I Got Confessions

Friday is finally here and I couldn't be happier.  Well I could, if work wasn't a requirement.  But moving on, going home time will be here soon enough.  For now it's time to confess.

• It's laundry dancing time again.
• I need to do a bit better this time.
• I sort of left the towels to wait for almost a week last time.
• I got all the clothes washed, dried, folded and put away.
• Just not the towels.
• Stupid things wouldn't shut up about it either.
• We are not putting up a Christmas tree this weekend.
• Nick is heading up to the mountains for fire wood.
• We need firewood, but I had been hoping we would go after a Christmas tree.
• We will go next weekend.
• A small part of me is a bit disappointed, but I'll deal with it and we'll do it next weekend.
• I hate fractions.
• Turbo is learning fractions in school.
• This means we get to push, force, guide him though the homework.
• I hated fractions when I had to learn them and I hate them now trying to help Turbo with them.
• I think I'm ready to haul out the Christmas videos.
• The countdown starts tomorrow at our house.
• Christmas is coming!

So what do you have to confess?  Do tell and feel a bit better going into the weekend. Link up with Aubrey at High Heeled Love and see what everyone else is confessing.

Spin Cycle--Swapping Cookies--sort of...

So this week the Spin Cycle is all about a Christmas Cookie exchange.  Sending actual cookies through the mail would be less than effective so we are just sharing recipes.
I'm not a huge cookie maker.  I try to keep chocolate chip cookes on hand, but we have a challenge here.  We are at 7200 ft above sea level.  Seriously, college teams are greeted in the locker room with welcome to 7220.  I always laugh at the high altitude recommendations on baking mixes--they list high altitude as 3500-6500 ft.  As if no one who would bake lives at higher altitude.
Anyway, the high altitude makes baking a bit more challenging.  Add to that the extreme low humidity we have here normally and the whole getting a cookie or bread to turn out right is a game of adding more flour and going for the longer baking time.
I had to hunt high and low for a recipe for Chocolate chip cookies that didn't spread into flat discs with chip bumps in it.  I found one, but am not going to share that one today--I don't think very many of you live at the altitude I do.  I'm going to share a cookie recipe I remember making as a kid.  Oatmeal Cookie Kings.  We loved making these because mom put m&ms in them and they made big cookies.  Mom liked them because they had oatmeal in them so they masqueraded as more nutritious than say, your average oreo.
Oatmeal Cookie Kings
1 1/2 cup sifted flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar                      Optional: nuts, chopped
1 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)     raisins, 1 cup shredded
2 eggs, well beaten                            coconut, Reese's pieces,
1 tsp. vanilla                                       M&Ms

Sift first three ingredients together.  In a different bowl, cream butter and sugars.  Add eggs and vanilla.  Add flour mixture.  Mix oatmeal and any other optional ingredients adn add to the cookie dough.  Mix well. Drop from teaspoon 2 inches apart on greased baking sheet. Bake at 375 oven 10-12 minutes.  Makes 6 dozen cookies (unless you make really big cookies).

I'm also sharing my favorite muffin/doughnut recipe.  They are called Baked Apple Doughnuts.  As a kid I loved these because they are topped with cinnamon sugar and they were so good.  Now I love them because they hide shredded apple in them.

Baked Apple Doughnuts
1 1/2 cup sifted flour                  1 egg beaten
1 3/4 tsp. baking powder           1/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp. salt                               1/2 cup grated raw apple
1/2 tsp. nutmeg                         1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup sugar                            1 tsp. cinnamon
1/3 cup shortening                     3 Tbsp melted butter

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and sugar.  Cut in shortening until mixture is fine.  Mix together egg, milk, and apple.  Add apple mixture all at once to flour mixture and mix quickly but thoroughly.  Fill greased muffin pans 2/3 full.  Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. While they are baking mix sugar and cinnamon together and set aside  Remove from pans immediately. Dip each in melted butter, then in the sugar -cinnamon mixture.  Allow to cool and enjoy--if you can wait that long.

