Ride the Wave!!!

Sager at riding camp!

     It's a 105 degrees... o.k. it just feels like it's 105... actually it's 102.  I'm outside with Sager while he plays in the "illegal" pool.  Actually it's not illegal... we filled it up with well water.  Our town is on water restriction and there are lunatics who cruise around looking for people using water illegally and then turn them in... it's almost like Mad Max around here... anyway I'm sitting outside while Sager swims and I am contemplating my surroundings.  Scout just got back in from working on a road crew,  Shaw's fresh from a basketball mini camp and Sager... he's in the water where he stays most days.  As I'm watching him, he's swirling the water and hollering... RIDE THE WAVE!!!  JUST RIDE THE WAVE!!! and it hits me that that phrase is clearly a metaphor for where I am at in our lives... I'm riding the waves as Scout gets ready to leave for McMurry University, Shaw is in his last year at Jr high and Sager is just starting his Jr high career. Oh mercy...
.....here's some pics for the record...

I placed second in my age division...
that would be the old division! ha!

Where did the time go???
Baccalaureate...

Scout getting ready to run at the State Track Meet...
he placed second in the 400 m. run!!

Shaw won second place over all and first for his age group
at a 5K... Look there's Lindsey!!)

Senior blues...

Well, I've so been meaning to post more and more what with this being Scout's last year but I just can't find time to sit down and compose myself long enough to type something up!! We are in the midst of a very busy cross country season with Scout and Shaw running! It really has been AWESOME!!! Although Sager might not think so! (He's been hauled hither and yon and is ready for some sport that has a concession stand! He loves a good concession stand!)

We've picked out pigs for Scout and Shaw, we've ordered chickens and rabbits.... so many things that we always do but this year is different because this is the last of so many things.... I'll start crying if I go any further.... can you feel my pain??? Senior year... blech! ;)

Here's some pictures until the next post of the boy who refuses to stop growing up!!

Where is the little boy that I dropped off at daycare??? HE'S ALL GROWN UP!!!!

I know, I know - it's been a long time...

Well I know it's been a really long time since I last posted... geesh where did the time go?? It was a loooonnnnggg year.  We got through it and now it's summer, so it's good.  This summer is a big transition time.  Scout will be a SENIOR!!  Process that with me will you??  Shaw will be a seventh grader and he will officially start to travel with the teams to various places and even wearing braces - we did that today! He's growing up.... *sob, hic up, sob! and Sager oh Sager... Sager will be a fifth grader.  He will OFFICIALLY be on his own at school - no Shaw to double check with, or to remind or to help out and no Nana - his grandmother retired this year... so, I'm thinking Sager will need a phone in order to facilliate his neurotic tendencies.  I wonder if the principal will allow that..... hmmmm... probably not!  Well he's gonna have to handle it.  That reminds me of a story... we were dropping off Shaw the other day at baseball practice and Sager is watching the 9-10 year old boys who were practicing baseball.  He says - I don't think it's fair that all my friends get to play baseball and I don't.  So instead of me explaining to him oh so gently about how he's a special little boy who hasn't found his niche yet I tell him of story of when I was a  young girl.....

      Picture this - high school roughly 1988, 89 whatever - all my friends rodeoed.  Heck even my sister's boyfriend rodeoed.  I had ridden all my life - literally - all my life - when I was in the fourth grade I even got bucked off in a horrible accident but that's a whole other story....  I wanted to rodeo desperately, I mean after all, I had a saddle, a hat, skin tight rockie jeans, many different colors of ropers, horribly big and permed hair, and I had a dead beat boyfriend.  All of these things are prerequisites for a rodeo darling.  There was only one problem. One teeny tiny problem.... my dad wouldn't buy me a horse, heck - he wouldn't hardly let me ride horses, because - that's right - he's a mule man... Do you know how embarrassing it is to try to explain that you only ride mules??? It's very embarrassing.  Do you know why? Forget all that crap about them being sure footed and dependable, forget that they can haul twice their weight up a sheer cliff... forget about hybrid vigor.... forget that... imagine you pull up to the Dairy Queen in a pickup and trailor as your helping your dad build fence... do you know what mules do in front of Dairy Queen? They BRAY and BRAY and BRAY!!! It's horrible - people stare - ALOT of people stare.  There is nothing cool about a braying donkey.... there isn't... anyway - I tried to tell Sager of my desire to be a rodeo star and how my heart's desires were thwarted by my mule man father but clearly he didn't understand.... he's never experienced the mule experience.  So I tell him - sometimes Sager, you must be open to dream new dreams, bigger dreams... What about tennis??  He's contemplating it.... here's some pictures of the brothers...

