What is your favorite sweet to eat?

I have eaten lots of sweets in my lifetime, but this weekend we made a butterfinger cake. It was to die for! It a refrigerator cake, and melt in your mouth good! 

Here is the recipe:

Butterfinger Cake

1 box Devil's Food cake mix prepared by package instructions
1 12.25 ounce Caramel topping (for ice cream)
1 can (12 oz) Eagle Brand Milk
2 ea Butterfinger candy bars crushed
1 Cool whip topping

Prepare the cake mix according to the instructions on the package, and bake in a 13" x 9" pan. As soon as you remove it from the oven, poke holes all over the top of the cake, piercing deeply with a large fork or a sharp knife. Pour the caramel topping over the cake while it's still hot, distributing it evenly with a spoon. Pour the canned milk over the caramel topping, and spread it over the cake with a spoon. Sprinkle the crushed candy bars over the milk, reserving about 1/3 of a bar for garnish. Let the cake cool completely. Top with Cool Whip, and garnish with the remainder of the candy bar. Refrigerate for at least one hour before serving.

This is indeed the best thing I have had to eat yesterday and today.  YUMMY!!!!

What did you do today?

I tend to forget this as I jump through the hoops of my day.
When I first married many many yrs ago, I knew nothing about handling money, so when hubby got paid, I paid the bills, and if any was left, I spent it. I read an article about a year later and all I remember about it is it told me to remember when I spend money, how many hours did my hubby have to work to pay for this item and was it worth it. I have lived by that ever since.
That article reminds me of what the picture is saying. Is what I do today worth giving away this day of my life for? I will try to always remember that now in my daily routine.
Do something special everyday, even if you have to jump through a hoop to do it. Smile at someone and you never know, it may be the only smile that person gets today.

Jump!

This is my Nablopomo 1st for June. This month's theme is Jump.

All my life, I have been bad about jumping into things and not finishing them. My goal for this month is to finish what I start. I have so many unfinished crafts, it's just ridiculous. I am going to finish my granddaughters quilt tops this month. They are real cute- Sunbonnet Sue.

What about you- do you jump right in without much thinking, or do you finish everything?

Have you made out your Santa wish?

Every year my sons ask what I want for Christmas, and I always tell them the same thing- pictures. Well, they always give me those anyway, so this year when they started asking, I decided to just be honest and tell them what I want. Otherwise they both go out and spend a lot of money on things I like but don't really need.

This year I asked for boxes of canning jars, because I want to completely redo my cabinets with jars.

I asked for a new journal, because I have resorted to writing in notebooks I bought at the first of the school year 3 for 99 cents.

Coasters because mine are worn completely out.

A GC to my fave store- Hobby Lobby.

A girly box of things I love like nail polish, makeup, make my face look younger items, etc... I have always had a passion for girly stuff and makeup, and now I still love it, even though I hardly wear it.

My big 'ask for' is a new sewing machine. WalMart actually has one on Thanksgiving night for half price ($46.) They could go in together for that.

But then I asked for crafty things I need - like toilet paper rolls, old light bulbs, altoid tins, pringles cans, an old spice rack, an old mug holder, and stuff like that I need for craft things I want to make. Freebies pretty much.

They usually spend about $100 each, and to me. that is way too much. I certainly can't do that, but they love their mama, and I love them.

So what do you want for Christmas????


Nablopomo

50 About Me

1. What time did you get up this morning? I got up around 8 , slept in today.
2. How do you like your steak? Well done, but not burnt
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema: Honestly, I don't remember. It's been a while.
4. What is your favorite TV show? Grey's Anatomy
5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? Atlanta, GA
6. What did you have for breakfast? I have not had breakfast yet
7. What is your favorite food? Mexican
8. Foods you dislike? anything slimy like oysters and boiled okra
9. Favorite place to eat? Garduno's in Las Vegas
10. Favorite dressing? Catalina
11. What kind of vehicle do you drive? a crappy 94 Buick Century wagon
12. What are your favorite clothes? shorts and a tshirt
13. Where would you visit if you had the chance? Ireland
14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? usually half empty but I am trying to change that

15. Where would you want to retire? I am retired, but not where I want to be.
16. Favorite time of day? I am at my best in the mornings.

