Brother can you spare a dime (or 140 dimes)?

While I'm thinking about food - I was reminded today that it is cookie dough fundraiser time at the Red Menace's school. I have to admit I haven't done a good job pushing the dough this year. Its not because it isn't good. It is actually delicious. In addition to the standard Choco chip, they are selling white chocolate macadamia, Oatmeal Raisin, Pans of turtle brownies, cranberry oatmeal, peanut butter, chocolate chocolate chunk, and my favorite - soft ready to bake pretzels.

The dough comes in 3 pound tubs of pre-shaped nuggets. All you do is bake the desired number that you want. I think each tub makes 3 dozen. Now I know that $14 bucks for 3 dozen cookies seems like a lot, but the proceeds go to updating the playground equipment at the school. A very worthy cause indeed. Unfortunately, they don't offer vegan dough - too bad!

The best news is that the dough will arrive Nov 5, just in time for the holiday swirl of drop in guests and holiday crafting parties.

If you're interested, let me know. I'll personally deliver the dough directly to your door. Now that's service!

Get me to the Fair on time..

It's that time of year again.. The Great State Fair of Texas is officially open and yours truly is headed to the Big D this weekend. For our family, the annual pilgrimage to the State Fair and the Texas-OU game is more sacrosanct than Christmas or Easter. Perhaps it is because my dad hasn't missed one since 1950 (seriously.. this is his 57th TX-OU weekend).

Dad has been meeting a group of his college roomates at the same place on the fairgrounds for as long as I can remember. They only see each other once a year, but they have an incredibly strong bond. Over the years, the group has dwindled. In the last few years, it has just been my dad and his best friend from college - Olan. Dad has been in a wheelchair for 11 years now, but his buddy has resisted. This year is different. His friend is not well at all, and I think it is taking a toll on dad too. For over a week, they've been plotting and figuring how Olan will get to the fair.
"Can he rent a wheelchair there?" "Where could he park?" all of these questions have been up in the air this week. I think we finally got it all figured out. The weekend is as important to Olan as it is to dad. He's been going to the game for 61 years, and I think he's worried that this might be his last. I think dad is worried too.

So think of us this weekend, dear readers, as the old and the young hit the fairgrounds. This will be the Snapper's first taste of the fair. She's too young for fair food, but I'm not. I've already set my sights on the fried banana pudding and fried mac n' cheese.

Wide open spaces

This is my new favorite place in my house. Note that you can actually SEE the countertop. I've caught myself just staring at this space several times tonight. The large jars next to the recipe box contain rare candy collected on vacation, and a brandied fruit mixture that has been fermenting for about 2 years now. I make a killer brandied fruitcake (recipe courtesy Scott's grandmother) from this stuff. Next to that jar is the two- count 'em- two, boxes of pills, vitamins, supplements, and assorted potions that are helping me through this post-partum stuff.

Clothes Horse part II

I've spent the better part of this weekend messing around with Rees' wardrobe. Early Saturday morning, I got a call from Mom saying that some of our good friends were having a garage sale featuring baby items. Mom and I both hot-footed it over there to find a baby paradise. There were so many cool things I was a bit overwhelmed.

This is the BEFORE shot.. thank God for Mom.

I picked out a super cool pram and stroller for Rees, plus some awesome vintage clothes. I also made sure to call my mother in law, who purchased $50 in clothes for Rees too. Later that afternoon, our friends called to say they had put aside "some things that didn't sell" for us. I was not expecting 4 huge garbage bags full of clothes ranging in sizes from newborn to 6. Needless to say, I was a bit overwhelmed. Ruby and I spent an entire afternoon before Rees was born, going through mounds and mounds of clothes, and here were even more!

The problem with this most generous gift was that the clothes were pretty much all AWESOME. It would have been so much easier to toss some. As it is, I won't have to buy much until 2011.

