Chocolate Raisin Popcorn Bars

1/2 cup butter

1 cup peanut butter

1-2 tbsp cocoa powder
8 cups marshmallows

12 cups popcorn

1 cups raisins

Melt the butter and peanut butter in a big pot, add the cocoa powder.  Add the marshmallows and stir until melted.  Add popcorn and raisins and mix well.  Spread evenly into a greased 9×13 inch pan.  Wait till its cooled a bit and push down to make the top to make it nice and flat.  Cut into squares when cooled completely.

This is really, really amazing stuff!  I think I’m going to make several batches to send out as Christmas gifts.

Her birth was amazing, she was an easy wonderful baby… Its bittersweet to remember - I’m so happy to be getting to know her personality now, to hear her sweet musical voice talking all the time now, and to see her growing and changing every day.  However, I really love the baby-stage - they’re so sweet and cuddly and when they cry all they want is to be held or nursed - its easy! I miss that sweet milky smell of babies, too.  Sigh.  Now Ellie smells like coconut oil (I use it on her wild curly hair), and when she cries it takes more effort to help her feel better because she’s crying that someone hurt her feelings or because I won’t let her have a popsicle 4 minutes before dinner or something else complex.  It is exciting to learn more about her all the time, and I will never stop being enthralled by everything she does.  (Killy, too, of course!)

Obviously, I’m still mourning leaving the pregnancy and sweet baby period of my life… Here I was, a couple weeks before Ellie was born:

Both of my kids’ personalities were evident in the womb.  Killy was crazy active all the time - kicking constantly!  People at meetings would freak out because they could see him moving inside me from across the table!  Ellie was calmer, she would just stretch out and always kept her foot poking me in one spot in my side - I could feel her shift around, but she was always more gentle than Killy.

Its so warm and cozy - I just love it!  Plus its nice and soft so it won’t give me hat-head  on my way to work.  I bought the pin seperately and added it to dress up the hat a little.

The kids were excited and went outside to play before breakfast:

The snow is prettymuch all gone now, but it was pretty while it lasted!  I’m hoping that this early snow is a sign of a snowy winter this year - last year was such a dissapointment.

In other news, I’m about to embark on some sewing projects!  I have almost all the fabric I need to start on a cream and red Christmas quilt for our family room.  I also have the fabric for a few gifts I’m making, too.  Yay!  So, everyone brace yourselves for lots of quilting posts over the next few weeks!

David gave me my present - a fire pit for our patio!  I’ve been wanting one since we moved here!  The one he got me is really beautiful, too - copper finish with moons and stars cut out of the sides.  Then David and I left the kids with my parents while we had a very romantic date: lunch at a seafood and microbrewery and then we went to the new art museum in Roanoke.  It was wonderful!  Then we did a little shopping - David bought me a funny Tarot Deck (The Housewife Tarot) that I was admiring - and we came back to my parent’s house.

My parents and Erin gave me lovely presents - the first season of Big Bang Theory, my mom gave me a beautiful scarf and some nice lingerie, and Erin gave me a labyrinth necklace.  I love everything!  My mom fixed beef and dumplings for us for dinner, my dad poured me a nice strong drink, and Erin baked brownies for me.  What a perfect evening!

After we got home and put the kids to bed, I finished decorating Ellie’s birthday cake for her party tomorrow.  Behold, it is a four layer made-from-scratch red velvet cake with a homemade roux icing decorated to match the pirate theme Ellie picked for her birthday:

I’m a bit down about turning 29, its so darn close to thirty! Its been a really tough week for me (the hardest I’ve had in several months), and even today has had its ups and downs… But, I have family and friends that love me and I realize that I am so blessed.  One of the highlights of my day was all the messages on facebook from friends in Kansas City who I haven’t seen in 18 months - it was so sweet to get happy birthday messages from them, as well as from friends here in Virginia.

(Killy likes our new red teapot and insisted he needed to take a picture of it!)

-I can have an alcoholic drink whenever I want!  Not an option during pregnancy, obviously.

-I don’t have to work hard to get my body back anymore.  Especially with my body-issues history, it was pretty darn terrifying to gain 35 pounds and then deal with a postpartum body - and I did that twice in two years!!!  While I’m never totally happy with my body, I am in the best shape (fitness-wise) I’ve ever been in and its nice to only have to worry about maintaining that.

-I don’t have to deal with morning sickness.  With Ellie, I was sick until about 17 weeks pregnant.  It really, really sucked.  Morning sickness feels like a really bad hangover - now imagine that every day for a few months - mine was worst in the morning and after 4pm till bedtime.

-I can run, bike, and lift weights without anyone giving me crap about it.

-Our house is exactly the right size for two kids.  They each have their own bedroom (important to David), and one bathroom on the main floor (with a second one downstairs) is perfectly adequate.  I love my house more than I can explain, and I don’t want to move out of it anytime soon.  I could be perfectly happy living in this house the rest of my life.
-NO MORE DIAPERS!  Actually, I don’t mind newborn diapers at all.  Its only when they start eating solid food do things get gross - but then they get NASTY!  Also, not having to go through the stress of potty-learning again is nice.

-I’m enjoying working part-time again.  Its nice to have adult interaction, a (small) paycheck, my own office, and some feedback that I’m doing good work.  I am very committed to being a stay-at-home-mama, and if I had more kids that would mean quitting my job.

So, there’s my little attempt to make myself feel better about not having any more kids.

1- Put on shoes as sexy as these:

Seriously, are these not the hottest shoes you’ve ever seen?  Of course, in order to wear them to church I had to wear them with a very modest dress and coat.

2- go to a small-town parade on the spur of the moment.  My dad suggested that he and I take the kids to the Floyd Vetrans Day Parade and we had a great time!  It was great to see the marching band, to see an old friend marching in her civil war era dress, and the kids were thrilled that one group in the parade threw out candy.  It was so much fun!

3- Make yourself an ice-coffee.  David brewed some coffee and it smelled divine, so I mixed it with a lot of cold skim milk, some splenda, and a little vanilla syrup.  YUM!

Now I’m feeling much more cheerful!