Cooky Crazy Christmas Gift Ideas

Getting gifts for people, if you're like me, can be challenging but always, always, always worth it. Gift giving is the best thing ever invented!! I must say that a lot of times giving is more fun than getting. 

Here are a few ideas to inspire you to get your friend, family member, coworker or lover:

Crafty mom gift giver: Moms of boys start this gift! A mother kept items from her sons pockets for years and presented the lost treasures as a wedding gift. I love this. (read full article) But hey, good luck explaining to your son you were a clepto his entire childhood. hahaha I'd still do it.

Imaginary son comment, "So you're telling me that the boogie man you told me stole my stuff all those years was actually you?...The tooth fairy doesn't steal the contents of my pockets as well?...That I don't actually suffer from memory loss"... insert your fabricated explanation of how you being a creeepster is normal. Again, I'd still do it.

Have a shirt made. I see great shirts everyday, online and in real life so just head to the local school spirit store/wherever they make shirts and have one made. This can be a cheaper option than buying it online and paying for shipping. Usually around 30 bucks. PLUS it's kinda one-of-a-kind. BONUS POINTS.

Useful gift! Awesome way to keep those darn shoes from clunking around your dryer. I'm thinking hats could fit there, too. Go Wal-mart!! I can imagine that if I gave this gift the receiver might be a little confused, "why are you encouraging me to do laundry?" BUT they would actually USE this thing. Helpful gifts are sooooo smart. 

do wahtchoo do but watch my shoes-link here

Style. Even at the library/fed ex/work/home...my USB (shown here as a bow) has style. This one is no longer available (I tried to get it already) but this just inspired me to find cool USB's for friends. It's small, it's adorbs, it's really a statement piece and it's so special I dare someone to lose it (they won't). I had a friend in college who received a coach umbrella. Terribly impractical use of money but she sure looked awesome on rainy days with that beautiful "brelly". Sigh. Swoon. You know you wouldn't buy something like this for yourself so do someone you love a favor and get it for them. 

Small gifts for men. Big gifts are too expensive, and you better just leave it to them to buy those for themselves. I prefer to go the route of gift basketing: a bunch of cheap crap they wont buy for themselves but always bug you about but then you forget about them because dang it, he needs to go on and get the stuff. PLUS he has vehemently denied the use of your stash of the same things that are just the girly versions i.e. lotion, chapstick, soap, air fresheners etc. Seriously, follow the link below for some great gift ideas. I mean, the dude won't even get a new toothbrush. Help a dude out. 

Super cool long list of small gifts for men

For Him: Come on. Duh. Get it. Links below.

Because putting the roll on the holder may actually kill you one day. Not.

Another option from amazon

And another

All of these gift ideas I pinned on Pinterest. It has been a huge help to me this season. If you don't already have an account let me know and I'll "invite you" on there so you can get quick ideas like these. 

Picture Gems from Vacay

The Dan Wams traveled to South Carolina last week for a vacation with his Mom's side of the family. It was  a fantastic reunion and a great time for me to meet the rest of his family. Dan really has a great family and we had an amazing time. 

Below are some of my iPhone pictures that I thought would be fun to share with you. 

Dan and I drove around the first day learning the liquor laws and found this gem. Oh I just love me some persona-lih-zation!! "You know what it is".

The first full day we made it to the beach. A and lil A are so adorbs. 

Greg was writing Brenner's name in the sand. Lil A came running over...

...and toppled over. ACTION SHOT!!! She got a good couple of red bumps on her forehead but they healed so fast and she was good to go after a good squeeze from her momma. 

 The boys played kicking game once or twice. They were sore all week. 

Getting to live in the same house as the niece and nephew was awesome for everyone. It always feels good when Brenner calls for you to sit with him or play. Uncle Danny got alot of love from Brenner.

Brenner was on fire. This is him being Bugs Bunny!

