Snickerdoodles: FAIL.

As my children crunch their tiny teeth through these wonderful chewy cookies turned boiled biscuit I FUME. It frustrates me that I do everything right but because of dumb storage issues, things turn out wrong.

My previous kitchen, in Magna, had a BEAUTIFUL and LARGE kitchen. I could store everything I ever wanted AND more in that kitchen. Yes, the massive amounts of mold throughout the house - only a minor set back. That kitchen made it worth it! Okay, almost.

When we moved to West Jordan I was excited for numerous reason, personal and financial. For one, we were closer to places in GENERAL. There's a reason why our apartment in Magna was labeled "Rural" by UPS... and no, I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that there were more cars on lawns then on the street, more empty vacated buildings then homes, or more horses than people. Maybe the few biker bars down the street or the Hispanic Spanish-speaking bar across the street (EBEN EZER was the name of that place, interesting...) that caused it. Regardless - we weren't rural anymore! We'd be just minutes away from Jordan Landing that had a Walmart, Sam's Club, Aeropostale, Roberts, Payless, Pier 1 (purely for drooling) and RESTAURANTS!

Now, we used to go out once a week, but then in order to go out we had to drive to W. Jordan to drop the kids off at the Wagner's house, and then go to our destination, just a lot of gas to even GET to West Jordan in the first place. So that turned into one date like every month. Now that we're closer it's a lot easier to go out and we've actually found more places off-the-beaten-path that we really like. One being the Thai restaurant, Thai Delight Cafe, that we very frequently take the kids to.

Down the street from Jordan Landing (the opposite direction as home) is Macey's (where we do most of our grocery shopping as of right now, when gas hits $4 a gallon we won't even be driving to the grocery store, LITERALLY, no joke.) and the West Jordan Post Office is right next door to that. Not to mention school and work are immaculately closer.

Funny how I get off topic isn't it?

So the point of all of that is that we are able to do more, transportation wise, and our gas bill has been cut in HALF. And when you're paying $3.49 a GALLON that's no joke. (Oregon's $3.67 and up and I think every time Cam comes home he's telling me that gas went HUGELY higher per barrel that day and I keep telling him... "$4.00 a gallon and we will be walking to Ream's on Saturdays for groceries. I will refuse to drive over to Macey's.")

So - GEEZ, still of topic. FINANCIALLY - better. Plus. Check.

The next was for personal reasons. Take a guess a number one...

DUH - MOLD! Gross it was awful.

Beyond that it was nice to be in a townhome. There's such a huge difference between a 3-bedroom flat and a 3-bedroom townhome. Even if we had gotten a loft, at least it would have felt a little better. Being in this townhome has been an absolute save. It feels so much more like a house, something Cam and I both want so badly, but it also is in a nice ward, good area, and has a GARAGE!

That being said, the kitchen SUCKS.

NO STORAGE, at all. So my wok, muffin pans, cookie sheets, pizza pan, broiler pan, and anything that doesn't fit in my teeny tiny hugely wasted space cabinet in the kitchen, goes outside.

This morning I made Snickerdoodles, was very excited for them (they're my favorite) and put them in to chill for the hour. Well I brought in the cookie sheets a little before I was ready to put them on and in the oven. I rolled the cookies into balls, rolled the balls in cinnamon sugar, and plopped them on the pan. Not only did I suddenly smell burning after leaving the kitchen, but they had only been in for 7 minutes! I opened up the oven and little bit of smoke billowed out and the cookies looked fine on top. I pulled them out anyway and they were BLACK on the bottoms. And by black I mean BLAAAAACCCK. Yes, FAIL black. And shiny, like it had something on it. The cookie sheets looked fine, clean, etc. I have no idea what happened. I scraped them off the sheet, cooled them on a rack and left the room. The rest of the dough went into the fridge again because I will NOT waste valuable Snickerdoodle dough.

I suppose after lunch, when things calm down, I'll scrape and scrub down the sheet again, see if I can get anything off and try again later.

It saddens me to post this. ME not being able to make Snickerdoodles. Blasphemy.

still not quite there...

For some reason I'm still not satisfied. I've posted twice this morning, the last right before this one and I just feel like I haven't done much. Of course, journaling wise I haven't.

This week has been a weird one. Literally that would explain it to an exact point but still... something's just different.

