Me & my Coffee

I don't know what I'd do without coffee!? Do you feel that same feeling in the morning, that you just don't want to do anything without first sipping that warm, awesome tingly feeling around your nostrils, creamy, sugary caffeine in a cup!? Even if I sleep in & it's noon I've gotta get that stuff brewed & start sipping on it before I can really function. Or want to anyway! I love all kinds but I have to say I don't like pumpkin flavored coffee. I don't know why, I just don't. I love Hazelnut flavored, Caramel, French Roasted & I like the Santa's White Christmas when it's cold outside. I have to have a bunch of different kinds on hand too or I feel like I'm the little old woman who lived in a shoe & my cupboards are bare! I think if you at least have coffee in your cupboards, then you aren't food-less & you will be ok!
I remember trying coffee for the first time when I was at least 7 years old. I was just made a "Big Sister" & things were looking up for me where getting more privileges were concerned. I used to go next door to my mother's friends house with her & they'd have a cup of coffee together & talk. Well, one day they decided to include me & I had my own cup of coffee, creamy as could be. I thought I'd be learning to drive next! It was so warm & delicious & it was mostly cream & sugar but it was the real thing! (not decaf either). It's funny, to this day I still like it more creamy than dark! I know it was percolated because I can remember the sound of it bubbling & gurgling in the kitchen. I also remember the lady would pull out the long, silver, straw-like thing with the hole-poked lid & she'd  toss coffee (grounds) in the garbage. I always wondered why she threw our coffee away!
So, what is your favorite coffee & why? When did you start drinking coffee? I also remember being a young woman living on my own & thinking that freeze-dried coffee was terrific! Little did I know that brewed coffee was sooo much awesom-er! When I got my first Mr. Coffee maker life was so much more alive! I'd go to my best friend's apartment & we'd drink coffee & talk & talk. Here I thought we were just so intelligent & had so much to say, when all that time it was just all the caffeine making us talk for hours on end! Just kidding! I love my best friends. And if you can't talk to them who can you talk to? Well sometimes if I've had too much coffee, I'll talk to just about anyone...the people in line at the grocery store, people getting gas next to you at the gas station, the cats.....

Such a Deal....A Blockbuster Express Deal!

I thought I'd let you in on a couple of freebies, from a blogger friend, Faithful Provisions. She blogs about a lot of great things like coupons to help you save money & time, recipes, freebies, etc. So when I saw these codes for free DVD rentals I thought I'd share! Here's the list:
87PGAR9
62KRVF3
65RMAQ7
56AGSF4
43MMKC5
85JMMF7
23CHAH3
64HLG5P
These all expire on the 23rd, FRIDAY! so hurry & try to use them before they expire! Plus one more & this one expires on 9/25, LAS993.
If it's too late for the 1st eight of the codes at least there's the last one that expires on the 25th. I just found these like 10 minutes ago so I hope they're good!!
Last movie I rented was "RIO" & it was fantastic! I loved it so much that if I come into some money any time soon that I don't have to spend on bills, (YEA RIGHT!) then I'll buy a DVD of my own to share with my little granddaughter because I know she'll love it!! It's so colorful, musical, comical & it just puts you in such a great mood! Ya gotta love birds that are funny!
Go try the codes & let me know. Good or bad I want to know. Plus tell me what movies you chose & what they were like. Thanks!

Soul Surfer

Have you heard or seen this movie? It's a real story of a young Hawaiian girl's faith in God for her life. She grew up in a family with a mom & a dad & 2 brothers & they all surfed, even their parents! The father knew a great deal about surfboards & fiberglass & how to build them & repair them. And he taught his children how to surf & the ways of a good Godly life. She, Bethany MelaniHamilton, started competing at the age of 8 yrs. old. She won both short & long board divisions & there grew a passion in her for competitive surfing! At 13 is when the shark attack took place on the North Shore of Kauai while she was just surfing for fun. It was a 14 ft. Tiger Shark! She had lost at least 60% of her blood & her left arm, but got through this horrific ordeal by her faith in God. She endured several surgeries without infections & the hospital staff & lifeguards knew of her strong water sense & faith in God was how she got through it all.

