Not only did Rachel call me Beautiful, Chris at Hyme Tyme Cafe nominated me for a Leibster award. What is so sweet about the award from Chris is that she is a ‘foodie’. And while I certainly love food, I am no where in her talent arena. That she singled me out in her nominating is a lot overwhelming.

It’s so pretty!

With this award there are rules. You have to:

1. Answer 11 questions from your nominator
2. Post 11 random snippets about yourself
3. Pass the award to 11 other bloggers
4. Torture those 11 bloggers with 11 questions to answer 🙂 

Away we go on the Liebster adventure!  Chris asked me the following questions:

1. Do you have any food allergies?  If yes, to what? I am allergic to dairy. Which doesn’t bother me as much as it bothers everyone else!
2.  Who has been the most influential person in your life, and how? I’d say my girls. Because I want to live up to their idea that somehow I am the best mom ever.
3.  Have you ever had a supernatural experience of some sort?  If yes, explain. Sorry, no. But I think it would be kind of cool. As long as it was Casper the friendly ghost kind of experience and not poltergeist.
4.  What first inspired you to start your blog? For therapy. Sad, but true. I started reading blogs and thought it would be a good outlet for me. Not only might I get rid of some headaches but I might meet people in the same situation. Thankfully, I did!
5.  What is your favorite time of day, and why? 8pm, when the girls are in bed and all is quiet in the house.
6.  What is your favorite holiday, and why? Hate to admit it, but St. Patrick’s Day. It is the one day of year that not only does my husband arrange a babysitter but we have a couple of hours to be the couple we were pre-girls.
7.  Have you ever researched your genealogy?  If so, find anything interesting? Nope
8.  Can you connect yourself to Kevin Bacon by 6 Degrees of Separation??  🙂 This took some researching but yes! And it may be farfetched but here I go: Kevin Bacon, who’s father was the 7th cousin of Richard Nixon. Richard Nixon the nemesis of John F Kennedy. The Kennedy Family had a summer home in Hyannisport, where my boyfriend did the electrical work for a wedding of JFK’s niece.
9.  What is your favorite movie, and why? The Princess Bride because I love saying “My name is Indigo Montoya, you killed my father prepare to die”.
10.  What is your earliest memory? Coming down on Christmas morning and seeing bikes under the tree. I think I was 4-ish.
11.  Who is your favorite author, and why? This is too difficult to answer, because I love to read and not one particular genre!!! But if I could only choose one I would say JK Rowling because she made reading cool again.

Now 11 random facts about myself:

1. I wish I had straight hair
2. I am very opinionated, but willing to listen to other opinions and change my point of view. For example, I don’t think murders deserve a 3rd chance. But I am willing to listen if you have a good reason why.
3. I wish I could be fashionable.
4. You couldn’t pay me to go back to high school
5.  I think M&M’s should be on the food pyramid
6. Ask me to choose between TV and a book I will choose the book everytime
7. I never realized that I needed a support system until I needed one and it was there.
8. If my future self got sent back in time and could make different decisions, I wouldn’t change a thing.
9.  In a million years I never thought I would say this, but I would rather be a stay-at-home mom than a working one.
10. I never realized that blog-friends would be just as important as in-life friends.
11. I’m going to have fun thinking up 11 questions!

And my nominees for a Liebster are (drum-roll in your head please):

1. K from Transceding CP
2. Misty from Meet the Cottons
3. Kristi from Finding Ninee
4. Lizbeth from Four Sea Stars
5. Becca from The Bates Motel
6. Julie from Life with the Spectrum
7. Katie from Dysfunction Junction

8. Kate from Can I get another bottle of whine 
9. Maggie from Maggie Amada
10. Ruchira from Abracabadra
11. Charity from Life’s Little Happenings

Okay, ladies you are awesome so be ready to be awarded…..

Da Dum!

