Watched a Movie with my Kid...

This afternoon, I sat down and watched Cyberbully with Jody. I had heard about it when it was put out on ABC Family, then saw it on Netflix a couple months ago. I added it to the instant queue and made a comment to Mark that we needed to watch it with Jody. I would pass it in the queue and say "we will get to it someday". Today was that day. As we watched it, I asked her questions about the behaviors she was seeing on the TV, and how she felt about them. I can honestly say I am one very proud Mama right now. Her comments and reactions were very mature and empathetic to the characters. I am also happy to say that she didn't once say "hay, that happens at school!" She was appalled when the bully's father said that his daughter wasn't doing anything wrong. Below is her review of the movie and what she learned. She also talked about how to prevent bullying or what to do if you are bullied. **The following is her words. I only corrected spelling.***

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Cyberbully is about a girl, named Taylor, who gets a new laptop for her 17th birthday. She creates an online profile. It had wacky questions, like 'What color underwear are you wearing right now?'. While she was at school, her brother hacked her account and posted bad stuff on her profile that was not true. At school, her life changes. She gets bullied. When she gets home, she sees a profile of a cute guy named James. She starts talkign to him, only to find out that he is not real. Her best friend, Samantha, created him, thinking she was protecting him from the wrong guy. Taylor tries to kill herself. She then goes to therapy and a support group that halps her learn to cope with the bullies. Her mom is trying to get a law passed about online bullying. Sonn, she stands up to the bully, backed by her friends. In the end, they get the law passed about onine bullying.

I learned that you should be careful of what you say. If you see bullying online or offline, you should say "Hey, It is NOT OKAY to do this." It cannot be allowed, so step up and speak out.
You can prevent bullying by talking about it, joining a support group, talking to your parents, or best of all facing it HEAD ON.


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I am one very happy and proud Mama! Well, except for the fact that my 9 year old has officially wrote a better piece than I think I ever could have!

January 31...

Today is my biological father's birthday. Sometimes I feel sadness that I never got to meet him, other times I feel anger that he made the choices he did. There are times I want to know the truth and others that I would rather not. Seeing my husband with our daughter makes me happy and I can't imagine him not being in her life. I don't think anything can replace that relationship.

As a child I would have dreams that I would grow up and find my dad and he would be happy to see me. When I was 11, we found out that he had passed away in 1991 (I was 7). I cried a lot, not so much for the man as for the dreams I had that now would never come true. After that, I had a period that I was just plain angry at him. I hated him for making the choices he made. I hated him for dying. I even had a point where I was angry with my mom for keeping us away from him, as irrational as my emotions were, I still "loved" this man that I didn't know! With his passing, we were put in tough with some family from his side. My Uncle Russ, my Bio dad's brother, and a half sister that was about 14 years older than me. At first, we would see them both quite often. We lived in Lockwood and my uncle lived in Pacific Grove and my Sister lived in Salida. After about a year, they both just seemed to drop off the face of the earth and we didn't hear from them anymore. Once Facebook came around, I was able to track down my older sister, but I feel like we just can't form a bond after all these years. We send the occasional text and play a word game here and there, but no "sisterly love". She knew our father more than anyone else I know but we don't talk about him at all. Perhaps one day the relationship will work itself out.

As I grew into an adult, I let all my feelings of resentment go. I looked back on my childhood and guess what I saw? My Dad! We might not be biologically related, but he is my dad. He came into my life when I was about 5, and I still have a relationship with him today. My daughter calls him "Papa Mike". I call him Dad or Mike. He has his own struggles but I know that if I really needed him, he would be there for me, and I hope he feels the same! Between my Grandpa and Mike, I managed to grow up and I like to think I turned out okay!

So, instead of this day being a sad day, I am choosing to be thankful for the Father I was given, rather than the one that wasn't there. They say that a girl will choose a husband like her father, I have to say, I chose one like my Dad, not my father. To me, they are two very different people!

