Cookie Dough Dip

I've become addicted to Pinterest in the last several months - looking for recipes mostly because I'm always looking for better ideas for dinners.  Well, this one post kept calling my name and it was the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip.  So I found a recipe on Pinterest and decided to try it.  It was not good.  Basically it was cream cheese frosting with oats, flour, brown sugar and then m&m's and chocolate chips.  It looked really appetizing, but unless you wanted to just eat cream cheese frosting - it was lacking.

So in my craziness, because I can't let this go, I decided to try and make my own chocolate chip cookie dough dip.  It was awesome.  Basically I took the Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie recipe, left out the eggs, mixed it all in my electric mixer and while it was mixing I added some milk.  I have no idea how much I added, but it's up to you how much you want to add because it affects how thick the dip is.  I wanted mine a little thicker than frosting so that it would stay on the chocolate graham crackers that I served it with.  I tried my first bite and man I was thrilled.  THIS was what cookie dough dip was supposed to taste like.  The milk helped smooth out the flour texture and it was thick enough to be filling without being ridiculous.

As my friends and I were eating this last night, we thought of all the variations you could use: mini chocolate chips, m&m's, butterscotch chips, toffee chips.  You can serve it with chocolate graham crackers or vanilla wafers.

We all agreed that I was not allowed to bring this back to game night because it was SO addicting.  The entire bowl of it was gone by the time the night was over.  In my book, that's a major win.

Stupidly, I didn't take any pictures of the dip, I wish I had, but it looked just like cookie dough, because that's what it was.  I'll even attach a picture of cookie dough, so that I can pin my post to Pinterest in hopes of getting rid of the other nasty cookie dough dip recipes on there.  Cookie dough dip should not have cream cheese in it, even though I LOVE cream cheese.  It should taste like cookie dough, not cream cheese frosting.

Summer begins!!

I realized that I hadn't posted anything since Ellie's birthday. I'm a very bad blogger, however; there's been a lot going on. We had Ellie's Birthday, followed by the 2nd grade Luau, then my sister's baby shower and then it was May. May is an insanely busy month, especially for a teacher. I actually looked at it looked like I had started a post, and left it because I just had too much else to do.




School ended on May 21st, which also happens to be my birthday. I had several students write me very nice notes, bring me cake, gifts, etc. They were so sweet. The last day of school was a really good day. I was glad to see my students one last day and to wish them a good summer. The best news was that I was moving upstairs near my friends in the normal part of the school. I'm excited to be getting a nicer room and to have some storage within the room to put all my stuff. I also had it confirmed that I will be teaching hours 1-4 at my school and then teaching 6th hour at the other high school. It'll be stressful but good. I honestly need to get my butt working and get vocab lists and power points made for the 1st chapters for all levels.

Anyway... With school ending, summer began. We've been to the pool a ton. Kids have enjoyed swimming and learning how to roller skate at the skating rink. We also started swim lessons this week. Ellie loves it, Jake kind of does but the water has been really cold!


Another exciting thing in our lives - my sister had her baby on June 3rd. Adrienne Esther made her appearance at 11:28 weighing 8 lbs 3 ounces. She's a doll. I'm so proud of my sister too, she absolutely rocked labor and delivery and it wasn't easy. I know I couldn't have done what she did - pushing for 3 hours, etc. She absolutely kicked major ass. There aren't enough words to express how excited I am to have a niece and how awesome my sister is.

 



Before school ended I started seeing a massage therapist who does really intense deep tissue massage. She's amazing. It hurts, but I can definitely tell it's helping too. I'm always nervous when I go to see her, but I know it's really working. I've really enjoyed the first part of our summer here. I'm enjoying spending the time with my kiddos, reading books, watching movies and hopefully I can get my bathroom redone - that's my other goal!! :) We'll see if that actually happens or not.

Happy Birthday Ellie!!

Today is my wonderful Ellie's 8th birthday!! It's hard to believe that 8 years ago at 12:37 AM she came into our lives. She has thoroughly blessed us and I know she will continue to do so. She is one of the kindest, sweetest, most tenderhearted children I've ever met. She makes me want to be the best person I can be and in turn the best mom I can be.



This morning she woke to find her presents on the couch. I was very proud of her for being patient about opening them. Jake had told Ellie yesterday that she got a nerf gun from him, so James wrapped up one of his nerf guns. Ellie opened that one first and wasn't super excited about it. I explained what daddy did and then she opened the real gift. She was much more excited about the Doodle Dog thing that Jake got her. James and I got her Cynder and Flameslinger for the Skylander's game. That was a big hit too. Jake almost got upset because he hadn't gotten a skylander, but low and behold I had one waiting for him too. All is well in the Owens household this morning!! :)

Now off to clean house because we have Ellie's birthday party next weekend and then Bobbi's baby shower here in two weeks. I'm hoping to really deep clean today and then just spot clean between now and then.

Joyeux Poisson d'Avril!

Now traditionally I hate April Fool's day, but that's because I'm a teacher and I've had horrible things happen at school on that day. Luckily this year it's a Sunday and I'm grateful that neither my husband nor I believe in playing tricks on each other. I will say the French have a cool way of celebrating. They try and tape a paper fish on the back of someone without being noticed.

"In France and Italy children (and adults, when appropriate) traditionally tack paper fish on each other's back as a trick and shout "april fish!" in their local language ("poisson d'avril!" and "pesce d'aprile!" in French and Italian respectively)."

I think that's a much better tradition than doing something awful to scare or hurt someone. I'm honestly hoping to just go through tomorrow at school without mentioning it at all.

