About Me

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I'm a 50 something daughter, sister, wife, aunt, mother and friend. I have a husband and a son with my parents living in my basement. Keeping it together through menopause, the teenage years and the golden years. I hope you visit often.

Monday, November 29, 2010

What's for dinner?

That is a question I have heard, and probably said, a million times. When you think about it, it's a great question. We need food, we like food and usually, food is readily available. Being in charge of dinner is a hefty responsibility. You control the dietary health of your loved ones. There are news reports, TV shows, and marketing hitting us from all sides that tell those of us responsible for dinner that we are in control of our families health! What we cook equates to how much we love them. Everything needs to be taken into account when planning out the meal. If my Mom eats to much salt, her blood pressure goes up, my husbands cholesterol is so high a french fry could kill him, Dad shouldn't eat nuts because of his colon, Jake is just plain picky and I get indigestion just thinking about food. Once all that is taken into account, you have to add taste too. Now, add that into what time we should eat. Experts say that you should finish eating 3 hours before going to bed. Hmmmm, that would mean that everyone would need to be home, at the table with food cooked by 7:00pm.  Not possible. It is for Mom and Dad, who are ready to eat while watching Oprah at 4:30. Which is why they have their own kitchen, but the rest of the family, not so much. There is all those practices after school and some people actually work until 6:00. Not to mention those stories that tell us families that eat dinner together are smarter, healthier, and happier. The rest of us are raising the next axe murderer. What to do? If I go through the drive through I make my kid happy and fat, but kill off the husband. Eat in, eat out, take out and eat in, it's crazy! My suggestion is this. If the pizza place recognizes your phone number and knows your order by heart, change pizza places. Same with the nice drive through person you are on a first name basis with. Get take out, bring it home and put it on your dishes. This "looks" like a home cooked meal and should count for something. If you do manage to eat something home cooked, and yes hot dogs do count, a few times a week you're doing great. Now, I have to go figure out what's for dinner. Did I mention that we are supposed to be exercising every day? Take care!

Friday, November 26, 2010

Black Friday

I'm posting late today because I slept in, watched movies, worked on some holiday cards and did a bit of cyber shopping. Now, according to facebook, many of my friends and family were up by 2:00AM or didn't even bother to go to bed, so they could take advantage of BLACK FRIDAY SALES. I have never liked shopping the day after Thanksgiving. Mainly because I am so tired from the day before that I sleep late, then lay around the house thinking about taking a walk. I do manage to walk back and forth from the couch to the fridge, but I don't think that counts. Apparently I'm really missing out. Yesterday on the news they interviewed people who were camping out in tents. Now I have tent camped before, but I can't think of anything at any price that would make me put up a tent on concrete and camp out on Thanksgiving. The weather here in Cincinnati over the past 24 hours went from 60*, record rain, sleet, light snow 26* and sunny.  I must admit they did look like they were having fun. They were cheering and talking about how much fun they were having, making new friends, enjoying each others company.  This made me look at the ads just to see what I was missing. There were some great deals, with fine print. The fine print said there would be a minimum of 5, no rain checks and the store opens at 2:00AM for your convenience.  That means there will definitely be 5, but no guarantee there will be 6. I can imagine that fellow campers have been talking about all those great buys to be had. After all, that is what compelled you to spend three days in a tent, on a concrete sidewalk with no amenities, in the cold on a holiday. That alone would make me cranky. Imagine if you were number 6 in line. What if after all this time spent with these new best friends, they got the giant big screen TV with every bell and whistle know to man at an insane price, and you didn't? Things could go terribly wrong. That is why CYBER MONDAY was invented. Cyber Monday is for people who failed to get black Friday deals. After people who spent Thanksgiving outside get out of the hospital for hypothermia, or jail for assault,  they can go to their computers and get great deals on line, mailed directly to your door. What to do if that fails? What if you didn't get what you wanted on Friday, now you can't get it on Monday, when do you get it? I think there should be a Thrift store Thursday. That's right, by the time Thursday rolls around everything, everywhere will be sold out. You better head on down to Guidos Pawn Shop. After all, that diamond ring will shine just as bright whether it's in the window of Tiffanys or Guidos.  You may not have as much choice, but hey, it's Thursday! The stress that the holidays bring. So, no matter when you do your shopping, I hope that you find everything you're looking for. If it's on sale, even better. Take care!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Giving Thanks!

