Tonight's dinner shall be divine!

Tonight's dinner is going to rock!! My husband was just saying he wants to make "Hawaiian style steak like Local Boyz" but that he has been unable to find a recipe. So I worked my Internet magic and found a copycat recipe conjured by an OSU alumni. The recipe for the marinade is here:

http://mirlandraskitchen.com/recipe/teriyaki-sauce-marinade/

I just finished cooking it. Once it cools, and once my steaks thaw, I can get them combined in the fridge for a few hours. 

While reading that recipe I saw a link to the Hawaiian mac n cheese, but I paid it no mind. Then I mentioned to my husband that I could make Hawaiian sweet rolls (using my bread machine) to go with our steak and he said no, he wants the amazing mac n cheese that you also find at Local Boyz. He said "it's basically just noodles and mayo." That's gross, but I went and looked at the recipe. That recipe is here:

http://mirlandraskitchen.com/hawaiian_macaroni_salad/

We're out of mayo... so guess who just hopped in the car to make a mad dash to the store to get some? Haha... I'm pretty excited to have dinner tonight! I've never eaten at Local Boyz. And brown sugar in my macaroni salad???? Sounds pretty intriguing!

On a side note, my husband has also gotten me to make Shoyu Chicken from a Local Boyz copycat recipe. That stuff is pretty good, too! It's made in "Da Sauce" as well. Yummmm...

That recipe can be found here: http://www.heatherlikesfood.com/hawaiian-shoyu-chicken/ 

Cute Crochet Robots!

I'm a maniac. I crochet like nobody's business. (Does that make me a crocheniac?) For years and years I followed patterns. Simple patterns, complex patterns, you name it. I made all kinds of stuff, but I wouldn't venture out and make stuffed animals. Well along came December 13th of 2011. A coworker asked me if I could crochet a reindeer hat for her, with stuffed antlers and sewn-on button eyes, and she needed it by Dec 15th. Not one to let people down, I spent my birthday (the 14th) crocheting this hat and branching out with my skills. This single project really transformed my life, and I will forever be grateful for that challenge.

Fast forward to 2015.... I now create and sell my own patterns for crocheted robots! OK let me explain my love for robots. Back in 2012, while my then-fiance and I were simply talking about maybe having a baby, I one day got this inspiration in my mind to decorate the future nursery in robots--no matter the flavor of the baby! Boy or girl, we would have robots galore! And that's what happened when our sweet little baby girl was born in 2014. We have a robot nursery. She has tons of robot shirts and tights and sweatshirts. Robots have grown quite dear to my heart. And, naturally, I wanted to crochet her a stuffed robot. I found a pattern on etsy.com for a pretty basic little robot. I used huge yarn and a huge hook to make it really big. This was the very first stuffed animal(robot, obviously) I'd ever made!

A good friend of mine saw this robot and she eyed it with admiration. She then had a massive outcropping of grandchildren (FIVE, suddenly, crazy huh?) and she presented me with a proposition in January of 2015. She asked me to make 5 crochet robot hats, plus 5 crochet stuffed robots by Christmas of 2015. Challenge accepted!

When it came time to start, which I believe I did in September of this year, I went on a hunt for more crocheted robot patterns. I found a few but they weren't all that fantastic. I made three of them from patterns and then I just knew I was going to have to make up my own. So I did, and I wrote down the patterns, and they are so brilliant! Here is little Robbie Robot:

And this here is his good friend, Kyra-bot. (She was made for a little girl named Kyra.) 

My friends and family are pretty excited about my unique robot designs and I'm already getting orders! But for each request I'm making an additional brand new unique one-of-a-kind robot, writing the patterns as I go! This is so fun! I've literally lost sleep over this because I am just so excited.

Currently I'm working on a robot called Mr. Banks. I'll post a blog about him as soon as he's finished!

You can snag the pattern for Robbie Robot at the following link:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/250030864/happy-little-robot-crochet-pattern?ref=shop_home_active_3

And Kyra-bot can be found here:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/250613547/kyra-bot-the-pretty-little-robot?ref=shop_home_active_2

Happy hooking! :-)

It's a revolution!

They are rising against me, I know it.

Seriously, my husband even says that he has never seen as many of them as he has since he's known me. They seek me out. It truly is an Evil Ninja Spider Network.

