Today the girls each received a letter from Grandma. This must have put her on Youngest's mind since she asked to hold and look at a picture of them when I tucked her in. It is in a table top frame and usually is placed on a shelf. I let her hold it with the condition that I would put it back on the shelf when I came to check on her later.

When I checked on her she was already asleep. She was on top of the covers with her feet on her pillow and her head where her feet should be. She had the picture of Grandma and Grandpa sitting on the bed using the stand built into the frame. And it was sitting so that as she was resting she had a good view.

How much longer till you move up here, Grandma?

Right now I have two votes in the Best So Far ~ Blog Awards By and For the People at "Bloggin" Outloud"!

I don't expect to win, but it would be nice to get more than two votes. I will vote for myself and you get 3 votes per category, so that will take me up to 5!! If you want to have some pity on me, send an email to bestSoFar@RightThinking.net and say you want your three votes in the Personal Blog category to go to me!!!

They also moved the deadline to Midnight tonight!

(note: scroll to the bottom to bypass my ramblings, if is so pleases you!)

8:47 pm: Here is my recipe for the Carnival. I love making things that require little to no measuring. This one fits the bill and has chocolate. (Wait, you have never tried this one! How can you post it if you never tried it?)

8:48 pm: I gathered the ingredients. One 12 oz bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips and a tub of chocolate frosting. Dumped them in a bowl. No stirring needed.

8:50 pm: Put the bowl of stuff in the microwave. Set for 3 minutes. Check it out after 2 minutes. Pulled it out since the sides were bubbling. Stirred it until the rest of the chocolate was melted. Poured it into a 8X8 baking dish. Put in freezer. Set time for 10 minutes.

8:55 pm: Typed up what I just did. Piddled with some other things. 3 minutes left.

9ish pm: Timer goes off. Fudge not set, 10 more minutes in the freezer.

9:10ish pm: Still not set. I moved it to another freezer and it set better. Other than being kinda hard to cut nice neat squares, it is yummy! And I got a nod and a "pretty good" from the hubby.

Next Morning: It is easier to cut when it is room temprature.

So here is the recipe without ramblings:

Easy Fudge

1 - 12 oz package of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tub of chocolate frosting

Dump in bowl and microwave 2 - 3 minutes. Stir until all the chocolate is melted. Pour into an 8X8 dish. Put in freezer 10-30 minutes until set. If you can make it, cut after it is room temprature.

The varieties from this recipe are many. Add nuts. Use white chocolate or peanut butter chips. Or a different flavor of frosting.

****
Deadline for your chocolate recipe is noon on Saturday. More info here.

If I could not wear contacts or glasses, I would be legally blind. Am I far-sighted? Nope. Near-sighted? Nope. I am Neither-sighted. I have to hold a book so close to my face to read that I can only read out of one eye. If I use both eyes, I can't focus and my nose gets in the way. How many fingers are you holding up? You have fingers? Looks like a club hand to me!

Since I rely on my contacts heavily, I wear them to long and basically abuse my eyes. It is a vicous cycle that starts with heavy glasses. Even though when I bought them they were the thinnest available. They gave me a headache after 5 minutes. Plus I had no peripheral vision. It's like looking through short toilet paper rolls. Then you add that my prescription is old, but why get new glasses when you don't wear them much anyway. I had the kind of contacts you could sleep in, so I almost never took my contacts off.

So over time, I was hurting my eyes. I complaining to my eye doctor of itching and mucus. He said I had Giant Papillary Conjunctivitis and prescribed some drops. They helped. He also recommended that I wear my contacts less and prompted me to get a new prescription on my glasses. He also mentioned they were making very light lenses now.

I had my contacts on when I picked up my new glasses, so I did not try them on except for fit. The lady showed them to her Eye Techs because they were a new kind of lens and the thinnest she had ever seen in my prescription.

As soon as I got home with them, I tried them on and WOW-ZA!!!! I wore them the whole evening and did not get a headache. Wore them the next day and magically - no headache!!!

I took some pictures so that you could get an idea. Keep in mind that 4 or 5 years ago my prescription was coke bottle type. But look at them now! Can you tell which ones are my new pair?

