Beware of First Grade Projects

In this episode Melanie and Allison discuss just how excited they are to learn which bug their child will be assigned for the annual "First Grade Bug Project." Allison begins the episode by explaining her one single rule of the insect project: "Anything but the cockroach!" In this episode we'll learn just how roach-phobic Allison really is and how her negotiations with the teacher didn't go unnoticed.  

We continue our discussion of fears with Melanie explaining her fear of sharks and how she married her husband even though he purposely took her on a shark ride at Universal. She also tells us why she doesn't like playgrounds.

Allison also talks about how much she hates balloons and how she found out she was allergic to latex.

(26:37) The ladies change gears to focus more on their favorite things of life which include Cadbury Mini Eggs, chocolate, and a can of Regular Coke (the soda). It's here where we first learn that Melanie is allergic to corn which is basically found in almost every kind of food. This prompts Allison to ask Melanie if she could eat the bunny cake she's making for her son for Easter this weekend. We continue on the favorite food trail and talk about loving regular Coke (the soda) and popsicles.

(34:47) Wouldn't it be great to sit on the beach and drink a big 52 ounce soda from Kangaroo like we did in college? It would but then we get back to discussing what it's like to have household chores that need to be done and kids that need to be fed. Sigh.

Resources:
Melanie mentions Nightshade-free Gluten Free Flour Mix

Warning: Allison mentions cockroaches starting at the 4:49 minute mark. She would appreciate being warned so she wanted to pass the message along to you listeners.

Find Midlife Moms Pod on Apple Podcasts or wherever you find your podcasts. You can also find us Buzzsprout where we have a full listing of all our episodes, Instagram (@midlifemomspod), and Facebook. Listen, like, and subscribe! We hope you enjoy the show!

Transcript

Hey Midlife Moms, this is Allison here. I want to apologize about the audio on this episode. Since we're starting out our podcast, we're using one microphone together, which is really my laptop computer. And something's happened to this episode's audio. We're not sure what. Exactly happened, but I'd like to apologize in advance if there's any interference.

Just wanted to pass this message along, but enjoy the episode. Thank you. 

How are you doing, Melanie? I'm good.

How are you? Good. Welcome to another episode. So how have you been this week? Good. Tired. I feel like I over commit myself to things at school.  And we had a short week this week, but yeah, I, I always over it. So I know what you're working full time too. So yeah,  yeah. Trying to get my house together and just get ready for Easter and then  to another week.

And I didn't realize that they had school on Monday  until the thing came out to say, don't forget four day weekend for our kiddos.  And that's hard. Yeah. It is. I ran into one mom last night when I was picking out Matthew and she was like, yeah, enjoy your four day weekend. She goes, I'm mad about Monday.  So, oh yeah.

I mean, Monday's just a tough, I  think so.  I'm not sure the days all blend together for me, so I'd have to refer back to my planner for last year. Yeah.  I don't have that worked out at all. So I'm kind of on a day by day planning session right now.  I have to work. My parents live in town, so I'll ask them if he can hang out with them for a little bit, but my brother's coming into town too, that day, and he is.

And he's only coming down with his son, who is the same age as mine. So that'll be good. It'll be good. Yeah.  So in an hour? No. He's in Atlanta, but he'll be down on Monday. And then my parents also have company this weekend. So it's like, dear mom, I know you just got rid of your company and you just want a big holiday dinner at your house, but he's my son. 

Try to entertain him the best you can. Yeah, but no more grandmas. Yeah.  That's where mine is right now, at her Mimi's house. She's going to love on him like no other. So. Bye.  Yeah, but this has been a big, big week. So, you know, one thing I did save this for the podcast is I could not wait to tell you,  you know, that the kids got their bug assignment this week.

Oh, I was stressed this whole week.  Because my son has gone to this school, this is our fourth year at the school, and I've known about this bug project that the first graders get. Every year, the first graders get assigned a bug, and they present on it, and they also create a model replica of a bug. And in years past, whenever I pick up my son at the end of the day, I have to walk past the two first grade classrooms with the tables in front of the classroom.

with each bug displayed. I don't ever remember seeing that and we've been here for this is our third year. I mean I know when we came to the school they were like oh wait till you get into first grade they do a bug project. It's this big. I promise you it's been a year because this has been a big. I've just never seen it.

I've been dreading. So this week was pretty stressful for me because I knew they were coming out soon. In the calendar that The teacher sent home maybe a week or so ago. April 18th is the bug presentation. So I was like, okay,  it's coming up what's going to happen. And in years past, I've walked by ants, grasshoppers, bees,  butterflies.

