Fairbanks Friday- What In The World?

Happy Friday my friends. I will leave you with THIS until Monday. That is baleen. He's just hanging out on the street corner selling a piece of baleen. He also had Walrus skulls too. I don't know the laws about possessing this. I know you can if you are Native, but I'm not so sure about a tourist buying this. HOW in the heck would you take this home?

Weight Watchers Fail

I have had a weird week. Not a bad week, just weird. I made batch after batch of cupcakes. IF I had willpower I would bake them, maybe eat a bite of one to confirm they were indeed delicious and leave it at that. Nope. Not me. I am part goldfish you see. You can only put as much food in front of me as I should eat for the day. Anything more than that and I EAT EVERYTHING. That happened with the cupcakes.

Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercreme Frosting

Vanilla Cupcakes and Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcakes w/ Buttercreme icing

I know everyone is SO SHOCKED that I used Buttercreme. I WOULD make other icing, but I have this one almost nailed down. I'm afraid of trying to do other things, although my heavy whipping cream is going to go bad in my fridge. 

Anyway. Today was weigh in day at Weight Watchers. I DID NOT GO. I need to confess somewhere, so might as well confess here. I was afraid to go and see that I gained 8 pounds in a week (I'm SURE this is possible.) I've lost 20ish pounds post Bug. Keep in mind I gained 40ish pounds while pregnant with him. I WAS HUGE. 

How huge you ask?

This Huge

That my friends is me at almost 42 weeks pregnant. The shawl was my MIL's and somewhere she had a picture of herself wearing it while pregnant with my hubby. I don't think she's doing the dorky move though. 

(See, I'm REALLY good at rambling. Try holding a conversation with me in real life, I'll give you a headache!) 

So I skipped out. I'm putting myself on a one week baking break and going to try to cut back on sugar. I wasn't allowed to have many sweets when I was little. I think I'm making up for that now. After I lose the 20 pounds to go to get back to pre-Bug. I THEN have about 30 more to go to get back to pre-hubby.

PLEASE TELL ME WHY: Tell me why you gain weight when you get married. Seriously. GRR. 

Someone yell at me next Thursday and make sure that I went to Weight Watchers. 

Frosting

I think that I have baked more cupcakes in the past month than I have in the past year. I continue my quest to make a cupcake that I can sell at my future Cupcakery. I think I have one nailed down. Super tasty and dense. I like dense cupcakes. Bad news is that I am notorious for not measuring-therefore not having any clue what went in. Opps. That is no bueno. Oh well. It was a delicious yellow cake and I think I ate half of them.

One thing that I have learned in my quest for the perfect cupcake is that a perfect cupcake needs to come with a perfect icing. I like my icing piled on high and LOTS of it. I have always eaten my cupcakes as sandwiches. I tear off the top, turn it over and eat it that way. (If you are following what I'm throwing down.) 

I was always disappointed that my frosting didn't have enough substance to it and was hard to pipe and stay in form. Did you all (and I'm sure you did) know of the magical powers of Cream of Tarter? I don't know where it's been all my life. Maybe if I read more about baking I would have figured it out! I added that to my cupcakes and Tada! Perfect peaks. It helps to stabilize the frosting, which is a good thing when you are using buttercreme frosting IMHO.

I still have some work to do on HOW the frosting looks, but it's getting better. I'd "almost" take these to a party. I need to get some different tips for my pastry bags. This one was the biggest tip they had at the store and still not what I need. 

Seriously. I could eat an entire bowl of buttercreme frosting. Cupcakes are are dangerous. 

Swearing

I never use to swear. Honest. I was so terrified of my mother (even though she is a super nice lady)  that I am 99% sure I was 16 before I said shit. I was in college before I dropped the F-bomb. Apparently I've spent my adult life trying to make up for it. I obviously NEVER swore at work. That's a big no-no as a teacher. Outside of work, that's another story. Since Bug came along I've been trying to quite cold turkey. I'm really trying.

