Very interesting..............

It's been a crazy week - busy working lots to get ready to go away with my man for a week!!  Cannot. Wait. Been. Too. Long!!!!!

For those of you who don't know - I'm adopted and for the first time ever this past week I've had contact with both my birth brothers from my birth father and they sent me a pic of my Birth Father - very surreal!!  Hoping to meet them soon!  Am sooooo excited!




Here are a couple of the pics.............This one is of my Birth Father and my two brothers.

 This one is of my Birth Father in 1990 - he passed away 10 years later.

Packing for a trip with all these new restrictions for bags, checked and carryons...........oh my!  It's almost more stressful then getting my work caught up enough to go!

I  promise to share pics of warm and sunny places..............TBA!

A German Christmas

My BFF Marla grew up in Germany.  Her precious mom passed away the beginning of December and she was feeling homesick for Germany - so we went to "A German Christmas" up in Vancouver, BC.

It was POURING down rain, but we had a blast - that's just what you do with BFF's - no matter what the circumstances right?

We bought our admission through Groupon which included a carousel ride!

Me and Captain Randy standing in front of Captain Randy's Seafood - how fitting!

A mug of hot wine and a BFF-ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Cold and wet - but smiling!

In case you are wondering -" hmmmmmmmmmmmmm I wonder if Janice made a Daily December album"  - I'm sure you don't have better things to wonder about :)  I am NOT - surprise, surprise.  I actually decided after 3 years of the Daily December that I am going to to a mini album and title it a "During December" album.  These will definitely be in there! 

Sure - why not!

It's a beautiful sunny day and now that I'm working almost full time (and then some!) I have a list a mile long of things to do..............................but I'm finally sitting down with my latte and I thought - why not shock them all and do a random blog post?

I have such mixed feelings about this ol' blog.  It's seen me through some really fun times, some really rough times and some really boring times.  I don't want to delete - but I just don't have time to be a faithful blogger.  As I type I am comfortable and loving the feeling of posting a blog - just like the old days, and I do miss it.

So today - a couple pics and we'll call it good.

Our family - LOVE! (that's Nathan's girlfriend Miranda)

My mom - an amazing lady - especially for being 82!!

Spent New years eve at the cabin with the BFF's  - it was FREEZING loading up to go home!!

2012 was full of fun and memories. As we enter a new year, I have learned, that no matter what God brings our way it is to make us better - NOT our lives better.  He is faithful - ALWAYS - and in that I will rest.

2013 Blessings to you all - and maybe, just maybe I will blog again soon - if anyone is still out there!  I do have some awesome new recipes I've found! :)

Soooooooooooooooo - how about twice a week?!? 

Wait for it.........................

Yes, my consistent blogging is consistently inconsistent!!  Here is the recipe for the Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins I found through Pinterest. I printed off the recipe and now I can't find the original blog that I found it on.

You do have to start these a little ahead as you need to freeze the cream cheese filling - a super cool technique (no pun intended!)

This recipe makes 24 so I made them for one of our craft nights at GRANDIFLORA.

Here is the recipe with some pics to get your mouth watering.............................

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins/ Yield: 24 muffins

For the filling:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup confectioners’ sugar

For the muffins:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree
1¼ cups vegetable oil
For the topping:
½ cup sugar
5 tbsp. flour
1½ tsp. ground cinnamon
4 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Directions

• To prepare the filling, combine the cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar in a medium bowl and mix well until blended and smooth. Transfer the mixture to a piece of plastic wrap and shape into a log about 1½-inches in diameter. Smooth the plastic wrap tightly around the log, and reinforce with a piece of foil. Transfer to the freezer and chill until at least slightly firm, at least 2 hours.
  
