Post #18:Brain Cupcakes

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
I only worked half day (for the cutest 4th grade class ever!) so I came home just in time to make cupcakes for my kids and deliver some back to my son's three fifth grade teachers.  Here is the link for brain cupcakes.  I of course jazzed them up with a skull cupcake wrapper. 
http://pinterest.com/pin/201254677068398944/

Hopefully later I will post every one's Halloween costumes.  Mason's is straight off of Pinterest!

Project #16: Swim Like Michael Phelps

Football is over.  We had our last games on Saturday.  So I started swim lessons.  Of course I was late because I had to shave my legs.  I almost forgot my swim shorts (no one should have to see my thighs that early in the morning).  I did  forget my bra.  A CWU hoodie covers a lot (or a little in some cases).  Luckily my swim instructor was also running behind schedule.  She asked us (me, Juan, Mike and- oh I forgot her name) what our goals were.  Mike wants to do a triathlon, Juan wants to perfect one stroke and whats-her-name wants to tread water. She needs more body fat not swim lessons.  My goal is to jump in a pool without plugging my nose.  I HATE getting my face wet. I got homework this week.  I am to blow bubbles with my face in the water.  We'll see how that goes.  I liked the suggestions on this site found of course on Pinterest.  I just happen to pay for my "swim buddy!"
http://www.swimsmooth.com/beginnertips.php

Project #15: Canned Apple Pie Filling

My friend Katie is amazing. She sews, is on the PTA board, quilts, manages a play group of a million two year of boys and she cans.  We have canned together- salsa was my favorite (we were covered with tomato seeds).  This year I didn't do a lot of canning.  I still had peaches but Katie and I  one year did apple pie filling, which is THE easiest thing to use for dessert in a pinch- dump in dish, top with a steudle crumb, bake.  Trying to fill my day I decided to head over the mountains to find a good deal on apples. I headed toThorp.  They never let me down; honeycrisps for $14 a box. On a side note Thorp is really close to my college town, Ellensburg. Of course I stopped at Jerroll's book store, my old dorm and Campus-U-Tote Em for onion rings and a PB milk shake. BUT- back to apples! This year I needed to find a Pinterest recipe to can my apples (which after gass and shopping cost $150 for the box).   I'm not sure the recipe worked well.  The syrup was like set jello, one jar cracked in the canner, and two jars didn't seal.  One actually spewed syrupy goo like lava all over the table.  They are in the fridge waiting to be used. Needless to say I am currently scouring Pinterest for apple recipes for project #16.  There is a carmel apple cheesecake recipe that is high on the list!
http://www.mommyskitchen.net/2010/04/got-apples-make-apple-pie-filling-in.html

http://pinterest.com/pin/167970261072400992/

Project #12: The best Cookie Bar Ever

Summer of 2011 we went to Disneyland.  My sister, nephew and Mom went too. We went all out and stayed in the park and bought the food plan; best decision ever! If the kids were hungry- they swiped their cards, needed candy- they swiped their cards, needed drinks- they swiped their cards.  At the hotel, where we would go eat lunch and swim during the hottest part of the day, we would make sure to load up on snsacks.  My sister got a Magic Cookie Bar.  She had never had one.  So in honor of Heidi and in memory of Disney we made Magic Cookie Bars!
http://pinterest.com/pin/50524827039082931/
We ate them before I could take a picture.  They looked like they always do.  See Pinterest post above for a better picture than I could take anyway.

Project #14: One Puckered Tongue and Yummy Spiced Pumpkin Seeds

For Family Home Evening we carved pumpkins.  Then the dogs ate the pumpkins.  I should have predicted this seeing as they (okay really just Fillmore) ate all the decorative gourds I purchased in my attempts to be festive.  Those poor Jack-o-lanterns never stood a chance.  I wish I had before pictures.  Dallin painstakingly  carved the word V-O-T-E in his.  

Jōb scraped a ghost into his without going all the way through the meat of the pumpkin.  Mason cried when he couldn't do the same technique.  I carved a girly pumpkin; eyelashes and puckered lips included.  The entire time I quizzed everyone on the parts of the pumpkin: stem, pulp, ribs, meat, and SEEDS!
Jōb and I almost broke up over pumpkin seeds.  The October after we met we were carving pumpkins at his sisters house and got in a huge pumpkin guts fight (pulp is the correct term- I taught the kindergarten pumpkin lesson).  Jōb says he found seeds in places there should no be seeds, but I digress. 
I eat pumpkin seeds all year.  My sister-in-law, Diana (same sister mentioned above), used to roast them for me.  She lives kind of far. I had to roast my own. Here is a great link if you want to try the same:
http://pinterest.com/pin/67413325642305243/
Warning:  eating too many on one sitting will pucker your tongue!

