Update: Cookies....yummers!

OK, so remember the cookie recipe using beans I posted about the other day?

Yup. They were good. So good, in fact, that they were gone the same day. I made two and a half dozen. And I didn't even eat most of them! That means they MUST be good, because normally, Anthony won't eat anything with chocolate in it. But HE ate most of these cookies! They were like a fluffy pillowy cloud of chocolate chip yumminess.



Even the dog wanted some! OK, so that's not surprising, he eats cat poop (I know, ew!)

And just because, I'm going to share with you my most favoritest (is that even a word?! aww, who cares!) curtains. I found them at KMart back when we lived in Biloxi, on sale, and I bought three of them. I love finding things on sale! Don't you just love them?! They make me happy every time I look at them.



Oh, and just in case you were wondering, yes, cake does fix everything.

A new way to look at Food Storage....

Okay, so in a few posts in the past, I've written about food storage. I never paid much attention to food storage growing up, even in my early 20s, it never crossed my mind. Now that I have a husband deployed and two kids that rely on just me, I've started thinking about it A LOT MORE. What would I do if there was a big snowstorm and we lost power, or what would I do if for some reason the base was shut down and there was no way to get food onto the base? Or a whole long list of what-ifs, to most of which people would say, "Oh, well, THAT would never happen", or "Oh, the base will take care of us.....right? Don't you think so (insert name of spouse who lives down the street)? Oh, yeah, they've got all that stuff covered...I think....." What if they don't? What if they can't?

Or, as was mentioned by a very talented writer, (whose name escapes me right now and I REALLY wish I could give credit to!), what about something that happens everyday; you rush through your day to get the house clean, rush and pick up your kids from school, finally get a chance to sit down for a second and start thinking about dinner, and realize....you never took anything out to defrost! So you scramble around, and end up either eating hot pockets or going to the drive thru. If you had canned meat in your food storage, you could whip up a meal just as quickly as if you had defrosted meat earlier. Or you need something last minute for the bake sale at school/church/playgroup and can't get to the store because the kids are asleep already. But you've got flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, dried beans (I KNOW, wait!) and chocolate chips in your food storage...wah-la! Most of what you need for chocolate chip cookies. I KNOW! I.KNOW. Crazy! I will be trying this recipe this afternoon. Because I HAVE all that stuff in my food storage! Yay me!

OK, so I hope I've motivated someone to look at their food storage in a different way, because I know I did as soon as I read that amazing food storage article by the amazing author I STILL can't remember...grr. I also loved Wendy Dewitt's vidoes on food storage, if you haven't seen them, go to YouTube and type in Wendy Dewitt and they will come right up. I believe there is a total of about 9 different vidoes, which are approximately 5 minutes or so each. It doesn't hurt that she's really really funny either!

Alright, so my list for this week includes the regular old junk (blech!) such as finish the dishes from the weekend (there's a ton! I don't even know why, it's not like I cooked all that much!), laundry which is never ending, try out these bean cookies, finish valentines for both boys classes, and find a new storage solution for the boys' Matchbox cars, they seem to have multiplied overnight. I really think that when we go to sleep, they all get together and have little Matchbox car babies, because EVERY time I find a BIGGER box, bin or basket for them, a week later they don't fit in the new box/bin/basket. FRUStrating! Anyone have any ideas??

Questions

What was the last thing you put in your mouth? A homemade granola bar from Raising Olives (yum!).


Can you play Guitar Hero? Not so much.

Name someone who made you laugh today. Ayden and Anthony always make me laugh.


How late did you stay up last night and why? I was up until 2 am, first because I love to be up late, and second I was finishing my Primary lesson for today, that I realized I didn't need when I got to the church at 8:45 this morning (smacks head). I was even EARLY for once! Oh well, next Sunday, lol.....


If you could move somewhere else, would you? I like Goldsboro, and for where we're at right now, base housing is OK. But if we weren't in the military, I would love to buy a house.


