A Hip-Hip-Hooray kinda-a-day

Ok, you might think Momma has fallen off her rocker for this post. I like to celebrate the simple joys within life, so I must share why I came super close to breaking into a celebration dance right in the middle of an aisle at my local Costco this afternoon. For any mom that has a family member that has a food sensory issue, you just might relate to my joy. My sweet Pirate boy has the most, I really mean THE MOST, acute sense of taste and smell. Some day this little guy is going to make millions from his taste buds & sniffer. His ability is truly amazing and continues to blow us away. I sure hope he remembers (I will be sure he does!) when he is older, all the grief he puts us thru now with this 'ability'. With the millions he will make from the sniffer, he can treat his mom to a house with a hot tub in her old age!

By now I am sure you are quietly saying to yourself, "what does this have to do with Costco?" Ok. Back to my story. 

Since last August, our two local Costcos stopped carrying Skippy Extra Crunchy aka... the blue lid peanut butter. At first, no big deal. I bought the Kirkland Old-fashioned Crunchy instead. The next day I packed Pirate his Cheezits (I know- not super healthy! Remember I am dealing with a super skinny little man that won't eat hardly anything) with the new peanut butter slathered on the Cheezits to make cute little cracker sandwiches. I was extra careful that he did not see me make the cracker sandwiches in the morning because he would know I didn't use the peanut butter with the blue lid. Right after school that day, he came out of class and told me something was wrong with his peanut butter and it wasn't what he likes. Geez! What the heck. I had just spent $10.00 on 2 large jars of this new peanut butter and he won't eat it. Great... but not surprised. Pretty much the story of my life with him. 

Since that day, we have had to shop around and buy his Blue Lid peanut butter where ever we can. Since Pirate only eats about 5 things, we go thru lots and lots of PB and it gets quite expensive if you buy it someplace other than in bulk at Costco. Every month since last August during my monthly shop at Costco I look for the blue lid and they don't have it. I also complain to them each & everytime as I am checking out thru the cashier too. They just look at me like "seriously?".

So I did my usual swoop thru the PB aisle today while planning in my head which store I would have to stop at to pay the big bucks for a super small jar of PB. But today I had to blink twice becasue there it was.... Tah-dah! An entire pallet of 48oz Extra Crunchy Skippy. I could have cried. Yes - no exaggeration. 

Once again, another simple little joy to my day - the blue lid peanut butter. And if any buyer from Costco ever comes across this post - this note is to you: Kids like Skippy, they don't like the oily old-fashioned peanut butter. I know it is more natural but kids are kids and most times they dictate what the parents buy on a regular basis. So please don't ever stop carrying Extra Crunchy Skippy peanut Butter again. Amen!

My new 'friend'

So, I have this friend. Her name is Kimberly Taylor.

She has great taste, cooks amazing meals, decorates beautifully, and has the best outfits and makeup tips. She and I exchange our ideas everyday. She is always there, lending a helpful tip or encouraging phrase for the day's challenges. We seem to have very parallel interests and likes.

I have no idea how old she is, how many kids she has, if she is married or even what state she lives in. For all I know... she could be in the same town as me or clear across the USA. You wonder how I know her? She is my bestest friend on Pinterest. Every time I jump onto Pinterest, she is always right there. How she and I began following each other's boards is a mystery for me. We aren't friends on Facebook and as far as I know, we do not have any common 'friends'.

The world has changed so much, so fast. What will it be like when my kids have their grandchildren? Will they be telling stories about the good ole' days and how they remember a 'mailman' delivering the mail each day? Much like the intrigue I had as a child hearing about the 'milkman'. Will they have friends that are 'virtual'... nothing more, nothing less. Are these the new 'penpals' for my kiddos' generation. (As one of my kids is asking me "what is a penpal? And why would you write a letter and mail it if we can just email them or post to their Facebook." Oh Lordy!) 

We finally have our Art Gallery

Have you ever wished for something but it wasn't a necessity, so you never made it a priority? (wow! what a run-on sentence that is!)

Since my kiddos started their school careers, my kids have been coming home with some fabulous completed art projects. I am not saying my kids are the next Vincent Van Gogh or Matisse. What I am saying is that with the lack of money to teach art in the schools, Pinterest has come to the rescue. The art projects are terrific and above & beyond what I was ever was taught or inspired to create in elementary school.

