The Artist and Paula Deen

I watched Good Morning America this morning for the first time in months!  I like GMA but I miss Diane and Chris.  Anywho, two stories in particular roused something in me and I had to get my thoughts down before I forgot.

1. The Artist - It's a silent film that won a Golden Globe last weekend.  I repeat, it's a silent film.  Movie theaters are receiving complaints and refund demands from patrons b/c they cannot here the dialogue.  *Blink.  Blink, blink.*  'Nuff said.
2. Paula Deen's announcement that she was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes almost 3 years ago and is just going public now.  And she timed going public with being the new spokesperson for a diabetes drug.  Lots of folks drinking the haterade over this one and I think it's ridiculous.  We all know we can't eat Paula Deen recipes exclusively.  And she has every right to keep her medical issues private.  Just b/c someone is famous does not mean the public has a right to know everything about them.  She said it has taken her all this time to process and accept her diagnosis.  I can totally see that.  Denial is usually the 1st response to bad news.  And who better to be used as an example to other diabetes denialers (I made up another word; I'm good at that.) of "it's never too late to turn things around"?  I mean, if Paula Deen can control her diabetes, everyone with a "little sugar problem" should have hope.  And that's all I have to say about that.

iPhone's Voice Memos

I come up with a TON of blog ideas and thoughts to share with y'all throughout the day.  Unfortunately, I am never at my computer at the time and by the time I am at my computer, I cannot remember my fabulous ideas!  I've always come up with my best posts in the shower.  That's the one place where me and my thoughts are uninterrupted.  I keep telling myself I need to install a water-proof tape recorder in the shower, but it has yet to happen.

However a week and a half ago, while sitting in traffic on my way home from work, I discovered a most wonderful utility on my iPhone - Voice Memos!  Although I cannot use it in the shower, upon discovery of this brilliant invention I was able to start recording random thoughts during my commute home from work.  Yeah!  Now when I actually get some time to sit down at the computer and blog, I'll be able to remember what I want to say!  So, here are some random thoughts from the car...

• I love the sound of Steven Brown's voice.  He tells 1 minute stories from his website, You Think About That, on one of the radio stations I listen to - WGTS 91.9FM.  I just went to his website for the first time, to get the link to post here, and saw he has a Facebook page.  I went to the FB page and saw his picture for the 1st time.  Not at all what I thought he'd look like!  Isn't it funny how you don't think twice about how most people's voices match their looks when you hear them for the first time face to face, but when you hear them before seeing them it's the opposite.  We all form a mental image, conscience or not, of what a person looks like based on their voice.  And we are always disappointed that they do not look like what we imagined.  Not that the actual person's looks are "less than"; just that they are different than what we thought they would be.
• I have a love/hate relationship with cover songs.  The artist I hear singing a song first is the one I always like best singing that song.  When I hear another artist singing that song, they have to put their own spin on it and I don't like it.  However, the cover version is usually more enunciated than the original and I find out what the words actually are.  This happens a lot with covers of songs from the 70s and 80s.  For example, Open Arms by Journey; cover by Colin Raye.
• There is one spot on my commute home where I actually don't mind the stop and go.  It's in front of a McDonald's.  Their wifi extends out to the street and I can quickly check my Facebook and email accounts.  :o)
• I've made a little sociology discovery during my commute home.  There is one very busy road in a very business, packed section of town that I must travel through.  There are many other roads and business driveways that intersect this road I am on, with many cars waiting to turn onto my road.  Now, if you are on a cross street with a light, I do not let you in; when your light turns green you'll be able to do so.  However, I like to let people out in front of me from cross streets and business driveways where there are no lights.  Here's my discovery: 9 times out of 10, if I let a car come out in front of me, the car behind me will also let a car out.  If I do not let a car out in front of me, 9 times out of 10 the car behind me will not let out a car either.  Interesting....
• I had a veela in my training class.  When I told B this his response was, "Really?!  Is she related to Fleur?"  "No," I replied, "She's an American brunette."
• So, B and I are on the 7th and last book of Harry Potter.  I read HP books out loud on my nights to put B down for bed.  The hubs and I used to switch off putting B down every other day.  However, during my 7 weeks of training I put B down more often.  I missed him all day and wanted to share extra snuggles at night.  Now that I am out of training and on my regular work schedule, I'll only be here for B's bedtime twice a week.  That makes me so sad, but...."eyes on the prize"!  Anywho, back to Harry Potter...once we finish the 7th book, that's it.  No more.  We've been a part of all these characters' lives for so long and now it's coming to a close. I am focusing on the blessing of putting B down only 2 nights a week now.  It prolongs the inevitable farewell to Harry and the wizarding world. 

