Football Tickets

I know I have a handful of Okie/Sooner fan readers out there, so I thought I’d throw this question out here. Now that we are back in Big 12 country we’d like to get tickets to an OU game. In fact, I just got a Boomer Blast email with the individual football game ticket presale info. I’m looking at either the A&M game or Baylor, since they are both away games. College Station is about 70 miles from us, Waco is about 160… totally doable. My first choice would be A&M, because it’s closer and would probably be a better game, but I think Baylor might be easier to get tickets to. I don’t know. This is all just speculation on my part, since we haven’t been to a game in years.

So, any thoughts/tips from my Sooner friends?

More Birthday Plans

The move has really put me behind in terms of planning for Daphne’s 1st birthday party. Normal people probably just buy some plates and streamers at a party supply store, get a cake from their local grocery store bakery and blow up some balloons. Not me. I’m completely not normal.

This week we need to get a good picture with her birthday hat so I can create invitations, have them printed and get them mailed out to the family. Now that I have a partner in crime (Mom) I’ve decided to try and decorate Daphne’s birthday cake and cupcakes, instead of going to a bakery. My mom usually decorated our birthday cakes growing up and that’s a tradition I’d like to keep going. Her color scheme is hot pink, light pink and orange and theme is a butterfly/flower thing (which coordinates with her hat and the print of her birthday dress). We’ve been inspired by a few cakes and cupcakes, like these:

This is from Butterfly Sweets. It’s a little over the top, but we wouldn’t have to put so many colors or designs on it (I mean, I’d like it for me, but since her hat and dress are so busy I think a super busy cake design would just take over the pictures.)

Another from the same blog. But I don’t love the taste of fondant and neither of us have ever worked with it before.

Cute cupcakes from Flickr:

As far as decor, I’m thinking paper lanterns or flowers. I love these from Lunabazaar.

But we probably don’t need those, since I plan on doing these flower balloon bouquets from Martha Stewart:

She loves balloons.

I picked up a few books today to help with the cake thing. The Whimsical Bakehouse and Hello, Cupcake! Both books are incredible, but I just love the cupcake book. Seriously, if you have kids or ever need to make cupcakes for any holiday or special occasion you must get this book. The Shark Attack cupcake instructions are worth the $10 you’ll pay for the book on Amazon. See what I mean?:

Now I just need a little boy so I can plan a shark themed birthday. Alright, back to Daphne. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, please send them my way! I’d love the input.

Rambling on at 4:00 am

It’s been a long time since I did a 4:00 am blog post, but here I am! Daphne slept quite a bit yesterday, so it’s no surprise she’s been up since 3:00. I’m currently watching her tear around the living room. She’s so funny and has really done well with her walking. Occasionally I’ll look up and she’s just walking down the middle of the front hallway. She still does the Frankenstein arm thing (arms stretched out in front) when she walks.

As of today, Daphne & I have been in Houston for 2 weeks. It’s still weird to me that 5 or 6 weeks ago we were living life as usual in Birmingham, AL, gearing up for Chris to start to travel for his job (and dreading it), wondering how on earth we could manage having another baby with Chris on the road, dreaming about moving to Houston in 2009 and hoping the housing market would improve. As usual, I require a kick in the pants to make a major life change. I’m really bad about that. I’m not as adventurous as my husband and in many areas of my life would rather stay with something safe than go for the unknown. But I don’t beat myself up about it. I think that’s pretty common. I think what is different about this major event is my attitude and anxiety level. Normally I’d be freaking out about the whole “layoff, move to another state, try to sell house” thing. I’m not. We weren’t happy in Birmingham. We were more than ready to leave. I was tired of our money pit of a house. We missed family and wanted the support, especially with Daphne.

The move might not have gone exactly the way we planned it (dang it, I always said I was going to hire movers next time!!), but I still think it’s the best move we’ve made so far in 12 years. Hopefully Chris won’t have to work for my dad for very long, but hey, it’s better than unemployment. And maybe we’ll have better luck with layoffs in Houston. Sometimes I wonder why things happen the way they do, especially in the moment. Like why did my husband have to get laid off from a really good job at an awesome company just a few days before I found out I was pregnant (causing us to scramble for insurance)? I can see now that the job loss led to an even better job. Of course he also almost got laid off from that new job a few days before Daphne was born. (Seriously now, this is getting crazy) but that led to an even better job, one that allowed me to stay home. So I guess sometimes stress and insanity pays off. I’m going to get Chris a shirt that says “Big Bucks! No Whammies!” for his next job search. He can wear it under his normal clothes, kinda like Superman. I think that’s a killer idea, but would probably cause Chris to laugh at our private joke at inappropriate times during job interviews. Hmmm. Maybe not.

Tinkerella Creations

When I was a little girl I was totally obsessed with Snow White. And I have already decided that Daphne is going to be dressed up as a little baby Snow White for Halloween this year (hey, I gotta do it now before she gets older and can have an opinion and want to be Dora or something). So I squealed just a little when I saw this outfit on Etsy today. A custom boutique Snow White shorts set (for everyday wear I suppose):

And look at this adorable Cinderella shorts set:

Check out the rest of Tinkerella Creations’ Etsy shop here.

Slow news day (but then again, aren’t they all?)

