hi again!

I got a email about the new blogging thing, my blog has been changed to having something to do with Google or something, which made remember I even had a blog. so here I am, blogging again. i dont like the new format. that is all.

Emerald Cards from HR Block- my review

**Disclaimer** my laptop/keyboard is fritzing on me, soif you notice that some words have letters missing out of them, or the space doesn't work..its NOT my fault, its almost like I type too fast for my laptop to keep up, and im too impatient to keep backspacing. thanks.

so..HR Block..

I think it sucks. I go to HR Block, I have for years, only because every time I try and do it myself, it ends in disaster. last year I tried to file my self, then gave up and went to HR Block, and found that I would have lost about 2k last year, had I filed the way I thought I should. This year, instead of filing for myself, because I had no clue about what to do, my divrce was finalized 1/31/12, I was in the middle of last name changes, I had no idea what to file as and who to file as. So back to HR Block I went.

My experience was horrible. They had no clue either, they were confused as to if I should file married but seperated or whatever, or single, or they even tried to get me to go get my ex husband and file jointly. yeah im SO doing that one. so they finally determined to file me as single, and I think just from this debate alone, I will probably be audited, and im hesitant to spend one single penny I get from my taxes in fear that I'll have to pay something back. they weren't interested in my student loan tax form, and they weren't interested in my moving expenses. o course I didn't work this past year, except my part time job that screwed up my withholdings, so I didn't get earned income tax credit or anything, so my amount I got back was like, so tiny.

this year I also opted to go ahead and do the emerald card. bigbigbig mistake. not only was the fee insane for HR block, which every year prior wasokay with me, because if I got the extra 2k I woulda lost by filing myself, it woulda been okay, but this year I had to pay out my behind fees for Hr Block, I opted for the card cause it woulda came two weeks sooner than a check or direct deposit. of course the IRS didn't cooperate with me, and had a delay anyways..so I shoulda just went with a direct deposit.

so today as I was bank shopping, I decided to try and prepare myself to withdraw the money out of the card..i went to several ATMs, most atms believe it or notonly have a 200-300 limit..plus the fees would amount to 5 bucks to withdraw that..so if I wanted to withdraw 600 bucks thats 10 bucks! geeze! it was insane. tihs card is definately NOT for someone who wants to just take all the money out and pay bills or split up to put in accounts, or whatever..this card is for smoeone who will use it as a debit card..cause getting the entire amount off, is going to be a really tough thing.

the cheapest place Ive found, is walmart..their money center will take up to 1k out at a time..with a 3 dollar fee. you can only take out 3k a day. so no matter what I do, If I want my hands on the full amount,I have to be prepared to loose some of my hard earned money, money I deserve.

so not only do I loose out n the HR block fees, but I loose out on the fee's its going to cost me to physically hold cash in my hands. and HR block won't do anything about the rediculous fees that they charged me to have my money early, because the IRS delay was out of their hans, and their estimated date is exactly that, a estimation date.

grr. never again. I need to find someone who is awesome and cheap for next year.

Gluten free cookies verdict

My little judge ate some today to decide for himself, and apparently I'm now the worlds best cookie maker and I have to make those cookies all the time my littl man warms my heart for sure.

no cooking for me today, it was a day of bad news. and being busy my car is on the way to the cargrave. so many things wrong with it, and im stressed to the max, depressed, overwhelmed. i don't have the money to fix it, and frankly I don't feel the piece of metal is worth fixing. i can get a new car for all that would go into fixing it this past year. it'd probably take about 2k to fix all the problems and issues on my car.

right after being slammed with that bit of joy, i had stuff to do, stephens family night book fair was tonight, then i joined a divorce support group at the church, that was tonight too, so life got real busy real quick, so..for dinner, I had Chick Fil A!!!! yay! They have a gluten free menu, and their kids menu even had something

I had the grilled chicken sandwhich, no bun. their fries are gluten free..and their ice cream is gluten free. yay!

so the book fair was interesting, brings me back to my book fair days and wanting to buy everythig with words..

and i think the divorce group will be good for me..tonigt was mostly introductions, so but i cant wait until next thursday

Gluten Free Peanut Butter chocolate chip cookies

I tried my hand at baking tonight, first time EVER, cause im addicted to chocolate chip cookies that are insanely good (and gluten free!)

so here is how its supposed to look


recipe:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 large egg
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup brown rice flour
pinch of fine sea salt
1/4 teaspon baking powde
1/2 cup 60% dak chocolate chips
1/2 cip peacans or walnuts(optional-i opped out)