This morning I had to use the restroom. I was on my way in when I saw a very large, menacing foe dangling right there in the middle of the doorway. His web took up the whole upper left corner of the doorway, and he sat on it. I saw him in profile view, each nasty lanky leg. There were more than 8, though! There were 10! Oh, wait, nevermind. Those are fangs. Huge gangly fangs that are probably a third of the size of his legs. This spider is frightening and he means business.

I used a different bathroom, but not before posting to Facebook:
"There I was, minding my own business, about to walk into the bathroom, and suddenly there's a huge 8-legged creeper hanging in front of me. His fangs are huge. Like a third of the length of his legs! I won't be going in there for a while...."

I went about my business, getting ready for my day. I told my husband he was welcome to kill the spider. Much to my dismay, he hadn't done so when I finished with my shower (in a DIFFERENT bathroom). I needed something out of that bathroom, however, so I decided very begrudgingly to get the vacuum and suck this spider to obliteration myself.

I got him. I felt him thud against my hand as he whizzed through the vacuum hose. It made me feel sick to my stomach. I practically had this beast in my HAND. There was just a thin layer of plastic between us. It's terrifying, but I did what I had to do. I grabbed my hair straightener from the bathroom, and on my way out (with it, to the living room) I noticed ANOTHER spider on the wall. It was heading back behind the open bathroom door. I vowed to return to get him with the vacuum when I finished with my hair.

Fast forward... hair looks amazing... Taking the straightener back to the bathroom. Not only do I need to vacuum my enemy, but I also need to vacuum cat litter off of the floor of the shower. (I have the litter box sitting in there, because it's the guest bathroom and its out of the way. Cat litter gets all around the floor around the box, so it's in the bottom of the shower. Are you following all of this?)

So I walk into the bathroom and check the wall to find that spider. I don't see it. I get closer to the wall, so I can lean and look in the space behind the open bathroom door. I don't see it. Then I look up and it's--BAM--right in front of my face! GAH! So I have a bit of a panic moment, I turn on the vacuum, and I suck up the little bugger. PHEW! Glad that's over, yeah? Right?

So I turn around to start vacuuming up the cat litter from around the litter box and OH NOOOOOOO PLEASE MAKE IT STOP there is a big spider on the edge of the litter box, running at me.

That's it. I can't take it. I've surpassed my threshold already. I'm above and beyond high alert. My instincts are telling me to RUN RUN RUN for my very LIFE!!!!

I try to vacuum this guy but it's on the edge and he keeps side stepping. And I'm also doing some stepping, back and forth, foot to foot, because OMG SPIDERS. And I'm whimpering like a fool because OMG DEATH BY SPIDER OBVIOUSLY! After the third attempt, I got him. And then I threw the hose and ran down the hall, bare feet pounding on the floor, breathing rapidly, feeling like I might pass out, hopping from foot to foot, scratching the invisible spiders off my legs. Thank goodness I didn't cry this time! But my brain was mush because all I could think was survival!

"KEVIN omg and there was this OMG and this spider was OMG RIGHT THERE and then BAM omgomgomgomg KEVIN it was on the ummm the ummm the THING THAT THE CAT POOPS IN!"

Yeah that's how functional I am when spiders viciously come after me. Those jerks. They know it, too. They do it on purpose.

Kevin laughed. Pshht. *As if* this is funny.

I had only one option...

Hello! Here I have for you another story of survival. (That's how I can make it sound positive, anyway.) You remember my Grand Adventure with the spider on the interstate, right? Well then there was another spider in the car on my way to the bank a few months ago. I pulled into the Franz Bread Outlet parking lot and got an employee to get it out of the car for me… and yes, there were tears… But wait until you hear what happened two nights ago! I'm still scared of the kitchen!!!

My poor sweet baby girl started vomiting Monday evening around 8:30. It was so sad… After we got her cleaned up, I decided I'd go lay down with her and put her to bed. I was down to my undies and a T-shirt, and I was barefoot. Then, she threw up again! Poor sweet angel… So I called the on-call doctor who advised us to get some Pedialite to give her so she wouldn't get dehydrated. My darling husband left for the store. I changed a diaper, then I went to the kitchen with my wee lass… I was still in my undies and T-shirt, and still barefoot.

