Remember when....

Do you remember when I would blog all the time. I would do things during the day with the pure intention of blogging about it. Those were the days. I loved this blog. I planned and thought about this blog. Then all of a sudden I lost all of the passion i had for it. My little universe hit a few pretty gnarly bumps in the road and documenting them just did not seem like they appropriate way to handle the situation. Now dont get me wrong, i have started countless posts about the hard things I was going through, but I could never bring myself to finish and publish them. But as in all things in life time makes the pain fade and wounds begin to heal. I can look back at everything now and know that everything happens for a reason and if you keep your head up everything will eventually turn out alright. If you have not heard the sad news. My dearest love C. moved to PA for a new job and a new adventure and I am staying in the 801. We are not doing the "long distance" thing because really its just not far to either of us. Who knows what the future holds for us, but we are both trying to figure things out one day at a time. Thank you everyone for your love and support (especially my parents!!!)

Anyway.... I have decided that i will start blogging again. I have been having lots of fun and going on brand new adventures. I have not been great at taking my camera so I will post the last few pictures that are on my memory card.

What do you do in SLC when its suppose to be summer and instead its freezing cold and hurricane winds? Well we fly kites off the top of Cole & Mady's condos downtown of course!

C. & the gorgeous utah sunsetif you look close in this picture you can see buzz kite flying up high

Oh did I mention that little sissy Sami was in the Miss Sandy pageant. She was incredible and looked so beautiful!! She took 2nd attendant. I could not be more proud of her! So if any of you are going to be at any of the parades in the valley this summer watch for her on the Miss Sandy float make sure you wave at her!

Ten Years....

Ten years ago today, way, way back in 8^th grade at Albion Middle School. My first real “Valentine” showed up to school with a dozen roses and a teddy bear, just for me. I was the only girl in 8^th grade that got that many roses and I carried them around all day – I was not going to hide them in my locker- come on all the others girls couldn’t be jealous if I hid them away. As tradition at Albion Middle School the annual Valentines dance took place right after school. I danced with my friends and my valentine danced with his buddies (mostly standing around being “to cool” to participate). The last slow dance was quickly approaching and my valentine came and found me to dance. I have never been a shy girl, or one to not say what is on my mind, but for some reason this boy made me blush and oh so nervous. I giggled and danced with him to (in my opinion) one of the best songs of the time, or maybe even all time, “I Knew I Loved You before I Met You” By Savage Garden. I had so many butterflies in my tummy, they were making it hard to breathe. The last chorus began and he looked at me with his beautiful green eyes and slowly leaned in and kissed me….My very first Kiss!!

Now this part is going to sound incredibly corny and somewhat silly, but have you ever seen “Romeo & Juliet” with Leo & Claire Danes? The part where they have their first kiss in the elevator and the entire room spins around them? Well that is what my first kiss was like. Really. I know all of Albion middle school was in the room and I know thinking back on it now I should have been mortified, but I wasn’t. All I could hear was my heart pounding in my chest & the butterflies going crazy in my tummy.

(this picture is from '09 - but this is exactly where our first kiss happened years before)

My Valentine in 8^th grade that gave me my VERY FIRST KISS is the same valentine that I have today. No, C & I have not been each other’s valentine every year since that faithful day in 8^th grade, but we have shared quite a few together (roughly 7 i think). Who would have guessed that ten years later i would still be kissing the same guy? Although (sadly) things are different this year, we will stil be spending this day of love together. We have been through so many ups and downs, such incredible loving memories, and even more wonderful adventures. I would not trade us for the world.

I Love You Christian. Happy Valentine’s Day My Love.

P.S. I still sleep with the teddy bear he gave me ten years ago…every night.

Happy Valentine Day to everyone today! Remember even if you dont have someone special to spend your day with, there are many, many people in your life that love you!!!

elder snowman

I miss this kid. that is all. (Elder Scottie Draper w/his snowman companion)

s/he's so prit-tee

a few months ago c. & i watched a movie called "Connie & Carla" - never heard of it? well its about girls, pretending to be boys, pretending to be girls. got that? well since then c. has been set on being a drag queen for Halloween. though i tried and tried to convince him to be a cute couples costume with me, he is stubborn and could not be persuaded to change his mind.

