Recipe: Yummy. Easy. Sweet.

Today, I made some Monkey Munch or Puppy Chow (whatever you want to call it). It is pretty much nameless. Before you arch your eyebrows up and wonder what I'm talking about, let me tell you what Monkey Munch is. (Someone really needs to give it a new name).

Basically, it is Chex Cereal dipped in chocolate and peanut butter. Then, it is completely covered in powdered sugar.  Doesn't just sound divine. Sugar.  The Chex Company, after years of making it at home, actually created the product and named it Muddies Buddies (that doesn't sound good either).

I can literally make this in ten minutes and have twice as much and half the price. Look at me; I'm being frugal today. Today, I halved the recipe though. I didn't want to make too much. Plus, we didn't have enough powder sugar to coat it all. I was so sad. I'm putting it on the grocery list for next time. My mom is doing this new thing where we grocery shop every two weeks. It supposed to save money and it does save money (guess you know where my new-found frugal-ness comes from).

Recipe Time:

Yeah, my Monkey Munch doesn't look this pretty
since we didn't have enough powder sugar.
But it is still tasty!

Ingredients:
9 cups Chex cereal (any kind)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter, melted
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 -2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Instructions:
1.Measure cereal in large bowl.
2. Set aside.
3. Microwave chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter for 1 minute on high.
4. Stir.
5. Cook for 30 seconds longer or until smooth.
6. Add vanilla.
7. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until coated.
8. Pour mixture into large Ziploc bag and add powdered sugar.
9. Shake until well coated.
10.Spread on waxed paper to cool.
11.Store in Ziploc bags or large sealed bowl.

Recipe Note: It helps to add cereal mixture a little at a time if you only have small bags.

I'm thinking about making a big tub of it when the holidays comes closer and sharing it with my friends. They'll love it. Anybody else have some easy to make sweeties. I love suggestions.  

Communication skills

On Friday, I was staying after school for tutoring. well, I wouldn't call it tutoring. I would call it extra help for this big test coming up about our "Summer reading" book, The Stealth of Nations. You could learn more about my frustrations with this book here and here. I use the term "summer reading" loosely because my teacher's communication skills aren't the best and failed to contact people about the book. In return, he said he would push the test back. This is good thing because I get extra days to study and prep fro the test. He even decided to have studying and tutoring sessions. I didn't  go to the first two thinking that I get the  gist of those chapters. I finally decided to buckle myself down and go to the chapter 9&10 session. I knew for sure that my teacher was going to drop hints and basically give us the answers on the test so I was ready to take notes and everything.

My friend and I  decided to go with me to the tutoring so we both went to the class after the last bell rang. We stalled a little bit but decided to go. We sat down and three other people were in there. We put down our stuff. I pulled out my book all ready to learn. The teacher started talking and said he was tired and didn't want to do the tutoring today. He gave us a fake yawn and everything. We laughed and sat down. He went back to clicking away on his computer.

A few minutes later the three of them left. The teacher was still clicking around on his computer. I pointed to my watch and then to the teacher. My friend shrugged. I asked my teacher if he was serious earlier about no tutoring today. He said yeah, I was serious. Bye.

I stood there shocked out of mind. What does he mean, tutoring is cancelled? I thought he was being sarcastic earlier. He's always sarcastic!You can tell how sarcastic he is because I italicized, underlined, and made "always" bold.


I told him I had my thinking cap on and was ready to learn. All he said in return without looking up from his computer was sorry. He let us sit there for twenty minutes.

The crazy man. He gets on my absolute nerves.

Both our rides weren't going to be there until an hour later so we went to my sister's practice which was boring as usual. I rather not go into detail about that. It's not important to the story.

When practice ended, my friend's ride was there. Our dad still was no where to be found. I called him and he said he was still at work and he would be there in 25 minutes. I didn't really care to hear that. He was supposed to be here already. I reminded him. My sister reminded him. My mom reminded him. By the way, he got there in 28 minutes.

All I did while I waited was roll my eyes and become angrier by the second. I was so mad. Nothing was going as planned.

I guess you could tell everyone's communication skills were just not working that day.

Sitting on the sidelines

Hey everyone. I'm out here sitting on the sidelines of the soccer feild again. Yup it's funny how my life seems to he this planned out schedule type of deal.

His time of year is soccer and volleyball season which kind of sucks for me since I get dragged along to each practice (more or less).

I try not be one of those constant complainers but this is just one of those things that really bother me. I just hate it how they don't want to participate or go to practices but want to play the sport. It's either all or nothing. I don't like it when people do partial crap. 

This especially gets on my nerves how my sister dislikes her coach and gets mad every practice but continues to go to every practice. Why do something that claims to make you miserable? 

I understand that everyone wants their off days but you can't just dismiss everything you have to do to until the game and except to win if you are a competitive person like my sister. 

Ever. 

My brother on the other hand doesn't really care about winning or losing that much when he plays sports but don't ever mess with him when he lost one of his lives in a video game. Ever.

That's my little rambling for the day. Bye. See you later. 

summarizing

For one of my school assignments I have to created a summary based on this lecture called the Danger of a Single Story By: Chimamanda Ngozi:


My teacher broke it down a lot. I think he really wants us to grasp every aspect of this lecture and to show us how to take good notes and how to write and effective summary of the whole thing. My teacher, trying to brag and say the assignment wasn't impossible, wrote a three thousand word essay about the twenty minute lecture. I think he was really getting being a show off and those words were from something else. I'm 30% sure.My teacher is crazy I can just imagine him sitting there glued to a screen typing away for no reason. He had no purpose to do that. Then, he made an "edited" version that was 90 words long. I took my main points and notes as guideline along with his 90 word count in mind and got to work. I think I did a pretty fantastic job, I may add.

I was so happy when i finished all my homework that night

It might seem strange but summarizing is really hard for me. I want to explain everything to the person I'm talking to and I only have a limited amount of time to say it so they have a basic understanding of the topic. I have to keep reminding myself that the most interesting thing to me isn't that important from a big-picture point of view.

Here's my summary:

As humans we are not single stories; everyone is an individual and cannot be prejudged by someone else’s side of their story. That person doesn't have that individual’s side of their own narrative. We try to predict, assume, and consume the first information we receive, but we have to understand that we are not always completely right. We have the ability to listen and become aware that it is more than one story. 

What do you think? Doe it make sense if you haven't listened the lecture before hand?

It is totally short (73 words) and every time I look at it I want to add a few more hundred words to it.

I'm going to just leave it alone. Every time I second guess myself in the past, I make it worse and I turn in a big sloppy mess.

My optimistic Day

Before I went to sleep Last night, I told myself that I was going to have a great day tomorrow. Sometimes you just need that extra boost from your self conscious. I work up dreading going to school but cheered myself up with eating a good breakfast and wearing my favorite pair of jeans which is purple (the color of royalty).

Fake it until you make it.

I went to school and had a pretty crappy first period but I had my friends there with me. My second period we had an assembly and somehow I ended up sitting alone. I don't know how that happened. My third class was ok. My lunch was as normal as ever. My fourth class was really good. My sixth class was gym and it was full of giggles ( I'm shocked too). My seventh class was good and I absolutely adore my Spanish teacher. (And no, I didn't skip fifth period. We don't have fifth period on Fridays. The schedule is so strange, I know.)


It seemed like  every class I went to I had a greater determination to have a good day. And it helped me get through the day and actually have some fun.



I had a good day. Not the greatest but it was a nice end to my hectic school week.

And if all else fails...