I’m not in the mood to bullet point all of my babbling, so I decided not to create Random Randomness© this time. I’ll just type in paragraphs like ‘normal’ people do.

I’m doing fairly well lately. The flu came and finally left. My whole family is recuperating nicely. My Mom & daughter still have a cough, but that’s it. Their lungs are doing their best to repair themselves.

I weighed myself two days ago and was stunned…in a bad way. I don’t know how it happened, but somewhere along the way, I gained ten pounds! Needless to say, I almost had a nervous breakdown when I saw that and have been on the straight and narrow ever since. I’m just baffled as to how it happened. I hardly ever even eat…and when I do, it’s not generally fatty/high calorie foods. I swear - I could walk past a cupcake and gain two pounds. It’s so not fair. I think what happened was that I wasn’t getting the exercise my body was used to while I was sick, so everything I ate just sat on my gut and thighs. I’ll lose it and everything will be okay, but ’til then, I’m completely disgusted with myself.

In other news; I have an appointment with a new doctor in the morning. It’s concerning my neck/back injury. I had found a really good doctor in St. Helens, Oregon…but then something happened with my insurance, so I had to stop seeing him. I’m not happy about it at all, but there’s not much I can do at this time. I figure I’ll go to this new doctor tomorrow to see if she’s any good…and if so, maybe I can transfer my care to here in Vancouver. It’d be nice to not have to drive over and hour just to see the doctor. I definitely need one, though. I’m in a massive amount of pain lately. I’m okay…same ol’ junk. I flared it up, though, by lifting something I shouldn’t have lifted. Since then, it’s not been the same. That’ll teach me! (maybe)

I’m going to be baking cookies today. I feel like a horrible person. I signed up for a cookie exchange in December and my friend, James, sent me some totally awesome cookies. I was supposed to have sent him his cookies a long time ago, but failed to do so. So that’s why I’m baking cookies. I feel like I should bake 3294873 cookies just to make up for being so late. I seriously feel so crappy about it. I hope he can forgive me.

I need to get back to mailing cards and letters to my friends. I haven’t been doing that, either. This whole being sick thing brought everything to a screeching halt. I also think I’ve got some depression issues going on. I’m not interested in doing the things I used to love to do. I don’t even feel like making cupcakes! You know that something’s up when I say, “Meh” to making cupcakes. I’m on anti-depressants. Maybe I need to have my dosage increased. It’s been a couple years with no increase. I’d assume they lose their effectiveness over time. I’ll bring it up to the doctor tomorrow and see what she thinks. Something’s gotta give, though. It’s not cool to feel this way all the time.

Wow…I feel like such a whiner. All I’m doing is griping about stuff. I think I’ll go ahead and call it quits for now. I don’t want to come off as emo or something disgusting like that. Have a lovely day!

• I just got home from the mall. My son asked me to give him a ride, so I agreed. I have no problems giving him rides to places he wants to go - especially when it’s raining outside. He asked me if I wanted to go in with him and look around, and I said I didn’t. I could tell he was disappointed, which shocked me, so I changed my mind and told him I’d go in with him. He’d gotten some Christmas/birthday money from a couple of his grandparents, so he was dying to spend it. He got a Zelda wallet, a keychain, and a tobacco roller.

• My feet are cold. I wonder where my slippers are.

• I couldn’t find ‘em and didn’t feel like going downstairs, so I just asked Sunny if I could borrow hers. She said, “Sure!”

• My slippers are way more cozy than Sunny’s. Now I feel guilty for her lack of coziness. But hey - I let her choose out of the entire section and these are the ones she went with.. So nevermind. No more guilt. Besides, hers cost twice what mine did!

• I’m doing the Master Cleanse Diet. This time, for 5-6 days. So far, it’s going very well. I’ve had 6 what I like to call “Lemon Cocktails” so far, and four bottles of water. When I say “bottles”, I’m referring to that enormous bottle from my last blog entry. So yeah - I’ve taken in lots of fluids today. I LOVE the flavor of the Lemon Cocktails, so this is working well. If I start to feel hungry, I go drink one. Then I come back upstairs and chuck a bunch of water. No more hunger. The hunger will be there for the first 2-3 days, but then it’ll be simple. I should know, I’ve starved myself plenty of times in my life. This is the first time I’m doing it in a healthy way. It feels good to know that. My kids and Lonnie need me, after all.

