Baking Pseudo-Extravaganza

I hate to cook but like to bake, but find that I don't really have a lot of luck with recipes. A few years ago I developed a treat (chocolate mint dipped cookies) that is addicting and delicious, and of course I don't use a recipe, I simply eyeball amounts and call it good.

I make this treat every year now, and it was fun this year to have a companion in the kitchen. Cam liked (well, he didn't cry so I like to imagine he liked it) listening to "Carols in Brass" and watching me make my kitchen magic. The only problem is that making the mint cookies is messy, and in the future I need to be more careful when comforting my son--several times I ended up smearing him with chocolate (you can see a little bit of chocolate on his forehead in the photo). The super scary part of this story is that when I saw I had accidentally smeared chocolate on him, I liked my thumb and rubbed it off! I guess my mothering instincts really are kicking in.

Another fun part of making the mint cookies is the unexpected adventures. The other photos features the white minty explosion that happens when warm chocolate seeks the quickest escape from a cheap Ziploc bag acting like a pastry bag.

Cute Cameron photos

Cameron is growing, and getting cuter and cuter. His facial expressions are wonderfully amusing and he is usually incredibly laid back. I have the best baby ever!

A worthy plug

I am always on the lookout for great stuff. A few months ago I noticed one of my best friends, Haley, and also her mother, sporting unique and fun pairs of sterling silver spiral earrings (say that 5 times fast!). I forgot to ask them at the time where they had procured the earrings, and every time I thought of it again it was in the middle of the night or some other time when I was unable to call or email them.

Last week I began a search for some similar earrings without a lot of luck. Fortunately, however, I was able to see Haley and her mom, Mary a few days ago. I finally asked about the earrings and discovered that Haley actually MAKES them. She is talented and artistic!

I totally love my earrings-they are light and comfortable and cute and go with just about everything. If you want to snag a pair of earrings, ($15) let me know or shoot Haley an email: hayrollins@hotmail.com

A Christmas Story

A few years ago I finally watched a movie called "A Christmas Story." I know, I know...I grew up in a cave, but at least I eventually saw it and now it is part of my required canon of holiday movies. At any rate, one of my favorite parts of the movie is where Ralphie has to wear a pink bunny suit he received from a well meaning relative. Ralphie, of course hates it (and who can blame him?) but his parents make him wear it anyway.

This year we are somewhat recreating the bunny suit vignette. A family friend gave us this cute and fuzzy outfit, and we can't help but put Cameron in it whenever it gets cold, especially now at Christmas. I don't think putting Cam in this outfit will scar him for life though, since he is only 7 weeks old and it is not pink...right?

Doing my civic duty?

So I finally returned all of my incredibly overdue library books (I told a little of this story on a previous blog post, but as a thumbnail sketch reminder: At the end of October I was told I was going to be in the hospital for a while for extra monitoring for my baby, so the night before I went in I went to the library and checked out a bunch of books, most of which were new releases and therefore were nonrenewable and could only be checked out for a week. Since the baby ended up coming on the same day I went into the hospital, I didn't have time to read the books within a week and then didn't feel like driving to the library to return them. Then I actually had to read them before I returned them, and only had time to read them when I took a bath once a day, hence the lateness of the books.).

One reason it was such a pain to return the books is because the library is by our old apartment, about 15-20 minutes away.

An interesting note in the story is that I used Marty's library card to check out the books, so Marty kept getting recorded calls from the library strongly advising him to return the overdue items. I am lucky enough to be married to the sweetest man ever, who just forwarded me the messages instead of getting upset.

When I went in to bite the bullet and pay the fine, the librarian was impressed with the amount of the fine...$26.80

I guess I could have ignored the fines since I actually used Marty's library card, but since our credit is linked I figured I should just pony up the cash. Thanks to my "donation" to the city of Westminster, the library can buy one new hardback book or several paperbacks.

I should really find the library that is close to our new apartment.

brain freeze...

When I go about my daily activities, I often think "oh, that would be a fun event to put on the blog!" Sadly, I usually forget about it by the time I have a minute to sit down and post, or I wait to take a picture or upload a picture before posting, which means I never get around to posting anything.

Today I had a fabulous thing I was going to blog about, and I actually have a few minutes to write about it, and I remember that whatever it was I was going to write about didn't require a photo, and guess what...the idea is buried in the inner recesses of my brain. Gone, completely gone. Is this what it feels like to lose your marbles?