Author: michellebartosch

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! Here’s what I’ve been up to over the last year! Today, I’m celebrating!

Before the 2018 school year started, I had to face some hard truths and make some tough decisions that resulted in effectively eliminating most if not all contact with my family.

This really highlighted other areas of my life that needed work—like how unhappy my marriage was and how miserable I was at my job.

I was forced to take a deep look at who I had become, what brought me there, and decide what I wanted to do about it all.

I will always remember the summer of 2018 and how beat down and broken I felt. Despite that, I stood tall (okay, I was cowering, but almost standing!), and I made the tough choices. I ended the toxic relationships and began the healing process from a lifetime of hurt. This healing process illuminated a lot for me.

For one, it illuminated for me why I married the person I did and why I wasn’t happy. And I had a choice. Did I want my daughter to emulate my marriage? Is this what I wanted for her some day? It really, really wasn’t. So I ended it.

I was unfulfilled and unappreciated at my job. Though my students were incredible, I was constantly overlooked or shot down when trying to participate or contribute in numerous areas. It was made clear often that I, and all non-residential teachers, were unwelcome. Did I really want to wake up every day, go to a job I dreaded, and come

home to a marriage I resented? I didn’t. So I ended that, too.

It was originally my now-ex-husband’s idea to move out of state, but he never followed through. This amazing idea of his resulted in the greatest adventure of my life.

I remember countless times searching for studio apartments in CA and wondering if I could afford to raise my daughter on my own with the cost of living there (because really, you don’t just wake up unhappy in your marriage one day). I probably could have, but with limited opportunities for either of us.

When I signed the lease for my apt in Nevada, I didn’t put my husband’s name on it. Although we were still planning on maintaining our marriage at this point, I think I knew it wouldn’t last.

And so I did the unthinkable. I embraced the title “single mom,” because I remembered my high school English teacher telling me how groups of people took words meant to demean them and instead OWNED them. I decided to OWN “single mom.” I decided to find power in it rather than shame.

With no family and not a single friend in Las Vegas, I moved with my daughter. I battled crippling anxiety and depression and built a support network. I overcame my anxiety when it was most important because it was a matter of survival. I still have people look at me funny when I reveal that I battle anxiety daily.

I wanted to update people in my life if only to stop the questions about my (now ex) husband. So here it is—muddled and far from chronological.

When I finally decided to get a divorce,

It was both scary and relieving.

All the odds told me I couldn’t do it. The depression told me I wasn’t strong enough or good enough. The anxiety told me I was unlovable and unprepared. The family issues told me I had NO ONE. But my daughter told me she needed me to do it—her future depended on it. And God? Well, God seemed to be rather quiet the last few years while I was going through all this, but I believed I could trust him to direct me where I needed to be.

I don’t have a happy marriage with a big house and a family that goes to church together on Sundays (this was what I dreamed of growing up). But I do have an

amazing daughter that blows my mind (and makes me want to tear out my hair!), a safe place to live, an incredible job that brings me both joy and tears (sometimes simultaneously!), and the unwavering belief that even when I have closed myself off from God out of spite and anger and confusion, He is still in control.

So, this year—whoever you are—be your own damn valentine—because you’re awesome. Celebrate your successes today. Celebrate loving YOURSELF today.

Tonight I went against my better judgement and attempted to make pork chops. Pork chops are the worst in my opinion. They’re way less yummy than any other form of pork and just don’t go well with any yummy dipping sauces. Still, when I think of pork chops, the phrase “family meal” comes to mind–so what better meal to make when the husband is visiting than the Best Damn Instant Pot Boneless Pork Chops? This is a recipe I adapted from recipeteacher.com, but sadly the website seems to be down, so I can’t provide the link for the original recipe.

Luckily, I use an AMAZING family app called Cozi. I use this app for EVERYTHING from syncing all of our calendars and shopping lists to meal planning and recipe keeping. With this app you can simply copy and paste the link from any recipe and it will separate the ingredients and instructions, put them into a simple format, and save the recipe along with the original link. So, even though the link didn’t work, I still tried out the recipe.

So, here’s the ingredient list:

As per the usual, there were a few ingredients I didn’t have. I didn’t have the 1″ thick pork chops, so I used what I had in the fridge:

I also didn’t have the chicken broth, so I used 1 cup of water with 1 tsp of Better Than Bullion (my go-to for everything).

Then, I set off to follow the instructions:

The seasoning mix smelled super yummy, so I was optimistic, but I really hate rubbing spices on to meat. It just feels so…wrong. Weird. But, I followed the directions and rubbed the seasoning onto the meat. When it was time to add butter to the IP and sauté the pork chops for 1-2 minutes, I realize they wouldn’t all fit.

