1. I now have a new way to cook a turkey thanks to my sister-in-law. Are you ready for this?
Upside down. I KNOW! How radical is this?! But here’s what she discovered – cooking the turkey with breast side down forces all of the juices to pool at the breasts and makes them juicy and tender. In addition, the legs and wings just fall off, so that eliminates the whole carving ritual. (Unless you LIKE the whole carving ritual, which, if so, forget I said anything).
And yes, we’re going to try this in the next several weeks because HELLO?! December is turkey month! (Well, not officially, but it is if I say it is! *grin*)
2. RSS Readers, there’s a new Christmas theme at my blog, if you’re interested. Just a little fun and whimsy for the holidays. I’m currently working on a new design for the upcoming year – that one will go live January 1st (which is also my blog anniversary! FIVE years! w00t!)
3. I ordered the Barlow Girl Christmas album. I ADORE these girls (Christian rock group) and I can’t wait to hear them sing some Christmas songs. I’ll post a few of them for the “Christmas Song a Day” thing I’m starting tomorrow!
Here’s a cute little video about how the girls kept having all sorts of problems while trying to record their next album. Think Satan was trying to prevent them from moving forward?
Carina Press is now accepting submissions for our digital publishing line.
Our mission is to connect readers with authors who write the stories they want to read. We will be introducing the bestsellers of tomorrow.
Carina Press will feature books from talented authors in all genres of romance, erotica, science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, women’s fiction, and more. If the book of your heart fits into a niche that has very little shelf space in a traditional bookstore, Carina Press is eager to read and potentially publish your story.
This sounds like something RIGHT up my alley. I plan on submitting something to them sometime in 2010.
In essence, it’s a pledge to stop compromising Christian values, curb political correctness (because it’s killing our country) and to get back to core Christian values that helped build our great country.
Personally, I don’t feel it’s necessary to formally sign something like this. I’ve already made the commitment to publicly denounce the political crap that is taking place in our country right now.
The lines have been crossed, people have pushed us too far – enough is enough.
I did not wash Dude’s cell phone. I always check my sons’ pockets before throwing their pants into the wash. And I did not feel just a teeny bit glad that it was ruined because that meant none of his friends could call and ask him to go out anywhere which meant he would be forced to stay home, safe and sound.
I would NEVER feel that way. Nope, not me.
I absolutely did NOT sweet talk my husband into hemming Jazz’s band pants for him because I’m a GOOD little home maker and I would never willingly give over a traditional “woman’s” job to my husband because I am definitely a home maker sort of woman.
Nuh huh, not me.
(And you do not see this photo, either. Move along. Nothing to see.).
I most certainly DID NOT encourage my husband to go out and buy the bike of his dreams this past Saturday because that simply would have been irresponsible of me. No good wife would WANT her husband to buy a street bike and possibly crash, no sirree.
(Just ignore this photo – what photo? Exactly).
And it would just be cruel for me to knock on the window and make all sorts of funny faces and sweet smoochies at my husband as he’s precariously balancing up on a ladder and cleaning out the gutters.
I would never do that. What sort of woman do you think I am?
And if you DARE to think that I would be 6,000 words behind on my National Novel Writing Month project well …..
Here’s a fun new (at least to me!) meme that is right up my alley. I am constantly posting links to interesting places (well, interesting to ME at least) on my Twitter account and now I have an excuse to pass those along here to YOU!
1. First of all, I have to toot my own horn – did you know the Fall 2009 photo contest is happening right now? Now, I’ve SEEN your photos – you’re an awesome photographer. Wouldn’t it be fun to enter that spectacular picture in the contest for a chance to win a $25.00 gift certificate?! Of course it would!
2. Attention WriMos: The Write Anything blog is gearing up to post some NaNoWriMo workshops if you’re interested. The workshops were written to help you prepare for the NaNoWriMo challenge next month. The workshops begin Saturday, October 17th.
3. Here’s another one for the Wrimos out there: NaNoWriMo wallpaper for your computer. These are nifty reminders to help you through your word count next month.
