I Made it Monday

A friend of mine gave me this recipe. It is from Hungry Girl, so it is a lower calorie option. I made a few changes (I will let you know what I changed)

Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

Ingredients:


2 cups moist style yellow cake mix (1/2 of 18.25 ounce box)
1 large banana, mashed
1/3 cup Gerber bananas (or other baby food banana)
½ teaspoon baking powder


Frosting:¾ cup cool whip free(thawed)
¼ cup reduced fat peanut butter, room temp (optional 12 slices banana)


*I double the recipe (mostly so I could use the whole box of the cake mix). I also used extra creamy Cool Whip, because that is what I had. I checked the calories, the fat free version has 10 calories less per 2 tablespoons (personally, I would take the extra calories). I also used natural peanut butter, not low fat.


Preheat oven to 375

Combine peanut butter and cool whip stirring until mixed well. refrigerate.

In large bowl, combine cake mix with baking powder and 1 cup water. Mix well.
Add pureed bananas and stir thoroughly. Mix in mashed banana.

12 cup muffin tin with lined cups or sprayed. Bake in oven for 20 minutes. Test with a toothpick.

Once cooled COMPLETELY, spread frosting. Top with a slice of banana. Refrigerate until ready to serve

*I don't know why the recipe says to refrigerate the frosting. I did and it was too hard to frost the cupcakes! So I left it out for a bit and I added more Cool Whip.

I also didn't top with the banana, because I didn't have lemon juice.


This is what they looked like:
If you made these according to the original recipe 1 cupcake is 143 calories.

These are really, really good! The peanut butter and banana combo reminds me of being a kid. I ate peanut butter on nanas all the time.

Little Girl also helped me make these, you can check out a pic on my pic blog (once i get it updated of course!)

Seven

The other day, my Big Boy turned 7 years old.

It is so hard for me to believe! It seems like it was just yesterday that we found out that I was pregnant! But in the time that seems like it was yesterday, we have had 4 children!

During that journey, there is one night that I was talking about with Mr Rocks, that kinds of gives us a chuckle now.

A few weeks before Big Boy was born, we spontaneously went to eat dinner at Friday's. I was VERY pregnant, and moody. While we were sitting there talking about the stuff that we still needed to do, we had a thought. This dinner was probably the last one like it. The last time we could just go to dinner, with out a child, with out a diaper bag, with out setting up a sitter.
Little did we know, in that Fridays a little over 7 years ago that our realization was sooooo true!

A few weeks later, as Mr Rocks drove me to the hospital, I realized that I wouldn't miss those dinners too much.

After a few more kids, I kinda wish that we could go to dinner alone more often, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Long time

I took a leave of absence. I am not really sure why.

Then I got to worry- what the heck was I going to talk about after all this time?

Then I thought- who cares, just jump back in.


So that is that.

Lots of things happened- school started, a few long weekend trips.

I am back. Can't promise that it will be all that interesting.

I Made it Monday

This week I made rum cake. It is one of Mr Rocks favorites. It is really pretty easy too! This recipe was given to me at my bridal shower by Mr Rocks' great Aunt.

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional- I do not use them)
1 package (18.5 oz) yellow cake mix
1 (3.75 oz) instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup Bacardi dark rum

(sorry- not sure why the picture is sideways? Can't get it fixed?)

Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour 10" tub pan or 12 cup Bundt pan. (if you choose) Sprinkle nuts over bottom. Mix all cake ingredients together and pout over nuts. Bake 1 hour and let it cool.

Next, make the glaze:

1 stick of butter

1/4 cup water

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup rum

melt butter in sauce pan. Stir in water and sugar. Boil 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

It will thicken up an look like this:

Remove from heat and stir in rum.

Prick the top of the cake with a fork or a tooth pick and drizzle the glaze over the top and sides. I found that setting the cake on a cooling rack was the easiest way of doing this.

Cut and serve. We like it with a little bit of Cool Whip. The cake is very rich and the Cool Whip is very good with it!

Lazy days

Yep, summer is getting the best of my time right now.

I have decided to start a picture blog. One pictue everyday for a year. This is good for me for 2 reasons. First, I will make sure I TAKE a picture everyday, and second, I will get the darn things OFF my camera on to the computer!

