Weekly Playdate with Friends

One thing I really look forward to each week is the weekly play date we have with one of Noah's friends from school. We both look forward to it for different reasons. Noah loves to go out and play with a friend and other children. He's an only child so he doesn't have the luxury of always having another child to play with.  Luckily this friend has many siblings and the park always has kids running around playing.  Noah really looks up to his friend's older sibling.

I really enjoy it because I get to talk to a grown up. Noah's friend's mom is really nice and really interesting. Both of us being first year transplants we don't know a ton of people here. Making local friends for me is a challenge since I work from home online. I have become friends with this mom. She is really a blessing to us and I am so happy to know her. She is interested in my blog too. She told me she spent hours looking at it. When she spends hours that is awesome because those are precious hours I am sure.   She is a great mom with an amazing heart.  I look forward to every week. I look at the weather and pray its not going to rain or be really cold, just so we can have the special park time with this family.

How to Make Roast Pork

I mentioned in my Cuban sandwich recipe that I roasted my own pork. I am sure people were wondering how to roast pork. I know when I was living in Indiana I tried finding it roasted at the grocery store and even Hispanic grocery stores and I couldn't find it anywhere. I had to figure out how to do it. It's really easy actually. You buy a pork tenderloin. I love a lot of flavor so I always coat mine with McCormick's Montreal Steak seasoning. I make a crust of the seasoning and cook it per the directions on the pork. You don't have to pay more for it already seasoned. It definitely has a kick but nothing too spicy. I have also had slices of this pork with potatoes as a meal. You usually get quite a bit so I just slice it and it freezes well. This is great for when pork is on sale you can just season it, cook it, cut it and freeze it which is great when you have to have a quick dinner or doing a fend for yourself night.

Saying Thank You with Flowers

Teacher appreciation week is coming up in April. As a daughter of a teacher I know firsthand how hard teachers work off the clock. I also know how much money they spend on supplies. Teachers get a small spending stipend to spend on materials. The other things they need come out of pocket. I love Noah's teachers. We were really lucky that his teachers are so awesome. I am definitely going to do something special for them.

I used to teach at different daycares. I was also a Montessori preschool teacher before I was a mom. I would occasionally receive gifts from my kids. One of my favorites was the year I received a bouquet of flowers for Mother's Day. The child's mother told me that I was one of his moms. Of course that sweet gesture made me cry. I will definitely get Noah's teachers some flowers from our local florist. I love to send people flowers especially if they are going through a rough time. It is a nice gesture to let someone know you care about them if you can't be there. 

My best friend Brandy's talented daughter was in a play. We were texting each other the night before her daughter made her debut. I mentioned getting her a flower or a bouquet of flowers to give her after her performance.  I used to get a flower after choir concerts and performances  from my mom. Brandy thought I was awesome for coming up with the idea.  I used to love it. I am pretty sure they sold them at the concert.  I was an orphan and a couple other roles in Annie and I even received flowers then. Flowers may not last for forever but the gesture lasts a life time.

When was the last time you received flowers and why?

Bath and Bodyworks Teams up with Matthew Robbins

Two things I love are candles and Bath & Bodyworks. It is no surprise that I love Bath & Bodyworks candles. I remember when they first started selling candles. I was working there and when they opened up White Barn Company part my heart melted. I was addicted. I had all kinds of candles. They used to sell candles in my favorite scents. I could light a candle and use the lotion and be lost in a land of Juniper Breeze. I still have some of those candles that I have had for 8 plus years. My mom said that she was lighting my Bartlett Pear candle. She said she would replace it and I said that's not possible because they don't make it anymore. I don't think she ended up lighting it. I have had many different candles from Bath & Bodyworks through the years. My current favorite scent is Fresh Bamboo. I cried when they stopped selling it. If they would have warned me, somehow. They could have emailed or tweeted I would have gone crazy and bought a lifetime supply. They ended up bringing it back and I got a couple candles. I even gave my mom one.  She loves Fresh Bamboo too. I look forward to when Bath & Bodyworks comes out with new scents each season. I can't wait to smell the spring ones. Yesterday I received a flyer in the mail with some coupons.

Everyone knows how great the scents are but did you know that Bath & Bodyworks White Barn Candle Company sells candle decorations. The candles are in beautiful jars with silver lids but sometimes you wanna add something special.

Bath & Body Works partnered with celebrity event designer, Matthew Robbins, to create some fun spring décor ideas as well as provide a few tips and tricks. From setting a table for Easter brunch to a casual get together with friends, the new Bath & Body Works White Barn Candle Collection and Accessories are sure to bring the scents and colors of spring into your home.

