Number 1 in the Nation

As of this morning, the CSU-Pueblo Thunderwolves are ranked as the number 1 Division II football team in the country!  They finished their regular season this past Saturday with another victory which gave them an overall record of 11-0...UNDEFEATED!!...and won them the title of 2011 RMAC Champions!!

It's hard to express exactly how I feel.  This season has been such a whirlwind.  It's been so fun to sit in the stands each Saturday and cheer for the players and coaches who have all worked so hard to make this dream of theirs come true.  And yet, on some level, I think I knew from the start of the season that we would be here at the end.  

I'm so proud of Paul and all that he has accomplished with his team.  I'm incredibly happy for him; that he gets to experience something so special.  I may be biased, but I can't think of anyone who deserves it more.  And I feel blessed to be the one who has had the privilege of standing beside him throughout it.  I'm thankful for our family who have traveled for games, cheered us on, supported us, followed our progress throughout the season, and taken such an interest in 'Pack' football.  But most of all, I can't stop thinking about how God had a plan for us when he sent us to Pueblo, and although it was hard for me to see what it was at the time, I know now.  He is truly amazing.

Coach Wristen, the head coach of the team, said something to me after the game that really stuck with me.  He told me to enjoy this moment because it's such a rare and special thing to have an undefeated season, and as a coach/coach's wife, you may never get one again.

So that's what I'm doing~soaking it all in and enjoying the moment.  Playoffs will start soon and I can't wait to see what else the Thunderwolves can accomplish!

I'll leave you with a few pics from Saturday's RMAC Championship game...

final score

the RMAC championship plaque

coach wristen giving a celebratory speech

paul with one of his defensive linemen

the dads with their sideline passes

2011 Schedule

I've had a lot of people ask me for CSU-P's game schedule for the rest of the year, so I thought I would post it here.

Thursday 9/1 @ West Texas A&M ~ WIN

Saturday 9/10 Northwestern Oklahoma State @home ~ WIN

Saturday 9/17 @Adams State ~ WIN

Saturday 9/24 Fort Lewis @ home ~ WIN

Saturday 10/1 @ Chadron State ~ 1:30 PM

Thursday 10/6 Colorado School of Mines @ home ~ 6:00 PM

Saturday 10/15 @ Nebraska-Kearney ~ 12:00 PM

Saturday 10/22 Colorado Mesa @ home ~ 6:00 PM

Saturday 10/29 @ New Mexico Highlands ~ 6:00 PM

Saturday 11/5 Western State @ home ~ 2:00 PM

Saturday 11/12 Western New Mexico @ home ~ 2:00 PM

GO PACK!!!

Bullet Points

I've been a bad blogger lately.  BAD!  So I thought I would catch you all up on what's been going on in our life...with bullet points.  Yay!

• Pueblo is finally starting to feel like home.  We've been here for almost 4 months and I'm just now able to find my way around town without getting lost (ok, I still get lost sometimes, but I'm getting a lot better!).  We're completely unpacked and settled in our townhome, we've found two churches that we like, and we're starting to make a few friends.  Making new friends is hard.  Bleh.

• I really miss our friends in Boulder (see above), especially now that the season has started.  It was so nice having a group of gals whose husbands worked the same crazy schedule as Paul and who I could count on for a fun night of dinner, drinks, and girl-talk when all of our husbands were working late or out of town on a Friday night.

• I am currently sitting alone on my couch with a case of Bud Light on a Friday night while my husband is recruiting at a high school football game.  Boo.  At least I have some time to blog now!

• Paul's football team is 3-0 so far this season woohoo!  I've been having so much fun cheering them on the past few weeks.  They really are a talented team.  Tomorrow is our homecoming game against Fort Lewis.  The three games after that will probably be the toughest of the season.  I'm crossing my fingers for some big wins.  Go Pack!

• I got a new job!!!  I'm so excited about this, in case you couldn't tell from the triple exclamation marks.  I'm teaching preschool at a low-income elementary school in town.  It's the first job I've had in a long time where I feel like I'm actually doing something.  I just finished up my second week and I LOVE IT.  The kids keep me on my toes, but they are so much fun and they are just the cutest!

