Guilty Pleasures

Guilty pleasures are the little things that make our lives just a wee bit better. But they're things that we aren't supposed to like, or should maybe feel guilty for liking them. Here is a short list of my guilty pleasures.

In no particular order:

Graham Cracker Frosting SandwichesRemember these from when you were little? Well, I have found them again, and I can't put them down! I won't tell you how many I eat everyday. We'll just say it's less than a hundred, but more than two. My favorite is still the classic white frosting on a regular ol' graham. My goodness, it just doesn't get any better than that!


Hulu & Online TV
Can I just say that Hulu is a wonderful, wonderful thing? When I miss something, I just go there and skip most of the commercials. A lot of networks (SyFy, ABC, CBS, NBC ) all have entire episodes of show to watch. Some of them new and some old. CBS and NBC have a lot of older classic TV. The link to CBS is a link to MacGyver. Who didn't love that show?


Mary Tyler Moore
I grew up watching Nick@Nite. My favorite shows were always Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. With Hulu, I've been watching these shows nonstop for a couple of months now. I play them while I make dinner, while I clean, while I bake and pretty much all of the time! You're gonna make it after all!


Snow Blowing(link)
I'm not sure how much this counts as a guilty pleasure. But I feel guilty about how much I love it. I find myself hoping for more snow just so I can go blow it off the driveway. I find myself wishing we'd bought that big house set twenty miles off the road so that I can snow blow all day long. I find myself trying to rationalize that the skiff of snow that just blew in is a sufficient amount of snow to need some sort of action taken against it. Good thing it's winter for eight months here!


DonutsI love donuts! Or is it doughnuts? Either way, I love them! I love them when they are custard filled. I love them when they are raspberry filled. I love them when they are powdered. I love them when they are glazed. I especially love them when they have sprinkles on them. Sprinkles beat out anything else. Luckily our local market doesn't believe in sprinkles, so that drastically reduces then number I consume. I don't like the maple ones or the ones with coconut or nuts on them or the kind that have lemon in them or the weird apple ones. I prefer a yeast donut over a cake donut. But I'm not going to say no to one! My perfect donut? Chocolate with autumn sprinkles filled with custard. Or maybe white iced... oh my... gotta go get one!


PorkchopMy pleasure with Porkchop is rarely returned in kind. He is a cranky, needy kitty that really has no consideration for others. There I said it. And now after saying that, I'll say this. I love him so much! When he wants treats more often than not, I'll give them to him. When he wants to drink out of the left sink in the master bathroom instead of out of a bowl like a normal kitty, I go in there, turn on the water, wait and watch just likes he likes. Then when he's done he usually swipes at me with his razor sharp claws, and I run away in fear. But when he wakes me up at 4:00 AM for his breakfast and he rubs his little sleepy nose all over me and purrs (which is really the only time he purrs), it's hard for me to say, "No, kitty. It's 4AM and I'm tired. Go eat your dry food and I'll feed you when I get up at a normal hour." Even if I tried that, he'd toot in my face or something. But I love to play with him and make him chase his mice. I love how he is waiting in the window when we get home. I love how he chases and eats the bugs so I don't have to. What a spoiled bugger.


FacebookI know. Facebook is evil. But I can't help but love it! It's very addicting. Here's my argument. I am able to talk to friends and family that I literally haven't seen in 15 years! I've been able to "meet" their kids I probably will never see. I get to reminisce with them about the good ole days. I get to keep in touch with friends that we've moved away from. It's a great communication tool, since most people check it at least semi-regularly. Jake and I are planning a family reunion for June. How'd we get the word out? Facebook! We just created a handy-dandy event, made it private and invited the entire family, who are all on Facebook. It'll be easy to get the word out, get feedback etc. I love it! I've quit playing the addicting games and tried hard to quit the fan pages I'm part of. I'm working on that one.


Glitter Toes (link)(These are not my toes)
A few months ago our ward had a combined Relief Society/Young Women activity. Everybody got together and we painted our toenails and then we added sparkles! They're so pretty! It's not the fancy salon type that will last you for several months. But they're so wonderful, and they make me happy! There's been few days pass since then when I didn't have sparkles somewhere!


