Epic Fail

"Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate, first one says "Oh my, it's getting late"  

The BK and I don't have any children, at home, but that doesn't mean we don't like to carve a mean pumpkin...So we drive all over the county to find the best pumpkins we can. The BK decides, maybe, we should roast some pumpkin seeds. I'm not a huge fan, but I find a couple recipes on Pinterest. Mmmmmmm...Cinnamon Glazed Pumpkin Seeds sound uh~maz~zuh~ing! 

On a cold, rainy, fall Tuesday, we begin the carving process. And I begin the roasting process:

Step 1:

After digging the guts out of old Jack, place the seeds in a bowl of hot water. This makes it easier to get all the stringy guck off your seeds...

Step 2: 

Spread your seeds on a baking sheet and allow to dry overnight.

Step 3: 

Transfer your seeds to a mixing bowl...coat with 1 tbs of olive oil and add 3 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 cup of sweetener, combine well. *Note: the original poster used Truvia Baking Blend, but I chose to use Sugar in the Raw. 

Step 4:

Spread seeds, evenly, on baking sheet and bake in a 310 degree oven for 30 minutes. Spread seeds around, and bake for an additional 15 minutes.

(I will admit a gigantic screw up...I read 3 tbsp on cinnamon instead of tsp! So I added a bit more olive oil and sugar. )

This was an epic fail. Epic. Fail. Oh, the cinnamon and sugar glaze tasted delicious...the seeds, however, had the texture of cardboard. I did a little digging around...it seems like the oven should've been set at 300 degrees and the seeds stirred more often. 

If you want to try this recipe, for yourself, you can find the original recipe here...
Maybe your attempt will be a success!!

                                 

not so MANIC MONDAY

REPEAT: BECAUSE OCTOBER IS "ADOPT A SHELTER DOG MONTH"

"dogs are everywhere almost everywhere i go..."

FLASHBACK october 2007
rufus appears on our deck, early one fall morning.

FLASH FORWARD january 2008
first came charlie. cody and his girlfriend went to the local animal shelter and came home with a huge puppy. HUGE puppy. charlie is collie/st. bernard mix. and he's scared of everything. i call him the cowardly lion.
then came maddie. she's tiny. she looks like a mutant chihuahua. her paws are HUMONGOUS. we are told she is pit. as she gets bigger it's clear she isn't. she's greyhound/english pointer mix. she is a princess. she rules the house with an iron fist. rufus could care less. charlie bows down to her highness.

FLASH FORWARD today
maddie lives with me and bk now. no dogs to boss around. no boys to boss around. and bk refuses to be bossed around. she attempts to boss e'beth around...e'beth reminds her that she is, in fact, the queen. she is an amazing dog. she is loving. she is calm. she rarely barks. she does have her issues: #1~she still thinks she's a chihuahua (but why CAN'T i sit in your lap?)...#2~she hates when she is sent to time~out (yes, she gets time~outs, and, just like any kid, she tries to get out early...maddie's version? military crawls out of the room)...and #3~she firmly believes in "no means no" (so a word to all male dogs...keep your distance...she will punch you in the throat).
october is "adopt a shelter dog" month. we've all seen the commercials. sarah mclachlan sitting there, with her healthy yellow lab, making us cry over all these sad, abused animals. well, she's giving you some important facts...according to the aspca,  5~7 million companion animals enter shelters each year and 3~4 million are euthanized. 25% of dogs in shelters are purebred. and only 10% of animals, received in shelters, have been spayed or neutered. so, why listen to sarah and ADOPT a shelter dog? for one thing, you will be saving a life. the number of dogs being euthanized would be reduced drastically, if more people adopted rather than purchase from a pet store. your pet will, most likely, be healthier. most shelters examine and vaccinate animals when they are dropped off. and, often, they will spay/neuter the animal at adoption. and this also means...you'll save money. think about it...the cost of the adoption fee including first shots, and spay/neutering (go purchase a pet from a breeder or pet store and try to get a deal like that!)? and, don't forget, studies show that pet owners live happier, healthier, lives. so basically, you've saved 2 lives (the shelter dog and your own!!).
adopt a shelter dog...it does the body good...

