I'm a Mean Mama

Pocahantus-Rosie


Do you see the why-are-you-doing-this-to-me-look she's giving me?

Poor baby....

Answer to Trivia Question

That picture was taken the end of my sixth grade year.

I was an early bloomer.

Nuff said.

The Proof is in the Pudding

First of all, let me say this...
ANGELA, THIS IS YOUR WARNING!!!

Okay, now...

A few posts ago, rw was talking about big 80's hair. She said, and I quote,
"I bow down to ree as the queen of big, permed hair."

Well, when I was home, I dug out some pictures of the big, permed hair. These aren't even the worst, but take a look, anyway.

Some of you (ahem, April) have actually seen these in person and/or had it worse than me.

Go ahead and laugh...I won't be offended...I know it's bad.




Senior picture...


Sophomore picture...gotta love that hair...it's called "blow-dry it straight up while spraying with Stiff Stuff, then curl the tips and tease the snot out of it."


This was taken when I was 19 or 20...


One of our engagement pictures...this one is for the pure enjoyment of the one-sided wing. It's coming back, I know it will...and I'll be ready when it does, with my Stiff Stuff, pick, and blow dryer...a technique every woman should master.


Here's a trivia question for you...
At the end of what grade was I in when this picture was taken...6th, 7th, or 8th? (I'm the one on the end, by the way.)

Addendum to the 'Realization' Post

They switched it up on me today...

We watched "The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross"...

Do you remember that PBS painting show??? It's like 25 years old and they still play it.

If you ever see "I Love the 80's" on VH-1, they have a throw-back to Bob Ross. Pretty funny stuff.

Realization...

I have found out that my parents L.O.V.E. the Hallmark channel.

That is all.

Happy Birthday, Mama!

Today is my mama's birthday, and I got to be here for it!

We had a great day. My sister got to come from Lubbock and brought a cake, so we had leftover chicken and dumplins (my favorite) and stew and cornbread for lunch with cake and ice cream for dessert.

A great day, yes, but it was pretty uneventful...I took Dad to the bank and post office. Later this afternoon, we went to Seminole to go to the nursing home to see Pa. You know, I've told you how he pretty much lives in his own world, and the conversations he has with us aren't really with "us" personally. It's just a generic conversation. Sometimes it doesn't matter what you say or ask, his answer is "yeah."

Mom: Ernest, what would you like for dinner?
Pa: Yeah.

Well, tonight we were sitting in his room, and he got this glazed over, far away look in his eyes. He lifted one of his shaking hands in front of him and began making motions. We were trying to figure out what he was doing because the motions were pretty random...long strokes or circles or short lines. Mom asked at one point, "Whatcha doing?"

He said, "Painting."

One of his favorite pasttimes was painting landscapes. He loved wildlife, lakes, and mountains.

He had a Time Life book of the United States on his bedside table, so I began looking through it to see if there were any landscape pictures in it. I found one that had mountains in the background with a lake in the forefront. I showed it to him and he loved it.

"Oh, yeah! Look at that!"

He grabbed onto the book and just looked at it for a minute. Then with his shaky hand he began "adding" to the picture. It about broke my heart, but I didn't say what I was thinking.

On our way home, Dad put to words what I had kept in my heart at the nursing home.

"We can't see what he was painting here, but the Lord has that masterpiece waiting for him in heaven."

Maybe it was heaven he was seeing...only God knows.

We got home, and my aunt had spaghetti, garlic bread, and caesar salad waiting for us with homemade apple pie for dessert...yyyyuuuummmmmm.....

A great day indeed.

Happy birthday, mama!

It's Fall!!!!

The first cold front of the year has arrived!

I am at my mom and dad's near Lubbock, and it's not supposed to get out of the 50's tomorrow!!! I am so excited!

I love the fall.

I think it's because I have so many fond memories during this time of year.

I love the chilly nights at a football game...the way a cold trumpet mouthpiece warms as it begins to be played. "Dear ol' Plains High, Grand ol' Plains High..."

I love homecoming and marching band festivals.

I love bundling up for a hayride where every part of your body is warm and cozy except for your nose.

I love blowing into a cup of spiced tea or hot chocolate so that the steam rises up to defrost that cold nose.

Some of my favorite things from my favorite time of year....

I've Been Tagged!

Okay, kablot spot, this is for you!!!

