Game Day Snacks

I love it when Sundays come around and there is a game on, not because I like football (because I don't) but because there is usually a lot of people who get together and I can make snacks for them.

So for Super bowl Sunday I decided to take a little extra time and make some Jalapeno Poppers. These are not hard to make they just take time. But they only take about 20 min to cook once they are all together.

These are the ingredients you will need.

Cook the Sausage

Cut the Jalapeno Peppers in half and spoon out the seeds. One way to do this, without getting the jalapeno fumes in the air and making you cough, is to cut the peppers and remove the seeds underwater. You could fill up your sink or a bowl of water. The water stops the fumes from being so potent.

Once the sausage is done, drain and mix with cream cheese.

Fill each side of the pepper with the sausage mixture and wrap with half a piece of bacon and secure with tooth pick.

Bake for 20 min at 375 and enjoy!

A Donation

For those of you who have loved ones or know people who've had to go through extensive medical treatments which caused them to loose their hair you know how difficult it is for them. In a world where it is already extremely difficult to find yourself and fit in, when you don't have hair it makes it even harder. Hair is one of those natural things that people have and everyone expects you to have and when you don't have it most people think it's weird or view you in a different light.

When I was in high school my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and I vividly remember when she started to loose her hair. We went wig shopping a few times and tried to find cute hats that would cover up her bald head. She was a little self conscious about it but once we got her a wig she felt better and liked the fact that she wasn't going to have to style her hair everyday. That's when I decided if I could donate my hair, have it made into a wig that will make someone who's already having a hard time feel better, that it is a good thing.

So today I donated my hair.

I got just over 12 inches cut off and I now have a awesome new hairstyle and my head feels so much lighter. My stylist said that I will be "able to jump higher and run faster" now that I have shorter hair.

I got my hair cut at Juut, which is my favorite salon. I love them because they usually do an awesome job and they use Aveda products and I love Aveda products. My stylist was Adam who is a New Stylist at Juut but did a fantastic job. Plus he's really nice so I recommend getting your hair cut by him if ever you go to Juut. Now any hair that is donated at Juut goes to Locks of Love and they send it for you. They also give you a complimentary hair cut because you are donating your hair. So it's a good deal, all you have to do is grow out your hair, make an appointment, get your hair cut at Juut and walk away with your beautiful new style.

Here are my before and after pictures.

Gone with the Wind

I just finished reading Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind. I started this book back in August and just finished it now… I am notorious for reading almost all of a book and then not finishing it. So it took me about 5 months to finish the last 50 pages.

I thought this was a really good book. The kind of book that you pick up and you don’t want to put down. The book that you think about when you’ll get to spend more time reading it because you want to know what happens next. Those are probably some of the reasons why it is considered a great American classic. Now I wont go into detail about what happens in the book or give more of my opinions because I will probably start rambling on. But I will gladly go into details if you ever want to discuss it with me in person.

Now if I read a book that has been made into a movie I usually like to watch the movie after I’ve read the book. As usual this book is way better than the movie but I thought the movie did a good job of portraying the important scenes of the book. The movie is old so the actors are actually good. They make the movie to be more of a play, with an intermission and everything! It is quite lengthy – about 4 hours long. So I recommend watching it when you don’t want to do anything else like during a snow storm or something.

Emma

I just finished listening to an audiobook of Emma by Jane Austen. I am not really a fan of Jane Austen’s novels but I have made it my goal to get through them all. Listening to them helps a ton because even though they are boring books, my drive to work is boring so putting two boring things together somehow cancels out their boringness.

Now boring may not be the right word to describe how I feel about these stories,  I don’t mean like text book boring or “I don’t understand what I’m reading but I’m just going to read it till the end of the page” boring. I just mean that they are not my kind of books. There is a lot of narrative and “he said, she said what” and who is in love with who etc. The kind of stuff I get bored with because I like my novels to have a bit more action.

Now I will have to say that over all Emma is very well written and a good story. I could sum the story up in a lot less words than Austen tells it in but I will not do that for you. Instead I will recommend watching a classic teen movie that came out in 1995. This movie is based on Emma and set in the 90’s. It is about a high school teenager named Cher who has the coolest closet ever and I've decided my husband is going to build me one just like it.

I made Jon watch this movie with me the other day because I hadn’t seen it in so long and I remembered liking it. And after the movie was over he said “I now understand high school a little bit better”.

Flowers

This week Jon offered to go to the grocery store, so I let him even though I like to be the one who goes. When he came home he said "you have to let me go to the grocery store sometimes so I can surprise you with these!"

I absolutely LOVE flowers especially during these long gray winter months, they just totally make a room brighter and more comfortable. And my wonderful husband knows this and likes to buy me flowers because they make me happy.

He spoils me rotten...

Garlic

When Jon and I came back from our vacation we expected to find our house just as we left it but it wasn't...

We found this!

One of my baby garlic cloves decided to start growing while we were gone. But I didn't mind. Today I moved it into it's new home where it can hopefully thrive and give me some grandbaby garlics.

Sabriel

I was suppose to read this book a few years ago when I took a Children Fantasy Literature class at the U. I never got past the 2nd chapter until Jon and I went on vacation last week.

Now there is a reason why I never got past the second chapter until now. When I started reading the book, I had in mind that it would be "Children's Fantasy story" like Harry Potter or the Chronicles or Narnia but it isn't. And since it was not what I was expecting I had a hard time reading it. (I also was suppose to finish it in one night because it was a May term class and we had to read one book a night in order to keep up with the readings)

The story is about good vs evil and the main character is our Heron, it all very good stuff and the making of a good story, its just the content that bothers me. The "good" are humans and the "bad" are dead things/creatures (I imagine zombies/vampires/ghosts/etc). Now it is a well written book and very interesting (I actually read the whole thing and I kinda want to read more of the books in the series). But I would not give it to my children to read. It may be written for a lower reading level but the content of the story is for a much more mature audience.

I wont go into detail about what happens in the story because I believe you should read it for yourself. But I will say that I really liked and I even though it was 500 pages I managed to finish it really fast - so fast that I had to go find another book to read for the rest of the cruise. So it's a good entertaining type of story, doesn't take much thought and keeps you occupied for a few hours. And if you don't mind reading about zombies then this is a good book to read.

The end.