Spent all night hauling leaves to fill up my future veggie growing machines. I like your ideas of using one to feed the moose and then using moose poop to fertilize!  I'm going to catch a baby moose and break it to ride. Sort of like this:

Yes, yes. I know that's photo shopped. Besides from the horrible photo shop job, the confirmation of the moose would never allow for her to be sitting like that. At least not with getting a forward swing at the trot like that. 

Boys!

Bug and I went to Mother Moose last night. It's story time for babies up to 23 months old and he loves it. It's a great library and all the mom's are wonderful. Here is my question, and it has nothing to do with reading or story time.

HOW IN THE @!#$ DO BABY BOYS PEE OUTSIDE THEIR DIAPERS WITHOUT GETTING THE DIAPER WET!!!

Seriously. Bug is able to perform this feat multiple times a month. My husband and I check, and double check that his little boy part is pointing down and covered and THIS STILL HAPPENS!!

He is cute though, so I'll overlook my soaked pants. It's cool that I look like I peed my pants too buddy.

"The Bug" at 12 weeks. He's part of Little Lebowski Urban Achievers

Cats!

Before Bug was born, and after Denali was gone, I needed SOMETHING to snuggle with at night. I asked my husband if I could foster cats from one of the local non-profits. Fostering animals was a super rewarding experience. I would do it again in a heartbeat. ANYWAY. One of our foster cats weaseled her way into our house and so we adopted her. She was caught wild as a 4 month old. THAT as a fun experience, especially when she needed medication daily for a few weeks.

 A few months later we fostered a litter of kittens (OMG SO CUTE!) and Nittany, was obsessed with one of the babies. SO, we adopted him as well and named him Boone. I wanted snugly. I got standoffish-ex-feral cat and her trusty sidekick Boone. Neither of them are snugly and both of them like to keep to themselves unless it's dinner time.

Boone was the last litter that we fostered because I soon found out that Bug was on his way and I couldn't help with the litterbox anymore (BEST thing about being pregnant was that...) I wasn't sure how Nittany and Boone would handle a baby and didn't want to be one of those people who posted an AD on Craigslist that said "Baby on the Way, Cats need to go." I knew we had to make it work.

To my shock and surprise, the cats are AMAZING with Bug. He, of course, is obsessed with them and screams with delight and also cries his eyes out when the leave the room. It's okay, sometimes I want to leave the room too!

Boone has decided that he is a country cat now, and he NEEDS to be outside as much as possible. I DID NOT want to let him out, but if I didn't he'd scream and cry ALL-!@#*&$-DAY-LONG. I do not understand why. He was NEVER allowed outside, EVER. Anyway, we live in the middle of no where, so I let him out. We've only had one incident of a VERY LARGE Great Horned Owl hanging out one day trying to decide which one to eat first. (That's another story. FYI- Owls are FRICKING HUGE!!)

Anyway, all of that to get to this point. Boone has been going outside a lot. It has been cold and Boone would go out for HOURS. He's a good boy and does come when you call him. Lately when he's come home he's been warm and dry. I've been suspecting that he's been cheating on our family and so I decided to get him another collar (his sister takes them off and we never find them again.)

When I went to the store to make one I came up with this:

I figure if he comes home with a different collar that says "Yes he does" I'll call it good and send him with his toys. Hopefully it doesn't come to that. 

WARNING!

Before I became a mom I was a REALLY good backseat driver. As a teacher of kiddos with Emotional/Behavioral problems some (not all, most of my kiddos had kick ass parents) of their problems started at home. As a result, I would often discuss the things that I would and would never do. While I've stuck my ground for most things. HOWEVER, there are a few things that came to light AFTER the Bug was born.

1. I said I would NEVER co-sleep with my baby. I thought it was unsafe and would just teach him to sleep in my bed until he turned 12. HOWEVER. No one told the Bug that he was suppose to sleep in his own bed. The first three weeks home he wouldn't sleep ANYWHERE but on my chest. Needless to say, I didn't get a lot of sleep, and we eventually figured it out, but I'm totally guilty of him still taking naps in our bed with us still. (Note: Please don't go on a tangent below on how unsafe co-sleeping is. To each their own, and we are safe with the covers pulled down and he had his own little bed in our bed.) He is currently in his own room with his on bed asleep...for now.

