Every Halloween since my son decided he was too old to Trick or Treat, we have made Halloween a “scary movie” night. My wife is […]
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Halloween
Every Halloween since my son decided he was too old to Trick or Treat, we have made Halloween a “scary movie” night. My wife is not a scary movie fan but she humors us most of the time as we scream and laugh through a variety of films. She makes us homemade popcorn using this awesome gadget:

It’s an old fashioned stove-top popcorn maker and we LOVE the popcorn it makes. I’ll also share another tip – use this instead of regular oil if you can:

It tastes amazing!
The first year we did our movie night we didn’t have anything scary on DVD and some of the prices the “streaming services” were offering we ridiculous. Over the years, as we have seen them for under $10 various places, we pick up the DVD’s so we have them for our yearly ritual. So, to honor our tradition I will share with you some of our favorite SCARY movies which are right now, $10 or less! I’ll add to it as I find them.
Halloween $5!

Halloween Double Feature $5!

Psycho Triple Feature w Anthony Perkins $5.84!

Stephen King’s Graveyard Shift $5

Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot – the Miniseries $5

Stephen King’s Carrie only $4.19!

Stephen King’s Firestarter $5.99

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Rapid Boil Electric Kettle 50% off!
I love a good cup of hot tea right before bed and having an electric kettle makes it super easy to do! I saw this deal this morning and thought I would share it with all of you!

