Cinnamon Rolls

To get the recipe for the Cinnamon Rolls go to the link titled Heather on my side bar. Once there, scroll down. She has the recipe on her side bar down towards the bottom. Enjoy!

Randomness

Is that a word? Oh well, it will work to describe this post.

First of all I changed my background again. I decided I'm just not a scrapbooky type of person and the last two backgrounds weren't me. That's not to say I can't or won't find one that is me in the future. Just not now.

Next I thought I would share one of our favorite pass times. Thanks to Uncky Skunky (aka Peter) and his fun toys. ROCK BAND. We have a great band. This is them posing.

This is what they really look like while they play. (I almost made us fail the song because I stopped playing my guitar to take the picture.)

We put three towels under the bass drum pedal because we live in a townhouse so we share both walls and we didn't want the neighbors too mad at us.

This is Sam saying goodnight to his fans after his last song. It was past his bed time. The really sad part is we woke him up an hour later to go to Chili's with us. Thanks again to Uncle Pete who bought us an appetizer to share. I just know we are going to be voted Parents of the Year.

Next, we had a visit last week from one of our favorite friends, Emmy. She came at 7:30 in the morning so Sam had about an hour and half to play with her before he had to go to school. They got right down to the business of being pirates.Doesn't she have the best pirate face. What a cutie.

One more thing and the random post will end. Two weeks ago I got my hands on the best Cinnamon roll recipe ever, thanks to my friend Heather (who is perfect - no kidding). So another friend and I decide to try it out. They were fabulous. I ate four of them in one day. Gross, I know but holy shmoly they were schrumdilescent. My mom had one, ask her, she'll tell you. So this week I wanted to recreate the memory. The dough didn't rise. I was baffled. They were perfect last time. I went for it anyway and started to cry - literally - as I tried to roll them and the bottom of the dough stuck to the counter. Yes, I actually threw a little fit all by myself in the kitchen. This is how they turned out.

Can you tell that they aren't even half as tall as the pan?

So sad. But as you can see we totally ate some anyway. Not that good. But I realized that I left out the tsp. of sugar at the very beginning of the recipe when the yeast gets activated. It's amazing what one little teaspoon can do. I tried again last Sunday and once again, they were superb. I have no proof though because they were gone before I thought to take a picture. Big surprise.

This could possibly be the greatest idea ever!

I happened to go the the Scholastic website today and I saw this advertisement. On Tuesday, September 23rd at the scholastic headquarters they will read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone from cover to cover to celebrate the books 10th Anniversary! Scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. Eastern Time, people will be taking turns reading passages of the book out loud all the way through to the end (approximately 7 p.m. Eastern Time), which has given the event its name — Harry Potter Cover to Cover Day!
"If you're in NY you can come and read a part. The readings are first come,
first served and the first 100 readers will get a free copy of the special
anniversary edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (now, THAT is
totally worth waking up early for)! Everyone who reads will get a free
commemorative souvenir. And the coolest part of all — when it's your turn to
read, you get to do it sitting in the very same throne that J. K. Rowling
sat in when she was at Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall. " -Scholastic Website.

I'm taking any and all donations to help me get to New York by next Tuesday. If I get enough donations, I might bring Sam with me. All help would be appreciated.

