Yummy Q&A

Y'all crack me up, you know that? Your questions and responses to my answers are quite clever. Before I launch into more of the same, a quick update on my orientation.

Yesterday we had our MAB class - managing aggressive behavior. I took copious notes, not so much for my job, but for life with teenagers. This is great stuff! I'm looking forward to next week and covering depression and other issues. I'm sure I'll be putting all of it to good use at home.

Now, on to Mayberry Magpie's question, part of which I answered yesterday:
I, too, want to know how you met Hunny. What first date was like and what proposal was like. (Or if you were like us and there was no proposal, when you knew.)

I think I covered a lot of it in the post I referenced yesterday, but the proposal - well, there was one. I told the Hunny, a month after we'd started officially dating, and we'd already just decided that we should marry (tell your children that this is never a good idea, deciding to marry someone after a month. I mean, I LOVE the Hunny and all, but a month?! Really? Not such a good idea), that he'd have to ask my dad for my hand in marriage if it was going to happen. Meaning we drove from Maryland to New Orleans and back over a four day Memorial Day weekend.

Sunday night we went into New Orleans (it was a one hour drive from the house) and had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in the Quarter. Do I really have to tell this story? Please don't make me tell this story. We'd wandered the Quarter, had our caricature drawn (I'll photograph it when I get my camera back), then went back to the car and on to dinner. While in the car, the Hunny told me I had something on my face, I think. I just wiped at my face and prepared to get out. I was hungry. Don't ever stand between me and food.

At this point the Hunny was a tad concerned about whatever was on my face. Maybe I'd want to use the visor mirror to make sure it was gone? So I popped the mirror down to look and something fell in my lap. I'm looking and looking and not seeing anything, getting a little frustrated that the Hunny lied about having something on my face, or that I'm BLIND, when he asks what the heck fell out of the visor. Well just a minute, I'm saying, I don't see anything on my face. What the heck?

You know what was in my lap. A tiny velvet box. With my ring. And both of us laughing at what a dolt I am. I hate that story. Even then he didn't learn not to mess with me when I'm focused on something. Poor guy.

Lori asks the tough question, the one I'm afraid to answer:
Everyone has such good questions. I cannot wait to read the posts they provoke.
I want to know: What has been your toughest moment as a parent?

Wow. It was recently, I think. But there have been so many tough ones. SOOO many. So many days I think I'm not cut out for this job. Can I get a witness?

Recently I got a call from the middle school, a teacher intercepted a note one of my children had written. It was bad. The teacher had the child read the note aloud on the phone to me. Said child was mortified. There's more, but I think I've probably overstepped the bounds with this, given the reading population (no, not those of y'all who comment). The very sad part was that the parents of the other children involved (there was prodding by these children for my child to actually write the note) - those parents said, when the teacher called, "I DON'T CARE." That broke my heart. I care. The Hunny cares. The Hunny showed up at school that day, talked to the principal and took the child home, having a long, fruitful talk in the car. There have been several since, and life here has changed.

The last year has been transitional for me, sending my children to school for the first time, giving them the measures of independence that they need, letting them make choices I wouldn't make, letting them suffer consequences for some of those choices. It's been good. And I've come to the other side of that place in parenting, at least for now, from friend to Mom. I'm a jovial mother, but sending them to school put the final nail in the friend coffin. Now I'm hard nosed and as firm as my forgetful ADD self can be. It's brutal for me, but good for them.

I still play and joke, but am trying to make it ultra clear, in word and deed, that I am mom. It's my job to teach, train, let go, love, push. It hurts. Part of the pain is knowing my own failure and short comings. Knowing that it's almost too late at this point. *sigh*

Let's end with Connie's question! I'm hoping to tell part of Connie's story tomorrow, since she's given me permission. Her Hunny had a Mother's Day mishap which was terrifying. Connie's hilarious and I encourage you, if you've time, to catch up on that tale at her site. The question:
If you could develop your own concoction of Ben and Jerry's ice cream (they have cows on the front!), tell me what you would call it, describe the ingredients (crunchy or creamy)...give us a "wordy" taste test!

This one is hard because there are two flavors which are TO DIE FOR that they already make. And I love the cows on the front! The two best ice cream flavors in the WORLD are Chubby Hubby and Chocolate Heath Bar Crunch! The Hunny and I disagree, as he likes his ice cream creamy, with nothing crunchy in it. If fact, I'll often find the lid with little nuts or chocolate bits sucked clean inside. Ew! Give me crunch. And salt with that sweet.

To design my own? Oh geez. There's a Godiva flavor I love that I'd buy in Ben n Jerry's if they made it. Let me back up and say that much of the 60 pounds I gained while pregnant with Little Guy, which DID NOT come off, was put on by Mr. Ben and Mr. Jerry. A couple of years ago I divorced them both, so it's been a long time since I've purchased ice cream in containers small enough for me to consume in one sitting.

BUT I'd eat a dark chocolate raspberry swirl truffle ice cream in a heart beat. Yummmm. A creamy dark chocolate ice cream with dark chocolate amaretto truffle bits mixed in and a thick swirl of raspberry throughout. Excuse me while I wipe the drool off of my keyboard?

Tomorrow, Connie and Mark's story, as well as more answers to your fun questions! Thank you all for playing along!

Until I write again ...

Flea