Scout in Odessa

MVP Cross Country

Shaw end of 6th grade

Sager with a big fish!

Have a GREAT Summer!!

STAAR time baby!!

This is March and for most of the kids in Texas this means the dreaded STAAR test.  My kids at school have practiced and practiced and we have worked on so many things, I worry that they'll be overloaded when the day finally comes to test.  We'll just have to see how they do... I want them to do well, not perfection just a score that they can be proud of!  


Sager and Shaw are no exception to this... Sager has been working on writing during tutorials two days a week. (He has tutorials for Math and Reading the other two days a week.) (which makes for a very long week)  He's been bringing home some funny stuff that he has written.  You just never know what he's going to say.  This morning, I was griping at him a little about doing all the strategies he's supposed to do, that he better do this and that... basically being a hag because I know the pressure that he is under and I don't want him to fail... he know's how that feels and it sucks.  Sorry it does.  So I'm griping and going through his folder and I come across this practice page of writing where he wrote about a best friend.... this is what he wrote:


     Brandon goes and watches tv on the big brown couch.  I come and sit by Brandon and watch tv with him every single day.  I love him so much because I learn from him.  Brandon raised me well.  So I will be a good son to him.  He is strong, helpful, and amazing.  He does everything perfect.  He is one of the best dad's in the world.  My dad does alot of good stuff.  He loves me and I love him.  He is just so great.  He is so happy when he sees me after school.  He is trustworthy to me and my brothers and my mom.  He does not lie at all to anyone that he sees.  I love him with all my heart.  He makes me feel so special.  He makes me proud to be his son.  He keeps me safe and protects me from danger.  He takes me to far away places.  My dad and me help each other out doing hard work.


So there you go, State of Texas... what's more important a perfect score or a pretty close to perfect son.... I know which one I'll take!

So I hope everyone's STAAR test goes well but I hope everyone remembers what's really important.... Sager! no not really that one's just for me!! ha!!

Do you remember Rockies??

I was reading some of my old posts just for laughs and I encountered the post about my love of skin damage...and  in the comment section one of my friends talked about trying to lose weight, really - thin thighs is what I think she was after ;) and she talked about wrapping her thighs in saran wrap so she could get into her tight jeans ! Now as everyone who knows me knows, I am a child of the late 70's and 80's and Kim's comment about tight jeans brought me right back to my glory days and tight jeans... not just any tight jeans mind you... Rockies... you know the kind, those garish colored jeans/pants that you wore with equally hideous tops of various materials (maybe even a half shirt... only on thin days!) and your boots - ropers that is... and the jeans were so high-wasted you practically tucked your bra into it - and you wore them really long and bunched up... (I am 5 foot 6 and have been since 5th grade... ok maybe not 5th but for sure 6th!! and I wore 36 length!!!) Rockies were worn tight - the tighter the better... now my dad is probably reading this thinking - I don't know what she's talking about - did I buy those?  Let me set the record straight - no Dad you didn't because Rockies were the bomb back in the day and clearly you would have never bought me anything so awesomely frivolous!!  I can't really remember but I remember them being pretty expensive - like $45... gasp!!!

