Gummi Bears

(2011) After school, I surprised the kids and took them to the park to play for a while ... they had a blast.  It was so much fun watching them running around, screaming and laughing.  Then I won the prize for Mom of the Year because I let them stop at the drugstore to buy some gummy worms on the way home.  Life is good.

UnAmerican

I feel un-American .. I've been on Facebook all these years and I just today "liked" Jell-O.  How could I have taken so long?!!

Winter Blues

When winter blues start dragging me down and I am tired of all the cold and the rain, I know it's time for TWO important, surefire fixes ... highlight my hair and watch a big dose of my idol, DORIS.  Pillow Talk, here I come.

Like A Mom

Sweet conversation in my classroom yesterday:

All the students in my morning class are on the reading rug around my big moon chair getting ready for read-aloud. I hear ...
Myha (whispering):  Go ahead, tell her!  Tell her.  Mrs. Taylor won't mind.
Me, to the two students:  Is everything ok?  Do you guys need something?
Myha:  (Nudging her best friend Ayan again) It's ok ... tell her!
Ayan remains quiet.
Myha:  Ayan is afraid to tell you that she is so hungry she feels like she might get sick.
Me: Oh no!  Go get a snack from under my desk.  There are Goldfish and crackers.  Take whatever kind you like.
Myah (whispering to Ayan as they are going to my desk to get the snack):  See!  I TOLD you she loves us like a mom.

BEST part of my day!

Chicken Pox

I was fussing a little bit at Lily Claire tonight because when I came downstairs she had put stickers all over her dolls!  I said, "Lily, don't put stickers on your nice babydolls!" to which she replied, "I didn't. They have chickenpox."

Jive Talkin’

(2016) This still makes me laugh! Torturing my teenager with some groovy texts! 😂😂

Snowflake

(2013) Lily and I actually saw ONE SNOWFLAKE today!!!  We both screamed with excitement!  We were ready to lay down right then and there in the Walmart parking lot and try and make some angels!!!  Yes ... we are Southerners.

Delicious

(2011) Lily went running around the house last night after her bath squealing, "Mommy, I smell DELICIOUS!" She cracks me up!

Purple Marker

(2011) I walked into the kitchen this evening to find that Lily had drawn a big flower right on the refridgerator with a purple marker!!!! Thankfully I only buy washable markers! When I said, "Lily Claire, Don't draw on Mommy's refridgerator with marker!" Liily answered sincerely, "I didn't do it, Mommy ... the marker did it." Reminded me of a time Dylan drew all over my CAR with a black Sharpie pen and then told me that a bunch of ants had drawn it! Uh huh. Three year olds!

Best Friend

(2015) Lily just told me, "Mom, you can come to my birthday party because you're my best friend."  Sniff. Sniff.  Love that little girl!

Obscure

(2014) Bran wasn't sure if I could help him with his Language Arts homework last night because it was about some obscure, little known book called "To Kill A Mockingbird" ... had I ever heard of it?  Ummm ... yes, Bran.  I've heard of that "new" book.

Perks

(2014) Bran thinks he has hit the BIG TIME being on his highschool baseball team.  Why?  Because he gets FREE sweet tea AND lemonade at practices and games!  WHOA!!!!  Who needs the major leagues with these kinds of perks?!!  You gotta love 14 year old boys!

Round Here

While riding with Bran in his truck today, he turned to me and said, "Hank Williams Jr. A Country Boy Can Survive.  Best. Song. EVER."  Yup.  He's from around here.

Mother of the Year

(2014) I have to share my "Mother of the Year" story from this week ... I have been crowned once again.   I noticed that Dylan's tennis shoes were full of holes and completely raggedy, so I threw them away, thinking, "Gosh, this poor kid.  We'll get him a nice, new pair this weekend."  The next morning, while rushing to get to school because I had a parent conference waiting, Dylan was in a panic because he couldn't find his shoes.  I told him to wear another pair because I had thrown away the other ones. Well, of COURSE, he went nuts, saying they were his all- time favorite shoes, etc, etc.  I caved, and said in frustration, "Well get them out of the trash for today, but hurry up!!! We are going to be late!!!"  Dylan fished them out of the trash and when I walked in the kitchen, he was hobbling all over the kitchen shouting in distress,  "Mom!  Something is all over my favorite shoes!" I turn and see that his shoes are COVERED and dripping with spaghetti sauce!!?  What on earth??!   Turns out, UNBEKNOWNST to me, Bran had come down in the middle of the night and made himself a big bowl of noodles with spaghetti sauce and thrown out the leftovers in the very same trash can ... all over Dylan's "sacred" shoes. So, I did what any great mother would do.  I screamed, "BRING THEM TO ME!" I turned on the kitchen faucet , slopped water all over them, and handed them back to Dylan dripping wet saying, "Put them on FAST and get in the car!!! We are going to be late!!!"  What a lucky kid.  He arrived at school that day with shoes not only full of holes, but now stained with spaghetti sauce, smelling like tomatoes, AND squeaking and dripping wet  So glad I made the whole shoe situation so much better for him.  Yes, once again, I am Mother of the Year!  What can you do but laugh?!

Worst Mistake Of My Life

Those who know me will attest to the fact that I'm adventurous and will try just about anything once (exempting anything illegal  or immoral! 😉).  However, I am NOT AT ALL adventurous when it comes to food, especially any kind of weird meat.  I can't stand those TV shows where they go to some foreign place and eat a lot of "local delicacies."  I get nauseous within the first five minutes. SOOOO, considering that, I made the ABSOLUTE WORST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE tonight when I stopped in a food store near my house in the name of expediency that I've never been to before  (store name withheld so I don't hurt anyone's feelings). Y'all .... I should have trusted my instincts when my stomach lurched the moment  we walked In the door. The smells and atmosphere were horrendous, and I didn't recognize even one brand name or food item I'd ever seen before in my life.  As I intrepidly headed toward the meat section to find some simple meatloaf Ingredients, I kept getting queasier and queasier.  I was desperately scanning for ANY  meat I could even identify!  I am not kidding when I say that there were packages of huge wrapped hooves that looked like they were from a big cow or buffalo or something, and big slabs of grayish looking meat wrapped in strings that made my stomach churn. The capper was when I peered down into a refrigerated bin and staring back at me were about six frozen WHOLE lambs heads still with frozen fuzzy wool on them, wrapped in some yellowish cling wrap!  I seriously had to grab Lily's hand and run out of the store before I was completely ILL.  What a nightmare!!  What on earth possessed me to go into a sketchy meat shop to begin with?!  I got OUT OF THERE as fast as I could. Remind me next time to PLEASE take the extra turn into Kroger where I can rest assured that some big frozen animal face won't be greeting me from the meat counter and we won't have to stir-fry giant horse hooves for dinner. I am scarred for life, and Skeet can't quit laughing at my horrible ordeal!