I told Brenner that was the basket the stork delivered Audrey in. So he climbed in it to test it out. Later in the week I asked Adrienne to buy me a nail kit we saw on Nickelodeon, Brenner piped up and said "no" to me. I said, "Brenner, I'm not talking to you", and without missing a beat he goes, "You can have a baby, a chubby baby". Flabbergasted I look at Adrienne and give her a 'what are you telling this kid when I'm not around' face. It was amazing; shocking...but amazing.  And for the record, no, we will not be getting a chubby baby for Christmas but dang, that kid is funny.

Shopping one day Dan and I heard this guy before we saw him, but it is pretty hard to miss him. He looks to weigh about one hundred pounds. 

I mean his head fills up the back window of that car.

This is the drive everyone loved to take. Miles of covered road. You can't see it here but there was so much spanish moss....swoon....I was not able to collect moss to fed ex back to me in Texas but...I'll figure out a way to get my oaks to look as amazing as South Carolina's. 

Glad to be back in the great state of Texas but sad to end the family adventure. We are so blessed to get together like that. 

Election Day 2012

I am super nervous today as it is election day and no one knows which way the polls will end up.

Source: salon.com

Will we get the same guy for four more years and see what happens next?
Will the legislature reach across the aisle to work better for America; if he wins then after the next four years he is done so what else is there to do but work together???
Will the new guy come in and change business in a positive way for those of us that desperately need a business boost? What's going to happen to healthcare? I'm new at controlling my own healthcare destiny so it's still Greek to me anyways. But as a woman I have deep passions that I've know I've had since fifth grade Junior Achievement classes.

Source: Examiner.com

It often feels best to me to boot out the incumbent and vote for a fresh face. And this was only reinforced when early voting last week the normal (incumbent) marquee was no longer there for me to rely on. WHICH REALLY UPSET ME. These (insert rude word) people in charge stripped that from the ballot. Of course they would so cowardly try to protect their seats! Same as, of course they would vote down voter registration ID laws around the country.

We are at a tipping point in our American history where being active in government and changing the status quo is a must. We can't sit back and go with the flow because the flow is going down the pipes. It is a downward spiral into abysmal mediocrity that our elders are mortified by. And I'm not saying that our elders aren't already mortified by the youth and our future but they are truly concerned with our well being not just our love for hip hop music. The legacy of being the greatest country in the world is not guaranteed for my future or my hypothetical kids' futures. I am freaking out but on the bright side I am encouraged when I can count a good number of friends that are deeply involved in the political process and either work or have worked in D.C. or Austin or Baton Rouge. I'm happy to know my peers are active in the process that shapes our future.

Source: soahead.com

We can only take it from day to day so maybe tomorrow, or rather the 20th day of January 2013, will be the start of a new era, whichever suit wins. Who I voted for is too personal to plaster on this public domain but I will say that I'll probably cry either way when the result is out in the open, from relief and hope or from fear of the unknown.

Update: Day after election, Wednesday Nov 7, 2012. Life goes on. Hopefully in the best interest of our future. Even if times are tough now, hopefully we will all come out of this recession better than when we started in it; though I was in college having a great time, so I'm not sure I will come out better but hopefully the country will :)

Tigers and Crabs Lose, I Win

The Tigers played an amazing game that third day in November 2012 and so did I. In the end the Tigers lost but I totally won. That third day in November my friend from work took me crabbing for my first time. It was really, really, really fun and easy to get the hang of once you get past all the gross factors... and let me tell ya there were multiple gross factors so you have been warned. I took pictures of most of them. If cleaning sea life grosses you out then you need to skip this post. If you are bold and enjoy the great wild then come along for this trip to deliciousness. 

We took our time getting our things ready and got to the fishing spot at about 10am. We brought snacks and waters and our game faces.

The supplies we needed to crab with:

String

Turkey necks (raw, for real)

A net

One day fishing license (we legal, people)

Rubber boots

Sun block and Off

This was our spot, a waterway near the Neches River in Bridge City.  We saw several women and families so we felt this was a safe place for us.

