Banana (Nut) Bread

A few days ago I saw this post. And as fate would have it, I had four nearly too ripe bananas!! The stars have aligned! So for three days I have been telling Little d we are going to make banana bread. Today we finally got to do it.

Let me give you a little history of me and baking banana stuff. I have screwed up more banana nut muffins than I care to mention. One time not including flour. That was a mess to clean up. Especially since I had run out of paper liners! But today, today, we would have banana bread!

I checked the recipe on the laptop. Double checked. Triple checked. Yes--I have all the ingredients. I decided to make one loaf with chopped pecans added and one plain. I copied the ingredients onto a notepad to have on the island where I was mixing. Little d was helping mash bananas and singing my praises "I'm gonna be a chef like my momma...she bakes the best for everyone...i'm gonna be a che-ef!" I was dancing to her singing. We were having fun. Oh yes today there would be banana bread.

As I am finishing up the final mixing, Little d and my mom are looking over the ingredients. Little d is checking off the ingredients as mom is reading them. They get to the last ingredient. Baking soda. CHECK! Little d says. "What!?! Baking powder?" I stop pouring batter into the loaf pan. "No" mom says, "baking soda"

Yes ladies and gentlemen. I added baking powder not baking soda. And you know what? It is fantastic!! You must try this recipe. It is so good that even I can't screw it up!!

Challege!

Here's the challege (that I stole from another blog). You have to go to your picture storage on your computer and pick the sixth picture in the sixth folder and then post it on your blog and tell the story of the picture. If you want to play along link your page in the comments!



Here's mine...What's funny is I was so sure the picture was going to be of Little d!

According to EasyShare this photo was taken in early May of 2005. I guess it was a storm coming in, but I don't even remember it. It was taken near my parents' home in my hometown. At first I thought it might be bands from a hurricane, but it was the wrong time of year for that, so I guess it was just a storm.

Interesting Nonsense

I was just informed via email that there are more chickens than people in the world.

I knew we should start raising chickens. When they take over the world, we'll have some friends on our side.

Therapy Thursday

Back to Bitchin.... After a brief hiatus of Thursday gripes...I'm baaa--aaack!

Today my husband will find out if he still has a job. That's right. He's unit is being told today who is staying and who is leaving. Wow. What a place to be in. Let's hope for the best, I'll update when I find out the verdict. I will say that if he is cut (with all his training and promotions and accomplishments) the company is in serious trouble.

Woohoo! Just found out D's job is safe for now!

File Under Things That Chap My Ass part two

Stimulus bill spending spree...

$25 million for new ATV trails; $400 million for the National Endowment for the Arts; $400 million for global warming research; $335 million for the Centers for Disease Control to combat sexually-transmitted diseases; and $650 million coupons to subsidize TV viewers for digital television conversion.

Just how much does a box of condoms cost and why do I have to buy it for a stranger? Also, how much will the government pay me to put an ATV trail on our acreage? Cuz I'm totally up for it now that we have all that room where our house was supposed to go...

Butterfly Sympathy Card

A Close To My Heart customer, and co-worker of D's, lost her grandmother so I made this sympathy card. I used white embossing powder on vellum for the butterfly which I cut out and mounted on foam dots. Though it doesn't show in the photo, the white of the butterfly also is shiny. I used clear embossing powder on Outdoor Denim cardstock for the flowers.

I found the inspiration for the card here. Her version is much prettier than mine!

Lots O Photos!

Ready for some pictures?? First up, my mom's birthday dinner. We had fajitas, avocado salad (made with avocado, vine-ripened cherry tomatoes tossed with italian dressing-yummy!), spanish rice, refried beans with dewberry cobbler and apple pie for dessert!


The cobbler is from scratch and the pie is from freezer. They were so delicious!!

Here is a picture of my mom and dad posing on the couch with Little d.

Here's my brother holding Little m while he was working on my mom's computer. Apparently she was 'helping' him.

Want to see some more scrapbooking? Here's a thinking of you card I made for someone going through chemo.

My BFF ordered some of those cookie sheet memo boards for door prizes at her school. I made three of these.

