Tuesday, September 25, 2012

MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL



pic provided espn.com
Stunning! I don't know a whole lot about football but over the years I've learned to enjoy watching it because my sons played it in high school and its been a way to spend time with my husband on Sunday afternoons and Monday nights. But I do know what I saw Monday night didn't look like the same thing the referees eventually claimed they saw. I saw an interception that would have allowed the Green Bay Packers to come away the winners. What the referees finally announced they saw allowed the Seattle Seahawks to walk away victorious.

Now this has absolutely nothing to do with the color green except that the two teams that played last night had green in their uniforms and I love Seattle's colors! If you went to sleep on the game you missed a doozy! In the first half of the game, Seattle sacked the Packers quarterback something like 8 times and they were leading the game. They weren't leading by a large margin but they were still ahead. Green Bay came back and was leading. I don't even remember what the score was but at the very end of the game Seattle's quarterback threw a pass which was simultaneously caught by a Seattle player and a Green Bay player. The replacement refs called it a touchdown by Seattle and even the people upstairs whomever they are, reviewed it and it was still called a touchdown. Seattle won the game.

This game reminded me of  the roller coaster of emotions one feels of almost winning and then almost losing and then almost winning then winning or losing. Eventually somebody has to win and someone has to lose. That's just the way it is when we compete. Why do we wait for the last minute "hail Mary" to try to win? If we have to depend on the referees to win the game for us then we weren't prepared for the game we were playing in the first place. We also have to remember under that theory the referees can lose the game for us as well. It goes go both ways.

How many of us have tried to publish a book only to be rejected time and time again? How many times has an actress auditioned and been called back but never getting that one big role? How many houses did you have to look at before your offer was accepted? How often have you had to pray your credit was good enough to get the car you wanted? Instead of having to ask those questions why aren't we asking questions like: did I write the very best book I could write, did I reread it, proof read, edit, having it professionally edited before sending to a publisher? Was I prepared for that audition, had I taken acting classes, singing classes, dancing classes or whatever classes were necessary to make me competitive? Have I paid my bills on time so my credit is where it needs to be and if I didn't make enough money to pay them, did I get a part time job or find a way to make extra money to straighten out my credit? You get the point. There are too many things we can and should do for ourselves so we don't have to depend on someone else to decide our fate.

So do we blame the replacement refs for the debacle that ended last night's game or do we blame the players for not playing better earlier in the game so the end of the game wouldn't be or couldn't be decided at the last minute by someone else?

Sunday, September 23, 2012

MORE GREEN ON RED CARPET

There was more green seen on the red carpet but no credit was given for the designers. 
All pictures were provided by Getty/aol.com. Tell me which ones were your faves!





GREEN AT THE 2012 EMMY AWARDS

Allison Williams was wearing Oscar de la Renta at this evening's Emmy Awards. I wish I was there to to wear my green gown!

pic provided by getty/aol.com

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Let's talk about the word NO. By definition it is a negative used to express dissent, denial or refusal as in response to a question or request




But it is so much more than that. It's one of the most powerful words in the English language. A lot of times we don't like to use it for fear of hurting someones feelings. Used with the wrong inflection it can scare someone. The word NO can save someones life. The word NO is a complete sentence. It needs NO explanation (NO pun intended). Many times the person who's feelings get hurt by not using the word NO is the person who should have used it in the first place. How many times have you agreed to something only to find out it was more than you should have committed to or more expensive than you could afford? How often have you gotten close to the time of an event and wished you had said NO up front for whatever reason. A good friend wouldn't put you in position to have to say NO and a good friend should be understanding if you have to say NO. Do you know if you say yes and not do what you said yes to it make you a liar so you should have said NO in the first place! As parents, the usual answer is NO! Sometimes the right word is NO. NO is not always negative. If a friend ask your honest opinion on whether or not they should wear a specific item and you tell them NO to keep them from embarrassing themselves...that's a positive. I could go on and on about the word NO but you get the point. Maybe we should use the word NO a little more often. Be proud to say NO! What have you said NO to lately?

Monday, September 3, 2012

ME - A BAKER?

I love www.pinterest.com! I repeat, I LOVE www.pinterest.com! I love looking at other people's ideas and wondering if I can put stuff like that together. Well I found out I can! I've never been much of a baker preferring to purchase ready made cakes and cookies (neither of which I need to eat right now) but I found a recipe for Easy Lemon Cookies on pinterest.com I just had to try. I had most of the ingredients except for cake mix and the lemon extract, yes, I said cake mix! I'm using Deanna Alicia's picture because I forgot to take pictures of my own. They looked exactly like this. I fudged the recipe a little and used 2 teaspoons of lemon extract and the next time I may use 3 (we like lemon) and I will make them flatter to see if I can make them a little less "cakey" but overall it was a delicious easy recipe. A fun one to try with the kids. We got about 30 cookies out of this recipes but our cookies were different shapes and sizes. Happy Baking!





Ingredients:

1 (18.25 ounce) package lemon cake mix               1 teaspoon lemon extract
2 eggs                                                                    1/3 cup confectioners' sugar for decoration
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

2.  Pour cake mix into a large bowl.  Stir in eggs, oil and lemon extract until well blended.  Drop teaspoonfuls of dough into a bowl of confectioners' sugar.  Roll them around until they're lightly covered.  Once sugared, put them on an ungreased cookie sheet.

3.  Bake for 6 to 9 minutes in the preheated oven.  The bottoms will be light brown and the insides will be chewy.