Time flies!

Hard to believe 8 years ago I was a scared 19 yr old laying in a hospital bed trying to time my contractions that I didn't feel! Hard to believe that less than 24 hrs later, I was holding this itty bitty baby in my arms! I dont remember a lot, but I will try to write it out here before I forget everything! I remember going to the Dr's office on Dec 4th, 2002 and her telling me that I was 3cm and that she "stripped my mebranes" and that I needed to continue following the "rules" I had been given a month before. 1. No lifting over 5 lbs 2. no standing/walking for long periods. 3. no squatting I'm sure the Dr had told me more! She also said that I could have her anyday, eventhough I was still two weeks away from my "due date". Anyway, I got home and since it was the begin of December, i was helping my Grandma decorate for Christmas. I hung lights on the front porch, even standing on the step stool, yep I'm that hard-headed..., I ended the afternoon by sitting in the front yard putting stakes in the ground for some cute snowmen lights she had. This required me to sit for a few min, get up and move a foot down the path and sit down again...Later that night (7ish) I was watching TV with my grandma and my back started to hurt. I mentioned it to grandma and told her I might have overdone it that afternoon decorating. I got up and wlked a bit and the pain went away...only to come back again a few min later...took Grandma putting her hand on my belly to realize I was having contractions! We called my mom at work and told her she might want to head home to take me in and then called the hospital and they said I should come in as we were timing them at 2-3 min apart. I was admitted to the hospital around 8:30 that night. I was still at 3 so the nurses called my Dr and she wanted me to stay overnight and she would check on me in the morning, if not before. since nothing was happening, my mom left me there (alone and scared since I had never been in a hospital except to visit family) and went home to sleep. At 3 am, they woke me up and moved me to a different room. I saw my Dr at about 9 am. She checked me and I was still at 3! She said she was going to grab some breakfast and would be back to break my water. (she had been up most of the night delivering 4 other babies (thats why I had to switch rooms!) ) She returned around 10:30, broke my water and started some pitocin. My neighbor and good friend came to visit me and talked me through a few contractions that I could only feel in the back and a little tightening in my stomach. They checked my at 12:30 and I was at 9 so they moved me back to a delivery room and I started pushing around 1:15 or so and Jody entered the world at 1:40 pm. She was itty bitty thing at 6 lbs 11 oz and 18 1/4 inches. I held her for a few minutes, then they took her to clean her up and I just wanted to eat! They brought me a wonderful platter of fruit and I ate everything, even though I didnt like it, I was starving! They moved me back to my room and brought my little girl to me and I kept her with me until 11 pm! They finally took her to the nursery so I could try to sleep! I was in love with her instantly! today she is still a littl thing, barely 50 lbs and mayb 45 inches tall! We we so young and there were plenty of people who thought we had done ourselves in and that we would never make it, well here is a glimpse at our lives today:

We are very forunate that Mark has a wonderful job that allowed me to be able to stay home with her from the time she was 18 months old until she was 4! We are less than a year away from getting married, we are getting ready to start looking at houses and looking forward to start trying for baby #2 (and last). We make have taken a road less desired for some and one that some see as wrong, but it worked for us. I believe we are more in love today than we have ever been! Has it been easy? of course not, we had times that were tough and we wondered if we were going to make ends meet, but we somehow managed!

Tomorrow, we will celebrate her birthday as a family, we will probably take her out ro lunch or dinner and the day will consist of activities she wants to do. She is the light of my life and will forever be my itty bitty baby girl!

Banana bread

I had a bunch of bananas that were over-ripe (nobody here will eat them once they get a brown spot on the skin), so I decided to make bread with them! I love the recipe I have! It started out as a random, basic recipe, and as I have made it more, I have played around with it and made it my own! I decided I will share it here, feel free to take it and make it your own as well!

