Let's not talk about ab muscles...

I had a whole idea for a blog about my ab muscles and discussing the many things they are limiting me from doing these days. But I don't want to talk about it.

On a completely unrelated subject, here's some eph bombs from Detroit. Yes, these are from the trip I took three months ago. So I'm a little behind..

Near the Detroit River. I actually like this picture.

 ...and now I'll show you the rest of what we saw in Detroit...

Yeah...we didn't get out of the car much.

She's a beauty ain't she? Actually...I honestly don't remember Detroit being quite this nasty when I visited as a kid. It has always been dirty and scary (remember the movie 8 Mile? ...they weren't elaborating) but it was especially horrifying on this last visit. Despite all that, I'd like to go back and visit some more spots, take in a hockey game, and take more pictures. Anyways, if you were feeling sorry for yourself, maybe we can at least all be thankful we don't live in Detroit, right?

weekend warrior

Another weekend has come and gone. Wow, time is really flying! I'm ending this weekend on an especially happy note because life has suddenly gotten sunny again! Last week was miserable. Last week was terrible. Last week made me want to crawl into a hole and hibernate until spring. So, I ended the terrible week with a trip to one of my favorite residences, the Freeman residence :) Jamie and I spent some time finishing up wedding save-the-dates (she kicked butt at knocking those things out!) and conversations with her always leave me feeling "right with the world" again so the time with her was much-needed. I got to see kiddo too! He was, of course, disappointed that Lucy didn't tag along with me. But I got a kiss goodnight and any time with kiddo is great...he just amazes me.

Saturday brought on a day of moving and cleaning at Dad's house, a place I called home for fifteen years of my life. It's weird to see the walls becoming bare, childhood items being sent off for donation...the change is good, I guess I just never pictured that house without our "stuff" in it. I also braved a trip to globo-gym on Saturday. It's a good thing too, because I blew any hope of gym progress later at Kelsey's house...that girl can make a cake!!! Aside from the general rudeness of people at globo-gyms, it was good. I am still at a manageable weight, despite two weeks off and a severe decrease in cardio endurance and strength. At least I know where I stand now. Boy am I ever gun-shy now though!.... So it's a good thing I went to watch the crossfit masters competition today in Denver. Talk about inspiration! Today was just what I needed to get my butt back on the horse!

Ma before her first workout today.

Horrible picture, but these ladies (see Ma?) are cheering on a competitor after finishing up their workouts.
Tough chicks stick together.

Spent some time with loved ones, made progress on chores, finally busted out some physical activity, gathered inspiration, spent time with great friends, and got in some good talks with the husband....I'm baaaaaacckk!

...marco?......polo!.....

Yeah, that was a pretty lame attempt at pointing out the fact that I’ve been m.i.a on the blogging. I’d ask if you missed me but I know I’m not really that important. So what exactly have I been up to? All kinds of stuff! Most of it not fun. Earlier in the month, I had the unfortunate displeasure of rupturing one of my abdominal muscles, which means I haven’t worked out in over a week. This is not awesome. I did, however, learn that exercise is what keeps me sane, even-keeled, and okay. I keep wondering if this is too much rest time...although it was "doctor prescribed" (prescribed right alongside yoga...which won't be happening) but then I'll occasionally sneeze or try to rollover and I figure out pretty quickly that the need for rest is still very much there. Ugh. So, instead of working out, here’s what I’ve been up to!

Hiked with my aunt.

I have really been taking fall in Colorado for granted these past few years.

Made green chili with Matt and Jamie, and took Lucy to see her best bud

the buddies

Made cupcakes for Jamie’s birthday!

Devil’s food with chocolate chips and white chocolate whip cream frosting. Mmmmmm

Went out line dancing for Jamie’s birthday.

Remember the kid on Charlie Brown Christmas who kind of stood in one spot with his arms to his sides while he bobbed his head around and wiggled his feet? That’s what I look like when I dance.

I’m not even kidding.

And although “resting” makes me crazy, Lucy very much enjoyed watching Monday Night Football with me while I tackled some school work.

Find the positives….whenever possible, find the positives.

peanut butter cup replacement cookies

I've been waiting to publish this post! I didn't wnt to spoil the surprise of what would be arriving in the hub's package, but he finally got it, so now I can tell you! (It's the little things.) The husband asked me to ship him something and, what kind of wife would I be if I only shipped him what he needed? There are no shipments!...only care packages! I've also been really bad at sending homemade things to him...yeah, me, the baker..has only sent two homemade batches of cookies to my man. (Counting this one I'm about to tell you about.) This recipe is one of my FAVORITES! These cookies are so yummy and they are perfect to send to the hubs because he likes peanut butter and chocolate, but those items don't ship overseas well. Solution?

Peanut Butter Chocolate cookies!!!

The cookie in the picture is lop-sided, but I'm kind of known for my imperfections in baking and cooking. (Insert sheepish grin here.) These cookies require you to get your hands dirty...so I hope you're ready...

Smush together 3/4 cup powdered sugar and 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter. Smush is a technical term.

Then roll that mixture into 1/4 inch balls (malted milk ball size) and set aside.

Mix together 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup packed brown sugar, 1/4 cup peanut butter, 1 egg, 1 tablespoon milk, and 1 teaspoon vanilla in your awesome mixer that your husband bought you :)

Then mix 1/2 cup unsweetened coca powder into that wet mixture. When that's incorporated into a chocolatey goodness, I slowly mix in my dry mixture of 1 1/2 cups flour and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda.

