If she had the proper words to say,

(The scene: Me, mixing icing in the kitchen. Jack, lying on the couch with his Kindle, earbuds plugged in. A.J., upstairs in his bedroom, on his computer.)

Me: A.J., do you need to start some laundry?
A.J.: (faintly) Yeah, probably.
Me: Why don't you do that? Go ahead & change into your pajamas & then wash everything else. Don't forget to put on fresh deodorant, too.
Jack: *removes earbuds*
A.J.: Okay. *squeaks off bed*
Me: ... (*mix, mix, mix*)
Jack: ...
Me: Jack, did you put YOUR laundry away yesterday when it was finished?
Jack: No...
Me: Go do that now, please.
Jack: Man, I *knew* that was coming as soon as you asked A.J. to do his!
Me: (smiling) And yet, you weren't going to just go do it, were you?
Jack: (grinning sheepishly as he starts up the stairs) No way!

Boys. :-)

Just for our records, so please feel free to skip along. :-)

( The List. )

Anyone here still think of me as "buttonmommy" (with or without the "1998" part, haha) in their head? It's been so long, but I remember back when I first changed it (March 2006!) that so many swore I would always be "buttonmommy." :-D

So there's this movie that came out this weekend. I've even heard it's based on a book or three. "The Starvation Activities," I think... right? (Synonyms provided by my boys, by the way.)

...

Nah, it's The Hunger Games!

Actually, I did read the books, after hearing about them for so long. And once I did, then I campaigned all of my closest friends to read them as well. Only some of them did, and the rest I'm "unfriending" shortly. ;-)

Soooooo, that meant that I needed to share these cookies with the world, where I could find even more "Hunger Games Diehards" like myself! And like my "Breaking Dawn" cookies, I wanted to share them with the fans at the movie theatre, too!

I had tickets to the midnight premiere on Thursday evening/Friday morning, and it was such a great time! I love the midnight premieres for big "fandom" movies. The crowd is usually super-quiet, as every is a big fan & wants to hear every word. They laugh at all the right moments, and they cry right along with me in the sad parts, too. In my opinion, midnight shows are a MUST!

( Read more. )

I'm keeping A.J.'s goals the same as last year - since his books are much longer and require heavier reading, he only has to read 10 books to earn his rewards.

I'll keep updating this post for our records. Feel free to skip, or to keep coming back to check on his progress - your choice. :-)

( The list. )

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. :-)

Nothing says 'Happy 1st Birthday' quite like a timeless icon:



...

Did that help you out?! They're Mickey Mouse shorts! (I know, I know - at a first glance, they almost look like something from 'Dora,' don't they... maybe in the wrong color?)

You see, a very special little boy was celebrating his 1st birthday with a darling little girl who was also celebrating her 1st birthday, and the two mommy friends teamed to come up with a most adorable theme for their party: Mickey & Minnie! I thought it was just SUCH a clever idea, and I couldn't wait to get started on their cookies!

( See lots more! )

My friend Kelley tells me that the cookies were a smashing success at the party, and my dear friend Jennie testified to their taste, as she was a guest as well. I don't make chocolate cookies often, but every time I do, I hear such wonderful praise, and I'm so glad! :-)

The boys really dived into the Summer Reading Program at the base library again this summer. A.J. went to the library on a Saturday with a friend, and he signed up on his own, coming home with log sheets, three new books, and a cool T-shirt (awesome, compared to last year's design!). Philip and I took Jack in the following Monday, and we signed him up as well. He checked out a bunch of books and received a different T-shirt, and I've been logging hours for both of them ever since!

They can pick up prizes when they turn in one log sheet, and both are close to being done. Jack's currently read for 27 hours (of the 32 slots on a sheet). He looks like this often:


Jack reads for his Summer Reading Program./

He was reading A Tale Dark & Grimm in that picture, and it was a recommendation from our librarian. He loved it, and I really enjoyed the parts I read here-and-there as well - very funny! It was a new book to our library, so he read it first in his selections so that he could get it back quickly for others to read.

We'll have to return one of his books tomorrow for a different one. He visited the library with Philip a few days ago, and he brought home Fire World. Now, he's read The Fire Within before, and it's the first in the series, so he thought this next book was just a sequel. Turns out, it's the seventh in the series, so he's going to return it and get the second book instead. The books in this series are Harry Potter-huge, but he really likes them.

A.J. has read for 21 hours himself (though he read some this morning that I haven't logged - I'll have to double-check with him again), and he's currently plowing through the Star Wars: Young Jedi Knights series. He checks the storylines against things on the internet in the Star Wars universe too, so it's been very engaging for him as well.

(He won't let me snap a picture while he's reading, though. *wink*)

One of the funny things (I think) that Jack does while he's reading is put his extra hand up under his chin. He always does this, even without a book in his hands, when he's laying on his back, and I think it's so strange. I wouldn't find that comfortable at all, but he sure seems to. If nothing else, I love how it brings out his little chin dimple, too!

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*