A New Journey

I recently read an article about how to love your life. One of the points it made was to do what you love. That got me to thinking, what is it that I love to do? I find myself stuck in a rut…don’t get me wrong, I love my family, but it seems like I went from one extreme to the other, and got lost somewhere in between.

I used to work full time for my dad. I was making good money and enjoyed most of my responsibilities. I was dating a great guy who traveled a lot for work, so I got to travel all over the US and Europe with him. But something was missing. I was 30 and still hadn't completed college. I was stuck – there were very limited options for night classes. I met with an advisor and found out in 3 semesters, I could have my Bachelor’s degree. Since I love reading and writing, I decided English Literature was the way to go. I planned on having an education minor so I could teach high school, but with one semester left, I got pregnant. My minor quickly changed to Women’s Studies so I could graduate before the baby came. I had seen firsthand how difficult it was for moms to complete college with a baby and wanted to make sure I finished. I graduated with honors, 5 months pregnant.

Since I was so obviously pregnant (80 extra pounds is hard to hide!), I didn't even try to find a full time job right out of college. I was working retail. My last day at that horrible place was the day my water broke right over the toilet. My gorgeous daughter was born the next day, 3 weeks early, and I went from selfish to selfless immediately. I stayed at home with her as long as I could, but bills don’t pay themselves, so back to work I went at the only place around that required an English degree. Unfortunately, the pay was horrible and the environment sucked.

So here I am, 6 years and a couple more jobs later, still not using my degree. I miss college. I miss having intellectual discussions about literature. I miss writing papers about the underlying themes in postmodern books. I miss my professors. Most of all, I miss using my brain. This is where my funk comes in. There is not one place in my area where I can utilize my degree to its fullest. I find myself dealing with anxiety and depression. I've thought long and hard about where these feelings come from, and other than the fact that my high school boyfriend treated me like shit and crushed my self-esteem, I have come to the conclusion that I need to get back to what I’m passionate about. Reading and writing. That is why I started this blog, to get my thoughts out. Even if nobody reads it, at least I am writing again. I’m going to try to find other things to do that I love, but with a very active 6 year old, my time is limited. It is time for me to stop making excuses and find what I love and make the most of it. 

This should be an interesting journey….

101 Books to Read Before You Die

After posting on Facebook that I had found a list of 101 books to read before you die, several people have asked me for a copy of the list I found. 

I would love to give credit where credit is due, but I printed off the list shortly after the Christmas of 2010, when my awesome husband bought me my Nook Color. Apparently, I just copied and pasted the list and printed it off, since there is no link on my paper, just numbers and titles and authors. 

The original list included The Harry Potter series. I have nothing against the books, but the fact that the list didn't include any Kurt Vonnegut, yet included Harry Potter bugged me. So I replaced Harry Potter with Breakfast of Champions. If you don't like it, read Harry Potter instead, but you don't know what you are missing. 

Books with a * after them are books I have read. I assume that I have read some of the books I haven't marked, but if I don't remember it, I'm counting it as a no. When I was reading Jane Eyre last week, I remembered reading parts of it in the past, but I didn't remember the whole plot, so I read it again. This is a work in progress!



Here is the list: 

1. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
3. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen *
4. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee *
5. Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut *
6. The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
7. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
8. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
9. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown *
10. The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
11. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden *
12. Spud - John van de Ruit
13. The Power of One - Bryce Courtenay
14. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
15. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis de Bernieres
16. Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts
17. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
18. Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger *
19. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte *
20. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
21. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
22. Disgrace - J.M. Coetzee
23. My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult
24. The Time Treveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
25. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
26. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller (currently reading)
27. Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
28. Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
29. Cry, the Beloved Country - Alan Paton
30. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald *
31. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
32. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time - Mark Haddon
33. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
34. Atonement - Ian McEwan
35. Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
36. The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
37. The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje
38. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy*
39. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
40. Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
41. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
42. I Know This Much is True - Wally Lamb
43. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
44. Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell *
45. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
46. Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean M. Auel
47. The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
48. The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
49. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
50. Possession - A.S. Byatt
51. Perfume - Patrick Suskind
52. The House of the Spirits - Isable Allende
53. Chocolat - Joanne Harris
54. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith
55. Q & A - Vikas Swarup
56. Dune - Frank Herbert
57. Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame *
58. Fugitive Pieces - Anne Michaels
59. River God - Wilbur Smith
60. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott *
61. Lord of the Flies - William Golding *
62. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis *
63. Mort - Terry Pratchett
64. Crime and Punishment - Feodor Dostoyevsky
65. The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood
66. East of Eden - John Steinbeck
67. The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco
68. The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory
69. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - John Boyne
70. The Prince of Tides - Pat Conroy
71. Rebecca - Daphne de Maurier
72. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding *
73. The Shipping News - E. Annie Proulx
74. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll *
75. Animal Farm - George Orwell *
76. The Red Tent - Anita Diamant
77. Watership Down - Richard Adams
78. Magician - Raymond E Feist
79. Middlemarch - George Eliot
80. The Day of the Jackal - Frederick Forsyth
81. We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver
82. The Magus - John Fowles
83. The Remains of the Day - Kazou Ishiguro
84. Agaat - Marlene van Niekerk
85. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
86. The Shell Seekers - Rosamunde Pilcher
87. The Colour Purple - Alice Walker
88. The Beach House - James Patterson
89. Doctor Zhivago - Boris Pasternak
90. Kringe in 'n Bos - Dalene Matthee
91. The World According to Garp - John Irving *
92. Northern Lights - Phillip Pullman
93. Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
94. Shades - Marguerite Poland
95. Kane and Abel - Jeffrey Archer
96. Fiela se kind - Dalene Matthee
97. Sotry of an African Farm - Olive Schreiner
98. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl *
99. The Magic Faraway Tree - Enid Blyton
100. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
101. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

Are You Ready for Some (Fantasy) Football??

It's that time of year again. When if it weren't for smart phones, my husband would be on the computer in the basement for hours while I'm on the laptop upstairs mulling over what players to use. We debate, we grumble when our players get hurt. We argue when the other one wins. It's Fantasy Football time!

I love football. I grew up in Libertyville, Illinois, which is a suburb of Chicago. The Bears won the Superbowl on my dad's birthday. The Fridge lived across the street from my friend Jamie. We would see Bears players at the White Hen. It was awesome. My parents have a framed picture of Ditka giving the photographer the finger. I grew up with football, it's in my blood. And not just the Bears. We moved to Wisconsin in 1989 - to a little place called Manitowoc, which is basically a suburb of Green Bay. So now, the Packers hold a place in my heart too (and a bad memory of having to bartend when they lost the Super Bowl against Denver and I got screwed on my tips since everyone was pissed. Same thing happened when Tyson ate the ear).

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When I first met Jerry, he traveled all over the world. I was his Sportscenter. I have the kind of memory that if I pay attention, I retain. And I pay attention. A lot. The fact that I love football was the reason Jerry decided to "meet" me. I'll explain how we met in a different post. It's a long, and pretty funny story. 

 

We are in 2 leagues this year - the first one is with friends (and friends of those friends). We couldn't figure out a time to meet, so the draft was done randomly. This means I got a bunch of dudes that I have never heard of. And some kick-ass players too. Here is my line up:

 

QB: Tony Romo, Andy Dalton

WR: Victor Cruz, Roddy White, Andre Johnson, Darrius Heyeard-Bey, Nate Washington, Steve Smith

RB: Stevan Ridley, Jamaal Charles, Ronnie Brown, Isaiah Pead, Evan Royster, Ryan Matthews

TE: Jason Witten, Tony Moeaki

Kicker: Matt Bryant

Defense: Packers and New England

 

For a random draft, I'm OK with my team. If anyone can give me some advice on who to play when and why, it would be appreciated. Especially those players that I am not familiar with (Pead, Heyeard-Bay, etc...).

