Don't Even Reply - You know how craigslist is full of idiots? Idiots who post ridiculous things? Things that no one wants? Well, the guy who runs this site replies to postings with hilarious replies and then posts the back and forth messages on this site. Check it out. I think my favorite one so far is this one. Enjoy :)
Also, be sure to read The Shaniqua Chronicles, parts 1-3 on there too. awesome.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Nearly Wordless Wednesday
We went out for Jill's 30th birthday this weekend. Sushi, drinks, friends and good times. Happy Birthday Jill!!
fortunately...jeffrey doesn't read my blog or he'd kill me for posting this pic :)
jill & ben
this pic kills me. jill's hubs ben licking all the sugar off his 3rd lady drink :)
sienna and ashley
fortunately...jeffrey doesn't read my blog or he'd kill me for posting this pic :) 
jill & benthis pic kills me. jill's hubs ben licking all the sugar off his 3rd lady drink :) 
sienna and ashley Monday, July 27, 2009
Crockpot Tuesday
I love soup. Jeffrey doesn't. I made something that is kinda soup, kinda chili. Here it is:
Beef & Bean Soup (kinda)
1 lb ground beef
14 oz beef broth
1 bag frozen veggies
1 1/2 cups water
1 Tbsp onion powder
1 tsp minced garlic
1 can tomato paste
Put frozen veggies in bottom of crock. (Veggies always go in bottom, as they take longer to cook than meats.) Dump all other ingredientes into crock pot and cook on hi for 4 hours or low for 8.
Well, I didn't have beef broth laying around, so i disolved 3 beef boullion cubes in 14 oz water instead. I also didn't have onion powder, but I did have onion soup mix so I used that instead. Figure it has more spices in it anyway, so why not? The recipe I found only had veggies, beef and water so I added the other items. Really any frozen veggies will work, this is just what I had around.
I made cornbread and corn on the cob and it was all great. The flavor was wonderful. If you wanted something a bit creamier for a soup, you can add a 1/2 cup of sour cream before serving and mix it well. You could also bulk up the soup by adding some pasta during the last 30 minutes or so of cooking. Next time, I think I'll mix the ground beef with the spices before putting it in the crockpot to pump up the flavor of the beef. I thought it was great as is though and we'll have this again.
Too much of a good thing? I disagree!!
Of all the forwarded emails, videos, etc. that I've received in the past I can't remember a viral video getting as much face time as this one. I received it four times in a single day--and that doesn't even take into consideration the facebook posts, online articles and television mentions.
But...it's really cute and really refreshing to see people having so much fun with something that could easily be boring and typical. If you haven't seen this, check it out--you won't be able to watch without smiling. If you are like me and you've seen it over and over--watch it anyway...it's monday and i know you need an excuse to slack off! :)
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
Life is an endless struggle full of frustrations and challenges, but eventually you find a hair stylist you like. ~Author Unknown
grrr. i'm so annoyed with myself right now. venting always makes for good blog stuff so here I am. warning: kinda lengthy post about silliness.
i have this constant internal battle between wanting a great cut and 'experience' and not wanting to spend $80 on a haircut. today i made the wrong choice, my peeps. i went to a place with a coupon. i'll wait while you let that sink in. a freakin coupon. and well, like most things you get what you pay for!
for years i got my hair cut at a fancy pants salon in scottsdale. i have somewhat complex hair i guess. it's super curly and ridiculous thick. it doesn't look that way to a stylist that isn't used to my hair though. Since I typically have it flatironed within an inch of its life, it's kinda deceiving. when i didn't work in scotts anymore, it really wasn't worth it for me to travel up there for a haircut. it was a tough choice, but whatevs. i don't get my hair cut as often as i should, so driving 25 miles really shouldn't have been a huge deal breaker. again, whatevs.
