Crockpot Chicken Vegetable Chowder

I love my crockpot, especially now that the weather is getting cooler. I just throw stuff in it in the morning, turn it on, and when I get home from work - voila! Dinner! Hot soup, creamy chowder, melt in your mouth roast...it makes coming home all the sweeter.

I especially like it when I can make something healthy in it that everybody in the family likes. And by "family" I mean the hubs because he's a meat and potatoes man who makes a face like this when I say we're having chicken:

So it's a pain in the ass challenge to make something healthy that he'll actually eat...and like.

But this he will eat.

Maybe part of the reason he likes my Crockpot Chicken Vegetable Chowder is because it's delicious with warm, crispy french rolls or breadsticks and he does like his bread. If I pair stuff he doesn't like with stuff he likes, sometimes he'll eat it.

He once told me, "You know how much of the stuff I don't like to put in the stuff I like to make me like it." 

So there you have it.

Back to the recipe. What I like about it is that it's easy. There's no browning or pre-sauteeing. Just dump everything in the crockpot and let it cook. Easy peasy.

Start by cutting up 1 pound of chicken breasts into about 1 inch pieces and throw those in the crockpot.

Then cut up the vegetables. This chowder is loaded with veggies - carrots, broccoli, mushroom, corn - it's another reason I like it. Good and healthy. 

I have to go easy on the mushrooms though because the hubs doesn't like them but I do. So I cut them in large slices and pick them out of his bowl when I serve it. Yeah, I'm nice like that.

After the chicken and veggies, you dump in a can of cream of potato soup, some chicken broth, minced garlic, thyme, salt, and fresh ground black pepper, and give it all a good stir.

If you don't like to use processed foods, you can peel and boil a couple potatoes and throw them in your food processor or blender with a little chicken broth and salt. Then pulse it till it's a similar consistency to cream of potato soup and use that instead.

Then put the lid on, turn 'er on, and you're good to go.

It's important to cook this on low because the broccoli can get pretty mushy if it cooks on high or cooks too long. About 5 hours on low is good.

Taste the broth after a few hours and see if it needs more salt, pepper or thyme. It wasn't until after I married my first husband I realized I needed to taste as I cooked. I have to admit, some of my earlier meals were pretty bland. Bland meals + critical husband = unhappy wife.

But I digress.

Once the chicken and veggies are cooked, add some milk or half-and-half and turn on high for about 15 minutes until it's heated through. This is what gives it the creamy chowder consistency. The recipe calls for half-and-half, but I've used low-fat milk and it comes out just fine. 

It's important to add the milk at the end because if you add it at the beginning it will curdle and although it will taste fine, it won't look very good. (See disclaimer at end of post.)

Creamy = appetizing; Curdley = hubby or kids that probably won't eat it.

At this point, you can add some cheese if you like and turn it into Crockpot Cheesy Chicken Vegetable Chowder. Cheese tends to make everything more palatable for picky husbands and kids, doesn't it?

I made this last weekend again and it was delish! My sister-in-law said it was the best soup she's had in a long time.

Here's the full recipe:

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 can (14 ounces) chicken broth

1 can (10 and 3/4 ounces) condensed cream of potato soup (See above for alternative)

10 ounces fresh or frozen cut up broccoli

1 cup sliced carrots

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup whole kernel corn (fresh or frozen)

4 and 1/2 ounces sliced mushrooms (fresh or canned)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves

1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

1/3 cup half-and-half (or milk - 2% works fine too)

1/2 cup cheddar cheese (optional)

Combine all ingredients except half-and-half or milk in slow cooker. Cover and cook on LOW 5 hours or until vegetables are tender and chicken is no longer pink.Stir in milk or half-and-half. Turn to HIGH. Cover and cook 15 minutes or until heated through.

If you try this, let me know how it comes out for you in the comments. Do you have a favorite crockpot recipe?

Linking up to Mama Kat's "What's Cooking in your Slow Cooker" writing prompt this week. Hop over to her site and check out what's cooking!

P.S. I doubt I'll ever make it as a  food blogger because it's probably in poor taste to put a GIF of a guy making a disgusting face in the same post as your recipe. Who does that? Me, apparently.

