Sheilacakes Confession: My TV is on My Dresser

I have thought about getting a new TV for my room. I would like to get a flat screen one that would hang on my wall because I don’t have any TV furniture. My TV in my room sits on my dresser.  I am not really sure if I would have a place to hang it on the wall though that wouldn’t require a complete makeover of my room. I have a pretty big dresser in my room and I also have two bookcases and Noah’s chest of drawers. I wouldn’t really know how to move all my furniture so it would still look good.  It really doesn’t bother me that it is on my dresser; it has been on there for years. I am just not sure what to do if this TV decides to not work anymore. It is pretty old, since it used to be my sisters. 

My TV downstairs is a good sized TV and it is in a really nice entertainment center. I remember the day it was delivered. I don’t really care for moving people, delivery people etc.  I also was planning on taking Noah with me to go hang out with my friend and her daughter that is the same age as Noah. We were going to observe her son at preschool.  I really like my entertainment center. It is beautiful, the only problems with it are the bottom shelves didn’t stay well and they kept falling down and that they delivered the wrong tower so the door opens the wrong way.  It’s nothing noticeable unless you study it, but it is still a great piece either way.

When I think about  a TV stand I think about being at my Grandparent’s house. They had a big one that sat in the little hallway between the family room and kitchen. You could turn the TV to face in the kitchen or the family room depending on where you wanted to sit. One of my favorite spots was sitting in the little hallway. My Grandparents had a little penguin candle with its own little igloo. I loved it. I still have it somewhere.  I would constantly play with it when I was at my grandparents. I am sure my sister and I used to fight over it. One of us, I can’t remember who now, was turning the TV and the TV stand fell over. No one was hurt but it poked a hole in the wall and I think we got in trouble for it.  I felt horrible and the penguin candle was lost for months.  I am not sure what happened to it, but I was so excited to be reunited with it.  I didn’t touch the TV stand for a long time after that. 

What are your TV's on? Do you have something fancy or something simple like I do for my bedroom TV?

I Need My Own Office!

I spend a lot of time on my computer, as a blogger and I don’t have a home office desk. I have a laptop so, I blog where ever I end up. I would like to have an office where I can go and work and have all of my stuff in one place. I would love to create my own office with Noah’s artwork on the walls. Noah loves to draw me pictures. I would like to have a brightly colored room with a cd player, so I can listen to music while I work. I would also have to have a TV. I would love to have some really nice office furniture. I used to have a computer desk that was extremely flimsy. It had a top on it that was really loose and would move if I touched it. I didn’t really like it because it wasn’t ideally what I wanted. There wasn’t a lot of space to put things. It did last a long time though. I need a lot of space on a desk where I can organize my things and spread out.

I think that atmosphere is really important too. I would definitely have a few candles in there that I can light to relax while I am working. I would love to have a huge desk chair; it must spin and roll around. My aunt and uncle have a desk in their house and it is on a track. It looks like something out of The Jetsons. You just push off and you go flying. I am pretty sure I hurt myself on it once. I am definitely going to think about creating a little home office for myself soon. I think it would be really cool to get one of those desks for small spaces for Noah, so he could do his projects next to me while I work. He does have a little table that my dad made when I was like his age, complete with a chair with the stickers I stuck on it from when I was little. Those stickers must have been stuck with super glue because they have been there for over 20 years. It is crazy to see my son sitting in my old chair at my old little table, I should be used to it, I mean he eats off the same yellow plates that I ate off when I was his age.

I guess I should start looking at computer desks for home,since my space is limited. so maybe someday, my dream of having my own home office will come true. I have a small half room that I could use. That room has been many things, like my scrapbook room, oddly enough it started out as a den. Now it is kind of a storage/guest room. We have lived in our house for three years and every year, it is made in to a different room. Maybe 2011 will be the year for my office for my blog.

Do you have a home office? What kinds of things do you do to make it more comfortable?

One of My Favorie Quotes

I wanted to share with you guys one of my favorite quotes. It is from the movie The Prophecy with Christopher Walken. The Prophecy is one of my favorite movies. There are three Prophecy movies and the first is my favorite of them. This quote has a special meaning to me. I guess it sums up everything happens for a reason which I used to hate that saying and why does it happen. Especially after I miscarried my baby in 2003, I wanted to punch anyone in the face that said that to me. I also spent a lot of time wondering why. Why did this happen to me? I went to church and prayed and live a good life. I realized that it happened for a reason. I may never know the reason but there is one.

Here is the quote:
And in the end, I think it must be about faith, and if faith is a choice, then it can be lost - for a man, an angel, or the devil himself. And if faith means never completely understanding God's plan, then maybe understanding just a part of it - our part - is what it is to have a soul. And maybe in the end, that's what being human is, after all.

I think that it means, we can lose our faith and it is our choice, sometimes happen that make us want to stop trusting God, we might not know why something happened, but there is a reason. When we lose our faith we can always find it again, and we can know that God is always here for us, no matter what we say or do. I honestly think that God does not leave us, we leave God. We have to trust God in everything we do and what happens to us. You have to surrender everything to God and trust him completely. I know how hard that is to do.

