Picture Perfect Memories

These images are © 2015 by Life As She Does It. Please link back or credit if any content or images are used. 

Have you ever looked back on a picture and thought to yourself, “WHAT WAS I THINKING??”  I do it ALL the time, unfortunately.

There are some I cringe to look at because I was so young and now I’m so not.

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Ahhh, the days of innocence when the thought of the chemical lighter fluid behind me didn't make me think of eating a carcinogen marshmallow.

There are some that I abhor because I was fat.

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Woo!  And I actually got fatter than THAT!

There are some I look at and am embarrassed because I thought I was all that.

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Well, I WAS all that in this picture, but I’m standing in a Dollar Store posing like that, soooo not really.

There are some I look at and think, “What was I wearing??”

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What??  That cotton puffpaint-suit had matching earrings!

There are some that confuse me because I just don’t know WHAT I was trying to do.

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Uhhh…YEA.

There are some pictures that make me just miss my old eyebrows.

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Brook Shields had NOTHIN’ on me, apparently.

There are some where I realize, the higher and bigger the hair, the higher and bigger the fool.

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I wonder where I was all dressed up to go in my Z Cavaricci pants with the towel so elegantly draped over the window behind me?

There are some that even friends warn you not to show.

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(From Facebook): Hugh Durlam: "WOW. Some pictures are meant to be burned. I'm not sure what the biggest offender in this pic is; The hair, the wine in the jelly jar, or the wood paneling."

‘Nuff said.

Some I just wish for that smooth, collagen-plump baby face back.

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But not the dress.  OR the hair.

Some I’m not even sure are ME.

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Dang it.  It’s me.

And then there are those pictures that are worth a thousand words.

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Or no words at all.  (That one is so bad, that I cropped the other person out of the photo to help them avoid the embarrassment of standing there with me!  You're welcome.)

Yep.  I think we all have a collage of pictures we’re not sure we’d ever have the courage to show.  But I don’t regret one of them.  Nope, not even the puffpaint-suit one.  Each and every one of them contains a memory that has evolved me into the person I am today, and given me the life I now cherish and know is short-lived.

I wish I had a picture for every single moment: the good AND the bad.  It would give me a chance to reflect on what was sweet and savory, and what mistakes helped me learn and gave me wisdom.  I don’t have pictures of the hours I labored to give birth to Cameron and my bff, Sina, wouldn't let me push too early so that he would come into this world with a beautiful and perfectly round head.  I don’t have a photo for the moment I received a call that a good friend died.  I don’t have a photo for the first time Chelsea said, “I love you, Mommy.”  There is no photo I have to represent the very instant I accepted Christ as my Savior and my whole life changed.  I don’t have a photo for the first time I saw Jordan cry and it made my chest feel pinched.  I don’t have a photo to represent the heartaches of broken relationships.  I don’t have a photo of the butterflies in my stomach when I met Adrian and knew he was The One.  But though I don’t have a photo for those things, I have a picture of them.  They’re all in my memory, and they’re all perfect.  So go on and shake your head in revulsion over that photo of you dressed in satin shorts and tube socks with the world’s worst hair cut – but make sure you keep the picture of that memory in the perfect album: Your Heart.

These images are © 2015 by Life As She Does It. Please link back or credit if any content or images are used. 

A Pie To The Face

Photo Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/72006245@N05/6506044479

Back in the days of Vaudeville, and when variety acts and shows were a really big deal, slapstick comedy was a must.  You know, the days when they would use a cane to get you off the stage if they thought you stunk, because it would save you from being pelted with rotten tomatoes.  Back then (and now, really) a pie to the face was FUNNY.  There is actually a name for it: pieing.

For some reason, it was always a coconut cream pie.  This was not considered a waste of a perfectly good coconut cream pie, either, because it was something that brought a smile to your face.  All the great comedians did it: Soupy Sales was the master of it, Carol Burnett, Lucille Ball, The Three Stooges…heck, Charlie Chaplin even made the first movie that ever had pieing in it, Behind the Screen, in 1916.  Can you believe that??  1916!!

So I think it’s a fair statement that pieing has been around for a while.  I would even venture to say it is part of comedic history.  Why?  Because a coconut cream pie to the face can bring a smile.

Well, I pied my friend.  And I’m proud of it.  Yes, I put a coconut cream pie in her face……and it made her smile.  I baked my special coconut cream pie and delivered it to my friend Kacey and within an hour, I received a phone call.  “This is the best thing I've ever put in my mouth!!  No, all kidding aside, it makes up for everything bad that has ever happened in my life!”  I have to tell you that brought tears of joy to my eyes, because I had baked it with 100% love in the recipe.  (Remember Flat Biscuits?)  It truly was one of the nicest compliments I've ever received – so I guess I’m part of comedic history!

