Jane Wayne and fame.

I'm sure by now you've all heard and seen. I was on the San Diego news last night and this morning. The world has finally realized how great I am. I can't get out my door without being bombarded by people wanting my autograph. My phone rings at all hours of the night. My facebook is blowing up. I had to get an agent AND a bodyguard. Ya know, It's a rough life but one I'm willing to live. That's just the price of being a locally renowned military wife.

Ok, just kidding. But I really was on the news! You are definitely going to want to watch this if you haven't yet, here ya go. I'm excited that I was on TV. I'm not excited that I flexed and growled at the end.

Here are some pictures from "Jane Wayne Day". It was so so fun!

They let/made us all wear flak jackets and kevlars. I don't know how to spell those things but I can ask Scottie Hubby when he gets home.

We got to do the obstacle course. The Marines don't like it when you stop in the middle to take pictures...

They even let us shoot real guns!! Like the M16, M4, and the SAW!

And the real guns had real bullets! By the way, this is my new friend April. She is so nice.

We also shot fake guns with fake bullets at fake people on a real screen.

Oh man, we also got to play with this. Don't worry, it's not loaded. It's a 50 Cal. Whatever that means.

And they let us eat MREs. How sweet of them. MREs are meals designed for Marines to eat out in the field. They each have enough calories so that a Marine would only need to eat one per day and they can last forever. Literally forever. Who knows how old this is? Yummy, right?

Jane Wayne Day is my new favorite day of the year! Well, besides my birthday. My birthday, that is on May 12th. Like next Wednesday. My birthday, my 21st birthday, this Wednesday. This is going to be a great week. I can feel it.

Small child.

I'm sorry. I suck at updating.

Here, look at this baby.

I'm sleepy. Goodnight.

Scott's 22nd birthday!

I did it! I'm posting just like I half promised. I decided to cover all the topics in order of importance. Naturally, birthday cake would come first. I mean, my beloved husband's birthday would come first. It's not about the frosting, it's about celebrating his birth. Ok, and the frosting.

Always start with the food. I think that's a good life motto.

Here are the cakes:

Betty Crocker's cookie cake with homemade butter cream frosting. Yes, that does say "DUDE". We'll get to that later.

And Darlene's famous Eclair cake.

I'm not sure that I have introduced you to the Betty Crocker cookbook yet. Here it is:

It's fancy stuff and it's hard. I'm trying to slowly integrate it into my cooking but I'm not completely comfortable yet. But for Scott Gilchrist's birthday, we pull out the big guns. In this case, that means Betty Crocker.

Here we go. I made a chocolate chip cookie recipe for like 3 dozen cookies (in the Kitchen Aid!) and then spread it out on a pizza pan.

I baked it. Let it cool. Fought off the neighbors from eating it. Made the icing. Fought off the neighbors from eating the icing. And then proceeded it ice the cookie, I mean cake. Cookie cake.

As a wedding present we got this super cool Martha Stewart cake decorating set. It's awesome!

It does things like this! Oh, and while I have you here staring at icing let me make an announcement: I AM OFFICIALLY ENROLLED IN A CAKE DECORATING CLASS! I had my first class last Saturday. And immediately following Scott and I went to Michael's and bought out the entire aisle of cake decorating supplies! I will most certainly be posting pictures of what I make, or destroy, in the class.

Back to his birthday stuff. I iced this cake at 6am. I had to get it done before he got home. I woke up very early to ensure that he would not come home before I had it all ready for him. Of course, he didn't come home until 3 in the afternoon. It was definitely done by that time. And that's about all the explanation I have for why it says "DUDE". I was tired. I knew "husband" couldn't fit and "Scott" was too boring. Obviously, "DUDE" is the next best thing. And duh, you can't write "DUDE" without putting it in all caps.

On to the Ecalir cake. This is a cake that my sweet, caring, loving mother-in-law makes for him every birthday. I, on the other hand, have never made it. Luckily, along with the sweet, caring, and loving she is also very thoughtful and included the recipe in the birthday package she sent him. So, I did my best.

It called for these things. It was weird not making everything from scratch. Maybe next year? I didn't want to mess it up my first time around.

I made the jello.

And then combined it with whipped cream.

And then laid down the graham cracker crust.

And inserted the whipped cream pudding mixture. I then added another layer of graham crackers and topped that layer with another layer of the mixture.

Finally, I added one more layer of graham crackers and topped it all off with chocolate icing. The recipe calls for one can. This is not enough! As you can see. I ran out.

The store is within walking distance of our house so I just ran over and got some more. And then I finished it off! And did it all while wearing a reallllllly cute apron from the White family.

Here are the decorations for the celebration. My super nice friends, Leah and DeeDee, helped me hang this. It was on the floor by the time he got home. It's the thought that counts.

And the presents!

I think it's safe to say, he was pleased. Thanks everybody!

And this was his birthday dinner. Buttered noodles, PW's Cowboy Calzones with homemade pizza dipping sauce, and French Bread. That salad was not his request. That was for me. Everything else, he wanted.

Oh yeah, and the sunglasses. He hasn't taken them off since he got them.

Darlene, he definitely likes his new Oakleys!

There ya have it. My husband is officially old. See you guys tomorrow! Maybe.

Bad blogger.

Let me start by apologizing: I am so sorry for not updating last week. So so sorry.

