I just realized I hadn’t done much “blogging” in several days…  There are several reasons.  First, any computer time I’ve had over the last several days has been spent working on tier II chemical reports for the company I have worked for.  I knowknew nothing about any of this stuff before Friday… but am quickly becoming knowledgeable.  It’s harder to spend time for leisure on the laptop when you have work to do.  I am not finished… not even close, but I am taking a breather and breaking to blog. 

The next reason was that we had visitors over the weekend.  Matt’s mom Paula, aunt Jane Ellen and sister Jane Ann came for a visit.  Friday night we had pizza (tradition) and vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup.  The problem was the bottle of chocolate syrup I thought was full was completely empty!  So, rather than face yet another trip to the store… I made some.  It was better than the store bought stuff… and pretty easy.  Here’s the recipe.

• 1/2 cup packed cocoa powder 
• 1 cup water 
• 2 cups sugar 
• 1/8 teaspoon salt 
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Directions

1. Whisk cocoa powder and water together thoroughly in a large saucepan.

2. Heat and whisk to dissolve the cocoa. (I use medium-low heat).

3. Add the sugar and stir/whisk to dissolve. Be sure the sugar has dissolved before continuing on, so your syrup is not grainy.

4. Bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes. Be sure to watch this VERY carefully. Mine has a tendency to want to boil over immediately, so I have to continuously take it on and off of the burner.

5. Remove from heat and stir in salt and vanilla extract.

6. Let cool completely and skim off any skin that may have formed.

Saturday Paula’s husband John came down (from Tulsa) and brought some yummy lasagna he made.  He is so sweet to make lunch  for us on Saturday!  I made garlic bread and we had salad.  They all played gin rummy & uno for what seemed like hours!  It was a good visit. 

After I trimmed and colored Jane Ann’s hair we all headed to Poblano Grill for some delicious mexican food.  She headed home to Dallas from there. 

Sunday was church, nap and church again… 

Today I went to lunch with my parents at Sante Fe.  It was pretty good!  We did a little shopping and then came home to do mom’s hair before I picked Izzy up from school.  whew!  Busy day! 

I don’t have a mpm.  Hopefully tomorrow.

I heart Fossil watches.  I got a really pretty one for Christmas from Matt’s aunt Jane Ellen.  The adults draw names and she got my name.  The one she bought for me has a brown face almost wood looking and the band is silver.  I had been shopping around for a watch when I found that one online. 

I found this one on kenmarwatches.com.  It’s really pretty, don’t you think?  The prices are very reasonable on the website and the pictures enlarge so you can see the detail on each watch that you want to look at.   There are online representatives available to answer any questions about the watches or anything else on the website. 

I also found another fossil watch right before Christmas that is clunkier than the other one… and the band is gold and silver so it coordinates with gold jewelry too.  I am now in search of a third fossil watch.  Probably all silver like the one pictured.