Haiku Friday

Amy Winehouse blares

The coffee steams on my desk

Work at five A M

The things that I do

To free up my afternoons

Always amaze me

Who knew that these kids

with their beautiful blue eyes

would give me such drive

There used to be days

when I would work until nine

and miss the party

Those days were before

December 2002...

Things fell into place

Kool-aid and a song

probably, Old MacDonald,

That is a good time

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Presents That I have Bought This Year

1. Super Z has been dying for this. I am not sure if he will be able to play it, but he will surely pass out with pleasure.
2) A round of pajamas for everyone!! I am a pajama fanatic, Every year I buy way more pajamas than I should...but it makes me happy, so there.
3)Dishes for the princess! She has already opened these once (oops!) and loves them, so I am sure that they'll be a big hit.

4) Super Z and Princess H loved this movie. I got it at Borders for 9$! Can you believe that? And it came with a free charm bracelet. I will let you know who ends up with it. I am sure that Super Z will want it and his Dad will cry from the shame of it all. I can't wait.

5) I love this book. It is one of my all time favorites. My two are definitely Wild Things, so I can't wait to introduce them to this book.

6) The Shake and Go Race Track was another MUST HAVE for Super Z. I don't know how much that means, since he MUST HAVE everything..but still, I think that this one will get a lot of play. 7) We fell in love with this little bike the instant that we saw it. The Princess is always trying to (kill herself on) ride Super Z's bike. We think that this might be a tad bit more her size.

8) Okay, who doesn't love Lincoln Logs? These are another essential in my book.

9) The princess is a HUGE Elmo fan. That, and this baby was only 10$ at Black Friday. Yes, I am crazy. I was in Wal-mart at 4 AM last Friday.

10) This is another Black Friday Special. I got this for my nephew Tater. Super Z LOVES his. I think it has a million miles on it. I am sure that Tater will love it too.

11) This is for Ty. He didn't ask for it. This is me taking a risk. I figure that it will go over well. I mean, he can take cool shots of his friends doing skateboarding tricks, he can take pictures of himself, he can take pictures of pretty girls. The options are endless.

12) A kitchen for Princess H!!! I am the most excited about this one and the next one. I can't wait to play kitchen with the girl. I think we are going to set it up in our kitchen so that we can cook together. I am betting that she loves it.

13) And last, but definitely not least, the red four wheeler!! Super Z has been asking for this for years. I have always been too cheap. I know, that is awful. I finally convinced myself that it was now or never. I can't wait to see the look on his face Christmas morning.

Wordless Wednesday - The Tree Perspectives

Oh, Christmas Tree

Tree Junkies

In the Dark

From Super Z's POV

Oh, Christmas Tree

I am feeling all better now. Thank you all so much for all of your well wishes. It makes me happy to know that you all care. It was a rough couple of days, but somehow there where a few good moments. The first magical moments of the Christmas season are always good in some way. How can they not be? There is magic in the air.
I got my real tree. The one that so many of you warned me against. This is the first real tree that I have had since my parents got divorced when I was twelve years old. The smell alone brings back a lot of happy memories. And isn't that what Christmas is all about? Memories and traditions?
It becomes obvious that my tree is a link to my past as I look over the ornaments. Of course, there are two very precious baby's first Christmas ornaments and the ones that Super Z has made in preschool over the years, but there are also some not so obvious pieces of memorabilia.
There is the giant red ball that I got last year when ball was one of Princess H's only words. Everyday she would point and stare and say ball a million times. Every time I see that ball I will see my baby with only those four teeth in the front. I will see her smiling and pointing and discovering the joy of Christmas. Oh man, you can't beat that.
There is the car that Randy and I bought together on our first Christmas. We were broke, so we had a hideously small fake tree and about ten ornaments, mostly hand me downs. I remember sitting there for hours, in the dark, admiring the magic of our first tree. I remember thinking that it was the prettiest tree I'd ever seen. I still think that every single year. I remember Randy's joy over the car that I had picked out in honor of his love of all things automobile. I remember still being amazed that I was his wife. It was all so new. It was all too perfect.

