Book Review & Recipe

Well, instead of reading what would have probably been the intellectual and very literary choice ("Sophie's Choice"), I read "The Friday Night Knitting Club" instead. And after reading it, I might compare it to eating a Costco size bag of Doritos - it's soooo good while you're eating it, but afterward your stomach hurts from all the junk. It was a quick read (300 some odd pages, but easy prose and interesting story) and one easily becomes attached to the characters, but I had to wonder why some of characters made the choices they did. The author does a wonderful job at keeping the readers guessing about the relationships and how they will develop, however, after I read it, I felt like maybe the time could have been equally spent watching Dr. Phil or possibly even Jerry Springer, if you know what I mean. I would recommend it for a mindless, kind-of-like-a-train-wreck-I-must-keep-reading, beach read, but nothing more.

In other news, I stumbled upon what could be the world's best oatmeal cookie recipe. I was craving oatmeal chocolate chip cookies but refused to pay the $6+ dollars Costco charges, so Samuel and I made our own. The recipe is on the back of the Safeway Old Fashioned Oats container and I added coconut, chocolate chips and raisins. I like to consider them energy bars of sorts and just graze on them all day. Terrible, I know. But so good.

I have found perhaps one way to save on groceries - it turns out Albertson's does take everyone's coupons (except for Walgreens and the like), so you can bring all your Safeway and FM coupons in there and they will honor them. I tried it yesterday and while the store is not that pretty, you can't be mad about a good deal.

I've been Ebaying (hence the slight lag in blog posting) for the past week just so I can have money that doesn't have a few dollars that don't have a name to them (as Dave Ramsey would say). I'm either saving for new dishes (it's amazing how my tastes have changed since my wedding) or an external flash for my camera. I shouldn't ever be using my flash, but the reality of it is that I do.

My mom bought the boys Easter clothes and I chose identical outfits for the boys. Is that breaking some sort of rule? Colin thought it was - but they are trendy little polos and jeans - cute, right? Like twins or something. By the way, the picture I posted of Jude is his latest favorite activity - playing with magnets on the side of the fridge. Also, if you blow up the picture, you will notice he has a constant rat nest on the back of his head from sleeping and having long hair. No matter what I do, it's always there. Time to cut his hair? Maybe, but we grew Samuel a mullet at this age, and Jude must have his fair share as well.