Apples, apples, apples - hope you enjoy the new recipes!!

Bread Pudding Apple Pie
3 eggs 3 cups bread cubes
1 cup applesauce 2 apples - peeled, cored and chopped
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt 1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar 2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 cup rolled oats 1 (9") unbaked pie crust
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350*. In a medium mixing bowl stir together eggs, applesauce, yogurt, white sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, oats, and cinnamon. Stir in bread and apples. Pour into pie crust. In another bowl stir 1/4 cup brown sugar and flour. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle on top of pie filling. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour or until top is golden and fruit is tender.
*I baked the pie closer to 1 1/2 hours and once the edges of the crust turned to a golden brown I put aluminum foil around the edges so it would not burn.

Apple Crisp
10-12 cups thinly sliced apples 1 cup quick-cooking oats
1 cup white sugar 1 cup all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. all-purpose flour 1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup water 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup butter, melted
Preheat oven to 350*. Place the sliced apples in a 9x13" pan. Mix the white sugar, 1 Tbsp. flour, and ground cinnamon together, and sprinkle over apples. Pour water evenly over all. Combine the oats, 1 cup flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and melted butter together. Crumble evenly over the apple mixture. Bake for about 45 minutes.
*I think next time I might make some more of the topping mixture. I think this is the best apple crisp recipe I have found.

All Day Apple Butter
5 1/2 pound apples - peeled, cored and finely chopped
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. salt
2-4 cups white sugar
Place the apples in a slow cooker. In a medium bowl, mix the sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Pour the mixture over the apples in the slow cooker and mix well. Cover and cook on high 1 hour. Reduce heat to low and cook 9-11 hours, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is thickened and dark brown. Uncover and continue cooking on low 1 hour. Stir with a whisk, or mix in a blender if desired, to increase smoothness. This recipe can be canned, refrigerated, or frozen.
*Start out with 2 cups sugar and taste to see if sweet enough. If not, add more sugar.

5 Ingredient Friday

Simple Cream Cheese Bars

2 pkgs. crescent roll dough

8 oz. pkg. cream cheese

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. almond extract

1 egg yolk

Combine all ingredients except crescent dough. Pat one roll of dough in a 9x11" baking pan. Spread cream cheese mixture over dough. Top with other roll of dough. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake at 325 degrees for 25 minutes.

Head on over to Overwhelmed with Joy to check out other recipes!!

The Seasons - They Are A Changin' (maybe not)

Last week in the lovely PacNW it turned to fall - or at least we thought it had. It was cold and rainy here, the leaves were beginning to turn color, and I got a lovely sore throat. All tell-tale signs of Fall right?? WRONG - because apparently Summer is not leaving quietly. This week it is expected to be in the mid-70's. Yesterday when Logan & I went to the park our vehicle said it was 72 out. Today we went down to Redmond to meet Mike for lunch and the truck registered 76!!

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the unexpected nice weather we have been receiving. BUT, I had begun to mentally prepare myself for the turning of the seasons - I had pulled out all of my summer flowers that were dying, I bought a box of apples to start making some Fall desserts, and Mike made sure all of the electric heaters worked in the house in case we had some chilly nights. And of course I'm happy that we have everything in order for Winter but now my body is wondering what the heck is going on. As I type this I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt - last week I wore sweatshirts and jeans, along with my chenille socks cuz my toes felt as though they were going to fall off.

I hope Mother Nature decides soon what season it really is outside - I would like to put up the Halloween stuff next weekend but if it's going to be over 70 again I just can't do it. I also want to go to one of the local corn mazes but I don't want to apply sunscreen before we make the trip!

Almost forgot to point out the biggest change going on around here - the bugs are not happy outside anymore. For some reason now they want to come in and snuggle with us. I'm so sick of seeing beetles or spiders crawling on the carpet as though they own the place. Thank goodness we have Pooh Bear who enjoys sniffing them out and torturing them for a little while. After which they get to take a lovely water ride down the drain.

