C is for Cookie

Make these cookies.

Double the recipe and add an extra 1/4 cup of flour.

You will not be disappointed. Unless you don't like chocolate.

But make them especially if you like chocolate. If you do, add one cup of semi sweet chocolate chips and one cup bittersweet.

I recommend eating these cookies with a tall glass of milk.

Oh my.

They are really good.

My problem, and yes it's a problem, is that we're taking these all the way to St. Louis. How am I supposed to sit in a car for eight hours with these cookies taunting me. Oh sure, I'll put them in a bag that will go in the back seat so I don't have to stare at them.

But I'll know that they're back there.

I'll be able to smell them.

I'll be able to sense them.

Seriously, these cookies are that good.

The recipient (one of our former students now at college) may only get crumbs…

To keep that from happening, I put some in a container for her and some in a container for us.

If I share any with Bill.

I know what I'm making for the next cookie swap!

Bad apples

As many of you know or experienced on Sunday a terrible storm tore threw the country. Bill and I were headed home from visiting my parents in central Indiana. We had taken Molly Mo with us and took a side trip to Butler University to visit Lindsay (both former FUMC youth, now young adults in college).

Here are pictures!

 Molly, Lindsay and Bill

 Emily, Molly and Lindsay

 Bill belongs here...

 A picture is worth a thousand words...

 Seriously, Bill was meant to be at Butler.

Indiana State Capitol building

(It may be on my bucket list to visit every state capitol building… I'm weird.)

We made it home well before the storm hit.

We had just eaten supper (pizza, of course, since youth group had been cancelled), and that was when the power went out.

We were without power from 7:30pm Sunday night until Monday around 2:30pm. I am not complaining because some of our friends didn't get power restored until Thursday! It was odd though, just south of us, on our street, they had power. And the streets to the east and west both had power.

My first thought when I woke up Monday morning was, "No power, no coffee". So I dragged myself out of bed, dressed and went to the closest coffee shop.

Okay, I went to McDonald's. I'm sorry Doug (he's our friend that owns a coffee shop downtown, we frequent his establishment often). But I also had to stop and get ice, because by the morning our fridge wasn't very cold.

I figured everything in the fridge made it. Nothing smelled bad. Everything was relatively cold, the ice didn't melt, so things were all okay.

Until I had an apple. They were fresh when I bought them. I had eaten one Monday for lunch. But by Tuesday they were no longer good.

Despite my efforts with the bags of ice, the apples did not survive the power outage. Now I have several apples that I have to throw out. (I'm blogging about this today because I thought maybe the other apple was a fluke, so I'm eating another one just to be sure. Unfortunately, I am sure that they are bad.)

I don't like wasting food. And of course these are Honeycrisp apples which are more costly than your average Red Delicious.

I have to get over it though, because I'm not eating anymore. I guess I can look at it in a different way, I'm adding to the compost. By next spring, I'll have pretty flower. Thanks to the bad apples.

the Overnight plus the other days I've missed

Okay, clearly I am too busy for the last few weeks of my "year of blogging, part 2".

Thursday, I went to visit Molly. She is attending Hope College. It was almost 80 degrees so we had ice cream. It was yummy.

Friday, I spent most of the day preparing for the Jr. High Overnight. We had nine youth. We went to The Spark Foundation and made a donation.

Our super star mom, Denise, made the best dinner ever. Here's the menu:
Mini Eyeball subs

Mummy hotdogs

Veggies N Dip (Pumpkin shaped – carrots/broccoli)

Spider Cheese Ball n’ crackers

Bone Bread Sticks n’ Blood Dipping Sauce

Brain cupcakes

Eyeball cake pops

Then we went to the John Ball Zoo for a Twilight Tour. We saw the reptiles, a Screech Owl, a Chinchilla (which we got to pet), some monkeys (or relatives of them), we saw a Barn Owl, the Frogs, and the Aquarium (Penguins sound scary when you wake them up at night).

We watched a video clip (from the Skit Guys but it's not them... it's really good and spooky) and then "Goonies". 

Today I have spent the entire day (once I got home at 11:30am and cleaned up) on the couch watching tv. I watched shows I have dvr'd but haven't had a chance to watch.

Right now I am watching part two of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows". It's the end of my marathon. Three months later.

Hey, better late than never.

And just so I would be sure youth show up for Sunday school tomorrow morning, I bribed* them with prizes/treat. 

*Disclaimer: only two of them really came in costume last night and I had three prizes. I also had enough goodie bags for the youth plus the leaders. I had two youth who were grounded and only one leader took a goodie bag. I have plenty of treats left so better to give them away, even if it means bribing them. I am fairly certain the Bible doesn't say anything about not bribing your youth to show up at Sunday School the morning after an overnight. That is pretty specific so please correct me if you know of that particular Bible verse.