Camping Out with our Favorite Desserts!

He wants me to share but he knows he's on a diet!

It's Friday and what better way to spend your Friday night than camped out on your living room couch with some of your favorite desserts! The guys decided it was time for a guy's night out so that just leaves the dog and me. (But who needs stinky guys anyways?) We were about to curl up in front of the TV to watch some shows but not before I prepared a box of HERSHEY'S s'mores dessert bar mix. Everyone needs s'mores at a campout!

And what goes better with s'mores than REESE'S peanut butter cups! (Or in this case, bars) That's right! Two boxes of desserts, a marathon of movies and my best friend in the whole world, my little dog, Tobi - Is there a more perfect way to spend the evening? 

The dessert bars were really easy to make, just stir... stir... and bake! (As well as easy to find, you can pick them up at your local Target) It only took about twenty minutes before I had two glass pans with warm, sweet treats and boy, were they de-lish! I do have to admit I've been craving s'mores the last couple days so that might've influenced my opinion just a tad when I decided that the HERSHEY'S s'mores dessert bars were my absolute fave!

But the night's not over yet! I have a giant black book of DVDs that I plan to go through in less than 14 hours and not a minute sooner. Guess I'm pulling an all-nighter. :)

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Disclosure: The information and prize pack have been provided by General Mills through Platefull Co-Op.

Sex Tape (2014) Review Cameron Diaz & Jason Segel

From the beginning of the movie, I was able to connect to the storyline on a personal level. It starts out as many of my days do, typing away on a blog. She goes on to describe the passion her and her husband had felt for each other when they began dating and how it had faded over the years with having kids, getting married and sinking into their daily routine.

I’m sure a lot of us feel that way about our own relationships from time to time, but don’t let that part sink you down as the movie takes a sharp twist to hilarity. As they attempt to repair a unsaturated love life, one trial leading to another, they finally settle on making a sex video together. What happens next will surely WOW you as this unbelievable domino trail comes crashing down in a series of unfortunate events.

I can surely say I was on the edge of my seat for the entire film and I could completely see where that Mother was coming from. (And perhaps, faced with those same decisions, I would have done the same thing!) The only disappointment that I had was you never really find out if the mother sells her blog or where was that creepy, cocaine-filled relationship with her soon-to-be boss was headed.

All in all, I can say that Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel did a wonderful job. I knew from the start that this movie was going to be fantastic when I recognized the Jason Segel from Wedding Crashers and The Five Year Engagement paired with Cameron Diaz. What a hilarious combination! Again, applause for Director Jake Kasdan for making another fun movie to add to the collection and keep up the good work.

Why do I write?

My mother made a promise to herself when she started blogging, “I will post once a day, every day.” She then went on to publish several books starting with End of Mae and No Money Marketing: All You Need is Like, as well as the popular blog Dandilyonfluff.com. I don’t claim to be my mother… or anywhere close. She is an amazing and unique woman with a passion for writing.

I’m not a writer, just a kid who writes.

So why do I write? I’m not hoping to get famous or publish any books. I think I realized it today as I was taking the trash out to the dumpster (Which is a very inspirational moment) I write because I crave that stability that it provides my life.

I live in a world with fast cars, fast money and temporary homes. People come and go in my life and I’m never in one spot for more than a few months. Writing on this blog has become the only stable thing I have. I don’t post on here religiously, every day… but it’s the consistent routine of jotting down a sloppily written post about an experience or thought that helps provide some calm.

You could say blogging is my cigarette and I’m a stress smoker.

Internet Survival - How long would you last without it?

How long could you survive without internet? No, I’m serious. How long do you think you could make it before you cracked? How about without your cell phone? For the past few days I was faced with such a challenge. You see, I recently moved into a new apartment, and after that fiasco with AT&T, I had to call Mediacom to come out and install… which means I’d have to wait another week without internet.

No worries… I can do this. I mean, I still have a cell phone… right? WRONG!

Yet another great thing about this apartment… It’s on the third floor. So one night while I was texting over the edge of our balcony, my husband decided to scare me… you know, like they do on those prank videos. Well it’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye or in my case, my phone.

Over the edge it went, three stories down as I screamed in slow motion and tried to grab it. (Maybe if I hadn’t been moving in slow motion I would’ve caught it too.) It was no use… My phone landed with a loud thud against the grassy lawn below.

Now I wasn’t ready to kill my husband yet. I still held out hope that the soft grass below might’ve broke my phone’s fall enough to save it from harm. After nearly sprinting down the three flights of stairs and darting out into the lawn… then searching the lawn for my phone… I discovered nothing but a black screen with a wicked bright crack in the screen that was no thicker than a strand of hair. That was enough though. My phone was out of commission permanently.

How long did I survive without my phone or internet? How long did I make it before I cracked? …Not very long.

But I still made it and besides the hours of laying on the couch, staring at the ceiling and wondering what the point of my life was (Or how the lines on the ceiling formed shapes… like clouds!) I don’t think it went to badly.

