Tradition

We began the brainwashing early in my family!

This is my twin sister and me around age 2:




I continued the tradition with my family:









We did such a good job brainwashing, imagine the moans when these soccer uniforms were handed to us:



Orange and Blue??? Seriously, we live in Crimson Tide country. I hope someone was fired over this decision. You can see the StReSS on Lego-Man's face. There is NOTHING about orange we like in this house. Nothing!




My little sister and I LOVE getting all the cousins dressed in their Alabama finest for the Iron Bowl:




It's countdown time in our house. This weekend brings us back to our favorite time of year.... Alabama football!


If you can't feel the excitement in the air, watch this.....you will!

ROLL TIDE from the GRITS house!!!

Soup's On!

Today's blog post will be filed under "Things that make you go Hmmmmm".

For those of you who don't know, I am an educated woman. Long story, and many student loans later, I have 2 Bachelor's degrees and a Master's degree. I work as a nurse anesthetist and all my co-workers are Master's degree trained.

So imagine our surprise when this little "education" poster showed up in our lounge at work:





The whole thing is laughable. But what cracks me up the most is the part that reads, "Place top on Styrofoam cup to take heated soup to patient room".

Hellooo, administration, I work in the operating room where MY patients can have nothing by mouth!




Hmmmmmm......

Almost Picture Perfect

Back in 1977, I could only dream of seeing Shaun Cassidy in concert. I never sat in the crowd of screaming girls to hear him sing "Da Doo Ron Ron". I was not meant to see his feathered bangs and white jeans in person.

But I really, really wanted to!


Last night, I lived out all my childhood concert dreams....with my daughter, the Jonas Brothers, and seventeen thousand screaming girls!!

I'm not ashamed. We had a BLAST! We squealed, we danced, we sang....did I mention we screamed and squealed?! A lot.

The giddy girls:

The sparkly shoes:

Co-Winners of Mother of the Year:

The one thing I didn't get to do.... take pictures of my daughter's face enjoying it all.

Why you may ask?! Because we were asked to take our digital cameras back to the car. Not because you couldn't have a camera, but because it wouldn't fit in my pocket. Meet the world according to Susie Stickler, ticket scanner extraordinare.

I politely informed Susie that there was NO mention of camera size on our tickets or the arena website. She informed me that it was a Jonas Brothers rule. Ooooohhhhh.

We followed Susie's "rule" against our better judgement will! Of course, when we entered through another gate Nice Nancy, ticket scanner, didn't so much as ask to see the contents of our purses. She just instructed us to have a good time.

After a "quick" 20 minute wait for the little girls room, we arrived at our great seats with about 15 minutes to spare.




After looking around for a few seconds, I realized SEVERAL people on the rows around us had cameras that were exactly the same size as mine and LARGER. Imagine the happiness I felt right then and there.

Here's the only photo that came out of the Princess enjoying the concert.






The concert was spectacular! It was worth the wait and definitely worth every penny. The $4 pink cotton candy was the bargain of the night.

The mom's even got in on the singing action when the JoBros busted out their own rendition of "Sweet Caroline".

As we were sitting in traffic, we even got to wave at Kevin who was sitting in the front of their bus which passed us. *SQUEAL*






Despite the awesomeness of the night, I left with but one regret.


I have no photos of my daughter's face the moment the Jonas Brothers appeared on stage. No photos of her screaming her pretty little head off. No pictures of her swaying her arms, or of her singing and dancing in her seat.

No pictures of us together on this BIG event for both of us.....our first teenage heart throb concert.


But I'm not bitter......maybe just a little.....or a lot!

Backpacks and Bows

*RING*

That's the sound of the school bell......which, to my delight, rang today!

That's right, folks, today summer vacation is officially over and our afternoons will no longer be filled with reruns of Phineas and Ferb. It's back to multiplication tables and AR points.

Last night I was overjoyed when I walked into the Princess' room and saw this:







Her "first day of school" outfit so neatly laid out on her bed.....including her shoes, necklace, sunglasses and BOW?? The Princess hasn't worn a bow in many, many months. But it matches the outfit so she went with it.

I am betting this is the first and last time her clothes will be laid out the night before school.

Lego-Man was less than excited about the new school year. He is pretty bummed that he and his best bud were separated after two years together. However, he was up and dressed before I got out of bed this morning!

Today brings a new school year....a day filled with mixed emotions. I welcome the school year and the structure it brings back to our home. Yet, I can't believe my "babies" are beginning 5th and 3rd grade.

I'm looking forward to a great school year and hopefully some great fodder for blog posts!