Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Squares

It snowed today and was bitterly cold...I am huddled up in my warm cozy home pretending that I am on the beach in Hawaii. I am not ready for the snow. (Happy to report that I woke up this morning and all the snow is gone). They say we should be in the high 50's for Halloween.

Thank you to everyone who has sent postcards to Audrey. She has 9 so far. There is still lots of time to send one if you haven't already. Wes and I had Parent Teacher Conference with Audrey's teacher today. I am so proud of my little one (I know she is 8) the teacher had nothing but wonderful things to say about Audrey.

Mrs. Kringer summed it up -

"What a sweetheart! Audrey is an outstanding student and an absolute joy to each."

I am also happy to report that we had a "normal" school experience, we did not have any run-ins with the "crazy nurse."

I took Audrey to see High School Musical 3 ... it was good. The new Tinkerbell movie is also excellent. For those of you looking for a good movie to rent, the Hulk is really good and I am looking forward to Get Smart on the 4th. I finally finished Alias. I took a break and watched the second season of Ugly Betty (that is a great show!!). I am going to watch LOST (also by JJ Abrams) now. I have watched all the seasons but that is definitely a show you can watch over again just like Alias.

One of my favorite things to make this time of year is my Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Squares. Try this recipe, you will really enjoy them.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Squares

Makes 24 *Prep Time: 30 * Total Time: 2.5 hrs

If you can't find pumpkin-pie spice, substitute 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 3/4 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, and 1/8 tsp each allspice and cloves (all ground).

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbs pumpkin-pie spice
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 package (12 oz) semisweet chocolate chips

1 - Preheat oven to 350. Grease 9x13 baking pan. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, pie spice, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

2 - With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar on medium-high speed until smooth; beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in pumpkin puree (mixture may appear curdled). Reduce speed to low, and mix in dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

3 - Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake until edges begin to pull away from sides of pan and a tooth-pick inserted in center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely in pan.

Fireworks For Two

Wes and I finally celebrated our 8th Wedding Anniversary last weekend. (This weekend we celebrated our meeting 9yrs. ago). We had dinner at a beautiful restaurant on the bank of Skaneateles (pronounced skin -e-atlas) Lake. Wesley had the Rack of Lamb and I had Gnocchi (potato pasta)...the dinner was good but the view was better.

After dinner we went to the cutest bookstore/cafe. On the way home to get changed into casual clothes to go to the movies, we saw fireworks coming from the direction of Wes's work. Talk about random. We drove coming from the direction of Welch Allyn and, low and behold, someone very rich was having the 4th of July Spectacular for their wedding at the Lodge (Wes's work has all their company parties there and rents it out for special events). It was so romantic. I turned to Wes and told him he shouldn't have, fireworks were too extravagant.

Wes and I have come up with an excellent idea for the girls Wedding funds. We are going to tell the girls for every $1 they put into their wedding fund we will match it. I think this is a great idea. Just think, if they save enough money they too can have fireworks....NOT!!!!

Hubby Tag

I have already done this tag but I thought I would do it again for Emily and try to give some different answers.

1 - Where did you meet? - In the barracks at Ft. Polk Louisiana.

2 - How long did you date before you got married? - 11 months

3 - How long have you been married? - 8yrs

4 - What is your favorite feature - His shoulders

5 - What is your favorite quality - His quick wit and intelligence

6 - Does he have a nickname for you - Bunny

7 - What is his favorite food? - He has several, pretty much anything I cook for him.

8 - What is his favorite sport? - Competitive Trampoline

9 - When and where did you first kiss? - The Kings Court (soldiers hang out) on a Wednesday.

10 - What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? - Argue politics and world economics....I am not kidding.

11 - Do you have any children? - Do Audrey and Hannah count?

12 - Does he have a hidden talent? - Why, yes he does...I just found out that he can snap bottle caps from behind his head and hit targets. I guess back in his college days he was really, really good at it.

13 - How old is he? - He is 35 for just a couple more months.

14 - Who said "I Love You" first? - We said it together.

15 - What is his favorite type of music? - Hard/Classic Rock

16 - What do you admire the most about him? - He is a wonderful father and husband. He strives everday to provide and take care of us. I love that my husband is always trying to learn something new.

17 - Do you think he will read this? Yes...I know he will because when he gets home I am going to say "read this".

I tag - Cristine, Mom, Aunt Robyn an anyone else who has not already been tagged.

Trip to D.C.

