I’m kind of embarrassed to admit that I have televisions like this mounted In every room of our house.

However, I want them framed like this. So tomorrow my handy man is coming to bring it into fruition. Yay!

http://glorioustreats.blogspot.com/2011/09/pumpkin-pecan-dessert-in-jar.html

Heres a great little Christmas gift idea. I think its so cute. I have all of my Christmas decorations up, and I’m glad I can now sit back and enjoy looking at my work. I’ll start posting my house decorations. I hope you like them, and get some ideas for your home.

Our dilemma always seems to resort back to the same thing. Say for instance, when I go to someones house and they’re serving pork for the entree, and I don’t eat pork, what do I say to the hostess? Or do I say anything? Do you just eat the side dishes, and stay mum, or announce that you’re a vegetarian?

I dabble with that whole thing of presently being a vegetarian, but not wanting to stand out by letting everyone know that Im a vegetarian.
There was a time that I recall when being a vegetarian was a big loud, let everybody know how much better of a person I am, by announcing I only eat green stuff phase. I thought that was as annoying as crap. I thought to myself, who gives a flip that you dont eat meat. Go away, why dontcha!

The other sitch we talked about was that when we try to eat vegetarian, what about the rest of our family? My family, except for my daughter, eats meat and poultry. I didn’t want to inconvenience their lives and make them eat like a veggie. I told Ash to do what I do. And that is to just continue to make normal family meals, and then adjust her menu to accomodate herself. Say for instance, when I make spaghetti, I make myself a bowl of sauce before adding it to the meat. This seems to work out pretty well for me. I’m anticipating Ash’s results to see how it works out with her and her family.

Ash was telling me about seeing a doctor on a tv show that was talking about why some parents get so offended when you tell them you’re trying to become a vegetarian. The doctor said, it’s because parents tend to feel a personal attack, as if they weren’t a good enough parent. They may feel that they’d fed you all sorts of foods that weren’t good for you. Perhaps, inferior that you are a better parent than they were.
I found that quite interesting, because I remember when I first told my mom that I was a vegetarian, she kind of scoffed at me. Now it makes perfect sense.
Have you ever had any of these scenarios happen, and if so what’d you do?

Here’s a teaser. In my next post Im gonna give tips on how to trick your mind from wanting unhealthy foods. Stay tuned…

My new website won’t be up for about another month, hmmm… but who’s counting? Ummmm…I am.

Good Golly Ms. Molly.

My dogs are potty trained, however there have been times when they have done there business on my carpet. My house mostly has wood floors, except for a bedroom or two.

Premium Capture is the best carpet and dry rug cleaner on the market (in my opinion.) The things I love about this product: No matter how long a soil has been on your carpet, Capture will remove it completely. Two: Animals tend to soil the same spot over and over. Capture removes the smell completely so this won’t happen.

I highly recommend this product. Try it and tell me what you think. The only place I’ve been able to find it is at Home Depot. I’m sure you could find it on Amazon as well.

You can tell they are stressed beyond facial recognition and it’s probably because little Johnny had to forgo his nappy time. Food and sleep are like salt is to the ocean. If you desire to have jubilant ankle biters you must comply to these rules.
When I had my children, it was a rude awakening. I decided that despite being a young mother I wanted to keep up my healthy lifestyle, as well as keep myself emotionally balanced.

I have lost copious amounts of sleep over the years, but for me to have balance I realized that I had to take care of myself first. If I didn’t do things for myself FIRST, they wouldn’t get done, and I wouldn’t have been helpful to anyone. That’s not a selfish statement.

Think about this, when you’re in a plane and the flight attendant demonstrates the use of emergency equipment, she says, that you should first put the oxygen mask on yourself, and then help assist others. There’s a reason for that. We can’t help others before we help ourselves.

My solution for finding balance, was to wake up an hour and a half, sometimes two hours earlier than my children. I was then able to have my exercise workout, have time to shower, get ready for the day, and have a little prayer. Oh, and a little dose of Zoloft (I’m joking) doesn’t hurt either.