4. Twenty million babies are born premature ― half a million of them in the United States. November 17 is when we fight back. This cause holds a special place in my heart because Dude was eight weeks premature and was in the NICU the first six weeks of his life – so I have first-hand knowledge about the emotional roller coaster one goes through in this situation. PLUS, this is cool because coincidentally, November 18th is Dude’s birthday so it seemed appropriate to participate. You’ll find the button for this cause in my sidebar.
9. From the Fun Place Database website: “This is a brand new resource designed by parents FOR parents to make it easy to find fun places to take your kids. We all need to get out of the house most days, but sometimes it’s just difficult to find places to take them!” What a great idea!
I’m sitting here, desperately trying to write this post before A. Kevin gets home (I will fail, I waited too long), B. dinner burns, C. it’s time to go tan, D. it’s time to go walk (HELLO poochy belly) and E. before the clock strikes midnight.
Because there is just SOMETHING about posting a little something something on my blog every day that turns my drive shaft — I must do it!
But back to my day …
Dude and I went driving. Actually, we had actual places to be today as opposed to just driving aimlessly around.
If you haven’t heard, (where have you been and will you come back?), Dude got his braces off last week. He had them on for a whopping three years and he’s been a DIFFERENT kid since they’ve come off.
Seriously. He’s like all pleasant and fun to be around now. I couldn’t be more thrilled. Where did the moody, and grouchy old Dude go and can we make sure he stays wherever he is??
I can not believe the change in Dude. I’m absolutely serious when I tell you, he has totally changed. I don’t know if his straight, pretty teeth have given him confidence or if he’s so relieved to have those stupid things FINALLY off, or if he has just reached a point in his maturity level that he finally feels comfortable with who he is, but whatever the reason, I’m in parenting heaven.
It’s been a very welcome change. He’s a real pleasure to be around.
I took him in to get his teeth cleaned at 10:00 a.m this morning. I’m happy to report, not a cavity in sight. Can I get a hell yeah?! That’s the good news. The bad news is that we don’t have dental insurance on the boys anymore (just on me and Kevin), so we had to pay for this cleaning out of pocket.
And they did x-rays. Which means it was TWICE as much as we were anticipating. *SIGH*
You might be wondering why we don’t have dental insurance on the kids. Well, the only time the boys are ever in the dentist’s office is for cleanings. And considering I only take them in to have their teeth cleaned about once every two years, we’re paying a bunch of money in premiums that we aren’t using. So even paying out of pocket, like we did today, we’re still coming out ahead than if we had been paying insurance premiums all this time.
And that’s the reason I just took Dude in to get his teeth cleaned and not Jazz, too. We have to space this expense out so we’re not overloading our credit card — it’s all about balance, my friends. I’ll take Jazz in next month for his cleaning, right before he has his orthodontist consultation.
Dude and I then went to Jiffy Lube to get the oil in his car changed. While we were waiting, we walked over to McDonald’s and I bought him a Big Mac (nothing for me, thanks. Remember the poochy belly?) While we were there, we talked about the possible reasons why he was feeling so brain dead and groggy lately.
It could have something to do with the fact that he sits at his computer all day long and never gets any exercise to speak of. But what do I know, I’m not a doctor. 😉
The bottom line? We had a really nice conversation. A grown-up conversation and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
Like I said, parenting heaven.
We then walked back over to Jiffy Lube just as the guys were finishing his car up. They had to put in a quart and a half of transmission fluid, which I thought was weird, but they said he didn’t have a leak, so I was relieved to hear that.
That’s all we need right now, a blown transmission.
At 1:30, we went back to his orthodontist’s office to pick up his retainer. To my surprise, it wasn’t the traditional wire retainer at all, but one of those invisalign thingies. And to put the cherry on my surprise treat, they want us to come BACK again on Wednesday so he can have some sort of wire put on his top teeth. Apparently, his dentist is worried his teeth will shift back and do the overcrowding thing again.
Dude was disappointed, to say the least. He thought he was done, but apparently … no. At least the kid doesn’t have a mouth full of hardware anymore and he can take these suckers out from time to time. He has to wear the invisaligns for two weeks straight, and then he only has to wear them at night. It sounds like the wire thing will be on for a lot longer.
This all sounds like a major pain in the arse, and it is, but it would be so much worse if we invested all of this time and money into making his teeth straight only for them to revert back to the way they were.
Right?
*sigh* It’s always something.
