August 3rd 2015 Entry: Everyone Counts in Azeroth so Suck it :) Blaugust #3 post

So I know I'm living in a fairy tail world right now because I'm sitting at the kitchen table with my cup of coffee and a doughnut hole with the intent to write a quick blog post. The odds of this happening are very low... lol But a girl can hope right?

Well I had been brainstorming possibly breaking my entries into sections Covering recipes, gaming, and family and odd opinions so I think that this will be the first post I will try this ! I think it might help me remember what I was actually going to write about so when I hop topics I'll label them this time :)

FOOOOOOOD
Why not start  this dandy post with food?! I was inspired by @disneygirl85 on twitter to make some BBQ Chicken sandwiches for everyone and I am really glad I did. I am trying to start my meals ahead of time , in the evening so that I don't have to feel rushed the next day . This menu choice allowed me to slow cook the chicken in a baking pan with some apple cider vinegar , butter, and a bit of brown sugar to start. I chose to add some BBQ sauce later once the chicken started to loosen up . I slow cooked it at 200 degrees for 4 hours and then another hour the next day to get the juices flowing again. I made sure to cover the chicken with foil so it would not dry out. I can't get too crazy with spices with anything I cook because of our little ones and their sensitive taste buds, but apparently I can put ranch on anything and baby moon will eat it lol

GAMING
I haven't been playing Heroes of the storm as much as I have wanted too. I really wanted to get my hero to 20 sometime ago but I am only level 13. lol BUT I really enjoy myself every time I do get to play. JUST A REMINDER that anyone who hasn't played gets a free 7 day stim pack, today is the last day for that. That boosts your gold and your xp so you can level your heroes quickly and save enough gold to buy heroes with in game currency. I have shifted into really enjoy playing Li-Li. I am not a fan of playing support classes but I really love healing and DPSing with her . I hope to get better each time I get to play. :) I did get to have my mom join Azeroth this past week, and she is loving her experience so far. I check in with her every night to see what she has figured out for her self, this is entirely a new experience for her so I am jazzed about having her be able to share a hobby with my sister and I. 

I also had a chance to catch the latest Final boss Twitch stream yesterday and while I was watching I had first thought, "Wow! What a great combination of guests!" They had Qleric, Alt- ternative Chat, Preach , Nobble,  and Bellular. Each guest seemed to bring a different flavor to the stream potluck. Everything was going smoothe until the numbers proceeded to climb. The chat room filled up fast with ass-hats who were so trashy and ruthless. They started yelling "CASUAL!!!! STUPID CASUAL!!!" among other things I care not to post. To be honest, there were so many ban hammers coming down once the stream reached over 6000 viewers that every jack-hole that resides in the gutter of the internet seemed to slither into the chat room to bash whatever was said that they did not agree with.  It made me think to how much World of Warcraft is divided into such a huge pie chart. Every slice detailing what the game means to everyone and the part they play in the larger scheme of things.

I thought of this because, here I am inviting my Mother into Azeroth knowing full and well that among the basic NPC's and Mobs we interact with and kill, are the Ass hats dressed in our factions gear waiting to attack you if you don't play like they do or value what they value. I could go on and on defending my fellow Dirty Casual's but I won't because the truth needs no defense to be true. I am the kind of player who keeps the home fires burning in Azeroth when all of the fair weather citizens unsub and sit on the bench scowling at everyone who is still enjoying the game. I have always looked at the problems the world has and broken them down into smaller pieces. Every thing I have ever complained about I can see on a world scale, a country scale, a state scale ,a work scale and a game scale. Different place same shit. Azeroth is no different.

I see it when people go about their day acting as though their degree makes them superior to someone who has not gone to college, or when someone compares their Jaguar to the Mini Van of their neighbor and makes fun of them. I see it with the  house owner who looks down on a renter. There will always be different EVERYTHING. Not everyone can look the same, have the same , do the same or be the same or everything would hit a wall really fast and I feel the same about World of Warcraft. Each one of us are a special piece to the puzzle of the world and to Azeroth. Even though the different sectors may not understand where the other one is coming from ALL ARE NEEDED to make it possible. Even my totally noob mother who is level 5. She is just as important as a Mythic Raider. A Mythic Raider is just as important to the top pet collector who is just as important to the world PVP fanatic..The Blood Elf dancing on the mail box is just as important as the Guild leader who runs the latest mega guild.

