Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

Like I said in yesterday's post, this is a compilation of a few recipes. This amount feeds my family of 5 plus leftovers for hubby to take to work a couple days. I'll post the long way and the changes for the quick and dirty way.


Long Way
2 chicken breasts
1 small onion
5-6 potatoes - cubed
2 cups of carrots - sliced
2 cups of chicken broth/stock
1 tbs minced garlic
1 tsp garlic salt
1 cup of milk mixed with 1tbs of flour
8 oz cream cheese
1 pkg of Reamed frozen egg noodles
Salt and pepper to taste

Boil chicken breasts in just enough water to cover them until thoroughly cooked. Turn heat down to medium and pull out chicken to cool. Add veggies, garlic, salt, pepper, chicken stock and some water (I usually add about 2 cups). Cook until veggies tender. While waiting, cool and shred chicken. When veggies are ready add chicken back to pot. Add noodles. Wait until its boiling again and then add the flour + milk mixture. Watch the pot and stir or it will boil over. Lastly add the cream cheese in large dollops and allow to melt. Don't try to stir it in or it will separate and look nasty. Once it's all melted, stir, add water if necessary and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes before serving.

The quick and dirty method speeds up the time because there is no waiting to cook the veggies. You just add a can of diced potatoes and a can of sliced carrots. Then, you can quickly add everything else and serve.

Easiest Homemade Bread Ever!

I discovered peasant bread. Whip this up with homemade garlic butter and…oh my goodness is it yummilicious!!

Our Christmas Eve dinner was homemade creamy chicken noodle soup, this bread, and homemade peach pie. So good!! I'll post my creamy chicken noodle soup recipe tomorrow. It's a hybrid of various chicken soup recipes I've found. I served my mother in law on Christmas day the leftovers and she loved it too!

Peasant Bread
What's good about this is it takes about 1 hr from mixing to baking. And there's no kneading.

1 pkg of yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups of hot water
4-5 cups of flour
Melted butter
Cornmeal

Mix yeast, water, salt, and sugar until thoroughly mixed. Add flour a couple cups at a time. Cover with towel for 20-30 minutes (or longer if you have time). Then dust your hands with flour and throw a little on the bread and cut it into two round loaves. Dip bottoms of loaves in cornmeal (or flour if you're out of cornmeal). Then place on cookie sheet and brush with butter. Bake for 10 minutes at 425. Then turn oven to 375 and bake for 15-20 more minutes. Let it cool just a bit before cutting. Yum!!

As for the homemade garlic butter, I just throw ingredients together. I soften a stick if butter then add a spoonful of minced garlic, a smaller spoonful of parmesan cheese, a few shakes Italian seasoning, about 1/2 tsp of garlic salt and mix well. Then I use my Pampered Chef cookie dough/ ice cream scooper and make little balls of garlic butter and chill them in the fridge for a bit before dinner.

I'm graduating on Friday!!

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. There's probably 1.5 people still reading by now.

I've been finishing up my school work and assisting my husband in his school assignments for the last month or so. And I've started a little resale biz on eBay with my love of thrift stores.

And!! My mom has a friend on a quilt guild who is opening an upscale crafty place and my mom and I are going to share a spot. I can't wait!!

As for the title of my post…I'm walking the stage for my bachelor's degree on Friday morning. I'm getting nervous. I'm one of those people who are prone to falling on their face in public, especially while wearing heels. Wish me luck!!

I finally found this song!

This is an odd story...okay well not really, but whatever I'm telling it anyway.  As the few people who read this have probably realized throughout this blog, my husband is a HUGE Harry Potter freak.  Before baby #3, we were able to go to a lot more Harry Potter stuff.  Back when Half Blood Prince came out in the theaters, there were tons of parties and gatherings, blah, blah, blah.  We are some of the crazy people that dress up.  We usually go as Tonks and Lupin.  Anyway, so as other HP people know, there are wizard rock shows.  We went to a few of them, and at two of them was this band, The MudBloods, who consisted of one guy, Adam Dubberly.  We picked up his unmarked albums at one of this shows, and it wasn't wrock music, it was something else.  Hubby and I loved it.  I think at the last show we saw I was throwing out requests for these songs and asking him the names of the songs.  I just found him online again with a new band called Harvey Dowd, but I'm not sure if it's still in existence. I think he's a great lyricist. If you like their music, you can go to their site, Harvey Dowd, and download the entire album for free. I love all the songs on the album. We have a few more songs on that mystery album we bought that are just wonderful too.  

Here is one of my favorites in an acoustic version:

Here is Hubby's favorite. It even made him go read The Great Gatsby:

Look at these MUMMY jars!

Check out this tutorial for mummified glass jar candles from Crafting a Green World. 

I'm totally doing this to our walkway.  It's perfect as it kills 2 birds with one stone...clean out the fridge and add to my super cool Halloween decorations outside.  Aren't they adorable? And I have all the supplies in my house...when does that ever happen?

I need to take pictures of our Halloween house and post here.  It's like Glitter Halloween meets a little bit of scary. 

We have realistic skeletons crawling up the bricks, and a giant glitter spider web complete with blue fuzzy spider killing a Barbie doll (well...technically it's a Scary Spice doll from the thrift store), and another partially webbed doll (Ginger Spice, also of the thrift store) -- all of which is outlined in my front windows decked in orange lights.  We have ghosts in a circle holding hands around the big tree - made by me from thrift store white sheets, paper bags and polyfil and dowel rods.  Those were in a magazine for Halloween this year, one of those crafty ones.  Oh looky! I found a tutorial for them online.   

We have glowing eyes in the side windows (we're a corner lot), and I will soon be adding orange lights around them and another spider web.  Hmm...what else?  Oh!  Yes, we have spider webs with giant purple glittery spiders on either side of our garage and each of those light fixtures has a red light.  Our porch light is now a black light and we have a ripped up black fabric curtain at the entrance with spider webs here and there and glitter bats hanging down.  And when I can get the darn outdoor extension surge protector thingy from the Xmas decorations, I'll be adding some purply lighted bats to the bushes.  And my husband's piece de resistance is the scary glowing eyes lurking in the bush at the front door that shakes the entire bush when it senses movement. 


I'm working on the new tutorial I was supposed to have a couple weeks ago.  I got bogged down with midterms for me and six-week tests and projects for the kids. Seriously, do these people have kids? Is this some kind of torture for parents?  I just had to sew some "ear-o-matics" for an invention project.  They keep long-eared dogs ears clean when eating.  I should totally do a tutorial for those things.  They are so easy to make, and I swear I've seen something like them in stores for outrageous prices.  

