Mom's Raspberry Almond Cookies

These are my mom's awesome Raspberry Almond Cookies! They are my favorite Christmas treat. I could eat a million of these. Your welcome!

Ingredients:

        1c. margarine

        1/4c. sugar

        1t. almond extract

        1t. salt

        2c. flour

        raspberry jam

Directions:

     1. Cream margarine and sugar together until creamy. 

     2. Add extract, salt, flour, and flour. Stir. Cover and chill for 1 hour.

     3. Roll dough into balls, place on cookie sheet, and fill with jam.

     4. Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes.

Coal for Christmas

 I found this recipe on Pinterest.  It is so yummy and they were SO easy to make. I'm putting them in everyone's stockings for Christmas as coal for all the time they were naughty through the year, cause no one is perfect.

Ingredients:

• One 16 oz package of Oreo Cookies
• 5 cups large marshmallows
• 4 tablespoons butter

Directions:

1. Butter an 8X8 inch baking pan. Line the baking pan with parchment paper letting the paper extend up two sides of the pan and overhang slightly on both ends. Butter paper; set pan aside.
2. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade, pulse Oreos  until ground.
3. In a large, microwave safe bowl, melt butter and marshmallows in the microwave until puffed, about 1½ – 2 minutes. Stir in ground Oreo Cookies until combined. Transfer to prepared baking pan. Using a piece of wax paper, press rice mixture evenly into prepared pan.
4. Let set up for at least 10 minutes. Cut into bars and serve.

Yields: 16 bars

5 months and a ton of snow

Well we got a whole bunch of snow. It took me awhile to dig through all our boxes and find my winter clothes but once I did I was out in it. I thought it was going to be hard to adjust to the cold, but it has been fine. Even Daphne has adjusted well.  

Speaking of Daphne, she turned 5 months old on Thursday. She is growing up so fast. She is still being stubborn about rolling over. She knows how to do it both ways, but refuses to turn over by herself. She is still a happy happy baby. We have started her on solids and she loves it! I'm making her food and I don't know why people don't make their own baby food. It is so simple and tastes SO much better. She is loving all the attention she is getting from her aunt, uncles and Nana. She still hasn't adjusted to the new time zone so I get to wake up with her at 3 am, not cool. I am still amazed how much your love grows and grows. You think you can't love someone anymore and then they smile at you or learn something new and you can't help, but love them for it. 

I hope everyone has a happy holiday season this next week!

Merry Christmas

Two days of bad luck.

Traveling went well, if well means getting milked for all your worth. It seemed like any way they could get more money from us they did. Other than that the flying was smooth. Daphne was so good. It was such a long day and it was nice to get off that last flight and know we were done for the day. We were planning on going all the way to Lamar that night, but It would have been horrible to do that. So we stayed the night at a hotel so we could get some shopping and other things done. 

The next morning we got all our shopping done. All morning Johnny's parents were calling us and telling us we needed to come home because there was a storm, but we wanted to make sure everything got done so we didn't have to head back to Denver before the new year. On our way home all the roads were really clear........and then we hit Eads and things changed dramatically. All of a sudden there was a blizzard between us and our final destination. When his parents said there was a storm I was not picturing what was before us. Johnny was driving very carefully, but hit some black ice and the next two seconds of my life felt like an hour. He lost control and we slid across the road, spun 180 degrees and ran into a barbed wire fence. While we were spinning I just grabbed Daphne's seat and braced myself, I was just waiting for us to flip. Don't worry no one was harmed in any way. The car did get pretty banged up though. When we ran into the fence we hit a post and it bent and lodged itself under the car so we couldn't get out.

We called the cops and Johnny's parents.The cop came and said he had another wreck that was priority because it was a flip so he left and we waited for a tow truck to pick us up. While we were waiting two snow plows stopped and then the cop came back and they got us out. So we got back on the road and headed home. Well 45 seconds after starting out we hit another patch of ice. It was not bad that time we just spun around 180 again, but stayed on the road. We decided the smart thing to do was to sit where we were and wait for the tow truck. 

It took forever for the tow truck to get us home, but it was such a relief to walk in the door and have a hot chocolate and a warm bed waiting for us. So leaving Dominica was a pretty eventful undergoing. It will be a trip I will never forget.

P.S. Johnny passed!

Our last day

I knew we had a couple extra days after Johnny got done with school that we could use to see some sights around the island. I asked Johnny what he wanted to see and he replied with, "Lets go to Roseau". Now to me this sounded like a pretty lame idea. In my mind Roseau is synonymous with shopping, one of my favorite things to do..........NOT.

