Hallelujah here we are!

One thing I completely forgot to mention last time was that Saturday before last, me and Terri and Cheryl dumped all the kids off on Rusty and Mike and went to the theatre to see the play "Trailor Park Broadcasting Scandals". It was pretty funny. Only in Mississippi could you see such a play I do believe lol.


Last Saturday morning I went to the gym. On my way home I got total spring fever and took out my "Summer CD's" and listened to them, full of music about the beach and stuff - lots of Baha Men. I got a terrible urge for fresh field peas and snaps. What I wanted was some grown and cooked by Mamaw Gin, but I had to settle for going to the little fruit stand down the highway and paying for some high priced ones. But they were good. As I was walking up, they were putting out cartons of GREEN PLUMS. I haven't had green plums in YEARS. So I had to buy those too. And they had boiled peanuts so I got some of those for Rusty and Tyler - they love them. So I drove home with my fresh plums, peanuts, and peas while listening to "Beach Baby" with the windows down lol.

The Green Plums:

Saturday night Terri and Lysa came over for a visit. I cooked Chicken Parmesan - a recipe I found at the dentist office last week, it was OK. And we sat and chatted til around midnight. You never know just how badly you need "hanging out with the girls" time til it happens and you see how much better and happier ya are afterwards lol. Wouldn't trade none of my 3 guys for NOTHING, but sure is nice to hang with girlie folks now and then lol. Connor spent the night with Tanner on Saturday night also. They played some baseball out back. Isn't the person with the bat supposed to wear the helmet? At one point, Tanner was the pitcher and he was wearing the batting helmet and using the green lawn chair as a shield in front of him lol. I got there too late for the shield, but here is a pic:

We had awards day at school on Tuesday. Tanner didn't get any awards this time. He barely missed honor roll again. Tanner’s teacher left a comment on his report card that I guess I can’t argue with. It’s true. Kinda made me chuckle, but I do know it’s true:

“Tanner’s lack of maturity is hurting him. I don’t say this lightly. Tanner is very intelligent, but he has to mature to meet his potential, and I think he has the ability to do this if he is given space to grow. Give him more responsibility!”

What can I say?

Cody got some awards though. And he even got the MUSIC award in 4th grade from his Aunt Tracy lol. I wondered if people would think I was being partial, but then I just didn't care because he deserved it. And it would be EASY for me to justify giving him the award because there are hardly ANY deserving 4th graders at all this year for sure! lol

Couldn't stand my short strap purse another day so bought a new summer purse, with some respectable straps on it that I can actually use to carry it on my shoulder.

Monday at school, I began working on my big production for the last day of school, which kept me busy the whole week. It went well today though I suppose. We had maybe ¼ of the school present in the cafeteria for it. Everyone else either stayed home or had to go to detention for bad behavior lol.

Tyler did not have to go to school on Thursday so Collin came and spent the night. Tanner begged me not to make him go to school Thursday either, so I let him stay home with the 2 big boys. Everything went well. Mom decided to go ahead and take off for Bama Thursday evening so she picked up all the boys and off they went. So Rusty and I have the place to ourselves this weekend. We have to play that class reunion Saturday night, then I have to work some on Monday. Then I will be going to Bama for a couple of days next week as well. Tanner was excited when I told him that Chloe was a pro at braiding the plastic strings. He packed up all his strings to take with him. He says the funniest stuff. His comment was "You know, it figures that Alabama girls would be really good at braiding the strings." I asked him what he meant. He just said something about how Alabama girls are smart and he's so glad that he has some Alabama girl cousins lol. Then the next day he started to think about it and decided he needed to come up with some kind of trade, that Chloe might be expecting to be paid somehow for teaching him. He thought he should teach her how to do something too but he couldn't think of anything she might want to learn how to do so he considered paying her money. I told him that with family, you sometimes just help each other do stuff because you want to and because it's fun and that you don't neccessarily have to be paid for it. So he was happy about that - that Chloe might just teach him how to do it for free! lol. He's so funny.

