Let's Shake Up This Routine

Timeline of your day -

Today I'm supposed to write about the timeline of my day.  But I don't feel like it and I really don't think anyone cares about the timeline of my day.  It's the same thing, every week, based on the day of the week. Super boring.  So I'm going to go against my personality and write about something different.

I was thinking the other day about how lucky I am to have met such amazing friends in the past year. I feel like the older you get the harder it is to make solid quality friends.  It's really easy to have acquaintances in the people that you work with, or the parents of your children's friends, but it's more difficult to  maintain quality friendships.

Don't get me wrong.  I have some amazing friends that I have had for a long time.  Those are the ones that you expect to keep.  My friend Lindsay and I have been more like sisters than friends since sixth grade. Mi'Cole and I have been friends since Junior year in high school. It doesn't matter how long we go between talking we can always pick up right where we left off.  I wouldn't trade those two girls for anything. They have been with me through everything.  At this point that's expected, if we stopped being there for each other after being friends for more than half of our lives that would be ridiculous.

Then there is Jaqulene, who isn't as old as the old friends but isn't as new as the new friends, and would be there for me no matter what, whenever I needed her, and the same goes. We don't get to hang out and talk as much as we used to because of life, kids and school and just crap but I love her just the same.

You don't expect that from new friendships.  As we get older and have less history it seems like it's really easy to not make new, true, friends, and really easy to have superficial relationships.

Jen and I became fast friends last year around Thanksgiving.  We had so much in common personality wise that it was scary.  I ended up hiring her to come and work for me and we became even closer.  It's really hard to spend eight to nine hours a day with someone, when it's just the two of you, and not forge a bond. On top of that we liked each other enough that we were hanging out after work too.  She moved on-site and then in June I did too.  We started taking care of each other, making meals, going grocery shopping, coffee delivery.  We became LP's (Life Partners).  It was like having a roommate without actually having to have a roommate.  We talked about everything and supported each other through some serious shit.  Last week Jen moved back to Florida.  She hasn't even been gone a week and I miss her already.  I can feel the void in the apartment across the street.  But even though she isn't here anymore I know that LP status won't change.  I know that if I called her in the middle of the night she would answer, and that if I needed something she would give it. And that goes both ways.

Then there is Veronica.  The first time Veronica and I spent time together not in a work group setting was because she offered to come and help me pack so I could move.  How many people offer to help you pack? Usually you have to beg your friends to help and this work acquaintance just volunteers to help me?  She knew I was going through a rough time and just stepped in to help.  In the past six months she has helped me move, we've gone on vacation together twice, I've helped her move and she has lived with me.  She tells me how it is without fail and as blunt as possible, which I need.  I help her work through life decisions, which she needs. She tells me when I need to calm the fuck down and I tell her not to freak out.  I was just thinking the other day how amazing it is to have a new friend that feels like an old friend. That's something you just can't take for granted.

I love each of my girls and know that without them I would not be the person I am today. In this crazy world it's necessary to have as large of a support system as possible.  I know I am extra lucky to have mine, old and new.  

Sliding Down the Stairs

What is your earliest memory?

The funny thing about childhood memories is that I think it's possible to hear a story enough times that you think it's a memory.  Which is why I'm not sure if my earliest memory is actually a memory or just what I imagine after hearing the story so many times.

To hear the story told, we lived in a huge two story house until just after I was born until I was about two and a half.  The bathroom that I took baths in was on the second floor.  One day I was upstairs and I decided to take my little bathtub out of the big bathtub and slide down the stairs.

What I remember about this is not consciously making the decision to slide down the stairs, or even really the act of sliding down the stairs, but just the feeling of exhilaration the turned into panic as I approached, what was sure to be a crash landing, at the bottom.

Mom says I didn't crash.  I was perfectly fine.  But I cried because I freaked myself out so bad.  Which could explain why I don't like roller coasters I guess.

It isn't long after that I have for sure real memories.  We moved in to the house that my parents still live in when I was two and a half.  My mom was pregnant with my brother.  I remember going to look at the house when other people still lived in it.  I remember walking up the front stairs and Dad carrying me down the basement stairs.  I can still remember my first impression of the kitchen.  My two year old brain thought that the bright green walls and pumpkin colored counter tops were amazing.

I don't remember actually moving in to the house but I do remember the day that the boys that lived down the street came up to scope out the new kid.

About four months after we moved in to that house Mom went into labor with Morgan.  I remember being at the house while she was in the hospital.

Almost all of my really good childhood memories were made in that house and all of my bad memories too. The first time I broke my leg and the second time I broke my arm. My Thundercat birthday party. Playing hot lava monster in the front yard with all the neighborhood kids. Getting in trouble for not cleaning my room. Getting in trouble for not going to school. Making out on the front stairs. The panic of having to tell mom I was pregnant.  The first time I had to move home because I was getting divorced, and the second time too.