All of us are an intricate part of the machine that is World of Warcraft and those who don't see it that way, well they are part of the puzzle too whether they like it or not, so they can suck it and have a nice day <3

Last words of the entry?

You guessed it folks, I did not get to finish my post this morning lol I got the first paragraph done and poof ! Time to make breakfast to for the troops.

I'm ironically finishing this entry to a "Run Wild" play list on spotify as I sit on my butt blogging.

Also, just as the graphic states at the top of the blog post, you don't have to do what everyone else is doing.
Play how you play regardless of  the amount of criticism, the misunderstanding, the audience, expectations, the status quo, the fear, the prejudice...

JUST KEEP GOING IF YOU ARE HAPPY.

I always say,
"You did not come out of your moms va-jay-jay so someone else can dictate your life. It is your life, now go on and live it."
they have their life, let them go control their life, this is yours. This is your life and this is your game.

Azeroth has a new citizen!

Woah! I finally got time to sit down! It has been a busy family & "Warcrafty" two days! Mr. Sky finally had a day off after 2 straight 60 hour weeks so we treated us to some ice cream and a petting zoo with the babies and dinner with grandma. It has been so hot and muggy and saturated with deer and mosquitoes flies that we had began to feel like prisoners in our home! We desperately needed to get out on the road and make a day of it. Even though we had a blast, I hate when the babes have to go without a nap because they turn into Betty White from the Snicker Bar commercials... or gremlins ...... yes they turn into Gremlins and not the fluffy cute kind.

Azeroth acquired a new citizen yesterday! I helped my mom log into her battle net launcher and select World of Warcraft for the first time and it was awesome!  She chose a Blood Elf and I suggested she play a Hunter because I love mine and l knew she would love to have a pet to share her travels with. I also didn't waste any time showing her that she can name her pet and she was elated. We were lucky to get her into the guild I play my Blood Elf hunter in called Fates Call on Borean Tundra ran by Marathal. The last video game she  had played was Frogger on Atari decades ago so this was quite a different experience for her and for me too.
I realized how much I take for granted in regards to the knowledge that seems to be second nature to me. It is weird trying to teach someone entirely from scratch with zero MMORPG experience how to play a game that really is never finished! That you can equip gear, that you can run around and see other players also running around, that you can log out and pick up right where you left off! I also asked myself, " How in the hell did I survive when I started!?" I didn't have anyone teaching me the little things about the game lol I mean yeah, I could have asked someone but I am stubborn and like to tough stuff out on my own. lol  It was cool to see how she was starting to pick up the AWSD keys and then incorporate the mouse to move around toward her questing zone on the map.

At first she said she was scared and felt intimidated and I had to keep reminding her it is just a game. You are here to just have fun and explore a beautiful world like nothing you have ever seen before. Before she knew it, she got to level four before my little ones started to wake up and she felt so proud of herself. I had to laugh though because during one of her quests in the Blood Elf starting zone had to kill Spring Paw Cats and Cubs and she was wondering why none of the cats she was killing were dropping collars and Iooked and saw she had been shooting the little kitty cats that are pets and running around ! LOL I laughed so hard , I said , "Oh no, you have to go outside of the building and kill those cats, they drop the collars and you will loot collars off of those." She started to feel bad about killing the little tabby cats running around the house but got a kick out of the brooms I showed her that swish around cleaning on their own lol Boy Oh Boy those would sure come in handy to us parents wouldn't they!?