Time for your 11 questions:

1. When was the last time you dressed up? (And no, Kristi I don’t mean into a pair of sweats that did not have a hole in them!)
2. What piece of advice would you give our 16-year old self?
3. If you could live in any time period where would you choose?
4. What was your wedding song? 
5. If you could play any sport what would it be? (you would automatically have the talent)
6. How long did it take you to remember your wedding song?
7. It is 1989, where are you?
8. If you could ask God one question, what would it be?
9. What is your favorite swear word?
10. What is your favorite snack (a question from Allie)?
11. If you could invite 5 people to a dinner party, who would they be?

I hope you enjoy your award and have fun answering your questions. Make sure to let me know when you have time to tell us 11 things about yourself! And, please place the award in a prominent place in your home.

PS–if I haven’t chosen you for an award, it’s not my fault. The rules say I can only choose 11 people not every awesome blogger out there!
 

Remember when we were young and our parents told us how they used to walk uphill, both ways, in the snow to school? And we would laugh and shake our heads at how delusional they were?

I’ve become my parents. I bet you have to!

1970’s there were 4 channels on the TV and heaven help you if the President was on.
1980’s there were more channels but if you wanted to know what was on you needed to buy the TV Guide
2012 Not only is there 4 million channels, a 9YO can search the guide to discover she wants to watch On-Demand because (and I quote) there is nothing on!

1980’s we upgraded from the rotary phone that the telephone company provided. There was one phone, in the kitchen. And if you were in a vacation spot, you probably had a party-line where you could pick up your phone and listen to the cool teenager down the street tell all her friends back home about the lifeguard on Hampton Beach.

2012 Your house phone is cordless which means you can leave the kitchen. Except I cannot find my house phone. I had one. I did. But Boo reprogrammed it to French, rotary dial (who knew that still existed!) and I cannot figure out how to fix it. She also called Ireland on it. Thankfully Maeve was a beautiful grandmother who didn’t mind listening to Boo babble for 15 minutes while I was in the shower. So I put the phone someplace safe where she couldn’t get a hold of it. And now I don’t remember where that is.

1980’s MTV played music videos
2012 MTV plays ‘reality’ shows that make my hair turn grey.

1980’s the waist of our pants came up to just under your breastbone.
2012 the waist of our pants show the crack of our ass.

1980’s My hair was three stories tall
2012 My hair is still three stories tall but most girls use a flat-iron


1980 my mom straightened my hair using her ironing board, an iron and a towel.
2012 a hairstylist spent 2 hours trying to blow-dry and straighten my hair with a flat iron. (Sadly, mom’s remedy was less painful)


1970 we had rabbit ears with tin foil as antennas. To watch the Muppets some one had to be holding the ears
1980 we had to still get up off the couch to change the channel. In one direction only.
2012 Boo hid the remote and my husband almost had heart failure because he couldn’t flip between Duck Dynasty and the Sox game.

1980 you left the house after breakfast, came home for lunch and then we did not come back inside until it was dark or our friend’s parents stopped feeding us
2012 you are only allowed in the backyard and only if your parent has a monitor on you.


1970 George Carlin had the 7 dirty words you cannot say on television
1980 the words were still taboo
2012 I think I heard all but one of them on MTV

1970 Archie & Edith, Lucy & Ricky and just about every married couple slept in separate beds
1980 Newhart and his wife slept in the same bed
2012 Everyone sleeps with everyone and sometimes more than one

1980’s Ronald Regan told the Communists to take down that Wall
2012 We are trying to build a fence around the USA

1980 you nylons, tights, anything to cover up your legs
2012 you shave every day because there is no way you are wearing nylons

1970 you went to the bakery, the butcher, the pharmacist, liquor store and the market for everything else
1980 you went to the supermarket, the liquor store and the pharmacy
2012 you go to the Supermarket or the Walmart for one stop overpriced shopping

1980 that one phone in the kitchen, it was the only phone number you had to remember
2012 you have to remember your home phone, cell phone, husbands and childrens cell phones, your parents home and cell numbers. Oh wait, it is stored in your phone so you don’t need to remember it. Except the battery died on the cell and you are now screwed until you can find the cord to recharge it. It was around here somewhere. I am sure it is where I put the cordless phone so it would be safe from Boo.