There are the hand painted wooded ornaments of my childhood. These were painted by my Mom sometime before my memory begins. They have been a part of my Christmas tree tradition my entire life. They bring back everything from the Christmas that I learned to ride a bike to the Christmas that I had my first job at McDonald's. I can't imagine Christmas without these old guys. They are the Hallmark of my Christmas tree, the gaurdians of the magic.

There is also the silver glitter apple. I was a 6th grade teacher the Christmas that Super Z was born. The day that I was induced, December 20, also happened to be the last day of school before Christmas break. One of my students came to the hospital to see the baby (the CLASS baby) and brought me this apple. I remember being so happy that her Mom had gone to the effort to bring her. I remember being so proud to introduce my baby to one of my first kids. When I see this apple, I am flooded with love for all of my first kids. I miss them all so much at this time of year.

I could go on and on. There are at least a hundred ornaments and memories on my tree. I hope to keep adding to them for a long time to come. I hope that your trees make you feel this way too. I hope that you make a hundred new memories this Christmas and I hope that they are all magical.

Still Sick

I am feeling a little better, a little further away from Death's Door. I am still only useful for holding down the couch, but at least I am no longer a prisoner of the bathroom.
The Princess has been a 100% since this morning. Thank You, God. She is obviously the strongest of us girls.
We (meaning Randy and Super Z mainly) got the tree up. It looks great. Tomorrow I will share pictures. Tomorrow I will feel better. I hope. Tomorrow I will catch up with all of my Internet friends. But for now, back to bed or couch, whichever catches my fancy first.
Don't abandon me. I promise to be entertaining again one day soon...to be more than just a NaBloPoMoHo phoning in reports of illness.
I will leave you with this really cute picture of Super Z two years ago.

Phoning In A Post

In the words of Blue Momma, I am phoning this one in.

• I am so grateful to my guest posters. I think that they all did an excellent job. Actually, I think that they did so well that I pale in comparison. I will have to try to do better if I plan to have such fantastic guests in the future.
• Secret Agent Mama!! I am so sorry that I didn't get you the info. I am glad that you were able to find a way. I am almost ashamed to say that I worried about that all weekend.
• We had a great Thanksgiving.
• I am now dying from a stomach bug.
• I was holding the tree up for Randy today while he fiddled with the stand when it washed over me. ( I got a real tree! But don't feel like touching it. Super Z is so distressed over the naked tree.)
• Princess H got sick about two hours later. Poor sick baby.
• Bah...This sucks so bad.

The Two Serina's | Guest Post

[Guest Blogger: "Cat" from Soul Survive]

When I found out I would be a guest blogger, I felt honored -- like I was being asked to be a guest columnist for the New York Times. I immediately, as is my custom, went into over-thinking mode: What should I write about? How long should it be? Should it be something about me or something about Serina? I was not only representing myself, but had to maintain the integrity of Laughter, Love, and Madness. I wanted an angle. So, for some reason I began thinking about degrees of separation. Which references not only yet another movie I have never seen, but basically deals with the principle that we are all linked together somehow through our relationships with other people.

I began to think: If Serina and I had never met, what possible link would there have been between us?

I met Serina a bit over three years ago. I had just come to the firm and was settling in. I was quiet and innocent then. I drink and curse more now, so I don’t know what that says. But anyway, I digress… One day she sent me an email inviting me to lunch. We had not talked much up to that point, but I thought she seemed cool (key word: seemed). I’m sure I wrote back, as is my custom, that I did not want to intrude. But she was having none of that and said that there was no reason I should feel that way. And off to lunch we went. Skipping off into the sunset, I’m sure, because I could still skip back then.

And so although there have been ups and downs, we have prevailed as friends and are still driving each other mad. Deliriously so. I hope in more of a good way than bad. I insult her, she laughs. I still don’t want to intrude. She keeps inviting me. Working there would feel empty without her.

In high school I did not have many friends as I was apart of the original Geek Squad. However, we knew nothing about computers and had no cool Geek-mobile to ride in. One of my closest friends was uber skinny, funny, and one of the kindest persons I have ever come across. Although I was quiet and she was more outgoing, we had a few major things in common. Neither of our families had a lot of money and we each had a sibling we adored who had a disability of some kind. Even though she was in our group, she was always fighting (and losing) the battle to become one of the popular girls. The ones with new outfits every week, boyfriends, cars, and endless party invitations. But even as she tried to become one of them, she never forgot about us. I hated their cruelty. She was kind and seemingly oblivious to it all.