While waiting for my husband to return, I opened the dishwasher and decided to start putting away the dishes. I was still holding my poor sick baby. I got a few cups out of the dishwasher, and then suddenly a gargantuan 8-legged vessel of death came running out from under the open dishwasher door. Luckily it was running away from me, but unfortunately it stopped right at the entryway (or exit) to the kitchen!!!

It was almost as large as the palm of my hand. I don't have miniature hands, either. They're totally average sized hands for an average sized woman. This monster is what nightmares are made of!!!

So of course I screamed and threw myself backward. I was as far as humanly possible from this creature. One of my cats--the feistier, braver, much smaller one--came running. She locked eyes with the enemy. Of course my mind was racing. She could kill it, right? But you know how cats are… They don't just kill their prey. They play with it. They make it run around and dance. They chase it from here to there and back again!!! So I saw in my mind's eye Matilda batting the spider (that was almost as big as her) (ok not really) and it running in my direction. Oh no, no, this would not do. So, I yelled at her to leave.

The spider stood there, right next to the exit, and I was trapped. You recall the Radius of Fear and Death (RoFaD), right? Where I stood, I was barely, BARELY outside of it. If I were to try to run past and get my infant and myself to safety, I would have to enter the RoFaD! I tried to will myself to do it. Of course blubbering unintelligible noises all the while. My mind's eye showed me two possible scenarios if I attempted to escape.

1) I run as fast as I can. This scares my foe and he runs, possible at my bare feet and legs.
2) I walk slowly, requiring a longer stay in the RoFaD, and being an easier target for him to run at my bare feet and legs.

…I couldn't do it. I could not physically make myself enter the RoFaD at any speed! In fact, the thought of it gave me goosebumps all over my legs! So, I had only one option.

One.

I had to climb.

With infant in hand, I closed the dishwasher, and I closed a cupboard door so I wouldn't hit my head. The noise from the cupboard door made the spider JUMP, which is almost enough to make me pass out…. Nice try, spider. Nice try. I shoved some stuff out of the way, got one foot up on the counter and hoisted myself up.

And there I sat, blubbering, chanting "please come home please come home please come home" in hopes that the universe would send my hubby (a.k.a. Spider Slayer) home as fast as possible! To my great relief, he came home about 30 seconds after I got onto the counter. THANK YOU, UNIVERSE!!!!

So he walks in and he sees his half-naked wife and ill baby perched up on the counter quite awkwardly. I immediately say to him "THERE IS A HUUUUGE SPIDER RIGHT THERE!!!" He rolls his eyes, assuming my version of huge is his version of barely-there. He walks into the spider's line of site and simply says, "Damn!"

I told you it was huge!!!!!!!!

I just got the chills remembering! Gah!

He grabbed a file folder off of the table and thew it down on top of the spider. First the spider ran to the side and escaped the attempt. Of course that makes me freak out more… (No worries, the baby was silent through this entire ordeal!) He was able to cover the spider the second time, then squish it. And then he picked it all up, because spider guts make me gag.

…and then I cried. I don't like this new crying thing. This started with the interstate episode and has continued. Lame.

Anyway, I have not been barefoot since!

I looked it up, and this was a Giant House Spider, most likely male. The website said "they are sometimes seen wandering around the house looking for a mate…" That's even WORSE! Giant House Spider babies…!?!?!?! Sick and wrong!

OK, make it positive… I didn't fall off the counter. I'm alive. Phew! :-)

"Pale Green Pants", by Dr. Seuss

It's been a while since I've posted. I have had my little baby girl and all that awesome stuff. She is just about 8 weeks old. We didn't get a lot of 0-3 month size clothes, so we went to Fred Meyer the other day to get some new duds. One outfit had a pink top and some pale green pants with pink bicycles on them. My adorable husband stood them up on their own (with nobody inside them) and left them there in the middle of the living room. They reminded me of a Dr. Seuss story that I had read a long time ago. I just looked it up and realized how very perfect those pants fit that story! Here are the pants, standing on their own, and below is the story by Dr. Seuss. :-)

Well…

I was walking in the night

And I saw nothing scary.

For I have never been afraid

Of anything. Not very.

Then I was deep within the woods

When, suddenly, I spied them.

I saw a pair of pale green pants

With nobody inside them!

I wasn’t scared. But, yet, I stopped

What could those pants be there for?

What could a pair of pants at night

Be standing in the air for?

And then they moved? Those empty pants!

They kind of started jumping.

And then my heart, I must admit,

It kind of started thumping.

