A Simpler Era

Today I'm linking up to Changing Lanes for her weekly Blue Plate Special.  As Changing Lanes explains, "The Blue Plate Special is designed for you to share your weekly favorite(s), something you learned this week, or anything still on your mind come Friday (your meat). Then add three photos from your week (get it! meat +3)."  Thanks Changing Lanes for having me!

Well, here it goes.  My meat for the week.  I have been thinking a lot lately about how I wish time would reverse back to a more "simpler" era.  For example:  The 14th century when gypsies were more common or the 1950s or any other time during the past that seems "simple".  Since I obviously wasn't alive during the 50s or the 14th century I really can't say that things were "simpler", but at least it seems life moved at a slower pace.  I always feel like I'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off.  I have to be here and there and here and I get stressed and wore out!  I would love to live the life of a gypsy.  No real belongings, nothing to necessarily worry about...just roam from town to town with my horse and wagon doing odd jobs here and there for food and drink.  (Plus their fashion sense was amazing!  Well, I think so anyway.)  Today I was driving to the nearest Wal-Mart (1 1/2 hours away) to get groceries.  Between here and there is an antique place and outside was a gypsy wagon!!!  I got super excited, especially since I've been considering their way of life!  I had to take a picture!  How amazing would it be to fix one of these up, go to Europe, and just roam the back country?! I now know deep down in my heart that I was meant to be a gypsy. 

Now my three:

 One of the signs that Spring is on the way!!

  

A nice bike ride through the canyon with my mom and one of my sister's.  WINDY but nice!

Chillin' out with one of my "nieces" (on the right) and another friend's baby girl.  Love babies!  (Bad picture cause it was taken by me with my phone.)

"Time, you old gypsy man, will you not stay, put up your caravan just for one day?" ~ Ralph Hodgson

Seriously, Mother Nature? Seriously?!

This morning I woke up to this...

Yes.  Snow.  What the hell?  It is the middle of April.  Did Mother Nature not get the memo?  Hello!  April SHOWERS bring May flowers.  It doesn't say anything about SNOW showers.  I think it can safely be assumed that "showers" means rain...the liquid form of rain...not the frozen, cold form.  Okay, fine.  I've lived in this area for 30 years, so I guess I should be used to this by now, but damn...Mother Nature is being a dirty tease this year and I'm so tired of it!!

Also, I don't know if it is this weather or what, but I am exhausted today!  I can't seem to keep my eyes open and all I want to do is go home, crawl into my nice warm bed, and go to sleep.  But no.  I have to sit here in front of a computer for another two hours!  I hate that I have to sit in front of a computer 9 hours a day, almost five days a week.  It is depressing and fattening.  And today it is causing my eyes to hurt and feel droopy! 

On a somewhat brighter note, I just looked outside and it finally quit snowing.  It had better not start again! If it does I may very well pack up some of my belongings, grab Pacen and move to the Caribbean.  Maybe tonight I should look at one of my diving magazines or one of my Caribbean Travel magazines, or one of the Yachting magazines a friend gave me.  I'll sit in my newly painted room (not quite finished), that is now the color of the shallows of the Caribbean and imagine the ocean breeze blowing through my hair while I sit on a yacht sipping a Tequila Sunrise, checking out the hunky ripped captain that I hired.  *SIGH*  I love dreaming! 

"To shorten winter, borrow some money due in spring." ~ W. J. Vogel

I Spy...In My Neighborhood

Today I'm linking up to Little Miss Momma to participate in a new series she started: "I Spy". This week's theme is "Neighborhood". Before I move on with the project/game let me first say that I absolutely adore Ashley aka Little Miss Momma. She is a sweet gal and I think she would be a real blast to hang out with. I would also like to say that I'm 110% positive that her little guy, Baby W, would instantly have me wrapped around his little finger! :)

I love that Ashley came up with this new series and I hope she continues it. Pacen and I used to play "I Spy" all the time. We'd sit in the park and play "I Spy" instead of playing on the equipment. Sometimes we still play...usually when we're driving somewhere. It's rather hard where we're from cause there isn't a lot to spy along the highway. A lot of prairie. :) There is a lot of "I spy something black." "It's a cow!" "I spy something yellow." "It's the line on the highway!" Haha!

Okay, so moving on. I SPY...

This 1950s circa Chevy (?). It sits in this spot year-round. Sad.

An abandoned house (one of 4 on my block). Sad too.

My flower bed...damaged cause I accidentally ran over it. Sad again. On a brighter note...check out all the tulips coming up!! Yahoo!!

Today I noticed that a lot of the houses in my neighborhood have cool porch columns. I like the brick columns.

