Albums of my Youth

I recently read this great post by Ashley on her blog Uniqueness of Being about her youth in records. It was such a fun post to check out and inspired me to think about the records of my youth that influenced me. 

Music defines moments in our life, it helps us celebrate milestones, get through the hard times, figure out what is staring us in the face all along, work through our emotions, seriously I could go on and on here.

Music was always a part of my life. Growing up I'd dream of my "movie moments", that one perfect moment in your life that has this amazing soundtrack to go with it.  Like walking down the aisle to Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours", yeah that was a movie moment come true for me. 

Anyway, here is my own list of albums or songs that got me through my youth.  This list by no means is complete, but these were definitely the heavy hitters.

Alanis Morrisette :: Jagged Little Pill
My first cassette tape. I felt so grown up when I got this, jumping around my room to "You Outta Know". My first major crush happened in 6th grade and "Head Over Feet" played in my mind while I daydreamed about riding off into the sunset with him and when the subsequent breakup occurred, because I ran from him the whole week we dated, "You Learn" soothed my pain. Yes, I ran from my first real boyfriend. Literally ran at the sight of him. 

Jewel :: Pieces of You
My first CD. My parents surprised me for my birthday when I was in 7th grade with this CD, even though I didn't have my own CD player. I didn't think anything of it because I figured I'd just use the surround sound in the living room (yeah right, like my step dad would let me blare Jewel throughout the house), but then I walked into my bedroom at the end of the night and there was one last unopened present sitting on my bed. It was my very own CD player! I loved this CD, I still pop it in every now and then, especially when I start working on a new sewing project. "You Were Meant for Me" was my favorite song and I changed the lyrics to the song to fit my crush at the time, Drew. My little sister, Renee, to this day laughs at the rewrite and begs me to do it again. 

Chevelle :: Wonder What's Next/Incubus :: Morning View/ Default :: The Fallout
Wow, I can't believe how much emotion floods back into me when I think of these CDs and what they helped me get through. I was 16, my ex-stepdad and mom were divorcing and it had to be one of the worst times of my life. I loved my stepdad, I still do. He was my best friend, my dad, my mentor. These CD's helped me work through those really dark times. Wonder What's Next is my angry CD, Morning View is my angry/chill CD, The Fallout is my nostalgia CD. My God I forgot how much these CDs meant to me. "Wasting My Time" will never get old. Ever. "Deny" still helps me struggle with the loss of my ex-stepdad. Still.  Both of these songs just flow through me, I know that probably sounds silly but its the best way to explain it. The words just course through my veins and fill my soul. "Family System", "Comfortable Liar" and "Closure" have stopped many black eyes from occurring.  As for Morning View, the whole CD is amazing. I can't pick just one...but if I had to "Wish you Were Here", because honestly? Sometimes I do. 

Shaggy :: Hot Shot/ Mark Cohn :: Mark Cohn
I know, I know, these two don't belong together. But they do in my story. From 13 to 18 I worked every Saturday at my family's gas station. Every other Saturday I worked with my Aunt Penny and the whole day we would blast these two CD's. I smile now thinking about us dancing in the garage while we cleaned the floor to "Luv Me, Luv Me" and my aunt laughing at me doing the booty crank.   Don't ask. Haha. Mark Cohn was for the rainy days, we'd listen to "True Companion" and dream about Aunt Penny dancing her first dance someday to that song. I miss those Saturdays. I would gladly give up every. single. Saturday of my life if I got to work at the gas station with her again. 

Dixie Chicks :: Fly // Shania Twain :: Come on Over
Growing up I totally pretended to hate country. It was so uncool. I've since learned to embrace country and I enjoy it often. These two CD's were my guilty pleasures growing up. Fly is still in my car and I play it on a regular basis. "Cowboy Take Me Away"...are you kidding me? I still daydream about Dave whisking me away to a country home, playing this song in the background in a rancher that would make The Pioneer Woman jealous. Come on Over...I have this CD memorized. I remember babysitting one time and this baby would not stop crying. There just wasn't a thing you could do to get this kid to stop. So I sang him the whole CD. The Whole CD. By the end of it he was asleep, or maybe he was pretending to get me to stop singing... 

