You

You,sometimes I am so overwhelmed by the love,patience and hard work that you put into our relationship that I actually question if I deserve it. You make me strive to want to be a better partner for you on a daily basis. Even when you aren't with me,you make me feel safe when I am haunted of relationships past,a comfort in knowing I will always be loved this much. That in itself is a gift every man should give but can never purchase. I hope I give you that in return,the love you deserve,the 100% and more and the comfort of knowing you will always be loved by me.

I love you.

Living Room Remodel Part 5

Back to square one,except this time with smooth ceilings, just slightly imperfect here and there to maintain it's old house charm ;) Oh and that blotch of paint on the wall "Gizmo" is a keeper. The color swatch we had originally agreed on looked to be a brownish gray neutral but in the can and on the wall it is lavender! I painted samples on every wall in the room and waiting to see what Vern and Del would say. Vern (being the highly evolved and intelligent man he is) took the safe route and the first thing he said was "Do you like it?" and his next comment after I bobbed my head was "It looks purple?" I agreed.  We decided to keep our giggles to ourselves and waited to hear Del's opinion."What do you think of the gray?" we asked. "I like it,in fact,I wish I would've painted my bedroom this color!" It was all we could do not to crack up right in front of him as we maintained eye contact and nonchalantly agreed.LOL! ( I remind you all that this legally blind man is surprisingly picky about the color of the walls and still grumbles about the kitchen color I chose 2 years ago) As the days go by it really has grown on me,I'd lie if I said I'm not slightly worried it's a little dark but I think I will honestly love it in the long run.Paint color is one of the few areas of my life that I like a little drama! Again,I apologize that my blog app only publishes one photo at a time (and it is the only way I know how to get photos off my phone and on to my laptop besides using Facebook and sharing with everyone there.) Next phase is dedusting and wiping down the living room one. more. time. and then I get to start painting...finally painting! I'll keep you posted :)

Living Room Remodel Part 4

The beautiful cove ceilings survived...just a little patching to do.

Living Room Remodel Part 3

The aftermath,all that ceiling...on the floor. Finally.

Living Room Remodel Part 2

Disaster strikes. Who knew that a thick wet coat of paint would make that old popcorn ceiling just starting falling right off?! I returned from a trip to the hardware store with a few more gallons of ceiling paint to see this....my ceiling...hanging from my ceiling,peeling off and dropping to the floor. Whattamess!!!! So we changed gears and Vern set to work scraping all of it off. The part we had painted was the worst,thankful we had taped and covered the floors before we started! The other 3/4 of the room I misted with water and Vern continued to scrape. He is such a saint!

Living Room Remodel

"I don't understand WHY you insist me paint the ceiling,its not THAT bad!" Says Vern as we apply the first coat of fresh paint..ha ha Also seen here...a sample of the paint on the lower wall...I think I like it!

Release

I'm done. With the hurting,the lying,the kiss your ass goodbye on crack plan,mean people,rude people and people with too many opinions. Worship whatever friggin thing you want,vote for your favorite idiot and feel free to be passionate about something that matters to you but for crap's sake be a decent human being and treat others as you hope to be treated. Or,ruin your life,waste it on drugs and alcohol or video games,don't worship anything and hate everyone,I. Don't. Care. It's none of my business and quite frankly I don't have the energy or patients for your shit,misery,hatred. That's your choice,go ahead. But,when it effects the people I love in a negative or harmful way,I care. I care like a speeding freight train full of nuclear waste and manure,with no brakes on a downhill slope, that will wipe out your tiny village of idiots faster than you could hear me screaming down the track. I care. Oh how I wish those who this is intended for could actually read this! But just in case I have that luck,let me say this...no matter how good of friends we are,or how much I love you,I will not tolerate you hurting the other people I love. And I am not afraid to tell you to your face. I HATE crack,meth,oxy,heroin alcohol etc as it has already taken too many people I love away from me and I be dammed if I am going to stand by quietly while it happens again. If I love you,it is because you have shown me your heart is good. I don't care what race,religion or political party you are if your heart is good. If you wish to flush it all away,go do it alone...and when you are ready to pull your head out and get back on your feet guess what? I'll be there. Because why....I care.

My Day ...

Virtual Vacation

I have struggled to end the dangerous part of my love affair with food. It has been a long process with little results but I am seeing improvements none the less. Today I realized another unhealthy relationship I have...Facebook. Part of the problem is the content. There are always a few friends with a happy vibe or a great sense of humor but the rest...it just seems either they don't care or they only want to complain or argue.Scrolling my "Wall" usually leaves me sitting on my fingers to avoid spouting my opinion and/or offending someone. Yet I do it at least 20 times a day?!  I used to check in a few times a day,then I started playing the games and had to check in more often. Now...due to the increase in technology...I check in from my phone all.day.long. and leave the tab open on my laptop in the evening as I check in a few times hourly. But....why? is the question I had to finally ask myself. I imagined the things I may be tempted/motivated to do with out the brain numbing,timesucking social media time I usually waste. I could get started on all my "Someday" projects,enjoy more quality time with my kids in the evenings (another advantage of furbabies is not having a bedtime so they can hang out with you at night),reignite my love for cooking and playing in the kitchen (I know Vern would really appreciate it if I would at least make him a sandwich for lunch) and focus on keeping in contact with the real people in my life and not my 300+ Facebook "friends". And last but not least I will have more time to blog. I am still hoping to have it made into paperback one of these days so in the meantime I have to get better at posting photos ,recipes...well,just more good stuff and more often. For me I look at my blog as a journal of my life that I will (and already have) enjoy looking back on and remembering the many chapters of my life. It's so easy to forget the day to day stuff and I really don't mind sharing it with the world,it saves me from writing/sharing things I wouldn't be proud for my future grandkids to read *smirk*
So I started my "Virtual Vacation" from social media today,a diet of sorts I guess? I admit I still checked in more than I hoped out of boredom,habit or both today but at this very moment there is no facebook tab open. That in itself is progress
 I say we start off with a recipe to get things rolling. Spaghetti Casserole-created by me but surely inspired by something I saw on Pinterest and as usual,it was gone before I got a photo.

