We’ve Done it Again

So my bestest friend Lissa and I have started a video blog.  The very first episode will go up tomorrow, at some point.  If I can find out what time she wants to put it up I’ll start a count down on twitter or something.

Basically it’s the two of us acting like we’re being tacky and catty bitches.  So a standard Friday night for us.  We’re hoping that other people think it’s as funny as we do, but who knows.  So far it seems to be the main segment (whatever main thing we’re doing that week), some footage of Aaron doing whatever he wants, and Twitter Time.  Twitter time is where we answer questions or take requests from Twitter.  This started because of someone named Josh Cagan* asking us about donkey punching.  Really, watch the episode tomorrow and you’ll understand.

So you can find this amazing train wreck over at Oh My God Friday.**

I will be adding it to my blog roll list so it will be easy for everyone to find.  Check us out.  Give us your support.  Tell us when we’re being stupid.  Give us ideas to talk about.  And for the love of God feed our desperate need for attention!!! (We’re a little silly)

*Look!  Bold print!  That means you should click on it!

** Bold means click.  And you should check us out.  Really.  We’re funny.  We laugh all the time.

Good Bye 2008

This was not an exciting year for me.  Really, it wasn’t.  I didn’t work, didn’t have any great revelations about myself, didn’t grow, didn’t change.  I’m a little annoyed with myself, actually.

Ashton changed so much that it was scary.  But then again, he turned two in October, so I think that’s a requirement. Aaron picked up his violin again and has started to combine hobbies.  He’s played violin for studio functions twice now, and played for Isis’ New Years Eve show.

I look through my Myspace and I don’t see anything.  Sure, I performed at different events, and I joined the MultiCultural Dance Team at the studio, but that’s really all I’ve done.  I guess I’ve read some good books.  I’ve become nothing but a mom who happens to have some hobbies.  My weight hasn’t changed much – it may have even gotten worse over the last couple of months -  so there wasn’t any great accomplishment there.  I just existed.

So I have some goals…

I need to get myself out of the “routine” routines that I’ve been doing for the studio.  I need some new inspiration.  I’m working on it

I want to light a fire under Isis’ ass and see about getting a parade detail worked out.  We (the studio) haven’t done a single parade in the last year, unless you count Scarborough Faire.  I’d like to have an actual group who does parades, and actual small choreographies within them.

I want to pick up a more productive hobby.  I want to get better with my jewelry making and actually see about setting up an Etsy acount and sell some stuff.  This is going to reuqire some new equipment, instead of me faking it with what I have (peyote beads don’t work with a regular needle very well.  I need some proper bead needles).  I would also like to learn to tat and combine the tatting and bead work.

If I could find a way to pick up some extra time working on flowers, I would love that.  I’ve offered to help some friends who have a shop, and I would like to learn as much as I can.  I really want to do this for a living.

So there you have it.  Not very lofty goals, but you have to start somewhere.  Most of them involve educating myself further in the things I enjoy.  Hopefully I can take the things I love and become successful with them.  Wish me luck!

This Year in Fail

Last year I actually put together a list of new years resolutions.  I know, silly.  I really don’t like them, but I manage to do one almost every year with every intention to follow through.  I do try to come up with stuff that’s actually attainable, but it’s still easy to let yourself down to some degree.  So here is my rundown of my success for the year.  I know I still have a month left, but I fail to see how any of these can be accomplished in 30 days.

- Go to yoga more regularly.  I’ve been really having issues getting back into the habit. I was really good about this one.  Up until October I went almost religiously.  But due to medical and personal issues, I have had problems going for the last couple of months.
- Change my eating habits.  This one is already in process, I just need to stick to it. I’ve mostly stuck to it, but not as well as I probably should have.  It’s just so easy to run and grab fast food when you’re busy with a two year old.  But for the most part I try to be a good girl.
- Work on feeling better about my body.  Do we see a theme here? I have no idea how successful I was with this.  My body has been strange and weight seems to be yo-yoing.  My main concern is the tummy that Ashton left behind.  It’s been two years and I still can’t seem to work any of it off.
- Come to terms with the Damsels, and strive to help make them better.  I think there may be some changes that need to be made, not just talked about.  And a few very serious conversations need to be had.  I’m not looking forward to this one. We have completely revamped the Damsels, and have taken most of the year off to work on various stuff.  This is one resolution that has been done, and is still in progress.
- Dance better, if I can.  I need to strive to be more creative in my choreography. I try.  I think my routines are starting to look… routine.  I seem to be in a rut as far as dancing goes.  But I’ve joined the Multicultural Team at the studio, so I think that will help me with different styles.
- Dance at a nursing home event.  I need to know when they are.  I’ve never actually done one. I still haven’t done one.  I never know when they are.
- Hang out with more than just three or four friends all the time.  I love these people dearly, but we have friends that we’ve not seen in a long time.  I think it may be time to try and strengthen those connections. We’ve tried, but haven’t been very good about this.  All of our socializing have been with the same group of friends.  But we have seen a few other friends this year.
- I would like to try and be pregnant at the end of this year.  Don’t know exactly when we’ll start trying, but some time and the end of this year. Unless I get pregnant this month, this one is down the drain.  This was my biggie, and I really was hoping to be pregnant by now.  I hoped that the second pregnancy would be easier than the first, but we discovered that I had to be medicated again just to have a regular cycle.  This is a major factor in any mild depression I’ve been feeling lately.
- I think I would like to make a non-holiday visit up to Oklahoma to see everyone. Mom and I seem to be making a yearly summer visit up there with Ashton.
- Go camping without going to a Ren Faire.  I’ve wanted to go camping for the sake of camping for ages. Yeah… no.  I only went to one Ren Faire this year where I camped anyway.  Someday…

