Legalize Frostitution!

The blog title today is the slogan for the cupcakery Cupcake Royale, in Seattle....so cute!
Last night instead of dinner we had cupcakes at the new Frost shop in the Woodlands :) I had a caramel apple cupcake with apple buttercream frosting. Yummmm! Karla got the boston creme pie cupcake with buttercream frosting and chocolate ganache. Delicious. Why can't a fabulous cupcakery come to this side of town. Two minutes from our house would be even ideal, just sayin'....
So to bring this around to the other point of this spill - at the beginning of wedding planning I told James I realllly wanted a cupcake bar for the reception. He wasn't having it. He apparently doesn't care for different types of cupcakes - side note (i brought him a chocolate cupcake with vanilla cream frosting last night & he ignored it. He went to our halloween candy and picked up some snickers and twix and probably a kit kat for good measure) who does that?! who denies a perfect chocolate cupcake?! ooooh he's special. so anyway: he said no to the cupcake bar but after last night - we may have to do some reconsidering. I'm sold ;) Our receptionist Kori is going to culinary school. Im thinking that by our wedding next year she will be able to whip up some A+ wedding cupcakes. I will accept that instead of a gift. Perfect!

So it's challenge time!

Talk about your favorite musician and why:

There are too many. I will say I used to be legit crazy about Gavin Rossdale. Can you blame me?! His voice is just soooo amazing - it doesn't even matter that his lyrics are crap. He could sing to me allll day and night and I would be on cloud 9. and let's not forget he is GORGEOUS.

and while still being the talented singer songwriter guitar playing devishly handsome crush of my life: he plays TENNIS! sigh.


Next up: Lil Wayne. I don't find him attractive in the slightest but i LOVE me some weezy. Everytime I listen to him I feel a little more gangster. ( we all know how incredibly gangster i am) but - he just puts in a great mood. Period.

We can't forget Dave Matthews! He is one guy James and I can always agree on listening to. He makes me smile from ear to ear - and totally rocks my world. And how. I would just like to let everyone know Dave will be at our wedding. Maybe not in person but in spirit and in song. We are thinking we might use You & Me for some part of the ceremony or reception...and for our favor cds he will be frequenting.

Ooooooh yeah :)

Love me some Dave!

and I have to give a shout out to my girl T. Swift.

she rocks my socks. what can't you say about how awesome Taylor is?! Inside look into the 4911: J has this exact picture of Taylor on our refrigerator. True story. You gotta love him.

oooooooh and speaking of my girl - we have talk about my boy. Kan to the YE. He's just misunderstood and needs better friends. I think he's working on it. So don't be judgey ;) I have to throw a lyric out that I just heard from one of his new songs that made me laugh - a lot. It said (and you can use this) "You should be a flight attendant because you're a f*ing trip" LOL! oooooh I loved it. Kanye - I will always love you!

Anyway - those are my favs. It always changes but most stay the same.  There are tons tons more but these popped into my head. That must mean something!


So in closing. I love music & I love cupcakes. and I love my boyfriend. Yummmmmm :)

you should visit this shoppe - the owners son looks like he is in like 2nd grade and is really helpful - too cute ;)

Until next time!

XOXO

Lauren

Hoarding, really?!

Hey everyone! It's been a few days - but what's new.

Here is something new: Brynn is ENGAGED! So excited for her & her man. He really lucked out - really. I am so happy that everything worked out the way my so deserving friend wanted. It's really funny because when we met we were both in an ugly relationship place in our lives. It is such a blessing to see that the Man really did have a plan for us. I have my super amazing James & she has her super awesome RT. Good things come to pretty girls who wait. We know ;)

Just want to say I know my last blog ended rather abrubtly. Good reasons for this. My computer froze mid blog ( I fully intended on posting Snooks & Jwow ) then Kori came over and not only did we watch the Jersey Shore finale (xoxo) but we watched The Vampire Diaries & Project Runway! It was so nice to have someone there who knew what was going on for every show and didn't ask me every 2 minutes what was going on (James). Yes, Kori might just be my tv watching soul sista.

