Just a quick tip...

Today and the rest of the week really I'm going to be super duper busy so I may not be on here all that much. BUT...one great tip I wanted to share. Since I'm really busy with training for work and getting ready for my grandmothers 85th birthday, my poor son has to really fend for himself sometimes. Of course I'm always watching him, but he's got to keep himself company playing outside or inside.

I have dedicated the bottom drawer in our refrigerator to Simon. In there I have put individual cheddar cheese sticks, gogurts, and snack packs of grapes and cut up strawberries. That way when he's ready for a snack, he can go in there and get it himself. Of course he has to ask me first but they're available! Oh and I keep the banana's within his reach too. Of course he doesn't eat all of these things all day, but in those times when he's hungry (and lets face it, right now he's always hungry, he's a growing boy!) I like to keep some things handy where he can get it himself.

Fathers day

I know this is a bit late in the day, but we still have 22 minutes of Fathers Day so I wanted to say "HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!" to all of our dads. I have to say I have been fortunate enough to have a wonderful father in my life. I feel sorry for so many who have not grown up with their fathers or those who's fathers chose to stay out of their lives. My dad was such an intricate part of my upbringing and someone who I have much respect for. He's our rock in our family and one that we go to for advice on BBQing, finances, and our how to guy. Much love to my papa!

Simon is extremely fortunate to have a wonderful father in his life too! My dear husband is an incredible father. Simon waits until his dad gets home from work everyday and most of the time at around 5 o'clock, I have a very happy little boy. I truly thank God for Darren being a wonderful father who loves nothing more than being with his boy and will do whatever he needs to do to make sure that we want for nothing.

As for food...almost nothing was cooked tonight. At daddy's request, I made beans on toast with an egg on top. I didn't get a picture of it because my stomach was giving me needless problems so I wanted to just go lay down. Of course dad and son ate it all up which is always nice! It's a traditional English meal that you can eat at any time of the day. It's basically toast, with baked beans (or pork & beans in tomato sauce here in the US) poured on top of the buttered toast, with an egg on top of the beans. I know it sounds weird, gross, or strange, but I assure you, once you try it, you'll like it!

As for last night, I had a request from Simon for some fried rice. I think he was thinking of the curry fried rice I make, but I made him "traditional" fried rice. I can tell you this was NOT good at all. I made it as said, but I did add some peas and carrots and this just tasted too salty and way too much sesame oil. I didn't like it one bit and neither did Simon, although daddy ate it up.

Luckily we had some yummy baked sweet & sour chicken. I have made this recipe a few times and will continue to do so because it's delicious! I did not line my pan with foil, simply because I didn't have any and to be honest, it worked out for the best. Occasionally my chicken would stick to the foil but the one time I didn't use foil and just sprayed the pyrex generously with PAM, it didn't stick. Now bear in mind this DOES make quite a bit. Enough to have at least two full meals (by full meals, enough to feed a family of four). I like to make that amount that way we can have leftovers for lunch or to use it for another dinner.

Wanna see my buns?

I made my own sesame seed buns today and they turned out fabulous!! I really cannot tell you how liberating it feels to make your own food. No preservatives, nothing you can't pronounce, just basic ingredients. I don't feel chained to the grocery store and if I'm out of something, I just make it. I cut our leftover mini meatloaves in half and made mini sliders with french fries (home made of course). It was an absolute hit with the family and something that will be made on a regular basis.

In my kitchen...

I was thinking today how my best investment ever has been my Sunbeam bread machine. I got it about two years ago from amazon.com for $35 and it has saved hundreds of dollars! Now it's double that price, but to be honest, I'd still pay it. I make bread, yeast rolls, cinnamon rolls, and have even made jam. Honestly the jam was a bit of a waste because it didn't make that much and we go through jam like crazy in our household. Anyway, yesterday was a full day of cooking and baking.

First off, I made some chili soup, which is yummy and full of fiber. I didn't have macaroni noodles but did have fideos so that's what I used and it worked just fine! I did also add some cayenne pepper to give it a bit of a kick. I've decided that weekly, I'm going to make a big container of soup to eat for lunch. Lunch has always been my downfall. I'm generally good during breakfast and mostly during dinner, but lunch has always been difficult. I sometimes wait too late to eat therefor when I finally get a chance to eat, I scarf down whatever I can and it's not good so I'm determined to eat some healthy soups. Of course healthy is the key here. There are tons of soups out there that are the equivalent of eating a cheeseburger with fries so I'm sure to look for good soups.