Thanksgiving is tomorrow and it is always a time of reflection.  Where is the large platter to put the turkey on? Do I have enough forks to make it through dinner and dessert? Should I use my good china, or chinet? Should I assign seats or let the personalities fall as they may? What channel is the Macys parade on and why is there a parade in Hawaii? These are all age old questions. It also is a time to look back on Thanksgivings past. In our house, we always celebrated with the Seamon side of the family. My father is one of four siblings, and we would rotate who would host Thanksgiving each year. Everyone would come early, Dad and his brothers would go hunting with Grandpa Henry, then we would eat mid afternoon. There is a 10 year age range between the cousins. Rob is the oldest and I am the youngest. When the older cousins made it to driving age, the afternoon would be spent at the movies or bowling. That is how the "older" cousins would spend the day. My cousin Perry and I were always left behind because we were "too little"to tag along. By the time we were old enough to go, nobody wanted to. Then there was the kids table. That was always a great place to be. There was never a real food fight, although we did come close one time. My cousin Joan asked Rob to pass the butter, so he picked it up and threw it at her.  That didn't really go over that well, but it was entertaining. Then again, I wasn't the one having butter thrown at me. There was always stories. Some true, some not so much. When Lee was in the military, Thanksgiving was spent with friends instead of family. One memorable one was when we lived on Guam. A typhoon had come through a few days before and the island had lost power. The turkey was cooked on the grill, as were the sides. We sat down to eat and asked the youngest to say a prayer, Liam asked for the electric to come back on. Just as he finished, on came the lights! Everyone was stunned. Then there was a power surge and we were out of power for another day. As we changed, so did Thanksgiving. We now celebrate at our house, and I still have a cousin or two show up. Nobody wants to go hunting and football is on instead of the parade. I'm still not sure where my platter is and I will borrow forks. But some things don't change. There will be as many desserts as there are sides. There will be people on the couch in a "food coma". There will be laughter, there will be stories and this year, there will be a new baby. Another generation to enter the crazy world of my family. The biggest thing that won't change, is the feeling. The togetherness that comes with sitting around a table and sharing a connection. I hope that you connect with someone this Thanksgiving. Take Care!

Monday, November 22, 2010

Legalized Child Torture

I never had braces. My dentist didn't think it was necessary. My teeth aren't perfect, but so far they have served me well. When Jake was in 4th grade he had a Buckey the beaver thing going. His over bite was not quite the ability to eat corn through a fence, but he was getting there. He also had gaps in his front teeth that would make David Letterman proud. The dentist sent us to an orthodontist. The treatment room was an open space with 8 or so chairs in it. Dr. Torture (not his real name) would go from chair to chair, smiling at the kids, while telling his assistant what the next "step" would be. The orthodontist never actually did anything to the teeth. He would just look in his mouth, smile and tell his assistant in code what was to be done next. The first thing she did was take a mold of Jakes teeth. This involves filling the kids mouth with what looks like silly putty and telling him it really is ok that he feels like he's choking and can't breath. Once it is determined what needs to be corrected, they add the spacers, braces and rubber bands. These squeeze the teeth together so there are no more gaps. The "fun" part was being able to pick out the color of rubber bands. These were changed every month. Jake would pick the glow in the dark ones. Why would they offer glow in the dark rubber bands for something inside your mouth? Trust me, they don't glow. Can you imagine if they really did? Your kids teeth glowing after lights out at bed time.  A few weeks later we added the strap! The strap goes around the head and is connected with a rubber band to his back teeth. There are holes in the strap and every couple of weeks the strap is tightened to the next hole. Over time, you have moved the bones in the jaw to where they need to be. In Jakes case it was about an inch. During these wonderful months, the child gets to be tortured in another way. Food. You can't eat anything sticky or chewy. This is a pain if it happens to be over Halloween. You can't directly bite into anything hard, like an apple or corn on the cob. This means everything needs to be cut into bite size pieces. It's right back to the toddler days. You can't eat popcorn because it gets stuck under the braces. Jake was lucky. He only had to wear his braces on his top teeth and only for 10 months. Then came the retainer. The retainer is a piece of plastic and he wares at night. It keeps all that dental work in place. The problem is that if you can't ware your retainer for a few nights, the teeth separate. This revelation came after having a loose baby tooth move into a space that the retainer needed to be. The retainer no longer fit. By the end of the week, spaces between the teeth! That's right, the teeth started to move back to their original position. Almost a year of braces and thousands of dollars and in less than a week, spaces. At the last cleaning appointment with our regular dentist he mentioned that Jakes teeth are fine, but he could probably have another round with braces for "cosmetic purposes". I just smiled. I happen to like David Letterman. He seems to have done quite well in life with spaces between his teeth. I think that Jake will be just fine. Take care!