Pacen walking to his buddy's house.

Some of my neighbors already have blooming flowers. I wish I did.

Another abandoned house on my block. Victorian style and spooky. Love it!

(Note: I love playing around with the different effects in Picnik, hence all the different photo finishes.) :)


"Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies." ~ Jane Austen

The ABC's of Me!

I saw this and thought it would be fun and a good way for you all to get to know me! :)

{A} Age: 30! Yes, I'm actually excited about this!
{B} Bed size: Full. Yes, it seems rather small, but a majority of the time it is just me in it.

{C} Chore you hate: All chores. Haha! Okay, okay. I absolutely hate dusting! Hate it! My house is always dusty and I only dust 2 or 3 times a year. *hiding my face in shame*

{D} Dogs: None. I used to have a Dachshund named Percy, but we didn't have enough time for him. :(

{E} Essential start to your day: Shower. I don't get to shower every morning (sometimes it's an evening thing) but a nice hot shower in the morning is great for kind of waking me up. I am not a morning person.

{F} Favorite color: Yellow! It's a happy color!

{G} Gold or silver: Silver
{H} Height: 5' 9"

{I} Instruments you play: None. I played the clarinet in grade school and HATED it! I also played the piano when I was younger...too young to appreciate it. I would LOVE to learn the piano and fiddle.

{J} Job title: Office Clerk is my official title, but I feel I surpassed that title years ago as I am in charge of quite a bit. Soon it will change to Bookkeeper.

{K} Kids: One very active 10-year-old boy.

{L} Live: Lusk, WY. Say what? You don't know where Lusk, WY is? You've never heard of it? Nah...I just can't believe that! :)

{M} Mom's name: Terry
{N} Nicknames: Wookie (started in high school cause I hated being called Brookie. It stuck and almost everyone from my home town calls me Wookie...even my dad).

{O} Overnight hospital stays: C-section in 2000 (multiple night stay). Yup, that's it. *knock on wood*

{P} Pet peeve: slow drivers, whiny kids, and people who chew with their mouths open! I have many more, but I'll leave it at those three.

{Q} Quote: "If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it." I don't know who said it, but it has gotten me through a lot so I had it tattooed on my side! :)

{R} Right or left handed: Right all the way (except for certain times during golf).

{S} Siblings: Two sisters. Quinn is 28 and Raine is 25.

{T} Time you wake up: On work days I wake up between 6:15 and 6:30 (usually) and on weekends I sleep in until 9:30 or later. I know, I know...I'm just wasting the day. But my bed is so comfy and I'm so tired!
{U} Underwear: I usually go commando. Yup.

{V} Vegetable you dislike: I love veggies! I think the only one I have found that I don't like is creamed corn (but I love normal corn).

{W} What makes you run late: Me. Me not realizing that it takes longer to get ready than I'm willing to admit. I'm in denial.

{X} X-rays you've had done: leg and back

{Y} Yummy food you make: According to my dad I'm a great cook so it's not often I make something that isn't yummy. I'm not bragging either...I HATE bragging on myself. My cooking skills were passed down from my Grandma who is an amazing cook and I wish all my dishes were as good as hers!

{Z} Zoo, favorite animal: Oh geez! I am a major animal lover! This is hard! I would have to say the Elephant Shrew (unless the zoo has an aquarium...then I would have to say Dolphin or Sea Turtle.)! But, seriously...have you seen the Elephant Shrews?! SO CUTE!!!


"Getting to know someone else involves curiosity about where they have come from, who they are." ~ Penelope Lively

Golfing Cake

Today is my dear friend/co-worker's 40th birthday. I decided I would surprise her with a cake in the morning. Well, it's not necessarily a surprise cause I asked her what kind she wanted, but the final version is a total surprise. A while back a blog I follow, Sisters Stuff, made a post about a golfing cake. Twyla and her husband love to golf so I thought it would be the perfect cake for her.

I think this is maybe my 3rd fondant covered cake...and I feel I didn't do too bad. Still need practice, but I think Twyla will like it! When I got done with the cake I looked outside and this is what I saw! Mother Nature is a dirty tease! It has been pretty nice lately and everyone was sure Spring was finally here, but then this has to happen! Ugh! I guess it is kind of pretty though. A little.


Look how BIG the flakes are! Good grief!



"I wanted to buy a candle holder, but the store didn't have one. So I got a cake." ~ Mitch Hedberg

Random Brooke Fact

I do not like coffee unless a.) my dad makes it, b.) I make it with French Vanilla coffee and an absurd amount of French Vanilla creamer, or c.) it is a delicious flavored Latte.