Giving A Little Thanks

One thing I am constantly making sure my son does is say thank you. I still remember the first time he said it. We were walking around the neighborhood going to garage sales and we went to a house with two little old ladies. They loved Noah; they were talking to him while I looked around with him. I purchased some southwest buttons from them, I didn’t not want to buy anything because they were really sweet, so when I paid for them I said thank you and then Noah said Thank you as well. He went through a phase where he would say thank you just to say it, it was new to him and he was just around 18 months at the time. I love that my son has manners most of the time. I occasionally have to remind him to say thank you to me. He is really good about saying it at the store or at a restaurant. I grew up saying thank you and please and excuse me and he is growing up the same way.

I am really sick of people that don’t thank people. I am not just talking about when someone gives you a gift which is a definite thank you time, but more like when someone does something nice. I try and hold the door for people, if I am able to. If someone holds it for me I thank them cheerfully. One day I was at the grocery store and one of the ladies in the self service no limit check out line was taking forever. I am not sure if it was because there was a problem with the machine or what was going on. There were a few people in front of me with a cart full each and they moved to another line. I had maybe 10 items. Right before it was my turn, I turned to one of the people who was in front of me before and said, “Would you like your spot back?” fully aware that they had a full cart. I knew they were there before me and I would be done before them. The guy looked at me like I had 3 heads and mumbled no. I figured it was their turn to go.

I wish people would use more manners. It’s not that hard to thank someone for whatever reason. It doesn’t cost anything and doesn’t take any effort. It could really brighten someone’s day.

Do You Celebrate Half Birthdays?

Do you celebrate half birthdays? When I was younger my family celebrated mine and my sister’s half birthdays. We would each get a present from our mom on our half birthdays. Well, I would usually get mine the day before or after because my half birthday is February 29th. Since most years don’t have that date that is how we celebrated. The only reason that we “celebrated” them was because my sister’s birthday was really close to my half birthday and vice versa. It was a reason for us to each get a present around each others birthday. I know a lot of people don’t do this and the other child or children get nothing on or in this case around their sibling’s birthday. That is perfectly fine of course. Each family does things differently. We never had a full blown party or cake or anything just a gift. My grandparents even gave us each a present as well.

I decided to continue the tradition with Noah. He doesn’t have any siblings, so I am not sure why I decided to do this. I am very big on traditions and I just thought he would enjoy it. I am trying to explain to him what a half birthday is and how we celebrate it. There is no party, no cakes, no streamers, just a present. I bought him this triple plane set for his half birthday and it was pretty expensive. I was planning on only spending ten dollars on his gift and I ended up spending thirty dollars. The funny thing is he really wanted something else before he saw what he ended up getting. The first thing was 18 or 19 dollars and I didn’t want to spend that much and I ended up getting something almost twice as much! I thought about going out for ice cream because Baskin-Robbins sends you a coupon for a free scoop on your half birthday and I had one too. I thought about using our coupons, but it is way too cold to go out for ice cream.

Does your family celebrate half birthdays? If you do what do you do for them?

I am Jack's Bot

If you know me at all, ever had interaction with me, you know how much I love the movie Fight Club. I have seen it a bajillion times. I know the whole movie by heart and love to quote it and tweet about it. I feel sorry for my friends like Brandy of Happily Blended because she has to deal with me all the time talking about it. When I found out she hates Fight Club, I was completely baffled. How can someone hate Fight Club? How can one of my dearest friends of all people hate Fight Club? It was almost terms for ending the friendship but I gave her a pass. Of course I am kidding but I just don’t understand. I would never sit down with my mom and watch it because I know she would hate it, but she is my mom. I just thought that everyone loves Fight Club because it’s Fight Club. I have known people that have never seen it and won’t. They are really missing out.

To be fair I have a faint memory of being at Blockbuster a long time ago and my friend or someone I dated, it’s been a while, asked me if I have seen it and I said no, don’t want to. I thought it was a boxing movie and I hated Snake Eyes. It wasn’t until a year or so later that my ex bought it at K-mart and had me sit down and watch it. I loved it, I watched it over and over. I demanded that I got to keep it when I kicked him out. I got to keep all my favorite movies because he kept his guitar. Fight Club is not about boxing and it is hardly about fighting. It is just like a small part of it. If you haven’t seen it, watch it. It is brilliant. It is definitely a movie for adults. I wouldn’t recommend watching it with your children, it is very inappropriate for anyone under 17. They talk about Martha Stewart in it. You know how much I love Martha.

Shortly after joining Twitter and tweeting about Fight Club I noticed that I was getting replies from someone called Iamjacksbot. In the movie the narrator played by Edward Norton reads a series called I am Jack’s Colon; I am Jack’s Medulla Oblongata to name a few. He also uses I am Jack’s to describe how he is feeling in certain parts of the movie. IamJacksBot is an automated bot (I believe) that whenever anyone on Twitter mentions the words “Fight Club” it will tweet you a random quote from the movie. One day recently I wanted to mention IamJacksBot in a tweet and if you look at the top it will tell you who you follow that also follows someone. There is was…. Martha Stewart. Martha Stewart follows IamJacksbot on Twitter. She won’t follow me, but will follow the Fight Club bot.

I didn’t realize that Martha Stewart was such a big Fight Club fan. I mean Martha Stewart just doesn’t seem like she would be a fan or condone such a movie. I was floored. I guess Martha is an interesting person and created Whatever Martha where her daughter and friend made fun of her. I wish they would bring back that show. I loved it. The talk show is not very good in my opinion. I guess you can learn a lot of things about celebrities on Twitter. For the record it made me love Martha even more.
What do you think of Fight Club? Have you seen it? Its brilliant isn’t it?

