The Injured List

Pardon the "graphicness" of this picture at the bottom. If you have a weak stomach you might not wanna look lol. But there is no other way to express the severity of this injury!!!! Of course, I am the mother. But to me - it was a life or death situation!!!!! That's my baby there!!! Friday evening, October 2, VHS played Northwest Rankin in a home game. It was Tyler's first night as a defensive end instead of a noseguard. The very first time the defense was sent in, Tyler was injured on about the 3rd play. His chinstrap "malfunctioned" and came loose. The opponent's helmet caught him in the chin at that precise moment. Tyler said that he had been warned about cussing in the first or 2nd play. And suddenly the referee was sending him to the sideline and he was like........."But I didn't cuss this time, I swear!!!" The ref continued to motion him to the sideline. The coaches saw him come off and they were like....."what's up with this????" Tyler said "I have no idea!!!" Just as the coach was walking toward the ref to figure out what was up, he then saw the blood. In the stands we saw Tyler come off the field and the nurse tendingto him. I first thought "bloody nose or scratch". So we waited. And waited. And waited. He never got sent back in. The nurse was doing various things to him. Finally I told Rusty.........I'm going down there.

I went down and got the cheerleader sponsor that I know to go over and see what was up. The nurse then came over with Tyler in tow and told me "Tyler has had an injury.....". Tyler removed his hand from his chin and I nearly fainted. It doesn't take much for mom to faint. But he had a TERRIBLE chin injury and the nurse wouldnot allow him back in the game. You can see from the photo what I'm talking about, but imagine it with blood running down the neck. The nurse said she didn't think it was "stitchable", but the ER might could possibly glue it. Tyler refused to leave the game. He wanted to go back in, and then he wanted to stay and watch if they couldnt let him in. We sat there til half time. But then I told him we really need to go on to the ER.

At the ER, they took great care and a lot of time stitching him up. They put 20 stitches in him. He was a good sport and a tough guy. The worst injury was to me, dear old MOM.He has ended up having to sit out for 2 weeks and 2 games. He has not been able to put a chinstrap back on over that spot. But I think by next Friday he should be ready to go again. He also has not been able to shave, and that's been driving him crazy. We went last week and got the stitches out. They only got 19 out, couldn't find number 20 lol. They said if it's there, it will show up eventually, but he could have pulled it out at some point. We also got to go to the sleep doctor who released him to get his drivers license (yay!) Now he just has to learn how to DRIVE first lol. We are waiting on the paperwork to come back from the doctor, and he is studying his book. We should have him driving though VERY soon. He is set up for an appointment with an allergist next month to maybe figure out exactly what his allergies are so he can start getting allergy shots. He stay so miserable most of the year.

Tanner has been doing reallywell too. Practicing piano and trumpet ALL the time, he's going to be good!

We've been out of school this whole past week for intercession/Fall Break. I did some rehearsals at school anyway. I did get a good bit of rest as well. I didn't do much of anything that I had planned to work on during intercession, but oh well. I've decided "me time" is more important than work time lol.

Today is Saturday and I was taking the boys to the eye doctor for glasses/contacts. Rusty decided he would go get new glasses too, so we all went to Wal Mart. It's a nice, cool, fall day and I could tell Rusty was in a particularly chipper mood. As we were leaving Wal Mart we saw a guy out by the road with a whole pen full of puppies. Rusty said........Let's go look!!! I expected reality to hit him at some point. We looked at puppies, Tyler and Tanner each fell in love with a different one. Then we left to go finish doing some shopping errands and continued to talk about it. Tyler has wanted a small house dog for a long time. And Rusty was easy for them to talk into it today. So we ended up going back. We did not get TWO dogs though lol. I told Tanner that we were going to let Tyler choose because he has been wanting it for so long and Tanner was really ok with that. They had chihuahuas, poodles, and yorkies. Tyler bonded with one of the yorkies that seemed rather mild mannered to me. So that's what we got. I have mixed feelings about the whole thing because of havin to get rid of animals this past summer. But, as Tanner said, "crippy boy should get things he wants because he has so many problems" lol. Perhaps it was partially to do with guilt that I ended up going along with it? I don't know. But Tyler was just beside himself with happiness. He wants to take care of it all by himself, doesn't want anyone else to do anything for it. I told him he needed to let Tanner help some too though, and he will. Haven't seen Tyler this happy and excited about something in a very long time though.
some pics of the doggie, who still has no name yet. And then I'll be posting again in a week I guess!

Jack sneaking up on puppy lol

The horrific football injury

A crazy week, but an ok one

I'm posting, within 7 days of my last post! There is hope for me yet!!!

This has been a strange week really. Several people have texted or otherwise messaged me to ask me if there is a full moon, but there is not one due until October 4. But apparently this is just one of those oddball times of year when oddball stuff just goes on. I'll try to start from the beginning, but I imagine I'll skip around a bunch.

