Decade Recap

Holy cow! 2020 is literally hours away.

10 years. A full decade. How often do you sit and think about the past 10 years? Sure, maybe at the new year time you think about the past year, sure. But decade?

Breaky and I were discussing the past ten years last night while snuggled up on the couch watching the Pistons game and playing some Underlords.

"What were our big highlights this past decade?"

Well, I wouldn't be me if I didn't make a list and post it in my blog.


Here are my top 10 moments of the past ten years in kinda chronological order:


In the spring of 2012, I met BreakyCPK. I obviously did not know that 7 years later we'd be married with a kid, a dog and a brand new house. But here we are. Just as in love as we were when we first met. 

My Squeaky Little Sleigh Ride

Fun little story for a chilly little Wednesday.


So Breaky and I often will drive each other's cars. For the most part, simply because we do not want to have to switch the car seat from one car to the other. The car-seat about 95% of the time stays in Breaky's truck, because he's usually the one home with the little one. So when Breaky took my car to his indoor basketball game, I didn't even think twice. It is good to have an option to transport our child in case the worst happens.

Breaky has been gone for about 2 weeks total. Almost the entire month of December. I miss him horribly.

I've been driving my car to and from work. Keep in mind, it's been cold out, then warmer, then snow, then warm, then snow... etc... (yay Michigan winters!)

I kept hearing this squeaking noise. I'd turn down my radio and I couldn't hear it anymore. Or I would hear it for a second, then nothing. Could not for the life of me figure out what it was.

Thankfulness

This year, starting on November 1st, I made an Instagram/Facebook Story about something or someone I was thankful for. I called them my Thankfulness Posts. It really did help me center myself and realize how much we take for granted, be it that friend who is just always around, to having a house that has a roof and running water.

I saved my posts, and here they are below.

Words cannot express how grateful I am that Breaky came in to my life. My experience in this crazy ride called existence would be glaringly different had we not met. From introducing me to a bunch of great new people whom I now call friends, to letting me be a part of his family, and to showing me the love and support I had been wishing for all of my life; thank you Breaky! 

I am so grateful and still in disbelief that this child is the product of two crazy kids so in love and that she calls me "Mama". So thankful that she made me a Mom. 

Click Read More to continue

CPKreepy 2019

It's that time of year again!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Our absolute favorite holiday (Christmas is up there, not gunna lie, but collectively as our little family, Halloween takes the cake)

We had our big Halloween Extravaganza this past weekend. For me, this marks 15 years of some sort of Halloween party. For us as a couple, this is #7. I have done everything from small, 3 person parties, big extravagant 20+ people stuffed in to a college apartment, to a mix of couples, families and kids.

This year, as Breaky had a unicorn costume already from a WePlay Valentine's Day Madness event in Ukraine. So I bought unicorn costumes for the rest of the family,  including DogCPK  

This year also marked the first Halloween in our new house. We had so much more room for festivities, kid-friendly activities, and space for adults to imbibe and play games.

Photo credit: Dylan Jeffery & (me)

Click Read More to continue with the pictures

Food Friday Meets Meatless Mondays

In an attempt to be a little more healthy and help out the environment in a small way, I implemented a "Meatless Mondays" and, believe it or not, Breaky has agreed to go along with it!

Breaky and I have always been big carnivores. It wasn't a meal, especially to Breaky, if it didn't have some kind of meat or meaty-protein. Thanks to the wonder of Pinterest, I found a multitude of vegetarian dinner ideas that aren't your typical "vegetarian dinner ideas" and aren't just pasta and sauce.

I have found, through numerous diets and doctor's restrictions on what I can and cannot eat, that the Fall season is legitimately the best season to be creative with healthier foods. Sweet potatoes, acorn squash, spaghetti squash,  etc...

Thus far we have used a lot of cauliflower, sweet potatoes, bell peppers and zucchini.

DISCLAIMER! None of these are my recipes. They came from Pinterest, and let's be honest, I, as always, modified them in some way or another.




This recipe is Korean BBQ Style Cauliflower Lettuce Wraps.
I modified it a little bit and used a dash of regular bbq sauce and halfed the amount of soy sauce (mostly because we ran out and it was like, 5:30 at night.

We threw in some vegetable spring rolls we had left over from game night, and BOOM. Success.














This next recipe was additionally a success, once I roasted the peppers long enough. I tried this a month ago, and Breaky was "meh" about it, as the peppers were still too crunchy.


I didn't really follow a recipe with this one. Honestly kind of made it up myself.

Basically, roasted the bell peppers for like, 30-45 minutes. Chopped up a head of cauliflower, cut up a bunch of mushrooms, added a dash of breadcrumbs and topped with different kinds of cheeses for each pepper.

I didn't take a picture of this recipe, so here's the source's picture. It was a moderate success. Once you added the hot sauce/chili flakes. Since we have a 1.5 year old at home, we don't add the kick to recipes until after we serve ourselves.