But to Roseau we went. I think Johnny wanted to go because wanted to see this Catholic Church. I must say it was fun to go take pictures there. The stained glass was beautiful as was the big mural of Jesus entering Jerusalem. The church is over 100 years old and is a big part of Dominica history. 

We also wandered around and shopped cause the vendors were out. Doing this makes me nervous because I don't like the locals bugging me to look at their stuff, but Johnny loves to shop. I enjoyed the day, but was so tired when we got home. Good thing we had packed the night before or I probably would not have got everything done. 

What time is it?

I woke up this morning and checked my phone. I couldn't believe it, it said it was 11:00am. I was so mad because I had so much I needed to do this morning and it meant we missed our trip to Batibou. One of the things I need to do was get a fan to Clare I figured I missed her, because she was going on a little trip. So I called to check if she had left or not. When I called she was still home and a little confused why I thought she would have left so early in the morning. It was only 8am! So I got to do all my errands and we didn't miss the trip, though we did miss out on some much need sleep.

We had an awesome time at Batibou. We got down the very muddy mountain and had lunch before we got to sandy. Then we headed into the beautiful ocean. Johnny thought the waves were to small, but I thought they were perfect. If they were any bigger I would not have let Daphne go in. She was tired, because I had woke her up early (oops), so she took a little nap on the beach. 

Now we are home and everything is sold and all we have to do is pack. Only one day left and then our time on the island is over. Well I better get started on the packing so we can relax and enjoy our last day on the island.

Sunset Bay

Oh our date night was so nice. It was fun to go out and just spend time together and relax. The meal wasn't to shabby either. A few weeks ago Ross had an art fair where they did a raffle. We won a $100 certificate for the Sunset Bay Restaurant. The lobster was great and they gave a big plate of them. The picture below is about half of what they give you per person. I forgot to take a picture until I was half way done. It was the perfect way to celebrate the end of the semester!

Well the semester is officially over. Johnny finished his test this morning, now we just have to pack up and head home. 

I spent the the last two and a half days with my awesome friends. The CAC was our hang out spot and we had a great time decorating Daphne's toes. I had gone to get my nails done by Kristen and we thought it would be fun to try it on Daphne. All the stickers fell off her little toes, but they stayed on her big toes, so when we got home we painted her nails for the first time. 

Last night Tanya and Kristen had a BBQ at their house and it was kind of like my last ha-rah with my friends. 

This morning Clare, Katie and I met up for our last Rituals break. I was good and I only teared up once(though I did get some crying out before I headed down there). I really am going to miss these girls. They are some of the sweetest girls in the world and have always made me feel loved. I love them and life is going to be very different without them. 

Now that Johnny is done with the semester I am going to try and get my fill of him before he starts studying for the Comp. We are kicking off our free time with a fancy dinner at Sunset Bay tonight, can't wait!

Life has gotten away from me. We have been so busy. This next week is going to fly by I know it!

While Johnny has been studying his life away Daphne and I have been selling our life away. We have sold all our stuff we are not taking back to the states with us. Our time not spent prepping for our departure has been spent with friends.

Thursday we went out with daddy to celebrate his last Mini. We met his friend Brian up at DeChamps and had a wonderful time. Its always a treat to get to do something with Johnny. After dinner I headed to a little Christmas party the RSO was having. We sat and talked and had a white elephant gift exchange. Some people were very creative with their gifts. 

The next night was spent at a friends house where we had a open house sale to sell all those little things that aren't worth posting on FB. It was a great time and I got to make a little money as well. 

Saturday I went to the pool with the girls. It was the first day in a while that it wasn't rainy, so it was a great change of scene. That night we had a dinner party at Kristens house. We ended up staying til very late, but we were having such a great time no one wanted to leave.

The end of the semester is so close and I am getting so excited to be home and for the next step of medical school. The only thing I'm not excited for is leaving my friends behind.

Guilt

I'm sorry that I have been missing from the blog world the last little while. I got sick and of course had stuff I needed to get done. No rest for the weary, right? Last week was spent getting stuff ready to sell and trying to spend time with friends. 

Daphne got her first cold and I feel so bad for being the one that gave it to her. I tried my hardest to not touch her to much. Even though I felt bad I only held her when I was feeding her and I didn't kiss her for three days and she STILL got my cold. Of course she is has it a lot worse than I did. I was just congested. She is congested, has a heart wrenching cough, and tonight she got a fever. Its not too high, but if it doesn't go away by morning I'm taking her to the doctor. Having a cold stinks, giving you cold to your baby is worse. A lot worse.