Feel free to take a look

http://rockspictures365.blogspot.com/

Fitness Friday

I decided that Friday I am going to measure my progress.

I am using April 20th as my start date, as that is when I really got serious (all the Easter candy and Girl Scout cookies were gone at that point!)

Weight lost- 12 pounds

Inches lost-
waist- 4.5
hips- 2
bust- 1
arms- 2
thighs- 3
TOTAL- 12.5

To get to this point I have been tracking calories on my iPod touch using the Lose It app. I put in EVERYTHING that I eat, and track all of my exercise as well.

I have been working out 5-6 times a week. I just finished week 5 on the Couch to 5K program. I do the runs 3 times a week. I have also started going to Zumba classes. I try to go 3 times a week, but if that doesn't work out I will do the 30 Minute Shred video.

I know that it doesn't seem like a lot, but this is a big deal to me. I have never been able to lose weight ever and it has been a long, hard road for me. I still have a lot to lose, but it took years to put on and I know it will take some time to get it off. My body has been through a lot! I had 4 babies in 5 1/2 years!

I have also never been a runner. 10 weeks ago, I wasn't even able to make it through the 30 second interval runs. Today I ran 20 minutes strait!

This past week I have added in 2 days of weights. I had Mr Rocks show me some moves on the Total Gym. As you may have noticed on my measurements, my upper body is not my strong suit! I am very weak right now, so that is where I am going to focus.

I have been very lucky to have so many wonderful friends to encourage me on my journey! To know that I have friends who have been through it, and those that are going through it with me now, has really been the biggest help to me!

I hope that I have more progress to report next Friday!

Murphy's Law Strikes

If you go to workout in your most raggiest (is that even a word?) work out clothes, and your hair tied back AND with a headband in. If you are red as a lobster and dripping sweat, with pit stains on your shirt. DO NOT stop at the grocery store on your way home. Even if you are just going to run in real quick, just for a few things.

If you do the above, you are guaranteed to see no fewer than 6 people that you haven't seen since high school.

Great.

That is all I have to say about that.

I Made it Monday

This week I bring you one of my most requested deserts Strawberry Pretzel Jello .

I know- it sounds weird. But I love it. It is a regional dish. In this area it isn't a party unless there are 14 varieties of Jello (Ok, that may be a slight exaggeration....)

There are 3 layers to this Jello.

First layer:

1 1/2 cups crushed pretzels
4 1/2 tablespoons white sugar
3/4 cup butter, melted

Mix them all together and press into the bottom of a 9x13 pan. (pardon the lack of a photo)

Bake it in the oven for 10 minutes on 350. Let cool for at least a half hour before adding the next layer.

Middle layer:
1 cup white sugar
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

Beat the cream cheese and sugar till smooth and fluffy. Fold in the cool whip.
A tip I have learned over time is to spread this over the crust and make sure that it is all the way to the edge of the pan, so you can not see any of the pretzel. Once you have the middle layer spread on the crust, put it in the fridge for about a half hour.

This is what it will look like:



After the middle layer is set, get ready for the final layer.

Ingredients:
1 (6 ounce) package strawberry flavored gelatin
2 cups boiling water
1 (16 ounce) package frozen strawberries


What I do is put the water on to boil. While it is cooking I cut up the strawberries. I prefer to use the whole frozen berries in a bag over the store brand that comes in a box.
Once the water boils, stir in the Jello until it dissolves. Then stir in the berries. Now this is important, work fast. If you let the Jello sit, it will start to set! You must get it in the pan, on the top of the other 2 layers. Once you pour it on, you may need to spread the berries out so they are even.

It will look like this:

You will stick it back in the fridge for at least an hour. I usually make this ahead of time, so it usually sits overnight.

Now, cut a piece off and enjoy!

*note* I also make this with rasberries, but I don't like rasberries, so I chose to share the strawberry!

First Haircut

L got his first haircut. You can see how long his hair was in these first pics.

He was really upset about being held down, but Mr Rocks did a good job! L was NOT happy about it!

After he got a bath, he was much happier!