1980 we believed everything Walter Cronkite told us
2012 we believe everything the Internet tells us

1980 you read Wifey by Judy Blume and thought you were a rebel
2012 you read 50 Shades in the gym, in full view of everyone who knows what you are reading!

Yup, I can see the conversation with Allie now…When I was your age I walked to school in the snow, uphill in both directions.

Because let’s face it, that sounds so much harder than I had to get my ass off the couch to change the channel.

Photo credit Google images

Quick aside, I originally had written this to be posted the day after the Boston Marathon. Obviously I had other venting to be done. But because I feel this is an important topic I decided that while the Glee episode has come and gone I still want to know what everyone thinks.

________________________________________________________________________


By now, I hope, everyone is aware Robert Saylor’s murder and the acquittal of the officer’s who caused his death. There is a great post by Meriah that you should read (right now, then come back) that puts why his murder is murder in such an eloquent fashion.

As the World turns, right after I read that post I happened to read about a recent Glee episode that depicted a Newtown-esq shooting.  I should admit to never seeing an episode of Glee (even this one I am going to write about)….

Personally, I think anything that brings our children’s safety to forefront of discussion, even if we might not agree when it comes to gun control, is more than important. It should be in our daily conversations, on our minds and not just something that happens and we move on with our lives. I do not think we should have our heads in the sand or disrespect the victim’s memory by forgetting.

That aside, I am conflicted when I read that the ‘shooter’ in the Glee episode has Down syndrome.

My heart is breaking anew over my friend’s whose children have autism had to once again fight the fight that although the Newtown shooter MAY have had autism (we do not know) does not mean that BECAUSE he had autism he became a homicidal maniac.

I want all of our children to be judged on who they are, not what they might be diagnosed (or not diagnosed). And therein lies my conflict…

• Should the actress, Lauren Potter, who has Down syndrome not get the role of the shooter because some one might think negatively about a person with Down syndrome?
• Should she be denied the opportunity to play an important role?
• Should the role not been offered to Lauren so as not to have a negative impact on her community?
• Should the producers have chosen any other cast member to play the role of the shooter?
• If the producers had chosen, let’s say an African-American, a homosexual, a girl, a dog with six legs would there be any outcry/worry/concern?

The many thoughts I have on this confuse even me!

I think Lauren Potter should have every opportunity her acting talent allows. And I think it is super cool that she is the face of the Best Buddies and is in a contest with our Quarterback Tom Brady.

I want all of our children to have the best opportunities available. Even if it scares me that the opportunity might not be comfortable.

In the end, at least we get to have the discussion.

I want to thank Rachel from Tao of Poop for calling me beautiful and giving me the Beautiful Mama award. She wasn’t really specific in how I should respond, so I decided to follow her lead and write about the beauty of a Mom.

Thanks, Rachel!

I never felt beautiful until becoming a mother. No, not more self-esteem issues! But no one, absolutely no one, looks at a person with such adoration as a child to their mother.

I know my mom loves me, like I love my girls. But I also know that a child’s love ‘to’ their mother is just different. Parents see your potential and your flaws. That’s what makes them parents. Otherwise they would let you watch TV all day and eat M&M’s for breakfast.

Children, on the other hand, don’t see their mother’s flaws. They see a beautiful woman, one full of knowledge. They don’t see love handles, muffin tops or frizzy hair. Children don’t see wrinkles or not-perfect teeth.

From the moment they first are laid on your chest, they see love. They trust us implicitly. They trust us to hold their hands, their bikes, to never let them fall.  I never in a million years understood this concept. I think of the hard-time I have my mom in my teenage years. I knew no matter how I pushed the boundaries, I always loved and trusted her to save me. But it took my children to show me, once again, how awesome my mom is. I know I love her more than she loves me, and that is the way a child’s love should be.

A love without flaw.


And now I get to call other woman beautiful, the favorite part of the award! I bestow the title of Beautiful Mama to:

Joy at I can Say Mamma
Bron at Big Brother, Little Sister and the Baby
Dani G at I’m just that way and that’s just me!