P.S.S. I have to confess that although I've made this a few times now, this last time I forgot and put the milk in at the beginning. So the result was delicious-but-not-picture-worthy-curdley-chowder. I had to use a different picture and in the interest of full disclosure I should tell you that. The pretty picture of the chowder in the bowl looks just like the recipe chowder does though, really it does. (Pic Source)

Sigh.
Honestly Yours,
Lori

Wordless Wednesday - Sisters

My younger daughter (on the left) is a recovering addict. We saw very little of her during her 18th year, while she was in the clutches of her disease. This picture was taken about 6 months after she began her recovery journey. Everytime I look at it I'm filled with gratitude and hope.

Linking up with Mrs. Tee for Wordless Wednesday this week. (Well, almost wordless).

Happy Wednesday!

Friday Fragment Time!

Friday, Friday, how I do love thee!

Share your weekly fragments in a post on fridays and link up with Mrs. 444 at Half-Past Kissin' Time!

I'm keeping them short and sweet this week because I really want to read something enlightening clean spend quality time with my family go catch up on some shows I DVR'd.

Frag #1
Ebola in the U.S. Did we ever think that would happen? The "experts" are telling us it's spread through direct contact with bodily fluids of an infected person...and through surfaces that have those fluids on them, like sheets, clothing, etc.

So my questions is...how long does the virus live on these surfaces? The Texas deputy who they suspect is sick with it now, had gone into the apartment where the first infected guy had lived. And now he's showing symptoms. The test results are supposed to come back Friday night.

Scary stuff. I think we have a false sense of security here in the U.S., like the diseases that plague third world countries won't find us. But one certainly has now. Maybe more resources should have been put towards finding an antibody for Ebola.

And what if it mutates and goes airborne? It's the stuff movies are made of, isn't it?

I just hope it doesn't happen on a Friday cause that would totally harsh my weekend.

Frag #2
Shameless plug time. I get really happy when I post 3 or more times in one week because, well, it's hard when you work full time, am I right?

My daughter Sis, the one who is in Hawaii, had her 23rd birthday last week. I posted a quick Happy Birthday post for her which she won't see for another 2 weeks. She's hiked back into the remote beach on Kauai that has come to be her home now. There is no phone or internet service there. She's coming home to me October 29th, finally!

Last Thursday I shared what happens When Good Girls Go to 'N Sync Concerts. It involves cops.

Tuesday I participated in a new (to me anyway) blog meme from Airing My Dirty Laundry called It's Okay Tuesday where you say some goofy things you did and declare them okay.

And yesterday I shared some funny texts between me and the hubby for Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop.

Whew, blogging is tiring! Ok, I'm done shameless plugging.

Frag #3
Ever wonder what it would look like if Spike TV took over the Food Network Channel? Wonder no more:

Frag #4
Lastly, just had to share these fun Halloween treat ideas from Pinterest. Oreo Eyeball pops, which are oreos dipped in white chocolate with life savers as the eyes and Monster Caramel corn with candy googly eyes in them. They'd be cute to hand out at a Halloween party. Sharing them at the end of the post because of my HTML coding ineptness.

Happy Friday, All!

Still Plugging Away,
Lori

My Hat Was Non

Linking up with Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop. The topic this week is to share a recent text exchange that made me laugh.



My husband has a great sense of humor. It's one of the reasons I married him. That and he was willing to take on my three kids, which is quite an undertaking for a guy with a vasectomy.

Anyhoo, he can write some texts that just crack me the freak up.

Like this gem from a few weeks ago. My sister, Bon, and I were about to leave town to spend a few days at a condo in Brianhead, Utah. It was our now annual Sister's Trip, where we leave husbands (Fred and John), kids, and jobs behind and just bicker and drink hang out together.

We were gassing up the car before we left town and I told her to answer a text from my hubby while I put gas in the car. An easy task for most people, but my sister thinks she has a supersonic magnetic field which prevents her from using a touchscreen.

I know, right? She still has a Blackberry with actual buttons.

So she's trying to text him back from my iphone and hitting all the wrong keys and then auto-correct kicks in and she sends something that makes no sense at all. Keep in mind it's from my phone so he thinks it's me.

So here's how the conversation went. My sister's words are in green:

That last line is because my sister took a pee can (Yes, it's a can in which one pees) with her on our last sister's camping trip and used it in our tent and once in the car. And God knows where else.

And yet, our annual Sister's Trip continues.

Here's one more text gem between the hubs and me. He can be a helluva bit of a procrastinator at times and I mentioned in a blog post recently that he was loafing. A few days later we had this exchange:

I love it when I can crack him the freak up.

Freakily funny,
Lori

Hey, It's Okay Tuesday!

