Green Smoothies

I have been drinking these green smoothies for the past couple of weeks, I won’t lie I did get the inspiration from Miss AmyK. They are wonderful, I have put my own spin on her recipe and I thought I would share.

I don't have exact measurements, I kind of eyeball things.

The Rapscallion loves these, he had no idea there were veggies in it. He does now but still loves the smoothie so much he drinks one every morning with me. This is our usual breakfast (usually I give him a piece of toast with peanut butter or Nutella on it) I will have to share our recipe for Nutella banana’s another day.

Green Smoothies:

1 big handful of fresh spinach (probably around one cup)

1/2 cup of carrots (or a handful or baby, or a small fresh one)

1 medium banana (I freeze them when they start to spot and get brown, so I always use a frozen one just peel, break into pieces and store in a plastic bag in the freezer) bananas make the smoothie creamy, fresh bananas will make the smoothie taste creamier but don’t use ones that are too ripe, they are too starchy and will make the smoothie taste weird.

Berries, this varies according to what is fresh; I use around 5 or 6 medium strawberries or around 1/2 cup of blueberries or 7 blackberries or a combination of any. When fresh berries aren't available (or when I have bought a bunch on sale, I freeze them) I use frozen, around 1/2-3/4 of a cup (Important the berries and the banana hide the vegetables flavors)

Other fruits you could add: mangos, pineapple, grapes, apples (I would peel them and I don’t suggest freezing them) oranges (but fresh squeezed orange juice is probably easier to use in this recipe) watermelon, cantaloupe, kiwi’s, again if you freeze the fruit you get the benefit of making the smoothie cold without watering it down with ice.

1/2-3/4 a cup of liquid, I use almond milk but any juice, milk or coconut water would work also, you just need something to get the whole mixture moving in the blender but don't use plain water it will water down the mixture and taste funny.

2 tablespoons of ground flax seed, I use Bob’s Red Mill Ground Flax Seed Meal.

1/4 - 1/2 cup or organic yogurt (I don't always add this, but it makes the smoothie creamier and the variety of yogurt I use is high in protein) I use Mountain High Original Style Vanilla but they also make a low fat and fat free version.

Blend until smooth, if it is too thick add more liquid, if you can taste the spinach too much add a squirt of honey or agave nectar (I use agave nectar, it is better on your blood sugar and tastes great) you could also add your own "boosters" if you wanted too; powdered vitamin C, protein powder (I would use vanilla) even liquid vitamins but if you are going that route, I suggest using chocolate somewhere in the mix (chocolate milk, chocolate protein powder) I have found that chocolate hides the vitamin taste better.

This recipe makes about 2 smooties, it is enough for me and The Rapscallion to share in the morning or for me to just have for another meal.

Have fun and happy blending!

Valentines Day and Emergency Contacts

Let’s imagine for a moment.

A fun Valentines Day morning, I woke up early to go to the store for some berries to complete our “heart-healthy” Valentines breakfast. While I was out I picked up a small bunch of wildflowers for the table. When I got home I made breakfast. Whole-wheat French toast made with 2 eggs whites, 1 egg, skim milk and agave nectar.

For Valentines I had attempted to give Dear Hubby a valentine everyday for 14 days leading up to V-Day. I didn’t quite make it but here is a run down of what I did:

“I am nutz 4 U” on a can of almonds
“I ‘chews’ U” with a package of gum
“U R my sweetie-pie” on a small pie
“I have a ‘crush’ on you” attached to a bottle of Crush soda

Then I had to go to Colorado for my Sister-in-Laws baby shower and that messed up the flow but when I got home I resumed with:

“U R so HOT” with a bottle of hot sauce
“U make my heart glow” with glow sticks
I made little paper fortune cookies that said “I am ‘fortune-ate’ to have you”
“You Rock” I wanted pop-rocks for this one but they are so hard to find, instead I found a rock in a gift shop.
“I love you a latte” with a new coffee cup
When I was in Colorado I had picked up a book 1000 Places to See before You Die, I gave that to him with a handwritten note.

