Back to work...

Great news! I've got a new job and am back to work full-time. That explains my absence from the blog. My apologies. I have not been around much to cook and post the results. BUT, today my husband brought home fresh yellowtail which he caught off the Pacific Coast. We cooked it up, and it was delicious. After eating, I looked at my husband and said, "Shoot! I forgot to take pictures of the meal for the blog!" So, I have a great recipe and no photos to accompany it. The recipe is all typed up and ready to go. Next time he comes home with some more fresh fish (hopefully next weekend), I'll take the pictures and post the recipe!  

If you want the recipe for pan-fried yellowtail, even without the pictures, please let me know via email, and I'll post it!

ASCENDERS SERIES - SIGNED COPY OF BOOK ONE GIVEAWAY!

This is just a quick blog to write about my friend and author C.L. Gaber. She is author of the ASCENDERS series which is REALLY good and a lot of fun to read. The third book in the series, OMORROW, recently released and in honor of the release, I've teamed up with C.L. to give away TEN signed copies of the first book in the series! The first 10 people who email C.L. at CLGaber@yahoo.com will receive a signed copy of ASCENDERS, book one. (Promotional sponsorship and fulfillment is by C.L. Gaber.)  GOOD LUCK!!

Check out the synopsis for book one below.  

Walker Callaghan doesn't know what happened to her. One minute she was living her teenage life in suburban Chicago...and the next minute, she was in a strange place and in a brand new school with absolutely no homework, no rules, and no consequences. Walker Callaghan, 17, is dead. She doesn't go to heaven or hell. She lands at The Academy, a middle realm where teenagers have one thing in common: They were the morning announcement at their high schools because they died young.

These high school kids are now caught in a strange “in-between” zone where life hasn’t changed very much. In fact, this special teen limbo looks a lot like life in a quaint Michigan town complete with jocks, popular girls and cliques. "There are even cheerleaders in death," Walker observes. It's not a coincidence that the music teacher is a guy named Kurt who "used to have this band." The drama teacher, Heath, is crush worthy because back in his life, he starred in some superhero movie. 

Principal King explains the rules -- there are none. Why? You can't die twice. 

There is no homework. No tests. No SATS. You're just there to learn because the human brain isn't fully formed until you're 24.

By the way, you can't get hurt physically, so race your Harley off that hillside. But falling in love is the most dangerous thing you can do ...because no one knows how long you'll stay in this realm or what's next. 

"Losing someone you love would be like dying twice," Walker says.

* * * * * * 
Walker Callaghan has just arrived at the Academy after a tragic car accident. “Is this heaven or is this high school?” she asks. 

She finds out her new life is a bit of both as she falls in love with tat-covered, bad boy Daniel Reid who is about to break the only sacred rule of this place. He's looking for a portal to return back to the living realm. 

He needs just one hour to retrieve his younger brother who strangely never arrived at The Academy. Bobby is an Earth Bound Spirit, stuck at a plane crash site that took both of their lives as their rich father piloted his private jet nose-first into a cornfield on Christmas Eve. 

Walker loves Daniel and risks it all to go with him. 

Have they learned enough to outsmart dangerous forces while transporting a young child with them? Can their love survive the fragmented evil parts of themselves that are now hunting them down as they try to find a way back to the middle? 

At the Academy, you learn the lessons of an after-lifetime.

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Back to School at 43

I have found that life can get away from you real quick. One day you're a 17 year old college student, and the next, you're a 43 year old wife, mother, career woman, and college dropout or better said, non-graduate.

That's my story...After I graduated with honors from high school, I went off to a 4-year university, ready to take the world by storm. After a whole lot of "reasons" (being diagnosed with a chronic illness/disease while away, meeting my now husband, and not loving where I was geographically) I moved back home and went to community college. While going to community college, I was hired at a great company with a "real" job making "real" money at 20! (I ended up working for that company for 22 years.) I continued to go to school while working full time. I even transferred into a 4-year college. I got married, and then we decided to grow our family, all while I worked full-time, moving up the corporate ladder, and going to school. With a lot of "morning" sickness (aka all day sickness), I decided to take a break from school. I was spreading myself too thin. I'd go back when the baby was a bit older. That's what I told myself; I really did believe it.  Cut to a few years later, we added to our family again, all the while I'd been moving up the corporate ladder. Here I was making the same money as and working with folks who had gone to a 4+ year college who were now stuck paying off student loans. I really didn't see the benefits of going back to school, so I didn't.

