Murder with All the Trimmings

From the back of book:

For Josie, the appeal of the year-round Christmas Shop is an enigma wrapped in tinsel.  But when three such holiday houses pop up within in tinsel.  But when three such holiday houses pop up within two blocks of one another, she's assigned to rate them.. Things start turning sour when Josie puts a store owned by her boyfriend's ex on her naughty list.  And worse yet, shoppers are finding a strange - perhaps deadly secret ingredient in a rival store's holiday cake.  Now, despite the dire problems at her own hearth, Josie must get to the bottom of it all - before someone else becomes a Christmas spirit.

My Take:

Christmas is a very busy time of the year.  Josie, finds herself with a full platter.  Being the Secret Shopper for Mike's (her boyfriend) ex- girlfriend's shop, isn't a piece of cake.  Add to this, his daughter that is rude and doesn't get along with her daughter, then the father that you told your daughter was dead, has just rang your doorbell.  What is Josie to do?  This book was one that I had a hard time putting down.  As two people fall victim to a poisioned cake and one lady has snow fall on  her and ends up in a coma,  Josie has got to get busy and find the person responsible, before someone innocent takes the fall.

Elaine Viets has once again brought the reader on a journey of life, full of mystery,  noisy neighbors and friendship. Each character seems to leap from the pages.  If you enjoy having to guess who did the deadly deed, then this is a book for you.  I highly recommend this book and would give it 5 stars.  This Christmas for Josie, will be anything, but dull.

Meet Me On Monday

I found this blog while searching and thought that I would enjoy being a part of it.  I found it at http://nevergrowold.blogspot.com/.  There are a number of special days that you can participate.  Love it.

1.  What do you put on your hotdog?

           I love chili, dill relish, lettuce, onions and sauerkraut.  I know messy!

2.   Do you play Sudoko?

           I tried once and it got me so flustered.  I leave it for my daughter to do.

3.   What is your favorite vegetable?

           Broccoli has to be the best, especially done in a pressure cooker with butter.  Yummy!!!

4.   Do you color your hair?

           Yes, I wish at times that I would have never started.  At 56, I would like to go  

            natural but,with teenagers still at home, I will wait.  That is, unless I decide to cut

            my short and shorter... 

5.   What is your favorite brand of clothing?

            I love wearing my bluejeans and a nice shirt.  I mostly wear Lee Jeans.

                        . 

Describe Your Life In Six Words

I just found this blog tonight, and I thought why not.

Up,Down,Turn Around, Sit Down!  This is the way that I feel my life is right now.

My husband's mother lives with us and some days it takes all the patience that I can muster up.  She really is a dear.  I was blessed with a great mother-in-law.  I just had to learn how to deal with her.  She is full Hungarian, short in stature and full of advice.

Now at almost 91, she has Alzheimer's.  Some days go as normal, but most days are like my six words, up, down, turn around, sit down.  There is never a dull moment, especially when the teenage girls are home from school.  You never know what year she is in.  Lately, she has been calling me "the nice lady".  Also, it is requiring me to stay home.  She does not like to be alone and during the night, she may get up a number of times.  This is just to check and make sure that I have not gone home.  Not that I don't live here.  So now I have my very own daybed in the living room.  If I convince one of the girls to sleep downstairs, I will sneak up stairs and sleep with hubby.  It is good that we have a solid marriage and he is understanding.  But then he should, since it is his mother.  I just keep remembering that one day I will be old and the way that I treat her, will one day be the way I am treated.  Believe me though, without God as the core of my life, I could not do this.  It is only through His grace.

You can join this at http://www.showmyface.com

Teachers

Now, please don't get me wrong here.  I have taught and I have always tried to stand on the side of the teachers.  But today, I have to stop and wonder if they are always in the right.

About 2:30 this afternoon, I received a call from one of my friends.  She had gone to the school to pick her daughter up early and found one of the teachers out in the hall talking about the students.

It seems that one of the students had brought a bottle of liquor to school and some  caught.  After taking a breath test, they found at least four of them with alcohol on their breath.  So these four were sent to ECAP for the next 90 days.  Two of them being cheerleaders, one a dancer and the other a young boy.  A fellow student informed on them and got them caught.  Now I don't agree with what went on, they deserved what they got.  I can just imagine what happened when they got home.  I know what would have happened at our house.

Well, it seems that this teacher was out in the hall talking about the students that had got caught with another teacher. When my friend walked by, she heard them and being her nature to take up for the students, she turned around and said, "Why are you not in the classroom taking care of the students that are in your room crying?"  Well, they both started back at each other and finally the security guard came and asked my friend to leave.  At which she did.

