Chocolate & Peanut Butter Ripple

Several people have asked for this either through posts or emails so here you go:

12 Nutter Butter Cookies
2 tsp butter, melted
1-8oz package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1-20oz tub Cool Whip
2-1oz squares of semi-sweet baker's chocolate, melted

1. Line a 9x5 Loaf pan with aluminum foil.
2. Crumble 8 of the Nutter Butter cookies. (I used a food processor for this since it makes them into crumbs real quick.) Mix crumbs with melted butter and press into loaf pan.
3. Mix cream cheese, peanut butter, sugar, and vanilla with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Gently fold in 3 cups of Cool Whip until well blended. This is the cream mixture
4. Remove 1/2 cup of the cream mixture and blend with the melted chocolate to make chocolate mixture.
5. Pour half of the remaining cream mixture into the loaf pan and spread evenly. Pour in the chocolate mixture and spread evenly. Pour in the remaining cream mixture and spread evenly.
6. Put in freezer for at least 4 hours.
7. Remove from freezer. Invert to remove from loaf pan. Remove aluminum foil. Invert onto a plate (this will put the cookie mixture on the bottom. Spread remaining Cool Whip onto the top of the loaf. Crumble remaining 4 Nutter Butter Cookies and sprinkle on top of Loaf.

Hope you guys enjoy it too! Everyone that has tried it so far loves it.

Wish me luck at the party tonight!

ber cheeb!

It be cold here! Yesterday, I was convinced that I was being tortured with Pennsylvania weather. I kept watching the skies for snow because it just seemed that cold to me and I did have to scrape the ice off my windshield yesterday before I could come to work. Cold!

I tried to new recipes last night. Ironically enough they were both frozen desert recipes. I tend to crave cold things when it's cold which makes no sense but then I usually don't make sense. The first was called a strawberry lemonade granita. It was basically water, lemonade mix and frozen strawberries blended together. It looked like a marguerita but tasted better. I'll definately be making that one again. The second was a frozen peanut butter and chocolate ripple cake. It had cream cheese, whipped cream, sugar, peanut butter, chocolate and nutter butter cookies and it was so very very good. I don't even want to try to figure out how many calories were in each bite.

Tomorrow, we are going to a halloween party. I can't wait to see DH in his musketeer garb. I'll make sure to post pics!

We bought a patio chair and made a little nest under it for Little Black. The apartment complex can't complain cause it is patio furniture and now LB has a cozy little place to curl up and get warm.

Spike Update

DH just got done at the vet. The hole in Spike's heart is the same as before and he seems to be getting enough air when he is scared so the vet thinks that he's okay but did warn us to take a look at his gums and nose to see if they go whiter when he starts the heavy breathing. If they do go white, then we may have to put him on meds but for now he's good.

Whew! What a relief.

Wacky Weekend

Friday night ended up being spent at home cause Jana was sick. We watched movies instead. The first one we watched was called Blood Angels (aka Thralls) and it was so horribly done that it was funny (Lorenzo Lamas played the lead vampire so that should give you an idea).

Saturday, we drove out to Museum Replicas and picked up a belt to hold the rapier and some leather guantlets for DH's costume. He now has everything but the hat and he says that he'll look around for that this week. When we got home, Dh headed to the perverts to help him move and I headed out to Nease's to reorganize their cross stitch section. After 4 hours, I had the fabric sorted out and felt pretty good about how it looked with the size of space that I had. While I was there, the watercolour skien that I needed came in.

Sunday was spent stitching on Tropical Dream since the fibers I was waiting for came in. I stayed up way to late but I'm down to 20 beads left and 1 cutwork section which I will finish easily tonight. I did learn that beaded knot clusters are not as easy as they look.

Today, I'm sitting here at work with not much to do while I wait for it to be 2pm... well 3 pm cause hopefully by then DH will have called to let me know how Spike is. *sigh* It's gonna be a long day. The biting cold wind woke me up at least this morning.

S&B fun

I went to the S&B last night. I had lots of fun and got to know a few people a little better. I finally made it home around 9:30pm but I didn't mind cause I had fun.

I'm heading to Jana's tonight to go to a football game with her. Dh is gonna stay home so I'll have some more girl time which is nice.

On Saturday, we're gonna head to musuem replicas early in the morning and then when we get home I'm gonna head out to Nease's to do some work on the fabric area and Dh is gonna head to the pervert's to help him move again. This is the 4th time in less than 4 years that we've helped this man move and it's a monumental chore every time. He's gotten it into his head that I can't lift anything so he was going to have me babysit his out of control child while they moved everything *shudder*. I'm so glad Nease's needed me this weekend!

Sunday will hopefully be relaxing while we do up all of our laundry but you never know.

appointment set

Spike has a 2pm appointment on Monday the 24th with the cardiologist. Thanks for the well wishes guys. I'll make sure to post as soon as DH gives me a call at the end of the appointment. This is one bad thing about the new job -- I don't have any days off yet so I can't go the appointment with them but DH promises to call me as soon as they are done.

