Achoo!

I need to ask a favor. I really need to change one thing. I just want the power to change one little thing. It's small. I promise. But so many people will benefit.

We started school a week ago Tuesday. By Saturday, Mister Man was snuffling and sneezing regularly. I attributed it to allergies, as I'd also been sneezing periodically.

No, it wasn't allergies.

Yesterday on the car ride to a playdate, Mister Man told me his ear was hurting? You mean the one where I told you that if you didn't quit snuffling you'd get an ear infection? Yeah... that one.

And last night, Little Miss was up at 1:43am crying for someone to wipe her nose. This the girl who sleeps through the night and wakes up in the morning to play silently until I'm ready to get her out of bed. Yep, this morning she was sniffling, too.

Oh yeah. This morning, I woke up with that tickle in my throat. You know, the one that tells you that you're starting to get a cold and it's time to load up on the orange juice and chicken noodle soup? Yeah, that one.

So four days into the school year, and the bugs have already had time to percolate and germinate and turn into illnesses.

Granted, we have no green excretions yet, so no one needs to stay home from school, but I'd really, really like to make it harder to transmit bugs from one person to another. I totally get how it's important to have the bugs and to ensure that you have a strong immune system and test it so that you stay strong and healthy long term. But really, we're four days in, and this isn't boding well for the rest of the year.

Can I please just have the power to make that one teensy change? I'm fine with getting sick once in awhile, but can we wait until the middle of winter when it's horrible out and yucky and you actually want to make chicken noodle soup? And really, we don't need to be sick nonstop from September to May, do we? Can't I just schedule one or two weeks in the middle of winter?

I promise, none of this is coming from intense jealousy that my husband, who's been a teacher for fifteen years, doesn't get sick anymore and only the three weak members of the family have this issue. I swear. It's all about trying to make life easier for the wee ones and for all their little friends.

I swear. Pretty please?

Heartbreaking

I'm at a loss for words after the following conversations with one of my dear friends. And I am one of two people she will likely ever have this conversation with.

Me: Hey, sorry I didn't call you back right away. This weekend was busy, and I wanted to make sure I'd have time to chat for awhile (read: I forgot and meant to call but was busy whenever I thought of it which wasn't often enough)
Her: That's fine.
Me: So how're you doing? Still loving the new house?
Her: I've been better.
Me: That sounds familiar. Did you at least get the gaslines hooked up so you can dry clothes?
Her: (no real answer)
Me: So what's going on?
Her: I've been better.
Me: Anything you want to talk about?
Her: Maybe later. What does your week look like?
Me: Well, today's super busy with stuff except for my break now, tomorrow I'm working from home and ditto with Thursday. Hey, Friday I'll be in the city for a girls' night. Maybe I can catch up with you before we head to dinner. And I'm assuming we'll see you on Saturday, right? Why do you ask?
Her: Oh, I just wanted to see what you were up to.
Me: Are you ok?
Her: I've been better. I have some bad news.
Me: Ok.
loooooooooong silence
Her: choking and crying some (me thinking that her mom who's a breast cancer survivor got some bad news or something along those lines but staying silent to give her time)
Her: I'm pregnant. But it's not viable.
Me: OH! I'm so sorry. I can't imagine how devastated you are right now.

The conversation continued for a little while after that, and we were able to talk about it some. But suffice it to say my dear friend who is already convinced she's too old to be a mom just found out that they have to take her baby. You have no idea how much she and her husband want children. How desperately they have been trying since getting married. How wonderful they are with my own children. She will be able to try again, but ... I'm at a loss now.

How do you support a friend when they suffer such an intensely personal loss. My friends aren't even telling their parents. And yet I know how hurt they are, especially her. And yes, I feel like a heel for not having called her back on Friday night when she called me.

Little Miss Has No Bus

And let me tell you, was she hot that she didn't get to ride the bus on her first day of preschool. She's a big girl now, and she wanted on the bus. Mister Man got to ride on the bus, so where was hers?

