Thankful....

....for a weekend with my family and getting to witness K-State win a basketball game at the Sprint Center. What a fun trip! My parents got tickets when they first went on sale and for some reason they called this week and moved us into better seats and we got access to the "Founder's Club" which is a lounge-type area. Anyway, very fun and then after we went with the rest of the K-State fans into the Power & Light area and watched the very close KU/MU game and we all cheered on Missouri to a win. Rivalry is a vicious bug, huh?

Here are a couple pictures from Thanksgiving and from the KC trip. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.

The last one is Meg as a crazed Wildcat cheering for MU...

Pumpkin Rolls 101

Tomorrow is the Thanksgiving dinner for the rehab unit at the hospital. This involves everyone bringing something. I didn't remember it until today and when I talked to my mom, she suggested making a pumpkin roll, which she had done awhile back for a group at church. Well, I had attempted to make one last fall, but had a bit trouble unrolling it from the towel and ended up throwing the whole thing away- towel and all! But, with my mom's help tonight, it looks like I will have a successful dessert to share tomorrow. Here is Libby's Pumpkin recipe for it, as well as some pictures from throughout the process!!

Libby's Pumpkin Roll

Ingredients:

Cake-

1/4 cup powdered sugar (to sprinkle on towel)

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 large eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin

1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Filling-

1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, at room temperature

1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

6 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Powdered sugar (optional for decoration)

Directions:

For Cake-

Preheat oven to 375' F. Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan; line with wax paper. Grease and flour paper. Sprinkle a thin, cotton kitchen towel with powdered sugar.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt in small bowl. Beat eggs and granulated sugar in large mixer bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture. Spread evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle with nuts.

Bake for 13-15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. (If using a dark-colored pan, begin checking for doneness at 11 minutes). Immediately loosen and turn cake onto prepared towel. Carefully peel off paper. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with narrow end. Cool on wire rack.

For Filling:

Beat cream cheese, 1 cup powdered sugar, butter and vanilla extract in small mixer bowl until smooth. Carefully unroll cake. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Reroll cake. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving, if desired.

Cooking Tip:
Be sure to put enough powdered sugar on the towel when rolling up the cake so it will not stick.

Enjoy!!

When the mountain people came to visit...

My cousin Jennifer and my Uncle Roger came from Colorado to visit last weekend so my cousin could visit KU and Washburn to look at their law schools. It was good to spend some time with them playing Blockus (nice win Uncle Roger) and one of my favorites, Apples to Apples....my mom took them to a KU basketball game which they reported as a lot of fun. Then, we went to the K-State football game that Saturday. Sadly, Missouri beat them but before the game, we had a lot of fun. Here are a few pictures:

Jen secretly wearing her KU sweatshirt under her vest (yek) and took a moment to display it proudly. She did however wear a K-State t-shirt under that too.

Since it was a chilly morning my dad offered my uncle his big K-State jacket to warm up. Here are the Jayhawks trying to figure out how to put it on...

Look at their faces full of disgust as the purple goes on...

He looks pained!!!

At last- it's on!! :)

The K-State graduates!!

Bobby enjoying a beer in a festive K-State cup!
Jayhawk fans!

We had some difficulties getting everyone looking at the camera (Uncle Roger)...

and again....

A super fancy K-State bus that had a horn that went off randomly.....like here:

We were slightly surprised!

Another festive K-State vehicle....they had a horn on top that played the Wabash!

In the game....trying to cheer, but apparently not hard enough. Better luck next year Cats!!

Little Miss Pearl.

Today I went to the church Thanksgiving dinner after the service with my mom. It was quite the crowd and I ended up standing in front of a little lady named Pearl. She was bubbling around talking to everyone and I complimented her on her orange shirt and matching jacket (she was definitely dolled up for the occasion). She quickly responded that it was her Thanksgiving outfit and she would wear it for the lunch today, at a ladies lunch Tuesday and then for Thanksgiving day, then it would go back into the closet. Pearl informed me she had that routine of digging it out of the closet and putting it back for years and proudly declared she was 96. My jaw dropped. She looked 75, maybe 80.

Pearl told me that her brother has died and her sister has died but her niece lives close by. Pearl said that she told her niece, "If you're waiting for me to die, it's going to be awhile." What a positive outlook, huh? Thank you Pearl for making me step back and be thankful that I still have my sister and many friends and family to be grateful for this holiday season. Her secret to living such a long life- "eating a little of everything I like and giggling a lot." Cheers to that Pearl!

The Last Box.

On the way to the K-State game Saturday, my cousin Jennifer who was visiting from Denver, went with me to Dillons to get some Wheat Thins on the way to my parents house. We were headed to Manhattan with plenty of dips and needed more dippable items. Anyway, we stopped by the local Dillons to grab a box. It took a dramatic turn when we realized it was the very last day that location was open! They closed it and opened a new one today....which is just sad since it's "my" store that I grew up going to. Here are a few last pictures that we took to savor the memories.


The super empty shelves.....


Jennifer making a sad face over the last box of Wheat Thins in the whole place!! Extra tasty!

Dropping like flies....

