WTF?!

Headline on Google News:
Florida Teen Commits Suicide Live on Webcam

Are you kidding me?!
And it took 12 flippin' hours for someone to alert authorities and have them check the kid out who was of course dead by that point.

The real kicker? People laughed at the live feed. Laughed. The amount of hard heartedness in this world astonishes me on a daily basis. How can you laugh when someone has died? Even someone you didn't know. How? How can a heart be so cold to someone's obvious sadness and lack of hope especially when the person is TELLING YOU WHILE STARING INTO A FREAKIN' WEBCAM? This type of thing makes my heart hurt.

Whether I know someone or not, I still feel a human connection. A deep down connection that, for me, has to be from the Master Creator. A tie that binds us all together, if you will. We are all part of the same human race and while I believe that there are evil doers among us, for the most part, I think we all strive for the same things in life. We all want happiness, love, someone to pick us up when we fall...

I just cannot fathom what went through the minds of the people/teenagers who sat there watching and doing nothing and then laughing when it was apparent this young man was dead. If nothing else, I believe that karma catches up eventually...whether it be here on this earth or on the day of judgement...how you treat others is how you will be treated.

Mmmmm, Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving. Yes I do. Wanna know why?

I love brining my turkey. Thank you Alton Brown for giving me a clue. I don't think I will ever NOT brine my turkey (who is actually happily in my freezer right now waiting for his salty bath next week!) It is so worth the extra prep work...really, you should try it if you haven't before.

I love cornbread stuffing. Thank you to The Barefoot Contessa - Ina Garten for the most fabulous recipe on earth. It's ok that I have to quadruple it because it came from your T-Dinner for Two episode. It's THAT good and I don't mind doing it.

I love finger jello. No, no...not those dumb "jiggler" thingamabobs...those are disgusting. No, FINGER JELLO. The kind you "pass" like a football at the Thanksgiving table. It is tradition and you can't break tradition! Thank you to my sister for teaching me the fine art of finger jello passing. :)

Black olives. Love these. Love to buy the JUMBO olives and put them on every finger. Yes, this happens at the table too. Jeremy & Becca usually do the same. You guessed it...another tradition!

Pumpkin pie. Do I need to say more?! The youngest boys love helping me put one together and everyone loves to eat it except for hubby. That's ok. We make him a banana cream.

Lemon Meringue. I make it. Not as good as my Mom's used to be, but Thanksgiving doesn't seem complete with out it. My SIL Kathy and I love it...tart as tart can be. Needless to say, this pie I bring to my IL's for dessert.

I love stuffed celery. YUM! Cream cheese & green olive stuffing, thank you very much.

Broccoli casserole. Ok, so this isn't my favorite. It is Jeremy & Chris' favorite though and again, it is tradition.

Ahhhh, party potatoes. Yes, starch is my world. I love party potatoes. This is a recipe from Chris' nana. Boiled whipped potatoes mixed with cream cheese, sour cream, salt, pepper, garlic & onion powder dotted with butter and baked in the oven. DIVINE!

Gravy, turnip, butternut squash & cranberry sauce....wouldn't be the same without them!

And the crowning glory of the meal is the homemade potato crescent rolls with homemade honey butter.

Yep, can't understand why I am falling asleep before the meal is over...it couldn't be the CARB overload, could it? It is good that this meal only happens once per year. I mean, it is so much food that I have to use the buffet with hot plates because the table simply isn't big enough! Once per year I cook for a week and it's over within an hour!

And let's not forget the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without seeing the giant Snoopy flying past! Someday I'm going to give up the cooking for once and see the parade in person. It's on my list of things to do before I die.

So if anyone is up for CARB overload and wants to come share a meal with us crazies here in the Quiet Corner, let me know...there are still 3 leaves stored in the table that I can pull out in a pinch!

Goofiness is totally under-rated

I think goofiness is under-rated. Why? Well because it makes you laugh. You can laugh at yourself and your friends/family and it's all good because, well, it's goofy.

I am an extremely goofy person around my hubby & kiddos. I tone it down quite a bit around others because I don't want anyone to think that I am very weird. Although, since meeting the best friends a girl could ever have this past summer, I have started to let little pieces of me that I've hidden from others shine through. I'm not ready to go public on Facebook with how goofy I am, but I figure here is a good start.

First off, I like to take goofy pictures...especially of my daughter Becca. In fact, she is the best person in the house to be goofy with and she embraces her goofiness which I think ROCKS. She in turn likes to take goofy pictures of herself...or just self portraits.

So on Halloween, we were both pretty punchy and silly - even before the candy. Here are a few of our goofy selves....

Taking pictures of Becca with an upside down camera from the front seat while Chris is driving

And here are a few self portraits that Bec took of herself while we were saying our goodbyes to our old neighbor.

And yes...even I joined in and had a ball while doing it. Silly self portraits of yours truly while driving in the car on Halloween night.

And the ultimate goofy pictures of me....

Yep. I'm goofy. And damn proud of it!