Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Blog stalker

So as embarrassed as i am to admit it.. i have become a stalker.. a BLOG stalker!
It all started out pretty inosent, my friend sara sent me a link to her blog. I read it, was pretty intriqued by it, but that was about it.
THEN, my frined hannah turned me on to Whitney's (her friend) blog, and from there it has opened an ADDICTION to me!
So now I have been blogging for a couple of months and been stalking just about as long. I mean I can not help it! Some are just crazy! The things they do and the stuff they say about themselves is unbelievable, others are wholesome, and my favorite ones are the crafty ones!
newest addictions:

Megity's handmade @ megityshandmade.blogspot.com
Blue Cricket Design @ bluecricketdesign.blogspot.com

Megity's has already given me some creative ideas... i think i should now paint my front door. It is currently white and boring..I think a fresh coat of paint would spice some stuff up!

I did find this one the handy world wide web....
1. blog-stalk: to secretly read someone's blog with the express purpose of learning more about them without their knowledge; to stalk via blog

I can't help it though, these people are fabulous.. none have really crazy lives or live in remote places, but i have become enralled in their lives! I feel like i know the people, like i will see one of my stalking victims in wal-mart one day and tell her how much i loved her "fall give away" and she will run screaming out of the produce section!
Now i TOTALLY say this in jest..i am not trying to find out where these people live or show up at soccer games, but i love learning about their lives and feel compelled to check on them daily. It is like the newage of reality TV or soap operas.. i have to tune in daily to make sure not to miss anything!

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

TV dinner?

My husband has wanted a new TV. for a very long time. I have repeatedly said no, it is not in the budget. Well he found out that he can sell vacation back, so he used that to convince me that we needed to get a new TV with the $$. So being the GIANT sucker that I am.. I said ok! Well I gave him the ok to bid on it & to my surprise we won the auction! Now please, do not think we just go out and do this elaborate stuff on a regular basis.. we are on the Dave Ramsey budget and we can only buy things if we have the $. We don’t do credit, and the ONLY reason that Kelly convinced me to purchase this is because we had been saving to purchase a new TV, and this was a great deal.. I can not decide what I am more excited about TV or cable.. Well I guess they go hand in hand!
**Please excuse the tacky black cord running down the wall.. any suggestions on how to hide this thing?


Also, I am posting “kelly’s creation” that we now make on a regular basis! I hate to admit it, but when it comes to cooking off the cuff… Kelly is much much better. I can make any reciepe under the sun if I have a card and directions, but in general I have to have something to follow. Kelly, not so much! He is amazing when it comes to putting things together. He can just mix random stuff up, most of the time, and it will taste AMAZING.
Well this is one of those creations. You start by getting some EVOO and minced garlic. Heat pan on med-high and get the oil hot. Then add a lot of fresh spinach. How much? No clue! Just add and eyeball, the spinach will cook down a lot, so we add as we go. Then take one can of organic fire roasted tomatoes, with juice.

Then add black olives, green olives & capers-as many as you choose. The Carlson family loves loves loves olives so we use a lot. Cook for a few min, then add shredded chicken. We use to use can chicken, but like my friend Sara says, “crock pot chicken changed my life” we now use the crock pot chicken and add that. Then Kelly adds cottage cheese to his for extra running protein, but I know that is a little much for most people! Then we put it on top of brown rice. For this entry though, I used Quinoa. Quinoa is very similar to brown rice, but Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) is like rice on steroids.. it has 9 amino acids, gluten free, it also has higher levels of calcium, iorn and zinc. Blah, blah I know, but I read about it in a running magazine and now we make it more than rice!

Monday, September 28, 2009

Showers, shows and such..

Saturday was kathryn ann’s shower, Her cousin Kelly & husband Wade (one of my favorite couples) hosted it at this FABULOUS house in Bentonville called the Jackson house. It had amazing hardwood floors and a beautiful backyard! There was great live band and I got a few pictures of Kathryn ann with her groove on!!