Seven things you never knew about me and now wish you didn't. Or as you put it...Seven strange/weird/crazy things about me:

1. I have one green eye and one blue eye. This is more or less noticeable with things I wear or the type of light I'm in...or how intently you are staring into my eyes! =) I can't tell you how many conversations I've been in where all of a sudden the person whose talking stops mid-sentence and says, "Did you know your eyes are different colors?" As if I've never looked in a mirror for the last thirty-something years!

2. One of my childhood fears was that the rapture would take place and I would be left behind. This was because, of course, I had convinced myself I had committed the impardonable sin. I would wake up in the middle of the night, and if I could not hear my parents snoring, I would tiptoe through the house to make sure they were still there. It was bad. One time I came home and all the cars were in the driveway, but the house was empty. I was so scared. I laid down on the couch and bawled and prayed. My mom and sister walked in about five minutes later. They had walked around the corner to the little store. Mom said, "Did you think we left you?" I said yes, but I couldn't bear to tell her what I really thought. This was back before cell phones, you know, so if no one was home and I was really scared that I had been left, I would call people to talk to them, because you know if Sister Johnnie answered the phone, you were okay. I was probably about 16 before I got over that fear.

3. I wanted to be Sandi Patty when I was a teenager. Or Whitney Houston.

4. Random songs go through my head at inappropriate times. A conversation or a situation or just a word can trigger songs in the jukebox in my head. Random. Sometimes I have to physically restrain myself from busting out in song.

5. I love gum. I love popping bubbles inside my mouth behind my teeth (weird, I know). It sounds like I'm chomping ice. It gets on Dan's last nerve, especially when we are in church.

6. One of the great things about living beside the church as a preacher's kid was all access to the sound system. I can't tell you how many hours I spent practicing my sound tracks and listening to songs I wished were on sound track over and over and over again until I got it "just right". As right as it can be when your 14. Even still, when I go to Mom and Dad's, I just walk over to the church to practice my song for the service (because everyone expects a song when you come home, don't you know).

7. I put Ex-Lax in my French teacher's brownies my senior year of high school.


Okay...I tag rw and crys!!!!!

Relief

Well, they finally got the hole patched up from the spinal they did on Dad. He is able to sit up. His headache is gone. Now he can concentrate on the recovery process of his new knee!

Thank you for your prayers.

Thank you, Jesus.

Update II

My sister called this morning to say that Dad's been running fever since last night. It got up to 102. When he sits up, he gets a horrible headache.

They think he may have a hole where they did the spinal for the surgery, so they may have to inject something to patch it up tomorrow. In the meantime, he has to lay flat on his back for today...which doesn't sound very comfortable.

Father, please take care of my dad. You know what's going on and how to fix it. Give wisdom to the doctors to take care of the problem. Give dad comfort and rest to his body. Give him relief. Thank you.

Surgery Update

Thank you for your prayers!

Dad's surgery went well. The doctor said it was very much needed, which is the understatement of the century because he's been put off by the VA for this surgery for the last three years. Oh, well, it's done now, and he's doing great!

I'm a lot like my dad...I can take a lot and be pretty patient, but when I've had enough, I've had enough. After the surgery, they gave him a pain pump to operate and use as needed. He had hit the button a few times, but felt no effects of the medicine. He called the nurse to look at the pain pump because he really felt that it wasn't working. He'd waited a while, so by this time, he's hurting pretty badly. The nurse came in and looked at the machine and said it was fine, that Dad just needed to "breathe through" the pain, "like this..." because breathing right would release the medicine to work better in the body. "Come on, hon, take a deep breath, and release it slowly."

Mom said she was trying not to giggle because she knew Dad was about to let her have it. She said she just wanted to tell the lady she better get out while she was ahead cuz she was gonna need those breathing techniques if she didn't stop!

Turns out the pump was working, but they did not have it connected to the right tube! Poor Dad!!!! But I talked to him tonight, and he is doing much better today. They got him up walking on it earlier, so he was tired but sounded in much better spirits!

Thanks for all the prayers!

Thinkin' About my Dad

Yes, I'm a Daddy's girl.

I'm a little blue because he's having surgery tomorrow in Amarillo, and I will not be there. It's "only" a knee replacement surgery, but surgery nonetheless.

We talked about it last week, and he and I came to the conclusion that it would be better if I came to their house and stay for a few days after he was out of the hospital. My mom has only been out of the sling from when she broke her arm for a couple of weeks, so her arm is still pretty weak. If I went to the hospital for the surgery, I wouldn't have any time left to take off when he gets home and there's no nursing staff to help out.

