adventure, animals, Craft, family, food, holiday

The posts that wouldn’t be OR ramblings for a Thursday morning

So many things I could have written about over the last month but I just wasn’t feeling it.

There have been adventures…

E and I went down to a cool, private botanic garden in Fallbrook a few weeks ago without the boys.  We’ve been trying to spend more time together without them.  It’s all about balance and learning how to be a couple again after being 2:5 for so long.

There were goats, lots of rustic crap, and some yummy food.

Side note: this was my first time on the 395 in Fallbrook since the accident and I think I handled it pretty dang well.  I don’t think I’ve put last year’s accident behind me but maybe I’m desensitizing a little.  Now if I could just stop seizing up every time I see a car roll in a movie.

Last Sunday I asked E if he was in the mood for a sandwich.  (AKA easy way to get him to go somewhere that he likely would not have wanted to go in the first place.)  My ulterior motive was a scrapbook store that had lost its lease and was having a close out sale.   Instead of reminding me that I have enough crap and that I had just been at the expo the day before – all he asked was if it was the store with the comfy chair.  Like I said, sandwiches get me pretty far.

Katella Deli for a shared sandwich – after 30 years we’re getting better at sharing one meal rather than bringing home a ton of leftovers.  (We’ve officially turned into that old married couple with one meal, two plates, and two glasses of water.)  It’s all about compromise and finding something we can both not just tolerate but enjoy.  The winner? A combo of pastrami AND corned beef that was taken apart so that we each got exactly what we wanted – his side with yellow mustard and mine with brown and both slathered in coleslaw.

I miss deli SO much!  It reminds me of my dad and it is IMPOSSIBLE to find anywhere near us.  We both commented on how the sandwiches at Katella seem to be shrinking.  I also noticed that the clientele was all our age and older.  Although they were packed, like always, I wonder if after we are gone, Katella will be as well.  My kids don’t get excited about deli the way we (still) do and I cannot imagine them driving an hour to get a sandwich.  I hope I’m wrong.

There was scrapbook… shopping…

I keep sitting down to craft and nothing comes out.  Kind of like my writing – over the last few weeks I’ve been dry.  I was hoping walking around the expo with Lisa would solve that.  All it did was enable me to buy more stuff.  When I went to put it away I realized between the expo and the store, I’ve managed to buy a bunch of duplicates.  I REALLY need to organize again and get some stuff done.  Crop signed up for Thanksgiving weekend so I have the incentive, now I just need the motivation.

I did play with alcohol inks a few weeks ago and made some cool tile coasters that are still sitting in the family room waiting to be sealed.  THREE WEEKS LATER!

RPSU8672

I probably should get on that.  I was so excited about the tiles that I went out and bought 9 more bottles of ink and some more tiles so that we could have a family craft night – ummm yeah… not sure when exactly the planets will align for us all to be home together but it was a nice thought.  The newly purchased supplies are also sitting in the family room; a constant reminder that we all lead WAY too busy of lives.

There was also a trip to Sam’s Club the other night to get a ginormous cinnamon roll.  Went for the roll, spent over $200 on stuff – mighty expensive pastry.  It would have been cheaper to get us all Cinnabons!  FYI Cinnabons would have tasted better, too – ours looked NOTHING like the Delish article.

Or caramel apples… I’ve been craving one for at least a month but the one at Myrtle Creek was disappointing and I cannot justify $10 at Rocky Mountain.  E saw that they have 13 varieties of apples on sale at Sprouts this week and I suggested that he buy one of each kind and we have an apple taste-off.  I even offered to make caramel dip.  Nope, not a self-serving suggestion at all.  😉 We’ll see if he comes through when he goes shopping.  If so, there WILL be a DIY caramel apple bar in our future!

Aaron tagged along on a trip up to Idyllwild last week.  E needed to site supervise the placement of the chapel he designed at Camp Emerson and I went along so he didn’t have to drive up alone.  Not sure why Aa came with except that he thought he was getting breakfast which apparently is NOT the same thing as run through the drive through at Mc Donald’s – good to know.  After we were done at Emerson, Aa DEMANDED “real food” so we stopped in town.  We walked around for a little bit – how have we never walked around Idyllwild despite the hundreds of trips we have made up there???? Happened upon a store that sells HAND-DIPPED ICE CREAM BARS! I search FOREVER for ice cream bars and the one time I find one I am too stuffed from eating TWO breakfasts?!?!  Good thing I can guarantee that that will not be my last trip up there so at some point, there WILL be an ice cream bar in my future.  Damn you Costco for taking them off the cafe menu! Curses!

There was a bunch of random ass shit, too…

The other night I was getting into bed and Anthony asked me why I was going to sleep in my work clothes.  I was wearing Rudolph pajama pants.  Either I’m way overdressing for sleep or I need to step up my work clothes from leggings.  Probably the latter.  Probably not going to happen though.  #leggingsarepantstoo

I finally de-Halloweened the front porch.  Took that nasty spider web crap off the trees.  That shit is worse than tinsel.  They’re both like holiday herpes!  Aa is already talking about Christmas so I am sure it’s only a matter of days before one of those damn trees is setup in my house.

