Chocolate cookie creation...

I may need some backup on this one because I am 99% sure I'm remembering this correctly.

If you are my age or older and were a product of Alpine School District, do you remember having these cookies with school lunch?

The chocolate ones that cracked and had powdered sugar on them?

I swear we did!

As you know, I teach school. It just so happens that I teach in my Alma Mater district and these cookies are extinct, along with the infamous peanut butter bars. Too many "nut kids" with allergies. Sad. Well, for some odd reason I had a flashback today of my childhood school cookies and searched the internet for a recipe that I ended up tweeking a little bit. I called Ken and work to let him know what I was "brewing". You know us... far too many desserts in this house. Oh well, right? I'm happy to say that 4 cookies later, I feel like I'm 9 again trying to get the hang of my multiplication tables.

These taste just like I remember them!

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

1/2 cup oil

(I used 1/2 cup butter flavored Crisco instead. The oil made me worry about the end consistency of the cookie dough)

4 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, melted and cooled

(I also added 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder to the dough)

2 cups granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

4 eggs

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 - 1 cup powdered sugar to roll the unbaked cookies in

In large bowl, mix Crisco, chocolate, granulated sugar and vanilla. Stir in eggs, one at a time. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt. Cover; refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease cookie sheet with cooking spray if it's not non-stick.

Drop dough by spoonfuls into powdered sugar; roll around to coat and shape into balls. Place about 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until almost no imprint remains when touched lightly in center. Immediately remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks.

The dough is quite stiff when it comes out of the fridge, a lot like chilled sugar cookie dough.

I rolled mine into a ball first and then rolled it in the powdered sugar.

All ready for the oven!

I wanted to drizzle them with some melted chocolate to make them a little more "adult-ish". It was a complete disaster! Don't bother. The melted chocolate rolls right off because of the powdered sugar. You can see on the picture above that I at least attempted it.

Delicious!

So to all of my fellow Alpine School District attendee's... here you go!

Am I crazy or do you remember these too?

Christmas at our house...

It's our first married Christmas!

That's exciting. I've never had a husband to spend the holidays with!

We've got the tree and decorations up.

Here is a little glimpse of Christmas at our home.

We finished putting up the exterior lights a few days ago.

I bought this pre-lit garland last year for 90% off at an after Christmas sale at The Home Depot. Ken got it all put out on the porch. I really like the way it looks.

I made this wreath several years ago. It's not as good as the one I just made for Ken's mom. You can see that post here.

Here's a little day after Thanksgiving purchase I made.

We absolutely needed a new 40% off centerpiece!

(well... according to the way I define the word need we did)

...the stockings were hung

More stockings.

These two are quite small and are for Tank the dog and Sascha the cat.

I bought the stocking holder with a little prayer in my heart. Ha ha!

Peace... we're still wondering if that will ever happen between those two.

Below is my thrift store find.

And how much did I pay for 3 plates and the plate rack?

$1.00 total.

Hopefully now that the house is decorated, we'll get more and more in the Christmas spirit! Speaking of... I need to get going on my Christmas shopping!

It's in the mail, Shari...

A few Christmases ago I made wreaths for all of the members in my family that wanted one. I made one for myself too. I wouldn't call myself super crafty or talented, but I really do enjoy making things, especially around the holidays.

I decided to make a wreath this year for Ken's mom, Shari. Ken's parents live in Wisconsin and will get it sometime this week. It's been mailed already, but UPS is delivering it so I'm not exactly sure when it will arrive.

I'm not patient enough for her to see it once it arrives at their home. She checks our blog from time to time so I'll give her a little sneak peek at what's on its way. So, here is a little looky-loo at my creation...

All the "stuff" I need to make what I want!

Just about ready for a bow.

Voila!

There you go... one completed Christmas wreath.

You may want to keep this picture for reference, Shari. Ha ha ha!

I have NO idea how much of the wreath you will have to put back together after it arrives having been tossed all over the place while rolling around on a UPS truck for days.

Hope you like it! I really enjoyed making it!

4 months and counting...

Today we've been married for 4 months.

In some ways it feels shorter.

In some ways it feels longer.

But mostly it feels like its always been this way.

I think that's the best feeling of all.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!

Happy Thanksgiving!

As for us, Ken is working on Thanksgiving Day. But he should be home around 3:00 p.m. and then we'll be going over to my parents. My two brothers and their families will be there. We'll have the whole Chidester family!

My post from last year's Thanksgiving is here. Of course, I'll be taking mounds of green bean casserole again (my favorite). I'm also taking an apple pie instead of cheesecakes this year.

What will you do/did you do for Thanksgiving?

Franny B. Kranny, There's a Bird in Your Hair...

A few weeks ago, the mother of one of my students told me how I reminded her of a character in a book she had titled Franny B. Kranny, There's a Bird in Your Hair! She told me that the hairstyle of the main character looked a lot like mine. As you can tell from the cover picture on the lefthand side, Franny B. Kranny and I have something in common.

The student's mom sent the book to school with him today. I read it to the class and LOVED it! I had never seen it before and am going to buy me one. They're out of print, however, and a new hardback copy is just under $100.00. I'll be surfing Amazon for a used copy instead.