Now he looks like a boy, and not a baby :(. I think the haircut helped him realize that he is a big boy, because he FINALLY decided to really start walking- at 13 1/2 months! All these milestones in a few days of each other really make a Mama sad!

Graduation

We had two graduations in the Rocks house!

G graduated from preschool.


Her graduation was really cute. All the kids sang a few songs and danced. The highlight of the show was that they said their prayers in Spanish! I don't know what it is, but little kids talking in another language sounds so cute!

A graduated from Kindergarten. This is a picture of a picture frame that they got as a gift from the homeroom moms. I thought that it was really cute! Of course I think the boy in the picture is the cutest Kindergarten graduate!

I am so proud of both my graduates!

Elephants Swim!

I love elephants! They are my favorite animal to see at the zoo.
When we went to the zoo last week, I was surprised to learn that elephants swim!




Here you can see that elephant was completely under except his trunk sticking out!

Elephant went from completely under to getting out-

The swimming elephant was one of the coolest things I have ever seen at the zoo!

The Best Mothers Day Gift

A brought a note home from school yesterday:

Dear Mr and Mrs Rocks,

I just wanted to let you both to know how wonderful A's behavior has been. He has been my model student for the past couple of months, and you should be very proud of him. Keep up whatever your doing at home!

Miss Kindergarden Teacher.

Wow. What an awesome thing!

I Made it Monday

A few years ago, my oldest friend in the world reminded me of these awesome bars we used to get in elementary school. On the school menu, they called them Hollywood Squares. No idea of why they were called that, but they were so awesome!

Off I went to All Recipes to search by ingredient. I came up with this- Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars. After I made them and everyone loved them, I honestly got tired of saying the long name. Now, we call them Tanya Rocks Bars.

The ingredients:


1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups peanut butter
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips



First, melt the butter. Then mix it with all the other ingredients except the chocolate chips. It will look like this:

Press the mixture into a 9x13 pan. Then melt the chocolate chips.

Pour the melted chocolate over the peanut butter mixture.

Cool the bars in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Enjoy!

These are super yummy and super easy!

Rocks does a Gabba Party

About a year ago I stumbled upon Yo Gabba Gabba. I saw about a minute of it and said NEVER again!

Well we all know how that goes......

I gradually started to like Gabba. I figured since we are Rocks, and the "leader" is DJ Lance Rock, that maybe we have something in common.

Then K declared that she wanted a Gabba birthday party. Great. Only problem, there is NOTHING out there for a Gabba party! Luckily for me, I found a great site - Gabba Friends that had a bunch of party ideas .

Now, I do rock at a lot of things, but sewing is NOT one of them. So I asked for help from my wonderful Mother in Law. I handed her a picture and told her they were made from felt. She ended up with these:




Aren't they so cute? The kids LOVED them! Since they were all different shapes and sizes, I wasn't able to put the same stuff in each, but it all worked out.

Now, you can't have a party with out hats. We looked for some material that would work for the hats, but we didn't have much luck. On our way home we decided to make a quick stop at Dollar Tree. In the toy section there were orange cowboy style hats. JACKPOT! All that we needed to do was cut off the brim. I cut a star burst shape from white foam and cut out yellow stars. I then added some glitter glue to jazz them up a bit.

Here is the birthday girl in her DJ Lance hat:

It was 90 degrees here the day of her party, so the kids didn't keep them on too long!

I also found this idea on Gabba Friends:

What is it is a printout that is available on Nick Jr glued to a box of animal crackers! I used them for centerpieces and tied balloons to the handle.

They also did not have any cake kits available at the bakery that we use for Yo Gabba Gabba. My sister works at the store and gave a picture to the bakery lady and she came up with this:

I think that it turned out pretty awesome!

Lucky for us, everyone had a great time, especially the birthday girl!

A few things

~ Tomorrow is my littlest girl's 3rd birthday. I can hardly believe it! She has requested beans and doughnuts for dinner. Makes me wonder what she will want when she is a grown up and PG? She is going to get her picture taken tomorrow and she assures me she is going to make a nice smile like a big girl. We'll see......

~ My biggest boy has now lost a grand total of 4 teeth! The tooth fairy almost had a run in with the Easter Bunny, but thankfully all was OK! Poor guy has to go have a cavity filled and more sealants put on his new molars.

