2011, you can keep these!

There were many things to love about 2011.  If you haven’t read about my favorites of 2011 yet, you can here.  But as with any year, there were a few things I’m hoping do not cross over into 2012.  And here they are!

5. Planking, Owling, or any other act similar to this that makes you look like a complete idiot.

4. These ridiculous articles of clothing called bandage skirts.  Are you kidding me?

When I started seeing these on girls around the high school my instinct was to run to them and cover them up thinking they must have forgotten to wear clothing that actually covered areas that desperately needed to be covered.  But no.  They were just the latest trend of 2011 that I would love to see disappear in 2012.  I’m hoping this doesn’t make me old…just a product of a dad that cared about how I presented myself when I was young, and much to my irritation, sent me back to my room to change a few times growing up.

3.  Hair feathers.  I’ll admit that I really tried to like this when it first became popular.  But try as I may, I just couldn’t get on board.  I’d be okay to never see these in someone’s hair again…unless of course, they have the role of Pochohontas in the elementary school play.

2. Charlie Sheen’s craziness.  “Tigerblood”, “winning”, and comments that are so confusing they make your eyes cross.  Can we all promise to not give his craziness the time of day in 2012?

1.  Lady Gaga.  She managed to work her way into every holiday special on tv in 2011, therefore ruining every one of them.  If she spent half as much time on her music as she does on making sure the entire world sees her in her obnoxious costume garb, she may pump out some lyrics that have a little more meaning than “stop telephonin’ me.”  Sorry Gaga, but 2011 can keep you.

On another note, two very exciting things happened in the Schrader household this past week.  I felt baby move for the first time about five days ago!  Not a day has gone by since then where I haven’t felt that button flipping around. ♥  And two days ago we found out we are having a girl! Joy.

The Best of 2011!

2011 has been a year mixed with new revelations, many moments of fun, times of working through sorrow, lots of surprises, and an overwhelming sense of peace through it all.  It’s crazy to think another year has flown by and we are about to enter into a brand new one!  A year with new possibilities, new experiences, new adventures, new trials, new failures, and new triumphs.  Knowing this, I can’t help but look back on this past year and pick out the best parts of it.  So without further ado…

The Best of 2011!

• Texas BBQ–Aaron and I had the absolute joy of visiting my parents in Texas for the first time this year.  It was there that we discovered the pure deliciousness of Texas BBQ.  I swear sometimes I dream about it.
• Family Dinners–this was established late in the year for us, but has become one of our most favorite parts of each week.  Monday nights mark “family dinners” with our lovely friends, Steph and Mekenzie.  It’s not just the food that we are sharing that makes these nights so meaningful.  It’s coming off of an overly busy work day, counting down the minutes, and knowing that at the end of the day we get to share our lives with some of our very best friends.  It’s become a sweet solace for each of us, sharing the ups and downs of life, having deep conversation, and knowing that at the core of life, it’s the friendships that are so good they feel like family that keep us all going.
• Aaron was made Activities Director at Mt. View–what a complete and total blessing this has been been.  Aaron was made for this job, and he is enjoying every last minute of it.  We have been able to get to know one of the greatest groups of high school kids we’ve ever met, and feel honored to be able to share in their lives.
• My sister flew out to surprise me for my 30th birthday!  I cried.
• We have a new niece!–Little Scout was born October 11th, and is the sweetest little girl I know.  Isn’t she precious?

She looks exactly like my sister, is destined to be a deep thinker with her constant concerned looks, and loves to snuggle.  She’s a bug, and I love her. ♥

• I found this blog.  I adore it.  Laura is a thoughtful and honest writer, and I so enjoy following her through life.  She has great insight, and has the same taste in reading material as I do.  The last several books I’ve read have been at her suggestion, and I have been forever grateful.  If you find yourself looking for some light, fun daily reading, I highly suggest this blog.
• My best friend, Shauna, flew out to Colorado to help me throw my sister a baby shower.

