Double Digits.

Remember when "Double Digits" was all you looked forward to? As though it made you somehow seem as though you aged tremendously overnight? You were that much closer to middle school, dances, parties, talking on the phone, your first real special someone. I specifically remember standing in the kitchen at our house on Thomas Lane and telling my mom, "only 6 more years until I can drive!"

Dude, that was 20 years ago....

Well, TJ turned 10 last Thursday and amazingly I don't think he aged a single bit over night....

It's funny how our perspective as adults is totally different than that as children.

But when I look back at the fact that I have now spent half of his life with him I realize that he is that much closer to middle school, puberty, maturity and responsibility.

circa 2007 - 5 years old

So on his birthday, I made cupcakes in ice cream cones and took them to his school. I brought him Wendy's for lunch and Ed met us there. The four of us sat at our own little lunch table (Deuce looks like such a big boy sitting at those cafeteria tables. I forgot my camera.) and we ate our lunch while the rest of his class had the silent lunch time while the elevator music played. How they don't fall asleep everyday I have no idea.

Happy 10th Birthday TJ!

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

I knew I was going to have to transport all of these bad boys to school so I needed an effective way of moving them without knocking them over. Enter pinterest and the aluminum baking pans. Turn the pan over and cut holes in it just big enough for your cone to go through. Mine were totally not perfect, it doesn't matter.

Mix your batter according to the package instructions. Pour the batter into each cone to the top of the base. If you put too much in it don't worry. The cupcake will most likely cook over the sides of the cone and then you can scrape it off before you ice them. Not that I did that or anything.

I was able to make 24, just as you would regular cupcakes in liners.

Bake them according to the package instructions, remove them from the oven and let cool in the pans. Ice them and decorate! I whipped up some toppers real quick while they were cooking and TJ was so excited to see his picture on the cupcakes, lol! One of my next investments will be some piping bags and tips so I can properly ice the cupcakes instead of using a knife!!!! But hey, they all go down the same way right?

Ramblings of a Busy Bee.

We've been busy lately. It all started last week when we had that really bad thunder and lightning storm. It was so bad over our house that it woke me up from a deep sleep at 12:59 to be exact. I love sleeping to a good thunderstorm but this was no good thunderstorm. This was a scare the pee pee out of you storm. {not literally but I bet if I had been pregnant it would have...} So I know this storm was right over our house. And I know that everyone says that but I am so serious. It was totally right over our house and a lightning bolt hit something around it. I have never heard anything like this noise before, the sound of lightning actually striking. It sounded like the loudest pop rocks that you have ever heard with a bomb exploding at the end of it. I jumped out of bed so quick to look out the window because I just knew that our house or the trees behind us were going to be on fire. Ed immediately discovered that the flat screen TV in the bedroom was completely blown. {No, we are idiots and didn't have that one plugged into a surge protector. The one in the living room is though, thanks goodness.} But we were too tired to survey the rest of the house so after the storm drifted away we went back to sleep. {Amazingly the babe didn't wake up, he only rolled over and continued to snore.} We got up dressed for work and were rushing out of the house the next morning when we realized that the garage door had been blown too. Great. But we had to go to work so we were thinking whatever, as the dollar signs just added up in my head. A new TV & fixing the garage door. Then when I got home from work, the house was like 85 degrees. Yeah, the whole HVAC unit blew too. This would be the third time in 2 months we have been with no AC. And this weekend the temperature dropped tremendously so we woke up on Saturday morning and it was below 60 degrees in the house because when your AC doesn't work, neither does your heat. And our space heater that we use to heat the whole house in the winter...yeah it blew up too. So no TV, no garage door, no ac and no heat. Lovely. And Ed's uncle Marvin passed away at 87 years old on Wednesday morning so we were dealing with that too. We have had to remain positive and know that life throws us curve balls all the time. What really matters is how we handle them, how we learn from them and how we move forward.

So we spent a lot of time at the house this weekend playing and watching football and just enjoying each others company. I knocked out a few crafts to put me in the fall spirit and even did some cooking and a teeny bit of cleaning. Okay, Deuce did the cleaning but whatever. He's obsessed with  mops, brooms and vacuums.

I made a new wreath for the front door and even did a little decorating out front. Deuce went with me to Michael's to pick up some scarecrows {which he called his babies} and then we went to Lowe's to grab some hay & pumpkins. I almost couldn't get out of the garden center at Lowe's because they had all of their fountains running and my child was playing in every single one. Good thing we were there in the middle of the day because he threw a full out temper tantrum when I picked him up to leave. It was not pretty and this momma was sweating up a storm trying to figure out how to fit two bales of hay, 3 scarecrows, 3 pumpkins a baby and a bunch of other crap into her little Honda Civic. Let's just say there is still a bunch of hay inside my car. But I think my projects look great and I'm totally digging my monogrammed pumpkin. I like the carving stuff but they wilt and look so nasty if you do it too soon so we will save the others for a couple more weeks.