~ My biggest girl is growing like a weed, but she is still a string bean. She is very happy that she now owns the Barbie Princess and the Pauper movie because now she has a bunch of new songs to sing!

~ My baby boy went for his 1 year check last week. He is a little peanut! He is the smallest of the Rocks children by far! He is 30 inches long and 20 pounds. The others we 22-23 pounds at 1 year. Those couple pounds make a BIG difference on a 1 year old.

~ I have a new toy! Mr Rocks got me an iPod touch for mothers day. I know it is still a few weeks away, but neither of us are very good at waiting. I have downloaded a bunch of stuff for it, and it is way cooler than I could have imagined. My favorite app so far is Lose It. It tracks all my calories and exercise. You can even put in housework! I also love that it has wi-fi on it so I can go on the Internet with it. That will be really cool when I go away and stuff.


This is my 50th post! Hooray!

Wordless Wednesday

In case you can't read sideways, 5 year old sidewalk chalk writing, it says- MOM ROCKS

This totally made my day!

First Birthday

This weekend we celebrated L's first birthday. It was a little early because of Easter this weekend. As you can see he enjoyed himself!

The weather was perfect! All the kids played outside. Mr Rocks grilled burgers and hotdogs.

Since it is so close to Easter, I got lazy and did bunnies for the theme. L didn't seem to mind.

What he DID mind was the cold he had. Poor guy had swollen eyes and a runny nose all day. I think that he is starting to get better. I am hoping that he is totally better for his professional shots that will be taken on his actual birthday.

I am still in disbelief that it has been an (almost) entire year!

As Mr Rocks said, it makes you start to have thoughts of another. Then I reminded him that those thoughts are quite hard to hear with 4 kids yelling in the other room!

I Don't Get It....

This week I found some time to go through L's clothes. I packed up all that were in decent condition and gave them away. I packed up the rest to give to Goodwill. I also got rid of some of G's clothes. All in all, I got rid of 3 huge garbage bags of clothes to Goodwill, 2 boxes and a bag to give away and a rubbermaid tote of girls clothes.

Mr Rocks also got rid of a ton of crap in the past week as well.

I looked out this morning at the trash after Mr Rocks took it out, and to be honest, I was a little embarrassed at the amount.

Then I looked around the house. There are still mountains of CRAP every where! How on Earth does this happen?

The bonus of the day was the beautiful weather we had!

Finally finished

I finished the Twilight series the other day. I was really, really happy with the way that it ended. I would have to say that my favorite was either the first or the last book, and the second was my least favorite.

I am also finally finished with diapers with K. She was the hardest and most difficult child I have potty trained yet!

I am almost finally finished with bottles. L is down to 1 a day now. I can not believe that he is almost a year old. His party is Sunday.

I am ready for April fools to be finally finished. 5 and 6 year olds are too goofy to handle a day such as this and Mama Rocks is tired!

Rock Stars and Vampires

My 2 new addictions!

We bought a Wii. With the Wii we got Rockband! I am soooo not a game person, but Mr Rocks and I have been playing almost every day! We are pretty good, but I am still on easy. The kids like to play too.

A few months ago I asked my youngest sister in law about Twilight. I heard all the hype, and I could not fathom how grown people could get so worked up over something. She finally let me borrow Twilight. I got about half way through the first book and ordered the entire series for myself. It is that good! I haven't read an entire grown up book for enjoyment since becoming a mother. As a matter of fact, the last book I read I completed the night before I went into labor with A. I lost my attention span when I became a mother.

The bad news is that with my new addictions my house has really suffered. I have laundry piled up to the ceiling and piles of paper every where. I think it may wait until I complete the other 2 books!

Kindergarden news

Yesterday, A brought home a book that I ordered from Scholastic for him. It is called There is a Bird on Your Head. To my amazement, he read it for me! He knew (almost) all the words. I am so proud of him!

Last week, Mr Rocks ran into his teacher and she told him that A is doing really well with reading and math. Mr Rocks loves hearing it from the teachers. We were both super proud.