2. I said NO ELECTRONICS or TV. That one sort of went out the door when I was visiting my parents. My dad was watching him so I could go for a walk. Well, I came home and Bug had watched the entire Pirate game on TV. He also loves Ellen (but, who doesn't.) We also live a bazillion miles from Grandmas, so we Skype and Facetime with them a few times a week. He doesn't get to watch TV (we don't have cable, too much crap on TV for me to justify paying for it right now.) He does LOVE the iPad. He tries to grab it every time I try to check my e-mail.

3. THIS. I said I would never buy this sign for my car. I made fun of people who had these signs in their cars and thought, "What the hell difference does that make."

Then I had Bug. The moment they handed him to me (okay, not the moment, I had an anxiety attack before I had my C-Section, so I was OUT-OF-IT, but that's another story for another time.) The moment they handed him to me I knew I had to protect him. There is nothing more terrifying than the nurses handing you your baby and wishing you luck when you leave the hospital. Every car around me scared me. Even today, I am TERRIFIED of someone hitting my car with Bug in it. I decided those signs REALLY mean this.

I've already informed my husband that he'd need to bail me out of jail because if anyone ever hits my car with Bug in it, I will lose my ever loving mind. Ah, maternal instinct. (I'm still not getting one of those signs, but at least now I understand it and won't make fun of people anymore.) He said "maybe." 

In other news, I finished the garden beds tonight. I now have an additional 112 sq ft to garden next spring. They look pretty good for a girl that hasn't built anything in a bazillion years. It was super fun too. NOW, we need to fill them, which isn't going to be cheap, BUT think of all the great veggies we are going to have in the Spring! 

Between the garden beds is a little path that we are going to turn into an actual path down to our fire pit (which has yet to be built, but soon!) I think it's going to look cool. I still need to Moose proof it. I've seen other places moose proofed and it seriously looks like they took the left over fencing from Jurassic Park when filming wrapped up. 10 foot fences and lots of wire. Either that or they really do have baby dinosaurs there. It's Alaska. Who knows! 

Whine Wine...

I consider my husband and myself to be pretty intelligent people. We usually put great thought into things, and are pretty observant of the things around us. Enter "The Bug" while he is the best thing ever, his needs come first all the time and we sometimes overlook the stuff around us. 

Enter my wine sitting in the cup holder of the Bug's stroller. Opps. 

We went to a party at a friends house on Saturday night. (Side note to my son) You see  Bug, we took you to your first "kegger" (note, no Keg involved, but there was a pot of hot wine, Glogg if you will)  when you were 5 months old. We ARE the cool parents you just won't think when you internet stalk me someday and find this. Anyway, we bundled the kid up and took him to a fire. I got a glass of mulled wine and decided it was too hot to drink right then. I put it in the cup holder of the stroller (we have one of those strollers that the car seat clips into-super convenient.) After an hour or so (and past Bug's bed time) we decided to head out. My sweet husband grabbed everything to take it to the car. It was late and dark, and opps. My wine spilled into the car seat, and all over the car seat cover. Luckily Bug wasn't in it, but he still smelled like a booze hound when we got home from the little bit that made into his seat. Talk about feeling awful. I continue to win at parenting. 

Today was beautiful and since we couldn't go anywhere (see previous paragraph, car seat cover still drying after being washed.) I decided to build some raised beds for gardening in the spring. I drew out the plans and showed them to my husband who said "okay" despite the fact that they are HUGE and are going to cost an arm and a leg to fill with dirt/compost/etc. They are both L shape and one is 16X8X4  and the other is 8X8X4. I don't think that's the way you explain it, but I'm not an architect. ANYWAY, Guess what! They actually fricking turned out! Bug napped through the first one so my husband cut the wood for me, but by the second one Bug was up so I cut the wood by hand. I successfully built the whole thing myself with only TWO swear words. (I was trying to do the whole thing without swearing, which is why I know it was two.) 

I'm crafty, who knew! 

