Am I missing something?

When I was a teenager everyone was striving to be in their 20's. That was THE goal. Whether you wanted to be 21 so you could drink legally, be 22 ish so you're finished with school, this is the age when most people get married, start having kids. I guess you become a "real" adult. Now as a twenty something I hear people older than me talk about wanting to be a twenty something again. Am I missing something here?? It seems as if being in your twenty's is suppose to be something magical. I've reached all of the adult things, except for having kids so what am I missing. Why is being in your twenties so special?
I want to be someone who ages gracefully. By that I not only mean in appearance but I want to be excited about getting older. I know getting older has some benefits and positives and I want to focus on those things. I don't want to be the stereotypical woman that is brought to tears at the thought of getting older and can't stand it when someone asks her age. I want to be proud of my age. So far I'm not doing very well at this. I'm 24 now and I was really bummed thinking about it last night. I know I know I know that 24 is not old, but I guess it's the thought of being older that bothers me. That and the fact that I am currently a twenty something, reaching the half way point and I feel like I'm missing something. I feel like I have a great life, and there are certainly no complaints, but why are the twenties suppose to be so awesome? Someone fill me in...

Woohoo!

So not too long ago I blogged about how Kolby has all these tests to take and how we just can't wait to be finished. We saw some light at the end of the tunnel and got amazing news! I will now spend some time bragging about him.
He got TWO test results back (finally!) and PASSED both of them! These tests are extremely difficult and only have a 40% pass rate...that's right 40%. He is so smart, I knew he could do it! I really was very confident that he would pass these tests on the first try, but was also praying big time. Those are not cheap, and are very time consuming. He totally deserved that news and I think that was just what he needed to finish up these last few weeks of studying.
As a side not I donated blood yesterday. I knew it had been a while, but they informed me it had been 3 years since I last gave blood. Geez that is way too long. I had a bad experience, not that it's an excuse, but it did turn me off to donating for a while. Last night was just fine even though it took me an hour and a half and the nurse squirted blood all over my sweater, and they had to turn the needle three times and then hold it against my vein....haha. It is so needed right now since all of the devastation in Haiti has happened. I want to be more on the ball though, no more waiting 3 years to donate blood! If you've never given blood I recommed that you try it at least once, it is not bad at all.

Testing Testing...

So my dear sweet husband is STILL studying and taking tests. He is working on becoming a CPA. In order to do that you need 150 hours of college credits (he did that in 4 years!). You also have to take a CPA exam. This is not just one test though. There are four different tests. The first one was 2 1/2 hours longs, the second was 3 hours, the third is 4 hours and the last one is 4 1/2 hours long. He studies about 3 hours every night and has been doing this since July or August. I feel bad for him. When you graduate college it's such a great feeling of accomplishment and freedom! For those of you who worked at all in college understand what a task that was to go to class all day, work all night, try to fit in studying and then some time for yourself not to mention time for the person you're dating. He only got to experience that freedom for about a month.
I'm so proud of him for being on top of things. There is no way I would be disciplined enough to study that often. I usually try to jam-pack my schedule so I'm not bothering him. I can't stand it when we are both together and we can't talk! So I try to make sure that I either am out of the house or have something else to work on. His last test is February 27th. Then we will have to wait 4-6 weeks for the test results. If we find out he passed them all then it's party time! So please say a quick prayer for him if he crosses your mind at some point!

Award Time

Maggie passed on the torch. The deal is that I share 10 honest things about myself with you. Then I get to tag 5 lucky readers to do the same!

1) I love love love to eat out. It may in fact be one of my favorite things to do. Especially when I'm on vacation. I love to try out new restaurants. I think it's fun to try new foods. Not only that but who doesn't love to eat a great meal, not have to cook it, or clean up the dishes?!?! This is a no brainer for me. If only it were less expensive I would do it all of the time. Anytime my husband and I are going out of town I look forward to picking out the restaurant we'll be dining at.

2) I am not a fan of jokes. This may sound a little funny at first, but let me explain. I love to laugh, seriously love it. I also love to joke around. When it comes to actual planned jokes, like a knock knock joke, or a blonde joke etc. I dread it. The reason? I'm afraid I won't get it! No joke. I am afraid I won't get even the most simple joke and then feel like a fool so I would just rather save myself the embarrassment! Silly, I know.

3) My mouth gets me in trouble. I am honest to a fault. I was raised in an environment where it was funny to have an attitude and just tell people what you think. I now live and am surrounded by people who get seriously offended by that. It is something I would like to change about myself and I'm working on it. Not that I will probably ever become the type of person to always tell you what you want to hear. I do however want to be the person that doesn't always have to give my opinoin.

4) This one is a silly dream of mine that I don't think I've shared with anyone. Ever since I was little I've practiced doing this in my kitchen. I would love to be a host on a cooking show. I would set up my kitchen as if I were in fact the host and have all of my ingrediants in cute little dishes. I think it would be so fun! I love to cook, I love to be in front of people, so why not combine the two!

