Boing.. Boing

(source)

I tried a new (to me) class at the gym yesterday.  It's called Kangoo Jumps, which involves wearing the crazy shoes pictured above.  By the looks of the shoes, you'd think you'd feel unsteady while bouncing around, but much to my surprise, it wasn't hard to maintain my balance at all.  Sure I felt a little goofy at first, but, I always feel a little goofy.  Once I was in an upright position and bouncing around like a big goofball, much like a kid on a big trampoline, I had a blast.  And got a great workout, too.

I had visions of falling down and breaking my tailbone, but I didn't wobble once.  And best of all, the workout is non-impact, which makes my running weary knees quite happy.  

I can't wait to try it again.  Unfortunately, I'll miss next week's special Valentine's day edition (I hear there will  be chocolate there)  because I have to go to Caroline's class for their Valentine distribution extravaganza.  Sigh! The sacrifices I make for that kid!

Otherwise, there really isn't a whole lot going on around here. Oh, it's windy and I just ate a bunch of ice cream. I never eat ice cream during the day, but for some reason I found myself, big spoon in hand, sitting with an open carton of ice cream, mindlessly shoveling it in my mouth while listening to Donald Rumsfeld being interviewed on the radio.  Now I feel yucky. 

About the ice cream; not Donald Rumsfeld.

In other news,  I've been staying busy trying to find the perfect dinnerware set, but I'm not having much luck.  It's come down to two things:  1) I have expensive tastes and 2) there are a whole lot of ugly dinnerware sets out there.

I've been fixated on square plates for some time, but I can't find any that I love and are in my price range (read:  cheap).  I was opposed to white plates for a long time, because white is kind of boring, but I'm kind of warming up to them now.  The problem is that most of the dinnerware sets out there contain little coffee mugs.  I hate little coffee mugs.  I need sturdy mugs.  My man hands demand them.  If I bought a dinnerware set, I'd probably chuck the dinky mugs in favor of the mugs I currently own.  And why would I want to spend money on mugs I'd never use?

So then I thought about buying plates and bowls separately, but that gets really expensive.

It's hard to maintain such high standards while being so cheap.

I know what I don't want:  dark colors, flowers, geometric designs, fruit/veg motifs, dinky mugs or anything metallic.  I also know what I want: square plates (but not square bowls...I think?), sturdy, classic, pretty and not too expensive.

This is tragic.

And now I'm off to search Overstock.com to see if they have any plates I cannot live without.

I'll let you know if I find anything that tickles my fancy.

Love is in the Air

Our love for all the crafty items Michael's sells, that is.

Caroline brought home a note from school last week, suggesting the kids decorate a box to hold the copious amounts of valentines they'll be receiving next Monday during their party allotted time in which they'll pass out valentines. 

Because I love a good craft project as much as the next person, and I certainly jump at any chance to go to Michael's, Caroline and I went yesterday to purchase necessary embellishment supplies.

And what do you get when you're busy covering an unsightly orange Nike shoebox with pink and red?

Why, you get a mess, of course.

You also get one of these:

Every mailbox needs a flag, right?

Ah, happy love.

Aren't these stickers cute?  A youngish woman overheard the two of us discussing our Valentine decoration options in the scrapbook paper aisle at Michael's and couldn't help but point out these stickers. 

I'm glad she did.

We like converstation hearts around here.  In fact, as I waited for photos to upload, I remembered Caroline's 100th Day of School poster she we made in first grade.  Since the 100th day of school was February 12th that year, we made a valentine themed poster, complete with 100 hot glued conversation hearts.

Appropros of nothing, the day Caroline and I made this poster, Craig was out running in DC, as a part of the training he did for the National Half Marathon.  He took a wrong turn somewhere along the way and got lost.  I remember talking to him on the phone, trying to figure out where he was on a map and hot glue conversation hearts all at once. 

How's that for multi tasking?

Anyway, I think Caroline's box this year turned out pretty cute.  I helped cover the box with felt and I also manned the hot glue gun, because she's a little liberal with the force she puts upon the trigger, which yields lots of hot, sticky glue all over the counter and her fingers. Otherwise, Caroline did most of the work.  I try not to be 'that' mom.  You know the type.

As a control freak, it's hard to stand back, but I held strong.

I think this year's valentine keeper is much more festive than last year's brown paper bag version.





I guess third graders are expected to be extra festive...and, not to mention, to spell Valentine correctly.

