Spook-tacular Halloween Goodness!

As I mentioned earlier, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, so here I am waiting for my Halloween cupcakes to finish baking, and thought I'd share some goodies with you.

Last year, I made personalized mini-pumpkins for my step-kids.  They were really cheap, and turned out really cute.  All you need is a little creativity.  I picked up a few mini-pumpkins at the local pumpkin patch for about 50 cents each.  Then I drew the letters for their names on them using colored Sharpie markers.  I practiced this ahead of time on paper to make sure I got them just how I wanted them.  I tried to do each letter in a Halloween theme.  Then, using my hot glue gun, I added embellishments like colored glass drops, rhinestones, and feathers.  I finished both off with a ribbon around the stem.

Sam's pumpkin had a bat for the "S", a witch's hat for the "A", and a googly eyed monster for the "M".
Mike's had a spider and web for "M", candy corn for "I", a dragon-type monster tale for the "K", and a pumpkin for "E".

As I said, I made some Halloween cupcakes.  I just finished them up, so here is the recipe:

Creepy Crawly Cupcakes

1 box chocolate cake mix (any variety), + all ingredients listed on box
12 Oreo's, crushed
12 Reynolds brand aluminum baking cups (they look like big cupcake liners)
1 16 oz. container of chocolate frosting, softened enough to drizzle
gummy worms
sprinkles

Prepare chocolate cake mix as directed on box, preheat oven, mix ingredients, and set aside.  Place baking cups on a cookie sheet.  Following baking cup instructions, spoon approximately 1/3 cup of batter into each baking cup.  Top each with a spoonful of crushed Oreo's cookies.  Bake until toothpick inserted comes out clean - they will take longer than the time listed on your cake mix, because the cupcakes are so big - I started with the time listed on my recipe (15-20 min) and went from there.  Mine took 27 minutes.  Allow cupcakes to cool completely.  Poke small holes into the cupcakes and insert one end of a gummy worm (so it looks like they are crawling out), drizzle with chocolate frosting, and top with sprinkles.  Enjoy!

Creepy crawly cupcakes

Fall Fun!

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year; particularly Halloween.  We spent the past weekend celebrating the season with festivals, food, and most importantly, fun.

I like to cook and make snacks, and enjoy creating new recipes.  I had seen some pigs-in-a-blanket made to look like mummies in the H.E.B. magazine, but they didn't have a recipe, so I had to make one up.  I have to say, they turned out to be some yummy mummies!  You can get the recipe here.

Mummies in a Blanket

To me, caramel apples are the quintessential fall food.  Whether I am drinking a caramel apple spice from Starbucks, or eating caramel apple candy suckers, they all scream autumn to me.  Homemade caramel apples were the perfect easy snack after a night of carving pumpkins.  Pretty quick to make, but letting them sit in the fridge to cool and harden took a little longer.  If you haven't noticed by now, I am all about quick and easy food!  I dipped mine in Heath toffee bits, chocolate chips, and sprinkles.  I also left some plain.  The caramel cooled faster than I anticipated, so I was only able to get toppings on the bottom halves.  You can follow the recipe on the bag of caramel, or if you want a tutorial for how to make your own, you can find one here on my amazing friend's blog.

Caramel apples

You can't celebrate the season without pumpkins, so we went to the pumpkin patch at the Methodist church down the street, picked out some pumpkins and Sam and Mike carved 'em up into some real nice jack-o-lanterns!

My family at the pumpkin patch

Carving pumpkins

Michael's jack-o-lantern

Samantha's jack-o-lantern

I love fall!

Yummy Mummies-in-a-Blanket

I saw a photo idea for these little fall snacks in the H.E.B. grocery store's monthly magazine, but they didn't have a recipe listed, so I got a little creative and made one up.  So easy and so yummy...mummy!

1 package of smoked beef sausage (mine had 7 sausages about 5 inches long)
1 can of refrigerated butter flavored crescent rolls
Wooden popsicle sticks

Preheat oven to 350.  Coat a cookie sheet with cooking spray, set aside.  Cook or grill sausages.  I grilled mine on a George Foreman grill so the fat would drain off nicely.  While sausages are grilling, unroll the crescents onto a cutting board.  Slice them into long, thin strips, a little wider than the width of your pinky fingernail.  Remove sausages from heat source when cooked thoroughly.  Carefully (sausages will be hot) make a slit through the sausage casing at one end of each sausage roughly the width of a popsicle stick.  Insert a popsicle stick about halfway into each sausage.  Wrap crescent slices around your "mummy" starting at the base of the sausage by the popsicle stick.  The more you overlap the crescent rolls and criss-cross them, the more of a mummy look you'll get.  Stop when you are about 2/3 of the way up.  Wrap more crescent strips around the "head" to get a hat look.  Take two small pieces of dough and place them on the "face" for eyes.  Place "face-up" on the cookie sheet.  Repeat until all mummies are ready.  Bake for 7 minutes or until crescents are golden brown.  Serve to your little ghosts and goblins and enjoy!

you + me

I change lyrics to songs so I can include my dogs' names in them.
I get cranky when I'm hungry.
When I'm sick I like new pajamas and socks.
Movies are better when they're cartoons.  And the animals sing.
I hate when people misuse "they're, there, and their".  Hate it.

