Trick Or Treat

Happy Halloween

Be Safe

Brownie Pizza

Yesterday the girls and I made mini chocolate chip cookies.

I thought that would be it until Thanksgiving rolls around. No. Not the case. I found this amazing, easy, fun recipe on Better Homes and Gardens. As you know, that's my favorite site. They have so many good recipes that are simple and fun.

Brownie Pizza

Looks Yum-Right-It Is

15-ounce package fudge brownie mix
1-1/2 cups assorted toppings (semisweet chocolate pieces; candy-coated milk chocolate pieces; tiny marshmallows; candy bars, cut up; small gumdrops, halved)
1/2 cup finely chopped nuts

Directions
1. Grease a 12-inch pizza pan. Sprinkle with the finely chopped nuts; set aside. Prepare brownie mix according to package directions.


2. Carefully spread batter into prepared pan. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 15 minutes or until edges are set. Sprinkle partially baked brownie with desired topping. Return to oven. Bake 8 minutes more or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. To serve, cut into wedges. Makes 16 servings.

Enjoy! & Have a Happy, Safe Halloween

Nothing is Everything

It is my pleasure to volunteer at the school every Wed. & Fri. On Wednesdays I help Ms. Ring, Hannah's Kindergarten teacher and on Fridays I help Ms. Kovach, Mackenzie's fifth grade teacher. I file papers, do all of the kids folders, clean as much as I can and attend to the kids if needed. Whatever they need me to do, I do.

On top of that I get to see what my children are doing and observe everything that goes on.

The teachers don't have eyes in the back of their heads so when she's busy with something or someone and kids are goofing off, I look at them and let them know to behave.

Yesterday they had a little festival and she was trying to get all of the kids their drinks and snacks. I helped pour the drinks and pass out plates when she looked at me and said this was killing her back and she needed a break. I told her to sit down, relax and I would do it. She couldn't. No matter how bad she wanted to she had to take care of her class.

I don't think that some people realize how stressful and hard it is to be a teacher taking care of 20-25 kids. I think there are 22 students in her class and without an aide can be crazy. Before I started going in every week, I assumed they had some kind of help. An aide or someone. They don't. We're from a small town in NY and every school there had teachers aides. 

When I stand there and put papers in the folders and put them in their cubbies, I think of it as nothing. I can stand there and do multiple tasks for her and think,

"No Problemo! Simple enough." 

Both teachers always thank me, tell me how much time I've lifted off their hands and remind me to come next week. To her it's everything. They need help. Even if it seems like nothing to us, it's everything and more to them. They deserve more than what they are commended for. They're under paid, running around taking care of our kids, teaching them things we wouldn't teach at home and breaking their backs bending down countless times to unbutton their pants so they don't piss their pants. 

Candy & Desserts Galore

It doesn't look like it's the best time of year for me to start trying to lose weight.

We have been baking a lot lately, the girls brought candy bars and the ultimate gourmet fundraisers home. Not to mention I still have to bake Halloween cookies with them.

Uhhh.

How can you bake and not eat what you've baked. How can you ignore the overflowing candy bars calling your name. This is not good. How can I not support their school. I don't know. But I know I just might have to skip out on this mouth watering turtle cheesecake thats making me drool right now. 

Mackenzie can sell a box of fifty candy bars in one day.

Last year she sold 3 boxes of fifty each within a matter of days. I end up buying around ten. No good. They are the world's finest chocolates though.

 

Please tell me how you deal with this kind of craving.

Is this time of year tough for you.

I mean it's okay to indulge sometimes but I can't control myself.

Help. Keep my mind off these please.

=D

Our New Invisible Friend

Most of you are new to this blog so to picture where we live you can read here.The other night I took the garbage down to the trash chute. As I was walking back I seen an invisible person. You know. The ones that have an image but they're a creamy color. She brisked by me in hopes of getting my attention and sure enough she did. She because she had hair past her shoulders. Heading back down the hall, I told her to come on. She could come play. As I opened our door I held it open telling her to come in. The girls were beyond curious.  

"Mom what are you doing."

"Letting her in to play."

