Whopper of a Brownie

3 Comments

First of all, sorry for the lack of posts last week! I would like to think that all 6 of you who read my blog were heartbroken at the lack of content. The days flew by last week and it seemed there was no time to write.

While rocking Baylie to sleep for a nap last week, I saw a segment on the Today Show about what to do with all the leftover Halloween candy. However, all the types of candy they were using, I didn’t have. So really, it made me want to go out and buy more candy I don’t need to make desserts that I really don’t need. I am going to make the white chocolate pretzel and candy corn “bark” for Thanksgiving though!

One of the recipes they had was Peppermint Pattie brownies. Brownie mix is layered with peppermint patties and it looked delicious. Because I’m not a total weirdo, we didn’t have any peppermint patties left over because we didn’t buy any. I did think Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups would be a delicious substitution, but I ate most of those and since the purpose was to get rid of the candy, I didn’t want to buy more.

We did, however, have an abundance of Whoppers. I very much like Whoppers, but not in a “can’t-stop-eating-them-please-take-them-to-the-office-because-I-can’t-stop” kind of way so I decided to try it out in some brownies. My reasoning was that when we were kids, my mom would buy a jar of malt – it’s kind of a powdery substance – and we would make milkshakes with it. And it was DELICIOUS. So I thought the malted milk balls would melt into the brownies thus creating malted brownies. The result? Not so good.

Instead of melting, the malt seemed to harden into tiny rocks. I now have an entire pan of brownies with rocks.

So apparently America’s Test Kitchen won’t be calling me to offer me a job any time soon….

A Work Pile of Crap

1 Comment

I have a pile of things that need to be ordered or found and then ordered online. I am avoiding the pile because none of it is fun stuff. There’s no “order something new and cute from your favorite store!” in my pile. It’s all stuff that needs to get done but is so mundane, it depresses me to do it  so here I sit writing about it rather than working through it. Here’s what’s in my list:

1. Order ink cartridges. $50 and no fun. I went to the HP site to get a coupon and found I had to take a survey to do so. Fine fine. But then it said it would take a few days before they would email me the coupon. Nice. Move to the bottom of the pile.

2. Order vacuum bags. Yuck. Mostly because it makes me think that it’s been awhile since I’ve changed the vacuum bag and it’s gross to do. Peter is thinking “whoa, there are BAGS that have to get changed?!”.

3. Dig out the folder from the remodel. Riffle through it to find a receipt that may or may not exist for the cabinetry. Then begin the long task of contacting the company that makes the cabinets and convince them that they want to fix our pull out trash can for free so I don’t have to order one of the oh-so-expensive generic replacement sliding cans at $250 a pop. I need to get my mean face on for this one and it’s been used up a lot lately on the kid.

4. Order Baylie vitamins. Not a big deal, but I get them from Diapers.com and I always get sucked into buying something else which is actually very fun, however, not fun for the bank account.

5. Pay our APS bill. Hopefully having a nice cool house will make Baylie smart so she can get a scholarship to college because all her 529 money is going to pay the electricity bill.

And so the pile grows…

Things I Have Learned from Halloween

1 Comment


1. Don’t buy candy until the day of Halloween when it is not just 20% off, but 60% off.

2. No matter how hard you try, you are going to under or over-estimate the amount of candy you need. This year: over-estimated.

3. Do not dress the kiddo in any costume where she can remove part of it herself. I.E. ears and or a tail

4. Do not accidentally catch the kiddo’s hair in her glow necklace. It will lead to her hysterically crying when she sees them in the future.

5. If a heard of teenagers dressed in all black who out weigh you and out number you come to your door, throw your rules about not giving out candy to such people and give them the candy.

6. No matter how hard I try, the kid is not going to A. look at the camera B. keep her costume on and look at the camera or C. smile, look at the camera and keep on her costume.

7. If the kid doesn’t learn to trick-or-treat this year or even next year, the world will not end. I need to enjoy the fact that she is perfectly content to sit on the patio and hand out candy to other munchkins.

8. I am an  master pumpkin carver!

I’m melting!!!

Well This Can’t Be Good…

2 Comments

Last night, I opened a two pack of Halloween sized Starburst and found two lemon Starbursts. Disgusted, I threw them back in the bag and pulled out another. Same thing. Then another and again, found two yellow Starbursts. Realizing that this was surely a sign of the apocalypse, I moved onto the Snickers.

In an effort to conserve some money this year, I am rationing out the candy. No more “help yourself!” to all the rug rats that come to the door. Instead, my costume is going to be the crabby neighbor lady who is sipping wine on the front patio and doles out no more than 2 pieces per person to those under the age of 12 and over the age of 2. No multiple handfuls for the 15 year olds that come with the creepy and often downright terrifying masks. Or worse, no costume at all. And I am for sure turning down the adults holding the 3 month old baby’s bag and trick-or-treating “for the baby”. Keep walking sista. If you want some candy, confiscate it from your other kids.