Stupid Moments in the last month:

Cameron needed help with some homework, asked his sister Tarra to come over after a family dinner. So we arrive at the house and there are sea gulls EVERYWHERE, caa-ing in the sky, caca-ing on people's cars, just crazy. So, being an Oregonian, my first response to the site is, "Wow, gosh, I feel like I'm at the beach. I didn't even know we had sea gulls here."

To which my handsome husband responds, "Sea gulls are the Utah State Bird."

WOW. *smack* Maybe I should carry around a sign that says "WARNING: May spew out stupid comments that will only further push you to believe I'm incompetent." Yeah. Definitely dumb moment of the month #1.

#2: This morning, at the crack of dawn, Hubbs is getting ready to leave and is a bit hyper trying to make me smile, being a nice guy. Well, I'm grouchy because this was a morning I just did not want to wake up. It was the roll over, oh please, tell me it's not already 6:18, roll over again to force body out of bed physically morning. So after his silly comment and his loudness I begin to gripe at him telling him he's too loud, don't wake the kids, I tell him. "Okay sorry, shhhhh," he says, he's quite the Adam Sandler when he tries. :) So I'm still scolding him because it's after 6:40 and he's not taking me seriously, why I think people need to be serious in the morning, I have no idea, I think I was just not quite awake.

Me: "You just need to take your whole morning routine and lower it about 15,000 decimals."

Hubbs stops. "Decimals?"

Me: "Yeah you know, dropping the toilet seat lid, knocking over my shampoo and conditioner 15 times, slamming the cupboard doors? Shhhhh..."

Hubbs: "Oh. You mean decibels."

Silence.

Me: "Yeah, whatever."

Bahahaha, not only do I sound like a complete idiot but I had to end it with the last word being "whatever", I should have just tipped my hat to side, swung my arms around like a chimpanzee, and told my pimp hey hey move out my crib, ho. (BTW, Brin, you can stop laughing and getting excited, I wasn't wearing a hat or saying "ho" with my lips pursed, lol.)

So there are stupid moments for the month, and today apparently.

Not sure what I'll be up to today. I really should work on my Wedding Album, and I need to find something to wear to the theatre on Wednesday with Jessie, at some point feed the starving children AGAIN. (This is the second breakfast they've had today, lol.) And I just realized I forgot to put lettuce in Cam's sandwiches. UGH.

I am glad, however, for tonight. We're going to take the kids to a small Chinese restaurant down by the corner of 7800 S and 3200 W. It's a fun place, great food, pretty cheap and we all enjoy the wontons. :) Hopefully, after dinner we'll be able to go to the library so that I can get a new book. Either before or after, since Ghost Whisperer is on tonight at 7 though, we'll probably go to the library first right after Cam gets home from work and then head over to the restaurant from there.

Okay, I need to end this and maybe, just maybe, go get something productive done.

Now, all of you stop reading and go outside. Enjoy your non-snowy weather before it starts snowing again.

Blog Challenge #3

Rant and rave! What holiday drives you nuts? Think of a holiday people fuss over. Write about loving and/or disliking that holiday.

Well there isn't a holiday I dislike per se, just how some people perform their pre-holiday//post-holiday duties. For example: Christmas.

I LOVE Christmas. What I don't love is that before I buy my turkey and potatoes for the big Thursday in November, I'm face to face with Santa signs, presents on end-caps, and sleighs in the parking lot. It does not go from Halloween to Christmas, one of the most looked over holidays is one we should be paying attention to. Thanksgiving is a time to - imagine that - give THANKS. Yet, we are so hasty and spoiled in our retail and grocery outlets and circles that before one holiday has even started we're almost DONE selling our items for the one to come next.

And oh my Susan B. Anthony - do not EVEN get me started on lights, decorations, and trees! People put them up SO early it's just ridiculous! They should NOT go up a day before Thanksgiving. We're missing the purpose at that point. I have no problem with the day after, that's fine. And really unless you have dire circumstances at place - for the love of all that is holy TAKE THEM DOWN when it's time! They should not be up NOW! They should not be up in March! It is not an excuse to have them up before Thanksgiving simply because they were already up!

Yikes. Little excited, lol. All in all, Christmas is wonderful, but please - keep with the Christmas etiquette. And if you're part of a radio station - pass the message along to your coworkers who seem to think it's okay to make people want to tear their ears off by playing "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" on November 1st.