Facie’s Ramblings

I had a really great Mother's Day weekend. It started out Friday evening with my enjoying a glass of wine while talking to the neighbors as our kids rode their bikes. I was able to let go and not hover over my kid, as I did last summer, when she first learned to ride a bike. (But I did get up a few times when they went around the corner and were out of our sight for more than a few minutes.). Let's not talk about the Pens loss that evening. Saturday morning, my MIL brought me a nice glass decorative thing. I really don't need more knick-knacks, but it was pretty and thoughtful. Then the hubby and J took her to the airport, while I cleaned the shower (okay, that part was not too fun) and then went shopping for a couple of hours. I am not a fan of shopping, but I had not been clothes shopping in months and this was the first time I have done it without a kid in way longer than that. I ended that trip with three free pretzels from Philly Pretzel Factory, thanks to my winning...

Ten (nine, oops, bad math) years ago, I celebrated my first Mother's Day. I don't actually remember a thing about it, including where I was or whom I was with. My mom may or may not have been working (if the latter, then I was not with her). I may have been here with the hubby, the kid (who was a baby at the time), and most likely my MIL. The hub's grandmother was still living in SC with his (now deceased) grandfather, so they probably were not there. We could have been at my MIL. Or, actually, we could have been at the hubby's restaurant (or maybe he was no longer there). Yep, no clue. What I do remember is the Mother's Day before that. I, just over five months pregnant, took my mom to Heinz Field for a brunch. When we arrived upstairs, the hostess was handing out these nice, thick hardcover Steelers books to the moms. She asked me if I was a mom, and I recall touching my stomach and saying, "In utero!" Fortunately I got the book. :-) I don't remem...

I am spending the weekend (though it is winding down) with the two reasons I celebrate Mother's Day, my mom and my daughter. Those two females mean more to me than any other females ever have and ever will. And for this I am so grateful. Happy Mother's Day!

I wanted to include a nice picture of my mom and me or, even better, one of my mom, Jordan, and me. But, alas, I have almost no recent pics of us, and the few I have are lousy, mostly because I dropped my camera last year (the poor gal has not been the same since). So this post, a short (!) tribute to my mom, will have to go photo-less, which is pretty much how most of my posts end up anyway. On this Mother's Day weekend, I am thankful and grateful for my mom. She sacrificed a lot for our family over the years, and she was always there for us growing up. She dried our tears, fixed up our boo-boos, and stood up and fought for us when she knew it was the right thing to do. She raised us to care about others, particularly family. She taught us right from wrong and got us to church every weekend. She made sure we always knew she was the parent, not our friend. Most of all, she loved us, no matter what stupid, wrong-headed things we did (and by we, I mean me as a high schooler and my ...

A few months ago, I was debating whether or not we should use our economic stimulus payment for a nice-sized, flat-screen TV. Last month, that decision was made for us after we had over $700 in truck repairs. Looking on the bright side, I decided after we put our ESP towards the truck, we would have almost $800 to spend or save, so it seemed like a better deal than blowing the entire ESP on the TV; it was like found/extra money. Then a few weeks later, our drier needed a $200 repair. Again, I told myself we would still have about $600 left, so things were still looking good. Then this past week, we find out the car needs a new clutch, to the tune of just over $700. Again. Ugh! I guess I should be glad our mechanic "works for Jesus and for you"; otherwise, who knows what this could have cost us! I thought this ESP was a bad idea, just another example of the government wasting (our) money and putting the country more in the hole, but I was looking forward to it. Considering tha...