Meeting The Beast Mom & Holy Schmidt

I met the most wonderful ladies on Saturday night - Christina and Holy Schmidt. Even though we thought the fashion show was going to be nothing but something to laugh at, it was actually quite fun. (Although I'm still a little disappointed that one of them didn't fall.) The models didn't wear anything extravagant and the male models were visually appealing (to say the least). If I may speak for the other two I think we had a fabulous time! We may have met being nothing but blogging acquaintances but I think we left with a couple of new friends.

We didn't stop with the fashion show though - we went to a coffee shop and talked for over 2 more hours! It was so great to get out with other stay-at-home/work-from-home-Moms and just talk. It's crazy that we knew so much about one another but yet had never met or even talked on the phone before - and yet when we sat down to talk it was like we had known one another forever. Have I mentioned lately how much I love blogging??

Five Ingredient Friday (Deluxe Sour Cream Chicken)

I hope you enjoy the recipe - I made it for the first time last night and it received rave reviews - Enjoy!!

Deluxe Sour Cream Chicken

3/4 - 1 lb. bacon - chopped

1/2 cup onion - chopped

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 carton (16 oz.) sour cream

6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

Cook bacon and onion over medium-high heat until evenly browned. Drain and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place chicken in a 9x13" baking dish and cover each breast with a little of the bacon/onion mixture. In a large bowl combine the cream of chicken soup and sour cream. Pour over chicken and spread evenly. Cover baking dish with aluminum foil and bake in preheated oven for 60 minutes.

This dish goes great with rice, mashed potatoes, or egg noodles.

One More Day

One more day and I'll be meeting some fellow bloggers. I'm getting so excited/nervous!! I hope we have a great time - we'll be attending a fashion show in Bellevue on Saturday. I'll be seeing Mo, Heather, The Beast Mom, and Holy Schmidt. Now I just need to decide what to wear - because you know everyone will be judging you by what you wear to a fashion show!!

And yes, I will be bringing my camera.

What A Trooper!

On Tuesday Logan had his 12 month check-up (yes, I realize he's now 13 1/2 months). He did wonderfully - the doctor could not find anything wrong with him. He's right on par for everything! He weighed in at 26 pounds and 32" tall. Apparently he went through a growth spurt since his last check-up.

He even tolerated the shots like a champ. We put him down on the exam table and he had to have 3 shots. Once it was done Mike picked him up and I brought out the magic weapon - a Dum-Dum. Logan's eyes immediately lit up, he grabbed the sucker, popped it in his mouth and the crying instantly stopped. Thanks to Austin for the wonderful tip - I'll make sure to keep one in his diaper bag from now on!!

*Check out the two new videos up on the site and the new recipes - enjoy!!

Works For Me

I'm sure alot of Moms already know this tip but you might need to be reminded of it. Even though Logan is only 13 months old he has a ton of toys - too many to play with all at once. So to make sure he doesn't get bored with the toys he has, we rotate them. Usually once a month. We have a photo screen in our living room that we hide the toys behind and every once in awhile we bring out "new" ones to play with. Just last night I rotated out his toys and when he woke up this morning and saw all the "new" things he was in heaven. He's been playing with them all day!! Works for me. :)

For more Works For Me tips head over to Shannon's!!

A Day Away

Yesterday was a first for a long time - a day all by myself! For the past couple of weeks I have been nearing my breaking point. You have to realize I love my little guy as much as humanly possible but you can only be around someone for so much. No matter how much love you have for them.

So yesterday Mike told me to go out and have a day for myself. Since I didn't plan anything my day wasn't quite what I would have wanted. I should have booked a spa day, or gone to a movie, or went to a park and just read. Instead what did I do? I went to the mall. On.A.Sunday. Yup, I'm crazy. But the craziness doesn't stop there - after the mall I went to Ikea. On.A.Sunday.

