Canvases and Walls

So, if you don’t see any updates for a day or so, consider me  dead! 

You see, I plan on blogging tomorrow (after General Conference, of course) but if I don’t, you know to worry. 

I bought something for the kids to ‘do’ during conference.  I usually just print out the conference packets and hope that will suffice for the duration of all four sessions.

It doesn’t. 

I mean, they’re great and I’m printing them off right now but they just don’t hold the attention of my girls, especially the two younger ones, like I always wish they would.  For once, I would like to enjoy Conference myself without too much interruption and ‘I’m bored’ comments. 

Yes, I make my kids watch all four sessions.  Mean?  Nah, it’s good for them.  K really enjoys it.  A and H are getting there. 

Oh, but anyway, let me show you what I bought…

Do you see that?  A 5-pack of canvases!!  Anthony doesn’t know about them yet.  This is why I fear…

Once I pull them out, along with the paints and brushes, Anthony may not be so happy with me. 

But you have to understand.  We’ve been in our home for 6 years now and there has NEVER been anything on this wall…

Yes, it’s sad but very true.  However, there is constantly laundry to put away on the couch.  Great decorating technique, right?  But I’ve always had this vision of our kids’ paintings hanging on our wall.  I’m no good when it comes to interior design.  In fact, I pretty much stink.  I just know that it would fit.  Can you picture it?  (Minus the laundry, of course.)  I’m pretty much squealing with delight right now.  It will be a happy wall!! 

However, I may be kicking myself for letting the kids do this once the mad chaos starts.  But once the wall is happy, I’ll be happy too!  And then I’ll remember to never bring such crazy shenanigans into our home EVER again! ;)

Oh, and speaking of walls…

Do you ever get the feeling that you’re talking to one?  Like no one is listening?  You’re just talking to a brick wall? 

Yeah, me too. 

I mean, I love blogging and I’ll do it no matter what but it’s so much more fun when people comment.  I would love to make new friends, so please, if you’re reading this, say hi!  If you have a blog, I’d love to visit. 

Am I scary?  Maybe so.

I’ll let you know how our canvas adventures go… Wish me luck!

 

moments like this…

Being a mom is hard work.  When I first became a mom almost 10 years ago (EEK!… has it really been that long?) I had no idea what I was in for.  I imagined playful days full of laughs, giggles, long walks, sharing, running, skipping, jumping and discovering.  My kids would be perfect and everyone would know it! 

Well, I got all of the above, believe it or not… along with a few other thing I wasn’t anticipating.  Things like hair pulling, yelling, pinching, biting, food throwing, spitting, more yelling, tattling, toy throwing, crying, screaming, mischievous looks, eye rolling, door slamming (oh by the way, little B lost a fingernail yesterday because of said door slamming… poor little guy), more yelling, food wasting, foot stomping,… and the list goes on and on and on.  And on…

And on…

If C isn’t hitting someone or pulling someone’s hair, he’s spitting on the floor or ON someone. 

And he loves to pick on his little brother.  After all, isn’t that what little brothers are for? 

Luckily, B is a pretty tough little guy and we anticipate him being bigger than C pretty soon.  He’s got fight in him for sure!  If only he could get those chunky little legs of his to stabilize him and that big round noggin he’s got a little better.  C’s got him beat as far as stabilization goes. 

B’s lack of balance is often the cause of his demise when it comes to a scuffle with C.  The strength is there.  Plus, he’s got those little chompers in his mouth and trust me, he knows how to use them.  I’ve been the recipient of his ‘love bites’ more than once.  There has been blood.  Sometimes LOTS of blood.  OUCH!

Anyway, it’s one of those things that just seems like a daily occurrence and so, when I get a chance to take a snapshot of a moment of sharing… I’ve gotta seize the opportunity! 



Moments like this make it all worth it.  They may be few and far between but I’ll take it!   Or maybe it happens more often than I realize.  After all, they are hiding…  ‘Don’t let Mom see us sharing!!’ 

