Book Review...A Good, Quick Read

It's been almost three years since I read The Friday Night Knitting Club (Friday Night Knitting Club Novels) by Kate Jacobs. I loved it. I'm a sucker for a novel about relationships. The women in the knitting club all had their own quirks, problems and hang-ups but they all came together and formed this tight knit (sorry, had to do it) family.

Well, I picked up Knit Two (Friday Night Knitting Club, No 2) months ago and it's been sitting on my bedside table unopened ever since. I think I even let my sister borrow it before I read it...that never happens.

I'm not sure what kept me from reading it because I loved the first one and I'm one of those people who love sequels or series when it comes to books. I always want to know what happens to the characters AFTER the book ends and Knit Two does this wonderfully.

Well, I threw Knit Two in my carry on before I headed out for a business trip to San Antonio recently. I like quick, easy reads for the plane. I really like to be able to finish by the time I step off the plane at my destination.


As I got deeper into the book and caught up with what Dakota, Anita, Peri, KC, Lacie, Darwin and Catherine had been up to in the five years since the first book, I quickly remembered something very important about when I read the first book. I cried...no, I bawled my eyes out.

Now, this isn't a bad thing. I appreciate an author and a book that makes me cry.

However, I read the Friday Night Knitting Club while on a trip to Greece. So, I was not quite sobbing, but crying uncontrollably, while on a bus winding my way to Olympia. Try explaining to a bus full of concerned people that you are OK, just upset over what you are reading! Priceless...

So, I finished the book about halfway through my second flight today and teared up a time or two - nothing like I did with the first one though. Like I said before, I enjoyed catching up with the ladies in the Club and am planning to pick up the Christmas-themed novel Knit the Season: A Friday Night Knitting Club Novel soon; but I definitely enjoyed the first book more.

I won't give away the plot. Just know that Dakota is now a college student; Darwin is pregnant; Peri is running the shop and a growing handbag business; KC is a lawyer; Lacie is a mom and a music video director; Anita and Marty are happy but not married; and Catherine runs her own antique/wine shop. Half the club heads to Italy. Some find love. Some lose it. They all deal with life's ups and downs. They all honor Georgia in some way.

Reading it totally makes me want to take up knitting...again. I started to learn BEFORE I read the first book but after making a major mistake on my scarf at the beginning of the aforementioned trip to Greece, I put away my needles.

Maybe I'll pick them back up...or maybe I'll just go out and get the third novel in the series!

A Look Back on Christmas 2010

I know it's 2011 already and I'm just now doing a post on our Christmas celebration, but I was just so busy lazy during my week away from the office. Now with Monday lurking right around the corner, I am finally getting around to sharing some of the fun images I caught during the family Christmas fun.

These photos have been sitting open in Photoshop for five or six days. Every time I sat down to work on them, I got distracted...by Storage Wars or iCarly or Gilmore Girls.

I am lucky to have two wonderful parents, three fun sisters (along with three great brothers-in-law), four wild and crazy nephews and one ADORABLE (soon to be two) niece. We don't wait for holidays to spend time together but Christmas is always a fun afternoon of opening gifts, gorging on yummy food and playing games (this year it was high-tech...video games). Here's a glimpse into our day...

My dad is a woodworker (well, he's a farmer, but his hobby is woodworking). Over the last couple of years, he's made the grandkids and the rest of us something special each Christmas (more on my gift in a later post). This year he made barns...big barns for the nephews big tractors! He made one for each family - two in all.

See, a small boy can fit into it!

While the three guys above have to share their barn, this one gets his all to himself...he's ecstatic!

There's even a hayloft that can fit two small boys and a tractor!

The barns were a hit but this guy has to wait to take his home because his new house on the farm is still being built so it'll stay in Grandma's living room for a few more weeks.

Gifts were unwrapped...

Necks were hugged (this was before they tried to play with the other's toys, then necks were punched!).

Gifts that Aunt MeeMee thought were going to be a hit (like Master Yoda) were opened and cast off...oh well, the bat mobile was a hit!

Aunt Barbara's garage sale find ($5 for the tool bench and a box of tools!) was a HUGE HIT!

JJ got a Glow Worm...her daddy's favorite childhood toy (rumor has it that his is still around somewhere).

JJ's first Christmas was lots of fun. She just sat and watched her crazy cousins run wild. I know she was thinking..."Wait until next year!"

