Getting Ready for Cold Weather

Jack and Chloe know that it's about to get cold.  They need to stay warm, but also need to have their paws free to play with their toys.  So of course a regular old blanket just won't work...they need a Snuggie!

 Jack

Chloe

Thank you Petsmart clearance aisle.  :)

5 Things

Today's post was inspired by my friend Katie over at "The Grateful Life".  I think it's good to always remember that we have lots to be grateful for, even  if some days we might forget it. 

5 Things that I am GRATEFUL for today:

5.  Fall Weather
I love jeans and sweatshirt kinda weather!  And of course Fall means football, chili, windows open, Halloween, and best of all our Anniversary :)  I'm grateful that the seasons change and life carries on.

4.  Mindy
My dear friend Mindy is moving away tomorrow to pursue a great career opportunity...we are all going to miss her so much!  Mindy is a great person and a great friend and she deserves the best!  Good luck to you Mindy! I'm so grateful for our friendship and your sweet smiling face :)

3.  Starbucks Toffee Mocha
If you haven't tried this new coffee you should! It's just delicious, wish I could have one every morning.  I've only had it hot, but I think it would be pretty good iced as well.  I'm grateful that I get to enjoy this buttery goodness!

2.  Sleeping Dogs
Both of the poochies are passed out right now, which is a good thing because that means some peace and quiet for me.  All day long they either fight each other (in a playful, fun way) or follow me around, competing for my attention.  Although I'm grateful for the companionship, they can be a bit much sometimes.

1.  My Husband
Sundays with my hubby are great! It's about the only time we have a whole day together, and we have a huge list of things we want to get done...and only accomplish about 25% of them...but oh well!  I'm grateful that we can do nothing and still have a great time.  I definitely married my best friend :)

I'm Back!

This blogger has been slacking!  (Slacking so much that my background image disappeared and I didn't even notice, oops!) I think I'm having a blog identity crisis...struggling with what I should even blog about.  I follow so many people's blogs and think they are so informative and entertaining...but mine kind of sucks.  Except for my Jack-isms, I heart those.  So I decided it was time for a blog makeover.  Welcome to: Work In Progress!  My re-vamped blog is going to be visually pretty simple...cut and dry...black and white...kinda square, like me! 

As far as content, I've decided that this blog will simply be my point of view about a variety of things and how those things help me PRO-GRESS in my life.  The new title pretty much sums up how I feel about myself and the fact that I am open to learning new things, taking on new challenges, and improving myself (mind, body, and spirit) every day.  I guess the opposite of  "in progress" would be "on hold / complete / not-started"...and I definately don't want to describe my life with any of those words! 

So we'll see how this new focus of mine goes...I'll get a few posts up soon and you can give me your feedback (all 11 of you, ha!).

A Few of My Favorite Things

I am making a commitment to improving the quality & quantity of my blog posts. I have really started to enjoy reading other people's blogs and am getting different ideas on lots of things in life in general, so I want to step it up over here on "The Brown Family" and share some new things with you too. (probably looking at a blog facelift sometime in the near future as well.)

I think some of my delay in getting things posted is that I'm struggling a bit with the formatting of my posts using Blogger. It's not quite as easy to type up a post and insert some pics like you would in Microsoft Word...and although I know a little html I kind of prefer not to have to use it! *Anyone have any pointers?*

Anyhoo- for a quicky post today I will share with you a few of my favorite things:




Clinique's "All About Eyes" eye cream - This lotion really does help reduce dark circles under your eyes and I actually use it on my face before I put on makeup. It's so smooth it acts like a really good base for concealer and doesn't leave your skin looking chalky once you've covered up those blemishes :)

Speaking of blemishes...what is up with my 28 year old skin lately?? I feel like a teenager again - connect.the.dots! Reminds me of that Girl Talk game we used to play, where you had to put a big red zit sticker on your face if you answered a question wrong...at least when that game was over your skin cleared up.

Puffs Kleenex with Vicks - When you are stuffed up and feel like your nose is just raw...these are a life saver!! These kleenex are soft with lotion and have that familiar Vicks scent to them so every time you use them you get a little relief!









Pampered Chef's Mix-n-Chop - This is my new favorite kitchen gadget! My friend Ashley introduced this to me at a Pampered Chef party she hosted a few months ago. The mix-n-chop is a great tool to help "chop and crumble foods for even cooking and seasoning." Before, I woould use a wooden spoon to kind of mash up the ground turkey I was cooking in a skillet...but this tool makes it so much easier. And it won't scrape up your pots and pans.