 My sister had all kinds of Rockies because she worked at my Dad's office and liked the finer things in life ya know - like Coach purses... (she knows what I'm talking about!!) and so she would take her paycheck and go to town!! she would buy Rockies and Mobetta shirts - do you remember those??? (the shirts that you have to custom order... and everything was a different color - let's just say Garth Brooks pioneered Mobetta shirts... and you KNOW what a style icon Garth Brooks is... just saying...)  You should have seen her and Shawn, Shawn is her high school sweetheart now husband of like 40 years... no... not really but a LONG time... him with a mullet, her with a big Texas perm and their matching Mobetta shirts!!!

I'm pretty sure Shawn had this shirt...

and if he didn't I'm sure he had this one...

He was jazzy like that...

Here they are in their engagement pictures... notice the Rockies on her...

Kidding...I'm just kidding.... this was their high school prom....

No I'm kidding - my sister doesn't look anything like that...

This is what she looks like with her son, Jackson (Mobetta) Uselding..he..he..he..

Now I had several pairs of Rockies but my favorite were some button up ones that if I was lucky and saved some of my paycheck I would have them starched - heavy starched where you would have to stick your hand in them or a broom stick to unstick them... that sound is delightful when you first unstick them.... magical!!!  because everyone knows that you looked thinner in tight jeans and even thinner if they were starched!! and you would have to use a wire hanger to pull the zipper up and at the end of the night when you took off the jeans you have crease marks from them being so tight... Oh if only Sarah and I had known how really good we looked in those jeans - we could have probably ruled the world... just saying...

Be sure to comment and tell me your favorite late 70's and 80's favorite fashion!!

P.S. Shawn - don't feel bad - Brandon had a mullet too....

Show time baby...

This past week has been a doozy..... let's recap:

1. I'm a special education teacher and each and every one of my kids has a special plan that rules their world!!! It's called an IEP and every student needs a meeting about their schedule and classes and modifications, every year, and all those meetings have begun!! and so has the stress and the fever blisters!!! yikes...

2. Scout has turned 17.... soak that up people... I have a seventeen year old!!!

(where did the time go???)

3. The annual Childress County Livestock show and sale was this past weekend... and as Sager so eloquently put it - "Total domination baby..." (We're currently working on the idea of humility and humbleness... Sager hasn't quite mastered that yet....) Sager and his chickens did very well... Grand and Reserve!!

(Look at that sharp dressed man!!)

4. Shaw has mastered the humble and humility lesson as his lame show pig "pimp" walked into third place...(that would be an ever so slight shuffle and drag...)

(look at his skills... maybe next year he'll get showmanship....)

5. I lost my cell phone - don't try calling it - clearly it's dead.... I have looked high and low.... I feel so lost with out it....

6. Scout didn't even spend his birthday with us - he went to Spearman to visit his "friend" while I washed chickens... nothing says happy birthday like wet chickens....

(here they are at the Rudolph run in Amarillo...) I guess 17 year olds don't want to spend their birthday with their mom? Can that be true?  I don't know if I believe that??? Do you??? I'm going to need some independent research...

7. Brandon is down in Huntsville for training... he left literally hours after the stock show sale... who am I going to iron clothes for? who will I have to find underwear and socks for??  who's going to eat at Arby's with me??? I don't know... you mean I have to sleep in the bed and NOT listen to snoring?  wait a minute.... I might just like this... kidding..kidding... I already miss him terribly...

Well I hope everyone's week goes good and I look forward to hearing from you, subscribers and stalkers alike!!!

Readers, Followers and Stalkers...

This blog is a funny thing.... usually when I write I have specific stories in mind and then when you, the reader, reads it, you get another story.  Speaking of readers... if you're reading this blog, please make sure you subscribe to it, that way I know who all is reading it, and not just stalking it! ;)

Am I pretty? Am I a Good Dancer? Am I Old?