Done for now...

Look Ma, No Rooster!

This is my mom's birthday card. Her favorite colors are orange and yellow, so when I saw the Boom Di Ada that I had out yesterday, I decided it would be perfect. And I even managed to forgo stamping a rooster on it!!

More Rooster Cards

Okay here I go again with the rooster stamp. On this one I used black embossing powder. And then I wanted to put brads in the corner, but I didn't have four small black brads, so I used a dot stamp and black embossing powder to make faux brads.

And here's a (poorly photographed) detail of the embossing powder to show how shiny it looks.

I stamped Happy Birthday to you on the inside of this one.

Next up, I paired the rooster with Boom Di Ada papers from CTMH (you can't make that up, that's what they call it.) The color is atrocious in these photos. My desk lamp gives off a funky blue light--sorry!

Here's a close up of the embellishment. I attached a clear button with Liquid Glass (that stuff rocks) onto a flower cut from the background paper.

Okay everyone who's tired of the rooster raise your hand! I promise to take the stamp off my desk so I won't use it for a while!!

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Today my mom turns the big 6-0. She is going to love that I put that out there. I hope she has a wonderful year and I wanted to wish her a very Happy Birthday!!


In honor of ticking her off I have uploaded for your viewing pleasure a picture of her that is sure to make her happy. She never allows us to take pictures of her so I didn't have a lot to choose from!

Love you Mimi!

My Farm Cards

Here are a couple of cards I made today. These are pretty simple. I wanted to do a masculine card with the tractor. (Excuse the picture, it's horrid. The card is sitting in a groove on my cutting tool and it looks like the bottom is cut off!) I stamped Happy Birthday on the inside.

This rooster card is not my favorite. I can't decide what sentiment to put on the inside. So for now it's blank. I've had this gingam button in my stash for years. I love it so much that I never could think of a project that I wanted to waste it on. Hehehe. Not sure this was the perfect project, but in the spirit of cleaning out the stuff I forced myself to part with it. (Oh and I have two more left...)

It feels really good to be creating just for myself again and not just for CTMH workshops. I actually get to use all the pretty paper I've bought over the years. Yea me!

The stamps are My Farm, CTMH.

Something Happy

Okay I'm done having a pity party for me. Back to fun stuff. I am thinking about getting a table at Market Days this year to sell scrapbooking stuff...cards, layouts, and altered items. In the spirit of trying to create stuff to sell, here's a card I made today:

Here's a close up of how the key is raised off of the base:


Definitely puts me in a better mood to be creative! Need to do that more often. Also Top Chef is on tonight!! Woohoo! (This card was made using the Key to My Heart Promotion from CTMH. I LOVE this set!!)

The Big Day

Well it's here. The big change-over day. I've been watching the inauguration since this morning. I love all the history and pomp and circumstance of it. And as all the news anchors said, other countries must sit in awe of how we can have such a peaceful transition of power every time. It brings tears to my eyes that I live in such a great country where the outgoing President has such grace and dignity to embrace the new President and wish him genuine well.

Of course, you know me, still not a fan of Obama. I judged his speech harshly, but that's just me. I've seen him give better speeches. I thought his acceptance speech was much more grandiose with better catch phrases.

I wait to see what the future holds and hope for all the best.

I am in love with a sneaky man...

I was coveting this wreath from my sister in law. I told my husband that I really wanted it. He went sneaking behind my back and bought it. Then my sneaky sister in law posted that post on her blog and I was so sad that I missed out on it.

Then this evening he came in the front door with it.

Smile. I love that man!

File Under Things That Chap My Ass

Now was not the best time for me to read this...

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2009/01/18/pricetag-inaugural-festivities-reach-m/

If I could just get $200,000 of that, we could build the ol' dream home. Sweet. Be sure to read how dems bashed Bush during his festivities in '05. Also note that '(The inauguration committee) is also hiring garbage and recycling services and renting thousands of portable toilets for what one supplier called "the largest temporary restroom event in the history of the United States."' Come on. Let me laugh a little at that one. Largest restroom event in history. You can't coach that. Okay. I'll leave it alone for now.

