Good Ol Days

Every year my dad makes caramel corn for my sisters and brother and I to take home with us around the holidays. Every year I try to eat it all before Michael or anyone else can delve into it. Every year I have been succesful. So the other day I was craving this caramel corn and decided that I couldn't wait until Thanksgiving or Christmas for it. You know the holidays are near when I am getting a hankering for it and willing to make it myself! hahaha. So I asked my dad for the recipe. Today, I am proud to say that I can officially make the same dessert that my dad has made for so many years. I was so happy about that! Or so I thought. I tried it, and yes, it was good. Yes, it took a while to make. Yes, I could easily make it again no problemo. So whats the deal? The deal is that even if it does taste the same, my dad didn't make it. He didn't put everything together, plan on sending us kids home with it knowing that we would all cram it down our gullets before our spouses and kids could their mitts on it. No, it just isn't the same. Not the same at all. I have realized a couple things here recently. The best food never tastes the same as when someone else makes it in comparison to you. That's a given. But the hard part is knowing that I am getting older. Pretty soon, I will be the one making it for my kids and having them wake up on Christmas morning asking if they can have that before breakfast. What I am trying to say is that I miss my dad, his baking, the little things like that he used to do for us that would bring me back to my days as a kid. I know I am older and nothing will change about that. I decided that although I followed his recipe, I think I will leave the baking to him. It was more fun, more significant to me to have to fight for the damn caramel corn with my sisters and brother over who gets the bigger bag, with or without nuts. Me and Marisa always without. Danny and Ash with. I am making a quick pit stop on my way home from work tomorrow. I am going to leave some for my deserving sister in her house. Hopefully she can get to it before the kids get home from school. aww the good ol days.

Latest and Greatest

At the end of August, my car lease was up. I have been dreading this moment for 3 years now, on the day that I signed the papers to it. I used to work at Ford Credit as a recovery specialist as well as lease end customer service. In other words, I knew what I was getting myself into, and I knew about what happens at the end. Well, really it didn't turn out all that bad. I had been driving the truck for 4 months prior to turning the car in trying to spare the mileage on my car. It took me until the day before I turned it in to realize what I had actually been spending on gas the past 4 months. I was filling the dodge 3 times a week at $85 a pop! Do the simple math on that and you get $1020 a month on gas! Holy hell! What was I thinking? It would have been cheaper to go over the miles than to fill the tank as much as I did! Bottom line, I needed a gas efficient car, end of story! We traded the truck in, turned my Altima in and bam! Out we walk with a fuel efficient Nissan Sentra. 33 road, 37 highway miles. Best thing yet? I am paying less on this car than I did on the lease! Wahoo! I was sad to see the truck go. We brought both of the kids home from the hospital in that truck, many camping trips later, scouting for deer hunts, high centering, stuck in the mud, shooting and teaching Darren to drive, all done in that truck. Shoot, both kids were made in that truck! haha just kidding. But you get my drift! We had tons of memories in that truck and we both were sad to give it up. Michael had a hard time until I promised him that in a couple months when we recover from the over 4k I had spent in gas, we will go down and get him the 4x4 of his dreams. That was all it took. I am one to keep my promises and cant wait to make new memories. Here are some pics of the new rice burner! haha