Maybe Made the Team!

It has been over a month.

I have been busy with many things - travel, work, but my latest and greatest adventure has been with Maybe.

Last year I went through a program called DOGTORs with Maybe. After our course she was officially a Certified Animal Assisted Therapy dog. We have made a few visits to the nursing home, but recently we started a new adventure - Little League!!

For the next 2 months we will be attending Sunday night games for a Little League north of Dayton. This league is for kids with disabilities and the dogs act as a sort of mascot/base runner/encouragement for the kids. I was a little hesitant to commit to this (mostly because it is over an hour drive - one way - to get to the field) but so far it has been extremely rewarding. There are four teams in our league and they rotate playing each other. We're on the yellow team. It's the best. The kids play 2 innings where everyone gets to bat.

Last night was team picture night, so I went ahead and snapped a few myself with my phone.

Enjoy!

Here is the Yellow Team! We are pretty intimidating.

Maybe was getting some love from the little girls whose siblings were playing. She didn't mind.

Too cute!

Here Christian is throwing the ball back to our pitcher. Christian is probably our most enthusiastic player.

This is Mikayla, she is our third base buddy. She has the coolest tennis shoes I think I've ever seen!

Mikayla running home. She also has an awesome pink helmet and pink bat. This girl is stylin.

Christian running home!

And Christian relaxing with Maybe after a hard run.

These kids are great :)

-JPN

Finally! I escaped from that prison place where blogging was illegal...

Ok, ok....so I have fallen off the wagon. Truck. Earth.

But here I am again, and I know you missed me!

I have gotten several suggestions for blog topics that I plan to tackle here in the next few weeks (acid rain, ice cream flavors, nasal mucosa, pocket placement, recipes....just to name a few), but tonight - TONIGHT! - I have to blog about my most greatest candy love.

Tonight I am mourning the end of Cadbury Mini Egg season. About a week and half ago I snatched up one of two remaining family size bags of Cadbury Mini Eggs at Kroger. I was tempted to buy them both, but I was afraid Eric might disown me and my dentist might try to adopt me.

The ONLY reason that aforementioned bag was around for 10 days was because I recently decided to start logging my daily calories (you have NO IDEA how many empty calories are consumed each day!) and limited myself to 6 Mini Eggs a day. And I almost stuck to it. Almost.

Yesterday, I ate the last of the last Cadbury Mini Eggs. I almost cried.

If you have never had a Cadbury Mini Egg then you are missing out on one of life's great joys.

If M&Ms were a reusable grocery bag, Mini Eggs would be a Dolce and Gabbana purse.

If M&Ms were plastic kids golf clubs, Mini Eggs would be Tiger's clubs.

If M&Ms were an old beat up Geo Tracker, Mini Eggs would be a shiny new Land Rover.

I easily ate 4-5 bags this Easter season.

There is something perfect about the crunchy candy shell and the creamy milk chocolate center. I don't even need milk.

Sigh....OHHHH MINI EGGS!!!! 332 days until Easter. I am coming for you!

Love,

Plain Nicole

10 kilo

This weekend, I have ventured out on an epic journey.

I boarded a plane on Friday evening, and after sitting on the runway for an extra hour and a half proceeded to fly to Richmond, VA in order to run in a 10k with my MOTHER.

That's right.

My mom and I ran 6.2 miles this morning.

Back to the story....So. After multiple flight delays and reading an entire 500 page book, I arrived in Richmond and eventually fell into bed somewheres around 12:30. Six short hours later, I was awakened by an eleven year old voice saying: "Nicolie!" Quite a nice way to wake up!

So we all packed up and left the house by 7:15 (AM!) so that Caroline could be there in time to run the "First Market Mile". We offered her multiple sums of money if she could be the first kid to finish, but she decided to let some other kid do the honors....

Here is our little runner! She did very well.

So well in fact, that they gave her a plastic medal! Meredith was quite supportive, but did not run due to the fact that she had the flu last week. And also she left her tennis shoes in her locker at school.

Here I am taking pictures with my cellululular phone. I did bring my camera, but happened to leave the battery in Ohio. Apparently batteries are important when operating cameras...

Couldn't be a true family function without some wacky faces.

Hello tights! My mom and I are real athletes...that's why we wear tights.

And there is less chaffing.

Ew.

Here Caroline is tired and Meredith is plotting to stuff her into a port-a-potty.

We were joined on our run by a cast of characters. There was Uncle Sam...

This guy from Kiss.

Angry Birds guy. He ran the whole way with this huge contraption on and was wearing courderoys. Not tights. Obviously not a true athlete.

These guys only paid one registration fee, so only one of them could have their feet on the ground at a time.

Here's what the people want to see!

