never be anything but loud
Way Back Wednesday: Interior Design
Even though I am in this photo looking a hot mess, that is not what I want you to focus on. Look behind my “Mom bursts into the room with a camera the morning after prom and I’m still sleeping” face and focus on the room, especially the walls. Don’t you love them? Isn’t that classy? Because in high school and mostly through college, I thought the whole concept of decorating meant you take as many pictures of hot boys and plaster them like wallpaper all over your walls. Or posters of the music you listen to – this was my “gangsta rap” stage – THUG LIFE BITCHES! This picture does not show that directly above me, on the peaked ceiling, there is another Tupac poster, a Biggie poster and a Diddy “No Way Out” album cover poster. I just pretty much assumed that every spare inch of wall space should be covered in something – pictures, glow in the dark stars, sparkly disco balls.
If you look closely, you can see the original Polaroid of this photo hanging on the wall.
Also, that is a waterbed I am sleeping on. That’s how awesome I was! (Can’t you tell by the bangs?)
Way Back Wednesday: Summers in High School
Better known as the summers I spent at my dad’s where there weren’t as many (read: any) rules so I was going out to nightclubs with my older cousins and drinking and dressing like I was a grown woman. This was one of those nights where we were heading out to a nightclub – or, now that I look closer and see there’s a stamp on my hand, coming home? Who knows? We very well could have been going out and that stamp leftover from the night before because they were a bitch to get off. Regardless, I’m like sixteen here and that is my second cousin (my dad’s cousin) who is like 26 or so. This was also my blond stage and also, see how tan my right arm is? You can’t see it in the picture but my left arm is not that tan – and that, ladies and gentleman, is what happens when you ride around with your arm hanging out of the passenger side window all summer.
Also, that dress was really short. Apparently, I was a skank!
Fraidy-Puppy
He was doing that dance that puppies do when they’re unsure about things and I could resist antagonizing him. At least someone in our house realizes the evils of XBox!
Sunday Evening
“And just like that, another weekend gone!”
Inevitably, if you live in my house, this is what you will hear at least one time on Sunday. It is such a strange day around here as we are partly sad that the weekend is coming to a close. And yet, when I sit down on a day like today and my house is clean, my tummy is full, the laundry is spinning in the dryer and almost all of my to-do list is checked off, there’s a part of me that is equally satisfied that I have put another week of accomplishments behind me and can start anew.
Aside from accomplished, if I had to pick a word that summed up last week, it would be: MODIFY 1
With it being the first week of the month and the first week of the New Year, I figured it was time for me to start making good on some of the resolutions and goals I had set. The key here is that I’m not throwing myself into them full force only to burn out in a few weeks as I have done in the past. Rather, I am making small modifications in my life that I hope will help me develop better habits that will last me through the year and the rest of my life.
- Note: this word applies specifically to me personally. If I had to pick one that summed up my household as a whole, it would be SKYRIM because that game is literally all that’s been going on in this house between the two of us. It’s not a competition, per se, it’s just that we’re both pretty addicted to it so you’ll find us doing things like rushing to beat the other one home from work to claim the XBox. It is shameful! ↩
Recipe: Easy Slow Cooker Italian Wedding Soup
I have a love-hate relationship with cooking. For the most part, I love finding new recipes to try and actually enjoy cooking on the weekends. But I don’t really like recipes that are too labor intensive or make a wreck of the kitchen. This is especially true on week nights when all I want to do is come home to a hot meal that requires minimal effort and even less cleanup.
Because of this, anyone who has remotely discussed cooking with me will know that I LOVE my slow cooker (aka crock pot, as I’ve always known it). There is something so awesome about being able to dump a bunch of ingridients in the pot and letting them cook all day then come home to a delicious smelling house and a warm meal that requires no more effort than dumping the finished product into a bowl and shoving it in my face.
This is a recipe that I’ve been for about a year now. It’s kind of my version of Italian wedding soup that I’ve modified along the way to accomodate our cooking needs and tastes. I ran across a version on a blog somewhere that required you to cook it on the stove and I thought to myself that I could make it in the crock pot and have been doing it ever since.
My goal is to make the ingredients easy to obtain and store so you don’t have to rush to make it before any fresh produce expires. It’s also easily modified to fit your tastes. And it is so, so delicious on a cold winter’s night – or anytime of year, really. Because of the broth, I think it works year round.
