Sweet Memories

So tonight after church, I took myself to Publix. I needed eggs, milk, toothpaste and of course, I was looking for Publix BOGO offers. There was supposed to be an ice cream treat in that BOGO list, but they were all out. So while I'm looking for the ice cream, I see the freezer section that is reserved for Carvel ice cream cakes. Imagine my surprise when I saw these great little things called "A Taste of Carvel." I was so excited. It's a cute little tub of Carvel vanilla and chocolate ice cream with those yummy little chocolate crunchies on top. I love those little chocolate crunchy things. This is what made me go "AHHHHHH" and get one. (BTW, only $1.49!!!! and just enough for a yummy snack.) For several years, my friend Kevin worked at a Carvel store in Lakeland. It was great. He actually became quite the cake decorator, enough that he decorated cakes for everybody for a while. I loved it when he worked there, because if he made our ice cream, he would always give me (if I asked) extra of the chocolate crunchy things. Just delicious – and a fun memory. He got so good at cake decorating that when we had a cake crisis, Kevin came to the rescue. When my nephew was little, for like his 5^th or 6^th birthday, he wanted a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cake. Robyn (his mom) was a recently divorced single mom with two boys, and since Ken's birthday is in December, money was always tight. It was hard finding him a TMNT cake. To make matters worse, right before his birthday he got sick. He couldn't have the party that he was supposed to have, because he was sick. We couldn't find a TMNT cake anywhere. So Kevin made him one. I think Robyn actually baked a regular cake mix and Kevin made it a Ninja Turtle cake. Kevin also helped us make a black cake for Robyn on her 30^th birthday. Patti and I gave her a hard time, and I'll never forget she reminded us that we would be 30 someday too. I told her since she is seven years older than I am, by the time I was 30, she'd be pushing 40 pretty hard. It's funny now!

My friend Kevin is a great guy. He gets embarrassed if people know this, but as a young man (in his early 20's) he took on the responsibility of raising other people's children. . . He's great! Isn't it funny how something so silly – a little tub of ice cream – can bring up such good memories???

Memorial Day

Memorial Day means a lot of things to a lot of people. According to Wikipedia, the holiday was originally called Decoration Day. In 1971, Congress officially made the last Monday in May as the official date and changed the name to Memorial Day. It is supposed to be day of remembering those soldiers whose lives were lost in battle. For many people, it is the official beginning of summer and for several years, the School Board of Polk County actually made the school calendar so that school was OVER by Memorial Day. I love the fact that my little town puts up a huge flag on City Hall, and puts flags around Lake Stella. I have family and friends who have served and are serving in the military and Memorial Day is a good day to remember and thank those people.

For my family, Memorial Day means something a little different. In 2001, we held our mom's funeral on Memorial Day. That may seem kind of weird to some people, but it worked for us. That year, we were done with school by then, students had actually finished two Fridays before (on the 18^th) and teachers had either two or three workdays the next week. My mom had her heart attack on Monday and we told the doctor to turn off the stupid machines on Wednesday. Because she died in another county, there was something weird with that and we had to wait for a while. We decided to do the viewing and funeral back to back and now, other people have done the same thing – we started a trend! Memorial Day for me will always be a day of remembering my mom.

 

My mom was born second of five children. She was not a healthy child – she spent most of her life until age 10 off and on in the hospital. She had an underdeveloped lung and she got sick a lot. When she was 10, the doctors removed the underdeveloped part of her lung and she was much better after that. She was a tiny little thing – her goal in high school was to weigh 90 pounds. She wasn't even 5 feet tall and a size two shoe was too big most often. She graduated from high school in June of 1961 and married my dad in August of 1961. My sister Robyn was born in June of 1962. When she married my dad, he worked for US Sugar, and could have worked there forever. Little did she know he would be called into the ministry and end up a pastor. They had been married for a week the first time he invited someone home for dinner with no warning to her. He never stopped doing that.

My mom was a feisty little thing. I think sometimes people underestimated her and tried to take advantage of her. She was not one to cross and it made her furious if someone wronged someone she cared for. She was happiest when she had a houseful of people to fuss over and cook for. She was a great cook, a hard worker and a great mom. I think she really worried about always doing the right thing – my grandmother told me that before my sister Robyn was born, my mom read every book she could find on how to raise a child and be a good mom. She was smart – she could have done anything she wanted. She had a scholarship to go to college and gave it up to marry my dad and have us. When I started kindergarten, she went to work. She worked in a bra factory for a while and then started business college. She graduated from business college with a 3 point something grade point average, with three children, a house, a job and a husband. That's why when I started at FSU, my goal was to have at least the same GPA she did, since all I had was a cat!

I don't remember ever seeing my mother sleep when I was little. She made all of our clothes, stretched the tiny bit of money we had to feed us all, and managed to keep us all safe and in one piece. We went to elementary school at Dixieland Elementary in Lakeland, and we had a carnival every year. She worked the cotton candy machine one year and because she was so short, she ended up COVERED in cotton candy. It took multiple showers for her to get all the sugar off her.

