Get A Snack, I've Gotten Long Winded

I've missed so much since my last post or maybe I should say it this way, I've missed posting so much since my last post. No that's not it either. Oh well you'll get it by time this thing is done.

Oh yea, take the title seriously, I've had a marathon typing session this morning. So without further delay.....................here we go.

My honey and I went to Fort Worth this weekend for the Stock Show and Rodeo. We didn't rodeo, we stock showed although I do love to go to the rodeo. I was not raised on a ranch so understand, seeing cowboys ride bulls was something I had to grow accustom to. The first few times I saw it, I was sure that I was about to witness someone getting killed and I would scream an ear piercing-bloody murder scream and beat on my husband. He put up with for a while until one time - a women sitting on the other side of him, that we didn't know, started to beat on him too - that's when he had to something to say about it. Which was probably something like "get over it". I still watch through my fingers most of the time.

We had a one of our best bulls and some heifers there. For those of you who don't know, a heifer is a female that hasn't had a calf yet. So if someone calls you a heifer you can set them straight and tell them that you are a cow. No need to thank me, I am here for you.

Also our own Tylee Jo won Miss Texas Angus Association Queen. She is a sophomore this year and drives our grandson Tyler to school each morning. He is quite the little man. At the banquet we were standing in line for the silent auction when I notice that he had just buried his face in the breast of a beautiful young women, so I thought, well I guess I better introduce myself. She turned out to be Queen two years ago and Tyler had met her last year and he likes the girls.

After Tylee was announced the winner he turned to me and his Papaw and said, "The Queen drives me to school!" Way to go Tyler. Here is a picture of him sitting by the Miss America Angus Association Queen. Sorry I don't have a better picture of her, she was a cutie and a sweetie and she hails from South Carolina.

Saturday was my youngest birthday. Jeremy and Kristen, twin A and twin B, turned 25 years old. Happy Birthday to one of the hardest and most fulfilling things I have ever done.

He still carries her picture front and center in his wallet before any girlfriends picture and gets mad if a guy says something about her being pretty and wanting to take her out.

Danya was four years old when her brother and sister came into this world. She is the other most fulfilling thing I have ever done, but she wasn't hard............that is until she reached puberty but that's a whole 'nother story. She was one of those children that just make you look good as a parent.

Danya came into this world 2 1/2 months too early. You read it right. She was a premmy and weighed 2 lbs, 4 oz. at birth. She spent two months and two days in the hospital and came home on January 23, 1981. Jeremy and Kristen were born January 23, 1985. I wasn't due with them until February 10th but they were considered just inside full term. I considered it as being as far as I could go. I had spent the last trimester floating in the bathtub. That morning I looked at my husband and said, "today is the day." He said, yea right your not due for two more weeks. But I knew. They came in at a robust and healthy weight of 6 lbs, 14 oz. each. That's right, you read that right too. I don't think I could have gone another day. Obviously I couldn't cause I didn't.

Anyway, God knew what He was doing. He gave me the three most amazing, fun, challenging and loving children and that was just what I needed. They turned out alright. I wasn't the perfect parent but I was there everyday. We fought the battles together and the older we all got, the better we got.

Check out those legs, he won't mind me showing you this, he likes his legs and tries to show them off when he can. One of the nicknames he had in high school football was Popeye, because of his calf muscles. They're pretty.

The best advice I have to give is, you are not your kids friend. Especially when they get to be teens. I loved saying no, because so many times I felt like I was weighing life and death decisions and too many times I was. So, I learned to say no. And I loved to ground them, that way all the arguments were off. I was also a single parent so, it was just me they were arguing against. No fun. Rickey taught me the most about parenting. He taught me that I was not their friend, they had friends and they needed me to be their mother. We could be friends later and we are.

And they made it through the land mine that is the teenage years with the doors of opportunity still open. That was my goal. I figured if I could just get them through High School they will be a little older and hopefully more mature to make decisions that could affect the rest of their lives. They all tried me on at some point and they all had to suffer the consequences of their decisions.

Jeremy didn't pay his insurance like he was suppose to, then he souped up a pick up truck to attract attention. The attention he attracted was the police and what do you know, he got a ticket for no insurance and he didn't pay the ticket and he got arrested and he spent the night in jail. And I did not go get him.

Kristen was a little like a bird out of a cage during her first semester in college. She drank and partied with friends, skipped class and at the end of her semester we told her, "if you make grades like this again in May, don't even bother bringing them to us. Just get yourself a job, cause we're done." Rickey chewed on her in the morning and evening and I got her at lunch everyday during that Christmas break. When she went back to school she told her friends she could still feel our teeth in her butt and she had to study.

She also called me and thanked me that she didn't have the things happen to her that some of her friends had. No unplanned pregnancies, no abortions, no DUIs, none of the big stuff that gets in the way of their future. By the way, I do not advocate abortion, if she has gotten pregnant I would have counseled her on adoption. But that is also another post.

I like to tell new parents that it's not really parenting until the kids outnumber you and don't sweat the loss of sleep, this is the easy part. They don't really like hearing either one of those statements but what can I say, it's the truth.

Also, I have one more parenting nugget that I would like to share; I believe that ignorance is bliss and we have children in our youth because as a grandparent I know too much. I could never walk through parenting so carefree again. I feel for the grandparents that are raising their grand children. But then if it were mine and it was because my kids were behaving like rotten adults, I would probably smack them upside the head and tell them to get their big girl panties on and deal with it. But that's just me, I'm mean like that.

Okay.........so this post went off in a different direction than normal for me. I do have a lot to say, I just don't ususally want to type this much.

But I'm smiling, I'm dancing. It's gonna be good. Rickey is getting better. He is gonna get better, we are gonna get through this and then we are going to go to Africa.

Until then, I need to get something done with my dining room and I NEED to clean my craft room. I can't think with it this way.