It's been a month-ish since I last posted. Jake is well into being 4. He's had another ear infection this month, but I don't think we're going to get tubes right away because insurance wants 6 in a year before they'll pay for tubes. Currently we're at 4 but if we make it through April without any, then we're back down to 3. It's incredibly frustrating because obviously he needs them again. I'm worried about him becoming amoxicillin resistant like Ellie has become with ear infections. Other than the ears though, he's doing well. He can write his name - which is super cool. He's also pronouncing words more correctly now. He used to say, "lellow" for yellow and since they worked on the letter Y at school, he says "yellow" correctly. He loves learning the letters of the alphabet and is really doing an amazing job at recognizing them. But along with all that comes the age 4 tantrums and he really is incredibly bull-headed and he just wants his way all the time.

Ellie turns 8 in about a week. That doesn't seem possible. We're having a bounce house birthday party at our house again - I'm praying that it doesn't rain. We've had such beautiful weather up until now. She's super excited for her birthday party and honestly, I am too. How is it possible that she's 8. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was pregnant with her and student teaching...

Speaking of teaching, things are going relatively well. The weather has been so beautiful that students are just done, and honestly, I am too. I'm glad we didn't have too many snow days so that we get out on time (my birthday actually) and it seems like the weeks are going to go really fast. It's definitely been a year of learning for me. I feel good about how the year has gone and I'm thinking already of things that I'm going to change for next year. I have 5 students that I'm taking to France with the teacher from Truman and her 22ish students (I don't remember the exact count). It will be a 2 week trip, the same one I went on when I was in high school. I'm incredibly nervous about it. I'm worrying about hosting someone here, staying at their house in France, traveling with students (in general), how my kiddos here are going to handle my being gone, how much I'm going to miss being at home with my family. I know it'll be ok, but it's just getting to that point.

Counting my blessings...

At a time when I'm feeling incredibly down, I feel it important to share something positive... (and yes, I realize I've done this a lot lately, but I've been kind of overwhelmed and down lately)

- Jake's 4th Birthday was Sunday. We had a small family get together at our house. Jake had a wonderful time seeing all the family and especially playing with Emory and all his new toys. Favorite line of the day, "Aww, more clothes?!" He was hilarious and having his birthday party on a day when I got horrible news definitely made the day more manageable.





- My friend and colleague Brandi got me a movie to show my classes for the rest of the week. I need a break and I'm letting the kids have one too. I'm grateful that she was able to help me out today with this.

- My dear friends and my wonderful family have been so supportive during this time. This is a huge loss for all of us and I have needed the support to get through this.

- Even my students today were super awesome and helpful. I know that they're excited about the aforementioned movie but I also know that they are sad to see me not like myself. I know I'll snap out of it and get back to being the teacher they know and love, but right now I'm just overwhelmed and luckily they understand that.

RIP Tasha.

I found out this morning that my friend Tasha has passed away. My heart is broken. I haven't told Ellie yet, but when I do, I know it'll be bad. She was an amazing woman. She was a great teacher. She was just awesome. I was so thankful to get to know her.



She fought for over a year to beat cancer and had such an amazing attitude towards it the whole time. I only hope that if I were faced with the same things that I would have as much poise and grace as she did. She truthfully has inspired me in so many ways.

Rest in Peace, my dear friend, I hope I can someday be half the person you are.

If I could behave like my 7 year old and get away with it...

I would. I would eat whatever I wanted and then cry and complain when I couldn't have what I wanted. I would throw fits about not getting to do what I wanted to do. I would scream constantly about how unfair life is.

What's bad, is that this week I wish I could've acted like that...

The good news is that I have survived the week, now comes the unknown and the unknown is what I fear most. My friend, Ellie's former teacher, is not doing well. My heart is broken for her family and her other friends. Ellie isn't handling it well at all.

In trying to be a good parent, I've been talking to her about it and trying to get her to talk about her feelings. I got a book recommended to me by another friend (Thanks, Noelle!) called Heaven is Real for Kids. It's a beautiful book and I do think it brought some comfort to Ellie. She's read it a couple times now and since it is AR test worthy, I'm going to have her test on it. I also bought a card for my friend and Ellie has said that she wants to draw her a picture and write her something. I would like to get this done and in the mail today.

I think what's been really hard for me is that since Tasha has been in the hospital I've felt that she needed to be working on resting/healing/getting better/focusing on treatment, etc. I felt that people who were visiting her should be family and her close friends. I regret that I didn't ask to go see her, but at the time I was worried about those aforementioned items and also working with students I was worried about exposing her to illness. I hate to think that I have missed my chance to see her especially because now really is about family. I'm hoping/praying that I'll be able to see her this weekend. I'm still praying so much for her but I'm praying for her other friends and family too.

It's amazing how dealing with stress/anger/grief/most of the "sad" emotions can make you want to just forget how we're supposed to behave. I am absolutely at the point of stomping my feet, screaming and throwing a fit. I could scream, "Life isn't fair!" And the adult comes back into my head saying, "You're right it isn't." and I take a deep breath, wipe away my tears, and try to focus on the positive. So again, I'm ending this post with things that are positive.

1. My laundry is all put away (well everything that is clean).
2. We're going to the hockey game tonight.
3. We have tickets for the Comets soccer game next Friday.
4. Jake's birthday party. How is it possible that my baby boy turns 4 on Sunday?! That's a whole other post!
5. Hearing my kids play nicely and laugh while waiting a ridiculously long time to pick up the tickets mentioned in #3.
6. My amazing friends who have been my shoulder to cry on during all of this. They have let me cry, scream, rant and rave and during all of it they are understanding and supportive and honestly they're doing the same thing.

I know there are more, but I'm going to stop there. I have dishes to do and a house to clean up for a little guy's birthday party.