Monday I took off work to take Tanner to a pediatric urologist in Jackson, an appt we've had set up for some time. He'll DIE if he knows I mentioned it, but his circumcision did not heal quite right when he was a baby. (Yall don't tell him I made the "family secret" public!!!) The family doctor advised that we wait til puberty age to do anything about it. So here we are. Anyway, we thought we were going just for a consultation and to set up a future date for the corrective procedure. But the doctor was like, hey, that's not going to be a big deal at ALL. So we ended up getting it done all in one day. Tanner was funny though, of course. They did not have to give him a shot (thank goodness), just some kind of numbing cream. Then they used a pair of medical scissors of some type. (I could NOT watch. But I will NEVER forget the sound of those scissors cutting. I think it affected me a lot worse than him lol.) There was a nurse, a doctor, and 2 male interns in training, all standing around and it probably took 30 seconds total. But Tanner said........"thank GOD that's done and I never have to sit around and have that many GUYS staring at my ________ ever again!" lol. Tanner was a terrific patient. He didn't feel a thing. He was a totally happy camper UNTIL...........I asked the doctor how long should he stay out of school. The doctor said, "Oh, he doesn't need to miss school he can just go about his business." I asked him what about football and sweating and all that? Doctor said, "He'll be just fine, in fact it will be good for him to sweat, it will keep things from sticking in the wrong places". The doctor was so confident in the simplicity of the situation that he said we didn't even have to come back for a follow up. We were good to go. As SOON as we left the office, that PAIN set in. Oooooooh he was pitiful lol. So I ended up letting him miss the next 2 days. I hope I don't regret that when report cards come. But he was just as excited about missing school as he was about getting his "problem" fixed. So I had to let him have a bit of time I guess.

Anyway....in the MEANTIME. I'm getting text messages from my students at school. (Keep in mind that my classroom is in a separate building from the entire school ALL day long. The band is there 1st period, then the directors leave to go to the Jr. High and elementaries the rest of the day and no one is in that building but ME until 6th period when they get back.) Teenagers can be melodramatic. However, this was getting disturbing. The sub I had left with the class was blasting rap music, dancing and singing, inviting other kids to skip class and hang out, and so on. Around 5th period, the principals had caught on to it and came down and busted most of the "skippers". But a few of them ran into the bathroom and hid. Once the principals left, the sub allowed those out of the bathroom and the party resumed. McDonalds food somehow got into the room for certain select folks. By the time we got finished in Jackson I decided I better go to school and check on things. I checked with the main boss, he had not heard anything about the day (the head principal only deals with the major stuff, the asst principals deal with the discipline and minor daily stuff), so I was glad to know that I myself was not going to be in trouble. But as the week went on, I did detective work and this is what I found out:

The sub brought her own CD's from home, mostly rap and dance music. And, disregarding the directions I left, that is what she chose to do: She CHARGED $1.00 admission to any student who was not on my class roster and allowed those who paid to skip their classes and hang out in the choir room. She charged them 50 cents for each curse word they said and if they did not pay it, she would write them up for skipping class. Most of my choir kids are pretty good kids. And she was allowing in ANYBODY and everybody who'd pay that dollar. So my choir kids were pretty intimidated and it took me the whole week to get the full story. Around 5th period a security guard saw some kids goofing off in front of the band hall (where my room is) so he and 2 principals came down to investigate. They walked in, rounded up anyone not on my class roll, and suspended them all for 3 days. A few girls escaped into the restroom and hid. It took me all week, but I got the names of those girls and they were then suspended as well. One of the principals told me to NEVER call that sub again. I told her I had already decided that! lol. She banned that sub from our entire school. In fact, the following day that sub was there for another teacher and the principal went down to that classroom and told her to go home and that she was not allowed on campus ever again. I gave all the info I had gathered to the head principal and told him I feel that she not only should be banned from our school, but from ALL schools in this district. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT'S A TRUE STORY??????

Ok moving on.

Tyler had his test on Thursday to prove he can stay awake, in order to get his drivers license. Mom came in to town especially to take him. I've had to miss school so much lately with both kids and doctors and such. And with this past Monday being such a disaster, it's probably a good thing Mom came and took him. Anyway.....from what I understand, Tyler had to spend 30 minutes in a dimly lit and silent room in a recliner doing NOTHING without falling asleep. He had to do that FOUR TIMES. He would do 30 minutes of that, then wait 2 hours and do another 30 minutes. He had to do a total of 4 sets of 30 minutes, with 2 hours between each set. Mom said that he did it though. He stayed awake every time without fail. So now we go back on October 8 to have the doctor read the test results and hopefully give permission for the drivers license. Tyler is really doing well. The last "spell" I personally witnessed was at Dad and Johnnie's house back in July and maybe that was just a freak thing. He has been playing football and doing all kinds of stuff, with NO episodes thus far.......(knock on wood). And he so badly wants to drive. I know his safety is most important. But I really feel that he is doing well enough.


Speaking of FOOSEBALL............

Tyler has been kicking BUTT. We still haven't won a game lol. But last night was the best night yet. I think we were finally equally matched with an opposing team. We only lost 7 to 6. Beats the HELL out of 48 to nothing. It' been raining in MS (and most of the south) for at least a week. We had to drive 2 and a half hours out of town for this game in Grenada, MS. The field "appeared" to be grass. But it only took 2 plays to turn it to pure MUD. Tyler SO hates the mud. I was reminded last night of when he was 3, 4, 5 years old and he HATED getting his hands messy. He wouldn't play with play-dough, silly putty or NOTHING. He hated dirt, mud, etc. He wouldn't eat foods that got your hands messy. Everytime the defense came in to the sidelines they would head for the water coolers to drink. Except Tyler, he would FIRST get the water and wash his hands off lol. Then he'd get a drink from it. He was miserable lol. When the game ended, he called me from the bus to bring him some clothes to change into. I had no clothes!!!! I told him, "you didn't tell me to bring any so I didnt have any!" I figured they all rode there in regular clothes and then put on their uniforms. But apparently not. He HUNG UP on me lol!!! He had to ride that 3 hour bus ride back home in muddy football uniform. He told me later that he had stripped down to his boxers and rode like that lol. I felt so bad for him. But I had no clue he would need clothes. Anyway..........it was an EXCELLENT game. Our defense ROCKED!!!! Particularly Tyler, of course. lol. I'm not partial though. The touchdown we got was even against
the FIRST STRING instead of the 3rd lol. It was a very pleasant game, even if we still didn't pull off the win. We way outplayed them.

