Nothing too exciting going on here. It seems I've trained my cat. (Although not in the way I had hoped.) Patches likes to be everywhere she's not supposed to be. Counters, mostly, but she's not picky. When we come home at night, we've found her on top of our kitchen counter more times than we can count. GROSS! And every time we holler at her to "GET DOWN!" Lately, she's started laying down on whatever surface we tell her to get down from. Kinda like "look, I'm being cute. I need some pets. Don't make me get down." Drives me up the wall. Lately, she's taken to curling up in the bathroom sink while I'm getting ready for work in the morning. Again, GROSS! Do you know how annoying it is to have to move the cat out of the sink so you can spit out your toothpaste? I've tried everything I can think of to get her to quit. The thing is, she likes water! I've tried spraying her with a water bottle to get her off surfaces she knows she's not supposed to be on. Nope! She'd let you spray her all day long if you wanted. She'd just look at you and lick it off like "hmm...thanks, I needed that." AARRRGGGGHHH!!! I love my cats, but they sure are annoying. Actually, only Patches is annoying. Pumpkin is good 99% of the time. When she is bad, I think Patches must be egging her on, because really she's pretty good. Any suggestions? I've used the spray bottle to train all my other cats and it's worked great. What do you do with a cat who likes water? :)

Shopping, shopping, shopping...that's what we've done today. And we found some great deals! I found 2 Janet Evanovich books at Gabriel Brothers (like Big Lots) for 2.99 each. I was pretty excited about that.

We also went and looked at The Room Store at furniture. I have been on an "I want new furniture" kick for months now and I think my sweet husband is finally starting to understand that I do want new furniture. No offense to any of you who graciously gave us the furniture we have now, but I want to pick out my own stuff! We found a bedroom set we really like but we also want a new dining room table and chairs and a living room set, so we have to decide which we want most. Wish we could get it all at once!

We're thinking about getting our house appraised and I'm pretty sure it would appraise for much more than we paid for it. Housing prices are ridiculous here! Today we drove by some new townhouses that were selling for about twenty thousand more than we paid for our entire house! Crazy!

I think I'll get to shopping online for furniture deals. Have a great weekend!

Oops! I haven't posted lately. Let's see...what's been going on with me?

Last weekend, Jason and I went to the beach. Sure, it's winter and freezing cold, but it was my friend Amy's b-day and she invited us to her parents beach house in Nag's Head. We had a lot of fun. Anybody ever been to the beach when it's snowing? I have! It didn't snow enough to really accumulate, but it sure was cool to see. We shopped a little, drove a truck on the beach (fun!), ate some great seafood and had a whole lot of fun. Happy Birthday, Amy G!

Work last week sucked big time. I could go on and on about that, but just in case anyone from my work reads this...well, let's just leave it at "it sucked."

I had an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon about my shoulder. Can't remember if I mentioned it on my blog or not, but I injured my right shoulder at work back in October and it has been bothering me ever since. I kept hoping it would get better, but 4 months later it is still hurting. The dr. did x-rays and said he thinks it's my rotator cuff. Hopefully just aggravated, but he wants me to have an MRI to rule out a tear.

Valentine's Day was good. We both worked, so we couldn't make big plans, but we did have a nice dinner. I fixed some pasta and a yummy dessert pizza and we had a pretty good evening. I got a really sweet card and a dozen roses. Good job, honey. :)

We bought some Powerball tickets hoping to win $365 million, but no luck. We're not big gamblers, but every once in a while we'll buy a few scratch-off tickets or something hoping to strike it rich. Not this time! Oh well, at least we're not out a lot of money, right?

Nothing too exciting this weekend. We went to a benefit cash party tonight for the Winchester Baseball League. We had the chance to win some $, but I guess we're just not lucky at all, because we didn't win a thing. We did have fun though, so I guess that's all that matters, right?

IT IS FREEZING! It was 15 degrees on the way home tonight! Winter can't be over quick enough for me! I'm gonna take my freezing cold self to bed now, but not before I soak in a nice hot bath!

Goodnight all!

I miss school. 3 words I never thought I'd say in my life. (K, I'm sure you're yelling "Don't go! You don't really mean that!" at your monitor right now.)

But I do. I'm tired of scheduling an appointment for the kid of a parent who's also a teacher and thinking "one day...I'll be a teacher too." And I'm also tired of griping (is that how you spell that?!That looks weird.) complaining about the fact that I miss school. Guess what? I'm going to apply to Shepherd University tomorrow. If I get accepted as a transfer student, then I guess I'll jump up and down for a minute and then promptly freak out about how I will pay for school and how we'll manage to pay our ungodly high mortgage with only one paycheck. Wish me luck.

Are you ready for some football? (Hmm...wonder how many other people will start their blog out with that line today? Not very original maybe, but who cares.)

We're going over to a friend's house and watching the game there. Mr. Crafty and I will probably be the only ones rooting for the Seahawks, but that's OK. Since I don't care much about football, I always cheer for whichever team has the least fans in attendance. :)

I made some Chex mix and some Tuscan meatballs to take to the party. Now the whole house smells like one giant meatball. UGH! They taste good, but they smell up the house something awful!

Keep your fingers crossed for me...I've submitted some recipes to a Taste of Home. (One for the Tuscan meatballs I mentioned above.) I'm not vain enough to think I'll actually win, but maybe a few good luck wishes might help.

I had the weirdest dream last night.

I dreamed that I was making my wedding registry at a huge store. I was skinny and beautiful and very wealthy and adding one of everything to my gift registry. When I went to leave, I had to sign my name on a form for the salesclerk.

My name was Amy Williams-Sonoma.

I woke my husband up laughing. What a weird dream!

Yay! Someone made my cake and liked it! Thanks, Lyndsey, for commenting on my blog.
As for an easier cake recipe, I can't think of one but I will be making some substitutions in my butterscotch cake recipe.

I think next time I'm going to use a chocolate cake mix and chocolate pudding. Maybe even add in some chocolate chips or dust it with cocoa powder after baking.

The possibilites are endless with this recipe. One lady I gave a recipe to wants to make a coconut cake for her husband. I'm not big on coconut myself, but I may try lemon, vanilla, or even banana.

Good luck and happy baking!