What I Know Now That I Didn't Know Then

Grams and Grandad love being empty nesters. But, getting to this point in life wasn't easy. We always knew that our kids would go to college and I was determined that they should have the experience of going away to college. I've told you before that I didn't want to know exactly what my children were doing while they were away at college. But again, getting to that point was probably the hardest thing I've ever done.

When we took Katy to San Antonio as a freshman, she had decided to go into the roommate lottery. She wanted to meet new people and have new experiences. At that time UTSA only had one dormitory, so instead, she was going to live in an on-campus apartment. Each apartment had four bedrooms and two bathrooms with a tiny living area and kitchen.

When we arrived on campus for "move in day" we checked in at the office, picked up the keys, and went to the apartment to start moving in. There were young people everywhere and upper class-men and student athletes who were helping new students move in. We opened the apartment door to find a stack of empty liquor bottles, empty beer cans, and a young man passed out asleep on the sofa. Clearly, there had been a party there the night before. It seems Katy had been assigned to an apartment where three of the rooms were already occupied by much older students. At least one of them was a senior, maybe even a 5th or 6th year senior. One of them was an art major whose artworks featured demons. The other had not arrived yet.

As you might expect, I was not a happy mama. I wanted to go and have her re-assigned to another apartment. She insisted that it would be okay. A small argument ensued and she finally said emphatically, "No, Mom. I can handle this!"

So we moved her in, unpacked her, took her out for dinner, and left her standing in the parking lot waving at us. Getting in that car and driving away was, without a doubt, absolutely the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. I was crying when we left San Antonio, and I was still crying two hours later when we got home. But, she was right, she did handle it. She handled it beautifully. And at the end of the semester, she moved to an off campus apartment with only one roommate whom she had met at work.

Sometimes its hard to decide whether to hold on or to let go.

Surrounded by Books

I have a very busy day today. I'm hosting The Book Snobs for dinner and discussion tonight. That means I'm cooking dinner for twelve, so I don't have time to write a proper post. Therefore, I'm taking the easy way out.

Last week Katy and Travis were unwilling participants in the large amount of rainfall that fell on parts of Texas. In spite of their new retaining wall, there was just too much rain in too short of a time period for the drains to work properly. They had water in their living room, not for the first time. This led to a decision to remove the carpet.

You may remember that Travis is an English teacher and has an impressive library which normally resides in that room. So, in order to remove the carpet, they had to move the library. While usually beautifully displayed in a very organized and lighted set of bookshelves, it has now taken up temporary residence in Her Highness' room.

I feel bad for them. They have already done a lot of work to clean up the mess and move the books. Now they're planning to stain the concrete floor and then they'll have to replace all the books and shelves. It's a big job. Ultimately they hope to put in wood floors, but first they've got to figure out how to stop the flooding in the future.

The bright side of this story is this beautiful photo of Our Little Princess that is a result of the temporary relocation of the books. Katy took this photo with her cell phone. I think it's gorgeous. I hope she'll always love being surrounded by books.

Have a great week!

She Thinks I Can Do Anything

Grams reads a lot of blogs ... probably way too many. I have more than 100 blogs in my reader. There are about 15 of them that I always read and I have come to consider many of the bloggers friends, even though I've never met them in real life. The rest of them I scan and read if I'm interested.

One that I read every day is Cake Wrecks. It doesn't require a lot of reading, it's mostly pictures. It caught my interest because it features cakes by professional decorators that have gone horribly wrong.  They include misspelled words, misunderstood instructions, baby shower cakes that require cutting into a baby (think Steel Magnolias and the red-velvet armadillo groom's cake), and strips of bacon that look like poop. (Just to mention a few.)

Photo credit

Six days a week their posts feature a hilarious assortment of god-awful cakes which make me laugh. But on Sundays the feature is called "Sunday Sweets." Every Sunday they have the most beautiful collection of cakes. They are amazing, cute, beautiful, fancy, plain, and some of them are actually feats of engineering. I adore them. It's what keeps me coming back for more.

At this point I should mention that I am a Wilton certified cake decorator. I've never worked professionally, but I have taken the classes. When my kids were little I often baked and sold decorated cakes for friends and friends of friends. I took the classes when I was on maternity leave with our first baby, realizing that I would spend the next 20 or so years making birthday cakes. I've never regretted taking the classes. Being able to decorate cakes and cookies has saved me a lot of money over the past 30 years. I'm a pretty good decorator, but not anywhere near the level of the decorators featured on Sunday Sweets.