Linking up with Amber at Airing My Dirty Laundry today for her "Hey, It's Okay, Tuesday" meme. You know, like they do in Glamour magazine where they list a bunch of stuff and declare that they are all okay to do?

No? That's okay (see how easy that is?). Just list some stuff you did and declare it okay and get on with your life. And link up and share so we can all see how weird you are and feel like we belong.

It's Okay...

...to buy a new eye cream promising results in 2 weeks and take a close up picture of your eyes with no makeup the day you start using the cream and another one two weeks later to see if it's working. That's perfectly normal and not neurotic or spazztic at all.

...to spend a rainy day off work doing nothing but pinning Fall and Halloween decorating ideas on Pinterest, downloading photo editing apps for your iPhone, catching up on blog reading, and procrastinating running your errands. In my defense, I was waiting for the rain to let up. It was a pretty steady drizzle.

...to return a lipstick that looked like a good color in the store, but you later realized after wearing it at work all day, was hideous on you. Here's what that looks like when you look in the mirror:

Why don't drugstores have samples for crying out loud??

...to do a half-assed job mopping your floor because, damn it, you just don't feel like it!

...to decide you're going to have a Thanksgiving tree this year because the ones you see on Pinterest are so darn cute and you're pretty certain you can put one together with dollar store stuff and the holidays aren't busy enough without adding one more thing to decorate to the list. Look how friggin' cute this is - now I have to run out and buy pie slice ornaments. (photo is at the end of this post because I haven't figured out how to make the code put the darn thing where I want it).

...to post really short blog posts once in a while because A. - you're hungry and B - you've procrastinated your exercises long enough and even though you don't feel like doing them you know you really need to get your desperately-in-need-of-exercise-butt off the computer and go do them.

Wrinkled, hideous and a Thanksweenie,
Lori

What Happens When Good Girls Go To 'N Sync Concerts

Linking up with Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop again this week cause I'm lazy and don't have to think up my own topics her topics are always interesting and fun.

The topic I chose this week is to share an old photo of myself and tell you about it.


I have to preface this by saying, I was a "good girl" my entire life. I never rebelled as a teenager. I always wanted to please my parents. The worst thing I did as a teenager was to crank call a guy I had a crush on and ask for "Sophie" when his mom answered the phone. I didn't even disguise my voice, so it was no surprise when I answered the phone a few days later and it was his mom, asking for "Sophie."

I was sooooo busted.

Yeah, I know. Boring.

My point is, I walked the straight and narrow my whole life and after my divorce in 1999, I kind of rebelled a little.

And my cousin was always nearby to help me. My outgoing, effervescent cousin. (And I so had to google "effervescent" to make sure I spelled it right. Nailed it!)

Anyhoo, here's my photo:

And no, I have no idea why I was standing like that or why I choose the shower curtain in my cousin's bathroom as the backdrop.

But let's just address the far bigger question - what the hell was up with my hair?? I may have thought the strategically placed strands around my face looked wind tossed and wild, when in fact it looks like I'm wearing warpaint.

Here's what I do know - my cousin and I were going out that night and my husband (who was my boyfriend at the time) was our designated driver.

Which meant my cousin and I would be bringing flasks.

My cousin had to give her niece a ride to an outdoor 'N Sync concert. Her niece was meeting up with some friends, so we only had to give her a ride there, then a ride home. It was a distance from our homes and we didn't want to drop her off then go back and pick her up, so we decided to stay for the concert. No parental supervision was involved, which was a good thing because we were not the best examples of maturity and composure that night.

Did I mention we brought flasks?

When we got there, my cousin and I found a spot on the bleachers that we thought was away from the crowd for the most part and started girl talking and laughing and sipping on our flasks and having a grand 'ole time.

Then the cops show up.

I kid you not, we look up from our flask merry-making and two cops are looking down at us. This is how the conversation goes:

Cops - Are you ladies ok?
Me - Oh, yeahhh, we're fine, thanks for checking!
Cops - Are you smoking pot?
Cousin - No, you got some?
Cops (smiling because my cousin can be very charming) - Some people are complaining that you're talking very loud and inappropriately.
Me (looking around, embarrassed) - We ARE?
Cousin (indignantly, because that's her style) - WHAT people?
Cops (laughing a little because clearly we were harmless) - Just some people. This is a family crowd you know. Maybe you should move a little further away from everybody.

