Help a girl out.....

Anyone have a good idea for a wedding dress?.....
Just putting out a casting call for good ideas....Since we don't have a wedding date at this time we are working with an absolute unknown....so am looking for great ideas for a wedding dress ....wedding could take place 2 weeks from now to whenever fate decides?.......


Requirements:

• Awesomeness
• Inexpensive
• The ability to make me looking striking......
• I will more than likely wear it twice...once on unknown (temple) wedding date and once on the reception date...also unknown (so I'm not sure a rental will do bc of those two different dates- unless someone knows of a rental place in AZ or CA?).
• Form fitting....not big and fluffy. No square necks...otherwise I'll look like a linebacker with my broad shoulders. I'm not big on detailing...kinda a simple style....
• I need to be able to get it quickly...like 2 weeks notice-ish?

Do you know of a secret place where I can buy an inexpensive off the rack and get it altered, someone who is selling thier (size 4-ish) wedding dress for a steal and wants it to go to a good home,?.......Some other fab idea that I'm not thinking of but you, with your brilliant mind, may see as obvious?????

Email me or reply to this post....Muchos gracias!

These are too easy to NOT make....make them!! Then do it again, and again.....

Saltine Almond Roca



1 column saltines
2 sticks butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
12 oz. chocolate chips (melted)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Layer saltines on foil line cookie sheet (grease lightly). Boil butter and sugar for 3 minutes-it will get thick as all get out and darker. Pour butter and sugar mixture over saltines. Spread evenly over the tops of the crackers.
Bake for 6-7 minutes (watch carefully, it burns easy). Remove from oven and spread melted chocolate chips. Sprinkle with chopped almonds (or whatever nuts you like...I've been digging the pecans).
Cool in fridge or freezer. Break into pieces.
Eat the crud out of em.
Repeat as necessary.

DEB NOTE: The times I've made them we put the nuts on for the baking process and then just melted chocolate and drizzled it all over.....maybe one of these times I will make it as the recipe suggests..... Just know there are options! 
Also, one of these days maybe I'll do the fat free or wheat crackers just to slightly counterbalance the kankload of bad for you stuff to follow...one of these days.
 I also already bought matzo crackers to do this lil treat for Hanukkah...Mazeltov!


 
(PS...Mel I heart you and hate you for sharing this amazing delightfulness with me!)

Yup.....I'm in Love.....Nope.... that's not a typo...

So. . . I'm supposed to be packing for a 10 day trip that Little and I are leaving for in 3 hours....so what better time to blog about getting engaged....

As I sit here typing I have a gorgeous ring on my finger that represents the CrAZy LOVE, tenderness and eternal promise I have for/with/about this man....Ahhhhhhh..... I feel so lucky!

I'm getting ahead of myself perhaps....

Okay....back the truck up...... * Beep * Beep * Beep*
So a few months back I get a call from my oldest bro, Jon....and he says "You need to go out with my friend, Jonathan".
So, like the good little sister I am, I oblige.... and make the first move to contact his buddy of a decade plus...who
Random fact:1 I went to Jr High with (but he was too cool to notice the frizzy haired stick figure who would later become the bombshell* better known as McCall's Mama I am today.
(*results not verified)
Random fact:2 I'd been facebook "friends" with for the better part of a year with no contact between us (How was I to know my future baby daddy was lurking in the FB shadows?! Single ladies please review yer friendlist STAT!).

Anyhooo..... we started corresponding via FB and worked our way up to texting ( for all who know me know I heart texting (well of course you know me otherwise you wouldn't be wasting yer time with this blog-o-mine...unless you don't know me and are just creepy fetish blog stalking..in which case BUGGER OFF!)...so I got to see that this kid was funny as all get out and pretty laid back like myself.

Somehow I got lucky because he found some free time in his busy dating schedule and flew out to Phx to go out on some dates while he was in town "visiting family".
Side note: I didn't believe that visiting family business for a second.

