More than a little vindicated

Most of you know that I've had issues with my WildChild until we discovered 'The Feingold Diet' (which is NOT just for ADHD children) and the problems decreased dramatically.

We haven't been too diligent on this diet these days and the affects are obvious. Since Halloween my WildChild has received 4 demerits and what seemed to have been long gone temper tantrums have returned. Lucky me!

Finally...FINALLY...someone that most people respect has stated that there is a definite connection in some kids with food dye consumption and behavior problems.

I can't tell you how much better I feel knowing that millions of Oprah Magazine will read that there is a link and it is best to avoid.

The UK has banned some dyes; and others come with warnings on food.

I feel sooooo much better.

Silliness

I am crazy!

I am ... you are ... we are ... YEPPERS. The whole world is crazy.

UGH, unfortunately the whole world is NOT crazy.

There are some sane individuals on this planet. I don't particularly like the sane people. I think they disturb the fabric of the universe by sending us partially insane individuals off kilter; they make us question our insanity; they treat us like we are irresponsible or silly or just plain stupid.

What is that all about? Hmmm?

Aren't seriously insane people happier? Don't they stress less, live longer? Don't they get to play games and finger paint and create all day versus of us mildly insane people that sit in a cubical 8-10 hours a day WISHING and WANTING to finger paint and create and play all day?

I think the seriously insane did it right and we are the ones that are holding onto a bit of sanity that we have left and it's because of them. YEP. The sane ones, they judge us ... they insist that we hold on to the itty bit of sanity we have left.

I hate [expletives] hate sane people ...especially the ones without a sense of humor ... damn.

Can we send all of the sane people, especially the ones without a sense of humor to another planet ... let them live out there in space for awhile. I'm sure at the beginning they would love to have a community full of all sane people; all functional and responsible.

After a year or two or three the lack of oxygen will affect their brains, possibly make them certifiably insane and us mildly insane folks will RULE THE UNIVERSE.

I guarantee the mildly insane will not choose to sit in cubicles all day.

Mildly insane people UNITE!

Hmmm?

Is it a plan?





I couldn't decide which one to post ... different versions of insanity; both so lovely.

This post was inspired by this song. The song spontaneously popped into my brain today. That is my story and I'm sticking to it, unless you torture me and then I may tell ya just about anything.

Something new ... or borrowed but not blue

It is said that a blogger must decide it's niche and stick to it to ensure loyal readers.

I say FIE!

Well, I say that primarily because I think I lost most of my loyal readers a long time ago when I stopped blogging for several months.

So I am announcing a bit of a switcheroo on the blogging niche for me.

I am and will forever me a MOMMY BLOGGER. I do love writing about my darling girlys, but ShowStopper hasn't been much of a pleaser these days (very mouthy and full of preteen angst) and the WildChild hasn't been much of a wild child (radically changing her diet mellowed her out nicely). I think it means I need to give them new nicknames...but that is indeed for another post.

This particular post is about ME! Yep, ME! Exciting and Energetic ME!

HA!

Well, lets just say that soon I will be both.

I am changing my diet. I am going RAW! I will be eating mostly uncooked foods (there are rules that apply here but we will get into all of it soon enough) in the hopes to improve my overall health, skin and weight maintenance (oh, and the most unsung benefit of them all ... looking YOUNGER!!!!!)

Can you believe I will accomplish all of those things simply by NOT cooking the food I eat? This doesn't mean I'll be eating raw eggs and raw meat ... no this means I'll be eating mostly fruits, vegetables and nuts in a variety of ways.

I will blog about my journey and provide you with information about why and how and where ... and about my successes and my failures ... things that I am learning or unlearning about nutrition. I hope this will be fun for you. I'll still write about other things too, but already I have learned so much that I feel I need to share these wonderful helpful amazing concepts and ideas with you. While I was writing this post I was snacking on some raw pumpkin seeds and it's as good as a place as any to talk about the benefits of raw foods; so here are some fun facts about raw pumpkin seeds (aka pepitas).


Raw Pumpkin Seeds are a protein rich snack that can be enjoyed all year long.
This wonderful source of nutrients and is naturally rich in essential fatty acids and contains many other nutrients such as magnesium, iron, phosphorus, copper, potassium, niacin, folic acid, zinc, B vitamins, vitamin A, vitamin E, riboflavin, thymine protein, and fiber.

They also contain pantothenic acid, unsaturated oils and antioxidants.

More on the Nutrition of Pumpkin & its Seeds



Here is a recipe, probably not a beginners one but darn it I had to have this one, looks so YUM!

When I Was Their Age

When I was 8 and 9 and 10 I remember sitting on the floor of my grandmothers house and flipping through the pages of the Sears Toy Catalog with tiney bits of drool dripping off of my chin.