Through it all she never gave up her goal of becoming a professional surfer! It was only 3 months after the attack that she competed again & won 5th in the Open Women's Division of that contest in 2003. And a year later took 1st in the Explorer Women's Division of the '05 NSSA National Championship.
She came through so much for being so young! She won many awards & a 2nd place finish in a ASP 2009 World Junior Championship. I'm sure she's recognised all over the  world! Bethany's faith in God has always been her backbone; a true source of truth, hope &  strength. I know she's a beautiful Christian woman & will lead others in their search for the truth :) I hope you'll read her total biography & watch her movie "Soul Surfer" either in a theater or on DVD or BluRay. I'd love to read her autobiography in her book that came out in 2004. Who knows, I've seen the movie & it was pretty good. But reading, it's your imagination thats at work & you see things in a different creative measure than watching someone's rendition in a movie.  Check out her website & you'll learn so much about this amazing athlete & lovely Christian woman!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 http://bethanyhamilton.com/about/bio/

Baking my favorite....Banana Bread

I love to bake homemade goods & I love to make breads of all kinds. This time I made my award winning, and I'm not lying, Banana Bread! Since I was in 5th grade I've been making this bread, with my Aunt Johanna who the recipe belongs to. I used to make it every Fall & what a nice aroma that would be! You could smell the wonderful essence of golden ripe bananas half way down the block. My neighbor, Linda, would smell it & it enticed her to come down to my house. At 10 yrs. old my mom & I decided to make this bread & enter it in the Youth Fair at Tamiami Park. It was a surewin to get me into the Youth Fair free for the 12 days that it was in town. (I would be there almost every afternoon with my other bike riding friends, running around eating cotten candy & petting animals from the 4-H'ers that went to my school and checking out all the arts & crafts from kids all over the county). As it went, I got a 1st place ribbon every year for 7 years! I never really deviated from the exact recipe but as I've gotten older I have. Especially since my daughter Tiffany had a digestion problem during her 9th grade year of school. Her doctors thought that she had problems with "gluten" so we cut out all kinds of things from her diet. First to go was the white unbleached flour that I used in her favorite banana bread! I tried brown rice flour once. It was weird but edible! It had a nice, lighter taste. I've added chocolate chips to it a lot since we love chocolate & can't get enough. And I've even tried different kinds of nuts; pecan & of course walnuts. I love them both in it so I can't really say that one or the other was the winner! I have even put in strawberries. That was the best recipe I think, with one cup of white unbleached flour & one cup of the brown rice flour plus the strawberries. It was light but not too light tasting & the strawberries just added a little more sweetness to it but not overbearing! Just right! Since her digestion problems have evened out over the last 2 years I've gone back to the original recipe with regular white unbleached flour. It's dense & thick & very banana-y! I've gotta say that I like the rice flour better myself :) So in this picture is the famous original recipe banana bread with the white flour, chocolate chips & pecans in it. It's tasty!

So does anyone have a favorite food or baked good they want to share? You don't have to share the recipe, just what it is that is a favorite to you!

Halloween Costume Giveaway through Monkey Tales!

If you're like me you have wanted to dress up all of your life in one way or another! Well, one of the blogs that I follow is having a great giveaway, MonkeyTales.com. There are thousands of awesome costumes at "Anytime Costumes.com" such as, fairy tale, typical Halloween style, bug styles, Disney motif, adults, teens baby & toddler & PETS! They also cater to plus size for men & women. See below....

These are just a small sampling of the many costumes for all! Oh here's some for the pets.......

Check out MonkeyTales.com, fill out the Rafflecoptor form (so easy!) & your entered into the giveaway of up to $50 towards one of these fabulous costumes at AnytimeCostumes.com! The contest ends on October the 10th. Good Luck!