 

Today, we are going to our first real live draft! We have always had to do the draft via Skype or over the phone since we have a kid. But she's at Nana's, so off to Door County we go. They only had one spot open, so Jerry and I have to share a team. This ought to be interesting. He has good ideas in theory, but they never seem to work out how he plans. I hoping I get a say, but I'm thinking it may not happen. And if I don't agree with him, is it really worth an argument? We have only had 3 fights in 9 years together, so I'm figuring I may be waving the white flag a lot for this league. I'll post our team when we get home if I'm sober enough.

 

Morgan comes home tomorrow. I miss her. She cried when I had to hang up the phone and called me back and left me a message that said, "I love you. See you. Hello? Hello? Bye." This is the longest I have ever been away from her. She is being an angel for Nana and Papa, so I expect her to morph into the devil as soon as she sets foot in the house. And this is why she will be in day care all week next week.

 

Please check out my Avon site: www.youravon.com/aveldboom - the holiday stuff for Halloween and Thanksgiving is in the current catalog and it's cute and not expensive. Stay tuned for a post all about their new product, Anew Clinical Pro Line Eraser Treatment. It's awesome! And if you know me at all, you know I won't recommend a product that is crap. And if you order and have me deliver/mail it to you, a 10% discount comes your way, along with lots of samples too!! Help me pay for Morgan's dance classes!! You know you want to...

 

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. Until next time...

 

Peace - Amanda

Yummy Salsa!

Happy Labor Day Weekend everyone!! This post is short and yummy. My bean salsa recipe. If you have been as lucky as us with your garden, you should have TONS of tomatoes. I have found that Roma's don't work well with this recipe. Here is a pic of one of the goodies we grew:

That is Jerry's arm next to it for comparison. And it was delish. There are no cucumbers in the salsa, I just had to share the picture. lol

Ingredients:
1 16oz can of kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 15 1/4 oz can of whole kernel corn, drained
1 15oz can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained
1 15oz can of black beans, rinsed and drained
2 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
2-3 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1/4 cup lime juice (I tried Rose's Lime and it didn't end well)
2 tbsp. minced cilantro (but I make mine without)
1 tsp. salt
3 garlic cloves, pressed (optional, but everything is better with garlic!)
2 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. pepper

Combine it all, toss to coat, put in fridge, wait 30 minutes and chow down! And not that I have ever done this before - and definitely not yesterday - but don't forget the chips! It just doesn't taste the same on crackers meant for my delish spinach dip.

Finished product:

Enjoy!

Please leave a comment and let me know how you like it if you decide to make it and have a safe holiday weekend!

Peace - Amanda

All about me

All about ME!

Hmmm...where to start? I am a 29 (+an undisclosed #) mother of a gorgeous, intelligent, stubborn, potty trained (finally, thank GOD) 3 year old named Morgan. I have been married to my 2nd husband - don't judge, everyone makes mistakes - for 4 years in September, after dating for 5 years before that. He is my soul mate. The perfect man for me. We never fight because he puts up with my constant bitching without saying a word, and when I go on my political rants, he ignores me. It is perfect. We are not having any more children or I will end up in the loony bin. I love to play Bingo, read "intellectual" books, but I did stray so I could find out what all the hype about 50 Shades was about, and most of all, hang out with my family. I hate election time because we don't have DVR in the bedroom so I am forced to listen to a shit-ton of commercials full of lies that reference things that the candidates said or voted on in like the 1990's. I am not a Republican, so if you are, you may not be a fan of this blog. I appreciate feedback, but if you are going to slam my beliefs, you have no idea how well I am at bitching someone out of a room. This is America and I can write whatever I want. If you don't like it, you can suck it, and then not read it.

This is my family:

I love them more than anything in the whole world. Wine is a close second. I have a degree in English Literature with a Woman's Studies minor. In a nutshell, it's a degree in reading good books and feminism. I love it. And I loved every waking moment I was in school. I like to party and have a good time. I like to travel. If you want to know something, just ask. I will be brutally honest.

I sell Avon. You can order online. My site is: youravon.com/aveldboom. I give loyalty discounts and tons of samples. Future posts will have my product reviews - I don't believe in trying to sell something that sucks. Contact me if you want more information. Peace out!