Flirty Flashback Friday

I still like to dress nice for Shannon. I enjoy getting ready knowing that he'll be home from work for the day. I enjoy flirting with him and answering the phone in a "sexy voice" when he calls. We will have been married for 7 years in July and I'll tell you something very true, it keeps getting better as time goes by. Marriage is so fun. We complete each others thoughts and know each others little quirks. It makes it all the more fun. Actually, I learned something new about Shannon a few days ago. 1) He prefers strawberry jam over grape. Had no idea he had a preference. It is now noted. And 2) He feels uncomfortable telling me heart-felt things out loud but can easily express himself to me through writing a note or card. I really had no idea it made him nervous to share heart-felt things to me face to face. He feels silly. So I guess that is why he's so great at leaving me tender messages in text or on a post-it when he leaves for work. I never knew it was difficult for him. But I have always known how he feels about me and he is very sincere.

I'm so grateful I kept the emails he sent me during our long-distance engagement. I came across this email the other day and I just thought to myself, "I am the luckiest woman in the universe. He is all mine. Forever."

From: Shannon Phillipenas
Sent: Sunday, March 6, 2005 11:16pm
To: bootyliciouskesh@hotmail.com (YES, this really used to be my email and no it doesn't still exist! It was  

              quite fun to write on college applications! Ok, ok. You can stop laughing now. haha!)

Subject: hola senorita

Future Sister Phillipenas,

so i just got off the phone with ya and you were a bit blue so i thought that i would try to pour out some sunshine on your soul tonight. but just so you know, my goal (i know that you like those) and of the things on my to do list for life (i also know that you are a big fan of those) my goal is to make sure that you are the happiest gal on this side of the mississippi! I can't promise a great deal of worldly possessions (i'll try), except maybe a lawn of dark green grass (occasionally it turns yellow out here, sorry) but you can bet one one thing, that you will be happy. i think that with you its what you see is what you get, and i am quite impressed with the person i see, so i know that i am going to be the happiest fella on this side of the mississippi with you as my eternal companion. i am truly thankful that i have such a wonderful person that was put in my path...

i just want you to know that i luv you very much and consider myself the luckiest man ever... one of these days i am no longer going to have to type that or tell you over the phone. i can show you and tell you in person. always remember there is a wonderful life awaiting you here in las vegas, so endure this next semester and then everything will be smooth sailing (ok there might be a few waves here and there and the occasional rough water but in the end it'll be ok.)
luv ya eternally,
luv
shannon

I know there are MANY love stories out there in the world, but I'm being honest when I say that mine is my favorite. *happy sigh.

(This perfectly depicts our marriage...always goofin' off!)

Like our pictures and you're local? Visit kandylanephotos.com

The Toddler Talk on Toenails

Today in JoAnn's we're standing in the ribbon aisle mulling over which ones would contribute the most to my current project and standing in arms length of me were two people- a young man and young woman in the 18-21 year old range. Both were dressed a little eccentric and by the few sentences I had heard them say, they were looking for ribbon for what sounded to be costumes. The man was homosexual. It was obvious in his mannerisms, talk, and dress. He was wearing thong flip flops and had beautifully pedicured, bright fuschia toenails.Keshlyn, being the observant little toddler she is, loudly points at his toes and says to me, "Mommy, that's silly. His toes are pink. Boys don't wear nail polish!" The young man pretended not to hear. Me, suppressing a giggle due to her cute comment and the awkwardness of the situation, I simply say in a sweet tone, "Daddy doesn't wear nail polish on his toes, does he?" The guy just kept chatting with his friend and they walked further down the aisle.

You know, you have to admire toddlers for calling it like they see it and for being brutally honest. I of course want to teach my children things like smoking is bad for you and cursing is not appropriate, but I also want my children to be tolerant and accepting that others are different and we all make our own choices. But of course in the toddler stage everything is generally black and white to them. They take everything you say at face value. So in the past when Keshlyn has asked why Daddy doesn't paint his toenails and I have answered with the explanation 'that boys don't wear toenail polish,' she took my word for it. :)

Keshlyn's other phrase lately that is cracking me up when she makes a mess or destroys something: "it's not a big deal, mom." She says it so timidly too. It is really quite cute.

