Season's Greetings!

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!

I am currently sitting at my Mom's kitchen table watching her prepare home-made potato soup. It smells incredible and I'm anxious to devour it. I was lucky to get some of her mashed potatoes for lunch too.

I had a very pleasant Christmas and it was very nice to come up to Waukon (avoiding the snowstorm) and see family finally. I had actually forgotten that I had birthday presents waiting for me and received plenty of Peanuts items. Nicole also created a fabulous blanket for me. It's been used both nights since it's freezing in my old bedroom (in the basement).

I once again realized this year that I really enjoy watching other people open their gifts rather than focus on mine. I got some nice stuff and I do appreciate receiving it but it truly is more fun to give than to receive. Kudos to LeAnn for giving me a couple books with the craziest postcards in them that I've ever seen. Mom and I read through them earlier tonight and were laughing so hard we cried.

Our family made four batches of popcorn balls this year and had some nice assembly line action going on since we all have our duties for that process. We also attended the candlelight service at church last night and watched some Christmas movies. The family got Farkle (a game that requires luck and a good roll of the dice) and we played that a bit today. Gavin got the new Scrabble Flash and I think I've played that more than anyone today.

I hope everyone else has had a great holiday today. Nicole- I hope you have good weather as you continue to travel around Iowa and Minnesota throughout the week. And thank god you have been working out since I almost got my car stuck on Thursday night. Not sure what I would have done if you weren't there to push me out.

I'm very grateful to have all my friends and family in my life. (those are the best gifts of all)

Who wouldn't want cookie dough dip?

Hello, I could come on here and talk in detail of how I've lost 34 pounds (just stepped on the scale this morning)in just over 3 months but I've decided instead to share a recipe with you for a very easy, incredibly tasty and horribly bad for you treat. I suppose there is the one stipulation that you like chocolate chip cookie dough. I was at work yesterday browsing cnn.com and an article on their food blog caught my attention. I love dipping things and I love cookie dough so I had to click on the article about chocolate chip cookie dough dip. I read the article and then I read the recipe and I decided that the recipe was walking the fine line nestled between being really good or really gross. Naturally, I decided to make it and find out for myself. I had all of the ingredients for the recipe at home with the exception of the cream cheese and the Nilla Wafers to dip with so it seemed like a great idea. After a quick stop at Meijer, I was home and ready to begin.

The recipe is incredibly simple to make. Most people will probably have a majority of the ingredients in their fridges and/or cupboards. All it takes is 1 bowl, 1 pot and a whisk. After whipping up this new treat I first tried it with a pretzel. It was OK. Then, I grabbed a Nilla Wafer and dug in. It was delicious! I might even make some more for my family Christmas. I brought it into work today but I haven't heard any reviews back. I'm anxious to see what people will think.

Anyway, here is the recipe. If you're looking for something new and easy give it a shot!


Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip:

1/2 c. butter
1/3 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 8 oz. package cream cheese (I used reduced fat)
1/2 c. powdered sugar
3/4 c. chocolate chips

In a 2 qt. sauce pot, over medium heat, melt butter and brown sugar. Cook and whisk until sugar is mostly dissolved (I don't feel like it ever fully dissolved). Remove from heat to cool. Whisk in vanilla. In a separate bowl blend cream cheese and powdered sugar. Add sugar/vanilla sauce and mix thoroughly. Add the chocolate chips last. Put in fridge to cool completely. Serve with whatever you want for dipping. I bet graham crackers would be as good as Nilla Wafers!

Tis the season....to watch my students take a final exam

Hey ladies:

My blog title rings true....my Fundamentals of Outdoor Team Sport students are currently taking their final exam while I proctor and write on our blog. In theory I should be grading some papers and unit plans but I decided to catch up on this and cruise through some email instead. I'm not 100% awake yet (even though it's 10am) so grading papers is dangerous. I stayed up to 3am to finish grading unit plans for the previously mentioned class because I wanted to hand them back their work today after their final. Students never come back to pick up their projects if they aren't mandated to see you before the end of the semester.

I also made good headway into my Christmas cards yesterday. I still have plenty to finish but I think I've mailed 20-25 already. Fortunately a lot of the remaining cards don't require postage since I can put them in people's mailboxes at work. It was really odd not writing my Grandma Smith a Christmas letter and sending her a picture of Gavin.

I want to do some baking this weekend. I'm going to make peanut butter balls, cornflake wreaths, and dip stuff in almond bark. I'm not a fan of the latter but Jon keeps requesting it (the white almond bark not chocolate). I think I'll make those Ritz cracker peanut butter sandwiches and dip them in almond bark too. I've also had a craving for the no-bake cookies that involve mixing chocolate, peanut butter, and oatmeal into clumps and letting them cool on wax paper.

I think my Christmas shopping is somewhat complete but I still don't have everything wrapped yet. I need to make one more trip to Game Stop to get Gavin a couple games and I'm still pondering what to get my Dad for his birthday. Despite the chaos in my life lately, I've kept Christmas somewhat organized. Now that I said that, I'll probably forget to pack things to bring to Waukon when we travel.

Jon is making improvements as well. His staples were removed and the incision from his surgery continues to heal nicely. He was diagnosed with a blood clot last Thursday but was told to stick to his regimen of baby asprin and leg elevation. The pain in his calf and foot have gone away so that hopefully means the clot has broken apart (in small pieces) and been reabsorbed into the body. I've been helping him buy gifts for his family too since you can't find everything online for a decent price.