Anyway, I'm back on easy street with my school work, so I should have the tut up by the end of the week. And, I've been diligently staying up at night working on stuff for an etsy store.  My goal is to have it ready by November 1st.  I have quite a few things, but I want a good stocking before I officially open. 

Thrift Store Score!

My mom found a new thrift store earlier this week and I HAD to go check it out, so hubby and I went tonight. It's definitely a new fave. I got a $100 diaper bag for $4 and a practically brand new LL Bean coat for the winter for my toddler for $2. Woohoo!!

It was my birthday yesterday!

Woohoo! Grandma babysat while my sweet, darling husband and I went to the casino across the state border. If you sign up for their player's club, they give you $25 after you earn 5 points on it, which takes you less than hour to do, so we got an extra $50 total from that. 

My husband is so funny.  He is never really thrilled whenever I talk him into going to the casino.  He thinks its stupid to pour money down a hole, I suppose.  I tell him it's like going to Chuck E. Cheese for grownups.  We live like 35-40 minutes away, and we probably go maybe 2-3 times a year.  However...when we do go, he's like a kid in a candy store and will not leave. He keeps finding more games to play. I have to drag him out of there. 

He also gave me presents on Saturday night.  First was that sweet wonderful card I mentioned earlier. Plus, he gave me a gift certificate for a pedicure (I can't wait!), an awesome new flour sifter (for cakes!), and a bottle of Olive Garden salad dressing (I swear I could drink that stuff :D).

And that wonderful grandma gave us $40 to blow at the casino!  We broke even and came home with $40, even though I was up like $100 at one point, I somehow decided to blow it all.  I blame the Yahtzee progressive slot machine.  Oh and we ate at Toby Keith's I Love this Bar and Grill.  The chicken fried steak is ginormous and comes with two sides, so we split one and each got a side.  It was yummy! 

The only disappointing thing was that a manager came over to talk to us and gave us free tickets to a show they were having, but it wasn't until 8 pm that night, so we couldn't go.  We had to get back to the kidlets close to 6.  Oh well...

It was a wonderful birthday!  One of the best I've ever had! 

Mustache Paper!

We were at Michael's today getting feathers for Miss Em's art class, and we walked by the scrapbook paper and. Found this little gem, Mustache paper. Isn't it the cutest? She had to have it to decorate one of her notebooks for school with…mustaches. I can't wait to see what she does with it, lol!

I love this

My husband, Nathan, drew this adorable self portrait on the envelope to my birthday card. (I can't remember if I've ever said his name here or just called him "hubby.") I just love it! I'm not allowed to open it until my birthday on Sunday. It's driving me crazy!

I love the way he makes me things. I have flowers made from napkins and clay and all sorts of origami from when we were first dating.

Thrift Store Art

So I found this artwork this weekend for about 75 cents at the thrift store. I love it! It's going up in the baby's room.

A little something I never posted

I always meant to post pictures of our wedding favors, but I think that a pregnancy and then an adorable baby got in my way. Well I found some of the leftovers while I was getting our wedding things for a shadow box I'm making for our wedding day and thought I'd share.

I decided on Hershey chocolate bars because you can buy them super cheap in bulk at Costco. And I could make these for next to nothing, which is about what we could afford. I planned a mixed media art design with vintage pictures and ephemera. I think the most expensive part was the flower stickers. I got the black pouches from Foilman. 

Our wedding had a red/black theme. So I watched for scrapbook paper sales at Michael's and Hobby Lobby to get the paper and cardstock super cheap.. Then I spent a few late nights cutting everything to size and gluing it all together.

 The back I created after looking at a few online. I printed it on white address labels. 

 

My favorite is this last one because the vintage couple looks like us. It's the one I'm putting it in the shadow box with our invitation and hubby's boutonniere.  I'll post later this week after I've finished it up.  I need some black linen like cardstock first.  

Look for my newest tutorial up later this week   I have to read a couple of chapters and take a couple quizzes before I can get back to sewing this week. 

The Toddler Sweater Coat Part 2

We're doing something weird with dinner. We defrosted some pork chops and hubby is soaking them for 2 hours in a brine to make them more tender and yummy.  Because of that, I had some time to finish up the sweater coat sew and show. 

Here is a close up of the sleeve.  I love the thumb holes.  Molly put her thumbs through them and immediately started sucking her thumb, which is odd because she is not a thumb sucker at all.  They were very easy to make, you just pull one of the pieces out of the serger's way to make a hole.  Funny, since every once in awhile, how many of us do that inadvertently when serging? 

Now here is a close up of the button placket.  I admit I was in LOVE with this turquoise sweater.  It was 100% cashmere and heavenly.  I tried to use it as much as possible.  I also loved the placket.  You can't see, but under button #2 it has a gathering that is just adorable.  I attached the placket when I attached the hood together at the same time. I attached them under the binding that goes around the entire edge of the coat.  Oh! Here you can see the waistband and the ties.  This way it's a little big now and we can tie it tighter, but as she grows into it, we can loosen the ties. 

Here is the back.  I made a shortened pixie hood.  I was afraid it would drag the floor if I made it too long.  It's really cute, especially when she has it pulled up over her head.  The front I made very wide and attaches fairly low onto the front of the coat.  I like how it's open, so if she's wearing a hat, it won't be too tight. 


This is the side view, so you can see the length of the hood.  To give you an idea of the size, I'm saying 18-24 months.  She wears 12-24 months size.  She's a tiny 16 month old.  She is always in the 5% for height and weight.  

And here is the little stinker.  I bribed her with rocking in the recliner by herself if I could snap a few pictures.  This was, unfortunately, the best one that gives an idea of the fit.  For the bodice, I used a nice black Banana Republic sweater in 100% italian wool with puffy sleeves in a size adult medium.  I felted it, and it shrunk down to probably around a size 6x.  Then, I put it on her and pinned it a more fitted size for her, and probably took about 4 inches off the width of the bodice and 2 inches off the sleeves.  I was able to keep the puffy sleeves, but you can't really tell in the pictures.  In real life, it's adorable with the puffy sleeves.

The Toddler Sweater Coat!

I Made this start to finish today! This is Molly's sweater coat. She would not sit still for pics so I put it on my baby mannequin. I made it from inspiration from the grown up versions by Katwise.
I am so pleased. It came out just lovely. It is made from upcycled wool, cashmere, and silk/wool blend sweaters. And it has thumb holes!!(Molly loves the thumb holes.)
I'll post more pics after dinner so you can see it all, including the adorable elfin hood and the back.

I feel as if I committed a mortal sin!