We made a little side trip to Sterling for the afternoon.  I would have never thought that these two worlds would ever collide, but they did.  Shauna got the grand tour of the small town I used to call home.  Seeing where I used to cheer on the Sterling Tigers, where my childhood best friend got her first bee sting on the jungle gym, our tiny little movie theater, and so much more was seriously one of the more strange things I’ve experienced.  She now knows exactly where my roots are…and she still loves me.

• Reading this book.  It quickly became one of the best things I’ve read in my life.  I read it during not only one of the hardest parts of this year, but definitely one of the most difficult times I’ve walked through in my life thus far.  It made me feel normal during a time where I was broken.  It gave me the perspective I desperately needed during a time where I felt hopelessly lost.  The author, Shauna Niequist, states, “Bittersweet is the idea that in all things there is both something broken and something beautiful, that there is a moment of lightness on even the darkest of nights, a shadow of hope in every heartbreak, and that rejoicing is no less rich even when it contains a splinter of sadness.” I believe Jesus knew that the words in this book would allow my heart to stay soft and as far from bitter as possible while I healed.  It worked.
• The conclusion of Friday Night Lights.  I’m not sure I’ve ever loved a show quite like I loved and adored this one.  Which I realize sounds a bit shallow in itself, but stay with me for a minute.  These characters seep into your soul with such conviction, that sometimes I found myself wanting to pray for them as they walked through life’s trials.  Does this make me crazy?  Chelsea Bergman, I know you know what I’m talking about.  I felt like I knew the characters personally, and when the series finally came to an end I was sad to lose them.  Don’t judge me.
• Finding out this great news!

Get ready 2012!  You have some big shoes to fill.

Christmas Cocktails and lots of Cheer!

Some things you wait for all year long.  And this just happens to be one of them for me.

That’s me, right smack dab in the middle, beaming from ear to ear at the thought of having walked through another year with these people surrounding me.  Our annual Christmas Cocktail party hit #4 this year, and it’s one of my favorite events of the year!  So many of my favorite people in one place!  Eating good food, drinking lovely drinks, taking a much needed break from the busy Christmas season, and chatting and catching up on each others lives.

This was my date…

…so handsome is he, that I couldn’t take my eyes off of him…even for the picture. ♥

This year Christmas seems to have crept right up on me, and I didn’t have near the time to plan for this shindig as I usually do.  So Costco saved my dear life as I threw meatballs, cheese, crackers, candy, and dips into my cart.  I did, however, find the time to make these adorably delicious Christmas cupcakes!

I’m so sad to say that because of the overly busy season, and the fact that I haven’t felt top notch lately, I haven’t done near the baking that I so desperately wanted to.  But I found this recipe for Sugared Cranberry Vanilla Cupcakes weeks ago, and was determined to make them, no matter what!  I’m so thankful I was able to make them for this wonderful group of people!

It was a night full of fun, laughs, eating, drinking, and merriment to our heart’s content…and I’m already looking forward to Christmas Cocktails 2012!

Christmastime is Here!

I’ve been making what I feel is a valid attempt of coming out of the fog I’ve been in for the past few months.  I haven’t done any baking for months, and I’ve been anxious to get back at it!  So for Thanksgiving I signed up to bring the infamous pumpkin pie.  I knew this had to be a good way to ease back into it, considering I’ve made about a million pumpkin pies in my life.  It seemed fool-proof.  However, I’m certain that Thanksgiving has never met this fool.  It didn’t turn out quite like I had hoped.  It was a harsh reality to face as the thought actually sunk in…this baby has stolen my baking mojo, and I want it back!

That’s a slight joke.  But in all honesty, I feel a little rusty, so I’m hoping for some energy to kick back into gear and the opportunity to try some fabulous new recipes this Christmas season!  I started with these lovely Gingersnap Snowflakes after my husband quite loudly proclaimed the other night, “There’s no cookies around here!”  I love and adore molasses and ginger, and am a huge fan of any sweet treat that marries these two together.  To me it is the signature smell of the Christmas holiday.

