Friday's Question

What is your favorite summer beverage??

Friday's Question

What is your all time favorite TV sitcom?

Dinner Plans

The room was silent except for the sound of sizzling cube steak in the cast iron skillet, the room was filled with the warm glow from the unscented pillar candles on the table, rose petals scattered up the stairs, through the kitchen, leading toward the table that was draped with the finest linen minimum wage could buy. I poured myself another glass of wine from the box in the fridge and waited anxiously for my husband to get home. SCREECH! HUH!??! Who just wrote that?? I don't eat cube steak!! HAHA!!

Remember those days when you simply cooked dinner. You cooked what ever you felt like, you cooked it when ever you were hungry, ate it in silence, or perhaps you watched the news, put your dishes in the sink and that was it. Just like brushing your teeth, you don't plan it, you don't look forward to it, you probably don't even remember the details of the event the next day. BUT, and that is a big BUT, when you have kids, what was once just another task you did to get though the day, all of a sudden is a major production.

First of all, you have guests to attend to, many of them show up unexpected and sit in other people's assigned seats.

Which is a huge inconvenience; as it leads to increased mobility and greater access to distractions.

You remove the distractions and think for 3.6 seconds your dinner will once again resume.

That is until... someone else shows up.

Now, you have to be concerned with the unsanitary sharing of food.

And then you realize that two seconds ago she was dipping her snot in the ketchup and think, oh what the heck!

Dinner around here is nothing short of a chore. What was once a simple, mindless task, now requires our full attention. "Amy, just make her sit there and eat it, you are the boss." Yes, I know, I have told myself this a million times, but then I see this and we are right back to square one.

As frustrating as it can be, at least I remember the event in the morning and often share the story with co-workers the next day. One way or another she eats, my husband eats, I eat, even the dog eats and life is good!

Happy Monday!

  

Cake Pops!

Cake Pops! If you never heard of them, let me be the one to introduce you. They are a delectable combination of cake and frosting, covered in chocolate, need a say more? I first heard of cake pops a year or so ago when I started following Bakerella, this lady makes ah-may-zing cake pops, she decorates them so beautifully, she even has a book filled with all kinds of fun cake pop ideas. I have read about her book on her blog, but when I was at A.C. Moore buying the ingredients for my own cake pops, I actually saw her book on the shelf, how cool is that! But I got this recipe from my friend Angie at work!

Cake pops are a simple combination of cake, any kind of cake, and frosting, any kind of frosting, covered with chocolate, any kind of chocolate. Below are the simple directions on how to make your own cake pops.

First, gather all your ingredients:

• 1 Box of Cake Mix
• 1 Tub of Frosting
• Melting Chocolate
• Sprinkles
• Small Baking Cups
• Lollipop Sticks

Prepare and bake cake mix as directed:

Well Hello there Little Friend.

While the cake is still warm, break it up into 100,255,000 pieces and place into a large mixing bowl. On top of your now mashed up cake, dump the entire can of frosting on top. I know, I know, it looks kind of gross, unless you are on your 16th day of your menstrual cycle, then this looks irresistible. Am I right ladies?? Haha!

Now mix the cake and frosting together until you get sort of a 'mush' mixture.

I used a small ice cream scoop to scoop out the cake balls. I put them all on a large cutting board, once they were all lined up, I used my hands and rolled them smooth.

Once they are all rolled and smooth, stick a lollipop stick into each one. Place them in the freezer long enough to cook, serve, and clean up supper, work through a two year old's temper tantrum, a 36 year old's temper tantrum, a bath, dishes, two loads of laundry, book time, bed time, and two sips of wine - a.k.a. 3 Hours.

Before removing your cake pops from the freezer, melt the chocolate that you will use to coat the pops with. I haven't experimented enough to know, but I assume any kind of chocolate will work.

Once you have everything melted, take each pop, one by one, and dip until you can't dip no more!

If you plan on sprinkling anything on to the pops, I found that it was best to do so right away. Because the cake is frozen, it doesn't take long for the melted chocolate to set.

After everything is decorated, display and devour!

