My Life In Photos - January 27 - January 31 - Snowy and blurry that is my life

January 27 

Not a great photo but this is the only one I found one the computer. Taken by a co-worker at the company holiday party which we have always done the end of January. It is nice to have something to look forward to after the holidays that is holiday related but doesn't add to the stress of the busy month.

January 28 

A few days of board games with my girl thanks to Pressman Toys. They sent us a few Harry Potter games and we loved them. See our review here.

January 29 

Again, not a great pic but this is it! My life..blurry and fast. The kids and I did some shoveling so that my husband would be able to get the car in the driveway when he got home from work. We were cold and this was fast but any time I can be with my kids...I am a happy girl.

January 30 

Snow, snow and more snow. It is to be expected. Now that the kids are older I don't spend as much time as I use to in the snow but still love looking at it from inside.

January 31 

Oh what a beautiful morning! Oh what a beautiful day. I love driving my son to school every day because of the views.

We Made Ree Drummond's Lava Cake And It Was Delicious

My Goddess and I love baking and we love sweets so when she asked if we could try to make Lava Cake I thought...why not...how hard could it be? Who is my go to Recipe Queen? Why Ree Drummond of course.

I quickly found her recipe online and ordered some ramekin cups and made sure we had the ingredients on hand. Two days later our 6 ramekin cups arrived from Amazon and we made the immediately.

Ree's Recipe

Baking spray, for spraying custard cups

1 stick butter 

2 ounces bittersweet chocolate 

2 ounces semisweet chocolate 

1 1/4 cups powdered sugar 

2 whole eggs 

3 egg yolks 

1 teaspoon vanilla 

1/2 cup all-purpose flour 

Vanilla ice cream, for serving

It was so easy and as good as any restaurant we have ordered it from. Sooooo good. We highly suggest you try your hand at Lava Cake!

Sickies Taking Over

It's been a while since I was online. The flu A & B with a dash of Bronchitis side lined me. It has been a sucky year with car issues and sickness. Hopefully we can get this taken care of at the beginning of the year and the rest will be smooth sailing. There is always something. I pray all of you reading this are happy and healthy.

Ben 10: Out To Launch DVD Now On DVD + Ben 10 Transforming Figure #Ben10 @CartoonNetwork @PlaymatesToys

Join Ben in even more alien adventures with Ben 10: Out To Launch now on DVD. There are 18 galactic episodes from Season 2 of the adventure driven series which aires on the Cartoon Network.

Ben is a 10 year old boy who discovers a magical device that turns him into 10 different aliens that each have their own super, unique super power.  Ben, his cousin Gwen and even Grandpa Max stop the bad guy do whatever they can to help others.

Even with all these abilities Ben still manages to get into some trouble once in a while. After all he is still just a kid.

Check out our Ben 10 Unboxing

Last Minute Gifts For Friends - One Tough Bitch

While I am not a female who uses the word bitch as a term of endearment I know many friends who use it for all their best friends or themselves. I am in love with a company called One Tough Bitch and love why the name was chosen. Founder Shelly Fisher is a Cancer survivor who after hearing she had cancer for a second time she decided to make her mantra into a necklace "one tough bitch". She wore it backwards but it gave her strength. Eventually she spoke about the necklace and many people came forward telling her they needed the necklace because they needed to find their own "tough bitch." Everyone is fighting something and sisterhood is a real thing. I don't know what I would do without my friends and YES...after everything I have been through...I am proud to say I am also One Tough Bitch.

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Remember when you and your friends all wore the same necklace, earrings or bracelet. My besties and I wore earrings that came in three parts. We each wore a part and together it made a complete heart. We were each other's family. We were roommates by necessity and family by choice. These necklaces are perfect for your best friends or that special woman in your life who means everything to you. I don't know where I would be without all the special woman in my life and I wish I could get a necklace for each and every one of them.

I posted these photos on my Instagram and my sister-in-law a woman I look up to wrote "wants". So guess what she is getting for her birthday this month?

Ashes In The Snow by Ruta Sepetys - Book Review

The 411:

Originally released as Between the Shades of Grey now changed for a movie tie in, Ashes in the Snow was beautiful written in all it's horrifying glory. I not only read it, I saw it. The author did an amazing job of creating emotion that was palpable. While fictional characters just knowing this was based on a true time in history made each death even more moving and horrifying. I found myself tearing up many times realizing that 20 million innocent people lost their lives under Stalin.

Lina and her family were forced from their home by Soviet officers. Separated from their father they must do what they can to survive while others all around them are dying. On a packed train living on rationed bread the Lithuanian people dream of home and wonder where they are heading while under the brutality of soldiers who have no qualms about shooting, beating or using people they believe are dirt under their feet.