Big Helpers

My kids LOVE to help out in the kitchen!  They love cleaning and doing the dishes. 



No really, they do!

See? 



Ok, so maybe they only enjoy it when they’re under five.  After that it’s more like You’re on your own, Mom!  I’m outta here!

So, even though B doesn’t always put things in the most appropriate spot…



and sometimes C thinks it’s appropriate to use a dish or a utensil and then put it back in the drawer or cupboard…

I’m grateful to have at least two little willing helpers around the house.  Even if it does create a little extra work for me. ;)

 

 

 

YoYo Headbands {Tutorial}

Look what I did!  I can’t tell you how proud of myself I am.  I know it’s super silly but these kinds of things are the things I usually see and tell myself it’s too complicated.  I’ll never be able to figure it out.  All talk, no walk. 

HA!  Look at me now!  Totally walkin’!

I’ve seen these yoyo headbands floating around the blogosphere recently and I decided it was high time I give it a go.  It was much easier than I had anticipated and only took me about an hour to make. 

I had initially planned on adding a lot of yoyo’s to the headband but I ended up having a few ‘helpers’ in the yoyo making process which slowed things down a bit and I was in a bit of a hurry.  So, while my headband only has three yoyo’s, if you decide to make one, feel free to add as many as you’d like. 

Are you ready to make one?  Oooh!  I’m so excited to show you how I did it…

Keep in mind, I am not saying this is the ‘right’ way or that there is no other way to do it.  This is just my version of the yoyo headband. 

Ok, so first of all you’ll need supplies.  In addition to a needle, thread, scissors, and a hot glue gun, you’ll also need:

{fabric in a variety of coordinating patterns, buttons (or other embellishments), headbands, felt}

Trace circles onto the back of your fabric with a pen.  I used a variety of cups and jars for different sizes of circles.  I even tried a bowl but found that it made WAY too big of a yoyo.

 

Now cut your circles out.  Are ya with me so far?  Easy, right?

One circle at a time, take a threaded needle (color of thread doesn’t matter because it won’t be seen… knot the end of the thread) and sew in loose stiches close to the edge.  (I found that the larger the stitching, the more closed the hole will be at the end.  Smaller stitches make for a more open hole in the center.)

Once you’ve gone around the whole circle, hold the thread right next to the fabric with your left hand… {please ignore the fact that I have islands of nail polish that desperately needs to be removed.  I have no nail polish remover and it’s just no one of those things I think about when I’m at the store, okay?}

Now pull with the needle end of your thread with your right hand.  It will start to curl in on itself.  You want it to curl so the right side of the fabric is on the outside.

 

Pull until it closes.  Now stitch the opening closed and knot it so it won’t come undone.

 

Hot glue your embellishments on top. 

Cut a piece of felt slightly larger than you might need for your ‘layout’ of yoyos.

 

Hot glue the yoyo’s to your felt.

 

Trim excess felt with your scissors.

 

Hot glue the headband to the back of the felt.

Add one more strip of felt to glue to the headband.  This will keep your hair from getting caught in the tacky hot glue residue.  It also helps hold it all together.

TADA!!!!  We did it!! 

And here I am, modeling my new creation.

 

But despite how ravishing I looked in said creation, K was positive it would look even better on her.

 

Ok, so she wins… ;)

Now I’ve gotta make two more for my other two girly whirlies! 

Let me know what you think.

***Also, if you haven’t entered to win the Math Blaster Giveaway, click here to enter!***

 

 

Perspective

When tragedy strikes, one tends to put more focus on the important things in life.  We might pay more attention to the little details of our surroundings or hug our family members a little tighter.

Recently, tragedy struck right within my own ward.  A senior couple in my ward had been gone for 7 months on a mission in Texas.  They were loving the work and more importantly the people they were working with.  But just this past Thursday night, Ann Jones was badly burned by a flash fire in the double wide trailer she and her husband were living in.  By early Friday morning, she had passed away.   (See the story here.)

