December Catch Up!

It's been awhile since my last post!  Life got busy, what can I say?....Things that I've been thinking/dreaming/doing lately...


Baking:  I NEVER bake, because I hate it for the following reasons:
1.  It's messy.  We don't have a dishwasher and cleaning pans, and mixer parts is torture.
2. I'm impatient and don't like to wait for things to cool off, so usually my cookies melt, my brownies are sloppy messes, and I burn myself.
3.  I get bored halfway through and start watching tv while things burn.
4.  When things don't end up tasting/looking right, it makes me cry over all of my wasted time/effort/mess I have created.


Anyway.  I go to an annual cookie-exhange each year..obviously not out of my love for baking, but I do like to eat cookies and the company is swell.  The cookie exchange was Sunday, and as of Saturday, I didn't even know what to make (I had to make 12 dozen..).  Luckily I was talking to my lovely sister on the phone and complaining about how I hate baking and she gave me this amazing foolproof recipe..even small children can make it:


Snicker-Snicker Doodles


You need:
1 Can of Refrigerated cookie dough (chocolate chip or sugar cookie dough are good options)
1 bag of mini sized snickers bars


Directions
Slice the cookie dough into 24 equal pieces.  Roll each piece into a ball and flatten it, then press an unwrapped Snickers bar into the middle and roll it into the ball.  Repeat 23 more times.  Place your cookie dough balls with snickers in them evenly on 2 cookie  sheets.  Bake for 10 minutes, and Voila!  Tasty treats! They weren't that pretty, but they taste good and even baking-impaired people like myself can handle them.

Music and Media Monday!
Shows/Movies/Music you should check out:


1.   The Walking Dead (the first part of season 2 just finished so if you haven't watched it before it's a good time to catch up).  Zombies, suspense, nightmares on Sunday night...good stuff.  There is one character I can't stand though...leave a comment if you can guess who...I'm serious, everytime she (that's a hint!) comes on screen I want to punch things...

Christmas Music!!
My favorites are Manheim Steamroller and Amy Grant.  Also everything on the "Sounds of the Season" channel on Comcast isn't bad either.  I LOVE Christmas music, but I can't stand when B101 plays the same 10 versions of the same 10 songs all season...ughh.

Manheim Steamroller..and a neat little light show...

Amy Grant in a sweet little 80's outfit....this version of the song is BEAUTIFUL though..




That's all for today! Leave comments!
Emily

Addicted to Coffee

Lately, I've been trying REALLY hard to be a morning person.  I've tried this in the past by setting my alarm clock early, but it never worked for me, I'd just hit the "snooze" button and roll over.   For whatever reason, this time around I'm having success.   It's a combination of my have-to-get-to-work-early-to-prepare-or-something-bad-will-happen feeling and my newfound coffee habit.  I have been drinking coffee everyday for the last week and half and have been early to work everyday.  Unfortunately, I think I'm addicted after a week.  It's Sunday and I've had two cups today because I felt like I HAD to have coffee to be productive.  Anyway, I'm not sure it's all that bad because I am getting a lot of things done.  These are the delicious coffees I've tried this week:

McDonald's Peppermint Mocha-pretty darn delcious. Just tried this one this morning--very sweet, more of a dessert and probably really bad for you.

 Tully's Kona Blend.   We have a Keurig coffe maker that I am now starting to take advantage of.  Seemed a little daunting at first, but it's pretty much foolproof (I have a small fear of the unknown and new.)

Wawa  Pumpkin Spice Cappucino.  Loaded with caffeine and sugar.  Probably also pretty bad for you.  I drank this everyday this week and was extremely productive.

So, that's about it about my coffee.  I'm feeling a little self-conscious about my blogging habit.  My loving husband just walked by and said "You kinda look like a Hipster Doofus".  When I asked why he gave me the following reasons:

1.  I was just at a college library doing some research (mandatory for class-not my fault)

2.  I use a Macbook Pro (also not my fault, my work provides it to me)

3.  I'm drinking coffee

4.  I'm wearing a scarf 

5.  I'm wearing Chucks (actually the ones I was admiring in my first blog post)

6. I have on glasses (I need them to see, so I can't help that either)

7.  I'm blogging

I also just completely talked about myself for this whole blog entry which is probably only interesting to me...I'll make a point to write about something else later this week... 

Media Monday #1

Happy Halloween!! I went through the whole day and kept forgetting it was Halloween..funny how things that were SO important when you were a little kid hardly seem to matter at all when you're older...it's kind of depressing really.  To honor the holiday, I am going to make a point to eat a whole bunch of candy tonight! :)

As a teacher, I’m really into routine and scheduling.  When I plan lessons, I like to do the same thing on different days of the week, so my teacher personality is coming out on my blog. 

Introducing…..(drum roll please)….. Media Mondays!

Each Monday I’ll share music, movies, or TV shows that I think are worth listening to and/or watching.

