Manners

(2016) One of the hallmarks of being a Southern mother .... reminding your kids of every rule of good manners ever known to man while taking them to any event away from home  ... a birthday party, a sleepover, whatever.  The poor kid is trapped in the back seat of the car all the way to their friend's house while you repeat the same age-old list ... "Don't ask for a bunch of food, wait until it's offered ... don't grunt when an adult speaks to you, say Yes M'am and No M'am ... be SURE and say thank you and please ... don't run in their house and wipe your feet on the mat when you go in ... don't act like a buffoon or you'll never be invited again ..."  The kid just nods automatically at every rule you throw out there, like one of Pavlov's dogs hearing a bell for the millionth time.  By the time you pull into the driveway, they can't get out of the car fast enough and the only thing they are thinking is that they sure wish DAD had given them a ride instead of Mom!!!  

Marshmallows

 (2015) Skeet bought Dylan a big bag of mini-marshmallows and now he's the new George Washington Carver of marshmallows!  So far he's had peanut butter, jelly, and marshmallow sandwiches, marshmallow cinammon toast, marshmallow and Cocoa Puffs cereal, marshmallow milk ... you name it and Dylan has put marshamallows on it!

Combo

 (2015 at Myrtle Beach) 

Lily said to me today, "I am sooo glad this combo had a frequency!!!"  Translation: "I am so glad this condo had a vacancy!!!"

Cool

 (2014) Bran just asked me if I would put a mix on his IPod of some cool rock songs he can listen to while he snowboards, WHICH he qualified with "... and NOT YMCA by Various Artists" like last time!"  Excuse me?!    Since when is a generic Drew's Party Hits version of YMCA not cool?!  I personally think that's pretty edgy stuff.  Hahahahahaaaa!

FBI

 (2016) Hmmmm... I wonder what happened to my cute yard decoration?!  NOT that I'm a professional FBI agent or anything, but MAYBE I should interrogate the 17 year old who lives with me who owns a BB gun ... Just a wild shot in the dark! (No pun intended!!!) 

Mystery

(2015) Easter mystery  ... WHY will my children gleefully pick up 100 plastic eggs from the lawn, but groan when they have to pick up one sock off the floor of their room?!  Maybe I should give them cute Easter baskets for collecting their dirty clothes and trash and dishes!  :) 

Rituals

 (2013 I love tucking in my little girl into bed every night.  We have our nighttime rituals before she falls asleep, which always include sipping a small cup of chocolate milk, then pretending we are a mommy and baby bunny in our warm rabbit hole, and then telling the same made-up story together about three kittens who live in a pink and white house and throw a party for all their kitten friends.  I'm going to miss these days!

Car Wash

 I had a sweet memory today. I was cleaning the master bathroom this morning, and as I was scrubbing the sink on Skeet’s side, I noticed all sorts of scratches in the sink. It reminded me that when Brandon was little I used to let him play “car wash” in that sink with his Hot Wheels. He would take all his cars outside and get them real dirty running them through the dirt and grass and then we would line them all up to go into the car wash in sink in the bathroom. He would zoom the cars all around in the bubbles and water and play for hours! Yes, I have scratches all in the marble sink, but I’m glad I do. ❤️ 

Vase

 (2016) You know you live with a 12 year old male when .... you enter his room after a sleepover and find that your flower vase was used as a Coke glass sometime during the night.  One. step. above. animals.  Barely.

Trash

 (2014) OF COURSE on the week that we had a huge anniversary party, did LOADS of yardwork, cleaned out the garage, AND had a kid birthday party, the trash guys FORGET to pick up only OUR trash, which is loaded to the sky!  Know our neighbors are going to be LOVING us tomorrow when it gets super hot outside and "trash mountain" is baking by the curb.  Nice.  Maybe it's some sort of evil, trashman April Fools joke!

Price tags

 (2015) Murphy's Law: Found 24 heavy tea glasses at the Dollar Store today to use on Easter Sunday. Yay! Just finished scraping and scrubbing off 24 sticky price tags that were stuck like glue to the bottom of each one. Boo!! Why does anything need a price tag at the dollar store, anyway?!

Pan

 (2016) Lily just saw this picture of the day she was born and asked, "Why was I in a pan?"  Hahahaa!

Grandparents

 (2015) Today we were going over a reading assignment in class and I skipped one of the questions by accident. One of my students encouragingly said,”It’s ok, Mrs. Taylor, my grandparents make mistakes a lot, too.” Grandparents?! 😂😂😂 Felt a bit older after that comparison!

Lion

 (2020) I had to go by the grocery store tonight and Lily went with me. I was complaining a little to her that I was tired of not being able to find ground beef. Right about that time Lily gasped and spotted this huge beef brisket, something she had never seen before. In all seriousness she turned to me and said, “What in the world?!! They don’t have ground beef, but they have lion?!!” I about died laughing! She had never seen such a big piece of meat and honestly thought it was from a lion!! 😂😂😂 

Tires

 (2013) Got home from the store to see my husband on his hands and knees in our new Indian neighbors' driveway surrounded by their four adorable little girls and their mom.  He was pumping up the tires of all of their bikes and tricycles.  I love that guy.