Lucky Chick

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I'm a winner.


Seriously, I've always had a bit of a lucky streak. When I worked days, I always listened to the radio on the way to work, and I have won quite a few nice prizes. Off the top of my head....tickets to see Kenny Chesney, tickets to a Sweet Corn Festival (much more fun than it sounds!), movie tickets, tickets to a WWE wrestling match (which I gave to a friend), Sesame Street Live tickets, and quite a few more cool prizes. And don't even get me started on all of the wonderful prizes I've won from blog giveaways!


But one of the best prizes I've ever won was the tickets to a Dixie Chicks concert back in 2000. Because not only did I score the tickets, but I also won the grand prize: backstage passes!
I was a Chicks fan from the first time I heard them. So I was determined to win those tickets, and I was thrilled when I did. But I absolutely flipped when I heard them call my name for the backstage passes! I also got a Dixie Chicks CD & T-shirt.


A girl that I worked with back then, who was also a good friend at the time, went to the concert with me. I was pregnant with Elayna at the time. We got to hang out with the DJ's from the radio station before the concert, as well as some of the Chicks' people. Then we got in a line and waited our turn to meet the Dixie Chicks. I was expecting to be able to kind of hang out, (I'd never been "backstage" before), but instead they led us through assembly-line style. We met the Chicks, shook their hands, and then posed for pictures, and chatted with them a little while they snapped the photos. Then we moved on and the next people came up.

(I can't believe it's been 10 YEARS since then! Time flies.)

The Dixie Chicks were sweet and beautiful, and the concert was fantastic. Natalie Maines officially announced her pregnancy that night, and she was the first Chick to have a baby.
It was a lot of fun, and one of the closest brushes with celebrity that I've ever had.
It also reminds me that I need to start listening to the radio more often!

{Front row: Dixie Chicks, back in the Fall of 2000. I'm the chubby preggo in the back. I blurred out my old friend's face because we're no longer in touch, and I don't know if she'd want to appear on my blog. The other two in the back are DJ's from the radio station.}

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Stretch Marks Don't Make You a Mama

The other night I was watching an episode of Intervention, one of the handful of shows I am currently obsessed with. In fact, I was pondering....what happens if you're addicted to watching Intervention? Will they do an Intervention Intervention?
Anyway.

The addict had a daughter, but the daughter had been raised by the addict's sister, because the addict had never been able to take care of her. She always chose the drug lifestyle over her child.
And you might think the addict was grateful to her sister for providing a safe, stable home for her child when she obviously couldn't. But not only was she not grateful at all, she was quite resentful. She hated that her sister and daughter had a close relationship and at one point said, "I am the mother! I can show you my stretch marks right now! I carried that kid!"

At which point I wanted to jump through the TV and smack her around a little bit.

It blows my mind that anyone can honestly think that giving birth is all it takes to make someone a mother. I guess they think that once they push that baby out, they're done - anyone can take care of the kid; they did it all in that 9 months. They got the morning sickness, and stretch marks, and birthed the child. The next 18 years of parenting apparently don't count.

It's something I could picture Andrew's "egg donor" of a mother saying. She did in fact give birth to Andrew, and even managed to stick around for 6 months. Since then, she's been in and out of Andrew's life, totally inconsistent, until 2 years ago, when she dropped out altogether.

But she gave birth to him. Her pregnancy wasn't easy; after her first child was born prematurely, she had to have a cerclage and was very closely monitored.
She went through labor and childbirth.

But it takes more than that to be a Real Mom.
A real mom invests time and love into their child, and doesn't bail when things get hard.
She's there for the fun times, and the not-so-fun times. Let's face it folks, raising kids has its share of frustration, anger, and tears. And let's just be honest....some of it is just tedious and boring. But real Moms....we do it all.

I remember Andrew's bio-mom showing up for his preschool graduation. Front and center with her camera, all teary-eyed and "proud", demanding that we give her his graduation cap (which we had purchased...she has never contributed monitarily in any way, even before she disappeared). It was sickening.

Andrew is only eleven years old, but he knows one thing. He decided on his own that it doesn't matter who gave birth to him. What matters to him is who takes him to soccer practice, who helps with his homework, who cooks his dinner every night, who throws his birthday parties.

You know....the Real Mom.