My kids are now all teenagers but I still have that same regime. The task that seemed so difficult, has turned into a pleasure. The rewards for this girl have been ten fold.

Of course, I didn’t recognize this unpredictable, vindictive, conniving, insecure train wreck of a girl at first. Can you say, “Wool in sheep’s clothing?” I tried to be benignant and thought that we were on semi-comfortable ground. Oh no, here’s where it starts to fall apart.

Throughout the next oh, lets say fifteen years she would become my nemesis. She smacked me in the face twice, threatened me continually, followed me after my classes bashed my religion, had an unbridled tongue, and was sure to repeatedly inform me that GE wasn’t really into me. She was a confirmed BULLY! She would belittle me in her subtle, off putting way . She was sure to keep GE from picking up on invariably my belief that her love for him had invaded this comfortable friendship. I was right on the money. No wonder she was premeditating to mar my future with GE.

She never conceded that she had feelings for him. Behind closed doors she was a different person. She obviously didn’t want him, but didn’t want anyone else to have him either. The dynamics between the two us never let up despite my best efforts. There was respite, but sure enough on occasions she would rear her ugly head and try to edge her way in. Until a few years ago, after her continual attempts to vex’d me, I’d had enough. It was me or her, and that was it. I wanted her out of my life on a permanent basis! I accomplished my goal, and she’s been out for three years.

NO more of her stupid, idiotic games. I hate controversy with the intensity of a thousand white hot suns, but I was so burned out, she became someone that easily had me trying to keep my tongue from choking me. I now realize that I should have listened to my gut reaction about her from the beginning. I always knew she didn’t REALLY like me. She tolerated me.

I’ve learned to always listen to my gut with having had that experience. There’s something to be said about our gut reactions. I wish I had been able to give her an official blow-off, and saved myself the heartache she caused me, but I didn’t.

Well, I just lost my previous post, so I’ll try again. I really hate when that happens.

The school year is beginning soon and I have yet to order my sons curriculum for home school. I’m really showing the signs of my procrastination. I’m starting to wonder what I’ve gotten myself into with all of this homeschooling business.

The one thing I’ll miss is my time with the hubby. We usually spend several hours together before the other children get home. My three things for a great marriage are: trust, spending quality time together, and communication. It sounds cliche but I live by those rules. Living with a comedienne is a bonus. Laughing keeps me feeling young.

I suppose we’ll have to get creative. Do you have any creative ideas for me? What say you?

Well hello there Guys and Dolls,

Im in the process of changing my blog layout as well as moving over to WordPress. Bare with me, I promise I won’t disappoint. My website will look as pretty on the outside as it does on the inside. Stay tuned…

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I reply by saying, “oh great, that sounds like fun.” Mitch saw the insincere reaction on my face. I’m already hearing my mothers voice giving advice on how ungrateful I’m acting. Raquel, “Don’t you know how many people would love to have the opportunity to go on ONE cruise in a lifetime, let alone the dozens you’ve already been on.”

I do know this, however I do have some pros and cons. Let me explain. It’s interesting that being deprived of travel as a child has turned into something that I’m grateful for. There are many people (husband) out there that love to travel and get a thrill out of it. I’d get a thrill out of traveling to Europe, but other than that I’m not interested. I’m not a traveler.

So fast forward to the upcoming cruise in November. Here are some of the reasons for not being necessarily enthusiastic about it.

Let’s start from the beginning. Days before we leave there is an enormous amount of laundry to do, making sure I have all of the items laid out for seven days for six people. Shoes for certain outfits, dressy outfits, casual outfits, swim clothes, undergarments for each person, accessories for my daughters hair, accessories for my hair, jewelry for each outfit, toiletries, lists for dog sitter (there’s another small fortune that will cost me) medication/vitamins, and so on. Use your imagination to envision the rest.

