Homeless...

So I'm sure you are expecting me to tell you a heartfelt experience or sight I saw that rocked my world and brought me to tears and come on hear and gush my story, but nope. This title applies to me! But no, not in the dirty standing on the street corner type! You see the last post was about how we finally sold our house and were so excited knowing it was only a few weeks from a new place and a new beginning but alas as any of you who have undertaken the loan process and title companies and blah blah blah...can relate to us in that 5 and half weeks later we are still...homeless.

It has been very trying on my patience and very stressful as we email back and forth a million times trying to jump every hoop that people keep putting in front of us. I had this great dream of getting the house, painting the rooms I wanted painted and setting my kids rooms completely up so when they return from time with Granddad (which has been a saving grace through this process) they can walk into normalcy again. But nope. Not gonna get that either.

All these trials though God has constantly been reminding me to trust Him. Just trust Him. God has proven Himself to me time and time again and why start doubting now? It would be dumb and pointless. So I wait. And trust. And do as many errands humanly possible to occupy my time and mind so worry and anxiety can't squeeze it's ugly head in the door!

The main thing I have reflected on throughout this process has been family though. How many people can stay in a two bedroom apartment with their parents and never fight or get on each other's nerves OR even be offered to stay that long in the first place!! I am so incredibly thankful for my family and never take for granted the great relationships we all have and the love and care we have for each other. It is amazing and rare and I do not take it lightly. I love my family :).

And if you need encouragement like I did today may I suggest what I did? Put some ear buds in and crank up Jason Castro's "Only a Mountain". And if you really feel froggy post a blog entry just to get it all off your chest! Hehe. <3 p="">

SOLD!

So this is where I have been recently...

Yep, selling my house. I'm so glad the sorting, the organizing, the donating, the packing, the taping...ooooh the screechy loud taping...is over with! But that last day when I had to shut the door on my completely empty house and know as soon as it did shut that I would never again open it - it hit me pretty hard. It's the only house my babies have known and was technically my husband and I's first house.

But another chapter of our lives is calling and I have no regrets and no doubts about where God is taking us. Now we play the waiting game to close on the other house but with my parents in an extremely nice apartment complex with two pools - one resort style, basketball courts, movie theatre room, full workout room along with a cappuccino machine that anyone can use anytime, this batchin' it ain't bad!

And yes I've been in Texas long enough that I use the word ain't. Don't tell my dad. He would be correcting my English right now and I'm family so it's out loud not in his head :) .

Hopefully I can manage to ACTUALLY make some blog posts while I wait on my new home!

Shapes & Toddlers

I occasionally go to the library and just LOOK around for better ideas to teach my toddlers. One such day I was looking at all types of shape books and just happened to come across this gem! It is called "Shape Capers" by Cathryn Falwell - it rhymes, is fun and engaging for toddlers but best of all they have a repetitive line that can easily be made into a game AND they make all their shapes into different things at the end of the book - and if you are a teacher you are already on the same page - instant art project!!

 

This is exactly what I did. I read the book to my kids. Then I made this handmade "Shake the Shapes" game which can easily be made out of any cylinder container (I made mine out of a chocloate covered pretzel container from Christmas). (In the middle of the container I covered it with a solid color paper and then wrote with sharpie on the front "Shake the Shapes".) I said the repetitive line of "shake, shake, shake, shake the shapes" and then asked what shape will ______ pull out? And then I let each child in turn pull out one shape from my jar and we had to identify what shape they pulled out!

When we were done with all that I used the picture from the book to make the spaceship out of the shapes we learned about. The kids loved seeing their art next to the picture in the book. It helped them relate and brought the book to life!

It was a wonderful resource and after returning my copy to the library I purchased one to keep in my classroom! If you are teaching your toddler shapes (or are a toddler teacher like me) I highly recommend this book to you!

 

GUESS WHAT TODAY IS??!!?!?!

 

 

 

Isn't she cute? But yes, it is St. Patrick's Day!!! The color green abounds and clovers cover every window! And look out for pincher's - they'll get you!

 

I just wanted to share a quick fact with you since I'm Irish and feel it's my duty.

 

Did you know...

that St. Patrick went around Ireland preaching the gospel and Christianizing the country! He used the clover to help teach the trinity of God (as shown below).

It makes me wonder how did a holiday honoring a man who preached the gospel turn into a drunk fest at bars?? Sad. But I still love my heritage and am proud of the work that St. Patrick did for his country! So go green, orange and white!

St. Patrick's Day Fun!!

