Let’s Be Thankful

There are times in everyone’s life that they have a hard time being thankful. Times when you get knocked down and have a hard time getting back up. When it’s easier to focus on the bad, and not what you already have. Also, as a singleton, I find myself struggling during the holiday season and not getting down that I am still single, and thinking “WHY is everyone else in a relationship? When will it be my turn?”.  I can’t say that I’m unhappy with where I am in my life, but I can say that sometimes I just wish I had someone else to share parts of my daily life with. I have been struggling with that lately, so in trying to get over that hump, I’m going to ‘remind’ myself of everything I am thankful for. Sometimes we just need a little swift quick to remind us how truly blessed we really are.

• My God- I would be nothing without Him, and even though I don’t lean on Him as much as I should, I know He is always there.
• My son- My life. He makes me laugh when I want to cry, and I am so blessed to have him in my life. I don’t know what I did to deserve an awesome kid like him, but I’m so grateful for him.

How can you look at this face and not feel grateful and blessed?

• My family- I have the best parents ever. They have helped me make ends meet more than I care to admit, and are so supportive and loving. If it weren’t for them, I would not have been able to go back to school, and wouldn’t be where I am today. I have an awesome older sister who has helped me more than I want to admit too. My little sister is equally as awesome- I don’t know what I’d do without them all.
• My house- I’m renting, so it’s not ‘mine’. But I have a roof over my head, and for that I am truly grateful.
• My car- My car is not only pretty, but reliable. It’s nice to finally have a car I don’t have to worry about when driving it. (Really, I know that pretty cars aren’t everything- but having a kinda new car is something I have never been able to have before. And it’s totally not falling apart. Always a bonus!)
• My friends- Love them. I wish I made more time for them- I don’t do that enough. But I always know if I need one of them, they will be there for me, without a doubt.
• My job- I’m not only glad I have a job period, but that I love working there. Not everyone is that lucky.
• ALL the men and women defending our country- Sometimes it’s easy to forget that there is a war going on, and people are making the ultimate sacrifices every.single.day. so that we may live in peace and have all the freedoms so many of us take for granted everyday.

So if you are finding yourself feeling a bit down this holiday season  or anytime of year, just remember everything you already have in your life that you should be thankful for.

Me, an award? Whhaaaatt??

I was nominated by Tina at Tina’s Mommy Time.  Thank you so much! The award is given to bloggers with less than 200 followers that a blogger feels should get some recognition.

There are 4 steps to receiving this award..

1. List 11 things about yourself.
2. Answer your nominator’s 11 questions.
3. Choose up to 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers and ask them your own questions.
4. Inform your nominees of their award nominations.

11 facts about myself:

1. I’m a single mom (duh!)
2. Even though I get mad sometimes at choices Elijah’s dad has made to not be involved, I secretly love that I don’t have to share his love, hugs and amazing smiles everyday.
3. I am terrified of bugs. Specifically, these kind.
4. I am also terrified of tornadoes and severe thunderstorms.
5. Sometimes I speed on my way home from work, just because I missed Elijah so much and can’t wait to see him. (Those are usually the days he’s extra cranky or moody when I get home. Funny how that works huh?)
6. Blue is my favorite color.
7. I’d rather read a book  in a corner than go to a party and be social.
8. I hate talking on the phone.
9. If I could where pajama pants and sweatshirts everyday, I’d be a much happier person.
10. I GENUINELY love my job, and can’t even believe I was so blessed to get this job. Sometimes I feel like I don’t deserve it.
11. I get car sick when riding in the passenger seat.

Questions from Tina:

1. Baseball or Football? Though I don’t often watch sports, when I do I prefer football. 
2. When you’re writing, do you prefer to sit down with a drink (soda, coffee, beer, etc) or food (snack or meal)? I usually have a drink at my desk- like water or coffee. Sometimes I have nothing. 
3. Do you write out your blog post before typing it up? Nope. Sometimes I just type something up real quick and hit publish, sometimes it takes me forever to edit and make it what I want it to say. 
4. How old is your oldest living relative? My grandma- I’m not sure the exact age- late 70’s early 80’s?
5. Last show you watched on tv?  I think Hart of Dixie with my seester.
6. Favorite cologne or perfume? I like too many to have just one favorite. 
7. What was the make/model of your first car? First car I got to drive on a regular basis was an Oldsmobile (passed down from my step-mom’s mom, to my step-mom, to my brother and then to me) but the first car I bought was a Chevy Lumina. 
8. Who does your family say you look most like? My seester.
   
9. Favorite website (not a blog)? I guess Facebook. Pintrest is coming up a strong second though. 
10. What’s the best part about the holidays? Spending the days with family
11. What made you start blogging? I love talking about how awesome my son is. Also, in doing so, I have discovered how much I enjoy blogging about food too 🙂

And the nominees are…. (In your head if you could picture that as being read by someone at the Oscar’s, that’d be great, mmkay?) These may or may not have 200 or less followers, because honestly half the time I can’t tell. And I know in at least one case, they have more than 200, but not much over that and I want to get the name out because, darn it, it’s a great read!! In no particular order we have:

1. knocked over by a feather
2. Single Mom in the City
3. a flock of crows
4. Fun-A-Day!
5. The Cheeky Bride
6. Dear #$&!% Baby
7. making this home
8. Brain Cooties
9. mutant supermodel
10. j-bo.net

Now for my 11 questions for my Nominees.