• I went to Austin, TX over Labor Day for my sister's bachelorette party (that trip deserves it's own post).  We had so much fun and were SO sad to leave.  I hadn't seen my sister in six months before that trip and I decided that is simply too long to go without seeing her.  I miss her so much already!  Good thing I'll be seeing her in a little over a month for her WEDDING!!!  I'm so excited I can hardly see straight.  Until then, I'll be dedicating all of my spare time to trying to figure out how to make boutonnieres. 

• I lost my iphone in Austin.  little purse+slippery phone+lots of drinks=recipe for disaster.  And I hadn't backed it up to my computer in well over a year.  So, not only did I lose my phone, but I lost all of my contacts, music, pictures, calendar...you know, my whole life.  Isn't it funny how much we rely on a little piece of technology?  I feel like I still haven't recovered.

Well, that's about all that's going on around here.  What's new with you?

Chicken Enchiladas Suizas

These enchiladas are the BEST!  My sister made them for me and Paul the first time she came to visit us in Auburn and I absolutely fell in love.  Since then, it has become my go-to dish to make when we have company.  The recipe comes from a cookbook called Colorado Collage which is from the Junior League of Denver.

Chicken Enchiladas Suizas
(8 servings)


6       boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 1.5 lbs total)
1       tablespoon butter
1       cup chopped onion
1       green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and chopped
1       red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and chopped
8       ounces grated cheddar cheese
1       4-ounce can diced green chiles
1       cup purchased green chile salsa
1/2    cup chopped fresh cilantro
4       teaspoons cumin
2-3    canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce ( I usually don't put these in because I don't like the flavor)
         salt and freshly ground black pepper
12-15   7-inch flour tortillas 
10     ounces Monterey Jack cheese, grated
1       cup whipping cream
1/2    cup chicken broth
         Garnish: 

         chopped avocado
         chopped tomato
         chopped fresh cilantro


Place chicken in pan of rapidly boiling water to cover, and simmer 15-20 minutes.  Remove from heat, drain, cool, and shred chicken.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a medium skillet, melt butter over medium heat.  Cook onion and bell peppers until just soft, 5-8 minutes.  Transfer to large bowl.  Add chicken, cheddar cheese, green chiles, salsa, cilantro, cumin, and chipotle chiles, if desired.  Season with salt and pepper to taste and mix well.


Grease 10x15x2-inch baking pan or 2 smaller pans.  Place one flour tortilla on flat surface and place about 1/3 cup chicken mixture along 1 edge.  Roll up from filling side, and place, seam side down, in prepared pan.  Repeat process with remaining chicken mixture.  Sprinkle Monterey Jack over enchiladas.  (May be prepared to this point up to 1 day in advance.  Cover and chill.)


Combine cream and chicken broth and pour over enchiladas.  Cover pan with foil and bake 30 minutes.  Remove foil and continue baking 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated.  Place 1 or 2 enchiladas on individual serving plates and garnish with avocado, tomato, and additional cilantro, if desired.


Enjoy!

Feeding the Team

Last week we had Paul's players over for dinner.  When discussing what to serve, Paul requested that I make Chicken Enchiladas Suizas.  I happily obliged, as I've made these enchiladas for guests in the past and they're always a hit.

But then I started thinking about how many enchiladas I would need to make.  We had 20 people coming over, so I figured 2 enchiladas per person.  That would be 40 enchiladas total.  That's a lot of enchiladas.  Or, at least I thought that was a lot, until Paul reminded me that these were not normal people coming over for dinner, they're college football players.  College football players who rarely get home-cooked meals and who would be coming straight from a long day of practice.  He suggested that I plan for 4 per person.  I quickly did the math...

20x4=

80


Um, 80?   yikes!

I was terrified a little nervous.  I mean, I consider myself to be a fairly good cook, but making that much food is just intimidating.  Especially since I only have one oven.  But, I am happy to report that after 2 straight days of cooking, the whole dinner went off without a hitch!

