Growing Up

On Tuesday my son Ryan got his first college recruiting mail. He's 15 and in 9th grade. WOW!! I couldn't believe it. I mean, he's 15!! He took the PSAT test in the fall and apparently his scores were very good, he says he told me, but heck, I can hardly remember what I had for breakfast 2 hours ago! The PSAT is the first chance colleges get to contact the young people, apparently, and this certain college in Texas which is a nice Christian college (hint) thought that Ryan would be a great fit. But isn't it a little early to be recruiting? It hit me hard, I guess, because I have a really hard time thinking of him as being in high school anyway and eventually leaving the nest for college life, but it's easy for me to remember the sweet little shy preschooler or kindergartner. Is it going to be this hard every time? How can parents stand it?


I'm of course not looking forward to him leaving my house and not ever really living here again, but all I can think about is that I haven't had enough time with him, haven't had the time to teach him what he needs to know to survive and thrive without me to remind him of things... but then really he has been pretty self-sufficient as far as remembering his assignments, studying for tests, working on projects... but it's just not enough time... 18 years or so is just not enough time to prepare them for life and love...

Who knew that receiving mail from a college would set off this firestorm of emotion in me? It has also reminded me, painfully, that I never have found my calling in life, my true one thing that I'm good at that I want to do. My friends and family have jobs and careers that they love and that seems to be their true calling but I never have found that thing... and now that I have no kids at home, it's hitting me hard and hitting me in a way that reminds me that I'm too old to do some of the things that I might have been good at, or enjoyed, and some avenues are closed off from me.

I don't know if this is a normal situation that stay-at-home moms all face at some point or not. Are some of you happy just staying home and taking care of the house and being chauffeur, cook and organizer for the kids and husband? Or do some of you wonder, like I do, if there's something more out there in the big wide world that I could be good at, that could be a new career or life for me? Should I get a job, even part time, or not, or go back to school?

I always seem to find things to occupy my time at home...but is that all I want? For now, I guess it's okay to say I don't know. I'm thinking about it now and doing a lot of soul searching and praying.... but no answers yet.

But one thing I did decide... It's time to be serious about my health and fitness. I had joined a Boot Camp at our fitness center earlier this month, but a nearly 2 week bout with bronchitis and ear infections kept me out for too long to be able to catch up. So I'm taking matters into my own hands and doing my own boot camp. Barb over at A Chelsea Morning kind of inspired me because you see, she and her husband just quit smoking after 40 plus years. A habit like that is hard to break, but she's done it, I think. I thought, well, if she can beat an addiction like that, I can change my ways, too. And I am. And I will stick with it this time.

An historic day for America

This is an amazing day for America. I have been completely glued to the tv today, watching the people in DC, the famous people and the not-famous people, all gathering to get a glimpse of the man that so many see as the promising future for America.

No matter how you voted, today we are all Americans, and today proves if nothing else, that in America it is possible to become anything you want to be.

God bless America and God bless Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and all the other past and present leaders of this great country that I am privileged to be a citizen.

Brad Paisley

Well, as you all may know by now, I'm a huge fan of Brad Paisley. HUGE HUGE HUGE fan.

And well, he came to Little Rock in April of '06 and I got to go see him in concert. Bart was out of town so I took my sister. I had joined the fan club to get good seats and they have a meet and greet opportunity at almost every concert. You can pick which concert you want to be entered into the meet N greet pool and somehow they choose winners. That time they chose 2 winners and I WAS ONE OF THEM! I got to meet Brad, I was completely tongue-tied and acted like I didn't have a bit of sense, I was so completely star-struck at meeting my guitar god in person. He was so gracious and funny and charming, he signed a piece of sheet music for me and a poster and his manager takes pictures of everyone with Brad. It was completely awesome and I felt so lucky!

Fast forward to November of '08, this past November, when i found out he was coming back to LR again. I had been in the fan club all along, so I ordered the tickets for Bart and me and entered the meet-n-greet opportunity.

AND I WON AGAIN!!!!

I went to see his concert this past Friday night and got to go backstage after the concert, again, to meet him. I told him that I had been lucky enough to be chosen the first time he came to Little Rock and was unbelieveably lucky enough to get chosen again. He asked me my name and we chatted for a minute. He was again gracious and friendly and so nice, I just couldn't believe it. And we got autographed photos this time, I guess autographing something for everyone takes too much time, so they did photos this time. But I got my picture with him and I will keep it and the memory of that night forever.

So thanks, Brad, for being so gracious to let members of your fan club meet you. I was completely overwhelmed by your talent and your guitar playing as well as your friendliness and your showmanship. It was a terrific, entertaining, fun, amazing show and I will be in a seat at your concert any time you want to come to Little Rock.

A big Thank You!

This is a big Thank You to Diane over at Diane's Place!!!

She did a book review and giveaway last week and I WON!!! It's called The Voice and it's a modern day translation of the New Testament. I'm the kind of person who likes to have different translations when I'm doing a Bible study, and I know this will come in so handy!

So thank you thank you thank you, Diane, and the random integer generator!! LOL

Merry Christmas to all!

