It's been a long time!

Well, it's been a long time...a very long time. So many things have happened this past year! Two very important things - one that has brought happiness, the other great sadness. In July, I found out that Baby Chef was expecting! Just a few days later, Gma passed away.

Since Gma passed away, I've learned these things about myself:

Have healthy relationships
Look past a person's flaws
Look past my own flaws
It's ok to go out without makeup
Ignore people's nasty comments
Stand up for myself
Stop worrying about what other people think
Avoid the drama
Say "no" to stuff
Stop trying to be perfect
Let go of expectations
Adjust to changes
Understand that the best is yet to come.

Here is a peek of one my "best is yet to come." Coop is due to join us in March!

Yummy Pumpkin Muffins

Hope everyone is having a great week! I wanted to share a recipe I made last night. This is a light pumpkin muffin that you could make into a cupcake by adding your favorite cream cheese frosting. Let me know what you think!

1½ cups of self rising flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. ginger
½ tsp. nutmeg
½ tsp. allspice
1½ cups of sugar
3/4 cup pumpkin (I use Libby's solid pumpkin in a can)
2 eggs
½ cup of oil
¼ cup of dark rum or egg nog (I didn't have either of these so I used buttermilk)
¼ cup of maple syrup

Preheat oven to 350 and line your muffin tin. Mix dry ingredients together except for sugar. In a separate bowl mix sugar, pumpkin, and eggs until smooth. Don't skip this step and just dump everything in and mix or you will have a lumpy mess. Mix in oil, rum (eggnog or buttermilk) and maple syrup. Slowly add the dry flour mixture. Don't overmix!! Spoon into your muffin cups and bake for about 20 minutes.  I made 24 mini muffins and 12 regular size muffins out of this recipe.

Gma ate 4 regular size this morning!!

Catching Up!

Hello! I hope everyone is doing well! Baby Chef and a few others have been fussing at me for my blog hiatus. So I'll catch you up on my life since the end of June. I've painted my living room - not once but twice because I didn't like the color. I also painted the hall, kitchen/dining room. I've made 20 dozen cupcakes and 9 cakes for various birthdays. Gma has been in the hospital twice. Gma also competed in what I call the "Old Lady Beauty Pageant." She won queen for the skilled care facililty where she is and she also won best smile and she celebrated her 83rd birthday on October 9th.

Gma's funnies-I came in to visit Gma one afternoon and she was in a panic. I've lost my panties!! I asked did she have any panties on right now. She pulls the waist band out on her pants, looks down, and says Yep! I have some on. I think to myself...this is a good thing! I asked her where she was when she took them off. Gma looks around and said well, I think I was here in the room (Thank goodness!!). I begin to look around the room for the missing panties. Finally, after several minutes of looking, Gma stands up and I see them! She had been sitting on them the entire time!

That's all for now....hope everyone has a great week!

"The Queen"





Happy 1 Year Anniversary to Baby Chef and Mr. Army Man!

Today is a special day. It is my daughter and son-in-law's one year anniversary. Unfortunately, since Mr. Army Man is deployed, they won't celebrate until he is back in the U.S. sometime later this year. It seems impossible that a year has gone by already! It feels like it was yesterday when we were getting everything ready for the big day. First, it literally was a bizillion degrees outside! Baby Chef chose to get married outside in the south in June. Thankfully, the ceremony only took about 10 minutes, then we were back inside in the air. Baby Chef was absolutely beautiful. I suppose I'm a little partial since she's my daughter. Mr. Army Man didn't look too bad either.


It was a day filled with family, friends, and memories. Happy Anniversary Baby Chef and Mr. Army Man! I hope you love each other as much in 50 years as you do today.

Work - Never a Dull Moment!

Hey ya'll! It's been a busy couple of months! April was filled with EG's Daddy's birthday, my cousin's wedding, and Gma had a mini stroke, but is doing fine. May has been filled with preparing for our local high school's annual athletic banquet for 125 people, baking not 1 but 2 graduation cakes, another wedding, and just regular every day stuff. Oh...and 8:30 to 5 work which leads me to write this post.

I'm a paralegal and I've worked at the same firm for almost 14 years. In my office, there are 2 attorneys, another legal secretary (Cake Lady), and me. I really love my job for all its demands, frustrations, and rewards (yes, there are rewards for working in a law office). As with any other job, some days are better than others. When you work in a law office, you hear all kinds of stories. One of the craziest stories I was told was when I first started working there, and a man wanted to sue his employer for making him work outside because he was allergic to bees...the man worked on a farm. Another funny story was when a man called and wanted to sue a beer company because he threw up from drinking beer. I couldn't help myself and asked how much beer he drank. When he said 16, I nearly fell out of my chair I was laughing so hard.

Today Cake Lady and I both had the privilege/misfortune of talking to a lady that was determined she should be eligible for Social Security disability benefits. When asked why she felt she was disabled she originally told me - because them voices in my head be tellin me to do stuff. After my 2 minute conversation with her, my patience was shot so Cake Lady gets on the phone and asks her the same standard questions. Her response to Cake Lady why she needed to be on disability was because she has hallucinations. Nex question - Do you have a medical diagnosis? No. Why do you have hallucinations? From smoking weed. After that response, the boyfriend in the background yells  don't be tellin them how crazy you is! At this point Cake Lady is having a hard time remaining professional and thankfully the conversation ended.

The thing to remember, in any job, is to laugh. Believe it or not someone out there IS worse off than you! I hope everyone has a great week!