Here's the full menu:

Chicken Enchiladas Suizas
Green Salad with Beans, Corn, Tortilla Strips and Spicy Ranch Dressing
Tortilla Chips with Salsa, Guacamole and Queso
Monster Cookies

Unfortunately, I don't have a ton of pictures because I was too busy running around, but here are a few that I did snap...

At exactly 7:30 pm, a herd of defensive linemen busted through my front door and headed straight for the kitchen.  Thank heavens the food was ready or we would have been in a world of trouble!

I had so much fun meeting all of these guys!  I've been hearing about them for 6 months now, so it was nice to finally put faces with names.  They were all so polite and sweet.  One guy even told me that I needed to stop by the school and teach the people that work in the cafeteria how to cook :)  Love!

These guys really are Paul's world right now.  He spends so much time with them and sincerely cares about each and every guy.  It made me happy to see what a great group of guys he's working with!  I can't wait to cheer them on this season :)

Happy First Day of Football!

Fall practice camp started for the Thunderwolves today, which means football season has officially arrived.  I celebrated the occasion by bringing these red and blue treats to Paul's office this evening :)

As I've mentioned before, this time of year is always a little bittersweet for me.  While I love football season, it also signals the end of summer which makes me sad. 

This year will be interesting because we're at a new school in a new town and I can't wait to see what game day is like down here.  It will definitely be different as this is Paul's first year coaching at the Division II level rather than Division I.  I think one of the biggest challenges for me will be getting used to the fact that there is no instant replay during the games haha!  Oh man, I'm really gonna have to pay close attention.  I'll have to limit myself to three beers before games instead of my usual four.

I can tell you that I've been to games all over the country, from the SEC to the Big 12, high school to NFL, and everything in between, and one thing I know for sure is if it involves football, it's a good time!

This year I'm looking forward to...

* Watching my first game in the Thunderbowl.  It's a red-out and they're going to have fireworks.  I LOVE fireworks.

* Tailgating-always a favorite of mine.

* Cooking dinner for the D-line and really getting to know all of Paul's players.

* Watching College Game Day on Saturday mornings.  There's really nothing better.

* Friends and family coming to visit on home game weekends.

* Traveling to some road games.

* Hopefully winning the RMAC.

Tell me, what are you looking forward to this football season?  Do you have a go-to tailgating recipe?  Where do you like to shop for game day attire?

Table Rock Lake

A few weeks ago, Paul and I went to visit his parents in southern Missouri.  They live on Table Rock Lake which, for those who don't know, is one of my very favorite places. 

Table Rock is so special to us: it's where Paul's parents went on their honeymoon (camping-love that), where Paul vacationed with his family every summer growing up, where we spent our first vacation together with our families (we were 18), and where we've made countless memories with family and friends. 



my first trip to Table Rock ~ 2002



And when Paul's parents retired a few years ago, they moved down there full time, which means we can visit any time we want.  Yay!

This year we road tripped it down there for Memorial Day.  It's a 12 hour drive which might seem long to some, but we don't mind.  Especially if it means Oscar can come along :)

The first night we were there, Bob and Mary had everyone over for a cookout.  Paul's aunt, uncle, and cousins were in town for the weekend too and it was so fun to see them.

This is the view from Bob and Mary's deck.  It's so peaceful.

The next day we went out on the boat all day but I didn't take any pictures.  boo.

But take a look at this picture...

On New Year's Eve this year,  Bob and Mary's neighborhood was hit by a tornado.  Luckily it didn't do any damage to their house, but it completely destroyed their dock and did a lot of damage to their boats.  This is actually a picture of their neighbor's dock.  Crazy huh?

On Memorial Day we took the fishing boat out to see if we could catch anything.  Unfortunately, the fish weren't biting.  Paul caught one, but he was the only one.

That night we boated over to Big Cedar Lodge for dinner.  It's one of our favorite spots on the lake.

For our last day, we decided to canoe the Buffalo River.  I've only done this twice before, but it's always so much fun.



