Perfect Shopper

Running errands and shopping is usually ... hmmm.... I guess you'd call it an adventure. You never know what you're going to get. I planned a quick trip to Buy Low last night with both kids to take advantage of some of their sales. When we walked in to get a cart, we noticed some with a car attachment on the front. I haven't been to Buy Low in ages. They have probably had these cart/cars for many years, but I just never noticed them. Needless to say, before I told Hayden to hop in, he was already buckling his seat belt! I was only in the store about 10 minutes, but he had SO much fun. I'm definitely looking forward to my next shopping trip there!

Nutritious and Delicious Bran Muffins

I have been looking for a healthier version of bran muffins. My old recipe mainly consist of lots of white sugar, huge amounts of oil, white flour and bran flakes. I tried a recipe several months back that was really healthy... meaning it had a strange flavor and a weird consistency. I ran across this new recipe on a blog I like to read. I had only tried 1 other recipe of hers, but I liked it, so I thought I'd give this recipe a try too. Here are the ingredients:

*Recipe from Angela Coffman's blog*

3 C unprocessed wheat bran, divided

1 C boiling water

3/4 C brown sugar

1/4 C molasses

1/2 C butter

2 1/2 C wheat flour

2 t baking soda

1 t salt

2 eggs, beaten

2 C buttermilk

Mix 1 cup bran with boiling water, set aside. In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar. Combine the dry ingredients. Mix all ingredients together until well blended. Cover and store in the refrigerator at least 12 hours before use. Preheat oven to 400 degrees, spoon batter into greased muffin cups. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

When they first came out of the oven, they weren't very tall. I was kind of afraid to try them, so I tore one in pieces and let Allie try it first. She was really enjoying it! I prepared my first one with some fleischmanns butter. It was really good! Soft, sweet, and not healthy tasting! My 2nd one I left the butter off, and it was just as good. I really like the molasses and brown sugar combination! It gives the muffins a nice dark color. We'll definitely be making these for breakfast tomorrow again! :)

This recipe is also really easy to double! Next time I make it, I'm doing a double batch! Yum!
(**Each muffin is 3 points on the Weight Watchers points plus system**)

china cabinet

I'm always full of ideas - ideas that cost money. Kevin usually rolls his eyes to most of these ideas. When I brought up buying a china cabinet, he rolled his eyes at first. A new one costs @ $1000+, but he thought I had a good idea with using it to display our fiesta ware. Then I found this beauty online.
This person found an older china cabinet and with a coat of paint gave it new life! Then my search began. I was on the hunt for an older china cabinet and had a goal of keeping it under $300. I did some searching on craigslist and found 2 shops in Huntingburg that seemed to have some potential. I took a little trip up there and before I left was the proud owner of this !

I know, it doesn't look that great from the pics, but I saw lots of potential. I liked that it was wider than most china cabinets I've seen, and that the arches on the tops of each pane matched the arches in my cabinets. And those weird 70's doors at the bottom - well I thought they might look modern once painted. It was a gamble, but for $140 I couldn't pass it up!
Here's where the progress stands on the china cabinet

Looking much better huh?? Now here's what I'm thinking still needs to be done/changed....
1. There is too much space between the shelves, so I want them rebuilt. Not sure if we'll go with three or four shelves.
2. I thought it would look so nice to paint this china cabinet the color of my kitchen cabinets, but now I'm thinking maybe a yellow or lemongrass color would really make the fiesta pop...
3. It came with a lovely light inside that needs to be painted and reinstalled.
For now, it works, but I really want it to be a showcase - and we aren't quite there yet. By the way, I really liked how those funky bottom doors painted. I see modern, not 70s!

Caramel corn... "sooo dood" (as Hayden would say!)

I forgot to make caramel corn for Kevin J while he was home visiting (I know I'm not going to win SNL of the year this year!). I decided to whip up a batch tonight and mail it in the morning. Before I got it all packaged up, my parents dropped by and sampled some! It really is the best when it's still warm (hence the photos below of everyone shoveling it into their mouth).

Pyredoodle pups

About 2 weeks ago my mom was telling me about the cutest puppy she had ever seen. She was at the river in downtown Newburgh and someone had a Pyredoodle pup (a Great Pyrenees and Standard Poodle mix). I was near a computer and decided to google them. She was right. They are the cutest puppies (next to the Bernese Mountain Dog) that I've ever seen. I told Kevin about them and we found the breeder's website here in Newburgh. They still have puppies for sale, but we are no where near ready for a dog - and these are big dogs! We decided we needed to install an invisible fence, get a kennel, do some research on what they are going to cost every month, then maybe next year at this time we'll be ready to get one. Who knows. While my sis was home, she saw 2 at Harps Pets here in Evansville, so we thought we'd torture ourselves and go look at them today :) The next big decision: Do we want a curly hair or a wiry hair one? Kevin said one of each!

Sticky Bunnies

Our family loves sticky buns (aka monkey bread)! I rarely make them since Kevin usually doesn't eat breakfast with us. He told me last night to get him up at 8 this morning and I knew when I laid down last night I was going to make these delighful cinnamony bites for breakfast :) Hayden could smell them while they baked and kept saying, "I love sticky bunnies!" I think they will no longer be called sticky buns at our house, but rather sticky bunnies. And I will be making them more in the future since little Allie loved them so much.

Giddy Up!

We were invited to a birthday party yesterday and the birthday girl was surprised with 2 princess ponies she could ride :) What a fun idea! (Storing away for future birthday party ideas!) We have tried to get Hayden to ride a horse at the circus every year, but he has never wanted to - until yesterday! He jumped right on Billy Bob; yes that was the horses name, and rode like a champ!

He even got to feed the other horse carrots :) This one had pink hair - even more fun!

Car Show

Margaret & Jerry's church had their annual ice cream social again this year. It was our first time going, and we'll definitely have to make plans to go back next year! We saw lots of familiar faces and the boys really enjoyed looking at all the cars in the car show. Hayden got some VIP treatment and was allowed to sit and "drive" Steve's car :)

Shout out to my sis!

Anybody who reads this knows my sis is in town. I follow many blogs and had thought about starting one too. My sis started her blog a several weeks ago (http://polka-dottyplace.blogspot.com/ if you wanna check her out). I'm so glad she is doing this too b/c I needed major help figuring out how to get a background that was more my style! After watching Kung Foo Panda and eating some yellow cupcakes with chocolate icing, we got it figured out :) Thanks for all your help sissy!

Cash 4 Gold!

Has anyone else taken advantage of the high price of gold? The only gold left to sell in my house was my class ring. It was custom engraved by someone at Brinkers. It was a really pretty ring... but bottom line, I didn't wear it anymore and I knew I would never wear it again. I also decided that none of my kids would want to wear it. I took it in last week and sold it. I put the money towards something else I've been wanting (my new camera), so there were no sad feelings about it!

There was an angel on this side and a cat engraved on this side.