bountifulplate

When I was growing up, my "dream" car was a T-Top Camaro. My first car ended up being my parents old station wagon!  I then owned a Hyundai and after that, I bought a Geo Storm.  I had a sunroof installed, so it was sort of like a T-Top!! I LOVED my Geo Storm.  I definitely thought I was pretty cool driving that car around!!!!  I still owned my silver "baby" when I gave birth to Lauren. I learned real quick that it was not a good car to tote an infant around in.  You had to be a contortionist to strap a baby seat in the backseat. Sadly, I had to say "good bye" to my Geo Storm and for the past 12 or so years I have been driving a minivan :) Watching Lauren own and drive her first car brought back memories of when I got my first car. It's interesting how we acquired her vehicle. When the hubby was at the car shop in the late Spring of 2013 picking up one of our other cars, he was chatting with the service guy and said, "hey, do you know...

You would think with several inches of snow on the ground and the air temperature lately well below 32 degrees that the last thing I would want to make is ice cream pie, wouldn't you?!?!?!  I decided this past Monday was a good a day as any to make this easy three-ingredient dessert.  After I put Dominic to bed that evening, Lauren was asking me if the pie was ready to eat.  It had been in the freezer for about 4 hours, so I told her yes.  She gobbled the first piece down and went for seconds!  What's cool about this ice cream pie is you can use any flavor of ice cream you want - you could use strawberry and toss in crushed candy canes if you have some leftover from the holidays or use chocolate ice cream and toss in mini chocolate chips! Let your imagination be your guide :)   Ingredients 9-inch ready to eat chocolate pie crust 2 cups vanilla ice cream 1/2 cup + 1/4 cup mini M&M's Measure out two cups of ice cream in a mediu...

Yesterday was not a good day for Dominic as far as getting into "mischief."  In the early morning, before Lauren and the hubby woke up, he knocked a lamp off an end table in the family room.  Luckily, it didn't break, but I gave him a stern talking to.  Since we have been working on Dominic being able to express the correct emotion and also him being able to recognize other people's emotions, I asked throughout the day, "how did Mommy feel about the lamp falling over?"  He said, "mad."  Well, at least we're making a little bit of progress or so I thought.  Later on in the afternoon when Lauren and Dominic were playing with a video game, Dominic started getting frustrated and shoved Lauren more than a few times. He then screamed really loud.  I took him upstairs and sat him down on his bed and told him that what he was doing to Lauren and the screaming was not acceptable. After a little bit, he got the message.  I made him apologize to my husban...

A common characteristic of having an Autism Spectrum Disorder is the difficulty with being able to express and/or regulate feelings and emotions.  Dominic has been working on some homework from his social worker that was eight pages long. Each page had a feeling - happy, sad, angry, excited, disappointed, tired, upset, and afraid.  On each page, Dominic had to list something or someone that made him happy, sad, etc.  We worked on it a little last night and he had a very hard time with the assignment.  He kept repeating the same people that made him happy, sad, etc.  I don't think he truly understood what he had to do. One emotion that I know Dominic can express is compassion.  During this past holiday break, we watched a DVD of Frosty's Winter Wonderland many, many times.  It's not the original version, it's actually where Frosty gets married to his snow "wife." Jack Frost is in the movie and is jealous. There is a scene after Frosty gets married, wher...

I have been drinking soda pop on and off since I was 12, so that makes over 38 years of drinking some form of pop!  My mom used to drink Tab out of the glass bottles and I would have it too.  That evolved over the years into drinking all kinds of other soda - Diet Dr. Pepper, Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi, etc. It was always diet, sometimes caffeine free, sometimes not.  As I have watched the price of pop get higher (even the "house" brand) was getting kind of expensive, the last couple of times I have done my weekly grocery shopping, I haven't bought any pop in cans.  What I figured out is, that if I didn't buy it at the store, then it's not in the house and I won't drink it! I had begun to drink two cans of pop a day (sometimes three)!  Since I have never really drank regular soda pop with caffeine, I think I was more addicted to the habit and the taste.  I feel like I have more energy since I "detoxed" the pop out of my diet.  I asked the hubby if he noti...

For the past couple of weeks, I have been on the "hunt" for a pair of pajamas with feet for Dominic.  Since he went through a growth spurt, he has only one pair that fit him from last winter.  He has been wearing them so much he already has a rip near the shoulder and a hole in one of the feet. He really needed one more pair of pajamas since the weather here lately has been like living at the North Pole! I don't foresee a "thaw" for at least several more weeks :)  I figured I could just go back to the store and buy him another pair in his size. Well, guess what?  They didn't have any in the store or online in his size.  I then tried two other stores (I went in person and tried online) and the only pajamas with feet they carried only went up to size 6.  Dominic needs at least an 8.  I gave up looking for pajamas with feet for him and ended up buying a two-piece pajama set on the clearance rack of all places!  Even finding that was a challenge since...

