The Best Quick Entertaining Recipe

Frozen Meatballs
Small jar grape jelly
Jar of Chili sauce

Put it all in the crock pot and crock it on low all day. Yep, that's it. Serve it on toothpicks, over rice, or any way you like. People will *never* guess how you made it and everyone will love it. I'll have to update the post with a picture because we already ate tonight's example! Happy New Year...

Christmas

Wow. I have so many posts in half-finished form right now. I have one comparing the Kindle Fire and the Kindle Paperwhite (with my thoughts about the iPad thrown in). I just realized that my family owns 5 Kindle Fires, 1 Paperwhite, 2 iPads, and a Google Nexus (to say nothing of the 2 desktops and 3 laptops). There is a lot of technology in this house (I forgot to mention the iPods and mp3 players). And I call myself a Luddite...yeesh.

In any case. I have all these posts started, but on 12/23, I got a massive migraine. It didn't go away until 12/27. Yep. I had it all through Christmas. At least (unlike on Christmases past) I didn't have to spend the whole day in bed. On 12/27 my headache went away...and I got sick. The kind of sick where you can't do ANYTHING. You know, the congestion and exhaustion...so most of that is better, but the legacy of the cough is here.

Enough whining. For now. The point is that within a few days you can expect posts on Kindles and Audible (I have, ahem, 902 books in my Audible library. Don't judge.).

Finally, does anyone have Munchkin?

Oh my gosh! What an awesomely fun game! We have played it twice since Christmas and can't wait to play it again! There are expansion packs out the wazoo, too :-)

I hope you had a blessed, happy, and HEALTHY Christmas! 

Kindle is on Amazon for $49!

There are so many reasons to get a Kindle, but the best one is the price -- and right now that price is $49! That's right, the basic Kindle is only $49 today! I honestly can't emphasize enough how much my kids love reading on Kindles and how convenient it is to be able to buy a book and then send it to every Kindle in my house at once. Jump on this deal. Tomorrow I'll write about Whispersync for Voice and Audible and why it is absolutely the best deal going...but you'll need a Kindle (or at least the app) to take full advantage of it!

A Couple of Cyber Monday Makeup Deals!

Okay, so one of my obsessions is makeup. It's always been there, but it goes latent from time to time. It's not latent now. This will be a short post so it can get to Pintrest in time to make a difference! If you love Urban Decay, but don't love the prices, consider this amazing deal on the Book of Shadows IV!

On Cyber Monday, this bad boy is supposed to be available for $25. N.B.!! This is the Book of Shadows IV redux, UD's answer to its sold-out original. The CM deal is just noted as Book of Shadows with Revolution lipstick sample. Either way, it's a hugely good deal on some of the most amazing eye shadow out there!

If $25 is still a bit much for you, or you don't want to wait until tomorrow, or you like Smashbox just a tad more than UD, check out one more amazing deal:

This is Smashbox's Click, You're It eye palette which, if I remember correctly, was their 2012 holiday palette. Right now, at All Cosmetics Wholesale, this palette is under $18. Now, you won't get the primer and the lid may be bowed. It won't be boxed. HOWEVER, the shadows are still Smashbox quality! I can deal with the everything else!

Maybe you don't do high-end makeup at all. Click on over to ACW anyway. Check out their Wet n Wild section. I seriously need to do a whole blog post on WnW. Back in the day, I bought them because black lipstick was not cool (not like now when no high-end line is complete without its blackish shade), and WnW was the only company that made it! Quality was...not great. Times have changed. WnW lipstick is not my favorite, but the shadows are wonderful! Used over primer, they last and last. The colors are great. Well, ACW carries a ton of their discontinued stuff. They also carry other drugstore brands. And Lime Crime. Just had to throw that in there.

Hey, I know I'm 38 now, and I respect my husband's wishes that I not look like a circus clown, but the old me lurks not far below the surface :-D

Happy Cyber-Monday-ing!

Happy New Year!

...Catholic Style!

The first day of Advent marks the first day of the Liturgical Year in the Catholic Church. Like all Church seasons, it is denoted by a color. This one is marked by my favorite: purple! Purple signifies both the sovereignty of Christ (his Kingship - hey, it is a royal color!) and penitence. If you want to be very technical, the purple of Advent is deeper and darker than the purple of Lent (of course, we get a liturgical break on the 3rd Sunday of Advent, but that's for another post!).

Image Credit: UCC

P.S., it is not the Christmas season yet. I know this will come as a shocker to a lot of people, but Christmas doesn't start until December 25th. It ends on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord (which has been moved to a fixed date on the Sunday following the feast of Epiphany, the Sunday closest to January 6th). So, if you're a Catholic, or any devout Christian, hold off on the Christmas decorations and enjoy the season of Advent. 

The first week we Wait.

The second week we Prepare.

 The third week we Rejoice.

The fourth week we Behold.

Then, we celebrate the birth of our Savior!

Ten Things You Don't Know About Me

Okay, so I won't do this on Facebook because it is so public, but I will do it here (and have it post to FB - ha!) in my own personal space. The fact is that very few people know anything at all about me, so I have to think hard about what I am willing to give away!

10. I am obsessive and I border on being a hoarder when I am obsessing over something.

9. As much as I want not to care, I cry when people unfriend me on FB, especially when it's because they find my Catholic morality hateful. Especially when it is someone I have known for a long time.