I can't tell you how loved this woman is by the people in my ward and just by people in general.  She was/is an amazing daughter of God.  I am positive she is continuing her mission in the Spirit World.  I have no doubt!

She was A's first nursery leader when we first moved into this ward.  The nursery was non existent until we moved in because there were no nursery aged children (18 months - 3 years).  Sister Jones was called as the nursery leader just for my little A.  A loved Sister Jones and Sister Jones loved A.

This woman has been such a great example to me and many others.  No one could have expected something like this to happen.  It's really made me take a look at myself and where my priorities lie.  Am I spending enough quality time with my kids?  Am I repenting for the things I need to repent for?  Have I been to critical of my kids or Anthony today?  Did I make them cry?

The whole thing has really put thing into perspective.  Life is so fragile, and so precious!  It can be taken away in an instant.  Am I ready?  NO!  I need to work harder at the important things.  Make sure I make time for the important things.  Put the first things first and fit the rest in later.

Math Blaster: Review and Giveaway

“Disclosure: I was provided with a membership good for Math Blaster and Knowledge Adventure at no cost by Knowledge Adventure in order to test the products’ abilities and give my own personal opinions on it. The opinions I have given are mine and may differ from others but were not influenced by the company or the free product provided.”

A couple weeks ago, I was contacted by Michelle from Math Blaster.  She asked if I would like to review Math Blaster, an online ‘world’ of math games and activities, and host a giveaway.   

Of course I was happy to oblige and the fact that it’s all sci-fi oriented was totally awesome for my kids. They are completely into Star Wars and anything to do with aliens.  But I let her know that I would only be willing if I were able to give a completely open and honest review.  If I didn’t like it, I would tell you so.  She was completely ok with that and so we went forward with it.

The first thing I have to tell you, and you’ll probably think less of me, is that if you’re a mom, you’ll never figure this thing out!  Or maybe I should say ‘If you’re me, you’ll never figure this thing out.’  I sat down to give it a go before letting my kids have at it… just to be sure that it really was appropriate for them.  I was on the blasted computer for over an hour and never got to any math games.  Yes, I’m serious! 

This is coming from the mom who has never even sent a text before so… yeah, I really am that awesome!

Anyway, my first thought was Well, this is dumb!  It’s called Math Blaster but you can’t even find any math.  My kids will think this is dumb too, I’m sure. 

But as always, they proved me wrong.  I got them all set up, each child was registered and ready to go.  H was first.  She created her alien avatar and chose a name (the girls really liked creating those) and then she was ready to play.  I asked the kids to let me know when they came to any math games so that I could really decide whether this game was appropriately named.  Fully expecting it to take quite a while, I walked away.  Not even 3 minutes into her turn, I heard squeals of delight and calls for “MOM” coming from the office. 

Her first math game! 

Seriously?  I couldn’t find ANY in the whole hour plus that I was on there.  It had to be a fluke.  I asked them to let me know once again when they came to another game.  Just a few minutes later, more squeals from the office. 

H played for about half hour then let A have a turn.  She also had no problem finding math games.  K went and still, no hiccups in the math finding.  I was the only one to have issues. 

It just goes to show that us old folks just don’t have what it takes… **sigh** 

The great part about the math games is that they can choose what style of math they would like to do.  Addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division.  I asked them to choose something that challenges them so they could really use this as a learning tool.  Otherwise, it’s just a game. 

Here are the kids’ reviews:

K says:  I like everything about Math Blaster!  I really like the Alien Wrangler game.  And I really like the Mutts too.  The mutts are fun. 

A says:  I really like the mutts and how you take care of them.  And I like the math game that you shoot the things.  It’s this big humungous guy (alien) that gives you math questions.  You try to get him to go to sleep.  Then you get to go to the next level.