Then Sunday we had the bridal show at john q hammon center.. I took a few pictures of some ideas.. I love the look of these vases I think I could put some fruit in, maybe some apples for fall?


I thought the fair was gonna be prettu boring, but man they had cake and reception food for sample and man was it SO good!! I also got some pretty good ideas for decorations!

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Still good people

I have a strong faith in God, which some may say leads me to have an naive world outlook. Some times I really like to believe that people are better than they are. But with the current state of the world, i will admit even i have a hard time believing people, in general are still good people and know the difference between right and wrong. This is why i love reading blogs so much! they are just so wholesome and happy!
Well this past week my faith in humanity has been strongly restored.
1. My brother in law recently had a birthday, he got some gift cards. Well somehow he lost them! i felt so bad for him. he realized it on tuesday afternoon and began frantically looking for them, with no success.
Well Wednesday my friend carrie and i went to lunch and i told her the story. she got all excited and was like.. we found them! someone at work had turned them into her! So yeah for honest people!
2.make a wish was Thurs night at cold stone...and there was the sweetest dad there with his two little boys. Each child had some of their own money and before they were allowed to get their ice cream their dad asked us to explain what make a wish was to them. We did and although i really don't think that they understood, i was so impressed with the way the dad handled the situation! It is kind of like at church, there was a couple at church that would pay their kids allowance, and the kids had to give 10 % of their allowance! i just think that stuff is neat!
3. my husband... don't get me wrong, he is great. He is also very strong willed, stubborn, and not super "sweet" which as much as i hate it sometimes, i value these characteristics in him. Well he has been sick..but we are supposed to be running 16 miles today. I was a little worried with the state of his health that he would say, "not so much" to running today. BUT HE DIDN'T.
We got up at 6am he just put on his camelbac and was ready to go. He said, "I know that i am going to not be able to run all 16 so i don't want to ruin your run, so i will ride my bike behind you. I don't want anything to happen to you while you are running alone." so my sweet husband followed behind me on a bike for almost 3 hours and i finished my run.. MAN AM I TIRED!

Friday, September 25, 2009

Creme Brulee French toast


Creme Brulee is one of my FAVORITE desserts! when i use to work at Blackboards Cafe in bella vista I would order it for dinner on a regular basis... so when i found this i HAD to make it.. And holy cow it is GOOD!
Carmel Sauce:
1/2 lb butter
2 cups brown sugar
4 tsp corn syrup
and 3/4 cup pecans-i toast mine (thank you paula deen!)
in a small sauce pan melt everything except pecans over low heat stir til smooth add in the pecans. Pour the sauce over the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish
1 loaf french bread
4 eggs
1 1/2 cup half and half
1tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
slice bread in to 1 1/2 " slices arrange bread over caramel sauce.
Whisk eggs, vanilla, salt and half & half together and pour over bread making sure each piece is covered. cover in plastic wrap set overnight.
Next morning bake @ 350 degrees for 50 min.
cool for 10 min then flip baking dish over on to cookie sheet and serve!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Blessed

I know that some people have horrible in-laws… Horrible… I hear the stories all the time.. 2 of my sweet friends (who will not be named –to protect their identity) have awful in-laws, well maybe not as a whole they at least have issues with the MIL..oh the dreaded MIL.. but the thing is.. God has blessed me sooo much with the best in-laws!! I know that it sounds like I am trying to suck up.. but I am not.. they really are great!
It could have something to do with the fact that I have known them for 10 years, but they really do treat me jusy like I am one of their own flesh and blood child!
Which leads me to, my MIL is visiting for the next couple of days and I am soo excited about it! We went to lunch today & talked about THANKSGIVING!!! I am hosting this year! I am very excited about it.! MIL is so sweet she even asked me all the details, like what time, what do I want to make, how I want to do everything! I just thought that was really sweet.. I mean she is the mom., so she could have came in and just done what she wanted to do, which would have been fine! She didn’t though she asked me what I wanted to do… which of course, I didn’t care I was just happy to be asked!!

