Flip Flopper

Thats me. I'm the flip flopper. Or at least thats how I feel. I am one of those people that has a really difficult time making a decision. It could be as simple as picking out something out of a menu for dinner at a restaurant or as huge as school? no school? family now? wait on family? I don't know why it has to be so difficult for me. I don't know if it has something to do with how I was raised - I constantly changed my mind as a young adult, first I wanted to dance, so I took dance for 8ish years, then I wanted to join girl scouts, that lasted for about a year, then I wanted to swim on the swim team, that lasted a year and a half. Am I a quitter? Do I get bored easily? probably a little of both. I would like to believe that i'm not a quitter, but I certianly get bored easily.

I always told myself after the wedding I would buckle down and finish school. Well, these past few weeks a few other ideas snuck into my head. When do we want to start a family? What about you incessant love for photography? Why don't you jump on that? What about Mike? What about work? and $$? You just got married two months ago, do you want to completely lean on your new husband or do you want to make money on your own? I guess I just doubt myself a lot, maybe its my lack of self-confidence in making change. I'm not good with big life changes like this. I have gone through a lot with my recent lay off with Beneficial, my new marriage, and now going back to school full time. Its not like this whole school thing is new, i've been taking classes part time for the past year, its just committing myself to leaving my job to go back full time. Thats the scary part.

But, i'm going to do it. I'm going to take the plunge and go for it. I'm going to at least finish my associates degree and see where I stand from there. This is it, no more doubts, no more questions, no turning back.

busy, busy!!

I always told myself (and others) that after the wedding my life would get back to normal - the problem was, that I couldn't remember what normal was. I have been planning this wedding for 2 years.

Right after the wedding I went through "withdrawl" the typical feeling that most brides deal with right after the wedding when the let down begins and normal boring life starts.

Little did I remember how busy my life really is. I'm NOW getting back into the swing of my real life. I am so damn busy! Every night i've got something going on - its fine by me, but I can't imagine planning my wedding and being so busy every night.

Maybe in the next few months Mike and I will get to enjoy our time together and make a good dinner and just relax - hopefully soon!

Vermont Maple Glazed Pig Candy

We didn't win, but our ribs took 3rd place out of 13 entries. Not bad in my books - considering our Beer Can Chicken didn't even place - not only did we NOT place - we got ZERO votes! We didn't even vote for ourselves!

This recipe for ribs is the very best i've ever had - I live in Rochester where we compete with the big boys (Dinosaur BBQ, Famous Dave's and Sticky Lips to name a few) for me to say these are they best i've ever tasted says a lot for this recipe. I highly recommend giving this one a shot...

1 slab ribs

4-6 tsp. Meatheads Magic Dust

1 C. apple juice

1 pinch salt

2 tsp. hot sauce

1/4 C. real maple syrup (the REAL stuff - not aunt jemimas!)

1. skim'n'trim your ribs (remove fat and funky skin layer on the backside) rub some EVOO all over the ribs, coat with Meatheads Magic Dust (aka rib rub)

2. cook ribs for 3 hours then wrap in foil with apple juice (you will need to create a "boat" so it will hold the juice and the ribs without spilling.

3. take meat out of foil after 30 minutes, pour the juice into a sauce pan. It will be heavily flavored w/ rub spices - reduce to 1/3 C. Add 1/4 C. maple syrup and boil gently until it foams. Turn down heat until it stops foaming and boil until it reduces to almost the consistancy of honey.

4. add salt and hot sauce

5. paint ribs w/ one coat of pig candy - it should make a thick shiny glaze, heat for a few minutes and serve.

(recipe found on http://www.amazingribs.com/)

The ribs are nice and sticky and sweet. The rib rub creates a nice gingery flavor to the ribs - honestly I would use any old rib rub though - the recipe online makes wayyyy too much rub (see previous blog)

Ribs, Ribs, Ribs

This coming weekend is the 1st Annual "Ribs, Ribs, Ribs" competition. Unlike the previous "Beer Can Chicken" competition, we are slightly ahead of the game this time. Last night we decided to find our recipe for the competition, run to the grocery store and prepare the rub for the ribs beforehand. I'm glad we did, but we were mixing seasonings at 11:45pm on a Thursday night. Certianly not what I had intended on happening.

We decided on a "Vermont Maple Pig" recipe. There is actually no bbq sauce used in this recipe, its simply a basic rub, with apple juice and pure maple syrup. The rub recipe, as Mike started mixing ingredients came out HUGE. Hopefully the rub is good, because we have enough of it to last the rest of our lives. When Mike was about to put 1/4 cup of Salt in the recipe - I stopped him in his tracks and said, "how much does this make?!" Damn Olympics - I get so distracted!

So anyway, we've got a huge tub of Rub now if anyone is interested...chicken, pulled pork, ribs, anyone, anyone, bueller??!

I'll let you know how the recipe comes out!

2-Month Anniversary

Just had to share - today is our "two month wedding anniversary" I can't believe our wedding was two months ago today. Time flies, eh?

Part time Job with a Full time Education at 28

I worked at finance company for 5 LONG years, I enjoyed what I did, it was high stress, my blood pressure was way higher than it should have been for a twenty-something female - but the thrill of a big sale, and the excitement of exceeding your end of month goals made it completely worth it.

Well, unless you have been living in a closet, you would know that the economy is not doing so well, and a lot of peoples jobs have been effected by the changes that are taking place. Including me. I was the casulty of a layoff on November 30, 2007. I couldn't believe that I was 27 years old and getting laid off. You hear so much about Kodak doing layoffs, you never expect it to be you.

I ended up being "unemployed" for two short weeks. I was getting paid from Beneficial (my previous employer) and paid by my new company Sentinel Security, at the same time. It was nice for the wallet, and even nicer for christmas expenses!

Ever since the big layoff, and really honestly, for the past few years. I have been very serious about finishing my education. I never finished college. I am the only member of my husbands family that does not have a four-year degree. Not that it matters, but I feel like now I'm not so commited to my job, i'm married, so there are no distractions of wedding planning, and we can technically "live" off of my husbands income alone. This is my time. My time to finish school and to be in a career doing what i've wanted to do.

So today, I took the plunge. I told my boss today that I want to go part time so I can finish my education. He listened, and told me, "We'll talk about this when I come back from vacation." SOOO, we'll see how it goes. If he won't go for it - then its been a nice ride, but I don't think its going to work out with Sentinel. If he does - great, I will have the best of both worlds, an education and a job making more than $7/hour!

Wish me Luck!

Life after tab

SO, this is my firt real time "blogging" but I figured no time like the present. I am at a very interesting transition in my life, hence the title "Life after tab."

My nickname for years an years has been TAB. Its my initials. Everything I use somehow associates "tab," my email address, my screen names...but now i'm TAC. I got married in June to a "C" So, this is my life after TAB.

I have always loved reading through other girls blogs while I was in the planning stages of our wedding, and now gives me the opportunity to share my interests in life, and my recent endevor - finishing college. Yup, thats a big one! Beginning September 2nd, I am offically a college gal again! I hope you enjoy my writings, i'm more of a write as your thinking then a have actual structure to my writing so i'll make sure that I start proof-reading...haha! Enjoy, I hope this takes off well for me and I continue to write as my life continues to grow.