I drizzled!

Tonight is my first function with the Mothers & More club of the Oswego area. It's a Mom's night in - no kids allowed - woo hoo!

The theme of this Mom's night in is "unfinished project" & cookie exchange. Each person attending is to bring a project-in-progress such as a scrapbook, Christmas cards (it's still early for that - at least for me!), etc. I am bringing Hailey's first year scrapbook, which I have been neglecting for the last 18 months. The cookie exchange is optional, but seeing as this is my first function, I thought it best to participate 100%.


And because I want to make a good first impression, I decided to turn to the recipe pro in my family - my sister Lori. She gave me a recipe for Oreo Truffle Balls. I'd never had them before, but just the sound of them made my mouth water.

You can use any type of Oreo cookie and any type of semi-sweet morsels you choose. I made 2 different batches. The first is a peanut butter oreo ball dipped in peanut-butter chocolate. The second is a mint oreo dipped in milk chocolate with a white chocolate drizzle. This is a super-easy gourmet-like dessert!


Here's what the picture of the recipe looks like:

And here's what my finished product looks like:Not bad, huh? Clearly my photography skills need work, but the drizzle looks pretty good!

And just to make sure I was sharing a superb dessert with my new gals pals, RJ and I did a little taste test after dinner last night. His fav is the mint and mine is the peanut butter. And yes, they are as heavenly as they sound!

The Princess and the pee

I'm sure lots of you know my dear hubby, RJ, is very into woodworking. He mostly makes furniture for people for gifts. Anyway, he subscribes to a few magazines about woodworking and one of his favorites is simply called "Wood". When he gets his Wood magazine, he pages through it and tags the projects he find interesting. That way when he feels like making something, he can simply flip through the tags in his archived mags (he has 2 hanging cabinets in his workshop dedicated to magazine storage) and easily find projects. Very organized!

(Ok, ok, I promise I'm getting to the story soon here. Just hang with me...)

Before the magazines end up in the archive cabinet, they are usually strewn around the house. Some are in the bathroom, some on the end table, but one unlucky magazine (a.k.a. issue 187, Oct./Nov. 2008), which was already read and tagged, happened to be on the floor the other night. Believe me, I know this issue well now.

Most moms know the best way to cure a diaper rash is by letting the little rugrat run around for 5 or so minutes without a diaper (and therefore without pants) each day. (I know, stick with me a little longer.....)

Our little Hailey happened to have a bit of diaper chafing on the very night that issue 187 found itself on the floor. Issue 187 was tucked half under the couch right where RJ was sitting when diaperless Hailey approached her Daddy with a book in hand. She stood attentively by the couch looking at the pictures in the book as Daddy read to her.

Not long before the book began, we heard a strange noise. I'm sure you all know where this is going now. I looked across the room and saw Hailey tinkling right then and there with one foot anchored on poor issue 187. Besides issue 187, the couch, rug and floor we also hit.

We kept the tone calm being careful not to scare Hailey or convey to her that she was "bad" (I hear kids can get a complex about going to the bathroom if their parents scold them for having accidents. I mean, it's not really an accident when you're not potty trained. It's just doing your thing...totally not her fault).

Soon after this Hailey went to bed. RJ was at first upset about the fate of issue 187, which ended up in the garbage. It just couldn't be salvaged. I assured him I would order him a new issue. He countered with the fact he had already taken the time to go through the mag and tag all of his projects. I offered to put on rubber gloves and go through the mag and write down all of his tagged page numbers (for some reason I felt responsible for issue 187's fate). Luckily he declined.

The good news: Wood magazine is sending us a replacement for issue 187 free of charge. I think the customer service lady got a kick out my story of how issue 187 became "damaged".

Photo Tag

I was tagged by Nata-Leigh (A texan in illinois) to post the 6th picture in my 6th photo folder. Anyone who reads this is tagged.....post it!

This is a photo from the summer of 2006. Many of you know RJ and I used to have a boat (2 boats actually, but that's a long story. Actually is a long but funny story. I'd be happy to share as long as you have about a half hour to listen!)

This is a picture of us on our 2nd boat out at Starved Rock State Park. It was a sweet boat...a Wellcraft 19' bow rider with a 4.7 liter, 190 hp motor. We could get it up to about 50 mph on the Illinois River! Although I never liked going that fast - I'm such a whimp! Actually I didn't even like driving the boat, so RJ always had to drive. I don't think he minded though! He gets nervous when I drive the car!

Unfortunately we had to sell the boat last summer because owning a boat is expensive and we really had to tighten our budget so I could stay home with Hailey. Besides the $300/month boat payment, it cost us $70/month for storage, $250 each year for winterizing, and over $100 in gas for the boat and the pickup truck each time we took it out.

Anyway, there's no doubt in my mind that we made the right decision to sell the boat. Staying home with Hailey is great. I could not imagine leaving her to go to work and not seeing her for 8+ hours a day. It's also great for Hailey. She is so smart and I have to attribute that to all the time she spends with me reading books and playing interactively. I'm not trying to toot my own horn; I just love my job!

Ohhhh-bama

Last night was like most nights....I fell asleep in bed watching TV at about 9:30. Which means I didn't get to see the final election result before I drifted off to dreamland. I dreamed McCain won the election, so as soon as I woke up I turned the TV on find it was all a bad dream. *sigh*

I'm sorry I've been off the radar the last week or so, but it's been busy around here! Not that anyone is all that interested in the play by play, but this is how my last week went:


Wednesday: Playgroup and Halloween party for the little ones at Brandy's. It was great!

Thursday: Cleaned my house so I wouldn't feel guilty being out of the house almost all day Friday.

Friday: Attempted to trick-or-treat early in the day at Geneva Commons with Amanda and her kids. Unfortunately it was a bust. We drove a half an hour to get there for only 2 pieces of candy and 2 stickers. Woo-hoo! (insert sarcasm here)

Saturday: Went to a chili party in Rockford. It was great, but we didn't get home until about 9:30pm. Hailey slept for only 20 minutes or so of the hour and a half drive home and cried for the rest! Yikes!

Sunday: Went out for breakfast - pumpkin pancakes and waffles - yum! The rest of the day we dealt with a very crabby Hailey due to time change and staying up late.

Monday & Tuesday: Recuperated from previous 5 days.

So here I am! Hailey is still not herself yet, but who is? It's pitch black out at 5:30pm and I'm ready for bed by 8!