Special K Bars

Here is my favorite recipe of all time. It is great for the holidays (actually for any day).

In a large pot (I use my spaghetti sauce pot), melt:

1 stick butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
1 cup light karo

Bring to a boil. Remove from heat.
Add:

1 1/2 cups peanut butter (creamy or crunchy)

Stir until peanut butter is completely melted.
Add:

6 cups Special K

Stir to coat. Spread mixture in a brownie pan or pyrex dish.

Melt: 1 small bag semi sweet chocolate chips and 1 small bag peanut butter chips

Spread on cereal mixture. Once Special K Bars are cooled and set, cut into bars. They can be refrigerated to make this process faster.

Hip Hop

My favorite part of hip hop is the hair...

Who doesn't look good with blue fuzzy Princess Leia buns?

Cookie Sheet Advent Calendars

Here's what I've been doing now that I'm done with school. These cookie sheets have been altered to make magnetic calendars to count the days until Christmas. Jake has really been enjoying putting each day on the calendar, and it has given him a much better understanding of how long we have until the BIG Day!

I bought the cookie sheets at the Dollar Store, and I used leftover spray paint from the garage to put a coat of paint on two of the calendars. Then I used Mod Podge to decoupage Christmas Scrapbook paper. For the day counters on two of the calendars, I used small wooden shapes from Hobby Lobby. I spray painted them black and used whatever stickers I had in my craft drawer to add the numbers. Then I glued magnets to each counter. The counters for the coming days are stuck onto the back of the cookie sheet so they won't get lost. For the first calendar, I used cheap plastic poker chips for the day counters.

The Great Snowstorm of 2009

If you had heard the Houston news on Thursday night, you might have had the urge to go to the store and stock up on everything. I confess I wondered if anything would even be left on the shelf. You would have been advised to cover your pipes and plants, bring your pets in, and get ready for a blast of winter weather. Some schools even cancelled school on Thursday night based on the predictions.

Now growing up in the Panhandle, I do remember snow days, breaking ice for animals, and sledding on icy streets behind my Dad's pickup. I don't remember ever covering up the pipes, and it seemed the animals survived the cold. It had to be a pretty major snow for school to be called off.

Well, we did have snow. It actually snowed and sleeted in Magnolia for most of the school day. students were excited, and teachers took them outside to play, despite the cold. After all, many of them had never seen snow. We saw pictures on the news and online of places farther south where the snow actually began accumulating. We, however, never saw even a dusting of white. It melted just as quickly as it fell. And that is the story of the Great Snowstorm of 2009.

I'm a Cheerleader Mom?!??

Josie had a cheer meet today, so we spent the day in Houston. Here are a few pictures of Josie's team. You can't really see her in them since she is a base and is behind the flyers.

These pictures of our friend Emma. She is on the junior team at our gym.

Still Giving Thanks...

...for my 3 favorite people and a great holiday. It sure was hard to get out of bed to go back to work today. We are counting the days until Christmas break!

I am making a pre-New Year's Resolution to actually enjoy December and all the festivities the holidays bring. Usually I get so caught up in the stress of decorating and Christmas shopping and class parties and packing to visit family that I don't even enjoy it. So this year, my plan is to keep the true meaning of Christmas at the center of all that we do. God has truly blessed us!

Giving Thanks

We spent our Thankgiving at Granny's and PaPa's house. Spending time with family is such a blessing.

Austin is a very patient guitar teacher.

The catfish were biting, which made Jake and Daddy very happy.

Granny's bread got sacrificed to feed the geese and ducks.


Thanks Granny and PaPa for a wonderful holiday!