My daughter's teacher came back in and was fussing at the students for crying.  Now why they were crying is beyond me.  I would just be glad that I wasn't involved!  The teacher came to my daughter's desk and said, "Boo Hoo, why are you crying?"  Which to my daughter came back with, "I wish you had a friend that went to jail and then you would know how it feels".  Now I can tell you right now, that what she said was beyond appropriate.  This is an area that we deal with her. She is always quick to have a comeback.  I have asked the teachers often if she is disrespectful in class and the answer is always no.  So I was surprised when she said that.  I guess I really should not have been though.  Then the teacher came back with, "I hope that you get run over by a car".

Now how would that teacher feel, if that were to happen?  My problem is, that I realize teachers take alot off the students today.  My hat goes off to each and everyone of them.  But isn't a teacher suppose to the the bigger one?  My only memories of teachers were positive, as far as encouraging me.  That is, except for my 3rd grade teacher.  But perhaps, I had tried her patience!!!!!  Who in their right mind would plug their ears and scream, thinking that no one could hear them?????  I do know better now.

This teacher is known to call the students "stupid", almost every week.  I know this because of listening to my daughter and her friends talk.  

I know that I need to continue lifting the teachers up in prayer, but when one makes the comment that was made today, it is hard.  I think that I just need to visit with the teacher and then the school board, if I need to.  Keep me in your prayers.

Snicker Cake and Small Shell Noodles

This past weekend, I tried some different recipes.  It seems that for the last few years I have been cooking the same way.

It actually started when my husband of almost 37 years, decide that he needed to loose weight.  He has always been a runner of 5 to 10 miles at least every other day if not every day.  But when he retired from the Air Force, he didn't have the time to run as he had then.  So the weight began to creep up on him.
So for the last two years, we have been trying to do Low Carb.  While I find that okay, I still enjoy my carbs.  And with teenagers in the house, well, you can see the problem.

This past Sunday, I decided to try out a new recipe.  It called for milky way bars, but I decided on snickers.  Believe me, when I say that a cake can be inhaled, I mean it.  I have made a number of cakes in my life, but this one beat the all time, of disappearing.

CANDY BAR CAKE
yourhomebasedmom.com  


1 C packed light brown sugar
1/2 C granulated sugar
2 C flour
8 tablespoons ( 1 stick ) butter, softened
1 C buttermilk  ( you can add 1 tbl. of lemon to 1 cup of milk, let it sit for 5  min)
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
5 full sized Snickers bar, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9x13 pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together the sugars, flour and butter.  Crumble these ingredients together with a pastry blender or for, until the mixture is crumbly and coarse.  Set aside 1/2 of the crumbs to a small bowl.  In another bowl combine the remaining crumbs, the buttermilk, egg, vanilla, baking soda and salt.  Mix well.

Pour batter into the pan, smoothing it to the edges.  Sprinkle the top of the cake with the reserved crumbs and chopped candy.  Bake for 25 - 30 minutes until the center is no longer gooey, but a toothpick inserted comes out with moist crumbs.  The cake may fall slightly in the center leaving the edges raised.  No worries.  it still is amazing!

Recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe


Then on Monday night, my Lexi, asked for the small shell noodles.  This was a recipe that my mother would make when one of the kids were sick.  I know, most of you are thinking "Chicken Soup".  But I am telling you, this is what comfort food was in our house.  It is creamy and easy to swallow.

SMALL SHELLS

1 package of small shell noodles
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 C of milk
1 large can of white chicken (Sweet Sue) I tried the Walmart brand, but I like Sweet Sue better

Boil noodles and drain.  Place back in pan, add soup, milk and chicken.   Add salt and pepper to taste.    Sometimes I use more milk.  You really cannot go wrong with this.  But enjoy.  I also add hot sauce to my bowl and enjoy it with a salad and crackers.

Contest for Kindle

This is probably the largest contest on my blog so far! I'm so excited to be hosting it with a few other bloggers! Lisa over at A Life Bound by Books , Aly over at Kid Lit Frenzy, Mavie from The Bookologist, and I all have gathered up and decided to each chip in for aKindle. Because we didn't want to spend too much, we wanted to chip in and buy the Kindle Wi-Fi that costs $139 together, so the cost is less for each of us.  Be sure to log on to the blog below the button.  

                                              http://theundercoverbooklover.blogspot.com/

Free to leave it until tomorrow

How I hate for things to not be done to the fullest, but since my girls have turned teenagers, it seems that nothing gets fully done. 
So today, I will gather all the clothes in my bathroom and sort them out. But the catcher is that I will leave them and wash them tomorrow.


You can log in to "Today's Small Things" at http://www.homesanctuary.com.  Join in the fun.