Music to my Ears

One day recently, I was talking to my teen daughter, Shelbie, and one of her friends. I brought up something that Shelbie had told me about, and her friend said, "Shelbie!! You told your Mom about that?!" And Shelbie replied, "Of course! I tell my mom everything."

I can't tell you how good that made me feel. Not because I believe for a moment that she literally tells me EVERYthing. I'm sure she has her little secrets, and she should. She's a teenager.

But when I was her age...I told my mother NOTHING. We just didn't have that kind of relationship.

I don't believe in being a 'friend' to my child. I have friends, she has friends. She doesn't need me to be another friend, my role is to be her mother. In fact, I think trying to be your kids' friend is a dangerous road to travel...but that's another post for another time.

However, ever since I was a teenager, I hoped that I could have a different kind of relationship with my kids. My mother knew nothing of my personal life. She knew who my friends were, and that was about it. She never knew who I had a crush on. She never knew my dreams, my worries, my random thoughts. We just didn't talk like that. And I could never go to her with my problems or concerns. We just didn't have that kind of relationship.


But with my kids, I do. My teenage son and I are also very close, but it's a little different with him, because he's a boy, and he doesn't talk and open up as much as his sister does. But still, we have a much closer relationship than I did with my parents, and he's told me many things that I would never have told my parents, at that age....or any age.

But Shelbie....she tells me so much. I am very involved in her life. In fact, sometimes she talks to me until my eyes cross - about her day; her friends, her crushes, her friends' crushes; clothes, music, makeup, hair; her classes, and he said, and then she said, and I was like, OMG!.....yeah. Sometimes it's exhausting!


But I wouldn't have it any other way. Because my hope is that if she tells me the little things, then she'll also know she can tell me the big things. She doesn't have to carry huge weights around on her own shoulders, like I did. She can come to me, and we can figure things out together.


So far, I think we're doing well in that regard. So even when she's chattering away at 50 words per second and my head is about to explode....it's music to my ears.

{ Shelbie, Me, and our Best Friends}

Friday Night Fragging....

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone. It was a nice one for us overall.
My oldest son spent most Thanksgiving day with his girlfriend, which reminded me that (a.) I'm getting old and (b.) not only will I always have to share holidays with the kids' dad, but eventually their spouses, in-laws, etc. I vow to never be the one stressing them out and demanding time....if we need to celebrate a holiday the day before the holiday or the weekend after, so be it. It's all about being together anyway!




So now after a busy week with a full house, I am all alone. John is at work and the kids are with their dad for the weekend. Instead of rushing around getting things done and trying to talk to at least three people at one time, I'm sitting in a quiet house, just me and one dog, watching What Not to Wear. I'm trying to decide whether to clean the house and enjoy it not getting dirty again immediately, eat dinner without interruption, take a shower and actually have time to shave my legs....or just take a nap!



Speaking of the dog.....earlier today, Sofia chewed up a tube of Krazy Glue! Now this is the dog who gets into food a lot....she's eaten 2 birthday cakes and several loaves of bread. But she's never eaten/chewed on anything that wasn't food before. I don't know what got into her! She's fine, but it was pretty amusing to watch her when her lips were all sticky and stiff.




Have you started your Christmas decorating yet? I'm thinking of starting this weekend....



Did you do the Black Friday thing? I didn't...I don't...ever. I'm afraid I'd end up getting arrested. I have a serious lack of patience, I hate crowds, and I hate rude people. I just don't think it would be pretty! I drives John crazy because he loves to shop, and the thought of all the deals we're missing out on just breaks his heart. So I told him next year, he's welcome to go by himself! We'll see if that happens......


Speaking of shopping......on Wednesday I scored a Vera Bradley wristlet at a thrift shop for four bucks! Now THAT is my kind of shopping!




I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving holiday & I hope you have a great weekend!

Visit Mrs 4444s for more Friday Fragments.

Happy Thanksgiving

We have been incredibly blessed this year, and I wish the same for you!

Happy Thanksgiving from the DysFUNctional Family!

Total Randomness

All day Tuesday, it felt like Friday. It was the last day of school for the kids for the week. I don't understand why the county doesn't just go ahead and cut out Monday & Tuesday and call it Fall Break.
Back in my day, we were only out on Thursday & Friday. These kids have it made!