So, Ladies and Gentlemen, without further ado, I am avoiding being caned off-stage for not sharing the recipe for this pie.  But a word of caution:  love is not listed as one of the ingredients in the recipe - that should just be a given.  There is a secret ingredient that will make the entire pie amazing…but without creating this masterpiece with love, it just won’t taste the same.

Sometimes we may feel as though we’re on the receiving end of pieing.  It can make us feel like rotten tomatoes are being pelted at us.  But remember that some of the greats got pied and made history!  And also remember that being on the receiving end of a pie-to-the-face isn't ALWAYS a bad thing. :-)

This image is © 2015 by Life As She Does It. Please link back or credit if any content or images are used. 

Coconut Cream Pie-to-the-Face Pie

Ingredients (I use all-organic, but it’s not necessary)

5 cups sweetened flaked coconut

7 tablespoons butter

About 1/2 cup chocolate chips (the secret ingredient!) – I don’t measure, I just cover the entire crust with the chips

2 large eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups whole milk

3/4 cup heavy cream

Additional sweetened flaked coconut, toasted – NECESSARY!

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Mist a 9-inch pie plate with cooking spray. Place 3 cups coconut in a bowl. In a pan, melt 5 tablespoons of the butter. Stir butter into coconut until it’s all moistened. Press into the bottom and sides of the pie plate. Bake until crust is deep golden brown, which is usually about 25-to-30 minutes. Check on it often—if edges are browning before the bottom does, cover the edges with foil. Take the crust out of the oven. Sprinkle chocolate chips over hot crust and let stand for 5 minutes, until melted. Gently spread chocolate over bottom of crust. Refrigerate crust for 10-to-15 minutes.

2. In a bowl, whisk eggs, sugar, flour and vanilla until smooth. Warm milk in a pan over medium heat until nearly simmering, BUT DON’T LET IT BOIL. Whisking constantly, slowly pour hot milk into egg mixture (this is called tempering so you don’t end up with scrambled eggs in your pie). Return milk mixture to pan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture begins to boil and thickens enough to coat back of a spoon, which usually takes about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in the remaining 2 cups coconut and last 2 tablespoons butter; let stand 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pour custard into crust. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing directly against surface of custard, and chill completely, and hour-and-a-half.

3. Using an electric mixer, beat cream until stiff peaks form. Spread whipped cream over custard, swirling decoratively. Chill pie for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with toasted coconut. 

4.  Put it in yer face.  SMILE.

Photo Source: facebook.com/kaceyboagni

Blue to the Bone

Photo Source: https://pixabay.com/en/two-hearts-red-heart-love-symbol-631344/

When Chelsea was born 21 years ago today, I knew the second she came into the world she would be a force to be reckoned with.  She didn't cry.  She had to be tapped on the bottom with the doctor’s first two fingers before she started to sound like a sweet little lamb.  (It wasn't the last time she would be tapped on the bottom for her rebellious nature!)  But that cry had a certain tone to it – it was different and I knew it right away.

Every night when Chelsea was little, she and I had a ritual after her night-time bath.  I would blow dry her hair and sing a song I knew from when I was a kid called Blue to the Bone.  I have no idea where I learned it or how I knew it – just seemed like it had always been there.  When the blow dryer would go, I would sing it to Chelsea and by the time the song was done, her hair would be dry.  One night, she started to sing it first.  Her voice sounded just so pretty – and she was so stinkin’ cute!  So I started to sing with her, only I added harmony.  Much to my surprise she held her own and a beautiful sound emerged from the lovely acoustics of the bathroom!  (oxy-moronic statement much?)

For my birthday one year, Adrian got a friend of ours, Vic Mignona, to record us singing this song.  He had a recording studio in his home and he does a lot of professional production work, among other things.  Vic added some music and even had Adrian add some bass to the end chorus!  (Picture “Daddy Sang Bass” a la Johnny Cash!)

It was a wonderful gift, as was Chelsea being born.  I still listen to it and when I do, I can’t believe my Little Lamb is all grown up.  She has been through very hard times with grace, and it has pushed her faith to the limit.  But that little rebel never let those times make her blue to the bone.  Instead she created her own song in life, realizing that the decisions she made would create her legacy – understanding life is not always beautiful harmony, but to make the most for every bit of it and be thankful for the opportunity to have a purpose here in this life.

Happy Birthday, Chelsea Dane.  I love you.  Thank you for making my life better.

