Get ready Necco!

It's packed and ready to be mailed!

Here is my letter to Necco. I doubt I will hear from them, but you know I will let you know if they do. I'm wondering if they might just post this in their break room under 'crazy customers.'

Dear Fellow Candy Lovers,

Hello, my name is Amber Grundman. I have been a fan of your candy conversation hearts for 17 years. I have very fond memories from when I was a child. In grade school my mom let me take the candy boxes to school to celebrate my birthday, (since I was born in February). Ever since then I have looked forward to February to purchase your conversation hearts.

This year was no exception, however I had the hardest time finding a store that carried them. With some help from my friends I was directed to a Walgreens where I purchased some in the small boxes. I was very excited until I tasted one because it tasted terrible. At the time I thought I had purchased the wrong brand because of the odd perfumy taste and because there were blue hearts in the box. I am well aware that there are competitors that make the hearts and I refuse to eat the impostors. I have even received the nickname of 'candy snob' because of this...but that is another story.

I next headed to Target and purchased your hearts in a large bag. Once again I was very excited until I tried them and realized that they were the same hearts that I purchased at Walgreens. These were not the candy hearts that I had eaten for the past 17 years. What happened?

A friend of mine, who shares my love for the hearts, sent me a link to your website where you explained how you changed the recipe of the hearts after 145 years. Why in the world would you change a perfect recipe after 145 years? I understand you need to keep things fresh, which is what I thought you did by creating the tart and chocolate hearts. You also mentioned on the website that the new hearts were now more fun to eat because they are softer. I thought the hearts were a hard candy...no? There was no need to change the traditional recipe.

All I am praying for is that you bring back the original hearts next year. Remember New Coke? That didn't go over well either. The original hearts are ingrained in American society and you eat them for nostalgia. Please consider correcting what I believe to be a huge mistake.

I have included the uneaten hearts I purchased in this box. I did not want to eat them, but also did not want to throw them away. If you have any of the classic hearts laying around in your office(s), please send them my way....with a bill.

Thank you for your time,
Amber L. Grundman

**Note: I found some impostor hearts at a local gift store today in town. Even though they aren't my fave, they are WAY better than the new hearts Necco sold this year. As you can see they look very similar but are too thick.

Why Change a Good Thing?

As most of you know this past Sunday was Valentine’s Day, which is one of my favorite semi not real holidays. Even during the years when I didn’t have ‘someone special’ I still loved it. The flowers, teddy bears, and candy…I love it all!

When I was in grade school my mom let me bring in conversation hearts to my classmates to celebrate my birthday. I thought it was so cool that I got to give out something original vs. plain ole cupcakes.

I have expressed my love for candy hearts on this blog before, and every year those conversation hearts make February just a little bit sweeter. This year however I had a difficult time finding the hearts. Strange right? Well thanks to Facebook I asked my friends where I could find the hearts. I got a variety of answers, and most of the stores people suggested weren’t here in SLO. So when John and ventured up North I made it a priority to find a Walgreens and a Target.

First stop was Walgreens. I was SO excited when I saw the boxes in the candy isle, but I was a little thrown off because they did not have the clear window in the box. Eh…whatever. At least I found them right? I was so excited that I opened the box immediately and tried one…then I wanted to barf. WTF did I just eat? It was soft and tasted like perfume! Maybe I just ate a bad one? I tried another one…again I wanted to barf! I took a closer look at the box and noticed that there were blue hearts on it. Blue? There have never been blue before…where were the white hearts? What is going on here?? Have I entered the conversation heart Twilight Zone?
I couldn’t believe I bought the wrong kind of hearts! I was so bummed out. Oh well…at least I had hope in Target, right? Well when we got there I saw the boxes of the hearts I bought in Walgreens, so I kept on walking. Then I saw bags of hearts! Score!! I bought a couple of bags and immediately tried them again, only to immediately want to barf…AGAIN! These hearts were exactly the same and I couldn’t believe I didn’t notice the BLUE hearts on the bag! I think I was so excited that I thought I had found the hearts that I couldn’t even focus on them! I was so disappointed...again. I only had 4 more days to find some hearts, and my chances were getting slimmer and slimmer.

