God is so accomodating...

in a funny, infuriating kind of way! This morning I was awake before my alarm went off. Hearing the rain slam against the windows, I grinned to myself and snuggled down deeper in bed. No way was I gonna go to the gym in that mess!
A few minutes later the alarm went off. I shut it off and laid back down.....
listened....the rain had stopped! UGH! So I got out of bed, went to the gym, no rain the entire time. Until.....I pulled back into my driveway. Boy, did God let it loose then! I had to run inside in the pouring down rain, but what did HE care?! He got what He wanted, which was my butt to the gym! Don't ever let anyone tell you that God doesn't have a sense of humor! :)*

Well....at least Pete wasn't involved this time!

Mabry came by the house today to clean our bathroom. No, not because she's altruistic, but because I bought her a $20 lunch last weekend when she went out with her friends! Anyway, so she came over to clean (and did a pretty great job!), then she called me. I could barely understand her because she was laughing so hard. Or was she crying? I couldn't exactly tell. The conversation went something like this:
"Mom, Ryan's bleeding all over the place. His nose is bleeding and making a huge mess. Ryan, I hope you know you're cleaning up that mess! That's just gross!"
"Mabry, what happened?" I asked calmly.
"Well, ya see, I wanted a piggy back ride but Ryan's too tall and I couldn't jump that high so I stood on top of the fireplace only I forgot to ask him if he was ready and when I jumped he wasn't ready so he fell forward with me on top of him and landed face first on the floor. Eeewww, Ryan, that's just gross! Go bleed somewhere else!"
(sigh)
So I got Pete on the phone, the only one who seemed to be able to communicate calmly. Of course, most everything Pete does is calm, minus the time he caught his car on fire. "Pete, what's it look like?"
"Uhhh...." (Oh Lord, give me patience!) "Well, uhhh, it's pretty swollen and it's already starting to bruise. It's still bleeeding bad. I think it's broke."
Yep, this is my life. Kinda funny thinking about it, but I have a feeling tomorrow's gonna have Ryan waking up with at least 1 black eye! The picture doesn't really do it justice; it's really swollen and bruised! We don't think it's broken, but even if it is there's nothing that can be done. He sounds a little funny, though...kinda like Rudolph when he had that mud on his nose! :)

Don't ask if ya don't wanna know!

We went out to dinner tonight to celebrate both boys making the Symphonic band. Their band is large enough that they need to split it up into two groups; Symphonic and Concert. Symphonic is harder with more challenging music, and both boys were hoping to get in. They did...YAY!!!!
Shortly after sitting down at the table, one of the boys asked me, "So, Mom, how was your day?"
"Great," I said. "I got naked in front of a man and he took pictures of me!"
"EEEEEWWWWWWWWW" they said, and Ryan got up and walked out the door of the restaurant!
What?! He did ask, didn't he? Hehehehe!
Pete just had a typical deer-in-the-headlights look on his face, so I said, "Oh it's perfectly ok...your dad was there the whole time!" (Insert evil grin here)
Ok, so maybe I didn't have to tell the boys exactly that, but it sure was fun! Once Ryan came back to the table I explained to them what I did this morning. I actually had a consult with a plastic surgeon this morning, hence the getting nekkid part. I thought he'd draw on me with magic marker; that's what they do on TV. He didn't draw on me, but he did take pictures! I wasn't prepared for that! Funny how in that situation there was absolutely no shame, though. He wasn't seeing ME, he was seeing...well...this shell that I live in. He was looking to help me do some home-improvements for my soul. :)
The truly amazing part, at least to me, was what he said as he was pulling, tugging, lifting, etc. He said, "There's really not much fat on your body at all. It's all skin." WOOOHOO!!!! It took quite awhile for that to sink in. All this...this huge gut, is skin?! That's amazing! And disgusting! And pretty exciting!LOL
We're a long way from making a decision. There's an insurance issue to consider, and then there's the fact that he'll only do one procedure at a time. This chick only wants to go under the knife ONCE, thanks very much. But this doc's the only one that takes our insurance. So....more research, maybe more consults. Do I let insurance pay and go under twice? Or do I self-pay and go under once (meaning I find another doc)? (sigh) Decisions, decisions!

God's Gift to Women!

