Slacker Men

Ok…so I’ve been thinking about this a lot. When did chivalry actually die? And why are there just a WHOLE lot of slacker guys out there now?

I was discussing this with Merle and KW the other night. Although I know of a few that are still “gentleman,” there aren’t that many. You know, a few years ago I was standing in the grocery store when a guy came up and cussed in front of me (before I started using a few four-letter words myself). Well, a friend stepped up and said something to the effect of “Watch your mouth, we have a lady present.” How sweet is that? Opening doors, pulling out your chair, etc…what happened to all that??? I’m beginning to think that there are a lot of slacker men out there.

KW recently came up with a very good idea of 5 must-haves in a guy. Here they are (to the best of my knowledge): 1) He must not be married. 2) He must have a job. 3) He must have his own place. 4) He must have a vehicle. 5) He must not be addicted to any substance (alcohol or otherwise). You know what the sad part is??? MOST guys don’t qualify. What is with this? O.M.G. Really??

What is with the guys who a) don’t take responsibility for their actions, b) don’t mind that they have NO ambition to get ahead in life, and c) are content with walking around in a drunken fog all the time? And I swear, if I EVER get hit on by a convicted felon, a man mooching off of the government by being on disability when he COULD work, a fifty + year-old man, or a foreigner that can’t say anything in English besides “can I have your number?”…I’m going to scream.

Slacker men, I tell you, slacker men (she says while shaking her head and rolling her eyes).

Thankful

You know,…this week has been a tough one. Stressful beyond belief. In fact, I said to my Hannie earlier in the week “I just don’t think I’m strong enough to deal with all of this.” Well, God gave me the strength and I pulled through. I would like to say thank you to all that prayed for me and my family this week. We are far from out of the woods, so your continued prayers are much appreciated.

I’ve thought on this and thought on this. Sometimes we can only try to make the best of bad situations and learn from them. After having my stomach just fall to the floor on Sunday night, I’ve thought about how much I take for granted. Maybe this is God giving me an opportunity to start seeing and being thankful for everything I’m given each day.

So here is what I’m thankful for this week: I am thankful to have the parents that I have and my sister; I’m thankful that I see them each day; I’m thankful that I got to go out with some of my “besties” this week (which got my mind off things for a little while); I’m thankful that KW and I had a wonderful trip last weekend; I’m thankful that I got to see a lot of the older people that I have come to dearly love up there; I’m thankful for the nice people we met on Tuesday; and I am very thankful for all the prayers that were sent up for us this week; and finally I’m thankful for my friends that were there to support and comfort me this week. **I will add here that I absolutely HATE crying in front of people. So I have to say that I am very grateful that a certain guy friend that came to my rescue and made me feel all better on a day when I was ready to crawl in a hole. He knew just what to say when I needed it the most. :)

So, in summation, I am very thankful. People keep saying “take it one day at a time.” Well, that’s great and all (completely ludicrous for a worrier like myself), but I think I’d rather take time each day to make a list of things I’m thankful for. Maybe that’ll keep me centered…and keep me from pulling my hair out…and from the straightjacket. Hehe.

One final thing…I am LOVING this weather. I realize it’s Florida…and bound to change in a day or two. But it’s SO nice! Hot chocolate, warm pajama bottoms,....ooooh....loving it.

A small request

I'm writing this to ask a small request. I ask that whoever reads this will pray for me and my family.

I got home from vacation last night, only to have my world shaken up a bit. Anyone that knows me or has read any of my blogs will know that I don't handle stress well...at ALL. So, please, just say a simple little prayer for us.
Thanks,
Aleta

The Scary Pea and Caramel Popcorn

I was told this morning that I was “one of three peas in a pod…and it’s a very scary pod.” Nice, huh? I laughed and laughed. My Hannie cracks me up.

So, I tried to bake last night. My mom absolutely hates when I’m in “her” kitchen. :) Apparently I’m a messy cook. Not only that, but it never fails. I ALWAYS screw up the recipe. Somehow, I always manage to forget some very important ingredient (should I chalk that up to not fully reading the recipe??).

Last night was no different. I had my mind made up to make some goodies (fall favorites) for some of my favorite people. And OH, how cute they would be in mason jars, with fall fabric at the top with a gold ribbon. Sounds good, right? Well, I looked through some recipes and decided that I was going to make pumpkin cakes, puppy chow, and caramel popcorn.

The first big flop was finding the mason jars that I had bought. I only found 5 of the 12. How this happened, I will never know.

I started the caramel popcorn as soon as I got home yesterday (I will mention here that “Supervising Cynthia Kay” wasn’t home…so maybe I can blame the first bad batch on her). In this batch, I forgot the vanilla flavoring and the baking soda. Oops….Those shouldn’t have been super important ingredients, right?? According to mom (via cell phone) they were… But still, the result was still very yummy.

The second batch, had the prettiest color. We popped that pan in the oven and in just an hour, our pretty popcorn had turned into bitter-tasting burnt popcorn balls. This batch was thrown in the trash.

The third batch, I realized (after I had put it in the oven) that I had forgotten to half the vanilla in it (I was making ½ a batch, rather than the full amount…so it’d be easier to manage). So it TOO came out bitter tasting.

After all my sampling, and cooking, I am quite sure that if I ever see, smell, taste, cook, etc. caramel popcorn again it will be entirely too soon.

Meanwhile, the puppy chow was super simple to make. And for me, not nearly as messy as I had thought it would be. The problem…it made far less than what I had thought.

Even though I had some problems (a lot of problems actually), I did end up bagging up a little bit of the popcorn (from the first batch, I might add, that had been made with a few errors and without supervision). And the mason jars turned out SUPER cute.

So, my attitude is now…If my favorite people get a pumpkin cake and/or puppy chow and/or possibly one of the jars of popcorn, they damn well better be happy and feel loved because it will probably be a while before I step back into my mama’s kitchen.