Why I love Football

So I am sitting here watching football and they keep running the "Why I Love Football" commercials and it made me think about why I love football.

See, I used to loathe football. I hated it with a passion. I hated it because my Mother loved it. She watched all the games and she yelled, screamed, and I think even threw things. She was passionate about the game. She loved College and NFL football, she knew all the players. She would follow her favorite college players NFL careers with glee. She hated Notre Dame because back in the stone age they "cheated" LSU out of a bowl game. One of her prized possessions was a Les Miles signed LSU football. She was a FAN.

I hated all that yelling, all that passion. My Dad used to joke that he had to go stand in the front yard during games so the neighbors would know he wasn't beating her, she was THAT loud. I would always find something else to do far far away. It was like that for years.

Then I met Mojo. He loves football, but he loves me more. I'm pretty sure that he did not watch more than two or three games the first year we were together. That, my friends, is love! Then I felt bad and he would watch the games and I would read a book. Then somewhere along the way I started watching, and enjoying the games. I would talk them over with my Mom the next day. We would watch them together and yell at the TV together, both loud, both passionate, I think I may have even thrown something.

My Mom and I were pretty tight. She was one of my best friends. She loved Mojo too, and I overheard her once telling him thank you for getting me to love football!

Then she got sick.

Football was the only thing that calmed her and soothed her so she could sleep during the last weeks of her life. She wasn't awake and aware very often and didn't know who I was or where she was most of the time when she was. She would get agitated because of this and watching reruns of football games on the NFL channel calmed her down, made her feel safe and happy. If she got restless in her sleep all I had to do was put on football and she soothed right back down into peaceful sleep. And believe me, with the amount of pain she was in peaceful sleep was a huge blessing.

So why do I love football?
I love football because it is a connection to my Mother, who I still miss every single day of my life. I love football because I can feel her watching with me. I love football because the last crop of college players she loved are just now starting in the NFL and I can follow them for her (Honey Badger, I'm looking at you). When we watch as a family I can feel her happiness in the room all around us. I love football because Mojo and I are passing the love of football on to our three girls and I KNOW that makes my mom happy.

School Morning Blues

Why is it that by the time I get all three girls on the bus in the morning I feel like I have gone three rounds with Mike Tyson? This just can not be right! It is less than two hours from when they wake up to when the last one gets on the bus and I am exhausted and ready for a nap.

Here is a typical morning at my house...

6:00 a.m. - Alarm goes off, jump out of bed and shut it off before it wakes Mojo. Glance back at bed, sigh, climb back in.

6:10 Jump out of bed in a panic, grab robe try to shut the door silently so it doesn't  make the slightest tiny noise and wake up Mojo. (Which is totally wishful thinking as my leap out of bed has usually jounced him awake anyway) Head to kitchen, start breakfast.

6:20 -6:30 Let the big girls know what time it is / that breakfast is ready. Get snarled at in response.

6:30 Wake up Littlesest as gently as I can if she is not already awake. Let her know breakfast is ready.

6:40 Remind Twinkies that breakfast is getting cold, get snarled at in response.

6:45ish Make sure everyone has everything they need for breakfast, run to room to get "dressed" for the bus stop. Get snarled at on the way.
Open door as quietly as humanly possible, creep around room and bathroom trying not to make the slightest sound (this is not even remotely possible for me, and if you know me at all you are laughing right now). Slap on some clothes and shove my hair in a ponytail, run a toothbrush over my teeth because this year we share the bus stop.

6:50 leave room again trying to shut door as silently as possible because the slightest click is heard as a BANG apparently.

6:51 check if Twinkies are ready to leave for bus (we leave EVERY DAY at 6:55, EVERY DAY this is a total shock!) Get snarled at while girls fly around gathering things, putting on socks and shoes, shoving things in my face to sign and telling me they need a 12 ounce can of soda for class today!

6:55 - 56 Somehow we manage to leave on time for bus. I am still not sure how that happens. Walk the block to the bus stop, get ignored by children but don't really care. Make chit-chat with the other mothers getting ignored by their children.

At some point the bus shows up and both girls come over for a hug and kiss before getting on the bus. This completely makes up for all the snarling! And the ignoring!  Because they don't care who sees them hugging their mom! Yea me! I head back for the hardest part of the day.

7:05 Turn off TV. Herd littlest to her room to get dressed. We have 30 minutes to put on a uniform, socks, shoes, get backpack and snack and if we made it the night before , lunch. Lots of time. Piece of cake because we have picked out the uniform we want to wear the night before.

7:15 Have tried on every pair of underwear in the drawer, none of which "feel right" Littlest is in tears because the only pair she wants to wear are the ones she wore yesterday and they are still in the laundry and "why didn't you wash them after I went to bed last night Mommy?"

