Can you believe it?

Hello Everyone!

Can you believe I'm back again after only a couple of days?  I thought I would give you all the Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins right away since several of you requested it.  Here goes:

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

4 eggs
2 cups sugar
15 oz. can pumpkin
1  1/2 cups oil

Mix in mixer until all is moistened.

3 cups Flour
2 tsp. Baking soda
2 tsp. Baking powder
1  1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp. Salt

Combine with a fork and then add the dry ingredients a little at a time to the mixer until all is moistened.  Don't overmix.

Add chocolate chips and stir throughout batter.

Put in muffin cups.  I filled to the top of the cup and it made 24 regular sized muffins, NOT the jumbo Costco size ones.

Bake at 375 about 15 minutes or until toothpick in the center is clean.

You can also make into loaves if you prefer.

I hope you all enjoy them as much as we did.

Sam I Am asked if I'm on Ravelry.  Yes, I sure am.  Please feel free to friend me if you are too.  My name is "betsyq".  Not very original I know, but it works!  Ha!

The pattern for my zig-zag baby blanket is one I've had for years and years.  I think it was from a Leisure Arts brochure back in the olden days!  I don't know if it is still in print or available.  If you can't find it anywhere just let me know.

This was our view on our drive yesterday.  We have mountains, rivers and high dessert all within a half hour to an hour drive from our house.  This was heading out the west side of Spokane on I-90.

 Let than 45 minutes from home we were in the desert with tumbleweeds all around us.  It amazes me to see the abrupt change of landscape every time we go west.  If we had continued on another couple of hours from our destination yesterday we would have been in Seattle and the Puget Sound area.

As it was we only had to drive a little under 2 hours and we had a wonderful trip to Moses Lake,  WA to see Hayden play basketball. He's in a 2nd grade league and they won 41-9!  I was so proud of him!  He made several of the baskets and even though we are definitely NOT sports people, we thoroughly enjoyed watching his game and cheering them on.  Those boys had such great team spirit playing and were having so much fun.

When we went to Greenbluff with them a couple of weeks ago, Dennis bought each of the boys a pumpkin.  They waited to carve them until we could be with them yesterday.  We thought that was really nice of them as we've missed doing that with Kyleigh, Caleb and Piper.  The boys all had great fun and with the day in the high 60's, it was perfect "outside" weather.

The boys drew faces on the pumpkins.

Then Dennis and Jeremy helped them cut the faces out.  They really didn't require much assistance and did a great job on them.  It got so hot while they were working that Dennis took them to the store to buy lemonade for them.  That was really fun too!

 Look at the sunshine.  We took a quick picture of the completed pumpkins, the boys, Alicia and us just before we left.  Jeremy took the photo so he wasn't included.  :-(  They have a lovely home. 

Alicia had sandwich fixings all ready for us after the gam,e along with a pumpkin cake.  She also had put Sausage soup with tortellini in the Crock-pot to have for an early dinner.  We truly had a very relaxing and fun day with them all.  We had hoped to be home before dark because neither of us like to drive after dark on the interstate anymore.  We're getting old!  We didn't make it though.  We drove most of the way in the dark.  It was even more nerve wracking because about every 4-5 miles there would be a dead deer on the side of the interstate that hadn't been there when we drove earlier in the day, so we knew there were lots of deer along the roads.  You never know when one will jump right in front of you and at 70 mph it's very difficult, if not impossible to stop in time.  Thankfully we made it just fine and Alicia sent me this picture just as we drove in our driveway.

It had been too light to see them before we left.  Didn't the boys do a great job of carving the pumpkins?

Oooh Spooky!

We had church this morning and are just catching up on some things around the house now.  Dennis is putting the shower doors back on after some repairs and I have a few things to do too.  I started another baby blanket for some "mindless" crochet when I want something simple to work on.  I'm also still working on Dennis' socks and my mystery project.

Mandy called and talked to us while we drove home last night.  She was on her way home after a 12 hour shift.  She said it was really busy.  Positive influenza and strep tests, blood draws, etc.  I think the winter bugs are hitting early this year.  I do think she's enjoying being back to work part time though.  She's a wonderful nurse and we're very proud of her.  Of course, just keeping up with Piper is a full time job in itself.  That little girl is a bundle of energy.

I wore sandals to church this morning for what will probably be the last time this year.  I wore them in protest of the snow that is predicted for later this week.  Yes, I said that dreaded four letter word. SNOW!  We're supposed to have rain and snow Friday and Saturday and just snow on Sunday.  Gosh, I know it will be November, but I'm sure not ready.  We're contemplating a retirement house in Maui!  HA! HA!

I hope you're all enjoying the weekend and I'll talk to you all soon.

""For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

Blessings,
Betsy