On V-Day, I gave the Rapscallion a card, a small box of chocolates and a little bear that said “Happy Valentines Day” for Dear Hubby I gave him a card, a box of chocolates (that said “you are too sweet too me!”) and a Hayes manual for our truck with a note that said “You drive me wild!” It was a great day, we went on a bike ride, and we had Chinese take-out for dinner and watched TV in the evening with the Rapscallion before bed.

Last night was the evening for Dear Hubby and I to celebrate together, we went to a little Italian place that we love. We had Cioppinni, which is an Italian seafood stew and crème brulee for dessert. I was a wonderful quiet evening, just what we needed.

When we got home, we were laughing and talking and when we walked in the door we discovered that Puppy Butt had eaten the remaining 4 chocolates that were in the Rapscallions box. I freaked out, I have always heard that chocolate is poisonous to dogs, I immediately “google” MY DOG ATE CHOCOLATE.

Turns out she is fine, but it dampened the evening. So for you my friends, here are some numbers you should keep handy in case of an emergency with your furry little babies:

ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center 1.888.426.4435

National Animal Poison Control Center 1.800.548.2423

if you need to speak to a veterinarian there, this service will be billed to a credit card. An alternate number is (900) 680-0000. A veterinarian's services on this line will cost a flat fee for the first five minutes, and an additional fee per minute for each additional minute. These charges will be billed to your phone bill. (Call them for current pricing)

Kansas State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital 1.785.532.5679

FREE 24 hours poison control hot line for pet owners and veterinarians. Be patient. The person answering the phone may have to take a few minutes to consult the vet on duty.

Hope you all had a wonderful V-Day!

Jingle Bells, Batman Smells

I fight structure but I also need it and thrive in a loose structure, where I can change things if need be but that have specific routines I can measure as achievement. I plan obsessively, now if I could just follow up with all my long lists.

I do best when I have a general idea of a plan. Dear Hubby on the other hand is very spontaneous, he dislikes planning and I swear his favorite answers to the question “What are we doing today?” is “we’ll see” or my favorite “whatever”. I do love that he is laid back but honestly, sometimes I need and want to know what is happening and in what order.

Normally this is just a small pet peeve that balances all the other wonderful things about him. He is generous, funny, patient, kind but has smelly feet and thinks that carrying on a conversation while he is using the bathroom isn’t inappropriate. What can I say, I love him.

Back to not making plans: it becomes obvious during the holidays how flexible Dear Hubby is and how inflexible I can be at heart. He doesn’t fight that we don’t see the Rapscallion on Christmas Day, instead we get him on Christmas Eve. I know the reasons we don’t fight, so I wanted to make Christmas Eve SUPER-DUPER special!!! With Cherries, sprinkles and whipped cream on top, but guess what, that can be really difficult when the only answer you get is “whatever” “around 11, I guess” and “we will play it by ear”. How am I ever going to be the best stepmother in the world if I can’t plan on making cookies, going to the movies, playing in the snow, making his favorite dinner, going to church, singing Christmas carols, going to Grandma and Grandpa’s, taking the dog to the dog park, and basically scheduling the heck out of every minute of the 12 hours I get to spend with the kid?!?

So of course, everything that I planned fell out the window when Dear Hubby's mountain bike ride that morning took longer than expected and we didn't the Rapscallion exactly at 11. We took our time and went to see The Squeakquel, he loved it and ate a large popcorn to himself. We went to church where he sang carols and tried to copy my mother as she was on stage interpreting the songs in Sign Language. We went to Grandpa and Grandma’s where he entertained everyone with his enthusiasm for carefully unwrapping each gift he received. Despite all my planning the day was perfect and Dear Hubby sat back and enjoyed each moment.

I hate when he is right.

