bountifulplate

Lauren flew on an airplane recently to visit her best friend. She has flown before with the hubby and/or I several times, but she has never flown completely by herself.  Her very first plane trip was to Iowa to visit some of my friends just before she turned two. This most recent trip comes ten months before she turns 18.  The best deal I could find for her was a non-stop flight that required us to wake up at 3:00 a.m. and get to the airport by about 5:00 a.m. When I booked the flight, given that she is now 17, meant that she could fly alone without paying an additional fee to have someone "escort" her to and from the departing and arriving airports.  I thought that I would be able to go all the way to the gate with her.  I asked two people at security about it and they told me to go back to the airline counter and get a gate "pass."  I was told I had to wait in a huge line, which I did for about 30-40 minutes.  Since Lauren had already gone through ...

About two weeks ago, an employee at a local shop nearby found a little guy about 6 years old by himself wandering around wearing only a diaper.  When the little boy left the shop and wandered into the street, the employee called the police.  When they arrived and tried to talk to him, he wasn't able to communicate, because he was non-verbal. When I heard that story, I instantly got a knot in the pit of my stomach and chills down my spine. Before Dominic learned to talk that was my absolute worst fear.  That he would get separated from us and not be able to tell anyone his name or anything else. I had a feeling the little boy they found had Autism.  Sure enough, he did.  Evidently, he was a foster child and somehow found a way to escape from the home.  Luckily, the foster parent came forward within a few hours.  Leaving, wandering, escaping or bolting from an area without permission is known as "elopement" and is a serious thing for typically developing...

When I found out that I was pregnant at age 40, I considered it to be a miracle.  After Lauren was born in 1996, I had two miscarriages, so I kind of figured it wasn't in the cards for me to have any more children. Those first three months of my pregnancy to say I was stressed, would be an understatement. Since I had lost my two other pregnancies before the third month, I was pretty sure it would happen again. Once I made it into my fourth month, I rested a little easier.  Dominic decided to come about two weeks early.  Today is his ninth birthday and wouldn't you know it, he woke up early this morning at 4:30 a.m.!! Good thing I'm an "early bird!" At first I thought I was dreaming, because I heard talking. Then I was thinking, okay, maybe it was the paper delivery person and they had the radio on.  Nope, it was Dominic, already up with all the downstairs lights on.  When I went down to check out what he was doing, he had pulled out a bag of Chex Mix and was...

They say once you learn how to ride a bike you never forget.  I have had a few bikes in my time, but my favorite was one that had a white banana seat with flowers and high handlebars.  Just for kicks, I did a quick search to see if there were any for sale on eBay. The kind of bike I rode back in the day is now considered to be "vintage." That made me chuckle a little :) The bike below is the one I currently ride.  If you can believe it, my in-laws won it in a contest they had entered! Pretty cool. It has been pretty darn hot where we live lately, but this past Saturday, it was pretty nice (not humid) - a perfect day for a bike ride!  I have not been on my bike at all this summer, so the tires needed some air (thanks to the hubby for filling them for me).  I wanted to challenge myself and see if I could ride down to our local library and back.  It is not far, only about 3 1/2  miles round trip.  I had my cell phone, so if I had any i...

We recently returned home after being "on the road" for about ten days.  We visited family and friends back on the East Coast and it was a great trip. Going to Maryland, we did it in one day - it takes about 10 hours. Coming back home, we stopped in Cleveland for the night. It's nice to break up the trip a bit, since it's only about 3 1/2 hours back to our house.  I'm glad that we have our minivan (especially on long trips), because it gives us lots of space. We have over 150,000 miles on it, but it keeps on going!!  Whenever we travel, the first thing we do when we get back home is unpack the car.  Since we were traveling for over a week, our minivan was packed with stuff.  It took a little while to unload everything.  The hubby is very predictable after a trip, he will take his suitcase upstairs, unpack it all, and then announce to me that he is already unpacked. This time, Lauren also unpacked her suitcase quickly, I think because she didn't have many cl...

I turned 50 the first week in July. A half-century or five decades.  Lauren told me recently that the hubby and I don't look or act our respective ages (he turned 60 last November). That was a pretty nice compliment coming from our teenage daughter :) When I was her age, I definitely thought that 50 and 60 were ANCIENT !!!  I truly don't mind getting older.  I feel blessed for every day that I have. Getting up to see where the day will take me is pretty cool.  Life is what you make of it and it's about choices.  I have come to a few conclusions that I hope will prepare me for the next "50."  I really need to stop sweating about the small "stuff" so much. Life is too short to get bogged down by petty things, like when my friend of many years said something that I considered offensive.  If it is still bugging me the next time I talk to him, I'll let him know how I thought it was rude.  In the great scheme of life, it's not a humongous deal like...

I read an article recently about women that had mom "caves."  We have all heard of men having their "cave" but I had never heard of women having one.  It was a pretty interesting article, one mom had hers in the laundry room. She painted the walls pink and put in other extras - it wasn't expensive - the whole makeover cost about $250.  Another mom had hers in a small corner of her kitchen that was painted yellow and looked out into her backyard. It got me to thinking, where is my mom "cave" in our house?  When we first moved into our house, it was a room downstairs in our basement.  That lasted a while, but, the room was so far removed from the upstairs where the rest of my family hung out that if anybody needed me or I was here by myself, I couldn't really hear anything down there.  I don't think I could put my mom cave in my laundry room.  I technically don't have a laundry room, where my washer and dryer are located is more like a hallwa...

A handful of years ago, an older gentleman that my whole family knows, lost his wife of over 50 years.  Her passing was pretty sudden and I remember being in shock when I first heard she had died.  The hubby and I went to her viewing to pay our respects.  When it came time for some prayers, I looked over and saw that there was an empty seat next to him.  I waited a few moments to see if anyone was going to sit next to him and no one did.  I decided to go over and sit with him.  It just didn't seem right that he didn't have anyone next to him.  We were unable to go to her funeral, but I kept thinking that there must be something else that our family could do to help him through this time of grief.  Since I love to cook and bake, the most natural thing for me to do was to do that.  Making him a meal and taking it over to his house would have been nice, but then he would be eating it by himself. I decided that I wanted to invite him over to our ...

We recently took a trip to visit friends and family. Traveling in a car, train or plane for long lengths of time, visiting unfamiliar places and restaurants can be challenging for any small child, but it is sometimes extra hard when you have a child with special needs.  Kids and especially those with Autism like their routines.  Dominic has been really good lately when we have taken him out to restaurants, we are basically able to stay as long as we want and chat amongst ourselves, while he entertains himself.  Well, on my birthday we tried taking him to my favorite restaurant, a Chinese place that I grew up going to.  The minute Dominic got to the restaurant, we tried to get him to sit in the chair next to me, that lasted just a brief amount of time.  He then went over to sit next to my brother, which would have been fine, but he kept lying down on the seat and trying to go under the table.  I decided I needed to sit over on the other side of the table wit...

My last post was about someone I didn't know who said something that I considered out-of-line and offensive. Well, this post is about someone that I have known a very long time saying something that was really hurtful in regards to myself and Lauren.  Again, I "shut down" and didn't know how to respond.  After I hung up the phone with this person, I was really upset.  It took me a little while to calm myself down.  I guess this person thought that he was being funny, but it definitely wasn't.  I have considered him to be like the older brother that I never had.  It has really made me seriously rethink if I even want to remain friends with him.  When you have someone that you have known a long time say something incredibly offensive, do you tell them that it really hurt your feelings or do you just move on, like it was never said? I have gone back and forth thinking today about it.  I have gotten over being really ticked about it (that only lasted ...