If she had the proper words to say,

Cookies. Well, my cookies have gotten some mega-attention in the past week. I made these "Magic Mike" cookies just for fun, and now they have traveled everywhere. Serious biz - EVERYWHERE.

First, the 'Magic Mike' Facebook fanpage posted the cookies. That page has over half a million followers, so the craziness that ensued was unreal. By the time 24 hours had passed, over 13,000 fans had "liked" the post & 2,000 people had "shared" the photo. (Thank goodness it was watermarked!) That same night, the AMC Theatres fanpage (with an audience of over 3.5 million fans!) also posted my cookies, and that resulted in another almost 12,000 "likes" and over 2,000 "shares." Wow!

And THEN, Channing Tatum Unwrapped's fanpage promoted the cookies, too! I was really impressed that someone took the time to turn all of the photos into a collage to promote them - sweet. :-)

Additionally, both 'BakeBakeBake' and Livejournal featured the cookies on their own FB fanpages. Since last Friday, I've had requests up the wazoo, and my email has exploded! And not just requests for more Magic Mike cookies - half of the requests are for other stuff from people who found me through MM. It's insanity!

Lastly, and most exciting, I was contacted by the social media rep for CHANNING TATUM, and she has asked me to make a gift set of cookies for both him & his producing partner, Steven Soderbergh.

!!!

With all of the cookies featured in the MM set, she also has me adding extra name cookies for the celebs that he will be in contact with next week, as well as all of the members of the MM press team. She even wants a special "Team Tatum" cookie, haha! I'm beginning his cookies tomorrow, and I hope to have a picture of Chan with a cookie by next week. ;-)

UNREAL, folks. Simply UNREAL.

It's been such a nice, long, lazy Thanksgiving break. :-)

By sheer luck, Philip had off from Wednesday-Friday, and having him home all the way until Saturday night (he works midnight shifts) almost felt strange. I bet he's only been off on Thursdays for actual Thanksgiving Day maybe three times in the past almost 13 years of our military life. We celebrated with our friends and neighbors - Tanya, Adam, and Emma - as well as one of Philip's troops, Puckett, and old friends of ours Jan and Payton (while J.R. is temporarily stationed at NCO Academy).

We made enough food for an army, though. Even though there was only 10 of us, I asked everyone to bring food for 30 (explaining the reasons beforehand, of course). You see, the best part about the Thanksgiving feast is having easy-peasy leftovers afterward. We had 30 pounds of turkey, almost ten pounds of ham, two sweet potato casseroles, stuffing, cornbread dressing, candied yams, rolls, green bean casserole, corn, peas, jellied cranberry sauce, 15 pounds of mashed potatoes, gravy, and cranberry salad. Just like last year, it worked out beautifully: we were able to make three full meals of leftovers before we ran out of sides. I still have about 2 pounds of dark meat turkey I'm going to chop and freeze for tacos or chili later on, as well as three recipes' worth of cubed ham.

I also made two pumpkin pies, a Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake, two Chocolate French Silk Pies, a new cake (which I haven't named yet), and about 100 mini decorated cookies in my brand-new dough creation. I made tiny pumpkins with our names on them, and I made sure everyone took a few home as well.

Emma stole the show for most of the get-together. She's now 19 months old, and she's just too adorable for words. She really cuddled up to Puckett (who's a single airman living in the dorms!), and he was so sweet with her. She climbed up on the chair next to me when I was eating, and she ended up stealing away almost all of my cranberry salad - she loved it! And when Jan was scouring the Black Friday ads and writing out her shopping plan-of-attack, she sidled up next to her and pointed out the toys she was interested in. We were all in love!

Jack's friend Payton spent the night with us so that Jan could do all the midnight Black Friday shopping, and we had a large breakfast late the next morning. (They both fell asleep between 3-4am!) Philip pulled all the bins and boxes out of the storage shed in the garage for me to begin the holiday decorating, and we pretty much did that the rest of the day. Jan came to pick up Payton before dinnertime, and then we went back to decorating. The boys finished their tree entirely, and then they constructed the main tree. A.J. and I took a break and watched The Good Son together (a movie I had seen many years ago), too. After that, I felt too distracted to get back to serious decorating. ;-) I did hang the lights on our main tree while watching both Die Hard and Reindeer Games, and then Philip had to run into the squadron around 4am to clean his weapon.

On Saturday, we did more lazing about, and I finished up some more decorating. We all watched Liar Liar together, and the boys loved the class Jim Carry funnies. I made an easy pantry dinner of tuna casserole and green beans, and we finished off a few pies. Philip took a TON of desserts with him to work, and I was glad to have all the space back in my fridge!