Cara's Spaghetti Casserole

I had...some leftover vegetables and salad,a pound of burger, a jar of spaghetti sauce,a bag of coil pasta and Panko. I had to run to the store for Parmesan cheese and a bag of "Italian" blend white cheese.

I browned the burger and in a separate pan, steamed and caramelized the veggies and salad ingredients into a buttery veggie paste (for flavor, like bouillon). I added the veggie paste and the jar of pasta to the meat in a large pan.I gave it a good stir and set the heat to low as I ran off to the store for cheese...

When I returned the sauce looked all bubbly and happy I started the noodles. The coil pasta I used is similar to angel hair so it cooks fast in approx 6-8 minutes. Remove from heat,strain well and pour into 9X13 pan ( I used a Pyrex glass one). Chop noodles into small 1 inch to 1/2 inch pieces and add about a 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese and stir well to mix with noodles. Top noodles with happy spaghetti sauce,spreading evenly. Add a layer of Italian cheese mix,then a layer of Parmesan cheese and top with a light layer of Panko bread crumbs. I cooked it at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes hoping the top would brown without using the broiler but it didn't really happen, sooo (even though the pan says no broiler) I put it under the broiler at 400 degrees for less than 10 minutes until the top was crispy and brown the the layer of Italian cheese started to lightly bubble. Had I just stuck it in the broiler in the first place we could've eaten sooner but it was still good either way. Let sit for 5-10 minutes before serving and should scoop right out in squares much like a lasagna.

Waaahla! A new twist on an old boring favorite and the leftovers were much better than traditional spaghetti!
Ok so that was fun right? I will see what I can come up with for my next blog,maybe even a photo!*gasp*

My First Garage Sale

We had our first yard sale last weekend and well,talking about it in great detail would be boring but perhaps if I keep it brief you may find the humor that I did.
Weeks of preparing, organizing & garage cleaning.
Prices marked & junk sorted
neon green Yard Sale signs made and hung
One crazy morning
One beautiful September day
6 hours in the sun on my front porch selling stuff I'd usually just donate
$130 profit and a sunburn
Leftover stuff turned free pile until it rained
equals one large truck full of stuff to Goodwill
Where the donation line is almost in the street so...
Vern drops me off in the front of Goodwill
Vern returns to the back of the store to wait in line to unload our leftovers.
15 minutes later...
We walk out the front of the store with bags of new junk I bought with my garage sale money.
We arrive home to celebrate the new found space in our garage.
Only then do we realize what lies ahead...
Weeks of preparing, organizing & garage cleaning.

Lesson Learned: Next time just donate it in the first place. You get a tax write off and a coupon for 30% off one item....I'm thinking that's totally worth it ;)

Vern's Girl

Cloud 9

We've been home from the beach 2 days and I find myself still in a mental slumber. Perhaps our weekend was just sooooo good that I am in no hurry to return to full on "reality mode" yet. The weather was warm and you could see bits of Autumn starting to appear. We found (and drug home) a few great pieces of driftwood, an unusual variety of agates and the usually unusual collection of shells and random treasures.For the first time we watched movies on the laptop at night before bed instead of reading. It was cool to be watching a movie and hear the waves crashing outside in the distance.
Camp Sekiu has undergone some major improvements...Lloyd built a larger and much improved "kitchen" near the newly relocated fire pit. It will be nice to have a place to hang out when it rains besides our trailer and a lot more convenient to have a place to prep food. Also he has cleared an area close to camp that we named "The Park". By most standards it is still pretty full of trees and ground cover debris but in comparison to it's surroundings...it looks like a park! So that was a popular spot to take the dogs and let them run leash free and explore. They had so much fun running,smelling and playing,it was really cute!
Leash free,I guess that's how I felt too...one afternoon the guys went mushroom picking and I stayed back at camp with the dogs. Yep,just Me,the dogs and the handgun...I had to laugh a little,sometimes my life feels so redneck. lol I turned on my Itunes,did my hair and makeup and uploaded photos to Facebook. Hardly sounds like camping right?! I needed that "Cara time".

 But there were a few memories I'd like to make sure I remember for a long time....one morning Vern greeted me with coffee and said "Good morning my future bride!" It was so cute and made me smile just a little the rest of the....well I am still smiling so ...but later that morning I was on the beach and something occurred to me. This is exciting. Knowing he is going to ask soon but not sure when and how. Up until the other day I had been a little frustrated with waiting. I suddenly realized that I should stop and enjoy this exciting and giddy feeling because it is rare. This is the last time I will feel this way,waiting for the man of my dreams to ask my hand in marriage *sigh* yep,once in a life time. I had turned the wait into a frustration and almost missed this opportunity to make the most of it!I feel so blessed for the epiphany I had on the beach that morning...

And then as if he didn't have me on Cloud 9 already...My Prince Charming,he's always thinking...One night we were headed back to camp after dinner at our friend's house and he drove right past the turn off. As I smiled at him with a raised eyebrow he drove on with a childish grin telling me only that he had a surprise. A sunset beach walk. There we were,alone on miles of beach,holding hands all showered and fed as the sun set on the Straits between the US and Canada.There are few perfect moments in life and this was one of them. One I hope I remember for a very long time <3 p="p">