17. Where were you born? Winston Salem, NC

18. What is your favorite sport to watch? baseball
19. What is your favorite fragrance? new one I love is Kim Kardashian (even I was very surprised about that)
20. What is your favorite face cream? ROC
21. Favorite baby/kids products? not applicable

22. People watcher? yes

23. Are you a morning or night person? morning

24. Do you have any pets? Yes, a hairy Chihuahua named Dexter

25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? Going home for a few days before Christmas
26. What did you want to be when you were little? a teacher
27. What is your favorite memory? Having my sons, being with my Mom
28. Are you a cat or dog person? both, but DIL is allergic to cats so we gave them away
29. Are you married? yes

30. Always wear your seat belt? always, its a habit
31. Been in a car accident? yes but no one was hurt
32. Any pet peeves? liars and hypocrites

33. Favorite pizza toppings? vege pizza
34. Favorite flower? Roses
35. Favorite ice cream? Nutty Coconut from Baskin Robbins
36. Favorite fast food restaurant? Taco Bell and McDonalds

37. How many times did you fail your driver's test? none

38. From whom did you get your last email? from Rebi at "My Butterfly Garden"
39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? I no longer max out cc's. Save your money and buy it. CC's are for emergencies and travel.
40. Do anything spontaneous lately? played cards with friends the other night on the spur of the moment
41. Like your job? No job anymore, but I loved my job when I was working.
42. Broccoli? yes, love it
43. What was your favorite vacation? Pleasure Faire Renaissance in CA right after we married. Best vacation ever!

44. Last person you went out to dinner with? Robert
45. What are you listening to right now? silence, Robert just went to work
46. What is your favorite color? green
47. How many tattoos do you have? two, one on left shoulder and big one on right calf
48. coffee drinker? no way
49. how tall are you? 5 foot 4 inches

50. hobbies? photography, travel, reading, cooking and eating, writing

A good day

Hubby and I drove to Little Rock this morning to get my monthly labs. It is a 70 mile drive one way, but we enjoy it. Gives us a chance to chat. It was a gloomy cloudy morning, but that didn't mess with our spirit today. We mostly talked about Christmas and things we are planning for next year. It is now late afternoon and is raining cats and dogs. We (the farmers) need it.

Hubby is off two days in a row this week, Thursday and Friday. We have some "at home" plans for Thursday, like shampooing the living room carpet. On Friday we are going to Stuttgart and maybe to a matinee movie. We need some "US" time. So I am going to make sure we get it.

Hope you have had a wonderful day!

A Clean House?

I woke up this morning with all intentions of starting to clean my house. I want everything cleaned, organized, and purged by the time we go to Alabama in December. We are only going to be gone two days this trip, but I want for once to come home to a very clean house.

Oh well, that didn't happen; not today anyway. I woke up at 3 am and could not go back to sleep, probably because I fell asleep about 8 last night while watching tv. So I was on the computer catching up on everything for a few hours til hubby got up. By 6 I was sleepy again, went back to bed til 8:30. This time I started looking at a new book I had gotten in the mail to review, and it was really good from the start, so that was my day. I read almost all day.

Hubby was supposed to cook steak fajitas for supper. Then we remembered that he had a fireman's meeting tonight ( he is a volunteer fireman). So I am sitting here trying to decide what to eat and thinking of what I need to do tomorrow. lol

 Good intentions are ok, but just doing it is the only way to get the job done. At least that is the only thing that works for me.

Hubby helping put out a fire (storage building for a farmer). No one was hurt, but the building was a loss.

So this is what old is like?

Our town is very small and almost everyone knows everyone else or so I thought. Everyone knows my hubby because he works at the only store in town. Anyway, we have a town meeting once a month and not many people ever come. At the Friday night meeting, we were discussing ways to honor our elderly in town and since we don't have a senior center, see if we could possibly start one. That has really opened up a can of worms in my little world, lol.

After the meeting one girl came up to me and asked if she could help me in any way. I wasn't sure why she was asking me that. So I asked her what kind of help did she mean. Lol, then I almost fainted when she answered me. She said since I was elderly, was there anything she could help me with. WHAT? Me? Elderly? I didn't know if to hit her or just run. But I did the proper thing and just said no thank you.