Slow Week

Not much going on at work this week. I just made a life appointment that should put me over the number of policies that I needed to get a bonus and a raise as long as the policies get issued and the people actually show up at 2pm for the appointment. The problem child of the office is on vacation and won't be coming back in till Thursday so the office is quiet and calm and wonderful to be in so far this week.

I recieved the sad news that Norwood's Niche is closing her brick and mortar store but she will be keeping her online store going so that's something at least but it will stop my trips to Rome. I'm going to miss playing with Myrtle when we make the trips up there. I'll be heading over to the S&B at Nease's on Thursday and then to Jana's on Friday and then to Museum Replicas on Saturday so it will be a busy weekend.

DH is calling the cat cardiologist today to make an appointment for Spike. He seems to be having problems breathing and starts to breath open mouthed when he's playing even for just a short time. He's also sleeping a lot. I'm worried about him. The more I think about it, the more that I worry cause he's the one that has a hole in his heart. I've been trying not to think about it but it's weighing on my mind today while I wait to hear when his appointment is.

I also continue to worry about LB(little black). He's the stray we've been feeding. It's getting colder at night now and I worry about him finding a warm place to sleep. We seem to have lost Gimp. I haven't seen him in over two weeks so I guess he's no longer around. I hope that someone took him in and that he's well and happy. We've caught sight of baby black a couple of times since her first appearance but she steers clear of us when LB isn't around. LB is starting to put on some weight now that I've been giving him wet food twice a day along with leaving the dry food out so that's a good sign.

Mom had her appointment with the arthritis specialist yesterday and found out that she doesn't have rumetoid arthritis which was good news. The doc put her on aleve to help with the pain and inflamation and said she should be fine.

Dad has told me that my brother is coming down for Christmas with his wife. She should be around 6 months along by then so I'm not sure if they will actually make it down here or not. When it gets a little closer to time and I know for sure they are coming, I'll go out and buy them presents but I'm not doing it now only to have them not show.

I've decided I'm going to do the Walk to Rivendale after reading Princess's blog about it. I'm gonna start on November 1st though. I've started ording my lunch meals from a place that delivers to me at work and all the meals are low-fat and small proportions to help me lose weight. I've also cut back to 1 soda a week instead of 1 a day. I've always said that I will not diet and I'm not dieting now. I'm just eating and drinking a little healthier and I am going to start walking which will hopefully lead me back into my excersize routine once we move to the house and I have room to lay out on the floor and do the workouts. I don't feel fat yet but I am feeling tired and worn down and I think it's cause of not eating right and excersizing so I'll give it a try for a while and see if I can start to feel better.

Thursday winddown

Yesterday was the office manager's bday so we got her a cake and a gift certificate. She enjoyed herself.

Dh has an audit at work that starts today. He's been putting in extra hours for the last month in order to get ready for the audit.

Not much going on with me. I'm in training on commercial insurance again. this stuff is so boring and reading through all the material makes me so sleepy.

turn around tuesday

My moodiness of yesterday is gone. I got quite a bit done on the skin of my Enchanted Mermaid last night. I also got the baking bug and made two pumpkin pies, one of which I brought to work this morning to share with the office.

On the way in to work this morning, Dh looked up and said "Jeez honey, look at that. That even beats you!". The that I was supposed to look like was a woman standing on the corner of the road knitting while she waited for the bus. He couldn't believe someone would stand on the corner and knit in the middle of buckhead. I told it was a good way to pass time till the bus got there. *shrug*

What is with all the blog spam lately? Most of my comments for the last couple of weeks have been spam when I hardly ever got spam before.

Princess, good to see you blogging again! Loved the stitching update.

moody monday

I had a pretty good weekend. Friday, most of DH's muskateer costume arrived. We're still waiting on the tabbard and we still have to go and buy a baldric for the sword. He does now have the shoes, pants, and shirt though. I learned that musuem replicas is open year round and they have a big sale once a year so we are going to try to wander up there next weekend and see about the baldric and possibly a hat. We intended to go up there there on Saturday the 8th but DH had an encounter with a bug that pretty much ruined the morning so we only made it to Nease's and the bookstore on Saturday.

Sunday was spent sitting around the house all day stitching and doing laundry as many of my Sundays are spent. Enchanted mermaid is coming along nicely. She now has hair and the beginning of skin. I've managed to finish 3 of the 4 kreinik braids that are used on her and she sparkles a lot now.

Now it's monday and I'm very moody thanks to my monthly visitor that has been unusually cruel to me for the last year.

mood: cranky

What are your favorite sports films? What sports films do you think are terrible? Do you tend to watch a lot of sports movies or very few, or do you avoid them completely? Which sports (if any) do you watch on television? Are those the same sports you enjoy as movies?

