that's filarious...

I am learning to have a new appreciation for words.  I recently starting reading a fantastic blog - Rants from Mommyland.  These ladies are great.  They have taught me to seek out new words to use that are semi-appropriate around children, yet still express you distress or intensity.  My favorite word that they have introduced me to is Whuck!  You can figure that one out - I hope.  Well, I got a new one for them - Filarious!!!!  It was accidentally spewed from the mouth of my dear Mr. Diet Coke tonight and I couldn't love it more.  When something goes beyond funny - it is filarious.  Use it and love it!

Holy crapola! I read a book - yay, me!

I have to laugh when I read the title of this post, but that is exactly how I feel.  I cannot believe that I made time for a good read in my mentally insane life.  I should start by saying that I didn't read anything too challenging.  I think I will leave Atlas Shrugged or War and Peace for another decade.  I read part 2 of a... (wait for it...)
Werewolf series - LMAO!  I know, I know... but if I was going to finish a book, it better be interesting.  I am not saying that more difficult, deeper fiction is not interesting.  It is just that I get enough complexity out of my day to day life (and The Real Housewives of New Jersey - man, they will keep you sane!), I don't need any extra.  I need to add, I think I finished the book so quickly because it was number two in a series.  I was already familiar with the characters and their highschool love struggle between girl meets wolf, wolf turns into insanely cute and tormented boy... Just change werewolf to vampire, and hellooooo, Cullen clan!

Anyway, I breezed through it between work, school, Margo, Edith and Agnes (didn't you know I renamed my kids?  You have to see Despicable Me to appreciate it) and don't forget Mr. Diet Coke.  I am super proud of myself for taking a little moment of time for myself and hoarding it.  I think I may have also been motivated to finish it quickly because the book was lent to me by a lovely friend and it was due back at the library this week.  I couldn't be late, but I also can't check anything else out on my own card - my children have contributed to the delinquency of their mother.  They have lost two books I checked out and now I owe $60 to the library.  Yeah, you read that right.  I could have bought them those stupid books 4 times over.  Oh, well, do you think the library will report me to the credit bureaus????

Visitation is almost over...

July was a crazy month for our family.  It started July 8th with a 9 day visit from Mark's mom.  We had lots of fun, but it was hard to have Sally leave.  When we were in Florida, I was used to seeing Sally at the very least once a week or so.  Now, I get to see her about every 4-6 months.  Not cool.  We made an outing to Vail while she was here - it was really chilly and rained while we were there - bummer!

When she left, she also took Delaney with her back to Florida for ten days.  Wow!  Talk about a change in atmosphere in the house.  It was so quiet.  It is amazing that minus one kid can do that.  We missed her so much but she had a blast and she came back so tan from all the pool and beach time.

On her way back, she brought my parents with her.  They have been here for 8 days so far.  We had a couple of fun trips.  We spent last Friday evening at the Denver Botanical Garden.  It was amazing.  I just picked a few of my favorite shots I got there.


We also went to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park.  It rained for that trip too.  Unbelievable!  We have had lots of fun, so I am sad they are leaving tomorrow.  I can't wait to see them again and they are still here!  I am hoping it won't be another 6 months until I see them.

I owe, I owe, so off to work I go

So I haven't posted in awhile... bad me!  In my defense, I have had a ton of stuff going on in my life.  I decided to go back to school to finish my business degree.  I knew I was close to finishing but didn't realize that I only have 11 classes left to take - wahoo!!!  So, no big deal, right???  Right - well, that is until my friend Mindi comes to me with an opportunity to go back to work.  She tells me about this great part-time-ish job at Boppy.  For any of you that don't know the name (shame on you), it is a small company based out of Golden, CO.  They make fabulous mom and baby support items (breastfeeding pillows, full body pillows, etc).  Check them out http://www.boppy.com/. 

So, anyway, I interview on a Friday afternoon.  The job seems like something I can totally handle.  The hours are fantastic 9-3:30.  I am so excited.  I think the interview went really well.  My future potential manager is very impressed with my resume.  So, then I wait...

I get a call the next Thursday that I am being offered the job along with the opportunity to move into the office manager role in about 30 days or so.  Yay!!!  Wait!!! What???  Does that mean that I am going back to work full time?  Holy crap... what did I get myself into?  Oh shit, what about school?  How am I going to have time for all that?  Oh yeah, now I have to find a sitter in less than a week and my mother-in-law is coming into town, then my parents.  Drowning, drowning....  Ok, breathe, I can do this.  Hahahaha!

So last week was my first couple days of work.  I am already going full steam ahead.  I can see why they need the help and fast.  Everyone here is super busy, but they love it (from what I can tell in 5 days).  I spent the entire weekend working on my paper for class.  I got 60/60, thank you very much.  I am so proud only because I thought that I had botched it royally.  Isn't that the way it always is?  When you think you have written the next War and Peace, you get a crappy grade.  When you throw a whole bunch of BS together, you get an A.  Oh well, I am NOT complaining. 

