Vacation !

We have vacation coming up soon. The planning for this trip was done so far in advance and then it slowly fell apart as the time got closer. The trip is still on but it is not at all what we had originally planned. I know that regardless, those that love us will make time for us and those that don’t really care will be revealed.

Our plan is to head down to NC on Friday night, spend the weekend there and then head to Florida on Sunday night. We will spend three days in Orlando, the last of the three in Legoland. Then we will be meeting Jose’s mom and sister for Thanksgiving and then heading back up to NC to finish off our trip and heading back to RI. There are still some unsettled plans but I am sure that it will be a blast because I will not allow it not to be…lol.

I can’t wait to see Legoland. We had originally planned to do Disney but the cost was much higher than I had expected. Since CJ is a Lego fanatic (that is putting it mildly), it also seemed like the right place to go. I, myself, love Legos too and still enjoy them to this day. Jose’s logic is that CJ might outgrow Legos soon and then that will be out of the question but nobody outgrows Disney so we can go any other time. He has a point but I don’t see CJ outgrowing Legos anytime soon.  The better news is that if CJ really loves it, they are opening a Legoland in Boston, MA next year so we can visit the one right near us.

After this trip, I will have concentrate on Christmas and then…the wedding !

Wedding Hotel

We have the hotel that we will be staying at for our wedding. We will be staying there, it's where we hope our guests will stay and it's also on the beach that we will be getting married on. Originally we were going to get married on Driftwood Beach but we have found that it's very tricky to pinponit the point of day when lowtide is and it's also very limited to space. We are trying to keep the wedding as small as possible but we all know that even our small is not very small. I hear that anything over 30 people would be too crammed and we have over 50.

We have been in constant communication with the wedding planner at The Hampton Inn by Hilton on Jekyll Island and she is amazing. Miriam has been able to help with every question that I have had. I would love to have the reception there at the hotel as well but Miriam is worried that we will not have enough room, especially if it rains. Our plan is to visit in May 2014 for the weekend and spend that weekend with Miriam going over plans. If we can't have it at the hotel, she will help us find a suitable place for us to have our reception.

I will post pictures of the hotel when I get a chance.

Life

Life takes you on twists and turns. Before you know it, you are on a road that you never imagined. I spend some time reading old posts today. I have certainly had my share of hiccups in the road. I am happy to say that Jose and I have weathered the test of time through it.

Unfortunately, my relationship with my daughter is....goodness, I don't even know what you would call it. I guess it's not bad but it is far from good. This past year has been a roller coaster with her and I am happy that we are at least on the terms that we are. She is currently living with her boyfriend, Brandon. I will refrain from saying too may bad things. She is a teenager. She thinks she knows more than I do. She thinks I don't understand what it is like to be her. She is wrong.

Nathan is still struggling with school. He has been on meds and I cringe at the thought that report cards are coming home next week. I am pretty sure that I am not ready for that.

CJ loves school. He has come a long way from the boy who wouldn't speak..lol. He is such a boy. He loves being outdoors, playing in the dirt, and coming home with holes in his jeans. He says he doesn't like math but he is a wizz at it. He also loves to read.

Our wedding plans have been updated. We are getting married on Jekyll Island, GA. I will give you more info when I have more time.

We are currently planning our trip to NC/FL for this Thanksgiving....a trip that almost wasn't going to happen but we went over finances closely and we can make it happen. We were going to take CJ to Disney but that just is not in our budget right now. So we are taking him to Legoland instead. This trip has evolved so many times that I am shocked it's still happening. Josie and Kevin split up and they are getting divorced. That alone has left me feeling sad. As I have watched their relationship unravel though, I realize that it is probably for the best. They are putting each other through so much pain. So our plans to stay with them we canceled of course. Vanessa had surgery last week so my mother-in-law is currently in FL. Vanessa also does not have room for us for Thanksgiving because she has roommates now. It has been a whirlwind. I am trying to stay focused on all the good that is waiting for us on our trip though. Ilga is excited for us to spend time with her. We will get to see Nina & Rob, Amanda & Chris, Paula, Gen & Shannon, Laurel & Scott and...and who knows. We have some pretty amazing people in NC waiting for us to visit.

So that has been what has been going on. Some good, some bad.

Tomorrow is Halloween so maybe I will have some pictures.

News & Updates

Damn, it's been a long time since I have been on here.I am not going to make excuses, it is what it is. Glad to be back though.

I will start by telling you that Jose and I are engaged. He gave me the ring on 5/22 and it is beautiful.

We are getting married 5-10-15. Jose picked the date and is firm. So happens that it is Mother's Day too but we are ok with that. There are also two birthdays that day, Jean Carlo and Bora...so we will have to do something special. It is going to be a destination wedding. Where you ask? Not positive yet. Round and round we go but where we stop, nobody knows...lol. That seems to be the big joke. Originally it was going to be St Augustine, FL. It's such a gorgeous place but it is an hour from the airport and we started thinking that might be an issue. I had a bed & breakfast lined up until the wedding planner there decided he only needed to get back to me when he wanted. We were going to go to the Hilton, which is beautiful but the price per plate was $150 and that is beyond what we can pay. So we started looking in airport locations in Florida but found nothing that really stuck out at us. That led us to look at other places.

