"We built this city on rock and roll!"

I must say, the last 24 hours have been extraordinarily good to me. I've been rocking out to Rock of Ages since I did my hair last night, hence the post title.

I relaxed my hair last night... Got it all nice for the hubs's graduation tomorrow! Now I can comb my hair without wanting to cry!! And I managed to come away with only one burn that doesn't really bother me, which is always nice when compared to the alternative. And it's easy to not realize just how long my hair has gotten, especially since last September it was chin-length(ish) in the front and a bit shorter in the back.
(See the picture included. My hair does not normally look that nice... This is easily the best relaxer I've ever given myself.)

Today was just all sorts of full of positive surprises.
At my internship I lead one of the (mental health) Relapse Prevention groups and... It went over SO much smoother than I'd thought it would. It's to the point where we're going over a lot of the same things each time, but it really depends on how you manage to spice it up. We spent a lot of time talking about triggers and how things can snowball from little problems to huge problems. Complete with a bad dry erase board drawing illustrating things snowballing, and verbal descriptions of what was going on throughout the day to encourage said snowball effect.
We were having grilled cheese for lunch (or rather, grilled ham and cheese), and I used that as one of the examples. Everyone in my group likes grilled cheese (as far as I'm aware. But who doesn't? Haha) and so one of the examples was "You get to lunch... And they've just run out! So now you're in an even worse mood."

And then, yes, lunch was grilled ham and cheese. It was wonderful. They also had vegetable beef soup, and one of the staff members has a box of the mini Premium-brand saltine crackers, and she shared :)

The exciting part to lunch (other than the sandwich, of course!) is that I'm learning names. There are about 300 consumers at our location, and I'm on a team to work with about a third of them... But it's important to know every consumer. And I was pretty on the ball with names. There are still some that I don't know, but it was really good. Better than a month ago, that's for sure.

In my recreational therapy group... I actually had people! It was right after lunch, so usually a lot of the people have headed home or are getting started with clean-up or something. One time I had only ONE person show up for the first 5-10 minutes.
That one's a hard one to navigate because I have TONS of activities to do, but I have to pay super close attention to how many people are in the group to determine what we can do. But today I had about ten people! The activity we did was just a fun 12-item survey about Christmas, which encouraged reminiscing. After we filled out our answers we talked and laughed, learning who's been hit in the face with a snowball, if anyone's ever seen a partridge in a pear tree, and who was ever afraid they would die when sledding. It was a great conversation piece.

Afterward I made my outreach calls and did my documentation, and now I have over 1/4 of the hours I need for my internship... By graduation time in MAY! I'm feeling good about this, and I didn't hear people griping at each other about who said what (ok, I did hear it, but I'm in such a good mood it's easy to forget, and there wasn't much of it anyway).

Then I learned how to lock up, even though the intern has no building keys (lol?), and bought me and my husband some of McDonald's Peppermint Hot Chocolate on my way home... Now if only he'd get here to drink his, because mine's almost gone and I'm not going to take his! I just love this stuff.
(And... A picture! Lol)

And to top it off, my husband's bringing me dinner. Nice, huh?

Oh, and my fudge and peanut brittle from two days ago that I fixed last night? Turned out wonderfully. Set just the way I wanted them to. I probably heated the peanut brittle a little too much, as there's somewhat of a smoky hint to it now... And maybe I should've lined the fudge pans with foul... But they're pretty good, so I'm not complaining!
(And... Yet another picture!)

Well, that's all, folks! Just another day in the life :)

I feel like a kid on Christmas!

That fudge I made last night? (That is, the night of the 12th)

Yeah, one batch didn't set well at all and the other was only PARTLY the way I wanted it to be, but not hard enough at all.

So fabulousness of all fabulousness, I just decided to stick both pans in the oven!
No, I haven't burned them. Yet ;) They seem to be coming along fairly well, as far as I've checked, so I've got pretty high hopes that they'll set just the way I want them to after this round :)

...
I also had to do the same thing with my surviving peanut brittle. It turned out perfectly except for one eensie weensie little detail: as soon as I got it out of the cold and into a comfortable room temperature, the stuff took that as a cue to melt all on itself. And I'd already had it broken apart.
So what did I do? Shove the (microwave-safe) bowl the pieces were in into the microwave. So far, so good. I've already laid it out onto a baking sheet and stuck it in the fridge. We'll see how it goes when the next hour or so has passed.

Alright, time to check on the fudge.

Note: Fudge and peanut brittle are two things that should NOT be made during finals week, especially during the same night. They require absurd amounts of attention, and apparently far more heat and stirring than the recipes specify. Seriously, "stir constantly"? That only tells me so much.

(Also, I'm DONE with school for the semester! YAAAAAY! Although I would've loved it if these desserts would've been available for my classmates to eat at that time, but, uh... I wouldn't feed anybody food I was embarrassed of. lol?? And my wonderful husband graduates from college TOMORROW, as it is after midnight on Friday here!)

Ok, for real this time. I'm going to check on the fudge. Here's hope that A) it's doing amazingly and B) I haven't burnt the bajeezus out of it. Cross your fingers! :)

Cooking Experiment: Craisin Banana Pancakes

As I mentioned in my previous post, today is my last day with a client I've had for just over two years. So today I decided to try something different for breakfast in the hopes that she'd like it. And whaddya know, she did! :D

I used a recipe from Food Network's website as a starter, and I modified it from there.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/banana-pancakes-recipe/index.html

I had:
- 1 1/2 cups of flour
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/4 cup buttermilk (probably a bit more... There was no milk...)
- approx. 3 tbsp melted I Can't Believe It's Not Butter
- 2 ripe bananas
- approx. 1 cup of Craisins, possibly more

I mixed everything together except for the bananas, put the batter in the pan and then pressed in a couple banana slices.
If you mix a few banana slices into the batter it's no big deal. I just tried to avoid it so the banana slices weren't sticking together in the pancakes.
I'm horrible at flipping pancakes, but I still managed to do it alright! And I turned off the pan and rinsed/wiped it out between pancakes, otherwise I'd have burned the later ones. LOL.

But she (my client) liked them, the granddaughter said they smelled great (I'm glad she didn't ask if something was burning! Haha) and I tried one later (I like to try new things I make for my client to make sure they're good) and it was tasty!!!

I topped off the pancakes with a little bit of honey, and they were great! :)

The first picture is the first pancake I made after getting it in the pan and pressing in the banana slices. The second picture is the plate if extra pancakes.

:D