Oh the Joy of Cookies!

Most people that know me, know that I love to bake, especially cookies! Last weekend when Ben came home for the weekend I told him that I would bake him some cookies to take back to school with him. Well, I searched online for a chocolate cookie recipe and, of course, found one with no problems. I started to make these cookies which called for dark chocolate chips, 2/3 of a cup (melted) for the dough and another cup to mix in. With a frustrated sigh, I realized that I only had 2/3's of a cup so I fished around and found a bag of Ande's mints chopped up for baking. I used the substitution and, with great delight, found that these cookies taste VERY, VERY much like Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies!!!!! Oh the chocolate/mint joy!!! Yes, I hurried back to Wally world and bought a LOT more bags of dark chocolate and Ande's mint chips. I baked another batch last night at 10:30 PM. Em was quite happy to see cookies when she got up this morning. I'm thinking that I might take on a big task of baking enough cookies for the CMU Marching Band's last performance on Nov. 16th, it shouldn't be that hard, one batch of monster cookies is over 12 doz., Ben said there's less than 200 people in the band....bake a few other varieties...no problem! Well, ok, the only problem will be getting them there! Have to give this a little more thought I guess.

The varsity football team made it to play-offs again this year, they played their game this past friday night. It was a sad sight to behold. We lost 48 - 7, the other team was incredible! But hey, they at least made it to play-offs again, that says a lot about the hearts of our boys and our coaches. Of course, there were a few people from our community that just couldn't keep their mouths shut about the coaching, however, they should just keep their mouths SHUT!!!!! Last year the coach led the team to a 9-0 season and this year it was 6-4, but ya know, they did awesome! At least, the big mouth shouldn't be back next year since his son graduates this year :) (Let me just explain a little annoyance to you....at the games, the coaches wear headsets so that they can communicate with the coach in the booth, well, this "person with a big mouth" insists on yelling his opinion TO the coach who obviously CAN'T hear him, perhaps if he paid a little more attention.....). (shaking my head) Anyway, on the hour and 40 minute drive back home, it was really foggy and sprinkling and yes, a BIG buck decided to jump across the road in front of us...OYE, that van and deer, NOT a good combination! The best part of the night was that I got to see Ben again!! Woo Hoooo, 2 nights in a row....oh yeah, I forgot to say that I had gone down to CMU with Jake, Christen and D, to see Ben play in the "Bones" concert the night before (thursday). A "Bones" concert you ask? Well, it was a group of 16 trombones and 4 bass trombones and no other instruments, well, ok, in the first selection that they played, they did have a tympony (drum). It was loud, but awesome! My favorite selection was "How Lovely is They Dwelling Place" by Johannes Brahms. Ben was so happy that we came, when we saw him come around the corner and start to look around the lobby, he saw me and got a big smile...just seeing that made my night :) He didn't know for sure that we were actually gonna be there, so, I think he was surprised to see us there.

In reference to my previous post, I do believe that fall has definately settled in. This past week has been very nice, chilly, but nice in the fall-ish sort of way. Grandpa brought over some pumpkins for the kids to carve out, they're pretty excited to get on with that.

Well, I can't really think of anything else that I think might be the least bit significant, so I guess I'll go and do something less constructive.....like, watching tv ;) oh wait, I think people are expecting something like, ummm, supper. Ok, I guess it's time to cook supper...

Y'all go scoop some goop from a pumpkin!
Love Ya :)

Fall into Fall

What an amazing fall we've had so far! I've heard of Indian Summers, but sheesh, I don't ever remember one getting up to the 90's. (in temps that is) Beautiful though, just beautiful. Of course, there are winds to go along with the warmth. It sure does making going on a horse ride difficult....Whitney is the most skiddish thing when it comes to the wind, she REALLY doesn't like it at all.

This weekend was lovely, it started Thursday when I went to CMU to pick my eldest child_unit up for the weekend.....it made me truly happy just to see him again even though I had just seen him 2 weeks before and I know that I'll be truly happy to see him again on Thursday if we go down to see his "Bone's" concert. I guess the trombone section has their own concert which will sound awesome I'm sure!!!!! I don't think he' ll be home again until Thanksgiving and then Christmas after that. Saying "c'ya" when it comes time to leave isn't as hard as it was, but I still don't like it all the same, I feel sad for hours after he leaves again, but at least it's not days like it used to be.

OMG!!!!! For anyone that likes the Thin Mint cookies from the Girl Scouts...read on...for those of you who don't....well...read on anyhow :p I made cookies for the above talked about child_unit, they were a chocolate cookie and instead of using what the recipe called for, I used Andes Mints which were chopped up and sold for the sole purpose of baking. What a wonderful surprise when the cookies tasted just like the thin mints! They don't have the chocolate glazing like thin mints, but OMG, they're incredible all the same. Now I have to try to find them at the store again and horde a bunch of them! Darn...I'm drooling now and there aren't any of the cookies left....bugger!

I just found out that Joel and Alecia were in town this weekend! Ben is gonna be really upset that he didn't get to see them, especially Joel! It's kinda funny because we were actually talking about them on the way home from CMU. He wishes Joel would have stayed with his music because he's incredible on the trombone. Oh well, I guess married life does put a hamper on some things, eh.

I watched "The Last Samurai" this past week, it was an incredible movie! I really think I need to have the soundtrack too. Speaking of movies, I guess they've delayed "The Kite Runner" movie for a while because of the boys who star in the movie. The parents say that they didn't know that there was a rape scene in the movie until the day it was to be filmed and it would be really bad for the boys in their towns if it was found out. They say that this kind of this doesn't really happen and it's very dangerous for their sons to be portrayed in this way. I guess the movie probably won't even be seen there, but they don't want to take any chances that someone outside of the city or even country may see it and send it back home. They're moving the families to the United States so that they can still release the movie and not have to worry about the boys. How kind of them....hmmm, no more to say on this subject.

I suppose I should be going now, I have too many things to get accomplished today and I'm sure I won't get even 1/4 of them done.

Y'all enjoy the joys of fall,
Love Ya :)