H says:  Um, I say that I like the part where I can go in this new game and I like when I get a mutt.  And I like to see things and play games.  I like to swim in Math Blaster.  (Snatch It game)

So, in short, the kids absolutely love playing MathBlaster!  They ask to play it every day.  It’s fun and they really enjoy the sci-fi side of it and they actually really enjoy the math games.  I definitely recommend this if you have a child that doesn’t enjoy math unless it’s in the form of fun.  Luckily, all my kids enjoy math anyway, but if you have a math resistant child, this may work to get them excited about it.  It’s recommended for ages 6-12.  You can add up to six kids to your account and each child will have his own avatars, mutts, etc.  

Math Blaster memberships also come with access to JumpStart!  Another online world of games (not math) for kids ages 3-10.  My kids have enjoyed that as well.

There’s also a Math Blaster Blog that gives updates on new games (and more) as needed.  It’s fun to see what is coming out and when.  

And now for the GIVEAWAY!!!

Michelle has agreed to set one lucky winner up with a 3 month membership to Math Blaster.  Your child(ren) can enjoy the online Math Blaster world along with mine!  How great is that?

So, how you do you enter?  There will be three different ways in which you can enter.  You’ll need to leave a separate comment here on this post for each one.  I will have random.org choose the winner next Monday morning.  I will take entries through Sunday, October 2nd at 11:59 pm, MST. 

Remember, leave separate comments for each entry…

1. 
   
   Leave a comment letting me know that you would like to win (simple, right?)


2. 
   
   Like MathBlaster on facebook and leave a comment here to let me know.


3. 
   
   Tell your friends about this giveaway via facebook, your own blog or Twitter.  Be sure to leave me a comment to let me know you did!

 

 

 

Cheese Rolls!

We went to the circus last night.  WOW!  I can’t believe what people do for entertainment’s sake.  It was insanely fun and crazy! 

I tried ‘real’ kettle corn at the circus, too.  Again… WOW!  I’m pretty sure I ate half the bag myself.  The other half was split amongst the other eight people.  I can’t be sure that I ate half all on my own.  I was too engrossed in the show to realize that I was actually eating it at all.  The only thing I’m sure of is that the bag (they are giant bags by the way) was on my lap the majority of the time and that there was a distinctly happy sweet yet salty flavor in my mouth for the duration of the first half of the show. 

Before I knew it, the bag was empty.  Whoops!

And then my sister bought cotton candy.  I can’t resist cotton candy.  Straight shot of sugar… I’m addicted!  Darn her! 

Then after the show, my bio dad (he actually bought all our tickets and the kettle corn) decided that each kid needed a ‘souvenir’.  They all chose snow cones in large tiger cups.  As if they needed any more sugar.  Ah well, what can I say?

The whole experience and atmosphere of the circus really put me in the mood for carnival/fair food.  Is that weird? 

But that’s not what this post is about.  We’re talking about cheese rolls! 

---------------------------------------

My high school cafeteria had the best cheese rolls in the entire world.  They were like gigantic cinnamon rolls (except take out the cinnamon roll filling because I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t go well with cheese… gross!) but with CHEESE!  My friend and I would run to the cafeteria between classes to buy them just about every day.  We would also grab a condiment cup full of ranch dressing to dip them in.  They were divine! 

My mouth is watering just thinking of those days.  Mmmmm! 

So a while back, as I was watching a daytime show here in Utah called Good Things Utah, they had someone on from a certain school district in our area to demonstrate the making of CHEESE ROLLS!  She said they made them for every school in that district and it just so happened to be the district I was in. 

You can’t even begin to imagine my joy and excitement!  This was it… I could enjoy my high school love all over again.  I printed the recipe and it sat…

But just the other day, I decided to give it a go. 

I looked at the recipe and I was sure that I was smarter than the recipe.  It didn’t call for any rising of the dough. It’s a yeast bread, it has to rise.

Uh, yeah, so apparently I’m not a rocket scientist.  Don’t let it rise.  It does it’s own rising in the oven. 