To My Darling Debbie!- A Mother's Day Post

Happy Mother’s Day...another one of those holidays that are added to our calendar and appear in every planner you buy in the store. Where did it come from? How did it start? Check out this link. It's pretty interesting. What started as a day to celebrate ancient Goddesses evolved into women in America fighting for this Mother's Day to be adopted into our "culture" by our government. It was quite the to-do. Anna Jarvis would roll over in her grave if she knew how commercialized it is. That was one thing she felt strongly about and fought against: the commercialization of it as a holiday. She did not want that. She wanted it to be truly a day to celebrate, honor, and comemorate all that our mothers have done! Check out the history here.


My mom used to repeat this phrase to me, “When you have kids of your own, you’ll understand.” I used to think, “sure. Ok.“ But she was so right. I’ve thought about my own mother, Debbie, a lot lately. Being a mother myself, I sure have become more grateful for her in my heart. I look at the sacrifice that I have to make, the love that I have for my children, the experiences that stretch me in my calling as a mother and I instantly think, “Wow. Another person did all of this for ME!” How much more humble can one become than one who realizes that they are who they are because someone on this Earth brought them into this world? To Debbie Sue (she hates her middle name and I find it endearing): I owe you much gratitude for all that you’ve done for me. I want you to know that there are billions of mothers in this world but to me, you are the MOST special because you are mine. Thank you. I love you.

Just a couple of the many journal excerpts remembering my mother.

Dear Journal Excerpts:

December 22, 2004

"My mother is one of the greatest people I know. She has the biggest heart of anyone I know. She never buys anything for herself and this is why I love the buy for her. My mother busts her tail to buy for my brother and me. She never buys herself a thing and never thinks of herself. She always sacrifices everything to buy her children things that they need and even things she wants them to have. This selfless act alone brings me to tears at this very moment. I hate to see her always have to hand me something or money. I want to see her be able to reap some of the money that she so earnestly works for. Money isn’t everything, and I’m sure that she realizes that, but for someone to be so kind, and to work so hard in life, it seems like she could be able to enjoy just a bit of her own money and buy herself a new pair of tennis shoes if she wanted to instead of having to wear a pair with holes in them." (I remember this my Senior year of High School. My mom is a cook so she stands on her feet in kitched 10-12 hours a day. It killed me to see my mom be so selfless and be in need herself yet continuously she gave me money for Senior year things- yearbooks, slideshows, cap and gown etc…)



May 28, 2006

"Mom needs someone to treat her like the special lady that she is. After all the many sacrifices she has made for her family and trials she has went through in her marriage, she deserves someone to treat her right and love her beautiful smile… I think about my mom so much that her inner struggles are my inner struggles and I can’t wait to see the day when my mom’s hard work and faithfulness will yield her great celestial reward. She will be treated and recognized as the queen that she is. To see her final happiness and glory is enough reason to make me want to live in such a way that I will be able to live in the celestial kingdom just to see her rejoice for eternity… I think we feel so much the pain of those we love that when they succeed, we feel as though we have too. I think that’s really what it’s all about… Love is the plan of happiness."

Memories of my Mother:

1. I loved that mom would always send me cards in the mail when I was away at Murray State. It always made me feel loved!

2. My favorite part of everyday well into High School was at the end of the day, mom and I would sit on the couch and talk about our days. Just she and I. I could open up and talk to her about anything in the world. I looked forward to that time with my mom.

3. My mom was such a goofball! I miss that! I miss my mom cutting up and cracking jokes. She was such a nut that she would make herself laugh so hard that she would “horse laugh” and because her “horse laugh” was hilarious I would snort. My snort would make her laugh and it would go on and on. *Sigh. I miss those days. Mom, you’re much too serious these days! You need to find your inner goof again! haha :)

The Rant- And Action!