Have you ever had one of those moments when everything that you thought was true and right turned out wrong? I have had a few lately....

the other morning, scout had on some music as we fixed breakfast. before school ..and i bust out in some sweet dance moves - clearly i have moves.... i do... or at least i think i do.... how do i know whether i do or not?  Should I ask my family? well brandon wasn't there, clearly sager will agree with me, shaw will be indifferent but scout... would he tell me the truth... we're pretty tight ya know but as I'm dancing for a split second i realize.... i'm old - older than my children clearly.... but i hate to admit this.... i am not hip.... now i am not talking elaine bennis off of seinfeld but clearly i will never win a dance off... just saying...

i am a product of the 80's and that was a long time ago... the realization hit me hard and heavy.... so if I'm a dorky dancer - what else is going on that i haven't been paying attention to? my clothes? my hair? what about my bangs... granted they are not as big as they used  to be but i refuse to let them go - i can't ... not yet anyway.... 

i knew this day would come but i guess i was in denial.... I am  peoples mother....i mean good gravy...scout will be 17 on the 20th of this month....17.... oy vey....

i had better get to setting some new year's resolutions since i'm an old adult now.... 

Bring on the Holidays!!!

Santa's little helper!

Well, well, well... long time no see...even longer no blog... yikes!! sorry about that! lots of drama going on - none of which I'll discuss here... only the happiest of thoughts on this blog... that's  right... POSITIVE I tell ya!!  As most of my friends and family know - I don't really care for the holidays, too much baggage of Christmas gone horribly wrong but a couple of years ago my sister and I were talking about how we feel about Christmas and decided it was time for us to make it better for our children than we had it so now that is exactly what I have been trying to do - for the past week I have visited, cuddled, sat close (ya know teenage boys...), cooked with, watched movies with, and laughed with my kids so that they will understand that this time isn't just about presents... that being said, Sager bought all of us presents at the Elf Shelf at school - you know the little store that the school puts on to raise money first and foremost but allows the kids to buy goods for their family... Sager gave so much thought into each and every gift that he bought - it did my heart proud... a heart necklace for me, a #1 dad magnet for Brandon, a bravest brother key chain for Scout and a camoflauged watch for Shaw... precious... absolutely you could feel the love coming out of those lead ridden china made trinkets.... anyhoo...it was magical no matter how you look at it...

Today is also a great day because fourteen years ago this day, my sister called me to take her to the mall to buy her husband another Christmas present because she had been so horrible to him.  You see she was pregnant and VERY, VERY, did I mention VERY hormonal.... and so Scout who was still so little and cute and I load up in my chevy cavalier and go pick her up, in the snow, in the cold, on Chrismas Eve... do you see where I'm going with this??? and she says on our way I think I need to go to the hospital... WHAT???!!! sure enough we're in the elevator trying to make sure whatever she thinks is going on is really going on and her water really does start to break and not too long after that Jackson was born (literally, I didn't even have time to get out of the room!!! ha!)  So here's to the sweetest boy around, the best brother and my favorite boy (don't tell my kids... oh whatever - they know I just LOVE jackson!!) HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a great new year - remember you are who you are and your life is what you make of it - so make it special!!!

Love, Maria

The Hereafter...

Ok so for some reason I have been obsessed lately with the hereafter.... Especially since Scout, Shaw and Sager (well really not Sager since he didn't make it past the first 10 minutes of the movie!!and me watched a ClintEastwood movie that stared Matt Damon -I can't tell you too much about it or I'll start and then I can't stop and then it wouldn't do you any good to watch it unless you're one of those people who watches a movie over and over and over and over (kind of like my nephew, Jackson, who I kid you not watched John Wayne's The Cowboys no less than 10 million times!)  Now this movie had me and Scout crying and all of us mesmorized.  It's basically about these people who each are destined to meet up - one is a little boy who tragically loses his brother, one who is a psychic who is trying not to be a physchic and another woman who has had a near death experience and has many questions about the hereafter.  It was a great movie if you're looking for one to watch... Now this leads me to my new FAVORITE show The Long Island Medium...

