Mother of the Year!

I would like to nominate the lovely southern belle mother in the wide-brim sun hat, on the exit ramp to I-85.  I noticed the lady standing beside her SUV and a young man down on the ground.  At first glance I thought he was looking for something under the car. NOPE!!! She was standing with her hands on her hips and he was down there doing push ups...  Having dropped my kids off at their MiMi's house I had time to think of different scenarios of how it went down.  And this is what I have come up with:  The mom had made a request of the son or commented on one of his choices.  And he made a smart alec remark or "What ever" as he put the ear buds back in.  And she said " I ought to pull over and spank you."
Boy:  Really, Mom am I not a bit big for that?
 Mom: Get out!  GET OUT OF MY CAR!
 Boy:  Mom? Are you OK?
 Mom:  I SAID GET OUT OF THE CAR!
Boy: What-evah
Mom calmly exits the car and says if you want your IPhone back get down and start doing push-ups, I'll tell you when you are done.
 So just on my imaginary view of the events I nominate her Mother of the Year!
 Or she may have just been taking him to boot camp and was getting him prepared! 

Title 1

  The Emery Family

Not me Monday!

I did not allow my 4 year old to take a nearly 5 hour nap yesterday, and that did not result in him staying up until 1:30am, and that in turn did not mean that I carried him to the car asleep in his pj's. I then did not proceed to wake him at 8:15 in his school parking lot and get him dressed, only to find that the jeans that I did not pull from the dirty clothes basket were in fact dirty, he did not wear sweatpants. And in all this wonderful mothering I did not forget to pack him a breakfast and send my baby to school without eating.

Adventures in Motherhood

On the way home from picking up Jack and Morgan from school today:  Jaden said that he was going to watch t.v. in the den.  I told him that he could not because it was a distraction for Morgan and Jack trying to do their homework.  He then proceeded to tell me that he was NOT going to watch t.v. in the piano room because it was boring.  I did not like his tone or his attitude and I told him that he would go upstairs and play in the playroom or his room.  He proceeded to tell me that he was going to "Punch me in the face."  You could have heard a pin drop in the car. At this time Morgan was the only one it the car and was eagerly waiting my reply. I explained to him that he was NOT going to speak to me that way and that he would promptly get his leg spanked when we got home.  Boy did his countenance change.  He was so sad and remorseful that he did not laugh at any of Jack's antics in the car.  He said that he was sorry and that I was sweet and pretty and on and on and "Mommy, what are you going to do when we get home?"  I told him that I loved him and that I WAS going to spank his leg.  We got home and without any drama/show I took him in the bathroom and spanked him hard.  He hugged me and sobbed until he almost threw up.  He said "You are not mean Mommy!"  Nobody told me it was going to be this hard.... I have one child that does everything you ask and most of the time does it with a good attitude, I have another that does little that I tell him to the first time , Then one who is a little bit of both but gives me lip.

Mommy Dearest....

Have you seen the movie???  NO MORE WIRE HANGERS!!!  Well that is how I am with shoes.  Shoes MUST go on the stairs when you remove them.  Unless you are an adult that I am not resposible for getting anywhere on time with.  It never fails (this morning) I hit the snooze and had to rush around to get everyone up and ready.  Your kids feed off of your anxiety... Jaden cried about everything that he needed to do to get ready for school.  So we are all ready to leave except Jaden does not have on shoes. " Jaden go put on your shoes." Jaden "I don't know where they are!"(insert whiney voice) Me "They better be on the stairs."  Morgan and Jack are out in the garage/driveway getting soaking wet. I am yelling at them to get in the car and shut the door. And then tearing the house apart looking for Jaden's shoes.  Which were found ten min later on the stairs, right where they belonged.

Tribute to my Aunt Mary Ann

Mary Ann was a beautiful, wonderful, gracious, giving, faithful, loving, daughter, sister, mother, friend, aunt, co-worker etc. As seen at her funeral. So many came out to show their love it was a blessing to know that she had touched so many lives. She will be missed but not forgotten.

I would like to tell you a fond memory I have of Aunt Mary Ann and her family. First I have to explain to you that the people in my family have many pronunciations of their names. Such as my cousin Darryl pronounced Durl. And yes I did call him Durl to his face once. To which he replied "Missy(my aka), hun you do know that my name is Darryl?" Me, "Of course I do, what do you think I am stupid?" Ummm OK.... How was I to know? I had never heard him called anything else..

