What would Judi do?

Facebook has been a game changer for me in a multitude of ways.  There's the obvious - reuniting me with friends, locating family I didn't know, all that stuff.  The surprise was all the cooking stuff I've learned.  I had no idea all the stuff I didn't know!  Because of all the posts, I had a great thanksgiving.  This is what I learned: 1.  Brine a turkey.  I had no idea what the hell that meant.  I also had no idea just how many people do that.  And that it's pretty hard to fuck it up.  Game changer!  It should be noted that I've never cooked a turkey before so I'm new to this game. 2. Crockpot stuffing.  Again, who knew?  Thanks to yummly and allrecipes and the people who post reviews with suggestions, I made some kick ass stuffing. 3.  Sausage stuffing.  This was a foreign concept to me.  I like Stove Top stuffing.  I'm a simple girl.  But holy moly, this is good shit! Now, I learned a ...

I've been thinking a lot about all the things for which I am grateful.  I've been reading all the facebook posts documenting the things my friends are thankful for with interest.  There's a lot of gratitude out there! So, what am I saying thank you to the universe for?  Lots of things....but let's see if I can narrow this down a bit. 1.  My children are super cool.  I love them, obviously, but I like them a whole lot.  They make me laugh, cringe, giggle and proud.  I can't ask for more than that. 2.  Andrew. I am extraordinarily lucky to have him in my life.  I overheard a conversation the other day between my girls.  One was telling the other that "he treats mom so well" and they were adding that to the list of reasons we love him.  It's a good list. 3.  My mom is still here.  'Nuff said.  She's still doing okay, for which I'm grateful. 4.  Work.  I'm lucky enough to spend much of m...

Today was a good but rough day.  I was tired and stuck in a conference room that had no windows all day.  I knew it was nice outside - I drove to work with the sunroof open.  I wanted to be out in the sun, not sitting in a meeting.  But it's my job so there I sat. At lunch, everyone was deciding where to go.  Luckily, I brought my lunch.  The good thing about this healthy living thing is now I make careful decisions.  I think about what I'm eating before  I eat it so I don't make decisions while starving or from a vending machine.  So today I brought fruit and half the portion I would normally eat of a Trader Joe's thai pasta salad.  It was surprisingly satisfying.  Mostly I wanted to get the hell out of the room.  I wanted air.  So everyone left for lunch and I went on my walk, It wasn't a long walk.  But it was warm and sunny.  Once I got out of the parking lot, I found beautiful trees.  This area is...

In one year, three months and 10 days, I'll be 50.  But who's counting, right? I have certain things I want to accomplish by that time.  I won't list all the things I want to change in my life but there are a few things that need to be different.  The most important thing is I need to be healthier.  I want to look pretty in a wedding dress (no, I have nothing official to announce.  I'm just speculating.....or hoping).  I want to live to see my children graduate from high school, college, and see them be adults who might one day have children of their own (after age 32).  I have lots of things I want to do. I want to tell you that I woke up one day and decided to  be healthier.  I want to tell you I've had some great epiphany and am changing my life.  I want to tell you all that stuff.  But that's not what happened. A friend called saying she needed to make some healthier changes and asked if I'd do it with her.  I didn't h...

Conversation with M today: M:  I'm sorry the government didn't close. Me:  What?!! Why would you say that? M: Well, last time it happened, you were home every day after school.  We baked and cooked and played games.  You were a full time mom. Me:  Sigh....That's true.  But it was hard for us. M:  But we made it through.  And I liked it. This conversation came about two hours after a similar conversation with my mom: Mom: I wish you didn't work so much. Me:  I don't work 60 weeks any more. I often don't work 40 hours. Mom: No, but between work, kids, appointments, activities, responsibilities, you don't have a lot of time. Me:  That's true.  But you still see me every week, sometimes several times a week. Mom: Yeah.  But I miss you. I can't help but feel I'm doing something wrong.  No one is happy and I feel like a mouse on one of those running wheels.  I'm doing a ton of shit and no one - including me ...

I started taking pictures (with film) when I was in the 5th grade.  I have tons - TONS - of photos and negatives all around the house.  The smell of developer still makes me happy in ways nothing else can. I was a slow convert to digital.  It was somewhere around 2002.  And even then, I didn't want to fully five up my love of film  But slowly the draw of being able to take as many digital pictures as I like, the ability to easily manipulate them or delete with ease drew me in.  I was a full digital girl sortly after that. My kids have grow up with digital pictures.  They've known nothing else.  Until now. My ex gave M a trip to Six Flags for her birthday.  She wanted to take a camera, but not one she'd be devastated at losing.  So we looked around CVS and discovered they still have disposable film cameras.  Who knew  She picked a water resistant one so she could use it in the water park.  That thing was monster sized...

Every day, at least once a day, I go out and look at the garden.  I talk to the plants.   Grow!  Why are you taking so long?  Grow!   They don't listen to me.  They do what they want, which is to be expected. I have something like a dozen tomato plants.  I don't particularly like tomatoes so there's some irony that that's the thing that grows best.  And the one by the compost heap is doing better than any of the others.  It's weird.  But really, I'm not complaining.  We'll make salsa and Andrew thinks making ketchup might be fun.  I'm not sure about that. My cucumbers are taking over my garden - just the leaves.  There's an itty bitty thing (that makes me laugh) to prove it's a cucumber. My peppers are happy.  I have green peppers, super cayenne (already shared a few), poblano and probably something else.  I have no idea when they're ready for picking.   Andrew makes me feel ...