Are You Santa Claus?

Yesterday, I came across a letter about Santa Claus that I must keep in mind should I ever decide to have children. The gist of the letter is that a kid asks their mom if she is Santa Claus. Mom’s response? “The answer is no. I am not Santa. There is no one Santa.” Fast forward to the end of the letter and she concludes with, “Santa is love and magic and hope and happiness. I’m on his team, and now you are, too.”

One of the things my husband and I have discussed when talking about when or if we want to have kids is whether or not to have our child grow up believing in Santa Claus. On one hand it feels like deception, but on the other hand it feels like giving our kid the magic we had when we believed in Santa.

The interesting thing to me is now that I have read the letter about Santa Claus, I feel like I can believe in Santa again. “Santa is love and magic and hope and happiness.” Doesn’t that line just make you feel all warm and fuzzy? I personally want to recapture that feeling around the holidays once more.

Read the entire letter about the Truth About Santa Claus HERE.


 

Saving Time on Thanksgiving Day

This year I’m hosting Thanksgiving at my place. Last time I did this I got a little stressed out because I did almost all of it by myself. I had to- it was for an article and I didn’t want to “cheat” by delegating out too many tasks.

The good news is that this year I’m not only getting help, I’m using a tip from Food Network to ease the stress… I’m going to be making some of my Thanksgiving dishes ahead of time (tomorrow) to save time on the big day so that I’ll be able to relax with my family. I won’t actually cook anything, but a lot of it will be prepped in advance so that all I’ll have to do ON Thanksgiving is pop the sides in the oven. This will free my time up to focus on the bird and enjoy my family time too.

As an added bonus, I’ve set up my menu and cook station so that everything will be able to cook simultaneously and be done at the same time! How? My bird will be cooking in an external roaster oven leaving my oven free for the sides.

Lastly, instead of roasting my bird in traditional fashion, I’ll be making it in an oven bag. I’ll add a nice marinade to it tomorrow, let it sit overnight and then on Thursday pop it in the roaster oven and “forget about it”. Last time I hosted Thanksgiving doing this was a massive time saver.

Putting it in the bag meant I didn’t have to check it every hour or half hour to baste it. The bag kept all the juices in the bird. The bird also cooks about an hour faster. It wasn’t as crispy of a bird as we normally have, but only one person in our group seemed to mind that. Everyone else enjoyed how moist and tender the meat was. Even the white meat practically fell of the bone. It was so good!

What do you do on Thanksgiving to be able to cook your bird and enjoy it and relax too?

Yummy Pumpkin Pie Martini

After talking about favorite holiday dishes and pumpkin pie, I could not help myself! I’m enjoying the most delicious pumpkin pie martini as I continue getting ready for Thanksgiving. This is NOT a low fat drink. It’s equal parts of Pinnacle Pumpkin Pie Vodka and International Delight’s Pumpkin Pie Coffee Creamer. I usually do 2 shots of the vodka and 2 shots of the creamer shaken with ice and then strained into a glass. Yum! Pour them into a cosmo cocktail glass like the one below or whatever glass you have on hand. I’ve learned it tastes WAY better in glass than in plastic. I have no idea why.

For added decadence you could use a graham cracker rim and a sprinkle of cinnamon, but I’m perfectly content with just the two ingredients!


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I Blew Two Weeks Pay in One Weekend!

About five weeks ago I posted that I had gotten a job and that I was psyched about getting steady income…Needless to say, as of this week, that job didn’t work out, but something from that job remains! The first two weeks of pay I received were blown on a weekend getaway with my husband in Key West, Florida…so it’s photos and memories from that amazing weekend that remain. I only wish that we decided to go on a FKF Fishing Charters, leaves from Key West as my friend and the locals here had told me that fishing trips in this area were really good, but unfortunately we didn’t get around to it. Maybe next time..

We went the weekend of Fantasy Fest having NO CLUE that it even was Fantasy Fest. We drank, we ate, we laughed, we had a blast and then we came home…

Why did we blow my first two weeks pay? Well, this was our first vacation alone in several years. We have thought about going on vacation to the UK (or anywhere!) for years. I’m constantly looking for good deals on stratford hotels but we just don’t have the money for it. I can’t believe how expensive flights are! We thought that we finally had steady income and were on our way to being debt free and living our dreams. We were impulsive and we just wanted get away, so we did.

Now…although, I’m no longer at that job…I’m still wanting to be on that fast track to being debt free…How it will happen may have changed, but my goal hasn’t. I don’t regret our weekend getaway. In fact, it motivates me to make more money on my own without the constraints of a job that I don’t enjoy…

I do hope that I’ll be able to get some quick and steady income once again as soon as possible! I have lots of plans and I just need to act on them so that being debt free and being able to have crazy weekends like the one in Key West will be possible!