So now we’re at the airport with tons of luggage, standing in line with no end in site and the children are so bored from standing. I can’t say anything because under my breath I’m so irritated that I want to smack the cheerful Mickey Mouse employee out of her Mickey Mouse shoes. My feet are achy, I’m tired, and so freaking hungry that I’m chewing gum and then swallowing it as if it’s a small snack.

We then get to the counter and the attendant can’t find all of the correct forms and can’t decide on which keys belong to which person. So there’s another fifteen minutes of my life I can’t get back.

We finally get on the boat, get to our room and then each member of the family wants to do something different. One wants to eat, one wants to rest (me), one wants to swim, (which can’t go swim because there under the age limit so they have to be supervised. Which leads to one of the parents (me), having to sit at the side of the little kids pool, watching and listening to a bunch of gleeful children.) Ugggghhh….. This mama can’t cut a break.

All the while, I’m still not out of the water (no pun intended) from doing laundry on the boat, because I’m anal and don’t want the painful reminder of the mountains I’ll have to do when I get home.

Oh, and don’t forget that every night if you want to eat a meal you have to be at the restaurants on time or you don’t eat. And another thing is having to buy, yes BUY water.

And you ask me why I’m not a traveler or should I say a nice cruise traveler? Well there’s just a little list of my frustrations.

The cruises ARE a great opportunity for the children. The memories ARE important. I have to keep in mind that the children ARE going to remember. And if I’m not careful they will remember me being a sourpuss.

Im trying to enjoy things that I’m not fond of, as that was one of my New Year’s resolutions. I’m venting to you in hopes that I will get this negativity out of my brain. Thanks for letting me get it out.

Don’t worry I’ll post pictures and I’ll be smiling in every one of them fake or not.

Last night green Eyes and I were watching our regular chain of HSN shows. Dr. Drew came on and the marital controversy had begun. If you were watching as well, you know that the Octomom was on and I felt she sounded as if she actually did have some intellect. The more she spoke I began to have a different impression of her. It prompted me to think about the judgement that people have and that I am most certainly a contributor to this scrutiny towards Octomom. I’m not sure that I agree about her in-vitro, nor have I heard her entire story of how she was able to afford in-vitro to begin with. I thought those procedures were pricey.

Green Eyes and I had an interesting conversation to say the least. My point of view with watching her made me realize that I haven’t walked in her shoes. She was owning up to her responsibility of the bad decisions that she had made in her past, with having so many children.

Isn’t that what this life is all about? Realizing that we have made many mistakes in our lives and we shouldnt hold onto the negativity towards ourselves for making those mistakes. We need to learn to take what we did and turn it into good. I for one, don’t ever want people to judge me based on something they think they know about me, when they don’t. We should lift each other up, not put each other down. This is something that I needed to be reminded of.

I have two questions to pose to you. One: how do you react or work through issues and differences of opinion with your spouse, or friends? Secondly: Do you ever find yourself judging others without having full knowledge of the persons experiences? I’m just curious about it and by all means not going to judge you based on your opinions. I must continue to remember people do things subconsciously to fulfill an internal need that they lack. We do weird things based on our previous life experiences. I am as guilty as sin when it comes to this. My list of things to improve about myself seems to never end, but that’s okay.

For those of you that are my faithful readers know that I am trying to encourage a great following on my blog. I have been talking with friends, spouse, children, and other mommy bloggers. I’m trying to find my niche. It has been a little intimidating since Ive started this blog. I start to panic by thinking that my content must be terrible, that its all over the place, and then some of the things Ive wanted to spill my heart out over is a little hard to release.

I suppose it’s okay to feel less than confident when starting something new. I think that perhaps if everything were as easy as pie we wouldn’t end up working hard to achieve that something that’s important to us. So I want to tell you that I appreciate your devotion to my little blog, and that you come back to it and keep giving me another try.