Then I made some buttery yeast rolls BUT...made them for cinnamon rolls. Now I know that's not healthy but I wanted to try them and wanted to make some for my husband to take to work. They turned out pretty good for my first time I must say but after putting the mixture of butter, sugar and cinnamon was very dirty. The yeast rolls are very fluffy and are meant to roll into balls to rise again, but I tried to roll them out which was okay but after rolling them up and then cutting them, my counter, knife, and myself were terribly dirty. That being said, they turned out to be pretty good for my first time.

After that I finally made my meatloaf. This was recommended by a friend and they turned out yummy! I did what my friend Dori suggested and invested in a good muffin pan. Wilton I believe and I'm really glad that I did. I had about two pounds of ground beef, a box of Stove Top Stuffing (chicken flavor), and egg and about 3/4 cup of milk. I mix it all up and made it into little balls then patted them down into my muffin pans. I had too much meat mixture to fit into the twelve slots so I got my little muffin pan that has six and three fit in there. I was going to make creamed spinach to go along with it but was too tired and time was not on my side so I just made green beans and mashed potatoes. Obviously we had too a lot of leftovers so today, I'm going to make homemade hamburger buns and use those little mini meatloaves and make sliders with french fries.

Sad

It amazes me how silly I can really be at times. Especially when it comes to death. If someone dies that I haven't seen in a while, I am of course instantly sad when I first hear the news, but when I hang up the phone, I kind of go about my business thinking of that person and when I last saw them. In my mind, they're not gone and it's not real. To me, they're hundreds of miles away doing their thing and I'm doing mine, the way it's been done since the last time I saw them. That is until I actually see the obituary. Then, it becomes real and the sadness becomes real.

A family friend that I have known literally all my life lost her husband, Ricardo Torres, Jr. Monday. He was too young, she was too young, it's just terribly tragic. 41 years old is too young to have to plan a funeral for your husband. 41 years old is too young to die. Ricardo was married to my sisters best friend, Melissa. As I said, I've known Missy all my life and wanted to be like her when I was younger (still do lol). She met Ricardo and they married in 1995. He was a great compliment to Missy because she always had and still has a great smile with perfect teeth, just like my sister. He had an equally wonderful smile and was just a decent guy with a calming demeanor. I really cannot imagine the loss that is felt by Missy and their families and I pray for them.

May our brother in Christ finally be at peace and may the Lord accept him with open arms.

Sittin' pretty

Finally, at 11:29pm I'm sitting down to "relax". Is relaxation even something we moms are able to do? I'm watching a Young & the Restless episode on DVR and trying to think what else I can do to tweak my latest English Chinese Curry recipe attempt. This one was pretty good, but definitely needs room for improvement, as with anything. You really have no idea how difficult it is to get an English style recipe for food that's not English if you get what I'm saying. We haven't been to London in about 4 years and that's the longest we've gone so naturally my husband starts missing his comfort foods. I naturally want to make him comfortable so in I go giving it the old college try.

He was gracious in his review and gave me some great constructive criticism which I already knew about the recipe but needed confirmation in his critique. I didn't have the luxury of curry paste so I had to make my own. I had a bit of coconut milk, curry powder, ground tumeric, ground cardamom seeds and a bit of cinnamon. Next time I will definitely add some honey for the sweetness and I did add some flour to thicken up the sauce. I didn't cook any veggies with this, well other than the peas that were in the recipe, but I will definitely cook some veggies. Birdseye Asian Medley is delicious and would go great with it.

I think I could probably eat Asian or Indian food every night of the week so finding new recipes is a must!

Tomorrow is my final day in the Amish friendship starter bag so I can make some yummy Amish bread. I have to say I'm really taking to cooking, especially from scratch. I don't see the need to buy anything prepackaged because it's a waste of money and definitely doesn't taste as good. In fact, a lot of the time it tastes like what it is...processed.

Speaking of bread, I'm having difficulties with my Amish white bread splitting. I found an awesome website with some great tips and I can't wait to try them. I think I'll probably be cooking a lot tomorrow...again.

As for dinner, I have no idea what will be on the agenda tomorrow. Since I plan on baking a lot, I may as well do a meat loaf, something easy. A dear friend of mine came over for dinner Saturday night and brought some mini meatloaves made with milk, egg, and stove top stuffing in 2lbs of ground beef. It was some of the yummiest meatloaf I've ever had. I usually make an Italian meatloaf but for a more traditional meatloaf, this hit the spot. I made this with a corn/cream cheese concoction (again, another friend recipe). It was a quick, easy, yet yummy dinner so I think that's what will be on tomorrows agenda.

Hey good lookin...