Name one thing you love about your body. My eyes.

Which of your friends lives closest to you? It's a toss up between Annie and Kristy....

Do you believe ex's can be friends? Not close ones!


How do you feel about Dr Pepper? Blech!

If you could do any job in the world what would it be? Scientist, writer, nurse, teacher.....I want to do them all!


Who was the last person you took a picture of? One of the kids.


Was yesterday better than today? Yup, so far. Yesterday was really kind of hot, and I guess I was spoiled this week by the cooler weather.

Can you live a day without TV? I could go a long time without TV.


Are you upset about anything? Nope. It's a good day.


Do you think relationships are ever really worth it? Of course! They make life better.

Are you a bad influence? I don't think so.


Night out or night in? Night in.

What items could you not go without during the day? Good Morning Kisses from boys, toothbrush, shower, my laptop.


Who was the last person you visited in the hospital? Well, at Eastertime the kids and I went to the Brian Center to sing I Am A Child of God to people and give them flowers....that's the last time I think I was near a hospital.


What does the last text message in your in-box say? I think it's Bobbie's number-which by the way, I will be calling tomorrow, lol :)


How do you feel about your life right now? Very satisfied.


Do you hate anyone? Hate, no. Strongly dislike, yes.

Do you like your wedding ring or do you secretly wish it was different? I absolutely love my ring. I knew it was the one I wanted as soon as I laid eyes on it, and I'm really glad Adam thought ahead and didn't pick it out himself, instead we went and picked it out together.

Say you were given a drug test right now, would you pass? Ha! Of course.

Would you ever get some plastic surgery? Nope, although it's tempting, it's not natural.


What song is stuck in your head? So....whatcha gonna do, when a little canoe, with a girl swimmin' all a, boy swimmin' all a, girl swimmin' all around.....don't ask, lol

Name something you have to do tomorrow. Take Anthony to school, go to the library, finish up the laundry, wash the comforter the boys just spilled Kool-Aid on...grrr.


Do you think too much or too little? I think too much about things that don't matter, and not enough about things that do.


Do you smile a lot? Some days. Not today, though.

Yummy cookies!

The boys and I went to Airman's Attic yesterday looking for pants for Anthony, all of his long pants now fit perfectly in the waist, but are about 2 inches too short. For those of you not familiar with Airman's Attic, it is a program run by volunteers through the AF that's available to E6 and below. Families donate things they no longer use or need, and you come in and you look for what you need. I only found one pair of pants, but I found this really cool game there:



We brought it home and tried it out, and to my surprise, both boys actually paid enough attention to finish a full game! Then as I was looking through the recipe booklet that comes with the game, I noticed a recipe for peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.....mmmmm...... Well, we didn't have chocolate chips, but we DID have a big bag of M & Ms from Ayden's candy bank.....heh heh heh. So, here's the recipe (I would post a picture of the finished cookies, but I can't find the camera):

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, SOFTENED (I used tub margarine)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup crunchy peanut butter (I used creamy)
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups chocolate chips (I used M & Ms)

(Adults) Preheat oven to 350, then cream butter, sugar, salt and peanut butter. Beat in eggs and vanilla. (Kids can do the next steps) In a small bowl, mix the flour and the baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix. Pour in chocolate chips (or M & Ms!) and mix. Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls on a greased cookie sheet, or an ungreased parchment lined cookie sheet. Place balls 2 inches apart, then take a fork and gently press down to slightly flatten the tops. (Adults) Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, I have no suggestions as to time, I never pay attention to time, I just go by what the cookies look like, lol. Cool on wire racks. Consume immediately!! Makes about 4 dozen.

It seems like you could customize this just about any way you want. They turn out good, not puffy soft cookies, more like thin chewy ones. Normally I'm a puffy soft cookie lover, but last night I was a thin chewy one, lol! And it was so fun to make them with Anthony! Ayden could have cared less, he wandered out into the living room after about 5 minutes ands started watching Diego, but he's probably just not at the age to enjoy baking yet.