THEN, when we get to the car, and honestly I was almost in tears by then, my hubby was opening my door for me (yes he does that),  and a man walking to his car stopped and told me I had such a nice son, to be helping me in the car like that. SON?

Ok, by this point I was hurt, and mad. How old do I look to these people? I am 57 but have never thought I looked that old, even though I sure feel it most days. But a double age whammy in one night was about more than I can take. It really has made me focus on how people see me.

How do you think people see you?

Do I really look almost 60 or "elderly"? NO, Wait, don't answer that! lol
 
Maybe at the next meeting we should discuss building an old folks home to put me in. Ugh!

How did you meet your husband? partner?

  As you know, I lived in CA with my brother and his family for a while. I got a job that I loved, and was happy and content and had sworn off men forever, lol. That didn't last long. I went on a few dates with different guys, most of which either scared me or were just gross. I prayed for God to please send me somebody good, that I could spend the rest of my life with. I forgot about the prayer and went on with my life.

  There was a girlfriend at work that was always trying to get me to go to church with her. I always made an excuse not to go, as I was not very into church going for a while. Finally I agreed to go with her. When we got there, we were met by a greeter at the door, who had the biggest smile and prettiest blue eyes I'd ever seen. Wow! He introduced himself as Robert. All during the sermon I felt like a stupid schoolgirl. I kept glancing at him and every time I glanced, he was always looking back at me. I would break out in this big sh*t eating grin, you know the kind.

  After church every Sunday my friend and a bunch of people would go out for lunch. That day we went to a burger place right off Wilshire. He came in and sat by me, we talked all afternoon, long after everyone else left, and he took me home. During the ride home, he told me that he didn't want to scare me off, but that he had prayed for God to send him somebody to love and that would love him back just as much. He thought I might be that person. Talk about freaky! Watch what you pray for. God does answer prayers.

  We have been together ever since that day. He is the best thing that ever happened to me, and still treats me like a queen. I guess my motto is: If you are looking for a good guy, pray about it. It works.

I love this man!!!

Make 3 Wishes!

If you could make 3 wishes right now, what would they be?

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Mine are:

 I want terribly to be healthy again, and I am so afraid that may not happen.

Money! I do not need to be rich. I just want enough to live comfortably and be able to take an occasional trip without having to save up for months to do it. Then:...........

Get one of these so I can go here -

I won a trip to Rome, Italy last year from the Rachel Ray show. Unfortunately, I did not get to take it. I was very sick, and did not yet have my passport. I wasn't even trying to win the trip, but a smaller prize. Bound for me to win the big one! So one day before I pass, I want to go to Rome for a week. Just me and hubby. On the honeymoon we never had.

What are your 3 wishes?

Is your home like everyone elses?

Nablopomo:
When was the first time that you realized that your home was not like other people’s homes?

I grew up in a white house on a hill. We had a huge front porch that went all across the front of the house. I had my own room. I had no idea we were different than other people until I was about twelve or thirteen and started having friends over and going to their houses. My friends were daughters of a doctor, a lawyer, and a few businessmen. I lived with my Mom and Grandparents. My Mom was a waitress at that time, my granddad a barber and grandma was a beautician (hairdresser as she called herself). They were good Christian hardworking people.

Anyway, I noticed very quickly that my friends all had nicer homes and lots more stuff than I had. All of a sudden, I made a new friend and her Mom decided she could not come see me after she saw where we lived. I did not understand until my Mom talked to me about it. I understood, but really didn't. How could people be so mean and shallow? My Mom taught me the word Shallow that day and what it meant. Anyway, the older I got, maybe around 14, friends started to change and I discovered "class" and "cliques". Both are so stupid.

I started being more drawn to people in my social class, what I then considered us to be the in-betweeners. Not rich yet not dirt poor either.

I married my high school sweetheart when I was 17. He had a good job at 3M Company and is retiring with them next year. We were upper middle class for a while. So were most of our friends. But our families were both still the same old folks in their same old houses. I guess it all changes as we grow and change. We lived in a nice brick home and I raised my sons there.

After we divorced 25 years into our marriage, I left and went to my brother's house in CA. So I had no home for a year. After I worked awhile and got established, I moved into my own small apt. (very small). Things then changed because I changed. I was on my own for the first time in my life, and low and behold, I discovered I was happy. I thought I was happy anyway, but I had not been for a long long time.

