Friday Confessions-Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

I confess I made these last night...yes I did :)

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies


Ingredients

2 cups Flour
2 cups Rolled Oats
1 tsp Baking Soda
3/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Nutmeg

***********************

2/3 cup Sugar
1/3 cup Canola Oil
1 cup pumpkin
1 Egg, slightly beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350◦

In a bowl mix first six ingredients. In second large bowl, mix next five ingredients. Pour dry ingredients in two batches into wet ingredients and stir just until mixed.

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto baking sheets and bake for 15-16 minutes. Cool on wire racks. Makes approximately 36 cookies.

Friday Confessions

I'm a Gleek. I started watching Glee with Madley last year and we didn't quite get it at first because we didn't watch from the beginning. Then we decided to give it another shot and we watched the re-runs from the beginning and...we fell for it hook line and sinker. It has great sound quality. Madley is an audiophile geek. We listen to Glee...loud.

It's not a show for kids...even though it's about kids. The actors that play the kids are like 25...like when 90210 was on. They were all 25. I looked 12 when I was 25.

For some reason, I identify with Glee. Could it be that I was in drama club and not a cheerleader in high school?

I also took ballet and dance classes.

Football players thought I was something to push out of the way on their way to class. I thought they were brainless wonders with big necks.

We didn't have a glee club but we did have drama club and I loved it. I was shy and really liked dressing up in costume so I didn't have to be myself.

In my thespian years I played...

Dracula's wife in "Dracula"
A milk maid in "No, No, a Million Times No!" (Run to the round house Nellie, he can't corner you there!)
A call girl in " No Sex Please, We're British" (yes, yes I did)
A hippie extra in "Hair"
An ugly step-sister in "Cinderella" (*spoiler alert*...the shoe fits)

And a few other bit parts I can't remember right now.

If there had been a glee club when I was in high school...I would have tried out.

...and I would have fit in.

I'm a gleek for sure.

I would have had slurpees thrown in my face if the football team knew it was an option.

But my friends were true and honest and good.

Now...I am a camera/photography geek. A Ceek? Phreak?

Yup.

...and I don't regret a thing. (well...at least anything I'll admit)

Friday Confessions

I could take pictures of flowers all day every day.

We went to a rose garden yesterday and there were obviously other flowers...which I like photographing better than roses.

Actually...I like most other flowers better than roses.

I like rose buds.


I like the way roses smell.

I dislike any rose smelling fragrance that isn't generated by a the source...the rose.

But the gardens were beautiful and you can see the city from this vista point. What a great place to get some peaceful time.

We stopped and smelled the roses...a lot.

 Near the playground is this glorious open building where the elephants were housed...the zoo has moved to a location within the same grounds...but they left this large as life memory in brick.




So there you go...I confess, I will go back to this other world whenever I can. Field trips are what I live for.

Thanks for stopping by...if not for you, I would stop blogging.

Friday Confessions-Handcart Trek

Once upon a wonderful time...Kimmie and I were privileged to be involved with a youth pioneer handcart trek reenacting the Mormon's long and arduous journey to the wild west and the Salt Lake Valley... where believe it or not...they could have some peace and freedom from angry mobs and build there lives and homes over again with the freedom of religion that should have been theirs wherever they chose to live in the USA.  

 Horse trailers and trucks?

I was on the handcart trek planning committee and worked alongside some great people for months making this the most wonderful, but heart wrenching, difficult, exhausting activity any of these young people had ever dreamed of participating in, just so they could know for a short couple of days a squeaky wheel glimpse into what the pioneers endured when they made that rugged trek quite a few decades before their time. Some of these kids had pioneer ancestors that actually did this for real. FOR REAL.

Wow...that was deep.

This is me on a horse named Casey.

 ...and this in my BFF Kimmie on Mulligan.

Kimmie and I had the most coveted jobs in the whole outfit...and it was my idea. You see...I'm lazy. And riding a horse seemed more like something I could handle. I coerced, begged, bribed talked my superior planners into this. I'm no example, let me tell you. I thought it was a pretty great moment of genius... if I do say so myself.

Four other co-planners thought so too and rode horses along with us. Four men. We were supposed to be men.

But...

 ...Kim wore her gardening hat and I wore my Shania Twain Cowgirl hat. We really didn't fit in at all while also wearing our spiffy matching brown gaucho pants that I got on eBay... but we were... stylish for the time...shall we pretend?

This is mine and Casey's view. Pretty cushy job we had, huh? Look at those "pioneers" trekking along while I sit upon my steed with a camera, documenting my laziness and superiority to the fullest.

See...a man. A real man. I think he too was happy he wasn't walking in the heat of August in the hills of dead and moaning grass...on hard dirt roads.

Seemed pretty realistic I think. Casey wasn't sure what the heck was going on. He'd never seen a handcart or girls with bonnets...and water bottles. But he was a good sport.



So...I confess. I rode a horse in a handcart trek. And I'd do it again anytime. You betcha.