I Belive in Miracles...Do you?

Miracles happen every day. I am a firm believer of miracles, not because I have heard about them on the news or from a friend of a friend but because I have witnessed them with my own eyes. I want to tell you about a couple miracles in hopes that you will believe in them too.

My ex-husband’s aunt, who was like another mother to me, is an amazing woman. I would talk to her for hours on the phone with, she always had a hug waiting for me. She was truly inspirational. She and her husband Mike had a houseboat. We spent part of our honeymoon on the houseboat with them. A couple months later was the annual family houseboat trip and we all had a great time until my ex’s cousins decided to go water skiing. We stayed on the houseboat because we didn’t really have the desire to go. The weather started to turn nasty. We were playing cards with his cousin and his cousins girl friend, all the sudden his uncle showed up and was yelling where is my cell phone someone call 911. My ex’s aunt was struck by lightning while on the speed boat. We had no idea what was going to happen. We didn’t know if she was going to make it. She was transported to a hospital by helicopter and stayed in the hospital for two weeks. She lived through being struck by lightning. The only damage to her was a spot of burnt hair where the lightning exited her body. If that is not a miracle, I don’t know what is.

When I had my miscarriage I had to have a d and c because my body thought I was still pregnant, even though my baby had passed away from the septum. The doctor noticed that I had a septum in my uterus. The doctor made the decision to try and remove it during my d and c. I started bleeding really bad so he stopped and my blood pressure was really low. They were talking about blood transfusion and everyone was really scared. It was supposed to be a couple hour hospital stay turned in to a 36 hour stay. I was really out of it. I remember my pastor John anointing me and my blood pressure started rising and the bleeding stopped. I remember only a few things from that night, that being one of them.

I do believe in miracles, I do believe that God can perform miracles. I think a miracle can happen to anyone who believes.

Did You Know...Dinosaurs Are Sea Life?

Really, dinosaurs live in the sea. What kind of dinosaurs? Brontosauruses. Let me take you back to one of our Target trips, we were in the dollar spot, and I found some capsules, you know the kind with little sponges inside them. I bought a package thinking maybe Noah would like them since they are transportation ones. Well, he ended up loving them. I would let him do 4 at a time when he earned them. His eyes would look in amazement and curiosity to see what the shape would be. We used them all up and I told him that I would get more of them since they were only a dollar for I think 12. When we went to Target again they didn’t have them. I decided to look online at Dollar Tree’s website since this would be something a dollar store would have. They did, I didn’t however want to pay $48 for 48 packages of 18 capsules. I decided we would go to Dollar Tree since there is a huge one a few miles from my house.

We found the capsules and bought three packages of them. We got Farm Life, Wild Life and Sea Life that Noah called Sea Lof or something. Noah begged me to do capsules when we got home, he hadn’t earned them yet so, eventually he did. He wanted to do Sea Life. I carefully handed them to him as he dropped them in the bowl of water. These Dollar Tree ones take quite a bit longer than the ones we got at Target. First it was a red sea horse, then a yellow little dolphin and then green brontosaurs. I was like what is that, and then I realized it was a green dinosaur. We watched and waited for the blue one to pop out and it was a hammerhead shark. Noah being a smart little boy knew that dinosaurs aren’t sea animals and was disappointed. I let him do two more capsules and I am happy to report there were a shark and an octopus.

I am assuming that one of those tricky capsules made it in the wrong package. If you buy the dinosaurs capsules and there is a sea creature now you know why.

Let's Talk Facial Hair Ladies

Honestly, I am not a huge fan of facial hair on a man. I don’t know why that is. I don’t mind a well groomed goatee or a beard that lines the jaw but I can’t stand moustaches personally. I also don’t like the really scraggly beards that look like the man is part wolf man. I prefer a man to be either clean shaven or a guy that owns a beard trimmer and actually uses it. I don’t mind a little bit of stubble with the 5 o’clock shadow that is fine too. My ex had a moustache and a beard and I couldn’t stand it. I would ask him to shave it off but it never happened. He could have had warts or something under his moustache, I am sure he didn’t but, I would hate when food would get stuck in it. It was pretty gross. His moustache really gave me the creeps.

The next man I date will be given the gift of a beard trimmer. I hope he understands that if he chooses to have facial hair and to date me, he will not look like a wolf man. I understand that some men don’t like to shave but the occasional shave is important to me. I get bored really easily so I was looking at beard trimmers last night and I really like the Babyliss I Stubble. I think it would be a great gift for a husband, a father, a brother to receive. It would also be a great gift for a teenage son. If you give them one, they wouldn’t have a reason not to use it. It doesn’t have to be like a Christmas or a birthday present, it could just be a little present just because. If you think it would offend them, because men are weird and can be sensitive, you could just purchase one and put it in the bathroom, so his feelings aren’t hurt.

What are your opinions of facial hair? Does your husband have a beard trimmer? I look forward to your thoughts.

Photos and Prompts Day 1 About me!

Here is a photo of me in my pajamas. The reason I am in my pajamas is because, I love to wear my comfy pajamas and I also love Victoria’s Secret. So, I thought this picture would be very appropriate.

