You laughed, didn’t you?
Me too, don’t worry.

ME. Circa 1992. 16 years old. Glamor Shots.

It’s all shades of wrong, isn’t it?

I mean, come on, let’s point out the painful obvious…

the hair…no comment
the press on nails..really??
those earrings…totally ghetto
the sequin jacket…borrowed from Elton John or Neil Diamond..can’t remember
the sequin bustier…got that from Madonna
the eyebrows…I suppose I was channeling Brook Shields
the THREE gold rings…it was the 90′s
the lips…RED baby..on a 16 year old?

Unfortunately the big forehead (or as I call it my 5 head) is still with me.

So there you have it..one of my most embarrassing photos ever. Totally over done.
Glamor Shots is out of business, right? Please tell me they are.

I was HOT {cough cough}

And like every year I share some Holiday photos. Each year, my sister and I have our photos taken together by our dear friend and ever talented photographer Kelly Noel. My kids sure have grown from the first, second and third year photos and so has my dress size and my husbands my hair color(he blames it on me).

We happened upon this graffiti ridden alley way that just so happened to have Christmas trees painted on it. What a perfect backdrop for Holiday photos.

My nephew, Parker, we call him Porkchop. Is he not the cutest thing you have ever seen?????

Isn’t this a crazy picture? Looks like some crazy science experiment that has been placed under a 100X microscope.
It’s just a picture of some stuborn cocoa that did not want to mix into milk when I was making my kids homemade hot chocolate.

Aside from being knee deep in some professional recipe deveolpment. I’ve been unplugged from the world for 8 days. No phone, no internet, no email..NOTHING. It was dreamy!!

We were galavanting about the Caribbean(Bahamas, St.Thomas and St.Marteen) on the largest cruise ship in the world, The Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas

There is nothing better then creating memories with family and friends in the crystal clear waters!

Just look at how HUGE the ship is in comparison to an average cruise ship!!! It was MASSIVE

Here is the view on our first morning of the Bahamas..

The kids enjoying their breakfast on our balcony!

You know you are not in the United States anymore when you can walk right up to s shark pond with no ropes, no glass, no barrier at all! Wonder how many drunk people have been pushed in there?

We hung out at the Atlantis Resort for a bit. We were going to go swimming in their pool, however they wanted $120 PER PERSON just to swim. Ummmm- no thank you. The Ocean is free.

Back on the boat my 8 year old took to the rock climbing wall. Better him than me.

Oh and the boat had 24 hour frozen yogurt. The kids were in heaven!!

Big ol nasty iguanas were everywhere in St.Thomas.

We went snorkeling over a shipwreck by way of a 55′ catamaran named “Castaway Girl”.

Why is water so mezmorizing?

So I hope you forgive me for my absence. I will be back to life after reading my 500+ emails. Oh, and the laundry!

All photos were taken by my iPhone! Cell phone pictures sure have come a LONG way!

Oh and BTW, the winner of the the Eagle Brand Giveaway is…

Congrats to Kristen of The Cluttered Cupcake  (Love the name)

Please contact me within 72 business hours to collect your prize!!!

Say hello to Winston. He is the newest member of The Hungry Housewife Household. I suppose he can be called “Winston, The Hungry Househound”, the long haired Chihuahua.
Isn’t he the cutest?
So he is my excuse for not being around blog world lately, well and that and I have gone crazy. So you forgive me right? I mean..just look at those eyes..how could you not forgive me?

I have gotten a few emails wondering where I have been..lemme ‘splain.