I did have a great day to myself but honey, can I get another one in like a month or so? (And this one will be planned out better!!)

**BTW-5 Days until I meet some bloggers!!

Commenting Problems?

Just a quick post to check out what is going on? Recently I've had some of my faithful friends/readers express that they've been having problems viewing my site. Also some of you have had problems registering with Blogger so that you can comment on my site. I've noticed that my comments have gone down and have been upset by this - I miss all of you!!

Does anyone have any helpful advice for people new to Blogger? Have you experienced similar problems?

With this happening lately I'm debating about going back to MSN now - but I really like the freedom that I have with Blogger so I'm torn at the moment.

I do still check my MSN blog so feel free to leave comments there or you can send me an email (mtcw78@hotmail.com) to let me know if you're experiencing this. Thanks for your input!

**Update: I just checked on the "help" section of blogger. It looks like the commenting might be a problem because I recently switched to the beta version of Blogger. In order to comment you can post it using the "ananymous" or "other" options. The other workaround for the problem is to preview your comment first. I hope this helps - you can click here to view the Known issues for Blogger in beta.

Best Buds (well, one of them thinks so)

Logan loves Pooh Bear - no, no let me restate that - Logan LOVES Pooh Bear. Now that Logan is walking around constantly he loves his Pooh Bear. He loves being at eye level with him and he adores trying to play with him. Trouble is, Pooh Bear is still getting used to this little human being around here and gets yelled at quite a bit throughout the day. Usually for plowing Logan over when he gets overzealous. Thankfully Logan just plops on his butt and usually doesn't think twice about it. Logan is continuously bringing Pooh Bear every toy that Pooh has to play with - he gets the biggest kick when Pooh actually grabs one out of his hands. Once Pooh has one then Logan will try to take it back, thankfully Pooh is very careful around him and has yet to nip him. (Or take his arm off for that matter.)
Today Logan found one of Pooh's tennis balls to play with and they actually played fetch with each other. Well their version anyway. Logan would drop the ball beside Pooh Bear, Pooh would chew on it for a bit and then let it roll away from him, Logan would retrieve the ball, and then they would repeat this.
Logan has also realized if he doesn't want to eat something throw it on the floor and our dog disposal will pick it up.

What Are We To Do??

A couple of days ago, in the lovely Pacific NW, we had our first rainy day in about 2 months.  It was quite the reality check for me since Logan has become used to going to the park - EVERY.SINGLE.DAY!!  We did go out for a little in the morning but just to get some groceries so he wasn't able to run around.  It has been a reality check because I don't know what I'm going to do with him for, oh say, the next 8 MONTHS!! 

I am pleading to you, my blogging friends, what am I going to do while it's raining here all winter long?  I don't live in a town with a mall so that's pretty much out.  I need suggestions on ways to get Logan out of the house for awhile during the day.  It's not just good for him but it helps to keep me sane!  (Plus, he goes to bed so much easier at night)  Any and all suggestions are more than welcome - thanks!

**I have a correction from my "Welcome" blog - I lied to everyone.  I guess the Google ads are like the ones on MSN - you do have to click twice in order for a blog to get credit for it.  So if you click on the link just click on one of the links within that pop-up window.  And I'm guessing that's how it works with the Google search engine also.  Just wanted to clarify.

My September 11 Story

September 11, 2001 - the day the towers fell. Everyone knows where they were at that exact moment on that day. I'm sure they will never forget. I didn't know anyone who lost their lives that day. I am thankful for that. It still affected me though - how could it not? Today is a day of remembrance. Here is mine:

I had been working at a bank for about a month and it was finally time for me to go for my teller training in downtown Seattle. It was a Tuesday and I got up to get ready to make the 40 minute drive. I turned on the TV and on the Today show they were showing video of a building that had smoke billowing out the sides. It had a caption that said one of the twin towers had been hit. I sat down to watch it for a little while - I saw the second tower get hit. I could not believe it - I had no idea what was going on or who would do this. I called the training facility to see if we would still have our training and was told that yes we would.