The Bucket List. Seriously. There for a while I thought I was going to need to add, "find The Bucket List movie" to my Bucket List! Jeez! For a while now  I've been wanting to watch "The Bucket List" with Shannon for a date and then together and individually write our own bucket lists. It's like looking for a stinkin' "Golden Ticket" just to be able to rent movies anymore!

I asked lots of people if they owned it. Nope. Tried the Library. None available. Had to put it on hold and it was going to be a while before it was my turn..I wanted to watch it right then! What the heck? Finding a blockbuster is quite the search. The first Blockbuster we went to didn't have it in. The second Blockbuster we found was out of business.In order to rent from netflix you now have to pay seperate for the DVD mailing service and it takes 2 days to get there. Again, none of this allows me to watch right away. I suppose I could pay to stream it onto my computer except oh yeah, my computer is SOOOOO old that it skips on every short clip or music that is ever played on it and it will just freeze. So, computer is out as a resource. But even if it did work well, my laptop screen is small. I want to watch it on my tv. And sure, if I wanted to go buy extra cords to connect my computer to my tv so that I could both see and hear it through the tv it would be flippin' fantastic! I guess I could have bought the movie, but I don't like watching movies morethan once. WHY IS IT SO HARD TO JUST RENT A MOVIE FOR ONE NIGHT!!!??? Since I'm not being obvious, the fact that renting movies from a store is becoming obsolete is a huge pet peeve of mine. I'm sure you couldn't sense that until I spelled it out for you. I'm very subtle with my emotions. (LOL)

Well, the good news is we did find the movie at a blockbuster. Finally. And it was only $0.99/day. Cheaper than redbox...

So after dinner and the movie, Shannon and I had fun talking about our goals, things we want to do better, places we want to see, etc... and we came up with some lists. Here are just some of the things we want to do together:

• Go on a Disney cruise
• visit every continent at least once
• Go on an African Safari
• Serve a mission as a couple
• Read Jesus The Christ by James E. Talmage (In progress of doing together)
• Take an American history class together
• Check ourselves into a Spa for a week
• Parasail

Here are some of my personal bucket list items:

• Bome patient (this one will take a while...)
• Dance Team Coach
• Read Entire Bible cover to cover (In progress)
• Take a Line Dancing Class
• Take a Sewing class
• write a book
• stop biting nails

And then I did several Bucket List Challenges. Here are just some of them:

• 4 weeks no sugar of any kind!
• Write in journal every day for 1 week
• Do something thoughtful everyday for Shannon for 1 week
• Every wekk fora month write anote to compliment someone (I've done this one before Anonomously and it was fun)
• Take 1 picture a day for a month
• Put effort into doing my hair every day for 1 week (Seriously...)
• Have nails painted every day for 2 weeks (when my nails are painted I don't chew my nails. I haven't chewed my nails for a good month or so and then yesterday most of the paint had chipped away and I bit them all off! ARRRRGH!)
• No complaining for 3 days straight (yikes, this will be tough)
• Every week for 1 month- read the newspaper. ( I SO need to be better with knowing what's going on in the world around me.)
• Do something thoughtful for a friend every week for 1 month.

I can't wait to get going on these things! What's on your bucket list?

