Mom Ladd | The Plaid Pladd Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Mom Ladd’

Mom Ladd Guilt Post

April 16th, 2015 by pladd

Two days ago I was talking to my mom and she said, “You know you haven’t updated your blog in a while.” And I was like, “That is not even one of my goals this year. In fact, I made a goal specifically so that other people would do it for me.” But Mom Guilt is a powerful force, so today I decided to post every picture I currently have on my phone, with explanations I’m attempting to remember.

This is Steven drinking a bloody mary at one of the restaurants on my list. He said it was amazing.

This is my apartment complex’s gym. I have no idea why I took a picture of it

This is the dessert course from tea at the Umstead!!! Probably from when Brian was here?

LOL this is from when I said “Brian, sit on that thing and I’ll take a picture of you” AND HE DID IT

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Tagged: Mom Ladd, pictures

Posted in Let Me Tell You About My Life |

Mom Ladd on Being Mom Ladd

March 7th, 2015 by momladd

This month’s guest post is written by MY MOM!!!!!!!! I’m pretty excited she agreed to do one. As you already know how awesome she is! Enjoy!-PLADD

When Patricia first mentioned that she was going to have guest bloggers this year, my immediate reaction was: “AWESOME! I want to do it! This will be great, I can do this.” Then reality set in and I began thinking, “Oh my gosh, it involves creativity and writing ability and her blog is so great month after month. I CANNOT do it, but luckily Trish has many talented friends (you know who you are), so it will be ok, I will not have to participate.”

As a teacher, I often find myself in similar situations when I don’t think before I agree to do something I will later regret. The problem is too many times I have gone ahead with the idea anyway without thinking about the reality. One such time involved me participating in a Faculty vs. High School Boys Basketball game at Seminole High School a few years back. Sure, I played basketball in high school. “I can do this,” I thought. “We can kick their butts in a game!” However, the reality of the situation was: the boys were faster, taller, and stronger. AND my basketball skills had diminished due to the years that had passed since I had gone to high school and the fact that I hadn’t PLAYED in a basketball game for years.

This is how I thought I would look

Needless to say, even though my jersey had the #1 on it, I was not. It was a mess and will be remembered only because I pulled a kid’s shorts down while going after the basketball and we both ended up tumbling to the ground. Luckily, he was wearing 3 layers of shorts, so no inappropriate personal parts were displayed, but it was not a good scene. I know you want a picture here, but, sorry, the crowd was too stunned to snap a shot.

Most other times I have made rash decisions that I regretted later involved wearing costumes or losing bets I was stupid enough to make with students. Something they never mentioned in teacher training: don’t make bets with students. They probably thought it goes without saying. Many of these pictures ended up in yearbooks, so I will be remembered not as a pretty good math teacher, but as the “crazy ” one. The following is evidence. You can draw your own conclusions.

Geometry Day!

After a hard day of teaching. I took a bite out of a few?

What was I thinking?

Probably the very worst decision of all was allowing some students to “spike” my hair. I told them it couldn’t be done, but actually with the right amount of Elmer’s glue and rubber bands… anything is possible. There’s some words of wisdom for you to live by.

The picture I want to be remembered by

So now that I have established that I shouldn’t make rash decisions, and I should definitely not take on things I’m not really qualified to do, I’ll share with you the following phone conversation.

Tricia: Mom, I am going to ask you a favor, and you are going to say no. But after you have a chance to think about it, you are going to say yes.

Me: (speechless) …OK, what is the favor?

Tricia: I want you to be a guest writer on my blog.

Me: (Silence)…(Speechless)…(terror)…

Tricia: Maybe you can write about teaching? Or write about a recipe you like? Or maybe about Pi Day?

You all know, Tricia can be quite convincing when she wants to be, and I would have been afraid to turn her down. She does own several swords, and she is not afraid to use them.

The Aragorn is all mine though

I knew the reason Tricia mentioned teaching, cooking, and Pi Day. These are areas that I am quite passionate about. I got to thinking about it, and realized the only topic this blog entry should be, because it is my greatest passion and the area of my life that I have taken the most time with and I am most proud of: being Patricia and Thomas’s Mom. Also, I am figuring that most of Tricia’s blog readers are not yet parents, and also may become parents sometime in the future. So, here goes.

Thoughts on Being Mom Ladd

1. Children are cute.

They need to be cute because they take an insane amount of energy if you are going to do it right. Plan on 20 hour days, especially at first. I figure it is God’s way of helping you forget your life before children.

Evidence they are so cute

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Tagged: Mom Ladd

Posted in Guest Posts |

2014:The Ugly

December 30th, 2014 by pladd

My favorite part of year-end posts! When I get to look back over the books I’ve read and decide which ones had the ugliest covers!