I just wanted to take this opportunity to say Merry Christmas to all my cyber friends. I hope you all have a merry and blessed day and are able to enjoy the company of your friends and family on this wonderful day.

I do believe that Jesus is the reason for the season, that we should all be thankful every day for the blessing of the Lord in our lives and for the birth of the Christ child whose gifts from the wise men probably started our tradition of giving gifts at this time of year. The Lord has blessed me and my family with health, happiness and enough food, money and love to go around. I am very thankful for these things, and although the road of life is long and rarely free of trials and tribulations, would we really have it any other way?

Again, I hope you all have a blessed day and can appreciate and enjoy the magic of Christmas! Personally I adore Christmas, mostly the giving part, and the love and wonder on the face of my boys when they open their presents or see what Santa has brought them. I hope Santa is good to you all!

"and they heard him exclaim ere he drove out of sight,
Happy Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!"

Husband meme

My friend Sandra over at Diary of a Stay-at-Home mom did this husband meme and I thought it was fun so here goes:

HUSBAND MEME

1. He’s sitting in front of the TV: what is on the screen? Sports, always Sports or Sportscenter

2. You’re out to eat. What kind of dressing does he get on his salad? honey mustard

3. What is one food he doesn’t like? Wow, maybe sushi he's not crazy about, but that's the only thing besides brussels sprouts!

4. You go out to the bar. What does he order? We don't go to bars very often at all, but sometimes at dinner he will order a Crown and Coke or sometimes a beer

5. Where did he go to high school? Cabot High School, Arkansas

6. What size shoe does he wear? 12

7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? gosh, besides video games:)

8. What is his favorite type of sandwich? pretty much anything, but definitely the Memphian at McAllisters

9. What would the Husband eat every day if he could? steak, seafood, probably red meat!

10. What is his favorite cereal? the Special K with strawberries

11. What would he never wear? suspenders?

12. What is his favorite sports team? Wow, which sport? LOL Football the Arkansas Razorbacks and NFL would be the Dallas Cowboys but now he likes the Raiders and the Broncos, too. baseball would be the St. Louis Cardinals and of course any team our sons play on

13. Who is his best friend? Me

14. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn’t do? Probably talk while he's trying to go to sleep or start fussing about the boys behavior the minute he walks in from work!

15. How many states has he lived in? Just Arkansas

16. What is his heritage? American

17. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind? Bart's Brownie Cake, it's a delicious chocolate cake with Coke icing!

18. Did he play sports in high school? football naturally! and maybe baseball, I didn't know him then!

19. What could he spend hours doing? Playing video games on his PSP or Playstation 3 or playing the Wii with the boys, hunting, watching football or baseball on TV

Thanks, Sandra, this was fun!

Ice day, ice day

Well, snow day is inaccurate, because all we have is ice! The boys got out on Monday at 1:30. I was in the middle of Wally World shopping for the next couple of weeks and suddenly my Blackjack blinks purple which means I have a new email. I look and someone has sent a message to my younger two sons' elementary school Yahoo! group asking if it's true that schools are getting out at 1:30?!?!?!

In a couple of minutes, the principal answers yes, that the schools are getting out, it's about 12:50 by then, I'm not completely done shopping, the cart is full, the store is full, the house has gifts for the boys strewn out everywhere.... and I have to check out, get home, unload the freezer stuff, put up the gifts and then go back and wait for the boys. And did I mention that it was sleeting very hard then???

So I do those things, rush home, move the gifts, unload the freezer stuff, get back in the car after getting a big coat and hat because gosh, it's probably every bit of 19 degrees then and sleeting like crazy. I get to the school and someone has closed one of the pickup loops because it's too slick, they sent out an email about it, but because the school servers were overloaded, no one gets that email. I go and wait in line at the usual pickup point only to be told that the boys aren't there, they are at the front door of the school! So I drive around, no one knows where the boys are, I have to get out and go in and literally hunt them down! Not my finest moment, I managed to lose my temper with the secretary in the office.

The other boys finally show up in their buses from the other schools and it has been alternately raining and sleeting as hard as possible! We get home finally by about 2:10 and settle in for the afternoon. It isn't long before the news channel says that public schools are closed on Tuesday. The boys are thrilled, of course, and by the time Bart gets home and we eat dinner, the sleeting has intensified and has covered the patio, walkway out front and driveway. A very bad sign! Especially since on Sunday it was around 64 degrees!

This morning, Tuesday, we get up and get around with breakfast and the temp never gets above 28 the entire day. Nothing melts, no cars are driving on our street nor on the busy street behind us. And about 2:00, guess what? You got it, no school on Wednesday. My oldest was supposed to have a Christmas band concert on Monday night : Cancelled. He was supposed to go to school Monday and Tuesday and then be done for the Christmas break because he did not have to take semester tests. So he went most of Monday and now he seems to be done with the exception of picking up his saxophone from the school. The other boys are supposed to have tests for the end of the 9 weeks this week, concerts, parties, a spelling bee, art projects, you name it. So now we're one more day out.







Hopefully we will have school on Thursday so that the younger kids can have their parties, but the 9th grader is done until January 6th!!!