What am I cookin'? I used to listen to Anthony Bourdain and thought that Rachael Ray was a lame chef/cook whatever you want to call her. Bourdain might know a lot about cooking, and food, but does he know how it is to cook a yummy meal on a budget with a toddler running around? Probably not. I was recently in a slump and had Food Network on TV and Rachael Ray was on. I admit her voice is a little annoying but I thought, what the hey...I'm gonna check her out. SO...I watched her and lo and behold she had an awesome recipe that used pretty much everything I had. Mind you, this is when I was watching my friends kids and I wanted to make something healthy and good, something I'd want my son to eat if he was at someones house. Anyway...she had this recipe and I made this simply by watching what was on her show.

Mind you...I didn't do the whole thing verbatim. I substituted the white wine with chicken stock, and I made instant mashed potatoes minus the apples and brie. For one, I didn't have brie and I didn't add the apples because I didn't have apples LOL. But I followed everything else the way it was written. I got glowing reviews from all at the table and it was a very simple dish. And yes...I am a Rachael Ray fan now.

And on to everyday life...I have been super busy training for a new position with Westathome. If anyone is looking to work from home, feel free to click on that link and check it out. Now that I work at home, lots of people are asking me how I do it and that is how! It's wonderful that companies like these give moms like me an opportunity to actually DO some work from home so we can be home with our little ones. I remember being small and wishing my mom stayed home with me and sometimes faking sick just to be home with her. I know she did what they had to do and I appreciate it all but I have always wanted to stay home and be with my kiddo no matter what age he is and now that he's going to start school, I feel it's double important that I am here when he gets home. I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to bring in much needed money AND be home for my son. No one to answer to if he gets sick or just needs extra attention and NO office politics!!

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to contact me and I'd be happy to help any way I can.

MAMA DRAMA!!

Okay, for anyone who has been following the Real Housewives series, you KNOW how much drama they have! Well right now, I'm following two LOL ( Call me a Housewive Whore) and Holy Estrogen Batman...these chicks will fight and argue over ANYTHING!! I swear a chicken wouldn't walk on all those eggshells they've got set up!

I don't think I could ever live like that and have those "friends". Seriously, this is why I enjoy having the friends I do, because you don't have to walk on eggshells or be scared every little thing is gonna piss them off and you certainly don't have to be worried they're gonna call you out in front of a crowd! LOL Oy vey....for some reason Jill Zarin comes to mind. I'm happy in my little middle class neighborhood and yes it sucks to not be able to spend $20,000 on a shopping spree but I'd take Target any day over Saks if it means I can have real friends and real relationships!

I started posting something about this yesterday but had to promptly shut down my computer because of some nasty storms we got. I found a JOB!! Like a JOB JOB, like one where I'm hired and stuff! I still have my gig with LiveOps but I found one with more stable income and I'm so excited! I'm telling anyone who will listen!! WWW.WOMENFORHIRE.COM is awesome!! They have a lot of legitimate work at home jobs and some have small fees but none will ask you to give a considerable amount of money (to me, a considerable amount is over $100) and I have found great success with them. I'm always hearing women talk about how they'd love a work at home job and then nothing happens...well you can work at home if you don't look!!! Anyway...I'm off to make my coffee, my day is just getting started and I foresee Sams Wholesale Club in my future.

Life in general

I was in such a slump the last few weeks and I am slowly forcing my way out of it. I'm really not meant to stay indoors for a long period of time, so this is unusual for me. A few great things that came out of this is I have been cooking like a champ, which my husband is super happy of and I've also been able to work some (although not enough) but now I'm ready to venture out in the the world of the living!

I have Simon's fourth birthday coming up next week which should be fun. My whole family is coming in to celebrate with us and of course we'll have a fabulous cake made from our own cake baker. I have to be honest, I'm not much of a child's party planner. I tend to forget things and someone always has to pick up my slack, but not this year! This year I'm making it simple and orchestrated. My husband and I agreed on a date ahead of time and agreed on the menu. What's on the menu? Hot Dogs, Chips, and cake. That's it. I'm slowly learning the people don't always judge you and what you give them, they'll likely accept and with pleasure! I know if I were to go to a party (and I have) with just hot dots and potato chips, I've been as happy as a clam and so has Simon!! So why in the world in my mind, do I feel the need to have a buffet of food and then I get so overwhelmed I do nothing?!? Not this year, I'm finally realizing that it's okay to have something simple yet delicious and that the parties are for the kiddos and to stop being so self conscious! It's a party, a celebration and I'm sure people will just have fun when their kiddos are having fun ;o) And the cake...ahh the cake. That is surly the piece de resistance! I'll be sure to post a picture of this masterpiece before it's completely devoured.

So what's in store for today? Making a traditional English roast. Roast beef, steamed brussell sprouts, carrots, peas and zuccini with roast potatoes and Yorkshire pudding and for dessert? Custard pie!! My family will certainly be happy as will I!

