Random Thoughts from Home

This picture is from last summer on our way back from Grandma Jean's 90th birthday party. We came home by way of Stevens Pass and this creek was beckoning us to stop and enjoy!

As soon as I can I'll post pictures from our Leavenworth trip. It was a blast. Who knew you could shop for hours on end and in the best little shoppes ever? Come Christmas you'll discover the treasures we bought.!

It was a wonderful way to end the summer and fun for us to just 'get away'.

For this post's Christmas recipe I'm sharing my favorite Snickerdoodle recipe!

Snickerdoodles:

2 3/4 cup sifted flour 1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cream of tartar 1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda 2 eggs

1 1/4 cup sugar 1 c vegetable shortening

2 Tbls sugar 1 Tbls cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sift together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt onto wax paper. Beat together shortening and the 1 1/4 cup sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture. Combine remaining 2 Tbls sugar, cinnamon and the nutmeg. Roll dough between palms of hand, 1 level Tbls at a time into balls. Roll each in sugar mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool.

I love these cookies and the smell is pure holiday delight.

Love you all

Mom

More Random Thoughts!

Sorry it's been so long but for some reason I couldn't post anything at all. Ginanne got it so I can post from Google Chrome and so that's what I'm doing! I'm back!!!

So Maran wanted me to post some holiday recipes for all of you so I'm starting with the famous Peanut Butter Bon Bons!

You will need:

1 cup peanut butter 1/2 cup butter/margarine

2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup nuts (optional)

12 oz chocolate chips

Mix together and roll into balls; place on waxed paper. Melt chocolate chips and add 1 teaspoon of wax. After chips have melted, dip balls and return to wax paper. I use chunky peanut butter and skip the extra nuts. Stick them in the fridge to cool and then eat and enjoy!!!

Random Thoughts from Home

Just a couple of thoughts to share with my amazing family! Congrats to Lindsay and Patrick and their soon to be new addition to the family! We welcome their little one as we do little Alexander Douglas who will be born this July! Our family is really growing.

We also want to let Maran and Devin and Courtney know how much we appreciated having them in our home and how much we miss them! Wouldn't have missed those months for anything. And the opportunity to watch Courtney grow was priceless! Thanks!

If you haven't checked out Maran's blog lately, you have to go there and see her latest video. Makes me laugh every time!

I also want to thank each of you for your participation in our family fast for Brady and Zach. It is so great to be able to call upon you and feel of your love and concern for our littlest boys. In case you didn't know I keep a list of what I call 'comfort scriptures' in the back of my scriptures. I turn to them for peace in times of trial. Let me share one of my favorites. It's found in Psalms 37:5 - 'Commit thy ways unto the Lord, trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass". I know that if I am faithful and trusting it will all work out. Maybe not as fast as I'd like but it will work out. Keep praying for the boys and know how much Dad and I love each of you!

Recipe of the Day

They served this at the Relief Society breakfast and we are hooked.

5 eggs 3/4 cup half-and-half (we used milk)

3/4 cup of milk 1 tsp vanilla

12 slices texas toast (we get this cheap at the discount bread store)

1/2 cup butter

1 cup light brown sugar

2 Tbls karo syrup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter, brown sugar and karo syrup in saucepan over medium heat until smooth. Stirring occasionally. While mixture is melting, whisk eggs, milk, half-and-half and vanilla. Spray cookie sheet with Pam. Pour mixture from sauce pan onto cookie sheet. Drip slices of bread in batter and then rub on cookie sheet to spread caramel mixture. Bake in oven until golden brown, about 30-35 minutes. Top with powdered sugar. Dad tried syrup on them instead of powdered sugar but it was too sweet. The powdered sugar is just the right touch! Enjoy.

We love you!!!

Random Thoughts From Home!

