Life: It's a Four Letter Word

Let me know how you like the new pictures- I'm using a new program to draw them.

Every day I try to think of something good that's happened- I call it my daily win.  If nothing good has happened so far, then I go out of my way to be overly nice to someone else; because if I've had a crappy day I don't want someone else to have one too.  

The moral of the story is. . .I try to be a positive person.  

Not one of those crazy annoying people who are all . . .

but more like the kind of person who is all. . .

The past year has, well, pretty much stunk to be bluntly honest.  

It seems like as soon as I start walking up the happiness hill, 

then life hits me in the head inflicting severe blunt force trauma and causing me to start barrel rolling down happiness hill into sadness swamp.

After a while you would think I would just start taking all of this 'life' in stride, but this is what actually happened.

Okay, so that may have been slightly exaggerated, but seriously.  Life has thrown a lot at me and my family over the past few years.  I'm VERY lucky to have spent two decades with a everything all happy-sunshine-unicorn-rainbows. . .

So when life decided to throw one curve ball after another at me, I honestly didn't know how to react. . .none of us did. 

As everyone gears up for the holidays this year, I am getting into fight mode.  I'm preparing for a war against sadness. . . sadness and fruitcake.

You see, I just have to be able to survive the holidays.  I use to have a house full of laughing rowdy relatives to look forward too, but now it's more like a couple of casual acquaintances.

So pardon me if I seem scrooge-like, but I'm honestly just trying to survive the holidays without having a mental break down.  

Then after January is over I can finally look forward to. . .

Seriously!?!?!?!  Arrgg! 

If it's not happy families gathering together it's a bunch of gooey love birds slobbering all over each other.

This is why I consider life one of the terrible four letter words.

Oh, well.  Live Long and Prosper!

Turkeys of Thanksgivings Past

I've got a couple of stories in the works, but things have been quite crazy lately. . . you know with life and all.   

So here's a wonderful flashback of Thanksgivings past.  Enjoy!

Anytime you have a major celebration or gathering something is sure to go wrong. Since it is November and with Thanksgiving not that far away, we thought we'd share some of our holiday near disasters.  

So relax this holiday season and remember. . . it could always be worse.

I'll Take Mine Extra Crispy

It was several years ago on Thanksgiving day when our grandpa was admitted to the hospital.  We're a pretty tight-knit group so nearly the entire family was at the hospital; and it probably comes as no shock that we were going to cancel Thanksgiving- but my grandpa didn't want that to happen.  He all but demanded we continue on with the dinner- so that meant that someone had to bake & watch the turkey for the better part of the day.

Bo: Since I was willing, able, . . .

Chicken: I think the "able" is highly debatable.

Bo:  As I was saying,  I was willing, ABLE, and eager to help; I took on the challenge of cooking the turkey.  It didn't seem that hard since the turkey had already been prepared and stuck in the oven.  All I had to do was make sure that it didn't burn.  

About 2 hours into cooking my first turkey, I peaked under the aluminum foil. I became almost panicked because I didn't think that it was getting brown fast enough.  Emotions were already running high that day and I didn't want to ruin the main course; so I took what I thought to be the only rational step- I completely removed the aluminum foil and I turned up the dial on the stove.

Now, you've got to understand the only meat I had ever cooked myself (up to that time) was beef.  And as you know, beef turns a nice brown color fairly quickly when you cook it.  What I didn't take into consideration at the time was that turkey is poultry and poultry cooks much differently than beef does.

Flash forward to the big meal and. . .

Chicken: I thought we were having one of Bo's famous 'gas station meals' because I thought I was eating turkey jerky.  I gotta give her credit though, she does make a good turkey jerky.

Where Are The Giblets?

Bo:  Okay so this was about two years after the last event and was my first time making the entire turkey.  I was so excited I couldn't wait to redeem myself.  I stayed over at my great grandma's house the night before so I could get up bright and early to prepare the bird.  

I worked so hard making sure the stuffing and turkey dressing were prepared just right.  I even added an extra layer of aluminum foil (to make doubly sure I didn't have the same 'extra crispy' problem as before.

Well after many long hours, it was time for Thanksgiving dinner.  As family tradition dictates my uncle carves the turkey but before he could do that. . . 

My Great-Aunt: Where are the giblets?

Bo: It didn't come with any.