Other than that, I'm gonna lay low. I went out with some friends last night to just have a couple of beers and relax. It was REALLY nice to be able to go somewhere that wasn't a grocery store or run errands and it was especially good not to have to worry about anyone but yourself. I LOVE being a mom but sometimes you just need those down time with friends that you can just hang with and not have to worry about stepping on toes or pissing off.

Ugg...how do you say "I'm sorry" enough?

My apologies to my readers (even if there is only 1 or 2 LOL). I have been a super BAD blogger. I'm sorry!! Life has been happening and what can I say? I had to deal with it. There has been A LOT going on in my life right now and it's been pretty hectic, crazy, exciting, and tiring to say the least. First off...my mother in law left back to the UK. It was a sad couple of days for me and I cried like the big baby that I am and had to learn a new routine so I did. I have to keep in mind that she will return and we'll go and see her, I just really hate goodbyes.

Okay so then...I GOT A JOB!!!!!!!!!!! It's a work at home job which is awesome because I never have to leave my house (like I do a lot anyway *rolls eyes*). I just go upstairs to my office, sign on and start working. It can be done. I hear a lot of people say that they wish the could find a job where they can work at home and there really is NO SECRET, you CAN find one if you truly want to!! I work for a company called LiveOps and so far so good. I won't go too much into detail as I'm sure there are some confidentiality rules to it but I can say that it is a great way for a SAHM like myself to earn some real money and never have to leave your kiddies.

I'm very fortunate enough to have met some great women & men on there that have helped me tremendously and are true inspirations. Some earn a little, others earn a lot, it all depends on YOU and what you want for yourself and your family. As of this moment, I'm earning a substantial amount but plan on working more when my son goes to school in August. I work some nights and weekends while my husband can look after Simon and it seems to work well for us. I really wanted to contribute, pay off some debt, save some money for vacations or emergencies and just have something to do and this has really been a God send.

Okay and what more? Well I've been baking my own bread since about March. I bake about two to four loaves a week (sometimes more, sometimes less) and it's been a real money saver. Not to mention the wonderful taste and smell that only homemade bread can bring. I know what the ingredients are and feel great about giving it to my family. I have been dabbling in bread making for about 2 years now and never found a recipe that worked for me. FINALLY, one of my good friends gave me this recipe that kicked ass! *Shout out to Dori!* And since then, no more store bought bread for us. I use my bread machine of course, but I just use that for the dough bit and I roll out the dough when it's finished, and put it in bread pans and bake it. Wanna know this recipe you say? It's Amish White Bread and it's delicious. If you're looking for a way to save some $$, make healthier foods for your family and want something delicious, try this! I do make some very slight modifications so if you want to know just let me know and I can give you my little mods.

Family is all good, the boy is growing every day and is using words I never thought I'd hear him say. Like "Mom, that man is awesome!!". He's really into super heros these days and his birthday is coming up so fast I can't even wrap my head around it. He'll be 4 years old! Where did the time go? I love him more and more each day and can't imagine what life would be like without him to brighten up my life. He's truly a blessing which makes me so glad that we named him after an Apostle.

On a sad note, my dear grandmother Francis is not doing so well. She's had some issues with falling a lot lately and this last fall really took her out. She's a very strong woman and has held on with all her might through congestive heart failure, a blood infection, AND pneumonia. She's doing okay right now but is a bit confused but she's amazing held on tight and still fighting! We keep her in our prayers every night and pray that she pulls through this tough period.

Anyway...I gotta cut my boys hair (another money saver). I've been cutting it since he was a year old but now that he's getting older, I need to brush up on my technique so I'm watching a Youtube video of how to cut hair and I have to say it's pretty cool!

Till next time friends! And I promise I will try not to let next time come sometime in the fall!

My pup has been sick

My poor son has been sick for a little over a week now. He'll get better, and no fever, then he'll get fever again. I don't know what it is, but we're going to the doctor on Monday (hopefully they can get us in!) just to see what's going on. He's rarely sick, in fact, I think this is the first time in a year or over a year that he's been sick so I guess we were bound for an illness at some point. I feel bad for him because I can tell he's getting cabin fever and ready to be out and about and if he didn't have fever, I would take him out for a bit.

Not sure where he got it from or when but you can never tell with kids. They're always passing around germs even when we don't know it. It's amazing when you think about all the surfaces that they touch that we don't know about. Not to mention coming into contact with kids with runny noses and coughs. You just can't keep them from getting what they're going to get. I used to get all vexed when Simon was around a child that "could" be sick, you know the kids with the snotty noses and coughs that seem to always be there, but no matter what, the germs will still be there. Okay now if someone brought their child around with a KNOWN illness, yeah, I'd be ticked off, but ALL of us parents, and I don't care who you are, have taken your children out with runny noses, and coughs when you don't think they're contagious or over their illness, you can't help it sometimes!

