What I Wrote Wednesday

Last week, I sent a little card to my cousin Erin, who is pregnant and on bed rest.

You can see a bit of the card through the envelope.  It is from a set Zach got for me on our first wedding anniversary (paper) with my name and a bird image.  (He used my maiden name and initial as that is what he calls me.  My first name and maiden name go together very well and are usually said in one run-on breath!)  He also got me a wax stamp, which I used, but as you can see, I dribbled a bit of the wax!

Today marks the 29th day of bed rest, and little Keegan Michael has made it to 37 weeks (technically, full term)!  So my newest second cousin should be arriving any day now.  I can't wait to see Erin and her husband Nick meet their son and grow as parents, and I can't wait to love on that baby.  :)

Erin and Nick have been together since we were in high school and went to the UCA together, where Erin and I were roommates for two years, our roomies helped Nick put together his proposal, and we were all in their wedding, etc. etc. etc.  (Nick proposed on the football field after the homecoming game, and then they got married in front of the school fountain.)  In short, we (Erin, Nick, our roommates, and I) have a long history together.  My cousin was probably my first friend as our dads lived in the same town when we were small, so we were just blocks from each other for a few years.  And after my parents divorced and we moved to another town nearby, Erin and I ended up at the same middle school through high school.

I'm so thankful for my cousin and for all our memories.  And I can't wait to have many more, starting with Mr. Keegan!

Erin and I as babies

We are about six months apart.

I hope you aren't afraid of clowns!  Also, I'm pretty sure the kid in the back went to high school and college with us...

 Maybe we were running away together?  I suspect we were about five or so here.

Easter 98?

We were in middle school/junior high and ever so awkward.

my high school graduation in 2003

Since Erin is six months younger, she just missed the cut-off date and started school a year later.  We were getting slightly less awkward here.

NYE 2006-2007

 This is with our roommate Emily in 2007.  Our other roommate Rose had to have emergency surgery to have her appendix removed and ended up having to withdraw before the spring semester was over.  We took silly pictures with chalk messages on the sidewalk next to our apartment and put together an album for her.  This was the year we started living together and began our "sorority," the Omicron Omicron Omicrons.  That's why we are attempting to make the "O" face.  ;)

celebrating Emily and Erin's birthdays in November 2007

my college graduation in 2008

Erin's bachelorette party in May 2008

 

Erin and Nick's wedding on May 31, 2008

Phillip (Nick's fraternity brother) and Emily's wedding on May 23, 2009

 my wedding on September 19, 2009

 my reception on December 20, 2009

 with Kristen, Erin's sister, at our family reunion (September 2010)

Erin's favorite holiday is Halloween, and as her birthday falls shortly after, she and Nick usually host a Halloween party.  This year, they did a murder mystery.  Rose went as a Hollywood glamour gal, I was a peacock, and Erin was a western can-can girl.  We had so much fun trying to capture a photo of our Omicron faces!  (I posted more of our Halloween adventures last year.)

 at the baby shower Erin threw for Kristen to welcome baby Zachary (June 2011)

at Erin's baby shower thrown by Rose and two other friends (December 1, 2012)

I love you, cuz-cuz!!

Thinking about Lent...

So I was bad this last week and didn't take any photos of the veggies I cooked (and we were bad as a family because we didn't eat many veggies in the first place), so no Menu Monday. I guess I should have back-up recipes for times like these! (I briefly thought about posting a biscuit recipe, but I only have a picture of the product, not the process, so it still seemed like a no-go.) We almost cooked some sweet potato tater tots (with other stuff) Sunday night, but then I was too exhausted to cook, so Zach had cereal, and I just went to bed. :(

Anyway, a lot of things have been weighing heavily on my heart lately--namely the fact that my sisters' step-dad is dying of cancer and a little three-year-old boy who was in remission has now been diagnosed with a new subgroup of leukemia. Please pray for my family and the Begoon family and for everyone who is suffering some kind of disease. Though it's selfish, I have also been thinking about my own battle to keep Crohn's Disease at bay. (It's been at the forefront of our thoughts primarily because Zach and I went to our first ostomy support group meeting Sunday afternoon, and honestly, we walked away a little scared regarding my reconstruction surgery after I had already worried us by reading about its complications.) I have been trying so hard to understand why we have disease and how to get rid of it. And I don't mean just for me--but for the whole world. I know it's not my responsibility to save the world...and yet it is because we are called to serve others and share the Gospel and I know that by Jesus' stripes we are healed, and I want healing for all of us NOW (His will be done on earth as it is in heaven--God's will is to heal). But then I get caught up in theology and doctrine and terminology, trying to figure out exactly what to believe and why some people are healed and others are not even though we seem to believe in the same things. It's a lot to handle, and I guess that, even though I hope I am continually maturing in my faith, I'm just not mature enough to handle this spiritually.

With that said, Easter is right around the corner (By His stripes we are healed!)! I LOVE Easter! For years, it has been my favorite holiday, and I hate how it is not as loved as Christmas. Christ's birth is amazing, but His death seems all the more amazing to me, and I wish we had the same sort of spirit in us at Easter as we do at Christmas. I'm thinking about how we are going to mark this day, and I have a few ideas floating around in my head, including exchanging baskets (like we always do) and dyeing eggs. (We bought an egg-dyeing kit two years ago but have never had the chance to use it.) Since I feel we got cheated out of celebrating many holidays and regular days in the fall and early winter, I'm trying to make the most of every one even when our plans fall apart. (I really wanted to do something for Mardi Gras, but Zach has a work dinner. *boo* I really LOVE Mardi Gras; for the longest time, I wanted a Mardi Gras-themed wedding.)