Outside of the almost memory of sliding down the stairs I only remember ever living in that house.  I count my lucky stars that I have always had the constant of that house and my mom and dad and all of the great memories that make that house be home.

Money Can't Buy Happiness. But It's Better to Cry in a Maserati Than a Toyota.

If you won the lottery...

It seems to be that this is a silly topic.  I suppose there are a lot of people who wouldn't do the normal "win the lottery" things, however I am not one of them.

If I won the lottery I would quit my job, but first I would  create a trust and claim all my winnings in the name of the trust.  Of course I would invest a bunch of money so that I could live off of the interest, easily, for the rest of my life.

I would pay off my, and a lot of other people's, debt and then I would buy a few houses around the world and I would travel.

My houses would be in Portland, Southern California and somewhere in Italy.  I would for sure buy a house in Hawaii just so Mi'Cole and Hutch (and anyone else) could go whenever they wanted.

I would start a Dutch Bros. franchise in SoCal so when I am there, at my house on the beach, I could have Dutch Bros. whenever I wanted.

I would spend a ridiculous amount of money on clothes, shoes and purses.

And I would buy a Maserati and probably 20 other cars and toys with wheels.

However, in order to win the lottery, you actually have to play the lottery.  I guess I'll just keep job, my apartment and drive my Toyota to Dutch Bros for a coffee.

Sunday Morning Breakfast

What is your favorite recipe? -

As someone who likes food so much, I thought that choosing a favorite recipe was going to be difficult. It wasn't.

I love German pancakes.  I'm not a fan of breakfast in general, unless it's scrambled eggs or an omelette for dinner, but I do love German pancakes.

It may have something to do with the fact that German pancakes hold a lot of happy memories for me. My mom would make German pancakes all the time.  I remember a lot of weekend mornings where she and I sat in the kitchen, drinking tea and talking in our pajamas, all while taking out an entire German pancake. Outside of my parent's front porch, the kitchen table is the epitome of "home" for me.  There is nothing more comforting than sitting at that table with my mom.  Making German pancakes on my own, at my house, isn't quite the same.  But it's still comforting and it always makes me think of great weekend mornings with my mom.

German Pancakes:

Ingredients:
3 tbsp Butter (or a little more)
1C Milk
1C Flour
3 Eggs
Dash of salt
Nutmeg

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Put 3 tbsp. butter in 10-12 inch cast iron skillet.  Place skillet in oven while preheating and brown the butter.

Mix milk, flour, eggs and salt in a bowl.  When the butter is browned pour into skillet.  Sprinkle nutmeg on top.

Bake for 15 minutes.  Pancake will puff on with air and create a crust.

Remove from oven, let sit for 5 minutes.  Cut like a pie and serve with syrup or jam.

There was a hole in my bucket...

What's at the top of your bucket list?


I never had a bucket list until my birthday last year.  I turned 30 and suddenly I realized that I had spent my entire adult life being a mom and a wife and hadn't spent a whole lot of time being me. Granted "me" was a mom and a wife at that point, but I knew that when PJ was grown and gone that wasn't ALL I wanted to be. There was a huge hole in my bucket and the real Rachel was slowing seeping out of the hole and turning into someone I didn't recognize or want to be. So on my 30th birthday I stared a bucket list.

My bucket list consisted of about 5 things:
Get a degree in something.
Learn to knit.
Go wine tasting.
Go ziplining.
Spend a month in a foreign country.

Almost a year later I have done exactly none of those things. They're certainly still on my list, and I did start the process of getting a degree, but I haven't actually crossed anything off.  Which is okay.

This year was a year of change, I think that turning 30 and starting my list made me realize that I wasn't happy with the way my life was shaping up in general.  So rather than crossing things off of my physical list I made some major life changes, like getting divorced and living on my own, so that I could get back to who Rachel is.  In the process of finding myself this past year I certainly have added to my bucket list.  I even have a board called bucket on Pinterest.  Most of the board consists of picture of Italy, I think that's probably where I'll spend my month someday, then I can cross that little item off.  Hopefully I don't have to wait until that trip to go wine tasting :-)

This past year I did realize that it's impossible to cross things off of your list if you are constantly making other people happy and overlooking the things that you want.  I realized that you have to surround yourself with unselfish people who care about your happiness as much as their own.  I learned that a positive, happy relationship is about compromising so that you can both be the best, happiest people possible.  I learned that being a mom is the most important thing I do on a daily basis but it doesn't have to be the only thing I do. I'm still learning how to calm the fuck down, I may not have perfected this but I have certainly improved. And I learned that person that I want to be with is someone who shuts down all the anxieties and insecurities in my head rather than making them worse.