After telling my whoas to my friend Jen, she sent me this this link. New Flavors and Texture? EXCUSE ME? So what you are saying is that you have created an entirely new candy that just looks like conversation hearts?? ‘The new Sweethearts® have been re-formulated to be softer and more fun to eat.’ Who says that softer hearts are more fun to eat? This is a HARD candy people! Why in the world would you think that changing the recipe after 145 years is a good thing? What are you smoking NECCO employees? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for creating other variations of the candy, like chocolate and tart, but don’t change the original recipe…especially after 145 years!!!!!!!

Needless to say I will be sending them the hearts I bought and asking them that they please send me some of the old school hearts. They’ve got to have some in their candy museum right?

Sleep Please

So much to blog about and so little time. Seriously...looks like I will be back in the work force soon, although I have yet to know the actual start date. The offer letter said my start date would be June 15th, but my friend who works there would like me to start as soon as the IT guys sets up my computer. That is fine with me if she knew when that was. I know it's not her fault, but I'm just hoping for at least a few days notice. My preference would be to start on the 8th...who wouldn't like an extra week?

I feel utterly exhausted from this past weekend. (Although I know it's an accumulation of the time in Humboldt and the rest of last week). I have been going full speed for the last few weeks and I think it's caught up with me. Lucky for me my awesome husband told me I should go get a massage so I obeyed him and made an appointment for tomorrow!!

We had a great visit with the Steinbuck's for our annual Memorial Day Weekend reunion. I think the two kiddos are even more work then they were last year. I blame that and the fact that I am a year older to why I am so pooped. Even John is feeling it despite his two rounds of golf. When we got home today he laid down on the couch and within 10 minutes the dude was asleep!




We didn't do too many monumental things this past weekend, but we were going nonstop. Rebekkah and I did get in some awesome shopping just like the good 'ole days. I always forget how much fun I have when we shop together, and now we are so good we can even do it with both girls in tow.

We hit up the Carter's outlet in Pismo which was a necessity for me since I had to buy baby clothes for four babies. I still can't believe how much cuter clothes are when they are miniature. I really wanted to buy everything in the store.

We also found some killer deals at Old Navy. Their big sale was $1 flip flops which everyone was buying...except me. The checkout lady looked at me like I was crazy, and I was like 'listen lady...the plastic flip flops hurt my feet. I need cloth. I can't help it if I'm a flip flop snob. Your sale brought me into your store right?' Well I didn't go into that much detail, but she understood my point. I'm still in shock over the mark downs. I got a bunch of shirts for $2 and a sweater for $3! Then I saw some shirts for $9 and they were way too expensive for my price range. You really can't compete with $2. I even found found a new pair of dress pants that were labeled $29 and got rung up for $9! Don't you love it with that happens? I know I really didn't need any new work clothes, because a wise woman, (Molly Alice Atkinson), once told me that one of the best things about starting a new job is that your existing wardrobe turns into a brand new one since none of your co-workers have seen your clothes before. She is one smart cookie I tell ya!

The Best in the House!

To celebrate Martin Luther King weekend Molly decided to pay us a visit from Sacramento. Ok, so that really isn't the reason why, but it sounded good right?

We had a really mellow weekend which consisted of a lot of wii and eating tasty food. One thing that is awesome with Molly is that we have fun doing anything...or nothing.

I asked John to bake up some tasty bread for us and he totally did. It was kind of like an apple crisp bread.

I also made a torta rustica, which was so good. The more I have this dish the more I like it. John complained once again that there was too much spinach, but I swear you can't even taste it!

John had the great idea that we should head down to Grover Beach to check out the migrating monarch butterflies. Since we were heading to south county he had another great idea (shocking I know) that we should eat at Cacho's in Oceano. We have heard nothing but rave reviews about Cachos and how authentic their food is, so we were pumped.

The place was totally sketchy, (John's #1 characteristic of a good burrito shop), but I must say I was a little disappointed with the food. The worker there said they were known for their homemade tortillas, but let me say that it was nothing like the one I had in S.F. Maybe there wasn't enough lard? Who knows. At least Molly and I still looked cute while eating.

Next we headed to the butterflies. They were everywhere and seemed to be more active then the last time I was there. You can still see them in the sky even though the photo is out of focus. (Click to enlarge).

