Frozen Pizza, not so frozen taste.

I am not one to boast on products. But, when I find something that exceeds my expectations, I tend to brag about it. I have discovered a new love. Anyone who knows me is aware that if pizza were the last thing on the planet, I would die a fat, happy girl. We all also know I am a BzzAgent. (Did I tell you I was a BzzAgent? **insert sideways grin here**) As a BzzAgent, I am afforded the opportunity to try things at a deep discount or even for free! I just have to spread the word!

This is exactly what I am doing today. Today's product? Red Baron Brick Oven Pizza.

When I got my coupons for this, I was going to use them all at once. I am not the only pizza lover in my house so why not make the trial a family affair? To my dismay, it was nearly 2 weeks before my local stores even carried Brick Oven. Oh, they had Red Baron alright. Every stinkin Red Baron under the sun. Wal Mart even had a kids sandwich container with Snoopy fighting the Red Baron hanging on one of those random impulse buy hangers in between the frozen aisle doors. I just knew it was a conspiracy and that my stores were messing with me. The ONE time I left the house and stopped by the store on impulse, guess what was in the frozen foods aisle? RED BARON BRICK OVEN PIZZA!  Oh yes, I was pretty vocal about it.

Me: "NOW they decide to stock it!"
Numba 8: "What mom?"
Me: "Red Baron Brick Oven Pizza!"  **looks around and sees other shoppers looking at the interaction. "It is supposed to be good stuff lil man! Just like delivery!"
Numba 8: "Well, we should get some!"
Me: Lets run back to the house and get my coupons and we will try EVERY flavor!"

That is exactly what we did. We tried Brick Oven pizza that same day! Truth be told, it is nothing like any other frozen pizza! The crust was perfect and there was no over melty mess to clean up in the bottom of the oven! (It says to place it right on the oven rack. Usually that ends up with me cleaning the oven, but not this time.) It was not chewy or lacking in flavor either. I just know I am going to save so much money buying Red Baron Brick Oven Pizza instead of delivery the next time or even times after that I want Pizza.

Watch out delivery! You have some serious competition here!

What do YOU think?

I give you my Awesomeness!

Alas, it is Mothers’ Day. That special day where we celebrate all that is mom and let her know that, even though we act like we hate everything you say, you are STILL Mom and we love you!


I had to work today. Of course, I  was up before everyone else in the house so no fabled breakfast in bed for me. I think that is why they keep you in the hospital at least overnight when you give birth. This way, you get at least one time in your life that, as a mother, you can have breakfast in bed! For me the best one out of our brood was the last one. I was lucky enough to find a channel that played “Castaway” with Tom Hanks about a million times before I left the hospital. I actually watched it while eating breakfast. Good times. Gooooood times! Ok, well maybe reflecting on giving birth is not the best “good time” that anyone can think of but it is a pretty awesome experience.  Ok, so on to my Mothers Day story for the post…


This morning, my lovely daughter came into my office to wish me a Happy Mothers Day. I asked her “What did you get me?”  Mind you, she IS a teenager and teenagers get up to some persnickety stuff sometimes. She just grinned really big at me, turned her back to me and then said:


“The only thing I got you was my AWESOMENESS.” As if that was well deserved.


Well, guess what? I accept that. She is Awesome. She has more talent in one fingernail than any kid I know for miles around! If Awesomeness is all she has to give me well then, I am going to BATHE in it! She has already been up (going against her character) and soaked the dishes and helped out with her brothers. All without asking and I have not had to mute my headset and scream like a banshee through the wall to get her to tell them to stop fighting.


All in all, good Mothers Day so far.  Now, because I don’t normally take a lunch on Sunday’s, lets see how hard it is for her to come and get the coffee and reheat it. It got cold while I was telling you my story. Ugh. I need a coffee warmer in my office.


/micaa yells….DAUGHTER!!!!!!!!!! I NEED MY COFFEEEEE HEATEDDDDD!!!!!!
Heard through the wall:  UGHHHH!!!!! **Stomp Stomp Stomp..(yes, they are womens 13s!) Typical Day in the Miles household.
What do YOU think?