The tag reads "To: Women From: God"

Mee in a Tree

Yeah, I cheated and cropped the pic. Folks said I looked good, but I ain't buying it! Not after seeing the other half of that pic! :O
Anyway, we had a family reunion at my grandmother, Mama Pearl's, old house. Oh boy! The memories just flooded back, so fast and overwhelming I found myself in tears several times. But they're all good memories, unless you count the one time I felt really guilty 'cause I got mad when PapPap (my grandfather)had me bagging leaves and I didn't want to. I don't even think he knew I was mad about it, or if he did, he didn't let on. But I sure did feel guilty about being mad!
The magnolias are still flanking the front walk, a bit bigger than they were when I was growing up. We climbed those trees day and night, rain or shine...Mama Pearl would get upset if I climbed up there when it was thundering. Oh, she hated thunderstorms! She never called them thunderstorms...they were electrical storms. And everytime one came along she'd have us going around the house unplugging electrical thing except the fride and freezer! She wasn't gonna have that electricity coming through and taking out HER stuff. She really appreciated everything she had and knew how to take care of it. I thought she went overboard on unplugging everything, but I did it anyway, figuring it was just one of those things.
Uncle James lives in the old house now, and he's kept it much the same as it was. It felt like coming home, pulling up the long driveway and walking through the front door. Oh, and the store we used to walk to? We thought we were so big,walking so far down the road to go to the store. Turns out that store wasn't so far down the road after all. It MIGHT have been 50 yards, but because we coudln't see her house from there (for all the trees), it sure felt like a loooonnnngggg way from the house!Mama Pearl would send us with a few dollars to get some milk or bread, things she probably didn't really need but she knew we thought we were hot-stuff walking to the store! She'd always include a few extra pennies for us to buy ourselves some candy.
OH, and I've GOT to tell this little vignette. We were standing around saying our goodbyes to Aunt Myrt, Kay, Margie & Anna. They were telling me how pretty I looked, and one of them mentioned that I looked like Laine. Oh, be still my heart! In my opinion, Laine's always been the beautiful one with the perfect body(and I know I'm so far from that but it sure felt good to hear that I looked like her!). Well, those that know Aunt Myrt know her heart, and you know that she usually sticks her foot in her mouth. So when whoever said I looked like Laine, dear Aunt Myrt said, "No she don't; I think she looks good!" :)

Mwwwaaaaahhhhhaaaahhhhhaaaahhhhaaaaa!!!!

Tonight Pete and his girlfriend Cat were in the hot tub. I looked outside and saw them kissing. I flashed the porch light on & off and on and off and on and off....to no avail. They were good and stuck together! Evidently this was going to take something a little more drastic.
I opened the back door and that was enough to get them seperated. Wanting to make sure they stayed that way, I looked them straight in the eyes and said loud enough to be heard over the jets, "There will be NO sex in this hot tub! That's reserved for me and Daddy ONLY!" The looks on their faces were priceless!!!! Hehehehehehehe!!!!!

A Study of Contradictions

In this corner.... He's sweet and well-mannered; very respectful, funny, and seems to genuinely love his friends (kinda evident in the 2.5 hour drive he makes to see them!). Even though he's not Army Strong, he IS a member of our armed forces (a Marine)so we respect that about him. He's grounded and has a solid plan for his education and career goals. Who couldn't love a guy that wants to work with severely disabled children and be a family counselor to families of severely disabled children?
And in this corner.... he hates the Crimson Tide and makes no bones about believing "his" MS State Bulldogs are the best (really, HOW many games have they won this season?). He knows football, and knows what every member of his team should be doing every second of every game. He makes sure they know what they're supposed to do by screaming at them through the television. I'm not talking about screaming in just a casual yelling kind of way. I'm talking about window-rattling, wall-vibrating screaming. The kind of screaming that drowns out every other noise in the house. The kind of screaming that leaves your ears ringing. And Heaven help the player that doesn't follow his instructions! He makes sure Coach Crooms can hear him no matter what area of the country his Bulldogs are playing in! And the stuff he's got on Crooms! Oh,boy, this guy knows ALL of Crooms's personal faults AND those of his mama!
The contrast is amazingly funny! This gentle giant, who will one day be entrusted with the hearts of families of severely disabled children, turns into the Incredible Hulk when he watches his Bulldogs. Oh wait,that's not quite true...the Incredible Hulk was silent! At any rate, he's no longer Joseph at my house; he will instead forever be lovingly referred to as Coach!
And yeah, I know....I'm letting this Houndstooth Hater sleep in my house. But it gives me an opportunity to win him away from the Dark Side! ;)