The story of the Rockas

For the last several years, I have been buying packages of the most delicious cookies from the bakery at the Mexican grocery store. They're called Rockas and they're filled with raisins, coconut, nuts and sometimes carrots.

They're my favorite cookie ever and I've scoured the internet for a recipe because I love them that much.

Today I was at the bakery and noticed they had two different colors of cookies. One looked like chocolate and the other was the normal raisin, etc one. I picked up one package of each. They were both simply marked, "Rockas" and I could see no difference in the ingredient list.

So, when I got to the check out lane, I asked the cashier if she knew what the difference between the two packages were.

She looked at me and said, "Oh, they were just probably baked on different days."

I thought that meant the darker cookies were over baked because they had some new employee working in the bakery that didn't know his/her stuff.

That's when she looked around suspiciously, leaned in closer to me and said very quietly, "There's a secret about the Rockas and I'm going to tell you...."

Oh! I was excited!!

She continued, "...they're recycled donuts".

What? The stunned look on my face let her know she should continue.

"They take the donuts that don't sell that day and put them in the freezer. After a couple days, they take them out, grind them up, add raisins, nuts, coconut sometimes carrots."

I just looked at her.

"The ones they put the carrots in are my favorite".

RECYCLED FREAKING DONUTS!!!

At first I was like, "Oh, well I guess that's why I like them so much. That's interesting."

RECYCLED DONUTS!

That means, the frosting, the filling, the sprinkles, EVERYTHING is ground up, more eggs and fat are added, they're scooped out into packed handfulls, sprinkled with sugar and baked.

and then I was like, "Oh, sweet Lord, that means I'm probably eating 4 donuts in one bite of that cookie!!"

She continued, "A lot of people don't eat them anymore because they're grossed out to find out they're recycled donuts."

That didn't bother me as much as the fact that I was probably eating 4 donuts in one bite.

4 DONUTS IN ONE BITE!

I will never buy them again.

Oh, and we both decided that the darker ones probably were chocolate donuts.

National Scrapbook Day OVER!

I have the hardest time being productive on this day. All the pressure to scrap something gives me anxiety and instead of doing something I just freeze. It's usually the day after NSD that I come up with something.

This is a picture of Kat, Trent and my father at my MIL's wedding in December 2011. Did you follow that?

Kat,
Trent,
my father,
mother in law's wedding

I love how Trent is looking cool, calm and collected while his sister is squirming away from her grandfather.

Every once in awhile, I pick up old books from yard sales with the goal to destroy them and add them to my pages. The background with the first part of the title is from a Little Red Riding Hood book. I loved the animation and knew I could use it with something.

There is also some some pieces of BasicGrey, MME, Crate, Sass and Doodlebug.

Neon

This crazy picture of Kat screamed for NEON! Paint was on sale at Michael's this week so I picked some cheap-o neon colors and went to town. I toned it down with gesso, believe it or not. :P

There is also a bunch of sequins and bling posted around the page. That reminds me of something....

While at Michael's a lady was there with her two young daughters. She was talking to them and asked if they thought they needed more glitter than the small bottle she had in her hand. There was another lady in the aisle with me and the mom and we both turned to her and said, "You can never have enough glitter".

True story!

My scanner is going out so I chose to take a picture instead. You can see the clip at the top of the page. That is not part of the layout.



I did this layout sometime last week. Some Jenni Bowlin and more paint.

 

The horizontal lines are not part of the page. They are the result of my scanner going out.

Ok. Gotta go. Blake is sitting on my lap, pushing the keyboard away and saying, "cuddle cuddle". I guess it's time to cuddle.

Thanks for your comments.

This took me weeks

Believe it or not, this took me weeks. I didn't know how to finish it and I had a hard time committing to anything.

It's a little bit of everything. The background paper is Heidi Swapp and now I forget what everything else is. Oh, I did use the new Martha Stewart circle punch-o-rama for the zebra stripe circle.

I guess my scanner is going out. I'm not sure why there is a line down the left. Ignore that.

Thanks for looking.

Dear God

Please forgive me for whatever I have done that has PISSED you off so badly. I love animals and I do not know why you continue to give me duds.

I've dealt with garbage strewn all over the house.
I've dealt with dogs throwing up their own poop on my carpet.
I've dealt with powdered sugar stuck to the tile floor and carpeting.
I've found avocados pits in my bed.
I've accepted the fact that I will have to vacuum my bed on muddy days.
I've dealt with poop, pee, vomit, etc in all places in my home.

