By popular demand, I give you Grandpa Mudroch's kolache recipe :)

made my mudroch grandparents kolache today. it was the first time i made them and i learned the recipe has a few kinks...like the size of them being technically smaller than what the recipe says. but, they do taste good :) i just have some that are large enough for godzilla himself.

so i'll post this morning to try to keep my missed days on the low end :)

I'd like to take a moment of silence and reflect on how much I love no longer studying for finals.

Was having way to much fun playing with a Wii and forgot to blog yesterday. However lame that is I'm still proud of myself for doing waaaaay better at the challenge this time around than the last.

i find my biggest problem with daily blogging is that i don't always have anything interesting to say daily that require more than 140 characters of text, like say twitter uses :D

my yummy peach gummy awesomeness as seen in front of my alphabet wall.

Say hello to Pussy Galore, she is one of 6 Bond girls that decorate my office :)

Today I've spent making a lot fireman hats via trial and error. About half way through the project I remembered when my mom used to tell a story about johnny who wanted to be a sailer. You tell the story while you fold a piece of paper back and forth. It works best with a large piece of paper, for my examples i'll use 11x17, which is really too small. When you use a larger piece of paper you can put the hats onto a kids head while you tell the story. Which, coincidentally, makes the hat look more "fireman like" than it does by itself. The story:

Once upon a time there was a boy named johnny and he wanted to be a sailer.
(fold sailer hat out of paper)


But Johnny's mom wanted him to be a fireman
(fold up one side of the hat)


But Johnny really wanted to be a sailer.
(fold up other side of hat)


But Johnny's mom really wanted him to be a fireman
(fold up one end of hat)


But Johnny, he decided to be a sailer.
(fold up other end of hat and pull out sides to reveal boat)







Johnny sailed and sailed around but one day a big storm hit and he lost the front of his boat.
(rip off one side of boat)



But Johnny was such a good sailer he kept sailing, and then another huge storm came and he lost another part of his boat.
(rip other side of boat off)



Johnny, he was such a good sailer, he kept on sailing anyways. But then, another storm hit Johnny's boat.
(tear out the middle point inside the boat. Let drop to floor and unfold)



Now all that is left of poor Johnny is his t-shirt.


this is truly a morbid story thinking of it now lol, but I loved it as a kid! I guess the lesson is listen to your mom or go to Davy Jones' locker. ;)

here is a post for postings sake. i am half way to making a whole month blogging! Which will be the first time i've ever blogged this much in my life. I'm proud.

I'm so happy the holiday season is here, I love christmas. Last year I made the worlds greatest gingerbread house, courtesy of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer gummis!

Yesterday I bought a $35 prelit 6'5" tree from walmart to put in nick and my apartment. It pains me to admit walmart had the best tree size for our place (very narrow) but I got over that quickly once I put all the decorations up :)

Admitably I first bought a prelit tree at lowes only to get it home and find 1/3 of the lights not working...ugh, cue angry eyes from me. At least I hadn't put the ornaments on yet.

Anyways, here is our tree :) I'll get better pics later, these are from my phone.




And here is one of my great grandmas ornaments, I have a bunch on the tree from my grandpa Mudroch



a cruise boat ornament nick got us a while back, it finally got a tree


Finally, since I put up a big tree, mini-me tree is now taking refuge at my office :)

I am on the last leg of the journey. I'll be glad to sleep in my own bed tonight. I'll also be glad to be out of spotty Internet so when I write a long blog, say about how much the taco bell/kfc place sucked outside Kansas city...it will actually post.

- Posted from the road, car trip status :)

Trip is going great, everyone survived so far :) grandmas 80th party went off without any major issues. Only thing that happened was we blew a fuse with the pulled pork.

Next up Williamsburg outlet center.


- Posted from the road, car trip status :)

Well I didn't know there were this many people in and around platteville. But, we got my dad and nicks bluray players :)

We successfully navigated the sea of carts!

- Posted from the road, car trip status :)

No connection, maybe this will work, maybe not.

Happy thanksgiving! Tomorrow off to black Friday sales :)


- Posted from the road, car trip status :)

We just made it into Iowa. Car trip family bingo is a hit, no winners yet but as soon as someones electronic device has a battery failure nick will get a bingo :)

A pic of the weary travelers:



- Posted from the road, car trip status :)

It's that time of the year! To wisconsin!

