Random New Years Eve Thought

Has anyone ever been curious about the Tree of Life? Well I have. While doing some research I have noticed that just about every country has their own meaning behind the Tree of Life. Well my thought on the Tree of Life besides the obvious, that being that it is beautiful, is that I can see why there are so many meanings.

Well my meaning is a simplistic one. I believe that the roots of the tree are our beginning from birth, to our early years such as childhood up to the ending of the teen years. Boy does that cover a lot lol. Then there is the trunk. The trunk is big and strong and holds things together. This is where things become clearer to us and our futures and careers are shaped. So much goes on and many years are covered in this section. Then there are the branches that weren't so strong that broke and landed on the ground. What do they symbolize? They symbolize the lessons we have learned along the way of this journey called life. They are some friends that we may have cherished and lost along the way, family members who are no longer with us, relationships that were once great that are no longer. They are those opportunities you didn't seize they are the past but, they are memories that you will always have whether good or bad. Then there are the branches that are strong and still apart of the tree. Those are the new ties, new bonds, new relationships, new friends, new opportunities. They are all things that continue to nurture us on our journey of life. They are also the lasting imprint that we will leave for all to remember us by. I am going to try in any free time to do a little more research on the tree of life but, one thing is for sure I am happy with my description of what the tree of life holds for me.

Above are two pics of the Tree of Life.

Peeved

Okay, once again it is on its way to reac havoc amongst those of us who live in good ole Massachusetts. The white cold stuff another 3 to 6 inches due here tomorrow. What the hell. I wanna be dropped on an island over looking the beach with a comfy hammock. Anyone interested in getting me to this destination may contact me ASAP. LOL. As many of you know we got dumped with 16 inches yes I said 16 did not studder did not miss a beat of the crappy white stuff about two weeks ago. AWWWW but its so pretty, NOT. Okay maybe the first or two but then enough is enough. Okay enough ranting and raving about the unpleasantness of New England life in the winter. The pics are from the first snowstorm that hit us with 16 inches and then the other two pics are of some area lights and displays in local neighborhoods.

Sunset from the other Night

I will try and come up with a poem or haiku for these absolutely beautiful sunset pics!

Happy New Years

Just want to wish everyone a Happy and Safe New years! Mine will be very low key. The kids usually have friends over. I made a confetti ball and got them 2008 paper eyeglasses and noisemakers last year and ofcourse goodies and we rented some movies. I think this year will probably be the same. So whatever it is that you all do to have fun remember moderation, don't let friends drive drunk, designated driver, and Welcome 2009!!!

I believe *Sunday Scribblings Post*

I believe

I believe in all that is good.
I believe in love at first site.

I believe in destiny
I belive in faith, hope, and love.

I believe that there are soulmates.
I believe there is niceness in all of us.

I believe in helping out when and where I can.
I believe that laughter is the best medicine.

I believe that it takes less muscles to smile than it does to frown.
I believe that kids make a difference, and I truly believe they are our future.

I believe everyone has a story, regardless how silly or sad, or unbelievable.
I believe things happen for a reason.

I believe love can bring you together.
I believe that just being goofey is wonderful.

I believe in the stars and moons
I believe in happiness to all.

Late A sunday Scribblings Prompt

Late

Where can I be

I was on my way

one sign leading me here

the other leading me there.

Help me

I left in the day

I thought I was near

the question now is do I dare

to turn there or where?

Today was a day

I thought I knew my way

at this rate

I will be late!

Okay not sure if I have mentioned it before or not but, if I have again I am going to repeat myself which is nothing new in the day and the life of a mom. So here goes. The girls decided we are going to do a three color tree theme next year. The colors picked are Pink, Purple and Blue. So today we went out and got a little head start on some cool ornaments. For the pink catagory we got a brite pink VW Bug that Lexi picked. I have always wanted one of those cars lol. Then for Ryan we picked out a snowman decked out in his New England Patriots gear, we got some cool purplish looking disco type beaded garland, and then I picked out a rustic looking snowmen with a purple tint. Also got a Santa key which will not be on the tree but will be placed by the cookies and milk.

Now for the people who are not familiar with the legend of the pickle. The legend of the pickle basically originated in Germany. They used to hide the pickle within the bows of the tree and the person to find it was the most observant and would recieve and extra present. Well Lexi found it. So I gave her five dollars. So when we were out shopping she took her five dollars and bought a new white webkinz kitty.

Merry Christmas

Just wanted to take the time to say Merry Christmas to all my blogging buddies and all the people who are nice enough to stop here and read my continual nonsensical babble lol. Yes I said nonsensical. WHATEVER!!!