There were rules, supposedly, with this award, but since Rachel didn’t follow them it lets me off the hook! For example, I wasn’t sure how many people I was allowed to award, so I stuck with three. But every Mama I know is beautiful!

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope you and yours are safe and loved.
Kerri

On Fridays one of my favorite things to do is participate in Lisa-Jo Baker’s 5-minute Friday prompt. Five minutes, no editing, unfiltered, just writing from the heart. That is my take anyway. 

This week’s prompt: JUMP

Ready, set, go

Dear the Fellow that I fired, remember when you told me that Boo would never walk, talk, know us. She was six-months old. You told her father and I that she had a brain disorder which meant her brain pattern was ‘too slow’. 

I went home and cried. Then I call your boss. You know the head of Neurology. Who told me you had no right, no freaking right to tell me that my daughter might do or not do anything. She has an unknown genetic disorder NEVER SEEN before. That very rarely do you take MRI’s of 6-month old brains. Exactly what would he have compared to Boo too? 

So he told me you were off our case. We got transferred to another Fellow. An awesome doctor who believes in our daughter.

Four years later, after 9 months of therapy Boo jumped. Yes, you freaking jerk, my daughter not only laughs, signs and talks, knows her sister, her father, myself and HER FRIENDS. My daughter also walks and loves her puppy!
 

Boo not only loving but kissing her puppy!

And this week not only did she jump, she jumped over a line.

What you took for granted in your knowledge of all things is that you knew nothing of my daughter’s strength, joy, heart and determination. You did not know that she has a circle of people who make her more than you ever gave her credit for.

Boo jumped. And I hate that for a minute you made me think she wouldn’t.

Damn you, you made me doubt my daughter. Just once, at 6m of age. After I talked to your boss, I never did again.

Boo jumped.

END

Darn it I am out of time! I had so much more to say on this subject. Obviously I have some unresolved anger at that Fellow. But I am also thankful for the Fellow his boss assigned Boo’s care, who is now an MD. This wonderful doctor who saw the potential in Boo and never told me to give up!

Thanks, Lisa-Jo for letting me participate. It is very therapeutic obviously! 

 To join in please visit

 

Finish that Sentence Friday and this week’s I thought I was so cool when I….

I had to really go to the recesses of my mind for this prompt! If you read Kate’s post from yesterday you will understand why. I never really thought I was cool. Except this one time, in Spain. I was 16 and if my long-term memory is correct this is how it went:


Tia and I were sophomores in high school and had the for-real coolest Spanish teacher in the history of Spanish teachers. Her name was Ms. Bertucci (like the restaurant, not sure if she was related). After saving our babysitting money and working part-time we convinced our parents to let us go. Across the ocean to a foreign country where we barely spoke the language.

What could go wrong, right?

The first night in Madrid we were allowed to go to a discotheque. There we were in our Guess watches (well, I was wearing a knock off), Benetton shirts, white socks scrunched down over our white sneakers and mini-skirts. (Okay, now you know how long ago this was!)

We were in the discotheque having a great time dancing to music we couldn’t understand, rocking our mall bangs and thinking we were the coolest things in the world. These fine  old Spanish gentlemen men were being so nice to us. Offering to buy us drinks (legal in a foreign country go us!) and laughing when we ordered soda instead. They started asking all about us, where we were staying, how long, did we know where our hotel was….

Sure, you know this is going no where nice…but we were 16 and idiots!

Thankfully, one of our classmates who understood Spanish a LOT better than either of us quickly figured it out and we learned….

In the 80’s if you were in Madrid and wearing a mini-skirt it meant you were a hooker!

That is probably that last time we, I mean, “I” felt cool!

And I should probably apologize publically for outting Tia’s experience with cool. But she is cool all the time so she will probably forgive me for a little embarrassment. After all, the tampon story was much worse!