I vividly remember that I didn't know how to read in first grade. As a matter of fact, in my first grade class there was only one boy in my class that did know how to read. Back then, the teacher made a big fuss over that fact. Now a days, I am sure that would not be allowed.

I am simply amazed at how much kids are learning now, and how early they are knowing it!

Proud

I am proud of myself.

I could make a thousand excuses as to why/ how I put on so much weight over the years. The most frustrating thing to me is that I am stuck in the same 5 pound range! I can be lazy and eat anything and be 5 pounds heavier, or I can watch every bite and work out and i only get down to the bottom of that 5 pound range.

After trying several things with limited success, my latest endeavor has been running.

Now, I must say that NEVER in my life have I run. I just do not like it at all. I get winded and I can't breath and it makes me feel even worse. But, lately I see friends losing weight and firming up- by running. I kept reading about it, and decided to give it a try.

I read up on the Couch to 5K, which seems to be very popular with a lot of people. So, I did a lot of Google research. After reading, the concept seemed great. The program is designed for a beginner, and meant to slowly ease you into running. The first week workout is a 5 minute brisk walk, followed by 8 intervals, 60 second run, followed by 90 second recovery (brisk walk). The biggest problem I had with that was the thought of HOW was I going to know when to switch from walk to run? It will not work for me to continually watch the timer on the treadmill!

Then I found (hear the ringing bells!) a podcast! All 9 weeks of the program are available for download.

Since I was out of excuses, I downloaded the podcast for week 1, and dusted off the treadmill.

The first day I did it, I made it about 20 minutes in. Then I promptly threw up. I have never felt so horrid in my life from working out. I was ready to give up, but then something happened, I became even more motivated to do it. I tried for a second time. I made it through 5 of the 8 intervals.

By this point I had convinced Mr Rocks to do it too. He of course finished the first time no problem, but he was sore the next day.

Then I felt bad again.

BUT- I realized I was doing this all wrong. I am putting too much pressure to run and get through the work out! It took me 10 years to get this fat and out of shape, It wasn't going to get better in a few workouts! So I decided to make my walk a little slower and run at a slower pace. Guess what? It worked!!! I finished the whole workout!! I was so proud of myself! I can not wait till the day I can run an entire 5k! I WILL do it!

I have decided that I have a plan. I am working gradually to get into shape. I am still on week one of the plan, and I probably will be for this whole week again. But it is OK. Next week we are getting a wii, so I think that I may try the fit work outs on my resting days from running. In another few weeks, I want to add in weights.

I also want to start to track my calories again. The eating aspect has been hard because I have felt soooo hungry since starting to run. I have really tried to limit portions, but trying is as far as I have gotten so far.

I am hoping that putting this out there, that I will become accountable and I will keep it up!

A 5 year old Wedding.

The other day, G came down and informed me that she is getting married! This provoked one of the best conversations EVER!

G is going to marry Johnny 5 (yes, they have been watching Short Circuit). They met at the pizza shop where they both work and they fell in love. This all happened last week. Johnny 5 takes her on lots of dates because he has 10 hundred dollars. He has taken her to get ice cream and all of her favorite places to eat.

Johnny is in a rock band. He knows all of her favorite songs and sings them to her. He is an excellent singer and this makes G very happy.

Johnny is in Hawaii right now. He was only gone for the day. I didn't have the heart to ask how he got to Hawaii and back in one day. I am pretty sure the flight to Hawaii is probably close to 10 to 12 hours.

G has also told me that she is having a baby since they are married. Ashley will be born tomorrow, after she gets home from school.

The best part of all of this is that G told me that no one else can see Johnny 5 because he is too handsome.

I love this age!

I made it Monday

I had a few browning bananas last week and two bored girls, so we made Banana bread.

Someone gave me THIS recipe a few years ago. It is great because it is almost fat free and very easy to make with kids!

I have made a few changes to the recipe, based on reviews.

The ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar (I used BROWN sugar instead)
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 egg whites
1 cup banana, mashed (I used 3 bananas)
1/4 cup applesauce (I used 1/2 cup, UNSWEETENED applesauce- regular applesauce has High fructose corn syrup and we don't eat that here)

Mix all the dry ingredients. Mash the banana's. You will get this:

Add the applesauce, egg whites, and mashed bananas. Stir just until all the ingredients are blended.

