Today Marks 4 Years!!!

Hey there!!

So today is a very special day to me.  It marks a very important accomplishment.  Today I am 4 years sober. 

Yep!  That's right.  I quit drinking 4 years ago.  Well quit drinking and popping pills. I couldn't be more proud of myself.  I won't lie, the first year was the toughest year of my life and I thought it ws never going to end.  Or that it would becuase I woudl never survive it, but I was wrong.  It did and then another past and another and a now another. 

Time for me to get a new Tifanny & Co. cahrm for my bracelet.  My sister bout be a Tiffany & Co. charm bracelet and my first charm when I hit 1 year sober.  Thent he following year she bought me the next char.  I haven't made it tot eh store to get myself the 3rd charm yet. (We don't exactly have any Tiffany & Co. stores anywhere close by to Reno, NV) So now I guess I will just need to get myself both of the next charms. :) So, I'm all caught up.

Well Happy April 26th to everyone!  Hope it's a wonderful day for you. :)

Saturdays are for Pedicures and Sushi!

Yay for Saturday!!!  Don't you just love love love Saturdays? I certainly do. So today was all about sleeping in, pedicures and sushi! now when I say pedicures I am sure most people think "Ahhh, heaven" or relaxing or pampering don't you?  Well, not me!  I never understand why I EVER think it is a good idea for me to get a pedicure.  I hate them.  Well I don't hate them I guess.... Hmmmmm. Yeah I hate them.  I love getting my toe nails polished.  That part I enjoy.  It's everything they do leading up to that part that I don't so much enjoy.

I am the most ticklish person in the world.  I scream and jump if you just look at my feet.  I feel bad for all the the nail techs that try to give me pedicures.  It's not an enjoyable experience for them.  Actually I take that back.  They are rolling in laughter way too much for me to believe they aren't enjoying it on some level.  My mom too.  She gets such a kick out of watching me climbing out of my chair and biting my hands to keep from screaming. To me, pedicures are like a cruel torture.  It is the largest form of insane torture and uncomfortable-ness that will make me spill all of the secrets of the world...  I wish I could just find a way for my toe nails to just grow out in pretty colors. The nail tech spends a lot of time dodging my involuntary kicks to their temples too.  I am sure glad they find it hilarious to watch though.  I do have to admit.... I am so very pleased and happy once it is all over and I have pretty toes.  Today's color was dark blue.  Sooo pretty.  Mom got her usual french toes.

So after the pampering torture session, my mom and I made sushi rolls today.  Our very first attempt.  In case you are wondering how a first attempt turns out... well you are in luck because I am here to tell you it is quite a messy and somewhat recognizable one. But it was FUN!

First I had to wash the rice?  Seriously, wash: the rice.  Multiple times.  How exactly does one do this without spilling rice all down your sink?  This is going to take some practice I can see.  Then in the rice cooker it went! Oh yeah!  I'm all about the rice cooker!

Looks pretty clean doesn't it?  Now while it's cooking it's time for me to make the "sticky" stuff for the rice.  Now the guy on YouTube made this look super easy.  Piece of cake! I can do this.

Ummmmm....  So did he mention that it takes FOREVER for the sugar to dissolve in the rice vinegar?  I don't' remember it take him this long?  Hmmm. Well I will just keep stirring, because really... How tough could it be to dissolve sugar in vinegar?  I must had had some pretty stubborn sugar.

Finally, success and I now have sticky rice!!  While I was fighting with the sugar mixture and mixing the rice my mom started cutting up the fillings.

Now I can start creating these bad boys.  Time for some sushi roll masterpieces!  Wow, no wonder they call this stuff "sticky" rice.  It sticks to EVERYTHING except the seaweed.  Spreading this stuff out thin is not an easy task.

How exactly to you thin this out?  This layer of rice is so thick.  So, note to self.  next time I should try to do thinner layer of rice and maybe a little less filling.  I might over over filled this thing a little.  LOL

But doesn't it look nice and happy and all in once piece. I am just happy it held together. :)
It it looked nice and pretty all cut up too. (notice the major amounts of rice. hahaha)

So I tried my hand a few more rolls and got them much thinner this time.  I decided to wrap them tightly in saran wrap to stick in the fridge for later.

So my Saturday was a productive one and a comedy of errors.  But those really are the most entertaining kind of days aren't they?  I had a great time.  Hope everyone else had a great Saturday too!

Holy Yumminess!