Thinking about my progress over the last year, heck even just the last six months, I realize that these things are way more important than crossing off the actual items on my list and that as long as I don't lose sight of Rachel again, everything is going to be amazing.

Let's Run Away

Where Have you Traveled?

Whenever I talk about places I have been I feel like there aren't that many.  Usually the highlight of that conversation is that I have been to Greece. When I say that it doesn't really matter where else I have been because I went to Greece 11 years ago.  Greece is a dream vacation destination and usually that is what ends up getting discussed.  Because of that I have a tendency to forget the other places I have been. Granted, there aren't many, and none are as exotic as Greece, but I have traveled.  More than I usually remember.

In looking through pictures of where I have traveled I realized that I seem to have a thing for palm trees, and beaches, and doing inappropriate things to statues in Vegas.

The first time I ever road on an airplane was to San Jose, California when I was probably in 8th grade.  Mom, Morgan and I flew down and then we drove back through the redwoods with Dad, who had been working in Selinas.  We also took a family trip to Vancouver and Victoria, B.C. one year.

The summer between 9th and 10th grade I went on a Caribbean cruise with my friend Tabitha and her family.  It was a lot of fun but I would love to do it again as an adult.

San Juan, August 1997

My senior year I went on a class trip to San Diego.  We went to Sea World and Zoo and the beach.  If I remember right a few people on the trip got drunk, unbeknownst to our adult chaperones, and I remember walking. A lot.  

Me and Becky at Seaworld, 2000

Then there was that time I went to Greece.  I was 18 and I went with my boyfriend (and eventually first husband) Paul.  He had a house and family there and we went for three weeks.  It really was amazing. I would like to go back someday.  It was nice that we had family to stay with and it was certainly authentic. We ate Greek food, spoke Greek, rode on ferry's, sat outside and drank strong Greek coffee and visited the Acropolis. I do want to go back.  Even though it was definitely an immersion straight into Greek culture, I do feel like I missed out on a little bit by not getting to do the really touristy things. 

My favorite place to go was probably Hawaii.  PJ and I went for my best friend Mi'Cole's wedding in 2007. There is just something about the islands that makes for an amazing trip.  The wedding was great, the weather was amazing and the kids all had a really good time.  PJ asks me when we're going to back often. 

Heather, Mi'Cole and Me, Maui, Sept 2007

In February of this year I went to Detroit with the second ex-husband.  It was fun.  Interesting if nothing else. The mid-west is completely different than anything I had ever experienced before. Not in a bad way, just in a different way.  The best thing about Michigan was the flat.  There is SO MUCH sky.  You can see forever. I love that. 

Detroit 2013

I have traveled to Missoula, Montana for work.  It was really flat too.

The place I seem to keep going back to is Vegas.  I went in 2005, 2012, and I've been twice this year. There is just something about the idea of Vegas. Sunshine, pools and walking around with as much alcohol as you can handle.  I'm not big on gambling but I am big on people watching.  I love Vegas.

The first time I went was with husband number one.  We had fun.  It was the first time I ever left PJ home, he was about a year and a half old.  We went to the Hoover Dam and I crossed the border long enough to say I had been in Arizona.  I also found myself a knight to make out with.

The second trip was just last year with the second ex-husband and his parents.  It was fun but not nearly as fun as the two trips this year.

Lindsay and I went to Vegas in May this year.  It was an amazing vacation.  Lot's of girl time, pool time and food.  We got room upgrades, free bottles of wine and I came home with an amazing tan.

My second trip this year was for my friend Veronica's 30th birthday but morphed into a combo Vegas and California beach trip.  We had a great time. Drank, wandered, played in the sun at the pool. 

 At the end of Birthday week Josh and I traveled to California for some quality time.  I fell in love with the beaches and didn't want to come home.  I'm going back next week for more quality time and more beaches for my birthday.  Definitely the best birthday present I can think of. 

I guess the point is that I travel a whole lot more than my "Oh, I've been to Greece" statement indicates and, since it seems like my airport anxiety is subsiding, I'm going to keep traveling, as often as possible.                                  

Don't Take My Mascara Part 2

My friend and I were discussing the lotion and shampoo hoarding that I referenced in my "Don't Take My Mascara" post from earlier this week.  It turns out that unbeknownst to  me, this hoarding is common enough that Jenna Marbles created a video blog about it.

Take 8 minutes out of your life and watch this.  You won't regret it.  I promise. 

(she does drop the f-bomb a lot so you may not want to watch it in from of small children)