Category Archives: Uncategorized

Thanksgiving 2019

November 15, 2019Uncategorized#family #thanksgiving #menu #thankful #2019sambel203

Hi Everyone! Ahh…. It’s that time of the year again! I LOVE thanksgiving.

I love having everyone over and cooking and hanging out. This year we should have between 16 and 19 people. I told my in-laws to invite anyone they would like too, so maybe we’ll be having a couple more.

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This is the menu I have decided on for this year:

I will be doing a Cheese board for everyone to munch on when they arrive. My mom is bringing all the cheese. I am going to get a couple meats from Trader Joes, a couple different crackers. Honey, nuts, hummus, carrots, cut up peppers, olives, grapes, and berries for my daughter. One of the book club girls always does a cheese board and there is this olive spread from Trader Joes that I love.

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For meats I will be crock pot cooking a 8-10 lb ham. This is a super easy recipe and everyone loves it. https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/80525/slow-cooker-ham/

My husband will be deep frying a 15-18 lb Turkey outside. He brine’s it for a few days before and then drains it thanksgiving morning and deep fries it.

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Everyone loves this. I have a ehh relationship with Turkey. It’s alright. It’s not my favorite but I don’t hate it. I’ll have a piece or two and maybe make a sandwich the next day.

Sides:

Green bean casserole, sweet potatoes with marshmallow on top, mashed potato, carrots, monkey bread biscuits, regular biscuits, Stuffing, Gravy, Cranberry sauce.

https://rasamalaysia.com/mini-garlic-monkey-bread/

My mother in law is bringing salad and pastelitos.

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My sister in law is bringing drinks. A pepper rum drink called a Rooster. Plus, we have a bar for anyone who wants to make their own.

My mom loves watermelon juice and vodka, my father in law likes his tequila and coke. My mother in law prefers a Manhattan.

For dessert I will have brownies, cookies and maybe a pie of some sort. I think my brother is the only one who actually eats the pie. That’s okay because he can take it home too.

That’s pretty much it. The good thing is that with the meats being cooked in the crock pot and the fryer, it frees up my stove to cook all the sides.

I set up a table with all the food, like a buffet and everyone helps them selves and then I have take home containers for everyone can bring food home. I try to get rid of as much as possible.

That’s our Thanksgiving! How do you celebrate? Do you host? Do you have a special dish you always make?

My biggest pet peeve

November 14, 2019Uncategorized#blame #game #petpeeve #mistake #fixitsambel203

I can not stand when something happens and it’s wrong and people will literally stop everything to figure out who was wrong. This drives me insane.

I once worked at Pizza Hut and nothing pissed me off more than when an order was wrong and the entire production line would like stop to find the ticket and see who was wrong, the person who took the order, the cook, or the person boxing everything up. My point was always, who the fuck cares? Fix that shit and keep it moving. Does it really matter? I mean really?

Listen, if I make a mistake and I know I did, I will say whoops and sorry and help fix it any way I possibly can. It wasn’t intentional. But can we figure that out after the customer is satisfied and the rush is over? What does it help to stop everything and point fingers at each other? I mean, really? Who wins?

I noticed it a lot when I worked in the restaurant but I have noticed it even as I moved into other fields. It’s like people never want to admit they could possibly be wrong, or maybe there might be a mistake somewhere. Clearly there is a mistake somewhere and I highly doubt the person who did it, did it on purpose. Let’s work together to fix it and move on. It’s totally okay if it’s your fault too. Isn’t it better to just admit it, learn from it and move on then to try to point the blame at someone else?

This is one of my biggest pet peeves. What’s yours?

When plans get cancelled…

November 13, 2019Uncategorized#family #plans #cancelled #pajamadaysambel203

How do you feel when plans get cancelled? Not big plans like holiday’s or vacations, but a little weekend plan. Like a maybe hang out or a possible play date.

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I sometimes get so happy thinking that it’s kind of a free day! Now I can lay around all day and read or watch movies or cuddle my kids, husband and dogs. We can order pizza or Chinese or anything and rent movies and stay in Pj’s all day.