Here are two more photos:
John really wanted to go to the local teppanyaki grill while Molly was in town...just because he's obsessed with their fried rice. Seriously. Molly had the great idea to invite the Drexlers to join us which was fun, and also adding to the fun was our awesome chef. You could tell he enjoyed his job and was cracking some sweet jokes. Or maybe it was just Molly's cleavage that was making the difference. Whatever it was I didn't care, and either did John as long as he got extra fried rice.

It is truly absurd at how much food they give you during that meal...soup, salad, rice, veggies, and meat. As much as I like to eat, it's just way too much. After I was done stuffing my face I got to play with Lucas. As you can tell we are having a lot of fun:

Family shot!

Three amigos:

One shot of the ladies before we parted ways:

The next morning we slept in again, due to late night vid playing, and then went and had a late breakfast at one of our favorite places, Blue Sky, in Morro Bay. This was the first time I had EVER decided to branch out and I learned the hard way to stick with what I know. I ordered a BLTA with a fried egg, and someone forgot to put the egg on it. Not really the best sando I've ever had. The seafood omelet is WAY better.

Before we left we took a couple of photos of with the Rock in the background. I was surprised that Morro Bay was one of the few places we had yet to take Molly.
Overall it was a great weekend and I can't wait for Molly to visit again!

Christmas Montage

Greetings! Did you never think I was going to post again? Really? Well I started to feel that way. I blame John for my lack of posting. Ok, so it's isn't really his fault, just partially.

I knew I wanted to post about Christmas before I made any other posts, however John always likes to look at the photos with me before I post them. So...I have been waiting for 3 weeks for him to have the time to look at them with me, and so far he hasn't. I feel like I need to blog about our trip North before I can blog about anything else, and since both of my parents have been harassing me about updating I knew any sort of post would do.

With that being said I am taking the lazy way out. Below are a handful of my favorite photos from the holiday season which I will comment on rather than type out a novel. (More photos to come on ofoto).

I must say that I received a ton of great gifts even before we headed north for the big celebration. My friend Sam gave me some pineapple coconut waffle mix as well as some passion fruit jelly. Let me just say that it was SO good!
See for yourself. Here is my plate:
I like everything to be separate, (syrup, jelly, and powdered sugar). I also like to have my waffles on a paper towel so it absorbs any condensation. I'm a texture eater, what I can I say?

Here is John's plate. As you can see he goes for the gusto.
Another good friend of mine, Jen, gave me homemade lumpia! I was so impressed that she and her hubby spent the time to make their friends such a unique and tasty gift. Does it mean something that they both gave me food gifts?
Here they are frying up. (Jen, I know you said we needed to deep fry them, but they were still really good this way). John added honey and soy sauce which really crisped them up as well. YUM!

Before we left town John and I had our Christmas and below is a mini still life of some of the gifts I got.
John got me a new Domo calendar, the Harajuku purse, digital picture frame and the flute playing gnome. I was totally impressed! I've wanted a digital picture frame for a long time, but it's a totally unnecessary expense. So John used our credit card points to buy it! Such a smart man. I also needed another gnome for my collection, as I have the hardest time finding cute ones. Some can look so scary!

My friend Jen also got me the Rob and Big DVD's and John and laughed so much watching them. I always forget how much I love that show. Bobby Light always does me right.

The other black purse looking item is a cosmetic bag that I got from Maggie. It's not any cosmetic bag, but a Kat Von D designer bag! (Ok, it's not a designer bag, but you know it sounds better that way). What is crazy is that I totally needed a new one, and even asked John for one for Christmas. The poor dude did get me a purse that could have been used as a cosmetic bag, but the Kat Von D bag was better. I mean it was made for cosmetics. John was a bit disappointed, so I told him to suck it up and make it up to me for my birthday.

Since I had ample time during this holiday season I wanted to make some homemade gifts. Nothing too elaborate though. I saw this tutorial on How About Orange and thought it was perfect for my level of crafting skills! My initial plan was to make about 10 frames, but after cutting a few templates I realized it was a little tougher than I thought. So I decided to make 3...however once I finished the first frame and saw how cute it was I had to make them all! Here is a photo of the different fabrics I used:
I was so pleased with how they turned out, but the magnets I used were a bit too strong. I wanted to make sure they wouldn't side down on the fridge, which I achieved, but I ripped off the magnets after I took this photo! Real nice.

