This past year, there have been a lot of changes in my life.. Mostly for the better.. No need to be negative nelly about the bad stuff. Yesterday in the mail, I received my reward for spending what seemed to be at LEAST 10 hours of my life trying to make a rather big change. I got my new drivers license, WITH my new name. After my divorce was finalized back in 2005 or somewhere around there, I decided it was time to change my name.. I thought about it and thought about it.. and yes, hindsight IS 20/20 and now am glad I did what I did. I've gone thru a few chapters in my life with different names. My birth name was one chapter of course.. kinda long too. TOO long for my taste but, it is what it is. Then I got married. We'll skip the diatribe here about what a mistake it was, how could I have been drunk for so many years, blah blah, etc. ANOTHER chapter that was too long. Meh. So a few years back, I went to court, and also posted in some obscure newspaper to change my name. My birth name was NOT something I wanted to be associated with anymore because certain people that still have that name have rather "tarnished" it.. So much so, I don't want ANY association with it. So in 2008 I legally changed my name, to something else altogether. (and no, not Smith, tho I thought about it.. haha) FINALLY. Hold up.. not so fast. I changed it legally, but never got around to actually CHANGING it and using it. Since the "incident" occurred in June, that kind of put thoughts into my head, that I REALLY need to move on, and disassociate myself with "that" name. About a month ago, I went for it. Headed over to the Social Security office and turned in my paperwork to get the ball rolling. Once I received that, I went last week to the DMV (I HATE THAT PLACE) and got a new Drivers License.. sidenote: WHY do the employees at the DMV make sure to get THE ABSOLUTE worst picture of you they can to put on your DL?!?!?!) Anyway, I got it in the mail yesterday. FINALLY. New chapter starting NOW. Off to change the bank info, checks, atm card, all my utility accounts, work, paycheck etcetera... ugh.. fun times.. haha The only REAL drawback I see now: Dano told me "That's great.. but now you aren't my mom anymore".. :( EVERYTHING is different now.. but it's still the same.. RIGHT??
I have YET to make this but I think I'll have to give it a whirl tonight.. ;) Cheers..
The Best Christmas Fruit Cake Recipe You Ever Tried! Guaranteed to be fun to make! Christmas Whiskey Cake
1 cup butter 2 cups sugar 6 large eggs 2 teaspoons baking powder 3 cups flour, sifted 1/2 t. salt 1 cup bourbon 1 pound pecans, chopped 3 cups white raisins (or use candied fruit) 1 t. nutmeg AND ~ a very large bottle of bourbon whiskey ~
First, sample the whiskey to check for quality. Assemble all of the ingredients. Check the whiskey again. To be sure it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink. Repeat this step. Turn on the electric mixer and beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add one teaspoon of sugar and cream until beat. Make sure the whiskey is still okay... try another cup. Turn off the mixer. Beat six leggs and add to the bowl, then chunk in the cup of dried flut. Mix on the tuner. Throw in two quarts of flour. Gradually pour in the cow. Add 2 dried anything. If the fried druit gets struck in the beaters, pry it loose with a drewscriver. Sample the whiskey and check it again for tonsistency. Next, sift two cups of salt. Or something. Who cares??? Check the whiskey again. Now sift the nutmeg and strain your nuts. Add one table. And the spoon. Of whiskee. Or something. Whatever you find left. Grease the oven. Turn the crake pan to 350 degrees. Don't forget to beat off the turner. Pour the oven into the batter. Throw the bowl out the window. Lick the batter off the floor. Bake 300 minutes at 50 degrees. Finish the blobble of whishy and flow to bed.
Dano wanted me to post the picture of our tree this year.. considering last year, Lilah ATE the real tree.. lights and extension cord included.. we got a fake tree.. Shut it. I don't want to hear it.. I am STILL finding pine needles from LAST YEARS tree.. so put a sock in it. Anyway, here it is.. it's pretty damn it!
Ok.. So Christmas is almost here.. I do want to update y'all on the one year mark of my weightloss journey with it works.. aka www.ieskinnywrap.com also over there on the right side.. that will be another day... ANYHOO... so, I got Dano some stuff for Christmas.. not a lot because my hours at work got severely cut and I am now part time.. BOO! (this is where I turn back into scrooge.. ) so the little things I got for her, that she really wants but doesn't know it yet, got boxed up to be wrapped. She decided that she REALLY (read out loud VERY dramatically and annoying) wanted to wrap some presents. Considering she's 11 and has no job, just mooches off Mom all the time, I bought myself a couple small things, and she wrapped them. THEN, wonderful, giving, stupendous mother that I am, I let her wrap her own presents.. HA! Genius I say! She didn't SEE what the gifts were, I wrapped them very carefully in multiple layers of colored, sparkly, tissue paper and then put into a box, which I then put into other boxes and taped shut so she couldn't get into them. Should have been doing this for YEARS.. haha So, this year, she's going to hang with her Grampa on Christmas eve (he's a fireman and works Christmas Day so she gets to spend the day with him (the day before) ) She is VERY happy.. :) She'll spend the night over there, which I am not too pleased about because "that side" of her family are not very pleasant. We'll leave it at that. I'll pick her up at 9am on Christmas Day and bring her home to celebrate with me.. .AAAALLLLL day.. (after letting her go with them for like the last 8/9 years, it's MY TURN) .. I'm excited for Christmas! OOOOH! We went over to see Nonie.. (or is it Nonnie?) hhmm I just looked it up..it IS NONNIE.. Dano and I went to spend time with her on Monday. She just had eye surgery a few days before. Dano and Nonnie made some cookies.. we all laughed and giggled.. at one point Dano said that me and nonnie laughed the same.. that made me smile.. :) Dano asked if she could spend a weekend with Nonnie soon, because she wants to learn to make sourdough bread, a complete dinner and learn to quilt. Quite ambitious.. haha I love spending time with Nonnie, and I certainly plan to do it much much more after the holidays.. She is awesome.. reminds me much of my Mim. Ok, ok enough of that.. Happy Holidays.. Merry Christmas or whatever, you celebrate.. back in a few days..
This is Dano making cookies.. :) My baby is growing up...
Ok.. I'm back.. haha So I did move this over to tumblr.. and that was fun.. I guess. I mean, don't get me wrong.. tumblr is cool... if you are a teenager. I couldn't really "blog" there.. or feel comfortable doing it I guess. So, I'm back. I miss talking to myself on here.. I got that "Dragon" speak/dictation software to try.. I'll let you know how that works.. if it DOES work.. It's going on Dano's laptop so she can do her homework and I don't have to type everything for her.. (seems she hunts/pecks while Mom can type apprx 90 wpm.. yay me.) Looking forward to this.. I think it really will help her with her reports, and her grades.. crossing my fingers, toes, whatever... I'm a little scatter brained lately.. things haven't been all that great with Dano and her dad, and court etc... I have a draft I wrote in the midst of it all, and it wasn't very pleasant, but I had to get it off my chest.. I think for now it'll just stay in drafts.. Anyway, this is gonna be pretty short today, gotta go get her from school. I'll fill ya in on more tomorrow...