And because I am still scarred from my beautiful Pottery Barn bowl being stolen off our front stoop in DC, I will not be leaving a bowl of candy on the patio once we’ve turned in for the night. I will, however, consider hiding in the bushes to spray any smart asses who think it’s funny to bang on the door after we’ve turned the patio light off.

Happy Halloween!!

7 Things I am Ungrateful For

3 Comments

Things that I find extremely annoying:

7. Ratty haired children. Buy some freaking “No More Tears” conditioner, spray or whatever and brush the freaking kids hair.

6. Slow drivers who then speed up to make it through a yellow light leaving you at the red.

5. People who work out with their hair down. I understand if people don’t adhere to my strict “no hair loose even if it means I look like a beast” policy, but really, all your hair down and in your face??

4. Crazy drivers/parkers in the church parking lot. Everyone’s Catholic, until there’s only one “good” spot left.

3. Those stupid stickers people have on their cars with the three letter abbreviations on them.  Worse, the ones that are for a destination no one cares about. Example: HUD for Hudson, Ohio.

2. When a Lady Gaga song gets stuck in your head and you can hear it in your sleep. I had to finally give in and just start liking her to make it stop.

1. The lady at the CHILDREN’S park who lets her ugly little dog drink out of the human drinking fountain rather than the dog one (yes, there really is a little doggy drinking fountain). No no, ma’am, I love dog slobber and germs all over the drinking fountain. I don’t get enough of that at home so please, by all means.

It’s 7:30am And I’m Ready to Throw In the Towel

1 Comment

I woke up to a phone call with a family member needing some obscure item at 6:30am. This would normally not be a big deal, except today for some reason, Baylie had slept past 6am and through PW leaving for work. And therefore I got to sleep past 6am, that is until the phone rang. The most annoying part? The person clearly knew I was asleep and didn’t say “hey, sorry I woke you up” just rambled on about what she needed and did I have it.

Peter has a big seminar today and left some notes at home so that was the second call at 7am. This shouldn’t have been a big deal, but the kiddo was crabbing in the background looking for more milk/banana/Bear and made it super fun to try to read off notes over the phone. She had also just tried to “help” feed the dogs and dumped an entire cup of food on the floor and in their water bowl.

Lastly, Baylie is teething, again. And because the lovely little tablets that make her less cranky have been recalled, we’re doing this cold turkey. She doesn’t want to eat, but is crabby because she’s hungry. She wants something, but doesn’t know what. She wants your attention so she is grabbing the remote off the counter, my purse off the chair and dumping it, and prank calling random people from my cell phone.

Again, it’s only 7:30am.

I’m hoping that a run to the park and some play time will help.  Or at least keep me alive until nap time…

I Heart Sesame Street – Even if Katy Perry is Inappropriately Dressed

1 Comment

First, I don’t actually think what she was wearing was all that bad – I have that shirt in purple (only kidding). Just in case you’ve been living in a cave:

http://omg.yahoo.com/blogs/a-line/sesame-street-pulls-controversial-katy-perry-duet/624

But this is not the point of today’s blog. The point is that my sweet Baylie Bay has discovered Sesame Street. She’s previously only ever been interested in Baby Einstein and would never pay attention to anything on TV (except for the Geico commercial where the little piggy screams “wwweeeeee!!!”. She loves that one). It’s probably because it’s almost always on the Today Show and even I don’t watch it, I just need people speaking in full sentences with actual words in the background so I don’t lose it.

However, this morning when I put on channel 8 just to see what she would do, she was transfixed. Maybe it was because they were doing laundry and this has been one of B’s favorite activities since she could stand and move things from the washer to the dryer. Or maybe she’s just ready to move beyond colorful toys and classical music, by Momma is in heaven. A half hour of quiet time outside of the meer 2 hours of nap time a day is golden. It means a shower, hair and makeup without having to wrestle my mascara away from her. A chance to get dressed all at one time instead of pulling Bay out of the dog water dish while trying to get on jeans. Ahhh, serenity is a shower in silence.

On a side note, we packed up the Pack n’ Play yesterday and put it into storage where it will wait for the next kiddo. It was a little bittersweet. 30% of me was a little sad to see the bed that Bay slept in for the first 2 months (ok, 5) of her life leave our bedroom. The other 70% of me was shocked that our room is SO MUCH BIGGER without a pack n’play, two dog crates and a sound machine. You see, Bear and Travis did not take kindly to Ms.B when she first arrived so we reintroduced crates, which they actually really like. And in fear that they would feel neglected if moved to the office rather than sleep in our room, we put their crates in there. And because two elderly dogs make a lot of noise in their sleep (snuffling, farting, snoring) and so do babies (snuffling, farting, snoring – no one tells you that they make TONS of noise even when they sleep!) and Peter talks in his sleep (I, however, am totally silent and keep to my side of the bed and in no way steal the covers and wrap myself up so that Peter can’t get them back), we had a very loud sound machine to drown out all the noise so everyone could actually sleep.

