Friends

Don't you just love a good friend?
Someone who knows you better than you know yourself.
Someone who knows how you are going to respond, before you even hear the question.
A person who is like a breath of fresh air no matter how long it has been since you have talked to them.

Now I know some of you are thinking that Prince Charming should be my best friend. And he is. But, there is nothing like that childhood friend.

I have one of those friends. She has been my friend since the 7th or 8th grade.

Our relationship actually started because of a fight in the girls locker room! I know, it is an odd place for a relationship to start. But, that day while the bullies were at it throwing names around and hurting others, we became friends.

I don't know who stood up for who, but that day a wonderful friendship began.

The funny thing is before this day we had played softball together, lived across the street from each other, and been in class together for YEARS. To my knowledge, we had never even spoken to each other.

We have had our ups and downs. There was a time that we shared every minute together. We dreamed our dreams together. We almost wrecked cars together because we were laughing to hard to see. We went through a carwash in a convertable together. Her mom was my mom and my mom was her's.

There was also a time we let a person come between us. We even went a year or so without speaking. We went to seperate colleges. We made new friends.

 But I knew that she was only a phone call away.

We were at each other's weddings and cried tears of joy when we heard about each expected baby.

She has moved all over the country. She has moved back.

As of now we live in the same town, and we still don't get to see each other as much as we like. But she is my friend. And I love her.

I am so glad my sweet Ansley has a good friend. I can see the adventures they will have together. The memories they are making now are just as special as the ones I made. They are just as opposite from each other and the same all rolled into one. They are the yen to the other's yang. They encourage each other and pull each other along when the other is feeling scared. They are quick to tell each other to be nice and share. They talk like to old women. They talk like I feel. They are special.

Don't you just love a good friend?

I do!

Ugly Cookies

A few weeks ago, I realized that I have some sort of allergy to one of the ingredients in the package mix of gluten free cookies. It is a crazy allergy. All I have to do is breath in this unknown ingredient and boy do I know it.

Since baby girl can't have gluten and I can't have (or prepare) packaged gluten free cookies. I have been on the search for the perfect gluten free cookie recipe.

Gluten has been a thorn in my side. It is a total downer sometimes. It makes cookies chewy and yummy and perfect.

Today I took on the mission of perfecting my sweet baby's favorite cookie.

I must confess! I just made the ugliest cookies EVER!

See! I told you they were ugly! Those don't even look like cookies.

They are not burnt, sliding off the cookie sheet, or hard as bricks. But boy are they ugly.

You know they are ugly when  your 3 year old refuses to eat a cookie! UGLY!

And to be honest, I didn't want to taste them either.

BUT, I am so glad I did. These cookies might be ugly, but wow! They taste great!

A few minor adjustments, like temperature and bake time. Oh, and with gluten free, you can't just drop a tablespoon of dough on a cookie sheet. You must form the cookie into something that looks like a cookie.

This is what they looked like before the oven. All pre-shaped and smashed.

And afterward?

I am so glad you asked!

PERFECTO!

Just to make sure I wasn't fooling myself, I tricked Prince Charming. He didn't even know they were gluten free! Now that is what I call success!

The Ugliest Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1/4 tapioca flour
• 1/2 teaspoon xantham gum
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar (I used sucanat)
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar (I used sucanat)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large egg
• 1 (12 ounce) package Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels

Directions

1. PREHEAT oven to 350 degrees F.
2. COMBINE flours, xantham gum, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels.
3. Shape a tablespoon of dough into a ball and gently flatten it into a disk shape (It should look like a cookie you would want to eat.) Drop shaped cookies onto a greased baking sheet.
4. BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

.

And enjoy!

Father's Day

Father's day weekend (well pretty much every holiday weekend) has been a blur since Cole and I started dating. I know I am not the only one who splits time between families, but now that there are children, naps, special diets, out-of-towners, crazy family members, nieces, nephews, circus clowns, monsters, and the peanut gallery things get REALLY crazy!!
This holiday weekend was not all that different, but we did get to spend some wonderful time with Aunt Donna, Aunt Cayce, and the kiddos. It is so nice to have a neice and nephews who are all the same age. Now, when I say the same age, I mean 5 children three years old and under. Yeah it gets crazy and LOUD! And that doesn't even count the 3 older ones.
Most of the time we were all together at Cole's parents house. The house is old!
Really old.
I am pretty sure it is about 90 years old at least.
The house is apart of a working farm.
The farmers are his parents.
I think Cole's dad has lived about 75% of his life in that very house.
Do you think that is crazy?
I do!
People don't do that these days.

My Cole secretly wants to be a farmer. I can see him living that lifestyle until he is completely bald and I am completely gray (we may not be to far from that right now). :) We both love the idea of the simplicity of the farm. Hard work, lots of love, a some rain = food and love!
I, secretly (or maybe not so secretly), would love to have an old fashioned litter of children gathered around my large kitchen table. I am trying to get Cole on board with that. He keeps mentioning something about running out of room, diapers, sleeploss, bottles, strollers, and a bunch of other things. I don't remember all of those things with the girls.
Just the perfect little angel looking at me.
Yup! That is what I remember. :)
Being at the farm usually gives Cole a nice little refresher. I say "usually" because let's face it, his family lives there and boy are they all different! But, this weekend was good. He spent time fixing things (I can't even pretend to know what it was...something about a wagon and hundreds of pounds...I don't know), talking to his sis, worry about rain with his dad, and eating at his mom's kitchen table. Overall it was a great weekend.

Happy Father's Day, Daddyo! We love the you and the dreams you dream for us all! We can't wait for the next adventure in our story called life!