Sunday School

Well today I did my second children's Sunday school lesson EVER and it was done on like 36 hours notice.  I wasn't very prepared and I felt like it wasn't as good as my last one because I didn't have as much time to search on the internet for ideas, but I must have done something right last time.  One little boy who was in my class last time came right up to me, shook my hand, and said "Thank you for coming" and also asked if we were going to play the same game I made up for the last Sunday school lesson I did. 
The last time I did Sunday school, I did Noah's Ark.  Trust me I know, everyone knows the story and it gets overdone in young children, but I needed a comfort zone.  The craft I did was a rainbow out of construction paper.  The child traced their hand,cut it out and glued them down in the shape of an semi-circle.  I made up a game called "Pin the animal on the Ark" and the kids LOVED it.  It is played under the same principles as "Pin the tail on the donkey".
This time when I did it,I was lame and printed off coloring sheets and I felt like such a bad teacher.
I think I may start preparing another lesson so I am prepared if I get asked again short notice!

Susie Homemaker

It has been awhile since I have blogged(SORRY).So here is what I have done:my cousins were in about a week ago.  To those who don't know I am very close to my cousins, especially my cousin Emily.  She is the closest thing I had to a sister growing up, as she is only a few months older than me.  Some people say we look alike, but neither of us see it, but one time afterwards we said we were twin cousins. That's how I like to think of us, and that is the reason Emily is my maid of honor.  Sure I'm not getting married for 3 or so years, but I think it has been decided who would be my maid of honor since we were kids.  God made us cousins because our parents couldn't have handled us as sisters lol.  I miss them so much.

Katie, Emily and I
For the record, that is Katie's beer.
I'm not really a beer person.

Twin Cousins!

I love my cousins!

Well about a week ago, I bought a sewing machine.Nothing fancy,I bought it at a yard sale from a lady I go to church with. She told me she could count the times she used it on one hand and it was only a couple years old.  Well today, my grandma gave me a refresher course in sewing.I made an apron, and at first I was horrible at it, but once it was done it was so worth it!I am going to practice just sewing before I do any big projects.  

Here is a picture of my apron:

Forgive me being chubby and frumpy.  I was baking cupcakes for the family reunion tomorrow and didn't feel like looking nice and as for the chubby I am working on it. From January to now, I am officially down 22 pounds.In January I was 175 pounds.I am now 153.I realize most of you don't care about my weight, but I think by laying it out there on the line and being honest and by hopefully very soon starting a WIWW (What I Wore Wednesday, for those of you who are not familiar with the term) it will give me the encouragement to lose weight.  If I am taking a picture of myself every day of ever week and putting it on the internet I might be more likely to stick with it because anyone who reads this will be able to read about and see the results!

Once I get in little practice here are some sewing projects I want to complete!

Craft Stew

Craft Chi

Crap I've Made

One Pearl Button

Fresh Lemons

Made

Also today I baked for the big ol' family reunion tomorrow!Anyone who knows me knows that I love baking cupcakes and I have quite a knack for it.I found this recipe online, and like every recipe I get offline I make changes.But to this one, I made multiple changes.
Here is the original recipe:  Eat Cake For Dinner

Here is my take on it:

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Mousse

Peanut Butter Mousse 

3 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 c. powdered sugar

1/4 c. milk

1 c. creamy peanut butter

2 c. heavy whipping cream

1 Tbl. vanilla extract

Chocolate Cupcakes

2 1/4 c. cake flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1/2 c. cocoa powder

1 1/2 c. sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 c. vegetable oil

1 c. cold water

1/4 c. sour cream

1/4 c. peanut butter

Now the steps are all the same, so I am not going to bother copying and pasting them over or retyping them.  The reason I made the changes I did are pure and simple--I love peanut butter!I just thought the mousse needed more of a peanut butter flavor.  With the cupcakes, there is something that just gives me the wiggies about putting sour cream in baked goods (as well as ricotta cheese).  Trust me, I know that once baked it tastes scrumdiddlyumptious, but to me those are things used in meals, not dessert.I also believe that chocolate is simply a canvas for making peanut butter taste even better.  Like I said, this girl loves her peanut butter.
Here are some pictures to go along with the cupcakes:

Not a clue why, but every single cupcake in this pan looks like a nipple.
Great.The relatives are going to think I am a damn lesbian.