My friend took some pictures of me in the crabbin' zone lol. I was loving every second of reeling those suckers in. They were so pretty; brown on top, a little red here and there, and the prettiest blue on their legs. 

So whatchoo do is take a turkey neck, about 6 inches long, tie string tight around and throw the turkey neck (with the string attached lol) out in to the middle of the water way where it (should) sink to reach a deep part in the waterway; tie the string to something on the bank, anything, a stump, the handles on your cooler or the legs of your chair...or when you're desperate, a rock, and wait to see that string tighten and bob up and down as a crab has hold of the turkey neck on the end and is trying to walk away with it. You bring your net and you ever so gently pull that sting and turkey neck in...when you see the meat throug hthe murkey water scoop it all up with the net and if the crab was dumb enough to hold on all the way, you got yourself a soon-to-be-tasty treat in that net. We checked the five inch rule of the crab on a handy ruler the cooler had on its lid and deposited our catch in the cooler.

Since we were just two girls in a man's world we were concerned about our safety out there. We had several factors on our side. It was the first day of hunting so many hardcore fellows were in the woods. Also I had a canister of mace in my pocket so if anybody pulled over, and one man did, I had my finger on the trigger because my daddy said mace only works if you have it ready to fire.Ya know, I call it mace but it's really pepper spray. The man that pulled over actually gave us three crabs he caught because when you are hardcore and you have a small catch that day you give it to nice ladies who are hunting the same as you did. He also helped us with the rule that the crab has to be five inches wide on the top shell for you to keep it, any smaller and you have to throw it back.  

At the beginning my friend was showing me the ways and reeling 'em in. I was fascinated and couldn't wait to bag one myself. One time she was reeling one in and it was really giving her hell. It was tuggin' back and had a decent amount of force against her. She asked me to pull a little with her. She wanted help but also to give me a time with it to see what the crabs do on the line. We were screeching a little from nerves and started to wonder why this pull felt different than the others, stronger. Little bubbles started to break at the surface and all I could think of was the late Steve Erwin at the waters edge when an alligator pops up and strikes....SO I FREAKED OUT. I yelled, "what if its a gator???!!! Look at those bubbles!!". My friend agreed but when we would scamper back she held onto the rope because she is hard core. In between the screeches were laughing so hard. I was like, "gators only have one good strike and after that I'll mace it!!!" Like that would have worked out. 

It turns out that it was several, like two or three, crabs pulling at the same time and we were too scared to position the net below to scoop for fear of losing an arm and looking like the guy in Happy Gilmore so we missed out on two huge crabs. We watched them scuttle away through the murky water and cursed ourselves for being chickens...or turkeys. I learned then that crabs let out air bubbles too. Valuable lesson learned. My tummy was ashamed of me. 

We spent about four or five hours out there and including the three crabs the man gave us we had a total of 18 crabs. 9 each for eatin'. 

We got to my friends house we got those crabs on ice via a dangerous scooping technique. Lots more screeching and laughing and cursing were involved. 

The ice numbs the little dudes and dudettes and preps them for the cleaning process. 

That's a girl in the picture below. Ask me how I know (I feel like such a pro now). Anyway, so you flip them so you are handling their bellies, they now move very slowly, if at all. If they moved too quickly for our liking they went back in the ice bath. 

I really, really tried to clean one myself but I was way too scared. I did parts of it here and there but the most important part of pulling it apart, I couldn't handle. I had the heeby-geebies real bad. My friend did most of the work. I was there to cheer her on and make her laugh.

I'm not going to get into the exacts of how you clean them but we did separate the big claws from the rest of their clean bods. This is my favorite picture. The colors on those claws are amazing! 

The bods with the juicy meatsssss.....YUM!!!

A coworker told us how to microwave them in a way that makes them taste like restaurant quality crabs. It was astonishing how good they turned out. We put ten in the Pyrex, covered them in melted butter with bay leaves, some Tony's, Some california garlic, and some Slap Yo Momma. And, slap yo momma, that was the bestest flavors ever!!! My friend put Reynolds wrap over the dish and microwaved it the same number of minutes as the number of crabs you were cooking. This steamed them like a champ. 