Also, I thought this picture would give you an idea of the magnification of my prescription. Amazing, huh?

I bring you to the 77th Carnival of the Recipes. Chocolate is the theme this week and some threw in non-chocolate recipes. "Scientists reported preliminary evidence recently that cocoa and other chocolates may keep high blood pressure down, your blood flowing and your heart healthy." With that in mind, I am grouping the recipies by dose!

Single Dose

Milky Way Cake: I wonder if you can use a different kind of candy bar?

Riverbottom Pie: Currently unclassified by dose since the recipe is not up yet.

Double Dose

Double Chocolate Chewies - This is a good one since it has minimal measuring. You only need 1 measuring cup and the rest is dumped in if you buy it in the right package.

Dipped in Chocolate: I am putting this in the double section, but it could easily go triple....

Very Fat Fudge Cake: Double chocolate and double ways to make it. (This is the 6th chocolate recipe I have posted and my mouth is still watering.)

No Measure Fudge: Here is mine. It meets my no measure requirement and has double chololate! Yum!

Mandarin Orange Cake: Invented by a 12 year old.

Triple Dose

Extreme Chocolate Brownies/Godiva Chocolate Martini/Chocolate Swimsuit: Wow, Wow, and Wow!!!

Irish Cream Chocolate Cheesecake: Chocolate cookie crumbs, cocoa powder, and more cocoa powder.

Quad Dose

Chocolate Almond Chewies: Woooo weeeee!!! FOUR kinds of chocolate!!!

Triple-choc cookies: To be consistant with my counting of chocolate, this one has 4 versions of chocolate. Cocoa Power counts in my book.

Un-chocolate Recipes

Bow Down Before The Cheese That Cannot Die! - This one is so bad it is good.

Soup is good food - zuppa toscana Homemade version of a good soup at Olive Garden.

Super Bowl Chili Another minimal measuring one!!

Ham and Bean Soup for Morons: She gives us measurements, but I bet I could get away with just guesstimating!

Cajun Sausage and Gravy: Another minimal measuring recipe. I have hit the jackpot! And it is easy to make! Score again!

Pumkin Bread Pudding: This recipe calls for Turbinado sugar. Steamed sugar!!!

Mama's Stuffed Pizza Sandwich and Bread Strata: Two recipes that use frenchbread with a nice graphic to help you out.

Griilled Chicken Proscuitto: Almost no "offical" measuring.

Drive-by "Recipe": Enhance your coffee with this one.

Chicken Stuffed with Potatoes and Olives: Easy and it has capers. Love me some capers.

Spaghetti Tricolore: Check out his suggestion for whole wheat pasta. Hope I can get some around here.

Grilled Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich: I never thought of that! But grilled sounds great!

Danish Bacon: This sounds good and Martin is suggesting a Danish theme for the Carnival of the Recipes. Maybe he could host it!

Spicey Mussells: Punctilious only uses two cloves of garlic. Is that enough? And can he explain why you throw out the closed mussells?

Crockpost Pork Roast: Easy and again - no measuring!!!!

Physics Geek is on the schedule for next week as tentative. Send your recipes in by noon next Saturday to recipe(dot)carnival(at)gmail.com.

Thanks for the opportunity to host....

There are several downers going on now personally and worldwide, so I thought I would share something funny.

Like this.... Make sure you push all the buttons to the left. The bigs ones need to be pushed several times. (hat tip to Gordon Keith - warning his blogs has some other "intersting" links. Not for everyone.)

Overload of what?!?!?! (hat tip do Dean's World for linking to this site in the past.)

Fairy of Joy: I can relate to this one. Since part of my work is computer support we get to say "I hope I don't hear from you!" and it is a good thing. You don't call, you don't have problems.

Could be taken the wrong way, but it made me laugh.

If you win a quarter and I don't bring by your winnings in the morning, calling me 4 times is not going to make me come by faster. If you decide to come down to get it, please have the patience to wait until I am done with my JOB and don't make me have to reach around people (in my tiny office that I share with someone else) who are there for work reasons because you are too lazy to take a few steps forward. Isn't it obvious I am stretching out as far as I can to hand you the envelope?