Granted, the girl has a point. She should have been on the bus. I turned in the bus forms for her last Wednesday, and the bus company only requires 48 to 72 hours to set up the routes. And yes, she rides the bus to preschool because she goes to the public preschool, so it's a service they offer to those of us who live on the opposite side of the district.

There have been a few problems so far this year with the bus, some of them involving children being taken to the wrong house or to home instead of daycare and the like. I won't get into that, but Little Miss doesn't get to ride the bus until Thursday. She's not thrilled that she has to wait that long. The girl really needs to learn patience. Do they teach that in preschool?

Because she didn't get to ride the bus and because Monday is an office day, I decided I couldn't justify seeing her off on her first day. In fact, her first day required some juggling. My office is an hour twenty northeast of my house in traffic (which is why I leave at 6:10 to get there by 7 and avoid at least most of it!). And the preschool is 20 to 25 minutes southwest of my house. Do the math if I drop her off at 9am.

The fun of it is that Mister Man has his kindergarten program at daycare that also starts at 9am. Daycare is three minutes from our house, if that. And I can't drop him off early or really late.
Yes, I owe my parents a nice dinner out. They very kindly handled both children for me, including my dad picking up Little Miss at preschool and taking her to daycare afterwards. And tomorrow he's doing the same. Have I mentioned how much I love and appreciate my parents?

The good news is that she truly enjoyed her first day of school. She loves her teacher, and apparently her teacher has enjoyed having her in class (ha! See what she knows!), as well. She told me that she played a lot with Trinity and learned about how she uses her nose to smell. A successful first day!

My mom very kindly took photos for me of Little Miss. I'd requested some of her on the front stoop, as is my yearly tradition. Little Miss apparently didn't want to cooperate. I literally had a total of five where she wasn't facing backwards or sideways or some other goofy thing. Standing still is not her forte. And phototaking isn't my mom's....

We're Going Episcopal

Back in May, I came to the realization that the Catholic Church just wasn't cutting it for me anymore.

Well, we started attending the local Episcopal church. You know, where Little Miss was supposed to start preschool last Tuesday? Yeah.

It's very different from the Catholic churches around here in some good ways. This is a country church, and I mean that in the best possible way. It's very small, and there's a real feeling of community.

The first Sunday we went, there were twenty one people in attendance, excluding the minister. Granted, it was the 8am service and Memorial Day weekend, but the church we'd come from averaged over 700 each week, including summer. So when the service ended, what do you suppose happened? Of those twenty-one, eight introduced themselves to us. And one woman tried to get me to be on the flower guild. Whoah, I haven't joined the church and I'm not an Episcopal -- too much pressure could turn people off! But they were all really nice and sweet.

Now that summer is over, there are more people there (well over 100 but I forgot to count). And today, the woman in front of me introduced herself because she hadn't seen me before. I always felt like I was sitting alone in a sea of people when attending Mass in the Catholic Church, but definitely not here. And I like that. Religion is community to me.

And the Episcopal church will give the wee ones the exposure to religion that I so desperately want them to have. I could pretend like I do a good job at home, but so far we've gotten into the following conversation one too many times.

Mister Man (or Little Miss): What does God do?
Me: He watches over us.
MM: Why?
Me: Because He loves us.
MM: Why?
Me: Because we're all His children.
MM: Why?
Me: Because He made us.
MM: Why?
Me: Because He loves us.
....
MM: Why?
Me: That's a really good question, Sweetie. When you go to Sunday School, be sure to ask your teacher.

I can only have that conversation so many times. And we've started talking about Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden and their sons. But without weekly reinforcement by someone who knows how to teach it way better than me, I am just not comfortable with the base of religious education.