With that being said: Before I start my challenge I need to address hoarding.

Compulsive hoarding (or pathological hoarding or disposophobia)^[1] is the excessive acquisition of possessions (and failure to use or discard them), even if the items are worthless, hazardous, or unsanitary.

So I guess I'm talking about the compulsive kind.

It makes me sick. What makes me sick is that I see pre-hoarding signs in our house. Not because of James - because of ME! Eeeeek!

Last night I couldn't sleep so I decided to zone out with some snickers and one of the hoarding shows. Now I have never really watched a full episode until a few weeks ago. I decided I wanted to see what the end of the show was like. I wanted to see pristine homes. Uncovered treasures. Smiling faces. I wanted to see some results people.
Didn't happen.
Even a televsion show couldn't completely clean the two homes featured. I asked a few clients if they had ever seen a completed house and the general answer was no. This makes me so upset and sad. I always wonder why James is so against my 1,000's of scentsys or my crazy amounts of clothes and shoes that just hang out that I might wear again...now I know. My man can see our hoarding future & it isn't pretty.

Today (my day off) I decided to clean out closets, drawers, and my get ready room. I should have done before and afters. That would have been fun. Oh well. I was sooo amazed at the crap I have. I have 50 bottles of differents lotions. vitamins for everything imaginable, boxes. weird boxes. Enough random hair products that I could open my own beauty supply. and clothes. ooooh the clothes. This is making me sick right now. These people have their lives taken away by THINGS. These people push away and alienate people and loved ones and life for THINGS. Well no more. We all know I love me some things - but I going to keep this to a minimum. I'm thinking once a month or so Im going to do a sweep of this house. If I haven't used you, sorry thing, you are outta here. I think everyone should take just a day and really look around (and inside or behind) and see what you have been kind of noticing building up but say I'll get that next week - yada yada and get rid of it! Goodwill, Plato's Closet, resale - there are so many options and while keeping your pre-hoarder self in check you could also help someone else :) pay off, what?!

So here is to being happy with the ones you love and not things. Things may be nice but in moderation. Ok - I feel better. No hoarding at the 4911....nice.


Challlllllenge tiiiiiiime!

A photo of something I ate today....so exciting ;)

Strawberry PopTarts for breakfast. It's my new thing. I always get a on kick for a bit. Sometimes it's apples, sometimes donuts, well for the time being its the yummy 400 calories (yep) for 2 toasted tarts of deliciousness. See! I'm really into them!

 So this is neat: PopTart art! Crazy!

....and this is weird. Who would ever wear PopTart earrings. Don't answer that. I love Strawberry PopTarts but really?!

Ok, all this PopTart blogging is making me really one. I think I will just make one. That's only 200 calories. Worth it? Ooooh yeah ;)

So here are my Jersey girls. I couldn't leave them out (better late then never)! Miss you already Snooks and JWow - next season can't get here fast enough (tear). Keep those fists pumping and the drama coming!

XOXO

& until next time,

 Lauren



Rollin' with the homies....

Just have to say that while I was driving home from work I was thinking about friends. I love having them. I love the ones I have. So then the song "Rollin' with the homies" popped into my head and it isn't going to leaving any time soon...good thing they are really are my homies. Not only do I think I have great homies - I am so lucky that they are all talented great homies. Thanks Brynn for the new(er) blog design & thank you Steph for making my hair beautiful. To all of my other homies: I'm sure you are talented at something - it just doesn't apply to me (but I bet it's gangsta)! Ok - enough homie talk. That could get old really quickly ;)

With that being said I think I'm going to talk about friends for a quick minute. I am fortunate enough to know the difference between my real friends and my acquaintances. Some people don't and that leads to issues. I feel really bad for those people :( That is one reason there is a lot of drama running rampid. Anyway - I have tons (TONS) of acquaintances. I only have handful of real friends. Now - these friends are the ones I know for a fact would be there for me no doubt. I have sifted through many a friend to find these diamonds in the rough - cheesy i know, but so true. It is super nice to know if I'm having a bad day, week, you choose - I know that it won't be too long before one of them either makes my day in some way, large or small, or just knows something is up and finds someway to get me out of my funk. Love that. It's funny how life throws many people in your path and at the time they are very important. They have an impact on decisions you make, other people you meet, sometimes they are really awesome to go shopping with. All I know is that not very many of those people turn out to be the real deal and I am so blessed to have to some of the realest deals around. Just sayin'. Ok not to leave my acquaintances out - love them too, but probably not the best shoppers. They just didn't quite make the cut. Moooooving on......