We got home around 12:30. I went ahead to bed with my phone by my side. I think it was an hour later when the team got back and I had to get up and go get him. Another reason I can't wait for him to get a license lol. But he was tired. So tired I don't even think he got a shower lol. Just changed clothes and hit the pillow. But some time around 6 or 7 am I heard him up in the shower lol.

When Mom got into town.....I guess it was Wednesday....she stopped by for what she probably thought was a short visit to pick up Blake. But it ended up being a little longer with lots of fun conversation! We enjoyed it. Visits with just about anybody are much more meaningful for me these days lol. Because they are so few and far between. She had brought some stuff she'd gathered up around the lakehouse and Mamaw and Papaw's house. Some things were cat related. Such as flea bathing stuff and toys, etc. Tanner immediately picked up on the flea bath thing. We only have one cat these days and he NEVER goes outside. He doesn't have a single flea. And even though he's the best cat EVER and tolerates any and everything that goes on in the house, I hardly think that Jack would be agreable to a BATH. There have been occasions in the past were our cats or cat have gotten fleas either from people coming in the house or just from sitting near the front door. So I figure it's cool to hang on to the flea bath stuff. (Even though I've learned from experience it's best and cheapest to just go buy a one month round of Ad-vantage from the vet). But Tanner has been dead set on giving Jack a bath since he saw the flea bath stuff. He's obsessed. He will not leave me alone about it. I had told him all week that I'd let him take his chances on Saturday. But today is Saturday and I had to totally nix that idea. Tanner giving Jack a bath equals ME cleaning up a huge mess, nursing numerous scratches on Tanner's skin (even though Jack is declawed in the front claws), and trying to rinse Jack off from all the soap. NONE of which I am interested in doing. I think I'm going to tell Tanner no bath until the random day that Jack ends up with fleas.

Let's see.....anything else interesting this week? Probably not much. Kids are fine, Rusty fine, me fine, school going good (other than the substitute fiasco).........so until next week.....I'm done!



THE FRIDAY NIGHT MUDFEST!!!!! (VHS vs Grenada 9-25-09) Tyler is #56 when and if you can see the numbers. Blake is usually 51 but I think on out-of-town games he has a different number so I can't promise I know which is him!


OOOoooooh the mud..................

Can you tell which player is a starter???

Bless their little hearts. That's a thought I kept repeating.

I'd love to hear THAT conversation..........

I LOVE #56!!!!!

Thanks to the cheerleader sponsor for taking my camera out there and getting this picture!!! Game face. I told her do NOT ask him to smile or even let him know you're getting his picture cuz he will just SNARL.

Alone and thinkin'................a rare occasion. The defense usually spends at least 75% of the night on the field lol.

Homecoming

OK for some reason this blogger site is NOT letting me move my pictures. I loaded them all in weird order then I was going to move them to where they go. It's not letting me. So I guess this blog post will begin with a totally disjointed photograph review of the last few weeks, followed by the stories.

This is a photo taken by Mrs. Birch who has a really good camera and always sits over by the band and has a good field view. I hope to pick more photos off of her on facebook over this next year. She is also the same one who took so many good pics of the musical last year. Anyway....see Tyler number 56 running out on the field.

This is the best pic I could manage to take of Tyler and Allison at leadout at the Homecoming dance last night. Taken with my iphone.

Another Mrs. Birch photo from a recent game.

Another Mrs. Birch photo

Allison and her escort during halftime when they introduced the Homecoming court. Best I could get.

Tyler and Allison, the girl he sponsored as Homecoming Maid, at the end of the evening. I had to have at LEAST one decent picture lol

The best picture I got all night and no one was in it.

Getting ready to start. #56 is up front.

Dark photo of the team running onto the field and taking place on the sideline.

This is the Junior float in the homecoming parade that Blake was so proud of. They made an X-Wing fighter from Star Wars. Our homecoming theme was something to do with space.

Allison in the parade. The sign on the side says "Allison East sponsored by Tyler Gardner #56". Actually is says Tyler "Garner", they spelled it wrong but it was too late to have one remade lol.

This is how much we still have left after Rusty's friend chopped up the 2 giant limbs and loaded up a truck AND trailor FULL of firewood. What a MESS

Maybe I posted a few of these before, can't remember. But here's Tyler, I asked him to smile lol.

Blake gave me a good smile at least lol

Tyler and Rebeca at the city wide pep rally

Well into the school year now. Tanner is doing pretty well. Grades are mostly alright, he's finding out that he does indeed have to do the homework. He's been tardy for class a few times here and there trying to get his locker open. He says sometimes it sticks. He had to serve after school detention once for leaving his trumpet at home one day. But he hasn't left it again since! I had him riding a bus from the Jr. High to the High School every afternoon but the bus he was riding was extremely wild. No one was mean to him or anything, it was just so wild and crazy on there it bugged him very badly. So this past week I was able to get him on a different bus to come the the High School with one of his friends who also has a parent at the High School. So he's much happier now I believe. I have been having to go from the band hall, which is way down in a gully, all the way up to the 3rd floor of the main building every afternoon to meet him at the bus. (Our school is arranged quite oddly on the side of a hill - on one side the ground floor is ground level but on the other side the THIRD floor is ground level. Any my building is below even the lowest ground floor of that main building). But couple of times I've been late getting there and he makes it down to my room just fine by himself. So I may be able to just stay in my room now and have him walk the whole way down. He's a big boy I guess, it's just hard for me to realize it lol. He is improving RAPIDLY on the piano as well as the trumpet. Mrs. Leese is very pleased with his progress. I am too. He's going to be very good at both. I'll have to make a video of him playing some time.

