Bake a Cake

Hunter's Birthday Cake this year was the Peanut Butter Cup Cake...a decadent, rich, fancy and yet easy cake. (Recipe originally from Parents.com)

1 Devil's Food Cake mix
3 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 + cups chopped peanut butter cups
8 oz. dark chocolate, chopped
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup peanut butter

Preheat oven to 350.  Coat two 9-inch cake pans with non-stick cooking spray.  Line with parchment paper and coat paper with spray too.

In a large bowl, beat cake mix, eggs, buttermilk and vegetable oil on low for 30 seconds.  Increase speed to medium-high and beat for 2 minutes.  Scrape down sides after 1 minute.  Fold in 2 cups of the chopped peanut butter cups.

Pour batter into pans and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Cook cakes completely.

Place chopped dark chocolate in a medium bowl.  Bring cream just to a boil and then pour over chocolate. Whisk until chocolate melts.  Add peanut butter and whisk until smooth.

Place one layer of cake on serving dish and pour 1 cup frosting on top.  Spread evenly with a spatula.  Add second layer of cake and pour remaining frosting over top and sides of cake.  Smooth out with spatula.

Allow frosting to set for a minute and gently press remaining chopped peanut butter cup pieces all over the top and sides of cake if desired.  Place in a refrigerator for about an hour to set.  Remove and serve at room temperature.

I suggest for sure to serve at room temp.  The cake was actually even richer, believe it or not, the next day.  Goes really well with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream too!

17 Candles

It's been a rough year, I'm not gonna lie.

And I'm pretty sure we're not done with this rollercoaster.

But for today, I'm just so grateful for the peanut butter and jelly filling to our family sandwich.

Happy 17th Birthday Hunter Bug. (click there for her birthday post in 2008.)

Just Breathe

Today was the last day I will ever drive kids to Middle School.

The last day we'll ever see those blue doors.

I now have a sophomore in college and a senior and freshman in high school.

It is a very surreal feeling to not be a part of a school any longer.  I remember the last time I picked up my baby from elementary school, I actually got weepy.  You send your children to these schools everyday for years.  They become part of your life.

There could be big changes this summer.

Sometimes I feel like I just can't breathe.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Just breathe.

While hallucinating during a fever yesterday, Bridger managed to capture this video...with a computer.


I don't know who's crazier....the dog or the fever pitched teenager.  

Ode to Humidity

She has returned.

I say "she", because I know she is a daughter of Mother Earth.

She can be beautiful.

She can be mysterious.

She is fickle.

She is determined.

She exaggerates.

She sparkles.

She turns everything to a damp, earth wormy smell.

She dews and steams all day.

She makes me want to run screaming to the mountains for reprieve.

She's downright a pain in the hair and is the cause for sweaty men all over to remove their shirts and gift us with the glimpse of their unsightly manhandles.

This year I will try to look at the positive.  For instance, if green is your favorite color...it's your fortune to live in KC.  I will be ready.  I am armed with anti-humidity hair products.

She is my nemesis, but I will not be defeated.

Unwelcome back humidity.

A thought about cookies

"Cookie cutters are for cookies, not human beings and we should not try to live someone else's life or compare ourselves to others."
Thank you Sue for reminding me of those wise words.

But now I'm hungry for cookies.

The Butterfly Effect

I spent an hour and half at a graduation this evening.  It was extremely hot and windy and I could hardly hear the speakers.  As I sat there in my own personal pool of sweat, thinking about this past school year, I heard one quote that stood out and made the event inspirational for me.  I was so proud of the girls of whom I was there to see on their special day.  I have watched them grow and change and become lovely young ladies.

"If there was no change, there wouldn't be butterflies."

Change is hard.  Change takes time.  But change is worth the process because of what the end result is.  

I'm thankful for the beautiful butterflies I've been privileged to see grow and change this year. They give me hope and remind me of how important the process of change is.  I love the butterfly effect.

3-Way Chocolate Cookies & Plot hopping

What a combination.

I've gone 4 days with no sugar...that means no chocolate either.  Must be a record.  Call the Guinness Book of Records people.

This morning the girls and I spent some time at the Elmwood Cemetery in East Kansas City.  It's the annual May clean-up in preparation for Memorial Day.  As far as cemeteries go...it's awesome.  I like cemeteries any way.  Call me sick, but this one is one of the better ones I've ever seen.  Lots of old mausoleums and ginormous headstones.  There are Civil War Veterans buried there...it's a historical site of course.

I usually like to spend some time walking around and taking pictures but I was much too busy for that.  I was a sweeper.  I come along after the mowers and weedwackers and sweep headstones.  All that plot hopping made me work up a mean sweat and appetite.  I staggered over to the gratuitous bbq line and scarfed down my hamburger only to find that I was suddenly ravenous for sugar...so much so that I wiped my face, loaded up my gear and girls and we were outta there.  The whole way home Bridger kept commenting about how she was craving cookies.

After serving time in the cemetery and seeing a lot of dead people...I decided to stick with the Joker's motto, since life is short.  "If you gotta go, go with a smile."  So, why not eat some sugar.

So, we found a quick recipe online for a chocolate, chocolate chip cookies.  I tweaked it a little and now it's my 3-Way Chocolate Chip Cookie.

2 cups butter softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350.  Cream butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until fluffy.  Then I just dumped the rest of the ingredients in the mixer and mixed it up.  We were anxious for the finished result and didn't have time for a separate bowl fiasco.   What a waste of time.
I use a ice cream scoop for my cookie dough.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.  These bad boys are rich...even for me.  Another tip that seems to work well is to let the cookies cool on the sheet awhile before taking them off...like 30 seconds to a minute.  And always use frozen chocolate chips.

