Baking Challenge - Cake Pops

A couple of weeks ago, I baked banana bread for the first time ever. And, like most things that occur in my life, I posted about it on Facebook. Then, for reasons I have yet to understand, I made some off-the-cuff comment wondering if I could bake something new every week for a year. A few of my friends jumped on it and challenged me to do so. And then went on to challenge me to blog about it. So...uh...yeah. That's what I'm gonna do.

Week 1 - Cake Pops!

I first learned about cake pops through Bakerella. Please go check out her site. She is AH-MAZING! If you are gifted, you may be able to duplicate some of her creations. If you are like me and NOT gifted, you still need to try her basic cake pops. They are a tad time-consuming but worth it when you pop one of these babies in your mouth. And don't forget to get the kids involved. This makes for a fun family activity.

First, round up the usual suspects. And, yes, my boy does that in every photo we take of him. Every.single.one.

I'm not going to go over the step-by-step directions for cake pops. Bakerella does that for you on her site. Go check her out! Or, better yet, buy her book! But, do note, it can get a little messy.

Find yourself a cute little girl who is willing to stir and, occasionally, pose for a pic.

Find an adorable little boy who can roll the cake into balls "just like play-doh".

Every.single.picture.

Ready to freeze our balls! Wait....what?!

Once the balls are slightly frozen and firm, the fun part starts!

Decorate with whatever you have on hand. We almost always have colored sprinkles.

They are too cute, aren't they?

We had a great time making them! We finished up the batch a couple days later. You can freeze left-over cake for use later on down the road. A full batch of cake-pops makes 4 dozen! Yikes!!

Oh, and don't forget the best part!!

Window Project

I love projects. I love turning old into new. I see beauty in the old, shabby & rusty. If I had my way, I'd work on projects like this everyday.

I have a friend, her name is Dori and I envy her greatly. She has my dream job. She also has a website. Check out The Junk Refunkery. I will be going to her first sale of the year June 26th and I simply can NOT wait! It'll be my first time going.

I had the pleasure of finding a large pile of old windows on the curbside one morning before trash pick-up. I had no idea what I was going to do with these windows but I could NOT just leave them there to be tossed away, as if they were no longer needed....or beautiful. I stopped my van and loaded them all in. I can't tell you how pleased my husband was when I returned home with them.

I can't tell you because he wasn't exactly pleased. Oh well.

Sadly, however, time & energy were not on my side. Motivation, creativity and space were not on my side either and the pile of windows were left mostly forgotten in our storage unit. Until now...

Now, I have a garage sale coming up and while, yes, I suppose I could easily just dump the pile of windows in the nearest garbage dumpster in town, I just....I just....*sniff*....well, I just CAN'T!

They are beautiful and I'm just sure others coming to my garage sale will see their beauty as well. At least I hope. But hope doesn't sell old, used windows so I needed to do something to give the creativity and inspiration of my garage sale'ers a little push.

This is what I came up with:

I uploaded a few pictures of the kids to Walgreens.com and order four 8 x 10 black & whites. Cost: $11.00. Then, using scrapbooking clear glue dots, I adhered the pictures on the backside of the glass.

I then found a roll of vinyl lettering used for decor treatments on your walls at home. I paid $20.00 for this particular phrase. I was not particularly thrilled with this price but it was immediately available and the size I needed so I went with it.

The stuff was amazingly easy to use and I love how it turned out. Please forgive the shadow of the lettering. I have yet to really figure out how to use my camera without the flash. Someday.

Before I placed the pictures and lettering, however, I top coated the window frame with two coats of decoupage to seal it. I did not sand the window frame or repaint it at all. I love the old, shabby look to it. There's beauty there that didn't need improving.

I love the 'as is' look to the window. I hope my plan works and I sell out of the windows. I have about 12 that I need to sell. I'm hoping to get $10 each for them. We'll see.