• I’ve been getting at least one Christmas card per day! Today I got one from Casey!!! I was so excited. The card was so cool, too. It was black with silver on it…totally hip and stylish. She said on Twitter that she got mine today, too! I hope she liked it. Mine was more cute than stylish…hehe. Matthew said that his family got mine today, too!!! I am loving this! I’m going to continue to write to so many people after the holidays are over. They’ll probably be sorry they ever gave me their address.

• I need to call my Dad tomorrow. I didn’t talk to him at all last week! That’s a first time in a very long time that a week’s gone by without talking to him. I HATE it when that happens.

• I don’t think I’m going to take my multi vitamin while doing this Master Cleanse thing. I don’t want to do something wrong. I’m following the instructions to the letter.

• I dropped into Bath & Body Works while we were at the mall. I sprayed a sample of one of their holiday perfumes on myself. It’s called Warm Vanilla Sugar®, and I LOVE it! I sprayed a spritz on my wrist, took a whiff and went, “Ahhhhhh”…so then I sprayed my neck, too. Mmmm…I can still smell it. I love it! They had matching hand lotion, so I used that as well. It’s only $26.50 for 2.5 Fluid Ounces…that’s a very reasonable price. I wish I had it. I’d go buy it up STAT! I adore smelling good. It’s so important to me. I hate to smell overly perfumey, but I love to have a hint of, “Mmmm…she smells so good!”

• I have no idea what to make the family for dinner tonight. I don’t want to make something I really, really like since I can’t eat it, but I want them to have something they enjoy. Hmm…I’ll think of something.

• Lonnie’s sicker than a dog today. He’s been all Hell bent on getting super healthy lately. Well, he went a bit too far this time and over dosed on vitamins. Now he’s paying for it. He feels horrible. Headache, body aches, nauseated….the whole niner. Perhaps this will finally teach him to chill out when it comes to his body. You just can’t go taking 320483 different types of vitamins and vitamin juices…etc., and expect to feel wonderful. It doesn’t work that way. I feel really crappy for him, but GOSH!!! It’s his own doing.

• The shorter French tips are working out so much better for typing. I can handle this much better. They look way less cool and sexeh, but better than nothing.

• My right shoulder is KILLING me today. I keep getting a total cramp in it. I need to use the percussion massager on it. I wish Lonnie felt more up to it. That’d be lovely. That’s okay, though. I can do it myself.

• I wish Sarah was online right now. We were going to webcam tonight! I wonder what she’s doing. Probably the usual - being the best wife and mother known to man.

• Today is the anniversary of my ex’s death. I can’t believe how well I’m doing. I must be learning to get over it. I haven’t even cried once today! That was another reason I started The Master Cleanse Diet today. Symbolism. I’m cleansing myself inside and out! It’s just one more way for me to rid myself of him & his horrible memory.

• I suppose I’ll call it quits for now. Have a wonderful day/night, everyone!!!

• I got all my Christmas cards sent out tonight! I couldn’t have done it without the help of my beautiful daughter, though. She’s the one who actually ran them to the box while I video taped her doing so. We’re a tag-team of jolliness!

• Lonnie’s in some serious dental pain again. It makes me so sad. I wish there was something I could do. The last time, he had four teeth pulled on the right side of this mouth. This time he has a molar on the bottom left that’s really bothering him. He’ll either have to get a root canal or have it pulled. Either way…ouch.

• So, I found out earlier today that Pownce will be shutting down. I cannot even begin to explain how angry this makes me, so I won’t even try. All I will say is that they are money hungry sell-outs who should be ashamed of themselves.

