With this recipe, I will rule the world

Last week I saw a fabulous recipe for Chocolate Cookie Dough Cupcakes on Kevin and Amanda's blog and knew the perfect occasion to make it: a birthday celebrate at work.

And I've got to tell you- they are amazing! I am eating one as we speak.

Here's what the finished product looks like:


I do have to disclose that I am all about the semi-homemade, so I used a tub of premade Pillsbury cookie dough, a boxed cake mix, and canned frosting. Nothing to be ashamed of!

1. I took a vanilla cake mix and mixed it as directed. I filled my muffin tins about 2/3 full, as Amanda suggested.

2. Next, I plopped a frozen ball of cookie dough in the middle of each cup. (Earlier that morning, I had used a Pampered Chef scoop and made some cookie dough balls, which I placed in the freezer for about 10 hours.)

This is what it looked like before I put them in the oven. The cookie dough sinks to the bottom as the cake bakes.

3. Bake at 350 degrees for about 16-18 minutes.

4. Once they were cooled, I frosted with Betty Crocker Whipped Butter Cream frosting (amazing BTW!) and sprinkled mini chocolate chips on top.

I am ever-so-grateful to Amanda for sharing this fabulous recipe idea with her readers. This is definitely going to be a signature dessert and my next dessert contest entry.

The One Where I Embarrass My Husband

Images from NICOclub

Recently our family was down visiting my parents, who live in the town where I met my husband during college. He played football there and during his playing career the team won the National Championship- it was so exciting!

It was Sunday afternoon and we were about to get on the road to head home, but first he wanted to take The Politician down on field and show him where he played. As we walked out on the field, I glanced up in the visitor stands and saw a beautiful sight- tons of discarded bottles of Coke!

See, I'm a tad bit crazy with my couponing and point-earning and Coke caps are some of my favorites! I've already cashed in Coke reward points for DVDs for the kids, and recently got myself Season 4 of How I Met Your Mother. So when I saw all those bottles, I knew what I had to do...... I just couldn't resist!

My kids love a project and they were excited to help me gather up the bottles and carry them to the trash, first taking off the caps to keep. I thought my husband was going to kill me though! There's a track around the field that is often used by local residents for exercise, and the thought of someone seeing us gather up the caps was totally embarrassing my husband! It's so funny that I get embarrassed so easily normally, but I'm shameless about couponing and point programs!

So consider this the post where I ask you to send me your Coke codes if you aren't using them!

Holy Cuteness!

photo from Baby Meshach's etsy shop

A darling IRL friend of mine, Michelle, has just opened up an etsy shop for her precious handmade items.

Michelle recently did two custom orders for me for baby shower gifts and I couldn't have been more pleased! I have already heard from both moms-to-be that they loved their items! (One even said they may be too cute to use!)

Each gorgeous item (including clothes!) is adorned with beautiful bibles verses. You simply must visit her shop, which she describes as follows:

welcome to the baby meshach shop! i enjoy designing and creating baby blankets, bibs, burp cloths, and funky unique Christian clothing!

Happy Shopping!

Newest Foundation Find

Too Faced Amazing Face SPF Foundation Powder ($32 at Sephora)

For the past week or so, I've been trying out Too Faced's new powder foundation, which I purchased from Sephora, and I LOVE it!

Description from Sephora.com:

Go from sheer and natural to full and flawless with this flexible-coverage foundation. The weightless pigments float over imperfections to minimize the appearance of pores and fine lines, while instantly improving tone and texture. The formula contains the innovative Regu-Seb, which helps to control and reduce oil production and leaves skin looking fresh. It also features Bamboo Silk, a nutrient-rich ingredient that revives and renews the skintone to promote a balanced texture and impart a comfortable-feeling finish.

Rather than use the sponge it came with for application, I've been using a flat top brush and love the coverage it gives me- heavy enough to even out my skintone, but still light enough to look natural.

What foundation are you loving right now?

By the way, if you ever do order from Sephora, don't forget to go thru ebates for 4% back. And if you are new to ebates and register using my link, we each get $5 cash.

Photography Class

one of P's teammates at their soccer game last Saturday, photo by me!

I am loving my photography class! So nice to do something fun, for "me". Mr. Sasha encouraged me to sign up for the next class so I'll be doing another month.

We are headed south for the big game. Do you have big weekend plans? Hope you have a good one!

Dear Mike's Hard Lemonade,

Today I ran after a beer distributor guy at Target and asked him a very important question:

Where the hell are the Mike's Light Hard Cranberry Lemonade? The ones that only have 98 calories??? All I see on the Target shelves these days are the 220-250 calorie offenders.... and you and I both know we've already talked about those.

