Thirteen

Thirteen years ago today, I gave birth to the sweetest little guy ever. 8lb, 4oz of fat chubby baby boy. He was the cutest baby. I mean, I know every mom says that, but people literally stopped me on the street to tell me how adorable he was. He was friendly, flirted with every girl, waved bye-bye to everyone, and slept like a champ. I used to call him the Olympic Sleeper because he slept 8 hours from the very beginning, took naps on schedule, and breastfed like he was trying to teach a class on it. Honestly, he was the perfect baby. I love all of my kids, don't get me wrong, but Tiger rarely cried, slept great, ate fine, was happy with everyone and just loved life.
He's still an awesome kids. Just taller, hairier than I could have imagine, and wears a size 13 shoe. Now, people don't stop to tell me how cute he is. Now they tell me he needs a haircut, lol.
He loves music, fishing, eating, and sleeping. I love him to pieces. Happy 13th, Tiger. It's been a blast being your mama.

Blog Awards

I received my first blog award EVER, from Jennifer . Wow, thank you sooooo much! I be all honored and stuff. ;0 So here are the rules.

Official Award Rules:

1. Post the award on your blog. (See above.)
2. Give a thank you shout out to the lovely person who bestowed the Major Award upon you. (See even further above.)

3. Pass the award on to seven people who you think deserve the title of Kreativ Blogger. (See below.)
4. Name seven things about yourself that others don’t know. (See even further below).
5. Don’t forget to notify your seven bloggers about their award and post a link to their blog.

Ok, the five bloggers I chose are:

Miriam at Blue House Red Dog.
Lilli at Frocks & Frou Frou.
Kelly at Love Lasts a Lifetime
Jenni at Mom to Three Boys
Terry at Breathing Grace

Sorry, I could really only think of five. I don't know anyone else that well to nominate.

Seven Things About Me That You Don't Know:

1) I have three children, but I've been pregnant six times. Three losses. :(
2) I used to want to be a nurse. But the two times I applied for nursing school, I ended up pregnant. I got a bit freaked out about that.
3) I'm fascinated with the old Strawberry Shortcake dolls. I want to start collecting them. My sister and I used to play with them all the time, and it really brings me back.
4) Speaking of my sister, we grew up without cable. So we used to play records and create dance routines with roller skates and batons. At the same time!
5) I don't consider myself "uppity crusty", but I would love to own a Mercedes someday. I think they're styley!
6) I can't fall asleep with the TV on. I listen to the dialogue and have to pay attention to it.
7) I taught myself to drive a stick shift when I was 21 years old, with a sleeping Missy in the back of the car. Mr. R bought me a car with a stick, all we could afford. He said he didn't want to teach me to drive, so I taught myself. And then scared the heck out of him later in the week when I peeled out of the driveway!

Please

I have never, not ever, come on my blog to ask for money.
That changes today. And it's not for me.

A young lady at my church, Kasey Veach, suffered a clot in her brain four days after the birth of her third child. She is trying to raise money to go to Mexico for an umbilical cord blood transfusion. This is just so she can hold her babies. I already donated, and plan to donate more when I get paid. But please, if any of you can even throw a dollar in the pot so Kasey can have her procedure, I would be eternally grateful.

Here is her website: http://www.curekasey.org/

Thank you. SO MUCH.

No Church Today

I had every intention of going to church this morning. We attend Deltona Lakes Baptist.
I love this church. I actually don't consider myself a Baptist, but I love the pastors, and the church family I've created. I will call a church member if I need help, generally before I call a family member. That's what church families are for, in my opinion. Anyway, we have had some major drama since Friday. Bucket is suspended from school on Monday, supposedly for making extremely profane remarks towards two girls. I won't go into details about the remarks except that they involve rape and murder. And as much as I know Bucket has issues, I really can't fathom my 11 yr old son saying stuff like that. He can be rude, and tactless, and annoying, but he is still at the age where he thinks girls are kind of icky and he avoids them. So sexual comments, to me anyway, seem unlikely. Anyway, since he is suspended on Monday, I made an emergency appointment with his psych doctor. She was nice enough to fit him in on Monday morning. Bucket is definitely having major sleep issues. He only sleeps every other day right now. He has been on regular OTC sleeping pills, and he has grown immune to them. Melatonin did nothing for him.
Anyway, with him not sleeping on Friday night, he finally fell asleep on Saturday night at 11pm in the recliner. He is just now, at 10am, waking up. He is cranky and argumentative and really, really hungry. His Sunday school class starts in 5 minutes, and I don't think he can pull himself together in that amount of time. I'm going to let him stay home, watch cartoons, eat cereal, and be a regular little boy. Tomorrow will be a day that is hard on him, because he hates going to the doctor and not being in school.