Then take tablespoons-ish of this cocoa cookie mixture and wrap it around the peanut butter balls prepared earlier. This part is messy, hence, no pictures.

rotate this picture, lady!

Then plop those cookie balls onto a baking sheet (I always grease my baking sheets). Do Not use a baking stone, as pictured above, your cookies will never bake! Then smash the spheres down into circles by placing the bottom of a drinking glass in sugar and gently pressing (or smashing) the tops of the cookies. Then put them in your preheated oven (oh yeah, I should have told you earlier to pre-heat the oven to 350) for about 8ish minutes or until you can scoop them off your baking sheets without them being mushed. The tops will start to crackle when they're done.

Cool them babies off

...and then place them in your husband's care package with his requested item and some Halloween Peeps!

Sugar High Apple Pie

Since yesterday was apple orchard day...today was, naturally, apple pie day! After I got all hunter-educated at class this morning (I'm now officially a hunter...but I still don't really want to go shoot any animals), I made an apple pie!

Most recipes call for Granny Smiths (or some other tart, green apple) but the Galas from the orchard were so small from our late spring snows, they worked perfect! They are a bit too sour to eat by themselves. I peeled and sliced some apples. Honestly, I don't know how many I peeled and sliced, sorry. Six? Seven? All I know is I bought five pounds and that was about double what I needed.

 Now what am I going to do with all these apples???

Soaked the sliced apples in some lemon juice and water (didn't measure again, sorry) while I prepared the crust.

Then I mixed 2 1/2 cups of flour, a couple dashes of salt, 4 tablespoons of sugar, and a splash of cinnamon together. Then I cut in 1/2 cup cold butter pieces and 5 tablespoons shortening with two knives (note to self-buy pastry cutter-inner). Then I added 8 tablespoons cold water and mixed and rolled out the dough.

Then I mixed 1/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup flour, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon in with my drained apple slices. I dumped it into the crust, topped it randomly with 2 tablespoons margerine, and stuck it in the oven at 425 for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, back at the countertop, I cut the remaining dough into dots. Stars would have been more fun, or apples, but I don't have cookie cutters in those shapes, so I used a shot glass and made small circles...or dots, yeah we'll call them dots.

I also mixed together some melted butter, sugar, flour, brown sugar, and pecans. (Again with the no measuring.)

 

At the 30 mintue mark, I topped the pie with the dots and pecan mixture randomly. Then it went back in the oven for about 20 mintues.

And this is what I got!

I'm calling it Sugar High Apple Pie for a reason. It was tasty, but, whoa....it was sweet. Next time I need to cut my apples thinner and hold back on the sugar in the crust and pie filling. The candied pecan topping though, out of this world!

Happy Apples

Went to the Happy Apple Orchard today!

And it's the perfect time to pick out pumpkins at the farm too!



...and to pick whatever these things are! Kiddo called them mushrooms, he was a big fan!




We rode on a tractor...




...grabbed some pumpkins...



...some pumpkins were smushed...

...but kiddo pointed us in the right direction for some good ones.

Our trunkload of pumpkins!

Broke in my new boots

The apple orchard and the mountain range.

Kiddo found the licorice...of course.

laundry and Lucy at the M&M residence

Every time I plop a fresh pile of laundry on the couch to fold it, I get a little company.

Because there's nothing fresh laundry needs more than a little dog fur on it!

Tulips

I'm super stoked about my most recent "home improvement" project. For the low low price of $3.97, I hope I made a decent little improvement to our humble abode. The frugal side of me is excited to have re-used some potting soil from failed attempts this past spring, the anti-nesting side of me is glad to have thrown out some old flower pots, and I filled in some bare spots in my rock area by simply moving some rocks from one place to another. The hubs and I tried planting tulip bulbs last fall, but we put them in pots so they never took a good rooting and then he squirrels ate them this spring.

Lucy even helped.

See? She's helping.

I cleared some rocks out of the spaces between the shrubs (see those ugly shrubs above?? yuck!)surrounding our home and stuck some tulip bulbs in the ground. This is awesome because, when the hubs comes back, there will hopefully be some flowers blooming around the house to make it feel "homey"....not "homie," and I won't have to do a thing! Well...water them...but that's easy! Early May is too harsh here in CO to be planting annual flowers, so I'm hoping my early-blooming tulip bubls will do the trick!


...before....

 See that flower pot on the left up there??? I was throwing those out anyways because they're dry-rotted from our great CO sunshine. So, I dumped out the potting soil on top of my tulip bulbs. Then I drowned the bulbs and went inside.

In May, there should be flowers here!

...and here!
Ignore the green thing sticking out, I wanted to salvage a living stem
just to see if it ends up being a flower.

I'm also stoked that ...wait...let me back up. This spring, I grew some sweet pea flowers from seeds. I love growing from seeds, for a 99cent investment, you get the satisfaction of really growing some beautiful things yourself! And did I mention it's only 99 cents for a pack of seeds? Anyways, one of these sweet pea plants actually sprouted flowers plus an entire pea pod this year! So I busted out the seeds....without taking any stinking pictures to prove it, figures...and I'm going to plant the seeds next year. So I'll get back with you in June to let you know if my 99 cent investment has yielded two "crops."