It's my mini me Christmas tree!

Yesterday my mom and I went shopping all over town to finish finding things for my brother's Christmas presents. We also found some new Christmas decorations on sale at khols. Check out the new and improved stockings :)

Tonight was a great evening with Nick before I head over to my parents to help set up holiday decorations this weekend. We hit up Thai Cafe and decided to go see a new release at the theatre. I know what you're thinking...must be Twilight!!!

First, I'd like to announce that I have totally dominated this web-coding and now "read more" actually takes you to the rest of the post. Ok...back to 80th Birthday fun! Thanks to working a couple years at the Edmon Low Library through the Cobb dinner series, I know how to throw a party :) The last months have been spent making lots of phone calls on everything from booking the location, to invite design (hey, just because I design them doesn't mean I get no design input), and catering and the list goes on.
Grandma (Margaret Graves) senior photo recolored. I love photoshop!

I decided it was time for a new blog design...stay with me, I'm sure it will take a few days to get all the kinks out of it. I found a blog template I liked the main design and now I'm taking their parts into photoshop one by one and remaking them to my liking...aka no red and no weird looking snake that says "cracked blog design out his mouth. You'll notice the top has already been changed to say "clear as mud" sans snake :P

Yesterday night my sister and I decided to go to Edmond, pick up my mom and head to the mall for some christmas shopping. Anymore you can't walk anywhere without the mall guys haggling you over trying their new hair extensions or cosmetics or as the case may be weighted pillows.

Decided that blogging daily would require the use of my phone seeing as Internet is not going to be an option for the 12 hour car trip.

P.S. Take that blogging challenge (assuming this app works that will be 2 posts in one day) :)



Photo from last weeks Ruth and mom car trip :) you can hear more about that from my Twitter

Last night right before the storm hit, I ran in for a quick couple items at Food Pyramid.

It all started off with Nick's usual birthday request...an angel food cake. This year I decided that since he has asked for it every year we've been together, it is time I get my own damn pan :)

Who knew that would be so difficult??? I give you the condensed story of my travels for a cake pan.

It all started off at regular stores in Stillwater, Wal-mart and Food Pyramid. I go to these places early in the week on a search for Nick's angel cake pan. Since I plan on making these often, I decide I want a cake pan with the little feet so I don't have to try and balance the cake pan on a wine bottle while it cools for the rest of the duration of that cake pan's life.

I want: this cake pan...

complete with it's convenient little feet. Well Wal-mart and food pyramid only have the cheap/crappy cake pans without the little feet (if one at all). So I move on to Murphy's in Stillwater...fancy cookware place. They are all sold out of all angel cake pans. At this point Nick assures me that we'll just get one this weekend while we are in OKC for his birthday dinner.

Problem with that idea that I don't realize until I'm in OKC Saturday (today for 30 more min) that it is TAX FREE weekend....again...didn't realize.

So we go to OKC from Stillwater today straight to where I know I'll find my trusty cake pan. Penn Square Mall's Williams Sonoma. After driving around the parking lot for a frustrating 45 minutes I give up...this is when the tax free thing starts to hit me...so I figure we'll go to Quail Springs mall, less busy. After fighting traffic and a couple stop lights that were broken we make it there, actually find parking and head into the mall. I tried every store that could have our cake pan...Sears, Dillards, Macy's, JcPenny...etc. They to either don't have it at all, are sold out (what is this angel cake day??? or have the cheap crappy wal-mart ones with no feet. I didn't drive all the way to OKC for a cheap crappy angel cake pan).

Getting aggrivated Nick and I head back to the car and do the only sensable thing when an angel cake pan is no where to be found in town #2, we head to town #3!

Calling ahead to the Williams Sonoma in Utica Park in Tulsa the lady thinks I am critically insane for driving from OKC to there for just the pan.

"Do you realize we have a Williams Sonoma right near you at Penn Square Mall?"
"Yes, but I drove around for 45 minutes and couldn't find any parking....do you have my pan???"

So we make it into Tulsa and SUCCESS they have our "fancy" angel cake pan with its little feet. At that point I also buy their fancy cake mix for the pan, I figure I'm not driving all the way here for just the pan :)

At this point the cake is just out of the oven and I go looking for my Tupperware container made just to hold cakes like it...cake container apparently got lost in the move....lame. I guess that just gives me a new excuse for another adventure for cake.




