All About Me

I think it is safe to say that we’ve survived the first official week of school here in the GRITS household.  And so far, everyone’s conduct seems to be in check.  Phew.

Each child has mastered a list of spelling words and a weekly Bible verse.  Lego-Man has even added the words “concentrate”, “mongrel”, “expanse”, “pantry”, and “loom” to his vocabulary. 

It is great to say we are officially back in the school mode.  To borrow a quote from a favorite childhood show:

 

 

As your body grows bigger,
Your mind must flower
It's great to learn,
'Cuz knowledge is power!

It's Schoolhouse Rocky,
A chip off the block
Of your favorite schoolhouse;
schoolhouse rock!

Today I found a paper in the Princess’ backpack which is titled “All About Me”. 

I was going to scan the thing and slap it up on here, but the girl truly has some handwriting issues, which she definitely inherited from her father.  Based on handwriting alone, the child is destined for medical school!

Check out exactly what the Princess had to say about herself:

What is your favorite subject? Math (really, sis? what about all that crying over addition flash cards?)

What is your favorite color? Pink (like they had to ask)

What do you want to be when you grow up? a vetanarien (good, because animals can’t read your writing)

What is your favorite Bible story? Wean Jesus died on the cross (best story ever)

What are some of your favorite things to do? Play my DS (notice no mention of pushing mom’s buttons)

What are you most thankful for? God and food (girl after my own heart)

If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be? be presedent (followed by a “wow” and smiley face by her teacher) 

I’d vote for Princess GRITS for President!  Wouldn’t you? 

 

Sincerely ‘Fro Me to You—Maypole Dance

This week’s Thursday blogfest, hosted by Kristen, includes photos from an event I participated in during my freshman year of college. The year was Spring of 1987.

As you will see, it’s highly likely I participated because, quite frankly, I did not know any better. Chalk it up to inexperience in life or just lack of judgement by the 18 year old trying to “find” herself while away from home.

Many of the girls on my floor in the dorm were doing it and gosh golly I was going to do it too. Don’t worry mom, this was all the peer pressure I succumbed to at college.

I have mentioned my college before and we did some pretty strange things in the name of tradition. Believe it or not this is not at the top of the strange list. But that’s another day and another post.

Every year in the spring, Judson College has an alumnae weekend known as “J-Day”. Alumnae from all over come back and relive their college memories for a couple days. During my years there, the freshman class had a once in a lifetime opportunity to “dance around the maypole”. My friends held me at gunpoint convinced me to participate. Somehow.

What??? You want to know why “girls” and a Baptist women’s college were performing a maypole dance? I wish I could tell you, I really do. And now that I have done a Google search on maypole dancing, I want to deny my participation. However, the photos say otherwise.

3rd Floor Kirtley Dorm Maypole Beauties (me on bottom right):

One of my best buddies:

I obviously had a skipping good time:

Well, now that the humiliation is over click on over to We Are THAT Family and check out all the other black mail fabulous photos that may have never seen the inside of a scrapbook. You might even catch our hostess, Kristen, in a spectacular swimsuit.

Answers needed

Is it just me or does anyone else wonder why the women’s beach volleyball team wears this uniform:

 

 

(George Bush between them is a whole new level of wrongness)

 

and the men’s team wears this one:

 

 

 

Let Us Pray

Today I am taking time to share with my bloggy friends a very special prayer need. I am sure that most of you who frequent this location have noticed the button in my side bar requesting prayer for Noah. You may have even clicked on it and read about sweet little Noah.

Psalm 55:22

Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you;he will never let the righteous fall.

This family needs our prayers now more than ever!! Little Noah has been in The Children’s Hospital of Alabama for the last two weeks and is currently on the ventilator (breathing machine). His parents are having to make some tough decisions regarding his care and I’m sure they would more than appreciate your thoughts and prayers.

I would like to encourage everyone who reads to share this need with your prayer warriors. And if you have a blog, share this with your readers. Let’s bathe this child and his parents in prayer.

Please click on the photo above to visit Noah's site and let his family know that you are lifting them up in your prayers. Leave them a comment of encouragement or maybe share with them a Bible verse which may uplift their spirits.

I appreciate it and I KNOW they would too.

Philippians 4:6

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Hot Diggity Dog

I want to scream.  I want to shout. 

I wanted to do cartwheels down the school hallway today as I dragged calmly walked my kids back into the building which nurtures learning and fosters creativity. 