With the hopes that I can get with it and kick this wonderful, snowy, twinkling light holiday season off right, here are a few recipes I’m dying to try!

• Cardamom Shortbread Cookies – yes, yes…and yes!  What’s not to like about shortbread?  There’s so much butter in shortbread, it’s bound to warm your insides.   Plus, I have a small infatuation with cardamom, so this is a win-win.
• Peppermint Meringue Kisses – these are just so pretty!
• Creme Brulee Cookies – oh good heavens…
• The Pioneer Woman’s Christmas Rum Cake – I tried a rum cake earlier this year that was a bit of a disaster, but this recipe makes me want to try again.  YUM!
• Butterscotch Fudge – am I ridiculous for even trying fudge again?  Fudge and I don’t get along.
• Homemade Gumdrops! – I’m so intrigued!

And of course our household would not be celebrating Christmas without these classic Schrader traditions

• Annie’s Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix
• Homemade Marshmallows – although this year I’m planning on dipping these in dark chocolate!
• Gingerbread Men

Time to get busy!  What Christmas baking traditions do you have?

Look out world…The Schrader’s are having a kid!

If you need to rewind and read that again, go ahead.

If you know Aaron and I personally, you know that kids were never part of our plan.  If you don’t know us personally, know this now…kids were never part of our plan.  For the last nine years we have enjoyed married life as just the two of us.  We vacation when we want, we get up when we want, and we go out when we want.  We are used to only thinking of each other when decisions are made, and life has been sweet and good and wonderful.

However, if there’s one thing we’ve learned this year, it’s that Jesus has a way of taking our best laid plans, mixing them up, changing our hearts, and setting us on the course for a new plan.  He’s sneaky that way.

So come early June 2012 a new little Schrader will join our family, and we couldn’t be more excited!

A book sale, applesauce, and friends who play music

I’m so happy to say that Fall arrived in Bend, Oregon this weekend, thankfully just in time for the Fall Festival.  It was just the right mix of blustery and overcast that went perfectly with caramel apple cider and time with good friends.

Our weekend started off with the fastest high school football game ever.  It totally made up for last week’s, which was the longest high school football game in the history of high school football games.  So thankful that our weather hasn’t turned quite yet and most of these games have been spent in comfort with nothing more than a light jacket.  However, I do believe this may have been our last!

Saturday morning brought coffee with dear friends and their new little one, and a little bit of this…

Aaron and I have been going to the Friends of the Library book sales for years.  They put on four every year, and we look forward to each and every one.  We are members so we get in an hour earlier than the rest of the public, giving us the advantage in getting the best books available.  We are by far the youngest people in line as we map out our strategy of what section to hit first.  I love children’s books, so I always head there first.  I got the most delightful stack of children’s stories to add to my collection!  Best part about this stack?  That little book sandwiched in there titled “Garbage Can Cat”.  I’ve never seen this children’s book before, but I’m so happy to have found it, because it is as wonderful as it sounds.

The entirety of Saturday was spent turning 40 pounds of Gravenstein apples into delicious applesauce.  It made my house smell so lovely, and now we’re stocked for the next year so that we can enjoy Fall apples all year long.

We finished off our weekend with a little bit of this…

These guys played at the Fall Festival downtown this year, and it was a joy to spend Sunday afternoon standing around with friends, while listening to them.  We are completely blessed to call them our good friends.

Fall is here friends!

Nothing says love like a monogrammed sugar cookie

After an entire summer of very little baking being done, a wedding featuring 500 individual desserts was probably not the most seamless way to ease back into it.  However, my dear husband was extremely patient with me, and I am ever so grateful that with each crisis averted, he only got better at hiding his amazement of my clumsiness.  This past weekend I spent two days baking sweet treats for Travis & Jenine’s special day.  This couple has a quirky and fun obsession with Scrabble, and incorporated the delightful game into little bits of their big day.

