Cupcake Mania

Tonight Abbi and I made the most amazing cupcakes, I personally have ever made. In fact they were so great, that I have a new category for posts - food. It seems to be my new favorite past time. But back to the cupcakes. We stole the idea from Our Best Bites. While we were looking through their site we also saw these owl lollipops, so we decided to do a little improvising and make some of our own. We've decided you can determine if ours are cuter...

So, first we made our own icing so we could squeeze it out of a bag onto the cupcakes...by the way, this is crazy easy, I may never buy icing again.

Then of course cupcakes were necessary...
We put down some base coloring for our cupcake animals. Abbi was testing who was cuter - her or the cupcakes...
The cupcakes didn't win without their animal form, however, soon they started looking a bit more adorable...
Abbi came up with the idea to use marshmallows for eyes on the owls, and they began to take shape as well...
UNTIL...we had our two perfect models...
I know, seriously! How cute are these?!?!
So...who wins?

our best bites...

or ours...

We SO WIN! Oh, and in case you were wondering, they are as delicious as they look!

This Week

Last week I felt like this...
This week I feel like this...It's nothing short of spectacular. "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." - Matthew 11:28

Turn Up the Music

These are the pictures and song we played at my Mom's service...grab a tissue, but I hope it makes you smile as well.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Beauty Will Rise

Steven Curtis Chapman's CD 'Beauty Will Rise' is one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard. It is more or less a soundtrack for your grief. This song is what I sing from my heart on the days I feel it and sing through my tears on the days I don't...sometimes you have to speak the truth until it's true!

All Things Pumpkin

I would like to write an ode to FoodNetwork.com, however I'm not really a poet, so instead I'll write a blog post. This weekend Allison and I took on not one, or two but FOUR brand new recipies - two of them which required roasting a pumpkin...which of course neither of us had ever done. Most of them came from the spectacular search function offered on FoodNetwork.com. Just put in what you've got in the house and VOILA, you have yourself a list of things you can make - and ratings too! While Monday's squash pasta cassarole was pretty spectacular...

...Sunday's All-Things-Pumpkin really took the cake. We roasted the pumpkin in order to make Pumpkin Soup. You may scoff, but you shouldn't knock it until you try it, it was awesome! Then we roasted the pumpkin seeds...because, well we had them, and roasted pumpkin seeds are delicious! And to finish it off (and becuase we had another half a pumpkin we didn't know what to do with) we made Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese Icing!!! In case you are wondering they were good...and as it turns out it's really easy to use fresh pumpkin. Now if the Charleston weather would just figure out that it's actually fall and not summer we would be all set!

100 calories

My friend Lisa clued me into this glorious little thing Nabisco started selling called '100 calorie packs'. It's the same snacks and cookies Nabisco sells regularly, just pre-divided into 100 calorie packages. I recognize that it's absurd that I need to buy prepacked items to keep myself from eating an entire bag of cookies, but it's true, so I've just accepted it. I've been a huge fan of the 100 calorie packs, but this week I found the Holy Grail of 100 calories...OREO Cakesters...
Gloria a Dios! (working on the Panama blog, so Spanish is on the brain)

About Time

It's been over a week since I posted last and I guess it's about time to do another update on life. I've been holding out because I've been feeling just generally off this week and I keep thinking it will go away and my post won't be so depressing...I'm getting kinda tired of depressing posts . But, it's Friday and the general funk has not left me so I've given up and am posting. After I read my sister's post I realized that it's not just me feeling off this week. My dad had a rough week as well, so apparently it's just one of those weeks. We hit the two month mark on Tuesday, so perhaps that is it.

So...the past week... Last weekend brought us this...

That was the roofing team assembled at Brandy's to get the house ready for the market. Brandy and John are moving next year and they needed a new roof when they moved in, so they figured it was about time :) Brandy and I did not so much help with the actual roofing project, but we did a lot of...

...cooking. A LOT. I'm not really sure how moms of big families do anything except cook. We felt like all we did was prep for a meal, make a meal or clean up from a meal. Our one saving grace was...
...leftover Special Olympics plastic wear. Which significantly cut down on the dishes end of life! We decided that this roofing project was brought to you by Papa Johns! :) As you can see (new shingles on the left, old on the right) the efforts were well worth it!

While Brandy and I did make a showing on the roof a time or two...

...most of our time was spent here...

...where the shed went from someplace you couldn't even step into let alone move around in, to a rather well organized region of the world. Between knocking out the shed and her spare room we were more or less an un-filmed Clean Sweep team!