Now go see Gretchen for more cookie recipes.  We all need them so we have yummy treats for the holiday.

November Thanks--Holiday Traditions

So it's time for the last Thanksgiving giving thanks post.  this time I'm giving thanks for the traditions we have as a family.  I think I'll bullet these out for convenience sake.

I give thanks for:

• Every year we go to the mountains and get a tree.  It's $10 for a Christmas tree permit.  Then it jsut costs gas to head to the mountains and then time to find the most perfect tree we can.  Sometimes they turn out to be a bit Charlie Brownish, but they are always beautiful once decorated.
• I like to try to make cookies with the boys.  Candy cane cookies, oatmeal cookies, chocolate chip cookies, although this year I think I might need to expand the cookie choices   I'm thinking snickerdoodles or something like that.
• I get a gingerbread house for Turbo to decorate the day before Christmas.  Bruiser needs to get a bit older before he gets one to decorate.  Probably next year.
• We always enjoy watching A Christmas Story.  We can really identify with the story.  For me it's being mom to two boys.
• We always watch Santa's progress on Christmas Eve on Norad's Santa Tracker.
• I mentioned it before, but it is a tradition--we do an all day long seafood extravaganza for New Year's, either New Year's Eve or New Years Day, depending on if the kids are with us or the grandparents.  We spread out the courses--appetizers of shrimp and scallops at around lunch, main course of lobster tails around 5 or so and the final course of Crab legs around 8:30 or so.  Enough time in between to clean up from each course, let it digest, and move on to the next.  It's awesome!
• We do a count down calendar for the boys.  It's a cute calendar with pockets for each day and a star that moves from pocket to pocket.  I got it when Turbo was four to help him know how long it was until Christmas.  It helped save me from the Is Christmas tomorrow? questions.
• We spend Christmas eve with Nick's folks.  The boys get to open present from Papa and Nana then and we get appetizers and snack food and it's nice.
• After Christmas Eve at the grandparents we go look at lights and then head home to scuttle little boys into bed so Santa can come.
• We have Christmas breakfast at our house.  It way easier than lunch and lets the kids show the grands what they got and we don't have to go anywhere.

I am so thankful that I have a family that I can make these kinds of memories with.  Thinking about all these traditions really helps put me in the Christmas mood.  What are your traditions?  Are you looking forward to Christmas?

Random Talking Tuesday

We survived the Thanksgiving holiday.  Now Christmas has thrown up all over the TV and several houses in town, even the grandparents.  We are resisting until this weekend.

• Hopefully we can head to the mountains for a tree.  It's a nice outing with the boys.  This year there isn't much snow up there yet, so the trip should be an easy one.
• I have caught a cold.  Or maybe it's the flu.  All I know is that I feel like poop.  It's really not fair.  It could be worse, I could have gotten sick last week before the holiday.
• The season of gimme has started. The boys want everything remotely boy oriented that they see on TV.  It really doesn't give us any good ideas on what to give them.
• I'm almost ready to watch the Christmas movies we like.  Almost.  We did watch Frosty with Bruiser on Friday night.  He thought it was awesome.  It's almost more fun to watch him watch them than it is to watch them ourselves.
• And the potty training goes on with Bruiser. And on and on and on.  I keep hoping that one day it will just click with him, but so far no luck.  It's a process, and there is hope in the fact that few kids have to have their diapers changed in kindergarten.  Maybe he'll get it and that will be my Christmas gift from him.  A mom can hope, right?
• Bruiser has taken to scream/crying at anything he doesn't like.  It's enough to make you want to sell him to the gypsies.  But I don't think event hey would take him.  He's also telling us that he's not happy about a lot of things, especially when things don't go his way.  It's so hard to be firm, not give in, and not yell back at him. 
• Why is it kids learn the buttons to push so early and push them so effectively?
• Turbo on the other hand is doing pretty good right now.  He is having normal kid stuff but doing OK at the attitiude.  Of course with Christmas looming, he's trying really hard to be good for Santa. (Even though he knows who Santa is--on threats of no gifts for "non believers" he's professing belief.  The kid is no dummy and really wants his presents.  Greed is working in our favor right now.)

