Monday, September 29, 2008

Oreo Truffles

Who doesn't love Oreos? I certainly do. Even better are Oreo Truffles. These are so easy!
So here's how I make them:

1 package of Oreos
1 package of cream cheese (actually I use Neufchatel)
Chocolate almond bark (don't use your fancy chocolate, that's disgusting)

Crush the whole package of Oreos (minus the packaging) until it's a fine powder. I use a food chopper for this. Then add the cream cheese and mix it good with a mixer. Create little balls with the mixture. Melt the almond bark in the microwave, just follow the directions, it's simple. Line a cookie sheet with wax paper. Dip the balls into the almond bark, using forks to help the excess run off (but don't stab them, they didn't do anything wrong). Then place on the wax paper. Refrigerate until the "chocolate" hardens, about ten minutes. Eat, of course. Store any extra in the refrigerator. Makes at least 40.

These are so easy. I love them. I told Peter not to eat so many of them, "It's like a heart attack in a little ball," but he saw me buy the Neufchatel and asked why that instead of cream cheese. When I told him it had 1/3 less fat, he decided these were healthy.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

The Hitch...is broken

It's your lucky day. I give to you now....The Hitch.
The day before the wedding, with a million stores to go to and a billion things to do, started off like I expected and then got worse. We were supposed to pick up the Wedding Dress the day before, but when she tried it on, we noticed they missed hemming one of the layers. So We ended up having to cram it into the already predictably hectic day of Friday. On the way to drop the dress off at my grandma's, Eva called my brother to see what he was up to. She had a confused look and then hung up the phone pretty quickly. She told me he said something like, "Hold on, I'll call you back."
That was weird, but he always was a little strange. He finally called back when we were close to my Grandma's. I tried to listen to their conversation, but I don't understand Malagasy.
Eva handed me the phone and Ken tells me that Grandpa is okay, but he was in an accident. They were setting up for the reception, my grandpa was driving his truck, a Toyota Tundra, with a load of table and chairs.
They had emptied the truck and my grandpa was backing up. He went about six to eight feet when suddenly the truck jerked and then accelerated uncontrollably (unintended acceleration, they call it). Driving backwards, mind you, he went over the side walk, through a fence, over a tree, back over the street, hit an electrical box, and then slammed into a nice big Dodge truck that was sitting in the driveway, T-boned it. It knocked the truck clear off the driveway and my grandpa's tires were still spinning when my brother ran up to it, turned it off and helped my grandpa unbuckle his seat belt. He had a few cuts and hit his head, it's still sore.
So I know lots of people would suspect, he's old, he hit the gas, thinking it was the brake. Not so. The officer who investigated said that he would have been knocked off the gas when he hit the fence, but the marks he saw indicated constant acceleration the whole time.
This poor 85 year old man had the scariest ride of his life, backwards. He said he's never been that scared, even in World War II.
So just his truck alone is $9,000 to repair, a lot of backend damage. The other truck is probably totaled and it was pretty new.
Anyway so the havoc this wreaked on the day was crazy. I lost a good four hours that I desperately needed. We ended up working on things until after 3 am. I had to go to Walmart, a good half hour away, at 1am to get some stuff that we needed that night so we could finish the center pieces. I was Eva's escort so I had to be up at 6:30 am so I could get ready and take her to get her hair done. That isn't a lot of sleep.
So, in conclusion, be careful anytime you walk infront or behind a car, especially a Toyota. It might just take off uncontrollably, and it isn't because somebody has a hit on you...or maybe it's like my Grandpa said, "I don't know, all I can think is that the Japanese are trying to get back at me." I told him next thing, his tv will explode.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

It's Official!

My brother finally got married. Sure, we only had, less than a month to plan, but it was a long few weeks, trying to get everything done. We had a few hitches. If your lucky I'll tell you about them later. But, all in all, it went quite well. Here's the happy couple.



Congratulations, Ken and Eva!
Aren't they sweet?

Monday, September 8, 2008

Cute as a Button!

So my parents got back from Madagascar a few weeks ago and they took this picture of a cute little girl. I loved the small story behind the picture.

They were walking down the street, and they saw this little girl. When they initially saw her she was all bent over at an uncomfortable ninety degree angle, with a pop bottle on her back and a blanket in her hand. Balancing the pop bottle seemed quite athletic to my dad at that moment in time. She would balance it and then try to swing the blanket around her back, but the pop bottle would fall and she would pick it up and place it on her back again and swing the blanket around her back. They soon realized that she was playing “MOMMY” and the pop bottle was the BABY! Most of the women that have young children in Madagascar carry their babies on their backs. My dad hurried as fast as he could to get his camera out to take a picture, but he was a little slow. By the time he took the picture, she had straightened up, and was attempting to wrap the blanket around her again. The bottle was visible, but had snuck up by her neck as he took the picture. The photo is not one of the greatest photo’s that he has taken, but it still shows the adorable face of this little Malagasy girl, and because of the story behind the picture, it definitely is one of my favorite pictures from their trip!

She was probably really surprised to look up and see white people staring at her.