November 30, 2007

 So, here’s the really awesome news: My mom is moving from Florida to North Carolina to live with me!  How totally awesome is that?  For the first time in my adult life I get to have my mother near me.  I can’t wait.  It has long been a dream of ours to be able to sit together in the mornings and drink coffee, talk about something or nothing, and just spend time together.  Now, at long last, our dream is coming true. 

For the time being she will be living in the house with us.  We will spend some time roaming the countryside looking for just the right place for her to move onto our property.  Then she will have her own place but still be with me!  I’m giddy with excitement. 

And…..another way cool thing is that both  of my brothers will be bringing her up, as well as my nephew, Spidey, who I dearly LOVE but didn’t get to see during the party in September.  I’m all wiggly with anticipation.  I have to tune up my guitar, round up all the neighborhood dogs, and get into Mayberry mode.  Porkchop loves that Mayberry feeling and I love making my brother happy.   

What I won’t like is watching them ride away down that rode.  I miss them terribly when they go.  It’s like a vital part of me goes with them and I find it hard to wake up completely when they aren’t near me.  They remind me of who I am, which is something that escapes me more and more these days.  I need the reminder.

I’m hoping that one day soon my brother Pony will come up as well.  He’s an independent spirit and I won’t push it, but it would be wonderful to have him here.  He has a bit of the gypsy in his soul so it’s hard to say if he would do it or not, but he likes the ideaand that says alot. 

 

I can feel the relief already.  Welcome to the Hill, Momma!

I’ll have the coffee on.

 

P.S.  You’ll get to see how your hands are doing on the end of my arms!  But you can’t have them back!  I need them!

 


And After I Regained Consciousness……..

November 29, 2007

Wednesday evening is Kid Nation night.  We try to watch that without fail.  It’s a good show that we can watch together as a family and the kids love to see other kids running a town on their own.  It’s a chance to hear how our children feel about what is being done in Bonanza City, what they would do differently, how they would handle different situations, and generally get inside their heads without having to ask all those pesky questions that seem to discombobulate them so badly.

During one commercial break there was a promo for the movie “The Golden Compass.”  I was telling My Dearest Husband that I had recently gotten an email stating the opinion that in this movie they were trying to kill God.  Princess Bella pops up with the following reply, “That’s stupid!  God’s already dead!  They can’t kill him if he’s already dead!  DUH!”

My head was swimming.  I got slightly dizzy with all the thoughts, fears, assumptions, and questions that were simultaneously vying for attention.  My delightfully reasonable reply to her statement was “Say what?”

“Oh yes!  You see when people start talking about God, I start listening!  I stop wiggling around, sit still with my hands in my lap and listen real careful when they start talking about God.”  I’m still waiting to hear the part where He’s dead.  It isn’t coming clear to me yet so, against my better judgement, I have to ask.  “Bella, what makes you think God is dead?”

(Long suffering sigh accompanied by rolling of the eyes)  “Because he is in Heaven.  You can’t get into Heaven unless you’re dead.  I heard this in church because I listenI pay attention.  Maybe if you went to church more and paid more attention YOU would know that God was already dead too, Gammie.”

I was at a total loss for words.  Her logic was stunning.  It didn’t faze her one bit to think that God was dead.  The fact that a dead God was in Heaven with all her dead loved ones, just waiting on her to get there one day was comforting for her.  It made perfect sense to her.

I’m sure we’ll discuss this more at a later date.  She will not suffer my ignorance for long.  In the meantime, I’ll have to talk to some of my friends with ministerial credentials, do some research,  knock back a few beers, and generally prepare myself for it.  Because to be completely honest with you, I’m not really sure I’m up for the task.  She might just take me down. 

In the realm that God inhabits, is there any difference between life and death?  For God they could just be a state of mind.  They could be different levels of thought, or place, or feeling.  Who knows?  I feel like I’m going into a battle of wits totally unarmed.  Maybe……..if she brings the subject up again I’ll just point up into the sky and shout, “LOOK!  It’s a flock of turtles!”  Then run away. 

That might work, right?


Thoughts – November 19, 2007

November 19, 2007

Kids are so much more fun if the television is off.

Dogs are hilarious.  Probably because they don’t care if you see them licking their booty.  Dee Dee’s new trick is to chase Jackal and try to bite his “boys” while he’s running away.  I try to imagine Princess Bella doing this to His Highness The Buddha.  It cracks me up every time! 

It’s never good when I have too much time on my hands.

Every once in a while, it’s good to have ice cream for breakfast.

The kids and I go out to eat every so often.  It’s not a regular thing because I like to cook at home.  Fast food isn’t usually my thing, and besides, it’s special when we dogo out.  We always make a big deal about who’s turn it is to pick the place where we eat.  They keep track of who gets to pick the joint we’re eating at.  They like Mac’s and that insane Burger king dude.  I like places where they have real food and no slides.  So we usually compromise and go where they have overly colorful cartoon characters and playground equipment.  *sigh*  Well, you guessed it, tonight was my turn to choose.  🙂  And I wanted real food.  So of course we have our usual “Whine and Please” session. 