For the most part we had really nice visits with both families, but man did it tire us out! We were so exhausted by the time our 4 days were up. The only real exciting thing that happened was that my sister's dog attacked one of my parents dogs. I guess if it's not humans fighting it's dogs? At least no blood was shed.

We always spend Christmas eve with my family which is nice. My mom made a great meal and then we topped it off with opening a ton of gifts. Here is John and I in our traditional holiday matching sweaters. These aren't that hideous but I had to put the kibosh on the camo/argyle sweaters John wanted to buy, as camo is not seen as hideous in Fortuna. (I'm not sure why I'm striking a model pose either).
Christmas day was spent with John's family. It was great to see the kids again, but man was it hectic! I've realized that if you aren't normally around kids, it can be kind of like a culture shock! Here is the whole clan:
We had another great meal and received many wonderful gifts. I got a much needed computer bag, and we also got a kitchen aid mixer!!!!
After all the baking I did for Christmas I was coming to the realization how much I wanted one, and the bam! Santa delivered. I know it looks white in this photo, but the color is actually ice. A 50's teal. (Since we've been home John has been a baking fool making all sorts of breads. I've been documenting so don't worry. Your mouth will be watering soon.)

Here is John and the twins:

We even headed up to Monument to check out the snow. Unfortunately most of it had melted away by the time we got there. Bow was still able to make a GIANT snowball though.
I was also lucky enough that the families let me spend some time with my old high school friends. I had the best time catching up with them. It's amazing that after all these years when we get back together it seems like no time has passed. I am so thankful for my relationships with them as I'm realizing how special they are. We have all known each other for so long it's amazing that we can still remain close without seeing each other often.

I have the feeling that they all felt the same as we've now organized a girl's weekend for March. I can't wait!

Countdown

John and I are heading up north today to spend Christmas with our families. The poor dude got up at 5am to get to work in hoping he'll finish by 3pm. Guess who got up at 9am? Ummmm...that would be me. I feel so bad I got 4 more hours of sleep than him! That is ridiculous!

Our time at home is going to be crazy as we only have 2 days with each family. I always remind myself that at least we get to see both families during Christmas. I know if that wasn't possible one of us would be really bummed out.

I wonder if I should shower today. Decisions, decisions. I've still got to pack and do some cleaning around the casa before we leave. What am I doing dinking around on the computer you might ask? Oh right...icing my ankle. Yes...my Achilles is still bad, and I'm still limping around like a gimp. It is getting better, but it's definitely not 100%. At least I can walk around, I mean limp around, with no pain. I am still icing it twice a day though.

So I'll be gone for about a week. I'm not sure if I will have something blogworthy to write about, or if I will have time. So until then, I hope you all have a very merry Christmas!

Lights

A few weekends ago John and I headed up to Atascadero to walk around the lake and look at the homes that were decorated. We've done this for the past two years, as my friend Steph organizes it. The highlight was definitely the food and company at Steph's house before we headed to the lake. This year seemed some what lack luster than last year. I think there were fewer homes decorated, and way less people. I did get to snack on some free hot chocolate, apple cider, and popcorn though, so it made walking by the dark houses less painful.

Here is a photo of Lucas checking out the lights:
Here is John striking a pose:
Here is Steph and I trying to get warm. (Is it also bad that I wanted to post this photo to show my mom that I wore the hat and scarf she knitted me? Yes I'm wearing two scarfs. For some reason I didn't bring my really warm coat, so John forked over his scarf.)
As I was writing this entry I wanted to link to the entry I wrote last year of this event, and then I realized that I didn't write one! I knew I had gotten some good photos, and I can't believe I didn't post them.

Sooooo just for your viewing pleasure I'm going to post a few from last year. Here is John and I both look a bit crazed. It must have been the cold. It was a lot colder last year.
Here is myself, Ellie, and Steph.
Last but not least here is Lucas. Look how small he was! He was totally stylin' in his Santa outfit though.