I have been challenged to find a place to honor their masterpieces and not litter up the refrigerator & essentially devaluing their creations. I had the Wall. I had the Vision. I had the Artwork..... but I never found exactly what I was looking for. That all came to an end the other day when it arrived beautifully packaged on my front doorstep. Tah-dah! Here it is! Today is a very exciting day for me. (It isn't my style to attach so much happiness to a non-living thing but I have made an exception for this!)

The concept of this wonderful frame is that it is a rotating art gallery... sometime displaying both kids' art, sometimes featuring just one masterpiece. The one rule is that no one's feelings get hurt when the current art show rotates to highlight some new item(s). We all admire and praise each others work. The intention is to allow each kiddo to showpiece, what they consider, their best artwork and my goal is to have something fun and funky, that is colorful and ever-changing on our wall.. Mission accomplished x2.

The moral to my little story is... Sometimes the simplest or smallest things can make us so happy and  bring joy to us. Today is one of those days for me.

One one thousand, Two one thousand, to Hospital Corners

It is a very rare occurrence, here in Northern California, to experience a lightning and thunder storm. Last night we were blessed with a two hour show plus an encore presentation early this morning. While lying in bed waiting for the kiddos to wake and come snuggle for cover, I found myself counting... One one thousand, Two one thousand, Three one thousand and so on, between each beautiful lighting bolt and crash of the corresponding thunder roll. I then, with the utmost confidence in my scientific research, reported to my husband how far away the storm really was. This took me back to my wonderful memories of spending my summers in New England. More times than not, we had to disembark our water play to run for cover and wait out the mid-afternoon spontaneous storm. I loved being at my grandparents' home with wonderful screened-in porch. I would sit with my grandmother, Gamee, sweat would be running down our faces from the instant humidity, while playing Scrabble and we would count the seconds within the storm.The storm would last for about an hour and then the sun would shine and we would go back to the outdoor activity of the day.

Last night's storm took me down my memory lane and my wonderful reflections of my summers on the Other Coast. I would give anything to get to experience just one more summer in Larchmont, Guilford, Carmel (pronounced like the candy treat, not the posh CA seaside town), Marblehead, and NYC. I want to go back and have Gamee show me again (for the 100th time) how to make a bed with hospital corners. Swim in Long Island Sound, wake up in the upstairs quarters of the Corinthian Yacht club, spend a week at the quirky but delightful Allen A Resort in Wolfboro, NH. Spend endless days in Carmel with nothing on the day's agenda but tennis and relaxing. How will I ever be able to create such timeless memories for my children? This world is such a different place these days and the West Coast is just not the same as the East Coast.

A frustration cry like no other!

So I few weeks ago I started the blog back up again. And then..... I went silent again. The reason being was I was waiting for our new Ipad to arrive so that I could easily type one of these zany posts at a moment's notice instead of scheduling the computer time with the kids. It took a few weeks but the Ipad has finally arrived and I am in heaven! I have been liberated from typing all my emails from my Iphone.

So to officially start off the new season of the blog, I will tell a pointless story of my experience yesterday. It won't make a difference in anyone's lives but it was a moment for me that just made me sob.