I would love to hear about the music of your youth! What music has defined you?

My Secret Super Power

Ok so not really. I have no super powers, unless you consider switching to baby talk at the sight of ANY animal. If that's the case, then give me a moment while I adjust my cape in the wind.

Seriously, I am talent-less. I am not the least bit athletic, and my hand/eye coordination is terrible. Which means you can cross off being good at video games too. I can't sing, or act (I can't keep a straight face through anything), and unless you consider the "lawnmower" as a viable dance move, I can't dance either. I always mess up the punchline of a joke and I can't remember a decent movie line to save my life. If I did I guarantee you I would mess that up too. 

There is one thing able to do and growing up, I thought it was the most amazing talent in the world.

I can lift one eyebrow. 

Seriously, once on family vacation when I was like 10, the resort we were staying at was having a talent show and I signed up and literally stood on stage, my face painted white and my eyebrow painted incredibly large and black, wiggling my eyebrow. That is all I did. Which by the way, I could NOT get that paint off for a good two days! 

Since I was the only one in my family that could do it, they made such a big deal out of it and I thought I was so special just because I could lift one eyebrow. It all started one day when I wanted to give my mom "that" look. You know, the "whatchu talking about Willis" or "are you really asking me to do that?". I was maybe seven and I just lifted my eyebrow without even thinking about it and my mom fawned all over me, "how did you do that?!? do it again!" and the rest is history.

I seriously thought I was part of a select few in this world that could do this amazing thing. I was like an X-man, where is Professor Xavier to take me away with my amazing power? Then I met Dave and gave him "my look" and he gave it right back to me. 

And then I realized a lot more people could do it than I thought. So now I'm back to being talent-less. Which is fine with me, I always felt like those dancing monkeys whose owner was cranking music out of a box anyway. 

By the way, I have multiple shots of Dave lifting each eyebrow...show off.

So I have to know, what is your super power?

End of the Week Roundup

Hello! Another Friday, another End of the Week Roundup!

1. One of the girls I work with has been a God-send. She is really good with makeup and hair techniques, I'm constantly asking her advice on different things and she has always been kind and patient with me. I don't think she'll ever realize how much her kindness and help has meant to me. Anyway, one of the things she taught me was the importance of shading in your eyebrows. I am constantly seeing other blogs and people on pinterest harping about filling in brows and how you absolutely had to do it. I was really apprehensive about this because I had my eyebrows shaded in once for a special event and I ended up looking like a clown in pictures. She went out and bought this for me and told me to just try it and I'd see the difference, and wow what a difference it has made. I definitely have decided to add brow filling into my makeup application routine. I'm thinking I might do a blog post about before and after to show you how much it changes everything.

2. All I can say about this next thing is kiss, kiss!

Speaking of kiss, kiss, I learned this week that I don't have to force a kiss on Squish's head. All I have to say is "may I have a kiss?" and he leans right in and we touch lips to nose. He literally does it every time. I love it, but I try to only do it once or twice a day so he doesn't get sick of doing it. 

3. Wednesday was teen book club. I always look forward to the monthly meeting with the teens, especially when we have engaging conversations. Hearing their opinions and thoughts about what they read is so much fun, they are all extremely intelligent and have taught me so much. Running this book club has been one of the most rewarding experiences I've ever had. Sometimes it's frustrating trying to find time to read the books for the club in between work, school and life, but whenever I come to these meetings its confirmation that it's totally worth it.

4. Nibbler loves water. Loves it. Every day at least three times a day I will find him in the bathtub meowing at me to turn on the water. I caught this shot Sunday night of Nibbler playing with the water:

He will sit under the spigot when it is turned off and let the water drip on his head while he licks up the water around the drain. Then he goes and rubs his head on Dave, every single time. It's hilarious and will never get old.

5. Wednesday night Dave cooked since I would be home late from the book club. He made pork chops and tried out two new recipes using spices in our cabinet and then splitting the chops in two so we could each try half. Oh my gosh were they good! We actually sat at the kitchen table, which we never do (I hate to say it but yes we are TV watchers at dinner time), and enjoyed a delicious meal and talked. It was so relaxing to spend some down time with Dave where our heads weren't buried in technology. I think I might try to make it a point to have dinner at the table at least once a week and see how that works out for us. 