Today is a great Christmas Day. The kids awoke at 7:30 okay the girls did Ryan did not wake until 10:00. The girls were wide eyed and happy with their gifts. I got to rock out with one of the newest gift which is Guitar Hero Aerosmith edition for the Wii fun game I guess I have to learn to be more coordinated or Aerosmith will not be taken me on tour anytime soon. The kids are excellent on it. Our house has anything from dinosaurs to video games to princess wear to art gear. Great day.

We were not traditional meal wise. The kids said they wanted mom to not cook a regular Christmas dinner this year they wanted Chinese food, didn't have to twist my arm for that one lol. So chinese food it was and got to say pretty darn good. During lunch Grandma got run over by a reindeer came on and it made us all really miss Grampy my dad. Ummm no he did not get run over by a reindeer lol he passed away from cancer. That was one of his fave Christmas songs. This is our second Christmas without him and we all miss him so much. This was our first Christmas without Grammy my mom who moved to Alabama last February. My mom and I got to say how much we missed each other first thing this morning. She will have a good day though she will be at my sisters with some of my nieces, nephews, great nieces and nephews, and their boyfriends and husbands.

I also took time to watch The Christmas Shoes, early this morning. Yes I cried like a baby as I do when I watch an emotional movie but this one just moves me to pieces. Starring Kimberly Williams and Rob Lowe. I will leave the link to youtube for the song for those of you who are not familiar with it. Absolutely beautiful. You may have to copy and paste it in your browser cause I have no luck with the link feature on this blog site lol. Once again Merry Christmas to all of you!!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNsvE33pRSw

The Princess Turns 6

Today is a very special day in my household. My youngest daughter, turns 6!

She started her day with a great big Happy Birthday from me and a hug and kiss. Then we had breakfast with the other sisters while lil brother Ryan slept in. Today was also the last day of school before the holiday break begins. So she ate breakfast then I surprised her with a Birthday Princess sash, tiara, and wand and two hair extensions one yellow and one multicolor with the yellow in it. Wedo kinda like yedo you know has evolved quite nicely into yellow over the years her fave color. I ordered the class pizza and she had a great day. She came home and I made her fave meal spaghetti and meatieballs lol and then her cupcakes adorned with what else but chocolate chips and peanutbutter chips lol. She got her Barbie castle and is in her glories. Her party for all her classmates will be held first weekend of January.

5 Favorite Things about Christmas

I got this lovely award from http://roseysposey.blogspot.com, and she’s asked me to write about my favourite Christmas things. I stopped at 5 although I could have gone on for pages!First I have to explain the rules* You must be a true Christmas lover to receive this award* the person to whom you give the award must also be in love with Christmas* you must link back to the person who gave you the award* you must list 5 things that you love about Christmas. if you can’t limit it to 5 things, then keep going till you run out of space!* pass the award along to as many people as you like. That can be 1 or 50. It’s up to you. But, you must pass it one to at least one person in order to keep the Christmas cheer going!* Let your recipients know that you have tagged them by leaving them a comment.

Okay well it is true that I do love Christmas and here are my reasons:

1. Being with my kids and family ofcourse. I love the joy and expression on the kids face Christmas morning and the couple of weeks leading up to it. I have made a twenty five day chain done in red and green links that each day they pull one link off this will let them know how many more days till Christmas they love it!

2. I love all the decorations, and light displays. Love to see how everyone decorates and gets into the spirit of things.

3. Love watching all the great holiday movies. Especially the classics like Nat'l Lampoon's Christmas vacation, A christmas Story, Miracle on 34th street, and ofcourse the animated classics.

4. I love to bake and cook so what better reason than for the holiday. Everyone loves dessert and I love to make it. So come on over and dig in.

5. I also love that it only comes once a year. It makes the day and the season of it all just so much more special. So here is wishing all my blogging buddies and readers of my blog a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Thanks Rosey for this lovely award and now I want to pass this award on to Keith, I know how much he loves the holiday as well. Cheers.

Is There a Dentist In The House?

One of the best times about the holidays is ofcourse the food the baking in my case. I love to cook but really really love to bake. Did I say really? Well today I premade gingerbread boys and girls, gingerbread trees and ginger bread snowmen. I had these ready for when the kids came home from school all I had to do was ice them so they could sprinkle them with the colored sugar that I made in put in baggies. I colored them a neonish yellow, a evergreen color, a burgandy, pink, purple, and blue. They used mini meltaways that have a minty taste from Hickory Farms for eyes and buttons too darn cute. Needless to say I think the cookies weigh a pound from the sugar and the candies that were placed atop of them to adorn their cuteness lol. So is there a dentist who wants to work pro bono after the holidays lmao? If so you know who to contact. So here are the before pics and then the after pics. Ryan helped Mom and his sisters decorate one and only one. Sensory issues again are a tough thing for him and the stickiness from the frosting was enough to thoroughly upset him. Oh well. Enough babbling.

Riddle me This?

Okay I want to know by the show of hands class lmao, how many of you have ever heard of the "Master Cleanse Diet" or have heard and tried it? Yeah right you know you have atleast heard of it.