c. has done many (MANY) stupid things in his life, but surprisingly he had never shaved his legs or pits in all of his life, so getting ready was a bit of an adventure for him.
( on a very serious note: how amazing are his calves in heels?! i am jealous! he got hit on more then once that night cause of the legs)
After roughly two years of rocking the beard he was so determined to be as authentic as possible he shaved it. when he doesn't have full drag make-up on he looks like he did in 9th grade. He even let me put a little arch in his brow.

i did his make-up for him. i have never done drag make-up, but i think it turned out well. he looked "so prit-tee" - which is a bit uncomfortable saying about my boyfriend.this is the only picture that i ended up with of my costume on my camera. since c. refused to do couples costumes i was a witch. i made a tutu and a hat. cute but boring. c. looked so legit! he won the costume contest, beating out a guy that does drag on weekly basis at the "trap". we were holding hands & kissin a little and i over heard someone say " oh look at those lesbians kissing" seriously?!!?! funniest thing i have ever heard in my life! i really almost fell over i was laughing so hard.

this is c. & his momma L.L. - Its funny how much he and his mom look a like when c. has full make-up on.

{birthday}

today is my birthday!

it is also National Eat a Chocolate Cupcake Day!

these are both excellent reasons to enjoy a chocolate treat today!

punk'n

last week c. & i carved punk'ns for the first time this year. carving punk'ns is one of our very favorite things to do in the fall. we have our very own punk'n patch growing in the back yard that will be ready to pick in the next few weeks. these are the first of many to be carved this year.

that is all.

growing up has its up sides

(two postings in one day?! try not to fall out of your chair)

a long, long time ago roughly 15 years. i received the best gift an eight year old could ask for. my very own television with a built in VCR player. i loved this little TV and i would stay up all night watching Disney classics. i have watched this little 12" television every morning getting ready for more than half of my life. but times are changing and comcast decided that my little television was not good enough to receive their fancy pants digital signal, so i had to break down and buy a big girl TV. its 32" and it even has a remote (something my old TV has been missing for years now) so i guess what it comes down to is...somethings about being a grown up really, really, REALLY sucks....and other things aren't so bad. kinda makes it worth going to a miserable job everyday...almost :)

green thumb....

for those of you who have been following my blog for sometime now, maybe you remember the sad excuse of the tomatoes we grew last year. you know the ONE that was the same size as a penny....even though our first go round was far from a success that did not discourage us from trying again. this year we planted tomatoes, peppers,pumpkins, squash, cucumber, jalapenos....good stuff like that. after waiting months and months to see the fruits of our labor grow big enough to eat, it finally came to be. Thursday night we picked these three beauty's! can you believe three big beautiful peppers ready to be made into something delicious like stuffed peppers.....



i then realized i wasn't going to be making anything fancy with these "giant" home grown beauty's.so i chopped them up and put them in salsa.

(ping pong ball, pepper#uno, pepe#2, pepe rojo, & pirate action figure)

oh well at least they are pretty and they were mighty tasty.we will try again next year.

there is a seriously GIANT pumpkin plant taking over the back yard so hopefully we will end up with big (alright decent) sized pumpkins to carve this fall!

Happy Birthday Ruby!

On June 22, we celebrated this little dogs 2nd birthday. Ruby was very spoiled this year and got new tennis balls, a new fuzzy chicken, and a super chewer tooth brush.



Here is a picture of the birthday girl in her party hat and "my 2nd Birthday" Ribbon

new super chewer tooth brush. ruby can chew through ANYTHING given to her in under ten minutes. so hopefully this super bone can out last the rest of the toys she has destroyed. because c & i love to bake new fun things (as you can tell by 90% of this blog being about baking) we decided that it was only appropriate for us to bake ruby a dog cake to celebrate her special day. It was very simple and even though ruby was slightly hesitant at first i think she really liked it.

Now i know that not everyone reading this are big dog people, or even if you are a dog person not everyone is going to bake their dog a birthday cake. But C & I are not married and we do not have kids so we think it is perfectly normal and acceptable to spoil your canine companions on their special day. Just in case you feel like spoiling your buddy here is the recipe for dog cake.

Peanut Butter Delight:
1 cup White or Whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 vegetable oil
1 cup shredded carrots
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup honey
1 egg

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Mix together flour & baking soda. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour into a 8 inch round with nonstick spray. Bake for 40 minutes.


