if they only knew

As I'm walking from class to class, I'm sometimes surprised by what comes out of the mouths of some of these college kids.....

~true story, I don't remember last night, at all, like don't remember anything~

~ Clara, girl, you know I'm not violent but he deserved it~

~ I mean really the professor is ridiculous, we had to read all the chapters he listed on the syllabus to pass the test!~

~ my dad said no more charges for my nails, he said it not a NECESSITY!~


and my all time favorite which never gets old to hear...

~ dude where's my car?~

procrastination at it's finest

We're leaving for Washington DC tomorrow afternoon as soon as I get home from my last class. My husband has promised to have the kids and suitcases packed and waiting at the bottom of the cul de sac. Who wants to hold their breath with me?
I have two test tomorrow and have studied so much in the last week that my dreams are filled with every type of theory and formula in the Algebra world and from the Neolithic Revolution until Jesus crucifixion. And I can't help but ask myself, what in the hell are you thinking?! I mean REALLY what in the hell were ya thinking because this stuff is HARD! Like I want to pull my hair out hard! Like 2- 6 packs and a hand full of Motrin hard!
And kind of useless.
I mean in my 35 years of living I've never been stopped and asked to use the radius of an equation to find the center of a circle, nor have I ever gotten into a conversation with a person and discussed the impact of all 32 thousand Chinese Dynasties before.

And really, honestly, I'm okay with that. 

If I make it through this semester alive and still with a head full of hair, I'm going to have to reevaluate my class load vs. my volunteer load. I'm learning (and admitting out loud) that doing my best at what I love, might mean learning how to say........NO.

So if you encounter me on the street and you ask me how my day is going and I turn to you with my fist clenched with a hand full of my hair screaming NO, please don't be alarmed.
I'm just practing using my outside voice.

Or drunk.

let me count the ways

In case I needed another reason to add to my list of why I adore this little creature so much.....

This is my baby girl practing her Student Council speech that she had to present to her class. She read her words with ease and paused at every period. She looked up at us (her audience) twice and then went right back to her words. After she spoke about the business at hand she ended her speech with a little joke and after her joke she planned to do a hand in the air, Gene Simmons type tongue (rock on sign). I was in awe of every syllable that she spoke and of every ounce of confidence in her body. After she was done, she asked if she could practice her speeches on me when she becomes the President of the United States?

I answered as any proud momma would,"ROCK ON DUDE!! "

hitting the right button

Some times just doing it and not talking about it is really hard.

And some times it's the best flipping thing in the world.

 My girlfriend Lena and I have been talking about taking a trip

to New Orleans for ohhhh about two years.

The logistics were never going to work out.

So we decided to do what any responsible mother

(who needed to get the heck out of dodge would do)..... 

we left everything and

took a much needed pause

(and a few much needed daiquiris and

po boys and beignets :)

y'all know how we do it!

                                               

Corks and Canvas

Lena's face says to me,

"what in the hell did this woman talk me into"?! 

what our painting is suppost to look like.

our supplies

 (yes Amstel Light is a supply thank you very much)

my finished product

all of our finished products. Not to bad!

This picture signifies my two worlds coming together and is now happily framed and collecting dust in my family room. These two ladies (my Louisiana girl and my Georgia girl)

 have both been my rocks when I needed them the most.

They both mean totally different things to me but are both equally part of why I am who I am today.

And what I was on this day was paused and it felt oh so good, if for only a little while :)

laying it all on the table

This is my oldest son's life in a nutshell. Everything that is near and dear to him in his life right now is sitting on my kitchen table (with the exception of his running shoes which were on his feet).
His gallon jug of water (he consumes about 3 of these a day), his school bag packed with school bag things, his lunch, his phone and 45 pounds of grapes, and then his agenda and every other book that he can't cram into his bag. I told him at some point his biceps will be as big as his head; the next day he added another book to his pile and then checked his biceps in the mirror :)

afternoon snacks gone black

me: son, make sure you read the directions on the label.

son: MOM, I know what I'm doing!!

me: I'll be outside if you need me.

(45 seconds later)

son: MOMMMMM I need you!!!

(as he stands there calling my name black smoke is billowing out of my front door)

me: SON, what happened???

son: UMMM, I guess I should of read the directions :)

This was one of the days when that boy needed to feel lucky he is so cute and that I've spent a small fortune on his mouth because I caught myself googling how many teens REALLY do make it to adulthood alive......

Do they even know an Ashford or a Simpson?

There truly is something to be said about every day positive reinforcement when it comes to raising a family. Not saying that there aren't times that I wish I could gently yank the vocal cords out of the mouths of the people that I'm positively reinforcing. But I mean REALLY who doesn't have those days?

My kids think they can move mountains. I mean LITERALLY move mountains. My daughter believes that she can slay dragons with her sparkly barrette and still have good hair and good manners at the same time. Either with their minds or muscles, they know that they have the strength inside of them to do anything they set their minds to. A sliver of that has rubbed off of me.

Inside my comfort zone I am SHE RA the warrior woman who can do everything. Outside of that cushy comfortable spot I got nothing but a sliver. Hey but I take that sliver and build on it, each and every time I see another mountain. I've slowly been fixing my cracked road in life. Most damages have been repaired. Occasionally I come across a pothole or 4 and start the repaving process again.

I've started a new mountain, I mean semester this week. Health and Fitness, World History and Calculus are the enemies that need slaying now through December.

My daughter has graciously handed over her sparkly barrette, the purple one. The purple one sparkles more than the orange one and EVERY ONE knows that the sparkly the better! And as I'm walking around the KSU campus with my sparkly barrette in hand I have to fight the urge to scream at the top of my lungs,"AIN'T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH"!

Now were is that damned dragon..........