When he came out we had a fab time and I was pleased that he delivered on being hilarious and easy going and thought it was awesome that he and I are very similar personalities.... we had a lot of open and honest talks and I was able to set the record straight that I was in no position for a serious relationship.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .................................

Fast Forward to now: I'm engaged to be married to that cute kid...who just so happens to be one of the sweetest, funniest, tenderoni-est guys I've ever met. . . . . .

Does it feel like you are missing some details?..... Yer not.

Love punched me in the mom belly!!!

It totally caught me by surprise...I didn't see it coming and strangely it was the most natural thing in the world. I don't even know how to describe it...When it's right it's right. ..it doesn't matter how quickly it happens..it's just epic that it happens. Cliche'.... cheesy.... but true true true!
I feel absolutely blessed to have found Jonathan and am soooooooooooo(oooooooooo!!!!!!!) stoked to spend forever with this man.


Without further adieu....

Random acts of Getting Engaged: by Dave Hansen

So Little and my Bro, Dave, walk into the place where Jonathan and I were eating (Digestif....MMMmmmmm...so Delish.... ). Little sits down and he hands her a package to unwrap....

. . . . inside Little's package is an adorable little ring for her and he follows it up with a little box for her mommy. . . . .

( This is me reminding him what he's in for with a classic weird Deb face- thanks Davey boy for capturing the goodness as I delivered it)

I'm thinking "YES! YES! YES!" but what I'm saying is "ARE YOU SERIOUS!?".

So this is the thing: I knew I was going to marry him I just hadn't considered how to get us from here to there outside of clubbing him over the head and taking him to Vegas (still a solid plan)....so yes...I was beside myself.

It was dizzily surreal in a wicked awesome way.

One might surmise that Little is stoked about mommy getting married to the cutest boy ever, but those who were present know that she is totally jazzed about ganking the "baby Coke" (aka "Mommy soda") from our table before she left.

The beginning of my "Happily Ever After...."

Stay tuned ..... details on our wedding to follow as we get that mama jama planned!

Socali-licious

It's been FOREVER since I've been on here...poor world wide web for missing out on the Lil Dames.

Anyhoo.... Just got back from Cali and a BEAUTIFUL wedding at my fave-o-rite temple...San Diego.... where my Lil broseph, Joshy got married to his cute lil lady, Dana for time and all eternity.

She made all of her nieces these adorable Tu-tus so they were flitting about like little wedding fairies....


Grandma and her adorable grandbaby girls!

Gorgeous wedding, great grub, perfect day, temp (Ahhh...socal...you never disappoint), fun with fam and a little rambunctiousness (we're the Hansen Clan....what can you expect?).

We also managed to hit the beach even though it was a tad windy. Me and the bro's hit Oceanside pier...I think it was the first time we've all been together there b/c typically just a few of us make it each time. I love those guys....they are pretty funny for a bunch of boys.

Jared (front left), Dan (back left), Jacob (Josh's friend from NOLA), Dave, Josh and Jon.

Shins at the Oceanside pier (my fave place to go).

Me, Silly bros and my new sis in law, Dana.

Moi, Danimal and Hoshy.

December-ish . . .

Where the monkey did this month go?

Here is some photo proof that it did, in fact, happen....

Little trimming the tree...I think those of us who love a real tree are a dying breed. Way to go J and Yvonne for being the only other people on earth that I know who got a real tree too.

Little dressed up for a Christmas party. She has her fake smile on and she's ready to mingle.


Did I mention I went to Sac Town to see Yvonne and Jared? Oh yes....we found cupcakes in San Francisco.

The birthplace of Goodness...
Bri Belles and Auntie Deb on Pier 47.

There is a lot I can teach this girl.

Not too shabby

Little got a lift from her Daddy on putting the star on there. Mommy is way too short. Ps...I should get an award for buying and lugging that 7 footer into my house!

Little hanging loose with Uncle Tan in Hawaii. Doesn't she look like Mowgli?!

* Here's to 2009 kicking butt and taking names! *