"Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Writing Well"
No. It’s not easy.
Yes. It sucks to make sacrifices.
But don’t let ANYONE tell you it’s not possible.
Because it is.
It’s called responsibility, discipline and self-control.
Something too many people in our country don’t understand or take seriously.
Are you paying attention, Wall Street Occupier protesters?? Because just in case you didn’t catch my drift, I’m referring to YOU.
Thinking of having a Halloween party for your monsters?
Maybe Family Fun can help.
Your children can probably imagine what actual goblin feet would taste like. (Dirty socks stuffed with cheese? Moldy tapioca pudding?) Luckily, these cookies are infinitely more tasty.
Ingredients
Half package (7 ounces) green meltable candy wafers
peanut butter cookies, such as Nutter Butter brand
cashew halves
Instructions
Follow the instructions on the candy wafer package to melt the wafers in a wide bowl. For each goblin foot, hold the edge of a cookie and dip it in the melted candy.
Place the cookie on a sheet of waxed paper and use a spoon to smooth the candy over the spot your fingers covered.
Place three cashew halves on the cookie for claws. (The candy may need to cool a minute or two for it to be stiff enough to hold the nuts in place.) Let the cookies set at room temperature.
These scary-good Halloween treats, prepared and eaten on the same fork, begin with a doughnut hole dunked in white chocolate.
Ingredients
2 (11-ounce) bags white chocolate chips
12 doughnut holes
Semisweet chocolate chips
Tube of red decorator frosting
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Instructions
To coat a dozen doughnut holes, melt the white chocolate chips with the oil over low heat (and keep the chocolate warm while you work). With a fork, spear each doughnut hole and submerge it in the melted chocolate to coat it, then gently tap off any excess.
Stick a semisweet chocolate chip with its point cut off onto each doughnut hole, cut end first. Place the forks (handle side down) in a mug and allow the chocolate coating to harden.
Use a tube of red decorator frosting to add squiggly veins radiating out from the pupils.
Bleached white bones never tasted so delicious. This recipe originally appeared in Ghoulish Goodies, by Sharon Bowers.
Ingredients
half package (7 ounces) white meltable candy wafers
36 pretzel sticks and thin rods of various lengths
72 mini marshmallows (about 1 cup)
Instructions
Follow the instructions on the candy wafers package to melt the candy in a wide bowl. For each bone, press marshmallows onto both ends of a pretzel stick or rod, with the marshmallows’ flat sides parallel to the pretzel.
Dip each pretzel into the melted candy to coat it. Lift it out with a fork, letting the excess drip back into the bowl. Place the bone onto a sheet of waxed paper to set at room temperature.
What’s the hot costume this year for gingerbread people? Skeletons, of course!
Ingredients
Gingerbread cookie dough
White frosting
Instructions
To make a batch, punch out shapes from cookie dough using cat and gingerbread-man cookie cutters, then bake. When the cookies are cool, pipe on frosting bones.
Partying in costume calls for easy-eating fare, and these cheesy monster digits fit the bill.
Ingredients
Mozzarella string cheese
Green bell pepper
Cream cheese
Instructions
Wearing plastic gloves or sandwich bags over your hands to keep the cheese as smudge-free as possible, use a paring knife (parents only) to cut each string in half and then carve a shallow area for a fingernail just below the rounded end of each half.
Mark the joint right below the nail as well as the knuckle joint by carving out tiny horizontal wedges of cheese, as pictured.
For the fingernails, slice a green bell pepper into 3/8-inch-wide strips. Set the strips skin side down on your work surface and trim the pulp so that it’s about half as thick. Then cut the strips into ragged-topped nail shapes and stick them in place at the ends of the fingers with dabs of cream cheese.
Want more? Your wish is my command.
*Disclaimer: Family Fun did not compensate me for this post. I just think they’re cool. Now pass a cheese finger, won’t you?
Another example of Kevin’s awesome daddy skills.
Check out Kevin’s expression at 3:13 mark. That’s his “I’m getting tired of humoring you and that camera” look. He got pretty impatient with me taping the kids doing nothing for so long.
Course NOW he’s glad I did all of that because they’re so fun to look back on.
And speaking of expressions – check out Dude’s expressions as Kevin plays the guitar.
Babies are fascinating, aren’t they?
At least MY babies were. HA!
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Holy freaking cow – what a stressful day.
And I can’t even blame it on the job because it was me – ALL ME.
I ended up taking lunch at 3:00 this afternoon. I scarfed down a bowl of chili (it was chili day today) before heading back to my desk 20 minutes later.
I now have a stress headache and will likely have to take some Excedrin to stay ahead of the nausea.