I know this is the best way, but it still makes me sad, though.

I Am...

I am simple and complex.
I wonder if I am all that I can be.
I hear the ticking of life's clock.
I see a light at the end of the tunnel.
I want to be a mommy.
I am simple and complex.


I pretend to have it all together.
I feel loved.
I touch the heart of God.
I worry about everything.
I cry when I've held it in as long as I possibly could.
I am simple and complex.


I understand that life is not fair.
I say all things are possible.
I dream of my complete family.
I try to do everything myself.
I hope to be all God intends for me to be.
I am simple and complex.

What a Day...or Week...or...Yeah...

Welcome to the wonderful, wild world of ree!

After my great meeting last week, I came back to work bright and early...dark and early (5:30 AM)...Monday morning to unload our freight truck. My district team leader called not too long after that and said that there has been a re-alignment in my district and region. Not really a big deal, but some people I know well are having to settle into different roles. I'm not exactly sure if I like it all, but no one asked me....SO!

Normally, we only get one freight truck a week, but this week we had the joy of getting two. So that meant today I had to be back at the store at 5:30 AM. We got the truck unloaded in record time (30 minutes), and got most of it put out the same day. While I was having lunch, my closing person called in sick.

Great.

We only have 4 keyholders. Me, L, M, and K, who is still in training. L came in with me at 5:30. K can't close by herself because, as previously stated, she is still in training. L was supposed to get off at 2, and I was supposed to get off at 4. L stayed until 2, I stayed until 6, then L came back in to close.

I couldn't finish this, so now it's actually Thursday...

I was so tired last night! I could barely keep my eyes open! Poor Dan was trying to carry on a conversation with me, and I was so tired I was talking out of my head! I think he was doing it on purpose!

At any rate, it's been a crazy week, but it's still been a good week. rw and I had a conversation a couple of weeks ago about how the week after the retreat was so hard, for whatever reason. I had such a bad attitude and I couldn't figure out why. I think it was a myriad of things all combined together since we had so much going on that week, but still, I thought, Lord, how can my attitude suck so bad when I had such an awesome time in your presence?

I'm still not sure about it all, but then Sunday at church we had such a sweet, sweet service, and even though it was great, I was scared. I didn't want to have another bad week! Kelly was telling us at lunch Sunday about a now-comical situation that at the time wasn't so comical. She said she kept saying, "I'm not gonna let this steal my joy!" So, I adopted that phrase this week. Even though it's been crazy, my attitude didn't suck! YEA!!!!

I know I've pretty much rambled through this whole thing, but maybe you can make sense out of it. All in all, it's just another day in the wonderful, wild world of ree!

Finally!

Well, don't ask me how, but after walking away for awhile, going back later, doing exactly the same thing, I finally got my new template!

Gee, I hope it's worth all the fuss...

Really Irritated

GGGGRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

Okay, y'all...how did you get your cute little layouts from PYZAM to work?

None, I repeat, NONE of them have worked for me. After I copy and paste the code and hit save, it tells me that there was an error. After every single one??? I know I'm not a computer genius, but I'm not an idiot! Surely I am doing something wrong for this not to work.

Help?!?!? Please?!?!?

Is there anyone out there who could help a girl out with a fresh, cute layout???

Home!

We are home!
I had a good meeting in Oklahoma, then Thursday, we went to The Lift, a leaders conference in the Dallas area.

It was incredible.

Jeff Deyo lead worship on Friday night, and words cannot even begin to tell how the Lord met us there. They did not just lead in worship; they lead into battle with every note sung, every beat struck, every chord played, and every string strummed. That is all I can say.

We were able to reconnect with old friends, and meet new ones, too! We got to share our vision with a lot of people who were curious as to what we are about to embark on!

It was a great time, but I'm glad to be back home! It's been a good, but long, week.

Think of Me....

Think of me fondly....

AS I'M GOING THROUGH WITHDRAWALS!!!!!!

I have to go to stinkin' Norman, Oklahoma, tomorrow for a business meeting, and I'm praying the hotel has a business center with free internet so I can check blogs!

Priorities, people, come on!

On another note, I have a question for you moms out there (hypothetical, of course)...

If you bought some throw pillows, had them out in your house that your mulitple children spilled things on, snotted all over, and who knows what else, which left spots on said pillows, would you return them because of the spots?