My mom and dad were married for nearly 40 years. Their first date was to the beach after the prom. Their last day together was at the beach. They were a great team. Somehow, they fit each other perfectly. My sister and I were lucky enough to have parents that loved each other and loved us – and we knew it.

I thank God every day that I was lucky enough to be born in the US. I know that I am lucky to live in the United States, with the largest volunteer armed force in the world. And I know that Memorial Day is the day we remember them. But for me, Memorial Day is also one of the days I remember my mom – and how blessed I am to have had her.

Wise words from . . . my candy???

So, I'm always looking out for words of wisdom. I have a bulletin board in my classroom with "Words of Wisdom" on it – great quotes from all different places and people. I have a quote from my principal, from Mother Teresa, to Winston Churchill to Master Yoda and Thumper. I add to it, make my kids read them when those words apply. I'm always looking. This is one reason I like to eat Dove Chocolates. (Yeah, right.) The Dove promises have neat little quotes inside. I've been indulging lately (Publix had Dove candies BOGO so of course I had to buy some) and here are some of the great quotes I've found in the chocolate. BTW, I've been saving the wrappers – I have NOT eaten all these myself at one time. I was passing them out during field day and I saved the wrappers. Some of these are very profound! Enjoy!

• Look for love in unexpected places.
  
• Remind yourself that it's okay not to be perfect.
  
• Indulge in the moments that matter most.
  
• Success is getting what you want, and happiness is wanting what you get. (That's almost Biblical – . . . for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content)
  
• Smile when you want to, cry when you need to, laugh whenever possible.
  
• It's OK not to do it all.
  
• Keep moving forward, don't look back.
  
• Give a smile, you'll almost always get one back.
  
• Love like there is no tomorrow.
  
• Most things you worry about never happen.
  
• If you fail, learn and move on. You're growing.
  
• Time you enjoyed wasting was not wasted at all. (I think that's my favorite.)
  

Pretty good stuff, isn't it? I wonder what the rest of them say. I've heard people say they just read Playboy for the articles – I'm just eating chocolate for the quotes. J

Our Josh

My nephew Josh was born 19 years ago on Monday. He was born in what we thought was not the best of circumstances – his parents divorced in October before he was born in March. He has never lived with his mom and dad together in a household. He is going to Polk State College and wants to be (at last check) an architect or civil engineer. The name "Joshua" means "Jehovah is salvation" or "God rescues" depending on which source one reads. Our Josh is the greatest 19 year old I know. He is caring, sweet and just makes me smile. He doesn't talk much, but when he does, it's good to listen to him. I wanted him to be a girl desperately, and actually cried when Robyn found out he was a boy, but now, I can't imagine our life without him.

When he was little, he didn't speak very clearly, and mixed words up, which was funny, because his brother NEVER did. Ken spoke in complete sentences as soon as he started talking and there was NO baby talk. Josh had all funny things he said – like he always called his pocket his "pock" and everything was "inside" not in. His money was inside his pock. . . It was adorable. One of my most favorite stories is about him saying the word "girl" he said "grrr." One day our conversation went like this:

I said, "What are you" he'd answer "I a boy." I said, "What am I?" He said "You a grrrr." I kept asking him over and over and over again so finally I guess he got tired of me asking so he sighed and said "I a he and you a she." I love that story.

One of our favorite things to do right now is try and figure out what we'd do if we won the lottery. We have all sorts of plans, which is funny, because we don't buy lottery tickets very often. Occasionally I do, but not very often. We like to think about what we'd do. It's fun and it doesn't really hurt anything. We also have long, involved conversations about topics that should NOT be long and involved. The other day we discussed superheroes and which one has the best super powers. We disagreed, but that's OK. He tried to teach me how to play chess the other day, but that didn't go so well and I'm such a bad loser, it's not always fun for other people to play games with me. He is the greatest. I was so upset when my sister told me she was pregnant, but I know now that God knew EXACTLY what He was doing. So, Josh-U-A, happy birthday! I love you!

Why I LOVE Publix

I love shopping at Publix. I like that my Publix is always clean, always has stocked shelves and that someone always asks me if I found everything I need. I love that if I'm not happy, they'll fix it. I love that they always offer to take my bags, even if I don't let them. I like it that around holidays, I can buy bags of food for hungry people. I love BOGO's – the buy one-get one free specials that they have every week. I love that by using this website: www.Publix.com/bogo I can find this week's BOGO specials. But today I had an experience that makes me love my Publix even more.

