Brownies A La Mode

So everyone that knows me knows that my biggest weakness as a "domestic goddess" is my lack of cooking ability. In an effort to improve my recent poor performance (read: Digiorno pizza fest) I decided to read up on some new recipes. I turned to The Catholic Daughters cook book from St. Theresa's in Sugar Land. My mother in law gave it to me for mothers day this year (thank you again Jan!). As I combed through the pages this week however, I discovered that the creation of this cookbook had absolutely nothing to do with cooking but everything to do with showing off the recipe that you and only you have the skills necessary to make. For example a recipe for dark chocolate pecan brownies would look something like this:

Mix the ingredients as follows:

* 4 cups and one pinch Flour ((hand ground and made of pure organic wheat (see page 558 for instructions))

*1 and 1/4 cups sugar (Take the tour of the Imperial Sugar Factory down the road, it takes about 35 free packets of sugar...its fresher straight from the source)

*2 cups butter (It is best when freshly whipped from a jersey dairy cow, if no cow available in your back yard try your local farmers market)

*3 robins eggs (Only available from April to July they are best when freshly laid)

*25 Suzie's Dark Chocolate Delights (page 75 for recipe)

Mix all ingredients in a glass bowl. Stir counterclockwise for ten minutes then clockwise for three and one half turns. Place in a dutch oven for thirty-five minutes, rotating every seven minutes. These brownies are delicious with homemade mocha frosty cranberry ice cream (recipe on page 89).

Are these women serious?? Did they ever have children? I would like to join Catholic Daughters one day and enter my own recipe for brownies:

Open box of Betty Crocker Fudge Delights
Follow directions on package
Enjoy with Blue Bell Vanilla Ice Cream :)

Yum...now we are talking! Brownies anyone?

ION Geo-something-or-another

Times are changing in the Counts household...we are no longer bleeding Boeing blue. Jacob has verbally accepted an offer from ION Geophysical Corporation in Stafford, Tx. If all goes well with the paperwork (which I am sure it will) he will start there October 22nd. He decided to make this move in order to gain some more technical experience and to actually use those crazy hard circuit skills he learned at Baylor. I am so proud of him for working so hard to make this change happen. It was definitely not easy to leave such an awesome company but I am sure this will be a great change for his career and our family. Yahoo for ION!!!

This is Curtis contemplating the strong side tackle game plan at his first football game. He has serious coaching potential. Look at the concentration on his face!

Family Fun Day

Today is family fun day :) Daddy stayed home to play with us (or he is taking care of us...depending on who you ask) So far we have had a wonderful day playing in bed, taking walks, watching Curtis crawl around the house and mastering throwing his baseball. Curtis has officially started to sign we get a kick out of watching him practice. So far he has signed Dad, Mom, milk, and outside. He is still perfecting all the signs obviously but he definitely gets a kick out of being able to communicate. The real reason Jacob stayed home today is because Curtis has been pretty sick for the last week. He has Coxsackie (sp?) virus otherwise known as mouth, hand, and foot disease. I took him to the doctor on Monday after six days of extreme fussiness and nose run. When the doctor looked in his throat he found lots of ulcers and inflammation. Poor little man! No wonder he has been a fuss pot! Tylenol seams to help quite a bit and hopefully he will be back to his happy self by the end of the week. Another reason Jacob is home is so that he and I have some time to discuss all of his job offers (three in all) and decide what change, if any, we are going to make. I think we need to decide by the end of the week. Have a great Wednesday!

Excuses Excuses

I have a million of them as to why I have not posted in almost a month...been sick, been traveling, been teething, really I could go on but why?! You are my closest family and friends and you love me despite my lack of blogging. So there I posted... Happy? Will post more if little man decides to tajke a nap today. Be sure to check out our pictures from San Diego on our picassa site! love to all!

Out of Reverse

He finally shifted out of reverse! I can't get over how adorable he looks crawling all over our house with his little tush in the air. A momma's love is so overwhelming! For weeks now we have been thinking he would crawl any day. He has been trying so hard to get going in the right direction. His first real crawl was in my mom's office trying to get to a really cool toy truck. What a big boy! OH, and he has decided that since he is such a big boy that he no longer needs naps. Yesterday he took three twenty minute naps all day long. Crazy boy! I should have no problem shedding these last few baby pounds while I chase him around from now on! He just woke up...more later

I heart my daddy

Okay, everyone who knows me knows that I LOVE my father. I talk about him constantly and am an absolute daddy's girl. He is most definitely one of my favorite people in the entire world. Besides being a fantastic father, loving husband, and compassionate grandfather, he is just a wonderful person. He would give you the shirt off of his back in an instant, family or not. I have always admired my father for his incredible selflessness. He has an amazing way of hitting you with the truth without being judgemental or self-righteous. His unwavering faith is my example. Last but certainly not least he is the rock and the glue of my life and of his family. He is our strength. So seeing him in a hospital bed this weekend was an absolute nightmare. Let me back up and tell you that the Schwartz side of my family doesn't exactly have a good healthy family history. Besides the infamous Schwartz belly and chin (Thanks a lot for those genes dad!) the cholesterol and triglyceride numbers are absolutely astounding in pretty much everyone in our family. My grandfather had twelve brothers and sisters and eleven of them died of heart attacks. Scary stuff! My father has always taken the best of care of his health and I am really proud of the way he keeps up with his preventative tests and medicines. Still, despite all of that I have always feared that he would inherit the fate of his father. So Saturday morning when I got the phone call that dad was in the hospital with chest pains I really thought my fears had come true. Seeing him lie in that bed was horrible for me but even worse for him. Being our rock I know it killed him to have us see him lying there feeling weak. Praise God that throughout the weekend the doctors ruled out the possibility of a heart attack. He has been poked and prodded and tested with no real answer but his heart is very healthy. Thank you to all of you who were a support to my family through this scare. Dad your the best...don't ever do that to us again!!!

He has teeth!!

Here is a picture of Curtis' two little teeth. I am very impressed with my photography skills by the way. It only took me fifty pictures to finally get one shot of the teeth!!! Curtis thought the drool hanging from his mouth would add depth and character to the picture.