THEM:Pleeeeeease let’s go to McDonaldddddddds

ME:Nope!  My turn to pick and I pick NOT MacFood.

THEM:Pleeeeeease let’s go to McDonaldddddddds

ME:I Mac Don’t want to Mac go to Macs!  Besides, we can’t go there anyway. 

THEM:(huge surprised faces) why not?

ME:Because, Ronnie Mac got arrested.

THEM: But………Why?

ME: The fashion po po got him for wearing that awful crap he always has on.

THEM: YOU LIE!  You just don’t wanna go to McDonald’s!

ME: I can prove it!

THEM:Can not!

ME: Can too!

THEM: Prove it then!

And so I did.

macbusted.jpg
And so I happily took myself and two very subdued children to a sit down restaurant to have a very nice and civilized dinner tonight.  It didn’t hurt that when we passed McDonald’s they had it shut down for remodeling.  Had the yellow tape around the dining area.  Only the drive-thru was open.  (insert huge smart ass grin here)  Sometimes………it’s MY turn to pick the place!


Autumn

November 19, 2007

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I love autumn.  I think the entire rest of the year is worth living through just to get to autumn.  The colors in North Carolina this year are absolutely gorgeous.  They seemed to be late in coming.  We weren’t even sure if the leaves were going to turn at all this year.  But when they went, they went with flair!

My favorite is a bright red in the leaves with just a hint of orange.  I love to see this set against a daytime stormy gray sky.  I prefer to have the sun shining on the tree from one direction, and the clouds coming from the other.  It’s an image that is beauty incarnate to me. 

Sugar Maples are absolutely astonishing this year.  They look as if they have a light coming from within.  If you see them just when evening begins you almost believe that they will light up the night with their light. 

I have seen trees this year with leaves changing in a wave starting on the northern side of the tree and going towards the south.  The northern side of the tree has red leaves, changing to orange, yellowish orange, yellow, and to the southernmost side of the the tree, the leaves were still green!  I’ve never seen that before in my life!

The soft misty morning light on them is softly beautiful and makes you want to get up in the morning just to look at them.  The light changes them all day long.  They are stunning in the strong afternoon sun.  And as the afternoon sun relaxes into the evening sky, the colors relax along with it and they are soothing. 

Every day brings new colors to see, new light to see them in, new feelings to feel from them.  Soon will come the smell of those same leaves burning.  That is the quintessential smell of autumn to me.  (If I can keep from associating it with the fire, that is)  I have loved that smell all of my life.  It speaks to me of cool evenings, and beautiful sunsets, and changing times. 

Winter is not far off when you are surrounded by autumn’s beauty.  It’s time to get ready for it.  There are things to do and autumn is kind enough to give you wonderful weather to do them in, as well as the most gorgeous surroundings possible in which to do them.

I love autumn.


Birthdays

November 17, 2007

Today is My Dearest Husband’s birthday as well as our oldest daughter Birdie’s birthday.  Thaaaat’s right.  They share a birthday.  

MDH is the big 40.  To him it’s a big deal.  To me it’s old hat.  He’s still just a chap to me.  40 was sooo last decade!  😉

Birdie is 32.  Wow!  THAT was a long time ago.  *sigh*  I remember being that young.  My body still worked without protest.  My brain still worked without protest.  It was great!  I had no idea at the time that I was imbued with so much raw power.  I wish I had. 

Birdie has come home from a land exactly different, far far away.  It’s really very very nice to have her home.  To see her on her birthday again is awesome.  To look into those baby blues again on the anniversary of one of the happiest days of my life is confirming. 

I wish them both everything they need.  I wish them both just enough challenges to make the successes tasty and worthwhile.  I wish them both just enough toil to make the pie days feel great.  I wish them both just enough hunger to make the food taste really good.  And I wish them both endless love.

I am incredibly happy they were both born.  I will celebrate this day forever because it symbolizes two of the greatest contributors to my happiness.

I love you both with all my heart.  Happy Birthday!


Random Thoughts – November 13, 2007

November 13, 2007

What is UP with all these young female teachers having sex with their extremely young male students?  Okay, that’s not really the question.  What is up with them deciding that after they do it, they have to be all in love and shit and running off getting pregnant and all that crap?  I mean criminy!  Get over yourself!  Those boys just wanted some poontang!  The girls their age weren’t puttin out.  You were.  Yours isn’t any better than any other one.  It looks like a bulldog eating mayonnaise just like all the rest of em.  Don’t try to convince the kid that gettin nookie means he’s all in love with you and has to carry on some kind of life long love affair.  Better yet, just leave those little boys alone, bypass the middle man and go sign yourself up at the sex offenders registry.  Then go to jail, go directly to jail, do not pass go and do not collect $200.