Though in light of our recent news it still chaps my ass!

Finding Peace

Well after the bad news of the other day, D and I are strangely okay. We are discussing other options including buying a mobile home (gasp) and moving out on the land. Then trying to sell this home and save money, et cetera, until we decide to build. That solves the 'Little d starting school in the correct district' problem. The big plus is our monthly house payment would be roughly cut in third. Which is pretty significant whether we are building or not. That would let us save a ton.

So goofing off I found this floorplan in a home online. Not to shabby for a trailer. I have no idea the price on it though. Who knows? Still discussing things. But we'll just leave it in God's hands for a while.

I found a gripe

Spoke too soon I guess in the previous lame ass post. Oh yeah, this post may have colorful language...consider yourself warned. (I'll refrain from dropping the f-bomb since my mom reads this.)

Today we had an appointment with the loan officer at our bank about the construction loan. We had met with him in the fall and were pre-approved then. We had to get approved again due to the fact that it has been over a month since the last approval. Well guess what? The pissheads won't approve us. Do you know why? They want us to sell our house before we can get a construction loan for the new one. Are you freakin kidding me? Where pray tell do we live in the meantime?

What has changed since the last time? The economy has gotten even shittier. For the record, 'shittier' is a fun word to type. Try it at home. Anyway, without going into detail, my husband made a shitload (according to me) of money last year. Unfortunately much of it is from overtime. The bank now won't consider overtime as pay. Which is funny because the government totally considers it for taxes. But what-the-fudge-ever.

Bottom line. Guess who's not building that dream home any time soon? This girl!

Shit. Damn. Double-damn, triple-damn, hell. Oh and FYI our credit score is bananas.

Therapy Thursday

Well I'm running low on inspiration for gripes today. Good right? So I asked my husband what I should gripe about today and he said "winter." So here goes...

I don't like winter time. It's odd since I used to love this time of year. I loved wearing sweaters, too. Now though, I don't like being cold. I don't like dreary skies. AND I hate it getting dark so early.

There are good parts to winter. Christmas. But I need to get out of my bah humbug Christmas spirit next time. Maybe I will plan better this year and buy and make presents early so I don't have that crunch at the end. It's all about the planning. And list-making. I love to make lists.

Ahem, back to winter. Also for some reason our electric bill has been high. And don't forget how much I hate the sickies. Although we are furtunate to not have too much of that.

Ok that's enough of this pathetic post. Winter--not the greatest season for me but whatever.

Mommy Guilt

I read in a book once something to the effect of 'as soon as a woman has a child, the guilt sets in.' And my goodness how true it is. One of the bloggers I stalk just did a post on guilt and it made me think about my own.


I remember, shortly after coming home from the hospital with Little d, standing in the shower and being absolutely terrified. I thought 'if something happens to her I will die.' And then I thought, 'I should hurry up and get out of the shower and get back to her.' Nevermind that she was in the loving care of my husband. I felt guilty for not being there with her. And I don't think I have stopped feeling the guilt since.


There's losing my patience guilt, and the wishing I could lock the bathroom door to sh!t guilt. Don't forget the I'm not paying enough attention to my husband guilt. (That thought never enters your mind of course until way after the shock of "I'm a mother!?!" wears off.)

Now that I have two kiddos the guilt is doubled, at least. I'm spending more time with one and not the other guilt. I'm giving the older one too much responsibility guilt. I need to eat before I faint, but the little one is crying to be held guilt. (This one is remedied of course by eating while standing with baby on hip and shoving nearest food in mouth.) I'm letting them watch too much TV guilt. The house isn't clean enough guilt. And the still popular, I'm not paying enough attention to my husband guilt.


I'm wondering when it goes away. Are grandmothers plagued by this guilt? Or does it finally let up as a reward for raising children to adulthood? I'm doubting it. But there is a positive to having guilt. It makes me strive to be a better mom.

