Marty and I went to Carrabba’s for dinner.  I love their chicken marsala.  I have had it at other restaurants, but nothing compares to theirs.  I don’t even try to get it anywhere else anymore.  I splurged on all courses…half a loaf of bread and yummy dipping sauce, caesar salad, Chicken Marsala with fettucine alfredo and lastly their Triple Chocolate Bread Pudding.  I figured if I was going to go out to eat I may as well splurge and it was so worth it.  The Triple Chocolate Bread Pudding was the best dessert I have had in a while.  I usually go to restaurants and am not overly impressed with their desserts, in part because we could make it at home and have it be just as good, but this was delicious.  I highly recommend it.

Sitting at dinner with Marty made me think about when we first started dating and went to restaurants.  Our food preferences have changed so much.  I was 19 and still into chicken fingers, sandwiches and anything not messy.  I was thinking how nice it is to be so comfortable being able to slurp down my alfredo and not care that he sees me with sauce on my chin(I think I was safe last night and had no sauce on my chin).  Funny that after 12 years together that that is one of the things I enjoy most…just being comfortable.

Thanks to my parents for giving us the opportunity to go out and enjoy an awesome dinner.

I borrowed all The Hunger Games books from her and loved them, but that was in 2011.  Now that I am not taking any classes I have so much more time to actually do the things that I want to do instead of school work.  I am finding that I actually like reading the stuff I want to read instead of Philosophy, Religion and Math.

Here is my January book log…

The Face on the Milk Carton – Caroline B. Cooney
Whatever Happened to Janie – Caroline B. Cooney
The Voice on the Radio – Caroline B. Cooney
What Janie Found – Caroline B. Cooney

Girl Stolen – April Henry

My Sister’s Keeper – Jodi Picoult

Prep – Curtis Sittenfeld

The Help – Kathryn Stockett

I am not sure if I can keep up this momentum with TV, People magazine, laundry, cooking and cleaning.  I will be happy to read a book or two a month.  I was just an over achiever this  month.

The first five books on the list are geared more towards a 12-year old girl, but I need to keep up with what my niece (and sister) are reading.  They are quick, easy reads and actually kind of fun to read.

My Sister’s Keeper was definitely a good and interesting book.  It held my attention and even made me tear up a little.  It was a little predictable in the end though.

Prep didn’t hold my attention.  I made it through it, but I kind of struggled through it and it seemed long and drawn out.  I thought by reading the back of the book and seeing it was about a girl going to boarding school that it may be something good that  I could introduce to my niece, but not for a 12-year old.

By far my favorite book this month was The Help.  Such a good book (I have not seen the  movie).  While reading the book I really could envision the characters and the settings.  It was such a different time, but not that long ago either.  I would recommend this book to anyone.

I attempted getting into The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but it wasn’t my cup of tea.

The officer was nice and only ticketed me with not changing my address on my license and for my van being 2-months over the renewal (apparently you have to change your address for you to get a new renewal notice, who knew?!)  So I tell my girls the story thinking they understand, but apparently something got lost in translation and Skylyn tells my sister yesterday after seeing a cop, “My Mom was arrested before.”  I can only imagine what other stories have been lost in preschool translation.

Today, walking to school I had to tell Skylyn that I was never arrested.  She wanted to know what I was then and she came up with, on her own, “pulled over.”  YES!!!  Hopefully that sticks.  It was pretty cute, but I am not sure why she will be needing to know what to call it in the future.  Maybe I need to keep some stories to myself.

I am not complaining because getting unexpected packages on your doorstep is always fun.  Actually, I am complaining because it is always kind of awkward asking people, “Did you by chance send me a package?”  And by me, I am saying did you send my kids a package because I never get random packages for myself in the mail.

Anyway, just a suggestion.

Ingredients

• 2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, divided
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 large Granny Smith apples, cored, and coarsely chopped

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450°F and line 18-20 muffin cups.