While I was building it snowed, and snowed, and snowed. When I finally finished the garden beds, I came in to my darling husband who was figuring out how much it is going to cost us to FILL the beds. Opps. Well, financially I think the beds will start making it worth it in about two years... I'll take a better picture when they aren't COVERED in snow. Maybe May? I still need to Moose proof the garden.

Our driveway...which is gravel..which makes shoveling a PAIN IN THE @ss!! 

I shoveled the driveway and had to laugh at the fact that it's September 22nd. Not what I was imagining. I baked more cupcakes. These ones look and taste how I'd like them too. I need to stop baking because I just want to eat them all. Not a good thing. Great weekend overall.

While my husband (aka The Saint) was giving Bug his bath, the whole house shook hard. I thought that one of two things happened. A moose ran into it, or B. our Tenant hit our house or his in his new car (which is stick shift, and he can't drive it yet.) Nope, neither. It was an Earthquake. Sigh. Only my second ever. We had a 6.8 Earthquake while we lived in Denmark. THAT one was crazy, watching the walls ripple. This one, this one felt like a Moose. All I ever think about with Earthquakes is this episode of DuckTales (and you can thank me later for including the ENTIRE episode.)


DuckTales - S01E54 - Earth Quack Full by 2dcartoonsbox_blogspot


 Last week someone asked me for my Crack Cookie Recipe (they are actually called Double Chocolate Banana Cookies, but if you make them you'll understand why I call them Crack Cookies.)

3-4 extra ripe bananas peeled
2 cups rolled oats (I used about 3, see below)
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt (I just use salted butter and skip this)
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 1/4 cups butter, melted
1 cup almonds, toasted (I did not have nuts, so I added more oats instead)
2 cups chocolate chips

I will give you the disclaimer now. These need to sit in the refrigerator for a while, I left them overnight. Don't do what I ALWAYS do and start baking just to find out that they need to sit. Back to the cookies.

Preheat Oven to 350

1. Puree the bananas in a blender and measure 2 cups for this recipe.
2. Combine oats, sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt until well mixed. Stir in bananas, eggs, butter until blended. Stir in almonds (or more oats) and chocolate chips.
3. Refrigerate batter for 1 hour (mine still wasn't ready after an hour, so I gave up, drank a 1/2 a beer and went to bed) or until mixture becomes partially firm, batter will run during baking if too soft.
4. Measure 1/4 batter and drop onto greased cookie sheet. Flatten the top with a spatula. DO NOT TASTE THE BATTER!! Whatever you do, don't taste it or else all of this oven work will be for nothing. You'll just end up with the bowl, a spoon and your sweatpants watching reruns of the Golden Girls on TV. Um...not that I've ever done that....err...back to the recipe.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 17 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown (I checked them at 15 minutes, because I always worry I'll burn them.)

These seriously are SO good. Let me know if you make them.

Child Development

My background is in education. I did my undergraduate in Elementary and Special Education. I'm also certified to teach middle school math, science, Reading, Language Arts, and High School Home Ec (don't ask.) I got my Masters in Applied Behavior Analysis. I know a LOT about Child Development. I spent 8 of my 10 years of teaching working with kiddos with Severe Emotional/Behavioral Problems. I even won a teaching award and got to be honored at an NFL game last September.

I know a lot of "What not to do." I know a lot of "What you should do." What I know and what I do are two different things sometimes. I KNOW that I should watch my mouth around the Bug and if I don't that one day his first word is going to be a swear word, BUT seriously, when I'm lugging an 18 pound kid in a 10 pound car seat and a 89 pound diaper bag (didn't weigh that, but I'm pretty sure it's only off by a pound or two) and I come to a door to open...it doesn't end well. I try. I totally have cut my swearing back by at least 75%, but that still leaves me higher than the average. I don't "think" I'm swearing that much around him, but I still catch myself once in a while. NOT good parenting. I know this. In turning down the swearing I've had to turn up my other skill. Sarcasm. Not only do I swear, I'm super sarcastic. To the point that people take me seriously and then I have to tone it back and then I just seem weird.

My husband and I had the following conversation tonight.

Me: "I really like that you speak Danish to the Bug, it will help him be Tri-lingual."