8. I got married the day after 21, which made me barely legal for my honeymoon in Las Vegas, where I was carded (that was almost 18 years ago for anyone who is curious). There were doubters who thought I wouldn't finish college by getting married in the middle of my junior year of college: to you I say, "I'll see your 1.5 years of college and raise you 7.5 years of grad school."

7. Keeping with that theme, if I could have lunch with anyone living or dead, it would be my grandmother, Mama Connie. I miss her terribly and I have so many things I want to talk to her about. Re: her dress, her luggage was lost before my wedding, and she was horrified that she had to wear her travel clothes to my wedding. Like anyone cared!

6. I am related to a homeschool celebrity (if you do Seton, that is).

Yeah, that guy is my Uncle Bob(ert). My mom's baby brother and my favorite uncle. Little Bob Wiesner tidbit: he used to work in a book store a million years ago. The beard was brown then. People used get Stephen King books and bring them up to the register and look at the author photo and then look at Bob and say, "Is that you?!" I think it's the eyes - very charismatic guy. He's a wonderful guy.

5. I hated graduate school. I was the token Christian and the token Conservative in my very liberal department at Rice. I was mocked mercilessly by a couple of professors (which didn't really bother me since I no respect for them anyway). Two things saw me through. Sheer tenacity (Henry says I'm like a bulldog with a steak - when I want something you can't get it away from me for anything in the world) and Henry. He flat-out would not let me quit. I owe him everything for that. There was one office in our department I longed to get lost in, and it belonged to this guy:

Photo Copyright Rice University

That's Dr. Gilbert Cuthbertson, or Doc C. He got his PhD in Government from Harvard in 1963 and he's still teaching at Rice. He's a dinosaur in the department since he doesn't *do* political science. He teaches government and political theory, which is only one reason I love him. I had the honor of TAing for him more than 10 years ago, and this man can teach. His office has so many old and moldering books in it that there is almost no room for him. It is what I fantasize about when I fantasize about academia. The fact that it is not what academia is is one of the major reasons that I want no real part of academia. It is because of Doc C that you may very well here me say, "Watch the hands, people!"

4. You've probably never heard of my favorite band. I only know one person who has, but he's not the person who introduced me to them.

This is my favorite album by my favorite band, and it was "given" to me by my high school boyfriend, Marc.

Marc was the kindest, sweetest boy in the world. Honestly, our relationship only officially ended because I met the man I knew I was meant to marry practically the second I started college. Marc died in 1997, may God grant him eternal rest.

3. My family mirrors my nuclear family in so many ways that it is more than eerie. If you knew me then, you can only imagine. Except you can't.

2. I knew that I was pregnant with my twins immediately, and just as immediately I knew it was twins. I really did. I mean, with a 2 year old, a 7 month old, a looming dissertation, and a sister who had just had twins (and a mom who was a twin), what else could it be? My pregnancy hunch was confirmed with a dollar store test. Yep - dollar store!

1. Husband aside, the only best friend I've ever had where I knew it was 100% reciprocal was a guy. 

A (12 year-old) Girl's Best Friend

It was kind of funny...one day I had a little girl, and then one day I woke up with a young lady. One day Therese didn't care about makeup at all, and the next she loved going to Ulta, checking out the weekly beauty sales at Walgreens, and ooohing and aaahing at the Urban Decay pallets I drool over online. The only problem is that she is 12. She seemed way too young to me...until I realized that when I was 12, I went to a public junior high school and I was in possession of pressed powder and barely there lipstick. I'm pretty sure that the powder was parentally approved; I'm not so sure about the lipstick!

Of course I see the girls that Therese dances with, and they wear full faces of makeup at her age. They look ridiculous at 11, but by 14 I want to ask some of them about their eyeshadow application tips. I don't want either one of those options to apply to my daughter! However, I am in love with lipstick myself, and one of my recent loves seemed to offer a perfect compromise for Therese! Honestly, I was kidding when I asked Henry if Therese could wear lipstick, but he said that as long as it was unobtrusive, he didn't mind...

Enter - Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Peach Parfait!

The texture of a Lip Butter is very much like that of a lip gloss. It is part of that branch of the lipstick family that is heavy on the lip balm aspect, but not necessarily as heavy on the lip pigmentation (although there are a couple of pretty heavily pigmented lip butters, of the four I/we own, only one has what I would call a lipstick-type pigmentation). The above is a stock photo of Peach Parfait. Here is what it looks like outside in natural lighting. Don't be fooled by the berry look; it is definitely on the peachy side!

And here's a swatch (again in natural lighting, unadjusted on the computer):

On Therese's lips, the color is barely discernible. What you do see is a lot of shine. Her own lips are close to this color, and her skin is on the yellow-toned side (thank you, Cuban blood!), so this actually looks pretty natural on her! However, she loves that is wearing lipstick!

Anyone who knows me knows that I don't cater to the whims of my kids. The desire for lipstick is one I get, though! And since a Lip Butter is so much a balm as well, I am not at all unhappy to let Therese wear it. These retail for anywhere between $5.50-$7.50 depending on where you go and how good you are at hunting down a sale (BOGO1/2 at Walgreens with a coupon, anyone?). 

Be sure to stop by next week when I'll show you how I taught Therese to line her waterline... ;-)