The White House

The 4th of July Parade

National Monument

Apple Orchard

At the Apple Orchard a couple of weeks ago. Notice Audrey is wearing glasses:)

Hannah's B-day Party

See Cris the perfect bow!!!

Yummy

Look Mom, this rice krispy square is bigger than me!!!

Audrey's B-day Party

See BYU

Wes drew this Pet Shop Dog for "Pin the Bow on the Puppy"

Audrey's chocolate cake

First Day Of School

First day of school

Tomatoes

The Garden

Green Tomatoes Everywhere

I kept the tomatoes in my window sills until I was ready to use them

Yay...they are starting to change color:)

Have you ever seen?

During the summer we went to a State park. Wes and I noticed this sign -

Ponder with me people?

Faux Pas

We had some of our friends over on Saturday for dinner. After dinner we played the game Apples to Apples (see Cris, I do listen to you, I went and bought the game). For any of you who have not played Apples to Apples the object of the game is to match up red apple cards (these are random cards with names of people, places or things) with a green apple card (these are description cards with words like...loveable, miserable, majestic) the judge picks the red apple card that matches best with the green apple card. The judge changes every hand...you need 8 green apple cards to win.

I was the judge for the following round and the green apple card for the round was LUCKY (so the card that best describes the word lucky) everyone had given me their red apple cards and the first card I flipped over said ANNE FRANK. Oh my gosh, I thought I was going to pee my pants, I was laughing so hard. I had tears running down my face. Our neighbor did not know who Anne Frank was and was just trying to get rid of that card...she felt so bad when we explained that Anne and her whole family were murdered in a Concentration camp by the Nazis. Not exactly lucky:P

Simply Dangerous

Hannah went to a birthday party over the weekend. When we came to pick her up the first thing she told us about was the cat that was imprisioned upstairs.
"Do you want to know why that cat is Simply Dangerous? He bites, scratches and STARES at you!!!!"

Sounds dangerous to me.

Pictures

Pictures...Yay!!!! I have 476 pics to choose from, it is going to take me weeks to get the ones I want posted:)

I love this pic of Audrey and Hannah. They are waiting for Hannah's friends to arrive at her birthday party.

Weekend Update

Audrey received her first postcard at school from Grandma (Great-Grandma). Audrey was so thrilled and excited. Thank you Grandma!!! Audrey also got a 94% on her end of unit math test (it was 4 pages). This a great big Yippee...thank goodness she is starting to take after her Dad when it comes to arithmetic.

I found the girls Halloween costumes at the Disney Store. Hannah is going to be a Cheerleader from High School Musical; it was 25% off (cheaper than buying the Cheerleader outfit at Target). When we walked into the Disney Store I saw the Peter Pan costume at 40% off and jokingly asked Audge if she wanted to be Peter Pan. She turned to me and said yes and got all excited. The girls have watched a lot of the Broadway productions of Peter Pan and Peter is always played by a woman so Audrey thought this was a great idea. I tried to convince Hannah to be Tinkerbell but she would not budge. I am going to be Snow White and Wes is going to be a Skeleton. Halloween should be a lot of fun this year. Wes took the day off and the girls only have a 1/2 day of school.

I got the new Giada De Laurentis cookbook. It is a great Italian cookbook. I highly recommend it. It has a lot of simple and eloquent recipes.

We went and saw Beverly Hills Chihuahua (try typing tht 10 times fast). Please save your money, do not be lured in by the cute and singing and dance number in the commercial, it is not even in the movie. A great movie to watch is Leatherheads with George Clooney and Renee Zelwigger, or Iron Man with Robert Downey Jr. Do not waste what small amount of sanity you have left watching a movie about rich spoiled Mexican dogs.

We went to the Apple Orchard and Pumpkin Patch. It was awesome. They must have had at least 1000 apple trees, and they had many varieties. We took a wagon ride out to the orchard and ate so many apples (you got to eat all the apples you wanted while picking). We got 14lbs of apples for $6. We also got 3 beautiful pumpkins for $5. The orchard is about 15 minutes from the house and we will definitley be going back before the end of the season.

Have You Callled Jenny?

The girls and I were watching T.V. the other night. A Jenny Craig commercial came on. Hannah was not really paying attention until she heard "Have you called Jenny? Jenny's food is great!!!" Hannah looked at me and said, "They love your food, too!! Wow, Mom you are so famous." That is the only time tht I have not been annoyed by Jenny Craig.