BUTTAAAA!!! lol

 Eating was so fun. We were laughing and so proud of ourselves for eating what we caught all in the same day. It was very satisfying. It was like eating crawfish for all the mess you make pulling it apart to get the meat. All totally worth it. We listened to music and sat and drank and ate and gabbed.  Eating the 9 crabs took about an hour and a half and we could have downed more but that was a perfect number to be full and not miserable. 

Next time you're in town I'll take you crabbin' and I'll do the cleaning. After eating those suckers I can totally get past the grossness of cleaning. I promise. 

Music Moves Me

Dan and I tend to be decent at traveling together. We mostly crank the tunes and do sing-a-longs and occasionally have dance parties. They're pretty cool. 

One time we were on our way to BR for the South Carolina game and listening to MGMT "Electric Feel".

Me: "This song makes me wanna ride a unicorn through the sky."
Dan: "I don't get emotional ideas from songs". He puts on his 'danielle voice', "this one makes me wanna fist fight a bear".

Beat Bama... Again

Oh Boy, Oh Boy... LSU vs Bama tomorrow!! My stomach has been doing somersaults all week as the excitement mounts.  To help increase your "Crunk Factor" please check out the following images:

LSU Lambo. Makes sense.

 

These owners and their dogs are always at the games. I remember them well thinking, "oh that's what giant poodles are good for"? I'm just playing. These owners ARE awesome, though.

Source: theadvocate.com

Frat house on campus this week expressing their creative side.

Spotlight on the greatest Defensive End Tandem in College Football!!

A few things you may not know about LSU:

We like babies.

We surpassed the average graduation rate in the Southern Regional Education Board this year.

We recycle.

Our alums put robots on Mars.

We are superstitious.

"It's really the offensive woes that were the biggest thing in me deciding to shave the mustache," he said. "Our offense wasn't clicking, and I'm just being a little superstitious. Hopefully, this changes it up."

Source: USA Today

We have a rich military history. 

The LSU Aircraft Memorial, a T-33 "T-Bird" jet, stands as a memorial to all LSU graduates who have lost their lives while defending the nation during the jet age.

We take cat naps. 

That's all for now. LSU has a chance to beat Bama and that's a warm fuzzy feeling for me and the rest of the faithful. I bet you're a fan now. You should accept any way to get the number 1 team knocked off. If you need to borrow any purple and/or yellow clothes, just holler. 

Trunk or Treat

Last night my church hosted their annual Trunk or Treat. About 10 cars set up. Some decorated their trunks, others set up their tailgate to look like a haunted house, some hosted games out the back of their SUVs...I simply taped up poster board and sat in a lawn chair. Lol call it lazy if you will, I call it brilliant. BAM. Done. The kids were super cute and I got some really sweet, excited reactions to the truck. "Tow mater!" Lightning McQueen" ..."That one movie!!". I had no idea what to call this thing so I said it was Tow mater's cousin 'Chevy Bow Tie'...? Not a very creative name but it works. I should have used more white poster board to cover the grill and cranked the wheels to look sportier, but oh well, maybe next year. I will definitely have Dan bring the red mustang so I can dress it up like the real Lightning McQueen; park the cars all on an angle like a car show. Dreamin' big. 

This was my trunk or treat neighbor. The clown on his work truck was pretty creepy. He had it on a pully/simple machine system. The head spun, the eyebrows went up and down, and the arms waved. The kids were fascinated.  Either they cried or they laughed and imitated it. All very entertaining for me. 

We had about 100 kids come by. I was impressed. It lasted only two hours therefore the pain of seeing teens in inappropriate outfits and adults collecting candy for newborns was thankfully cut short. I kid. No I don't. All in all a relatively happy memory.

Anyway, I hope you had a great Halloween!