A friend related a story that a 14 year old in her carpool told her yesterday. During her recent family ski trip, the girl was skiing with a ski instructor and two other girls. She crashed but the ski instructor and other skiers did not notice and continued down the mountain. She ended up alone and mildly injured off the course. She had her iPhone on her and tried to reach her parents. They were skiing and did get her call. She did not know what to do next.

She did not have the number of the ski school or ski resort in her phone. She thought that 911 was only for police and fire rescue and did not think that they would be able to get help to her on the mountain.  She did not think to call 411 to get the number of the ski school. This girl is not an idiot. She is a straight A high school honor studen. She did not know what to do because no one was there to tell her what to do. She has a great mom. One who does everything for her.

Luckily, the ski patrol heard her screams and helped her down the mountain. Other than being scared and shaken up, she was fine.

I am from the generation of helicopter parents. It is a much scarier world out there than when we were kids and we are involved. Very involved. We want to make sure that our kids are safe. We hover.

My children are teenaged boys and have much less independence than I have when I was their ages. I was from the school of "be home by dark, don't talk to strangers and don't ride your bike in the street. Other than that, we were pretty much free to roam. My kids are on a much shorter leash. Even when they are allowed to go somewhere without me such as the movies or a friend's house, they have to stay in text contact. My 15 year old son texts me when he gets to the bus stop which is less than a three minute walk from my front door and when he gets on the bus before and after school. There is never a time when I don't know where my children are.

It seems excessive, but I  am not alone. All of my well-educated girlfriends are the same way. We may be overprotective but just watch the news and see what is going on in the world, and it seems that it is better to be safe than sorry.  My children are very good kids and have never given me a reason to not trust them but the boogie man comes in many forms these days and at least if I know where my  children are, perhaps I can protect them.

Now that my son is starting to drive (he got his learner's permit last week! OYE!) I know that he will be spreading his wings a bit more. Where is the happy medium between knowing where he is at all times and letting him run wild.  Being in real life situations as a teen will let him learn and grow but mistakes that teens make can ruin lives too. Besides talking to my boys about the old things like drugs, alcohol & sex, we now have to remind them that if a girl texts them a dirty photo and they show a friend, they can go to jail for child pornography. If they try marijuana, they may get a dose of a highly toxic drug that it is laced with. If they do something stupid, most likely someone is capturing it on his cellphone and it will be on the internet forever.

Modern parenting is complicated. My challenge to let them fly while walking the fine line of keeping tabs on them. Wish me luck!

The Oscars Japolina style...

I live in a house full of men, so I really had no one to discuss how everyone looked last night so here are a few thoughts...

Here were some of my favorite looks...

Babs looked good for Babs. Donna Karan dresses her and she looked younger than her age. She also had excellent lighting.

I have not seen any movies with her, but Jennifer Lawrence looked perfect.

It's an old-school choice but Jennifer Aniston looked amazing.

Halle Berry's look was severe but she pulled it off. She is blessed with good genes.

Now for worse looks....

I know from personal experience that it is hard to dress if you have some extra lbs but couldn't they have done better styling Melissa McCarthy? Her hair was ugly and the dress was just awful.

I'm a fan of Kristen Stewart but her hair was so messy. What's up with that? It looked worse than this photo. Lots of flyaway!

 I just hated this look. She had every designer begging her to wear their wares. Why did she choose this?

Also, Jennifer Hudson has worked so hard to slim down and usually looks great. Her dress looked great at the top but way too hippy and tight

Did you happen to catch petite Kristen Chenowith interviewing on the red carpet. She is so tiny that she made everyone else look like giants. Poor Adele. She looked so pretty, yet so large next to Kristen. Celebrities must have hated talking to her. I would not be surprised if she does not ever do it again.

I only saw one of the nominated films and I told my readers to go see it. Did you? It was Argo and obviously a good choice because it won best picture!

The power of the positive...

Today is Sunday and I'm going to go a little new age on you today. Don't click the back button just yet. I will be brief and to the point.

Every day, you have a choice. To be positive or negative. Sometimes it is much easier to be negative. Sometimes it is harder to look for the good. Somedays it seems impossible to find a reason for something.

I recently found out that another  friend of mine was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. It is like an epidemic around here. She had  a lumpectomy, she is going through chemo now and because she has breast cancer (BRCA) gene, she will then undergo a mastectomy and have her ovaries removed.  She is in for a long haul but she will be okay.

She is a very wealthy woman and I would not be surprised if she ends up helping cure cancer once and for all once she is done with this stuff. She will raise tons of money for it.

I guess that the point of my post is that while she has a sucky thing going on right now (she has a great support system and great friends), I'm certain that her diagnosis will help many others with the fight.

Too much makeup...

One of facebook friends has started her own makeup business. She used to be a makeup salesgirl at a department store but she has branched out on her own.  She has been posting photos of her work. They look sort of like this...