Visitors: coming & going

It's been a little while since I've had visitors, well I had those ants, but they haven't been back since I tried sprinkling powder on their trail & on them & I guess that did them in for a little while! I hope that deters them for a long, long time. I guess we'll find out!
I did get a visit though, from my Aunt Marilyn whom I hadn't seen in quite a few years, on Monday. She drove down from Tennessee with her daughter & grandaughter. She was in my life a lot when we all lived in Miami together, back in the day. She moved with my other Aunt Patty & Uncle Ed & my grandmother, about 10 years ago. They were my favorites growing up! Also my cousin JR & his lovely wife Mandy, & their child, (this is my Aunt Patty's & Uncle Ed's child). JR wanted to go to college up in Tennessee so his parents moved with him up there to do so. What commitment, to see their only child through college. Awesome! Anyway, I haven't seen them since. Last summer I almost jumped on a plane & went to visit them all, but my daughter was doing a lot of things over the summer, like babysitting, volleyball practice, so I gave up my trip. She was about 15 & was babysitting some pretty young kids, 1 year & 2 yrs old & I really was dedicated to helping her & she really wanted to earn money to save for a rainy day. I probably should've gone because that fall my grandmother died. I was so distraught. I was very sick so I couldn't go to the funeral & I was devastated. Everyone was shocked that I didn't come, too. But I was super miserable & then I'd have had to stay at a hotel or at my one uncle's rental house, which wasn't rented out at the time & everyone in my family was staying there instead of a hotel. Can you imagine if I had gotten everyone sick with the flu?! Awful memories they would be! But back to my visit. She was just healing from some bad medical problems & felt that she may not be able to come down for another visit, ever, & she was worried about not being so healthy either. She wanted to hug all her friends & relatives (in 2 weeks, crazy!) & ended up sitting in my driveway visiting me for a half an hour. Her daughter, who I have never been close to & isn't that fond of me either, sat in the car the whole time, with her 3 yr old & their dog. It was slightly depressing that they wouldn't even come in to let me care for them for at least an hour. They wanted to get back on the road to Miami so they could see more family & friends. I don't like the fact that my cousin runs my Aunt's life which was pretty clear. But what could I say? At least I was able to hug my aunt a bunch of times like I haven't been able to do in 10 years! Why do we do this kind of thing to ourselves & our loved ones? And then why do we let our children run our lives when we get older & can't say no? These are very pertinent questions I really wanted answers to right then & there, but I digressed & went back to talking about my plants. We hugged one more time & she drove away & I wondered if I'd see her again any time soon. We take for granted the time we spend with our loved ones on an every day basis but then you blink & the next thing you know you're watching your favorite aunt driving away after a 1/2 hour visit in your driveway.

My 1st at home birth!

I bet I had you wondering...wow! I didn't even know you were pregnant! At your age?? Well, I'm not & I'm speaking of the way my 1st child came into this world on September 3, 1985. His name is Sam & it wasn't really my idea but my ex husband's idea to have a home birth. Mainly because he's cheap & knew if I didn't have a home birth that there wouldn't be any more money for his fishing trips much less his fising rods! Anyway, at this time in my life my then husband & I lived together with my "non existent father until I was 16"  in Delray Beach, Florida. They came home from work one day & they layed this idea on me. Well there was an interesting amount of info that they brought me but I wasn't too thrilled about having a baby in the livingroom being that this was my 1st baby. I felt like a baby myself being that I was pregnant & 21 at the time. At least I was married. (Ha! Big deal!)  They told me I was supposed to read all the info & make a decision & go in & talk to the "Midwife" Sara ASAP. I had no idea what a Midwife was but I had no time for this, as I had a full time job at a print shop. Besides, I was only 5 months pregnant & I had plenty of time. I went to work at the print shop & talked to my boss' wife & she said wow! that's a crazy idea but with all the crazy stuff that happens in hospitals maybe it wouldn't be too bad. I really was kinda interested in the info that I read & I realized that the most important thing was that I was calm & being calm & relaxed was the most important thing when giving birth. We ended up going to her office & were included in a birthing class that night. I started getting to know the Midwife & she was a very educated lady when it came to this whole home birth situation. She was a nurse midwife too which meant that she could perform certain duties such as things that could be done at the hospital. For example, give me stitches if I tore while birthing she had been trained in CPR & had delivered more than 100 babies by the time I had met her. She also had to spend many, many hours doing clinical time with other midwives & she had been a nurse for a couple of years by then too. It was turning into a very special endeavor for me & since I hadn't done all that well in high school & then I only went to 2 semesters of college having dropped out when it got tough! My parents weren't all that thrilled with the man I married & at least they were excited now that I was going to have my 1st baby!
More to come...(I'm exhausted!)