Bob & Mary

 

Paul does most of the rowing hehe

 

swimming across the river





And then I saw this...two snakes (I think they're Water Moccasins) nose to nose in the water.  Eeekk!!  I get the chills every time I look at this.



Toward the end of the trip, Paul and I were talking about how awesome we were because we hadn't tipped our canoe once.  Well, we spoke too soon because about 5 minutes later, we hit a rock, tipped the canoe, and were swimming downstream haha.

The next day we had to head home.  We had such a great time, as always, but it's never long enough.  Luckily we're going back later this summer!  I already can't wait.

I'm Back

Whoa, I sort of fell off the face of the Earth for a while there!  Sorry about that ;)

Paul and I are officially Pueblo residents.  We found a little condo to rent and moved in two weeks ago.  We've been busy settling in, unpacking (me), and working (him).

My impressions of Pueblo so far:

* The people here are very friendly.  Everyone from Paul's co-workers to the lady pumping gas next to me at the Loaf 'N Jug have been nothing but nice.

* It has a small town feel.  Pueblo technically has a larger population than Boulder, but it feels so much smaller.  It's the kind of place where everyone knows everyone.

* The cost of living is lower than Boulder.  Rent, gas, food, alcoholic beverages..all cheaper than what we're used to.  SCORE! 

* It's very desert-y.  I don't really feel like I'm living in Colorado-it feels more like New Mexico.  Maybe that's because New Mexico is less than 100 miles south of here. ha!

So far I really am enjoying it here, other than being a little lonely when Paul's at work.  We definitely miss our friends in Boulder, but in time we'll make some new ones here.  It just feels so good to finally be living with hubs again!

I'll be back later this week with recaps of two trips we took before me moved and maybe even a tour of our new home.  Until then, here's a little sneak peek of each...

Have a great week! 

Roller Coaster

A recap of the past two and a half weeks:


Paul's parents came to Boulder to help us pack up our house (we had to be out by May 1st).

We found a house to rent in Pueblo that we loved!

That same day, Paul was offered a job coaching defensive line at a Division II school in Texas.


We held off on signing the lease in Pueblo.


It seemed that Paul would most likely take the job in Texas.


We continued to pack.

I got really excited about moving to Texas and started making plans.


Paul turned down the job in Texas.  He did so for many good reasons and I supported his decision, but now I was confused.


We called about the house in Pueblo and found out it had already been rented.


I cried for a day because I felt like my life was in shambles.


Then I told myself to get over it.


We moved out of our house in Boulder and put all of our belongings in a storage facility in Pueblo.

I moved in with my parents.


I had an epiphany that I would rather live in a box and be unemployed in Pueblo than live without my husband any longer.


I put in my "three weeks notice" at work.  My last day is May 27th.

I got excited about moving to Pueblo...all over again.


Whew.  It's been a roller coaster, that's for sure.  There have been times that I've questioned God's plan for us and why certain things happened the way they did.  But the crazy thing is, after going through all of these twists and turns, I am more convinced now than ever, that we're right where we're supposed to be.  This was the push I needed to finally be ready to take this next step.  I now feel totally confident about this move and I have a peace that I didn't have before. It's a wonderful feeling!  That doesn't mean that there won't be more bumps down the road, but it's nice to know that  no matter what happens, everything will work out the way it's supposed to.

Life Ain't Always Beautiful

Okay, I feel like Debbie Downer lately..

I just feel like 2011 is kickin my butt.  I know I shouldn't complain, because things could be waaaay worse.  I'm just going through a rough spot.  Does that ever happen to you?

I'm trying to stay positive, but every time things seem like they're looking up, something happens that brings me right back to where I started. 

God is trying to tell me something......  I'm just not sure what it is.

Today it all came to a head.  I honestly felt like I needed to crawl into a hole and live there forever; like I couldn't handle one more thing.  I was feeling sorry for myself.  Ick.

But then I heard a song on the radio that gave me a little attitude shift.  I've heard this song before and I've always liked it, but today it really hit home.

