Mom

(2017) There is one very happy 18 year old college student in Franklin Springs, GA tonight.  I got a call around 9 PM from Bran ..."Mom, we just finished baseball practice and I am starving, but the school cafeteria is closed, no one delivers here, and I have no money."  About 10 minutes later after making a phone call, I sent him a text ... "Go to the Pizza Hut at Franklin Springs Circle.  There is a large pizza and a 2 liter drink waiting for you in your name. It's paid for. Love you, Mom". Took him a half second to text back, "ON MY WAY!!!"  He may be 18, but it still makes this mom's heart happy to take care of her boy.  I don't get that chance too often anymore! ❤️

Five

Was stopped at the grocery store tonight by a GROWN MAN WITH TWO CHILDREN who said, "Mrs. Taylor!  Do you remember me?  You were my 5th grade teacher!"  AAAHHHHH!!!  I obviously was five years old when I was his teacher!!!!

No No

(2014) I am laughing sooo hard!  There is a commercial on for that hair removal product called the  "No No" and Lily said in all seriousness, "Daddy needs that." She can never understand why the guys have hair on their chests and legs and refers to it as their "fur."  Guess the "No No" would take care of their unfortunate "fur" problems!!! I cannot stop laughing!!

Skunks

Of course. I’m being eaten alive by mosquitoes sitting at quite possibly the worst field in Gwinnett County and the two men next to me are apparently professional exterminators and keep talking about how they can smell skunks all around us in the woods. Living the dream out here ...

Research

(2014) Things you hear yourself saying to a 7th grader supposedly doing his homework at the computer .... "Since when can you research biomes on Itunes?"

Chipmunks

(2013) Lily is loving Wizard of Oz!  So far, her favorite is Glenda the Good Witch (the big sparkly dress and wand gave her a big advantage), but she said she does NOT like the "chipmunks" (aka,  the Munchkins). Cracked us up!!!

Snuggle

(2014) Lily and I were snuggling in the bed together and I said, "Doesn't your bed feel the best when it has these soft, clean sheets on it?"  She put her little arms around my neck and said, "My bed feels the best when you're in it, Mama."  Nothing better than being loved by a little girl.

Thugs

Cracked up at the bookstore today ... there was seriously a book on the shelf called "THUGS ...and the women who love them."  Hope I won't need to buy that book any time soon!  I think I'll stick with Pride & Prejudice.

Grandmas

(2011) Dylan was in the room while I was watching "Say Yes to the Dress Atlanta" and this bride's grandma kept saying no very emphatically to every dress the girl put on. Dylan got mad and said, "Grandmas aren't supposed to act like that. They are supposed to say "yes" ... to EVERYTHING!"

Grandbabies

When I was paying to get in, the lady at the gate at Lily’s game asked me if I was here to watch my grand babies play. Ummm ... super. 😂👵🏻☹️

Family

Nothing like having your sweet 80 year old Dad show up at your front door just to give you a hug and be with you after hearing you've had a really rough day.  Enjoying having him sitting in the recliner chair, watching football and just chatting and laughing. I have the best family in the world.

Pink

Stopped to get my toes done after school today and sat next to the sweetest older lady.  She laughed at the very bright pink polish going on my toes and told me she only dared wear neutral colors on her nails.    She kept looking and looking at my polish and finally I said, "Go ahead!! Try the hot pink!  You only live once!"  And she did!!!!  We both walked out of there with the brightest pink toes you've ever seen and that sweet, little lady was grinning ear to ear!  Love it!!!!

Whale

(2013) Social graces aren't always the strong suit of my gifted children.  Case in point, today one of my boys was telling us all about beluga whales and in his attempt to describe them to the class and me, he said, "And they are a little smaller than Mrs. Taylor."  What?!  Anything with "WHALE" in its title shouldn't be SMALLER than me!  Thanks, guys.

Symbolism

(2014) Life with 11 year old boys ...We are trying to fill out Dylan's book response form for school which is entailing searching for symbolism and poetic language in The Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Wish us luck!!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! said every baseball mom ever.

Win

(2016) Bran ... Concert
Dylan ... Gwinnett County Fair
Lily ... Pool
Me... Pjs on the couch watching Mrs. Marple
I win!!! 😀

Sleeping ...

Dylan is laughing his head off because Lily Claire is playing with her princess dolls and keeps calling Sleeping Beauty "Sleeping Booty."  Oh dear!