Get 50% off this Rapid-Boil Electric Kettle, which reduces from $49.99 to $24.99 at Amazon. Shipping is free with Prime or when you spend $35 or pay $5.99 without Prime.
- Fast Boil – Water rushes to a boil in instants, a blue light majestically illuminating the electric water kettle. 1,500 watts and an OTTER controller provide additional speed and power.
- Safe Operation – An auto-shutoff technique switches off the hot water kettle as soon as the water boils to prevent dry boiling. The concealed heating element ensures no toxins leach into the water, and the handle remains cool to the touch for safe handling. “CAUTION! Do not pour with the lid open”
- Rotary Base-With a 360° rotating base, you can easily access the kettle boiler from all angles. Off the base, the kettle is entirely cordless for smooth pouring. Neatly store the cord beneath the base in a specially designed storage slot.
- Ergonomic Design-This electric tea kettle has a built-in mesh filter that lets you put tea bags or fruit in the water with just the water passing through. The top pops open with the touch of a button, and the wide mouth makes for effortless refilling and cleaning. With a 360° rotating base, you can easily access the kettle H₂O boiler from all angles. Off the base, the kettle is entirely cordless for smooth pouring. Neatly store the cord beneath the base in a specially designed storage slot.
- Durable Glass-Of attractive borosilicate glass and brushed 304 stainless steel, the hot water heater will last for years to come, adding a unique charm to your kitchen. The exterior is brilliantly clear and stain-free with marked measurements for precise pouring.
Rosh Hashanah
I’m not Jewish….but I just read an article about Rosh Hashanah and I’m seriously thinking about adopting some things from it. Is that allowed?
This has been a shitty week, no two ways about it. I mean, one of our top 5 worst weeks in the 20 years since my wife and I have been together. Last Thursday our neighbor across the street died. RIP Mr. Pat. My wife lost her job last Friday after working in her industry for a straight 21 years. She’s suffering from a severe case of PTSD. I’m not helping things because I’m caught between being angry at the job loss, which was not her fault – being worried about the future, because I’m human, and trying to keep life as stress free as possible for the family in general.
Saturday was spent cleaning out her office and returning her work equipment. Sunday was spent drinking, trying to forget what happened on Friday and watching football. Monday was getting Gavin and I together enough to go to school and work and Tuesday…..sigh…..Tuesday was my birthday.
Can I tell you how much I did not feel like celebrating? I mean, I turned 49. Enough said. My wife made me a lovely dinner and bought me some red velvet and snickerdoodle cupcakes from the Yummery bakery and then took me to schedule an appointment for a new tattoo. I am blessed.
By Wednesday, she had a training job lined up to be a route driver for TastyKake, so we went to bed by 6PM on Wednesday and Thursday night so she could get up at 2AM on Thursday and Friday morning to drive to the depot for her training. To say we are exhausted is an understatement.
And just now, my mother-in-law let us know her 18 month old lab died suddenly of pancreatic failure. Seriously September….
Gavin is off for Rosh Hashanah today and for the first time in 49 years I thought I would read up on what the celebration was. I’m not going to get into all the fine details but I will say that I pulled a few great things out of that new knowledge.
How lovely is it to hear that Rosh Hashanah is considered the birthday of the universe!! I just love that.
At sundown, we could light some candles, gather as a family in the living room or out by the fire pit and watch a movie while eating comfort food consisting of onion roasted brisket, apples dipped in honey, and carrots cooked with thyme. For dessert we would have Noodle Kugel made with a cinnamon sugar topping and we could drink Sangria (or something else sugary, not sour) and repent for our sins over the last year.
We can then run a hose and toss some pebbles into it to signify getting rid of our sins. Then, we celebrate a sweet New Year to come. Doesn’t that sound lovely and comforting and spirit cleansing?
I know I am missing a lot of prayers, songs and the blowing of a horn but as I am not Jewish I do not have easy access to those things and since I believe that the Universe loves me, I also believe that it will forgive me for this slight on its birthday.
Queen….the Band….we’ll discuss the other queen later…
In 2019 we had the chance to see Queen in concert in Philadelphia, PA. Adam Lambert took the place of the deceased Freddy Mercury and it was literally one of the best concerts I have ever seen. The range that man can sing is amazing! I’m including the writing of our son in this post because he received top props for this in his writing class:
It was a nice and sunny day in the city of Philadelphia with the smell of cheesesteaks and gasoline filling the air. At the ripe time of seven o’clock I was up and started my day. I took a warm shower in my cozy hotel room at the Hilton, dressed, and started down the stairs. As I inched closer to the free breakfast the hotel was offering the corridors were filled with the smell of potatoes and bacon. I stared over the tables at tables of breakfast foods and utensils. I carefully chose my breakfast. I came out with potatoes, bacon, toast, cinnamon buns and frosted flakes. I boxed up my food and left the lounge, as quick as I possibly could. I ran up the stairs and through the corridors trying to beat the feeling of hunger that was growing in my stomach. Finally, I made it to my hotel room. I cracked the door open trying not to wake my parents up but to my surprise they were already awake. With my stomach crying for food I sat on the coal colored recliner and gazed out the window at the city that surrounded me. I gobbled up my breakfast in seconds. I turned to the mini fridge and pulled open the door. There was a dragon fruit Vitamin Water calling my name. I quickly popped off the cap and washed the taste of overcooked potatoes out of my mouth. In a flash it was already 9 o’clock. In the morning I paced around the room trying to find the navy-blue Adidas shoes I wear every day.
