I think bad pictures of me are more fun than the attractive pictures.

Therefore, I present a photo of me that's THISCLOSE to being frame-worthy.

Except for me. I ruined it. Man.... Kelly and Laura look darling too.

Oh well.

Yeah, I appear to have ruined all of the pictures in that series. Oh well.

All these are taken at Jive and Wail. The middle school had a happy hour where we got all you can eat appetizers and all you can drink beer for a couple hours.

So let's just say this girl had fun :)

That picture looks far worse than it should...I think I was just trying to show the pictures I had already taken and accidentally hit the flash.

Right?

Right.

The rest of my weekend was good. I decided to make some Pie Pops from bakerella.com over the weekend. That woman is a goddess and I, apparently, do not have the skills to make that work. Seriously...click on this http://www.bakerella.com/easy-as-pie/ and look at how great hers look.

Now here is my journey.

Step one: made grandma's never fail pie crust.

It didn't fail!

Step 2: Used a wine glass to cut out circles (because I have no circle cutter thing).

Step three: lay out all pretty and poke sticks on.

Step four: Put some filling in and pinch shut.

Here is where the breakdown happened... filly mooshed out of the little pies and was hard to wipe up. She talked about how she wanted more filling so I figured that was a price I needed to pay.

Step five (not pictured because...I forgot): bake

Step six: Eat! Except where the fruit stuff burnt a little, I think these taste great. They look...um, very not expert. But, heck. I am not an expert. This is not going to be a business.

Man, I wish someone would pay me to do a half-assed job of cooking. Heaven!

I also made MIL Debra's beer bread recipe. OMG. That is good stuff.

During the cooking, I dropped the corner of a pan on the top of my foot and was hurting too much to go on a run. Ugh ugh ugh. So I ate some of these AND didn't go on a run.

Saturday night, Jess and I went and saw A Chorus Line at the Ivory Theater... it was a great show and far cheaper than The Fox.

Sunday, the Roo Bear and I went on a run and then David and I went to church. I made soup for Soup Monday at work (White Turkey Chili) and for David's Law Fraternity to serve to the shelter (Broccoli Cheese). We've decided that I am probably more helpful to the club than actual members, but I don't mind. We got to serve the meal to the ladies last night, and that's some thing that's always fun.

This week: short work week! I am so excited!!

K-State/Mizzou

David and I traveled to Kansas over the weekend to watch the K-State/Mizzou football game. It was a nice little trip...David had never been to Manhattan before (now, he only has 2 campuses in the Big 12 that he hasn't visited).

Because we fully expected a Wildcat win, Dad made David pose with a purple Bud Light before the game. David took it like a champ.

We took a quick pre-game tour of the sports complex and were able to break into the basketball arena. Outside, we posed for some pictures with "Mr. K-State."

David got the slapping he deserved :)


The lady in the background informed us that Mr. K-State used to date her aunt. And then she walked away. Creeeeeeeepy.



Thank God for land-grant universities! Where else on Earth would you stumble onto a booth that offered "FREE PORK SAMPLES."

I had to fight the band, but both David and I enjoyed a tasty hunk of the other white meat.

Ahhh... cute tailgating pictures. It wasn't super cold (AND, no rain!), especially after Dad filled me up with some fire water.

AND, happily, my friend Maren found our tailgate so we got to hang out a bit.

Happy day!

Inside, Mom and I found her dream Christmas present.

I think the sassy sash makes the purse.
During the game, David stole my camera....

(Ok, this one was my idea)

Look at that turkey leg!!! It was massive!! Between the two of us, we couldn't finish it!

Quickly, it became a sad day in Wildcat Land. We made NO (that's zero) touchdowns.

David gloated.

Some people are just poor winners.

Yep, definitely a poor winner.


After the game, we took a tour of the campus where we stopped in and saw my old boss Stormy, tried to eat ice cream at Call Hall (it was closed!!), and told (far) too many storied about Aggieville.

Then we drove straight to Williamsburg for ribs. I can't think of a single trip back to Kansas where we haven't had ribs.

You can see how classy a town Williamsburg is by the nice scenery we passed on our way into a bar.

Oh yes, someone has fenced off their toilet.

So close but still so far!

Sunday, we went to church and ate a fantastic turkey dinner that Mom prepared. Yummy!

Then we packed up...me in my backpack and David in his, um, grocery basket.

He's so cute. I just can't help myself.

We loaded up Maggie Roobearski in the car and drove back to St. Louis. We stopped at David grandparent's on the way to wish his grandpa a happy birthday. The drive back took FOREVER due to the nasty rain yuck outside.

Maggie's face says it all... get me out of this car. Even her squeaky chicken didn't help lighten the mood.

A little validation

Today at work, I "helped" Susan's advisory play kickball. I think this is because I am on a kickball league (which, granted, only won a single game)...I was actually called a ringer.
So I bound up to a crowd of 6th graders, happy as a clam, until they decide that they need to pick teams. Flashback to when I was in Middle School: picking teams is no fun. Picking teams is an exercise in humiliation and how long I can stand in one spot and "pretend" that I haven't been picked last. Seriously, I can think of no single time when I was picked in the top 1/2 for any team...unless, of course, one of my friends was captain.

