Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from the Miss Thing and I.

May your 2019 be filled with great memories, good health and lots of laughter!

Wordless Wednesday

I have a secret love for Five Below and I'm not even a 10 year old girl. Seriously, it's like the Dollar Tree but a little bit fancier. Imagine my glee when an ad for Five Below came in the newspaper last week.......

Thankful Tuesday

I went on a 24 hour adventure last week with some girlfriends to Chicago to see the Pentatonix Holiday Concert. 24 hours of too many drinks, too many high calorie foods, a lot of laughs, pretty much no sleep, and some pretty great memories ending with a cold caught as part of my recovery! I captured this shot from the plane window as we came back into KC. 

The sun rises on a new day and for that we can each be thankful.

Meatless Monday

 

Participating in "Meatless Monday?" Check out this!  Who ever knew this little gem found in the freezer section at Trader Joe's would be so good!

I've been wanting to try Cauliflower Pizza Crust for awhile and so on a recent trip to TJ's I picked one up. Easy directions on the back of the package to prepare and top with some of your favorite ingredients. Delish!

Christmas Music Nerds Round 4

My friend Annie and I have a tradition of going to a Christmas concert each December. Likely because I refused to go see Trans Siberian Orchestra with her, I know, I know, my love for Christmas music excludes Trans Siberian Orchestra, we went to see Jim Brickman again. We saw him the first year of our tradition in 2015.

I have to say the best part of the night was likely dinner at Anthony's in downtown KC. We arrived about 10 minutes late to the concert because clearly 300 E. 12th Street and 300 W. 12th Street are two entirely different places.  Beyond bummed that he maybe did 8-10 songs in the entire concert and the rest was awkward jabber where he thought he was a comedian. No go, Jimmy, play your piano and sing your songs. And to top it off, the lady behind us had commentary for every little move on stage. So, there you have it. Lost some love for Jim Brickman this year.

Fun tradition and always love Christmas music!

You can read about our adventures in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

Stovetop Creamy Mac & Cheese

Dare I say I almost feel normal? Last week I cooked two, yes two meals at home. So nice to be able to slow down and actually stand in my kitchen. One of the meals was Stovetop Creamy Mac & Cheese which I made for my Corks & Crafts group. Coincidentally, I went to this blog to find my recipe for this as I was certain I would have blogged about it. I was shocked to find I had never blogged this recipe! Straight from the America's Test Kitchen Cookbook, here is the recipe! (Linking another random blog because to link from America's Test Kitchen I have to sign up for their emails- I get enough d*mn emails!

For this particular group I tripled the recipe which was more than plenty for 8 girls! I also made a side of Bacon (Des Moines Bacon Company Bacon) for people to top on their mac. Did you know you can make Bacon in the oven? Try it! So easy and non messy and stinky!

Pardon all that was left of the bacon!

Winter is coming and this is a great recipe to add to your rotation!

Bitch and Swap

I'd been wanting to host a Bitch and Swap for years. Well really since my friend Becca who used to host them moved away. So in August I did just that with about 15 friends. Everybody brought their bags, boxes, handfuls of goodies and treasures and we swapped. Oh what fun it was! I got some great new to me things! And Blessings Abound in Overland Park got a carload of stuff left over!

Highly recommend a Bitch and Swap with your friends to renew your closet and house on the cheap. It's easy. It's fun and a great way to clean stuff out.

Relationships

I've been thinking for the last two months how to recap and write a blog post about a reunion I had in October. I'm still at a loss for words on how to perfectly capture this experience in a blog post. So I'll leave you with what I posted on Facebook about this experience.



"Today’s experience was nothing short of amazing. My parents and I met my Pediatric Neurologist who diagnosed me with MG 34 years ago in Iowa City. It has been over 20 years since we had seen him. Our journey to meet up with Dr. Afifi began last spring after a quick conversation with the neuro docs at KU about who had diagnosed me. As if turns out, Dr. Mazen Dimachkie at KU was a student of Dr. Afifi in Beirut in the early 80s. Dr Dimachkie obtained contact info for Dr Afifi and we planned a date to go for a visit. As he greeted us at the door of his home, I recognized the sound of him fiddling the coins in his pocket. I was flooded with memories. As a child, I always remember him playing with the coins in his pocket as he conversed after he’d conducted an exam. One of the coolest treasures he shared was microfilms of me as a child that he used to teach his students about myasthenia gravis. So fun putting each slide into the view finder to see what it looked like. Such a neat opportunity to reconnect and hear about his life and the impact he has made in the field of Neurology. He shared he has a few more things he wants to accomplish, one including writing a book about how families in Palestine had to leave their homes in the 1940s and second a memoir of his life. I left this afternoon with a full ❤️. So grateful for this opportunity and reminded of how important relationships are in our lives."

Do you have a doctor who influenced your life?

Wordless Wednesday

Your Wordless Wednesday reminder that $10 sushi from the case at Whole Foods is not as tasty as it may appear and you should stick to happy hour at said favorite sushi restaurants.....

Tuesday Thoughts.....

Can somebody just ban bubble gum, er gum, in its entirety already.

Saw these on the shelves at Wal Mart and was tempted to hide them.

Cringing at the sounds.....

I'll thank you very much if I never have to see or hear a person chew gum again!