While the story was gut wrenching at times, the writing was perfect. Each character no matter how small was very developed leaving pieces of themselves with you long after you close the book.

I recommend this book and believe that middle schoolers should be given the book to discuss. It also has a discussion guide in the back.

This book of endurance, hope, love, loss, and strength.

Letter A - Ants In The Pants From Teachers Pay Teachers.Com

This week we worked on Letter A for my preschool class. 2 years olds are funny. 2-3 year olds are by for my favorite age to work with an were probably my favorite age to parent my own. They are old enough to teach, and baby enough to still want you to "mommy" them. Working with 10 to do an art project requires lots of patience. It makes for an interesting day. You need to be hard, soft, mommy, teacher, friend and comic all at the same time. My class loved this project.

The kids did a fabulous job. We added the legs and antenna but them did the rest! I think they look adorable. 

My Life In Photos January 21 - January 26

January 21 - Our home base weather station. My husband had asked for one last Father's Day then said, don't spend the money. I kept it in my Amazon cart and finally ordered it for Christmas. He loves it and it has become the place we all go every morning to see what is going on.

January 22 - I love how Sage is laying in the sun but has her paws over her eyes. So cute!

January 23 - This guy! I love how he was sitting in the chair he used to sit in when he was 2 years old. So damn cute. I seriously need to find a photo of him sitting in this chair.

January 24 -  When your boss knows what your soul is craving! Gifts from my boss make me so happy. She made me a charm bag for protection. Her hug was warm and our hearts met.  What she puts out into the universe is pure and magical.

January 25- This shot of Jinxy makes me so happy! Look at that derpy face.

January 26 - Home from an office party and I realized I never took any photos. Late, hair and make up a mess but it was good to get together outside of work and the food was amazing.

Valentine's Day Gifts From Gourmet Gift Baskets.Com - Unboxing and Taste Testing With Goddess #ad

Valentine's Day always sneaks up on me except for this year. My decorations went up in the classroom and the house 2 weeks ago and I have been adding hearts to the kids doors every day stating something I love about them. They enjoy reading them in the morning and sometimes leave notes back to me on the heart I left them. It is very cute and I already know what I am getting them, I just need to pick it up. Hopefully, something special will come my way from the family but if not Gourmet Gift Baskets.com has already given me the sweetest gift basket perfect for Valentine's Day.

They have so many to choose from ranging in price from $19.99 and up. Some even have shipping included. The Teddy Bear & Chocolate Valentine's Gift Basket that was sent to me did.

The basket includes:

The 411:

Goddess and I love the basket. We thought the bear was adorable with it's little paw prints on the bottom. It was squeezably soft and not too big or too small. We love stuffed animals but as a mom I am always thinking where will we put another stuffie. For an adult it is the perfect bear. Cute enough to cuddle but not big enough to take up too much bed space.

Goddess loved the Belgian Chocolates from Annalie's best. There were 4 of them and they were not only tasty but beautiful to look at.

My favorites were the Chocolate Chip Cookies from Byrd's Famous Cookies. They were the perfect combination of buttery, chocolate chip cookies. Delicious.

We also enjoyed the Wafer Rolls by Dolcetto with rich chocolate cream inside them. Goddess has asked that I put one in her lunch box as a treat this week. I put one in my lunch box this week too!

The Chocolate Hazelnut Truffles were amazing.  There was one for each of us. They were so good with a whole hazelnut in each.

(dang..no photo of those)

We will definitely, be mailing out one of these baskets and a Valentine's Day Cookie Cake to family out of town.  I cannot wait to see what they have for Easter.

Check out my unboxing and our Taste Test here.

Bring Hogwarts Home This Valentine's Day - Video Review

I know Valentine's is all about the chocolate but maybe you are know a Harry Potter fan that would totally freak out over these two new games by from Pressman.

Goddess and I had a great time embracing our inner Gryffindor in the Harry Potter Magical Beast Game and loved the Pop and Race Harry Potter Tri-Wizard Maze Tournament

Wizards and muggles both agree - these games are perfect for game night! 

Goddess and I made two videos and loaded them onto You Tube. Unfortunately, when I went there just now to grab the codes I only found the first one. The other name is there but next to it, it says Deleted Video. I am not a You Tube expert but I know that I saw the loaded message on my iPad. The next day I ended up deleting old videos and photos and since I knew I had used them in my You Tube videos I deleted the snippets of video that made up both You Tube videos. I am never on top of things like that but for some reason since I was deleting, I deleted. UGH! I went to see if I saved them in my Drop Box folder but I didn't. There was so much so to move over and I guess I had already deleted before I moved others over. I just checked my iCloud and there is a message telling me it is full so they are not there. UGH..So angry. The video was so fun.