So that’s my year end success rate.  I’m sure I’ll put up my new year resolutions within the first week of 2009, but for now I have no idea what those might be.

S’mores

I should not be allowed to get creative when it comes to desserts.  We have clearly seen in the past that no good can come from it.  But yet, I continue with my mad concoctions.  This time it was my s’more cookies.  I promised that I would share with you, so here goes.  I do not write recipes, keep that in mind.

Pick up a box of graham cracker crumbs and follow the recipe on the side of the box for graham cracker crust (usually used for cheese cake).  I doubled the recipe so that I would have plenty.  Get yourself a muffin tin (this should make about 24) and spray it down with non stick spray.

What I did: I only lined the bottom of the tins so it would be more like a cookie.

What I should have done: Actually made little pies (or tarts) and lined the bottom and sides with graham cracker crust.

After those bake for however long the box says to, set them aside to cool and start making your marshmallow.  I used this recipe and it turned out lovely.  You will not need the powered sugar and corn starch, because you are not making actual marshmallows, but a filling  You want them to stick to your crust.  You will then fill the marshmallow cream into the little graham cracker shells.  Move quickly!!!  The marshmallow will start to set up and become very difficult to work with.  Set them in the fridge over night to set up.

The next day melt some milk chocolate.  Chips work best in my opinion, but it’s up to you.  I used a whole bag of chocolate chips.  No idea how much that was (already threw away the bag) but you get the idea.

What I did: I tried various methods to cover the cookies completely in chocolate.  After this failed impressively i just tried to dip the tops of the cookies in, and had a lot of marshmallow melt off in the process.

What I should have done: Since they would have had whole crusts around them, I should have just dolloped the chocolate onto the top (if you’re fancy you could probably use a piping bag, but you have to work fast so that it stays soft).  They would have been much prettier that way.

They’re not very pretty.  But damn, they taste awesome!

This is Halloween

So another spooky day has come and gone.  But this was a rather important one.  It was important for me as a parent as well as a person who loves this silly Holiday.

For the first time since we got our own house I decorated the yard.  Oh sure, I had always put up spiderwebs before, but I’d never done anything to this degree.

You see, back when my siblings and I lived with our parents we did a huge (by school kids standards) yard haunt.  We put up tarps in the driveway to create an entrance, and would fill it with scenes of monsters, torture, and mourning over the dead.  The driveway led around to a fence to the back yard where we would have a full haunted graveyard scene.  It was wonderful.  All of our friends from school would come over and help us out.  Mom said that after we moved out kids would still come to her door Halloween night and ask why there was no haunted house.  It always made me very glad to hear that.

Now, the set up at this house is no where near that, yet, but one day I hope to have something that at least resembles the set up we had there. 

Some of this stuff we already had around the house.  I always try to keep a full bag of spiderwebs around, and the zombie coming out of the ground was from an old costume of Aaron’s.  The gravestones were new, but they were for a great price over at Walgreen’s, probably cheaper that I would have ever been able to make them for, and considerably nicer than the ones my brother and I made all those years ago.  We will (and already have) be checking the sales the day after Halloween to pick up more stuff.  At night it looked great.  We had replaced the standard light bulb in our porch light with a blue one, which cast a very eerie glow.  (My husband just about got killed over that bulb.  I asked him where I should go pick one up the day before Halloween, and he said to go to Party City.  The night before Halloween.  I barely made it through the door before I turned around and left again.  Silly man)  I sat on the porch with the candy in a black robe with the hood pulled down so no one could tell if I was a person or a prop.  Got a couple of kids really good with that one.

I also said that this was an important Halloween for me as a parent.  It was Ashton’s very first time to go Trick or Treating.  Aaron got to take him around and I got to hand out candy.  It apparently didn’t take him long to get the hang of things, and he even said trick or treat a few times (this is a child of few words).  Aside from him trying to go into the houses of strangers, it sounded like a success.  He brought back a fair amount of candy, but then who could resist that face?

Yes I’m alive

I know, I know, I’ve been neglecting you all.  I warned you that this would happen.

