bountifulplate

This past Friday night, we decided to go to Culver's , one of our favorite restaurants in town. While we were eating, a gentleman that worked there came over and said, "did you order a grilled cheese sandwich? our registers have been ringing them up, even if a customer didn't order it." I told him that we hadn't, and he handed me $2.00 (the amount of the overcharge). We had been so hungry, that I hadn't even noticed that on our receipt, there was an extra charge. How many restaurants would do that? Go out of their way to give customers money back? Since Lauren was home this weekend from college, we spent all of yesterday afternoon picking up things that she needed to take back with her. I was "armed" with many coupons (of course) and at JC Penney , I used a 20% off coupon. When the price rang up, it seemed really low, but I thought maybe it was on sale more and I hadn't noticed. After leaving the store, I took a look at my receipt and was tellin...

Dominic has been a busy young man this summer. He went to summer school and music therapy. He turned 10 years old in July. We went on a car trip back to Maryland to visit his big brother and other family and friends at the end of July. He has been going inside our church for Mass, started private speech therapy with a new speech therapist and helped move Lauren into college! We also had to say good-bye to Miss Amber, his awesome music therapist. She taught Dominic so much and we are really going to miss her!!! Dominic starts next Wednesday with a new music therapist, so we are happy that he will be able to continue! Dominic is heading to a new school next week, so we went back to visit Mr. Paul yesterday at his old school.  It didn't seem to confuse Dominic at all visiting his old classroom. As soon as we got there, he took off his socks and shoes and made himself at home :)  I've told Mr. Paul before that he is young enough to be my son (he is younger than...

When I heard Dominic singing the ABC's the other day, it sounded unusual. I realized after he said them a few times, that he was singing them from Z-A, not A-Z! It totally blew my mind when he did it, so that's why I grabbed my camera and recorded him!  My brother and his family gave Dominic a 500-piece puzzle for his birthday. While that may sound like too many pieces for the average 10-year old to do by himself, Dominic has been doing puzzles with 500 pieces or more for several years.  He will sit sometimes for an hour or more while working on a puzzle, which given Dominic also has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), astounds me. Yesterday, I finally put a picture from his First Holy Communion into the awesome frame his godmother gave him and put it up on our mantelpiece.  He went over, looked at it and said, "First Holy Communion, May 3, St. John's Church, had bread, had pizza!" No where on the picture did it say the date or the locatio...

With Lauren starting her first day of college classes today, I can't help but think back to when she was four and just starting preschool.  Since my whole life up until that time had revolved around taking care of her, I was at a loss as to what to do with myself. To say it was a hard "adjustment" would be an understatement! Yesterday afternoon about 4:00 or so, Lauren said she had some free time and asked if we could Skype. I was hoping we could chat later after dinner (when the hubby would be here), but Lauren said she was going to church, then eating dinner, playing tennis, hanging out with her new friends, etc. One thing I've already discovered about having a kid in college, you have to be available when they are to chat, not the other way around!! To me, it feels like Lauren is on a long sleepover. To her, she told me it feels like "camp." Well, she is sleeping in a bunk bed! I was concerned (and so was Lauren) as to how Dominic would handle all of...

Well, it's been 24 hours since we dropped our one and only daughter off at college. When I was touching base with her this morning and was asking Dominic if he wanted to tell her anything, his response was, "tell Lauren to get up!" He was her "back-up" alarm clock when she would oversleep :)  I have asked him a handful of times throughout the day where she is and he keeps telling me, "Lauren's room!"  When we were eating lunch with Lauren yesterday, I pulled out a piece of paper and a pen and helped Dominic compose a note to her. Somehow, I forgot to give it to her before we left. When we were saying good-bye to Lauren in her room, the hubby said, "group hug!'  He has asked me a handful of times since yesterday, "I wonder how she is doing?" Today, after lunch, I fell asleep and took a nap. I think it was a delayed reaction to all the moving yesterday. Lauren lives on the fourth floor of her dorm and there is no ele...

Dominic had his first private speech therapy session this past Monday with Miss M. She has started working with him on being able to express his feelings better and gave us a picture chart that shows the following:  happy, sad, mad, sick, tired and scared. Each day, I have to "capture" how he is feeling and record it in a notebook. Miss M. will ultimately use the information to help Dominic verbalize why he feels a certain emotion. Yesterday, I asked him, "where is Lauren going next week?" He said, "college." Lauren then asked him, "do you want me to stay here or go to college?" Dominic's response was, "stay here!!" Lauren was just eight years old when Dominic was born, so she has always been around to help "carry" him through the past ten years. This summer, in particular, I have seen their relationship get even closer. This morning, as Dominic was getting ready for his last day of summer school, he said, ...

We recently went to visit a family friend (Uncle M.) at his apartment.  This particular friend became blind as a baby and wears sunglasses and uses a walking cane. In the over 20+ years I have known him, I don't remember him ever once complaining about it or feeling sorry for himself. In fact, he is one of the most independent men I have ever met!  He is the sweetest man ever and the hubby and I think of him as a brother and the "kids" think of him as an uncle. Uncle M. has owned his own place for over 20 years, has a full-time job in Washington, DC (he takes the subway), has tons of friends, a girlfriend and can play the drums (he played at our wedding). Anyways, Dominic made himself at home and started running around in the apartment. We were telling him to stop, but it wasn't until Uncle M. told him, "be careful buddy!" that he actually did. Since we were visiting around dinner time, we were debating whether to go out or order carry-out. We opted to go ou...

Since I do about 95% of the cooking and 100% of the baking around my house, it is sometimes easy to get stuck in a "rut" and make the same things over and over again. I used to be of the mind that you to had follow a recipe EXACTLY as directed.  Since starting my food blog over 2 1/2 years ago, I have definitely become more adventurous and will "experiment" with new recipes, substituting ingredients or sometimes leaving out a certain ingredient entirely. I make tacos fairly frequently, but if you can believe it, up until a few months ago, I had never made fajitas! They are so easy to make, especially if you use a seasoning packet. Anyways, since I was planning on making steak fajitas for dinner last night, I decided that I wanted to try and make my own salsa to have as an appetizer. I pulled out our blender, chopped up some red peppers I had in our fridge and then went to the pantry and grabbed a can of both black beans and stewed tomatoes. Next, it was on to addi...

After getting back from a nine-day vacation this past Sunday evening, I knew that when I heard Dominic still talking at 12:30 a.m. yesterday morning, it would be really hard to wake him up for summer school. Sure enough, it was. When he finally came downstairs at about 7:15 a.m., he went straight to the front of the fridge where he keeps his magnetic letters. For the past several weeks, as soon as he wakes up, he will put the current month and day on the fridge. He put up the date and it said Tuesday, August 15th. I told him that it was the 5th of August and he started crying and yelling at me for probably about ten full minutes. I didn't say anything to him, because I didn't want to acknowledge how he was acting towards me. I kept right on making his lunch since his bus comes about 7:45-7:50 a.m. After about five minutes, he looked at me and said, "Sorry, mom."  I liked that he "owned up" to how he treated me and I accepted his apology. According to the Mer...