Okay, I’m going to get back to working on my plans for freedom! Happy Friday and have a great weekend everybody!!! May all of your wishes and dreams come true too 🙂

How to Start a Fight with your Spouse

 

A buddy of mine posted this on facebook. I immediately decided to share with anyone who wants a laugh…Though I don’t recommend actually doing any of these, lol…here are a few ideas for how to start a fight with your spouse”

One year, I decided to buy my mother-in-law a cemetery plot as a Christmas gift…
The next year, I didn’t buy her a gift.
When she asked me why, I replied,
“Well, you still haven’t used the gift I bought you last year!”
And that’s how the fight started…..

______________________________

My wife and I were watching Who Wants To Be A Millionaire while we were in bed.
I turned to her and said, ‘Do you want to have Sex?’
‘No,’ she answered. I then said,
‘Is that your final answer?’
She didn’t even look at me this time, simply saying, ‘Yes..’
So I said, “Then I’d like to phone a friend.”
And that’s when the fight started…

________________________________

I took my wife to a restaurant.
The waiter, for some reason, took my order first.
“I’ll have the rump steak, rare, please.”
He said, “Aren’t you worried about the mad cow?”
“Nah, she can order for herself.”
And that’s when the fight started…..

________________________________

My wife and I were sitting at a table at her high school reunion, and she
kept staring at a drunken man swigging his drink as he sat alone at a nearby table.
I asked her, “Do you know him?”
“Yes”, she sighed,
“He’s my old boyfriend…. I understand he took to drinking right after we
split up those many years ago, and I hear he hasn’t been sober since.”
“My God!” I said, “Who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?”
And then the fight started…

________________________________

When our lawn mower broke and wouldn’t run, my wife kept hinting to me
that I should get it fixed. But, somehow I always had something else to take
care of first, the shed, the boat, making beer.. Always something more
important to me. Finally she thought of a clever way to make her point.
When I arrived home one day, I found her seated in the tall grass, busily
snipping away with a tiny pair of sewing scissors. I watched silently for
a short time and then went into the house.. I was gone only a minute, and
when I came out again I handed her a toothbrush. I said, “When you finish
cutting the grass, you might as well sweep the driveway.”
The doctors say I will walk again, but I will always have a limp.

________________________________

My wife sat down next to me as I was flipping channels.
She asked, “What’s on TV?”
I said, “Dust.”
And then the fight started…

________________________________

Saturday morning I got up early, quietly dressed, made my lunch, and
slipped quietly into the garage. I hooked up the boat up to the van, and
proceeded to back out into a torrential downpour. The wind was blowing 50 mph, so I
pulled back into the garage, turned on the radio, and discovered that the
weather would be bad all day. I went back into the house, quietly
undressed, and slipped back into bed.. I cuddled up to my wife’s back, now with a
different anticipation, and whispered, “The weather out there is terrible.”
My loving wife of 5 years replied, “And, can you believe my stupid husband
is out fishing in that?”
And that’s how the fight started…

________________________________

My wife was hinting about what she wanted for our upcoming anniversary.
She said, “I want something shiny that goes from 0 to 150 in about 3 seconds.”
I bought her a bathroom scale.
And then the fight started……

________________________________

After retiring, I went to the Social Security office to apply for Social Security.
The woman behind the counter asked me for my driver’s License to verify my age.
I looked in my pockets and realized I had left my wallet at home.
I told the woman that I was very sorry, but I would have to go home and come back later.
The woman said, ‘Unbutton your shirt’.
So I opened my shirt revealing my curly silver hair.
She said, ‘That silver hair on your chest is proof enough for me’ and she
processed my Social Security application..
When I got home, I excitedly told my wife about my experience at the Social Security office…
She said, ‘You should have dropped your pants. You might have gotten disability, too.’
And then the fight started…

________________________________

My wife was standing nude, looking in the bedroom mirror.
She was not happy with what she saw and said to me,
“I feel horrible; I look old, fat and ugly.
I really need you to pay me a compliment.’
I replied, “Your eyesight’s damn near perfect.”
And then the fight started……


Source for image above

Happy Birthday Fight Club!!!

15 years ago today the film Fight Club was unleashed onto “the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.” This movie is one of my favorite flicks of all time and one that I watch and quote frequently. If you have not seen this movie yet, you can get it HERE. If you have seen it and didn’t like it, we can’t be friends anymore. No, seriously! All cool kids like the movie Fight Club

Happy Birthday Fight Club!!!

Some of my favorite quotes from the flick include:

Tyler Durden:
You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank.
You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet.
You’re not your f$%king khakis. You’re the all-singing, all-dancing crap
of the world.

Tyler Durden:
It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.

Tyler Durden:
Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who’ve ever
lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an
entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white
collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we
hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of
history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great
Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is
our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day
we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t.
And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.