“Where are they, where are they?”
I exclaimed. Finally, a thought popped into my head,
“Gavin, did you check under the bed”.
I peered through the endless black shadow under the bed and there they were.
“Found ’em!”
I yelled. I reached under the bed and grabbed my shoes. I jumped onto the bed and started to lace them up. My mom grabbed her purse and led us down to the lobby. We were headed to the Franklin Institute. The world suddenly went up ten volume levels. Everywhere we went there were pedestrians yelling and car horns honking. We navigated through the crowded streets of Main Street Philly. As I gazed through the streets there were tons of Eagles fans.
“Good thing I didn’t wear my Tom Brady Jersey!” I told myself.
As we were walking down the streets all I could think about is the concert. I imagined screaming fans almost being louder than the band. A car horn woke me up from my daydreaming and to my surprise we were already a quarter into our journey. I gazed upon the beautiful buildings surrounding the streets. My bones started to feel brittle like I was going to collapse. As we inched closer to the Franklin Institute the columns started to become larger and larger until finally, I was faced to face with them. I entered the building and gazed around looking at the beautifully sculpted Ben Franklin statue and the giant heart play place. As we navigated through the crowded halls of the building looking for the Marvel exhibit finally, we found it. There were banners and statues everywhere, giftshops filled with Spider Man and Captain America plushes and action figures. We walked up to the line to get in and it was nearly the size of the whole building! There were only ten minutes until the doors opened so I waited…. I waited…. waited even more…….. and then the doors opened! People were running in, trying to be first and when we made it in there it was every Marvel fans dream. There were movies, tv shows, and comics filling up the walls. There were statues of major Marvel characters like the Thing, Spider Man, and Iron Man. Each superhero had its own exhibit. There was Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Stanley Lieber (Stan Lee) but it was just a statue. I walked around and gazed at the beautifully crafted Mark Suits and Tesseract recreations. But, no one cared about those they cared about… THE ENDGAME EXHIBIT! Everyone poured into the room gazing at the infinity stones and Thanoses armor. Before you knew it, the exhibit was over. It felt like it was just a little taste into all the Marvel lore, but I loved it! And even better there was a huge gift shop to waste my money in. I looked around and there were candy, Funko Pops, statues, Legos, lunchboxes, and stuffed animals and they all looked so cool, but I knew I had to be wise. I thought I want something that has my favorite superhero, Wolverine. I thought it was odd but there was really nothing Wolverine except for a Pez dispenser so, I bought it! As the lines died down an employee escorted us to the exit. We all wondered what now, we still have hours until the concert. Then it hit us, LUNCH! It seemed everyone else had the same idea to. Tons of people had already piled into the huge cafeteria to abolish their craving of food and water. We jumped in line and patiently waited for food. As every minute passed the lined seemed to grow ten people. Finally, it was our turn. The grills were filled with chicken served with a side of fries and burgers, but it all looked so good. I dipped the fork into the chicken bin and carefully grabbed the perfect piece of chicken. We made our way to the cashier and paid our fee,
“$30 for chicken and a cheeseburger, ABSURD”
my mom exclaimed. We made our way to our tables and gorged ourselves with food. “Burp” my stomach was satisfied. We piled our greasy trays on to the rubbish bin and left the Franklin Institute satisfied with our experience. We walked out of the building and our legs were aching in pain.
“Let’s call a taxi” my mom said.
“Good idea let’s go!”
“Taxi, taxi we yelled. Finally, a taxi appeared.
We said, “The Hilton please.”
You got it the taxi driver exclaimed. In a flash we were back at the hotel and in the comforts of our hotel room. There was nothing to do for the next five hours. 1:00 watching tv, 2:00 going to the pool, 3:00 watching more tv, 4:00 decided to watch a movie and then it was time, time for the concert! I jumped out of bed and into the shower. I brushed my hair and put on my Queen shirt; I was ready. I left the lobby ecstatic. We walked around the streets and into the subway station and navigated through the different stations until we found our port. We waited patiently for our subway to arrive. Finally, it had arrived, and we ran in. As people started to pour in the subway started to leave its stop. As the subway moved swiftly around the tracks all I could think about was the concert. Finally, the train stopped and let us out. I ran out of subway system and gazed around at my surroundings, I saw statues, stadiums, cars, and trucks. We walked up to the stadium hosting the concert and were almost in.