Well if that doesn't condone a Hitler-cannibalistic attitude toward life.

Have you ever paid attention to that cereal commercial where the cereal devises underhanded ways of eating each other?  In a world where bullying is a real issue in schools and the great movement to actually curb such behavior, we sit back and laugh and snicker at these fool pieces of cereal.  To what end?

Is that not the very thing that we are seeking to prevent the children of today from doing?  Is it not condoning cannibalism?  What if some child, who knows no better, ends up doing that to a peer?  Then what? Blame the parents?

Yes, the parents are to blame but only partially.  It is up to the parents to talk to and teach their children the difference between right and wrong and it is up to the parents to certainly tell their children that cannibalism is not something that people in this society do anymore.  We need to talk to our children about the things they are exposed to and to let them know what is reality and what is simply make believe. We also need to teach them that some forms of behaviour that are seen on television are certainly not appropriate for action in real life.  Would you not agree that the same needs to be done when they see one of the cartoony poptart commercials?  Those commercials are teaching kids that it is alright to treat a certain type of living thing a cruel way simply because it is funny.  Those kids trap pop tarts (who are personified) in toasters and devise ways to get them into a warm place simply to toast them alive.  Well if that is not teaching torture methods, then what is?

Yes, it is funny to watch but you need to realize that some children are exposed to this and are never taught that it is wrong or immoral.  They are exposed to these behaviours and see these characters laugh and giggle at their own behaviour and believe that off the wall things like locking someone different than you in a creamatorium is funny.  What the children aren't exposed to is that you cannot take behaviour like that back. 

Exactly, it does not show the consequences of said "funny" behaviour.  So tell me, who is going to guide our future generations along the path of salvation and non bullying behaviour.  Well, it certainly starts at home, with the parents that HAVE TO TALK TO THEIR CHILDREN. We were talked to growing up.  The only difference between then and now is that we had to live life and not be sucked into electronics hours and hours a day.  As a parent, you have the control to change that and encourage our children to treat each other with respect and as human beings. Put the electronics aside and let them know, cannabalism-you can't take it back and it is wrong. Toasting those that are different from you-you cannot take it back and it is wrong.  The latter even being Hitler like......eck.

What do you think?

The Future of Tech Support

Many of you already know that I am a technical support representative by trade.  Good times.  Goooooood times! (Cosmoism) It never occurred to me that the children pay attention to what I do when I am at work. Yes, I work from home doing this stuff.  In every technical support situation or any electrical "fix it" situation, you begin with checking that it is plugged in properly and unplug everything and then plug it back in one piece of the equation at a time.  Simple stuff.  That will fix about seventy five percent of your issues then it goes into the more complicated stuff.

Before I began to do this, the way to fix things was to beat the holy crap out of the thing or kick it and pray that it continues to work for at least the next three months or so as you begin to save funds to replace the thing being stupid in the first place.  What did your television ever do to you?

With all that background, let me get to what I am ranting about.  I often worry about what our number nine is going to do when he becomes a functioning member of society.  I would hate to think that he is going to work at a fast food restaurant for the rest of his life as a burger flipper.  I know he loves his video games and taking things apart and he can pick apart a game to the very stitch.  That is something.  There are actually jobs out there developing video games and what not.  His math skills are excellent and he loves math period!  If reading were to be as fun for him as math, he would be dangerous! (The next Dr. Sheldon Cooper???) So we talk about that a lot and he loves electronics.  Great!  There is a future there at the moment.

I was sitting in here on FaceBook (what else do I do with my free time?) and there must have been some issue with the living room tv as I heard the following conversation:

Nine: Joshua! Don't hit it! That won't make it stop!
Six:  But that fixes the other TV!
Nine: I know but we are going to try something else.
Six: OK.
Nine: Turn the TV off first, then the cable box and let me check something.
Six: ***turns off the TV then the cable box***
Nine: I have to check and make sure it is plugged in to the wall. We may have knocked it loose playing Xbox yesterday. ***Grunts and mumbles as he crawls behind the TV stand to check the plug***
Six: Can I turn it on yet? I wanna watch Robot and Monster!
Nine: NO! Let me get out of here first. We are going to turn things on one at a time!
Six: ***pouts*** Ok.
Nine:  Ok, now, Turn the cable box on first
Six: ***pushes button***
Nine: Now turn the TV on.
Six:  Yay!!!!! We did it!  It works!
Nine: Told ya to listen to me, we have to do it one at a time or it wont work. You don't have to hit it.

For my fellow WAH peeps that have worked in Tech Support. You can imagine how proud I was sitting here listening to that interaction!  I was beaming so loud you would have thought the Sun came to visit my office.

Anyone else have a WAH story to share?

Yea, I cheat and vaccuum the linoleum.

My house is lived in. No, I don't mean lived in like there is stuff everywhere or anything like that. You can just tell we spend a lot of time at home and get our money's worth out of this mortgage. (Yess!!!!) Well, this means I can do cleaning projects at my perogative because I no longer have to worry about the landlord coming for a suprise inspection or there is some appointment for the fix it guy cus WE are the fix it guys. (Unless of course I flood the house, then THAT is something on a wholly different plane!) Yea, I'll clean it.

You all have seen my random 'Im so proud I got my spring cleaning done in the dead of winter' posts. I shampoo carpets on a regular basis, I pull my own teeth (not literally) and scrub the bathroom baseboards every now and again. I clean the blinds and the ceiling fans on a regular. Yes, I get 'er done. However, in the routine of things...I must admit...I cheat.

Every time I vaccuum, I notice things that need my attention. I need to dust the tredmill (when I don't use it much) or the teenage room needs a good sweep and mop. WAIT! I will vaccuum it and it won't look so bad! Woot! When I close the windows after a nice day of airing out the stale air from the house, I have (on occasion) wiped the dust from the sill with my fingers and wiped a lovely hand print across my jeans. These are my cleaning jeans so, it doesn't matter. Finally, while I like to dust the old fashioned way, I can attest to the truthfulness of a swiffer duster. I, too, have experienced the elation of finishing a dusting job a whole hella lot earlier than I expected and not knowing what to do with myself afterward. Heck, I took a nap, you KNOW that!

Yea, so sometimes I vaccuum the linoleum. The whole purpose of a vaccuum is to suck up loose dirt that is lighter than anything I can imagine and transport it to a recepticle that has the intent of being dumped into a larger wastebasket. Eventually this larger one goes to a dump somewhere and biodegrades only to end up as dirt in someone elses home years and years from now. (You guessed it! There is the digression!)

Dear readers, so long as you maintain your home and it is relatively clean. It does not have to be immaculate like my sisters homes have a tendency to be. (Some of us work very hard and have a half a football team to raise and not just one child to raise or are blissfully unemployed.) DISCLAIMER: Any relation to persons real or fake in regards to the last statement is purely unintentional and not meant to point the finger at anyone nor is sarcasm intended. END OF DISCLAIMER. But cleanliness is in the eye of the beholder and I can assure you, if it means anything to you, you are more discriminatory at your own cleaning skills than others are. Just keep the place picked up.

Its yet another holiday...Bah humbug.

