Today-Sad Face

Chris is sad. His last day at his job is today. He had a one year contract at Apple through Volt and that year ends today. Today.

Today he turns in his Apple badge.

I remember the day he came home with that badge. He was so stinkin' excited. You see, he'd been at Home Depot for nearly two years....getting paid pretty much nothing for doing everyone else's job plus his.

When he got the job at Apple he thought he was getting his foot in the door. He wants to do the job he has been doing for the last year. Unlike the people who are getting hired on at Apple every day who don't like their jobs at all. People who complain every day. People who call in "sick" once or twice a week. People who are searching for jobs other places while being Apple badged.

It makes me ill. I don't know how Chris did it. I wouldn't have had any friends there.

During the year that he worked there, he applied for Apple badged jobs every opportunity he had. He had a few interviews...but nothing ever came of it. It's not like he hasn't been trying.

So much has happened in the year that he has been at Apple via Volt.

I quit my job-hoping to find something more along the lines of what I wanted to do. No luck there.

By August 2009, I had plans to go back to school in the spring.

Cancer diagnosis in November.

No school, still no job for me.

Now we are here. April 30.

It feels like we are worse off than this time last year. We couldn't afford to stay in our apartment, so we've moved in with my aunt. So thankful we had somewhere to go. We have medical bills up to our ears.

But this is about Chris. He's the one that deserves the job that he wants. When will it be his turn? How many days of work did he miss during the months of November-February? Three and a half...and might I add that chemo made him tired as hell. In fact, that's all he's missed in the last year. Really?

I told him he should have missed as much work as he wanted. Apparently then he would have gotten hired on at Apple.

For now, we are holding our breath and hoping something gives soon.

Chip Chop

As soon as I get the chance, I'm chopping my hair off. It's the longest it's ever been and Chris loves it. I don't know why...I wear it up every single day. I can't stand it. He has always wanted me to grow it out and now I'm done with it.

I wan't this haircut-

Love Gennifer Goodwin.

I've never been one to take a picture into the salon and say, "This is what I want my hair to look like." This time I might be that chick though.

Add This To My Wish List

I haven't made a wish list yet, but now I really have a reason to!

My aunt brought this home from work Tuesday-

Yep, an Apple iPad 16 GB.

Chris was able to play with one at work a couple of weeks ago, but I refused to fight the crowds at the two  Apple stores down here.

Of course, my pictures of the iPad don't do it justice...but that's another item for the wish list that I'll soon be making.

Anyway, back to the iPad.

We read a book-

One of the features I liked about reading books is this-

Don't laugh at our selection-Winnie the Pooh.

If you come across a word you don't know, you can look it up in the dictionary. Of course, I know what bumping means, but recently I've asked Chris if he knew what ------ means. I can't stand not knowing what a word is so this is pretty cool. It also shows you the page numbers at the bottom and how many pages are left in each chapter.

Of course, there's more to the iPad than reading books.

Chris watched one of his favorite shows-

Meh

We also played around with Google Maps...and found the street view of our house.

Creeeeeepy.

I tweeted from it.

It would take me a while to get used to typing on the keyboard. I'm too used to typing on my laptop/Blackberry. Chris kept laughing at me.

I wrote a short little blog.

Please excuse the allergy face/late night pic.

Basically, I can do everything that I ever do on my laptop...on the iPad.

I. want. one. now.

The iPad is also super light and thin.

It still won't fit in my purse though.

Chris wants one too.

Of course.

We wish this one was ours to keep but it's gone back to Apple now.

 Someday!

I kid, I kid!

Ok, I lied! A sweet chica whose blog I read/follow on Twitter, told me how to blog from the iPad.

I dont have an iPhone yet, so I need to get used to the keyboard on this thing before we get one. At least I assume the keyboard on here is like the one on the iPhone.

My aunt, who works at Apple, got to bring home an iPad for us to play with. Now I really want one.

I'll do a more detailed post later....

I'm off to play/tweet/facebook on this thing before we have to give it back....

Too bad the iPad can't handle Blogger...

Silent Sunday

Picture taken 3/3/10

Chick-fil-a never looked so good.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love a warm gooey chocolate chip cookie. Right out of the oven? Yes, please.

Chris would be perfectly happy with a store bought box of chocolate chip cookies. Not me. Yuck.

Chocolate Chip Cookies!
What you need-
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup butter (room temperature)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar (packed)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 large eggs
1 12 ounce pkg. chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt with a fork. In a larger bowl, beat together the butter, both sugars, and vanilla with a mixer until creamy.

It needs to be creamier than the above picture. When it looks more like the below picture, add in the eggs, and beat until combined.

Next, gradually add in the flour mixture. I add about a third of the flour mixture at a time and mix after each addition until I've added all the flour. If you have a stand mixer then that's probably not necessary but I don't, so I do.

After you've added all of the flour and the batter is nice and combined toss in your chocolate chips. No more mixing required. Just stir the chocolate in with a rubber spatula.

