Mean Mama

Back when Reagan was smaller and we were on our way to Waco, we passed by the prison system in Gatesville. Some of the lady prisoners were outside working and Reagan wanted to know what it was. I think my sister and I, at the same time, told the children that that is where mean mamas go. Needless to say everytime we go by there, Reagan has to say something about the mean mamas. Well, the other day, as we were headed to Temple to take the Jetta down to the shop for the upteenth time, we passed by there and you know what my beloved first born said, "I wonder what their number is?"

I said, "Why, you don't need it."

She says with a smirk on her face, "I don't know, I might someday."

Give Blood, Give Life

Last Sunday morning a 14 year old boy was killed and his 18 year old brother was severely burned in a car accident outside of Roscoe. They had been hunting with their father and were headed home to Midland. Anyway, their Father goes to church with my sister in Weatherford. I have been thinking and praying for this family all week because being an outsider that is about all I can do. I just finished reading their carenet page (you can go here to read more http://www.carepages.com/carepages/tylerseedig) and found that there is one more thing I can do and you can do also if you find it in your heart - give blood. If you give through Carter Blood Center and give them the sponsor number SPONO47291, they will credit your gift to him or just donate blood at the Red Cross or wherever because it is a precious thing. God gave each of us the ability to donate our blood to those in need and this is something we can do that costs us nothing - just a little time. I plan to donate this weekend while I am in Weatherford.

Please keep the Seedig family in your prayers. Tyler, the 18 year old, is having his first surgery today (the doctors say that he will probably have a surgery a week for at least the next 4 months), and the family is burying is 14 year old brother tomorrow. I can't imagine the emptiness this family is feeling right now.

Happy Birthday Mom

Today is my dear Mom's birthday. Now I know we all love our Moms with all of hearts but my Mom is extra special. These are just a few of things everyone should know about my Mom:

1. My Father died when my sister was 13, brother 10, and me 3 AND we lived in Gruver, Texas, which is 800+ miles from all any family. My Mom never missed a beat. She had always been a stay-at-home Mom but when this happened, she had to go to work to support her family. She didn't pick any old job. Since she still had me at home she chose jobs that would allow her to be with me and earn some cash to feed us. She worked at the public library in Gruver and guess what - she was able to take me with her to work. Is it any wonder that I love to read? We stayed in Gruver for 4 more years and then my Mom made the decision to move to Hamilton where both sets of my grandparents were and all my aunts and uncles and cousins. At the time, this was a very hard decision for her, but it was the best one for all of us. We now had the love and support of all of our family. I spent the summers and sick days with my grandparents who taught me to fish, play card games and dominos, appreciate farm life, about the old days and traditions, and just life in general.

2. How many of you cook at least 2 meals a day? And no, cereal or instant oatmeal doesn't count as cooking. My Mom got up every morning and COOKED breakfast. We would have eggs, biscuits, pancakes, cinnamon toast (with homemade hot chocolate), french toast, hash browns, sausage, etc. When it was game day, she would fix my sister biscuits, my brother pancakes, and because I was the baby, cinnamon toast. And at night, she always had something hot to eat.

3. How many of you iron all your clothes? My Mom did. There wasn't a stitch of clothes in my closet that wasn't creased or had wrinkles. And no, nothing went to the cleaners unless it had to be dry cleaned.

4. She taught us the love of God and that through Him all things are possible.

5. As much as she loved us, her children, I think she loves her grandchildren more, if that is possible, and this love is reciprocated by her grandchildren. They love to stay with Momo. Nothing makes her happier than for all of her grandchildren to be at home - her house.

