Everyone wants 8 inches right?

**Please excuse the ums, sos and anyways in the video. I was stuck on that "8 inch" comment and it totally threw me off.

Guess who's coming to town...

Old Man Winter

Again.

Once again our forecast is calling for snow. How much is unclear with the predictions ranging from 1-12" yesterday and now 4-8".

The time is just as vague. "Late Friday" is all we are told so whether that means afternoon, evening or night is any one's guess.

I can't wait.

For Spring that is.

**The circus is also coming to town this weekend and I had plans to go with my nephew & niece; however Old Man Winter may put those plans on ice. Get it? Ice. Haaaaaa!

Marathons & Me

Now don't get too excited. I'm not talking about a running marathon. Or even a walking marathon. In fact I'm not talking about a marathon that requires me to exert much energy at all.

I'm talking about a TV marathon.

Gawd I love those.

I'm the person that wastes away her entire Sunday re-watching (cause you know I watched them all before) The Real Housewives of 'insert city', Top Chef or Millionaire Matchmaker.

I'm the person in her pajamas all day curled in a blanket with a drink on the table and the remote in my hand.

I'm the person gets upset when they suddenly switch to Law and Order. I mean I love L&O. They have been part of my marathon days many, many times. But seriously don't tease a girl with a whole day of shows and then not play the most recent one.

That's just dirty.

I'm the person that buys the Seasons on DVD just so I can watch them all at once. One of my Christmas presents was Tudors Season 3.



That we watched in it's entirety. In a single weekend.

Then last week S surprised me with The Weeds Season 5 on DVD.



Any guesses as to what we did this weekend?

**I did manage to drag myself out of the house to go grocery shopping at Kroger. All my trips are listed on Craving Savings and I'm also giving away a box of GM cereal so drop by to enter!

It's not just for looks...

Dear Virginia drivers,

I'm sure that you have a lot of things on your mind right now. There's the situation in Haiti, our new governor, the apparent surge in deaths/murders early this year and of course the economy.

I get it.

What I don't get is why you are so distracted and/or lazy that you cannot be bothered to use your turn signal. T-u-r-n s-i-g-n-a-l.

You look confused...allow me to explain.

Typically it's a lever right next to your steering wheel that goes up or down. If you move it up or down it signals, hence the name, to other drivers that you are in fact moving either left or right.

I know it may not matter to you as you already know where you are headed; however I wasn't born with physic ability. You can't send brain waves to me to let me know that you need to maneuver your car in my way.

Yes, yes I know. You are already multi-tasking in the car. Listening to your ipod, chatting with your boyfriend's ex sister-in-law while smoking a cigarette that you will promptly toss out the window because heaven forbid that ghastly substance stay in your car and besides it looks so damn lovely on the roadside, and trying to digest a Subway foot long as if your life depended on it.

I understand all of that is VERY important during your road trip but please find in your heart to move that lever either up or down. Preferably before you are where you already want to be. Because turning it on once you've cut me off is not sufficient. At. All.

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Brandy, aka the lady who just cussed you and yo' momma

Another year gone by...

It's hard to believe that you've been gone for two years. I can still see your smiling face & hear your laugh. It feels like just yesterday I called you to find out what you had for dinner. Or that I held your hand as we watched Wheel of Fortune together.

While you might not be by my side, you're always in my heart.



I miss you Granny!

Hot buttered rolls anyone?

A bunch of you were surprised to learn about my couponing blog Craving Savings. I guess I'm a closeted couponer...sorta. I mean I do have that public blog & all, but I rarely talk about it over here.

So it seems to reason that you might not know that I'm pretty domesticated too. Granted S does the laundry but I do most of the cooking at our house. Otherwise we would eat a lot of Luck's pinto beans**. Trust me it's better that I do the cooking.

And I enjoy it. Minus the clean up part.

But baking is my real passion. Creating something out of flour & water and watching it become something amazing is a complete rush for me.

These are just two of the character cakes I've made over the years. My family still talks about the year I made a race car track for my two oldest nephews complete with jello cars. And about the Sponge Bob cake I free handed.





Cookies, pies, sweet breads and cakes...all good stuff, but nothing compares to fresh yeast bread. I really love making a fresh loaf of bread. This No-Fail French Bread has been in my rotation for the last few weeks.

Then I stumbled across this recipe for Bread Machine Buttery Rolls.

They say a picture is worth a million words...get a load of this:



Pass the butter please NOW.

