I thought I would share with you what my family gives me each day of Rebecca-fest.
On day two I received a combination lemon and lime squeezer. I cannot wait to get home and try it out. I love using fresh lemons in my Pasta-lemone recipe and limes in my guacamole.
(In full disclosure: I did not take this picture as the lighting in the motel room is not the greatest.)
There comes a time in everyone’s life that you realize you are OLD. That is now! Later this month I turn 40. Yes, the big 4 – 0!
About 3 months ago I found my first gray hair. Being a natural blonde, any gray that I have does not show (until now). While many of my friends have begun graying much earlier, my hairdresser, in Texas, and I had an agreement. I don’t know it’s there, so if you find any don’t tell me, I enjoy living in denial. No longer can I do that, gray is appearing around my hairline. Soon I will have to decide what to do about it, but until then I am enjoying “Rebecca-fest”.
What’s Rebecca-fest you ask. Just ask my husband. When I arrived in Florida after driving from North Carolina, I found our hotel with decorated with a banner and a gift sitting on the bed for me. My sweet husband and kids worked together to plan an entire month to celebrate me. My heart melted. I am feeling very loved right now. Each day of October, I can expect a card and a small gift from them.
On October 1st, I received a cupcake-shaped stress ball. While it does not seem like much, it is supposed to help me cope with the stress of finding a new house, I was actually quite impressed with my husband. The card, banner and table top display were all cupcake themed. And he bought mini-chocolate cupcakes from a local grocery.
I know that I have been away from my blog for a while, but I am trying to keep many plates spinning at the same time.
Since purchasing my new van in May (read that story here), I have put over 10,000 miles on my van. Considering I am a stay-at-home mom that does not work outside the home and can go days without leaving the house, that is a lot. Those miles consist of 4 trips to Alabama to help my dad with his rotator cuff and his surgery; 1 trip to the DC area to visit my sister / family vacation, 1 trip to Tennessee for AHG summer camp, and 2 trips to Florida to look for a new house. In the last 66 days I have only spent 23 days in my own bed.
Oh, I guess I forgot to mention that in July my dear sweet hubby was laid off from his job in North Carolina. You remember this job. The one that the company paid to move us across country for earlier this year. Only to lay him off less than a year later without warning. The positive note to all of this is that he was able to find a job quickly. However, it is in Florida. So we are in the midst of preparing for another move once we find a house. Two moves in one year is no fun!
While all of my belongings are in North Carolina, I am spending my days in a VERY SMALL motel room. Since we did not receive a relocation package with this job, and are thankful to have a job, the budget does not allow for much more. This means I am also homeschooling in the motel room while trying to keep a dog quiet. As my husband says “Have books, will travel”. This also means that I am without a kitchen. Currently I am living on meals that can be cooked in a slow-cooker, or microwaved, so a lot of convenience type foods. My morning are spent teaching and my afternoons and evenings house hunting.
I forget how much I abhor house hunting. I have spent countless hours riding around town with the realtor looking a house. I think I could write an entire post on the “joys” of house hunting and horrors that I have seen. I will sum it up by saying that realtors who write the house descriptions must have a very vivid imagination.
My goal is to find some time between all of this to write more, so please be patient with me. I will return soon.
My daddy used to always say “Who you are is where you were when”. Meaning the events we experience in life effect who we are. For my generation September 11, 2001 is one of those days, along with the beginning of the Persian Gulf War. For my parent’s generation life changing events include the assassination of John F. Kennedy. While my grandparents were impacted by such events as the bombing of Pearl Harbor and D-Day. Since today is the twelfth anniversary of the day none of us will forget, I would like to share where I was when the twin towers fell.
I was living in Alabama. I had already “retired” to be able to raise my family. My oldest was 16 months old and was a happy, active BOY. The morning started like any other and my hubby had left for work. I had the Today Show on the television when the first plane hit. After the second plane when we realized what was going on, the first thing I did was call my husband. I could not believe what was going on. There were so many unknowns.
I spent the rest of the morning on the phone with 2 of my girlfriends. We all had young boys close in age and lived life together. The three of us were watching the news while taking care of our boys, so if any of us heard any news we would call the others. Life does not stop for much when you have a 16 month old. Our husbands later called us the HNN (Hen News Network).
By lunch time, I realized that there was nothing I could do but pray. Watching the television replay the same images repeatedly was heart breaking. Never before had I imagined such a scenario. There were so many unanswered questions and no one knew what would happen next. Throughout the day, everytime I would worry, all I could do was pray and force myself not to turn on the television.
This one event brought this country to our knees. The next Sunday, churches across the nation were packed. As time passed and the images were not in our face each day, we returned to the life we had before September 11th. Pictures are floating through the internet claiming that we will never forget, yet our everyday actions have not changed (unless you are flying and have to go through airport security).
If the saying “Who you are is where you were when” is true, are we really any different after experiencing September 11th, 2001?
NOTE: Upon researching my father’s saying I learned that this is a modification of Morris Massey management theory “What you are is where you were when.” He believed that lives experiences affect what motivates us, and how management needs to relate to each generation to motivate them.
Regardless of age, everyone needs birthday cake. Whether you purchase an overpriced cake from a specialty bakery, or go for the plain box mix and canned frosting, a cake is a must.
Recently I spent a few weeks with my father in Alabama to help him recover from rotator cuff surgery. Two days after surgery he celebrated his birthday, so a cake was needed. Usually I make a semi-homemade cake with homemade frosting. However, my father is a diabetic so most cakes are out of the question. So I started looking for options. I found that Pillsbury now has a sugar-free cake and frosting. Being a bachelor for many year my dad is not too picky, and it was just the two of us we decided to give it a try.
For the record I do not usually eat anything that is sugar-free. I do not tolerate aspartame (it triggers my migraine headaches) and I have heard so many risk associated with artificial sweeteners so I try to avoid them when possible. I realize that all artificial sweeteners are an acquired taste that I do not have. So that is important to note ahead of time. Both of these contain Splenda.
CAKE: You make this cake like you would any other mix. Add oil, water and eggs and bake. Before I baked the cake I tasted the batter. Before anyone says anything, yes I know that it contained raw eggs, but I wanted to be prepared for how it would turn out. There was a slight after taste before baking, but I did not notice it after it cooked. I baked the batter in two 8 inch pans and noticed that they did not rise as much as usual. The taste was pretty good (not as good as my usual cake) but it was okay. Overall, I would give it a grade of B-. If I needed another “sugar-free” cake I would make it again.
FROSTING: What goes better with yellow cake than chocolate icing. This stuff was so thick there was no way I could but it on the sides without tearing the cake apart. So I decided to only put a thin layer between the two layers and a generous amount on top. After tasting it I was glad I had not put more the cake. For this was the worst frosting I have ever tasted. Besides not being as sweet as regular frosting, it had a heavy, taste. Spreading the frosting was impossible. If I had to give it a grade, it would definitely be an F. I will not be buying this stuff again. My dad and I both ended up scraping as much off as we could and just eating the cake.
Thankfully I will not be needing any more sugar-free cakes for a while.
