Muffin Girl Reveals Her Secrets

I love pumpkins, i love crunchy leaves, i love cool weather, i love scarecrows, i love anything to do with autumn!! I needed to make a treat for a church event on the 1st day of fall and because fall hasn't quite made it to east Texas, I decided to make a fall treat as a request to the goddess of autumn to head our way.

I made Pumpkin Spice Muffins with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting and they were awesome. In fact, so many people have asked for the recipe, I have decided to post it here. I could be making millions off this, but instead I am sharing it with the people. I am generous!!

Here you have it:

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp salt

1tsp baking powder

1tsp nutmeg

1 tsp allspice

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1 1/2 c sugar

1/2 c brown sugar

2 c canned pumpkin

1/2 c applesauce

1 c fat free yogurt

4 egg whites

1 egg

3/4 c water

I know...a lot of ingredients, but the rest is pretty easy. Mix the dry ingredients together and the wet ingredients together (except the water). Then add the dry to the wet and slowly add water. Bake at 350 for 20-24 minutes (use toothpick test). Makes about 3 dozen muffins.

The icing needs to be tweeked a little I think, but I just combined 8 oz of cream cheese, 3/4 c shortening (I will try butter next time), 3 c powdered sugar, and 1 tsp vanilla. Adding a few tablespoons of water helps adjust the texture if needed. After I frosted the muffins I dusted them with cinnamon which I think made all the difference.

So there you have it. My top secret muffin recipe that I used as an attempt at making friends in our new neigborhood....and it seems to have at least gotten me noticed!!

Losing Faith

Warning: Lots of ranting and raving to follow and no pictures. Proceed with caution!

Seven yrs ago when Jeff and I got married, I had to change dentists. The new dentist claimed to find 12 cavities where my old dentist had never found one in more than 20 yrs of being my dentist. I did not let him do all the work he wanted to. I didn't know it then, but this was the beginnings of my frustration with the medical profession.

Fast forward 3 years to the Spring of 2006. I was pregnant with Max. I slipped on the back porch and broke off part of my toenail. Long story short, I went to after hours care and for $300 they removed the rest of the nail and bandaged the toe. Lesson learned: Next time I'll just do it myself. Not a big deal.

Jump ahead to my pregnancy with Zach. OBGYN Dr. M turned out to not be my favorite person. He paid little attention to me as an actual person, didn't seem bothered that I was so sick for 9 months that I lost 40 lbs during my pregnancy, and scheduled me to be induced at his leisure b/c I guess "nature taking its course" is SO unpredictable and inconvenient. The icing on the cake with him was when I was ready to deliver he was complaining to the nurse that he was hungry and wanted to get lunch before the baby came and asked if she could hold me off a little longer--all where I could very easily hear him. He did miss lunch that day, but I could tell that it annoyed him. My apologies. Lesson learned: I should have been more assertive and demanded better care or found someone else.

November 13, 2008: Zach was born and all was well, or so I thought. A nurse checked his temp and it was a little low. They suspected an infection. Long story short: 7 days and $10,000 later I was finally able to take my baby home. The kicker: No infection was ever found. Lesson learned: Ask and demand real answers constantly and demand to see all lab report, dr report, etc if ever found in that situation again.

Let's jump ahead to Fall of 2009: Max developed a cough. Doc gave him some meds. Didn't help. Got more meds. Didn't change. Long story short: In 8 months my 30 lb 3 yr old was given 6 medications costing $500/month with no real answer. We were never referred to a specialist or given a clear explanation as to what was going on. Only diagnosis was chronic asthma. Strange, but 4 months ago, we moved and I took him off all meds and he's been totally symptom free. I think he was allergic to something at school and kept reacting to it. Again: I must be more proactive and realize I am my child's only true advocate.

Summer 2010: New city, new pediatrician. Max's 4 yrs old check up. In my opinion he is healthier than he's ever been. However, Dr finds a heart mumur that he may or may not have had all his life. As a precaution he gets a full cardiac work up. $700 to tell me my child is perfectly healthy. AAARRRRGGGGHHHHH

Also Summer 2010: I cut my finger on a can of chili. It's deep and my mom is there and would have worried herself to death if I didn't get it checked out. Go to Urgent Care Clinic. In 20 minutes, it is cleaned, dermabonded, and got a tetus shot. They billed my insurance copy $1400! I'm buying dermabond on ebay for next time.

