Thanks, Check-out lady

This weekend I made the much dreaded trip to Wal-mart to buy groceries. If any of you are "facebook friends" with me, you know that I strongly dislike Wal-mart. I really despise shopping there. However, with our grocery bill going through the roof, my DH has asked that I do the grocery shopping there instead of Publix. So, off to wally world I went.

It was a gross experience. Dirty floors, yucky looking veggies, and VERY crowded. I made it to the check-out line and as the woman who was checking me out scanned my bottle of white wine (HEY, I needed it. I went to WAL MART...ok, really it was to make a Gordon Ramsay recipe that I am itching to try...more on that later), she asked for my ID. This made my day...seriously. Made my day! I said, "Thanks!"

Then......well, SHE said...

"HAha, oh, well, it's not that you look 21. It's that you don't look 40, yet."

So...thanks, check-out lady.

Oh, Hi there!

Phew, it's been awhile, huh? I'm not sure if anyone even reads this blog anymore, I hope you do, though! What a holiday season, in some ways it went SO fast, and in other ways, I'm just glad that we all survived it! This Christmas will go down as the Worst. Christmas. Ever. in my book. I mean, seriously, the worst. Even worse than the one where our house caught on fire on Christmas Eve. Yup, worse than that. For the first time in my life, I was happy to take down my Christmas tree and decorations, happy to box them away, and happy not to think about the holidays for awhile.

It all started late Christmas Eve. My family arrived at my house for the opening of first present (it's always PJs), and the preparation for Santa's arrival. On the way in, my grandfather hit our brick curb with his car and immediately got a flat tire. At this point, my mother-in-law said, "it can't get any worse than this!" Famous last words.

My grandparents brought their dog, Annie, to our house. She's been there may times before and she and our dog, Princess, have always gotten along fine. They got along fine this time too...until...who knows what happened. I didn't actually see it, but, by all accounts, Princess attacked Annie. (However, Annie has a history of fighting with other dogs.) My grandmother, who sees Annie as her baby, threw herself in the middle of the dogs fighting. She ended up with a finger that was severed at the bone. So, Christmas Eve, we not only had family visiting, but an ambulance, EMTs, a police officer, and animal control.

My grandmother went to the ER, and was released Christmas morning, but is now back in the hospital to get a pin placed in the finger. They are trying to save it, but are not hopeful.

The whole incident was awful. A is traumatized, there is a lot of family animosity right now, and i'm at a loss about what to do with the dog. We love Princess, and she hasn't shown any violent tendencies towards the boys. Then again, she hadn't shown any towards Annie, either. I really wish that I could evaluate the situation better, and that I knew more about dogs so that I could determine what the risk is in having her around the boys. I'm really struggling with the decision.

I hope all of you had a wonderful holday season. Here's to a great 2010!

Life According to C.

**Side note: Ok, wow, so I totally failed the posting every day in November thing. Sorry! We had waayyyy too much going on including Thanksgiving, A's birthday, a trip to Disney World, and several friends' parties, just to name a few.

Ok, on to life according to C:

Me: Uh oh, mommy made a bad choice.

C: WHAT!>?

Me: Mommy made a bad driving choice.

C: Not a really bad choice though, right? I mean, just a little bad choice? You're not going to have to go to women's prison are you?!?!

Not My Child! Monday!

It was not MY child who tried to show me how to "pee pee" standing up, and then, after hearing an explanation of why girls (including mommy) do not stand up to pee pee, loudly pronounced to anyone who would listen "Daddy doesn't have a penis, he pee pees like mommy!"

It was also not MY child who had to be carried out of the dollar tree kicking and screaming because he could not have a piece of candy. It was also not my child who used a noise maker (like at a football game) in the middle of that same store. My children always behave like little angels in public.

Finally, it was not MY child who had a choclate covered doughnut for breakfast today because mommy was in a hurry to get to work. They always eat well-balanced meals. Plus, I wouldn't actually buy chocolate doughnuts.

Yay!

Yay!! Toys R Us reopened! Our local TRU was closed after some storm damage and there were questions as to whether it would reopen at all. Well, it did! Phew! We've been doing our Christmas and birthday (A turns 3 on Saturday) shopping at Target and Walmart and the selection there isn't great. Would you believe we don't have any other toy stores? It's crazy!

DH and I met at TRU today over lunch and, except for ONE thing, we finished the boys' Christmas and A's birthday shopping!! Yay for us! The bad thing is, we haven't purchased anything for anyone else. Boo! I'm going to get right on that and order my mom's gift. I can't say what it is, because I think she reads this sometimes :) Let's just say it's amazing, I want one, and it's sorta kinda blog-inspired!

I hope that everyone had a fabulous weekend and that you are marking things off of YOUR Christmas list as well. 45 Days left!

Brownie Bake-off

Well...we didn't win :( But, that's ok, we had a blast! It was so much fun and it was for a great cause, so what better way to spend the afternoon? We also had some repeat customers (one family came back 4 times to buy brownies), so I know that they were good. I'm going to post the recipe anyway :)

Sunkissed Brownies

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened and divided
4 eggs
2 teaspoons pure orange extract
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
4 blocks of semi-sweet baking chocolate
Nuts, if you like them in brownies. (I don't)

Grease a 13 by 9 by 2-inch pan and set aside. In a mixing bowl, stir together flour, sugar, and salt. Melt chocolate with half a stick of butter over low heat. Add chocolate to flour mixture. Add remaining butter, eggs, orange extract, and orange zest and beat with a handheld electric mixer until well blended. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes, or until brown and set. When cool, ice with sunkissed icing (below).

Sunkissed Icing

1/2 stick butter, room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
4 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons orange juice
1 tablespoon orange zest

Beat the butter and cream cheese with a hand mixer until fluffy and light. Add the powdered sugar and beat until combined. Add the orange juice and zest and beat until thoroughly combined

***Note: This recipe is an adaptation of Paula Deen's orange brownies

A quickie!

In keeping with the NaBloPoMo or whatever, I have to post today, but i'm swamped, so this is a quickie.

Wish us luck! My mom and I are entering a charity brownie bake-off tomorrow. We are making orange brownies w/ cream cheese frosting. YUM! Our team name is "orange you glad we're here!?" We're so corny.

If it turns out well, I'll post the recipe :)