Drive-In Night

We still have a drive-in movie theatre here, it isn't in the best area of town and unfortunately it sits directly next to a small airport. That has never been an issue until Saturday night, when our screen was directly in front of the runway and we got to watch small airplanes take off 3 times during our movies. I am complaining but I am not, I am glad we have a drive-in and in a town that knocks down anything that has been around for a while, I am even happier we have kept this piece of nostalgia.

We met up with a bunch of friends to watch Where the Wild Things Are, it was a double feature with AstroBoy.

Prices at the drive-in are great, like a matinee at a regular theatre. All movies are double features, which for us was great this weekend, since Where the Wild Things Are bored the pants off the kids, but I really enjoyed it. It just had more serious themes than the kids were interested in. The kids really enjoyed Astroboy.

Seriously, we lost the Rapscallion 10 minutes into the film, he spent the rest of the film trying to climb up the screen and complaining that there wasn't anything to eat. There was plenty to eat, I have to say this before my mom calls me to say "you know he is a growing boy", sorry let me correct that, there was plenty to eat that didn't cost $4.50 and we brought it with us, but you know kids, the more it costs, the more they want it, until they take one bite and decide they are full and want to go try to climb the screen again. I brought: PB&J, lemonade, YoGo's, oranges and frozen Go-Gurts for each one of them.

Kids are $1 to get in so we brought the Rapscallions best friend, I highly suggest this if you have the slightest desire to watch any of the movies playing. They are a great team and just old enough to go to the bathroom without me having to stand outside the door. Plus everything is more fun with your friends, that's why we met up with ours that night.

You bring your own food, drinks and chairs, they do ask that you refrain from bringing barbeque's and smokers but everything else is kosher. We set up blankets in the trunk of the jeep for the boys, the theatre broadcasts the movies sound over your FM radio dial, we don't have a radio in the jeep so a friend was kind enough to bring a boom-box (does anyone even say boom-box anymore) so we could have sound.

We met up with about half a dozen friends and took over one whole row so we could keep an eye on our kids while still talking and hanging out. It was fun. I highly recommend the drive-in as a fun, somewhat cheap evening out. They do have a concession stand if you don't bring your own food and drinks, but the theatre encourages you to bring your cooler. The bathrooms are by the concession stand, the building has probably been around since the theatre opened in 1966, but if you hover you will be ok (or you could get a Go-Girl, I really want one of these, but that is another post) There is a pretty modern playground by the concession stand for the kids. Safety first, it isn't the best area of Las Vegas and there are alot of cars, so watch your kids if you go.

Our set up in the back of the jeep before the boys got in it and spilled lemonade all over everything. Next time I want to have just a grown up night at the Drive-In, who wants to come with us? No, I don't want to see SAW 987 or whichever one is out now.

Holey Moley StepMama Bear!

I was reading a blog by my friend AmyK, while her situation is a little different than ours with the Rapscallion, I feel like she used some imagery that really hit home with me about why I fight so hard for the Rapscallion.

She talks about holes in our skids lives, holes they may not have if they came from an intact biofamily. Holes that have an effect on the child, slack in the line of their lives that doesn’t let them fly as high as they should, doesn’t let them be the children they should get to be and causes them to grow up too early. All this slack, all these holes affect the children and as the stepmom I feel like it is my job to pick up the slack, I feel like it is my job to protect the Rapscallion from the holes.

Like AmyK’s Kidlet, the Rapscallion has 2 houses that he goes back and forth into, he also stays a week at a time in each house and I have wondered sometimes what all the changing does to him. Like AmyK, I hope he feels at home at our house. In our house we try to remain consistent, involved, loving and fun. At Bio Mom’s house we have no control, we can’t control when he is exposed to things that we disagree with like anger, fighting, and negativity.

One of those “holes” opened up in his life again this week while he was at Bio Mom's, because of it we will change the weeks that the Rapscallion is in our custody to try and protect him from false accusations. Dear Hubby has to go to a meeting with Bio Mom about this “hole” and as much as I know Bio Mom doesn’t want me going, I am going to support my husband, my stepson, my family and even her because he may not have fallen out of my crotch but he is my kid none the less and I feel an overwhelming need to protect my family during this time.