Life Ain't Always Beautiful ~ Gary Allan

Life ain't always beautiful

Sometimes it's just plain hard

Life can knock you down, it can break your heart

Life ain't always beautiful

You think you're on your way

And it's just a dead end road at the end of the day

But the struggles makes you stronger

And the changes make you wise

And happiness has its own way of takin' its sweet time

No, life ain't always beautiful

Tears will fall sometimes

Life ain't always beautiful

But it's a beautiful ride

What a beautiful ride!

Moving Right Along

Guess what?

We found someone to rent our house in Boulder!  Hip Hip Hooray!

I'm gonna miss this old house :(

I was worried it might be hard to find someone to take over our lease, but less than 30 minutes after listing it on Craigslist, we already had people setting up appointments to view it.  Twelve days later, the new lease was signed.  It was that easy.

Getting that lease signed was a huge relief, but it also made the impending move that much more real.  The new tenants are moving in on May 1st which gives us two weeks to pack up all of our worldly possessions and find a new home.  YIKES!!! 

That's enough to make anyone go into panic mode.  But I'm not freaking out...yet.  I like to think of myself as an expert packer.

Okay, that's a lie.  Paul and I have never really packed our own stuff-we've always hired a team of experts to do that for us (read: mom, dad, Bob and Mary).  Seriously.  When we moved from Boulder to Auburn, Paul and I were in Las Vegas on a trip we had planned months earlier and our parents packed all of our stuff for us while we were gone.  Then when we moved from Auburn back to Boulder, Paul was already living and working in Boulder and couldn't help pack.  Our parents flew out to AL and packed up all of our stuff while I finished up my last week of work.  Oh, and I should probably mention that they drove the moving van across the country with us both times. 





Best. Parents. Ever. 

And lucky for us, they signed themselves up for another packing party next week!  Although, Paul and I will be a little more involved with this one.  We are so blessed.

The thing that is making me a little nervous is finding a new home in Pueblo.  Everything we've looked at so far has made me want to cry.  I'm going down there this weekend and I'm making it my mission to find something habitable.  I'll be back next week with a full report.  Wish me luck! 

April 8th

Four years ago today, on Easter Sunday, my first and only true love asked me to marry him.  It's a day I will never forget for as long as I live.

We had just graduated college and had been living in Alabama for a little over two months.  I knew we would get married someday; I'd known since I was sixteen years old (I wouldn't have moved across the country with him otherwise) but I didn't know when it would happen.  We had never looked at rings or discussed the topic in too much detail.  I figured we would take some time to adjust to life in Alabama before we even thought about that next step.  To say I was surprised would be a huge understatement!

A few days before Easter, I was feeling a little blue.  I was sad about having to spend the holiday away from my family.  I've always been big on holidays and family traditions.  Every year we would go to Mass, have brunch, and my mom would hide eggs and a basket for me, my brother, and sister (yes, even when we were grown adults).  With this in mind, I kept asking Paul if he thought the Easter Bunny would come visit us in Auburn.  He would laugh and say no.

On Easter Sunday morning, I woke up to find one shiny plastic egg on the floor.  I picked it up and looked at Paul who was smiling at me.  I asked him what this was all about and he said he had no idea.  I opened the egg and found a little piece of paper inside with a note written on it.  It said:

At this point, I just thought Paul was being sweet and hiding eggs for me like my mom always did.  And I was so in to it!  Each egg had a clue inside that led to the next.  I began racing around our tiny apartment looking for eggs.  And let me tell you, they were not easy to find!  Paul was following me and laughing the entire time because I probably looked like a total dork.

I finally found the last clue that led to my Easter basket.  The basket had some goodies in it and one final egg.  I opened the egg and here's what I found:

I turned around to look at Paul and found him down on one knee with a beautiful ring in his hand!  I think I said something along the lines of, SERIOUSLY??? and before he could answer me I was jumping in his arms and screaming YES!  He put the ring on my finger and we shared some hugs, tears, kisses and laughs. 

It was such a perfect proposal.  I couldn't have even dreamed anything better.

Happy engagement anniversary Pauly, I love you!

winning-duh

Look what I got in the mail this week...