Challenge #3
A photo of an animal you would love to keep as a pet.

Ok. Everyone knows I already have the pet I would love to keep as pet because I have the best pet on the the planet, duh. Here is a pic to just reiterate that fact.

Yep. She's my #1 pet. EVER! 

but.

If I could have ANY pet on the plant I would  want a Koala Bear!

They are pretty much the cutest things besides Heidi...

So there you go. If I had to trade Heidi this is what I would be bringing home. James would freak.

So tonight is Jersey Shore finale night!

my boyz.

This could be scary....

Since my phone is syncing & it looks like it is going to take some time - I guess I will do challenge number two before I head to work :) Can I just say realllly quickly how annoying syncing an Iphone is. Ridiculous!

Challenge number 2: A photo of yourself from 2 years ago.

Eeeek! I'm trying to remember if that is before or after I lost my "going out & drinking beer every night because of my selfish border line depression" weight. Hmmm. I don't think so because James and I have been together for over three years. Who knows. I think he met me somewhere in the middle. Like I said - this could be scary. Let's take a look!

 So this is what I'm talking about:

above: after i lost my pity party weight.

below: well you get the picture. i REALLY liked corona and lots of fried food and whataburger at 2 am. now i stick to budlight and some fried food and i'm rarely out at 2 am. fun facts right?!

 So those are two pics from two years ago. It seems like yesterday when I could outdrink and outweight James. Those were the days. Oh, I'm just teasing! That would be silly.

Side note: I need to get back to some boot camps though. Ive been super lazy lately and I hear wedding dresses aren't very forgiving!

Oh. and notice how James NEVER changes. I really believe he has been genetically altered. No joke. His dad did work for Nasa - it could be possible. Hopefully our one day child gets his super amazing genes. That would be the bomb, like woah.

Everyone have a fabulous Wednesday! I'm going to try to!

XOXO and all that jazz!

Manic Monday

Oh my gosh...I am hopeless. So I skipped challenge day one. No doubt, I am going to make it up tonight. Here is my excuse for missing my first challenge.

Yesterday was very um, interesting. I think I cried twice, hung up on James once, felt on the verge of a breakdown (actually multiple breakdowns) but everything ended up ok thanks to a fabulous friend (karla)and of course my ever forgiving fiancé (James).

So let's start off with monday morning: I woke up so excited a) bc I bought the new skinny coffee creamer and I just could not wait to try it - so um it's not the best. Should have been a sign. Reason b) I had two appointments for wedding things...fun!

First appointment was with a wedding planner to talk about what I have done so far and what I need to be doing. Um what?! James and I have a lot of work to do. I thought we were moving right along well there are things called details and well, I suck at details. So after that meeting I call J and ok people I know he's a busy guy at work but at least give me something other than it's ok babe. I need just a little more than it's ok. So I hung up and the tears just came. Have you ever felt alone even though you have so many people around? Yes, I'm having a pity party - but don't worry my day did get better :)

I met up with my friend karla & her "so gorgeous you wanna steal her" daughter, Isla for my second appointment. We were headed downtown to meet with Lisa from the The Blooming Gallery or Wedding Flowers by Lisa (she uses two names, I dunno) to talk about wedding flowers. Go figure. Just wanna say I stepped into her office and I felt like everything was going to be ok...this lady was A to the Mazing.
Everything I told her about the wedding she seemed to be two steps ahead. She knew what would go with the main flower I want ( green cymbidium orchids ) to what table linens would make the flowers pop. Um I wanted to seriously hug her..really hard. It was one of the easiest choices so far with the wedding. Besides me saying yes to James. That was pretty easy.


