Dating

What do you think of online dating? For about 5 years, I have been involved in my church, teaching middle school and raising my daughter the best I can on my own. I thought that I would come across this great guy somewhere in my busy life, and we would date, fall in love and get married. Maybe even have a baby together. Well, it hasn't happened and both my daughter and I would love to have a wonderful man in our life. So, I decided to try a popular dating website in an effort to meet more men, go on some dates and see what happens. Here's some lessons that I have learned (the hard way) so far on my dating adventures.
1) E-mail back and forth a few times tactfully working in your deal breaker questions (kids, religion etc...) then meet up sooner rather than later. You can get a completely different impression of someone spending 15 minutes with them than an entire week of e-mailing or texting back and forth with them.
2) Enlist some help from a friend. I don't understand why so many people have those horrible pictures taken in their bathroom mirrors. Get a friend to take some good, current pictures of you to use on your profile. Also, have that friend read your profile. Have them not only look for spelling or grammar errors, but also that you have described yourself well and are coming across as the awesome person you are! I even let my friend do some matchmaking for me and was impressed with the choices she made. You have to be open minded to different types of people otherwise you'll find yourself repeating the same mistakes you've made in the past.
3) Give people a second chance. Some people are very nervous about dating. If things didn't go terribly wrong on the first date, give the person a chance for a second date. Sometimes chemistry grows with time and when there isn't an instant connection it doesn't mean there can't be one after another date or two.
4) Be honest. If someone isn't right for you, be honest about it- yet kind. No one wants to be led on or waste their time.
5) Be a good date. Be on time, put down your cell phone, look at and listen to them, laugh at their jokes or stories. Remember your manners.

New Year's Visions

A friend and I were talking about New Year's Resolutions, and she mentioned that every year each person in her family creates a vision board with cut out pictures from magazines to represent their goals, aspirations, and resolutions for the new year. I loved this idea and decided to make it my own. So, this afternoon my daughter and I both designed our own pinterest boards dedicated to our New Year's goals and resolutions. I then made some of the highlights into a wordle using www.wordle.net to frame and display in our house! What New Year's traditions do you have?
 

New year, new soup

My new years resolution for 2013 is to make one soup and one salad each week. This resolution will help me to eat healthier, try new foods, to save money by taking leftovers in to work for lunch, and to de-stress, because to me, cooking is calming! I decided to start a little early on the soup this week- you'll have to excuse me for being a little excited about my new endeavor! I went to Walmart and browsed the vegetable aisle and I found fennel (or anise), parsnips and some other goodies that I'll tell ya about later! I looked on allrecipes.com for some inspiration, then ended up just doing my own thing. I sliced up about half of the fennel bulb and two of the parsnips. Then I put them in the large plastic cup that came with my immersion blender (one of my favorite possessions, by the way) with about 1 cup of chicken broth and mixed it until smooth. I then poured it in a pot with a 1/2 cup more of the stock, one can of Campbell's potato soup, and one can of corn. When it was hot, I added about a fourth cup of cream and removed it from heat. It only took about 20 minutes to make and tasted very good to me, and I've never even eaten a parsnip or fennel before! Please leave a comment if you try my soup out and let me know how you like it!

Soup and salad

Thinking about my new years resolution.

For my new years resolution this year, I want to be more healthy- maybe even loose a few pounds. But I don't want to do insane workouts that make me throw up, eat only grapefruits and cabbage, or anything else crazy like that.

I know how healthy salad and soup is for you, but I've never been too crazy about eating bunny food. So I browsed my local library and came up with a few salad and soup cookbooks that sounded good, and I set my goal: to make one soup and one salad each week of 2013!
I plan to share some of the recipes here on my blog, so stay tuned and here's wishing you a happy and healthy new year!

Have you ever shaved a goosebump?!

I hate shaving my legs. It is such a pain, and makes my showering routine twice as long. I feel like I'm doing underwater yoga in there- you know, downward dog to reach the back of my ankles without getting water up my nose! And no matter how hard I try, there is always a missed spot! God forbid, you cut yourself- you bleed all day long! And why is it that I am always out of shaving cream? Then I'm faced with the decision to substitute with conditioner(bound to cut myself!) or get out to get a new can and risk getting goosebumps. Have you ever tried to shave a goosebump?!
Have you seen this someecard?
I wonder how many women actually go all winter without shaving their legs? Could you?

