The Life of Charlie

I've been saving this post for a day when I have nothing prepared and no time.  Well, today is that day!

Charlie is my Mom's dog who we suspect is a mix of beagle and dachshund.  He is a character, to say the least!  He absolutely loves Josh.  All you have to do is say "Joshy is here" and he will flip out!   If I go to kiss Josh and Charlie is nearby he will get in between us and bump me out of the way with his nose!   I can't make this stuff up!

Anyway, here are some photos in the life of Charlie. 

 I gonna get the toy!

Alligator Roll

I'm Pooped Guys!

See the ears?? That is because he heard Josh's car.

I wuv you Joshy!

Mom gave him a peanut butter jar that was empty except for a little bit on the bottom.  Kept his dumb ass entertained for literally hours. 

Hope you enjoyed living the ruff life of Charlie!

Travel Tuesday: The Roadtrip From Hell ...

.... but it didn't start out that way.  

The trip was supposed to be simple.  Drive from Chicago to Cleveland and Cleveland to Maryland.  12 hours total drive time.  Not hard.  Unless you are me and Heather. 

First, we got 50 million phone calls from people saying not to go through Cleveland because it's supposed to snow really bad.   Fabulous.  We already had a non-refundable hotel there.  Well, we decided to go there anyway ... except we put home in the GPS and didn't check the GPS route. 

The GPS had us going South through Indiana instead of straight across and we realized it three hours into the trip.  So, like it or not, we weren't going to Cleveland.   Other than that disappointment the trip was actually pretty easy.  We stopped for dinner around 8 and switched seats (Heather drove the first part).  

We didn't have any issues until around midnight when we got to the Columbus area.  At this point we were just planning to drive straight through and get home around 5am.   The weather had other plans for us.   Right when we hit Columbus it started getting really windy and slightly snowy.  Poor little Tin Can (that's Heather's car) was not doing well in that so we decided to stop for a few hours to sleep and let the salt trucks do their thing ... this is when it got bad.

Enter Hotels.com.  The bane of my existence that night.  I had always had good experiences with H.com until that night.  So, we wanted something close and cheap since we were only planning on sleeping for maybe 4 hours. I went online and found a room at red roof that had a room with two beds for $35.  While red roof was less then ideal, we didn't care at that point, so I booked it in the parking lot.

You would think that since it was available online that the room would actually be available.  We'll you'd be thinking wrong.  No, I walked in and the lady looked up my reservation and says, well I have it here but we only have king bed rooms available, so if you just call H.com and tell them to change the booking, we can get you in a room.  Ok, no big deal.  UNTIL h.com tells me that I have to pay the additional cost of the room!

OH HELL NO!  I flipped out!  There was no way in Hell I was paying an extra $40 because of their mistake.  Needless to say, I was not happy!  I gave up trying to talk to the lady on the phone because she hardly spoke English and I was just tired and over it!

I did write a nice little letter when I got home and they did actually give me credit for the extra that I paid.  So now I'm not as irritated as I was.   Moving on.  We slept til about 5am and headed out again.  This is where it gets interesting.

Ohio and West VA were pretty much uneventful.  It was a bit snowy but nothing too crazy. 

Then PA.  Oh PA, if I never see you again it will be too soon (funny because I live 5 mins from the border).   We were looking at the GPS and it was telling us to go south into Baltimore then back up to Bel Air.  WHY?  No.  We decided to look at Google maps and see if there was a better way.  And there was ... so we thought.

We got to the road that was supposed to go straight across from the Pittsburgh area to Harrisburg then straight down to HarCo.  Well, silly Google maps forgot to tell us that the road we were headed towards was the fricken turnpike!!  The exit we were supposed to get off on would have cost us $17!!

Ugh.  So, the GPS tells us to get off on an exit a few miles down which only costs $2.  Whatever, we decide to just follow the stupid GPS.  Which worked fine until we decided to stop at Sheetz for some food.  It was snowing and we had to go over a Mountain.   Well, that ended up not being too bad.  Until it had us turn on some random dirt road!