It was 45° today (it's been warm all week), and the boys enjoyed hours of playtime outside. They probably have a few more days they can get away with it, so I encourage it! We've had a bit of snow, but it's all melted, and I'm happy for every warm day we get as a treat. Usually, it snows here in October, and we made it all the way to November 15th before our first snow, and it melted anyway. A blessing!

Last week was crazy-busy, but it was so fun! I threw a last-minute get-together with a bunch of gals for the midnight premiere of Twilight: Breaking Dawn, and I made cookies for the event. We all met at Applebee's for dinner, and then we headed to the theatre around 10:30pm to get in line. We had a great time, even despite one part of the movie that made us all snicker in our seats. ;-)

The next night, Friday, my friend Tifany hosted a Girls' Game Night while her husband was gone, and it was a blast. We played Taboo for hours, and we laughed SO HARD. She had great snacks, and I took a quick chocolate chip cheese idp and graham crackers (I had everything on hand already, and my friend Mary had suggested it while we were waiting for the movie to start the night before).

And then on Saturday night, I hosted Enchilada Night at our house! Tanya, Janelle, and I had been talking about our different enchiladas for weeks, and we decided to have them all together one night to share. Tanya made red enchiladas, Janelle made green, and I made white (the colors of the sauces, I should say). Tanya brought a big pot of Spanish rice, and we all ate together. It was a tasty night, and Jack loved it so much that he's already planning out our next "community suppers," as Tanya calls them. Samantha came over around bedtime and had some leftover enchiladas, and then we girls all watched Friends With Benefits together.

On Sunday, I was beat! Seriously, I think I napped and dozed all day to make up for three parties with three different groups of friends in three consecutive nights!

This coming week should be busy, too. I've got a bunch of cookies to make, as well as HUNDREDS I should be putting online. I need to make two "foodie" posts, and I'm hosting a huge giveaway on my website tomorrow (well, today!) to celebrate both Cyber Monday and my 1000th 'like' on Facebook. I've got two cookie swaps to mail out, and I want to make a bunch of cookies for the Airman's Cookie Drive again this year.

Oh, oh, oh! Aaaaaaand, my cookies made the Top 10 in the L.A. Times 2nd Annual Cookie Bake-Off! (Gosh, I can't believe it took me so long in this post to remember this!) I figured the "crowd favorites" as far as vote-getters would make the Top 10 even when the staff baked the Top 50, so I had been confident in my cookie so long as I remained high in votes. When the voting stopped, I had a 70+ vote lead on my closest competitor (the last time I saw it before the contest was pulled down), but then I waited for days on pins and needles for the baking and judging to take place. Finally, last Monday, the winners were announced! I was SHOCKED to find that the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th place vote-earners did NOT make the Top 10 at all. It was crazy, and I'm SO glad my cookie held up in the judging! I still can't believe all my friends that voted so much for me - thank you ALL!

I've been invited to Los Angeles by the L.A. Times for a publicity photoshoot and a day tour of the facilities in their test kitchens on Dec. 7th. The recipes will be published in the huge holiday edition of the paper on December 15th. There's also another article on the judging HERE. I do wish so badly that I could go, but I absolutely can't afford the travel *to* L.A., so these articles are the end of the line for me. It was still SO EXCITING, and I was calling friends and *squeeeing* when I found out!

Oh, and we received a Christmas card yesterday from ashen_butterfly! She's the first, as usual. I've still only got my cards addressed, but not written, nor an accompanying newsletter even started!

I'm so happy to see so many of my friends returning to LJ lately. I have been reading, and I'm trying to be better at commenting myself. I don't know how much I'll be able to post in December, but I'm glad to have checked in at least a little bit. :-)

An update about me, eh? It seems so long ago that has happened. I received the sweetest email from hearts_refuge a few months back asking for just such a thing, but it still has taken me so long to get here.

The truth is, my life really is about cookies. And sweets. And even foodie recipes, from time-to-time. I've become a "food blogger" over a "life blogger," and it almost happened without my consent. After all, I dearly love blogging, and have for almost a decade now (next month!). I suppose it has happened as my interests have changed, you know? Where I once was nothing more than a stay-at-home mom and my children were young, I had tales of creative afternoons, of butterfly kisses on boo-boo'd knees, and pictures of happy boys who always took a moment to smile for the camera. Now, however, I have been a work-out-of-home mother, and my boys have become independent young men that only ask for bandaids if there's blood and kisses in a "real" emergency, and who never have time to stop for a picture.

Life has changed, I suppose.

This month brings about the end of an era for me. In just three more days, my "baby" Jack will become ten. TEN! Oh, I cried and cried on that day when A.J. turned a decade milestone. I still don't know why... it's just a number even now. But, oh - it's THAT number. And once again, I'm faced with it, but this time? This time, my "baby" is TEN. YEARS. OLD.