My sister is 4 years youngers than me and we would flip through each page with greedy anticipation of Santa bringing us our hearts desire which would have been THE ENTIRE SEARS TOY CATALOG except for the stinking, icky, cucky boys toys. We eagerly flipped through that section quickly.

That catalog provided hours, no days, no weeks of entertainment for my sister and I. We imagined owning the Barbie Dreamhouse, Barbie Airplane, Barbie Convertibles and whatever else Mattel had for Barbies ... not to mention the dolls themselves. Oh and I loved Crissy dolls. Do you remember Crissy?

How about the Tiffany Taylor Doll? That one I had to look up ... I knew it was Taylor but couldn't remember the Tiffany part so I imagine she was a casual fancy. Crissy was never casual. EVER. It was the red hair. That red hair and stunning disco attire that kept me loving her for years and years. I bought a couple of Crissy dolls on eBay for my girls. They love her too. She is still their favorites even thou I have purchased many other updated dolls. They love their Crissy doll most of all.

Funny, huh?

I've digressed because now I have to tell you that my girls are not much interested in toys. How does this happen? They honestly do not want much in the way of toys. My girlys are 7 & 8 and they do not want toys. It is amazing to me.

The other day we got the Justice catalog in the mail and my girls spent hundreds and thousands of dollars on clothes and bags and shoes ... BLAH!

Yesterday someone dropped off an Avon catalog. My girl sat on the couch for hours circling and marking each page with hopeful anticipation that Santa would deliver her hearts desire ... everything from the A-V-O-N catalog.

AVON?

A V O N?

Really? I don't get it?

I just don't get it.

Does Santa have a Avon representative?

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Finally, I Have Something to Say...

I feel almost like a stranger here.

Yes, this is my blog. I created it. I put my thoughts, dreams, nightmares ... yep, I put it all here in black and white for all of you (all 10 or so that you are) to read but yet I feel strange about this.

So much has happened but I guess not enough or not exciting enough to drudge through it all for you.

I have changed and I'm not exactly sure how or why or when or what happened but I am different somehow and I am getting used to my new skin. I shed the old and still trying to feel comfortable in the new. It takes time.

I don't think many of you would even recognize the change but something happened during and after the Disney vacation. Something happened after my laptop crashed and I lost hundreds maybe thousands of pictures. Something happened when my babies started school and are now involved with Flag Football, Bible Quizing and playing the drums.

I think I grew up. (OH THE SHAME OF IT ALL.)

They are no longer babies and I am no longer treating them like babies. A mommy has to grow up too. It is a very tramatic thing to have to do, and I didn't like it much.

The loss of some of my photographs is killer. It is painful! Each night I spend several hours trying to recover what I know is lost. I may be able to send the drive out, spend a grand or more and have most if not all of my photos returned to me but at this point spending a grand on that is NOT financially possible.

So I suffer with the loss. Maybe it is worth a grand for me to NOT suffer.

I think the suffering actually made me ill. I seriously believe it.

So, onward and upwards.

I bought myself a terabyte of network storage. Uploaded my music and pictures to it ... the ones I have managed to salvage and I am healing slowly.

I still have to find a backup solution for the stuff I have been able to save.

How are all of you saving your digital photos? Do you burn DVD's and put them in the fire-safe? Do you save someplace online? I need advise folks so I'm asking the best of the best ... the mommies that would hate to be in my shoes lately.

If you haven't thought of a backup strategy - BE WARNED! DO IT NOW!

It's good to be back.

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Nitey-nite and Kisses

Mr.T reads to the girls most every night.

It is his job.

It is his thing.

Sometimes I try to take away reading time as a punishment when they act up before bedtime but Mr.T insists that this is a part of their development - they both know how to read and they enjoy reading ...

It's more than that to him.

It's his time; his girly time ... when he has them all to himself; when he has their full attention.

After story time, that always seems to last too long...I arrive on the scene to tuck them in and kiss their lovely heads.

My WildChild (who is not so wild lately) has requested that I sing her a song nearly every night. This is after story time, after the lights are out, after both girlys are snuggled into their beds (they sleep in the same room in bunk beds).

I do not have a large selection of lullabies and I believe I mentioned this before (so excuse me if I am repeating myself).

I sing Silent Night, Close to You (Carpenters), You Are My Sunshine and sometimes Evergreen (Barbara Streisand).

I'm thinking about adding Hoobastank's "The Reason" to my repertoire.

I'm printing the lyrics and I will sing it to her tonight, to see if she wants me to sing it again to her.

She asked me to record my songs for her; so she will have them forever.

My voice is awful. I'm out of tune; and my pitch is awful ... my voice cracks ... but she enjoys my singing for some ungodly reason.

After I am done singing to my WildChild, I stand up and pet the ShowStoppers head, kiss her and tell her that she too is my Sunshine and I love her tons. She smiles and pets my face and kisses me goodnight. The ShowStopper never asks me to sing to her but I know that she listens. I know that she aches for it too but never asks me to sing her a song. Tonight I shall sing to each one of my girlys, individually.