Does Your Gerbil Food...!!!! Have Nuts?

Monday morning I got a phone calle from the school nurse. This is how she started off the converstation, "Hannah's class is not going to be able to get Gerbils because the Gerbil food has nuts." The face I made was priceless. I took a breath and asked her to repeat herself. I then informed her that we have had Gerbils for two years and not once has Hannah eaten their food or had an allergic reaction to it. Furthermore, putting that responsibility on my daughter's shoulders was asinine. So for 30 minutes the nurse and I went a couple of rounds on the phone about nut allergies and the people who have them. Wes and I were so disgusted by the converstation that we went over to the school to talk to the Principle. We brought our Gerbil food which just happens to be NUT FREE. I know...contain your amazement. The Principle was at a meeting but we got to talk to the VP who informed me that earlier that morning...before the nurse had called me....they found NUT FREE Gerbil food and would be able to proceed with the "Great Gerbil Experiment". I told her I would have appreciated more of an open dialogue between them, the nurse and Hannah's teacher, and asked that Hannah's teacher call us, not the nurse. I felt better. The VP was great and I should have walked out the door then and gone home, but the nurse wanted me to pick up a form for our Doctor to fill out. I should have listened to my good shoulder angel and left the building. Wes and I told the nurse what we had just been told about the Gerbil food and she did not believe us. I had to go and get the VP to tell her what was going on. Daft...or what? Then we got on the topic of her wanting Hannah to eat by herself again. That was a battle she was going to lose and frankly I don't think she understands who she is trying to tangle with. All she could get out was that the school was going to be held liable for anything that happened to Hannah and that they had to cover their butts. I kept asking for a form to fill out stating that they would not be held responsible. If she had her way all the children will allergies would eat outside in a plastic tent with armed guards, not because she wanted what was best for the kids but because she doesn't want to be held liable. Of course, I mentioned Canada and that Audrey went to a Nut Free School...and all she could stammer out was that this was not Canada and obviously there was something wrong with how Canadians do things. This made me laugh...absurd.

The only really good thing that came of the visit was that we got to see Hannah eat lunch. There were only two children in her class eating peanuts and they were not by her. We got to see Audrey going to Art class. Wes and I talked to Hannah's teacher and gave her the name of the Gerbil food that we buy at Petsmart...not the moon.

A closing note - Mocha Joe endorses food without nuts, she says her coat is extra shiny and she does not have that salty smell.

Update

I am allergic to Lentils...I learned something new about myself. They are in the legume family, same as the peanut (peanuts are a legume not a nut, but I still consider peanuts nuts just out of sheer stubbornness). We went over to a friends house for dinner on Saturday and had this delicious lentil soup (by the way I have had lentils before) and the next morning my face was swollen and my eyes were all puffy. Very sad because I enjoy lentils. Lets just all be grateful it was not a jelly donut.

(Note - The rest of this blog is political, read at own risk)

We have technology back in the house and just in time to watch Wall Street have one of the biggest financial fiascos in history. Yay us. I got to see the first Presidential Debate. I was completely unmoved and disappointed. I didn't see any real change...the only thing I have going for me is that I like one guy a little more than the other, Yippee. I am happy to watch Heroes, Dancing with the Stars and the Amazing Race, but am saddened to see that during our break from technology, world crisis escalated and politics only got worse.

New York State is going to take hardest hit from the resolution not being passed by the government. 28% of New York State's revenue comes from Wall Street. 80% of our education budget comes from the State Budget and they say that the education budget will be the first thing that will be slashed and it is already $9 million in the red. Hold the phone....we can build a new state of the art stadium for the Yankees when the "old" stadium is a historical landmark (Babe Ruth, played there people) and still can be used (in a few months it will be turned into a parking lot) maybe that money should be used to got to the schools. Hmmm...I just do not understand.

This does not mean that I am in favor of this bail-out actually I think that our credit and loan system should get a complete over-haul and maybe this is the rude awakening the dishonest and greedy money lenders need. People have lived on credit and borrowing money for so long that they have forgotten how to survive within their means. I am quite sure that our Congressman and Senators are going to lose quite a bit of money that has been lining their pockets over the last decade or so, from these corporations. Maybe we should heed the advice the Romans gave us and remember - Rome did not fall in a day....maybe we should fix the real problems and learn from the mistakes of our predecessors.

Audrey's B-day Party

I am so happy that birthday season is over for now!!!

