M&M Cookies

This is one of my personal favorite cookies. I have to mix things up around here. I have made chocolate chip cookies so many times that my family is kind of bored with them. I came up with this recipe for M&M cookies to add a little variety into our lives.

M&M Cookies
1 c butter
1 c sugar
1 c brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 3/4 c flour
1 tsp soda
1 tsp psalt
2 c M&Ms

Cream butter and sugars together in KitchenAid. Add vanilla and eggs and mix well. Sift dry ingredients together and add to the mixture. Mix well. Scoop into 2-TBSP sized balls and place on cookie sheets. Smash each ball of dough slightly with your palm. Lightly press M&Ms into each cookie (7-10 on each cookie). Bake at 375 for 9-11 minutes, until cookies are a very light brown.

Imara

This is my friend Imara. I bought her at the Nike employee store about a month ago, and I run with her every morning.

At first this seemed kind of gadget-y and unnecessary. I needed a running watch, for sure, so I could track my time. But Imara is so much more. She is a heart rate monitor/watch/computer. No GPS, but I'm OK with that. I love to wear the heart rate monitor on my runs, because it helps me know that I'm staying in the 80-90% zone for the best workout. It beeps at me when my heart rate is too low, and beeps at me if I'm pushing it too hard. Best of all, when I am done, I switch to data mode and see how many calories I have burned, and also how much time I spent in the target heart rate zone.

Saturday I ran 8 miles. It took me almost 1 1/2 hours because I am a slow runner right now. But when I got to the top of our hill on the way home, I hit the data button and saw that I had burned 1000 calories! I celebrated with a glass of chocolate milk. It's the best protein drink around.

My life on the run....

I'm happy to report that Mark and I both have accomplished our New Year's Resolutions: to run 5 miles. But we're not stopping there.

That's right. I'm a runner. I've never been a runner before. I've jogged from time to time. I was in pretty good shape, too. But after Zachary was born, I never really got into a consistent exercise program, and never got into shape. Let me tell you, giving birth 7 times can do a number on your abs.

Mark had been running in the early mornings most of the fall, but sometime in January he came home from his 3 miles and said he was going to do 5. And then after a few days of 5 miles, he told me he had one more marathon in him. I decided if he was going to train for a marathon, he would soon weigh less than me, so I had better get going on losing the 10 pounds I should have lost a long time ago. Sadly, this realization came during the coldest winter EVER here, but that hasn't stopped me.

We both get up at 5:30 in the morning and run. Mark counted this morning how many things he puts on to run in this cold weather--19: 2 socks, compression shorts, tights, heart monitor, shirt, fleece shirt, jacket, 2 gloves, earband, hat, and wind/rain pants, 2 shoes, reflector vest, watch, and 2 blinky arm bands. I have fewer things I put on, because I absolutely hate to sweat and would rather start out cold than end super sweaty. But it's mostly the same. It's an ordeal. But the rain, cold and snow haven't stopped us yet. Still, I long for warmer days when I can throw on a tank top and shorts and go.

At first I could run 3 miles. I did that for a few weeks, and then bumped up to 4, and then 4.4. Now I'm up to 5, and I never thought it would be possible. The biggest bummer of this whole thing is the lack of movement on the scale. 6 weeks of running and very healthy eating had brought me no visible reward on the scale. However, my pants were suddenly hanging off of me, so I knew something was happening. And then this week FINALLY I got to slide the weight to the left on our scale! I'm down 4 pounds, and I hope that's just the beginning. It is still so unfair how fast Mark's weight is melting away.

Mark is running in the Seattle Rock and Roll Marathon--the whole thing. I call him Phidippides now because he is a running machine. I'm running the 1/2 marathon in Seattle, because I am deathly afraid of a full marathon. But I know I can do 13.1. I'm going to run 7 miles this weekend. The marathon is at the end of June, and I'll be ready.

The crazy thing is how easy it is to get up at 5:30 in the morning once that is just what you do. It's not a big deal at all. In fact, I usually wake up about 2 minutes before the alarm goes off. I guess it helps that I go to bed by 9:30.

If I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn't be more surprised....

So Sears never called me to re-schedule my dishwasher installation. I kept thinking they would call (it was supposed to be here last Friday). Finally today I called them. Here's how the convo went:

Me: Hi. My name is Jill, and I'm calling about my order #blah blah blah
Them: Yes, how can I help you?
Me: Well, last Tuesday I talked to you when my new dishwasher arrived damaged. The man I spoke with told the installation guys to go ahead and install it, and that he was ordering a new one which would arrive by the end of the week.
Them: That's not possible. Nobody would have told you that. They would have told the installation guys to immediately put it back on the truck and schedule a new delivery time. Whom did you speak with?
Me: I don't know. It was a guy.
Them: Didn't you write down his name?
Me: No. I didn't know Sears had incomptent pathological liars working in customer service promising people things that could never happen and then not making any notes in the computer. I didn't think to write down his name. Should I write down your name in case you are lying to me, also?
Them: We would never authorize installation of a damaged dishwasher. It should have been returned to us immediately.
Me: Well, that's not what he told me. He first asked me if it was the box was damaged (which it wasn't) and then asked me if I would accept the dented one if I was given a discount (which I declined) and then he told me that since it was Sears's mistake, he would authorize an install and also a re-install of the non-dented one when it arrived. He told me he was placing an order for a replacement immediately to be delivered by the end of the week.
Them: There is NOTHING in the computer staying that you talked to anyone. Why would we authorize the installation of a damaged dishwasher.
Me: Well, why don't you go back and listen to the tape. It was at about 6:00 pm last Tuesday. Go find it and listen to it. Why would I make something like this up?
Them: I will have to verify with the installation people that we really told you that. I'm not saying we didn't, but I'm just saying it doesn't make any sense.

