The Cinnabon SECRET Recipe!

Ok, this is a copycat recipe for those AMAZING Cinnabon Cinnamon rolls! I wanted to make something special for my "boys" today and this was it! I've made them before, but it's been a few years. Actually several years. But they are AMAZING!

Roll Ingredients
1/2 cup warm water
2 pkgs dry yeast
2 Tbsp sugar
3 1/2 oz pkg Instant Vanilla Pudding Mix
1/2 c butter (melted)
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
6 cups flour
1 cup softened butter
2 cups brown sugar
4 t cinnamon (of course the best is the actual cinnamon sold at Cinnabon stores!)

Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup margarine
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups Confectioner's sugar
1 T milk

1. In a bowl combine water, yeast and sugar. Stir until dissolved. Set aside.
2. In large bowl, prepare pudding mix according to package directions.
3. Add margarine, eggs and salt. Mix well.
4. Add yeast mixture. Blend.
5. Gradually add flour; knead until smooth. Place in a greased bowl. Cover and let rise until doubled.
6. Punch down dough and let rise again.
7. Then roll out on floured board to 34 x 21" size.
8. Spread softened butter over surface.
9. In bowl, mix brown sugar and cinnamon.
10. Sprinkle over top. Roll up very tightly.
11. With knife every 2 inches.
12. Place on lightly greased cookie sheet 2" apart.
13. Take hand and lightly press down on each roll.
14. Cover and let rise until double again.
15. Bake at 350 15−20 minutes. Remove when they start to turn golden. DON'T OVER BAKE.
16. Frost warm rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting (mix all ingredients until smooth)

SeaWorld has an AWESOME new ride!

When I was growing up in Ohio, one of my favorite trips, ok probably my MOST favorite trip with my family was to SeaWorld in NE Ohio. We went several times during my childhood with the last time being when I was around 12. I remember fishing there, feeding ducks, walking right up to Shamu, watching a dive performance that was a blast, and the night time show. Oh man. The lighting and the music were just right and the people really cared for the animals. It was so beautiful seeing the human-animal interaction to the song "More than words" by Extreme. The night concluded with a trip to the lake for a laser show. It was so cool. This was during the first Gulf War and patriotism was real high. At the conclusion, the laser showed the words that SeaWorld salutes all of the men and women in our United States Armed Forces. Even at 12 I just wanted to cry with pride when the entire crowd erupted in applause.

So my impression of SeaWorld has always been top-of-the-line and I would LOVE to take my kids there. Being in the Atlanta area, we're not too far from SeaWorld Orlando. Which is also great because they just opened up an incredible ride called "Manta". It's designed around the Manta Ray, a remarkable aquatic animal.

You can learn more by visiting the website and doing a couple activities. You can follow them on Twitter for answers on a 5 question quiz. They will email something to you so that you get a complementary photograph of you on the ride. They also give you a front of the line pass if you complete all 6 activities on the site! How cool is that? No lines? AHHHHH!

Click on
Manta to visit the site!

Watch this video to experience the ride! My son and I watched it and we were both saying "I HAVE to ride that!" Oh man. It's unreal!



So check it out! If you've been or plan on going, please comment this post! I'd LOVE to hear about your experience. Wooohooo!!

For Those Who Are Expecting! :-)

First of all congratulations! Second, I wanted to post a link to a site that has OUTSTANDING information for the mommy to be. Videos, information, calculators (due date, etc). Check it out!

Pregnancy Week by Week

What to do with $10,000???

Wow, if someone came up to me and offered me $10,000 what would I do? Well, I could certainly afford to focus more on my education! And with the job market, even for a new grad nurse, being so ugly, I could afford not to work for a couple of more months. And let's admit, a nice dinner and a mini-spending spree wouldn't hurt either! :-) Oh! Or I could take the fam on vacation to Myrtle Beach or Virginia Beach! Yes!!

Whew, ok, back to reality. Today I saw where Charter Cable is giving away one prize of $10,000 and 4 52" HDTVs! Heck, I could take those as well LOL It would definitely make my husband really happy!

All you have to do is go to charter.net/10grand each week in May (HURRY!) and answer questions about Charter On Demand. We used to have Charter and I miss it BIG time! The On Demand feature was unreal. It was like having tons of stuff saved to the DVR that you could watch whenever you wanted. Everything from movies to documentaries to educational videos. It was great. Actually, according to Charter, they have over 6000 things on the On Demand.