Catholics: $600 for my family to attend Generations of Faith six Wednesdays a year from 6:30 to 8:30pm. Oh, and that includes a dinner where we eat with other families, and then the entire family goes off in age appropriate groups to learn. Adults, too. But no kids under kindergarten age. Oh, wait. We can't start for two more years then since Mister Man doesn't go to kindergarten until next year and Little Miss until the year after. And what do I do with her when the rest of us go if she isn't welcome? Six times a year isn't enough for me.

Episcopals: Sunday School is every Sunday at 9:05 am between the two services. It's free. Children start at age 3 and go through high school.

That part of it really sort of made the choice for me. They start Sunday school next week. They're supposed to be in the same class as of now, as Godly Play is for ages 3-5. But if that's a problem, they'll move Mister Man up a level since he can read.

There are several other differences in the two churches, but really Episcopal is as Catholic as you can get without being Catholic, so that's somewhat comforting to me. The service is structured the same. The prayers are essentially the same, with some slight wording differences (and I still have a hard time saying "became incarnate of the Virgin Mary" and "suffered death and was buried" in the Nicene Creed instead of "was born of the Virgin Mary" and "suffered, died, and was buried." I'll get there though.

I love the bulletin that gives the words to everything. This may be this church only, but I can follow along with all the readings - versus looking them up in the missilette - and the prayers that will be said during the service. Definitely more customer friendly, in my mind. Not the most green though.

The Episcopal church also welcomes everyone, in many ways.

All can receive communion, including children who have not yet received their first communion. It's part of the whole welcoming everyone aspect of the church that I really love. Catholics? Technically, not only do you need to have your First Communion, but you must also be Catholic, have all your sins forgiven already, not divorced, etc etc etc. And there are children at the church now who get really into going up to the rail with everyone else. Oh yeah. You receive communion at the rail, old school. A little different, but I'm good with it!

The interim rector when we started going was a divorced woman. Yeah, not gonna see that in the Catholic church, are we? It's different but totally logical, and that was one issue I had with Catholicism. I still remember being in the 5th and 6th grades getting ready for the weekly Mass (yep, I went to Catholic school). It rotated amongst the grades, and starting in 5th grade, you got to do much more of the Mass. Except girls (at the time) couldn't be altar boys. That really turned me off and kept me from participating. Not exactly an issue here, is it?

The new rector is now in place. In the Catholic Church, the bishop would have appointed a new priest, and here's hoping you liked him. Here, there was a search committee who decided what kind of a priest they wanted and then did a job search. They found their new guy in England and offered him the job. He had a choice. And so did the parish. What a concept! And so far, he seems to be fitting in quite nicely. Today was just week 3 though (and my first week not out of town or at a wedding since he's been here). And yeah, he's married and has two kids.

In the Catholic Church, there were always three Masses (at least at the churches I went to). Saturday afternoon around 5 and two Sunday morning services. At this church, we have no Saturday service except for the three picnic outdoor services they held -- which alone were way cool. The morning services also have a very different feel to them.

The 8am service has no singing. No opening hymn or communion or closing hymn at all. Some of the sung/chanted bits in Catholicism (Holy, holy, Holy! or Christ has died, Christ is risen..." for example) were simply said. Needless to say, couple no singing with twenty-one people, and we were out of there in thirty-eight minutes.

Now, I'm not saying that church should be a specific length, but I sort of have an agreed-upon contract. I'm going for somewhere in the neighborhood of an hour, give or take. Holidays are longer. It may be a bad attitude, but it's my expectation. The Catholic church has started singing everything which drove me nuts. And drove the average Mass to over an hour twenty. Since Mass was 11am, that meant missing almost the first half by the time you walked to your parked car forever away since there was no parking by the church because it's too big and then drove home. Sad, I know. But Sunday and football are sort of a tradition, too.

