Apology

#7.) Write an apology letter, actually mean it, and actually send it!)

This one was a hard one. Not because I wasnt truly apologetic when I wrote the letter, but that I had to get out of my box to write it. I didnt want to rehash anything when I wrote the letter... so it was purely an apology. I am sure there is someone (maybe even a few someones) who you might have some regrets with. Maybe you still have that lingering guilt that weighs over you that you need to apologize for. When I am on my death bed I would like to have no regrets. Life is short. I swallowed my pride (and this is a must for this task) and apologized to someone who is going to open their mailbox in a couple of days and probably be shocked to be getting a letter from me.

Life is short people. If you have a petty fued with someone, or have wronged someone in the past.... let it go and ask for forgiveness. Even if you were not the only person in the wrong... say your sorry! What good does holding on to a grudge do for us? Nothing.

Get out your paper and pen and get to work. You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain!

Save a life

#6.) Do something that could save someone's life.

This was something I didn't even have to think twice about doing. A friend from church, Brittany Horton, was diagnosed with leukemia and will more than likely need to undergo a bone marrow transplant. I have known Brittany since she was a little girl. Her brother and I have been friends since about 5th or 6th grade. When I found out Brittany hadn't found a donor match I knew this was something I wanted to try to test myself for. Tanna, Brittany's sister in law, posted the instructions for the Bone Marrow Bank Testing. I followed the questionnaire and ordered the kit. I got my kit in the mail less than a week later.

After I got the kit in the mail I did the swabs, and was happy to seal that sucker up and send it off. Even if it turns out I am not a match for Brittany, there is always the chance that I could be a match for someone else. How blessed and rewarding would it be to be able to help save someones life. I encourage each of you to order a kit and get tested.... There are so many people that need someone to donate for them. Imagine if it was your little sister, your wife, your daughter!

Here are the directions on how to get a kit. I took this text from my friend Tanna's blog.

You go to this link:

http://www.BeTheMatch.org/join

They will guide you through a health questionaire, etc. It takes about 15 minutes to go through it. Then you put in your mailing info. There is a place where it says PROMOTION CODE and you need to type in "brittanyhorton." They mail you a kit, you do a cheek swab, and then send it in to see if you are a match. I think that is all it consists of.

It is free. They say it takes 100 bucks to put you in the system, so they take donations, but if you cannot afford one then it is for sure free. As long as you are in good health, you can try to be a match.

FYI

I have several new posts to put up. I'm going to work on that today, promise!

Pay it forward

#5) Do something nice for someone in need, for no reason other than the satisfaction of knowing you helped someone.

I would like to think this isn't the first time I have done something nice for someone in need. I would even like to think this wasn't the first time I helped out someone I didn't know very well. Nonetheless, it is something I need to continually get out of the box and do.

I was given the opportunity to help a family move this evening. I met 'J' last week at boot camp (actually we had been at the same get together once before also) and I heard she was in a sticky situation. Due to issues beyond her families control they had to move out of their current house (which they just moved into 2 months prior) and into a new house. The keys to this sad situation were. 1.) They had no A/C in the old house. 2.) She has 3 kiddos. (one of them is only 4 months old) 3.) They were given about a weeks notice they had to find somewhere new to live. 4) Her husband was out of town. I cant even imagine if I was put in the situation where I had to pack up a house and three kids and move all of my belongings without my husband. It just wouldn't be possible. Once I heard about this situation I knew I wanted and needed to help. Luckily we have a 12' x 6' flatbed trailer, a truck, and Mr. Milo's muscles.... so we volunteered to help.

If you are reading this... try to do this task today. Don't make an excuse... just do something nice for someone today.

Ideas welcome...

Have an idea for me, to get myself out of my mommy box?!

Leave me a comment with your ideas. Each month I will pick one idea. Whoever gave me the idea will get something super cool from me.... not sure what yet.... but it will be super cool. ; )

Put a cork in it.

#4) Make a custom bulletin board.

Today was a lazy Sunday, but I did manage to still do something new! I bought this fancy smancy looking frame from ikea that has that french deco look to it for Miss Tooters nursery. After trying to figure out what to do with this frame, I went with the bulletin board idea. All you need for this project is any type of frame that allows you to pop the glass out, some scissors, a pencil, and a roll of cork.

I made a quick stop to Office Max for a roll of cork. Price of that was $13.99 for a roll. I had plenty left over, so you could make several cork boards with 1 roll (depending on the sizes of your frames, obivously).

Step 1. Take the cardboard backing and filler sheet out of your frame.

Step 2. Roll out your cork.

Step 3. Use the filler sheet as a template to cut your cork. Trace.