My Great-Aunt:What do you mean it didn't come with any?  They always come with the turkey.

Bo: Well, this one didn't have any; I looked.

My Great-Aunt:What about inside the turkey?

Bo: Of course I put the stuffing in the turkey.  I hand-made the stuffing too!

My Great-Aunt:No. . .not the stuffing, the giblets.

Bo: What?

My Great-Aunt:That's where they put the giblets. . . inside the turkey.

Thank goodness that they don't put the giblets in a plastic bag (otherwise our turkey would have been completely inedible); because after removing all of the stuffing in the turkey we found all of the giblets- wrapped in paper.

Chicken: Got Giblets?  
             Bo does; still inside the turkey that she poorly prepared.

Bo: It was a learning experience.  You can't learn unless you make mistakes.

Chicken: Unfortunately it took our family two ruined turkeys to realize that Bo should never have been allowed to cook the turkey in the first place.
I personally could have told them this from what I know of Bo's past cooking experiences.  For example, her version of scrambled eggs- consists of a McDonald's sausage & egg biscuit that she would then remove the egg, put it on a plate, cut it up, and claim as her own.  Apparently Bo can't remove the giblets from a turkey or bake it, but she can make biscuits, inject them with syrup, and press a M into the top of them.

Bo: Actually it was a sausage & egg McGriddle. Speaking of eggs. . .

Eggs So Devilish  . . . 

Not Even Satan Would Touch Them

It all started with eggs fresh from Bo's hens and a problem. . .

Problem: Nobody brought deviled eggs for Christmas dinner

As you very well know, deviled eggs are a holiday staple; you simply can not eat without them there.  

Ashes: Now I know better and I'll actually bring some this year- sheesh!

So as a last minute quick fix, since the dinner was at her house, Bo got roped into making the deviled eggs.

Bo:  I'm normally not a complainer, but I don't like eating eggs at all- I never 
have.

Chicken: Then why do you have chickens?

Bo: They are my feathery pets; they're for loving- not for eating.

Bo: So anyway, I've never boiled eggs before so I wasn't exactly sure what I was doing.  I complained the entire time I was attempting to make them. First the eggs had to be boiled so they could be peeled and sliced in half.

Ashes: Bo was hopeful that these would be would be egg-cellent; but instead they were an egg-tastratrophe, a total egg-omination, and it was an egg-opolapse.

Chicken: You just can't add the word egg to something and think you're going to sound clever.

Ashes:  You're just egg-aggerating chicken.

Bo: So anyway, I may have over-boiled the eggs; because when I went to peel them, chunks of the egg came away with the shells and they were pretty well mutilated.  

Chicken: Imagine large pieces of bowl-shaped egg confetti.

Bo: Then came time to make the filling.  I didn't know how to make it and several family members came into the kitchen to see what Chicken & Ashes were laughing about.  Eventually the eggs were filled and sat on the table.

Chicken: You've never seen sadder looking deviled eggs in your life.  I think most people ate some of them just so Bo didn't feel bad.

Ashes: Egg-actly Chicken!  But remember, you've gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet; some day you're going to need bowl-shaped egg confetti and Bo won't help you make it.

Bo:  Well, can you think of any other Thanksgiving fiasco's Chicken?

Chicken: Yeah, tons of them . . . and they all involve you.

Fine Dining Without Class: Taste of Chicago

Do you have tons of extra spending money?  

Do you have so much class,

that you raise your pinky when you drink a soda?  

If you answered no to both of those questions then you are ready to enjoy fine dining - without class!


On an overcast Saturday in July, Chicken, Ashes, Mr. Ashes, Momma C, and I went to the Taste of Chicago in. . .  well. . . Chicago.


It was a long drive.  We went past the windmills.

Made a pit stop at our favorite candy store.

And before too long we were there. . . Chicago!

Chicago had so many interesting things to see!


Chicken: So many buildings!

Ashes: So many people & people walking dogs!

Bo: And so many pigeons!!  They were huge!  I never realized how big these guys are and they come in just about ever color!

Ashes: They're rats with wings, Bo.
Bo: But they're so cute!  Does anyone have any bread?
Chicken: Rats. With. Wings.
Bo: Whatever.  Lets move onto the food.


Oh, the food!  They had just about everything!  There were so many good things to choose from; so we tried just about everything!