After we left Lisa -I could have hung out with her all day- Karla, me, and Isla had a dinner date with a very handsome accountant. We went and picked up James from work and went to cyclones for some yummy food. I have to say it was our first dinner at cyclones when I didn't have a margarita. I have to admit I was sad but hey I saved myself from like a million calories!

So all in all what started out as a crappy day ended up being such a great day with an awesome friend, a super cute baby and of course my man.

Ooooh and LISA - love her!!!!

Quick challenge so I can say I did one!

What is my idea of a perfect first date?

Well I dunno if there is a perfect first date but I will give you a quick rundown of the first date with the guy I plan on going on dates with for the rest of my life.

Can we say Jade Palace?!

Yes, I made James (who is VERY picky about Chinese food) take me to Jade Palace in Humble. My parents used to go on dates there years and years ago so that was sweet and um they have fabulous pork fried rice. I think when I said hey there is this awesome Chinese place in humble jade palace isn't what popped into his head. I think he was actually mortified. Hey have you ever seen diners, dives, and drive Ins ( I dunno the order) but anyway they should so go to the palace just sayin' it is one delicious dive. I remember I made James meet me at the walgreens to pick me up just in case the date went badly. I didn't want him to drop me off at the apartment and want to come in and me be like um negative. I like to skip awkwardness. Which turned out to be getting picked up at walgreens anyway. Way awkward. Dinner was great. We had beer (in cans) with our meal..at a Chinese restaurant..who does that?! I guess I was super nervous. James just likes beer. Anyway the date was way fun..we laughed all night and he ended up coming over. As soon as we walked into my apartment i was reminded of reason 2 I wanted to be picked up at walgreens..my apartment was sooooo messy. That should have clued him into his future wifes cleaning style. Oh well. He decided he liked me. That made it my perfect date. I'm easy to please ;)

Side note on why im glad i let him see my messiness:
I ended up getting a get ready room all to myself in our house for my "mess"
Score! Love that guy!
If I hadn't who knows what that room would be...eek. Scary to even think about!




Challenge 1 down 29 to go!

James' birthday week!

So it has been a few days - more than a few.

I feel super bad that Brynn (being brynn) make my blog so pretty and i haven't even used it.

I know I stink at this and if this blog were an old school what do you call those things? pikachu? no! tamagotchis!
My sister had like 5. remember? you had to keep them alive by feeding them and paying attention to them - they were lame. and made weird noises. anyway - if my blog were a tamagotchi it would be dead.

Things are about to change though! I get to start my 30 day challenge tomorrow (so so excited)! I found a link with 30 super fun topics. I'm thinking this will help me stay centered and keep me from going absolutely crazy (maybe).

So thank you Brynn for spicing up my blog so i can be a more confident blogger (you rock XOXO)

James' birthday week ends today :( I have to say he had a great 29th though. I'm really looking forward to his 30th. He just gets cuter every year. I can't even imagine what's going to happen at 30 - yumm. Creepy? yeah, probably a little but i get really excited about him.

We started out his week last monday by spending the day together after his test. we rarely get to spend a full day off together besides sundays which don't count because we are too dang lazy to do anything. sooo we went and some happy hour at chilis then went and saw the "Life as we know it" movie at the movie tavern. It was pretty much the cutest/real/tug at your heartstrings movie ever. Even James said he teared up a few times. it might have been the beer talking  but i like to think he has a super sensitive side. it really showed how hard being a new parent can be and how emotional it is. and how little you sleep. all of this i have heard from friends but this movie didn't sugar coat. and still - it made james and i really excited to think about one being sleep deprived, pooped on, and wanting to tear each other apart. yes, crazy, i know. still I reallly think everyone should see it - so good! after the movie we went to 838 for some sushi and drinks and we talked and talked and talked. it felt so good to have a real date day and we had things to talk about alllll day. i kind of worry about that sometimes. ya know. not having anything to talk about with the man i love. eek! anyway that time hasnt come yet so i can breathe easy.

friday night my parents came over for fajita friday - it was so nice to relax with mom and dad. they are pretty much my favorite people. and funny. i got to hear all about their new bed & how great it is. i won't go into detail. but apparently its tha bomb.

here are few friday night pictures of Gretchen (my mom's baby) and the Heid (you know her) in their Halloween bandanas. Mom called them our little Halloweenies. Yeah. she did.