NEWS FLASH! GUESS WHO GOT PICKED FIRST????

That's right--THIS GIRL!

Ok, I realize I shouldn't be thrilled, as I am a 28 year old woman playing a game with 11 and 12 year-olds. AND, my skills were wildly overstated when I was called the "ringer." However, I'm going to take the joy where it's offered. Today, joy came in the form of being picked first for a 6 grade kickball team.

Oh man, I was good too. I was wearing ok shoes (compared to the flip flops and clogs sported by 1/4 of the players) and knew kickball lingo (bunt, run, fly ball, foul, fair, etc--impressed??). I made some masterful outs...even managing to outrun the birthday boy on his way to 1st.

Yeah, that's right. I beat the 6th grader whose birthday we were celebrating. And then I think I yelled "YES!" while throwing a fist into the air.

Seriously, folks...this was a big day for me. Sure, I can run for hours...but I've never been even halfway decent at competitive group sports, let alone the MVP.

Tables and Dogs

For my birthday, my buddy Tara got me some darling winter-holiday-themed plates. I really like them, and had an internal debate after our party.
1. They are not "Christmas."
2. Holiday decorations are still in the basement.
3. Ugh, I have to take these to the basement.
4. But I really like them...why do they need to go downstairs?
5. Whatever, I'm decorating for Christmas now.

Unfortunately, my internal dialogue actually does have numbered lists. It's kind of how I work.

So, I present...my pre-Thanksgiving Holiday Table! Unless someone gives me some fall decor, it's staying like this until, um, well, probably Valentine's Day.

On another completely random note, I've decided that Maggie's alternate personality is named...

Maggie Roobearski, Attorney at Paw.

Because I'm weird, I also decided that this personality wears glasses. The "real" Maggie was less than thrilled.

I tried really hard to get one of David's law books in the shot, but no luck.

She's so dignified.

Old Lady

So on Friday, I, along with Susan and Doris from the middle school, presented at the Missouri NEA teacher's meeting. Never mind that I'm not a teacher...somehow we got recruited to do this. We agreed to a 2-hour presentation, mostly because we've also agreed to give a 5-hour presentation on the same topic in December.
Yikes, huh? But Friday went very well....we had really good responses and have been approached by some schools in KC to do some staff development. Wouldn't that be loverly? If I could just travel around doing development?

Pipe dreams. Pipe dreams.

Afterwards, Susan and Doris took me out to a very delish birthday lunch at 400 Olive. I had some great Eggplant Lasagna and this wonderful mint-ice-cream-chocolate-cake-slice-of-heaven. Oh man.
The picture doesn't do it justice, but that was some good stuff!

After that debacle, I went on a run :) When I got home, David wanted me to open my gifts from him a day early...so I did. Without a fight. Because I'm nice like that.

Check out that masterful wrapping job! I was so tickled by that...so I had to take a picture before I even considered the contents!Ignore my sweaty red face and crazy-pants hair. I told you... post run!Whatever could it be??KITCHENAID MIXER!

KITCHENAID MIXER!!

KITCHENAID MIXER!Yeah... I was doing weird things with the tape. Weird.This gift....I really like, but David was concerned because I directly told him,
"NO MIZZOU GIFTS!"
But come on, this is funny.And, really, if I'm going to be with this man, I'm going to have to cave to the whole gold thing eventually, right?Some shots of the animals, because they're such good fur-babies.Wait one minute.... there's something new about this basement. I think something happened while I was in Atlanta.

Yep, David got crafty. And you all thought I was the only one.He's cute...and apparently utilized a coupon. The whole project only cost $20.
Yeah, I can support that.

That night we got some dinner...and a tower of onion rings. There was one shaped like a D (for David or Darcie...no one knows). However, a tower of onion rings is a bad choice. We both had to suffer some body grossness afterwards. Yuck-o!Saturday, my actual birthday, was pretty laid-back during the day. We lazed around, I cooked, and David cleaned. We played our last kickball game at 4:30...which we lost. We officially won ONE game this season.

Yipes.

Anyway, later on Saturday, we had some people over, which was nice. I didn't take any pictures...because I'm lame. But we had a good time. Some is hazy, but it was fun :)

Even more lame is that I took pictures of the kitchen/dining aftermath. David, my amazing husband, cleaned it all up. Love him!

Sunday it took an awful long time to get out of bed, especially when I realized that I had slept in the guest bed for some reason. After a gallon of water and some grease, we headed out,and stopped at Petsmart...they had an adoption event. OMG OMG OMG. You cannot show me a puppy and expect me not to love it and want to keep it. Seriously. It was like torture. I begged like a 4th grader trying to get an extra recess, but no luck.

Maggie gets to stay an only dog for a little longer. Booooooo.