good morning blogging world!!

Hello and good morning! I thought I would send out a quick hiddy-ho-hello to my thousands (ok 4) readers before I start this crazy weekend!  Last night was a huge fondue success!  The ladies got together for Leanne's birthday and we melted a bucket of cheese and dipped all sorts of yummy things in it.  Oh it was delicious.  We gabbed and gossiped, sipped and gorged on melty cheesy heaven.  We all woke up a bit foggy today, bloody marys are on the menu this morning for sure, but it was a great time and as I said before I got to use my new fondue pot AND I made another food item from Pinterest.  Winning. So today I will help my sister move into her new place, meet for bloody marys, go wine tasting, meet up with my dad and little sister to get the truck load of girl scout cookies we ordered, and then go to dinner for day #2 of Leanne-a-palooza.  Then home to bed with my sexy MP.  Tomorrow we have a day off together so hopefully we will get to sleep in a bit (but not if Lyla gets her way) and some relaxing will be on the schedule....I hope.  Cheers to the weekend, cheers to fun with friends and family, and cheers to girl scout cookies....nom nom nom.

How MP and I wake up most mornings:

"Oh you wanted to sleep in?  Well too bad so sad my dear humans!!  It's 6:30am on a Saturday...every body up!!"

Have I mentioned this before?

Have I mentioned how much I love Pinterest?  No?  Well I loooooooooooooooove Pinterest.  I am a pinning fan-at-tic!!  You know how they have twi-hards, star wars geeks, and trekkies...well soon they will have a term for folks like me who are Pinterest obsessed.  I mentioned a few blog entries ago that I have been trying to make some of the things I have pinned because some of these ideas...ok most of them...are so effing easy and cool you would be a fool NOT to try them out.  So a few weeks ago I made fried pickles with the recipe that I got from Pinterest.  Ohhhh me oh my were they delicious.  So easy to make, and better then any I have had at a restaraunt.  Ohhhh yum.  Tonight I am going to make two yummies from Pinterest--some home made pesto sauce and some cheese fondue.  I have some basil that is about to turn and I was freaking out last night on what I was going to do with all of this basil, the idea of letting it go to waste was just unbearable, and voila! it hit me!  I shall try another pinterest recipe AND put to good use the brand new Cuisinart mini food processor I just bought off of Amazon.  Double win!  I am also going to make cheese fondue tonight for one of my best girlfriend's birthday.  Another pinterest recipe and another way to use my new fondue pot that I also got from Amazon.  Did I mention I went a little Amazon crazy with my tax return.  ya....I did.  Guilty as charged.  Warning: I am a sucker for kitchen-ness.  Ooohh it makes me drool.

So to summarize:
I love Pinterest.
I love food.
I love kitchen gadgets of all kinds.
Cheers.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/08/uses-for-pesto/

mama needs a tool box!

Life has this mysterious way of sneaking up on you and I truly believe with all of my heart that the more time you spend making plans the more life loves to throw in a monkey wrench or two in your "oh so well made plans".  I use to stress about all of those monkey wrenches...I am a lady that loves to plan, hell I obsess over it, but as of late I have noticed more and more that as I make plans life has a way of changing them without my permission.  I use to get upset about it and allow it to cause a slight (or not so slight) episode of extreme tantrums to ensue, but the latest rain of money wrenches gave me cause to sit and wonder: a money wrench is a tool right?  So maybe life is seeing a plan I have made, notices it is a disaster, and it throws me a monkey wrench not to ruin my plans...but to teach me something to give me the tool(s) to make it better, to build it stronger.

I am ready for the monkey wrenches now.  Bring em on.  

Look at us now...