“So what they drove off without me after band practice? Surely they must have just forgotten…”

But she was my friend and more beautiful in my eyes than any of them could ever hope to be. She offered me rides in the old clunker she used to ride around in and worked downtown after school in a garment plant where she was paid less than what most kids were even earning at McDonald’s.

It’s hard to become popular when you can’t afford the privilege fee.

Her name was Sabrina. Although I told my mother this, she always called her Serina. I never bothered to correct her anymore after the first couple of times.

Sabrina and I lost touch after high school. We wrote a couple of letters and spoke a couple of times during college, but that was the extent of it. Actually, the last time I remember speaking with her on the phone, she was on her way out of her dorm room to take one of her spare blankets to a girl who was new to the dorm who did not have much of anything. Because that was Sabrina.

So six years passed. I left college and moved to Jackson and was in my third (and current job). In October 2005, Serina gave birth to Princess H at one of the nearby hospitals and I went to visit. I had been there a while and who should walk in the room but…Sabrina! She was a nurse now and, apparently, one of Serina’s! I was shocked and it was only later that we reunited when I was leaving the hospital. We thought we recognized each other but had not been certain.

She was married, in school, and most of all happy. And that’s really all I needed to know. I was proud of her. And I hope she was able to feel that in my hugs and smiles.

So the two “Serina’s” met. Two people I consider great friends of mine, great people in general. And I did not even have to lift a finger to make it happen! Cause I am great like that.

And lest my current friend “Serina” not realize it, I hope you know I am proud of you and I admire you. I think you are a wonderful wife, mother, and friend. In essence, you are a good boy, Charlie Brown. (I will, however, deny I said any of this come Monday morning.)

Thank you for inviting me to lunch.

Haiku Friday | Guest Post

Twas '97
I was due to visit "home"
Took a Greyhound bus

Set off from Nawlins
On a thirty-two hour trek
I'd meet many folks

I wore my ripped jeans
Listened to my music loud
In my own bubble

Up to Birmingham
No one had sat beside me
Feet up, relaxin'

Just about to leave
The seat next to me empty
I smiled inside

The door opened up
In staggered a greasy bum
Closed eyes wished him gone

"..next to girl in red"
I huffed as I moved my bag
Trying not too look

He smelled disgusting
I held fingers to my nose
To smell something known

Next stop it was night
I sat in the very back
Next to a black man

He told me stories
Army experiences
In the first Gulf War

He showed me the marks
He called it "Gulf War Syndrome"
Everyone listened

We talked the whole trip
He even shared his chicken
And Newports at stops

In the early hours
I finally caught some sleep
Ohio it was

Almost to New York
I grew tired of the bus
Missed a real toilet

The last stretch was spent
Painting my nails with a girl
She had to be five

Her mother told me
"One day you'll make a great mom!"
Prophecy maybe

For when I returned
To my husband in Nawlins
We conceived our first

Glad I took that trip
In a way I grew up on
The ride of my life

__________________________

That bus trip was something else. I was so tired when I got to Buffalo because I didn't sleep all that much. However, that would pale in comparison to the exhaustion I felt when going back home. My dad had given me his old Mercury Cougar to drive back in. My best friend, and another mutual friend, accompanied me on the ride down. We intended to stop somewhere to sleep, but didn't. We pushed through and got to New Orleans in 26 hours. There's this memory I have of how the street lights looked in the city just before our house, and how I felt completely drunk. It was very surreal.

Had I not pushed through that car ride back down south, we wouldn't have conceived our first child. It was in the wee hours of that morning that we got into New Orleans that Michael and I made love and created our son. Something made me push that trip. Divine Intervention? Perhaps. I totally believe it was a higher power because not only was the baby conceived, we also made it through 3 states with a car that kept overheating.

Funny how we take these trips, these rides of life. Funny how we become a little wiser. Funny how we learn a lot about ourselves on them. Life's a trip; it's a long, curvy, complicated, intoxicating, exhausting, and interesting trip. My name's Mishelle. I like to tell stories. I share many of my life's rides. Come along and ride!

You can come find me over at my blog: Secret Agent Mama

[Thank you to Serina for letting me guest post on her fabulous blog. It was certainly a pleasure as it's one of my favorites.]