So here is the amazing and fantabulous picture I promised you! This is the food I purchased from Albertson's at their big ConAgra sale. Let me tell you, it took me three days to recover from this shopping experience. And this picture doesn't show the 54 boxes of Banquet Brown n Serve sausage links that I got on the last day of the sale and the 30 bottles of mustard. And what did it cost me? Absolutely nothing. As a matter of fact they paid me $47.00 to shop their sale. Here's how it works:

I went to Albertson's on Wednesday the first day of the sale at about 9:30am. There I bought 6 cans of Healthy Choice soup and 4 (4 packs) of pudding. The products totalled over $25.00 in shelf price and because of the ConAgra sale the sale amount automatically dropped to $10.00. So I paid $10.00 and got a receipt and wait for it....a $10.00 catalina coupon which is good towards my next purchase. So I bought another 6 cans of soup and 4 pks of pudding and when it dropped to $10.00 I paid with my catalina and then wait for it.....I got another $10.00 catalina! I spent over 5 1/2 hours at Albertson's in between work and then later that evening when a group of Shadle Park Relief Society got together to show others how to do this. As you can see by the picture the sale included Wesson oil, cocoa, margarine, ketchep, mustard (30 bottles), salsa, soup, peanut butter and sausage. It also included canned tomatoes (didn't need because I can my own), and a lot of frozen meals which I don't want to get use to having although I did buy some for dinner that night because I had no time to make dinner! And to top it off, since I was using my Albertson's card it kept ringing up points so that by the end of the day I had received $65.00 worth of receipt rewards which I have already started using to shop for good deals on meat at Albertson's. With some of the products like peanut butter I would have an overage of .76 for each transaction. So although I spent about $29.00 in cash I still have the receipt rewards and a $10.00 catalina for futher shopping! WOW! Albertson's even had a list of the products you could purchase and how to mix them so that many items were free and others had just a little overage. Albertson's is great and the clerks were incredible!

I don't know how ConAgra makes any money but I'm glad they do this sale. The last one was last June and I heard about it too late. But not anymore, I found the blog that announces it so I will be there every time it happens. I've already let Jordan take stuff home and I plan on taking some out to Grandma Joyce and Uncle Mike tomorrow. Anyway, I wanted to share this with all of you and when you come home there will be pudding and cocoa galore!

What a blessing this was for so many families in our ward. When you work on your food storage the Lord provides a way!

Love you,

Mom

Too Much Fun!

We are having way too much fun having Courtney here! And it's great having Maran here as well, but let's face it, Courtney is amazing. She reminds me a lot of Maran when she was little and it's been fun to relive her personality through Courtney!

Just to bring you up to date on everyone. Did you all know that Patrick and Lindsay have a dog now? Yep. And the boys are loving it from what I hear.

Jordan is keeping up at school and Ginanne is also doing well. I'm sure she's tired but as all women know that comes with the pregnancy!

Becky now has her thesis idea and is now working on research. One of the people on her thesis committee is Brad Wilcox. If you don't know who that is, google his name.

Maran and Courtney are here for a bit. Devin is doing great at Boot Camp. Maran got to talk to him for 15 minutes this past Saturday. Yay! She is anxious to be reunited as a family though. Separation is never easy, so keep them in your prayers.

Zach is thinking about going back to school this Spring. He's doing really well at his job at Domino's and we continue to ask for you to keep him in your prayers and put his name on the temple rolls each time you go.

Brady is getting ready to be a cheer boy for Groovy Shoes on Feb. 1st. Go Shadle! I never thought I would say the words, 'my son is at cheer practice', but there you go. Keep this boy in your prayers too.

Dad is starting up doing taxes again. He's using the laptop he got for Christmas to do them on instead of the very, very, very old computer we used to have downstairs. He is always working on something whether it be taxes or projects around the house. He is a regular Charles Ingalls!

I am doing my weight loss group again and hope to lose about 20 more pounds. I feel better and look forward to a very healthy middle age! Life is good.

Love to you all and have a great week!

Love Mom