Happy Kansas Day!

I made sugar cookies for Kansas Day. File this one under "totally normal usages of time." I'm slightly obsessed with making sugar cookies. I decided to teach myself how to make royal icing and am slowly getting better. Tara told me recently that according to Outliers it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something, so I've got a little ways to go.

I added a bunch of sugar cookie blogs to my google reader, and the sunflower inspiration came from Sweet Sugar Belle. If you look at hers, you will be a little less impressed with mine. Also, you might lose like twelve hours of your life looking at her cookies. I warned you.

Still practicing and problem solving with the cookies around here (maybe a little obsessively). I have a cookie recipe I really like, but I'm still perfecting the timing of the whole process. And the consistency of frosting. Thankfully Valentine's Day is coming up, and that's a good excuse to try again!

And happy birthday Kansas!

On the Road.

Sometimes I find myself comparing life in Virginia to life in Kansas. Surprisingly, I spend about the same amount of time in the car. The difference is the mileage. In Virginia, everywhere we wanted to go was less than fifteen miles away. Pinkberry, church, work and even the White House. But with horrible traffic, a twelve mile trip could easily take forty-five minutes.

Since I moved home, I feel like I live in my car some days. The gyms I like to go to are both farther away. Work is a bit of a commute, over twenty-five miles round trip each day. I take the highway to work, church and to see my mom. The miles add up quickly even though the time in the car is about the same. I do not miss the traffic one.tiny.bit and I do some of my best thinking in the car these days.


To my mother's great delight, I spend less time on the phone in the car. That's precious NPR time. If I hurry and leave work on time, I can usually catch a good chunk of Fresh Air. And undoubtedly I've missed some big news event during my eight hours asleep or at work, so I need NPR in the morning and in the afternoon as well to catch me up.

When I first moved into the new little house, I was obsessed with Top 40 and country. Soon I was really tired of it - the songs repeat a lot - and I listen to a lot less music now when I'm driving or cooking. Mostly NPR all the time.

There is a very special exception in my car: mix CDs my friend Lindsay makes. Let's just say she's the mix master. No one else can put Christian music, Diddy and Wilson Phillips as well as she can. My taste in music and knowledge of different artists is definitely better because of Lindsay.

 Such a sweet soundtrack for the move home and miles around KC...
"I need to get back to the place that I belong" (Diddy)
"Why do we try? When it always ends up fine?" (Matt Wertz)
"Don't you know? Don't you know things can change? Things'll go your way if you hold on for one more day!" (Wilson Phillips)
"And the older that I get the more that I feel wiser. With the love of friends and family - get stronger and it carries me on through." (The Roots)
"And when all's been said and done, It's the things that are given, not won, Are the things that you earned." (Gomez)

Dining al Fresco in Florida.

For some reason, I didn't accurately capture the gorgeous weather last weekend in Florida. It was beautiful. Vishal and I made a diet coke run on Saturday morning at 8 am and it was 62 degrees with a very sunny sky! The high each day was in the upper 70s. We ate dinner outside and enjoyed being so near the water. And it was so much nicer than last year when it was only in the upper 50s the whole weekend. The Floridans were freezing!



Vishal tried to suggest we eat at the hotel and play Uno, but then I reminded him my very favorite thing to do is try the local food. And he knows this because he's a loyal blog reader. He did some awesome research, rented a car and off we went to the Rumba's Island Bar and Grill in Clearwater. It was delicious. Caribbean jerk wings, fried green tomatoes and okra and a perfectly grilled grouper sandwich. Best grouper ever.

And of course, Pinkberry for dessert.


It was a good weekend with friends and my favorite national senior honor society, but it's taken me a while to get back in the swing of things this week. After a good night's sleep last night, I'm starting to feel more like myself. And I'm staying put in Kansas until March when I head to DC - YEAH!

Just in Case You Forgot.

I love Pinkberry. In a way that surpasses how much I love cupcakes. Yes, even more than my very favorite Baked & Wired cupcakes that I served at my graduation party and occasionally dream about during meetings. If I had to choose, I would pick Pinkberry first. And then eat it every day. This is actually a pretty healthy bad habit really. Fresh fruit, healthy yogurt and even a little protein!

I spent last weekend in Tampa for the Mortar Board midyear meeting, and I was lucky enough to eat Pinkberry twice. We arrived on Friday, and I was talking to my friend Vishal, who casually mentioned he had Pinkberry for breakfast on Thursday morning. Soon it was all I could think about. We found the Pinkberry in Tampa and plotted our trip there for Saturday. And we went again on Sunday.

And I would like it again right now if someone could make that happen. Why do I live so far from the fresh swirling deliciousness that is Pinkberry? Why?

Cotton Bowl Leftovers.

Many people went to the Cotton Bowl to see K-State play Arkansas. Mom and I did not. We stayed home and watched the game and wished we were there, even though K-State didn't pull out a victory. Little sister Lauren got to go, and so did many of our friends.

But as a sweet bonus, one of the teachers I work with offered me her basketball tickets for the day after the Cotton Bowl. K-State was playing Missouri in Manhattan, and we were super excited to get the opportunity to go to Manhattan for the day.

Keep in mind when we left that morning, we weren't optimistic. Missouri was in the top 10. We lost terribly to KU in basketball on Wednesday night. We forgot to catch some passes against Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl. It could have been a terrible trifecta of losses for our alma mater.


But K-State showed up on Saturday. We led the entire game and sometimes by as much as twenty points! It was a big upset for us, and it was so fun to watch. Richard came too and enjoyed his first trip to the Octagon of Doom.

It was gray and overcast but the perfect Saturday for us. Basketball games take a lot less energy than football tailgates and trips to the Bill. We rolled into town at 11, had a leisurely lunch at CocoBolos, watched all of the game, and had coffee with Candi in Aggieville afterwards. We were only gone ten hours unlike football game day which often takes at least twelve hours. It made me very glad that we're going back in two weeks to see another game.

Last Week.

Here's a not-so-glamorous look at my backyard. Wish I had some before pictures for you! Here's how it got this way...

On Sunday, January 8th, the sewer line leaving my house stopped working. No prior symptoms or warnings, just a really loud noise and then lots of liquid in my basement. Surprise! The plumber came out and took a look, snaked the line twice, and couldn't get it to drain again. The next day they came with a camera and a prognosis: the two large trees' roots had caused the sewer line to no longer function correctly.

Apparently this is quite common in cute little older houses like mine. So Belle and I moved to Mom's house for a week long slumber party (Lauren was still home too!) and they did some major digging in my backyard. I'm not exactly sure of the fix, but I am 100% sure that I'm thankful I'm a renter. It was very expensive. Prairie Village friends - I'd look into the insurance for this.

The backyard will stay disheveled until spring. Until then I will wipe Belle's paws. And occasionally her whole body because she likes to roll in the dirt now too. In the spring we'll figure out grass and how to grow it without Belle destroying it. And I might even have room for a small garden now! Those two tree type bushes were actually dead before they dug up my backyard, and they were in the only part of the yard with lots of sun!

Everett at Four Months.

I took some more photos of Everett last week in his nursery. I'm getting better at capturing this little guy but now he moves more so it's trickier! I think he's the sweetest. Smiles are hard to earn - we did get a couple - but he's pretty dapper. And tough. Look at his K-State and Under Armour gear!

Oh yeah, and look at those cheeks. Swoon.

Still working on focusing, lighting, etc. Thankfully Nan keeps letting me practice with Everett. Even though it isn't perfect, I included the photo on the right because Everett looks like a Cabbage Patch doll. A very tough K-State Cabbage Patch doll.