Race for the Cure and the best Mommy and Me weekend!

I will admit one of my biggest flaws here and now. I try really hard not to anticipate anything as not to have disappointment later. I cope, but I can't say I deal well with something not living-up to the expectations I envisioned. So I learned a long time ago, if you set the bar lower, that your chances of disappointment are decreased. Twisted, I know. I said I cope, I didn't say I was right. I do what works for me. I do something similar with Sidney but it's that we do most things as a surprise in case we can't do what we said we were going to do. Now that she's older, we can start letting her in on the plans without worry of waterworks.

I said that to say this: I did not build up this weekend to be much of anything. Sidney and I were to drive to Benton to stay with my brother and sister-in-law. Most likely dinner and a little goof time before going to bed and get up a little early to drive into Little Rock for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. The troop was slated to be in the parade at 9:30 so we had to meet at 9:00. After the parade, I was to meet up with my sister-in-law and we were going to have lunch and mani/pedis. All of the plans were to change throughout the weekend, but that is the great thing about expectations: when you have none it's easy to be flux.

I left work early on Friday to get the mini-me from school. We hit the craft store to get the supplies for the poster, ran to the gas station to fuel up, and then went to another to use the restroom and get snacks. (The one I purchase gas from has only a kiosk, so we have to go elsewhere for grindage.) Once the tank was full and the bladders were empty, we hit the road. This was the first trip the girl and I have been on without Dad. We've stayed at my mother's house before, but that's just 30 minutes away. This was two hours away and in a city. We were on an adventure of epic proportions. Sidney discovered that she likes Nacho Cheese Bugles but doesn't like Bacon and Cheddar Potato Skins. Yellow car and Slug-Bug is a lot easier to play on the interstate. Truckers will honk their horn if your sitting in front and the windows aren't limo-tint, if there's not a lot of traffic, and if it isn't in the middle of a curve. She found out the meaning of exponentially, and also what an exponent is, so I guess we're ahead of the curve when it gets to that point in math class. She saw her first full-sky sunset. Living on the Ridge and in the woods hampers some things. We made it to Logan's Roadhouse where my daughter mastered the art of dropping a peanut from her nose and landing on a bulls-eye target. She annihilated her popcorn shrimp and drank all of my tea with my Truvia. I have created a monster with that one. Once we got to her aunt and uncle's house, it was time for her to dress for bed and then we started on the poster. I drew out the lettering and smeared the glue. She glittered it and placed the stickers. [see photo gallery] I contemplated not bothering to try to sleep once I laid down. When I found out I didn't have a box fan in my room I knew I was doomed!!! I downloaded an app for white noise that put my daughter to sleep almost instantly. I, however, was filled with anxiety that the alarm clock wouldn't go off on my phone while the white-noise machine was playing. That kept my conscious and sub-conscious working overtime.

When 5:15 came around, I got up and started getting ready since the meeting time cranked back to 7:00 and at the hotel instead of downtown. (I have to say I am REAAAAALLLLYYYY glad this change happened. We would have never found them otherwise.) I got her up about 10 minutes later with the threat of not going if she didn't drag her keister out of bed. I don't do well with repeated pleas for getting up especially when it is that person's event is why I am out of bed and why I am getting them out of bed. Thirty minutes later, we're attempting to load directions onto my phone to get us out of the neighborhood and onto I-30 by way of an eating establishment and a Starbucks, preferably. My phone kept locking up. It took nearly ten minutes to get it to load the directions to the hotel. I was getting frantic at this point, but we made it. Got to the overpass, saw McDonalds, went over the interstate to get there and somehow missed the turn to get there and ended up at a gas station. No big loss, "top 'er off," I thought and in the mean-time figure out how to get over there to McD's. I busted a U, on the other side of the overpass and tried again. I'm not sure either move I made to get into the parking lot was legal, but at 6:30 in the morning on a Saturday and I am running a little behind is not the time to question it. We nixed the Starbucks for a me a coffee from the Arches and a couple of McMuffins; the girl got o.j. We were on our way. I called the troop leader to let her know we were enroute, but might be a few minutes late to which she replied there were still some eating breakfast so there wasn't any danger in my missing the bus. It took no time at all to get there since there's not a whole lot of traffic on the interstate on a sleepy Saturday morning. I can see why she changed the time because the line for the shuttle was crowded. The bus couldn't carry very many people at a time, so it was taking a lot of time for transport. We voted for walking since it was just a mile and I believe we made it there before the ones on the shuttle did! We also had fun during the walk.

