My life as I know it

Creamy Potato Lasagna Prep Time: 25 Min Cook Time: 1 Hr 10 Min Ready In: 1 Hr 35 Min       Ingredients 1 (12 ounce) jar Alfredo sauce 1 cup milk 3 pounds potatoes, peeled and sliced lengthwise about 1/8 inch thick 5 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 1/2 cups diced ham 1 (10 ounce) package chopped frozen broccoli, thawed 2 cups shredded Swiss cheese Directions Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish. In a medium bowl, whisk together the Alfredo sauce and milk. Spread 1/4 cup of the sauce in the bottom of the baking dish. Then layer 1/3 of the potatoes over the sauce in the dish. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of Parmesa...

I finally took my Christmas decorations down on Sunday. February 20 seemed like as good a day as any to finally do that. Going straight from Christmas decorations to my St. Patrick's Day decor is a dead giveaway that my Christmas decorations were up much longer than they should have been. Given all that happened in the month of January, I'm going to give myself a pass for letting it go into February. But I'm not sure what my excuse is for letting it almost go into March! I'm sure I can think of something...oh, that's right; laziness! That and lack of motivation. But the good news is, it's done. I've been somewhat of a strange bird these days. I can and will, at any given point in time, start crying. There are some trends as to where this spontaneous crying occurs. It happens almost always right before bed, when the busy day has ended and I'm left with my thoughts and that hole that is still in my heart, missing that fourth parent. I may have said thi...

I think it's a really important skill to be able to laugh at yourself. But growing up with buck teeth and a lazy eye made this skill more than just important, it was a necessity for survival! I learned to make fun of myself at an early age and I still enjoy it to this day. But just because I can make fun of myself, doesn't mean you can! Oh, the double standards of life. :) Every time I get out of the shower, I comb my hair as straight as I can possibly get it and then marvel at the 80s poof that it slowly becomes as it dries. It's amazing to me each and every time and I'm not sure why. Maybe I hope that one of these days it will magically stay stick straight. The reality is my "natural" look is that of a teased frizz ball. If I could bottle that up and then go back in time about thirty years, I could be a millionaire! There was a time when people would kill for hair like mine. But unfortunately, it's not the 80s anymore and no one really wants hair that ...

I haven't really used this blog much (or at all) to talk about my step-dad Mark, his battle with cancer, his recent death and my struggle with accepting life without him. I had his blog so I didn't really need to mix the two. Well, now I"m not writing in his blog anymore (although, I really should be - even if I don't publish it anymore) and I'm really feeling my emotions start to bottle up. Writing really is therapy for me. Music is, too. It seems as though I've been suckered into helping with another play at the school. And I think suckered is a fair statement since the students have been bugging me every single day for weeks, begging me to help again (I guess I should be flattered). Anyway, it's a musical so we had auditions this week and one of the students, who completely caught us off guard with her beautiful voice, sang a song I never heard before but I LOVED it. I couldn't get it out of my head so I asked her what the song was and it's ca...

So you have a big truck. I get it. I would have been a lot more impressed with your white dodge truck with lift kit had it not been adorned with weird (and girly, I might add) graphics but given the fact that you still had temporary plates, I'm going to let those slide and assume you didn't add them. However, if I was going to be driving around my big truck, trying to be intimidate and pick on innocent little mazdas, my first order of business would have been removing those girly stickers before driving it off the lot. But that's just me. I realize that in your opinion, I had plenty of time to pull out in front of that car. You are entitled to your opinion, but I don't appreciate you honking at me to try and encourage me to risk my life just because you think I should. Unfortunately, that's not really your call to make. And, let's say, by chance, that your honk would have enticed me to pull out in front of the car (which, I hate to break it to you, honking at ...

In case I haven't adequately explained how very indecisive I am, let me reiterate the point. I have been waiting for the iPhone to come to Verizon since, well, the day the first iPhone was announced, so almost four years! I anxiously awaited for "2010" when it seemed so far away, and just like that, the year came and went with no iPhone at Verizon. And then it happened; Verizon and Apple announced last month that the iPhone 4 was FINALLY coming to Verizon! I was elated, until I realized that I wasn't eligible for an upgrade for another year and that there was no way on Earth I could pay the full retail price of the phone (not knowing exactly what the price would be but knowing it would be more than I could afford). So, I came up with a list of all the reasons it's better to wait for the next Verizon iPhone. I consulted the experts (those Apple junkies in my family), the blogs, etc. and had a lot of good, solid reasons why I should wait until the iPhone 5 comes o...

  Cheese Garlic Biscuits Prep Time: 10 Min  Cook Time: 15 Min Ready In: 25 Min Ingredients 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 5 tablespoons butter 1 cup milk 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese 1/4 cup butter, melted 1 clove garlic, minced Directions Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). In a large bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking powder. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Make a well in the center of flour mixture. Add the milk and cheddar cheese; stir to combine. Drop batter by spoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes, until lightly browned. Whil...

Yes, I am a bit dramatic. But I am not exaggerating at all when I say that spiders (and all bugs with more legs than me) make me weak in the knees. Beyond the weakness in the knees, they actually make me feel slightly sick to my stomach, too. As I was preparing my lunch today, there was a spider on the counter. It was about the size of my thumbnail, aka HUGE (I do not discriminate based on the size of spiders - I find them all equally disturbing). It was moving really slowly, which should have been comforting but actually freaked me out even more because I was waiting for it to speed up or, even worse, jump! Since I was the only one home, I needed to kill it. I realize that spiders aren't bad and are actually important and necessary to kill other bugs. I understand all of that. I left a huge spider, perhaps a black widow, outside right next to our backdoor all summer and fall so that it could do it's thing. However, all bets are off when they're in my house. When it com...