So why am I ranting and raving about this today?? I am going to a new doctor this week and I have been debating my approach with him. Maybe I should just give up, buy anitbiotics from Mexico, birth the rest of my babies in the bathtub at home and embrace the true hollistic movement. Maybe I should lay it all for this poor new guy and let him know that I am on to him and all of his collegues and I will become one of those pain in the a$$ patients who demands proof, explanation, and documentation for ever single thing I am treated for, billed for, and diagnosised with. Or maybe I've actually stumbled across a professional who does his job, cares for his patients, and doesn't intend to screw me over from the start.
I'll let you know.

PS: I know that some of my relatives are/will be doctors and I'm sure they are/will be great. Just try to remember not to screw over the little guy! :)

Playschool--Here we come!!

A few new friends in the area decided to start up a rotating Playschool group for their 2 yr olds and asked Zakky and I if we'd like to join up. We thought it was a great idea and joined in on the fun. It will be 2 hours once a week and each week a different mom is in charge. This frees up the rest of us to do as we please with our well deserved break. Since Max doesn't have school on these days I don't get alone time but I do get some one-on-one time with Max so it works out well.

Today was our first day and Zach thought it was great. The group is nothing but cute, blonde, curly headed girls and Zach!! Jeff thinks it's great that he has all the women now. Zach didn't cry when I dropped him off and when I picked him up he said, "Had fun momma! Had fun!' Then he told me he "paint a elmo (rainbow) and played wif girlfriends!" Tooo cute!

Max starts preschool next week and I am hoping for just as positive an experience. Wish us luck!!

After school he was so tired he fell asleep on the floor in Jeff's office. School is great!!

Momma "Nose"

This is why Mom says "Don't play 1-2-3-CRASH. Someone's gonna get hurt!"

(Notice the smashed in pig nose that lasted a week)

Sorry Momma! We won't do it again (for at least 5 more minutes)!

Another trip to Home Depot

I love our house. Really I do. However, I am not enjoying the time and money I am spending at the Home Depot in order to make our house a home. This past week I moved the couch to sweep under it and found all the hardwood floors were warped from some sort of water damage. Futher investigation showed that the wax seal on our toliet failed and was sending water under the floor and under the wall into our den. Fun time!

So here are some pictures of when a $3 thing breaks and causes $300 in damages!

Our toliet drain---EEEWWW!

Our toliet --in the hallway now

The flooring we have to pull up and replace once we find the matching wood.

Just another day in paradise!

A Beach WITH WATER!!

For the last 4 years we have lived in the desert. That means plenty of sand, but no water. And if you know my husband, that makes for a sad little fellow! Now that we live closer to the ocean (the gulf actually) we have been trying to take full advantage. All my boys would be beach bums given the opportunity. Enjoy!!

I love this pic b/c Zakky looks like he's up to something!! (He usually has that look!)

My beach boys

Waiting to catch a wave!

Max has become obsessed with surfing. He's actually getting to be a pretty good little boogie boarder considering he's terrified of water deeper than his waist!

What's a vacation without some spa treatments?? My boys are pros at the mud baths if anyone is interested!

Moody Gardens Staycation

Jeff had a week of vacation this summer--I know! Amazing isn't it!!--but since we were still settling in from the move and all we decided to have a Staycation and just explore our new area. We spent a few days working on the house b/c there is always work to be done, but then went and had some fun.

We took the boys to Galveston for a few days. It's only about an hour from our house and had a lot of fun stuff we wanted to check out. It was nice to get away for a bit (even though we had to go back home for a bit in the middle of it b/c our house alarm was set off by a storm). Long story.

Anyway, here are some pics of our trip to Moody Gardens.

My boys don't look alike but somehow they often seem to look alike. I love it!

The one token picture to prove that they have a mother and she goes on vacation with them!

This was suppose to look like Jeff is feeding them to the shark but the shark was hanging to high and Jeff wasn't being tall enough and well it didn't really work out!

But we did get pictures of them in jail!!

Max has really grown up a lot this summer. He was even brave enough to try out the kiddie zipline and really enjoyed it! I was shocked!!

We loved Moody Gardens. It's affordable and very age appropriate for my boys. I am sure we will make it back there for another visit. (We'd better--I bought season passes!!)