Grinch Found in SLO

Before the 49er game today, John and decided to go get some Gus' sandwiches, (our Sunday football tradition). When I opened the garage door I noticed that part of the Christmas lights that were hung above the garage were hanging down. I was kind of shocked since they have been up for over a week. Then I noticed that one light was missing which I thought was even weirder. THEN...I noticed that about the last 10 lights were missing at the end of the strand. (The strand was longer then the roof line, so we placed the end of it in a bush next to our garage.)

So yeah...ummmmmm...who STOLE our light bulbs???

Was it a neighbor that was concerned that the lights might set the bush on fire?
Probably not if they were on fire patrol, because why would they take the lights? You'd think they would have left the lights on the ground.

Was it the neighbor whose bush we were 'borrowing'?
That would really shock me since we use the bush every year. Plus if it was the neighbor don't you think they would have come over and asked us to put the lights somewhere else? Well maybe with a normal neighbor. We have lived here for 3 years and I've never really met the home owner....and her name is Amber.

Was it the neighbor's roommates? Did they come home drunk and then decide to steal them?
This is my desperation theory as it doesn't really make sense.

I'd really like to write up a nasty sign and hang it on the bush where the lights were, but I probably won't.

I was expression our light whoas to our nice neighbors tonight and they told us how last year someone placed their two white mechanical reindeer in the 'mounting' position and they were no longer functional this year. Was it the same pervy person who took our lights? Whose knows, but thank goodness we don't have our lawn gnomes on out in the front yard.

Tofurky?

This Thanksgiving was very mellow. Maybe it was because John's 4 nieces and nephew weren't celebrating it with us...ya think?

It seems like every other year we host it and since we hosted last year, we headed down to Molly's, (my sister-in-law), place in Santa Monica. We watched a little football and hung out until it was time to eat. We were supposed to eat in between 1 and 2 and were waiting for one of Molly's friends to show up. Once it was 2:15 we could not wait any longer. I felt bad that we ate without her, but she did show up an hour late.

The meal was really tasty and it was the first time I had ever been to a Thanksgiving with tofurky. John and I both tried it, and I must say that it didn't taste like much. Maybe a little like chicken? Molly and her friend were the vegetarians, and they both agreed that it tasted more like turkey if you ate it with some cranberry sauce.

This was also the first time I had ever been to a Thanksgiving without a turkey. Normally when John and I host, we make a turkey for our guests...not for us. Our meat of choice is ham. Since Molly knew this she provided us with a nice honey baked ham. (Did you know you are supposed to serve those at room temperature? Isn't that weird? Do you like cold ham? I sure don't.) We were both totally satisfied with the ham, but on the way home John mentioned that he kind of missed the turkey, and I surprisingly agreed. I don't think we missed eating the turkey, but I think we missed the presence of a turkey. Maybe next year I'll get a big plastic one and use it as a center piece.

We left early the next morning and headed to Bakersfield where we drove 20 proprieties for John's job. Some were drive-bys but we also went into some pretty dirty places with cockroaches. It was really nice being home for the weekend and it allowed us to get our house prepped for Christmas.

Here are a few photos from turkey day.

Who is this man in the kitchen? He doesn't look like he has any idea what he is peeling. (Just kidding! That is just Michael faking you out.)

I asked John to put the candied walnuts on the pumpkin trifle I made. Can you tell what animal he created out of them?

Here is John and his tasty looking meal:
Molly, Michael, and the pups:
Clyde was sitting directly behind me on the couch. You can't really get the perspective in this photo, but it was pretty ridiculous. I'm not sure why he looks so guilty.
Of course I couldn't end this entry without a video! here is John and his Thanksgiving Day Dance:

Tis the Season

I must say that I am SO excited Christmas is FINALLY here!! Even though I've been wanting to listen to Christmas music since Halloween it has taken me a few days to get into the spirit. Well now that I've immersed myself in it I'm loving it!

One advantage of being a house wife during this time of year is that I have time to bake! Thanks to some fabulous peppermint cookies I made last year I've been waiting all year to try out some new holiday cookie recipes. I had no idea that when Christmas 2008 would roll around that I would have enough time to bake cookie plates for people! I barely had enough time last year to make one batch of cookies, and now I'm a cookie making machine!

Yesterday I made the following:

My award winning fudge and some marshmallow brownies. Both turned out with no probs, except I did forget to add the vanilla into the fudge, but you can't really taste that it's missing.