Yep. I wonder if somebody got a dragonfly. There was a worm one year. I think a dragonfly was on there too. But there's another bug that's always on there. And I have dreaded it. And it is What do you think it is? I'm gonna ask. Well, of course it's a cockroach. Because it's disgusting. And that's Yeah, that's the most disgusting bug there is out there for sure.

Yeah, it's definitely the cockroach. One of my big fears and one of, I just cannot stand them. So I've been dreading this and I had a, you know, probably the first session we had with the teacher, you know, the parent teacher conference. Yeah. I think I told her that I was dreading this. because it was a big fear of mine and I said, you know, please don't give him the cockroach because I won't be able to even look at it.

And  around Christmas, so I'm a homeroom mom also. So I see this teacher a lot and around Christmas time, I kind of joked with her and I was like, you know, if you give him the cockroach, I'm going to withdraw him from school.  So I was really dreading this and he came home yesterday and I asked him, did you get your bug assignment today?

Cause I had heard rumor going around that people were getting their bug assignments. And he's like, yes. And I said, what did you get? And he goes, a grasshopper. So I was like, Oh, you do love me. Cause even he knows that.  Like, you know, I would, I told him I will withdraw you from school and I will send you to the local elementary school across the street if, um, where none of his friends are at, by the way, if you pick the cockroach or express any type of interest in the cockroach, I think they got to choose, right?

They did get to choose, but I wasn't sure how that was going to work. Like, I didn't know if the teacher was just going to assign them, but. Yesterday I found out that, yes, they did get to choose. That's interesting because I thought, I thought Emily chose like a butterfly or dragonfly. And she chose what again?

What did she get? A bumblebee. Bumblebee. But she knows I love bumblebees  so maybe she did it for me.  And I'll tell you in years past, you know, these projects are pretty elaborate. They're on the first grade tables. I'm going to have to go through and see if anybody has pictures. I'm sure the first grade teachers have pictures of them.

I want to see what we're working with here. Yeah. See like how. So you're right. I wanted to like, just hand her like, say, okay, how do you want to do your model and go get stuff and just let her go? Are you ready for this? One year I saw the movie with sequence on it. I love it.  Get ready for sequence. I love arts and crafts anyways, but yeah, I think it'd be kind of cool to do like a paper mache.

You could do paper mache or buy those things in a garden store, whatever the green, sometimes they're green. Where you stick flowers in them, what is that? I don't know, they're like styrofoam or the planter's things. Yeah, they're like, well the green is really soft, so I don't think that would work, but like a styrofoam ball that you could Yeah, oh yeah, I'm sure that's You could do something like that, I don't know how you're going to do a grass top.

I don't know either, I imagine, like, so I've kind of been thinking about this in my head, and I'm like, I'm going to have to like carve, you know, like get one of those home things, and then Oh, you're going to get a rectangle one. And then, like, trim it. You know, I don't think I would let him do that because that might involve a knife, but he's already got this grandiose plans of, he told me that he wants to put wheels on his grasshopper so that it can move.

Okay. But I think yesterday he mentioned in the car something about a remote control. Oh, that's amazing. I was like, but I don't want to give him any promises because I'm like, well, you know. Oh my gosh, we have like the little helicopters to advance because you know, he wants to buy toys. Right. I wonder if he can do a helicopter and let the bee fly.

I don't know. But this is where it gets in trouble. Tim's going to be like, you are way over the top. Right. Because this is when, you know, it's like you want to give, you know, Your kid, the responsibility of working on a project and working on a deadline and doing all these things. But you have all these visions in your head of how it could be super, right?

And I'm afraid that I'm going to get too involved. I feel like Emily's so headstrong now. I said, Oh, let's do a paper mache beat. And she didn't want to do that. She's like, I'm not doing that. And then she'd be like, I want to do it like this.  I mean, that's fine because I think it has to be kind of big, right?

Yeah. The sheet that came home with them really read through it, but it just got in yesterday. So it's not like I'm not paying attention. I was really just concerned about what type of bug he got and was really doing  it's not the roach. And I did text some moms. Today to find out what your kids got. So I, there's two first grade classrooms.

I know who got the roach in each classroom. So, yeah, it's not me. Yeah.  So is the roach a phobia or do you think you just don't like it? You know, I don't know what it is. I'm not. from Florida originally. Do they not have riches where you're from? No. Really? Oh no, no, no, no, no. And I've never seen something as big as this.

So, in high school, you would see them at night by the pool. And, oh, they just give me the heebie jeebies. Yeah. Once in a while, I would see one in the house. At night, um, you know, like at my parents house. But I also owned a condo one time. This is a really bad story, so get ready. But I bought a condo. It was my first purchase of a house for, you know, living place.