Audrey wanted everything decorated in blue and white, so the house looked like a BYU Pep Rally...this was not good, I am a UTES fan all the way. So I bought silver and purple chocolates, purple and white flowers and scattered Little Pet Shop toys all around the house. That really added to the birthday ambience.

Audrey had 10 kids come to her party, I also had 5 adults to help me, that was nice. I found out that a bunch of 8-9 year olds are a bigger handful than 5-6 year olds...weird, huh, even with adult help. When the kids first got to the party they made nametags for their stuffed animals and then everyone went around the room and introduced their animals. Then they made foam elephants, gorillas and lions on popsicle sticks for their animal to play with. This was a fun craft but I am very happy that Wes and I made some the day before because it was not as self-explanatory as I would have liked.
We ate baked ziti, salad and bread. We played a couple of games. Wes drew the cutest picture of a Little Pet Shop toy dog and they played pin-the-bow-on-the-dog. Audrey then opened her gifts. She got a lot of books, a gift cert to the book store and some money to go and buy books. She was in heaven. She also got some clothes, 2 webkins and the movie Annie. Wes and I gave Audrey her American Girl Doll Felicity...it was love at first-sight. All the other kids were so envious and I was happy that for once Wes and I were able to give Audrey something she really wanted. We paid sooooo much money (a note for grandma; about $130, it is a doll from her favorite series of books, very good quality) for that doll, but it was worth every penny. Hannah can't wait until she is 8 so she can get hers. We told the girls if they wanted any others that they would have to save up their allowance and by the dolls themselves.

We then had my French Chocolate cake decked out in a Little Pet Shop motif and I bought candles that the flames were different colors when they were lit. Very cool. The only thing that would have made her happier is if she would have had family and close friends to celebrate with. Audrey had mentioned several times in the last few weeks how much she misses everyone.

All in all, I think Audrey had a very good birthday:)

Are Your Kids Friends With Bullies?

Wes and I learned something very important at Audrey's birthday party. Audrey invited 10 of her friends and she only had one friend that we disapproved of, so she is doing a pretty good job picking healthy friends. This girl was so obnoxious, rude, and unbearably bossy to the other children. She was even bossy to her Mom when she came to pick her up and that was o.k. with the Mother. She was bossy to the other parents and I even had to reprimand her at the party for saying something mean to one of the other children. Then to put the cherry on the sundae this girl had to be the center of attention when Audrey was opening up her American Girl Doll and started shouting out what Doll it was when she saw the name on the bottom of the box, the opposite end of where Audrey was opening it up. I was livid!!!!

After Audrey's party we explained the different types of bullies to Audrey and what qualities make a good friend and what qualities do not. We told her that she is not allowed to play with this girl anymore. Wes and I were bullied a lot in school and this is something my daughters will not have to tolerate. Once a year is not often enough to meet their friends so I think every 3 months I am going to have a gathering of all their friends so I can get to know them and see how they interact with one another in a group. I want to make sure that no one is taking advantage of Audrey's sweet, naive nature and that she has good friends and in return is being a good friend.

Hannah is still having a hard time making a lot of friends. Hopefully this is something that will change as the year progresses.
Last year a little girl was bullying Hannah and she did not want to return to school. I sent a note to Hannah's Kindergarten teacher and that day I got a phone call and the bullying stopped. Hannah already knows how people should treat her. It is amazing but at the same time I think she already has trust issues. I would be embarrassed and even ashamed if I knew my girls were being mean to other people. I frankly do not understand. That's the real crisis facing this world: people not being taught to be kind and considerate to others.

Aunt Robyn...I Found The Answer!!

A couple of months ago I was talking on the phone with Aunt Robyn about our tomatoes and how they were still green. We were brainstorming on how to get them to turn red (all the worry was for nothing because ALL 80 dozen - o.k. that is an exaggeration - turned red).

Here is what you do if you are on a time table and you need your tomatoes to turn red;

Put your tomatoes in a brown bag with a couple of bananas and the ethylene from the bananas will turn your tomatoes nice and red. You can also put a couple of bananas next to your tomatoes where ever you are storing them (NOT IN THE FRIDGE) and they will turn..just not as quickly.

This helpful little tidbit of knowledge came from my favorite chef Jamie Oliver...LOVE HIM!!!! Thank you Jamie. So the next time you are bored, let a tomato and a banana hang out and see what happens:)

(We got a little over 18 dozen tomatoes this crop)