"Who"

"The ghost"

"What ghost"

"She's a little girl looking for someone to play with"

"Nut-uh, stop it"

"No seriously she needs us"

The tears start rolling from Mackenzie's eyes. She's getting really mad at me but I stop and explain to her that it's okay. This little girl wants someone to love her and she won't hurt us. Before, I would have shit my pants scared to see a ghost. But my fear is over. I have a new found love for them and maybe it's just my mind playing tricks on me but I don't think so. I know what I saw, felt and it was real.

The girls chores usually include taking the garbage down the hall. Mackenzie is getting ready to open the door when she remembers that there are ghosts lurking in the hallways. She tells Hannah to come with her. Hannah shouts, "It's okay Mack, there aren't any ghosts." I start cracking up. My five year old isn't scared but my ten year old is frightened so bad she starts crying. Hannah takes the bag down without any fears. They refuse to play with her like she's some evil spirit.

The fire alarm goes off at 1:56 am. Mind you, it's just not any fire alarm. There are five condo buildings in our community and the alarm is so loud you immediately wake. Errr Errr, Errr Errr....it goes on for thirty minutes. The fire department has to come shut these off. I didn't see or feel any fire so I try to go back to bed and finally do until 4:30 am. It goes off again after they came and gone at 2:30. I'm so tired that my eyes are burning and it's rather hot in the house. Thank God no fire but I go to turn the air down and it wasn't kicking on. I turn the light on to see what the problem is and the filter sign is flashing. Whatever. I turn all the ceiling fans on and put my shorts and flip flops on to leave and go see what the alarm is about. I go down three flights of stairs and open the door to the parking garage. The alarm isn't coming from our building it's coming from the one next door. Bryan had changed my spark plug wires last night ( yeah that's what was wrong with her yesterday ) so I wanted to make sure my car didn't blow up. Nope, she's alright. I go back up a flight of stairs and open the door to the pool area. Saw an ugly white chameleon and heard the door upstairs on our floor slam. I thought more people were coming down to see what was going on but no everyone else was sound asleep. I hurry to the third floor and no one was there. Open the door to get back into the house and seen a flock of ghosts swarming the hallway. Yes, I'm tired and my eyes are burning but they were there. I just blow them off. They're harmless to me. So I think. I go lay back down and tell Bryan that the air won't kick on because it needs a new filter. He gets up to check it. I heard it click on and wondered what powers he had over myself. He tells me that I hit the filter button somehow. I must have been so damn tired that I really couldn't see what button I was pushing to get the air on.

Maybe I'm the walking zombie. This is what happens when moms don't get nearly enough sleep. They don't have a clue what they are doing, walk around the house with burning eyes, forget to buy more toilet paper and see dead people.  

Glitzy Pumpkins

Today after school the girls wanted to carve their oh so dainty pumpkins. But Dad is the carver and does not get home soon enough to get to it. Therefore, I come up with this brilliant idea of splashing these guys with some glam. We got out every cosmetic bag in this house and started giving these fellas a make over. How fun and glamorous. They didn't turn out how I imagined but we had a blast. I poured glue all over the little guy and dashed some powder on him to make a ghost. They came out all right.

They are really quite ugly but who cares. The girls enjoyed being silly and I enjoyed making curly hair.

Pink Cadillac Cruisin' Down the Street

How dare I forget to tell you that yesterday upon waiting in the long ass lines to pick the girls up, this pink caddy was a few cars in front of me. Oh, you know I had my camera with me. Uh huh! People must have thought I never saw one before. Well, it's not everyday you pull up to the school and a pink caddy is right there. I must say I was a tad bit jealous. That thing was pretty. Pretty damn cute. All eyes on the caddy and the little miss inside. You know she just wanted to show off. I hope she's reading this. Because then she'll know I was the one paparazziing her ass. She wasn't from here. The license plate said Minnesota. I hope she moved here because I wouldn't drive that all the way down here. Somehow I got right behind her and flashed a pic. She must have thought I was some fruit case.