I'm working on the sweater coat for my toddler today. I cut up these beautiful wool and silk and cashmere sweaters. The hardest was the luxurious cashmere. It felt so wrong ;) (Wow, that pun was completely unintended, lol)

Stretchy Book Cover Tutorial

My eldest daughter needed book covers this year.  According to her teachers, it's a state law to keep textbooks covered.  And my cooler than cool daughter did not want the hideous paper book covers she was forced to put on her books during class.  Oh the horror!!  A couple years ago my ex bought her stretchy book covers that were between $3 and $5 a piece, but they were all too small for her ginormous middle school books this time around.  Apparently, there are these same stretchy book covers that are super sized, but they are even more expensive.  I, being the frugal sewing mama that I am, was hellbent on figuring a way around this. 

I took a look at one of these stretchy book covers and realized I could whip one of these out in a matter of minutes.  And then I realized I have this entire plastic tote FULL of dance lycras from way back when Miss Em was still dancing solos and I was making costumes that would be perfect.  So, she dug through and picked the fabric you see above.  I whipped up the book cover from cut to finish in less than 5 minutes, literally. It is made out of neon orange super soft velvet.  It’s heavenly and plush!  Then I thought, what a great tutorial for the beginning of the school year to share with you guys! 

Stretchy Book Cover Tutorial 

Your time will be cut to bare minimum if you do this with a serger.  However, if you don't have a serger, you can still easily make these using the overlock or zigzag stitch on your sewing machine.  It's literally two rows of sewing and you're done!  Also, one yard of dancewear lycra is 60 inches wide, so you should get approximately 3-6 book covers out of 1 yd, depending on the thickness of the book. 

Guess what?  I already have a new tutorial lined up for next week.  It's an upcycled tutorial.  I can't wait to show it.  I have all the pics, just have to write the tut, which is the easiest part.  Can you tell how proud of myself I am?  I get so mad when I can't finish a project I have planned for weeks or months on end for my blog.

I think I'm actually going to be able to have a tutorial a week from now on while my creative juices are flowing.  I'm so excited!!  I don't know if this is just rewards for being my last semester of college, but my classes are so easy this time around with next to nothing in homework that I'm able to do other things besides read textbooks. 

Thrift Store Score!

Today at the thrift store, I found a Hanna Andersson playdress for $1, a Hanna sweater for $2, a pair of practically brand new leather Keds in the baby's size for $2, and a Folkmanis puppet for 95 cents!! Woohoo!!

Do you know the beautiful Katwise sweater coats? Well I'm making kid versions for some craft fairs my mom is going to go to this fall/winter.  So, I've been scouring thrift stores this past weekend for sweaters.  It's funny, I have found more cashmere sweaters for $1.49 than wool ones.  You would think those would be more expensive?  But...oh so soft!! Hopefully in the very near future I will have a showing of Molly's sweater coat I'm working on ala Katwise.  (Don't tell but hubby wants me to make him one, too.  I'm not so sure...but we're talking about a man who bought a kid's hat with a giant stuffed duck on it at a thrift store and wears it in public.)

Anyway...You can do this too!  Being a stay-at-home mommy with only one income, hubby and I have become thrift store aficionados.  We buy our clothes nearly exclusively at thrift stores for both of us.  I once found a wad of cash in a pocket of dress pants I bought hubby at the thrift store.  My oldest is still a thrift store snob, but she's seeing the fun in it lately, especially when I can find her favorite brands.  The younger two could not care less where their clothes come from.  Mr E thought it was awesome when I found him a t-shirt from a Soviet airlines.  

The baby gets 100% of her clothes from thrift stores, and I exclusively buy boutique brands or nice brand names of stuff like Gymboree, Hanna Andersson, and the Gap.  You would not believe the stuff I find in thrift stores practically new.  Aeropostale, Abercrombie, Land's End, and all kinds of boutique brands.   

We have also started a little eBay biz with thrift store scores.  I found a Coach purse a couple months ago for $17, vintage Tupperware for 39 cents and sold it for $3, every Hanna Andersson piece I put on eBay usually sells with the BIN button.  Our best so far was a recent purchase of a vintage Peterson strobe tuner.  Hubby found it at one of our thrift store outings for $15.  He played with it for about a month, and then we sold it for $118. 

To do this, all you need is to specialize in a few things, so you can easily know your product and figure if what you want to purchase can be sold at a profit.  My specialties are baby clothes, contemporary and vintage sewing stuff, and vintage food stuff like Tupperware.  Hubby specializes in vintage electronics and musical equipment. I don't buy something if I cannot make at least 200% profit on it, minus the fees on eBay. 

A lot of times if we aren't sure, we use our iPhones with the eBay app and check "completed listings" to see what stuff sold, while we are in the store.  

Art Girl

Why do I bother posting with my iPhone?  It messes this thing up all the time.  I'm now fixing this post for the last damn time, lol.

While waiting for diapers to dry at 2:30 in the morning last night, I made this for Mol's room. The kids each have a little "mommy" work of art on their walls so I felt like it was time for hers. I don't like how her name is, so I'm going to change it after I find this certain set of alphabet stickers in my stash today.

I think this little art doll is my favorite. I hand sewed the entire thing. I thought the orange hair was a little fitting because #1 Molly was born with red hair ( though it's now blonde) and #2 amazingly fir being a baby her hair is nearly identical to the styled mess if the doll. Lol!

Without the other kids on this holiday weekend, my next project is Em's apron tonight.

It had to happen eventually...

Since moving to the new house coupled with the fact she-who-must-not-be-named lives with her mother about 5 minutes away, I knew eventually we'd run into her.  Well....tonight was it.  After some wonderful alone time with dear hubby, we headed out to Freebirds around 9 pm tonight.  It was our first time there, and it wasn't as great as Planet Burrito, but it was fairly good.  We decided to eat outside and believe it or not, the atmosphere outside at 9 pm in hot Texas hell was actually lovely. 

It was just three of us--me, hubby, and the baby--as the other kidlets were at their dad's this weekend.  We sit down, I start feeding the baby.  Hubby gets the drinks and sits down and starts eating.  All of sudden a couple of people bust out the door to find seats out on the patio, too.  This woman walks past our table and starts looking for a seat.  I look up and realize it's HER!  I'm rather glad the look on my face was more along the lines of "WTF, you evil bitch" than a look of "shock and awe."  So I glare at her as she takes in me, the baby, and then realizes it's her ex-husband sitting with us.  She literally ran around the corner to the ONLY table out of our sights. It made me giggle.  The look on her face was priceless. I should have taken a picture. 

I look at my husband and say, "Um, I think that was your ex-wife."  He looks shocked and then he sees her brother and her mother coming out the same door to sit with her.  Then my dear husband says as loudly as possible, just as his former mother-in-law walks by us, "Yep, that's her."  Then we both start giggling.  

