I made Cinnamon Roll Pancakes for breakfast

I had my niece over this morning for breakfast. I found a delicious looking recipe on Life in the Lofthouse called Cinnamon Roll Pancakes that I wanted to try to make for my children and my niece. In quotes as well as the ingredient lists are what I copied directly from the site to share here.

It took a very long time to make these and we ran into so many problems that it because frustrating yet comical.

The first part was to prepare the filling :

1/2 cup butter, melted

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon

"In a medium bowl, mix butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Scoop the filling into a small zip baggie and set aside. ( Set this aside and let it rest and set atleast 20 minutes. You want it thick, not liquidy)"

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The second part is to prepare the batter :

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 Tablespoon canola oil
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
•  "In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk in milk, oil and egg just until batter is moistened. (a few small lumps are fine)"
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• The second part is to prepare the glaze : 
• • 4 Tablespoons butter
  • 2 ounces cream cheese
  • 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• "In a medium glass or microwave-safe bowl, heat the butter and cream cheese until melted. Whisk together until smooth, then whisk in powdered sugar and vanilla. Set aside."
• "Heat a large skillet or griddle over medium-low heat. Spray with non-stick cooking spray. Scoop about 1/2 cup of pancake batter onto the skillet. Snip the corner of your cinnamon filling baggie and squeeze a spiral of the filling onto the top of the pancake. When bubbles begin to appear on the surface, flip carefully with a spatula and cook until lightly browned on the underside, 1 to 2 minutes more. Transfer pancake to a baking sheet and keep warm in the oven while you make the rest of the pancakes.When ready to serve, spoon warmed cream cheese glaze on top of each pancake."

This is where I went wrong so pay attention! Instead of using a ziplock bagging I bought empty squeeze bottles to put the batter and filling into. I made two perfect pancakes and when I went to make the third the top of the squeeze bottle popped off. I thought if I added water it would make it thin enough to squeeze through the nozzle. Nope so in the long run I had to add it to a ziplock baggie anyway. 

One change I would make to this original recipe is to let the batter and filling set in the pan a bit then add some more pancake batter to cover the filling before flipping. If not all the filling sticks to the pan and burns. This way the filling stays in the middle and has all the delicious flavor you want. 

A long day of geocaching and I only found one more for a total of 9 (spoilers!!!)

Today while my kids were in school I took a ride on my daughters new bike that she and I will be sharing. I haven't ridden a bike in 10 years and I had a bit of a tough time with my balance. I think also the bike is still just very stiff.

I rode about a mile getting on and off the bike dropping things off at peoples houses through town. I continued through town onto the rail trail to finish looking for a geocache that my kids, my niece and I tried to find the other day. I searched again much more thoroughly but there is just no sign of anything but the lid.

While searching the other day my son accidentally dropped and broke a glass bottle he had found while we were walking. I didn't have anything on me to pick it up so today I took an empty container and picked up all the glass and other garbage that I could find in the area and put it in the garbage at a local park.

The bike ride was probably a total of 2 miles but the seat is so hard that my bottom is very sore. I feel so bruised. I will not ride it again until I get a padded seat for it.

I had plenty of time left over before my kids got home so I decided to see what other geocaches were nearby. I found one about 5 miles away that was a two part cache called Starr-Train Cache. I found the dog tag with the coordinates on it nailed to a wooden post along the rail trail. Problem is I couldn't finish this because I don't know how to put in coordinates on the geocaching app to get me to the location I need.

Feeling disappointed and still having an hour and a half left before my children were due home from school I got back in my van and looked to see what other geocaches were nearby. There was one about 9 miles away called The (#1) Topp Cookout. It is in Pennsylvania State Game lands 35. This was the hardest hike I have had to do yet. It told me the location of the cache was .89 miles from where I parked so I went up the very steep road and realized that there was still .30 miles to go and I could no longer follow the main path. I had to go east up a mountain, cross a creek and go up two more mountains and head north to the very top. From the van to the cache was about a 45 minute walk all uphill.

My heart was beating so hard and I had run out of water and hadn't had anything to eat in many hours so I was getting dizzy and exhausted. It was about 90 degrees and I was scratched up from prickers and sunburned. Once I was at the top I saw so many places that the cache could be hidden that even with the compass telling me I was within 10 feet it still took me about 10 minutes to locate it. It was hidden under a huge rock and a triangle shaped rock was laid in front of it.

It was an ammo box full of little toys for kids. There was a neat bandanna in it that my son would have loved but I didn't have anything on me to trade it for. I signed the log and headed back down to my van. I messaged my sister and told her that I was in the middle of the woods and wouldn't be home on time to get my kids off the bus so thankfully she was home and got them for me. Once I got back to the main road I ran the entire way down.