We also used a lower-carb pasta from Explore Cuisine. Which was decent. For this recipe, we used the Black Bean Spaghetti , which gave it a black and orange look. Very Halloweeny-festive

For more pinned ideas for Meatless Mondays and for other crafty ideas, take a look at my Pinterest Boards. Feel free to send me ideas! 

Our House is Now Our Home: A house buying saga

As you may have noticed, I have been, well, a little remiss on updating my blog. This is because since late May, early June, we've been working on selling our home and buying a new one.

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Both Breaky and I knew this would be quite the process. What we didn't count on was the emotional anxiety-coaster that would span three months.

The Perils of a Casual Gamer

It is kind of funny if you think about it.

The wife of an "Esports Shoutcaster", doing a blog about casual, noncompetitive gaming.

I get it. The irony is not lost.

Allow me, however, to explain. I love watching esports. I love hearing, first hand, the ins and outs of the tournaments, I love the set up, the hype, the community (for the most part) surrounding and supporting the game.

When I play however, give me a pace that is a little, well.... more casual. Maybe even just single-player, solo play.

Why? It is a mix. When I play, high-level stress does more harm to me than good. And unfortunately, it's because a few people are jerks.

Dota Underlords

A blog post about Dota Underlords!


Long ago, it was determined I would probably never play Dota 2. Just as sure as we were that I probably would never play HoN.





Now, this caused an unintended consequence. I try to tune in to Breaky's streams and casts, which are primarily Dota 2, and for years had been HoN. Other than understanding the basics of who is winning(ish) and by how much (ish), I didn't understand anything.

I made some progress when we went to TI 7 in 2017 (while I was pregnant, I might add). Breaky explained so much of the game and those that were around us were super awesome in explaining things too, it almost made up for the reputation that sometimes clouds these MOBA games. Not so much as I would actually PLAY, but still. It was a great experience, and I would go again in a heart-beat.

Despite going to and enjoying a TI, I still don't understand Dota 2 the game. I now know some characters and the basic idea of what has to be done to win and I understand the scene so much better. I still go back to my trope of "when Breaky gets loud and starts talking super fast and there are lots of lights and sounds that means a big fight is happening." which, yes makes me seem like the ditsy wife, but it's true!





When Auto Chess came out, Breaky was trying to explain the game and how it came to be. He said he thought I may be interested, based on my love of Hearthstone. At the time, the only way you could play is if you actually owned and downloaded Dota 2, which I wasn't going to do as my computer is dangerously low on space (yay too many games!)

When it was announced that the makers of Auto Chess were creating a mobile version, I decided to give it a whirl. Knowing full well that this game was not from Valve or Dota, I still felt like this was a step in the right direction as far as being able to connect with Breaky on something Dota-ish.


Well, it was a little more than that. I started playing it quite a bit and became pretty decent at it, all things considered. Breaky commented that he hadn't seen me so obsessed with a game since Hearthstone.

.

Once Dota Underlords came out, I definitely downloaded it on mobile and on my PC. I've pretty much been playing every day since. Now I am not at the level of Breaky (Mr. Boss rank person) and I still do have a lot to learn, but I am thoroughly enjoying it.

One of the great things is that it allows me to be so much more involved and understanding of something that Breaky is involved in as well. He's started casting and hosting Underlords tournaments, which if you play, you should totally sign up for. You can follow him on twitter at @breakycpk for updates and tournament information and/or follow and subscribe to his Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/breakycpk



So long blog short, I love the game, and I am so excited to finally be involved in a game that Breaky both enjoys, plays AND casts. AND I can understand what he's talking about when he does cast these professionally. I feel like this is going to be good for our marriage. Right?

You May be an Esports Significant Other Part 2

I did a blog post about what happens when you are an esports significant other.

The post can be found here

I figured it was time for a little update.
So here we go

Food Friday: Rice Pudding

Welcome back to Food Friday with the Good Geek Wife. 

Rice pudding is something I used to only make around Christmas time. In fact, it is a part of our Christmas family tradition two days before Christmas when Breaky, and now BabyCPK celebrate Christmas as a small little family before heading to celebrate with more family. 

Well, come to find out, it is a hit any time during the year. Including a big hit for the BabyCPK, who, let's be honest is more of a ToddlerCPK at this point.

So here is my recipe that I use for my rice pudding. 

• 2 cup cooked white rice (or however much rice is left after making WAAYY too much for dinner)
• 2 cups milk (or 1 cup half and half or 1 cup milk and 1/2 cup creamer)
• 1/2 cup sugar or stevia
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• as many raisins as best suits your fancy

In a saucepan, combine rice, vanilla and sugar. Cook uncovered over mediumish heat until thickened, stirring often. We usually serve cold, but some serve it warm. If it's during the winter, we will actually just stick the whole pot in the snow to cool it down. Because=Michigan.

Then you add raisins when you are ready to serve. If you are feeling super fancy or if it's Christmas time, adding a little cinnamon could be fun too. 