Then one day a few months ago, I was contemplating what was next in my life and realized if I ever wanted to make a real change in the direction of my career or even just as a back-up for when I'm older (because you never know what's going to happen), I realized I would need a college degree. I remembered how much I always enjoyed school, learning new things. Since I never graduated, I went over to the college I did not graduate from 17 years ago to figure out what it would take for me to get my degree. Imagine my surprise when I found out I only had 6 classes left to take and a writing exam.  Then, I'd be graduating - with honors! Shocked, surprised, and disappointed in myself that I didn't go back sooner, I immediately made the decision, I WOULD go back to school!

After appealing to the school to be admitted in Fall of 2017 and being denied, since I'd missed the application deadline, I decided to take a class this summer to reinitiate myself into the world of school. So, that's exactly what I'm doing! I started taking an expository writing class and will continue to take at least one class a semester until I can be officially re-admitted to the university in the Fall of 2018, the same year as my daughter!  Ha!  By then, I'll only have 2 classes left and the writing exam!  

In the meantime, I am a 43-year old college student and loving it!

Memorial Day

I started this post prior to Memorial Day, but then we left to go camping and never posted it.  So, I'm revising it...

Memorial Day is a time to honor our fallen soldiers, while our family also pays respects for those serving.  Two of my nephews are veterans, and we're quite thankful they made it back to us.

Every year we spend our Memorial Day Weekend at the Blues and Cajun Festival where I cook up a storm and bring all the goodness with us while we hang with friends and listen to some great music.  This year, we decided to do something a bit different and went camping at Lake Isabella.  This just meant that I needed to get busy cooking a little sooner than normal.  

I prepped all the food for the week from hot dogs, buns, and condiments, to snacks and veggies, to the prepping everything needed for tacos.  With the lettuce shredded, onions, chopped, and veggie meat cooked, I made hummus from scratch and posted that recipe.  Then I made my famous potato salad. Mind you, we're not fans of sweet potato salad, so if that's what you're looking for, this is not the recipe for you.  This recipe is just mmm-mmm delicious.  Not to toot my own horn, but I haven't met anyone that doesn't like it.  It seems that I can never make enough of it.  If I'm lucky to have any leftovers (most of the time I end up doubling the recipe and make 10 lbs.), it's great the next day served on top of saltine crackers.

After getting the go ahead from my mother-in-law to share her potato salad recipe, I've done just that (along with the recipe for the perfect hard boiled egg) much to the chagrin of my husband and kids.  I mean, hey, it's a family secret! 

With the cooking done, food, sleeping bags, and camping bin all packed, we were off for our Memorial Day camping adventure.  We may just have found a new tradition....

 

Mother's Day Recap

Hi there!  As you all know, yesterday was Mother's Day.  I had a lovely day which consisted of brunch with the family at my brother's house, reading, resting, and having friends over for an impromptu BBQ with a game of cornhole last night.  All in all, a very relaxing day.  My husband and daughter wished me a Happy Mother's Day first thing in the morning.  My son on the other hand might have waiting well over 12 hours to say anything.  Now I KNOW he knew it was Mother's Day, but what am I to do?  He might have been mad at me for not letting him play video games... Oh well, a mother's job is never done and is thankless most of the time.  But we love them anyway!  HA!  I did get an awesome copper cooking pan. I can't wait to try it out.  

Love to my family and friends!  Thanks so much for supporting me in my endeavors!!  And, I hope that all the mothers I know had as wonderful a day as I did.

xoxo

 

My First Blog

My first blog entry.  WOW!  I never thought I'd be able to do this.  Not sure why I sold myself short...I always, and I mean always, give 150%, or I just don't do something.  If I can't be the best at whatever it is I'm doing, I tend to not do it.  Not always the right thing, but it's who I am.  

So, the past few days I was contemplating starting to document my time while I search for a full-time job and this is what I came up with.  I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do!

xo,

Karie