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Thinking Out Loud: All THE EXCITING THINGS!!

Posted on December 18, 2014 by kissmybroccoli

OMG, YOU GUYS!!

OH WAIT! I mean, oh…wait…yeah, that’s better. Sorry for screaming. I’m uh, just well…I’M SO FREAKING EXCITED! Shit, Heather, compose yourself wouldja?! Man, you let one month go by without a good round of ToL and Broccoli loses her marbles. And then she start’s talking in the third person. Wow. I have lost it. Ok umm, let’s just agree that this will never happen again…like EVER!

The thing I love most about Amanda’s link up (besides it’s obvious ADD-embracing qualities) is the fact that I get to TALK to you! It’s like meeting mid-week and catching up over coffee…or tea…which makes me think of cookies…which reminds me…

Holy mother of god, have you guys tried this?!

I’ve totally scoped out this So Delicious cookie dough ~~ice cream~~ frozen dessert multiple times but, the other day, in a moment of sheer cookie dough desperation (and the powerfully convincing speech of a friend…that went like “ya know, ya can’t really go wrong with cookie dough”), it was finally mine! Needless to say, I had a spoon in my hand minutes after walking indoors with it and ohhhhhhMYLANTA! My only criticism is that it doesn’t have more cookie dough. The ~~ice cream~~ frozen dessert itself tastes like cookie dough, but after getting halfway through the pint, I only found about four pieces. I guess what I’m saying is that I wish it was a little more like this!

Yeah, I really should NOT have Googled that! 😯

Ok, let’s talk about something else since I’m drooling all over myself now…and also seriously thinking about clicking on that little “order now” button when I know good and damn well I can make cookie dough on my own! Yeah, let’s moooooove on (see what I did there)! 😉

Look guys, Tori’s a college GRADUATE!!

My wittle baby seeeester…all growed up! Man, it feels like just yesterday I was moving out of mom and dad’s and leaving behind a knobby-kneed ten-year old little girl. Time really does fly! I’m so SO proud of her and I can’t wait to see where the future takes her!

After graduation, we all headed out for dinner, but I’ll talk more about that in a post next week…what I want to talk about now is WHY I didn’t manage to sneak one of these into the restaurant…

Remember that metric ton of wine I bought on my birthday?

Well, I’ve never been much of a champagne person UNTIL my favorite winery helped change my mind! After having TWO glasses of the Brut during the tasting (thank you, person who decided to pay and not show up…your wine was properly disposed of!) and getting a sample of the strawberry sparkling wine afterwards, I couldn’t help myself!

Which reminds me…

Maybe I shouldn’t shop on Cyber Monday.

I’m not sure what got into me, but before I’d found anything for the people on my Christmas list this year, I’d already found three things for myself! Including this STEAL of a bookcase on nomorerack.com! I swear I’m not usually so quick to spend money on myself but I mean HOW could I say no to this dream of a piece of furniture?!

It’s so modern…it’s so sleek…

It soooo doubles as a WINE RACK!! 😀

And also showcases my collection of cookbooks, foodie magazines, a couple of knick knacks, and last year’s birthday bowl! Confession: I had NO IDEA where I was going to put this thing when I bought it. Whoops? But once assembled IN the kitchen, I figured it was a hell of a lot easier to leave it there! I kid, I kid. No, really I thought it looked kinda nice…and now I can add that to the GSD list! 😉

Wanna see what else I bought myself? Ok…but you have to promise not to judge!

Ta DAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?! 😯

I know what you’re thinking: “Heather, don’t you already have a serious bar ~~problem~~ stash? Isn’t your pantry bursting at the seams? What on earth do you need with A HUNDRED & TWENTY Quest bars?!?” And this is my argument: Come on, it was a DEAL, maaaaaan! How could I turn down $18 a box AND free shipping? Tell me! HOW?!

Yep, that’s what I THOUGHT!

Now if you’ll excuse me, one of ‘dem s’mores babies is calling my name! 😉

Be sure to check hop on over to Spoons and check out all the randomness this week!

What exciting things are on YOUR mind today?

What’s the last thing you bought yourself?

Posted in Shopping, Thinking Out Loud | Tagged books, cookbooks, cookie dough, cookies, family, ice cream, online shopping, Quest bars, selfie, wine | 26 Comments

Marvelously Motivated

Posted on December 15, 2014 by kissmybroccoli

Hello there, loverlies!

I hope you all had a fun and exciting weekend! Ya know, while I was at the hospital working my bum off! Ha, well actually, I did more of working OUTSIDE my little lead-lined x-ray walls, but not all over the last two days. I’m not really sure what’s gotten into me lately but I seem to have a bit of the spring cleaning bug…quite the opposite of my seasonal hermit history…and while my house was never really dirty (pay no attention to the mound of laundry in the corner over there), my to-do list wuzzzz getting pretty horrendous. 😯

Perhaps you guys remember me complaining about my little broken garage door here?…here?…or maybe here? Well, how abouts I FINALLY fixed it! Ok, ok, so I called someone to come fix it FOR me but whatevs. The really exciting news issss…

Elvira doesn’t have to sleep outside anymore! 😀

True story: on the very same day I had the “garage door dude” out, I also had the “heater man” over to fix a part that went bad LAST winter, AND my “handy dandy daddy” to handle the rest…which was scraping out the final remains of Sir Squeaks No More (yeah, I went there) from the pantry light fixture and putting in a brand new (and very bright) LED light in the pantry! To celebrate this GSD (getting shit done) moment, I had one more fingerful of peanut butter in the pantry for old time’s sake. 😉

But I didn’t stop there!