Here are 10 facts about me:

1. I have a fascination with Serial Killers. I love learning about them. But I hate scary movies and get really scared really easily.

2. When I was 7 I stepped on a needle and had to get it removed by getting surgery. My sister spilled her sewing basket all over the floor and missed a needle.

3. I am the baby in the family. I have an older sister. I am also the youngest grandchild on my mom’s side.

4. I have had the same two cats that I got the summer before I was in the 6th grade when they were 6 weeks old. They are named Lucy and Lexy.

5. When my grandma first had Alzheimer’s disease, I took care of her and moved in with her. Later she moved in with us later on where I took care of her again.

6. I know most of Billy Joel’s, Carly Simon’s and Simon and Garfunkel’s songs by heart because we used to sing them on family car trips.

7. When I was 5 years old, I thought that I could go home with my cousins that lived in Texas in my Humpty Dumpty toy box.

8. Certain movies make me cry like My Girl. It doesn’t matter how many times I see it, I still cry, it never fails.

9. I love the British show Absolutely Fabulous and recently bought the Absolutely Everything DVD set.

10. I have a really bad habit of buying DVD’s I have never seen and never watching them. I have had Fatal Attraction since 2007 and I still haven’t watched it for example.




I am participating in 31 Days of Photos and Prompts started by It’s Gravy Baby. To check out the list and play along please visit her website. There is also a linky in on her blog to link up to all the other blogs participating.

Wilton Cake Pops on a Stick Transportation Pops!

I had the opportunity to take part in a contest with Wilton. Wilton is the premier brand of cake decorating and baking products. The contest was to create your own original cake pops. I bet you are wondering what a cake pop is? It is cake on a stick dipped in delicious candy melts. I really want to show you all how to make cake pops. I decided that I would use my adorable little boy as my inspiration for deciding what to make. Noah loves everything having to do with transportation, that’s what I would do. I would make a few of his favorites in to a delicious treat. Since he truly loves them all, picking which ones to do was somewhat difficult. So, I went to the source and asked Noah, he wanted rocket ships, submarines and cranes. He also mentioned blimps but, unfortunately the blimps were too warm and it was like the Hindenburg disaster.



I received a Cake Pops kit from Wilton to help me get started in my first cake pop adventure. Since I am left handed and tried to decorate Noah’s cakes before I was very nervous as they didn’t turn out very pretty. I had confidence in myself and along with my trusty and adorable assistant we were ready to hit the kitchen and start creating. First thing we did was use The Cake Pops on A Stick book to make the special recipe for the cake part. Noah really helped a lot; he poured everything in for me and even helped to stir it all up complete with construction vehicle noises. Once it was baked and cooled, we crumbled the cake.



I can honestly say that was Noah’s favorite part. He told me before we started baking that he was going to make me in to a cake pop and tickled me and said crumble crumble crumble. It was very cute. It was fun to crumble the cake up. My Grandma Rose always said that your best tools are your hands, and I agree completely.

After we crumbled it we added some icing and mixed it up with our hands. I had bought my favorite cake mix and frosting on clearance for 42 cents since it was green holiday icing, we looked like swamp things after we were done. I had to remind Noah, many times not to try and eat it all off his hands.





I decided to let it chill for a bit to firm up some, which was a great idea because it was pretty messy before. Once it was firm enough to shape without making a mess. I started making the shapes for the rocket ships, blimps, cranes, and submarines. I put them back in the refrigerator for a couple hours before I dipped the 6 inch sticks in melted Candy Melts to help them stick. Since my cake pops were bigger than the average cake pop I was worried that it would fall off if it didn’t have enough time to chill. I left them in the refrigerator for 24 hours, just to make sure.




I was ready to dip them with my new Chocolate Pro Electric Chocolate Melter. I melted some more red Candy Melts being careful that I wouldn’t waste them, when I was ready for the next color after washing some of the candy melts down the sink, I figured out if I poured the leftovers on parchment paper and let it dry I could reuse it. It peeled off really easily and I also figured out that you have to melt quite a bit to get easy coverage on your Cake Pop. I was able to make it work easily with a spatula on the bottom of the pops so they were completely incased in Candy Melt. It doesn’t take the Candy Melt very long to harden which was a good thing. I dipped the Red Rocket Ships and the Yellow Submarines first. I let Noah pick the colors all of them, since I bought every color of Wilton Candy Melts they had at the craft store.

I have always wanted to try out fondant and I thought no time like the present since I wanted to add specific details. I purchased several packages of colored ready to use fondants. I ended up using yellow fondant on all of the Cake Pops. I had also used some little cutters in different shapes. It was really easy to roll out even for me. My crowning achievement was when I put the yellow candy melts in a disposable icing bag and wrote USA on the rocket ships. It is legible even. I am not sure if Julia Child was guiding my hands like in the movie Ghost or what but it was perfect. I was so afraid that the rocket ships were going to be drizzled in yellow candy melt. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. I was so proud of myself at that moment.