So let me tell you about this diet from all that I can base it on. I can base it on research as well as ummm yep I am trying it lol. Okay well I had heard about this from one of the nurses that works with me as well as a friend that used to be a nurse in a chiropracters office. I thought hmmm maybe there is some validity to it and maybe not.

Well basically this is a cleanse not a weight loss diet. Okay first of all the drink itself screams dieuretic that is all that it is with some sugar from a high grade syrup. So yes you will be in the bathroom eliminating yourself til you want to scream.

Okay you start off with 10 ounces of water to two tablespoons of lemon juice, two tablespoons of maple syrup grade B not the cheap stuff that you eat on your pancakes, and about a quarter of a teaspoon of cayenne pepper. I made up two one quart containers for the morning half and will do another two for the afternoon. I have already drink two quarts of tea and have had almost two quarts of water. Trust me you will want to have the water to drink just to rinse the taste out of your mouth.

This cleanse is recommended for anywhere from 3-14 days at a time. You eat and I repeat you eat no solid foods during this fast. Okay so it may not sound so bad the first half the drink and all which I will admit it is not. Most of you know I am a pizzaholic and omg this is gonna do me in but I am trying it for how many days remains to be determined but this is day ONE.

As I read more and more about this incredibly easy yet painless thing to do I noticed it said you were not hungry or that you didn't get hunger pains as often. Okay now that I have picked myself up from the floor refer to the above paragraph I typed the word pizza and hung on to all five letters of the word wishing it would jump from the screen into my mouth. So I am going to go on the assumption that this is just the initial day of HELL and the rest will all be downhill from here.

Okay but there is more to this than that. See the cleanse doesn't stop with the dieuretic drink oh no the not so fun part of it comes in the evening. So devote atleast an hour and a half to the nearest possible room to your bathroom. This is the cleanse part. Ewww yuck yep you betcha it is. Just reading about it makes you go uggghhhhh.

Okay for this part of it you need 32 ounces or one quart of water boiled to tea temp drinking water. Add 2 level Teaspoons of natural seasalt unrefined and not iodized. You can add the juice from a lemon or lime to offset the taste. And remember stay near the bathroom.

As I said I just started this today so I will be able to tell you how that actually works tomorrow. I have already drink 2 quarts of water, 2 quarts of the tea and will be making another two quarts of the tea and another two quarts of water and then the flush this evening so my day is going to be bathroom bound lol. Keep checking back for progress updates.

Tradition (Sunday Scribbling Prompt)

For some traditions don't exist, aren't important, or perhaps are in the works. I love traditions whether there mine or others. Just hearing about them and what they mean to those who follow them is what makes me smile.

I guess I have a few traditions with my kids. Besides picking a new ornament to be placed on the tree each year, we have made it a tradition to bake gingerbread people, attempt to make a gingerbread house thank god they make the pre cut ones now lol. We have an annual Easter Egg hunt, we also have a spa day atleast once a year.

How did we come about the ornament tradition? Nine out of ten chances we were out and about and something pretty or funny caught our eye and we decided hey we got to have that for the tree and that is what we decided to do from here on out. Okay really how it came about when each child was born I got them there first ornament and then so on and so on for each year there after. Annual Easter Egg hunt, we just loved the fact that Easter brings about some of the prettiest colors and who doesn't like to have an Easter Egg hunt. We have anywhere from 10 to 18 kids each year sometimes a little more but who is counting its all about having fun I love it and so do they. Making gingerbread people came about when I got really fed up after making gingerbread houses three years in a row from scratch and having them collapse or just not look as good as those on television, so we decided to try making people, we invite kids over from school and we all decorate I prebake the people then set out little bowls of decorations and different color icings they have a blast and no matter what these people look a thousand times better than the television ones cause these are done with love by the little hands of these cuties.

My Sons first haircut

As most of the visitors of my blog know my son has Autism. Autism covers many spectrums. He has a lot of sensory issues. So this brings me to why I am posting this today. My son has a lots of issues with things that are sticky such as, jelly, stickers, syrup, stuff like that. He also doesn't like certain feels of materials like plastic. Well anyways, today was his first haircut. I thought this would be a hellish event, it turned out to be one of the neatest and most enjoyable haircuts ever. He did not fuss he was well behaved and he did it with no tears. So here is the before, during, and after pics of his first haircut.

Words of Wisdom from my five year old

My five year old told me while I was baking cookies, why they are called cookies I bet your anxious to know why they are called cookies aren't you?

She so loudly exclaimed,"Mom, do you know why they are called cookies?" I said, "I am not sure why they are called cookies, never really thought about it they are just yummy." She said, "I know why they are called cookies!" I said, "why?" she said, "They are called cookies cause they have to be cooked so they are called cookieees, cook cookies get it?" Uh huh now you can all sleep better knowing that lol. Too funny got to love it, it made me laugh the rest of the night.

