When you Step out of Your Comfort Zone

On Friday, I chaperoned a bunch of 8th graders on a field trip. Middle schools from all over Florida participate in an event called Gradventure, where the 8th graders get to go to Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure here in Orlando and stay until midnight. The parks are closed to outside guests for the duration so the kids pretty much have the place to themselves. It’s a really fun night!

CONTINUE READING HERE!

You Won't Believe my Excuse for Avoiding Exercise This Time!

At this time last year, I was all about working out. I started out walking a few blocks while feeling certain I was going into cardiac arrest. After a couple months, I was half-walking/half-running about 5K every day. Fast forward through a year of blood clots, a pulmonary embolism, plantar faciitis, and extreme laziness and here I am. I climb a flight of stairs, then gulp down oxygen while trying to hide the fact that I’m winded from walking up a dozen steps. And all the while, I’m vowing to start working out again. 

 Determined to get back into the groove of exercising regularly, I went for a walk yesterday. Instead of taking into account the fact that I can hardly make it up the stairs, I took off walking on my old 5K route. A smart person would have known that this little endeavor would not end well. Heck, even a stupid person would have probably known that. Clearly, I’m a level below stupid because I couldn’t see anything wrong with my plan.

CONTINUE READING HERE!

My Diva Demands on my Tour Rider

My diva rider requirements[/caption] I saw an article on HuffPo about Beyonce's tour rider. Allegedly, she has demanded such oddities as alkaline water that must be chilled to 21 degrees and served with $900 titanium straws, and bathrooms which have new toilet seats and red toilet paper at every venue. I, for one, completely understand this. I mean, if I was going on a world tour, there are certain necessities I'd require as well. Living in luxury hotel rooms night after night can be tough. One can't be on the road for extended periods of time without those little touches that bring a sense of comfort and hominess. If it was me, I'd require the following on my tour rider.

CONTINUE READING HERE!

Through Little Eyes

The best thing about Mother’s Day is that it isn’t just one day. I get to be a mother 365 days a year. Yeah, some days motherhood is hard. With 6 kids, I’ve had more than my fair share of broken bones, stitches, and surgeries. I’ve had way more than enough broken glasses, lost mittens, foot prints on the floor, foot prints on the walls, marker on the table, yogurt on the TV, Legos on the floor, and messes of every variety imaginable (and many you wouldn’t imagine in your wildest dreams).

CONTINUE READING HERE!

Fun at the Pool!

This post is sponsored by Disney Story. To find out more about this brand-new story-creation app - and how it puts the power of storytelling in your hands - click here.

I was asked to review this new app by Disney called Story. I agreed, thinking that I'd check it out, write up a review, and move on. I imagined it would be a cool app, but didn't think I'd probably use it much after I reviewed it. I was wrong. I think it's my new favorite app! 

I love how Story takes the pictures and videos on your iPhone and organizes them by the date they were taken. All you have to do is choose a template, add captions and text, arrange the pictures in whatever order you'd like, and click to share. It couldn't be simpler! It only took me about 15 minutes to put this together. 

We spent some time at the pool over this weekend. No matter how busy I am, my kids can always talk me into taking them to the beach or the pool. (Between you and me, it doesn't take a lot of convincing.) I captured some of our fun on my iPhone while we were there. I may not always bring my camera to ordinary events like going to the pool, or taking a walk by the lake, or playing in a blanket fort, or riding our bikes down the street. But those are the moments that are so much fun to remember. I mean, sure we all record Christmas and graduations and birthdays, but the cool thing about cell phones today is that you can easily capture all those everyday moments that make you smile. And with the Disney Story app, it's super-easy and fun to tell those stories and share them with your loved ones! Check out my story about our fun at the pool!

(If this doesn't show up well with your browser, you can click the URL here instead: http://story.us/story?o=HzFdcOSra2qJ )

 


Download the Disney Story app from iTunes  – for FREE – right here!

