Baked Pasta

Baked Pasta is one of my families favorites. It's a easy meal that can be prepared in just a matter of minutes. I often serve the bake pasta with a salad and italian bread or dinner rolls.

Ingredients

One box of Penne pasta
2 jars of spaghetti sauce
1 package of pepperoni
1 package of mozzarella cheese
Parmesan Cheese

Boil pasta until tender, strain and rinse with cold water. Place pasta in a 13"X9" pan. Stir in two jars of spaghetti sauce, one package of pepperoni and half the package of mozzarella cheese. Top with the remaining mozzarella cheese and sprinkle with Parmesan Cheese. Then cover with aluminum foil and bake in the oven on 415 for about 30 minutes. The pepperoni can be substituted with hamburger, chicken or sausage.

Sarah Palin's Dreams Of Running For President May Be Over

Sarah Palin's dreams of running for President may now be over. Some believe that Palin is partly responsible for the tragic shooting Saturday in Arizona. There is a lot of controversy over the map released by Sarah Palins political action committee. Griffon, herself has also raised concern over Palin's map. Saturday the map was removed from her site, saying the map is no longer relevant. Even though I am not a Palin fan, I don't think Sarah Palin is directly linked with the shooting. But, I also don't believe it was a plot to destroy her chances of running for President as some are claiming. Politicians do need to be more careful about what they put on the Internet for anyone to read. I really don't think someone would go that far. The man was emotionally disturbed. No one knows exactly why the man did what he did, he isn't saying. It's all a matter of speculation. Now, that the story is getting so much publicity, I'm sure the Jared Loughner will exaggerate his reasoning for the senseless shooting. It is a tragedy the shooting in Arizona happened. I am slightly irritated the talk is now about Sarah Palin instead what the real tragedy is about. The real tragedy is, innocent people lost their lives.

Childhood Sexual Abuse

From time to time when I can't find anything to watch on television, I will turn to the Talk Shows. Well, yesterday was one of those days. I was flipping through the channels and came across the Steve Wilkos show. Every time I watch these shows, the people who appear on these shows amaze me. I give Steve Wilkos a little more credit than the others because he does try and do some good.
Yesterday, the show was about a 13 year old girl who was accusing her step father of attempting to sexually molest her. Her mother didn't believe her. This is something so common among women. They take their boyfriend's side or their new husband's side over their own child. Some women just refuse to believe the truth. Her husband had not only tried to sexually abuse her, he physically abused the girl and the mother knew about the physical abuse, but she kept making excuses for the abuse. He beat her with a belt (really beat her excessively), smacked her across the face hard and on one occasion held her down on the bed with his body and had his hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming. Now, this was the occasion in question. He told his wife he was holding her down and covering her mouth to keep her from screaming when she walked in the room. She didn't ask "Why are trying to keep her from screaming?" That would be my question. The girl claims, he was trying to keep her from screaming because he was trying to unbutton her pants. The lie detector test came back that he was lying and the daughter was telling the truth. The girls real father tries going after him immediately and when he was stopped, he drops to his knees sobbing. The funny thing about it the mother didn't even cry at first. Not until after Steve talks to her.
In the summer of 2009, I completed my internship working as a Child and Family Advocate and I wrote my Thesis on advocating for children and families where there are allegations of abuse. I worked with the families during and after the interviews of children where there were allegations of sexually abuse. I would have to say, that a good 50% of cases that came through there were cases where the mother doesn't believe the child and cases where the man has had previous cases of child sexual abuse allegations against him. The crazy thing is, the mother makes light of the situation and says the child is exaggerating for one reason or another. I have heard stories of child sexual abuse that would give the average person nightmares. Stories of where I had to sit there and fight back the tears and then run into the bathroom and cry. It just really angers me when I see mothers who refuse to believe their own child. If their child was raped by a complete stranger, would they brush it off as the child was exaggerating? Probably not. So, why is it so difficult to believe when their own child is saying it is their boyfriend or their new husband?

