Grantie

I think my Grantie is da bomb! I can list a million & one reasons why but I'll spare y'all. This weekend he said two memorable things that melted my heart.
#1 I saw on free cycle someone was giving away a box of baby jars and needed to pick them up. I make candles so I thought cool lil candle jars but my Grantie says if we were to foster a baby we could make organic baby food & bottle it up. To many of you your like so but to me I love that he cares to want to give a baby good healthy stuff;)
#2 My phone alarm is set for the 3 times a day I have to give Lola her medicine & one is 6 am. We go to Church Saturday nights for the most part & this weekend was no exception. When my alarm went off at 6 on Sunday morning he said to me "I wish it wasn't the same service again cause I really feel like going to church again" it melts my heart to know I'm married to a man who finds a relationship with Christ as important as I do.

Today I had a lot on my mind & to put it lightly was moody & not very nice but the boy still loves & forgives me like noone I've ever know! I'm so blessed to have this wonderful man in my life! He has been undergoing many tests to find out why he's had " funky tummy" for months and tomorrow he gets sedated for the first time in his life! I pray they either don't find anything or something easily fixable.

Blessed

This year for my birthday I was going to do nothing.  It honestly wasn't that big of a deal to me this year.  Grant took the day off like he always does and we we were going to veg out all day, go to church at 6 and veg out some more.  My friend Sarah called me up Tuesday and convinced me otherwise and am I happy she did!  I sent out a last minute facebook message and invited a few people to come Saturday night after church for games and karaoke and honestly expected like 5 people to show up.  Everyone but two came!...I couldn't believe it!  Can I tell you how blessed I feel to have such wonderful friends here in Wisconsin?...well I'm going to anyway!  Not only did my they come they came with food and cards and excitement that it was my birthday...the one's who were here later even watched Justin Biebers never say never with me and I think they honestly got a feel for Bieber fever=D (at least I want to believe I made them Beliebers). I'm so overwhelmed with how blessed I am to have so many people who do truly care about me!  I can only hope I'm that good of a friend and I make people feel like they made me feel Saturday night! 

Right now we are focusing the money we do have after our monthly bills etc on getting ready for kids that will be placed in our home.  As many of you know Grant has this tradition that approx 6 days before my birthday he gives me something little everyday.  This year, for the sake of spending our money elsewhere he gave me little notes everyday and as one says they did mean more than any lavish gift he would've given me!  We've never been into gift giving in the first place but yep this is the 2nd best gift he ever gave me!  First was the Christmas we were waiting to get my nieces and nephew placed with us and he wrote me this awesome letter much like all the little notes this year. 

It truly is the things that money cannot buy that are worth more than anything someone would've wrapped up for me this year!

Yummy Food!

 Puppies even came!

 Some friends

 Karaoke Time!

Every year Grant & I give up something for lent. It shows us there is a lil willpower in us;) Usually it's soda, once it was fast food. I've been thinking about it over the last day and red meat came to mind but we really only have red meat on rare occasions so it really wasn't a good willpower test. This morning over some left over dinner for breakfast I was thinking about it and as God does he brought something to me. I'm going to give up negative thinking. Whenever I think something negative I in return have to say something positive about the situation or person. I've been in a rut lately and this is exactly what I think I need! Afterall, everyone has good and every situation has something for us to learn from it right?;)

Operation Slimdown the Dessert Binder Week 2

This week I'm going with a cookie.  It's from Nestle Toll House and although it is a little interesting it really caught my eye. Grant gave it an 8.5 and I gave it a 9. Easy to make, and love the salty addition to the plain ol chocolate chip cookie.  I left out the peanuts but otherwise followed the recipe to a tee. So far operation slim down the dessert binder is a bust...I'm suppose to be getting rid of recipes:) Only 2 in and they're both keepers.

Sweet & Salty NESTLÉ® Toll House® Cookies

Prep:15 mins
Cooking:9 mins
Level:Easy
Yields:60 cookies
Who doesn’t love something that’s both salty and sweet? This simple recipe puts a new spin on an old favorite by adding pretzel and potato chip pieces to the classic Nestlé® Toll House® Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt (optional)

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels

2 cups coarsely broken rippled potato chips

1 cup small pretzel twists, broken into 1/2-inch pieces

1/2 cup unsalted peanuts (optional)

Operation Slimdown the Dessert Recipe Binder

I spent two days organizing my recipe binders. I get recipes online from Betty Crocker, real simple, all recipes and probably a couple extra.  I also take recipes out of magazines and I've had a pile of them that needed to be organized. Beings I have nothing but time I did just that.  I put all the recipes in plastic sleeves and wow is my dessert binder thick! To slim down the recipes I can only do one thing and that is try them and toss out the one's that get 5 or less on a 1-10 rating scale.  So I'm going to attempt one dessert recipe a week.  Realistically there may be some weeks I don't and some I may make a couple.  I started with a recipe from Betty Crocker today.  Its Deep Dark Mocha Torte.  It has many steps and takes some time but OMG, it was well worth it! It states to use 9in round pans and with my round pans not telling me the dimensions I think I may have used 12in ones.  You are suppose to be able to cut each of the 2 cakes horizontally in half but mine were not thick enough so I just have one layer.  Grant gives it an 8 saying it was very good and I give it an 8 1/2.  I rated it high cause I'm not a huge cake fan but this was super moist and tasted so delectable! It was easy to make even though it did have a few steps, it wasn't difficult..that's a huge plus in my book. It did not get a solid 10 from me though only because it was so super sweet that you really can't devour a whole lot...which in the end isn't probably such a bad thing eh'