Some Pictures of our 2011 Holidays

Isn't B just adorable?!

He received the Rudolf nose and the Old-fashioned goggles in his stocking. He's pretending to ride a motorcycle.

 I met my in-laws Christmas 1995, a couple of months after the hubs and I got engaged.   As we were leaving, my future FIL gave me his bomber jacket. He was a Navy pilot but this was his Civil Air Patrol jacket and I felt honored and accepted. Although it fit me, it's pretty heavy, so I did not wear it often. This Christmas, the hubs put it on B for the 1st time. Now his is begging for one of those old, leather pilots helmets to complete this outfit.

B wanted a steel drum for Christmas. The hubs and I thought on it and decided he could have one and let Santa know we approved.  However, there is no professional in our area (actually, no one outside of Jamaica or Hawaii) to tune a steel drum for us over time. So, instead of giving B a steel drum and welding equipment for tuning, Santa brought a keyboard, with a steel drum sound on it, instead. We think B will get much more use out of this than he would a steel drum.
I can't wait to hear more concertos of his like the one he created in Vermont last August.

I saw this on Pinterest and put glow sticks in B's stocking.  He LOVES taking baths and this one in the dark is now higher on his list than bubble baths.

B makes tons of things in my parents' basement whenever he visits them.  This is a robot.  Evidently, there is also a super computer to control him that B left at my parents' house.  I have yet to see it, though. Why is he hiding it from me? 

A Christmas ornament B made at my parents' house with old buttons, cardboard, gold paint and ribbon.

Not looking my best here without makeup and with my rosy cheeks and chin from a couple of drinks.  However, it's me and my boy, in our sweats, celebrating NYE and I love it.  We were all in the same bed and asleep by 10:30pm.

I hope y'all's holiday season was full of love and great food and I wish you blessings, good health and love in 2012!

Recipe - Crack Cakes

A few years ago, the moms' group I belonged to threw a post-bachelorette's party for one of our members.  She'd never had a bachelorette's party before getting married, but always wanted one.  Even though she was married, had one child and another one on the way, we decided to throw her the party she'd never had.  It was a potluck at my house and I decided to make the dessert - penis-shaped Crack Cakes.  They're actually a Paula Deen recipe called Orange Blossoms.  However, after I demanded the hubs try them before the post-bachelorette's party to ensure the new recipe I made was good enough to serve, he was hooked!  He said they were like crack, told me he was taking the entire batch to the bedroom, locking the door and I would have to make a new batch for the party.
  
A very ugly wrestling match ensued but I managed to salvaged the Orange Blossoms for the party.  After the ladies partook of the Orange Blossoms at the post-bachelorette's party, they all agreed that the hubs' renaming of the dessert, Crack Cakes, was spot-on.  They were addictive and so the name has stuck.  I made them a couple times after that night, but have not made them for at least 4 years.


B wanted me to make a birthday cake for Jesus last Christmas, but it did not happen.  As we approached this Christmas, B asked if we could make a birthday cake for Jesus this Christmas.  I said "yes", but with going back to work full-time on 11/28 after 6.5 years of being a SAHM, my family was lucky to get a Christmas dinner, let alone a dessert!  But this afternoon, I cleaned the top floor and came down to the 1st floor to find the hubs had cleaned it and left me a present on the kitchen counter: a mixing bowl, a box of yellow cake mix, a measuring cup and my Paula Deen cookbook.  The message was clear - MAKE CRACK CAKES.  So I did and I am so happy!
Here is the recipe for you:


Orange Blossoms
(from Paula Deen)
For cakes:
1 package yellow cake mix 
3.4 oz. package instant lemon pudding mix 
4 large eggs 
3/4 cup cold water
3/4 cup vegetable oil 
For glaze:
3 cups confectioners' sugar 
1/2 cup frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
3 Tbsp. melted butter
3 Tbsp. water 
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease one or two minature muffin pans. For the cakes, in a mixing bowl combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, water, and oil, and beat well. Fill the prepared muffin pans, using about 1 tablespoon of batter for each cake. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the cakes spring back when touched.
2. For the glaze, mix the confectioners' sugar, orange juice, butter, and water until smooth; set aside.
3. Dip the blossoms in the glaze immediately after removing them from the oven. Drain on waxed paper.
Makes about 4 dozen cakes.


Enjoy!

