E-stalking

You know how Facebook has that friend suggestion box on the side?  I have fun looking at the suggestions, trying to decide who I might want to reconnect with.  It's also interesting when it finds random people I have absolutely NO friends in common with and they're from a place I've never been to.

Today was an epic day.  I happened to glance at the side bar and saw a name that was familiar ... but not because I knew this person in real life.

Facebook suggested I friend The Meanest Mom!!  My sister, Marissa, introduced me to her blog a few years ago before her youngest child was born, and I've loved reading her posts about how crazy and silly life is with young kids.  I wish I were half as funny as she is.  But I'm not.  Oh well. =p

Anyway.  It made my day.  I adore that woman and kind of wish she were my neighbor so I could just eat popcorn and watch her crazy life unfold.

Now if only Facebook would suggest Jen from Cake Wrecks ...

Cub Scouts

A few weeks ago, Mark and I were released from our calling in Nursery and called to serve as Cub Scout den leaders.  This means a few things ...

1. We get to go to Gospel Doctrine ... for the first time in about 4 years!  We were called to be Family History consultants shortly after we got married (and taught the family history class), then we were ward missionaries after we moved to American Fork (so we taught Gospel Principles once a month and had to attend that class), then we were in Nursery for a year.
2. We get to GO to Gospel Doctrine!  Carmen's been old enough for Nursery since November, and so we get to drop her off and leave her behind!  Apparently she's done great without us these past few weeks. :)  (She's also had a lot of fun at the gym day care when I drop her off ... I actually stay almost the full 90 minutes and the day care ladies don't seem exasperated when I pick her up!)
3. Um, can you tell I'm excited to feel like I'm actually going to church again?  Hahaha.




Anyway, tonight was the Cub Scouts' Blue and Gold Banquet.  I'm still not exactly sure how everything goes together (last week was our first week, and the activity was having the boys make invitations for their families) but I'm very excited to work with the 8- and 9-year-old boys.

I think there are 5 or 6 boys who will be coming to Cub Scouts with us.  I already knew one of them.  His name is Sam, and he lives down the street from me.  When the weather's nice, he plays outside with Jefferson, who is Carter's older brother.  I love these kids.  They're friendly and funny and creative.  They're part of the reason why I'm excited to watch my kids grow up, and the main reason I'm not completely terrified of the thought of maybe having a son some day.  Mark has this secret fear/thought that he's going to end up with 7 daughters.  Actually, I wouldn't mind that ... and when we have our 5th one, I'm going to call him Tevye. ;)


Anyway.  Sam.  So we were at the banquet tonight, and Carmen spent much of the evening chasing the boys around.  (Sounds a lot like me!  Let me clarify: I wasn't boy-crazy, I just tended to have a lot of guy friends growing up.  We'd go swimming and ride bikes and jump on the trampoline and stuff.  SO much more interesting than Barbies!)  Around a quarter to 8, I knew it was getting close to time for Carmen to come home, take a bath, and go to bed.  If you keep a kid up too long, they'll get really cranky but have a hard time falling asleep because they're too tired.  Carmen was sitting on Sam's lap, enjoying the presentations, and was very upset when I told her we had to go home.

"Sam!  SAAAAAAAAAAAM!!!!" she cried.

She does the same thing every time Sam is playing outside and it's time for dinner.  It's so cute.  I love how much she loves the older kids, and how much they love her too.  Sam (and Jefferson, and Carter, and all of the other kids I associate with. EVER.) is so good to her!!!  I told Sam's mom she could make money marketing him as an older brother for rent.  ;)

Oh, and Jefferson's mom had our job in Cub Scouts right before we did.  She stopped by our house today to drop off a few things she used.  I love having neighbors like that.  It helps me feel more confident that I'll be able to do this. :)  I'm so excited to work with the Cub Scouts!  SO EXCITED!!!

Perceptions of reality ...

I had an interesting moment earlier today.

Carmen loves babies.  I found this "Baby Slide Show" on YouTube and Carmen watches it daily.  "BABIES!!!!" she squeals.

Today, Sadie (the kindergartner I watch) started watching the slide show and was interested in all of the cute Anne Geddes photos.

"Whoa, does someone really take these pictures?" she asked.
"Yes." I responded.
"Of dead babies?????" She seemed really concerned about this.
"What?  No!  They're not dead babies.  They're just sleeping.  She takes pictures of babies while they're sleeping."
"Then why did that one have wings?"
"Because they're dressed up in costumes.  They're sleeping.  She dressed them up and took pictures of them while they were sleeping.  See, sometimes they're just sleeping, other times they have wings, other times they're dressed like flowers ... they're not dead.  Just sleeping."
"Oh."