After showing her around a bit and seeing the game through a new set of eyes it made we think of how critical veterans of the game actually are. It is actually kind of sad in comparison to the excitement a new player has. I have a feeling that if more people saw Azeroth through the eyes that they had first seen it they would spend less time feeling so jaded... It was nice to sit down with her and show her the ropes and then I suddenly became full of excitement thinking of all the things I will get to show her that many of us consider an old hat. Many of my fellow Warcraft brothers and sisters feel let down, mad, angry , or  thirsty for better. They hang on every Dev tweet and examine it with the largest magnifying glass they can find and pick as much meat off of the PTR bone they can with such a hunger I often wonder if they will ever be as happy as they were when they first steped foot in their starting zone.  I felt particularly proud to show her how big the community actually is. I even sat her down over a pot of tea one evening and took her on a mini you tube tour of what Warcraft is to others. I showed her some of my favorite You Tube Parodies, I found her some You Tubers who took the time to do starting zone walk throughs of the characters she will be able to play. I had her listen to some of the beautiful music that she will be listening too. I had fun sharing with her the world that expands past the actual game and she had no idea that there were so many people involved with what had first seemed like just a little video game she would hear her daughters talk about. lol It was nice!

Well it is time to make dinner, I am sure I will have more stories to share in the future!
Esme Out!

Afternoon Entry: Red Pop Cake , Chicken Bacon Pasta & how to be a friend.

3:47pm 7-27-2015
Good Afternoon!
Today has flown by. It felt like I woke up an hour ago but it is already going on 3pm.  The day started off as it normally does, and that is to my the sweet sounds of little babies talking to themselves on the baby monitor. If I could bottle up the joy you feel when you hear those little voices and sell it I would be a rich person, but just by those standards I am already rich then!

My "Faygo Red Pop" Cake I made last night turned out pretty tasty. My mothers neighbor told her that you can replace the one cup of water that is called for in a basic white boxed cake mix with any flavor of pop you would like to try and bake it as you normally would. Mr. Sky wanted me to give red pop a try, or as some other people would refer to it, Red Soda! I don't care what you say, it is POP not Soda :P I think I will try a more unique flavor next time. Her neighbor tried a cup of Coke, either way this cake recipe scream good old "MERICA" cooking lol

Mr. Sky has been working a lot of overtime this week so I thought his old man butt needed some more sleep. That meant that I had to think of something I could cook while keeping tabs on both of my munchkins. They are suddenly obsessed with Mary Poppins so I put that on and started pondering what I could throw together for lunch. I came up with a Chicken Bacon Pasta which I had never tried. It turned out to be a fast and tasty concoction for lunch! I had boiled some chicken breast, fried up some bacon, took a table spoon of diced garlic and tossed that in a skillet together. After about 15 minutes I dumped in a medium size can of organic diced tomatoes and let those hang out for about another 15 minutes. Then I cheated and grabbed a jar of alfredo sauce I nabbed from the store and poured that into the mix with the rest of the flavors that were bubbling in the skillet. While I let that simmer on low I boiled some wheat rotini pasta and when that was done and drained, I mixed it all together and TADA! 

I was pretty impressed, everyone liked it except for baby Sun. He wanted to stick to his cottage cheese so he grabbed it and threw it on the floor... And that is why I love having dogs.

The babes are down for their nap and I am enjoying my afternoon mint tea and thinking about some stuff that had been on my mind.

I have a plaque on my wall that says "The only way to have a friend is to be one." I bought it because it matched two other cutesy plaques I came across years ago and because  it is a simple statement and a damn good piece of advice. 

I realize some people do struggle with the basic of social interactions, but they take practice and in my opinion a lot of them I consider to be common sense. I also acknowledge that the mere definition of friend varies from person to person so we set our friendship bar however HIGH or LOW as we choose and then we let in people that fit our stringent or non existent qualifications for friendship. 

I have found my bar being raised every year that goes by. I always laugh and say it is because my "Bull Shit" intake valve is plugged therefor it can no longer accept new crap. I have also found that since my father passed last year, I am even more selective of who I will choose to hang around. I do not have the emotional energy to spend any amount of time on my defense anymore. Environments that were rough and abrasive were never a problem for me because I had an extra jug of "Jack -ass" juice ready and waiting to sip on. It allowed me to quickly dish it back. Now I don't even want to waste my time and energy and sanity. I can still pipe up and defend myself, but one day I found myself asking, "Why?" 