This is Bucket with our extremely old cat, O'Malley. O'Malley likes to sleep on the towels in my closet.

Meal Plan

Do any of you peeps out there plan meals?

I know Terry has in the past, and I know Renee does on a regular basis. But what about you? What about ME? Will meal planning help me? What is meal planning? Basically, it is deciding what you're going to eat every night of the week. My buddy Renee even meal plans her breakfasts, lunches and snacks! (She has five kids and homeschools...an awesome godly woman!) You can plan an eat out night, or a breakfast night, or a soup night. Whatever floats your boat. It helps to control grocery spending, and coupon use, and really helps the budget.

Well, let me just say that as I'm getting older, I'm not turning into a foodie. But I am SICK of eating the same food over and over. And when one of your kids has autism, you tend to fall into food patterns. Bucket eats chicken, chicken, chicken, pasta, parmesan cheese, cereal, garlic bread, chicken, pasta, and Pepsi. No ice. The rest of us are sick of chicken, pasta and most variations of such. Yet, due to his situation, I am resistant to change. He's eating. Not what I'd want to eat, but it is food.

Mr. R and I decided to buy boxes of pasta, and separate the boxes into 2 oz. portions in plastic baggies. That is one serving. The rest of us are going to eat regular meals, and if he chooses not to eat, he can make his own pasta. That might seem mean, but it actually has three consequences. One, is that Bucket will be able to see and smell other foods. Two, is that the rest of us will finally eat something different. And three, if Bucket is not willing to try the new food, he can make his own. I'm not making it for him. This will teach him independence.

So here is my menu for the rest of this week:

Sunday: chicken (sigh) and macaroni and cheese (sigh) with broccoli. It's a Bucket meal, except for the veggie.

Monday: Mexican Monday! We have Mexican food every Monday. We will have ground beef tacos, with cheese, salsa, tomatoes, sour cream, lettuce, and black beans. YUMMMM!

Tuesday: French onion soup (my speciality!) and grilled panini sandwiches.

Wednesday: lasagna with salad and garlic bread. (I've never made lasagna before. Pray for me!)

Thursday: burgers and hot dogs with fresh corn on the grill.

Friday: we eat out every Friday.

Saturday: whatever leftovers you can scrounge, baby!

I'm even thinking about making some dessert this week. Mr. R is a lemon lover. I was thinking about making some lemon cookies.

What are you having for dinner this upcoming week?

Mama's Kitchen

I decided to steal a meme from another blog that I read. I hope she doesn't mind, but I'm running out of stuff to blog about. Work is boring, the kids are well behaved, and Mr. R is in North Carolina. Plus I've got a week off school so I don't need to study. What is a girl to do?

1. Do you have magnets on your fridge? Yes, and they're holding up permission slips, recipes, and I also have a cheat sheet of measurements taped to the fridge. I can never remember how many cups are in a gallon, and so forth.

2. Do you have a calendar in your kitchen, if so, what’s the theme of it? It's a Psalms calendar.

3. What is your favorite kitchen gadget? Foreman grill! I love toasted sandwiches and I'm even going to attempt fruit crepes on it here real soon.

4. Are you lucky enough to have a pantry of some kind? Yes, but it is really tiny and not well laid out.

5.What is your favorite appliance? Coffeepot. Please.

6. Do you have an eat in kitchen (table in it)? No.

7. Do you have a bread box? No.

8. Do you have a picture of your kids on the fridge? Shockingly, no.

9. Do you ever cook breakfast in your PJs? That's pretty much the standard around here.

10. Do you have a favorite cookbook that you use? I love my Ina Garten/Barefoot Contessa cookbooks, plus an old Betty Crocker from 1973 that my mother received as a gift during her failed marriage to my sperm donor.

11. Are you lucky enough to have recipes that were passed down from your mom or grandma? My grandma was not much of a cook. I have a few from my mom though.

12. What’s your favorite food? I love potatoes. Anything with steak or seafood. Onions. Soup.

13. What’s your favorite thing to cook? I really enjoy making soup because it's hard to mess up. My favorite is French onion soup. It is so fast and tastes amazing. Plus I like dipping sandwiches in the broth.

