Sunday Monday Confessions!

It's that time of the week again!


1. I'm just going to start calling these my Monday confessions. I just never can seem to get this done on a Sunday! It's on my calendar, I think about what I want to post, I just never get it done.

2. I'm getting a new kitchen doohickey this week! It was recommended to me by one of my awesome friends who loves to craft, bake, and is a great mom. She's like Martha Stewart. But cooler. Cos I can ask her questions. And she never went to jail.
So this is what I'm getting:

You can get your own at Amazon!

It's a Matfer 321005 Exopat 11-5/8-by-16-3/8-Inch Nonstick Baking Mat. I've been using parchment paper when I bake, which makes clean up so much easier, but it's a bit of a pain (I'm also just lazy). I don't want to spend the time cutting it, and then the paper is wider than the pan so I have to squash it down so it doesn't hang all over the place. And then I saw my friend posted a pic of her cookies out of the oven and I was all, 'yum! Hey what's that mat they're on....' I was sold.

3. I plan to test out my new baking mat this week! I have a game night with friends coming up this Friday so I'm going to make Funfetti cookies! Everyone loves the dip, and the same blogger who posted the dip (http://www.eat-yourself-skinny.com/) has a post with them in cookie format... So I want to see how they translate. Will report back soon.

4. I am Zelda obsessed! Reading The Legend of Zelda; Hyrule Historia, finding out about the Wii U Zelda in the works and the remake of Wind Waker has totally inspired me to play the old games again. I dug out my old Nintendo DS, the one that still has the GameBoy Advance slot, and started replaying Minish Cap from the beginning. I'm already about halfway finished. I tried to continue playing Ocarina on my 3DS but I don't remember where I am or what I was doing so I turned it off, I'll come back to it. I plan to also replay the Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons games -- flashback to GameBoy Color!! Pretty sure they'll play in the GBA slot on my older DS. And awhile ago I restarted playing Twilight Princess. Will pick that up again in awhile.
And I still have no plans to even try to finish Majora's Mask. Stupid game. I just can't do the lover's mask task, I can't do it!

5. I think I need to amend my 2011 taxes. Ew. :/ Should be pretty easy... thank you Turbo Tax!

6. I worked out Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and I'm working out tonight. Go me!

7. I read What Alice Forgot last week, in about 3 days, and it's seriously made myself think -- if it was ten years ago and then the next thing I knew, it was today, what would I think of my life?
That makes very little sense... Here's the book synopsis, to help explain:
Alice Love is twenty-nine years old, madly in love with her husband, and pregnant with their first child. So imagine her surprise when, after a fall, she comes to on the floor of a gym (a gym! she HATES the gym!) and discovers that she's actually thirty-nine, has three children, and is in the midst of an acrimonious divorce. A knock on the head has misplaced ten years of her life, and Alice isn't sure she likes who she's become. It turns out, though, that forgetting might be the most memorable thing that has ever happened to Alice.
 So let's see... ten years ago, I was almost 22. (I was probably playing Oracle of Seasons/Ages, lol.) I was living with my parents in Lake Jackson, after nearly flunking out of TCU. I wasn't in contact with any of my friends from TCU because I was so ashamed of how badly I'd done and how I had to leave. I was going to Brazosport College to appease my parents... It was my second semester. I think it was around this time I was taking a computer programming class and realizing that I could do college, I wasn't dumb, and I had decided on a major that I could graduate with in a year. I think I was still terrified of my parents' idea that after I graduated from BC, I needed to go to a university and finish up my bachelor's degree. I was working at Hallmark/Coach House Gifts. I was totally frivolous with my money and accumulating a lot of debt that future me would get to deal with. I spent most nights hanging out at IHOP with my friends -- ah! The start of my chub! Eating a club sandwich or pancakes or fries or a sundae at 11pm then going to sleep an hour later... My dating life was pretty nonexistent.
Now? (I'm still playing Zelda!) I'm living in the Galleria area with my long term boyfriend. I've reconnected with my really close friends from TCU. Do we see each other? No, but I do want to change that and soon, Miss Polly and Miss Lissa! But our lives are busy. :) I have an MBA and a payroll certification. I work for the Houston Rockets. I have seized control of my debt and am much more aware of my expenditures and my disposable income. 
If I had short term amnesia today, and was thinking it was 10 years ago, and I was looking at my life, I definitely don't think I would recognize it. But I'm actually so thankful of that. I have grown so much in the last ten years and I am in such a better place, in all aspects of my life. Financially, emotionally, mentally, physically.