Three Reasons to Blog

This is one of the reasons that I wanted to start a blog. I wanted to record my quilting experiences. I have a quilt journal but it's all filled up. This way other people can see what I have been working on.
I love to quilt. It has been a journey for me but I am comfortable now doing larger projects. I started out making small wall quilts. On occasion I would attempt a baby quilt. The first baby quilt I made took me three years to complete. It was a scrappy quilt, no two blocks alike and I hand quilted it which took me a really long time. I would get tired of it and put it away for several months. I finally finished it and there was no way I would let it go to anyone else. I'll have to admit, I haven't even used it for myself. It's beautiful but it's in my hope chest.
This quilt was made out of Moda fabrics from the line "Faded Memories". My friends found them on sale at a local quilt store but the sale was a 1-yard minimum cut so four of us pitched in a bought the whole line and each had a fat quarter of each of the prints. It's a very pretty line of fabrics.
The pattern is called "Twin Sisters". The pattern looked fun to me so I thought I would give it a try. I really enjoyed making this quilt. I even machine quilted it myself. I haven't decided who will get it. I might just hold on to it for a while.

This is the second reason I wanted to start a blog. My kids are growing and changing so fast I wanted a way that I could keep their grandparents updated.

Today I was on a walk with the kids in a stroller. Kennedy, aka Sweet Pea, asked me to let go of the stroller and push them into the busy street. I tried to explain to her that that was dangerous. "Why?" is always the next question. I explained to her that a car might not see them and run them over. "Then what would you say, Mommy?" I explained that I would be sad and that I don't like to see my babies hurt. Here's the kicker--"Then you wouldn't have a "P" and a "Q" anymore?" Then she pointed to Tristan and smiled and said that he was a cute little "Q".

Here is the third reason I wanted to have a blog: Recipes! I love sharing recipes and finding new recipes. This one is my sister's recipe and it is really good. Today I substituted the chocolate chips for Andes Mint Baking Chips. The cookies were heavenly!

Double Trouble Cookies

1 cup butter

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1/4 tsp salt

2 cups chocolate chips or Andes Mint Baking Pieces

Cream together the butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla until fluffy. Add the dry ingredients and beat on a low speed. Add the chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until set.

Note: For high altitude, cut the baking soda to 1/2 tsp. and add 1 Tbs. flour.

This 'n That

I have been so lazy about blogging lately. I often think of something to write about but when I get a moment to myself there are so many things I want to do.
One of the reasons I feel like I have not had much time is because Kennedy has given up naps. Or, rather, I have stopped offering them. It has been so difficult, with her taking a nap, to get her to go to sleep at night. This is much sooner than I thought she would be ready but her night sleep has improved so much and she doesn't make a fuss when I put her to bed at 7:30. Now if I could just figure out what I could offer for quiet time that would keep her quiet and entertained for an hour!
We had the missionaries over for dinner Sunday. They are always so complementary on my meals. They are good guinea pigs too. I usually try a new recipe when they come over because I don't feel too embarrassed if it doesn't turn out ok. Here is a recipe I tried:

Sweet Raspberry Muffins

2 cups biscuit/baking mix
2 Tbs sugar
1/4 cup cold butter or margarine
2/3 cup milk
1/4 cup raspberry jam
Glaze:
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tsp warm water
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

In a bowl, combine biscuit mix and sugar. Cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in milk just until moistened (batter will be thick). Spoon about 1 tablespoon of batter into 12 paper-lined muffin cups. Top with 1 teaspoon jam. Spoon the remaining batter (about 1 tablespoon each) over jam. Bake at 425 degrees for 12-14 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool in pans for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine glaze ingredients until smooth. Remove muffins to a wire rack. Drizzle with glaze.

Pie Time

I come from a family of pie-makers. I consider my mom an expert pie maker. I especially love her apple pie and her strawberry rhubarb pie and her made-from-scratch banana cream pie, and. . . . . I could go on. My sister is also a great pie maker. She won a pie contest when she was just in high school. She still makes great pie. I, however, have not inherited the pie gene. I like to try on occasion but never really succeed. I guess I just don't practice enough.
Tonight is our ward's chili and pie cook off. Chris signed me up for both pie and chili. I went for a single-crust pie "Coconut-Caramel Pie" (recipe follows) which is a really good dessert. I usually cheat and bake a pre-made Pillsbury crust. I decided to try my mom's pie crust recipe this time. . . . . Nope, I'm still not a pie maker! I always follow the recipe but it turns out to be a gloppy mess. I baked it anyway and it will just have to do. This may ruin my reputation!
I hope the chili turns out better.

