Mom's Out There

Last night at my house...there was....yup you guessed it...SNOW!!! Last weekend, we were at the park enjoying the nice weather in only sweaters!!!




Here are two of my favorite pictures I took last weekend...ahhhhh...to be snow free!!

"The best way to get a puppy is to beg for a baby brother." -Winston Pendleton

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• If you eat something and no one sees you eat it, it has no calories.

• If you drink a diet soda with a candy bar, the calories in the candy bar are cancelled out by the diet soda.

• When you eat with someone else, calories don't count if you don't eat more than they do.

• Food used for medicinal purposes NEVER count, such as hot chocolate, brandy, toast and Sara Lee Cheesecake.

• If you fatten up everyone else around you, then you look thinner.

• Movie related foods (Milk Duds, Buttered Popcorn, Junior Mints, Red Hots, Tootsie Rolls, etc.) do not have additional calories because they are part of the entertainment package and not part of one's personal fuel.

• Cookie pieces contain no fat — the process of breaking causes fat leakage.

• Things licked off knives and spoons have no calories if you are in the process of preparing something. Examples are peanut butter on a knife while making a sandwich and ice cream on a spoon while making a sundae.

• Foods that have the same color have the same number of calories. Examples are: spinach and pistachio ice cream; mushrooms and white chocolate.
NOTE: Chocolate is a universal color and may be substituted for any other food color.

• Foods that are frozen have no calories because calories are units of heat. Examples are ice cream, frozen pies, and popsicles.

AMEN!!!

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By Barbara A. Clark, The Spirited Strider

I haven't posted here for awhile and now that I finally finished a condensed version of my personal story on my blog, I think it's time I write about it here, too. I would venture to guess that most readers here are moms who are with their children, everyday, caring and loving them.

I hope you realize that being with your children daily is a tremendous pleasure and privilege that no one should take for granted. I know from personal experience as I am a non-custodial mom. I haven't always been in that role, but it is a title I've unfortunately "owned" these last seven years.

I'd be interested in what thoughts came to your mind in reading that? Perhaps you have met other women who are in similar situations. Perhaps you know women who were drug addicts or had their kids taken away from them due to child neglect. My situation is none of these. I am an intelligent, loving, healthy mom who has joint custody of her kids but for whom I feel the court system didn't serve my children's best interests. My children live 1,000 miles away from me. Unfortunately, it is a story that is more often being told in the United States.

My life as a non-custodial mom has been difficult, full of judgments from all kinds of people, lonely, and heart-wrenchingly painful for my children. There have been a lot of tears on all sides during these past seven years.

Being a non-custodial mom doesn't make me less of a mother. It took me some years to realize that. Intellectually, I knew it to be so, but psychologically, I blamed my actions (and inactions) for my non-custodial state. I lived with regret for awhile, but soon learned that I could be the best mother I could be by taking care of myself and forgiving myself for things I did or didn't do.

Upon reflection, it was the same advice I intellectually gave myself and didn't follow when I was a custodial mom, always doing everything I could for my kids, my husband and ignoring my own needs. How many times do we as mothers put everyone else's needs before our own? I know we all know the answer to that one!

So rather than get into the details of my story, you are welcome to review it on my blog in a series of four posts I wrote called Life Challenges: What Led Me Here (Parts I-IV). It was a bit long, so I had to break it into 4 parts!

My experience and self-growth has led me to where I am now: in a position to serve other moms who are facing a similar situation or who are fearful of losing their children. While I was going through this, I leaned on a lot of other women who are part of a non-custodial mother's listserve group on Yahoo that helped me a lot.

Now it's my turn to give back. If there are any other non-custodial mothers out there, I'd really love to hear from you. If you're moms who are blessed to be raising your children by your side everyday, I'd love to hear from you, too.

I fill out alot of captcha's during the day...and this one is like the funniest one I have seen. Is this one trying to tell me something???

I am sooo embarassed!! I really am...I just have to confess! I tried to fix my daughter's door and got it all wrong! My daughter has this cheap door up for her bedroom door. It keeps falling apart...and we have to keep putting it back together. So yesterday, when it fell apart I told my husband I would take care of it because he had to work and stuff.

So there I was gluing it together, feeling proud because once again I would kiss his butt in fixing something. I had hoped when it dried that the door would line up and I would be able to put the pins in and it would be all good. But, I thought..."I'll think about that later..."

My daughter was just about to go to bed and she said she would help me put the door back..GIRL POWER!! So there I was all proud of myself...and then it happened. The pins didn't line up. I would have to put the door up upside down!!!

I still haven't told my husband...he hasn't asked...he is just happy the door is up...but when he finds out ... he will laugh...and say..."Yup, men can do a better job!"

First of all, I have to wish everyone a Happy St. Patricks Day! I am Irish...so you know what that means!! KISS ME... :)

Second.....some people are soooo dumb some days....


I get this phone call on Thursday...and it goes something like this...

RING! RING! (I look at the call display and it's the school, both of my kids are home so I don't know why they would be calling...)

Me: Hello.
Caller: Hi is this Taylor?
Me: Yes.
Caller: Hi Taylor, this is such and such school calling. We have your son, Ty, here in the nurses room he's not feeling good.
Me: What? He's there? In the nurses room? (He's standing in front of me!)
Caller: Yup, he has a sore tummy.

Now I tell you, I was confused...I was thinking how the heck can he be in two places at once??

Me: Ty is right here, though.
Caller: Laughs nervously.....Oh, I guess I have the wrong Ty.
Me: Okay.

OMG!!! What a deal that could have been, what if I went to pick up Ty and it wasn't my Ty?? What a mess that would have been.

Okay...things have been changing in my world...

So yesterday we went out for a walk...the weather has been so nice and warm out there was no way we could stay inside. So here are some more pics from yesterday...

I have been having trouble downloading pictures so this is as good as I could get... But if you click on them you can see them bigger.

I saw my first ever real owl a couple of weeks ago on one of our family hikes. I was so amazed that I could see one up close. So I started to take pictures of him...when I got home I was so upset that they didn't turn out the way I wanted. I went out and bought a new camera...more like what I needed.

So today we went back and I went to find the owl. My husband was the one to spot him...so I started to snap away...and I was so happy with the result... :)



I can't believe I took these pics...what an amazing camera!

I bought a new camera yesterday...and I was so excited to put some pictures up. It's a Canon and is 8MP with 10x zoom.


This was a picture on the wall I had...I took it from the other side of the room...you can't even tell! (Don't my husband and son look delish??)


Here is Belle!! Isn't she looking great?? It was on the vivid setting. I think I am going to love this camera.