Step 4. Cut out the cork.

Step 5. After taking the glass out, lay the cork into the frame. I had to do a couple trims to get it to fit.

Step 6. Put the cardboard backing behind the cork. This will hold everything into place and make it more sturdy.

Step 7. Hang up and enjoy your custom bulletin board!

I give it a thumbs up.....

Errrr.....

Ta da!

Can I have fries with that shake?

#3) Make a creative cupcake / dessert.
Today's new activity for myself came from Bakerella ! I love her blog. She has the cutest ideas and makes such fab-u-lous desserts! I always read these blogs and think the things they make are so cute. So, today I decided to try to make something from her site. I'm no Betty Crocker, but I think the end result was good enough to say this mission was a success!

I bought a box mix of brownies, yellow cake mix, a roll of sugar cookie dough, food coloring, and then camped out in my mom's kitchen all evening. The most time consuming part was just waiting for each mix to finish baking. Boy, did the house smell good though!
I baked the brownies first, since they are my fav! I normally bake brownies in an 8x8 pan (with a family size box mix) since it makes the brownies more fluffy! The trick to keeping brownies moist is.... as soon as they are cool enough to cut, cut them & then put them in a Tupperware container. 3 Days later they will still be moist! Anyways, for this project I baked them in a 13 x9 glass pan so they would be thinner.

Next I baked the box of yellow cake mix. I used cupcake liners for most, then ran out so I had to just pour the batter into the pan with a little Pam sprayed on the bottom. The ones with the liners turned out much better in my opinion. I only cooked the pan of cupcakes for 33 minutes @ 350. I didn't want the cupcakes to brown too much.

The hardest part of all of this was making the french fries. I rolled out the sugar cookie dough and it kept sticking to the rolling pin, even though I had covered it in flour. (Bakerella had better ideas for this part). I had to put the pan of cookie dough back in the fridge to harden several times. For some reason the cookie dough wasn't cold enough and in turn was sticky. Finally I was able to cut strips of cookie dough out with a pizza cutter, then I put them on another pan and covered them with sugar. In the oven they went for 8 minutes @ 350. Once they came out I had to cut them again, as soon as they came out of the oven. (if you wait too long to cut them it wont work). This picture was before they went into the oven.

Bakerella had a template on her site on how to make the tray for the meal to go in, as well as the container that held the fries. I printed the red tray part on card stock. I printed the french fry holder on vellum, and I used the tray liner on vellum also. On Bakerella's site she geared hers towards Fathers day.... so I only printed page 1 & 4 of her templates. I started off using a glue stick, but quickly changed to double sided tape. It was much easier to do with double sided tape!

When it came time to make the icing for the ketchup, mustard, and lettuce ~ I used a can of whipped vanilla icing then used food coloring to color it.

I divided the icing into three bowls, then kept adding food coloring as necessary.

When I wasn't looking Nonnie let Miss Tooter get a little too close to the icing. I just know she is thinking.... "Act normal, she will never know I just stole some icing!"

OK, OK, mom.... I ate some! Busted!

After the brownies were done I took a 2" cookie cutter to make the hamburger patty.

Then I put all of the icing in Ziploc bags and cut the bottom to ice the hamburgers.

Ta Da! Bakerella used actual sesame seeds. I used bare naked granola instead.

Finished product!

Since I worked so hard at boot camp, I knew I couldn't eat these happy meals and undue all of my hard work.... soooooo... I gave them away. My sister and some friends stopped by as I was finishing up, so they were the lucky recipients of some hamburgers & french fries!

Since Miss Kristi gave the best only answer to what I was up too today, she wins a $5 gift card to McDonald's. Kristi, send me an email with your address. kkgaskill@yahoo.com

Happy Meal Anyone?

Did you think I had already abandoned my blog?? That I got scared off after one new thing? Pshhh.... I was just too sore to move. Dang bootcamp nearly killed me. My muscles are still rebelling.



Coming soon, my activity for today. My hint is in the title.... here is a sneak peak...



Any guesses what I am doing? If anyone (besides my sister and mom can get it right, I will give you a $5 giftcard to McDonalds!)

Explore.Dream. EXHAUSTION!

#2.) Sign up for 'The Beast's' Boot Camp.... and actually show up!(that last part was key ;) )

bonus: post unflattering makeup-less pictures of yourself for the entire world to see.