The Quote rings true to me because it is so simple. You have to BE a friend to HAVE a friend. It means that you can not just sit on your butt and wait for the friendship bus to roll up! A bus will never just appear in front of your house to drop off a newly packaged friend and drive off. You actually have to get up and be a friend. Be the kind of friend you want to have. Don't wait to see what you can get out of others before you decide to be a friend, you have to put something into the pot too. If you continue to put yourself out there, sooner or later the perfectly matched person will speak your same friend language and you will understand what it means to truly means to be a friend and have a friend. I have known many different people who struggle treating others how they would like to be treated and they wonder why they are alone. They wonder why they always feel they are on the outside looking in. They want to paint their present and future experiences the color of their past experiences so they let fear keep them frozen...stagnant...and alone.

I believe that you get out of life what you put into life just as you do when you are cooking. 

If you use the wrong ingredients or spoiled ingredients you will have an awful tasting meal, full plates and empty seats at your table.

Anyways, I already got the first round of chores done, time for some Heroes of the Storm!
Here's the free Rotations for this week and next week!

Esme Out!

"What's that terrible smell!?"

Good Morning!

When you wake up to the words, "Whats that terrible smell!?" being yelled from your 2 year olds room at 9 am, you know you're in for an interesting day!  I stayed up a little too late last night playing with my Cross Realm Guildies Saber, Jaygurrl, and Kole. I am definitely second guessing my choice to stay up till 3 am but it had been 2 weeks since we had got together to run our twinks. The last time we got to level together a huge storm had moved in and my power got knocked out and my basement flooded. I am now gaming from my bedroom and it is an entirely new experience for me. I am a cackling obnoxious person when I am happy and having fun and when my little ones are fast asleep across the hall I have to really keep myself in check so I don't wake them up. Last night was a success, they never woke up due to my big mouth. Phew! The next test is going to be gaming while Mr. Sky is trying to sleep. I know I wont be able to talk, that's when I will have to kick up my listening skills:) Either way, my carefree gaming nights tucked away in our basement family room is on hold until we replace the dry wall and flooring .

New Recipe:

Breakfast was a hit! I tried something new and made flat bread breakfast pizzas. I grabbed some multi grain flat bread from the store, coated it with a fine layer of cream cheese . I then scrambled eggs, sausage, green peppers and onion together  and covered the flat bread with it. I topped it off with some taco seasoned shredded cheese and tossed it in the oven for 15 minutes at 300 degrees. Everyone LOVED it and it was nice to be able to try something new because it can become so boring cooking and eating the same stuff day in and day out. 

I have to remind myself to try a new recipe as much as possible. Affordable & healthier ones :)

Oh, and the terrible smell was probably what you guessed..... a #2 bomb lol

Esme out!

Saturday Night Twink Fun

July 26th, 2015 3 am

I am sooo tired but I look forward to grouping every Saturday Night with my pals to level our Burning Crusade Twinks. We are in our home stretch , we just hit level 60 and that means we will be raiding old content in no time :) I am extra excited about this because I am a Wrath Baby , I only got to run Burning Crusade Content on a lowbie toon as I was escorted through by higher level toons. We had our fair share of good and bad tanks over the three hour run, the last group was awesome. It is always cool to find a group that really meshes with ya. They enjoyed running with us so much that they wanted to add us to their Battlenet list. Our Burning Crusade Guild is on Earthen Ring Alliance and we named it Dracones Volantes which is flying dragons in Latin. You can't play WOW very long and not have spent sometime playing in a guild with a latin name atleast once! Well, we can fly now, so we are indeed Flying Dragons:) Eat your heart out citizens of Draenor!

Good Night!

Esme Out!

I am not sure if I should welcome you or warn you.....? =D

What is this about!?
This blog is exactly going to be what the title says, "Diary of a Mom Gamer."
I am a mom before I am a gamer, but I do identify with both labels if I were to be asked.
I will be blogging about my day just as I would in a diary, which is something I have NEVER successfully done! I have bought MANY MANY awesome and beautiful journals that lay on my shelves and collect dust. I always have great expectations but my follow through sucks! It totally sucks! I will be using "emojis" and "lol's" in my blogging because this is going to be a conversation. I will not be striving for approval or to fit in per usual so lower your expectations please :P I will not being aiming my topics to please an audience, as far as I am concerned I am my audience:) This is many things to me. It is part of a goal of mine to blog on a regular basis no matter how much or how little, but to actually stick to my goal. It is also to act as a net for my crazy mommy brain. I have so many thoughts that fly around my day and I think, AH! I would love to write about that, but I never make the time. It is also a way to offer others like me a place to share and grow. We are not perfect. I will not attempt to be. You will not always agree with me or identify with me, but we are all human and no matter the amount of differences that seem to separate us we can always connect on some level with another human being, even if that similarity is that we need oxygen to survive ;)
This is my project. This is my diary of a Mom Gamer and I welcome you to join me on my daily opinions, adventures, and nonsense.