I just couldn't resist. ;)

Fabulous Friday



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 Happy Fabulous Friday Everyone!!!! 

Can I just start off by saying I have never been so happy for a Friday to get here... Ok, that may not be completely true. I think I feel this exact same way every single Friday, but still, It's such a glorious feeling!

I am excited to go to the movies with M and the kids tonight.  We are going to see the Disney Documentary Chimpanzee.  It looks so freaking cute.  I can't wait.  I saw the preview with I went to the movies with my other friend A to see One For The Money and was hooked immediately.  So tonight is the night.  YAY! 


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 Then tomorrow, my mom is coming over to my house so we can have a mother-daughter cooking project day.  We are making homemade sushi!  Woot Woot!  It's going to be so much fun.  Not to mention a little on the disastrous side, but fun none the less.  So wish me some luck on that! lol


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 I can pretty much guarantee my sushi tomorrow will NOT look that good or pretty though. 

Oh and last but not least...  The next best part about today be Friday.  It is the Friday before a three day weekend for me.  I am taking Monday off so I can veg or read or clean or pretty much do whatever the heck I want. YAY!  I am so excited!!

Anyone else out there as excited for the weekend as me??

Sunday Confessions

I'm linking up with Alyx for Sunday Confessions today.  So I am gonna let you all in on another little crazy secret.  Are you ready????

I LOVE salt and mustard.  I am a huge fanatic for anything salty.  I prefer salt over sugar any day.  So much that when I shop at Costco I have to pick these up each trip because I go through it THAT fast.  I know.  It's sickening isn't it?  But sooooo yummy!

I pretty much drown everything in Mustard.  You often can't even see my hot dogs or hamburger/turkey burgers.  I dip my fries in it. I put it on my fish and ham.  I freaking love this stuff.  When I was a kid I used to make money by betting my friends that I would drink the mustard straight out of the packet.  They never believed I would do it So I was winning nickels and quarters left and right.

I love salt, vinegar and mustard.  When salt and vinegar chips first came out I was convinced they were invented just for me.

So since I am such a lover of mustard and all things salty my friend M had given this to me for Christmas.  I thought it was so perfect.  as far as knowing me well... this paired well with all the coffee I received for Christmas as well.

So who else has some crazy flavor obsessions?

My Cake Ball Disaster

So I decided that I wanted to do some baking this weekend.  Now I have a pretty amazing personal "from scratch" cookie recipe that I created myself and spent years mastering and I have some pretty amazing "from scratch" cake, pie and cobbler recipes, but it has been a while since I was able to spend some time de-stressing in the kitchen with my KitchenAid. I wanted to try something a little different this time to ease myself back in.  So I went with the biggest craze out there these days.  Cake Balls!

I wanted to find a way to do these a little on the low sugar side so first I bought some Pillsbury Sugar Free cake mixes and frostings.  I thought this will be perfect.  The only sugar will be in the candy coating.  For some reason though to me, even though it is sugar free ingredients it seemed like it was going to be so so sweet still.  Then I discovered this recipe on line for Pumpkin Spice Cake Balls.  In case you didn't already know this about me, I LOVE PUMPKIN!!!!  It is my favorite flavor ever!  One of the many reasons why Fall is my favorite time of year.  What isn't great about fall?  I am sure many of you are also saying "Hey!  It is April, V!  Not fall.  What's with pumpkin flavored anything?"  Well... In my world it is ALWAYS pumpkin season. :)

I came home Friday night after work and started on the cake. So this recipe involves making the cake with just a dry spice cake mix and one 15 oz can of pumpkin puree.  Now I have seen this recipe around before and even talked to a friend who tried it.  She says it works wonderfully.  I still have a tough time wrapping my head around the idea but Hey, what the heck, I'll try it.  So I did.

Like I said, the idea of mixing only canned pumpkin puree and dry spice cake mix seems very strange to me but it did end up looking like a batter...

Although it was REALLY thick.  So I managed to get it into the greased baking dish but that was pretty hard considering how thick it was.  It wanted to stay attached to the spatula.  But I managed to get it to cooperate.

Into the oven it goes!  The first set of directions I saw said to bake it for 20-25 minutes.  Who were they kidding????  It was still straight dough at 25 minutes.  So I continued to bake it for another 15 minutes.  Knife came out clean. YAY! Now to let it sit and cool.  I let it cool over night so I could then tackle this project again in the morning.

