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....