Bo:  Plus, the air smelled like Rally's french fries.
Ashes: Food tickets were 12 for $8.00 and most of the foods cost 5 tickets or more; although some were only 3 tickets.
Chicken:  They had 2 sizes of the foods to try; you could either have a full size entree or a 'taste size'.  We mostly got 'taste sized' portions and shared; this way we could try just about everything. 

We tried. . .

toasted ravioli

award winning bruchetta

real Chicago pizza

foot long corndogs

chocolate covered strawberries

crab rangoon

potstickers

buffalo style wings

chocolate fudge

vanilla churros

gourmet fries with parmisian cheese

chocolate covered frozen bananas

and so much more.

Ashes: Yea, we were totally stuffed!
Chicken: And drenched too!  It started to down pour a couple times when we were there.  
Bo: I was amazed at the length people went to to get out of the rain.


They ran into the port-a-potties

They hid under food trailers

They made mini umbrella cities

They stole umbrellas off of the picnic tables

And some even tied ponchos up in the trees.

After the Taste Momma C took us on a tour of the city.

Thank goodness Momma C was there!
She knew everything about the city; it's history, landmarks, and most importantly- how to navigate the big city.  She took us on an amazing tour of the city!


Bo: I learned so much and I'm so grateful that she volunteered to drive.  I may have eventually made it to the city, but I never would have found my way home!

Overall Food Rating:
Bo: I give the food at the taste it 5 sporks out of 5: for variety of food and friendly people
and
2 dirty napkins because the air smelled so heavily of Rally's french fries even though there were no Rally's to be seen- anywhere.  The second dirty napkin is for the fact that only 2 stands even bothered to hand out napkins; luckily we had the rain to wash off our hands.  


Chicken: I give it 5 sporks out of 5 for variety and quality of food.  I give the it 2 dirty napkins for terrible weather (many downpours) and really really long lines.


Ashes:  I'm glad we went, it's definitely something everyone needs to do at least once in their life.

Don't Forget: To follow our blog so you are always up-to-date on our latest shenanigans.  

Cuddly Kittens!

Well, today was a VERY exciting day.  Since it was the first day of summer vacation I had big plans.  Like sleeping in until noon and being as lazy as possible. But I was surprised to find my foster cat Mercedes delivering her kittens!  

It took nearly all day, but she successfully delivered 5 gorgeous kittens!    

Mercedes has been a wonderful mom!  Despite all the hardships she's overcome, like having been hit by a car and having a wrongfully healed back leg. . .she's so happy, purry, and just downright amazing all the time.

Here is a video of her kittens the first afternoon after they were born:

And here is a video of the kittens 28 days old:

*Notice how the mostly gray one (that looks like her mama) is basically saying, "I wan't nothing to do with this."

It's going to be really hard to bring this cuties back after their foster time is up.  They all act like their mama- which is absolute purrfection!  

More updates to come!

It's Soup-er Fruit-astic!

Bo & Chicken's 

Soup-er Fruit-astic 

All You Can Eat Ramen Noodle 

Belly Burning 

Bikini Wearing 

Ultimate Weight Loss 

(Lookin' Good) Challenge

Chicken:  Bo and I decided that we'd like to get into better shape and improve our health.  

Bo:  Since being gym-bos isn't a viable option (see Blog-er-size) we decided a combination of a healthy diet and home exercise would be the best way to go.

Chicken: So have decided for the next month we will give up ALL fried foods.  That means no french fries, no fried onion rings, and 

Bo: No Crab Rangoon!  My only weakness!!!!

Chicken: That's right.  No Crab Rangoon or sweet and sour chicken.  But, we are NOT giving up soda; we are just going to significantly reduce our soda intake.  I'm going down to 1 diet coke a day.

Bo:  I'm going to exercise 3 times a week.

Chicken:  I'm going to exercise at least 30 minutes 4 times a week.

Bo:  We made a trip to the store and picked up a bunch of fresh healthy foods.   I put out a bunch of healthy fruits for easy to snack locations.  This is not a diet- it's a healthy eating challenge!

Chicken:  We are doing this for 1 month.  So on July 15th we will do a big weigh in and blog the results.

Until then, the B.A.C.S.F.A.Y.C.E.R.N.B.B.B.W.U.W.L.L.G.C. is on!