And on and on. She finally got nicer, and said she was ordering a replacement and that I should expect a call from Sears in the next 24 hours to schedule the delivery of the new dishwasher. We'll see what happens. See, I wasn't kidding when I said that I have an uncanny ability to have things go wrong.

Why I love school uniforms

I think this picture says it all. Savanna is a very creative and colorful girl. She likes to express this in her clothes. Before she started school, it was a daily battle to get her into something semi-normal in order to go to the store or other public place. If we were staying home, I didn't fight it. For church, I would force a dress on her, and she would accessorize with beads and pink cowgirl boots.

Along came Kindergarten. The charter school has a dress code: white or navy collared shirt and khaki or navy pants/shorts/skirt. This was a dream for me with the boys last year--I hardly spent any money on school clothes. And then when their clothes still fit in September, I didn't have to buy anything for them. But money isn't the real reason I love the uniforms. The biggest reason is that it has taken the daily battle of what matches and what doesn't away. I thought Savanna would have a hard time with the uniform thing. But she loves it. She can still wear any color long-sleeve shirt under her polo, and any leggings she wants under her skirt or shorts. And pink cowgirl boots match everything, right? Her creativity has not been stifled at all. My favorite is to see her in her shorts, argyle knee socks, pink boots, and polo and white sweater. It's so Savanna. But whatever she wears, she can't NOT match. It's awesome.

The picture above is what Savanna changed into after school yesterday, and is representative of what she used to try to wear every day. Butterfly turtleneck, pink t-shirt, plaid shorts, cheetah leggings, snowflake gloves, and a supergirl hat. That's my girl.

Take THAT, Energy Star!!

Can I just start by telling you how much I love my new dishwasher? I had forgotten what clean dishes actually should look like when they come out of a dishwasher. I gave the new Kenmore a test today with a baking dish crusted in dried, baked-on cinnamon roll goo, and my stockpot with no-bake cookie remainders dried onto the inside. Guess what? The dish and the pot are clean--and so are all the other dishes that were in the dishwasher! It seems like such a silly thing to be excited about, a dishwasher washing dishes, but I really do a happy dance with each item I pull out as I marvel at its sparkly surface.

I was still a little disappointed at the cycle time of the Kenmore. But thanks to Energy Star, there isn't a dishwasher on the market with anything shorter than about a 120 minute cycle time. As all the cycles and options on the Kenmore are a little overwhelming, I decided to read the manual. I came across a section called "One Hour Wash." Hmmmmm.

Basically it says that due to Energy Star regulations, a wash cycle will take anywhere from 2-3 hours on Normal, SmartWash or Pots and Pans. However, if you are limited on time, and don't mind using more water and energy, you can use the One Hour Wash cycle. Sounds good to me. So the last 3 times I have run the dirtiest, most baked-on dishes I could find on the one-hour wash, and they are just as clean as they were in the 2-3 hour cycles. And now I know I have found the perfect dishwasher.

Bad luck charm, part 4

I am not even sure what exactly I did in my life to bring such a curse upon myself. I don't remember ever walking under ladders, spilling salt, or breaking a mirror. But I've blogged before about how I can almost count on things that I order or buy being broken, damaged, or missing parts. That old bad luck fairy has struck again.

My long-awaited dishwasher arrived yesterday. I was so excited after two weeks of doing dishes "like Leave It To Beaver" as Savanna told me. Sears called Monday night to tell me the guys would be here to install it around 2:00 Tuesday. 2:00 came and went, and no word. Finally, around 4:30, I got a call that the guys were running way behind and that they would be at my house around 5:30. I didn't care--at least they were coming.

At 5:40 the delivery van showed up. The guys came in and uninstalled the piece of crap KitchenAid Superba. I was happy to see it leave my house. And then they went out to bring in the new dishwasher. I was watching for it to come through the door, and instead, only the guys came in the door. They told me they had unboxed the new dishwasher and it had 2 big dents in the door. I think they thought I would be upset. I just started laughing. I mean, seriously, why would something I ordered actually arrive without any damage?

They said they could hook up the old one again until a new one arrived. I told them that one was totally broken so that wouldn't be helpful. I was determined to NOT handwash all the dirty dishes I had been saving in the sink all day, so after a phone call to Sears, they decided to install the dented one and then order a new one which will arrive next week and they will swap it out at no charge.

After the installation guys left, (and they were very nice, by the way), we ate dinner and I gave the dishwasher a test. I put in my curry-covered dishes and glasses and pressed start. I had read and heard good things about this dishwasher, and they were all true! Every dish wash clean--even though I had put them in covered in curry and rice. Sparking, beautiful, clean dishes from a dishwasher--what a concept!

Now I just have to wait for my new new dishwasher that doesn't have a dented front.