Band-aids really do make things better.
Given a thousand choices, I will still pick the vanilla ice cream.  With sprinkles, thank you very much.
I could spend all day in a book store.  All. Day.
I am happy in the corner of a party, people-watching.
I like to go to bed early and sleep.  A lot.
Hugs get me through the day.

You sing along to my crazy songs, and help make up new verses.
You have a borderline addiction to energy drinks.
You enjoy eating almonds and then (jokingly, I think) threatening to kiss me.
You claim to hate musicals (especially cartoon ones) but will rent them and watch them with me every time a new one comes out.
You spell words like "zit" and "butt" in Scrabble and giggle about it.
You could spend all day in an electronics store.  All. Day.
You can cut yourself accidentally while working and be bleeding profusely and not even notice. (How do you do that?)
You can talk to anyone and make friends with them.  A neighbor.  The guy working at the gas station.  The person next to you on a plane.  Seriously.  Anyone.
You get random bursts of energy after 10 p.m.
Your hugs get me through the day.

Some people say opposites attract.  I think we're really more complimentary of each other than we are opposites.  As gushy, gross, and hopelessly romantic as it may be, you're my better half.

The best part is that you know the aforementioned kooky things and you still like me.

And there's no one else I'd like to be on this crazy adventure with than you.

The House That Built Us...the story...part 2

A while back I posted part of my story.  You can read part one here.  This is a continuation...

The other day, as we were painting a room, getting things ready to go and listening to our iPod, I had a taste of nostalgia hit me and my eyes teared up.  The House That Built Me by Miranda Lambert came up on shuffle.  The house that built me is actually another part of the story...maybe part three...maybe part 27.  Who knows.  I got teary-eyed thinking about this house.  The house that built Us.

When you really stop to think about it, all a house is is a big pile of bricks, concrete, wood, sheetrock and glass neatly organized into several boxes meant for living.  It's funny how such ordinary and singularly boring things can collectively be so significant.

Our house is the first house we bought together.  We only looked at a few, and they were all great, but this one was the winner.  Even though we've only been here about two and half years, we have created so many memories here.

I remember sitting at the closing table being so mad at the former owners who had lied and said flood insurance was not required on the house, only to find out that it was...adding several hundred dollars a year to our expenses.  Just a few weeks later, our city had major downpours, and the creek overflowed, flooding much of our neighborhood.  We were able to laugh at the idiots driving past the "road closed" signs into the flooded water, instead of stressing over not having flood insurance.  The previous owner even stopped by to make sure we were okay - he must have felt guilty.

It wasn't long before we learned what a water dog we really have.  We always knew Bridgette loved water - she used to lay down in her water dish on a daily basis, and has been known to steal a bubble bath.  We never knew that she would be the one enjoying the pool the most.  Bridge quickly took to the pool, first sitting on the stairs to cool down, then taking laps, and then eventually learning how to ride on a floatie.  Her favorite thing to do is to ride with me on the floatie all day long.  She's gotten to the point that she thinks she's the lifeguard.  Whenever Sam and Mike go under water, she swims to where they are and circles above them until they come up.  She hasn't quite mastered diving and bringing them back to the surface yet...

Just a few months later, on the Fourth of July, we had a big party, and Harry set up his giant fireworks display.  We sat along the edges of the pool, and watched the fireworks set off over the backyard.  Of course, we spent the whole next day cleaning the shrapnel out of the pool, but it was so worth it.

We took our first family pictures at the park just down the street.  Some of my favorite pictures ever.

I will never forget the image of Harry the day he bought his first riding lawn mower.  I was driving home, and pulling up into the driveway when I saw Harry whipping around the corner of the house, going full speed on the mower.  I swear he was practically on two wheels.  He had the biggest grin on his face.  It was like a kid on Christmas morning.

There was the Christmas of 2009: we spent all Thanksgiving night at the store picking out our first big Christmas tree, new ornaments, decorations, and lights.  I got so excited about decorating our tree for our "holiday house" that I came running down the wooden stairs in my socks and slipped and bounced my way down all of them on my butt.  I had a wonderful purple bruise for days.  We had the best Christmas ever that year.  The kids were here for two weeks.  We rode their new four-wheelers, and played games.  We lit fireworks and toasted with sparkling apple cider for the new year.  We heated up the pool, and watched Christmas movies on the projector while we swam.

We've had the best parties here.  The evening after our wedding, we invited our guest back to the house and partied all night long.  Harry hooked up his DJ equipment in the back yard and his friend DJ'd while everyone hung out and went swimming.  All our family and friends from childhood and beyond where here.  It was the perfect start to our marriage and our family.

We've had more pool parties than I can count...something we will probably never have the luxury of in another house.  Inevitably, a cannonball contest will commence, and inevitably, my dad somehow always wins.

Last fall, our ancient washing machine finally crapped out, so we bought new front loaders.  Harry and I literally sat in front of them and watched our towels spin around in the soapy water, in awe of the new appliances.