I stumbled across a new concept the other day on a site and I’m really excited to get involved. It’s called Say It Face to Face and the lovely sisters, Susan and Janice from 5 Minutes for Mom started it.
In essence, it’s a video conversation. Someone asks a question and you respond by videotaping your answer.
This is right up my alley! Though I’m not exactly CRAZY about putting myself out there for all to see and make fun of, it is fun to make videos and …. well, here is why I put myself in front of the camera for all the world to gawk at. I made this video in response to Susan’s question, “Do You Hate Being on Camera?”
I can’t wait to make more response videos and to pose my own questions. Come play! It’s kind of scary to do video at first, but I promise, the more you do it, the more you’ll get used to it and it really does create a personal and intimate vibe with your readers.
I’ve been using my children as bait.
No, I’m not proud of this fact. But yes, I think it’s necessary, at least, in this case.
There are certain people in life who require a push now and again. They’re not exactly unmotivated, but they’re not exactly motivated either. They are sort of stuck in limbo between leaving an old life behind and starting a new one.
They’re at the crossroads and instead of making a decision on which road to travel, they just sort of set up camp and watch people pass them by.
Dude is one of those people. And so is one of my nephews. He graduated from high school this past May and he moved down here to live with his dad. The plan was for him to get his license and then get a job, or something along those lines.
The problem is, none of that seems to be happening. He is still under the assumption that I will taxi him and my boys all around town, that he can spend the night every weekend and that I will continue to pay his way to the movies, bowling, etc.
I feel like I need to put my foot down and gently “push” him into becoming an adult. It’s time. It’s past time, in my opinion. I can’t, and I won’t, play babysitter to boys who are old enough to drive and do things on their own. I feel like I’m only hindering the natural progression of things by being their taxi and event coordinator.
And yes. My nephew knows what’s going on. And he has assured us he is planning on taking his driver’s test, but to my knowledge he hasn’t yet. He’s also quite annoyed with me because I won’t take two hours out of my day (he lives 30 minutes away, one way), to pick him up and then take him back home.
And he’s further annoyed with me when he volunteers his dad (who works nights and I’m quite sure isn’t exactly thrilled about taking two hours out of his day, either) to drive him over and I say, “uh, no.”
He’s missing the point. The POINT is for him to grow up and get that license. Once he has that license, he’s MORE THAN WELCOME to come over, of his own accord, and hang out with us for the day (he’s still not spending the night every weekend. We have lives, after all). Then he can drive his dad’s car home in time for his dad to take it to work. He will have gotten his license and the ball will start rolling on him taking charge of his future.
Because if he doesn’t get that license, he won’t have the transportation to get to a job, or to drive to class, or whatever he plans on doing with the rest of his life.
Yes. I feel like the wicked aunt from the West. But I honestly believe I would be hurting him more if I continued to cater to his immature whims than if I put my foot down and, well, nudged him toward maturity.
It’s called tough love and fortunately, unfortunately (?), I’m quite good at dishing out the tough love. Just ask my sons.
Believe it or not, Dude has not been upset with me over this struggle with my nephew. In fact, he’s been quite understanding and I believe it’s because he knows, in his heart, it’s the right thing to do.
We have talked, at length, about why I’m being so stubborn on this issue. And I think it’s taught him a lesson that 1. I expect the same sort of initiative from him when he reaches that point (which will be very, very soon) and 2. that life IS scary when you reach that crossroads but that’s no excuse not to make a decision and travel down one side or the other.
My dad dished out a lot of tough love with me when I graduated from high school and though I was upset with both of my parents at the time, looking back, it was not only the right thing to do with me, but it made me grow up.
And Lord knows, I needed to grow up.
Kevin’s band played at The New Key Largo this past Friday night and wow … they RAWKED the house. It was the best performance I’ve seen from them.
They all just gelled. And Kevin actually loosened up. He’s usually so stiff and awkward when he plays but he was really getting into it that night and I was so proud of him I thought my heart would break free from my rib cage and do it’s own dance on the dance floor.
I saw a side of him … well, that I haven’t really seen in the 21 years I’ve known him. And I’ll be honest, it was sexy as hell.