There are some things I am wondering about…
China- I have wedding china- still in the box complete with the peanuts for the warehouse of dillards- but I want to use my china, well it is white and blue, BUT my dinning room and all the décor is red and orange fall type colors.. am I crazy for letting this bother me? I mean if I use my red cookware for things… it will look weird with the blue.. so then I wonder should I just go with white serving stuff to be safe?
Chairs- we only have 6 chairs at the table.. but 8 fabulous people eating dinner.. where could I find some fabulous chars for a fabulous price?

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

I scream, you scream, we all scream for COLDSTONE!

IF you live in Rogers or Bentonville, come see kelly and I.. from 7-8 we will be there with a smile and a scooper ready to serve you!!

Cold Stone Creamery® will host the “World’s Largest Ice Cream Social,” a fundraising event to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation® of America and its chapters across the country.

On Sept. 24, 2009, Cold Stone Creamery stores in NWA and throughout the United States, Guam and Puerto Rico, invite ice cream lovers to experience the joy of ice cream at a nostalgic event that promises wholesome family entertainment, fun activities and lots of ice cream.

This year’s celebration includes a 3–ounce Creation developed by 5-year-old wish child and 2009 Junior Tastemaster™ Jack. He combined sweet cream ice cream with brownie, sprinkles and caramel to create his special treat.

From 5-8 p.m., customers will receive a 3-ounce serving of Jack’s Creation in exchange for a donation to this worthy cause. Donations that night and all month long will benefit the local chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, an organization that grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy.

b aggressive..b b aggressive...

"The only failure which lacks dignity is the failure to try."
~ Malcolm F. MacNeil

Running. So I talked to Leonard and Shores about running this past wknd.. they both said they could do 10, but I had my doubts. Not about their running ability, but about staying up super late and eating wonderful food the night before. So I decided to go for my run on Friday morning prior to starting the festivities! So 10 miles and 1:36:50 later I was done and very thankful not to have that to worry about all weekend. That is pretty quick for me so I was happy! Anyway, at about 7 I get this sassy little text from my love: Little motivation for you girls…when you are deciding whether or not to run early tomorrow morning..i just knocked out 10 miles in 1:45:39. You girls better get to bed early…
Of COURSE… the caused me to stop what I was doing at that very minute and call my love up and ever so sweetly RUB IT IN HIS FACE that I beat him by almost 9 full minutes.. heck that is enough time for me to have ran a whole nother mile!! If you have not noticed by now, Kelly and I are a little competitive with each other! I love it though.. I love having someone to push me and motivate me when I am feeling less than stellar!
Then, just to top it off with a cherry. I got up Sunday and Leonard and I ran 3.1 miles of some HUGE HILLS!



Robert Carlson
bib number: 274
age: 27
gender: M
location: Bentonville, AR
overall place: 177 out of 261
division place: 39
gender place: 121
time: 2:18:06
pace: 10:33
Cortney Carlson
bib number: 273
age: 27
gender: F
location: Bentonville, AR
overall place: 161 out of 261
division place: 17
gender place: 49
time: 2:13:38
pace: 10:13

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

uggs

check out the logo on the left.. yall could win some uggs... and with as cool as it is outside, it will make you wish you had some!!

Monday, September 21, 2009

For shores...


So shores is gonna be a famous resturant owner.. and girl can cook too... well i ment to give her the recipe for the Pepparkakor or gingersnaps as normal people call them, but i guess i took it with me!
so..check it:
2/3 cup light brown sugar
2/3 cup light molasses
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cardamon
½ tsp ground cloves
12 TBSP butter cut up
2 eggs
5 ½ cups all purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
• combine brown sugar and molasses and spices in a 1 ½ qt saucepan. Heat to boiling over med-high heat, stirring constantly. Boil 1 min, then remove from heat.
• Place butter in large mixing bowl, add hot sugar mixture and stir until butter melts. Blend in eggs.
• Stir 2 cups flour & baking soda together. Gradually mix into the butter mixture. Mix in enough additional flour to make the dough stiff. Shape into dough ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours or over night.
• Cut dough into quarters. Shape into balls. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 min at 350, or until light brown.


