The Fam

Potato Masher (Jamie)

Pastry Blender

And, no, Jamie....a fork JUST isn't the same!

I got home from work tonite and 3/4 of the cake was gone! I'm being told by Alyssa it was Adam; he said it was Alyssa.....hmmmm.....

Poor Man's Sugar Cake

(AKA Coffee cake)




Some individuals (and I won't mention any names) may be interested in this recipe soon:

4 cups flour
2 cups granulated sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
2 Tbsp. butter

Mix like a pie crust, using pastry blender

Add 2 cups milk

Mix well

Place in a well greased 9 x 13 pan and cover with crumbled brown sugar

Bake at 350 degrees for approx 35 mins. Cake is done when cake tester comes out clean.

(This is a doubled recipe; it can be made singled and baked in an 8 x 8 pan. Just cut the ingredients in half; I assure, though, that once you taste the cake, you'd wish you had made more...LOL!!)

It's quick, it's easy and can be whipped together at 1130 at night!!

Ramblings

*Kudos to Virginia Tech for granting posthumous degrees to all the victims of last week's tragedy. In addition, they are allowing students, if they choose, to end their semesters with their current grades without finishing the last several weeks of the year. I would expect that for some it would very difficult for them to return to the campus so soon.

*Alyssa and her friends have decided to skip the senior prom. Instead they discussed getting dressed up and going out to a nice dinner that night. I'm OK with whatever she decides to do, but I would certainly rather pay for a meal as opposed to a prom dress, accessories and ticket!

*It was a year on 4/14 that Alyssa passed her driver's test. My how that time just flew right by!

*There's only about six weeks until graduation. Speaking of time flying right by....

*After twelve years of volunteering at the kids' elementary school, I will be saying good-bye at the end of this year. I help one of the 4th grade teachers cut, staple, collate, correct tests, file, etc. every Thursday. I have really enjoyed every moment of it, but the time has come to move on. Rumor has it that I will be going to work full time this fall (on the suggestion of the other half...LOL). I have mixed feelings about that, but realize with one child in college and another one going in three years, that the extra money will certainly be beneficial.

*Did you know if you burn a CD to your computer and are online you can search for the titles of the songs and have them automatically entered into Windows Media Player?!?!? I burned about 20 CD's last night into Media Player with the eventual intent (once Adam shows me how, that is...LOL) of synching them onto Kurt's and my MP3 players. Even the older CD's and the ones that I bought from Women of Faith or Hallmark were located. How cool is that?!?!?

*For those music lovers out there, our annual Bell Concert at Church is on Sunday, May 20th at 1030. Alyssa and I are both in one of the choirs. Let me know if you are interested in more information and I can email more details to you. It will be an emotional one for me, as it will be the last one that my buddy is standing alongside me....

Tylenol anyone?

Whoa!

Just listened to the weather forecast on the 11 pm news out of Wilkes Barre/Scranton. The meteorologist noted that had this rain today and tomorrow been all snow we would have gotten 40 inches of snow! He said that would have been a storm of historic proportions! I guess so.....

Cookies

I generally don't make cookies other than at Christmas time, but I found a recipe in a magazine that I thought sounded really good. I've had the ingredients for several weeks, but hadn't gotten around to making them. Today seemed like the perfect day to do it. I did all my errands yesterday intentionally so I didn't have to go out today (other than church, this AM, of course) in this horrible weather. The cookies turned out pretty good...I would definitely make them again.


They're basically an oatmeal cookie, but also have dried cranberries, chopped dried apricots, coconut and toasted almonds in them. When I make them again, I plan on leaving the almonds out and possibly the coconut. None of us are nuts about coconut, so instead of packing the coconut in the 3/4 cup measure, I just left it fluffy. The almonds are pretty, and I know I'm crunching on them, but don't really taste them. What I do taste, however, is the almond extract, which I can do without, too.


You may wonder how I really like these cookies if I'm leaving half the ingredients out! I'd be very happy with an oatmeal cookie that has dried cranberries and apricots in it....and that's my goal for next time!

Kitty Fun

Two of our three cats seem to enjoy playing with the palms we get from church on Palm Sunday, thus I need to keep them out of their reach. Alyssa enjoys helping them 'play' with them as evidenced by the pics.

Alyssa's

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Thanks Jamie!

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Cat Fight

Sassy and Macy aren't the best of friends.....

What?

Look closely!

What's this snow all about anyway?!!?!?!?!?

