baking with lizards

Maybe the title is a little deceiving, it should say Baking AND Lizards. I did not bake a lizard. But I did think the title would catch your attention. Sorry for the deception ;)

The baking part first then the lizard:

Just like every other girl in the world, we all know that September means PUMPKIN time. Pumpkin everything! Coffee, cookies, cake, hand soap, candles, pancakes, roasted seeds etc, etc, etc. And I LOVE it!!

So in true fashion it was time to try a  new PUMPKIN recipe. 

Guess where I found one??!! Yep, Pinterest! BUT it was a Martha Stewart Recipe, so that makes it ok.

Found here: Pumpkin Woopie Pies 

I love woopie pies and I love pumpkin so how perfect is the recipe! 

I chilled the Pumpkin (the classic Libby's from a can ) 

Mixed the dry ingredients

Started mixing the pumpkin and all other "wet" ingredients and realized I was out of vegetable oil! 

What the heck! :( 

Well we have plenty of olive oil! but that has a unique flavor, so I'm not going to use that.

I know of a few other things you can use instead of oil: 

• butter (gotta save for the icing)  
• applesauce  ( don't have any) 
• bananas (too strong of a flavor and will clash with pumpkin) 
•  pumpkin (well that won't help! ) 
• yogurt (option 1)
• coconut oil (option 2) 

I bought coconut oil a while back with the intentions of incorporating it more into our diet and maybe even my skin care. So perfect time to try it out, right!? It replaces cup for cup.

After slowly adding all the dry mix to the "wet" mix, the dough started to get pretty thick and the more I stirred the thicker it became... (yes, ahhh ohhh )

As I scooped the dough onto the backing sheet I remember thinking "well these better flatten out once they bake, my chocolate chip cookies always do" 

In the meantime I made my famous cream cheese icing, which happens to be pretty similar to Martha Stewart's. 

It turned out normal (and perfect). 

The cookies are done baking and cooling, lets just flash forward to the finished product shall we? 

Yeah....... they are supposed to look like this: 

So I learned: 

1. Coconut oil does NOT replace cup for cup, probably needed more 
2. I should have know to add something when it became so think
3. Maybe Martha doesn't have the best recipe for pumpkin woopie pies 
4. I might be smitten for #3

They tasted good, but I'm going to try another recipe soon. And they will look like the ones above! I just know it! 

Now the lizard story.

As I was getting ready to leave this morning my cat Hauss (aka Hoss) was pawing at the carpet by a chair in my room. Of course I yelled at him to quit bc he could mess up the carpet. Stubborn little guy didn't listen so I went over to see what he was trying to get, I figured it was probably a little toy mouse or treat. By the time I got to the chair Hauss was completely under the chair!!??  I looked under the chair and couldn't see anything, so naturally I turn on the flash light on my phone and : 

THIS  BIG @$$ LIZARD WAS UNDER THE CHAIR!! 

You can imagine the screams and words that came out of my mouth.

So I ran away and panicked!

Did I mention that I was home alone? Well I was, and C was at his moms. I proceeded to call him several times but he didn't answer. I called my mom next, I knew she couldn't come help me but I was freaking out. My mom laughed a bit then told me to go get a shovel and take it out side bc I couldn't leave it there all day. Luckily C called back at that moment, and I thought "I'm SAVED".

 But I wasn't.

He was still asleep and not coming to my rescue. 

He said to be grateful that it was there because it eats spiders and scorpions.

 He said it wasn't a Komodo Dragon. 

So I sent him a picture! 

Apparently it's a Swift Fence (Hauss got his tail) 

Also, apparently, it was all up to me now to take care of this creepy huge lizard ALL by myself.

Because if not, by the time I got home it could be in one of my bags or in my bed and then we would have a health emergency on our hands. 

After a A LOT of prep talk to myself I did my best to man up. 

And he lives happily outside for the rest of his life. Or until Hauss finds him again. Hopefully he will be more swift now. 

I think I deserve a new pair of shoes. 

Tschüss

How Abby Sleeps

I decided to post a weekly special called (obviously) 

"How Abby Sleeps"

This dog, y'all, she thinks she is human!

She is, super crazy, FULL of energy and the most loving, sweet  and patient dog you have ever met! 

He daddy (C) is the meaning of her existence. 

I mean she loves me too, but I am pushed to the way side if he walks in. 

Anyways , let's get to the point: 

She sleeps in strange ways/ positions ALL. THE. TIME: 

Apparently it is more comfortable to sleep with your head in the handle of the car than on the car seat.. 

Precious, sweet girl! 

Have a great weekend y'all! 

[ps: feel free to add me to blogger, or on google+ or whatever way you want to follow me) 

Tschüss

and here we go again...............

Over a year later... Let's try dabbling again.

THE CHAOTIC SUMMER 

We decided to move, quit talking about it and actually do something, and sell our house and MOVE! AHHHHH.
Friends need to warn each other and have a coming to jesus talk with each other about such things. Because this is the first week in 3mts I have been able to breath and I don't have high blood pressure.Until Sep.30 and I'm sure it will resume.

So we made a plan, spend the next few weekend staging the house to sell, contact a Realtor, list the house, sell the house. Here is how it went down:
End of July 
-Clean, clean, clean , organize and box up unused stuff. C got a huge climate controlled storage unit and we -took extra furniture first
-work farmers market,box up more stuff, fix water heater that is located in the 150*F ATTIC
-packed up all of the kitchen stuff and left only essentials
Beginning of August
-meet with first Realtor, had great expectations, Realtor fell off the face of the earth.
-meet with 2nd Realtor, he is awesome, we will keep him!
-Panicked!
-Went to Lubbock to celebrate my gma's 85th bday with all my cousins (and mom and dad)

the 5 Mangrum cousins

-Is the house ready!! Let's purge more stuff
-filled a bakery truck (a 20ft truck)
-listed the House on Aug.8
-Had an offer at 9pm Aug.8
-became super excited!
-cried
Aug. 9
-Panicked again because we have to be out of the house in a month and have NO WHERE TO GO!
-cried
The rest of August 
-negotiated the contract.again. and again and again and finally settled
-spent the next three weekends packing the rest of our crap and moving EVERYTHING into storage! we are 28yrs old how do we have this much CRAP!! but we need it all.....  well except things C just didn't want to deal with , those things were tossed. I'm sure once we settle in again we will be missing RANDOM things.
-found time to enjoy a friends bachelorette party

Katlin's last Rodeo

-filled a bakery truck with our stuff TWICE
September
-found a house we both liked, made an offer, negotiated, negotiated, had inspections and surveys and appraisals done.
-moved completely out of our first home, and into our MOM's houses with 1 crazy dog and 3 cats and our left over stuff
-filled a bakery truck with more of our stuff, again.
-Closed on our First Home on Sep.12
-Euphoric feeling
-have not cried yet


We have 13 more days of living in separate houses , me with the cat's and C with the dog. It was too much for us to impose on just one set of parents since they all have animals too!
But it's kind of been fun for our relationship, it's like dating again... We schedule dates and sneak time with each other at work and have the anticipation of seeing each other at different times everyday, oh and we  don't have privacy anymore :)