Apparently, someone sitting a few rows behind us complained that we were loud, obnoxious, and were smoking pot. We weren't smoking pot, and I don't think we were all that loud or obnoxious...although I do remember us laughing and talking about sex...maybe just a little.

So we moved our party away from the civilized people.

I was embarrassed. My cousin was "Whatevs." But a few more sips from the flasks and the merry-making returned to normal.

And that's my story to go with my wild-haired I-think-I'm-hot-stuff picture.

I know. It's like the crank call to my crush all over again. Mildly amusing, but not terribly wild and crazy.

What about you? Were you a "good girl" or a "rebel" for most of your life? Do tell!

My Adventure Baby Turns 23

23 years ago, in the middle of the grocery store, my labor pains began.

Many...many...many hours later, at 2:38 in the morning, I held my beautiful girl for the first time.

It felt like I'd known her forever.

She was an intuitive child, even in the womb. When I was upset, I could feel her restless and upset too. When I was calm and happy, so was she. She was the same way as a baby. Always in tune to how her mama was feeling.

She loved to dance since about 3 years old.

She's lit up my world since the day she was born and I'm so proud of her.

Happy Birthday, Sissa!

I'm proud of your adventurous spirit, your empathetic heart, and your hippie soul.
Continue to be who you are and be a bright light in this world.

Love you and miss you,

Mama

Ridonkulous Friday Frags

TGIF Y'ALL!

Happy Dance!

Or...spazz out until you pass out dance. Whatever fits. 

Anyhoo, it's Friday Frag day when I can write about the bits and pieces of the week and not feel guilty that they're short and random. Cause that's what fragments are.

Link up with Mrs. 444 at Half_Past Kissin' Time with your Friday Frags!

Frag #1 

My youngest, The Girl, had a scare Wednesday night. She works as a busser at a mountain lodge about 40 minutes from my house. She was driving home last night and hit a donkey.

Wild donkeys roam around up there and the roads are very dark at night and she didn't see him until she was right up on him. She's fine, but he did some pretty good damage to the car:

My poor daughter was pretty shook up. I stayed on the phone with her until her dad and highway patrol got there. She said she could hear the donkey stumbling around in the dark and was scared to death he would charge her or something. And her flashlight was dead, so she couldn't see anything.

When the highway patrol got there they said she was very fortunate because many times the donkey goes through the windshield and lands in the driver's lap, either breaking legs or smothering the driver. Can you imagine? 

This was enough to convince my daughter to quit. I can't say I blame her. She's only worked there 2 weeks and in that time has run over a deer and killed a donkey. I think she needs to stay away from wildlife for a while.

The donkey died not long after she hit him, by the way. Poor thing.

Well that's a humdinger of a story to start this Friday party with, ain't it?

Can you say - Debbie Downer?

My frags aren't all like this, I promise.

Frag #2

My sister was coloring my hair this week in her hot little bathroom because she keeps her house at 85 in the summer because she hasn't started menopause yet. So of course, I was sweating like a pig. She brushes my forehead with her hand as she's pulling my hair back and says, "Ewww, you're gooey!"

Have I mentioned how much I look forward to her going through menopause? I seriously can't. freakin'. wait.

Frag #3

Speaking of sisters and hair, I bought some swap meet hair last weekend with my sister and wrote a post about it. I actually wrote 3 posts this week, which is pretty good for inconsistent bloggy girl. One of the topics for Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop was to share a quote you love. I couldn't resist that one, so I wrote a post about one of my favorite quotes. 

Frag #4

I've seen the cutest decorating ideas for Halloween on Pinterest. Check out these easy Do-It-Yourself projects that would be great for a Halloween Party. Luminaries made out of milk jugs and creepy toilet paper hands! I'm sharing them at the end of the post because they look all wonky if I put any words after them. I hate HTML code.

That's it for my frags. Hope you have a ridonkulous weekend!

Gooey-ly yours,
Lori

This Is The Quote I Love Today

When I saw one of the writing prompts for the Writer's Workshop this week, I knew exactly what I would write. The prompt is "Share a quote you love."

 I love many quotes, so for me the question is more, which quote means the most to me today?

 And it's this one:

I'm a worrier. I've gotten much better over the last year and I honestly don't know if it's because I finally understand how destructive and unproductive worrying is...or if I have less to worry about.

Probably a little of both.

I have come to accept that worrying doesn't change the outcome of whatever I'm worried about. Not one iota. It doesn't help the situation and in fact, only makes it worse because it's so emotionally draining there is no strength left to deal with anything else.