Then I met my hubby now, moved with his job 5 times, and always had a nice apt until now. After my transplant and him becoming ill, we struggle, as many do today. I now live in a small government apartment in a very small town. Do I feel lower class or feel that my home is different from others? Here is the kicker: I No Longer Care! and I'm still happy!

So judge people for who they are and not what kind of house they live in. It doesn't matter if it's different.

Nablopomo

Nablopomo: Music and Writing

Can you listen to music and write? What song did you hear today?

I do listen to music and write at the same time. I actually listen to music all the time. It makes me feel better and go faster. I guess each generation feels the same about their style of music. I grew up in the hippie generation. My teenage years were in the late 60's and early 70's, and the music of that generation, especially the Beatles, kind of started a new revolution of music for everybody else since.

I was one of those girls that was watching Ed Sullivan with my parents the night the Beatles appeared. Actually, I could not understand why everyone was screaming and crying. But another year passed and I grew a little older and was hooked.
I am lucky to have a great oldies radio station out here in the boonies where I live, and it stays on all day. Then hubby and I sleep to country at night. He can't sleep without it, but I sure could. I am a "must have a fan on" at night girl myself.
I am now listening to "That Peaceful Easy Feeling" by The Eagles.

What kind of music do you listen to?

NABOPLOMO: What would be your last meal?

Nablopomo:

If you knew that whatever you ate next would be your last meal, what would you want it to be?

That is a very easy question to answer. It would be at Garduno's in Las Vegas, NV.

They have the very best Mexican food I have ever eaten. I LOVE Mexican food. Robert and I lived in Las Vegas for three years with his job with Verizon Wireless Training, and we lived just a few blocks from Texas Station and Fiesta casinos. These are off-strip casinos and were side by side. gardunos was in Fiesta along with Panda Express. We ate their at least twice a week. But hands down it would be Gardunos. If you ever go to Vegas, try it. There is now one in Palms Resort casino as well.

The workers also treat you so nicely. One Thanksgiving I was way depressed because I was not with my family for the first time. Hubby and I went to eat and had left our stupid wallet at home. We explained it to the manager and since he had seen us there before, he allowed us to eat and return the next day and pay for our meal and tip our wonderful waiter. (And we did).

I grew up in a small town in Alabama, and the closest I ever got to Mexican food was when Taco Bell came to town after I had my own children. My brother Chuck who lives in CA married Claudia who grew up in Los Angeles but is from Encida, Mexico. Until I met her and even lived with them a while after my divorce from ex hubby, I did not know that Taco Bell and real Mexican food are not one and the same. She cooked great food every day, such as salsas, enchiladas, menudo, Spanish rice, fish tacos, all homemade. I learned to love it and it is still my fave food to this day.

What is your fave food?

 Nablopomo

Naplobomo : What is your favourite part about writing?

  I think I must have a creative soul. I have had a love for writing since I was a child. (Reading also). My mom would draw bunny villages and others things on her notepad and I would write a story about it on mine. Those are cherished memories.

  I have always been a letter writer and I still send out letters monthly to a few friends and family members. None of them write back. They will send me a tweet or a message on Facebook saying they got it. I just love to write. I am a little more technically inclined now. Even though I don't like email letters so much, I do type some of mine now on the pc and add pictures, etc. and print them out and mail them. With my not so great eyesight it is just easier these days to do it on the pc than to write it longhand.

 I wrote poetry, really bad poetry, as a teen and young adult.

I kept a journal for many years, probably age 16 to about 38. The man I was with at that time was very abusive. I had four boxes, yes boxes, of journals in the closet, and one day he was angry and while I was at work he destroyed them. Burnt them in the garbage. I was devastated, literally. In my head that was years of my life, just gone. Anyway until just recently, I did not write in a journal at all. I am just starting to do it again, but it doesn't have the same wonderful feeling it did before. I am 57 now and starting to feel it, lol. (and no I am no longer with him)

Writing is a way of expressing who I am on paper. It makes me remember things that I had otherwise forgotten. My favorite part of writing is to take a photo and write a story about it. I don't do it to get published or for others to read. I do because I love it, and it makes me stronger.