I saw him in a whole different light when he was up there and it wasn’t just from the colored spotlights, either. He looked … confident, yet vulnerable, sexy, yet modest, dangerous, yet safe.
I really can’t put it into words. All I know was that it felt like someone shot my relationship with a new awareness and I left feeling the way I did back when we first started dating.
It was a bizarre, yet … strangely satisfying feeling. I guess bizarre because I COULD feel like that about a man I’ve known half my life and satisfying because he belonged to me.
Please grab a mallet and when you see the little suckers digging yet another tunnel through our yard, please whack them HARD. For every mole you catch, I’ll pay you $50!
*sigh*
It really has come to that. We’ve always had some sort of mole problem ever since we’ve lived in this house, but here lately – wow – it has gotten out of control. I think we’re now hosting a whole colony of moles.
Kevin worked diligently, for several years, to try and catch the buggers and he has caught quite a few, but for every one he caught and killed, three more took it’s place. It got to a point where he just gave up — he wasn’t winning the mole war.
But our yard … well, you can’t walk across it without stepping into soft earth and I swear, it’s like navigating a mine field so you won’t twist your ankle. Kevin has been pulling this roller thingie on the back of the mower in an attempt to flatten the mounds, but still, it hasn’t done much good.
So he finally broke down and hired a mole guy. The mole guy came out last Tuesday and set six traps – and as far as we can tell, half of them have gone off. The mole guy is scheduled to drop by either today or tomorrow to check them so it’ll be interesting to see if he actually caught any.
I’m both hoping he did and hoping he didn’t. I mean, I WANT to catch the critters, but for every mole he catches, it’ll cost us $50 bucks. I suppose it’s worth it to rid of them, but geez louise.
Fifty bucks per mole could get expensive – especially for us.
Kevin spent the weekend watching mole videos on YouTube. He now wishes he had watched these videos before hiring the mole guy because now he has a better handle on what type of trap works best and where and how to set them up. But it’s too late now – we have a mole guy.
I swear, Kevin is turning into that crazy groundhog guy on Caddy Shack. If his speech starts slurring and he forgets to shave, I’m going to be seriously worried.
The boys stayed the night Friday night with their cousins, so Kevin and I went out to eat at Ruby Tuesday’s. We hadn’t been there in quite some time and we both had Chicken Fresco with white cheddar mashed potatoes! YUM! (There’s a picture of the dish in their header).
After dinner, since we were so close to the church where we got married, we stopped by and took a quick picture:
It’s hard to believe we’re going on 20 years of marriage.
After this picture, we went and did something every couple does at least once a week ………….
…………………
Yes. We went grocery shopping. THAT was our hot night out. Exciting, aren’t we?
(You were thinking of something else, weren’t you. Internet! You make me blush *grin*)
Kevin and I did a little clothes shopping Saturday. I generally don’t like to go clothes shopping with him because I have to take special pains to hide my pants size from him — the man thinks I wear a size 6.
HA! Silly man.
What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him, right?? 😉
Anyway, I took him to TJ Maxx to look around. He had never been there before. But he found three Hawaiian shirts (which I’m not a big fan of, but he loves them and they ARE outside his comfort zone so I’m all for it) and now, he really likes TJ Maxx.
Yay for me! (This means I can go shopping there without him raising an eyebrow. Actually, he doesn’t give me a hard time about how much money I spend because, well, I don’t spend money. I’m cheap).
I found some khaki dress shorts. I ended up buying a size bigger (SHH) because this particular style looks really dorky around the crotch if you wear them too tight and besides, they’re like 93% cotton, so they should shrink a little in the wash.
I’m really looking forward to seeing Kevin wear his Hawaiian shirts on the cruise; he’s going to look so cute.
I believe we’ve officially reached “middle age.”
I saw this challenge on Inky Girl’s site and was instantly interested (I think her site is down right now, so please check back later, it’s worth a look):
In essence, Debbie is challenging writers to get into the habit of writing 1,000 words per day. And if writer’s are doing that, they have permission to post this button in their sidebar and/or post.
But if the writers stop writing 1,000 per day, then she is asking that they remove the button because after all, it’s no longer true, right?
So of course, I’m going to do this. (Did you think otherwise?) If you see this nifty button in my sidebar, then I’m writing 1,000 words a day – and I’m counting my blog posts in with that total, too. Because after all, I’m writing, so that should count for something.