Tyler is doing very well also. His team is getting creamed in every game so far. But HE is playing very well lol. So far out of 4 games we've lost 40 something to 0 or 7. BIG losses. Even Homecoming lol. I don't know what's up. But Tyler does a terrific job. He said last weekend in the post-game speech that I suppose all coaches give, everyone was getting the usual tongue lashing that coaches give. About how they aren't making any effort, they're doing so bad, etc etc. Tyler said the coach looked over at him and said "TYLER knocked down 3 guys to tip the ball on the kickoff (or punt, cant remember) because he ALWAYS gives that kind of effort! You guys don't give ANY effort!!! Tyler hasn't played football in 2 years - 2 YEARS!!!! And he's giving more effort than yall!!!" lol. It's been tough losing those games. But he really is playing his heart out. And it's so good to be back in the Friday night football life! He has been doing very well with the cataplexy as well. Went to the doctor last week to report that all is well. They've set him up for the test he has to do to prove that he can stay awake for extended periods of time and if he passes that, they will sign for him to get his license. So they say. They better. They are really big into not wanting to be liable. Like if he has a wreck and someone dies, they could get sued for saying he was ok to drive. So they have been really difficult about this license thing. Which I guess is understandable. I wouldn't want him to drive if I weren't as sure as I could possibly be about his safety. But he's a senior, will be 18 in December, and the license thing has REALLY started to bother him. Badly. But I'm truly thankful he's gotten this one last chance at football. Who knows, he might could even play in college or Jr. college next year. But even if not, he's getting to play now and it's made him really happy. I found out that he may still even get to get a letter jacket even though he wasn't on the team in 10th or 11th grade. I think it has to do with how many quarters you get to play during all the years. It's possible he will get to play that many quarters in just this one year. We'll just see I guess.

Incidentally, can you all IMAGINE how hard it is for Rusty to sit in the stands and watch our team lose so badly without hollering and cussing and stomping?? He's doing very well, but I fear he may not survive the season. He might need some nerve pills.

We got called to play at Beechwood last weekend because some band had cancelled. I wasn't thinking at that moment about football games so I said ok. THen I realized, heck. Football. So we had to miss last week's game. I hated that. Tyler played well, but it was another loss.

This week has been homecoming week at school and it's been wild. We lost the homecoming game, unfortunately. It was a big muddy MESS, Tyler was covered in mud and said he had mud all on the insides of his uniform too. He went in the field house and just stood under the shower with the uniform on for a few minutes lol. I couldn't get any pictures that weren't a total blur. The other team scored their first touchdown before 10 seconds of the 1st quarter had even passed. It was a looooong night. By the end of the 3rd quarter, Chris or Rusty one said....."Hey look, suddenly the other team all has on nice clean white jerseys. You know what THAT means!" They had finally decided to put the 3rd string in lol. And soon we scored a touchdown. So the final was 48-7. I sure hate Tyler's senior and ONLY year to play is going to be like this. But he's still having a lot of fun and thankful to get to do it. We have a young team, lost a lot of guys last year, and they moved us from 4A to 6A and our school is still only 1150 kids. I have no idea how they justify that.

As a senior football player, Tyler had to sponsor a girl to represent him on the homecoming court. There was some issue on who he sponsored, blah blah blah. One girl thought it would be her, and another girl was asking him to sponsor her. You know how that drama can go. Well Tyler didn't really care who it was I don't think. He chose to sponsor a girl that's been a really good friend of his all through school. They aren't dating but she's certainly helped him pass many a class and they've always been in the same circle of friends and she is a senior also. The girl who WANTED him to sponsor her was not pleased, neither was her mom, who happens to be one of Tyler's teachers...anyway. Long story short, it all smoothed over I guess and all was fine. I sure hope so. He has to pass that class lol. I didn't think Tyler would want to go to the dance because he HATES stuff like that. But it turned out he HAD to go, but he also decided he really wanted to. Nowadays they do the leadout procession thing at the END of the dance instead of the beginning. So leadout was at MIDNIGHT last night. But I went. My camera doesn't do good in the dark and at a distance so I didn't get any good pics. But as soon as leadout was over, the dance was over. Seemed awful short to me. By the time football players were showered and there, it was leadout time then it was over. But it was really nice. I decided that teenagers dance a thousand times better than adults. Even the worst dorky white boy looks better dancing than drunk adult fools at 1 am in a bar.

We've had lots of flu, swine flu, bacterial meningitis, and numerous other illnesses going around the schools here. It's been kinda bad. Two kids have died in the last month. One from the meningitis and the other was a 15 year old boy who died sitting in the waiting room of the doctor's office. I can see that happening with the way doctor's offices are around here. But it's been a mess. I stayed home sick 2 days but no clue what I had. I don't think it was any of the things mentioned above. Just severe body aches and sleepiness. No cold symptoms though. But I'm much better now. My assistant, Mrs. Leese, has been having blood pressure issues and has been out a few times. Hopefully they will figure out her problems and get her back going again. Tanner had a stomach virus type thing one day. But other than that everyone else in the house has stayed healthy.

School is going well. I'm having a very hard time keeping up though. With my newly adopted "try to bring as little work home as possible" attitude. I'm WAY behind and I don't think that my new way of thinking is going to be able to work. I find myself being a failure at home AND at work. So I'm just gonna have to face that I'm forever gonna have to bring some work home to stay caught up. Mainly the paperwork, the planning, the ordering of materials and costumes and dresses, the little details and things. So that at school all I have to do is work on the music and vocal stuff with the students. I'm losing hope at ever being able to successfully balance things. But I guess I will forever try.

My tomatoes - still suck. I think next year I may just try to do all bell peppers lol.