Worry is caused by a negative reality we create for ourselves. It's fear of things that haven't happened. If they haven't happened, they aren't real. It's like the child afraid of the monster under her bed.

Worry is a soul-sucking, strength-draining monster. And it doesn't change a thing.

I read an insightful post by David Cain, who writes the blog Raptitude. It's an amazing blog full of his deep observations about what it means to be human. I love reading his stuff.

Anyway, his post explains this graphic and what steps are involved to follow the arrows and get to the holy grail in the center:

It's really very simple. If you have a problem (a "problem" being anything that affects you emotionally) and you can't do anything to solve it, don't worry. If you can do something, then do it. It's not rocket science, but it's hard.

But back to my quote.

Its truth applies to any negative emotion. Substitute the words "regret," "guilt," "self-pity," or "anger" for "worry" in this quote and they all work. They all empty today of its strength.

Acknowledging this fact is the first step to letting go of these negative emotions and letting yourself be happy. Letting myself me happy.

Bobby Ferrin was right. Don't worry, be happy.

Yours,

Worry-Wart

Thanks to Mama Kat for her inspiring and varied writing prompts. If you've never participated in her Writer's Workshop, you should give it a try. She sends you cake if you do. No, not really. But she might make a video of herself eating cake and laugh at you. And her videos are pretty funny.

Why You Should Get Some Swap Meet Hair Too

I went to the indoor swap meet this weekend. I love the indoor swap meet.

It's my go-to place for any cell phone cases or accessories because it's a whole lot cheaper than the AT&T store or Best Buy or even Wal-Mart.

It's my go-to place for Bamboo, which appears to be the only plant I don't kill. Just stick 'em in some water with some rocks, keep them away from the cat (who drinks the water and chews on the leaves, which I'm pretty sure is not good for the plant), remember to to refill the water every couple days, and it's happy.

And it's my go-to place for clip-on hair.

I fit right in in the trailer park, don't I?

© Depositphotos.com/Melking

Seriously, if you haven't tried clip-on hair, you just have to get yourself one and try it. They come in all colors, styles and lengths. The kind I like are straight on one side, then you flip them over and they're curly.

They're really just like a full or curly ponytail. Only you don't have to curl or fluff. With my fine, straight hair, I could fluff my brains out and never have the volume of the one on the left. (And I shudder to think what kind of pervs will google "fluff my brains out" and find their way to my blog).

Anyway, back to my swap meet hair. The point is, don't knock it. My sister and I each bought long ones a few years ago and wore them when we went out to a show on the strip with my husband. We were all dolled up, with our swap meet hair, flanking my husband as we strolled through the casino. A guy walked past us and said, "Lucky guy!" to my husband.

In our minds, my sister and I were all:

In reality we may have been:

No really, they look good.

Here's what I love about swap meet hair:

1. My hair can look good even on a no-wash day. Just stick it in a ponytail, pin the sides in, clip it on, brush my bangs and I'm done. Look out world, me and my big hair are takin' ya down.

2. They're under $20 a piece at the swap meet, so they don't cut into the travel trailer savings.

3. They come in different shades so if I change my hair color to cover the gray (as I've been known to do a time or two) I can usually find one to match.

4. They come in different lengths and styles so it's easy to find one that works for most women.

If you decide to run out to your local swap meet and get some, here's a few tips:

1. Be careful to match the color as close as you can to your own hair. The lighting isn't always the best in the store and when you get outside in the sunlight it could look like a completely different color. Try to get one with some highlights in it. That way as long as one of the highlight colors matches your hair, it will work.

2. Don't clip it too high or too low on your head. You want it to look like a fluffy ponytail, not like a raccoon is crawling on your head.

3. Pin your hair up so your real hair doesn't poke out of sides of the ponytail. Or if you put your hair in a ponytail, bobby pin the sides so they stay put under the clip.

Here's how it looks on:

The bra strap really adds to the whole swap-meet-hair-trailer-park look I'm rockin', don't you think?

Here's a look from the side:

See what I mean about the fluffy ponytail look? I clipped it on quickly, so my hair's messy in the front, but you get the idea. I actually need to get a different color because this one looked right in the store but in the sunlight you can see that it doesn't have enough red in it for my hair color.

So next time you're at the swap meet, stop in at the clip on hair booth and get you some swap meet hair. You're gonna love it!