6. She loves to go on vacation with us. Right Mom? In the summer of 2007, my sister, my Mom, myself and our children all took a road trip. We went to Nashville to see Charlie Pride at the Grand Ole Oprey, we went to Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and back home to Texas. My sister and I did the driving and my Mom would make sandwiches for all of us. And of course we all had to have something different - cucumber salad, ham, turkey, or pb&j. She was the referee between the children. Needless to say, we had a wonderful time. The children still talk about this trip and want to go again. Then this year she went to the coast and to the lake. She has even been to Cancun with us and put her feet in the ocean and took a submarine down to see the reef. When she doesn't go with us, we don't feel quite complete and say things like, oh Mom would have loved this.

My sister and I often joke that we could let Mom retire, sell her house and she could live part time with each of us. We haven't quite sold her on this yet.

I love you Mom. Thank you for all your sacrifices and life lessons. Have a wonderful blessed day.

Reagan Gets Her Ears Pierced

****** UPDATE********* Yesterday at the end of my entry I mentioned that my niece's dance team (Weatherford Blue Belles) will be performing in the Adolphus Children's Parade. We just received news that they will LEAD THE PARADE and will be dressed as toy soldiers. They will be on stage for the entire opening number (5 minutes). There is also a strong possibility that they will have additonal TV time with the Why Guy on Good Morning Texas on Friday. They also perform on Saturday afternoon at Six Flags.

Reagan has wanted her ears pierced since she was very little, but being the mean Mom that I am, I told her she couldn't have it done until she could take care of her ears herself and change out the earrings by herself. Well boys and girls, we hit that milestone about 3 weeks ago. She decided that since she was turning 8 very soon, it was time. Off to Weatherford and then to Fort Worth we went.

Here Reagan and I before she the piercing. She looks a little nervous, don't you think?

Reagan was very brave and didn't even whimper. Reagan has meticulously taken care of her ears without much prodding or help from me. Her sister was very patient while she waited on us to finish. Many people suggested that I go ahead and get Henlee's pierced too. I politely said no thank you.

On another note, this weekend my niece, Rylee, will be dancing with the Weatherford Blue Belles in the Niemann Marcus Adolphus Children's Parade in Dallas. We are all going to watch and will be sitting in front of City Hall. They danced last year (they were the train conductors) but we weren't brave enough to go. This year we decided we couldn't miss this opportunity. Look for us on TV Saturday morning at 10:00 on Channel 8.

What You May or May Not Want to Know About DW

My fellow blogger, Betsy, tagged me so here it is:

EVERYTHING YOU MIGHT WANT TO KNOW ABOUT MY HUSBAND!
1. Where did you meet? We knew each other since elementary. We grew up 2 blocks apart, went to the same Church, had brothers the same age, our siblings were in the Church youth group activities together, and my friend in 2nd and 3rd grade lived next door to him. Saw him all the time. However, it wasn't until my friend Becky and I were riding around in her Camaro with the t-tops off and I jumped up out of the top waving like crazy because I thought it was someone else, did he see me in a different light. I went to the pool a lot that summer and Jennfier Whitehead (Pendleton) was a lifeguard and a good friend of mine and she kind of set us up for a real date. Our first date was to the Old Settler's Reunion on July 28, 1990. Of course we went with Jennifer and Chris B. I don't remember when we had a date and it was just the two of us. We were always with other people.

2. How long did you date. We dated for about 2 years before getting engaged, and then about another year before we married.

3. How long have you been married? 15.5 years

4. What does he say that surprises you? I love you. (he isn't the real lovey-dovey type.)

5. What is your favorite feature of his? His eyes.

6. What is your favorite quality of his? His dry since of humor.

7. Does he have a nickname for you? NO, I don't think so.

8. What is his favorite color? white

9. What is his favorite food? Steak - grilled or chicken fried

10. What is his favorite sport? Car Racing - Nascar or drag racing, it doesn't matter.

11. When and where did you first kiss? In his pickup in my Mother's drive

12. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? Go to the races

13. Do you have any children? Yes, two daughters

14. Does he have a hidden talent? No, not that I can think of at the moment.

15. How old is he? 39

16. Who said "I love you" first? He did.

17. What is his favorite type of music? Rock-n-Roll (Van Halen, Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, etc.) and older country like Tom T. Hall, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, etc.