I don’t mind when plans get cancelled so much anymore. When I was younger and had nothing else to really do but work and hang out, then I would sometimes get upset if things got cancelled. Now I think ever since I had my own family and run around moving kids to school and chores around the house, I sometimes like when things get cancelled and we can just chill out.

What about you? How do you feel when plans get cancelled?

GUEST BLOG! Dear Insecurities.

November 11, 2019Uncategorized#guest #blog #guestblog #insecuritiessambel203

Guest post from Instagram: conqueringall2019

Dear Insecurities:

It’s not me, it’s you, you have to go!! You’re not welcome here, in fact you never were. See the way you made your way into my life was quite smooth if I don’t say so myself. You played with the fact that I have a disability and that I have to use a wheelchair because of it. You squeezed yourself in a little more when people made fun of the way I spoke or asked why’d I sound like that.

Then you somehow managed your way to my looks. Growing up I constantly heard “you’d be so beautiful if you weren’t in that chair” as if my looks had something to do with the chair. I heard that so much that I actually believed it.

Dear insecurities:

Are you happy with yourself for causing so much pain in my life?? Does it boost your ego by constantly tormenting me with mean words from the past?? You have to go!! Does it make you happy knowing that I actually believed your lies constantly repeating them to myself day after day, month after month, year after year??

Dear insecurities:

While you’ve most certainly been my longest relationship, it’s time I say goodbye. The love you have for me is no longer needed. I found someone new, her name is confidence and she loves me!!

Unlike you she makes me feel strong, smart and most importantly she lets me know that I am beautiful!! So insecurities I hope you enjoyed your stay but pack all your shit cause you have to go!!!

Instagram: conqueringall2019

Friday, FriYay!

November 8, 2019Uncategorized#weekend #family #poolparty #hotel #thankfulsambel203

Hi Everyone!!! Happy Friday!

I told myself I would keep November weekends open and suddenly, they are all filling up. It’s fine. Tis the season.

I don’t know what the weather is like around you, but here it is really cold for the first time this season. And like the wonderful mother that I am, I sent the kids to school in their fleeces without even checking the weather this morning. Not even realizing that it wasn’t going to warm up at all today. Mommy fail. Ugh.

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On top of that I don’t have their new winter jackets yet either. I have last years that they can still fit into, but they need new gloves, hats and coats this weekend. I was not prepared.

This weekend we are scrubbing the house, having some friends over and then my daughter is going to a friends hotel swimming pool party. I think my sister will be taking her to that cause I already know I will be exhausted by dinner, and probably a few glasses of wine or whatever in by then.

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Sunday we are spending the morning relaxing… or possibly jacket shopping. Then heading to my mother in laws for a little family something. After we get home I have to put together my daughters invitations for her birthday party because I can’t believe December is in 3 weeks! That’s nuts, isn’t it? Plus, I have to talk to my mom at some point because she is already calling about the thanksgiving menu and what she will be bringing. Which I love because I already have most of the menu planned, but that’s another blog post.

How’s your weekend looking??? Any fun plans?

Joker Movie – a Husband and Wife review.

November 6, 2019Uncategorized#movie #review #joker #husband #wifesambel203

I realize I am a little late to the party on this one. My husband and I couldn’t bring out children so we needed to find a babysitter so we could go.

Here’s our reviews of The Joker Movie:

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My husbands Review: I liked it a lot. It was really fucked up. I don’t think it glorified having mental heath issues. A bunch of the negative reviews were saying it’s about white privilege and not really. They thought incels will rise up about it but if you watch the movie it’s really about a guy who’s really fucking sick and has a lot of problems and needs help and like so many people in real life he goes off his meds and then everything goes sideways.

He’s absolutely delusional and you have to figure out which part of the movies are real and which parts are just in his head. It just so happens the back drop is the early 80’s when there was s lot of discontent, anger and rioting.

As for the movie itself, Joaquin Phoenix was amazing. Cause the roll required physical and spoken acting and he’d blur the lines between delusion and reality.

I would recommend it definitely and in theaters if you can find it. But definitely rent it.