That's what I got for this week, enjoy your weekend!!

Linking up with Lauren @ Lauren Elizabeth!

The Day the Animals Turned on Me

Yesterday was a gorgeous day at work so I decided to take a walk on a nearby path on my lunch break. This path also happened to be the same one that I rode bikes with my little sister on all summer long. As I was walking alone, thinking about what the heck I was going to post about today, a little memory came creeping back in. It was the day I rode my bike along this path by myself one summer about ten years ago. That day was the day Bambi turned Thumper and all the other little woodland creatures against me....

Let me preface this story by explaining that I'm terrible at riding bicycles. *Terrible*. I can barely stay balanced and I'm so afraid of crashing and burning that I don't go above an easy, rhythmic pedal pace. And, just like I can't cut straight lines, I also can't ride a straight line. I pray I never have to walk a straight line as a sobriety test because I will fail that with amazing flair. But I digress. 

As I was riding along this path I came across a beautiful doe standing in the middle of the path. I stopped back a ways to watch her when she popped her head up and looked at me and trotted off. I rode on and came across a little chipmunk who happened to run in front of me, causing me to swerve into the gravel along the side of the path (see the picture above). Yeah I'm one of those people who brake for squirrels (and chipmunks, deer, pretty much everything), AND? 

At this point I'm amazed I've seen two animals in one ride, so close to each other, and I continued on, thinking what great luck it was that I got a chance to see them both. Once I reached the end of the path there was this huge groundhog that I startled. This is where I think the animals decided to rally against me. I guess I disturbed one too may of them in one ride. 

I turned around and started for the  beginning of the path and I was about half way back. My exact location happened to be near a spot that to the right of me dropped down a steep, rocky embankment into the river below. They planned for this attack at this precise moment, I know it. All of a sudden a bird swooped down over my head, too close for comfort and distracted me long enough for a bunny to hop directly in front of me, which caused me to swerve into the embankment below. The only thing that stopped me from falling completely was my front wheel jamming itself into a formation of rocks at the top of the cliff. Yeah I said it. Cliff. 

I look up to assess how the heck I was going to get out of this jam, my legs all cut and scraped up and my heart beating wildly in my throat, and I see Thumper laughing at me. Ok so maybe he wasn't laughing, maybe his nose was moving, but still its too much of a coincidence that the chipmunk saw my lack of bicycle skills and then the bird and bunny run me off the road. I got off the embankment and rode home, cleaned up my battle wounds, and vowed to exact my revenge....



Just kidding, I'm a klutz, everything really happened, but I was too busy ooohing at them to ride properly. But I still like to blame it on them, which in fairness, the bird really did swoop down near my head. 

Cube Steak

Growing up, my mom used to let my sister and I pick what she would make for our birthday dinner. Every year, without fail, I would always choose the same thing--cube steak.

I'll be up front now, it isn't a "pretty" meal, but oh my gosh is it good. It's comfort food at it's finest and there is nothing more that I love (other than Dave, Nibs and Squish of course!) than comfort food. I paired it with mashed potatoes (a MUST for this dish!) and corn pudding to round out the deliciousness.

Here is what you need:

-1 pack of Cube Steaks (I purchased a small pack, however I recommend getting a larger pack, this particular one pictured was just enough to feed Dave and I, also if the steaks are on the larger side you may want to consider cutting them down a bit, but that is a personal preference)
-1 to 2 Tbs margarine
-1 can of cream of chicken soup
-1 can of cream of mushroom soup
-1/2 can milk for each can (1 can of milk total)
-salt and pepper to taste

Here is what you need to do:

1. Melt margarine in pan and brown the cube steaks on both sides.
2. Add both soups and milk to the pan, making sure the meat is completely covered (see picture)

3. Simmer steaks on medium heat stirring occasionally and flipping meat as necessary (but not too much, you don't want to break the meat up) for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
4. Serve and enjoy!

What are your favorite comfort foods?