Welp, week two of basketball is behind us. Wish I was able to be updating that we have really turned the corner and had world domination last week. However......going into the game, we only had 6 players, so we recruited a few warm bodies (a couple which had never played before- scary!) and we were up to 9. Taylor who hurt her knee the first week is out and then last week, her sister-in-law broke her pinky. :( After that sacrifice, we still did not prevail...we only lost by 44 this week (as opposed to 50 last week). So, fingers crossed no one else gets injured this week and that we continue to close the gap between us as the losers and the winners. :)

Meg's Place....

This weekend I went to Dallas and visited my baby sister. I took a few pics to share while I was there that showcases Meg's little piece of the world. First spotlight.....on her red accent wall in the apartment.

I hadn't visited since she painted and it makes the whole place look fantastic! For not much money or time, it really makes the apartment seem unique and less cookie-cutter, as so many apartments can be.

Second feature is the hotel-like balconys and grassy areas at her apartment. I always feel like I am at some resort in a sunny state. Very nice to enjoy.

Third is the newest addition to her place: her new 50 inch TV. Lucky lady! Meg toughed it out with a super small TV for a LONG time and she finally caved and got a big one. Makes watching TV and sports much more enjoyable....which we did with some of her friends as we watched K-State demolish (okay, beat) KU. :)

This last item of the tour of Meg is my favorite. Her "crisper" drawer in her fridge is where she keeps her beer. I don't know why I think it's so funny, but just very typical Meg....who needs veggies, right?!

Thanks for a good weekend sister...it was pretty low-key but I did get to see her cubicle ("cube") where she does her work as an accountant counting things.....very impressive!

We also went to my friend Lisa's wedding which was really nice. Glad I made the trip and got to spend some time at Meg's. :)

Congrats Lisa and Chad!!

The Second Week....

Last week I embarked on a new season of basketball....it's through Parks & Rec here in town. We had our first game last Wednesday and it did not go "well." We show up and our team just meeting for the first time that night....unlike the other team which was made up of mainly college players from Baker and Washburn and they looked like they might have played in recent months (my team is mostly co-workers from the hosptital). Eeeek!

So, we managed through the game and ended up losing by 50 (yes, 50), which didn't sit too well with me, but I think this week we will totally turn it around! Unfortunately one of the girls on our team torn her ACL last March, had surgery in May and it looks like she possibly re-injured it last week. :( On the ride home, one of my friends from work confesses she has never technically played before...which I did NOT remember! I recall her saying that she thought being on the team would be "fun"....what a trooper huh? We kept saying to play in a zone and she didn't know that term, or what a screen is. So, fingers crossed we are all on the same page this week and things go better. If nothing, a good workout huh?! :)

Baby shower for Henry....

One of the other speech pathologists at the hospital had baby Henry on Sept. 18th and has been on maternity leave. I offered to have a shower for her and she wanted to have it after Henry made his appearence. So, last week we had a baby shower for her over lunch and he was so cute and very well behaved throughout the shower! Glad to meet the little guy!

Pretty sweet huh?

Wide-eyed during the shower...

Barbra showing us Henry's favorite position to be held in...just like a football and worked liked magic!

Before the festivities....

My first diaper cake....my friend Sarah and I gave it as a gift and I thought it turned out pretty good for a first attempt. I watched a "how-to" video on youtube. :)

The cake from Sam's...cake was pretty good, icing not so much....much easier than making one!

Halloween...

This year turned out to be a great Halloween! Despite working, I had fun at a coworker's party and got to watch K-State give a good effort in their football game before eventually losing to OU. :( My favorite thing was that this was the first year I actually had some Trick-or-Treaters! I haven't lived anywhere since going to college where there were actually very many kiddos that came around for candy. I think we figured that I had about 50 or so and they were SO cute! This year I became the new owner of one of my favorite childhood figures from Halloween:

Mr. Pumpkin!

My mom won this in a contest through Hallmark when we were little and we always loved him! I set him on the front steps of my house and one little guy gave him a hug good-bye. Really sweet.
This year my thoughtful sis got me some Halloween cupcake liners and some fun toothpick decorations to put in them. Since I worked, I took them into work and everyone thought they were really cute!

Another big part of the holiday for me this year was helping with the Haunted House at the hospital. Apparently it's a tradition that's been going for 26 years. We decorate part of our rehab unit in a haunted house. This year's theme was "Haunted Jail"....pretty scary if you ask me! I worked it a couple hours Thursday night and a little during the day Friday. I was the creepy clown. :) I found myself struggling to not make faces at the people walking through the haunted house even though I had a mask on.....such a natural thing to do! I was really impressed with all of the decorating. My parents even came through it and I think I heard them scream a time or two...Here is a picture of me as the clown in my jail cell:

And here are a few pictures from the Halloween party I went to....I am a bee (hopefully you can tell). Pretty cheap costume since I just bought the wings and antennae and then put tape on a shirt I already had and made the stinger out of construction paper. Hope everyone had a great weekend too!

Me with Barbra, one of the other SLPs and her 6-week-old Henry, who was also a bumblebee. He was really cute. She went as a "new mom" and obviously wore sweats and put eyeshadow under her eyes to make her look like she has circles!

The Roller Derby Team....very intimidating! Costume complete with fake black eyes and tattoos!