Husband: "Tri-lingual? What other language is he going to speak?"

Me: Sarcasm.

Parenting for the win!

Cray-Cray

Where to start.

Do you remember when you were little and you were CONVINCED that there were monsters under your bed. You grew older and wiser, and while you KNEW there were no creatures, you still got nervous. I think a lot of people have irrational fears (and if they don't, tell me they do and LIE to me.)

I have a few fears. Some of them more embarrassing than others. My first fear is of a vicious blood thirsty creature.

I honestly have no freaking idea why and realize I'm ridiculous. Once while walking around Penn State a squirrel stole my ice cream cone (mind you I was 24.) Ever since then they scare the shit out of me.

However, I can deal with squirrels. I know they are small and can't kill me. Unless they have rabies and they bite me and...ugh, I'll stop there.

Enter new fear that I just found out about. I honestly have no idea why in the hell, but THIS one at least could really hurt or kill me.

Vicious Moose!

1. Never trust an animal that's plural is the same as its singular.
2. They are a size of a horse!! Like freaking huge and can go cray-cray (that's middle school for crazy, I know cool kid lingo) when you are in their area.

Bullwinkle gave me a false sense of security when I was little. Seriously, he was out solving crimes and saving the world with Rocky.

Then I grow up and find out that Moose (you have no idea if I'm talking about one or a hundred do you-weird) attack people! More than bears in Alaska. 

Okay, I get it, not a huge deal right? WRONG. In walking our property I "thought" we had horse trails going through it. HUGE trails that are there from years of use. Are they from horses? NO. They are from Moose! We have moose trails in our yard! 

3. This was the title of the newspaper article in the Huffington Post 

Moose Attacks In Alaska Prompt Officials To Urge Caution: 'Assume Every Moose Is A Serial Killer'

Which means my friends, that I am living among serial killers! Great. I expect I'll be working in my garden and get stomped to death by a moose...I have had proper training thanks to Denali on being stomped to almost death. Maybe she was psychic and knew we were moving to Alaska and wanted to help condition me? I do get worried that one will try to off me while I'm holding Bug. In that case I am 99% sure I'd lose my shit and tear the moose limb from limb (hopefully.) 

Seriously. Fricking Scary. (Video Disclaimer: I don't get the "heaven or hell thing" I didn't know that moose were associated with both. Who knew. See this blog is teaching you things. Tell your friends.) 

Okay, the point of this post. I went for my first non-Bug accompanied drive tonight to just get out. What do I see on the side of the road? MOOSE (just one, since you can't tell, stupid English language...) I decided to stop and look at it to try to get over my fear. I laughed because she reminded me of my horse that I sold with her massive ears. I liked her because she didn't try to kill me and she was content eating the tree. I did warn her it's hunting season, and I promised to not disclose her location to my husband as long as she could put in a good word with all the mooses that I'm a good person, don't attack me, my husband or my kid. I think we had a mutual understanding. I named her Martha. 

Do you have any ridiculous fears? I have a few but no need to embarrass myself further. 

So THIS happened....

and THEN I made this magic happen! I'm a fricking genius (want to guess how many tries until I spelled genius right? 2. HA!) 

I woke up this morning to snow. Which is great and dandy, but since it's mid September I wasn't really thrilled at the prospect of snow, but hell. It's pretty. The munchkin wasn't sure what in the heck was going on and kept staring out the window. I told him not to worry, we'll have lots of it coming up. He gets up around 7 and then throws a tantrum   takes another long nap from 9-11. I keep telling him that he COULD just sleep in and then everyone would be happy. He laughed at me. After he passed out I decided to try to "make the magic happen."

I must admit that I'm addicted to Pintrest. I still don't really "get" it, but I love going and finding recipes. I decided that this week would be declared CHEESE week in my house, but sadly today was the first time I had a chance to make anything. I was making stuffed shells, so I figured, hell, I'll make ricotta. Seriously. SO FRICKING EASY. I will NEVER buy it in the store again. EVER. I felt like Julia Child. It tasted DELICIOUS so after eating 1/2 of it a quick taste, I let it dry.