So I sautéed the first 4, then switched my inner pot and sautéed the las two. I was worried the butter and spices from the first 4 pork chops would burn if I sautéed the last two in the same pot, so I had very little to deglaze in the following step.

I added the liquid and pork chops, cooked on manual high for 7 minutes with a 12 natural pressure release.

All in all, the pork chops were edible, but I found them rather mediocre. Perhaps a thicker cut of meat would have resulted in a more juicy pork chop and would have altered the flavor, but I wasn’t overall impressed.

A fairly quick and easy recipe, but far from the best damn instant pot pork chops I’ve ever had. If you try it out and have better success, let me know how it goes!

Another recipe made with whatever was on hand! Because why should budgeting and lack of ingredients stop me from trying something new?

 (Don’t you love the fancy pink children’s plate I used?! It’s all we have that isn’t made of paper…)

Today was one of those mornings where you keep waiting for other shoe to drop. I woke up to a notice that my car was ticketed to be towed. As I left the parking lot, I realized the majority of the cars I was passing were also ticketed to be towed! Then, as I stood in 90 degree heat in the parking lot of a Walmart scraping off the stupid sticker that used industrial strength adhesive (which the sun later melted into the glass making it even harder to remove), a bird pooped multiple times on my car. I DIDN’T EVEN SEE ANY BIRDS!!

I digress. Here is a list of 5 of the stupidest things I’ve learned about Las Vegas. These are in no particular order.

1. They don’t joke about ticketing to tow. While I was pathetically scraping off the bright orange sticker, the lady in the car next to me sweetly offered me a razor blade and some water to scrape off the sticker–as she had just done this yesterday. Apparently, they search out cars…or make sure to take notice of every single car to see if it can be ticketed to be towed. Whether or not they actually tow it remains to be seen. I hope it’s not like this in all of LV!
2. Your car is not safe at your apartment complex from being ticketed or towed for registration, parking permit, dirty windows, or any other issues. (Okay, fine, I made up the dirty windows one). You think just because you’re on private property and pay some of the highest rent in your area for luxury living that they won’t allow the towing company (or whoever it was) into the parking lots in the middle of the night to ticket and tow cars? Wrong. Again, I hope this isn’t the case in all of LV, but it’s definitely a change from Orange County!
3. Cops/State Troopers lie in wait in groups to ticket cars on the freeway. This has to be the most surprising one to me. On more than one occasion (one being immediately prior to writing this post), I’ve watched multiple cars pulled over or get pulled over in the same area by different police vehicles. While I hope they’re deliberately looking for drunk drivers or more dangerous offenders, I can’t help but wonder if they, too, are checking license plates and registrations as people drive. AT 6 IN THE MORNING!!!!
4. Stay away from state streets, letter streets, and number streets. Okay, this one’s not really stupid, it’s actually quite helpful. I’ve been told by numerous natives to avoid these streets all cost. Nobody has said why, but I have been told there’s quite a bit of gang activity in Northern Las Vegas, so perhaps it has something to do with crime rates. To be honest, I really feel bad about mentioning this one because I haven’t been to the area, and I hate when decent areas get a bad reputation unfairly, but everyone who told me this were North Las Vegas natives, born and raised, so I figured I’d mention it.
5. Gas is more expensive the closer you are to the freeway or the strip. One day I decided not to get gas nearest my apartment and ventured up a few blocks away. The next gas station I found was actually 60 cents a gallon cheaper for premium gas! Whooof. LV really depends on those tourism dollars!

For anyone considering moving to Nevada or Las Vegas, I hope this information helps you have a successful transition. Despite these 5 really stupid things, I am absolutely loving living here. The locals and Nevada Natives are some of the nicest people I’ve met. In fact, I think they’d give “Minnesota Nice” a run for its money 💁‍♀️

Happy Ranting!

My daughter is at preschool (cue sobbing 😭😭) and I’ve finally made a hair appointment. I spent an hour or two on Yelp reading reviews and picking the best one in my budget range. Unfortunately, I’m starting to question my decision-making skills.

As I sit in the lobby, I notice the flashy accessories they sell and large sun hats. I also notice there are 5 other women waiting in the lobby…and I’m the only one under 60 😭

Perhaps this is a salon that caters to older women. Perhaps only older women are available to show up at a hair salon at 10 AM on a Thursday. Or, more likely, I HAVE MORE IN COMMON WITH WOMEN OVER 60 THAN WOMEN MY OWN AGE, thereby leading me to choose a salon with an older clientele 😭😭😭

I blame motherhood. Nothing ages you like a 2 year old attached to you like a barnacle on your butt.