So, I started writing over at Style Lush this past week. I’ll be writing every Friday, so come on over and check it out.

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There is only one thing I can say about this pie.

OMG.

I am not one to gobble down more than I can chew when it comes to desserts, but this pie is just……DELICIOUS. Hubs and I had a piece right after our dinner, and I just cut myself another TEENY slice now that the boys have gone to bed. I took a few bites and immediately ran to the refrigerator for a cold glass of milk. It’s basically a gooey chocolate chip cookie in a pie shell. It has the consistency of a pecan pie in a way with all the goo. It’s a total hit and a crowd-pleaser. AND, it’s just as easy as making cookies, or EASIER. No ball making here. Just scoop into a shell and bake!

Original Recipe: Iowa Girl Eats

Kentucky Derby Pie

Ingredients:

1 stick butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup flour

1 cup pecans, chopped

6 oz. chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate.)

good pinch of salt

1 frozen deep dish pie crust

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time. Mix thoroughly. Then add vanilla. Mix through.

Combine remaining ingredients into bowl, stir until well blended and spoon into pie shell. Bake for 60 minutes, or until golden brown on top. (Be careful, I had to cook for 8-10 minutes more to get center cooked through.)

Best when served warm!

Enjoy!

Update: I now cook it at 330 degrees for 60 minutes!

What a difference a day (or two) can make.

The beginning of this week was in no shape or form ideal for me. For a few random reasons, but for the most part it was my attitude towards these issues.

Once I came out of my funk, I decided to move forward and onward in some areas of my life and am finding my efforts to be quite rewarded. Wow, taking a leap, no matter how small, can really make a difference. (how odd?)

Clearly my recent viewpoint was somewhat altered due to the lack of sleep I was getting by Hola waking so early. Now, he is “sleeping in” till somewhere btwn 6-7am only now we are dealing with a very dry cough that keeps all of our focus.

One of the things I chose to do for myself is join a book club. An online book club, in fact! Who would ever think I would join a book club? What I consider reading is a Nicholas Sparks book once a year or so. I blame having small children (JUST A TAD) and the rest of it based on not having the hardcore desire to spend my free time reading. I’ve been a tv girl most of my life and I enjoy keeping it that way. By joining the club, I am expanding on myself in areas that aren’t especially easy for me. It has taken me a little work to read through our first book, but I LIKE IT. I like going to bed a little earlier every night and catching up with a world unlike mine.

Also, hitting the gym first thing this morning has really made for a productive day. The mail pile, the small, accumulating medical bills? All taken care of. Spending an extra 15 minutes at nap time straightening up? Totally made a difference. Washing rugs that haven’t been touched in months? Done.

Now, this does not mean I’ll have something minute to complain about tomorrow, but overall, I’m liking the view from over here.

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This is what I look like before I have my morning hot chocolate. Purdy, huh?

The past two mornings, Hola has awakened at 5:30am. For the life of us, we can’t get him to go back to sleep. So, one of us gives up after a good long, LOUD struggle and brings him to our bed for that 10 minute chill before one of us gets up, so the other one can have their weekend sleep in session. (which I am sure is part of the problem, he knowing he can come to bed with us, but those 10 minutes mean EVERYTHING!)

Today was my morning to get up.

What makes matters worse is he takes a 3 hour nap in the early afternoon, to make up for being so dang tired from being up SO DARN EARLY. Clearly, we could wake him up earlier to see if that would shift things, but who wants to do that?

NOT ME.

So, at 6:10a.m., Hola and I made our way down the hall, stopping at Rt’s room to tell him to go back to bed. (He had the light on in his room after using the potty.) If I was going to be up this early, I only wanted to deal with one kid. I know, I know, such a meany.)

Usually I turn on the tube while Hola and I take in the early morn with some Sportscenter or something else mild like a cooking show. Today, I decided to keep the tv off and hoped by being in the pitch black, we might have a little more down time.

And we did.