And to add teardrops to teardrops, in just two more weeks, A.J. will officially become a teenager. THIRTEEN! Where has the time gone? Indeed, where have the three years gone since I lamented his babyhood?! I just cannot believe the young man he is becoming before my very eyes. In fact, he's almost above my very eyes, for we are spot-on in height with one another now (I'm 5'6"), and he is but one size away from Philip's shoe size already. I daresay that he will pass his dad in height (Philip is about 5'10"), and I do not think it will be very far in the future. Friends used to mistake A.J.'s voice for mine when he answered a call, but now they exhale in wild amazement, "That was A.J. on the phone? Not Philip?!"

It all happened so very fast. I do not want to speak of the days passing, for we have already realized that, though he only will attend 8th grade this year, it still means that next year we will have a HIGH SCHOOLER in our midst. *tears*

Those of you on my Facebook know more of the in's and out's of our days, and what falls here in my journal is not much more than a recap most times. The summer is passing, and with it, the days are becoming shorter. We're not yet to the point of "cooler," but I know that it is coming. School was scheduled to begin on August 24th, but the Minot school systems lost six schools to the massive flooding, and there has been a scramble to gain and provide enough portable trailer classrooms all over the city to recreate those that were lost. Therefore, school will not officially start here until September 6th. The governor was kind enough to grant Minot a 5-day loss of teaching days, and the students will attend on two planned holidays instead (ie. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day) instead, but will end the year as scheduled on the 25th of May next year.

The flooding situation affects every part of our life, I'm afraid. On the military base, we are still not connected to the main water supply in town, as the line breaks that need repair are underwater even now. When we are connected once again, I'm sure there will be a longer process than normal to flush out over six weeks' worth of muck and sludge from the lines. Despite the water all around, we still have major thunderstorms every few days or so as well. While I wish that the city would not receive even one more drop right now as they try to dry out, I'm thankful for the water here on base. Without it, our filtration systems would not be running from the creek beds, and we would be in an even poorer situation. Finally, however, the state-issued "boil order" was lifted from the base, and that has been a welcome blessing.

The devastation downtown is unmeasurable. So many parts of town are still diked, and will likely not be "unearthed" before the fall season fully arrives. Many businesses and restaurants are still closed, their black windows haunting the main strip like sad skeletons. Friends post pictures of their homes, and they are nothing more than shells, walls barely standing and held together only by various layers of mold. It is such a sad, sad affair. :-(

I hope to keep writing on real life, but I won't make promises at this point. I thank my friends that have checked in here and there, and I still read almost daily, though I comment rarely. :-)

I've dreamt of owning Helvetica cookie cutters since first seeing this post, originally shown to me by grrliz about 2.5 years ago. Back then, it was just about a love of all things Helvetica. (You've seen the film, right?)

I've had that bookmark saved for all this time, I joined the mailing list to be notified when the cutters became available, etc. In all this time, the only change to come from this is that I began making sugar cookies...

I made my first sugar cookies in February 2010, just about a year after seeing that post. Weird how that works, isn't it?

However, a great baking company (Fancy Flours) has now released a set of Helvetica cookie cutters. Finally! Yay! I'm so stoked! Wheee!

Except they come with a price tag of $215. Yes, really.

*heavy sigh*

In the Arrrrrrrrr-my!"

That was my favorite slogan for the U.S. Army, and I was nonplussed with the change to "Army of One" in the early 2000's. Thank goodness it has changed again, but I still don't think "Army Strong" is quite as catchy. ;-)

What's the segue, you ask? After all, I'm an Air Force wife, and I shouldn't be discussing the Army at all! Well, it's a favor called in. A favor asked by family, and cookies made for non-family, so I guess it's okay. Even so, I jokingly called my husband up (he's currently visiting his father and family in West Virginia) and asked for permission before I tackled these cookies. He gave me the green light, of course, but he made me promise not to eat any of them!



The family mentioned is my husband's dear 3rd cousin Paula (who I've mentioned here before), and she requested the cookies as a gift to her best friend. That best friend is throwing a large party for her son Paul's graduation next week. As monumental as that occasion is, Paul is then headed off to West Point just one week later!

( Click to see more. :-) )

Lastly, best wishes to Paul as he begins to "Get an Edge on Life... in the Arrrrrrrr-my!"

It's been so long since I've updated, and I really just don't know where to start!

Cookies are just constant at this point, and I couldn't be more grateful. This creative outlet fell into my lap when I never expected it, and I find so much joy in decorating each set. The easy ones are pleasing, but the challenging designs make me reach beyond my abilities, and I feel like I learn something new each time. It's win-win in my book.