1. What inspires your blog?
2. How long have you been blogging?
3. Favorite movie and why?
4. How many hours a week do you spend on the computer?
5. How long does it take to write a post, on average?
6. Did you ever dream your life would be what it is now?
7. Favorite food?
8. What would be your dream job, if you had the choice?
9. What is your hidden talent?
10. Facebook or Pinterest?
11. What is one thing your working on for yourself?

Those are some ridiculous questions. I’m not even going to tell you how long it took me to come up with them, nor do I know WHY is was so hard to come up with random questions. *sigh*

Thanks again Tina! I appreciate the nomination 🙂

Sometimes, I have nothing to say.

Today is one of those days. Well technically, my mind is full of things, but nothing I want to post about to the whole wide blogging world (no offense). So in lieu of a typical post, enjoy the following. Also it should be noted that even if you are allergic, you are safe to view the following adorable kittens (Because who doesn’t love adorable kittens? Seriously, who? I can MAKE them love these pictures!):

Smooshed-faced kitty

Depressed kitty

Playful kitty

Baby Minkas kitty

Big eyed kitty

And my personal favorite kitty

Gorgeous gorgeous creatures

Scary kitty

A-MAZE-ing Chocolate Cake

Ok, so the actual cake itself wasn’t the amazing part. It was the icing. This amazing mouth-watering deliciously sweet and will make you gain weight like you gain wrinkles icing. The other night I was craving chocolate something fierce. And you women know, when we want chocolate, we. want. chocolate. NOW. So I had this cake mix from Aldi’s and thought it would do- but I wasn’t sure it was REALLY what I was looking for. Plus  I didn’t have icing for it. So I did a little Google search and stumbled upon this amazing recipe here at The Pioneer Woman blog. Amazing doesn’t even begin to explain it. Anyways, I didn’t make her cake since I already had a mix. I just made the icing, and if the cake in anything as good as the icing, I can say that yes, it’s the best.

So, here’s what I did: I made 1 chocolate cake mix, and added chocolate chips to the batter for that extra chocolate kick. I cooked it, it was pretty-ish (but it did smell good 🙂

After that, the real magic began. I melted 1 and 1/4 sticks of butter in a saucepan (apparently, the recipe called for 1 and 3/4 sticks of butter. I obviously did it wrong and didn’t realize it until right now. But even with 1/2 stick of butter less, it was still delish). Once it was melted, I added 4 heaping tablespoons of cocoa butter, and let it bubble for 30 seconds. Turn off the heat. Add 6 tablespoons of milk, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Stir. Add 1 pound (minus 1/2 cup, whatever that equals to. If she wasn’t going to do the math, neither was I) to the mixture and mix well to remove all the powdered sugar clumps. It will be silky smooth like so

Dump that right on top of the warm cake that you hopefully already made and it will be gorgeous like so

Then since I had some powdered sugar left over, I sprinkled it on top and it was even gorgeous-er like so

And then your son (or daughter, or husband, or you- hey, I don’t judge) can eat it like an animal, like so

Mmmmmm- cake

This was so good. I think even though the icing has more fat in it than anything I’ve ever eaten before, I’m going to continue to use it to deliciously poison my family at happy events 🙂 It’s too good not too.

Bad, bad, bad…

I am quite possibly, the worst. blogger. ever. Ever. It’s been nearly two weeks since I put up my post. (And I can’t even think of a title for this post. I got nothing) I can’t even believe how fast time has gone. Now that football is over, Elijah has taken up basketball- another first. The time devotion is considerably less than with football; practice is only three times a week (2 once games start) and they last an hour. Games last an hour. Even though we devote less time, I still enjoyed football more. I loved watching the practices, and the games. Basketball, I have never enjoyed. The squeaking of the shoes grates on my nerves, and I don’t understand what they are doing out there. I try to act interested for Elijah, but I’m really bored to tears at his practices. To. Tears. Maybe that’ll change once games start, but I don’t know…

On another note, I FINALLY had his birthday party for him; it was a smidge late (3 weeks) but it was still fun.  I had 10 10-year-old boys in my small house, and even though it was loud, and crazy, I’m pretty sure they all had fun 🙂 (More on that in another post)

In the last 4 weeks, Elijah was sick three separate times and missed 3.5 days of school. He had strep throat, then pink eye, and then the flu (about 1 week after he had the flu shot).

While I’m passing along all the bad things that I’ve helped contribute to (minus the being sick thing- that had nothing to do with me. I hate sick kids and would never anyone along with that)- The night we turned the clocks back, I went to bed at like 7:45. Actually, the clock said 8:45, but I know it was really like 7:45 since the clocks were being switched back. I felt a little guilty, but not so much to stay awake for one more minute. It was hard enough making it all the way to 8:45 if you ask me!

Life totally got away from me, and I failed to blog. I’m going to try to be better about that and I have several ideas for posts. I mean we were busy, and I have lots of pictures to share with the whole world. I was cooking, and trick-or-treating, and partying it up!