2 more things on my list that I can check off now! Woo hoo. Maybe I shouldnt have been so ambitious on my second day.... but my fat butt needed to do it. Yes, I can call myself fat on this blog. It's my blog & I'm saying it in a loving manner. This morning I woke up wondering what I had gotten myself into but I knew part of this challenge to myself was going to be doing things that would push myself. That's the whole point! *Get out of your box, Karen!!*
I got up and started the dressing process. The reason I say 'Process' is because I had to layer about 15 things to hold "the girls" down and to keep any fat from shaking. Hey, just being honest! Once I took a zumba class and when they told us to shake our butt (like Beyonce), i only had to do it one time... then it kept shaking on it's own. Anyways, I put on a normal bra then grabbed my sports bra. I'm thinking this sports bra was probably either my sister's or I wore it when I was like 12. I could barely get it on, and am pretty sure I broke a sweat. After the sports bra, I put on a swimsuit. Yes, you read correctly. I put on a one piece - BLUE - racerback swimsuit to hold everything in place. After this I put on a camisole to hide the blue swimsuit. Then lastly I wore a shirt. I bet you cant guess what happened after I was all done dressing. (and yes, I did wear pants too... I contemplated wearing spandex shorts under the capri pants I was wearing but then decided against it. I thought if we had to call the fire department because I passed out or something they might have to cut off my clothes, and the spandex might have crossed the line) So, I get completely dressed and then realize I had to pee. *Insert not so nice mommy language here* I had to get undressed to pee because of my dang swimsuit. I'm thinking for future purposes of wearing a diaper. I will discuss this more in detail later in my story. :) After I got dressed again I made the comment on my way out that I was nervous because I was already dizzy. All that dressing, undressing, and then squeezing everything back in was tiring.
Once I got to the boot camp I lined up with a bunch of cute skinny girls. You know the kind, that look like a model in workout clothes and without an ounce of make up look like they just came from a photo shoot. Yep, I worked out with them. I'm pretty sure none of them had a blue swimsuit on under their clothes. Seriously though, they were sweet and precious girls. After doing about 15 minutes of working out or so... (at this point I'm dying already) I noticed Tanna walking around the corner with her black belt! Her BLACK BELT PEOPLE!! (yes, she is a black belt) I will be honest with you guys... I think I let an expletive slip out of my mouth. As soon as I saw it I said "what the hell are you getting out your black belt for?!" (sorry to all of my former sunday school teachers) I was scared. Here I was already about to pass out, and the chick gets out her black belt?! (love you, Tanna) She ended up using it to wrap around the girls wastes while they did a crawl type thing across the yard... and she would pull them back for resistence. I didnt do this part... didnt want my blue swimsuit to show. Ok, actually I didnt do this part because I was dead tired... so I pulled on her instead while Tanna did it. As we went thru other parts of the obstacle course I did some jumping jacks, and I think I wet my pants a little. Yep, so the bladder apparently isnt as young as it used to be either. Good thing I had my trusty swimsuit on! Now back to that whole diaper thing... I'm thinking about buying some depends for my next workout. ;) What is one more thing to add for my dressing Process? Ok, no depends for me.... but at least if I had to pee I wouldnt have to get undressed.
After all was said and done I finished... with a few more breaks than the other girls... but I finished!
Whew.... tomorrow I'm thinking my new thing should be a little less physical. Something that can allow my blue swimsuit to rest.

Proof that 1.) I was there. 2) I wore a sports bra & 3.) Yes, I actually did wear a blue swimsuit!



The Beast and her black belt!! Have mercy on us all

You see why I got nervous?! She can hold this pose while kicking this bag. I have trouble getting my foot up high enough to actually hit the bag for a split second. ;)

Explore. Dream. Discover.

Mark Twain:
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

#1.) Make a challenge for yourself to do something new each day & create a blog to chronicle it!

I decided to make another blog. My new blog venture will be public and will chronicle my quest to try something I have never done before, every day! I have already started a list of things I have never tried before, so far I have about 70 things on my list that I cant wait to cross off! I understand being a mom and working can sometimes get hectic, so I'm sure there will be days I miss. It will be my intention to TRY to do something new everyday, take pictures/video of me doing it, then blog about it. As I was sitting watching my mom sew last night I realized I dont do much anymore besides take care of Blakely. I am one of the most laid back people EVER and am completely content most of the time to just hang around the house now. Well, NO MORE! I need to get out of my nice little box I am in, and revert back to the person that used to book a trip across the US on a moments notice.... someone who on a whim up and decided over breakfast at an IHOP in Austin, TX to drive to Colorado just to see the snow, RIGHT THEN! Yep, this mom needs a pick me up... and what better way, then to learn and experience some NEW things. So, today I will mark the first day on this new journey. Today I will do something new! I will create a blog with this self challenge. I hope you will follow along. It would be a blast if some of you did some of these new things along with me.