Home...sans luggage :(

Well, I just got back from visiting my husband in AZ for a week...last night was ridiculous airport hell. The  flight into Tucson was late, therefore our flight out of Tucson was really late - which made me miss the flight back to Sioux Falls. United put me up in a room and gave me a voucher for one meal, but then the shuttle to the hotel was an hour wait - plus the 45 minute ride to the hotel! Oh, and then about 5 other flights got messed up last night about the same time so EVERYONE was trying to go to the same hotel and check into the same hotel...awful.
I finally got to sleep (sorry, but Sleep Number beds are way too complicated) and woke up early this morning to get back to the airport so that I WOULD NOT miss my flight. I went and hung out at the Rocky Mountain USO - so nice! - boarded my practically empty flight back to Sioux Falls, went downstairs to see my mom waiting for me - and NO BAG! Seriously?!?!
That was 12:30, I put a claim through with United, supposedly my bag had other ideas and decided to vacation in MSP...nice. I just hope that by the time it shows up, my stuff is still there - that is EVERY cute summer outfit I have - not to mention all my makeup!
I am just thankful that I decided not to take Oakley on this trip....that would have been bad.

the one and only ... michael buble!

In an attempt to get my mind off the fact that my husband and I have been apart now since Oct. '09, I decided that a girls weekend was in order. Now, I am not one that has a huge gaggle of girls that I hang out with all the time...in fact, I very rarely hang out with anyone other than my family (some say that's sad, but that's just been my whole life). So, when I heard Michael Buble was coming to Minneapolis/St. Paul, I knew exactly who I would go with - my mom and my aunt Cathy!
Cathy had a heart and kidney transplant 2 years ago and we hadn't had a girls weekend since about 6 months before that, so we were all definitely due...
The weekend consisted of shopping, eating(!), shopping, eating, and going to see Michael Buble.

Now even though Cathy has been through the craziest surgery ever, she still has random fears that no one understands...one of those being a fear of walking down balcony stairs scared that she is going to fall and fall all the way down to the lower level...right, completely rational. So we get to our (awesome!) seats and she cannot bring herself to walk down the stairs - all the way through the opening act - Naturally 7 - AMAZING group! Eventually, after a bit of waterworks on my part and some buddying up with the ushers (Tom H - you rock!), she got down there, and the concert was unbelievable!
And I cried - Home...never really paid attention to the lyrics until I am belting them out with Michael Buble, bawling my eyes out! lol. If you haven't heard the song, definitely check it out!
Here's a picture of us girls after the concert!

a little behind...

I sort of fell behind so I will go back a few weeks/months and work my way forward....

Starting with...
CUPCAKES!
So, we all know I have an obsessive love affair with cupcakes and awhile ago I decided to make a batch (not sure even what for, possibly just that they are delicious).
My favorite cupcake recipe uses the Pillsbury Wedding Cake Recipe - some of you may have seen this recipe before, and some of you may be using the stock box recipe (ick). The recipe is as follows:

"Wedding" Cupcakes

1 pkg. Pillsbury Moist Supreme White Cake Mix

1 1/4 cups water

1/4 cup canola oil

3 egg whites

Heat oven to 325°F. Place cupcake liners in 24 wells of cupcake tin. 

Mix cake ingredients according to package directions. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. 

I also like to use this recipe to make two-layer 6-inch cakes...they are so cute and they taste good too!

By the way, Oakley also really loves cupcakes...

A new home for recipes

So, for the past who-knows-how-long I have been collecting recipes that I want to try, have tried, should try, etc. I first started putting them in a notebook, but then once the internet became a recipe madhouse, that wasn't really working. So, I moved on to Word docs...that's a lot of huge files - NOW there is YummySoup! I love this program and it is totally worth the $20 download if you're a foodie like me!

With YummySoup! you can search, sort, and view in full-screen for bringing the Macbook in the kitchen: