This and That

I WANT this!! Somehow I signed up for emails from a company that finds the best of the best products on the market and wraps them all into one email. Everyday. The latest products included kitchenware. I love this, maybe because it has two of my favorite things engraved in it (and I mean Johnny CASH!!):



It is a terracotta cooking dish. I have never cooked in terracotta and to be honest never even knew that one could! As I researched it further, I found out the terracotta has to be food-grade, a good old trip to the Home Depot won't work. I am looking forward to experimenting with cooking in terracotta even if it does not say "Mason" or "Cash" on it!


Snapple has always been a favorite drink of mine. I love to open an ice-cold diet raspberry tea Snapple and read the "Snapple Real Fact" printed on the inside of the cap. Recently, an all new series of facts have come out! I always liked little known, useless facts! Some of my favorite ones include:

#50 Mosquitoes have 47 teeth.
#73 The average person spends 2 weeks of its life waiting for a traffic light to change. (I think mine is double now that I have to wait for the traffic light at school...SO long...)
#98 When the moon is directly over you, you weigh less. (I really need to moon to be out at all times!)
#123 Beavers were once the size of bears. (WHAT??)
# 846 An average of three billion cups of tea are consumed daily worldwide. (I know someone who contributes to this number!)

For a more extensive list of facts to blow your mind, check out this blog



Well, Snapple is a good option (or iced tea in general) to drink because after I read this article, Mason and I WILL.NEVER.DRINK.SODA.AGAIN (or at least very, very rarely). I could not believe some of those studies. Gross. I used to be a diet Mt. Dew drinker and I used to love Diet Dr. Pepper, but no more, it is not worth it. Thankfully, water has always been my drink of choice.

I got so much accomplished today! On non-school days it is so tempting to go back to bed for a few extra minutes (ok, hours) of sleep, but today I brewed some Gevalia Expresso Roast. Within minutes of finishing my last cup (I won't tell you how many!) I was ready to start the day off with a bang! After I was done cleaning I lit my Mistletoe scented Yankee Candle and now the entire place smells like fresh pine trees! Not that I am ready for Christmas (it will be here before we know it, though), but I love the smell of Christmas trees, all year long!

Enjoy the rest of your day!

[Creepy Klowns]

What is wrong with me? Sometimes I ask myself that on a daily basis! A friend of mine was cleaning out her aunts house a few days ago. She casually brought up the creepy clowns that her aunt had as decoration. The next words out of my mouth still baffle me: "I LOVE creepy clowns!!". I don't love creepy clowns. Perhaps for a scary Halloween decoration, but I don't make it a habit to display creepy clowns throughout my house (that would just be weird). I suppose she took me seriously because the next night these were mine! Let me tell you the look on Mason's face was priceless. He kept repeating, "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, please tell me you are not keeping these." I can not express how much I love spooky, scary, cheesy horror and such, but I have to admit, even these clowns give ME the creeps! That is not going to stop me from keeping them around (in the basement).

For added terror, I decided to edit the photo to look like it's been around for awhile, enjoy...




Now I feel like watching "It"

SWEET DREAMS...

Reading List

My reading list lately consists of funny, inspirational and common sense books. I found this book at Goodwill:



It is never too early to start figuring out what Mason needs to know before he moves away from home. As much as I love Mason and would do anything for him, not teaching him life lessons and how to handle them would be a disservice to him. We all know being a 32 year old man living at Mom's is not the life I want for my child. I am only about a quarter of the way through but some "tips" that I like are:

#39 They should know overcoming difficult times is how people gain self-respect.

#30 They should know they've worked all their lives to get exactly where they are now. Even if they're just sleeping on the couch.

# 94 They should know that boasting makes people wonder what's really wrong with them.

It is a good book so far, of course Mason will need to know a lot more that 1001 things for life, but it's a good start!

Next up:



This one took me all of 20 minutes to read, but it was funny! Sometimes I wonder how people make it through life (maybe their Mom didn't read 1001 Things Every Teen Should Know...). It is a book full of actual test questions that students decided to answer with humor! Here is a page:



Finally:



I haven't really gotten into this book yet, but the title says it all. I have been (very slowly) learning that I don't need to sweat the small stuff because I am not totally in control of my life. I understand that situations are put into our lives to make us stronger and to teach us life lessons. I think I will enjoy this book.

I finally got to look though Mason's Valentine's from his class party and I found this written on the back of a "Hello Kitty" valentine:



Mason and his friend, Tanner are the two in class that make everyone laugh!