Brain Fog

I am experiencing brain fog right now, I have started a diet plan from my doctor and as my body gets used to the changes, I am finding that my brain is moving slowly, so slowly, I think molasses moves faster than my brain this morning.

I am allowed to drink caffeine but I am trying to moderate that, today I fell off the wagon and drank 1/2 a rockstar. I can drink coffee with non-dairy creamer and splenda but I am not a huge coffee fan, that is what happens when you worked for a coffee shop and drank your lifetime allotment in 4 months. I also can't stand the smell of coffee grounds and bleach, it is like experiencing a war flashback, I could hide under a desk and cry at the thought of another strung out coffee drinker yelling at me because I didn't drizzle the carmel the way they wanted it into their macchiato.

I digress, so the brain fog, today I felt like I had a white noise machine running in my brain all day. Every time I tried to concentrate on anything the white noise got in the way, I found myself sitting, starring off into space and daydreaming. Daydreaming is something I haven't done since I was quite a bit younger, I physically had to shake my head out of the clouds. It was so hard to get motivated and I remember why I started mainlining caffeine to begin with. I had to take the Rapscallion to the grocery store to pick up something for dinner and I made myself a little promise that if I got up and put on a clean shirt I would reward myself with a sugar-free rockstar (my doctor would like me to limit the amount of diet soft-drinks I consume) I drank half of it when I got home and I started to feel human again. I have the other half in the fridge and like a true addict I will probably drink it tomorrow morning, no matter how flat and terrible it tastes.

Of course since I was experiencing brain fog the Rapscallion woke up at 4:30 a.m. his friends dad had promised to take the boys to a BMX track to watch some of the local guys race. I didn't want to rain on his parade but I haven't seen anyone in this family wake up before 10 in the morning on most days. They are nice people, just not morning people and certainly not up at the butt crack of dawn like Dear Hubby and the Rapscallion. On most mornings the Rapscallion is up at 7, over summer vacation nothing has changed and I have had to restrain him from going to his friends houses to see if they can come out and play until 9:30 in the morning. This morning the Rapscallion was up at 4:30 asking if he could get dressed in case friends "Dad calls, I want to be ready" they were supposed to call at 7:30 if they were going to go and finally at 8 I let him go over to see if they were awake and of course they weren't. He was disappointed but unfortunately the Rapscallion is accustomed to people making promises and backing out on them so he took it in stride. It was a long day, here's hoping tomorrow is better!

Tell It To Me Straight

Communication is the most vital thing in a relationship but what do you when the parties involved either will not communicate with each other or refuse to listen to each other?

We are experiencing issues with Bio-Mom again, she does not fully communicate with Dear Hubby. She will call to tell him some of the most mundane things about her life but for some reason she refuses to communicate about The Rapscallion's school issues.

Even when we can get her to communicate about the issues at hand she has a habit of lying to make herself either look better or hide what is going wrong.

I am at my end in this, I cannot make her tell Dear Hubby the truth but at the same time there are no consequences for when her lies and half truths affect my life and household. Dear Hubby and I fight, I am frustrated that someone who does not live in my household can affect my life.

On Death and Dying

While the world stops to remember Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. While people take the time to acknowledge the death of Ed McMahon, David Carradine and Billy Mays. Death goes on around us without most of acknowledging unless we are personally affected but when it happens in our lives we want the world to stop and see the pain that the loss of our loved one has caused.

Yesterday on Facebook a friend mentioned the death of Billy Mays, her friend responded that she didn't care about Billy Mays, Michael Jackson or Farrah Fawcett. She had lost her beloved Grandfather this week and in reading her comments her pain was palpable. She wanted people to know she loved him and in her life her Grandfather was more influential than anyone else being talked about this week.