**My husband is partial to Luck's pinto beans. And by partial I mean these are the ONLY kind of canned pinto beans that he will eat. Whenever it's his turn to make dinner I can guarantee Luck's will be part of the menu. It's a small price to pay for a husband that does the laundry. That ALWAYS does the laundry. Jealous much?

Blessed

I woke up late this morning. Thirty minutes late.

"Bad hair day" doesn't even begin to describe what's going on with my locks today.

I'm congested so bad that the phlegm is gagging me. Disgusting but true.

The teen's nonchalant-ness is sometimes irritating.

I've already picked off some of my makeup.

My fuel light came on halfway to work.

Just realized I don't have anymore Coke Zero. Not that it matters since...

I can't taste my Hazelnut coffee because of this ding dang sickness.

And yet all this pales in comparison to what is happening in Haiti.

I have a home to wake up late in.

All my possessions are safe.

I know where my family is.

My sickness will pass.

Doctors are accessible to me if it doesn't.

I don't worry about my next meal or clean water.

In fact I'm feeling quite blessed today.

Are you feeling blessed like I do today? One way you can help is texting “Haiti” to 90999 to send a $10 donation to the Red Cross.(The charge will appear on your next cell phone bill.) Or go to Hope for Haiti where they are raising money one dollar at a time via raffles.



Please keep them in your prayers as they struggle through this disaster.

Walking with GERMS

Friday night I had a hot date. With my 6 year old nephew.


Walking with Dinosaurs came to town & being that he is all about some dinosaurs I knew that he would love the show.

What I didn't know is that I would too!


Saying it was awesome really doesn't do it justice. At. All. Neither does my pictures since I only took my little camera & we were in row "L" otherwise known as the nose-bleed seats.

But I did manage to take some AMAZING video footage of the show:


They had some really cool lighting and special effects that brought the whole show together.

If this shows comes to your town you must go see it.

Just take your hand sanitizer with you.

I can only guess one of those short, germ infested, snot-holders are the reason why I am sick. Again. For the third time since September.

Oh to be there...

...would be heaven right now.






~sigh~

Have a great warm weekend ya'll!

**Don't forget about my Keurig giveaway. Go to Craving Savings to enter now!

"You're too pretty for that..."

"You're too pretty for that..." said S to me a couple days ago. "That" being the dozen self-inflicted red marks on my face.

I'm a picker. A face picker. Truthfully I'm an anything picker meaning that I will scratch or squeeze any non-smooth surface. Scabs, pimples, dry skin-whatever.

You name it, I will pick at it.

It's a bad habit. An unconscious one that I typically do while on the phone, driving or watching tv.

I've tried to stop doing it. Obviously it's not very attractive (read: S's comment to me) and it just makes the situation that much worse. A small pimple ends up being a big red, splotchy, sometimes bleeding spot on my face.

Who does that?

Me. I do that. All. The. Time.

The only solution that I can think of is to rid myself of the places that make me pick, ie I need to get a handle on this adult acne. Oh yes, I have adult acne and it's irritating as hell.

My face breaks out now worse than it ever did while I was in high school and it gets worse with each hormone-rampant year. The Yaz helped for a while but now I notice the breakouts coming back. With a vengeance.

A few years ago I went to a dermatologist who tried to put me on Accutane. ACCUTANE people. This stuff is bad news and even before I did the research I knew that any acne medication that required a pregnancy test before it could be filled would do more bad than good for my body.

I've tried all sorts of over the counter meds/creams/cleansers that obviously don't help. I've even tried things like tea tree oil and castor oil based on some "natural remedies" website that I found.

I know that not everything is going to work for everyone but I need some help in narrowing this down and finding something that is truly going to work. I'm at the point where I need to worry not only about pimples, but also wrinkles. Ugh.

So what is your skin care routine? Have you found anything to be effective in treating your breakouts that you would recommend? Should I try Pro-Active? Or should I try another doctor that doesn't have a death wish for me?

I'm willing to try anything to get control of this. Because to put it simply I'm too old (& pretty) for that.

**Don't forget about my Keurig giveaway. Go to Craving Savings to enter now!

Keurig Giveaway

I'm giving away a Keurig Platinum Single Serve Brewing System at Craving Savings starting today!

Head over to Craving Savings to enter!

As the clock struck midnight...

...I was awake. Barely, but after two naps earlier in the evening I managed to hang on until 2010.

I was lying in the bed listening to the television. There was no champagne. No fireworks. No noisemakers.

I've done that kind of New Year celebration before and imagine I'll do it again. We were invited to New York and to Myrtle Beach so the opportunity was there. Instead it was just S & I.

Together.

The way it was meant to be.

Happy New Year to you & your families!