Now, the crates are gone. The pack n’play is gone and the sound machine has moved to Bay’s room with her. All that’s left is silence – which in our world means only a slightly quieter din – but to us, it’s heaven.

Cheap Fun

1 Comment

I found this at Buy Buy Baby this week and it is a HIT – not only with Baylie, but with Bear. Naturally, Travis is throughly terrified.

It is an awesome combination of a tent and a tunnel, what more could a 16 month old toddler and an 11 year old dog ask for?! They come apart and can be used separately and  inside or outside – or put the tunnel inside to get to the tent outside; the possibilities are endless. Also, the tunnel makes an awesome, vertical hiding place for Mommy – which is a huge hit with the kiddo. It’s the perfect excuse to get out and enjoy the fall weather – and at $19.99 plus your handy 20% off coupon (also, Buy Buy Baby will take Bed Bath and Beyond coupons!), a cheap way too.

Also – each of the pieces break down and fold flat – like your windshield cover. Easy storage – bonus!

http://www.buybuybaby.com/product.asp?SKU=16695491&

I love that it looks like they are having a deep conversation…

Buddies

Bear Bear coming out of the tunnel

“Mommy, please stop taking my picture.”

Give A Little Bit…

2 Comments

I’ve been reading a lot lately about doing little things to be more green, charitable and in general, kind to others. One of the things I think is so important in that category is community service. I think the perception is that this has to be a huge chunk of your day or week, but in reality, there are so many charities and organizations out there that need volunteers, but not for crazy amounts of time.

When we were kids, my mom, myself, my sister and our dog, Prince, volunteered with an organization called Pets On Wheels. We would take Princey and go to a nursing home for about an hour a week and just walk around and visit with people. We never stayed that long with any of the residents, but just long enough to talk about Prince or Ali and myself or whatever was on their mind. They always seemed grateful to talk about something other than why they were there.

I rejoined POW after graduating college and then again when we moved home to AZ from DC. And now I take Baylie with me to visit – she alternates between whipping Travis with his leash, shaking hands with the residents, looting their lunch trays and waving goodbye – most of them love it and I bail out before any of those that don’t love it say something. Travis sits sweetly next to each person we visit and accepts the pats and scratchies. I love teaching her that serving others is not only an important part of life, but a necessary one.

So if you don’t currently volunteer, consider finding an organization that is in need of volunteers and fits your time frame so that you can stick with it. Look for those that involve your pets or your kids so that you get to pull double duty: time with your family and time giving back.

Here’s a few websites to get ideas:

http://www.petsonwheelsscottsdale.com/ – please note the much less tired and younger version of Travis and myself on the “young volunteers” page. And yes, I still count as “young”!

http://www.crisisnurseryphx.org/nursery/ – the crisis nursery can be a tough place to volunteer due to the situations that many of the kids are in. But they are always in need of diapers, clothing and toys.

http://az.willsforheroes.org/ – Peter volunteers with Wills for Heros. If you have legal experience, are a notary or a law student, they need you!

http://www.jaaz.org/ – Junior Acheivement is an amazing organization that teaches kids about business and entreprenureship at all academic levels. They need volunteers to help get items donated for chairity events and also help out in their super cool “JA Biz Town” (been there and I want to stay and play every time!). Bonus: many of the planning meetings have cocktails!

Check back with your favorite grade school teacher. Chances are they are still there and still teaching and in need of some help in the classroom. My sister Ali and I fulfilled our high school community service requirement spending 2 hours a week at our grade school. We would grade papers, clean out closets, read stories, whatever the teacher needed. And who doesn’t love a 1st grader giving you a drawing of yourself and saying  “thank you!”?

http://www.volunteermatch.org

http://www.iparticipate.org

Because really, who doesn’t want a visit from this guy?!

This Is Why I Don’t Get Anything Done

1 Comment

Reasons I don’t accomplish much in a day other than keeping everyone alive:

1. Baylie dumping dog food into the water bowl and Bear T. Dog bobbing for it. Both of them and the floor covered in water.

2. Nothing is as fun as a messy room. As soon as Mommy cleans it up, Baylie messes it up.

3. I call a handy man to fix the pull out trash can and he calls me two days later and wants me to go online to find the replacement.

4. Leaky diapers.

5. Baylie and I plant two flats of petunias. Baylie pulls most of them out while my back is turned watering the pots.

 

It’s a good thing she’s so stinking cute. And yes, she’s playing with a tube of toothpaste…