Mr. Beer Distributor Guy looked at me sadly and said,

"They've been discontinued."

I feel melancholy and infinite sadness.

Hard Core WW-ing It

I am hard core WW-ing it this week. If you are counting those pesky points too, you need to run to the store and pick up a few of the new Extra Dessert Delights flavors.

Yesterday I tried Mint Chocolate Chip and Key Lime Pie, and I swear it's just like you are nomming on a dessert right then and there. Bob and Jillian are always suggesting I pop a piece of gum when I have a sweet craving, but until now I wasn't sure that would work for me. After trying these, I think it just might!

C. Beth Crochet!

My friend Beth has gone all pro-fessional and opened herself up an Etsy shop called C. Beth Crochet for her adorable handmade hats. She recently made the hat pictured above for WC and we love it.

Give her a visit- her things are just gorgeous!

Weekend Update

The Politician played some soccer,

The Wild Child got her face painted at a Fall Festival,

and I did something quite a bit out of my comfort zone: led our Sunday school class.

We are currently using Michelle Nichol's book Sink or Walk on Water and it has been speaking to me, quite deeply.

If you've been a Sasha Says reader for any length of time, you have most likely read about my anxiety (it's a reoccurring theme around here). I've been struggling a bit more than usual lately, feeling guilty about my worrying and my internal struggles, which has done nothing but add another layer of anxiety to my load. I want to be different, I truly do, but I can't seem to find that switch, the one I can flip to shift the direction of thoughts in my brain.

But oh, Michelle spoke to me yesterday when I was leading from Day 1 of Week 4. On page 77, Michelle wrote,

"I do not know about you, but I've seldom been cheerful or glad during my trials. These verses do not tell us to be cheerful about our trials; they say be cheerful during our trials."

I realized yesterday that I need to separate out the feelings: I am allowed to spend some time thinking about the things that cause me anxiety, but I need to spend more time being grateful and having a heart that rejoices.

My verse for the week: 1 Peter 5:7: "Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you."

Pre-Dinner Snack: Done!

The Wild Child and I just had a nice little pre-dinner snack at Sam's Club... complete with apple cider, pizza, string cheese, and a brownie. I love going there after I pick her up on Fridays because they start serving the goodies at 5.

You know you've done it too! (Surely I'm not the only one!) I spent $113 so it's totally OK to indulge, right?

Avon's Breast Cancer Awareness Tote

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Avon is offering this adorable tote for only $5. You can see above how small it folds up- I'm purchasing one to keep in my purse since I'm always forgetting my reusable shopping bags when I am just picking up a few items.

The best part- 100% of the net profits ($3.74) will be donated to the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade.

I order Avon from my friend Valeri (email her at bucfanri {at} gmail {dot} com and she may have a free shipping code for you!)

And don't forget to go through Ebates for a percentage back- plus, if you have never used ebates before, you get $5, and I get $5.

Sickie

I felt my ears itching yesterday, way down deep, which is a sure sign that a cold is coming on. Sure enough, I felt crappy last night, complete with stopped up nose, coughing, and that yucky feeling in my chest. Have you seen that Curious George episode called "The Inside Story"? Well, Toots the jazz-singing germ is inside me today. So I took a sickie and stayed in bed.

The upside is I am completely caught up on Glee (finally!), Project Runway, and Quintuplet Surprise. Also, the blanket I have been crocheting for WC for absolutely forever is almost done and I am working on the edging today and actually hope to finish.

Oh, you didn't know I knew how to crochet? You and Mr. Sasha!

My grandmother taught me to crochet at a very young age, and through the years I've picked it up from time to time, but evidently Mr. Sasha had no clue about that. One night, after we'd been married about 3 years (together for probably 1o), he came home from work and found me working on a rather large blanket. He looked at me like he had no idea who I was!

"Did you do that today? As in, just learn how and do all that?"

Nope, I said. Been working on it for years, but I guess not in front of you!

Too funny! (I don't know how to read a pattern, BTW, just kind of do whatever looks good to me....)

If you are a fan of late 60s rock like me

then you'll love Matt Costa's new song Witchcraft off his newest CD, released just today.

Amazing!

Notes From School- It's Back!

It's been too long since I've had those great, hilarious Notes From School that P used to get in Pre-K. But now WC is in Pre-K with those same fabulous teachers, and we're getting some great notes!

WC got buried (not completely) in Mt. Woodchip. She had to make a complete change of clothes including undies and socks.

What's Your Super Power?

I read the other day that everyone has a superpower. We're all superheros!