so i show up at this place during my lunch and the lady tells me that she's behind and is it really necessary to wash my hair. I tell her yes, i want it washed. (seriously, isn't this a given!?!? i like to be a bit pampered when i'm getting my hair done, thanks) She tells me fine, but that my hair seems pretty clean (STFU lady, ugh). She then tells me that she has another client under the heat thingy who she needs to finish up on in twenty minutes. I tell her that I scheduled an hour appointment. She then seriously says, oh so you want it dried too? WTF is all i can think. I tell her yes, of course I want my hair dry...do you not normally dry the hair after it's cut? She stares at me and says no. she seriously tells me that most walk out with wet hair. i call bull shit. no way. you can't even tell what your hair looks like if you leave with it dripping down your back. Still not sure why I didn't just walk out at this point, but well I didn't.
She hurries me back to the wash area, and is completely rushing through the process. She shampoos and rinses and hands me a towel. hands it to me. doesn't even put it on my freakin head. I ask, um was that a two in one shampoo/conditioner or something. she says no. did you want conditioner too!?! I am floored at this point. Apparently when you use a coupon you only get shampoo. i tell her yes, she needs to use conditioner which she is apparently annoyed at. She rushes through it and hands me the towel again. At this point, i'm positive she'll just shave my head and kick my ass outta the place to be done with me. Again, for some reason I stick around to find out.
I'll spare the details of the whole cutting experience and just share a few tid bits. The entire time she is continually looking over at her other client who is patiently waiting and says things like, "i'm so sorry i'll be right with you, this client needs a bit more attention" and "i squeezed her in but didn't know she required her hair to be dried before she left". I could have punched her in her face at this point. ahhh. Also, she argued with me about how I wanted my bangs, where I part my hair and how I wanted my hair thinned out. I told her that i'd never been through a haircut where the stylist argued with me about what i want. At that, this horrible woman told me that she'd been cutting hair longer than i'd even been alive. ok. fine. i hate you.
So, after the quickest cut ever, she puts no product and no styling into my hair. the crown of my hair and underneath are still damp. At this point, i cannot even tell if i like it. my hair is just frizzy (no product, no straightening) and I could really care less. She says "do you need hairspray?" I tell her yes, I do and...she hands me the spray and walks off. seriously. just hands it to me to do it myself.
i'm enraged and storm up to the counter, coupon in hand. the woman charged me to blow dry. seriously. my haircut was $15 and she charged me another $15 to blow it dry. No shock here but zero tip for this B.
Lesson Learned: if you are high maintenance like me and want conditioner and to avoid leaving the salon with dripping hair, don't use a coupon. go to the place that puts product on your hair and cuts your hair the way you like and suck it up while you pay the bill.
ps-sorry this is so long, and pretty boring. :)
i have this constant internal battle between wanting a great cut and 'experience' and not wanting to spend $80 on a haircut. today i made the wrong choice, my peeps. i went to a place with a coupon. i'll wait while you let that sink in. a freakin coupon. and well, like most things you get what you pay for!
for years i got my hair cut at a fancy pants salon in scottsdale. i have somewhat complex hair i guess. it's super curly and ridiculous thick. it doesn't look that way to a stylist that isn't used to my hair though. Since I typically have it flatironed within an inch of its life, it's kinda deceiving. when i didn't work in scotts anymore, it really wasn't worth it for me to travel up there for a haircut. it was a tough choice, but whatevs. i don't get my hair cut as often as i should, so driving 25 miles really shouldn't have been a huge deal breaker. again, whatevs.
so i show up at this place during my lunch and the lady tells me that she's behind and is it really necessary to wash my hair. I tell her yes, i want it washed. (seriously, isn't this a given!?!? i like to be a bit pampered when i'm getting my hair done, thanks) She tells me fine, but that my hair seems pretty clean (STFU lady, ugh). She then tells me that she has another client under the heat thingy who she needs to finish up on in twenty minutes. I tell her that I scheduled an hour appointment. She then seriously says, oh so you want it dried too? WTF is all i can think. I tell her yes, of course I want my hair dry...do you not normally dry the hair after it's cut? She stares at me and says no. she seriously tells me that most walk out with wet hair. i call bull shit. no way. you can't even tell what your hair looks like if you leave with it dripping down your back. Still not sure why I didn't just walk out at this point, but well I didn't.
