Coffee Blog Revisited

Here is a repost of a blog I wrote 2 years ago on MySpace about coffee... Ahhh! My beloved coffee....

After a terrible bout of insomnia last night, I truly needed my daily dose of caffeine this morning. I'm nervous about my birthday plans this weekend and couldn't get my mind to shut up. Okay, here's the post:

I did sleep finally, but I haven't fully repaid my "sleep debt" yet, so I felt like crap when I woke up this morning. But it's nothing a couple cups of coffee can't fix.

For those of you who don't know, I love coffee. In fact, a good caffeine buzz inspires most of my blogs. I drink it in the morning and in the afternoon. Under the stars and under the moon. (Ha Ha I made a rhyme) I started drinking coffee at age 16. I rehabbed during both of my pregnancies, for the safety of my babies. But soon after both births, I went right back to my morning/afternoon habit. I currently have no plans on quitting.

Just the sight of the coffee pot gets me excited in the morning. And the smell makes me feel alert before I even start on the first cup. My husband on the other hand, doesn't want anyone in the house to even SPEAK to him until he's half-way finished his second cup. Otherwise he "hulks out" and goes into a grumpy fit. So if you see a shirt-less green man out there tearing down buildings, then you know Vickie didn't keep her mouth shut early this morning.

As much as I love coffee, I don't love it as much as my grandfather. His coffee pot stays on all day. I once washed it for him and he got mad at me because I "washed all the flavor out of it." And I love how fellow coffee-lovers are defined by their brand. Mine is Maxwell House (french roast). My mom used to be a Folgers lady, but I think I've converted her to Maxwell House master blend. I wish I could have coffee with doughnuts every morning, but if I did, my hips would be too wide for my jeans before long.

Got any good coffee stories? What brand do you prefer?


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For an incredible collection of coffee recipes you can make right in your own kitchen, check out my Starbucks Coffee Recipes for Coffee Lovers.

Daddy's Girl

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Dinner Blog: Apricot Fish

It occurred to me that it's been awhile since I did a dinner blog. I wanted to share tonight's dinner because it is so unique.

Basically it's seasoned baked tilapia fish. During the last 4 or 5 minutes of cooking, I brushed apricot preserves over the fish fillets, making an apricot "glaze".

The kids loved it because it's sweet, and it got Adam's seal of approval as well. I served it with baked potato and steamed broccoli.




I suppose you could do the same thing with chicken, and it would be just as good. If you try it out in your kitchen, let me know how it turns out :-)

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Driving With Fuel

Fuel meaning coffee, of course...







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Like Mother, Not Like Daughter

Adreine sits at the kitchen table reading a book.

Me: "That's the third library book I've seen you reading this week. I'm so proud of you."

Adreine: "Yea, we have to read and take a test on all these books, then we get to go on a surprise field trip with Ms. Diane."

Me: "Well if you ask me, there doesn't have to be a reward for reading. Reading is just fun anyway."

Adreine rolls her eyes: "Maybe to you... I'm only reading these books to get it over with so I don't miss the field trip!"

Me: *shocked pause* "You mean, you don't LIKE to read?"

Adreine: "No."

I smile: "I think you just haven't found the right book yet. Once you find a book about something that really interests you, reading won't seem boring at all."

Adreine looks as if she's trying very hard to be patient with me:

"Mom, please understand. Just because I don't like to do the same things that you do, doesn't make me any less of a daughter."

Where does she get all this wisdom from? Because she certainly doesn't get it from me!

Lol


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Top 10 Phrases Said by Adam

10: I'm busy.

9: *to Jacob* Boy, I will throw you out that window if you do that again!

8: *to Adreine* What are you crying about now?!?

7: *to me* No, you cannot drive my car.

6: That stinks, don't it? *grins as the kids and I gag*

5: How did *insert name here* get my phone number?!?

4: Anything worth doing/buying is worth doing/buying right.

3: *big grin* Its only illegal if you get CAUGHT!

2: You get what you pay for.

1: *To the kids* Daddy loves his little princess/buddy!

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Power Juicer

I have waited for almost a month for my new juicer to be delivered. Now that's it's here, I am super excited!





Now my family and I can have fresh juice with no extra sugars, calories, preservatives, and all the other crap commercial juice companies put in their products.

I feel as if my status as a wife and mother just went up a notch :-)





Here is a glass from my first batch of green vegetable juice. It tastes like the air smells outside when someone is cutting grass.

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Sock Puppet Show

The weather's been too cold these days for my lil ones to go outside to play. If Adreine had her way, her fingers would be surgically attached to the Nintendo controller, and Jacob would be lost in marathons of Spongebob and Tom & Jerry.

Today we decided to turn off the entertainment devices and try something different. Adreine found mismatched socks and got out the markers. Here's their sock puppet show.

Jacob liked his sock puppet so much, he fell asleep with it still on his hand. Awe!

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My Weight Chart

This is my Wii Fit weight chart for the past three months. I have a long way to go but I'm going strong! Go me!