Cheers!!!
Ruth

---on a side note. As I got into town a few hours ago I headed over to Food Pyramid for a few ingredients, I see an employee running across from the other side of the shopping center. Then I see what he's chasing...a skunk headed straight for 2 ladies standing outside the entrance for Food Pyramid. The skunk hid under a palate holding something for $9.99

When I left about 15 minutes later the skunk was apparently still under the palate and I see said employee with his head on the ground staring under the palate...I'm thinking he is at most 2 feet from the thing....all I have to think is that can't possibly end well :)

Spent the day with Nick in Tulsa yesterday. First we hit up none other than...Best Buy, since we can't go to Tulsa and not stop to see all of the new toys :)

Then we went to Cinemark and saw "The Proposal". That movie was hilarious :)

Dinner at in the raw. Dunwell sushi is very yummy. And also yummy? Their baked when order lava cake of sorts was patriotic, blueberries, strawberries, and whipped cream, see I got red/white/and blue in. The fun part about being at in the raw for during the 4th is that you can see fireworks going up all over the town. They may not officially be allowed in Tulsa county, but it was very amusing seeing them go up everywhere. Luckily we didn't wait to see the 21st Street fireworks seeing as they got canceled. Apparently one firework went rogue and set a truck on fire! Yikes, no one was hurt, but the fireworks were to be no more.

For Nick and I though, we saw lots of fireworks. As we started the drive home at dusk (still in Tulsa) I watched fireworks shoot over the roads...right above our heads, across fields, in the rain, with lightening...for us we had a fireworks show the entire way home. Only interrupted for about 20 minutes when the rain was really coming down. Funniest thing to me is it was like Stillwater waited for us to get home for their show, we made it home in time to watch the finale from our place, a block away from the lake.

Hope everyone had a great 4th!

Big move happened in 2nd grade...Ohio to Iowa. This is our first house (other than the one we rented for a few months that I remember being on 25th ave and peach).

***Update***
Nick picked up the internet box from UPS and now, we're set. Hooray! Here is Tru:Blood, muddypebbles style. Not the same style box as in the show...but that will be fixed before the finale :P
***

True Blood is back, and since I am in love with the show/books, Nick and I had a watch party. Aside from putting up blood red streamers, our menu included Red Velvet Cake, Lafayette's Famous Burgers (which are amazing!!!! see recipe below), red salsa/chips, and of course bottles of Tru:Blood. (What can I say...you can't be a graphic designer, have a party and not be tempted to strip the labels from bottles and make your own case of blood.) And for those who were not brave enough for bottled blood (red wine) we had a variety of red sodas to choose from. We even got our shirts that go with the show...Nick in his red Fangtasia tshirt and I in my "I ❤ Bill Compton" top.

in the midst of all the drama caused by moving I forgot to mention, I totally won a shinny new red iPod nano from HBO's vampire blog "Bloodcopy". Not going to lie, I am totally excited. It just came in a few days ago...I find it the perfect bribery to finish putting things away ;)  Nick teases me that, it takes a vampire to know one...it isn't my fault I am constantly pale and my office has no windows to the outdoors. :P

Yesterday, Nick and I stood in line to set up our internet for the apartment. I should have taken the first clue that the internet site was down for ordering and turned and ran...but, I didn't.

Since Friday I have been moving and packing along with Nick non-stop. It is almost a relief to be at work because it gives my back a much needed rest. This weekend I carried boxes up and down countless stairs and only now is the end in sight. I'd say we are 90% moved in...now comes the whole unpacking and setting up everything stage.

It's 8:30 and already I've been at work for a bit, packed my car and somehow put on a matching outfit. 

i have to admit it was difficult  to come to work this morning after my only activities in the past 3 days have been working out and going to the pool. 

this happened yesterday around 5:30pm, I just got sidetracked and forgot to share! so, here we go :)

Tonight I learned the reason why you really shouldn't try a new recipe you plan on bringing somewhere for the first time without a trial run.

Simply put, Mayan Bundt Cake was a disaster...to put it nicely. When I would put the wooden poker in to see if it was done at 40...then 45...then even another few minutes later it would always come out looking not even close to done. Then I just decided at 50 min that this thing is going to burn before it finishes and, sure enough, as it cooled 10 min and then was flipped it came out in alternating uncooked and overly dry parts. It came out looking like a heaping pile of dirt. Not so much the bundt cake shape that I pain-stakingly criscoed/floured.