I wonder if there is such a thing as Daddy Guilt? Well, babe? Are you reading this...is there? hehehe ;)

Middle of the Night Conversations

Little d is pretty good about sleeping in her own bed. If she has a bad dream or can't go back to sleep she will ask me to come lay down with her. Early this morning she woke me up and asked if I would come in her room.

I stumbled in half asleep and collapsed on her bed. "Mom," she whispered.

I opened one eye to see her wide awake grin. "Yes?"

"What if when I grow up I am a brown haired momma?"

"Mmm-hmm?" I wonder where this is going.

"And I don't have my blond hair anymore. And then what if my daughter has blond hair?"

"That would be neat." I am still really sleepy.

"What would I name my kids then?" She still has a big grin on her face.

"I don't know sweetie, but you have a lot of time to think about that. Let's go to sleep ok?"

A brief moment of silence and then with a twinkle in her eye, "I know, I will name her Rapunzel." And then she's off to sleep.

Can you tell we've been reading Barbie as Rapunzel many times over the last few days?

CTMH: January Workshop

Here's the projects for my Close to My Heart January Workshop. I was really pleased with the way the layouts turned out, but I had to play with them for quite a while to get it just the way I wanted.



Here's a cookie sheet memo board that several other consultants did on our bulletin board which I shamelessly stole! The little circles are made from stamped images covered with our epoxy "Window Charms". I then added magnets to the back.



This mini-calendar was to feature our Stamp of the Month. Also, who couldn't use a new calendar this time of year. The calendar is mounted to a simple magnetic acrylic frame that I bought at Wal-Mart for $1. The stamped sentiment and flowers are on patterned paper that is slipped in the frame.



The total price of this workshop was $10. This year I have a new policy of having all who attend bring their own adhesive. I'm hoping that will keep the cost of the workshops down. I like to charge between $5 and $10. So far I have 12 people signed up.

Sisters

I grew up with one brother, H. We always got along. Ok duh not always. Especially when we were younger. In high school people would comment that we couldn't be brother and sister because we got along so well. I am two years older than him.

When D and I talked of having kids we planned on two. But then Little d was born and we both decided (almost immediately) that we wanted two more. When I was pregnant again we opted to find out what we were having. Another girl. I could have cared less what it was, so long as it was healthy. But I was anxious about the family dynamics of having two siblings of the same gender. I wondered if the reason H and I got along so splendidly was because we never fought over a bathroom sink, a boy, or a pair of shoes. Would my two daughters get along so well? Would they be best friends?

Little d was so excited to be getting a sister. She talked of how she would teach her things, like how to do a "family hug". She wanted to sing songs to her, to play dress-up. I hoped that she would stay so enamored after Little m arrived.

I remember vividly walking into the house after being in the hospital for three days. I entered first and was so anxious to hug Little d as I had missed her so much. She brushed past me and ran out into the garage "where's the baby!?"

We brought Little m into the living room and sat her on the carpet in her carseat as she was sleeping. Little d knelt down beside her and Little m stirred and blinked open her eyes. Little d leaned in closer and said in a soft voice "I'm Little d and I'm three years old. I'm your big sister." Then she gently took Little m's hands and formed the universal symbol for "three years old". I couldn't help but cry. It was one of the sweetest things I've ever witnessed.

I also remember Little d for the first few days Little m was home would eat her meals watching the baby instead of TV.

And things have progressed along the same lines ever since. Except now, Little m will reciprocate the kindness. If Little m is already awake and downstairs when Little d comes down in the morning she will run up and give her a hug. When Little d gets in time out, Little m will go sit in the chair with her to keep her company. (And I let her, because sisters should always be there for each other.) Today when Little m busted her lip (and pretty good I might add) Little d brought her a pony with stars on it to cheer her up and said "I picked this one for you because it has stars on it and you are a little star."


Apparently I worried for nothing. They love each other like sisters should. Now when they are teenagers...

Feeling Wobbly

I am starting to get really nervous about starting the house. Mostly because of the economy.

The best time of year to sell a house is May. I guess most people move when kids get out for the school year, which makes sense. But this year--not sure that will matter. We were shooting for being able to put the house on the market in late April. But as a one income family, we (mostly I) am dragging my feet about starting to build the dream home. I am afraid that if D loses his job (no rumblings of that yet, but still I am a nervous nelly) we would be in a bad place. One mortgage plus a construction loan plus a house that may not sell for some time is a really bad place to be.