1. preheat oven 350 line two large baking sheets with parchment paper
2. using wooden spoon cream te butter until smoth beat in the peanut butter then the egg, add the brown sugar, rice flour, salt and baking powder,and stir to blend.
3. stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. the dough will be soft and sticky, drop by the rouded tablepoon onto baking sheets, 2 inches apart using a secon spoon to shape he doughinto a ball and dislodgeit. bake until golden nd just set, 12 to 15 minutes. let stand on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before trnsferring to a wire rack to cool completely.


ok did all that, and before i could get it on the cookie sheet, i felt wierd about the cookies..this is what they looked like in the bowl..


and here are what they looked likeout of the oven



i'd do things different for the next one..first of all, the recipe called for 60% dark choolate chips..i couldnt find them anywhere so I had to go with semi sweet 45%..but the chocolate chips were just not good, it almost tasted like bakers chocolate. it didnt go good with the dough, it made the cookie very very very strong, almost overpowered the peanut butter taste.. the dough itself was really good, if i can do it again with different chocolate chips it might work out reallyreally well. stephen hasnt taste tested it yet, so i dont know if its a hit or not, but for me its 50/50.

I've forgotten this blog..but im back again!

my keyboard is on the fritz..so if my words aren't all capitalized, or if im missing letters here and there, its NOT my fault, and im too lazy to proofread.

A speedy update- I recently obtained a divorce. yep. im back to being a single mom. I won't go into the messy drama details, but there it is, im single. I moved in with my aunt, its been a challenge, going from basically living on my own for years and years, to having to answer to someone. its been hard.

I started a Gluten free diet also. going from someone who lived off of easy simple things like spaghetti and mac and cheese, to having to figure out how to cook and what to cook. I've checked out just about every single gluten free cookbook or book the the county library system offers, and what dissapoints me, is out of all these cookbooks, theres really not much that i would want to cook. how many people regularly cook things like goat cheese omelette? or grape leaf rolls? seriously. i need a cookbook that has stuff like chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, some kinda bbq chicken or even a book of slow cooker recipes. for the poor people that don't have time to sit and sift four different kind of flour substitutes to make a certain flour substitute for a recipe. for the things that are already in your pantry, so you dont have to drive miles out of your way to find a health food store to look for gluten free rice paper, beause publix and winn dixe sure wouldn't have anything like that. i went to the health food store yesterday, which is about 20 minutes away, not counting the traffic lights and the insane traffic that i dealth with, all the gas i used to get up there..getting all my ingredients for the dinner im making tonigt, plus i thought i'd try my hand at peanut butter choclate chip cookies..just for dinner/dessert it came out to be 50 bucks. WTF? i could take stephen to chilis and eat off the gluten free menu for five nights on what i made tonight. and it wasn't even a hit..stephen didnt like it.

here's what I made

Three cheese Penne

Ingridents:
2 teas olive oil
1.5 C chopped onion
1 package gluten-free brown rce penne
1/4 c cornstarch
4 cups milk
3/4 teas salt
1/2 teas black pepper
1/2 teas whole nutmeg
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup mozzarella cheese
cooking spray
1/2 c parmesan cheese
1/4 c pnko style breadcrumbs.

1. preheat ovn to 375
2. heat oil in medium dutch oven over meadium heat. add onion cook 5 mins or until tender, stirring often
3. while onion cooks, cook pasta according to package direction, omitting sat and fat, then drain.
4. combine cornstarch and 1/2 cup milk in a small bowl, and remaining 3.5 cup milk to onion, bringing to a boil. gradually stir in cornstarch mixture. cook 2 minutes or until sauce thickens, stirring constantly. remove from heat, and stir in salt, pepper, and nutmeg. add cheddar and moz cheeses, stirring with a whisk until cheeses melt. stir in pasta. pour pasta mixture evenly into 6 gratin dishes coated with cooking spray (i just used a glass baking pan,i didnt wanna go buy 6 gratin dishes)
5. combine parm ceese and breadcrumbs, sprinkle over pasta mixture, bake at 375 or 30 minutes.



stephen didnt like the breadcrumb mixture at the top. i thought that was the best part. something is missing from this recipe..it tasted bland. it needs a spice of some kind. unfortunately i have no idea how to cook and bring flavors to a meal, im a "oooh that picture looks yummy lets try that!" and follow the recipe to a T..kinda girl.

so what I learned from that recipe that has me on the road to being a great gluten free chef? cornstarch is a thickening agent.. who knew?? awesome.