Now, let me make excuses: I have been busy! It's finals week! I'm married! I have to clean the house! And make dinner! And vacuum things! And do laundry! Oh, so much laundry...

And finally, let me make it up to you: A lot has been going on and I don't want to leave you guys out of any of it. So, because it's the first week of May (and boy do I love May) I'm going to try and update every day this week! It's going to be a challenge because we all know how great I am at updating weekly... so this will be a stretch. Who knows, maybe I'll love it and I'll update everyday for a whole month! Or even a year! Or forever! Or maybe I'll hate it and quit blogging altogether, we'll see.

Here's a preview of what you're going to see this week:

My herbs and vegetable pots.

Great news on my cake decorating skills!

The BEACH. Again.

Scott's 22nd birthday!!

More things to check off the 101 list.

Questions on how to keep your store bought herbs fresh until your potted herbs grow.

Sand beards.

Snakes.

Vegan-ness.

How we decorated our house...

My new friends.

Cool Californian "locally-grown" products. And my views on food.

Yummy things I've made or attempted to make.

And babies. There will always be babies.

Check back tomorrow and there will hopefully, at some point, be a new post. But I didn't promise. I really want to promise, but I can't bring myself to do that. What if Scott decides to empty out all his Marine gear for me to wash? Or what if I decide to plant our garden? Or what if someone brings me a really cute baby to babysit? Or what if I decide to go to the beach? There are so many possibilities. But I can almost promise. I can half way promise. Ok, I half promise that I will have a new post by tomorrow.

Much love. See ya then.

Our first month together.

Today marks one month in California. It's been a good month. It's been a fun month. It's been a month full of new experiences. From living with a boy to shredding lettuce, I sure have learned a lot. And I think I can speak for him to say that he has too. I love being married.

We spent the weekend decorating our house. It's looking better. It's not done yet so I don't want to post pictures. But I promise I'll do my best to get this place looking good and post pics very soon.

Scott had his first field operation this past week. He was gone Tuesday morning through Thursday night. He loved it! He got to sleep outside and shoot guns. Every boys dream. Since he wasn't here I didn't cook as much. But I will show you what I did make:

Here is dinner Monday night.

Farfalle with roasted garlic, nuts, and raisins. This is from Get Cooking.

Homemade salad with homemade croutons. I think homemade salad is so neat. I'm so used to the bag stuff. But you can make it on your own! And you can put whatever you want in it!

I also made Italian breadsticks from $5 Dinner Mom! Scott said they tasted just like Olive Garden's. They didn't taste anything like Olive Garden's. But they were still good.

These are Pioneer Woman's Mocha Brownies. But I don't like coffee. So they're minus the mocha. I made them while he was away. Comfort food.

Friday night we had Anthony over! He is the nice neighbor who helped us move in.

I was there too.

We had PW's Cowboy Calzones. Minus all the cheese. Scott LOVED them. I'm not a big fan. If you make these, don't take out the cheese. This picture is pre-cooking.

And post-cooking.

While we were enjoying dinner we noticed the room filling up with smoke. Don't worry, I was just making PW's Pineapple Upside Down Cake. We took off the smoke detector and kept baking. I was determined to make that cake.

And it turned out great! This is right side up.

And this is upside down!

I like this cake, A LOT.

Saturday morning I made PW's Sour Cream Pancakes. But Scott doesn't know there was sour cream involved. Don't tell him.

He really liked them! Don't worry, I won't show you his underwear this time.

While we cleaned/hung stuff Saturday afternoon we made smoothies. I took all of your suggestions and carefully considered them. This is what I came up with...

I used milled flax seed, frozen and not frozen bananas, frozen and not frozen strawberries, and a cup of expired strawberry yogurt.

We put it all in the blender, (this was taken before we put in the yogurt and flax seed) and mixed it all up.

It helps it blend nicely if you put on bunny ears and sing.

And if you do a little interpretive dance along with it, it gives your smoothie just the right texture.

And of course, if all else fails... mash it.

They were awesome. Really. We loved them more than Smoothie King. I think flax seed is the secret ingredient. Try it!

And this was Sunday night. I wanted to make Carl's Jr. hamburgers. We don't have Carl's Jr. in Texas but it is amazing. Best hamburgers ever. I tried to re-create them at home. It wasn't as good as CJ but it was still tasty.

These are Angus pattie's. Did you know that Angus beef is beef from black cows? I learned that at the farmers market.

These are homemade hamburger buns. I like making those.

And this is all the lettuce we had left over. And a tomato.

So, that was our food this week. I got to check another off thing of the 101 list!

97. Perfect a smoothie recipe that Scott loves. Done!

And as of today, I get to check off 42. Don't buy any clothes shoes or accessories for a month. Also, done!

I have been making friends. As soon as I'm close enough with these friends to take their pictures I will post pictures of them. Hopefully, that will be soon. One of these friends is from Napa Valley! She's gonna get me the hook up on 89. Go to Napa Valley.

I finally got my camera to the Canon place. I will get it back in 7-10 business days. I don't think I've gone 7-10 days without taking a picture in the past year. It's gonna be tough.

This week will be a good one. Scott's 22nd birthday is on Friday! I'm gonna make him calzones, butter noodles, and a cookie cake. Pray that those things turn out great. It would be disappointing to mess stuff up on his birthday.

Thank you all for the support and answered questions. I love you guys so dang much.