I watched Obama's speech yesterday morning. At first (and you know I'm not a fan of his) I thought, does he realize he's not campaigning anymore? Because to me it sounded like a campaign speech. But then as he talked about all the government spending I got a little nervous. I simply don't see where all the money will come from. I'm not an economics major, though. But then the clincher was when he said it will likely get worse before it gets better and that it could take years to come out of this. I hope that he is just trying to pave the way for making his administration look good, hoping that it will bounce back and he can take credit. And of course if it doesn't he can keep blaming the past administration. (PS I hope it's not an omen, but the DOW dropped over thirty points during his speech--again not an economics major here.)

I pray he succeeds, well I don't care if he succeeds, so much as I hope this country does. And I do so for selfish reasons. I want my dad to retire and not loose all his savings. I want my four-year-old to start school in the district we plan to build in. I want to sell our house at top dollar since we've been paying top dollar taxes for years. And I really really want to build this dream home we've been planning for two years.

Water Well Hell...part deux

I want all of you to be as tired of the water well story as I am!!

Here's the short version:

• threads stripped again
• gravel falling into hole=no progress
• making new bit to drill through gravel
• me googling "Achilles heel"

Scroll down for today's other gripe....

Therapy Thursday

I skipped last Thursday because I was nursing a bad hangover.... HA! Really I just didn't have any pressing gripes last week. BUT today...

What kind of people just show up to your house unannounced? Solicitors and people trying to convert you, right? The other day one of D's cousins and his wife showed up. During Little's m's nap. She was sleeping on my bed, so I don't leave her unattended. (learned my lesson the hard way with Little d) I will turn on the moniter and go in my scrapbook room to work occassionally, but usually I play on the computer which is in our bedroom. It's my only downtime--how did you think I have time to type so many blog entries??

Anyway, back to the gripe. They ring the doorbell. I have a strict policy of not answering the door unless I know who is coming over. I figure if someone can't be courteous enough to phone ahead of time, I don't owe them an invite into my house. Plus as I said before I was upstairs with Little m. They ring again. I check out the front window and see a tan truck that I don't recognize in front of the house. Oh well, I think. They ring the doorbell again. Seriously?

Okay if I am going to be rude enough to just show up on someone's doorstep, I would not just keep ringing the doorbell. I mean obviously the person does not want to answer the door for whatever reason. So on the fourth ring I get pi$$ed.

Fine, I think, I'll answer it. So I get Little d to stand by the bed and I go DOWNSTAIRS to answer the door. Well the visit was short, Little m woke up and I got to her before she rolled off the bed. But I must say I can't believe someone would just show up to someone's house unannounced and then persistantly ring the doorbell until you get an answer. They were going to be in town all weekend, why not just call and set up a time for a visit?

So there's my gripe. I seriously get annoyed by unannounced visitors. Am I alone in this?

For the birds...

I told my dad the other day that when we move out to our land, I may become a hippie. Not like all crunchy-granola-not-shaving-my-pits hippie. But I really would like to plant a vegtable garden and...

I have this other crazy idea. (It is crazy as confirmed by everyone I tell). I have this crazy idea to raise chickens out on our land, after we move out there of course. I just think it would be neat to have our own eggs. See? Kinda hippie, right?

So I want someone else, anyone else, to be enthused about this idea with me. I started with my dad. He didn't seem too put off by the idea. But I think he thought I was not too serious about it. Next, I mentioned it to my husband. He looked me straight in the eye and said, "I'm not messing with chickens, that's all you." Hmmpt. He also laughed at me when I asked if you could take a chicken to the vet in a pet carrier. Apparently most people (and he's from the country he should know) don't take chickens to the vet.

I next told my supportive (snicker snicker giggle) mother-in-law. She smiled and said "I have some old henhouses you can use." That right there should have been a clue. If she wants me to get into it, it must be a bad idea!