Just saying.

And just saying I won't be visiting her around the next Super Bowl.

My apoligies for the run on sentence, but jeez! Can you tell I am not happy?

At the girl's school/daycare, behavior is measured by color. If you have a good day, you are on green. If you are really good, you are on purple. If you have a kinda bad day, yellow, really bad day, red. If you are sent to the office, you are on black. We reward the girls for good colors. If they are on green or purple for the five school days prior to Wednesdays, we go out to dinner.

On the drive home today we were discussing their colors and they asked my hubby and I what colors we were on. We both decided we were on green. Youngest said we could pick whatever color we wanted to be on. My husband said "Then I was on burnt orange."

....let me help head it off with this post.

Warning - may be a TMI post for some. (To Much Information)

This month PMS is not being very kind to me. I have felt very down the last few days. I have struggled with depression in the past and recognize the signs. So instead of succumbing to my sad feelings, I am going to tell you some good things about me. I want to blatantly brag about me!!!

I am nice.
I have nice hair.
My eyes are beautiful.
I am likeable.
When it comes to my job, my 90% effort is better than some people's 100%.
I am a good wife.
I am a good mother.
I am an above average driver.
I am a great laugher.
I am a good blogger. (tehehehe)

That was harder than I thought. Thanks for listening and I am off to bed to get some rest. I am a good sleeper.

I found a theme with people's take on the Super Bowl. My count is three, but there may be more out there.

My take? I LOVE singing along with the National Anthem. Take that away and you just ruin it. At the NFC Championship they had the last American Idol chic sing. She did it the right way. I can't remember who sang at the Rose Bowl, but I got goosebumps listening to everyone in the stands singing with them. That is the way it should be done.

Today we are going to an OUTSIDE birthday party. The last few weeks or so it has been fairly nice and above 40 degrees. But not today. The high for today is 39!

Hopefully the girls will have fun. They are going to ride ponies, look for fossils, and wear as many layers as I can get on them.

The girls had fun at the party and we layered just right. I brought along their heavy jackets and they ended up wanting them 10 minutes into it. They had a chance to ride a pony, eat cake, make a craft, and hit a pinata. But their favorite part was playing fresbie with the dogs. We figured out some rules along the way. Don't throw toward people. A few of us got hit, including me in the face. Also, don't throw towards the ponies since it made them buck while kids were riding.

I showed the girls how to throw and we developed a side stance since I could not explain to them how to release in front of their bodies instead of the side. Links to pictures below:

Youngest wants it!

Weee!

Before you read on, keep this little bit of information in mind. If I go anywhere new or take a route not very often, it is GUAR-AN-TEEEED that I will get lost. My husband has a rule when we go places, either we have a map/written directions or HE knows where we are going. Even with maps/directions, I STILL get lost. Now on with the story....

At the In-Law's they have a keyboard that has a microphone. The girls like to interview us and to be interviewed. Today I "interviewed" Oldest about the birthday party we went to on Saturday. She answered my questions, like "How many times did you ride the pony?" or "What did you do after you ate cake?". Luckily no one was around when she started asking me questions. Right off the bat she hit a soft spot.

"How many times did you get lost going to the party?"

Darn it, kid, I already told you that is just what I do!

Update: We were only 3 minutes late in spite of getting "turned around" two times. I have learned to add in "travel" time!

Do you know how hard it is for me to keep a secret? I have only told 2 people about my current project. Luckily we are very close to telling it all!!!

Hubby is sick. Sick as a dog.

I am missing my morning naps since he is not going into work and we are not carpooling.

Both girls are ready for their Valentine's party today. Valentines done, cookies packed, candy packed, chips for the party packed.

I am bracing myself for their sugar high when we get home.

Instead of cutting and pasting, I am going to tell you this story my way.

So (don't I use that word a lot?) SO there was this Mom who decided to send letters to soldiers in her son's unit that were not getting any. It turned into not just her, but she enlisted the help of others, then it grew into Soldier's Angels. They are now an official organization that helps soldiers and their families in many ways.

