My First Love

Alright for the second "prompt" with the Martinez - we kind of looked at each other weird when we pulled this one out of the container.  We could not decide if we wanted to do this one.  We decided to go ahead because it could be funny or serious; and it would be entertaining to see what the other wrote.

I am going to go with two different things, two different loves, on two very different levels.

My first love was basketball.  I loved to play basketball.  I loved everything about it - practice (except for when I had to miss the end of episodes of 7th Heaven), games, the awesome uniforms (my favorites were the hot pink sliding shorts and hot pink tall socks), sweet basketball shoes...  I also preferred to wear all basketball inspired clothes when I was not playing ball.  I started playing in third grade and quit after my ninth grade year.  I was not a fabulous player, but I did not care.  I swore to everyone for years that I would play in the WNBA.  Oh how things change...

My second first love would be my Em.  I had Em when I was 21 years old, I was not married and really had no clue what I was doing.  But the first time I saw her, I fell in love.  And I'm still in love with my little preteen.  Being a single mom and raising her taught me so many things.  Things that I cannot even put into words.  And now, now she is twelve.  Yes, over a decade and not only is she my girl, but she's my best friend.  We added J to our little family when she was almost four and then we added D when she was six.  We have so much fun together and she is such a good big sister to her brother.

Did everyone watch the debate this week?

This is what I did during the debate.  It was so riveting... I am pretty proud of my photo editing here.  My snap chat skills are improving.

Then saw this today:

 We have had some awesome weather here.  Monday when I got home from work J already had all of the windows open.  It was amazing.  I took Em to the park with me to get in a benchmark run.

Update on my dinners:  I officially have a certain meal for each night.  Turkey Burger Monday, Taco Tuesday, Fend for Yourself Wednesday (Wednesday nights are very busy so I just throw something out for the kiddos), Brinner Thursday, Fun Friday (this means whatever we are in the mood for), Sushi Saturday, and Nacho Sunday.   

Best Things About Fall

Alright folks, my good friend Martinez and I have a new challenge for ourselves.  We will have a topic each week that we separately have to post about.  We can not talk about them until we publish.  So we basically have a 'journal prompt' each week.  It will make us post at least once a week (for a while) and it will be entertaining for us to see what each other says.  The joke in our office is together we make the perfect assistant.  We come to work many times and and have both had the same ideas about something, are dressed alike, OR we completely disagree on something. 

Alright on to the topic - fall.

1.  Pumpkin -  All the things.  I love candles that smell like pumpkin and food that tastes like pumpkin.  I get way too excited, giddy really, over a good PSL.

2.  The weather - well, I guess I should clarify and say the few times that we actually get that awesome fall weather here in Oklahoma.  It is the first day of fall and the high is 90 degrees.

3.  Cool nights (and cool mornings) -  The mornings are amazing for running outdoors and I love that the nights get just cold enough for a fire in the fireplace on the back porch.   

4.  Breads - Pumpkin bread, banana bread, any kind of sweet bread.  Preferably sweet bread that my office roomie, Martinez brings me.  See below (it already happened this year)!  #winnerwinnerchickendinner

5.  Halloween - I love everything about Halloween.  I hope to one day have a house full of Halloween decorations.  I add something every year because I am too cheap to go and buy out Hobby Lobby.

6.  Thanksgiving - I really kinda love all the holidays (the big ones).  Thanksgiving is so much fun to me.  The last few years we have had it at our house which means I need more fall decorations each year.  What?  It is a fact.  Anyways, my mom comes over and helps cooks the turkey for me, we get all of the casseroles together, I usually have a come apart over deviled eggs, and then whatever else we have been "assigned" between the two of us.  

This was D helping with the turkey last year.  He did not want to smell the onions.

7.  Black Friday - We join the masses about 5:45 a.m.  So much fun.  I look forward to it every year and then on Thanksgiving night I freak out and wonder why I ever agreed to getting up so early the day after Thanksgiving.  Then check my alarm 27 times in the night, get up on time, get ready and set out for the fun day ahead.  I am so glad every time I go.  There are usually a couple of coffee stops and some wonderful comfort food involved.   