My family experienced a loss this week also, I have not mentioned it because I felt it was too private. My Aunt passed away Wednesday after a 2 month struggle, my Uncle had to make the heart wrenching decision to take her off life support, he knew it was her wish not to be kept on artificial respiration but the choice to actually take her off was painful. She was a beautiful soul, when I was a bratty teenager she would write me letters. I thought she was great, even when I wanted nothing to do with the rest of family, she was artistic and sensitive. In my own life she was influential and she will be missed.

I was a huge Billy Mays fan, I am a sucker for infomercials and Billy could convince me I needed whatever he was selling. Especially after I bought OxiClean and it worked. I am still sad I never got a Big City Slider for my birthday, the people who know me in real life know how bad my addiction can be but apparently didn't get the hints that I do actually need the Big City Slider.

My little sister was adamant at a time in her life that she would marry either Michael Jackson or Alex Trebek and while she is getting married in December (sorry not to Alex Trebek, I think his wife would be annoyed) she was still sad at the passing of Michael Jackson.

The Rapscallion has become a full fledged MJ addict, he has sat for hours watching videos on YouTube. He has driven all of us in the household a little batty with having to listen to Beat It over and over again. I am all too happy to allow him to explore his new musical interest, I remember myself when the death of Kurt Cobain spurred my own interest in music.

Leaving on a Jet-Plane

The Kidlet is leaving tomorrow for a trip with Bio-Mom to visit her family, he will get to see his grandmother, great-grandmother and Aunt. I know he will have fun but I will miss seeing him everyday.

The trip was planned during our custodial time and over Father's day. Since he won't be with us Dear Hubby took him to dinner last night and then they watched the movie that the Rapscallion bought him for Father's Day. I gave Dear Hubby a gift certificate for a massage, so maybe he can relax a little. Since we are kid-free I was thinking about going camping this weekend but I need to see how my own father would feel about that.

I was on a media-fast for most of the last 2 weeks, I found that I was spending a little too much time online getting this blog off the ground. I needed some time away to regroup and get my thoughts in order. I am feeling much clearer now and will be back to regular posting next week.

I did wash the Rapscallions blanket that he will take with him, hopefully it smells like my house and he will know I miss him.

Odd Week

It has been an odd week for me, holidays always make the week feel different but this week was particularly odd. The Rapscallion was sick and stayed home from school for 2 days, he was cranky most of the week. On Tuesday we had our lease walk-through, basically the Resident Manager, a wonderful woman named Margaret, comes to over to make sure we haven't destroyed the house. I shouldn't have been nervous, we are good renters, when we left or last rental after 4 years the house was so clean I got my security deposit back even though we had broken the garage door (I used the security deposit to fix the door for them) we pay on time, we don't have wild parties and while we do paint while we live in a place we will paint it back to white before we leave. Irregardless I stressed about this walk through for 3 days, I cleaned EVERYTHING in the house, I washed curtains and scrubbed the floors with a toothbrush. Of course everything went fine Margaret walked in and loved how I have decorated, she loved the colors I have painted the walls and basically told me we are free to make any improvements while we live here and we will not be asked to change anything back before we leave because she feels everything we have done has made our place better for them. I also found out that Cat Butt will be able to come live with us officially without me having to pay the $500 pet deposit.

During the walk through Margaret asked about any issues that may be going on, I have had Maintenance come out at least 6 times to fix things since I have lived here this year but even after that I still had 2 issues. #1 my bathtub does not drain quickly and the plug leaks #2 the fabric softener cup in the washing machine was broken. On Wednesday they came to fix these issues, all normal until later in the day I noticed my bottle of Shout was missing. I buy Shout by the gallon, seriously with a 7 year old boy and Dear Hubby in the house everything gets stains and nothing I have found gets them out like Shout.

Actually random segue I have found that OxyClean in combination with Shout will get almost ANYTHING out of the Rapscallions clothes, I have even gotten paint out of Dear Hubby's clothes but I caught that stain early. Paint is my laundry nemesis, if anyone had a way to get dry paint out of clothes let me know!

