I NEVER thought I would say to my kid…

Posted on February 12, 2009

“Honey, you can’t have a donut until you finish your brownie.”

And yes, I did say this, in a room full of mothers.  As soon as I said it, I started laughing, and one of the mom’s said, “Wait, where is the camera, this is your Mother of The Year moment!”  And, as a true blogger, I responded: “I am soooo blogging this!”

Sunbeam, bouncing, and a snazzy new hair-do.

Posted on February 11, 2009

Failing

Posted on February 11, 2009

As many of you know, I committed myself to Shelfari’s 50 Book Challenge. I did this, with the idea that it wouldn’t be that hard for me to finish a book a week.  I mean, I don’t mean to brag, but I am a REALLY FAST reader.  In college, I was a literature major, and was expected to finish 4-5 books a week.  And, I was one of those students who actually READ everything that was assigned.

I, of course, didn’t’ take into account all the life that would be getting in the way of my book a week goal.  I also didn’t take into consideration that I wasn’t going to really like some of the books I have tried to read.  However, I have still been reading, and have read 16 (and a half, still trying to finish “The Duchess”) books.  We are on week 35.  Sigh.

The last two are:

The Girls that Went Away by Ann Fessler.

This book was written by a woman who had been adopted in the 50′s.  She always wondered why her biological mother gave her away, so she did several studies and discovered some truly horrific things.  Her book focuses on the women of the 50′s, 60′s, and early 70′s (before Roe vs Wade) who gave children up for adoption.  What she discovered was a subculture of sexual promiscuity, social expectations, and double standards where these women had little to no choice when it came to keeping their babies.  Her book covers all aspects of unplanned pregnancies, and she allows woman who gave their children up a chance to share their story.  In addition, she weaves in startling facts and statistics based on what was going on in our country during this time period.

I really enjoyed this book.  I wasn’t sure if I would, considering I have never had an unplanned pregnancy and I am not adopted.  It was still fascinating.  I think this is an important book for woman to read.  It gives an excellent pictures of what these poor women went through and why.

Firefly Lane by Kirstin Hannah

Bring kleenex.  I CRIED, literally tears streaming down my face uncontrollably, for the last 200 pages of this book.  It also scared the crap out of me, on many many levels.  But, given all that, I really enjoyed it.  Sometimes the books that make the biggest impression are those you have a visceral reaction to.  I loved and hated the characters; their actions made me happy, sad, and angry.

The story is based on the lifelong friendship of two very different woman, and how their friendship influenced every major decision they made.  And yet, I bonded most with the relationship of mothers and daughters.  One woman has a terrible mother who pops in and out of her life, leaving a lasting scar each time.  The other woman has a loving, caring mother who tries to help both girls become women she can respect.  (I know this is vague, but I don’t want to say too much in case you want to read the book.)  Then, top it all off with one of them has a daughter herself.

I don’t think I am alone when I say, this book made me want to call up my Mommy and apologize for how horrible I treated her in middle school and high school.  I also wanted to hug my little girl, give her a thousand kisses, and then put her in a time machine so we could skip right over her teen years.

In any account, it was an excellent book.  I hope I am not saying too much when I say a lot of the parts that weren’t about Mothers and daughters reminded me of Beaches, which is of course one of my favorite movies.  I also have the movie that will surely be made from this novel, cast in my head.

Back update.

Posted on February 5, 2009

I went to a specialist today for my back and received the following explanation:

If you look at the above xray, you can see that the rods in my back don’t come down to the last two vertebrae. They did this because I was twelve when I had the surgery and they wanted to make sure I still had some flexibility and some room to grow (although, they were pretty sure I wasn’t going to grow much more, they didn’t want to take any chances.) As you can see from the xray, I still have a curvature which wasn’t corrected by the rods because of this decision.
Well, those two vertebrae have been acting as a fulcrum for the rest of my back, which is putting undue stress on them, and the discs in between these two vertebrae are breaking down. This is causing premature arthritis in that area of my back. (The doc says, “Everybody gets it, sooner or later.”) For me, its sooner. The last two vertebrae are, on occasion, “separating” which is what is causing the sharp pain I am feeling in my hip.
Sooooo….my options at this point are:

1. To do nothing, deal with the pain, and try to strengthen my core muscles (means working out, probably joining a gym.)
2. Get an injection into the area that is causing me pain, which will help numb that area for a limited amount of time. And during that time, hit the gym and strengthen my muscles, and hopefully hold off #3 for awhile longer.
3. Surgery. They will put two pins on either side of the vertebrae essentially “fusing” them together which will stop them from sliding and hopefully put an end to the pain. Now, I will have to do this eventually. But, the doc feels that since my pain isn’t debilitating that this would be premature. But, he did caution me that I will have to have it done eventually.

And, that’s where we’re at.
I will make a call to another doctor to get the injection, then start hitting the gym and try to stregthen everything up. And then its just a waiting game.

I made this, and it actually tasted good! (Veggie Marsala)

Posted on February 5, 2009

Prep Time: 10 Minutes
Cook Time: 20 Minutes
Ready in: 30 Minutes

Ingredients

“I wuv the snow!”

Posted on February 4, 2009

Before she would go inside, I had to sing “Frosty the snowman,” and then convince her that we couldn’t bring the snowman head “with us.”  I finally had to remind her what happened to Frosty in the movie.