**Update to gallery...our newest shelter dog**

                      

 

               

 

need help finding a shelter or rescue near you? check out petfinder.com

FLASHBACK september 11, 2001

"imagine all the people living life in peace"

i am rushing around getting ready. charlotte and i are taking our 6 kids, plus a few of their friends, to see incubus next month. the tickets go on sale today. a trip to house of blues and some early christmas shopping are in order. kids successfully dropped off at their various schools? check. make-up and hair done? check. money? well poop. i rush out the door and head to the bank. 8:46am...my cash is dispensed from the atm (i know because i still have the receipt). i walk into charlotte's house. she's in her room staring at the today show. "you won't believe what just happened! crazy!!". the camera is focused on the world trade center and smoke is billowing from one of them. matt lauer and katie couric are discussing what could have caused this horrible accident. and then it happened. live. on our tv screen. the whole world watched as a second plane crashed into the world trade center. this was no accident. panic sets in. should i get my kids from school? should i leave them there? what is going on? 
FLASH FORWARD today
14 years have passed. there is a memorial where the towers stood. i haven't seen it but i have been to ground zero while it was being built. you can't help but talk a little softer, be a little nicer, be a lot more respectful when you're there. you can't help but remember how everyone in this country came together after that attack. we don't need to remember 9/11 on september 11. we need to remember 9/11 every single day. we need to be a lot more respectful of each other. we need to be a little nicer to each other. we need to talk a little softer to each other. we need to come together. "for united we stand, divided we fall...and if our backs  
should ever be against the wall...we'll be together, together, you and i".

^part of south tower from world trade center^

FLASH BACK august 16, 1977

"there will be peace in the valley..."
35 years ago, today, the world lost the king of rock 'n roll. i was 11 when elvis died. i'm not gonna lie. i have no idea where i was, or what i was doing, when i heard the news. and it would be years before i would realize how much  i love his music (mostly because i love vince vaughn, but that's a whole other story). 
hail to the king baby!!

THROWBACK THURSDAY

A REPEAT...
"he ain't heavy, he's my brother..."
FLASHBACK october 9, 1967
i am a happy toddler. i live with my mama and daddy in a nice house. we have a dog. life is good.
FLASH FORWARD october 10, 1967
the nightmare begins. mama and daddy bring HIM home. a little brother. "aren't you excited to be a big sister?" ummmmmm. no. no i'm not.
FLASH FORWARD 1970 something
i can't get rid of him. queenie and i are at the park? he is there. queenie and i are at the pool? he is there. queenie spends the night? he is there. he. never. goes. away. he tries to kill me...on multiple occasions. thank you whoever invented locks on doors. and there are times he needs my protection. yeah, exorcist demon, you will not possess my little brother because i'm letting him sleep in my room. 

             

FLASH FORWARD 1980 something
he's in high school now. and is kind of gigantic. no one realizes he's just a freshman. my friends become his friends. he's at all the same parties. the same homecomings. the same proms. he makes getting a date tough, however.  it's hard to get a date when every guy at school has seen you first thing in the morning. with your hair standing on end and no make~up. but, all in all, he's not so bad. 

       

 

FLASH FORWARD today

he's kind of a d~bag.  but he's my d~bag. he's given me a sister. he's given my 2 beautiful nieces. he's my dearest friend AND the bane of my existence.

today is national sibling day. celebrate your brothers and/or sisters...they are the ones that taught you "fairness and cooperation and kindness and caring" (pamela dugdale).

a gallery of siblings:

                         

FLASHBACK 1995

*iA repeat because it's necessary...."