Project #13: Glitter Everywhere and More Halloween Ornaments

Katie found this post on Pinterest for me.
http://pinterest.com/pin/223068987762726028/
I really wanted to add them to the nearly naked Halloween tree.  They are made out of cheap white Christmas ornaments from the dollar store.  So off we went on our teacher furlough day to Monroe to go to the dollar store. 
Guess what? There were no white ornaments at the dollar store, even though retail Christmas is in full swing! What I did find didn't leave much room to be crafty.  They had pre-painted eyeballs; twelve in a pack.  They look like small-ish ping pong balls.  I guess you could float them in punch or something.  So I had  to craft them up.  I added glitter to the pupil and hot glued a wire hanger made again out of floral wire.  I hid the glob of hot glue with leftover purple ribbon.  Jōb said the ribbon looked like a bat perched on the eyeball.  I had hoped they would look like an eyebrow.  Oh well. My tree is less naked!

Project #11: Wicked

I posted on Facebook how I cried through the first half of Wicked this week at the Paramount with my mom.  I had seen it before; in Portland.  I cried then too. 
I ran into my friend Amy.  She was running.  I was in my car.  When I rolled down the window before I could say hello, she said, "I cry at Wicked too. It's because we're Elphaba."
http://pinterest.com/pin/62628251038215374/
Enough said but then Amy told me car was making a funky sound. Great.  Just Great.

Project #10:My Naked Halloween Tree

I have dishes for all the major holidays, Christmas, Easter, 4^th of July, Thanksgiving and of course- HALLOWEEN! Unfortunately none have seen the light of day for years.  Going back to school kept me busy.  The only holiday that we decorated for was Christmas. Last year I have no excuse.  So we pulled out the Halloween boxes and put together the Halloween tree, put out the Halloween sofa pillows, bought pumpkins, made a great pumpkin centerpiece, and yes switched out the dishes. 

When we went to decorate the tree the ornaments were missing; no witches, and goblins and bats, OH MY! So I turned to Pinterest.  I found a few that I liked but decided to use craft supplies that I have and was inspired by ornaments at this link:

http://pinterest.com/pin/263531015665929371/

I added my own flair with fan-folded circles and some glitter.  Everything needs ribbon and some floral wire to hang them.  This admittedly took a little longer than I had thought it would. Not "carved out  book long" but long nonetheless and it only made seven  3” ornaments. Oh Well, better than a naked tree! 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Project #9: We Went to Utah

My religion has been a hot topic lately. Between principals and politics I have struggled.  I wish I were tough skinned about people's comments but I am not.   With that being said we headed to Salt Lake City, the center of all Mormon-dom for the October session of General Conference.  Since Dallin was a little boy we have promised him that we would take him to his first priesthood session of conference.  Dallin turned 12 in June (that's how old you have to be to attend the manly meeting) so off we drove. Yup, drove.  My mom, Dallin, Mason, Jōb, and myself!We had a great time and were there for the announcement of the age change for missionaries (boys from 19 to 18 and girls from 21 to 19), ate at Chic-fil-A, saw family, bought new scriptures (the dog ate mine), ate at Cafe Rio, toured BYU (a little unimpressive as far as college campuses go), saw a lot of temples and talked to a lot of missionaries from the MTC (Missionary Training Center). I wish I had printed some great printable conference booklet from Pinterest for the boys but they are a little old.  What I do have is solely informative about General Conference statistics and a little about my church: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
http://pinterest.com/pin/137430226099090576/
http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mormon-general-conference-april-2012

Project # 8: The BEST Pinterest Post to Date

Mason loves to bake.  I haven't convinced him to take over dinner prep and if  I left him to do all the meal prep we would live off Little Smokies, watermelon, and pretzels. Yup pretzels.  Here is the link:
http://foodgawker.com/post/2012/05/17/165369/
Here are some basic truths we have discovered about these pretzels:

• They are easy enough for my ten year old to make on his own
• They are better with more butter brushed on than the recipe says (but what isn't)
• They are NOT good cold (only make what you can eat fresh and warm)
• They are yummy with cinnamon sugar (and the salt)
• Rob and Dallin are REALLY bad at shaping them
• We could easily make these every Sunday for a month
• I LOVE them!

Project #7: Looks Can Be Decieving- The Breakfast Casserole

Jōb's mom came for a visit.  She normally lives in Oklahoma (where nothing tips like a cow) but one of Jōb's sisters is having another baby so before the blessed event she came up for a night. 
With a guest totalling five people in the house I thought it would be a great time to try an overnight crock pot breakfast casserole.
http://pinterest.com/pin/3870349650046231/

I think maybe we sleep too long and then at breakfast while wondering why it was so dark and a little dry I realized that I forgot to have Jōb whisk in the milk with the eggs- OOPS.  The picture doesn't look too bad but I don't think it'll be replacing cinnamon rolls for Christmas dinner any time soon (and yes that is grease pooling around the edges). Final result: 2 stars and nearly a complete waste of bacon! 