So what are your randoms this week?  Write 'em up and link 'em up with Stacy.

And go see Shawn and Impulsive for Talk To Us Tuesday--no rules, link up any post you want to, just link up.

Thanksgiving Weekend--Now That Was a Weekend

I had a fabulous Thanksgiving break. It was busy, family filled, productive and relaxing.  That's a lot to stick into a weekend, but since it was a nice long weekend, what we did was just about right.
I took Wednesday off to be home with the boys.  We lazed around, ran some errands, and I cooked/baked some goodies for Thanksgiving and then went swimming with our cousins.  After swimming, we went over to their house for a snack kind of dinner and to just hang out.  It was a very nice evening.
Thursday started early as we had to put our turkey on the grill.  It turned out fantastic, even if the grill did blow out at one point, due to the lovely wind we had.  We had a friend over for a while to enjoy some of the turkey and a glass of wine.  After Bruiser's nap we went to Nick's folk's house and had dinner.  It was nice.  They did all the work for a Turkey dinner and all we had to do was show up.
I got up at O'dark thirty to go brave the crowds for some shopping with a friend.  The crowds weren't that bad, except at Kohl's and since there was nothing there we really needed, we didn't need to stand in the ridiculous lines.  I got some good deals and we really only have a bit of shopping to do for the boys and we are ready for Christmas.
Saturday turned into an action movie marathon.  We watched The Expendables, both one and two, Red, Mission Impossible, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith.  We were going to watch True Lies, but couldn't find it.  All in all it was a fun day.  I fit puzzles, the boys hung out, Turbo had a friend show up for a while, we snacked, and had a relaxing time.  With the minor exception of Turbo getting totally fed up with his brother.  Who knew a three year old could so effectively drive a nine year old up the wall.
Sunday the boys went to Papa and Nana's to make cookies and Nick and I went and wandered around Walmart, Murdocks, and Albertson's.  We shopped for the boys a bit, shopped for us a bit, and got steaks for our dinner--we both needed red meat after all the turkey.
When we got home, Nick and I started on the next big project we have planned.  The house we live in has no coat closet.  We are going to fix this, but first we have to clear out the room we plan on putting it in.  the fish tank has lived in that room for years.  We moved it into the living room yesterday.  After moving it we shifted just about everything in the front room around.  Played musical furniture, and have something we can live with until the Christmas break.  That's when we will get to move a few things and get going on the closet.
I am so looking forward to having a place to put coats, jackets, gloves, hats, all the outdoor wear that accumulates in a colder climate.  It's all going to have a home.
So, all in all, it was a great break.  I sure could use another one, oh right, just four weeks until we get winter break. Now to survive the time between now and then.
How was your Thanksgiving?  Good, bad, ugly or just so-so?  

