Oat-Rageous Chocolate Chip Cookies

I made these cookies a while ago when I had a card club party at my place. They're delicious. Liz asked me for this recipe, and I remembered to go look for it the other night. Here it is. Enjoy!

Oat-Rageous Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 cup oats
2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Cream butter, peanut butter, and sugars; beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine flour, oats, baking soda, and salt. Add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes, or until lightly browned. Makes 6 dozen cookies.

I Ordered It!

I'm so, so, so excited for Breaking Dawn, the 4th book in the Twilight series, to come out on August 2nd. I ordered it this morning on Amazon. I seriously love that place. I love that if you order $25 or more it's free shipping, and I love that you don't pay tax. They have such great prices on most things. Has anyone read The Host, also by Stephenie Myer? I've loved the Twilight series, but have heard mixed reviews about The Host.

Day O' Sun

Yesterday our school had field day. Each grade was given about 45 minutes to play on those blow up toy things. The kid's have a blast of course. The 3rd grade time was 1:15-2:00. Needless to say it was stinkin' hot outside. Not being the smartest person I didn't think about putting sunscreen on my arms and feet and such. Yes, I know, I'm stupid. I wear spf 25 on my face each morning, so at least I didn't have to worry about that.

At the end of the day for an hour a few teachers from our grade also had a water day. Each teacher was in charge of a water game, and then the students would rotate. I was ready to take a very cold shower by the time my day was over. Last night my arms and feet went from pink, to red, to really red. Ouchie! I ran over to WalMart and got me some Aloe Vera, ahhh....much better for the few minutes it took before it soaked in. I didn't sleep much during the night, since every time I'd move I'd wake myself up in pain. I hate being stupid.

Book Swap

Hooray, my book from Heidi came today!! The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear is such a darling story. I'd never read it before yesterday. It made me laugh and smile and I'm excited to read it to my students today. Thanks so much Heidi for such a great book. You and your daughter made a wonderful choice.

French Peasant Bread

My sister made this recipe the other night when we had dinner at my parents. It's so yummy, I could have seriously eaten it all by myself (I am a pig ya know). And I just love that it's so easy to make. Try it out see what ya think.

French Peasant Bread
2 1/4 tsp. yeast
2 c. warm water
1 T. sugar
2 tsp. salt
4 c. flour
vegetable oil (I used Pam)
cornmeal
melted butter

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast, sugar and salt in water. Add flour and stir with a wooden spoon until blended. Do not knead. Will be lumpy and sticky. Cover and let rise until doubled--about 1 hour. Oil cookie sheet. Oil hands and remove dough from bowl. Divide into 2 loaves and place on cookie sheet. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with cornmeal. Let rise 1 hour. Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 degrees and bake an additional 15 minutes. Brush with melted butter again.

I'm on a Rampage

I was relaxing tonight, watching some TV in my pj's, when out of the corner of my eye I saw a big black moving thing on the carpet. It was a jumangus (about 1 1/2 to 2 inches long) black beetle looking thing. If you don't know already, I'm petrified of spiders or anything creepy and crawly. Even though it was jumangus, it definitely classified as creepy and crawly. I knew I couldn't just squash it, since it probably could've squashed me. I went and grabbed one of my drinking glasses, and caught it inside. I got some paper and slid it underneath (meanwhile cursing the blasted thing for entering my house in the first place). I made it to the bathroom, flushed evil monster bug down the toilet, and crashed on the couch. Hooray!

As I was once again relaxing on my couch, my doorbell started ringing. I wasn't expecting anyone, and really wasn't in the mood to deal with anyone at this point. I peeked out my window, didn't see a car or anything and figured screw it, it's probably one of the moron neighbor's visitors at the wrong house (yet again). I ignored said doorbell, figuring they would get the hint I wasn't going to answer. The doorbell continued to ring, along with knocking, and rocks thrown against my window. Now I was just pissed! I opened the door in my tank top pj's ready to kick some butt. He was most definitely for the neighbor's, considering he looked about 12 years old with his wife beater shirt and ugly pants. I don't know if he was more shocked by my NOT being my neighbor, or by my being in pajamas with my "teacher is mad" face on. I started yelling. I think I scared him. Haha. He quickly apologized and ran away.

