Tea better than Paradise Bakery? I think so.

I bought this tea a few weeks ago from Trader Joes. I've never tried it before but I love their Jasmine Green Tea so I figured I'd try it. I love black tea so I was hoping I'd like Trader Joes Mango Black Tea. OMG! This stuff is amazeballs!! Occasionally when I'm at the mall I'll get a large mango tea from Paradise Bakery and for years now I've been looking for a similar tea to make at home. Well I think I finally found it. This stuff is just as good or better tasting. And since it only costs $1.99 a box which is about how much a large tea costs at Paradise Bakery I think we have a winner. I'm only sorry I bought one box of this stuff because I heard that it sells out all the time. I make mine by filling a large glass 3/4 full with ice and then I put one tagless teabag into my ekobrew cup brew it in my Keurig on the 8 oz. setting. It's so awesome that I can make a cup of refreshingly delicious mango black tea at home now. Woot, Go Trader Joes!

Christmas Pics

I know these are three months late but I still wanted to post them. Here's a few pics of the kids opening presents on Christmas day. I bought way too much stuff like always because I love watching the kids open gifts. I seriously have to buy less stuff this year though because the kids have way too many toys. We started a new tradition last year by making Prime Rib for Christmas dinner. The whole family enjoyed it so we'll probably be doing it again this year. Patrick also bought an 8 foot Christmas tree so looking forward to putting it up this year, that thing is freakin' massive. Defintely making Pat do most of the work though since he wanted it, ha. 

MorningStar Farms® veggie burgers

I recently tried a Bzz Agent Campaign for MorningStar Farms® original grillers veggie burgers. Patrick, my husband bought a new grill last year so we've been grilling pretty often. One night we decided to have the veggie burgers. Patrick's been on a health kick/diet for about a month now so he was up for trying them. I had my burger plain with ketchup like I've always eaten my burgers at home. I have to say I didn't really care for it, in my opinon it didn't taste at all like meat. On the other hand Patrick thought they were pretty good and he wants to have them again. I think I like beef too much to give it up for veggie even if it is just for one night a week or every once in awhile. For anyone whose into giving up meat one night a week or if you're a vegetarian I'd say try the burgers you'll probably like them. They're just not for me. 

Christmas Ornament Craftiness

I wanted to make sure and do plenty of Christmas crafts and activities with the kids this year, especially now that they're older and I can do more stuff with them. I saw a few craft posts on Pinterest about making Clay ornaments so I decided to give that a try. I bought Crayola Air-Dry Clay from Walmart and we began our fun. 

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The boys had a lot of fun using cookie cutters to make ornaments. They picked out what they wanted to use and then pressed the cookie cutter into the dough I had rolled out for them. We left them to dry for a few days and then we painted them with Crayola Washable No-drip Paint Brush Pens. 

It was the first time we used the paint pens and I have to say I really like them. The paint is in the pen and they dry pretty quickly, it is really more like a marker but the kids enjoyed thinking they were painting. If the boys want to I'd like to make ornaments with them every year if we can. Hopefully the ornaments will last because they seemed pretty fragile. Maybe we'll try using the clay you bake in the oven next time. 

How I Became a Gamer

Parsec (1982)

I've been playing PC games since my dad bought a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A computer back in the 80s. Granted those games were nothing like the PC games we have nowadays, nevertheless they were pretty decent at the time. I remember games like Alpine and Parsec, wow check out those graphics, amazing!

Alpiner (1982)

Lol, no really. That's all we had until my Dad got a Sega Master System then we had games like Phantasy Star, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, California Games and one of my favorites Psycho Fox.

Phantasy Star (1987)

Alex Kidd in Miracle World (1986)

California Games (1987)

Psycho Fox (1989)

My brother and I have a lot of great memories playing those games. Some of them were even 2-player. None were cooperative though, that kind of play didn't come till a bit later. For Christmas one year in the early 90s my brother and I received a brand new Super Nintendo System with Super Mario World from our Uncle. Best gift ever! Super Mario World quickly became one of our favorite games, we both got many hours of play out of that game. Still to this day, I think fondly of Super Mario World. 

Super Mario World (1990)

The graphics still look pretty good. I guess I could always get an emulator and play it again. 

After our Super Nintendo we got into computer gaming. I remember going with my parents to a department store in a mall close to our home and buying an IBM. Our first "real" computer. Later on my Dad started building systems for us. All four of us ended up having one. The first real first-person shooter I played was Wolfenstein 3D. Wow I have to say those graphics are pretty horrible. After that I would watch my cousins play Quake when we visited them during the holidays. 