Thanksgiving | Guest Post

Nothing gets you a bye week from traveling for Thanksgiving like being eight months pregnant with twins. The only chore I have today is to post for Serina, so while the turkey is cooking I'll share what I think about every Thanksgiving: the similarities and differences between Thanksgiving in New England and the Deep South.

I grew up in New England and my family is still there; I left for Tennessee when I was 28 years old. After four years of too much Rocky Top, I now make my home in Jackson, Mississippi married to a man who's never lived outside the Magnolia State. I still boggle at the idea of having to go north to get to Memphis, but it's worked out well and I only get homesick in the Fall. On Thanksgiving in particular.

And that's because Thanksgiving is a particularly family oriented holiday, celebrated in each home with traditions and foods that are special to that family. Regardless of the fact that we all take the day off and spend it eating with relatives, what we do and eat depends largely on what that family has developed as their style over the years. And that's how Thanksgiving is similar in every home in this country: it's about your favorite pie that you eat every year, your favorite after dinner past time, your least favorite relative cornering you for a thirty minute chat. It's about your family and your traditions and we all have our own.

And that's also what makes it different in every home too, especially those that are in diverse areas. Pie, for example, could be Concord grape or mincemeat at my mom's in Massachusetts, while Granny's pecan pie is the only favorite here in Mississippi. Still pie for dessert, but different pie. After spending a good deal of time in both the North and the South, I steadfastly hold to the fact that it's all just America and the differences we love to point out to each other strike me more as the differences between urban and rural cultures or the differences between individuals (and are due more to people's adhering to stereotypes than actually experiencing both places and developing an informed opinion). That said, here are a few things that I really think are different about Thanksgiving in the North and the South:

Five Food Things
1. Cranberry sauce is rarely served in the South and it usually comes from a can; cranberry sauce is frequently served in the North and it is just as often made fresh from whole berries as popped out of a can. I am still annoyed that Kroger had zero fresh or frozen whole cranberries for sale yesterday.
2. The breaded substance cooked inside a turkey is called dressing in the South and stuffing in the North. Dressing is thinner in consistency.
3. Southern pies: pecan, pumpkin, sweet potato, chocolate. Northern pies: pumpkin, mincemeat, apple, Concord grape.
4. Southern vegetables: greens, black eyed peas (field peas, grandfather peas, you call them whatever your mom called them peas), green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, and any other vegetable overcooked with bacon or made into a casserole. Northern vegetables: green beans, lima beans, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, sweet green peas, garden salad, acorn squash, or carrots.
5. Southern drinks: tea (which means iced brewed orange pekoe with sugar added), unsweet tea (the same without the sugar), Coke, Diet Coke, other kinds of "coke," water, canned beer, milk. Northern drinks: wine, bottled beer, milk, water, coffee, any "soda," hot chocolate, egg nog, and mulled hot apple cider.

Three Tradition Things
1. Dinner time: Way too early in the day in the South (Thanksgiving dinner at 11am anyone?). Usually 2-6pm in the North.
2. Football: college preferred in the South, NFL preferred in the North. (Because the SEC is best.)
3. Alice's Restaurant: my Yankee Dad told me today that they had "one radio station playing Alice's Restaurant at 5:30. And if two radio stations, two radio stations do it...can you imagine fifty radio stations, I said fifty radio stations playing Alice's Restaurant all at the same time...they may think it's a movement!" My Southern father-in-law: "What's Alice's Restaurant?"

So, it's not without a little selfishness that I decided today's Thanksgiving in Jackson, Mississippi would have whole berry (canned) cranberry sauce, stuffing, mincemeat pie, acorn squash, and mulled apple cider served at 7pm while my husband watches college football and I listen to Alice's Restaurant. I'm sure Serina enjoyed her dinner at her Mamaw's several hours ago without cranberry sauce, but with dressing, pecan pie, greens, Diet Coke (Diet Pepsi if they had it), no football, and "what Alice's Restaurant?"

And for that I'm grateful. We both celebrated our traditions, enjoyed our favorites in our own way, and had a lot to appreciate. Different in the details, but the same in our memories. Happy Thanksgiving, y'all.

