Random Ramblings – Fifteenth Edition

Happy weekend!  What are you up to this weekend?!  If the weather holds out, James and I are hoping to take Ethan to one of the California Missions so Ethan can start working on his 4th grade California Mission project.  I love history, so I am ALL about this project!  Oh– so I was going to try and get my Boston travel post done by today, but that just didn’t happen….I am shooting for next week, so make sure you sign up for my free emails so you don’t miss out!  I wasn’t going to do this Random Ramblings post today either, but then I realized I had so much to talk to y’all about, so here we are!  

BOSTON was amazing!  If you follow me on Instagram then you got a sneak peek at some pictures from my trip.  I plan on breaking the blog posts up in two parts.  Part one: what to see and where to stay and Part 2: all about the food!!  Stay tuned for next week!  I shamelessly made random people take pictures of me while I was out exploring hahahaha 😉

Here’s me at the Cheer’s gift shop.  You know Cheer’s….where everyone knows your name!  Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, K-E-L-L-Y….If you have watched Cheer’s before, then you know where that’s from!!!  Or click HERE.

After getting home from Boston, it was cupcakes and a million chores, laundry and errands before going back to work.  On Saturday, Wendy and I took the girls to go see Peppa the Pig Live! at the Gallo Center here in Modesto.  It was super cute!!

The girls had a blast!  And both girls kept sticking their tongues out at Wendy and I while we were trying to take their picture….so this picture is as good as it gets 😉

Sunday was a day to kind of be lazy, catch up on blogging stuff…until some major CRAZY shit went down…but it’s nothing I can really talk about in detail on here.  Just crazy, crazy, crazy.  I am still shaking my head in disbelief at how some people can act, and the horrible things that can come out of their mouths.  Like I am totally used to that kind of stuff at work, but when it’s directed at me on a personal level (and completely unwarranted), then it causes me pause.  Hopefully the crazy will go away without the need of a restraining order…

Did you guys see my Friday Frenzy Link Party post yesterday??  I am the newest hostess for the link party, which I will publish on the blog every Thursday evening!  Link parties are a way for bloggers to link up their recipes and get them out there in the blogosphere for maximum exposure.  We all love getting the extra traffic to our sites and of course more subscribers!!  If you are a blogger reading this, please link your posts up!!  I will post the party on Thursday evenings, to give you time to link up before my email subscription goes out on Friday!!

FEELING:  Excited!  I signed up to attend the International Food Blogger Conference in Sacramento on 09/29/17-10/01/17.  This will be my first blogger conference…hopefully I can learn some good stuff that I can bring back to share with you guys!  Because I’m sure I’m doing it all wrong hahaha.  Click HERE to check it out (and sign up if you are a blogger!).  Thanks Laura, for recommending I go!

WANTING:  More hours in the day…..anyone else with me on that?!  I don’t seem to sit down to eat dinner until close to 8:00 at night!  Ahhhh!!  And then I wake up at 5:22 AM every morning.  So random.  My alarm is set to go off at 5:30 AM for work, so I just end up getting up.

WATCHING:  Ummmm…Hallmark Channel has a new movie every Saturday night in April.  Sappy, romantic movies….my guilty pleasure 🙂

CRAVING:  Marshmallow cereal treats…(????) Not sure why.  Cookies are usually my thing.  I think I just have marshmallow treat recipes on the brain hehehe.  Probably because I am going to be doing a cooking demonstration next month for the wives of some of the police officers I work with, and I have been brainstorming recipes to make…which have included maybe making a Fruity Pebbles Marshmallow Treat and a version of my killer brownies.  Kinda nervous about doing a cooking demo…I am just a home baker!!!

BAKING:  My friend Doug just got assigned to the Investigations Unit at MPD, working Robbery/Homicide, so he asked if I would make him some pastries to bring in for his first morning briefing!  I made my Peanut Butter Scones, Apple Cinnamon Fritter Loaf Cake and Cinnamon Sugar Blondie Bars.  And because I have a weird sense of humor, the blondies got decorated like this:

Everyone over in the Investigations Unit loved the goodies!!  Mmmmmm…also I am working on a bunch of recipes for #RecipeMakeover too.  This coming week I plan on sharing a couple of round-up posts with Easter brunch recipes and Easter dessert recipes for you too, since Easter is quickly approaching (April 16th)!!

My friends at Vain Extracts sent me a couple new bottles of vanilla extract to try…. AND Irish Vanilla Coffee Drops.  I am seriously flipping out over the coffee drops!!!  You guys!  I am a dark roast, black coffee kind of girl…but just one drop of Vain Irish Vanilla Coffee Drops in my morning cup of coffee, is a game changer.  And no calories.

Some girls like perfume, I like vanilla extract….I can’t.stop.smelling.the.extracts!  But how sweet is it the Vain not only sent me some extracts, but also included recipe cards on how to use their products and a handwritten note from the owner!  That’s not just special for me…one of my readers bought some extracts and got a personal letter written to them and recipe cards too.  You can’t get that kind of specialness from the grocery store.  Just saying.

Only a few days left to get 10% off AND free shipping on your purchase made at vainfoods.com.  Enter promo code SWEET at checkout (good until 04/10/17).  I love supporting such a wonderful, family owned business, that produce such a unique, quality product.  Okay…. I am done talking about my love affair with Vain…just go buy some already so you know what all the fuss is about 😉

WORK UPDATE!!!!  Work is going well.  I am just about done with my rough draft of all the corrections for the FTP book I am re-vamping.  Next, I make my final corrections to the draft on the computer, and then get it ready to go to the printer.  I had a doctors appointment with Dr. Knight this week, which wasn’t good or bad.  I lost a little bit of weight (she never tells me how much….it’s all blind weigh-ins) and my blood pressure was really low again.  So my work status remains the same, much to my disappointment, which has put me in a funk.  But I’ll pull out of my funk and keep on, keeping on!

Also, I was thinking about doing a post about “A Day in the Life at Eating Recovery Center” and a post about “A Day in the Life of Ongoing Eating Disorder Recovery.”  A lot of people have asked me what I did when I was in Denver and what’s up with me now.  I think most people don’t understand eating disorders, which affect quite a few more people than anyone may realize.  It’s a secret no one seems to want to talk about…until you get big mouth me over here with a blog!  I am doing this with positivity towards recovery though.  My goal is to help others that may be struggling like I was (uhhh….still am).  Thoughts??  It’s a very personal thing for me to write about, so let me know if it’s something worth writing.  Otherwise I’ll just go make you brownies instead.

Last, but certainly not least!  A HUGE birthday wish to this little guy!!!  Hitting double digits today with the big 1-0!!  I love my little guy Jack Jack (his name came from The Incredibles).  He has been my faithful, furry buddy for the past 10 years, and has seen me through some major ups and downs in life.  I love this dog more than you can ever imagine.  This dog just gets me….he understands me…he knows me and my routines.  I love you Jack Jack and hope you have a happy, happy birthday!!

Okay leave me a comment below….I love hearing from y’all!  Anyone baking this weekend??  What are your thoughts about my upcoming posts??  Should I just stick to recipes and STFU?  Lemme know!  Hahaha 😉

XOXO,

Kelly

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