I decided to make the wings of the rocket ship out of fondant. I used yellow fondant as the periscope of the submarine as well. I had some trouble thinking of what to use for the windows on the submarine. I was going to first use the candy eyes that were included in my pops kit turned backwards, that didn’t work too well so, I thought marshmallows would work. I decided to rip them and shape them for the windows. After attaching them I decided, it looked weird so, I melted some white candy melts and put those in a disposable icing bag and drew the windows on. I thought they really needed the porthole covers around them too. I used some melted chocolate chips in another disposable icing bag. Melted chocolate chips are a different consistency than the Candy Melts so it was harder to manage. Noah reminded me that submarines have propellers so I used some pull and peel licorice that I had purchased for the cranes to make it. By that time I had poured out the yellow Candy Melt to harden so I just kind of dipped the back of the pop in the yellow melts and attached the licorice. Two down two to go I thought to myself. I was doing this and it was working for me.

 

When it was time for the blimps I went to dip them and since they had been sitting out for a hour or more they were no longer cold. I almost started to cry after I watched the Cake Pop fall apart. I was thinking, it’s ok I have two more blimps. I didn’t realize until after that was the reason they fell apart, I dipped the second making sure it was carefully placed on the stick. I went to dip it and it fell apart too once it hit the Candy melts. At this point I yell Darn it. Noah said, “Mommy, that is a bad word.” Thinking after two were ruined I couldn’t have just one blimp I dipped it and covered it in sprinkles and watched it fall off the stick as I put it in a bowl for Noah to enjoy. I put the pre-dipped cranes back in the refrigerator for a few hours so, they would survive. I think next time I will keep them in the refrigerator until the last second before dipping. I highly suggest you do so too. It makes it a lot easier and saves you from the heart break of your beautiful creations plummeting from the stick.



After waiting a while I decided the cranes needed to be dipped. I had purchased some thin pretzel sticks to be the arm of the crane. I knew how fast the Candy Melts dried so I figured that I had to dip the cranes and then stick the pretzel in quickly or my cranes wouldn’t have an arm. I thought about dipping them with the pretzel stuck in it already but decided that would probably end badly. I took a spoon and covered the pretzel with Candy Melt. I cut out some yellow little squares and circles for the wheels and windows I attached with water on a little paintbrush. I put them back in the refrigerator to make sure the arms of the cranes were dried. Everyone knows that cranes have strings on them so I thought the pull and peel licorice would be perfect for that. It’s fun to eat too. I just tied it on and it looks really cool.



I received a Cake Pops stand in my Cake Pops kit which is really nice; I plan on saving it for a special occasion. I thought since these Cake Pops capture the essence of my little boy, I wanted the stand to be something that was Noah’s. I decided to build a couple rows with his favorite blocks that have holes in them, which are perfect for holding Cake Pops. Noah’s little eyes lit up with amazement when he saw them all done and placed on our display blocks.



I received the Wilton Cake Pops Kit for my contest entry where I could win a $500 VISA Gift card or 9 other prizes. I did purchase additional products for my Cake Pops and all thoughts and opinions and ideas are in fact my own.

Strawberry Shortcake, I Love You, Yes I Do!

When I was little, I loved Strawberry Shortcake. This is back when she was new, not the remodeled version. I loved the movie Strawberry Shortcake in Big Apple City. I do own it on DVD now. I love the Peculiar Purple Pie man from Porcupine Peak, although he scared me just a little bit. My love for Strawberry Shortcake started when I was very young. When I was two or three, I had a Strawberry Shortcake doll. One night I decided for some reason I was going to put Strawberry shortcake on my lamp shade. She wasn’t wearing any clothes; I am assuming my sister stole them from her. She was plastic with a soft body. Strawberry Shortcake must have been lying on her back on my lamp because, she had a burnt hole in the middle of her hiney. Thankfully, it was just contained to that little burn mark. I still have that doll, still naked with a burn mark on her bum.

I still like Strawberry Shortcake. I haven’t made a Strawberry Shortcake shaped cake yet like the one my mom made when I was little. I still have that pan too. I am not a hard core die-hard Strawberry Shortcake fan. I have a Strawberry Shortcake wallet, that my family makes fun of me for carrying. My sister even tried to get me a big girl wallet, I love mine though. I have had it for 5 years now. It is still in pretty good condition. It is just a little dirty from being carried around for so long. I bought it at Claire’s before I was even pregnant with Noah. I saw it and had to have it.

It really annoys me when they take stuff from my childhood and redo it. If you are going to bring it back, bring it back the way it should be. Don’t modernize it. It was fine when I was a kid, don’t make it cartoonier. Don’t glamorize it, My Little Ponies were fine the way they were. It’s the saame with Carebears. I think the Carebears we had when we were little are much cuter than the ones that kids now days have. What is up with the all the new Carebears? No I am not talking about the Cousins but the ones that someone invented just to sell more. Noah has claimed my Birthday Bear as his own, it needed a bath big time, I got that for my 2nd or 3rd birthday and so you can imagine how dirty it must have been.

What do you think about them remaking the characters from our childhoods? It is just not the same to me. It feels like they are an impostor in a sense. Maybe I just like things to stay status quo.

Taking A Compliment...

I know that I am guilty of not being able to take a compliment. I am working on it and not being obstinate when someone says something nice about me. I smile and thank them and I start to believe them most of all. I mean I know I am a nice person. It just really bothers me when I compliment someone and they most of the time say not really or not so much. I can understand having low self esteem but really, I have no reason to lie or embellish the truth to them. Then I start wondering, do they not trust me? I mean do they think I am up to something? Do they think I have some ulterior motive? Of course I don’t. I say nice things to people because I mean it. I like to make people feel good about their selves because I care about them. I wouldn’t make up something just because I could, if I tell you something about you then it is because I really think that about you.