 It is so something.... let me ask you this, if you could have a meeting with the Long Island Medium who do you think would make a connection with you? Friend, family? I absolutely can't watch this show without crying - it is so sad but yet so wonderful the peace that these people feel after they meet with her... it's like they just need to hear it from someone else that it's going to be o.k. and that they're absolved from their guilt - that's the biggest thing there is so much guilt associated with someone dying. You ought to check it out... Scout always ask me - why do you watch it if you're going to cry!! I say I don't know - it's just so sweet and fills me with hope, love, peace and happiness - it's like therapy!! Love it!!  Anyhoo - I've got lesson plans to type up, today was a holiday for us at school so I've made some cards, and some pumpkin cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting... yum-mo!! Have a great week!!

Times are a changin....

Well tomorrow is a big day.... Shaw-lee-tamale will turn 12! yikes where has the time gone?? This school year has been a new and exciting experience for Shaw. Jr high... you remember those days don't you? I do - boy I'm glad I don't have to relive those days and don't even mention high school - geesh!

  Well this week Shaw had picture day and about a week ago, I noticed that Shaw had a little spot on his nose, so I did what any other mother would do... I teased him about getting his first pimple - got him pretty good - even cracked him up a time or two but then.... the pimple didn't get any better... in fact it started to look weird... so weird in fact that we went to the doctor... take a guess what it was - go ahead - imagine the theme song to Jeopardy and take a guess - yes Aleck - I'll take weird bumps on a 6th graders nose for $110 because after the co-pay and the creme for the offending bump - that's how much it cost me!!! The bump- could be ringworm but maybe not... what kind of diagnosis is that? I don't know but $85 creme should take care of many, many things!!  and of course he had to get his picture made for the annual with that thing on there... my kids always get me good when it comes to school pictures - one time Scout was so cute and dolled up when I dropped him off for school and when I got the pictures he's wearing a white hanes t-shirt, and one pant leg is rolled up - What the heck?? how about the time Sager got his picture taken and scratched his head right before the photographer snapped the picture so a giant tuft of hair was sticking straight up - yup - bought those too, so clearly a giant ring-worm-esque thing on Shaw's nose wasn't that big of a deal....

Look at that sweet boy - oooohh how I just love him... but this is what is really something... Brandon asked Shaw if anyone asked him about his nose and he said yeah that he just told him Sager got him with a stick... and Sager tells Shaw - ya know it's always better to tell the truth than to make up a lie.... such a smart brother but clearly Sager doesn't know how jr. high kids really are!

Fall is in the air....

Well here in Dogpatch as my dad so lovingly calls it, we've had a cool spell.  It's been around 80 degrees and it has been glorious!!! Glorious I tell ya!  We've had a long weekend what with Labor Day and all.

     So let me tell you about a phone call we received.  Scout received a call on his phone which in and of itself is a novelty because I don't know if you know this but teenagers don't answer phone calls... they answer texts.  It's much more impersonal and cold but that's just how it is.... Clearly my father doesn't understand that but that's a whole 'nother post in and of itself... anyhoo... Scout answers the call and low and behold it's his PawPaw... he called to reminsce about a pivitol time in Scout's life. It was the threshhold between child and young man, and without a doubt, Scout failed miserably.

     When Scout was a Kindergartener, he went to the Grand Canyon with PawPaw and ChaCha.  It was quite the ordeal... but suffice it to say I should have probably thought twice about sending one of the sweetest little boys off with his grandparents but I had another sweet little baby at the house, was working full time and going to school - I thought Scout might enjoy a little break from me... so after days of riding locomotives, rock climbing, and traversing the Grand Canyon, PawPaw and the gang are at the hotel... a hotel which has a pool... which Scout was dying... DYING to get in... PawPaw says Scout can you swim? and here is where it gets tricky... knowing that he can't but wanting so badly to be able to,  Scout says with all the bravado a Kindergardener can muster and says... why of course PawPaw... there was the line - He wanted to be big, wanted PawPaw to be oh so proud of him, wanted to go swimming but here was the problem... he COULDN'T no more swim than the man in the moon!!!  PawPaw gets the towels, and trapses  Scout downstairs to make all of his little wishes come true... Scout runs and jumps in and promptly sinks straight to the bottom of the pool and before anyone else could react - Selden promptly jumps in after Scout with his wallet, boots, jeans, knife and belt on... Long story short - Scout calls me and says (hiding under the blanket on a cell phone trying to whisper... PAWPAW NEARLY DROWNDED ME!!!!!) and immediately starts crying and the jig was up.... well this weekend ChaCha washed PawPaw's jeans which had his wallet in it and as he was laying his money out to dry, the act of airing out all his business reminded him of a time not so long ago... when a little boy tried to be big, as big as his PawPaw and failed miserably....