Wordless Wednesday - Together Again

Holiday Craziness and Guest Posters

Tomorrow, after work, we will head to Mobile, AL to pick up Ty. We will get to Natchez sometime around midnight. After that all will be a blur of activity and food until we get back here Sunday afternoon. I am tired just thinking about it.
Because I am going to be missing in action, AND I am doing NaBloPoMoHo, there will be a couple of guest posters filling in. I feel like such a celebrity saying that. I am a SUPASTAR!
Please come by and show some support for these guys if you have time. I want them to feel like they are appreciated. I know that I appreciate them.
On Thursday my guest host will be Leigh. Leigh does not have her own blog. She is just a real life friend, who is doing a really nice thing for me. She also happens to be eight months pregnant with twin boys.
On Friday my guest host will be Secret Agent Mama. She is going to share a story of a bus trip, I think. Who knows, she might change her mind. That is allowed here. I can't wait to see what she has to say. I am so honored that she would guest for me, as she is one of my heroes.
On Saturday Cat from Soulsurvive will be my guest host. She is another real life friend. She just happens to also be the writer of one of my favorite blogs. If she says anything negative about me, just remember that she is joking :) I hope.
So I will post a Wordless Wednesday in the morning and then I am out until Sunday. I hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. And if you aren't in a country that is celebrating Thanksgiving, I hope you have a wonderful week anyway.

And the Award Goes to...

I have been the proud recipient of a couple of awards lately. I have been putting this off and off and what happens? I just get more awards. Not that I am complaining. No indeed. I LOVE me some awards. Feel free to give me more :)

The problem is that I seem to have a bit of a problem about procrastinating on passing them on. Some of my awards I received so long ago that the statute of limitations on passing them out has come and gone. Those award I will just keep. And to those of you who gave them to me, thanks so much. They meant a lot to me. I am sorry that I was an irresponsible blogger and didn't pass them on. I am sorry that I suck. I promise I will do better going forward.

So now I will do my best to pass of all of the awards that I have received lately. Are you ready for some new bling?

From Blue Momma, I received this lovely award. I love it that she saw me fit to honor with her own specially made award. I feel a little odd passing this on, but I am gong to do it nonetheless.

Those who I deem worthy of rocking the bowl are ....drum roll please....

1. Secret Agent Mama - She is wonderful. Her kids are beautiful. She takes awesome self portraits. I want to move in with her. She is indeed a bowl rocker.
2. Amanda of The Milk Bar - Amanda is awesome she has homes in every corner of the world. She dreams of being a breast feeding consultant. She built her lovely little Aaron his very own Pentagon...and she has all of her old cassette tapes. Amanda is indeed a rocker of the bowl.
   

My next award in the Nice Matters Award. This nice matters award is a little sexier than the last one that I got. I am so pleased that the one and only Anglophile Football Fanatic deemed me worthy of the sexy nice award. Who doesn't want to be sexy nice?

I have decided that The Sexy Nice Matters award, as I have deemed it, should go to...drum roll please....

1. Bilbo of Bilbo's Thought Collection - I am sorry, but nothing is as sexy nice as a man who is a well written deep thinker, except maybe a man who thinks that his wife is the best looking woman around, and Bilbo? He fits both of those bills.
2. Bren of Three Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed - Bren always has the nicest comments. She is also a hell of a haiku writer with gorgeous little babies. Bren, you are SO SEXY NICE.

The next award came to me from Amanda. I was so happy that she thought my blogging hit the mark. Hitting the mark is a great compliment. Yay! I hit the mark..for someone at least.

I am passing on this pretty piece of Blog Bling to two bloggers who always hit the mark for me.....drum roll, please....

1. Soulsurvive - Cat is a very well written blogger. Her posts always make me stop and think and feel. That is what I call hitting the mark. She is an awesome single woman tackling the world one day at a time, you should check her out.
2. Anglophile Football Fanatic - AFF always hits the mark for me. Her stories of puppy and SD and her heartache of living far away from her parents, these things always touch me. I know exactly where she is coming from.

I received The Colors of Friendship Award from Jaye at Just A Mom. This award is so pretty and special to me. Thanks Jaye!!

Those who have been deemed worthy of this pretty award are...drum roll please...