So one New Years week several years ago my Grandmother (aka MawMaw, Thelma, Thelmer, Thelmoo) and her sister Dot were going to visit their sister Mary Ann (aka May-ree Ann, May-ran) and ask my cousin Jennifer and myself to come along. After we checked out schedules (we were very popular high school girls, OK maybe she was but I was not) we decided to go. The ride there was not very memorable. The ride home was a whole other story. I will save that for another day.

Disclaimer: If any of this sounds like it might be about your OBGYN you are sadly mistaken. Your OBGYN is a (and always has been) a very serious mature person.

OK so we get to May-ran's where you are always made to feel welcome and invited. When I grew up I wanted my family to be like theirs. They would all pile up in the bed together. May-ran and her kids and their spouses. Who ever was there would watch a movie together or whatever "the" show was at the time. When we got settled the whole clan decided to go out for Chinese. I believe there were at least 10 of us and we each ordered a dish and passed it around. So we could each have a taste. Well when we got home Chinese did not settle well with someone. And the un-named person visited the bathroom outside "our" bedroom several times. I am not sure how it all came about but half of a can on Lysol was sprayed under the bathroom door. I am also not sure how the person in the bathroom did not slip and fall coming out. We laughed until we cried. How we did not get in trouble is beyond me???

The next day one of the doctors that worked with Mary-Ann had given her tickets to the Charlotte Hornets game. I believe it was New Years Eve. So being such a gracious and giving person she gave the tickets to my cousins and I. Back then there was a place called Hayden's, it was a bar, and they provided a bus ride to and from the games. The bus was called Hayden's Hornets it was for people who got too drunk at the game to drive back (or teenage girls who's moms did not trust them to drive in Charlotte traffic on New Years Eve). We loved the game and we had really great seats(floor seats maybe?). A guy asked us if we wanted to buy a program for $15. And we said no we can't afford that. And the guy said how did you get these seats if you can't afford a program. We said we paid for the seats and that's why we could not afford it. The people behind us agreed. It was after mid-night before we got home. The next morning was New Years Day, so the sisters {had} to fix the traditional meal, greens, black eyed peas the usual. We had planned to sleep in. No such luck the pressure cooker exploded at about 9:15. We shot up in the bed. It sounded like a bomb had gone off and the sisters were in the kitchen screaming and running around with dishcloths cleaning up the mess. It wasn't til later that we noticed that there were collard greens on the ceiling. We always had fun at Aunt Mary Ann's and I always felt like one of her kids. She would love on me but she would also fuss at me if I needed it.

If you live over on Lake Norman and you can't figure out what the green stuff is on the ceiling don't worry it's not- mold it's just collard greens.

Goldfish....Circles?????

I saw this recipe for homemade goldfish crackers on The Pioneer Woman's facebook page.


She showed the cute little goldfish/pac-man cookie cutters made out of a soda can. Amazing right?

Nice neat little rows. BEAUTIFUL... if I say so myself.

Perfect little goldfish/pac-men.

OK so none of those were my photos. I wish! I stole/borrowed them from PW's facebook page. These are mine.

Future circle crackers.

Cheesy goodness. Notice the laptop in the background, so that I can read directions while I work.

Rolled out to desired thickness. After I washed my rolling pin. Jaden decided to roll Buzz while I was blending. Speaking of blending the blender does NOT work. I don't have a food processor so I tried to use the blender and it only blended stuff at the bottom. I am sure my friend Anna's girls would never try to roll out the dog!

Ta-da ready for our cookie cutter/ mini-medicine cup.

Tiny circles. If this turns out well and the boys like them, I might go to Michaels or Hobby Lobby and get fondant cutters to make different shapes.

Look at that perfectly rolled dog. Man, does that boy love his dog!

I think the feeling is mutual.

Finished product. To me they taste like cheese straws. The big question is "What did the boys think?

Jaden "Yucky, I not like dem."

Jack "Those are good, but why aren't they crunchy?"

Morgan "I don't want to hurt your feelings Mom but, Not Good."

If they had liked them I intended to make some parmesan or pepper jack. So the moral of the story is if you like them because they are crunchy you will not like these. Well I guess this saves me a trip to Micheals/Hobby Lobby were I would probably end up buying tons of other stuff that I really don't need.