• I’ve decided to do Christmas Cupcakes this year instead of Gingerbread Men like I did last year. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with them yet. I’m either considering a standard frosting with standard decorations on them, or I might use Fondant and do something super adorable with them. The latter method will take much more time, so I just don’t know. I have a HUGE list of people to make a cupcake for. I’ll just have to weigh the pros and cons.

• We just ran out of coffee creamer. Now I’m steamed.

• I got some women’s daily vitamins earlier tonight. Lonnie sent me to Walgreen’s to grab some for him, so I figured, “What the heck?!” and grabbed a bottle for me, too. They were on sale, so they were super cheap…err…inexpensive. They’re Walgreen’s brand, but hey - same thing as the other junk they charge out the buttocks for, right? I’ll let you know if I notice a change in energy.

• I hate it when I’m sitting on the toilet peeing and I reach over to grab some toilet paper and I suddenly notice that there’s hardly any left. So then I have an angel on one shoulder and Satan on the other. The angel is saying, “Just use the last of it and replace the roll. It’s the right thing to do.” But Satan, he’s a big jerk who’s saying, “Leave two squares on the roll so the next sucker who uses the toilet has to replace the roll!” Well, it must say something about my character that I’ve never listened to Satan. I always change the stinkin’ roll…begrudgingly, of course.

• I’m sick and tired of people thinking that my son and I are either boyfriend/girlfriend or brother/sister. I know I should take it as a compliment…blah, blah, blah. I don’t, though. I hate having to explain my relationship with strangers. What the heck business is it of theirs? Next time I’ll just say, “My boyfriend? Is that what they call pimps nowadays?”

• No, I’d never really do that. GOSH!

• Speaking of “Napoleon Dynamite”, he was on TV again last night. My son was watching it. He used to loathe the movie. Now he loves it. How does one go from hating something to loving it? My theory is that he’s heard me doing Napoleon impressions and making reference to the movie SO much that he had no choice but to watch it a couple times just to see what the heck I was on about…which resulted in his enjoyment of the movie! Mission accomplished!

• I got an email from someone asking if I would be willing to link to their site if they would link to mine. After looking at their site in detail, my thought was something like, “Mmmm…..I think I’ll pass.” It’s a gaming site. Not like the cool kind of gamers….like the Pogo type of gaming. Flash games. First of all, I rarely play those things myself, and even if I did, how the Hell is having a link to my site on a site like that going to benefit me? HE is clearly the one who would benefit from it…not me. So nah - I’ll pass. I didn’t even bother to email the guy back. Rude, perhaps. But I figured that if I emailed him, he’d email me back again with reasons why it really would work…etc. Meh…nope. Not biting.

• I ripped my French tips off again today after being on my computer for ten minutes. I don’t get it. I used to be able to go literally months with those things on and type like nobody’s business. Now when I have ‘em on, they drive me freakin’ nuts. I just can’t take it. They last two days and then BAM! I snap and rip ‘em off…which, I might add, hurts like the dickens.

• Where did the term, “Like the dickens” come from, anyway? I’m assuming it’s an English thing. Silly blokes.

• I need a coffee refill (imagine that), so I shall return briefly…

• I’m back. Don’t get too excited. You might fall backwards off your chair and break something vital…like your CPU.

• I don’t like Beck one bit.

• It’s 3:50AM right now. I swore I was going to try to get on a regular schedule today. Darn it. I blew it again.

• Maybe I should go lay down in bed and attempt to sleep. I mean, an attempt is better than nothing, right? I have to be up in a few hours to wake my daughter up for school and whatnot, though, so it just seems kinda stupid. As soon as I fall asleep, it’s time to wake up. Duh. What’s the point in that?

• Our house is 3/4 decorated for Christmas. We have so much stuff, we have to decorate in shifts. Tomorrow should be the last day and then we’ll be done. It’ll look so jolly in here that Santa, himself, would be like, “Wow. These people need to learn moderation!”

• I’m feeling so sorry for Lonnie and his pain that I’m going to get off of here and go offer him a massage or something to take his mind off his tooth pain. The poor guy. It’s like just as soon as one thing is taken care of, something else pops up. I feel so helpless. All I can do is be supportive and sympathetic. At least I’m good at those things.

