What to post?

I enjoy reading the things Lee blogs about. It always amazes me that she can come up with so MANY things to talk about and they are always interesting! And Catherine... she doesn't blog as often as Lee, but when she does,...it leaves me in stitches for days! Mama hasn't gotten up the courage to blog yet (hint hint mama!) but I bet she would have something to say more often than me too.

Apparently this means I am a boring person. It's not that things aren't happening in my life, because they are:

• I'm in school (The School of Natural Healing)
• I finished my "Road to Zion" program and held a "County Fair"
• I've had several activities going on in my graphics forum
• the kids have the Pioneer Trek coming up next week
• we had a fun scout activity (scavenger hunt at the Ag Center)
• I'll be doing a first aid class - herb style - at work soon
• we got a square foot garden in
• I got 2 new mortar and pestles!
• people are calling and asking me to make ointments for them
• its time to pull honey
• the dog is female....seriously!
• I'm going to run an apothecary on Tuesday for a community kids camp called "Camp Dirty Knees"
• I got a new calling
• Manti and Tommy got new callings
• Mesa went to Lake Wedowee this weekend and got sunburned
• my house needs cleaning
• I'm finally getting better from being sick for 2+ weeks now
• the cat is feeding her new kittens squirrels and rabbits....on our porch
• I got a scouting award a few weeks ago
  
• I'm passing my course with flying colors (up to now anyway!)

See? Lots of things are happening,...I just don't know what to say about any of that. If I did say something, who would be interested? It all seems so boring to me.

Tell you what. Tuesday is my Camp Dirty Knees. I'll get a picture or two (Mama, I'm going to use one of Mesa's aprons that you made) and tell you what its like to run an apothecary! Is that blog worthy? I just can't tell!!!!

Herb Workshop

So today was the big day and I have 13 pictures to document it. If you don't want to see them, might as well hit the x on your browser now. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Now that I have the attention of you wonderful patient people, let me tell you about my day!

Well it was scheduled to start at 9am, but I was allowed to get there as early as 8am to set up. I got there about 8:15am and there were people wandering around in there! YIKES! My nerves were instantly on edge. I started unloading the boxes full of samples that my wonderful boss Linda had sent with me and before the flies in that building had a chance to land, the people started gathering around me. They wouldn't let me finish setting up till they asked me questions and got some samples. That was just fine...I did finally get to finish setting up.

I had two tables pushed together:
1.) containing Robins Herb Shop fliers and samples of products and things associated with the business.
2.) containing my personal stash of stuff, like salves and tinctures and sprays and dried herbs and tea that I had brewed the night before, ... that kind of thing.

Want to see?

That's the left side if you are facing the table.

So that makes THIS one the right side of the table. That pretty basket of freshly cut rosemary sure did smell goooooooooooood! Everybody noticed!

I think Mesa liked the "me" side of the table the best, at least that's what she got the most pictures of!

This is the "me" side again, so you can see some of my dried herbs in Aunt Irene's jelly jars sitting right next to some of my "butt cream" and some plantain salve and some cayenne salve and a few bars of my lavender shea butter lotion. You can see my really cool fir tree root bowl towards the back. It's got some ginger root and a lemon on it, as well as a tea strainer and a jar of honey.


So are you convinced that I did finally finish setting up my table? Good! Let's move on with this story.

So to begin the day, some speakers stood and talked...and talked....and talked.... I can't say it was boring because it was all on a subject that means a lot to me and that I find interesting,...but I am going to say that the things I heard from the "instructors" were no more intelligent than I heard from the "students" of this event. It was more or less a "hobbyist convention". That's ok...I got paid to be there!

So when people got a break, they were invited to a table where they were giving out samples of bread with fresh herb butter and paperwork on all kinds of potted plants they had sitting around (I say all kinds,...might have been about 20 plants on display). The people had to pass my table to get to the food, so I got attention. The food line extended right up to my table. I got an instant barrage of questions. You would think they would come flying at me one at a time, but nope! They all asked at the same time. That was a challenge! So Mesa grabs my camera and catches me in action. psst....I'm the chubby chick ;)

Jared had a good time climbing under tables and hiding in corners.

