CTK WIC Cookie Exchange

The ladies of our church had a cookie exchange on Monday night. The turnout was small but it was a very nice event. The location was wonderful. I made 2 types of cookies and will post the recipes the next couple of days. They were Peppermint Shortbreads and White Chocolate Orange Dream Cookies. Today I am posting pictures.

Travis is 20!!!!

It is such a day of mixed emotions. One I am so proud of Travis, and the other, I can't believe it has been 20 years since I gave birth to Travis. I was 10 days late and seemed like 10 months. Terry was in law school at the tail end of finals for that semester. Fortunately, it was only his oil and gas law final he had left.(his undergrad was in petroleum land management) Travis came in at 9lbs., 2oz. What a boy!!! One of my favorite memories is of him acting out the song "Step in time" from Mary Poppins. He has played trombone in marching band and had his own garage band in high school named "Gello". I thought they were pretty good and had countless hours of listening to them practice in our garage. I have gleamed with joy over the years at all he has attempted and accomplished. I look forward to seeing what he will do in the future. He has great ambition. So here's to you Travis. You are no longer a teenager.

Finished Project

I finally finished my reversible cable knit scarf. I worked on it on our Thanksgiving road trip and finished. I will be able to take it with us skiing.

Thanksgiving recipe #3

Ok, this is a recipe my mother-in-law brought me one year. She clips recipes and articles from newspapers to share with us and I love getting them. This has become a Thanksgiving evening tradition that we all look forward to. It is called....
Cranberry Tea

8 C. water
2 C. sugar
5 Cinnamon sticks
48 oz. Cranberry juice cocktail
2 C. Orange juice
1 C. pineapple juice
2 t. lemon juice

In a dutch oven or stock pot, bring water, sugar and cinnamon sticks to a boil. Boil for 10 minutes. Add all remaining ingredients and heat until warm.

You will notice this has NO TEA. I have no idea why it is call Cranberry TEA. It is delicious and more like a wassle or spiced drink.

Thanksgiving recipe #2

Ok, today's recipe is for my sweet potatoes. I got this recipe from Southern Living probably 10 years ago. It is called....

Nannie's Candied Sweet Potatoes

6 large sweet potatoes, about 4 pounds
1 lemon
1orange
3/4 C. butter, melted
2 C. sugar
1/2 C. orange juice
2 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. vanilla

Peel potatoes; cut potatoes, lemon & orange into 1/4 inch slices.
Place potato slices in a lightly greased 9x13 baking dish; arrange lemon and orange slices over potatoes.
Combine butter and next 4 ingredients. Pour over potato mixture; cover with plastic wrap, and let stand 1 hour.
Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours, basting often with pan juices.

Thanksgiving recipe #1

Ok, I have been struggling with ideas of things to post and was asked to post some of my recipes used for Thanksgiving. I was so glad to have something to post! Ok, today I will be posting the first thing I prepared on Thanksgiving morning. That is Cranberry Relish. I got this recipe from Bootsie (my sister-in-laws, mother-in-law). Well here it is.

Cranberry Relish
Bag of fresh Cranberries
2 apples
2 oranges
1/2 C. chopped pecans
1 C. chopped celery
cherry jello, small box
1 C. sugar

Wash and look through cranberries. Place in blender and chop. Place in a bowl. Cut apples & oranges into fine pieces. Add to cranberries. Add ramaining ingredients and stir together. Refrigerate for a few hours and serve cold.

Sunday

Yesterday was a full day. We went to baby Madelyn's dedication, then to her brother Caden's 2nd birthday lunch and party. Later that afternoon we were off to OU for a choir concert. Riley's school chorale were invited to perform with OU's chorale. It was wonderful.

I can't believe I did the whole thing!!!

Well, yesterday my daughter and I completed a duathlon. She has done several of these but for me it was the first. Yes, I had done the running leg of a sprint tri but I did ALL of this! Wow, I am still taking it all in. I finished under 2 hours so that made me very happy and I wasn't the last one to come in. It was very windy but beautiful. Thank goodness for the biking portion. I have only been running for 6 weeks so that was very sad on times but my biking made up for it. I passed somewhere between 10 and 20 people on the bike. I thank God for allowing me to do this as it is something I have longed to do ever since Abbie and Terry did their first last year. Oh, also Abbie took first in her age group (as always)!

You might be right, I might be crazy

Well, today is my last training run before my first ever duathlon (all by myself!!!!). I was supposed to run at my usual 5am but it was raining and a cold front had come through. I will run later today. Since the event is at 1:30pm it might be good that I run later. I am excited and nervous. I did a 15 mile bike ride yesterday in 58 minutes. Not great but it will do. My running will be iffy. I will fill you in on Monday. I could really use your prayers.

We did it!!!!

Well my hubby, son and I competed in our first sprint triathlon on Sunday. We came in 3rd in the coed teams and got some really neat towels. My hubby did the swimming, our son did the cycling, and I did the running. I am so glad we didn't go over the course before we did it as the running was uphill for the first half. I just started running 4 weeks ago and I have NOT run hills. I thought I was going to die. But this is just the beginning in 2 weeks I am going to do a duathlon. What was I thinking!!!! Oh well. Here are some pictures. The fat one is me.

Riley's cake

Well, I just finished Riley's birthday cake. I am very pleased with it. There is a story behind it. Riley is in a choir at school that made a trip to NYC last school year for a contest. They were there 5 days and only one was for the contest so they had lots of sight seeing time. He and his 3 best friends went to M&M World and bought different colored M&M t-shirts and wore them home on the plane. The rest of the school year they wore them on the same days. Riley's was the orange M&M so I have made him an M&M cake. What do you think?

Riley's 18!!!

Happy Birthday Riley!!! I remember the day you were born. They wrapped you in a blanket & handed you to me. You were crying but the minute you heard my voice you stopped crying and listened to my voice. My heart was melted that very second I realized you recognized me. As long as I spoke to you you were quiet but if I stopped talking to you you would start whimpering. Wow!!! That was a mom moment!!!