Happy Halloween..

If the folks regulating national holidays decided to do away with Halloween, I seriously would not care. Growing up I participated, but didn't look forward to it and wouldn't rank it high on the list. And now that I'm an adult, I still pay it no mind. Mostly, because I hate coming up with a costume and giving out candy. That's an all Bo job at our house.

Of course, tonight Bo is going to be a little late getting home. So I must either give out candy on my own or eat half a bag of chocolate so it looks like I gave out candy when he gets home.

Where Is Your Escape?

The wonderful thing about living a car ride away from where you grew up is, you live a car ride way from where you grew up. You're always home. Old house, old room, old high school, old church. But where do you run to when your scenery is all to familiar and overwhelming? Or you need a place that reminds you of a better version of yourself? Maybe happier, skinnier, healthier, richer, luckier, lovelier, whatever is it. Not home. You already live in the middle of it.

Where do you run to when you want to remember carefree memories of college? Oh wait, college is a car ride away too. I have essentially eliminated all nostalgia from my life. None of my childhood places represent comfort or say "it's all gonna be alright."

I envy those of you who are a long way from home or still have one of those personally perfect places right now. You may long to come back and can't, but you still have the hope that if you truly ever need it, nostalgia awaits.

It Is Never OK

I saw this post on FB and thought I should share.



A worried woman went to her gynecologist and said:

'Doctor, I have a serious problem and desperately need your help! My baby is not even 1 year old and I'm pregnant again. I don't want kids so close together.'

So the doctor said: 'Ok and what do you want me to do?'

She said: 'I want you to end my pregnancy, and I'm counting on your help with this.'

The doctor thought for a little, and after some silence he said to the lady: 'I think I have a better solution for your problem. It's less dangerous for you too.'

She smiled, thinking that the doctor was going to accept her request.

Then he continued: 'You see, in order for you not to have to take care of 2 babies at the same time, let's kill the one in your arms. This way, you could rest some before the other one is born. If we're going to kill one of them, it doesn't matter which one it is. There would be no risk for your body if you chose the one in your arms.'

The lady was horrified and said: 'No doctor! How terrible! It's a crime to kill a child!'

'I agree', the doctor replied. 'But you seemed to be OK with it, so I thought maybe that was the best solution.'

The doctor smiled, realizing that he had made his point.

He convinced the mom that there is no difference in killing a child that's already been born and one that's still in the womb. The crime is the same!

Shooter Says Hi!

Attempt to Scare. Fail.

I spend most of yesterday working and polishing up the house. Today I needed to get out. Bo agreed to accompany me which is never a good thing. We always end up with unnecessaries.

We were at Garden Ridge exploring the seasonal section, commenting how poor of a selection they had, which led us to Spirit Halloween. Oh my-lanta. Last year, we moved into our house the weekend of Halloween. Surprisingly, we got it together enough to hand out candy, but living behind an elementary school means trick or treaters galore. The kids even gave Bo a hard time because he wasn't wearing a costume. If you know my husband, that's unacceptable to him so he wanted to get a costume and some decorations. We've been invited to a circus themed party so luckily he got some circus mask that could double for both. Good thing, Spirit is proud of their costumes. Their favorite prices are $29.99, $39.99 and $49.99. For plastic.

Anyhow, Bo put on his costume tonight and came out of the bedroom to scare the dogs. DIDN'T EVEN PHASE THEM! They thought it was funny. What a letdown!! Those kids better not be as tough.

Up in the Air

I should have let the aliens in Roswell, New Mexico take me today. Because instead, I'm now back through Dallas and on my third flight of the day to Columbus, Ohio. You're jealous aren't you? My job really takes care of me. Garden spots. And usually in short, unacceptable time frames. It's a glamorous life I lead. Someone has to do it.

How quickly I forget the jet setting AA allowed me. In and out of city after city. Travel was my life. Do I miss it?

My Face Is Your Art Project, Apparently.

You have to go into the M.A.C. makeup store with a neutral color pallet in mind, a backbone, and some cash. Otherwise, you are a limp fish at their mercy. You will come out looking like a pick pocketed clown!

I stopped in to look at ONE lipstick. I came out with a few shades of makeup caked on my face and on the defense, convincing the circus ring leader I already had foundation, mascara, brushes, brush cleaner and concealer I was content with. Sheesh. Which is worse - fending off salesmen at the car dealership, The Buckle, OR M.A.C. Makeup store??

You Win.

It's 12:20AM. I cannot sleep. I got up with intention of writing a post about decisions - difficulties and outcomes. Yet, I wrote a few sentances and deleted them all. I can't even make a decision about whether to write about decisions or not! Lately, I have poisoned my confidence. I'm not sure why. I didn't encounter a situation that resulted in a bad outcome due to my direction or decision making ability (or lack there of). I don't have any significant regret. But all the sudden, half a second of doubt clouds my thoughts and I fluster over what decision to make and I have been choosing poorly.

So poorly in fact, I'm internalizing alot of misery that I don't have an outlet to release to. Of course, I think my blog is bearing it at the moment. I suppose a lot of grown up life choices will be coming my way in the next year and I am practicing in the utmost wrong kinds of ways. Lessons learned perhaps.