And if you think that’s splitting hairs, then you don’t write many blog posts, do you. 🙂
It ain’t so easy. Believe me.
And lastly …
We finally secured our shore excursions for our cruise in a few weeks. Kevin and I read through hundreds (it felt like it, anyway) of options and finally picked out three things to do on three different islands.
Our first stop: Grand Cayman Islands.
We chose the Cayman Shore Snorkel excursion because we wanted to go snorkeling, but I didn’t want to have to jump off a boat and snorkel in the middle of the ocean to do it (because I’m a big baby and just a teensy bit scared of the water) and this way, we can go snorkeling off the coast, then break for lunch, then go back and snorkel some more before heading back to the boat and getting cleaned up for dinner – which we’ve reserved for the 6:00 o’clock slot.
1. It sounded interesting – both seeing exotic birds and monkeys and surrounding vegetation
and
2. Because Isla Roatan scares me.
Let me explain.
When we were researching through these excursions, we didn’t really know a lot about the Isla Roatan. So, we Googled it.
Wow.
It sounds like the taxi drivers are a notch below aggressive. Now this may not seem like that big of a deal to you, after all, some taxi drivers ARE aggressive, but these taxi drivers are so aggressive that the Isla Roatan actually have “tourist police” designed solely to help tourist settle disputes with the drivers.
Apparently, you MUST make it crystal clear to your driver about how much it’s going to cost per person and if it’s one-way or round trip. If you don’t take the trouble to make sure all parties involved are clear on the cost, then the drivers have a habit of gouging tourists out of more money.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t particularly want to spend a portion of our time on the island negotiating fees or having to deal with tourist police, so we opted for this excursion because it sounds like most of the sights are located on the other side of the island anyway and this way, our price is set and other than tip, we’re good to go on price.
If I can avoid confrontation, I’m going to, thank you very much.
And the title says it all. We’ll take a shuttle from the pier and explore the city and then we’ll travel to the Altun Ha ruins.
Three plazas and thirteen structures mark the epicenter of this very important ceremonial site of the ancient Mayan civilization.
I think the boys will really enjoy seeing the ruins. We’ll have permission to climb on the ruins, unless it rains.
Let’s hope for good weather.
Our last stop: Cozumel
We chose not to book an excursion on Cozumel. One, because we’ve already spent too much money on the previous excursions and two, we want the freedom to just wing it on Cozumel mainly because that’s the island that Kevin and I honeymooned on and we’re looking forward to re-visiting the place and showing the kids “where it all started.”
We might do a little snorkeling and just laying around on the beach, too.
So that is what we have planned for the islands. We’ll also have two days at sea, so we’ll have fun doing stuff on the boat, too.
I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am for this trip. Not only because it’s the second cruise for me and Kevin, but because this is the first cruise for the boys.
Outside my window… It’s sunny and beautiful. In fact, this past weekend, the weather was darn near perfect – not too hot, not too cold, sunny, cloudless skies, juuuust right.
Kevin and I sat on the porch Saturday and just absorbed it all. Actually, we met on the front porch to cool off. He had just finished mowing the grass and I had just finished working out so we were quite the attractive pair with our sweaty brows and soaked t-shirts. But we didn’t care what the neighbors’ thought, we were too busy lamenting on the fact that this time of year is probably one of the best times of year to be outside. (sans the grass pollen, but let’s not split hairs).
Right now, the weather is comfortable, beautiful and just downright pleasant. It’s hot enough to wear shorts, but the wind puts just enough chill in the air that you don’t feel like you stepped into a sauna. We call it “outdoor air conditioning” because that’s what it feels like right now.
The weather will only be like this for about two short weeks. After that, the rains will move off and the hot, sticky weather will move in so that by the time 4th of July gets here, you’ll need to carry a squirt bottle around with you because the air will be so heavy and sticky that your clothes will immediately adhere to your skin and it’ll be hard to catch your breathe because of the humidity.
But right now? Right this very minute? Our weather is perfect and we’ll enjoy it while we can.
I am thinking… “thank goodness we had the foresight to get our passports in order.”
