I'm suddenly having issues with updating the AOL journal so for now at least, I will only be posting on my blogger account.  Again the address is  http://animalrescuerslife.blogspot.com/

VP Debate

I admit it. I have no plans of watching the vice presidential debate. (sorry Beth!) Although I'm sure there are to be some hilarious moments as Palin stumbles her way through. I mean really, the woman can't handle an interview with Katie Couric, how is she going to handle THAT? You can't answer with a 'I'll have to look into that/get back with you on that' with every tough question. And I think when it comes to Palin, asking what her favorite season is, is bound to be a tough question. I really still have a hard time understanding McCain's thoughts in choosing her as his VP. At least Obama chose someone with a brain to be his running mate. I think I will honestly cry if that crazy woman and old man end up winning. I don't care for him but I really can't stand her. And he is OLD. The old part doesn't bother me... if he had chosen a different running mate. I don't like bringing age into it to be honest but if he keels over... help us all as SHE would be our president. Really, McCain chose the female Bush. She says er and uhm a lot less but just as brain dead. How do these people make it this far in politics? There's nothing anyone could say to me that would change my opinion on Palin and I like to consider myself a pretty open minded person on all subjects. I just don't get it.

Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

I thought I'd put up the cream cheese sugar cookie recipe that I'd found last Christmas.  I normally don't post recipes unless I really and I mean REALLY like them.  These are very fragile once cooked, I'm assuming it's due to the amount of cream cheese.  They fall apart quite easily if you're not careful with them.  (I had many candy canes missing their hooks last Christmas)  This is not a recipe I made up, I found it on the website http://allrecipes.com/

8 oz cream cheese

1 1/2 cups of white sugar

1 cup unsalted (unsalted is important) butter

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. almond extract

3 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder

In a large bowl, combine the sugar, butter, cream cheese, baking powder, vanilla and almond extracts, and egg.  Beat until smooth.  Stir in flour until well blended.  Chill the dough for 8 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 375.

On lightly floured surface roll out the dough 1/3 at a time to 1/8 inch thickness, refrigerating remaining dough until ready to use. Cut into desired shapes with lightly floured cookie cutters. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Leave cookies plain for frosting, or brush with slightly beaten egg white and sprinkle with candy sprinkles or colored sugar.

Bake for 7 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until light and golden brown. Cool cookies completely before frosting.

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This is the frosting I use on these.  This doesn't harden well but I find it tastes best with these cookies over all other frostings. 

4 cups of confectioners' sugar

1/2 cup butter

5 tablesppons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

food coloring if desired

In a large bowl, cream together the confectioners' sugar and butter until smooth. Gradually mix in the milk and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth and stiff, about 5 minutes. Color with food coloring if desired.  I reccomend putting the butter in the bowl first and then VERY slowly adding the sugar, otherwise you may get clumps.  My first attempt at this recipe had major clumps and I had to start all over again.

Meanies

The husband and the little girl have been quite moody as of lately. Husband is stressed from work and little girl is just, well, mean. I think I've had about enough of it as of today however and am losing my patience with both of them. Mean little girl can get away with a little more because she's only 3. Husband wants me to take the binky from her effect immediately, however husband gets to escape from the tantrums, I am stuck with them. I bought her two new ones tonight. He knew I was going to do it but it was actually a part of my plan to remove them from her all together. I took the one that she had earlier today and cut the tip of it off. She wants nothing to do with it now and that's the only one that I will take anywhere with us. She asks for a binky, she'll get a binky but it's not going to be what she had in mind. I briefly tested the waters to see how she would react tonight if I told her (as we were going to bed) that it was the only binky we had and she curled her lip and began frantically searching for a "real" binky. We went to bed without one. Well, ok, she didn't know I had one hidden in case of major breakdown. It didn't take long for her to start to get upset and I said 'Oh, look what I found.' I didn't go into it tonight with the plan of holding out on her so I don't feel as if I've failed some mommy test. I would like her to be done with them by the time the baby is born but if she still has them at bedtime, I'm not going to have a nervous breakdown over it. Honestly, it's a bit of guilt on my part. I know that her life, as she's known it, is about to change drastically and I feel badly taking away her little piece of comfort. My husband seems to think it will be as easy as taking away the bottle but he seems to have forgotten that she was pretty much done with the bottle on her own so it wasn't a huge ordeal for anyone. If she was attached to some toy or a blanket, there would be no pushing to get her to be independent from it but since it's a binky and so many people flip when they see a toddler with one, it's an issue. *sigh*