How do you teach toddlers colors, have them exercise motor skills AND have fun doing science??! Well in my class I did this sensory table on St. Patrick's Day and the kids loved it! All I did was make one ice cube tray of with blue food coloring and one with yellow so we had blue and yellow ice cubes. When the kids arrived I dumped the ice cubes into a water table and gave them each a big spoon.

 

 

They stirred and stirred and slowly but surely the water turned green right before their eyes! they were amazed and then we spent the day of course talking about and showing them lots of examples of the color GREEN around us!

 

 

Later that same day we made Puffy Parsley Clovers for art. Here's what you need: Elmer's Glue, Shaving Cream and green food coloring.

 

Mix together some shaving cream and glue (roughly 1/3 glue as amount of shaving cream but trust me this is not a precise measurement type art!) Then mix in the green food coloring until you have desired color. I actually ran out because I learned it takes a LOT to make a true deep green so don't say I didn't warn you! So you will have to accept my minty green clovers for now.

 

Then cover a card stock clover with your shaving cream mixture. Once it's covered place the clover in a container and give the child a small bowl of parsley. Allow the child to sprinkle parsley all over the clover until covered or until they are content with it :)

Because if you know toddlers - some will cover the WHOLE thing until every last bit of parsley has been used and others will drop a few handfuls and be like okay where's the blocks? Ha ha, but that's the personalities of children and I encourage you to let them explore their world the way they want to. If art takes 5 seconds or 50 minutes - it's fine.

 

We also make elf pudding later that day! Vanilla pudding + green food coloring (hey it's St. Patrick's Day you need to stock up!) + Elf Cookies = Elf Pudding!! Simply stick the elf in the green pudding and use it as a spoon or dip it and then eat the cookie with pudding on it - or eat them separate if you are one of "those" that can't have your food touch!

 

One week away and I'm already pumped about St. Patrick's Day!!

FASHION!!

So it's not a common known fact but I actually love flipping through fashion and style magazines to see what some "things of the moment" are! I would just like to make clear that I do not agree with most fashion  gurus for what they THINK looks good HOWEVER they DO give me new ideas for my clothes. And so I channeled my best inner model and thought I'd share a couple fresh inventions of my clothes I've had (and don't laugh...at my "inner model" or my "NEW revelations" because yes I realize they may not be new to you) Okay you may continue.

 

A plain jane t-shirt with a fancy satin skirt! Okay call me old fashioned but until last year I didn't pair plain t-shirts with my pretty skirts - I put pretty tops with pretty skirts. you know what I mean right? Okay good. I feel better now. However I LOVE the look and it makes the outfit more comfortable! My suggestion, for what it's worth, is to pair it with great heels to keep it dressy - or go for all casual with the skirt as the oddball instead of the shirt.

 

 

A BUN! Seriously how many of you knew this was the latest craze! Now this one is as classic as it gets but here's the change - either go loose and flowy with strands coming out OR do a sock-bun look instead of the "old" twist. My favorite new up-do is sock-buns and yes there is a sock in my hair!! Hey I work with teens - they come up with crazy but creative things! And I like it!

(click on the link to see a tutorial for sock-buns)

 

 

Roll the sleeves up on a tailored jacket!! My momma gave me this cute sailor striped jacket but she is shorter than me so the sleeves down made it look funny on me. You could tell it didn't fit right. But I liked the look. So I rolled the sleeves up and viola - casual chic!

 

Wish they were better photos but to be honest I thought I need to blog and grabbed photos to MAKE this one happen instead of the reverse where I take photos and when I see them think - this deserves a blog post!!

 

My crazy self - oh and I actually was wearing these adorable nude peep toe HIGH heels with these skinny's. I love how the tall heels dress it up but the nude color doesn't distract from the simplicity of the outfit.

Winter Ideas

January seemed to fly by and although we are always busy it wasn't really because of that. It's just that I finally got my head settled enough to take some things in and enjoy life! In case you are amidst a winter womderland right now let me introduce you to Texas where 3/4 of January was in the 70's. Yes the 70's, that was not a typo. So we barbequed, because we could, the kids were out on their bikes as I baked cookies for all the neighbor kids out playing together and I even scrapbooked and did some Spring cleaning. I know Spring is a long ways off but shoot if it's 70 degrees out you feel good and get some things done!

However even if it's 50 below there will be something on here that might inspire you! I'm working on my laptop so I don't have all my wonderfully artistic photos (sarcasm, NOT pride) to go along with the ideas but I just thought I'd post some things I've gotten done and also plan on doing this week! Hope you feel inspired!

