Daddy go buh-bye

'Da Bear's favorite thing to say lately! Enjoy!

Namino Bars - my birthday cake this year!

I decided to make these this year for my b-day cake instead of a regular cake. I'm so glad I did - they were SUPER yummy. Addicting, even. *sigh* I ate way too many. :) But, I've had several people ask for the recipe, so here it is. Enjoy!

Combine, Mix & press in bottom of a jelly-roll pan, then chill:
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup melted margarine
2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs, beaten
6 cups graham cracker crumbs
2 cups coconut
1 cups chopped nuts (optional)

Combine, mix until creamy, then spread over crust. Chill:
4 tsp. custard (we just use the jello brand custard)
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
6 Tbs. milk
1/2 cup softened margarine

Stir together until smooth, then drizzle over the top. Chill:
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
1 - 2 Tbs. shortening (add more if needed)

This time I used the eggs beater brand of eggs that have already been pasteurized because I had that on hand. Otherwise, we just use eggs, but we've never been sick. We keep the bars refrigerated. And, I don't put nuts in the crust, 'cause we don't like nuts. :)

Trampoline + brothers = black eye

So, on Sunday after our church meetings, Brandon was at the church for Bishop's appointments. Perfect time for me to make his birthday desserts. French Silk Pie, and yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Yummy.

Anyway, while I'm in the kitchen, happily humming along to Pandora, I hear a HORRENDOUS scream, followed by lots of screaming that was filled with not nice sentiments from one of my children towards another of my children. My first thought was, "Ugh. Here we go with stitches again. I wonder if I can just drop the other kids off with Brandon while I take B to the ER. *sigh*"

Anyway, I ran out to the trampoline to find B curled up in a ball. I took his hand off his eye to assess the damage and this is what I found:



It swelled up even more than this and he spent a good hour on the couch while I rotated cold corn bags from the freezer to his eye, and kept waking him up to make sure he didn't have a concussion. Now, apparently, Gavin & B were jumping, and Gavin jumped right at Braden, hitting him in the eye. (I'm just grateful there was no blood or need for stitches this time.)

We gave him Ibuprofen before bed and sent him off to sleep. By Monday morning, his eye was almost swollen shut and was starting to turn colors. Like this:


(Notice his blankie? *sigh* Oh, how he loves that blankie.)



By Monday night, a lot of the swelling had gone down, but he had a rainbow of colors sporting above his eye.



I haven't seen him yet this morning, but I imagine we're getting towards the end of the rainbow. He gets embarrassed when anybody notices it, and even tried to go into a store with me yesterday with his jacket on and his hood pulled up over his one eye. I told him more people would stare at him dressed like that than they would to see his eye.

All-in-all he's been a good sport about it, although I have had to try really hard to convince him to let me take pictures. He doesn't like it right now, but I'm sure he'll be interested down the road to remember his black eye.

And, I just have to laugh at what he said the other day to me: "But, Mom, if I hadn't rotated in mid-air, he would have hit my right eye. But instead, he hit my left eye. Probably a good thing, too, since I'm right-eyed. I'm right everything'd. Right eyed, right eared, right handed . . ."