Endless Clutter

I think all of you moms out there will agree with me on this one. No matter how often I clean the laundry room or any room for that matter, literally a few seconds later it's a complete mess. We moved into a fully furnished condo back in July because we had to get rid of basically everything we owned when we found out we were living in a home with Chinese Drywall. We thought it would better fit our lifestyle and it has thus far. I am the mom who can care less if the other rooms in the house get a little messy but when it comes down to the laundry room-I can't stand it. Our current place has the smallest laundry area I've ever had to deal with. First off, I can't stand small spaces. I get very claustrophobic. Secondly, I hate taking the clothes out of the space to fold them. I need to stay right there at the dryer and fold them as soon as they are finished. The rack in there gets piled up with clothes pretty fast. The little wicker basket can only hold so many clothes and then they overflow onto the floor. Or the kids (specifically Hannah) throw them on the floor no matter how often I repeat to place them into the basket. Just to give you an idea of what I'm dealing with; take a peek. This is the before:

It takes me roughly fifteen to remove the clutter but that's because when it comes to cleaning I'm speedy because I feel like if it takes up too much of my time then that's time wasted and no need to waste time cleaning when I can be shopping or running errands. Much more fun. So this is the After:

Still too small to enter let alone fold some clothing.

I'm still holding onto the hope that soon,very soon we will be able to have space like this.

    

Creepy Spider Coasters

In the spirit of Halloween, the girls and I are getting crafty, coloring printouts from Disney Family Fun and ready to carve the pumpkins. They have Thursday and Friday off this week so I'm super excited to get a long Halloween Weekend with them. We'll be baking, shopping and having a blast. We got the idea of these spider-creepy coasters from Better Homes and Gardens. How fun and easy!

It's no surprise that most of this stuff is around the house because they are constanly needing to bring supplies to school so whenever I see a clearance sale, I get everything!

Things you'll need:

Tracing paper

Pencil


Scissors


Black crafting foam


Pearl white tube-style paint


1/8-inch paper punch


Thin black elastic cord


Black plastic spiders
 
 
Hannah's favorite part was hanging the spiders. Now I just wish I had those funky red polka dotted cups to place on top of them.  

Michael Jackson Medley

One of my good friends shared this on her facebook. I thought it was way too good not to share it with those who haven't viewed it.








Have a good weekend everyone=D

Friday Confession

My Friday Confession starts here. I have been wearing B's undies to bed! Let me elaborate. I own probably two pairs of granny panties to him, underwear to me. The rest of my drawer is filled with thongs. In which I never wear to bed. I can't..for some reason I can take them throughout the day but when I hit the sack they have to come off. I cannot just throw a pair of boxer shorts or pajama pants on without underwear. So when I don't find a pair of my own I dig in his drawer and put on the most comfortable briefs I'd ever worn! I'll walk out of the bedroom to grab a water or check on the girls before I fall asleep and he'll be watching a show and say,"come on, can't you wear something more attractive." Ha! Like I'm going to walk out in lingerie. It's funny because he never acts like he cares what I'm wearing and of course I want to be comfortable. They just happen to be the briefs that he never wears and they were brand new so I might as well get some use out of them. He's the most pickiest person I know. His drawer is full of underwear that he doesn't wear because he has a certain set of eight he likes the best. I've tried to rid of the rest but if I dare get rid of any of his clothing he freaks. He still owns clothes from back when I first started dating him. These are the only ones that would fit me. I roll the top down so, I'm at least making them a little bit cute;)

Proudly Perfect

No matter what accomplishments my children show me, I am more than proud of everything they do. It's the motherly encouragement and endless love that makes our children great role models, awesome friends and leaders. The coloring sheets Hannah creates while at school gets her so excited to show me once she jumps into the car and the entire ride home is about getting a green bear, picking a watch out of the treasure box and all the boys that sit at her table. I have the pleasure of volunteering every week and being able to experience what they are doing throughout the day makes me so happy I cannot even describe. Mackenzie attends Trash to Treasure every Thursday and I was beyond thrilled to see what she had made. She came out walking with a Jack-O-Lantern she made from scraps! I could tell she was happy with her creation and indeed was I. It doesn't matter how great or how little such an accomplishment is, what matters is that your mother is standing there telling you over and over how great it is. How wonderful and proud she is of you. Showering you with endless compliments. This Pumpkin was Perfect in every way. Kids make such cute things and maybe to someone it is ugly or not that great but no matter what any child makes it's important for us as parents, teachers and adults to commend what they have finished. Encourage them to succeed and this by far leads them to become marvelous young men and women.