  
• To make the muffins, preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line muffin pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda; whisk to blend. In the bowl of an electric mixer combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree and oil. Mix on medium-low speed until blended. With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated.
• To make the topping, combine the sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl; whisk to blend. Add in the butter pieces and cut into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender or two forks until the mixture is coarse and crumbly. Transfer to the refrigerator until ready to use.
• To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well with a small amount of batter, just enough to cover the bottom of the liner (I used my cookie scoop and it was just the right amount.) Slice the log of cream cheese filling into 24 equal pieces. Place a slice of the cream cheese mixture into each muffin well. Divide the remaining batter among the muffin cups, placing on top of the cream cheese to cover completely. Sprinkle a small amount of the topping mixture over each of the muffin wells.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Bake for 20-25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before serving. (It may be hard to resist immediate consumption, but the cream cheese filling gets very hot!) These stayed fresh and wonderful for days!!  Now - get on it - your family will be delighted!!!
  

Ptarmigan Ridge

It's a love - hate relationship .......................me + Hiking!

I love spending time with my man - and my man loves spending time in the hills. We got our daughter to go along so it was a bonus trip!

I do love experiencing God's creation up close and personal.

But, frankly, I am L.A.Z.Y. - and mountains require effort......I will go again and again because I am married to a mountain man, and I do love it once I'm up there......................

Stay tuned.............Making Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins tonight.  There is a little different twist with this recipe.  I've made them once before and they were AWESOME. I will post soon........

Happy Monday!

Why Blog!

This has been what I have been asking myself............for months obviously!!

I ran into a friend/fellow blogger and she said "Janice, you need to blog", so I asked the obvious question........."WHY"?  She simply explained that my kids will love to read this stuff some day, and that it's the only way that some friends can feel like they are up to date on my life.

Still not convinced.......I've held off...............until now......................

I'm thinking I will try to be a faithful blogger to the end of the year............and if it fulfills all my wildest dreams seems to be a good thing..............I will continue.

All that said, I'm not sure if there needs to be a consistent theme for my blogging.  You really don't need to see me and my friends eating and playing all the time, you really don't need to hear me whine and you really don't need any political advice...............so I will work on my blogging posts content.

I don't like posts without pics - so I will post a pic of hubby and I as he celebrated the big 5-0! I know - he is a foxy 5-0 and he looks like a silver fox who robbed the cradle right? :)

Any suggestions (if anyone ever happens to check this blog again), please let me know. 

A Weekend away...................

Friday afternoon the Captain and I packed up the boat - left the children (and the dog) and headed out on the high seas!

First stop, Anacortes. I've never spent any time here  - only driving through to head to the Ferry.  It is an adorable town with lots of "junkin" stores, fun retail shops, great restaurants, and the best part of all...........THEY HAVE A SCRAPBOOKING STORE!!  A "for real" scrapbooking store. Not a big chain store..........a cute, privately owned classy scrapbooking store!! The owners are Teresa and Linda and the store is "Forget Me Not". Click HERE to go to their Facebook page.  And if you're craving a genuine scrapbooking store - go visit them!!

My Captain patiently waited on benches whilst I whittled away time in this fabulous store.  When I got back - this is how I found him - I couldn't resist!

We ate at the Rockfish Grill  Friday night- which was wonderful, and rode our bikes around town on Saturday.

 Saturday about one we packed up and headed to Friday Harbor.  We went to our favorite restaurant for dinner there - "Downriggers".  I was craving my ALL TIME FAVORITE salad there.  I was so bummed I forgot my camera.  I actually got the recipe for this salad from a friend who use to live there.  So I will be trying this recipe soon and will let you know - "Chicken Gorgonzola Salad w/Barbeque-Balsamic Dressing".

Sunday the sun was out and it was hard to head home...............but having the friends over for an Appie evening made it OK. :)

I need one of these......................

My kitchen is pretty fabulous.......but it is missing one of these!! :)

We went to Whistler with the kids last weekend and we always have one meal here...............

We all love it and it is such a treat.  I'm thinkin' dieting would be easier if I could just throw some vegies down with a little sauce in the middle of my kitchen every night :)

Great weekend.......the only thing missing was the sunshine :(

A day away

Yesterday I went with my friend Val to Port Ludlow. She needed to go out there so I tagged along for the day.  We checked out the Port Ludlow Resort and Marina - might have to make this trip on the boat.