"i can see the russian army rollin' thru my head..."
the kids are at school. it's a beautiful fall day. i've cleaned the house...finished the laundry...gone to the grocery store. i have a few hours before the boys bust in from school. maybe i'll read a book? watch a movie? and then...flashing lights in the corner of my eye. i look at my dog. i can only see half her face. what?!! this is weird. i spend the rest of the day in bed...my head buried under a blanket to keep out the light. if i move...at all...i run to the bathroom to blow chunks. i am experiencing what samantha stephens mother-in-law used to call "a sick headache". UGH!!!
FLASH FORWARD september 29, 2012
the bk and i have a relaxing morning. noon (ish) we go into town for the applefest. we duck into the paddock for lunch. hmmmm...mel's face his blurry. i never noticed she had a blurry face before? i have no advil migraine (it's solubilized ibuprofen, which means it gets in your system faster than regular ibuprofen)...this is not good. i text danno..."please have advil or the osu game is gonna suck for me!". he meets me at the door with 3 advil and a promise to turn the music down during commercials. you went to the game day party with a migraine, you ask? ummmmm...yeah...i'm no scarlet!! 

as a migraine sufferer who refuses prescription drugs as much as possible...i have a little advice:

#1~advil migraine really works...and doesn't upset my stomach. it doesn't contain caffeine, which can help but can, also, be a culprit when it's in high doses...
#2~a trick my daddy suggested...and it really works...ICE CREAM!!! not long after he mentioned this i noticed the beginnings of a migraine (flashing lights, blurred vision, an adversity to light) and the bk bought me the biggest chocolate malt united dairy farmers has to offer. KABOOM!! problem solved. maybe it was the cold on my brain...maybe it was the caffeine in the chocolate...i don't know and i don't care. the full on migraine was averted AND i had a tasty treat!
#3~get to a dark room and nap. i really need to purchase a sleep mask but, until then, i just wrap my favorite blanket around my eyes.
and finally...
#4~stay off your computer!!! even if you've taken meds, the light and all the colors and words on your computer screen will strain you eyes, making the migraine 45000X worse than it needs to be.
and, last but not least:
#5~be a scarlet and skip game day. you don't want to be a debbie downer, and besides, you need to be following rule #3...

 

FLASHBACK 1976 *or possibly further*

 
REPEAT BECAUSE IT'S IMPORTANT:
"a very merry unbirthday to me...to you..."
i'm not sure when she started...my earliest memory of my grandma marge reading "alice in wonderland" to me was when i was 10. but we had just moved back after 4 years, so it's very possible she had been reading it to me before. she told me i reminded her of alice...i was easily distracted. 
FLASH FORWARD july 2004
grandma marge passed. we start going thru her scrapbook. we learn some very interesting things...she was on the ohio state homecoming court in 1938. what?! that's cool! she was a licensed pilot. what?!!!!!!!!!!! okay!! grandma!! how do you not mention these things to your granddaughter(s)??!! grandma lillie says it best "ladies never brag...and marge was a lady...". i picked up a copy of "alice in wonderland" soon after. i read it at least once a year (or did until i mis-placed my copy...time for a trip to the book store!! yay!! or better yet...someone can get me this louis vuitton edition from penguin publishing...thanks for bringing it to my attention paige!!!). it keeps her close to me.....
FLASH FORWARD today
today is "mad hatter day**"....today is a day that all the stuff we do everyday, that most people would consider sane (going to work, paying the bills, cleaning the house), is complete and utter madness...and all the stuff that makes us happy, that most people would consider madness (playing in the rain, singing at the top of our tone-deaf lungs, dancing with the devil in the pale moon light) would be deemed completely sane!! just for today...
so put on your favorite hat...and get out there and do something completely...sane!!

