Did Mary Poppins's Purse Catch Fire?

It's no secret that I carry luggage and call it a purse.  I just like a big purse!  It's so much easier than trying to carry a purse and a diaper bag and any of the other miscellaneous items that moms just....need.  However, after today's incident, I'll try to keep a better eye on the items contained within!  Sitting in a dentist's waiting room, I reached into my purse to retrieve my nook for Mikey to play, it was hot to the touch.  Now, it is in a case, so it was actually the case that was hot; so after a frantic check, I determined that something else was hot outside of the case and not the nook.....thank goodness.  Reaching back in my purse, something was definitely blazing hot and I could now smell the heat......what on earth could it be??!!  I Carefully located a small pocket of hell in my purse, apparently, I had taken off a metal bracelet a couple of weeks ago and tossed it in my purse.....and, apparently it landed in the same pocket with some spare AA batteries I had for my camera......somehow the bracelet had encircled one of the batteries and made contact with both ends for a period of time.  Glad we sat down when we did!  Any longer, and I probably would have had smoke and a small fire.  The freaking battery was soooooo hot, I had to use one of the kids' back-up shirts to remove it and then let it sit out in the open for about an hour before it was cool enough to be safely thrown away.  So, here it is, a Monday AND it's snowing AND I have a dentist appointment AND there I am carrying around a single battery on a shirt through the dentist's office trying not to start a fire.  Of all things..........

Is there already a National Clean Out Your Purse Day?  If not, can we make it today?

Cheers!

Boys' Room Follow-up

So, a few changes to the original design, but I think the best art does, right?  I can't show you a picture of the ocean wall just yet because there is still a dresser in front of it and a bunch of junk yet to go through.  A BIG thank you to Heather for all her hard painting work!!

Boys' Room: The Design

So, we're having another baby and we have a 3 bedroom house....guess who gets to share a room?  They are actually very excited about it.  Plans are for bunk beds  but unbunked for now, a wider dresser to accommodate both sets of clothes and my reading chair.  We don't allow toys in the bedrooms, however, I'm taking this opportunity to finally do something wonderful to their room!  I decided on a "My Favorite Things" theme, have done a bit of research on the 'P' and finally have some sketches.  Now, just to get the sketches up on the wall and convince some wonderful friends to come and help paint.  The rooms are already a nice sky blue color, so we won't have to do a background, just to 'scenes'.  So excited!!!  Here are the sketches I've come up with.

The Ocean: the ship will actually be an iron ship that my great uncle welded for my grandparents.  The open area is the closet door.

Ocean and Space:  The ocean wall runs into the space wall.  Complete with rocket and sandcastle.  at the bottom right there is the end of a train track that runs into the next wall.

Jungles and Trains: here is the train track complete with train and a jungle in the back.  We already have some of those stick-up jungle animals that the boys can place around the jungle scene.

Dinosaurs: the train track from the joining wall ends in the hills here where the dinosaurs are!  Off the right is where the ocean joins...but not a very good transition other than the door and a sun.

Hopefully we can pull this off and have some great pictures to put up later!

April's A to Z Challenge!

I'm doing it again!  Do you have a blog and want a challenge too?

A to Z Challenge

And She Created Marshmallow Mess and Declared it Good!

Following dinner this evening, I had a two year face look up at me and say, "Mommy, you make cookies now?"  How could I say no?  usually I make Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chip cookies, but alas, no brown sugar and no molasses to make any....so, think mommy, think....aha, the 'inter-webs' shall save the day!  So, I found a chocolate chip cookie recipe that would also incorporate half a bag of marshmallows I came across.  Only, of course, I just used it as a general guide, pretty much doing whatever i felt like, so it became my own creation of sorts.  So, here is what I came up....not too bad, even though i did put in a bit more salt than was called for.  1/4 tsp was called for......i having little hands helping me, put in a full teaspoon.  Oh well, right?

1/2 c butter

1 c Chocolate Chips (or whatever you happen to have left from your last recipe)

1 c sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 c flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt (or whatever)

1 c nuts (recipe called for walnuts, i had almonds...whatever)

mini marshmallows

Preheat to 400.  Melt the butter and half the chocolate chips over low heat.  Stir frequently.  Remove from heat.  Add sugar, vanilla, and eggs.  Mix.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, and baking powder.  Add the liquid mix to the flour mix.  Mix well.  Add remaining chocolate chips and nuts.  Fold in the mini marshmallows.  Drop in heaping teaspoons (use an ice-cream scoop) on un-greased cookie sheet.  They will double in size so make sure there is room between them.  Bake 9 minutes.  Allow to cool for 5-6 minutes before trying to get them off the cookie sheet.  I personally thought they were going to be questionable, but they weren't bad and because the marshmallows puff up so much and then basically leave hollow spots, they weren't a very heavy cookie at all.  The kids loved them too!