Fall Fashion

Although I live in Florida I still rock the Fall/Winter Fashions. I walked into the post office last week with a hoodie and sweats and everyone looked at me like I was insane. I'm used to wearing warm clothes in heat. I get tired of wearing shorts, tanks and bikinis all the time. It's no fun if you can't wear the fashions of the upcoming seasons!

You would think that being in SW FL the hoodies would be much cheaper than up North but no. I don't care though. American Eagle and Aeropostale have some nice hoodies. I wore my green one yesterday. I love GREEN;)

I have my days where I just want to lounge in comfy clothes and then I have my days where I dress up.

Gap has some really amazing pieces.

and the kids clothes are just incredible.

Hannah Singing Party In The USA

Hairy Legs

Good thing we have a king size bed. I don't think the hubs is going to want to feel a hairy baboon-skee rubbing up against him tonight. Here in Florida, shaving daily is a must. I rarely go a day without shaving my entire body but the colder weather has me having absolutely no desire to shave the legs let alone the rest of myself. I said ya know what,..I'm letting it go. I threw my sweatpants on after my shower and am feeling snug as a bug! I think we deserve to go a couple days without shaving. After all it takes up most of our precious time. It's day 2 and I'm feeling pretty hairy. Come on,...it's not that bad! I like feeling the stubbles. It's kinda cute. Tomorrow's another day. I might have to break the new razor out.

  

Trash To Treasure 3D

I completely forgot to post Mackenzie's Creations last week from her Trash to Treasure 3D class she takes Thursday afternoons. She made an awesome shelf to hang on the wall and a scrap collage. She is very creative and a true artist. I will post some of her art work very soon.

and that's why it's called Trash To Treasure.

Completely Deprived

After gaining fifty pounds with my first daughter Mackenzie Bryanne, I lost the entire weight within a couple of months. I was always busy, working full time in a pharmacy and doing TaeBo. Yeah-it works. Something completely changed after I got pregnant with Hannah five years later and I gained yet another forty five-fifty pounds. I couldn't lose the weight so easily. I gave birth to her on August fourth 04' and went straight to nursing school on August 24th. Just jump right on in-no time to heal. It was crazy, stressful, tiring and unfocused. Leading to Shingles! Owwww! They pinched the back of my shoulder bad. The doc told me I got them from stress. I was not eating healthy and doing clinicals that made me barf. The smell of Hospitals makes me gag. Let alone changing catheters, bed pans and wiping ass. After December I decided I had enough. My baby was needing me and my body wasn't taking the stress. What a relief to stay home with my baby and take care of my kids. That's what I was meant to do. Obviously I was not meant to be a nurse. I love taking care of people but taking care of my own comes first. I struggled for months thereafter to lose more and more weight. I was still around 150 and that made me sick. 150 at 5'3" felt like a beast. There is something about not caring if your fat it's the feeling it gives you! You feel drained, blubberish, cock-ahhh. We had a Nutrition Store that I brought the girls to everyday. I still tried everything to get down to at least 125. It happened very slowly. The only way I truly think I lost it was by becoming a COFFEE ADDICT. I hated when my Mother would drink coffee. I thought it was gross. It had a bad breath smell and I never predicted myself drinking it daily. It became my addiction. It's my natural laxative and I love it more than water now. I finally got to my goal weight after Hannah was almost two. It took way longer than when I lost it after Mackenzie. It's very true that every pregnancy is different and nothing is the same as the first. I thought Hannah was a boy! Even when they told us she was a girl I couldn't believe it due to the complete difference than what I felt with Mack. 

Beware-Some things your about to read is gahhh.