Friday, November 19, 2010

Rules Of The Road

Six of the first eight years of my marriage was spent attached to the US NAVY. While Lee was learning to be a Doctor at Portsmouth Naval Hospital, I was learning to be a Navy wife. There are all kinds of things about being the spouse of a military personnel. First, you are your spouses social security number. I know his as well, if not better than I know my own. Don't ware open toed shoes in the presence of a commanding officers wife. (That's a story for another time.) Learn the "rules of the road" at the commissary. Now, for those who don't know, that is a military grocery store and there are rules. The military is structured, and so is the commissary. There is one door in and one door out and they usually aren't next to each other. You will start your shopping experience in the fresh produce and you will end your shopping experience in the dog food. I must admit I don't miss that shopping experience but two things have stuck with me. This was the mid 80's and the Navy was big on reusable bags. That's right, before every store had bags for sale with their logos on them, I had canvas bags that said Save the Earth the US NAVY. When I came back home in 1992, I took my bags to Kroger and the bagger put them in a plastic bag for me. They had no idea what to do with bags brought from home. The other thing, and one I wish Kroger would do, is arrows on the floor. That's right, direction arrows. The isles were wide with arrows going one way. The next isle would be the other direction. If you were to dare go the wrong way down an isle, there would be an announcement over the loud speaker that the lady in isle 3 is going the wrong way, turn around immediately. Not that it took long for some other shopper to remind you of the rules of the road. Just try turning in going the wrong way and people would pounce on you. Not just a dirty look, you were TOLD! There also was none of this park and stand. You "pulled over" to the right, leaving passing room for the other carts.  Keep this in mind this week as we shop for our Thanksgiving feast. If everyone were to go in the same direction we would smoothly move down the isles. There would be no cart sitting while the shopper was two isles over looking for yams. I guess it also helped at the commissary that there were armed men walking around, but that might be overkill. Take care and enjoy your holiday shopping!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

A.R.K.

We recently watched Evan Almighty. I had never really heard of the movie, but I really like Morgan Freeman so I decided to watch it. It was a cute movie. The message was a really good one and I like to think that God is really the way Morgan Freeman portrayed him. Basically, the movie promotes being green, being kind and being a decent person no matter what anyone else thinks. Be yourself, do unto others  etc. A basic feel good movie. One scene struck home for me. That was the explanation of ARK. God said it stands for Acts of Random Kindness. Such a simple thing. Maybe this got me because Thanksgiving is next week and I know that I have so much to be  thankful for.  Acts of Random Kindness. It's nice to donate to food drives, clothing drives, spend time at a shelter or write a check to the charity of your choice. But what was your last ARK? It's so simple. Hold open the door for someone who can't. I mean, really hold it open, not just open it, walk in holding it for two seconds before letting go. Hold the door and let the other person actually walk in ahead of you.  How hard would it be to give someone a coupon for a grocery or restaurant item that you aren't going to use. If there is only one cookie left, let the kid have it! If your husband always takes out the trash, do it for him. I do mean take it all the way to the curb, not just out to the can. There are so many little things one could do that might make someones day. Now, be careful with some of this. Helping the little old lady across the street without asking could end up with a purse to the head. She may think you are trying to mug her. If she does say yes to being helped, make sure you take her in the right direction. If you are giving directions, make sure you really know which way to go. Probably best for the female to give the directions, since that's who you'd be talking to. Acts of Random Kindness is such a easy way to make someones day. I hope that you receive an ARK, but mostly, I hope you build one. Take care!

Monday, November 15, 2010

Can you hear me now?