I am explaining to mom that the crusty stuff on our faces is actually salt from our dried sweat.

Ew.

Being a true athlete is an ugly business.

"What?? We're almost done?!?"

The finish line!

We had our own cheering squad. They were awesome!

And our own personal chauffer/photographer. Also awesome.

And we're not dead! Victory!!

And that is the story of my first 10k. All in all a fun experience. I highly recommend it - tights and crusty sweat salt included!

Much love, Plain Nicole

Don't worry, I AM still here. I know you were worried. Don't play.

Since I last wrote, I have not been:

1. on vacation in Hawaii

2. guest starring on Conan

3. making any game winning 3 point shots at the buzzer

4. shopping on Rodeo Drive

5. writing a novel

However...

Since I last wrote, I have been:

1. working on more recipes

2. working on a baby quilt (not for me...just putting that out there)

3. planting seeds for a vegetable garden

4. battling the shingles (not the kind on the roof, unfortunately)

5. reading novels

So as you can see, I have and have not been very busy. This is no excuse for my lack of posts, but I hope you can forgive me. As a peace offering I give you this:

Super Easy and Delicious Apple Dip with 3 Ingredients

1 - 8oz block of cream cheese, softened

1- cup brown sugar

1- teaspoon vanilla

Step One:

Place your ingredients in a bowl.

This is a very important step.

Step Two:

Mix aforementioned ingredients.

Also an important step.

Step Three:

Eat. Tha. Dip.

Seriously, this is a delicious fruit dip. It is almost carmel-ish and is the best way to get me to eat an entire apple. It is also good when eaten directly off of the spoon. Or when used in another recipe (hint hint).

I will try to be better about posting regularly and you can count on hearing more about items 1-4 on the "Things I have been doing" list. I probably won't write about how I've been reading novels. Probably.

Much Love,

Plain Nicole

Elevensies!

March 9th is a very special day for one little lady:

Well hello there tiny princess child!

Today is the 11th birthday of my youngest sister! She is a very twirly sister.

Who is unusually good at Wii Boxing.

And a very picky eater....not unlike someone else I know...

She has wonderful freckles.

She is content to do her own thing.

Which often includes making me laugh!

She is artistic.

And sweet (especially when she still had those baby teeth!)

She is quite independent.

She is very cuddly.

She has not yet mastered the art of crossing her eyes.

Maybe when she's 12.

She has an amazing hair stylist.

And oh yes, she is almost a teenager.

Dear sister,

Please stop growing.

Love,

Sister

Strangely Delicious Frosting

Believe it or not, I am picky about frosting.

I know, you can not believe it.

I am one of those people who will usually scrape all but 1/8 of the frosting off of a piece of cake. Something about it is usually too heavy for me.

This particular frosting recipe, however, caught my eye when I saw that there was no powdered sugar in it and it was made with FLOUR.

Weird, right?

This frosting is light...almost whipped....and quite tasty! You should give it a try. I (again) made 1/2 of the original recipe and had plenty left over.

You will need:

2.5 tbsp flour

1/2 cup milk (or half and half if you are trying to get rid of it)

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 stick butter

1/2 cup sugar (the real stuff...get yo powdery mess outta here)

First off, put your butter and sugar into a bowl so the butter can be softening.

Your next step will be pouring the milk and flour into a saucepan.

Heat it over medium/high and be sure to stir stir stir. We don't want any burnt milkflour.

Try and make sure you have a gigantic whisk.

Ok, so that might not actually be important....it was all I had.

You want to stir your milkflour until it is the consistency of brownie batter - aka - pretty thick. It should not be runny. Repeat! No runny runny.

It should actually be quite globular. Goopy. Thickly.

Once you have removed your milkflour from the burner and it has had a few minutes to cool, add the vanilla and mix it in well.

Next you will let this mixture sit until it is completely cool. Mine took about 20 minutes.

Now you need to go back to your butter/sugar combo that has been quietly softening in the corner and mix until light and fluffy.

If your butter is not soft this step is not going to work.

If your butter is not even close to soft and you try putting it in the microwave you are going to end up with a gloppy mess.

Trust me on this one.

Once your butter/sugar mixture is nice and fluffy, add your completely cooled milkflour on in.

And mix mix mix. You want to mix until it resembles whipped cream....and then keep mixing.

An insider's tip: go ahead and take a taste test when you think you've mixed enough. If you still have sugar granules, keep mixing! It might take several minutes.

Once you have mixed your little heart out you can either plop some frosting into a baggie and do cute little swirlies:

Or you can slather it on with a butter knife. Whichever.

OR! You could put it directly IN your mouth.

That works too!

Coming soon....chocolate cake recipe!

-Plain Nicole