Stacey Crocker

I like to bake. I hate to cook but I love to bake. My first real job was a baking job. From time to time I get into a mega baking mood and go a little crazy baking a whole mess of stuff all at once.

This weekend is the Canadian Thanksgiving and my Mother in Law asked me to bring a cheesecake for dessert for her Thanksgiving dinner. No problem at all. The only thing I like better than cheesecake is MY cheesecake. I don't like to brag...well yes, actually I do...my cheesecake it THE s-@*#! I figured while I was making a cheesecake for that dinner I might as well make one for when I go to my parents for dinner. I usually make a traditional fruit topped cheesecake to go to either house. Then I found an easy chocolate cheesecake recipe on Pinterest.com (my latest addiction). I'm not a big chocolate fan but lots of people are and I wanted to try out the recipe so I added that to my baking list. Then, while eating a pumpkin spice muffin from Tim Hortons I wondered if I could find a pumpkin cheesecake recipe that I had all the ingredients for. I found a recipe and then during my search I came across a recipe for pumpkin cookies and added both to my baking list. My parents really like peanut butter cookies so I added a small batch of them to the list as well.

I spent most of the night last night making cheesecakes and then got up this morning and baked cookies. My Nana would be so proud. Just call me Stacey Crocker! I'm not sure who is going to eat all this crap but they definitely have options. The pumpkin cookie recipe yielded over 100 cookies so I hope somebody besides me like them or I'm going to be another 25 pounds heavier. The pumpkin cheese cake filling it so scrumptious I could have eaten it 2 minutes after is was finished.

Now that all the baking is done I am trying to resist the urge to google more recipes as I really need to get moving with my day. I'm sure the rest of my day is going to be spent praying the boys don't find out there are 4 cheesecakes in the downstairs fridge and cookies locked in the pantry so I will actually have goodies to take to dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and cheers to eating enough turkey to have to move to the next notch in your belt!

A Chance to Make a New Friend!

It is amazing what a difference 1 number can make. For me this morning, it was the difference between qualifying to win $25,000 and making a new friend.

Every morning I wake up to the sound of our local radio station and this morning was no exception. This morning they were talking about a contest they were holding where you had to text your first and last name to a specific number in order to qualify for a chance to win $25,000 or a new car.

Sounded easy enough so I thought, what the heck, I'll enter. Apparently I mixed up a number when I sent my text.... Now I have Tom from Waterloo, who claims to be a Sales Engineer texting me. "Sales Engineer" huh? Fancy name for cashier at Walmart? Drug dealer? When asked what I do to make a living a million possibilities came to mind. Queen of Canada. Surgeon General of Stinkburg. After all Tom didn't know who that text came from. I could be just about anyone even a big hairy dude driving a truck. Stacey is a unisex name right? I was going to go with Domestic Goddess but settled with just telling him I raise 3 kids. I don't really MAKE a living as much as spend a living doing that but it is how I pass the time (I should probably add that I of course love every minute of it).

He asked who I was trying to reach. I told him about the radio station contest and how I had mixed up a number. He asked if I at least won? Ummmmmm, how could I win if I text..texted (what is the past tense of text?) him instead of the radio station? I would have expected a "Sales Engineer" to be a little quicker than that.

Then he told me "well you kinda did". I assume he meant because I had the great fortune to end up exchanging texts with the likes of him. I responded that I think Papa Bear would have probably rather I won a chance to win $25,000 than make a new friend.

Up until this point I thought he was hitting on me. That was until he asked "so what is your hubby thinking about having a date with another man? haha". I've known Papa Bear for a pretty long time and I don't think I ever recall him mentioning that he has ever considered dating a man. I'll be sure to ask him though and see if he wants my new friend, Tom the "Sales Engineer"'s number.

Wordless Wednesday...3 Little Monkeys Jumping

Time Again For a Little Catch Up

I have become a terrible blogger. My posts have become far and few between. I get emails in my inbox from time to time from random readers telling me to get my butt in gear and post more often. You would think from the lack of activity on the blog that my life must be so boring lately that I haven't had anything to blog about. That is not the case, although what I wouldn't give for some boredom from time to time. So here is a recap of what we've been up to around here:

My super fun home party business job was really slow after Christmas (and into the spring) so I decided to apply for a job with Statistics Canada and from late April until early August I was a government employee. While it wasn't the most glamourous job it was definitely interesting. I'm bound by an oath that prevents me from talking about much of the experience but I will just say this: Think about what you are wearing (or not wearing) when you answer your front door before you open that door.