It was the first time we've all been together since the memorial service and while it wasn't as heart-wrenching as I had imagined it could be there were definite moments when I just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. Like at about 6:00 on Friday when Brandy and I suddenly realized that my mom would not be cooking dinner and it was up to us to go grocery shopping and cook. One of those things that you just don't think about because she always had a meal menu and would whip us into shape as we were sitting there talking. Or when we were walking through the grocery store and didn't know how much of things to buy, or what kind of ice cream my dad liked. Every time I wanted to scream at the universe 'THIS ISN'T FAIR!', but I knew that was going to get me nowhere, so I swallowed the lump in my throat and kept shopping. I guess there is an aspect to life right now that goes in the 'suck it up and move on' category, and whether it's fair, or nice, or easy, doesn't really matter, it is what it is. My mom always said 'life's not fair, get used to it while you're young'.

Prior to the roofing project I had a week in West Virginia at a conference for work. I love this conference. I know I am a total dork for loving a conference, but this is the week I get to meet with all the people who do my job all over the US and it just generally makes me feel more motivated to do my job when I leave...which is always a plus in life :) So, I have three pictures to sum up the week. The first picture is to prove I truly did do work while I was there...

...the second picture is to prove there are far more entertaining things to do at a NERRS meeting than work...like having a DODGEBALL TOURNAMENT!!!...

...and the last one to prove there are some spectacular pictures you can find online to make a point in a presentation (this one stolen from Grey's presentation, who is spectacular at only using pictures in his powerpoint - most of them which don't even have to do with what he is talking about)...

Happy Friday!

Chi Chi Chi Le Le Le

I just watched as the last rescuer waved goodbye to the camera, climbed into the capsule, and stepped back out on the surface. Congratulations Chile - you just inspired the world.

Thoughts throughout the day

1) If I had a salad bar in my house that was stocked by someone else, I would eat far more vegetables. (the salad bar at the place we are staying for our conference is awesome)

2) I think from here on out all my chocolate should have sea salt on it - I'm pretty sure I'm obsessed with the sea salt/chocolate combination.

3) Me and T-mobile are going to fight. Most of the people here are having issues getting cell coverage, but at least they get is SOMEWHERE! I'm having withdraw symptoms of talking to my Dad, Nikole and Brandy - there are not many days in the past few months we haven't talked.

4) My brain hurts...and it's only day 2 - this does not bode well for mental functioning by Thursday.

5) I'm part of government and they make me sick, no wonder everyone else hates them. Honestly, if I hear one more time how a new chunk of money has been given for such and such and the answer is what new office can be made I'm going to puke!

6) Certain moments are not going to be any easier in 5 more months. My friend Rachel lost her dad 7 months ago and her post from Sunday made me cry. Every once and a while I notice that it's getting better, but usually I notice that because I just got the wind knocked out of me. Take for instance on Saturday when Brandy, John and I were at the Molasses Festival watching these kids clog (I know, how great is that). When they were done the little girl looked over at her mom to see if she was watching, and I said to Brandy in passing, did you see her just look at her mom. And at that moment I wanted to start crying - just like that, no warning, a stab in the heart just from a random moment I witnessed. Or on Sunday when I drove into the National Conservation Training Center in WV. The last time we had our meeting here I flew home and my mom drove me down. I thought about it driving from the airport, but when I hit a certain portion of the road I saw the parking lot where she parked the car and remember walking with her down the path talking and I started crying. No warning, no build up - from a thought to crying in a second. People tend to insinuate that to help me feel better I just shouldn't listen to the music or look at the things that remind me of mom...but everything reminds me of her. What I've been doing for the past 8 weeks is learning how to deal with that. Now I have to learn how to deal with the little things that catch me unaware. Then I'm going to have to learn how to deal with the major things...the moments in life I know mom would have loved. But for tonight, my prayer is for Rachel, because it really doesn't matter how long it's been, it still stinks.

Cinnamon Snot Ball

Today we conducted an experiment - please see report below for details.

Background Information (via Brandy):
Over the past two weeks I have been attempting to create my delicious breakfast coffee in a more "natural" manner...a.k.a. cut out the SUGAR! I remembered one time my mom putting cinnamon in her Starbucks coffee and it made it sweeter than mine. So, I decided cinnamon it is. Everything was going well. Coffee was sweet. I added more cinnamon every day until I started dumping about 2 tablespoons of cinnamon into the bottom of my coffee cup...but I was loving the outcome.

