Today Is Your Birthday!

Happy Twenty-Third Birthday Savannah!

Twenty-three years ago you were born very early, very little, and to parents that didn't have a clue as to what to do with a baby. Like most new mommies I was in awe of this bundle that I was now totally responsible for. But you made being a mom easy.

For the past twenty-three years you have filled our lives with joy. Your sweet spirit and gentle personality are such a blessing to us. You have surpassed all expectations that we ever had for you and we could not be more proud of the gracious,beautiful young woman you have become.

At twenty-three you have your whole life before you. I can't wait to see the wonderful things you do with it. I know you will make a huge impact on this world because you have already made such a difference in ours.

We love you Savannah! Happy Birthday!

The Ties That Bind

It's been a sad week for our family. We said goodbye to my mother-in-law as she entered into eternal rest on Thanksgiving morning. Her passing was unexpected and there are many things that she brought to this earth that will be missed but there are many things that she left behind that will forever make a difference in peoples lives. Probably the most important being her love of family and the strong familial bond that she instilled in her children.

No one can grow up in a family and leave home after eighteen years and not take some "stuff" when they go. Both tangible stuff and the proverbial "baggage" that we acquire while growing up. Stuff like unmet expectations, sibling rivalry, etc. etc. We can all fill in the etc. part with our own junk. I know this first hand because I am a regular old bag lady when it comes to carrying around stuff from my past! But I learned this week that baggage can be "checked" and hopefully stay forever in the unclaimed baggage area.

When my husband and his family knew that my mother-in-laws time was growing small, he called me and asked if I would like to come and visit her one last time in the hospital. I knew she was hooked up to machines and that seeing her that way would be difficult so I declined at first, but God really put it on my heart that I needed to visit her. Little did I know that in doing so he would bless me with the beauty of one of his finest creations - the love of family. The hours I spent in that hospital room were difficult but hidden in the ashes of impending loss was the beauty of family. There was no space in the small hospital room for baggage of any sort only room for the love of a family as they said goodbye to their mother and helped her transition from this world into the next. She left this earth knowing that she was loved, that her children loved one another, and that the family bond that she had sewn through the years was stronger than any past transgressions and too big to fit into any sort of baggage.


Sandie was very talented in many art forms but by far her greatest masterpiece was her family. I see it in the way my husband loves his family and works hard to provide for us. I see it in my sister-in-laws as they love their families and delight in their grandchildren, and I see it in her grandchildren as they love and care for their own young families. That love doesn't just happen. It has to start somewhere.

Thank you Mimi for loving your family!

Effective Embarrassment

Everybody knows that teachers of young children have certain inalienable rights. Such as the right to sing off key without judgement, the right to use a whole bottle of hand sanitizer in one day during flu season, and my all time favorite teacher perk: the right to wear goofy shirts that you would otherwise never dream of wearing. You know what I'm talking about.... everybody has picked up a shirt while shopping and thought to themselves " Who wears a shirt like this?". Chances are a preschool teacher does.

I have a shirt like that. Okay I probably have a couple of shirts like that, but my all time favorite hideous shirt is my turkey shirt that I only get to wear once a year on our school Thanksgiving Feast day. It has a giant multi-colored turkey embroidered across the entire front of the shirt and every year when I wear it my five-year-old students think I'm the coolest thing since Scooby-Doo fruit snacks.

Yesterday was our Feast day so it was time to break out the good-ole turkey shirt. It's getting a little thread bare since I have had it over 10 years and I swear each year it shrinks a little more(!) but I will keep it around until it falls apart.

After school I went to pick up Trey from school since he is still on strict parental control and will be until his History teacher emails dad and tells him he is the model student. Here is how our conversation went when he got into the car:

Me: Hey Trey, how was school?
Trey: Good ( yep he is a natural born conversationalist)
Me: Hey guess what? You get to go to Hobby Lobby with me!
Trey: (Heavy Sigh) Great. (Then he looks over at me) Ugh! and you have that turkey shirt on too!

Double Whammy of embarrassment! Not only did he have to go to Hobby Lobby with his mom who was wearing a crazy turkey shirt, he had to stand in line behind me and buy a cake pan so I could use both of my 40% off coupons!

I'm thinking we will be hearing from his History teacher soon on how much his behavior has improved in her class.

Never underestimate the power of public humiliation!

Cheers to Experienced Teachers

Sometimes you can just tell when a teacher has been "around the block" a time or two. I love enthusiastic new teachers with grand plans and fabulous ideas, but there is nothing better than a seasoned teacher that knows some good tricks.

Case in point: Trey's history teacher.

It seems my son was acting up and being disruptive with his buddy at the end of class yesterday. Somehow that doesn't come as a surprise to me. Anyway in her infinite wisdom ( and much experience teaching Jr. High) she explained to Trey and his partner in crime that she would be making a call to their parents and asked them which parent she should call. Of course Trey said his mother... and so the teacher knew to call dad.

Kudos to you Mrs. American History teacher!