My mom and I spent 3 hours sorting, and then I made a trip to the big W for additional storage boxes. Of course I came home with 4 boxes and only 2 lids that fit, so that means another trip to the store tomorrow. Ughh...

Oh well, at least I'll have the best dressed baby on the block.

Here is the after shot.. I have another huge box of just size 3 months in our room, plus an enormous bag for the women's shelter..

Keeping Up with the Jetsons

Our lives got a little more technologically savvy this week with the arrival of Scott's new laptop. I had fussed all summer over the darn thing. Comparing weekly ad circulars, doing internet searches, asking advice and soliciting opinions. When I finally was ready to buy, I found that the laptop of my dreams was NO LONGER available anywhere. (I blame the back to school crowd for the deficit in laptops this month)

So I had to start my search all over. We ended up getting a computer that has a little more horsepower than we actually need. Well, at least it has more bells and whistles than we actually need. Supposedly it can be used for kareoke, but I'm not sure. Also, we are supposed to be able to watch live television and record it too, but I can't figure that feature out either.

I'm a far cry from my 18 year-old self - the one who subscribed to the inaugural issue of Wired magazine, was on the internet before it had any images, and talked to folks in IRC chat rooms. I'm not sure what happened to me, but I definitely did not keep up with the changing technology.

When I met Scott, he was just a little better than a luddite. His telephone was a vintage 1930s rotary dial, and he was somewhat skeptical of the internet. Of course all that has changed somewhat, but we are still behind the technology curve. We don't have ipods or mp3 players, although I am mighty intrigued by them.

At least now we have Red Menace and the Snapper to keep us up to date. Some of the current baby toys employ so much technology that its scary. And RM is entering into the age when Christmas lists go from action figues and board games to cell phones and ipods. I'm not complaining mind you, I fully intend to get him to help me figure out the features on this #&@!* laptop.

No sharing drinks or kissing in the floral dept

From the "BAD MARKETING CAMPAIGN" files:

Check out the bottom of this ad (that was in today's paper).

I'm not sure what a shocking Mono bouquet is. I don't think you'd wanted delivered to Hospitals, Nursing Homes or Funeral Homes. Heck, you probably wouldn't want it delivered to your worst enemy's home.

I'm trying to get a handle on what this bouquet could possibly look like. What makes it shocking?

I'm not brave enought to find out.

Nitty Gritty

I have a confession to make. Until very recently, I never washed my face. I'm not exactly sure why. Over the years I accumulated face washing products: foaming washes, toners, creams, scrubs, masks that heated up, strips that guaranteed removal of blackheads and 7 layers of skin. I was fascinated by these pricy potions, but not enough to stick with anything very long.

When I was in middle and high school, I joined the ranks of most teenagers and used those stridex pads or Bonnie Bell toner. But I gave up on those too. I just couldn't get behind the whole face washing ritual. I think part of the deal was that since I didn't use makeup very often, I didn't think about my face too much. Since the Snapper got here, I've changed my tune a bit.

Why this change? Well, for one, my little sister introduced me to this line of non-animal tested, hypo-allergenic, mostly organic, plant based face products called Arbonne. The system is a five step deal that takes about 5 minutes to do. I gotta tell you, I'm hooked. My face feels as soft as the Ol Snapper's cheeks.

The other reason I'm hooked is because I've come to appreciate something as small as washing one's face as an indulgence. Since my world is a little chaotic right now, (see my next post soon on my recent trip to Austin) taking 5 minutes to apply these products gives me a little order and control over my day. A friend recently told me that the secret to baby-ing is EASY.

Not Easy as in the opposite of hard, but Easy meaning that the baby should:
Eat
Activity (changing a diaper, play, walk around the house)
Sleep
then the caregiver should spend some
You time.

Right now, about all the You time I'm getting right now is washing my face once a day. I dream of getting a lot of stuff done, of returning to my crazy Pre-Snapper lifestyle. I don't think it is going to happen any time soon. So I'll settle for face washing. I'm sure my skin is thanking me.