 It took me an hour to go 2.4 miles because it was so hilly and curvy.  We seriously thought we were going to die.  Oh, fun fact about PA?  They don't like to plow their roads!  We were seriously sweet talking her car, "good tin can, don't die tin can".   So, after we got off the scary road and after another few miles we finally end up on Highway 68 and it was smooth sailing from there, thank goodness!  I don't think our nerves could have taken much more!

We were never so happy to see this Maryland sign!  and salt covered roads!  I think Heather may have a picture of the scary dirt road, if she does then I'll post it.

We were on the road for a good 24 hours between the time we left Chicago and the time we pulled up at my Mom's house.  Even looking back now I find some of this kind of funny, but we definitely didn't find it funny then!

And that is the story of our road trip from Chicago to MD.

Christmas Recipe: Paul Bunyan Cookies

These cookies are a gift from God.  I'm serious, y'all!  They are gooey, delicious, and huge - hence the name.   These cookies are one of my favorite Christmas cookies!

Makes 18 Cookies

Ingredients 

1 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup molasses
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 twelve-ounce package, semi sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup (5 ounces) chopped walnuts
 1 cup raisins

Directions

1.  Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Line baking sheet with parchment paper.  Sift together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and ginger in a medium bowl.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream vegetable shortening and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Add molasses and beat to combine.  Add eggs, one at a time and mix until fully incorporated.  Add the flour mixture one cup at a time, beating on low speed until dough comes together.  Remove bowl from mixer.  Using a wooden spoon, stir in chocolate chips, oats, walnuts, and raisins.

3. Using a 2-inch ice cream scoop, drop dough onto prepared baking sheet, about 3 inches apart.  Bake until firm, 15-18 minutes.  Transfer baking sheets to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes before transferring cookies to wire rack to cook completely. 

*These photos are a mix of phone photos and me experimenting with my Mom's boyfriends DSLR* 
 

My little brother helped a bit too!

25 Days of Christmas: Favorite Books

Yes, I was that nerdy child who, along with watching all the awesome movies, also read all of the awesome Christmas books.  I had a whole bunch that I would read leading up to Christmas and these are some of the ones that I remember.

I mean, who doesn't love the Grinch??  I'm not gonna lie though, when I was really little the Grinch scared me. 

This is such an adorable book.  I wish I still had my copy!  I remember really loving the illustrations in this book.   I may have to make a special trip to Barnes and Noble to see if I can find this book!

Of course, the polar express is a classic!  It's not Christmas without reading this book, and now watching the movie :)

It was a tradition to read this book on Christmas Eve!  This is another one where I remember really loving the illustrations!  This is another one I might have to search B&N for!

I love this version of The Nutcracker and this is the only one of these that I still have. I used to do ballet so I worshiped this book when I was really young.

All of these were my favorites.  I would read them constantly during the Christmas Season.  I wish I had kept all of these!

**These are all the exact versions that I had, too**

25 Days of Christmas: Real vs Fake Tree

I have this debate with people over and over again.  They ask why we spend the money every year to get a real tree when we can just have a fake one and it'll last a long time.  My response: I will NEVER have a fake tree.  Ok, maybe when I'm 80 years old and can't physically handle a real tree, but still.

First, I love the smell of real trees.  It is one of my favorite smells ever.  Second, I love going and picking out the perfect tree and I love that it does not look the same every year.  Also, I love decorating our real tree and finding good spots for our ornaments, and I enjoy putting different fun lights every year rather than just the ones that come with the tree.   I don't judge people who have fake trees, but I will always get a real one.


This was mine and Josh's first tree that we got together in 2011.  I cant find a picture of the finished product:

Our tree last year before we cut it down and after it was fully decorated.  I couldn't seem to get the star in the picture:

2010 the last tree before I moved out of my parents:

1997:

1996:

1995:

1994 - Amy's First Christmas.  This is the only one I have but you can see the tree behind us:

1989 - My First Christmas:

That's all I can find for now, but I love getting real trees and having something different every year :)  Unfortunately, this year we aren't doing a tree because we don't have the time or money.  So we're getting a little one (yes, they sell real little Christmas trees at home depot) and just putting a few ornaments on.

Do you prefer real or fake trees for Christmas??