Take Deux

My model was being very uncooperative for trying on the successful attempt at knitting a hat. So I had to resort to using a stuffed bear. I think it turned out really cute though.

P.S. Model was not harmed during this shoot. She is happily eating chocolate at this very moment.

Your real boss is the one who walks around under your hat

Crafty I am not. That doesn't stop me from trying though.

Need proof?


Now I am starting again using this fabulous yarn, smaller needles and half the stitches cast on.


Anyone need a toilet cozy?

Training Complete

It's about time someone took the reigns around here!

I woke up yesterday morning in my allergy medicated fog to this blessed note from my favorite first-born.




Isn't she just the most spectacular kid ever?

Mommy needs her coffee!

And when do we stop putting cute little pics by our signatures? I think the world would be a happier place if we all signed our names like that.

Madoff Madness

When something is so pathetically sad and wrong sometimes humor is the only way to relate. I love David Letterman!

Letterman - At Home with the Madoffs

AND The top 10:

Letterman - Top Ten Messages Left On Bernie Madoff's Answering Machine

She's Two and a Half TODAY!

Where does the time go?

Happy St. Patrick's Day (a little early)

We had so much fun on Saturday with the Lee's Summit Parade. The girls look forward to it so much each year. J.R. and his co-workers worked really hard on the float. They teamed up with Shamrock Golf Club and Eric Reisner on a float this year. The theme of it was "putt your money to work". On the float we had our leprechaun who was putting on an actual green. When he made the shot, confetti and stuff would shoot out of the hole. Next to the hole was a dancing groundhog/mole ala Caddyshack. We handed out golf balls and candy. Surprisingly the golf balls were the biggest hit. Although I think after this year there will be some sort of rule about tossing golf balls into the crowd LOL!

Today while I was talking to J.R. we learned that they got 1st place for it. That is very exciting. We have tried to win for 3 years now. It might have helped that they had awesome gift cooler bags for the judges. Bribing the judges IS allowed.

Here are a few pictures from the day. Enjoy.

Denise

One hour until the big date! Denise, over at There's Always Room For One More is going on her eharmony date this afternoon. I am excited for her and can't wait to hear how it went. I know where they will be and at what time. A sick part of me would love to go spy on them. Don't worry though, Denise, I am stuck at home with a sleeping Coryn. I hope Bachelor #1 is awesome.

10 Pound bag of apples

Yesterday I went to my WW meeting. I lost a whole .2 pound! Woo-bleepity-hoo! I was feeling kind of down about it. I kept telling myself, well it's better than gaining that weight. After the meeting I ran by Costco where I loaded my cart up. Two of the things in my cart caught my attention once they were in my home. The first was a 10 pound bag of apples. The other was a 2+ pound canister of oatmeal. I started thinking about those two things. Yes the thought of apple cobbler crossed my mind, believe me, but what I was actually thinking about was the weights of those things. I have lost 11.8 pounds since January. That is almost 12 pounds. That is almost a 10 pound bag of apples and a 2+ pound canister of oatmeal. So you know what I did? I picked those suckers up and proceeded to carry them around the house with me, up the stairs to the laundry room, back downstairs, to the basement. It sucked! I have almost lost THAT weight. THAT weight used to be on my body! What do I have to be depressed about? I should be so glad that I am not carrying that weight around anymore. I should do everything in my power to NEVER carry that weight around again. Guess what? I feel better.

Facebook "friend suggestions"

So sometimes it is just so hard to ignore the names of people that it suggests for you on the right. One name keeps popping up there. It is a girl that I could go without ever seeing again in my entire life and yet my curiosity is piqued to the point that I may just ask her to be my friend. Is that wrong? Of course it is, but still there she sits everytime I go to Facebook. AND then I wonder if my name is also staring her down. I kind of hope it is.

It's Spring Break!

Oh how that used to mean something entirely different to me. Now it means, get ready for a week with the kiddos. This is a preview of the summer. NO! I love my kids, sadly my kids don't love each other the way I wish they would. So in anticipation of boredom and fighting I took the family(yeah even J.R.) to Joann's yesterday and we picked out latch hooks for the girls to work on. And amazingly it is working. They are both in their rooms as I type this quietly latching away. Notice I didn't say hooking ;)

So if you are looking for a project to keep the kiddos busy and from fighting, I would strongly recommend a latch hook.

Pancakes with Fresh Raspberry and Lemon Sauce

You HAVE to make these. They were so filling and tasty. They had a crepe taste to them although they are not thin like crepes. I have changed the recipe a bit by adding more milk because the batter was so incredibly thick. I am not sure how that changes the points, but I still counted them as 6 points because I didn't figure it could add that much to them.

Pancakes with Fresh Raspberry and Lemon Sauce

Serves 4
1 Cup Fresh Raspberries
1/4 Cup Sugar for sauce + 2 T for the batter
1 T lemon juice
1 1/3 Cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 8 ounce container plain fat-free yogurt
3/4 to 1 cup fat free milk
1 large egg
1 T canola oil

1. To make the raspberry sauce, combine the raspberries, 1/4 cup sugar, and the lemon juice in a small saucepan and set over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionaly , until a chunky sauce forms(about 6 minutes). I broke the raspberries up with a fork. Set aside.