Phew.

To think Sadie could've grown up thinking all those cute Anne Geddes photos are dead babies .... O__o;

Goin' to the Chapel

Mark's old roommate/best man at our wedding, Jorgen, is getting married next Friday.  Today, we are hosting his bachelor party at our house and his fiancee is having her bridal shower in South Jordan.

Since we're Mormon, the bachelor party is pretty low-key ... they're going to have pizza and wings and play board games while Carmen naps upstairs.  The bridal shower is a Pampered Chef party.



Is it bad that I'd rather be hanging out at the bachelor party?

Carmenisms

I love the funny little things Carmen does.

For example, we have this smoke detector in our bedroom right by the bathroom door.  If someone takes a hot shower and doesn't close the door, the steam sets off the alarm.  My sister, Marissa, is notorious for setting off the fire alarms once every time she visits and spends the night.  Often times, it's about 30 minutes after Carmen goes down for a nap, and we feel SO BAD we've woken her up.  Sometimes, Mark sets off the alarm in the morning when he gets back from the gym.  The cats might push the door open or he might forget to turn the fan on, so when he opens the door to leave the bathroom, all of the steam escapes and our house starts beeping loudly at 7:15. O_o;

You'd think all of these rude awakenings would cause Carmen to have a fear of smoke detectors and the sound of the fire alarm.  Strangely enough, she doesn't seem to mind it (even though it drives me crazy!)  Lately, when Mark's putting Carmen through her bedtime routine, she'll look up at the ceiling and point to one of the alarms and go, "Beep!"  Mark says, "Oh, are you looking at the alarm up there?" and she goes, "Uh-huh.  Beep!"

It's a beep!  So cute!  Not a, "ZOMG THAT THING IS SO NOISY IT WAKES ME UP IN THE MIDDLE OF NAPS AND SCARES THE CRAP OUT OF ME!"  Phew.  One potential psychological bullet dodged!!

Carmen developed a rash on her stomach a few weeks ago.  The doctors couldn't figure out what it was, but they prescribed me this antibiotic ointment that seemed to help clear it up.  Carmen was terrified at the doctor's office because she KNEW she only goes to the doctor's to get shots (why else go to the doctor when your kid is perfectly healthy all the time?) ... and it was hard to convince her that we WEREN'T going to hurt her that time.  Poor girl.  But one thing she loves about the pediatrician's office is their aquarium.  She loves to watch the fishies, and the SADDEST part about going to the doctor is not getting the shots - it's the having to say goodbye to the fishies.  ("FEESHIES! FEEEEEESSSHHIIIESSSS!!!")

Back to the rash.  Carmen's been really good about letting me put the medicine on her.  She calls it "Memmin."  I put it on her in the morning when I change her diaper and in the evening when I put her pajamas on.  It goes a little bit onto her back, too, so when I need her to stand up, she stands up and turns around for me.  It's so sweet how helpful and obedient she is! <3  She then likes to take the little tube and pretend she's putting the medicine on herself.  "Memmine." she says.  "Ouchies."


Remember how she calls fingernail polish "candy"?  Turns out it's definitely her word for fingernail polish, not just the fact that the shiny colors makes your nails look like Jolly Ranchers.  I put clear sparkle polish on my nails the other day for the heck of it, and no less than 2 seconds after I finished, Carmen grabbed my hands, touched the sparkles, and cheered, "Candy!!  Hannals!"  (She's learned the word for "fingernails" and it sounds a lot like "hang nails".)


Some of her favorite things to do these days are to color (either with real crayons on paper or with this free "Doodle Kids" iPod app) and ... well ... play pretend.  It doesn't matter if it's with her play kitchen, a play phone, a real phone, an iPod, a baby, her little doll stroller, her big (umbrella) stroller, or someone's shoes ....... she's really creative!  It's fun hearing her sit and chat away about how excited she is about her kitchen, or taking her baby for a walk, or wrapping her baby in a blanket ... and it doesn't matter whether the baby is a doll or a stuffed animal.  I'm sure I could convince her a crayon was a baby if I wrapped it in a toilet paper blanket for her.  IT'S AWESOME.

