God Bumps vs Goose Bumps

I am sure everyone has had goose bumps.  It is a normal thing that happens to you when you are cold or someone sneaks up on you. I am not sure exactly what causes goose bumps. It is just a weird reaction your body gives to cold and your hair stands up and your skin is covered in tiny bumps. I don’t like the feeling of goose bumps usually because that means I am really cold, which I don’t like what so ever or someone or something scared me, and I am a baby when it comes to getting scared.  The only time I like when my skin is bumpy and my hair stands up on end is when I have what I call God Bumps.   The name came from my ex’s aunt and I totally made it my own. 

What are God Bumps you are wondering? It is one of the most amazing feelings ever! It is when the Holy Spirit has filled you and you can feel God’s presence.  You are in awe and at the same time so calm and at peace with everything that your body just gives you that same goose bump feeling.  It is weird that something that you get from being cold and scared can also happen when you are so happy and in awe.   I think that when I feel God’s presence my heart is about to burst from God’s Love.  I have had God Bumps many times, usually when I am praying or talking to God.  Talking to God and praying is something I do often.   Other times I have been talking to others or just thinking about something and bam I just get a wave of the Holy Spirit and God Bumps.  I believe that you can definitely feel the Holy Spirit come in your body. It is really one of the best feelings, if you are stressed, worried, scared, in pain or whatever is on your mind just melts away in your mind and you are at ease.  It can be referred as being drunk in the Holy Spirit because you just feel that same way. You just feel happy and giddy and you aren’t feeling this way because you are consuming alcohol, you are consuming The Holy Spirit and God’s Love.

Have you ever had God Bumps?

Parenting is a Lifelong Commitment

I read something about a letter from your parents. It basically said you are still my baby and how much I worry about you and please tell me you are fine.  As a mom I totally understand that, especially when I still call Noah my baby, he says I am your big boy. He is right but I remind him he will always be my baby.  I think you should let your parents know how you are, it is important.  I also think that parents should help their children, even when they are adults.  No one is perfect and sometimes people need help from their mom or dad. I don’t understand the mentality some parents have where they can’t wait until their kids move out, turn 18 or they get as far as possible from their child.  I personally think the moment you become a parent, you are a parent for forever. Your job is not over when your child is not 18 or 21 or moves out.  You cannot retire from parenthood.   You are still required to provide emotional support for your children, be their crutch, be their rock, be the one that they can run to when they need help.

We grow up relying on our parents. That is something we figure out the day we are born. We know that these giant people are our parents and their job is to take care of us and comfort us.  It’s not a learned behavior. I don’t see why that should change when you are an adult.  You are not blessed with all the wisdom and knowledge on your eighteenth birthday, although some people think so. Life is just a series of choices and events and sometimes things don’t work out like we planned.   I believe in someone being able to make mistakes and learn from them, but sometimes you need help.  It might be financially, relationship wise or anything really.  You just can’t turn your back on your child and let them fend for themselves.  You can’t offer them suggestions like telling them they need to do something ridiculous. 

When Noah grows up, I want to make sure he knows he can always come to me for help and emotional support or anything he needs.  I will make sure he knows every day how much I love him, how special he is and how proud I am of him. After all that is what we do for our kids.  I don’t think that just because someday Noah will be an adult that I will turn in my mom card and be done.  Being a parent is truly a lifelong commitment.

Grilled Cheese Please!

My son is a picky eater. We like to go to restaurants to go out to eat. I used to not order him anything because he wouldn’t eat it. I thought once he was older he would eat there like other kids.  I felt bad when they would ask me what he was having when I said oh he’s fine. Of course he ate at home, I wasn’t starving my son.  There was usually bread or whatever for him to snack on. Sometimes I brought cereal, crackers, even applesauce.  I didn’t want to spend five dollars on a kid’s meal that I knew he wouldn’t eat. That’s crazy. I may as well throw the money in a gutter.  It was also wasteful.  It was kind of embarrassing to say just milk please.  As I started ordering him food I noticed the same basic crap on the kid’s menu. Hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chicken nuggets, and Mac and cheese, which are all, kid friendly.  It is missing one very important kid friendly item. This isn’t steak or shrimp skewers I am aware that is more for the older under 12 age set. This item is really cheap to make and very easy.  I think that all restaurants that have a kid’s menu should offer grilled cheese.  So, easy to make and saves parents the horrible task of saying please eat. Eat your dinner and everything under the sun.  I am asking no begging and pleading that you alter your kids menu and offer grilled cheese.  I would be a very happy mom if you would just buy some bread, cheese and butter.   You don’t even have to go to a specialty store to find it and anyone can make it.  If it is a Mexican restaurant cheese quesadillas are fine.

I would like to thank the following restaurants for having grilled cheese on your kids menu:

Steak N Shake

Waffle House- Noah has never been to Waffle House but that is what I always eat there.

Leverock’s- the best seafood restaurant is ever located in St. Petersburg Florida. It is amazing. I have been going there for years and they have the best and freshest seafood.  It was always a place we ate at on vacation growing up.

Panera

Paradise Bakery

Applebee’s

Red Robin- This must be a new thing cause I don’t remember them having grilled cheese before when Noah was eating a cupcake and apple slices.

Chilis

Do you know any other places that offer grilled cheese on the kid’s menu?  I look forward to your suggestions.