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An Open Letter to all Male Members of any Online Dating Site

Dear Hopeful Single,



I’m not writing because I’m interested in you. I’m writing because I feel sorry for you. Your online dating profile makes me cringe; it floods me with embarrassment for you. Your emails help me to understand why you’re single. Now, in real life, I don’t go around judging a person based solely (oh, and speaking of sole, it’s soulmate, not solemate, and honestly, you really shouldn’t even be using the word at all) on their ability to write and take a decent photograph, but on an online dating site, that’s all I have to go by. When I receive a couple dozen emails, winks, and likes a day, I have to weed through them and yes, unfair as it may be, I skip over those of you who start emails with “Hey Hotstuff”, have pictures of your dog sitting on your Harley, and have phrases such as “herpes-free” in your profiles.

CONTINUE READING HERE!

Celebrating Greek Easter

My dad is Greek. My mom is, well, a little bit of everything. That makes me half Greek and half mutt. (And that's the extent of the math I'm willing to do.) As a kid, my family would celebrate Easter, and many years we'd also celebrate Greek Easter which, going by the Greek Orthodox calendar, usually falls on a different day. Sometimes we went to my aunt Vasiliki's home to celebrate, sometimes we went to a restaurant, and oftentimes we celebrated at home. My favorite Greek Easter tradition is tsougrisma, cracking red eggs.

CONTINUE READING HERE!

A Day in the Life

Dear anyone who has ever gotten mad at me for not returning your phone call or email or text right away,

Although I love you (or at least tolerate you) and want to talk to you, I can't always take time out to do so immediately. This is why -