Food Friday: Game of Thrones

Winter is Here!

No, legit, winter is still here. It was friggin snowing on like, Sunday and Monday. I had to let DogCPK out when we were watching Game of Thrones on Sunday and opened the door to Winterfell instead of Kalamazoo. IN APRIL.

This is a picture of Winterfell. Not my backyard. 

Ok, mini-rant over.

Breaky and I hosted family from out of town, so we didn't have or go to a big geeky-fied party to watch the season 8 premier of Game of Thrones. But we did kinda celebrate.

I made us drinks and dessert! Then, of course, we watched the episode.

WHITE WALKER

Enjoyed a "White Walker" courtesy of Pinterest browsing. If you haven't hit up my Pinterest boards yet, take a look! 

 LEMON  (CUP)CAKE(S)

I was going to make Sansa's lemon cakes, but I suck at baking, and we ran out of time. So I made cupcakes. With lemon. They were good, and sometimes that is all you can ask of me. :) 

The lemon cupcakes were also a simplified recipe. I used white cake mix, a can of lemon/lime pop (soda for non-mid-westerners) and juice from one lemon. Stir everything together, put in my cupcake tins, follow the directions for cooking on the back of the cake box, and BLAMMO, really fluffy lemony cupcakes. 

Better written down recipe for my Sansa's Lemon Cupcakes

Ingredients

- one box of white cake mix

- one can of lemon/lime pop 

- juice from one lemon

Supplies

- cupcake tin

- mixing bowl

Mix the ingredients together in the mixing bowl. Pour in to the cupcake tin. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.








Quick Game of Thrones Episode 1 Review with No Spoilers-Ish

Basically, read at your own risk. 

I know a lot of fans were bemoaning the lack-of-action and speed of the episode. Honestly, though, it had  many of the reunions I personally have been waiting for for YEARS. And honestly, I was ok with the pace. It is a lot of set up for future big events, and honestly, a lot happened! Just because it wasn't a ton of fighting and dying, didn't mean it wasn't a big important episode! TO be completely honest, the prospect of what could come next and at the end has me super stressed out.

But I will watch until the end! Because in the end: "Valar Morghulis", all men must die.

Give Me What I Want

Just had to share this conversation with Breaky on our way back from Detroit this weekend.....

Food Friday: LFG Bar Kalamazoo

Every once in a while, Breaky and I get a date night or two. We are getting to a point where we are more comfortable leaving BabyCPK with others, AND Breaky has been home for longer than a few weeks.

Pokemon Themed 1st Birthday Party

Our One-derful BabyCPK turned 1.

Since we did a Pokemon Themed Pregnancy Announcement, and BabyCPK is too young to choose a theme for herself, we decided to go with a Pokemon themed birthday party.

From some suggestions from Pinterest and lots of shopping on Amazon.com, I decorated and came up with some creative names for party food that involves Pokemon.

I could not have pulled this off without my amaaaazing family. They did sooo much work for this party. I do not have an "excuse" for not doing as much as I could have, although work, at the time, was a drama-filled frazzle cake. Even Breaky chipped in and was the one who made the pizzas!

Empowerment: The Women Who Came Before Me, Who Stand Beside Me and Who Shape the Future After Me

The whole "Your Word of the Year" was popular this year during the new year.

Mine was "Empowerment"

Now,a s you can tell from the definition above, it can mean to either empower someone or the state of being empowered to do something.

One Year Old. Looking Back and Bonus Cake Smash Pictures!

If you are not familiar with my blog, I purposefully do not use names in order to give us a little big of privacy. 


On 2/28/2018 our lives changed forever.

BabyCPK was born.

2/28/2019 she turned 1. The Earth rotated around the sun. Her father and I changed, but not half as much as she did. From a little potato who could pretty much only cry, feed and poop to a toddler who can say "dada" and "Aa daa" (all done) and "Hello" and thinks it is hilarious when Daddy has to chase after her when she crawls all the way to DogCPK's water bowl before we notice.

Happy Birthday BabyCPK!

Happy Birthday BabyCPK! 

We love you very much!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Breaky travels a lot. That means that sometimes he misses holidays or milestones. We've been apart for an anniversary, a number of Thanksgivings, a birthday, was gone four days before our wedding and two weeks before BabyCPK was born. Needless to say, I'm used to it by now. 

This is our first Valentine's Day apart however. 

What a weird $%^&*() week

What a weird $%^&*() week


We knew the weather was going to be bad this week. I even took my work laptop home with me just in case. It's Michigan.

So the weekend went very well. We did a bunch of organizing, baby proofing and cleaning. Sunday night, I started to get some heartburn and feel a little weird. Weird turned into gross and well..... either I had the stomach flu or food poisoning.

Happy New Year

2018 was a whirlwind for both me and my family.

I could write a novel about all the firsts, all the highs, all the lows, lots going on.

So instead, I'm making a bunch of top 5 for 2018.