Shopaholic

My 9th grade year I went 180 days (yes, I counted) of never wearing the same thing twice. One-hundred eighty days!! I was proud of myself for the impeccable organization of my closet to insure the perfect rotation. It was the one thing I had going for me in an otherwise uneventful and scary first year at a new school. My wardrobe got me noticed. I'm hoping it was for all of the right reasons, but looking back, there was nothing "right" about the hot pink pleather pants. The cute boy in school called them my "hot pants," so, for the sake of my ego, I'll just pretend that he was indeed interested.

I loved to shop. I'm sure that I went at least once a week, and I never came home empty handed. My obsession was funded by the extra hours I put in at work, and I felt like it was a fair trade. In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have worked so hard merely for adding unnecessary clothes to my closet. Live and learn, they say. Learn, I did.

Fast forward ten years later. I still love to shop, but I rarely allow myself the opportunity. In fact, I have acquired some very strange habits to help feed my hunger for shopping. It was just this morning, as I was filling up an online shopping cart at The Gap to later delete everything from said cart (more on that later), that I actually realized I had an entirely different type of problem.

Habit #1: Window Shopping

Okay, so perhaps this habit isn't an abnormal one. Just last night, I walked up to the doors of Coach, but didn't dare go in. I was like Charlie Bucket (from Willy Wonka) staring into a candy store, knowing full well that I couldn't afford what was inside. I don't need a Coach purse, nor do I have a strong desire for one. However, they are pretty and I could just picture myself walking around with one on my shoulder. I felt better for looking.

Habit #2: Try on everything in sight

I often go into a store and become overwhelmed by all of the pretty colors and soft fabrics so meticulously displayed before me. I fall in love with the whole collection, and I must have it! I begin grabbing everything that jumps out at me and walk back to the fitting rooms with more than is allowed in the room at once. I try them all on and keep anything that fits well. As I head back out into the store, something happens: one by one, I begin putting back my pile of must-haves until I'm left empty-handed. The employees, who were excited for all of the commission, are dumbfounded as I leave the store with no bag in hand.

It's like a shopping spree without spending the money. Somehow, it's refreshing.

Habit #3: Buy it all, return later.

Depending on my mood at the time, the above scenario could go very differently. Instead of returning everything to its proper place, I pile it all on the cashier table and whip out my money. At this point, both the employee and I are feeling pretty good about ourselves. She, about all the money I just spent, and I, about my beautiful new things. That is, until I get home and look through it again. Within a week, I return every single thing. Do you think they keep their commission? I sure hope so. If not, they'll probably ban me from their store in the future.

Now, this isn't a weekly occurrence, but it does happen the rare times I do go out to shop. My priorities have shifted to saving, paying off my debt, and Azra; not how good I look. With goals in sight, I can hold off on a new wardrobe. It's not to say that I don't get jealous when Chris comes home with a bag of new clothes for himself, but for now, window shopping will do.

Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake and Cavan

Last week we finally had a get-together with some friends that we see far too infrequently. It's not like they live a few states away, but rather a few miles! We agreed that once you have kids, it's a little difficult to force yourself out of your nighttime routine. Luckily for us, we did, as we were able to enjoy some delicious cheesecake and cute moments with the kiddos.

I now have an extensive collection of magazines due to all the great free to $5 per year subscriptions that I find (like here). I scoured my large pile of food magazines and came across a recipe which I thought looked particularly delicious.

Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

adapted from Taste of Home

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 cups oreo crumbs
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 4 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
• 1-1/4 cups sugar
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 9 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted
• 1/2 cup raspberry jam
• 1/4 cup fresh raspberries, pureed

Directions:

• Place a greased 9-in. springform pan on a double thickness of heavy-duty foil (about 18 in. square). Securely wrap foil around pan. Combine cookie crumbs and butter; press onto the bottom of prepared pan.

• In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Beat in sour cream and vanilla. Add eggs; beat on low speed just until combined. Set aside 1-1/2 cups; pour remaining batter over crust.
• In a microwave, melt chocolate; stir in jam and puree until blended. Stir in reserved batter just until blended. Drop by tablespoonfuls over the plain batter and gently smooth across the top. Place springform pan in a large baking pan; add 1 in. of hot water to larger pan.
• Bake at 325° for 65-75 minutes or until center is just set and top appears dull. Remove springform pan from water bath. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer. Refrigerate overnight.

Enjoy with a scoop of whipped cream, fresh berries, and cute babies.

Bermuda, Baby!

Last weekend, Chris and I took a trip with six of our friends to visit two other friends who moved to Bermuda last year. They were just living life in Des Moines and decided, "oh, Bermuda, why not?!" How awesome is that? I'd like to think that I have the audacity to do the same, but the truth is that deep down, I could never do it. After going off on my own to Spain for a semester, I now know the feeling of completely severing all physical ties to anyone I know. It is a completely freeing experience, but I'm nearly certain that I couldn't do it at this stage in my life. So, props to our friends, Ben and Smita, for having the courage to do something that very few of us would do (but would like to do) given the chance.

Onto the good stuff. Now, I'm no photographer, so you'll have to check out Chris' photos at a later point, but here are a few of my favs from my new camera:

We got off the plane and saw the most beautiful ocean waters that I have ever seen. The colors didn't even look real...

Even during walks along the beaches, we couldn't believe just how beautiful the place was...

(No, I'm not fat/pregnant, the dress was just billowing in the wind. :) )

The guys played golf with views like this...

We ate dinner with the most beautiful surroundings I've ever experienced...

Even below the surface was amazing...

Chris and I are so lucky to have been able to experience such a wonderful place with such an amazing group of friends. We never could have imagined that when we packed our bags to start our adventure in Des Moines (which now doesn't seem so big in comparison to Ben & Smita's move to Bermuda!), that we would be so lucky to call these people our friends. Ben & Smita were the most hospitable hosts and made sure that we had only the best time. Between the crystal caves, snorkeling in the ocean, taking the boat around the island, or even just taking silly pictures in their apartment, I can't decide which was my favorite. It was a great trip, and I'm so thankful that I had the experience, but we were both so ready to see our baby!

So, a special thanks goes out to our friends for the visit, as well as to our parents for watching Azra, for this was a trip that we never could have experienced on our own.

My First Mother's Day!

May is a month of renewal for me. I have decided to get back to what I love: writing, reading, baking, crafting, playing piano, listening to music, and being outdoors. Somehow, after the birth of Azra, I just quit doing everything that I used to find so much joy in. It's been months since I've even picked up my mp3 player! So, I'm dusting off my trusty sewing machine, bringing out the cookbooks, and getting my hands a little dirty in my fancy new vegetable garden. All while listening to a few new albums by some of my fav bands. I thought to myself, why not give the website a little face lift too? I tinkered around for a bit in some HTML language, and found out that it's really pretty fun! Perhaps I'll add "learn HTML" onto my to-do list while I'm at it.

Azra (read: Chris) decided to support my new attitude by surprising me with a fancy new camera for Mother's Day. I am now the proud owner of this pretty piece of technology:

Not only does it actually work, which is a huge step up from my old camera, but it automatically downloads all of my pictures and videos to my computer when I get home! How cool is that? Not having time to download all of my stuff is no longer a viable excuse.

Naturally, I had to put it to good use on Mother's Day by getting shots of my free Mother's Day frozen yogurt from TCBY:


My lovely new raised vegetable garden:

And of course, my beautiful baby girl:

All in all, it was a great Mother's Day and a wonderful start to a fantastic summer. You might say that here in the Brock household, "our future's so bright, we've gotta wear shades!"