Princess Bella makes the BEST deviled eggs this side of the Mississippi River.  Hands Down.

My Dearest Husband is a hunka hunka burnin luv!  Hands Down.

His Highness The Buddha is the a closet sweetheart with a heart of gold.  No Doubt about it.

(I’m setting you all up for my Thanksgiving blog.)

The housecleaning fairy came to my house the other night while I was asleep and cleaned up!  I was astonished!  I was stunned.  I was pleased as punch!  The housecleaning fairy beats the tooth-fairy ten to one.

Question – When you get old, does the tooth fairy come to visit you when your teeth start to fall out again?  I ask this because I just turned fifty and I have started to get all the AARP junk mail in earnest.  I have to plan for my future and if I’m going to be visited by the tooth fairy, I can count that as part of my savings! 🙂

Getting older sucks a big green weenie.

The bad news:  A two year old girl went missing today in NC while playing with her family dogs out in their yard.  Law enforcement was called in and searchers went out and searched for her for hours.  The good news:  She was found about a half mile from her home, unharmed, unabducted, and basically unscathed.  She had simply wandered off and gotten lost in the woods.  How cool is it that there was good news at the end of this?  And how sad that yall won’t get to see it plastered all over the national news tonight.  So, I’ll give you the good news.  They are a happy loving family who were terrified by the thought that their little one was missing.  They did all the right things and in this case they got their little girl back safe and sound.  So here’s one up high for the searchers, law enforcement, the family and all the concerned citizens in this case and all the other ones that turned out right but that we never get to hear about.  Sometimes we need to hear the good news.


Veteran’s Day and Survivor’s Guilt

November 9, 2007

I just got back from reading (not near enough and I’ll go back until I’ve read it all) The Homeless Veteran’s Survival Guide.(Click on the link on the right) Wow.  I’m speechless  typeless.  But it got me thinking about all of the veterans I know.  And with it being almost Veteran’s Day, of course, you know me, I have some things I’ve thought about and I’ll tell it to you now.

I’ve never known a veteran who didn’t have survivor’s guilt.  And I’ve never understood it.  Because I’ve never known a veteran that wasn’t an amazing person, so it always surprises me that they could wonder why they are alive. 

What would we do without the survivors?  Who could tell us what it was like where they were?  Who else could tell us the stories that need to be told?  The good ones as well as the bad ones?  All stories have a place.  All stories need to be told.  Our veterans have precious stories that only they can tell.  They are the owner’s of the last moments of the fallen.  I don’t just mean the moments that took their lives, but all the times in between when they were last home and their deaths.

The surviving veterans are the only people who can make human beings out of the untouchable heros the fallen become.  Please don’t think I mean they shouldn’t be seen as heros, because I know they ARE heros.  But they were also real people with all the quirks and mannerisms that real people have.  The survivors are the only ones who can put that back into our family for us.

And if we didn’t have the survivors, who would let us know the kind of people our family would have been if they had lived?  We need to know that they would have been real people, all different kinds of real people.  Someone we could touch, feel, love, get angry at, talk to on the phone, forgive, you know?  The survivors are the ones that let us know that the fallen were not some unattainable godlike beings, but real human people.  Fathers, Mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives and cousins and friends. 

My Dearest Husband’s father died in Vietnam when MDH was three years old.  He has very few memories of his own.  Of course all of the stories of his father are epic in proportion, as they should be.  But the vets let him see the kind of man his father would have been if he had lived.  He told me one time that he wouldn’t wish that one single vet was in his father’s place.  He is THAT much his father’s son.  The survivors are a comfort to him.  They give freely to him their memories of his father and his fathers time and place. 

NO ONE could do that but a survivor.  So where does the guilt come from?  We need you!  It’s a painful job, but you were chosen to be the ones who represent the fallen.  And in my own opinion, you are all doing a damn fine job!  Only a hero could do what you have done for those of us left behind.  You guys got the hard part. 

TO ALL THE VETERANS :  THANK YOU FOR SERVING OUR COUNTRY.  THANK YOU FOR SURVIVING.  THANK YOU FOR BEING WHO YOU ARE.  THANK YOU FOR COMING HOME TO BE WHO WE NEED AND FOR REPRESENTING WHO OUR LOVED ONES WOULD HAVE BEEN IF THEY HAD COME HOME. THANK YOU FOR THE STORIES, FOR THE HUMANITY, AND FOR THE WONDERFUL JOB YOU DO BEING YOU.  FOR ONE DAY, FOR JUST A LITTLE WHILE, LET YOURSELF BE HAPPY THAT YOU SURVIVED SO THAT YOU COULD BE OUR HEROS.


