It’s Only a Little Mold on the Pizza

When I reflect back on my life, which isn’t anyway near over, by the way, my favorite memories are of laughing. And more often than not, those moments have taken place in the company of friends and/or my children.

One of my greatest joys as a mom, other than actually being a mother, is all of the incredible friendships I have because of my children.

There is a certain camaraderie with other moms sitting on the bleachers at softball or soccer games. Sometimes you meet the greatest people who become your most cherished friends.

This is one of those stories.

I met this particular mom when her husband and I coached our 6-year-old daughter’s softball team. The bag was as big as me, so he would carry it. He was also a better pitcher than me, so what was I even doing? Who knows!

Anyways, our girls became fast friends and today, many years later and off at college, they are still the greatest of friends. And the best part is that her mom and I are still good friends after all this time. I have been so lucky to have acquired so many incredible friendships this way.

One day, a long time ago, in a faraway place (just kidding on the last bit) we went over to their house for lunch, just like any other normal get together. At the time, I think the girls were maybe 10 and our boys were 8 and 9. We were going to make homemade pizzas. My friend had purchased the 3 stack of frozen pre-made pizza dough in a bag. The keyword here is frozen.

We made a pizza, ate it all and decided to make another pizza. As my friend is separating the last two pizza doughs, she looks at me and says, “Oh my God.” I look over and there was mold on the bottom of the pizza. Apparently, she took it out of the freezer the night before so it would thaw out, not thinking that it had to be refrigerated. I mean, let’s be real. When you have kids, you aren’t always a Betty Crocker. I certainly am not. Can you imagine what Gordon Ramsay would say about this? “You donkey!”

The kids see it and start freaking out. Her son cries, “Mom, are we going to die?” So while my friend is dealing with her kids crying, my kids look at me. I have to say my kids aren’t too phased by much, especially after seeing me go through my cancer journey. I look at them and I say, “Well, you might shit your brains out for a while but you’ll be ok.” Back to business as usual!

Now our kids are grown up and off to college and we laugh about this story all the time. It’s good to share in great memories and realize there’s nothing wrong with a little mold on the pizza.