1. Captain Picard of Captain Picard's Journal - The Captain is one of a kind. If you are interested in checking out the newest frontiers of Blog World...check out the captain.
2. Dana of Life Turned Upside Down - Dana brings color to every situation. Even if you are reading too many blogs you need to check out this one. Her self styled Fresh Prince of BellAire About Me won me over from the start.
3. Momchatter - Mom Chatter is awesome. If I hadn't loved her blog from the start, which I did, I would have definitely been won over by her 100 Things Post. She brings all kinds of cool to blog land.

My winning Attitude Award came from Bilbo. I am not sure whose blog Bilbo is reading to get this impression of me, but I am so pleased that he likes me. Thanks again, Bilbo!

And those who I deem worthy of the Winning Attitude Award Are...DRUM ROLL....ONE LAST TIME ....

1. Blue Momma of Life in the Fishbowl- Blue Momma is my hero. She is one of a kind. And I love her dearly. If we lived in the same state I would be at her house everyday. I never knew that you could find friends on the Internet until I found Blue Momma. She was the first of many. She handles all of life's little tragedies with humor and grace. If that isn't a winning attitude, I don't know what is.
2. Just A Mom - Just a Mom is way more that a Mom. She is a parenting revolution. She is a shining example of what all parents should be. In her, I have found inspiration. She is Mom Extraordinaire
3. What Works for Us - What doesn't work for this woman? She manages to make every little challenge that comes her way sound both doable and funny as hell. She is Winning Attitude with an A+.

Now you see why I put this off. I want to give them to everyone. I love all of you so much. You all give me something new and special. I am so glad to have blog friends like you guys. I can't wait to get more bling so that I can pass it on to even more of you.

Fun Monday

Karisma is our Fun Monday host this week. The assignment is:

"I want you to take a trip down memory lane, and keep right on going, right back to your childhood. And I want to hear "THAT STORY". You remember the one? Yes, you do! The one your parents, siblings, extended family or friends, would never let you forget, live down or get over!"

I have decided to share three stories from my childhood. I can't share pictures because I do not have a scanner yet. I am hoping that that will be alleviated this Christmas. ****That was a hint Randy***All of these are pretty well known in my family. Surprisingly enough (or not) two of them involve food and two involve sticking things where they don't belong...but alas, only one involves sticking food where it does not belong. I'll start with that one.

1) When I was two I started trying to stick things up my nose. To hear my Mom tell it, nothing smaller than a quarter was safe around me. Pennies, candy, rice...I tried to put them all up my nose. Fortunately, my Mom was always there to rescue the object in just the nick of time. And then came the day that my Dad was watching me.

He brought my high chair into the living room so that he could watch a little football while I ate. He was very pleased with himself. I was eating everything on my plate. He was amused that my Mom considered it such a hassle to feed me dinner. Why, there was nothing to this at all. He watched football, I ate. It doesn't get any easier than that.

Just as the game was ending, my Mom came home. She took me out of the highchair to give me a kiss only to discover that I had a nose full of butter beans. I am sure that she chewed my Dad up one side and down the other. To hear him tell it, you would have thought that I had shoved dynamite up my nose.

She got all of the beans out that she could, but we all ended up sitting in the ER for hours that night so that the doctor could get out the last two. Apparently I had shoved them so far in that even the professionals were amazed. The doctor had never seen a child shove something so far up their nasal cavity.

How impressive is that?

2) When I was three years old I spent the night with my Aunt Gail and Uncle Marvin. They were childless at that point and very excited to get their hands on me. For dinner that night my Aunt made steak for them and figured that I would be fine eating macaroni and cheese. She was unaware of my carnivore tendencies.

According to the legend, I ended up sitting in Uncle Marvin's lap and eating his ENTIRE 14 ounce Ribeye AND his baked potato. He talks about this EVERY SINGLE TIME that I see him.

What can I say? I love steak. And he was the idiot that let a three year old eat his steak. I would never let that happen. Like I said, I love steak.

3) This is the only one of my three stories that I actually remember. I must have been around six when this happened.

My Dad was a boilermaker, a welder who specialized in building nuclear boilers. Because of that he always had ear plugs laying around the house. Most of them looked like this, but they were connected by a blue plastic string.