One day I came home from work and went to clean out my coffee cup only to find a GINORMOUS cinnamon snot ball in the bottom of the cup. I'm not joking here people. I am going to detail the scene for you - unscrew the white top of the travel mug; grasp the pink handle and tip it to the side thinking there is nothing in it (why would there be? I had drank all the coffee that morning); one hard shake (it's just my routine); suddenly a dark blob slowly creeps out and drops into the drain; wide eyes, blink multiple times to make sure I'm not seeing things, look between the cup and the sink multiple times, then set the cup down; gingerly pick up the drain stopper by the edge because the thing in the middle is covered by cinnamon slime; THE SLIME BALL DOES NOT SLIDE THROUGH THE DRAIN HOLES!!!; drop the stopper and turn on water...clogged sink from a cinnamon slime ball; dump cinnamon slime ball onto a paper towel and inspect it; throw out cinnamon slime ball.

After immediately deciding to not sweeten with cinnamon until this mystery was solved, sugar made a repeat appearance in my coffee. We (Brandy and I) decided to investigate the cinnamon snot ball phenomenon through the scientific process this weekend.

Hypotheses:
Dad's hypothesis: when large amounts of cinnamon are added to any hot drink, a cinnamon snot ball will occur.

John's hypothesis: when large amounts of cinnamon are added to any hot, acidic drink, such as coffee, a cinnamon snot ball will occur.

Other possible variables could be consistent drinking motion, sealed container, presence of milk and amount of cinnamon.

Materials:
Keurig (star performer in this experiment)
2 K-cups
milk
5 mugs
cinnamon
water
cups
ice

Methods:
1 - after 4 mile run prepare 2 pumpkin spice coffees with the Keurig and sprinkle a dash of cinnamon on the top of each
2 - place 2 tablespoons of cinnamon in the bottom of 3 cups
3 - use Keurig and one K-cup to put hot coffee in cup 1; use Keurig and no K-cup to put hot water in cup 2; use microwave to heat milk and add to cup 3

4 - allow all cups sit for a minimum of 2 hours and observe
5 - place 2 tablespoons of cinnamon in the bottom of 2 new cups
6 - use Keurig to make a coffee and cool with ice to match room temperature water
7 - put room temperature coffee in cup 4; put room temperature water in cup 5
8 - allow both cups to sit for a minimum of 2 hours and observe


Results:
Original morning pumpkin spice coffees did not result in a cinnamon snot ball, and thus the variable of amount of cinnamon was kept constant in all further experiments as it was a factor. Sprinkles of cinnamon do not seem to create snot balls.


Cup 1 (hot, coffee) resulted in a HUGE cinnamon snot ball. Cup 2 (hot water) resulted in HUGE cinnamon snot ball. Cup 3 (hot milk) did not result in snot ball. It was still clumped, but powder when broken apart.
Please note the drain clogging ability of the hot water cinnamon snot ball. This was not an action shot - this was being held there for an extended period of time (my cell phone is VERY slow at taking pictures, believe me)

Cup 4 (room temperature coffee) resulted in smaller snot ball. It was not as stretchy or viscous as warmer counterpart. Cup 5 (room temperature water) resulted in smaller snot ball. Same as room temperature coffee. Milk was not tested in the cold temperature experiment as it did not create a snot ball in the previous test.

Discussion:
Neither hypothesis was correct. As it turned out neither the heat, nor the acidity can completely explain the cinnamon snot ball phenomenon. Pure milk did not create a snot ball, indicating the extreme basic nature of milk did not allow it to form. Water, which should be neutral, did. One possible uncontrolled variable is the pH of the water. In the future an experiment should be run using both well and bottled water, preferable testing all water and other liquids with a pH test. Another uncontrolled variable is the actual cinnamon used. It is possible that Aldi's cinnamon needs to returned for it's promised refund. In the future an experiment should be run using different brands of cinnamon.

Throughout the experiment we kept questioning how Starbucks could create a cinnamon dulce latte without a cinnamon snot ball. To finalize our experiment we headed to Starbucks and engaged in a detailed conversation with a brand new employee as to the ingredients in a cinnamon dulce latte. No employee in the store was aware of the cinnamon snot ball phenomenon because Starbucks uses LIQUID cinnamon flavor. However, we believe that if the CEO of Starbucks was aware of this the cinnamon phenomenon the cinnamon shaker would be removed from the counter as a sweetening option. Do you know what's looming at the bottom of your Starbucks cup?