A little while later, the baby gets tired of sitting in the highchair, so I let her walk all around the patio with me.  When we turn to go back to our table I look over, and she-who-must-not-be-named is practically trying to crawl into her little plastic basket holding her burrito.  After being such an ass to my husband, she was such a scared little girl when I saw her. I couldn't believe it. 

After a little while, we finish, grab a drink refill and walk past their table to leave.  Hubby carries our sweet little girl on his shoulder past them with his head held high, completely ignoring her. I thought it was great.  It went much better than I anticipated. I figured the first time we saw her out, she would confront him or something. There's always next time, lol. 

New Tutorial!! Letter Art Tutorial

For the past couple of days my kids have had to decorate and decoupage composition books for school.  So as I sat at the table supervising adhesive and decoupage, I decided to join in on the fun and get a little project out of the way I've been meaning to do for quite a while. Plus, I needed a reason to try out the super cool PINK Exacto knife I got at Walmart tonight.  It's ergonomic!! And...it was marked down to $7, even though the tag said $10.


The older two kidlets had signs and pictures on their doors, but the baby did not.  I've had these wooden initial letters sitting in my crafting room for what seemed like eternity and thought I should finally put a decoration on her bedroom door.

Letter Art Tutorial

I made this tutorial up as I went and decided to turn it into a cute little how to for anyone else.  I love, love, love how it came out.  It's super fun and so easy to make.  It will take you less than 30 minutes from beginning to end for one letter.  But, you could do their entire name and be done in an afternoon and have a great wall decoration for a nursery or anyone's room.

Enjoy!! Hopefully that apron tutorial will get itself done this week.  My sewing room is making me feel anxious and overwhelmed.  There is just too much stuff, but I've gotten it down to the minimum I need.  I think I need some more storage for it.  Maybe I can go thrifting this weekend and find something amazing for a bookshelf. 

Serge an Apron

So my next project is a cutesy apron for my almost 12 years old for her art class. I'm thinking ruffles and I'm thinking I can do nearly the entire on my serger. I am determined to only use the serger and not use the sewing machine for it because I'm a lazy slob.

I want to give it to her this weekend for her b-day and if I can manage it with only the serger I'll post a tutorial. I'm thinking my technique will be somewhat like a serge-a-quilt.

Sent from my iPhone

Popovers!

It's amazing something with just 4 little ingredients can be so yummy. I've never made popovers before but these came out wonderfully. I pulled them open an added a dollop of homemade whip cream to top them off. These are great for breakfast, I think. Now I just need a popover pan, lol.

I remembered the picture this time.

Pinterest and Sopapilla Cheesecake!

Have you discovered Pinterest?  It's so much fun.  You create "boards" of stuff you love basically, and you can look at other people's boards and repin stuff to yours that you love from theirs.You can request an invitation and then you're off and running. 

So while looking at other people's boards I discovered Sopapilla Cheesecake over at My Yellow Umbrella.  Ms Em and I had to make it.  I let Ms Em make the entire thing last night after dinner.  It was delicious!!  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture.

We did change up the recipe just a smidge. 

Sopapilla Cheesecake

2 cans crescent rolls
2 (8oz) packages cream cheese (softened)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla 

2 tbs butter (melted)
Cinnamon & sugar - I used 1/3 cup and sugar and 1 tbs of cinnamon.

Instructions:
Unrolled and spread 1 & 1/2 can crescent rolls on bottom of un-greased pan. Combine softened cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla. Spread mixture over crescent rolls. Unroll and spread remaining crescent rolls over mixture. Spread melted butter over the top and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

And after we made it, I thought if it's a sopapilla cheesecake, then it needs honey too, so after it's sliced and on the plate, we add some honey to top it off. 

My Sewing Room - work in progress

We moved in 3 months ago but unfortunately I've been in school since then. I finished up my last class a week early so I'm having a 3 week break before classes resume on 8/29.

My plan is to get my sewing room in order so I can sew some things for a couple of craft fairs with my mom and some Etsy things.

So here is the work in progress. This is my eBay/sewing/baby room all in one. As soon as I'm done I'll post new pics of my tricked out sewing room lol.

Delicious Banana Muffins..or I swear I'm never gonna get to sew again

I swear I will never get to sew again.  I cannot wait for December so I can graduate and sew again.  I try to sew, but it ends up sitting there because I have 59 million school papers and projects to do.  This week, I have to write 4 journal entries, a paper on a movie and interpersonal relationships (I'm fairly certain I'm going to write it on The Time Traveler's Wife...even though the book is so much better, I have to do a movie.), and finish a group project.  I swear group projects are what they make you do in hell....forEVER!

I think I'm swearing too much in this post. 

Well, to make myself feel somewhat "crafty" and I'm always cooking and baking for about 99% of our meals, I like to bake up new things, especially desserts.  My hubby is a banana lovin' man.  I swear if we go somewhere and they have some type of banana dessert, he will get it.  (The Cheesecake Factory's Fresh Banana Cream Cheesecake is sinfully delicious, and that's saying something since I don't even care for banana desserts.)  So...I had bananas about to go rotten and not much flour, so I made this recipe.  It makes exactly 12 regular-sized muffins.  It came out deliciously moist and so yummy.  I love the topping.  I'm thinking of trying it again, but leaving off the topping and making banana buttercream frosting.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 bananas, mashed

3/4 cup white sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/3 cup oil

Topping

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line muffin cups with papers.  In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. In another bowl mix together bananas, sugar, egg and oil. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.  Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes.  Sprinkle topping with 5 minutes left in the baking process. 

Topping: 

In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins when there is 5 minutes left in the baking time. 

To Die For Chocolate Pie

I had a bizarre intense craving for chocolate cream pie so Ms Em and I made one today. It's a recipe with just cocoa and not chocolate. I never made a chocolate pie from scratch before and it came out perfectly. 

Ingredients

1 chocolate cookie pie crust

3 egg yolks, beaten

1 1/2 cups white sugar

4 heaping tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

2 cups of heavy whipping cream

1 tablespoon butter

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Whip Cream

2 cups of heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup sugar

Directions

1.   In a large mixing bowl, cream together egg yolks and sugar. Mix in cornstarch, cocoa powder, and salt. Add cream and milk and stir gently.

2.  Pour mixture into a large saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until boiling. You will feel it thicken.  Cook additional 1 minute. Remove from heat. Stir in butter or margarine and vanilla extract. Cool slightly, then pour mixture into pie shell. Chill about 2-3 hours.

3.  Whip cream and sugar together until it forms peaks. Then pile it on top of chocolate filling. Garnish with chocolate sprinkles or shavings.