This morning I had to stop at Publix because I was stupid. We got to wear jeans today for a canned food drive, if we brought two cans. Well, I had my cans on the table in the kitchen, walked right out of the house, and forgot them. So halfway to school, I remembered. Publix was closer, my devotion this morning was about being generous, AND my friend Mrs. Turner, who is in charge of the food drive, told me yesterday that Catholic Charities, who gets the food, really needs peanut butter. So instead of going back home to get my two cans of soup, I just whipped into Publix to get some peanut butter. While I was in Publix, I noticed that Froot Loops were buy one, get one free. We give Froot Loops to the babies in the nursery, and I've recently had quite the craving for Froot Loops, so I grabbed two boxes, one for the nursery and one for me. One box was 3.99 so I was getting two boxes for 3.99, which is like two bucks apiece. I get to the checkout counter and one of my two favorite ladies was checking people out. There are two ladies at my Publix, both African-American ladies, who should train people in how to do their job. I always go to their lines, even if I only have 10 items and they are not working the express lane. They are friendly and personable, but still manage to be quick and nice. . . It's amazing.

She sees my boxes of Froot Loops and says "OOOH Honey, get the ones with the coupons!" I look and some of the boxes have a coupon on the front for $1.00 off. I said "But they are buy one, get one free!" She says, "That doesn't matter. A dollar off is a dollar off." So it comes out like this – I got two boxes of Froot Loops, which should be $3.99, EACH for $1.99. I paid a dollar a box! Can you believe it? She didn't have to tell me about the coupons, it doesn't matter to her if I use the coupon or not! Actually, using the coupon made another step for her in ringing me up, but she did it anyway. That's why I LOVE Publix.

Mean people

I was pondering a blog entry on "Things that Stink" and I opened up the floor for suggestions. Wow! Some were hysterically funny - Thanks Laura! Some were kind of sad. One that struck me in particular was my friend Melody's suggestion "Mean People." I've often been called "mean" by students so I started to think about the word "mean." According to dictionary.com (and in the context to which I'm referring) the word is defined as "offensive, selfish, or unaccommodating; nasty; malicious." It also includes "small-minded" or "troublesome or vicious; bad-tempered." The synonyms are "contemptible and despicable." Not exactly a character reference is it? I started thinking about myself in those terms – I don't think I'm mean. I am occasionally petty and stubborn, but mean? I don't think so. I think doing something deliberately to hurt other people – now that's mean. I don't EVER wake up in the morning excited because I can ruin someone's day. I never lay awake at night, thinking of ways to make someone else miserable. But, apparently, some people do. I saw a shirt or bumper sticker once that said "Mean people suck." While I hate that term, I think I agree with the sentiment. Stay tuned for the next installment of "Things that really stink!"

______ Reasons why I am ready for Winter to be OVER!!!!

Yes, I left it blank on purpose, because I haven't yet decided how many reasons there are going to be. Here is it (I know you've all been waiting with bated breath) my list of reasons why I am NOT enjoying the winter of 2010.

 

1. I hate the cold. I enjoy "COOL" but do NOT enjoy "COLD." Last summer I was in North Carolina with my friend Laquita and it was cool. On July 3^rd, it was 50 something degrees on the mountain. Somehow, knowing it was 90 at home made the 50 something not so bad. I cannot remember a winter that has had so many cold days ever in my life.

2. I don't have the right clothes for this much cold weather. I have about three or four sweater and three or four sweatshirts – and that's it. I have also been scrounging for long pants that aren't jeans. We're not always allowed to wear jeans to school and I don't have many long pants. I have a LOT of Capri pants, but can't wear them. Capri pants and socks, it's not a good fashion statement when you have legs as short as mine. There's another reason, but you'll get it in number 5.

3. Due to number 2, I have to wear layers of clothes. Those of you who know me know that the words "slim" or "svelte" would NEVER be applied to me. Add layers of clothes to that fact and you get. . . the Stay-Puft Marshmallow man. That's what I feel like. Oh wait, that's every other day. The opposite days, I'm channeling the Michelin Man.

4. Cold weather does nasty stuff to my skin. The skin on my arms and legs tends to be dry anyway, but with this weather, it's easy to mistake my skin for some sort of scaly reptile. I have tried many kinds of lotion – and still, I almost crackle when I move.

5. Shaving, dry skin. . . Enough said.

6. The Winter Olympics. I have always been influenced by what I'm seeing or watching. I've read books in June, and sat shivering, because the people in the book were freezing. When I went to see the movie "Titanic", I wore a sweatshirt, because I knew there was somebody was going to be in that freezing water and I knew I would be cold. (The A/C was broken in the theater; I nearly passed out because I was so hot!) Because I know myself, and I love to watch the Olympics, I always get cold, watching people in the snow and ice! That's cold stuff. Usually, it's warm enough that the cold that I imagine for myself is a nice break. When it really is cold and then I watch the cold, it's almost too much to bear.

7. I live in Florida for a reason. Sunday night when I was getting ready for church, the temperatures in Vancouver and in Tampa were the same! Florida is NOT supposed to be the same temperature as the place where they Winter Olympics are going on! That's just wrong on so many levels.

 

So, there they are! As my children say, I'm "hatin'" on winter! I admit, when it was 90 degrees in December I whined and complained – and I still think 86 degrees at 8:30 in December is wrong! But so is all this cold! You know what else is wrong? Having to wear every sweater and sweatshirt, I own more times this winter than all the winters I've owned them.