Monster Mash

We aren't too Halloweeny at our house. The kids get to dress up, go to a couple of houses and then we head out for pizza. I grew up with Halloween, Jim grew up with pizza....I see the merrit behind both sides, but personally we try to make it not much of a big deal around the house.

With that said, they boys saw Monster Cupcakes in a magazine at their grandma's house and begged for us to make them...sure...sugar isn't really something they get to have a lot in our house and they worked super hard last week helping me clean so lets go for it!

I made a half batch of 2 recipes from The Joy of Baking: chocolate and yellow cupcakes. Also, arm yourself with plenty of chocolate chips, pretzels and air head candies.

I whipped up a batchof her confectioner's frosting..which is pretty much the basic butter, vanilla, powdered sugar and milk recipe except that she beats her's for like 5 min----Amazing! I left some plain, then dyed 2 small bowls of orange and purple, plus filled a little ziplock baggie with green.

First, frost the top with white and then dip the cupcake (pic above) into colored frosting that's been microwaved for 10 seconds, until its a tad runny. You're going for globby and monstery! While you're at it, cut 2 big marshmallows in half and stick onto a pretzel stick...dip half of the marshmallow into the frosting too (again, see above pic under his arm). Word of advice, work on waxed paper so that everything will come unstuck once dried :)



Roll out a piece of air head and then press the back of a butter knife into it for the "tongue" impression. Shove it into the frosting, add they eyes (with chocolate chips dipped in white frosting and then smashed into the marshmallow)...the teeth were mini marshmallows cut in half, but in hindsight you could just cut small pieces of the larger marshmallows!!! (I know, I know...but really we don't go through them and I know they'll be hitting the trash in a month once they're all dried up!)


This little guy was just pretzel sticks broken up and poked into the top of the cupcake...then dipped in melted frosting. The eyes are plain pretzel sticks with a mini marshmallow stuck to the top and chocolate chip smashed in.

Faces only a mother could love!



My personal favorite was the little green guys...which I forgot to take a closer picture of, but you'll get the basic idea: Put a blop of white frosting on the top of a cupcake. Cut a large marshmallow not quite in half, but angled so the the bottom edge will sit flattish on the cake and the top will make the eyeball. With the frosting in a ziplock, I just snipped off an edge of the bag and then made little spikes all around the cake and marshmallow....add a junior mint with a smidge of white frosting to make it stay for the finished eye!

There you go...a lot of work, but super fun! These really aren't very portable, but makes a fun activity on a cold fall night!


After all of this (cupcakes from scratch, homemade frosting, cutting candy...) when I told the boys that they could eat their creations---they replied...Ummmm, na. But thanks mom, this was fun! The two white ones were for stick in the mud daddy, who I know wouldn't have appreciated all the extra decoration ;)

This morning I found a monster massacare in the kitchen after our golden retriever pulled the pan from the top of the stove! Well, at least someone got to enjoy them!

I'm linking up to Jennifer at Hope Studios----head on over, there's lots of Cute stuff this Week!!!

Fatty Boombalatty Fridays

Another crazy week here on the homefront!

Jim is Back to Work!!! Yeah, God! He is starting in a couple weeks working with my friend's hubby who is an athletic trainer...but just opened his own business....I'm holding back all of my Hans and Franz jokes (I can barely stand it!!!!). He's going to go from girly man to Mr. Wake up and smell zee muscle ;) Just kidding babe, you're not a girly man...mostly..hehehe!

Ok...back to business---Week 3 of Fatty Fridays:

This week was my turn to hold our small group---ahhhh---what was I thinking?!? We did it, house was pretty much clean (hello, it was spotless compared to the almost Hoarder-ness it was before!)....through it all, not much exercise happened! Well, I was feeling it for sure--deep cleaning for 2 days straight must have did something! (that and Aunt Flo decided to come back for a little visit again...what the heck!?!)

So drumroll please.............

Week 3 total: 4.2lbs!

So far in 3 weeks that's 11.2 lbs!!!! That's a sack of potatoes, a Very large Baby, a Small Dog! After battling all summer and stalling out in August, I've finally been able to bust through that 30lb mark!!!

Oh yeah, uh huh...happy dance...whoot whoot!

Sorry, I just had a coffee...can you tell?!?

Have a happy weekend..perfect fall temps here in the midwest...trying really hard Not to make those pumpkin cinnamon rolls that I saw on a blog earlier this week! (maybe I'll have a bite and then give the rest away...any takers?)

Do You Have The Power?

Last week, our church brought The Power Team to our campuses....I had no idea what to really expect, but knew the boys would love all the smashing!

We were able to go see them on Sunday night....it was packed!!!! They filled the Masonic Temple till the fire marshall about had a heart attack and made them shut the doors!

The boys went nuts for all the brick breaking, phone book tearing, ice smashing mania!

Here are a few pictures of our local mayor, laying on a bed of nails, with a board of nails on top of him and then for extra fun a HUGE block of ice being broke on top of him! We were in the balcony section and I just had the cruddy cell phone, but you'll get the point! How many politicans would do this for a Christian Crusade? Well, he will definitely be talked about for awhile ;)

(Lori, do you recognize any super blurry image on the top middle?)


Look at this block of ice!!! (they picked it up using that huge board and then ever so gently laid it on the mayor's middle)



...and then they took their sweet time smashing it! He first was given a broom, then held the sledge hammer backwards....all very theatrical and got the crowd really going!