I got home about 20 minutes later then my kids got home from school. I quick took a shower to get all the dirt off me. I was itching pretty bad until I showered. I then took my kids to the school for about 20 minutes for them to try out their new bikes.

That isn't the end of my day but this post has gotten long enough and boring so I will end it and just say that I had a good successful day!

I originally wrote this post on personapaper.com on May 11, 2015. The site is shutting down and I never earned any payment. I have transferred this post here on this awesome new blog site and deleted the article on personapaper.

Found 2 more geocaches bringing my total to 8 (spoilers!!)

Yesterday after school I took my kids and my niece out geocaching locally. We looked two different places but could only find one.

The one that was called spic and span. It was a small tube like container hidden in a tree in a cemetery near the geocache creators grandparents grave. It had a log rolled up in it and a very small pencil. Unfortunately the log was all wet and mildew smelling so we just replaced it without signing it. To me its more important that I log my finds online on the geocaching site then signing the actual log inside the caches.

Today while my kids were at school I went somewhere with my sister and while we were waiting for time to pass I looked on the app to see if there were any geocaches nearby. There was one .28 of a mile from where we were so we put my nephew in a stroller and went for a short walk to find it. The app for once was dead on! It told us exactly where it was located and after searching around I found the key holder magnet stuck to the underside of a part on the bridge. The log was small and full and I didn't have any fresh paper on me so another one I did not sign but logged online. This cache is called Gronkle in honor of the How to train your dragon movie with a big green dragon.

After my kids got home from school we went looking for another one in the area but couldn't find that one either. I think that one might be gone for good as I found the top to it but nothing else. I will go back tomorrow and look again if the weather is nice. I'm a bit sunburned from today.

I originally wrote this post on personapaper.com on May 7, 2015. The site is shutting down and I never earned any payment. I have transferred this post here on this awesome new blog site and deleted the article on personapaper.

Stumbled across 2 Letterboxes today this is my first experience with them (spoilers!!)

Today while I was babysitting my exes son he was hot and tired so we went to a creak nearby so he could splash himself with water. I happened to notice on the top of the bridge something I never saw before the date 1904.

We had to find a way down the old bridge to get to the water and I wouldn't cross the old boards for fear of us slipping between the cracks and falling into the water below. He being much braver then I found us a way to hop down boulders and get to the water.

As we were leaving I climbed to the top and bent down to help pull him up and saw something stuck inside one of the old rotted railroad ties. At first I was leery about pulling it out I thought it might be a package of drugs or something. Curiosity got the best of me and I took it out and saw written on the front that it is a letterbox and a website address to atlasquest. The little stamp that went to it had a railroad design. Such a cute idea. I didn't have my own stamp but I signed my name and the date.

I went home and looked up the website and signed up. I commented how I had stumbled upon it by accident and it let me to join the site and start a new hobby.

When I found this letterbox it reminded me of something my niece had told me a few weeks ago. She told me that her girl scout troop hid something under a rock downtown that is dedicated to the boy scouts. She showed me where it was but said it wasn't there anymore. So the kids and I stopped down today and searched around and found what she was talking about. When they hid it they must have just put it in a ziplock bag and slid it under a crack in the rock. Someone else probably moved it and put it in the tupperware container that we found it in. It was a good idea they did that. It had a rock over it but was easily noticeable so I piled some rocks around it more when we left after I signed it.

I went home and looked on the atlasquest and couldn't find this letterbox listed. I did a quick search and found another site letterboxing but its not listed on that one either. I am baffled. My kids want to start letterboxing now as well as geocaching but we all agree the geocaching is more fun.

Here's a video of my daughter finding her first letterbox:

I originally wrote this post on personapaper.com on May 5, 2015. The site is shutting down and I never earned any payment. I have transferred this post here on this awesome new blog site and deleted the article on personapaper.

Found 3 more geocaches today bringing my total to 6 (spoilers!!)

Today I babysat my exes son who is 8. He and I took a walk down to where there is a geocache called In the shadow of the viaduct.  My kids and I searched for it yesterday and could not find it. My brother in law gave me a tip that it was on the guardrail. So today I went back and looked and looked and just as I gave up I spotted it. It wasn't on the actual guard rail. It was on an old guard rail post not connected to the newer guardrail and on the other side of a tree. Boy was I happy to finally find that one to check off the list. It was a small magnetic container with only enough room to fit a few sheets of folded up paper for the log. The log was full and others had signed a receipt so I added my geocache name to the bottom.