So our week and part of last week was dealt with fever and now we're dealing with cough. I have a slight cough myself but I know for a fact mine is due to the weather change, I always deal with this. I think I have really bad allergies and probably should be on a daily allergy medicine, but I hate taking medicines, especially one you have to take daily. My pup on the other hand, never has anything so I'm not convinced his is allergies. I feel bad for my MIL though because she's been stuck in doors for weeks it seems and even she got a little bit of a head cold.

On another note...my job is almost up and running. I'm waiting on our phone line to be completed. They came over here and semi installed it but something else needed to be done. Also, I need a few more accessories then I'll be ready. I have to say, right now, I'm not too excited because I'm getting very little sleep waking up checking on Simon and checking his temp so I'm not all that thrilled at working right now, but I gotta do what I gotta do!

I'm bored.

I'm so damn bored. I finally got my WAHM job that I wanted and what the hell am I doing? Looking at crap on the internet rather than completing my background check and checking what I need to install. I'm so pathetic. I think I'm really waiting for my real break. You know, when I win the lottery. I know I'm so lucky that I don't even have to buy a lottery ticket but once and I'll win, I'm just putting it off so I can live in no money hell.

Speaking of money...how the hell can these people on HGTV afford $500,000 1200sq. ft. homes? Does everyone outside of Texas make a huge amount of money? They say it like it's no big deal..."Well I know our budget is going to limit us. Our price range is between $400,000 and $500,000 so I know we're going to have to make some compromises." Seriously?!?!? What the hell!?

One person

Ahhhh this blog is going to help me get out a little bit of frustration so here it goes.

I'm really tired of ONE person being able to ruing things for everyone else. Whether it be a mood, a way of doing things, prayer in school whatever, it sucks that ONE person can bring it down. There are many examples I can give of this personal and not but one such example is in our little towns elections.

We have a wonderful Gmail group for our neighborhood. It's run by a gentleman that can be a smart ass but is hilarious and he's taken it upon himself to start this group for us. It's always a wealth of information regarding upcoming community events, lost animals, a place to sell your things, crime etc...and I consider it invaluable to our small community. Unfortunately ONE woman who seems to have taken things the wrong way and has thrown a hissy fit has threatened to unravel the group. She is a mayoral candidate and the man who runs our unofficial HOA website had put up for all of us to go and meet the candidates. This chick didn't include herself so when she heard that we had a "meet and greet" she accused our little group of being a PAC and that we can be penalized.

Of course this changed everything and a disclaimer had to be added. It really ticks me off how ONE woman can take things completely the wrong way and start bitching and threatening. I have little to no patience for people like that because it's their own insecurities and issues that they reflect on everyone else and ruin things. This woman did no favors to herself or her campaign. Rather than just takes things on the chin and say "Hi, sorry I wasn't apart of the last meet & greet, but I'd like to introduce myself" she decided she was going to throw a hissy fit and make herself look like an ass therefore, she's losing votes. I sent her an email telling her so and why.

Okay...off my high horse.

Poor little Simon & I have been sick but we're on the mend, I'm just taking it easy this weekend and we're going to have to postpone the rodeo and family thing till next weekend. Next weekend is going to be a party the whole time!

This week...

This week has been interesting already. I've dealt with drama, joy, and lack of sleep. Lack of sleep is the worst of the three LOL. For some reason, my dear baby boy has decided NOT to sleep. He's taking over an hour to get to bed, then we hear "mama, I have to go pee", "mama, can you come tuck me in?", "mama, are you gonna cuddle with me?". MAMA MAMA MAMA MAMA MAMA!!!!!

I don't know what his problem is but I bet it has something to do with his Nana being here. I think he feels like he's going to miss something while she's here so he'd rather not sleep. Also, he's scared of "monsters". How in the world do you deal with this? I've tried the "monster spray" and praying and showing him what's in his closet and nothing is helping. I'm kind of at a loss here and him sleeping with us or vice versa is not an option. I've done my share of sleeping with him and it's not comfortable in the least!