The kids are with me for Thanksgiving this year. My son, whose time is split 2/3 between me and his dad, came over today and will stay till Friday, but he is most likely going to his girlfriend's house for Thanksgiving dinner. It was his idea to come over for these 3 days, and that made me very happy. I love that my teenage son still likes spending time with his family. He also really enjoyed Andrew's soccer tournaments this past weekend and has been making a real effort to spend time with Andrew lately. I'm proud of that kid!



We're spending Thanksgiving with the in-laws, the brits, this year. It's kind of funny that they celebrate Thanksgiving, since they were born & raised in England and still cling tightly to their English traditions & ways. But they aren't going totally traditional - we're having ham instead of turkey. That's fine with me. My emphasis on Thanksgiving is more on remembering to be Thankful, not clinging to the traditional story of the Native Americans happily sharing their land and food with the Pilgrims. Give me a freaking break.




I am blogging from my bed. I finally have internet service at home for the first time in forever. I can't tell you how happy I am to be sitting in my own bedroom blogging! Life is good!

Weekend Wrap Up

We had a busy and FUN weekend!

Friday night was the first night of Andrew's soccer tournaments. They lost that first game.

On Saturday my husband & oldest son, John & Tim, went to the Gator football game. Elayna was with my parents, so that left me, Shelbie, and Andrew. We all went to my best friend's daughter's birthday party. We had a BLAST!

{me, my best friend Danielle & our daughters, who are also best friends!}

Then we hit the mall.

Me, Shelbie, and Andrew at the mall was quite a combination! We had a great time. Shelbie and I got our eyebrows waxed, and I was explaining the process & the purpose of it to Andrew, and describing reasons why some people get their eyebrows waxed. I asked Andrew if he knew what a "unibrow" was. He said "Yes, but I used to think it was a type of unicorn. Like maybe boys were uniCORNS and girls were uniBROWS." I was rolling!

Then it was time for the next part of the soccer tournaments. This time, they won! Which meant more tournaments Sunday! I had been hoping they wouldn't be too early so we could still make it to church, and we lucked out; his Sunday tournaments started at 2pm. We celebrated at Sonny's BBQ for dinner, where Andrew entertained us even more. He was on a roll!

Sunday was a special day at church, we had a potluck dinner. I took my famous chicken & dumplings, and Shelbie made monkey bread.

Then we headed back to the soccer fields for tournaments. They ended up playing three games on Sunday! They won the first two, but lost the last game, putting them in 2nd place overall. I am SO glad that we signed up for soccer; it has been great for his confidence. He has turned into an excellent player, and his coach is awesome.

Although part of me is glad the sports seasons are over for Elayna & Andrew, I know I'll miss it soon! It's been a lot of fun. I love watching my kids play sports!

I hope y'all had a great weekend!

P.S. Be sure to come back tomorrow for an exciting giveaway!

Goals: Achieved

{Me, circa First Grade.}

So maybe I didn't become an actress, or an artist, or a teacher, or a model.

But as I was looking through some old boxes last week and came across my old School Days book, I realized that I have definitely achieved some goals that were obviously important to me from a very young age.

I have a house FULL of children and various rescued animals.

I have arrived!

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Best. Billboard. Ever.

Tim Tebow is back in Gainesville.
Gracing a Jockey billboard.
Not in his underoos, unfortunately.
But looking mighty fine, nevertheless.
I can't believe this tiny pic is the ONLY image I can find of it online.
But, it will have to do. Trust me, it puts a smile on my face every time I pass it.
(then turn around and pass it again. And again. And again....)

In the words of Gator sports announcer Mick Hubert....

"Oh, my!"

It's All About Me(ep)

Well helllooo, bloggy friends!

It's me, Meep!

I've taken over Mom's blog to show you what I've been up to lately.

This is a picture of me and my hooman, Elayna.

But you've seen her before, and really, hoomans are pretty boring.

So today's post is all about me and my dog, Sofia.

Sofia loves me.

She is very gentle with me.

Look! I am SO ferocious.

Really! I am vicious!!

Also, I am a little annoying.

Sofia? Where you go??

In other news:

The other day, Mom decided she was going to give me a bath.
I decided OH NO SHE WAS NOT.
Since Mom does not speak Cat,
I communicated my wishes by digging my claws
deeply into the tender skin on her chest.
Just above her breast.
Mom said BAD words.
But guess who won??
No bath for Me(ep)!!!!!

Happy Wordful Wednesday to youuuu!