Grey's Anatomy...Here I come!

After much paperwork, begging, and grovelling...I have been accepted! I didn't share with very many people that I had applied because they only take 8 students per year for the program, but I got in!

So...I doubt I'll see any Dr. McDreamys

(I have one of my own at home)









but I plan to see plenty of this...and I am so pumped!!!

It was SO COOL!

So...I can't elaborate and no, I didn't take the pictures. It is just an example of what I saw. I have put in this link so those of you that are a little on the "queasy" side don't have to look, but for those that are Discovery Health junkies like me...I watched the coolest thing yesterday. Up close and personal!

"Quotes from Little Bit"

The day can be a disaster...everything going wrong. No matter how hard I try, I can't get everyone where they are suppose to go on time with all the supplies they need. My phone can be ringing nonstop. The car can be out of gas...for the hundredth time this week. Then she speaks...from the backseat...whatever words of wisdom cross her mind.

Life observations according to Little Bit...

"When I get to be a Power Ranger, I'm going to fly into the moon."

"I was playing with my Little People, but they didn't want to play with me."

"Mom, after you get your Frappuccino, can I fly my kite? It's wind-ing outside." (Obviously, being a Rhodes scholar, she knows that winding is a verb showing the action of the wind, not to be mistaken for winding like winding a thread.)
Why kite flying you may ask?...She has only been kite flying twice in her life, so it's the obvious choice.)

"I'm afraid of the hair." (I had sent her to sit on her bed after she collapsed in tears from something not going her way. While there, she discovered a hair on her bed. She sat, clutching Eeyore, sobbing until I came to remove the obviously very dangerous strand of hair that was threatening to attack her.)

"Mom, am I thirty yet?" (This was after seeing her 3 year old boyfriend at preschool. At our house, thirty is the legal and appropriate age to engage in any and all spit swapping and tonsil swabbing with whatever creep, I mean sweet person, they bring home.)

When asked about what her partner in crime, Eeyore, does for a living...she answers..."He's a pizza guy."

"Listen, the choo-choo rain rain's coming!"

Oh...what would we do without our "Little Bit" of comedy relief?

"Amazing Grace"

If you haven't seen it, rent it!

The film follows the life of William Wilberforce, who was an abolitionist in England in the late 1700's. He took on strong opposition to end the British slave trade. His dear friend and mentor, John Newton, had been the captain of a slave ship for many years. The captain eventually repented of his horrible treatment of slaves and penned the song "Amazing Grace". He served as a witness to the crimes against slaves and urged William to continue his fight. William finally succeeds in 1833.

This is his epitaph at his grave in Westminster Abbey...

TO THE MEMORY OF WILLIAM WILBERFORCE (BORN IN HULL AUGUST 24th 1759, DIED IN LONDON JULY 29th 1833;) FOR NEARLY HALF A CENTURY A MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, AND, FOR SIX PARLIAMENTS DURING THAT PERIOD, ONE OF THE TWO REPRESENTATIVES FOR YORKSHIRE. IN AN AGE AND COUNTRY FERTILE IN GREAT AND GOOD MEN, HE WAS AMONG THE FOREMOST OF THOSE WHO FIXED THE CHARACTER OF THEIR TIMES; BECAUSE TO HIGH AND VARIOUS TALENTS, TO WARM BENEVOLENCE, AND TO UNIVERSAL CANDOUR, HE ADDED THE ABIDING ELOQUENCE OF A CHRISTIAN LIFE. EMINENT AS HE WAS IN EVERY DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC LABOUR, AND A LEADER IN EVERY WORK OF CHARITY, WHETHER TO RELIEVE THE TEMPORAL OR THE SPIRITUAL WANTS OF HIS FELLOW-MEN, HIS NAME WILL EVER BE SPECIALLY IDENTIFIED WITH THOSE EXERTIONS WHICH, BY THE BLESSING OF GOD, REMOVED FROM ENGLAND THE GUILT OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE, AND PREPARED THE WAY FOR THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN EVERY COLONY OF THE EMPIRE: IN THE PROSECUTION OF THESE OBJECTS HE RELIED, NOT IN VAIN, ON GOD; BUT IN THE PROGRESS HE WAS CALLED TO ENDURE GREAT OBLOQUY AND GREAT OPPOSITION: HE OUTLIVED, HOWEVER, ALL ENMITY; AND IN THE EVENING OF HIS DAYS, WITHDREW FROM PUBLIC LIFE AND PUBLIC OBSERVATION TO THE BOSOM OF HIS FAMILY. YET HE DIED NOT UNNOTICED OR FORGOTTEN BY HIS COUNTRY: THE PEERS AND COMMONS OF ENGLAND, WITH THE LORD CHANCELLOR AND THE SPEAKER AT THEIR HEAD, IN SOLEMN PROCESSION FROM THEIR RESPECTIVE HOUSES, CARRIED HIM TO HIS FITTING PLACE AMONG THE MIGHTY DEAD AROUND, HERE TO REPOSE: TILL, THROUGH THE MERITS OF JESUS CHRIST, HIS ONLY REDEEMER AND SAVIOUR, (WHOM, IN HIS LIFE AND IN HIS WRITINGS HE HAD DESIRED TO GLORIFY,) HE SHALL RISE IN THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST.
http://www.westminster-abbey.org/history-research/monuments-gravestones/people/12209

Am I old or what???

