Wave of snow

Wednesday morning we went up to the cabin to get some things. We were surprised at how much snow has fallen. This picture shows the snow coming off the roof, past the bedroom window.


Does that make you feel as claustrophobic as it does me?


Normally, in front of the cabin there is a rock wall, and the snow falls in front of that. Here you can't even see the wall, and the snow goes halfway up the windows. I think if we were still living there full-time, I'd have cabin fever. Bud thought it was a lot of fun to see so much snow. I thought it was a lot of fun to go home and see my garage, pull right in and get in the house without sinking hip-deep into a snow bank. I guess I'm just not very adventurous.

Return of the Cookie Monster

As promised, I tried the cookie dough with the Reese's. Oh heavenly days (or daze in my case)! I told Karen that the cookie (pre-Reese's) only rated about a 6 in my book. She said she wasn't going to try them if they were only a 6. Then I did this with them...


I put the dough into a mini muffin pan and baked it for 8 minutes.


Then I popped a mini Reese's into the just-out-of-the-oven-still-hot cookie.


Look how that is melting in there. Ohhhhh.


This cookie now rates a 10. I don't often give anything a 10! Well, I gave it a 10 when they were still warm (I tried as long as possible to contain myself and allowed them to cool "slightly"). I wondered if they'd be as good after they were completely cooled. Yes, yes, yes. They are a 10 warm or cool.
I give credit to The Pioneer Woman (marked as my favorite cooking blog on the sidebar) for the idea because originally I had planned to chop up the Reese's and stir it into the dough. I couldn't do that because the dough was too cold to stir (having spent the last 36 hours in the refrigerator), so I popped the whole PB cup into the cookie after baking it. Besides, I always think a cookie needs more PB cup in every bite. This solves that. However, no more Cookie Monster needed. I can eat these all by myself! Every last one of them. But, then I would gain back the 15 lbs I worked so hard to lose. Shoot. Anyone seen a Cookie Monster hanging around? Evidently I've got some cookies I have to share.

Puzzled

Yesterday I received a deluge of forwarded emails from a friend/patient of ours. Some of them were puzzles. Some were hard, some were easy. Karen and I had fun with it for the most part. Here's one that I found on my own and I liked it because I could solve it without looking at the answer! Love it when that happens! Give it a try. See if you can solve it too.

Inside each set of the following words, there are a pair of smaller words. By putting & between them, lo & behold, you'll make a familiar phrase. For example, "Thighbone/Swallowtail" conceals "High & Low."

1. Skyrocketing/Trolleyman
2. Thermometer/Apoplexy
3. Delaware/Bordering
4. Surprised/Trashiness
5. Throughout/Stumblebum

Did you get them all? Fun, huh?
Oh, regarding yesterday's cookies...I thought that if you chopped some Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and stirred it into the dough, that would make the cookies taste completely divine. I'm going to try it. I'll report back later.

Cookie Monster

I have a ton of cook books (we just moved, and I'm sure that's how much they weighed). So when I received a new cookbook in the mail, I was surprised. I didn't remember ordering it, and yet, I must have done so. This one is called The Ultimate Cookie Collection by Taste of Home. I certainly do not need another cookbook, yet how can I resist a Cookie cookbook? How can anyone resist cookies let alone ultimate cookies?
I will share one recipe that sounds particularly tasty. I now have such a nifty Kitchen Aid lifter, it will be so much easier to make cookies when the mood strikes.

Marbled Chocolate Peanut Cookies (by Shirley De Lange)

Peanut Butter Dough:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup peanut butter (reduced fat and generic brands NOT recommended)
1-1/4 cups sugar
1-1/4 cups packed brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chopped peanuts

Chocolate Dough:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup baking cocoa
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups (12 oz) semisweet chocolate chips

For peanut butter dough, in a mixing bowl, cream butter, peanut butter and sugars. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to the creamed mixture. Stir in peanuts; set aside.
For chocolate dough, cream butter and sugars in another mixing bowl. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; gradually add to the creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Gently fold in peanut butter dough until slightly marbled.
Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls 3 in. apart onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 14-16 minutes or until lightly browned and firm. Remove to wire racks to cool.
Yield: 9-1/2 dozen.
I typed this entry at work, then made the cookies when I got home. Here's my picture of the cookies instead of the one from Taste of Home. Be really careful when you're mixing the two doughs together so that you do not over-mix them.


Also, I only baked my cookies for 10 minutes and it was plenty. I think 14 minutes would make for a very crunchy cookie.
Okay, so go find yourself a friend or a cookie monster. Obviously this recipe makes enough to share.

That's Better

You remember the hideous bedroom of pink and green? If not, scroll down briefly and you will see it without furniture.
We were scheduled to go to St. George this weekend, but instead, we stayed home and painted! See what it looks like now? It's the guest bedroom, so if you want to be our guest, this is where you will most likely stay. That is unless you come at the same time as someone else, and then you'll have to pick a basement bedroom instead. I suggest the one with the bed in it, rather than the one with just a dresser. Unless you like sleeping in dresser drawers. Wasn't there a Seinfeld about that? Something about small Asian men? Dunno. Anyway, I'm liking the newly painted room and the new bed.


