Books, Madyson's B-Day, and S'more casserole

The next book I drew from my cup o' many books was Fried Green Tomatoes. Of course I've seen the movie a gazillion times, but the book was completely different. The story is told in a different way with lots of additional characters that weren't in the movie. Some of the major plotlines were changed, like the explanation behind Frank Bennett's murder...and different characters die than in the movie.

I still prefer the movie, because the book was a little confusing and more depressing in the end, but it's good to read a different version.

 We went to Madyson's 3rd birthday party and brought Owen and Cooper. Here they met up with Mason and got some tattoos.

 Madyson opening presents...

 This was the book I finished teaching in groups at work. It goes over the 16 Myers-Briggs Personality types and discusses how people with different personalities can communicate better.

 Here is a Pinterest recipe for S'more casserole.

First layer is chocolate pudding mix....

 Put down some spaced out graham crackers...

 Throw in some chocolate chips...

 Dry chocolate cake mix...

 Space out some pats of butter... 

 Cook and let it all melt together...try to stir in some of the dry mix.

 Throw on some marshmellows and let them bake to get puffy and brown.

I took this to work and everyone flipped over it, although it is best to eat soon after cooking. The pudding on the bottom gets harder the longer you wait.

Art, mexican casserole, and Cooper's B-Day

Here is a pic of my next hidden transformation...which I need to get working on now actually.

 Another type of Mexican casserole from Pinterest. Ground beef, Rotel, cream of chicken soup, southwestern beans, and some taco seasoning...

 Mix it all up!

 Layer of tortilla chips...

 Start layering with cheddar cheese...

 Salsa on top when it's done! This was not so much a good casserole, but a good dip to use with the rest of the chips....it's too soupy to try to eat on it's own.

 Next was Cooper's 1st birthday...taking a drive in his Coupe

 Opening presents...

 I love this picture so much!

 And feeding Dad!

Zombie race and plants

I recently participated in Run For Your Lives, a 5K with zombies and obstacles. The day before the race I went to my hairdresser and got highlights and lowlights- the lowlights being red! Here is a pic of me in my hotel room before the race.

 I obviously didn't take my camera onto the mud encrusted obstacle course, but here is a picture of my friends Mary and Kathleen after our shift as zombies. (If you want to see more pictures of what we looked like, you can see them on facebook) We got there at the crack of dawn and waited in a mile long line to be transformed into zombies. I wanted to do my own makeup and prosthetic pieces, but they wouldn't let you. They airbrushed us a little, splattered brown paint on our faces, added some chunks of blood, then we had ice cold blood thrown at us while we stood in front of a tarp. Needless to say, I could have done a better job if I were allowed to make the latex piece that I wanted (which would have had claw marks going through my cheek).

 Our obstacle where we were placed was by far the best one. We were in the smoke-filled shock house! Runners had to crawl through the windows of the house which was filled with ropes hanging from the ceiling, which delivered 10,000 volts of electricity if you hit them at the right time. And this is while we were standing inside scaring you and making fun of everyone who was scared of the electric shocks.

Then we ate a quick snack and got ready to go run the race ourselves. This was not a fun time, and I don't want to do it again. I already had a pinched nerve in my back, so I couldn't do any of the obstacles where there was bending. We were completely covered in mud and then had to stand under freezing water in a big mud pit to "clean off". The original plan was to camp there overnight and enjoy the festivities, but with no actual showers or bathrooms...that would have been gross! So we got as clean as we could, changed clothes and went to Denny's or IHOP...I can't remember. Which is where I went to the bathroom and saw all of the paint still caked on my neck...I wonder what the waitress was thinking? We then all proceeded to head home and crash from exhaustion. Here is a pic of my 2 medals for being a zombie and running the race, unused drink ticket, and flag that I took from a runner.

 Picture of my ever growing tomato plant!

 Forget-me-knots...blooming on one side and dead on the other...

 Blooms coming out of the tomato plant.

Here is the video of the whole race! You can see us as zombies inside the shock house around the 18 minute mark!!

Random things left over...

Here is a pic of my ever-expanding pile of camping equipment that started to take over my living room last month...

 This is a recipe from Pinterest...making Jolly Rancher suckers. You get them all lined up and bake for only 5 minutes at 200 degrees...

 They melt into each other and you quickly put a stick in the middle... Well these did not turn out. They completely stuck to the wax paper and I had to throw them all away...do not try at home.

 Final project of the hidden transformation I was working on.

 The next book I read was about helping yourself to not be so perfectionistic. This book was written by a Martha Stewart wannabe, and only made me see that there are people with bigger OCD issues than me. But it did have at least one famous quote on every single page of the book so some of those went in my quote book.