A Letter To My Son On His Birthday

My son does not read my blog, nor has he ever expressed an interest in reading it, so I know he will not see this on his birthday. I hope that one day in the distant future he will read it and appreciate it.

Dear Trey,

Has it really been fourteen years since you came into our lives?


I'll save you the details of the long and painful labor and delivery that brought you into this world ( but you will hear them one day.. count on that) and just tell you how very blessed we have been since the day God gave you to us.

At the age of fourteen you are on the cusp between boyhood and becoming a man. I can hear it in the way your voice is changing and I can see it in the way that suddenly you are taller than me. Right now it is so important to you to fit in and be accepted by your peers. The part of you that is becoming a young man tries so hard to play it cool. No longer is it acceptable to hug your mom and tell her that you love her - that's okay, she knows. Girls have become interesting to you, and I no longer have to remind you to take care of your personal hygiene. I wondered if that day would ever come! But sometimes that part of you that is still clinging to boyhood comes out and I welcome it because I know it is just a matter of time before that little boy is all but gone.

I don't know what the future holds for you, but I know who holds your future and I pray daily that you will know that too. In your lifetime you will be faced with both joy and challenges. There will be times when you feel that life can't possibly get better and all is right in the world, and there are going to be times when you will be faced with things that will have you doubting yourself, humanity, and your faith. All I can tell you to prepare you for those times is to persevere. When you doubt yourself, know that there are people in this world that see your infinite potential and that wholeheartedly believe in you. When you doubt humanity remember that we can't control other people but we can control how we react to them and that in the end good will always triumph over evil. And when you doubt your faith just know that even when we don't feel him, God is always with us. He loves you too much to leave you and even though there are things in this life that we will never understand this side of heaven, all things work together for our good.

So as you start your fourteenth year on this earth I hope it will be filled with great memories and few trials. But most importantly, remember that your family loves you no matter what and we will always be here for you.

Happy Birthday Trey!

Grading on a Curve is Good

God bless my African professor who speaks minimal English and grades on a generous curve!

I passed my test.

One down two to go.

Then I will never have to think about Geology again. Unless I happen to be gem shopping. Which would be a good thing.

Adventures of a College Coed

Just in case you are interested, the Geology test that I was so worried about was infinitely harder than I even imagined!!!! No grade yet but I'm not very optimistic about it.

After he gave us the written part he sent the class out of the room so he could set up the lab portion of the test. I felt better after commiserating with the rest of the class in the hall because apparently the test was difficult for everyone. Even my sweet little lab partner whose brain cells are half the age of mine.

My poor lab partner. I'm sure when she signed up for this class she envisioned having a cute, young, male, student to help her classify rocks and minerals. Instead she got me. She did however invite me to her really cool twenty first birthday party. There was going to be a keg and everything!!! I told her how fun it would be because I could exchange recipes with her mother. I swear to you when I said that to her she looked at me like I had just shot a booger at her or something. She said in a very repulsed tone "How old ARE you?????"

I thought about lying..... but it was too late.

I told her I was about to be forty-four and reminded her that forty is the new thirty. She said "Wow I would have guessed thirty-five"

OMG! I truly considered giving her a big kiss for saying that. But I figured that would get me uninvited from the really cool keg party.

Okay, Okay, big deal she guessed my age slightly younger than it actually is. If you are under the age of forty that probably means nothing to you, but at this season of my life I will take a compliment where ever I can get one. Besides I'm sure she really meant it and she wasn't just saying it to suck up to me because I'm the one who copies the notes off of the board while she plays with her I-Phone.

Unfortunately the really cool keg party starts right about the time that I'm already in bed watching the news so that means I won't be able to make it.

That's really too bad because I could use some new recipes.