PB Mousse

This is a great song to jam to while baking!
So there is my day in pictures!
See...I am getting better at it!

Face Mask

Sorry that I didn't blog over the weekend and now I am blowing up my little blogosphere, but I was searching online for home made face scrubs the past couple days and I decided today I was going to make one! I was going to make this one http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/almond-and-honey-mask, but I did not have honey...go figure.Then I was going to do some of this one http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/scrub-a-dub-dub. But I couldn't find olive oil...which is weird in my family's house. So I found this one http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/papaya-and-pineapple-peel, but then silly me remembered I don't have honey! So I just made my own combining the best of all the things in each of them and some of my own choosing.
Here is the "Recipe":

2-3 slices of pineapple
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. lime juice
about 1/2 c of brown sugar (more or less depending on your personal preference)
1 T. almond slivers
1/2 c. rice

The first thing you need to do is pulverize (I love that word) your rice in a food processor, a Magic Bullet, or by hand with a rolling pin.  This can be a lengthy process and a noisy one also.To lessen the noise you can put your almonds and brown sugar in with it.  This will cut out the step of mixing the three together.  Set this aside. Put pineapple, lemon juice, and lime juice in food processor and blend until pineapple is juiced.  Mix together the juices and brown sugar, almond, and rice until the mix is to the consistency you prefer. 

This made my face feel so refreshed and clean.  Also if when washing your face you have your mouth wide open like I did, it doesn't taste as horrible as those face washes you buy in the store.

Memory Lane Monday!

I decided when I started this blog that on Mondays I was going to post older songs.I had originally had a different song picked for my first "Memory Lane Monday", but in light of recent events I made the choice to change my decision.Whatever your opinion on how Amy Winehouse died, she is a helluva singer. I chose a song of hers that I love...although when I looked up the real video it was kinda creepy that she was going to a funeral.

So here is July 25,2011 Memory Lane Monday's Amy Winehouse "Back to Black".

R.I.P. Amy Winehouse

Cupcakes

I had a lot going on this week, so I had to make a lot of cupcakes.The recipe that turned out the best by far was the Chocolate Malt Cupcake recipe, but I made Chocolate Malt icing(just substitute Vanilla Malt mix for the Chocolate).
Here is the recipe:
http://sugarcooking.blogspot.com/2009/06/chocolate-malt-cupcakes-with-vanilla.html


 Pictures to come!

What I wouldn't give for Photoshop

I really wish my hard drive wouldn't have crapped out so I still had Photoshop.I also wish I had kept the Photoshop book after the class I took.

The past two days...

The past two days have really lifted my spirits! For those who know me well, I am a person that likes to be out and about and likes to be around people.I was unsuccessful at finding a summer job this year mainly because I live in a very economically deprived area.Although I know it is not me or my abilities, it is the economy, it has still lowered my spirits.I also spend most days alone because my mom works full time.So three very important people in my life made sure I got some time out of the hole of depression I have dug myself in to.
Yesterday, my fiance called me while on his way in to town and said "We are going to the library.I'm almost to your house so be ready."  Of course this is the time I am not ready at all!I ended up just leaving in a pair of ripped up jeans and a t shirt I got for volunteering at a WLSEA event, but it was so nice to be out and about.He took me to Chinese for lunch and he even went thrifting with me!And oh what a good day it was to go thrifting.I got 2 pairs of pants(one Ann Taylor's Loft), a pair of shorts new with tags, two sweaters(one New York and Company, one IZOD), a new tank top(Victoria's Secret), a new shirt(Charlotte Russe) and 5 books for Gary...for a grand total of about $18.Yesterday the Goodwill had a sale going where if you bought one sweater it was 99 cents and then you got one for free.Sounded fabulous to me!
Today I went with my best friend, Amanda, her husband, Jason, and my fiance to get Amanda's new car.She got an '02 Cougar in green and it looks SWEEEEETTTTT.We also went to Amanda's parents and some of her nieces and nephews were there.Most of them fought over who got to sit next to me.Any questions why I am an education major?Kids just seem to gravitate towards me...I guess teaching is just my calling in life.

The rest of the summer thus far...

Gary and I wrapped up

The rest of the summer thus far has been awesome too.I helped with Vacation Bible School with my fiance the week after I came back from church camp.After having nine girls in a cabin, it was nice to have only five 2nd grade boys!I had such a blast with them!I only have one picture from Vacation Bible School.It was during game time.They had to "wrap" one of the helpers from the group and it was supposed to be me...they also wrapped Gary up with me.