Here is the recording of Chelsea and I singing Blue to the Bone (featuring Adrian singing bass at the end): 

Sam, I Am

Photo Source: http://www.clipartpanda.com/clipart_images/dr-seuss-clip-art-2185822

As a young girl, I, like many other young girls, would dream up my prince charming.  Mine was tall with dark hair and smoldering eyes, smart, and funny.  He would be the guy that would do anything for his wife.  He would ride in (on a white horse, of course) just in time and save the day.  As an (ahem) older, (much) wiser woman, I now realize that dream came true (minus the horse, of course).  But I’m not just talking about my Prince Charming of a husband.  I've been blessed enough to have the very same dream come true for my daughter.  Little did I know when I was praying for that perfect guy for me, I was asking for the very same for my then not-yet-a-twinkle-in-my-eye daughter.

Sam is what I always refer to as “proof of the power of a praying parent.”  (Say THAT five times fast!)  To say that he is a good husband to our daughter is an understatement.  There is no doubt in our minds that if there was a bullet coming toward her, he would jump in front of it (though we believe it would bounce off his chest).  Yes.  He is definitely a superhero.  The gentle, sweet, and lovely kind  - with the inner strength and moxie of ten men.

But being Chelsea’s husband is not Sam’s entire identity to us.  Sam is someone we've watched go through the horrific loss of his older brother with grace and mourn his loss with full-force.  Sam is that same man that stood with his shoulders taut so that his family could rest on them during that tragedy.  Sam is the man that stands for what’s right at the risk of losing to what’s wrong.  He is the same man that trembled a little when he proposed to Chelsea, but stood tall and strong to look her in the eye on her wedding day.  Sam is the man that took us to lunch to ask for our daughter’s hand in marriage with the promise to protect her, and the man who has followed through on that promise thus far.  He is the man that looks at me with a softness that makes me forget he’s not my own child.  Sam is the man that can look at Chelsea like she is the most beautiful woman that ever existed and yet, like she’s a steak and he’s starving all at the same time.  He is Sam.  Not Sam who tries too hard or pretends to be someone he isn't.  If you were to ask him why he is this way and how did he get here, he would humbly shrug his shoulders, and say with that serious tone-of-voice and a wry little half-smile, “That’s just who I am.”

Sam, I am.

I don’t know that I can extend to you how grateful I am to have that for Chelsea – and for this family.  In this world, and in this life, you never know what you’re going to get.   But I prayed for him – and he came.  God sent him.  Yes.  Sam is a God-send.

Our family goes through the ups and the downs.   And Sam is part of both every step of the way.  But his faith remains strong.  His belief system is part of his make-up – and he won’t let his own burdens weigh on you.  I sometimes stand in amazement at how this is true of our son-in-law.  I watch him with his wife (our daughter) and how he loves her without condition.  I watch him with his younger brother and two younger brothers-in-law, and how he tries so hard to be a leader.  I watch him with his parents and how he loves them enough to be his own man, but thankful for the man they've helped him become.  I watch him silently allow people to be themselves while he slyly watches in the background, careful never to steal any thunder.  I watch him and wish I could say I was Sam.  Sam, I am.

These images are © 2015 by Life As She Does It. Please link back or credit if any content or images are used. 

Here's Mud In Your Eye!

Photo Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rufino_uribe/393308243

Two weeks ago, I watched my husband and son get ten thousand volts of electricity shocked through their bodies – and live to tell about it.  As they linked arms with the rest of the Tough Mudder Team, Carpe Diem (which means Seize the Day), and went through this last obstacle together, tears streamed down my face and my flesh was riddled with goose bumps.  I had just watched them all go through twelve miles of extreme terrain, fifteen ridiculous obstacles, mud, rocks, hills, holes, and trenches, and felt so proud and satisfied with how hard they had worked to see it through to the end.

This is the kind of thing that needs training.  (DUH)  But I don’t just mean the kind of training I watched them do under the watch of the Team Captain, Jan-Michael Jenkins (Legacy Fitness) every Saturday morning at boot camp; nor do I just mean the kind of training that made my husband nearly have a heat stroke one Tuesday afternoon.  I mean TEAM training.  The people that made sure “no man was left behind”.

The weekend before the event, my husband decided we needed to get the entire team to break bread - together.  He found it curious that there were so many people on his team he didn’t know and that probably didn’t know him, and decided to change that.  Knowing the heart and soul that has to go into this event, he wanted to know that if he needed help crawling through the mud under barbed wire, or getting the courage to jump into a murky pond from fifty feet in the air, he would get it.  And that is how Tough Mudder Elegante Reception Dinner Night became one for the Garcia Theme Night history books.