Rockin'-my-swap-meet-hair,
Lori

Narcissistic Fragments

Happy Dance picture because it's Friday, and that's what I do now here on Friday Frags:

You go, Captain Picard, you sexy galactic traveler, you.

Frag #1
I spent the better part of last weekend redesigning my blog when I should have been cleaning house and paying bills. It's looked the same for a long time and needed a makeover. As Hassan says in The Hundred-Foot Journey, "Perhaps 200 years is long enough." Or three years, in my case.

So...What do you think? I made it wider and changed the header and my blog button. Is it ok? Do you like it? Do you hate it? Do tell. Be honest, I can take it.

Frag#2
As you can tell from the quote above, I saw The Hundred-Foot Journey with my sister last weekend and loved it! Such a great message about being open to new experiences and new people in our lives. When we open ourselves up, we invite in opportunity and adventure. One small change or event in our lives that seems meaningless at the time could be the catalyst to a whole new exciting path for us. I recommend this movie to everyone!

Frag#3
I participated in Mama Kat's writer's workshop this week and wrote a tongue-in-cheek post about why I want to live in a travel trailer. You can check it out here if you want:

Frag #4

So, remember I told you I took a  class to learn ways to use Pinterest to drive traffic to my blog? Well, today was the last day of it and I learned a ton, I tell ya, a ton! Like the importance of making graphics like the one above and putting them in your posts so they can be pinned on Pinterest. 

I would recommend this class to anyone who wants to drive traffic to their blog and likes Pinterest. You'll learn how to arrange your boards, how keywords on your pins and boards help, and lots of other stuff. You can get details about the next class from Melissa over at Blog Clarity.

Do you Pinterest? If so, wanna be Pinterest friends? follow me from the widget in my sidebar and I promise to follow you back. Here's a peek at my Halloween Craft and DIY board: 

Follow Tiny Little Reveries's board Halloween Craft Reveries on Pinterest.

Fun, right?

And I just realized this entire post was me, me me. Do you like me? Did you read me? Will you follow me? Narcissistic, much?

Short frags this week. I need to back up my iPhone in hopes of getting an iPhone 6 tomorrow. I know. First world problems. And more me. How boring can I be??

Obtusely and narcissisticly yours,
Lori

Thanks to Mrs. 444 at Half-Past Kissin' Time for hosting Friday Fragments! You can read more frags or link up your own here:

10 Reasons I Want to Live in a Travel Trailer

I've written a few times about how I want to live in a travel trailer. I  remember when this obsession (or disease, as my husband calls it) first set in. I was 18 years old and working at a Ford dealership.

Ford published a small  magazine they would distribute to their dealerships and in it one month was an excerpt from the book "Blue Highways" by William Least Heat-Moon. The author converted a Ford van into a travelling home (no kitchen or bathroom. Yeah, he was single) and set out across the U.S.

He stayed off Interstates and took highways and backroads (routes which appear in blue on maps) and visited small towns and heard the stories from folks with small lives but big hearts. And he wrote about it. It was filled with history, introspection, hope, and the wonder of the human spirit.

I was hooked when I read the excerpt so I checked the book out from the library and read the whole thing. I loved it. I was on a different path in my life at the time, so I couldn't take off and do what he did, but oh, how I wanted to. That book stirred up a wanderlust in me that's been simmering ever since.

But I  won't blather on about my past right now. That's for another yawnfest post. My point is, I have never told you all the reasons why I want to live in a travel trailer. So I made a little list for you.

1.  The hubs and I would have our own accommodations, so friends we want to visit can't say they don't have room. You would be surprised how many of our friends are constantly remodeling their guest rooms. Most have even done it more than once! And it always turns out to be right when we want to come visit them for a couple weeks. Go figure.

It's really too bad that they miss out on our company because, quite frankly, we're charming.

Now if we had a travel trailer, why, we can just pull right on up in front of their house, hook up to their electricity, and us and our 5 dogs will be cozy as bedbugs. Just like when Eddie and Catherine visited the Griswold's for Christmas.

Don't they seem like fun people to have as company? (Source)

Can't imagine why our friends wouldn't want this parked in front of their house. She's a beaut! (Source)

2.  The kids can't move back home.  "Awww, son, you spent all your money on a big screen and computer games and now you can't afford your rent? Wish we could help ya out, but no room, don't-cha-know." 