1. Cream together the butter and sugar, and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. Mix in the egg and sour cream.
2. Stir in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon until just moistened.
3. Stir in the apple chunks. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup of sugar evenly on top of all the muffins.
4. Pour the batter evenly into the muffin cups. Bake for 10 minutes, turn the heat down to 400°F, and bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Nutrition Information per muffin (based on recipe making 20 muffins):  140 calories, 21g carbs, 6g fat, 3g protein, 12g sugar (based on entering recipe into myfitnesspal.com)

Lately, she has been asking me how she is snuggling with Mushu (her lion).  I write her a little message and then one night I felt like being an over achiever and drew a picture.  I really should have known better than to set the bar that high because then she wanted more pictures.  Well, last night I was lazy and wrote a message and at the bottom said that she was sleeping too silly for me to draw a picture and that I would take a picture with the camera to show her in the morning.  This is what I showed her…

She loved looking at the picture this morning.  I know that when she is older that this will be something she remembers doing with me.  I just should have known better than to set the bar so high.  It is always funny to see what crazy position she will be in.  I also think it is cute that she sleeps with a blanket on her pillow just like I always did.

Found the idea on Pinterest and then Lynette made me a pdf file with the top Valentine.  What would I do without her?!  I know it is early, but I let the girls write their names on the backs this morning for something to do.  I told Malaina to use her best hand writing and she really did a good job, even put hearts above the i’s on some of them.

Skylyn started out writing hers and only wrote, “Sky.”  I told her I prefer her write her whole name (baby steps people!).  She did a great job writing her name as well, but then wanted to “decorate” hers.  I thought I could handle it as long as it was only on the back.  She tried to talk me into coloring the front, but I am just not there yet.  Here are hers…

In the end everyone is happy and honestly I am sure none of the kids or parents will even care what they look like.  Last year, I made 32 crayon rolls, which took forever, but I am pretty sure I am the only one who noticed the time and effort they took.  I am trying to simplify my holiday crafts and this includes letting the girls participate, as hard as it may be.

–Sickest person on Facebook–

–Complains about their kids the most–

–Most posts–

–Most overachieving and wants everyone to know–

–Most attention seeking – you know the ones…they give you a little information so that their friends will ask for more details (ex. Was at the hospital last night.  Elaborate and give the whole story!)–

–Most posts complaining about their spouse – apparently their spouses don’t have facebook and if they do, how embarrassing–

–Most posts trying to sell things on facebook–

–Sends birthday wishes to everyone – unless I know you or talk to you regularly you don’t need to post anything about my birthday, although I do have an amazon wish list you are welcome to buy and send me something–

–Most diet updates–

–Most check-ins–

–The most woe is me person–

Maybe I should just get rid of my facebook account.  I only use it because it is the easiest way to share pictures with my family.  Oh, and daily chats with L!

Bedroom Before with gold curtains and gold lampshades…

Bedroom After…

The Treadmill Screen.  It cleverly disguises my frenemy…the treadmill.

On to the Living Room, before…

With red curtains and our old couches.

After…

Right now I am debating on if I should paint the floating shelves white or leave them wood, hmm…  I may end up just getting new accessories to incorporate some of the white.

A gallery frame wall is great, until you have to take all the stuff off your walls to get painted.  It was a good way to dust though!

Dining Room – no before since we really didn’t do much besides get a new hutch and paint.  Here is the old side table…

Here is the new one!  It was a great buy at World Market for $150!  I love a bargain!

Our Front Room is pretty much the same, but I do like it because it seems to be the one room that stays toy free.  I guess that isn’t completely true since the dining area does too.

There is our home tour.  The kitchen isn’t entirely put back together yet so no pictures of that.  Actually, I am pretty sure in a few months I will be changing stuff in the entire house again.  I need to work on that.

Here is how mine turned out…

The original recipe is posted on Lamb Around’s blog.  Her dough appears to be creamier than mine so I am not sure how that worked out, but I am sure it still tastes as good.  She only put the cookie dough in the middle and top, but I one-upped her and added scratch made chocolate frosting on the outside.  Here is the recipe for the Chocolate Frosting…

Melt butter.  Stir in cocoa.  Alternating, add powdered sugar and milk to cocoa and butter.   Add vanilla.  Beat on medium speed to spreading consistency.  Add more milk if needed.

I am sure I would be chopped based on presentation, but I prefer to be judged more on how it tastes.  I can’t wait for my niece to see this tomorrow.  It is going to make her birthday that much more special.