Now don’t get me wrong, the menu was pretty awesome and well-thought out.  I mean, we had things like Mud Slides, Fire in the Mudhole, Swamp Mud Soup, and Mississippi Mud Pie, among other things.  We had pictures taken in front of a gold curtain like they were Olympians.  We played charades.  It was AWESOME.

But the one thing that stood out was the camaraderie.  We started with hors d’oeuvres and story time ...... with everyone telling the others why they were doing the Tough Mudder to begin with – and though everyone’s story was different, they realized they all had a purpose.  It changed everything.  It went from being an extreme sport they wanted to “do”, to realizing they weren't just in it for themselves.

I actually think the dinner was as memorable as the event itself.  I felt such a pride watching Carpe Diem beat the Tough Mudder Challenge – and becoming a family in the meantime.

When life is like going through mud trenches with barbed wire everywhere, or you feel like you’re getting shocked with ten thousand volts of electricity, or like you’re jumping from fifty feet into the murky pond of life, look around you.  There IS someone who will encourage you through or pull you out.  You have to know where to look and make sure you build that relationship, create that legacy – and be ready to seize the day and help pull someone else out if you see they need it.

My hats off to you, Team Carpe Diem.  I raise my glass to you with honor as I loudly say to each of you, “Here’s Mud in Your Eye!”

These images are © 2015 by Life As She Does It. Please link back or credit if any content or images are used. 

I Scream, You Scream

Life is short and it is fleeting.  It is the human nature in us that makes us wish our life away.  What do I mean?  “I can’t WAIT ‘til Friday!”  Or “I wish it was next week already!”  It’s what we do when there is something exciting or better waiting for us.  And we push away the bad times that exists if we can help it in an effort to get to the better time.  But each moment that is given to us is still part of the life we have.  Not every second of my 41-and-three-quarter years on this earth have been all cheese and lollipops, BELIEVE ME.  But I don’t regret one bit of it.  I have learned to embrace the times that are not-so-good or the things we deem as bad – even sickness and death.

There are people we don’t get along with, either.  You know the ones.  When you've done everything you can to be positive and have a smiley, ooey-gooey kind of day, and in one fell swoop the person you have to be around (sometimes there are several, but there’s always at least one) who is actually at their happiest being miserable, comes along and with one comment – ruins it.

This person could even be someone you love.  Most times they aren't, but there are things that can happen with some of the most important people in your life that can bring you down.  We don’t all get along with our parents or spouses every single moment of the day, do we?  Arguments and disagreements can happen.  There have been times I've had actual screaming matches with my children.   (insert diabolical-I-can’t-believe-it music here)  I remember one where my daughter, Chelsea, and I were both screaming so loudly at the same time … and we would stop at the same time, and start up again at the same time.  The memory of it is funny now, but wasn't so at the time – luckily, she is one of my best friends now.  Not that the kids wanted me to be upset or they enjoyed being upset, but it didn't make for a warm, fuzzy time in our lives when we argued or had screaming matches.  But they are grown now and I wouldn't trade any of those arguments for anything.  It’s what my legacy for them will be built from and what taught them (and me) life lessons.

I believe God allows us to have those moments – or even suffer – to bring opportunity to us: opportunity to learn, opportunity to set an example, opportunity to be there for one another, and opportunity to lean on Him and draw closer.  I also believe God allowed good things for the same reason…like ICE CREAM.  I believe God created ice cream to ease the pain like no medicine can.

The other day, I was really mistreated by someone … so much so that they brought (hard-core) me to tears.  I was in an almost-panic attack.  My chest hurt, my ears were ringing, and there was nothing I could do about it in this particular situation.  Now this someone was not someone close to me or in my immediate family, but they are still in my life, and they are one of those miserable people I mentioned earlier.  It was awful.  But I also have a friend, Deborah, who knows about God’s wonderful elixir that is the creamed ice.  She went into action like some superhero from an ice cream comic book.  (In fact, typing this story, I see her with her hands on her hips, and her beautiful multi-colored sundae cape flying behind her in the wind.)  She simply walked up to me and said, “Come on, we’re gonna go for a ride.  It’ll only take fifteen minutes.”  Sweeter words were never spoken.  She took me to a wonderful, God-inspired, nectar in a sugar cone.  She even took into consideration that I am an organic girl and made certain what I was eating was all right – not that it mattered, to be honest.  Ice cream is ice cream, and there is no bad ice cream.  With one lick of that soft cloud of vanilla goodness, all the bad feelings started to melt away.  By the time I had finished the cone, I felt like a new woman.  I think about what made me sad to begin with and it doesn't feel good.  But I don’t regret the bad part, because without it, I never would have been brought closer to a friend who did what it took to make me feel better, and I never would have gotten the ICE CREAM!!