And it was a four. Condo building. So on the first floor there were two condos back to back, and on the second floor there were two condos back to back. Everything was fine in the beginning, and then I started waking up to like a bug here or there. By a bug I mean a cockroach. So it started to get to a point where I would find them a lot more often, and they weren't just dead, they were alive.

So if you find a dead one it's usually not a problem because that means whatever proof you have on the unique. Like the pest. Yeah. Your pest control. Yeah. Your pest control is working. But if you find a live one, it's, it can be jarring and I don't like killing them. I don't, uh, my preferred method is to spray them and that's not really a good way to do it because it stinks and it's very toxic.

But before I could not stand the crunk, sorry, sorry listeners, I could not stand the sound of somebody bopping it, right? The one time I came home and I just had, I was, I. Worked all day and there was like one in the room. I saw another one on the dining room ceiling. Oh, that's the worst when they're on the ceiling because they can all of a sudden just fall.

I left my condo and I called my mom. I live down the street from my parents in this town and I called my My mom and I said, I can't do it anymore. And I started sobbing and I was outside the condo building. I in mind you, I had paid for pest control through the homeowners association, but I also got my own pest control because I was really having a problem and I couldn't deal with it.

It was very, I mean, I'm an anxious person anyway. And I was just like, Oh, he's stressed out. It's not a good feeling to come home stressed out. It just was not a very good time in my life. It seems like there was somebody else.  No, and I don't know who it was. Yeah, it was a problem for a while.  And when you pack your stuff to leave, like if you left there, to move out, you have to worry about taking them with you. 

So I put them all in that place.  In the end, yeah, I moved out. I left it empty and I put it on the market. I'm gonna buy my condo. It's like my mom.  My mom had to come over, I mean, I was in my 30s, so this is kind of embarrassing, but I had just had a mental breakdown and I told her I cannot go back in my, my, Okay, so you have mental trauma from, from that, okay, I get it now, like why you're so, like, However, after I've had Matthew, I will stomp on one in a heartbeat.

I will grab my shoes, I will grab whatever shoes are around, and I won't. So it's gotten better over the years, but I'm 48,  and it, you know, it's taken me a  But you didn't have any brooches? No. I grew up in Vermont. They don't, brooches don't go north of the Mason Dixon line. Like, the ones that we have here,  they do not go above  that line.

Okay, so it's kind of like people that say when they live, like my friend Sarah, she lived in California, she's like, they didn't have alligators. And then my friend Courtney, she, I think she lived in Texas or something. She's like, tell me about alligators when they moved here. And I said, well, if you see water, there's an alligator.

Right. You should just assume you should just assume don't go in. Don't go in there. There's an alligator. Sometimes they can end up in your pool sometimes. Right. But yeah, no, I had never been exposed to that before. And you know, really my dad had always taken care of them. If we were at the house or something and somebody saw, which I don't even remember that being a problem though.

I only remember it when, in my adult life, probably when I moved back my second time. No, I do take that back. I had some, I used to live in Gainesville, I went to college at the University of Florida. So my senior year, I had this apartment and it was on the third floor and Gainesville is beautiful. But if you have trees that are close to your building, that's where they like to hide.

So they would come in through there and it wasn't just my apartment. I only lived there for a semester because I was just finishing out my senior year, but that's probably when, and then I moved to Massachusetts and we didn't have anything like that there. So anyway, I was born and raised here. So I'm used.

It's been very stressful. I am, I'm really, we have a grass. Yeah, and I don't mind grasshoppers. Um, I don't really like bugs, but I wouldn't kill a grasshopper. I'll just put it that way. Right. If there was one in the house, I would probably try to catch it and give it a new life. Right. Get it out. Right.  Yeah, we lived in Gainesville.

I don't remember ever seeing roaches. But we did have big spiders out. Yeah. Because we kind of lived on, it was an old, the farmer had sold off the property. It was a cow farm of some sort. I don't know if it was dairy or whatever. So we all had one acre of properties. So there's still, and we backed up to a preserve.

So there's all that wildlife. So we had big foxes come. We had all kinds of snakes. We had black widows in the garage,  No way. Cause Tim's boss was like, that's not true. And so we caught some slime instead. Of course you did. Yeah. So we had a bunch of different kinds of wildlife out there, but never, never seen much out there.

It wasn't really a problem. And your house can be as clean as,  yeah. It's not a matter of cleanliness. It's just that they come in through water sources, so plumbing is a lot of times, you  So, I, I learned a little bit about them after I had that problem. See, you've learned about them. You could have done the R. O. A. C. H. project. No, I, it's enough because if I read about them or I don't look at the pictures. So, if I see something like this. Don't even read about them. I don't want to know. Yeah. I don't want to know.  Lice. Hehehe. Yeah. Because Emily got in the car the other day and she said, You know, your head doesn't itch because of the lice. 