The line started to expand and expand until finally they were letting us in. We got to the stadium when an employee stopped us in our tracks.
” Ma’am, you can’t take a backpack in with you.”
In a back and forth argument the guard had won. My mom walked around the whole stadium to get to the lockers while me and my other mom went into the stadium.

We walked around the stadium looking for our seats. “There they are” my mom said. We walked into our row and sat down.

We looked at the stage where the band would be preforming in awe. Minutes before the concert started my mom had finally made it back. Then BOOM, BOOM, CHICK, BOOM, BOOM, CHICK, the concert had started. The stage lit up and fireworks appeared and then the band.

Queen had been my favorite band for over a year and I still remember how excited I was when I got the tickets on Christmas eve. I practically knew every song and could repeat it whenever the band played it, so I did. I sang from the beginning of the concert with Inuendo to the end of the concert with Bohemian Rhapsody.

As the band finished preforming waves of claps started to go around the stadium and the it was finished. I loved it! Every single second of it was amazing.

As we walked out of the stadium, we started to the subway station. We hopped on the train and started our journey. We talked to other pedestrians on the subway until we got to our stop. We left the stop and walked around to find where we were. “Um were at the wrong place” my mom said.
” Oh no”
my other mom exclaimed. We panicked as we looked around to find help, but we were too far away. We were trapped underground and there were no exits. “I’m going to have a panic attack if we can’t get out of here.” My mom said. Just as she had said that we spotted an elevator.
“There, THERE!” I exclaimed.
We managed to get into the elevator to bring us outside, but there was one problem, it was 12:00 am in the heart of Philly and you know how dangerous that can be. We quickly navigated through the streets until finally we saw the huge lighted sign. It was our hotel, the Hilton. We all let out a sigh of relief. Finally, we were at home base a place where we could relax. We fell right asleep on our comfy sheets and mattress knowing no matter how bad things can get, you can always enjoy them.

Well said son, well said.
Troy Aikman
I don’t live in Dallas, I live in Baltimore – Ravens country. Except back in the day, when I was growing up we didn’t have a football team. The Baltimore Colts left in the middle of the night to go to Cleveland and an entire generation from Baltimore didn’t have a football team growing up. It wasn’t a big deal to me – it was the eighties and nineties and I had music to listen to.
When I was 17, I met my first spouse and he loved the Philadelphia Eagles. Well, there was no way I was going to like the same team as him so I chose to follow one of their main rivals, the Dallas Cowboys. They were led by quarterback Troy Aikman and he was so much fun to watch. Always so serious on the field and really, who could beat the Cowboys in the late nineties?
I bought an Aikman jersey, started collecting Aikman trading cards and even though I didn’t know him personally, he was the man. Let’s fast forward to a couple of years ago. I was in a new marriage to someone whose family actually has Raven’s season tickets. We had a son who chose to love the New England Patriots because of Gronkowski and Brady. Aikman left the field and started announcing and that was that.
Imagine my shock when my son went to a Baltimore Ravens game with his grandparents and I received the pic I posted to this blog. He knew I loved Aikman – had helped me collect his cards even though the Patriots were his heart – yet he looked up and saw Aikman in the press box and said to him, “My mama is your biggest fan but she isn’t here with me. Can I get a picture with you to send to her?” He said yes and this picture was taken and my heart….oh my heart….I literally cried when I opened it.

Troy Aikman will always be first class to me. He took the time to make a little boy and his mama’s day and we’ll never forget that. What a class act.
Depression and Other Mental Illnesses
I suffer from major depressive disorder. It’s a horrible disease that takes over your mind and immobilizes you. Unmedicated, your thoughts are sometimes not your own – they are made up by your own mind and it sometimes feels like there is a reel inside of my head that plays over and over telling me my worst fears are coming true. Thank God there are medicines and therapies which can help silence the horror film those of us with a mental illness live with.
My family on my moms side has some sort of faulty gene which has caused suicides, schizophrenia and bipolar disease in our history. I consider myself lucky that I recognized the symptoms at age 17 and went to the doctor on my own to get help. Hiding it just makes it worse. I did not want to be like the rest of my family who tried to pretend it didn’t exist or it would go away on its own. It DOES exist and it doesn’t just go away.
There are a lot of great sites on the internet to visit if you are still not sure you are ready to talk to anyone in person. I really like The Mighty found at https://themighty.com/ , To Write Love on Her Arms at https://twloha.com/ , and for those of you who are young and struggle with your sexual identity as well as depression, The Trevor Project https://www.thetrevorproject.org/ .
If you are suffering from depression or other mental crisis, please see a doctor and get some help. It does not have to be a psychiatrist. You can get medicine from your primary care physician. It’s time to start taking care of yourself again. And one more thing. You are not crazy just because you decide to get help for yourself – you’re crazy if you don’t!
Learning to Gain Back Control with FlyLady
I love Flylady.
Have you been living in CHAOS?
FlyLady is here to help you get your home organized! She teaches you to eliminate your clutter and establish simple routines for getting your home clean!
Yes, she is a real person and yes her site, her words of love, her hate of the word perfect all made me love her even more. Her terms “shine your sink” and “change the words you say about yourself inside to something positive” are right up my alley.
Her site (www.flylady.net) will always be free to use, and it is AMAZING for getting your house and yourself organized in as little as 15 minutes.
I have literally been following her since 2000!!! She has several books out and also sells her own line of cleaning products to make cleaning “fun”!
She has cleaning lists and holiday manuals and recipes and 5 minute room rescues. She keeps you sane as you try to work, manage your household, get the kids off to school, celebrate holidays and more.
Go check her out, you won’t regret it!
Breakfast Casserole Using Leftovers
Details
Ibotta
I like easy money and that is what Ibotta is. Seriously. You go to their app, find the store you want to shop at and either click the link and go there OR find out that your store has some great “rebates” in the form of coupons. I like using coupons best because they’re SO EASY to use!
Food Lion is where I shop at the most when I use Instacart and they always have coupons on Ibotta. Simply scroll through the coupons and click on the items you plan to buy from Food Lion. For instance my son loves Dave’s Killer Bread bars and there is a $2.50 rebate out there if I buy two boxes so I would click on that.