2. To make the pancakes, combine the flour, 2 T sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together the yogurt, milk, egg and oil in a small bowl. Add the yogurt mixture to the flour mixture, stirring just until combined.

3. Spray a nonstick griddle or large nonstick skillet with nonstick spray and set over medium heat. Pour scant 1/4 cupfuls of the batter onto the griddle. Cook until bubbles appear and the edges of the pancakes look dry, 2-3 minutes longer. Transfer the pancakes to a plate and keep warm. Repeat with the remaining bater to make a total of 12 pancakes. Serve with the sauce.

A serving is three pancakes and about 3 Tablespoons of sauce. 6 points!

Let me know if you make them and like them :)

Heather and Christy

This is me and my sister circa 1974. Aren't we adorable?

Weight Watchers Update

I weighed in this morning and was down .6 pounds for a total of 11.4 pounds in 8 weeks. It's going slow, but it's GOING! Amazingly I baked this week. I made the most awesome lemon bars and I ate pizza and I made these. AF was here to boot. So my consensus is that I must have been eating WAY too much food before this whole WW thing. Now that I am eating in moderation, I am losing and I am doing it in a way that I can live with. Cause this girl loves her food!

My sister lost 3 pounds. Go Christy! I don't want to use her method though as she had the flu.

Yumminess!

I promised I would share some of my successful recipes that I have been making to keep us on our weight loss track. The first recipe was a huge hit. I made it for guests who were impressed that it was a low-cal version of a fatty favorite. So without further ado.....
Spinach Manicotti


Ingredients

8 item(s) dry manicotti shells
1 1/2 cup(s) part-skim ricotta cheese
1 cup(s) part-skim mozzarella cheese, shredded (4 ounces)
1/3 cup(s) grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp Italian seasoning, dried
10 oz chopped frozen spinach, thawed, drained and squeezed dry
1 large egg(s), lightly beaten
1 large egg white(s)
1 spray(s) olive oil cooking spray
1 1/2 cup(s) bottled reduced-fat pasta sauce, roasted garlic flavor

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F.


Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain and rinse.


Combine ricotta cheese and next eight ingredients in a medium bowl, stirring well. Spoon mixture evenly into pasta shells. Place shells in an 11 x 7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Spoon pasta sauce evenly over shells. Cover and bake at 350°F for 20 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Serve warm. Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 1 shell and about 1⁄2 cup sauce).

The second recipe is a lower fat version of a bran muffin. My mom makes the most awesome bran muffins. I can honestly say that these don't touch hers, but they will do for a 2 point snack.

Bran Muffins


1 Cup flour (I used wheat)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 Cups Post 100% Bran Cereal
1 1/4 Cups non-fat milk
1/3 Cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 Cup Natural applesauce

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Mix cereal, milk and sugar in another bowl, let stand for 5 minutes. Stir in egg and applesauce. Add to flour mixture; stir just until moistened. (Batter will be lumpy.) Spoon batter into muffin pan sprayed with no stick cooking spray. Fill each cup 2/3 full. Bake 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. Makes 12. Each muffin is 2 points.


Now if you don't care about fat and want the Mom recipe, (Kristi I think this is the one you wanted) here it is!
6 week Bran Muffins

3 C all bran cereal
1 C boiling water
1/2 C melted shortening(use applesauce to cut out the fat- I don't ever do this)
1 1/3 C sugar(or less)
2 1/2 C sifted flour(you can use the whole grain kind too to make it healthier)
2 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 beaten eggs
1 pt buttermilk

Put 1 C of bran in a bowl. Pour boiling water over and let stand. Mix in melted shortening. Mix in remaining bran with sugar. Add beaten eggs and buttermilk. Sift in flour, soda and salt. Mix all well. Store in fridge overnight before using(I have skipped this before and they turned out fine ) Mix will keep 6 weeks in fridge. That is nice so you can just make a few up fresh as you need them.

Bake 20 minutes at 410degrees.

Have a wonderful Tuesday. Tomorrow is my weigh in. Wish me luck.

One Proud Mom

Ella was asked several months ago to "shadow" our pastor for a day. I wasn't really sure what this meant or if it would really even happen, but a few weeks ago our pastor set up a time for her to do this. Yesterday she spent the morning with him doing pastorly things. She was so very excited about it. She even sat with him during the service.

I woke up this morning to this wonderful email which I will be making a copy of for her and keeping.

JR and Heather....with due sincerity I want to state that I think that Ella is a beautiful child. She interacted with me and others with such grace and kindness. You should know that folks were impressed with her poise and character.

During worship, she participated in singing and followed our worship with unique interest. I was moved by her interest and her innocent desire to be invested in what we did. I learned something today. I was blessed.

Just a reminder....yes, I am talking about the same Ella that you have to deal with and raise within different circumstances other than 2 hours at church. But she is what I said she is....also. I knew her mother back when!!

I truly feel that it is people taking the time to invest in our kids, like our pastor did, that helps them succeed in life. I had several people growing up that took an interest in me and helped shape me into who I am today.

I know that when you have people with high morals and good hearts watching and observing you, it makes you think twice before you make bad decisions in your life. I think parents are the first ones to leave this legacy to their kids, but then it is vital that other adults also take on this task.

I am one proud mom at the moment. Ella truly is an awesome kid and it is because of all the love and support she and we as a family have received from our friends and of course our families.