Little Lukey

Oh Little Lukey. Yesterday was my brother-in-law's 18th birthday! oh he is just precious!!

Anyways, he is a senior at the school I teach at. Our school is kinder-12th, just in different buildings, but on the same campus. Last night, Lukey informed me he wanted 2 DVD's from our house. So I brought them to school today and told him to come to my room to get him. He's the office aid last period, so he just came on into my room.

I had a 1st grade class in here at the time. So after my previous conversation today, I decided to try again with this group of kids. I announced to the class, "This is my brother Luke (they don't really understand -in-laws at this age). Luke had a birthday yesterday. How old do you think he is?"

"12"
nope
"18"
YES!

Second try, not bad. So we sing happy birthday to Luke in Spanish. Then we sing our new Spanish song for him (yes I do a lot of singing in my classes, and no I'm not any good at it).

Then a little boys stands up and announces, "If I were to get you a birthday present, I would get you Transformers and some other DVD's that are PG-13!!! I'm not allowed to watch those!"

So sweet. kids love bigger kids. Luke left. We finished class. We lined up.

The littlest girl in class came up to me and said, "Your brother is cute." Then showed me her paper where she had a heart with "Luke Hot" written in it.

Oh it starts young.

How Old Are You?

"Mrs. Sawyer, how old are you?"

"How old do you think I am?"

"15"

"Nope, I'm not 15."

"SEE I TOLD YOU SHE'S NOT 15!!"

Morning Cookies

I love this recipe!! Growing up, my best friend's mom would make these for breakfast when I'd sleep over!! I loved them!! Years later, I asked for the recipe. Turns out they aren't really cookies at all! they are very healthy!! My husband thinks they are terrible!! the name is deceptive, but it gets kids eating them :) I never knew they weren't really cookies until I made them myself.

Here's the ingredients...

You may notice thinks like all-bran, oats, nonfat dry milk, raisins, applesauce, whole wheat flour, etc. not your typical cookie line up. But trust me, try them just once, you'll like them and you'll feel good about eating them.

First, beat 1/4 cup butter with 1/2 cup packed brown sugar.

mix it up real nice.

Next, add EVERYTHING else (ingredients will be listed below in a real recipe format)

Mix it up real nice again.

Finally, add 1/2 cup raisins and 1/4 cup chopped walnuts.

Now, I ALWAYS add about 1/2 cup of chocolate chips as well. I figure, everything else in the cookie is healthy, why not add some chocolate and spice things up?

(PS I'm very messy when I bake, so I always lay out a couple of paper towels and do all of my measuring on top of them. When I spill - which I always do - it's no big deal. Clean up is so easy- just roll up the paper towels and toss!)

Next, spray a baking sheet with some Pam. (I've tried the Pam for baking before- and i do NOT like it, makes my food burn and my pans sticky. so I'm back on regular Pam)

Now, put a rounded tablespoon of dough on the baking sheet. I actually do use the tablespoon- it helps keep everything equal in size and makes baking times very consistent.

Now, you have to spread out the dough into about a 2 inch circle. You really have to do this. These cookies do NOT spread out while cooking at all. And if you don't smooth them down, they will be very tall and not baked all the way through. I know from experience. (In a Billy Madison voice)

Here's my 2 inch cookie before baking.

Here's my 2 inch cookies after baking. no change. literally.

Move them to a wire rack to cool.

The final step... you must make these cookies into cookie sandwiches. It is delicious! Spread one cookie with either peanut butter or cream cheese and then top with a second cookie. Delish!! i love both. I usually eat one of each. I don't want Peanut Butter to feel left out if I only eat Cream Cheese, I'm just being fair :)

Morning Cookies

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup applesauce

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/3 cup wheat bran ( I use all-bran cereal, couldn't find anything else)

1/4 cup nonfat dry milk

1 egg white

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 cup raisins

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

(1/2 cup chocolate chips)

peanut butter or cream cheese

In mixer bowl, beat butter and brown sugar well.

Add flour, applesauce, oats, bran, milk powder, egg white, baking soda, cinnamon, baking powder, salt, and cloves.

Beat on low until just combined.

Stir in raisins, nuts, and chocolate chips.

Spray baking sheet with Pam.

Drop rounded tablespoons of dough,, 2-3 inches apart on baking sheet.

Spread dough so each cookies 2 inches across.

Bake at 375 for 10 minutes or until set.

Cool on wire rack

Make sandwiches with cream cheese or peanut butter.

Chill or wrap and freeze.

If frozen, let thaw in fridge over night.