I honestly didn't start drinking coffee until a couple years ago and I don't know why I started. I've never liked the taste of coffee. At all. I always loved the smell of it brewing, but never the taste. I blame my dad. When I was younger, we'll say 10-years-old, we were camping at my dad's cabin. I was playing in the creek, minding my own business, having a grand ol' time when my dad comes outside and says, "Brooke, come here for a second". So, I wandered over to him and he says, "Try this" and hands me a mug. Well, me thinking my dad wouldn't ever make me taste something I didn't like took a big ol' swig out of the mug. What...the...hell?! It was cold coffee! If I remember correctly I gagged a little and made a face and asked dad what the heck he was doing. He laughed hysterically and said, "It's day old, cold coffee!" Not funny. Not funny at all!

So 18 years goes by without coffee ever touching my lips and then I get a brilliant idea that I need to start drinking coffee. Weird. So I experimented a little. I decided I liked French Vanilla flavored coffee with flavored creamer. A LOT of flavored creamer. Then I decided the creamer had to be French Vanilla too. I'm a genius! Genius, I tell you! (I use so much creamer that people ask me if I want any coffee with my creamer. So what's the point of me drinking coffee anyway?)

Mmmmm, creamer! :)

So, one day the time came to try coffee house coffee. So I tried a Latte. Vanilla Latte to be exact. Two shots. GROSS! So I tried it again later with one shot. Mmmmm, not bad! I later got bold and tried different flavors and discovered that Pumpkin Spice and Maraschino Cherry are my favorites! One day I went even bolder and ordered a Mocha or whatever. Double GROSS! Too strong!! The strongest I can go is a Latte with two shots (I slowly worked my way up).

The boldest I ever got though was letting my dad fix me a cup of coffee. Who in their right mind would let him fix a cup of coffee after what he did 18 years prior?! I would! :) I was pleasantly surprised. Dad did good. He uses instant coffee and adds just the right amount of honey and flavored creamer.

So, now I drink coffee creamer just about every day! (No wonder I gained 7 pounds! Sheesh!)

"Be a coffee-drinking individual - espresso yourself!" ~ Author Unknown (I'd stay unknown too if I came up with such a silly quote!)

Braces, Puberty, TMI?

It seems like just yesterday I was going through the awkward pre-teen years. My boobs were developing...wait a minute...I'm STILL waiting for those girls to fully develop! :) I had acne and braces. My hair always seemed to be greasy even though I'm sure I washed it on an almost daily basis. I had no sense of fashion (and I probably still don't even though I pretend to think I do). Why do people have to go through all that? Those were some of the most embarrassing years of my life...and they stretched a couple years into my early teens. Good grief!

Well, now I have to watch Pacen go through those awkward years. He has just begun and things really aren't too bad...yet. He's had a random zit here and there...nothing major like I had. No big red zits the size of Texas and I HOPE WITH ALL MY BEING that he doesn't have to deal with bad acne. His first major step into the awkward pre-teen years is braces! He got braces on the 14th. Things have changed since I had braces. He only has to wear them for 1 1/2 years. I had to wear mine for three! He gets to choose fancy colors (for his first visit he chose blue glow-in-the-dark for the top and green for the bottom). I had plain ol' silver braces. His Orthodontist is a young pretty woman who makes the experience very fun! My Orthodontist was an old man who wasn't fun at all. The list just goes on and on.

Doesn't he make braces look good?!

I'm curious to see what Pacen's pre-teen and teen years are like. I hope to make them less awkward than they have to be. I won't let him have terrible fashion sense (cause, remember, I am a fashionista! *sarcasm*). I will make sure he washes his hair often so it doesn't look all greasy. I will tackle that acne problem if it surfaces (there have got to be way more medicines and such out there to help with this than when I was younger)! I will buy him a training bra jock strap...support cup...do boys need those?! OH! MY! GOD! I just realized that boys deal with a lot more different things than girls! Forget making the pre-teen/teen years great for Pacen! Who the hell is going to help ME through them?! Who is going to talk to him about "flogging the log"..."polishing the sword"..."yanking the crank"...okay, okay, I think you catch my drift! Do they need a talk about it?! Am I going to accidentally walk in on my son while he's taking care of business?! TOO! MANY! GROSS! THOUGHTS! I don't want my baby boy to grow up! Someone please save me from this insanity!!

LOOK! He is still so innocent and naive (I like to think)! Please don't grow up!!

"Puberty is the sickest joke God plays on us. So you're just noticing members of the sex: 'Girls, girls, ooo'. Naturally you want to look your best, and God says 'No! You will look the worst you've ever looked in your life!'" ~ Eddie Izzard