It's Like Winter Here

As you know, I live in Florida. You also probably know that it gets hot here in the summer. Like, unbearably hot. So hot that we don't even go outside. Like, for two months. True Floridians would rather clean their house than go to an amusement park or the beach during the summer. For July and August people in Florida pretty much lock themselves indoors in the air conditioning, catch up on all the movies they never saw when laying on the beach in the spring, pack on 10 pounds and wait for fall to come. For a really fun time we may swim in a spring where the water temp is always around 75degrees, and we can make "water angels" instead of "snow angels". I know you are probably not feeling sorry for us at all- thinking oh, you poor Floridians, boo hoo. It probably does reach 90 degrees where you live even, but I swear it is NOTHING like the heat you experience here.

Spaghetti Tacos and ICarly

My daughter and I loooove the show, ICarly!  We love to do "random dancing", say that things are "jenk" and often wish we could be wild girls like Sam.  

The other morning before school my daughter asked me what we were going to have for dinner that night and I told her I had no idea.  She suggested that I cook spaghetti tacos which is Carly's brother Spenser's specialty on the show.  Well, I thought that it sounded pretty gross, but will do pretty much anything to get my picky child to eat her dinner, so I made them.  They were quick and easy- just boiled spaghetti, mixed it with a little sauce in a bowl and put it in taco shells with some shredded mozzarella cheese.  I only made one for myself because, like I said, I figured it would be pretty gross.  Well, I must admit that they were not too bad- I actually made myself another!

6 word Saturday- Earth Day

Doing our part to clean up!

This year my daughter and I, along with a few friends, took part in the Great American Coastal Cleanup in honor of earth day.  We filled one bag with garbage and one bag with recyclables.  We found quite a few balloons (which are very bad for sea life), loads of water bottles and beer bottles, not as many cigarette butts as we have found in past years, and other various bit of garbage.  The most interesting thing that we found was a wallet filled with money.  It had an ID in it, so we turned the whole thing in.  If no one claims it, we will have a well deserved lunch, but for now, all we got was a t-shirt and a good feeling in our hearts!

Can you describe your life in just 6 words???

My strong-willed child meets the dentist

My 9 year old daughter has been complaining that there was food getting stuck up in one of her teeth.  I didn't think too much of it, but then the other day her tongue was all scratched up from it, so I figured that it was probably chipped and made a dentist appointment right away.  The dentist took one look at the tooth- a baby tooth (thank goodness!), and said that it should probably come out.  He said it was not only chipped, but also had a cavity.  Her dentist is so awesome.  He calls her angel, joked with her about chewing on rocks and promised it wouldn't hurt and that he would give her happy gas to make her feel happy about it.  She turned to look at me with tears in her eyes and said, "I refuse".  I just looked at her like, "what?!"  Then she said it again, "I absolutely refuse", and she stared at me with my very own "don't mess with me, I am the boss" look that I give to my students!  Someday, my daughter will be a force to be reckoned with, but for today, she got the tooth pulled.  Hope the tooth fairy brings her something good- she deserves it!

telling it like it is

One thing I love about kids is that they will tell it like it is!  If my outfit is cute, they will let me know it.  If my shoes are awesome, they tell me.  If my jokes are funny, they will laugh.  When my lessons are good, they will thank me.  Today, one of my students asked me if I "lost my comb".  I'm guessing that the "tousled hair look" doesn't really work for me!

Six Word Saturday and the movies

 Let's all go to the movies!

I've been so busy lately!  My schedule has been so packed that I never even got to see a few movies that I really wanted to see.  I must be the only one on earth who hasn't seen the Hunger Games yet.  And I promised my daughter that we would go see Mirror Mirror, since we are so hooked on the Once Upon a Time TV show.  So, tonight, I'm going to the movies- I'll save you some popcorn!

Can you describe your life in just six words?

Zen Doodles

Have you heard of Zen Doodles?  I love to doodle- in meetings, in church (sorry Pastor!) and while I'm on the phone.  But I have no artistic talent AT ALL.  Basically, I can only draw good horses butts, umbrellas and palm trees.  Recently, I have been hearing a lot about these drawings called Zen Doodles or Zen Tangles.  Basically they have these specific patterns with different names that you use when you doodle.  Anyone can do them and they look good- even mine! I ordered two books on Amazon and am hooked!  A friend of mine, who is not the craftiest person, told me that she has been making thank you cards on blank note cards with zen doodle patterns- so clever!  I made copies of the different patterns in my book, laminated them and made them into a book of flip-cards for my daughter, so that she can doodle in the car!  What can you think of to do with your Doodles?