Acronyms for "Old" People

While driving home today, my BFF (yep, LAC, I did it) and I discovered that we're 'old'.  She's a high school teacher.....automatically old....and, well, let's face it, it's been said I was born thirty and got older from there......by more than a few people.  I can't remember what started off the conversation, but we both discovered that there were several text acronyms that neither of us could figure out for a while.  I will admit, for a while I thought 'fml' was short for family.  No, it never made sense how it was being used, but I just couldn't figure it out.  Not to worry, my younger, cooler, hubby informed me.  Now, I’m just annoyed by it.  Nothing is that bad, really.  Then there is 'smh'.  Ok, so I just learned what this was today.  Yes, today.  I kept trying to figure it out, thinking that 'm' was for my (not totally stupid) but figure it was along the same lines as fml and I guess my vocabulary is just not that expansive when it comes to slang and cursing.  Ok, so a few I did know, lol, lmao, lmaorotf ...those are old though. I remember those back in the days of AIM.  Once upon a time kids......we had dial-up and this wonderful little thing called AIM and Yahoo Messenger....the end.  Do those even still exist?  There's also brb, brt, and then some that I’m not sure are actually legitimate text-eese......I just decided to start putting things in acronyms at work to throw off some of my more mature co-workers......keeps me feeling a second younger......DYK,  HO! (did you know, Hold on).  Then there are the text-eese that have apparently been accepted as mainstream English......OMG, WTF.  I'm pretty sure I’m missing a bunch and I’m pretty sure a certain hipper cooler younger sibling of mine will merely comment, SMH.  hmm....maybe my niece can school me?  So, now that this blog entry has turned far more boring than I intended, I’ll go.  TTFN! (remember that one?  Yeah, I’m with it)...

The list of one's i've learned:

FML - F*ck my life (totally unnecessary)
SHM - Shake my Head
BFF - Best Friend Forever
LOL - Laugh Out Loud
LMAO - Laugh My Ass Off
LMAOROTF - Laughing My Ass Off Rolling On The Floor
BRB - Be Right Back
BRT - be Right There
WTF - What the F*ck
OMG - Oh My Goodness/God/Gosh
TTFN - Ta Ta For Now

Meatloaf Cups

I'm not much of a cook, at least not the way my hubby is, but I figure, "I can read, so I should be able to cook", right?  I also have a few tricks up my sleeve that I learned from my Mom.  One of those is meatloaf.  I'm proud to say that this is one of the few dishes I fix and do it well and never use a seasoning packet or instructions.  Accomplishment?  oh yes!  So, I was on "that website" and saw a recipe for taco cups.  I thought, why couldn't I do that with meatloaf.  So, I did.  Now it is a family favorite.  I like it because they are easy to make, fun to eat, and portion control much?  oh yes!  So here it is.

Ingredients (or close to it)

1 lb ground turkey

1 lb ground beef

1 egg

a Splash of milk

Oregano

Garlic Powder

Onion Powder

Parsley

Any other spice or seasoning that you like

Bread crumbs - I like the Italian ones

Veg - some sort of vegetable cut up or shredded - the picture is one where I shaved a whole zucchini.  usually I shave a whole carrot, though.  You could use any leftover vegetables you want, though.  PACK IN THE VEGGIES AT ANY TIME!

Small Chunk of Velveeta or store-brand block cheese - I shop exclusively at Aldi, so I use their brand.

1/2 a pack of wonton wrappers

Directions:

Pre-heat to 350.

Place the wonton wrappers in 2 cupcake pans.  This recipe makes 24 of the meatloaves.  Do not spray each cupcake hole or you will have a mess!  Cut your cheese in 1 centimeter or 1/2 inch cubes and put one in the bottom of each wrapper.  This is not a necessary thing, it's just a little surprise!  

In a bowl, mix, with your hands, the two meats and the egg and the veggie.  Then add your spices.  Doesn't really matter how much of each.  I'm guessing I use about a 1/2 Tablespoon of each.  then add your splash of milk.  The mix should be kind of soupy.  Then add your breadcrumbs.  Go with about a cup at first, mix it in, the mix should firm up some so that you could scoop it with an ice-cream scoop and it would hold its shape.  Add a little more if you need to.  If you add too much and it is really dry, add a little more milk.

Then, with that ice-cream scoop I mentioned or a melon-baller, place one scoop inside each wonton wrapper.  The mix should distribute evenly between the 24 wrappers.  If you have a little left over, go back and see which ones need a little more.

Back for 30 minutes.   You can add the usual ketchup or bbq sauce on the top when you serve them or you can brush it on and back for another 5 minutes.

Tonight I served these with mashed carrots and sweet potatoes.  Lovely!! 

Enjoy!