(“I SWEAR I’m a U.S. citizen, sir. Look, it says so right here on this little piece of paper that may, or may not, be the original. You can trust me, sir. I live in the U.S. Go ahead, ask me a question, seriously. I’m trustworthy, I am. You don’t need no stinkin’ document to tell you that I’m an American.”)
But we’re good. We applied for our passports in January and received them in February,
so we’re good to cross back into our country when we get back from our cruise later this month.
I’m also thinking I can’t wait to go on our cruise later this month!!!!
P.S. And in case you’re curious to see our passport pictures, you can click here. We look scary, no?
I am thankful … this weekend is over. Geez louise. When things get so bad that I finally snarl like a rabid dog and say, “Fine. That’s it. Whatever is wrong with you, snap out because I’m THROUGH kissing your ass,” you know things are tense.
Or more tense than usual because honestly, that’s pretty much me on a GOOD day.
(I kid, I kid).
(Maybe).
From the kitchen…
I’m back to watching food shows. And I haven’t quite figured it out yet, but I’m thinking I will DIE if I don’t buy a food processor right away.
I must be feverish.
I asked Kevin if it bothers him that I don’t put forth any “real” effort (read dirty up every pan in my kitchen and spend time at the grocery store hunting up unusual spices) in the dinners I serve them.
His answer?
“Kind of.”
*sigh* At least the man is honest.
So, from now on, I’m going to start making notes of the recipes and tips I see on these cooking shows and you know, actually take care of my family by making them something other than the mush I currently serve them.
*mumbles* Never mind that I like mush.
I am wearing … fitted clothes.
And I both hate it and love it.
I hate it because it forces me to watch what I eat. Because if I start eating too much junk food, my clothes, er, shrink.
I love it because it forces me to watch what I eat. Because I really DO eat too much junk food and I really DON’T have self-control when it comes to cookies, candies and pastries.
Ugh, let’s change the subject.
I am reading… “The Memory Keeper’s Daughter” by Kim Edwards.
I haven’t actually started it yet – but I’m already a little disappointed; I saw the reviews on Amazon.
THAT’S the biggest reason I don’t read reviews on Amazon.
I am hoping… that I can find some decent party dresses in the next two weeks. I just need one, or two.
That’s asking too much, right?
I am creating… nothing at the moment.
And it’s starting to piss me off.
I am praying… for our country.
Because I honestly believe by the time my teenage boys hit their 20’s, it’s going to be even more screwed up than it is now.
Around the house… we’re thinking about building a patio just off our back door.
Of course, that would need to be after we replace the ratty carpets in the living/dining room,
build the detached garage out back (because Dude has his car and Jazz will be getting a car in a few years and our yard is looking like a car dealership)
and remodel the kitchen.
But definitely, a new patio is next on the list.
One of my favorite things…
Right now? Flour tortilla shells. I roll them up and munch on them all day long. They are low in fat and they take the edge off of my hunger.
A few plans for the rest of the week…
Today, I need to go to the bank and grab something to eat (because I’m sick to death of tuna and crackers, which I’ve been eating for lunch every day for the past week) and fold laundry: it’s taking over my bedroom.
Tomorrow, I need to return movies to Blockbuster and start the search for some white shorts and a party dress.
Wednesday, pick the boys up from school early, take them lunch, treat them to some ice cream and make their last day of school fun and relaxing.
Thursday, take the boys swimming so they can get a little sun (I’m afraid they will boil like fresh lobsters on our cruise).
Friday, take the boys over to their cousins’ house so they can spend the night with them and I can go on a date night with Kevin. We might actually go to a movie theater – something we haven’t done in oh gosh, years?
Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you…
I gave my camera to Dude on Saturday to play around with and this was one of the pictures he took:
I thought it was a really fun, different way to see things. Can you guess what he was taking a picture of? Click the “continued reading” link below for the answer.
Today was a busy day.
I stumbled across a new concept the other day on a site and I’m really excited to get involved. It’s called 
I’ve been using my children as bait.
It’s “Whack a Mole” time at my house!
In essence, Debbie is challenging writers to get into the habit of writing 1,000 words per day. And if writer’s are doing that, they have permission to post this button in their sidebar and/or post. 
Morning. Er. Afternoon.
Write From Karen 