Chicken & Stuffing Casserole

Oh my goodness, I made the BEST dinner tonight. It was Chicken and Stuffing Casserole.  I remember my mom giving me a recipe for turkey and dressing casserole, but I couldn't find it.  I had some leftover cubed chicken breasts and a box of Great Value chicken stuffing, so I went looking for a recipe.  I found a few and then sort of made my own with them.  This made a 13 x 9 casserole dish sized, and it was completely devoured by all of us.  Even the toddler loved it.  It melts deliciously in your mouth -- so good!  Serves 4-5. 

2-3 lbs of cubed chicken
1 box of chicken stuffing
About 6-7 biscuits - shredded
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1 can of evaporated milk
2 cups of chicken broth
3-4 tbs butter
Shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350.  Poach chicken by adding chicken to sauce pan or skillet and adding just enough chicken broth to cover it.  Let it come to a bubble, but not a rolling boil, just bubbling a bit.  Cook until chicken is thoroughly cooked.  Poor into bottom of casserole dish. 

Next, I had leftover biscuits I made a few days ago for breakfast.  I shredded them and then combined them with the stuffing.  I layered this on top of the chicken. **I don't see why you can't just use 2 stuffing boxes or substitute a can of biscuits instead of homemade ones or even a pan of cornbread. 

Then I poured the rest of the chicken broth, cream of chicken, and cream of celery soups together in the same sauce pan I had cooked the chicken in.  I heated them up and then added the evaporated milk.  Then I melted 1 tbs of butter while stirring to prevent burning.   

I cut up 2-3 tbs of butter and put them along the top of the stuffing in the casserole dish.  Then I poured the soup/milk mixture over the entire thing.  I then mixed it up a bit to make sure the soup/milk mixture got all the way down to the bottom. 

Finally, I topped it off with about 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar.  (If you like swiss, it goes well with this too, but we don't like it.)

Cook for 40 minutes uncovered.  Then let it sit for about 10 minutes before serving.   

This recipe is to die for!  My husband took one bite and could not quit raving about it, so did my son.  They devoured nearly the entire pan themselves. 

Vanilla Pudding Chocolate Chip Cookies | Two Peas & Their Pod

These are the best chocolate chip cookies ever. So yummy!

http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/vanilla-pudding-chocolate-chip-cookies/

Sent from my iPhone

Crisis yesterday

I have part of the tutorial done, but I don't want to put it up until it's finished.  We ran over and helped my dear mother-in-law learn to email her resume out.  I'm crossing my fingers she hears a response from any of the ones sent out.

I'm starting my online speech class today.  It requires journaling - - that should be easy peasy ;)  I feel like this class is a big secret I should keep, like the school is not aware they offer a speech class that doesn't require I make any speeches.

Gotta do a bit of homework then I will return to the tutorial.  

New Tutorial Coming Tomorrow!

As amazing as it sounds, I'm going to post a new tutorial tomorrow.  I have had this in my head for a few weeks now and I gotta do it.  I'm sort of in between classes right now.  "Sort of" being the operative word since I'm taking another state mandated course that lasts the entire summer for intro to math even though I've already completed 2 semesters of calculus.  Apparently, taking advanced math does not mean I am capable of doing my own taxes or figuring percentages or determining if a car costs more to buy or lease.  And don't even get me started on the group project.  I think everyone is fully aware how much I love group projects.  

Anyway, I just finished my Bus Law & Ethics class on Thursday with an "A" and my speech class doesn't start til Monday.  Dang, that A was well earned too, that professor made us write long essays defending our positions and it was hard! 

As an aside....if you are like me and would rather the ground swallow you whole or die than ever speak in front of people, but yet your stupid school requires a "speech" class, take interpersonal communication, and do it online no less!!  Yes, I am taking a supposed speech course about one-on-one relationships.  Do you know what the syllabus says?  I watch movies and write journal entries -- for speech class!!  No speaking to web cameras, no going to class to make presentations -- it's just about relationships.  Woohoo!!  Thank the FSM for my beloved husband who told me about this class, which he hated, lol.  My husband the extrovert.  Do you ever wonder if extroverts wish they were introverts, like us introverts wish we were like them? 

Okay so....we were talking about a tutorial...yes shiny things always distract me.  Well, it will be for a toddler, since I conveniently have one of those right now.  It will be super cute!

I'm going to go pull out my machines and do the tut right after I finish so more busy work homework for intro to math.  Maybe I'll have a cooperative toddler who will let me get it done earlier than tomorrow.  Cross your fingers!! 

Review: The Bright Forever

The Bright Forever by Lee Martin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


For fear of giving spoilers away, I can only say this ending made me angry. But...I get too involved with imaginary characters in books. It's that or the mother bear in me came out while reading this book. I just don't know how you could live with yourself everyday for the rest of your life knowing your lack of involvement allowed such a horrible tragedy. Why do people stand idly by while horrific things happen that they could prevent, especially to defenseless children?

While a great read, this is a book I wanted to throw across the room when I was finished. However, I chose to refrain from such vandalism since it was a library book, lol.

The author does an excellent job of building and building the story until you are so heavily involved, you can't bear to not know what happened to the little girl. As you read further into the story, you begin to question your suspicions. I could not guess the culprit until it was revealed. Those are the best kinds of stories.



View all my reviews

Picture Day at Swim Team Practice

What's in my basket of freshly washed diapers??

Father's Day @ Five Guys Burgers - Yum!

Look who's the newest member of the Denton Dolphin Swim Team!!

She tried out this morning and was put on the Blue team which is the mid level team. Since this was her first swim team she was happy she wasn't on the beginner team. Her first meet is next Saturday. She's so excited. I've never seen her so excited about something like this before.

It's funny, last night she was terrified but this morning she was more excited than scared and did an awesome job. I'm so proud of her!!

It was literally a couple days after she tried out for the team where we used to live when we found out we had to move. She's so happy we found another team so close by.

Look what my great mother-in-law gave us this weekend from her garden!! Can't wait for stir fry!!

I can't believe it!!

So I am officially registered for my very last classes to graduate. I have 3 this summer and 2 in the fall. And in december I graduate!! My degree is general studies with concentrations in sociology and business. I've worked it so my classes all revolve around the ethics of business and consumers. I'm not sure if I'm going to go on and get a masters or what. I cannot wait to finish and pursue sewing and pattern design again. I think I want to grow a business doing that. Anyway, it is just thrilling to see the light coming at the end of the tunnel.

On another note I'm going to sell some of my beloved fabrics on eBay from Trefle and PRR and Baby Lulu and others. It's my contribution for our legal fund against the female version of Voldemort.