Blasted Neighbors

I had some new neighbors move in about a month ago behind me (well, I'm assuming they're new neighbors since the old ones seemed to have disappeared and these new ones appeared). 3 garaged are underneath my townhome, one being mine of course, one my other neighbors, and the one next to mine these new (extremely annoying) neighbors. I can't quite figure out how many people live there since there are always new cars/people coming and going. They all look about in the early 20's. One boy (he reminds me of some gang banger dude), everytime he pulls in has his music so loud and the base so loud it rattles and shakes everything in my house, not to mention my ear drums. I put a note on their door a few weeks ago explaining that I live above their garage and their dang music was shaking everything! Since then things have been quite peaceful, until yesterday. Once again I thought an earthquake had hit.

These blasted neighbors also have a bazillion visitors over all the time, which park on the street (against code). Everyone else follows the rules, why do they get to be special? Coming home from card club last night, there is one of their fabulous visitors parked in my driveway. My blood starts boiling as I open my garage, thinking that'd be a pretty good hint to get out of my damn way! The moron was sitting in his car, completely clueless, probably waiting for his other moron friend to come out of the house. Last time I checked, neighbor's driveways aren't free parking slots for everyone else. I parked by the curb, got out of my car and began yelling at him. "Hey! You're in my PRIVATE driveway, which means MY parking spot. Find somewhere else to park or you'll be towed at your own expense!" He backed up and pulled into the driveway across the street (Hey Moron, that would be someone else's driveway!). Some people are so inconsiderate.

A Day in the Life of....

I was working on my recipe cards last night for card club, which is tonight. I thought I'd add some eyelets to make it look all fun and snazzy. I haven't used my crop-a-dile since I got it for Christmas. How terrible am I? I punched a hole in my paper, placed in my eyelet and and went to press it in with my crop-a-dile. Now, let me explain that in order to use said crop-a-dile you must be smarter than me, being the moron that I was, I didn't check to see which size it was moved on and since I was using a smaller eyelet I would need the smaller size thingy on my crop-a-dile. Need I mention that it wasn't on the smaller size, it was on the large size. As I clamped it together, the crappy eyelet went inside the clamp thing. NOT a good thing! I spent more than an hour cursing, yelling, crying, praying, etc. etc. that the stupid little eyelet would come out. I seriously thought I'd broken it. Sad times for me. I used tweezers for the first half hour, and then found some pliers for the last half. I did eventually pry that baby out. Hooray! My fingers are blistered, cut and sore today from all of my hard work.

I called my sister later last night and told her my traumatic story. She laughed of course, and told me I always have the funniest stories. Why is it that the stupidest, funniest things always happen to me? I guess I should be glad I can entertain someone with my idiocies.

Invention Convention

Yesterday our class had our annual Invention Convention. I give the kid's about a month to work on inventing something, and coming up with a poster to go along with it to explain why and how it works and such. We invite other classes in our school during the morning, and parents get to come visit after lunch. It's quite the busy day and I usually go home quite exhausted. The kid's love it, and it's so much fun seeing all the fun and creative ideas my little kiddoes came up with.

With it getting so close to the end of the year, I get sad just thinking about not having these cuties to see each and every day. I can't believe we only have about another week and a half until our so called "summer break".

Mikey's in Da House

I wanted to give a shout out to my brother, Mike. He just started a blog, check it out here. Head on over there and welcome him to the bloggin' world. What a great brother you are Mikey, even though you're my only one, you're still the best!

Gotta Love a Drawing

My card club friend, and fellow blogger, Meridith, is having a drawing on her blog. Head on over there and check it out. All you gotta do is leave a comment, stating one thing you can't live without and you could win one of her Lizzie Anne Designs, Little Bits stamp sets. So adorable! Check out the stamps here.

First Day Back

Today is my first day back on track, with my cute little kiddoes. As they were coming in this morning I realized how much I really did miss them! They have been so helpful, helping me move desks, get things set up, etc. (since I really didn't get much done on Friday). This year's class has been one of my favorite/better classes I've had in a while. It's going to be quite a sad day come July 1st when I have to say goodbye to them. I'll miss the little buggers.

Awesome Sportsmanship

I got this in an email today from my sister-in-law. I thought it was a great story, very touching, and wanted to share it. Watch it here.