Speaking of toilet paper ... she does this funny thing where she rips up toilet paper or tissues into little pieces and wipes her nose with them.  It's winter - kids get runny noses.  The other day, we were at Mark's work and she was stuffing the tissue pieces up her nose.  I heard her inhale through her nose and gasp a little bit.  "Oh!  Stuck!" she gasped.  I laughed and said, "Yup, you've got that stuck up your nose!  You probably don't want to put stuff up there!" and helped her pull the tissues out.  She looked at me and said, "Yes!  Stuck!!"

It will be less funny when they're frozen peas.

How do you pick a parking spot?

Different people have different ways of selecting their parking spots.  Many people like to try to park close to the building so they don't have to walk very much.  They're the kind of people who circle parking lots like vultures.  Other people park far away so they can walk farther and be buff.  Some people take the first spot they can find and call it good.

When I was growing up, my Mom would search for a spot near the entrance and call it "Grandma's Way" when it worked ... something along the lines of "Grandma always found a close parking spot!"  I used to look down the aisles to see if there was a close parking spot that was easy to get to.  A friend pointed out that when looking for parking, don't look at the cars - look to see if there's a shadow under the parking spot.  That way, you can spot small cars parked in a space before you actually see them.  (Have you ever had that experience where you thought there was an open spot, but it turns out it was just a little car parked between two huge ones?  So embarrassing/annoying!)

Since Carmen was born, though, I discovered my definition of a "good" parking spot has changed.  It's not due to the space's proximity to the store entrance.  It's the space's proximity to the cart return.

Just think about it - you've got an infant in a car seat that you have to drag around (yes, babywearing is awesome, but it's STILL not super-easy to push around a shopping cart with your babe wrapped on you.  They have to be in a car seat anyway, so why not leave 'em in there when you go shopping?) ... and then when you get back to the car, you've got two options - put your child in the car and take the shopping cart back, or take the shopping cart back and carry your child back to the car.

(I remember the story from a few years ago about the mom who was practically arrested for leaving her baby in the car for a minute while she watched her older child give money to one of those Salvation Army Santas outside a Wal-Mart.  I was paranoid that if I left my child anything beyond arm's length for more than 30 seconds, something horrible would happen.  Post-partum depression is insanity.)

ANYWAY.  I don't care how far away I am from the entrance to the store.  I take the first parking spot I find that is within a few spaces of the cart return.  That way, when I'm done shopping I can easily unload all of my loot and return the cart and either put Carmen in the car or carry her back with me, depending on how clingy she's feeling at that particular moment.  I figure it takes all the stress out of trying to hunt down a close parking spot and fight all the other people waiting for the cars that are backing out of their parking spaces.

Have you ever been to Costco when it's busy?  Forget about ever finding a parking spot.  You're out in the boonies, period, unless you want to drive around for 5 minutes and muscle your way into a parking spot as it opens up.  (You know, when you have to turn your blinker on and everything to let the other cars know I WAS HERE FIRST AND YOU ARE A #*%^! IF YOU TAKE THIS SPOT FROM ME.)  My stress levels are significantly lower when I decide, "Hey, I'll park way out here just as long as I'm near a cart return."

Often times, when I go grocery shopping I grab a cart out of the return and stick Carmen in it.  That way I don't have to A) carry her into the store or B) walk slowly as she toddles through the parking lot with me.  She's actually a really good walker.  She's good with keeping up with me and likes to hold my hand and rarely throws tantrums and doesn't try to get herself run over.  I love hanging out with her! <3  We'll see how things go in the future with sheep-herding a bunch of little kids through a parking lot without getting anybody killed.  Hahaha.

Carmen is a Sweetheart

Carmen wasn't a very snuggly baby, but for some reason, ever since we got our cats last year, she's gotten really snuggly.  I love it!

I know we shouldn't necessarily be encouraging this behavior, but lately when she's woken up in the middle of the night, Mark and I have taken her into our room to let her sleep with us.  Sometimes, she rolls around a lot and Mark ends up going downstairs and sleeping on the couch while Carmen and I take up the rest of the bed.  Sweet.

Sunday morning was one of those nights we let her come in and sleep with us.  Carmen woke up around a quarter to 7,  and the first thing she did when she woke up was roll over, wake me up, and say, "Cheese?!"  ... so I went downstairs and got her some cheese so she would be quiet and let me rest for another 30 minutes.  Hah.

