i miss Memaw.

As you probably all know, I graduated from university last Saturday. I wanted Memaw to be there. She was always so proud of whatever I was doing, or whatever her grand-babies were doing. I put a picture of her on the inside of my grad cap so I could at least see her and pay tribute to that awesome woman. There will never be another like her. I think of her every day and I miss her like crazy. She is always on my mind, but she is especially missed around holidays and special events. I wish she could be here to help me celebrate my birthday, my graduation and Christmas--her favorite holiday. Things are not the same without her.



I love you, Memaw. Thank you for being my prayer warrior. I'm sure you're talking to God about your babies as I write this. I can't wait to see you again. Until then, I'll carry on your legacy by humming and singing constantly and dancing around the kitchen.
I love you. Thank you for loving me like no one else ever could.

rattie.

i might be getting rid of the rat-tail...


in exchange for a duck-tail. the rattie needs to be trimmed regardless.

also, i'm thinking about starting my own blog, because no one ever reads this one...or posts on it for that matter.

biggest loser.

a few of my friends are addicted to watching "Biggest Loser" and were talking about it incessantly while they were over at my apartment the other night...so i showed them this.


they shut up a bit after that.
-j-

Mammaw's Fried Potatoes

I might have cracked the code. Well... I'm getting close at least.

I made fried potatoes yesterday for a visiting friend and we went crazy over them. I seasoned them with Creole seasoning (because it was what I had) but I followed the tried-and-true Mammaw process.

Check it out.

Pumpkin Cupcakes and a Call to Action

Hello, all.

Just in case you don't follow my blog, Is This Thing On?, I wanted to tell you about a little blog contest I've entered.

Last weekend, I made A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Cakes with my college roommate, Kira. We then entered this Pumpkin/Vanilla Swirled cupcake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese buttercream into a cupcake contest called Cupcake Hero.

Cupcake Hero posts an ingredient each month that all cupcake bakers are encouraged to bake into a cupcake in a new and exciting way. This month, the ingredient was pumpkin and the added theme was Halloween. All the pumpkin cupcakes have now been posted to I <3 Cuppycakes' blog and people (like you!) will be able to vote for their favorite cupcakes until October 21st at midnight.

So... if you would... go to the Cupcake Hero post and check out the entries for this month. If you like my Dream is a Wish Your Heart Cakes, then all you have to do is click the bubble beside "Amanda of Is This Thing On?" in the box on the right hand side. No log in, sign in, sign up required.

Thanks, guys!

And... in the interest of full disclosure, voting is totally anonymous, so if you vote for another cupcake, I'll never know! :)

the usual

i feel like all i have to contribute to this blog is pictures anymore. so, here you go.

Thank You Blogpost

In case you haven't seen it, I introduced my KitchenAid mixer to the blogworld today.

Right Here

So thank you, Gramma and Papa, for my awesome new mixer!!! As you can see in the comments on the blog already (4 at the time of this posting), mixers mean a lot to foodie bloggers like me.

This mixer will allow me to beat things and walk away. No more hand mixer that may or may not tip over a bowl of batter when I step away. No more breaks for the right arm or awkward turns taken with the left.

In a word, this mixer is fab.

Check out the other blog for pics!

Blog Reminder

Hello all :)

I just wanted to drop it in to remind you that even though my blogging has slowed down of late, I'm still posting on my main blog.

Today I posted about chocolate chip cookies that have Oreos in them. Now if that isn't the all-American cookie, I don't know what is!

Anyway, add my blog to your readers or your favorites or heck... just memorize the address. But do stop by and comment. I check that blog not unlike an obsessed loon, so I'll see your comments right away.

I hope you are all doing well and getting more sleep than I am!

Here's the address:

www.testone2three.blogspot.com

You can click it or copy and paste it into your browser. It's up on you.

Let's Blog!

Okay family...here's the deal. We are about to be and are already scattered from each other again. Let's get back to posting on here so that we can stay in touch better, as well as, entertain one another:) We all have something to say or show from time to time. For instance me, I still don't know how to put a picture on here but I can certainly tell something of my day. You - you may have a picture that needs to be shown. DO IT!!