Awww Yeah!

Just look at that ham!

Doesn't it look juicy and delicious?!  I pulled it off and cooked my first Easter dinner.  I did a ham, green bean casserole and mashed sweet potatoes.  Yum!  Turns out hams are already cooked when you buy them and all you do is heat them up like hot dogs- who knew!  Happy Easter!

And Then I Got All Cocky

And Then I Got All Cocky...
 
Anyone who knows me knows that I love to cook and that I am pretty good at it (even if I do say so myself).  There have been a lot of changes in our family traditions with each holiday that has passed since my dad died one year ago.  For example, on Thanksgiving, I decided instead of going to dinner at my parents house, like we always used to do, that I would have my mom over to my house and cook a turkey.  It was the first time I cooked a turkey on my own and it turned out delicious!  
With Easter just around the corner, and my grandmother here from out of town for a visit, my mom was very stressed out trying to get everything spruced up and planning out Easter dinner.  So, tonight I told her not to worry, that we could do Easter dinner at my house.  I could handle everything.  Since I cooked a turkey, apparently now I think I can cook anything.  Um, I have no idea how to cook a ham!  What am I getting myself into?!

Can you describe your life in just 6 words? Drop by Cate's site and show off your stuff: http://www.showmyface.com/search/label/6WS

Tetherball and Backyard Fun!

About a year ago, I decided to update my backyard for my daughter, who is not so little anymore.  I did some research and finally decided to replace the rusty old swingset that bumped when you swung too high with a tee pee and a gigantic rock (see here).  The tee pee did not hold up so well to the rain and the rock, sadly, was not such a big hit.  So, I decided to add one more upgrade to the backyard: a tetherball pole.  I remember playing tetherball back in elementary school and loved it.  I think this game is going to bring lots of fun times to our backyard!

Spring Cleaning or 2 hrs Sweatin' in the Bathroom

Recently, I have been on a spring cleaning kick and have been slowly working my way through my house (see here).  After cleaning my living room, I decided to tackle the bathroom next.

When I clean a room, I always take two paper bags with me.  On the bags I write a giant "G" and "D" and fill them with either GARBAGE or DONATIONS as I clean.  I began with the medicine chest.  After disposing of all the old lotions, soaps and body sprays, I found some cute containers to hold items such as bandaids, q-tips, and flossers.  

I keep bandaids in that cute metal box!

Since my bathroom has no closet, (nor are there closets anywhere in my house besides the bedrooms) I purchased a tall pantry from Home Depot.  I adjusted the shelving inside of it to hold large bins where I store my towels and sheets.  There was even room on top of the pantry to hold an extra bin of sheets!

I even attached a toilet paper holder and towel rack to the side of the pantry!

I found some great large storage bins at Target to store towels and sheets!

To organize my sink, I placed all extra toiletries underneath of it including a bin of washcloths.  I store a roll of paper towels, spray and lightbulbs under there as well.  I stuck a wire suction cup basket to the wall near the sink to corral my hair dryer, saline solution and to hang my glasses on!

My final organizational touch in my bathroom is a small coat rack.  I especially love this item because it keeps the towels off of the floor and gives me a place to hang my robe or outfit for the day.

Have you started your spring cleaning yet?

spring cleaning

In honor of spring, I have been doing some spring cleaning.  I definitely did not want to spend my entire spring break cleaning my house, so I have been focusing on one small area of my house at a time.  I decided that the first area of cleaning focus would be my living room, since this is the place everyone sees the most of.  I started by cleaning all the extras off of my ladder bookshelf.  

A ladder shelf is great because not only can you place items on the shelves, you can also place items on the floor behind the shelf and no one can even see what's behind there!  On my ladder shelf, I placed three storage bins.  One holds small games, one holds books and one holds nothing currently, but will be a great place to quickly stash stuff when company is coming! 

I also placed a small wine rack on one of the shelves to store magazines. 

The top shelf holds pictures and the shelf just below that holds my dvd player and satellite receiver.

What do you think?  I am feeling better already!

yoga, stress and loose teeth

Lately I have noticed that if I drop something on the floor and then bend down to pick it up, a strange sound comes out of my mouth that sounds something like "ugh".  I have found a way around it, though, and that is to get a nearby kid to pick up whatever I dropped for me.  I do realize that this sound is a sign that I am not as flexible as I used to be, which has brought me to the decision to take up a yoga class.  