Since I could finally get my garage door UP, I took advantage of the fabulous (for December) weather we’ve been having and got one HELL of a workout in!

I’m pretty sure what they really mean by Husqvarna is “husky ya won’t be much longer”! Trust me, it’s been two days and I’m still having muscle aches. And yes, I’m pretty sure I’m the only crazy person mowing her lawn in sweats, fleece, and mittens. Ha!

Of course, it could also have been the weed eating, sweeping of the front porch, back porch, driveway, and three MILES of sidewalk (I embellish only so much) paired with an impromptu trip to Lowe’s for weed eater string (wow, is that really the best name we can come up with?) that could’ve done me in. But hey, it was another mark off the
to-do list!

Git ‘er donnnnnnne! <- Omg, WHY did I just say that?!? 😯

Anyway, look at all the shit I’ve been meaning to buy but haven’t for the last umm…year?!! Yep, I fixed (glued) a broken gutter, replaced a dryer vent, installed a new back porch light, changed the AC filter, swapped out a ratty ass welcome mat with a shiny one, AND then I spent the rest of the night entertaining Elvira with my best Uncle Fester impression. 😉

Ha, like there was any energy left for entertaining! It took all the get up and go I had left to operate the Xbox controls for a night of Netflixing: 1. The act of watching an entire season of a show in one season. 2. A total valid excuse for avoiding social obligations.

Also? Best when paired with wine and popcorn!

And for the record, The Carrie Diaries was so, like, last week. I’ve since moved on to season THREE of Switched at Birth…and now, yet again considering taking signing lessons somewhere. I wanna look like a ninja when I talk!

Be sure to check out all the MARVELOUS things going on in and around Divaland today! I hope you all have a fantastic start to the week! I have big plans…HUGE! And they start AND END with a lonnnnnnnnnnng soak in a tub of espsom salt! 😉

Am I the only one out there hopping around like a spring rabbit?

What’s your favorite Netflixing/at home movie snack?

Posted in MIMM, Randomness | Tagged chores, Elvira, Netflixing, popcorn, wine, winter | 9 Comments

A Blushing Broccoli

Posted on December 12, 2014 by kissmybroccoli

You Gaaaaaaaaah-EYES!!!! 😀

I just finished reading through all the beautiful comments left on my blog birthday post and I’m….well, I’m just…ok, obviously I’m a little speechless at the moment. No, actually, that’s not true at all. The trouble is there are so many words running through my head right now that I’m having trouble forming complete sentences.

In the hour that it took me to read all ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE entries, I smiled, I blushed, I giggled, I laughed out loud (like really, not just when you say “lol” and in reality, your face is void of emotion…don’t say you haven’t done it), I raised my imaginary wine glass, I went to the kitchen for a glass of wine and then raised my ACTUAL wine glass, I fell back into my chair, I sighed, I clapped a hand to my chest, I muttered things to myself, and while some may have wondered what exactly was in my wine glass or if I had somehow become possessed by a sly demon with obvious good taste in host flesh, I really just felt my heart had grown so big that it would burst out of a gold frame just like the Grinch. And I immediately felt the need to write the longest run-on sentence I’ve ever written in my 1,460+ days of blogging…followed by a fragment because I know you guys also come here for grammar lessons! 😉

But seriously…I’m sorry, I always deflect to humor whenever I have to deal with unexpected emotions. The truth is, I almost cried at least twice. Good tears of course. I just feel so overwhelmed with emotion right now. So loved. So understood.

I have a confession to make.

For the last year, I’ve been seriously thinking about closing KMB’s virtual doors, especially since I’ve started posting less and less in regards to recipes. This blog has gone through many phases in these last four years and I’ve grown and changed a lot during that time. I was starting to think that maybe I’d outgrown it all. I would have days where I would sit to write and they would be painful…it would take me HOURS to type up a 500-word post, but other days, I would have so much excitement over something, that my fingers could barely keep up. Plus, the more I thought about it, the more I struggled with the emotions and connotations associated with what it would mean to me to just “give up” this whole thing. I know that I am not solely defined by my bloggerdom (ok, well that makes me feel like a princess!), but maybe I just needed a little validation…I think we all do at times…I just had to know if it all really mattered anymore.

I never expected the flood of emotions I would feel while scrolling through entries from loyal commenters, lurkers finally introducing themselves and confessing to being long-time readers, and even newbies too! Knowing that my energy and attitude come through so positively in my writing makes me bounce up and down in my chair. Knowing that many of you are doing your best to stifle giggles and/or not spit all over your computer screen while reading is just ~~icing~~ peanut butter on the ~~cake~~ brownie. But knowing that through it all, you guys really see me for ME, that’s the best part. Well, besides getting to brighten a certain someone’s day.

The winner of KMB’s 4th Birthday Giveaway issssss…

Congratulations Jess! Expect an email from me later today to collect your information so that you can soon be rolling in a pile of all these bars! 😉

I want to thank you all for entering and for literally making my day. I wish so much that I could give more than just one person something tangible to show my gratitude, but since I can’t really afford to make my way to each and every one of your homes and personally BEAR HUG YOU, these words will have to do. I hope you can feel all sincerity in my “voice” and know that I love you all so much!

Thank you.