These ear plugs fascinated me. I was amazed that you could put these little soft rubbery things into your ears and block out all the sounds in the world. I would fondle the ear plugs constantly. If my Mama saw me playing with them she would warn, "You better not put those in your ears! Those are for your Dad's work."
Well, what can I say? I an not too good at following commands. I am a rebel. The day came that I could stand the temptation no longer. I slipped a pair of the earplugs into my pocket and smuggled them into my bedroom.
Once in there, I put the ear plugs in. What!! What was this? I could still hear. I could hear my Mom talking, I could hear my Dad's football game (Are you sensing a theme here?), I could hear my little sister laughing in the next room. This couldn't be right, I had to be doing something wrong. I tried to shove the ear plugs deeper. I could still hear.
It was at this point that my genius kicked in. I decided that the problem was sizing. The big dad sized ear plugs were obviously too big for my kid size ears. I cut the end section of the earplug off. Creating the perfect child size earplugs. I told you that i was a genius.I then put them into my ears. I could still hear. So what did I do? I got a pencil and used the eraser end to shove the plugs deeper into my ears. I could still hear. So I shoved deeper and deeper. Until at last, I heard no more. Ten seconds later, my head exploded in pain.
To make a long story short(er), we ended up in the ER AGAIN. Where once again my prowess for shoving things deeper than anyone else in the world was marvelled over. I still remember the pain of having those ear plugs in my head. It was awful. Just hideous. I believe that that was the end of my shoving days.

Does it get any better than this?

At the risk of sharing too much...

• It is noon and I just crawled out of bed.
• I am surrounded by silence (Thanks Mom!).
• I am eating home made red beans and rice (Thanks Mom!) that I didn't make.
• I just opened a brand new bottle of wine.
• I am completely relaxed.
• I went on a Real date last night and...
• Get this, my husband said that he was out with the prettiest girl in Mississippi.
• I am in my underwear...
• and no one is asking me where my pants are.
• The kids are having a wonderful time.
• The weather is perfect.
• I shaved my legs this morning...
• I have wonderful plans and not an ounce of stress.

You guys have a great weekend! I'll be checking in when I get a chance.

Haiku Friday Way Too Late

The babies are gone

Mimi took them to Natchez

Just the two of us.

***

My weekend of peace

I will drink plenty of wine

I will seduce him.

***

A dinner party

A date to see Beowulf

Moments filled with us.

***

These things are nice

But to tell you the whole truth

The house seems empty.

My Little Pilgrim Super Star

Today was a big day for Super Z. It was his stage debut. He was a pilgrim in the Thanksgiving program. If I may say so myself, he was the cutest pilgrim in the Thanksgiving program.
The day was even more special because his Mimi came to watch him shine. I think he introduced everybody there to, "My Mimi."
Mrs. Lee told us that as they were practicing this morning he kept asking her where we were. He told her over and over that his parents were supposed to come watch. She kept telling him that we would be there soon. He finally fell pray to his nerves. His stomach began to ache. He got a little whiny. He was very worried. WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE THERE.
The show started with the children filing into the auditorium. Everything was going smoothly until halfway through the Pilgrims the children stopped filing in. I heard giggling from the back. I looked over the crowd to see my son holding up the line. he was stopping at every isle to look for us. The little boy directly behind him looked ready to kill him. And my baby? He looked like this...

After he finally spotted us he smiled and made his way onto the platform. Tragedy was avoided. We had done as we were supposed to do. We had come to watch him.

All of the little Indians and pilgrims filled up the stage. They sang their songs and gave shout outs to their fans. "HEY! That's my Mom! Hey Mom!!" It was very cute. My favorite part was watching my pilgrim sing a song about pumpkin pie. He really got into it. I have been wondering for weeks why he kept asking me to make pumpkin pie. Now I know.

Just in case you are wondering, the cutest pilgrim is the fifth one from the right.

The most challenging part of the program was the chick in the picture above. She apparently has the attention span of a...well, of a two year old. She desperately wanted to climb all over everything, say hello to everyone in the room, and style the hair of the woman sitting in front of us, a woman who was the unfriendly sort, who didn't even smile at my little hairdresser.

All in all it was a lovely program. I couldn't have been impressed by the cute pilgrim. I got to lay out of work for the day. My Mom came to visit. There was much to be Thankful for.

Thursday 13 - Eyes

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