So I got out. I got out fast

As fast as I could go, sir.

I wasn’t scared. But pants like that

I did not care for. No, sir.

After that a week went by.

Then one dark night in Grin-itch

(I had to do an errand there

And fetch some Grin-itch spinach)……

Well, I had fetched the spinach.

I was starting back through town

When those pants raced around a corner

And they almost knocked me down!

I lost my Grin-itch spinach

But I didn’t even care.

I ran for home! Believe me,

I had really had a scare!

Now, bicycles were never made

For pale green pants to ride ‘em,

Especially spooky pale green pants

With nobody inside ‘em!

And the NEXT night, I was fishing

For Doubt-trout on Roover River

When those pants came rowing toward me!

Well, I started in to shiver.

And by now I was SO frightened

That, I’ll tell you, but I hate to….

I screamed and rowed away and lost

my hook and line and bait, too!

I ran and found a Brickle bush

I hid myself away.

I got brickles in my britches

But I stayed there anyway.

I stayed all night. The next night, too

I’d be there still, no doubt,

But I had to do an errand

So, the next night, I went out.

I had to do an errand,

Had to pick a peck of Snide

In a dark and gloomy Snide-field

That was almost nine miles wide.

I said, “I do not fear those pants

With nobody inside them.”

I said, and said, and said those words.

I said them. But I lied them.

Then I reached inside a Snide bush

And the next thing that I knew,

I felt my hand touch someone!

And I’ll bet that you know who.

And there I was! Caught in the Snide!

And in that dreadful place

Those spooky, empty pants and I

were standing face to face!

I yelled for help. I screamed. I shrieked.

I howled. I yowled. I cried,

“OH, SAVE ME FROM THESE PALE

GREEN PANTS WITH NOBODY INSIDE!”

But then a strange thing happened.

Why, those pants began to cry!

Those pants began to tremble.

They were just as scared as I!

I never heard such whimpering

And I began to see

That I was just as strange to them

As they were strange to me!

So…

I put my arm around their waist

And sat right down beside them.

I calmed them down.

Poor empty pants

With nobody inside them.

And now, we meet quite often,

Those empty pants and I,

And we never shake or tremble,

We both smile and we say…”Hi!”

The Power of Gratitude

Today I want to share with you the power of gratitude. First of all, let’s define it:

grat·i·tude

noun \ˈgra-tə-ˌtüd, -ˌtyüd\

: a feeling of appreciation or thanks

:  the state of being grateful :  thankfulness

One thing I teach my trainees is this: “Many people believe that happy people are grateful, but the opposite is even truer. It is grateful people who are happy.” This is a line right out of my classroom book. You may be thinking to yourself “That’s a bunch of hooey!” If that’s what you’re thinking, you are wrong!

There is now scientific proof that practicing gratitude daily greatly increases not only your emotional quality of life, but also your physical health! For example, one study compared three different groups of people. One group wrote weekly entries in a journal regarding 5 things they were grateful for. A second group wrote about five hassles they experienced. The third group wrote about five events that affected them in some way, be it positive or negative. What they found was that group only listing things they were grateful for wound up feeling more positive about their lives overall, were much more optimistic than the other participants, and even had fewer health problems by the end of the study! A second study made the entries a daily activity rather than weekly, and they found there was an even greater increase in gratitude in the participants.

One very profound study looked at people who suffered one heart attack. Those who really made changes after their heart attacks, such as being more grateful for what they have and appreciating life more, actually had a lower risk of having another heart attack. This really goes to show that being more grateful and focusing less on negative things in life can greatly benefit us overall!

Many in the scientific community believe that people are born with a “set point” for a level of happiness, similar to our natural set point for body weight. The research on gratitude challenges this notion. The gratitude studies mentioned above (as well as others I didn’t read about) show that we can actually change that set point, moving it upward and making big changes in our life outlooks as well as our physical health.

Joan Buchman is a longtime sufferer of Fibromyalgia. She knows first-hand what daily gratitude can do for your health. One snippet from her article is the following:

“Gratitude is not about "looking at the bright side" or denying the realities of life. Gratitude goes much deeper than that. It's about learning from a situation, taking the good to help deal with other challenges in the future. It's about finding out that you have more power over your life than you previously imagined. You can stop being a victim of your circumstances and reach out to the joy in living. If you open your heart to the good in your life, gratitude becomes as much a part of your life as breathing.” –Joan Buchman See her article here.

