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!)

It's the most wonderful time of the year...almost...

Have you missed me?  No?  So sad, I've missed you.  But school has started, which means that the chaos has begun.  My house is never fully cleaned (like it was during the summer, ha!).  No one has the clothes clean that they want when they want, and I'm exhausted and shut down by 9:00 p.m.  But I can feel fall coming closer and closer and it is the most wonderful time of the year! 
Not this most wonderful time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwcYbo7pjto  However, this is a ridiculously funny video and before I went back to work (for a school) I'm sure I felt this way too! 
No, the most wonderful time of the year is when the days are short and the nights are cool.  I love driving home from the kids activities and seeing lights burning behind the open shades of houses.  I like to imagine a very June Cleaver image behind those lamp lit windows.  Don't get me wrong I love the lazy days of summer.  But the warmth of fall, it's just too much!
I'll try to be better at keeping up, I know you care!  And you know you care too, it's okay, you don't have to admit it, it'll be our secret.  ;0)

Did you hear, it's my birthday?

Today is my birthday... ;0). 

But seriously, here is the thing about having a birthday in the time of social networking, you feel so so loved!  To wake up and have 27 emails before nine o'clock in the morning wishing YOU a happy birthday, I mean WOW!  Now some of you may be saying, "Ummm, didn't that always happen to you?".  The answer is NO!!! 

Okay so here's my world of birthday's.  First I'm an August, but you knew that when I so blatantly announced it was my birthday TODAY! (Over it?  okay?)  Well when your an August birthday, there is no school.  Should be a good thing right?  But imagine, all year long everyday hearing on the announcements "Happy birthday so and so!" and then having to sing to so and so or having people tell them ALL DAY LONG.  And then the mom comes in with pizza for lunch and a special treat, blah blah blah.  Don't get me wrong, my mom did it up RIGHT for our birthday's.  Spoiled rotten we were but she's your mom, she's supposed to!  On your Summer birthday you wake up to only your mom being excited for you, dad's already left for work and sister could care less.  No excitement until your actually party which let's admit is only fun for a few years then your over the whole party thing. 

Jump forward about 30ish years and your a mom with three kids, do you really think anyone remembers your birthday?  Ummm, not unless you write it on the board with the schedules in the kitchen were they are sure to see it cause they are hunting for snacks and seeing what fun things we are doing on this hot summer day.  (Now would be the time for me to tell everyone that I made my OWN birthday cake last year but we won't get into that will we sweet husband?  hehe) 

So, your kids see it on the board and they quickly write happy birthday on a piece of paper and present it to you with love and affection.  And you oooh and awe over it like it's a masterpiece, when what you want to say is, "That's so sweet honey!  How long did that take you?  Five seconds?".  Okay so I sound a bit bitter huh?  I'm not, seriously I'm not.  I'm blessed beyond belief.  I cherish the quickly written cards, and the hugs and kisses just cause I wrote 'MOM'S BIRTHDAY' in big block letters on the calendar and the subtle hints that "I sure did enjoy the cake I MADE FOR MYSELF LAST YEAR!" 

But June, July and August birthday people I have good news that I would like to shout from the rooftops!  Summer birthday members we can now be one of 'those' people!  The ones that have tons of people saying "Happy Birthday!" over and over!  And do you know why?  Because you were smart enough to put it on the wall of your Facebook page and you know that this will happen because the other 364 days of the year you write "Happy Birthday so and so!" on your 400 friends walls.  But still when it happens, when you wake up and groggily check your phone (which you don't do holding coffee but that's a post for another time) and you see 27 emails and none of them are Spam, they are all for you!  I mean Wow!  Summer birthday's, this is OUR time to shine, no longer do we have to be sad because no one celebrates our day, we can join in the mass celebration of school year birthdays!  Thank you Facebook for giving us, the Summer birthday's, the chance to be like everyone else!  "sob"  And to my Facebook friends, thank you for taking the time to write on my wall...Oh...there's another ding!  Yea me!

The end is near...

Summer is drawing to an end, the kids are about to return to school and I'll be returning to work, *sob*.  Let's all take a moment to recognize the sadness and sorrow that accompanies such a realization.  *double sob* 

Sad little sunflower found here.