Today was Bug's first play date. The little girl is so stinking cute. Bug was in love and when I sat him down he sat there without falling over. I guess to get him to do "firsts" I need to bring him around girls. He loved her.

After a quick stop to get winter tires up on (which they got me right in due to the infant - AWESOME.) We headed home where I made WAY too many pans of stuffed shells. Seriously, I think we're going to eat them for a month.

SO good. I think the rest of my evening is long enough for it's own post, so we'll leave it at that.

Bug Bites

I always come up with hair brained ideas and try them out. I wanted to start a business, so I made magnets with photos inside. People paid 3$, yes, 3$ for a fricking bottle cap with a photo inside of it. It was fun, but took a lot of prep to make them and I didn't really have a market to sell them (other than hippy markets in Seattle.) I once made $800 in a day selling BOTTLE CAPS! Bars don't realize they have a market just laying on the floor.

Then there was the tail bag business. That was fine and dandy, but I really SUCK at promoting myself A perfect example is my 2 week stint as a Mary Kay representative (stop laughing.) Lots of you were too kind and bought one. Possibly to get me to shut up about them. After materials, donations, and everything else it wasn't worth it to me to have to do taxes. I HATE BUSINESS TAXES. I'd rather go to the Gynecologist. I sold off my Lycra, convinced Washington State I lost money (because I did) and that was it.

My NEW hair brained idea? SOMEDAY I'd like to open a bakery. I hear you need to be good at baking to do that, but I try. I love baking, especially cupcakes. I know it will never come to fruition, but I can dream right. I EVEN have a name. Ready? Bug Bites. A. Bug after Bug, and B. Bites after the 7,000,000 mosquito per square foot. That will never happen. There are health codes and such. I enjoy licking the icing too much.

ANYWAY. Here are pictures of our cabin for your viewing pleasure.

It really is cute! The stairs go up to the loft. It's like a tiny, tiny version of our house (the outside at least.) 

No snow yet. I went today to pick up shovels "just in case" and there were a MILLION to choose from. Alaskans don't mess around. One other thing I noticed is that everyone I've ask about how long they live here don't tell me years they tell me winters. Ex. "I've lived here 32 winters." 

Random (because I warned you that my train of thoughts would go everywhere.) I'm sure a lot of you have seen this video, but I think it's worth sharing. Made me cry. I really enjoy doing random acts of kindness for people. It warms my heart. I try to do it as often as possible, and my favorite is when they don't know it was me. 

Made you cry hu.

Ralph Furley

What do Ralph Furley and I have in common? Other than we are both snappy dressers that is... We are both landlords. At least of last Wednesday I am!

If you don't know much about Fairbanks there are several factors in buying a house that we wanted to avoid 1. Permafrost. There are a lot of houses on permafrost, but no promises that they won't shift. I've seen some amazing ones and I'm not sure how they are still standing.

2. Being in town. Being in town is great if you don't have horrible asthma and allergies like me. In the winter there is an inversion and all of the wood smoke hangs over the city. That also gives it #9 in the most polluted cities in the US.

3. Water. Believe it or no there are a lot of places in Fairbanks that are "dry" cabins. That means that there is no plumbing. Nada. Zip.

I pretty much informed my husband that if I couldn't get a hot shower that I wouldn't be moving to Alaska. Luckily, my husband found the adorable house that we live in now. The only thing I don't like is that it has a water system. There is no well, so we have a holding tank in the basement that we get water delivered about every 3 weeks. Other than that the house is perfect. I love it and it even came with its own dry cabin.

Keep in mind that as far as dry cabins go, it is a REALLY nice cabin. It is 16 X 12 and has a loft. It's outhouse is about 20 feet from it. (Yes, I own an outhouse.)  I figured we could rent it out for $300 or so. I mean, who really wants to live in a dry cabin. (Note: A lot of people do, this lady does not.) Friends of my husband told him we could get $600. $600 for a place the size of my bedroom with NO WATER. I could NEVER charge anyone that much. I put it on craigslist and we rented it within a day to a really nice kid (kid = 22) for $500, which apparently for the area we live in, the cabin and such is a steal. I still feel sort of guilty.