But this? I have a 16 month old I'm trying to babysit today. Why???

Like a serial killer in the crowd of on-lookers at a murder scene, I'm assuming the guilty party had to come witness my horror as I walked in the door and grabbed my camera.

"You better wipe this shit up, bitch, or I'll scratch you"

Why does the cat hate me?I know it was her because Manny is in his crate and the other two dogs are outside. The other day, she also toppled over Twilight's cage. It was upside down on the floor.

Amen

"Science Project" is just another word for HELL

It's that time of year again. All over my neighborhood, people are pouring and measuring baking soda, vinegar, juices or boiling different liquids. They're making cookies 5 different times eliminating an ingredient each time to discover what that ingredient is used for.

School started this year in early August. By mid-August the other moms and I at the pick up point at school were already starting to dread Science Project Time. We knew it wasn't until February, six months away, but we still grumbled about it anyway.

Grumbles can be heard through out the crowd of moms and a few dads, "I HATE Science Project Time" or "The parents are the ones that end up having to do it anyway" or even "Do you think we could use his brother's project from last year?"

Halloween would come and some of us would bring it up again. "Do you know what you're doing for a Science Project?"

"No. I HATE Science Project Time!"

Christmas comes around and we're getting ready for the break. Of course, it's not really a break when you've got the worry of that damn science project hovering over your head. What are you going to do? What are you going to do? When do we start? Should we start now so it's less work? Do we wait until the boards are distributed?

Someone always says, "I HATE Science Project Time!!"

My idea for the science project was AWESOME!

My idea was to take two of the boy mice and separate them. Put a wheel in one cage and not in the other. Carefully measure their food for a week or two and see who eats more food. Does the mouse with the wheel eat more? Or does the mouse that is bored without a wheel eat more?

I thought it was a terrific idea and I was afraid to share it during kid pick up time at school. It was January and other parents were getting antsy, hovering around other groups of parents listening in for ideas. I even overheard some parents pretending to be interested in another kid's idea.

"So little Johnny, what are you doing for your science project?"

"My mom said not to talk to anyone about my science project"

Of course, Kat didn't want to do it. She wanted to clean pennies with juice. Like she's ever cleaned anything in her life, but anyway. I couldn't get her to change her mind. So, with new Tupperware that I got for Christmas, we lined up 5 little containers and tried 5 different juices.

She already knew the answer to the project because her friend's brother had done it last year. It's LEMON juice. Duh!

Erik worked with Kat on her juice and pennies. The Tupperware containers sat out on the table for about three weeks.

The boards didn't get out on time. First we were told that UPS was late. I did see UPS driving up to the school as the girls and I were leaving that Friday. I saw my neighbor run back into the office and moments later he came out with giant boards that we was trying to hide under his jacket.

Fine. We'll just get ours Monday.

Monday comes and it's raining. You can't get the boards when it's raining because it will ruin the cardboard.

I HATE Science Project Time!

Finally on Tuesday we got the boards. They were due in exactly six days. We could do this. No problem!

I was pretty impressed with Kat that she did the Power Point all by herself. I helped her add some clip art and I printed the pages. Until we ran out of ink. UGH! Panic.

$45.00 and 45 minutes later, we finally have the ink and we're printing again.

She uses the Cricut to cut her title. 

We decide to glue on the pennies and use Martha Stewart labels to add what kind of juice we used. I printed off some pictures and she glued them on.

6:00 PM Sunday night we're done! WE ARE DONE!

Monday, the day it's due, Kat is sick. I look at the giant piece of cardboard sitting next to the door and I decide to take it to school. I'm so sick of looking at it and I just know it's going to be a matter of time before either a dog pees on it, the cat throws up on it or someone just spills something on it.

Now we're all done and we can relax. At least until next August when school starts again and the parents and I start grumbling about it.

I HATE Science Project Time!

It's a page on Manny

Here he is, the little cutie pie stinker dog. It took me forever to commit and glue this page together. But my friend, Sharon, said, "Glue and Go Baby"! So, that's what I did.

This is the first page I've done on him. As we (well, actually I) were digging through Petfinder, his cute little smile caught our attention. He's such a happy little guy.

See the wood veneer dog on the red heart? That's some of the new Studio Calico wood veneers I was squealing about last week.

Papers, camera, arrow and misting mask are new Studio Calico, chip alphas are American Crafts, tiny alphas are Lily Bee and mists are Heidi Swapp.