Next up, my BFF. Quote--You must be crazy as hell!--Un Quote.

Okay. I know! Ask the four year old. They will agree to anything right? "Hey Little d, if momma raises chickens out on the land would you help me take care of them and gather eggs?"

Her reply? "Ummmmm...."

But then my husband says, "You can't gather eggs at night because snakes hide in the nests." Huh. Snakes? "Dad, did you know snakes hide in the nests?" Dad: "Yes, Grandma Phenie got bit on the hand by a rattlesnake."

CRRRAAAPPPP. Did you know they sell perfectly good eggs at the store? Yep, right next to the dairy products.

Water Well Hell

You may remember a while back I posted that D was drilling our water well. We're building our home on 30 acres in the county, so no city water for us. Anyway. That weekend did not go well. First it was very slow drilling. I think they only made 20 feet the first day. (We'll need to go somewhere between 160 to 180feet.) Next, the drill bit broke. So they had to start in another hole. Time ran out and they had to put it off until D's next seven days off.

Well in the meantime, the pipe and trailer were stolen. That put a damper on things. Did I mention that the pump also broke? D worked on it yesterday after the parts came in. But he needed something from Tractor Supply and apparently they weren't open this morning when he went by, so he tried to use the pump without the part, and whatdaya know? It worked. I sure hope things go smoother this week.

When I talked to him earlier they were at about 8 feet deeper in the new hole and had been digging for almost 2 hours. Hmmm. This could take awhile...

More Homemade Christmas Gifts

Little m is sleeping so I thought I would post some more gifts I made for Christmas this year...

Here's a DVD tin memo keeper I made for my sis-in-law. The patterned paper is non-CTMH but everything else is.

And here's one I made for my grandmother. They are always playing cards over there. I am now loving the look of black embossing powder so I use it as often as possible!

And the cool thing about these is that I put a magnet on the back of the notepad. So it will stick better inside the tin, but you could also use it on the fridge!

Stuff

The sheer volume of stuff that has accumulated in this house is amazing to me. I am in the process of my New Year of Organization. Today's task: my daughters' room. First there is the surface cleaning. I have to put the forty-five books back on the shelf. Put all the thirty five princess dresses in a tote. Gather all the baby dolls and stuff the stuffed animals together. BUT there are so many toys (what with Christmas just occurring) that their room is full to the brim. I have no problem getting rid of toys mind you. But Little d...

"But mom, I know I never use my vacuum cleaner, but when Little m wakes up, I will vacuum my room."

"I really love those dolls" {that she hasn't touched in over a year, that were bought at HEB for two dollars}. She finally agreed we could give them to a little girl who doesn't have any dolls, but she gave them goodbye kisses first.

Then of course as we find toys she hasn't seen in a while she MUST play with them right now. In the middle of the floor. Am I a bad mom because when she took a break from 'helping' and went downstairs I madly threw McDonald Happy Meal toys and pieces and parts and broken colors and broken hair barrettes in the trash bag?

I must not be that bad of a mom. I did save the leg of a Barbie. After all, Little m likes to chew on it.

Tree's Down

We finally got the tree taken down today. While D was in the attic getting the tree box he noticed that the drain tray thingamajig for the AC was plugged. He used to his air compressor to fix it. Gotta love a man who is handy! However, in the process he 'short-cycled' the AC and it started running in reverse. Whatever the hell that means.

We called out the AC guy. Yeah in South Texas everyone has an AC guy. He told us the problem and fixed it and didn't even charge us for it. How cool is that? Cool--get it--AC? Stop!

Okay me so tired, going to sleep (ish).

CTMH: Spring 2009 Idea Books Now Available

Close To My Heart is releasing their first Idea Book of 2009 and it's great! There are some really cute stamps including a rock star set and a cupcake set. The new papers are cool too. My favorite is Unforgettable.

There's even a set called Stardust that would be perfect for little boy pages. Not that I know anything about those mind you!

January's Stamp of the Month is really cute too. It's a mini-calendar set that I think I will be using in my next workshop.

So if your interested in checking out the stuff, contact me or your local consultant!