There are three things that are not changing. The date is going to be 5-10-15, it is going to be on the beach and it is not going to be in RI. With that being said, we have entertained ideas in Virginia Beach VA, Myrtle Beach SC, Swan Island NC, back to Virginia Beach and now Ocean City, MD. Here is what I know. I really loved the idea of a bed & breakfast because we would all be together in one place, be able to spend time together but still have our rooms to retreat to. But there don't seem to be any bed & breakfasts big enough to have us all together or in locations that we want...namely on a beach. I like the Hilton in St Augustine because although it was a hotel, it has beautiful unique rooms. It doesn't just look like a regular hotel that you would stay at on vacation. I want something that fits our theme and is pretty. We even played around with the idea of renting a big house on the beach and just doing everything there. I have to admit that it sounded so good. We even found a place that might have worked but I don't want to be responsible for taking money from people for our wedding. It would just be too much stress on top of everything else. So our search continued.

Ocean City seems to have what we are looking for in all areas. As we started to really figure things out, we realized that we will need to drive. We will have way too much to transport to put it on a plane and paying for our family to fly would be crazy. So MD fits that issue perfectly. Ocean City has a hotel called Dunes Manor. It is right on the beach, another plus. This hotel is family owned and has some of the features of a bed & breakfast that I love. They have areas where we can congregate and spend time together. It has four restaurants where we can have breakfast together. It has tea time where everyone gets together again and in the evening they have a woman who plays the piano for another chance to gather with family, friends and staff. And although it is a hotel, it does not have a hotel feel. The rooms have been done in beach colors and they are bright an beautiful. Each room has an ocean view and a grand entrance that would make for some amazing wedding pictures.

So looks like it is MD for now. I really do love it and I hope that this is our final spot. I will keep you guys posted on more information as things get finalized.

Inspiration

This is what I am dreaming about my bedroom looking like:

Brownies, Brownies & Brownies

So I have become quite obsessed with brownies in particular. I found this recipe for brownie covered oreos and it has led me down a dark, dark path...lol.

It's simple. All you need is a pkg of oreo cookies and a box of brownie mix (plus whatever your brownie mix calls for). You make your brownie batter as the box tells you, then you dunk each oreo (one at a time) into the batter and let the access drip off and place one oreo in each muffin spot of a greesed muffin pan. Bake @ 350 for 12 minutes and they are done. As soon as they come out of the oven, you need to take a knife and go around the oreo or it will stick. Then allow to cool and remove. They are so cute. See the obsession? :o)

So I made my first batch. They came out perfect and I brought them to work. Everyone loved them so I started to think about the variety that I could do here. I got some great suggestions about the Halloween Oreo and the Christmas Oreo but they would taste the same so I was anxious to try the mint ones.

So I got my box of brownie mix:

and my mint brownies:

And made my new brownies:

What I have learned is that cooking spray is no good for these. It comes over the brownie and makes the brownie crisp around the edges as you see in these. Not my best batch but you get the idea.

Once I finished all the mint oreo cookies, I still had batter so I used up the regular oreo cookies too. But how was I going to tell them apart? I mean not everyone likes mint so I had to be able to say which ones were which. I heated up some white cocolate and drizzled it over the regular oreo cookies so that I could tell them apart. To my surprise, I still had batter left over (maybe I shouldn't have bought the family size brownie boxes...lol). So I looked around my kitchen and found this:

I bought the no salt added peanut butter and the family hates it. I thought that by adding it to the extremely sweet brownies that it would be offset but I don't think I was successful. I created these:

So when I was done, here was the trio that I had to offer:

In order they are brownie covered mint oreo cookies, brownie covered regular cookies with white chocolate drizzled on it and peanut butter brownies. Aren't they pretty?

Pictures

Yesterday I promised you pictures. I think that this all started when I took the cake decorating classes. It was four weeks for the first course and these were my projects.

The first week we practiced on cookies. Here is my favorite cookie that I decorated:

Then we did our first cake, sorry for the blurry picture.

And then we made cupcakes with different tips we learned how to use. I really hated that blue one. Some of the girls did such a great job but mine was horrible.

The last thing we did was our final exam cake which I am really proud of:

It appears as though I got the bug to make things after that. I made cupcakes for Jose's birthday.

then I made cupcakes for my neice, Brooklyn's birthday.

Then I made cake pops just because I felt like making them

And finally the girls at work started to get spoiled and started requesting things. This was the first strange creation.

These are chocolate cookie covered s'mores. They were not the easiest thing to make but once I got the hang of them, they were not that bad. They were a hit at work.

So this was the beginning of my baking obsession. That is what my daughters says. She says that I have become obsessed. I am just happy to have people appreciate what I do. Everyone at work has been happy with all my treats and it is wonderful to get such great feedback.

I will do another post on my brownie creations.