I wanted to hug all the teachers and thank them so much for choosing this career.  Because I certainly could not do their job, or my five minutes of fame would involve a special edition of Dateline NBC.

Yes, friends, school is back in session and the excitement is electrifying.  Well, just for me and the hubby.  The 4th  and 2nd graders did an excellent job hiding their excitement! 

It’s the beginning of a new school year—which means new clothes, new school supplies, and new tennis shoes.  And a bet as to how long it will be before we get a note home because the Princess keeps talking to her neighbor and Lego-Man cannot finish his seat work. 

I’m giving the Princess two weeks and Lego-Man one month.  I’ll keep you posted.

 

 

‘Fro Me to You—Birthday Boy

This week’s version of We Are THAT Family’s blog carnival include photos that have never graced the pages of any scrapbook.

They are a couple of photos that I have had stored in my bedside table for the last several years. I just didn't know quite what to do with them. But today they are making their “scrapbook” debut.

In honor of his birthday today, I would like everyone to meet my dad, Nick the Greek, son of Gus:

On the back of this first photo, it was dated October 1950. So it was sometime around my dad entering 1st grade. He attended a local "military school", hence the uniform. The glasses have been part of his life since he was just a little toddler.

I’m not quite sure when the photo above was taken, but I am guessing it was taken when my dad was in his early 20’s. Which would be, ohhhh, around 1965ish???

A bit of trivia here, to keep you captivated. Nick owned his own radio station in South Alabama. WLPR 96 FM. The genre-- elevator music! I have very fond memories of hanging out with him at the station. And I even remember him taking me on the building's roof to check the antenna!

Over the years, my dad has offered lots and lots of wisdom for me to now pass on to my children.

• Drink your milk
• Always go the bathroom before any trip, even if you don't have to. "Just go squeeze"
• No meal is complete without a healthy dose of "roughage"
• Always wear your seatbelt
• When riding in your friend's car, or college van, sit in the very middle seat of the car. It is much better to put a few people between you and the frame of the vehicle.
• Girls should always wear their hair long.
• People from Florida cannot drive (sorry folks)

And one thing I tried to teach him was when your daughter says she is going to be "sick" in your car, you better pull over. He'll tell you I've thrown up in every one of his cars except the one he now owns.

So on your birthday, Pop, thanks for all the things you have done for me. After all, if it weren't for you, I would be just another GRITS, and not a Greek one!

Happy Birthday. I love you!

Now for plenty more Sincerely 'Fro Me to You action, pop on over to Kristen's place at We Are THAT Family!

Talking ‘Bout My Girl

She wanted to play.

We tried to talk her out of it.

1. It will be hot.
2. It will be mostly boys.
3. It will be very hot.
4. You cannot quit once you start.
5. It will be very, very hot.

She would not listen.

We signed her up.

Today she scored her first flag-football touchdown!

While wearing a pink sequinced head band (not shown) that match her pink tennis shoes.

And the season has not officially started.

Rock on Princess!

Time out

We interrupt the perpetual side splitting fun and the useful information provided on this blog for a Monday meme break.

This break in blog action is brought to you courtesy of Beachy Mimi. She has so kindly tagged me today and wants me to provide you, the reader, with 6 random things about myself.

BTW, I found a drawing of Beachy Mimi on my most recent trip to the beach.

I kid, Mimi. The title is “Beach Mama”. I believe Mimi more than likely looks much better in her swimsuit and her “girls” are more north facing!

So, on with my 6 random things:

1. I love the Nintendo Wii, especially playing Super Mario Kart

2. I am a bowling super star, or something like that

3. I am scared to death of flying in a plane.

4. Sometimes I have to wear glasses at work, to protect my eyes from harmful lasers

5. I cheer for the Crimson Tide, and have been a fan all my life

6. My favorite vacation place on the planet, Disney World!

Here’s a complete list of the rules to participate in this little blogging meme.

1) Link to the person who tagged you: Beachy Mimi

2) Post the rules on your blog
3) Write 6 random things about yourself
4) Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them
5) Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6) Let the tagger know when your entry is up

Because I am running out of posting time, if you stop by here frequently I am tagging you. So all 6 of you who read my blog, get to posting 6 random things about you and pass the meme spirit on!

Sanity? Check please.

Do you ever have those moments of self realized brilliance? You come up with the best idea ever? Or so you think. I am not the only one. Right?

Well, I had one of those moments this week when I decided it would be F-U-N to allow each child to have a spend the night guest over. You know, it being the end of the summer and all. We could celebrate one more time with guests. All under our own roof.