She hurries me back to the wash area, and is completely rushing through the process. She shampoos and rinses and hands me a towel. hands it to me. doesn't even put it on my freakin head. I ask, um was that a two in one shampoo/conditioner or something. she says no. did you want conditioner too!?! I am floored at this point. Apparently when you use a coupon you only get shampoo. i tell her yes, she needs to use conditioner which she is apparently annoyed at. She rushes through it and hands me the towel again. At this point, i'm positive she'll just shave my head and kick my ass outta the place to be done with me. Again, for some reason I stick around to find out.
I'll spare the details of the whole cutting experience and just share a few tid bits. The entire time she is continually looking over at her other client who is patiently waiting and says things like, "i'm so sorry i'll be right with you, this client needs a bit more attention" and "i squeezed her in but didn't know she required her hair to be dried before she left". I could have punched her in her face at this point. ahhh. Also, she argued with me about how I wanted my bangs, where I part my hair and how I wanted my hair thinned out. I told her that i'd never been through a haircut where the stylist argued with me about what i want. At that, this horrible woman told me that she'd been cutting hair longer than i'd even been alive. ok. fine. i hate you.
So, after the quickest cut ever, she puts no product and no styling into my hair. the crown of my hair and underneath are still damp. At this point, i cannot even tell if i like it. my hair is just frizzy (no product, no straightening) and I could really care less. She says "do you need hairspray?" I tell her yes, I do and...she hands me the spray and walks off. seriously. just hands it to me to do it myself.
i'm enraged and storm up to the counter, coupon in hand. the woman charged me to blow dry. seriously. my haircut was $15 and she charged me another $15 to blow it dry. No shock here but zero tip for this B.
Lesson Learned: if you are high maintenance like me and want conditioner and to avoid leaving the salon with dripping hair, don't use a coupon. go to the place that puts product on your hair and cuts your hair the way you like and suck it up while you pay the bill.
ps-sorry this is so long, and pretty boring. :)
Friday's Dose of Brilliance
so gross - this is a 14" sandwich with 8 cheeseburger patties...it's like i can feel my arteries closing upKaty reminded me earlier this week of an amazingly-disgusting site. No real explanation needed :)
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Nearly Wordless Wednesday
We take Connor to storytime at the library every Tuesday. He loves it and I love taking him. The librarian there has incredibly unrealistic expectations of toddlers and young kids so that's fun too. Watching her go crazy when they won't sit still is wonderful. I'm a jerk.
Here are some pics from last week at storytime. Lauren brought Jack, Emma and Mady and Jill brought Chloe, Cadence and Brody (who I got zero pics of during this outing). At the end of storytime, it's bubble time and that's clearly what I took the most pics of.
cadence caught a bubble
emma waiting for the bubbles to come her way
chloe trying to catch one too
connor, cadence and some other kid...
connor and cadence jumping for bubbles
i think this is my current favorite connor pic. this is what pure joy looks like i think.
Here are some pics from last week at storytime. Lauren brought Jack, Emma and Mady and Jill brought Chloe, Cadence and Brody (who I got zero pics of during this outing). At the end of storytime, it's bubble time and that's clearly what I took the most pics of.
cadence caught a bubble
emma waiting for the bubbles to come her way
mady showing me her bubble
chloe trying to catch one too
connor, cadence and some other kid...
connor and cadence jumping for bubbles
i think this is my current favorite connor pic. this is what pure joy looks like i think. just a funny bathtime pic of connor to embarrass him with later--please note the huge drool. i love my kid.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Crockpot Tuesday
ugh. today's Crock Pot tuesday was a big hot mess. I wasn't going to even post it, but then decided that not everything will be great, so why not post the fails too?? so here you go...a total crock pot disaster...