If you’re still reading and want some tips on how to increase your level of gratitude, here are 5:

1.       Keep a daily (or weekly would be a good start) journal where you write down ONLY things that you are grateful for.

2.       Use visual reminders, such as a gratitude rock or some other token that reminds you to think of things you are grateful for every time you see it.

3.       Find someone else who practices gratitude and share your gratitude lists. Spending time with ungrateful people will have a negative effect on you, so try to surround yourself with grateful people.

4.       Openly share with family and friends that you have a goal to be more grateful. This will hold you a bit more accountable and will increase chances of success.

5.       Watch your inner dialogue. Notice how your mood is when this self-talk is negative. Turn it around, change your tone, and watch what happens to your mood. Think happy thoughts!

"If you want your life to be more rewarding, you have to change the way you think."
- Oprah Winfrey

I hope you all choose to have a great(ful) day! J

My Grand Adventure

You might be aware that I am afraid of spiders. If you didn't know, now you do. This is not some silly little fear, trying to be cute so somebody will take care of me. This is a real, live, horror. I have dreams in which I see a spider and then I wake up in a panic and can't go back to sleep.

All spiders have a radius of fear and death surrounding them, and the size of this radius depends on the size of the spider. Obviously I need to be further away from bigger spiders. I have had run-ins with spiders so large that I have had to step inside that radius in order for the RAID to hit them. These are times when my voice goes up a few octaves and it takes me a life time to be brave enough to spray the RAID. They always jump off the wall and make a run for it after the nerve agent hits, you know.

With that being said, I give you the following adventure:

This morning, as I was merging onto the interstate, I looked over my left shoulder to check for cars. This was a bad time to see a jumping spider the size of a dime on the driver's side window. It was inside, and there was no glass to protect me.

I was inside the radius, and I couldn't get out of it!!

I immediately started to panic. I swerved the car to the right, then realized once again that I was in a car on the interstate and needed to be able to drive or I would die from arachnophobia. I leaned as far as I could away from the window and dialed my adorable husband on speaker phone.

I started crying hysterically. (I told you, the fear is real!!!) He told me to get off the road. I couldn't just pull over because the interstate is a busy road and I don't know that I could just get right back on from the shoulder. I had to make it to the next exit. I was driving, and crying, and telling him that I couldn't pull off the road just yet. I kept looking over at the window to make sure I still knew the location of my stalker, and then when I would SEE the eight-legged assassin I would scream again. I was a mess.... there went my perfectly applied makeup...

I got to the next exit, went a bit faster than I probably should have on the off ramp, ran through a stop sign (after making sure it was clear, of course), and parked in a gravel area used by car-poolers for parking and picking people up. There was ONE person there, and he was just climbing into his red minivan. I said to my husband, "can I ask this guy to kill it???" He said "Yes, you can do that." Haha...

I parked. My husband told me to open the door. I couldn't open the driver door!!!! There was a JUMPING SPIDER on it!!!! If I opened the door, it could jump on me! No no, this 7-month pregnant lady was climbing over the center console and escaping from the passenger door! That is exactly what I did!!

I went over to the minivan and didn't know if the guy would see me. Luckily he did. I can only imagine what went through his mind as a shaking 7-month pregnant woman with mascara and shame all over her face approached his car. He rolled down the window, and I blurted out through hysterical tears, "there's a spider in my car! I'm terrified! Can you get it???" He smiled, and this was the only time that he seemed humored by the situation. (I guarantee he laughed later.)

He got out of his van and went to the back to look for something for squishing purposes. I don't even know what I was doing because I was in the process of being traumatized by this entire ordeal. My husband was still on the phone with me. The guy eventually located a tissue and he went to my car.

Would you believe that we couldn't find the spider?

I went back around to the passenger side to see if I could see it from that angle. Finally the man located the jumping jerk on the inside of the driver door and he squished it! I made him show me the body for identification purposes and just to know that he wasn't lying to appease me. Of course squished spiders make me want to vomit, so I couldn't look for long.

The anonymous hero left in a hurry (I hope I didn't make him late!), and I got back into my car. My husband said to me, "Umm, I think we need to work on this." I agreed... then I drove to work... and LUCKILY one of my lovely coworkers had mascara so I could fix my face.

Phew! Wow... what an adventure!!!