4 more

4 more weeks now... and I can't wait. Each week seems a little harder to let him leave on Monday mornings. Turns out I'm a wimp at being away from him. But then, I do have the best man in the whole world, so who could blame me for not wanting to let him leave.

Right now I'm listening to the latest album from Michael Buble. On this album, he covers the Willie Nelson song, Always on My Mind. Well, that's the track playing right now, and it's very appropriate given my mood. He does a great arrangement of it, and he's got some other really great songs included also. My other two favorites are Lost, and Everything. Both are written by Buble, and it's my opinion that this guy needs to write more songs. He wrote his other hit "Home" on his last album. He's got a knack for perfectly expressing/describing the emotion in the song and lyrics. I'd love to see this guy in concert someday, I bet he's an incredible entertainer.

My cousin, Olivia, is arriving tonight to stay with me for the week for a little girl time. Can't wait! I'm really looking forward to it, and getting to spend time together.

However, it would be really nice if our washer hadn't decided to break down last weekend given that I'm having company this week. The repair man came last Thursday, and I was hopeful that all would be right by the weekend. Well, it was not to be. The repair man says that it needs a new pump, and that he'd probably be back on Monday (today) to fix it. But... he didn't come back. Didn't call. Darn washer. Now I'm left with 7 piles of laundry on my bedroom floor waiting for their turn in the washer that won't work. Luckily, I was able to wash some clothes and sheets at a friend's house last night, and brought them home to dry so that we had clean clothes for Joe this week, and clean sheets for the guest bed. Well, this is the stuff of life, and the things we laugh about later. Just waiting on later...

No-bake cookies. Pretty common cookie, and one would assume that it would be printed in most common cookbooks, but one would be wrong. If you know me, you know I have a lot of cookbooks. Well, not a single cookbook I have, has that famous little chocolate no-bake cookie recipe listed. So, like any good 21st century woman, I turned to the internet to find it. Well, of course there are hundreds listed. I found one that I tried out yesterday, with great success, so I'm passing it along to my friends out there who may not be able to find it in their cookbooks either. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
2 c. white sugar
1/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
pinch salt
1/2 c. peanut butter
3 1/2 c. quick oats

Method:
1. in a saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar, cocoa, milk, and butter. Bring to a rolling boil, stirring constantly. Once it reachs a rolling boil, set timer for 1.5 minutes. Be sure to stir constantly to keep sugar from burning. Be sure not to cook too long as this will cause problems with it setting up properly. Too long, and they'll be too dry; boil it too little, and they'll be runny.

2. Remove from heat after 1.5 minutes, and immediately stir in vanilla, salt, and peanut butter. Stir until peanut butter is melted. Once peanut butter is completely melted, stir in oats. (You can also substitute 1/2 c. of coconut instead of 1/2 c. oats.) Pre-measure the vanilla and pb so that you can add it easily as soon as you remove from heat.

3. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto waxed paper. Work quickly as these will set up quickly. The original recipe says to allow one hour to set, but they set up within 15 minutes for me.

Here's one for Love.

I was thinking the other day on my drive home from Artesia that love gets kind of a bad rap... actually, maybe I should clarify further. I think marriage/lifelong relationships don't really get a whole lot of credit these days. Just about anywhere you look in today's media (TV, pop music, etc) people refer to marriage assuming that none of them are going to work in the long run, and that everyone is unhappy if married. Assuming all of us want out of these relationships, and that the ideal life is when one is free to go about life without care of someone else's feelings. Well, that said, I want to give marriage a little credit...

I'm happily married. In fact, I would say I'm "extremely" happily married. Here's why...

I'm married to a man who loves me to pieces, and he works hard to show me that every day, even when we're apart. He gives real effort to becoming the best man he can be, and makes progress on it everyday. And he doesn't change things because I've given him some sort of Minimums list... he changes because he seeks out ways to be a better husband. And you know what? It makes me want to be a better wife for him. I've noticed so many changes in him since we first met. Not just about how he treats me, but who he is in general, and how he treats everyone. I love living life with a partner who is willing to grow with me. Makes me wake up each day excited about what's around the corner. It makes me confident that no matter what happens, we're going to figure a way to make the best of the situation, and that we're going to be together through it to the end. He's made me realize that true love really does exist, but it doesn't just happen. True love is something that is worked out everyday - key word: work. But the benefits of that kind of relationship far outweigh the "stuff" you have to work through. Every day that we keep working on it, is another day in making a habit to love each other actively, not passively.

We met a man this weekend who just celebrated his 60th wedding anniversary. He told us that he and his wife "just never had the kind of problems that some people do". The skeptic in me wondered if his wife would have said the same thing, but the hopeful in me thought that it just might be possible. I'm hopeful that it might be possible based on my real life experience with my Joseph. I hope we get 60 years together too... what a life.