14. Is your coffee pot electric or stove top? Electric programmable coffeemaker.

15. Do you ever make your own bread? I've only done it once, but it came out great.

16. Name one thing that you have hanging on your wall in your kitchen: A small plaque that says "I love my kitchen."

17. Is there a clock in your kitchen? The one on the range.

18. Do you have a bowl of fruit sitting on your table or counter? Well, I have a bowl, but it's empty right now.

19. What type of canisters do you have? I try to use the glass ones because Mr. R doesn't like plastic stuff.

20. Does your kitchen have a theme? It does, but we're about to change it. My kitchen is bright red with pink cabinets (I wish I was kidding about the cabinets, I hate them!) and I have apple and coffee themed stuff everywhere.

21. What’s for supper tonight? Was supposed to be spaghetti, but Tiger set a pan on fire so we went out.

22. Do you have enough cabinet space? Not even close. I even have a bookshelf in my kitchen area just to hold more pans and stuff. My kitchen was not designed for actual cooking. It is more a heat and go type kitchen.

23. Does your family use paper plates? We used to use them a lot, but I was sicking of finding the plates all over the house. I bought a set of 12 cheap plastic plates and the kids have to use those. If they're dirty, they can wash one.

24. Do you have a good set of china? I wouldn't call it good china. It's white stoneware that I bought at Goodwill for $30. It's between 9 and 11 place settings, so not really great, but better than my paper plates.

25. Do you wear an apron to work in your kitchen? No, but I should.

26. Name one thing, if anything, that you would like to change about your kitchen. I drew out an entire plan for the new kitchen I intend to have in the next few years. Unfortunately, it is going to cost a lot of money. I intend to rip out all the cabinets, put in new ones, a new recycled glass countertop, a new microwave, new tile floors, and to double the size of my kitchen, I need to move my bedroom door, plus put in a wall of pantry shelving. I am thinking it's going to cost at least $10,000, which is cheap for a kitchen, but still a lot of money. Little by little, I hope we can do it. I don't want to go into debt.

Twenty Years

Twenty years ago today, I was a 14 year old freshman at Edgewater High School in Orlando. I had recently broken up with a boy named Justin and wasn't terribly upset about it. I had a friend who had a very hot older brother, but I figured he would never notice me. I was 14, he was 17, and all the girls were crazy about him.

I was surprised when I saw him waiting at my school bus. The first words he ever said to me were, "You finally look decent today." What a line, right? In 9th grade, I had a bad black tee shirt habit, and this particular day, I happened to be wearing green. I still love wearing black, but it's not my best color. Anyway, after flubbing his line, he said, "I heard you broke up with Justin?" I nodded. He said, "Wanna go out?" and I think I nodded again. He nodded and walked away. No hug, no attempted kiss. I got on the bus and my friend said, "Did he just ask you out!" I of course squealed and said, "YESSSSSSSS!" For the remainder of the school year, we were inseparable.

Most high school relationships last a month or so. I'm proud (and sort of shocked) to report that this hot guy is none other than Mr. R, and it is the twentieth anniversary of him insulting me and asking me out all in front of the cheesewagon.

• I never imagined that we'd marry a year after I graduated high school.
  
• That we'd have three babies that fast.
  
• That he'd end up as a truck driver.
  
• That we would nearly split up in 2000 but manage to get back together.
• That we would both become saved Christians.
  
• That autism would become a big part of our lives.
• That I'd have a drum kit in my dining room.
  
• That he would cry when our kids were born, that he'd be the most amazing father.
  
• That he would do silly things like give them horsey rides when he was so tired from work, and teach them how to fish, and ride bicycles, and watch "Sweepin Booty" (that's Sleeping Beauty to the layfolk) with them and hold them tight when Malifecent would get scary at the end.
  
• That he would get rid of his waterbed for me when I was pregnant with Missy, and buy a normal bed, because my back hurt so bad.
  
• That he shaved my legs for me when I couldn't see them anymore when I pregnant, and tie my shoes for me, and even learned how to put my bras on when I was in a car accident and couldn't move my left arm for a few months.
  
• That he learned how to make the best cup of coffee ever just to make me happy, and knows not to put mayo on my sandwiches, and grills my steak to a perfect medium rare just for me.
  