My review: There is so much to unpack. I really enjoyed this movie. I would recommend it. Joaquin Phoenix was amazing in it. I really enjoyed his version of the Joker. It made the Joker more real to me, which is scary. I also think that this movie could have held up on it’s own if the main character was just a man named Arthur Peck living in the 80’s. It made the Joker more realistic and more human you could almost sympathize with how he got to that point in his life and why he was going crazy. Except when he actually did kill people, then it was like Holy shit, that just happen. I did like the movie though and I am glad we went to the theaters to see it.

What did you think? Did you see it? Will you see it?

My Weird Dreams- Godparents

November 5, 2019Uncategorized#dream #weird #ugly #beautiful #godparentssambel203

I think this happened because I was going to a wedding for an old friend and there were going to be a lot of people there that I grew up with but who I haven’t seen in a long time.

In my dream we were at a party for a friend and it was in a hotel with a room on the second floor that overlooked this field and all the kids were down stairs in the field playing. We were in the room and people were arriving and I was drinking a glass of wine and my friend, who I still talk to who is also named Jess, came to sit next to me and this girl Sarah walked in and she goes “Oh, look it’s Jess C and ugly Jess, how are you guys?”

And I was like wait, what? Cause my friend Jess is Jess C so that must make me ugly Jess.

So I said, “Wait, what?” and Sarah was like “Oh, sorry, that’s just what we used to call you.”

I was like “who? “And standing next to Sarah was this guy Jason we used to hang out with a lot and Sarah said, “Jason, Right? You used to call her ugly Jess too.” And Jason was like “You are the one that made it up.”

And they started bickering but my friend Jess C was like come on let’s go see what the kids and husbands are doing. And I was like “gladly.”

So I grabbed my wine glass and a sunflower to bring down to the table downstairs and Jess said that she was going to grab us another glass of wine.

I went out in the hallway to wait. A couple other people came out of the room and I walked and talked with them to the elevator but told them I would see them downstairs because I was waiting for Jess C. And they said okay, and got in the elevator.

I was standing there waiting and I was talking to myself Like “I’m not ugly, she’s ugly. I’m pretty. No, I am beautiful.”

And right at that moment some man who came out of the elevator was like ” You are beautiful, like that flower, like the sun… ” And he kept going on about my beauty and then he dipped me while I was holding my wine and flowers and kissed me and I was like Wait, what the fuck is happening?

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Just then Danny DeVito and his partner Rhea Perlman came out of the elevator and I gave them hugs and they asked what was going on and so I started telling them what just happen and this guy was behind me kissing my neck while I was trying to talk and finally I was like “Okay man, that’s enough. Thank you but no thank you. I’m done. Goodbye” and Danny came and stood in between us and the guy was like “But one more kiss, please?” So Danny kissed him and said “Goodbye” and if I wasn’t horrified about this guy, I would have laughed because thank you Danny DeVito. Then Danny, Rhea and a couple other people formed like a human chain and bulldozed this guy down the hallway and then I woke up.

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I kind of know what this dream means because insecurities from long ago and whatever but can I just say that I love Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman. They are like my fairy god parents for some reason in my dreams. This isn’t the first time they have showed up and taken me out of a weird situation.

Do you have any recurring celebrities in your dreams? Who are your godparents?

There was this boy

November 3, 2019Uncategorized#forgive #myself #personal #AMA #grownsambel203

Once. I knew him. He liked me. It was valentines day and he brought me a chocolate rose. I thought, omg, how sweet. But I hate chocolate. So I took it. People assumed we were possibly dating. We barely talked. I dated some other assholes. I knew they were assholes but they spoke to me.

There were a couple others. The “losers”. I spoke to them. I was a loser so I felt like we saw each other.

There was one time, I was working at a radio station and the DJ was named Large. “”.. And I used to go in and talk to him all the time. I was interested in learning radio even though I hate my voice. He taught me about headphones, the good ones. How to program the music and commercials. Theres a play list. You have to play certain songs every hour and you have to play certain commercials. You have to try to space them out so they’re not to repetitive.