I am making a life change for myself. I figure at this age, it's now or never, and I have many things about myself I do not like. I think writing about it will help me get through it. Writing is the one area of my life that I have complete control over. It gives me freedom in a way nothing else can. Words have power, and my words give me power.

Bottom line, I just love to write!

 Nablopomo

Firsts

Today is Nov 1st.
Today is also the first day of the rest of my life, so to speak.
Today I am starting several new projects today plus changing the way I eat. I am very excited about all of these. I hope I don't get overwhelmed.

Hubby and I have committed ourselves to change the way we eat and to walk at least five times a week. Yes, my name is Sandy and I am a fatty. The doctor says I need to lose 115 pounds. I need to lose a whole person ( my 15 year old granddaughter weighs 114). I cannot believe I let myself get back into this shape, but that is the past and today is a new start.

I need to lose the equivalent of Kelsi. It's hard carrying that much extra around every day.

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We are starting a spending fast today. Anna Newell Jones over at And Then She Saved

was on the Nate Berkus Show about a month ago and I have been following her blog since then. I have an exorbitant amount of medical debt due to my transplant. I want it paid and gone. So much of our money seems to go to medical bills. So I am trying the spending fast. The point is to spend what you only have to spend and pay off debt and save the rest. I am a compulsive spender, so I need lots of luck with this one.

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I am also starting a 365 project. I LOVE taking pictures and this will keep me busier and give me something to look forward to every day. So once a day for 365 days I will post a picture here on the blog. 365project.org

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And last but not least it is the first day of Naplobomo for November.

 All you need to do is promise to blog once a day for each day of the month. I have started this many times and am determined to do it this time! Why don't you join me?  Naplobomo is at BlogHer now.
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My granddaughters Halloween photo. Well 3 out of five aint bad!

An Indian, Cinderella, and Minnie Mouse. Can't get any better than this.

Hope they filled their bags with candy.



Stream of Consciousness Sunday: Halloween

What has happened to Halloween? When I was a child, we dressed up in our parents old clothes, and we were gypsies, or withches, or bums, or princesses, whatever we could put together. And we waited until it was dark to go trick or treating, because it wasn't so magical in the daytime. And there was no religion put into the holiday. It was fun. No going to the ER to have our candy x-rayed. Of course that was in the 60s and the world has changed.

I have five granddaughters and they all trick or treat except the oldest who goes to a party this year and the youngest because Mom says no. They all have storebought costumes that costs over $200 for all the costumes and accessories that go with them. I could pay two bills with $200 and have some left over. And they go in the daytime, and try to be home before dark. Who knows what spooky things could happen in this day and time. And of course on the way home they have to stop and get the candy x-rayed.
All of my family go to church (different religions), and one son and his wife do not believe in Halloween. They also do not intend on telling their child about Santa because that would be lying. My goodness, let the poor girl have some fun. She is two!

Anyway, other than monetarily, Christmas and Easter, etc... have not changed so much. It is a sad world we live in when we have to be afraid of bad adults doing bad things to our kids on the one night of the year they should be having fun. Halloween should be about nothing but playing dress-up, going to get candy, and eating til your sick when you get home, lol.
Times, they are a changin'.

This is my first Stream of Consciousness Sunday entry. Check out the website and do it too please.
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I am doing Nablopomo in November. It is not a good time for me to start as Nov is the only month when they don't have a theme. I have to idea what to write, but I will think of something.
If you would like to join me, and I hope you do; here is the link to the form. It is free and all you must do is commit to blogging once a day every day during November.

Haunted - 1

The theme this month on NaBloPoMo is 'Haunted'. Here is my first version of that.

I am haunted everyday, not by ghosts and demons, but by my past. I almost died last year from stage four liver failure and was lucky enough to receive a transplant. It really made me do a lot of thinking. I am haunted by all the things I said to people that I shouldn't have, all the things I did to people that I shouldn't have, and also by all the things I never said and did that I should have done.
Maybe I should be like 'Earl' on tv and make a list of everyone I need to make things right with. I can move on and get past all that, but how do I get past the ones I cannot talk to anymore, like my Mom and Dad, and grandparents. I'll pray about it.