The 10:15 service at the new church is much more familiar, with even some of the same songs that I sang growing up (no comments on the musical director at the Catholic church who I swear chooses only the songs that he wrong and published and the ones that are the most difficult and unintuitive to sing -- and I like to sing and can read music well). It has a lot of families with children who frequently sit up in the front pew to play in the extra wide pew with the paper and markers and stuffed animals and cushions for children.

Yes, you heard me. Something to keep the children occupied while their parents worship. Granted, there's also a nursery (where I put the wee ones), but if you want your children with you or if they don't do well separated or if you're working on getting them to learn to pay attention in church, it's set up to help you. What a brilliant idea to get kids to not feel like church is punishment. Oh, and the nursery is free, too. I used to have to pay $2 per child per week. Just saying.

So yeah... we're switching. I don't have to go through all the fancy rites of christian initiation I would were I becoming Catholic. They accept that I'm Christian and baptized and a believer and move forward. I just have to make a date to talk to the new priest to walk through some of the finer points that I want to better understand (like they only have two sacraments versus the seven Catholics celebrate) and then officially register.

Even though we aren't going there for preschool, we'll still go for church. And I'm happy to be going to church again. It's been a long time.

Angst

Mister Man started preschool on Tuesday. He's doing well, and except for the mishap where he almost got onto a bus that would have taken him to the elementary school instead of his school, it's all gone well. I still can't believe he's only got five kids in his class this year -- I know it will grow as the year goes on and more kids qualify for and enter the preschool, but still five kids is tiny!

Little Miss was also supposed to start preschool on Tuesday. In fact, we've been using the "They won't let you go to St Marks if you aren't potty trained" refrain for several months now. But she didn't go. Why not you might ask?

Well, Mister Man's preschool is our local early learning center for special needs and at risk kids ages 3-5. Mister Man qualified when he turned three and graduated from Early Intervention but still needed services. His social development was far behind (fortunately much due to his speech delay that is now resolved), and his fine and gross motor were also delayed.

Little Miss has also spent time in Early Intervention. When she was six months old, she wasn't babbling at all. And by not babbling at all, I mean she didn't make a sound, including when she "laughed" - all she'd do was open her mouth wide with a smile and shake. She entered speech therapy shortly thereafter.

A little over a year into her speech therapy, they wanted her evaluated for occupational therapy, as well. She fell constantly and didn't use her hands to catch herself. Plus, she showed no reaction to pain. She had a really hard time moving from one surface to another, like from the sidewalk to grass. She qualified for occupational therapy well before her second birthday. But there were no therapists in Early Intervention available, so we were put on a waitlist.

Last August 31, Little Miss graduated from her speech therapy and now has quite the vocabulary. We were lucky. Her delay was due to constant ear infections (see the comment on pain -- we had no idea) that essentially had deadened her hearing. She's had tubes in for almost two years now, and the hearing is fine -- a huge relief. The speech therapy allowed her to catch up, and she shouldn't need any going forward.

When she graduated from Early Intervention, we still were on the waitlist for a therapist and we gave up in October. It seemed silly to keep paying for a service we weren't receiving. But she still falls all the time and ends up with huge welts and bruises and scrapes whose source are unknown. We constantly get incident reports from daycare and preschool from injuries she's incurred - at least once every other week, if not more often.

So we wanted to have her screened at the early learning center. The screening isn't scheduled until the Friday before school starts. So I found out last Friday that they want her at the school. I knew previously that she would have qualified as you now only need one qualifying criteria to attend (a change in Illinois this year, as it had been at least two until now). Qualifying criteria include everything from a second language spoken in the home to having been in Early Intervention at some point to having a sibling attend the school to income levels and more.

However, the recommendation is to have your child in the least restrictive environment possible, and I was hoping that this would mean the private preschool we'd signed Little Miss up for. They were concerned about her balance and stability, however, and strongly recommended that she attend his school. They picked up on something I hadn't noticed which is that when she stands to play with something, she sticks her feet out like a ballerina which is indicative of a balance problem.