So, here's my little story from the day. I asked one my daycare providers for a copy of her fire inspection report. This was something she had already been issued a violation from the last time I was there because she didn't have one done within the past year. She proudly produced immediately a report and I read the date 8/3/2008...wait 2008??? At this point she goes into a tizzy looking all around and finally ends up calling the fire marshall's office to ask them to fax her another report. When they asked her why she didn't have the copy they left, her response was "I don't know. I guess the printer took it." What does that mean??? I decided to text this story to a friend and I think her response was appropriate..."it means they're idiots". Life is full of them, isn't it?

it's been forever...

some pics from this summer so far...

*ian and jess outside Numidia Raceway in Numidia, PA for 4th of July fireworks*

*jess and ian after a trip to Knoebel's themepark with the most amazing ice cream ever*
*george, tristan, jecca and ian at knoebel's on the ferris wheel*
*jecca and tristan at playa cancun*
*jecca and betsy at the stanley house in Bloomsburg, PA*



*sarah, matt, jess and jack back home in NN after the trip to AZ*

*shaquani, jess and sito in AZ*
*i forget his name, jess and sito in AZ*
*jess and sito*
*sarah, matt and jess at the sheraton crescent hotel in phoenix, az*
*miranda, sarah, jess, matt and corey at the sheraton*
*sito, jess and shaquani in the Gap, AZ*
*otis, regan, matt, jess, sito & sarah outside the church in hidden springs, AZ*
*jess, sarah, matt, regan & karen making flatbread for navajo tacos!!*
*matt and jess at Lake Powell, AZ*
<3 jecca

precious.

precious, yea? my friend jordan took this picture of ian and i on friday and my other friend krista did the edit. i thought it was absolutely adorable.

more pics as of late.

this is probably the worst picture i could've posted of my haircut... but it's all i have at the moment. my sideburn looks crunk, but it's actually not. and yes, i have a straight-up rat-tail and 'cuts' on the side. well.... the rat-tail's not straight, it actually curls (and usually to the right), but anyways. these are my new hairs. i'll try to get a better picture soon.

this is me, sitting on an exercise ball, taking stats for intramural basketball. (see how my hairs look normal from the front?) this was also 'dress week'... i don't think i got pictures of all the days, but i wore a dress every day this week to classes and work, etc. you may remember this dress, amanda, as the one you bought for yourself and i stole quite immediately after you brought it home :)

this is tristan's 'jecca' smile. do you see the resemblance? i was quite shocked when ian said, "do the jecca smile!" and tristan produced this lovely cheese right away... i guess he'd been practicing.
S-O-N-I-C... this was a lovely sonic trip around midnight after i had cut the boys' hair for the second night in a row. (jordan, reverend reese, ian, tristan, me and lance) ALSO, why we were there i saw Dan and Pat from church and two other people from PBU. ALSOOOOO, we were driving to this place and someone thought we were going in the wrong direction so we turned aroudn to go opposite for a LoNG time, and then we figured out we just didn't go far enough in the other direction... good thing i got gas before we left.
i went to playwicki on sunday in the blazing 90 degree PA weather and my pitiful cold. i was hoping to sweat the illness out of me... it kindof worked.
me and Jordan!!! also known as Georgina. she's great. i love her.
ok, if that wasn't the most random blog post ever then i don't know what is... back to work, i guess. i'm at dispatch for the next two and a half hours and then i get to go to sleep. i'm excited about that. i love you all.
<3 jecca andrew

Cheesecake Alert

I made a Chocolate/Espresso/Heath cheesecake from scratch as part of the Daring Bakers challenge group I belong to. The blog post went up yesterday, so if you are interested in eyeing some super-deliciousness, you can find it here.

Really. I promise. If you click the word "here" above, all your problems will be sol-ved.

the stanley boys.

Ladies & Gentlemen, I'd like to introduce you to possibly the coolest men ever (besides Dad & Hosh) on the face of the planet: Tristan and Ian Stanley.

We had Stanley Boy Quality Time on Friday afternoon. It was so fun until Tristan got a call from his workout partner and had to leave. Then it became Ian Stanley Quality Time and that was equally as fun.