There is a class offered at my local gym that I decided to try out, and since my daughter is too old for their nursery, but too young to stay at home alone, I brought her along.  I figured that we could sit in the back of class and whisper and giggle when someone farts or falls over.  

Even though this class is open to all levels, it is very quiet and a little intense.  The first time we went, my daughter, who has a lot of energy hopped around, and fell all over the place until her loose tooth fell out. I gave her a stern talking to after that- she was lucky the tooth fairy came at all that night!   
I decided to try the class again the next week during which she complained that she was bored the whole time, and that she wanted to go.  Have you ever tried to relax with an 8 year old yapping in your ear that she is bored?  I sat there the whole time trying to breathe and be peaceful, yet wondering if it would be ok to spank my kid in the middle of yoga.  I was so tense by the end of class that it was like I had just sat in Florida traffic for an hour, rather than breathing and stretching.  

Tonight I decided to give the class one last try.  I tried to place our mats in the back corner this time, and was even prepared with two Nintendo DS video games.  Apparently it is indeed possible to get kicked out of yoga class, because after both DSs ran out of batteries, and my daughter had walked around everyone to go to the bathroom or drinks from the water fountain at least 3 times, we were told to keep still and stop distracting the class.  One girl actually got up and walked out.  Do you think it was because of us?!  Thinking next week maybe we will try Zumba!

6 word Saturday- On Sunday

Please pass the glitterglue and sequins!

Suit Back

Suit Front

My daughter is gearing up for her first synchronized swimming competition of the year.  It is only her second ever, so she is I am nervous!  For the competition the girls are excited because they get to get all glammed up with bright make-up, glittery suits and beautiful headpieces.  She has been practicing hard all through the winter and she and her team are ready to go!  Finally, the suits are ready to go too!  One of the other moms created the design on the suits with glitterglue.  I sewed (I SEWED!) sequins on them for the fish's bubbles. 

My six word Saturday turned into a six word Sunday this week- been so busy lately!

Flippers and Runways

My 8 year-old daughter and I have been watching re-runs of the show, Toddlers and Tiaras on our Netflix.  Have you seen this show?!  Basically, each show features a particular beauty pageant and follows several girls who are participating in the pageant as they prepare and compete.  We especially like it when they feature a "glitz pageant" because the girls really get dolled up with beautiful hair and dresses.  One strange thing we discovered that girls do for a glitz pageant is to wear what is called a "flipper" in their mouth to cover up where they have lost baby teeth, and to make their smiles appear picture perfect.  The other night we were watching an episode and my daughter turns to me and says, "wow, that MOM sure could use a flipper herself!"  I just about died laughing sitting there on my very own couch.  Then, tonight after we were done watching an episode of the show together, I sent my daughter to her room to get ready for bed.  When I went to tuck her in, I found that she had taped a "runway" onto her bedroom floor complete with an "X" like they have on the stages in Todders.  She then made me sit on the bed and pretend to be a judge while she walked the runway and made "pageant faces" for me like they do on the show.  I am so glad that she has such a good sense of humor and is able to have fun with a silly cable TV show.  What do you think of the show?  Would you ever let your child compete in a beauty pageant?

Lent, Chocolate, and Music

Today is Ash Wednesday which marks the beginning of Lent- the 40 days before Easter. Traditionally, Christians go to church on Ash Wednesday, and then give up something for Lent. When I was a little girl, I usually gave up meat on Fridays and candy. For the past few years though, rather than giving up candy or meat, I have tried to do something to get closer to God. Some things I have done in the past were to attend church every week of Lent until Easter, reading the bible for 10 minutes each night, and doing a random act of kindness each day of Lent.  This year, I am planning to do something I have actually already done before- to listen only to Christian music during Lent.  That's right, no rap for 40 days!  What do you plan on doing for Lent?

Buttloads of Candy

I can hardly believe it, but for the first time in years, I actually have a Valentine on Valentine's Day. That's right, there will be no SWAN night for me this year (see here). And I am sooooo in the spirit, that I am making myself want to hurl! Yesterday, my daughter and I went and got pedicures (even got little hearts painted on our toes!) we made a special treat for my boyfriend and my mom, and secret Valentine's cards for each other. I'm going to get up early in the morning to make her a special breakfast too!

At school, the kids in my class are learning about their heart- drawing and labeling hearts, making 3D models showing the path blood takes through the body with string and creating foldables about the parts of blood.

As I was tucking my daughter into bed tonight, I asked her what she thought would make the best Valentine's day surprise, and she looked me in the eye and replied, "butt-loads of candy!" That's my girl!