Seem like a highly unusual day?  Hanging at the cemetery and gorging myself on chocolate?  Not so much...the day has just begun and I'm sure there's more sugar where I'm going.

Waste Not, Want Not

I'm looking forward to the weekend.
It's never a waste.
I'm starting it off with a trip to Winter Quarters.

It's the last weekend before my kids last week of school.
I have another senior.
I have another freshman.
And time is slipping through my fingers.
And for the first time in 14 years, I'm feeling a little baby hungry.
There...I've said it.
But I know, it's too late.
Waste not, want not.
Oh boy.

3 words

Sugar

Free

Jello

2 more words...

Life

Saver

I'm having a hard time with my blog.  I really feel the need to change it up like everyday because I can't find a background I like for more then 5 minutes.  I just need to design my own.

The Fruit Diet

I've been thinking a lot about food.

Sometimes it's all I think about.

I'm on the second week of a new eating plan and so far I'm not doing so well.

I really like food.  Not that the plan has bad food, I just like other food too....as in sugar.  I am seriously addicted.

I was thinking about a quote that I read a couple of years ago and thought it applied to eating well and establishing other good habits in a couple of different ways.

"The fruit is never found near the trunk of the tree....it's way out on the branches."

Good things are always found to be a little bit harder to get to then the bad things.  Bad habits, temptation and gluttony are right there...available at arms reach.  I was noticing this when I stopped at QT the other day and went inside to get a drink.  Right there at the cash register, within arms reach was a rack of candy bars, trashy magazines and cigarettes.  The bananas and apples were clear around the other side....a required effort to get to when you're on the go.

Good things require a little more effort and work.  You gotta actually climb that tree.  You gotta walk your rear end around the counter to the bananas and apples.  You gotta show restraint at the temptations within arms reach.

But the fruits of our labors are oh so sweet.  The good habits, the physical, spiritual and emotional benefits, the blessings...all those good fruits, require a bit of a climb to get there and then when we do the reward is tasty, satisfying and downright dripping with sweetness.

For me though, the trick will be developing a craving for fruit and the effort it takes to get to it!

It's the 18th of May

It's that time of year again....

The day I feel older.

Funny how I don't feel older on my own birthday....I feel older on my oldest child's birthday.

She's 19.

I wrote a post about her birthday a couple of years ago....here.

This is her first birthday away from home.

There will be no candles or cake.

I still can't believe how naive I was at 21 years old. When my water broke two days before, I thought I had lost control of my bladder and ignored it.
Who does that?
A naive 21 year old.

I can't believe how much she changed my life, for good.  She saved me.

She still saves me.

Happy Birthday dear Chloe.  I love you.  Thank you for bringing me closest to the most Godly thing I have have ever done in my existence.  I didn't appreciate it then, but I cherish it now.

I feel old.

Liberace called....

From the grave....
apparently he can do that...

He would like his lamp back.

You see.

I found a lamp at an antique store.

When I bought it...it wasn't lovely like this....

It was 70's yellow and the lamps shades were cracked and peeling....

But with a little help from a friend, and a few of my own crystals from my stash...it turned into this....

And now, Liberace is jealous and it wants it....I think he thinks it's his.

And while it is a little Liberace like....it's mine.
But seriously...is this piano not amazing.  I think I have a little Liberace in me....the part that likes ornateness.

Lola's Play Date

Hi Friend

Wanna kiss?

Lemme see your collar thingy...

I wanna put it in my mouth...

Doh....almost had it...

Disclaimer:
No infants were actually licked or stuck objects in their mouths during this photography session.

No One is Alone

One of my favorite musicals is Into the Woods.  Last night I was reminded of the best piece....

No One is Alone..

So applicable.
Mother cannot guide you.
Now you're on you're own.
Only me beside you.
Still, you're not alone.
No one is alone, truly.
No one is alone.

Sometimes people leave you
halfway through the wood.
Others may deceive you.
You decide what's good.
You decide alone.
But no one is alone.

I wish...

I know...

Mother isn't here now.
Wrong things, right things...
Who knows what she'd say?
Who can say what's true?
Nothing's quite so clear now-
Do things, fight things...
Feel you've lost your way?
You decide, but
You are not alone, You are not alone.
Believe me.
No one is alone.
No one is alone,
Believe me.
Truly...

You move just a finger,
Say the slightest word,
Something's bound to linger,
Be heard.
No one acts alone.
Careful, no one is alone.

People make mistakes. People make mistakes.
Fathers,
Mothers,


People make mistakes,

Holding their own,
Thinking they're alone.

Honor their mistakes...
Fight for their mistakes-
Everybody makes-

One another's
Terrible mistakes.

Witches can be right,
Giants can be good.
You decide what's right,
You dedide what's good.

Just remember:

Just remember:

Someone is on your side.

Our side.

Our side-
Someone else is not.
While we're seeing our side-

Our side....

Our side-

Maybe we forgot:
They are not alone.
No one is alone.


Hard to see the light now.
Just don't let it go.

Things will come out right now.
We can make it so.
Someone is on you side,
No one is alone. 

Après Récital

The Uptown Girl had a her yearly Downtown dance recital.  

The "after recital" is much easier to photograph then the actual recital.

Tornado Chaser

Mother Nature is putting on quite the show for us today.  We are on Tornado watch until midnight.

It's a little like deja vu for me since this is about the time last year of the great basement flood.....

Hope the sump pump holds out for us this time.  I'm too afraid to even go down to the basement to look.

I think I could have a career in chasing tornadoes though.  I'm getting the hang of chasing things....