Carob Frosting (carob powder is like baking cocoa, but it is safe for dogs to eat. i found it at whole foods on the baking isle)
12 Ounces Non-Fat cream cheese (room temperature)
3 Tsp Carob Powder
1 Tsp Vanilla
1 Tsp Honey

this recipe came from Dog Treat Recipe Exchange there a lot of great cake recipes and other healthy and yummy homemade treats for dogs. there are even recipes on how to make your own homemade dog food (if you are into that sort of thing- i am not- but to each their own)

ruby trying to give C kisses instead of taking a picture.

Happy Birthday Ruby!!

dear blog.

dear blog,

it's me, erin.

you remember me right?

you are named after me. words cannot describe how apologetic i am for being such a negligent blogger as of late. it is not that i have been locked away in a dark room with no fun adventures to post on you, it's that i am so far behind i am not sure where to start. do i start with the new pink bike with a basket? or maybe about our little pumpkin patch, but then there was the Angels & Airwaves concert, or maybe BBQing in the rain or maybe one of the 15 bbqs we have had with friends already?

no matter where i decide to pick up writing about my silly life, i can promise you this, my dearest blog, i will not leave you alone for 2 whole months again.

love, e

this is a picture of ruby. this has nothing to do with the post, i just think she is the best dog ever and pretty darn adorable.

Happy Birthday to my Wonderful Grandpa

(me & my gpa 1987)

i want to wish my awesome grandpa draper a very, very happy birthday.

i love you g.pa and i hope you have a very wonderful birthday day!!!

(me & gpa i dont know what year this is but i was really into troll dolls aparently notice the troll slippers and troll doll- oh how i miss the 90s)

uni.

this picture is for my little sissy sami (since she just made accadians at BHS!!) to prove that once upon a time in my life (like in 1989) i could pull off a unitard too-- gotta love the bowl cut, leg warmers, & salt water sandal tan lines on my feet.

Congrats Sami Sue!!! I am so proud of you!

Green Cookies

monday night c & i made lots and lots and lot of delicious green sugar cookies to celebrate st. patricks day and share with friends!!
my sugar cookies are the best sugar cookies ever made- i would put them head to head against anyone recipe and i know mine would win by a land slide-i welcome the challenge :)

this is more like it.

i really couldn't justify turning in my assignment with those half ass cupcake pops. so my sister deni and i went back into the kitchen for round two with the intention of making something more worthy to blog about. so i decided that i would try a different route and take the cupcakes off the stick. look how adorable these are! they are pretty simple to make.

bake a boxed cake. and let it cool completely. crumble the cake up then mix in 1 can of cream cheese frosting. then roll into balls and put in the freezer.

you will need some candy cup molds- you can find these at roberts or GiGis for cheap- melt some chocolate bark and spoon some into the bottom of each cup. get the balls out of the freezer and put one in each cup. slowly pushing the ball so the chocolate moves up around the sides, stop when the chocolate gets to the top edge of the mold.



now put those in the freezer- and melt a different color chocolate melts (these can also be found at roberts or michaels or GiGi's) carefully remove each of the balls from the molds. hold em by the bottom and dip the tops into the second color.let the excess chocolate drip off back into the bowl. cute cute. while the chocolate is still soft add a red hot or m7m to look like a cherry, and a few sprinkles. and there you have it!! adorable as can be. i took these little guys to share with my english class today when i handed in my paper, and they were a huge hit!!
i am so pleased with the way these turned out!
hopefully this makes up for the crazy googly eye pop incident :) these cupcake bites are from the always incredibly talented Bakerella. So if you decide to make these and have any more questions check out her blog.
thanks to my sissy deni for taking all of the pictures- you are the best!

bakerella would be ashamed.

its pretty safe to say that Sunday evening i was far from feeling motivated.
i have a fairly large stack of school projects that are lingering over my head that need to be finished in the next few days, but i can't seem to get going on any of them.
one of these projects is suppose to be an instructional paper about something i am pretty knowledgeable about....and the simplest thing that came to mind was baking.

Well two weeks ago when i was assigned this project i was so pumped to show off some of my awesome cup cake pop skills. i had planned on doing the ones that look like cupcakes, and had all of the stuff picked up to accomplish my goal. But when it came down to actually getting them done....i was over it before i began.
Luckily my older sister came home just in time talk me off a cliff and get me motivated. So instead of bagging the whole plan (like i wanted to do)we made these little monsters. Yes, i realize that this is not my best work. and yes, i realize that they are a little creepy, but i can't help but to kind of have a soft spot for these little guys. look how cute they are with their crazy hair and googly eyes.