Let’s just say I have been out of sorts as of late. It all started with trying to figure out my damn migraines. Granted, I have been having them for years and years, but I am fed up with them. I have narrowed them down to Menstrual migraines…you know, when Aunt Flo decides to visit. They come on slow, I know they are coming, but they are debilitating and sometimes last for 4 days..completely excruciating.  Before you say…”oh, have you tried this?” The answer is YES, yes and YES. I have tried it all. I have done acupuncture, tried every possible prescription medication available know to man. Taken herbal supplements. Had massages. Tired the “mind over matter” bull sh*t. Nothing helps, nothing AT ALL. Seems totally unfair if you ask me. It really affects my life. Makes it very difficult to juggle daily deeds, let alone train for a marathon(oh yeah, did I mention I am running the NYC marathon?)
I go to my Gyno and beg him for help. He said my last option is birth control. Uggggg. I have not been on birth control in probably 14 years. Me and birth control don’t like each other. The last time I took it, I gained an unGodly amount of weight and my hair started to fall out. Super fun. But to be honest, I am desperate, desperate to have my life back. So I agreed to go down the dreaded birth control route. I was actually excited to start. The thought of maybe being migraine free seemed to outweigh the possibility of 10 more pounds and a receding hairline!

I started the pill. Day one…CHECK.
Day two…CHECK..this is simple
Day three, four, five blah blah blah..OMG, I felt like I was in my first trimester of being pregnant. I was nauseous 24/7. I felt like ass. Tired and nauseous. Not good..not good at all.
Well, the nausea finally subsided by week 2 and then the anger started. Geeze, can’t a girl catch a break?
I remember when it started. I was sitting at my computer and I felt like this wave of anger took over me, like I wanted to punch something. Ohhhh my, it was awful. I felt like I was crawling out of my skin. I had never felt like that before. That was about a week ago. I am still bitchy, but I don’t feel like I literally want to kill someone.
The pill has seemed to take away all my drive as well. I don’t want to do much of anything.I don’t want to blog. I don’t want to keep up on social media. Check my email?…gag me with a spoon. Oh, and then there is the house. I am a clean freak..and I don’t even feel like cleaning. Don’t feel like socializing. And I feel super crazy bloated and puffy.
Is this all worth not having migraines, uh, I don’t know..you might want to check with my husband.!!???
I am just hoping this is my body getting used to the hormones. Might take a few months, right?? Has anyone else had these issues with birth control? I will keep you posted on if my husband decides to divorce his crazy ass bitch wife in the mean time!
And just about the time I feel about a quarter better, my son gets stomatitis, a nasty painful viral mouth infection where your mouth and throat is infested with canker sore like sores. And I am sure you can guess what happens next…YEP..I have it now too.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME? nahhhh, I wouldn’t kid like that. Emma has it too now.
Good times.
I like to think I have my sh*it together. But right now, I feel like it is all coming apart. Depressed, sick and unmotivated. So bare with me with while my estrogen gets back to its normal self.  I hope to report back to you in a few weeks that I am cured of my migraines. I am sure that will make all of this worth it!
I have a few posts lined up for you while I am on my “take a ride on the crazy train” leave of absence. So I have not forgotten about you totally.

So know you know why I have been absent from my blog, your blogs, twitter, Facebook, Stumble Upon, Pinterest and everywhere else. Kinda felt like I owed you and explanation.

It all began with my 7 hour solo car ride to Atlanta. Thank goodness for Cosmo Radio on XM/Sirus radio. I love love love Wake up with Taylor. Anyone else listen to it?

I met up with my new friends Susan of Doughmesstic ( my roommate) and Brandi of Bran Appetit. We hosted a HUGE(that is not an understatement) party at the Hard Rock Cafe rightfully name ROCKHER. We spend hours and hours filling up swag bags for ALL of our attendees.

Lots and lots of spoons tables. A HUGE THANKS to all of our wonderful sponsors. A full list of them can be seen here and another great list HERE. With out you, our party would not have been such a big success!

I sat at the check in table all night long. We had a steady line out the door the whole night. I obviously did not get to take any pictures. Spices Bites took some good ones and so did Danicas Daily

Friday was the first day of the conference. I learned a lot and met some lovely ladies.

Below are the only 2 pictures of me in existence from the whole weekend I do believe. I was a bad girl in the picture taking dept.

The first photo is of me and Jenny from Picky Palate. We both loved our cardigans. It was like a Mr. Rodgers festival with the two of us.