"Awww, sweetie, you've been off footloose and fancy free in Hawaii and have run out of money while we've paid your cell phone bill and insurance and been taking care of your dog for 8 months, and now you need to stay somewhere while you work a job for a while? Darn. And us in our travel trailer with just one little bedroom. Shoot. Shootie Shoot Shoot. Too bad."

3.  If we don't like our neighbors, we can just up and drive away. Nosy neighbors are the worst. Always peeking out their curtains at your comings and goings and yelling at their husbands to come and watch what you're doing. 

Oh wait...that was Gladys from Bewitched. 

We actually don't know our neighbors very well, but if we did I bet we wouldn't like them and it would be nice if we could just drive on away from them. I'm sure it would be nice for them too. 

4.  No HOA rules to follow. Don't you hate HOAs? They're right up there with nosy neighbors. So we have a weed or 54895215 in the front yard, leave our trash cans on the curb a day or three after trash day, and our dogs bark incessantly a little - what's the big deal? You'd think we were living in freakin' Beverly Hills or something. I'll gladly trade HOA for KOA any day.

5.  I'd have interesting things to blog about. In a travel trailer, we'd be on the move all the time (other than the two or three weeks we'd park in front of our friend's houses). We'd be meeting new people and seeing interesting things and I'd have more exciting things to blog about than the time my Internet died or the things that happen in our bedroom at night or the time I went clothes shopping on Halloween and forgot to wear spanx. So see? You'd benefit too, if only I could live in a travel trailer. Maybe I should put a donation thingy in my sidebar to help the cause. 

6.  We would accumulate less crap because we'd have no place to put it. I buy containers to store crap. Then I buy things to store the containers in that hold the crap. Then I pin pictures of how I wish all my crap looked when it was stored. Then I buy more crap. It's time to admit I have a problem and stop the crapness. Maybe I could write off the trailer as crap addict therapy. I think the Obama plan covers that.

7.  No yard work. These are the three little words I long to hear every day. I force my family to do yard work, but no one in our house really likes doing it. Hence the aforementioned issues in #7 above. In a travel trailer we won't be anywhere long enough for the weeds to grow. And if they do, we can just move.

8.  We would actually be travelling. With a full time job and limited vacation time, we don't get to travel very often. Sure, I can get away and take my annual sister's trip for a few days, or go camping, or get away with the hubby, but we can't go too far or stay too long because we have to come back. If we lived in a travel trailer, guess what? No mortgage or rent to pay! With expenses cut, we could figure out a way to make enough money on the road to sustain us. 

And as Latin philosopher Augustine of Hippo said, "The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page." I want to read the whole damn book. Or at least the parts of it that I can drive to.

9. A small trailer means a small amount of cleaning. It's just plain science. The amount of cleaning is in direct proportion to the size of the dwelling. I'm tired of dusting and vacuuming and mopping and cleaning bathrooms. If we lived in a travel trailer I could spend my time more meaningfully like browsing Pinterest, playing Sims and making comics hiking and writing and talking with people.

10.  I could have a view with my coffee in the morning. I want to wake up, take my coffee outside, and sip it while looking at a lovely view every day. Mountains, beach, desert...wherever. As long as it's beautiful and changes frequently.

And those are all the reasons I want to live in a travel trailer. Lastly, I leave you with this picture, that my friend Kim, who doesn't blog anymore, but posts amazing pictures on Instagram, sent me via Pinterest:

This is so flippin' cute I can't stand it. (Source)

Trailing behind,
Lori

This post is for Mama Kat's world famous Writer's Workshop, in which (wow, try to say that 5 times fast) I choose the topic "Write a blog post inspired by the word: Travel". If you've never participated in Mama Kat's workshops, you totally should! Just head on over, choose a topic, and link up!

Fat Friday Frags

Didn't Friday take forever to get here? I had Monday off work too, so I had a short week, but man am I ready for it to be over. Cookie Monster happy dance:

It's Cookie Monster because I just confirmed I gained 6 pounds. I thought I gained a little, but was avoiding the scale and had a doc appointment today where they made me step on it. dammit.

I need to get my 6-pound-heavier-butt in gear now, I suppose.

Anyhoo, I'm getting off track because the point is that it's Friday Frag time. You know, that day when you can put all the little thoughts and odds and ends from your week that aren't enough to fill a whole post, but are worth mentioning, into one post? And that was the longest, kludgiest sentence ever.

Frag #1

My sister and I went off on our now-annual sister's trip last weekend. I'll give you the whole low-down this weekend and link to it in next week's frags, but suffice it to say, we had a grand time. 