The good news is, after all is said and done, I get to keep at least one of them. :)

52 Weeks to Better Health

Week 8 - Drink Green Tea

I love green tea. That is to say I love the Arizona brand diet green tea. Zero calories. Which means it's sweetened with aspartame. I don't love aspartame. In one's quest to get healthier, one should probably leave out consuming large amounts of aspartame. So really, week eight is about drinking green tea without the artificial sweetener. Oh, but wait, I'm supposed to be cutting down on my sugar intake, too! Okay, so during week eight I tried unsweetened green tea.

Um...yeah, that didn't go over so well. Unsweetened green tea....well....it kinda reminded me of grass. Not that I have ever eaten grass but should I one day find myself trying grass, I can imagine what it will taste like.

So week eight was kind of a bust but I have not given up. I'm going to continue to try green tea in a variety of forms until I fall upon a taste combo I enjoy. Currently I'm loving the Arnold Palmer. This is a drink made up of half iced-tea and half lemonade. It is a DREAM!

Yes, I know, lemonade requires sugar and I need to cut back on my sugar. I'm getting there. I am. What I would like to do, but probably won't until I'm home in Arizona, is brew my own green tea and make my own home-made lemonade. That way, I'll have more control over the amount of sugar in my drink while enjoying the fact that I've made something fresh and natural, from scratch, in my own home.

You'll have to come over and we'll enjoy a glass or two by the pool. I just need to get a pool first.

Week 9 - Exercise

Well, let's just say that week 9 was a bust. I purchased two Jillian Michael's workout videos and fully intended on starting my new workout regime in week nine but that just flat-out didn't happen. Can I get a do-over? I can? Good! Here we go with week 10!

Week 10 - Start my Jillian Michael's Workouts!

It's Friday and I have yet to crack those babies open. LOL! Yeah, I know! I know! But, hey, the week's not over so I'm still good to go. My hubby even said he'd do them with me. Oh, I don't think it's a show of support, really. No, I think it's more of the fact that I spent 20 bucks and he doesn't want them just collecting dust.

So, with that, I'll be getting off the computer now and popping one of those dvds into the system and get this butt moving!

Just let me finish this Arnold Palmer first.

52 Weeks to Better Health - Playing Catch Up!

Okaaaay - let's just get this out of the way. It would appear that someone (whom shall remain nameless) has a bit of difficulty getting to her blog on a weekly basis. Someone has a tad bit of trouble staying focused on goals. Someone, apparently, can't keep track of time week to week. I don't know exactly who this someone is but I'm going to give her a break mainly because she's really sweet, friendly, has a great sense of humor and makes really good fudge.

Fudge, not having anything to do with good health, but, hey....

So I...ahem...SHE would greatly appreciate it, I'm sure, if you would give her a break, too.

Now that we have that out of the way, let's catch up!

In the last three weeks, I've done (am doing today) three things that are VERY important to one's health and I HIGHLY recommend that you do these three things as well.


Week 5 - Yearly Medical Examination

It is recommended that we get a check-up with the doctor on a yearly basis. I am not very good at this. I'm in the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" department and, generally, feel that as long as I feel good, everything must be okay, right? Well, if that isn't just down-right stupid. Many illnesses and diseases can be warded off or fully cured if caught early enough and many illnesses and diseases don't fully show themselves to you until you are feeling like complete poop. So, into the doc's office I went.

I've always been in good health having never had any surgeries, major illnesses or taken any long-term medication. She gave me the usual once-over including drawing blood for some baseline blood work. Everything came back normal with the exception of my bilirubin being slightly elevated. I need to go back in a couple of weeks to have that re-checked. I'll update when that is done.



Week 6 - Dental Examination

It is also recommended that we get our teeth examined and cleaned every six months. I'm not even going to go into detail about when my last visit to the dentist was. Let's just say I was due.

My dental visit was not nearly as painful as I expected. My hygienist was a sweetheart though a little goofy. She reminded me of Teri Garr's character in Friends where she played Phoebe's mom. Darling, nonetheless and gentle with her instruments. The doctor was awesome though I'm pretty sure he completely forgot my lower teeth. I'm not joking. I vividly remember him examining my upper teeth but it wasn't until my drive home when I was reliving the whole experience that, for the life of me, I don't recall him checking my lower teeth. That IS part of a normal exam, isn't it?