But if you think the stress I experienced today has soured me on my new job, YOU’RE WRONG. I still love it. It’s exciting and insanely busy. Today was pretty stressful, but I learned a valuable lesson on what NOT to do next time.
I may be new, but I catch on fast.
(How’s THAT for vague?? HA!)
by John Schoenheit
Each of us knows what it is to decide to do something but then not have the will power to do it. The Bible makes a distinction between the “mind” and the “heart,” and when the two are conflicted, the heart wins. Therefore, if we are going to live godly and powerful Christian lives, the key is having a pure heart. The only way to transform the heart is to renew the mind, for the mind is the gateway to the heart.This teaching discusses the importance of transforming the heart by renewing the mind, which is to bring one’s thoughts up to a new level of godliness.
Click the arrow to listen.
Check out Truth or Tradition teachings on:
I do not like being scared.
I don’t even like surprises.
Even nice surprises.
I think the reason I don’t like being scared is the loss of control of a given situation.
Which pretty much proves I’m a control freak who doesn’t like to have uncontrolled fun.
Which is the biggest reason I’ve never gone to a haunted house.
There are just too many scary surprises around every corner.
What about you? Do YOU like being scared?
(These pictures are from the Nightmare’s Fear Factory Flickr stream).
Seriously. I looked up at the clock expecting it to say 10:00 a.m. and it was 2:00!
This day evaporated before my eyes.
I reported for my general health check-up this morning. Only, it wasn’t a check-up, it was to see where I was on my immunizations and I must have looked like a deer in headlights because she laughed and said, “I take it you have no idea.”
“None,” I said. “I haven’t had anything in about twenty years.”
“You’ve never worked in health care before?”
“Nope.”
“Did you have the flu shot?”
“Nope.”
She gives me a disapproving look. I’m getting used to these disapproving looks. Everyone makes you feel really guilty and stupid for opting out of the flu shot. I can’t help it. I don’t think they’re a good idea. No offense to those out there that believe in them, I don’t.
“You know if there’s an epidemic you’ll be suspended for …”
“Yes. Yes. I’m very aware of the consequences. Thanks.”
I wasn’t that abrupt, but seriously – I KNOW ALREADY. Sheesh.
Anyway. I ended up getting a Tetanus shot, which, okay, I’ll go along with that one. It’s been about 25 years since I’ve had one of those. But then she gave me a Hep B shot. And that was just shot number one. I have to go back in a month and get shot number two and then go back five months later and get shot number three – and then it’s supposed to last me for life.
Let’s hope.
I don’t really have a problem with shots, PER SE, I have a problem with the poisons they inject into your body. Now don’t go getting tense on me. I think immunizations are important – especially for children – I just don’t think getting a shot every year for a virus you may, or may not, contract because there are hundreds of different flu viruses, is a good idea.
Personally.
Again, relax. If you choose to get the flu shot, it’s your body, go for it. But for me? Or my family? No thank you. I’ll endure the disapproving frowns and deal with the suspension IF it happens.
At any rate, my arms feel heavy but I’m okay. The nurse did a really good job sticking me and I hardly felt a thing. I’ve been hopped up on Ibuprofen all day so hopefully I avoided any headache I might have gotten. She gave the Tetanus shot in my left arm because that’s the arm I use the most (I’m a leftie) and the more you use your arm, the faster you get over the effects.
We’ll see how I feel in the morning.
Tomorrow, we have a little over 100 patients. The same on Wednesday and then just a little under 100 patients on Thursday. Thankfully, we only have one doctor working Friday so I’ll be able to get some stuff done.
I held my own today, I think. I didn’t have to ask for help as many times as I have so I think I’m making progress. So far (*FREAKING KNOCK ON WOOD*) I haven’t had anyone call me up and say, “What the HELL? Why did you order this for this patient??” so I take that as a good sign.
Or maybe they don’t want to scare off the new girl because apparently? They have a hard time finding, and keeping, people for this job because it is a higher stress job. (For a clerical job, that is).
We’re having some sort of bake/craft sale right now. One of our own is needing to raise money for … something. (Honestly. I started to read the email about the event, but got sidetracked and have never made it back to that email). I’m looking forward to buying some sweet stuff and looking at crafts tomorrow at lunch.
If I can get away for lunch. I see why the other girls eat at their desks now.
It’s crazy but MAN, I’m having fun.
ADDED: UGH. Today, my arms are S..S..SORE. I can barely lift them. Looks like I’ll be popping Aleves today. Even though I understand vaccinations are really to protect you in the long run, the short run SUCKS. It’s gonna be a looooooong day.
Write From Karen 