Speaking of Halloween, we went to Target last week and bought about $20 in candy.  When candy is marked down 50% off that’s a shitload of candy.  I brought one bag of Reese’s to the office with me because I live with damn locusts.  E may have a few bags of Skittles hidden.  The GIANT bag on the counter is at least half way down! Locusts I tell you! (In all honesty, it’s mostly Aaron.)

The Mystery Oreos are STILL sitting on the kitchen counter from almost a month ago.  We tried them and they were just SO tasty that more than 1/2 the package is still there almost a month later.  Since it doesn’t look like anyone is going to eat them, I might need to find something else to do with them – maybe scrape the filling out and use the cookies for a cheesecake crust? Other ideas?  Want to know what we thought of them?

That being said, I just saw that they have limited edition Hot Cocoa Oreos out now.  Yeah, THOSE will be in my cart, most definitely.

Monday night I finally was able to stand on one leg. WITHOUT FALLING OVER! We’re nearing the end of yoga class so apparently the damn optimists were right and persistence does indeed pay off. Who’d have thought?

Last week, I read Dan Brown’s new book Origin.  We saw Thor: Ragnarok.  We rewatched the original Kingsman movie in hopes of seeing the sequel which is pretty much not even playing anymore.  We still haven’t watched season 2 of Stranger Things – once again trying to find a time when we can all watch it together so that no one is an asshole and spoils it for anyone else.  Yeah, not sure when/how THAT will ever happen.  It’s been a no go for the new season of Orange is the New Black, too – every time I sit down to watch it some kid starts asking me questions about characters or plot lines or the criminal justice system – sheesh, just watch it from the beginning and stop yammering on so I can hear what they are saying!

One last thing, there may have also been donuts as big as our heads, too.

The last two months of the year are filled with madness.  I have an adventure day with the boys scheduled for tomorrow (Veteran’s Day observed). Band is winding down – only 2 more performances to go!  2nd Annual Thanksgiving with the Weiners. Our 18th familversary.  Feeding pomegranates to and riding camels – YES REALLY!  CHINA!!!! Hanukkah/Festivus/Christmas.  E’s last birthday starting with a 4.

Holy shit that’s a lot of stuff – and I’m sure it’s not a complete list!  Despite the mayhem and chaos, it will be filled with family, friends, laughter, adventures, and shenanigans.  Definitely shenanigans! Because of course they are MY assholes children…

Until later llamas…

food

Frozen peanut butter slices = FAIL

So, my friend Angela posted this video the other day and I was MIND BLOWN! https://www.facebook.com/FoodNetwork/videos/10154994813336727/

EVERY TIME Aaron eats peanut butter more ends up crusted on the knife than actually on his sandwich! If this works it could be a game changer in our kitchen. 

And besides, cold Reese’s are some of the best things on this planet! Frozen peanut butter… Hello!

She looks confident. What could go wrong? And if it fails what am I out? Some peanut butter and possibly my dignity? OK I’m game. 

Step 1: Assemble the necessary ingredients and tools. 


Step 2: Schmear a glop of  PB on the parchment. 


Step 3: Roll (relatively) thin – I think this is where it all went to hell, there must be such a thing as “too thin”. 

Too lazy to look for a rolling pin? NO PROBLEM!


Step 4: Freeze overnight. 

Yeah… maybe I rolled them too thin because they pretty much defrosted instantly and made a gooey mess. A delicious mess but a mess nonetheless. And NO, I did not drink the vodka and make these drunk. Although, not sure that would have impacted the final outcome. 

I ate what I could of one square without getting it up my nose and fed the rest to the dogs. They didn’t mind licking the goo up as much as I did, at least once they stopped trying to eat the damned paper. I totally get why the kid in the video was licking – although they at least took the PB off the paper. Mine was the low carb version. 😂

I still have about 5 in the freezer.  Don’t worry, they won’t go to waste. 

Craft, family

Mom of the Year Moment – REDEEMED

Saturday, 7am Aaron wake up: Mom, did you order my flowers for tonight?

Oh. Shit. 

Homecoming’s tonight and I need TWO boutonnières. TWO. 

In my defense, I DID message my florist friend earlier in the week. I just kind of dropped the ball and never followed up. 

So what’s a crafty mom to do? Turn to YouTube! I mean, seriously, how hard could it really be? (Overconfidence.  Usually my first mistake.)

She says it’s easy. She wouldn’t lie, would she?

So, Lisa and I jetted off to Michael’s after lunch (can’t craft on an empty stomach) and bought wire and floral tape. Pins were $6! Six freaking dollars for pins? I don’t think so!  Lisa had rainbow organza ribbon and threw together some amazing bows. Stopped at the market and picked up flowers. Two hours until the dance… let’s throw this shit together. 


Holy crap – she was right! Damn easy! The total cost $16 for TWO plus enough wire and tape to start my own business and a jar of misc leftover flowers on my table. Why didn’t I start making these years ago?


The boys loved them even if I had to use like 6 pins in each to hold them up (probably should have bought the long pins at Michael’s). 


Mom of the Year – redeemed!