It will look like this:

Bake in the oven at 350 for 50 to 55 min in a greased loaf pan.

When it is done it will look like this:

Banana bread is one of those classic things that everyone in the Rocks house loves. Everyone had fun making it too!

Happy Valentine's Day!

This is the best pic I could get of the whole gang. I am hoping this gets better soon! I would really like a good picture of all of them!

I hope you have a good valentines day! I am not a big fan of valentines day, mostly because Mr Rocks never was. I have given up on the idea. I have faced the fact that I am not married to a sappy romantic. Maybe in my next life....

Enjoy your chocolate and roses, if you got them. I am enjoying the candy from the kids school parties!

I Made It! Cheesecake

Many years ago, Mr Rocks told me that he wanted a cheesecake. Mr Rocks is VERY picky. He would NOT have been happy with an instant box variety.

I started looking, and asking around. Everyone warned me that it was so hard, it takes practice. I decided that I was going to do it. I read this tutorial on Allrecipes. I found this recipe that looked simple and I tried it. I have now made this many, many times. Through my experiences I have found many tricks that have made my cheesecake legendary (at least among my small circle!)

If you are watching your calories, DO NOT read the nutrition info on Allrecipes. It is a gazillion calories. Eat a small piece and run a half hour extra or do an extra lap.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup margarine
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
1 1/2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt (not pictured- oops!)
2 cups sour cream

Rocks tip- get the cream cheese, sour cream and eggs out a few hours before you plan to cook. They should be room temperature when you start mixing.

The first thing you do is line your spring form pan with foil on the outside.

Then make the crust-

mix the graham cracker crumbs, cinnamon and 3 tablespoons sugar. Melt the margarine, and mix into the crumb mix. Press into the pan, making sure that you get it up onto the sides.

Rocks tips- put a baggie on your hand to help on this part. I like it because with the baggie, it doesn't stick to my hands and it makes it much easier!

Variation- Mr Rocks had me try vanilla wafers for the crust. He liked it, but I am a traditionalist.

Preheat the oven to 350.

Draw a bath for your cheesecake! Confused? I was! The big secret to making a cheesecake that doesn't crack is a water bath. You need to get a pan, making sure that it is big enough that your spring form pan can fit in it. Put a towel or dishrag (clean of course) in the bottom and put about an half inch of water in the pan. It will look like this-

To make the filling you want to beat the cream cheese and sugar, VERY WELL, until it is SMOOTH and creamy. Then add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well in between each egg. Then take the bowl off the mixer and STIR in the vanilla, and salt. Finally, fold in the sour cream, again making sure it is smooth and creamy and no bumps are visible. This is where it is important that the sour cream is room temp. If it isn't it will be bumpy. Trust me, it happened to me!

Once the filling is nice and smooth, pour it into the crust. Then put the pan into the bath- like this-

Bake in the oven for 1 hour. After the hour is up, turn off the oven and walk away. You may peek in the window, but do not open the oven. After a half hour, crack the oven door. Leave it in for at least another half hour, maybe even a whole hour. You must let it cool gradually, so it doesn't crack.

After cooling in the oven, move the cheesecake to the fridge. Leave it in there at least overnight. If you can resist the temptation, it tastes better if you let it sit in there for a few days.

When you finally get it out and cut your self a piece, eat it slow and enjoy every fat filled bite! It is totally worth it!

It's been a rough month!

One of the Rocks children has been sick since New Years! We had the stomach virus. Then A got strep with scarlet fever. It took 2 rounds of antibiotics to get rid of it. While that was going on, everyone got a really bad cold. 4 days after A finished the second round of antibiotics, he got an ear infection. All four of the kids have been sick, and Mr Rocks is also sick. I think everyone knows that husbands are worse than kids!

I am tired. I am tired of going to the Dr's office.

Anyway, in case you were wondering that is where I was.

I have plenty to share! I made cheesecake. I had an awesome girls weekend. I am going to start couch to 5k. I am going to share it all with you.

Stay tuned....

The Terrible Towel

This is a very familiar sight for me. So familiar in fact, that I never noticed that little tag on the top left.