My child is an eater. He's also a dipper, like me. I could eat chips and dip all day. As complete meals. Yummy. I will say that I now have to sweep and mop after every meal because he is adamant that he is going to feed himself. He has picked up on my habit of saying "uh-uh" and he says that as his form of "no." Often, he will say "uh-uh" while I'm feeding him, as though he's full and just as soon as I put his food down and start eating my own, he picks it up and starts back in on it. He also refuses to wear a bib so that makes me cautious about what he can feed himself, depending on where we are at. At home, okay, I don't care how messy you get - there is a tub around the corner. But if we are out I am not going to let him cover himself in his strawberry & banana sauce compote at K&W because he can't decide if he wants to be a righty or a lefty. Sorry if that makes me a bad momma. Whatever.

So while I was in cooking mode last week I made a yummy dinner one night that I found totally on FoodGawker. What? You haven't been there yet? Hurry now! I actually found them on Pinterest {don't even tell me you don't know what that is} but they all linked back to foodgawker so I wasted some more time of my life searching through food recipes. Anyway, this is the meal I came up with. I already had a lot of the ingredients so I only had to pick up a few things. It was very easy and quick to make and I had enough leftovers for both Ed and I to take for lunch the next day.

Creamy Shrimp and Mushroom Pasta

Parmesan Roasted Red Potatoes

Parmesan Asparagus Sticks

The Complete Meal

Seriously, beyond delish! I want some of those potatoes right now!! One little last thing. My little guy has become fascinated with coloring and "drawing" with his pencil. He climbs up in the chair, grabs the pencil and goes at it. And once he's whisked away all of his paper onto the ground, he continues his drawing, right on the table. Luckily it's tile and it wipes right off. And still, he prefers to excel both with his right and his left hand. This was while we were working on some Bible stories. He loves that little story book from about 1921 that is all about Jesus.

Here's to a normal week. Maybe. If there's such thing.

Diet Rainbow Cupcakes?

I have avoided sharing something about us for awhile now.  Ed & I have been doing the Geer version of Weight Watchers since the first of the year.  I have been reluctant to disclose this info for the simple reason that if everyone knows, I expose myself to the possibility of being held accountable for failing publicly (like I always seem to do with diets.)  I joined WW like forever ago and went for a few weeks, then quit.  Paid them my money and got all of the crap that they distribute.  Well it's not crap, it's good information but you know what I mean.  In all of the house moves I have done since I was a WW member, I have never been able to throw away my weight watchers stuff.  I mean, it does work...if you stick to it.  But you see, that's my problem  Those greasy McD's french fries call my name every durn time I go there so I just give in way too easily.

Anyway, Ed said to me that he wanted to get back into shape and wanted to do it together so I volunteered my WW info.  I didn't think he would go for it.  Seriously, what dude enjoys "counting points" for everything that goes in their mouth?  Heck,what woman enjoys it for that matter?  We discovered that our phone has a free WW app that allows us to track all of our food points and our exercise points so we don't have to hand write everything down like it's 2005 or something.  Plus I already had the materials and everything you could ever need is posted on the Internet so he was on board with it.  I volunteered to cook as often as possible (gasp!) and we were ready to go.  So...since January 3rd, I have planned our meals out for the week, gone to the grocery store every Sunday and cooked a WW dinner at least 4-5 nights per week.  Ed has lost about 17 pounds and I have lost 12.  It's been 2 months and we are still doing it!  Pretty soon we will both have met our target & will just be working to maintain.  Ed keeps telling me I need to post some of the recipes out here because we have found some really good ones.

So last night I made some rainbow cupcakes in preparation for St. Patrick's day next week.  I wasn't sure how they would turn out so I made a trial batch.  This is why I was freaked out & had to make a trial batch: the ONLY 2 ingredients are cake mix & 12oz of diet soda.  Yes, that's it!  So you slowly pour the diet soda into the cake mix (you don't really want it to fizz up) and slowly stir all at the same time.  Once you have all of the soda in the mix continue to stir until it is completely absorbed and your batter is thick.  It actually looks just like regular cake batter.  If you are making chocolate cupcakes then a diet dark drink is supposed to be better.  I made white cake so I used a Diet Mt. Dew.  I actually wanted a Sprite Zero but there was none at the store and I wasn't trying to buy an entire case of them so I have no idea how much the different soda affects the flavor.  Then you just bake the cupcakes like normal!

I wanted to try the rainbow ones so I separated out the batter into 6 cups.  Then I used food coloring to make the colors of the rainbow.  I started out with just a little color and then added more until I got the color I liked.

I started with the bottom layer, which was purple.