It was somewhere in the late spring that I bought a new weight scale that hates me and I found that I had gained about 25lbs in the last year and was apparently oblivious. This new revelation brought a pop detox, a iced capp cut back and more attention to my portion sizes and listening to my brain when it says "WHOA, you've had enough. I know you like the taste of it but step away fat ass". I'm not sure that cutting back on my iced capp consumption right before school let out for summer was the best idea.

June brought the end of school and the beginning of the end for what was left of my sanity. For some insane reason I thought it would be a good idea to enrol the boys in daily swimming lessons in a different town at 10 o'clock in the morning for 2 weeks. The thought behind that was it would force us to get up, get dressed and get moving everyday. I forgot that I am not a morning person -not even a little bit.

Little Bear went to sleep away camp for the first time ever the second week in July. I was so nervous about this I couldn't drop him off and I couldn't sleep for the first couple days. It didn't help that X told me that Little Bear cried when he left him there. However, when I went to pick him up at the end of the week he was crying again but this time because he didn't want to leave. While Little Bear was away Papa Bear decided this would be a good time to (finally) tear out the old panelled walls and drywall in Fuzzy's room and Fuzzy could sleep in Little Bear's room. Half way through this project which ended up much bigger with the closet falling down and having to be rebuilt and the floor also being replaced, the wheat in the fields was ready to be harvested. I would just like to point out that I KNEW this was going to happen and the whole reason I choose the second week in July for Little Bear to go to camp was because that is the week week we are typically in wheat harvest. The result was the 2 boys bunking up for a little over a week to Little Bear's disdain. In the end Fuzzy's room turned out fantastic and well worth the wait.

At the end of July and into the beginning of August the Bear Family took our summer vacation again in Niagara Falls. We visited the Niagara Zoo and stayed at a hotel with it's own water park. The boys had a blast and while they will likely outgrow that particular hotel water park I think that I wouldn't mind staying at a similar place with a larger scale park. The boys were having so much fun that I almost didn't care that I had to squeeze my squishy (25lbs heavier) body into a bathing suit in front of strangers.

In August the boys did round 2 of daily swimming lessons since I obviously hadn't learned my lesson the first round and am a sucker for punishment. The fact that 2 out of the 3 boys passed their swimming levels validates driving with 1 eye still shut every morning. There likely would have been a third round of swimming lessons if I had been able to foresee that X was going to renege on his promise to the boys that they could come to his house for a full week. How I didn't see that coming I don't know.

Towards the end of August the boys really started to get sick of each other and resorted to non stop fighting that started as soon as 2 of them had their eyes open until the last 2 fell asleep at the end of the day. The result was an my increased dose of Extra Strength Advil and really focusing on the number of days left until school went back in.

The end of August also brought one of the biggest storms we have had since I have lived on the farm. I still swear a tornado touched down in our back yard. Papa Bear says it was a down burst of wind or some crap but that doesn't seem a big enough deal to completely take out our pear tree, throw our trampoline (which was anchored down with cement blocks) across our back field to rest in a mangled heap in the trees on the river bank, push a grain wagon hitch first across the field, take out the other half of the large tree that got struck by lightning a few years ago, break of a huge branch of another tree that would get tangled in and snap the hydro line that runs from the house to the drive shed, break off another branch that would hit and dent Papa Bear's truck, leave the boys' climber in need of repair and split a huge crack in probably they biggest and most mature of our trees so that it had to be cut down because of the danger it posed to splitting completely and falling. It was probably the scariest weather I have encountered.

At the beginning of September Little Bear went off to start Grade 3 and Fuzzy to S/K. As much as I was looking forward to them going back I must admit that once they were gone I missed them. Not enough to wish another 2 months of them being home but I do miss them when they are at school. September also brings the busiest season for work which I am so looking forward to. I love my job and the busier I am the longer I can put off having to look for a P/T job.

That about brings us up to date. Sorry this post is so extremely long but there was a lot of stuff to catch up on. I'm hoping to get my groove back and not leave my readers with such large gaps between posts. I'm also hoping to bring back the occasional "Wordless Wednesday". I miss blogging regularly and I miss reading comments from my readers.

Auto Corrected

Auto correct is usually a great tool on your cell phone to make typing quicker and easier...and also so you don't look like an idiot when you don't know how to spell. Occasionally though it works in the reverse and instead makes you look like a complete idiot when it changes to something completely different than what you were originally trying to communicate. There is an entire website dedicated to this misfortune, damnyouautocorrect.com . This particular site has caused me to laugh until I cried at the poor saps that have fallen victim to the auto correct curse.