See how easy these are!! Well, actually they are a bit time consuming, but trust me, they are worth the effort. If you want more ideas on what you can do with these, check out Bakerella's web-site, I provided a link on top and if you look over to the right there is another link there. If your creative juices are following, you could do some really cute cake pops for the 4th of July. Just think, white chocolate drizzled with blue and red chocolate, or sprinkled with stars, OR you could do little flags on each one!!

The possibilities are endless. If you try these on your own, let me know how it went and what you did with them!



Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my little pal,

my little side kick, shadow, and favorite gal.

730 days I have been with you,

each day learning something new.

Today you are one year older,

another chapter complete in your baby folder.

You make me so happy and proud,

just like me, funny and loud.

I look forward to the years to come,

Daddy, You and Me will have so much fun.

You are the apple of my two green eyes,

enjoy your day peanut  pie.

What a difference a year makes huh?!

Rick & Tessa - Family Session

Back in December I posted on facebook and on this blog about a Free Photography Giveaway.  I wanted to give away a free session to someone who would never hire someone to take their pictures or could never afford to have them done. I was shocked when I received eight truly heartwarming nominations - WOW! I was thinking I would get one... maybe three if my Mom nominated herself twice - hehe, just kidding Mom. But there was one that really pulled at my heart stings and had me at "He is a single Dad to a beautiful young girl" This nomination came from Jenn and I knew right away this was the one! To read Jenn's nomination click here.

On Father's Day, I traveled to the home of Rick and Tessa. Rick lost his wife, Tessa's mother, just three short years ago to cancer. Rick is a single Dad, and from what I could see in just two hours, is doing an amazing job. He is raising a spunky, independent, warm, friendly and incredibly funny little lady. I had so much fun getting to know both Tessa and Rick, it truly was an honor to be able to photograph these two together.


Here are a few of my favorites from the day!

I love the flare captured in this picture.

A-dorable!

I don't know exactly what it is about this photograph, but it is my favorite one of the day!

I saw this car when I was photographing Tessa, I asked her to stand next to it. She squealed and said "No WAY!!", surprised I asked "why not?", she exclaimed that Woodchuck lived under it! YIKES!

So when Dad came out, I asked about the validity of the 'woodchuck claim' and was pleasantly surprised when I was informed that little problem had been "taken care of a while ago" YES!

Woodchuck - 0, Photographer - 1

I am so glad I doubled back to the car, because I was able to get these!

Move over Tessa, it's Daddy's turn!

I don't care who you are - this picture is AWESOME!

Rick, thank you so much for welcoming me into your home and letting me photograph you and your daughter. You are raising one remarkable young lady, who loves you to the moon and back.

Happy Tuesday!

That's What Friends Are For

Friend’s; they are great to talk to, laugh with, and have fun with. The song says “In good times, in bad times I'll be on your side forever more Oh, that's what friends are for.” Now that’s all warm and fuzzy, but let’s talk about what Friends are really for!

They are for telling you not to wear that strapless dress because your back fat is hanging off the sides. They are good for telling you when your shirt tag is up, that your kid is being a brat, and suggesting next time you don’t go so ‘blonde’ with the hair color. Although I saw a picture of myself last summer, when I was in my blonde…let’s call it ‘phase’, and I have to wonder where the h-e-double hockey sticks my friends were alllll summer. Seriously girls, NOT FUNNY!

They are there to tell you what no one else will. I was at a work lunch not too long ago and one of my co-workers had a piece of his spinach salad adhered to his left incisor. Now let me say that I was by FAR the youngest, most underpaid, and probably under appreciated person sitting at that table, but I was the ONLY one with enough decency to let him know that Popeye called and wanted his spinach back. We have all done it; enjoyed a nice dinner with friends, excused yourself to the rest room only to find a piece of pepper between your two front teeth, or worse a booger hanging off the side of your nostril. Then you have to do the walk of shame back to your table and act like nothing happened all while wondering, why the heck didn’t anyone tell me?!! Don’t let your friend be that person, because next time you could be that person.

If there were more ‘friends’ in the world there would be less:

1) Adults with mohawks

2) E-mails titled “The People of Wal*Mart”

3) People driving PT Cruisers

4) Karaoke Bars
So there, the next time you see your BFF walk out of the house, tell her she has two different flip flops on, tell her that she has a bad case of static cling, and let her know her five year old sent you a friend request on facebook! Tell your friends what YOU would want to know. Because that my friend; is what friends are for.