caramel frosting and how's the old house search coming?

 First, I feel it necessary to tell the world about this frosting. My Mom made it for my StepDad Gordon for his birthday while we were up there for Easter and it was amazing. I'm not always a huge lover of cake and I kept going back for piece after piece. My Mom got the recipe from a lady she met at some sort of bee keeping or soap making meeting (or any of the other hundred crafty things she and Gordon do meetings).  It's simple but delicious.

 CARAMEL ICING: Melt 1/2 cup butter in a 2 to 3 quart pan. Add 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar and 1/3 cup half and half or whipping cream. Quickly bring to full boil; boil, stirring for 1 minute. Remove from heat and let cool until lukewarm. Add 2 cups powdered sugar and beat until smooth.

 This is what it looks like after adding powdered sugar. If it's a bit too thick pour just a little bit of half and half into it until it thins to perfect spreading consistency. (it sorta looks like peanut butter in this picture, but the color is lighter than it is showing).

The recipe makes plenty of frosting, so be sure to put it on nice and thick. We use a spice cake box mix and it tastes amazing. Tonight we are watching a church friend's little boy and they each had a small slice of cake before bed. He was nervous when he thought we called it "spicy cake" but he ended up liking it. (another crazy note, this same friend had her baby at her house unexpectedly! The baby came so fast they couldn't make it to the hospital! I hear about that happening to people, but have never known someone personally! crazy!)

on the home search front, well there are too many thoughts to recount. above is the cool fort that was in the AMAZING yard at a house we looked at. we probably talked for three hours last night about this house. it's a short sale, but it was really kind of big (five bedrooms) and towards the top of what we are hoping to pay. We were really talking ourselves in circles about it because the yard was gorgeous, the house was filthy (and probably needed new a/c units) but overall it was a really great house. In the end we decided we want to error on the side of conservative rather than too big on our next house. but it sorta kills me to walk away from that yard.  but i know that waiting for the right house to come along will be worth the wait. and we have plenty of time, so I'm forcing myself (it's not working yet, but one can hope) to be patient. are you sick of me talking about houses yet? me toooooo. :)