The adult. Okay. Or the eggs. It's the babies that hatch and they like blood. And that's what, so the babies are, whats your head? Apparently that's what our science teachers are. Okay. But I dunno, because I don't wanna, well, I wanna review that in Google. I'll tell you as soon as I heard that there may be a. 

issue at the school or one kid had lice or whatever it is, my head started itching.  I know  that's like, I'm feeling my head's itching. I'm like, you're completely cleared. It's just the power of suggestion. It is. Yeah. I'm sure there's some term for it. Well, I think that it's like anything else. And now I'm itching my head.

I feel like, Oh, I feel sick. And then it makes somebody else. Yeah. So yeah, that's what's going on with our lives of bug project, which now I don't want homework.  It's just going to get harder as the years go on, you know, we've had homework throughout the year though, which is not bad. Yeah. Kim does her homework all by herself and she does it.

Yeah. He does too. So it's not, which is great. Right. And at first he told me, he didn't want to go to the school when he found out that first grade was going to have homework. So, you know, this is our fourth year at the school. So he told me that he wanted to go to a different school because they probably didn't have homework in first grade. 

So we've come a long way. Yeah, we've come a long way because he'll pick him up from extended care and ask him if he's got homework and he's like, I'm already done it. Yeah. I think they make them do that. Like that's maybe just hope there too. So that's great. Yeah. It hasn't been that bad. And then reading reads. 

That's good too. So I didn't want my full on project. So this is our introduction into project. So it'll be interesting. I sent you a meme this morning. Did you get it on Instagram? Yes. I'll have to post it. So the Instagram, so by the way, we have an Instagram handle. It's midlife moms pod. Just one word. No spaces, no under or anything.

So check us out there too. I'll share it there because I thought it was pretty funny. Yeah, and you need to take a picture of your hat, I mean, not your hat, your thing that you made. Yeah, we all have to do that.  Oh, the bug project will be there. Don't you worry. No, because I don't think my husband would have helped either.

He doesn't like roaches either. He does. I should take that back because one of Matthew's friends in class, sometimes they go in there and read for the kids, you know, my extra time, all the free time I have. And one of them told me he had a pet cockroach in his room. He kept it in a cage. It probably wasn't a cockroach.

So it was probably a Madagascar. One of the big ones. I don't know. That's what he used for pets. I mean, they have those.  Sure, he said he found it. He put it in the case. So, you know, of course I texted his mom and I'm like, is this true? And she's like, no,  these are so funny. So anyway, let's talk about something else because I'm done. 

Yeah. Is there anything you're terrified of? Did I ask you this already? Or did we talk about this? No, I used to be scared of sharks a lot when I'm seen on TV, I'd scream out cuss on TV. Okay. Yeah. So like TV, like shark week. I used to think that like shark week was a big until the book, the channel, if it was on shark week, he would stop it.

And then I wasn't paying attention and I'm trying to be like, Oh, look at that. I love it. And it was a shark right there. It had my heart just pounding. Yeah. I figured out why. I was so afraid is a kid that I grew up with. They had a pool and he had a little rubber shark and he would chase me with that shark in the pool constantly.

And I think I had seen Jaws for some reason before that because I was young. So I don't know why I would have seen that unless I had seen it on somebody else's TV or something because my mom would not have let me watch. Right. But I was. And once you see Jaws and you're that little, you know, you're kind of terrified.

So yeah, it used to be really bad. If I would have to go to the bathroom, I would be like, Oh my gosh, there's gonna be a shark.  I wouldn't take a bath. I'm scared to take a bath. Weird stuff. And you know they don't swim in bathtub, right? But in my little kid brain, they could. You know there's a shark trap?

Yeah. I wanna know. Yeah. Although I probably should know. We follow it. In my team. To Boogie board in the ocean. Yeah. So yeah, I was terrified of sharks for a long time. And then they had the shark ride at Universal, the Jaws ride. Yeah. And Tim and I were dating at the time, and when we got on that, people at the end of it, because they thought I worked there because I would be like, oh,  coming. 

And I wasn't,  I wasn't acting. I. Scared to death. I have jumped over my sister in law to try to get in the middle of the boat. And then at one point Joss grabbed the boat and picks you up and spins you and I'm screaming. So we get,  yeah, that was a great, that was so good. We loved it. All this. I'm like, terrified.

It's been, that wasn't an act. She's super scared. She's terrified. And he took you on that ride and you were just dating and he knew you were terrified of sharks. No, we had been dating for a long time, but I was like, I didn't want to be the one only one left out. Right. And I was like, Oh, face your fears.