Wolfenstein 3d (1992) 

 Our first taste of great graphics came when my dad bought Myst from Compusa. We would sit next to him and watch him play what we thought at the time was the coolest game ever. Gadgets to click, puzzles to solve, beautiful landscapes to explore, what's not to like? 

Myst (1994)

Sure I had games like Carmen Sandiego and The Oregon Trail but those were child's play, literally. Games that really made us into gamers were ones like Fallout, Rainbow Six, Half-life, and Everquest.

Fallout (1997)

Rainbow Six (1997)

Half-Life (1998)

Everquest (1999)

That screenshot from Everquest is actually mine. For some reason I still have all my screenshots from EQ on my computer. That was my Barbarian Shaman named Bhreac Zudora. Aww, I have fond memories of fighting Hill Giants and ending up selecting myself instead of the giant and I rooted myself. I was so mad because I couldn't run away when I needed to. I remember all the corpse runs, that was fun. Because in that game if you died all your crap would be stuck on your corpse wherever you had died and you would have to run back from where you were bound and then you'd usually be naked trying to not get murdered by mobs on your way back to your corpse. Oh you'd also lose experience too every time you died, lame. But then again it was either Ultimate Online or Everquest and we chose Everquest. 

There's actually a butt load of more games in between everything that I listed that we played but they're way too numerous to list and it would take all day so I'm just going to highlight my favorites. 

With new graphic systems coming out on a regular basis, new genres were born which led to some great games. Fallout 2, Darkstone, The Longest Journey, System Shock 2, Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, Unreal Tournament, Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and Battlefield 1942 are just a few that come to mind. 

Fallout 2 (1998)

Darkstone (1999)

The Longest Journey (1999)

System Shock (1999)

Unreal Tournament (1999)

Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (2002)

Elder Scroll III: Morrowind (2002)

Battlefield 1942 (2002)

Wow, it looks like 1999 and 2002 were good years for computer games. In 2003 I met my future husband. We both worked in the same mall, I was downstairs he was upstairs at the same end. What hit it off was that we both had been playing Battlefield 1942 and we ended up talking about it. We started dating after that, we mostly played computer games together and watched movies. However nine and a half years later, after three kids, two cars and a mortgage, we're still playing games together. 

Since that time we've played all kinds of games, some were good, some were bad, some horrible. But I've had a great time playing each and every one and I'll still be playing them till I'm not able to. In my twenty-something years of gaming I don't regret the time spent playing all those games, I have a lot of awesome memories from them. Our oldest son who is four now has been playing pc games since he was three and he is pretty incredible. Our child prodigy. I know he has many years of great gaming ahead of him. 

Here's to the next generation of games and gamers, may your spawn times be short, your adds be few, your leveling be quick, your loot be plenty and may lag never get the best of your gaming experience. 

I'm addicted to Chefville

I have a small obsession with Facebook games. I played Farmville and I got to level 33 until farming became too monotonous. Then I played Frontierville (Pioneer Trail) and got to level 114, I eventually became bored with that. Then came the Sims Social which I've played since the day it came out in August of 2011. I got to level 136 before I basically gave up on it, I still play occasionally. They come out with so many timed quests it becomes too much work and if I'm not having fun playing a game then what's the point of playing it.

Just this year though I started playing Chefville about two weeks after it came out in August. I've gotten to level 177 with 427 mastery stars in about five months. I almost lost interest in the game when I hit around 300 mastery stars but then they added a whole mess load of quests like catering, the California Dairy event and the new the Sushi station. As long as there's stuff for me to do then I'll still enjoy playing it. I don't really know why I like the game so much. You gather up your ingredients, then set up some dishes to make and let them cook anywhere from 1 minute to 16 hours. Then you can decorate your restaurant in various themes like Tuscan, Diner, or Harbor. You upgrade your cooking stations and get new ones as you level. Not too complicated yet not too simple. It's a pretty perfect game. I haven't encountered too many bugs. I see people on the forums all the time complaining about not being able to finish everything on time but I never seem to have that problem. Probably because I'm home all the time and I'm such a great multitasker, ha. I say skip the stuff you don't have time for because you really don't have to do everything. Right now they've got Holiday themed quests for Christmas and new decorations, yay. I've been having fun decorating my place and making winter meat pies. That's one of the cool aspects of online games they almost always end up doing something for holidays, I remember that from WoW.
Even though I play Facebook games I still play PC games when I find one i'm interested in. I just don't have as much time as I used to because of the kids. But that's cool I like my little Facebook games. Check out Chefville if you ever get the chance, it's pretty enjoyable.