Breakfast at McDonalds A friend sent this to me so I wanted to share it with all of you

Subject: FW: Breakfast at McDonalds
A Return is Requested....You'll see why. Breakfast at McDonald's
This is a good story and is true, please read it all the way through until the end! (After the story, there are some very interesting facts!):
I am a mother of three (ages 14, 12, 3) and have recently completed my college degree. The last class I had to take was Sociology.. The teacher was absolutely inspiring with the qualities that I wish every human being had been graced with.
Her last project of the term was called, 'Smile.'
The class was asked to go out and smile at three people and document their reactions.
I am a very friendly person and always smile at everyone and say hello anyway. So, I thought this would be a piece of cake, literally.
Soon after we were assigned the project, my hus band, youngest son, and I went out to McDonald's one crisp March morning.
It was just our way of sharing special playtime with our son.
We were standing in line, waiting to be served, when all of a sudden everyone around us began to back away, and then
even my husband did.
I did not move an inch... an overwhelming feeling of panic welled up inside of me as I turned to see why they had moved.
As I turned around I smelled a horrible 'dirty body' smell, and there standing behind me were two poor homeless men.
As I looked down at the short gentleman, close to me, he was 'smiling'.
His beautiful sky blue eyes were full of God's Light as he searched for acceptance.
He said, 'Good day' as he counted the few coins he had been clutching.
The second man fumbled with his hands as he stood behind his friend. I realized the second man was mentally challenged and the blue-eyed gentleman was his salvation.
I held my tears as I stood there with them.
The young lady at the counter asked him what they wanted.
He said, 'Coffee is all=2 0Miss' because that was all they could afford. (If they wanted to sit in the restaurant and warm up, they had to buy something. He just wanted to be warm).
Then I really felt it - the compulsion was so great I almost reached out and embraced the little man with the blue eyes. That is when I noticed all eyes in the restaurant were set on me, judging my every action.
I smiled and asked the young lady behind the counter to give me two more breakfast meals on a separate tray.
I then walked around the corner to the table that the men had chosen as a resting spot. I put the tray on the table and laid my hand on the blue-eyed gentleman's cold hand.
He looked up at me, with tears in his eyes, and said, 'Thank you.'
I leaned over, began to pat his hand and said, 'I did not do this for you. God is here working through me to give you hope.'
I started to cry as I walked away to join my husband and son. When I sat down my husband smiled at me and said, 'That is why God gave you to me, Honey, to give me hope.'
We held hands for a moment and at that time, we knew that only because of the Grace that we had been given were we able to give.
We are not church goers, but we are believers.
That day showed me the pure Light of God's sweet love.
I returned to coll ege, on the last evening of class, with this story in hand.
I turned in 'my project' and the instructor read it.
Then she looked up at me and said, 'Can I share this?'
I slowly nodded as she got the attention of the class.
She began to read and that is when I knew that we as human beings and being part of God share this need to heal people and to be healed.
In my own way I had touched the people at McDonald's, my son,the instructor, and every soul that shared the classroom on the last night I spent as a college student.
I graduated with one of the biggest lessons I would ever learn:
UNCONDITIONAL ACCEPTANCE.
Much love and compassion is sent to each and every person who may read this and learn how to LOVE PEOPLE AND USE THINGS - NOT LOVE THINGS AND USE PEOPLE.
Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.
To handle yourself, use your head. To handle others, use your heart.
God Gives every bird it's food, but He does not throw it into its nest.

Holiday Shopping

Despite the toe injury I did get out there on Friday for some festive holiday shopping. I personally did not see any great deals like in the past, or like what everyone anticipated due to the horrible economy. People were still rude and people believe it or not still got trampled or shot which is just terrible. There is nothing out there that anyone needs that much that someone has to get injured or killed.

Okay enough about the salesday. Yesterday which was Sunday I took the girls to pick out their new special ornament to adorn the tree this year. They each picked something out that they really liked or felt was too cool to pass up. My son has not picked his yet cause he really wasn't interested one way or the other yesterday lol. Yes this is a tradition of ours to go and pick out a special ornament so I will put the pics of the three new ornaments. We also got some new cool window clings that are just too pretty and a nice Merry Christmas banner and I got some bows to put on that too cool. I love the holidays.

We also love to bake and get really creative at this time of the year. So we bought some cute containers for the teachers and for all the therapist that come to work with my son, and we are going to bake cookies. The therapist love when I bake which is frequent so we know they will love the goodies. Okay enough of my babble for now.

Oh maybe I should say whose is what of ornaments. The cool swirly blue one is my oldest daughters pick, the Angel is my middle daughters pick, and the kitty wearing high heeled boots is my youngest daughters pick lol it is so her .