10000 PAGEVIEWS!?!?!?

I just realized today that I passed 10,000 pageviews on my blog.... and I couldn't be happier! When I started this blog roughly 3 years ago, it was a writing project from Dad. For the first year, it wasn't even a public blog! I was 9 and my writing was FAR sloppier (and shorter) than what I write today. Only a few people knew about my blog- and I never in a million years would have thought that my readership would have grown so fast.

Now, I average about 20-30 pageviews a day (compared to the 1-2 I had back then) and have readers in many different places- Indonesia, Russia, Canada, Germany- everywhere. I write a variety of different posts, from poetry to recipes to short stories to whatever the heck I feel like writing- so each post is unique in it's own way. So, I'd like to take a moment and thank my Dad for having me start this blog, and for pushing me to write on it once a day- thank you so much. It has taught me so much about writing, and it has become more than just schoolwork for me- it's become a hobby. Out of all my work, my blogging is definitely my favorite part of it all.

Thanks to my Dad and all my readers,

Maddie

Crazy Children Toys

Today, my family and I took a trip to Walmart. My sister automatically opted to check out the toy section, and I said I would take her there while my grandma shopped for other things. So we get to the toy isle, and naturally my sister heads for the dolls. Keeping a watchful eye on her as there were other people in the isle, I noticed her looking at a baby doll and repeatedly reaching through a small hole in the box. I walked over to see what interested her, and it turned out that it was a potty training doll with a small toilet- complete with faux poop and pee for the flushing. And yes, you guessed it- my sister was sticking her hand directly into the throne.

As if one poop themed toy wasn't enough, we found TWO more further down the doll isle- one a "Barbie training Kelly" set and the other advertising a fake dog that pooped glitter. YUCK! Who would even buy this for their kids?! Who wants a kid to be playing with something that ON THE BOX, as the main advertisement says: I POOP GLITTER over a few glittering white nuggets!? I can see how this may seem funny to some, but in my opinion companies and toy manufacturers are pushing the line between funny and disgusting- and it's a VERY, VERY fine line.

Maddie

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have not posted a recipe or anything about baking in a while, so I have decided to give my readers my chocolate chip cookie recipe. Chocolate chip cookies are my FAVORITE thing to make- they are simple, yet still delicious. I love this recipe because the cookies always turn out not too crispy, and not too soft either. It is from the Joy of Cooking. Here it is:

You Will Need:
1 cup 2 tbsp of flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
8 tbsp (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 light brown sugar (packed)
1 large egg
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 bag chocolate chips (the recipe calls only for a cup, but I find the "chocolate to dough" ratio is more even with a full bag. Besides, the cookies come out better AND- what's wrong with a little extra chocolate? ;) )

Prep:
Heat the oven to 375. Grease cookie sheets. Whisk together in a medium sized bowl your flour and baking soda. Set aside. Beat on medium speed until fully mixed the butter and the 2 sugars (in a large bowl, NOT the one with the flour in it). Once this is mixed, add your egg, salt and vanilla to the mix. Whisk again. Finally, add in your chocolate chips (don't forget to keep aside a few to taste!). At this point your can either hand mix the chips into the batter or use your mixer. I do both sometimes, but I have found stirring the chips myself is more effective.

Scoop small balls of dough onto the sheets, spacing them an inch to two inches apart. Bake them for about 10 minutes (8 depending on your oven) and let them cool for 15 minutes. Once cool, eat with a glass of cold milk and enjoy!

Try out the recipe and tell me in the comments how it turned out! Also, leave me YOUR recipes, and I will try them out!

Maddie

Ice Cream Pie, Python Coding, and Room Cleaning

If you can't guess from the title of this post, this is the list of the stuff I did today. STARTING with the Python Coding. A couple of days ago, the website Code Academy that stores our data for computer programming RESET both me and my dad's progress- and we had been halfway through the course. So now we have to play catchup this week to get back to where we were before. I just finished up and am now back where I was before (I think).