My new Diet

I had an epiphany yesterday. As many of you remember, and some of you probably never knew this; I sucked my thumb until I was about 10 years old.
Matt and I saw a big kid (somewhere between 5 and 6) at church (regional conference) with a pacifier in his mouth. It stayed there the whole time. At first I was freaked out, but then I realized how quiet he was. While my 7 year old:
-rolled around under our bench and
-popped up and layed on the bench in front of us, and
-went out to get a drink - THREE times, and
-made me hold him like a baby and pretend to feed him a bottle while he made a sucking motion with his mouth, and
-drew pictures and made us guess what they were and
-yelled, "That hurt DAD!!" when Matt tried to get him up from rolling under us, and
-invited his grandparents (who were sitting with us) to his school Farnival (Carnival) and
-begged to sit on the balcony of the tabernacle.
While my kid did all this, the pacifier kid sat quietly on his mom's lap the whole two hours. So Matt and I are looking the kid and I said, "You know, I sucked my thumb until I was ten."
His response, "GROSS!"
Almost a week goes by and then the epiphany. I didn't start getting pudgy until I stopped sucking my thumb! I gave up the comfort of my thumb and must have switched to the comfort of food. So, as of yesterday, I'm back on the thumb.
Yes, there are drawbacks to this diet. Besides the social awkwardness, my thumb will stink and start to get misshapen. I'll probably start catching more colds and other sicknesses, not to mention diarrhea. But really, won't those things help the cause? I'll have to spend a lot of time in bed, more time to suck. Oh, I'll try to wash my hands before and after every thumb sucking session, but I'm sure there will be those times when it's just not possible.
For example, what if I'm walking down the isles of the grocery store just perusing the merchandise, and all of a sudden I end up right by the Zingers, which we all know are Twinkies in their greatest form - but only the ones with the raspberry and coconut? What shall I do in this situation. Shopping carts are notorious for all the germs on the handle. But there are the Zingers. My only choice is to insert the thumb and walk away. There's no time for hand washing.
What if Matt takes me to Olive Garden and I vow to myself to order just some light soup and salad. But then the menu comes, the menu that has greasy fingerprints on it from the guy before me who was still reading it, thinking about his entree while eating his appetizer and licking his fingers after every bite. Of course I have to look in the menu to choose my soup, but then I see the fettechinni Alfredo. Insert thumb until the server comes back. By then I'll feel fine from the comforting influence of the thumb and I'll be ready to order just a salad, forget the soup. But again, no time to wash.
I'm convinced this is the answer to all my personal issues. If I hadn't given up the thumb twenty years ago, I wouldn't be the messed up person I am today.
Here's to a new me. (I just "toasted" my thumb towards the monitor.)

Book Review - The Woman in White By Wilke Collins

After three months of reading it on and off, I FINALLY finished it!!! It was a great story with good characters..... It was just too dang long. The same story could have been told with just as much effect with half as many words. I'm always reluctant to ditch a book once I've started (unless it turns out to be pornographic). I was to that point several time with The Woman in White, but I'm glad I finished and I feel totally triumphant.

I crack myself up!

It happened twice this week....

First, I was talking to two of my friends and one was complaining about her flat-ish chest (she is not flat and I would love to have her body) . The other friend told her,"You're a Pirates dream!"
We both looked at her like she was crazy, and then she said, "You're a sunken chest!" We were totally laughing and the "flat" friend said she was going to tell her boyfriend that, and I said, "NO! Don't tell him, then he'll want some Booty!" Then we were screaming.

The next one is a little more involved. Matt and I stumbled upon a show called Keeping up with the Kardashians. I don't know if I spelled that right, but it doesn't matter because I'm not recommending the show. It's a reality show about this filthy rich family and the different ways they mistreat each other - at least that's what I gathered from this one episode. Kim, who has wanted a Bentley since she was 12 was finally wealthy enough and her dream was coming true. So she loads her sisters into the car and heads to the dealership to pick it up. Long story short, they get into a huge fight and Kim starts yelling things like, "You are ruining my moment! YOU'RE JUST JEALOUS OF MY BENTLEY!" They call each other names and the sisters drive off. Kim catches up with them later, there is slap fight and we stopped watching.

So Matt's making the bed on me, as usual. My favorite! The time of day I live for.
I was laying in the bed, half on my side, half on my tummy with my top leg bent and extended onto his side of the bed. And maybe I was being a little bossy about it because he had the nerve to call ME a Kardashian! So I said, " You are ruining my moment!... YOU'RE JUST JEALOUS OF MY BENT KNEE!"
The best part was that beside cracking myself up at my little joke, I totally made Matt laugh hard. I love it when that happens!