"Surprisingly Refreshing"

"It's not every day that you bite into a biscuit and feel refreshed."

That's what my friend's husband said about the cookies we baked today. 

Let me start from the beginning... no wait, that will take too long.  Let me start from a beginning.

I had a "play date" with my sister, brother-in-law, nephew and friends Mara and Andrew.  We 3 women figured we'd do something fun whilst we sent the boys (well, we kept the toddler with us) off to play with their cameras.

Lois was in the middle of making some bathtub crayons (really, soap with food colouring added), and she was using Mint and Lavender to scent them.  The mint tones down the "girly-ness" of the lavender.  It was really smelling delicious, so I thought... I bet that would be a great sugar cookie flavour!

Presto, our afternoon's activity, sorted.

This was the recipe we used.

We didn't have any of the fresh stuff, though, so we just used lavender essence and peppermint oil we had on hand.  Worked great.  (Note: We decided it was a little too much cornstarch.)  Also, we didn't add the lemon flavour to the dough.  When we originally thought of it, we didn't think we wanted the Lemon flavour.

Once the cookies came out of the oven, we had a little taste, and realised, the Lemon would have been a smash hit, so we added a Lemon Drizzle topping.  Just a bit of powdered sugar mixed with lemon juice.

The results?  Andrew's assessment was the best, "Surprisingly Refreshing.  It's not everyday that you bite into a biscuit and feel refreshed."  They were a total hit!

Thanks, Andrew, for taking the photo!

Grandma Growls

So, my mom just got home from a 3 week trip to Egypt. She's sleeping on my sister's sofa. My nephew keeps running up to her and growling. We could not figure out what was triggering it.

All the sudden we heard my mom snore.... And Ethan growled back!

Dad, Lois, me, we all fell out laughing. Ethan looks up at us like, "What's so funny guys?" So of course, we laugh harder. He joins us in "social laughter", though he obviously had no clue what was so funny.

Still Have an English Brain

So, I've been back in the US for a year and a half, more or less, And I have report, I'm still not acclimatised. This is either good news, or bad, depending on your preference.

My sister complains whenever I use a British phrase. "Adele, you're an American!" My lovely friends across the pond say, "No! That's the correct way to speak!"

Anyway, it's my mother's birthday today. She didn't want normal cake, so my sister arranged for a cream pie and profiteroles to be on hand. I was offering to serve up, and asked my sister if she wanted some profiteroles, she said yes. Then I offered some to my Dad. Blank look. So I repeated the offer, "Do you want some profiteroles?" Again, non-comprehension. My sister steps in, "Do you want some cream puffs?"

Oh. I didn't even know I wasn't speaking American!

Book Review!

My mom's book, Revenge of the Dorkoids, got reviewed in Deseret News!  How exciting is that?  Here's the link to have a look at the review.

Dinner Don'ts

I'm sitting in a posh restaurant. The people next to me have had a gorgeous meal: steak, new potatoes, green salad, wine, dessert...... Now the girl is sitting there on her iPhone, completely ignorning her date/boyfriend/partner/husband, whatever. Sereiously, she's not even looked up for 10 minutes. Hasn't spoken a word to him. To me, that's poor ettiquite. Very rude. Have we become so attached to our toys that we can't leave them at home, or at least in our bags, when we go out?

Now, I know I'm sitting in the same restaurant, having had a truly gorgeous rosotto, working on my iPad. But I'm alone. I'm not ignoring anyone! In fact, you lot are my psudo dinner partners. So not the same thing.

The really sad part? Her date doesn't seem put out! He's accepting it as normal.

Wrong. Just wrong.

Off and Flying!

Come follow my travel adventures over on High Class Hitchhiking.

Home Stretch

I'm exhausted! I've been working pretty solidly on getting my house ready to let. The good news is two fold:

1 - I'm nearly done!
2 - I have a tenant moving in on the 13th!

Here's a list of what I've done (or had done) on the house:

Painted the woodwork outside (doors/windows)
Painted the woodwork inside (skirting, windows, doors, railing)
Painted all the walls which didn't have murals
Painted all the ceilings
Installed a bar for wardrobe space
Installed a bar for curtain hanging to hide wardrobe space
Ripped up the carpet
Installed laminate flooring
Cleared excess furniture
Cleared eves
Cleared rubbish from garden
Pulled out a raised flower bed
Put in 2 raised flower beds
Repaired 1 raised flower bed
Re-rocked the patio area
Trimmed all the bushes
Cut the grass (twice)
Seeded the grass
Painted the fence
Painted the shed
Repaired the shed
Weeded the drive and patio
Dug, levelled and rocked the area in front of the shed (it was horrible dirt before)


Ummm... not sure what else, but seriously, do I need anything else?!? I'm shattered. I've now packed my bags. I've got a bit of rubbish left to clear out of the spare bed. I've got one more trip to the charity shop to get rid of stuff. I've GOT to wash my hair! Then I'm off to my friend's house to drop off my car (she's selling it for me), she'll then drop me off at the train station. I'm heading into London tomorrow night to stay with friends who live about 20 minutes (train) from Heathrow. Then, midmorning the next day I'll head over to Heathrow to catch my flight.

Won't do me any good to turn up too early, as I'm flying standby again, so they won't let me check in til the last minute. But, I'm flying to Minneapolis, and the flight looks pretty empty, so it shouldn't be a problem. But, be sure to check out my other blog, High Class Hitchhiking, for all the adventures!

Much as it pains me to leave, I'm really ready to be gone. Being here has been really good for me, but for funny reasons. I've learned that I made the right decision last year in moving back to the US. England and the UK will always hold a special place in my heart, but it isn't home right now. Maybe sometime in the future it will be again. Hope so as I genuinely love the people and the land. But just now, it's time for me to go back to the US. I have a brand new life waiting for me, and I'm really looking forward to getting to it. No idea where the new path will take me, but one thing's for sure.....

I'll always Seize the Day and Throttle It!