Yummy

Our church has a yearly Easter breakfast. It is generally prepared and served by a group of youth under adult supervision. Often times the group who prepares the meal is raising funds for an upcoming trip. This year there are about 11 teens attending a regional youth gathering (a step under the national youth gathering that Alyssa attended in July 2006 in San Antonio) at West Chester University in July. Since Alyssa will be a college student by then, only Adam will be attending.

The group got together this AM to prepare the famous fruit salad and set the tables. Eight cantelopes, eight honeydews, eight quarts of strawberries, two watermelons, two bags of apples, pears and oranges each, three pineapples and about fifteen kiwis were washed, peeled, diced and put into the fruit salad. It was certainly an interesting event for these youth who probably don't do much in the kitchen!

Your Mom

Short Florida update:

* Alyssa sounds exhausted, but says she's having a good time!

* They spent the day at Blizzard Beach today. She hung out with some different friends today. She said the day was very laid back. They went down the lazy river a few times and then she and a friend took a two hour nap on one of the lounge chairs!

* Sounds like she's getting along good with her roomies (not necessarily the ones she's been hanging with throughout the week...)

* They leave tomorrow already! I can't believe how fast this week has flown by. They spend most of the day at MGM and then leave for PA around 8 pm and are due home by about 7 pm on Sunday evening.

* Apparently the response down there to anything these days is, "Your Mom"....I have no clue why, but I'm sure if you ask her sometime, she'd be happy to explain it to you!!

Blithering Idiot

I had planned on making a nice supper tonite, but ended up working longer than I expected and then I had to go to Wegman's to do my grocery shopping. So I decided to postpone the nice dinner until tomorrow night and just bought pre-made items at the grocery store.

I got some potato salad, a penne/sundried tomato pasta salad and some pork BBQ. It never hit me that the label on the BBQ might be a hint of what was to come! It was labeled Blithering Idiot Pulled Pork BBQ.

I thought, hmmm, what an odd name for BBQ....well, I was the blithering idiot!! On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the spiciest, it was oh, I'd say about a 10 and a half!!! The first bite was very tolerable, I thought, this isn't too bad! Well, I got to bites two through ten and was dying by the end!! Adam had to pour himself a glass of milk to drink with it.

Blithering idiot......

Florida Tidbits

*Well, I have successfully called Alyssa about five times per day and she has only been in Florida since yesterday! She's already asked me if this is gonna be what it's like when she leaves in July for PSU!

*She said it is packed at Disney. From 10 am til 2 pm today they got on TWO rides and they hadn't even had lunch in between there!

*We have an acquaintance from church who works at Disney who Alyssa hooked up with earlier today. He works at one of the rides in the Magic Kingdom; his ride had a THREE hour wait today!

*He was soooo kind; he collected some extra Fast Pass tickets (allows one to get right on ride somehow...don't know details...) and gave Alyssa, etc. that he knows from church about 40 of them!! She had enough to give some to friends from church, plus each of the members of the group that she's hanging out with!

*The band marched in the parade this evening. I haven't talked to her yet (imagine that...LOL!) to find out how it went.

*Sounds like she's having a great time....but it'll be over before she knows it!

*I think her kitty cat (Macy Moose) is having some withdrawal issues; she has been up in Alyssa's room most of the time since she left, coming down to eat and use the litter box. I keep telling Macy this is just a foretaste of what is to come and she better start liking me a little bit more, cuz she's not gonna have her mom around soon...

Sunrise

I went to a Transplant Symposium on Friday at Lehigh Valley Hospital. I left a few minutes early in order to run my car through the car wash. As I was driving out of the automatic wash, I was confronted with this beautiful sunrise. Again, I'm so glad I can keep my camera with me all the time!

Mickey Mouse, Here We Come!

The senior high band left this evening for a week at Disney World. They will be marching in the evening parade on Tuesday night. Two buses left this evening around 7:15 pm, with the intent of driving all night, stopping for breakfast in North Carolina in the morning and arriving in Orlando around 5 pm Monday evening (rather them than me...LOL!!).

Band uniforms piled high waiting to be loaded on the bus (don't know why pic ended up sideways)

Alyssa's bus

Ready to go!

Alyssa C, Alyce, Holly, Alyssa G

Church Pics

Adam and his buddy Jason (same age, I might add!)

The Teen Choir singing this AM (Alyssa's got the black sweater on)

Kitty Pics...Again

Frodo

Sassy

The Purse

So, last week I decided it was time to replace my purse. I looked high and low for a purse at Kohl's that I thought would meet Alyssa's criteria! I finally thought I found one that I liked and I thought she would like, too. I was so excited for her to see it. It was hanging on my hook in the kitchen, she saw it and thought it was my mom's purse who happened to be here! How devastating! Guess it wasn't as cool as I thought!!