Anyway, I was really happy to have found a game that both kids can play and be interested in. And it definitely sweetened the pot that it was free! I may check out the whole line of games, they're called Cranium Bloom games, and I believe they're made especially for preschoolers. I've seen them at Target before. Once I wake up and get my arse in the shower, I think we'll go check them out, I love having a Target nearby! I'll post if I find any good deals!

Worm Juice

What a day. So far, I have managed to:
1) fend off a psycho squirrel that kept climbing up the window screen and trying to eat/terrify the cat and dog
2) clean up the psycho squirrel's poop that he left for me (isn't he nice??)
3) lock myself, and Ayden, out of the house while cleaning up the poop from the aforementioned squirrel
4) successfully break into my house
and 5) play with worms...for a VERY long time.
Why play with worms you ask? That's a great question! Didn't you know I have boys?! I wish I knew the real answer....but it was actually pretty fun. I was picking up some of the kids' toys outside, and under one of those big bouncy jumping balls I found a whole family of worms, 4 of them. So Ayden and I decided to sit there and watch them. I remember playing with worms when I was little (by the way - it was WAAAy funner back then!), and thought Ayden would like it too. First we picked them up, then we rolled them around. I got some "worm juice" on my hand, so I told Ayden we had to go wash our hands. Then he said, "No mom, I like worm juice! I'm going to drink worm juice lot of lot of times!" (Which in Ayden language means he's going to drink lots of worm juice.)
Another accomplishment this week....cinnamon raisin bagels!

Yummy yummy. They look kind of funky, but they are very good. I got the recipe from Allrecipes. It uses a bread machine, which makes the dough much easier, but I'm sure you could do it if you didn't have a bread machine.
And, my new obsession:

These things are *HEAVENLY*. I went to this big discount store called Ollie's last week, and Ayden and I were browsing around, and we stumbled upon the treat aisle (and by stumbled I mean made a beeline for, lol) and found all these treats, repackaged by a company called "Angel Treats". These were one of them. They also had Hershey's Kisses, Skittles, and every other kind of candy you could imagine. The great thing was, the bag was probably 3 or 4 pounds, and it was only $1.99! What I'd like to know is why I have never seen these Hershey's sticks in a store, because I would have started inhaling them MUCH sooner! Oh, well.

It's really early for me...or is it late?

It's 5:45 a.m. I am not usually up right now. This is wierd but in my defense, I've been awake since three....ugh. I'm sure I COULD have gone back to bed, but I didn't really want to. I fell asleep with Anthony again, his bed is just way too darn comfy! Then when I woke up, I wanted to do all this stuff, sew, crafts, cook, you know, anything except housework that really NEEDS to be done, lol!

Today they are having "Cruising Keesler", a car and motorcycle show on base, and I'm taking the kids to it. It should be fun. I took them to Lynn Meadows last night to see Bob the Builder (in Ayden's words, "Fun seeing Bob the Builder!") and play for a little bit. They had a lot of fun. They haven't been in a while, cause I normally work on Fridays, and Adam is just too tired after working all day to take them (I don't blame him). But this Friday I was actually off work. I've been out of work since Tuesday because I hurt the tendon in my left arm. I left work early Tues. night to go to the ER because it hurt so bad. They gave me prednisone, aleve, and vicodin. So, thanks to my friend vicodin, I've gotten lots of sleep the past few days, so I'm not worried about being up so early. At least, I'm not worried right now....just give me a few hours, lol.

It's the time of year that I absolutely love, fall! I love all the smells, all the leaves blowing, the cold, crisp air, Halloween, and the start of Christmas season. I had a lot of fun painting a jack o lantern flower pot (pictures to come) a couple of nights ago. It was one of those things where you're afraid what's in your head will not be the final outcome. But it actually turned out better than I imagined! I really like it. It was cheap, too, the pot was $3, the paint was $3, and the finishing spray was $5. And I still have lots of leftover paint and spray.