So glad to hear Ali is reading "The Stand" lol. I remember reading that book in high school and it was one of my favorite books. I'm sure I left it at Mamaw's or at the lakehouse for someone to read down the road so Ali is welcome to keep it. From time to time I leave books there for that reason, because other people have left books there before that I have ended up reading too. It's kind of a trade off I guess. Brandon sent me a whole reading list for the summer and I can not WAIT to get started. Sounds like we have some similar tastes in books.

Sue, we'd love to play a backyard party at your house and I'm SURE we can outblast your neighbor's parties lol. I don't know if we'll ever be organized enough to travel outside of Vicksburg from the way things are going but if we ever do I'm gonna keep your place in mind! lol. We'll be sure to learn the raunchiest Metallica song we can find to use in retaliation for the repeated playing of "Turn the Page" lol.

I typed up the Family Concert List blog entry this week, but I still need lists from Susan and Rando and some others. Here is a link to the list:

http://summerof71.blogspot.com/2007/05/family-concert-list.html

This is how we teachers celebrated the last day of school, catered by Rowdy's Restaurant!

Most of this week has been dominated by rock band drama. It's been a total fiasco. It’s SO aggravating I’m not even going to talk about it. I’ll let you know next week how our first show goes this Saturday. That reminds me. I wanted to post a list of all the songs our band is currently playing so everyone has an idea of the cheesiness that is us! The cheesier, the better! And it's so much fun that way. I would not want it any other way. I wouldn't want to try to be some serious dark mysterious rock band personality - I'd feel terribly silly at my age trying to be "cool" lol. But we're playing all the old 80's hair/glamour rock/radio rock stuff that was big back in OUR day. One thing I know that we are for sure adding later is "Sweet Home Alabama" - now that will be awesome lol. Here is a list of everything we will be playing this weekend (with more added later as we have time to learn it):

1. Working for the Weekend - Loverboy
2. Nothing But a Good Time - Poison
3. Panama - Van Halen
4. Don’t Stop Believing - Journey
5. Dead or Alive - Bon Jovi
6. Kickstart My Heart - Motley Crue
7. Jessie’s Girl - Rick Springfield
8. Never Say Goodbye - Bon Jovi
9. Sweet Child of Mine -Guns n Roses
10. We’re Not Gonna Take It - Twisted Sister
11. Home Sweet Home - Motley Crue
12. Pour Some Sugar - Def Leppard

--------------------------------------------------------


1. Talk Dirty To Me - Poison
2. Crazy Train - Ozzy
3. Runaway - Bon Jovi
4. Sister Christian - Night Ranger
5. Girls, Girls, Girls - Motley Crue
6. Here I Go Again - Whitesnake
7. Faithfully - Journey
8. Don’t Tell Me You Love Me - Night Ranger
9. I Wanna Rock - Twisted Sister
10. Summer of ‘69 - Bryan Adams
11. Living On A Prayer - Bon Jovi
12. You Give Love A Bad Name - Bon Jovi


----------------------------------------------------


1. Separate Ways - Journey
2. Hate Myself for Loving You - Joan Jett
3. Wild Side - Motley Crue
4. Making Love Out of Nothing - Air Supply
5. Sweet Child of Mine(again) - Guns n Roses
6. Run to the Hills - Iron Maiden
7. Every Rose Has It’s Thorn - Poison
8. Jessie’s Girl(again) - Rick Springfield
9. Search Is Over - Survivor
10. Pour Some Sugar(again) - Def Leppard
11. Rock and Roll All Night - KISS








This week was a bit special though because of the arrival of the WIG for the other guitar player! Lol it's a pretty cool wig for 30 bucks I think.

ONE MORE WEEK of school

I can almost see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. I am indeed gonna make it to the end of another year without totally losing my mind!

Let's see. Tyler has had a good week I guess. He got an award from his teacher in Internet Research class. He said he was dozing in class and suddenly heard his name called to the office. He had no idea what was up - thought he was in trouble. But when he got in there he received an "Outstanding Student" award from his Internet Research teacher (who happens to be Coach Williamson lol). I, for one, was thrilled! But on another note, the same teacher that sent Tyler to the office last week called me on Monday to tell me that Tyler is just not doing work and being rude and sleeping all the time. I assured her we would fix it! When I talked to him about it he said she was lying, he doesn't sleep. He says she's half crazy and whines all the time in class about how her fiance dumped her a few weeks ago. And says she goes off all the time over crazy things. There is probably something to what he has to say about her, but I tried to remind him that the point is - crazy or not - she's the teacher and he has to be respectful and he has to do the work. So the next day she told him......"I spoke with your mother yesterday and she was not pleased with what I told her!" And what does my darling son say? "Really? Why, she didn't even MENTION it!!!! Are you SURE you called my mom cuz like, she didn't say a WORD to me..." Smart ass. lol. I hope he can make it through just one more week.