After much discussion with my Dear Husband, we decided to try our hand at Turbo Tax again this year, even though we are filing a bit differently this year with my home business, I purchased Turbo Tax from Amazon. It arrived and I looked at the Turbo Tax software for several days with dread of having to sit down and do the taxes. (I am a the go-to one in our home for anything technical) I took the kids to school and stopped at Starbucks on the way home for a Chai Latte to rev up for the multiple hours of tax preparation I had ahead of me. I took it slow to be sure I entered everything correctly and made sure I deducted everything I could from the home business. It took about 3 hours and by that time, it was time for me to go get the kids at school. I decided to print and eFile the taxes the next morning. So yesterday, after the kiddos were nestled in at school I sat down at the computer to complete the quick process of printing and filing the taxes. Little did I know.... I didn't get back out of my chair for over 2 1/2 hours. Printing went great. Nice and quick Then the big snafu! I could not process my $19.99 payment for our state eFile. Every credit card I used, didn't work. Something was wrong with Turbo Tax. Great! I called the 800 # and finally got a live person after 20 minutes. He tried to help me for a total of two hours. Nothing he did work. He chuckled several times that my computer and Turbo Tax just don't like each other! Not funny! Nothing was wrong on my end. Everything had gone super smooth and all my other laptop work had been just fine. Then the moment came! I by mistake hung up my cell phone. The Turbo Tax guy had never taken my phone number just in case we were disconnected. I called the 800# back and sat on the automation hold for about 10 minutes and then just began to sob. And sob. And sob. I haven't had a frustrated sob in years. I've cried - yes- but not a sob because I had no other choice and was so darn frustrated. So, I pulled up my 'Big Girl Panties' and made an executive decision. I chose the option for another $29.99 + the $19.99 eFile fee to have the processing fee automatically taken out of our return. It was killing me that I had to pay a total of just about $50.00 to file my taxes. But being the resourceful one I am.... I said, "Damnit Jessica, send the software back to Amazon because clearly there is something wrong with it." So I did! I expect a full refund from Amazon which should offset the $50.00 processing fees plus a few extra dollars to treat myself to a Starbucks or two for all my troubles. I took the Turbo Tax Customer Service into my own hands and won! Interesting side note.... I know the guy at TT had my email info because we talked about it at least 5 times. He never emailed me to try to reconnect our broken call. I am sure he thought it was a godly intervention that got him off the hook with me.

Lame story but it just goes to show that you should never expect something to just take a few minutes! Then you are doomed from the beginning. Cheers!

Update: Just after I pushed the button to publish this post, I get an email from Turbo Tax stating my case is closed and please take a survey. Did they read my blog? Was that the godly intervention again! Hmmm.... The survey should be fun to take!

Tests & Trials of Pinterest

So I have been working my way thru all the great ideas on Pinterest. So far I wasted a whole day cooking Chicken Teriyaki in the crock pot which did not come out good. I actually went back to Pinterest and deleted the post. On the flip-side I made the most amazing grout cleaner of all times. I was a miracle right before my eyes. While it was processing, I went thru the storage area under my kitchen sink and throw away any and all commercial grout cleaner I had. I was just dumb-founded by the amount of dirt that raised up out of my grout. I knew it was dirty but I thought it was permanently stained for life. Oh no.... the grout came back to how it look 118 years ago when it was first installed. Amazing! That is my only words for it. Once I figure out the process, I will link the recipe from Pinterest to this post for all to share in the joy.

Yesterday I tried a great idea for ridding of ant in the kitchen. I went to the store and bought the borax and then came home and made the concoction. It's didn't work. It attracted LOTS of ants but all the ants stayed clear of the nice little cotton pads soaked in Borax and sugar, spread nicely through out my kitchen. It was a major bust so I too went back to Pinterest and deleted the post.

I will continue my Pinterest quest of finding new remedies and continue to post the results!

And here we go again!

After a two-year lapse I am back at thinking about my blog and what to do with it or where to take it. Since I find myself having plenty of time perusing Pinterest on a daily (or as my husband would say,"hourly") basis, I decided to dig out my ole' blog and fire it back up. I don't have a direction or a theme, it's just a written snapshot, at any random time, of my crazy wonderful life.

It's been 4 years since I was laid-off from my well-paying corporate job. It has taken me four years to grow comfortable with my new way of life as the primary caregiver to my kids during the day. Don't get me wrong.... I have not missed my corporate job one bit. Not one tear has ever shed. The one thing I took for granted while I was working though, was the power of a lunch break. I could run an errand by myself, make a phone call or just sit in my own space and think. I lost all that when I began to stay at home with the kids. It took me four years and my youngest to finally go to school full-time to find myself again. It is a work in progress every day but it is exciting work! I am learning to say 'no' and scheduling myself first. I am learning to embrace the time my kids are at school and not feel guilty for not signing up for every volunteer job in the classroom. I am beginning to know where I want to turn this cruise ship called, "my life" but just have to figure out the best route to take. After being college-educated and working in the corporate world, I know finally what I want to do when I grow up, other than being just a mom. Now I just have to figure out how to create the career and draw a salary from it.