Iowa Mamapalooza 2009

This picture shows most of us, however, one mom had to leave early.

With concerns about impending snowstorms, nearly a dozen Lutheran homeschooling moms descended on rural Hinton, IA two weekends ago. We arrived from several Midwestern states: Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, South Dakota and Minnesota. Two other moms planned to attend from Wyoming and Illinois but late winter snowstorms prevented them from coming.

We had a little wine (okay a lot), a little chocolate (same as before), great food, lots of time to visit. We did some sightseeing on Saturday, stopped by a candy store and then ate a delicious meal at Luciano's. My favorite restaurant, by the way!! Then back to rural Hinton for a rousing game of Apples to Apples and Catch Phrase, before we headed to bed.

Sunday morning we attended our hosts rural church for services, then returned for a quick lunch before everyone headed home. Old friendships were renewed, new friendships were made. We laughed a lot (so hard that we cried). We stayed up way too late and when I returned home I promptly took a 2 hour nap. Anyone that knows me well, knows that I never nap, so I must have been exhausted.

We had great fun and I look forward to doing it again soon.

A Dessert to Die For..........

I know I have been missing in action. Had a computer issue, but got that figured out. Was on a little vacation and still trying to catch up from that. Kids' recital tomorrow. Picking up Morgan's horse on Sunday. Art workshop Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Then I will upload some photos of what is all going on here...

And now on to the aforementioned post. A friend forwarded me this link and I drooled right on the keyboard. Will be making this tomorrow evening for sure. We'll call it a belated birthday cake for me..

http://bakerella.blogspot.com/2008/04/chocolate-chip-cookie-pie-oh-my.html"

Happy National Chocolate Brownie Day - One Day Late

I guess I have been slacking on the job here, but I don't know how I missed this. Anyway, yesterday (December 8th) was National Chocolate Brownie Day. So in honor of that, some time this week, make yourself a batch of your favorite brownies and wash them down with your favorite beverage (or some ice cream!).

A New Look for my Blog....

Whaddya think?

I like the combinations of pink and brown that are so popular in clothing, scrapbooking and decorations. So I decided I would try it on for size. Makes me think of candy for some reason....maybe because I have a big sweet tooth. Looking forward to the assortments of candy that we are usually gifted with. My chance to try out lots of chocolates.

Speaking of chocolate, I ran across this blog and for all you Loopers out there that love chocolate as much as I do, now we have a place where there are CHOCOLATE REVIEWS!!!! It is very descriptive and has pictures too! In the words of Rachel Ray "YUM-OH!"

http://www.chocablog.com/

Mother's Day at my House

Hope all you Moms out there enjoyed your Mother's Day! I awoke to shouts of Happy Mothers Day from my three kids and 3 varieties of candy bars! They know how much I love chocolate. I got a York Peppermint Patty, a Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate bar and a Hershey's Cookies and Cream bar. I will be enjoying those this week. My son made me a card in Sunday school and my daughter gave me one before church. They'll be going into the scrapbook. My other daughter made me 16 coupons for hugs, kisses, love and help around the house. How neat is that?

My dear husband spoiled me and got me two pair of Rockies black jeans from the local western store and a dressy western shirt. After church today, my folks came out from Nebraska and we enjoyed dinner and later, after we looked around the farm, enjoyed spice cake and vanilla ice cream. None of my 3 sisters could come out today, but 2 of the 3 called to wish Mom a happy Mother's Day and I found out that the other sister called them at home, so it was nice for my folks to get to talk to all of us today.

My folks hadn't been to visit since January, so we spent time playing with the puppies, the bottle lambs, the rest of the sheep, the cattle and the horses (and don't forget the llamas... yes they are supposed to guard the sheep...we'll see how that works out). My mom brought along the local newspapers from back home and I got to read about all the tornado damage that happened last weekend near them and my sister who lives about 25 miles away. The pictures were incredible!

Picnic food, cake and ice cream, and 3 chocolate bars just for me! Does it get much better?

Brownie Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

1 (19.8 or 21.5 oz.) pkg. fudge brownie mix (9 in. pan)
3 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
3 eggs
1 (14 oz.) can Eagle sweetened condensed milk
2 t. vanilla extract
1/2 c. mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom only of 9 inch springform pan. Prepare brownie mix as package directs for chewy brownies. Spread evenly in prepared pan. Bake 35 minutes or until set. Meanwhile, in large mixer bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Gradually beat in condensed milk. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Stir in chips. Pour into prepared pan. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees. Bake 50 minutes or until center is set. Cool. Chill thoroughly. Remove side of springform pan. Garnish as desired. Refrigerate leftovers.

Prep time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 4 hours

I'm Jumping In Too!

I've been blogging for a little while now, but haven't been very consistent at it. Part of the reason, is that I didn't think it was very easy to do much, but add text to my blog. I could never seem to make it look like I wanted. After reading many friends blogs here and hearing that it was relatively easy, I decided to change over. I will probably bring those posts over at some time.

My other blog was primarily about homeschooling, but included my interests of scrapbooking as well. I hope to blog about a larger variety of topics. In case you can't tell from the title of my blog, I LOVE CHOCOLATE!!!! Pretty much any shape or form! I am an avowed coffee-hater, but my friends even convinced me to try a chocolate covered coffee bean this morning and it wasn't bad at all! So you will see posts on a number of topics here: scrapbooking, chocolate, homeschooling, an organic lifestyle, running your own business, family, pets, books I've read, living in the country, things I believe in, decorating, organization, cute kids and the things they say, my pet peeves and A Day in the Life......

How's that for a bit of everything? Please come back often and if I am not posting, don't hesitate to remind me, it's time to post something new!