Kiersten’s Blog

You might remember that my grandma’s here visiting for the week.  She has taught me a few things in her stay so far, one of which is these pinwheel cookies.

I used my own simple but really yummy sugar cookie recipe.  I may or may not have shared that with you in the past.  It’s just 1 cup of butter, 1 cup (I think) of sugar, 2 eggs, 2 teaspoons of vanilla, 1 teaspoon of salt, 3/4 of a teaspoon of baking powder and 3 1/2 cups of flour.  Bake at 400° for 7 minutes.  That’s just off the top of my head but I’m pretty sure that’s it.  Anyway, it’s yummy because they’re soft and delicious.  I’m not normally a huge fan of sugar cookies, but these are really good.

Okay, back to the pinwheel cookies.  After mixing the dough, we divide it in half.  Since we were making valentine cookies, we made one half red (using red food coloring), and left the other half white.  We then rolled out the two separate colors on wax paper and chilled them for a bit.  Later we took them out of the refrigerator and set one on top of the other and rolled them up lengthwise.  We then chilled them a little longer (which isn’t totally necessary) and cut them into 1/4 inch slices and placed them on the cookie sheets.

Then I shaped them a bit to look like hearts.  I think they turned out really cute and it was definitely easier than dealing with cookie cutters.  We’ll for sure be doing this again!

I fit 90 cookies in my cookie jar. I'm pretty sure that's NEVER happened before.

We’ve been really busy lately. I guess I could probably say that at any time in my life and it would be relevant, but I feel it more so now. We had a small housewarming party on Saturday for just a few friends and right after that was over, I headed out to the airport to pick up my grandma who’s visiting from Alberta. We don’t see her often because she lives so far away, so we’re really excited to have her for a week. Because of these two things, we have really wanted to finish up on our projects with our new home. I am blessed to have a husband who’s a hard worker. He’s been working like crazy to get things done. He goes to work every day and comes home just to do manual labor for the rest of the day. Today he finished the baseboards. They look really good. I still have pictures to hang and decorating to do, but for the most part, we’re done, at least with the worst of it. It’s nice to see such a beautiful finished product. I’ll post pictures one of these days. I lost the charger for my camera battery, so once my new one comes in the mail, I’ll take lots of pictures to show off.
As I mentioned before, my grandma is visiting. It’s fun to have her around. She keeps the kids entertained, which is always a nice thing. London always has someone to chat with or sing to or play games with or read books with. Tonight we put the kids to bed and then Taylor and I were able to go out and run some errands all alone. It was great! I can’t believe how much easier it is to get things done when you’re not toting two kids along. And now for a funny story. Yesterday, my grandma told London that she had to go wash her face. When she came back, London said, “Grandma, you forgot to wash the wrinkles off!” That girl is hilarious.

I can’t remember the last time (if ever) I have done one of these so I thought I would, just for fun today.
A-Age: 31
B-Bed size: Queen
C- Chore you hate: dishes
D- Dog’s name: I’m thinking we won’t have pets. Ever. But my dog’s name as a child was Sasha.
E- Essential start your day item: getting out of bed. That’s the hard part
F- Favorite color: Green, sometimes Blue
G- Gold or silver: Silver
H- Height: 5’3”
I- I am: tired
J- Job: Wife, Mother, Cook, house keeper, Preschool Volunteer (wow, I didn’t have to change any of Christina’s answers!)
K- Kids: 2, a girl and a boy
L- Living arrangements: newly renovated town home with my husband and two adorable children
M- Mom’s name: Marilyn
N- Nickname: Kierst
O- Overnight hospital stay other than birth: None for me, but I stayed with London when she had her cleft palate repaired.
P- Pet peeve: I have a lot so I won’t even start.
Q- Quote from a movie: “Spit spot.” –Mary Poppins
R- Right or left handed: Right
S- Siblings: 2 brothers and 2 brothers in law, and 2 sisters and 2 sisters in law
T- Time you wake up: 6 if I want to exercise, but later if I don’t.
U- Unique thing about your car: My daughter named it Commancho
V- Vegetable you hate: mushrooms and olives
W- Ways you run late: getting kids ready
X- X-rays you’ve had: wrist
Y- Yummy food you make: cookies
Z- Zoo favorite: San Diego
Don’t worry, I won’t tag any of you.

I recently listed an old toilet of ours for free on Craigslist. We got a new one. This one leaks and it’s pretty gross. I’m fairly sure we’ll have to try other means of disposing it, but in the mean time I’m getting some great spam. Here’s the one I got this morning. Now remember, I listed the toilet for free.

Hello,

Why are you selling your toilet?

Are you getting rid of it because you need cash?

You do not need to do that! I am going to show you how I went from making absolutely zero to making a lot of money from the convenience of my own home!

Now you can keep your toilet!

Check it out here

To your success!

-Jose

I’m thinking that if I really needed cash, I would not have put the toilet up for free. But more than that, I think that my toilet would be the last thing I would sell if I was really strapped. I mean, I would have sold my computer long before my toilet so I wouldn’t be able to post things on Craigslist.