Mayan Brownies are in the oven now, hopefully these don't become another FAIL, or I give up. At least these don't have to be flipped into a fancy shape.

Although, I am disappointed that the $5 cake holder tubberware thingy I bought today will not get used. Ce la vie.

Let the countdown to me living in the links begin...by this time next month I will be moved in, hopefully somewhat organized and enjoying life sans roommates, aside from Nick :)

Today I had my first combined editorial and graphics office meeting. After a while of teasing about the crappy rainy weather it was joked that we all needed UV lights in our office, health reasons since there has been a major lack of vitamin D.

Then it was brought up that I really needed the UV light, since my office had no windows, followed by...

"Actually when we hired Ruth, she requested an office with no windows as part of her deal to work here...vampire and all, she'll burst into flames if she sees the light"

love it! hehehe

Today my fancy new wacom tablet arrived. I now look super awesome with wacom tablet on my left and mouse on my right. I learned today that if you use both mouses at once the one on the right overrides wacom's. (would I say I have two mouses? or two mice like the animal?....hmmm....)

knowing it is finals week and not having ANY!!!!

Well, I forgot to blog yesterday...officially I think I'm about to give up daily blogging and go for 6 out of 7 days a week blogging. Seems to be closer to what I can keep up with :P

Valerie and Bonnie are much better at this competition, it will be interesting to see who wins in the long run. I'm keeping my eyes open to see who the winner will be:)

I guess I should have known competition would have been an issue for me, I mean in softball, I cheer when I miss the ball as well as actually hitting it...maybe that should have been a hint, a red flag of my pending doom with this competition.

I figured since i forgot to blog 2 days back, i'd just start at the beginning of the month...so here I go. last try for daily blogging for 30 days.

Today I watched "The Spirit". It will now stand as my least favorite graphic novel to become a movie.

helping nick with his resume and cover letter. since i am using mine as a template, i'm laughing myself to tears. graphic design has nothing to do with a police force cover letter and resume that i'm helping him with for class. something makes me think stuff like "I look forward to discussing what I can do to help with your fashion line" and ending a letter with "warmly"...just not the thing to do.

I've become completly addicted to the eighth Sookie Stackhouse book, From Dead to Worse. This book has been the end of me doing anything productive at home these past few days. Which, I suppose is kinda bad timing since I should really be focusing on packing. Good thing the next book in the series comes out in May, otherwise I might cry not knowing what Sookie will do next.

Just a thought for today. Through my observations on my iGoogle weather versus what it actually has been ouside...well lets just say its been the exact opposite all day. If it says rain, its dry. If it says dry it's raining. All in all, google weather predicting skills=FAIL

Today I spent the day, you guessed it, packing. Lots and LOTS of packing as I get myself ready to move into my new apartment. I think packing could be a full time job for me...I totally did it from about 9-7 today...and I'm close but not done.

On a side note, I noticed yesterday I was like 15 min late for hitting my Saturday blog...ugh, I'm so not good at this. Twitter is so much easier :)

Well, this marks Ruth's Round 3 for the beginning of a month of blogging.

Tonight Nick and I went to the OKC zoo's Great escAPE event, proceeds are going towards Sumatrian orangutans. It was so fun to see the apes and orangutans up close. Nick bought me a picture of one of the gorillas. She is so cute! Her name is Kalila, apparently she is very friendly and sometimes likes to spin around. Next time I go to the zoo, i'll have to look for her. She's in gorilla pen three. :)

As I go into further True Blood withdrawl, I find myself trying out louisiana spiced foods, reading (and LOVING) the rest of the Charlaine Harris books, and keeping up on all the True Blood gossip blogs can supply. 

Today was the employee benefit seminar. I can wrap it up in a brief statement, "OSU has great benefits, however if you get divorced and you forget to change your beneficiary your ex-wife will be getting your benefits if something terrible were to happen to you."

Also, Hilbrett or whatever that sports store that is...total FAIL, they suck at keeping left handed gloves on hand.

I now proclaim that Landry's (Laundry's???) Frozen Custard=very yummy. I had the Trevor Special...which is just a chocolate overload of goodness. I'm fairly certain that the excercizing that I did today was totally undid by the sundae, but I have no regrets.

