Wordless Wednesday... But with a few words!

So, today, I am doing laundry. LOL. This is the cute little sign I made for our laundry room when we first moved in! I looked through sooo many photos, but this really is the best for today!

What are you doing today... {Or procrastinating??}

I am linking up over here!

Double Chocolate Banana Bread

Ok. I have to admit something right up front! {I cant remember how I came across this recipe. That is the reason it isnt part of my RLP series. Although I probably found it on pintrest!} Anywho, you can check out the blogger who posted this recipe *here*.

I am cheap. I will just through that out there now. So at my Albertsons, I buy the "riper" {Or more ripe, if riper isnt a word!} bananas because they are 20 cents a lb cheaper. They usually dont last around our house, but when they make it a little too long, I get to make banana bread! I did a little tweaking in the recipe, but Ill tell you about that along the way!

First thing, mix the sugar and eggs and oil together. {Enter first substition here. I used applesauce I canned last fall instead of the oil. 1:1 ratio.}

Add in mashed bananas and Vanilla!

Grab your medium bowl, and mix your *flour, salt, soda and cocoa together! {*Second substitution. I used whole wheat flour instead of white flour!}

{Last substitution: The recipe calls for 1 c. semi sweet chocolate chips. I used 1/2 c. peanut butter chips and 3/4 c. mini s.s chocolate chips!}

Grease your bread pan, and pop it in the oven. I cooked mine for 65 minutes at 350.It came out moist, and delicious. I had hubby try it when he got home from work, but before I could tell him my substitutions. He loved it! After I told him what I had changed, he still thought it was pretty good! ;)

{Please pay no mind that one of the corners is missing... I had to have a little taste! ;) }

This is a keeper recipe in our house... no matter how it was that I stumbled upon it!

Do you have a secret when it comes to banana bread? Or substitutions that you cant live without? I want to know about them!!!



Wordless Wednesday, But With Words!

I only have a one word for this picture of my sister at Ft. Jackson....  Proud.

Angel Girl.

February 21st my MIL came home with a dog. A driver at my husbands work found this dog wandering around in town, and being the kind heart that he is, he picker her up, and brought her back to the plant. My MIL saw how sick she was, and she brought her home. We gave her a bath, because she was so dirty, and matted, and just looked unclean. We found that she had scabs on her belly, she appeared to be blind in one eye, she didn't do anything but lay there. Surely this dog was on its last legs. She wouldn't eat or drink anything, and when we let her out to see if she had to go potty, her legs were so weak they gave out on her.

We took her to the vet, so we could figure out what exactly was wrong with this poor girl. (fully realizing we were probably going to have to put her down) She just laid there as the Dr. examined her. We found out that she had an ulcerated eye, in which she was blind. Those scabs we saw on her tummy, were actually stitches from being spayed that never got removed. (The Dr. said they could have been in there for months.) But the biggest shocker of all, was that this old and dying dog we came upon, was actually not very old at all! We cant know for sure, but the best guess the vet gave us from looking at her teeth was that she was between 3 and 5.

None of us were very hopeful for a recovery, but my MIL and I decided it was worth a shot. The vet wanted to do blood work, so we let her stay, and have the tests run. Blood work showed that she had a few different kinds of liver things (so technical, I know) going on. He asked if we would like to give her an iv of antibiotics to see if that could help her out. Of course we did. How could we not try to give this sweet little girl a chance at life.

That night, I cried, a lot. I don't understand how people can just neglect their responsibilities. You knew when you got a puppy that it would be work. Lets be honest, we all know that pets are work and money. Hubby tried to console me, and tell me that she would be ok, and either way, she was in a better place. I couldn't stand the thought of losing her, especially now, after I got to love on her, but I was trying to prepare myself for the call the next day, saying that she wasn't any better, and we would have to put her down.

The next morning, we got the call.

She had made a miraculous improvement. She was eating on her own, and she was even barking at the gate when the vet left her! We could come pick her up later that afternoon, and bring her home! We still werent sure if she was going to make it, but she could come home and be loved on! I begged Hubby to let me keep her. It wasn't until the second day, he caved.

We are the proud family of a little shih tzu girl! (Hubby is more in love with her than any of us, and he will try to say different, but when he thinks no one is looking, he loves on her!) We agonized over a name, but in the end, Angel is the most fitting thing we could think of. And she sure is our little Angel! The boys love her, I love her, Hubby loves her.

And she loves us.

PB Cookie Sandwiches

My littlest sister was having her basketball team over for dinner at my moms house. My mom calls me in a panic about desert. So I whipped up something of the top of my head, and called it good! This is the birth of Peanut butter cookie sandwiches. (At least in my house!) I usually like to make things from scratch, but when you have 2 little boys and a limited amount of time, Easy is the word around here! So I grabbed a bag of peanut butter cookie mix, and made the cookies (Per instructions on the pouch.) While they were baking, I grabbed 2 boxes of Butterscotch instant pudding and whipped that up, and put it in the fridge. After the cookies came out, I put them on the cooling rack for a while, and counted them to make sure I had an even number of cookies. (Yes, it would be my luck to have 29 cookies, when trying to make sandwiches, at which point someone would have the club sandwich of sandwich cookies)

After my cookies had cooled, and my pudding had chilled, I began to make the Sandwich!

Super, Super easy. Flipped a cookie upside down, and took a tablespoon full of pudding and smoothed it out on the cookie. Then, I picked out its cookie twin for the top. (I like symmetrical)

Tah dah, The  PB cookie sandwich.

I am really excited to try this with other cookie pouches, and puddings. Like maybe brownie cookies with Oreo Cream pudding? Or PB cookies with Banana pudding. There are so many different possibilities. If you make them, come back here and let me know how the turned out!!



Loss.

So, every year on my Great Grandma (Gram)'s birthday I feel sad. I miss her so much. It has been 6 years since she passed away, and it still gets me everytime.Yesterday, She would have been 100. 

Growing up, my best friends birthday was on the same day as my Grams, so I never forgot! {By the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY AL! I might have forgotten you yesterday. All of you should check her out and wish her happy late birthday too!} I always called her, and she always made it about me. Thats a grandma thing, right?

We were close. Really close. She taught me how to sew. {Granted, it was just sewing tissues together at 4 years old} She always let me help her make my grandpa lunch. {My favorite thing to make was salad, and the number one ingredient was water??? LOL} She is the one person who taught me that our stomachs have no idea what time it is, and she nurtured that by feeding me cookies and cream ice cream and hot dogs, usually before 11am. She gave me my love of Price Is Right. She taught me how to play gin rummy, and always knew when I was cheating. I always slept with her, and she always let me pick the Tv show we fell asleep to.

Then she got older, and more frail. I still look at the last picture of the two of us, and am amazed at how great she looks. I have all of these great and wonderful memories, and I wonder if it is because I chose not to see her once she got sick. Now, I know this sounds horrible, but once she got bad, and was in a home, and was just not the same Grams anymore, I called her all the time, but never visited. I didnt want the last vision of my Grams to be a bad one. I fight this all the time. And I am stuck feeling guilty. I cry over it. It hurts my heart that I made that decision, and I think it will haunt me forever.

Maybe I did the best I could at 18, coping with the loss of the first person close to me. I think my Grams knows I love her. I talk to her all the time, and I usually feel like she is listening. But I still miss her. Everyday.

I Love you Grams.