I'm hoping and praying that tomorrow, he'll at least sleep until 7am, but with my luck, it's school tomorrow so he'll sleep in until 8:30. Tomorrow is his Valentines day party and I have to say, I suck at being a prepared parent. I just found out that Valentines Day cards were needed so now I have to get my happy ass out the door at 8am to go to Dollar General to buy Valentines cards and cut up some apples all before 8:30am. I need to get my ass in gear and pay attention to it all before he starts real school but his "school" is with a yahoo group which I completely don't understand. I'm a creature of habit and I like forums whereas google and yahoo groups are not set up like forums so you see post.post.post.post. rather than a post where all of the conversations are in one, you have to close. open. close. open to read it all. Yeah I know I'm being picky but hey, this is my damn blog so I can pick if I want to. And I must put a disclaimer...this is NOT anything against anyone who started the group, this is just MY opinion just as I don't like our HOA group on google. I like forums ;o)

So what else is in for this week...Thursday not sure what's going on then and Friday, another Valentines Day party (these are getting costly, someone in the valentines industry is sure making it's money on kids parties, that's for damn sure). Oh wait...Thursday, my family comes in!!! I get to see my mama, daddy, sister and niece!!! I cannot wait to see them, I haven't seen them since November so it's about time. Simon for sure is ready to see them. Saturday we're going to take my MIL to a rodeo and I'm sure my sister and I are gonna get into some trouble there. Anywhere there is beer and cowboys, my sister & I WILL be in trouble.

On this morning...

On this morning, I am thankful for my family and friends. I just woke up with this feeling of being grateful. My parents and sisters are awesome and are always there for me no matter what and I have a group of friends here who have been awesome friends for almost two years and I'm not sure what I'd do without them. I don't know why I'm so reflective today, I hope I'm not dying! LOL

Anyway...enough mush. Last night was an awesome night! Dh & I went to the gun range and have some Indian food with our friends and had a great time! This was the first time I actually shot my 9mm and Dh was right, once you start shooting, you don't want to stop. I think we went through 86 rounds so needless to say, we need to buy more bullets. Dh wanted me to shoot the Mossberg 12 gauge and I said HELL NO! I saw him shoot it and when I saw that first burst of fire (flames and all) that put me off it big time. The blast was so loud that people came looking to see what kind of gun it was. All I know is if a burglar comes in our house and hears the unmistakable sound of that thing being prepped for shooting...they'll shit their pants and for good reason. There's no way someone would live if that thing got someone, so thieves better think twice about going into homes, you never know who's got one!

I also got to shoot our friends AK-47 and some other bad ass shot gun, one that I would love to get for Christmas or birthday. I'm glad we had our friends with us because they're really knowledgeable about guns and were able to help me along when I was shooting. One thing that wasn't so good is that I'm so damn short, I gotta learn how to aim better because I'm shooting more in the gut and penis area rather than the heart and head. I hope I never have to shoot anyone but if a thief is breaking into our house and I'm the one who shoots, his chances are pretty high that it's his dick that will be blown off.

Today...what am I gonna do today? A whole helluva lot of nothing! My MIL is making a lovely roast dinner, and I'm going to cut coupons and catch up on some much needed sleep, this time with the bed ALL to myself.

Hopefully this week will be productive, last week wasn't at all so I have to get up and get myself going. My family is coming in on Thursday so I'm so excited to see them all! We're going to have us some BBQ and go to the San Antonio Rodeo on Saturday. My MIL cannot wait to see a real rodeo. She's becoming a Texan and I doubt she'll be recognizable when she gets back to England.

Okay...gonna go cut me some coupons and get back to sleep!

Keeping my promise

I'm keeping my promise! I'm actually filling out applications for work at home jobs but so far, one of them says I have to pay them (NOT!) and the second one only has full time jobs. These are all credited agencies so I'm not worried about being taken for a ride, I'm way too tight to part with my money.

I didn't get to work out today which was horrible, but I did do a lot around the house today that was needed. Today was a trying day but all you can do is try to make it better.

One good thing was that I was approached by a woman from MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) to have a Tupperware booth in March, which will be awesome! I plan on doing a raffle there for some Tupperware and maybe charging $5 per ticket which won't be too bad to get $50.00 of Tupperware.

My baby boy did awesome today. He woke up this morning saying "Good morning mama!! I had a good sleep and stayed in my bed!". Bless him! I guess not having a nap and putting him to bed at 7:30 rather than 8:30 worked. Although today I did have to give him some Benedryl because of allergies tonight. Poor thing was sniffling and sneezing because of this front we've got blowing in.

He did great in school too, not a tear shed and came out singing the cutest song! It's something like Fly Fly Tera-dactyl or something like that. He sang it all day and I even got him on camera! He ate like a champ too. I made spaghetti but it wasn't just meat and spaghetti sauce, it was ground beef with ground mushrooms, bell peppers, garlic, onions and spinach so it was a veggie spaghetti sort of. It was a helluva lot healthier than our dinner last night.

Sometimes...