Heavenly chocolate cheesecake bites, topped with ganache…

Red velvet deliciousness with cream cheese frosting…

Whimsical pumpkin whoopie pies filled with  marshmallow cream…

Adorable sugar cookies made to look like scrabble pieces (“L” for their last name)!

36 hours, 3 full dishwasher loads, 500 pieces of dessert, and 1 flat out fall off of the curb outside of my house later…and I delivered these treats to the wedding site with time to spare.  Nothing says love quite like a monogrammed sugar cookie. ♥  Congratulations Travis and Jenine!

Dear 15-year-old Me…

I was introduced to this site this week, and found myself so captured by it that I couldn’t stop reading.  So much advice and life and stories told.  I loved it so much, I created my own!   Here goes…

Dear 15-year-old Annie Sue,

• Don’t write off your math classes with the assumption that you’ll never use the knowledge you could gain from them.
• Drink more water.
• Soak in all the time you possibly can with your sister.  In about three years you will perpetually live over a thousand miles away from her, and wish that you could see her whenever the heck you wanted.  And don’t be mad at her when she tells your mom to not let you go on a date with Andy.  You will thank her later for saving you from your own naivety.
• A few boys are going to make you cry.  One of them will break your heart so badly you’ll think you won’t recover.  It’s okay to let that happen because those trials and sorrows teach you how to be strong and move forward.
• When Alan asks you to his prom…say yes.
• Don’t be afraid to move to California when you turn 18.  This will be one of the first great decisions you make as an adult.
• Your world will shake more than it ever has before when two people that had a huge amount of influence on your life decide to divorce.  Don’t be too proud to accept counsel from those that offer it.
• Don’t let frustrations and misunderstandings keep you from having your best friend stand beside you on your wedding day.  You will sorely regret it.
• Take more chances.
• When heartache befalls you it’s okay to be angry at Jesus, but ultimately trust Him, or you may not make it through in one piece.
• When they re-release The Exorcist in theaters…don’t go see it.
• Skip right on by the overalls fad, and make sure your mom and sister come with you.  The only people wearing overalls should be cute one-year-olds with padded diaper butts, and farmers that reside in Iowa.
• And lastly, cut your parents some slack the few times they will tell you no in life.  They love you enough to tell you this no matter how mad it makes you at the time.

Love,

Me (15 years later)

I said yes…

Today is the anniversary of one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life.  I’d like to take all kinds of gloating, bragging, boasting credit for it, but I’m truly not that smart.  The truth is, Jesus knew what He was doing my first year of college way back in 1999 (yikes!), and I am ever so thankful for it.  If you haven’t read our love story, you can read all about it here, here, here, and here!

Weddings have changed so much since I planned my own.  They are so much more creative, art-inspired, do-it-yourself, and unique.  Since we married young, I’ve had plenty of opportunities to attend or be involved in several weddings since, and with each year that passes, and each wedding that I attend, I add to my ever-growing list of things I loved and things I didn’t love about my own wedding.  In honor of this special day, I thought I would share them here, with the hope that my lovely friends who are still single might find it useful.

What I loved about my wedding

• My cake!–This only seems appropriate since I’m very much in love with the pastry business.  I unashamedly am convinced that I had the best tasting wedding cake ever made.  Made by my sweet friend, Kathy, she pulled out all the stops to provide the freshest cake imaginable.  Unlike most wedding cakes these days, that beautiful masterpiece didn’t see the inside of a freezer until the reception had ended and the topper was going in for the long one year stretch.  Each stack was baked with the kind of precision and care that you just don’t find very often anymore.  White with raspberry filling, chocolate with chocolate whipped mousse filling, and our personal favorite…coconut!  That topper came out of the freezer on September 7, 2003 and tasted like the day she pulled it out of her oven.  Heaven. ♥
• My flowers–The beautiful arrangements were created from gorgeous flowers flown straight in from Hawaii!  They were stunningly breathtaking, and worth every last penny spent on them.
• Our music–Frank, Dean, and Ella…you made the day magical!
• The dress–There are dresses now that I see that nearly take my breath away.  I’m a much bigger fan of the styles now than those that were popular when I planned my big day.  That said, I adored my dress and still do.  It was simple, yet elegant, and made me feel like the prettiest girl in the whole wide world.  When I look at pictures from that day I’m still in love with that gown.