We got the tree limbs down for pretty cheap a couple of weeks ago. Then a guy Rusty works with said he would come chop them up if we would let him have the wood for firewood. Well of course we will!!!!! So he came out last weekend and cut up a bunch of it. He filled his truck and a trailor full and we still have so much wood in the backyard that you can hardly tell any was removed lol. They were two HUGE limbs. I think he may try to come back and get some more. But at least we can now safely walk in the backyard and the kids can get on the trampoline again.

Last weekend Rusty fixed out air conditioner that had been leaking gallons of water into the floor (or into a huge bowl I had put under it). Took off the pipes and a big chunk of gunk fell out that I'm sure was blocking it from draining. It's been fine ever since. The pantry light fixture quit working so he replaced that. The kitchen sink was leaking so he's got at least a temporary fix on that. So thankfully we have gotten lots of things fixed around here for minimal cost.

The year is going by too quickly already. I want it to go slow. Because I am not yet mentally prepared to be the mom of a person who is out of high school. We had to go one day this week to see the newborn baby of Zach Vaughan, a friend of ours son. I guess Zach is probably 20. But I've always grouped him in with Tyler and the others about his age. I am now mentally separating them into further subgroups.

some pics

I was going to post pics from the cruise, etc. But I realized they are on my laptop! So I gotta change computers and post from there. I'm still going to post these 2 in case I get caught up doing something else and don't get back here tonight!

My freshly mowed yard, that I got mowed for free lol

What's wrong with this picture???? The tomato on the right is my largest one yet. The tomato on the left is one mom brought me from Susan's, probably one her smaller ones! She obviously knows something I don't know! Getting frustrated with the tomato situation.

THey start turning red before they even get big enough to eat. I don't get it.

seems like I just posted "School is out". And here I am with "school is back in"

I've gone so long without posting there is just no way to catch it all up. Perhaps little by little over the next weeks I'll get to throw in some anecdotes and tell some stories from the summer time like from our cruise and the many other things that we did. I wish I had kept up this summer. ANd I've actually begun putting it off because I dreaded having to sit down and try to remember stuff and get the photos organzied, etc. So if I don't just start from where I am now, I'm liable to keep putting it off indefinitely! So I'll just start.



It's the 4th week of school now I think. School started back with lots of excitement. It's Tyler's senior year. Bittersweet excitement. The doctor released him to play football and the football coaches and team were very happy to have him back. They had their first game last week, the Red Carpet Bowl. We always lose the Red Carpet Bowl because they invite the state champions to come in and play our local teams and the locals always get creamed. I have no idea why they do it. But Tyler played VERY well. He's not getting to play the position he used to play, he's playing something called nose guard or nose tackle? Something to do with the nose. But he's really having fun at it. And he keeps getting double and triple-teamed just like the good old days. So I'm guessing he's pretty good at it. WE have a long season ahead though. I used to really care a lot about winning. But at this point I really don't. I"m just happy that he is getting play at all. Playing and losing is a lot better than not getting to play at all. TAnner is playing 7th grade Jr. High football. They are getting a really slow start because they don't play but a handful of games. But he's liking all the workouts. Who knows, he may just prove himself to be a darn good football kid. He's also still playing trumpet in the band, and I"ll never let him quit that.



My choirs at school are nice and full. Not as many as I had put on the roster. But still more than double what I had last year! I'm thrilled for sure. It's going to be a great year I think. SO much talent in that school. All I have to do is dig them up and make them sing and then everyone thinks that I'M the one that's awesome lol.



It's been odd with mom living in alabama. My kids pretty much stayed the whole summer out there with her and they had a blast. I missed them badly. But I know they were having more fun and being more physically active out there than they would have here.

I turned 38 this summer and Tanner turned 12. No more babies around here for at least another 8 years, preferably until I am 50. Have I told my story of getting my yard mowed for free???? I read back and I could not find it anywhere. I'm so proud of it. So I'm going to post my story. If it's a repeat, I apologize. But, yeah, I'm 38 and I've gained a lotta weight back. So let me have my moment!!!!

So here is my story, as told on Facebook to a select handful of people July 8 (didn't wanna look like I was bragging on facebook):
This morning I went outside to weed the tomato plant area because it desperately needed it. I decided to just totaly saturate the area with the water hose, too. And I had to dig holes to plant some plants I still had in pots. I was in my worn out pajama pants and a VHS Gators football t-shirt. In no time, I was covered in sweat and MUD up to the elbows. I had a huge ass muddy mess going on.
The lawncare truck drove up and started mowing the neighbors grass. They mow about half the yards on the street. After a bit a young fellow, barely older than Tyler I'd guess, walked up and asked me if I'd like him to mow our yard. I said no, my teenage son usually does it and I really can't afford to pay anyone to do it. But thanks anyway. Then he said "Well how about I mow just the front part for free for you today?" So of course I'm like, free???? For REAL free?? He said yeah, he'd do it, and maybe I'd decide to have them start cutting it, etc. So I told him sure! Go right ahead!!!
I went about my mud/tomato/bell pepper/weeding business. He mowed and even weedeated and edged everything. He came up when he was finished and said "Ma'am, if that guy over there (his boss) comes and asks you what you paid me to do your yard just tell him $25. If he finds out I did this for free he's gonna come and ask me why. And he won't accept me telling him 'cuz her ass looked good in pajamas' as a reason!!!"
I about fell out lol. I know he was just trying hard to get us as customers. And it was kinda creepy too lol. But having gained some poundage and being this close to my 38th birthday I chose to take it as a compliment. And I've laughed about it all day. Rusty has laughed too, and of course he's getting plenty of joke time in on that one. (So what did you REALLY do to get the yard mowed free?????) So I had to share my pajama pants story. Wonder if I wear them to Wal Mart if they'll just give me stuff for free? I need to make better use of those pants....