Hmm... I love sports movies much to Dh's horror. Favorites include Remember the Titans, The Rookie, Cool Runnings, League of Their Own, Miracle, Cutting Edge, Youngblood and The Replacements. I tend to enjoy any sport movie but must admit that Football is my favorite. I used to watch football all the time but haven't really since getting married cause DH doesn't like it. The sports movie that I hate the most is probably Friday Night Lights. I was born in Odessa which is where this film takes place. I went to this school though I was about 10 years behind the class that this movie is about. I knew some of these people. This movie made it seem like we were all backwoods hicks that thought only football was important and we needed to win even if it meant demeaning the kids and beating them and hurting them. I got so mad! It focused on the players that were having tough home lives in order to give more drama but it didn't say anything about the players that were okay at home and doing well in school. Sorry... that turned into a mini-rant there.

In other news, it's raining again. I was the first one in the office today and everyone else started trickling in around 9am. It's funny how hindsight is so different. It felt kind of nice to be all alone this morning. I started thinking how nice it would be to have the office to myself again until the phone started ringing off the hook :)

Not much going on. I'm off to search on the net and see if I can find a Muskateer costume for DH to wear for halloween and to the ren fair this year. Lots of fun.

Fixed the tire

Turns out that the flat tire was sue to the faxt that I had run over a razor blade and it was imbedded in my tire so I ended up with a new tire. Figures. The tires on the car now have less than 1000 miles on them! I was smart this time and got the puncture warranty though.

For those of you that have looked at the blogs that I follow or those that haven't, Kirabug is one of my best friends from college and one of the people I went to visit in PA. She writes an awesome web comic. This week there is a hilarious one about song lyrics and those of you that are also music fans will love this one. You can also read some of the back ones too if you want but it's better to go back to the beginning cause some of them are in storyline order.

I got tagged.

I don't really have anything to blog about today and I'm exhausted cause I stayed up way to late to finish a book that I got involved in so I'll respond to the tag that I recieved.

7 Things I want to do before I die:
1. Visit France
2. Visit Australia
3. Have Children
4. Own my own home
5. Finish my degree
6. Learn to knit
7. Own my own business

7 Things I can do
1. Cross Stitch
2. Bake
3. Crochet
4. Math with or without numbers
5. Have great patience
6. Explain insurance terms in english
7. Play RPG's

7 Things I can't do
1. Knit
2. Make fudge
3. Play games that require quick hand movements
4. Walk out of a shoe store without a pair of shoes
5. Walk out of a bookstore without a book
6. Run
7. Diet

7 Things that attract me to a person
1. A nice smile
2. Honesty
3. Fidelity
4. Sparkling eyes
5. Compassion
6. Sense of Humor
7. Ability to laugh at oneself

7 Celebrity Crushes
don't currently have one but previous ones are:
1. Patrick Swayze
2. Mel Gibson
3. Sean Connery
4. Harrison Ford
5. Jean Claude VanDamme
6. Angel (character I know but couldn't help it)
7. Ron Perleman (loved beauty and the beast)

7 Things I say the most
1. I got to laughing...
2. What aren't you understanding?
3. Mischief!
4. Why?
5. Yes that is considered an accident and yes it is your fault.
6. Honey, Can you...?
7. I don't care what we eat.

7 bloggers I will tag:
I'm not going to do this part. Most of the bloggers that I read have already been tagged so I wouldn't have 7 anyway.

Weekend Wonders

I had a wonderful time on Saturday at the gtg and was very bad by staying till after midnight. Becky's DH noticed that I had a flat tire and gracefully changed it for me so that I wouldn't have to. When Angela and I got back to my apartment, little black came out for some loving. As you know, I've been feeding two strays (little black & gimp) who are both pure black. Little black is very friendly and just wants to be loved on. Gimp is pretty skittish and runs at the slightest noise still. Little black and Gimp do NOT get along. Angela leaned down to pet little black and said "Oh there's another one". I cringed thinking that there was going to be a fight between gimp and little black but instead I got introduced to baby black who is apparently little black's girlfriend. She wasn't as friendly and ran around us in a circle doing her little meow while we petted little black. It was very cute. I have noticed that black cats tend to flock to our house though.

Sunday was a late start since I didn't get up till after 11am after being up till after 3am the night before. We got to the fair around 3:30pm and took in a couple of shows and played a few games and then headed into the display area to take one last look at what everyone had done. While we were looking around Valerie and Becky came in to get there stuff too. While looking, I noticed that Merry Christmyth was not where it was last week. We looked for a little while and couldn't find it so I stopped one of the ladies that was patroling and told her that my piece was missing. She helped us look and finally found it on a back table a little hidden. I asked why it had been moved and she told me she didn't know but it was probably because they were afraid that it would fall. While checking out after I had picked up my stuff and put it in the car Valerie found a list of the winners. It gave the category and the name of the winner. My name was circled by my Merry Christmyth second place win with a note that said "Jesus loves you". We started talking about and thinking about and realized that someone must have thought that I don't believe in Jesus so they thought they would leave me a message. After going home, the more I thought about it, the more that I thought they probably moved it out of the Christmas section cause of a complaint about "devil" things like dragons and mermaids and griffons were in the Christmas area. I've actually thought about doing a devil with a pitchfork in a santa hat for next year but I know I won't follow through with it. I am however sure that I can find another Christmas design with a dragon in it!

Hope everyone else had a good weekend!