Snowed In?

If you're my family, then the answer for about 80% of you is YES (I'm counting Bathjes as well). For the rest of you, just in case you haven't heard yet, most of the midwest is dealing with lots of horrible winter weather right now. We're in the middle of a blizzard here in Chicagoland, and I don't expect we'll be out and about again until Thursday at the earliest. The snow has been falling so heavily, but I have no idea how much we have yet because the wind has been blowing so badly. Anyway, for those of you who are snowed in I thought I'd share this fabulous hot chocolate recipe I finally tried tonight. It's so good that it doesn't even need marshmallows.

INGREDIENTS
• 2 oz unsweetened chocolate
• 1 cup water
• ½ cup sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon corn starch
• 3 cups milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (if desired)

PROCEDURE
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler
Boil the water, and stir in the sugar, salt, and cornstarch until dissolved. Add the cayenne pepper, if desired.
Pour over the chocolate and stir thoroughly.
Scald the milk, pour it into the mixture, and add the vanilla.
Reheat the mixture almost to boiling and whip it with an eggbeater until frothy.
Makes 4 cups.

Also, many of you have asked me to come back to my blog and update again. I decided last month that I was going to take January off and come back again in February, though I won't post every day like I did before. So please come back and check up on me from time to time. I'm going to keep this blog address even though I'm done with the 365 project, I'll probably just change the name in the blog header. Anyone have any suggestions?

Look back here tomorrow - I'm hoping to get some snow pics once it lets up a bit. Stay safe and warm everyone!

I MADE IT!!! (365/365)

Can you believe it?! ME, Becky Iblogonceeverytwomonths Bathje completed my goal of posting once every day for a whole year? I know I'm surprised!! There were days when I was VERY close to not posting in time, and days when I was SO not in the mood to sit down and write a post (can you say four day hospital visit), but I'm so proud of myself for doing it.

People have asked me if I plan on continuing now that my year is complete, the answer to that is no, I don't intend to do another year of daily posts. However, I do plan on posting more often now that it's become a habit. I haven't yet decided if I'll just keep this blog or if I'll create a new one, but I will certainly let you know.

So for now . . .

Keep it movin' -- there's nothing to see here, folks!

Thank You, JJ! (364/365)

I'm at a Trans Liberian, I mean Siberian, Orchestra concert in St.
Louis with three of my favorite people. Thank you, JJ for inviting me!

Also, I love Stacey. :)

Dinner at the Diner (363/365)

Cindy and Tori were off in St. Louis for the annual Rappe girls
shopping excursion, so Dad and I decided the rest of us should go out
to eat at BJ's - a Jacksonville staple. The food was pretty good (I
should know better than to try something new. I had a pork tenderloin
horseshoe when I should have stuck with what I know tastes good -
hamburger), the company was great, and both girls took turns playing
peek-a-boo with Uncle Chuck's hat!

Only TWO days left!! Can you believe it?!

Guess Who Barely Touched Her Dinner…(362/365)

But easily polished off the last of the chocolate pie?

Oh, Isabel.

Can You Guess What They're Doing? (361/365)

All three of them were in a trance watching The Simpsons.

Miss you Ry (and double N)!

Knitters Row (360/365)

We're all such old ladies…and we love it!

Merry Quack Quack! (359/365)

Matt and I started our day bright and early at 6am.
After we had showered and changed, I decided to wake the girls with my camera.
"Mommy, it hurts my eyes!"
Wish I could have actually seen where I was pointing the camera,
but you get the point.

Izzy was out like a light and couldn't have cared less about my flash!

Once she got up though she was in awe of all the presents!
(This was definitely the first Christmas I've ever had that started before sunrise!)

Can you tell she just woke up? She couldn't wait to dig into her stocking.

She's such a happy girl, the duck kazoo helped, I think.

I wonder what my sister got for me for Christmas!

A NEW HELLO KITTY CALENDAR!!!
I don't believe it!

I had so much fun watching Izzy open presents.

This was one of the big reasons why!!

What's this? We still have ONE more present to open?
And it's for MEEEEEEE??
I wonder what it is . . .

It's a scooter (not pictured, you'll just have to trust me), just what I always wanted!!!

Then we went to Mom and Dad's for breakfast and the rest of the day's festivities.
Unfortunately my camera decided to crap out and I have to send it back in to Canon.
Needless to say this was not the highlight of my Christmas.