Tanner managed to stay out of trouble this week to my knowledge. He had me go and buy him some of this plastic craft string stuff that all the kids are playing with. They put them together and do all these neat braid things. Well, I bought it, then tried to follow the directions and show him how to do it. The stuff is HARD I tell ya. I tried to teach myself so I could teach him, and I ended up cussing and throwing the string down. Tanner laughed at me. We finally worked through one of the sets of directions, but neither of us can get it right every time. I think he's about lost interest in it now.


Tanner had to go for his very first filling that he was awake for. He had 7 teeth filled when he was 4, but they knocked him out to do that. This was his first time being awake and experiencing the shot and the numb mouth and all. I tried to talk to him and prepare him for it on the way there and he was a bit worried. They wouldn't let me go back with him, that worried him too. But he did great. He just milked it a bit. They had given him the laughing gas and were waiting on it to wear off before he got out of the chair. He would start to get up and say......"Oh, wait a minute, I'm still a tad bit dizzy....." and lay back down. He'd say his legs were too weak to move. And his head felt funny. And he didn't think he could walk. And so on and so forth. He did that for about 15 minutes. Finally I told the lady.........I believe he's putting a bit of this on for show here. So we made him get up and he struggled his way to the car. He was completely intrigued with his numb cheek. He went on and on and ON about it. Then he told me he thought that I should give everyone a phone call to come over and celebrate. I asked him celebrate what??? He said....."Well, my tooth getting fixed, of course!" I told him that getting a filling was just kind of an everyday sorta thing, everybody does it now and then and it's not a special occasion lol. He just didn't understand why not.


Last weekend was grass cutting weekend. Tyler was dreading it as usual. And he told me at dinner Friday night that he would PAY someone to cut it if I would let him. Rusty overheard him and got kinda irritated. Rusty said, "I'LL cut the grass and you can pay ME!" Tyler said.....ok cool! So Rusty, for the first time in YEARS, push mowed the grass and Tyler paid him $40. Tyler thought that was a good deal. I tried to reason with Tyler about exactly what he was losing here. He makes $50 every 2 weeks working for Rusty, and I pay him an extra $10 or so to cut the grass every 2 weeks. So he's losing the $10 I pay, and he's paying Rusty $40 of the $50 he makes. So now, instead of $60 every 2 weeks, he has only $10 every 2 weeks if he continues to pay someone to cut the grass. He STILL thinks that is a good deal. I just don't know about him. I have somehow failed in teaching him the value of money I think lol. I started to take a picture of Rusty cutting the grass but I figured I wouldn't press my luck. Rusty, yardwork, and humor do NOT usually go together lol.


I got my kindergarten program over with on Tuesday. We did the morning performance and it went as well as can be with 5 year olds. But then Tuesday night at the PTO meeting, I had 15 out of 73 students show up for the night performance. It is just NOT worth my time to do these night time programs, I try to make my boss see that. Parents aren't like they used to be.


I've started doing my end of the year cleaning in my classroom. I've decided to get rid of everything that I never use. I have so many books and junk that I keep laying around thinking I might some day need them. I've cleared out 4 shelves full already. I found this one old, purple, first grade reading book and I wondered why in the HECK had I been keeping it???? I opened it up and I remembered. It was an old, old reading book I found back at Cedars School when we were cleaning it out. And inside that reading book was the sock puppet play "Three Billy Goats Gruff" - the exact same one that I did in my first grade class at Curry lol. It was the same reading book we had used there. So I had kept it for sentimental reasons I guess, and I'm still keeping it now lol.