They were just as delicious as I remember but I made them about half the size.  Seriously, the ones at the school were gigantic! 

Hope you’ve got a lot of cheese on hand… here we go!

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**Preheat your oven to 350*

First you’ll need 1/4 c. warm water (baby bath warm), some yeast and some sugar.  Stir together. 

 

See that?  THAT is some happy yeast!



Combine the rest of the warm water, sugar and shortening in a large bowl.



Add yeast mixture and stir. 

Add flour one cup at a time until dough is soft but not sticky.  It should pull away from the sides of the bowl.

Roll it out like cinnamon rolls on floured surface (I used half the dough). 

Sprinkle cheese.

 

Roll it up like a cinnamon roll.

 

Cut into pieces about 1 – 1 1/2 inches thick.  (I use the dental floss method to cut it.  Just grab a piece of dental floss a bit longer than you might use for your teeth, slide the dental floss underneath, cross your floss {switch hands} so it’s an X shape.  Pull… you should have a perfect slice without smooshing your rolls.)



Place in greased pan and do not let rise!  I made that mistake with the first batch

Put in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until golden brown on top. 

I ended up having to reroll the second pan because I had let it rise also.  I gathered up all the rolls and rolled it out again with my rolling pin… cheese and all. 



So, maybe the cheese was a little displaced but look how yummy they look! 





 

Cheese Rolls

1/2 c. sugar

2 T yeast

4 c. warm water

1/3 c. shortening

1 T. salt

9 c. flour

4 c. cheddar cheese

 

Preheat oven to 350*

Mix 1 T. of the sugar with 1/4 c. of the warm water and the yeast.  Let it get bubbly for a few minutes. 

In a large bowl, combine the remainder of the warm water, sugar, shortening and salt.  Add yeast mixture and stir. 

Add flour one cup at a time until it is soft but not sticky and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  You may have to use your hands. 

Roll out into a long rectangle like you would for cinnamon rolls.  Sprinkle cheese on top, roll it up (long sides), cut into pieces and place on baking sheet or in baking pan. 

**optional – you can brush the tops with an egg wash if you’d like

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on top. 

 

Hope you enjoy them!  We sure did!

 

 

 

 

The Art of Taking Awesomely Funny Pictures!

So, I may not be a photographer (although I still say that if I had a fancy shmancy camera I’d be a heck of a lot better…) but I know a good picture when I see one.  I also know a funny picture when I see one.  And what you’re about to see are some FUNNY pictures, yo!  (I don’t really talk like that.  I just wanted to try ‘yo’ on for size… I don’t think it fits.)

I believe it was my cousin that taught me this handy dandy trick.  So handy, in fact, that I may have made everone  I encountered give me their best slurber for a whole month after learning it.  All in the name of taking a hilariously embarrassing picture.  (Maybe I’ll post some after I get their permission…)  But I must warn you, before getting into this here ‘tutorial’, sometimes it takes many many many tries to get the best picture. 

Oh, and the subject has to know how to slurber just right.  You may have to demonstrate.  People just don’t know how to slurber these days… **sigh**

What’s a slurber, you ask?  Oh you know that sound you make when you’re playing with a baby or young child.  The one where you are trying to get them to blow bubbles in the water or the sound that a horsey makes… THAT sound.  With your mouth.  Ya got me?  Good!

Ok, so you can’t just do any ol’ slurber.  It’s got to be an exaggerated slurber.  Lots of air, lots of lip flapping.  Loosen those lips!  THOSE make for the best pictures!  And you can’t laugh.  Those ones do not turn out.  This is a serious matter, people… ;)

The other day while having our nature study, we got our slurbers on and took some pics.  I’m pretty sure I won… What do you think?  

I’ve gotta teach these youngens of mine a proper, picture worthy slurber technique.

  

 

How Do YOU Socialize Your Children?

I am often asked how we socialize our kids because apparently, being homeschoolers means we’re unsocialized, unkempt (well, sometimes), and we live in a bubble.  A bubble which no one is allowed to enter. 