Today I found myself victim to the curse. I'm just glad it was Chesty McBreasty on the receiving end and not someone else. There are so many more fantastic examples on the site but here is my flub:



...and yes, she is absolutely programmed into my contacts as "Chesty McBreasty". :)

Jump For Joy

I think every kid has a list in their head of the coolest toys they wish they could have. For me that list consisted of a Power Wheels, a tree house, a cool bike, Moon Shoes and a trampoline. My parents did eventually grant my wish for a cool bike which was so cool in all it's purply shininess that I rode it right into adulthood and never passed it down to either of my brothers like all of my previous bikes.

Now that I am a Mama I can live vicariously through my kids and so my boys have Power Wheels which have provided countless hours of enjoyment, a climber with a sort of tree house, very cool John Deere bikes and just recently, a trampoline. - Moon Shoes just don't seem as great now as they did then and I'm not completely sure they even make them anymore.

I have wanted a trampoline since I was about 5 and a traveling group called the Tramp Champs visited my public school and put on a performance of high flying acrobatics completed on a series of giant trampolines assembled in our gymnasium. Since then I have rarely passed up a chance to jump on a trampoline when the opportunity has presented itself. Now 20 years later (give or take a few years ;)) my boys are getting to the age where a trampoline is appropriate for me...I mean them. The other day I purchased a 12' trampoline with net enclosure (safety first!).

It wasn't they easiest thing to assemble but I persisted and made Papa Bear help me because I was just to excited and wanted to have it together by the time the boys got home from their visit with X. I couldn't wait to get on it and hurl myself into the air over and over again. My first bounce on the completed trampoline was just as I hoped it would be. That was until I realized that jumping on a trampoline after a certain (unmentionable) age and having 3 babies posses some problem. That problem being that your bladder doesn't really hold tight like it did before...and I may have peed a little.

Little Bear was in awe. "AAAWWEEESSOOMMEEE" was the first think out of his mouth. Wee One also loved the trampoline from his first bounce. Fuzzy was terrified. 2 out of 3 isn't bad. After a few times of watching his brothers having a blast jumping, Fuzzy too warmed up to the idea and it wasn't long before I got a call while working from him to tell me he jumped all by himself and loved it. He has been on the trampoline several times a day since.

It may have taken several years and 3 kids to use as an excuse to buy the items from my wish list but my kids have got every bit as much enjoyment out of them as I imaged I would have. Now when my kids ask me for some sort of lavish toy I can say with confidence, "when you grow up and get a job you can buy a _________ yourself" just like my parents told me.

Tr@$hless Tue$d@y

Trashless Tuesday is something devised by the environmental group at my sons' school. The idea is for all students to bring a completely trashless lunch every Tuesday. I'm all for doing what I can to help the planet but Trashless Tuesday makes for Manic Mental Meltdown Monday Night.

I make school lunches the night before to save myself the time and stress of packing them in the midst of our fairly smooth morning routine. I can not imagine packing a Trashless Tuesday lunch Tuesday morning while trying to get Little Bear up and ready for school and keeping him from hearing some of the choice words that come out of my mouth while trying to get the trashless lunch to fit in the lunch bag.

The typical children's lunch bag is not designed to hold dozens of tupperware containers. It is meant to hold prepackaged apple sauces, granola bars and yogurt containers. The producers of these products have likely done research on how their product should fit in a lunch bag. I don't think Tupperware does the same amount of research.

I do consider the environment when packing my kids' lunches. We use tupperware reusable drink containers in place of milk cartons or juice boxes, sandwich containers in place of sandwich baggies and containers for many fresh fruits, veggies and dips. There is a point however where no more containers will fit in the lunch bag and baggies are necessary in order to get everything in there. There are also those occasions where there just aren't enough clean small containers to complete the lunch packing process.

If the Trashless Tuesday mission is not completed then a very disappointed child has a big "X" placed beside his name on the Trashless Tuesday tracking sheet and I am bound to hear about how Little Johnny doesn't have an Xs on the sheet because his mom is a super duper tupperware packer...or Johnny starves. To avoid these situations I try my darnest to accomplish the task. Sometimes it is necessary to go to great lengths to evade that dread X even if that means emptying a yogurt cup into a container or peeling open a cheese stick just to stick it in its own bulky container which totally voids the purpose of Trashless Tuesday.

This year I only have 1 lunch to make on Tuesdays. Next year I will have 2. If the environmental group decides Trashless Tuesday will be a good way to torture parents...I mean help the planet I think I will have to invest in tackle boxes in place of lunch pails so I don't have to stress about how I'm going to fit all that Tupperware. I guess the silver lining is there are only 4 more Trashless Tuesdays left this school year.