Coconut-Caramel Pie

2 Baked Pie Shells
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 8-oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 16-oz carton Cool Whip
1 12-oz jar caramel ice cream topping

In a large skillet, melt butter; stir in coconut and pecans. Cook and stir over medium heat until coconut is golden, about 6-8 minutes. Cool.
In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth; gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk on low speed. Fold in Cool Whip. Spoon 1/4 mixture into each pie shell. Drizzle each with about 1/4 of the caramel topping (I never use quite that much) and sprinkle with 1/4 of the coconut mixture. Repeat layers.
Cover and freeze at least 5 hours. Serve or freeze, covered, for up to 2 weeks. Let stand at room temperature for 5 minutes before serving. Makes 20 servings (2 pies).

Weighing In

This is really embarrassing and I am not sure how to write about this. I may write this and then not post it. We'll see.
I had an experience last night that was kind of depressing to me. Without giving out more details than anyone would want to know about me, lets just say it involved a dressing room in Victoria's Secret.
I read once that you can use the excuse, "I just had a baby" for about a year, then you are on your own. My year is almost up--just about three more weeks. I've never had a problem loosing weight when I needed to. I seem to fluctuate between the same 5 pounds, no matter what I eat, no matter if I exercise. Well, that's just not true for me anymore. My pregnancy with Tristan was wonderful but I allowed myself too many indulgences over the holidays and I could feel my backside growing and growing but just contributed it to my pregnancy. That backside is now haunting me.
After my trip to the mall last night I am much more motivated to eat better and be a little more active. I started my "8 Minutes in the Morning" regime again this morning. That has helped me in the past. Here's to looking better and feeling good about looking better!
Nothing makes celery look more appetizing than seeing your chub hang over a sexy pair of underwear!

Home At Last

Yeah! I have my husband back! Chris has been gone for 10 days. He went to Utah for his brother's wedding, came back for less than 24- hours and had to go to work, then left for Florida for a meeting.


The kids and I went to the airport to pick Chris up last night. We stopped by the mall on the way home. We have to buy some appliances for our new house and need to start shopping. We looked at a few things then went to Chick-fil-a for dinner. When we picked Chris up Kennedy asked him if he got her a present. He was not in a good place for presents so instead he took Kennedy to Build-A-Bear, which is much better than a souvenir from Florida, if you ask me. We are all glad to have daddy back home, where he belongs.

Here are some pictures of my cute kids.

Kennedy with "Flat Stanley". We're helping a friend with her daughter's class project.

Everyone loves Grandma Mary!

Prayer for Judgement

Ever since I got pulled over for speeding six weeks ago I have been worried about going to court. I was speeding 16 miles over the posted speed limit. Luckily the officer left off the "work zone" part of it--that would have made it a lot worse! If I would have been driving just one or two miles less I could have paid the ticket through the mail.

As it was, however, I had to go to court. My court date was yesterday. I had no idea what to expect. Six weeks ago I just imagined that Chris would take the morning off and I would go down to the Durham Courthouse and pay my fine. I soon learned that it would not be that easy. Chris informed me that he would be out of town and that meant I would have to find someone to watch my kids.

I didn't want to ask one of my friends because my "ticket" said I had to be there at 7:45 a.m. I called a girl who used to be in my ward and she is now in college. I had heard from many people that she is a good sitter. I felt confident in her abilities so I called her. Luckily she was on spring break when I needed her, otherwise she had a full day of classes.

As the date approached I realized that I didn't have to go to the Durham Courthouse but I had to go to the Raleigh Courthouse since I got pulled over in Wake County, not Durham County. Silly me. That added more stress to my situation.

I really worried about this whole thing and earlier this week I got online again to make sure I knew where I was going--I get a little anxiety when it comes to finding and going to new places. There were few details about what would happen when I got there. I found some links to other websites that gave me some insight into what kind of trouble I was in. Here are some phrases that fall under the category of speeding 16 miles over the speed limit:

• Licence revoked
• Insurance points
• 45% increase in insurance premium for 3 years

I considered, too late, hiring an attorney. I also read somewhere about "Prayer for judgement" although I had no idea what it meant. I talked to my neighbor the night before my court date and she told me to ask for a "prayer for judgement". Neither of us knew what it meant.