Sanity check, Tammy! This means that two children, whom you did not give birth to, will be guests in your home for, ohhh, 24 hours. 2 boys, 2 girls. Are you ready for this? Only trained professionals have 4 kids in their home at one time.

Tuesday was the big day and you could just feel the excitement in the air at our house. We picked up my son’s guest around 1pm and the boy games began. Inside. Outside. Inside. Outside. Wii. Legos. Inside. Outside.

My daughters BFF was dropped off at the GRITS house about 4pm. About, ohhhh, 4:15 I was greeted with, “she’s wearing the dress I want to wear”. Which was soon followed by, “but I want to wear it”.

Fortunately, we had to interrupt this regularly scheduled 7 year old double-diva fashion show for the Princess’ flag football practice (another day, another blog). We took all 4 children to the field and let them all run around. Aha, the parents super secret plan to wear them out was in effect. Followed by a trip to the Pizza Hut buffet. F-U-N!

Miraculously, all were in bed and asleep before 11pm. Thank you, Lord!

As usual, the boys were up at the butt-crack of dawn, but quietly playing the Wii when I joined them around 8am. And just what do you think the girls were doing when I got up??? Arguing over who was going to wear the pretty black dress!

I was forced to shut down the fashionista runway. The “no more dress up” decree was handed down. And the news was not well received by the dueling divas. Hmph!

Sanity check, Tammy! Get on your knees right now and thank the Lord for the ONE little girl you gave birth to. It’s true, he doesn’t give us more than we can handle. And he knew I could only take one little pink princess.

After a delicious breakfast of chocolate chip muffins, the boys went outside for a few rounds of backyard baseball. Where were the girls??? You just had to ask.

Arguing. “I want to play Clue JR” “but I want to play Monopoly JR”. Holy moly. How do people handle this much diva in their household?! I was more than ready to snatch myself bald. I went to my room, counted to 1 million and went back into the den to stop the seemingly silly bickering. Which by this time had escalated into, “that’s not the way you play” “you are cheating”.

I quickly and irrationally explained to them they could either play the games without arguing constantly or we could put the games away and neither would get to go to the movies after lunch. I also put away the more complicated JR games and busted out the Balloon Lagoon game. This game is great and was thoroughly enjoyed by the 7 year old Princess and her guest. Crisis averted. I think.

The boys came in and went straight back to the Lego pile. At some point, the Lego creations became bathtub toys and the boys t-shirts came off. My 15 minutes of “peace and quiet” was interrupted by the divas informing me that “the boys took their shirts off”. With gritted teeth I politely reminded them that boys can take their shirts off and nobody was being hurt by the shirtless 9 year old boys. I mean being able to count all those ribs is just wrong!

The spend the night fiesta finally came to an end after we all enjoyed going to see “Space Chimps” at the theater.

Sanity check, Tammy! Spend the night company is better done one at a time.

It’s true, hind sight is always 20/20!

‘Fro Me to You--- Queen for a Year

This week’s installment of Kristen’s Sincerely ‘Fro Me to You carnival is a last minute decision.  Due to unforeseen circumstances, completely beyond my control, I have postponed my planned photo classic.

As some of you may know, my college buddies and I have declared flashback-photo “war” on one another over on facebook.  What began as an innocent 40 year old’s reflective photo montage, has turned into a battle of middle-aged women vying for the imaginary Best Flashback Photo Award!

Anyhoo, the newest “war” upload has provided today's  ‘frotastic photo jewel,  provided by none other than my BFF Teresa.  To whom I am still sucking up to after my declaration of “war" post which revealed three of us in some sort of wallpaper wardrobe fiasco.  That photo alone would fit the requirements of today’s theme. 

*sorry ADD moment*    On with today’s photo:

One of my favorite memories from college is playing intramural field hockey.  Nothing like girl’s at a women’s college taking out their frustrations on a field wielding wooden sticks and chasing a hard plastic ball.  Oh yea, I must not leave out the cute plaid skirts. 

I think it was my senior year that I was nominated as Captain of the senior team.  Which probably doesn’t mean a whole lot to you, but for me, it lead me to my one and only official coronation! 

As the Captain of the “Hockey Day” winning team, may I Sincerely present ‘Fro Me to You, my crowning achievement as “Hockey Day Queen of 1988”

 

 

*elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist, wrist* 

*snort*

*giggle*

If you liked this, you can find more over at Kristen’s place….go, look, laugh…..and come back next week for more.