I don’t understand why it is so hard to be able to take a compliment for some people. I wonder if it has to do with some kind of deep seeded thing that happened in the past that like makes them feel like someone said something nice to them and it ended up being the butt of a joke because they believed it and it really hurt them. I am not sure and I probably will never know the reason why. It is just annoying to me because I don’t like when people get down on themselves and say insulting things. Maybe I feel like they are dismissing my opinions of them. I know everyone has an opinion but really I wouldn’t lie about it. I guess some people just really think that way about their selves. I do understand that as someone who was in an abusive marriage and now still suffers with the emotional scars from my ex and the damage he did to my self esteem.

Maybe some do it for attention, fishing for compliments as it sometimes called. I mean everyone likes their ego stroked once in a while. You just have to learn to take a compliment. You might not completely believe it, but most people are not out to hurt you and some day hopefully see what it is that person sees in you and that you are really not an ugly ne’er-do-well after all.

It's Time to Buy New Luggage.

In June, I am planning on visiting my best friend Brandy. She lives in New Hampshire which means I will be boarding a plane to do so. I am really excited to go out there and spend some time with her. I am certain we will have a great time just hanging out and doing some girl things. Brandy is such a positive person and she is very funny. We even plan on getting all dressed up and going out, which is luxury for both of us. I have never been to New Hampshire or Vermont, I am sure we will go out to her dad’s farm while I am there too. I definitely need to buy new luggage sets before I go. The suitcases I have traveled all over the place. They are starting to get a little too worn. The wheels and/or the handles on each suitcase are messed up in some way. I have been pretty creative at rigging them so they work but it would be nice not to have to worry about my suitcases falling or running over my feet or someone else’s.

I also want to get Noah a little suitcase that he can manage even if it is just a small one. I would love to get him one he can pull behind him because he is getting too big for a stroller. We are planning a trip for Noah’s 5th birthday and my 30th birthday too. This is a trip I have been thinking about since I knew the date of my scheduled C-Section and realized our birthdays are so close together. I am so excited about these trips but going to the airport, riding on a plane and sometimes handling an adorable yet curious preschooler can stress this mama out. I am hoping that if Noah has his own little suitcase he can pull along it will make things easier for us all, and that the next time I fly with him that I don’t start crying going through security.

Dream, Dream, Dream.

I am sure I have told you about my weird dreams before. Definitely about Kevin, the alien that when he gets mad turns in to a queen. For a while now, I have been dreaming about one of my old houses. The dreams I had started out riding my old school bus, from elementary school. I would be on the bus in my old neighborhood and I would get off the bus at my old house and by the time I got off, I’d realize that I don’t live there, and I would start chasing the bus, Mrs. Macy would never stop. I would then somehow try and figure out how to get where I really lived, I never quite knew where that was. Sometimes I would visit my old neighbors. Other times I lived in the house, my mom would open the garage door and I would go inside. It was really weird and had become a reoccurring dream for a while. Then the dreams stopped for a while. It wasn’t like a nightly thing, but it was enough that I would remember it happening quite a bit.

Now, I dream about living in that house like every other week or so. It’s normally that I moved back in. It would look different inside almost every time, never like I remembered it. It never has the basement where I used to sing and dance or the place under the stairs I would have my club house in. It is weird. I know it’s normal to dream about things in the past. I have definitely had weirder dreams, but it is crazy that it is the same theme and almost the same dream or variation of it. I am an adult and Noah is with me. Every time I dream it, I think well now I don’t have to dream about living here anymore. I had the dream very recently, and once I said that, I woke up. I had one of those abrupt where am I wake ups. I woke up in my house. I don’t think I have ever had a dream that I dreamed about waking up like a dream inside a dream. Maybe I have, I don’t really know.

I don’t know if it has to do with something going on in my mind or what that is making me dream about that particular house. I don’t talk to my old neighbors or anything. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about that house. Dreams are such a weird and complex thing. I am not sure what causes some of them. I had a dream about my Grandma Rose where I was at her house and she let in an escaped mental patient and he came after us. I think it would be really cool to watch our dreams. I am pretty good about remembering my dreams. I would love to see the ones I don’t remember though.

Do you have weird dreams? Do you dream them more than once?

Losing Noah's Stroller in Vegas

I love to fly, I prefer it to driving any day. We don’t always fly though. It depends on the length of our trip, where we are going and of course the cost of the flight vs. gas. When we go to visit my aunt and uncle in California we always fly. It would be an extremely long drive, although my aunt and uncle have made the drive many times. The last time we went to visit them, Noah was a baby. We always took his stroller with us and checked it at the gate, as we had done before. We were able to use it at the airport and also during our layover. When we landed in Las Vegas, our stroller was there waiting for us at the gate. We had over an hour layover that I spent time playing the slot machines in the airport. When it was time to board our flight to Reno, we left his stroller at the gate as we boarded the plane.