♫Put your shoulder to the wheel -push along...while I ride upon my horse singing a song...we all have work...let no one shirk...put- your -shoulder -to- the wheel. ♫

Friday Confessions-A day in my life sans pictures

Thursday August 26th-

I woke up and and said, "YAY! It's Madley Date Day! We get to be alone!
I went ooh la wee wee.
I brushed my African Bush Monkey hair.
I washed my face in cold water.
I put on my sweats and socks.
I went downstairs.
I heated up my rice woobie in the microwave oven.
I opened up all the windows in the house to celebrate the coolness outside.
I made my chocolate soy milk and took my medicine and vitamins with it.
I played Yoville on Facebook.
I made hot cocoa for my granddaughters.
I wrote some of my book on my computer.
I kissed Madley goodbye as he went to the gym.
I listened to Little Indy make breakfast for her girls.
She put the dishes away.
I read.
I put dirty dishes in the dishwasher.
I went up to make the bed, Madley had already made it.
I kissed the girls goodbye.
I read.
I picked my toes (I got the idea from Ree).
I ate a Hershey Kiss.
I drooled over recipes on Tasty Kitchen.
I filed a fingernail.
I kissed Madley hello when he walked in from the gym.
I took a shower.
I got ready for my date day.
I started a load of laundry.
I watched Madley package up some car rims he sold on Craig's List.
I kissed Madley goodbye as he left to send them off at UPS.
I read.
I kissed Madley hello when he returned the UPS store.
I put the laundry in the dryer.
Madley got ready.
I shut all the windows and locked up.
I said goobye to my dad as he left for who knows whereville.
I carried stuff to the car for Madley and got in.
We drove away.
I ate veggie sushi with Madley for lunch.
I stuffed my fortune cookie in my purse.
We went ooh la wee wee.
We drove to the car dealership and browsed.
We met a girl with the same name as Madley.
We laughed.
We sat in cars I want... then in cars Madley wants.
We gave our pro and con arguments about which car is best to the sales Lady with a boy's name.
She smiled and nodded.
We didn't buy a car.
I went ooh la wee wee.
We got in our old car and drove away.
I ate my fortune cookie.
We drove to IKEA.
We got frozen yogurt cones.
We walked around IKEA eating them.
We found the towel rack we wanted but they were out of them.
We went ooh la wee wee.
We left IKEA.
We needed gas. We drove until we almost ran out of gas looking for a station and then hit traffic.
Madley pulled over so I could drive.
Traffic makes him crazy.
My car said we had 8 miles to go before we would run out of gas. Madley found a gas station on his iPhone app. We turned around and found said gas station.
We got gas. They pump it for you in Oregon.
I put on lip gloss while we waited.
Madley washed my windows.
We left the gas station full and happy.
I drove a different way and found less traffic.
Madley ignored the traffic by playing a game on his iPhone.
We finally arrived home.
I went ooh la wee wee.
I made tuna sammies.
We ate tuna sammies.
We watched Pawn Stars and Master Chef.
I ate 4 8 Hershey Kisses.
Madley went to bed.
The girls and I cleaned up.
I typed this up for you.
I played yoville on Facebook.
I read.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Friday Confessions

Loneliness can be a very profound feeling. Being alone is also profound...but a choice.

I honestly don't know if I could stand to live alone. I went from living with my mother, into marriage at 18, having a child, then divorced but not alone...having a beautiful child with me most of the time. I married Madley when Little Indy was small...

We've been married for 27 years.

I am used to having people around me almost constantly. I am never lonely.

Writing has this way of spiriting me away into a world where I am alone...but I feel like I always have an audience. Even if no one reads what I write, I know I am not alone. I believe God is always with me.

I cherish my time alone, though it is very scarce. When I steal away and curl up and read, it is as if I have managed some feat against nature. If no one interrupts me, I wonder, why? Are they all really leaving me alone?

Lately, I've been purposely curling up in a chair with my blanket and taking a nap...most days. I make sure everyone is okay with me taking a short time out...and I fall fast asleep within minutes. Sometimes I only sleep for 15 minutes, sometimes an hour and a half.

When I wake up, my family is happy to have me back in their world. It's like I've been transported to some other world where they can't come, and they worry I may not return...

But I always return. And I make them dinner with the back of my hair fuzzy from sleeping in a chair...and my mascara a bit smudged.

I NOT HAS A PMS! ~Friday Confessions

I'm post menopausal so I have no excuse for any anger. Right?

I never snap. A few days ago, I snapped, so that statement wasn't entirely true.

It was just that I...

I have no excuse.

Ever.

For snapping.

So, I had my yearly PMS moment.

Post Menopausal Snap.

It happens.

But making up is fun.

Now go eat your Wheaties and pretend you never met me.

Friday Confessions- Stand-ups

*Winner of the PW Cooks cookbook in in the previous post!

Patrick Stewart is Knighted

Of course he is. It was inevitable. He's now Sir Patrick Stewart.

Does he get to carry a sword and defend the queen now? Or where chain mail? Or a helmet? Or ride a horse in a joust? Save a damsel in distress?

Confession number one: I think Patrick Stewart is cool. and hot. and he has a great accent. I never wanted to be on a star ship so much in my life as when he was the captain of the Enterprise. 

Confession number two: I own this life size cardboard stand up of Jean-Luc Picard...

...and about 75 others. I plan to use them in my portrait studio someday. For what I don't have a clue. But they are mine and I will use them.

EPBOT

John and Jen from Cakewrecks other blog.

Confession Number three: I am a Star Wars/Star Trek/Harry Potter/Batman/Eragon/Twilight/Fablehaven/LOTR/Pirates of the Caribbean/Whatever/Sci Fi/fantasy Geek.

These people are my Bee People. They like geeky things too. 

Are you with me Deb-O-Rama? Yes you are.

Confession number four: I want to be a Borg. I wish I were Seven of Nine. I have this stand up too.

Confession number five: Han Solo. I am mad at him for leaving his wife and moving in with Ally McBeal. I also have this stand-up. I do so love Harrison Ford movies.

Confession number 6: Madley has put up with me moving my 75 cardboard stand-ups wherever we go. They are my people and I won't give them up...ever. Clint Eastwood used to stand by my front window and guard my house when Madley was out of town. I owe it to him to take him with me.

Elvis, Marilyn, James Dean, Dorothy, Queen Amidala (Padme), Rhett and Scarlet, Betty Boop and a host of others are waiting patiently for me to get them out and put them all over my studio. I can't wait.

I am so weird.