Be sure you find out how everyone else felt cool by visiting the hosts of Finish that Sentence Friday

Kate (Twitter, Facebook)
Janine’s Confessions of a Mommyaholic (Twitter, Facebook)
Mommy, for Real (Twitter, Facebook)
Dawn’s Disaster (Twitter, Facebook)



And if you haven’t had a chance, would you take a moment to visit Babble and “like” my nomination for Best of the Blogs? It is super simple. Just visit the page and click: like on Facebook or Tweet or Google+ (G+ can be multiple times, Facebook just once per person dang it!)

http://www.babble.com/mom/a-letter-to-new-special-moms/

The girls are on Spring break this week. After a whirlwind trip to visit the grandparents that included a trip to Busch Gardens, pedicures and dinners out I thought they would be bored sitting at home.

Luckily Allie had an idea of how to pass the time. She got the stomach bug. The good kind that arrives at midnight one day and leaves by midnight the next.

Why, oh why, do throw up bugs never arrive when it is daylight? Seriously, I am thinking it is some kind of conspiracy.

Why, oh why, when you place the bucket right next to their heads children miss the bucket entirely and proceed to hit everything else in the room? Again, conspiracy.

When I couldn’t convince Allie that moaning that she didn’t feel good was not helping, I joined her. Not in acquiring the bug but in the moaning that I was tired and couldn’t we just lay there….

Speaking of laying there, why oh why can children only sleep comfortably if they are on top of you and to achieve the most comfort they have to be obscuring your airway? Or your bladder?

Boo on the other hand is having the time of her life. She is hitting Allie on the head saying “et up” (her version of wake up). Husband tried to do laundry. When tried, I mean he put the clothes through the wash. It was folding with Boo’s help that kind of messed up his process.

That and Boo’s insistence that the puppy should be covered with the clean clothes.

It just so happens that this is their vacation fall on most of my husband’s off days. Leaving him home with them and me….well

Why oh why do I escape to work? Because I can! (Sorry husband!) 

I wrote yesterday about the overwhelming number of victims that have been murdered by people jerks that cannot see the beauty in the world. I limited my posting to those in the USA but in truth, senseless killing is not an American product. Look around the globe and you will find similar tragedies.

The latest killings happened in my area of the Globe. And Newtown is just a short distance away. Needless to say, the horrors have been on my (an I am sure your) mind. So imagine my surprise when I read that the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health is holding a hearing to eliminate almost half the beds that treat children and teens with mental illness in three hospitals.

Hospital officials said this month that they planned to consolidate their child and adolescent units, the latest in years of steady statewide cuts to pediatric services. While several other hospitals have psychiatry units that serve children of all ages, Cambridge Health Alliance’s Child Assessment Unit accounts for nearly one-third of the hospital mental health beds in Massachusetts designated specifically for the younger age group, typically under 12.
(Source: Boston Globe http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/blogs/white-coat-notes/2013/04/17/hearings-scheduled-proposed-pediatric-care-cuts-cambridge-taunton-hospitals/2P8eOkPit0TlY7X5MvF8dP/blog.html)

Did we not learn anything?

How can we obtain my utopia if we are unwilling to treat children and provide them with the strength they will need in the future? What about their parents who strive every day to make their child the best they can be. To not have them defined by their mental illness but by their strength and character.

I am in no way an expert or know enough. Of course I know that mental illness may not have played a part in any of the senseless killings.

But I believe that if the services needed to equipt children with mental illness are not provided the results could be catastrophic.

End of rant. I promise to get off my soap box by tomorrow.

We thought it was safe to run, to fly, to go to school, to play. I am heartbroken that my children are being raised in a world that has such evil. 

I am heartbroken at the absurd violence that seems to have taken over our lives. I am saddened that we seem to be innoculated to the mayhem that has taken over our daily news.

But I am more than grateful that for every one person who takes a life there are hundreds that speak up and say IT IS NOT OKAY. That for every person who ran away from a massacre, they were outnumbered by those who ran towards to help.

All of these deaths/victims/lives and the many that I did not include, are across gender/race/faith/moral upbringings. All of these deaths are not the sole result of a gun, bomb, knife, automobile, airplane or other weapon. Their only commonality is that their lives were shortened for absolutely no reason at all.

Their deaths are the result of some person (for lack of a better word) who did not see the beauty in this World.

There are no words to alleviate the pain and suffering of any person affected by violence.