Next time I place a Food Lion order on Instacart (or go to Food Lion) and buy two boxes of Dave’s Killer Bread bars, $2.50 will appear in my Ibotta account. That’s it. Now there are some things which they will occasionally ask you to scan the barcode on like liquor but still, it is EASY!
So, the next time you are on the toilet, scrolling on your phone – yes, I know you do this – instead of going to Facebook go to Ibotta and make some easy money!
At the end of the year I cash in all my money in the form of a gift card and use it for Christmas gifts. Take a look at it and sign up today using my “friends” code which is ADCFHG and earn your first $5 just for signing up. Every friend you get to also sign up using YOUR “friend” code will earn you $10. I just LOVE easy money and I LOVE sharing it with everyone 🙂
Labor Day
I was so excited for our first 4 day weekend in September that I made it 6 hours at work on Friday and then I had to get out of there to get it started. There’s just something about knowing the temperature is going to be a high of around 72 that makes it feel like fall is coming early and I LOVE fall! We were having family over on Saturday for a seafood lunch and our Family Fantasy Football draft on Sunday. I had so much food to prepare and drinks to keep cold and honestly, I love every minute of it.
Friday night started out good. Instacart had made 3 deliveries for me so I had food to make room for and prep. Plus I had to clean and stock the bathroom and do all of those other unseen jobs that moms around the world do everyday to keep their homes running smoothly.
My wife was able to get off at 1:30 and our son was out of school and home by 2:15 so we were really rolling and I was SO excited for our night. Gavin wanted me to take him to the flea market to get some CD’s so I picked up dinner while we were there.
We were all ready for a nap by this point so we snuggled down and snoozed for a couple of hours so we could stay up later and have a fire. Here is where the shit began to hit the fan. By the end of the night my wife felt like she had a cold in her chest so any plans for the night – a fire and drinking and playing cards – were toast. Then her dad called to say one of the kids in the family had hand foot and mouth disease so the in-person Fantasy Football party was off. We just went to bed.
Saturday dawned bright and promising. My wife felt better so I prepped and she cooked and we started having a few drinks. Our aunt and uncle came over and we had a nice visit with great food. When they left, my wife wanted to rest inside because the beer wasn’t going down well and so I stayed out back with the dogs and had a little fire with Gavin. We went in around 10 and went to bed.
Sunday we worked on setting up the fantasy league in Yahoo online and had our draft at 2PM. We had a couple of drinks while drafting and my wife had to stop afterwards because she was too hungry to keep drinking – she can’t do both. So I ordered her and Gavin some food from Mr. Y’s and I read while Gavin played a video game and Dav rested in the living room. Then we watched the Nascar race and headed to bed around 9:30.
Now it’s Monday and I have been up since 7:30 prepping food for the coming week . Laundry is started and Dav has the rest of the food we didn’t have room for on Saturday cooking on the grill. Not the weekend I had wanted but I can’t complain. We were able to spend some quality family time together and that’s what matters.