Project #6: This is What I am Reduced to - A Secret Book Box

WARNING: While this blog is written primarily for me to document all my pinterest projects I do have 6 followers and do not want to offend them.  This post has naughty words in it.  I use symbols to block them but if a little bit of a potty mouth makes you angry- STOP READING, scroll to the link to see the project and skip my entry. Consider yourself warned.

I remind myself every day I am not working that there are benefits to not being in a full time contract: movies on Tuesdays, online backgammon, quilt shops with Katie and Anna, mowing the grass…and yes pinterest projects.  After making Dallin the tape cassette wallet I decided I needed to make something for Mason.  I saw on pinterest a secret book box; perfect holding the treasures and secrets of a ten year old boy.

http://pinterest.com/pin/387034965The 0046231/

The blogger on the site said she spent two evenings cutting the pages out of the book. REaLLY?! No way. I would have it done this afternoon.  I began cutting pages with my craft knife and at some point realized that at the rate I was going it would take four days to a week for Federal Tax Law to become a secret box.  Normally that wouldn’t be a problem but at some point, sitting alone in my kitchen, turning Jōb’s old law text into a lame craft project in a pathetic attempt to fill my empty day, I began to feel awful. 

Let me tell you I am a crafty person.  I have loved a good project but this one caused me to question and think differently. And cry.

Determined to finish I decided to take the bloggers advice and switch to a box knife.  I looked in the basement. No box knife.  I called Jōb at work and he said he had it sitting on his desk.  I was done crying and had moved onto angry and told him he was no help and it wouldn’t do me any good.  I would finish with the dull five year old Exacto.

In an attempt to be positive about my project and what I had accomplished that day Jōb tried to say something nice when he came home from work about the beginnings of the secret box. I spouted off with some comment about having to resort to this lame a@# sh@# to fill my day. Jōb left me alone with my project.

On day two the blade of the Exacto knife broke in half.  I had to swallow my pride and ask Jōb to bring home the box knife after all.  The project really did take two days and caused way more introspection than I wanted. 

Enough said. Mason loved it.  Move on to project seven please.

Project #5: This one Really Stinks! AKA "How to Make a Naked Egg"

On Sunday we tried a quick science experiment.  We decided to put eggs in vinegar to see what it would do to the shell.  We saw the pictures and read the web site but I think are hesitant to believe that in a few days we could hold a shell-less egg.  I hope it works because what they don’t tell you is that the process- stinks.  Literally.  The whole kitchen stinks.

http://www.imaginationstationtoledo.org/content/2011/04/how-to-make-a-naked-egg/

UPDATE: This one WORKS! In just a few short days  of stinky kitchen the outer shell of the egg flaked off leaving the yolk and white of the egg nicely contained within the membrane.  Dallin thought he could bounce it like a ball.  Nope. SPLAT.  No picture of that but here is Mason holdong his shell-less egg!

Project #4: Saturday is a Special Day

On the way home from a date with Jōb tonight I told him when we got home (after stopping to buy eggs and a pie crust) I was going to do a “sock bun” as my next  blog entry.  I am doing mine as a curling method but I told him that ballerinas and a few women in our ward wear them to church.  He was amazed that there were grown women walking around with rolled up tube socks in there hair! Here is the video (she is adorable and has a great accent btw):

http://pinterest.com/pin/181129216232819187/

I thought it might save some time getting ready for church tomorrow.  Rob didn’t get the concept of the “sock bun” so he watched the video with me as I re-watched it.  It’s a good thing he did because in reality he was the one who rolled it.  We’ll see if it leaves me with “big Hollywood curls” after sleeping on it all night as she says in the video.

Project #3: Nanaimo Delivery Take Two

We went to deliver the Nanaimo bars last night; admittedly a little late (8:45 p.m.) thanks to football practice.  No one answered the door.  I could hear Kimmy.  We called but no one answered.  So the Nanaimo bars came home with me.  I decided to add project #3 and see if I get a comment when I try to redeliver  them today.  The ribbon wreath paper plate should get some response right?

http://laurengeiger.blogspot.com/2011_10_01_archive.html

Admittedly while punching holes in the paper plate I couldn’t help wonder why women feel the need to do this type of thing.  Is the extra five minutes of presentation worth more to the recipient or just a waste of time? I am not sure. But, delivery take two is about to commence.

Project #2: Nanimo Bars

Duvall has two grocery stores: Safeway and Family Grocer.  Safeway is cheaper but Family Grocer has better snacks: Ritter Sport, Ice Cubes (foil wrapped chocolates), pumpkin seeds, Bottle caps and Nanaimo bars.  The Nanimo bar comes on a Styrofoam tray covered in cellophane, like meat.  I thought I was the only person in town that bought them but my friend Kimmy (maybe a size zero and a personal trainer-I would hate her if she weren’t so nice) was saying that she and her husband split them. Them? She explained she split them down the scored line in the top chocolate layer.  I explained to her that the line was purely decorative and she should buy two.