Ok now it is Saturday morning and it is time to start the final half of the Cake Ball Fun! So I take out the 1/3 less fat cream cheese the recipe called for. This was another reason why I was so drawn to this particular recipe.  Low fat cream cheese instead of high fat sugary sweet frosting as the binding agent. So I first break up the cake and discover that this cake is really moist.  How yummy would this thing be if I just made it as a pan cake?  Wow..... Oh... Wait...  That might not be such a good thing for cake balls though. This thing could almost be TOO moist.  It basically made a batter on it's own.  Well, this is the first time I have done this so maybe it's supposed to be like this.  So I add the cream cheese.  HA!!!  Yep.  So it's pretty doughy. I could probably bake this thing all over again.  It is a lot like a bread dough now.

Well no point is stopping now so lets just push through and see if it all falls together right.  I roll the dough into several little balls and stick them in the fridge a couple hours to firm up.

After the balls chill out for a while I start getting the almond bark ready. I chose to go the double boiler route so it would stay warm and melty longer. (Is melty a real word...? Well it is now.)

This stuff is seriously thick too.  I'm beginning to think it's me... But now it's time to start dipping and coating the balls.  Alright, So when I first starting thinking about making these, my friend M also decided she would have a cake ball making weekend too but wanted to get some lollipop sticks for hers.  I thought she was silly at first.  You don't need those.  You can make them just fine I think without using the sticks and making them all fancy.  Silly Silly Girl.  Hmmmmm......  Well Ok.. So I'm not too proud to admit that perhaps she may have been a bit smarter than me on this plan.  The sticks really would have made coating these balls in the candy coating much much easier and perhaps much more evenly coated too.  Next time, I'm totally getting the sticks. I kept scraping the coating off whenever I tried turning the ball or removing it from the coating to set on the wax paper.  Ugh.... Not to mention the bare spot on the bottom of all the balls from setting up on the wax paper.  Oops.

I get them all placed on the wax paper to and cover them with some sprinkles to hopefully make them a little prettier, and let them harden.

Yeah, Ok so even the sprinkles didn't help much.  They still aren't very pretty. But they are ready to be put in a container for my occasional treat.

So I have to admit they didn't taste all that bad.  They were pretty tasty but not as tasty as I thought they would be.  They are really really gooey and doughy, but they were my first attempt.  I just have to remember all the times I did trial and error with my cookie recipe before getting them just right. They will do for now I suppose.  I just don't think they are very worthy of sharing with my friends.  I'm kind of embarrassed with how they turned out.  So I will have to give this another try again later. Maybe I'll try baking the cake a little longer to the point of drying it out a bit and maybe also use less cream cheese.

Maybe when I try the chocolate/peanut butter chip ones I have been thinking of, they will turn out a little better. We will see.

So to recap the ingredients, here is all I needed:

1 box of dry spice cake mix
1 15 oz can of pumpkin puree
1 package of low fat cream cheese
1 package of almond bark
sprinkles

Maybe one of you can come up with some alterations to this to make them a little better.
So once completed, I decided to reward myself... and by reward, what I mean is wallow in disappointment. I decided to treat my self to an iced caramel macchiato.  Somehow, coffee always makes me feel better. :)

Friday the 13th

Happy Friday the 13th everyone!!  Let me say it again.... HAPPY HAPPY Friday the 13th!!!!  Awww, I just LOVE this day!  =D
Ok, so I have to confess, I LOVE Friday the 13th.  It's one of my favorite days.  It has the fear of everyone for it's dark and dreary connotation, which I happy to get such a kick out of, and it is one of the most safest days when you think about it because everyone is on alert and much more careful in fear of something scary and bad happening to them.   

I am a pretty superstitious person, I will admit that, but Friday the 13th has nothing evil or bad connected to it in my mind.  Black cats are good luck to me, the number 13 is one of my favorite numbers and how could anything about a Friday be bad?  Seriously???  It's Friday for crying out loud, people! The end of the week. The beginning of the weekend. The day for treating yourself to an extra yummy lunch, and for most people it's even payday.  How can any part of that be a bad or scary thing? 

I'm going to enjoy it as much as I can today.  :)  Hope you all do too.

Bur for those of you who like having something to be scared about, check this out.  Personally, I like being scared too. ;) Bad Omens

Music is the air that I breath




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 How would I ever be able to survive in this world without my music.  I am 100% dependant on music to function.  I have been for as long as I can remember.  Seriously....  I can recall my obsession and co-dependant relationship with it going as far back as around 3 years old.  I can't drive anywhere without having something playing loudly for me to stay calm with (yes I get pretty serious road rage), I can't focus on work without it over powering all of the normal hustle and bustle sounds of the office in the back ground, and I can't make it through any difficult or even just annoying life scenarios without it.  It's almost as if as soon as I turn on music my blood pressure instantly lowers. 