As a child that didn't know any better. Holidays (any of them) were favorite days. They were out of the ordinary and we did things that we normally didnt do. Further, I loved to watch the joy my mother got in decorating for the holidays. When I was in grade school, she had window clings for ever single holiday of the year.
January-Baby new year and hats and other festive new year stuff (I got to stay up late and drink sparkling grape juice and, on occasion, try real champagne)
February-hearts and candy clings for Valentines day (Decorating valentines and eating whitmans samplers that mom always got.)
March-Shamrocks and lepracahns (sp?) all over the windows (New green something bought at the stoore and green cupcakes. MMM)
April--Easter eggs and bunnies on the windows (Easter egg hunts a new dress and shoes and Dressing up all snooty to go out to eat at red lobster or somewhere, we didnt go to church...)
May-Mothers day...Mom didnt decorate for Mothers day but there were always pretty flowers all over the place from dad and me. (Going shopping with dad to find something pretty for mom on her special day.)
June-Fathers day and the end of school. (Mom spent a lot of time outside during this month due to the warm weather and crabapples were to be picked! No decoration but the crabapple jam was the best!)
July-Firework clings on the windows (Also some BIG fireworks show somewhere.)
August- My birthday. Balloons everywhere. (With the exception of birthday number 7 where we went to Chuck E Cheese)
September- Leaf clings for the fall. (No special holiday here but it was also the return to school so we went school shopping for new clothes and stuff.)
October-Scary cat and tombstone clings. (Halloween candy for the kids we would never see because we were out getting the goods and costume shopping was fun too.)
November-Turkey and pilgirm window clings.(Mom LOVES making her famous bread on thanksgiving. There are also many funny stories for Turkeyday. Remember the Becky fart??)
December-Christmas must be her favorite holiday. Not only did we get the present and christmas tree and frosty christmas clings, the tree was always a big to do and moms tree always was (and still is) loaded.
I try to do some of these great things with our kids. However, I try to be a little creative. I did window clings for a while when Alyssa was a toddler but money always seems to be tight when a holiday comes around (hence, the Bah Humbug.) Therefore, we get creative.
Anyone who knows me knows how proud I was of our decorated cieling when we lived on 34th. I also make it a point to have home made costumes for our kids. Kitties, chefs, zombies, and kids are great costumes. One day, I will get all extravagant and put some money into it. I don't feel bad about it when I see kids in hoodies running around with NO costumage at all. Christmas is always a challenge but thank goodness Santa visits grandmas houses and knows we are not home or we would be in trouble! Valentines, we do cards and for a special teacher, maybe some cool home made thing. Fathers day is fishing, and other days we just wing it. Money was tight this year and the easter bunny was busy last year for egg hiding so this year he magically had a hole in his basket and dropped candy EVERYWHERE while hopping around the house hiding eggs. So, yea, we have our own special days. I just hope they remember little things like I did when they get older.
What special things do you remember about the holidays from your childhood and what do you try to do for your kids?

An Amazing child

I wonder sometimes. Folks, lets get real. We are raising a generation of AMAZING children. If you do not know the proper definition of that, then you can inbox me or Julie F. We will be more than happy to enlighten. At any rate, children these days get away with so much more than we did and even our parents for that matter.
We spare the rod and spoil the child. No, I do not mean abuse them but if they smart off to you, then they need some consequences. I never thought to yell at my mother (as a child) or hit her or threaten to call the cops on her because she took my phone from me. As far as the phone goes, I had a 50 foot cord that went from the wall to the phone and that thing could follow me out to the sidewalk. However, should I decide to get in trouble or inadvertantly utter a curse word, my lovelt tail had no phone attached to it or she took the whole thing. There were no cell phones and my pc (which I got in the 6th grade) was this mideval dos thing that had one color.....green.
Further, people these days believe they can suck off their parents until they die and get all uppity and ticked off if you believe they have to earn their keep. Peeps, my mother was more than happy to see me go to work and buy my own things. I was more than happy to go. It was the start of me "being grown." I am not entitled to anything in her home and I am a guest there at that point. Sure, I was one of the lucky ones and I did not have to pay anything to the house if I didnt want to but if I wanted something she normally did not buy or wanted to go to a football game or something THAT came out of my pocket and I walked nearly everywhere I had to go. I also stayed in school and graduated and, for the most part, stayed out of trouble.
That is another thing. I see so many people (and the age range is getting younger and younger) getting in trouble these days and doing SERIOUS things! Assault with a deadly weapon, robbery while armed with a weapon...Nothing like the petty "underaged drinking or driving without a licence or trespassing" that we got growing up. No sir, these kids are doing serious crimes. Further, the justice system is doing quirky things to slap them on the wrist. (Topic for another day.)
Honestly, if I was over age 21 and my mother bailed me out of jail and paid my attorney fees and bills for nearly 2 years, don't you think she has the right to ask me to pay some of that back if she gets in a bind. Yes, every mother and father would love to pay for their children like that and not expect to get paid back.......in a vaccuum. However, things are tough and it is not as easy as your parents make it. They keep the fact that bills run about 3000 going out and there is only 2500 coming in EACH MONTH BEFORE GAS AND GROCERIES. (Hypothetical, 4 person family middle income.) At any rate, they make it work and this is where the communication fails. No, I am not saying that you should tell your children ALL your business but you should teach them to be self sufficient and that it is ok to ask mom and dad for help but make sure you return the nicety at some point in the future. They are just as human as you are.
Also, we were taught all about litterbugs and taking care of the planet (and table manners) growing up; do they not teach that anymore in modern homes and preschools? We take care of the planet by recycling and other things of a noble stature, however, I still see children who leave a trail behind them like the only preschool lesson their ever learned was hansel and gretel. Folks, that was breadcrumbs and not trash! Take pride in your own home, your own neighborhood and your planet. It is the only one we have!