Last Thursday I came home from work for just a second, was on my elsewhere as usual, and there they were mowing the yards of my neighbors on both sides. I hollered at the guy to see if he'd still do the front for $25 and he said yeah! So I paid him this time lol. We still can't get the back mowed yet. We still have the gigantic tree down and no money to pay to get it the rest of the way down. It's not safe to walk back there I don't think. So I guess it's just gonna grow sky high til we get the tree down. Got a guy coming this week to give us an estimate on just getting it down. Then we will probably cut it up ourselves from there.

Anyway. Tanner's birthday was as he wished it. I can't remember now, I think it was something like EIGHT boys and Brooke who spent the night here. I tried very hard not to get easily aggravated. But there were times..... Let's just say we all survived it and Tanner had a great time so that's what matters lol.



The cruise was incredible. I could write a book on it and it still would not get the point across about how much fun we had and how relaxing the whole thing was. Keith and Clay enjoyed it also. I think we've totally won them over on the cruise thing. EVeryone is dying to go back again, asap! We are going to go again next June. I don't care if I have to sell everything I have. Which isn't much. But we are going. Kids are going too, it will be kind of a graduation trip. I want as many of my family and friends to go as I can get. Yall start planning. It's well worth it.

I went to the Jr. High orientation with Tanner and Brooke. It turned out that Brooke and TAnner had 4 classes together. Wow! Cody had 2 or 3 with Brooke and 2 or 3 with Tanner I think. Those poor teachers. So far, Tanner has only gotten in trouble once or twice. He had to go to after school detention one day. And when I pulled up to the school to pick him up from that, there was a teacher waiting on me in the parking lot. She wasn't able to find my number and Tanner told her he didn't know my number. She said she knew Brooke was his cousin so she asked Brooke for my number and Brooke said she didn't know my number either!!! lol. But, he still got in trouble. He was talking and playing and being silly in class and had not done his homework a couple of times. Imagine that.

My tomato and bell pepper experiment never did well. I worked and worked, watered and watered. And I think from April til here at the end of August I've maybe a total of 12 tomatoes and all of them have been small. (See my other post where I have some pictures comparing mine to Susan's). I told Tanner yesterday that I think all of that trouble I went to was so that God could teach me a lesson. He asked me what lesson. I said it would have to be one of two things:
1. God wants me to work harder at trying to figure out how to do it better and to gain a better knowledge of how things grow and to learn more about the natural world, which could in turn teach me more about myself and the whole world, OR
2. God is trying to tell me that I am not meant for such things and I need to spend my time doing things that I know how to do and go buy my tomatoes from someone who was born to grow them well.
Tanner told me that he thinks it is lesson number 1 that God is trying to teach me. So I guess we will try again next spring.

I've been worried about Papaw Jr this week and all his troubles at the hospital. Hope all is going well with that. Waiting to hear how he did today.

Trying to think of anything major that's going on. I'm sure there is plenty. I haven't blogged in nearly 2 months so I'm skipping a ton of stuff. I hope I remember it along the way. I'm going to make this post, then I"m going to make a separate one with some pictures from the cruise and other things the past couple of months. Then I need to go catch up on everyone else's blogs. I will try to blog again this weekend with any news I have left out!

The Strawberry Cheesecake Tarts Recipe

I forgot to put the Strawberry Cheesecake Tarts recipe at the end of my last blog post. Keep in mind, this is a highly sought after recipe that I share with very FEW people. It's TOP SECRET. The story behind it is.......

Way back a long time ago, before I was married (which was nearly 100 years ago last month), I went to a bonko party with Mom with Pat Kellum's bonko group at her sister Sylvia's house. This was probably 1990. Sylvia's teenage daughter (even younger teen than me) had made the dessert that night and she followed the recipe on the side of the box of a Duncan Hines strawberry cake mix. I had never in my life tasted cheesecake and I thought I hated it. It just sounded nasty. The words "cheese" and "cake" had no business being in a sentence together. Because I was 18 or so I figured it was high time I grew up and demonstrated some manners and stuff so I ate one to be polite. Oh my GOODNESSS......it was the best thing I'd ever tasted in my life. I made a pig of myself. I don't know how many I ate. I asked for the recipe, she told me it was on the side of the strawberry cake mix box. I think some time shortly after, I bought the cake mix and the recipe was still there and I even made them once. Not long down the road I ended up married as fate would have it, and I often thought of those things but I didn't have the recipe. I went and bought a box of strawberry cake mix, but the recipe on the box was something else by now. I fretted for some time. I was in college at MC so it had to be like 1992 or 1993. Everybody knows how bad I hate using the phone. And back in those times, there was no internet. But I called up Pat Kellum and she thought she knew what I was talking about and gave me a recipe but it was not the right one. She gave me Sylvia's number, who also gave me a cheesecake tart recipe but it was not the right one either. I was just terribly disappointed and had no idea what to do. After some time I decided.....I'm gonna call up Duncan Hines. So I did lol. I called them and described to them in depth what I remembered about this particular recipe and after 15 or 20 minutes of searching their database the lady found the very recipe that I was obsessing over. She told it to me over the phone, then she also printed it and mailed it to me.
So basically, this recipe is a very hard-fought for recipe and dear to my heart. It didn't come easy, folks. I had to use the telephone to get it. And I hate the telephone. Everyone who has ever tasted these begs me for the recipe. I tell them, sure, I'll give it to you later. But I don't. Yep, I'm stingy with that one. I want to be the only one within a 200 mile radius who can make these suckers. But I have decided that you, my family and blog readers, are special enough (and way beyond a 200 mile radius) that I shall share this beloved, secret recipe. Feel the love!!!!!!