      Isn't that the sweetest thing but wait it gets better.... PawPaw also called to tell me that he got my high school annual for me... that's right - I'm nearly 40 years old and I never got my senior high school annual - and quite honestly I only got one annual - they were kind of pricey... so I never got them... for the record - I never got my senior pictures taken either... well so I had asked my dad to get the annual when I figured out that I wouldn't be going to my 20th high school reunion and he hadn't mentioned it... so I figured he just forgot about it - it wasn't that big of a deal besides - most of the people I went to school with probably don't remember me and that's cool but deep down inside - I wanted that annual... I longed for it... but it would be silly to tell people that... so after Scout got off the phone, he and I sat side by side and teared up a little bit.... because he knew what the annual ment to me and I knew what the memory meant to him....

Summer is over... in approximately 2 days!!

Memories... like the
corner of my mind...

Summer will be over in two days.... sigh.... sob.... no really I'm ready for school to start - are you? well too bad - it's starting whether you like it or not! ha! Today I have been reflecting on all that has been this summer... how about you? was it all that you wanted and more? yeah? not really for me - it was something... Scout was busy running, he ran at Tech for track camp, he ran in Cloudcroft New Mexico with Tech cross country camp (which I highly reccommend!) Sager was busy growing... it took 9 years and 9 months to get to 40 pounds and 3 months to get to 51 pounds! wowzer...Shaw also is growing - he's wearing the same size shoe as Scout and he's officially starting Jr. high... I have a kid in Elementary, Jr. High and High School - holy crap!! I can't take it... you know what else I can't take it's this... seg way into what this post is really about...

misty water-colored memories...

People can we get real? Can we get honest? There are a lot of people who need to get real... honestly is there a way for one person to know everything? NOOOO... and quite frankly who would want to? I have a ton of useless knowledge in this ole noggin of  mine and if I worried about everything and tried to know everything, I couldn't function... heck - I can't find my keys half the time and if I had more useless information I would need a chauffer.  There is no way for one person to know everything about every situation... I love a fair amount of gossip but there is a place and time for people to just get on with their life... and that's all right... let's make a pact - you and I to get real with our lives, this year this is what I'm gonna do - I'm going to encourage and try to be as in tune with my kids as possible.  These are important times - I'll never get them back once there gone.  I'm gonna check and make sure Sager is happy and being successful (whatever success is for him...) in school and in his life.  I'm going to make sure Shaw is finding his niche in Jr. High, that he knows he's one of a kind and that's important.  I'm going to make sure that Scout has his eye on the prize (whichever prize he wants...) and not worried about how long his side burns are... just saying - it's one example... I'm going to be positive and encouraging.  If people don't like me, I can't change it.  I can't change them.  I'm going to be honest and I'm going to be real - no delusions of grandeur.  

of the way we were...

What are you going to do?  Tell me because it's a fact that if you tell someone you will become accountable for your words and actions.  Let's have a great year and do something great or good or even pretty good. I have faith in you - you can do it!!!

I know two posts in one day...