There is nothing like a call to dad, at work to ensure that the discipline problem will be addressed.

Addressed it was!

In addition to having to apologize to his teacher ( e-mail will verify that it has been done),and being grounded for an undetermined amount of time, Trey is now on strict parental control. He gets a ride in moms loser cruiser each morning right up to the front of the school so I can watch him go straight into the building ( I stopped short of making him give me a kiss goodbye... but I considered it) and he gets to see me waiting to drive him home each day after school. Plus he is sentenced to a weekend of hard labor with his dad. He doesn't have to tell us how happy he is with this arraignment... we can see it in his body language.

So here's to wise secondary teachers everywhere who know how to use reverse psychology on teenagers! May you continue the good work!

Still Alive and Well

Wow it's hard to believe that it has been almost a whole month since I have posted! I guess there has not been anything blog worthy to post about.... but come to think of it, that has never stopped me from posting before, so I guess there is really no explainable reason for my absence except for the usual work,family, school reasons.

This semester I am only taking one class but... Horrors!!!.... It's a fitness class! OMG! I have to work out at least five times a week! Yes five times a week and strolling through the mall does not count as a work out! It's probably one of the hardest classes I have ever taken.
Okay I'm being dramatic I admit but really those people that say they love their workouts have got to be lying. I signed up for the class shortly after my break-up with Twinkie and the gang so I thought there would be some noticeable differences in my physique. HA! The workouts have made me hungrier than a horse, and well a woman on the rebound after a painful breakup doesn't always think clearly.



I have a new BFF:





I think it is ironic that it is dressed in what appears to be workout clothes. I don't know if that is to subliminally trick people into thinking Oreos are healthy, or if it is to remind you that you will have to work your butt off once you eat one. Nonetheless, they are yummy and I love them.

Since I'm starting to come down from my Halloween sugar high, I will end this post by sharing some Halloween memories. When we first moved to our block ten years ago, the dad's on the block were in charge of taking the kids trick-or-treating while the moms gathered together outside to hand out candy - and possibly indulged in a few adult type beverages. Oh those were the days when I had three little beggars out there bringing home sacks of candy! But seasons change and while we still gather outside to hand out candy, the dads no longer have to pull their beverages in a rolling cooler and instead they get to sit with the moms, and our grown children to hand out candy. Trey and his buddies are still hanging onto that one little bit of childhood and they decided to go out and see how fast, how far, and how much candy they could get. Here is a before picture of them:




I sometimes miss the days when these boys would come and play transformers or climb the tree outside for fun. Now they are into girls and trying to act cool.

Here is a picture of them ready to go hunting for candy. You can see they don't have that cool thing down yet!



Those little boogers crack me up sometimes!

Well my body tells me that this time change stuff is for the birds and even though the clock says it is only 8:30, I'm going to bed anyway! Till next time!

Homecoming

This weekend was Ciara's last Homecoming as a student. Next year if she wants to attend she will have to do so as an alumnus. I can hardly believe that! I was gone this weekend on an absolutely awesome retreat, and the only down side to that was the fact that I missed her all prettied up for the dance. Thankfully her big sis came over and took lots of pictures for me. Here are a few:




Here she is with her gigantic mum. This is only worn to school on the Friday of Homecoming, but she posed with it in the picture.




Awww aren't these sisters pretty! Just for the record, I want to thank Savannah for picking out a bridesmaid dress that her sister could actually wear twice!


Finally, here is one of her on the Homecoming float for the last time!





Just for good measure and because once you have teenagers it is your duty to embarrass them, here is one of her dressed up for nerd day:







Without a doubt I'm going to miss these days!

Mall Madness

Trey and I went to the mall together last week. That sounds so inconsequential, but trust me it was a big deal that he asked to go shopping for clothes! The boy usually follows his dad's fashion advice which is "let the woman in your life buy your clothes, and wear whatever she brings home". So things must have been desperate for him to initiate a shopping trip.

With the girls a "shopping trip" is an event that usually involves lunch at the tea room, stops at numerous stores, much trying on, and searching for matching accessories. I guess it was silly of me to hope that Trey might want to spend the day at the mall with his mom. My first idea that this was a desperation trip and not a pleasure outing was when we exited our neighborhood and stopped at the gas station. There were some girls about his age hanging around and he immediately slouched down into the seat. Since he is a guy and I'm not, it is understood that he is the gas station attendant when he is with me but apparently it is not cool to be seen in a Volvo station wagon with your mom on a Saturday afternoon. ( or at any other time which is why my kids refer to my car as the loser cruiser) Who knew??? So I spared him the social suicide that he would be committing by pumping my gas and did it myself while he cowered low in his seat.

Apparently my son inherited his fathers shopping prowess because it took us approximately 30 minutes and two stores and we were back in the car with enough clothes to last him the whole school year.

There was no tea room, he never came out of the dressing room to ask my opinion, and he was not a bit interested in any matching accessories. But on the upside I made it home in time to catch the Michigan game so it turned out to be a pretty good afternoon.