If you're interested enough to want to continue to track my weight loss, you can view my weight loss "ticker" at:

http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage.asp?id=VICKIEHEULLY

Just thought I'd throw that out there. I could use the accountability. Knowing that the cyber world might be watching me to see if I succeed feels a little creepy, but most of my regular readers pretty much know everything else about me, so why not? It works for the contestants of The Biggest Loser...

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Nasal Explorer

Jacob has one of those little plastic magnifying glasses that come with bug-catching kits.

He puts the magnifier flat against the bottom of his nose, runs up to my dad, and yells,

"Hey Pawpaw, check out my boogers!"


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Fancy and Handsome

Jacob recently expressed his goal to be "fancy and handsome like Daddy" when he grows up. For Valentine's Day today, I gave him a chance to try it out. I dressed him up and set him for a cutie-pie photo shoot.












Showing us his Salty train.







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Valentine's Day 2010

Here's pictures of my Valentine's Day gift from Adam! He surprised me with a gift delivery since he's at work. I LOVE roses!









*grins!*

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Consistency Pays Off

Jacob: "Don't forget, Adreine, if you make a mess, you gotta clean it up."

Adreine: "You can't teach me something I know already. You're only 3. I've had to hear that from Mom and Daddy for SEVEN YEARS!"


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Snow Day February 2010

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Geaux Saints! Superbowl 2010

I don't usually pay much attention to football. But when the Saints go marching in, I definitely watched. Frankly, it was the best damn football game I've ever watched in my life. The same goes for my family too. My brother Ben got so obnoxious, he ripped his damn shirt right off! At game end, we ran through the yard screaming.

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Happy Birthday Adreine 2010

*Warning: There's a puke story in this one. So if you have a weak stomach, you may want to skip that part. On the other hand, some of you might like that sort of thing. If so, then feel free to scroll down past the cute photos and get to the gross part. Enjoy!*





It doesn't seem like my baby girl is 7 years old today! Seems like only a few months ago, she was just a baby. Nowadays I try to think of things to teach her to help me around the house. She's such a spoiled little diva. She wrinkles her nose and asks, "Mom, why do I have to do this?"

Me: "Because you're gonna be a grown-up someday, and you're gonna have to learn to do this stuff anyway. So why not learn now, while you're still young and we can make it fun. By the time you're a woman, you won't even have to think about it, it'll be a habit for you."

To which she usually replies, "Nuh-uh! I'm just gonna live with you and Daddy forever!"

But I digress...

Since Adam is at work right now, we celebrated her birthday at Chuck E. Cheese while he was home. Adreine's a definite 'Daddy's Girl', so no birthday celebration would be complete without him. Sadly this was right around the time that everyone was getting sick with some bug or other, so we didn't get that many people to come with us. I think the kids had fun anyway (except for the puking).












Hit it Jake!




A train! I almost couldn't get him down from there.




The kids and Clinton




Time for cake.
I have to say, for a pizza joint cake, that was some of the richest cakes I have eaten in a long time. When Adam tried to offer me a second piece, I said I would be sick if I ate any more of it.

Adam: "Well, what's the big deal with that? It's bound to taste half as good coming back up as it did on the way down!"

I thought Clinton was gonna choke, he was laughing so hard.

Chuck E. Cheese got our toppings wrong on our pizzas, so they made us a free one to make it right. We ended up with 3 large pizzas! Adam and I told the kids to "eat up" so we wouldn't have to bring so much of it home. Big mistake!

After that, we went to Toys R Us to let Adreine pick out a gift. She chose a "Littlest Pet Shop" plush toy. We were planning on taking the kids to see a movie to top the day off, but as you read further, you'll find we didn't quite make it there.

*Here's the puke part.*

We were driving along Hardy Street. Adam and I were debating on exactly which direction would get us to the movie theater (he was right, I was wrong) Apparently the pizza and super chocolate cake were too much for Jacob to handle. He turned pale and began coughing. Before any of us could ask what was wrong, he opened his mouth and spewed pizza and cake EVERYWHERE!

Listen closely:

He puked all over the leather seat of Adam's new Chrysler!

Don't get me wrong here, the seat was the last of our worries in that moment, but looking back, it's like, "Damn, don't you hate it when that happens?!"

So Adam pulled into the nearest parking lot. We got out, and we're all, "Oh, poor baby! Are you okay?"

We're unsuccessfully trying to clean him up and make sure he's alright. I ended up taking off my coat and using it to do the best I could for him. (For the record, he was fine after this.)

Meanwhile, Adreine and Clinton are on the other side of the back seat, horrified.

The smell of vomit was too much for Adreine to handle.

Adreine: "Mom? That smells bad. I don't feel so good....*GAG!*"

That's right. Adreine hurled chunks on her side of the seat as well. Clinton looked a little green himself. To make matters worse, there's a child-lock on his door preventing him from opening it from the inside. He was stuck in the backseat with two children covered in yuck!

At that point, there was nothing else we could do but go home as quickly as possible. As we pulled into our drive-way 37 minutes later, Adam turns to me and says,

"The next time we take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese, we're taking YOUR vehicle."

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