There was the usual bickering about my hot flash situation and her general unreasonableness, but several margaritas and some whiskey set it all right. At least for a little while. But that's a whole 'nother blog post.

Here's a couple pics of the beautiful scenery:

Cedar Breaks, Utah

Cedar Breaks, Utah

Brian Head, Utah

Aaaand here's my sister:

You see what I have to deal with?

Frag #2

We had some serious flooding in Moapa, a little town Northeast of us. A portion of Interstate 15, the main highway to and from Utah, was washed away and will be shut down for weeks while they repair it. This happened a day after we got back from Utah, fortunately. We got some rain at our house, but not bad at all. Other areas of town were completely flooded. Here's a pic of Moapa and the Interstate:

Moapa, Nevada (Source)

Interstate 15, Nevada (Source)

 No lives lost, but some scared folks over there, now trying to pick up the pieces.

Frag #3

So, I signed up for a class on how to use Pinterest to generate traffic to your blog or website. (and yes, I do realize how ridiculously shallow that sounds after the aforementioned flooding. I maybe should have eased into it.) 

Anyway, It's a 2 week online course and this was the first week. I had no idea I needed a strategy to really benefit from Pinterest and am astounded at how much traffic it can generate if you use it right. 

Mind you, I haven't seen the astounding traffic yet, but others who are taking the class say most of their blog traffic comes from Pinterest. We'll see what happens as I apply what I learn. In the meantime, it's a fun class - I mean, how could it not be, it's Pinterest, for crying out loud.

If anyone is interested, it's offered through Melissa, over at Blog Clarity. She has lots of great tips and classes for bloggers.

Frag #4

I read a beautiful blog post this week about accepting those we love for who they are, despite addiction, mental illness, or any other ailment or issue they may have. As a parent of an addict, sometimes we get spun up about why our child is the way they are, or why they can't change, or how we could have done something different to prevent their addiction to begin with. But all of that worry is exhausting and doesn't help.

And in the end, all we can do is love them. No regret. No blame. Just love. "We get who we get and we love who we love," are the blogger's poignant words. If you'd like to read it, it's a short post by Annette at Just For Today and the link goes right to the post.

I'm so grateful that my daughter is in recovery.

Frag #5

Lastly, to end this post on a lighter note, here's a comic I made a while back. Click on the little 4 arrow thingy in the right corner to enlarge it:

Frag #6
And lastly, lastly, because I almost forgot to mention it and how ungrateful would that be...I won a blog giveaway this week!!

Airing My Dirty Laundry (and isn't that the cutest name??) had a blog giveaway for a $15 Fandango gift card and I won it! Now all I have to do is decide how to use it -  girl's night or date night...hmmm.

Check out her blog if you get time, she's really funny.

So now that's it for my frags this week. Hope y'all have a great weekend! If you want to write your own Friday Frags, head on over to Half-Past Kissin' Time and link up!

Fatly yours,
Lori

Winging It Wednesday (Eve)

Y'all can come on back to my blog now. I'm over the I-had-a-dream-and-I'm-going-to-write-a-sappy-poem-about-it mood. So go ahead...come on out. It's safe.

I'm going on our now annual sister's trip tomorrow. Sis and I are going to Brian Head Utah to stay in a friend's cabin, only I found out it's not a cabin, it's a condo in the city of Brian Head. With a jacuzzi! No schlepping it in a tent this year and we don't even have to gather our own firewood because the cabin is stocked with wood for the fireplace.  Awesome Sauce!

So, no Friday Frag post this week because I won't be here, but hopefully I'll have a good story to tell when we get back and lots of pictures to share. I know you're thinking, "Yay. Vacation pictures," but I promise not to be boring.

Maybe I'll throw in a comic if there is anything comic worthy that happens.

So I'm thinking of doing a meme thing on Wednesdays called Wing It Wednesday where I free write for a paragraph or two or six.

No back spacing, no deleting, no thinking...just writing...about anything.  I've never made a practice of free writing but I've been reading that it's good practice for the writing skills.

Anyhoo....would anyone else be interested in that? Not in reading my dribble, particularly, but in participating? I could do one of those linky things I see other bloggers use and I've never used and make it all official like. Just curious.

Actually, maybe someone is already doing a free write meme. I didn't google and check. Guess I'll do that. I don't want to be a blogger-toe-stepper-oner.

Gotta go pack now.  Can't find my bathing suit.

Not skinny dipping chick signing off.