I love these boys for several reasons: (1) they are boy versions of Amanda and I (Tristan=Me, Ian=Amanda), (2) they are brothers (I love sibling interactions), (3) they have a personal sense of style unmatched by any other PBU'er, (4) and Ian is going to get a rat-tail because of me.


Also, they were both in the school's production of 'the Mikado'. They did great & I love them.
So there you have it. I love the Stanley men.

Now I'm off to the park to catch up on some much needed Vitamin D.
<3 jecca

Can You Keep a Secret? *with updated link*

Neither can I! Well... at least not well... and not for a long time. :)

I'll get right to it.

I have a blog that I post to much much more regularly than this one. So... if you want more Amanda - like, on a daily basis - then meet me over here at Is This Thing On?

What can you look forward to on this new-to-you blog? In a word... cupcakes. And lots of them. I also post the random blog on teaching and whatever else pops into the ol' head.

So maybe I'll see you there? Don't worry... I'm still going to keep up with this blog and post on occasion. :)

VT cupcake

One of my good friends here in Maine is going to a Ph.D. program at Virginia Tech next year, so I made him some Hokie cupcakes.

This is what they look like inside:



Fancy, right? :)

In case you were wondering, this cupcake is brought to you by Alton Brown's Carrot Cake, Cassie's Perfect Cream Cheese Icing, and my own special candy melt hi-hat process.

While I have a signal for the internet... Thought I would share

By the way, that cake is hilarious.

I had to share the dream I had last night.

I think maybe it was the fact that I had talked to Anita and it had been on my mind that it was two years yesterday that Mammaw passed away. Or maybe it was the night-time cold medicine I took before bed. It's a toss up. A bit of background before I go into the whole dream. Two days ago, I cleaned off my nightstand that had all of my jewelery on it. I put the jewelery in random places, etc. But the point being, there was no more jewelery on my nightstand. Last night, I had a dream that Mammaw was talking to me and telling me that I "had to put the pin on my purse." I was so confused because I didn't know what pin she was talking about. I knew it was one of the pins that had been hers, but I was very confused. She kept saying it over and over again, and that's all she was saying. "Tina, put the pin on your purse." When I finally asked her what pin she was talking about, she said, "You know which one. I love you." And I woke up. It was only like five in the morning when I woke up, and I went back to sleep not thinking a thing about it.

This morning when my alarm went off, I cut it off only to knock something off of my nightstand. When it hit the carpet, I cut my light on to find Mammaw's Rhinestone Turkey Wish bone pin on my floor. My jaw dropped. Needless to say, I put it on my purse. :) Maybe it was Mammaw's way of telling me to make a wish.. Or maybe I slept walked and picked up the pin. WHO KNOWS. All I know is, I am rocking a rhinestone turkey wishbone pin circa 1970 on my patchwork purse.

I love you all!!!
Tina

This one's for you, Grandaddy!

One of the blogs that I keep up with on a regular basis posted something extraordinarily good today.

Apparently someone tried to recreate a well-known basketball logo on a cupcake cake.

It didn't work.



Sure the thing doesn't have a nose and one back paw mysteriously merged with a front one, but what really gets me is the fact that they couldn't even straighten out the UK. What's up with that?!

I guess... the colors are nice?

Anyway, if you're still lost and not yet laughing, here's the logo in real life:



Oh goodness. Does it make anyone else want to try to make this Wildcat cake the right way?

Anyway, go on over to CakeWrecks if you want to see more really bad cakes. :) They do a new post every day, and on Sundays they post cakes that are actually aesthetically pleasing.

Oh, and Cake Wrecks only shows professional cakes, so someone got paid to make that disaster of a cake.

Yeah. I know.

spring break smathering.

SPRING BREAK 2009
woohoo!!!!
katie and i did a bunch of things but i didn't take too many pictures. anyways, here are a few to whet your appetite.

dad let me and katie climb up with the muffler man. i'm not a huge fan of heights.

my costume after josh's show at Buddha's Place. i look a little too happy... but it's probably just because i was at home :-D
some random pirate/muffler man on our way down to VA. i think this was somewhere in delaware. i had to jump a fence to get to him, but it was so worth it.
matt gerdin took some pictures of me and katie on wednesday. here's one of them. there were about 100 more, but i figured i'd just give you all a little taste. hopefully i'll post some more later.
<3 j