10 THINGS THAT MADE ME HAPPY THIS WEEK

10 October - 17 October, 2010

"Happiness is an empty washer AND dryer when you get ready to do laundry."  ME

#1  YEA!  I am happy Emily is home after being in the hospital for a week.  (Stupid infections.)  And she did not miss her whole "off track" :)  (But she can not go to Disneyland with her friends :(

#2  Woo hoo!  Lindsay and David and Logan closed (and are all moved in) on their first house.  To see all the hard work, visit "QUINNEY CORNER" on my sidebar (?)  We are all sooo happy.

#3   I enjoyed helping Hilary and Lindsay with the Jet Blue Boutique.  It was fun to have followers come visit us :)

#4  I am so happy/thankful that we have 2 cars.  Then when the brakes go out (or the radiator explodes) we still have a car for Doug to drive to work.  I am also quite grateful for my mechanic. They always try to fit us in.  (PK AUTO-About 11400 South on 7th East in Sandy.)  Nope, not getting paid.  They do not even know I have a blog.

#5  I am happy Hilary went with me to get a new cell phone after mine was stolen at Winco.  (They turned it off right away so we could not hear it ring:(  I have a really hard time adjusting to "new".  I hate learning how to do something -again - and then trying to remember it.  Hilary helped me find one quite similar to my stolen one.

Then, Leslie programed the whole thing for me.  THANK-YOU.

#6  On Tuesday Lindsay and I took Logan and Layne to Emily's class carnivals.  We got to help run some of the "booths".  (Emily was in the hospital, still.)  I did decorating cookies.  Lindsay did "Tape the nose on the pumpkin".

After the first carnival ended (the a.m. class) a very shy girl came (late) with her mother.  The girl clung to her mom and did not want to participate.  Luckily we had Layne and Logan and another sweet visitor.  They were willing to play Halloween Bingo, Bowling... with her.  It felt like she had needed to come late.  She needed to be the one in the centre.  I think her mom needed it, too.  She was thankful.  It felt really positive.

It was a fun morning.

We left quickly when they were over to pick up Logan's Halloween costume.  (Lindsay loved it at Old Navy, but it was sold out when she went back.)  Leslie looked ALL over on line.  We could find it for at least double, but...

Then, she checked KSL.com.  BAZINGA!  She found one in West Jordan for (drum roll) $7.00!  (We were already 1/2 way there :)  It is in super condition.  (I am so happy I do not have to hear Lindsay worry about Logan's costume anymore ;)

We finished our fun Play Date by eating lunch in the car at Sonic.
Good Day!

#7  I am happy all 33 miners were brought up safely from the mine in Chile.

#8  Macey's case lot sale.  (Darn.  It is over.)

#9  I have wanted this cake pan for several years.  The one I have been hoping to find at a good price is metal, and way more expensive.  Then I saw this one at "Bed, Bath and Beyond".  With my $5.00 coupon it was about $16.00.  AND, I LOVE SILICONE! ( "Bed, Bath and Beyond" has something we are getting Logan for his third birthday, AND the GIANT cupcake pan-silicone.  This is what I will be using my next 2 $5.00 coupons for :)

My cookie/cake pan review-  Price was great.  I let it cool in the pan and it released wonderfully.  The print was not as defined as I thought it would be, but it totally pulls off the effect.  My biggest problem is that I could only fit 1 layer on my cookie sheet, so I had to cook them separately.  Oh well.

As always, if you live in my area you are welcome to borrow things.

#10  (closely related to #9 :)  I used my cookie/cake pan to make a chocolate cake for Sunday dinner.  I recently saw on BYUTV show, "Living Essentials" about using pureed beans as your oil in baking.  (The guest was Crystal Godfrey and her blog is http://everydayfoodstorage.net/  .  I had a hard time finding that out.)  She said to use black beans in chocolate/dark things, and white beans in light/white.  I think lots of us have had the brownies with beans, but I wanted to try more.  (Lots more.  More about what I've done next week :)

I made my cake with a cake mix and pured black beans (1/2 cup pured black beans instead 1/2 cup oil:).  (I also used dehydrated canned eggs, but they are much more expensive than real eggs so I won,t do that often.) 

I made the cake on Saturday night.  After completely cooling the layers, I covered them with a plate to keep them fresh until Sunday.

Frosting was a breeze.  First of all, the frosting was left over from Emily's carnival.  (It was Macey's frosting. mmm)  The whole assembly only three minutes.  And some of that was showing people :) 

The result was GREAT!  It had a more homemade taste and texture.  It was a big hit.  (Yea, bad picture, but super cake :)