My new favorite thing....



So...yesterday I was standing in my brothers doorway talking to him, and I kept looking around his room, right?  Just cuz it was clean, lol.
Well he's like, well since you keep looking at it, you can just have your Christmas present now since you need it (since I moved out).
Yall know I hate to have surprises spoiled and I NEVER want to know what my presents are, but check it out!  I was so excited to get this!  He was really like...you saw it!  I was like, no I didn't!  Lol.
As yall know, HouseParty.com had a party for these and they accidentally sent out an email telling everyone they'd gotten it, right?  Well I was SO EXCITED because of course coffee is my life.  And then uber bummed to find out it was an accident.
BTW, why is it still showing up in my parties? 
Anyway, so my brother was basically just shopping on Black Friday, saw it and said, hey she likes coffee, she drinks out of those travel mugs and this thing is cool because it dispenses instead of pours from a carafe.  I mean, he didn't know I'd broken my carafe in OK.  He didn't know I'd wanted one of these since seeing them on HP's website.  He just saw a techy looking coffee dispenser and bought it.
FTW!
This thing is so amazing.  Here are the reasons I love it:
1) Because it looks cool on my new counter!
2) The dispenser!  Hello I've got butterfingers!  I've broken many a carafe, stupid things.
3) The coffee never tastes burnt, because the carafe isn't sitting on a hot plate.
4) The dispenser is FAST!  A standard coffee cup fills up in like five seconds.  I mean, who uses those teeny things for coffee but still?  Lol.
5) Auto shut off.  Hello, I'm the mother of a toddler.  I don't remember to turn off the coffee pot 100% of the time.
6) Programming.  What's better than waking up to coffee already made for you?
Here's what it looks like.  If I wasn't in my pj's, I'd take a pic of myself hugging it.

Sunday, December 5, 2010 at 6:40 AM , 0 Comments

The Second Mouse Gets The Cheese

This is undoubtedly my most popular blog to date.  I posted it on facebook and the comments came pouring in.  I am thinking that the thought...the premise behind this blog might be expanded into the book I keep swearing I'm going to write.  I'd love to see comments, and different opinions or points of view on this one.  Enjoy.


The Second Mouse Gets the Cheese

on Friday, January 19, 2007 at 7:42pm
The second mouse gets the cheese people. Now you might ask what I'm talking about....seems like Erickas talking crazy again. But hear me out. In relationships....that first woman, she deals with the man who is still sowing his wild oats. Still doing wrong and pretending to do right. It amazes me now how much, and how often a man is able to do wrong when the woman he's with is in love...thus blinded. I won't harp on that because frankly I'd hear way too many "I told you so's." Let it suffice to say that I...like so many women before me, have BEEN THERE AND DONE THAT. So..back to my story. This women...she takes everything from this man. And through love and patience, kindness, understanding and 8,472 second chances...this man begins to see the error of his ways. Slowly but surely. Now don't get happy...because seeing them doesn't change him He's not able to climb out of the rat hole he's built for himself...through false modesty and fake humility...through learning what it takes to keep a good woman and using it instead to further develop his playa skills, his game, his flow....slowly but surely...this man DOES learn. We as women are so quick to dismiss a man for doing us wrong, but everything is a learning experience. So...this first woman, she gives her all. And when she runs out of faith, patience and is too heartbroken to make a stand...she gives up. And through the hardship she is comforted by the fact that she tried her damndest. And this man; after losing this woman....he begins to see that the lessons he learned would have best been utilized actually DOING those things he promised instead of just saying them. Some men belong to everyone. Some of you reading this, you think your man is yours....but the person reading it next thinks the same thing about your man. But I digress. So this man finally learns these lessons....but the first woman has been so beat down by this man, so hurt and belittled, that regardless of the changes he makes...there just wasn't enough room in her heart for an 8,473rd chance. She cannot alow him access to her heart, for he has proven to be careless with it time and again. So she leaves him alone. And it hurts. Because a part of her feels like she has lost...given up and all those women who wreaked so much havoc in her life have won. Have prospered where she lost. So back to my first statement. That first mouse dies in that mousetrap. And the reward...the fruit of her hard labor, because this man has truly become what she longed for him to be for so long....sits there like a beautiful (and free) prize. The 2nd mouse....gets the cheese.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010 at 7:51 PM , 1 Comment

Wishing Doesn't Make It So...

