Sprinkles

Yesterday I'm at the grocery store. I'm walking ever so casually when I pass a girl about my age doing something I've never witnessed before. There she was, head thrown back, eyes skyward, DOWNING a jar of cupcake sprinkles! I couldn't make something like this up. I swear. Of course I've seen the occasional 3 year old chomping on a bag of cookies that mommy just couldn't buy fast enough, but this? This was a grown woman eating a jar of sprinkles right there in the pasta aisle people!

I'm still baffled...

rainy day pick-me-up

Today it's raining. It's raining and it's COLD.
Rain + cold = these things...

1. My kick-tail rain boots that my mama bought me! She has some too! She's so cool.
I love these and i don't get to wear them too much. Today I couldn't wait to pull them out.

2. Chocolate Upside-Down Cake

(again courtesy of my mom)

This is not really a cake at all. It's more of a fudgy/pudding type thing, you'll see. Either way it's spectacular and everyone should eat it sometime in their life. A rainy day like today will probably make it even "delicious-er"

For the cake:
3/4 c. sugar
1T. butter
1/2 c. milk
1 c. flour
1/4 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
1 1/2 T. cocoa

For the icing:
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. cocoa
1 1/4 c. boiling water

For the cake:
Cream together the butter and the sugar. Add milk to that mixture. Sift together the flour, salt, soda, and cocoa. Add to the mixture and put into a buttered glass dish (like about 8x8 square or something)

For the icing:
Mix the sugars and cocoa together well and sprinkle over the top of the uncooked cake in the dish. Then pour boiling water over the entire thing.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Cool in the pan and serve with whipped topping.

MAKE IT EVEN IF IT'S NOT RAINING...TRUST ME.

Drop a beat

Hey if you haven't heard Natasha Bedingfield's new album "Pocket Full of Sunshine" It's got some great songs. If you're looking for some tunes to add to your "workout" playlist, these would be good. No doubt Chris would say they're very "girly" and "FUN" but that's ok... I make no claim to be anything BUT girly. What, do I want a MANLY song to jam to on the elliptical trainer? I think not. It pairs fabulously with "Low" by Flo Rida. I'll work out my buns to fit into the apple bottom jeans. I already have boots with the fur!

My favorites are "Love Like This" (with Sean Kingston) and "Pocket Full of Sunshine"
Happy Thursday!

Boondocks

"I feel no shame I'm proud of where I came from I was born and raised in the boondocks. It's where I learned about living, it's where I learned about love. It's where I learned about working hard... It's where I learned about Jesus and knowing where I stand, you can take it or leave it. This is ME. This is who I am."

I've been wanting to do this post for a while now. Really ever since I heard the song "Boondocks" by Little Big Town. Now, I'm NOT a frequent listener of country music but I did come across this tune and I feel like it sort of sums up my life in a way. Let me first say, I WAS NOT raised in the "bookdocks" by ANY stretch. But I was raised in a small, southern town. And I loved it. Every minute.

I am so glad that I've had the opportunity to live in some different places. It's not as though I've lived from Hong Kong to Melbourne or anything, however the places I've been priveledged to call home have been vastly different. Do you think it's possible to change your lifestyle and still not change the core of who you are? I hope it is.

Right now I live in Dallas, TX and while we have our fair share of big city glitz, we also have a lot of great people too. I like it here. I really like it even though I never knew if I would.

Dallas has a stereotypical "look" about it. I guess every city does but I think when I moved here I feared that I would have to become just like all the wealthy, glamorous, beautiful blonde socialites around me (that's the "look"). Frankly, they scared me to death. Then I began to meet people who I really enjoyed being around and who didn't care what I wore or what car I drove. I started to feel comfortable. Was I changing or was I just realizing that my preconcieved notion of Dallas was just that... a notion. I'm still not completely sure.

I think deep down I am a city girl. Having said that, I can compile an entire list of things I love equally about the "country". So what's a girl to do then? I just want to find pleasure in my big city livin', all the while maintaining the deep rooted joys of my childhood. And I don't want to wake up one day having become a person that my family and friends don't recognize.

I love the city but the boondocks are " where I learned about living, where I learned about love, where I learned about working hard, where I learned about Jesus and knowing where I stand..." You know, all the really important stuff that you can't ever take away. Thank God for the boondocks!

Take a Look It's In A Book

I know I've posted a lot of videos lately but I couldn't pass this one up. In response to Erika's post here, I thought I'd share this little lovely.

Sittin Pretty

The other day in the office I asked Rocco where he would like to sit while I worked. This is the spot he picked... perfect.

Eat Your Veggies

Here are some of the photos I took at the Farmer's Market a couple of Saturdays ago. Sorry it has taken to long to post them. My personal favorite is the berries and cherries!

Get Down Get Down

Photography 101

In response to many questions about my New Year's Eve photos... THIS is a post all about my camera. Thanks to my parents, I got this oh so fabulous Canon Digital Rebel XTi...

I also got these two bad boys (for shooting from different distances)...





I also get a LITTLE help from iPhoto and Photoshop retouching some of the shots, but all in all, the camera basically rocks my world and helps me maintain the illusion that I'm a professional photographer. Hope that answers your questions. I do have some pictures I took the other Saturday at the farmer's market downtown...I'll post a little later but those REALLY show what it can do! You can see every little fuzzy hair on the okra!!!

bye

New Year, New Post

2008 is well underway now and I figured that perhaps I should updated you all on what's going on here. Besides the fact that Chris and I have awful colds now, we had some fun holidays. Here's the wrap up...

Before Christmas we had a Christmas celebration with the extended Carreker clan. We ate a yummy Mexican meal (that's how they roll in Texas) and got some great gifts from the cousins' gift game. Then, we drove to Memphis and had a wonderful Christmas there with my side of the family. It's always nice to be there and see familiar places and faces. I got to see not only my family but 4 of my very best friends from high school. It was a really relaxing few days and I was sad to leave as always, but duty calls I suppose. Luckily, we came back to another weekend of fun with the New Year's holiday at Blake and Lindsey's Cypress Springs lake house! Blake's dad is an architect and designed a truly FABULOUS house where we got to spend the last night of 2007! We watched Auburn beat Clemson (barely) and then rang in the new year with some of our friends and their friends. Blake and Lindsey just moved back to Dallas from Savannah and we're really glad they're here! You can tell by the pictures that we had a Wii tournament and now Chris and I are both supremely jealous and want one of our own... I feel like I'm 9 years old again and just DYING for the Nintendo power pad!!

I got my new camera for Christmas and I've been taking pictures like a mad woman... I'll try my best to post them more often now (just for you Becky). Here are some photos from our New Year's celebration. Sorry there aren't any of Christmas really but I got the camera afterwards...

I think this year my New Year's resolution is to be more eco-friendly. I've decided that I need to do my part to help preserve and take care of this world we're living in. I'm going to pay more attention to what I use and dispose of in general. I found this website which I think is pretty helpful. Maybe you'll like it too. Taylor I know you will... www.thedailygreen.com