Bursting With Pride

So, I had pretty much given up on my blog...I was feeling like I had nothing exciting or interesting enough to devote the time to drafting a blog post. However, I was incorrect.

I have OUTSTANDING news.

My little sister, my baby sister (who is not such a baby anymore), won Bonners Ferry's Junior Miss (DYW, whatever) this weekend!

As the title of my blog post said, I am bursting with pride. She was amazing. In fact, she won the title, the Scholastics category, and the Interview category. Those were all the things I won in 2006, so I was extra proud. She juggled (yes, juggled) and danced for her talent which was a huge hit with the crowd and (in my opinion), gave the absolute best Self Expression answer out of the group. No, I am not being overly proud, you can ask just about anyone who was there. For your viewing pleasure I included some pictures...

This is Aaramie.

My mom, my sister Allia, Aaramie, and me.

My grandparents, mom, Allia, Aaramie, me, dad.

Me and Aaramie...after I had cried sufficiently. Pathetic, I know.

The sisters.

This was before, but it's a cute picture of me and Grace, so I included it.



State DYW is in Idaho Falls this year in October. I already booked my hotel room (no joke). I am so excited for Aaramie. I hope she has as wonderful a time as I did at state and has just as wonderful a roommate ;). 

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Christmas Wreath Project

I completed one of my Pinterest projects! It's a wreath made out of ornaments and it is SO cute.

More projects to come!



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I may never do school work again.

My name is Andrakay

and....

I am a Pinterest addict.

I had heard about the amazing-ness that is Pinterest before, but for some reason I had no looked into it. Well, today I reached a whole new level of boredom and found it. I have serious doubts that I will ever do anything productive ever again....except craft of course.

Here are some of the projects I picked out to do over Christmas break...

or...maybe this one...

Definitely this.

I might have to buy a new pair of heels to do this to, but I am going to make some glitter heels.

I'll need a snack while I get all crafty too....

I just know Mark will be excited about all the crafting I will be doing instead of housework ;)

I CANNOT wait.

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Ginger Houses

Grace, Aaramie, and I made "ginger houses" (Grace's version of gingerbread houses) today. I found a recipe online and couldn't resist. The recipe was from Family fun: http://familyfun.go.com/christmas/christmas-recipes/christmas-gingerbread-recipes/my-first-gingerbread-house-715095/. Here are some pictures from the project...

The gingerbread, fresh out of the oven

The base for the gingerbread houses...yeah, it's kind of weird, but those cardboard cartons work great for shaping the house.

Ready to decorate

Aaramie helping Grace squeeze frosting

Grace probably ate more candy than went on the house...which is saying something.

The finished houses.

When my siblings and I were little we used to make gingerbread houses every year. It's still just as fun.

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Happy Halloween...early

I've never been much of a Halloween fan. The whole dressing up thing, not my deal. However, I will always get on board with an excuse to do a craft type thing or make cookies. So, yesterday Grace and I carved pumpkins and made Halloween sugar cookies.

Yes, those are Cinderella and Wow Wow Wubbzy pumpkins.

Observe the random circle to the left of Wubbzy (this is a Nick Jr. character in case you were confused). I was carving him and right as I was about to finish Grace came up behind me...

Grace: Uh, Awwjootay (translation: Andrakay)? You forgot something.

Me: What?

Grace: His kickedy kickball.

Me: Uh, ok (proceed to carve circle).

Wubbzy is her favorite TV character and she proceeded to tell me alot of other things I forgot including the other four characters in the show. I convinced her that our pumpkin was not nearly big enough to include them and said we could carve them next year. I think we might have to have at least seven pumpkins next year to include all the things I promised to carve. Great.

Notice the large pile of frosting on the cookie. Most of her cookies looked like this. Luckily I smoothed some out so no one will die of a sugar coma, but she did eat a considerable amount of frosting in the process.

Happy Halloween!

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The Smell of Fall

I really didn't used to like fall very much when I was a kid. All it meant was that summer was over and winter was fast approaching. Now as an adult, I have a new perspective on fall. I love watching the trees change colors and the crisp air. Crisp air means jeans and sweatshirts too, which I LOVE. Among the other things I love about fall are: football season, carving pumpkins, Halloween, and pumpkin smells.

Last year, I discovered a recipe that is like fall in your mouth :)...Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins. As someone who is not a big fan of pumpkin pie, I wasn't so sure about this, but it turned out well. I made the first ones of this year today and thought I'd share some pictures and the recipe since you can't exactly smell the delicious aroma that is permeating my house today.

Mix dry ingredients together:
3 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups sugar



 Mix in a separate bowl:
1 15 oz. can of pumpkin
4 eggs
1 cup oil

 Mix both bowls of ingredients together until moistened. Add in 2 cups of chocolate chips.

 Spoon into muffin cups.

 Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.

 Results: delicious burst of fall in your mouth!

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One and a half months later...

Well, turns out I'm not great at keeping up with my blog. It's been a busy month and a half.

I got married.

That's definitely the high point of the last month. The wedding turned out pretty much exactly as I wanted. The whole thing is still kind of a blur to be honest...people, hugs, congratulations, pictures, presents....it all kind of meshed togather. Being married is, well, pretty much the same as not being married in our case. However, I feel like I save at least 10 minutes a year in signing my new, shorter name: Andrakay Pluid. It's weird to say it to people now. Getting called on in class for the first time by that name was something else.

I had a bachelorette party.

I know bachelorette parties come pre-wedding, but the wedding news is more important, so it's at the top. We had a great time though. Case, Em, Dev, Kayla, and me for most of it and Jillian came to the bars with us. My great aunt (my grandpa's sister) and Kayla's mom crashed the party at one of the bars in downtown  Coeur d' Alene and partied it up with us...they were so much fun!

We ran into another bachelorette party. They were doing a True Blood theme...hence the vampire teeth and mimicked biting seen above.

I had a bridal shower.

This is me and my sister. Observe the SUPER cute dress. LOVE.

Mark's 3 youngest sisters, Emma, Maggi, and Mary, and his Mom.

Me and Casey, my maid of honor. Case did such a great job with the shower. Everyone couldn't say enough good things about it. It was a princess theme, perfect for me. We made crowns and played Disney princess themed games. I'm excited for the first time I get to plan a bridal shower (or if I guess...Case needs to get married first, lol).

Aaron goes to Costa Rica and Allia goes to college.



My brother is studying abroad in Costa Rica until May and my sister Allia (on the left) started college at Idaho State in Pocatello. This was the last picture of the four of us that will get taken for at least nine months, strange. Aaramie is home all by herself, which must be even weirder. I know when I was her age I prayed for everyone to leave, so maybe she likes it...

Other, less noteworthy, stuff happened too. I restarted school. Woo. Year 2 of 3 is so far going well. I have some classes I actually like/care about like Family Law and Natural Resource Law. I managed to work my schedule so I only have classes on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday so I can be home 4 days a week, which has been great so far. On Tuesday and Wednesday nights I live with Mark's sisters Katie and Robbie in Lewiston, which has been great. Katie works at a coffee stand so I have established a Wednesday morning routine of getting coffee from her. It's a great excuse for a latte.

That's pretty much what I haven't talked about for the last month and a half. Pretty lackluster really....well ok, my wedding was pretty great, but who wants to read all about that? ;)

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