Friday, December 31, 2010

Goodbye, 2010

I've thought about it, and I'm not going to do a big recap of 2010 like I did for 2008 and 2009. I guess I just don't feel like it.  

So, farewell 2010 and here's to 2011!  No resolutions. Mostly I just want to try my best to "live in the now".  I get so caught up with looking forward and dwelling on the past, and not a whole lot of time gets spent on what's going on now. So I guess if you want to call that a resolution, you can.




I hope yours is great!

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Christmas 2010


Well, I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas 2010! We spent ours in Sioux Falls with Zach's mom's side of the family.  Before we left we had a little family Christmas with  my Mom, Dad, Brothers and significant others. We opened a few presents, had some delicious lasagna, cheesecake and of course lots of cookies!


Thursday we left super early in the morning to avoid all the snow that was predicted (and didn't happen until the next day...). This was the first time we've ever left our dogs in the care of someone that wasn't a family member. We had a fantastic pet sitting company come check on them at various times throughout the day. The dogs didn't seem to mind at all. It made me feel SO much better knowing my babies were at home and not sitting in some cold concrete cage surrounded by chaos at a kennel. Plus it was way, way, way less expensive. Wins all around!

Thursday night in South Dakota we hung out with his family, ate more Italian (yay for two Italian families!) and hung out with the new 3 month old baby nephew. Zach's step-sister and husband had the flu (foreshadowing....) so we were on baby duty for the next few days.  Luckily he was super cute.  Even Zach got brave and held him.  Blog, meet Elias.



Christmas Eve and Christmas day were a blur of family gatherings, lots of food, more baby passing, Church and snow. Lots of snow!  What blows my mind about Sioux Falls is that their snow removal efficiencies are out of this word!  It snowed a good 4 inches Thursday night and when we got up on Friday it was all completely plowed and drivable! Couldn't believe it!




We left to come home on Sunday and when we woke up we found out that nearly everyone had the stomach flu. We hightailed it out of there so fast trying to avoid the plague, but it was inevitable. I made it home but boy I wasn't feeling well.  I spent all of Monday in bed. Zach had it the other day. Fun times.  At least we are back to normal now and feeling good.  I have the whole week off and didn't want to waste it being sick.  

Today we headed out to Best Buy to cash in all our very generous gift cards for our new D-SLR! I am BEYOND excited to learn how to use this thing and start taking pictures.  It's charging right now, but here's the first one Zach snapped of Ted. Unbelievable! So many more to come...

So, there you have it. Another Christmas comes and goes.... Merry Belated Christmas to you!

Monday, December 20, 2010

Crazy Pajama Lady

Just tonight my mom was telling me that I'm "very behind on the blog".  I told her it was because I had nothing interesting to talk about.  Well, I should be careful what I say because shortly thereafter, this happened: 

Ted got himself a major case of the zoomies and needed desparatey to go run wild in the backyard. I thought I'd go out and toss the ball for him once and then go back inside.  I closed the door behind me, threw the ball, watched him run a bit and then turned to open the door. You guessed it! Locked.  I do not know how the door magically locked behind me (you have to turn the thing-a-ma-doo on the knob to get it to lock).  Panic!!!!  There I was in my 3 sizes too big 10 year old cloud pajama pants, 1999 Northwest Football Championship tshirt and blue "Hospital Hill Run" socks. That's it! No coat, no shoes, no sanity, no nothing!

After trying the door countless times, I admitted defeat. (I think I may have even knocked a few times, you know, in case Missy felt like helping me out). So I walked (in my socks!) through the backyard, praying I don't step in any poo, over to where the gate is.  Of course we've had major settling issues in our backyard and the gate was stuck, so I had to pry and pry and pry (hello, splinters!) the thing open until it was wide enough to squeeze through, while at the same time keeping Ted from following me. Fun times, everyone! Note to self, fix gate.

So then to the front of the house. Of course it's locked. Of course the garage doors are locked. Of course I didn't get a keypad put on! So there I am, pacing around the front of my house in the cold (in socks! and pajamas!) trying to decide which neighbor I would go to first.  The girl next to us was my first choice. She's super cool, about our age and hey! We are even facebook friends!! She'd totally think it was funny. Not home.  AAH!

My other options were the couple across the street, but I know they have a new baby and I didn't want to possibly wake him up, so I passed.  Then there was 'Zoro'.  We don't know his real name but he comes and goes totally randomly, so we nicknamed him that.  He happened to come home as I was starting to walk down the street. I figured he'd stop, right? Nope, in the garage, door closed. Ok then. I guess if I saw some crazy lady walking down the street in pajamas and no shoes in the middle of December, I'd get the heck inside too. Then there was Mike. Oh trusty Mike.  I don't think I've posted this before but I've kinda done this before. Except it was summer and I was out running. Slightly different than December and pajamas. Anyway he's like the dad of the neighborhood.  He helped build all the houses and knows everything about everyone in the whole subdivision. He's really nice and luckily he was home. He opened the door and as soon as I told him what happened (again) he got a good laugh out of the whole thing and let me use his phone to call my dad to come with the extra key. While I waited we caught up on all the neighborhood gossip. Who's moving out, who's moving in, who's had a baby, who's pregnant, you know neighborly stuff. 

My dad showed up a few minutes later, let me in, let Ted in, laughed a little then went on his way.  Oh what a night!

So there. That's what's been going on.  I'm crazy pajama lady.

We'll be having that keypad installed ASAP.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies



I made these Pumpkin Whoopie Pies for Thanksgiving this year.  Whoopie pies are so super easy to make and they are pretty much the perfect sized dessert! Each person gets their own little pie, and man, were these good! 

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Filling
from: Martha Stewart
  • FOR THE PUMPKIN WHOOPIE COOKIES
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 tablespoon ground ginger
  • 1 tablespoon ground cloves
  • 2 cups firmly packed dark-brown sugar
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 3 cups pumpkin puree, chilled
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • FOR THE CREAM-CHEESE FILLING
  • 3 cups confectioners' sugar
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

  1. Make the cookies: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat; set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves; set aside. In another large bowl, whisk together brown sugar and oil until well combined. Add pumpkin puree and whisk until combined. Add eggs and vanilla and whisk until well combined. Sprinkle flour mixture over pumpkin mixture and whisk until fully incorporated.
  3. Using a small ice cream scoop with a release mechanism, drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart. Transfer to oven and bake until cookies are just starting to crack on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of each cookie comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Let cool completely on pan.
  4. Make the filling: Sift confectioner' sugar into a medium bowl; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter until smooth. Add cream cheese and beat until well combined. Add confectioners' sugar and vanilla, beat just until smooth. (Filling can be made up to a day in advance. Cover and refrigerate; let stand at room temperature to soften before using.)
  5. Assemble the whoopie pies: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Transfer filling to a disposable pastry bag and snip the end. When cookies have cooled completely, pipe a large dollop of filling on the flat side of half of the cookies. Sandwich with remaining cookies, pressing down slightly so that the filling spreads to the edge of the cookies. Transfer to prepared baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate cookies at least 30 minutes before serving and up to 3 days.






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Greenwood, Missouri, United States

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