Chicken on a skateboard

Look at the title for a moment. Kind of an abstract concept, isn't it? Now consider whether or not it is possible.  Is it?

Of course it is. Our life is filled with rediculous possiblities every day.  Some for better, some for worse. It all depends on what is going on in your life right this second.  If it is a possibility, is it a feasible one at this stage in your life?  Why would you try to achieve this "rediculous imposibility?"

Dreams, folks.  We all have them.  Why else would parents ask their children: "What do you want to be when you grow up?"  What happens after that question is what makes or breaks the vision that comes from that statement.  You can either foster that response and believe in it so that it is no longer rediculous but POSSIBLE.  Every poor child can grow to be someone important.  They can leave the oppressed life that they live. They need a good support system.  Even those children with one parent or parents that seemingly do not care, if they have a support system of another family member, a friend, or even the willpower to do it on their own, it is possible.

Take our daughter for example.  Now, we are not downtrodden poor.  On paper, we are in the lowest end of middle class (so I would like to think.) But my husband and I asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up.  Her answer?

An artist.

Well.  Nice enough.  Broad enough to encompas many things.  How many we did not know.  She was about to show us what a bohemian artist she will become.  That theme has not changed in her fifteen years on this planet and, at this point, I do not believe it ever will change. Oh sure, the basis has changed....painter, drawer, sculptor, brass musician, costume designer, music producer......dancer.  It has all come and gone and she has shown great potential in every bit of it.  A dancer since seven, draws on almost a daily basis, plays in the band but has self taught many instruments including the piano and violin, she paints everything and (most recently) has been designing clothes unlike anything I have ever seen but they are classy.

What will she be?  Well, I am certain that her talents will get her through college with little or no cost.  That is a great thing.  Therefore, the sky is the limit!  We have never crushed that spirit in her and if you see my family and I out and about, the tall girl tapping in her tennis shoes, that is our bohemian artist.  I love her.  Yea, she is a GREAT football player too.  Like I always say, more talent in one fingernail than most in their whole bodies.  Ok, so I am bragging. But who wouldn't.

The point is, if you see that something puts that spark in your child's eye, no matter how nerve wracking (tap, tap, tappity tap, get the milk, tap) it is, encourage it.  It is only in those circumstances that your child will bloom and grow and have that great life that you envisioned for them.  Yes, tough love, and discipline still. Make sure the grades are good.  Take away the phone for misbehaviour, but let the spark continue.  Many great people were made from one spark.

Let yours explode and make you proud.  Then, when they get on TV or are interviewed, they can look at the camera and go..............................HI MOM! :)