Sweet Katie of it's in the details hosted a giveaway a few weeks ago and I won!  I never win!  Can you tell I'm excited?  I am now the proud owner of Black Heels to Tractor Wheels-signed by PW herself, I might add!-and some super cute personalized stationery.  I just finished part one of the book and it already has me totally entertained.  It's a fun and easy read.

Getting this little package in the mail put a huge smile on my face.  Thanks again Katie!

On the Road Again

If you read my last post, you saw that Paul got a new job in Pueblo, which means...

THE CREIGHTONS ARE MOVING.......AGAIN!

There are certain things you just come to expect when your husband is a college football coach.  Moving is one of them.  This will be our third move in four years.  And even though we've come to expect it, that doesn't make it any easier.  You know that saying, when life hands you lemons, make lemonade? Well we're makin' some serious lemonade over here!

Ok, so maybe that's a little dramatic, but truth be told, I'm not exactly doing back flips at the thought of moving to Pueblo, Colorado.


But that's ok.  Because one thing we've learned from all this moving around is that sometimes the place you end up loving the most, is the one place you never thought you would.  It's all about your attitude and the people you surround yourself with.  I seriously think I could be happy living in Antarctica as long as I had Paul with me.  Actually, Antarctica is really cold, so I don't know about that, but you get the point.

Moving isn't all bad either.  There are lots of great things about moving, ie: meeting new people/making new friends, getting out of your comfort zone, starting over with a clean slate, etc.  It certainly keeps life interesting!

And the nice thing about Pueblo is it's only 2 hours and 25 minutes south of Boulder, which means we'll easily be able to come "home" and visit our family and friends whenever we're feeling the need.

Paul's been commuting back and forth on the weekends for the past few weeks which hasn't been bad so far.  We plan to do this until I find a job down there and we get our house rented up here, which I'm hoping will happen in the next couple of months. 

For now, we're just taking things day by day and getting excited about what this next step has in store for us!

Oh, and get ready for a lot more move-related posts because I have a feeling this is going to consume me :)  





A Lot Going On

So.....it's been a little over two weeks since I last blogged, but two major things happened in my absence:

1. My dad had open heart surgery.

A few months ago he found out he had a congenital heart defect that was creating an aneurysm in his aorta.  He had the surgery to repair the aneurysm and to replace the valve that was defective.  I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty scary.  My dad is young and healthy, so the risk of death from the surgery was only about 3 or 4 percent, but the fact that they had to cut his chest open, stop his heart, and then start it back up again had us more than a little nervous. 

Thankfully, the surgery was a success and although he has a long recovery ahead, he's doing so great!  My sister, grandparents, and aunt all flew in for the surgery and it was nice to be surrounded by family.  My mom spent every waking minute at the hospital with my dad (she probably would have slept there too if they let her). She has been a rock throughout this whole ordeal. She takes such good care of my dad and I know she's exhausted, but she would never admit it. She is amazing!

And speaking of amazing, take a look at this guy--the picture above was taken the day after surgery and the one below was taken one week after.  My dad is my hero.  He is so strong and has great faith. He never stops pushing himself to be the best he can be.  We are so thankful he is on the mend!

2. Paul was offered, accepted, and started a new job. 

He is now the defensive line coach for the CSU Pueblo (Colorado State University @ Pueblo) football team.  Yay Paul!!  As you can probably guess, this means some big changes for our little family (more on that later).

CSU Pueblo is a Division II school in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC).  He started on Monday and is already loving it.  This is a great opportunity for Paul and I am so proud of him.  We are excited to see what this new journey brings!

These past few weeks have been some of the most stressful of my life and I'm so glad they're over..... 

But I have so much to be thankful for and I'm counting all of my many blessings tonight!

Pure Awesome

Let me tell you about the new workout I've been trying lately...

PURE BARRE!

Yes, that's right.  I have officially jumped on the bandwagon.

After reading this article in Southern Living and this blog post, seeing the "grand opening" billboard in town, and hearing my friend rave about it, I felt like I was being hit over the head with this new workout craze (and you probably will now too thanks to this post. sorry).