Something New-Fill in the Blank Friday

Baby Chef often posts a "fill in the blank" for her Friday post. Thought I would give it a try since I haven't blogged in a while. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

1.  Something that is very near and dear to my heart is (are) my children. They are the most important thing EVER!

2.      Birthdays   are a good cause to celebrate .

3.  The most fun I ever had was    going to NYC with Baby Chef! Can't wait to go back!

4.  True friends are   the ones you can go without talking to because of schedules or whatever, and when you finally do get time with them, it's as if you were never apart.

5. Something that makes me terribly happy is     having all my children in one place at the same time.

6. A good way to spend a sunny day is     sitting on the patio reading a good book  .

7.  My favorite celebratory food is   cake.

EG's Daddy's Birthday Story

For those of you who haven't followed my blog or have forgotten, since my children were big enough to understand, every year on their birthday I tell them their "birthday story," the story about the day they were born. Today is EG's Daddy's 24th birthday and his story goes something like this:

On Tuesday, April 19, 1988 at 2:53 p.m. I was blessed with my oldest son, EG's Daddy. As with any woman's first pregnancy, I didn't know what to expect, I had preeclampsia, which was a pain in the rear, because I was on complete bed rest. I went to the doctor on the 18th and had an ultrasound (EG's Daddy was due on May 9th). The technician nearly fell out of her chair telling me that EG's Daddy was a big baby and that she would be surprised if I made it until the due date. Of course, that's exactly what my doctor said and he scheduled me to be induced the next morning.

I went home so excited that I was finally going to meet this precious child. I had no idea if the baby was a boy or girl but we prepared the nursery for a boy, didn't have any girl clothes or even a girl's name picked out. I would have been in big trouble if things had went the other way HeHe!

We arrived at the hospital the next morning at 6, got my epidural, and started the waiting game. I'm pretty sure that was the longest day of my life. As far as labor, I never felt a contraction, so that was awesome, and at 2:53 p.m., I finally met my 10 pound son. Yes, 4'10" me had a 10 pound baby! It was love at first sight! I couldn't wait to get my hands on him, and I nearly had a fit when they took him to the nursery. It was 9 p.m. before I was able to hold him, and when the nurse brought him in, she handed him to my brother-in-law, Uncle D (she thought he was daddy). To this day, he still brags that he was the first one to hold EG's Daddy.

EG's Daddy was a wonderful baby. He started sleeping through the night at 4 weeks and hardly ever cried...probably because I never put him down. At 24, he still makes me smile every day because that's how he is. We tease him and say he'll never die of a stroke or heart attack because he "goes with the flow." He's the most laid back of all my children and he's grown up to be an amazing dad to sweet EG.

Fifty Shades

Sorry it's been such a long time since my last post! Between work, helphing with my cousin's wedding, Baby Chef coming home for a brief visit, and the usual happenings of every day life, unfortunately blogging had been put on the back burner.

Jax from http://www.raviolisandwaterworks.com/ introduced me to Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James in one of her posts about a book club. I did a little research and decided I'd take the plunge and see what this book was all about. Boy, was I shocked! Besides being one steamy book, it has a great story. In fact, it was so interesting, I ended up reading all three books in 5 days! I won't give away the story line but I do recommend this trilogy, even though I wanted to put it down at times because it was just a little too graphic for me.

This is what Amazon has to say:

When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms.

Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.

Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a tale that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever.

If you are brave enough to take this on, let me have your thoughts.

True Colors Blog Swap

I participated in a blog swap that Baby Chef coordinated on her blog Stars, Stripes, and a Military Life .

 I was paired with Anna from The Days When I'm Not a Nurse.

 I received the most awesome gifts! Anna could not have done better if she had known me forever. She wrapped everything individually in red tissue paper and every item had a handwritten note on it. I must admit I felt bad because I didn't do this for Anna and hopefully she's not disappointed! My favorite gift was the handwritten recipes. I absolutely LOVE getting new recipes! Thank you so much Anna!!

Here are a few pictures of what sweet Anna sent:

1. The box as I opened it.

2. Cute lobster dish towel.

3. Sealing wax

I loved every bit of putting Anna's package together and especially recieving her amazing gift! Can't wait to sign up for another! Hop on over to her blog and check out what I got her, she truly is a dear! Hope everyone has a terrific Tuesday!

Happy Birthday to Meggie Lou and Me!!

Today is my birthday. I LOVE birthdays...everyone's but mine. I'm thankful to have another one, but I'm pretty low key about it. I don't care about birthday cake or presents unless it's for someone else.

Three years ago I celebrated my 40th birthday. It wasn't a spectacular day. Actually, it wasn't a good day at all until I got a call from a dear friend asking me to pick up her son because she had a doctor's appointment. She was due to have her daughter in a few weeks. I picked up AVman from school, we played outside, ate spiderman cupcakes, and were trying to wind down when, I got a call from Coach's Wife that the doctor sent her to the hospital. At this point, we didn't know if she was gonna have the baby that day or if they would send her home.

We waited for what seemed like forever, even though it was only an hour or two. Then, we got a call from
Coach who told us the doc was going to do a c-section soon. Baby Chef, AV man, and I got ready and drove to the hospital. We got there just in time for Meggie Lou! I have to admit, I'm a little prejudice but she was about the sweetest thing I'd ever seen! I couldn't wait to get my hands on what was the BEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT I had ever gotten!!

I'm so blessed that Coach's Wife has never minded sharing her children with me, especially my Birthday Girl!

Meggie Lou and Me on our birthday last year