For those of us who are transitioning from AOL to blogger, I've been trying to figure out how to have alerts sent to your mailbox when a new blog has been written but it's taking a little time. I know one of the blogs on here that I read (not from AOL) has a gadget that she uses but I haven't been able to figure out how to get it on mine. It's through feedburner andyou just type your email into it and push ok and, bingo, every entry she writes, I receive an email. I'll let you know if I figure out if you'd like to use it on your blogs. Although, I wouldn't make major changes to your blogs until AOL figures out it's head from it's ass on this issue. I've also got some advice for those of you who have already gotten your blogger name that you wish to use, if AOL is able to get the change over so that we can just push a button and have all our AOL journals transferred. You can either create a new blog with a name similar to the one you have, for example I put in mine as animalrescuerslife... I can simply add "an" to it and then leave the link till everyone gets caught up OR (and I'm not sure if this will work or how well and you could lose any current information on your blog) you can change the name of the blog you are currently using before you give AOL the url, opening up that name for use once again. I hope that didn't confuse you further. I'll let you know if I figure out an easier way before the change over occurs. I know there's a way to keep your current name AND switch everything over but I believe you need to have some idea as to how to use html and I really don't.

Ch-Ch-Changes

As most of you are aware by now, AOL journals will be no more as of November 1st.  I'm not sure what pisses me off more, the fact that AOL decided to terminate journals and there by take away what has become a wonderful community online or the fact that they gave us just barely a month to transfer all of our past entries.  I think it's more the latter as most of you (as will I) will be moving to blogger and therefore not much should change in our relationships.  On November 1st I will have been blogging on AOL journals for exactly five years.  I have five years worth of entries to back up on another forum.  Five years in one month.  I don't know how I'm going to do it all.  The thought is a little overwhelming and this is coming from someone who has no formal job.  I can't imagine what it would be like if I also worked full time and had to worry about backing up all my past entries.  I will continue to post my daily entries on here but will be putting them on blogger as well.  If you are going to blogger or another forum, please, please let me know.  Some of you I am already aware of and have already put in to "follow" your blog through blogger.  I do not plan on quitting blogging.  I wouldn't know how quite frankly as I've been doing it for so long.  It's my "out" at the end of the day and will continue to be so.  My blogger address is posted below.  After November 1st you will have no way of accessing this (the AOL version) journal so make sure you bookmark sooner rather than later or if you forget, you can always email me.  Damn you AOL.