Saturday I took the day off of work and James and I spent the day together - again! I think I enjoyed his bday week more than he did ;)

we went down to cedar landing for lunch so we could sit on the patio by the lake with a few beers and yummy food.

turned out to be a little bit awkward. reason 1) a huge crow thing was perched right above and was trying to mate with something. had to be what was going on. it was making this hideous sound. like a small engine revving up i dunno but it was too weird of a noise to be coming out of that thing. then he would puff his feathers! it was intense - and james was annoyed. i thought he was going to throw salt shakers at it  - then his 2nd beer came. all was good. reason 2) our ex receptionist works there. now i knew going into it she worked there and i text her friend (who is still a receptionist at the shop) to see if this girl was working. she was. sooo i said well i think im going to ask to be in her section so that way i can leave her a great tip and my  bad karma will be cleared. (i kind of maybe had like a bit of a thing against her at the salon & kind of maybe had something to do with her leaving) anyway we walk in and see her and she stops. im pretty sure she thought she was seeing things. i said hi and then told the hostess that we wanted to be in the girls section and she said no problem she can take whatever tables she wants. soooo who walks out to take our drink order? not her! she totally pawned us off on someone else! am i that bad?! oh well - she is one who missed out on some extra cash. whata shame. ok - so i was like i guess shes avoiding - NO! she comes over and talks to us for like 10 minutes straight. STRAIGHT. about the government, old men hitting on her, the weather. you name it she crammed it into 10 minutes of awkward. still not getting that money sister.

so for James' birthday night - we went to papasitos with some fun people. now if you know us your know james and I love some papasitos. well my friends, papasitos was not on their A game last night. and thank goodness I had my margarita to keep me happy bc homegirl - who James said looked a girl version of werewolf Jacob from the first twilight (yes he did) - would have not been a happy camper. ugh there was just too much bad to even get into it. and then karla had a fantastic idea to get james a few patron shots.

here is how that went:

After dinner we all went to coahes. It was soooo perfect outside. I love that patio in the fall. Everyone had a great time. Im pretty sure we all laughed and danced and then laughed some more all night long. James birthday = success. I found a new dance to do at our wedding too. Now along with the dougie, soldier boy, and the stanky leg we have drum roll.....the wobble! you tube. its pretty much awesome. and it will be done Sept. 30th 2011. you better get to practicing ;)

So to end James' birthday blog - i have to say thanks to everyone who made his birthday week and birthday night so much fun and memorable. we love you & can't wait to do it again.

p.s. did i mention that james spent the night on the couch next to a bucket. poor thing. 29 + patron isn't looking so great ;) love him!

Everyone have a great week & remember 30 challenge starts tomorrow!

WooHoo!

Love,

Lauren

 

Like I said...

I'm not very technological - or maybe I just don't pay attention.

Here are some pictures to go along with my previous post....

Consider these peeps some key players in my life.

Love them all!

 Meet James.

He pretty much makes me the happiest girl...and I love him for that!

Did I mention he is too dang cute?!

Meet Heidi.

As you can see she went through quite the growth spurt.

There will be plenty of posts starring her...don't worry!

She's my favorite!

Meet my family.

My mom and dad are the best anyone could ask for. I got super lucky when they chose me!

Yes, I was adopted - maybe I can blog about that sometime!

That is my sister Lynsey. Told you she gorgeous - in that dress though, not so much.

We love to travel but it seems the older Lynsey and I get the less opportunity there is for us the go with mom and dad....I'm thinking they are ok with that ;)

All in all - my family helped make me who I am today.

Thank you, thank you, and thank you!

Ok!

A few friends that I adore should wrap this up!

Um, this is harder than I thought...