Then I added a little of each color on top of the other.  Make sure not to spread the colors out, although you will be tempted to do so.  This will result in the the mixing of colors/layers.

I made a mistake in judging the amount of batter I used though.  You only need a little bit of each color.  When I started out I wasn't sure that I had enough of the colors and before I knew it, I had too much batter in each cupcake liner.  I also didn't keep my layers separated too well as they didn't really "layer."  Therefore, my cupcakes were huge and cooked up and out over the rim of each liner and my points were most definitely skewed. 

I calculated my points based on the batter info on the side of the box.  You don't have to calculate based on the prepared or anything because all you are using is the diet soda which is 0 points so my cupcakes should have been 2 points each.  Then I used FF whipped cream instead of icing.  This added 1 point.  Notice the layers are more like blotchy patches.  Will try harder next time!

I will say they tasted pretty good!  They are definitely not as sweet as cupcakes with regular icing so if you are biting in with that expectation you will be disappointed, but they were not bad.  Next time I might try to add some fruit to the top with my whipped cream or something.  And you can totally still do the rainbow effect with non-WW cupcakes and regular frosting!

And Deuce is learning to blow kisses & now knows how to wave bye-bye every time.

And although I hate that Ed's dad was sick on Monday, I got to stay home with the babe and I must say that I do enjoy those days where I can nap with my little guy.

Broccoli = Power Food

I wanted to share this great recipe for Broccoli Salad that I have been making a lot lately.  Ed absolutely loves it and it is very good for you.  It has a good mixture of tangy vs. sweet tastes to satisfy your palate and it's the perfect side item to compliment your main dish.  Ed is very big on fruits & vegetables at every meal so this fulfills his request!

The necessary ingredients:

First mix the dressing ingredients:

Add the broccoli as it is cut and then the apples, onions or other additions as they are prepared, mixing with the dressing often.  As much as I love onions, they give me headaches when eaten raw so I prefer to sautee mine prior to mixing.

Final Product Photo from Kitchen Parade.  I don't put mine in a serving dish - straight to the plate for me -  so I thought this photo looked better.  Mine looks pretty close to it though huh?

This can be refrigerated for several hours before serving but it tastes much better when served at room temperature.

Nutritional Facts:

PER CUP (makes 7 cups): 66 calories, 2 grams total fat, 0 grams saturated fat, 11 grams carbs, 2 grams fiber, 68 milligrams sodium, 0 milligrams cholesterol

Ingredients:

DRESSING: 6 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard, 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, salt & pepper to taste

SALAD: 1 pound fresh broccoli (mostly crown, some stem, fresh - not frozen), 1 apple cored & chopped (I used 2 - 1 green & 1 red), 1/2 sweet or red onion diced

ADDITIONS OR SUBSTITUTIONS (may affect nutritional content): toasted nuts, dried apricots, grapes, fresh blueberries, banana chunks (add bananas just before serving)

ENJOY!!

Thanksgiving Feast 2010!

Wow!  Yesterday was such a wonderful day!  I was hoping to add pictures yesterday but I was so tired that it just didn't happen!  I started out my day up at 6:30am to cook my share of the feast.  First I made a classic baked macaroni & cheese casserole.  I used 1 box of macaroni noodles, 1 cup of milk, 1lb of freshly shredded cheddar cheese, 1 stick of butter, salt & pepper to taste & a little paprika.

Then I decided to try a new recipe for broccoli casserole.  I enjoy cooking, when I have the time, but it doesn't happen too often so I was excited to try this one out.  I used cooked broccoli, cream of mushroom soup, sour cream, amlond slivers, french fried onions, cheese & milk.  It was sooo good!

Then I made some cinnamon rolls for breakfast so we could have a little something in our belly, but not too much so we could grub later! 

This year Ed's family joined us at my parent's house and it was so nice to have everybody all in one spot.  It was very special to have everybody together for Deuce's first Thanksgiving.



Deuce with his Grandma & Nana

TJ & Ed



Mom, Me & Laura

 

Grandpa feeding Deuce

 

Uncle Schultz putting the baby to sleep



Here is a sampling of all of the food that everybody brought.  Man, it was delish!

cabbage casserole



squash casserole

sweet potato casserole

green's & pecan pie

 

stuffing

 

the table set



my plate...yes, I got down!
Only 1 helping though.



Here is Deuce's Thanksgiving Feast, complete with baby food squash...

We did give him some mashed potatoes for the first time and he loved them!

He also got a banana popciscle for the first time and couldn't eat it fast enough.  PaPa was holding it for him and he finally just grabbed it with both hands.

Deuce was worn out after a day with family and mommy was too!

I hope everyone had as wonderful a Thanksgiving as we did.  I am so thankful for my family & my friends and for the opportunity to share my life with my baby boy.