                                

 

a gallery of silly hats:

      

 

                          

                  

 

                         

 

                                   


**interesting factoid: in the illustrations, the hatter is always seen wearing a top hat with a slip reading "this style 10/6" (meaning that style hat cost 10 shilling sixpence)...so we here in america took it as a sign to act like the hatter on october 6...the english? yeah...they read the date backwards, which means they act like the hatter on june 10...since i like to write my dates backwards but am, in fact, american, i think i will act like a hatter on both dates...XD     

"dear dear diary...i wanna tell my secrets..."

FLASHBACK 2008

i sign up for facebook, even though my kids don't want me to be THAT mom. i immediately start updating my status. "i'm bored". "why am i up so early?". "i'm cold". ugh. really? is my life really that...boring? i need to spice it up a bit. so in comes the song lyrics and movie quotes. bored? "i thought i had mono for a whole year, once. turns out i was just really bored" (wayne's world). up to early? "i gotta get up eeeaarrllyyy in the mornin'...to find me another lover" (the gap band). cold? "cold? i'm freezing my royal rastafarian nay nays off" (cool runnings).

FLASH FORWARD today

i still use the occasional song lyric or movie quote, but i find it much more entertaining to put a fun spin on my real life: 

"dear old house in the middle of the woods,
why do you wait until Jamie Conover goes to the office before you start creaking and moaning? i'm pretty sure he's convinced it's my imagination or that i am completely insane, but you and i both know you're just mean. i would appreciate it if you would just hush. k?
thanks"

kind of a fun little diary.

today is "dear diary day". people have been keeping diaries, or journals, for simply ever. but, with our hectic lives, we find it difficult to do that much today. oh...but we do find time to send out a tweet or update our facebook statuses. guess what? that's just an electronic version of posting in a diary.

so here are a few words of advice from the self-proclaimed queen of facebook (i'm not really...or maybe i am...but i'm not...but...):

#1~update your status no more than 2 or 3 times, daily. any more than that and you fill up your friend's news feeds and that's kind of irritating. which brings me to:

#2~do you have a friend that is constantly updating their status, constantly complaining, or constantly posting pictures of peanut butter? confine them to a list. simply hover your cursor over their name, hover over "friends", and then uncheck "show in news feed". voila! now you only have to see their rantings when you go to their profile or the list you assigned them to.

#3~remember how i said "fun little diary"? let's keep it fun. your friends don't need to know what you had for dinner, how you prepared it and, then, how long it took to digest. we love you but we really don't need to know EVERYTHING! do not do that to us!

#4~don't post a cryptic status and then refuse to answer when your friends want to know what you're talking about. if you can't say it on facebook, it belongs in an ACTUAL diary, with an ACTUAL lock and key.

#5~don't be a debbie downer. an occasional complaint is fine. "my cat died today. i'm sad.". that is a legit complaint. an important journal entry. your friends want to know and offer sympathy. "life sucks", "i have a migraine", "i hate everybody". posted every single day. really? is your life that bad? probably not. if it is...maybe you should consider seeing a therapist. 

okay people. get out there and celebrate "dear diary day"! happy posting!!

                 

 

not so MANIC MONDAY

"i can't keep my hands out of the cookie jar..."

FLASHBACK january 23,2014

the bk and i  are killing some time. we stop by the parent's place. dad offers us cookies. mmmmm. i like cookies. these cookies are delicious! i leave with a bag full!!!

FLASH FORWARD yesterday

i want something sweet, but i don't want to spend all day, in the kitchen, making a mess. then, i remember dad's delicious cookies and how simple they are!! 20 minutes later, we have cookies!!

SUPER EASY AMAZING SPICE COOKIES

ingredients:

1 box spice cake mix
1 egg
1 stick butter (softened, not melted)
cream cheese icing (optional)

preheat oven to 350〫.  mix together cake mix, egg, and butter until dough forms. roll into balls (about an inch), flatten slightly. bake 8-10 minutes. frost while still warm. makes 24.

*my butter was not softened because i decided to make cookies last minute. i popped in microwave for about 10 seconds, until just soft.
**let icing set before storing in an air tight container.

ENJOY!!