Yay! I have a blog! This is so exciting! A space I can call my very very own. If you didn't know - I have friends with blogs (way super cute) blogs - blogs that rock the socks off of this blog - but this one is MINE! My own piece of the internet. Kind of weird. Anyway - this should be fun....

I suppose some kind of introduction would be nice sooo here are 5 quick facts to get All Things Considered started off!

1) My name is Lauren and I have blog envy. I have a few friends that have blogs. They are some of my favorite people and reading about their everyday this and that always puts a smile on my face. I started thinking about what I would blog about if I had a blog  - and it made me sad. I came up with nada. How can I love my life and have such a great one with nada to blog about?! Scary. So one day while reading "being brynn" i saw that she is doing a blog challenge that gives your blog topics for so many days....I can do that!!!! So here we are - I am trying to get rid of my ugly jealousy and put my life into perspective through blogging. Here's to making my life oh so bloggable ;)

2) I am 26 - I love the age I am at right now...and I am so proud of myself for getting here and being pretty stable(ish). Sometimes I walk around our house (get to "our house" later) and can't believe I'm here. I still feel like I should be living with my mom and dad and not have bills/job/responsibilites etc. driving my little red sunfire around mont belvieu and fighting with my sister - but I am here and God has so blessed me! I don't live at home (even though sometimes I wish I could) I have bills but normal ones. I love my job ( I do hair) and responsibilites are just life. I miss and love my sister to pieces. She is pretty much the most gorgeous sister anyone could ask for. Spoiled - but the best! She's finishing up her degree at Lamar and I am really excited for her! I'm afraid she is going to move away from us though. She has always been the free spirit between the two of us and I just love that about her. I feel like I have a lot on my plate - even though compared to others it is really half of a serving. I have spent the last two years paying off credit card debt. Sooo glad that is over. It's crazy what having that burden off of your shoulders can do. I can see and plan so much more without feeling discouraged or worried. It feels pretty dang good. Hmmm - yeah.

3) The (our house later) part. I live with the most amazing guy EVER. His name is James Dudley - yes James DUDLEY Stell - and I'm not being mean by repeating his middle name. He LOVES it. Why? I dunno. He says if we ever have a son he wants to use his middle name since its a tradition in his family. Um - how about starting new ones? Dudley is done, babe. Sorry. Anyway I met him three years ago and I must say the last three years have been so much fun. Who knew you could find your best friend and think he is drop dead gorgeous?! Yes, I'm lucky. A year ago I talked him into trying out our luck at living together. I house hunted for months and one day HAR posted my almost dream house in Kingwood. We checked it out and month later we were moving in to our very own casa. Now don't get judgey - we are getting married next year. September 30th - to be exact. So with that being said - our house will be our HOME finally. A legit husband and wife home, woohoo!!!

4) We have a baby. A four legged baby! She's a wonder. and a dog. Her name is Heidi Jackson. Soon to be Heidi Jackson-Stell. She is the reason James has put up with me for so long ( I am convinced of this). We aren't sure what she realllly is but we and the vet assume dachshund & pitbull. Creepy I know. We got her when she was about 3 months old. I was for sure she was a mini dachshund like I grew up with. After a few vet visits - we found out how sick our poor baby really was. Worms galore, mange - ugh. We took care of the Heid and got her all better with a surprising outcome. She grew like crazy! I think her being so sick stunted her growth bc she went from 8lb to 20 overnight. It was insane. At one point her ears outgrew her head and she would flop them out of her face. Too cute. I probably am a kind of obsessed with our "little one" but she really is a huge well 25lb reason to smile. She is one happy and spoiled little girl. I wouldn't have it any other way!

5) I suck at computers and all things technical. Part of why I love my friends blogs is because they are so fancy. This blog my friends will sadly have no bit of fancy - until I figure it out on my own. Watch out! Jk - it won't happen. So - since it won't be super fancy I hope at least it is slightly entertaining and like my friend Brynn said - a kind of therapy to get things off my chest etc. and I think I'm going to need it bc I've heard the year of your wedding is the longest year of your life. Ominous?! maybe....

Ok - so there were your 5 quick facts.

All things considered...that wasn't so bad!