iTICKETS.com

If you're into Christian music or lets just call it "music with a meaning", then I recommend this website iTICKETS.com because it's everything Christian. Even if you haven't listened to Christian music or haven't listened in a long time, this has everything...every genre. It shows all the major concerts, EVERYWHERE! It also has the tickets for them. There are conferences, for women, for men, for the whole family. There are also movie ads. Now you don't have to search all over the internet, it's all right on this one website. Plus there's even a free music download (or 2) each week so you can get to know a new artist or just listen to someone or some band you've never heard of. You have to be a member to download the song but it's as easy as most forms you fill out & if you only want it for the one music download, you can cancel your membership any time. Check it out, you might like it & it's very informative :)

Box 'O Dinner

I don't usually make many things or dinner, that come from a box. I am a no-preservatives kinda girl. A lot of the time I just make fresh food, no matter how long it takes & I just like it that I know what's in there! Ok I guess I have relentlessly gone to mac & cheese from a box because my daughter likes to have it that often it's just easier & faster & she'll make it!! But back to the box...It's called "Good Earth" & I thought I'd try it because it seemed like from the looks of the front of the package, there couldn't be that many bad ingredients in it. This one is Mediterranean Chicken. It has 100% whole grain angel hair pasta, they include a creamy sauce packet that had olive oil as an ingredient, a seasonings packet that included tomatoes (& it was on the front of the box for those of us who don't like tomatoes). It has some pretty easy steps to follow & I still managed to do a little faux pas but oh well it still came out pretty good! You just add your own chicken & you can use whichever oil you have on hand to cook the chicken pieces in; I chose vegetable oil since I had just ran out of E.V.O.O. (extra virgin olive oil for those who don't watch Rachel Rae's cooking show! lol) The rest is pretty much "easy as all get out" & the final product was healthy & yummy! So here's one for the boxes! I'll try another one & I recommend it to anyone who can cook. ;)

Caravan Sampler

I come across a lot of freebies & great deals & I'll happily pass them along to you! If you would like some free iTunes playlists music, click on this link: Caravan Sampler There are 14 songs from random artists & it expires on 10/5/11. Initially I got it from another blogger, "Deal Seeking Mom" on Blogger.com. Here's another also from "Deal Seeking Mom" from Spin Magazine: http://www.spin.com/iTunes & it expires on 9/30/11. You can't beat free music like this!

Unwanted Guests...

I don't know what it is but it seems like just when we get them to leave they come back again! They don't stay very long but they are very irritating & they bite! I guess I should say that it's regarding ANTS! And it's not black ants, they're red ants & they show up in my daughter's bed! Yep her bed! We can't figure out why it's only her bed. And sometimes it's her basket of clean clothes that she brings from the laundry room. I thought that it may be from the laundry room but since it's inside & I am usually in there a couple times a day for one reason or another, I haven't seen any in there. And if you have a teenager you know that they don't always put their clean clothes away immediately. Sometimes they just pick through it, searching for something to wear for a couple days! But back to the ants...they're usually found at night when she's going to sleep. She lays on her stomach & puts her arm under her pillow & "crunch", she's bitten! "Yowww! Mommmm!" We have to strip her bed linens & I shake them out & hang them on the line. I know that seems kind of lame but I haven't thought of anything else at the moment because it's usually at the worst time, she's going to bed late as it is & then who wants to deal with it at night when you're exhausted?! Does anyone have an ANT STORY to share?! Please do & meanwhile I'll research these little biters.

Introductions

I've enjoyed reading many people's blogs & now I'm diving into the blogging world myself. I'm a single mom & my family is average sized: 3 children, a dog, 3 cats & a snake. But some of these children have grown up & moved out. Now there's only one at home. My son is the oldest & then 2 daughters, with one of them recently giving me a granddaughter! What joy! My daughter & her boyfriend are very blessed to have a little daughter to shower with love. And my son has a girlfriend who also has a child, a little boy, whose a little cutie as well. My youngest is a senior in high school who also has a boyfriend (for over 2 1/2 yrs.!) & they will be making their mark on the world very soon. No, no more babies! College! So with all of these people in my life, I've got to be able to make my money work for me. With a little ingenuity & a little faith, we can have it all! Well some of it at least!
So I just thank all of the bloggers that have led the way & shown me that it's possible to have the faith of a mustard seed to make it in this world.