One thing that I have found as I travel through this life, is that a positive attitude will get you a lot further than a negative one.  Are you happier if you surround yourself with positive people? or with negative people?  I don't know about you, but I try and keep positive people around me!!  While it's good to know the proper time and place to be serious, I think it's also good to be able to laugh at yourself.  A perfect example - this past Saturday night, Lauren and I were on our way back from a school event that was more than an hour and a half away from home.  It was way past dinnertime and she and I were pretty hungry.  If we would have waited until we got home, it would have been almost 10 p.m.  We had many options and decided to hop off the highway and go to a Burger King. We both ordered and then got back in the car and continued home.  I don't know what I was thinking, but I got a Whopper.  That is one big hamburger!  It was ...

The part of the country where we live had a massive ice storm shortly before Christmas. The ice was followed by a huge snowstorm that shut down the schools for Lauren and Dominic until this past Thursday.      I think this is the first time in the 12 years we have lived here that Lauren and Dominic have missed three days in a row of school (not counting the Friday before Christmas that Dominic was also off for the impending ice storm that was coming).  My hubby's office was also closed on Monday and Tuesday, which is unheard of too!  Between the holiday break, ice storm and snowstorm, my whole "gang" was home for the better part of three weeks. The temperatures were subzero for part of that time, so you really couldn't go outside.  I parked our van in the driveway and there was actually ice on the inside of the windows!! Now, that's cold!!!!!!! The picture below of Dominic sitting on the snowdrif...

A few months ago, Lauren said, "hey, mom, did you know you have a rip in your jeans?"  She was standing behind me and saw a one inch rip near my back pocket.  I had no clue that it was ripped, but I did know I had worn those jeans ALL DAY ! Yikes.  How long do you wait to buy something as basic as a pair of new socks for yourself? Do you wait like I do until you have big holes???  For most of 2013, I knew that I wanted to get my hair cut because it had gotten pretty long.  Every time I thought about it seriously, I would get side tracked and something always seemed to come up.  While some ladies can pull off having long hair at age 50, I had come to the conclusion that I wasn't one of them! I decided at the beginning of December that I was just going to go for it and have eleven inches taken off. What did I need with almost an extra foot of hair??????  I was beginning to look like Rapunzel :) I wanted to be able to donate my hair to charity in h...

There was a time (in the not so distant past), when we would have to do pretty much everything for Dominic, like telling him when to eat, drink, get him dressed, etc.  I can remember when he learned how to button his shirt and zip up his own jacket - I was overwhelmed with emotion. Right before the holiday break, Dominic's class went to a movie theater and also bought snacks with their own money.  I was so excited when I heard his class was doing that, because he had never been to see a movie in a theater, much less purchase his own snacks.  Earlier this week, I was making myself a ham omelette and asked Dominic if he wanted a piece of ham.  He came over, took one look and said, "good bye, ham!" I love that he was able to tell me how he felt, plus with the added bonus of being a junior comedian :)  Thursday night, I was upstairs and I heard Dominic say "milk" downstairs.  I then heard my husband say, "do you want some milk??"  Dominic said "yes....

Now that Lauren has heard back from all the colleges that she applied to, there are decisions to be made in the next few months.  We do know this for sure, she will not be commuting to school - she will be living on campus at least one hour or more away, depending on which school she chooses.  Dominic is very used to having Lauren around.  Her leaving for college will be a HUGE adjustment for him.   We got a little "preview" of what it will be like when she leaves our "nest."  Her best friend has been visiting her this week from out of town and we have barely seen Lauren.  With Lauren having her own car, she and her friend have been able to take themselves wherever they have needed to go.  Yesterday, Dominic was wondering where she was.  I told him that she was going to a sleepover and we wouldn't be seeing her again until Friday.  He said, "good night La-La," even though she wasn't here because he is used to her giving him a kiss every...

As I was sitting and waiting a few weeks ago to get some routine blood work done, it was really hard to not overhear a conversation going on about ten feet from where I was sitting.  One of the scheduling clerks was talking to a lady who was probably at least my age about her mammogram.  They talked for quite a while about insurance issues.  When it came time for the scheduling clerk to ask the lady when her previous mammogram was, she said something along the lines of, "I've never had one, I've been too afraid to ever get one." Unfortunately, that's not the first time I have ever heard someone say that.  I have an exam that a lot of people feel embarrassed to get or even talk about, scheduled for the middle of January. It starts with a "c" and ends with a "y."  How many of you ladies out there get routine physicals and see your dentist at least once a year? Do you put it off? Our bodies are like a car that needs to be "maintained."  ...