I don’t really have anything exciting to share with you lately.  The only thing going on in my life is attempting to make Ashton understand what the potty is for.  I can’t begin to tell you how exciting that is.  Yesterday I put him down for a nap and when I checked on him he had pulled both his pants and his pull ups off.  Thankfully nothing was wet.  I’ve discovered that pull ups are considerably more expensive than regular diapers.  It may be time to convert to cloth trainers.  That should make my life interesting.

I belong to a group called the Drunken Damsels.  We are a naughty wench act that roams around North Texas and sings at small Ren Faires.  If you are in or around the area of DFW and looking for an interesting act for your next event, give us a buzz over at The Drunken Damsels.  Now that I’ve gotten the plug out of the way, I can get back to the point.  We are working on recording some stuff.  The cd will be called “Just a Taste” and will have six tracks on it.  It’s a garage band recording, so nothing fancy, but we certainly are having fun with it.  Word of advice: if you plan on recording, don’t share three or four bottles of wine before doing so.  It doesn’t work out well and you end up with some interesting blackmail material.  Moving on.

I’m a belly dancer.  No really, I swear!  I’ve been dancing for over 6 years now.  I know this isn’t really that interesting to most of you, but I’m quite excited.  The studio I belong to has recently started a Multicultural Dance Team.  The purpose of this team is to learn the traditions of different Middle Eastern cultures and dances.  So we get to do the research, and create the choreographies, and then teach it to the rest of the team.  Then we can go to schools, libraries, and museums to give demonstrations.  I’m really looking forward to it!  We will have a featured segment in the upcoming Christmas Hafla in Grapevine TX.

Speaking of belly dancing, I will be performing this weekend, and I’m barely ready.  Like, half the routine is me faking it, but I don’t care.  It’s really the musicians that are being featured here, as it is an entirely new piece.  I can’t wait for everyone to see it (or, I guess in this instance, hear it).

So that’s been my life.  Singing, dancing, and toddler potties.  I guess I don’t need it to be any more exciting.

Customers

So I’ve recently discovered this site http://notalwaysright.com/

It makes me giggle. Lots. And it reminds me of an interesting customer I once had.

As a senior in high school I worked at a local video store. It was owned by one of my neighbors and was very small. We had cigarettes behind the register, and a section for more… adult material in a back room. We also had a considerable number of regular customers.

One evening I was working all by my little lonesome, when a strange woman walked in. There had been people in and out all day, but few of them had come straight to the counter as this one did. She leaned forward so that she could speak to me very softly. “I need a pack of cigarettes,” she said. I started to ask her what kind when she cut me off, “but you can’t tell anyone I got them here.”

Now I had heard a number of odd requests working in this store, but that was a new one. I attempted to assure her that I didn’t think it would be a problem, but she seemed very concerned. “You don’t understand! People will come in here and ask if I bought them. They may even offer you money. But you can’t tell them! Please! I really need you to keep this a secret for me.”

“Ok, I won’t tell anyone. I promise.”

“Even if they pay you?”

“Even if they offer me money, I promise.”

Having finally convinced her that I would not betray her trust, I pulled down the brand of her choice and began to ring her up. At this time a gentleman walked out of the back section. He had gone in maybe a minute before this whole exchange started, and presumably had made his choice of, erm, viewing material. The lady saw him and freaked. “Who is that!”

She had confused me so badly during this conversation that I had honesly forgotten that there was anyone else in the store, let alone who it was. I told her that I wasn’t sure who the man was and she threw the packet of smokes down on the counter. “DAMMIT! They have spies everywhere! I can’t buy these here.” And she stormed out.

The gentleman walked up to the counter with his movie tickets (we had all of the tapes in the back storage area) and I instantly started laughing. The man was one of our regulars. He was also completely and totally deaf. He looked at me confused so I wrote down a brief description of what had just happened. He read it, gave me a look of confusion, and made the universal sign for crazy. I couldn’t have agreed more.

Sometimes I Have a Moment of Clever

But it never lasts.

(Hey, I’ve got the hang of this whole picture thingie, wanna see?)

We got Ashton the new Big Boy Bed. He is sleeping in it just fine, as I said before, but he does have the small problem of rolling out of it on occasion. This is his bed…

Very pretty, but really provides no protection from falling out. So I started shopping for bed rails. They don’t really make them for toddler beds. At all. They are all too tall, too long, and just don’t work. So I got creative. As you can see the bed needs something. Right now it just looks awkward and not like a bed at all. It needs something to make it look more comfy. So I got a bolster for it.

Of course Ash wanted to help me take pictures. So I kindly asked him to move for mommy. This was the result…

Just precious. Moving on.

There. Much better. When we get his actual bedding it will look even better. But for now, not too bad. So to make this bolster work as a rail we sew scraps of fabric to the ends… as such…

Then tie them onto the front slats of the bed. So you have a bumper rail to keep you child safely in his toddler day bed.

Ta Da!

I promise I’ll do a post with real words one day.