When I was little, my Dad had his ear drum broken. He was playing with my brother and took a hit to the side of his head during a tickle fight. Add 50 years to that and you got a Dad who has a hearing problem. He put off going to the doctor until Mom decided she couldn't stand not being heard. My Mom loves to be heard. So, Dad had as much ear drum repair done as he could have and then added hearing aids. This was a big step. He said that when he came out of the doctors office he heard something that he hadn't heard in years, birds singing. Can you imagine that? Not hearing the birds sing. Most people tune something like that out. The things we take for granted. In the days that followed we would ask Dad how he was doing with his hearing aids. He would tell us what he could hear and still the things that he couldn't. We learned about battery life, being able to hear on the phone, and background noise. Dad was getting used to waring them every day, so it was a bit of a surprise when I found him working out in the yard without them. I asked him why he wasn't waring his hearing aids. He said that the sound of the birds singing was driving him nuts so he took them out. Sometimes I wonder when he has them in, if he really has them turned on?
Take care!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

The Magic Of Fiber

We always laughed about the fact that my grandparents would always want to discuss their bathroom habits. It seemed that the "old people" always wanted to talk about their bowels. Metamucil was on everyone's grocery list. Now we baby boomers have figured  it out. We have the magic of fiber.  Studies show that fiber helps with almost everything. You want to lose weight, eat fiber. Want to stay regular, eat fiber. Just walk down the grocery store isles. There is fiber in soup, pancakes, yogurt, and bread. You can't avoid fiber. The problem is, you are what you eat, and fiber causes gas. Yep, have you ever had one of those granola bars that has your daily dose of fiber? You can't leave the house! It's embarrassing.  Try eating it at night before bed, the fiber waits until you get up in the morning to activate the gas. Fiber is evil. You see a person with a cart full of fiber, stay away from them. They are bound to let something fly. That's really why people make over babies. They can relieve themselves of their fiber gas and blame it on the kid. Eating fiber may be good for your health, but bad for your social life. My suggestion is to only eat lots of fiber while on vacation. Your away from home and nobody knows who you are. You could clear out a place on the beach and have it all to yourself. In a restaurant, you could get great service just because they want to get rid of you. Think of the possibilities. Leave it to the baby boomers to figure out this great strategy. We will sit on the beach, a respectable distance from one another, and enjoy the day. When that family full of little kids claims the spot right next to us, we'll get out the huge bag of fiber filled corn chips and they should be gone within the hour. If all else fails, we'll have that back up can of Metamucil. Take care!

Monday, November 8, 2010

The "F" Word

Last year we had a incident involving the "F" word. No, not that F word, the other one. I am referring to the word fart. I will agree that it isn't polite language, but I never really thought of it as that offensive. Probably because that was the name of my Grandpa Henry's dog. My Grandpa was not one to pay money for a dog. I'm not sure how he came to own a full blooded dachshund puppy, but when he registered it, he named him Fart.  He was a cute little thing, and very happy to come running anytime anyone yelled Fart! My brother and I would call the dog more than necessary. So, from early on, I was never really offended by that word. It would just make me giggle or smile. That would explain why I didn't catch it in that English paper. Jake was writing a story about dragonflies. He had to have so many descriptive words in it. He had to do research on the subject and found out that some dragonflies have glands near their rear ends where they can pass gas. He wrote about farting in the water and the water full of bubbles or something to that effect. It was actually a very funny story. He was crushed when he was told he had to rewrite his story because of his offensive language. He didn't understand how it was offensive, and most of all, why didn't I tell him it was offensive when I read over the story BEFORE he turned it in!! I called his English teacher, who is a very understanding lady and one of his favorite teachers. I learned that she isn't fond of the word. She doesn't allow her 30 year old son to say the word. But, she agreed that it was a funny story and he could use it as extra credit. It turns out that she wanted him to rewrite it mainly because he would be reading it in front of other parents. Jake rewrote the paper and got an A and was happy to have an extra credit paper.  It all worked out in the end. I can only guess, but I'll bet the English teachers Grandpa named his dog Spot. Take care!