Anyway.  Lately she's been doing a lot of good telling people goodbye.  When I used to drop Sadie off at school, she'd sit in her car seat and cry.  When Dad had to go to work, she'd cry as he left.  Now, all we have to do is tell her goodbye and ask her to say goodbye to [insert name here] and she'll wave happily at them and say, "Buh-bye!!" and be cheerful.  She's still not a huge fan of when Dad leaves for work, but she'll calm down and wave goodbye when he has to go.  How sweet!

She also gives people hugs and kisses when they leave.  It's so much fun getting toddler hugs and kisses!!

Yesterday in church, we sat in the front row with our friends Dorie and Jake.  At the end of Sacrament meeting, Carmen crawled into Dorie's lap and snuggled with her while I fed Carmen some cereal puffs.  Carmen kept closing her eyes like she was about to fall asleep, then she'd wake up and grab for some more puffs.  It was like she couldn't decide if she was too tired to eat or too hungry to sleep.  Ha ha.

Yesterday, she grabbed Mark's face and gave him a big kiss for no reason.  It was so cute!!  And today before going upstairs for a bath, she was snuggling Mark and I asked if I could join in on the snuggle time.  "Could you give Mommy a kiss, too?" I asked hopefully.  She smiled, said "Mm-hmm!", pursed her lips, and gave me a kiss.  IT WAS SO SWEET.

Lately, she's also been asking for us to put her down for a nap.  We'll be in the car on the way to Sadie's school, and she'll be like, "Hmm, nap?" as if, "The next thing we do is nap time!"  And we usually give her a bath around 7:30 so we can put her to bed around 8.  For the past few days, between 7:20 and 7:30, she'll stop whatever she's doing and look at us and go, "Bath?" and go upstairs if we ask her to meet us upstairs for bath time.  Whoa - this is awesome!  She's settled into a really good schedule!

The lesson?  Schedules really are good for kids and they'll stick to them really well if you stick to them.  It's worth trying to get your kid on a schedule when they're young (there's no need to force babies into them) because ... seriously?  Raising Carmen is awesome.  I love it.

I'm having so much fun right now I think I must be crazy to be wanting to get pregnant again some time later this year.  (another baby in 2012? yes, please!)  Then I remember how babies can't crawl or walk or talk or tell you what they need and you have to figure out what their inexplicable cries mean (do you need a diaper change? are you hungry? are you tired? are you sick? are you in pain? are you bored?) and sometimes they cry for NO REASON ... and I dread having another baby.  But then they start to grow up and they are SO MUCH FUN TO WATCH.  Luckily, babies are incredibly, incredibly cute and fun in their own special way ... hopefully I'll be able to handle my next kid.

Being a parent can be so crazy and confusing sometimes.  It's a completely irrational thing (being a parent) but it's so ... fun ... and ... rewarding ... and ... inexplicably awesome ... I love it.  Hah.


Anywho. There's a bunch of random thoughts for the day.

My Best Friend's Wedding, Part II

Okay, so I'm a liar. By "tomorrow" I actually meant "Friday night." I've been busy ... watching movies ... and playing games ... and visiting grandmas ...

SO! My best friend's wedding!
Renai didn't get married until 4:30 pm, so I had a lot of time earlier in the day to hang out with people and do random stuff. I didn't have anything in particular planned - maybe we'd go to the parks I used to play at as a kid and Carmen would have a lot of fun. It's SO FREAKING COLD here in Utah that we haven't been out to a park in ... like ... a month. And we have a park in our backyard. Be jealous. =p

In the morning, I texted Big Carmen and invited her to come to the park and play with us.  She arrived shortly before we left to meet up with some friends for lunch.  Big Carmen commented on how cute she thought Little Carmen's dress was ... it just so happens that was one of the dresses Big Carmen gave us.  Ha ha ha!!

I decided to have lunch at Boston Market because Mark's never been there and I have some fond memories of eating there as a kid ... I remember when we moved from the North end of Phoenix to the South end, a Boston Market opened up by our old house and we ate dinner there.  We hardly EVER ate out at fast food restaurants when I was a kid, so going out to eat was a Very Big Deal to me.