November 1988 - My dad and I stood at the glass, watching the nurse lay the little baby in one of those plastic bassinets. She had not been cleaned up yet. She was naked as a jaybird and looking like she had been pulled down the street on her face...but to us, she was the sweetest and cutest little thing we had ever seen. My dad, who was a retired Marine and had seen two wars up close and very personal, stood at the window, crying. Yes, I cried too, okay...sobbed.

Over the years, we've watched her grow. She walked down the aisle at my wedding...big blue eyes, blond hair and a halo of baby's breath in her hair. She stole the show! (Almost literally...she shared the same song with me and by the time she pranced slowly down the aisle making eye contact with everyone she passed and dropping the petals one at a time, I almost didn't have enough song left to walk down the aisle!)

Anyway, over the years, she has grown to be a beautiful girl. She is responsible, smart, and strong willed. She doesn't let anyone run over her and will tell you quickly what she thinks. Being a little on the strong willed side myself...I am completely proud. She has loved my four kidlets and helped me with them since the time they appeared. She has set her mind to getting a college degree and has not taken her eyes off that goal. I have high hopes for her...that she will be self-sufficient, independent, and strong as she goes out into the world.

I have cried buckets again...this time watching her daddy and Trek load her belongings into a trailer to carry her to college....wow, where does the time go? I thought it was just yesterday that I walked her around and around the living room, holding the pacifier in her mouth, begging God to make her quit crying and fall asleep...wondering what her mama was thinking, leaving her baby with her crazy 14 year old aunt.

(I must pause to get a Kleenex...I'm crying again)


Whose big idea was it to have kids??? At this rate, by the time I get my own four raised and gone, I will have depleted the Kleenex supply in the United States.



(The picture is of her this summer after the dentist ripped her wisdom teeth out of her mouth. I just wished I looked that good after surgery!)

We love you Dan-elle!
Have fun, do good!
Trek, Fred-o, George, Twirl, Monkey, and Little Bit

Michael Phelps just wishes I was his Mama...

I make a complete and shameless fool of myself over my kids. I don't care. I admit it and will seek counseling...after they graduate from college and get married...but then I'll have grandkids, so...I'll get back to you on the counseling thing.

Anyway, every time my kids perform in a sport or a play or a dance recital or well...you get the point, I cheer or cry, whatever applies at the time. People think I am insane, but MY kids know they have a fan in the audience that will support them whether they come in first or ninety-ninth. Case in point below...you would have thought my kid was breaking the world record for the zillionth time like Michael Phelps. You'll hear me screaming when she does...

For those interested, my kidlet is the anchor of Lane 4 from far end of pool at the state championship meet. I think you'll figure out which team won the heat...

Another Pet Peeve

What does it mean to make "Good Money"? I use this phrase all the time.
"Bob is a windshield wiper blade maker and he makes really good money."
What does that mean?? Why is Bob's money good and Tom's money that he makes as a fake Christmas tree maker bad? Is it a backwoods phrase that I picked up on the side of the road somewhere or is there really an argument to be made for using "good" to describe "well paid"?

Please...put me out of my grammar inflicted misery...

Purging

In our quest to prepare four little ones for a new school year, we spent last weekend purchasing glue sticks, pencils, and the other 1,321 items on the supply lists provided by our friendly local education establishments. I walked into Wal-Mart, stopped and picked up my jaw and tried to move like a normal person after ignorantly mistaking it for Christmas Eve. There were so many people with exactly the same idea...trying to save $2.11 in sales tax during our "Tax Free that covers all school supplies except Kleenex, plastic bags, baby wipes and the 101 other household items that you are expected to buy for a classroom that makes you think you are sending your child to a third world country for the next 8 years Weekend." Anyway, I digress...sorry.

For the past 4 or 5 years, we have had a sock basket. It was a complete accident caused by my laziness in folding clothes and blatant refusal to match socks. Instead I chose to dig frantically at 7:30 each morning desperately trying to find decent socks for my kids to wear to school...much smarter choice. (Do you see a trend here?) Anyway, during our savings fest last weekend, we bought the kids new socks. Trek said "Dump the basket and throw them all away...we are starting over."

In my "I am cheap, I can't possibly..." world, this is so foreign an idea that I thought I felt the beginnings of a hives breakout at the mere suggestion. Stubbornly, I spent a movie and one half, sitting on the sofa next to Trek, sorting 5 years worth of stained, torn, worn, and just plain disgusting socks. Trek would occasionally whisper, like the devil on my shoulder, "Just throw them...pitch 'em...you can do it..." When all was said and done, I had about one half of a Wal-mart sack of usable socks. What a waste of time.

Thus the picture of the mountain of socks from my recent sock purge. I took the pic for my bff C because I knew she would be proud of my accomplishment. It felt so good to get rid of the basket. This exercise has provoked me to think, "What else needs purging?" It's a little crazy to compare my life to a pile of socks, but it struck me that I do the same thing with a lot of areas of my life...hoard a bunch of old, ugly socks...take each one out...examine carefully...instead of just throwing the whole lot out and moving on...hmmm.

I looked up the definition of 'purging' to make sure I used the right word.
"Purging" come from the Latin "to purify" I think I need to do more purifying...the sock basket was liberating!