So back to my random week, my Shout is missing, I can't figure out where it went. I searched the house nada, did the maintenance guy take it? I doubt it but for now I am going to blame him. You know about my pedicure experience http://amburgular.blogspot.com/2009/05/we-have-ways-of-making-you-talk.html we had some drama with Bio Mom not including any of Dear Hubby's contact information on the Rapscallions school registration sheet, we would have never found out except the school returned the paperwork for an additional form to be filled out and it came home during our custodial week. Bio Mom also did not include me as an emergency contact this year, which is odd because I am a SAHsM and could easily go get him from school if something were to happen. Dear Hubby did talk with Bio Mom about this and it will be rectified, personally I know she filled the paperwork out while she was mad at me about some past drama. Oh the joys...

Last night we went to some friends house where I discovered that I am a Rock Band Singing sensation! I kicked major butt, I aced almost ever song while singing flat and tone deaf, I am awesome!

We Have Ways of Making You Talk

I was given a gift certificate for a pedicure from Dear Hubby and the Rapscallion for Stepmother's Day. Yesterday I redeemed it, I am now the proud new owner of sparkly blue toenails and soft heels. The woman who gave me the pedicure was, um, nice? She was very odd, she told me all about her abusive traumatic childhood, she spent a good portion of the pedicure talking with a coworker about how slow the salon was and trying to decide if they should cut out early to hang out at the pool, drinking and maybe getting high. I try hard not judge but this woman was in her mid 50's, she is my mother's age. Nothing she said or did really bothered me until she asked if I had kids.

This is always a hard question to answer for me. I usually answer "yes, my stepson, we share 50/50 custody" now maybe that isn't the best but it is my answer. I feel a little weird just saying yes, because I am a terrible liar and somehow I think they might know. Also I am proud of being a Stepmother, I chose to be a part of this life. So I gave my answer and she of course asked another odd question, she asked for Bio-Mom's name. While I may be willing to talk about my life for all the world to read, I try to respect those around me a little. Luckily I was saved from this question by her coworker who felt the need to chime in how bored she was and her desire to go home.

Her questioning wasn't over and she hit me with my next favorite Stepmom question "Are you going to have kids of your own?" I know this question isn't restricted only to stepmotherhood, somehow you reach a magical age where people find it perfectly ok to talk about the activities going on in your uterus, awesome.

As I previously stated I am horrible liar and completely non-confrontational, so I answered. Dear Hubby and I are in fact TTC, we are the first in our group of friends to actually TRY to have a child, in our group of friends there are 3 stepdaughters, 1 stepson and 1 baby who was a surprise to her now married parents. TTC hasn't been as easy as they make it look on television and while Dear Hubby and I want to try to have another child we also agree that if it is not meant to be we have a wonderful life. I am willing to have some medical help with TTC but I personally have drawn the line at anything I deem too invasive. I respect any woman's choice to seek medical help with her desire to have a baby, I am not against medical procedures like IVF but just not for me.

So when my pedicurist insisted, INSISTED (!) that I have a child no matter what (!) I was confused. This isn't her life to live and why was she getting so emotionally involved? We had never met before yesterday, it is my body and what is so wrong with not wanting to have kids? What if I had answered that I was Childfree by Choice? Why can't my involvement with the Rapscallion be enough, what about all my dear friends who can't have kids? Why is it that people think they get to have an opinion about my uterus and what I do with it?

But those are hard answered when someone has something sharp near your feet.

Quarantined

The Kidlet is sick again, whereas I thought it was allergies 2 weeks ago this time around it is a full on sickness. He has sniffles, coughing, wheezing and just loads of general crankiness. Yesterday he took a 4 hour nap. We have busted out with all the cold medicines and creature comforts that we engage during times of illness. My whole house smells like Vick's vapor rub, we are hand sanitizing fiends and he has had more baths with comforting vapor bath, I even let him eat a Popsicle in the bathtub because he has a sore throat.