I have been in crowds before. Trying to get a good vantage point to see the fireworks at Disney is a crush, but I have never seen that many people in one place that were in such good spirits and so many of them were genuinely nice. The spirit of the day was prolific throughout the crowd and it seemed that we were all sisters (and a few brothers for support.) The costumes ranged from hysterical to phenomenal. Some were down right scary. The common theme was PINK. The number of birds that died for that day were innumerable; feathers were everywhere. I was sincerely glad someone picked blue for our shirt color when it was time to try to work our way through the crowd. We put tattoos on the girls' faces for the only decoration. There were some that had no part of their body unadorned. All of the pink aside, we were there for a reason. We got to witness the profound stories of survival and tragedy. How there are new generations alive today because the mother/grandmother survived breast cancer. How a thirteen year old is still alive because she heard the recommendations for self-examinations and found a lump. This is why millions of people participate in this foundation. Fighting for awareness, fighting for survival, fighting for a cure. To see this in person gains perspective that one cannot garner from watching on television or in print. If you have not been affected by breast cancer in your immediate family or your circle of friends, statistically speaking you will. Taking the girls to the race made an impression on me and I hope that it will make one on them as well. I know that we will be there next year and we will be IN the race, not just in the parade. I wonder if we could get a sponsor for this trip?

By the time we were through with the parade, to say we were tired would be an understatement. On our immediate agenda was to figure out where and when we were to meet up with our kinfolk. She was in the midst of her own function with Jr. League and incommunicado. The last message we had with each other was that she would be done not at 1:00 as originally anticipated, but closer to 11:30 and we would eat lunch together. I looked up her facebook page to see if she posted her exact location and merely got Scott St. I took this opportunity to drive around downtown and we stumbled on the capitol building. Since I had never been up close to the building and neither has she, I drove us by there and snapped a couple of pictures. It was after that we saw Starbucks with a drive-thru and picked up a couple frappachinos. We then made a couple more loops around downtown and went across both bridges (not the interstate one) and managed to see just about every point of interest there was to see. We eventually parked to wait for her to get through and then we went the backroads back to Benton which is where my mini-me saw her other "first" and it was a plane dragging a banner advertising for StateFarm. Another first was she saw her first complete sunrise. It apparently was meaningful for her because she said it was the first time she has ever seen the sun rise from complete darkness.

All in all, the trip was so much more than what I expected and not just because I have low expectations. I can't express how it feels to have shared this weekend with my daughter. Every mother loves to see her daughter's firsts. But when it's the first time that she gets to be proactive in the cure for cancer, one cannot express that no matter how many words in your vocabulary.

Money Doesn't Grow on Trees and other Momisms

You know you are no longer a kid when Momisms are no longer roll-your-eyes cliches but are actual truisms. I think I can tell you the exact point in my life when I realized life was no longer going to be a box of chocolates. I was in high school and I was accused of something completely embarrassing and was banned from an establishment solely because of my association with another person I thought was a friend. It was that moment I realized the meaning of "You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas." I didn't apply this knowledge until much later in my life.

Money doesn't grow on trees was alternated with I'm not made of money, which they stopped using when our fear of our parents was overcome by the overwhelming urge to be a smartaleck and asked them if we could have either an arm or a leg. The leg would probably have more value. The older we got the less they used the mom and dadisms and I figure it is because we were all rather sarcastic. Since I was the baby of the bunch and was mercilessly bullied, I had to develop my skills and timing. My problem was I forgot to engage the filter of when to NOT quip. I learned that finally after a few unneeded arguments and a couple of fisticuffs. I probably have left some people with the urge to repeal the law against murder! I am trying to get it into my kids' heads the meaning of this one is that not only does one have to work for what you want, that nothing is free. Anything worth having is worth working hard for to have. It's harder for me to get it through to my son than my daughter. My son's bio-dad is given everything he wants from his parents without having to work for anything. His mother moved out of her house to allow him and his family to move in, and she bought a trailer instead. She was not in the position to do so with just retiring and her house and truck were completely paid off. History suggests she was encouraged to do so by her son. MY son was given a truck by the same woman after my reasoning against it was dismissed. There is no reason to have a vehicle if you haven't the means to pay for it, and since he doesn't have a job, there was not a reason to have a truck, no?!? I have told my son several times that if you want something like that, you have to work for it, so get a job and you can have it. Two years later and no job. So his dad is stuck paying for his insurance and is now thoroughly ticked at me for not helping. Yeah, I'm okay with that. With my daughter, I have told her "Happiness is not having what you want. It is wanting what you have," as quoted by Rabbi Hyman Schachtel. Stop wanting everything you see. Sometimes, what we want is something we already have an abundance of at home.