I am Spreadsheet Woman. I lurve spreadsheets and create them for anything and everything. I learned on Lotus oh-so-many years ago, and still write all my formulas in the Lotus @ form. I get super-excited when there's an opportunity to create nested @if functions. It's a big high for me.

So that's my super power- I am able to create spreadsheets for anything you need in a single bound, faster than a speeding bullet.

What about you?

As the World Turns Finale

I just set my tivo to record the last few episodes of As the World Turns. Before I had kids, (boy- that's getting to be the theme around here!) I never missed an episode. When I bought my first home in 1997, it took a while to get cable run to my house, and I made my dad drive up and hook up electric rabbit ears so I could get crystal clear reception of CBS and had my VCR programmed to record it every day so I could watch it in the evening.

I am a big Liz Hubbard fan and was part of an online fan club that sent her flowers in the late 90s when she returned to the show- how dorky is that? My subscription to CBS Soaps in Depth was my most prized possession, and it was one of the things that my mom and I had in common and could discuss at length over the phone.

I was a CarJacker (of course!) and was so happy to see that they'll be tying the knot before the show ends on the 17th. I hate to see the show end, but TV is ever-changing and Snookie and The Situation apparently are more interesting to today's generation.

So here's to a fabulous run and thanks for the many years of entertainment, ATWT!

My Favorite Book

Oh, how I love to read! I used to stay up late, devouring books until I couldn't keep my eyes open. During my years of insomnia, there were always several books on my nightstand waiting to be picked up at 3 am, and my trips to the bookstore couldn't even keep up the pace.

Then I had kids.

Alas, in 2003 my free time allocated for pleasure reading disappeared. If I did find time to read, it's usually a parenting topic.....

But if I am answering trivia questions about myself, I list Sophie Kinsella as my favorite author. Most people know her for the Shopaholic series, which is fabulous and I love dearly, although please know the movie was not at all representative of the book. (I am so excited that Mini Shopaholic is coming out on the 21st BTW.)

But the best Kinsella books are actually the non-Becky ones... Yes, Becky can be a tad self-absorbed and unaware, but Kinsella's other heroines are real life, this-could-really-happen gals. My two favorites are Can You Keep a Secret? and The Undomestic Goddess. If you haven't read them, you simply must.

If you are local and wish to borrow, just let me know! I'd also love to know what your favorite books are- comment below please.

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon referral links.

Photography class

I enrolled in a local photography class and am having so much fun learning how to really use my camera. These were some of the first photos I shot in manual, and I am so excited to learn more! I know I have a long way to go, and that these aren't good at all, but it was fun to try. Feeling official is always my goal.

Do you have any online sites to recommend for me to pick up more info?

Missouri

I just posted on facebook that my hair looks better in Missouri than where I live. Strange.

As of tomorrow, I'll have been here for a week, although there was a mid-week stop back at home, just to hop on a flight to come back to Missouri for a biz trip.

I am ready to be home and do some tailgating this weekend!

Forty Before Forty

Ack! I'm turning 37 in December, and I have so many things in life I'd like to do. So, with the help of some online friends, I've created a list of 40 Things To Do Before I Turn 40. I'll be updating this list periodically, hopefully crossing things off one by one. Care to join in? Feel free to snag the button above.

1. Have a picnic at the lake with the husband & kids.
2. Take a road trip with no specific plans (heads Carolina, tails California etc).
3. Read a book, just for pleasure (no parenting topics allowed!).
4. Go to the zoo.
5. Get a massage.
6. Have girl’s night.
7. Have a TV series marathon weekend.
8. Make brunch for friends.
9. Invest in a vacation home.
10. Have date night with the husband.
11. Have board game night.
12. Get together with local bloggers.
13. Get a mani/pedi with a girlfriend.
14. Lose 25 pounds.
15. Go to the State Fair.
16. Host a dinner party for friends, no kids allowed.
17. Redecorate.
18. Sleep in.
19. Play rock band.
20. Get a makeover.
21. Frame photos for around the house.
22. Have a family portrait taken.
23. Cook the husband a delicious dinner.
24. Go to the movies- and see a new release.
25. Donate my time to a good cause.
26. Go see live local music.
27. Go for a stroll with my family.
28. Have a glass of wine on the patio.
29. Go out to eat and only have dessert.
30. Buy produce at the farmers market.
31. Go out and get my hands dirty and plant something.
32. Take a class of some kind.
33. Travel to a different country.
34. Run a half marathon.
35. Go through all of my clothes and get rid of any I haven't worn in the last year or two.
36. Try a new food.
37. Get a pet.
38. Go to a drive-in movie theater.
39. Learn a new craft.
40. Have boudoir pictures made.