Last time we were in San Antonio, I was perusing my Google reader on Sunday morning, when Our Little Princess noticed the cakes I was looking at. She climbed up on my lap and we spent quite a while looking at beautiful cakes. She was quite entertained and it held her attention for a long time considering that she's not yet three years old. I thought it was a fun way to spend some time with her and didn't really think very much more about it.

Our Little Princess will be celebrating her third birthday in February. She and her mom have been working on plans for her birthday party. She absolutely adores the movie Tangled and all things related to Rapunzel. They have decided to use Tangled as the theme for her birthday party. As part of the discussion Katy asked her if she wanted a Tangled birthday cake. She replied that she did indeed want a Tangled cake and she wanted Grams to make it for her because she wants one exactly like the one Grams has in her computer.

These are the cakes she wants. Aren't they beautiful. I don't even have any idea how one would start to make Rapunzel's tower, as featured in the photo on the right. I know how the Rapunzel doll is made, but I do not have that kind of artistic ability.

Photos from Cake Wrecks

These cakes are so far beyond my limited decorating abilities that it's not even funny. What is funny is that she actually thinks I can do anything. I hope that lasts a while. Even if I can't live up to her expectations, it feels good that she thinks I've got skills.

What I Know Now That I Didn't Know Then

This photo arrived in my inbox one morning last week. It reminded me of all the birthday parties and Christmas celebrations that I've attended where I've seen kids open expensive gifts, only to spend the rest of the party playing with the box.

I love how Our Little Princess has her head thrown back and is laughing with absolute abandon. I also love that the two girls play so well together. 

Women of a certain age and kids know that simple is better.

Grams Made Filled Peanut Butter Cups

In looking over my blogs for the past few weeks, I realized that I promised you a recipe for the Peanut Butter Cups that I made for Christmas. They are so simple that it's hardly fair to call it a recipe. They are made with a mix and pieces of candy and they are delicious. I will definitely make them again.

The recipes were adapted from recipes I found at both Betty Crocker and Pillsbury.

I made three different kinds of cookies using the same basic cookie. They came out so good that I used them for gifts. I will definitely make them again.

FOR THE BASIC COOKIE

1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® peanut butter cookie mix
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon water
1 egg

Heat oven to 375ºF. In large bowl, stir cookie mix, oil, water and egg until soft dough forms. Form dough into thirty-six 1-inch balls (about 2 teaspoons each); press into ungreased mini muffin cups.

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Remove from oven.



PEANUT BUTTER CUPS

36 Bite-Size Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

Make the basic cookie. While cookies are hot and straight from the oven, press one peanut butter cup into each muffin. Cool in pan about 20 minutes before removing. (I think it goes without saying, but you must remove the paper wrapper from each Reese's Cup before pressing into cookie.)

SNICKERS CUPS

 

18 Bite-Size Snickers (1" x 1")

Make the basic cookie. While the cookies are baking, cut Snickers in half and press half of a Snickers bar into the peanut butter cookie cup when cookies are still hot and straight from the oven. Cool in pan about 20 minutes before removing.

SALTED CARAMEL COOKIE CUPS

 

1 bag of Brach's caramels

1 Tablespoon water

2 Tablespoons of sea salt

Make the basic cookie. While the cookies are hot, use the end of a wooden spoon to carefully press into center of each baked cookie to make an indentation.

In medium microwavable bowl, microwave caramels and water on high 1 minute. Stir; repeat until caramels are completely melted and can be stirred smooth.

Fill each cookie cup with about 1 tablespoon melted caramels. Sprinkle a few granules of coarse sea salt on top of each. Cool in pan about 20 minutes before removing.



I'm planning to make these again for Valentine's Day and fill them with chocolate fudge frosting which I will top with heart-shaped sprinkles. I can't wait to try them.

What I Know Now That I Didn't Know Then

Today Grams is kicking off a new series intended to pass on the wisdom that comes with aging. Honestly, I'm kind of afraid that by mentioning it last week I've given it more of a build up than it deserves.

This new series was inspired by Anna, who I first met through her blog I Am Nanny Anna. Now she has a new blog, Mid-Life Mama. When she interviewed me for my feature it got me thinking about the things I've learned just as a result of getting older. Clearly women of a certain age have learned a few things just by virtue of experience and age.