I'm all about like face your fears. Yeah, bad idea. So that's it. I don't remember if I'm gonna, like, I don't like surgery. Not scr Well, who does? But, I'm not gonna go in and have it. Is that  something people want to do? Is that A lot of people do! I've seen some people out there in the world who do all kinds of stuff.

elective. Yeah,  but  I can't think of anything else I'm afraid of. I mean, I'm still kind of terrified of sharks. I don't want to be in open waters like that movie. Right. Well, what about things maybe you're not terrified of, but don't like? Don't like? Yeah. I hate a playground and I hate sidewalk talk. Okay.

You really want to get up on sidewalk talk. What does sidewalk talk do to you? It states.  So, you know, it doesn't come off the sidewalk typically, unless it rains really hard and you try to squirt it off. Mm hmm. But it stains all of Emily's clothes. Oh. So, you know, it's Yes. Where you're having to, because if you're sitting on the sidewalk and she sits in the sidewalk chalk, if I don't remember to spray it out or try to get it off before you wash it, your clothes are ruined.

It's stained. Okay. I understand. Yeah.  What about playgrounds? What do playgrounds do to you? I don't like, I've never liked a playground. I just feel like they're very, you know, I know kids love them. Emily loves them. I just feel like I could use my time better than studying at a playground. And I just don't, I feel like public playgrounds are just, Oh, yeah.

Germ, you know, all germed up and, Some not so savory people sometimes go there. So it's more, you're always on edge watching for your kid. Like, we just went to a birthday party and they were at this playground. I remember the name of the playground now. Was it Sunshine Park? Is that Jacksonville Beach? Yes.

Yes. I think so. That is a complete cluster. It was so nerve wracking because you couldn't see your kid. So Tim was on one side. I was on the other. And then I kept telling Emily, I'm like, I need to be able  So her and a little friend together, I'm like, y'all stick together. It was just, it's too much. It was too much overload of anxiety that makes me very anxious when I can't see her.

So that's why I hate her. Okay. Well, that's not, you know, what do you hate? You know, the other thing I really can't stand balloons. I just never liked them. Especially those rubber balloons, latex. Like you get, Oh, they smell awful. They sound awful. Where's the light? What do you mean? There's latex. Yeah, you blow them up.

Not the ones, are you talking about the ones that you put helium in? No, like, you know, they give them for free at Publix. Oh yeah. So you get a little nasty piece of balloon and then your kid puts it in his mouth and he tries to blow it up. You stink. I'm afraid of them popping. I'm worried about choking hazard.

Choking. That's my big thing. And he loves them. Loves them. Every time he gets one, can I blow them up? So he's got water balloons. Can I do the water balloons? The water balloons I feel like are a little better than, than trying to blow the balloon up. Yeah, but I do have to pick up all the balloon pieces around the yard.

But I'm also allergic to latex, so I think that that's, I just, oh. I think I might be allergic to latex too. Yeah. But I've not been tested. I'm just, because of surgery and stuff that I've had, I'm worried because it would cause me to have rashes. Yeah, red. Yeah, whenever I use a band aid, I get rashes on my, you know, like around that area.

I do have a story, but I don't know if it's safe for a podcast, so. Why not? Just tell it. Little ears. Oh my god. So when I had Matthew, you know, they've got on my chart that I'm allergic to latex, so they're supposed to use non latex gloves, all of that. So whenever I go to the doctor, that's fine. I always make sure that's on my chart.

They're purple, right? I think those are the non latex. Yeah, non latex ones. So during childbirth, I had to have a catheter at one point. And I had a C section, so as I'm laying on the operating table, I hear my doctor say, uh oh, no, let's take that out and insert the other one. So my ears perked up.  And she comes over to me and she's like, uh, I just, it only happened for like a minute, but I just noticed that they inserted a latex catheter into you and I immediately corrected it.

It's already too late, right? Yeah. I mean, she said it wasn't any very long. I promise you, you're not going to feel any after effect. Well, she was wrong. So after I had, yeah, after I had Matthew, uh, I was in hospital for four days after that. Matthew was in NICU for a little bit and I had gotten an infection down there due to the catheter and it lasted for probably two weeks after that.

It's like, really, I can feel it already. Like I could just feel myself talking about it. So that's how I know that I'm definitely allergic to latex.  Yeah. I have sensitive skin. So I was like, Oh, I'll just pass it off as that I have sensitive skin, but I'm wondering if I'm allergic to latex too. Yeah. For other things.

Feeling that I can't. And there are other things that I noticed earlier on,  um,  I decided that I was allergic to latex and I addressed it with my gynecologist at one point in my late twenties, maybe. So not latex. condoms. Everybody.  Yeah.  Here's the thing. Let's rewind for a minute. So that kind of irritates me that they did that.