We had a nice visit from Mickey this week. And then Ken and Connor on Thursday night. Tyler had come home Thursday afternoon asking me if I would "teach him how to do geometry real quick tonight". I came unglued. All year long he's been barely getting by in there, and he wants to ask me to help him CRAM for the final test????? I knew I'd have to spend at least 2 hours studying and brushing up on it myself before I could even begin to help him. But, thankfully, Ken came over. And within about 45 minutes, he had Tyler caught up on just about everything. Tyler thinks he made in the 90's on the test today. I sure hope so, and I'm sure grateful for Ken!

We watched two movies this week: Rocky Balboa, which was good, and The Prestige which was an AWESOME movie. I love movies with great plots and that is definitely a great one.

Our first show with the band is next weekend at a class reunion. I expect it to go ok, but not terrific just yet. We seem to be beginning to get quite booked up. We have another show booked on June 1 now. And 2 more in June but I don't know the dates just yet. Then we have 2 in July set as well. I guess I'm just gonna go with the flow on this and see what happens. I hope I like it and have fun lol. The thing that I am looking forward to doing is booking shows in Jasper, in Florida, and on a cruise ship! lol. Dream big huh? Get a free vacation by "working".

An odd thing came up this week. Some cannas that I planted years ago (I think that's what you call them) always grow and sometimes almost have a flower or two, but usually screw up somehow. But right now, in May, already I have the best flower on one of them that I ever had. I can't grow much of anything, but cannas seem to just grow themselves with no help.


I was checking out the football boosters web site this week and found a picture with Tyler in it

from the jamboree last weekend. Good thing I saved it because it was gone by the next day. But here he is, #33 wiping his eyes lol. Speaking of football, it's been a good week for Tyler. He had evalutions today and he got two 9's, two 8's and a 5 from the coaches (out of 10). He said he got the 5 on knowledge of his position, but he's just been moved to linebacker so he's brushing up on it. Kyle is back on the team too, woohoo!!!! I picked them both up from practice today and bought them McDonalds. Felt guilty for not buying it for Blake and Tanner - I'm starting to be like MOM lol. Tyler said his coach is grooming him for his position and told him today that he wanted to see him start showing his leadership skills and being the "alpha male" that he is on the inside! (boy, if he only KNEW). After practice a couple of older guys were picking with Tyler and had him pinned up against a locker and pretending to whoop on him. Tyler was squealing and screaming and laughing. The coach said "Gardner!!!!!!!" Tyler looked up. The coach said.........."ALPHA MALE, Gardner!" So Tyler said he bowed out his arms and made a mean face and started yelling at the guys "Get OFF ME, BOY!!!!" They all thought that was pretty funny.

If anyone knows any good books to read, please send me the name of them. I'm looking very forward to reading some books this summer. I haven't read since Christmas and I'm dying for a really good book.

I feel like I've rambled some this week lol. Ah well. I'm just getting excited I guess. One more week of school, and then I can start thinking and doing things besides work and band! And I can visit folks in Alabama, and read books, and swim, and sleep in sometimes, and watch movies, and watch stupid talk shows, and daydream, and clean house, and paint my bedroom and Tyler's bedroom, and thousands of other things........

Those new lakehouse couches are calling my name.......check 'em out on mom's blog.

I still haven't forgotten the concert list posting.....I"m STILL waiting on Rusty's list. Didn't get one from Susan or mom yet either. But I'm gonna have it done by the end of the weekend.

2 more weeks of school!

Sunday was band practice. No singer, so that was disappointing. We got done what we could.

Ah! I just LOVED this newspaper article! That is so awesome! I especially like Dustin's quotes lol.
http://www.mountaineagle.com/NF/omf/eagle/news_story.html?rkey=0103878+cr=gdn

Monday was just the usual school day. But I had gotten to a point where I just couldn't stand another minute, and so when I got a little ill Monday night I didn't hesitate to stay home on Tuesday. Then I decided, heck I need Wednesday too. So I stayed home and did NOT clean anything. I watched 4 movies in the 2 days I was home. And I ate peanut butter on saltine crackers for breakfast, lunch, and supper on both days. I didn't hardly use the net much, I didn't talk on the phone. I think I just took a vacation from the world lol. It must have done me some good because I have been able to survive just fine on Thursday and Friday.