Mom Ladd helped me with this post. She wasn’t biased by the book’s contents, so she helped me pick out the most blah covers.

A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl by Tanya Lee Stone

This isn’t bad in itself, just inappropriate for the mostly serious book.

An Exaltation of Larks by Robert Reed

This is a bizarre sci-fi story set in the modern day/the future. I don’t know what’s going on here.

More Than This by Patrick Ness

Another sci-fi story about alternate realities that could have tried harder.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

This book clearly needs more purple. What were you thinking??

YOLO by Lauren Myracle

Now this is the kind of purple I’m talking about! But my mom pointed out, rightly, that other than good color choice it is just sort of meh.

The Book of Awesome

Mom Ladd declared this nowhere near awesome enough.

A Short History of Myth by Karen Armstrong

This one tried, but I feel like it has the potential to look way cooler.

Clearly I need Mom Ladd assistance on more blog posts.

Previously: The Good
The Bad

Tagged: 2014, 2014 books, Mom Ladd

Posted in Book Reviews |

Homemade Project: Bread

November 18th, 2011 by pladd

Since Steven and I got so many great kitchen presents for our wedding, I’ve decided to start a new project and try making things at home that we normally buy. I’m most excited to make my own condiments, but I thought I’d start with something I’m a little more familiar with: bread! Plus, apparently yesterday was National Homemade Bread Day, a fact that only public libraries and Yahoo Answers’ more boring cousin seem to be aware of.

Homemade bread is something my mom is famous for, but only on special occasions since it takes a lot of time. But it makes your house smell amazing!! The kneading process is a little more robust than other baked goods I’m used to, which is a nice little work out for your hands and helps to relieve stress and frustration. I would definitely recommend baking bread as a less expensive alternative to therapy! Plus, I knew our house was kind of cold for the dough to rise properly, which is how I discovered the thermostat was mysteriously set to 55! Thanks, homemade bread, for saving me from freezing to death!

Recipe: Mom Ladd’s Secret Honey Wheat!

Exhibit A: Deliciousness

Taste: Homemade bread is definitely softer and fluffier than the store-bought kind! It has a stronger taste, too; you can definitely eat it just fine without any butter or jam. Since it doesn’t have those preservatives, it won’t last as long, but since it tastes so good that’s never been a problem!

Cost: $0! I already had all the ingredients at my house already! The only thing you might not have lying around is whole wheat flour, which does come in small enough packs that you won’t have a lot left over with nothing to use it on. I still had some from Steven’s last bagel experiment. You also need bread pans, which I happen to have because my mom’s got my back!

Time: The dough has to rise twice for about an hour each time, and assembly outside of that is at least half an hour. Half an hour for baking and the two loaves took about three hours all together. Most of that time is waiting for it to rise, though, so you could totally do it while cleaning/watching Gossip Girl. Or both!

Again?: I would definitely do this again! Bread is, of course, super useful for any meal, either by itself or as part of some kind of amazing sandwich. But probably, like my mom, only on special occasions or weekends when I have nothing else going on. I’m going to try to make a commitment to do it more often, because I think my loaf pans are feeling neglected. We’ll see how long that lasts!

The Process:

I don’t know why I’m surprised by how relatively simple this process is; bread is one of the most common, simplest backed goods there is! Start by mixing the dry ingredients, mostly the two kinds of flour:

There's also some yeast and salt in there

Then add the honey and butter! Read the rest of this entry »

Tagged: baking, bread, homemade, Mom Ladd

Posted in Uncategorized |

5 Things I Got From My Mom… That I Couldn’t Be Happier About

July 12th, 2011 by pladd

Naturally I have to start my week of Kick Ass Women with my mom! It’s hard for girls not to be super influenced by their moms, so I’m lucky mine is such a great role model. Feeling like you’re becoming your mother seems to be a pretty common concept for women, at least in movies, books, and newspaper comics, and it is usually met with dread and annoyance. Personally, I am pretty excited about it since it means turning even more awesome! Here are 5 Things about me that I can already recognize are part of this process, and I am totally stoked about all of them:

1. The Drive to Find Something You Love, and Do It No Matter What

If you know my mom, you know she’s a math teacher. It’s impossible to not know this about her, it’s so much a part of who she is. It is kind of ridiculous how much extra time outside of school she spends preparing, grading, and communicating with parents and students. In one of the education classes I had to take in grad school the prof was telling us about how most teachers suck because they don’t communicate with parents. She finally admitted that some teachers will try to contact a parent if the student is doing poorly, but “have you ever heard of a teacher who contacts a parent with positive reinforcement?” I get that she was trying to make a point, but I still raised my hand and said, “Yes, I lived with her for 18 years and the rest of y’all really need to catch up.” Okay, maybe not that last part.

