livid

So, you may or may not have noticed that every single image from this blog (except the cookie one) is gone. I got an invite to Google+ and decided to check it out. I was very freaked out to see when I logged in that the site had automatically created an album with over 400 images from my blog and set the setting to be shared with whoever from the web feels like looking at them. . Many of them were irrelevant to a social networking site and I was a little freaked out that the site had (I assumed) imported them without my permission. I deleted the album with no hint from the site at all that Google+ and Picasa/blogger manage the same photos. The images were not imported but are the ACTUAL FILES. Now every image from the past three years of this blog is gone. Needless to say, I'm pretty unhappy. What a terrible design oversight.

Hey look!

I baked something and it actually turned out delicious! I've tried a few things from The Better Homes and Garden's Cookbook and been pretty successful. I was supposed to take a dessert along to a little BBQ this past weekend, so I figured I would give this recipe a try.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Rounds

3/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup of peanut butter*

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup chopped cocktail peanuts**

* I used all natural organic peanut butter

** I realized once I started that I didn't have any of these on hand, so I just substituted 1 cup of chocolate chips, because, you can't make anything worse by adding chocolate chips, right?

1. Mix butter and peanut butter with a mixer on high for 30 secs or until combined. Add sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Beat until combined. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. Stir in rolled oats and peanuts (or chocolate chips!).

2. Drop rolled dough 2 inches apart on un greased cookie sheets. Bake in 375 degree oven about ten minutes.

They were really yummy. I definitely plan on trying them again with the cocktail peanuts too.

So, going through my phone

I found some pictures Isaac must have taken...

So remember this post? (which incidently anonymous commenter, I DID have gas. When I need gas a little light turns on and then when I really, really need gas the car starts beeping at me.)

Well, today my driver's side window just arbitrarily decided to stop working. It makes the rolling down window sound but window does not move. =( Which pretty much sucks because my AC isn't really blowing out cold air anymore, so it doesn't take long till I feel like I am inside a greenhouse. Which is bad enough on it's own, but just when I thought driving in my car couldn't get anymore unpleasant/embarrassing, my brother warned me that window might arbitrarily just fall down inside the door at any moment and we might have to tape it up in the meantime. Thank goodness school is out, otherwise I would have to park my car a block away and walk to save face. I've never been a really vain person, but it seems like God is really trying to humble me when it comes to my car. Ugh, I can't even talk about it anymore.

Isaac's dad and I managed to have a series of civil enough conversations, including an awkward "Happy birthday!!!!" conversation where he said "It's not my birthday. My birthday is in nine days." Whoops. Anyways, M's father is coming for a few months from Sierra Leone. Isaac has spoken to him on the phone, but never met him, so we are all excited about that. He even asked me my preference about where I would like Isaac to sleep while his father is there, which shocked me. (One of our biggest fights ever was when he had Isaac sleeping in bed with some random girlfriend of his and then instructed Isaac to lie to me about it. AS IF Isaac wouldn't tell me that within 60 seconds after I picked him up.) So it should be a good weekend with his dad.

I've been doing some work as a secret shopper which has been fun. A friend of mine is the regional manager of a clothing store and asked me to secret shop some stores. Since I have nothing but time on my hands currently, it's worked out well. I'm definitely not the target demographic for this store, so it's been interesting to see what kind of service I get.

Other than that, there isn't too much to report on. Isaac has been doing soccer camp this week which has helped fill up our days a bit more. The instructors are all from England, complete with dreamy accents. It's also been good because Isaac is on the younger end and these are more experienced soccer players. In the local league we have been playing in he is sort of a big fish in a little pond, so I think this has been good for him.

Hope things are well with all of you.

On a less awkward note...

Jenny and Drew have a blog now! If you are interested, check it out! (If I did it right, their picture should be a link).

sooo.....

So Isaac and I went bowling today and had a great time. As I returned home I saw two Mormon missionaries trekking down our street. I figured I would honk and wave but then I realized they were walking up my driveway. There was no avoiding them so I greeted them and invited them up into my less than clean house complete with a huge trail of ants in the middle of my kitchen from some popcorn that was dropped earlier.

I wasn't entirely sure how they got my name/information because they said they I had met with the missionaries before, which wasn't accurate. They didn't even know that I was a member or really anything about me, so I guess I wasn't necessarily on some "MEMBERS OF CONCERN" list they were handed at a sunday morning meeting.

They were extremely nice and ridiculously sincere, but it's always a little awkward to have someone you just met ten minutes earlier ask you about the frequency of your personal prayers and scripture study and why I haven't gone through the temple. They tried to do their best to give me pat, easy responses to the things that I told them I struggle with. ("Do you like icecream?... Well how did you know you would like icecream before you ever tasted it? You didn't until you tried it!") I give them an A for effort though. I am certain that the one was closer to 19 than 20 and the other one tried to relate the alienation I feel as a single mom in a family ward to the alienation he felt as a college freshman attending Elder's Quorum for the first time.... yeah.

It's hard to even work through the feelings I have within my own mind, let alone articulate them to a couple of missionaries from Idaho. Would I probably feel more like a part of things if anyone would have made any kind of effort to talk to me or get to know me the first year I attended church in my new ward? Yes. But ultimately will I ever feel fully included in any ward at church? No. I don't fit in anywhere and I probably never will. My parental status leaves me not single enough for the single ward (which is an hour away) and not traditional enough for the family ward. I'm too old for YSA crowd but too young for SA stuff (not that I am interested in that crowd at all). I usually leave church feeling lonelier and more depressed than before I came, which, honestly, doesn't really motivate me to want to go on the weeks I don't have Isaac or have to teach Sunday School. But, do consider the church and it's teachings to be true? Yes, I do. I mean, if I had to choose between "yes" and "no" I would choose "yes". So that's where I'm at.

So anyways, I don't think anything they have in their arsenal of scripted role plays prepared them for that conversation, but they sure tried hard. I assured them that I would make a better effort, took their primary-style Book of Mormon reading chart and promised that they would see me tomorrow (reminding them, that I do teach Sunday School and more often than not, I am at church). It wasn't until after they left that I remembered that even having them come inside my house was probably breaking mission rules with me being single and all (but that's a whole different blog). Oops.

I'm disabling comments on this one. Just want to put my feelings down a bit, not really looking for feedback.

WILW

Reading! I've been tearing through a ton of Jennifer Weiner and I've almost knocked out The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. I haven't been able to put them down. I also got a big package from Amazon yesterday with books for the next four months of book club so I'm excited to keep that up.

My new highlights. I finally have gotten my hair back to a brown I don't despise but I had her put in a few highlights for fun. It's so nice to finally have my roots touched up-- I don't think I can pull off the two tone look as well as SJP.

Chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. Yummy.

These new shoes. They are pretty boring looking, but they will replace a totally worn out pair I wear to school all the time. They are brand new and I picked them up from a thrift store for 4.50!

This song/routine that we have been doing the past few weeks. You really get to channel your inner diva and throw around a ton of attitude. I love it.

Thanks for stopping by...