Honey Mustard Chicken with Lime
2 large chicken breasts
3/4 c Honey Mustard
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp lime juice
1/2 Tbsp melted butter
1 tsp minced garlic
s & p to taste
Lightly season chicken with salt and pepper, and place in crock pot. Combine all other ingredients together and mix well. Pour over chicken and cook for 6 hours.
As soon as I walked in the house I knew I was in trouble...the smell of scorched mustard is so nasty - trust me. so bad. I scooped the cajun-like chicken out of the completely charcoaled mess that was my crockpot and tried to see if it was salvagable. negative ghostrider. I found some places in the chicken that were tender, but it just wasn't worth scraping all the nastiness off. This is what I found:
i swear this photo doesn't even do it unfortunate justice
The crockpot had to be soaked for hours to get all the crusted mess off. I typically fill the crock pot with warm water, add some dishsoap and set it to low for an hour and anything caked on just slides off...not this time. The heat just continued to cook all that burnt junk and the house smelled like funk.So I ended up scratching that plan and headed to the freezer. We always try to keep lots of frozen veggies and meal options handy in case we don't plan anything for dinner...or in this case if dinner plans go horribly wrong. so we ended up making a bag meal thingy and some green beans...not the most interesting meal but it did the job and we didn't have to scrape the charcoal off to eat it :)
I think that this went wrong in the liquid area...next time i'd add a cup of chicken broth...not too much so that it would dilute the flavor, but enough to have liquid in the crock. live and learn!
connor was thrilled-he got to eat mickey chicken nuggets with multiple dipping options...plus apple sauce with hidden sweet potatoes.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Nearly Wordless Wednesday
ever since connor joined the family, the poor kitties get no face time with the camera. here's mira staring at me in disdain. 
zoey...cowering under the kitchen table
another zoey photo. love her little birthmark over her kitty cat lip
always playing baseball. seriously, the kid wakes up in the morning going "ball, ball?"
we had a movie night and connor cuddled up on a chair with lightning
Monday, July 13, 2009
Crockpot Tuesday
Aahhh. I took a quick pic of our meal last night and then my camera died immediately after the flash went off...wtf...nothing there when I just downloaded. damn. so, i have no photo but that's ok. This is a really simple one so it will be pretty easy to imagine i suppose.
Teriyaki Chicken with Veggies & Fried Rice
2-3 chicken breasts, halved
1 box fried rice - rice-a-roni
1 bag of frozen veggies-partially thawed
enough teriyaki to nearly cover chicken
Spray crock pot with nonstick cooking spray. Halve chicken breasts and place in bottom of cooker. Pour enough teriyaki to almost cover chicken. Cook on Hi for 3 hours. With 90 minutes to go, dump the box of rice-a-roni and the seasoning package in over chicken. Mix well and recover quickly. (I think I heard somewhere that leaving the lid off for 1 minute is the equivalent to losing 10 minutes of heat - it's possible I made that up.) With only an hour left, dump the semi-frozen veggies into crock pot and stir some more.
This was really good. the chicken was really tender and because the breasts were halved, the chicken really soaked up the teriyaki sauce well. Great flavor and the rice and veggies really made it a complete meal. We had this for leftovers the next night too and paired it with a simple green salad. Easy peasy. The only thing I'd change is that the rice and seasoning were really strong. The typical preparation of the rice is with a couple cups of water i think so the way I dumped it in there was no dilution. Next time, I'll add a cup of water at the time I add the rice and seasoning so that it's not quite as intense. When we had it as leftovers, I reheated it on the stove with some water and it was much better i think. Super simple and great tasting.
i definitely stole this photo from google images
Teriyaki Chicken with Veggies & Fried Rice
2-3 chicken breasts, halved
1 box fried rice - rice-a-roni
1 bag of frozen veggies-partially thawed
enough teriyaki to nearly cover chicken
Spray crock pot with nonstick cooking spray. Halve chicken breasts and place in bottom of cooker. Pour enough teriyaki to almost cover chicken. Cook on Hi for 3 hours. With 90 minutes to go, dump the box of rice-a-roni and the seasoning package in over chicken. Mix well and recover quickly. (I think I heard somewhere that leaving the lid off for 1 minute is the equivalent to losing 10 minutes of heat - it's possible I made that up.) With only an hour left, dump the semi-frozen veggies into crock pot and stir some more.