Tyler Durden:
Welcome to Fight Club. The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk
about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is: you DO NOT talk
about Fight Club! Third rule of Fight Club: someone yells “stop!”, goes
limp, taps out, the fight is over. Fourth rule: only two guys to a
fight. Fifth rule: one fight at a time, fellas. Sixth rule: No shirts,
no shoes. Seventh rule: fights will go on as long as they have to. And
the eighth and final rule: if this is your first time at Fight Club, you
have to fight.

Narrator:
[about the soap]
Tyler sold his soap to department stores at $20 a bar. Lord knows what
they charged. It was beautiful. We were selling rich women their own fat
asses back to them.   

Narrator: This is your life and it’s ending one minute at a time.

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My Life’s Purpose- Why I’m Here

I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching lately and I have read a lot of self help books. We all have those moments when we want to know why we were put on this planet and that is something I’ve been seeking to find over the last several months. After really digging deep I’ve come up with my mission statement for my life:


My purpose in life is to learn how to be financially independent and how to take care of my mind, body and soul and to teach others how to do the same…

There it is. Why I’m here…To teach.

I have actually known this deep within myself for years and had that epiphany while I was in my freshman year of college. I remember a random bike ride with my mom where I broke down crying and told her I wanted to change my major to education.

Fast forward to today and for anyone who doesn’t know my major and the degree I ultimately graduated with was mass communications. However, the desire to teach never left me.

What I have realized over the past decade (wow- has it really been a decade since I was a college freshman?!? holy crap!!!) is that my mission in life IS to teach, but not in the traditional grade school setting I thought of many years ago.

I think this is why I was feeling the strong pull to become a writer. I want to learn something and then share what I’ve learned and writing has been a wonderful medium I’ve used to teach.

Now, that I have officially determined and written out what I know my full life’s purpose to be, I feel like I can create goals and passion projects that are centered around it.

It may seem silly to you, but simply defining what my purpose is has given me a new sense of excitement and a strong desire to fulfill it.With every project I think of going forward I will know how to center it around my life’s purpose and therefore be more passionate about the things I do and the life I live.

Protected: 29 Things I’ve Learned in 29 Years

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Mission- Space!

On Yahoo!’s home page today was a story about a Spaceport in New Mexico. More and more it would seem that “tourist” space travel is going to be likely in my generation’s lifetime.

Ever since my husband was little, like many young boys, he has desired the chance to travel into space. Many outgrow this dream, but even in his thirties, my husband still wants to embark into space just as much now as he did then. I plan to do everything in my power to help him achieve his dream…The current booking price is $250,000 and sure, the first tourist flights have not happened yet, but I plan to find a way to get the money for my hubby to fly when the time comes.

You may be wondering why I didn’t say I plan to go with him. Truthfully, I’m not sure I could handle space flight. Disney’s Mission Space ride alone made me so sick it ruined our Disney vacation so I highly doubt I’ll want to attempt a real space flight. However, if someone invents something to help motion sickness AND lack of G’s….well, maybe one day I’ll be a space tourist too. Until then, I guess I’ll just have to settle for seeing Earth from an airplane….

Where I found the image at the top of this post

29 Until Further Notice – A Reflective Post

Today, I’m reflecting on the last 29 years of my life and realizing how much I still have that I want to accomplish. For the purposes of this post though…I had a list of things I wanted to do before turning 30 so it would seem that as of today (8/10/13) I have just 368 days to accomplish all the things on that list.

Here is the list of things I wanted to accomplish by 30 (the things I’ve already accomplished are in red)…

1. Graduate college with my bachelor’s degree- graduated May 2008
2. Find a man to marry and marry him– married 7/29/2006
3. Buy a house
4. Be credit card and student loan debt free
5. Get a job I love/ start my own business- been in business as a writer and photographer since October 2007 and have loved what I do for a living ever since!
6. Have a substantial amount of money in a retirement account
7. Go to Europe
8. Go to Australia
9. Get a dog/cat/both
10. Drive cross country from Florida to California and back
11. Go to Hawaii
12. Get my master’s degree
13. Write a book- accomplished that THIS year actually. Wrote my first eBook and self published it…Check it out HERE 🙂
14. Make 6 figures a year to be able to retire by 40 instead of 68 or whatever the new number is for my generation…
15. Have a baby- yes mom…when I first created this list in my head I
wanted to have a baby by 30…but now I’m not sure when or if I will
have kids…

So….what have we learned from this list? If I’m going to get all of these goals accomplished by 30 I’ve got to get a crap ton of money in the bank ASAP and get on with my traveling like NOW…

Also check out Celebrites I Share My Birthday With, birthday freebies YOU can get and 29 Things I’ve Learned in 29 Years.

Where I found the picture at the top of this post

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