My Thoughts on Eden's World

Have you seen the show Eden’s World? It is about 6 year old Eden Wood who used to be a beauty pageant superstar. It is on Logo and I started watching it On Demand. Let me tell you that it is a horrible train wreck. All of the pageant shows are train wrecks and I don’t think that dressing your child up to look like a grown up and skimpy outfits is an ok thing to do. It is totally wrong in my opinion and it makes little girls focus on outer fake beauty. All of the pageant pictures look like the little girls aren’t even real, like someone made them in to a plastic fake doll. I know that a lot of parents live through their child for the adults dreams of wishing they were beauty queens. 

Eden’s World is a horrible show. Sure I think she is cute but overly too cute. She seems that she is overacting and over the top.  I don’t want to sound like I am bad mouthing a six year old. My problem with the show has nothing to do with Eden herself.  I am glad that she is so confident, even though it might be a little too confident. Things I saw in the episodes of Eden’s World were not appropriate.  I know that it is not a kid’s show but there are kids present when a lot of the drama happens.  I think the stylist Fran is an evil and rude woman, she yells at people, gets in confrontations with other adults in front of young children, and her language is horrible. I would be so upset if my child heard the things she was saying as a parent.  Her Manager is the same way, she also is very short tempered, rude, angry and also uses foul language in the presence of Eden and other children. I also noticed that her manager is not being professional. 

My question is Mickie why subject your child to that? Why would you do a show like this? Why would you want your adorable 6 year olds name and brand attached to rude and nasty tempered people? I understand Eden really wants to become a star, but the E Team’s behavior is going to harm her more than it helps her.  People will quickly learn about the E Team’s temper and why would someone want to do business with Eden if her team treats others like dirt? I think that you should have probably passed on the show because her talent is what should get her out there, not some ridiculous show that makes you, your daughter and her dreams look like some big joke.

A Hard Parenting Moment

I recently wrote a post about letting people go.  Well, several nights ago Noah and I were talking, it was late, he had a cold and he started talking about my dad.  It broke my heart, without going in to personal details, basically he was saying things like I wish I could meet Grandpa. He is almost six and has never met my dad. He lives in England with his new wife and it just is far away. I haven’t seen my dad since before I found out I was pregnant with Noah.  Noah kept saying things like where is Grandpa? How far is England? Why haven’t I met him?  I didn’t have the heart to say anything. He went on to make a plan to go see him. He calculated every detail of the trip out to me.  I just went a long with it.  I felt the tears falling down my face because it made my heart hurt so badly.  We have never had the best relationship and again without getting in to all the personal details he has hurt me many times in my life, more than I can count. I had known this for a long time and it is who he is, but it doesn’t make it hurt any less.  I was really hesitant to let him back in my life and now Noah’s life back in 2007.  It is really hard because he’s my dad. My five year old doesn’t know, it is sad that he hasn’t met him.  I already have seen him disappoint Noah and continue to disappoint me. I used to wonder if I did something wrong, if I wasn’t good enough growing up? I wondered if it was my fault. 

So, what do I say? I mean I am definitely not going to say the truth to my five year old. I don’t want him to know, if that makes sense. I guess I will just have to go along with it for now and not make any promises. It is not like he has made any effort to see us. He invited us out there when Noah was two.  That’s a long way from home and I would be worried something would happen and we would be on the streets in England to fend for ourselves.  He has never offered to come here once. When he was living in the states, he never offered to see us.  We actually moved to be closer to him and he took off to England.  He has never heard Noah’s voice other than on videos. He doesn’t call, Skype or anything. Noah has seen two pictures of him.  It makes me so sad, because who could want to not meet my sweet little boy. He is amazing and so smart.  It has really turned in to a very stressful and hurtful thing for me so I decided to just let him go. Let him have his life in England and all that and hope he is happy, but I can’t let him hurt us anymore. My heart can’t take it, I don’t want Noah’s heart to hurt or ever feel unloved  by him like I did for almost my entire life.  It just really stinks because Noah is asking about Grandpa all the time now and I know he is genuinely just a kid wanting to see someone he loves.

Investing in Noah's Future

Noah is starting kindergarten in the fall, where has all the time gone?  It seems like just yesterday he was a baby.  Now that I have registered him for school, and soon will be buying him school supplies and paying book rental and sending him on the bus, it has me thinking about the future. I have always thought about the future but I really need to start some kind of college fund for him so when he graduates high school, he can go to college.  I am not going to be a parent that relies on a scholarship for my son. I have faith that he is smart enough to get one but you never know.  I know that he is very advanced for his age but I need to be proactive about this.  I need to sit down and look in to investing my money in to something that can provide for Noah’s future if he goes to college or not.  I want to check out purchasing some walking liberty half dollars.  I was always told that gold and silver were both a good investment. 

My dad gave me a couple pieces of silver when I was in Jr. High and I still have them both.  I couldn’t tell you where they are, but I still have them tucked away somewhere.  I thought it was really cool that he gave them to me.  I could have sold them at a pawn shop or something, but I kept them for a rainy day. I think I might pass them down to Noah when he gets older.  You know I am big on heirlooms and by the time he is an adult, they will be over 25 years old. I know some of you might be thinking he’s only 5 now and I have time, the last 5 years has flown by so I am assuming the faster I get on the ball I am able to help him go to the college of his dreams.  He wants to be so many different things, it changes all the time so who knows what he will do with his life.  I just need to check out a company like Independent Living Bullion to start investing in Noah’s college fund while he is still young.  The longer you have the more likely you are to be able to do something like this.  I have big dreams and hopes for Noah to be whatever he wants and will help him achieve his goals in life.

Do you invest in anything? Do you have college funds for your children?