7.  Hoodies - preferably ones that have the front kangaroo pouch pocket.  All of them.  I was looking wistfully at one this morning.    

I love fall and winter.  I would rather be cold than hot any day!  You can always add clothes but there is a limit to how much you can take off!  I do, however, have one issue with fall and winter - the time change.  I despise the time change.  I hate that it gets dark at 6:00 p.m., it makes me a crazy person.  I constantly feel like I am behind and feel that I need to get in bed.  

That's all for now on my love for fall.

-Amy D.

Dinner

I have a hard time with dinner.  When I get home from work I want to eat all the foods (mainly binge eat the Utz Cheese Balls).  But I also try not to eat heavy at night because that will just make me fat.  I am also really bad at planning said dinners.  So, this summer I made a rule - sandwiches for dinner except for weekends.  People thought I was crazy and I am pretty sure many thought I was an awful wife/mom. But I am a bad mom remember?  So I just ignored that and made sandwiches like the Subway sandwich artist that lives inside of me. Now, I really had a reason for this rule, the reason is twofold:

1.  Half of the time they do not like what I cook so I make them a sandwich (do not tell me that I should force my kids to eat what I cook, I make them try it and if they do not like it they can deny it). 

2.  The other half of the time - they are not even hungry for dinner in the summer because they have eaten late with my mom or something. 

Now summer is over (even though I keep telling my kids we are eating sandwiches until Halloween).  They really do not like that so I keep poking them with it. The school year is completely different for us and they are hungry for dinner so I try to make fairly kid-friendly things, which proves to be hard many times. We recently started having "Sushi Saturday's" with my parents. After many YouTube videos we have become quite good at rolling sushi. I had an epiphany on Sunday - what if we have a food for each day of the week?  So far I have Sushi Saturday, Nacho Sunday, Turkey Burger Monday, and Taco Tuesday.  I need something for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Ideas?  And I need them to be things that I can do on the healthy side for me.  Last night (Monday) we did the turkey burgers and oh man they were good. Tonight I'm doing the tacos. Hamburger taco meat for the kids and fish for us.  I need some more ideas. Help! 

Bad Moms

Unless you live in a cave, you know what I'm talking about. Y'all - have you seen it?  I laughed. I laughed so hard. I cried (say what you want, I don't care because I'm a bad mom now).  The great thing about the movie is that it truly captures what it is like to be a mom. The push to be perfect, push to have your kids hang out with the "popular" kids (who decided they were "popular" anyways?), feed them the right food, participate in all of the right activities, make the best grades, have the best first day of school chalkboards, and on and on. It is almost as if we are making our children live out our own fantasies.  

I will admit that I wanted all of that for my daughter. Then we hit third grade and as I was suffering through a season of cheer watching moms spray their kids with glitter in the freezing cold, it hit me. What are we doing?  They're eight. They don't need to sparkle on the sidelines while yelling and clapping off beat. (There may have also been a moment wherein I threw a fit because my daughter was told she couldn't wear her $200 warm ups I had bought because someone else didn't bring her's and they wouldn't match, but I digress).  Em did not enjoy cheer - it just wasn't her thing, she has a few friends that still love cheer and that is wonderful for them. So we only did that one season (even though she was the cutest cheerleader in the world). She found her love and that is dance. She is amazing and will do great things. D is in gymnastics and calls it ninja class half of the time. His time will come to stumble through sports to find his passion.  It will be fun and interesting, but we aren't going to lose ourselves. 

The movie is a little crude, but that is what makes some of the parts so funny.  During the movie they do take it too far at one point and really don't do what they should but they all do the right things and are happy in the end!  The gist of it is basically what I've told Em for years. You do you. No one else will. You take care of you (and your babies). They're only babies once and that goes by fast. Very fast.  And find some awesome mom friends along the way to, well, be bad moms with!  

Side note - I dragged my husband to the 11:05 screening of this one Friday night while the kids were gone and really felt like I was doing something big!  It's the little things, people. 

That is all for now. I'll be busy being a bad mom but will check in soon.