http://animalrescuerslife.blogspot.com/

Sorry, I wrote a book... long

I spent the evening cleaning my kitchen counters.  I really have to start doing this stuff earlier in the day as I haven't been getting myself or Jasmine to bed till after 1am.  I was planning on laying around and doing nothing today but those counters were driving me nuts.  There's almost nothing on them that isn't completely necessary at the moment.  Next I have to get the floor clean.  The dogs have been bringing in a great deal of dirt the last few days so the floor is grimy.  I'd also like to get started on emptying the guest bedroom to make it a play room for Jasmine.  I want her to have some where to go after this baby is born where she can get away from it once it starts crawling around.  Her toys will also be safe from it that way.  I'm going to have the old tv set up and buy a dvd player so she can watch movies in there if she wants.  I've got to put a few things on freecycle before I can really get it clean.  (a treadmill for starters)  I'll mostly be happy to have all her toys out of my living room.  One entire corner is devoted to her toys and I'm frequently tripping over them.  The final thing I would absolutely like to have done before baby is born, is to pull up the carpet in the master bedroom.  My vacuum sucks... or doesn't.  The main part of the sweeper, just moves dirt and hair around.  It doesn't pull anything up into the chamber.  We have to long haired dogs that sleep in our bedroom every night and the hair is everywhere.  I just don't want it to be that way when it's born.  The extension on the vacuum, the part that you normally use in corners, works fine and it's what I use to pick up what a broom cannot.  I've had the ability to buy a new vacuum several times since we've lived here but it seems like such a waste considering that most of our house is either wood floors or linoleum.  I know eventually I'm going to have to just buy a new damn sweeper but for now, I'm sticking with being stubborn.  The broom makes less noise any ways.  And most vacuums seem to like to shoot shrapnel at my ankles.  (bird seeds, stray pieces of kitty litter, dirt)  Yes, I'm splitting hairs at this point and time as to why I don't want to spend the money.  There's more fun things to spend money on that vacuums, how's that for my official answer?  We had plans to pull up this floor and replace it before putting it on the market any ways, we just getting an early start.  (and we don't have the money for new flooring but there is old tile under the carpet so we won't be walking around on the floor board itself)  The current carpet has been in this house since it was built or soon there after.  I'd have to ask my grandma to be completely sure.  It's been here for a long, long time.  It looks similar to baby food, the pea kind.  My doberman put the final nail in it's coffin by eating a portion of the middle of the floor one day.  It was one of the few days that I really wanted to hug that bad dog.  In front of my husband I was very that dumb dog ate the carpet.  When no one was looking I was jumping up and down at the thought of the green monster carpet would be gone.  I would just like the major stuff to be taken care of before it gets here so that we don't have to try to find a way to do afterwards.  And please, please, please be a baby that sleeps good... and a lot.  Jasmine did not sleep well.  I would be up till all hours of the night and I finally got to the point that I was just turn the tv on and sit with her.  She was fascinated by the discovery channel, particularly when it was a surgery show.  I think it was the bright colors all mixed together on the screen.  Blood, blue scrubs, white masks, bright lights, it all kept her attention.  Then there were nights when that wouldn't work.  Those were very sore nights for me.  I believe she had some gas issues for a while there (not to the point of being colic) and I would have to do squats while holding her... sometimes for an hour.  And people wonder how I lost all my baby weight within three months, without dieting or working out.  It worked best if I was standing on the bed doing squats, making it even harder on my legs.  Go try it, I'll still be here when you get back.  Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about that whole off balance thing before you left.  Sorry about that.  ;)  Be a mellow kid, be a mellow kid.  My best friend had a baby about seven months ago and this little girl is the most laid back child I've ever seen.  She's only cried a handful of times and it's never that full out I'm dying cry.  If she needed something, she'd just do a few little whimper/grunt noises and that was that.  She goes to sleep the same time every night.  My friend had kids before like mine that never slept and they slept with mom and dad just so they could sleep.  Not Maya, she's always slept in her crib and never fusses.  I want THAT baby.  ;)  It'll be interesting to see what personality this kid has.  I just started thinking about that tonight.  I had been so consumed with the omigod I can't do this with two of them syndrome that I hadn't thought of the good things.  I did this with Jasmine too while I was pregnant.  I would have nightmares that I'd leave her in the car seat, on top of the car and drive off.  In the nightmares, I usually wouldn't realize I was without a baby till the next day.  And then we wouldn't be able to find the baby anywhere.  I would always wake up panicked and my feeling of there's no way I can be a mom, reinforced.  The one thing I stuck to during that entire pregnancy and afterwards was that my lifestyle wouldn't change just because I had a baby.  And it didn't.  I just had an extra person with me where ever I went.  A lot of new moms stay at home and never go anywhere for fear that the baby will need something or will have a massive breakdown in the middle of a store.  I didn't worry about that.  If she needed food, I had food, needed a diaper, I had a diaper.  I just kept the things she might need on me and we would go out when the mood hit us.  For about the first year, we took her to some friends houses and she would sleep while we would play cards.  (that ended when that friendship ended)  I still feel the same way with this pregnancy but we'll have to be a little more flexible now than we were then.  We'll have two kids, not just one to contend with.  I'm looking forward to some things and dreading others.  The main dread is sleeping.  Getting them to sleep at the same time, for the same amount of time so that mommy can sleep.  And keeping the crying to a low howl so as not to wake up Jasmine.  Just little things here and there.  I can't wait to see the baby, and know that everything is ok.  The first smiles.  The smiles are worth gold, particularly early on.  When they're that small, you can't stop staring at them.  They're always doing something that melts your heart.  Jasmine still does that but you never know when her devil horns are going to come out.  ;)  I had a dream last night that I was a week from my due date and we still didn't have a name picked out.  Neither one of us had looked at the book at all except for once in the beginning.  I was freaking out, yelling at him to read the book, as he's trying to read the book.  ;)  I'm sure that comes from how Jasmine was named.  When I went into labor, I had a name picked out, Jayden Keith.  After labor was over and delivery complete, I realized I needed a GIRL'S name.  I was awoken a few hours later (they gave me large amounts of drugs to save my life and they knocked me out) and not long after there was a woman from social security telling me I had five hours to choose a name.  FIVE hours to look through thousands of names and pick the right one.  I looked quickly through the book and picked out anything I thought fit her, Shawn did the same and we compared notes.  Jasmine was on both lists and was the only name that really seemed right, even though I had been leaning towards Kayla for a girl during my pregnancy, Jasmine just fit her better.  So she became Jasmine Kayla.  This one's middle name is already decided as well, it will either be Betty or Keith after my grandparents.  As for the name book... I'm the only one that's looked at it and that was in month three, briefly.  I keep telling myself that's what I'm going to do one of these nights instead of causing myself back pain from cleaning and cooking.  You'd think I would want to since all I have to do is sit and read but it's a massive pain in the rear end.  After a hundred names, your eyes just start to glaze over and they all look the same.  I hate looking for names.  (in case you haven't noticed since I've taken names from you all to name fosters)  Ok, enough baby crap.