I have attached a home-made ice cream recipe below so that you can always have this amazing tool at arm’s length so that when you've had a bad day because of hard times, or a miserable person, or even screaming matches with the ones you love the most.

Yes, life is short and fleeting.  Do your best to NOT be that person that people think are miserable or that makes people miserable.  It’s the legacy you create while you’re alive, and the legacy you leave when you go.  Remember the good things in life, even when bad things happen.  It’s been this way since the dawn of time, and we've always screamed for the goodness when sometimes it’s right in front of us; screamed for the bad things to go away; screamed for God to get us through those times.  I've screamed.  You've screamed.  I pray you get some ice cream.

Homemade Organic Ice Cream without an Ice Cream Maker

Ingredients:

1 cup organic whole milk

1 tsp organic vanilla extract

2 tbsp organic sugar

6 chocolate sandwich cookies, crushed in a plastic baggie with flat side of a meat pounder – this ALSO helps with

anxiety or anger :-)) My fave brand of organic chocolate sandwich cookie is Late July

1/2 cup organic ice cream salt

Ice

1 gallon-size Ziploc baggie

1 quart-size Ziploc baggie

Directions:

Fill the large plastic bag with ice and ice cream salt. Carefully (maybe use a small funnel?) fill the smaller bag with the

milk, vanilla and sugar. Seal the small bag tight – MAKE SURE IT’S CLOSED.

Place the small bag inside the large ice-filled bag and seal large bag tightly.

Shake bag up and down for 10 minutes, putting some serious “elbow grease” into the shake, shake, shake.)

until ice cream has formed!

Scoop out ice cream and combine with crushed cookies, or topping of choice. (Obviously, you don’t have to use organic

ingredients, it’s just how I do it for my own family.  Either way, ENJOY!!)

Finger Prints on My Heart

Photo Source: http://4vector.com/free-vector/heart-fingerprint-132936

Fingerprints are unique.  There are no two sets of fingerprints alike.  It’s amazing to me how precise they are, too.  Sometimes I forget how intricate God is.  That’s how I feel about fingerprints in a spiritual way.

Then there’s the practical, everyday way I feel about fingerprints.  They stick in my craw.  They also stick to everything in the house!  From windows to a stainless steel refrigerator, I spend much of my time trying to remove fingerprints from surfaces in an effort to clean my home. 

I have a 19-year-old young man still living at home.  Though I don’t really see him that often, I know he’s been there – ESPECIALLY in the fridge.  Fingerprints all over it.  I’m not mad at the fingerprints I find on the fridge; in fact, I feel a little lump rise in my throat because I know he will be leaving soon and I will not get to see those fingerprints as often.  But what’s baffling to me is it almost seems as though he doesn’t even BOTHER to use the handle that is connected to the refrigerator…it’s as though he paws at it with both hands until it opens.

It’s no secret I try not to use chemicals for cleaning.  But my trusty vinegar, lemon, and water just doesn’t cut it when it comes to the fridge fingerprints.  It leaves streaks and makes the stainless steel pretty dull.

So I did my research.  You will never guess what I found!!  Extra virgin olive oil!  (Talk about “elbow grease’!)  It removes the fingerprints AND shines it up for quite some time!  I know this sounds strange and almost opposite to the point, but I now swear by it because it truly works! 

So here’s what ya do:

Paper towel or soft cloth in one hand.  Extra virgin olive oil in the other.  Pour a small amount (maybe a quarter size at a time – remember: you can always add, but it’s much harder to take (rub) away) in small, circular motions, start from the top (in case you happen to have too much on the cloth and it drips, it drips downward for you to rub it in!)  and massage oil in, working your way down the door of the fridge, rubbing the oil in fully.  If you put too much oil, it can turn rancid and start to stink…found THAT out the hard way!   Then use other side or cleaner, drier side of towel or cloth and work your way back up the door of the fridge.  BAM!!  Clean, shiny and au naturale! 

These images are © 2015 by Life As She Does It. Please link back or credit if any content or images are used. 

What do the fingerprints you find around your house remind you of?  Don’t take them for granted as you clean them away……know they are unique and fleeting.  Allow them to massage your heart with the oil of their reminiscence and as you rub them away from the surface, make sure to keep them locked away in your memories.   They’re intricate and the person they came from is VERY special......especially if they’re yours.