It's funny ... the few people who actually told me they wanted to hang out with me made it. =p:  From left to right, it goes Martin (a guy I befriended the summer before I started high school and moved to Colorado, and he was just starting his freshman year at NAU in Flagstaff), Daniel (a good friend from elementary school who was my first big crush in fifth grade), Mark (my hubby, duh), me and the Munchkin, Stacy (a girl I befriended in 6th grade), Carmen (another girl I befriended in 6th grade, who is AWESOME), and David (a guy I was friends with in middle school ... I think he was actually better friends with Carmen and Stacy than with me, but when I visited Arizona during my senior year of high school, I spent a lot of time with him and Stacy and Carmen ...)  David's daughter is hiding behind him.  Poor girl.

After lunch, we had enough time to go back to Jeanni's and take a family nap before heading to Mesa for Renai's wedding.

Renai's wedding was awesome.  It's funny how you can go to someone's wedding and you notice all of these little touches that are just so them.  The music they picked out reminds you of them.  The weird quirky things they do just seem like them (like dumping bottles of sand together to show how their lives are going to be intertwined and inseparable? or HULA HOOPING your first dance as husband and wife?  YES.)  It was fun coming back after having not seen Renai for 6 years and being like, "Yep, same old Renai!"  At the reception, they played music while introducing the wedding party, and when Renai and her husband came out, they started playing Queen's "We Are The Champions".  Yeah.  It just worked.

Carmen was very attached to Dad throughout the whole ceremony:

(A random side note: It sounded something like the lady with the bandage on her nose was either in an accident or underwent some intense surgery shortly before the wedding ... it sounded like she came from really far away and it was a huge deal to her to make it to the wedding with her two boys ... she was tiny and skinny and had a little walker thing she had to use.  I talked to her a bit but didn't have the courage to ask what happened and just eavesdropped on some of her conversations with Renai.)

Carmen was less cooperative when sitting with me:
Also, I am a better photographer than Mark is (almost every single picture ever taken of me with this camera is blurry)

Man, I love that face:

So here's my best friend walking down the aisle with her dad!

She was so thrilled to be getting married ... she absolutely beamed throughout the whole ceremony and never let go of Erin's hands if she could help it.

You can see how much he loves her just by looking at his face.

He cried while reading his vows, which won him major points in my book.  It was so adorable.  Look at how she keeps holding his other hand ...

 

 Renai's vows were written on some very fancy lined notebook paper.

He was so happy.  And so sweet.  I'd never talked to the guy before, but I was totally in love with him.  He can have my friend.

When they were finally pronounced man and wife and they were allowed to kiss, Erin kissed Renai for a long time and tipped her back until she started giggling and waving her arms around.  I caught it on video!  It was awesome!  I loved Erin even more now!!

And like I mentioned ... their first dance as husband and wife involved hula hoops.  Last time I tried to hula (in November - for the first time since forever) I absolutely could not do it.  It was embarrassing.  But Renai can hula IN A WEDDING DRESS.  AND she can do it with her arms!

When we were all allowed to start dancing together, the first song was the "Celebrate Good Times, Come On!" song.  Ahahaha.  Shortly thereafter, Carmen got tired and we all went back to Jeanni's for bed.  But here's photographic proof she had fun dancing:

Oh, and Renai had the coolest wedding cake ever:

The bottom two layers had maps of the world on it, because both of them have studied in Korea.  In fact, they're going back to Korea (today?!) and they're hoping to renew their contracts and stay for another year (teaching or something) starting in March.  Then they'll come back to the States and figure out what to do with the rest of their lives ... Renai says she wants to do grad school.

And the bouquet:

After the wedding, I heard Renai kind of threw it directly at one particular person.  I don't know who the person was, but apparently Renai got a good laugh out of the story.  Later in the night, a drunk bum wandered into the reception hall and used the women's bathroom and freaked Renai out.  How ... uh ... interesting. :)


On Saturday, Renai's parents threw an open house at their place, so I got to spend some time talking to Renai and Erin.  It was fun to spend time with them and get to know Erin a little bit.  Seriously, they're going to be great for each other.  I'm so excited!

We couldn't convince Carmen to get near Erin.  I think by the time we left Renai's house we convinced her to high five him.




Anyway.  It was a great experience.  It's so nice now that (finally!) my non-Mormon friends are getting married.  It makes me feel like I'm finally a normal person, not a young girl trying to live her life in fast-forward. ;)

My Best Friend's Wedding, Part I

Last weekend, my best friend from school (Renai) got married.  She lives in Arizona, and I thought, "You know what?  It's really not that far away, it's the perfect time of year to visit, and I haven't been there in a long time.  What better excuse to visit Arizona than my friend's wedding?"  So I filled out the RSVP card and said I was coming.  She seemed pretty thrilled that I was going to come!  Apparently, one of her OTHER best childhood friends (from New Jersey) was coming out, too!  "How awesome is it that my best friend from Arizona and my best friend from New Jersey are going to be at my wedding!" she gushed.