Aunt Flow

Good news. I'm not pregnant. I don't think I've ever been so nervous in my life. Heart racing, body trembling, feel like I'm going to throw up kind of nervous. And you know what I realized today? You know what's worse than a young married couple getting the "scare" that they may have "oopsed?" Well that's easy...a married couple with a 2 year old and a 9 month old that has a "scare" that they may have "oopsed!" I think the lady at the cash register wanted to throw up in her mouth as I plopped down 2 pregnancy tests with my cute 9 month old propped up on my hip. I'm not gonna lie- she looked uncomfortable. I mean why wouldn't she be? I look 16, Ky looks like, well, a baby, and I appear to be one serious baby maker. As she says awkwardly, "have a nice day," I want to reply, "that all depends on my urine and if there are two lines or just one." But, I leave my comments to myself. I rushed home and took the test. I think I stared at it for a good 5 minutes just making sure that 2nd line didn't appear in a quick second. Isn't is crazy how our minds can play tricks on us? It all started earlier this week. I had some sciatica pain all day which was random because I only get it when I'm pregnant. I didn't think much of it at the time, but then today I realized I was 3 days late. I flipped out. Then I overthink everything and all of these other "symptoms" seemed to point to pregnancy! Isn't it great that in this day and age I can set my mind at ease with a little stick apparatus?! :) And don't you know it... "Aunt Flow" visited this evening. Boy was I so glad to see her. I guess all of this was payback for me having a preggers friend pee on a stick for me to present it a few weeks ago to Shannon. Payback's a bit...unkind.

Apart of me is a little bummed that it was negative...  I really wanted to use this idea. :)

Cookie, Cookie, Cookie!

The Cookie Monster must have up-chucked a lot! I mean, seriously. I am so sick of Chocolate Chip cookies it's ridiculous. I could care less about another chocolate chip cookie the rest of the year...but if I decide I do want one, by golly, I'm gonna have the best darn tootin' cookie I done did ever bake!

Oh, Pinterest. This all started with you. It's your fault I'm sick right now. A combination of chocolate chip cookie links on pinterest and a few others I've collected over the past years. They were all just screaming at me asking me to bake them. So I did. I baked 8 different batches. I made all of the cookie dough in one night and then I baked them all on a different night. The night I made all the dough, Shannon rolled them all in balls for me and when I say he rolled them all, I mean he ate at least 1/4 of the dough. The last 2 batches...Shannon experienced these as he slept on the floor...He was sick off of dough and tired! :)

I had several "tasters" and to some they were very critical and able to pinpoint which had the best taste and texture while others (including myself the more cookies I had eaten) felt that they all started to taste alike. There were a few I was able to vote out right away but several of them tasted very similar. And so you see, this is why it took me two additional days after that sickening night to let my taste buds rest and try them again. The past two days I've been nibbling here and there and keeping notes. The Verdict? I think I will take 3 recipes and incorporate them all into 1! Ha. So yes, that means technically I need to make one more batch to teste out my combo. You want the break down?

Here is the line-up:

1. The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever (As circulating on pinterest)
2. Pudding Chocolate Chip Cookies (pinterest)
3. Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
4. Nestle Tollhouse Cookie
5. Big & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie
6. Mrs. Fields/Neiman Marcus Cookie (exact same recipe)
7. New York Times Best Chocolate Chip Cookie (Found on pinterest)
8. Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie

Reviews: (In the defense of some of these cookies, I was turning them out so quickly from the oven to a plate that I didn't allow them to set and cool to firm up. Also, they were previously frozen due to the dough being made ahead of time. So I know these won't be completely fair statements, but I still feel they will be pretty close.