There are drawers under the bed for your guest towels and spare linen and such. Too cool.

Happy Birthday Samuel

At this time of day, the ordeal was over. Thirty-one years, gone by in a blink. Five lbs. 1 oz. of pure heaven blessed my life forever.
Here's the story, for the record. On February 23, 1977 I went to the hospital thinking it was time for the baby to come. Back in those days we didn't know if it was a boy or a girl until they were born (unlike a week ago Friday when I went with Laura to learn that the baby she'll be having in June is a boy). The doctor eventually showed up and said I was in false labor and to go back home. All through the night, I thought I was still in false labor. It was my first experience with childbirth. What did I know? I began to think that if this was false labor, I didn't want to go through the real thing. Around 5:30AM on the 24th, I said we needed to go back to the hospital. We got there about 6AM and Samuel was born at about 6:40AM. Yeah, false labor my eye. Because of the quick turn of events that morning, I hadn't filled out all the paperwork before Samuel was born. After they'd whisked my baby away to check him out (they had some concerns due to his low birth weight), they asked me to sign a paper. They put the pen in my right hand. Mistake. As I started to sign my name right-handed, I began writing my name mirror-image. The P was perfectly backwards. Then I had to think how to make the A, and I started to write it on the left side of the P. But if I did that, it would run into the P. I got very confused, and at that point, my brain hit overload and I had a seizure. I remember my hands jerking up over my head and then I passed out. I woke up in a strange room. Even though the seizure happened moments after Samuel was born, my doctor had already left the hospital. Another doctor who was walking down the hallway at the time jumped in (although I don't know how you "help" someone in the middle of a seizure).
For days, they tried to figure out why it all happened. In the meantime, I was given the most gigantic shots several times a day so I wouldn't have any more seizures. Not fun. I've never had another one since (maybe those shots worked after all), but on my next pregnancy, that doctor told me that from the sounds of it, I had toxemia. Good to know.
Now my tiny boy has grown into a wonderful father of two darling little girls.

Here he is with Sara and Nora on Sara's first day on earth. Much less complicated than Samuel's first day on earth.

And this was the day he graduated with his master's degree, and the day we learned that Sara was on her way (they already knew, they just waited till then to tell the rest of us).


I love you Samuel. You are an amazing person. Have a Happy Birthday. 31 years so far, and many more to come. May they all be happy ones.

You Raise Me Up

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. -James 4:10

And you thought this post would be about Josh Groban because of the title, didn't you? Check this out!
Isn't that awesome? It sure beats this!
I'd say something about not coveting, but then I'd have to repent for abundance of pride. Or something about humbling myself. Guess I'll have to reread the scripture I started this post with. Now I must go bake something!

Caleb is home!

I picked the Collinwood's up from the airport at midnight last night. Yea! This morning, Caleb's parents were too tired to get up, so I got to have Caleb all to myself for about 2 1/2 hours. He was so good. Just as I was going to take his picture, my camera battery said it was too starving to cooperate, so I had to charge it up. I took his picture with my cell phone instead, and was going to learn how to upload pictures from the phone, but evidently there's some code that I have to wait for from the go@blogger.com people that they still haven't sent (is something not set right on my phone?) it and that was a couple hours ago! I had such a cute picture ready to go too. Bummer. When I get it all figured out, I'll post it. There was a really cute one of Agnes too, but I figured maybe I've posted too many of her in the last several days and people may think I'm showing favoritism. So, no grandkid pictures today. That's boring.
On today's docket is painting the pink/green bedroom. I wonder how much primer we'll have to use before we can even start painting, to cover up the pink/green.

 

Happy Birthday to Agnes!

Live your life while you have it. Life is a splendid gift-there is nothing small about it. -Florence Nightingale

This is the birthday girl when she was brand new and still in the hospital.

Now see how big she is!
My sweet little Agnes is TWO! She was such a joy to have around for the last week and a half. I miss her so much already! I miss her saying things like "Namah, hold you." and "Namah, Mear!" for come here.

She loved her birthday balloons. They're still floating after six days. Too bad she couldn't take them to Ohio with her. She would hold the balloons and then let them go. My livingroom has 24 ft. ceilings so it's a good thing they had long strings so we could pull them back down again...so she could let them go. Again.
And... again.

Her favorite thing to eat is noodles.

What better thing to do with stickers than stick them somewhere convenient? Cheeks!

How cute is this girl?

She loved "holding" this little girl. Agnes will be a good big sister to her little brother when he gets here in June.

Bud commented on how happy Agnes was the whole time she was here. Even though she had a cold and didn't feel her best, she was still always so cheerful.