Sweet Potato Zimbabwe Cookies in my new kitchen!!

So we've officially moved into the "she who must not be named's" house or Voldy as I like to call her. Apart from the lunatic who is apparently wanting to pay her own and my legal fees-- all in all it's a much nicer house than our rental if you can get past the ruined carpet from the fly by night dog kennel she was allowing to roam free through the house. I have an island in my kitchen -- woohoo!! Plus lots of cabinet space and a bedroom for each kidlet. And my dear hubby seems to be open to having one last baby in a few more years. The baby is growing so fast; she's walking and trying to talk and I'm not ready to leave the baby years behind…sigh.

Anyway, so I am sure you are thinking, "Wtf? Zimbabwe cookies?" my dear darling daughter chose Zimbabwe as her country for the little social studies fair tomorrow night. For the cultural part, we are doing food for people to sample complete with recipe cards These are Zimbabwe Sweet Potato Cookies with a lovely lemon glaze. They have lemon and honey and nutmeg plus a cup of sweet potato. The baby loves these cookies without the glaze. Next up in the morning I'm making crock pot peanut butter stew except instead of beef or lamb we're doing turkey. I'm betting the stew is going to be delicious.

Ok off to bed. There are four more days of school left.

The Picture of Breastfeeding

Don't you just love babies? My 1 year old crawls into the bathroom and insists on getting in my lap, and then she pulls my shirt up and helps herself as I have to go potty.

Sent from my iPhone

Fingers Crossed!

I'm so nervous!  We have two showings of our rental house today.  I have to run in about 15 or 20 minutes while one of them comes to walk through.  The other one comes later this afternoon. 

The landlord came and walked through a little bit ago.  She told me I did a wonderful job of taking care of the house for her.  I thought that was sweet. 

Cross your fingers that one of these takes the house.  It would be such a load off our minds.  When we looked at it last year, we were the first ones to view it and turned in our application that very same day. 

June Cleaver I am not

Dear god, my landlord is coming over today to see "what needs to be fixed to rent the house."  Hubby and I are puzzled over this.  Does she think we're hoarders or something?  And she couldn't fix things before we moved in?  I think it took me about half a dozen phone calls to get them to fix the rotted mailbox post when we first moved in.  The mailman said we weren't getting any more mail until it was fixed because it was going to fall on his truck. 

So she's showing up any minute and I've cleaned like a mad woman on Friday and Saturday, so it all looks perfect.  The first people coming to check out the rent house is tonight.  Cross your fingers they take it, cuz we need someone to replace us so we can stop worrying.  

Anyway, we spent all weekend working on the new house.  Hubby and I are experts at replacing screens that have been ripped up by huge dogs.  And....I redid the back door weatherstripping all by myself - woohoo!  And then my dear husband taught me how to use the carpet cleaner my parents gave us. 

I think he had ulterior motives because I've been the sole carpet cleaner since Friday night now, lol.  However, it has been an ongoing battle to get the dog pee stink out of the carpets, and I think I finally have a lead on the battle.  When you walk in the house, the stench of urine no longer hits you in the face and that's from an unbiased source, lol.  Now...if you want to smell the pee, you must stick your nose directly in the carpet.  I was worried the smell was never going to disappear, but it looks like we can make it til next year's tax return or a bonus for hubby before we replace the hallway carpets with ceramic tile. 

And best of all?  We went stove shopping and I got one on Saturday.  My mother-in-law met us for margaritas and then we headed to Lowe's.  It's all electric (blech!) so we knew we wanted a flat top range.  But I was set for the cheapie ones until I found a black Maytag on clearance (the rest of the appliances are black).  It had a textured top so it hides messes better, and it has a hidden heating element in the stove which we could only find in the more expensive models.  We got a $600 stove for less than $500 and they  had one last one in the box so no floor model for me.  I'm having it installed tomorrow. 

Part 4 - Will this ever end?

Apparently not...she has just informed my husband that she is not signing any papers...ever.  Her idiot attorney told her that her name would just fall off the deed and mortgage to the house.  He is so dumb.  I cannot believe an attorney who claims to have been one for more than 30 years would tell somebody something so wrong. 


The mortgage company says he's wrong.  Our attorney says he's wrong.  Everything I've read about this exact issue says he's wrong.  So...I've come the conclusion that she has not told him the correct information, how else could he be so dead wrong? It's that, or we may have possibly found the two dumbest people on the planet. 

So who's ready for Part 3? We got the keys - er...not quite

Well, we got "a" key tonight.  The ex calls my husband this evening because last night he finally demanded the keys by Saturday. (I thought I was gonna have to shove a backbone in him, but he suddenly found his last night.)  She agrees to meet him to give him "the keys" tonight.  He arrives and she can only give him 1 key and 1 garage door opener.  She says she'll have to get the other ones later.  [Insert eye roll here] 

When you agree to give someone the "keys," that is plural -- meaning more than one.  I assume her loser of a boyfriend (cough, who she cheated with, cough) has them.  I don't know if this is her power play to maintain some type of control or ownership of the house in this situation, but that is not happening, not with my children in that home.  But it doesn't really matter as that will all be remedied tomorrow.

But that is not even the best part.  The best part is...she took the freaking stove with her!  Yes...the entire range!  Can you believe it? The house is just now 4 years old and amazingly since June of 2009 both the fridge and the stove quit working and she had to buy  news ones, so she's taking both of them with her.

The fridge I assumed she would take, but the f*ing stove?  Come on, lady!  I mean, she's living in her mother's living room.  Where is she going to put the stove?  I told hubby to ask her if she wanted to sell it. Well, before that, he asked what broke on the stove -- she couldn't tell him nor could she remember when it was replaced.  So she filed bankruptcy, I'm thinking she's hurting for money and would sell it to us.  Nope, didn't want to sell it either.  I'm thinking the stove never broke and she just wanted to give my hubby another kick in the ass.

At that point, he asked if she took the dishwasher and built in microwave too.  She actually chuckled and said of course they were still there, like he was crazy for asking.  Geez lady, who takes a stove out of the house -- it's not like if you rent a place it won't have one.

So after she told us she took the stove, we were imagining the worst like the entire house was stripped of everything.  I was terrified of entering the house to see what we were dealing with when we got there tonight.  But we arrived tonight, all 3 kids in tow, and...it was not as bad as I was afraid of.  Don't get me wrong, it's bad.  The carpet is absolutely disgusting.  I refused to put my baby on the floor tonight it was so gross.  She basically allowed whatever animals were living there to piss wherever they saw fit.  You walk in the house and the smell of urine just hits you right in the face.  One place they particularly loved to piss was right in front of the study's doors. 

