Bane of my Existence

Please don't tell me I am the ONLY person in the world that has ever carried one of these around in their purse?

For those of you who are staring at it with a ???????? in your eyes, it's a Due Date calculator.

To embarass myself even more, it's been in my purse for TWO YEARS now..I'd calculate when we'd be due, and when each trimester started and finished "IF" in fact it happened that month.

And today, I decided to cut off my former BFF and say adios! If and when we do in fact succeed again, I am fairly certain my RE or my OB will keep track of the important dates for us. Last time I checked, that was their job..and they're probably pretty dang good at it, seeing as they went to school all those years to be super smart Doctor men..I'm thinking they can probably keep me adrift on the important stuff..

So, tonight, I bid a fair adieu to an old friend..I'm thinkin it's time to say goodbye, because I've come to the realization that it is the bane of my existence, month after month. From here on out, I will leave the calculating to my Doctors and good ol fashoined luck.

Blog Parade

Link:Observations from 32nd Street

A fellow blogger/friend posted this on her blog, and it looked like a fun way to pass some time, and a bit different than my usual posts..feel free to click on the link above to join in!

1.What's your favorite time of day, and why?
I'll be super specific on this one.. 2 o'clock on a fall afternoon day..you know..those days just before daylight savings switches over...late September, early October? Yep, that's my favorite time of year, day and hour because the sun ( at least where I live) is still warm, and the days just linger on..loooove it!

2. If Health wasn't an issue, what food could you live off of?
Eggs. I absolutely love eggs. I really really want chickens so that NZ and I don't have to go to COSTCO every other week to purchase 5 dozen..Between my affection for eggwhite breakfasts, and my addiction to baking, we go through those bad boys pretty quick. I could EASILY live on egg whites forever.

3. If you could have one wish granted, what would it be?
Sheesh. Just one? I'd wish to have my babies here on earth with us.

4. What is one thing you get teased about a lot?
With a name like Brie, I was always getting teased in school..Anything from Brie Cheese, to Brie-toe ( which sounded like Burrito) very clever, 5th grade boys! I hated being teased about it, but now I have grown to love my name, for it's individuality. It's very rare that there are ever more than one of me in a room. And if I could pick a second tease-worthy issue about myself, it would have to be the fact that I am not very tall. Five foot even on a good day. For some reason people find it funny and cute to call attention to it.

5.If you could choose one book, movie or TV show to spend your life in, what would it be?
I would choose to spend it living as a child in "The Brady Bunch"..They had Alice to clean up their messes, they went on awesome family vacations and they resolved every issue they had within a half hour episode.

6. If you could have one talent that you don't already have, what would it be?
I'd be able to carry a tune..I have NO redeemable musical talent, at all. Just an ounce of musical talent would be nice.

7. If money were no object, where would you go on vacation?
I'd take my sunshine on a trip around the World. We wouldn't have any master plan, but we would hop on a plane, spend a few days somewhere, then decide where to go next..We'd continue until we felt we were done seeing all we wanted to..Then we would return home to Southern California, which will always be my favorite place in the World.

8. If you were an awesome singer, which genre would you sing? Hands down. Country. I fell in love with country music my freshman year of college ( this coming after years of "daaaaad, this music SUCKS!" when he would play it at home). My roommate and I were polar opposites. Me coming from Santa Barbara and her from a little farm town in Northern California, called Kneeland..She was a 3rd generation goat farmer..yep..She loved GOATS. She would play "Garth Brooks: The Hits" while she studied, and I started to like what I was hearing..So, I have to credit her for my love of country music.

9. If you could have a $10,000 shopping spree to one store, where would it be?
Home Depot. I could get both bathrooms remodeled !!!

10. If you could live at any point in time, when would it be?
I have always been a girl who prides herself on being domestic. I absolutely love doing things to make my home a happy place for my family, whether that be cooking, sewing or cleaning. My home is my castle, and I think I would fit right in in the 50's as a housewife. These days, two incomes are necessary just to make ends meet in most US states, and I think that the art of being a housewife has gone by the wayside. I would love love love for my full-time job to be to care for my family and home. Call me old-fashioned, but it would be a dream to go back to a time when that's how life could be.

11. If every outfit in your wardrobe had to be the same color, what would it be? Last week I would have claimed NAVY! But this week it's a super cute BERRY color. My entire wardrobe would consist of DRESSES!!!!! Business dresses, sundresses, party dresses, housedresses...allllll dresses!

