HAPPY BIRTHDAY GWYNDOLYN!

Birthday Brunch


Today we celebrated Gwyndolyn's first birthday with a brunch.  We had homemade doughnuts, waffles, English Muffins, Bacon, Eggs, Live Sausage, and Regular Sausage.  It was all so yummy and we got to hang out with lots of awesome friends.  Hopefully I'll have pics up on facebook soon of Gwyndolyn and her New Duke Dress that was super cute.  Thanks for everyone who came out and celebrated with us.  Here are a few pics taken by Kathy, thanks for sharing.

My Name is Amber and I'm a TV Addict

Catch-up on Castle


So I occasionally write in my to-do list time to catch up on my favorite shows.  Hulu makes this easy now...although USA makes it harder ( I missed catching up on White Collar because of new rules) but thats besides the point.  Today I'm catching up on ABC's Castle.  I love this show.  Nathan Fillion is AWESOME as mystery writer Rick Castle.  Plus I like the Buffy tie.  He also played the creeper priest in season 7.  Sometimes they ever reference Joss Whedon, Buffy and Firefly.  I'm an uber-geek and those references make me giggle.  For the Halloween episode of Castle a few years ago he even dressed up as a Space Cowboy...only the truly geek will understand why that still makes me happy.  But the point is, in all the craziness of life don't forget to do stuff that you love.  I love Mystery TV so I make sure to make time to watch it.  Enjoy!

Food Lion Run

Make Grocery List

Since moving home the grocery list has become my responsibility.  Now as you all know I LOVE making lists, however writing a grocery list for 4 adults and 1 baby is a task.  I have to figure out 3-4 dinners that 4 people with different tastes will like and trying to use some of what we have on hand so nothing goes to waste....NOT FUN.  So I say all this to ask for any suggestion on quick and easy dinners...PLEASE SHARE :)

Getting Prepped for the Birthday Brunch

Find Lemon Curd Recipe


For Gwyndolyn's Birthday I'm making homemade doughnuts.  I've decided to fill some with Lemon Curd, which means I have to pour through all my loose papers looking for it....or do I?  Luckily at some point and time I had enough fore-thought to put the Lemon Curd recipe on my Tastebook Account.  This is a niffty little web-page that basically lets you type out all your recipe cards and then have a book printed if you want or you can view them online...and its free until you want to print.  I really must find time to add all sorts of new recipes to it so that one day I can print a Spence Family Recipe book for Gwyndolyn.  But until then, here is the Lemon Curd Recipe that I love:

1½ c. Lemon Juice

8 Lemons (zest of)

8 Eggs

1½ lbs Sugar

12 oz Butter

Mix everything together and heat over low heat until it boils. Strain out and zest.

If you want to see the doughnut recipe I'll be using, Click Here.

Gwyndolyn is a Big Girl Now

Put Gwyn's Big Girl Car Seat In


After asking Cliff to part the new car seat in last weekend.  I put the car seat in all by myself today.  Now this doesn't sound like a big event, except that these car seats are not people friendly.  It look me like 20 minuets to read the pictures in the manual to figure it out.  But its done now and Gwyndolyn is a big girl!  I can't believe she'll be one next Sunday!

Unexpected Fun

Today I was struggling with what to write, then Sarah (my sister-in-law) called and asked if Gwyndolyn wanted to take cousin pictures with some cute little duckies.  When I say cute, you should really read disgusting poop machines.  The fact that I let Gwyndolyn touch one was fairly miraculous.  It was a good time and Sheena Bean took some AWESOME pictures (I'm fairly certain).  So sometimes veering off the to-do list is a good thing.  As soon as I get some pics, I'll share.

Life or what you will

Make Plans for the Future


I had all intents to mail my acceptance paper back to App State yesterday, however.....My mom and I had a discussion and it was made clear to me that I probably still couldn't afford to live in Boone as of this moment in time.  I still have some time to send in the letter so I haven't given up hope for a miracle yet but I started to put some back-up plans into motion.  The real dilemma is I'm not sure if I'ma acting faithfully at this point.  I had been praying for only one option for Grad School and that happened and then I got the letter that I had funding from them.  I really thought that God had opened that door, but after yesterday I don't know.  I don't know if not accepting is not following God's plan for me.  I guess I'll continue to pray and maybe he'll send lighting bolts that spell out exactly where I'm supposed to be.  In the mean time I applied for a full time job with the school system managing the cafeterias....So even though Make Plans seems broad and an endless topic I feel I can cross it off my list :)

My First Post

Create a Blog


I wanted to start writing a blog, but I was never sure what I should write about.  They say you should write about your passion.  I like to cook but there are tons of cooking blogs out there and I also like to be different, so that cancels.  I like to read, but I don't want to write a book report for each book I read, plus the time between posts would be crazy long.  I decided that my real passion in life is my to-do list.  I write one every week without fail.  I've found that I can no longer survive and be productive without one.  So, hopefully everyday I'll be able to post and tell the world something not too terribly boring about my life.  If no one reads it, it will at least provide a great diagnostic tool for when I crack.  I had intended to start this last week when my first week of posting would have been super exciting because I was making a wedding cake.  This week will probably be less interesting but hopefully easier to get in the habit of writing every day.  Enjoy!