• Have a wonderful day, everyone! Remember to be nice. Santa sees everything you do.

• I just finished mowing the lawn. I mowed the front yard, the back yard, my neighbor’s front yard, and my neighbor’s side yard. When my OCD kicks in, you’d better look out. I’ll mow right over ya’!  

• I’m going to be seeing another new doctor tomorrow. I’m hoping this one will be good. The last one I went to was alright, but clearly seemed overwhelmed by the amount of issues I’ve got going on. I need someone who is strong and able to take the issues on and beat them into submission!

• I cannot get that freakin’ “Chocolate Rain” song out of my head. It’s not the original, thank God. It’s the Chad Vader version. I loves me some Chad Vader. His videos are SO funny.

• My Mom already lost her job. :sigh: The people sent her home today…telling her it wasn’t a “good fit”…whatever the heck that means. Here she goes again, though. The job hunt continues.  

• Do I even need to bother saying that I have nothing planned for dinner? It’s a given at this point, isn’t it? I never plan this stuff out.

• I’m wearing a pair of Lonnie’s boxer shorts (blue) with a v-neck undershirt of his. I look so feminine and dainty right now.       I was hot, so I grabbed whatever was close to put on!

• I surprised Lonnie with a bagel a little while ago. I toasted it and put cream cheese on half and butter & strawberry jam on the other half. I thought it’d be a nice gesture. Well, when I brought it to him, I got a, “Oh, thanks”…and that was about it. I said, “Hmm…I thought it was pretty nice of me to do that for you.” He said that it was and that he appreciated it. Once again - actions speaking louder than words.

• Smoked Almonds are the shiznit.

• My son’s Math teacher called a little while ago. He has a big, fat F in Math. Wonderful. Here we go again.

• I still have yet to hook my webcam up.

• I’ve got a hilarious Photoshop idea going on in my head. I need to pump that sucker out soon…Casey knows what it is. I’m sure she’s anxious to see it, too!    

• I gotta turn some music on before this whole Chocolate Rain thing drills a hole right through my frontal lobe.

• Okay, Danzig it is.

• We watched a movie last night. I can’t even remember which one it was. That pretty much says how much I enjoyed it, huh?

• Meh…Danzig is not hitting the spot. Time to look for something else…

• Skinless it is.

• Lonnie probably wants to smack me for paying some real music. I can’t help it. A person can only listen to that other jive for so long ’til they just NEED a fix of the stuff that makes ‘em truly happy.

• It pisses me off that I can’t bake my kid treates to bring to school on her birthday. They have to be prepackaged bullshit treats. Not cool. As if I’m going to poison my child’s classmates? I mean, come on! Isn’t that taking it a bit far? I want to make the most adorable cupcakes ever, but they won’t let me.    

• I am completely addicted to Plackers. I use those things at least twice per day. They make flossing SO much easier! I have ‘em in my purse, in my car, in my bathroom…everywhere I might end up needing them! They’re really thrifty, too! Totally worth each cent.

• GAH! I’m not enjoying this music, either! I’m so indecisive today. Gotta go look for something better….

• Okay, now I’m going with Devildriver. Most certainly not my favorite band on the planet, but darn it. I just cannot make up my mind!

• There’s a basket of clean clothes sitting on my bed waiting to be hung up. That is SO not like me! I can’t believe they’re just sitting there. I’m not even going nuts wanting to hang them up, either. I wonder if that new medication is starting to actually work. I kinda hope not. I mean, if it makes me lazy, who the heck needs that?!

• I feel like baking something. Cupcakes, a pie, maybe even some candy. Not sure. Just something. I’ll have to look through my cookbooks and my online sources.

• Alrighty…I guess I’m done babbling about absolutely nothing. Thanks for hanging in there with me. If not for you, my readers, I’d have a sucky life! You guys keep me going…especially those of you who comment. I love you guys!

I woke up early this morning so that I could make a treat for my family…Coffee Cake!  I decided to take pictures along the way so I could share them with my readers.

Soooo…let’s get started, shall we?    