*the cookies are in the shape of the big cedar tree from their logo...

Sunday, September 20, 2009

in the words of Kenny Chesney..We went out last NIGHT

We went out last night
like we knew we shouldn't do.
There were girls from Argentina and ArkansasMaine, Alabama and Panama
All mixed together and having a ball
Yeah, we went went out last night
One thing started leading to another
Out last night
Getting to know everybody and their mother
There were two karaoke girls drunk on a dare
Singing “I Got You Babe” by Sonny and Cher
Yeah, life was good everywhere
We went out last night...

Just a few pictures from kathryn ann's weekend...




I am not gonna lie... my abs have not been this sore in a long long time!
I knew that is was going to be a really good weekend when my friend stephen made me a 90's playlist..with songs like gettin jiggy with it.. and much much more!!
Then just 20 minutes in to the trip we saw the scariest looking methhead, dude was 100 lbs soaking wet, sporting some cutoff lee jeans and tennis shoes and thats about it. He was riding down a major high way on a bike.. weaving in and out of traffic with a look of complete and total content head up to the heavens.. I am not lying when the whole car (all 5 of us) just gasped at the sight.... then in unison we all said, "he has got to be on meth"
We got to big cedar by 6ish.. waited on shores, the last of our party to arrive.
Our girls weekend was comprised of:
kathryn ann-bff since preschool
stephanie rozell- maid of honor & kathryn's frined from college
leah hufford- hilarious.. just hilarious
andrea shores- i will refer to her as a GASTRONOMIST.. look it up
andrea leonard- a complete mess.. and one of my FAVORITE people!!
We went to dinner at the Buzzard Bar,listened to some live music, and headed back to our cabin at the early hour or 11 or so.. then me leonard, shores, and leah were up until about 2 laughing!!
Saturday we went to mazzio's.. so flippin good! Then a little outlet shopping, and finishing up our day with some steaks and razorback football!!
We did give Kathryn her gift and she loved it!!
We got togther with all of her friends and family and we put together a photo cooking album! Each person that submitted a recipe, submitted a photo! It turned out so good, now i just wish i had one for myself!
We got up sunday and it was so cool outside.. i decided to go for a run, leonard is training for her 1st half so she headed out with me, and let me tell you despite the HUGE hills.. we had fun.. leonard cussed me litterally the whole time cause i kept making us go up the BIG hills!

Friday, September 11, 2009

I plan to much..


random, but on the way home from work today i decide to call and schedule callaway's boarding..oh FOR CHRISTMAS! But, the thing is this place is AMAZING!!! i Mean they have video monitoring, and he gets a report card!! Last time he went he got 5 out of 5 tail wags! I just didn't want them to fill up and him be stuck at some kennel that won't let tem out of their cage all day! WHICH, if anyone goes, thell them that i referred you and I can get a free night for callaway!! LOL so i had to call my friend sarah and tell her, because sarah is amazed by my planning and way of doing things.. when i ask her what she is doing this weekend on friday morning she laughs at me like i have asked her what her plans are for next year!
I get excited very easily.. and i love love love to have things to look forward to. Well This weekend We have to run 14 miles.. not really looking forward to that, but we do have tickets to the LPGA, and i am looking forward to that! But, next week is when it really gets exciting!

Tuesday I have Make-a-Wish council, we are doing the ColdStone Creamery thing again this year.. A child got to create their own flavor for the store and we are giving the samples away on Thurs the 24th. SO everyone come and try it & make a donation!

Wednesday I am delivering food for one of the girls at our church who just had twins..


THURSDAY is where I am very excited.. Race for the cure 2010 kick off meeting!! It is really like a sponsorship party for everyonn that wants to dontate $$ or time to the race. My friend Casey is going to that and she is on Pink Trash Bash with me (which is nov. 6th if you want tickets)... and afterwards we are getting together to work on PTB & what we are wearing to the crazy event!