November Thanks--Work and Hobbies

Time to do my third thanksgiving post for the month.  I really want to give thanks for all the good things I have in my life.  I've covered my family, and our lovely home.  This week I think it's time to say thanks for the opportunity to work--both at my job and as a mom.
I have always had work if I wanted it.  Some jobs were better than others.  Retail was OK, selling furniture and insurance definitely was not for me.  I enjoyed working as a chiropractic assistant, even if the days were beyond long sometimes.
Then I had Turbo and took about two years off.  Oh, I went back to school during that time but didn't really have a paying job until after my first year of school.  I went back for a geology degree.  I can blame thank Nick for that choice.  He did it and it was so interesting.  The math intimidated me but I got through it.
When I graduated with my geology degree, I got a job offer for part time work from home for a uranium exploration company.  It fit my schedule perfectly.  I really enjoyed the work and had the economy not crashed, I would still be working there. The economy did crash and I got laid off the day I had Bruiser.  Three months later I got a part time job using my degree and learning database management.  Since it was for a university, the hours are very flexible and after a year and half they took me on full time with benefits. 
I am very thankful that I have the job I have.  It challenges me and still lets me be mom to my boys. It's also pretty stable even if it's work with the energy industry.
I am also thankful that I get to be a mom.  It's work, it's never not work, but the rewards are so great that whenever it gets me down, all I have to do is think about the hugs, small moments of triumph, big moments of fun and laughter and they lift me up to keep on moving forward.
I'm also thankful for the opportunity to blog and the wonderful people I have met do this.  I've said before that I don't do the face to face meeting of people all that well. I'm fine once I know you, but the initial meeting, not so good at that.  Blogging takes that face to face uncomfortableness out of the equation.  I do hope to be able to meet some of the ladies I blog with regularly--Gretchen, Mimi, Stacy, Jen (any number of Jens, really), Myya, Mamarazzi, Alaina, Michele, and so many more.  I foresee lots of travel in my future, but is nice to know that I have people to see all across the country.
I'm thankful too, for a hubby who understands my need to get creative.  Nick is trying, with my help, to get an area to scrap book set up in the attic.  I have not scrap booked for quite a while --really since before Bruiser was born.  I am so far behind but I really need to do some work and get caught up.  With any luck I'll be all set up and can get started again over the Christmas break.

Talking Tuesday Randoms

It's the Tuesday before Turkey Day.  Let's get a lot random shall we?

• Watching America's Funniest Videos really makes me feel smart.  There are some really silly people out there and they get caught on tape regularly. The kids love watching it.
• Last week I visited Rachel and she was talking about convenience stores she had seen in Texas.  I mentioned that we have Kum & Go stores here.  I have proof:

I can't believe they named the franchise this. And yes that is currently our price for gas here.

• Are you ready for Thanksgiving?  I think we are.  Let the food coma commence.
• Sounds like most stores have given up on the ridiculous opening times and are just going to be open Thanksgiving night.  I plan on going shopping, but we are going early Friday morning, not Thanksgiving.
• Went to the eye doctor yesterday.  My eyes have not changed since last year, so that's good.  Turbo also has dodged the eyeglasses bullet this year. Kid is probably going to end up with them eventually but not yet.
• Bruiser has taken to turning the light on in his room so he can draw.  It's a cute reason to find him up, but really I'd prefer he go to sleep.  Having him stay up late means he gets up way too early.
• Turbo has been reading.  I will wait while the collective gasps quiet down.  No really, voluntarily reading.  He really enjoys the Bone books.  I got them for him at the beginning of the year.  He's on book four of ten.  They are graphic/comic book style, but sort of a fantasy epic type tale.  He is reading and I'm not going to argue with it.

Here's to long weekends--may yours be full of family and good food!
Go see Stacy for more Randoms.
 
And go see Shawn and Impulsive for Talk to Us Tuesday.

The Weekend That Was

So this last weekend was relaxing, but maybe a bit too quick.  And all told, I'm not sure I feel all that relaxed.  I guess next weekend will be for relaxing.  It's a nice long weekend but let's get through this last weekend first.
Friday I got to go with Turbo on his school field trip to the State Museum.  It was fun but exhausting.  Nick was wonderful though and had wine waiting for me when I got home.  It tasted fantastic.

Dressing up Railroad style.

Bugle them awake!