1. Tried a new recipe! This always makes a blah winter day fun! I've tried a couple: one was a new smoothie recipe from my daughter's cookbook she got at Chrismas, one was Italian Meatballs that I added to our everyday spaghetti (which made it amazing may I add), and I searched for a new green bean casserole recipe because if it's not something I LOVE LOVE LOVE, then I'm not stuck to the same ole recipe. And found I like my new recipe for it more than my old one. If you want to try the green bean casserole recipe too it's from Paula Deen (I suppose I felt especially Texan that day) - just click here for her recipe.

2. Painted an old dresser to repurpose: So we have passed this dresser around a bit because it's a nicely made wooden dresser that was a beautiful red color. It started in my son's room and when we put the house up for sale put it in our room because we had to pair down our dresser space. This one was tall versus wide so it gave the bedroom more space. However when my parents recently moved we inherited their bedroom set (what a blessing) and so the dresser ended up in the garage. I told my husband not to get rid of it though because our daughter needs a new dresser. Hers is probably 15 years old (it used to be mine!!) and was starting to fall apart. However red would not do for my baby girl's purple, pink and torquise room. So a $13 quart of paint and a few hours of work and viola! A white dresser was made. I let my daughter go to the hardware store with me to pick her own drawer pulls so she could be included in the remake! It wasn't that hard and here's a quick tip - for a quick color change buy "deglosser". It's a liquid that you wipe over the old paint and it takes away the gloss so your new paint will adhere better. No sweat lost over traditional sanding!! Worked great! (Just make sure you paint it within a couple hours of applying the deglosser otherwise the gloss will come back)

3. Organized my kids closets! This was my early spring cleaning. I usually save my daunting closet organizing for then but it felt great to get them all cleaned up, decluttered and organized and right on time for the in-laws! They had room to put some shoes and hang some shirts and what-not and saved us the embarrasment of showing them what their closets "used" to look like. Don't pretend like you don't know what I mean!

4. Making handmade Valentine's: This one will be done this week! I saw the cutest idea in a magazine and can't wait to set up my kids and I at the table to knock some out! You take regular cardstock and cut them to desired size. Then round the corners with a corner rounder or scissors. Take a small roller craft brush and paint the middle of the card leaving a one inch border on each side. Once dry, take cookie cutters (preferably heart shaped) and dip into paint and then stamp onto the card. One idea is to stamp white hearts cascading down the side of the card or paint several hearts putting the point of the hearts at the same spot so it makes a flower!! Use your creativity and see what you can create! I loved the thin stamped outline of hearts on the cards though! So you all know what I'll be doing Tuesday night!


I could add several things but my daughter is beckoning me to play horses with her so alas I must sign off and go feed her horses some plastic carrots. Farewell and don't let winter blues get to you!

Apple Dumplings

 

(Photo from thepioneerwoman.com)

 

Did you procrastinate planning your New Year's Eve like I did? Don't get me wrong it's a day before and I know who is coming and NOW know what is on the menu but I did my typical "well I want to try something different" and bought all these ingredients for a recipe I have never tried. Brave right?! or stupid, whichever you choose to see it.

 

However I did take one step of sanity and preparation and tried a small batch of my dessert tonight! Yay for me! And I'm so glad I did because now I can have this TWICE! These are Apple Dumplings from Pioneer Woman and you will NOT be disappointed! They are DIVINE! they are similar to apple cobbler or apple turnovers with warm gooey syrup and melting vanilla ice cream beside it!

 

This is right up my alley and maybe it will be for you too. So if you are still looking for ideas, try this one. Please.

 

And since this recipe belongs to Ree Drummond I'll simply leave the link for you to go get the recipe:

Click HERE for recipe! (Or click her photo above)

Book Review: Full Disclosure

A handsome FBI Special Agent gentleman meets a beautiful confident woman that knows how to tell a story. And he's a good listener! She first appears as a local small town cop - you know the kind - where she comprises the whole staff! However she walks down the hall and casually says hello to a U.S. Marshall, happens to be the Midwest Homicide Investigator and, what?! she knows the previous Vice President...like not just knows but is a close friend!??! Who is she? Who is Ann Silver? That is certainly what Paul wants to know ever since she captivated his attention. There are surprises popping up constantly with this one but she doesn't just have surprises, she has secrets.

 

This book is an amazing read and one that provides a great twist and crazy turn of events! It really leaves you wondering and asking out loud - who is she??!