Kimmy’s husband had surgery Monday and I had good intentions of making him Nanaimo bars.  I worked Monday (cute 3^rd grade class) and yesterday took a road trip over the mountains for apples, onion rings and a milk shake in my old college town.  So, today after a huge meltdown, a call to my mom, a trip to my friend’s who was watching 5 two year olds and a stop by Safeway for real cream I buckled down to make Nanimo bars.

http://www.creative-culinary.com/2010/02/nanaimo-bars/

This did not go without incident.  As I was making layer one (of three) in my make shift double boiler- a bowl and a pot- I tasted the concoction.  It was bitter; only ¼ cup sugar.  I added more.  Then while making layer two I realized I used a 9X13 instead of an 8X8.  I adjusted layers two and three to be thicker so layer one is a little thin.  The sweetness of layer two counters the semi-sweet other layers and I am going to go take a picture and deliver Nanaimo bars- without a decorative line!

Project #1: The Cassette Tape Wallet

I thought this would be an epic fail. I thought the hot glue would peel off. I thought the plastic fat part of the cassette tape would be too bulky. I thought the wallet wouldn't hold anything. I guess that's what I get for thinking.

I know I said I was going to post this yesterday and I did have the project selected, but the boys had football (both lost) and my mom came for the weekend (bringing with her the most fabulous rack of ribs to grill) and I had to gather supplies for the fabulous cassett tape wallet (okay really just a zipper)!

My Mercedes actually has a tape player. The in-dash navigation slides forward and I have a tape player behind it. We have tapes: World geography songs, Les Miserable’s, The Life of J. Golden Kimball (the swearing apostle), and Tapes Jōb sent home of people he knew in Scotland on his mission. No one would let me make a wallet out of any of those. I went to Value Village in Redmond thinking I would find old tapes everywhere. Nope. Not a one. I called home asking Rob to look again through the attic. He found U2. Nope that one was mine. But Dallin; he found the perfect tape that I was willing to sacrifice for my first project: Bagpipes of Scotland. No words, just sixty minutes of bagpipes and the low hum that accompanies them.

I used the following web-site for the instructions (found of course on pinterest) http://diyfashion.about.com/od/diybagsandpurses/ss/Cassette_Wallet.htm It is classified as DIY fashion.  My 12 year old is really excited about his knew wallet but DIY fashion for an average American it is not! The site has virtually no instructions, only pictures of the ten steps.  It is cute and an easy Sunday afternoon activity that even my kids could have done!

Not Everything on Pinterest is a Good Idea

I had an employer question my blog.  She said that since Mormons believe in eternal marriage that my blog did not portray my beliefs and my spouse in a very positive light.  So I stopped.  I stopped blogging.  I wasn’t the best at blogging but who was she to cause me to stop anything. So I am back; with a twist.

Quick Update: I graduated with my master’s degree.  I made it through all the craziness.  I didn’t make it through perfectly but I have the piece of paper and the teaching certificate to prove it.  I also gained thirty-five pounds, stopped running and swimming, cried a lot, let my nerves get the best of me, had days I didn’t get out of bed, had sick kids, subbed a lot, saw a lot of movies (every Tuesday, by myself), played backgammon on-line, applied for jobs, didn’t get jobs and joined pinterest. 

I was making the homemade junior mints (found on pinterest) (http://shewearsmanyhats.com/2011/12/chocolate-peppermints/) with my nine year old one night and they weren’t quite working out as we had hoped.  He looks at me and says, “Not everything on pinterest is a good idea.” I wish I had started the blog when the glow in the dark bubbles (http://blog.kriegsman.org/2012/03/14/glowing-bubbles-yes-but-no/) didn’t work or the Dr. Pepper cupcakes (http://lucyjanesbest.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/dr-pepper-cupcakes/) that took all afternoon to make were a huge let down. I fed them to the chickens.  The Auntie Anne’s pretzels (http://foodgawker.com/post/2012/05/17/165369/) were to die for and the same nine year old made them every day for a week.

Last night I watched Julie and Julia.  Julie “found herself” as she blogged her way through an entire Julia Childs cookbook in 365 days.  My children started school this week and while I subbed the first day of school I am struggling to fill my day. I decided I would blog 180 days of pinterest by the end of the school year. I am going to pick, make and contemplate 180 things off of the fabulous website and blog them. I know, I know…I have missed the first four days of school. Over the holidays I will have to play catch up.  That’s when it should be the easiest, right?

I will begin tomorrow, still married to Jōb, still a mom and a wife and a teacher hoping to fill my day as I enter this new school year. Bring it on 2012-13! Bring it on!