Qoutes from Emelyn, age 3

"Get me some milk right now! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy Mommy Mommy! Get me milk RIGHT NOW or I am going to stab you with this fork! Are you ready? It's gonna hurt! 3...2...1..."

(In a shocked voice) "Da SUN is HAWT!!!"

"I don't like Edgar. He's mean to me. He makes fun of me." (Edgar is our cat.)


"SHHHHH! I am TALKING on my PHONE!!" (While holding a remote/calculator/insert random object to her ear)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 sticks butter
2 eggs, divided
1/2 TBSP baking powder
1 3/4 cup white sugar, divided
1/2 TBSP vanilla
1/4 cup molasses
1/2 tsp salt
1 TBSP baking powder
3 cups flour
1 bag chocolate chocolate chips

Soften the butter in the microwave. Put it in the mixer bowl and add ONE of the eggs, the baking soda, ONE cup of the sugar, the vanilla, and the molasses. Beat until well combined.

Now add salt, baking powder, and the rest of the sugar. Beat until well combined.

Next add the flour. Mix well. (The mixture will be dry and crumbly.)

Now add the second egg, and mix until everything is moistened. The dough should be a normal consistency now.

Last, add the chocolate chips and mix until they are evenly distributed.

Shape the dough into rough balls and flatten them in between your hands. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes.

Peyton Does Not Support Literacy

Sorry for the bad quality. I took this video with my iPod because it was just too funny to miss!

Cheer

I don't think I've mentioned it before, but I'm in All-Star Cheer right now. Instead of being school cheer where you cheer for sports games, we practice with a gym and go to competitions. This is my first year, and I'm already nervous about competitions!

I have my punch front, front walkover, and round off back handspring on floor. I'm working on my standing and drop step back handsprings, as well as round off multiple back handsprings and connecting my front walkover to my round off. The jumps we're doing right now are toe touches, double toes, hurdlers, and pikes. I used to be doing a right hurdler in our routine, but my coaches changed it so that now I'm doing left hurdlers, which aren't as good as my right hurdlers, so I kind of wish they would change it back!

I'm on a level three squad right now, but some of the coaches are hoping we'll be able to move to level 4 at the end of the season.

Are any of y'all in cheer or gymnastics?

Robert Louis Stevenson's "From A Railway Carraige"

Faster than fairies, faster than witches,
Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;
And charging along like troops in a battle
All through the meadows the horses and cattle:
All of the sights of the hill and the plain
Fly as thick as driving rain;
And ever again, in the wink of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by.

Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,
All by himself and gathering brambles;
Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;
And here is the green for stringing the daisies!
Here is a cart runaway in the road
Lumping along with man and load;
And here is a mill, and there is a river:
Each a glimpse and gone forever!

It's hot.

Really hot.

Really, really, really hot.

Like 112 degrees hot, and it's supposed to be hotter tomorrow.

Rain would be really nice right now. We actually have a 20% chance of rain next Monday, which might not sound like much to you, but it's a better chance than we've had in a looong time, so we are really hoping it will turn into something so we don't have to water the gardens 17 times a day just to keep the plants from shriveling up into tiny balls of dust.  And our neighbors have about 100 goats with no pasture to eat from and hardly any hay coming along.

You know what annoys me about the heat here?  When I see someone online complaining about how hot it is, and how expensive their electricity bill is because of their air conditioner, and then they say something like, "And I'm from MONTANA, so I really know what I'm talking about when it comes to heat."

And then I mentally invite them to come to Texas some time and personally experience what hot really is.

It's kind of like when we get 1.5 inches of snow here and it's a freezing 28 degrees, so all the schools close, and it's all over the news how extreme the weather is this winter!  And then you Montana people start rolling your eyes at us just like we do at you during the summer.

It's hot here in Texas.

Really hot.

Really, really, really hot.

The Best Chocolate Ice Cream EVER!

This is a recipe for the world's best homemade chocolate ice cream! You'll never go back to store bought after trying this!

The basic prize-winning vanilla ice cream recipe came from my grandmother, an I modified it to make chocolate ice cream. Here's what you'll need:

4 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 14oz cans sweetened condensed milk
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 1/2 quarts (6 cups) milk
1/2 pint (1 cup) heavy whipping cream
4 1oz squares unsweetened baking chocolate

Beat eggs in a large saucepan. Add one at a time in this order, stirring very well in between: sugar, whipping cream, sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla. Make sure all ingredients are completely combined.

Place the saucepan on a burner over low heat. Meanwhile, melt chocolate in the microwave. Slowly stir melted chocolate into egg mixture.

Turn heat up to medium. Cook, stirring constantly, until right before mixture starts to boil, or until it starts to noticeably thicken. Remove from heat and pour into the barrel of your ice cream freezer. Slowly pour in milk, whisking briskly until well combined. Follow the directions that came with your ice cream freezer for freezing the ice cream. Our freezer is very noisy, so you might want to put it in a quiet place.

When your freezer is finished with the ice cream, it will be the consistency of soft-serve. I think this is the best way to eat it, but if you like it firmer, transfer it to a non-glass container and freeze for a few hours until firm.

Enjoy your ice cream!