I got the recommendation at 1:26 last Friday and immediately called the private preschool to let them know the verdict. They were closed last Thursday and Friday, so I left a message explaining and asking the director to call me. I just realized that I've yet to hear back from her. Now I'm irritated by that. Hmm.

Because the screening didn't happen until last Friday, the newly eligible students aren't to start until this coming Monday. I made sure to get all our paperwork in by this afternoon, including the bus forms on Wednesday.

By this afternoon, I still hadn't heard about when the bus was going to come to pick her up or who her teacher would be. When I called the school, the admin told me that the principal had yet to make up the class lists and may not get to it today. And that students may not start until Tuesday or Wednesday.

Oh no no no no no.

Monday is my in the office day. I leave the house at 6:15. My mom comes over, and the plan was for her to put Little Miss on the bus at 8:30 or so and to get Mister Man to his "kindergarten" program by 9am. Since it was her first time, I was going to stay to get Little Miss on the bus and take the requisite pictures but then head to work. And my mom had bridge at 10am. And our daycare doesn't exactly smile upon random added hours, nor should they.

I called again a little before five to get an update and spoke to the principal who explained that she'd spent much of the week putting out fires but totally understood my issue and was going to go work on the class lists right then and would call me back later. But no bus. Maybe no bus until Thursday.

I called my mom and she graciously agreed to take Little Miss to preschool on Monday -- which means that I miss out on seeing her off on her first day! -- and ensuring that my dad would take Mister Man to his program. That whole thing about trying to be in two places twenty minutes away at 9am just wasn't going to happen, and I can't go into the office that late. Or shouldn't anyway.

The good news is that she does have a class now. She has a teacher, and it's a teacher that I'm totally cool with. And there are currently only ten children in her class with a teacher and two aides. I know that will grow as the year goes on, but I don't think it will ever get above 17.

The bad news is that I'm missing her first day now! I'm debating faking the photos and pretending like her first day on the bus is her first day. Or making my mom take the photos and praying that she learns how to use the zoom feature.

The other option that I've seriously been considering for awhile is quitting my job. What I do is generally interesting, but I have a schizophrenic boss now. He's a huge micromanager which just doesn't work for me in general. And he piles on random assignments that he then forgets about two days later. He is never on time for meetings and frequently blows off meetings with me with no warning. But yet I'm an incredibly valued employee who they treasure.

I hate missing the moments of their lives. And I have so much going on outside work that I'd love to focus on more. I've yet to put together an agenda for the PTO meeting on Tuesday. I need to confirm that the newsletter goes out on Monday or find someone who can go to school and copy and distribute the announcements that the PTO meeting is occurring on Tuesday. I'd really like to get back to running. I'd like to do more on a day to day basis for and with the wee ones.

I knew I was getting burned out in mid to late June. My new boss started in early May. I had my week plus off at the end of August and thought that would be enough to recharge my batteries. I purposely didn't dial into any meetings while away and only checked email a few times. I came back and even that first morning soooooo didn't want to go to work. This is the first time that a vacation hasn't done it for me.

But I work three days a week, two of them from home. And I make more doing that than my husband does working full time. How can I justify giving that up? The situation I have isn't something that you can easily replicate elsewhere. And being completely meanspirited, I work in finance and that sector isn't doing so well. It's possible that my division would be shut down at some point in the next couple of years. The severance would be really nice.

For now, though, my alarm will be set for 5:40 on Monday. I'll leave my mom detailed instructions of what pictures to take of Little Miss. I'll call to make sure the handoff went well. And while I'm at work, I'll have plenty of moments wishing I weren't there, regretting that I'm not with my wee ones, and wondering if I'm doing the right thing.

I Must Be Old ...

Because when I watched 90210 last night (sue me, it got preempted by Cubs on Tuesday and I was too tired to stay up and watch it that night), I didn't get it.