She's like, Oh, it was just in there for a minute. It's kind of like me being allergic born. And so yeah. Oh, that doesn't have corn in it. And then I'm like, well, it's been seven years, so I'm sure it's way past the time. And I had a really first year. Matthew was NICU so he was, he had some problems early on too and I just had a long road after my c section.

A c section is not an early out so it is definitely a difficult way to give birth and it took me a long time to recover. I only had off work for 12 weeks. And I wasn't even healed when I went back to work after 12 weeks, I was still just miserable, but I probably had enough to, if I had pursued it, I probably could have gone after them for the settlement.

But I didn't think about that back then. I read stories now and I'm like, Oh yeah, I probably, like if I had a lawyer in the family. Well, and they do a lot of things too. Cause I noticed with my arm, all the surgeries I've had on my arm, they'll come in and they'll write yes.  And they'll write no.  There are reasons.

And there's reasons. Really. Yeah. Because there's somebody walking around with no legs. Yeah. Because of it. Yeah. I was just happy to have my son healthy, and it didn't take me a long time to have him, so. You know, the only trauma I have now is that I can still feel it, and I can still, but I'll get over that.

I like it. You mean you can still feel it. You mean in your thought processes. It takes you back. It takes you back. Yeah, it takes me back. And I can still feel that if I go back there, I can still feel, you know, yeah, is that what it is? Yeah. I have that. Yeah. Cause there's some things. So that's probably why maybe I have that whole year.

It took me a whole year to kind of get over that.  Yeah. Welcome to the world, Matthew. Mom has it. Yes.  That's a good word for it. Yeah. So anyway, we do this a lot. We just hear off. I know. Not about me.  Let's talk about favorite things. So, you know, I don't like balloons, but I do love a good Cadbury Mini Egg, and they're out!

What season is it? Oh, I don't know. I don't have any, I don't have the package here to show you, but it is Cadbury Mini Egg season. I've been so good, I kind of gave them up for Lent, I've been watching my weight, and, uh, Easter is Right around the corner. Which ones do you like? Do you like the one that has the, what is it?

When you bite into the chocolate, it's like that caramel or the, I don't even care at all. It's like a cream. No, I don't like that. I like the little mini eggs. So they're the milk chocolate Cadbury milk chocolate  with the candy shell. Oh yeah.  Really? Yeah. Oh, I bet. Yeah. They're probably really not good for you, but that's one of my So yeah, Tim went and got some kind of chocolate from Whole Foods, you know, Fresh Market the other day, and I was like, I just want to try one.

And did you? Yeah, I ate 13 of them. And he's like, there's 14 in a package. I was like, well, you can have that one. Fuck you, I got one package and you ate all.  He's like, seriously, that's really easy for Emily. I'm like, well, you have to buy her more. Once I started, I was like, oh my gosh, it's actually something I can eat.

Because when that happens, I'm like over, overloaded of, I can't have chocolate. Explain to the listeners why you can eat that chocolate, but not others. What is the one ingredient that So I'm allergic to corn, so anything corn, corn, regular corn, corn starch, corn syrup, corn derivative, and here in America they put corn starch or corn syrup in everything.

Yes they do. So I have to be very careful and I can't even eat like regular chicken from the store, it has to be a certain kind of chicken. Or eggs, we were just talking about eggs. Or eggs, because we're dying eggs. Yeah. So I can't have that unless they're organic, free range, because they feed them corn.

And if they feed them corn, what do you think they're going to produce? So I have to be real careful at that. And then of course I can't really go eat anywhere because I have that big conversation but then I have to trust that somebody's telling me the truth, the correct thing. That's rough. Within 10 minutes I can tell if I'm having it or not.

I can tell you if it has corn in it once I'm eating it. Well, that's not About 10 minutes. That's really not good. That's not what we want. So that's why I'm so picky about that. And there's a whole bunch of this out there, which I did not know. I always feel like I'm the only one that's learned more, because people are like, I've never heard somebody allergic to porn before, but there's a porn allergy group on Facebook.

And so you learn a lot. People will post pictures about, is this safe? And then other people comment on it whether or not it's safe. Let's see. Because it's a lot to dig through in an ingredient. Yeah, it is. Because it'll say something and you're like, what is that? Modified food starch? Yeah. You'd never know it just to look at the ingredients.

I had to look at what's in there and list it out. So you wouldn't be able to eat the carrot cake I'm going to make this weekend. Is that correct? I don't have eggs. Is it a box? No. I'm gonna make it from scratch. Do you put corn starch in it? No. Flour. I can make flour. Oh, okay. You might be able to. I haven't made it yet.