Me and Jenny from Picky Palate

The next photo is from breakfast on day one..from left to right..Me, Jennifer-Savoring The Thyme, Diane-Created by Diane, Shari-Tickled Red, Susan-She’s Becoming DoughMesstic, Carrie-Fields of Cake, Farihah-Spices Bites and Brandi- Bran Appetit

Breakfast on day one

On Friday night Susan invited about 18 of us girls to Dinner at Ray’s in the City. Hop on over to her blog to read all about it.

On Sat. Susan invited me to a nice little shopping Spree at Home Goods. Brandi took some good photos of our fun trip. I love love love Home Goods.

All in all it was a fun trip. I was EXHAUSTED! It was wonderful being around so many people with the same interest..FOOD and FOOD BLOGS.  I met sooooo many sweet people. Too many to list!

If you missed any of the stories behind my travels, you can still get caught up..Part one here. Part two here. Part there here. Videos here

Enjoy..

And now here are three of the videos. They are short and sweet. I think they turned out great!
I will post a more over the next few days. The first one is of  me,myself and I.

And this next one is of Joelen of Whats cooking Chicago

And the last one for today is Michelle of The Domestic Mama and The Village Cook.

So my sister, the perpetual yard sale person, had a yard sale, sold ALL of her baby items. Then 3 days later, she found out she was pregnant!!! No drugs, no hormones..just naturally pregnant! God works in funny ways!

I wanted her shower to be perfect, something out of a magazine. I had a specific vision of how I wanted everything to look. Lots of little details everywhere.  I pulled the colors and the “building theme” from the babies bedding.

My home was turned into a beautiful shower setting. I would love to plan parties for a living. It would be so fun to spend other peoples money!!!!!

I will give y’all the recipes for all of my fabulous food in a later post.

Enjoy the photos, maybe you can pull some party decorating ideas from them. The beautiful photography  and all the “signage” is by the ever so talented Kelly Noel Photography!

My sis and I

The Dessert Table

Black frame from Ikea. Painted a wooden letter P. Hung them a a door we hung on the wall covered in grey fabric. That is a 6" cake that I covered in fondant buildings.

Handmade chocolate Mustaches with a flag with the babies name on it. Spray painted a piece of foam teal

The Mustache Molds can be purchased here. And the Merckens Chocolate can be purchased here.

Creamsicle Jello

Coconut Ice

Vanilla Cupcakes with grey buttercream and "P's" that I cut out of fondant.

Tissue Paper Pom-Poms my momma contributed

Guess the number of beer bottle caps. Yes beer bottle caps, my sister loves her beer.

Hand painted onesies, again to match the theme. Thanks Faith!

Homemade Vanilla Sugar in Mason Jars for the favors.

Vanilla Sugar.

Baby Shower food on tiered trays for each table.

Scrapbook paper served as the "placemats" Mason jars to drink from.

Simple center piece. Tin flower pot from Ikea filled with marigolds.

The tables. The ugly brown chairs drive me crazy. The white ones were too pricy to rent.

Playing the baby shower games

The girls munching on desserts

My beautiful sister! Love you Air!

Ohhh lord. What did I get myself into?

Back in November a few friends had a brilliant idea of signing up for the NYC Marathon to on behalf of a very close family friend who has battled Cancer.

That was back in November. Reading about the NYC Marathon..they get over 100,000 applications and only about 6% of those applicants are chosen by lottery. Never in a million years would I have thought my number would have been picked out of their lottery hat.

Yep, I got accepted to run the NYC Marathon.

The longest I have ever ran was 8 miles. EIGHT miles. ummm, do I need to remind you that a marathon is 26.2 miles?

A chubby foodie running a marathon? I suppose so. It has been on my bucket list. But OMG, I never thought it would become a reality. How am I going to do this??

Sooooooo, does anyone have any training tips for me? This girl needs all the help she can get.

What to wear?? I am thinking this…

And I am quite certain I will look like this after the race..