Easter has now come and gone, and it was such a busy, busy week! This is the third year that A.J. has decided he's "too old" for Easter egg hunts, and it is such a bittersweet moment for me as a mom. He's growing up so very much, and so quickly lately, it seems, but I realize that he would rather now be an "adult" and watch the "kids" hunt for eggs. He did, however, pitch in and help Jack and me color Easter eggs on Friday night... with a bit of begging on my part. (I wanted it to be a nice thing we could do together on our night at home while Philip was working.) Once he's doing something, he has a good time, and this was no exception.

Still, I can't bear to think that next year might be Jack's last year to hunt eggs before he makes the same proclamation. Then again, Jack so enjoys being "just a kid" and isn't it quite the same hurry to grow up as A.J. I think it has a lot to do with being the older vs. younger brother, as well as a good deal to do with their completely different personalities.

We attended a big party at our friends' house - the Mendezes. Matt and Amber are always such gracious hosts, and we really enjoy our times there. Jack and Bryce are peas-in-a-pod and usually disappear off to Bryce's room. Among all of their other friends, one of A.J.'s classmates was there as well - a fellow 7th-grader named Kendra. The two of them paired off just as quickly, and we were perfectly content to just gab with all the other folks. I had brought Easter Bunny Bread, sugar cookies, and Pineapple Carrot Cake to share, and all were big hits. I've never actually witnessed an entire platter of my cookies disappear in just a few hours (usually folks take the cookies home or tell me, "They're too pretty to eat!"), but I was overjoyed to see it this time! I came home with lots of empty dishes, and that's the sign of a good party in my book!

Philip has been working on his truck with the help of some friends. I sure hope they figure out whatever is wrong with it, and soon. This next month is extremely busy - we've got A.J.'s track season and Jack's outdoor soccer season going at the same time, as well as two major band performances for A.J., and there's lots of traveling involved, as well as activities at the same time. Eek! On Philip's days off, however, we jumped into a new-to-us series, and have been watching 24. We finished the first season in four days, and we're a few episodes into the second season now. We also recently saw both Arthur and Scream 4 on 'Date Nights,' and we're very much looking forward to this weekend for another night out when Fast Five hits theatres!

I'll try to be better about popping in more regularly. I was so good at the beginning of this year, and now I'm slacking so terribly! *hangs head in shame*

I'm not sure I'd ever seen this logo in my life before I needed to "cookie" it:



And, eek! What a challenge! Several weeks ago, Trisha contacted me to see if I could make some Pittsburgh Penguins cookies for her hubby. You see, the Steelers had been his team, and she wanted to cheer him up from their loss. I looked at the logo, gulped a few times, then steeled myself and said, "I'll do it."

( Read more. )

But that wasn't all! Trisha had asked if instead of one dozen Penguins cookies, I could do half-and-half with some Minnesota Twins cookies thrown in, too! And so, I began working on another detailed set. At least this time, I was sure I'd seen the logo before. :-)



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I learned from these cookies that I can do more than I think I can, but I can also push myself in a real time-crunch, too. These cookies were ordered and turned out in about 40 hours' time. It feels nice to have something so intricate under my belt now, and it gives me a bit of confidence facing future projects!

Well, these pictures don't need a whole lot of introduction...



My first set of Mardi Gras cookies! (Then again, I've only been making sugar cookies for one year now... most holidays are still my "first" time...) But they were so fun! Also, I used chocolate dough for the cookies to make the colors really POP!

( Read & see more. )

We've got a soccer game for Jack tonight, so I'm definitely ready for an easy Mardi Gras dinner of pancakes. I hope you are having a wonderful time, and eating some King Cake, too!

I've got a Mini Sheeper with a sweet message for you:



( Read more. )

We babysat Miss Emma today for about five hours. She was a doll the whole time. She was awake and playful, and she never fussed or whimpered. I was absolutely gobsmacked at how very PERFECT she behaved for us! It almost felt like stealing to take money when Adam and Tanya tried to pay us: we left the cash behind on their counter. They noticed, however, and ran it over to Jack anyway. *wink*

I began a roast this afternoon, and we had it for dinner tonight. I fixed the leftovers up for stew in a few more nights, too. I will only have to pop it on the stove, and add dumplings to it as it simmers. I'm thinking that will be perfect for Tuesday night's soccer practice schedule.

I finished up one set of cookies this afternoon, and I'll take pictures tomorrow. I'm working on three sets tonight, and one is 75% done right now, but I need to let the last step "set" a bit before I can proceed to the next one. I love when ideas turn out so cute!

It was so crazy-warm today, and I had A.J. shovel a few loads of snow from the yard onto the driveway for fast melting. We did that last spring, and it helped us to be rid of the snow several days before everyone else on our block. It was warm yesterday also, and it should stay this way for the next four days as well. I imagine there will be considerably less snow by the end of this warm spell!