So I joke that my new job is landlord. I try to not drive the kid crazy and not say hi to him every time I see him. He seems like a really nice kid. It's his first Alaska winter too, so I told him if he hates it he can move out and break the contract. As for me I need to go buy some snazzy leisure suits.

As for snow...we'll see!

!@#$ I Bake

or...how I keep sane.

I use to love to bake. At one point in college I made cookies and fudge for an amusement park. I couldn't vary from the recipe and "experiment" but I still had a fun time doing it. In our past two apartments our kitchen was the size of an airplane bathroom. I hated cooking and baking in them and always wanted to go out, OR would talk my hubby into cooking.

Now, now I have a kitchen! While it's not huge, and many of you would probably think "eh, my kitchen is bigger then that, it's HUGE for me.

Enter the cupcakes. I have decided that I have passed over mom status and went straight to grandma status I bake all day and listen to NPR. Sigh...

Mexican Chocolate Cupcakes

Lemon Cupcakes

Downfall of baking cupcakes is that I eat said cupcakes....NOT great for the old weight watcher's that I'm on. NOT great at all. Last week I gained a pound, then remembered the ENTIRE plate of Double Chocolate Banana Cookies (SERIOUSLY, addicting... I can't make them again.)

I took the Lemon Cupcakes to a potluck that we (and I think the rest of Fairbanks) went to on Saturday. We didn't stay super long since someone put fireworks in the fire and I wasn't very pleased with the result. Bug thought it was fine, I had visions of being hit in the head by a bottle rocket.

Sunday my husband went and got wood for our wood burner. We have heat, but it's always nice to have a fire. I went and pulled the logs out of the woods that I cut for making raised beds. It now looks like we're trying to build an ark or some sort of shanty in the back yard. About 15 8ft logs laying around.

This morning I had to drop my car off at the garage. This was the temperature. Who's jealous!? It's suppose to snow. Yes, it's September. Yes, that's Fahrenheit.  JOY!

In other exciting news, I got a "job" I'll tell you more about that tomorrow.

What do you do with a 4 month old...

I often think to myself...."What are we going to do today Bug?" THEN THIS Song gets stuck in my head...

 

Bug sort of reminds me of a drunk sorority girl sometimes...happy and laughing one second...screaming and crying the next. The joys!

We just got to Alaska, so I haven't really figured out what to do with a 4 month old yet. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a hard time sitting still. I get "Cabin Fever" overnight most of the time. SO, to have a 4 month old in the mix, and to live 10 miles from town...let's just say that things are different.

Bug is pretty easy to entertain. He has what we call his "Office" which is really an Exersaucer, but he sometimes has such serious looks on his face that we decided that he must be working really hard. He has two associates. Mr. Frog, who is on the way out. He doesn't get any work done that Bug asks, and is really a lazy individual. There is also Ms. Butterfly which Bug has been hitting on for quite some time it seems. She hasn't caught on yet, so we'll see if there is a budding office romance.

The "Office" is the only way I get ANY work done round the house. Although I have learned that I need to be careful where I put the office.

Exhibit A.

At least I know what he's getting for Christmas. Seriously, I left him there for 5 seconds. TOPS. I went to pick up a bottle to wash. He sure is funny and I'm sure I'll win Mother of the Year. 

The only thing in our schedule now is story time at the library. It really is fun, and Bug does love to see the other babies. I could NEVER understand why people took 4 month old kids to story time. Now I get it. He loves it, and I love watching him. 

Someone asked about the light. I "think" sunrise is at 7 and sunset is at 8. When we got here in August it was only dark for 4 hours, so it quickly changes. It is around 50 degrees and the leaves are all changing. There is a Starbucks in town, so I was able to get a Pumpkin Spice Latte and enjoy that with the leaves. I keep thinking it's October, nope...beginning of September. 

Today we stopped and I bought some fabric. I told the lady I was going to make a quilt (never did that before) she asked of what pattern, and I told her I'm making it to look like the Northern Lights. Without a pattern. Honestly, if I get the fabric out of the bag and wash it I'm going to call it a win! I'll post a "before" photo of the fabric and maybe in 4 or 5 years I'll post the after photo. 