Oldies
I love music anyway, but what I really love is music from the 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and only a little from 00's. I love the Mama's and the Papa's, Janis Joplin, the Temptations, all the girly music from the 80's. And I love 90's music. It's really when I learned who I was and got into music. And the stuff from the early 00's has such wonderful memories for me. When I was in high school I used to watch VH1 behind the music about all the classic stuff. I don't much care for most of the music that's around today. But thank goodness for the internet and the access I have to all the awesome stuff! Okay, I actually really like Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus. I said it. I'm 12.


Getting My Hair CutI LOVE to have my hair cut by other people. I especially love it when they wash it. I don't like it in a dirty way, it just feels so good to have my head massaged, or to get my hair brushed by someone else but me. I'm pretty cheap and usually opt to trim or color my own hair. Every once in a while I will splurge and go to a salon. I do feel guilty spending money on something that seems so trivial and pointless. But it's not. It's wonderful!


Going Fast(This is NOT me)
Anyone who knows me is probably thinking, huh? Because generally, I go 4 mph. But I like to ride my bike fast. The faster the better! I go as fast as I can. Last summer I was trying to ride my bike to our church (10 miles down the highway). There is a huge hill about half way there. I didn't make it up the hill. About 2/3 of the way. I had to quit around mile 6 because I thought I was going to die. But when I turned around to come home, I coasted for the first three miles and it was awesome. If I remember correctly my top speed was 22 mph. Something about going that fast with the wind blowing, knowing that it's me that made me go so fast (or gravity and my large posterior). As long as I'm in control, I love it!

What are your guilty pleasures??


Since initially writing this I've come up with several others:

Burger King, Cheetos, Long Talks on the phone with a good friend, Raspberry Peach Snapple, Lunchables, Cheetos, Sausage Biscuits from McDonalds, Bacon, Phineas and Ferb, Snowcones, tater tots, Three Cheese Hamburger Helper, Aqua (everything but Barbie Girl), How I Met Your Mother, Everybody Loves Raymond and any other cheesy sitcom for that matter, Refrigerator Magnets, fried stuff, Double Stuf OREOS, Lay's Originals, Mowing the Lawn...

El sustantivo

How can something so simply yummy,

turn into something so bizarre

and so wrinkly?

I mean, look at it? Have you ever looked at it up close? Click on it, and study it. Now I dare you not to! Bwahaha!

Well, I can't say that I entirely hate them.

When we worked in the nursery, we would feed the kids raisins. They all loved them!

Occasionally while I'm baking, if I drop one on the counter, I'll pop it into my mouth. I gotta say, don't really love them plain, by themselves. Not my cup of tea. Or raisins.

I bought this carton a couple of months ago. It only has about a half cup left in it. I go through phases when I consume large amounts of them. Just kind of because I remember that I do like them. Luckily for me, they have no adverse effect on me.

One day while perusing blogs, I came across somebody that said she likes to put raisins on her tuna fish sandwiches. Normally, I like celery or cucumbers in mine. But I was intrigued.

Here's my tuna fish and raisin sandwich:

I must say that I was pleasantly surprised with the flavors. Tuna's kinda bland on its own. The raisins added a sweet kick, and I actually liked it! I didn't want to get a lot in one mouthful and not a lot in another, so I manually placed them on the tuna. Plus, I think it's kinda pretty, no?

Perhaps my favorite way to consume el sustantivo, is in my Cheerios. I love Cheerios. A lot. And I'm kinda picky. On any of my other cereals I can usually have the generic, house brand. But my Cheerios have to be actual Cheerios!


The other day's Cheerios with raisins.

I go back and forth between raisins and bananas. Usually every other day. I like that the raisins are right around the same size as the Cheerios. The raisins fall to the bottom, so you get to fish around for them. Sometimes it's awesome because you get one or two or sometimes you don't get any! I don't like when I get ten and only two Cheerios. Too much. But so tasty!



I also like them in cinnamon rolls. I can't really eat a cinnamon roll without them. And I don't like the cream cheese frosting. It's gotta be white.