6:00  Alarm goes off. I smack my phone a few times until it turns off.
6:20  Austin comes in my room and says something about rain. I don't wake up enough to comprehend.
6:25  Savannah comes in my room and asks me if I can drive her and Austin to school before second period because it's raining. I growl at Savannah and my head rotates 360 because, quite frankly, I'm not a nice person in the morning.
6:45  Wake up again and realize it's quarter til 7:00. Freak out. But not enough to actually get out of bed.
7:00  Spring out of bed, adrenaline rushing through my veins. Thankfully, I work well under pressure. Wake up the Littles and the Middles.
7:02  Shower. I remember to actually rinse off today.
7:10  Wrap myself in a robe and go downstairs and make coffee and lunch while I drip dry because I'm too lazy to actually take a towel to myself.
7:12  Jackson informs me that I need to drive him to school early for his field trip. Information that would've been nice to know yesterday (not that I would've dragged my butt out of bed any earlier, of course.)
7:17  Go upstairs and get dressed.
7:18  Decide I look hideous and change.
7:19  Decide the new outfit looks just as bad as the first one. Change.
7:20  Repeat the last two steps.
7:21  Vow to consume nothing but water. At least until noon.
7:25  Slap on some make-up and take stock of my hair. It's raining and humid. I already look like Roseanne Roseannadanna.  Ponytail it is.
7:30  Wake up the oldest kids who have fallen back asleep. Pile everyone in the car.
7:31  Lexi's friend picks her up.
7:35  I drop off Jackson.
7:45  I drop off Brooklyn and Clayton.
7:55  I drop off Austin and Savannah.
8:00  I drive away from the high school as a branch hits a powerline almost directly above me. The tree catches on fire and sparks fly. I slam on my brakes. As I watch the flames, the whole thing bursts into a fireball and I'm momentarily blinded by the light. I've never seen anything like this before and I'm freaked out. I call 9-1-1 and debate speeding under the burning foliage and sparking wires to get to work, or just sitting there until the firemen arrive because well - FIREMEN!
8:05  I get impatient and drive as far around the wires as I can.
8:06  Get stuck in traffic behind an accident.
8:25  See a smashed-up school bus and a news crew and pray that no one was hurt.
8:35  Get to work.
9:00  Decide that I was crazy for vowing not to eat and grab my yogurt. Realize I've forgotten to pack a spoon again. Debate between using a pen or a mascara wand to eat it. Find a straw in my drawer and attempt to scoop up yogurt with a straw because I am just that classy.
9:05  Drink a couple more cups of coffee.
9:15  Consider calling 9-1-1 again because it feels like my heart is going to explode from caffeine overdose. And I didn't actually get to see any firemen the first time around.
9:20  School starts and I bang my head against the wall for the next 4 hours.
1:30  Take time to eat an unhealthy amount of peanut butter brownies for lunch.
2:00  Go back to banging my head.
4:00  Leave school.
4:25  Pick up the Littles.
4:30  Get home. Check on the homework situation. Start a load of laundry.
4:45  Check email and make sure I'm all set for the Twitter party I'm co-hosting tonight.
5:30  Ask Jackson to make some couscous and corn for dinner. Slice up leftover pork chops into little strips so kids won't realize they're left-overs and they'll eat them.
5:55  Take Lex and Brooklyn to tumbling.
6:00 Kick them out the door and drive Savannah on to the high school so she can get the last of her volunteer hours for NHS.
6:15  Drive around campus and pick up Austin, who stayed late to work on some ceramics, from school.
6:30  Drop Austin off at home and go back to football field to watch the girls do backflips.
7:00  Go home and give instructions to everyone to get ready for bed. Assure Lexi that despite the warnings, a tornado isn't going to hit us. Start writing a brilliant blog post.
7:45  Do something stupid and manage to lose my brilliant blog post.
7:55  Finally stop cursing my evil computer and dial in for the Twitter party.
9:05  Tuck in my kiddos.
9:15  Give up on writing a brilliant blog post and instead endeavor to explain how busy my days are thus resulting in stupid blog posts.
9:16  Get interrupted by Lexi who is afraid that zombies will kill her in her sleep.
9:18  Get interrupted by Savannah who asks me if I can help her with her math. She knows darn well that I can't. She just likes to make fun of me.
9:25  Get interrupted by Jackson who shows me his abdomen and says, "Is it supposed to stick out like this?" I make a mental note to call the doctor about the ultrasound results tomorrow.
9:30  Get interrupted by Savannah who tells me she's still dizzy from donating blood today.
9:35  Get interrupted by Lexi again who says she has a tummy ache.
9:45  Get interrupted by Savannah again who complains that she has her EOC in history tomorrow.
9:50  Get interrupted by Austin who presents me with a chocolate cupcake. It almost, almost does away with my disappointment in his crappy grades.
10:15  Work my way through a backlog of email.
11:00  Realize I've been goofing off on Facebook for the last 45 minutes when I should've been writing.
11:20  Hop in the shower, take a handful of Tums to counteract the chocolate cupcake and lie down.
11:45  Take my turn in my 4 perpetual Words with Friends games and lie awake for an hour thinking about everything I have to do tomorrow.
12:45  Get up and switch the load of laundry I've forgotten about.
2:30  Wake up on fire and dripping sweat because I'm middle-aged. Think about going downstairs and standing in the freezer but decide I'm too lazy to move.
3:00  Wake up with a great idea for a book and type it into my iPhone even though I know from experience that I'll wake up tomorrow and not be able to read a single word of the nonsense I typed.

Yep, that's pretty much my (and really, any mom's) day. There are variations of this. Sometimes I forget to pack a spoon and eat my yogurt with a plastic knife. Sometimes I have water polo instead of tumbling. Power lines don't usually explode on my way to work. But the basics stay the same. So this is why I sometimes can't call you back right away or find the time to answer emails. I'm sure you understand.