In other unrelated news, Caroline asked me to take a picture of the gigantic tent she built with her friend Alayna, and post it on the blog so Craig could see it.

Um, yep,  It's a big tent.  It was built on Saturday and I'm sort of ashamed to admit that it's still up today. 

I'll get to it soon.  But first, I have to scrape hot glue blobs off the counter.

40!!

Uh oh, someone's 40 today and thankfully, it's not me. 

It's this guy

I know Caroline, I can hardly believe it myself.  But remember, even though daddy is old, we still love him.

Look, we even made Craig a birthday cupcake. 

But only one candle; we don't want to set off the smoke alarm.  I do that enough when I'm 'cooking.'

Actually, this cupcake was one of the dozen I baked for the Basket Bingo bake sale, but it was nice of us to think of Craig, right? 

So thoughtful in fact, that Caroline volunteered to eat one for him.

I stopped her, though.  Those are for the bake sale, therefore, she must fork over 50 cents first.

She did make a card to mark this momentous occasion.

Since we can't mail him the card, because 1.) he doesn't have an address 2.) we don't have an envelope big enough and 3.) I don't have any stamps (and I really hate buying them), a picture of the artist holding the card, will have to do.

(I drew the cake)

Sometimes I can hardly believe that I've known Craig for nearly 16 years.  He was 24 way back then; sixteen years later, age 24 seems so young, but since I was 18 at the time, even then he was 'old.' 

Now he's REALLY old!

Where has the time gone?

This is the second year in a row Craig has spent his birthday apart from us.  Last year, he left early in the morning, before a big snow storm blew through later that day, to begin deployment junk in Georgia.  This year, he's in Texas.

Craig, I wish you were here so I could repeatedly remind you of your advanced age  to wish you a happy birthday in person, but since that's not going to happen, here's a card for you:

but don't worry,

Happy Birthday, Craig!

We love you even though you're old!

Tied Up With A Pretty Bow

I've been in baking mode these past two days.  Yesterday I made peanut butter brownies and some jumbo sized heart shaped sugar cookies.  This morning, I rose with the roosters and decorated the sugar cookies with pinky-red royal frosting and Valentine themed sprinkles.  I went to the gym with red stained hands and a few sprinkles in my hair!

I still have cupcakes to frost (once I actually make the fluffy chocolate frosting, that is) but in the mean time, I thought I'd share what's been going on in my kitchen lately. 

All tied up with a pretty bow.

Call me a bake sale snob, but I'm a big believer in pretty packaging for bake sales.  Two smushed, crumbly brownies hastily thrown into a too large ziploc bag isn't nearly as eye appealing as something lovingly packaged and adorned with a festive ribbon.

Or perhaps this is just my excuse to buy more ribbon.  I do have a ribbon problem, afterall.

My Name is Alison and I'm a Neat Freak

Except when I'm baking, that is.

For a person who deplores messiness, cringes at the sight of clutter and looks away in the presence of dust, I sure am messy in the kitchen.

Sorry Ebony.

As evidenced  by the mess you just witnessed,  I've reacquainted myself with some old friends:


butter

chocolate

peanut butter (the good stuff, not the natural stuff I make us all eat)

and my shiny right hand man mixer, Ebony.

Even though I baked last week, as a final hurrah for Craig's co workers, I was chomping at the bit to get baking today.  So far, I've made the base for these fudgy, salty, peanut butter brownies and the dough for these perfect soft sugar cookies, which you saw all over Ebony and my counter tops.

Tomorrow, I'll make up a batch of pinky-red royal icing to decorate the cookies.  I'll also make chocolate cupcakes with fluffy chocolate butter cream.


In other news, you'll be happy to know that I'm in stellar medical condition and qualified for the lowest premium possible for my life insurance.  I'm now worth $100,000.  I'm telling you this because in the event that I 'disappear' you'll be able to figure out why that may have happened.  When we put this together a few weeks ago, I said to Craig, 'oh man, now I can't kill you because they'll think it's for your life insurance.' 

I had to finalize some things with the insurance lady a few minutes ago and she asked why we only chose $100,000  for me (Craig's policy is worth more) and I told her it's because where money is concerned, I'm not worth much to the family.  Ha!  It's not hard to make up for your deceased spouse's lost income when she doesn't even have an income.

This is morbid.

I'd rather talk about cookies.

:)

School Glorious School

Hooray, the kids went back to school today!  On time.  No delays. 

And all the moms rejoiced.