 

 

 

In case you didn't figure out by now, I highly recommend this book as a great read! Not only will your curiosity be held but it intertwines Christ so easily into it that it just makes it all the more sweet. If you are like me and FINALLY have a little time off this holiday season, give this Dee Henderson new release a try. I doubt you'll regret it.

A few good Christmas blog posts I've stumbled across...

 

I was supposed to be taking family photos for some friends of mine today but plans got changed so I'm home with no schedule planned. I particularly like days like that! Christmas cheer is everywhere and I myself will be crafting and baking today because it sounds like the perfect way to start December don't you think? I accidentally gathered some awesome and cute ideas and thought I would share them with you. Because let's face it we all love a little fellow blog love.

1. Cookies - it had to be first on my list! These are White Chocolate Peppermint Cookies from Two Peas and Their Pod. I know I share a lot of recipes from them but my goodness they just HAVE so many good ones! Plus it combines my two absolute favorites: peppermint and white chocolate! Just click here for a direct link.

2. Chalkboard Art - These chalkboard creations are SO chic and they are free to print or download (for personal use only). I love black and white stuff so I'm definitely printing these and either framing them or decoupaging them onto canvas??? Hmmm....what to do with them?

3. Crazy Christmas Tree - Okay this one is slightly weird and a little off the norm of what I post but this is really cool! Had to share it, click here for link.

4. Children's Advent Calender - This simplistic printable looks like a lot of fun for kids and adults alike and will help keep your focus on what is really important this holiday season! Click here for link.

That's all for now I've been staring at my #1 COOKIES and I'm really craving those peppermint ones so I think I will go make some. Yes, right now! See you after my sweet tooth is satisfied!

Salted Caramel Chocolate Cupcake

The combination of those three things: chocolate, caramel and salt just can't be beat! They are delicious - and ever since I tasted the best cupcake from a little cupcake shop in Arkansas called Fat-Bottomed Cupcake Girls, I have been craving this cupcake. So when the kids and I got up on our first day off this week and sat and watched two Cupcake Wars back to back it was inevitable. We had to bake some!

I got so many comments over my cupcake on Facebook that I had to post the recipe and of course I figure if I have to post it why not here on my blog?! So here it is. Now the only thing I will say is I am actually not a huge chocolate fan so I use a homemade chocolate cake recipe for the cake part so if you are a die-hard chocolate fan go ahead and just use the box mix. However, substitute the water with buttermilk and add an extra egg - you will never do it the box way again!

If you do want to try this recipe though here it is:

Chocolate Cupcakes
(Adapted from "Hello Cupcake" by Karen Tack)

1 3/4 Cup all-purpose flour
1/4 Cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 sticks (12 TBLS) unsalted butter, softened (I used regular butter & it worked fine)
1 Cup of brown sugar
3-4 Tbls. sugar
2 large eggs
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted (I actually used mini chocolate chips)
1 Cup buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line the muffin cups with paper liners.

2. Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. In another medium bowl, with an electric mixer on high, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffly, about 3 minutes.

3. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the melted chocolate. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk in batches, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and beating just until belended. Stir in the vanilla.

4. Fill the paper liners 2/3 full with the batter and bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from the baking pan, place on a wire rack, and allow to cool compltely.


Frosting

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1 stick (8 tbls.) unsalted butter, softened (again I used real butter)
1 box (16 oz, more or less as desired) powdered sugar
2-3 Tbls. Milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
Heavy Whipping Cream
Pretzels
Caramel Sauce

1. Combine the cream cheese and the butter in a medium bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until luight and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

2. Gradually add the powdered sugar and 2 tbls of the milk and beat until smooth. Add 1 tsp. vanilla extract and the remaining 1 tbls. milk if the mixture is too thick.

3. Pour about a cup or two (I made this part up so sorry I didn't measure) of heavy whipping cream into a seperate medium bowl. (Depending on how your frosting came out decide upon amount of whipped cream you would like to add, mine came out very runny and not stiff like frosting so I added quite a bit of whipped cream. However if yours is already fairly stiff and holding form you may only want to add a little.) Beat cream with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Add powdered sugar to desired sweetness and beat until stiff peaks form. Add in vanilla extract and beat just until combined. then pour the whipping cream into cream cheese mixture and gently fold it in.

4. Spoon frosting into a ziploc bag and seal. Cut 1/4 hole at corner of bag and begin piping frosting onto cupcakes.

5. Then gently chop pretzels and sprinkle pieces on top of each cupcake. Drizzle caramel sauce over entire cupcake and finish with a dash of sea salt on top - just a little! And indulge!