We landed in Reno and waited for his stroller in the jet way. It didn’t show up. We met with my aunt and uncle to get our baggage. We also made a stop at the baggage office to see if our stroller ended up there. It was not. They couldn’t find it. It was very late as we didn’t land until around 11pm Pacific time being that we live in the Eastern time zone, it was 2 am. We had been traveling all day and were ready to just get to my aunt and uncle’s house. We assumed that the stroller was put on the wrong flight in Vegas, even though we parked it right outside the plane. The baggage office gave us a loaner that was no doubt from the 70’s. It was so old and dirty. It was really hard to open and close. My aunt and uncle live up the mountains so we didn’t do a lot of things that required a stroller, if any. I don’t think we used it the whole time we were there. I was worried about the stroller though, what if they didn’t find it? What if we had to brave the airport and the layover without it and all our carry ons? I hadn’t purchased flight insurance so it would be a loss. It was just a ten dollar umbrella stroller, it wasn’t Noah’s expensive stroller thankfully.

We had a great time with my aunt and uncle just visiting, watching movies and doing some sightseeing in the mountains. We even went to Antelope Lake. Antelope Lake is somewhere we went with my grandma when we were out there years before. My mom ended up getting sick when we were there. She had something called altitude sickness. When we were sightseeing, my mom, my aunt and uncle went up in a really tall tower. My mom ended up getting really dizzy and felt sick during part of our trip. She didn’t have to go to the doctor, but I often wonder what people who are traveling do to cover doctor’s visits or if they have to go to the hospital. I guess they get visitor’s health insurance when they travel abroad just in case. When we said our goodbyes at the airport I was very nervous as we walked in to the baggage office. We had to return the stroller, that we jokingly dubbed the death trap and see if Noah’s stroller had finally made it safely. I had never been so happy to see his stroller in my life. It was a very sad goodbye to my aunt and uncle because we only get to see them once a year.

Have you ever lost anything during a flight? Please share your stories.

E!'s New Show- Bridalplasty- America's New Self Esteem Killer!

I was watching E! tonight, Bruce Almighty was on. It is a great movie. I was watching the commercials and twice they showed an ad about a new show premiering tomorrow called Bridalplasty. The show is about a group of brides that leave their fiancee for four months and they compete and get plastic surgery and the winner gets a dream celebrity wedding. The winner has her new whatever she gets and shows her fiancee when he lifts up the veil. I am not sure if all the brides go under the knife or not. I am sorry but I think that is the dumbest most superficial show that I have ever heard of. I hope to get remarried some day. Who knows what the future might bring but I am telling you what, my future husband will love me for me. He will have to love all my flaws, because they are mine. I am not talking about my inner flaws I am talking about my outer appearance. My freckles, my imperfections that everyone has, after all, no one is perfect, say it with me now, no one is perfect. Everyone knows their flaws, they don’t need someone else pointing them out. I think that it gives people the wrong idea, the impressionable children, people that have self esteem issues. Actually, it is plain sick honestly.

I am ashamed to be in this society, where everyone obsesses over their appearance. Where kids are bullied because they look different, because they aren’t “perfect”, maybe they have a different body type. Some kids’ lives are made a living hell because of those things. It is crap TV like this that encourages bullies to pick on other kids because they are different. Those kids that are being bullied are someone’s daughter or son. There are quite a few adult bullies out there too. Some people call them grown up mean girls or mean boys. Their whole purpose in live is to make someone else feel like crap. It doesn’t end after you leave school. There are 30 and 40 year old women who make fun of people for no reason. They talk about them behind their backs and make them feel horrible. When someone says something hurtful it doesn’t matter if you are 8 years old or 48 years old. It still hurts. Sure, you deal with it in other ways, like ignoring it, but deep down it still hurts the same.

Last night I was watching Pauley Perrette’s YouTube videos, she was talking about bullying and how things get better, they really do. She said that she wore glasses and an eye patch in school and that she was picked on a lot. She said she was never mean to anyone. She is now an amazing actress on NCIS and instead of being spiteful; she is very humble about her life. She doesn’t pretend to put on this glamorous Hollywood lifestyle; she is just herself, very down to Earth.

I am a firm believer that everyone is beautiful. I always look for the good in people. I think to truly love someone is to be able to find them beautiful or handsome inside and out. To embrace their flaws and love them, we are all jigsaw puzzles some of our pieces are different than others but they make up who we are. We need to understand that what is to love is to love the whole person. Not the parts that we want, but each part the same. Learn to accept those flaws and erase them in our minds and hearts. You know, something could happen and someone’s beauty could disappear, but to people who love you, you will always be beautiful in their eyes and heart. God made each of us the way he wanted us to look. He made us all unique and put love and care in to molding us from lumps of clay in to the person we became. I would not want to say something God made was ugly. God does not make ugly things.

Swanson's Broth Great Stuffing Debate and $50 VISA Gift Card Giveaway!

I love chicken broth, especially Swanson’s Chicken broth. When I had my son, I had to have a c-section. The morning after my c-section they wanted me to eat something, I had to choose something off the liquid menu as I just had major surgery. I found that they had chicken broth listed. It was the only thing that sounded good, so I called “room service” and ordered some chicken broth. It made me feel so good inside. It made my incision feel better inside. The rest of my meals I ate when I was in the hospital were accompanied by chicken broth. For two or three weeks after my c-section, I drank a lot of Swanson’s chicken broth. I prefer the kind that is in a carton because you can close it. I had used chicken broth in cooking but I had no idea how good it was just in a cup warmed up.