Next came the disastrous ice cream pie, which was a pain in the rear to make- the ice cream melted VERY fast and the pie crust almost broke, and on TOP of that I almost walked into the freezer and dropped the pie altogether. It is currently in the freezer chilling over for tomorrow- I will post tomorrow how it turned out. I don't have very high hopes- it looked kind of "sad" the last time I saw it.

Finally, my day ended with room cleaning- and BOY, was my room a mess this time. Clothing everywhere, makeup spilled, and my dresser OVERFLOWING with cheap costume jewelry, the whole catastrophe took 3+ hours to clean. But, it's all worth it as I get to hang with my friend tomorrow :)

It's pretty late now (1:47 a.m.) so I will end this post HERE.

Thanks for reading,
Maddie

OH! And if you ever happen to need stuff from Amazon, my Dad set up this cool little store AND blog. If you need to go to Amazon.com, please use his link! It costs you nothing extra, but if you buy something after clicking through his link, he gets a small commission. Thanks!

www.buybuymomma.weebly.com

Soda Can (or bottle in our case) Cupcakes!

Today, my sister and I decided to try making something we saw on the internet- soda can cupcakes! I was shocked that there were only TWO ingredients: cake mix (whatever flavor/brand) and any type of soda! I decided that I also needed to spend a little more time with my sister than I have been doing, so I invited her to help me and together we made the soda can cupcakes.

Prep is pretty simple- just whisk together the soda and the mix and then scoop into cupcake pans. Cook for 25 minutes on 350 and then enjoy! My sister and I used Pilsbury Butter Cake mix and Diet Pepsi as the soda. We also made Hershey's chocolate frosting to ice them with- and the frosting itself took longer to make than the cupcakes! Now we are just waiting for the cupcakes to cool so we can decorate them.

I'll update this post with pictures of the decorated cupcakes later!

Maddie

P.S. The cupcakes themselves turned out VERY well.

A Heathen Short Story

Once upon a time, long ago in the mountains, there was a young girl named Lif. Lif belonged to a heathen tribe that lived in the ice cold mountain caves- but she was curious. Everyone always told her to stay up the mountain because it was safer, and that people who had big guns and believed in a false God lived at the bottom of it. But Lif wanted to leave the mountain- she wanted to know about this “God” and about what lay away from her home. So one cold day, Lif set out on her own to go down the mountain... nothing with her but a fur cloak and some meat.

Lif discovered a small tribe of Catholics at the base of the mountain. They didn’t know about the tribe up the mountain and thought she was just a homeless wanderer. They took her in, and taught her all about God and how to cook and live like a civilized young woman. After a year, Lif, who had changed her name to Olivia, decided to go back up the mountain to tell her tribe that the people at the base of the mountain were kindly folk, and so once again she set out up the mountain- but she never got to see her tribe. They saw her, and since she was dressed like a person from the mountain base tribe, they shot her down with arrows on instinct. Only upon going to loot the body did the tribe folk discover- that they had shot their own friend.

Anime

This summer, I have been looking for interesting things to do and listed in one of the newspapers was an "Anime Club". I had no idea what anime was, so I googled it. It turns out it is a Japanese style of drawing, usually either hand drawn or computer animated. The pictures are almost always cheerful and very colorful. I love it- especially how the eyes on many of the drawings are done.

Anime was created at the start of the 20th century when Japanese film makers were experimenting with different animation styles and the style stuck. Currently, anime is used in pop culture, TV shows, and also video games. Many RPG pixel horror games are based around anime such as:

• Mad Father
• Paranoiac
• Corpse Party
• Ib
• The Witch's House
• Misao

And many others... I like the style of drawing and actually have a friend who can draw anime very well. There are also dolls and other merchandise based around anime- some of which cost millions of dollars! Wow.  Let me know in the comments if you like anime, or if you can draw it! 

Maddie