FOMO

My friend used this word the first time when talking about Halloween. They didn't go out and she said that she had a bit of FOMO. Now I'm having FOMO. The Fear Of Missing Out.

Yesterday, I had such a wonderful day of going for a short swim, playing a couple of hours of angry birds (Ah- heeya!!) and then lunch and then couple of hours of solitaire. There is a little sarcasm in my voice that you won't be able to hear through the computer. At any rate, I'm doing nothing and I'm feeling like everyone else is out doing something 'cause I got FOMO.

 This is what I'm missing out on right now.  It's ok right?

Our new favorite website is Colorado Powder Forecast which right now says that it is dumping snow all across Colorado and especially in Silverton (22 inches last night and more to come!) and I'm going to the knitting store today to buy some needles.  yay.

Worry

My mom says that she wasn't all that worried about things when she was pregnant many many years ago. She drank beer, went skiing all winter long and didn't worry about what she ate or which side she slept on. I don't meant be a worrier but I'm all out scared poop less about baby A and baby B.

Anyway, I downloaded three little birds to listen to as my daily mantra. So far it seems to working fairly well.

I can't ski.

Which makes life very difficult for a skier but my doctor said it was a "no-no". But I can go snowshoeing and on beautiful blue sky days such as the one just after Christmas we decided to do just that.






And we saw some beautiful surface hoar out on the lake.

Check out this close up:



Beautiful! A work of art caught on an phone!

Chocolate Truffles and a Camera Connection!

I bought myself an early Christmas present so that I can upload photos right onto my iPad. Yay!

So to get more in the Christmas spirit, I decided to make some chocolate truffles.

My uncle gets me 6 pounds of Sharffenberger chocolate every Christmas and it is by and far one of the best chocolates that money can buy.  It makes the tastiest truffles.







These are pistachio marzipan truffles which are supposed to replicate Mozartkugeln which is a Christmas treat from Austria that I grew up with in my family.

My recipe comes from Chocolate by Nick Malgieri:

Center mixture
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted
1 tsp almond extract
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp light corn syrup

Pistachio marzipan
8 ounces warm blanced pistachios
4 ounces almond paste
1 cup confectioners sugar
2 to 3 tbsp light corn syrup

Coating
16 ounces semisweet chocolate
16 ounces blanched pistachios, chopped

1) To make the centers, bring the cream to a boil and remove from heat. Whisk in chocolate until smooth, then add extract, butter, and corn syrup. Cool mixture to 80 degrees.

2). To make the pistachio marzipan, place the blanched pistachios, still warm,in a food processor. Process until they form a paste. Pulse in almond paste then confectioners sugar. Add corn syrup as necessary. Remove from processor and knead smooth. Divide the marzipan into three pieces and roll each into a cylinder 12 inches long. Flatten ropes and roll them 2 inches wide.

3). Once cool, beat center mixture on medium speed to lighten and then spoon into a pastry bag. Pipe down the center of each strip of marzipan. Bring the long sides of each piece of marzipan together along the then top of the center mixture. Don't worry if the marzipan doesn't cover perfectly or completely. Chill. Then cut the roll pieces into half inch lengths.

4). To coat the truffles, melt the chocolate and either temper it or let it cool to 90 degrees. Coat truffles with chocolate and then roll them in the chopped pistachios. Place on paper-lined pan to set coating.


Yum!

People who enjoy pregnancy

At this point, it seems to be everyone but me. My mother talks about how she loved being pregnant and how she would do it again if she could. My coworker said that she once wanted to be a surrogate mom so that she could just be pregnant all the time.

When I read other mom's blogs, I can just hear the *glee* oozing from their words, but I don't love being pregnant. I don't like feeling horrible and tired all the time. I don't like feeling crabby and worried about the little ones. I'm used to a two hour nap making me feel better (like for a cold or a hangover) but after a two hour nap now, I just wake up and feel like puking again.

But the worst of it all is that I'm convinced that the pregnancy isn't the worst of it. It will only get worse when the little ones are here and then I'll really be tired, crabby and hating life.

I'm already a bad mother. Maybe I should rename my blog to bad mommy...

How are we gonna do this?

Our house is lovely and there are so many benefits to having a small house.

Pros:

• Easy to clean (I can scour the house in a couple of hours and make it look nice in under an hour)
• Cheap bills (our utility bill was around 20 bucks before we got solar)
• Cozy
• We don't collect a lot of stuff we don't need

Cons:

• Where are we going to put two babies?

This is our extra room/ office which is great because we have an extra room but it is not large and we'll have to find space for the stuff that is in there now.  This picture, by the way, was taken when it was clean and now there is a lot of other stuff in there as well.

So I'm about 11 weeks pregnant and I'm waiting until my first trimester is over to tell everyone but I can hardly wait.  This is the absolute worst part of pregnancy.  Having no idea what is going on with your body and "is that supposed to feel that way" and "oh my god, I feel so horrible" but I can't talk to it about anyone.  

Soon!  Soon!