That little tag tells you that the towel is officially licenced, and that a portion of the profits go to The Allegheny Valley School, a school for autistic and mentally disabled children. You can read all about the history of the towel and the school here. It is a pretty cool thing, even if you are not from Pittsburgh! The towel has provided 2.5 million dollars to date for the Allegheny Valley School.

So tomarrow, while you are waving your towel, rooting the Steelers on to a six pack, feel good about giving some of the $7 ish you gave to a good cause. After the Steelers win, go out and buy a XLIII version too!

On the Bad List- Cats and the Weather Man!

Last night, I was all warm and snug when I was woken up at 1:30 AM. By what? CATS!

The back of our house is up against the woods, and we have several strays that live back there. Well, one of the females must have been in heat and had two of the males fighting over her. These dumb male cats decided to have it out right outside my bedroom window! One of them must have jumped up on the window sill, and the other one jumped up after him! They were BANGING off of my window! If I didn't hear the screeching first I would have thought it was a burglar or something.

So, at the lovely hour of 1:30 AM, I was listening to the moaning of a female cat in heat, with two screeching males fighting over her. By time I got my tired brain to think strait and get up to scare them off, they already ran away. Needless to say, I was tired this morning!

I am not the biggest fan of cats because I am allergic. I do not mind them hanging around outside because I think they keep away rodents. Now those cats have made the bad list.

Also making the bad list is the weather man!

Last night I watched the local news and he stated that there would be a dusting of snow here today. I sent A off to school (today was a half day). About an hour after he leaves I get a call from MIL who is picking him up that the roads are horrible. Mr Rock claims that he swept at least 4 inches off the car. The roads were bad enough until A was picked up (of course!). By the late afternoon, everything was clear.

I opened the door to get a pic of this "dusting" and look who was outside of my back door!

The cat just stood there and stared right back at me! I really wish I knew if this was the male or female. Either way- I hope cat mating season is over!

This is a shot of my street (yes it is there!) with the "dusting" Yes, my candy canes are STILL up, I am married to one lazy dude!

My 5 year old

Today is my oldest girls birthday! She is 5 years old today! This is what she looked like just a few hours after she was born-

This is her now!

The day she was born, it snowed. It has snowed every year on her birthday since. Poor thing is also sick, and this is the second birthday in a row that she has been sick.

Luckily, we celebrated her birthday on Friday. Up until kindergarten, the Rocks children get a family only party. Once in Kindergarten, they get a party with friends. G had the best birthday ever (her words!). I let her plan the menu and she got many awesome gifts.

My mom got her an awesome princess blanket and pillow, and her other Grandma and Grandpap got her this-

She of course had to try it on!

She has been very nice and she has let me and Mr Rocks try it as well as her brother and sister.

I am so proud of her and the big girl that she is becoming! She is crazy at times, but I love every minute of her. She is kind and loving as well as out going and sensitive. A part of me wishes that she would stay my little girl forever, but I am looking forward to the big girl that she is becoming.

I Made It Monday

G's birthday is this week, but her party was this past Friday. She requested Topsy Turvy Lasagna. I have also heard of it called lazy lasagna, either way it is YUMMY!




The Ingredients:
1 pound of ground meat
1 jar of spaghetti sauce (I used a frozen kind made at at a local restaurant since we are HFCS free)
1 package of egg noodles
1 package of mozzarella cheese (8 oz)
1 small container of ricotta cheese (the original recipe called for 1 cup of cottage cheese, but I HATE cottage cheese)


Directions:
Brown ground meat, then add in the sauce and simmer for 10 minutes. While this is going on, cook the noodles. Be careful to not over cook, because they will bake in the oven for a bit.

Once the noodles are cooked, and the sauce is done, mix them together adding the ricotta, and 1/2 the mozzarella. Put into a greased casserole dish.


It will look like this:

Top with the remaining mozzarella and you get this:

Bake at 350 for 15 to 20 min.

I have made this several times, and it works very well as a make ahead dish. I usually make it the day before a party.

I forgot to take a picture when it came out of the oven. By time I remembered, it was almost all gone!

It was very good! Everyone loves this!

There will be more to come about the birthday party- on another day. I am too tired today!