realtalknic

Daughter, I stumbled upon this photograph as we prepare for the celebration in honor of your graduation and upcoming surgery residency. I see your fat cheeks and stubborn expression and think some things really don't change. But the 15 year old girl holding you..... I barely recognize. So young....too young, I would say today and mean it. But never afraid and never ashamed. Because I was more concerned with the mighty task at hand.......I had a baby! Oh, boy! (oh, girl....really) So while trying to figure out the redirection of my own life (and making plenty of mistakes I know now) these are the promises I made to you and hope that I have kept them: 1. I will always tell you the truth. As you get older this will prove more difficult but always necessary. It will put me in a position of being your least favorite person at times and that will make me sad and sometimes angry. But I will do it. Because the world will tell you the truth in one way or another and I think it is be...

Real talk alert......gets no realer than this. Once and for all let's start a movement ending secret whispered names for body parts. Baby girls, 3-4 year olds, teens, hell.....42 year old females have vaginas.......not kitty cats! Not following? Here is the breakdown...... Not sure if it's generational or cultural but the practice of referring to female body parts with silly animal names and head gestures nodding downward aren't just ridiculous........in some cases it could be harmful. I don't mean adults having "grown women" conversation throwing Va-JaJa around. I get it. I am referring to Moms bringing their girls up as if there is a prize if you make it to adulthood never having heard correct verbiage for their anatomy. Grrrrr Whispered after bath time ......."Did you wash your kitty cat?" Fall down on your bike? "Did you hurt your kitty cat? 1st slumber party? "Nobody touches your kitty cat!" Really? I cannot make this up! Sta...

Well.....it's Spring forward and sunny and well.....when it's sunny I spend money! A lil bit at least. You should know that anything over $20 for me is considered a major purchase! Plus, since Betty the Buffet was free it's kinda hard to drop big coin on a freebie. So....I pinned and I pined and I looked and I wished.......finally today...I shopped!! Here is a lil of my inspiration....  This one is from target....ummm $49.99 for the base. Can I get a shade with that?  Of course, Pottery Barn has sent me the Easter, Outdoor, and the "I know you want to, go ahead and do it" catalogs in the last few weeks. This is theirs.....  Now, here you are talking $170 for the base and $54 for the shade. I scoured the catalog pages for CRACK cause someone must be smoking it for this kinda price. Ahhhhh, but.....look how nice they look. Grrrrr. Let me remind you....Betty the buffet was FREE! Ok, focus! Betty is bare and I need to put some Spring into thin...

I call her Sally.....because she is just so darn sassy! She makes me smile.....she doesn't take herself too seriously. She is old.....with some kinks.....but young at heart. (hmmmmm, sounds like me)  It all started with my husband moving my foyer table from the foyer to the library. Now, I am not gonna lie. I was OFFENDED! I loved my Targee Pottery Barn knock off. But....it does have a busted leg and one false move and it could all be O.V.E.R! So what to do what to do? Started looking and realized that it could be a whole lot of change for a little bit of change! oy! When in doubt...or in debt....CRAIGSLIST to the rescue. Here she is when I first met her......   Oh boy......you can't see it huh? Lots of problems with her, right? Yep! LOTS! But.....love at 1st sight! She had a little veneer situation. Ummmm, yeah, that was bad. But nothing my $5 iron from Riteaid couldn't handle. lol So....cleaned her up. Took the veneer off with iron, towels, and LOTS of patience. ...

Came home after celebrating 20 years married to 2 additional teens in addition to the one belonging to me. Was thinking cereal and milk was gonna have to do but the guilt of being out stopped me in my tracks. Hmmmm, what to do? Pickings were slim and the boys were still sleeping so I got busy! I remember having this delicious french toast casserole at my boss's for a team brunch. So, I started with this pitiful "seen better days" bread. Now, I know....who still eats white bread.....and.....Martha would just scold, scold, scold. But....who really has multiple varieties of fresh baked french loaves sitting around.....grrrrr. The original recipe calls for prepping this overnight. Huh, in the words of Sweet Brown, Aint Nobody got time for that!! (  haven't seen Sweet Brown and want to partake in a bit of funny foolishness click the linky.....  http://youtu.be/udS-OcNtSWo ) Ok...OK...stop shaking your head and continue... I had 1/2 loaf....so I added 6 eggs a...