Gary and I

I also went to a baseball game with my dad, my stepmother, and my fiance.It was Gary's first MLB game, and my first game in awhile.The closest MLB team to me is the Pirates, and although I LOVE Pittsburgh as a city, their team stinks.My favorite team is the Boston Red Sox.Being that I live in the middle of nowhere WV, if I want to see the Sox play, I have to go to Cleveland, Cincinnati, or Pittsburgh, so needless to say it doesn't happen very often.It was AWESOME.It was a close game,which is the kind I like.Big Papi came out (David Ortiz) and he was amazing.The whole game was amazing!I love PNC Park and I love baseball so it was a great day!We also went to Chipotle's,which is my favorite restaurant for lunch...and for dinner we ate at Quaker Steak 'N Lube.I felt so bad for eating out twice in one day but it was for my birthday so I didn't feel too guilty.

Dad and Tina at the game

Gary and I

Big Papi <3

Relay For Life

I went straight from Church Camp to Relay for Life, which kills me because when you stay in a cabin for five nights with nine girls who are 11-14 you don't get a whole lot of sleep.But to anyone who knows me well, they know that Relay for Life is a big event for me.My mom was diagnosed with cancer about two years ago.She has been cancer free for a year, but to anyone else that knows me, one of my biggest fears in life was that my mom would get cancer.My mother's father died of cancer on her 21st birthday, so I have always worried that the same thing would happen to me.Luckily, God saw fit not to let us find this out on my 21st birthday, but a few weeks after.When i found out my mother had cancer, it was literally something that just blew me away.I wasn't sure how to act, or react.I literally felt like the worst thing I could have possibly imagined was happening, which is part of why Relay for Life is such an emotional thing for me; the reminder that I could have been one of those people there without a loved one who had had cancer; I could have been one of the people who did the caregivers lap alone.Relay for Life has been an emotional event for me since my mom found out she had cancer, and will probably remain an emotional event for me the rest of my life.Don't get me wrong; Relay is not something where I am only sad at...on the contrary, I almost always have a blast.For me what is emotional is when they give the speech about those who are not with us any longer and when they call the survivors names.
This year was a big year because my brother, who was 13, came and walked the caregivers walk too, and even though he acts like a hard-ass, I know it is an emotional event for him too.This was also a fun year because you could pay money to have someone "thrown in jail", which my mother and I did to my brother(he was not to happy about it), and of course the Mr.Relay event.
For those of you who do not know, Mr.Relay is a beauty contest type thing in which men dress up like women and walk around and ask for money for Relay.Now my mom gave me a handful of change to give to these men.I was also walking with my mom's friends daughters, River and Laycie.Now, I am a pretty ornery girl...so when we would see one the Mr.Relay men I taught the girls that they had to make the men dance to get money.Literally, it was the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life.

Caregivers lap with my mom and brother

My brother and his friend being "arrested"

My fiance,my brother, my mother and I

My summer thus far...

I have had an awesome summer thus far!I did church camp, Vacation Bible School, Sunday School, had my 23rd birthday, had some awesome family come in to visit (more coming in at the end of the week), went to a baseball game with my Dad,step mother and fiance, and did Relay for Life.
So let's start with the first biggie of the summer.  CHURCH CAMP! To anyone who knows me, I started doing church camp last year and I absolutely loved it!I literally counted down the days to church camp.I had a great year this year.Had some issues in the cabin, but with nine girls aged like 11-14, there will always be issues.I had a blast.I love the girls in my cabin; many of them were in my cabin last year.  Three girls from my cabin just got done with 8th grade, which means they go on the CYF next year, so they will not be at camp next year.Literally it broke my heart,because I love those girls!(Note:I am doing separate blogs for each event because I can't seem to get everything to cooperate!)

Jennah and I

Brooks and I...I babysit Brooks

The Communion table...my group was in charge of it!

Talina and I

My fiance and I kicking it at church camp

Emily,Talina and I

Numero Uno!

I have decided to start blogging.I'm not sure how long this will last, or even what all I want to talk about in this blog...but I think i just want to talk about some things I am passionate about in life--music, baking,crafts,education, etc.I just want to post something I like everyday.I know I am probably rambling right now, but I really think this is something I want to work on.Guess we will see how it goes.