Turn around ....

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So last night I went to bed and my son was all tucked in and young. I woke up this morning and suddenly.. he's 15. He's taller than me. His voice has changed. When did all this happen? I swear he looked like this:

when I said good night.  And now he looks a lot closer to this:

When exactly did this happen?

Happy Birthday, Mac! 

He is his father's son, and all that I could hope he'd be. I can only see bright things in his future... but Mac?  I'd appreciate if you'd slow down that growing up.   I'm not quite ready to be without my baby.

 

 

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aoljpictureUpload, aoljpictureUpload_2

weather, tornados, and Mom calls

Alabama has certainly seen it's fair share of tornados since we've moved here.  Frankly, Other than noting them, I haven't really thought much about it... beyond setting up our "just in case" plan.

Last weekend my brother and mother called to make sure we were okay. Not having called home, my mother was convinced I was in the Land of Oz, where of course there are no phones.
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Sorry, Mom... we were fine so it never dawned on me that I should call home.

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So another tornado ripped through the area on Sunday. I think Abbeville really took it on the chin, but thankfully no deaths. Lots of damage though, and some injuries.

Well.. I learned my lesson, I called my mom to let her know we were good and safe. And assured her again that we live in a brick house. And told her our "just in case" plans.

It's kind of funny to realize that she still worries when she doesn't know what's going on.  I'm usually not this non-communicative, but we've been working on getting the house set up.  (which unfortunately we did not finish this weekend, but we are sooo close to being done.)

Tags: tornados, call home

"marathon" weekend

Again, poor choices in the mood department.  AOL has added so many other features, why can't they either add to that pull-down menu OR allow us to type in our mood?

Okay.. .so this is it... the last weekend we have to make our house "complete."  I've  been working all week while everyone is at school or work....so we don't have too much to do... but I'm pretty sure it's going to be at least two days of this three day weekend.

We are down to 3 boxes in our bedroom, 1 in the hallway, and about 10 boxes in our dining room/living room.  And I think half of those are book boxes.  We read a lot.

So.... interesting thing I found during this week was a poster that I had bought at the Phoenix Art Gallery.  Still in its tube. Don't even remember buying it, but since it has a price tag on it, I assume its not a gift.  Just for reference, half our stuff went into storage while we were in Germany.... so besides the boxes of stuff we've had with us all along, we've been going through boxes we've not seen in 4 plus years.

So, I unroll the poster and I am shocked and confused.  It is a print of art-deco-ish/ psychadelic flowers. In very bold colors.  I can't imagine a time when this poster would have appealed to me. LMAO.  I rolled it back up and put it back in its tube.  Maybe I thought it would look cool as a quilt? Inspiration, you know?  At any rate... I'm leaving that one to deal with later.

Off to the boxes!

THAT didn't take long!

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Kendra got her first speeding ticket last Friday... she waited until Tuesday to tell us. 16 miles over the posted limit.  $125.00 fine.  Thank goodness for Christmas money.. .ha ha.

So... what I really love is the explanation.... "I think that cop pulled me over because he was paranoid.  I had just passed an accident involving a police car.  I bet the cop that pulled me over was upset about that accident and was all paranoid that another would happen."

MMMM... maybe because you were going 16 miles over the limit???  You don't think that might actually have had a little something to do with it?? 

OH.. yeah.. and really, really loved the segue in which she mentioned the ticket in the first place. We were talking about such mundane things as gas money and such... when she suddenly slips in "I got a speeding ticket on Friday."     OY!

Long Day of Unpacking

What a long day! Paul and I spent most of the day working on the house. We started off by gathering up things that needed to go to our long term storage place. Then we came home and hung pictures.

We did an inventory of items we needed (like towel bars), measured spaces and headed out to Lowe's after lunch.  Came home from there and put up more stuff (like the towel bars).

We spent most of the evening opening up boxes and arranging our "nik naks" on the various shelves we use for display stuff.  Then we packed up the items we aren't displaying this time.  Tomorrow we'll be dropping more boxes off to the storage.

I am hoping we'll have the house all done by the end of next weekend. Paul leaves on the 19th for a week-long test and eval of a new system.  I'd like to have the house "finished" by then.  It would be nice to walk through the house without hitting my legs on corners of boxes.

I just know I'm going to have bruises all up and down my legs after today. <sigh>

Rachel Ray Rocks!

Rachael Ray Makes Sure the Prom Goes on for Enterprise, Alabama Students After Tornado Destroys School

...The Enterprise High School Senior Prom took place on Thursday April 5th (2007)at Aviator's Landing on Fort Rucker, where it is held each year. Ray personally created and helped to cook up a special prom night menu. The evening ended with a surprise musical performance by the multi-talented
Mandy Moore who sang songs from her new CD, Wild Hope....

Last year, Rachel Ray and several others in the entertainment business went out of their way to try and do something nice for the Enterprise High School that was devastated by the Tornado that killed 8 students.

This year, just to let these kids know they were all still on her mind, Rachel Ray orchestrated the arrival of Class t-shirts.  Each student received a t-shirt today with their grad year with the school mascot on the front, a picture of the old High School on the back (it's been torn down to build a new school), and each class' t-shirt is different from the other classes, so you can tell at a glance whose a senior, junior or sophomore.

I think that is very cool. 

Tags: Rachel Ray, Enterprise High School, tornado

Public Idiots

Last night Paul and I went to dinner with our daughters. We were seated at a table for four near a large group of local folks.  The four of us were conversing very happily amongst ourselves, discussing the week, the menu, the weekend. It was a nice break from the daily quickie dinners we've been having at home. (Mac had a prior engagement and couldn't join us.)

At any rate, the local group seemed to also be enjoying their time out.  It appeared to be a family group of at least two generations (young children), if not actually three generations.  Other than the general buzz of conversation, I really didn't pay that much attention to them.

That is until I overheard one of the men say something about Mexicans. I admit... I'm sensitive to this subject matter and I listened in. I really didn't have to try too hard because he was exceptionally loud about this subject.  Well.. turns out he was telling a joke.  His group started laughing, until one of the women noticed my face (I'm sure I must have looked flabbergasted), and suddenly there were a few furtive looks thrown our way and a general silence at their table.

I said nothing, I looked straight at them, and said nothing. In my head I was honestly hoping that my kids didn't hear that joke at all. It took me a moment to join back into the conversation going on at our table.  Things seemed to be getting back on track until their food arrived.  They all bowed their heads and prayed en masse!... Now.. please don't get me wrong... I have no problem with prayer.. goodness knows it's definitely part of my daily life.  But I think I felt even MORE offended seeing them pray when it seemed that they didn't really live the Christian love of all men by the jokes they were eager to laugh at.

I may be too sensitive, I admit. But as we were leaving the restaurant, Kendra brought up the group and the joke. She was also very hurt and offended.  And that's what really pisses me off... my children should not have to hear such things in public.  Why can't racist people tell their stupid jokes at home instead of out in the world where they can be overheard?  And worse yet, do they not even think about what they teach their children when they say such hateful things, even as a "joke"? 

 

Tags: casual racism