I went back to the doctor on Friday since my joint pain and discomfort reared its ugly head again. I'm on a generic form of Reflen now since my body was not enjoying the ibprofen I was taking constantly. Sadly the new med isn't working. I'm going to call again next week (giving that new med more time to try and work) and the doctor is going to refer me to an osteoarthritis specialist assuming my recent bloodwork does not show anything. They did a full work up on the possibility of Lyme's Disease so I have to wait for that panel to be processed.

I am hopeful that the Red Cross does not need me the week after Christmas. A babysitting "camp" is scheduled Monday-Friday that week and I'm the instructor assigned to it. I'd much rather spend some extra time in Waukon and relax that week. Enrollment is low and if it stays that way, the "camp" will be canceled. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I agreed to do that class. I agreed to it back at the end of the summer and I was oblivious to the fact that I'd probably need some down time between semesters. I didn't anticipate Jon being out of commission too. The Red Cross needs to hire more people that want those extra hours and money.

I think that's long enough of an update. It saddens me that I'm not checking this blog and writing entries as much as I truly want. I certainly need more "me time" so that's a possibility for a New Year's Resolution.

Recipe: Peanut Butter Balls

Hello! I don't know how you all feel about peanut butter but I LOVE IT!!! I could probably eat a whole jar by myself. I have a peanut butter ball that my grandma Roepke used to make. I've never made them myself but this year I tried my hand at it. They were as good as I remembered! These are so easy and damn tasty! I do have one tip though. Work fast. Once you mix everything together the batter starts to set really fast and it makes scooping them a bit tricky. I think if I make more I'll put my bowl of batter over a big bowl of hot water to keep it from setting as fast. Anyway, bon appetit!

peanut butter balls:

1 c. sugar
1 c. light corn syrup
1.5 c. peanut butter
4 c. rice krispies

Over medium heat bring sugar and syrup to a full boil. Mix well and remove from heat. Pour hot mix over peanut butter...be careful it will be very hot. Mix thoroughly. Quickly add rice krispies and mix well. Spoon 1 table spoon of mixture onto wax paper. When all balls are scooped you can go back and roll them so they are more round. Let cool and set. Store is a sealed dry container.


These freeze really well. Also, I use a 1 tbs. cookie scoop to make my PB balls so they are all of similar size. Like I said, these are super easy and everyone will love them.

Goodies, jogging and sales oh my...

Hello ladies. I was hoping to blog over the weekend however, my operating system decided to crash on Saturday night and I had to deal with that yesterday. Reinstalling the OS wasn't so bad, the 103 critical updates on the other hand are taking longer than I'd like. Oh well, that's what I get for having a system that's over 4 years old. Fortunately I had all of my documents, photos and music backed up so I didn't really lose much. I did sadly, lose almost all of the audio books that I had ripped from CDs I checked out at the library. I don't have enough space on my iPod for all of my photos music and audio books so I usually just add the books that I'm currently listening to at work. I guess I have to check some out again and get them back. Bother. Anyway, all's well that ends well and now I have a shiny new install of my operating system. Go me!

I had a really nice Thanksgiving with Jessica here. I forget how easy it is for us to just hang out. We never feel like we need to entertain one another yet we always have fun. I miss having girlfriends around to just hang out with. While she was here we did lots of cooking, black Friday shopping and we even got a little bit crafty. JoAnn's had really good deals on Friday so I got yarn and made Rishy some hats and she got some fleece, it was dirt cheap, and made a tie blanket. While it was on sale I picked up fleece and made both Taylor and Jackson tie blankets for Christmas. At $2.99 a yard you can't hardly beat the price. I also hit up a really good sale at Lanebryant. They had everything in the store buy 1 get 1 free. I got 2new cardigans and 2 bras. Both of the cardigans are really girly but I like them a lot! I've gotten a lot of compliments on them.

Each day I get a little closer to being ready for Christmas. I have all of the kids homemade gifts done with the exception of Jada's hat which I hope to whip up tonight. I've also purchased all of their other gifts too. I thought this year, instead of books I would get them all DVDs of movies that I love. I hope they enjoy Beauty and the Beast, The Great Mouse Detective and How to Train Your Dragon as much as I do! I've even started on some of my Christmas goodies. My first batch of caramel corn turned out amazingly well and will soon be shipped over to Afghanistan along with covered pretzels and peanut butter balls. I just hope they don't melt in the heat. I think this coming weekend I'm going to bake sugar cookies. The first day I'm back for Christmas Taylor and I are going to have a Harry Potter marathon and frost cookies for our family festivities. He actually called me this weekend to make sure that I hadn't forgotten my promise. I'm glad he's as excited as I am.

I've been trying to do well with my fitness goals. It's so hard this time of year with all of the sweets and other rich foods that seem to be around. I didn't really gain anything over Thanksgiving but I didn't really lose either. I've been very faithful to my exercising and I'm still minding myself when it comes to diet, however, I have to admit that it's hard to be as strict when you're making goodies. I mean, you have to sample to make sure everything turns out well :) I'm enjoying everything in moderating and I think that's the most important part. I do have some exciting news to share with you. It might not seem like much but I'm pretty pumped. This weekend when I was working out I jogged for 10 minutes! I don't think I've been able to jog for 10 minutes in years, maybe decades. And the best part, I didn't feel like a giant pile of crap afterwards. I actually felt really good. Yes, I was breathing hard and sweating like a pig (yes, I do know pigs don't actually sweat...I didn't come up with the saying I just use it)at the end of my 60 minutes on the treadmill but I felt great! I think part of my new years resolution is going to be getting back into the walk/jog protocol and see where it takes me!

Anyway, I should go. It's lunch time and I am quite hungry today. I hope you ladies have a great week!

p.s. Jenny, once I get all of my updates taken care of on my computer I'll reinstall messenger and finally get a chance to chat with you!