Because my kids aren’t involved in any extracurricular activities or anything {dance}.  We don’t go to church every Sunday {this Sunday is the Primary Program}.  We certainly never get together with friends or family members {anyone up for a game night?}.  The park is OUT OF THE QUESTION!  Someone might see us!  We only take walks after dark so as to not draw attention to ourselves.  Oh, and we have our kids’ marriages arranged. 

So you see, our kids get all the socialization they need right here in our little bubble. 

No? 

Ok, so maybe none of that is true… except that I might want to arrange marriages.  That way we could skip the whole dating part altogether!  Not a bad idea, eh?  I like the sound of it… **Insert evil laugh**

The honest truth is, I believe the public schools have a place in our society.  Homeschooling is not for everyone and it certainly isn’t easy.  In fact, I never thought it would be something I would EVER do… EVER!  (Link to my latest Latter-Day Homeschooling post)  But it’s been the best thing for all of us.  I think too often the ‘socialization’ at school is negative socialization.  But that’s another matter for another time. 

Below is my absolute favorite youtube video.  For now anyway, it changes from time to time.  Hilarious!  You must watch. 

 

Things My Kids Will Never Know

Think about all the things you grew up with (or without) that your kids will never have the privilege of knowing.  We can thank technology and just the changing times for that.  This is my list of the top 15 things my kids will never know.

• Watermelon seed spitting contests because who buys watermelons with seeds anymore?  I sure don’t!


• VCR’s… I made mention of a VCR the other day and my kids were completely lost.


• Cassette tapes… enough said, right?


• Riding a bike to the field down the street. First of all, not only do we NOT have a field down the street but, um, hi!  Scary these days! 


• Cars without seatbelts. My family had one for a short time growing up.  Seriously, NO seatbelts at all.  It was a very old car, even then.  My kids are properly belted at all times.  Except maybe on our way to and from church… sometimes.  Don’t judge me, k?


• Road trips where you made yourself a bed in the back of the car and lounged around in any position you wanted.  All the while NOT wearing the seatbelt that IS in fact built in to your car.


• The original Strawberry Shortcake… what a tragedy.


• Cell phones that are literally the size of a brick, though I’m pretty sure they weighed more.  Maybe not.  Quite literally for emergencies only because who wants to tote that thing around in their purse?


• Video game cartridges that you had to BLOW into to get it to work.  Somehow, hot air was always the answer ;)


• Atari… Classic Atari. 


• Penny candy.  There’s just no such thing anymore. 


• Commercials.  Everything is on demand or Tivo’d {hmmm, not sure how to write that one} so we can fast forward through all of them!


• Baby Alive dolls that had a pump on the back to make her chew and swallow.  Now she’s electronic.


• Sleepovers with friends.  Yes, I had them as a kid and loved it!  However, we feel it best to not allow friend sleepovers for our kids.  They get to have sleepovers with cousins but that’s it.  Call me crazy!


• PeeWee Herman... thank goodness for that, no?

 

What else can you think of? 

RockaBoops

{When you say it, make sure the ‘oo’ has the right sound… it’s ‘boops’ as in boots, not ‘boops’ as in books.}

Now that we have that settled…

C loves The Incredibles.  He would watch it all day every day if I’d let him.  And since he’s pretty much got the whole movie memorized, he knows that Incrediboy has “Rocket Boots”. 

They make him fly.

And now, C has superpowers too, thanks to his ‘RockaBoops’ (not to mention the Superman Shirt)! 

It’s great when your kids can be frugal by passing down their old stuff to their younger siblings.  However, I think we may have to turn in his ‘RockaBoops’ and trade them for another color. 

Not so sure he’ll go for it.  He’s become quite attached to them.