And I really like Oatmeal Raisin cookies. Enough said.

Growing up, I LOVED celery with peanut butter in them. I still like them, but only sorta. Peanut butter is sorta a stronger flavor. But do you know what makes it taste so much better??

That's right. Ants on a log!

For Christmas, I made one "ant on a log". And the guy who ate it laughed. Which is good, because it's awesome!

So the point is, raisins are good. Sometimes. Just not by themselves!

P.S. Here's the end of the celery that I cut off. I thought it was really pretty and had to take a picture and share it with you!

Oh, Sweet Heaven...

A company that works with Jake's company sent them some boxes of
Cake Balls.
Sounds funny, but they're seriously some of the best stuff I've ever tasted. I wanted to make them for our family Christmas party coming up. So I found an uber easy recipe and went to!

And they're SO easy!!

So here it is:

Bake a cake normal, let it cool for like ten minutes,
scoop it into a bowl,
And combine it with one carton of premade frosting.
Mix the snot out of it so it's mixed real good.

I used my cookie scoop to scoop equal amounts into little balls.


Then I rolled them so they were nice and smooth.
I used a Cherry Chip cake mix and a carton of Cherry icing.
I added a little food coloring to the cake mix to ensure they turned out pink.


Here's my Chocolate Cake Mix mixed with a Chocolate Frosting.
Being a newly found country girl, these remind me of something else.
We'll just leave it at that...


Then I took a whole bunch of Chocolate and melted it in my make-shift double boiler (metal bowl over a pot of hot water.)
For the Mint ones, we used melted Andes Mints.


I'm not sure what was going on with my camera but only half of the picture is in focus.
Weird. Sorry.
The upper ones are plain chocolate with Candy Canes crushed on 'em.
The lower ones are Chocolate with the Andes Mints.
The smell alone was enough to knock me over! So good!



It goes Peppermint, Cherry, Mint.
The Cherry ones taste like those Cherry Cordials sans the cherries which are nasty, but which makes these delish!


I dropped one of the Candy Cane ones, and it turned out nasty ugly.
Oops! So Jake and I split it.

Here's the view from the inside.

Oh, sweet heaven! I've only dreamed of something so delicious.
It sounds simple, and it really is!

You should really try them!

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package chocolate cake mix
• 1 (16 ounce) container prepared chocolate frosting
• 1 (3 ounce) bar chocolate flavored confectioners coating

Directions

1. Prepare the cake mix according to package directions using any of the recommended pan sizes. When cake is done, crumble while warm into a large bowl, and stir in the frosting until well blended.
2. Melt chocolate coating in a glass bowl in the microwave, or in a metal bowl over a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth.
3. Use a melon baller or small scoop to form balls of the chocolate cake mixture. Dip the balls in chocolate using a toothpick or fork to hold them. Place on waxed paper to set.

Pine Cone Cheeseball

Isn't it gorgeous?? I decided to make this for our neighbor who plowed us out this morning. He is diabetic, so my traditional standby, the cookie, wouldn't work this time. I hope he could it this... Now that I'm thinking, he should be able to, right??




Started with mixing all stuff together.

Here's the bacon and the cooling almonds that I roasted. Jake said they didn't taste any different. I didn't taste them. I don't like almonds unless they're inside a kiss.


Then I squished it into a pine cone shape. It looks pretty gross.



Pictures of the finished product:





Here's the recipe from the Food Network.

Or the recipe is below.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups whole natural almonds
• 1 (8-ounce) package of cream cheese
• 1/2 cup real mayonnaise
• 3 crispy cooked bacon slices, crumbled
• 1/2 teaspoon dill weed
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon chopped green onion
• Sprigs, for garnish

Directions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

Place and spread all the almonds on a cookie sheet or in a shallow pan, pushing the almonds around until they turn color, about 20 minutes.

Mix together the cream cheese and the mayonnaise. Add the bacon, salt and pepper, dill, and onion. Chill overnight.

On a serving platter, make 2 pine cone shapes with the cheese. Begin to press the almonds at a slight angle into the cheese, starting at the narrow end of the pine cone shape.