Wishing Doesn't Make It So

on Thursday, March 15, 2007 at 12:04pm
People People People....

I have come to the conclusion, that, in so many things that it is safe to go ahead, be cliché and say in life in general, the following statement has proven to be absolutely true.

Wishing Doesn't Make It So

I realize that sometimes I use very obscure quotes and a lot of times the meanings of things that I say are missed, misconstrued, or worse they are taken 180% wrong which is how I got this irritating reputation of being rude. Ha ha. But I digress.

My statement means simply this: You can want something and want something and still not get it. It goes even further. Not only can you want something and want something and still not get it, but you can even WORK towards that thing, actually strive to bring it to fruition, only to watch your dream burn away into nothingness like so many things I've tried to cook in my time. In many cases they are only the fabled "dreams of the moment"...where you want something very very badly one month, and then the next month you look at that $2000 expenditure and can't remember why you ever thought you needed a miniature pink leather covered piano signed by Little Richard (and this statement applies just as much when dealing with the opposite sex as it does for hastily purchased Ebay "treasures"). Again...I digress.

As I was saying before I got myself off on a tangent...Some people were just not meant to have certain things.

Interpretation One: Although this is the first interpretation, it is actually secondary to the reasoning for which I have latched on to my statement…..but important just the same. You can want something so badly that you'll do almost anything to get it…including the trusty three that almost everyone can name LIE CHEAT AND STEAL to get them, and STILL not succeed. Sometimes you don't get the things you want simply because of how you go about attaining them. Why try the back road when you've never ventured up the front? Why break the window instead of knocking at the front door? Why hide when being in plain view benefits you more?

Interpretation Two: But sometimes….It just isn't in God's plan. If God did not mean for you to be a basketball player, you can work, exercise, practice shooting, be Allen Iverson's third cousin once removed and still not make it to the NBA. You just can folks. Sad truth. But that of course, shouldn't keep you from trying things. You just have to understand that sometimes in your life you will make a leap of faith, but what you think was faith may have been avarice, or even simple stupidity. It may not have been your time. You may have upset an important person along the way. You just may not have….almost anything really…because there are so many reasons why you couldn't have gotten that one thing you just couldn't live without. It's easy to miss that brass ring when you grab for it…its slippery and only the lucky few can reach it and hang on, but that shouldn't stop you from taking your shot. Always take your shot, but just know that all things happen for a reason, and sometimes what you lose better prepares you for what you will gain later. Or what you lose makes you stronger to deal with the next worst thing to ever happen to you. Either way, you will be blessed to have gained something new from every situation in which you find yourself placed in; whether you got there by God's good grace, or your own stupidity. And that one thing is KNOWLEDGE. The knowledge to make better decisions in the future. Don't be shrouded by the past and let it color your life…let your life be painted by the good and not the bad. Wear bright colors. Laugh until you cry. Forgive someone. Do something silly and enjoy every second of it. I have done this much to the horror of my sisters and brothers (because I'm extra goofy most of the time) and it has given me so many moments of joy, that when bad moments happen I have a million good memories to combat them. And it has led me to love. I have loved hard and I have lost and I have gained again. And sometimes that is just life. When given the chance to love, always grasp it fully ride it until the wheels fall off! You may miss the first time when trying to catch that dream of yours, but keep trying because in the end, you will be a stronger, better YOU for it.

So where am I going with all of this? Well hell, I dunno…but I feel loads better for having said it all. Hopefully someone out there was helped in some way by my ramblings. I just re-read it and I am cringing at all the clichés, but actually, when I'm sad or in a bad mood, I really do think in clichés for some reason (Examples: the sun'll come out tomorrow…it's always darkest before the dawn…don't count your chickens before they're hatched…my mind is like a cliché thesaurus).