Well, I shall ask about it when I return on the 31st to get a couple cavities taken care of. Otherwise, everything else looked good. On my upper teeth, anyway.


Week 7 - Mammogram!!

Since I have reached the 'over 40' crowd....wait, make that the 'Over 40 But Can Pass for 35' crowd, thank you very much, it's time for me to have a complete stranger fondle my boobs and take explicit pictures of them and not just for fun like usual.

My appointment is today and words cannot express how excited I am. No, really. Words cannot express because there are no words. I'm NOT looking forward to this! Are there people who look forward to this? Probably. Weirdos.

Anyhoo, I'll report back every fun-filled detail next week when I post what I'm doing week eight.

Yeah, like that's going to happen! *snort*

Heading Home

They say home is where the heart is. Well, if you know me, you know my heart is in Arizona.

And, yes, I am fully aware of how ungrateful I sound. It's mine. I own it. But if you could just understand for one small moment, I would really appreciate it. I had lived in Arizona for nearly 30 yrs. I think you can relate that, sometimes, the place you live simply becomes a part of you. Penetrates your exterior walls making the character of your surroundings part of your character as well.

You've seen Jersey Shore, right?

Paul was supposed to graduate UNL (University of Nebraska, Lincoln) this spring which would have set him up to start his teaching certification course this summer. Due to a scheduling issue, he will not be able to graduate in time. The teaching certification course starts only once a year. Neither one of us thought it was in our best interest to wait until the following year for him to start that course when there are several wonderful schools in the Phoenix valley. He will be graduating mid-summer and getting his teaching degree in AZ.

So here we come! Moving back home middle of this summer! I'm so very excited but not without the very real understanding that this move comes with it's own set of challenges.

Where will we live? What will we do for work? How will we handle child care until The Boy is in kindergarten (fall of 2012)?

Well, the good news is, we have answers to some of those questions. Where we are going to rest our heads when we first get there being the most important one at this point. More to come on that later.

For now, I'm just excited to tell you we are coming home - and soon! We are already busy going through our things, deciding what makes the cut for the very small truck we will be using to move back and what gets the heave-ho. I LOVE getting rid of stuff. Feels to cleansing. Freeing! I fell out of love with "stuff" before we even moved here. Something God worked very hard to change in me.

Hmm...think He knew what was in store down the road? :)

So, I will keep you posted and by keeping you posted I mean I will probably talk endlessly about this. Home is definitely where the heart is and since my heart is in Arizona, I need to get the rest of my booty there, too!

You're going to help me unpack, right?

52 Weeks To Better Health - Weeks 3 & 4

I tend to fall behind in my little endeavors. Did I tell you that?

It's not that I've fallen behind on my quest for better health. I've just fallen behind on telling you about it. So let's catch up, shall we?

Week 3 - Lower My Sugar Intake.

This will be a two-parter for sure. The first part, I'm just trying to be more aware of the sugary items I feast upon. This is a real daily battle for me because I have a full-blown, no doubt about it, die-hard addiction to sugar. I can't even imagine how much easier everything else about changing my health habits will become once I completely conquer this addiction.

If that's even possible. I'm sure as sh*t going to try though. So far, I've had some good days and I've had some naughty, naughty days. I think the main thing I'm trying to focus on right now is just being aware of my habits. Next, will be to strictly monitor the number of grams of sugar I consume on a daily basis and keep it to a healthy minimum.

Week 4 - Getting Enough Sleep

It wasn't until my daughter was born (and woke every two hours for much of her first year) that I fully understood the importance and value of a good night's sleep. Can I get an AMEN from the mommas out there? Having seen the evidence in the increased lines on my face, I can tell you that lack of sleep will age you quicker than smoking & drinking combined. Okay, that's not really scientific and don't quote me in any health journal or anything but, I'm telling you, lack of sleep will mess you up!

