Speaking of cookies....

Apparently AJ has social skills, Ella will be smart, and I'm going to the desert for vacation... hmmm

Cookie Review

It was quite a day for surprises in the mailbox today! Not only did we get our Veggietales package, we also received our "BzzKit" for Kroger's "The truly Awesome homestyle chocolate chip cookie" today. I did something just a little bit crazy, and let the kids each have one cookie as their "bedtime snack". Of course, with kids, you can't go wrong with cookies, but I did hear a few times "these are good, but they aren't as good as your cookies mom". (Glad to know I bake a mean cookie!)

Tasted one myself, and they are better than your standard store bought chocolate chip cookies, however I really like soft cookies, and these are definitely the dry crisp style of cookies. They do have a large amount of chocolate chips (it's the first ingredient on the ingredient list). After we tried the cookies, we noticed the back of the box does suggest microwaving for a few seconds for the "just came out of the oven" feel. At 120 calories per cookie, this is just going to have to wait for another day for me to try.

With only 8 cookies per box, they probably aren't going to be on my shopping list. Having 7 people in our family, I just prefer to bake my own 3 dozen or so cookies so I have plenty of left overs to include cookies in the kids' lunchboxes all week.

They did include 5 $1.00 off coupons for me to share, so if you'd like to try them, hit me up for one. (I think after the coupon they will still be around $2/box - for 8 cookies... ouch!)

Woohoo! We won a blog giveaway!

The kids were thrilled to open the mailbox and find what I won on Amy's Finer Things last week!

We are HUGE Veggietales fans in our house (even the teen & preteen enjoy a Friday night Veggietales movie marathon!)

Thank you Amy @ The Finer Things and Big Idea !!!

If you don't follow her already, go over and check out Amy's blog at The Finer Things in Life. It's on my daily "Must Read" list!

Torani Syrup giveaway!

Head over to my friend Emily's site Live Large 4 Less and enter yourself to win a free bottle of Torani syrup! While you are there, take a look around and follow her, she's always posting great deals and free things to do in Wichita!

http://livelarge4less.blogspot.com/2011/11/giveaway-coupon-for-free-bottle-of.html

Another birthday weekend

This weekend we officially became parents of a teenager! Eeek (That "earthquake" everyone felt? That was just us flipping out that we would have a teenager in about an hour! :P)

13 years ago a teeny tiny 1lb 12oz baby made an early entrance into our lives.

She couldn't be happier with her gift, her own room (previously the guest/storage room that I posted pictures of last week)!

Not quite done yet... definitely a work in progress. She has ambitions to paint some large polka-dots on the lavender wall, and is on the hunt for a neat papasan style chair and a few more decorations (Not to mention all of her "stuff" that is still upstairs in her sister's room!)

That brings an end to our "birthday season" (2 in September, 1 in October, and 1 in November).

Still trying to figure out where the new home is for everything that used to be stored in this room, and it's time to light a little fire under that chore, as tonight is "Poker night" and the guys are going to want the wedding dress and other assorted items out of their way! (Where exactly does one store a wedding dress that wasn't "preserved"? And do I really need to keep this enormous hoop skirt? LOL)

Crock-pot Thursday

I have failed at menu planning this week, but with a hectic schedule of after school activities and attending a speech by a former US President tonight, I knew I would resort to fast food if I didn't get something tossed in the crock-pot!

So, thanks to this post over at Amy's Finer Things, we're going to be enjoying Slow Cooker Italian Chicken tonight. I think I'll even throw together some homemade Italian breadsticks to go with it. These breadsticks were a HUGE hit the last time I made them, and I have to agree that they are "better than Olive Garden"! I was out of "Italian seasoning" when I made them, so I substituted what was probably just about the same "Pizza seasoning" :) Super Yum!

Update: Breadsticks are good to go! Love my breadmaker :)
Dough is in and ready to rise:

90 minutes later, it smells divine and they haven't even gone in the oven!

Roll out the dough into the breadsticks, and let rise again (off to pick up a kid from after school activity, then back to toss sticks into the oven)

Goodbye, dear friend...

Alas, my morning latte will never be the same. My latte "bowl" was no match for the sugar bowl that fell on it yesterday morning. It has served me well for the last three years, but its time to move on, I guess :(

I look forward to the next few years of morning lattes with my new friend. With the rain/snow forecast for this evening, I may just have to give it a trial run, perhaps next to a roaring fire (assuming we have enough firewood!)

Busy weekend...

Friday I started off my day baking Chris's birthday chocolate chip cookies to take to school (yes, I was baking cookies at 1:00 am!). So I skipped my regular cycle class that morning (either the lack of sleep or the cookie dough hangover killed my desire to workout) so I could continue working on the spare bedroom in the basement. It's transitioning from a spare bedroom/storage heap into Lizzie's 13th Birthday present. What 13 year old girl wouldn't be thrilled with her own room (and not sharing with her 5 year old sister!). Since my parents were visiting this weekend, the transformation had to stop and switch gears into a "clean this place up to be presentable, and livable" mission.

First up, sewing desk. All the arts & crafts supplies were pulled out and reorganized (with Ella & AJ's help sorting beads, sequins, and all sorts of itty bitty things). Their new home is at the top of my linen closet (that's right, OUT OF REACH of little children!). My very limited selection of sewing supplies has been reorganized into the sewing desk, and it is ready to find a new home in another area of the basement. Maybe once it's in a more prominent location, I'll find the time to teach myself to sew.
Next up, painting supplies. I have so many paints, and painting supplies that they occupied a tall (but skinny) chest of drawers! Those have all been resorted, and now reside in a rolling cart in my laundry room (not the ideal place, but there is really no where else... until kids start moving out for college)... so lets see if I actually roll them on out to the new 3rd car garage (aka - the workshop) and start USING them again! Dresser is now empty, and ready for Freecycle!
Time to switch gears again, eBay auctions ended and were paid for, so time to dig out boxes and print some shipping labels. Dropping those off at FedEx after school pick up.

And then time for a little chat with Ella... goes something like this: James "Ella, did you tell Lizzie the secret?" Ella "no, but she asked me for hints, so I told her it was in the basement and dark... she probably thinks it's a laptop" & "she's figuring it out" ... "did you tell her?" "no but she's figuring it out" LOL... how much do you want to bet that a certain little 5 year old can't keep a secret from her big sister? :)
Back to the task at hand: basement bedroom. Organized my large stack of Decorative Painter magazines, patterns, and idea sheets into magazine holders for my bookshelf downstairs. Quickly glancing through my painting patters while organizing them stirred up that painting bug that got buried down somewhere. Wow, I can actually see some of the top of the desk again (desk, aka - storage shelf/table/junk collection area). This desk will work nicely as a homework station in Lizzie's new room.Now that the weekend is over, it's time to move some furniture, crack open the lavender paint, and get going on the room!

Starting over...

Jumping back into this "blogging" thing again, we'll see where it takes us!

HE Detergent 1/2 price at Walmart!

If you need to use the HE laundry detergent, check out Walmart at 21st & Maize... the $20 bottles of Tide Free HE Coldwater are on clearance for $10 (in a rack by the dairy section) and I also spotted other brands of HE detergen (regular $7-10) in a clearance shopping cart near the hot dogs/lunchmeat for $2.50-$3.50. There were also some bottles of fabric softner, I believe it said HE on the bottle, and I didn't catch the price.....

They still have the cans of Great Value green beans for 25cents each near the grocery entrance if you like canned veggies.