Cookie Sunday!!!

So my tradition of making cookies is still going strong. Two weeks in a row. Lets see how long I can keep it up. Probably long enough to make snickerdoodles for Cameron. I made them two weeks ago, but I am trying to branch out and keep it interesting. Lets hope these cookies last past Wednesday. My cookies from last week were gone fast.
These are Easy Pudding Cookies

1 cup butter or margarine softened

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 pkg. (3.9 oz) Jell-O Chocolate Instant Pudding

2 eggs

1 tsp. baking soda

2 cups flour

1 pkg. 6 square Bakers White Chocolate, chopped (I used Ghirrideli)

Heat oven to 350. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with mixer until light and fluffy. Add dry pudding mix; beat until well blended. Add eggs adn baking soda, mix well. Gradually beat in flour until well blended. Stir in chocolate. Drop tablespoons of dough 2 inches apart onto baking sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes or until edges are slightly browned ( you can't tell if they are browned though, it's a brown cookie). Cool 1 minute on baking sheets, remove to wire racks and let cool completely.

Madeline said they are really good and the kids licked the bowl clean after we were done scooping out all the dough. Enjoy another recipe from our cookie Sunday.

Party!!!!Party!!!!

Had a great day with my co-workers yesterday. I really have the best office to work for. We got together at our house for some BBQ and swimming...only Madeline and I did all the swimming, everyone else forgot to bring suits. Forgot to get the camera out for photo ops, but it was great. I hope we make it a regular occurrence so that we can get the families together instead of just the adult party at Christmas time. I think it is what I needed to get me out of my blah. I think I was having my own private pity party for myself. Those happen with the shift that Paul is working right now...but I take it in stride and try to go with the flow. They don't last forever. And parties always make everything all better.

Why Do I Do It????

This week has been a rough one. Probably more rough for my husband and kids than for me. Only because I have been really grumpy. Really, really grumpy. Not only was I grumpy, but I was extremely lazy. Lazy as in don't even want to get out of bed or off the couch. It was a blah week. I guess I am entitled to a blah week. Thank goodness my blah weeks don't happen very often. I think my family would walk out on me if I was always nasty, and short with them. I didn't even like how I was acting. I just couldn't get out of it for a while. Here's to a new week and no more blah's for awhile...PLEASE!!!

It's Cookie Sunday

I had started this tradition with the kids a while back and am usually good about doing it about once a month. I am hoping to make this more of an every Sunday thing. I am hoping to get my kids into it, so they can eventually make the cookies themselves and maybe make a meal here and there when they are old enough. Maybe give myself a break here and there. Can you sense my well laid plans on how this is going to work in the future. Hahaha, I know, you should have done the same thing right. Well, now you can.
These are chocolate chip cookies with a twist. Not the regular old Toll House cookie recipe that everybody uses. Why, you ask, because the Toll House Cookie recipe never works out for me. They meld into one ooey gooey mess for me, so I found a new recipe. Haha, chocolate chip cookies will not be my downfall. I have conquered. Here is the recipe if you would like to use it.

Pudding Chocolate Chunk Cookies

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 pkg. (3.4 oz) Jell-0 Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

1 tsp baking soda

2 -1/4 cups flour

1 pkg. (12 oz) Bakers Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chunks (I used Chocolate Chips and they worked out great)

Heat oven to 375.

Beat butter, sugars, dry pudding mix, and vanilla in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Add eggs and baking soda: mix well. Gradually beat in flour. Stir in Chocolate. Drop teaspoonfuls of dough, 2 inches apart, on to baking sheets. Bake 8-10 min or until golden brown. Cool 3 min on baking sheets. Remouve to wire racks. Cool Completely.

Enjoy. We are.

Daddy is a Swimmer

Can you tell it was a little early in the morning for the kids on a Saturday.

Saturday we spent out by the pool at Modesto Jr. College to cheer on daddy. I actually enjoy myself when we go out to the swim meets. Paul did great. He has been working really hard. He heads out Mon.-Fri. to practice. This was his first taste of swim meets since he was in high school. Haven't seen him this nervous and excited in a long time. I hope this becomes something of a regular occurrence for us, I can't get enough of it. And no I will not be taking on swimming just like him, I'm a land sport kind of girl, but do love swimming in our pool with the kids.

Movies under the Stars

The City of Oakdale puts on a movie under the stars on the 2nd Saturday of every month during the summer months. We went last year and saw How to Train Your Dragon so we headed out agin with some friends to go see Rango. While the movie stunk it was still fun to spend time outdoors with the kids. We will head out again in September to see Hotel for Dogs. Hopefully it is better than Rango.

School is in Session!!!!

I have been waiting for the day that I would have both of my kiddos in school...and it has finally happened. Don't think that I don't love my kids, but it will be nice to not have to drag poor little Madeline on all of my errands. She has wanted to be in school for so long. She finally gets her wish and I get to have a house to myself, but it does get awfully quiet without my kiddos laughing in the next room. There are up sides and down sides.

Where Did The Summer Go????

This summer vacation was absolutely the shortest. I don't think we had time to breathe, it went fast. So here is the summer wrap up. We had swimming, swimming and more swimming. Can you tell that there was a lot of swimming.

Cameron and Madeline had a great year on swim team, we have the ribbons and heat wins to prove it. Cameron got light years better and I don't know how. He finally learned to dive which took half the year to get. He hates the cold water and complained every chance he got at swim practice about how cold the water was. It doesn't help that summer took it's time getting here. Madeline did marvelous considering she was one of 7 other 4 year olds in the swim league. By the end of the year she had taken so much time off of her strokes. Not enough time to get some heat wins, but she didn't finish last. Can't wait to see what next year holds for these two.
After the swim season there was Madeline's early back Kindergarten. This allows the kids to get a head start on Kindergarten, so they are familiar with the rules and what they need to know. She loved it. She thought she was all that, because she got to go to school and her brother had to stay home. How's that for being a big girl. Didn't even need her mommy to walk her to class every day like some of the other kids in her class. Can you say ready for school. She is.

We had lots of family visit from out of town and it was the best. I wished that I had gotten the camera out so that I could have taken some photos of our way out of town relatives. Hopefully they will travel this way again soon.

No camping trips or vacations taken this summer. Money has been tight , as probably can be said for just about everyone. So we pitched the tent in the backyard, brought out a TV and DVD player and had some popcorn. I kind of think that is the way to camp out. No getting up in the middle of the night to walk down some little dirt path hoping that an animal won't jump out in front of you while heading to the stinky toilets. All I had to do was get up and walk into my house for a clean bathroom break. The next time we camp out I would prefer to not hear the construction going on at 6 am in the morning. That is not the kind of wake up call I was looking for. Hope that your summer was as enjoyable as ours. Now for the start of the new school year. Which means that both kids are off to school so that I am left with afternoons of peace and quiet and ridding our home of so much clutter. At least I hope that is what it means.