Rusty started feeling sorry for me when I began my "decline into exhaustion" on Monday, and he took Tanner into the kitchen and taught him how to unload and reload the dishwasher, and how to hand wash pots and pans. And told him he'd pay him $5 a week to do that every afternoon. And so far Tanner has stayed with it and done it everyday. We're having to teach a few extra lessons here and there, but he's learning. Like.....only the glasses that are too big to go in the top shelf go in the bottom shelf, and you can't stop the dishwasher in mid cycle and add dishes to it, and NO, you CAN'T play with the sink sprayer for 2 hours straight! But he's trying his best and I'm proud of him. Another week, and he'll be a pro.


Ken came over with Connor for their regular Thursday visit. He's been coming over on THursday's while Heather does something at church. It's been nice, hope he keeps it up. Tyler was sick on Thursday with a head cold so I let him stay home with that. I think we're all getting the "is school EVER gonna END?" flu.

Both of my kids got sent to the office this week, on the days that I stayed home. Tyler was sent on Tuesday for "sleeping and being disrespectful". He says he had his head down but he was NOT asleep. The teacher yelled for him to "wake up"! He said "I'm NOT SLEEPING!" She said "GET OUUUTTTT!!!" So he was given 2 days of after school detention for next week. I TRY and TRY to reason with him about how he could handle things differently. He agrees wtih everything I say, he just says that sometimes something inside of him just WON'T let him say things the way he SHOULD say them lol. Tanner was written up by my substitute teacher in the music room on Wednesday, along with 6 other wild heathens. THey supposedly were all pushing chairs around, climbing on the risers, and pulling books off the shelf. He says he was just moving the chairs back where they belonged. Who knows. I'm just glad I'm not a substitute teacher. He got sentenced to one day of in-school detention which he served on Thursday. He did not get a beating at home, because we tried to take into account the "substitute teacher" factor.

I got my Mother's Day present early this week! I knew Rusty would not be able to stand keeping it secret til SUnday. He got me some longer cords for my keyboards, and bought me a nice case to carry my big keyboard in so I'm not banging it against stuff all the time lol. I've been hollering for a case for it ever since I got it, and now I finally have one.

Another bit of good news from THursday - Terri's dog was found! The kids' dog disappeared on Christmas Eve this year. They were all upset, couldn't find her anywhere. Well, Thursday, a friend of all ours named Bob thought he spotted her in his neighborhood. He went and checked her out and yes it was her. She had wandered that far away from home and just hung around there so they took her in I guess. So when Terri picked up the kids from school Thursday she had the dog in the car. I stepped outside so I could watch their faces! They were thrilled, Cody was jumping up and down!


I'm continuing to gather people's lists of concerts. I tell ya, I've had so much fun with this. You learn things ya didn't know about people lol. And I guess, being a musician, I just find it so fascinating that people I know have seen things I've never seen. I need just a couple of more lists - namely, one from RUSTY - then I"ll be posting it on the other blog I have. I'll include a link to it on this blog.


Tonight (Friday), Tyler is gone on a long trip for a football jamboree. We wanted to go, but it's 3 hours away and started at 5:00. And he wasn't sure how much he'd be playing yet, or exactly what to expect. So we decided not to go. So we've sat around all night moping and whining because this is the first time we've EVER missed any football thing of Tyler's. Wishing we had gone now. But me, Rusty, and Tanner had a nice trip to McDonald's for dinner. (We moped about that too, thinking how much we bet Tyler wished he was there at his favorite restaurant lol.) He'll be getting in really late tonight, and I bet he'll be TIRED.

Susan made a myspace page of her own and I added her last weekend. So then Mom made her one too! Cool! I also got in touch with yet another long lost friend from 9th and 10th grade this week. They just keep popping up! Either I find them or they find me. I guess age 35 is when people start to think back on old times.........is that the beginning of old age???? I sure hope not. I like to think that old age is still far, far away.

This weekend we have to mow grass, and band practice is SUnday and we're ALL supposed to be there and go through EVERYTHING. I'll feel much better once we do that. We're not playing on the 18th now, we're gonna play on the 26th. Terri and I are hopefully going to see a play tomorrow night, then probably hang out back here afterwards.