So, if you are wondering why I haven't posted, checked my email or been on facebook recently - now you know.  I will be around...

Tres cookies

Some days I just got it.... some days I don't.  I would say that I have had about a week's worth of days that I haven't had "it", but starting last night, I got it back.  I started by making cookie dough for three different test recipes.  I started with a recipe online and tweaked it several times for both taste and altitude and ended up with what I am calling my Creamsicle cookies.

After making these, which by the way, are so yummy, I started the dough for citrus butter cookies.  I originally called them orange snaps but had to change it for two reasons.  For one, I add both orange and lemon to them and secondly, because I always think of ginger snaps when I hear "snaps".  They taste nothing like snaps, they taste just like butter - mmmmm!!!!

Finally, I took a wonderful recipe for chocolate chip cookies that my lovely friend Noelle gave me and changed that too.  Sorry, Noelle.  I had all this orange zest and OJ concentrate left over, so I decided to experiment with it.  I, personally, love orange and chocolate together... maybe that is just me.  I ended up with beautiful chocolate chip cookies with just a hint of orange taste to them.  

You may ask, "What's the big deal??? So you made so flippin'  cookies."  Well, here's the big deal.  I haven't baked in about a month, so for me, it was great to have the motivation back.  Also, I think I stopped baking partly because of this altitude thing.  If any of you bake, you know it is nothing like cooking.  Baking is all about precision and accuracy.  I have done alright since moving to 6000 ft, but not superb.  These cookies mark a turning point for me.  I think I finally have it down.  

I think the girls and Mark are happy about all of this.  For dessert tonight, they had... you guessed it, cookies!!!  Well, ice cream sandwiches made from the butter cookies and birthday ice cream.  From these messy faces, I am guessing they liked them.

Hail damage...

Ok, so I usually refer to the cellulite on my legs as hail damage, but this time it is for real!  Mark had the two big girls at work with him.  I took Piper on errands and then brought her home for a nap.  I was finally going to get a nap myself - YES!!!!!!!!  I can't tell you how wonderful it was to fall asleep without hearing Regan and Delaney arguing or playing loudly.  I think I got about 15 minutes and then was abruptly awoken.  I sincerely thought  we were having an earthquake.  It was one of the loudest things I have heard in a long time.  When I sprung out of bed and ran to the window, I realized that it was the famous Colorado hail storms I had been hearing out.

This is not Florida size hail - this is golf-ball size hail and it is hard.  It sounded like rocks hitting all of our wonderful sky lights and picture windows.  I thought it was going to break something. I ran and closed all the doors and windows that were open.  The day had been so nice and cool.  I immediately  called Mark and told him not to come home yet.  The hail lasted for about 5 minutes, so what did I do???  I ran and got my camera, of course!

Here are some shots of the damage and hail.  The first one is the hail that piled up against the garage door.  The rest are shots of the damage to our back deck, including, boo-hoo, my rose bush.

The best part of the whole event is that while we were checking out the damage, we could hear the tornado sirens going off in northern Denver.  We knew it wasn't for our area but we still took advantage of the situation.  We told the girls to run down to the basement for safety.  We have now quietly enjoyed the last 30 minutes.  Ahh.... This excuse might work for the next few days.

The fluffiest buttermilk pancakes ever - blueberry, chocolate chip or sprinkles

Ingredients

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons sweetner (sugar, agave, Splenda)
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups buttermilk
• 1/2 cup milk (I recommend whole or 2%)
• 3 large eggs
• 1/3 cup butter, melted

Optional mix-ins

1/4 cup blueberries - fresh or frozen

1/4 cup chocolate chips

sprinkles

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. lemon or orange extract

Directions

1. Preheat your griddle over medium heat.
2. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients (flour, sweetner, baking powder and soda, and salt). In a separate bowl, mix wet ingredients (buttermilk, milk, eggs and melted butter). 
3. When you are ready to make the pancakes, pour you wet ingredients into your dry ingredients and stir  until they are just mixed.  
4. At this point, I separate the mixture into different bowls for the different children.  In one bowl, I add about 1 cup of batter and 1/4 cup of blueberries.  In another bowl, I add 1 cup of batter and the chocolate chips.  In the remainder of the batter, I add the vanilla and lemon or orange extract.  
5. Use about 1/3 to 1/2 cup to make each pancake, flipping when the batter starts to bubble slightly around the edges.  Turn and cook for a couple more minutes or until cooked throughout.  To make the sprinkle pancakes, scoop your pancake mix onto the griddle, sprinkle the goodies on top and then flip when ready.  
6. ENJOY!

This makes a lot of pancakes - plenty to freeze and enjoy on another day.