Great Coupon Site

Good coupons are so hard to find. The weekly coupon fliers have few coupons we can actually use. Almost every mom knows how much clipping coupons can save them on their grocery bill. Last week, I purchased a bottle of Advil for .33 cents and this weeks good deals were a bottle of soft soap for .28 cents and two free Yakisoba meals. Kroger had the Yakisoba meals for 10 for 10 and I had two .50 cent coupons. When you shop at Kroger, you get double coupons. This week I had around $30 in coupons to put towards my grocery bill. That's $30 in my pocket. I have been looking for a site that I could actually print coupons I can use. I found a great site that actually has the coupons for the products we use. Check out CouponSuzy.com

Monday Blues

My morning started off with my 11 year old son not wanting to get out of bed to go to school. I had to wake him up three times and he woke up 20 minutes later. My youngest daughter, woke up on time. However, she come upstairs complaining she had a stomach ache and felt like she was going to throw up. Oh, her throat was sore too. I call her off from school because I don't like taking a chance on sending her to school when she feels like she is going to throw up. I think she has figured that out. She had a sudden recovery once the coast was clear and the school bus was out of sight. She wanted left over pizza for breakfast after the bus had left. She has been playing with the dog and watching television all day.
I asked her how she was feeling. She says "I am feeling much better now." I laughed and told her "Wow, what a miraculous recovery you had." She sat there looking at me with a blank look on her face while she was eating her pudding cup. I think she was suffering from the Monday Blues instead of actually feeling sick.

Crazy Beards

What were they thinking????

Which ladies???

He must have decided to see what he would look like without a beard.

I wonder if he is trying to compensate for the lack of hair on his head?

I'm speechless.

Is he trying to look like Hitler?

Are We The Masters???

Sasha Marie (Sasha Kitty)

Sir Broderick Maximus (Max)

We think we are the masters of our pets. However, it's an illusion, our pets are the masters of us. They have us wrapped around their furry little paws. Shortly after we bring them home, they develop an unspoken communication with us. We feed them, we let them outside, we walk them, we buy them their toys and so on. Sasha for instance, last night when I was in the bathroom, she pushes the door open and sits there and stares at me. Then when I begin walking out of the bathroom she goes running into the kitchen. She's telling me to follow her into the kitchen and she is showing me she wants her canned food. I take the food out of the refrigerator and give it to her in her dish, she sniffs the food and sits down and looks at me as if she were saying "This is not the one I wanted." Then she runs away refusing to eat the food.
My cat is a little confused, she thinks she is a dog. She refuses to drink water from a cat dish, she will dump the water on the floor if you put water in her dish. Sasha has her bowl of cat food, but she also drinks water from the dog dish and will nibble on dog food through out the day, and she rarely ever uses her litter box unless it's raining outside or too cold for her to go out. She will stand at the back door and meow for someone to let her out. It's not the dog I have to watch when small children come over, it's the cat. She will bite if an unsuspecting little person picks her up. She let's us know when she wants fresh water, when she wants to eat or go outside and we jump.

Now Max on the other hand has mastered being cute to get what he wants. Sure we taught him tricks. Such as, sitting pretty, waving bye bye and to shake on command. When Max wants to go out he comes and stares at us or stands at the back door if someone is in the kitchen and we get up and let him out. When someone is eating something he wants, he starts with sitting pretty. Which he has mastered very well. He can sit there for a long time and he will until he gets what he wants. If that doesn't work, he waives bye bye. At least we think he is waving bye bye. In actuality, he is probably saying "hello, I'm down here doing tricks. Will you pay attention to me already?" If that doesn't work then he goes to the stare down.

It's like he is saying "I am going to stay here until you give me something. You can see the intensity in his eyes. On one occasion, we went to a family members house for the holiday. We left in the afternoon and didn't come back until late that night. Well, Max was obviously displeased with us for leaving him home alone most the day and took a dump on our sofa. It was like he was saying "I will teach you a lesson for leaving me home alone all day. Thank God, it was a leather sofa and easy to clean or I probably would have been more upset. We feed our pets, walk our pets, drive them around, buy them treats and toys, then we jump and get up when they want us to. So, who is the master? Are we the master of our pets or are they the masters of us?