Banana Bread

Oven: 350 degrees

Yield: 2 loaves or 8-10 mini loaves

6-8 small OR 4-6 medium to large bananas, mashed
2/3 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 to 2 cups white sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
3 cups flour

Combine bananas and butter, making sure to mix well. Add sugar, eggs, and vanilla, again mixing well. It should look kinda soupy. add remaining ingredients and mix well. pour into buttered loaf pans.* Bake for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean.

*I like putting toppings on my bread. Slivered almonds are delicious as are chocolate chips. Feel free to experiment!

Let it cool a bit before removing from the pans, then cool a bit longer before slicing! Store in a zip lock bag either in the fridge or on the counter! It also freezes well!

Enjoy!

New year

Well, hopefully I will blog more this year! I am still knitting quite a bit! I am going to set some monthly goals this year, and see if it helps me hold myself accountable!

For January:

1. I want to finish my Sociology course and start my Courts course.

2. I want to finish at least 2 knitting projects. I know that seems like a small goal for knitting, but between studying and work, I dont know how much time I really have!

3. Read Charlottes Web with Jody! She loves the movie, and she loves to read with Mark at night, when I am usually busy catching up on something (e-mails, dishes, housework, studying, ect...)

4. Reconnect with friends. I have a few friends that have drifted away that I really feel I should make more of an effort to spend time with them, and not just on Facebook!

I will come back to this list often and hopefully come Feb, I can say they are all either completed or close to completed!

What are your goals for January?

Time for an update!

Seems like I never have time to update anymore! I know a lot has been going on, and I will try to recap here!

September was pretty good:) Jody and I managed to get a homework routine in place and she adjusted to her new school.

October came and went, with her first conference, which her teacher tried to tell us she was reading at a lower level that she actually is. I also got a job and started the end of Oct. I LOVE my job! I am working for Action Day Primary Plus. It is the private preschool and elementary school that Jody attended for the past 3 years. I am working as a substitute teacher and I am really enjoying it. We headed to Santa Barbara for Halloween. Jody was a Fiesta Girl (it is a summer festival in SB) and had more fun helping Grandpa pass out candy than she did trick-or-treating:)

November is kind of a blur. It took me a bit to adjust to working after being home for almost 2 years. We headed down to SB again for Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful meal and I went shopping with my mother in law, which is always fun:)

I think that brings us to December! Jody turned 7 on the 5th! We had a small party at a pizza place on Sat to celebrate and then she had 4 friends over for a craft and a movie. 3 of the girls stayed the night and they all played for a few hours in the morning. I have finished all my shopping and wrapping:) Now I can focus on the true meaning of the holiday! Jody and I were talking about it in the car the other day and I realized she is understanding a lot more and it would be good to get more in depth with her.

I am heading down to Lockwood and Bryson this coming weekend and I cannot wait! The little girls that I used to watch when I was a teenager are now teenagers! I am staying with a friend that night and heading to church on Sunday in Lockwood. I miss the area a lot more than I thought I would. I don't have any family down that way anymore, so I don't get down there very much.

On a happier note, I already have my New Year's resolution!I am excited about it, and will share more about it later!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

Jody and her questions!

Jody- "Mom, what's for dinner?"
Me- "Won ton soup"
J- "Soup?!?! I LOVE soup!"
Me- "Yep"
J- "What are won tons?"

**I pull out the won tons I made earlier and show her and then measure out the broth and water and explain that I will heat it up and then put the won tons in***

J- "Oh! That looks like pineapple juice!" (she was talking about the chicken broth)
Me- really? it looks more like apple juice to me"
J- "Can I smell the won tons?"
Me "sure"
J- "they smell yummy! It is going to be so good! Oh, whats inside them?"
Me- "leftover pork from last night and shredded cabbage"
J- "Yummy! Can I help you put the green onions? You know I don't like onions right?"
Me- "how do you know if you don't try them?"
J- "I just know Mom."

and off she went to play...now I'm off to finish the soup and get dinner served....Will she eat it?