Bad Teacher was an awesome movie.  Cameron Diaz plays a self-absorbed woman who whose main interest in life in snagging a rich husband so that she no longer has to be a middle school teacher.  She says EXACTLY what she is thinking throughout the whole movie and had Jack (my husband who is also a middle school teacher) and I cracking up.  To all of my teacher friends out there, Cameron Diaz’s character says all the things that run through my head on a daily basis but could never say out loud…and if  you don’t wish you could say all of the things she says in the movie at work, you are lying to yourself.  Anyway, it’s definitely worth watching if you are a teacher and you want to feel good about yourself.

I’ve been listening to the Shins for a few years now.  They’re an indie rock group that originated in New Mexico I first heard about them when the movie Garden State with Zach Braff and Natalie Portman came out in 2004.  The Shins are therapeutic to me in that they always put me in a better mood when I am down.  Also, even though they’re not particularly peppy, they make good workout music, in my opinion.  If you haven’t heard of the Shins before, check them out!

Halloween Cuisine

This weekend, my best friend, Ms. Kaiser is hosting a Halloween party..we are all dressing up.  The boys are all obsessed with the movie Beerfest and are dressing up as characters from the movie.  Honestly, I watched the movie once and thought it was stupid, watched it again to make sure and started to truly despise it, but maybe that is because Jack, my husband walks around the house quoting it and talking like the characters to our cats.

Anyway, the girls are dressing up too.  Ms. Kaiser got the idea that we should dress up as cocktails which I was really excited about at first, but now our party is two days away and I am thinking about putting on my usual cat ears, tail and leggings.

I don't want to let down the besty completely though, so to make up for my lame costume I have been thinking a lot about what I can bring as far as food and drink.  After a little googling I found some fun ideas, but if you want to get grossed out google Halloween food because people cook up food that looks like bugs, body parts, blood, etc. etc. etc.... it's gross.

Personally, I like cute Halloween grub.  Some of the best ones are found are:

Halloween Caprese

http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/caprese

Halloweenies

http://cbsop.com/recipes/halloweenies-ghoulishly-good/

Backbone Roll-ups

http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Backbone-Roll-Ups

Pumpkin Mousse

http://www.countryliving.com/cooking/pumpkin-dessert-recipes

Caramel Apple Martini

http://www.nochelatina.com/Articles/4462/Cocktail-of-the-Week-Sweet-Treats

Be sure to check out the Caramel apple martini link because there were some other especially good looking cocktails on that site as well.  

Emily

5 Things I'm loving right now!

So, I've decided to start a blog.  Life moves so fast and I feel like moments pass by before we realize they're there.  I've been thinking a lot about how to hold onto my memories. A lot of girls my age are really into scrapbooking--too messy for me.  The idea of itty-bitty pieces of paper all over my house to clean up makes me feel sort of nauseous.  Some people write in journals, but I'm a teacher and I already spend half of my life with pen all over my hands, so it's not that romantic of a thought; Also, journals are "private" and I'm a bit of a show-off so, blogging it is!  My sister and my brother have art blogs.  I jokingly told my sister I would start a rival art blog, but my drawings of flowers and cartoon animals will only take me so far...

Without further ado:  5 things I'm loving right now!

1.  Gray!  Lately, I'm obsessed with gray accessories.  Dark gray, specifically.  Heck, I just bought a gray car over the Summer.

2.  Elton John's "Border Song".  I  was driving to work last week and this came on 88.5 WXPN (Philadelphia).  I usually don't even listen to Public Radio, but it's definitely growing on me, especially since the morning selection is pretty good.  Maybe it's a sign that I'm getting older, and more mature...probably not haha.

3.  Halloween Costumes on animals. So, we have 2 cats.  One we had last year (FDR) and dressed him up as a shark.

  He hates the costume and walks backwards when it's on, but it's so funny that we put it on him anyway.  This year, FDR will wear his shark costume again, but BabyCat, who just turned 1, doesn't have a costume yet.  Jack, my husband and I went to Petsmart over the weekend and picked up a basketball player outfit for him:

Unfortunately, it doesn't fit since it is meant for dogs.  Let me know if you have any fun costume ideas for BabyCat.

4.  American Horror Story.  I knew nothing about this show until this past Saturday when I had a couple of friends over for a free make-up consultation.  (Word to the wise: nothing is ever free!) But, afterwards, we watched the first couple episodes..it was pretty scary and suspenseful which is fun for this time of year.  Plus, there's a few actresses I'm big fans of in it:  Jessica Lange (from Grey Gardens-see more grey stuff I like!) plays an evil old woman; and Connie Britton (from Friday Night Lights) play the main female lead.  Check it out on Wednesdays on FX.

5.  Blue Moon Harvest Pumpkin Ale.   I think I might just really enjoy this because it's almost Halloween, but I swear it's better than regular Blue Moon.  It's a perfect after-dinner beer because it's a little bit filling and you probably wouldn't drink more than a couple in a night.

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Emily