7:20 Have settled on undies after being threatened with "I am going to get your Father!" Now crying because the shorts that go under the uniform jumper she picked out and tried on yesterday "don't feel right!"  "okay lets try another pair" "but I want to wear REEEEEDDDDD ones" "those are the only red ones we have." "They don't feel right!" " okay you don't have to wear those, lets try a different pair." " I want to wear RED ones!" "Those are the only red ones we have." "They don't feel right!" Wash, rinse, repeat....

7:30 Tears, mine, hers...

7:35 "You are going to miss the bus if you don't put on your socks and shoes RIGHT NOW!!!!" "But they have a bump!" "You have tried on every sock in the drawer, put some on NOW!!!!!"

7:40 "Wait! I forgot my snack!" SIGH "Well go grab something out of the snack bin" "I don't know what I want? what can I have?" "Any thing in the snack bin" "I don't want any of that, what can I have?" "Anything in the snack bin." "I don't want any if that, what can I have?"... Wash, Rinse, Repeat (Admittedly, this is my own fault because I forgot to have her pick it out the night before)

7:45 Exit the house in tears, hers, mine.

Waiting for the bus...

"Mom I need a tissue."
"Okay what pocket are they in?"
"I don't have any."
"I gave you a travel pack to keep in your bag last week."
"I took them out"
"Well if we go back in to get a tissue we might miss the bus, you will have to wait."
"I need a tissue."
"I don't have one."
"But, I need a tissue."
"Do you want to miss the bus?"
"No"
"Okay then."
"But, I need a tissue."
"I don't have one"
"But I need a tissue!"
"Honey, I don't have a tissue, maybe the bus driver will have one."
"But I need a tissue."
Wash, Rinse, Repeat until the bus finally, after about thirty years, arrives.

Collapse on lawn.

Adventures in Grocery Shopping

So today I had to change all my plans of watching tacky reality TV while I washed and folded the mountains of laundry my thoughtless family made over the weekend. Instead I had to do the weekly shop, as tomorrow is Mojo's birthday and he changed his mind about having a "cake". I would so put that word in air quotes if I could! He wants a BRAN "CAKE"!!!! A bran cake???? ugh. How in the world could I be married to someone who wants a bran cake for his birthday? That is just sauteed in wrong sauce.

Anyhoo, I thought that since I had to go to the store and get the wheat germ and other "yummy" ingredients for the "cake" I would just go ahead get the weekly shop over with.

What is up with you folks at the grocery store. Why do you feel the need to totally stick your whole head in my buggy to better see what I have put in it Nosey McNoesy-pants???

 I mean really, this happened more than once. So the third time, I "accidentally" ran into the offending party. She was so busy sticking her head in my buggy that she forgot to turn her buggy. I don't know, maybe it was the wheat germ? Or the golden raisins? Whatever, mind your own business! I think I might just start putting weird random stuff in my buggy. Like, layer the whole bottom with mouse traps, or five huge bottles of vodka and a tarp.

Also what is up with the grumpy old men? Every one of them was grocery shopping today and they all had to get in my way and grump at me.

On a side note, I do frequently have"accidental" collisions at the grocery. What?!?! If you don't want to get run over, don't leave your buggy in the middle of the aisle where I can't get around it! and especially don't leave your stinkin' buggy blocking the aisle and then LEAVE the aisle. You will come back and there will be something missing from your cart, and it will be moved. You have been warned!

Oh and sorry for all the "". It has just been that kind of day.

Poor Sick Babies

Last week Middlest woke up with a fever and a sore throat. She missed three days of school and the fever and sore throat went away and left behind a horrible croupy cough. She sounded like a barking seal y'all! Nothing touched that cough, not Vicks vapo rub, not cough drops, not any kind of cough syrup, not even Dearie's tried and true honey and whiskey remedy (that hot mess ALWAYS works!). Sigh.

I took her to the Doc on Monday and begged him to fix her.  He said that is was going around and wrote her a bunch of prescriptions: antibiotic, light steroid, codeine cough syrup, and breathing treatment meds, BUT he said she could go back to school. . Then just as the appointment was wrapping up he said "I bet another pretty young lady is going to feeling poorly pretty soon too." "WHAAAATTTTT" And sure enough, Oldest came home from school with a sore throat and fever. Bigger sigh. I got her on the antibiotic PDQ, hoping to avoid the barking seal cough, and she has been home from school ever since.  She is cuddled up on the chesterfield watching a documentary on the Galapagos Islands and playing with her iPad as I type this.

It is no fun for them to be sick though. They don't like to stay home without the other, and they really hate going to school alone. (In case I haven't said it before, kids are weird and twins are weirder!) But is no fun for me either. I have to keep all this medicine straight. Which isn't made any easier by instructions like " give three pills twice a day for the first two days and then two pills twice a day for three days, and then spin around four times and hop on one foot.".