Having a "snack" of rice after dinner.
Happy Birthday my darling Agnes. I love you so much!

Too Sad

I dropped them off at the airport this morning. It was such a sad thing for me. Tomorrow I hope I can handle a real blog entry, but not today. Tomorrow will be Agnes' birthday #2. I miss her already.

Yellow Slide

All week Agnes has been looking out the kitchen window and talking about the yellow slide. Yesterday she finally got her chance, but only for a few minutes because we had to go to the store and it was nearly time for dinner. I went outside and swept the snow off the bottom of the slide and off the deck of the fort. She climbed up all by herself and was ready to try it out. It was still so cold outside though and we hadn't put our gloves on, so our hands got cold fast.

Tomorrow Laura and Agnes fly away to Ohio. I will be a lonely Na-mah. However, Caleb will be home from his cruise at midnight on Thursday so that will help!

Growing up

Every spirit builds itself a house, and beyond its house a world, and beyond its world a heaven, Know then that world exists for you. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

I was looking at these pictures of Agnes and it struck me how fast they grow up. If you can play along a little...
Here she is looking like it's her first day of school.


Wow, already she's wearing a wedding dress!



Turn another corner and she's pushing a baby in a stroller.


Okay, so she hasn't even quite turned two (not for 3 more days), but it won't be but a moment in time before these things really are happening. Love 'em while they're little for they grow up much too quickly. Then you get to love 'em while they're big!

Get a tissue

I found this on Cheryl's friend's blog. It's a very nice tribute to President Hinckley. While on the YouTube site, I found several more tributes that were nice as well but I'll let you find those for yourself if you wish.

Celebrations

"Miracles happen to those who believe in them." -Bernard Berenson

Yesterday was Agnes' birthday party. She had such a fun time! We celebrated with a fondue dinner.



She loved everyone singing Happy Birthday to her.

Here she is signing "thank you" for the gifts. She uses words almost exclusively these days, but she still will use signs for some things, especially for different animals' names.

Yesterday was a voting day here on the blog, and although the turnout for voters was low, it was speculated that Laura would be having a girl.

Well, the next time we go shopping, it won't be for pink, it will be for lots and lots of blue! Agnes is getting a brother! Due to modesty concerns, I will not be posting the evidence. You can see the baby's face and across his face is his left arm. He was being camera-shy at the time. Suffice it to say, we are 99.9% certain my next grandchild is a boy. Caleb will be celebrating at reunions to have a boy cousin he can hang out with.

Another story from yesterday is that Bud was downtown for a dental convention. He had a couple hours for lunch, and decided to go to Subway. When he ordered his food, the girl asked him if he wanted a drink or chips to go with his sandwich. He declined, but then she said he was the 150 customer and so his lunch was free! Now that's cause for a celebration. So he got the drink and chips after all. Who says there's no free lunch? Maybe she just thought he was cute and it was her way of flirting with him.

So big!

Yesterday, for Valentine's Day, Bud gave me a dozen white roses and a book of quotes (or should that say quotations? I always have to ask Danny what the difference is). Here's one that goes perfectly with today's picture.

"Your world is as big as you make it." -Georgia Douglas Johnson


Yesterday we had several errands. On our way from one to the next, we stopped to take this picture. Agnes Lillianne the Lilliputian comes to mind for a good title to this picture. She wouldn't sit in the chair by herself, so Laura climbed up too.


Agnes is having a birthday celebration today. She will be two next week (Thursday). This is a picture of what we hope her birthday cake will look like! At least that's the plan.
Laura has an appointment later today to find out if she's having a boy or a girl. Place your vote and I'll let you know if you're right tomorrow.

Happy Valentine's Day

Yesterday we went to Red Robin for lunch. Agnes had a good time, but she didn't eat much. She wanted to play instead.


She found fun things! Even a car to drive (she's a one-handed driver).

We didn't get any of the candy from the machine.


She liked the purple balloon the best.

When we came out of the restaurant, it was snowing. It snowed hard for the rest of the day. So hard, in fact, that a normal five minute drive from the office to home took 55 minutes! Crazy. Happy Valentine's Day!

Some cuteness

After a two-day famine, I got to see Caleb again yesterday. We had a fun time at Grandma L's house with Laura and Agnes and Karen and Caleb. I think we wore Grandma out though.
She probably felt like this guy! But given the chance, I'd bet she'd re-enlist for another go 'round. These pictures, however, are from last weekend. The only pictures that were taken yesterday were with Grandma's camera and stayed at her house. Agnes sang the cutest song on the way there. Laura kind of started it, but Agnes kept it going for the rest of the day. It went like this...
"Five minutes to Grandma L, Grandma L, Grandma L,
Five mintues, five minutes..." well, you get the idea. Agnes loved saying Grandma L (as opposed to Grandma-which is really Na-mah, or Utah Grandma- maybe I can change that to "fun Grandma" instead of Utah Grandma).