Sincerely, 
Dawn

Prom Dresses Through the Ages

After I posted slide shows of my kids' proms HERE and HERE, I was sent a link to Disney's Forever Enchanted Spring 2013 Collection of prom dresses. I didn't even know Disney made prom dresses, but who better to create a gown fit for a princess, right? After scrolling through the pictures, I decided I wanted to go to prom just so I could wear one of those gorgeous gowns. Better yet, I wanted a 'do-over'! I want to trade in the fluffy, frilly, pale peach Gunne Sax dress I wore in 1988 (and the big hair that went along with it) for one of these beautiful gowns (and a straight iron for my hair). This got me thinking about how styles have changed through the years. I put a shout-out to my readers on Facebook, asking for their prom pics and as usual they came through with flying colors! I know you'll enjoy this slide show of prom dresses from 1959 to the present! And a huge "thank you" to everyone who sent me their picture! I wasn't able to use all of them here because I got so many, but I appreciate the time and effort you all took to send them to me! You're all beautiful!

TO SEE THE SLIDE SHOW, CLICK HERE!

When a Little Infection Turns Ugly

A couple weeks ago, Lexi complained that her finger hurt. It looked like she had a hangnail that had caused the irritation. I got out the Epsom salt and told her to soak it, then I dabbed on some Neosporin before bandaging it. We repeated this for a few days and then I forgot about it because that's what I do. Single mom, six kids, two jobs, super-busy. I just didn't think to ask her about her finger because it was just an irritated cuticle. No big deal, right?

Fast forward two weeks. Yesterday morning, Lexi nonchalantly showed me her finger and said, "I don't think it's getting better." 

I looked at her hand and gasped! "Ohmygosh! That's horrible! Is that the same finger?" I asked incredulously as I cringed at the sight of her red, swollen finger that was oozing nastiness. The skin was peeling up like layers of phyllo dough on a baklava. Sorry for that visual, but you're welcome for not putting an actual picture on here. I asked, "Why didn't you tell me it was getting worse? Oh my gosh, doesn't it hurt?"

CONTINUE READING HERE!

Prom: According to Savannah

Last night, both my son who is a senior, and my daughter who is a junior, attended their high school's prom. I thought I'd write about the whole prom experience from my point of view, but realized that my view basically includes bills and driving around and it really isn’t too entertaining. So, instead I decided to write two posts: one from my son’s perspective and one from my daughter’s because their takes on the same event are quite different.

As far as I can tell, this is how it works. The girl has to shop for the perfect dress. She must bring a pack of friends along on this quest to gather many opinions, to make sure no one else buys the same dress, for zipper help, and for companionship when they stop for soft pretzels and frappuccinos. She has to find shoes that will go beautifully with the dress even though they’ll undoubtedly cause blisters and possibly a broken ankle. She needs to find jewelry that will complement her dress and a dainty clutch that will house her cell phone and lipgloss for the evening. She needs to order a boutonnière that will smartly match her dress. She will text all her friends and arrange who will be meeting when and where, whose house will be party central, who is going to be sleeping over where, and she’ll make sure to fill her date in on the itinerary. On the day of prom, she’ll shower, conditioner and remove any and all hair from her body. Appointments will be made or she’ll enlist the help of friends and family to do her hair and nails. She’ll carefully dress and plaster a smile on her face while the parent paparazzi take hundreds of photographs.

To see the slide show of Savannah's prom, click HERE!

Prom: According to Austin

Last night, both my son who is a senior, and my daughter who is a junior, attended their high school's prom. I thought I'd write about the whole prom experience from my point of view, but realized that my view basically includes bills and driving around and it really isn’t too entertaining. So, instead I decided to write two posts: one from my son’s perspective and one from my daughter’s because their takes on the same event are quite different.

As far as I can tell, this is how it works. The boy will ask the girl to prom in a creative and romantic way that outdoes his friends. He’ll order a corsage and a tux (whatever combination in the Big Book of Tux Pictures looks good). He’ll probably get a haircut after his mom tells him he’s looking shaggy, and insists he get one. On the day of the event, he’ll shower, dress, and show up when and where his date has instructed him to go. He'll grudgingly stand still, or ham it up like a goofball for pictures.

To see the slideshow from Austin's prom, click HERE.