My Freecycle Pet Peeve

Do you Freecycle?  I hope so.  If you don't know what it is, look it up and consider joining.  It's fabulous!  Get rid of the stuff you no longer need or want and get other people's stuff that you do.  Although there are hard and fast rules to Freecycling, there is plenty left up to the individual and some of my fellow free cyclers' way of doing things can be irksome.  (Anytime I hear/read/use any form of "irk" I hear the line from Bolt - "You irk me, professor.  I am irked."  hehehe)

Freecyclers decide who will get their items in different ways: to the very 1st person who asks; to the person who can pick it up soonest; only to a person who offers frequently themselves; or to the person with the best story.  I understand and have done all of these, myself.  But my pet peeve involves those Freecyclers who do not posting their "TAKEN" message soon enough.

I understand that "no shows" occur and you want to have backups.  But once you get a few or several responses throughout the day you post an item, chances are at least one of those fellow Freecyclers is going to come get your stuff.  So please post a "TAKEN" message.  It benefits you and me - you don't get any more emails in your inbox and I don't pine away for something, wondering if I'm going to get it or not, and checking my email every 15 minutes to see if I got it and need to go get it now.  Because I will come get it that day.  If both the offerer and I are online at the same time, I've even picked something up in less than 30 minutes of it being posted.  But some people have to wait days or a week until the weekend or until they can borrow or rent a truck to pick something up and the offerer refuses to post a "TAKEN" message until the item is literally picked up.  That annoys me.  Lets not leave each other hanging, people!

So, I want to hear from you - do you have a Freecycle pet peeve?

Big Changes 'Round Here

Out of the 9 years since B was born, I have been a SAHM (stay at home mom) for all but 16 months.  When B was 14 months old, I went back to work.  Unfortunately, he had some health issues that forced his daycare to kick him out and his care requirements were even too much for his grandparents to deal with, so I had to quit my job and stay home with him.  It's been hard on us, having only one income.  The hubs is not like most hubs in this area.  He is not an computer geek, making 6 figures in the high tech world.  He performs necessary, but unheralded work, to keep Americans safe and bad guys at bay.  But B has gotten stronger every year and has been mostly fine since the age of 6.  Although we don't have everything we would want, we have everything we need and we are happy.  However, we would never be homeowners again if something didn't change.

So, four weeks ago, I went back to work full-time.  I had been looking for some time for something that would accommodate our circumstances.  Since we homeschool, I could not work a normal 9-5 job; no daycare was going to watch a 9 yr old during school hours.  After looking for something to fit our schedule for the 1st 9 months of 2011, I decided to sit down and pray to God for the answer we needed.  Three days later, His answer came.  A company that I had worked for before (the company where the hubs and I met) posted a position with late afternoon and evening hours.  It was something I had done before, so I applied, and got it!

What an upheaval this has been to our life!  We have been homeschooling since June 2010, so B and I have been together all day, every day.  The hubs works from 6am - 2pm so he can spend at least half of every day with us.  Since November 28th, our weekdays have been this:

4:45am - the hubs leaves for work
5:00am - I get up, shower and dress
5:30am - wake B up, he gets dressed and we both go down for breakfast and make lunches
6:15am - we leave the house and head to my parents' house, who have graciously offered to watch B for the 7 weeks I am in training (8am-5pm)
2:15pm - the hubs picks B up from my parents' house
6:20/6:30pm - I get home from work b/c traffic is unbelievable
8pm - B and the hubs go to bed.

Like I said - upheaval.  I miss all my time with my mens!  But as hard as it is for me, I can deal with it.  I have a goal; I have my eye on the prize.  The hubs and I have decided I will work towards saving for a house for the next year and a half, and we'll buy something when our lease is up in July 2013.  The hubs has been a-ma-zing, picking up all the cooking and house cleaning since I've been at work.  My parents are not only watching B for us, but are also homeschooling him!  This has turned out to be a blessing for all of us.  Ben is not missing 7 weeks of school and my parents are so happy to be involved in his schooling.  Teaching him, they've gain firsthand experience and confidence in their grandson's education.  They love the curriculum we've selected and have divided his subjects up between them according to their preferences.  My dad is a history buff, so he teaches B social studies and geography.  My mom, like me, is an English natural, in additional to being a retired x-ray technician, so she teaches B his Language Arts and Science.  B does Art at home with the hubs.