But my son asked for a bunny cake. Have you made a bunny cake for Easter before? Okay, so we're also having company this weekend. Or my parents are, so. I have to feed enough for four adults normally, but add two more. So that's six. Plus a kid, so I have to make a cake big enough for seven. You're making a double layered bunny cake.

Yeah, you know what has really good carrot cakes is Amaretti's. Oh, really? You ever been to that bakery? It's right off of Old St. Augustine Road. Almost home side. So good. And I can eat that because I've questioned the baker. You have. Yeah. Like, can I talk to your baker? Here it comes. Yeah, so maybe you could. I don't know.

Do you like coconut flakes? I will eat suntan lotion if it wouldn't kill me. I love coconut. Well, I knew somebody that did not like coconut at all, but I'm like,  Matthew likes it because that's why he wants the bunny cake because I think he wants the coconut. That's good because I'm doing the state of South Carolina at school and I'm making, they're known for carrot cake, so I'm making carrot cake, not carrot cake, coconut cake.

Oh, coconut cake. Once your presentation starts. Okay. So we're in South Carolina. But then we got to rewind that too, because. A little girl in the other class has gluten issues, and I think the first grade teacher does too. But if I make it gluten free, then it has corn in it, corn starch in it. But then I found this lady, which I never knew anything like this, but it's called Nightshades.

And it's an actual flour mixture that you can do for gluten free, and then you just add the, how do you say it, the X Gum or whatever it is. Yeah. whatever. I don't know how you say it, but then you add that in and that's your gluten free flour. So I could actually eat that, because why am I going to make a cake and I can't eat it?

Well, I would not do that. I would be searching through recipes. Right, because I don't want her to be left out because I know how it feels to be left out of something. But then I was like, maybe there's a bakery that does gluten free. I'm sure there is. That I could just get her her thing and make the classic.

All these things we think about. But I always think about allergies because I'm dealing with that myself. Well, another person in the first grade class has, what, a pea allergy, we've got a peanut allergy, and a red dye allergy. Well, an all dye allergy, because I don't have any of that.  We don't even want to get into that right now, it's way too long.

No, but We will do a segment on foods and allergies. My point was that one thing I have to do, probably, I don't know if I'll go today or tomorrow, but go to Publix and get ingredients to make a double layer bunny cake. So this should be interesting. Yeah, yeah. Now you make me feel like I need to bake something.

It's not the first time I've done it. He asked me specifically, so how can I say no? I know, Emily wanted me to make bunny cupcakes. And I was like, really? I was like, what do you want to make? Just cupcakes with white icing and then we can make ears on it. Oh, that's cute. Maybe I should do that. How do you make ears?

Well, I used to do royal icing when I was decorating cakes for my fan therapy. So I can do royal icing. I guess you could. And they harden. Yeah.  Or here's another trick. So if you cut a marshmallow in half, it makes it sticky and you can roll it in sugar and it makes it a color and then you can stick it in.

I used to make cupcakes that look like succulents or flowers doing that with the little marshmallows. You cut them, roll them in sugar, and then they make like a petal. Yeah, it's cute. It's cute. Okay. Uh,  well, I had asked you what your favorite thing was. I told you my favorite, which was Cadbury Mini Eggs.

And they only come out during They only come out around Easter, the original ones. Sometimes, around Christmas I think, I found a bag of Christmas Cadbury Mini Eggs. Now is that the only chocolate you know? Well, I like all chocolate. But there's just something about Cadbury that's a different texture, taste.

I wonder where Cadbury is made. I think it's in England. Maybe that's why. I believe. Yeah, because we've been to England a few times and my husband will have many Cadbury bars. They've sold big bars there. Just go buy a bunch and eat those because he's a big candy freak as well. Yeah, that's his preferred, but I've always loved Cadbury mini eggs and you were just meant to be.

Mint? I didn't realize it was over there. Yeah, a lot of, I think the chocolate that Tim bought the other day was from Sweden. So yeah, probably. And it was, A different consistency, because they don't put all that cream out and Hershey lately. It's just been so different. I was going to say they, they changed their ingredients or something.

Right.  Right. Yeah. A lot of stuff. I have not researched it. I don't know. So please don't come after me. Yeah, but I always try to buy chocolate.  Just like Sweden, England. Apparently  there, the rules and laws of food are different. I need to live in Italy. I know, right. I could eat there  because we make every scratch at our house.

Well, as being a die free family, there's dying everything, even now public. So. Has dye in their bakery in a chocolate chip cookie. Why? Even Emily's like, Mommy, why do they put dye in chocolate chip cookies? I have no idea. In the published chocolate chip cookies. In the bakery. I'd be making those from scratch too.