Powerful Men with an even more Powerful Message!---that even with all of their strength, they could do nothing without Christ! They toured 19 schools and had like 5 Crusades plus 4 sermons at church....busy guys, busy volunteers.....Thank you everyone who donated their time to make this happen :)

We're trying a new method of getting along in our house---here's our new memory verse:


...and if you're caught being unloving, you get to read the verse and answer the question~Are you being Loving?~ So far one son is coming pretty close to having this whole verse memorized in an afternoon....sigh....

Fatty Boombalatty Fridays

What a week!

We started school....well, technically we're on week 2...most of it has been done in the truck waiting for Jim to get out of Dr. appointments (after many a hairy night, I think he has finally kicked this pneumonia thing....back to work on Monday!)

I've been busting my butt walking twice a day, abs, and weights 3 days...but then mother nature decides that I need to get my friend for the week :/ Don't you guys hate that week? This is one of my favorite SNL skits...seriously hits way too close to home!

Last night I took my last walk a little later than normal...I was crampy...moody..and didn't feel like going back out. Jim, in all of his man-ness sat down on the couch by me to watch the news...with a sleeve of Ritz and a can of spray cheese! (thank you mother for bringing that into the house!!!) It has to be the hormones..his prednisone, not mine of course;) YUCK! So, I threw on my tennies and out the door I went. Only to be met by Kujo 2 blocks away...

(this dog actually looks more like our Maxy, but you get the point)

It all started with this crazy SUV roaring down the street, idle high and breaks on...stinkin up the whole town. No idea what was up with that, but had me a little hightened. So, I'm walking along hittin' my stride when I hear this low growl....I turn around and there's this huge boxer-ish dog walking towards me. I say "it's ok baby, good dog" and kept on going...well so did it!!! The stupid thing followed me down that block and a bit around the corner....I was like the power walking queen. I cut back up the backside of town and high tailed it home. So, do you think I burned the same amount of calories as my normal walk doing my break neck pace shorter walk to save my batootie?!?

Anyway, back to business~ I really pushed myself this week~ kept on track, worked my toosh off and what results did I see?

Ehhhh...3 lbs...not happy :(

I'm sure it has to do with the whole bloated hormone thing this week, but crap!!! Oh well, next week....

On a good news front, I can now wear my wedding ring. I took it off after scratching baby Riley and it never fit right again.....so take that stupid dog/period raining on my parade!

Fatty Boombalatty Fridays

...am I talking about my favorite WI brew?

Nope. But it is super fun to say...go ahead, I'll wait!




Lets say it together...Fatty BoomBalatty (makes me giggle every time)

And, if you're ever at The Old Fashioned in Madison...get a pitcher of it...your welcome ;)

So, here's the scoop~ my friend Joy is challenging herself to loose 3.5 lbs every week till Christmas break. I'm joining her, letting her keep me accountable and now I'm holding you guys to it too---keep me in line Girls!

This week has been so stressful with Jim being sick S.T.I.L.L. (we've been to the dr. every day this week and finally last night Jim slept the entire night and seems to be feeling better..sure, I say this now and he'll be sicker than a dog tonight!). Anyway, my eating has been terrible and exercise..shya...I've been so stressed and tired that I just can't stand it!

*drumroll*

Did I loose or did I gain?

Did that doughnut tank my week?......What about that Starbucks carm mac and a pumpkin scone? (did you know that they started doing "real" food...well that's another post all in itself!)

....4 lbs

:) yippey!

Let's see what a week of healthy eating can do next week on Fatty Friday!

Just Because...

...it's friday, I've had it this week and Anita makes me laugh :)

Really I'm Trying

thank you all for the prayers.

Jim's dr's appt went ehh. not healing as fast as he'd like, so a new stronger antibiotic. he didn't like the chest xray, it's all condensed in the lt. lower lobe...who knows what that all means...more follow up...praying that the new meds along with the old will clear it up completely and that there isn't any underlying things that caused the pneumonia. (the dr. reminded Jim that he Does have pneumonia, not walking pneumonia, but full blown--nasty pneumonia...so even if he starts to feel better, he's on couch patrol until further notice).

I'm tired and a bit worried...are we being tested?...is this a stretching/growth thing? New Mexico is looming around the corner and now we have this. yes God, you are bigger than any problem we can encounter. trusting, trusting, trusting....

breath/pray/repeat.

Pneumonia Sucks...Air

Nope, it doesn't blow chunks...it just plain old sucks!

Remember that terrible cold that the boys and I got in July? The one that was like the plague only worse?

I have no idea if Jim got that one, a month later...or if it was some allergy to mold (which is crazy high with all the flooding we had in our area)...or some crazy disease he got from a sick patient...who knows, but Jim is one sick puppy!

We spent 4 hours in the ER last Friday night, they did every test imaginable...Pneumonia.

We haven't slept more than a couple of hours since that night...Jim's exhausted, I'm exhausted..and the boys are enjoying lots of wii time! (Anything as long as they're quiet!!!). The meds make Jim feel worse, nothing tastes good and he spends all day sounding like he's hacking up a lung :(

We go to the Dr tomorrow for a recheck....if you think about it, shoot up some prayers :)

Hopefully by next week I'll have more to talk about than this stupid bug!