Candles: $20 at bathandbodyworks.com
Accessories: $5.50-$44.50 at bathandbodyworks.com

For more information please visit Bath & Bodyworks

I am working with Bath and Bodyworks on this post. I am receiving some samples of the products. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I love Snickerdoodles

I love to make Snickerdoodles. I remember the first time I made them. It was in Mrs. Shrewsbury’s Home Economics class at Clay Jr. High.  She gave everyone a packet of recipes of things we were going to make.  I had eaten snickerdoodles before of course but, I hadn’t made them. It was a really good recipe and I lost my packet of recipes. I thought about going and asking for a new packet even after I was out of jr. high.  I was pretty sad that I couldn’t find the packet anymore.  As you might know I keep cookbooks for forever. I still have my 4-H cook book and my cookbook from when I was 8. I had to find a new Snickerdoodle recipe.  I found my new one on Crisco’s website. I think it was originally on the package of Crisco sticks, which are really convenient when you don’t want to mess with measuring shortening.   We have made these many times. We even made them in the shapes of fish and other sea life.

Here is the recipe from Crisco’s website:

Snickerdoodles

• 2 cups sugar, divided
• 1 cup Crisco® Butter Flavor All-Vegetable Shortening
• OR 1 stick Crisco® Baking Sticks Butter Flavor All-Vegetable Shortening
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 3/4 cups Pillsbury BEST® All Purpose Flour
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

PREPARATION DIRECTIONS:

HEAT oven to 400°F.

COMBINE 1 1⁄2 cups sugar, shortening, eggs, milk and vanilla in large bowl. Beat with electric mixer at medium speed until well blended.

COMBINE flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Add gradually to shortening mixture at low speed. Mix just until blended.

COMBINE remaining 1⁄2 cup sugar and cinnamon in small bowl. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE 7 to 8 minutes. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheets. Place on cooling racks to cool completely.

What kinds of cookies do you like?

I was a Poster Child

When I was in Jr. high and high school, I would decorate my room in posters  and other random things. My tastes changed of course as I grew up. I no longer had a huge crush on Jonathan Taylor Thomas or Elijah Wood. I had moved on to Leonardo DiCaprio and pretty much any good looking Abercrombie guy I could find.  I had every Romeo and Juliet Movie poster. I also had a John Elway poster. I even had a poster of The Grateful Dead. I was really in to the Dead in high school.  I have an afghan that I got for Christmas.  I would hang pictures on my wall too. When I think about hanging posters I think of my cousin Rosa and how when she was living with my Grandma she would use toothpaste to hang posters. I never did that, I always used push pins. If I was hanging photographs I would use tape.  My bedroom was pretty awesome. It was my own space to relax from the pressures of high school and the drama that it entailed.  I loved to decorate my room.  At one point I wanted to be an interior decorator.  I remember going to Karma Records and looking for new posters. Posters from Karma were awesome because they were scented. They weren't sold scented, the store just smelled so much like incense that everything you bought there would smell like incense for months if not years.  Noah has a couple posters in his room about fish and sea life. One of the posters Noah has is a Guy Harvey poster than he totally loves.  I am sure he will want more posters as he gets older. I will let him have them as long as they are appropriate.

What kind of posters did you have when you were younger?

Favorite Childhood Movies

Since Noah is on Spring Break I thought it would be cool to have him watch some of my favorite childhood movies. It prompted me to ask on Facebook and Twitter what people's favorite childhood movies are. I asked not to list Animated Disney movies because everyone loves those. I decided to make a list on my blog. I am not saying I would let Noah watch all of these at his age now. I will watch them with him when he is old enough depending on the movies.

Peter Pan with Mary Martin
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Heavyweights
Camp NoWhere
Problem Child
Problem Child 2
Pete's Dragon (ok that is a Disney movie but not like Beauty and the Beast)
The Carebear Movie (he may not watch this one)
Strawberry Shortcake and Big Apple City (or this one)
Huck Finn
North
Radio Flyer
Man of the House with Jonathan Taylor Thomas
Stay Tuned
The Witching of Ben Wagoner
The Witches
The Chipmunk Adventure

That is all I can think of for now. I may update with more.

What are your favorite childhood movies?

The Day the Fridge Died

One of my most memorable Christmases was the year that our refrigerator broke on Christmas Day. Thankfully we were living in Indiana and it had been very cold that day so we were able to keep everything outside on our screened in porch. My mom and sister were going out of town to Chicago the next day so I was left without a refrigerator for a few days. Normally on Christmas Eve we always have a bunch of appetizers means there's always yummy leftovers. In case you were wondering they did not go to waste.Then my family had the task of picking out a new refrigerator. We wanted to make sure that we purchased one with the specific features. The first important feature was that it had two doors because I really like to stock up on frozen food. We have grown accustomed to having a water and ice dispenser so of course that was a key feature for us to have. After we decided which features we wanted we also had to decide what the refrigerator would look like because it has to match the kitchen. Finally we had to think about costs with it being just after Christmas and the fact that I received a new computer that year and we were not expecting our fridge to die on Christmas Day we wanted to make sure it was something that was in our budget. Don't worry we were able to find one. I no longer had to be like Abraham Lincoln and go out in the snow to find something to eat. I guess it could've been worse the heat could have been broken and when my mom and sister came home they would have found an ice lolly named Sheila.