Okay, maybe not this bad but close. Let's just say she seems to be very heavy handed. I wish that she was my real friend, because I would tell her that her posts are not helping but alas, she is just a facebook friend. One that I have not seen in the real world for at least 20 years.  At least her posts are a warning not to book an appointment.

Sushi Ettiquette...

I think that I am going to a great Sushi place tonight and I happened to run across this comic

As it turns out, I am a very rude sushi eater. 

Don't Block the Box...

This is high season here in South Florida. The regular crazies are here along with the snowbirds and general tourists. As you can imagine, the traffic is horrendous. One of the big problems with my city within the big city is the tendency of impatient people to pull into an intersection, even though there is no room for their car on the other side. In other words, they block the box. There is a big fine for blocking the box but people are either in such a rush, that they don't care OR are not paying attention. Either way, it is a real pain in the butt for the other drivers if your car is blocking the road due to gridlock.

Yesterday, I saw at least five cars blocking the box while trying to turn left at a major intersection. This caused the traffic coming the other way to have to wait at the green light or try to maneuver around the dumb dumbs in order to move. Where was a cop when you need one? Right there actually. I was never happier for another person's misfortune when I saw a cop pull up and pull over the last car in the line of box blockers. I hope he just gave her a warning but it was really nice to see justice in action.

Happy Birthday to Me...

Not exactly. It is my son's 15th Birthday. I always say "Happy Birthday" to the Mom too because the Mom birthed the baby.

Anyway, my sweet little smooshie is now a 6 foot tall teen ager who is going to get his learner's permit after school today. How did that happen? They warned me that it would go buy quickly and it did. They warned me that it would get harder by saying things like "little kids, little problems" and they were right. Who would have thought that anything was harder than getting a baby to sleep through the night via the "Ferber" method or potty training. That seems like a piece of cake compared to teenage drama.

I've aged a lot in these 15 years. My husband says that I'm exactly as pretty as I was before I became a mom, but he is quite nice. The thing that is really amazing is how motherhood changes your life more than anything. I was amazed at the instant love that I had once Jake popped out (all 9 pounds 8 ounces of him and he was two weeks early). Motherhood is quite the adventure but most of the time, a great one.

Happy Birthday Jake!

A veggie tale...

I was a vegetarian for most of high school and all of college. I was not necessarily the healthy type of vegetarian. French Fries were involved.

I am an omnivore now but still love a veggie dinner. With most of the men out of the house this weekend, I made a yummy veggie dinner.

Veggie Kabobs, homemade chunky coleslaw and strawberries. The kabobs were pre-made from The Fresh Market and the slaw was pre-shredded. And yes, the strawberries were quite delicious.

The Lone Ranger....

Last night (Saturday) was a rare one for me. Two of my guys are out of town on a college tour/boy's weekend and the third had a party. After I dropped him off for the party, I decided to run some errands at night. This is something I never do but I'm in search of comfortable, chic shoes (I have a bad foot and my orthopedist suggested sensible shoes until it heals)

Anyway, I ran around to some stores during the dark on my impossible mission. There are no comfortable, chic shoes out there. At least not in my price range.

Driving around at night seemed very lonely to me. I started to think about what my life would be like if my husband and boys no longer lived with me. I became sad. I was being ridiculous. I run errands almost every day during daylight hours by myself and I am not lonely. Why did driving around at night freak me out so much?

I finally threw in the towel and figured I would go home and online to search for the loch ness monster (a comfortable, chic shoe). Once I got home, my loneliness instantly went away. Before I knew it , it was time to go pick up my son from the party. Things were completely back to normal.

I guess my mind was playing tricks on me. Isn't it horrible when that happens? 

I have a mark on my foot and I begin to think it is terminal melanoma (it is a dry skin patch). I give up diet coke and then all I can think about is Diet Soda (I am on week three!) 

Why does one's mind do this? When I was pregnant with my first son, I started to worry like a crazy person. I kept worrying about everything from the serious things like, "Will he be healthy?" to silly things like "Will he be ugly?" (He was healthy and absolutely gorgeous). I decided that I would worry about him for the rest of my life so I decided then and there to only worry if someone like doctor told me to worry. This actually works most of the time but now that he is in the teen years, it is not as easy. Regardless, telling my mind to cut it out worked, even on my pregnant brain. Why can't it always be like this? Tell our brains to knock it off. I guess I should start meditating or something.  

Happy VD!

Happy Valentines Day dear readers. I love each one of you (especially those of you who actually comment!)

Hope your day was filled with love and chocolate.

My sweetie and I celebrated a day early because of various things. We went out last night (No crowds the night before!) We ended up at a new place that I had heard great things about. We got there so late, that it was late night happy hour (9 p.m. to 11) and all appetizers and mojitos were 5 bucks. We ate and drank like little piggies for under $50 bucks. He got off so cheap!!!! So much fun!

There was a murder in my house and there may be another!

The murder was of my most gorgeous orchid. The suspect is our new cat Luca Bella. She is a crazy one and I am extremely mad at her. I think that this was her psycho valentine's day message to me! Let's hope not. 