Prep: 50 Min
Total: 3 Hr 25 Min   

1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® chocolate fudge cake mix
Water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on cake mix box

"Cake soak"
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup rum or water
1 1/4 teaspoons instant espresso coffee granules


"Filling"
2 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 to 3 teaspoons milk

"Ganache"
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
6 tablespoons butter (do not use margarine)
1/3 cup whipping cream

Directions
Heat oven to 350°F (325ºF for dark or nonstick pans). Grease and lightly flour two 8- or 9-inch round cake pans, or spray with baking spray with flour. Make and cool cakes as directed on box for 8- or 9-inch rounds. Refrigerate layers about 45 minutes for easier handling.

Meanwhile, in 1-quart saucepan, stir granulated sugar, rum and coffee granules until coffee is dissolved. Heat to boiling, stirring occasionally; remove from heat. Cool completely.

In medium bowl, beat filling ingredients with electric mixer on low speed just until blended, adding enough milk for spreading consistency; set aside.

In 1-quart saucepan, heat ganache ingredients over low heat, stirring frequently, until chips are melted and mixture is smooth. Refrigerate about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened.

Cut each cake layer horizontally to make 2 layers. (To cut, mark side of cake with toothpicks and cut with long, thin knife.) Brush about 1 tablespoon of the rum mixture over cut side of each layer; let stand 1 minute to soak into cake. Fill each layer with about 2/3 cup filling. Spread ganache over side and top of torte. Store loosely covered in refrigerator.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2012! I'm so looking forward to this year and really think it's going to have good things in store for our lil family.  Looking back at 2011 it was just a so-so year.  Not great not horrible either.  I want to look back on 2012 as the year I made GREAT! 
I make resolutions, but try to make practical ones, not ones to lose 100 lbs etc. 
My 2012 resolutions/goals are:
*Read the bible daily
*Use my prayer journal daily
*Do the love dare devotional with my husband daily
*Continue to make progress in living our lives more naturally/organically in all aspects  of my families lives
*Find a job that makes me feel fulfilled
*Continue to work on financial peace
*Volunteer weekly
*Remember peoples birthdays on time

I've never been out for New Years.  Every year growing up we as a family would fondue and I've carried on this tradition. Last night we had cheese fondue with veggies and bread and chocolate fondue with strawberries and pound cake.  We watched Coldplay perform an awesome show on Austin City Limits and enjoyed being in together as a family.  Lola has her birthday on New Years as well.  She turned 4 this year!  I of course being the crazy dog lady made her a hat that she really didn't love wearing but did and bought her a birthday cookie from the 2 paws up dog bakery.

Hope everyone has a prosperous 2012!

Christmas 2011

So I quit my job to be able to spend the holidays with family and instead most of the time I spent the holidays wishing I had a job.  With some things going on in our lives besides me not having a job, money was tight and the Christmas spirit just wasn't there for Grant and I this year.  Grant had been dealing with a cold also which seems to put a damper on things as well.  Santa did not come this year which was the second year in my life...first being the year my mom decided to just have him not show up (I was probably in my early 20's but he's a pretty big deal to me). Grant and I decided together that he wasn't coming this year but it was really hard even though he doesn't usually go over 30 dollars it's the spirit of Santa that makes it exciting=) I really do believe Jesus is the reason for the season and if not for his birth we wouldn't even be where we are today as humans but I'm human and I guess a part of me wants a little bit of the commercial humdrum of it all....it pains me to have to admit that! So we packed up our car early Friday morning and headed to Eagle Bend, MN (Grant's hometown) and had family dinner and gift opening.  Saturday we headed to Fargo/Moorhead where we got to visit with my friend Sharon and spend the evening with Grant's family at his grandparents house.  Grant's family is insanely normal and right out of a Norman Rockwell picture.  Everyone gathers around and Grandma read the Christmas story out of the bible, we sang Christmas carols as Grant's aunt played the piano, Rick (Grant's father) read a story, which he reads every year written by an author from ND I believe and Grant's grandfather told stories and sang a song. We all gathered for church at a little church in the middle of nowhere and sat through a nice traditional service.  Grant said church helped him get the spirit a little more but for me it was still lost.  Sunday we went to my mom's house and what usually ends in my mom and I fighting ended with a civil day together....granted there was enough to be done and enough people to buffer any possible blow-up.
I don't know if the old saying is true that Christmas is better when through a child's eyes but if so it makes me sad we've lost that child in us and not having and probably never having children we may not get that back.  I also don't want my Christmas to be good or bad based on what I received or didn't receive how much money is available etc...it honestly pains me to say that although I feel I'm above all that I may not be.  Santa, who has always been something I choose to believe in the magic of and still "believe" in has always been the way Grant and I exchange something (we personally don't believe in using Christmas as an excuse for giving something big). This year agreeing to not do it seemed to take so much away and that in itself makes me wonder about myself...ugh. I really hope next year I have a good job and the spirit of Christmas is something we both can recapture