He nodded off, I nodded off till about 7am. I cannot TELL YOU what a difference that makes for me. I just might make it through the day at this rate! And just maybe this extra morning cat nap will shift him enough to sleep past 6am tomorrow. Hey, while I am at it I am going to hope for SEVEN AM.

Hey, we were there once. A girl can dream….

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Back in 2002, several months before hubs and I got married, we did the traditional registering for gifts we thought we may need once we got married. Well, since hubs and I had already been living together (IN SIN) for the past three years, we spent most of our focus on what we already had and would like to upgrade. (come on, moving into a guys apt. who didn’t even have CABLE before I got there, there was PLENTY we needed help with.)

It was the one and only time we would EVER get anything nice for rooms like the kitchen, so we definitely added what we could without being overly obnoxious. 7 plus years later, I look fondly back to that time where we truly got everything we hoped for and wished there were a few more times ahead where that would be the case again. Sadly, there aren’t any. So, I continue to sit here and sigh at all the fun “toys” we once got and feel good that we have put most things we registered for to the test.

Except for just a few things.

First and foremost?

The salad spinner.

Um, ya. Our idea of having a salad these days consists of taking the scissors, opening a bag and pouring the leaves into a bowl. Adding yummy extras to the salad may be where we spend our time, but it’s definitely not washing the lettuce, then taking out one more thing to wash and pump to our heart’s content. (Hey, the spinach is organic and couldn’t we all use a little extra dirt in our diet?)

I think the next two could quite possibly be the same for most people.

China and Crystal.

If I had the monetary value of all the china and crystal we have in my possession right now, I’d be the proud owner of a stainless steal mixer and THEN SOME. But no, I am the proud owner of breakable, expensive dinner and glassware that are currently sitting in a bunch of boxes nestled snug inside for the PAST SEVEN YEARS.

Someday, I’ll have a hutch or a buffet or something to house all those heirloom treasures. Someday…

What about you? Did you ever receive anything for any occasion that serves absolutely NO PURPOSE in your life? Do tell.

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Seems I’ve been running this little “engine that could” for THREE years now. My anniversary was on the 26th of December, but we were in Tulsa dealing with a blizzard that blew through on Christmas Eve. I’ll try to get into that in a later post, but for now, here is a picture of all the little cousins on Christmas morning waiting to go down the stairs to see what Santa brought them. (Same ritual my brother, cousins and I did ever since we were this little.)

Actually, there were only four kids on the stairs on Christmas morning. My brother, his wife, their 3 kids and my mother were stuck in Oklahoma City from the blizzard and couldn’t get up to us in Tulsa till dinner time on Christmas Day. So, we put all the kids on the stairs, again, the next day, just to get a photo op of the occasion.

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1) when leaving for the gym, you realize you haven’t taken care of your underarms in recent memory, so you decide to dry shave them prior to hitting a KICKBOXING class. Can we say CHAPPED?

2) leaving 15 minutes prior to class beginning and still having to check one of your kids in at child care. Then carrying on a conversation with one of the gals there that babysits for your kids and make yourself even later for class. Walking into class and see 424 people reading to kick some ass 2 inches away from your face.

3) realizing you have to maybe go to the bathroom prior to leaving for the gym, but deciding NOT to go when you have the chance.

4) realizing 20 minutes into class that all those jumping jacks are not working in your favor.

5) 21 minutes into class, leaving to go down to the bathroom to, ahem, take care of necessary obstacles.

6) returning to class feeling much more inclined to jump, kick and bend away.

7) picking up your kid from child care and forgetting to grab his shoes as you leave.

8 ) deciding not to remember you forgot said shoes until you pull kid out of carseat at Walgreen’s across the parking lot.

9) troopsing BACK to the gym, pulling kid out of car seat and making way all the way back to claim shoes.

10) deciding that taking a kickboxing class TWO WEEKS after a vacation/10 day sickness is not the brightest tool in the shed idea. Although, I do feel pretty good, but I’m sure that will change come morn.

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