Sticky Note

I was walking around monitoring the 5th graders this morning while they took their CoGat test and I noticed one of my little girls had a sticky note taped inside her desk in her own handwriting that said, "2 Timothy 1:7, God does not give  a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."  Truly encouragement I needed to hear at the beginning of a Monday morning.  Funny how God always finds a way to speak to us, even in the most unexpected times and places.

Slime

Lily just proudly showed me some huge blob of slime she made and then I realized she was carrying it around on top of her children's Bible!! What?!!
Me: "SLIME on your Bible, Lil? Really?!
Lily: GASP!!! Oops!!!!
Me: I'm calling Jesus right now to tell on you.
Lily: (running to get it off) Nooooooooo!!! I'm sorry, Jesus!!!!!
😂😂😂😂

Vice Versa

My second graders were writing today, and I saw some of the kids making capital letter mistakes, which had been a little mini lesson previously.  I said, "Uh oh!  Be careful everybody. I see some folks putting capital letters where they don't belong, and vice versa."  One of my little ones looked up in surprise and gasped,"Mrs. Taylor!  I didn't know you spoke Spanish!"

Cinderella

(2010) It's a special day for the Taylor girls ... Lily and I are watching Disney's Cinderella for the first time together and Lily is captivated!!  Every time Cinderella comes on the screen, she shouts "What her name, Mama?"

Kitty Cat

(2011) Saturday, I made the mistake of shopping early for Lily's Halloween costume online and she ended up picking out a sweet kitty cat costume.  HOWEVER, now she is asking me every day if I can draw whiskers on her face and put on her costume (which, of course, we don't have yet!)  She just came storming into my room huffing and said, "WHEN is Halloween?  I've been waiting and waiting!"  Oh dear.  October is going to be a loooooooooong month!

Cool Like That

(2011) Life with a 13 year old son:  On my way home this evening, I called Bran to remind him to get his homework and chores done.  Typically, Bran never "remembers" to do any of his chores without lots of "reminders." So I say, "Bran, don't forget to take down the trashcans from the curb before football practice."  To which he replies, totally seriously, "I already did it, Mom, because you know ... I'm just cool like that."  Uh huh ... we'll see how long this wave of "coolness" lasts!

Beard

Lily just said, "Mom, remember in the old, old, old times when everyone had to wear a beard?  Well Daddy must have looked HORRIBLE!"  Sorry Robert Skeet Taylor, but I am cracking up, you old timer, you!!

Cheese Straw

You know you’re in the South when the focal point for all spoken directions of the day starts with, “Well first take a right at the cheese straw stand...”  #yellowdaisyfestival #goodtimes

Memories

(2012) Realized what a sweet moment it was tonight as I sat out at the baseball field for the millionth time.  Skeet and Bran are BOTH coaches for Dylan's baseball team this season ... so proud to see my oldest son helping out Dylan and all his buddies on the baseball field.  Bran looked exactly like his Dad out there, sitting on the ball bucket, encouraging the boys and helping them with their gear.  I couldn't help but smile as I watched him.  We're making some special memories together out on that old ballfield these days.

Freon

You know you're getting old when .... you try and type a text message on your son's very tiny phone WITHOUT your reading glasses and instead of sending a message that says, "We need to check the freon in the red truck" you send a message that says "We need to heck freeing in the red truck."  Laughed out loud when I got a message back from Skeet that simply said, "WHAT?"

Skirt

(2013) Lily and I were pulling in our garage and our new neighbors were outside ... the dad and two of his children.  Very sweet people!  They are from a Middle Eastern culture and the dad was wearing some sort of traditional clothes/outfit from their country.  Our windows in the car were down and I waved and smiled as we passed them, and so did Lily.  Except she also smiled and happily shouted, "Hello to the dad wearing a skirt!"  Oh lord. I'm pretty sure we've single-handedly set back the status of current world relations.

Sealed

(2012) Brandon just asked me how well Obama did in college.  I said nobody knows because his records are sealed.  Bran replied, "I wish MY school records could be sealed."  Cracked me up!!!

Fashionable Styles

Grammie was helping at school today and a little girl in my class asked her to help her spell a difficult word that she wanted to use in her writing.  When Grammie helped spell the word, the little girl smiled real big and said, "Grammie is sooooo smart and awesome ... AND she has fashionable styles!"  Cracked us up!!!  We girls know what's important!!