The other day I was walking with some of my best girlfriends and I took a step back and started laughing at the picture we made.  We were a heard of 4 ladies, 3 of whom were pushing strollers, one lady pushing a stroller is pregnant and we have a toddler bouncing along after us.  I made everyone stop and look at us and I asked if anyone would have bet money a year (or so) ago that this would be what our sassy lady bunch was look going to look like in a year.  We would have never guessed it would be this.  When did we all grow up?  When did our days off change from laying out at the beach and boozing it up to chores, running errands, and feeling complete if we managed to get all of the laundry washed AND folded. **Oh what a victorious feeling** Not that any of us would trade places with our younger selves...there is something to be said about the wisdom that aging brings, but it seems as if this all happened over night.  When did all of my girlfriends become wives and mothers?  When did it become impossible to get together a group of friends last minute for happy hour?  When did a simple over night vacation turn into a circus full of strollers, bouncy chairs, blinky toys, and 8pm bed times?  Oh life, you sneaky little bastard you :)

Food Bucket List

I love food porn.  I am the kind of person that gets down right giddy when my Food Network magazine arrives and I eagerly flip through the pages for mouth watering recipe ideas.  However, I have piles and piles of these magazines all with dog-eared pages and every color sticky note marking recipes I want to try and I have tried notta one!  So last year I had a food bucket list item that I wanted to conquer.  The ever-so-easy (so everyone told me) salsa.  I love me some Pace, but who doesn't love them some home-made salsa?!  So last year that was my goal.  Own a salsa recipe.  Own one I did!  I now make salsa by the bucket loads and while I tweak my recipe each time I can call myself a salsa maker with pride!  With the boom of Pinterest (I love you Pinterest) I pin recipes all the live long day!  Some are easy, some not so easy, some involve expensive ingredients like lobster and truffle oil, and others involve super cheap stuff like a jar of pickles and some flour and eggs.  I have put it upon myself to not only ogle at the food porn I find in my magazines and on Pinterest (once again I love you Pinterest) but to actually make these things!  So once a week I will make an item I have pinned on my food board, or see in a magazine or online.  Give it a whirl, and let you know how it turns out.  Tonight its fried pickles!!  They should be delicious!  I will let you know!

Why is this b*tch yelling at me???

Recently some girlfriends of mine have been getting together once a month for a game night, we open some wine...ok lots of wine but I thought we talked about how we weren't going to judge...and eat some nibbles and after the first few glasses kick in we head to the living room and play a board game.  Oh the fun we have.  The first game night we all laughed so hard my face hurt the next day.  Inhibitions are thrown out the window and slight edges of competitive personalities surface which makes game nights something I wish we did every night.  Last night I was thinking about how often we get so wrapped up in our lives and our day-to-day of bustling to and from work that we forget to make time for some good old fashion belly aching laughter.  Right now with so many "adult decisions" going back and forth in my head (to school or not to school? what subject? can I get a job with that degree? can I get a job anywhere for that matter? why do I hate Syrah so much?) it was nice to let go, act like a kid, and laugh.  I know that I started this journey because I firmly believe that life is too short to spend 6 minutes (let alone 6 years) doing anything that makes you unhappy and while a big part of me becoming less miserable is getting a new job, I also need to remember that I also need to laugh more.  Laughter through the tears...lots and lots of wine :)

....half way....

We are half way my friends!  6 months ago I started this journey desperately trying to scratch my way out of this state of mind numbing misery I have found myself in.  Originally I had blogged that I wanted to start a career in Pilates instruction and while I have not given up that hope, I have refocused my sights on going back to school.  I love school.  I am that person that gets down-right giddy when buying school supplies.  I can actually get lost for hours in a a pen section in the university book store.  Oooooh gel pens!!  I have always loved learning, and even though I didn't get amazing grades in high school, I loved soaking up new tid-bits of new information.  So this combined with my morbid fear of waking up 10 years from now, 40 (HUGE GASP), and still being employed as someones pee-on assistant gave me the idea to go back to school.  I have been pounding the pavement looking for a new job to deliever me from evil for over a year now (really since about months 3 in this place) and every job I want requires more school or years of experience in that specific field.  While this seems like a "duh" notion it chaps my ass that I can't walk into an interview and say TRUST ME I CAN DO THIS JOB.  I know I can do it, its just getting in the door in front of the 100 other people (thank you recession) that are also applying for the job.  Harg.  So my dear friends, I am going back to school.  What school?  Who knows!  To study what exactly??  You've got me!  Not quite sure on all of the details yet...but I have my financial aid worked out and heck isn't that half the battle?! :D  I am sure I will figure it out.

 Aren't new adventures fun??!!!

Where's the wine?