the reason Im doing this, stephen is very hyperacive, with a nod at being ADHD..no offical diagnosis. im going to try and go the natural route before i go trying to put him through testing or whatever. so gluten free came up in my research. also avoiding red dyes. and while researching the gluten free i came across symptoms of a gluten intollerance. every single one matched me..maybe not the celiacs disease part, but evrything from feeling bloated after eating to diarrhea, to depression, skin issues, fatigue and all that. so i decided maybe if i try going off glutens if i will feel better? i hadn't noticed a huge change other than i didnt feel as bloated.. UNTIL I went back on glutens for a meal. i had a hamburger with a bun, french fries loaded with cheese, and a oreo milk shake. oh my god, my stomach swelled from being bloated, i'd never felt so uncomfortable in a long time. i was miserable. does this mean i have a gluten sensativity? or just symptoms by proxy cause its in my head? i dont know, just know that i didn't like the feeling. so no more of that crap for me. maybe ill try something eles one day, and see, if it happens again then i know right? in the meantime i just ate something that was pretty pastaish, with oozy cheese,and i dont feel bloated at all.

i have a lot of cook books to go through, recipes to pick out, maybe ill post them on here, what are hits and what are not..i dont know.

doing well

doing well on my diet thing..doing WW points, which has been hard since its been hard to get to a store and buy the usual dieting things like fat free stuff, but ive been making do. Every night after dinner I get on the wii for 45 minutes or so and play on the wii fit, last night we dragged the treadmill into the living room that used to be my moms, and we were keeping to sell, so ive been using it. 35 minutes last night, 45 tonight, plus wii time. i had about 6 days where i didnt do the wii, but i think since i started the diet, ive lost maybe 5 pounds, which i think is awesome, cause for a while i was doing just light working out on the wii, and for a few days i didnt do it at all, ive been trying to be more active, and it does help that we don't have a car. we've needed to fax things the past few days, which we found out the bait shop down the road will fax for us, depending on who is there, and its free, today we had to walk there two-three times. So that is one plus to not having a car, we're walking places more. The first few days was the hardest, because not only did I quit sweets, I quit caffeine, my poor family had to deal with that. And i've had a few rough days since, im a huge stress eater, but it smooths itself out. im proud of myself

Dieting

This year for the new years I wasn't going to do another "I vow to loose weight" thing that lasts all of two days until I blow it off. I was just going to blow the whole thing off. No resolutions for me.. however, about 15 minutes from the ball dropping, I talked with my husband, and low and behold, here I am..dieting. I'm on day two, and it's been rough, because not only am I cutting out sweets and all that other "bad" stuff, I'm going through withdrawals of Dr. Pepper. That's right, no more caffeine for me. And it has been ROUGH. I don't know who it's worse on, me or my family, because lemme tell you, I am one cranky witch. But once I get over the withdrawal, I should be okay. I feel like I need to live healthier. Maybe if I am more healthier, and active, I will feel better and be able to handle stress better.

I'm going to do the weight watchers diet, along with excersize. WW just put out a whole new vamped up points system, which annoys me how they did it, it's no longer easy to calculate a daily points or points for food, and basically you have to spend a million bucks a month to go to meetings or go online to be able to get the calculator you need to calculate the points. For people who are struggling out there, it's just not possible. So I'm going to stick with the tried and true old points system. My only worry is that when they start rolling out the new products and stuff geared towards the new points plus system, i will be screwed. I just do not have the 50 bucks to pay for a three month online program, or meetings, or even a ride to meetings. Basically I'll just concentrate on the excersize, and portion sizes, and try to keep up with the old points system. It worked for me after having stephen. It can work for me again. I just hope the new system doesn't get me all screwed up. I do like some of the new system's way of looking at things. I remember going to meetings and sitting there thinking why don't they calculate carbs? or even sodium for that matter..even if something were 2 points, if the sodium is 20g or something in it, sodium converts and eventually it'll become fat. I know you have to excersize before that happens, but I'm just saying. So my diet, its going to consist of portion watching, excersize and eating right. I'll try the points system and see how that works for me.

On new years eve, they came and repo'd our car. our one source of transportation. So I am stressed up the wazoo about it. Jesse's last day of his job was thursday (the day before new years eve) and all of his work tools were in the car. Everything was in the car, and I'd been on the phone thursday with them and they told me I had until monday to pay it so it wouldn't go to reposession, but I guess they lied. So the company who does the reposession was closed until monday, so tomorrow I will have to find out where they took the car to see if I can get a ride to go get our stuff. I feel like I'm handling this amazingly well, maybe all of the issues of 2010 has made me take whatever comes next in stride? I don't know. We did do some car hunting online and I found a possible new car, well new to me, its a used car. they are supposed to bring it by tomorrow to take a look at jesse's motorcycle to see if there is a trade in value. I hate that jesse has to trade in his baby, I don't know what else we can do though. And how do you explain to a 5 year old that mommy and daddy are so screwed with bills and money that they had to come take our car away? We'll figure something out. in the meantime, he goes back to school tomorrow so he can be away from all the stress and stuff that we'll be dealing with tomorrow.