Then there is this guy who was over in Iraq blogging (among other things). While he is there he is injured. But he still wants to blog. (Addicting habit, huh?) He has a hard time since his hand is hurt, but one of his readers give him some voice recognition software to use. Then another blogger gets with this guy and they come up with the idea to help other soldiers with computers and voice recognition software. They hook up with Soldier's Angels and Project Valor-IT is born.

So the blogger soldier guy, his name is Chuck, is full of these funny ideas. And he tosses around the idea of selling tshirts with them on it. And for all the money made to go to Soldier's Angels. He blogs about it. And I am (in my head of course) jumping up and down saying "ME! ME! ME! I WANNA HELP!!! I CAN HELP! ME! OH LET ME!!!!" OK, Amy, gotta be cool about this. Just toss your name out there real cool like. If he wants your help, then cool, if not, oh well. No biggie. (Riiiiiight!)

I GOT TO HELP!!!!!!!

Check it out! We have it setup on Cafepress with the money going straight to Soldier's Angels. So all I do is put Chuck's funny ideas out there and voila! You buy it and we all help some soldiers. Easy, huh?

Helping out this way is as close as I will get to sitting at the cool table!!!

_{I have copied the original cool table post in the extended entry, in case the original post is taken down.}

Would you like to link to Chux Shirts? (see previous post)

The link is http://www.cafepress.com/chuxshirts

Here are some buttons. If you want a matching color for your blog or if you need help adding it to your site, email me.

The 2005 National Championship team, The Texas Longhorns, were invited to the White House. Official press release here. My favorite parts below.

sappy post warning!!

Some people say things much better than me.....

Mom, when I see your face I find strength. When I hug you I feel your strength. I love you.

I have the same hope for my daughters.

As a school fundraiser we purchased a Valentine's gift for the girls. It included a mini mylar baloon, some candy and a little stuffed animal. Youngest got at pink monkey now deemed Ms. Bunky. We are not sure what Oldest has, so that is where we need your help. Below are pictures of the creature with a front view and back view. Oldest and I agree on what it is but my hubby says "NOT!" So I said "Let me take a picture and blog it. Let's see what the web-o-sphere says." So what say you? Specifics on why will be appreciated.

Click on the images for a better view.

Starting Sunday I will be in Mid-Management training. For a whole week. That means no car pooling with hubby, no naps while he drives, driving during peak rush hour, and less time with the kids. It also means that I will be getting home later in the evenings - missing dinner and all. My husband will be on his own for dinner and bed prep a few nights. The girls are in bed by 7 pm since we get up so early. So today I spent time geting the kitchen in order, did all the laundry that need to be done. It still need to do some meal planning, and, and, uh, whatever else I remember. I do lots of stuff during the week to maintain order that I will have to do ahead of time. I also have some propaganda to read for the class. Maybe I am making this out to be a bigger deal than it is....

Light blogging to come, but I may put some posts together to post during the week!

As I prepare for my Management class, I see that we are split up into teams. TEAM WORK!!!! AWWW man! I hated this is school! I always had to pull the load of other lazy team members. Bah! Maybe it will be different in this class. All these people are here for their jobs. Maybe they have more invested. We shall see and I will report back how it goes.

Last year I had started a Blog Design Series to help those who want to learn how to customize thier blogs. I have a new entry over at my Blog Design Blog. Check it out!

And if you want to start at the beginning, click here.

Ever have to make a choice that you know either way it is not good? The weather is very cold here with a little rain. Right now the roads are fine, but come 6 pm and on it will get colder. And all the rain and melted ice will freeze again. Making travel interesting. I had the first session of my training today at 2:30 but elected not to go because of this. I would be driving home around 9pm. Part of me is ok with this, but the other part of me is worried. I will miss orientation and a dinner. Even if I skipped out on the dinner, orientation/first session will be over at 6 when the freezing should start. This week is very intense, the sessions build on each other, and we are tested on the subject matter. I don't want to be struggling.

Bah! I am sick because I want to be seen at a good participant. This is a male dominated company, so I fear being thought of as a wuss. I imagine them saying "She did not want to risk the ice! Hump! I would have had no problem."