I decided I really needed ice cream today...particularly soft serve, after talking about the budget for next year and Missy teasing we needed a soft serve ice cream machine. I totally agree! :) hehe However, I said that I would be fine with a stocked Ben & Jerry's fridge. ;)

Cheers!
Ruth

P.S. Here is the day 3 addition to the office, my new fancy rice paper lantern. Admitably the picture made the lamp look a lot harsher than it is....really it is just a nice white glow :) Side effect of cell phone camera lack-of-awesomeness :P

What is a sign that you work at a nice place? I'd say getting pranked called by the director is a pretty good hint :)

He claims to be a person from the physical plant. Speaks sounding like he isn't the brightest crayon in the box, and calls to tell me that "They heard I didn't have no windows, and that they were gunna make my office real pretty."

I was given several choices of poster type things to add to my wall...ocean being the most popular.

Geh, I feel for it! lol. I'm so gullible.

Day 2: I still love my new job, everyone is great. Today I got teased for having nothing in my office...I should have said, "Just wait until the moving truck comes!" ;) lol

P.S. Got the Chip Kidd Batmanga poster up today :)

Made it home from my first day of work as a Senior Graphic Designer at Fire Protection Publications.

This is me on the way to my first day!


Everyone is very nice and made me felt very welcome there, they even repainted my office for me.

I was wildly amused that my name was spelled right and had it already on the door of my office when I got there.



Stay tuned...in the next few weeks I'll put up pics as I decorate.

To make up for the fact that I'm not the best at blogging, my new technique is to blog when I think of it. Today that means 2 blogs in 1 day...don't hold your breathe people...it surely won't be daily.

At this point I'm lounging in bed and thinking in less than 12 hours I will be starting the next chapter in my life. I'll be making new friends, finding new challenges, and will be trying to learn everyones name as fast as I can while being on extra good behavior until I know everyone better. I'd hate to scare them off in the first week. As excited as I am, I'm only feeling a tinge nervous, but I'll be ok :) It is just crazy to think that after all the applications I finally got a big girl job that I'm proud of, and now, i'm ready to show them that they picked the right girl.

p.s. i am so a big enough nerd to take pics as the day progresses tomorrow.

Well...I'm doing better than I thought I would with this daily blogging. Yet, as I woke up this morning I realized I didn't blog yesterday. BOO! I am not so good at this daily blogging. Too bad it isn't like baseball and 3 strikes and you're out.

As such, here I begin again with 30 days...hopefully I finish 30 consecutive days before next year :)

Yesterday, it rained. I go into get groceries...come out and it is pouring rain and I'm in my little leather ballet flats. So as I ran inside I just slid them in my bag and ran. Playing in the rain is so much more fun when the rain isn't freezing cold.

New job starts tomorrow! Fire Protection, here I come :)

Today I went to my first three year old birthday party...well, since my brothers about 12 years ago. The excitement of seeing all the munchkins running and screaming around is just so fun.

I bought Connor, the munchkin of honor, a McDonald's Cash register. Best thank you in the world is what I got in return :)

***high pitched scream!!! McDonald's!!!!*** followed by a brief conversation with mom about why he is supposed to open the other presents first and then play with the toys, since at that moment all he wanted to do was make a few plastic burgers and charge for them :)

Connor then went on to open the rest of the presents cheering in his high pitched voice for those he liked, and immediately asking for the next present after those that were not as much his favorite lol, too cute.

After a Scooby Doo cake, ice cream and a few more laughs with my friends and their families I knew why I loved children so much. Their honesty is priceless...and lets face it, watching them eat ice out of the cooler with the drinks and take a bite, spit the ice back...stuff like that is just hilarious.

Hooray, I win.

P.S. for those of you who may wonder about how softball went tonight, not quite sure...I went looking for a glove for my lefthandedness at Hilbett Sports...or whatever it is called and they only had giant man gloves or toddler gloves, come now sports companies us lefty girls with tiny hands want baseball gloves too! I vow to find a glove before next game...mom says we may still have the one I used in 1st grade lol.

Today for lunch in honor of The Bloggess, I couldn't help but put Wolverines! as my name on my Chipolte order.

now, admitably this is not the clearest photo, but here is evidence of my WOLVERINES! :)



Bonnie had the genius idea and I admit that I am 99% certain I would have done it anyways...but now that I have a blog it is like encouraging me to do things like this just so I will have something to blog about for the next 28 days lol.

Tomorrow...trial 2 at softball, this should be interesting :)