(makes about 8 sandwiches - sometimes more )

Bananas

Last week I went to Ann Taylor Loft to use a gift card- so exciting! Free shopping!! And they were having a sweater sale Buy 1, get 1 half off. So I bought 6. I had a gift card! And I actually wear cardigans to school MOST days- because my classroom temperature is unpredictable- so I like to have a cardigan- if it's Antarctica, I keep it on. If my room is Africa, I take it off. Very useful.

here was my new outfit yesterday. Love the happy yellow! Love the ruffle!!
So, one of my favorite 4th graders gives me a hug and looks me up and down and says "You look like a banana."
Oh. I just kind of looked at her, but didn't say anything.
So she quickly added, " A PRETTY banana."

Thanks. I like bananas. And now I am one.

ps- I wanted to share this story- so I set my camera on self timer and took this picture of myself in my classroom. Nerdy? yes. Important for the story? yes. And please don't look at the messy book cases- I have lost control.

Birthday in Review

Finally I remembered my camera, the connector, and I have a spare few minutes to post. So here's what went down exactly 1 week ago.

Wednesday the 18th was my birthday. Thursday the 19th was hubby's birthday. So we went out Wednesday night for an INCREDIBLE meal!! At the Palm Restaurant. Neither of us had been there. But it was awesome.


It's a really nice restaurant, a steak place. But the inside is so NOT elegant. They have these faces EVERYWHERE! And there are names written under them.

We kept reading the names saying " I don't know any of these people." We were shocked that we couldn't identify one famous person on the wall. But halfway through the meal, the waiter brought a flyer for the 842 club (or some numbers like that, I dont' really remember). Turns out, you can join the club and it works like frequent flyer miles. For every dollar you spend at the restaurant, you get a point. And you can redeem your points for certain rewards- like gift cards, travel, dishes, cookware, etc. And at 15,000 points, you can get your caricature on the wall! So, everyone on the wall has spent $15,000 at this place!! We were cracking up about that. We do not intend to get our faces on the wall.

But then the food came. And we understand why people may become a bit obsessed with this place and over a few years, just possibly end up spending $15,000.

We received a coupon for a special dinner for 2 - steak and lobster. we used it. it.was.awesome.very.awesome.
you can see our sides of onion strings, homemade chips, and asparagus. Even the bread was amazing. We ate a lot!! I don't think I was able to eat even half of my steak. (I was saving room for the included dessert.)

The birthday couple!

Molten Chocolate Cake. Delish.

So after dinner, we went to a night at a wonderful hotel! It was huge!! And due to hubby's many work travels- he has enough hilton points to automatically get upgraded. So we stayed on the executive floor with access to the executive lounge. I feel so fancy and special.

Oh- I forgot- we checked in before dinner, and I went to the SPA for a pedicure!! it was my first pedicure at a real spa (not one of those cheap places) and let me say, I would have argued beforehand that it was not worth the extra money, the cheap places are just fine. I would not say that now. It was luxurious. Simply divine. She also did my nails as a birthday gift. It was wonderful.

Okay- so then out to dinner, then back to the hotel. Here's the view from our room. and you can just barely see the pool in the middle of the photo (there was really bad glare from the window). We spent Thursday at that pool. fabulous. relaxing. luxurious. ( I just really like that word)

Thursday morning breakfast in the "executive lounge."

The birthday boy!

Aww- we're cute. We walked around the hotel for a long time (it was huge!!)- we needed to work off some of last night's dinner before hitting the pool. You can't see the background of this photo really -but we were in the room of our FIRST DATE!! You see, I came down to Dallas to visit some girl friends about 4 years ago. Ty found out and asked me to go to a banquet with him, just to catch up a bit, and then I could spend the rest of the weekend with the girls. I actually had NO CLUE it was a date until he held my hand in the parking lot after the banquet!! (He of course knew the whole time.) Well, the banquet was in this room at this hotel. So we walked in, took a picture, and argued about who held who's hand first. (But obviously he held mine, I didn't even like him then. duh.)

So then we hit the pool for a bit. Checked out. Went home. Ty went to play golf. I baked my first sheet cake. Of course I used Pioneer Woman's Recipe. it turned out quite nice. Ty's mom fixed dinner, we ate at their house, and enjoyed the cake!!

It was a fabulous 2 days of birthday fun!! It took about 4 days to come off our sugar high :) And now we're back to work and back to normal life- just a year older and wiser :)

Vibrant View

One of my most favorite spring time moments is right after it rains. When the sun comes back out. When the trees are so wet they are dark dark brown, almost black. when the new leaves are so new they are a vibrant lime green. and when it all happens at the same time, the freshness, the view, is.a.ma.zing.



And every once in awhile, I will just glance out the windows in my backyard and see a take your breath away view. I love it.



I tried to capture the moment for you. But a few things happened...