The orchid was really really pretty. 

The worst book that I have ever read...

 I hate to be negative but I just finished the worst novel ever. I was an English major in college and I have read a lot of books. I love books. 

This book was stupid. The main character, Terry,  is a 40 year old loving nurse who is also very pretty. She has no friends. None. She rents out her lovely guest cottage to a 20 something girl who is up to no good and hangs out with a bad crowd.  Terry becomes besties with the tenant.

I don't want to give the ending away but it there was a twist and even dumber than the plot.

I finished it in the waiting room of a doctor's office and it was so bad that I left the book in the waiting room along with copies of People Magazine from February 2012.

An early Valentine...

I am married to a great guy. He's a great partner and father. He's my soulmate. blah, blah, blah.

You get the picture.  But it is when he does something above and beyond that I am reminded why I am so lucky.

Let's go back a few years. I grew up with a father that loved cars. The cars in our family were always new and shiny. No eating in the cars. No personal items left in the car. They were washed and waxed on a regular basis. They always looked perfect.

I did not inherit this trait. My car is usually dirty. It often looks like I've been off-roading (I wasn't). They often have crumbs, old water bottles, junk mail, etc in them. It is not something I'm proud of but it does not bother me terribly.

I did notice that my car was in special need of a total detail. My sweet husband spent most of his day off yesterday making my car look new. It was a lot of work and was an act of love. My car looks and feels so much better. When I drove my son to school this morning, I was so happy.

He does not need to get me a Valentine this week. He already gave it to me.

I hope that little Johnny Drama uses his powers for good...

The above photo has nothing to do with my topic today. I thought that I'd just let you know why us Floridians brave the craziness, the hurricanes, the bugs, etc.  Despite snowstorms in other places, we are set to have amazing weather this week. Yipee.

Ok, back to the blog.

When my son was three, his best friend broke his leg and got a pretty orange cast. This was the second toddler that I knew who had broken a leg in a mysterious way. The two other kids had been limping and had jumped off of something and broken their legs silently.

So when my son started limping and crying that his leg hurt, I became concerned. Perhaps he had jumped on the playground in a bad way or something.  He went down for a nap and when he woke up, the complaining continued. He could not bear weight on his leg.


I took him to the emergency room . They were convinced by his complaining and actions that he might have a break. They did an x-ray. The ER doctor did not see anything on the xray and sent us home with advice to seek the opinion of  an  pediatric  orthopedist. There is only one group of pediatric orthopedists in the area and they could not fit him in for a day or two. My father in law and brother in law came over to evaluate the patient. They are both physicians. They started talking to him and joking around and said "Let's see how strong you are, kick our palms".  Little Mr. Faker started kicking away and laughing.

I should have learned back then. Since that time on (luckily) rare occasions, little Johnny Drama has faked it. Yesterday he got me again. He had to go to religious school yesterday. He got in my car and looked pale and complained that he did not feel well. My mother's intuition kicked in. I was certain he was sick. I would have bet on it.

He wasn't. Ugh. These teenage years are going to kill me.

Aren't I overqualified for this...

On Monday I was required to make an edible model of Mount Kilauea. It had to be no larger than 12 x 12 and could not contain any nut products. It could erupt or not.

This was for 7th grade science!

First of all, there is no way a 7th grader could do this unsupervised. Secondly, the class was going to eat all the volcanoes during class. How is this educational or within Michelle Obama's guidelines for healthy school meals.

Last, and most importantly, I have already passed 7th grade science and even got high school, college and law school degrees. It is way below my qualifications to make an edible volcano out of rice crispy treats.

Here is a shot of Buddy the Cake Boss's volcano cake. I did not photograph mine my son's volcano because it actually looked like a big pile of poopy!

Come to think of it, the cake in the photo also looks like a pile of cow dung. I guess cakes in the shape of volcanoes look like that . Now I am upset that I did not photograph mine!

50 things money can't buy...

Someone posted this on Facebook.  It is good. I think that number 21 (a good hair day) is not really true. If you are having a bad hair day, you can throw money at that.


Money is nice. We all want more. Money problems suck. HOWEVER, we all know that other problems suck worse than not having enough money.

For example, what if this was your daughter this morning...

This is 18 year old Miami resident Penelope Soto. She was arrested for having Xanax on her without a prescription. This is not the bad part. During her bond hearing, she was giggling and acting like she was at a party, not in jail. The Judge did not like that she was not taking it seriously and raised her bond from $500 to $5000. She then said to the judge "Are you serious?". He said yes and then she flipped him a bird and said F-U.  He then held her in contempt and sentenced her to 30 days in the clink.

This is teenage behavior at it's worst. As I watched the video on the local news this morning, I thought of Jessica's parents. Did they try to teach her manners and respect and she was just out of control or were they absent or just bad role models?   Are they running around bad mouthing the Judge this morning or are they happy for a 30 day break from the little diablo?