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Now, I have a pretty eclectic taste for music.  My favorite would definitely be Rock music, which makes this next statement seem all the more strange, but my all time favorite artist is Madonna.  LOVE her, idolize her, obsessed with her, admire her, and just all around think she is the most amazing artist and person on this planet.  See Here I remember dancing and singing along to her first album on a hourly basis.  I knew every word to Burning Up (which by the way is my current ring tone as well) and owned her album on vinyl before she had even been introduced on MTV (a year later, by the way).  I must have been 5 or 6 years old. When the video for Material Girl came out I had the entire dance memorized and got up in front of the TV or the radio and danced along with each move every time it played.  I have owned every single one of her records, cassette tapes and Cd's. Not to mention every single one of her movies... Good or Bad.  Yep... I think you can definitely say I am a loyal and over zealous fan.  I don't plan on ending that any time soon either. ;)  Michael Jackson had a solid second place in my heart as well. :)



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So aside from my favorite "artist" I have to throw out there that my 2 favorite bands are 3 Doors Down and Evanescence.  I told you I had eclectic taste.  Now, just because I use the word favorite does not in any way mean that these artists are the end all be all in my world.  I LOVE many many bands and artists.  I am, what my friends so lovingly like to refer to as, a Concert Whore. I go to many many concerts, as many as I can get my hands on tickets too.  I couldn't even begin to list all of the concerts I have been to in my life.  These include, Rock, Alternative, Pop, Soft Rock, Heavy Metal, Country and Classical; just to name a few.

If it weren't for music I am pretty sure I would drown in this life.  It is truly the  air that I breath. 

I am the type of person who gets extremely moved by the lyrics.  Now don't get me wrong, I just melt when I hear a really good guitar solo, but the lyrics will get to me every time.  I guess because I have always been a "words" kind of girl.  I have been writing poems, lyrics and short stories since I was 10 years old.  So hearing the passion and heart in the lyrics of a great song will knock me right over.  I can quote lyrics all day for different situations in my life and different feelings I am having.  It seems there was always some artist who was able to relate to something I was going through.  On many occasions I would even say music has saved my life.  I think it would be safe to say that I am probably not the only one out there who feels this way too. :) 



Childhood Memories.

So, my BFF found some film in a box recently and decided to get it developed to see what was on it.  She texts me yesterday to say "Guess what pictures I just got developed!!!!"  I knew based on the word developed that they were clearly old.  I soon get an email of some them and I see they are pics of a trip we took several years ago to my old neighborhood in Santa Clara, California.  We took pictures of my old house and my old elementary school.  I almost fell over.  Wow!!!  Not only was this trip somewhere around 7 years ago, but seeing the house and school again was so strange.  Just as strange as it was that day I am sure.  So I thought I would share them.

This house seemed sooooooo much bigger when I was 10 years old.  I can't believe how tiny it is. But then again, I guess everything seems bigger when you are only 10.  ;) I remember riding my bike up and down this street for hours every night, and roller skating one time, when I fell and bruised my tailbone. The street was always full of kids and we were ALWAYS getting into some sort of trouble or into things we shouldn't have been.  Good times!

Scott Lane Elementary School.  I went here from 2nd grade till 4th grade when I then moved to Nevada. Lots and lots of memories of this school.  I remember all of my teachers so well from here.  I even remember going back about 2 years after I moved and visiting with one of my favorite teachers.

It is so strange to see pictures of places from your past.  It's like you get flooded with the memories that accompany the places. Not to mention.....  They make you feel really old.  LOL 

Off the Grid

Hey everyone.  Ok, so I know I have disappeared for a couple of weeks.  I have missed it here but the past couple of weeks have been such a whirlwind of stress and chaos.  Things have hopefully calmed down now and I can resume my life of rambling in writing about things in my life nobody really care about as much as me. :)  But hey I try to at least make it entertaining.

So, just rest assured I will be back soon to bug you all.  But until I can get back let me just leave you with this....  (remember this post?)

Do you see how MONSTROUS this Reese's Peanut Butter Egg is???   Holy Cow that is some serious peanut butter in there.  It is going to take me days to eat this thing.  But all I can say is..... YUM-MY!!!!!  Oh I'm in heaven.