My oldest daughter Savannah has become a domestic diva. She has taken to being a wife and keeper of the home like a duck to water. On her blog she always post her wonderful finds and money saving tricks. So today we went shopping together and she helped me save some moolah too! We didn't set out to go to the grocery store but on the way home we decided to stop and since she is a coupon queen, she had her big binder of coupons in her car so she shared some and this is what I came home with:



I brought home two packages of cookies, two bags of sugar, a gogurt, toothpaste, twenty packages of kool-aid, five vitamin waters, a bottle of hand soap, a deodorant, and a body spray for $11.01. Not bad for a novice. It really is fun to see how much you can get for just a little bit of money. Ciara was with us and she enjoyed watching the savings as well. She decided she is definitely going to coupon when she goes to college. I don't know if I will ever become an expert like Savannah, but it sure was fun shopping, saving, and hanging out with my girls.

Allow Me A Moment On My Soap Box

I feel a rant coming on. The past few days of the coverage of the whole Michael Jackson circus has finally gotten to me.It is all over the television, radio, Internet and the papers. Enough is Enough!

Just in case you are interested here is my take on the whole thing.

Yes it is sad that he died. It is especially sad because he left three young children without a father.

Yes he was immensely talented. I, like most other people who came of age in the eighties, grew up listening to his music. There are some songs that will forever remind me of my high school days.

Yes in many ways his life was tragic. He was used by family and so called friends all of his life and in reading about the show that was put on as a funeral, he was even used in death for people to promote their own self interests.

But he was not a God. In fact he was downright kooky and by all accounts a pervert that hurt children in ways that they will never recover from. It sickens me that those things were conveniently swept under the rug as the public elevated him to a "Divine Being" status.

There are two particularly saddening results of all of this. His children being one. What sad lives they have already had and it doesn't look like it will get better for them. First their mother gladly washes her hands of them for a price. Then they are raised in who knows what kind of environment, and now they are thrust into the spotlight and will undoubtedly be fought over if there is a chance that a nice inheritance is connected to them. Certainly their paternity and upbringing will be called into question. They will probably hear things about their father and themselves that no child should have to be exposed to. Most likely they will inherit their fathers legacy of being used by "well meaning" people.

But as a Christian, the most disheartening part of all of this to me is what now for Michael? Where is he spending eternity? Contrary to what Brooke Shields may think, he is not sitting on some crescent moon somewhere looking down on the world like a magical fairy.

I can hear some people now. " Oh please, if God is so good surely he would welcome someone as caring as MJ with open arms" or "How can you sit in judgement of someone else?" Let me just say I don't know where MJ is now. Only God knew his heart and who knows what happened in the final moments of his life. God's forgiveness is available to anyone who asks and believes. The account of the criminal on the cross next to Jesus shows that. But there is a good possibility that forgiveness was not sought. Perhaps he didn't believe in all that "God Stuff". How sad for him if he didn't because here is what I know:

We are all going to die and we will all be held accountable for how we chose to live our lives here on earth. God is not impressed by what type of cars, clothes, jobs, houses or any other material things we have. He is only concerned with the heart of humanity. Not perfection. That is impossible for us. But a faithful, believing heart that is inside a person who is trying to be the best that they can be to God's glory.

We are all given different lives to live. Some have money, fame, and notoriety. Some have very little and strive to make it through another day. Most of us fall in between the two. But in the end we will all face our creator and we will either hear; "Well done good and faithful one" or " You knew me not". I don't want to be on my death bed one day wondering what I will hear on the other side.

I'm stepping off my soap box now.

Summer Daze

I woke up this morning and said yay! It's Independence Day! Then I realized that my summer is almost half over. If you are a teacher you know that feeling.

I realized that I have not gotten any of what I had planned on doing done at all. On the last day of school I told myself I would "just take a week off" and then I would tackle my to-do list. My list consisted of closet cleaning, bedroom organizing, kitchen remodeling, serious dieting, lots of book reading, and some margarita sipping.

My "week off" turned into five weeks off. So far the only thing I have managed to do on my list is some margarita sipping. The closets are still busting at the seams, the bedroom organization and kitchen remodeling are bigger than I had anticipated, the diet.... Ha Ha... and the book reading has been minimal.

So I've decided with my remaining six weeks of summer vacation I will simplify and focus on just a couple of things on the list.

Hmmmm what ever will I choose???

You guessed it. Since I have already invested a little time in margarita sipping and a just a bit in book reading, I think I will stay focused on those two things until I have them perfected.