As I am making dinner the other night (fresh fettucine with pesto with turkey meatballs - notice I'm trying to be healthy here!)  I'm halfway listening as Scout flips through the channels occasionally landing on something and he lands for just a minute on TLC's Toddler's and Tiaras.... are you familiar with this tidbit of Americana? Holy moly... now while most people would be appalled at the outrageous antics of stage mothers (or cage mothers in the case of my sister - ha!! if you know my sister you'll have to ask her about this!) and their proteges, I love it!

     Why? well even though I am pretty much a tomboy, what with my love of jeans and pigs... I love, LOVE pageant hair and makeup!! I do... is that sick or what?    If I had a make-up artist and hair stylist,  would show up for school in FULL pageant wear!!!  I would.  I absolutely love the look of perfection.  The heavy foundation, the liquid eye-liner, tri-colored eye shadow, fake eye lashes... oh my... be still my heart.... and the fake teeth - the flippers!!!  gasp and swoon!!  Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to cover every flaw that you have... granted I'm really talking outside flaws but let's not quibble... how could you act ugly when you look perfect! Not me...  well I'm off to find me a form fitting sheath pageant dress with just the right amount of sequins for the first day of school!!!  Let me know if you've watched this fabulous show (psst... I won't tell anyone if it's your guilty pleasure...) and what you think about it!!

Summer is almost over...

Summer is almost over... and that is a little disappointing because it doesn't seem like we really did anything because it's been sooo HOT!! Every day I wake up thinking that it will finally be the day for it to cool down but it hasn't happened yet! 

 I've made a lot cards, washed a lot of dishes, cleaned out closets, helped re-model a bedroom, watched our bathroom get re-modeled, traveled to Colorado to watch my nephew play baseball, read a bunch of books (I'm reading one right now about a man who went to federal prison for kiting checks who ended up at the last colony of lepers in the United States... it's fascinating...), watched Scout run near Palo Duro Canyon, watched Sager and Shaw play video games - we haven't even hardly played in the water since we're on water restriction because of the heat... gone to Dallas and Lubbock and will go to Amarillo soon for Sager's doctor's appointments.... so a lot of things done but none tooo exciting.''  Have you had a good summer or have you had a GREAT summer?

Sager's birthday is coming up and he had wanted to have a party ot the city pool but they've drained the pool so that's a no go!! oh well... we'll figure something out...

  

I love, love, love skin damage....

I know - the title of this blog is definitely not politically correct - I almost put a disclaimer on here that said if you are Sharla Miller please do not read this!! (because of Sharla - a skin cancer survivor - I vowed never to go to a tanning bed again!) however - I didn't promise to stay out of the sun.... sorry Sharla!!!

When my sister and I were little we would "lay-out" all summer long.  When I say "lay-out", I mean literally lay out in the backyard, the city pool, the Amarillo Town Club (remember those days Sarah - that's a whole 'nother post!!).... even the pool in Gruver, Texas (that is the "new" pool that probably is quite old now but when we were little they had an indoor pool and that was the old pool - at the high school - how swanky is that? - but then when we were in jr high or high school they got a new pool that was totally outside... )  We would go outside in the backyard and take drinks, chips, sandwiches, our boom boxes - you know the ones with the D size batteries... geesh - those batteries were expensive (and half the time we would just use an extension cord and plug in the radio - ya know.. po') because you couldn't be going inside all the time and missing the sun and letting all the cool air from the swamp cooler leak out of the house (do you know what a swamp cooler is?  my kids probably don't know what they are... it's an evaporative cooler, you know the ones with the pads that you had to run water over in order for the fan to spin and cool the air - and when it was really hot someone would have to go outside with the hose and spray more water on it....geesh! how ghetto is that!!!) and lay outside for HOURS....HOURS I tell you.  Sarah and I had given the topic of tanning many, many thoughts. (at just a side note - Sarah grew up to marry Shawn - a total tan-orexic who goes to the tanning bed EVERY day.... hmmm.... and he just thought it was his charming personality, mullet and mustache that hooked her!)

