Cookies, Homework, Bathrooms, and Summer Vacation!

First of all, I have been working on this post since Sunday (the 14th), but was having major issues with the HTML of my posting when I added pictures!! I think I have officially fixed them all now.....so enjoy!!

Well, one week of my summer vacation has officially come and gone and I will be honest it wasn't too eventful. Monday and Tuesday I spent all day at REACH Training....which was the last requirement I had to fill to finish my ESL Endorsement!! Hooray!! I am SO relieved to be done with that. I wish I could say I learned something from the course, but I didn't. I will say that next year I will miss my Tuesday night gossip time with all of my ESL friends! We spent the whole year chatting and trying to enjoy the free food the program provided us.....of and attempting to learn a thing or two about teaching non-English speaking students. I probably would have learned a whole lot more had I not spent half of the year staring at a television screen, attempting to learn while all I coule see was the top of the instructors head!!! Yes, that is right, the top of her head. We spent half of the year using a polycom system, watching our teacher who was in Tooele live with them.....and attempting to include us in her lecture and discussion! It was torture!! I did get a lot of homework done on Tuesday night! Now, I have enough credits for a lane change at school, so I can get a slight pay raise at work.....which is fantastic, and so worth all of my nights spent staring at the top of some lady's head!!

The rest of the week was really uneventful. We really deep cleaned our house, caught up on laundry, did a lot of homework, and watched a few movies while listening to the sound of the rain. It really has been a pretty relaxing....which was much needed after my hectic end of to the school year!!! Cameron seems to have his head in a book, or in front of the computer all of the time now studying for Patho-physiology. I have to admit, I am super impressed with his homework ethic!! This is the sight I imagine I will be seeing a lot of for the next 2 years while he is in nursing school.

Friday, for some reason or another, I felt the urge to bake! So, I ran to the store and bought all of the things I needed to make my favorite Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies!! They are so good on a rainy day....which we seem to be having a lot lately. As Cameron was enjoying a cookie or two.....or three :), he made the comment that someday I should open a bakery. I mean I do love to bake, so the idea isn't too far fetched. Then he added that since we both like to BBQ, and eat Southern Style BBQ, we should serve BBQ at my bakery. Random, but still do able. So, then we started thinking of names for our bakery/BBQ restaurant, and came up with the fantastic name of "Smokin' Bundts.....Smokin' Meats and Bakin' Treats!!" Classic, I know!! I think we laughed about it for a good half an hour!! Who knows, maybe someday there really will be a "Smokin' Bundts", with me as their pastry chef/owner!! Since I have raved on and on about my delicious cookies.....it wouldn't be fare for me not to share the recipe with the blogging world, so here it is! The base is a Neiman Marcus Recipe that I got from Cameron's Grandma, with a few added Lindsey touches!!

Lindsey's Fantastic Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies!!!

Ingredients:
2 Cups Salted Butter
2 Cups White Sugar
2 Cups Brown Sugar
4 Eggs
2 Tbs Vanilla Extract
2 Tsp Baking Soda
2 Tsp Baking Powder
4 Cups Flour
5 Cups Blended Un-Cooked Oatmeal (Blend 1 cup at a time in the blender until it is in powder state.....it should still be a little chunky to give the cookies texture.)
1 24 oz. Bag of Milk Chocolate Chips

Directions:
Cream the butter and sugars. Add the in the eggs 1 at a time, followed by the vanilla extract. Add the baking soda and powder, followed by the blended oatmeal. Add chocolate chips, and flour until blended completely. Place cookie dough in the refridgerator for at least 5 hours....I leave mine in the fridge overnight. This is the most important step!! Baking cold dough makes for better cookies!! I promise. After the dough is chilled, pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. Roll the dough into golf ball sized balls, and place on a cool (also very important!!) cookie sheet and bake for 11-13 minutes....no more, no less. The cookies will look a little doughy, but the residual heat from the cookie sheet with keep them cookind for a few minutes after they come out of the oven. Do not remove from the sheet for 10 minutes. Store in an air tight container for 7 days....if they last that long :).

Enjoy!! Cameron is bugged that I'm sharing my secret recipe with the world, but all good recipes must be shared!!!


Another event of note this weekend was our bathroom. Since we moved into our lovely little basement apartment 2 years ago, I just haven't loved our bathroom decor. I loved it at first....it was red, and we all know how I love red, but it just wasn't working for me. I decided it was time for a change.....and here it is!!



Black and white seem to be my new colors of choice, so it was a natural fit! And, Cameron even loves it too!!! Next wewek, we'll touch up the paint and my house will be like new!!!