Sometimes this will be a serious column intended to illuminate a serious subject. More often it will be tongue in cheek or clever. (I hope so anyway.) I'm also hoping to be able to reduce most of these observations to a one or two line graphic that could be pinned to a Pinterest board. "Hello, I'm Grams and I'm a Pinterest junkie." If you don't already, you can follow me on Pinterest.

So, when I started giving serious thought to things I didn't know about getting older, I realized that there are a few things my mother didn't tell me about getting old being a woman of a certain age. I don't know exactly why women in general haven't shared some of these less than delightful tidbits. I decided to start with this one.

I welcome your input and I will gladly share the credit. If you have words of wisdom to share that would be appropriate for "What I Know Now That I Didn't Know Then," please email me at vicki.valenta(at)gmail.com.

Why Time Warner Cable Loses

Grandad and Grams have been Time Warner Cable subscribers since our local cable service became Time Warner. We've been using the same cable service since we got married in 1975. That's 36 years. Fact is, we've never even been tempted to switch.

Several times over the years, Time Warner has been involved in contract disputes with one or the other of our local television providers. When that happened, Time Warner would drop the local provider from their lineup and we would have to attach a switch and rabbit-ears to our television. The switch would de-activate the cable and we would use an antennae to pick up the UHF broadcast and watch the local station. When we were paying $35 per month for cable service that didn't seem like an unreasonable thing to do. It was a little inconvenient, but not too unreasonable.

In early December, we started hearing that Time Warner and KRISTV, our local NBC affiliate, were in a dispute yet again. On December 9, KRISTV announced that Time Warner would be dropping their feed. Approximately one day later, they did indeed drop all four stations that are either owned or operated by Cordillera Communications leaving approximately 80,000 customers without NBC. That includes KRISTV (NBC), The CW, KDF, and KAJA Telemundo. I don't know exactly what the details of their disagreement are. I believe its about rebroadcast fees. The local affiliate wants to be paid more, Time Warner doesn't think they should pay more for something that's available free without cable. Time Warner would have to pass the expense on to consumers.

We didn't react right away. We've been here before, it usually lasts a few days or a couple of weeks at most, then they kiss and make up and the television station comes back on. Not so this time. We have not had access to any NBC shows since December 10 and frankly I'm more than a little ticked off about it.

I have always preferred to get my local news from KRIS. I worked very closely with them on an annual back-to-school supply drive for many years. I start my morning with The Today Show and I always have. I even time my mornings by the show. I need to be finished with my coffee by the time the show starts. I have to finish my makeup before the second news segment starts and I must be out the door by the time the local news comes on. I also finish the day to The Tonight Show.  Jay Leno and I go way back. I know he's not popular with the younger generation, but I really like his show. Not to mention, all the other NBC programs I've been missing.

It wasn't too bad over the holidays because everything was in reruns anyway, but since new programming resumed, I've become less and less tolerant. I didn't really complain too much until last week when I realized that I was going to miss Harry's Law and the 60th Anniversary of The Today Show. Thanks to whoever updates The Today Show on Facebook I discovered I could watch it on the internet, so I did.

I complained so much that Grandad offered to go buy an antennae and hook it up so I could manually switch to NBC when I wanted to. But, seriously, when you're paying more than $100 every month for cable services you shouldn't have to do that. At that price, I'll be damned if I'm willing to switch to an antennae for NBC.

In the past two weeks, both parties have stopped negotiating. Each of them points a finger and blames everything on the other party, but no one gives an inch. It's interesting to note that they have not shared the details of their negotiations so it's impossible to know who is right and who is wrong. I suspect it's a little of both. KRIS has now filed a complaint with the FCC asking them to order Time Warner back to negotiations. You can read what KRISTV has to say about it here.

For me, the bottom line is that there is only one NBC affiliate in our town and there are several cable/satellite outlets. So, the local affiliate wins and Time-Warner loses.

Today, we switched to Direct TV. The station line up is very similar and so far the reception is great. And we got it just in time to watch the Golden Globes. I do love me an awards show! And, as a bonus, we get service in the entire house for less than we paid for one television with Time Warner. We signed a two year contract with Direct TV, so we're not going back anytime soon. Sorry Time Warner, you lose!