Can you believe this coat? Yes, the baby is in there...just look between the hat and the coat and you'll see her eyes!

Cousins taking a break from the action...

Mommy and JJ

At the end of the day it was time for a mini-photo shoot of JJ in the barn. A Pillow Pet, John Deere tractor and we are ready...

Now, she can't QUITE sit up on her own. So Papaw was standing by to catch her when she started to fall...

Then Aunt MeeMee had to have her do the cute photo pose that we've been practicing since she was just a couple of weeks old...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year's!

My Fluff: Don't Worry, Be Happy

It's RANDOM POSTING!!!!

It's been one of those weeks. I'm on vacation and had grand plans of everything I was going to do with my time off...clean my house, catch up on my blogging, do some shopping. Well, it's Wednesday night and I just haven't been as productive as I dreamt I would be. Oh well, I am enjoying the days off and plan to make the most of the next four days of freedom.
Since I am not as on top of my blog posts as I planned to be, I decided to do some RANDOM POSTING!!!

1.  Anyone get the iCarly reference above? I know I probably shouldn't admit this but even as I type iCarly is on my television. I just enjoy the witty dialogue and physical humor of the pre-teen sitcom. I've actually had in-depth conversations with a co-worker who is also a closet iCarly fan (she has 3 boys so you know she shouldn't be exposed). We are seriously contemplating tickets to see Miranda Cosgrove (i.e. Carly) when she comes to Indy soon. Maybe I should have asked for this for Christmas...

2.  Speaking of coworkers, I just LOVE my coworkers, especially those who share my love of pre-teen sitcoms, the Sound of Music and cheesy reality shows. Though I can't convince them that Storage Wars is the NEW Parking Wars!

3.  Have I ever told you my middle name? It is NOT Grace...though my dad claims that it should be. I am definitely NOT graceful. I'm always running into doorways, tripping over my own feet and hitting my head (especially on the STUPID old-fashioned phone my parents hung by the back door). On Christmas Eve, I proved just how graceful I am and had no one to witness. I fell down my stairs in a blaze of glory...think windmilling arms and a scream worthy of a little girl. Luckily, I wasn't hurt (a bag of Gap returns broke my fall) except for my pride!

4.  I bought my first little black dress in almost 10 years earlier this week! Actually I bought two...couldn't decide and they were both very reasonable in price. Then I bought a gray one, just in case I'm not really in love with the other two. I'm very excited to wear one of them to a dear friend's wedding on 1-1-11...isn't that a cool wedding date?

5.  Are you one of those people who don't like getting practical gifts for Christmas or your birthday? I'm NOT. If I need a vacuum, then get me one if my birthday is soon. This year I got two very practical gifts...

    

I was totally excited about both. I also got another wonderful gift from my dad that I'll be blogging about soon.

6.  My life has turned into "is this something I can blog about." Has yours? I can't believe how many times I do something silly or stupid or funny or cute and think to myself "I should blog about it." But, it's really bad when I'm sitting on the examination table with a cup to my ear and the nurse flushing warm water in my ears and I'm thinking "I wish I had my camera!"

That's what happened today. I went to the doctor because I have a cold that isn't getting better and I don't want to start traveling next week with it. Instead of telling me I have sinus congestion, the nurse practitioner told me that my ears are full of wax (duh...I haven't been able to hear out of my left ear for like a year) and tells me she's going to flush them. I won't go into details, but WOW let's just say there could have been a comparison to what was in my ears and a head of a Lego man...I said too much, huh?

7.  Did you hear that? I know, I did too! I can't believe how much better I can hear with two good ears! My Corolla is way louder than I remembered. The keys on my laptop are way loud...or I just type too hard. And I can now have a conversation with someone standing on my left side without constantly, saying "Excuse me" or just nodding and having NO idea what they are saying!

8.  I made THE BREAD tonight...have you heard about THE BREAD? I read about it on The Pioneer Woman (of course) and just had to try it. Since it only uses two ingredients - butter and bread - I figured I could handle it, unlike the cinnamon rolls that I'm still too intimidated to try.

I thought about photos when I started prepping the bread and got one of the Italian Bread loaf I cut in half...

But then forgot to take anymore until after supper...here's what was left after my parents, sister, brother-in-law, nephew and I ate my mom's famous cheesy ham and potato casserole (yeah for Christmas ham leftovers) and THE BREAD.