Win 10 Grand Contest Page
Charter’s Twitter Feed

So seriously, it's worth taking a few minutes to give it a shot. Charter has been creating so much hype lately with TONS of giveaways. At least join in on the fun!!!!



DON'T FORGET TO COME BACK AND POST IF YOU WIN!!!! :-) :-) :-)

I wish I knew about this when I was in Nursing School!

Ok, we've all heard of Netflix right? Have movie rentals delivered to your home, you watch it as long as you'd like, when you're done you send it back in the prepaid envelope and they automatically ship out the next movie on the list.

Well I remember awhile back seeing something on the 11 Alive News morning show here in Atlanta. These people started a program where it works just like Netflix, but with books! No more going to the book store to buy the latest book out there that everyone is talking about, reading it, and then it sitting on the bookshelf. Or lending it to someone and never seeing it again. Too much mess.

So how cool would it be to have something similar to Netflix but with books. EVEN COLLEGE TEXT BOOKS! And we all know how much those can be (especially nursing books).

Please take a look at this site and see if it's just the thing you need! I know I am!

Such a relaxing day :-)

Today I enjoyed just sitting on my patio (with my new flowers & plants!!!) doing my cross stitch project. Talk about relaxing! I got pretty far on it too. It's starting to look like a picture now.

My neighbors interrupted my peace by having a "let's blare our stereos louder than the other person" contest. One played Caribbean music and the other tried to out do her by playing country music. Ok, I can handle just about anything, but I can't handle country music LOL But Country neighbor got mad and called the sheriff on the Carribean neighbor. Things got quiet for awhile and then Carribean neighbor started up again. That really made Country neighbor mad. Although I was sitting outside for the peace and relaxation, I found the whole ordeal somewhat entertaining. I had a good laugh. At other peoples expense though LOL

Wow, this is Cody's last week of 7th grade. He's still my baby though! HAHA I just can't believe how privelaged I was to be the one and only consistent person in his life from birth (and before then) until now and forever. I know he's excited to be done with school. As a reward I'm allowing him to have his best friend in the world over for a week (or as long as his parents allow). Talk about testosterone. 4 dudes, 1 girl. Oh wait. I have the cat. She's female :-)

This was a beautiful Sunday :-)

I'm so proud of Colin. He actually slept in his bed all night last night! Oh, maybe I should explain LOL With both of my boys I ended up letting them sleep with me when they were babies. Unfortunately, I have a hard time breaking them of it. They always have a bed of their own, they just feel safer sleeping with me I guess. Besides, with my husband working until the middle of the night, it makes me feel better having my youngest sleeping within reach of me at night. But believe me, sometimes I just wish I could have an entire bed to myself to stretch out on!

So last night he spent the entire night in his bed. Even tonight he's willing to sleep in his own bed. I hope this is the start of Colin really being a big boy!

But I got up this morning and went to Kmart around the corner. I bought some more potting soil, another flower pot, and these spikes that you put in the soil to determine whether the plant needs watered or not. Like I've said before, I have the hardest time growing plants. So I need all the help I can get.

Then I drove my car to the car wash to vacuum it out and throw some junk out. I also Armor-All'd the plastic inside of the car. Yes, I even paid for that fragrance oil that you spray under the seats LOL

I was going to go home to where I live (we have a free car wash there) and wash the outside of the car, but storm clouds were blowing in and it was thundering. So instead I sat on my patio and filled up this huge flower pot with soil and added some of the plants I purchased yesterday from Home Depot. IMO it's a beautiful arrangement, but that's just my opinion LOL

While I was gone cleaning out my car, Marty, Cody, and Colin cleaned these old patio chairs and table and spray painted them. I was ready to toss them but they got them looking REAL nice! They are like a hammered copper color. Looks beautiful on the patio now. Especially with the flowers and the bird feeders I have up. I don't care for wind chimes, but if I can find an inexpensive bamboo one I would put it up. Now all I need to do is put two more of my plants in new pots and buy a plant stand and my patio is good to go!

Tonight, Marty and I sat on the patio and lit a 3-wick Citronella candle and talked. It was a nice, cool night and we just loved it. We had some great conversations. Man, I love him so much!

Well, tomorrow I have to jump back on my cross stitch project I started. Maybe I can sit on the patio to do it if it's nice outside!