You may not like the book as much as I did. I think it's because I can relate to it. I have long, frizzy hair that I hate to have cut. People are always telling me to wear it down or to cut it. And I wear my hair up all of the time. The only thing is... I don't have a bird in my hair... yet.

I found this video clip of a librarian reading the story. It's about 6 minutes long. I think the book is really cute! I love it when I find new children's books I don't have!

The self-inflicted cost of courtesy...

Sharing and accommodation.

Welcome to marriage.

I am happy to share, and am really trying me best to accommodate Ken. And by accommodate, I mean do my best to make sure his life is a little more enjoyable and convenient too. You know, the man always has his clothes washed and put away, a clean home to come home to, and food to eat. He's not helpless by any means, but it's important to me that some things just get "done" for him. He does things for me too. Don't worry... it goes both ways.

Sharing a garage has taken a little adjusting to. I'm used to pulling in wherever I want to, and taking up as much space as I'd like. Now I leave room for Ken. One thing I wanted to do out of courtesy was leave enough room in front of my car so he could pull in, get out, and walk to the door into the house without having to go around and behind my car. So, I haven't been pulling up quite as far in the garage.

Well, evidently the sensor on my garage door isn't as accurate as I thought it was.

Yep.

Nice, deep, wide scratches from the hardware on the garage door that go clear through the paint and down to the primer. Well, at least I know that Ken was able to happily and conveniently get in front of my car to get into the house. There must have been plenty of room. Oh well. It's only a dumb car. I can think of a lot of other things that would make me a lot more upset.

Just another lesson learned from personal experience!

Ready or not, here it comes...

The weather forecast for today...

BLIZZARD.

Evidently, this is the first ever blizzard warning for the entire state of Utah. It's expected to hit where we live at about 7:00 p.m. tonight. I'll be home all cozy and warm while Ken is at work. I hope he can make it home! Tomorrow the low supposed to be -1 degrees.

Wow!

Welcome winter.

Nice entrance!

(and since the storms are coming, I am so happy I have the next 5 days off work!)

Embarrassed, yet again...

One of my first posts ever on my blog was about buying a sweater for my dog, Tank. You can click here to read it. I am very against dressing up animals. I think it's weird. Seriously, I was horrified by the whole sweater purchase back then, but the poor little doggie gets very cold very easily and I got sad watching him shiver every winter.

Well, a few weeks ago Ken and I were out running some errands and stopped at Petsmart to get some dog food for Tank. While we were there, Ken spotted the "sweater section" of the store and immediately decided we needed to give Tank an upgrade from his "old man" sweater to something a little more hip and stylish.

Again, I was horrified.

We bought the sweater (or "hoodie" as we call it) and headed home. Now that the snow has arrived in Utah, Ken is so good to put the hoodie on Tank before they go out for their daily walks while I'm at work. It cracks me up but it is ADORABLE to watch Ken wrestle Tank in and out of his hoodie to make sure he is warm for their outdoor adventure together.

I had to perch him on the kitchen table (gross, I know) to get him to hold still for a picture or two. He was basically trapped there. He hates the camera and runs when he sees it.

Here's the little guy himself all bundled up ready to hit the streets.

Hilarious!

Doesn't this face just say

"Please get me out of this situation. PLEASE!"

I think the black and white cammo makes him look little more tough and "gangsta". Maybe? I'm afraid he may just look like a little cow. That is sad.

Celebrity sighting...

While out running errands tonight, I ran into one of the actors in one of Ken's favorite shows.

Howard Wolowitz (the character on The Big Bang Theory) was walking into PF Changs in Orem with another guy. I actually stopped him and talked to him for all of 10 seconds. I was so tempted to take his picture on my cell phone (or at least ask if I could) but thought that would be rude. He was obviously trying to keep a low profile since his head was down and he was slumped down with his hands in his jacket pocket. Ken was at work, dang it! But I did call him to tell him who I'd chatted with.

He is just as short and skinny as he is on the show, and his nose is really THAT big in real life too. So there you go!

Pilgrims and cans...

With the holiday coming up, we've been talking about Pilgrims and Thanksgiving in my classroom. Yesterday, we read a historical fiction picture book that told how the Pilgrims lived when they arrived to America and began settling Plymouth. The book tells how the day of a Pilgrim woman would have been spent mainly cleaning and cooking. The book mentioned that the men and boys wouldn't have cooked or cleaned. After I finished reading the book, one of my students came up to me and said...

"My mom must be a Pilgrim because she does all of those things while we all play!"

Later yesterday, I had a different student come up to talk to me. The conversation went a little something like this...

Student: Mrs. Adams. I have a question.

Me: I have an answer.

Student: (with a very concerned look on his face) I've been thinking about something.

Me: What's that?

Student: Well, I don't understand about your husband.

Me: Don't understand what?

Student: Why anyone would have that name. Why would anyone want to be named Can?

Me: His name is Ken.

Student: Yeah... I know. I just don't know why his name is Can... like a soup Can.

Me: It's not Can. His name is Ken. (emphasizing the difference in the vowel sound)

Student: (looking very confused) I already KNOW that.

Then my little student walked away... still convinced Can and I are married.

(obviously we need a little work on our short vowel sounds here...)