Don’t misunderstand though… it’s an experience that I never want to relive again. Thank God for internet!!

The Case of the Missing Squeaky Toy!

My dog’s absolute favorite chew toy would have to be this little blue loofah dog (Shaped like a dachshund of course!) with a squeaker right in the center. He proudly carried this loofah dog all over the house and buried it under the most special of couch cushions. I know this is my dog’s favorite chew toy because one day he had torn off the head… and I threw it away.

I didn’t think anything of it at the time. He has tons of toys, some even like his loofah dog, but that toy was special. I didn’t notice at first, but he started wandering around the house over the next couple days; sniffing and digging as if he were looking for something.

He searched under the couch cushions… He searched in the closet… He searched in the laundry pile…

But what was he searching for? Finally he flopped down onto the couch with the most distraught look on his face… that’s when it dawned on me. That was days ago though, and that little loofah dog was long gone in trash land somewhere. You can’t tell a dog that though, so I had to come up with a plan.

It was simple really… just go to the store and buy him a new one. Except when I returned to Walmart the next day, they had a completely different set of dog toys out for sale.

I asked one of the saleswomen if she knew when that toy would be returning or if there were some in the back but she only shrugged her shoulders. “Products come and go… for all we know it could be a discontinued toy.” Well I was a mommy on a mission and I had a sad puppy dog to go home too if I failed.

I set out then, checking all the local retail and pet stores in the area to ask if they had a little blue loofah dog in stock. My friends thought I was nuts when they texted me later that day to ask what I was up to, but they didn’t know the power of the puppy eyes. Finally one of my friends texted me a link to an Amazon.com listing… Ta Da! She had found it!

Within a couple days my dachshund was bouncing around happily with his BRAND NEW loofah dog! (Which makes it so much better) Hooray for happy endings J

Strangers Again

When was the last time you felt in love with your husband? I'm not talking about the "I love you" he sends in a text after you've finished discussing what to make for dinner or the "Love you!" that you say to him right before he leaves for work. I mean that deep happiness that one feels when they realize they wouldn't want to be with anyone else at that moment.

The answer for my husband and I? Well... I can't remember.

When was the last time you fought with your husband? Well we all know that one.

It was last night - He had come home late from work and the first thing he did when he walked thru the door was make some snide comment about the dishes. (Which the sink was only about 1/3rd of the way full)

It grew from there into a screaming match about how he had to work all day while I was probably at home doing my nails or playing on a Facebook game like Farmville.

Of course he would have known, had he been home, that I spent 5 hours on the phone with the internet company's customer service, took the dog to the vet, went grocery shopping and still managed to finish my many other house duties... with the exception of the four plates and one pan that sat in our sink.

Our night ended with him sleeping on the couch and myself viciously finishing the dishes.

In fact, it seemed most of our night's ended that way now. Sure we tried to watch a movie together now and then (if we can even agree on one.) But it wasn't the same.

We had both sunk into a routine of stress and blame... lashing out at eachother as we only had eachother to lash out at.

Its going to be tough getting out of this cycle but I'm hoping that recognizing it is the first step. Our marriage of three years already seemed to be winding its way back to where it started... strangers.

Maybe one day I'll be able to remember the last time we were truly in love... and hopefully it'll help me remember how to get back to that.

How To Make Italian Cream Soda "Books-A-Million Style"

Yesterday I found myself browsing the wares of a Books-A-Million in another city an hour away from home. Why is this important? Well the Books-A-Million close to my home doesn't feature a Joe Mugs Cafe with such a wide selection of drinks.

Now the reason I found myself so far from home in the first place is that I had agreed to take my younger brother on a date at the mall. Mother had been booked up at work and he offered gas money, so how could I say no to love?

So I sat in the nearby Books-A-Million, staring up at the drink selection, as I tried to kill time until he called for a pickup. I finally decided on what would soon be my most favorite drink ever - Italian Cream Soda with Irish Cream as my flavoring.

Delicious! Creamy and yet refreshing at the same time. I quickly found myself finishing it and ordering another. How had I not heard of this before?

Lucky for me, the cafe prepared its drinks in an open bar so I could memorize her methods to attempt making this drink at home.

Ingredients:

2 Cups
Cream
Irish Cream (Alcoholic or Non-Alcoholic)
Shasta Club Soda
ICE

Take your cup and fill it with ice.

Then take your Irish cream and fill up the cup until the fill line would be equal to the first digit of your right hand if it were pressed against the cup. (These were complex measurements that she performed.)

Next fill the cup with cream about double the amount of Irish cream.

Then take your Shasta Club Soda and fill your cup up the rest of the way. (Hope you grabbed a tall glass)

Finally take your second cup and pour the drink mixture back and forth until it turns a champagne color, sort of a creamy white.

Now I think I'll go have a glass! Enjoy!