FRIIIIDDDAAAAYY is kethryn ann's bachlorette party at Big Cedar Lodge. There are 6 of us going and it is a great group of 6 fun loving, sarcastic, & down right trouble making girls! So we will be there all weekend and I can not Wait for that! I just hope i can convince them all to let me have a little outlet mall shoppin time!

Monday, September 7, 2009

dog days of summer

So my long weekend was great! Friday Kelly and i went on a bike ride up to the bentonville square for "first friday's" it is this fun little thing they do in bentonville every first friday of the month and kelly and i always try to go when we are in town. So we rode our bikes up there walked around and were in bed by about 10 so we coudld get up and run on saturday. we were supposed to run 14 miles, but at 6am when the alarm went off and it was raining.. the oger was in bed instead of sweet kelly, so needless to say we stayed in bed! He did however make up for it by making a yummy egg breakfast for us. He then turns to me and says would you like to go to garage sales? This throws me way off balance because if there is anything that kelly hates more that "old stuff" it would be OTHER PEOPLES OLD STUFF! I am intrigued by this and ask why in the world does he want to go? Then he launched in to this Precious story of how he wanted to sell our big screen tv for me to have my china hutch (the readers digest on this is.. i have 10 place settings and they are all still in the silver dillards box-complete with the packing peanuts in a closet, so last wknd i saw one at a thrift type store that i loved and told kelly about it) so he went to look at it and is was such a good price he was going to just sell it and then surprise me with the hutch.. but sadley as kelly went to look at it he said it wasn't in very good shape. so no go on the hutch but an A+ for the effort.
After garge sales, kurt brought bella his rotweiller over for us to dog sit. so i took some pitures of the two of them playing together.. so cute.


As nice as it was to have a friend for callaway to play with he was SOO obsessed with what she was doing he didn't sleep at all on Saturday night. He just sat by the cage where bella was sleeping a kind of watched her..and whined. I wanted to punch my dog in teh FACE! This stuff doesn't affect kelly so i got up and slept on the couch and left him with the whining dog!
So sunday am we decided to try it again.. alarm off at 550 and we were out the door by 6. So we decieded the best way to complete the run would be to run about 7 miles out and then turn around and head back. So we had to finish! well we leave our house and run all the way to the bark park to get to 7 miles.. i had no clue how small bentonville was! well kelly was running ahead of me and i see this ghetto caddy pull up next to me on the road.. i mean spinners on the wheels, cd from the rear view and loud rap at 7 am...awesome i am sure so many more people think that you are cooler having heard Tupac at 7am.. anyway i was in my own little world thinking that what if thuggish roguish grabbed me and peaced out. Would kelly hear me? What could he do? Would I be like the tent girl? Right about the time that i am really freaking myself out i hear this load panting and as i turn to make sure i am not about to be abducted i see this man and a dog, and before i know it i scream so loud that i think i literally scared the pee out of this dog! The man kept apologizing and all i could do was laugh and apologize right back. I really do fee bad for this poor dog.. i mean here he is minding his own business just trying to get a sniff of everything and i go and deafen him! well the rest of the run was uneventful, except the end when kelly and I both got home and layed out on the kitchen floor for a good 30 min. we then realized we had to be at church in 20 min..
Then sunday afternoon we went over to dave and katrhyn's house and grilled out, watched football, and played with the pups! Jacques is flipping cute.. he tried to eat my face! him and callaway played together for a while until he passed out on the kitchen floor from exhaustion!

Friday, September 4, 2009

football fanatic



prior to being married i didn't care about sports.. at all...
Now it is crazy how excited i am for football season!!!
I am not embarrassed to admit that the radio station has now been changed to ESPN and I have begun to read espn in the morning!
I really hate when people think i am dumb. I do not think that I am dumb, maybe I am and that is part of the problem. But I hate that people act surprised when i know things. Like football, we were out the other night and Pete Carroll was on the tv and my friend carrie asked where he was the coach for and i said usc out loud and I got this look from the males sitting next to me like WOAH.. how did you know that? I just kind of wonder do i command that look of surprise when i actually know things.