I am off to enjoy the rest of my long weekend, the weather is beautiful (I actually wore flip flops yesterday!!). I would like to get outside, but what to do??

My Maine Dream

On this relaxing Saturday (I didn't wake up until 11:30!), I decided to brew some coffee and look at one of my all-time favorite sites. Realtor.com. I like to see what is for sale in cities that I dream of visiting (or living in). Today, as I searched Portland, Maine my heart skipped a beat. Just look at this house. Oh, the possibilities, the simplicity of this sweet little house. It looks so bright and airy and gave me a sense of calmness. I got lost in the moment imagining the cool summer breezes flowing through the open windows, the quiet nights in the backyard and the quaint little kitchen to try out new recipes. This is exactly what I want. Simple and enjoyable. I like to pull inspiration for small spaces on this website, also. I am back in reality right now, but later I plan to look up some million dollar coastal properties that I will drool over.

Loooooong Weekend!

I have a lot on my to-do this for this week, but I want to enjoy a nice long weekend! If you value your time and can't afford to spend hours online DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT click here. It is awful and wonderful at the same time. That website is AWESOME! I avoid it at all costs because it is so over-whelming to the senses! I warned you!!

I reused the Snapple bottles, instead of brewing iced tea to bottle, I made my own version of Starbucks iced coffee and bottled that. I hid them in the fridge, but someone found them! Mason loves iced coffee!

Some things that I need to do this week include getting Mason to the eye doctor, he is going to need new glasses. Also, baseball and football sign-ups are this week. Baileigh needs to get up to date on her shots, I am going to sort through old magazines and finally get two school projects done! Wow, now that is an exciting week!!

Have a great weekend, it looks like it is going to be beautiful!
Here's my little fur-baby, Trails, he really has the whole "lazy" thing down!

Good Food!

First of all, Happy Belated Valentine's Day! The new principal at Mason's school has lifted the evil "no sugary party snack" ban! YEAH! It's bittersweet for me since this is the last year Mason will have a Valentine's Day class party (sniffle, sniffle). So, I made these:



Yum!

Tonight I made veggie soup and homemade garlic bread for dinner:




Mason is not a soup-eater, so this was all mine!

Homemade pumpkin butter is simmering on the stove as I type. It smells fantastic in here! I found a few breakfast recipes that I want to try that call for pumpkin butter, so I thought that I should whip up a batch. It's the best!

This next item falls under the, "WHAT THE...." catagory:



WHAT THE heck are boiled peanuts (I mean, except the obvious). During my last trip to Wegman's (before Christmas), I found this in the ethnic food asile. I can't remember what ethnicity this can was under but I knew we had to try them! For the past two months everytime I open my cabinet I see these sitting there. I am afraid. Mason is afraid. These just seem too weird! I will be sure to update how they were, complete with pictures! However, that still could be another two months away! WHO boils peanuts....

Double Brrrr...

Wow! This cold snap can leave anytime now! Mason and I went out yesterday to get some things accomplished, one of which was a haircut (more on this later). We spent most of the day out and about. I had to return a Redbox movie (Shark Night and yes, it rocked!!). Giant Eagle has a Redbox that is outside of the store, so I decided to just pull up front (lazy, yes) because I didn't need to get anything inside. As I put my 4-way flashes on, I said to Mason that he needed to hurry up and run to return the movie before an officer says anything to me! As soon as Mason gets out of the car and sprints to the Redbox machine, here comes a security officer to my window. I rolled down my window and before I said a word the officer said, "Is SHE (SHE!) just returning a movie?". I could not contain my laughter, he was looking at me like I just left the loony bin! Between breaths I was able to say, "SHE is a HE, that is my son!!". The look on his face was priceless! He apologized and got a good laugh, too! Mason had made his way back to the car and even he thought it was funny (perhaps not as much as I did!). So, I informed the security officer that HE was getting a haircut later that day! Later that afternoon I took Mason to "the girl haircut place" and he got his hair trimmed. Then we made our way home in snow and white outs. I have driven in worse white outs but white outs on the highway are NOT fun.

Chobani Greek yogurt has new flavors!! Blood orange and Passion fruit. They are both delicious! Greek yogurt is amazing!

I have two papers to complete for Monday, two basketball games today and finish grocery shopping. The song, "Under Pressure" is playing in the background of my brain! We are going to collect on our FREE Papa John's Pizza today! During the superbowl Papa Johns was running a promotion with a coin toss and we choose the right one (heads!). That will be helpful for dinner tonight so that I don't have to worry about cooking anything between basketball games!