Ebay, Good Mail, and hormones

Let me tell you why I love Ebay.

Since I recently sold a bunch of stuff on Ebay, I have a nice PayPal balance to play with. I have been thinking of getting a new bag and when Lori's friend Kelly bought her a cute bag in New York, I thought "Wow, I'd love one just like that." It's orange and I love it, but I wanted yellow. I got on Ebay and started looking for yellow bags. I think I put "yellow leather bag" in the search window... can you get any more vague than that? After searching around a little bit... after maybe a few pages of yellow bags, I found THE.VERY.EXACT.SAME.ONE! How good is that?! I love Ebay. I can't count how many times I have found exactly what I was looking for, sometimes very obscure, very specific items. God Bless America.



I have also been looking for a winter coat for Olivia. I wanted one that was actually warm, not just cute. She has a cute pink one that's nice for church, but definitely not a go out and play at recess or in the snow kind of coat. I have been looking on Ebay for about a week, pricing things out and watching the auctions. I have also been checking around the stores to see what the going rate is. I finally found a cute one on Ebay, brand new with tags, cozy blue coat from Old Navy. I paid $30 for the coat, including shipping and a cute fleece hat. I think I got a pretty good bargain. The coat came today and Olivia is totally pleased with it, it fits perfectly, and I am quite impressed with my shopping prowess. (Did I just say 'prowess'?)



Last night I did not end up making my baked pumpkin dip for bookclub b/c I could not find leeks at my store?! and it was too late to come up with something else to go with our fondue fiesta. I was very disappointed. Luckily, Jared had stopped at World Market and got me some White Chocolate dipped Pumpkin Cookies, so I took those instead. He also got me a Pumpkin Bread mix. Thanks Jared, you know I love my pumpkin treats! I'll have to compare the bread mix to my own when I make it tomorrow. Just in case you're wondering, I am not sick of pumpkin recipes yet. Are you? Tonight I made Shauna's yummy Butternut Squash Soup that she made for my other bookclub a few weeks ago. It was so tasty. I love, love the toasted pumpkin seeds on top. It makes the soup for me. We had it tonight with salad and fresh, crusty bread from Costco and it was delicious. Austin gobbled it right up and so did Jared. My girls didn't fare so well, but I'm still working on them. They ate a few bites and tons of veggies on the side, so I forgave them. How can I not when they look this cute? Today Ashley was adorable and I could not get her to sit still for a photo. She had a cute red ribbon in her hair (which just barely made it into a ponytail) and adorable black boots. Two year olds are so cute!






Today we got some special mail. Whitney's Baptism invitation came. The photo on the front is really nice and Whitney looks so grown up! I love that the temple is in the background. I am excited for her baptism. Bella, my other niece, was baptized in March and it was such a special experience. I don't know if it was seeing my brother baptize his daughter or if it was just the wonderful feeling there. Maybe it was watching Bella play the Primary song "Baptism" on her violin. It was just a great day. We're so glad we can be there for Whitney's too. Austin's special day is coming up too- January 3rd. I am really looking forward to it and I am sure I am probably going to be a blubbering mess. Ah well, that's what Mom's do, right?



I also got a sweet card from Claudia. Thanks so much! I love her swirly, elegant handwriting and her kind words. Claudia is such a unique, interesting person and I love that she is so open and easy to know, and talk to. Thanks for the invite down to your sunny California home, Claudia. I've heard you're a great hostess so you'd better be careful, we might take you up on it! I wish so bad I could run away to sunny Cali right now. I am so ready for a vacation right now... but if I can't run away for a great vacation, I'll just go eat some delicious pumpkin dessert and dream of a faraway place! I'm so totally PMSing this week it's ridiculous. I have eaten way too much sugar and junk! Why do hormones do this to us?!?!? By the way, the following recipe is the photo at the top of my blog. Doesn't it look amazing? It is.

Chocolate Pumpkin Marble Cake

1 ½ c. butter, room temp.
3 c. sugar
6 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 ¼ c. canned pumpkin
2 ¾ c. flour
2 tsp. bkg. Powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. cloves
3/4 c. unswt. cocoa
2/3 c. buttermilk
Chocolate glaze (see below)

1. In large bowl beat butter and sugar on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Beat in vanilla. Scrape half of mixture into another bowl.
2. Beat pumpkin into half of the butter mixture until well blended. With a spatula, add 1 ¾ cups flour, 1 tsp. baking powder, ½ tsp. salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves. Fold in until just blended.
3. In another bowl, mix the remaining 1 c. flour, 1 tsp. baking powder, ½ tsp. salt, ¾ cups unsweetened cocoa powder. Add flour mix alternating with the buttermilk to the other half of the butter mixture (starting and ending with flour mix), beating after each addition until just blended.
4. Spoon half of the pumpkin batter into a buttered and floured bundt pan. Drop half the chocolate batter by spoonfuls over (but not completely covering) the pumpkin batter. Repeat to spoon the remaining pumpkin and chocolate batters into the pan. Gently run the blade of a butter knife around the center of the pan several times and then draw the knife across the width of the pan in 12 places to make swirl pattern.
5. Bake 350 degrees 50-60 min. Remove when skewer comes out with a few moist crumbs on it. Let cake cool 10 minutes in pan, then invert onto rack and cool completely.
6. Pour chocolate glaze over top letting it drip down sides. Let stand until set, about 2 hours or chill for 30 minutes.

Chocolate Glaze

4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate
½ c. whipping cream
1 T. butter
1 tsp. corn syrup
Bring 2 inches of water to
a boil in a pan (or double
boiler) and place chocolate
mix on top. Stir occasionally
until melted and smooth.