Growing up, I loved Beverly Hills 90210. I didn't watch every episode, but I certainly watched many of them. It resonated with me for the most part. I really only remember one quibble I had with the show, and that was the town Brenda and Brandon had moved from. You all remember that they were from Minnesota. In one episode they mentioned the town. They called it WAY-zatta.

*sigh*

Really, you're writing for a huge tv show; can't you afford to do some research? I know it looks like that when you see it on a map -- Wayzata and all. However, it's actually pronounced Why-zhetta. And how do I know this? Well, that happens to be the town I lived in at the time. Sorta like how it drives me nuts now to see movies that take place in Chicago and watch roads that are nowhere near each other appear to be the same road.

But back to the new version.

A friend of mine was suppose to have a viewing party at her house. Unfortunately the preemption messed that up. And the reschedule didn't happen on Wednesday because she somehow Tivo'd only the first 23 minutes of it. Fortunately, she discovered this before we all showed up. Needless to say, I was on my own to watch it Thursday.

And I don't know if I'll watch it again.

I really feel like the show didn't know who it wanted to watch it. Were they going after today's teens or the adults who were teens when the original version was on?

It kept Brenda and Kelly (and may I just ask what happened to Shannen? I don't remember that huge gap between her front teeth before, and every time she opened her mouth to talk, that was all I could stare at). I'm not sure what Brenda's role is exactly. She sort of showed up near the end to visit with Kelly (or is it Kelli?). And Kelly has a child, which means that she's going to play a decent sized role in the show. I assume anyway. That or the kid will be the one to drive her off.

I think they also have Kelly's mom on next week. Because of course we all remember the sweet little Erin she had while on the show. Perfect mirroring, Erin is now in high school, and of course there's the triangle between the three ladies -- or so it appears.

It's odd the large role that adults play on the show altogether. The principal is the new Jim Walsh who moved from Kansas to take care of his mom who is quite the caricature, including being a drunk. His wife is a photographer, and both are playing a large role in the show. One of the high school girls' mom was apparently a high school girlfriend of the principal and is now hitting on him. Apparently because they had a son together that the principal never knew about. Yep, lots of adults in the stories, which seems like something the teens wouldn't care about. Just saying.

But my biggest issues were with the teens. My wee ones would not be watching this if they were of age -- unless it were with me to discuss the show and how very wrong it it.

Erin insists on being called Silver and has an incredibly mean-spirited blog where she attacks whoever she decides to. And since the whole campus at West Beverly is now wireless, everyone and their laptop sees the skewerings and buys into them, making that person the talked about outcast of the day.

The actresses also look so much older to me than even they did in the original version (Andrea and Dylan notwithstanding). And they're so skinny that they look unhealthy. In fact, pretty much all the representations of the teens (and adults for that matter) are ones that I can only pray my wee ones never emulate.

The houses are far, far larger than they were before. The cars the students drive are that much more expensive. Nat's Peach Pit is a way upscale charcuterie and coffeehouse. One boy flies the new girl to San Francisco on his private jet for dinner. To have anyone think that this is reasonable or attainable or even a good fantasy... it sets people up to be miserable later in life.

Interestingly, the "new" children on the show aren't twins. There's a girl and an adopted boy. I'm sure they're going to bring race into the show at some point, as the boy is black. He's also a rocking lacrosse player (anyone else see lacrosse's popularity becoming even more popular after this?) who gets kicked off the team because he is goaded into a fight with the previous star and someone on the team lies and says the new kid started it (is it sad that I have no idea what most of the names are on the show? I think that's probably a bad sign).

Lucky for him, the kid has a change of heart and the new boy is back on the team. But when they are pranked by the rival team, there's a huge show of "you have to be part of the team" which means the new kid devises a reciprocating prank even after being warned not to retaliate. Yep, being part of the team means never giving up your buddies, and this is celebrated by the dad/principal. Apparently my morals need adjusting since I'd fully expect my child to a) not retaliate after being told by the principal not to and b) to give up himself and others if he made the stupid choice to do so and got caught.