Oh........my father-in-law has a camper for sale if anyone is interested. Don't know how much or anything about it really lol, but I can find out if anyone wants to know. He's thinking about trying to put it on e-bay. He has bought himself a bigger, newer one, so he's selling the old one.

I didn't get very many pictures this week. I'm such a slacker these days. But I did snag a picture from Terri's myspace of my nephews with their long lost doggie! I'm so happy for them lol.

Ah. A picture of my really cool wind chime that I won at bonko a couple of months ago, that I"m waiting for Rusty to put up for me. Isn't it adorable??

Cinco De Mayo

Well, we went to see Spiderman 3 last night - the much anticipated movie. Having learned my lesson when Eragon came out, I reserved our tickets ahead of time at 8:00 am Friday morning. We had a caravan of 10 people going to see the movie - us, our friend Lysa, Terri and the kids, and our friends Mike and Cheryl. We ate at the KFC buffet for our restaurant night also. The movie was good, we decided. It's as good as the rest of them anyway. A bucket of popcorn and 2 medium drinks these days? $15.50. What's the world coming to!
We had testing all week long at school so I had to be on my feet nonstop for about 3 hours solid every morning. But it was nice and quiet for a change. TAnner had a pretty good week at school, but we did find out that he didn't get into the GATES program this time. Oh well. They just don't recognize true brilliance! Tyler has had a good week in football. The coaches asked him what other positions he had played before and he told them. They asked if he would be willing to play middle linebacker. He said......would I get to start? The coach said.......well, yeah. So Tyler said, "Coach I'll play ANY position you want if I'm starting!" So all week he's been working at the middle linebacker spot. I just know in my heart he's going to get to start next year. But the coaches have not given him any indication of such yet, other than that one comment. I think they just aren't trying to decide yet.
We had band practice both Monday and Tuesday nights. It was tough. Especially for Rusty. Steve's truck was messed up so Rusty had to drive to St. Joseph, LA both days to pick him up and take him back. But we got some good practice in. We watched "Night at the Museum" this week I think....maybe it was last week? Anyway, it was a GREAT movie, you gotta see it.
Today (Saturday) we got up at 7 am and went to Mom's house for chocolate and biscuits! YUM!!! I came to realize that there is something TERRIBLY wrong with my children and I do not know how to fix it. Neither of them like chocolate and biscuits. Tyler never has. And I forced Tanner to try them just one more time this morning and he still says he doesn't like them. And when I think about it, they don't like fried okra, home made ice cream, tomatoes, or barbecue much either. And they eat watermelon, but they're just not crazy about it. If they didn't look so much like their dad I'd swear they were switched at birth.
I found Aunt Susan on myspace this morning too lol. We've been talking about concerts, and how Allie went to her first one recently. Susan said I should gather a list of concerts everyone has been to. That was an awesome idea! So I've already sent out emails to folks asking them to email me a list of concerts they have been to and any interesting stories that go with any of them. I've gotten a few responses already, and MAN am I jealous of Dustin. He has been around! He has seen the most so far. I'm going to gather the lists and put them on my other blog next weekend once I get them all in. Will be a nice addition to my "lists" lol. If there is anyone that I didn't get the email to, send me your list!
I couldn't stop myself from going to JCPenney's this week. All the guys needed a new pair of shorts and Tyler needed some shirts. And I simply HAD to have a pair of camouflage capris I saw. Tanner went to the dentist this week also and he's got a cavity to be filled. This will be the first filling he's ever been awake for - it should be interesting. Tanner has spent several hours playing with his keyboard he got for Christmas today, now that I have set it up in his room. I'm hoping to teach him some piano this summer.
3 more weeks of school now. I'm trying to hang in here but I'm REALLY dragging. I just don't have time to even think anymore! Argh! Time stand still! But very soon............I'll be drifting on Smith Lake, washing away the school year. My anniversary is coming up also - 16 years! Feels like a world record compared to most folks we know our age lol.
I took no pictures this week. I've been too tired to hold a camera up. Ok, not really, but CLOSE. I will try to do better on photos for next week.