Tomatoes and Dogs

Last night I watched an old movie and the men kept referring to all the women as "tomatoes" and "dogs"!!! One guy even told a girl she wasn't as much of a dog as she thought she was, and apparently that was a compliment!  Then, the guy's mom, who had a gray bun, glasses,and knitted in a rocking chair the whole movie, was worried that her son would kick her out of the family home when he got married because she was so old.  She then revealed that she was 50!! What??!!!! Hahahaaaa!!!

Homework

Lily was sitting on the couch reading a history article for school about cattle drives.  Out of nowhere, Buddy leaped up and tore off a hunk of the article paper and ate it!! We are in hysterics because we just witnessed a dog ACTUALLY eating homework!!! 😂😂😂 

Rainbow

(2010) A scary glimpse into the minds of seven year old boys: At the drugstore, I let Dylan pick out some candy.  He picked out this HUGE multicolored lollipop, of course.  He said, "Mom, I bet I'll be the first person EVER to be able to eat all this at once."  I replied,"If you do, you'll get sick."  He thought a moment and replied cheerfully, "Well, if I throw up, at least it will be rainbow!"   UG!!

Trained

I already have Buddy perfectly trained. He’s spending this lazy Sunday afternoon riveted to The Love Boat! I knew he was a genius! Obviously the apple doesn’t fall far ... 🐶🐶😂😂

Crisis

I had to get creative tonight ... Lily couldn't find any of her Barbie's shoes and her Barbie "HAD to go on a walk and was going to get splinters in her toes" (according to Lily).  It was a full blown Barbie crisis!  Anyway, after a little aluminum foil, Barbie now has some awesome silver boots!  Fashion emergency SOLVED.

Waxing

I hate when I go to get my eyebrows done, as I did today, and the lady asks, "Your lip? your lip?" meaning, do I want my upper lip waxed. I always say "no thank you" and then the lady shakes her head and looks at me with shock and despair like she's looking at some huge, shaggy mustache on my face!  It makes me so paranoid!!!  Here's how I think I look and then how the waxing lady makes me THINK I look leaving the shop!!!!

Jaguar

So Bran calls and informs me that he accidentally backed his truck into a car tonight. What kind of car? A Jaguar, of course. What are the odds of this in Royston, Georgia?! You can’t make this stuff up.

Gun

I am watching a cute movie made in 1968 starring James Garner and Debbie Reynolds. They have a teenage son who wants to bum around Europe all summer and the kid just said, "Dad, I will be fine going by myself because I believe that all around the world love and trust protects us all."  The dad replies, "I've been all around the world ... Take a gun."  Cracked me up!!!  Sounds like a conversation that would happen in my house!!!!!

Sport Talk

(2014) This is why Bran hates to have sports conversations with me ...

Bran:  Mom, wouldn't it be awesome if I went Alabama to play for Nick Sabin?
Me:  That would be cool, but I hope that guy would have GRADUATED by the time you get there to start playing football!  That'd be sort of sad if he was still in college that long!
Bran:  Mom ... Nick Sabin is the COACH.
Me: Oh.

Sweet Talk

(2013) Note to self ... do NOT take a 15 year old boy to the grocery store with you!  I was running in to pick up one or two things and came out with a TON of stuff that I got sweet-talked into buying ... a case of Mug rootbeer, Chex mix, Pringles, Fruit Loops with marshmallows, a family sized bag of Chips Ahoy, chocolate chip PopTarts ... a hoard of neverending snacks for the bottomless pit named Brandon Taylor!

Brown

I hate when I'm trying to buy makeup online and they try and use real creative names for the colors  ... I just need some BROWN eyeliner, but the choices I have are "Dance Fever", "Ice Pixie" or "Brazen Rain".  Can I just find BROWN, please?! Which of these is BROWN??!!

Football

Adding to the roasting heat and biting bugs at the football field is a New York lady sitting right next to me angrily SCREAMING in my ear after every play.  Really??!! Apparently her son’s name or nickname is “Megatron.” I know because it’s ringing in my ears.  She keeps YELLING “Watch the ball” but it sounds like “Watch the bull” which is annoying me even more.  I must have been mistaken that this is 10U rec football ... it’s apparently the Super Bowl. I’m about to commit a second felony at the ball-field already this season, but this time NOT involving snow cones.