Have a Great Friday

Relia helped me pick this one out.

Winner!

Happy Monday

The Cookie Recipe

A few weeks back Heidi bet me that the Seahawks would beat the Vikings.  Silly me, I took that bet.  If the Vikes had won, I would have gotten some Marion-berry syrup.  Alas, the Vikings pondered and I owe her some cookies.  In fact, I still owe them to her because I could not, for the life of me, remember where I had put the recipe. 
The recipe is from Jodi and some years ago she had emailed it to me.  The problem is that I have no idea which account the email was in or (more problematic) if I still used that account.  I even called her but she said that after she sent it to me, she probably didn't have it anymore.  I had some small hope that I had blogged about it in the past and had put the actual recipe on the blog.  I had blogged it here but no recipe was included.  (Btw, that link includes a picture of me when I was somehow much, much younger.)
So, to make a long story short, I'm blogging the recipe right here and now so that I can find it again in the future.  Take care before trying this one out, it's very yummy and the cookies are heavy.

Ingredients

• 1.5 c. packed brown sugar
• 1 c. (2 sticks) butter or margarine, room temp
• 3/4 c. peanut butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 t. vanilla extract
• 1.5 c. flour
• 1/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1/4 t. salt (optional)
• 2 c. quick or old fashioned oats
• 1 pkg (9 ounces) peanut butter cups

Preheat over to 350 degrees
In large bowl, beat together sugar, butter and peanut butter until creamy.
Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.
Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in separate bowl.
Add to creamed mixture and mix well.
Unwrap candy, cut into fourths.
Stir in oats and candy; mix well.
Drop 1/4 cupfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 12-14 minutes.

As I said, they're a bit on the heavy side.  Two or three of them make a meal.  But they're also very, very yummy.  Heidi, I'm one step closer to paying off my side of the bet.

Risk Taker

Last month Relia brought us news that she had been picked as a student of the month at school.  She was (understandably) proud of this.  That same day she got in trouble and the FP Gal sent her to her room.  She angrily shouted down the steps "I'm still student of the month!".
Yesterday was the presentation.  The FP Gal and I attended, as did Nana.  We weren't quite sure what she was being honored for.  The IB school celebrates several different attributes and as students were called to the front, they were given a certificate that explained which one they had shown.  The students were honored in groups by grades, starting at 5th grade and going down to the kindergartners.
Which meant that Relia was one of the last to get her certificate.  It was, as the title of this post shows, an award for being a 'risk taker'.  She must have figured out that we couldn't see her very well from where we were seated because she held the certificate up above her head.  The only one to do so.  A risk taker, indeed.  (We had to explain what 'risk taker' meant.)
I'm sure this will be the first of many honors from school.  One thing that made me happy was to see that she is already on very friendly terms with the principal and just about every teacher that she saw.  (I was the same way.)  They love her there.

Happy Monday

Have a Great Friday

Nice Moment

Sometimes when I have the three kids by myself it feels overwhelming.  Like I have to be in at least two places at one time.  And when I'm feeding LL, all bets are off.  The other two can (and do) get into mischief. But when it's one on one, some nice things happen.
This afternoon I had DF alone at home.  He wanted the 'turtle-toes' movie (My Neighbor Totoro) and I obliged.  He had his after daycare popsicle and I laid down on the couch to read.  He quickly decided that he wanted to join me so he swarmed up and snuggled in on my chest.
It was wonderful.
And short lived.  He's pretty squirmy and didn't stay snuggled all that long.  But even that was nice.  For a time he was kind of sitting behind me so I could freely watch his face as he watched the TV.  He has genuine delight at watching the Totoros playing.
Which of course, got me smiling too.

Snow

We had our first stick-to-the-ground snow yesterday morning.  Relia burst into my room at 7a to tell me excitedly that it had snowed.  She made me go to the window so that I could see it for myself.  She was, not surprisingly, much more excited about it than I was.
When I got DF out of his crib, I took him over to the window so that he could see it too.  He looked at the back yard and the neighbors house and simply told me that something happened to the leaves.  I wasn't sure just how much he was aware of snow.  He was too young to remember the very hard winter of 2010-11 and last year was very mild.  But when we got downstairs he looked out a window and started yelling about snow.  He remembers.
We had slick roads to deal with.  Relia's bus was more than ten minutes late.  I actually had to leave her there with another student because DF had hurt his hands playing in the snow.  Bad daddy didn't have proper mittens for him.  (I've since fixed that.)
Today was milder.  I didn't see a temp but I'd guess it was in the twenties this morning.  The snow has mostly melted off the sidewalks and steps.  Good riddance.  I'm already waiting for spring.

Happy Monday

Have a Great Friday

Voted

They changed our voting location this year and apparently we weren't alone.  From the conversation around me, at least four other locations were consolidated into one larger one.  That meant a long line and a wait of nearly an hour and a half.  I had my Kindle so it was no real problem. 
Unless something radical changes between now and tonight, I'm going to guess that they'll be voting there a good hour or two past poll closing.  It will take at least that long for those in line to be processed.  My prediction?  Unless they call the state early for Obama (and they might) it will be a very long night here in Minnesota.

Happy Monday

Nano Novel Excerpt

I decided to go ahead and try and fit NaNoWriMo in again this year. Don't know if I'll make it through but I've had a good start. Here is the very beginning of this years story.

Author's note: this whole story idea came about when I suddenly wondered if you could steal a passenger jet.  I mean, people steal cars all the time, right?  But the big stuff is much harder.  First of all, it's harder to get control of the really big stuff.  Secondly, it's much, much harder to hide it when the rightful owners come to repossess it.  Imagine if you will, trying to steal a cruise liner.  Ok, you've done it.  Now where do you hide such a thing?  So.  To steal a big plane.  A jumbo jet.  Could you even do such a thing?  My initial thought was that it really can't be done.  And if history is any guide, it can't.  I mean, have you ever heard of someone jumping the fence at an airport, hotwiring a 747 and going for a joyride?  But after some careful thought, I came up with no fewer than six different ways to do it.  Six.  That means that you could steal one for each day of the week and still rest on Sunday.  (Although, in fairness, you would need that rest.  It  would be one very busy week.)  And then I got kind of frightened to write about it.  My job depends on people being able to book flights and fly them hither and yon.  If I inspired some thrill case to start ripping off airlines, it would be problematic, to say the least.  So I went the fictional route.  Big note, lawyers take especial notice: Everything that follows is a completely fictional event, not based on real people or actual things that have happened.  In fact, it couldn't happen.  I've taken major liberties with all details.  There may not be such a thing as a 'jumbo jet'.  For God's sake people, don't try this at home!  Especially if you happen to live at a major airport.

Have a Great Friday

Honeybun

Relia asked me to call her honeybun as a nickname.  That immediately brought this song to mind: I showed this video to her but I'm not sure she was all that impressed. We might have to watch the actual movie. The first half at least. This is my dad's favorite musical. I choose a version with subtitles so he could sing along.