Dryer Balls - As seen on TV (you can get them at Walgreens/CVS)
We just started using these in our dryer and I would give them 4 out of 5 stars. Their claim is that your laundry will dry more efficiently and will be softer if you throw these rubberish (somehow they DON'T melt) balls in your dryer with your clothes. I would say the drying time is maybe A BIT less than normal, but you'll still want to use the same amount of fabric softener that you normally do. I didn't think that these balls made my clothes any softer by themselves.

The main reason I like using this product is that when I have just a tshirt that needs "fluffed" or a few pairs of wrinkly jeans I can throw them in the dryer with these balls and no longer need to throw in a wet towel to get that same "fluffing" effect. For $9.99 its not a bad product.

What products are your Favorites?

Football Pops - Super Bowl XLIV

On New Year's Eve Brandon and I went to a super fun party...and I was introduced to these wonderful sweet treats. I've heard them called many things- cake pops, oreo truffles, cake balls, oreo balls, etc. But what they really ARE is AMAZING! So I was inspired to do a little research and found a neat way to prepare this dessert so it was appropriate for the Super Bowl party we went to. Here's a pic of us, so happy b/c we just ate a Football Pop :) Recipe is below. Don't wait for football season to start before you try making them, try it this weekend!!!

(We wear Bears gear under our Colts gear)

FOOTBALL POPS

Ingredients:

-- (1) package of Oreo cookies (or try Nutter Butters)

-- (1) 8 oz. package of cream cheese (must be room temperature)

-- Chocolate made for cooking/dipping/candy making (you'll want chocolate and white chocolate)

-- *Tsp. of vegetable oil can be used to keep dipping chocolate "thin"

STEP 1 - Crush up the entire package of cookies in a food processor. I like to separate the halves for easier processing. Dump the crumbs into a large bowl.

STEP 2 - Add the block of cream cheese to your cookie crumbs and mix well. Forget the spoon, use your hands to really mix the ingredients. The outcome is a moist doughball similar to cookie dough.

Here's what my Nutter Butter dough looks like when mixed well.

STEP 3 - After the dough is mixed, chill it in the freezer for about 5 minutes. This will help it hold its shape in the next step.

STEP 4 - Remove the dough from the freezer and start rolling it into small ball shapes. I used a small scoop to get them all the same size. Then form each ball into a football shape. It takes a little practice but you'll get the hang of it. Place the footballs on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper to keep them from sticking. (Then back into the freezer again to firm up)

STEP 5 - Melt your dipping chocolate in a double boiler on the stove or in the microwave. For this step use the brown chocolate, but you may need to throw a few pieces of white chocolate in the mix to get the perfect pigskin color. *You may want to add a little vegetable oil to the chocolate to thin it out a bit.

Fast foward a couple steps - sorry I forgot to take more pictures!

STEP 6 - Now for the fun! Using sucker sticks you can get at any craft store, you'll want to "spear" each football and then dip it in the melted chocolate to coat the football entirely. To help the pop dry without leaving any flat areas you can use floral foam to "drip dry" your football pops. Again, back into the freezer to help the chocolate coating firm up. It won't take long since we're using chocolate coating meant for dipping.

NOTE-Before dipping the entire football you need to reinforce your stick! Start by dipping each sucker stick into the chocolate and then push it about halfway into each football. Use floral foam to help hold the un-dipped pops while the chocolate acts like a glue for the stick. Place them in the freezer to speed up this process. Now you are ready for Step 6 "Dipping".

STEP 7 - Once your chocolate coating is firm you can melt the white chocolate and put the finishing touches on your footballs! Use a toothpick to paint on the white laces however you wish.

TADA! Super Bowl Football Pops!

I chose to make some football pops and left others "stickless". When dipping the stickless ones I just used a toothpick to help dip them and dry them.

For those of you who are overwhelmed at the thought of all that DIPPING, try these. Just roll the dough into balls, then shake a little powdered sugar on top. Chill before serving! These oreo balls were gone in about 5 minutes!

ENJOY!!!!!

Now for a little secret - My mom and I made these over the weekend, and it did take us about three days to finish. Mom scooped the balls, then I was good at forming the footballs but had ZERO patience for dipping. So mom took over the dipping while I repeatedly chilled each batch of footballs. Then I actually had the patience to hand paint all the laces, but had no patience for chocolate melting/stirring...so we worked as a team on that part too! Now that we've done it once I think we'll be much more efficient next time, but it definitely helps to have a hand in the kitchen!!!

JACK-ISM - Jack Frost

JACK FROST

Jack and Chloe

Here's a few more pics of our pups...I am trying to develop my photography skills so bear with me.