I love to cook and I had the opportunity to participate in Swanson’s Great Stuffing Debate. The basic idea is that if you make stuffing with Swanson’s Broth than it will be more flavorful than stuffing made with just water. Everyone has their own favorite brand of stuffing so you can take part in the Great Stuffing Debate and share your favorite stuffing with people across the US.

My favorite stuffing is definitely Stove Top. I love how delicious it is. I am not a huge stuffing fan really but I will eat it occasionally. It is a nice holiday compliment to a meal. If I am going to eat stuffing I prefer it to be Stove Top and it has to be made the right way. Stuffing is something that my family enjoys to eat. I usually only have a couple spoonfuls because there is so much other food to enjoy and I like to sample almost everything we have on our table. The few things I won’t eat are anything Pumpkin or Cranberry relish or yams. Otherwise I gorge on Thanksgiving foods.

Thanks to Swanson Broth for providing me with a $50 gift card and providing the giveaway prize. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I have a giveaway for you.

One (1) person will win a FIFTY dollar VISA gift card from Swanson to participate in The Great Stuffing Debate.

Mandatory Entry: Tell me your favorite brand of stuffing

Extra Entries:

Subscribe to my blog via email. You must verify

Follow my blog on GFC

Follow @Sheilacakes7 on Twitter and Tweet about this giveaway including a link to this post. This can be done once a day.

This giveaway is open to US Residents ONLY

This giveaway will end on December 3, 2010 at 11:59 PM ET

If It Sounds Too Good to be True.....

I am watching Cops today. Yes, I love watching Cops, it was the same one I have seen a million times. If I was in a dark room and that “lady” would speak I would know her voice without seeing her face. She is the one that says Excuse my beauty. Well, I notice a commercial for a website called Bid Rodeo. I was like ok I will check it out. I put in the code for the 10 free bids and started bidding. It was such a waste of time and such a scam if you think about it. You have to pay for your bids. You can bid for free on Ebay. Everything goes up by a penny. Not only that but they extend the end time each time someone bids. Let’s crunch some numbers shall we?

Each bid raises the price by a penny, that undoubtedly sounds like a really good deal seeing as you can bid on ipads, ipods, and Amazon Gift cards to name a few. Well, me being the skeptic I am, was thinking where is the catch? I thought it might be extremely high shipping, no it seemed about normal. I thought what the hey I’ll use my 10 free bids just to see. After the clock just kept winding down and adding more time. I started imagining those people that were counting down the clock as if the space shuttle was about to take off, to win their prize. Of course someone out bid them by a penny and the vicious cycle went on and on.

Out of curiosity, I wondered what the prices of the bids are. Some of the items included what the company calls bid packs. So, then I scoffed at the ridiculousness of this website. You can get 800 bids all for the low price of FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS ( which is equal to 8 dollars of bids) Now here comes the math.

I will use an ipod for example since that is what I used my bids on:
Let’s say you and another person each bid each bid 800 times for the iPod. You are the only two bidding and it ends at 16 dollars even. You also have to pay the bid price plus shipping. You might think Yay! I just got an iPod for 16 dollars plus shipping in reality, you paid 516 dollars plus shipping for the iPod. The company made $1000 of the iPod through the bids. You could buy an iPod and an iPad for $516 I am assuming. I don’t own an iAnything. Let's also remember that even if you bid you are NOT guaranteed to win anything. After you bid 800 times you might end up empty handed, with nothing to show for your $500.

Two pieces of advice:
If it sounds too good to be true, than it probably is. My second piece of advice is If it doesn’t make sense than it’s not true.

I am sure Bid Rodeo will in fact bilk innocent people out of their money with promises of cheap goods. These are just MY OPINIONS, you can decide for yourself. I just felt like I needed to warn my readers.

Playing Radio Station

When I was younger, I used to play radio station with the neighbor kids. It was a full on production. I am talking we used to “broadcast” it on a speaker on a cordless phone, my neighbors mom would listen to the show faithfully. There would be music, talk, even commercials. It was my sister, our old friends Brad and Mike and of course me. There was occasionally another person but we were always the constant staff. We would play radio station all the time. My sister and Brad were the DJ’s I can’t remember what Mike did. What did I do…. I am sure you really wanna know. I was the sectary, because I didn’t have a good radio voice. Yes, poor little me had to pretend to write things. I didn’t even have the cool job. I was not allowed on the radio.

Even though I got the short end of the stick, it was still a lot of fun. Then again we always had fun with Brad and Mike. I have a lot of memories of them. We used to play baseball, Double Dare, and of course, Nintendo to name a few. I remember when this boy was picking on me and riding his little bike with his little friends in front of my house, Brad stepped in and protected me. I used to have a crush on Mike but yeah that was a million years ago. He’s a year younger than me I think.

Playing at the radio station was definitely an experience. I know it was kinda dorky but really we were semi dorky kids. I can’t remember what the radio station was called. I wonder if my sister remembers. Those were really good times although I am still haunted 20 or so years later that my voice isn’t radio worthy. What does that mean? Did I have like a squeaky voice or a man voice? Maybe it was a way for Julie and Brad to be in a spotlight and me chained to the desk pretending to answer phones. Don’t get me started on the Hamburger Dress incident. That is a whole other traumatic event, that needs it’s own post.

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