Morgan had a different opinion.

Can't win 'em all, but I enjoyed it!

The Prom: part 2

It's Saturday night and a pleasant calm has settled over Baileyville. This is due in part to the 2 youngest of the Bailey clan visiting dreamland in their rooms, and due in part to the two teenage versions of the Bailey clan having a great time at the prom! What a day this has been! So before they come back home buzzing with descriptions of the fun they've had, I want to show off the pictures and tell how MY day has gone today. After all,....doesn't the mom get some attention in all of this too?

The day began with my alarm clock not quite getting to chime. Why? Because suddenly all the images of my calendar with times and appointments to meet for the day popped into my head. So I turned off the clock (which I shamefull set for 8am because i was SO tired the night before) and ran to the shower. Seriously, I ran because Manti was about to get into it! He was going to be home most of the day and I wouldn't be,...if he got a shower then, I'd go the whole day smelling "old yesterday". I talked him out of his shower and jumped in there myself. THANK GOODNESS! Tommy had gotten brakes for his little Camry, so I kissed him and my boys goodbye as they went across the street to let his nephew put them on for him and Mesa and I headed towards town. One of Tommy's childhood friends is a hairdresser and she was scheduled to do Mesa's hair today at noon. She's in the Walmart style shop, and we were early. So we picked out some rhinestones to put into her hair and got a subway sandwich. We started to go ahead and get her nails done, but it looked like they were pretty busy and I worried we wouldn't get her nails done before her appointment time.

The hairdresser/friend had a lady and her mother there,...and they kept monopolizing her time. So as Mesa and I sat and went through books, the hairdresser did her best to please these two ladies and get them to move along. 45 minutes past our appointment time, she succeeded and Mesa hopped up in the chair. Want to see the magic that took 2 hours to do? You can't tell it, but there is a FULL can of hairspray on this childs head!

Don't look at her dress YET!

So we get done with the hair and we HAVE to do something with her nails because one of them was broken badly and had to be repaired. We ran down to the nail salon and asked if they could fit her in and be done by 3pm. I'm sure they were cussing at me in Chinese, but we ended up leaving and going down the street as we prayed they would be less busy. Thankfully, they WERE less busy and we got there seconds before they got swamped. they told me they could do it by 3pm, which was 20 minutes away. I figured if they could do hers, they could mine too. Bad decision on my part.

At 3:20pm, we ran like animals to the car and I made a 15 minute trip home in 9 minutes. We were supposed to leave our house at 3:30 and go to the next town over (a 30 minute drive) to meet Mesa's boyfriend at a park for pictures. They had reservations for dinner at 5pm, so we had to hustle. We were supposed to leave the park at 4:45 to drive Manti out to meet his date in the town we just came from for pictures at a different park to be finished so they could make dinner reservations at 6pm. Welllll.....I put Mesa's makeup on and helped her get her jewelry on. We crammed her into her dress and threw her shoes on (not even noticing if she'd shaved her legs or not!) and ran out of the house....just hoping Manti had gotten himself all together.

We didn't get to leave the house till 4:10. We drove....like mad. Her boyfriend was on the phone with her nagging her about being so late and he finally says "let's meet at a different park that is closer to the restaurant we're going to". We said fine and raced to it...only we drove right past it! There are so many one way streets in this town that we drove through a funeral home parking lot twice trying to find our way OUT of it! We got there though and got some really nice pictures of our beautiful girl and her boyfriend.

Yes yes,...nice.
NEXT!

It's Manti's turn. We got there a little later than we wanted to, but we got there. His date had 2 friends there as well, so you'll see them in these pictures too.


NOTE FOR MY FAMILY... yep, his date colored her hair the same color as her dress. I'm happy her dress is red and not green :D She was happy he didn't paint his face! (lol!) So here they are...

So I just heard from both kids, prom is over. Mesa is on her way back from Georgia Tech's ballroom, and Manti is on his way to ... bowling alley. oook! So I guess in a couple of hours, we'll get to hear all the details!