Do this in rows, continuing to overlap rows until all the cheese is covered. Garnish with fake sprigs, or real ones, or with rosemary.

Serve at room temperature and spread on crackers.

My New Obsession

Isn't she
BEAUTIFUL??

She's like a pretty red wagon for a little kid.
Except she's our pretty little red snow blower.
I'm not completely sure how we have lived our lives without owning her.
But she is now a permanent fixture in our lives.
Forever.
And ever.

Look at that! Very intimidating, no?

Ya know what happens when you run over an extension cord with her? I don't either just a random question! By the way, it's not good, especially when your neighbor is watching. Just sayin'.

Here's our snow that I just blew. I am so obsessed! Look how pretty it is!

My only complaint about it, is that she wouldn't push through the berm of snow that the snow plows plowed across the driveway. When I went out early this morning I didn't know they had plowed. That was an exciting ride!


The snow blower wouldn't cut through it. So I called our old neighbor with a plow. He said if he could get his truck started, he would come help us out. But if he can't, that means we're going to have to bust out our shovels for an evening of shoveling. Ugh. It's not regular shoveling. It's heavy, off the road, frozen snow that makes you really, really tired really, really fast!

But our sweet snow blower is my new best friend. So if you call right after a snow storm and I don't answer, you know where I am!!

Gathering the Herds

Christmas must be coming!


We regularly have Elk coming through our neighborhood and yard.


The tend to gather behind to munch on the fauna behind out house.


I was sure that I had taken dozens of pictures of them, but as I went to post them, I could only find several days worth.



It's kind of hard to tell on this picture, but these bulls are huge! One of them was a turty pointer...er...a six pointer. Huge! And so pretty!


A few mornings we've awoken to tracks in the snow all around the house. A couple times I think they were munching on the bush under the front window. Imagine how exciting that would've been to open the window and see that!


So awesome!

Santa! I think they're ready for their yearly trip!

Thumbs

So as I peruse YouTube, I have refound some of the funniest things I have ever seen. I would like to share them. With You. Because I know you all love to laugh, too. PS- Turn the music down all the way at the bottom of the page so you aren't overloaded.


I give you Thumbtanic in 3 parts.





Go Here for Part 1





Go Here for Part 2





Go Here for part 3


Along with the classic, ThumbWars





Go Here for ThumbWars

Oh, the laughing never stops!

This one time...

This one time, when Jake and I were dating, we went for a walk up to the BYU-I campus. We walked around and came to rest here, looking at the Taylor Chapel. It was a dark summer evening with a lovely sunset.



Here is exactly where we were sitting:


Right there on the grass, near the Manwaring Center. It's a lovely spot, no?

You may ask what it was that has made me remember this singular spot. Out of all the times we would go walking, go make out er- have deep meaningful conversations. But the point is, why do I remember this particular instance?

Well, as you can probably guess, as it was summer, these lawns undoubtedly would need to be watered. They have automatic sprinklers for those types of things. Watering that is.

On this particular eve' we were sitting here, not making out, probably planning out our future, when a funny sound came up.

"What's that?" I asked.
"I'm not sure." was Jake's reply.

As we sat there, for only a few more seconds, we realized what the sound was. The sprinklers were coming on. As quick as my reflexes would allow, I jumped up to get off the grass and out of the water. As fast as my reflexes were, Jake's were quicker. Much quicker. In fact, by the time I had begun to stand up, Jake was twenty feet away, quickly out of the way of the sprinklers.

I was in shock! Shock! That this fella, with whom I was contemplating giving my eternal soul to, had left me! He had left me to fend for myself. He had left me to protect myself from the sprinklers. He had left me to get my own rear-end off of the ground. Without out even so much of a, "Hurry, you!"

I must admit, I hesitated just a little bit in my shock and probably got a little wet. As I finally got my whits about me, I confronted him.

"You totally just left me sitting there to get wet!"

Laughing, he tried to get out of it. He didn't get out of it, and I still tease him about it. Remember this one time when were sitting on some grass and some sprinklers came on? And you totally left me in the sprinkler?

I love that fella.