I have a bad habit of going to bed well past a reasonable bedtime. Something to do with Facebook, I think, but can't be entirely sure. I have been trying to be a good girl the last few weeks and getting my tushy in bed no later than 10:30. My alarm goes off at 6:45 a.m. so, barring any bouts of insomnia or sick kids, this should guarantee me a solid 8 hours of sleep. Woohoo!

Here is a quick article on the effects of sleep deprivation. You'll be interested to know that it really doesn't take as much as you think to become sleep deprived. Skipping out on just a couple hours of sleep several times a week can have negative effects on your health.

Well, Week 5 is right around the corner. I have scheduled a dentist appointment and a doctor appointment for next week. I don't know why I thought it would be fun to do both in the same week but I guess I'm just crazy like that. Maybe if I'm a good patient I'll get a lollipop. ;)

52 Weeks to Better Health - Week 2

Last week, I started a new blog series, 52 Weeks to Better Health. In my first week, I chose to immediately give up soda. I'm happy to report I have not had a single sip of soda this entire week. The first couple of days weren't exactly hard but I was definitly craving my favorite sweet drink. Only a week later and I can honestly say, I'm not really missing it!

This week, it only stands to reason that I focus on liquid consumption of the healthier sort and what is more needed and necessary for a healthy body than good ol'fashioned water?

It's long been said that one should consume eight glasses (8 oz) of water a day - roughly 1.9 liters. Though one can also get their daily intake of fluids from food sources (fruit) and other drinks (juices, milk, coffee), I'm going to focus mainly on water alone. I'm focusing soley on water for two reasons: 1) it's pure and 2) zero calories. But mainly, for the zero calories - let's just be honest, okay?

So that is the habit I will be instilling this week and, hopefully, keeping on a regular basis through, not only these next 52 weeks but my entire life. Won't you join me? Put down the pop, coffee, energy drinks and pick up a bottle of good ol'fashioned water. Milk may do a body good but water does it better!

For more information on how much water you should be drinking and why see this article my the Mayo Clinic.

52 Weeks To Better Health - Week 1

I've decided to start a blog series about bettering my health. Each Monday, I will take at least one step towards improving my health on a permanent basis. I'll be honest here - I'm not really looking forward to this. Trading in my bad habits for good ones has never really been my forte. I'm hoping that by going public, I will be more inclined to keep up the good work.

And, I'm really hoping that you will join in with me a time or two to improve your health as well. Please leave a comment and tell me about it if you decide to come along on this ride with me. I'd love to hear from you!

First up: Giving up, FOR GOOD (aack!), my beloved diet pepsi. Diet Pepsi and I have had a long, tumultuous, on again/off again, love-hate relationship for years. I think now it's finally time to say good-bye to this no-good thief of good health once and for all.

*sniff* I'm going to miss you Diet Pepsi. You've been sweet and you've been an energy lift but it's time I find someone who will treat me and my kidneys better than you ever will.

And my bones. And my teeth. And my bottom line (literally).

Want a list of reason why pop is bad for you? Here's a quick, to-the-point article on the subject:

8 Ways Soda Fizzles Your Health

This isn't going to be easy. I work at a restaurant. I am surrounded by a large variety of pop 5 days out of the week. It is my job to pour this stuff up for other people, hours on end. I think I can do it though. I just have to keep reminding myself that with every sip I take, I am literally poisoning my body. Blech.

Next week, I will talk about the importance of water consumption. Obviously, I'm going to have to substitute something for the pop I drink. Water seems like the best way to go. :) I hope I see you next week!

Getting From There to Here, Part III

I have come to write out this post several times with an idea of how I was going to write it and each time I got here, I turned and walked away from it. I kept thinking I wasn't in the right mood. Or I had things to do, the timing was wrong. Or the kids are around and they will interrupt my flow and train of thought. Excuses, really.