Thanksgiving Bulletin Board

This is a simple Thanksgiving bulletin board idea and can easily be adapted for older kids. Make each child write a sentence strip of a quote or poem - or write about the indians or pilgrims - or what they are thankful for....the list goes on and on. Make it what you want but hopefully this basic idea will help inspire you!

Thanksgiving Placemat Craft: Indian Corn

Every year our teachers make place mats for our school wide Thanksgiving Feast! Last year took a lot of work as I had the toddlers make a TON of yellow, red and brown dots to make Indian Corn. I was determined to find an easier place mat for young toddlers this year. I accomplished my task!! Check out what I found:

 

 

This is one of the place mats we made this year. The outside are simple pattern sponge rollers you can find at most teacher or craft stores. I did 2 or 3 each of the different patterns. One was polka dots, one was a plain stripe and so on. Some I did all four sides and some just the outsides. It's up to you!

 

The main part of it is the kids hand print. You can trace their hand and cut it out or you can capture the actual hand print as I did by painting their hands yellow and making a hand print on a plain white piece of paper. Then cut out around their hand print. Next take a hole punch to some dark and light brown paper and glue sporadically onto their cutout hand. I free handed the simple corn stalk out of green paper and the banner out of yellow. I even outlined the yellow banner myself with a sharpie marker. Then I personalized with their name and the year.

 

SO SIMPLE yet so pretty and a great keepsake for years to come! Make sure and laminate or the food will ruin them!

Football Party w/ a Chic Twist

 

My dad loves college football! Mix that with being out of the country for the past three months and he was a bit deprived of his lazy game day Saturdays! So for his birthday we gave him just that! We got the idea straight from a "Better Home and Garden" Magazine.

 

Start by painting white lines on butcher paper that you've covered your table with. Measure them out, you need 11 I believe in all.

 

Next carefully paint your best football numbers! They don't have to be perfect, the goal is rustic.

 

Roll down some brown paper bags (you can add in white bags for variety) and add your best snacks!

 

Wrap up your gifts with remaining butcher paper and raffia.

 

Don't forget every one's bets on the games that day! Our winners won a candy bar.

 

Bring it all together and voila! Or should I say TOUCHDOWN!

 

Best part? Guests can make a huge mess and you just fold it all up in the paper afterwards and throw away!

 

My dad is from Ohio so the Ohio State game was kind of a big deal that day :)

 

Need a meal idea that's simple and easy to entertain with - chili bowl! Perfect for chilly days filled with football and cheering. Just set out all the fixin's and it's a relaxed buffet style meal.

 

Easy, yes. cheap, yes. So chic, YES! But still cool enough for the man (or little guy) in your life!

7 Day Photo Challenge Results

Now I remember why I don't do photo challenges. Because I am the absent minded professor who always FORGETS!! So join me and laugh at yourself for something today, remind yourself you ARE HUMAN, and enjoy my lousy three photos I DID manage to take.

 

Day 1 : Lego

Day 2: Cup



 

 

 Day 4: Pencil

 

Now let me explain...the pictures not my constant failed attempts at photo challenges! I refuse to explain myself for that. Day 1 was a piece of cake - my son has TONS of Lego's. He is a bit obsessed with them right now so it's the only one I could have fun with!

 

Day 2 was a normal rough day of battling toddlers among the minefield of Day School. This sad cup of coffee seemed liked a Pumpkin Spice Latte to me on a TIRED day!

 

Day 4 is sadly a shelf at my work. No the Easter coffee cup isn't mine, it was there when I moved in and posting this photo may finally motivate me to make the space more "mine". Which means cuter and way more organized! And believe it or not that orange ball thing is a pair of toddler socks...you keep these things on hand as a toddler teacher because you just never know what will happen!

7 Day Photo Challenge

So I readily admit I've tried the "Year in Photos" I think twice and I just can't keep up with it, as fun as it is at the time! But last month I was blog hopping and found this really cool photo challenge someone did that looked so fun that I couldn't resist trying it! Of course for my sake and sanity instead of doing it for a month (like she did on her blog) I'm only going to do one week. And it seemed fitting to start today because well, it's the first day here in Texas where everyone actually needed to wear a coat - all day - not just in the morning! So it feels fresh and cool and wonderful outside and I'm about to whip up hot cocoa for my kids who've been playing outside enjoying this weather and I'm also stuck on the computer for awhile editing photos.