I spoke with a dear, sweet friend today and she said something interesting and yet truthful to me about my blog. Ya know, sometimes the truth gives a little bit of a sting, but a little sting is good. Okay, so we were talking about blogs and so forth and I told her of my goal. The goal being that I wanted to have at least eight hundred to a thousand followers by this time next year. She made a great point by saying, ” Rac, it’s important that you write from your heart and to always be true to yourself and the readers will feel and know that. Its not about numbers or traffic Raquel, its about your content. The followers will come if you write about what you know, what you love, and from your experiences.”

I’ve had several people ask me why my friends are that blatant, forthcoming and bold. I can say my friends, not all of them, but several of them are very forward with me when I ask their opinion about things. I wouldnt have it any other way. I don’t feel sad, (okay sometimes..shhhh) angry or any of those things when they tell me the cold hard truth. I actually prefer it. That’s how we grow as people. It gives us a reason to contemplate issues in our lives. We may be facing certain issues right at the moment or perhaps somewhere in our future. We are all put on this earth to help each other, while also bettering ourselves.

Id like to apologize for acting as if all I was wanted was to have traffic for my blog. I have many things to learn. I’m just a girl tryin to write.

“Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.”
John Quincy Adams
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-Ciao!
Raquel
raquelenglish.com

I’m not going to be one of those glaring, confrontational ladies. I’m gonna take to my blog and talk behind your back like any normal person would do.

We shouldn’t expect children to understand church in an adult way, any more than we should expect children to understand a William Faulkner novel.

However, when I’m attending a sacrament meeting and one screaming, energetic, wheeze crying, crawling under the pews, walking the isles child is holding the entire meeting hostage, I have a problem with it.

Listen sweetie, everyone loves your fat faced cute baby, but can you put a lid on it already. It’s hard enough getting to church as it is, and then when I have to sit behind your production every Sunday, it starts to wear on ol’ mama…

So look, this is what you need to do: when say hence child begins to move an inch, YOU LEAVE THE ROOM!
When hence child begins to even PRETEND to start to cry, YOU LEAVE THE ROOM!
And no, don’t sit and think to yourself, “ohhh… Little Harry will stop crying in a few seconds, I’ll just try to do a dozen things within 20 seconds and he’ll stop fussing” meanwhile everyone is looking your way with a half tilt grin/smile). Here’s a tip, Angelina, people are smiling, all the while thinking to themselves, “girl, get your fanny up and leave the room already.”
I understand that you take parental delight in your child’s behavior, but I don’t. Sorry. Sue me.

I’m all for the speech of, “Were doing the best we can” and all that unconditional love jargon. I got the memo. I also know that toddlers have the attention span of a frustrated Gall gnat, so the next time you go to church with your brood of children, let’s remember what Hillary said; “It takes a village,”  but not the village idiot.  Just look my way, and I’ll come snatch little Harry up. If you dare to trust me.

Wow, reading this you probably think I am a bitter mom of 4, but I have to tell you after raising 3 rambunctious boys and a just as equally attention grabbing girl, I can tell you that it can be done.  I did it. I had to do it and I’m just not sure how anyone can forget there are 200 other people in tight suits and uncomfortable dresses sitting in a vaulted ceiling room with inadequate air conditioning trying to bring some purpose to the reason that they are there.

In retrospect, maybe I need to spend more time in said church.  I’m sure I need to learn some humility in all that humidity.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Sorry about the pictures being upside down. I’m blogging on my IPad and have no idea how to rotate the pictures.

That wasn’t a dis to Mr.Carell. Which is who he’s interviewing.

Point. Get. To. The. Point. Raquel.
Oh, okay. My point is: I am “jonesing” a diet Dr.Pepper with vanilla shot (don’t forget the vanilla shot) badly and since Green Eyes isn’t home I hate leaving and prancing the town. Hence, it’s Friday at 3:00 p.m. and I’m still blogging to you in my pj’s. Don’t you have those kinda days sometimes, where you just want to stay in all day long? Well that’s me today, “Lazy Lizzy Loner.”

This is how they come out of the dryer.