  She drove her White Mustang convertible and once we got off the ferry we tried taking the top down - but the clouds had covered up the sunshine and it was just too cold - but still fun!

For Dinner we ate in Port Townsend.  Don't worry - I didn't fall off the "dieting wagon".  I had a Latte' in the morning and a granola bar for lunch so by the time we got to dinner I splurged a little.  We shared a delicious chicken, avocado sandwich on a ciabatta bun........................and YES .....................we had dessert.

Val had never had bread pudding - so we ordered it - and she liked it! :)

It was a bread pudding with whiskey sauce.............I'll let the pic speak for itself............

That was my little splurge - gotta have one once in a while. Now - back to our regularly scheduled diet!

Back on the wagon!

Yup - Caprese Salad

That was my dinner

Watched Extreme Body Makeover last night

If that amazing lady can lose 207 lbs......

I can surely muster the discipline for 15 lbs!

That's all I have to say about that.

P.S. Link to  Pioneer Woman's Caprese Salad
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/06/caprese-salad/
 

Happy 24th Nathan!

Yesterday was Nathan's 24th birthday, so we celebrated with a nice dinner here at home with friends.  We started on the patio (the sun finally showed up about 5pm) while Randy barbequed the flank steak.  It was a beautiful evening and the company was relaxing.

When I asked Nathan what he wanted for dessert - I pretty much had guessed what he wanted - but he confirmed it with..."the usual" :)  I don't know if I've ever posted our family birthday dessert but I don't feel like going back and looking through the last 3 1/2 years of blogging.  So if you've seen this before - I apologize!

Oreo Dessert

16 oz Pkg Oreos

8 oz. Pkg Cream Cheese

Lg. Instant Choc. Pudding

1/4 c. butter/melted

1 c. powdered sugar

1 16 oz. Cool Whip

Crush oreos well (I use a food processor) and reserve 1/2 the crumbs for the topping.  Add remaining 1/2 of crumbs with butter and press into 9x13.  (At this point I put it in the freezer to firm it up good).  

Blend softened cream cheese and powd. sugar, add a little milk to make it spread easily, and spread it over the crust.

Spread 1/2 the Cool Whip over the cream cheese layer.

Mix choc. pudding according to pkg directions and pour it over the Cool whip.  Top with remaining cool whip.  Sprinkle with reserved oreo crumbs.  

Refrigerate for several hours before serving.

(PS I don't use the whole pkg of oreos because it just seems like too much on top for me.  I use 1/2 the pkg for the bottom and then use about 1/2 of what's left to put on the top.)

Busy....................

Yes - again - no blogging!  At least I am consistently inconsistent :)

Lots of shrimping and boating trips.................

 One Saturday Nathan and Miranda came out to Eliza Island with us.  Is this an adorable shot or what?!?! I am again amazed at the miracles God gave us 2 years ago (and continues to give us)  when Nathan was in a motorcycle accident. As I see my son strong and healthy once again - I am in awe of God - the ultimate healder!

Going back out on the boat tomorrow and Saturday.  Heading to Boise next week for Spencer's Grad.

Love that boy!!

My girl

She is growing up................

Friday and Saturday was LC High Schools' Pop Concert.  I went both nights (of COURSE I did) and watched my talented girl!  She accompanied herself as she sang a song she wrote...................LOVED it!  So proud of my baby girl!

Each section picked and theme and did costumes.................

The Sopranos chose Mario Cart - Em was the cloud

She also had a solo in one of the choir songs...............

With her boyfriend - the one she wrote the song for..............(daddy was teasing her saying he knew she wrote it just for him ;)

With Grandma Brim after the concert

Love my girl!!

It was kind of weird as I was laying in bed last night thinking about the fact that we have one more year until she graduates.................it's gonna fly by fast!!  Totally savoring the moments with my girl!