Chock Full O' Update

Work:

Lots of snow days and delays have our schedules and students in complete chaos. Mike hasn't gotten paid a lot due to the school cancellations since he is an hourly worker. So that is pretty sucky.

And then certain people I work with (who shall remain nameless) have not been doing their job, and things are getting ugly. The proverbial poo is going to hit the fan very soon I think. Things should be interesting.

Saying that I can't wait for spring break is an understatement. Only a month away!

Home:

No news on the house contract... surprise surprise. I am so over it.

Our trees, cars, and other outdoor items survived the ice storms that came through this way. Our neighbors didn't fair as lucky. They had several limbs come down, including one on their roof, and two that were mere inches away from their cars. Yikes.

We ordered seeds for our garden this spring! We're doing carrots, cucumbers, squash, spinach, peppers, leaf lettuce, and tomatoes. I'm excited to get started on this. We can start planting the spinach in mid March, but I think we're going to wait until the first of April due to all this wonky weather. I want to try out this rainwater watering system idea I have, but we shall see how the planting goes first.

Mike bought me a Fiestaware spoon rest out of the blue one day. I heart Fiestaware. And Mike.

Other news:

We've done a lot of geocaching lately. We try to get out when the weather is nice-ish. We went out and found 5 this afternoon. Much better than the other day where we looked for 6 or 7 and only found 1. We have found 39 total so far. Our enthusiasm for our new hobby has gotten both sets of parents and siblings interested too. We are planning to do some more geocaching on spring break as we make our merry way around Indiana to visit friends and family who are scattered about. Can't wait!

INDIANA BASKETBALL = AWESOME. Even though this coaching fiasco has put a damper on the season, it's got nothing to do with the amount of sheer talent that we have on the team. And once IU gets it act together and hires a decent coach and gets rid of their lousy athletic director, there will be no stopping them. GO HOOSIERS!!!

Mike and I have recently decided to "go green." I really really despise that saying. Loathe. But it gets the point across. We are both interested in actively changing our lifestyle so that we have a lower negative impact on the environment. I could go on and on about what we've been doing and how we feel about it, but I'll save that for another time. This is just an update, you know!

Um... I can't really think of anything else.

Over and out!

Snow Day Cookies

Not so much Snow Day Cookies as Ice Day Cookies since there isn't a flake in sight, just freezing rain and a sheet of ice covering the roads. Whatever type of wintery precipitation it is, these cookies hit the spot!

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies with Coconut

1 c. butter, softened
1 c. granulated suger
3/4 c light brown sugar
2 t. vanilla extract
1/2 t. salt
2 eggs
2 c. flour
1/2 c. baking cocoa
1 t. baking soda

Reminder: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. (I ALWAYS forget to preheat... my cookie baking time is always doubled because I'm a ding dong.)

Beat butter, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla and salt together in a large bowl. Then add in the eggs and beat until creamy.

Stir together flour, cocoa, and baking soda in a different bowl. Add this mixture gradually to your butter mixture. Blend well.

Now this is where you can get creative. Add whatever extra goodies your little heart desires. I had white chocolate chip and semi sweet chocolate chips on hand today. Mike requested coconut, so I sprinkled some on top after I had spooned the cookie dough on the baking sheet.

And speaking of cookie dough, someone really needs to make cookie dough ice cream with this stuff. I think I enjoyed it more than the actual baked cookie.

But if you prefer your cookies Salmonella free, you should bake them on an ungreased cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes. They are so good... perfect with hot chocolate on an icy day at home.

Calm Before the Storm

Just a Few...

Just a few pictures from yesterday. It was the first time I busted out the camera in awhile.



Sunset through the trees.



Near an old cemetery


I love pictures of wintery trees.


I really love black and white pictures of wintery trees.


I could have stared at those clouds all day.



Sunset. Kind of crazy.

We went geocaching again this afternoon. We found all of them that we went hunting for. Got a little toy camel for our efforts today... sweet! I'll definitely be doing my research this week so we have a bunch more to find next weekend.

Treasure Hunting

Mike and I spent the better part of our day today geocaching. It's basically a GPS treasure hunting game you play with people from all over the world. Someone creates a stash, registers it online with its GPS coordinates, and lets other people find it. Sometimes they have little treats and toys inside, sometimes it's just a piece of paper where you can write your name and the date you found it on. Wikipedia can explain it alot better than I can. Check it out if you are interested!

Today was our first time out doing this. We went looking for 6 different geocaches located in different cemeteries around our area. We figured that cemeteries would be a good place to test the waters since we could park and wonder around freely without looking too suspicious.

We didn't do too bad... we found three of them, plus another one we accidentally found while looking for another one.


Here's Mike with one of the caches. He ended up finding all them. I just took the pictures.


Here's a peek inside one. We took a compass keychain and left a squeezable rubber chicken.



Another peek. In this one we took an army man and left 2 poker chips.


This is one that only had a paper to sign. Tricksy to find something so small.


We could have probably found the others too, but one place was totally submerged in water from this week's downpour of rain, and another place had a freaky deer skeleton around the place where it was supposed to be hidden.


Once I saw that, I was out of there. Plus it was getting really dark and I didn't want to be in a creepy old cemetery at night anyways.

We had a great time today. We had perfect weather and good luck finding things. We were out at a place where we had a beautiful view of the sunset this evening. I have more pictures to post, but I'm too sleepy to work on them tonight. Another night, another post.

I Finally Found One...

I've been searching for a new lunch box to take to work with me ever since Mike spilled beer in mine over the summer. I've looked all over the place for one to take, and at last I found it.



It's made out of neoprene and it is almost the exact color and pattern as our shower curtain.

Mike bought it for me yesterday as an early Valentine's present. Not especially romantical, but I'm happy as a clam. Because nothing says love like a wet suit lunch box.

LOST

If you are a LOST fanatic like me, you have to go here:

www.find815.com

It will feed the LOST addiction until the next episode...