bountifulplate

When I moved to this area over 13 years ago, I knew absolutely nobody . I remember going to PTO meetings at Lauren's school and literally saying, "hi, I just moved here!" Think back to high school - wasn't it REALLY important to have friends? Well, in my opinion, as we get older, I think having friends are even MORE important.  So, what does it take to make and keep friends? Honesty and loyalty are my two top criteria. I want a friend that always has my "back." They are always looking out for your best interests, will tell you if you have spinach in your two front teeth and will never hesitate to think you are an amazing baker!! My husband's name for me is "Honest Abe," yes, like Abraham Lincoln. I can not tell a lie, that's why I don't play poker!  A good friend will always be loyal to you 100% of the time, not just sometimes or when it suits them, but ALL the time. To keep friends, we need to offer support and keep an interes...

This morning, I saw a video that an Autism mom had posted on Facebook . After I watched it, I had two emotions - sad and mad. This particular mom had listened to a famous comedian on the radio who decided that it would be hilarious to make a special needs person part of his jokes. It's taken me a few hours to settle down enough to write this post. First of all, it is NEVER acceptable to make fun of special needs children or adults. Those children and adults have families and when you crack jokes, it hurts those families.  I felt physically sick this morning after hearing what this comedian had said. Second, there are many, many non-verbal children and adults out there. Back when Dominic had less language, he would sometimes say, "oh, oh," because he was trying to talk. I had someone ask me once in a sarcastic and negative tone of voice, "what does oh, oh, mean?!?!?!?!" After about 15 seconds of composing myself, I calmly looked this gentleman square in the...

When I was growing up, there was a couple that lived right next door to us, MaryAnn and Harold. We were not related by "blood," but by "love." This is a picture from my 18th birthday and MaryAnn and Harold are standing behind me. My little sister is to the right of me :)       The "door" to their house was always "open," and she loved to bake!!  It was a sad day when they moved to Iowa, but I did manage to visit a few times!  A few months back, I found part of a card that had a message from MaryAnn. It was from the Christmas of 1995. She had wrote a note on part of the card. I guess I'm a bit of an "antique," because even though I communicate by e-mail a lot, I still think handwritten notes are pretty cool :) That must have been why I saved this particular one! She was telling us that she, "hoped it was one of the very best and wished she could be with us to help celebrate." MaryAnn and her husband had a ve...

Last Saturday, Dominic had a session with his private speech therapist. We had not seen her since January, due to circumstances beyond our control. I wasn't quite sure how he would do, given it had been so long since he had seen her. He definitely didn't have very good eye contact with her, but during the session he did say, "I love you, mommy!" Okay, tissue moment #1 (for both her and I ) . Getting Dominic potty trained was definitely one of the biggest parenting challenges I have ever faced. Even though he is heading towards being 11 years old, we still have to "prompt" him to use the toilet every 2-3 hours. I'm ecstatic that he will go "on command," but in the back of my mind, I know he needs to be able to recognize that "feeling" of needing to go. Well, in the past week, he has told me three separate times that he had to go! Yep, tissue moment #2 .     Dominic has been to a barber shop a grand total of two times in...

Exactly one month from today, Lauren will be done with her freshman year of college classes and preparing for Finals . Good grief, didn't she just graduate from high school?!?!?!   What's that old saying? Time flies? Yikes, it's been moving at breakneck speed lately! I have to admit, it's been hard not to be able to see Lauren in person every day. I don't think, even now, in the middle of March, that I am "used" to it. I know that Dominic really misses his sister.  He said, "La-La" (his nickname for her) no less than 25 times last week. I think it's still hard for him to wrap his mind around the fact she isn't around. Lauren and her older brother are close and on our recent trip to Jamaica, he taught her how to snorkel. It has been awesome to watch Lauren "grow" this first year of college.  She has "bloomed" like a beautiful flower and I couldn't be more proud. Keep up the good work, my sweet girl!...

Shortly after Christmas, we decided to go on a family vacation to Jamaica during Lauren's spring break from college. We used a travel website that booked our hotel rooms as well as our airline reservations. I told my husband that he had to make sure either he or I were sitting next to Dominic for all four flights (we had connecting flights both going and coming back through Charlotte, North Carolina). Imagine my surprise, when we received our seat assignments for the airline flights and they had booked only one flight out of the four with one of us sitting next to Dominic. Maybe there are some 10-year old boys out there that would be okay being separated from their families, I knew Dominic would not be okay. I would rather not mention which airline we flew on, but I will tell you, it was not United .  The hubby said, "don't worry about it, we'll wait until the day we leave and I'm sure we can get someone to switch with us!" Um, no. I looked at him and sa...

Back in the middle of February, I flew back to Maryland by myself. Since my mom went into a skilled nursing facility this past December, my dad is now alone at home. It's been kind of hard on him, because growing up, my mom did about 99.9% of the cooking for our family. I talk to my dad every evening, but it's still not the same as being there in person. My dad and I have always been very close. He coached me in soccer and walked me down the aisle when I married my husband. When I was going to college at night and wanted many times to give up, my dad would say,"Cathy, keep going, your college degree is something that you will always have and no one can ever take that away from you." My dad and I share a "love" for meatloaf. Whenever I tell him that I have made one for my family, he'll say, "can you put some in an envelope and mail it to me?" Of course, meatloaf  is ALWAYS on the "menu" when I come into town. It takes me just a ...