Of course I woke up this morning feeling slightly under the weather but I don't have time to be sick, which of course means I will be sick by the end of this week. Nooooooo.... don't make me go!

Stepmother's Day

I have talked about the Munchkin all week, today is Stepmother's Day and so far has been everything I could have wanted. Dear Hubby took the rapscallion out this morning and they got me a "fun in the Sun" gift. Basically a new pool bag, a hula-hoop, a toy for the rapscallion, sunblock, a gossip magazine, some pool shorts and toe rings and anklets that the rapscallion picked out for me. They drew me a bunch of pictures of cats and Dear Hubby also bought me a gift certificate for a pedicure, which I am in desperate need.

This link to my friend AmyK says alot and I want to share it with you also:
http://ithenshalllive.blogspot.com/2009/05/stepmom-confessions-happy-stepmothers.html

Happy Stepmother's Day to all my dear friends and if you have a Stepmother let her know she is appreciated today!

The Rapscallion

So yesterday I wrote about how meeting the kidlet changed my life, today I thought I would let you get to know him a little more, since he is staying home from school sick.

He is 7 going on 23, we wear the same shoe size and recently he has discovered the joys of wearing boxer shorts. This last one has lead to many more discussions about underwear than I ever thought I needed to have. He watches Sports Center in hopes that he will learn how to defeat whatever team he playing during football or baseball. I haven't had the heart to tell him they aren't talking about the Las Vegas Raiders. He is overly opinionated and is often convinced that he knows how to fix whatever issues his dad and I may be dealing with, I can hear my mom laughing now, apparently this was one of my endearing traits as a child. He is a worrier and often needs reassurance that everything will be ok, most of all he worries about his mother and his sister.

He is just learning sarcasms, he has a very simple sense of humor, if it is potty humor he likes it. No matter how angry he is about something if I make a fart joke he will laugh. He is his fathers shadow and anything his dad says is law. I spent the better part of the morning trying to convince him that he couldn't go to school today, he has a croupy-type cough and while I know it is allergies I don't think the school would appreciate me sending a wheezing, sneezing kid to school amidst fears of killer-flu's. Once his dad got on the phone and told him no he was content to go lay in my bed and watch cartoons.

He is a Scorpio, he has smelly feet and he lies about brushing his teeth. He is learning to be conscientious about the environment and will eat almost anything put in front of him from hot dogs on white bread to quinoa with edamame. I am blessed to watch him grow, while I know things will always be a little different because I am not his biological parent, I would challenge anyone who says I do not love him and that his life has not been enriched because of that extra love.

Biology

To quote Their Wicked Stepmother:

"If you think it's hard raising your children, try raising someone Else's. "

At the end of this month I will have been with Dear Hubby for 6 years. We met at a concert (Good Charlotte, something he doesn't like to mention) he was on date with a girl he wasn't interested in and I wasn't going to let a good thing get away.

He was very honest about his son from the beginning, I met the rapscallion after we had been dating for about 3 weeks. He was 18 months old and he was hard not to fall for, I think he made Dear Hubby even more attractive to me. Here was this funny, kind man and he was a father. If I hadn't already had inklings that I was falling for him, I would think that I fell for him when I met the rapscallion.

I have never waivered in my feelings towards the Rapscallion, he is a wonderful addition to my life. He got his dad's looks, his mom's coloring and my sense of humor. We butt heads because we are so alike but I have never questioned my role in his life as his stepmother.

I have happily helped him make Mother's Day cards and gifts without expecting anything in return. I have washed underwear, jockstraps and hunted down baseball socks. I have held him while he threw up and cut his toenails every week without fail. I work on homework, make him eat his vegetables and try to impart a love of reading.

I am a better person because he is in my life and because of this I can honestly say biology is the least of what makes a woman a mother. We will celebrate Stepmother's Day on May 17th.

Not flesh of my flesh,

Nor bone of my bone,

But still miraculously my own.

Never forget for a single minute,

You didn't grow under my heart

- but in it

- Fleur Conkling Heylinger