Not yesterday, not today, not a decade ago and not tomorrow. I do not want to live in a police state or a state of fear. I want to enjoy the beauty of this world and pass it on to my children. All I can do is strive to raise our children (and ourselves) to stand up and say enough.

The ONE murder of Robert Saylor is equal to the murders of 9/11. Every life counts.

No more bigotry, off-color jokes. No more child abuse. No more elder abuse or spousal. No more killing for the sake of killing. No more hate.

No more using non-combatants as chess pieces in your war against whatever you are against.

Utopia, peace-filled world is hard to attain. But until we say ENOUGH we will never be able to get there.

Peace. Love. Understanding. Comfort.

I will not forget your pain.
Those are the only words that I can offer to any who are suffering today.


 

Stephanie over at Mommy, for Real had an awesome post the other day that I am totally stealing. It was an open thank you letter to her friends that get her not only through her day, but through her life. Stephanie is the host of HerStories, a link-up where we can express what our friendships mean to us. You should definitely check them out, especially Dana’s recent post about a Friendship Mourned.

I did warn her I was stealing–not plagiarizing 🙂

I recently wrote about my friendship with Tia, but I am beyond lucky to have more than one Tia in my life. So here I am taking a moment or two to thank those who help me get through, well everything in my life.

Thank you to the friend who offered to do a family vacation with us, even though it means that plans have to be modified for Boo.

Thank you to the friend who does crafty playdates with Allie so I don’t have to.

Thank you to the friend who is leaving for a cruise, but still took Allie for a playdate on a half-day so she did not have to attend Boo’s 3 hour, multiple therapy appointments. Oh, and thank you for also feeding her.

Thank you to the friend who calls me unexpectedly because a P!nk song is on that you know I love.

Thank you to the newfound friends in the blog-world. For letting me know we are not alone in this world of undiagnosis, but that we can laugh at one another and ourselves.

Thank you to the friend who dropped off a bottle of wine when she learned I was home with sick children.

Thank you to the friend who is now Googling Jimmy Buffet because I told her it should be that kind of day.

Thank you to the friend who will let us come over for dinner because Allie likes playing at their house more than ours.

Thank you to the friend who tricked convinced me to join the PTA I have made friendships that I never expected.

Thank you to the friends who join up every year to walk with us for Children’s Hospital, even though it is 7 miles in June when you could be on the beach.

Thank you to the friend that gave me great parenting advice when I first had Allie and did not hurt me when I started every sentence, Jenn said….

Thank you to the friend who will meet us at the Pub at the last minute because we got a babysitter.

Thank you to the friend with a house on the beach that lets us mooch off you every year.

Thank you to the friend who lets me call her daughter at the last minute so we can go to a Pub.

Thank you to the friend who became my sista from another mista in the world of the Blog. You crack me up on a daily basis and it is not just because of the drawings.

Thank you to the friend that told me it is okay to cry and held me when I did.

Thank you to the friend who when Boo was very young and very scary still offered to have us over for dinner. Even when Boo threw up all over your floor, you still invited us back.

Thank you to the therapists who became friends. Thank you for being more than Boo’s caretaker but mine as well.

Thank you to the friend who brings me a chocolate covered donut in the morning for no other reason than you could.

Thank you to the friend who let us sit on their boat on the 4th of July and then takes Allie to see the fireworks while we hang back at the marina.

Thank you to the friend who does my hair at a discounted rate so I do not look like Roseannadanna as often as I should.

Thank you to the friend who not only let us stay with them in their condo, but watched Boo for the entire day so I could go skiing. And then offered again the next year.

Thank you for the friends who attend Girls Night In, I think it is time to schedule the next one.

Thank you to the friends who came to our house on Easter so Allie could hunt with more than just Boo.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all our friends who accept Boo for who she is and never makes our family feel that we are all alone.

Thank you to the friend that texts me during TV shows so it is like we are watching them in the same room.

My life would be so much harder without all of you in it. Thank you for everything you do and more. I may not always remember to tell you, but you mean the world to me.

Thank you for being a better friend to me, than I could ever be to you.

Kerri