Homecoming 2012

Stephen and Nick both asked girls to Homecoming.  They were even lucky enough to be in the same group.  After a little encouragement, they all agreed to forgo a restaurant and let me do dinner for them here at the house. It was a crazy stressful day and I was gone almost the whole time, but my mom and Whitley came through and got everything decorated so pretty and got the food going while I attended to my other commitments.  They were truly heroes for the day! We made a simple meal of steak, potatoes and corn with rolls and cheesecake for dessert.  We had one boy who fought us on the whole thing even stating he was afraid I would "mess it up".  Well, his date was the one who commented "this is better than a restaurant!".  He whispered to Stephen "I underestimated your mom."  Thank you.Ü

 

Nick and Hailey Long

 Stephen and Sadie Slade

 Stephen is going to make a great husband, he never fusses about having to hold the purses.

 Lindsey Sanders, Chad Miller, Madi Colby, Seth Miller, Sadie Slade, Stephen, Hailey Long, Nick, Brie Shilling and Addison Cox

Leader of the Month

Katy was the first one chosen in her class to be the "leader of the Month".  She thought it was just no big deal, but was excited to have a new water bottle AND that it was filled with candy.  During her parent/teacher conference, the teacher had nothing but great things to say about her.  A friend of mine who works in her class tell me regularly that she's the best one in there.  I took all that pretty loosely because they are in kindergarten and most kids are still really great at that age.  But apparently, she really is great!  Of course, I already knew that. Ü

Somethin About a Truck

Lately I have been easily irritated by the world.  I hate what it says to my family about how things should be. Last night I heard  Somethin About a truck and it just really set me off.  The entire "story" of this song is how all he needs is a girl in a dress with a beer, a kiss that leads to more and skinny dipping in the creek at 2 am cuz your too drunk to care.  Wow.  Really?  The amount of times I hear the phrase "white tank top and cut off shorts" is bewildering.  I know music has most often had questionable messages, but I feel like the message I hear most is "drink a lot and look sexy".  I guess there's no question, then, why our daughters are running around showing as much skin as possible.  The radio tells them that's what makes a man happy.  Then get drunk with him, he's sure to like you!  Seriously freaks me out.  Maybe I'm just old, I know every generation of parents thinks their kids music is "of the devil".  I listen to some of the songs from my youth and am shocked by how naughty they are.  I never knew.  I think the difference is, is that those songs mostly used a lot of innuendo and made more subtle suggestions.  The songs today are blatantly saying very simple, seemingly harmless things, like wear a tank top and short shorts.  No big deal there.  Now throw in a dance on the tailgate, put a beer to your lips, lean the seat back, and oh my goodness,  "blow my whistle"!  Aaahhh!!  I haven't even gone into the really  naughty stuff that's just right in your face, like "boobies like pow pow pow".

Did I mention the fact that this freaks me out?  Let me just also add that the music part of these songs are super fun. Of course they are desirable.  I've also noticed that our love songs are mostly about sex as well.  Oh how I miss the sweet songs about missing your smile, or watching you sleep.  Now I just hear, let's just stay home and have sex all day, then you'll know how much I love you.  Or, "does it turn you on at all...".  Super romantic words there.  What happened to love and commitment and romance?  Sweetness and innocence?

When my 18 year old daughter reported her first kiss recently, it was met with a little skepticism.  No one goes that long without kissing.  I think I even heard one mention that by that age, they've all had sex and if they say they haven't, they're lying.  It's just common consensus among the world that random sex with whomever is just normal and acceptable.  I even read an article that encouraged it so you can experiment with what YOU like.  I give total props and a sincere "way to go" to any of those teens who make it through this mess of a world in one piece.  Sex and alcohol are not harmless and normal.  They are dangerous and life altering.  Who's singing about that?

PS, funny post after my recent one about how much I love music Ü

As Good as I Expected

I may have blogged about this before, but the Wildflower Bread Co has a pasta dish called butternut squash ravioli.  I had it for the first time last year.  I believe I described it as "fall (autumn) in your mouth".  The problem is that they only serve it after 3pm.  Well, I don't do a lot of things without Glade so it makes going to dinner with my mom a little challenging.  We do lunch often, but not dinner.  Glade would totally not love eating at the Wildflower Bread Co, so I've waited for just the right opportunity to go and partake of this joyful experience.  Glade was out of town for 8 days.  So last weekend mom and I planned our outing, but life got in the way and we just couldn't make it work.  So tonight, our last chance, we made it happen.

I was a little nervous about my brain making it better than it really was, but nope... my very first bite I think my eyes rolled to the back of my head in sheer pleasure.  Exactly as wonderful as I had remembered.  The only problem was when there was only one little bite left. What was I to do???  I ate it.. sadly.. with a vow that I would be back.  Or I would find a recipe, but that's highly unlikely.  It's in this nutty sauce with a bit of nutmeg.. oh man.. pure Heaven.  Glade may just have to suck it up and go with me next time.

After we ate, we still had about an hour to kill so we jaunted over to Hobby Lobby.  Seriously, that, right after "fall in your mouth".  Someone pinch me.  There was this beautiful Christmas tree, only it wasn't a Christmas tree, it was a FALL tree.  My mind was reeling with the possibilities!  My tree up for 2 whole months!  Oh man, this could be bad.