Something I did in High School I completely regret. I know that I say my life is about no regrets and I don't have any except this one. It eats me everyday. I became bulimic in tenth grade. I was a cheerleader and always had to look pretty. Yeah, Yeah, Yaddy yaddy ya...Although becoming bulimic had absolutely nothing to do with my looks, it had everything to do with CONTROL. I felt like I could not do what my friends were doing. Boo Hoo... I had tough parents. They raised me right but I felt like I needed something to control. I lost my boyfriend of three years, whom I look back on now and say what the eff was I thinking. I would starve all day with the exception of a few pieces of Mamba and a drumstick for lunch. If I ate a piece I immediately went to the bathroom to throw it up. I was always in the ladies room. At home I ate dinner with everyone so they wouldn't think anything, wait an hour and throw up. Gross. I could only do it in the bathtub. Clogged the drains repeatedly. Binged and purged chocolate chip cookies, pulled over on the side of the road after Taco Bell and let the birds eat my shit. Making myself gag was awful. It took my life over and I pay for it everyday. I was placed in a hospital for weeks until my weight got up to 104. No, you never really recover from an eating disorder. It's with you for the rest of your life. I don't care if someone says they have fully recovered, just because I don't puke anymore doesn't mean that I'm over that stage of my life. I've grown and would never stick my fingers down my throat to lose weight again. I've just found other ways to take care of it. Am I anorexic, hell no. I took laxatives for a long time and that fucked my system up. I can't take a normal shit without my coffee. I go back and forth trying to eat healthy morning, noon and night but that gets old and stops working for me. It's hard for someone that has had an eating disorder to just eat normal and maintain a healthy weight. I then start changing my habits and feel completely deprived when I have a coffee in the morning, junk food-yesterday it happened to be cupcakes at 3, and dinner at 6. I know this sounds horrible but I truly start losing more weight when I drink all day more than eat and have no main meals except for dinner. I do this until I feel like I'm at a "feeling good" weight and then the cycle starts over and over again. Back to healthy all day then months go by and I find something else to curb my appetite until I lose more weight. The thing I regret the most is that I was not educated about eating disorders, I think it should be taught in every school as soon as they hit eighth grade. If I had known that it would have messed my body up entirely I would have thought twice about harming myself. The only thing that was going through my mind was "I'll just do it for a little while" I never thought that it would be a life long battle.

Don't get me wrong.

Today, I'm healthy, I take care of my kids and ever since I had them I never threw up my food. I haven't taken laxatives like I used to. On occasion I take one to clean me out but I still struggle with NOT knowing how to eat. You think something as simple as eating shouldn't affect ones well being but it's a battle you face everyday. That's why it's so very important for me to educate my daughters when the time is right and to never ever make them feel like they have to starve to look pretty. It's not worth looking stick thin to have your body not function "right" after an eating disorder. 

So I am completely deprived at this very moment. How long it will last. I do not know. The problem people have when they have overcome an eating disorder is that they don't know how to eat normal. I just want to binge on everything I see and trying to control the urge not to is mind over matter.  

Yes To Carrots

Every Girl's Dream is to find a New way to Pamper Herself. I'm always in search for new products and happened to sample Yes-To-Carrots at Target. My favorite place to be! Yes, it's that great! I find the best deals and am in LOVE with their beauty products. I didn't grab it the day that I sampled but bet your little hiney that I went back over the weekend to grab a bottle. $7.99. It doesn't have a strong perfumey smell. It's just perfect. Makes your hands feel wonderful! It's a soft warm smell! Fan-Tab-U-Lous!!!!

While your all running out to get this (if you haven't already) grab some lip balm as well;) For more info on this GREAT STUFF, click here.

In the meantime, the girls and I did make our cupcakes yesterday. They turned out Delish!

I love and enjoy baking with them. Kids love to help in the kitchen. It's one of my HouseWife moments. I feel on top of the world and I know the kids do too. Enjoy this Fabulous Day Everyone;D

Pumpkin Glory, Begeebees and Glitzy Glamour

Earlier this month a really nice guy gave my girls three small pumpkins. They were so excited and probably thought these were the only ones they were getting. Hannah has a Masquerade Ball we're going to next Friday. She immediately thought she needed to bring a costume to school the very following day after I paid for the tickets last week. On a hunt to get her costume yesterday, we went to numerous shopping plazas and came across multiple signs leading us to a pumpkin patch. It was far from home but well worth the drive. Although I was expecting some hay, decorations, apple cider and spiders like back home in New York, we were still happy to pick our pumpkins out to say the least. Watching them run around in search for the best one was a million times better than buying them at a grocery store.