• That he can just look at me, and know if I'm sad, or ticked off, or just deep in thought.
• That he can look at me when I'm wearing sweats, slippers, a tank top, my hair in a bun and my glasses on, and still think I'm cute.
• That he can look at my purple stretch marks, and instead of being disgusted, be reminded of the life that grew underneat that destroyed my skin, but created our family.
  

Yeah, I love him like that. Here's to 20 more years, babe. At least.

Just a Lot on My Mind

I've been thinking a lot about my upcoming empty nest lately.

Missy is about to turn fifteen. My handsome oldest son Tiger will be thirteen at the end of this month. Trailing closely behind him is my Bucket, nearly twelve.

My days of close-at-hand parenting are coming to an end. I see it already. The kids making decisions about their future. Talking about "someday when I have my own house." My youngest sons bold exclamation that his kids will never, ever have to eat a vegetable, as he won't allow them in his house. They're growing up SO QUICKLY and it just takes my breath away. We're getting mailings from the local college, and their backpacks weigh more than most toddlers. How did this happen? Where did my babies go? I can't fit all three of them in the bathroom anymore, never mind the bathtub! Speaking of the bathroom, one bottle of shampoo doesn't cut it anymore. They all need different bottles, and they're all expensive. No more fishy-shaped bottles of coconut shampoo that cost a buck.

I know this is supposed to happen, but it makes me sad and proud at the same time. Proud that I've raised three great kids to nearly adulthood. Sad because the purpose of my life for the past fifteen years seems to be fading away. Wondering, what happens next? Do I become a career woman and throw myself into work friendships and conferences with bad coffee? Do I finally insist on the reversal and have more babies? Do I adopt or foster? Or do I become a professional student, or maybe a constant volunteer? Because, honestly, I cannot imagine being in this house all the time with no children in it. I love my home, but I love it because my kids are in it. And for it to be empty...I don't know if I can bear it.

In about six years, all of my children will be adults. And if Missy follows my footsteps, I will be a grandmother in five years. That just blows my mind. I was a mama at age 20. Will she do the same? Will Bucket be able to live on his own, or will he stay with us? Will Tiger get that music scholarship to UF that he wants so badly?

I sure wish the Lord would give me insight on how this all plays out, but I guess He is being silent for me to learn a lesson in patience.

Mad at My Own Stupid Self

I fell for it. Again!

Let me explain. My sister told me about this diet that she and everyone at her job is trying. It's called the Alternate Day Diet. Basically, you eat normally (which is what got me like this in the first place) on one day. Then the next day, you eat 500 calories. That's it. Then the next day, back to normal.

She has lost weight doing this. I cannot even get through a single 500 calorie day. I made it all the way to 7pm today and then I finally lost it and made a chicken breast, onion and provolone grilled potato bread sandwich. And then I decided, aw screw it, I already messed up. Got some cheezits. And a glass of raspberry tea. And you know what?

IT WAS DELICIOUS!!!

I couldn't deal with the pounding headache. Or the raw feeling of heartburn in my chest. I couldn't even drink a few sips of milk to ease the heartburn without going over the 500 limit.

Please remind me, the next time I decide that I'm fat, to stop these stupid fad diets and just keep it under 1800 calories a day and ride my bike. Sheesh.

It's That Time of Year

For strawberries in Central Florida! Aren't they gorgeous? I used to not like strawberries very much. When I was a little girl, my uncle Keith told me that strawberries were cut up tongues. (If you slice them lengthwise in half, they really do look like it!) It was not until many, many years that I even began attempting to cook with them. I like strawberry sauce on my ice cream, which is what I'm making here.


Powdered sugar on top.




Some good ol orange juice!


And here I am with the finished product. And um, I'm sorry about this shot. Now you can understand my previous rant about tops that are either too high cut or too low cut. I had a sunburn, so low cut it was this day.



And this is what is left, so I decided to freeze them with some sugar. And after all that, this is sort of who I feel like:

I Am No Musician...

So Mr. R decided it was high time I learned how to play a bass. Except...he can't read music. And I have no actual interest in learning. But, when he decided something must be done, then done it will be! And then we decided to take pictures because there are NO pictures of me recently. And yet these are the ones I choose to share? Oh well. Just be glad they're not swimsuit pictures, ok?


Me: "Can you see my gut?"
Him: "Not really, but isn't that way you wear black anyway?"
Me: "Well....yes!"

Pink flip flops! Rawrrrr!
Are those underwear under my table? I think it's a towel. Hey, I'm keeping it real here.