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We laughed a lot. I would visit him after working the front desk, before I went to my next job. He said he wanted to give me something for my birthday. I was like, cool. But not a big deal. I thought maybe we would go to the casino. He surprised me with tickets from JFK to LA and a hotel and American music award seats. I was like OMG, that’s not ok. I told him that I wasn’t going to sleep with him. That if I went it would be as friends only. That I didn’t really know what to say. I mean, I never really traveled that far before. I was like what the hell. He said it was cool. He wanted to see the show and he liked hangin out with me.

American music awards were hosted by the Osborne’s that year, 2003. And Mariah Carey was preforming. Mariah Carey is my idol and part of my childhood. We went. We checked into the hotel and We walked in to a king bed, he said that was all they had. I felt trapped.

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I didn’t sleep with him. I slept on the floor. I took him to dinner at wolf gang pucks restaurant and paid. I prayed my credit card would cover it. It did. He thought that I would change my mind about him being in a different environment. We’re just two people on vacation. I think that’s the jist of what he said.

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I went and smoked on the patio. Why would that matter? I felt so lied to. It completely overshadowed that experience. A few years ago he found me on facebook. He would forgive me for ghosting him, he said. Wait. What?

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I’m going to forgive myself for feeling so bad about possibly leading you on when I really told you from the beginning that it was friends only.

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I was dumb. I should have and did know better but I told you how I felt and you assured me I was thinking too much. I’m going to forgive myself. I didn’t owe you anything, ever. I have made a lot of wrong turns in my life and this wasn’t one of them.

November Goals!

October 31, 2019Uncategorized#november #month #goalssambel203

October was my best month EVER with Views. That makes me really happy so thank you so much to everyone who stops by to check out my blog. I try to return the favor as much as possible.

My goals for November are to keep writing blogs, promoting and supporting other bloggers. I also want to figure out some of these plug ins to see what they do. I think I am going to work on pintrest and try to grow that because I seem to be getting more and more hits off that recently. I am also going to keep up with Twitter since that is my other traffic driver.

I am in the process of writing my 2nd book in my YA fiction series. I would like to get that done in November and then I can send it to my super hot editor, who’s also my husband, and hopefully I can self publish in December.

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My 7 year old daughter just wrote her first book and I have to say it’s super cute. She’s working on her illustrations and then she wants to self publish it because her dream in life is to be an author and then the president, but mostly an author. We’re starting off with the author bit. Hopefully this will happen in November and then we can donate a copy to her school library. How awesome would that be?

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It’s November! I still can’t believe how fast this year is moving. I am hoping that now we are going to have a little more free time on the weekends so we can just hang out. Until the end of November. Then it’s Book club and we are doing a brunch/friends giving and then Thanksgiving we will be hosting at our house. I love hosting Thanksgiving. Just cooking for everyone I love and eating and drinking and catching up. It’s exhausting but worth it.

What about you? What are your monthly goals?

The Addams Family- A Family review

October 30, 2019Uncategorized#movie #review #family #addamsfamilysambel203

We decided to go see this on a whim. It’s the Tuesday before Halloween. It seems like something the kids and us might enjoy. Why not?

We went to see this on a Tuesday night because it a discount night. $5.00 large popcorn, $6.00 tickets and I like that it tends to be less crowded if it’s something that has been out for a few weeks.

This review is from my son who’s 10, Daughter who’s 7, my husband and myself (both 38, but I don’t think that matters as much).

The movie is 1 hour and 45 minutes long.

Here we go!

Son Review: 4 out of 5. I liked it. But the names were confusing to know who’s who. And it was weird and that’s why I liked it but I wanted to get jump scared. One part that made me scared when they had to go over the bottomless pit. With the spiders. It made me paranoid.

Daughter Review: 100 out of 100. It was funny. I liked the part when they had the sword dance. It was a good movie. I would recommend it.

Husband Review: I was amused. I would give it a 2 or 3 out of 5. It made me want to watch the live action movies. There were some good jokes. Pop culture references really well done. Morticia and Wednesday were best part of the movie.

My Review: 3 out of 5. It was cute, I liked it. It was entertaining. I was happy to see this with my family. I don’t think it’s movie where you have to go to theaters to see it. I would watch it again on Amazon Prime or Netflix.

On a side note, I love Bette Midler and I will watch anything she’s in.

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There you go!

Moving forward

Growing and all the things that come with it.