There comes a time...

in every woman's life, where they recognize in themselves that they are a lot more like their mother than they originally thought. I had this experience today.

I was on my lunch break at work today, and my coworker was driving me over (in the rain no less) to my favorite sandwich shop on Olive in Burbank. This shop uses punch cards and mine was filled up, which entitled me to a free sandwich, bag of chips and soda. As we were pulling into the parking lot it shares with the 7-11, a homeless man walked in front of our car. We parked and I noticed that this man was reaching into the trash can and pulling out a coffee cup.


I asked him if he was hungry and he said yes. I asked him if he would like a sandwich and he said yes. I told him I'd be right back. I went and got my sandwich and ordered the combo for him. I picked Turkey, plain potato chips, and Pepsi- turkey's safe, right? I brought him out his sandwich, handed it to him, returned to the car.


My coworker looked at me shocked- You gave him your sandwich! No, I told her, my sandwich is in my bag. I got him an extra one. Then she said- Your mother does that, doesn't she? And she does. My mom is the one, who goes to Downtown LA, (on one of Caleb's infamous tours of the city- he takes visitors to see Skid Row and Santee Alley) where she sees the homeless men without shoes and socks and she goes to the store and buys a pack of socks to hand out as she walks. She's the one who sees a guy standing in the parking lot with blood stains on his shirt and without intimidation, gets him a hamburger. These are the memories that stick with your children as they grow, the memories that will become motivation for them to follow in your steps.


And so I write this tribute to my mom, the day before Valentine's Day, to thank her for being a wonderful mom, a great example, for showing me how to care for people. I am who I am today because of you, and if I do say so myself, that's pretty darn good ;)



...when one must grow their very own citrus fruit. For me, this time has come. During my period as a "single wife" last week... I saw this picture on the internet and had to, absolutely had to, try to recreate this:

I found the drawf orange tree at a small nursery in Burbank. I had never bought a tree before (except of course of the Christmas variety) but I felt like I got a great deal for it. But I couldn't find a bright orange pot in a big enough size to save me. I finally decided on this green one (yes, the thumbs up is cheesy, but don't you love my gardening gloves!?)

And here it is in its windowbox. Yes, it is rather large... but I can't bring myself to prune it. All over the branches, there are little buds waiting to blossom into flowers and then ORANGES! It seems cruel to cut any of them off. Fresh squeezed orange juice anyone...? I'll let you know in a couple months when it's ready!

...when one does a idiotic thing like breaking their car.

Yep, I did this. Scraped it against the pole in our parking spot, until it bent backgrounds and cracked off. This picture is 2 days old, it just hangs to the side now. Oops.