Spring Snow

It's hard to believe that yesterday I was out raking the yard in a t-shirt and today snow. I know that it isn't going to last but I have so many things that I want to do outside and other than yesterday the weather hasn't been that great. It's been cool, windy, rainy and now snowy.

There of course are plenty of things to do inside but seeing the snow right now just makes me want to climb under and blanket and sleep until it stops!

On a brighter note they are predicting much warmer temps as soon as tomorrow.

Also, Tuukka has been good about leaving his stitches alone and no longer has a conehead!

Spring Cupcakes

We celebrated Easter with my family last weekend and I made the dessert. I had decided I wanted to make pina colada cupcakes and came across several recipes. Just before I was about to make my final decision one of my favorite sites for weight watchers recipe posted a recipe and I went with that because it was more diet friendly. Now I admit I didn't use the same frosting recipe and that made it less diet friendly but I wanted a more coconutty flavor.

Now I couldn't just stop with making the cupcakes. I got out my cricut and made cupcake wrappers and toppers!

Conehead

Last week Tuukka was neutered and wouldn't leaves his stitches alone. This of course meant he had to wear the dreaded e-collar or cone. He wasn't really happy about and I wasn't really either.It drove me a little crazy because he was constantly running into things including the back of my legs. Running into everything also made him really noisey. You'd think that after having surgery he would have slowed down a little, at least for the day but no. If he didn't have the goofy collar on his head you would never be able to tell that he had surgery.

And though the collar was pretty annoying, it was also kind of amusing. Everytime he put his

head down he kinda looked like a vaccuum!

Wordless Wednesday

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Wordless Wednesday

THIRTY!

Actually it's s thirty one pounds lost, never to be found again-I hope! This number is significant because I hit a plateau at 29. For three weeks the scale didn't budge. It didn't go up but more importantly it didn't go down. This was incredibly frustrating, made even more frustrating by the fact my husband was losing without hardly any exercise and I was exercising and nothing was happening. I was happy with his success but bummed about my lack.
I know, I know men lose weight faster do to more muscle mass and genetics where women are made to hold onto the weight or something like that.
Whatever.
Anyway the more time that went on, the more frustrating it became, and as badly as I wanted to hit that thirty pound mark, I felt my resolve waning on a daily basis and though I never gave up
I had many times I wanted to just give in and be happy with what I'd lost and how much better I felt.
And go eat a bag of salt and vinegar potato chips and a Mountain Dew.
But I didn't.
Instead I read the articles about hitting a plateau and changed my exercise routine and made sure I kept track of my points.
And finally, after a weekend of good old fashioned yard work I finally crossed that line.
Yea me!
Now I still haven't hit my goal and I am hoping that it won't continue to be such a struggle in the upcoming weeks. But at least I have proved to myself that I can be successful!

Mr. Snow Bunny

Mother Nature played a trick on us on April Fools day by dropping about 8-9 inches of heavy wet snow on us. Despite the fact that the kids will have to make up another day of school and by this time of year we are more than ready for the snow to be gone, we had one of the most fun snow days ever. The kids spent hours and hours outside playing in the snow and I got in on the fun by encouraging them to build a snow bunny with me. The kids lasted all of five minutes making the snow bunny before they took off on their own adventures. So I finished the bunny on my own and was able to coax the kids into taking a picture with Mr. Snow Bunny who I think came out super cute.

That evening we headed over to our friends the Beikmans, and had a bonfire and s'mores which was a great way to end a fun day!

Wordless Wednesday

Snickerdoodles

In the past I was never one to experiment too much with recipes but as I've gained confidence in the kitchen I've started to tweak a few recipes. Last week I was asked to make some cookies for a funeral and decided to make some Snickerdoodles. To be perfectly honest even though I have eaten Snickerdoodles and like them I have never actually made any. So I went online and looked at several recipes and came up this:

Snickerdoodles

1 cup of shortening

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 3/4 cups of flour

1 tsp. baking soda

2 tsps. cream of tartar

1/2 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. sugar

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. In a large mixing bowl cream together the shortening and 1 1/2 cups of sugar and the vanilla.

Stir in the eggs one at a time.

Add the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt. Stir until well blended.

In a small bowl mix together the cinnamon, nutmeg and 2 Tbsp. sugar.

Roll the dough into small balls then roll the balls into the sugar mixture. Place them on an ungreased cookie sheet several inches apart.

Bake for 8-10 minutes in preheated oven. When edges just start to brown remove from oven and let cool on wire racks.