Love | A Thankfully Imperfect Woman

Aug 19

Rewind to Day One: 219 Blog Posts and 410 Followers Ago

Just for fun…and, well, because Gabi wanted to see it, I pulled up my first blog post.

As I re-read it I laughed at myself and thought maybe I should re-post it for those of you that started following recently. Read more

May 20

6 Comments

The Deep, Dark Well and the Bright, Shining Son

Imagine you’re in the bottom of a really deep well.

Overwhelmed and haunted by memories:

A loss that cut deep in your soul. Arguments with loved ones. A history of past abuse. A history of deep shame.

Memories of (insert yours here). Read more

Apr 1

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Dear God…Sometimes Life Just Kinda Stinks

Today was one of those days, and no, this is NOT an April Fool’s Day joke.

We’ve been dealing with anger issues with Motzy lately. He would do really well…and then suddenly snarl at one of us.

We tried everything…reprimanding him, putting him in his kennel for a timeout, and anything else you can imagine. We even had our own private Veterinary advisor Jen – the daycare baby’s Mom. She talked us through many ideas for training and disciplining him.

But today we had to say goodbye.

He went after Gabi last Thursday night when she was doing nothing more than snuggling with him – like they had every night for the past 7 months. He left 8 indents on her hands along with a couple scrapes. He didn’t break skin, but she froze in fear. Motzy was immediately put in his kennel where we didn’t hear a peep from him until morning.

Today he went after me twice. This morning leaving a few teeth indents on my hand and this afternoon I was saved by his cone. He has snarled at us before and had attempted to bite but hadn’t connected. We had him neutered on Friday with the hope that it might help things. Unfortunately it didn’t, he actually was worse.

We had to make the decision today, and even though we knew we absolutely couldn’t have a dog that snapped at any of us or the two little daycare babies, it was still hard to say goodbye. He was the sweetest dog 95% of the time. But we couldn’t take a chance on the other 5%, especially with his episodes escalating.

I told Gabi before we left that maybe this was just all part of God’s plan. Maybe Motzy has a wonderful new home to go to where he’ll be able to do all the things English Setters are supposed to do – go bird hunting and get lots of exercise each day. Maybe that owner wouldn’t have been able to take him when he was a pup. Maybe we were supposed to give him lots of love for 7 months so that he could eventually meet up with his permanent owner.

For now Jen was able to find a foster home. She’s hoping to find him a permanent home soon. I imagine a farm where maybe he could live in a barn and run free.

But for today, we kissed him goodbye and told him how much we loved him. He’s spending the night at the Vet Clinic awaiting his ride.

Whatever God’s plan may be for Motzy, or for us…

Sometimes life just kinda stinks.

Patty O

Mar 29

Best Snack EVER: Frosting & Graham Crackers

This post comes courtesy of Miss Gabi and Mr. Lah’s Speech Class. Her assignment was to do a demonstration speech and she chose ‘How to Frost a Cupcake’. Can I just say YUM?

I had to write a note to her teacher so that he knew she made them without any help. Of course, I couldn’t just leave it at ‘Yes, she did it all herself’. Me? No. I also added ‘Feel free to give her another food assignment’!

The inventor of this Best Snack EVER is my sister Carol. She is a woman of many talents; cake decorator, painter of pictures, stained glass art creator, house and yard decorator, baker of amazing cookies, caregiver, great Mom, and yes, everyone loves her. I hate her. Just kidding. I admire her – always have and always will!

It was in her cake decorating that she came up with the idea of using the extra frosting by putting some between graham crackers. Her sons and I thoroughly enjoyed her extra frosting creations. And now you can too!

For the frosting for Gabi’s cupcakes, she used a fantastic recipe courtesy of the Food Network’s website and creator Gale Gand. I hope you like it as much as we did:

Quick Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

3 cups confectioners’ sugar

1 cup butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream

Directions:

In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk, mix together sugar and butter.

Mix on low-speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.

Add vanilla and cream and continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more, adding more cream if needed for spreading consistency.

Now for the tough part…to frost a cake or a use it all as snacks. Hmmm…

I vote for the snacks.

Set up your station with your bowl of frosting and your pack of graham crackers, now grab your graham crackers, break them in half and slather (technical term) some frosting on half. Use the other half to top off your creation.

We’ve discovered that the best beverage selections to complement your creation are either a glass of milk (our choice of beverage when her sons and I were younger), or a glass of wine (for us now in the ‘over 21’ category).

Ready, set, EAT! Yummmmmmmy!

I hope you enjoy your treats as much as we did!

Patty O

ps…As you can see Miss Gabi added food coloring and made rainbow frosting. I wish I’d taken a picture of her cupcakes, they were beautiful!

Mar 25

1 Comment

Our Microwave Has a Cell Phone

No, we don’t have a new-fangled microwave that actually lets you talk to someone via phone. But our microwave’s cell phone has become quite the joke in our house.

It all started with one very stubborn husband who refused to carry HIS cell phone with him! Well, actually, this phone used to be the house phone. You see we replaced our land line with an extra cell phone, just in case someone (namely Tim or our youngest) were home alone and needed to get in contact with someone, or vice versa.

But then Gabi grew up, as children do…and she started playing high school sports. Late games meant late phone calls for late car rides home. And so, she got her own phone.

This, of course, meant the only person without one in this family of 5 was my dear, loving, stubborn husband.

Now mind you, I do understand that he talks all day to his students and he’s on the phone quite a bit when he’s doing his Athletic Director job. (Some of those phone calls are not the most pleasant. Him being the rule enforcer that he has to be…rules made by the School Board and the State High School Leaque. A few people aren’t happy with these rules and of course he being the messenger, gets to enjoy all the complaints.)

So, again, I do understand why it’s not always a bad thing to be phoneless.

HOWEVER,

There are times I wish I could get ahold of him without having to track him down through someone else or a few someone elses!

But alas, he keeps fighting it.

And so, ‘his’ phone stays on top of the microwave.

Last night it got SO ridiculous that when his phone rang, he asked Gabi to answer the microwave phone!

One more call on his phone last night and we all yelled “The microwave is ringing!”

By this time we were all laughing. OK, I was shaking my head, rolling my eyes and laughing.

Someday my husband will carry HIS phone.

Someday.

It may be years from now, when everyone else has switched over to some new phone replacing invention…

In the meantime, our microwave has a cell phone.