Now I'm trying to think of some fun crafty things to do with the kids. I bought a really cute plastic picnic table at the thrift store on base, and they love to sit out there and color and paint, but I think this weekend I want to do a big craft thing with them. I just don't know what. I have these masks that go over your eyes that you can glue and paint and decorate, and some glitter and stuff, so maybe I'll do that.

I also found a really good recipe for homemade oreos - here is the link:">http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/05/my-kingdom-for-a-glass-of-milk/
And I mean, it is GOOD. The first batch I made I cooked for nine minutes, and although oreos ARE crunchy, these came out a little TOO crunchy. So the next batch I cooked for eight minutes....and they were HEAVENLY! They tasted like a mix between regular oreos and cakesters. Man they were good.....they didn't last too long, either.

I love fall because I get so much more inspired to bake. Baking is definitely a passion for me. If I can bake something really good, that will just make my day. I would love to open up a little bake shop one day. Who knows, though....I always change what I want to do on a daily basis.

Now it just needs to get light out so I can take pictures of my flowerpot...................

Prayer of the Day

It is so nice out today! I have all the windows open, I can hear the birds.....I love living down here, in the wintertime, of course. The summer sucks ass.

A has this movie called All About Big Red Fire Engines that he LOVES, and he wanted to watch it this morning, and well, I feel like crap still, so I said OK, and I decided to do something I've wanted to do the first time I watched this movie with him. It was shot in New York City in 1993, and I've been meaning to look up and see if any of the firefighters were killed on September 11th. I don't know why, just....I guess so I could pay tribute when I watch the movie maybe? Seeme silly now. So anyway, I found this website, and this is what I'm going to be thinking about and praying about today - all the families of these 343 firefighters. The sad part is, out of all those 343, only 29 are confirmed dead. Gives you somethin' to think about, huh? Here is the link in case you're interested:

http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/091101rescuers.html

Just looking at all those faces, I can't even imagine. They could be your husband, your neighbor, your husband's buddy who comes over to drink beer and play pool. It's crazy. You never know what will happen. Just a normal day, I was driving to school, I was just passing Star Dental Center on Rte 13 going towards Dryden coming out of Cortland when I heard about the first plane crash on the news. By the time i got to school, every single TV was turned to a news station. I think I went to one class, then they closed the school and sent everyone home. I remember going to the Skillet at some point that day, I remember sitting on the couch watching the news, actually glued to the news, I remember watching people run on TV, but I don't remember what order all that happened in. Anyway, just thought I'd let everyone know what I was thinking about today.
I'm also going to try and make wheat bread. We'll see how that goes....if it turns out good, I'll post pictures. I have a (supposedly) really good recipe:

Wheat Bread

Dissolve 2 packages dry yeast in 1/2 cup water with 1/2 Tbsp honey or sugar. Mix the following ingredients (with the dissolved yeast) in a bread mixer.

3 1/2 cups warm water
1 1/2 cups powdered milk
1 cup oil
4 beaten eggs
3/4 cup honey
2 Tbsp salt
1 or 2 cups white flour
about 10 cups whole wheat flour

After kneading in the bread mixer, let rise until doubled. Divide into 6 small loaves. Knead and shape. Let rise in greased pans. Preheat oven to 400F. Reduce to 300F and bake 1 hour.
I think I will probably halve the recipe for the first time. Nothing worse than 6 loaves of gross bread :p
Oh, and here are the long awaited pics of my bathrooms! Yay. Enjoy!

Bathroom 1 Before


Bathroom 1 After


Bathroom 2 Before


Bathroom 2 After


Yup, they weren't that dirty before, but....oh, well, it was fun anyway! Oh, and by the way, I didn't find anyone from his movie on the list. Thank God. I'd never be able to watch it again without crying!