geust posting by Cookie

OK, here I go.Hi , its me again, your favorite blogger's daughter, Cookie. While all of you sit there in antagonizing anticipation, waiting to hear the latest news on our move...the Ice Cream family has been happily procrastinating, vacationing in Idaho with family members.We get to sit here, swimming, bike riding,eating ,sleeping, and hanging out, while the movers pack our load of junk and move it all the way to Connecticut. My dad is already there, all alone, freaked out of his mind. Keep him in your prayer, OK? What do I think about all of this?You really want to know? OK , but don't say I didn't warn you. I THINK THE LOW DOWN, DIRTY ,ROTTEN, FILTHY, SON OF A HOG WHO BOUGHT MY DADS BANK AND FORCED US TO MOVE OUT CROSS COUNTRY, LEAVE OUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY, MY ALL TIME FAVORITE SCHOOL, AND ALL THE SIGHTS OF SEATTLE, DESERVES A GOOD WHOPPIN!!!!!!!! But I also feel grateful to him for having us get used to new cultures, sights, and other things I'm not used to. Talk about mixed feelings. Oh well. Aaaaaaand now, just for the sheer joy of it, I'm not going to give you any more info on what is happening, no pictures, no videos, no nothing, I'm gonna have my mom handle all that. And also, my mom was the one who misplaced the camera cord in the first place, and I cant really think of anything else to say, besides bye bye:]

Ah....Ah.....

WA-CHOOO!!!

My nose itches so bad from all the dust, mold, and cleaners that I've been inhaling for the past 3 days.

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I am supposed to be in NY right now. I am supposed to be frantically looking for a new place to move our huge family in 3 weeks. I am supposed to be getting dressed up for dinners in the Big Apple, and be alone with my husband in a hotel room every night, while my mom watches my kids here in Seattle. *sigh*

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Instead I'm still here, trying not to freak out, because we are STILL waiting to hear from the relocation manager. So, instead of wearing make-up and clean clothes and testing water pressure and asking about square footage, I've been sneezing my brains out while frantically cleaning, sorting, and majorly de-junking. See this pile of J-unk?

This is all the stuff that has been littering my downstairs for 4 years now. Why-o-why did I not get rid of it sooner? You should see how open and clean it is down there now. Saturday we are going to have a huge yard sale and try to con others into taking it by selling it for dirt cheap.

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Anyone need a futon, or 10 packs of flash cards, or maybe you could use 3,789 books. If so, come on over Saturdaaaaaa-ACHOO! Oh, forget it, I'm going to bed. I'd really rather be in NY eating pizza right now.

New Job

Sorry I've been non existent in blog land this week. I've had a lot on my mind lately. Mr. Hotness has been out of work since April 30th so our whole world has revolved around him finding a job. The good news is that as of Friday he has one. YAY! Here are some photos he took while he was gone for his interview.

Last time Mr. Hotness went far away for a job interview he ate at Quizno's. I was so mad at him. So this time I made him promise he would eat somewhere that served authentic regional food. This is what he ate. Oh how I wish he would have brought a slice home to me. But in just a few weeks I can eat this anytime I want:

This was the view from his hotel room:

And here is the view from his future office area (notice the lovely park?):

A look down on the traffic jams he will soon face:

A view from another window:

Here is a lovely little church nearby. Look familiar to anyone?

And on a nice day he might just sit here during lunch breaks:

I'm still trying to fathom me and five kids and all of this:

Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go eat the Strawberry Cheesecake Ben and Jerry's that a dear friend brought me last night, read about The Pioneer Woman's latest vacation, and look for a new place to live on Craigslist.


Yes, we are nervous and scared, but mostly excited. No, we aren't sure yet if we will live in or outside of the city. Mr. Hot's first day on the job will be June 29th so we have to be there before then. We are flying out there this week to look for a place to live, please pray for us. This is going to be one interesting time in our lives. Thank you to all of you who kept us in your prayers and offered support while we were unemployed, and to all of you who have given us encouragement and help in this next move.

Letters and Piano

Dear Me,


Why do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee for thy thick skin that shrugs off offenses, and for the easy way you forgive others in the hope that you will likewise be forgiven. I love your willingness to laugh and smile even when life tries to get you down, everything is easier when faced with good humor. I love that you are, slowly but surely, finally learning not to sweat the small stuff. Life is too precious to waste it on silly annoyances. I love that you apologize to your children when you are wrong, no matter how often you mess up. I love the way you treat your husband. He is a good man and deserves to feel completely loved every day. I love that you forgive yourself for being human. I love that you know how to throw yourself a really good pity party and then pick up the pieces and carry on with your duties. I love that you eat ice cream with abandon. I love that you allow others to see your faults so they can hopefully feel better about their own. You are a beautiful woman in your own right and I love that you choose to feel beautiful when in the arms of your husband. I love that you won't take trash from those who try to make you feel bad. I love that you enjoy odd things and find meaning in the bizarre, it makes for interesting ponderings. Thank you for not giving up when things got tough, because they are bound to get tough again and each time you stick with it you emerge stronger and more enlightened. It has been a crazy 31 years and I hope it will only get crazier as we go through it together. I love you, Lizzy, you are my kind of gal.


Love, Me

This was definitely one of my favorite goals. I wrote love letters to everyone in my family and finally to myself. The best part was knowing that my children now know how I feel about them. I love them so very much, but too often my day is spent reprimanding them and being frustrated with them. I need to work on that a little more. It is hard with a baby, but I'm still working on it.