Sometimes 3 vodkas and an iPod really do help you. At least for right now, my world is okay. I know I'll have to wake tomorrow and take on my challenges but for right now, we're okay.

Currently I'm listening to Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" and it seems a fitting song for me right now.

Today was bad.

As the title of my post says...it was bad. I had to deal with that fucking cat of ours who pee's on the landing EVERY chance that asshole gets. My husband never believes me when it comes to that bastard with fur. According to my husband, he does no wrong. Even when that little asshole is caught redpawed, he STILL doesn't believe it. Well today, I'd had enough. I put down some baking soda down on the carpet to soak up the smell and what happens? The first thing that hell on paws does is piss on it and it gets all nasty, yellow and clumpy.

So what do I do? Get the brand new Dyson and vacuum that up which was super stupid of me. It was still kind of wet and baking soda went everywhere in there. So, I had to spend the next hour and a half cleaning my brand new vacuum cleaner and praying it works properly. FYI, it did and I'm a little bit wiser. I did steam clean the landing big time so I'm hoping that the smell will eventually leave with treatment. One thing's for sure, that furry bastard is out of here!!

Next...went to Sams and spent $150 on groceries. I'm praying that will last most of the month, of course that's not including bread, milk and eggs, but canned foods and snacks.

My poor baby boy didn't get a nap in today and tried falling a sleep a couple of times but couldn't stay asleep and I was trying to get him to stay awake, that way tonight, we don't have excuse after excuse to stay up and so far so good. We put him to bed around 7:45ish and it is now 8:42pm and haven't heard a peep.

So what am I doing now? I'll tell you what I'm NOT doing that I NEED to be doing...looking for a J.O.B!!! I have bitched about it long enough and this time, I'm serious, I am not quitting until I find a job. It sucks being poor!! As soon as I finish this blog, my ass is getting on here looking for a job although, I do kind of think it would be best to actually apply tomorrow because I'll have a quiet house. Husband will be at work, son will be at school and MIL will be here watching TV and I'd hate to apply for a job being tired and my resume looking like crap. You know, I'm going to wait until tomorrow but have my jobs lined up that I'll applying for. When I update this tomorrow...it will be after I have applied to some jobs!!

What's going on?

So today has been a pretty good day. I can't really complain and especially after seeing the folks in Haiti, I have much to be thankful and happy for. So many times I can look at what I don't have but for now, I'm looking at what I do and am very thankful for it.

So what did I do today? This morning, I had to hurry up and get my baby boy ready for "school" and speed out the door to make it for nine. I made it in the nick of time and then had to deal with "mama!!! I don't want to stay, I wanna go home with you!!". Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It tugs at your heart and makes you mad at the same time. I didn't know what to do because I didn't want to leave him there crying and have him feel insecure, but at the same time, I didn't want to give into him and validate him. Eventually I had to just kind of push him and run out the door and wouldn't you know...five minutes later, he's fine and playing.

So went to CVS and got 3 12packs of Pepsi and four packs of Stacy's pita chips!! I was waiting for this deal since last year because Stacy's pita chips are delicious and expensive. So I paid about .15 out of pocket and burned 3ECB's which wasn't too bad for $21 worth of stuff.

After that went to the post office and sent back that nasty, good for nothing Shark Vacuum back to Euro-Pro. Then went and picked up our little monkey and he had a wonderful time at school! Right now they're into dinosaurs and so he made a couple for us and did great.

Today was successful for another reason, I went and worked out! That in itself was a feat and I'm going to attempt to workout at LEAST 3 times this week so we'll see how we do with that.

What can I say?

Well, what can I say? I haven't been on in ages!!! Needless to say, I have had a very busy few months. In fact, mentally, I'm still in 2009. So what has happened? Well, for one, I went to my hometown for a couple of weeks to assist my sister in her decorating business and that was interesting, fun and an experience. I never realized just how much thought and time is put into decorating for Christmas for the wealthy and I learned a few things about them.

First, rich people are the same as you and I. Really they are. I know they poop, pee, cough, sneeze the same as those of us with empty accounts but they're not as snobby as you'd expect. In fact, they're rather nice. I was expecting for them to have attitudes and the "old money" rarely had attitude and were probably the nicest out of the bunch. The "new money", you know, the ones who didn't have money but now have money, were the ones you had to watch out for. I think they think they have something to prove and don't really know how to act. Another difference is that "old money" or for convenience sake we'll say "OM", they don't flash their cash. They have smaller houses but inside, oh hell, inside their houses are lavish and gorgeous to say the least. They've got spectacular taste and you'd never know by looking on the outside.

"New Money" or NM, they have the big houses and poor taste. They have something to prove so they're going to show the world their new big house and when you step inside, well I guess they didn't get the memo that all rich people have personal decorators that do their houses.