12. If you were one of the seven dwarves, which one would you be?
Bashful. I'm terribly shy until I get to know people.

13. What's the last album you listened to?
Dwight Yoakam "This Time"

14. What's something others would be surprised to know about you?

Although I was enrolled in a public High School, I missed out on a lot of High School activities, and experiences thanks to my life as a competitive gymnast. Although I never made it to a single football game or dance, I have to say that the things I got to do, see and experience while travelling the country for gymnastics competitions was far better than what I was missing out on. Sometimes people ask me how it was possible that I never attended any school functions, or if I missed out on being a normal high school girl, but to be honest, I am grateful that I had other things going on that were much more important to me than whether so-and-so liked me or not.

get your motor runnin'...

Sneak peak at the Race car cupcake toppers I've been working on...courtesy of the cakejournal how-to tutorial. Instead of gumpaste, I opted to use MMF, and it worked up like a charm.

Next up, checkered flags, tires and baking the actual cupcakes..which lil miss A ( the birthday girl) will help me bake next weekend, before her speedway par-tay!

Snuggler

Beaver has become quite the snuggler...he can't help but get right up in our faces...which makes the TV watching a bit of a challenge, but we love him anyways! Acting like a baby with NZ...just wait till he has to compete with the real thing! Oh, what a wake up call it will be! We might just end up with a jealous cat..but for now, he's our big ol snuggler.

Such characters!

I spent the afternoon going through a HUGE rubbermaid storage bin full of old framed photographs and wedding stuff....and found this in our guest book...What a surprise..I had forgotten it even existed!

NZ's cousin is a cartoonist, and quite a talented one at that..His rendition of us, is quite accurate, right down to the goatee NZ sported on our wedding day.. Check out his website for more cool characatures and cartoons.

Even better than the real thing

An old friend of mine, and my sister sent me a link to a new foodie blog, called Baking Bites. They must know me reaally well, because the first recipe I saw was for GIRL SCOUT COOKIES!!!!

Yes, knock-off Girl Scout cookies..Samoas, Thin Mints, Do-Si-Dos and Tagalongs!

I think I got the link to the recipes on Thursday night, and by quitting time yesterday, I was chomping at the bit to get home, get my cardio done ( as an attempt at damage control on the amount of cookie dough I would likely be consuming later last night), and get to the business of Samoa Cookie Baking...Followed by an all day Saturday bake-off, of which ended in a sugar induced coma..and Tag-a-longs and thin mints to round out my Girl Scout wannabe's.

I can not take credit for the recipes, at all..But if you want to make some yourself, here's a link to Baking Bites Samoas , Baking Bites Tag-a-longs, and Baking Bites Thin Mints. I followed the recipes for the most part, subbing ANPB ( All natural Peanut Butter) for creamy JIF or SKIPPY, and Mint chocolate candy melts for the coating on the thin mints, instead of using high quality chocolate and mint extract.

Why pay $4 a box for 16 cookies when you can have 3 dozen? The ingredients are nothing special, most of us who love to bake already have most the ingredients anyways. The only thing I had to purchase were caramels, which shhhhhhh...I bought at the Dollar Tree..and Wilton dark chocolate mint candy melts for the thin mints.

If you're feeling nostalgic, go for it..make some Girl Scout cookies! These ones are even better than the real thing.

Second chances

Breaking our pattern of week night prepped-on-Sundays-and-reheated-all-week dinners of chicken, rice and veggies ( exciting, I know!), I talked NZ into heading out for a quite bite instead, last night, since yesterday turned out to be a happier one than I had anticipated.

We had agreed on our ol' standby...Taco bell, but as we pulled into the lot and I was salivating over the thought of a nice hot bean and cheeser, Nick threw out a suggestion he has probably made umpteen times..

And I took him up on it. Heck, why not? One bad experience, one bad date, and a bit of throw up in my mouth...that was years ago..I thought, why not tempt fate once again?
And try.....

SUSHI!!!!!!!

I did it. I survived...and the best part?


It wasn't as bad as I had worked it up to be..In fact, I sorta more than liked it.

Thumbs up to NZ for his persistence in suggesting it ( 6 years he's been throwing it out there...and getting shot down) over and over...Now, if only I can get myself to try Indian food with my father-in-law.

Give me another 6 years and I might surprise him and say yes when he suggests Indian for lunch.