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Finding God in the bowling alley

My Dad was what we call raised in the church. He attended church every Sunday. My Mom was an occasional attendee. Lee was raised in the synagogue. He attended services every Friday. I attended church in spurts. When we got married we had a civil service because neither of us were particular about religion. We both had our spiritual beliefs, we celebrated our holidays with our families. Picking and choosing what we did as we went along. Basically celebrating everything.  After we had Jake we decided to religion shop. We wanted him to feel a part of something spiritual.  We ended up finding a Unitarian- Universalist church that we both enjoyed. The people were nice, the service wasn't to early in the morning and there were lots of kids. The first few years were well attended. Lee and I even taught Sunday school. Then we took the summer off. Big mistake! The seasons went flying by, one year, two years and we hadn't gone back. Then we would rally and go for a few months and something would happen that stopped us. This became our pattern. Now Jake and his friends are closing in on their 13th birthdays. There are now bar and bat mitzvah to attend for his Jewish friends and his Christian friends are taking confirmation classes. It seems that everyone is getting their spiritual side in order. We got a letter from the UU church that we sort of attend asking us if Jake would be involved in the life classes they offer. This is the big leap for us. A commitment to religion. We sat Jake down and explained what he would be doing and if he was really interested. He was not. What to do? I want my child to develop a spiritual side. He knows what his father and I both believe, but I wanted him to find something for himself. What did I get out of church that I wanted passed on to my son? What values did Lee and I have in common from both the Jewish and Lutheran religions? There was the belief in God, kindness to mankind, and love of family. Neither of us felt that you had to go to a certain building to pray to God. I decided that we had to do SOMETHING on Sunday morning other than sleep in or go out to breakfast. So I signed us up for a family bowling league. That's right, we were going to find God in the bowling alley. It's a commitment to the team. It's family time together when we don't really have time to do anything together. We have met all kinds of different people. But most of all, it's fun. I have the same feeling of connection with my family as I did sitting in church. It's part of something. It's not for everyone, but it works for us. I hope that you have found what works for you. Take care!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

First Dance

Do you remember your first dance? I do! It was held in the gym. The girls were on one side of the room and the boys were on the other. There was a live band made up of high school boys. Mr. Thomas, one of the teachers, would get up and sing The House of the Rising Sun. The girls all danced together in a group, while the boys leaned against the wall trying to look cool. It was hot and everyone left deliriously happy. Jake attended his first dance over the weekend. It was held in the middle school commons, and the instrumental teacher played DJ. I asked Jake if he danced and he said yes. Since the only time I have seen Jake dance is when he is in the kitchen, I can only imagine that it looked something like a frog in a blender or seizures. I wanted to get as much information about the dance as I could, without getting the "MooooM"! I decided to throw caution to the wind and ask if his friends slow danced. Of course they did. Jake said he felt sorry for one of his friends. Apparently, his friend asked a girl he liked to dance, she got sick and called her Mom. I was confused. Did asking her, make her sick, or was she already sick? Thankfully, she had already called her Mom to come get her before being asked to dance. One boys ego saved. Finally Jake told me what I wanted to know. Yes, he did slow dance. He danced several times with one of his friends. I asked him how he knew what to do. He informed me he watched other people before dancing. Hmmm..how did they know what to do? Towards the end of the dance, he asked a young lady he kind of likes to slow dance. She said maybe later, another ego saved. It might have had something to do with the fact that she has a broken foot. The first dance experience was a good one. When Jake got in the car, he was hot and deliriously happy! Take care!

Monday, November 1, 2010

The Death of Halloween!

I have always loved Halloween. When we first got married, we would go all out in decorating. We had torches lining the sidewalk, scary music playing and things that jumped out at you. I would carve many pumpkins that we would set in the flower beds. Then we had Jake. It was then that Halloween started to change. The realization was that we weren't supposed to scare the kids to death before they made it to the door. We went from giving away mounds of candy to goodie bags filled with more toys than goodies. Twinkling lights and ghouls on sticks replaced the torches. Our real pumpkins have been replaced by large plastic things with lights in them. I decided I wasn't going to be the one to gut the pumpkins this year. My husband refuses to gut a pumpkin because of the way it "feels". I find this hard to believe considering he is an Ob/Gyn physician. Just think of where his hands have been and the inside of a pumpkin freaks him out???Hmmm...Anyway, Jake has decided that he will no longer trick or treat. This year, he and a few friends went off to play Laser Tag then back home for pizza.  While I sat with my husband on the front porch handing out candy, the boy was at his computer trying to conquer the universe. It's not the same. I still enjoy seeing the kids in costume and handing out candy. But I miss dressing up my little goblin, sending him out with his father to go door to door, then raiding his candy after he is in bed. Next year, maybe we"ll add a little music, or a jumping spider. But I refuse to carve the pumpkin! Take care!