool to have someone tell you when you are doing the exercises right!

Hurricane Ike Slide show

So this wasn't in my preview but I just saw this on the Houston Chronicle website and thought I'd share. it is a slide show of their photos from the Hurricane. Look HERE
We also got our insurance check yesterday. It was very disappointing. As a comparison, my parents had similar damage (they had some water leak into an upstairs bathroom and stained the ceiling which we did not have) and their check was 3x ours! It all depends on the adjuster and how he writes up your damages. I haven't gotten the explanation that says what it is covering but based on how much it is I don't think they totaled our roof. I think they expect us to patch it. This is really bad news. First of it it just doesn't seem fair. EVERYONE around us is getting new roofs. Secondly, we are trying to sell this place. Who is going to buy a house with a patched roof when every other roof is new????? ARG! I think the worst part is the anticipation of having to fight with the insurance company and all the phone calls and all the hassle of trying to get what we deserve. So I'm going to pull a Scarlett O'Hara (truly my hero from middle school) and think about this tomorrow!

The big reveal

I have been a blond for a bvery very long time. I was naturally a blond up until about 4 years ago when my hair started getting darker and darker and requiring more and more color to remain the blond I knew I was. Well, I got tired of having to keep up the color. I get busy and I don't like going to get my hair cut and I don't like having to pay for it. So my roots grow out and I try and justify that they don't look that bad, but who am I kidding. They are roots and even Madonna looks bad with roots. So yesterday I told Tim (my hair guy) to color everything the color of my roots and I am now truly a brunette....

Before...


After...

PReviews....

Stay tuned for a stimulating posts on
1. my laundry

2. My new hair cut and color (how dark will she go????)

3. The hip report or why I love physical therapy

Wrapping paper

I love wrapping paper. I said it in my Christmas email post, but the colors, the ribbons, the whole thing, I love it. I really think there is a frustrated designer or something in me because wrapping paper and fabrics speak to me. Either that or I'm just psycho because wrpaping paper and fabrics speak to me. Hey, it is 8 days before Christmas, aren't we all a little psycho by now???? Usually though, I am such a Scrooge that i buy it after Christmas then look at it all year, then finallyget to use it a whole year later, at which time the specialness of it has worn off a little. I often have 6 or 7 rolls of Christmas wrapping paper sitting around from my after Christmas sale forays. I also try to find non-Christmasy chrstmas paper so that I can use it for other occassions. Probably one of those things where I think I'm being oh so clever and the person who gets a Birthday present wrapped in red paper with silver polka dots (nothing OBVIOUSLY Christmas on it) thinks, "I guess she was out of regular wrapping paper and had to use Christmas paper." BUT this year, I went to my trusty wrapping paper bin and there was only one roll of Christmas paper!!!!! (Insert horror movie sound track here!!!) Off I went to Hobby lobby like the rest of the poor shopping souls to to buy my paper at merely 50% off. So here is my paper for the year....


The blue with brown deer is especially for hubby who is actually deer hunting at the moment. The deer on the paper are velvet! VERY fancy. Notice that three of the four could be used in the off season! Pretty clever!

I just want to explain why there is Fairly Odd Parents Christmas wrapping paper under my tree...Because really who would EVER buy anything lisenced Fairly Odd Parents let alone Christmas wrapping paper???? It was in the grab bag selection of a school fundraiser wrapping paper deal. You got three rolls of wrapping paper of their choice for cheap but you didn't get to pick them out. Go figure, they had some Fairly Odd Parents paper left over! My kids love it and I console myself that it ties in the blue from the deer and the red and green from the other papers...It's a stretch but work with me here, it is FAIRLY ODD PARENTS!