I just flat out didn't want to write this part of it. I was even regretting that I had started this series at all. But if there is one thing I've learned over the course of the last five years, it's that if I can't be authentic and an open book, then I don't want to be anything at all. I've been burned by that philosophy in the past (and it's hurt) but the benefits far outweigh the negatives so I fully believe in it and refuse to give it up.

So here I go.

Like I said, we got an offer we could not refuse. We were drowning. Going down for the last time. The stress in our house was palatable, to say the least. We worked so hard to own our home and everything in it and in the end, it owned us. We were both a slave to it and all our possessions (possessions I still don't miss, by the way). Paul was a slave to it financially and, I, physically. I could not keep up with a 3000 sq ft home and two small kids. I know a lot of women who can and great big kudos to them (sincerely) but I am not one of them.

That's where Paul's dad and his wife, Mary, came in.

My husband had left college back in 1991 just shy of getting his degree. This was something that never sat right with his dad. He had wanted to see his son graduate. Knowing we were in a financial mess with, seemingly, no way out and two adorable (if I do say so myself) grandchildren they wanted to spend more time with, they opened up their home to us. We could move in with them, rent free. But it came with one condition - Paul had to go back to school and finish his degree. His dad also offered to pay for school.*

So you see - how does one refuse an offer like that?

You would think we mulled this over and over, weighing out our options, the pros & cons but, really, we didn't.

You know that joke about the guy in the flood? God sends him two boats and a helicopter and he refuses them all saying, "God will provide". He ends us dying, meeting God and says, "What happened? I put my faith in you!" and God replied, "I sent you two boats and a helicopter! What more did you want?!"

Well, when you are drowning, you grab hold of whatever is thrown to you and hang on. That's what we did.

The decision did not come with a heavy price, however. We knew we would have to walk away from our home and default on the lease of our car. We also knew that it would not be enough. We had to file bankruptcy. If you think any of these decisions we just shrugged off with ease, you'd be wrong. I don't know of anyone who takes this sort of thing lightly. It made us sick to our stomachs. I can't tell you how much sleep my husband lost over the several months it takes to declare bankruptcy. This, on top of the sleep he had already been losing trying to figure out how we were going to survive. I literally watched the gray on my husband's head double during this time.

It took months for my husband to come to peace with this decision. We had lost everything and in it's place, we had guilt. We were two people who simply were not raised to "walk away" from our responsibilities. Some of you may judge us for our decision and, you know what?- that's fine. You do that. You can't judge us any more harshly than we did/do ourselves. Except you get to live with you and we get to live with our decision. You get the better deal, trust me on that.

We sold more than 80% of our possessions, packed the rest in a moving truck, headed across country and moved into the 800 sq ft** basement of my in-laws home in Nebraska on November 15th, 2008. To say there have been adjustments is an understatement. To say that God has taught me more humility than I ever thought possible is an understatement. To say that I have had to learn how to readjust my thinking, my patience, my stubbornness, my need to control, my acceptance of other people and my nearly absent ability to give-in is an understatement.

To say that I have learned a deep sense of compassion and understanding for other people in similar situations and desperately want to hug them and say, "You're going to be okay" is an understatement.

So that's it. That is how we got from there - in deep debt in Mesa, AZ, to here - Small Town, Nebraska, learning how to build our way back.

When you hit rock bottom, you've got two ways to go - straight up or sideways ~ Winona Judd

*Paul has been able to pay back his dad nearly all of the tuition money with grants.

**That's an approximate. I really have no idea the square footage of the basement. I just know it's too small for a family of four. lol!

Cooking with Campbell's Soup

I love to bake but cooking is not my thing. I can get your basic meal on the table but I don't have much fun doing so. Cooking, to me, is a chore right up there with laundry and cleaning the shower. I do it because it has to be done. I do it because, for reasons unbeknownst to me, my four and soon-to-be seven year old have yet to learn to do it for themselves.

Or for me, for that matter.