What I didn’t like about my wedding

• Waiting to see Aaron until the wedding started–I realize that this sounds a bit harsh, but we both agreed afterward that while we were excited and happy and had ridiculous googly eyes for each other when I started walking down that aisle…there was no “firework” moment for us.  Part of that may just be our personalities.  But what made us really regret our decision was that we had to take all of our pictures together AFTER the ceremony, and WHILE our reception had already started.  All we wanted was to be in that room with all of our friends and family and loved ones, but instead we spent an hour taking pictures and hoping people didn’t leave before we made our appearance.  By the time we got there some had left, and those that hadn’t didn’t stay around for much longer.  The honest truth was that when it came down to it, that special moment can be created anywhere, and if I had it to do over again, we would have created that moment before the ceremony began, and then thoroughly partied it up with our friends afterwards!
• Our photography–For the love of all things sentimental…spend money on the pictures!!  Despite finding one of the less expensive photographers in Bend, my parents still paid massive amounts of money for this.  The main goal was accomplished.  The day was commemorated with photographs.  They were boring, uncreative, dull, and full of minor things that the photographers should have caught before snapping the picture.  If I had it to do all over again, this is where I would have spent the bulk of my generous parent’s money.  Because years down the road you’ll want to have those pictures out and you’ll want to still love looking at them.  Since we don’t, we had our dear friend Cassie do a photo shoot with us at year seven.  They’re great and continue to grace our mantle today.
• I didn’t spend enough time creating–Unlike most girls that dream and plan and collect ideas for their own weddings, I really had none.  I was working full time, going to school full time, and planning a wedding without my mom or sister nearby, which resulted in a “whatever is easiest” attitude.  I wish I had spent more time creating a day that would have reflected more of my personality and style.

Here’s what I loved most about my wedding day…

Not bad photography, a delayed reception, my lack of creativity, or a million other things going on in the world that September 7, 2002 could have wiped that smile from my face.  Nine years ago today I said yes. ♥

Caffeine in a cupcake!

Autumn. It’s one of the busiest seasons of the year for many. Fitting in the last long weekend before schedule becomes a necessity. Frantically shopping for supplies and new clothes. Starting fall sports practices. Orientations, meetings, paperwork, fees, assemblies, and schedule changes. The start of a new school year is full of hustle, and Aaron and I are right smack dab in the middle of it.

Aaron is starting his first year as activities director at Mt. View High School, alongside his teaching schedule. He’ll be heading up all dances, student leadership, assemblies, spirit week, bonfires, clubs…basically all of the things that make high school fun! This year’s group of leadership kids is going to be so contagiously fun to be around! The job title comes with one of the busiest schedules on staff, having to be present at nearly everything the school puts on.

And while my cheer schedule technically started way back in July and has been going strong since then, things really ramp up right about now. With their first day of school assembly just days away, I have a group of 15 teenage girls that are bound and determined to pull off a perfect performance, which means practices are a plenty. Once school actually starts things go from busy to crazy, and we love (nearly) every minute of it!

This school year is going to be the definition of hustle! Which is exactly why for the back to school BBQ for the staff last week I baked these delightful cakes…

These mocha cupcakes pack more of a caffeine punch than any other dessert I know. For that matter, they may possess more caffeine than a shot of espresso. Glory be. ♥ We are going to need it this year!