Oh well here it goes. 

My daughter and I loved both games. The Harry Potter Tri-Wizard Maze Tournament was a lot of fun. We played it every day this week. It is like all other Pop and Race games. All your plays are on your side of the board. You Pop a die and move the number rolled. The first person to get back to home is the winner. 

The Harry Potter Magical Beasts Game took us a few minutes and a few instructional videos to figure out. I think we were thinking it was harder than it seemed.  You roll a die and move the number of spaces on the die. Your goal is to collect clues by landing on special spaces on the board so that you can get cards and collect magical creatures.  This game takes skill and is not just  roll of the die. Goddess kicked my butt every time.

We played it a few times this week and Goddess hopes to bring it to a friends house this weekend because the mom of the friend is dying to play. I can't wait to play with more people. It was really fun.

My Life In Pictures - January 13 - January 20

January 13 - Snapchat me! It is my new Facebook profile pic. Why put a real one when I can do a filtered shot?

January 14 - My lunchtime. The best 45 minutes of my day!

January 15 - Sage is always on alert. There may or may not be something in the attic. She is always looking up there.

January 16 - The letter of the week was W. I was suddenly head teacher and had to come up with something in a few minutes. What do you think of our watermelon? Done by 2 year olds who all knew what it was.

January 17 - Just when you think all is well in your life, God decides to toss a speed bump to slow you down. I was feeling great. Had lunch with Goddess and some of my friends. Went to the supermarket so that I wouldn't have to do it on the weekend, picked up Handsome and was heading to Goddess' Podiatrist appointment when my truck started smoking. I felt it start hesitating so I hobbled over to the side of the road. Thankfully it was an easy fix but we didn't know that at the time. I had to call the podiatrist to say we would have to reschedule. Call my husband to tell him what was going on. Call for a tow which took 35 minutes to get to an operator just to have the call lost before we could schedule. Called my husband who kept me on speaker trying to get a tow. He was told 5 hour wait. Called my friend Clary to pick up the kids and groceries. Called my mechanic and told him 5 hour wait for a tow. He scheduled one to get over to me as soon as he could. Clary came back for me just as my truck was finally on the truck. Looks like my truck had her period but it is just transmission fluid which was what we thought. Thankfully it was all covered because the mechanic had changed my transmission twice this past summer.

January 18 - No car so I had a friend take care of Handsome's high school drop offs and walked Goddess to the bus. When she got off and I was walking behind her I kept thinking how much she looks like a teenager. Why do they have to grow up? I miss my littles.

January 19 - Jinxy and his stuffed rat!

January 20 - My husband took this photo from our dining room window and text it to me. So not technically mine but so happy he thought to share it.

My Life In Pictures - December 30 - January 12, 2018

December 30 - A crucifix found in my grandfather's jewelry box. I believe it is the one that is included in a funeral arrangement. Possibly from one of his parents. My dad has the one that was included with my mom's memorial arrangement.

December 31 - Snapchat photo taken with my husband. This was the second shot because when I saw the first shot I told him that he looked unhappy so he said, "let's take another one." Notice the cheesy smile. Mine was the same in both photos.

January 1 - Our midnight photo!

January 2 - Luna trying to hide among the stuffies. I see you Luna!

January 3 - My Christmas gift was a new Sirius Radio for my truck. I love that I can watch DVD's. I spend a lot of time in the car waiting for kids from various things. 

January 4 - Sage hiding in a decorative box under the tree.

January 5 - Visited one of my day time students who isn't in the daycare anymore. Got to meet her new baby brother and play with Emma. She was one of my favorites in fact, I still have her photo in frame from her mother on my dresser. No photos of my kids on my dresser but Emma is there. This Hello Kitty sticker was put on my arm by Emma. I noticed it on  my arm at the end of the night. I couldn't bring myself to remove it until it was time to shower. I love and miss her. Sometimes you get very attached to your day time kids.

January 6 - What?! No photo? UGH!

January 7 - The size comparison of these two siblings from the same momma but obviously another mister is astonishing. Look how big Mr. Jinx is to Sage.

January 8 - Goddess's art for January has a pet pig.

January 9 - Another day without a photo. UGH...

January 10 - Snapchat allowed me to be a Pink Lady. Loving the colored look. Have always wanted to do it but so afraid to mess with my hair.

January 11 - Took a photo of my Handsome with Snapchat. He looks adorable in blue.

January 12 - This photo is a true representation of when Goddess and I are together.  All we do is laugh. Well laugh when I am not trying to wake her up the morning.