First, I had to set the oven for 350° …

 

While the oven warmed up,

I sprayed pan with cooking spray …

 

Once I got all the dry ingredients together,  

I had to whisk ‘em in with an egg and some water…

 

Now that it was all mixed up properly,

I spread half of the mixture into the bottom of the baking dish…

 

 

Once there was a fairly level layer of batter

in the bottom of the baking dish,

I grabbed a measuring cup and filled it

with a mixture of cinnamon, sugar,

and other such numminess….

 

At this point, I sprinkled a lovely layer

of said mixture over the entire pan of batter.

 

Now that I’d done that,

I had to create different little globs of batter

on top of the cinnamon and sugar concoction…

Once the globs of dough had been made,

it was time to sprinkle more of the

cinnamon and sugar stuff over the top…

 

As you’ve probably picked up on by now,
there’s pretty much a layering effect going on here.    

Anyway….here’s what it looked like after I’d loaded up the glob layer with the cinnamon/sugar tastiness…

At this point, I grabbed a butter knife and swirled it around a bit…mixing the dough up a bit.           

 

I really got that knife in there and mixed it around a bit….

I was going for pretty much a marble looking effect…

 

So, now that all the layering is done,

it’s time to slide the Coffee Cake into the ol’ oven!

 

 

 

Can’t forget to set the timer!

 

And now that it’s in the oven,  

it’s time to make myself a big ol’ tumbler of coffee!

 

 

Can’t forget the Hazelnut creamer.

It makes the world go ’round! 

 

After a while had gone by and I’d already ingested a tumbler of coffee,

I figured I’d better check on the Coffee Cake

to see how well it was coming along…

 

Not only was it looking totally flippin’ killer,

but it was smelling soooo good, too! 

 

I was chillaxing and doing my best to be patient

when I finally heard the timer go off!          

 

 

YAY! Time to take the tasty treat out of the oven!!!

 

 

Ooooh boy! I can’t begin to tell you

how good that thing smelled!        

Here it is cooling on a rack!

 

Lastly, here is a picture of the sacred

Coffee Cake with a piece cut out of it…

 

I can’t express how good this thing was!  

My daughter and I sat on our stools next to the counter

and slowly ate our hunks of cake.        

 

 

 

Today is my 35th birthday!  It’s a little after 2:00 AM right now…I couldn’t resist getting on here and writing my birthday post. I’m such a spoiled brat like that!Getting older is the best! I love it. I mean, yeah…I hate the greys and the constant worry about my skin, but other than that, I’m SO happy to get betting older!  I wasn’t even close to being this well-rounded when I was 25…or even 30.  Life just gets better and better with each year.  I’m so happy that I’ve made it another year! It certainly beats the alternative - death.

There are people like my Mom who detest their birthday because it’s a reminder of their age. I will NEVER understand that way of thinking. Getting older is such a kick in the pants. Honestly. Not only do we get more wise with age, but we become more secure in our own skin.  I realize that’s a pretty general statement and there are exceptions to every rule, but yeah…it’s so true for me.

As for my friends…I cannot begin to tell you how much all of the birthday wishes mean to me. Matthew, Aadil, Angeliki, Henry, Casey, Amir…and a few others have ALREADY taken the time to drop by and wish me a happy day.  Isn’t that just so awesome?!  Knowing there are wonderful people like that out there who genuinely care about me makes me so happy!  I don’t know what I did to deserve to have such terrific people in my life, and I’m not about to go trying to figure it out!  I’m just going to be thankful and feel truly blessed to have the people in my life who are there everyday to lift my spirits, ask how I’m doing, and take genuine interest in my goings on!

I guess I’ve babbled enough. I just cannot thank everyone enough!  Not to mention the fact that I’m SO stoked that today is my 35th birthday!!!  THIRTY FIVE! Wow…on one hand it sounds so old…on the other hand, I’ve still got so much life ahead of me. I cannot wait to live that life, either. Especially with friends like you by my side to keep me going, lift me up when I’m down, and be there for me every inch of the way. I truly love each and every one of my good friends.  Thank you for making my life more fun to live!