While waiting for Dad to get out of Dick's we decided to go into the Halloween Costume Shop. Hannah was all for it until she walked in and seen all the scary decor, mummies, crawling dummies, ghosts and haunted houses. I kept telling her to go over so I could get a picture and she latched onto me with her claws dug into my waist like they were going to grab her and eat her up. Other kids were crying hysterically and I thought I'm glad Hannah's not balling her head off. We walked around looking for costumes and finally Dad shows up, puts a mask on and scares the begeebees out of Hannah. Now my kids crying! Take a look. What a pathetic look!

To ease her enormous outburst of fear, he gave her a mask to scare Mackenzie and the fear magically disappeared.

Being the best big sister anyone could ever have, she went along with it to make her feel better. How sweet. She truly is an awesome Big Sis....

These babies were the ugliest things I ever saw.

To say the least we continued to search for costumes everywhere. Some places didn't have the right sizes or they were just too darn expensive. Walmart had one for Mackeznie but none for Hannah. She was finally happy with one we found at Publix. Yeah, go figure. I ended the shopping day at Publix to pick up some din-din and low and behold a cute pink princess something or another was lying right in front of us as soon as we walked through the doors. We grabbed bread, sugar, a pan to bake our cupcakes in, a pretty pink breast cancer awareness "Go Green Grocery Bag", the costume, two lottery tickets and NO DINNER! Ha! I was in such a hurry to just get home and relax that I completely forgot about getting us something to eat. Meanwhile Bryan is picking his bike up so he's not here to help me. It's late, almost seven and I just head to Mcdonald's to grab some sandwiches. They end up telling me they have to bring it out so I'm sitting there waiting for roughly fifteen. He brings my bag out with the sandwiches, forgets the salad and fries. Gave him the receipt and told him to just give me back my money because what Mcdonald's doesn't have food ready to go! So we just left with the sammy's. It's now too late to bake our cupcakes so that will wait til tomorrow which is today(Sunday) and we finished the night painting the nails-Enjoy and come back later to see the yummy cupcakes! ;D

BTW: Hannah walks on her toes, therefore they look like this.

Sheen Chihuahua aka KING

The Sheen residence has a new member of the family. My younger sister, Mother of four handsome boys, a cat named Nala and an amazing wife has added to their growing family. Her husband is an RN and the lady whom works with him gave them her chihuahua. Funny because we were just speaking of them last week. My girls and I saw one at the mall and wanted her so bad. Indeed we miss our little dogs. King is rather cute, one fine STUD! He's got some mighty flying ears. 

Enjoy the weekend:)

  

Oh So Delish

I love to find new things to try in the kitchen. My favorite baked goods come from Sam's and Publix when I don't have the time to make & bake. I enjoy having fun snacks for the girls when they get home from school. There's nothing like coming home from school and having a yummy dessert out on the counter. I found these Caramel & Pecan Covered Pretzel Rods @ Sam's....they will make your mouth drool.

All you need is pretzels, hot caramel, rolled in crushed pecan pieces and drizzled in milk, dark and white chocolates. So easy, fun and delish!

The girls are having a festival at school and I need to either bake some Halloween cupcakes or buy some from Sam's. I love to bake but theirs always taste a gazillion times better:) I'll let you know which I choose.

Dunkin Donuts Halloween Pumkin Flavors

Well we did not make it to DD for breakfast yesterday morning as promised but this morning Mackenzie reminded me as if it was yesterday morning. It completely slipped their minds yesterday and I never said a thing because I would rather have them eat Good Ol' Cheerios instead. So off to DD it was. Oh the Halloween ones looked so yummy but I cannot eat that early. My coffee with extra cream & sug did me just right. Taking them out for breakfast before school was such a delight. They are truly beautiful, well mannered young ladies. Makes my heart melt to see them blossoming so beautifully. Hannah's Mama's girl all the way. She hops right out of her car seat to give me lots of smooches before being let off. Mackenzie says, "Mom, I'll just blow you a kiss." I completely understand that at her age she's a little embarrassed to give Mom a kiss in front of everyone so we blow them back and forth. :)  

Well I'm really glad that DD is getting the Halloween spirit out. Down here in SW FL it's hard for us to get into the spirit of any holiday due to the seasons never changing. From Hot to Smoldering Hot just makes it that much harder to celebrate anything. I'm excited to see fellow bloggers posting Halloween crafts as well. Thanks for keeping me in the spirit.