Since today is Fat Tuesday, that means tomorrow is the beginning of Lent. And I have nooo idea what to give up this year. :/ I'm not Catholic or Methodist--I actually don't align myself with any Christian denomination--but I am still drawn to the meaning and sacrifice that Lent represents. I usually give up either sweet tea or soda pop (or, as we call it in the South, coke *hehe*). Last year, I successfully gave up sweet tea--I was so proud of myself, and I felt like I had a clearer mind and a more settled spirit. (If you know me, this was huge because I can go through a pitcher in a short time!) I was also able to finally lower the amount of sugar I use in my tea I make at home because now it's all too sweet. I can't drink sodas right now--I've had a sip of Zach's a few times, and it is far too sweet, so it wouldn't bother me to give it up--so that is out, and I really don't want to give up sweet tea since there is so many food items I can't eat. I've considered giving up Facebook, but I would really miss my daily photo album posts, and I'm not sure if my heart would stay in the right place if I still allowed myself to get on there, even for a few minutes. One of my friends from grad school made the New Year's resolution to get rid of something every day of this year, and I think that is a really great idea. (She is still going strong nearly two months later--go, Paulette!) Hmmm...I've also considered giving up sweets or meat, but once again, with my health issues, there are certain things I shouldn't give up right now for nutritional reasons or for psychological/emotional reasons.

Gosh, I don't know, but I better figure it out before tomorrow...

Menu Monday: PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

In case you have been living under a rock (or aren't my friend...on facebook), then you might have missed the BIG news:

I got an early birthday present!

This is my new baby, an Empire Red Artisan KitchenAid Mixer.

I had been saving up my Swagbucks Amazon gift cards since June for this, and, as of last week, I had about $145 or so to put toward it. I hoped to save up the rest or, at least, much more, to get it around Black Friday when the prices drop; we had planned all along to pay the difference. Well, I had planned. My husband had different plans. :)

Last Thursday Zach came home from work, and, in a very serious tone, said he had something to tell me:

1) he hacked into my Amazon account and used my Swagbucks gift cards to put towards the mixer because he and his parents decided to pay the difference for my birthday

and

2) he tried to hack into my Yahoo email to intersect the Amazon notifications.

Unfortunately...fortunately...he couldn't hack it. *lol*

(Actually I can't remember exactly what my password is for my email now because I have it saved to my computer. *oops*)

Anyway, he had to 'fess up, and I got this bad girl when she came Monday night. :)

It's going to be so handy to have when I decorate cakes. I still don't really like to eat cakes, but I love to decorate them. A. LOT. Soon I've gotta start planning an Easter cake, and I already know I want to make some French macarons, as difficult as they may be--they're just so pretty.

But I could hardly wait until Easter to use my new girl, so I flipped through the instruction/cooking booklet and found a recipe for PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES.

My aunt Grace made these often when I was growing up, most likely because they didn't call for a lot of expensive ingredients and were quite tasty. For a plain cookie, I preferred these to sugar cookies. (I liked her peanut butter fudge and pies the best; I'm just not really a cake/cookie/brownie type person. Ice cream is my favorite. Supposedly it helps increase your fertility, so I must be one fertile turtle by now! *haha* And my husband can admit that one of the perks about buying me these appliances is that I can make him sweets...but that is not the only reason he buys them for me. ;)

Sadly, I don't think we have her recipe book anymore, but I imagine most recipes would produce the same results. And, as this recipe tells you what speed to use and what not, I had to try it! (For the sake of including it here, I will not include the numbered speeds, etc.)

KITCHENAID PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

1/2 c. peanut butter

1/2 c. butter or margarine, softened

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1-1/4 c. flour

-Place peanut butter and butter in mixing bowl and beat on medium until mixture is smooth.

BUTTERS!

-Stop beating and scrape bowl. Add sugars, egg, and vanilla. Beat for one minute; stop and scrap bowl.

SUGARS!

-Gradually beat in all remaining ingredients to sugar-butter mixture.

-Roll into 1-inch balls. The dough will be sticky, so flour hands to keep dough from sticking. Place about 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheet. (As you can see, I did not place this batch 2 inches apart, and mine definitely had touching edges when they were done. I like to think they wanted to be friends with one another!)

I need a smaller cookie scoop. Mine was too large for this project!

-Flatten slightly with your palm and then flatten with a fork in a criss-cross pattern. A large fork is preferred than the small one I used. You may also need to dip the fork in flour between flattening to keep it from pulling up the dough.

I ate one.

Hey! It was smooshed. :)

[I am in the process of buying some cooling racks with my most recent Amazon gift cards.]

-Bake at 375 degrees until golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes (according to my oven). Remove from baking sheets immediately and cool on wire racks. If you don't have wire racks, you can take a piece of wax paper and generously sprinkle it was sugar, and it will do the trick. PLUS it gives the bottoms of your cookies a nice sugary crunch. :)

[2 dozen or so]

I topped the second batch of cookies with trios of chocolate chips.

Chocolate + Peanut Butter = :)

I alternated between cooking mine on a cookie sheet--Lord, we need some new ones BADLY--and on my Pampered Chef stone. I found that the cookies on the stone were chewier, which is what I prefer, but I had to bake them much longer. The recipe states that the cookies should bake between 10 to 12 on the cookie sheet, but they were already far too crisp at 10-ish minutes. I believe it's because I have a dark metal cookie sheet, which usually requires a chef to knock twenty-five degrees or so off the cooking temperature. (The same goes for glassware.)