So the morning finally came and, needless to say, I had said many regular prayers up to this point and the blessings were already starting to come. Both my kids slept through the night (miracle!) and so did I. I was shocked when my alarm went off at 6:00 and I had not been awakened for anything in the night.

My babysitter arrived and I left for Raleigh. I was a little late but I had learned that I could actually go anytime between 7:45 and 3:30. I just wanted to get it over. I easily found parking and walked to the building. I went through the metal detector and asked the security guard where I was supposed to go. He pointed to a room and I proceeded.

I walked into the room and there was a long line of people, none seemed to know if they were in the right place. There were no signs anywhere that directed me to where I needed to go so I just stayed in line and eventually someone who had been there before mentioned that this was the right line.

As I stood in line to "check in", which I later found out, I looked around at all the people in that room and there were only a handful of people who were, what I would consider, normal. I would not group myself with this crowd of people in any other situation.

After I finally got checked in I was shuffled off to another line, the DA line. The only other line was the "magistrate" line and I heard things coming from that line like "underage, possession of alcohol, illegal possession of marijuana", etc. I think most of the people in my line were for traffic violations though. This line was much slower than the first line.

It was finally my turn to talk to the DA. He said he could reduce my charge to 9 miles over instead of 16. I looked at him and he kind of smiled and said, "Is there anything else you would like to ASK me???????" I considered just taking it and paying for the charge instead I chuckled and said "Can I ask for a 'prayer for judgement'?" He smiled and told me to go to the courtroom around the corner.

When I went into the courtroom it was almost full. I thought it would be at least another hour before the judge called my name and wondered if this would be worth my time. The only easily-accessible seat was on the very front row. I could easily hear the conversations between the judge and other "criminals". Most of them were speeders, like me, and asking for a "prayer for judgement". I soon realized what I was asking for. Since I had no other speeding tickets on my record I could ask for a "prayer for judgement" and it would be like a warning, except I would have to pay court costs, $110. To my surprise, I was only in there about 15 minutes.

The judge was very nice and in a very good mood. I don't know if he is always like that but it was refreshing to see someone enjoying this kind of job so much. I felt fortunate to stumble upon this phrase and it will be my duty to pass it on to anyone who needs it.

I went home to find everything in order. Sariah was an awesome babysitter. She dressed and fed both kids, cleaned up, did Kennedy's hair, put Tristan down for a nap and was playing with Kennedy. Kennedy didn't want her to go home and asked me if Sariah could come over again. Yes, but hopefully under different circumstances!

Glad that is over!

*#$%&! Weekend

I have been writing the last several days but each time I "post" it disappears. I don't know what's wrong with my blog. It's probably my computer. Like everything else I own it's about to die. Next month will be our 11-year anniversary and we have been in school or residency training ever since and only living on one income except for the year Chris was an intern and we saved his earnings for a down payment on a house so it was like one income.
Anyway, it's been a crappy weekend-no pun intended. Tristan still has diarrhea and he still just doesn't feel well. He actually slept pretty well last night. He woke up around 4 or 5 depending on if you had changed your clock already. He was pretty upset so I nursed him. After I started I had a thought that his diaper probably needed to be changed and nursing him would calm him down and then he would get upset when I changed him. I nursed him anyway and as soon as he was finished he vomited all over both of us so it was upsetting anyway!
It was quite comical today because I had one child sleeping and one child awake almost the whole day. As soon as I put Kennedy down for a nap Tristan woke up from his morning nap. Kennedy woke up about two minutes after I put Tristan down for his afternoon nap.
We have had such beautiful weather the past few days but haven't been able to enjoy it much. This afternoon I opened the sliding glass door to the deck and let the kids play outside. Tristan was in shorts, it was that warm.
I had a little emotional breakdown yesterday. I decided that I would not go to church today and I had a lot of things I needed to take care of there. That meant a lot of phone calls and asking others to do my job. I hate that. It's quite draining taking care of a sick child. I miss Chris too. I'm never quite 100 percent when he isn't around. Anyway, I called my neighbor Sheila because we planned to watch a movie and have dinner together. She could tell I wasn't quite right and I just started to cry. She came right over and sat with the sleeping kids while I went to the grocery store. I don't know what I will do without her after we move.
Next weekend will be better. . . .I hope!