There's also the "not so sweet sixteen" party that one of the girls has which I wouldn't attend myself, let alone allow a child of mine to attend. Hugely over the top and lavish and insane. The new girl is grounded because she gave her term paper to the birthday girl and got caught, but she snuck out to the party anyway. Her parents found out, but no apparent punishment for that was doled out.

And don't forget the girls who go to the nightclub with a huge cover and drink. Oh and are on pills and steal purses to pay for said pills.

The disrespect they all show their teachers is also appalling, and I feel for my husband is people start to act this way in real life. I know the parents are already there with the excuses as to why Little Johnny should get a take home makeup exam or why a paper should be regraded or why an extension should be granted because I hear about it from my husband, but the mom on the show who wanted an extra week's extension for a paper because of the upcoming birthday party and the stress of that and the fittings needed, etc. If my wee ones started acting this way, there would be hell to pay.

And the girls are all so vicious towards each other. I remember the original having catty girls on it, but this was just horrible horrible behavior all around. I can only hope that people are a little more normal when the wee ones go to high school.

I don't watch a ton of tv, so maybe this is par for the course. You always have to top the one that came before you, right? I never watched most of the recent popular shows -- Dawson's Creek, The OC, Gossip Girl. To be honest, I had to think long and hard to come up with just those few.

So umm yeah, I'm a curmudgeon before my time. Did anyone else watch the new 90210?

White Chocolate Party Mix

As part of the celebration for Little Miss's birthday, I made a white chocolate party mix that was super yum. The inspiration for this came from the birthday party we'd attended the week prior. It had been made by my friend's mother and she doesn't share her recipes. Well, fine. Give me a challenge. How hard could it be?

Start with our ingredients:



4 c. Cheerios
6 c. Rice Chex (or the knockoff brand like I used)
3 c. pretzel shaped or waffle cut pretzels
3 c. M&Ms
2 c. craisins (my inspiration, ha!)
1 1/2 lb premium white chocolate*

*I tried this with Hershey's premium white chocolate chips and with the white chocolate chips from our local buy in bulk yummy stuff store. Hershey's was far superior. Definitely don't use almond bark. Find the best white chocolate you can and use it. It makes that much of a difference.

Place the white chocolate in a very heavy saucepan (I love my Le Creuset!) or in a double boiler and melt over medium low heat.



Cover the pot to ensure the heat is being evenly distributed and not just cooking the bottom part.


After about a few minutes, turn off the heat and begin stirring. It will look like this at first, which makes you think it won't melt.



However, it will quickly get to this consistency. Do you see how nice and pourable it got? Yum! Try not to eat it directly out of the pot.



While the chocolate is melting, place the remaining ingredients in a veeeeerrrry large bowl or roaster pan or something that will allow you to stir it without having everything go flying everywhere. I also love my giant bowls from IKEA.



Gently mix the dry stuff together without breaking anything (read: Rice Chex).



Use the spatula to drizzle the white chocolate onto the dry stuff. Only do about a quarter or so of the chocolate at a time and mix well in between or you'll end up with massive gobs of chocolate and lots of dry other stuff.



Eventually, it will look like this.



You'll want to put waxed paper on a counter. I have sheets of it (yep, more Costco stuff!), and it fills up about six sheets. I got smart somehow and realized that if you have a damp counter, the waxed paper sheets will stay in place while spreading the mix rather than sliding all over the counter. And I swear I figured this out via brains and not via trial and error. I'm still not sure how that happened.


Once the mix is all ummm mixed, pour it out onto the waxed paper and use the spatula to spread it out so that it hardens into manageable chunks. Once it hardens (less than an hour in the middle of summer for me), you'll want to break it up a little more, but not too much.

And if you have a family like me, when you put it into your container for storage, you'll have about this much left.

Enjoy! And definitely let me know what you think!