When I was a kid, other than for the occasional spaghetti or meatloaf dinners, I was not made to learn how to cook. My helping out in the kitchen was mainly regulated to peeling and chopping the veggies (which, for some odd reason, I was insanely eager to do), and to cleaning up afterwards. And that was just fine with me. Being a last-born baby, I was perfectly at ease with the system of having my plate of food magically appear before me each and every night. Who am I to mess with a working system?

When Paul and I were first living together, our dinners consisted mainly of Taco Bell and the occasional spaghetti which, despite this being one of the meals I did learn as a young adult, Paul would actually make. I think I may have buttered the garlic toast but I can't be sure. It could be that I just think I buttered the garlic toast but, since it has been so many years, I am now simply confusing fantasy with an actual memory.

After a year together we moved to Omaha where we lived for two years. Yes, you read that right, we really did do this once before. During those two years, we barely had a dime between us so it didn't take long before we realized that cooking at home made more financial sense than eating out every night did. Sometimes, it takes us awhile.

So we did what any kitchen-savvy young couple would do. We went to the grocery store, grabbed a very large bag of pre-cooked, heat-n-eat chicken breasts, threw it in the cart and then filled the rest of the cart with .89 cent boxes of Pasta Roni. We were set to feast!

And feast we did! For about three months. Actually, I don't think we even lasted that long. It doesn't take long at all, really, for one to get tired of heat-n-eat chicken breasts and Pasta Roni four or more nights a week. The day finally came when I had had enough. I was going to figure out this cooking thing even if it killed me.

I remembered I had a cookbook in the top cupboard above that stove-thingy. I got it out, dusted it off (and I mean that literally as it was a few years old and had remained wholly untouched) and started looking through it. It was a Campbell's Soup Recipe book. Each and every recipe started out with a Campbell's soup as a main ingredient. What I liked about this cookbook was it gave you three to four variations for each recipe so you could tweak it to your liking. I picked out a couple recipes and made my grocery list.

Once home from grocery shopping, I set out to make my very first "real" meal. I was happily surprised to discover how easy it was! So easy, in fact, that from that point on, for a very long time, recipes from the Campbell's Soup Recipe book became a mainstay. There were times, even, when I found myself at the grocery store without a list or a plan, I would simply head to the soup aisle, pick out a couple cans of Campbell's soup that had recipes on the back and proceed to do my grocery shopping from there. Hey, whatever works, right?

I like to think that I've come a long way since then and, in some ways I have, but I have got to admit that cooking with soup is still easy and convenient. Somewhere along the way, I lost that original cookbook but have, through my luck at garage sales, picked up two more. Over the next weeks, maybe even months, I'm going to be sharing with you recipes from those two cookbooks. Even if you are well adept in the kitchen, you still may find something new to try or a twist on an already favorite recipe of yours. If you are like me and simply not all that passionate about cooking, you might find something inspirational to get you passionate. Or, at least, not be so bored about it. Either way, I hope there is something for everyone.

I'll keep up with it until I've gone through the majority of the recipes or until my food starts to magically appear before me again. Whichever comes first! :)

Getting From There to Here, Part II

Continuing from my last post...

Paul lost his job in January of 2008. You are probably thinking that is when we started to panic but you'd be wrong. In the home sales business, it is not uncommon to go from one builder to the next. It happens all the time either by choice or by force. We had been down that road before and, while it wasn't much fun, it wasn't too hard to deal with when you had played the cards right and had enough savings tucked away to see you through to the next employer...which we did.

Except, there was no "next" employer.

Paul had already decided, much to my delight, that he was not going back into real estate. He had decided, much to my chagrin, to give insurance sales another try.

Let me just stop things right here and explain to you a couple of things: while the real estate biz was pretty good to us, I was exhausted from the financial uncertainty that comes with it. We lived by the words, "Some days steak. Some days hot dogs". I was tired of the rollercoaster ride and I wanted off. I was tired of seeing my husband stressed by the business of commission sales and I wanted him off that damn ride, too! But if there's one thing that I hate more than the business of real estate, it's the business of insurance sales. I have said for years that you either must have a solid three years of living expenses in the bank or you really have to hate yourself before getting into insurance sales. It is not for the faint of heart.

