ANIMALS, FLOWERS, FRIENDS, AND BROWNIES

Chaos. There, I said it. That is how crazy life has become. Each week is packed full of STUFF. What kind of stuff you ask? I HAVE NO IDEA…. just stuff.  Here’s some of the “stuff” that we did last week.

MEET BELLA… I THINK…

 
 Ok… So each week I pray that I will find a chance to serve. This week brought me to this cute little pooch right here. I took Kalea to the bus stop on Tuesday morning last week and this sweet girl was just hanging out with the kids. Obviously friendly and great with the kids. They said that they think her name is Bella. And that they think that she lives at the house up the road and around the corner where the police car is. (Side note: We have like 5 cops that live in our neighborhood.) And that they think she’s the dog they were looking for last night. So, taking direction from a 7 year old…. yea, I know…. the blind leading the blind. I decided to take this sweet dog over to the police man’s house. I get out of my car (with the 2 little ones in back and “Bella” in front just hanging out) with my hair looking wrecked and still in my PJ’s and knock on the door. He answers. Not his. Thanks 7 year olds. What in the world am I supposed to do now? Go cop stalking?  Well, not quite but I did go to one more house and no one was home (except a cop car). So “Bella” came home with me. I fed her some eggs, ground beef, and cheese. Gave her some water. And called Christian. (Another Side note: Christian DOES NOT LIKE DOGS). I told him about “Bella”. He was THRILLLED to say the least. I think his exact words were, “get that dog out of my house” and “if she pees and poops in my grass, i swear…” blah blah blah. I decided it was best if I called a near by animal hospital/vet and see if she had a chip in her since she didn’t have any tags for ID. I loaded up the kids and my foster dog and headed over. Brought her in and they recognized her immediately as “Bella”. The 7 year olds got something right. They said they’d keep her until her owners got home.  And can I say, Bella was devastated that I was leaving. She loved me and obviously didn’t want to go with the vet, poor thing. However, this story has a happy ending. I was able to perform a service by keeping Bella safe and off the streets. And I was able to irritate Christian at the same time. Tuesday was a good day.

Moving on…
We had a TV star among us. Her name is Olivia and she is a pig. We did our weekly reading time at Barnes and Noble and this past friday we were able to see Olivia. It was a mad house with kids, parents and lots of pictures taken. Mia however was not having it. She is not a big fan of large costumes with people inside. Can’t say I blame her. She freaks out when she sees the Chick-fil-a cow, we saw a giant Jelly Belly once. And Muddy the Mudcat has a midget (I kid you not) inside one of their costumes and Mia is terrified of all of the above. And even though she likes Olivia the cartoon…. This particular Olivia wasn’t getting any love from a certain 4 year old. Landen was unphased, on the other hand. He just liked all the craziness.

*Mia, Lillie, Natalie*
 
*I don’t think they’re paying attention*
*I like this one of Landen showing Olivia some love*

I’m not really a fan of Olivia myself. Mostly because she calls her little brother her “little bother”. Doesn’t teach kindness, in my opinion. Just sayin.
 
* Mia obviously ignoring all the madness*
*My 2 cuties eating their snack. I like Landen’s crooked mouth.*

Christian knows how much I like fresh cut flowers inside. In return, I know how much it irritates him when I go and buy fresh cut flowers from a store. So, in summary, there are usually NO fresh cut flowers in my house. But Mr. Romantic decided to be super sweet and cut a Magnolia flower from our large tree in the back. Have you ever seen a Magnolia bloom up close? They are HUGE flowers… AND… they give a really powerful perfume. It’s pretty strong and I wasn’t a fan after a few days of the smell. But it was fun to have it in the house for awhile. Win Win. NO money was spent. I got a pretty flower to look at. Love him.

Christian and I went to a Surprise Birthday party for a friend of ours on Saturday as our date. WAAAAHOOOOO!!! A date! It was really fun and really really sweet to see the whole thing come together. Leah was really surprised. It was way cute. Christian leaned over and said, “Don’t expect something like this for your 30th birthday.” Ahhhh, love. Oh well. However, my friend Lindsay had her handy-dandy camera on her and I asked her to take a picture of Christian and I since we have barely any good pictures together. Why you ask? Why aren’t they good? Cause Christian likes to try and ruin every picture we take together. Lindsay can attest to that. However, we did get some good ones. Jokes on you, sucka.*Birthday Girl (in the middle) and Friends*

I made these… be jealous. They’re Andes creme de menthe brownies with chocolate frosting. By Paula Dean. They’re amazing.

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 cups (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 11/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 (10-ounce) package Creme de Menthe baking chips (recommended: Andes)
• Shaved Creme de Menthe thins (recommended: Andes)
• Chocolate frosting

Frosting:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons milk

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 13 by 9 by 2-inch pan.

Using an electric mixer, combine butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl; beat at medium speed until creamy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla, mixing well.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa, and baking powder. Gradually stir into butter mixture. Fold in mint chips. Spoon into greased pan. Bake for 35 minutes.

While brownies are baking, prepare frosting. Combine butter, cocoa, confectioners' sugar, vanilla and milk in a large mixing bowl; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until dry ingredients are moistened. Beat at high speed until spreading consistency.

Remove pan from the oven and allow brownies to cool in pan on wire rack. Spread with chocolate frosting. Top with shaved mint thins.

*Landen really liked the batter too.*