On Wednesday evening, we drove down to Richfield to stay with my grandparents.  It would cut off about 2.5 hours from the total length of the trip, and it's always nice to stop and visit with family for a while.

Kids get restless after spending long periods of time in the car, so we took a few breaks at rest stops to change diapers, eat snacks, and run around.

For the record, scorpions are arachnids, not insects.

She's just so cute ... I can't resist!

We got to Phoenix early Thursday evening, and I took the opportunity to go by the house I lived in until I was 8.

We used to have bunch of cacti and stuff in the front yard.  It looks a lot like the last time we came by (about 8 years ago) ... I'm disappointed they haven't gotten around to landscaping the front yard.  It looks terrible.  But they DID put a pool and a hot tub in the backyard.  I wanted to peek over the fence to get a good look at the yard, but there were a few ladies in the hot tub out back and that would've been awkward ... "Um, hi, I lived here 15 years ago and I just wanted to see what you've done with the place!  Don't mind me ... can we steal some of your neighbors' lemons, too?"

After making that quick trip down memory lane, we went to Ahwatukee and had dinner at my friend Carmen's house.  Yes, that is the Carmen my little Carmen is named after.  We met her sweet boyfriend, James, and her scaredy rottweiler puppy, Eza.  (I'll refer to my friend Carmen as either Big Carmen or CJ from now on ...)  Carmen was so excited to meet them both she learned a bunch of new words quickly.

CJ had fun playing with Carmen.  She and her mom (Gina) showered Carmen with gifts - clothes, a bead necklace CJ made when she was little, and a pink Beanie Baby bear.  Gina tried offering Carmen TWO Beanie Babies, but Carmen soundly rejected one.  (Like, smacked it onto the floor saying, "No!")  Carmen's favorite activity was bouncing down the stairs with Big Carmen.



Soon, it was time for bed so we went to Jeanni's house, where our family was going to sleep.  Jeanni was my piano teacher and Beehive leader when I was 8-13.  She's pretty much one of my other favorite people in the world ... but Mark won't let me name a kid Jeanni.  Yet.

I had baked a big batch of tasty oatmeal chocolate chip butterscotch cookies (with coconut, too!) to give as a gift to Jeanni when we arrived.  The bag of cookies made it the whole trip and Mark and I enjoyed snacking on them ... then something must've happened on that final stretch to Phoenix, because when we got to Jeanni's house the cookies were totally smashed up.

Mark walked into the house with the bag of mooshed cookies and said, "Hey, was I supposed to give these to Jeanni?" and she was standing right there in front of him.  I was thinking, "Oh, great presentation there, Marky." and Jeanni looked at him, looked at the bag of cookies, and totally cracked up.  She graciously accepted our offering and went into the kitchen to get some milk.  "Brian," she called to her husband, "Would you like some incredibly tasty cookie crumbs?"  We still managed to find several intact cookies!!!

Speaking of that particular batch of cookies ... when I was making the final pan of cookies, I turned off the oven when the cookies were almost done and forgot to take the pan out of the oven.  They weren't really burned, but they were incredibly crunchy.  Want to know something I learned from this experience?  FEED THEM TO BABIES.  They'll be highly entertained because they're getting cookies, but it will take them forever to eat each cookie because they're so hard!  Our trip to Phoenix was made a lot easier because Carmen was kept quiet in the back seat with her crunchy cookies. ;)

Or, just don't overcook your cookies in the first place.
You know.  Lemons, lemonade.

Recipe for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies:
2 c butter
2 c sugar
2 c brown sugar
--cream ingredients together--
4 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
--cream ingredients together--
4 1/2 c flour
4 1/2 c oatmeal
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
--mix ingredients together--
12 oz chocolate chips (if you want butterscotch, make it half and half)
(If you want coconut too, you can put in about 1/2 c coconut flakes.  I didn't measure it ... I just added the stuff that was left over from making coconut shrimp the week before.  hahaha.)

Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes, like you do with just about every other cookie recipe.

I decided to invent this recipe because I bought butterscotch chips at Winco and didn't have the right ingredients for magic cookie bars.

Tomorrow, I'll talk about the wedding and how much I love Renai's new husband!