Another thing I learned is people take their decorations seriously. They have fantastic decorations and the tree isn't for little Suzy's class Christmas ornament, it's for Christopher Radko and his very expensive ornaments. I have to say, a tree done up with Radko ornaments looks pretty damn hot. I guess I'll have to save the kid's ornaments for the kids tree eh? LOL

Okay so anyway...Thanksgiving was great because we were with family and it's always fun being around that lot. The food is yummy, company is good, liquor flowing...what more can you ask for?!?

So then I come back home and it's December 1. Not a moment to sit and relax. Nope. I had to get the house ready for the wine tasting party that was only four days away so my happy ass gets the clothes washed, house cleaned (my husband was awesome and tried to clean up a bit but I still have to clean it my way), and Christmas decorations up. Against all odds...I did it!!

We had our wine tasting party which was a huge success! I think I lost count as to how many people were actually here but I can tell you, everyone had a blast. I truly felt so blessed knowing I had a house full of true friends and having just gotten back from my hometown with my family...well it made me all warm and fuzzy knowing how blessed I am for my family and friends.

So...December 17. That was "D" day. That was the day my in laws were secretly flying in from London. I had prepared for this day since April and kept my mouth shut (which is no small feat!) and now, the day had come.

My husband had gone into work for a place he often freelances for and I was in direct communication with the manager of the company and had worked out with him the time that they needed to keep him occupied. They were to keep him until 7pm which would give me plenty of time to pick them up at the airport at their scheduled time of arrival which was 4:45pm. So, I wake up that morning, check continental.com for the flight status. Sonofabitch their flight is delayed by over an hour! Knowing the flight path by heart from taking it more times than I count, I knew they were going to miss their connecting flight. I was still hopeful but seriously doubtful. If they were delayed by 20 minutes, that might have been okay because they MAY have been able to make up their time, but being delayed by an hour and a half, there's no way of making up that time. Although they had over 2 hours to make their connecting flights, they still had to go through immigration, customs and run the marathon that is Bush intercontinental to get to the domestic flights so they were out of the race.

I had given them my cell phone number to get in touch with me if they were delayed so I was counting on the phone call to let me know if they didn't make their flight. So 3:30pm, no phone call so by 4pm, my BFF Katy and I head to the airport. I had told her that I don't think they made the flight but we both agreed that perhaps we'd better just go in the case that God had personally grabbed the plane and placed it in the tarmac in time for the connecting flight.

We go to the airport, we circle around too many times and finally I decided to go inside and see for myself that they were not in the airport. Sure enough, talking to a lady at baggage claim, they didn't make their flight and were scheduled to get on the mornings flight. Oh man, defeated and sad that I would have to go ONE more night keeping the secret, not to mention the thought of my in laws wondering around in an unknown airport until the next day was unbearable. I was so glad to have Katy with me because she shared in my disappointment and it was just comforting to have someone with you when you're sad.

I decided to get hold of them myself at the Houston airport to see where in the world my lost relatives are and managed to get a hold of my sister in law. I was so happy to hear her voice and know they they were okay! She told me that all of the other flights were full and that they had given her the option to go to San Antonio and without hesitation, I told her "GO!". I know they were worried about how far I'd have to drive to get them but it didn't matter at this point, I wanted to get them home where they could be comfortable.

Katy was sweet and let me drop Simon off her and I had to make up an excuse to my husband as to WHY I had to drive to San Antonio. I had told him that my cousins (of which he thought were the visitors coming in) were stuck in San Antonio and I had to go and get them. So I hear that my in laws were landing at 9 something so I'm off to the airport. Turns out, that plane too was delayed! Oh the luck! So I wait until 11 and FINALLY see them! Darren had called me a couple of times and I was out of lies. What the hell was I going to tell him? I was out way later than I expected and by this time, the only acceptable thing I could have told him was that I was either arrested or in a wreck and I know he'd be worried so I did what I had to and ignored the calls. We hauled ass home and by this time, most everyone had fallen asleep in the car because they had been up for probably around 24 hours and finally made it home.

Knocked on the door and my poor husband was waiting up for me. When he saw his family, he was speechless!! He had a confused look on his face and when he saw his mom, it finally sank in! Everyone was tired, but happy and it was priceless.

We had a wonderful two week visit with everyone and I was so happy that this was a true surprise to my dear husband. We went to Fredericksburg, ice skating, all around Austin and got some much needed family time. Our Christmas was wonderful with all the kiddos around and truly a wonderful experience.

Unfortunately two weeks came and went by rather quickly but we still have my mother in law which is awesome. Now, I'm starting to feel like I can finally relax and get my mind and body back in sync.