It's ..almost 3am here which might account for this….either way….be blessed!

at 7:45 PM , 0 Comments

::DEVOTIONAL:: When You're Not Strong...HE IS for you.

Life After Loss

on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 6:14pm
I wrote this devotional for a church project our women's ministry is working on. I have read it over and over, because of the timing in which I came up with it. I wrote it on October 9th, which was a couple of days before I found out that my baby died. People in general (and even one doctor) have commented on how well I have dealt with such a difficult situation. Honestly, I would never have dreamed that I was even strong enough to. And you know what? I'm not. Like the title of my devotional says…I'm not, but HE IS. I know that as I try to move on with my life, it isn't ME that is keeping my head above water. It isn't ME that is able to laugh and joke so soon. It isn't ME that is dealing with it so well that the doctor tells me he's worried I'm suffering from denial. It's the Him in me. I can only hope that my words bless you as much as the writing of them has blessed me.

PS, Joe and I named him Aydyn Isaiah Kennerly, and he was beautiful.


When You're Not Strong…HE IS.

And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
–Jeremiah 29:13 (KJV)

What do you do when things get rough? Do you run around frustrated and upset? Do you become introverted and talk to no one? Do you turn to God, or do you turn from Him? God is always there for us, but sometimes we are too blinded by the fear of whatever situation we find ourselves in to see it. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said "The wise man in the storm prays to God, not for safety from danger, but for deliverance from fear. It is the storm within that endangers him, not the storm without." Have you ever been so blinded by your circumstance that you were unable to see that the problem had an easy solution? In all things, God is the solution. God gives us so many examples of his goodness and his mercy, and most of all that he is the ruler of all things. He tells us in Phillipians 4:6, "do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. (NIV)" As Christians, he instructs us on how to solve our problems. There is an old saying that says "closed mouths don't get fed." This is true in all things. He tells us to "ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find…" (Matthew 7:7-8 NIV). If you cannot lift your voice up to God to ASK him to help you out of your situation, perhaps he thinks you're trying to do it on your own. God has given us power over our situations, and for the times when we simply can't find a way to do it on our own, he tells us that HE shall strengthen our hearts (Psalms 31:24 KJV). God has already given us peace. He put it in our hearts. All we have to do is lean on Him.

at 7:44 PM , 0 Comments

I Was Stabbed By a Fish....

So I've decided that I need to archive all of my blogs in the same place, so I'm moving some because I don't want to give out my personal facebook page to everyone.  That being said, here is one of my more traumatic episodes... still think I should have file workers comp for this one!  :)

I Was Stabbed By A Fish

on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 2:27pm
Okay so yeah yall know my luck is ridiculously bad, although always comically so...anyway, you might THINK it's impossible, but let me explain.

So I went to the ice cooler at work but some idiot janitor had rested a bunch of brooms and mops against the lid....so I'm bending over to move them and I back up to get them out of the way...WHAM! I feel an excrutiating pain and I reach for my back...BLOOD. Something around here drew blood! I turn around...lo and behold, I've been stabbed by a fish. Yes....a fish. For some reason, one of the geniuses at my job (a college no less) has left a hard plastic fish half in, half out of the freezer that's currently not in use. I looked around for Ashton but I wasn't being punked....just set up to be assaulted by a blue gill. Or whatever it is. Ouch. I now have one of those really long scratches at the base of my back and it's turned into a welt that stings like crazy! A friend of mine just suggested that someone set me up since I go and get ice every morning....hm.....am I being paranoid? Lol.

Check out the offending party. I was gonna file a worker's comp claim but the paperwork would be embarrassing. Lol.
Up close of Charlie the Evil Tuna
Death Trap of an Ice Machine Room

 See:?!  See!  Is wasn't just me!  Mmmkay, looking back, this was super hilarious, but at the time I was like FML who does this kind of stuff happen to?  *rubs the scar on my back*

at 7:36 PM , 0 Comments