Hittin' the Books...

And, we're back in our school-year routine. I've been dreading the fast-paced craziness that comes with school, but the kids have been eagerly anticipating going back to school. Needless to say, it's going to take more than eager anticipation for us to get back into a timely routine, so we were a bit frantic on the first day. Oh, well. They didn't give us tardy slips, so we're in the clear.


Even though we were late, we were very prepared. Those backpacks are full of all the necessary supplies (and even some unnecessary ones).


And, if you look even closer, you'll see that each item is labeled with the owner's name. And, I mean every item. Every crayon, marker, marker lid, etc... Daniel and I spent an evening last week labeling everything to play by the rules. (But, that doesn't mean we didn't think it was a superfluous act.)





By school time, I had completely forgotten my aggravation with labeling supplies and couldn't stand how independent my babies looked in their classes. By today, the second day of school, Abigail requested that I not walk her to her class. I went anyway, and she walked as quickly as possible so that Cooper and I couldn't keep up. I assured her I would be walking with her for the first week and then she could be on her own.


I hope this little guy doesn't decide he wants to be completely independent!

Tuesday Treats - Coke/Butterfinger Cake

I baked two new recipes, a Coca-Cola cake and a Butterfinger cake, last week for Bible study. Then, we had a neighborhood barbecue over the weekend and I decided to experiment. I combined the two recipes and ended up with a scrumptious dessert. You must try this out, but beware... it is not diet friendly!

Ingredients
1 cup coke
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup butter, softenened
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows
1 jar caramel sauce/topping
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 large Cool-Whip
1 king size Butterfinger bar

Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Combine coke and buttermilk and set aside. Beat butter at slow speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until blended. Add eggs and vanilla/ beat at low speed until blended.  Combine flour, cocoa, and baking soda in separate bowl. Add to butter mixture alternately with coke mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed until blended after each addition. Stir in marshmallows. Pour batter into a greased and floured 13x9 inch pan.  Bake at 350 for 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from oven. Cool for 10 minutes.  While it's still hot, use a fork to punch holes all over the top of the cake. Combine the sweetened condensed milk and caramel and pour mixture evenly over cake.  Cool cake completely. Cover cake with Cool Whip. Top with crushed Butterfinger.

Sorry I don't have a picture. I was too busy eating and then wallowing in my misery from the richness of the cake.

Annie

Last week, Abigail and I joined our neighbors, Kristy and her daughter Morgan, for a night out in Austin. We ventured to the city for the summer musical "Annie" at Zilker Park. Each year, there is a free musical presented Thurs-Sun nights at an amphitheater, and we finally made it to a performance for the first time. It was a late night since curtain call isn't until sunset, but completely worth the exhaustion. The girls loved it!

We arrived an hour before showtime to enjoy our picnic dinner and get a good seat with our blankets, but we weren't early enough. We ended up in the very back, but the seating hill is steep enough that we still had decent seats. Although, I'm sure everyone seated near us wasn't as thrilled with us being nearby since I couldn't make Abigail stop singing along to every song in the production. 

We were all impressed with the production and thoroughly enjoyed our evening. I can't wait to take Abigail back next summer!

I Fought the Law, And I WON!

A few months ago I had to go into Austin during a weekday, which NEVER happens. It was an emergency I needed to tend to, and it turned into an unfortunate trip. I ended up getting a ticket as I entered the freeway. Ugh...

I was so annoyed. I've been ticketed just three times in my driving career, all for minor speeding tickets. The last of those occurred when I was pregnant with Cooper. In fact, I was driving down a rural highway and racing to get to a potty break 95 mph over the speed limit), one of the pitfalls of being pregnant and commuting an hour to/from work. Ha! Anyways, I'm not an aggressive driver, but on this day in Austin, I was mistaken for one. I was ticketed for following too closely, when neither my passenger (my sister) nor I saw a vehicle in front of me. Yeah, when I entered the freeway, I was too close to a vehicle in the freeway merging process, which is why I quickly changed lanes into an open lane with less traffic. Then, I got pulled over. Grr....

Needless to say, I disagreed with the ticket. And, I don't easily accept things that I don't agree with. Yeah, I'm an arguer. I like confrontation. I like to argue. Blame my parents for letting me compete in debate through high school. ha ha!

I did question my resolve each time the prosecutor's office offered me a reduced fine and a chance to keep the ticket off my record, but I continued through the process of challenging my ticket over the past three months. Even this morning, when I appeared for my jury trial, I was offered a chance to plead out with an even lower fine and be done with the situation. I assured the prosecutor the issue wasn't about money for me, but rather that I wasn't guilty and I still wanted a jury trial. (I was going to feel very stupid if I lost the case and it did become about money when I had to pay higher insurance premiums.)

After fours hours in court, with one of those being an hour of jury deliberations, I was very relieved to win my first (and hopefully last) court case. It was an interesting morning in court as I struggled to recall all my moot court experience in college. I'd like to think my poly sci prof would be proud of me, but most of all, I'm just glad to be rid of that stinkin' ticket!