I hate the flash. Stupid camera has a mind of it's own.

Drop the batter by rounded spoonfuls onto a baking sheet.

Bake 7 to 9 minutes depending on how chewy/crispy you like your cookies. I like mine chewy. And gooey. But I already said that.

Get yourself a tall glass of milk and enjoy!

Another Library Trip...

I like to read. A lot. Recently I'm stuck on the Sookie Stackhouse novels. I'm embarrased to admit that if I knew these were the books that True Blood (you know, the series on HBO) was based on, I would have never started reading them. I'm usually never into this type of book, but I read the first one in the series and now I'm hooked. 

What? You don't believe me?

This isn't even all of the books in the series. Series? Is that even what it's called? Oh, and there is the last Jodi Picoult novel that I haven't read...yet.

I'm hooked. And it's totally not my style.

Here's what Chris checked out from the library-

Yup.

Happy Birthday Matthew!

My youngest (ohmygoshIfeelold) brother turns 10 today. Seriously? Ten? How old am I again?

Happy Birthday Matthew!

We love you and wish we could give you a big fat hug today!

Silent Sunday

Can you see the other cat walking on the roof?

About That-

This picture-

Let me explain. Yes, Chris was dressed as a rooster.

So was my little cousin. Okay, he was a chicken.

Oh, and Spider-Man was there too. It was a regular party.

I wasn't dressed up.

We also made candy necklaces.

Ok, I made the necklaces. They counted the candies and then ate/wore them.

We also played hide and seek. Yes, in the house V&B.

I know Spider-Man is in here somewhere.

About every other week, Chris and I babysit my two little cousins. Chris does the "playing" and I do the other stuff. You know, like taking pictures, making snacks, and doctoring bloodied lips from brothers banging heads.

Whew! Who needs a birth control pill?

Kidding.

We enjoy it and in September there will be a third baby included in our Wednesday night "parties". Hopefully we will find out the sex of the new baby on Saturday.

 I think it's time for a girl.

Let's Compare...

On Friday, I posted this. That was four days ago. Chris' hair has grown even more. Like, seriously. I've never seen hair grow this fast. It's pretty hilarious actually. Ya know, waking up next to someone who looks different every day. The hair fairy comes every night these days. Let's do a little comparison shall we?

About 2 weeks ago:

Last Friday:

And today:

(Helping Mason with his homework)

It's definitely growing back lighter than it was, but we still can't tell what color. Chris thinks it looks red, but I'd call it more of a grey/blonde/brown color. I told you we couldn't figure out the color. One thing is for sure, it's not red. Sorry Chris. He's always had a thing for red hair.

Take that chemotherapy drugs!!

The Easiest & Tastiest Lemon Cake EVER!

A while back I was craving lemon cake. No idea why, but I was on a mission!

I tried THREE different lemon cake recipes within a week. I trashed two* of them. One of them was way too oily and had barely any lemon flavor. The other one that I threw away was just too dry and crumbly, and still didn't have enough lemon flavor.

Then there was this one. Which I think I found on the Tasty Kitchen blog.  It's so simple, and I think the recipe is probably on the box of cake mix I used.

Extreme Lemon Pound Cake
What you need for the cake:
1 box lemon cake mix
1 small box instant lemon pudding
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup vegetable oil
Juice of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 lemon

What you need for the glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
Lemon zest (a couple of pinches)
Fresh lemon juice-a couple of teaspoons

Here's everything for everything.

First, preheat the oven according to what your chosen cake mix box says. Say that three times fast. Next, you pretty much just dump all ingredients for the cake into a bowl. Use a big bowl.

Yum. Beat this mixture on medium speed for about two minutes. It'll be thick, that's good.

See? Nice and thick. That's what you want. Now butter a Bundt pan (really good!) and dump the mixture in.

Bake according to the time listed on your cake mix box. Mine took about an hour. Just use the toothpick method.

When it's finished, dump it out upside down and let it cool for a while. You can eat it just like this or you can add a glaze. The cake itself has plenty of lemon flavor, but I like adding the glaze because it adds some attitude.

To make the glaze, dump the powdered sugar into a bowl. Add a couple of pinches of lemon zest into the sugar. Next comes the fun part- add in one tablespoon of lemon juice to the sugar and mix with a fork. Add one tablespoon at a time of the liquid. You want the consistancy of the glaze to be like a thick cake batter. I ended up putting about 2 tablespoons of lemon juice into my sugar. Just remember, thicker is better for this cake.

Here's the final product! The glaze could have been even thicker on this one so just play around with it.

Once you've glazed the cake, let the glaze harden and then enjoy!

*Funny enough, the two cakes I threw away (because they were nasty!) were totally made from scratch. This one, even though it is from a cake mix is cheaper and tastier...don't turn your nose up at boxed cake mixes! They just need some "help" tasting good.