This past summer, we discovered the new trails along Cypress Creek.  We rode our bikes through the forest to the Y, and walked around the lake.

How about just a couple of weeks ago: our house got struck by lightning.  White light seemed to engulf the house, raining down from the clouds, and the power flicked out.  The house shook, and the pipes in the attic banged and rattled.  Just a few minutes later, we heard sirens and saw flashing lights as our street flooded with 5 or 6 firetrucks.  As it turns out, two of our neighbors' homes were struck at the same time.  Luckily, every one was safe - and we only lost one shingle off our roof.

This is not the first place we lived together, but it is the first place we chose together.  It is where we lived when we celebrated our marriage and the beginning of our family.  If these walls could talk they could share with you the stories that have built us into the couple and the family that we are today.  I know there are other houses to be made into homes, but this is the house that built us.

Symmetrical Cemetery

With everything going on these days, I really haven't had time to read - one of my favorite pastimes.  I decided I wouldn't have a chance to settle down with a good book for a while, so I went to the used book store and picked up one on cd that I can listen to on the way to and from work.  It's called Her Fearful Symmetry and is by Audrey Niffenegger (the fabulous author who also wrote The Time Traveler's Wife - one of my favorites).  The story plot is not really relevant to this post, other than the fact that the story begins with the death of a twin, and subsequently how the people in her life deal with her death, including reminiscing, longing, mourning, anger, trying to piece together the mysteries of her life, and sorting out her estate.  The audio book is narrated by a British actress, with whom I am unfamiliar.  I'm not far enough into the book to know if it's relevant to the story or not, but she happens to pronounce "symmetry" and "cemetery" the same way, treating the final "e" in "cemetery" as if it's invisible.

A character in the story works at a cemetery, giving guided tours of the statues and graves of famous people.  He seems so at ease, even comforted by the cemetery.  It reminded me of my own ease with graveyards.

I really like cemeteries.  If they feel right.  I usually can't describe why they feel right or wrong, but I can tell at first sight.  I don't know where this fascination with graveyards came from.  I remember playing night games in junior high around the cemetery in Rock Springs and trying to be freaked out, but never really feeling scared.  Maybe it started then?  Or maybe it goes way back to my first funeral.  I think I was probably about 3.  I can remember my mom holding me during the graveside service for my baby cousin who was taken away from this world before we ever got to meet him.  Perhaps it's fast-forwarded to 11th grade when most of our high school stood in the cold wind as a classmate was buried.

Whatever or why-ever started my love affair with graveyards is a mystery.  I can't explain it, but I feel some sort of peace when I am in them.  I could sit at my mom's graveside for hours listening to the Wyoming wind thrashing the leaves of the Aspen trees.  I imagine her laying there with me, watching the leaves quiver and shine in the sunlight.  My dad picked a wonderful gravesite, if I do say so.

Harry's family has plots in a small cemetery in east Texas.  It's an old community graveyard and looks as though it is cared for only by the families of those buried there, but it has a homey, almost cozy feel.  It's surrounded by forest and has several old hardwoods shading the headstones.  Egypt Cemetery, it's called.  The name is peculiar to me since, in my mind, East Texas and Egypt really have nothing in common, but that is neither here nor there.

While a student at the University of Houston, I took a class for my sociology minor called The Sociology of Death and Dying.  This was probably my most favorite class of my entire college career.  Weird, right? Our final project was essentially to "put our affairs in order".  Since I won't be around and probably won't care much at that point, I said I could be cremated and my ashes spread between the Rock Springs cemetery and Egypt cemetery with a headstone for people to visit at both, though I left the final decision on this up to Harry; he might have different ideas about this, and that's okay with me.

Sometimes when we drive past cemeteries, I make comments about how I like them, or if I dislike them.  I feel confident Harry would put me in my category of a "good" cemetery.

Her Fearful Symmetry got me thinking about how maybe cemeteries add symmetry to my life.  As if I need some sort of balance between this life and the next.  Perhaps I am an old soul, and have been six feet under before; or maybe above it in a mausoleum - I really love those.  Either way, I feel content with cemeteries and the balance they seem to bring to my life.

waiting

Most of life is spent waiting.  Waiting in line.  Waiting in traffic.  Waiting for the next big thing.  After so much waiting, there comes a time in life when you stop waiting for the next big thing and eventually come to the realization that maybe all the big things are done.  Maybe all the fun and excitement has passed you by and it's time to accept the mundane.  Is this what adulthood is?  Because I have to say, if so, that's pretty lame.

I had kind of settled in on the notion that maybe all my "next big things" were done.  Now, I'm not so sure.  I think there are definitely some more adventures to come.  I think the adult part of it is no longer waiting for that big thing to happen.  It's figuring out a way to make it happen and then relishing in the moment that it does.

There's no room for waiting anymore.  There's a whole lotta doing to be done around here.  Time to roll up the sleeves and get to work creating that wow factor of life.  Challenge accepted.  It won't be easy, but when we've got our feet up, soaking up the majestic Rocky Mountains some day, it'll all be worth it.  

Keep calm and carry on.
-E