Here is a picture of me taken on January 13th of this year. I am literally pointing and laughing at the Redbox. Meghan took the picture for me to text to Mr. D. who at the time was obsessed with finding out information on the Redbox. It was quite the joke at our house. Night after night Mr. Analytical was researching the Redbox. He asked me to look online and research it too. I was not supportive and basically said it was a bad idea. Well a month later- Mr. D. and I signed up for Redbox. I am smitten kitten with it! I rented 2 movies with first weekend. One I had a free rental code for. Then today, mid week I just went and rented a movie that I watched this afternoon. I like this so much better than the movie rental place. I can go online and choose my movie and then I know it will be there when I go pick it up. I just love the hassle free aspect of it. Plus, I have yet to spend the amount I would have for one movie at our old rental place. LOVE it!! Easy Breezy- fabulous!!!!
Friday afternoon was the end of a long week filled with the crappiest of twist and turns. It temporarily turned around when Parker and Caleb came to visit. They wanted to come and feed the baby fish. I decided I would treat the boys to cookies as well. So there I am baking up the best in break and bake goodness when I remembered to get out my new and only cookie jar. Isn't it the cutest little thing. I just LOVE it. It was one of my favorite Christmas presents. The boys got a real kick out of reaching in the jar and getting a cookie. It reminded me of a quote my granny had put with a recipe she had submitted in to one of the church cookbooks. It said "children and cookie jars are often happiest when filled with the same thing". She was so right! We had a wonderful time with the neighbors Friday night. We always love when they come to visit!
This weekend was a fun and busy one. Maggie, Shane and Charlie had made plans to come visit on Saturday. They wanted to join Costco and we had let our membership lapse, so we wanted to join Costco too. We each got a $10 gift card for us referring them. Bonus! We shopped at Costco and Target. While we were shopping my cousin Kim (Shane's sister) called and they were in town too at BabiesRus. They decided to join us for dinner. We went to Surin- which is the place Maggie, Shane, Mr. D. and I always want to eat at when they come to town. Kim tried sushi for the first time and liked it. Here is a photo collage of our time together. I think if you click on it that it should get bigger.
The weather this weekend was wonderful. It had me singing the song "Spring Spring Spring" from the musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. I looked out today and guess who I saw.
As the day went on, I counted 4 fish. Yeah! All of our fished lasted through the winter. I have also started thinking about working in the yard and planting in my mini garden again.
Today, I decided that I would try and make some real cookies. Mr. D. loves chocolate chip cookies. The problem is that he doesn't really like any that anyone makes. So, it's not like I can just call up so and so and get their recipe. I decided to try and find a super amazing recipe and blow him away. I found a cookie recipe with over 3000 five star reviews. I read the ingredients and determined I had everything. It called for:
all purpose flour brown sugar white sugar unsalted butter baking soda salt vanilla eggs semi sweet chocolate chips
Mentally, my house was stocked with all of these things and making cookies was going to be a piece of cake... or...ummmm cookie I guess. So I got the old mixer out and commenced to creaming together the butter and sugar when I realized I had like 1/8th of a cup of brown sugar. I needed 1 cup. Hmmm- what's a girl to do. Well, I just added the total sugar amount of white sugar, the little bit of brown I had and added molasses. My thought process was that it is brown and sweet so it should be fine. I continued on. Turns out I used baking powder instead of baking soda. Oh well, innocent oversight. And then I realized I only had 1/2 of the chocolate chips needed. Oh well, maybe he won't notice I thought. I was a little shocked when I got to the bottom of the recipe and it said to drop the cookies by 1/4th of a cup on the cookie sheet. It seemed like a lot of cookie dough to me. I could only make 6 cookies at a time on my cookie sheet. The cookies were so big!
And despite the mishaps, they were really good. I will have to try making the real recipe again when I actually have all of the ingredients in the house.
Other than that- there's nothing to tell. I am working on a pretty sweet craft project that I will unveil when I finish. You can all look forward to that!
1) swept the dining room and kitchen 2) polished the dining room table and all chairs 3) washed the dining room and kitchen baseboards 4) reorganized the pots and pans cabinets 5) mopped the dining room and kitchen 6) washed the fronts of all cabinets and drawers 7) thought about painting the kitchen and dining room 8) reorganized the bakeware cabinets 9) washed the outside of the refrigerator 10) polished a wooden cabinet in the dining room 11) cleaned the stove 12) washed the pantry door 13) washed the window sills in the dining room
Look at his eyes. You can tell a little piece of heaven has just been dropped for him. He is in wonder and amazement! Yes, it is Girl Scout Cookie time and Brady got his first taste of the year of his favorite Do-si-dos. MMMmmmmm!! They are my favorite cookies too!
That was not his only good luck of the day. He also got a special new friend. This is Leo. Sometime in life, you just have to cut out middle man, the stuffing, oh and the plastic eyes.Which leaves you with something equally as wonderful- and fun with a lot less danger and mess.
The result is one happy boy!! Meanwhile, life in the tank is full of excitement. The babies are just swimming around.
The Momma and Papa fish are taking care of the little ones. It's neat watching the co parenting. I have researched the species and this is how they roll. They are aggressive fish and have proven so by killing all of the other fish in the tank. So, we are left with Momma, Papa and lots and lots of babies. They are much more fun and I really like the fish now. It keeps me busy I guess.
... that as you read this blog entry you would get a sample of this soup that I made. You know- like when Oprah reveals something awesome and then her staff appears and passes it out to the audience. It was YUMMO and I recommend that you make it!
We have had a wonderful relaxing day of doing absolutely nothing!
I am literally pointing and laughing at the Redbox. Meghan took the picture for me to text to Mr. D. who at the time was obsessed with finding out information on the Redbox. It was quite the joke at our house. Night after night Mr. Analytical was researching the Redbox. He asked me to look online and research it too. I was not supportive and basically said it was a bad idea. Well a month later- 
Mr. D. and I signed up for Redbox. I am smitten kitten with it! I rented 2 movies with first weekend. One I had a free rental code for. Then today, mid week I just went and rented a movie that I watched this afternoon. I like this so much better than the movie rental place. I can go online and choose my movie and then I know it will be there when I go pick it up. I just love the hassle free aspect of it. Plus, I have yet to spend the amount I would have for one movie at our old rental place. LOVE it!! Easy Breezy- fabulous!!!! 