It's also not for a (sort of) young couple with two small kids who have bills to pay. Lots of bills.

So when he said he was going to give insurance another try, my heart sank but, at the same time, I trusted my husband and thoroughly believed in him. And regardless of how the decision to go back into insurance may have played a part in where we are today, I will never regret believing in my husband. I do still to this day.

Needless to say, insurance sales went no where. We lived off of our savings for nearly ten months. I am thankful that my husband had the diligence to put money into savings like he did or we wouldn't have had even those ten months. During that time, we tried to sell our home. Ha! Now there's a laugh. We tried to sell our home during a real estate down-turn. We tried to sell our home when there was NO WAY possible we could get what we owed on it.

Needless to say, we couldn't sell our home. I will tell you a little more about our home and how my 3000 sq. ft dream home was our day-to-day living nightmare in another post on down the line. It's another story entirely but one worth sharing with you.

So there we sat - no income, savings depleted, unable to sell our home, bills to pay. What do you do when you are in that situation? We didn't know. We had never been faced with something of this magnitude before and we felt like we were out of options.

That's when it came to us...an offer we could not refuse.

To be continued...

Getting From There to Here.

Otherwise titled: How The Hell We Ended Up In My In-laws Basement in Nebraska.

In the beginning, God created real estate and it was good. It was really, really good for over 20 years, actually. Especially good in Arizona. My hubby started in real estate in 1997. He was not an independent real estate agent. Instead, he sold homes for various home builders over the coarse of 11 years. Some really great home builders and some that I'd like to verbally rip apart if ever given the opportunity but that is neither here nor there. Though there were times when money got tight, overall, real estate was very good to us.

We rode the proverbial real estate wave of good fortune and honestly believed there would never be an end to it. We heard whispers of an oncoming crash but thought that only applied to the rest of the country. Surely, nothing bad could happen in Arizona where people had moved to in droves for over 20 years or more. Arizona was untouchable. Arizona was where one moved when things didn't work out elsewhere. Arizona was the fresh start, the new life, the "we're on our way now" of the country.

Arizona was the Big Time for new home builders and you know what they say - the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

Paul lost his job the first week of January, 2008. A LOT of real estate agents lost their jobs in 2008. You know how they say everyone in L.A. who has a regular job is also an actor? Well, everyone in Arizona is also a real estate agent. Out-of-work agents flooded the streets like confetti during a Macy's parade. Not that it mattered to Paul. He wasn't going back to real estate anyway. He would be getting another job just as soon as you can say 'pickle'. Except we did say pickle. We said it a lot. So much so that we ended up in one.

to be continued...

Girly Girl

No, I am not a girly-girl. I once took a Facebook test titled, "How Girly Are You?" and scored a 0%.

Zero percent. Yeah, not good for the feminine ego. And while, yes, it can be said that I primarily live in tennis shoes, rarely carry a purse, have out-right ordered my husband to never buy me jewelry and consider power tools a perfectly acceptable anniversary gift, I'm not exactly SNL's Pat for crap's sake!

I vehemently disagree with my Facebook score. Anyone that knows me knows that, at a minimum, I should have scored in the tenth percentile! In defense of my Girliehood, I would like to present to you the following evidence:

My favorite color is pink.
I prefer chick flicks over any other genre of movie (The Hangover is a chick flick, right?)
I pay considerable attention to my hair.
I love decorative pillows.
I will not handle bugs or anything that emits a liquid substance when threatened.
I watch Lifetime for Women.*

And I paint my toes! See:

I purchased some of those pretty, flowery sticky thingies to decorate my toes with but, alas, I have given birth to a true, dyed-in-the-wool girly-girl and she claimed them as her own right away and I haven't seen them since.

Hmm...maybe I should have Punky start taking my tests for me!

*Okay, that one is a lie. I hate that channel. It sounded good for a minute though.