The weather was kind of wonky today.  The temperature actually crept up to near 60 this afternoon.  I noticed how warm it felt when I went out around 1pm, but when it was time to get Caroline from school, the clouds were back, it felt cooler and I needed my jacket.

It's colder where Craig is in Texas than it is here, but never fear, it'll be back in the 30s tomorrow.

You may not know this about me, but I hate wearing jackets.  I mean, I like and certainly appreciate them when it's really cold and I have to be outside for a long time, but in the mornings when I go from my warm house to my warm car in the garage to the gym, I don't wear my jacket.  I just run, bare armed and legged, through the parking lot to my gym. 

A jacket is just one more thing to carry.  I hate carrying superfluous stuff.

I also hate wearing a jacket when I drive, it's too confining, so I usually go without and just brave the few seconds of cold when I'm walking to and from my car if I'm out shopping.

Every year I say to myself  'it's time to buy a nice winter coat' but then I remember that I won't get much wear out of it.  I have a black fleece jacket that is a lint/hair magnet, but it does the trick.

Hmmm, what else can I reveal to you? 

Let's see...I've recently instituted 'chips and salsa time.'  Besides school time and Caroline's bed time, it's my favorite part of the day.  Everyone should have chips and salsa time.  It's my own version of happy hour, except with none of the alcohol and twice the fat grams.

I've totally fallen in love with this salsa:

Chachies Key Lime and Garlic. 

It's so good. Seriously good.  It's like crack.  Or so I assume, since I've never actually had crack.

Sadly, I'm out of Chachies and I forgot to pick up some more yesterday during my super double coupon extravaganza.  Thankfully I scored a jar of Tostitos salsa for free at Target when I bought two bags of tortilla chips.  It's no Chachies, but it'll do.


In other news, I haven't used my camera in a few days.  It feels odd to not include pictures in my posts.

Hopefully something picture-worthy will occur soon.

I am baking tomorrow and Friday, which is usually picture worthy.  I'm baking for the bake sale at Caroline's school's  "Basket Bingo" fundraiser on Friday night.  Last year I baked several items for the event and even won a door prize:  a Pampered Chef 9x13 stoneware baker that I've used like three times, but maybe only twice.  I can't remember.  The problem is that it's way, way, way up in the cabinet and in order to reach it, I have to climb onto the counter tops, which always results in bruises on my shins.

Anyway, maybe I'll take some pictures of my chocolate cupcakes, heart shaped sugar cookies (more royal icing!) and salty, fudgy, peanut  butter brownies.  Mmm, brownies.

Man, between chips and salsa time and my upcoming baking projects, I better be careful.  I'll have to eat my chips and salsa judiciously because somehow 'celery and water time' just doesn't seem nearly as appealing.

Some Meaningless Stuff

First, Happy February!  Sheesh, is it just me, or did January fly by?

Today marks the seventh day the kids have been out of school.  Seven very long, very cold, very loud days.  Thankfully they should go back to school tomorrow.  Oh please, let them go to school.  If they cancel due to slush, like last Wednesday, I just might die. 

Or at least cry.

Maybe both.

I held on for the first  few days with decent spirits, but I've found myself hiding upstairs these past two days.  Normally I don't watch tv during the day, but I've broken my own rule. Hey, desperate times call for desperate measures.  I'm sitting on my bedroom floor with the Food Network on and my lap top fired up and perched right next to me.  There is a tent being constructed and food coloring 'medicine' being made downstairs.  I'm doing my best to ignore it all.

I'm also trying to ignore the pink permanent marker stains on my dining room table.  Caroline and friends were coloring the other day and unbeknownst to me, one of them was using a pink Sharpie. Now there are pink lines permanently marring my dining room table.

Sigh.

In other news, I was able to score a few super double coupon deals this morning.  I made a bone headed furniture polish mistake, but came home with two rolls of Bounty and three packages of Yoplait Splitz yogurt for free, which made up for my poor Pledge miscalculation.

In even more unrelated news, I made split pea soup yesterday.  Craig hates split pea soup and while I certainly don't ever make him eat it, he does complain an awful lot when the aroma of simmering split peas permeates the house.  I don't complain nearly as much when he makes fish and it's a proven fact that fish stinks more than split peas.  Anyway, since Craig is not here, I am now at liberty to make split pea soup whenever I please.

Aaaaand.....I've got nothing else.

Keep your fingers crossed that school is back on tomorrow; if it isn't, you'll be sure to hear about it. 

And believe me, no one wants that.