I finished getting ready and made my way into Seattle. Once inside the classroom we were told by the instructor that everything was fine in Seattle and we would have class as scheduled. About 30 minutes later someone came into our room and told us that all of the downtown Seattle buildings were being evacuated. They had gotten word that some of the bigger building might be targeted and that the Puget Sound could be in danger also. We left the building and the scene on the street was something out of a movie - there were FBI agents in full riot gear everywhere! People were running out of buildings and it was complete chaos. I was so scared. I went to the parking garage where my car was and was told we couldn't use the elevators.

I finally got to my car and drove home. Once I was home I called Mike and he came home. I couldn't keep my eyes off of the TV - they just kept replaying the planes hitting the towers and then showing them fall. It wasn't an accident - someone was killing innocent Americans and know one knew why - yet. I couldn't understand what was going on and all I could do was sit in front of the TV and cry.

(In July of 2002 Mike & I were able to visit NYC. We went to Ground Zero and the feelings of sadness were so overwhelming. There were still missing posters posted all along the fenceline. Flowers were laying everywhere along with pictures of loved ones lost. We walked by one of the fire departments and on the door were pictures of all the firemen. They lost their complete department that day. It was amazing and horrifying at the same time.)

To read more stories about 9/11 or to participate head over to Rocks In My Dryer.

I'm a Shoplifter!!

There my secret is out - I shoplifted on Saturday - while Logan was with me. And I didn't get caught!!

Ok - I need to clarify.

Since we were driving to Lewiston it was easier for us to tag along with Mike down to school. He had a final on Saturday so we dropped him off and then headed to the Supermall (yes, that's the name of it!). There wasn't anything that we needed to buy but there wasn't really anything else to do while we were waiting. We got to the mall and I remembered that I did want to find a new pair of sandals for Logan. (His toes are hanging over the edge of the ones he wears now) We stopped in every shoe store there and then came to Payless. We went in and they had a pretty good selection of shoes for toddlers. I tried a couple on him but there was no way I was paying $12.99 for a pair of sandals that he might wear for a month or two before the rain begins. I found a pair of knock-off Crocs for him to try on just for fun. They were so cute! They were camoflouged and they looked adorable on him. I didn't buy them for him though since I knew Mike would kill me. We left the store empty handed and proceeded to go to a couple of other stores. While walking through Burlington Coat Factory I looked down at the stroller and sitting on top of the shade was one of the crocs! I could not believe that I had shoplifted a shoe. See I didn't even do it right - I only stole one! What good is that going to do?? We went back to Payless and I returned the shoe. The really sad thing though - the salelady didn't even notice me leave with it and she didn't even notice us come back in the store.

6-22-6

Six hours, a twenty-two hour visit, and then another six hour drive - that's how our weekend was spent. We drove over to Lewiston, ID to visit some of Mike's family. It was his uncle's 50th birthday. All in all the trip was pretty good - it was a long drive on a VERY boring road. The first 30 miles or so were neat because I have never seen so many apple, peach, pear, and grape orchards. We kept joking that we were going to stop the car, pop the trunk, and fill it up as much as we could without getting caught!

For some reason the trip completely wore me out! We got home Sunday night around 10:30. Monday I woke up and I was just beat - Logan went down for a nap around 11:30 and about an hour later I did the same. I slept for 2 1/2 hours!! I felt so much better but the day was pretty much wasted. Oh well, tomorrow everything will be back to normal right?

On the way home we stopped at a couple of produce stands and we now have a 10# box of peaches and another of pears. Mike's Unlce's girlfriend Karen also sent us home with some tomatoes and pears. I plan on making some salsa with the tomatoes and am thinking about trying to make some peach salsa. The pears though I'm not sure what to do with - maybe pear butter. So I need some help----does anyone have some suggestions for what to make with them? There's only so much fresh fruit we can eat, ya know??