Last Saturday my step-daughter graduated from High School. We had a great party after the ceremony, our first time hosting in our new house, and got to see some people we haven't seen in ages. My husband's ex-wife and her entire family spent the whole day with us. Our other guests were amazed at how comfortable we all were together and complimented us on our ability to come together and create a positive and supportive environment for the kids. Aside from my pride in my girl finishing in the top 30 of her class and moving on to the next chapter in her life, the very best part of the day was seeing 2 of my favorite people in the whole world! It had been so long since I'd seen them it made me slightly depressed and emotional when they left. Seeing them made me realize 3 things. 1st thing, I think I may legitimately have a touch of Agoraphobia. 2^nd thing, the 3 friends I love the most are a direct reflection of my personality. 3rd thing, I'm a pretty shitty friend. 

Siggghhhhhhhh. Anyone know where you go to turn in your adult card? I'm tired. I need a break. I don't want to do grown up stuff. Everything seems SO HARD right now. I'm in fairly good spirits, I guess, but I've got so much going on that I can't do the things I want to do because I barely have time for the things I'm required to do. I'm not sleeping well. My thoughts are disorganized. Even blogging is slow going because I feel like I work and work and somehow only manage to crank out a sentence or 2 a day. It makes it really hard to stay focused on my message. I'm the same way at work. I work my ass off all day and accomplish nothing. Basically, I'm a hot ass mess right now.

The other day I was pulling up to a stoplight, and there was this guy standing on the corner. He was looking hard trying to get my attention. He wasn’t ugly really, but he was one of those that you can see the type of guy he was just by looking at him. As the light turned and I sped off, I realized that there was a time when that was exactly the type of guy I would be attracted to. Now, that same type of guy couldn't be less enticing to me. Some of the guys in my past I look back on and think, “What in the LITERAL FUCK was that about?” Most women may have one or 2 of those, but I feel like I've had a few more than my fair share. For most of my adult life, if you lined up 19 good men and one shitty one, it’s pretty much a guarantee that I would have picked the one I had absolutely no business getting involved with. I can’t even lie. It wasn’t like I had some epiphany that I was a douche magnet. It was more of a hindsight revelation. When you find out what it’s like to be with a real man that loves you the way a man’s supposed to, those rose colored glasses come off and you can finally see a loser as exactly what he is. I stumbled over that man by pure chance, but if I hadn’t I think I’d probably never have seen the light, at least not yet. I feel extremely fortunate that we found each other against all odds, and I look at women with that same propensity toward the jerks of the world and pray that they find their soul mates one day too.

You know this stuff is awesome... Admit it.

OMG! This one here is a must try. Last week I was looking for something new to fix as usual, and decided to give this cheese tortellini a shot that I’ve been eyeing in the dairy section at the store. I did a quick Pinterest search and came up with a basic idea for a recipe and took it from there. Since my husband doesn’t eat beef or pork, I get pretty tired of eating chicken and ground turkey. I decided to do turkey sausage with this one for a little something different, and it was an excellent decision.

Ask any woman what the best, hardest, and sometimes the most thankless, job in the world is and we'll all say the same thing... BEING A MOTHER. Multiply a normal mom's struggle by about 10 and you'll be getting close to what it must have been like to be mine. I swear if we were Catholic I'd petition to have her canonized a saint. Every year at Mother's Day, I make it a point to apologize for being so hard to raise and tell my mom she was right about damn near everything. Here's my list of the top 10 things she was right about:

Writing has been tough on me the last week or so. I've been so busy that when I do have time to sit down and write I can only make it for about 15 minutes before I can't keep my eyes open. So, while it may appear that I have let the challenge defeat me, believe me I'm writing every day like I planned. It's just the finished products aren't coming together as fast as I had hoped they would. It doesn't look like things are going to slow down for me any time soon. It's going to be a busy month for the Andrews family. We are pretty much booked every weekend from now until July. We have Mother's Day, the neighborhood garage sale (kill me now), our anniversary, my step-daughter's graduation with a big party at our house to follow, my brother coming to visit, my birthday, and then we'll finish off with a trip to Idaho for my little sister's wedding. I'm exhausted and broke just thinking about it.

I just spontaneously decided that I'm going to do a recipe of the week. I know I can't be the only mom that gets tired of eating the same 3 meals the kids like over and over. When your kids are little you can just fix what you want and they will either way it or starve. Once your kids are of the age that they have licenses and their own money, if they don't like what's on the table they'll be in someone's drive thru in no time. I really hate seeing my kids living off of fast food and am forever searching for something besides fried chicken and hamburgers to fill their bellies. Here's a good easy one I tried for the first time tonight.

For the last week or so, it seems like every single topic in the news is centered around a discrimination or equality issue of some type. I'm not usually one to discuss my views on politics or sensitive social topics. It's totally not my style to try to push my beliefs on anyone else and have always felt that the way I live my life is the best way to show others what I stand for. Today, I was having a conversation with a group of ladies that moved me to want to write about my thoughts on the subject. This is very unusual for me and might be the only time you'll read a post from me like this.

I'm about to admit something you'll rarely ever hear me say. I miss my Daddy. He's not dead. I know his address and phone number. I could pick up the phone and call him any time. He'd be more than thrilled to hear from me, but the person who would pick up the phone isn't the person I want to talk to. The truth is, the man I miss doesn't even exist. He never did.