Friday, December 11, 2009

Peanut Butter Cookies

I'm getting ready for a girlfriend weekend. Melanie, Kathy, and I are going to Shreveport tomorrow. Our high school classmate, Richard, his wife and their band are performing at Sam's Town. http://www.myspace.com/ladychazzandthetramps (One of these days I'll learn the correct way to insert a link!) Melanie and I are leaving before noon tomorrow to go get Kathy, then we are headed east. Sam decided to take the opportunity to go visit his son and finally take my Harley there for him to sell for us. But I have a Monday obligation. Cookies. The library's Friends group is taking sweets to City Hall Monday for the employees and the city council. Figuring that I'd need a nap when I get home Sunday, I decided to do my baking tonight.

I just love the cookie dough scoopers. They make short work of scooping out peanut butter cookie dough. I don't have to roll spoonfuls between my hands any more.


While the cookies were in the oven,

I cleaned the kitchen. Put everything away. Could NOT find the lid to my sugar crock. Looked high and low. Finally put the crock back in the pantry and looked all around the kitchen again. I even looked in the trash can! I had a saucer in my hand to put on the crock for a lid...

See the first post for today below...I had a hard day at school...

Finished product...minus a few.

Since these weren't chocolate...how about some eye candy?!

No, drat it! I did not take this photo.

I cruised blogs a bit earlier this evening and noticed someone was showing off their cookbooks. Why not?! My pitifully small collection is located on a bookshelf in Sam's office - right off the kitchen. When we bought the house and moved in, he questioned me about MY bookshelf in HIS office. shoulder shrug Either in his office or in our dining room. ;o)

I truly drool while perusing this cookbook!

Last Day Subbing of the Year...

Most likely anyway. Next week is end of semester testing before Christmas break. WHAT A DAY! If I'd had to call a principal one more time, I'm afraid that they would be investigating me instead of the kids.

I subbed in one class and during a break in the teacher's schedule was sent to another class. They wouldn't sit down and get quiet. I couldn't call roll...so hit the buzzer and summoned help. The principal gave them a pretty good lecture. Even after he left though, one table...teenage girls! Sheesh!!! Oh. I forgot to tell you. Freshmen!

Back in my scheduled class...fight. I ran between them. A girl and a boy. The girl was the aggressor! He kept his hand on her shoulder pushing her out of reach. When I got between them though, he would not retreat. NO ONE would push the buzzer. I had to run back to it...push it...shout "I have a fight" as I was running back to get between them. Some of the other guys were trying to keep them apart. One tried to get me to back off telling me that she would hit me. I guess I just don't have good sense. I was worried about her turning on him and involving another student. (Doesn't matter who is at fault, if you fight back even in defense, you still get detention or some sort of punishment.) I just said, "She's not going to hit me because she doesn't want to be in any more trouble than she's already in." We got them separated and dang if she didn't follow him and they got into it again. She hit him. He slapped her. Help arrived. I found out later...they are COUSINS! Why couldn't they wait until they got home?!

Change of subject...
It is in full bloom! So gorgeous. While I wish it would be blooming on Christmas day, this is better than not blooming at all!

I was with Sam the other day while he was looking for second-hand woodworking tools. We stopped at a second-hand store, and I found another cruet to add to the collection Mama gave me.

The shelf is just about full. Hmmmm...maybe I can squeeze in one or two more. ;o)Isn't this sad? All I can think is "What was SHE thinking?" Grandma made it so she HAD to wear it?

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Children

Bingo Bonnie talked about being a Mean Old Mom over on her blog. http://bingobonnie.blogspot.com/2009/12/1-smell-of-christmas.html

Made me think about Jonathan when he was little and sweet. Little? Yes. Sweet? Sometimes. ;o)

When he didn't get his way he would call me "Meanie." I told him that was every Mama's middle name and that my name was "Mama Mean J****n."
I thought about something else. You know the time in your child's life when his eye is at the exact level of your elbow? You turn not realizing the he is RIGHT THERE.
"Waaaahhhh! Mama you hit me."
"Are you bleeding?"
"No."
"Then I didn't do it on purpose. When I mean to hit you, I'll make you bleed."

Oops. Then I prayed that the elbow wouldn't connect and bust his lip or something and make him bleed. Can you say Child Protective Services? Ssssh! Not out loud for the sake of every Mama out there!