Tuck the corners into each other.

Fold the elastic part half-way in.

Then fold the other side over the elastic part.

Start at the ends and begin folding towards the center. Be sure to fold one end and then the other end so that the rough edges don’t show.

Like this.

Leave a small space in the middle so that you can fold one end over the top. There ya have it.

Final outcome.

Okay it’s not perfection, but it looks better than just balling it up and cramming it into the closet.

Here’s my linen closet. Another good idea is to put the sheet sets that you use for each bedroom, into each closet instead of all in one cabinet. It saves trips when you’re changing linens.
What does your linen closet look like? Do you have any tips that are beneficial when organizing your linen closet?

Pretty much most of my life I have always been the same way when trying to deal with things that I may be going through. I go inward and become a recluse. I know why I do it, (thanks to many self help books). I do it because I have a tendency to only want people to see me positive and happy go lucky. I feel weak and vulnerable. I don’t like feeling weak and vulnerable. It’s a challenge for me to expose myself and let people see me in a fragile state. I’m trying to change this about myself, because it’s much healthier to let those that love you, help you. Now don’t get me wrong, I never want to become a “Debbie Downer”. There’s a fine line between feeling down and just feeling down all of the time.

I wish I would have handled my slump in a different way, and perhaps I would have moved through it much quicker. But then again, I say that and realize all things happen the way they’re supposed to. I propose it may be one of those teaching moments again for little Mrs. Raquel.

I am pretty sure, that God (Heavenly Father) is trying to tell me lately, that life is fragile, beautiful, and worth piecing back together, no matter how banged up and broken it (I) may get. And he, (Heavenly Father) will be there to help me see the beauty in it along the way. Much like I see the beauty in all of my treasures, Heavenly Father sees the beauty in me. All I need is a little care and attention to become that precious treasure again.

Yeah, “I said it,” REHAB FOR TECHNOLOGY ADDICTION! Okay, I think I’ve heard it all. That has to be the most asinine thing I think I’ve heard since,” O.J. Simpson was found “not guilty” for murdering his wife.” I believe all of Hollywood must be certifiably deranged.

I have become enamored with Walgreens. I send my son to Walgreens to get me my “fix” on a daily basis, sometimes twice a day. Besides my usual diet Dr. pepper (with shot of vanilla- let’s not forget the vanilla), he’s at that store as much as, “Whoppi Goldberg goes to the bathroom.”

So, I’ve decided to check myself into somewhere overt, but we all know Hollywood paparazzi are, “Run to earth,” ( Apparently, I’m a rock star in this post).

I fully admit to be being a “drug store junkie,” there, I admitted it! Isn’t that the first step, “admitting,” the addiction?

So, my friends, I’ll be out of the loop for a while. Not really… I’ll be back in about a day, “because apparently, that must be how long it takes to be healed these days.”

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

I was taking my dogs out to have their routine potty break when all of a sudden my Yorkie bolts like lightening ripping her collar and leash right off of her neck.

Of course, she had seen a dog on our sidewalk and wanted to do her normal doggy butt sniff.

I took off after her hoping to get to her before she started barking and causing turmoil with the neighborhood dog lady and her lovely Fifi. (You don’t want enemies with neighbors that live so close that you could basically open your window and ask your neighbor to borrow some butter.)

Dog Lady looked my way as I ran like an Olympian to get to my dog, and no sooner than an unexpected Florida rain she begins screaming at me, “GET YOUR DOG AWAY FROM ME, NOWWW!!!”

I was actually going to cuss her for everything she was worth ( not really- but it sounds fierce) but just decided to stay quiet (my parents did teach me some manners) I picked up my dog and (with head held low- like Linus from Charlie Brown) I went home.

But seriously, what was dog lady thinking?

Did she think I was running like the wind after my dog for no good reason, other than to chum it up with her that I had the ingenious idea of wanting to start up a ( Michael Vick, dog fighting club.) geeze….

Think people!!! Think!!!!!