Yeah. I'd rather do that anyways. I know where my ingredients are. And they're not mass produced in a cheap way. But I do love me a nice, Regular coke, which is so toxic, but that's also another well Why don't you get the coat that has the mexican coats those have cane sugar in them instead of all the other crap Where do you find those?

You probably could find it at fresh market because I found the ginger ale that has the cane sugar and it's in a glass Bottle that i'll have to look next time But I do not drink those normally. If I've got a migraine or just having a really bad day and I need a little pick me up, I'll have a regular and that is, I maybe have three a year.

Oh wow. Yeah. So they're not, they're not frequent enough to be like, I'm addicted or anything. The last time I drank a regular coat was in 1997.  Wow. You know why I know that? Because I'm addicted and I used to buy 12 packs.  And I could drink those within about two days. I was downing some and I really, I, if I could ever figure out how to make an actual icy that doesn't have corn syrup in it, I would be in trouble because I would drink an icy and they are, but Matthew, they have a tradition after baseball, every baseball game, they go and get an ICEE from Daly's the whole baseball team goes, it's just like, la, la, la, la, la, as I cover my ears, you know, ice. 

It was like crazy. I know. I would be like, I would call to all the families coming here from Morocco. I'm like, give me a big gulp. It's bad. You know, I was never like, I never drank alcohol. I'm not like a drinker, like wine or anything like that. I'm just like, give me a big gulp. Oh my gosh, I remember in college, one of my dear friends would, we had a, an apartment, but there was a gas station kind of like kitty corner and sometimes I would drive by and I'd see her white Volvo parked up in front of the gas station and be like, geez, she's getting one of those large  Diet Cokes, like the 52 ounce Diet Coke.

That's where I used to stop. I think it was the Kangaroo.  On Archer Road? Yes.  And I'd be like, I'm getting a big gulp. And then, so me and my friend Katie, we went to a conference in  Orlando and we stopped at this 7 Eleven and they had these big plastic guitar drink cups. So we filled that sucker up with a Sprite ICEE.

So good. And we had a blank.  And those were the days. The other thing, you know, what I love, if we're gonna talk about like chocolate stuff, are popsicles. What kind of popsicles? A good pop. Are those the red? There's my, are they really? Yeah, but they're dyed natural. Okay, but it's a bad obsession because you can't just eat one, or I can't just eat one.

So it's been a while, but I could eat a box. It's just in a night watching the judge. So it's funny because I wish that I was as sensitive to dyes as other people are like you, right? You know, the kind of like their flavor ice, they come in tubes, you buy,  you buy the liquid in the grocery store and the packs of 24 or whatever, and then you take them and put them in your freezer.

Yeah. Yeah. So we get those during the summer because the boys play outside, you know, they have ones that are like that, but they don't die. Do they still have to try those? And they're like that. They're the exact same things.  Because we'll go through those and you need to get them when they're on sale because they are kind of expensive.

Yeah. They're not junk like the other ones out there, but we will go through those like, yeah, non stop. You just, I can see where they're addictive. I'm going to the popsicle. Yeah. I'll just sit there. Yeah. That would be wonderful. Chill on the beach in a popsicle. Really? I know. And it's almost beach season.

Although you wouldn't know it today. No, it's chilly. It is chilly. You should do that one day. Me and you should just get in the car and go.  We should. 

And next time I have a vacation, won't be glued to my house, cleaning out. Yeah. I did. Yeah. I got a lot done. So I took  not quite yet. But it's only because of the big toys that, you know, seven year old boys have. Like a foosball table. I think we've got a basketball hoop in the garage. I can post a picture of my car.

I took, yeah, I took 20 trash bags to the Salvation Army to help another child in need. Oh, that's good. Yeah. So I feel good about that because I was able to get all that stuff out of my garage and then I just kind of ran out of time. So yeah, but it's noticeably it, you know, we got rid of like seven tubs.

So you know, those big plastic tubs, I think we put seven by the trash or recycle for them to take this week. Somebody took them. Yeah. Yeah. But I really just want to go in my closet and take everything out. Well, that could be a nice. Good rainy day project. Yes. Yeah. So, so that's all we have time for this week on Midlife Moms.

Catch us on Instagram on our new page, Midlife Moms Pod, which is all one word, no spaces, no underlines. And we'll start posting some things there of what's coming up, what we've talked about, if you want to ask any questions. And new content will be out each week as we begin this process. So, if you have any questions or any suggestions, we'd love to hear from you.

Send us a DM on the IG, midlifemomspod.  No, I was going to say dot com. So listen to my language. DM us on the IG at  midlifemomspod or,  or catch us later. Talk to  you soon.