It Ain't Easy Being....

Purple! I finished my second sock. And wore them to school Tuesday! One of the boys was upset...he was under some delusional belief that I was knitting the socks for him. I keep trying to tell him that his Spanish teacher will teach him how to knit...

I also wore my purple wave scarf! I looked snazzy...even if I do say so myself. The two items don't look as though they match, but the lighter purple in the scarf is the same color as the socks.

I made some quilt blocks and mailed them off to another quilter. On HGTV quilting message board, when someone is having a hard time with life, or a death in their immediate family, someone will generally volunteer to make a quilt for them. We make blocks and pass them on.

I pulled up at the library yesterday and look what was looking at me!

Hop on over to the Friends of the Daingerfield Public Libary's blog. (Check my sidebar for the link to click.) We had our first Breakfast With Rudolph. Emotions ranged from "What if no one shows up?" to "What if too many people show up?" LOL I don't know when someone thought to start a sign-in sheet, but we had 80+ people during the two hours the event was scheduled. One coffee urn was filled with 24 cups of hot chocolate...another pot had to be made! We had three boxes of donut holes...only 1/2 box was left. Our pigs ina blanket bakers, separated the fluffy canned biscuits and wrapped around Little Smokies. Just a few of those left. In a fit of, "What if we don't have enough food?" Two of us decided to make Rice Krispies Treats...mine were plain...hers had peanut butter in them. Just a handful left. We did good!

Now the photo taking and printing was another matter. We printed about 50 photos of kids sitting on Rudolph's lap. Problems? Yes. We had two very similar cameras. After the photographer, aka the librarian, took a few photos, we swapped out cameras. I removed the card, downloaded the photos to the computer, picked out what I considered was the cutest photo of the child(ren), printed it. Put card back in camera, swap with photographer.

This was a different program from what I am used to. On mine...if I leave photos on the card, my program does not download them again. The library's DID! As copy 1...and copy 2...and copy 3! Get the picture? So I started deleting the pictures from the card. Ooops...I deleted some pictures that had not been downloaded to the computer! Photographer did some retakes.

AND...we either have photographer error or camera problems. One round of picture taking had only ONE photo on the card. This has happened to her once before.

We made apologies around...more photos were retaken. Some people had to leave because of their time issues. Someone came into the library yesterday for a picture of her child, we looked. He wasn't there. Once again I apologized. She was very gracious. I told her that we should have the bugs worked out by next year. Fingers crossed!

So...we have swapped cameras, I have the library's camera and she has mine. We'll be taking photos and see if the problem pops up and which camera it pops up on. One more possibility could be with the card. Since the cameras are near identical...same brand, etc., they take the same card. We'll swap those out and see what happens.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

MY Goodies!

My previous post mentioned the What I Want For Christmas swap on the quilters message board at HGTV. This is what Jackie, aka Wenonah, from Lewiston Minnesota sent to me.

Unopened packages...

The first thing I opened.
I zeroed in on this like a bloodhound after an escaped prisoner.
Oops...a piece is missing already!


I am definitely signing up for next year!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

What I Want For Christmas

One box full of great quilt related items...and some not...has already been opened. I joined an unusual swap over on the HGTV board. I'm not much for swaps. I haven't joined in the SS - secret sister - swap. Mainly because it's a pick-out-a-gift-and-mail-it-once-a-month-swap. The swap I just participated in was for 20 things. We had categories to fill. We each answered a list of questions and included additional information about ourselves. All 20 items were wrapped and put in one box (if it all fit - I mailed two boxes) ...and mailed all at one time.

These are just some of the items in the boxes I sent.


This is sticky... This one shiny...I put a photo of me in the frame. LOL


Something for the kitchen... A Texas bluebonnet mug with Penzey's cocoa...


Santa Snowman

I forgot this category... Snowflakes


All 20 items wrapped with FQs and labeled... Packed and ready to go...


My gifts went to Grace in Akron Ohio. I picked several Texas items. The Apricot preserves were accompanied by a jar of plum jelly...both made at Blackburn Syrup in Jefferson Texas. The Texas mug was made at Marshall Pottery in Marshall Texas. I picked out cowboy Snowman and Santa as reminders of Texas.