The lyrics to "The Reason"

I'm not a perfect person
There's many things I wish I didn't do
But I continue learning
I never meant to do those things to you
And so I have to say before I go
That I just want you to know

I've found out a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
and the reason is you

I'm sorry that I hurt you
It's something I must live with everyday
And all the pain I put you through
I wish that I could take it all away
And be the one who catches all your tears
Thats why i need you to hear

I've found out a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
and the reason is You

I'm not a perfect person
I never meant to do those things to you
And so I have to say before I go
That I just want you to know

I've found out a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
and the reason is you

The adjectives are coming, I already have a few right off the top of my head:

Stubborn
Headstrong
Determined
Flirtatious
Friendly
Ambitious

Yes ... I am still here

I am a ghost of a blogger these days. I am unable to form full sentences, I can only string together pieces of sentences; ideas ... images.

No real thinking going on here. My mind is in summer mode.

So last night I took the puppy dog for a long walk in the rain.

We've been going on some long walks lately. Trying to get to 5 miles. I'm close very close. 5 miles 2ce a day will be difficult, more likely on weekends, for now.

Last night I could have done 5, but settled on 4 because of the rain. By the time I arrived home after 4 miles in the rain I was pretty much a drown rat. I kid you not.

While I walked, I thought ...

The brain was thinking of snippets of things ... of course. No real thoughts. Only whispers of thought. Images. Lots of images. Wonderful, scary, exciting images.

It occurred to me, during my walk that women are the true thinkers of the species ... but we surround our thoughts with images and flowery language, in an attempt to have our thoughts more lovely and wonderful.

Then I thought about how women have a much greater handle on the English language. A woman could use at least 20 adjectives, pick them right off the top of her head to describe walking in the rain

...walking in the summer rain
...walking the husky dog on a rainy summer evening

cold
cool
refreshing
annoying
cleanly
makes everything sparkle
little droplets
trickling
clammy
dank
soaking
sodden
soggy
swishy
watery
wet
liberating

...and if I were an itty bitty shrunken person, I would be able to walk from here to there without a single droplet falling upon my head...but ohhhhh, if a single droplet should land on one so small, that would be the end of poor little me.

Then I thought about the audiobook I picked up from the library....

a book about seduction ... yeah, should be interesting, huh? HA! It just may be interesting if it were not so horribly written. grrrrr. Awful books piss me off.

Stupid women authors. We are the superior species, but damn it, some of us just should NOT write. I can't read most women authors ... they say things like ... "The adults were chagrin that she was far more adept at play..." and "They bantered jovially as they strove the sidewalk" BANTERED JOVIALLY? Who speaks like that ... damn that is awful stuff.

I just hope I'm not one of those type of women writers. ... but I'm not a writer so I guess I am safe.

Thought about my girl. My little one ... so sweet this week, so very well behaved

The oldest ... driving me insane with her smart mouth. Grrrrrrrrrrr.

A car drove by me and pulled over suddenly and 3 young men got out of the car. I could smell them from across the street. They smelled very young with entirely too much cologne. They were very young and hardly concerned about the husky girl and a drown rat ... but I imagined going over there and talking to them. What would I say? What would they say ... something about "git outta my way you drown rat"... I laughed when I thought of this but by now the boys were nearing their destination and as my mind wandered onto other things I heard some young girls screaming at their new guests. I assume it was a young persons party. Parents away on vacation, hmmmm? The screaming was the excited silly girl scream. My teeth rattled inside of my head. Oh, you silly young girls. Please do not scream like that - young men seriously do not appreciate such things. I wonder if I ever screamed like that?

Ewwww, disgusting thought. I do not believe my voice has ever been able to reach the pitch of those girls. Seriously, even now thinking about it rattles my brain. [shivers] Like nails scraping a blackboard. [shivers more].

I don't believe they still have blackboard in classrooms these days. I used to hate using chalk. I still can't pick up the stuff, makes me shiver. Yuck!



Can you write 20, 30, 50 adjectives to describe yourself. Would others agree with your choices?

Hmmmmmmm, next post (maybe).

A Forth of July Wedding

Mr.T's brother just got married.

Mr. T and the lucky groom.


A very happy man.


A lovely flower girl that LOVED to pose for the camera.


Mr.T's sister.


Mr.T's sister again.


The lovely bride and her prideful father.


A lovely and very happy bride.

Silence

I've been silent for too long.

I know this.

When one is silent, what is really going on?

I assure you I haven't forgotten.

I assure you I think about you often.

I've quit other things so I believe I'm can fit this in again.

I do miss all of you.

Especially reading about your misadventures in this glorious life.

Have a wonderful 4th all.

Grrrrrrrrrrrr, I have a wedding to go to tonight but I would rather go to the family party that will happen without me.