From Saturday when I went snow-shoeing:








Have therapy in another hour and I see it's snowing. I should probably stop procrastinating and finish at least something before I have to leave. It would be perfect to get some writing in because I know there will be no interruptions...but I have the tendency to lose track of time and would either be late or completely miss my appointment. If it wasn't so cold (and snowing) I'd leave early and hike first.

Went snow-showing Saturday. It was lots of fun, even managed to get a few decent pictures (although flickr isn't co-operating with uploading any right now.) The dark chocolate cupcakes turned out great; even my oldest who hates chocolate cake liked them. (My youngest said they were good except for the mint.) The champagne cupcakes were okay, but only okay so I won't be making them again. The champagne frosting with them, however, was quite delicious.

My oldest is turning 21 this week. Friday. She's going out of town to celebrate, though, so she's also celebrating Thursday night/Friday morning so I can go out with her as well. Pretty excited.

I made spinach-cheese stuffed manicotti...even chopped up fresh spinach for it. (The leftover cheese-spinach mixture was great in omelettes.) My oldest teases me about how I'm suddenly becoming "domesticated." The thing is, though, I've always enjoyed baking/cooking. Just not so much the cleaning up after and with my minuscule kitchen you have to clean constantly to do anything in it. But who knows, maybe I will get motivated and make some spinach fettuccine from scratch. Just not tonight.

Long week with the two snow days. Have lots to do; chores, errands, baking. (Making dark chocolate cupcakes with mint rather than bacon like the recipe calls for and champagne cupcakes with moscato rose.) The cupcakes I'll probably make in the morning since I have to drop the youngest off at school at 8:30am tomorrow for volleyball practice. The errands can't wait...well, if I didn't need to pick up dogfood they could.

Taking a break from my chores. In the middle of washing all my bedding, anyway, although I do have cookies to bake and a tree to take down. (Have a shower to take, too, but kinda need to finish with laundry first.) Procrastination.

Had a pretty good new year's eve. I mean, I was actually out to see the new year in which I missed the last three years in a row. I even wore my sparkly heels I've been so impatient for. Thankfully, I was smart and bought a cute pair of flats because spiky heels and snow do not go together. I had to get my flats from the little girls' section, too. Along with the cute little winter jacket I wore that night because my oldest was super-worried that someone (mostly our neighbor) would steal my furry purple coat because someone (our neighbor) stole her Columbia jacket.

Anyway, tonight my youngest and I are having dinner at the (unofficial) boyfriend's house. I think it's too soon to make it official; after all, it's only been a couple months. But my oldest is already introducing him as "the guy who's going to marry my mom" and yes, those were her exact words. Kinda gives me a bit of a panicky feeling and a few "what ifs." But then I remind myself that (so far, anyway) this guy is very sweet and nice to me. And that having crazy butterflies might have seemed like fun at first, but was actually a whole lot of not fun and down right unpleasant. After dinner, I don't know what we're doing. Probably staying in but I want to go out, socialize and maybe dance a little.

[youtube]Mr_uHJPUlO8[/yutube]


Enjoying the holidays. Looking forward to tomorrow (if it's nice enough I'm wearing the heels I bought for last New Year's Eve.) Got my hair done today and I am no longer a platinum blonde. (When I have a decent picture, I'll share.) My youngest and the (unofficial) boyfriend are watching one of the jackass movies, though, and in desperate need of my supervision. Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays.

I should probably be in bed sleeping, but with it being winter break, I have to take advantage of quiet time when I can. Tomorrow's going to be a long, busy day-lots of holiday baking to do. Not by myself; my youngest an I are going over to my (unofficial) boyfriend's cause his kitchen is way bigger than mine. I don't know what he's making; I'm making my cut-out cookies I always make, 1863 fruitcake, some non-bake kind that taste amazingly like butterfingers, and maybe something else. (I'd say sweet potato pie, but that will never make it through the weekend.)

From my (very brief) hike to the lake yesterday after therapy.


I found a temporary way around my login issues with flickr/yahoo...was so excited to get into my flickr account from my computer...but uploading pictures isn't working out all that great.

My oldest ordered her wedding dress...but she hasn't quite made up her mind about what the bridesmaids are wearing. I tried out some different cupcakes over Thanksgiving; she did not like them at all. I was looking for maple cupcakes, cause I have a lot of maple syrup...well, googling maple cupcakes mostly resulted in bacon cupcakes. What I ended up making were some maple ones, some maple ones with bacon, and some dark chocolate ones with bacon. Those last ones were the best. I'm planning on trying that recipe without the bacon and adding mint.

I think the only way I'm going to have any real uninterrupted alone time is to turn off both phones. I hate to do that because what if there's an emergency? But some people just don't understand that when I say I'm looking forward to having a completely peaceful, quiet afternoon means don't call! I need the alone time for just me, and I need it so I can write. Feeling stifled without it. (And just a little clausterphobic.)

Had a good time in Chicago. Technically, it was actually Rosemont. Went for the muscle car and corvette nationals so there wasn't a whole lot of time for shopping. I did something to my back anyway so the couple hours we did try shopping were excruciating and not so fun. Sadly, the Korean restaurant I'd picked out (after much research online cause I was looking for a particular dish) was closed. Lucky for us though, there was a wonderful Mediterranean place next door. I spent most of last week sick. Went to his dad's for Thanksgiving and I guess it wasn't too bad. I felt awkward but then, I usually do when I go somewhere new and meet new people. And next weekend, he gets to meet my adoptive family. Thankfully, we will not be staying at their house.

Anyway, we went to "Catching Fire" last weekend with his and my youngest last weekend. Didn't expect to enjoy it but I did. Tonight, we're dropping them off to see "Frozen." I can wait for that to come out on dvd.

I'm really craving some alone time. Very unlikely to happen, seeing as how it's the weekend. But I would love to have at least half a day where I don't see any people or talk to any people. Not phone calls, no texts. Just utter peace and quiet.
All this busyness (and togetherness) is leaving me feeling very overwhelmed. (Plus I'm getting a bit cranky. My youngest actually said to me that I must be menopausal.)