18. What do you most admire about him? He is a Christian and loves his family. I think when you marry your husband, you first love him for who he is but then when you have children together, you love him more and differently for the Daddy they become.

19. Do you think he will read this? No, not unless I show it to him!

20. Where did you go on your first date? Oops, I covered this in the #1 above. We went to Red Lobster with Jennifer and Mike for our second date.

Okay Betsy, I did it. I don't think there is anyone else for me to tag. If you are out there and want to participate, tag you're it.

Amy Mac this is For You

My last post was about how much fun we had at the races a couple of weekends ago. My friend Amy asked how come I didn't post about the spring races when we went with them (because I wasn't a blogger yet, duh). They have tickets for the fall races as well but Vance is a football coach and can't go and won't let Amy go without him. So the fall races, we have to make do without them. So here is a recap of the Spring.

For the last couple of years we have gone to the spring races with Amy and Vance. Vance and Darrell have been friends since kindergarten and have LOTS of history, right Amy? Anyhoo, we always have a very good time, but this was the first race weekend that we took our camper. The boys took the camper up on Thursday night and almost blew away. If you remember, there were all kinds of tornadoes up in that area that night. When Amy and I called the next morning, the boys didn't even know that they were almost carried away to the Land of Oz. Amy and I finally arrived Friday around noon and picked up where the boys left off. Big and Rich were in concert Friday night so my sister and her family came and stayed with us. We had a Big and Rich time. There are actually photos of DW but I'm a little scared to post them because I might offend someone. Most of you have seen it already anyway - it would be old news. After the concert we headed back to the campsite for a bite to eat and then we were headed to the camping ground across the street where all the partying goes on. Vance and Darrell went ahead of us and Amy I followed later. We found Vance but DW disappeared. He did this again on Saturday night. Oh well, he doesn't know what fun he missed out on. Here are a couple of pictures that Vance the tourist took. I think Amy said he took hundreds of pictures but she weeded through them and sent these.

I love this picture of me and Amy. She is my complete opposite but we get along fabulous. I thank God everyday that Vance married her.

(You get my drift Amy?)

This is Vance in one of the tent shops.

Isn't this a cool picture - the track reflected in her sunglasses?

Amy, thanks for being such a great friend and making me remember how much fun we had. I have been smiling and laughing the whole time I wrote this. I think I am going to have to come see you guys, soon.

The Races

Eweee!!! I think I am about to get caught up from playing last weekend. My last load of clothes (it is actually rugs) are in the dryer, my floors are all mopped, the bathrooms are clean, and most of the furniture is dusted.

Here is Lisa waking up from her nap that she took Sunday morning before the races. She seemed to think that we sang too loud and had too much fun Saturday night and disturbed her beauty rest.

Here are two of my most favoritest people. Isn't Rylee a gorgeous Jeff Gordon fan?
And of course here is me and Rylee taking a picture of ourselves. Rylee was instructing me how to do this since teenagers seem to love to take pictures of themselves.

Sorry there aren't more pictures - like of DW, but we had a wonderful time and met some great people (they were our camping neighbors). We basically ate every meal with them. We hadn't planned great big cookouts or anything so we were going to have sandwiches basically all weekend. But as luck would have it, we set up camp next to people who LOVE to cook and do a darn good job at it. Friday morning we had breakfast tacos (either I was really hungry or they were really good), Saturday morning we had breakfast tacos again but they were delivered to our camper with hot coffee, Saturday night was steak night, and Sunday morning we had made to order omelets with bacon, sausage, onions, bell pepper, mushrooms, cheese, the works. DW and Lisa made bloody marys for the cook since we were such moochers.

We are very much looking forward to the spring race and for our new friends to meet up with our old friends, Vance and Amy.

Cinderella is going to sign off for now and see if she can make it to the ball tonight.