1. my digital camera is just a point and shoot. doesn't take the most amazing photographic pictures, but it does basically capture good color.



2. American Idol was on, and I paused it. But my DVR has been wacky since the electrician came last week, and so the DVR froze and I missed Kris Allen singing. So I quit taking pictures.



3. I tried to be like Pioneer Woman and take photos with great bokeh. And I did discover ways to manually alter my f-stop and manually focus the photo. This basically resulted in blurry pictures and completely missing Kris Allen.



So here are the best of the pictures I came up with. Do try to use your imagination and pretend they are excellent pictures. And next time, when it is finished raining, just take a moment to go and notice the trees- dark and bright - all at the same time.

(this one shows the real darkness- but doesn't get the greatness of the greens. of course I dont' use photoshop or anything- so just imagine.) by the way- this is the straight out view that I get as I pass by the back window.

This last picture is me trying to focus on just part of the leaves. I also adjusted the lighting some how on the camera- coming up with wonderful greens, but not so dark darks- so just put the top and bottom pictures together in your head. okay?

what's your favorite spring time moment??

Duh

The first day back from a long break I always let the kids share 1 thing they did over the break. It gives them a chance to tell the story, I get to learn more about each student, and then we get to have regular class without the many interruptions of "guess what I did over spring break..."

So today I had a 1st grade class back for the 1st time. They are adorable- their stories crack me up. I normally limit this "sharing" activity to about 10-15 minutes. But I was feeling pretty laid back today, so we just talked basically the whole class long.

anyways, there are these 2 precious little girls. they look nothing alike, but for some reason I always have to think extra hard about who is who- I think they sat next to each other at the beginning of the year and I've just never fully learned their names.

So I called Dana by the wrong name. I called her Lauren. But Lauren had just talked, so obviously she wasn't Lauren. I quickly corrected my self and then said "Uh, where's my brain?"

Loudly from the back, a boy stood up and said, "IN YOUR HEAD."

To which someone else added, "Behind your forehead."

Duh. Why didn't I think of that? Kids just don't get sarcasm do they?

new title

Okay- well I did find my keys and ID (that safe place I put them in... was a side pocket of a purse, which I failed to check in my frantic search yesterday morning). However, I once again forgot my camera to upload pictures... so no cool posts today. You'll just have to hold your horses until tomorrow.

So I thought I'd mention that I came up with a new title for my blog. I decided that while many of the posts are about "The Sawyer Family"- there are many that have nothing to do with sweet hubby at all. So, I changed it.

I realized that I post a lot about funny stories, decorating, recipes, weekend happenings, etc. Basically things that make me happy, or happy memories. Whichever way you want to look at it. So I developed a new title that better fits the content of the blog. So I don' t know how that works if you're a follower- does it just automatically keep you updated? Do you have to re-set now? i don't know. I am sorry for that confusion. I have nothing more to say for today. I'm off to teach Spanish.

The end.

Back to the Grind

well, I'm back in school today. I can tell it's the first day back for many reasons...

1. I'm tired and 5:45 came WAY too early.

2. the kids all have MANY stories to tell... there is not much teaching taking place

3. I arrived at school with out my school ID or classroom keys. Where they are, nobody knows. I am certain I put them in a safe place over spring break so that I would not lose them. Worked well.

4. I'm hungry. I seem to always be hungry at school. NOT because I'm pregnant... I am NOT pregnant- not even close. But somehow my facebook statuses about food lead people to post things about pregnancy on my facebook wall. SO for clarification- I think I get hungry at school because I eat breakfast so early and dinner so late. And also because I have nothing else to think about in the down times. So there. no pregnant comments. please.

Finally, I do have many things to post about...
birthdays, a recipe, house updates...
but I forgot my camera (along with my keys). So I don't have pictures today and so I won't be posting anything interesting today.

In fact, quit reading, this is boring. i'm going to eat. because it's lunch time.

Happy Birthday Husband!!

I love you!!!

It's Official

I'm 28 today!! Yeah!! And the birthday festivities have officially begun! Last night, my Bible study friends made a wonderful Mexican Fiesta dinner for me!!

(no one wanted to pose for pictures, so this is what I'm posting of them, it's their own faults)

yummy chicken enchiladas! Thanks Kimmy!

Delicous dessert with creme and blueberries!! ( I had two)

Kim and Jill cleaning the dishes. (FYI - Kim cleaned all the dishes, Jill did one at the end and I took the picture then. So don't think for a minute that Jill equally cleaned. - and she wanted me to tell you that)

No pictures of me because I was taking them all. Off to enjoy the BEAUTIFUL sunshiney day!! With my birthday today and Ty's birthday tomorrow- we have lots of fun things planned! More updates soon :) Until then, you can find me eating cake and not feeling bad about it!

