The "Sweet Reward" of Being Married

Don't you just love waking up to nice surprises? My husband knows how to make a girl feel special. Sunday morning, after a hard week with sick kids and little sleep, I wake up to find these beauties sitting on my dining room table. Aren't they GORGEOUS?! It was our 7 year anniversary and neither one of us knew if we'd be celebrating as usual because of some kind of virus going on in our house, but my husband made sure that I had lovely roses waiting for me. He's a keeper. I don't have time to list everything I love about him but he knows what they are.

We did manage to have dinner out at our traditional anniversary restaurant thanks to Grandma watching the patients at home and it was nice to get away just the two of us (which doesn't happen very often). Happy Anniversary Honey, I love you! Thank you for the flowers...

...and the wonderful life we share.

I praise God for the marriage I have with you, it is by His grace that

we are who we are today.

I Love Your Eyes....They Taste Really Good!

Halloween is coming up fast and I am super excited! My brother and his wife are having their annual Halloween party and I'm thinking about making these to bring along. Right about now my husband is rolling his eyes.....well, honey, you better be careful or they might end up on a plate! Just kidding Jason, I love you.......I'm not in trouble right? OK.

I have been looking at Bakerella's website and ooooooing and awwwwwing over her sweet little cake pops, wanting to do something with that recipe for Halloween and of course she has very cute ideas for them during this holiday but I'll admit, I'm intimidated. The shapes and the colors and the artistry....I needed something easy for my first attempt. So, while looking through the Taste of Home Halloween recipe book my mom gave me, I came across these little eyeballs. The recipe in the book actually makes a confection similar to a buckeye but I believe (and will try to prove) that it can easily be translated into a cake pop. Wish me luck!

Banana Oatmeal Cookies to the Rescue!

These cookies have a mission beyond what any other cookie claims it can do, are you ready for this? These cookies were designed to ease my PMS! YES, I'm telling you the truth. I came across this recipe while trying to find a "healthy" oatmeal cookie recipe to make for my family since all of us these days are watching what we eat. Even when you're dieting you still want something sweet, in fact, you'll tear the kitchen apart in search of it! So I saw this on another website (http://www.fitsugar.com/4016081 ) and decided to give it a try.

I had my lovely little helper by my side as usual and my trusty stand mixer (love that thing) so I got to work. Adding in bananas and Flax to help with cramping, butterscotch chips for yumminess and oatmeal for vitamin B6, the batter started coming together. I left out the peanuts that the recipe calls for because I wanted to keep it as low fat as possible but looking back now I should have thrown some in, they help with moodiness apparently.

I left plenty of room on the cookie sheet between each one because I didn't know how they would spread, they ended up not spreading at all and looked like little clumps of oatmeal coming out of the oven (that picture is of them before going in). So I flattened out the next batch and put even more on the sheet. They came out more cookie-like.

They weren't exactly what I expected them to be, so I got mad and threw them across the kitchen.....KIDDING! They were good enough to keep and my family loved them (my picky one wanted more after having had two already!) Did they ease my PMS? I can't say that they are miracle cookies but I haven't been craving things like usual. Maybe next time I'll grind up some Midol and throw it in there.......hmmmmm, new "pharmaceutical" cookies. Could be my niche?