Tomorrow I'm taking Mama Spice to the other fosters house.  She will be spayed and then put up for adoption.  It will probably be the last time I see her.  She'll get a good home, I'm sure.  She's very low maintenance.  Only issues I've noticed with her is that she likes to scratch things (doors, trim, anything) and that she doesn't appear to used to household appliances.  They totally freak her out.  I don't know that she'd ever been in a house before.  In exchange, I'll be getting my shots for these kittens and wait for it,         another kitten.  ;)  The other foster pulled him from the shelter and feels badly that he's all alone so he's going to be thrown in with my brood of hellions.  He has plenty of kitties to play with that's for sure.  I don't mind more kittens.  They poop smaller and are easier to clean up after.  ;)

I am in too good of a mood, must go to bed already!

I am so hungry.  I don't like to eat right before I'm ready to go to sleep as it gives me awful heartburn (only while pregnant) but I had a few crackers an hour or so ago.  What do I really want?  All my favorite comfort foods.  My grandma's macaroni and cheese, a big ham, chicken and dumplings, hot rolls, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs and... turkey.  I don't eat turkey under any circumstances but that doesn't mean I still don't crave it from time to time.  I haven't eaten turkey in over five years and don't have any plans doing it anytime soon.  When I worked at the last rescue, we had turkeys and I was in love with them.  I just don't find it possible to eat one and after my Bubbah died, I promised to never eat turkey again.  They're actually fairly intelligent birds for poultry and can be very protective of those they love.  So that craving will have to work itself out.  And I doubt I'll get most of the others until Thanksgiving.  Making a ham for three would be wasteful and no matter how many times grandma tells me how to make her mac and cheese, I just can't remember it.  The only way I'll get chicken and dumplings is to drive six hours south and bribe my aunt into making them for me but considering her feelings towards me, I don't know that there'd be enough money.  The deviled eggs are my moms and I'm sure with a good hug, she might consider it.  ;)  Mashed potatoes, I can do myself and quite well I might add.  But none of those things are going to show up on the my kitchen table ready for me to eat right now.  All I can do is torture myself and imagine them.  I partially blame Beth/ for ruining all my dinners till Thanksgiving due to her mouth watering story of her family get together to make apple butter.  Yes YOU, Beth.  ;)  See if I read your blog next time you talk about food.  Ok, I'm lying, I'll read, I'll drool and then I'll read it again.  ;)))  Maybe I'll get a few of those before the week is up.  Moooooommmy.....   ;)

My day started off nicely.  I had Shawn go down to get the mail from the day before and there was a package for me from Lisa/.  After a hysterical fight between my husband and said boxed package, we finally got into the box.  She had sent me some baby clothes that were so adorable.  And exactly what we needed.  I no longer have to worry about anything in 0-3 months because we now have the essentials.  One of the outfits she sent is actually going to be the outfit we take the baby home in.  Plus there was a handwritten note along with it.  I love getting handwritten notes in the mail.  Even if it just says what's supposed to be with a package, I still love the notes. 

I made the entire rest of those sugar cookies tonight.  The total from tonight was somewhere over thirty cookies.  Afterwards, I went and took a shower because I promised my husband I would take it easy and take a break afterwards.  However, my hair wasn't even dry before I was getting together the ingredients to make the icing.  I just wanted to have it all together for when I was ready to make it.  After hair was dried, kid was parked in front of the tv, I started on the icing.  This too was a recipe I'd never used before... and will never use again.  It was way to sweet for my tastes and ridiculously hard to make.  Think, 2 teaspoons of milk, add 1 cup of confectioner's sugar and mix until well blended.  I'm giving two teaspoons to blend a cup of powder???  I gradually added a 1/2 teaspoon of milk for the times when there was no way anyone short of the Hulk could've blended it.  Afterwards you also add corn syrup and some vanilla.  Too hard to make and too sweet.  Nice things about it, it was fairly easy to paint onto the cookies and set up really glossy and kept it's color.  My bats stayed black, my pumpkins stayed orange and my ghosts stayed white.  Sometimes with other icings, the color will be a little dull once it dries.  I think I'll still go back to my other icing recipe which tastes much better (and is about the same difficulty to make, for different reasons) and sets up almost as nicely.  I sent most of the cookies off with Shawnto work.  I kept some here for us and of course, Jasmine got to keep the ones that she painted.  And I was shocked.  SHOCKED, I tell you.  She kept all her icing confined to her plate and cookies.  I couldn't have been happier because the dye I used in the icing was some heavy duty stuff.  It gets on things and never comes off.  I probably should've sent a warning along with my husband's cookies about what their going to experience in the coming days.  Especially anyone who gets an orange pumpkin.  Hate to hear what runs through their head after that bathroom visit.  Oh yeah, it dyes THAT too.  ;)