While buying the fabric there were two college kids looking at fabric to buy for a toga party. They made my day in multiple ways. 1. They said "girl" when addressing me. 2. When I told them I graduated from college 10 years ago, they didn't believe me. I loved them. Just to prove how mature I am in my old age (32) I told the one kid to pick the one with the dogs (wiener dogs) on it. He said, "Why is that?"  Because now you can tell the girls to ask you about your wiener without the cops being called. 

I think that's the most adult conversation I've had this week (other than the hubby). Do 18 year old college kids count as adult? I think so... 

Oh! The Mousse. Here's the photo. Thanks everyone for finding me and following along. 

Dessert

I have been PROMISING my husband for the past 8 years that as soon as we had a kitchen (and were not living in apartments the size of a shoe box) that I'd cook. Up until now I've begged my way into most restaurants in the greater Seattle area. Fairbanks on the other hand doesn't have a lot in the way of food that I like. As a result I begrudgingly took over the kitchen to quickly realize, HEY! I actually like this cooking thing. I don't know why I get so excited to plan meals and to cook. I think it's probably because I need to go shopping, and that's a reason to shower (see, told you my live lost it's excitement!)

In addition to cooking dinner, I've been making dessert. LOT's of dessert (which isn't helping...I joined Weight Watchers and gained a pound. BOO.) Tuesday it was Mexican Cupcakes, Friday it was Double Chocolate Banana Oatmeal Cookies (crack addicting BTW, I think that's where the pound came from!) Tonight, well tonight my husband was going hunting with a friend for Moose. We had Shrimp Fajita's and I couldn't think of a dessert. I laughed out loud when I thought of it.

Tonight's menu was Shrimp Fajita's with Chocolate Mousse for dessert (you know, before they went Moose hunting.) I realize that no one in the greater world would find this hilarious, and maybe it's because my days are spent with a 4 month old, but I just kept snickering all through dinner. I even put pretzels in the Mousse to make it look like antlers (is that even what you call a Moose horn? I have no idea.)

It tasted good...not sure my husband and his friend thought I was funny.

Welcome

Less than a month ago we moved to Fairbanks. What's more fun than taking a 3 month old infant on a 9 hour plane ride to our new home. The new home that my husband and I bought...the one that I had yet to see. Many of my friends asked me "who in their right mind let's their husband pick out a house without you seeing it?" I reminded them that they answered it already with "in their right mind." The Bug (sadly, we rarely call him his real name, so I will just call him Bug here too) was 4 weeks old when his dad flew to Fairbanks from Seattle to look for a house. I was getting about 4 hours of sleep a day. I wasn't in my right mind, but I was in my right mind when I met and married Bug's dad 7 years ago. He knows me well, and knows that he'd have to live with me if I hated it. He's not stupid.

So, why a blog? Many of you might have found this blog from my horse blog. The horse has been with her new owner for over a year now, and there was no real point to write a blog about a horse I didn't have. Now I had an equally expensive addition to my house (the infant.) I loved the people who read my blog. They are wonderful, and amazing. I miss them and writing. Since everyone keeps telling me "get a hobby" and drinking copious amounts of wine with a 4 month old would be frowned upon, and isn't a hobby ( and honestly, I couldn't do it anymore anyway) I figured what else?

Things I enjoy:

1. Photography. I enjoy taking photos, but I'm not good at it. Goal #1 get better at photography
2. Baking. (But stop eating the damn things!)
3. Riding (Hard to do with an infant)
4. Making crap (I say crap because 83% of the time it doesn't turn out the way I want it to, and I'm anal.)
5. Talking about myself.

I figured the only thing that I have time to do right now is talk about myself, and I can include the rest of the above list in this blog.

Usually I am in a frazzled state when I write and my topic bounces from one to another without much transition. The positive is now I'm going to blame the infant when really that's just who I am.

So, welcome! Welcome to watching the city girl learn to live as an adult in Alaska with an infant without going crazy (no promises on the last part!)