My favorite is "No use crying over spilled milk." You've heard it other places such as in the Lion King, "It doesn't matter, it's in the past. Yes, the past does hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it." I think this is the most important lesson of all my kids need to learn. You need not worry about what mistakes you have made, but you need to work on not making them again. Learn from those mistakes. Figure out what happened to cause it. What choices have which consequences? Everything is cause and effect and when we learn this, we can learn to be happy, healthy, successful, and productive members of society. And this is exactly what we all wish for our kids to be.

Easy Biscuits

I spent most of my life trying to duplicate my mother's biscuits. I even worked at a national fast food chain that was renowned for its biscuits and learned the fine art of biscuit making in the meantime. I have taken the acquired knowledge and applied it with this recipe that I found and am now sharing with you. I have tried many other recipes, but this one seems to be the one that really works! Light, fluffy and tall biscuits every time if you follow the directions. There are do's and don'ts on biscuits.

• Don't twist the biscuit cutter

• Don't over mix the dough

• Try not to use your hands to mix any more than you have to

• Don't roll the dough too thin or thick (1/2" to 1" is the best)  Too thick and they won't cook all the way and too thin and they will be hockey pucks.

• Do use cold milk

• Do use cold fats

• Do allow the dough to rest for a minute before rolling and before baking once they have been cut

• Do apply an oil of some sort to the tops of the biscuits after cutting. 

• When cutting the butter and shortening into the flour, I grab a handful of mix and smear the mix in between my fingers...breaking up the size of the fats. The directions say to make it look like meal, but it is impossible to break it up that small and keep the fats cold. Just make sure you don't have large bits of butter or shortening and it is thoroughly mixed. 

• I use a cutting mat to knead and roll my dough. It makes clean-up super fast and easy and I can turn the mat when rolling the dough for an even rolling. 

Another great tip I discovered is for those of us that don't keep buttermilk around the house, use mix half a cup of sour cream and half a cup of milk. The sour cream will add significant moisture and flavor.

The tip for the oil on the top of the biscuits: Use non-stick spray. The brand I use is just canola oil and therefore spray is the perfect application tool. There are butter flavor sprays, but I am a purist, so we use real butter.

Best Easy Biscuits

2 c flour
4 t baking powder
1/4 t baking soda
3/4 t salt
2 T butter (cut the butter into small pieces)
2 T shortening
1 c buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450

In a large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients. Using your fingers, rub the butter and shortening into the flour until it becomes mealy. Don't spend too much time on this as you don't want the fats to melt. Stir in the milk until the dough has just come together. Do not over-mix.

Turn dough onto floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold dough over itself (see diagram). Press into 1/2" to 1" thick and cut biscuits with 2" cutter.  Place biscuits on baking sheet so they are touching, lightly coat top with oil of choice Bake 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Rub a stick of butter over the top of hot biscuits.

Boiled Cookies

I have had people ask me all this week what these are and they had no clue. They are also known as No Bake Cookies, Mississippi Mud Cookies and I have no idea the other colloquial name for them. They are a combination of fudge and oatmeal cookies. They are very decadent and if you get the boil just right, the sugar isn't grainy. I decided to share the recipe with every one so they can see how entirely simple they are to make and might attempt them for themselves. This is a perfect recipe for a teen to try but since the mixture is like molten lava, I would supervise anyone under 13.

1 3/4 c white sugar
1/2 c milk
1/2 c butter
4 T cocoa powder
1/2 c crunchy peanut butter
3 c quick cook oats
1 t vanilla extract

Combine the first four ingredients and bring to a boil. From the point of boil, time it for one and a half minutes. Remove from the heat, stir in the peanut butter and vanilla and then add the oats. Drop by a small scoop or tablespoons onto wax paper. Work quickly because it cools fairly quickly. Allow to cool completely. Serves 36. Time 45 minutes might take longer to cool.

Early Saturdays

I usually love to sleep in on Saturdays. I would say just about every Saturday will find our household still under the covers at 9:30 or even 10:00 am. I think it's good to recoup the lost sleep from the prior week so I encourage it in my children. But there are some Saturdays I love to be the first one out of bed and get into the living room with the laptop, TV on really low and only the glow of the monitor and television to light the way. This morning's early revelry was spurred by the requirement of laundry needing to be completed along with a "laundry list" of other things that have to be accomplished today. Let's see, I have to finish the laundry, cut Jason's hair, take the kids to see The Lion King, not to mention a trip to the store somewhere in the midst of this, oh and a three meals for four people. Since we are on a tight budget, we eat only at the house so this will be a challenge. Jason has to wash his car and then visit his parents sometime today as well. Busy Busy Busy! I wouldn't trade it for anything.