My wonderful father is bringing his carpet cleaner and cleaning the carpets for me tomorrow night.  Thank heavens for my mom and dad.  They're coming all this weekend to help us clean it up.  Unless we go terribly into debt for this and I have to use next year's tax return to pay off the credit cards, I'm hiring someone to tile the living room and hallways.  I think that will get rid of any residual disgusting piss.  Our rental home is like that right now, with only carpet in the bedrooms, the rest of the house is completely ceramic tile and I love it and so do my allergies.

Part 2 in the "free house" deal

So...we are jokingly referring to this nightmare as our "free house."  While yes, technically it's not free since we got that damn mortgage to catch up, but we don't have to pay closing costs or earnest money or hirer an inspector.  Yes I know it sounds completely idiotic, but hey, it's my way of dealing with this crap and not crying. 

Back to the story -- our attorney made it sound so easy in our meeting earlier this week.  The bankruptcy trustee isn't going to want the house because it has no equity.  The ex and bankruptcy attorney should just easily want to sign the papers so we can all get on with life.  Um, no, it's not that easy.  Just when I'm thinking this situation cannot turn into a bigger headache...well yes it can.

We finally get an email from our attorney today.  He uses the word "adamant" in the refusal of the bankruptcy attorney to have her sign the deed over to us.  So he says the only alternative is gonna cost a lot of money to take her back to divorce court after the bankruptcy crap is over.  Doesn't that sound like fun?  Well, the best thing about that idea is that the mortgage company is going to start demanding their mortgage payment the second her bankruptcy is over, so my dear husband's credit is gonna get screwed over if we do it that way.  

So hubby sucks it up and decides calling her and asking ourselves is a lot better than paying an attorney to just anger her and her attorney.  Apparently, she was under the impression that the date in the divorce decree to have his name off the mortgage and refinance it signified to her that he would just kick her out of the house if that didn't happen and take it for himself.  How would you even come to that conclusion? 

After talking to her, it was realized that her bleeping bankruptcy lawyer never even asked her if she would sign the deed over to us.  He apparently decided that answer all for himself. Don't you want an attorney who makes decisions for you?  I certainly don't.

Anyway, hubby asked her if she wanted to get this over with as quick as possible and be done with it, and she agreed, so she decided for herself to sign the house over to us. So cross your fingers and hold your mouth just right that this part of this crap deal goes smoothly. 

Now tomorrow night I need all the people in the world to send my landlord positive thoughts that she will not hate us for having to break our lease and be nice and understanding and let us off the hook so this nightmare can end somewhat happily. I cannot wait to get over the landlord issue, it's just making me sick to my stomach. 

Do you ever have a day where you think - can it get any worse?

Well yes my dear friends, the sh!t can hit the fan so forcibly it will end up in places you never imagined.  Once upon a time, your husband was previously married and in that marriage they bought a house.  Now fast forward to the present, and you are happily married with three wonderful children living in a great neighborhood and your kids love where they live and their friends and their schools and your husband only works 15 minutes down the road, and it's all finally good.  Then suddenly, you get collections agencies mailing the ex-wife bills to your address, and she's never lived there, ever.  Oh dear....

Surprise! You get a notice in the mail that she's filing bankruptcy.  Your husband calls her to see what is going on.  Now why didn't she feel the need to share this with you since she has been unable to refinance the house and his name is still on the mortgage? Oh that's right, because according to her (in between her screaming tirade), it's none of your business because it has nothing to do with you because she's exempting the house in the bankruptcy.  You talk to an attorney and he calms your fears and you think everything is okay. 

Fast forward two months later.  Here is where it gets super fun!  You get an amended bankruptcy notice from her and now, exactly 11 days before the exact date she has to have your husband's name off the mortgage, she's decided to surrender the house to the mortgage company. Holy mother of god...WTF? It just seems way too convenient, if you know what i mean.   

And now after our very long meeting today with an attorney who specializes in divorce and bankruptcy....our only option to save hubby's job (as allowing the house into foreclosure and filing bankruptcy ourselves will destroy his career in finance) is to move to the house and take over the payments pronto. 


But wait, there's more!  Not only do we have to figure out how to get out of a 2 year lease right this second and move, we also just called the mortgage company tonight and unlike the story we were told by the ex-wife who said the mortgage was current, it's going to take about 2 months of mortgage payments on top of next month's payment for us to get it current. 

Now the moral of the story is...don't ever buy a house with a spouse that you could ever possibly have any inkling for the potential to divorce.  Chalk this up as another reason homeownership is not what it's cracked up to be.  Geez, what a headache. 

My sweet and wonderful 11 year old tween wanted to know why both of us were picking her up from school today, so I tried to prepare her as best I could.  It didn't work too well because she just went to her room and cried.  If there was anyway I could fix this horrible situation for my incredibly shy little girl so she would not have to start all over again in the 7th grade in a completely new town at a completely new school, I would.  I feel incredible guilt.  I think we're going to make a trip to Build-A-Bear tomorrow night for some retail therapy.

Now I try to be a glass half-ful kinda girl, so I'm trying to think of the positives of this situation.  We did want to be able to finally buy a house again, so I sort of got my wish.  And, it is a four bedroom house so each kid has their own bedroom.  And it has two living areas - one for the family and one for sewing and crafting - yay!. 

Hubby keeps reminding me that in a couple of years we'll look back at this and laugh.  I've just felt numb all day, past the point of even crying.  He's been trying so hard to be silly and giving me giggle fits all day since our meeting with the attorney to take my mind off it.  Sigh...gosh, I love that man, and I don't know what I'd do without him. 

Mr E about to eat a new recipe - Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies - Yum!

I'll update this post in a bit after the baby is asleep. I had an intense craving for chocolate and PB and came up with this variation. This recipe is to die for -- so moist and delicious.

Miss Em dyed her hair purple!

First baby ice cream cone at Sweet Tomatoes

Friday Night Family Tie Dye

Adam & Eve

I just finished this book, Adam & Eve, a few days ago by Sena Jeter Naslund.  It was very good and a bit magical.  It begins with Lucy Bergman, the wife of a very famous astrophysicist who has discovered evidence of extraterrestrial life on other planets.  She travels with him to speeches around the world, and he has yet to tell the world of his findings.  Before his next speech when he will tell the world, he gives her the flash drive with all the information to wear around her neck, and she is supposed to give it to him right before his speech that day.  Well....he's killed by a falling piano of all things!  Before he dies, he tells her if something happens to him, she must decide when the time is right to reveal to the world about his findings.