After those two batches I had to take a break because my ankle started to hurt. I did make one more kind of cookie later that night though. I'm not sure what to think of this one. They look like lemon bars but aren't. They are more of a soft lemon cake. At the end of the recipe it said to add whatever frosting you like, so I decided to drizzle some powdered sugar frosting over the top of it. It looked ok, but it didn't look like the frosting was going to harden. I need them to be firm because I'm planning on stacking all of the cookies in a small tin. My thought was to cover it with tin foil and put it in the fridge overnight. That should work, shouldn't it?

Well when I took them out this morning they still seemed a bit soggy, and part of the tin foil fell onto the top and a huge chunk of the frosting stuck to it. ARGH!

On to plan B...the freezer. I cut up the bars and put them in the freezer. That should harden the frosting, right? Apparently not. I'm not sure what is up with these things, but I have the feeling that they might look like mush when I put them in the cookie tins.

Here they are in the freezer bag and they are still a little mushy. I may have to sandwich two together to keep them from sticking to everything. Any other ideas?

After dealing with the lemon mess I thought I'd try to turn things around and make my fave peppermint sugar cookies. Everything turned out fine with them, but I can't help think that they don't look the same as last year. It's nothing major. I just think they looked cuter last year. Oh well...at least they taste good.

The other new cookie I decided to make was called Orange Balls. You mix a bunch of stuff together, roll them in balls, and then roll them in powdered sugar. The recipe said to store them in an air tight container so my plan was to use my casserole dish. I knew it couldn't hold all of them, so once the dish was filled I was going to put a piece of wax paper down and start on the second layer. That should work perfectly because the powdered sugar would not stick to the wax paper right?

Well as I was finishing up with the first layer I noticed that the powdered sugar was absorbing into the cookie leaving it sticky. CRAP NUTS! Whatever...I put the wax paper on them and started on the next layer anyway.

When I finished I took a peak at the bottom layer and it looked like the cookies were starting to expand! What the heck was going on with these mutant cookies? I don't want to be handing out orange reindeer poops!

I put the lid on it and put it in the fridge. HOPING that some of the shapes will be salvaged. I'm totally scared to see what has happened to them.

Ok I just went and checked on them and take a look for yourself. As you can see 95% of the powdered sugar has absorbed. Also please note the area where one ball is missing. Do you see how much cookie is left on the paper? It doesn't seem like these balls are sticking together. Any ideas of what I should do? Should I roll them in more powdered sugar? (Yes the missing one is now in my belly, and it tasted pretty good!)
Here is a shot of the balls on the bottom level. See how they are kind of mushing together?
Total orange reindeer poop.

On a lighter note...

Another plus to being home at this time of year is that I get to hang out with all of my Christmas decorations all day long! I was lucky to have time this past weekend to get them all set up, and the house couldn't look more festive. OK, so it could. But only if I had a few more trees around.

Here is my snowman tree along with the decorated mantel:
Here is our real/regular tree in the other room:
Here is our other mantel with the stockings I made last year. I'm glad they made it through one year and no spiders laid any eggs in them. They look quite toasty.

I'm also 99.9% done with my Christmas shopping, and all I have left are the homemade gifts I'm supposed to be working on. I normally like to get all of my shopping done in November since I order the majority of my gifts online. It also gives me a little leeway in case I ordered the wrong item, like I did this year. Oops!

I had a few things I wanted to get at Gottschalk's this past weekend so John and I went and checked out the sales. They were pretty good, but I did notice one thing. When I am shopping in a store, I am much more likely to impulse shop than I am when I'm online. Conclusion...I am saving money by shopping online, even with the extra shipping costs. Granted there is a much smaller shopping high by shopping online, but you get a little bit of it when your gift comes in the mail.

I've been storing all of the gifts in our guest room, (I can't tell you how much I love having that extra room), and now the HUGE job of wrapping is daunting me. I know I should get started on it, but also looming in the background are the homemade gifts I promised I would make for certain people, and sending out our Christmas cards. I really need to get cracking. I'm hoping to get crafty while John and I watch some of our favorite Christmas movies. We've gathered quite the collection over the last few years, and like to watch one or 2 each weekend in December. Hopefully we will be able to do it this year.