My mom, outside her classroom!

Because I grew up with this, I didn’t really think it was weird that she went in hours early and stayed hours late to help students before and after school, or spent entire evenings calling parents, or made breakfast for her classes before the big AP test. That’s just what you do when you have a job, right?

Well, in the real world, it turns out not really. This study found that only 20% of people are very passionate about their jobs, and that was back in 2005. The same year, coincidentally, that I got my first job and poured about 50-60 hours a week into making the library the best place ever. Sure, it’s not the most glamorous or well-paying job ever, but I love it, and I don’t mind pouring more time and energy into it than anything else in my life because I know it’s worth it. Just like to my mom teaching is worth it. Perhaps the most important lesson she taught me through her own kick ass example is to love what you do, and do whatever it takes to do what you love. Because in the end, happiness is more important than money or fame or any of the other things I might be hoarding if I weren’t so into librarianing.

Not as important as loving your job... but both would be nice

2. A Healthy Attitude About Beauty

This had to be on the list since a preoccupation with beauty standards is something it’s almost impossible to escape as a girl in our society. I’m not saying I was totally immune–I suffered through middle school just like everyone else, thanks–but it definitely could have been a lot worse if I was also feeling subconscious pressure from my mom. It’s not like it would have been her fault, but you internalize so much at that age she couldn’t have helped it. If I’d grown up seeing my mom plaster her face with thick coats of makeup every day before daring to show her face outside or spending hours “fixing” her hair I’m sure I too would have assumed I needed all that, just to be presentable. Instead, she never really worried about it.

"The only thing I'm worried about is why you are still taking pictures when it is summer in Houston and I am dying of heat stroke, DAD"

Pretty much every potential fashion/beauty discussion I ever had with my mom growing up centered around the question “Are you comfortable?”, from which shoes to buy to how to deal with my hair. It’s not that we don’t want to look nice, but that will always be a secondary concern to things like “Can I walk?” and “Am I melting because we live in Florida?” Seeing the money and effort and worry people expend on beauty in the real world, I’m glad I never learned to stress about it too much.
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Tagged: lists, Mom Ladd, story

Posted in lists |

Happy Popcorn Easter!

March 28th, 2011 by pladd

My mom sends the BEST packages. Granted, they don’t come as frequently as they used to, since I guess she assumes that now that I’m Making It On My Own I can buy my own giant Mr. Potato Head or demonic singing hamster robot. They are even more exciting now because of their rarity! And the fact that Rachel is marginally less likely to throw them from a third story window through annoyance (or bloodlust?). This weekend I got a popcorn egg decorating kit! I assume for the lesser known holiday of Popcorn Easter, when a giant, sentient corn ear travels to houses at night and leaves popcorn eggs for all the children.

In case you are behind the times, a popcorn egg is just like a popcorn ball, but egg shaped!

Between hardboiled eggs and Cadburry Cream eggs on the Egg Tastiness Spectrum

The kit came with a bunch of different candies and marshmallows, and a tube of white “chocolate flavored candy glue” to attach them to the egg. It also had instructions that stated (among other things) that you would need “scissors and creativity!!” Megan insisted that reading the instructions was totally necessary but I was filled with the spirit of POPCORN EASTER ADVENTURE and paid her no heed.

Me, paying Megan no heed! Later she bit me in punishment.

Unfortunately, Steven, with characteristic and annoying artistry, clearly made the best popcorn egg person:

He's happy because he's made of smashed tootsie roll and popcorn!

After softening up the green tootsie roll, I twisted it in strands to give my guy greasy looking hair! Also, his mouth was made of pink Good N’Plenty pieces.

The owl napkin holder does not approve

Megan decided not to compete with Steven’s face making skills and did a pattern instead:

So ready for Popcorn Easter right now!

Unfortunately, the colorful sprinkled pieces ended up tasting like death inside:

The popcorn eggs themselves tasted delicious! Way better than the candy we had used to decorate them. I can say that this was, without a doubt, the best Popcorn Easter ever! Thanks, Mom Ladd.

Tagged: food, holiday, Mom Ladd, popcorn

Posted in Food, Things I've Made |

I Ate’nt Dead

May 27th, 2009 by pladd

Do you know how hard it is to even get a cellphone signal in Montana and Western North Dakota? The only person who complained about my lack of updates was my mother, who I think checks this blog as an assurance that I’m still alive. She urged me when she was finally able to get a call through that my “friends would think something horrible has happened” if I didn’t write soon. Clearly she worries more than all of you. Or has less faith in my instincts of self-preservation. And so, in honor of my mother, I will catalogue the Times I Have Almost Died over the past few blog-less days.

Tagged: death, Mom Ladd, North Dakota, paranoia, Road Trip

Posted in Road Trip |