Once I'm done with training on January 13th, I'll start my regular work schedule - Sunday through Friday, 2:30pm to 11:30pm, with one, rotating weekday off.  Other than my 2 days off a week, the hubs and I will only see each other for the few minutes we exchange B in the parking garage of my work 5 days a week.  But we will muddle through.  Once again, we have a goal in mind.  B is an emotional soul (just like his mama) and we've seen the toll these changes have taken on him.  But I believe it will get better once I am on my regular work shift and it is just the hubs and I with B each day.  As wonderfully indulgent as grandparents can be, children's fundamental needs for structure, order, discipline and love can only be met by their parents.

I've truly loved these past 3 days off to just spend with B and the hubs.  I don't care if the house is a mess, whether the laundry gets done or not, or if I make a home cooked meal or we eat out.  We're together, we're laughing and loving, and that's all that matters.

My friend, The Persian Homeschooling Mom, begged of me that when I went back to work, I had to give her at least 1 blog post a week.  I'm sorry I have been so remiss in my responsibilities.  ;o)  I'll try harder to balance my family, my home, my job and my fans from now on.

I'm STILL Fuming

B and I had pizza for lunch on our afternoon out

So, there have been A LOT of changes around here and they are the reasons why I have not blogged in a while.  I apologize for that.  Hopefully as I, myself, get adjusted to the changes I will be able to work regular blogging back into my schedule.  So here's the deal - after 6 years as a SAHM (stay at home mom), I have gone back to work full-time.  It's quite an adjustment for all of us, to say the least, but I hope to post about that soon.  Right now, I want to get down what happened to us today before I forget.

I miss my B!  It's been him and me, most hours in the day, for quite some time.  And since we started homeschooling in September 2010, it's been even more together time.  I have completed 1.5 weeks of 7 weeks of training for my new job.  I am in training from 8:30am - 5pm, M-F.  Due to the location of my home and my job, I awake at 5am and return home at 6:30pm.  I wake B between 5:30-5:45am, drive to my parents' house, drop off B and go to work.  Today I needed to run some errands to get some Christmas presents and supplies to make some Christmas presents and B decided to go with me.  We were both excited to spend more time together!

We were out for 5 1/2 hours and so enjoyed our time together.  Our 1st stop was to a friend of mine who owns Macy Girl Bowtique to buy a few hair bows.  While shopping for the little girl loves of my life, B asked if he could have a bow, too.  Since the hubs and I are those kinds of parents who refuse to go along with the double standards that girls can wear and do anything they want to do but boys have to adhere to specific colors, sports and preferences that society feels is acceptable, I let him pick out a hair accessory.  It was a hair clip with a ribbon Christmas tree on it, and B put it in his hair.

One of the stops we made later was to a local Joann Fabric and Craft Store.  I was purchasing fabric to make Christmas presents for those little girl loves of my life.  When it was my turn at the fabric cutting counter, I placed my bolts on the counter and let the employee know how much I needed of each.  As I did that, B was adjusted the Christmas tree bow in his hair.  The employee assisting us watched B doing this and then turned to me, pointed at B and said, with a disdainful look on her face, "Is it a boy or a girl?"  Taken aback by her boldness and the fact that she called my child an "IT", I merely said, "He's a boy."  I have always wished I could immediately think of appropriate/snappy/witty comebacks to people who are rude or ignorant but, alas, I am so shocked by what some people have the nerve to say out loud that I am unable to respond in kind until I am no longer in their company.

The Joann's employee cut the rest of my fabric and B and I headed to another aisle to select more items on our list.  Finally, B asked me, "Why did that lady ask if I was a boy or a girl?"  And here lies the title of my blog post, b/c as I type this, I start shaking and tearing up with anger all over again.  I took a deep breath and explained to B that she asked that question b/c she is one of those ignorant people who think that boys are only allowed to wear/think/act a certain way.  Therefore she believes that a boy should not wear a Christmas tree in his hair and instead of having the balls to say to a stranger and a customer at her place of work that she disproves of a boy wearing a bow in his hair, she asked what sex he was.  I also told B that although I wanted to say something to her, there was no point in trying to get through such an ignorant and closed mind as hers so I didn't even attempt it.  I asked him if she hurt his feelings.  "No," he said, so I dropped the subject.  I did not want to make it a big deal to him.

But I really didn't dropped the subject.  I contemplated asking to speak with a manager, but decided against it.  I am a crier.  I cry when I'm happy, I cry when I'm frustrated and I cry when I'm mad.  I did not want what this employee did to be discounted b/c I was emotional while speaking with the store manager.  So, instead, I came home and emailed headquarters about the experience I had at their store.  I'll update you if I ever here back...