Blog-er-size

One - Two - Three - Four

Touch those toes!

Run that mile!

Lift those weights!

Back in May Bo decided to join the Riverview gym.  

In June, Ashes decided to join the Riverview gym.
Chicken decided it was stupid and she wasn't joining a gym.

The following is the life & times of 2 gym-bos 
over the course of a week.  

Come on everyone, it's time to Blog-er-size.

Day 1: Monday
Ashes: Feel that burn!  This is the best idea ever!  
Bo: Exercising surely is hard sweaty work but it will all be worth it in the end.  I'm eating healthy and I'm feeling better than ever!
Ashes: I found some great new healthy recipes online that I'm excited to try out.

Day 2: Tuesday
Ashes: I didn't realize that there were so many muscles in your arms.  
Bo: I'm a little bit sore but it's all going to be worth it.  No pain no gain right?  
Ashes: Yep, this is really and truly the best thing we ever decided to do.  You know I slept like a rock last night.  
Bo: I know how you feel.  I was so exhausted I didn't eat dinner or do laundry.  I'm going to have to do that tonight.  
Ashes: Me too.  I should have done the vacuuming yesterday, but I was so sleepy I just went to bed early.

Day 3: Wednesday
Ashes: Oh, God.  Everything hurts.  I can't take this much longer.  
Bo: Did you have to pee like crazy yesterday.  
Ashes: Yeah.  I think it's all that water we're drinking.  I know it's good for you but I can't keep running to the bathroom every 10 minu. . . hang on I'll be right back.  
Bo: How do you feel about just doing the bikes today and not the treadmill.  
Ashes: Sounds fantastic.  Did you bring your mp3 player?
Bo:  Yep and I see that you've got yours.  I put some new motivational songs on here to put some pep in my step.

Day 4: Thursday
Bo: Okay we are not doing the bikes again.  My butt is still numb from that seat.  
Ashes: How do people do this?  
Bo: I have laundry everywhere!  It just keeps piling up and I'm so tired at night I can't do anything.  I only have 1 more pair of clean socks so I have to do laundry tonight.  
Ashes: I haven't made dinner all week- instead I've just been eating the ready made stuff that can't be good for you- but I don't have the time or energy to cook anything healthy.  
Bo: We can do this.  Other people do this right?  Other people are perfectly capable of balancing a full-time job, pets, and housework.  
Ashes: So, we can handle this.  It's just all about balance.  
Bo:  That's true.  We just need to find our balance.  I've decided to pick 1 day a week to do all the laundry, 1 day for the vacuuming, and so on.  

Day 5: Friday
Ashes: There are just not enough hours in the day.  I spend all my time frantically trying to get all the housework done and running to the bathroom to pee!  
Bo: It's just not possible.  I don't know how I'm supposed to do everything.  I'm wearing my last pair of socks.  Don't look too closely because they don't match, but at least their clean.  Then my cat ate my ear buds so I don't have any workout music!
Ashes: What happened to your plan?  
Bo: Well, it all went down the drain when I got home and found out that Rosie O' (my dog) had torn apart her dog bed making it look like it snowed in the house.  It was magical for about 2 minutes until I realized that A. It's June and B. There shouldn't be 'snow' in the house.

Day 6: Saturday
Bo: When the alarm goes off I turn it off and stare at the ceiling.  There is no way I'm going to be able to get out of the bed today.


Ashes: When I woke up the alarm clock says 5:27. . . that would be p.m.

Day 7: Sunday
The gym is closed.  Thank God!

Well our attempt to get fit didn't take a long time before our trips to the gym dwindled and then stopped all together.  But we did take a lot away from our gym experience.


1.  You have a lot of muscles.  Seriously.  Muscles in places that you never knew there were.
2.  You have to be willing to give up a certain amount of time on a weekly basis to achieve true gym-bo status; the two of us are so family & career oriented that we didn't make it.
3. You don't have to join a gym to get fit.  Small permanent healthy changes in your diet and adding a little walk here and there can make a dramatic difference too.
4. Getting fit is a life change.  You have to set up your mind and follow through with it.  
5. Think before you eat.  Should I really get a Jumbo fries instead of a medium?  Why eat potato chips when I have some apples right here? Choose grilled over fried when possible.