Me and Tommy make purdy kids!

Morgan

Of all my children, Morgan is my oddball. He is the only one of my 4 kids who will let you hurt him if it makes YOU happy to do it. (Jared tests this theory often.) He is the one who will get angry the slowest and love you the deepest. He is the one who gets so thrilled about being able to make you happy that he can't keep his excitement contained no matter WHAT. He has his typical kid attributes, but he has some attributes that will surprise you if you just watch him long enough and actually HEAR what he's saying.

That said,....
it should be known that of all my kids (including Manti), Morgan is the one who know the ER doctors by first name and is the only one who can prop his feet up while getting staples!

So Mesa is going to prom Saturday and we found her a dress. This is the "Mormon Prom", which means she can't wear a dress that exposes her in any way. She needs sleeves and her skirt needs to be knee length or longer. Do you know how many dresses that eliminates? So I ended up in Villa Rica at a store is slam full of prom dresses. We told the girl there what we needed and she stuck us in a room while she found dress after dress for Mesa to try on. She picked one that is just gorgeous,....and has spaghetti straps. Ordinarily, that's a problem, ... .but I had the idea that we could take a scarf and CREATE sleeves with it. LUCKY US,...the shop has a seamstress and she does alterations. What I described really was easy to do! So Mesa got a dress and had to go back for a fitting on Tuesday. We did that and all went fine, ... got her jewelry there even,... but not shoes. We decided to head to the mall for shoes, but it was well after lunchtime and I needed some protein!

We get to the mall and eat, and in the far corner is this STOOOOOOPID play area for little kids. Why is it there? I am clueless...perhaps to tempt little children over. This one day (out of however many years that mall has existed) is the one day we gave up and let Morgan and Jared go play. It's mostly just an obstacle course type thing with big shapes for the kids to climb on. So first thing, Morgan climbs up one. Then out of nowhere from behind him comes some kid who needs to learn about punishment (and is about Jared's size) SHOVES Morgan off the thing. Morgan tries to catch himself,...but..... (Kitty, sounding like a ballet dance to you?) he lands on his hand with all of his weight. The kid weighs 72 pounds,...that's a lot of weight on one little hand! He said he heard a sound like a gunshot. Tommy says his hand felt like his thumb was dislocated and because of how it looks today, I tend to believe it. Tommy feeling of it and checking for broken bones put a little pressure on it and it moved back into the joint, but it swelled up HUGE.

No shoe shopping got done. We left the mall and headed for the closest emergency room, which happened to be back in Villa Rica. We should have stayed at the mall a little longer. Might have gotten our own medical license and been home a couple hours earlier! (Such a slow ER!) There were only 3 other people in the waiting room besides us, 2 of them went in ahead of us, and it was still 3 hours later before he got a splint on his hand!

The xrays show no bone problems and his hand is just fine. They are calling it a bad contusion (fancy word for bruise) and today it is definitely black! No blue, ... just black right now. It's still swollen pretty fat and looks ugly, but the pain is greatly reduced. He's got one of those temporary casts on his whole left forearm and he is so proud of it! He was scared they would take his hand off and put a prosthetic hook on his wrist for a hand instead. He didn't want to be a young captain hook!

And that is the Morgan saga of Tuesday.

OH, let's add an addendum here:
As we drove to the ER, I heard Jared in the backseat (who was very worried about his bwuther) that if it was hurting too much, he could squeeze Jared's hand to make it feel better. I was impressed with Jared caring so much :)

Funnies

I have had some extremely stressful times for the past 2 months. I think the spirits have even felt sorry for me. I say this because of the little funnies that crop up here and there to break up the tension. Thought I'd share a little of them....



Kitty and Lee, do you remember that church at the end of the road where the primary and middle schools were back when ya'll went to Central? This sign is that church's sign. They were changing the picture after we came home from church, so I got lucky to get this picture! Isn't it funny? Makes you want to have some fish!

