Off to a Rocky Start.

Well hello everyone!  Now that I think I can post, lets give this a try.  I have had every good intention to set up a blog for our family, friends, and groupies to be able to stay in the loop with our ever-changing lives, but just have not had the chance to do so.  I finally get some time and decide to get down to business and make it happen.  It never fails with my luck... Blogger has probably the biggest shutdown issues in the history of Blogger.  But... I press onward and hope that this rocky start isn't an indication of the rest of my time with this blog.

No pun intended, but this is a "Rocky" start to our blog.  It begins with us living in Colorado and enjoying the beautiful Rocky Mountains for sure!  We are here for the summer at least with one of Matt's annual summer sales jobs.  However, let it be known, he has switched from the dark side of sales to installs.  He really is enjoying it, and his customers seem to love his personality and I often will get calls from him during the day talking about how he feels like he's a great people person and has a funny story to go along with it.

I am playing the stay-at-home housewife and mother to our puppy.  It has been fun doing the cooking, cleaning, laundry, couponing, baking, bathing the dog and numerous other things that I have not done singularly in a while.  During my time in the MPA program and working, Matt would do the laundry, cook, clean (sometimes) :) and would do a lot of the household things while I studied and worked away.  Now it's time for us to trade roles.  I tell you what- I have extreme respect for women who are full-time homemakers and are good at it.  I am still doing my best to become the best and as always try to excel with what I do.

I will say I have had my victories and my epic failures.  Victory... being called a "coupon mom" when ravenously attacking the most amazing pasta sale of the year!  I am certain by the end of the summer when we're enjoying yummy pasta for really cheap, Matt will appreciate it more then.

Epic fail.... well ... I am really quite good with baking.  I pride myself in my homemade chocolate chip cookies.  I haven't ever made cookies for Matt, but he really likes how I make the Tollhouse pre-packaged cookies, so I decided it's time to show him what I'm made of.  I put everything together perfectly as I normally do and right as I finish stirring in the chocolate chips I see a little note at the bottom... (5200 feet altitude).  Sigh... Well here where we are- we are at approximately 6,035 feet.  I haven't ever had to take altitude into account, so I didn't think anything of it.  All I could think in the back of my head was about the recent advice from the Relief Society president here about baking at higher altitude... increase flour and decrease sugar.
WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT BEFORE!!!
The brilliant idea of doubling and then subtracting the surplus of sugar from the first batch was that of my Mother's.  Me and my terrible math skills, I called Kate (My fellow housewife for the summer) and figured out that I would need just 1/3 and 1/4 more and I would be set to go.  Kate was bringing me a bowl that would accommodate the larger amount of dough... so she soon got here to oversee the baking efforts.  Once again got to the end was ready to add the new batch of dough to the bigger bowl and I looked at the dough- not looking quite right.  It was then that it dawned on me.... I had added not just the 1/3 and 1/4 but had added another entire batch's worth of sugar.  I wanted to shoot myself.  THREE batches of cookies... batches that were supposed to make 5 dozen cookies... lets do the math... that's 180 cookies!!!  Assuming that I make them twice as big as they should be, that's still 90 cookies.  Kate was rolling on the floor at this point saying that I was "special" and texting my husband complimenting my baking skills.

So I again put together the leftover ingredients sans the sugar.... believe me - there was plenty in there.  I had to substitute some canola oil for butter since I was fresh out with making my last two batches.  About two hours later and with a TON of mixing (all by hand I might add) by Kate and I... the cookies were ready for baking.  All in all, they turned out decently, minus some little pasty flour chips from adding water to the flour for the altitude.  Matt ate them and enjoyed them and even requested some for lunch this morning when I was putting together his cooler.  Once we eat our way through this massive amount of dough, I'll be sure to report on my next baking adventure hopefully making only one batch of cookies for us to enjoy.

Well I figure I'll try and post a recap of the adventures from our last almost 9 months of being married in the near future, but for now... I will sign off and get going on baking some more of those blasted cookies.  :)