This was really good. the chicken was really tender and because the breasts were halved, the chicken really soaked up the teriyaki sauce well. Great flavor and the rice and veggies really made it a complete meal. We had this for leftovers the next night too and paired it with a simple green salad. Easy peasy. The only thing I'd change is that the rice and seasoning were really strong. The typical preparation of the rice is with a couple cups of water i think so the way I dumped it in there was no dilution. Next time, I'll add a cup of water at the time I add the rice and seasoning so that it's not quite as intense. When we had it as leftovers, I reheated it on the stove with some water and it was much better i think. Super simple and great tasting.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Friday's Dose of Brilliance
No hilarious site today, just a question and a couple of links...
Is anyone else planning on dressing up like a cow and heading to Chick-fil-a for a free meal? No? Oh. Sure, yeah me either.
If you were...here is a link for a free cow costume you can print off and wear into your local Chick-fil-a and here are all the details.
Have a great weekend I'm off to get my free meal purchase lunch in a completely typical way :)
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Nearly Wordless Wednesday
Our friends Joe and Jen Harban have a 4th of July party at their house every year. They live just across the street from Steele Indian School Park so you can see the fireworks from their house. It was great. We bbq'd, played games, ate, drank, and then everyone gathered out on the driveway to watch the fireworks. Connor did really well with them, but like last year he was asleep by the time the fireworks started. The noise didn't freak him out, but I think he was more bothered by us trying to wake him up for the show. Oh well, next year maybe!! Hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend.
the kids (and a few adults) had a watermelon eating contest
patricia really likes watermelon :)
there was a big water fight outside. Patricia used Connor as a human shield for a while, but it really didn't matter. It was a serious water fight...water guns, water balloons, the hose. good times.
connor and daddy waiting for the fireworks
the total cheese-ball
enjoying the show - he did pretty well. why do the freakin fireworks not start until so late...9:30!?! he was exhausted and slept through most of them.
more hamming it up for the camera
Over the weekend we went swimming since lessons were cancelled for the holiday. Dad and Corliss joined us at the pool.
rockin the shark towel
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Crockpot Tuesday
I have been sick this week so there wasn't any food handling this week really! Instead, I thought I'd post the recipe I use when friends have babies. I remember how much of a struggle it is to take care of a newborn, yourself, the house, etc. when you bring the baby home. It's too easy to forget to eat so I like to make casseroles for friends so they don't have to worry about it.
This one is my all time favorite I think. Super easy, super yummy and nothing spicy so as not to upset the whole mamma's milk issue...
Swiss Chicken Casserole
4 chicken breasts
6 slices swiss cheese
1 can cream of whatever soup
1 (8oz) box dry stuffing mix
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup melted butter
1 bag frozen veggies, mostly thawed
Preheat oven to 350. Grease baking dish and place chicken in bottom of dish. dump veggies around chicken. Place cheese over the chicken and veggies. Combine milk and soup and pour over top of items. Spread the dry stuffing mix over everything and top with melted butter. Cover with foil and cook for 50 minutes.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Nearly Wordless Wednesday
Just a few Father's Day pics this week. Each year I make a photo book for Jeffrey for Father's Day. I fill it with pics and stories from the previous year and he looks forward to it. He and Connor went through the book today naming everyone in all the photos.
connor saying "that's me!"
Here are more pics from the actual father's day. Dad & Corliss came over in the morning for breakfast, and then my mom and dad came over that evening for father's day part two with dinner. Good times.
daddy "gettin" connor
connor adores his papa
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