I blame Patrick. ;)

Merry Christmas, Everyone!!!

Christmas is Coming! (358/365)

• We've been to mass (with Auntie Annie).
• There is snow on the ground (and it's still falling).
• My belly is full of cookies (oops).
• Presents are around the tree (and weighing down the stockings).
• We're packed and ready to leave for Jville on the 26th.
• Matt and I finished our Bathje grab bag ornaments (I'll have to take
pics of the ones the girls made - SO cute!)
• O'Henry's Full House is on the TV.

I'd say we're ready for Christmas to get here (though I'm not looking
forward to getting up at 6am)!!!

Merry Christmas!

What's Christmas with out Foldovers? (357/365)

I actually had the dough for these in the fridge for a while, but I
had been putting off making them because they aren't exactly my
favorite things to make. It's probably a good thing that I waited
until today to finish them because while they may not be my favorite
things to make, I sure do love eating them! Had I made them last
week, my stock would surely be depleted by now!

Riiiiiiiiicola!!!! (356/365)

Empty wrapping paper tubes are good for many things,

including pretending you are from the mountains of Switzerland.

Oh, and for calling moose.

I Told You We Were Going to do it (355/365)

Hope you had a good one, sorry we forgot to make a video!

Last Class Until Next Year! (354/365)

Today was Alice last day of school until 2011 and they celebrated with a Christmas party - of course! I'm pretty blessed that I get to stay at home with my girls anyway, and being able to participate on days like today make me even more thankful that Matt works so hard so I am able. The kids had so much fun making crafts, devouring cookies, and playing silly Christmas themed games. Even Izzy got in on the fun - and I'm pretty sure that she's already ready to go to preschool herself!

Izzy having high tea with our school director - Mrs. Dillon.

One of Alice's best buddies, Tricia, fawning over Izzy.
She and Emily both think Izzy is the bees knees.

Oh, and this has always been Izzy's favorite toy at Alice's school.
Maybe she'll grow up to be just like her Uncle Fred!

It didn't take them long to finish their cookies.
Izzy was happier than a pig in, you know what.
She was trying to cram the tree cookie in her mouth
when it was still full with half of Oreo.

See the influence you have on me, Cindy?

It dawned on me after the kids went to bed that we forgot to make a birthday video for Uncle Mike who celebrated his 35th today. We'll make up for that tomorrow, so long as you don't mind that it's a day late. Love you!

Nice Way to End the Weekend (353/365)

Alice and I attended a birthday party of one of her classmates at the local children's museum today. By the time it was over I was ready for a nap!

Typical Alice, thoroughly enjoying being at the table full of boys.
I think she was a little bummed that her buddy Chaseton wasn't there.

It was stuff like this that made me think that Alice would fall asleep
once we got home. Those kids ran all over the place, yet she didn't express
any interest in a nap this afternoon.

Also, watching 4 and 5 year olds play tag is hilarious!

The non-violent version of the pinata. All of the kids pulled a string
and out flew $10 in candy. They LOVED it, in case you had any doubt.

Almost her whole class was present, it made me truly appreciate what
her teachers do three days a week. Wrangling 11 kids is madness,
I can't imagine throwing a few more into the mix.

Mike and Rae, Avert Your Eyes (352/365)

if you don't want to see Kaylee's gift before she gets it. I spent a few hours finishing this up today, and I was so excited with how well it turned out I decided I had to share.

Over Thanksgiving I discovered that Kaylee has a real love for painting. Rach expressed that she's been meaning to get Kay a holder for her brushes because she has so many of them. With that I knew what I was going to do for her for Christmas, and I asked Rae if I could make one for Kaylee. I have mom's paintbrush holder that she used for many, many years and once upon a time (with the help of Jessica) I used it as a template to make my own brush holder using some vintage Strawberry Shortcake fabric we came across in mom's cedar chest after she died. I thought that since I had done it before that it would be a sinch to do again - boy was I wrong!

I ended up buying fabric twice because I messed up the first time around. I didn't cut pieces to the proper length, and I just plain didn't put it together right. SO, the second time around I actually thought it out properly, measured several times, and wrote step by step directions so I wouldn't mess up. It certainly helped!

The finished product isn't perfect, the piece on the inside that covers the brushes wasn't evenly sewn for one, but it's done and it will serve it's purpose well, I think. And who knows, maybe it will even last her for many, many years to come.