---

Then tonight, we all went to eat some fast food chicken. We're sitting in the restaurant just talking as a family when the kids bring up some muscle pains Manti has been having. This morning, Mesa massaged his shoulder and put some good pain relieving cream on him. We wanted to know how effective it was. He said it worked wonders. So I reminded him that he should have regular work done on his muscles to keep them flexible and such. I reminded him that taking care of his body NOW will make a huge difference when he's older, and that showing his future he loves them enough to care for himself so that he is capable of caring for them will mean a lot one day----I SHOULD KNOW.

Ok, so that was a catty thing to say, but gimme a break,...I've had a rough 2 months!

Well of course that led to a snap from Tommy who declared he DOES love his family, and that of course demanded a response from me announcing that we would recognize it if he would consider that his overworking his damaged body reduces the time we have with him and increases the hardship on us all for later. He didn't agree. I told him at the rate he's currently going, he'll go out with a bang when his body just snaps and doesn't work anymore. He responded that he won't bang and I said he would.

Just then, Manti pipes in by saying "Ya'll stop talking about banging at the table!"

That ended THAT conversation!

---

Here's some egg on my face:

This coming weekend, Manti and Mesa both have prom dates. Mesa and her boyfriend were discussing what kind of dress she would get and he said he just hoped she didn't get a purple dress. Well we went to a store looking...we went to several stores looking. It was hard to find something modest (and her prom is a church sponsored one that has a dress code), so we ended up at a store that had no modest dresses, but DID have a seamstress who could alter the dress to put sleeves on it for her. YAY!

Well we find a dress that is perfect except for having no sleeves, being slightly too long ....and being purple. It's a dark plum shade of purple though and is really pretty. She had to try on tons of dresses before we came across that one though. The whole time , Sean (her boyfriend) kept texting her and kept texting her. She was changing dresses for more than 2 hours, so her phone constantly buzzing started to get on my nerves. I answered his messages for her and told him to shush, she was busy. He slowed down,...so I told him shush a couple more times. Then when she picked her dress and the seamstress was measuring her and pinning the dress for the alterations, her phone goes off again. I decided it was time for him to get a note from me >:-D

I send him a message and tell him she found a dress. He asked right off the bat what color it was. So I told him.... BARNEY PURPLE! He didn't want to believe it, so he asked her. She told him YEP it was. He shivered at the thought ...too funny!

We've not allowed him to see her dress because we wanted him to be wowed with her beauty when he sees her like that for the first moment. He just couldn't understand that and I had gotten frustrated about it. I decided to mess with him more. After she had gotten dressed, she sent him a note and told him that she would sneak him a picture of her with the dress so he could see that it really was purple. We stepped out of the dressing room and found a dress (size 3x) that was seriously bright purple. It was hideous! She held it up to her and I took a pic with her cell phone. She sent it to him. He told her he thought she'd look pretty in anything. We just laughed and finished up paying for the dress. The seamstress cut us a piece off the bottom so we could give it to him to match with his tux tie.

You'll never guess what happened next.

Sean is head-over-heels for Mesa and is so excited about every moment he can spend with her. He's a perfect gentleman and we really couldn't ask for any better person in her life right now. But that means he forgets himself when he's excited,....and this is one of those times.

She told him 3 times before we got home from that store that she had a piece of cloth from her dress for him so he could match it. We didn't tell him that wasn't really her dress in the picture, but we did say we had fabric for him, so wait to shop till she could bring it to him. Did he listen? Nope! He had hoped we got enough cloth from the dress that his mom could make him a tie from that, but they didn't cut us that much. So he decided to go shopping anyway. Funny boy,....he did! He found a tie too! Then after he buys it, he sends a picture to Mesa and tells her. She nearly falls in the floor when she opens her phone and sees this picture. She sent him a note real fast and tells him that picture she sent him was a joke...that's NOT her dress. Too late though! He has a purple flowery tie!

Joke's on us, right? LOL! Fortunately, there are a lot of purples in that tie and it should match the dress anyway,....besides, matching exactly isn't really that important.

So did you laugh?

Oh, tomorrow we go pick up her finished dress. I guess we'll be heading out to buy shoes too!!! Sigh,...it never ends, does it?