Sinful Chocolate Chip Oreo Brownies {triple threat!}

This past Saturday, Anthony had the ‘privilege’  (if that’s what you want to call it) of running yet another marathon.  He had been carb loading all week long in preparation and on Friday night, he left to go to Logan.  K was lucky enough to go with him.  Anthony’s sister was running with him so her husband and son were able to spend Saturday morning with K.  She even got to run the last 2.2 miles with her aunt and cross the finish line with her.  I can’t tell you how proud she was. 

Anthony was even more proud when K told him that she wanted to someday run a real marathon with him. 

Well, Saturday was also the ‘big game’!  Utah vs BYU!  I won’t gloat but….

 

Go UTES!!

 

{Cougar fans, can we still be friends?} 

Anyway, after running a ridiculous 26.2 miles, Anthony had to drive his sore legs, blistered feet, and raw nipples home.  Yes, I said nipples!  You see, it rained throughout pretty much the whole duration of the race meaning that all the runners had blisters covering their feet and the males (at least most of them) had bleeding nipples… Anthony was one of them. 

The proof was on his shirt.  I really should have taken a picture of the shirt when he got home, darn it! 

I tell him I’m really sorry and that I feel bad but maybe just a small part of me thinks Well, now you know how I feel during the first SEVERAL weeks of nursing… FIVE TIMES!!  Oh, and at least your nipples get a break and can heal… mine had a tiny creature feeding on them every couple of hours.  OUCH! 

Sorry if that was TMI.  But I think next time he’ll sympathize a bit more…

Now where was I?

Oh yes, so he drove himself and K home that afternoon.  We had plenty of time before the game but I had already been busy from the time the boys went down for their naps making treats. 

I had never made these particular recipes before so I was unsure how they might turn out.  Let me tell you… they were SOO good! 

I’m only going to share one for now.  I’ll share the other in a later post.  Just think cheese and bread.  And Sarah, if you’re reading this, think high school!!

But right now think of chocolate chip cookies, Oreos and brownies!  Now think CARAMEL!  Mmmmmm, are you drooling yet?  Yeah, me too.

This is from a recipe I found on Pinterest.  The original post is here.  This is my take on this decadent treat!  Only slightly adapted.

Let’s get started…

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Preheat the oven to 350*

The first thing I did was make the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.  I then lined a 9x13 pan with parchment paper and sprayed it with non-stick spray.

(That’s what the original post recommends.  The next time I make it, I think I’ll just spray the pan itself but feel free to do it however you want.)

Then I pressed the cookie dough evenly into the pan.  The whole recipe.



And now you’ll take Oreo cookies and layer them on top of the cookie dough, like so… (you can use regular or double stuf)



I hope you have a brownie mix on hand. 



A normal family-size mix is perfect!  Make it as per the directions and pour over the Oreos.  You’ll probably have to help it spread since brownie batter is quite thick.

 

Are you dying yet?  My cousin called this a heart attack in a pan. 

Bake it for 45-55 minutes.  Mine took closer to the 55 minute range. 

Once you take it out, let it cool to a comfortable eating temperature and serve with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce!  You could use hot fudge if you’d like.  Or both!  I won’t tell ;)



 

This really is best eaten warm but if it cools to room temperature, no worries!  Just stick a piece in the microwave for about 15-20 seconds. 

You’ll think you’ve just died and gone to heaven!! 

 

 

Celebrity Look Alikes

When I first met Anthony’s mom, she insisted that I looked like Cher.  My father-in-law agreed. 

Hmmm, that was a new one for me.

 

 

My cousin has always told me that I resemble Julia Roberts…

I WISH!! 

Anthony, has been told many, many times that he looks like either…



 

Patrick Swayze or…

Brett Favre.

 

I can see the resemblance somewhat for both.  You?

 

Most recently, my father-in-law said to Anthony and I, “I hope you aren’t offended by this but do you know who C looks like?  Peewee Herman!” 

 

Oh boy!  As sad as it may be, I see what he is saying.  It’s gotta be the haircut. 

But I think his buzzed head makes him look like Curious George.

 

What do you think?  Are you ever told that you look like anyone?