We headed back for home and the railroad crew were doing maintenance and I was told that I am really not supposed to walk on the railroad which I knew. I told them that no one is usually out here and he told me that a train had gone by a half hour before. I told him I lived just ahead and would be getting off the tracks a few hundred feet up the line. Honestly the road I live on is very dangerous so it is safer to walk on the tracks where trains only go by twice a day then to walk that deadly road and risk being hit by cars. So I will stick to walking the tracks and just try to avoid them if I see any activity on them.

Once my children got home from school we drove down town and looked for the next geocache called Susquehanna Sojourn. I was wrong about the location so we had to walk a little ways. It wasn't to hard to find. It was a small metal container that opened up and had a log inside to sign. The log was all filled up and I didn't have any more paper with me to put in there. It was so small I don't think I could have fit another paper inside anyway.

The last geocache we had time to look for was called The Rocks. It was about 300 feet from the road inside the bottom of a tree with a stone in front of it. The tree itself looked like a giraffe so my daughter sat on it and we took pictures like she was riding an animal. This geocache was in a really good waterproof container. Everything inside was in clean condition and dry. Most of the caches we have found the contents inside were water damaged. So the end of our geocaching today wound up being our best find for the day.

Here is a video my daughter made of this geocache : 

I originally wrote this post on personapaper.com on May 5, 2015. The site is shutting down and I never earned any payment. I have transferred this post here on this awesome new blog site and deleted the article on personapaper.

3 finds geocaching and we are now addicted (spoilers!!)

Sunday morning as soon as the kids woke up they kept asking when we could go geocaching. It took me awhile to get the house tidied up and the chores done but by the time we set out it was perfect weather for a day out searching for caches. Sunny and warm. At each cache my daughter wanted me to make a video of her for her channel on youtube.

The first geocache we went looking for was called Oakland near a boat access area. This was the easiest one to find of the day. It was in a decon container hanging on the limb of a tree bordering the neighbors property line. Inside it was a chuck e cheese coin, a nut, plastic washer and the log. My sons favorite thing inside was a fake severed hand that you put in water and it grows. It made for a funny picture.

The second geocache we went looking for was called Skully #1. It was near a different boat access area. To find this one we had to take a little walk through the woods along the Susquehanna River. It was a busy day lost of people were out fishing. We found the cache hidden in a tree. It was a pvc pipe with end caps. I didn't realize until I got home though that the lids apparently come off and there was a log inside to sign. I logged my find on the app but did not get to sign the paper log.

The third geocache we went looking for was called Cache Across America - Pennsylvania. It was in Pennsylvania State Gamelands 35. This cache was put in place as part of the Cache Across America Series. This was the hardest for us to find as we had to climb down a slope and cross a creek and scramble up a steep bank. I had a really hard time finding this with the compass as I am still trying to figure things out. This was very well hidden and was hard to spot. It was hidden inside the hollow of a fallen log and covered with sticks. It was in an ammo box and was my sons favorite find of the day. There wasn't much inside besides the log. Another chuck e cheese coin and some small toys that had seen better days.

It was about 5pm when we got done. We were tired and hungry but wanted to keep going. I had to call it quits though as it was a school night and I needed to get the kids home to eat, bathe and get to bed. My son woke up this morning and the first thing he asked was when we can go do it again. I so badly wanted to go today and do it again so I know how he feels. I cannot wait for another geocaching adventure hopefully this weekend.

Here is my daughter with her first geocaching video: 

I originally wrote this post on personapaper.com on May 4, 2015. The site is shutting down and I never earned any payment. I have transferred this post here on this awesome new blog site and deleted the article on personapaper.

My version of a shamrock shake

Everyone on facebook is talking about wanting one of McDonald's shamrock shakes or posting pictures of theirs. I haven't had one myself in so many years I cant even remember the last time I had one. I looked up a copycat recipe online but they all seem just about the same and aren't quite right. So I decided to make one of my own.

If you try this let me know what you think. I loved it.

1 cup french vanilla ice cream ( I used Perry's brand)
1/4 cup cool whip topping
1/4 cup 2% milk
1/4 tsp. pure peppermint extract
1/8 tsp. green food coloring
1 T. confectioner's sugar


Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend on high until mixed well. It will be a little runny.
Pour contents into a cup and place in the freezer for a while to chill and thicken.
Remove from freezer, stir and drink.



I originally wrote this post on personapaper.com on March 4, 2015. The site is shutting down and I never earned any payment. I have transferred this post here on this awesome new blog site and deleted the article on personapaper.