5) Oh boy, this one goes against my own gender I think. I can not do a cart wheel to save my life. I have never learned how and I think at this point my body just refuses to learn.

6) My job for half of high school and part of college was working at Subway. I worked there for about 4 years. I loved that job and would totally go back if it paid more than minimum wage. It was easy, fun at times, not greasy. I've always told Kolby that if I got fired or laid off I would just work at Subway!

7) I am some what afraid of getting older. I used to be really bad, but it's subsided somewhat. There is so much uncertainty with getting older. You hear people complain about it all the time, why would I want it to happen? Some of it is vanity, I don't want the wrinkles or the over abundance of spider veins. Some of it is the uncertainty of it all, where will I be, what will I be doing? It will inevitably happen, I just hope I can enjoy the ride and not be one of those complaining citizens I'm talking about now.

8) Mayo is my enemy. I don't care if you call it Mayoniase or Salad Dressing. It's all the same and I find it repulsive. I know probably 60% of it is a mental thing but I cannot eat it. I haven't liked it since I was little. I can't even try it though to comment on the flavor. Something about the jiggly consistency, the smell, the fact that it's made of oil and eggs. I just can't do it. I got a sandwich in drive-thru and forgot to get it with no mayo once. I thought well no big deal, surely I can scrape it off and eat it anyways. You could hardly see the mayo after I teadiously worked my napkins on the bun. I got the sandwich to my lip....and started gagging. Pathetic but true.

9) I love to sleep. First, it's extremly easy for me to fall asleep. Watch out commercial's, if the show has not caught my attention, or I'm just a little bit tired, all it takes is one or two commercial's and I'm gone. I could also sleep from the time I get off work to the next morning I'm pretty sure. Recently I fell asleep around 6pm, woke up at 9pm and fell back asleep around 10pm until my alarm went off the next morning. I cherish my sleep.

10) I have 19 nieces and nephews. That's right 1-9. This happened because I have 1 sister, 2 half sisters, 2 step sisters, 1 step brother and a sister in law. My little sister has a son, one of my half sisters has 3 kids, the other half sister has 6, one step sister has 2 girls, the other has 4 kids, my step brother has 2 boys and my sister in law just had a baby girl. That's a lot of Christmas presents to buy!


Now it's your turn!
Nicky
Denise
Amanda
Shanna
Missy

I made an Elmo cake this weekend. It was my nephew's first birthday, he loves Elmo so I volunteered to make him a cake. I realize this is not the most complex design but I'm very proud of the way it turned out. I did not have a mold to work with, so I was so excited when it turned out!

I'm learning!

I seriously started to freak out my last few weeks in college. I never thought that would happen either. I was pumped to be finished with school. I had always worked a full time job on top of having a full load of classes. I couldn't wait to start a "real" life. Then I had this fear that my brain would turn to mush. I realized that my whole life I had been learning, learning, learning. Now it was just going to stop abruptly...what would happen to my brain?!?! Well a couple of years later and I'm OK! Woohoo. My brain did not turn to mush...yet.
I have this urge recently to try new things. My latest project...

That's right. I'm learning to play bass. It started out because we had a need in our church. Now I'm actually having fun with it!

Bake crazy Saturday

I was a baking fool today. I only add the fool part in there because I normally don't bake all that much. I love to bake, and I love to eat the finished product but it can be time consuming. I was inspired to bake because of a recipe I found online. The name alone would cause anyone to drool. ...ready for it?? Peanut Butter Brownie Cookies. That's right not only is it an individual sized brownie, but it's topped with peanut butter and then frosting too! Yes they were very delicious.

Here's how you make them!

INGREDIENTS

1	(19.5-oz.) box Pillsbury Brownie Classics Traditional Fudge Brownie Mix
1/4	cup butter or margarine, melted
4	oz. cream cheese (from 8-oz. pkg.), softened
1	egg
1	cup powdered sugar
1	cup creamy peanut butter
1/2	(16-oz.) can chocolate fudge ready-to-spread frosting

DIRECTIONS

1.	Heat oven to 350°F. In medium bowl, beat brownie mix, melted butter, cream cheese and egg 50 strokes with spoon until well blended (dough will be sticky).
2.	Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets to make 24 cookies; smooth edge of each to form round cookie.
3.	In small bowl, mix powdered sugar and peanut butter with spoon until mixture forms a ball. With hands, roll rounded teaspoonfuls peanut butter mixture into 24 balls. Lightly press 1 ball into center of each ball of dough.
4.	Bake at 350°F. for 10 to 14 minutes or until edges are set. Cool on cookie sheets at least 30 minutes.
5.	Remove from cookie sheets. Spread thin layer of frosting over peanut butter portion of each cooled cookie.

The recipe is from pillsbury

I am in the process of finishing up some cake balls now. If you have not tried those I insist you make some. Once again I'm putting in a plug for Bakerella!