Since we tanned pretty easy and we were poor... as in po'.... we couldn't buy the expensive tanning lotions that smelled like coconut (hello hawaiian tropics - I would wear that as perfume if I could!!!)  no, no we had to improvise.... only now that I look back at what all we did, does it seem really, really ridiculous.... especially since I was out in the backyard today tanning.... sorry Sharla.... watching the boys play in the water when I decided I needed some sort of oil to really get me good and tan so I asked Scout  to get me the canola oil out of the pantry and when I did... he stood there for half a second and stared at me like I had spoken swahili.... then and only then did I realize... I have a little problem.... When my sister and I were in our prime tanning years, we would get baby oil and put iodine in it for a really nice tan - anyone know where that came from? If someone is reading this and knows the origin of the baby oil, iodine concoction, I would love to know!  We also used crisco, laid on aluminum foil,  pooled money together and went in for a baby pool to lay in so it was like we were at the pool, (because everyone knew that the reflection of the water off your skin was necessary for optimum skin damage...) we did the sprinkler with the lawn chairs, you name it we tried it...

Those were the days.... I smile at the idea that as long as I was tan, I was beautiful.... how simple....I had a friend named Jennifer Carroll who got a tan and didn't want it to peel and she took her big ole' bottle of lotion to jr. high school (because everyone knew that you must keep your skin properly hydrated so your tan wouldn't fade....) clearly it wasn't just my sister and I who wanted to be tan.... anyhoo...I'm off to watch baseball and try to sit in the sun... just kidding...I'm just kidding.... sort of.... I have a sickness - you people shouldn't judge me!!!

My kid came home at 3 in the morning!!!!

Well... it happened... one of my kids came home at 3:00 in the morning (2:45 in the morning to be exact!)  It was a shock.  As I waited for him to come in the house, all these questions were going through my head... was he all right? what had been going on? how was I going to react? would his future actions hinge on how I handled this?.... I asked him - what's going on? and he says - I've had a long night - I just want to go to bed.... I asked him what happened? he said - I don't know....

after reading this - you probably think it was Scout right? well you'd be wrong! It was Sager.  He had been over at a sleep over and he got sick and his Aunt Holly had to bring him home.

 The reason I tell this story is because of this.... sometimes when you only know part of the story, you don't really know all the story.  For me, it gets really old people only learning part of a story and then talking about it... if you want to know something find out the real story - as Paul Harvey always said - the rest of the story (especially if it's about me - just ask...but be ready - I'll have some questions of my own - just saying...)

Now on a more positive note - Scout is getting ready to go to his first camp at Texas Tech - he's very excited - it's a track and field camp - woo-hoo!  Shaw is finishing up his baseball season - he's absolutely hysterical - at his last game there was a triple play and he got out on a pop fly - Brandon was asking him about it and Shaw tells Brandon - well clearly I wasn't thinking....too funny! and Sager... he's been sick since the last week of school - he's been to Amarillo and Dallas for doctor's appointments but he's still going strong!  Shaw will be with me next year at Jr. high and Sager will be a big fourth grader - holy moly!! Where did the time go?

Sager Shaw Scout

 Shaw: what he is: loving (but not for long - ya know how jr high boys are with their mommas...),laid back, middle child, baseball loving, his best friend - Doc Holiday the dog, nail biter, kind, courteous, hard of hearing unless it's possible gossip..... 

what he isn't - a morning person, Scout, Sager, assertive, early riser, tidy,  health food nut, scared to use the public restroom, totally NOT obsessive compulsive, vegetable eater....

Sager - what he is: kind, loving, obsessive compulsive, nail biter, lip picker, dehydrated, cheese lover, Taylor Swift lover, funny, sarcastic, witty...

what he isn't - passive, quiet, tidy, afraid, vegetable eater, afraid to speak his opinion, 

Scout - what he is - competetive, health food nut, lover of all things running and running related especially apparel, smart, loving, confident, loyal, slightly obsessive compulsive (almost as bad as Sager)

what he isn't - neat, afraid of wearing non matching socks, coke drinker

Three boys all different, three spirits different as night and day but all mine!!