I was supposed to use a stick of butter on EACH side of the bread but I chickened out and only used one and three-fourths sticks of butter. I can't imagine how much better it would have been with that extra butter! It was some serious goodness. Though my dad claims that I am trying to push him into a second heart attack...I swear I'm not.

Well, that's it for RANDOM POSTING...wait a minute I just saw the blonde guy from Glee (you know the new guy) on iCarly! See I told you it's a cool show!

Blurry Photos...What the Heck?

Technology baffles me at times...How could my brand-new Blackberry Bold take such bad photos in low light? It has a flash and everything. I just want a shot of my gal pal, Leah, and her award (she's a talker and it paid off).

And a photo of gal pal, Hannah, doing her Fonzie impression...

and her "mean face."

Wait a minute...what's this? Ohhh, guess I was supposed to REMOVE the plastic over the camera lens and flash BEFORE taking photos.

Much better!

So glad that I figured that out in a bar surrounded by people I don't know very well. Makes me look SOOOO smart! Not.

Holiday Baking...Spanish Peanut Crisps

I know what you are thinking...the holidays they are over. Well, technically we are in the midst of the 12 days of Christmas and New Year's Eve is just around the corner, so we can totally continue to bake under the guise of the holidays!

Thanks to the Great Cookie Exchange of 2010, I have several more cookie recipes to share with you, my friends!

Mrs. C joined our rag-tag group of cookie lovers at the Exchange. Now, I've known Mrs. C since I was a little girl. She taught school with my mom and continues to be a very good friend of the family. Mrs. C is known for her delicious Christmas candy and we were all expecting her Exchange offering would be chocolate covered confections. Much to our surprise (and delight) she included some cookies with her plate of candy!

One of the best parts of the Exchange was hearing the stories behind some of the cookies made. Mrs. C decided to pay homage to her Granny and bake some of the cookies she remembered enjoying as a child.

This butter cookie was as yummy as it was beautiful.

She decorated each of our snowflake cookies differently because no two snowflakes are alike!


Her other plate included a date roll cookies and a Spanish Peanut Crisp.
 

It's the Spanish Peanut Crisp recipe that I am going to share with you today. It's a crispy cookie...hence the name...that has corn flakes, oats AND Spanish peanuts - those ones with the redskin!

Mrs. C only brought one recipe card to the Exchange and I've already been notified by my aunt that I can't be hogging it much longer.

So, without further ado, here's the recipe for Mrs. C's (well, her Granny's) Spanish Peanut Crisps.

Spanish Peanut Crisps
1 c. butter
1 c. packed lt. brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 c. sifted flour
1 1/4 t. baking powder
1 1/4 t. baking soda
1 1/4 c. quick oats
1/2 c. finely crushed corn flakes
1 c. salted Spanish peanuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and beat well.

Sift dry ingredients in separate bowl. Gradually add to creamed mix. Mix in oats and corn flakes. Stir in peanuts.

Shape dough into quarter-inch balls and place on greased baking sheet.

Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Linking to Tempt My Tummy Tuesday and Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.

What I Got Done BEFORE 6:30 a.m.

I woke up at 2:30 a.m. this morning with a migraine. To be honest, the migraine was lurking all day yesterday...even before I participated in some drunken pottery painting (don't ask!).

I took two doses of Tylenol during the day hoping to knock it out but that only dulled it. After years of experiencing migraines (self-diagnosed...I hate going to the doctor), I knew that once I woke up with the headache, I needed to get up and take some super-duper Excederin Migraine right away.

Fortunately, once I did that and went back to bed and laid very still, my migraine went away - for the most part. Unfortunately, I never really got back to sleep. So, I decided to start my day at 4 a.m. That's a full hour (more like hour and a half) earlier than my normal workday alarm time.

It's amazing what can be accomplished with just an extra hour in my day...

1. Pictures in frames ready to be wrapped for Christmas gifts.
2. Out of the house by 5:10 a.m.
3. Weekly shopping at CVS...6 bags of Christmas candy, two magnetic photo frames, bath tissue, 4 cartons of almonds and a gift card for 63 cents less than the value of the gift card!
4. Stop at ATM.
5. Venti peppermint mocha from Starbucks (a grande just wasn't going to cut it).
6. At work by 6:30 a.m. (that's a 45-minute commute)!

Now for the hard part...staying awake this afternoon. If you hear snoring from my office, please just shut the door and walk away!