In all honesty, I think I am being taught a lesson and I don't want to admit it. Normally, I make lots of decisions - eithical, mediocre, moral, and trivial... decisions = control, right? You know that saying, 'You want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.' I think He's been watching my life as if it belongs in the prime time 7PM television lineup. I got more jokes than Two and a Half Men, before it threw a hail Mary attempt post-Charlie Sheen. I like control. I like safeness. I don't usually ask many questions I haven't already googled the answer to. Here's my first acknowledgement to the 12-step program I think I was unawaredly enrolled in - God, I'm all yours. Figure me out.

Food Nostalgia

As early back as I can remember, the two foods that define the memory of my Grandma Ellen for me are pimento cheese and boiled peanuts. Not eaten together, of course. She grew up in the South and epitomized a true southern woman. Rarely did I go to her house an their wasn't homemade pimento cheese and sweet tea.

Mom made boiled peanuts today that took me back to my younger days. Funny how food has that effect. Apparently, boiled peanuts aren't as common to folks as I know them to be. To me, they're heaven.

Well Put.

While I don't tend to agree or admire many comments from President Obama, I do like this piece taken from his statement on the passing of Steve Jobs:

"The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve's success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented."

Live Without Regret

"Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” Steve Jobs, 2005.

Rest in Peace.

Making It Work

It seems my computer just needed a few days to itself to regain its composure. We seem to be speeding up a bit and functioning. Still needs a tune up and some off loading of media, but there may be some hope. My Blogger app's working out well as a supplementary application, but for some reason, I had written a post on Oct 2 without publishing it. Normally this is no big deal and it posts with whatever date I publish it on, but my post seems to post from the date of origination. Point being - go read my post about Taco Stuffed Shells on 10/2 - you'll want the recipe, I promise.

Real Life Still Happens On Your Birthday

A cool way to spend your 26th birthday is at work all day and then top it off with a 'load-your-buggy, buy-all-those-I-usually-forget-kinda-items' grocery shopping trip. Self-pity? Hardly. It was actually a great day. Work was work but excitingly, every time I needed a little pick me up, I had another Facebook notice wishing me a happy birthday. I probably checked FB 26 times today and not once did it let me down. Therefore work = manageable today!

I get home with the intentions of indulging in a pricey bottle of wine chilled in the fridge with Bo while thoughtfully chattering over a fabulous Italian dinner...no...a handful of sunflower seeds and a Coke Zero. Equally as divine right? Bo had bball tonight and I knew if I didn't get my grocery shopping in for the week I was toast for lunches. Who am I kidding, we were out of bread too so I wouldn't be having any toast for lunch either.

Caught a TiVo rerun while sorting through my coupons. Don't judge. Headed to the store for one of those trips that included the purchase of items such as Swiffer refills, deodorant, muffin mix, oh, and pantyliners - for which my coupon was not scanning and the cashier (who might I add was a girl and should have understood the unspoken discreetness required when making those purchases) had to ask her cashier neighbor why it wouldn't go through. Seriously lady, I'll forego my 50 cents to spare the embarrassment, just give my my receipt so I can get out of here.

Saved a whooping $17 with my coupons thankyouverymuch! Don't knock it til you try it. Bo was home by this time and we finished off the night with TiVo and self-serve straight out of the Blue Bell half gallon of Pralines and Cream.

Happy birthday to me. :-)

Taco Stuffed Shells

Pinterest has unexpectedly livened up my dinner options. This one I swiped from said new addiction and they were holy yummy. And easy. Ashes even tried them out so we are in agreement these are winners. Yum.

1lb ground beef
1 package taco seasoning
1 4 once package cream cheese
12 large pasta shells (I recommend boiling 18-20. Some will break and you will have extra meat mixture to fill them.)
1 cup salsa
1 cup taco sauce
1 cup cheddar cheese (shredded)
1 cup Monterey jack cheese (shredded)
1 ½ cups tortilla chips (crushed-I used Fritos!)
3 green onions (chopped-bought these and forgot to put them on so consider this optional, they're to die for with or without!)
1 cup sour cream

Step 1: In a fry pan cook ground beef and add taco seasoning and prepare according to package directions. Add cream cheese cover and simmer until cheese is melted. Blend well. Set aside and allow to fully cool. While burger is cooking cook the pasta shells, drain and toss well with butter.
Step 2: Pour salsa in the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
Step 3: Stuff each shell with the meat mixture. Place the stuffed shells in the baking dish and cover the tops of the shells with taco sauce.
Step 4: Cover and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Step 5: After 30 minutes, uncover, and sprinkle crushed chips and shredded cheddar and Monterey jack cheeses on top. Cook for about 5-6 more minutes until cheese is melter. Serve with sour cream, additional salsa, black olives or whatever you think goes good with tacos!

Adapting.

You'll have to bear with me, my loyal following. My personal computer has come upon sickly times. This week it took a turn for the worst and has no desire to run at 2011 speeds. More like 1995 dial-up. I forgot how painful those days were. Aren't we glad those are behind us?? Until now and my computer has decided to play with my emotions. The problem might simply be that I need to offload 6 years of photos and music to an external hard drive. Very possibly actually since my computer is on a regular defrag schedule and I don't seem to have naked lady websites or strange mouse behaviors happening. {suggestions, please!}

So, temporarily I have loaded the Blogger phone app to avoid blog lethargicness. I'm still sorting this out so some test posts might be in the future to figure out adding photos, etc.

Or this could turn into an extraordinary frequency of random posts since I have more convenient access to the blog.

Stay tuned!