All drama aside......lol. Here is the recipe:

**Key things to remember:
- It is CRUCIAL that you use FOIL cupcake liners. I tried it once with paper ones, NOT happening.
- You may very well have lots of leftover crust mix. I always seem to have more crust mix than filling. I either use it to make a double batch, or just dump it.


Ingredients:
Crust - 1 box Duncan Hines Strawberry Supreme Cake Mix, 1/4 c. margarine melted.

Filling - 2 pkg (8 oz) softened cream cheese, 3 eggs, 3/4 c. sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping - 1 & 1/2 c. dairy sour cream, 1/4 c. sugar, 12 fresh strawberries halved.



1. preheat oven 350 degrees. Place foil liners in 24 muffin cups.

2. FOR CRUST: combine cake mix and melted butter in large bow. Beat at low speed with electric mixer for 1 minute. Divide mixture by heaping Tbsp evenly into muffin cups. Level do not press. (Like I said, you may only use about half of this crust mixture instead of spooning it evenly. To spoon all that evenly will pretty much fill up the muffin cups.)

3. FOR FILLING: combine cream cheese, eggs, 3/4 c. sugar and vanilla extract in medium bowl. Beat at medium speed with electric mixer until smooth. Spoon evenly into muffin cups.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until set. (I bake them just until a couple of them crack open.)

5. FOR TOPPING: combine sour cream and 1/4 c. sugar in a small bowl. Spoon evenly over cheesecakes. Return to oven for 5 minutes. Cool.

6. Garnish each cheesecake with strawberry half. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

7. Stand back in awe, as your creation becomes the life and love of the party. Share it if you wish, or be like me and keep it your little secret ; ) lol



I think next time I'll share my recipe for "chicken spaghetii" or as some call it "chicken tetrazzini" or as others call it "rotel chicken spaghetti". I love that stuff. Easy to make, and fattening as HECK. Probably most people have this recipe, or one similar. But it's coming next....



~Chef Tracy

Ketchup

I put this on Rusty's desk as a hint. So far, it's not worked yet.

My handsome son. Sure do miss him.

My other handsome son, or baby boy. Couldn't keep awake on the long boat rides. Sure do miss him too.

What a good looking kid. Looks so much like his mother!!!

The view from where I sat on the boat rides.....

What a silly boy!

My handsome, grown up nephew....

Tyler and Mamaw

There goes Dustin! (See video at the bottom....)

Me and my babies!

The first half of this blog I wrote 2 weeks ago. 2nd half I'm writing tonight, the 4th of July.

I feel like one of those Catholic people in the movies where they go to confession and they say something like, "father I have sinned - it's been 6 months since my last confession, blah blah blah." Except in my case it's: "Father, I have been busy and lazy - it's been ? weeks since my last blog." I guess I'll say a dozen hail mary's and fast for 3 days and get on with my life lol.

I'm determined to post my PRIZED strawberry cheesecake tarts recipe at the end. I have to feel that I have something to contribute to the recipe world and that's my #1 recipe of all time. I'll discuss it more later on..

School got out, my kids went to Bama for 10 days wtihout me. Then I joined them for a week and got to visit with family. Especially enjoyed seeing Dustin and Jacy. Wouldn't it be awesome if Dustin got a job offer in Vicksburg that paid $250,000/year (so he couldn't possibly turn it down) and then they moved here. lol. One can dream. I know that the more likely reality is that all of my family is going to live in Alabama forever and I'll be the once in a blue moon visitor. But at the same time, I love my work here in Vicksburg. And I really don't mind the city and town so much actually. I enjoy the people, sad sacks as some of them may be. I enjoy teaching underpriviledged kids because I believe they appreciate it so much more. So I just don't feel any sort of nagging need to leave here. But I'll just have to figure out how to get to Bama at often times so that I don't lose that sense of having family peoples.

So anyway. I taught the multi-cultural art/music camp this past week and had a good time. Worked my butt off. Got paid about $150 less than expected. But I guess I should have asked ahead of time. I just assumed it would be the same as last year. But money is money these days. We got to take a tour of the entire old St. Francis school building and convent house. It was really interesting and I totally did not take my camera. But I just love old buildings like that. So much of it reminded me of the old Boldo school I went to. We did our grand finale show on Friday and the local TV station filmed it and then I had to do a stupid TV interview and talk about stuff which I HATE doing. But I think I made it through without saying anything stupid or stuttering. I THINK. You know, it's kinda like when they interview football coaches at the end of the game and ask stuff like "So, Coach, why do you think you lost that game?" And the coach is like, "Well, for one thing, the other team scored more than we did. Add that to the fact that we didn't score quite enough, and that should explain it." Stupid questions, stupid answers lol. But it's done, and the rest of my summer will be at my own leisure. But I"ll probably be on TV well into September if they do like they did last year. Keep in mind, this is the stage where they filmed the "Man of Constant Sorrow" part of "Oh Brother Where Art Thou". I so love that stage and auditorium.

Michael Jackson died Thursday I guess. And good LORD. People who last week would have scorned him for being a child molestor were suddenly lifelong fans of the musical "genius" and mourning pathetically. That always intrigues me that society will celebrate a person one day and persecute him the next. Then persecute him one day and celebrate him the next. Anyway. I was working with my 2 summer school correspondence kids on Friday afternoon and I have a music history time line poster on the wall with famous musicians from the 1500's through today. Michael Jackson was listed on the 20th century part with a birth date and no death date. Like, 1958 - ? One of my boys very solemnly and sarcastically asked me, "Mrs. G, could I please have the honor of writing in the 2009 onto the poster of the King of Pop???" I said, "Why, yes, you may. Let's have a ceremony....." We bowed our heads as he wrote 2009 on the poster. And then we laughed our heads off. I guess it's truly sad that he died, for anyone to die for that matter. But life is for the living.