Various and Sundry Stuff

November 9, 2007

It’s after three AM and I just got done removing a dumb old Trojan virus from my computer!  I feel violated.  Like someone came into my house and went through my underwear drawer.  *shudder*  How creepy is that???  I’m not sure which is more creepy, having someone standing around snooping through your stuff firsthand or having them be so cowardly that they have to do it from some far off place through wires.  At least I have a fair chance of shooting their buns off if they are standing in my house.  Note to hackers….stop that.  It’s not nice.  Shame on you.

We went to school conferences for report cards.  Now I have to call my mom and apologize for having been a kid again!  Dang all the stuff I did and all my snotty attitudes are sure coming back on me now!  Bella got straight A’s again.  No surprise.  We aren’t counting conduct and social skills here kids.  We are only counting academics.  Bella shines like a super nova in the learning arena.  She intelligent in the extreme and it’s her area of expertise. 

Her ADHD prevents her from getting those nice A’s in conduct though.  Poor kid.  You can literally watch her lose all control of what she’s doing.  I used to have the smart-assed attitude that ADD was truly an attention deficit.  That if her parents just paid some attention to her, she would be fine.  Then she came to live with ME!  Boy did that attitude ever smack me in the butt!  I found out first hand what it was like.

I fought against medicating her for as long as I could.  I didn’t believe in doing it.  I thought it was a cop out.  I thought it was the lazy way to deal with an illness.  I was ate up with a superiority complex.  I got over that.  Poor little Bella would honestly run herself until she fell down from exhaustion.  She would go until she literally could NOT go any more.  Her body would give out. 

It was then that I decided that my high and mighty attitude needed an adjustment and we put her on the medication.  It was an absolute delight to see the difference it made in her.  She could sit down and read a book.  She could finish a sentence.  She could finish a thought.  She could sleep!  It was awesome!  And now she gets those marvelous A’s on her report cards.  Screw the conduct grades.  We’ll deal with those as best we can.  I just love to see the smile on her face when she sees all those A’s.  That means she has succeeded and Bella needs that.

The Buddha is on the A/B honor roll.  This surprises me not one bit.  He is capable of being on the A honor roll every single time.  However, he knows that he can do it and for him, that is enough.  He likes to hear his teachers and me talk about how smart he is and how capable he is.  It makes him feel good.  He likes us to all sit around together telling him how smart he is.  He will do his homework, he just won’t turn it in.  However, he does good enough on his tests that his GPA keeps him on the honor roll even though his report card grades can be C’s and D’s!  It makes my head spin! 

It’s that head spinning part that means I need to call my momma.  Because I remember having exactly the same attitude when I was his age.  I remember being just as capable and just as unwilling to put in the time and effort.  I remember my momma doing everything she could do to convince me that it was important and me thinking that it just really wasn’t.  I figured that as long as I understood the work, it didn’t matter if I turned in homework.  My test scores would be enough.  And I could pull a good test grade out of thin air.  I’m sure I was infuriating, because The Buddha can do that now and it infuriates me!  He can put in minimal effort and get the most amazing good grades for it!  I tell him that I would give him an F for it because I know he tossed it together like a five second salad.  He just laughs.

However, they both got the point, they are both smart kids, and I like to tell myself that I had something to do with that.  I got my mama’s smarts and passed them down.  Okay, so I borrowed them from someone else.  At least I passed them along.  And I didn’t turn out so bad.  I’ve never been to jail. 

I DID get arrested once.  It was really fun!  The deputy and I had a big laugh over the fact that my fingers were the smallest ones he had ever tried to finger print.  I had to roll them myself because I have freakishly small hands and he had big beefy fingers.  And I told them when they took my mug shot, that if I had known I was going to get my picture taken I would have had my hair done that day.  We laughed and joked and had a real good time.  They said they never had more fun arresting anyone before and I said that I never had more fun getting arrested.  They called me on that one though, because I had never been arrested before.  They told me that they were going to make copies of my mug shot because it was the only one they had ever seen with the person smiling so sweetly!  In my defense, I really like new experiences and that was my first time!

It did kinda make me sad though because it ruined my hopes of becoming a spy for the CIA.  They apologized for that.  All in all it was a very pleasant experience considering the fact that I was being arrested for assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill.  The strangest things can happen to you when you have teen-aged daughters!  Just so you know, it never made it to court.  It was tossed out as the ridiculous charge that it was before it ever got there.  However, you can go down to the sheriff’s department and look at the old mug shots and if you see someone smiling like they are having the time of their lives………that’s me!

That all happened about fourteen years ago, but those guys still wave at me when we pass on the street.  We laughed it up about it when I ran the pawn shop and they would come in.  I think I was their favorite “criminal”.  The funny thing was, we were out of town when they came to our house to arrest us, so we rode up to the sheriff’s department and turned ourselves in!  *sigh*  Good times, good times!