Saturday morning I was a bit slow.  Wine will do that.  Nick had to go to Cheyenne to help a friend bring a car back that he was buying. I got grocery shopping done and started the laundry.  Saturday afternoon was exciting for Turbo.  He had earned the money, done the chores and earned the Lego set of the Millennium Falcon.  We gave it to him on Saturday and he put it together in about 4 hours with only minimal help.
I got a migraine and Nick sent me to my room at about 6:00 pm.  I folded clothes and then crawled in bed.
Sunday, Nick and I straightened up our end of the attic.  We want to get an area set up for me to scrap book and Nick to draw and do his model trains.  We printed out some pictures and had a nice time with the boys up there.  I finished the laundry, we tightened the faucet in the sink. I attempted a nap, was mostly unsuccessful.
Nick got a wild hair for something Mediterranean for dinner.  He sort of made it up but it was a good dish.  It had pasta, tortellini, green pepper, italian sausage, mushrooms, olives, onions, artichoke hearts, cherry tomatoes, a bit of marinara sauce, and all this was over endive and served with crescent rolls.  It was different and quite tasty.  Nick is very good at taking ingredients and making food out of it.

Hanging with my cutie.

Love my little man.

I felt sort of off all weekend and turns out I had another kidney stone.  It was just a small one, but enough to make me feel less than good.
So here's to a short week and very long weekend and Thanksgiving!

Monday morning can't be all bad if it can give me this.

How was your weekend?

I'm confessing...Again

So it's Friday and this one is truly the best day of the week.  I don't have to go to work today.  No instead, I'm spending the day with four cute guys.
But before we get into that, let's confess:

• First, the guys I'm spending the day with, yeah, they're all nine years old.  
• Cute, but not necessarily my preferred people to spend the day with.
• Turbo has a field trip to the state museum in Cheyenne.
• An hour on a bus with 30 fourth graders.
• Think of me.
• Wine will be necessary tonight.
• If Nick remembers to go check out our family pictures, we get them tomorrow.
• It's laundry weekend.
• I don't really like laundry.
• Who does?  But really, I'd rather spend the day reading.
• That won't happen.
• Not with three guys who seem to think they need my attention.
• They do, but there are times when I wish they needed less of it.
• I'm going Black Friday shopping next weekend.
• With a friend, which is the best way to go.

So that about does it.  My conscience is clear.  Go confess with Audrey at High Heeled Love.  She's hosting while Mamarazzi is taking time to regroup at her blog.

Spin Cycle--Disaster! (Or Just Plain Bad Luck)

The Spin Cycle is all about disaster, in honor of the disaster that was Sandy.  What kind of disaster have you lived through--fire, flood, famine, hurricane, earthquakes, volcano, blizzard, what's you disaster of choice?  Or do you disasters run more to mundane sort?
My disasters are of the less spectacular kind.  And they tend to run in threes.  Back in 2010 we had a run of back luck that bordered on disaster.  It all started in May of 2010 when we had a one-two-three run of bad health luck that started with Turbo needing to have five teeth pulled.  Bruiser fell into a coffee table and got his head glued back together and Nick broke his ankle, which required him to wear a lovely air cast boot thingy for 6 weeks.
We thought we were done with the bad luck, but no.  The Thursday before Memorial Day weekend our water heater became a waterfall.   Literally, water was coming out of the top and splashing on the floor. What we didn't know was that it had been leaking for a while.  We had water everywhere.  I ahd quite a bit of laundry to do as we had storage shelves in our bedroom and everything on the floor had soaked up water.
We had to replace the water heater that weekend (up side, we got a bigger one that heats the water far better).  Not exactly our preferred way to spend a holiday weekend.
We hoped that would be the end of our bad luck, but evidently it really liked hanging around our house because two weeks later my mom called me at work. She told me that there was water all over the floor in the kitchen and that the refrigerator didn't seem all that cold.  We went home and checked it out and found that the fridge compressor had given up the ghost.  A new refrigerator was necessary as replacing the compressor was almost as expensive.  A brand new shiny refrigerator showed up on Saturday.
The third in the disaster realm (although minor really) was when Nick's truck had an electrical problem that needed fixing.  It was minor, but enough to take to the electrical mechanic for fixing. We were pretty over the costly run of bad luck we had been gifted with.  The bad luck fairy could just go bother another family for a while.
There, two sets of three disasters that hit us in 2010.  Things really do come in threes.  I wish sometimes they didn't. Go see Gretchen for more disaster spins.