Mom, Can I Play In The Sink?

This question is a double-edged sword in my home. On one side, we have an opportunity to have a child well occupied for an hour or two without electronic assistance.
On the other, the possibility...ah, hell, the all likelihood that a mess is going to be made.

But with laundry on the horizon and a myriad of other household duties on my list (not to mention another episode of Kitchen Nightmares recorded, ready to be watched), I'll take the hours of quiet time and consider the somewhat small mess an easy price to pay.

It helps to take some precautions. With a little planning, some of the mess will take care of itself.

That is, with the help of a load of towels that will need to be washed. Easy enough.

When it takes so little to entertain - a little water, a couple of racing buddies and a vivid imagination...

it makes it hard to say no. He comes up with the storyline on his own instead of it being told to him. That's the best part, I think. Messes come and go but an imagination only grows when adequately encouraged.

This mess, for instance, came rather quickly when the orange VW bus that had previously been through some mud was invited into the pool.

Meh. When did a little mud ever hurt anyone, anyway?

Chocolate Chip Muffins

For some time now, we have been buying those mini-muffins from Hostess for the kids to have for breakfast a couple days a week. They come five to a pack, four packs to a box. I was buying them strictly for the convenience factor.

For the record, my kids usually get a banana with their muffins, just so you know their breakfasts aren't completely without nutritional merit. Oh, and I stopped feeding them Pop-tarts, too! Write that down because that's really important! Your testimony may help me in court some day.

Anyhoo, those dang muffins are expensive and filled with all sorts of "stuff" in order to make them last longer than the plastic on Joan Rivers' face. In an effort to transition towards healthier eating and a more dollar-friendly grocery bill, I've decided to start baking more from scratch. I found a recipe for chocolate chip muffins on AllRecipes.com - a website I highly recommend, by the way!

Here's the recipe from Janice at AllRecipes.com. If you read the comments (and I ALWAYS read the comments! You can pick up some valuable tips from others who have tried the recipe), you'll see that a few of them increased the amount of liquid in the recipe. I have tried it with and without doing this and, let me tell you, you MUST increase the liquid ingredients. The muffins come out much too dry otherwise.

For this last batch, I opted for Sweet Caramel Sprinkle from Pampered Chef to sprinkle on the tops of the muffins (before going into the oven) instead of the white sugar/brown sugar combo. They turned out dee-lish!

I would like to start switching out my mainstream ingredients for their organic cousins. I just ran out of flour, so I think this would be a good time to buy an organic version. Baby steps, baby steps. I just found out that Fremont has an organic bakery. I hope to stop by very soon and speak to the owner about her ingredients and where she buys them. Of course, I'll probably have to taste test a few of her creations.

We'll call it "research". There are no calories in research!

Try the chocolate chip muffins or just try baking from scratch but, definitely let go of the pop-tarts!

Oops! I'm At It Again!

Yep. Blogging. It's kinda what I do. I write. I stop writing. I start writing again.

Huh. Funny, now that I think about it, I seem to have that same pattern with dieting.

Just be thankful that you are only a reader and not a pair of my jeans. Or worse, the spot on the mattress where your butt rests when you sleep that dips after a year or two but the rest of the mattress stays the same.

Oh, don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about! A butt crater! You have a butt crater on your bed! Go look if you don't believe me. I'll wait.

Anyway. Writing. I'm doing it again and you get to come along for the ride.

Everybody say, "Weeeeeee!" like that little Geico pig.

Niiiiiice. Thank you for that.

I'll blog more detailing what the sam-hell this here blog is about later on. In a day or two. Or maybe in the next half-hour. I don't know. That's kinda how I roll: with a passion for uncertainty in a land of oblivion - with a take-no-prisoners approach to my fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants sense of adventure.

No, really, I have two small kids so finding 15 minutes of uninterrupted time is like finding a man who will change a diaper without several minutes of bargaining and negotiations. I have to jump on my opportunities when they come.

In the meantime, go flip your mattress. It'll make you feel better.