No joke.

April showers bring May April flowers. :) Look at our cute flower bed (ignore the weeds), these flowers were buds this morning, but after all the rain today, here's what they looked like...

A little slice of heaven.

So I have to give a shout out to Natalie for this recipe. Really simple to make and a definite crowd pleaser. So I thought I would share. :) I'm not one to cook most of the time. I'm actually pretty good at it, and I semi-like to cook. I just don't. But I may have to make a few execptions. This is one.

I was a little bored when I made these yesterday so I did a mini cooking show, complete with pictures.

Apple Dumplings

4 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into quarters
2 cans Pillsbury crescent rolls
2 sticks of butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 can of mountain dew, ginger ale, or sprite
Cinnamon

Sprinkle cut apples with cinnamon, roll each apple quarter in a crescent roll, place side by side in a buttered 13"x9" pan.

Melt butter. Add vanilla and sugar into the butter mixture (Here's the secret: BARELY stir in the sugar, do not let the sugar dissolve!) Just stir until combined. Pour over apples. Sprinkle cinnamon on top of each dumpling. Then pour your choice of soda around the edges of the pan.

Bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees, until a golden brown on top. Cool and Enjoy!

a SUPER surprise

This is a little late, since his birthday was April 6th. But I couldn't resist posting this. Luckily he never reads my blog, or else he'd kill me. ha ha

Yep. That's our "Kee-Kee Buddy". He turned the big 2-5 this year. We were so excited because we teamed up with his friends to throw him a surprise party. And we were so proud of ourselves that we pulled it off!

He has never had a surprise party in his life. Probably because he is the resident snooper in our family and seems to have a super power of finding every birthday and Christmas present. So that made it even more fun to plot this behind his back. :) The day of the party his friends all called to wish him a happy birthday and he was bummed that none of them wanted to celebrate with him. I had to try really hard not to crack a smile while he was throwing himself a pity party.

Tradition in our family is that the birthday boy/girl gets to choose where to have their birthday dinner. So he was once again dissappointed when my mom told him that he didn't get a choice. We were going to Bella's because grandpa had a "gift certificate" that he wanted to use.

To make it even better. His party was Superman themed. :) My mom and I were decorating the room ahead of time. A few workers walked in and without fail said "Aww... How old is the birthday boy?" We would laugh and say 25. We got a few weird looks and awkward laughs as they walked away.

Deep down he loved it. We all know he's a child at heart. Happy Birthday Kev!

My Valentine's Day Rant.

The other day, I was babysitting my cousin's little girl, and she was telling me about a boy in her Kindergarten class that has a crush on her. First of all, sad that a 5-year-old's love life is is a bigger topic of conversation than mine. Second of all, she breaks out the million dollar question, and asks me, "Aiya, why don't you have a boyfriend?"

"Great." I think to myself. Even she realizes what a loser I am. :) So after explaining to her that, "Yes I am older than 16", (hence old enough to have a boyfriend) of course I make up some lame excuse and quickly change the subject. Lucky for me, there are many things more interesting to children that I can focus her attention on.

That was it. My breaking point. The last straw, if you will. Aside from Valentine's Day being a "travesty" of a holiday made up by the greeting card people for purely economical reasons and blah, blah, blah. The same things everyone typically complains about this time of year, I have my own reasons for hating Valentine's Day this year. So here it goes... MY RANT ON VALENTINE'S DAY:

As if being single... and 23... AND in Utah, isn't enough. Let's add a holiday dedicated to love. Great idea? I think not.

Now, don't get me wrong, I like the IDEA of Valentine's Day. And maybe someday I will learn to appreciate it for what it is. But for now it's just a painful reminder of how single I really am. It's really not necessary, I am fully aware.

Now, on to why I especially hate the holiday this year. My single friends (with whom I would normally be celebrating "Single's Awareness Day") ran off to the sunny beaches of Costa Rica without me. So here I sit on a Friday night, at home all by myself, eating take-out, blogging and watching chick-flicks. Do ya feel bad for me yet? Good... then my evil plan has worked. Mwah ha ha!

I will be accepting sympathy gifts. Please feel free to send me flowers, chocolate-covered strawberries, stuffed animals, etc. :)

Ch-ch-ch-changes

I've never really considered myself an anxious person. Until recently, when I became aware of a few changes that are to come. Can you say anxiety? Just thinking about things makes me nauseous and I get a knot in my throat and all I can do is worry about the "what if"s. Apparently I'm not a big fan of change. I guess it's a little test of faith, we'll see where these changes take me. *Gulp* 

Background Advice

A word to the wise. Before you change your blog background, make sure that your old one (a.k.a the one you loved) is still available to put back on in case you don't like any of the other backgrounds you try out. I learned this lesson the hard way. :(

Too Legit... Too Legit to Quit.

I'm really proud of myself. Today, I have achieved a major milestone.

For possibly the first time since I started this blog, I was able to log in without forgetting my password. That's right, I'm a legit blogger now. That's all I wanted to share.