Today's Purchases

Our 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom home is in desperate need of another bathroom. It's tough when we have people visit, actually sometimes it's tough just when it's the two of us.

We also desperately need a new laundry room. Or should I leave off the new, we just need a laundry room in general.

So we decided to combine. we have blue prints, we have permits, we have the whole 9 yards to create a laundry room and half bath. I am soooo excited.

Especially when I found these on line... with free shipping!! Oh the joy!!! So today, I bought a sink and faucet. We needed a corner pedestal due to the small size of the upcoming bathroom. And our home was built in 1939, so we're trying to keep that look going. I can't wait for these to arrive...


(the faucet will be in a brushed nickel finish- not the chrome pictured here) My favorite part is how it says "hot" and "cold" Adorable!!

I found both of these at www.vintagetub.com great website- lots of good looking stuff and great customer service ratings. I'll let you know how my experience goes when my sink and faucet arrive!! Can't wait, but will wait... 2 weeks or so :)

Let there be... TV!!

For our birthdays this year, my father-in-law decided to have all the electrical stuff re-done at our home. super sweet gift!! (very expensive and very necessary)

So yesterday morning, an electrician showed up. He was a bit on the older more experienced side. But the older part means that he worked pretty slow. Anyways, he had to turn off all the electricity to the house as he put in a new circuit breaker twice the size of our original.

(This new breaker means we can build the additions we've been planning and also that the lights won't flicker in the house when the washing machine runs. Good news all around.)

Well, Mr. Old Guy did a great job yesterday, worked from 9:00 to 4:10 nonstop, but was not finished. He told me, "I didn't get the washer and dryer on, but everything else is ready to go. I'll be back in the morning."

Great! And with that, he left. I sat down to eat a snack and flip on the tv (after a long day of shopping!!) But wait... the tv would not come on!! oh no! So I jumped up and switched on the lights in the room, no lights. Then I ran around the house trying all the lights. Turns out the front half of our home had no electricity (not just the washer and dryer).

That meant no TV and no computer. This would have been fine, but no electricity meant that our DVR was not recording, and Monday nights is 24 nights!! And you just can't miss a week of 24.

So I immediately called Ty and said "we need to go somewhere for 24, your parents (they don't like the show), or a friend's or a hotel or just miss it." Ty said "I'll call you back."

When he did call back... the news was "we have a hotel room. It'll be a mini-vacay" (only Ty would never say vacay because he hates when people shorten words like that. On the other hand, I LOVE to do it.)

So I quickly packed a bag and met him at the hotel for a mini vacay. We worked out, ordered room service, and most importantly watched 24!!

I'm home now and everything works perfectly!! (and much safer). And speaking of working... I have some laundry in the washing machine, but I almost forgot because the lights weren't flickering!

Pure Joy

Last Saturday our yard looked like this...



Every 30 minutes or so, we had to tell someone "NO GARAGE SALE!" It got to the point where I would notice someone slowing down to park and then I'd begin adamantly shaking my head NO until they drove away.

We were NOT having a garage sale.

But that was all of the contents of our garage spread across the lawn.

The rest of our garage contents are here...

In our beautiful sunroom. It's not so beautiful right now, I know.

But here's why it was all out of the garage....

see how yucky our garage walls are (or should I say were)... 2x4s, black peeling paper (probably wall paper at one point), and lots of cobwebs.

Did I mention our dryer is in the garage?? it is. I hate it. It will be leaving soon. We are building a laundry room. God is good.

More of the yuckiness. I mean seriously- how gross is this? Not to mention there were lots and lots of rat skeletons in the garage and garage attic.

Oh, and there used to be a pole in the center of the garage to support the attic. So, with the dryer, pole, and all of our stuff... there was no where for a car.

So, we got busy. Actually my father-in-law got busy and we helped. We removed the pole and the rat skeletons. We put up a load bearing beam. We insulated, we drywalled. I swept. I wrapped our furniture in plastic wrap. (we plan on using this furniture when we add another bedroom, one day.) I swept again. We still need to paint. I swept again. We still need to move the "stuff" to the attic. I swept again.

And now 3/4 of the garage looks like this... BEAUTIFUL!! (who knew I'd be calling a garage beautiful). The other wall is not finished yet because of the upcoming laundry room addition- we'll need to be putting wires through that wall, etc, etc. So we're waiting until that's finished.

But finally, the pure joy came.... Last night it was POURING down rain when I came home at 6 pm. But I just hit the garage door opener and pulled my car right in. FOR THE FIRST TIME!! And this morning when I left for school it was raining, but no worries, because my car was in the garage!! Pure Joy. and a perfect fit.