1. I am in LOVE with how beautiful these cookies set up. They are light and fluffy. I don't think I've ever had a cookie be so fluffy. What I didn't love is that the dough isn't as sweet as most other CC cookies. If you don't like how rich and sweet chocolate chip cookies normally are, then this is the perfect cookie for you! This cookie has almost half the amount of sugar as traditional recipes. The secret ingredient to this batch? Cornstarch! That's right. The Cornstarch gives it the "lift."
2. You want to know why my cakes are ALWAYS moist? Because regardless of what cake I'm making, I always add a box of dry pudding mix. Now you have my secret. They always come out moist and tasty. Well, I thought for that very reason that I would love these "Puddin' Cookies." I didn't! They had a funny after taste. But, they also are a pretty cookie. Very thick and soft. Maybe I would like a different pudding flavor besides vanilla? I don't know.
3. These were definitely chewy as their title suggests. Friends said they would be the perfect cookie companion for a bowl of ice cream. I think they were right. The weird thing about these: they never formed into a cookie really. I've never seen a CC cookie recipe start with melted butter like this one does... maybe that's because they won't take shape of a cookie very easily? Not a winner.
4. Delicious. Duh! Buttery, rich, soft, deliciousness. What's not to like? I guess I should have saved myself some trouble and left it up to the professionals. Apparently they already found the perfect recipe! haha. These are so good with butterscotch chips.
5. Well, I made them big! That's for sure. They were ok. Not super sweet, not too bland. But I felt like they were just ok. Tasted too "floury" to me.
6. If you love oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, this is the yummiest recipe. I do love this cookie. I've made this recipe many times and love the results. When I baked them this time around, they didn't fluff up as much as they usually do. They are a denser cookie because of the oatmeal but they are delicious.
7. New York Times...well. The cookie was good. I will give them that. But, it was too choclatey for my liking and too much trouble with the different flours and too salty... It had almost double the amount of salt that the other reipes had...and you could taste it.
8. I was interested to try this cookie because I'm not a crisco gal. I'm a butter gal. So I wanted to see how a cookie would turn out with just crisco. Umm...beautiful and super soft! But I did miss the buttery flavor...

So....I decided to take #6 out of it altogether because it is a different thing completely. It's oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. It really is an amazing recipe. If you like oatmeal chocolate chip, this recipe is for you.

As for the rest of them. I had a hard time narrowing it down between 1, 4, and 8. I kept laughing because I kept leaning toward number 4 but didn't want to give up on the other ones because of their great qualities. So, if I had to pick an OVERALL winner it would be... you'll have to watch this clip to figure it out.

However, what I really want to try is using #4 as my base and adding 2 tsp cornstarch to get the lift like #1's cookie and using half butter and half crisco to get the softness of #8 without completely comprimising the butter flavor that I love about chocolate chip cookies. And I do mean real butter...none of this margarine crap!

Today, the final day of testing these cookies, I've felt so sick. You know what I've eaten today? 2 green smoothies, a slice of homemade wheat bread, and chocolate chip cookies. That's it. The cookies have made me feel so sick that I don't want to eat anything! I didn't even eat that much of the cookies. It's been nibbles to compare. But nibbling for the 3rd day in a row is enough to make you want to never look at a cookie again...ok, ok. Maybe just until next month! :)

A Case of The Uglies

So, you know how some kids are just cute? Well, Shannon liked to point out to me that I was the Ugly Duckling that turned into the Beautiful Swan! How romantic, right? He sure does know the right things to say to melt my heart.:)

The age of awkwardness is about to be unleashed. And it would only be fair to include a couple of Shannon, right? I dare you to add a picture of your awkward years to your blog or facebook...unless of course you're the kid who was just always the cutest. In that case, get off my blog. Now! haha. I joke. I kid.

It all started with cuteness:

Me:

 Shann:

And then apparently we were both in weddings and it went down hill from there...

All I can say on the next one is "bahahahahahahaha!" Chubbers and bowl cut?

ummm....cowlick!

Awww Shanny boy....you're decked out in your scouts gear. What a stud! LOL.

Ouch...seriously? What AM I wearing? And what can I say... from day 1 I've always been hair-style challenged. If there's one thing this girl doesn't know, it's how to fix cute hair. This picture is proof.

And last picture...yuck! Shannon, you're lucky your mom didn't send me more of you!

According to him I have really transformed. I would say I definitely look different. That's for dang sure.

This is what I looked like when Shannon finally met me:
(Me and my home girl, Laura. :) Our senior pic)

This is what Shannon looked like his Senior year... He's in the front throwing out the "we're number 1" finger. Man...looking at him in this picture makes my knees weak and my heart skip a beat. This was back when he thought it was still cool to bleach his hair. Now he wouldn't put color in his hair for a million bucks.

This was our engagement photo:

This is what we look like most recently (almost 7 years from the previous picture)

And they lived happily ever after. The end.

Did we go through a case of the uglies? I think maybe. So, I apologize in advance to these two.

It all started out with cuteness...