I highly recommend you all try this one, especially the love letter to yourself. I did my best not to simply write things I knew others liked about me but to really dig deep into what it is that I love about myself. I think I need to read this letter at least once a week to remind me not to be so hard on myself.

This next week I need to tackle something that I should have been doing for sometime now. This week I will practice piano with Pablo everyday for 10 minutes. He has a lovely piano teacher (thanks for everything, Sara!) who has been so forgiving to me even though it is so obvious when I haven't had Pablo practice, at all. But it really isn't fair to her or him so I'm going to finally put forth some effort there. I also want to use this week to finally send out some very belated packages that are taking up way too much space in my kitchen.

What are you working on this week?

I Love My Fat

First, I want to thank you all for the sweet birthday wishes. I had a great birthday, and much cheesecake was eaten, and I did make it till after the candles were blown out. I think that shows that I'm finally maturing a little bit in my old age. =)


Today I want to talk to you about something I hold very near and dear to my heart: fat. No, not the fat on my chin or hips (though I'm sure it has helped all areas of my body grow in bad ways). I'm talking about the kind of fat you ask Santa to give you for Christmas. The kind of fat you'd be just as happy to get as a new diamond ring, maybe. The kind of fat that just makes EVERYthing better. I'm talking BACON fat people. I'm talking smokey, rich, buttery bacon fat.




Do you cook with bacon fat? You should, you really should. Just don't do it everyday, or even every week for that matter. It could kill you if you did that. But every now and then you really ought to try using bacon fat in your homemade bread, put it in your garlic black beans, use it to fry up an egg or two, or to grease the pan for your french toast, and if you want to make a man smile just try cooking his next steak in it. Ho-boy!





Now, you can get bacon grease anytime you cook up some bacon, but I've found that baking your bacon provides the cleanest and most stable bacon grease, not to mention the fact that baking your bacon is fast, less messy, and frees your stove top up for pots and pans of pancakes, eggs, and syrup.



To bake bacon lay bacon out flat (you can overlap the slices a little) on a rimmed baking sheet. Make sure it is rimmed so you can capture all that lovely fat (and so you don't start an oven fire with dripping grease) and bake on the middle shelf in a 400 degree oven for 10-15 minutes. Be very careful taking pan out of oven, remove bacon to a paper towel lined plate, then pour the fat through a fine mesh strainer into a clean, sterile canning jar. Voila! Store this in your refrigerator or freezer and use it anytime you need that "essence of bacon."

Isn't that a pretty sight? I love it!

The only thing better than bacon fat is BABY FAT!!! Good golly, is there anything cuter than a naked fat baby?

(That mirror that he has his pudgy little hand on is a mirror that has never gone a whole day without smears, fingerprints, and lick marks. So gross.)

Junk and Love Letters

For Just One Week

( Sorry I'm posting this so late. I wanted to post a pic of the towering stack of games I'm getting rid of today, but my camera isn't cooperating with me. So, just imagine a stack of games the size of Godzilla.)

If you aren't using it, it is most likely junk. This is something I have a hard time admitting because I'm a junk lover, but it is true. Sure, it might have great potential. Sure, it might "come in handy" one of these days. And, sure, once you get rid of it you are sure to need it and you will have to pay 5 times as much to get another one. But if you only buy it when you need it, instead of just because it is a great deal, at least you know you aren't buying junk, and that right there is worth the extra money.

See, Mr. Hotness? I've been listening to you all these years, really I have, I just have a hard time DOING it.

Last week my goal was to get rid of any board games that we didn't play with this week. I thought for sure that this goal would lead to much family fun as we played lots of games. Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm

*blush*

Let's just say that I'm going to have a LOT of extra shelf space after today. And it should be that way because we really don't play board games right now. My kids are too young and it is silly for me to hold on to all these games (that are constantly getting spilled and knocked over) when I can just wait till they are older and buy them when I need them. Sure, I might have to pay $16 a game instead of the $1 I payed for most of the ones I have now, but it won't be money wasted on junk.

But, OUCH! It hurts me to get rid of my precious junk. I'm sorry, junk, I should have made you useful. Ok, I can do this. No, really I can. There! I did it. And look at all that shelf space (or just imagine it till my camera cooperates). Now I can move the junk I had piled on my window sill over there so the sun can actually come through the window... or maybe I can just keep getting rid of stuff I don't use. Hmmmm.
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I've had so many things that I've wanted to do for this next week's goal. I wanted to exercise everyday, to paint, to start an Etsy store, to practice piano with Pablo everyday, to be perfect, etc. But Mr. Hotness is going to be out of town for most of the week, so I'm sure to be a total mess of a woman this week. Therefore, for just one week I'm going to write a love letter every day. I plan to write most of them to my main squeeze, but I also want to write some to my children, to my Grandpa, and maybe even to myself. I think this is going to be a very fun and rewarding project.

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What are you going to do For Just One Week?

What Day Is It?

Today I...

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Shaved my legs.

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Checked my facebook messages like a zillion times (love instant gratification).

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I bought myself this sexy little number:

. ($10 for the shirt and $1 for the slacks at a thrift store. Woohoo!)

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I made myself this really long necklace:

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and I almost ate this for breakfast:

.But I'm being a good girl and waiting till later tonight.

Or will I? Because I don't have to, you know. I could totally eat this whole thing right now and just make a cake from a box and no one could say anything about it because...

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IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!