And here is our christmas tree!

We bought this yesterday. The girls each picked out an ornament for themselves, then one for me and one for scott and then one for the doggies to share. (I dont know if we posted this but our christmas decorations bit the dust in our little flood). Anyhow, the girls were sooooooo excited yesterday putting our tree up! LOL. As you can see its not quite as tall as Frankie. Anyhow, when Bee got up this morning, the very first thing she asked me was "did santa come last night?" I guess I didnt really explain well that just because we got the tree doesnt mean its quite christmas yet.

honey oat cranberry bread

SInce it was cold and snowy the girls and decided to make some cranberry bread after school. But we decided to create our own recipe because I wante to put oats in it and Bee wanted to put honey in it. Its baking right now and smells delicious, BUT the real test is in the taste. We will have to report back later on that! So, if you are interested,

Ingredients
1 cup coarsely ground steel cut oats
1 cup flour
1 tsp cinamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups coarsely cut cranberries
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup sugar
2 TBS butter
we mixed the dry ingrediants. then we mixed the butter, eggs, sugar, honey and milk. then we put the wet ingrediants into the dry and folded it in, mixing lightly, then added the cranberries and popped it in a oven at 350. I think it will bake about 45 or 50 minutes, but Im not sure yet!!

Oh and pictures to follow too (if it looks edible!)

snow

We had forecast for rain but then we got snow! So, i happened to have the camera in my coat pocket from our trip to the playground yesterday and decided to film my ride home. it was an amazingly beautiful snowfall. not too cold out- about 30F, so it was a nice light chunky snow. Now, my butt got a bit wet from the slush in the streets, but I didnt capture that on film so you are safe! I hope you enjoy the snow as much as I did this afternoon!

posting from email

I just learned how to post a blog entry from my email.... so I am writing this from my koompa.net account! So, this is really just a test!! Did it work? Did the picture work, too? Did the subject line work?

can you guess what we did yesterday?

As you might guess we are into dark chocolate these days....

Koompa update

She is soundly sleeping on the couch. this is after chasing a squirrel all around the snow and then rolling in the snow. that doggie sure knows how to love life! I love that dog! and lets not forget about marker bark, taking it all in on the snowy deck!

3 cheers for frankie!

she's gone in the potty three times today! Whooo hooo!! Ok, so in other news, we couldnt decorate the house today for christmas like we planned because yesterday I learned that if you have a flood in your basement you should probably also clean out the floor level cabinets because they probably flood too. so, there went a sleeping bag and our christmas decorations. they are moldy and smelly now as we didnt realize they were sitting there hidden and wet. But the good news is that our stocking were upstairs and we had just gotten some new chili pepper lights that were already hanging up! So, if we can brave the shoppers this weekend we may go out to get some new lights and what not. Stay tuned, we are making a cake this afternoon, and if it turns out we will take a picture for your viewing entertainment!

sisters!

I just thought these were cute pics. Oh and by the way, scott's rule rocks. We got I would say about 1.5 inches of snow. Like our little snowman?

a white thanksgiving?

I just looked up the weather. Its raining now, but here is the forecast for tonight:

Tonight
Brisk..Snow after midnight. Snow accumulation 2 to 4 inches. Northeast winds 15 to 25 mph. Chance of precipitation near 100 percent.


How fun! But, Im not really ready for it. We havent raked up our leaves yet! OK, we will see if we really get the 2-4 inches. If scott's rule applies, then that means we will get 1-2" max. Good thing we bought new snow pants at Target last weekend. Bee's been wearing hers around the house everyday, practicing just for this moment, I guess!

dark chocolate oatmeal cookies

dark chocolate oatmeal cookies.... Bee and I made up these cookies today and the whole family decided it might be our new favorite cookie! especially for a cold late fall afternoon! As Bee says, "delicious micious!"

Recipe: Dark chocolate oatmeal cookies

So in case you are wondering, here is how we made them:
2 sticks of butter creamed with 1.5 cups brown sugar
then add 1 capful of vanilla and then 2 small eggs (thats the size we had, dont know how much that matters).
then add 1 cup flour, 1 cut oat flour (just put your oatmeal in your grinder to make it yourself), and 1/2 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder.
then add 1 more cup regular oats (not ground).
oh I forgot a pinch of salt.
mix it up and bake for about 10 minutes at 350.
Yummy!

most popular name in east lansing for 2 year olds

Frank(ie). Yep. Poor frankie may be one of three in her class! I kid you not. And we picked her name in part because it was NOT in the list of top 100 names. But last week I was at the library with the girls and I heard someone saying "come on frank. frankie. come here honey." Im like, who is calling my kid???? Turns out they werent calling my kid. they were calling their kid, who is also 2 and who also lives in east lansing. anyhow, turns out Frankie (that would be the boy not our little girl) is really named Francis and is named after st. francis of assissi. Hey, so is our frankie! then friday night we went to chicago pizza house and we were waiting to get seated and this lady is saying "frankie what is that?" and I thought (again) hey who is talking to my kid? Turns out, she wasnt talking to my kid, but her own. and it wasnt even the same frankie as the library. While I didnt talk to this lady cuz our table was ready, I looked over and kid looked about 2 or 3. weird, huh!

follow up to rule 213

it should be stated that (in response to SIL CD) that if one were to engage in such activity, one should remove toys first. But if one does not remove toys, one should be sure that it is raining that morning so the wet soggy toys - say tents, pillow, books and what not, can sit soggy in the gargage, with no real chance at drying. Might I add, that if one's carpet does get covered in water, it might be best to just rip it out then and there, rather than trying to salvage it, as it could possibly lead to a vulgar mold stench.

Homeownership rule #213

Dont leave the washer running all night long after the main water pipe leading from it has broken. Now, Im not saying that anyone I know did this (or knew that they were doing this, because naturally one would be sleeping during the night). But, you might, just might, end up with a basement flood, of roughly 2 or 3 inches of standing water, especially if you do this on an evening your basement drain is also clogged. I suppose if you choose to do this, it is a nice way to be sure to wash out all of that doggie pee you are sure is in the carpet. In fact, it just might be your ticket to a new carpet and probably a huge water bill. But again, Im not reporting that this happened. Its just a rule of ownership you might consider.

the leaves are finally falling!

Its a cold fall day and all of the leaves are falling at once! Literally, I woke up and we had all of our leaves. I go outside now and they are gone. Crazy. We went outside to rake some of them up (and play in them of course) and then spent some time planting tulips and crocuses. We also moved the hasta plants from the sunny to the shady part of the backyard. When we came back inside, frankie sat down and said, "aw, now i feel croasty and warm." I think that must be a cross between "cozy and toasty"!

frankie and johnny

I was sitting in the sideroom watching Bee make a card for her class - she wanted to make a thank you card because when she was home sick last week, all of the kids made her cards. Anyhow, frankie was entertaining herself in the front room. She was running around singing and what not. then I noticed she started singing "frankie and johnny were lovers" (you know that song? its an old folk song. I remember learning it along time ago when I was learning how to play guitar.). We have a book of folk songs that frankie loves to pick songs out for us to sing, and that is one of them. So, I grabbed the camera, and caught it on film. Thing is, she only knows the first line and makes the rest up. And the funny thing is she is singing about our next door neighbor, or so she stopped singing and went to window and asked "where's johnny?"



oh, and i am really proud of bee's card. I helped her spell thank you and k-club but she wrote it all and colored the picture by herself. Actually i left the room to film frankie before she drew her picture so it was a surprise when i saw the picture (which is a picture of our family - but I bet you could recognize us! :) ).