So here is how it works:
 I'm going to come up with a crazy random list of words and each day I have to take a picture of that word or an interpretation of it! Such as if I put flower it could be a picture of a real flower or a flower on a teacup or even my daughter who is like my little flower! You see? No real rules except that it must SOMEHOW relate to the word! I'm excited and I hope you will join me but even if not I'll entertain myself for a week!

Here is my (when I say "my" I mean my husband and kid's list because I would think ahead and try to cheat by what I knew we were doing that day, lol) random list:

Sunday: Lego
Monday: Cup
Tuesday: Speaker
Wednesday: Pencil
Thursday: Cube
Friday: Work
Saturday: Leaf

I'm going to post this list on my fridge and take a photo of each "inspiration word" that day. I'll post them all next weekend! Let's see if I can do it! If you participate and want to leave a link to your blog post in the comments section - I'd love to come check out your photos!

Quotes Worth Pausing For

"The object of our faith is more important than the sincerity of our belief. The man who thinks he is right but is not sure may be far better off then the one who is "sure" but is absolutely wrong."

"The more we know of the Bible, the more faith we have, and the more correctly we know the Bible, the more effective our faith."

"A woman once heard someone compliment her great faith. "I have not great faith," she responded, "I have a little faith in a great God.""

"Christian theology evolves out of an experience that is based on God's Word, and that is successfully reinforced by its correspondence to the realities of this world."

Pumpkin Smoothie

 

The first day of Fall was yesterday!! I'm so excited to break out the scarves and sweaters and Pioneer Woman came through for me with a delicious pumpkiny goodness treat to try! It tastes like a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte minus the latte! It is super yummy and the crushed cinnamon cracker topping is a must! If you like pumpkin or smoothies, or both then you need to go try this right now.

Here's the recipe (taken straight from Pioneer Woman's blog):

PUMPKIN SMOOTHIE

1 Can Pumpkin Pie Filling
3 Cups Whole Milk (I did 1 1/2 C. Milk & 1 1/2 C. of Half & Half)
1/2 C. Vanilla Yogurt
Few Dashes of Cinnamon
Cinnamon Graham Crackers (crushed)

Ahead of time place pumpkin pie filling into a freezer safe container and place in the freezer for a few hours or until frozen solid. When it's frozen combine first four ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour the smoothie into pretty glasses and top them off with some crumbled crackers.

Makes: About 8 Servings


Note: If you are like me and make your pumpkin pies with the Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin just add the sugar and spices to the pumpkin puree and you are good to go. DO NOT add the milk or eggs.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

So I am addicted to two particular food blogs and I'm sure if you read this blog enough you already know who they are: Pioneer Woman and Two Peas and Their Pod.

 

Well Two Peas and Their Pod posted this amazingly delicious recipe awhile back and when I saw it I knew it would make a great after school treat! So I rounded up my cooking posse (my kids) and we dove right in!

 

 

It's basically chocolate chip cookie dough, then melted caramel and cream poured on top with the other half of the cookie dough on top of the caramel sauce. You sprinkle salt on top of the caramel if you prefer the salted caramel taste.

 

Look what sinfulness it turns into!!

 

And it is SO simple!

Here is the link so you can make it for your kids too. Or just you and your husband. Or just you - but it may require hiding.

Gobza - the latest and GREATEST coupon deals EVER!!

OK, have you heard of...

 

?????

 

If you are a coupon junkie you will not want to miss this one!! Seriously! This is a brand new company that just launched and is similar to Groupon and such but ALSO allows you to make money back (on top of the incredible coupon deals)!! My husband and I signed up and I really am impressed with the deals!

 

Here are some examples of offers that are on Gobza right now:

1. $20 off a $40 purchase at Ray's Grill. Buy this coupon for $2. You just saved $18!!

2. For a $10 coupon you can get $125 dollars off eyelash extensions worth $200!

3. You can get a buy one get one free haircut for a $1.25 coupon.

4. Buy a $30 coupon to get $500 off a new A/C System!! Yes $500!!

 

I mean seriously cool! Anyways if you want to check out more just click here for a quick video. If you want to know ALL about Gobza watch this video, a little longer but SO helpful! 

 

And then if you are just as sold as I am on these great deals (not to mention the extra money back in my pocket when my friends use Gobza) then just follow this link to sign up yourself:

 

My GobzaLink™: www.gobza.com/Ivy

 

It's your personal invitation from me to you - so you can't say you didn't know!!