Boring Ole Me.
Welcome to my mommy brain! A place I spend most of my time pondering all of things I could do if I had more time, and by time I mean time, energy, patience and 13 clones.... I am a dime a dozen. There are many like me! Male and female versions of myself are wandering out there among all of you and you have no idea! We are wearing our childrens breakfast on our shirt... no really ... we are! We hide our stains behind patterned shirts and we hide our exhaustion behind caffeine. We have adapted, we have molded ourselves into beings who live to make our families safe and happy and who still enjoy squeezing in hobby time whenever there is a few moments left untouched by "adulting". We feel our luckiest when we get to wear matching socks. We use baby wipes to clean "all of the things". We speak our own secret language and bitch about what cartoon characters we would like to set on fire if we could. We piss off our single friends daily because we can't fit them into our world like we used too, and that includes in game and out of game in a lot of situations. We deal with an abundance of opinions from family and strangers on how we should raise our kids during the day and ninja AFK while we tuck our kids into bed at night.

First off, let me dazzle you with my boring "about me" section:
I am a mom of two toddlers.
My daughter , we shall call her baby Moon, she is turning 3 next month.
My son, we shall call him baby Sun, he is turning 2 in September.
I am a stay at home mom, or as my mother likes to say, I am a "DOMESTIC ENGINEER".
I do like that title better.
I have known my husband for 16 years, dated him for 10 years, and we have been married for 4.
I left my job of 8 years going on a little over a year ago to stay home with both of our kids. My husband and I felt it was the best decision for all of us because we felt like utter crap missing our family time due to our crazy work schedules. We were pretty much just paying for strangers to watch our children. We decided to take the leap and could swing it financially by making huge cut backs and my husband has to soak up as much overtime as he can , but in the end we are happier for it and feel blessed we are even able to do it at all.
I say we are blessed because I pray. I pray because I love God. I love My God. My God is bad ass and loves everyone. I have been lifted out of some shitty dark times by the hand of My God.
I am a night owl Dirty Casual gamer who enjoys World of Warcraft and Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone.
I love my coffee and tea by day and my economy size boxed Moscato at night!
I like people. I love nice people. I am entertained by funny assholes. I am allergic to egotistical people.
I use my bra to hold random articles throughout the day like baby monitors, anything I come across that may be a choking hazard to my small kids (until I make my way to a garbage) and sometimes the last granola bar I had to hide quickly because my daughter heard the wrapper! You know you have done it, and if you haven't you will now !


First Entry: July 25, 2015 

Well I just put the kids down for their nap. I try to get them to nap at the same time everyday after Mr. Sky goes to work, so I can either clean up the house , take a nap if I feel like a mombie zombie, or so that I can sneak in some gaming. Today I chose gaming. I logged into to my Main on Hyjal Alliance ( I am looking to re-home her as Hyjal alliance is DEAD compared to the Horde Side.) The servers were crashed for Hyjal so chalk that up to my luck lol. I then decided to level my level 91 Night Elf Hunter that I play in Rebels of Azeroth on Draenor. I quested a bit but then I totally getting off track ( like I do) when I aggro-ed a wolf and found myself running in a figure 8 from the wolf purely out of curiosity of how long he would keep following me. This is exactly why I suck at leveling but excel at goofing off :) I did manage to get a screenshot of what I thought was a gorgeous area covered with flowers but then noticed a wolf scratching and pawing at a dead wolf behind me.... lol Wierd Photo Bomb ftw!

Well, wouldn't you know it? I set down to start my new blog and both of my babes wake up EARLY. Any other day, you know when I am cleaning, they will sleep for at-least 2 hours lol.
Time to put on a second pot of coffee!
Esme out!