She is invited to speak at another seminar in Egypt to celebrate her husband's life and while there she becomes grief stricken once more.  She flees and decides to go to Nag Hammadi where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, and soon she begins a new journey.  She is approached by a strange man at the seminar, who later finds her at Nag Hammadi, to smuggle a secret codex he has found to France where he will meet her.  The codex predates the book of Genesis and has the potential to even disprove it.

In the background of all of this happening is a secret organization called Perpetuity whose members are hellbent on keeping religion intact in this world and will do whatever they can to stop such things as the evidence of extraterrestrials and this codex.  So...while Lucy is flying the codex out of Egypt something happens to her plane and she crashes and ends up in an "Eden" of sorts with a stranger named Adam. 

Next up is The Bright Forever.  I'm hoping to finish it in the next couple days and have a review next week.  I can't put that book down. If you enjoyed The Lovely Bones - it's right up your alley.

Five Cheese Baked Ziti

 

I made this up the other day while trying to make something new, and it came out wonderfully good.  It takes just 10-15 minutes to make, especially if you use those new quick cooking pasta, then I bake it for about 10 more minutes to melt the cheese. I like it better with ground turkey because the meat just falls apart. Also of note, we LOVE garlic in our family, so this has a lot of garlic in it -- you can decrease it if needed. 

This recipe is perfect to have leftovers for lunches.  For our family, this is enough to feed a family of 4, plus it's perfect for the baby to have finger food, and it leaves enough leftovers to have for about 2 or 3 days worth of lunches. 

Five Cheese Baked Ziti

1 box of quick cook penne or rotini

1 to 1.5 lbs of ground turkey or hamburger

1 can of crushed tomatos

1 4 oz. can of tomato sauce

1/4 cup of water

1 cup of shredded italian cheese blend - mine had 5 cheeses in it (hence the name, lol)

6 slices of provolone cheese - optional

2 tbs Parmesan cheese

1 tbs olive oil

1 tbs of minced garlic

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1 tsp Garlic powder

1 tsp Onion powder

Preheat oven to 350.  

While heating up pan for browning the meat, add the olive oil and coat bottom of pan.  Boil noodles per directions on box while browning ground turkey.  While browning meat add parmesan cheese, garlic powder, onion powder, italian seasoning, and minced garlic.  After meat has no pink, turn heat to medium-low and add crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, and water.  Let the meat-tomato mixture start bubbling before adding to noodles.  Drain noodles, then mix with tomato mixture, and gradually stir in shredded cheese.  Pour into casserole dish and top off with slices of provolone.  Bake for 10 minutes or until top cheese is melted.  Serves 6-7 people.

Next recipe will be meat loaf....my kids love meatballs, so my meatloaf is essentially a loaf-sized meatball.

Citrus!

Here is what I'm currently working on while procrastinating on school work. I plan to have a stocking of "bits" at QuiltyBits.com next week. My mom is the quilty and I'm the bits,lol. Anyway, this is the second in a set of 2 mug rugs I made. I call them Citrus as they make me want to eat a juicy sweet orange.

Making tins o'magnets with vintage images

Blogging from my iPhone!!

Hubby and I got iPhones for Valentine's Day. I just found an app for blogging and I'm trying it out. I think I want the paid version so I can easily take pics and blog at the same time-- you can't do that with the free one. If I do that it will be so easy to put pics on my blog instead of uploading from a memory stick.

LIfe has been kicking my rear

I had this epiphany that I needed to get back here.  Since Christmas we have gone through the entire family with bronchitis, a bout of flu and a fun-filled adventure with RSV with the baby.  I will gladly take on a baby with bronchitis over RSV any day -- that was scary.  And finally, when I thought everyone was well, I had a previous root canal from 10 years ago decide to abscess last week. 

I have never really had dental pain in my life, and after living on hydrocodone for a week waiting to get into the endodontist, I decided that childbirth and 3 days of labor is less pain than one stupid tooth.  It took my dear endodontist 3 hours to clean out the previous root canal, and then the he and his assistant were thrilled when the abscess started draining through the root system out of the tooth. It was quite weird to see them excitedly taking pictures. 

The funny thing was I had a major midterm that same week I was living on hydrocodone -- the only test for my ethics and advertising class.  I was terrified of taking it because I had paranoia of being aware I was not fully functioning while taking the pain meds. Somehow when everyone was sleep I decided to take the test the night before my endodontist appointment at 3 AM in case my pain was even worse.  Magically, the baby slept and slept and I had the writing skills and totally rocked my essay.  It doesn't happen often, but I love that groove you get into when something literally writes itself.  Not only did I get a 100 on the test, my professor emailed me and asked to use my essay (my essay!!) for the key to the test as the example.  I was beyond thrilled!  My husband and I joked I should get high on hydrocodone before every test, lol. 

I have another test this week in another course, so I will probably disappear for awhile.  But I am going to try to create an Etsy store for some ephemera stuff.  I have this strange addiction to it and went to a "junk" store yesterday and picked up some wonderful finds to add to mixed media art -- handwritten postcards from years ago, magazines from the 50s, and even this crazy old medical book. 

We're crawling!!

Molly learned to crawl last week.  She's a bit of a weird crawler.  I like to refer to as the hermit crab crawl.  She crawls with one knee and one foot.  Very odd, but boy, does she move fast.  Daddy is playing Death Cab for Cutie in the background.  He'd probably die if he knew we could hear him, lol.

Projects to share very soon, as soon as I can remember to take pics of them.

Five more classes!

I'm doing the college thing really really really s~l~o~w.  For the past year and half I've been taking about 1 or 2 classes at a time and took off all spring and summer 2010 for the pregnancy.  Well..I just ran my degree audit and I only have 5 classes left.  At the earliest I'll graduate at the end of the year, at the latest it will be spring 2012.  I figured it would take me longer, but it seems to almost be here.

I'm getting a general studies degree from TWU with my concentrations in sociology and business with hopefully a minor in biology.  It's totally weird, but I was on my way to a biology degree and med school years ago before I started having babies, so now I have TONS of hours in biology.  I'm hoping they will let me put that bio minor on my degree.  The advisor was a moron last time I spoke to her and she had absolutely no idea if I could or not.  I just don't understand why they let professors be advisers as I have never had one who knew anything more than I did when it comes to a degree plan.

Ok now onto some sewing talk.  I'm planning out my projects for the etsy and craft fair endeavor with my mom.  I'm working on whimsical mug rugs sets currently and baby stuff.  

Now that creepy doll hat - do you want a tutorial? If nobody wants one, I won't bother, but...if anyone is interested, send me a comment a I'll write it up.

Off to bed for some reading.  I'm planning a little trip to Joanns tomorrow.  I haven't been there in forever, but I need thread.