blogging and baking

 

I know I have been absent from the blog for the past week or so. It was finals week…part of that means I blog more because I am distracting myself from studying..but then reality is I needed to focus on finishing out the semester strong and that did not include blogging. But the great news is… I’m back!!

I am now home for Christmas break and have an entire month with no assignments or readings (except for pleasure). My goal besides hanging with all of my friends and family members is to bake and blog… A LOT. That sounds like the perfect break to me. Thus far I have played with a couple of cupcake recipes.

The first is a mocha espresso cupcake, the recipe came from the pioneer woman’s tasty kitchen blog. I think I messed up with the espresso powder – that there is a difference between powder and ground espresso? – but either way…they still tasted quite yummy and a must try by any coffee lover.

The next is “peppermint”, but I also got this recipe from the tasty kitchen. This is technically a thin  mint recipe that I tried this summer…BUT, I left out a chocolate topping and dying the frosting green, and added a candy cane and VOILA…it’s a peppermint cupcake! These were also festive and tasty…I think tomorrow’s agenda might include chocolate chip cookie dough, just sayin.

20 is the goal.

 

So I have been doing this blogging thing for a little while now…and in the past couple months I have tried to be more serious about it in that I post regularly and have found a lot of new blogs to follow.

Well as you can see I have 17 followers…and I know, in the blogging world and to your major bloggers that seems incredibly lame. But hey, everyone has to start somewhere…my goal is to acquire 20 followers. I would love to accomplish this by the end of this year…I know that is like 3/4 weeks away. So if you do read this regularly be sure to click follow on the right-hand column. It will give you numerous options in which to follow by and please feel free to share my blog with your fellow bloggers.

I hope that everyone is having a splendid Wednesday!

Lynnlee

A Military Town

 

I was raised in Fort Walton Beach, Florida and is a place that I love. It is a very interesting community…it is a tourist town (just a couple miles from Destin) but it is also a town surrounded by military bases. We have two major military bases on either side and some smaller bases there too.

Neither of my parents are/were in the military but a good number of my friends parents or family were. So I never experienced a TDY for myself but I have watched many a people go through the separation for many months. The cool thing about having the bases is that it brings a lot of new and diverse people to the area for months and years at a time…but the uncool thing is that it often takes them away.

Within the last week I have been informed of two families that will be moving within the next 6 months- 1 year due to new military placements. It greatly saddens me…most of these people seem to be previous teachers of mine. I am sort of weird and growing up I could always easily carry on conversations with adults and thus in high school I became pretty close with a number of my teachers and as they got married and started families I loved babysitting for them. Well since 9th grade we have had to say goodbye to about 5 wonderful teachers and their families.

These moves are always understood because it often means that they will get to spend more time together as a couple or as a family but sad for all of us that have to tell them bye and also sad for the school because I know they have all been great teachers.

It is something that comes with the territory and we greatly appreciate these families and the continual sacrifices that they make in order to protect us. So for now…to the Heck Family (click to check out their blog!) and the Outlaw family…I am sad to see you go but I know your new homes will be so blessed to have you!!

“Nobody puts Baby in the corner”

 

As I mentioned yesterday my roommate and I just watched Dirty Dancing…which is one my of my top movies of all time. My roommate had never seen and I had talked it up quite a bit so I was nervous that she wouldn’t like it as much or think I am just loopy. BUT… SHE LOVED IT!!!!

If you have not watched this movie, then you must. ASAP I honestly think I could watch it once a week and it never get old. Watching it now makes me feel nostalgic for Patrick Swayze – I really love so many items of his work.

The movie just has some iconic moments. The picture below is my absolute favorite movie scene ever and since I was younger I have dreamed of performing this dance. Now…I have the worst dance skills and no rhythm what so ever so it is only a dream. But I do just love it.

Just in case you want a sneak peak…

And remember… NOBODY puts Baby in the corner!

No More Classes.

 

Thursday was the last day of classes for this semester for both myself and my roommate. So naturally, we decided to celebrate Thursday night. Our order of events were…

1. Zoe’s for dinner

2. Blockbuster to rent movies

3. Publix to buy dessert

4. home to veg out and eat our dessert

After Zoë's we were certain that we wanted dessert but we couldn’t decide what it is we wanted…just wishing that we had a TGIFriday’s where we could get a brownie obsession. So we ultimately decided lets just go to publix and buy stuff to make brownies and ice cream. Once in publix we had an idea of brilliance and decided to buy brownies from the bakery…less work and probably more tasty.

As you you can tell this was our setup for the night.

We got a little giddy in the movie store…and well almost rented the entire store. We got “Going the distance” which was soooo cute. Then we came across the Mary-Kate and Ashley section and couldn’t resist the iconic “Switching Goals”. AND THEN…. I remembered that the rooms has not seen Dirty Dancing (which is a crime in itself) so of course I figured it was time for her to see greatness.

Thursday night we watched 2 movies and then saved 1 for Friday afternoon and truly that is about all of the worth we gave to Thursday/Friday. We were bums, loved it, and ate the picture below… YUMMMMMMMY.

(we heated the brownie up and the frosting on it melted to make a tasty fudgy sauce and of course topped with ice cream. delicious-ness)

Thankful Part 3

 

This week my thankful friend post is dedicated to Miss Lindsay Palmer!

Lindsay and I have been friends since approximately 6th grade – we met in middle school and we soon became very good friends because we realized that both of our parents worked at the high school. Lindsay’s dad (at the time) coached basketball and my dad also coached basketball and my mom was Lindsay’s dad’s boss.

We also thought we were cool because our names were so similar and we spent most of our childhood confusing people as we introduced ourselves.. “hi, I’m Lindsay…hi I’m Lynnlee” “wait what…?”

Lindsay’s dad became and assistant principle and that meant he worked very closely with my mom. So Linds and I always stuck together at all of the functions and events that required their attendance. Once we got into high school we stuck together as the rule followers – we knew that the day we tried to skip or break another rule would be the day we got caught – and goodness would they jump to put our wrong doing in the newspaper “Choctaw administrators daughters caught…”

So instead of blabbing on I will add my list of why I love Lindsay and our friendship

• she is quite funny
• she is always positive and even in the hard situations
• she made quite an impact on my relationship with Jesus
• she was such a heartthrob =)
• I’m certain she could have an hour long conversation with just about anyone
• We go to rivaling schools but we never bring that into our friendship
• her middle name is “Lee” which is part of my name?

The list could go on but all this to say I love my Linds and though we may joke with her a lot she is an integral part of the s7.

Lindsay Part 1 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Now in pulling all of these pictures together on my computer…I realized…Wow, I have more individual/not normal pictures of Linds on my computer than I do of anyone else, including myself. Since Lindsay makes claim that she is our go-to girl to pick on and well quite frankly…she will think twice now before stealing my camera to take glamorous photos of herself. (which means yes, I created album #2) check it out.

Lindsay Part 2 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I can hear it now… Youuuu guuuuuyyyysssss. Love you Linds!

Is it just me?

 

Holy goodness, today is the first day of the last month of the year 2010. Where has this year gone?

In this year I have gained

• a sister-in-law
• a nephew
• a cousin-in-law (if that is a phrase?)
• an Alabama National Championship..woot woot

I love that my entire family is growing constantly (as if it isn’t big and crazy enough already) but there are so many blessings and though it seems ridiculous how fast this year has gone by I am sure that 2011 will be filled with just as much.

Now that it is December it is officially the Christmas blogging season and I absolutely love everything about the Christmas season so get ready for the continuous posting about it. Have a wonderful start to December!!

What has this year brought you??