8-bit Stocking

Another item I got from thinkgeek.com was this very cool stocking. I hung it up in our computer room. They are having some great specials right now and for a limited time free shipping with any order. They have awesome Christmas gifts for the geek in your life.

Christmas Photo Overload

Here's what my picture folder looked like when I loaded my camera onto on my computer and that was from just about five minutes of picture taking. The reason I have so many photos is because I was trying to make our Christmas cards so I could get them ordered. Another reason for taking so many photos is because kids don't exactly smile when you ask them to, let alone sit still for an entire ten seconds to take their picture. So I snap dozens upon dozens of photos hoping to find an okay one so I can put together a decent looking Christmas card. I'm not a card person, usually I don't send people cards. One of the exceptions is our yearly Christmas card and the other is when I give someone a gift I occasionally include a card with it. Or if I'm too lazy I'll just tell them it's from me. I really am a lazy person. Most of the time I try to do everything as easily and with as little effort as possible. I chalk up most of my current laziness to sleep deprivation. I've had it since '08 when my first child was born. Considering I've had three kids in four years then yeah I've never actually had a break from sleep deprivation, I've become somewhat accustomed to it. I'll probably go out and celebrate the night I get a full eight hours of sleep. Anyways, so after taking over a hundred pics and doing some rather great photo editing by yours truly here is the finished product.
Our 2012 Christmas card:

Update:  I wanted to mention that I ordered my cards through Vistaprint.com because they were having a great special. 20 cards for $4.99 and with shipping each card only ended up costing $.55. Pretty nice cards for that price. I did have a problem though, I didn't realize that basic shipping was going to take 14 days so their estimated arrival date was going to be 12/24/12. So you see how that wouldn't of worked for me. I needed to get the cards out by next week at the latest. Well I contacted their online customer service and a chat window was opened about five minutes later, Suzan answered my request. I told her about my conundrum and she was quick to help me. She offered me 7 day shipping which is half the time of the basic shipping for free! I've ordered from Vista print before and since then I've had nothing but good experiences from them. Yay, for great customer service!

Proof I am a Gamer

 just hitting level 90

my characters

I started playing World of Warcraft December 2004, a month after the game was released. I would have played it right when it came out but my husband and I bought Everquest II instead. Both games came out the same month. Unfortunately we found out the hard way that the game had a lot of bugs and wasn't exactly what we had been expecting. We were hoping it would of been just a more polished version of Everquest. We both had played EQ for many years. Warcraft was refined, had very little bugs, and had different graphics then I had ever seen. 

The first character I got to level 60 (which was max level at the time) was Crix, my rogue. Since then I've tried every class and almost every race. I have two characters that are my favorites though, Thesk my lvl 90 Draenei Shaman and Sól my lvl 85 Night Elf Druid. WoW just celebrated their 8th anniversary. I've played all four expansions, Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm, and Mists of Pandaria. I've raided, I've battled in PVP and Arenas, and I've mastered countless professions and achievements. I've had a good run. Even with the latest expansion though it's difficult to keep my attention. I just have too much other stuff to do nowadays. Don't get me wrong I love the game, there's so much to it but other things have become more important to me. It's nice that the game is still there if I ever want to get back into it. For now though I take my leave. 

Our Christmas Tree

My kid is nuts

I asked Noah to give me a normal smile and this is what I get, OMG. He cracks me up. What a weird kid, wonder where he gets that from? ;)

My caffeine addiction

My parents got me the Keurig B40 Elite for an early Christmas present and I absolutely love it. Ever since I had my third child back in May I had turned into a huge coffee drinker. Before the Keurig I would go out and get myself a large iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts. I still love Dunkin but because I have my own fresh coffee brewer I don't have to drive anywhere and I save money. The k-cups are usually only around .65 cents a piece, not bad for a great tasting cup of coffee or a flavored iced tea. I have a nickname for my Keurig,  I like to call it "My Instant Caffeine Machine". I am in love with this thing. It has a 48 ounce reservoir for water so I don't have to fill it up every time. It warms up water in like 90 seconds and the k-cup variety is insane. I order most of my k-cups from Amazon.com because they usually have the best prices and selection. I just recently got Celestial Seasonings Perfect Ice Tea in Black Tea and Lemonade and I have to say it's awesome! If you've got the money and you drink coffee get yourself one of these you won't regret it.