And they have rooms at the convention available even if you live in the area. I could pack up and stay and miss the drive home. But the girls need to be taken to school the next day. I had not planned this. We already planned for me to take the girls in and for him to leave really early to get off early since I will be home late. Make sense? It is a balance and planning deal. The day care closes at 6pm and they charge an ARM AND A LEG fee if you are even 1 minute late. So with accidents and traffic, my husband needs to leave early to come home early. If he took them in the morning we run the risk of the ARM and a LEG late fee. I know I am probably confusing you, but we have it planned to work and staying overnight is not part of it.

If I had an accident that damaged my car or me, I would have to deal with that guilt and the "I told you so" of my hubby.

Luckily when I called the Training Manager to let him know my concern, he gave me an out and simply said "I guess we will see you in the morning." Made me feel better, but I still don't like it.

I am not going to enjoy the rest of my evening with my worry about it all, but even if I went I would probably be in the same condition. Balancing work, life and family is not easy and icy roads do not help.

Update at 10pm - I just read this on a locate traffic site: Fort Worth PD is Reporting all Highways are iced over. Side streets are bad. Stay off roads if possible. Not sure when this was posted, but I would probably just getting home now.

I was a little late today since there was still ice on the streets. And Oldest got sick last night. I now have a bathroom rug, sheets, two spots on the carpet, and a bucket to clean.

I reinforced several things I knew today:

I use a positive management style vs. a negative authorative one.
I like people.
I like white chocolate chip cookies.

I learned some things, but not really blog fodder.

This week's Carnival of Recipes is here. Below is my recipe for next week.

This recipe meets my requirements for easy and NO measureing. You can find it on several different websites and I don't know where I originally found it.

Soda/Cola/Pop* Crock Pot Roast (*whatever you call it!)

1 can a soda/cola/pop
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1 package of onion soup mix
roast

You cook it low 8 hours, high 4 - 6 hours. Voila! Yum!

The first time I tried with my "own" onion soup mix with seasoning I had on hand. Today I tried it with Campbell's French Onion Soup instead of the cream of mushroom and it was also yummy! I seasoned it with garlic powder, salt and pepper.

Worked late tonight on a presentation we are giving to THREE VP's. This will be the last of our graded excercises and if my team wins this, then we win for the whole week!

Our team lost by only 2 points. Both groups did a great job on their presentations and we were faulting for missing a major item that we did not interpret the same as everyone else. Bleh! Now I just need to stop dreaming about the simulation and the "people" who were in it.

The latest entry talks about formatting the sidebars with CSS. Check it out!

All the proceeds from ChuxShirts goes to Soldier's Angels and Project Valour-IT. A very good cause that has been recognized by some main stream bloggers. Very cool!

Cox & Forkum
Blackfive: Here and here.

For the last two weeks I have been eating way to much. I know part of it is influenced by my depression and stress. And I feel worse because of it. During the whole time I have been telling myself I can stop and will stop when I am ready. I think I am to that point. I need to get back on track and get to Weight Watchers. It worked for me in the past and I know I can do it. But I have to choose to do it. And the choices down the wrong path are so much easier to make.

I am going to make a deal with myself.

1st: I am making my goal obtainable. My goal last time was not reasonable and I gave up. It is going to be the top weight amount for my hieght set by Weight Watchers. Oh, sure, I could try to get where I really want to be, but with my age, bone structure and will power, it's not gonna happen.

2nd: Once I obtain my goal weight, I will allow myself to eat my "bad" favorites once a month. And only once a month.

3rd: Once I obtain my goal weight, I will allow myself to get fake nails. If I ever go over, then no nails.

I was just informed that we could get pancakes at McDonalds and I would not even have to make them! We could drive through and pick them up on our way to school. And they would already be made and they came with sausage! Do you think that was a hint?

Before Valentine's Day my girls are given a list of students in their class for the sole purpose of addressing Valentines. I admit this can be a beating when you have two daughters with limited writing skills and attention span. We have worked out a deal where I address the names and they sign and seal. I looked over the Valentine's they received and noticed a disturbing trend. Some of them were not address specifically to my girls!!! The "TO:" line was left blank with just the classmates name in the FROM line. GAH! Bad ettiquette in Kindergarten and Pre-K? What is the world coming to?