FAIL

My favorite quality in any individual is their ability to embrace their own imperfections. 

I'm not very good at it. I had every intention of making some fabulous valentine cupcakes last night. The icing was yummy, the batter was perfect, the presentation was abysmal. Usually I can't wait to take a picture of my final product, but I skipped that part. Instead, here is a more successful cola cupcake.

They have heart liners so we can pretend

Aside from the baking fail, it was a very sweet Valentine's Day. The boys got their dad some nice cards. I finally found a good (dishwasher safe) travel coffee mug for Q, and he got me a beautiful card and figurine. Today was a good day.

Tomorrow will be another story......

Willpower?

This might sound weird, but the second I have a spotless kitchen, I can't wait to get it dirty! It's like a sickness. I start my cleaning in the kitchen and by the time I reach the bathrooms, I drop everything I'm doing because all I can think about is what I want to bake. 

Who doesn't love girl scout cookies? I love how they are always out right about the time people are starting to struggle with their new years resolution to loose weight (which I stopped making years ago). I can never say no. My favorites are thin mints and tagalongs. After I ate an entire box of tagalongs, I told myself I would not do that with the thin mints. So instead I made some thin mint cupcakes! I wanted them fast so the recipe is about as easy as it gets!

Loving my grandma's old saucer for this pic

 Thin Mint Cupcakes:

1 box of your favorite chocolate cake mix

1 sleeve of Thin Mint cookies crumbled

Follow directions for box mix. I always substitute milk with butter milk and vegetable oil with canola oil. Dump the sleeve of cookies into a ziploc bag and crumble with hands or use a meat pounder. Mix batter with cookies. Cook as directed.

Icing: 

I think I have finally found my go to icing recipe. I love the texture and stiffness! I found it at my new favorite blog, Glorious Treats. The only change I made is substituting vanilla extract with mint and of course adding green food coloring. I took a few of the remaining thin mints and cut into fourths for a garnish. Enjoy!

Always Reminded

Let's see how this works. I'm doing this whole entry from my phone. You would think since I work for Verizon it would be no problem. Think again. Technology gets the best of me sometimes.

My grandma (who you will hear plenty about) always collected drummer boy quarters. Quick history: They were coins stamped in 1976 to celebrate the bicentennial. Every where we went she would search her change for them.

Just like all kids, I went through phases. At first I thought it was so cool, then I stopped looking and caring, and of course now I wish grandma was still here so we could look for those quarters forever. Funny thing is I don't have to look for them because they always seem to find me. I'm always dropping one on the floor when I count the drawer at work or seeing one in the Kroger parking lot.

I did a Google search for the value of these quarters. They aren't worth much according to various websites, but they sure are priceless to me.

Mild Day

I hate February. So much in fact that I think I will refer to today as January 32nd. To make the month a little more tolerable I decided to start blogging. I will try not to make it a "Dear Diary" feel (lord knows people are too quick to share every single emotion they feel 24/7 these days) because I would like to actually have some readers. Instead, I would just like to share little things that happen in the day to day grind. A new friend of mine has made it her mission to blog 366 days this year. Even though I'm not as good of a writer as she is, I find her short stories and fun pictures very entertaining. 

One of my husbands Christmas presents this year was a new shop-vac. Isn't it funny how as we get older, our excitement over certain presents change? Forget the new clothes and latest gadgets. Give me a shop-vac and some new dishes! Since today was 60 degrees (yes it is the middle of winter) I decided to finish cleaning the Ford Escape. Willa, as I like to call her, will be going to a new home soon. She has served her purpose for me, and will now move on to a new life transporting kids to and from school and sporting events. She will love it, but I'm going to miss her. 

That really is it. I want to keep this short so you will read the whole thing. Pardon my poor punctuation and grammar. Like I mentioned earlier, I'm not a writer. Goodnight and see you on January 33rd.