I simply had to try it.

So I hopped on over to the website to get some more info.

It turns out the Pure Barre studio in my area is offering a new client special~1 month unlimited classes for $100.  Now I don't know about y'all, but to me, that is not cheap!  But then I looked at the other options and they were as follows:

1 month unlimited (for non-new members) at $225
10 classes at $200
15 classes at $270
20 classes at $340
5 classes at $105
single class at $23

The new client special is the best deal by far as long as you plan to go to more than five classes.

So I splurged and spent the $100.

Am I glad I did?

Hells to the Yeah!

I seriously love this class.  The closest thing I've done that I can compare it to is Pilates (which I also love) but it doesn't just work your core, it works your entire body using nothing more than your own body weight.  And it's HARD!  Not in a "I'm not sure what I'm doing" kinda way, but in a "my whole body is shaking and my muscles are burning" kinda way.  After each class my arms, back, thighs, butt, and abs have been so sore.  There's also a lot of stretching mixed in between the strength sets which is a nice change of pace.  But my favorite thing about the class is the music.  It's fun and upbeat and they BLARE it.

I've been to four classes so far and I swear I can see a difference (is that possible?).  Probably not, but I definitely feel great.
Will I keep going after my month is up?

Not sure.  I really love the class, but I'm just not sure I can justify paying such high prices.  I might have to try the DVDs~anyone know anything about them~good? bad?

I guess I will have to reevaluate once my month is up on March 17th.  I'll keep you posted.

But for now, I'm totally enjoying Pure Barre.  If you've been wondering what all the hubbub is about, I highly recommend you try it.

And let me know what you think!

Diaper Cake

Last weekend Paul and I went to a baby shower-well I don't know if you could really call it a baby shower because the baby was born 7 weeks ago, so it was more like a meet and greet, haha-for our friends Robert and Oriana and their new baby, Avery James.

The parents asked for diapers, so I thought it would be fun to make them a diaper cake.

BUT...I didn't know how to make one.

So I googled it and found a few different websites with step-by-step directions.  Good old google never lets me down.  Seriously, what did people do before google??

Anyway, there are a lot of different ways to do it, and as this was my first attempt-I'm certainly no expert, but I thought I would share how I made mine. 

I started by unfolding the diapers and rolling them up from front to back.  After each diaper was rolled, I secured it with a rubber band (you could also use curling ribbon).  FYI, I bought a package of 70 diapers and ended up using all but three. 

Then I placed 7 diapers around an 8-oz baby bottle and put a rubber band around the whole ring to secure it.  I chose to use a bottle, but you could use baby powder, lotion, shampoo, etc.  You just want something that is sturdy enough to be the foundation for the cake.

Next I made a second ring of diapers (13 I think?) by placing them around the first ring and securing it with a rubber band.  

And then I made a third ring of diapers around the second ring, secured it with a thick ribbon instead of a rubber band, and placed it on a piece of foam board so that I could transport it later.  I held the ribbon together with a dot of hot glue, but you could also tie it in a knot or a bow.
This is the first tier of the cake.  Yay!

The second tier of the cake is the same as the first except there are two rings of diapers instead of three.  I placed the first ring of diapers around the rest of the bottle that was sticking up from tier 1.

Moving on to the third tier-somehow I forgot to get a picture of this :(

I rolled up a little monkey outfit just like I did with the diapers.  Then I placed a ring of 7 diapers around it, secured it with a ribbon, and placed the whole thing on top of the other two tiers.

And now for the fun part-decorating!  You can pretty much attach anything to it with a straight pin.  I went with a blue & brown monkey theme.  I was pretty tame with the decorating, but I've seen pictures of  some that are COVERED in little baby items, ribbons, stickers, etc.  It's all about personal preference.

Here's my finished product..

   

Not too bad considering it was my first one.  And I'm thinking the more I make, the better (and more creative, fingers crossed) I'll get.

This really was a fun and easy project.  Plus, it was a huge hit at the shower! 

And, because I think it's so adorable...

My hub holding sweet little AJ.  He's a natural, don't you think?  ;)