It would have ended as a perfect night when we found the perfect ruffle for my curtains AND a coupon to buy it with, but the lady refused to cut it for us because it was 8:00.  Seriously, you are telling me I can't purchase something??  Unbelievable.  I guess I'll go buy it at JoAnn's.  But once I got over that, I enjoyed my long drive home with the windows down.  No, not because it was so nice out.  My A/C has been out all week.  Hair. A. Mess.  But whatever!!  Awesome night with my Mom and my hubby coming home any minute.  Life is good. ♥

Music makes MY world go round

I love music.  Lots of music.  All kinds of music.  Well, not all kinds, but most.  I can fit a song to whatever I'm doing.  Today music helped me run.  That's the case most of the time.  I ran two whole miles without stopping today.  Slowly, but I still did it.  Then I finished with a "sprint"  quarter mile.  I always have to find a song I know will get me through.  One day it was Let it Rock.  That's right "because when I arrive, I I'll bring the fire..".  If we're thinking  of fire, there's always Fire from Camp Rock "I'll be bringing you the fire..gonna light it up.."  Speaking of Camp Rock, It's On says "Show me show me show me show me show what you got, Come on come on come on come on ready or not".  Today as I ran my "sprint", it was all about Imma Be and guess what, Imma was!!  Seriously, it doesn't matter the song, I can make it fit.  Running brings out the beast in me, full confidence.  I like to wake Whitley up with the sweet hymn "wake up!  and do something more.. than lay in your bed all day".  Yep I change 'em to fit what I'm doing.  Call the kids to dinner with the always favorite "dinner time! dinner time! Din-ner time.  D I N NER Dinner dinner time, hey!!"  In giving encouragement to my children I like to sing the wise words of Hannah Montana "life's what you make it, so let's make it rock!"  or "We're all in this together" from HSM.  The list goes on and on. 

I can't even imagine what kind of dreamy fog my life would be if music broke out at all the right moments like it does in the movies.  How awesome would that be??  I can almost not leave my house without singing "Gotta go but I'll be back soon" from Oliver.  If I even hear 3 notes from "Arms of the Angel" I just have to go watch that movie!!  Don't even get me started on the many songs I get mushy about relating to Glade. ♥  Or Christmas music!!  Then's there's all the great church music.  There is truly a song for everything!

I can't sing a lick, but music is such an influence on my everyday life.  There are so many ways to love and appreciate music.  So I'll sum it up with words by Madonna "music.. makes the people... come together.."

I had a dream...

My mom's dad,  Grandpa Manary, passed away when I was only 17.  I was never super close to him and have only a few memories of him.  We spent the night at their house often and what I remember most is 1) him hacking up a lung first thing in the morning as he was having his coffee and breakfast very early in the morning (he smoked like a chimney)  2) he always slipped us these little pink mint candies under the table and 3) he had a little farm we could go to and pick berries.  That's about it.

Last night I had a dream about Grandpa.  In my dream he had a very special and expensive arrow, a flaming arrow, that he LOVED.  We all knew he loved that arrow.  Well, some guy came and asked him to give up his arrow so this guy could shoot it on a specific date.  He promised grandpa that if he let him have it, all his family's physical ailments would be healed by the following Monday.  So grandpa gave up the arrow but didn't tell anyone.  When I found out what he had done, I gave him the biggest kiss and hug (which I don't ever recall doing as a kid) and as I was hugging him, he said into my ear " I love you Laurie Bucket".

That was the whole dream.  But it was one of those dreams that you can't stop thinking about all day.  It just made me really happy.♥  I just found this ONE picture, grandpa is on the very end.

Rhett's First Race

Today Rhett stepped into the big league of High School XC (cross country, I didn't know that for awhile).  He was really nervous, as was I.  The day was cloudy and really humid at first, but the sun came out right before they started.  Luckily, with all the pecan trees, they were able to be in the shade most of the time. Our conversation before we came was that he was not to think about winning this race.  Just run as hard as he can and try to do less than 24 min.  No thinking about people passing him or where he's at in the pack, just run hard.  He didn't do so well at that, lol.  It was a double loop race and at the end of the first loop, he was in 8th place.  There were 40 or so high school boys competing.  What's sad is that he doesn't ever even look like he's trying.  Because he runs so well, it looks easy so I'm constantly telling him to step it up. 

He's finally coming up the home stretch and he's in a group of 4 other boys.  I'm telling him to turn it on, go!  He ignores me and keeps running.  Just seconds later, this cute girl from his team catches his attention and yells for him to race her and she starts sprinting.  Well guess who drops his water bottle and takes off?  He came in 16th at 23:40.  Beat his goal.  The frustrating part is that there was this other boy, who finished 5th, that Rhett always runs faster than at practices.  Everyone was confused at why this boy was finishing already and Rhett wasn't through yet.  Fifth!  That should have been Rhett.  He just needs to know he can.  Now we have a bench mark and his coach has a little better of idea of what he needs training wise.  We were very excited and proud of him and can't wait for the next meet!