Our band played at a leukemia benefit for a local child couple weekends back. We really rocked that night. We had lots of compliments, radio hosts were talking about us on the radio this week. 2 different people want to book us for weddings, and we seem to be developing a nice following from that night. I'll post a video at the end that we put on youtube. Our singer, young as she is, REALLY rocks. She is the key to the whole thing, I do believe.

Couple of links to our recent performance....pretty good recording I think:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh8WtA9H2Pg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mib0NW0xid8

Thursday night late I got a phone call from Drew. He said "Guess what!!!!!!" I asked what. He said, "My baseball team FINALLY LOST!!!!!!" I said, "oh, I'm sorry to hear that, that's sad!" He said "NO!!!! I'm glad! Can I come over tomorrow?????" lol. So he showed up at 7 am on Friday with a suitcase so I think he will be here for a week or so lol. We've missed him so I'm glad he's home. I'm hoping to get to take him for a quick trip to the lake since he missed out on that last one due to baseball. He, Tanner, and Rusty stayed up late several nights playing Xbox game.

Tyler stayed in Bama, came home long enough to go to the doctor and dentist, went to camp, then straight back to Bama. I guess I don't mind it because he actually gets out and does stuff there. Here, he just kinda sits at the computer a lot. He likes being out there with the Bama cousins so I like to let him have that time. THe doctor visit was very productive. His meds have been working very well. But the doctor wanted to up the dosages slightly in hopes of even greater success. He told him to do that til September then they will give him a "stay awake" test to see how long he can stay awake with nothing to keep him occupied. If he passes that test, then he can get his drivers license!!! woohoo!!!! And also, Tyler has been suddenly interested in trying to do football again. so the doctor agreed to go ahead and release him to play football as long as he watched himself closely. We are waiting on a letter to be mailed to us from the doctor to show the coaches. Tyler is in no hurry for the letter. He wants to play football but he doesn't wanna do the summer training because he wants to stay in Bama. I don't know if the coaches will allow him to just waltz in there the last week of July and get on the team. but I guess we'll see. We still don't have the letter yet anyway. So we will see. Also, the dentist said his wisdom teeth have to be removed ASAP. So he's gonna have to come home in July for a consultation with the dental surgeon. So he would probably have to miss football practice for that anyway. So I guess we're just gonna have to see what happens on the football thing.

Rusty bought me a laptop for an early birthday present and I am LOVING it!!!!!!! Boy am I! I've been dragging info back and forth from work on 2 different jump drives all year long and I'm always losing them and it's just a pain. With the laptop, everything can stay in one place and I can transport the laptop daily. I'm excited. I'm LOVING it so far.

Rusty and I sneaked to Diamond Jack's tonight and got mufelettas....however you spell it. They make the best ones north of New Orleans. My tomatoes and peppers are still so-so. I get a couple tomatoes off a week, 1 or 2 peppers. I think a few of my pepper plants are actually dying in the heat. It has not rained since May. It did not rain the whole time I was in bama, and still hasn't as of today, July 4. Everything is DYING here. I water them daily. But the 100 + degree heat seems to be just frying everything. I hope that something happens to save my beloved, puny tomato and pepper plants. If they could just get the chance, I think they'd get good.

At the pool at the Big House today, Rusty and Clay practiced scuba diving again. Tanner tried on Rusty's flippers and swam with them. He could go SUPER fast across the pool, like lightning. He said he thinks he has finally found a way to beat Chloe. I told him not to be so sure lol.

Nothing much else. Missed the Myhand reunion at the lake last weekend. Nothing I can do 'bout it. Looking forward to the pics.

Ok, so since that point.....TAnner has returned to Alabama with Brooke and her friend and will be there til next Wednesday. Today is July 4. We went to Aunt JOni's. Oddly enough there were a bunch of folks we didn't know there. WE stayed a bit and had a good time but we came home early. Tonight he and Clay are playing Xbox and I'm spending some much needed "me" time. I've had a somewhat fun, somewhat aggravating couple of days. I will get over it I suppose. Perhaps I get my feelings hurt too easily lol. But I'm resilient.

Late last night around midnight the ground shook and the house shook. sure enough, another darn limb from that 200 year old pecan tree. A BIG one this time. So big it took out another big one on it's way down. I just don't know what to do or say about that damn tree anymore. All I can say is it's gonna just sit there like that until my cruise is over and then I'll worry about money to get it down. I'm just so tired of the whole darn thing. Makes me wanna sell the house and rent an apartment forever.

We've spent a couple of weekends here and there at the Big House swimming. Got a few pics from that I'll post. Seems the kids have been gone for most of that, but Tanner and Drew were here for one day.

Anyway. Everyone is in Bama. Me and Rusty are here, chilling. 2 weeks left til the cruise. I'm gonna post some pics and a couple of videos from my trip to Bama of the kids and of Dustin jumping the cliffs. And perhaps next week I'll get back on track with the posting.

Here's the ugly photos of the friggin limb/s. I'm so mad about it. Those suckers are gonna sit there just like that until I get back from my cruise. To HECK with them. I'm SO tired of that dang tree!!!!!!

5 year old Siberian Husky, free to good home. Tired of trying to keep him in a backyard with limbs dropping constantly. Can't keep a fence up, can't even keep a dang runner line up.



Dustin took forever to make his jump. I stood there with camera ready, ready, ready. He took so long that I started looking away and talking to folks. Then all of a sudden there he goes! So I'm late getting started with the filming, then I kinda go crazy with the camera at the end and forget to turn it off lol