Thursday, July 16, 2015

A request for my teen friends about being cool...

So here's the deal, God blessed Craig and I with three of the funniest, most beautiful, and crazily different children.  No, this is not a bragging story, stick with me.  These really cool people come attached with some really cool friends (Start counting, cool is going to become a common word in this story, seriously stick with me).  

So for some reason these friends of my kids seem to really like Craig and me.  They ask his opinion and for help at the barn.  They hang out in my office (on second thought maybe they're just trying to skip class on that point).  Anyway, they vent to me their friend drama; they show me pictures of things that made them think of me (mostly coffee related).  I've prayed with these beautiful people, I've wiped tears, I've cried when they received scholarships and graduated from high school.  I have jumped up and down and yelled and made a fool of myself when they placed with their heifer or finaled with their solo.  And y'all, I can not tell you how my heart soars when one of them says "Love you Mama K, you’re the coolest!”  

Here's the deal y'all, I am the most un-cool person I know!  I worry when they do crazy dance stunts, I stress when they're in the rafters of the barn getting wood, I remind them to not text and drive, to wear sunscreen, not to drink, that nicotine is nasty and drugs are stupid.  I remind them to call their momma's and all the other seriously overprotective un-cool behavior mom's tend to dole out on a regular basis.  Yet still they insist, and I kind of love it.  So I’m going out on a limb here and am about to prove just how un-cool I truly am.  

Every decade has catch words or phrases that become popular and stick.  We all have our favorites!  In the 50's we had 'Cool' (are you keeping count?).  The 60’s was 'Groovy' (which means...say it with me...COOL!)  My personal favorite decade, the 80's, cool and groovy were replaced with 'Wicked' and 'Gnarly'.  The 90's was 'Phat' (y'all is this even a real word?).  But as we reflect back the words that replaced the outdated 'cool' they became a little odd.  So that brings us to the present.  In the early 2000's 'Sweet' was the new cool.  As in "Dude, that is one sweet ride!"  If someone said this to me I would take this as an ultimate compliment.  Sadly though just like all words, sweet became overused and some person out there decided to replace it with one of my least favorite phrases yet!  The word cool is supposed to be a compliment, however this new phrase...so NOT a compliment!  So here it is...'AF'.  Y'all, I can't even!  OK so here is where my teen friends are nodding their heads and my older friends (mom) are confused.  But if you don't know then please don't ask, don't Google, just slip peacefully past this current phrase whilst praying that the one that replaces it is gnarly.  Seriously that one was WAY better!

Y'all I know this is supposed to be the ultimate compliment, but (largest BUT ever here) it is so NOT!  Sweet girls, if some young man, boy, child texts you 'Quite frankly girl you are fine AF!'  Girls, run do not walk in the complete opposite direction!  This is NOT the person to bring home to momma and daddy and if I may borrow a phrase from my teen years, gag me with a spoon!  

My guys, if I ever hear y'all dissin' a young lady by using this particular statement, well Daddy-O, that is one big boo boo and Mama K will have no choice but to refer to you as a Dweeb for the remainder of your decades!

Y'all, girls are not fine AF, your truck is not fine AF, your boots are not fine AF and to be completely honest NOTHING is fine AF!

So there I go, proving my un-coolness and y'all I'm totally OK with that because quite frankly I'm ready for boys to go back to treating girls with respect and vice versa.  Y’all remember holding doors, holding hands, talking not snapping?  So what do y'all say, let’s come up with a new word for cool, huh?  


Go ahead, leave a comment for your suggestions...I KNOW they will all be totally rad!

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Ice cream and cookies...

So yesterday I had a kid that was just having a good ole fashioned bad day.  Her brothers and I tried everything in our power, but we just couldn't heal the hurt that was in her heart.  A hurt that had no good reason to be there.  (Ladies, can I get an amen here?  We all know those bad days with no explanation why and only chocolate and sometimes an adult beverage will cure it!)  I hate those days, they are just miserable and to watch your sweet baby girl go through it, BRUTAL!  So come nine o'clock we are making cookies because y'all, there is little that fresh baked cookies CAN'T cure.  But still the smile wasn't there and the spark wasn't in her eyes; so I suggested we deliver the cookies to someone who I knew would make her smile.  So there we are loading up with hot out of the oven cookies at 9:30 at night and making plans to surprise this hairy legged boy after his baseball practice.  (Oh what we'll do for our kids!  And can't you imagine what her daddy is doing...rolling his eyes and looking at me like I'm crazy!)  So as we are driving I'm even wondering why I'm doing this when I could be at home in my jammies with a good book.  And then I was taken back to a summer night when I was sixteen years old.

I had a friend over and it's ten o'clock at night and I had just gotten my license and we wanted ice cream (totally rational).  So I go in and tell my mom that we are going to run up to the corner store and get ice cream.  Well, as you can imagine that didn't go over so well with my daddy.  He was not about to have two teenage girls heading to the corner store late at night when clearly no good things could happen.  So, we go back into the kitchen obviously to open the fridge and stare longingly at the contents which clearly were not going to do anything to squelch our ice cream desire.  And then wouldn't ya know here comes my momma with her red hair and her pink nightgown and says "Girls, I'll take y'all to get ice cream."  Can you imagine!  We wanted an adventure and what did we get, momma driving us in her nightgown...NOPE!  So we try to say nicely no thanks and I can promise you it probably came out more like "Are you freaking serious?"  But, she doesn't respond, just hands me the keys and goes and lays her silly self in the backseat of the car so that we can drive up to the corner store for ice cream but with adult supervision!  Can't you just SEE it!  I can promise y'all that my daddy was fast asleep and we never told him that this occurred, because he definitely would've had a FIT!  At first my friend and I  rolled our eyes but we really wanted ice cream so whatever; and then as we climbed in the car we giggled and laughed and had the best time!  And more importantly than anything else, I have a memory that has lasted me 25 years and taught me about the type of mama I want to be.

Did we HAVE to go deliver cookies to a cute blue eyed boy at 10:00 at night?  Nope,  but did I have a blast driving around with the radio up on a late summer night giggling with my girl and watching her learn to navigate this craziness that is being a teenager?  Oh y'all, it just made my heart soar!  And maybe, just maybe in 25 years she'll be doing the same thing with her daughter and think of me (and possibly even deliver me some cookies too!)