Today Daphne & I decided to wake up early and go for a walk around the neighborhood. We left the house around 9:00 and it was a little hot and humid, but manageable. What was not manageable were the fire ants. I swear I am a freaking magnet for mosquitoes and fire ants. I mean, what did I ever do to fire ants, besides threaten to go all Paula Deen on them in our yard and pour uncooked grits on their homes? Until I realized that was an old wives tale. While we were moving I managed to get about 6 bites (stings? whatever they do to you) on my left foot. It looks terrible. I must remember to wear real shoes (not flip-flops and sandals) more often.

After Chris got home from work and we had dinner, we left Daphne with her Grammy & Poppa and went grocery shopping. Thrilling, I know. We are working up to leaving her for a few more hours so we can sneak in a dinner and movie. Anyway, we went to the HEB Plus store and I picked up some more fresh tortillas at the Tortilleria. I know it’s probably odd to be excited about this, but I can’t tell you how much I love living someplace where I can get fresh handmade tortillas right along side my regular groceries. You know how Jesus said “Man cannot live on bread alone.” True. But I’m pretty sure I could live on nothing but fresh tortillas and black beans. And margaritas.

Budding Young Artist

I’m so proud of Daphne today. Not only did she stay in the church nursery through the entire service, she also ate Goldfish crackers for the first time and colored her first picture. I’m sure that is something that only a new mom gets excited about. Now I have a start to my Daphne Artwork Collage.

Her appetite has also been up this weekend. Last night at Babin’s she ate a 4 oz jar of baby food, Gerber puffs, Cheerios, bread, french fries, part of my mom’s baked potato and some bread pudding and bananas. And I fed her before we even left for the restaurant. She’s so funny. Tomorrow she probably won’t eat anything.

Dollar Bills

Chris & I laugh a lot. Sometimes with each other, sometimes at each other. We seem to crack each other up at least once a day. Tonight as we were driving back from dinner Chris was telling us about an exchange he had with a female cashier at Advance Auto Parts. We still had a bunch of dollar bills from our garage sale we had never deposited and he was paying for our new front license plate holder (dang Texas and their dual license plates):

Cashier Lady: Wow, you sure have a lot of dollar bills. Where did you get all those?
Chris: I’m a stripper
Cashier Lady: For reals?
Chris: Yep
Cashier Lady: How much do you charge?
Chris: Baby, you couldn’t afford me

Bwahaa! That’s too funny! My mom’s response, “I hope we don’t go to church with her.” Now that would REALLY be funny!

Lots To Do

One of the great things about living in a larger city like Houston is greater access to museums, concerts and events. I look forward to becoming a member of the Museum of Fine Arts and spending time in the Museum District. I also look forward to taking Daphne to the Children’s Museum when she gets older. Chris is taking part in a Flickr meet-up this weekend at the Natural Science Museum. They will have full run of the place after it closes, which is so cool!! I love museums and am happy that I will be able to enjoy such a variety here, as well as expose Daphne to different kinds of art. I can vividly remember my mother taking me to the Art Institute in Chicago and looking at “La Grande Jatte” (Which I thought was pretty cool. Even if you aren’t an art person you’ve probably seen it. It was in Ferris Bueller.) and I remember thinking that still life paintings were pretty darn boring. I was a little art critic even in preschool/kindergarten.

As far as events, Chris and I are always looking for something new to see and do. We tried to hit all the festivals in B’ham. We’ll have a much bigger selection now! We aren’t big on concerts, but I did have to laugh after my husband and my mom pointed out that George Michael (the singer-songwriter, not the Bluth) would be here on Monday. I had the biggest crush on George Michael, like so many other 80’s teen girls. I saw him 20 years ago (dang that makes me feel old!!) in Dallas, TX at Texas Stadium at the height of his fame (The Faith tour). Tens of thousands of teenage girls screamed their lungs out for a few hours. It was a really good concert. That man can SING! His opening band, The Bangles, pretty much sucked. But I still like their music anyway. I went with one of my friends from Dallas and I think my dad paid scalpers $75 a ticket, which I’m sure was a lot back then (now you pay that for the nosebleed section). And I still have the concert t-shirt. It’s in a tote with my Guess jean jacket that I can’t part with, and my Swatches. Someday Daphne can wear them to an 80’s flashback party. But, I just have one question. How did we not realize he was gay????

Really, what straight man would wear that hat? After looking at the set list, I’d kinda like to go. But with Chris going back to work we just don’t have time next week. It would be fun though.

Search for Good Brisket

Today Chris, Daphne & I went in search of Texas BBQ. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you know that we are big BBQ fans. In fact, we have been known to hop in the car and drive a couple of hours in search of good ‘que. For the last 5 years that meant SE & Memphis style pork BBQ, which is not my favorite. I do like Memphis style pulled pork and ribs. But, don’t even get me started on Carolina or Georgia style BBQ, blech. All that vinegar and mustard, *shudder* I can also remember watching Paula Deen’s show on BBQ and her family recipe for BBQ chicken involved vinegar and peanut butter. Oh heck no! That’s right up there with the abomination that is Alabama white BBQ sauce. To me, the perfect BBQ meal is a tender smoky brisket and a side of handmade BBQ sausage and just a touch of a tomato based sweet sauce.

Based on Chowhounds Houston BBQ Smackdown, we went to Pierson & Company. It was good, a tad too smoky for me, but I’d rather have too smoky than no smoke taste at all. I tried a sample of their sausage. It was a little dry, but had a good flavor. The ladies behind the counter were very friendly and we will definitely be back.

Walking

Just a quick clip of Daphne walking. She is now consistently taking 6+ steps to go between furniture pieces, or to another room to find me.