 

 

 

I am praying the Littlest will stay healthy and that Oldest can go back to school tomorrow.

 

Oh, and y'all... that MucinexDM is the bombdiggity! But only take it in the morning cause you can't take it with the liquid blue heaven in a bottle at night.

 



 



A Fortunate Life...REALLY!

So the past two years have been really rocky for me and my family. Those who follow my meanderings on here know that my Mom died in 2011 after a hard fought battle with lung cancer. Those who know me IRL know that in 2012 my Father died as well. I got a year and a week with him before he went to be with my Mom. He was not sick, it was very sudden and unexpected. It was also very difficult to deal with.

He died at his fishing "camp" and he had been out with his friends fishing the day he died. He died on July 19, but he was found on the 20th so that is the date in his death certificate. That bugs me no end.

I am finding it very hard to be an "orphan". I know that a 40ish mother of three can't really be called an orphan, but that is what I feel like. It is very easy to get bogged down with feeling sorry for myself. I am the last one standing. Of my Nuclear Family, Dad, Mom, Brother, Me... I am the only one left alive.

I have spent the last half of 2012 fighting that feeling. I stopped doing many of the things I enjoyed and that I used to get through my Mom's death. I stopped writing here, I stopped taking pictures for my 365 project, I stopped baking and crafting. I stopped volunteering in the girls schools, I even mostly stopped taking care of the house. It was all I could do to take care of my family and myself.

Then a day or so ago I came back and looked at this blog. I snorted and mumbled, Fortunate Life, my FOOT! Then I looked up at Mojo and the girls, I looked around my beautiful home and thought of my friends and loved ones who have been through so much with me and stuck by me over the last two years. I looked at Big Man and thought about how he loves me with all of his doggy heart, and I realized that yes I AM fortunate. So much more fortunate than I really deserve.

And so 2013 is going to be a year of awareness for me. A year of really feeling how very very fortunate I really am. A year of healing and reaching out to show how much I love those close to me. A year of being thankful for all the blessings that are in my life.  And I hope you come along for the journey with me.

Sofa Drama

So Mojo and I have been shopping for a new sofa for about two years. Not diligently or hard-core, but looking around and shopping none the less. It is difficult because out tastes are so different. I like mixy matchy textured sofas and he likes sleek modern leather.

This is what I like...



This is what Mojo likes...

So very different styles. We looked and looked and argued and then we only had a love seat and two chairs in the den and five people trying to sit down. So we kept looking and we finally, about two or three months ago found this...

We both loved it so we bought it. Paid for it and then waited for it to be delivered. After about a month the sales clerk called and our sofa had been discontinued and we could not have it! WHAT??? So she wanted to know did I want the floor model? I asked her how much the floor model was and she was surprised, I guess she thought I should pay full price for  it?  Anyway she had to "talk to her manager" who offered us a whole THIRTY dollars off our price. Because we had bought the sofa at ten percent off in the first place. I said no. We went back and forth and I finally just said that I wasn't paying that much for what was essentially a used sofa.

Walking around their showroom I saw kids jumping on the furniture. People lounging with open drinks on the furniture and doing God knows what else. So no, I wasn't paying the same price for a new one as for the floor model.

Later that day the Sales Manager called and made me another offer, I agreed and told her that we would come in the next day and look over the sofa and if it was in good shape we would take in home that day.

The next day, I really have no idea WHAT happened on the interstate but a 30min trip took 2 hours! We get there and everybody runs for the bathrooms! The we go to check out the floor model, only it is gone. I told Mojo that maybe because it was discontinued they had moved it to the back. But, NO! They SOLD IT!!!! They sold the sofa we had ALREADY PAID FOR!!!!

I could not help it, I burst into laughter. I mean REALLY?????? REALLY??????

So they tell us if we choose another sofa THAT day they will give us a "good Deal".
So we wandered around for 2 hours and finally choose this one...

Notice the cushions? Yeah, they came from the first sofa! The store was selling them! Someone did not get all the cushions with their sofa I guess! Anyway, Mojo being the wheeler dealer that he is got them for us for FREE! They were 30 dollars each! On top of the "good deal" on the sofa!

So we waited for THIS one. And it finally arrived and I LOVED it. It looks even better than I thought it would in the room! But then I noticed THIS...

OH NO!!! So I call them and send over this very picture and wait three days. AND they are sending us a new new new sofa! I thought it would be more difficult. So fingers crossed we will finally finally get a sofa!!!!

Who know that buying a sofa would be such a hassle???

100 year celebration

of Girl Scouting.

That's where we spent our day on Saturday.

Our council had a celebration fair and carnival and we went and volunteered at the memorabilia booth and the crafts and games booth.

We earned the original design first aid patch...

We stood in line for rides...

   

We learned about scouting in different countries...

We had a good time and we all got our first sunburns of the season!