head, SHOULDERS, KNEES, & toes

Stress is a bad thing. I'm telling you, it's a BAD THING! Stress disrupts your immune system. It throws your hormones out of balance. It interferes with the birthing process for pregnant women (and animals, actually). It constricts blood flood and can cause heart attacks. Seriously, stress is bad!

I think stress is a member of my household, because it's never out of my sight. It haunts me at work sometimes. It stands in rude disapproval of me in my kitchen. It rolls its eyes at me in my laundry room. It taps it feet at me quite regularly with my church callings and obligations. I'm pretty sure it lurks in every shadow and I'm positive it has staked a claim in my bank account.

Some days you just have to find an escape from it, right? Mesa felt the need to just exactly that recently, so she asked if she could go visit my sister for a little while. We found a time it would work for her to do that and started planning a trip to Tennessee. In an effort to keep even THAT from becoming too terribly stressful, we planned to stay a couple days to recover from the long drive as well as to take a brief trip down one of the rivers there. Things weren't smooth, but they were going along close enough.

Then Friday came. That's the day Tommy, Manti and I had planned to take our little canoe trip down the Duck River. Mama and Daddy were going to entertain the little boys that day, Mesa was already at Kitty's house,.... we got up that morning and went to the canoe rental place. We paid $30 less than we expected (what a nice stress reducer!) and hopped in his van to head upriver a little ways. We opted for the short trip because there was the threat of rain and we weren't anxious to be caught in it, so that meant 5 miles to paddle. We got in the water with Manti in the back (steering position), Tommy in front (guiding position) and me in the middle (relaxing position). The river was shaded by trees,... no threat of sunburn! There was nobody else around that we saw,.... awesome!


Down the river we go and we see more shells than we ever thought a single river could produce! I'm not sure if they are fresh water clams or mussels, but either way they came in all shapes and sizes and colors! We enjoyed the birds singing and the fish jumping. I think we commented on every single turtle we saw. This was sheer bliss!




We pulled off to the bank a few times and let Manti explore a little. He was loving every minute of it. When we could all get out, we took turns changing places so that we all paddled at some point. I have to admit, I much prefer to paddle than to ride in the middle section. There is no seat, no cushion for your back, and you sit right on the floor where all the water goes! At times, the water is shallow enough that you can feel rocks bump the boat,...and thus it bumps YOU too. My rump was not enthused by that, so I stayed in a paddle position for as long as I could. After a while though, Tommy's back couldn't sit in the middle and Manti didn't want to. That meant Mama got the yucky spot for the last part of the trip. It wasn't all that bad. Tommy sat behind me and was able to paddle WITHOUT splattering water all over my head, and Manti sat up front where he could make sure we didn't miss any of the beautiful sights. I decided "let them work, I can relax", and so I sat on one life jacket and leaned back on another for some cushioning and let them paddle the boat while I let my hands glide through the water on either side of me.

You know how I am, right? I can't keep my mouth shut ever. I had to open it this time too and say things like "I need grapes boys,.... where's the fan? I need fanning." This part of the trip wasn't very long, but it was all in afternoon sun. I think Mother Nature heard my sass and got even by sunburning my inside of my arms, namely my shoulders, and also the inner part of my legs, particularly at my knees.

It's been almost a week now, and the blessed peace of those 4 hours on the river has long been over. The sunburn has taken a lot of oils and tender herbal care, so I'm not in pain anymore,....but one thing DOES remain,.....

Now I itch!
I have never been able to sing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes and do those actions so well and thoroughly!

Harlem GlobeTrotters

When I was a little girl, I can remember sitting with my daddy and watching basketball games. I didn't really understand the game and I didn't really enjoy it unless HE was playing, but I still sat and watched them on tv with him. There was one time a game came on and he wanted me to watch it. I couldn't imagine what made this particular game any better than any of the other boring ball games I watched with him, but I sat down to watch it. He told me to watch these boys close, because NOBODY could play like them. So I did,.... and he was SO RIGHT! That particular game was a Harlem Globetrotters ball game and those boys don't play like anybody else you've ever seen! I was mesmerized! I fell head over heels for Curly and I thought Meadowlark Lemon was the funniest thing I'd ever seen. I even watched the Globetrotters cartoon when it came on for a short time. (The cartoon wasn't nearly as good as the real thing though.)

Well years have past and I've hardly thought about them again.....until last month!
I went to school at Central (which everyone knows is better than Carrollton) and played in the band. We were GOOD too! We won every single contest we competed in my entire highschool career. That's not a claim many high school students can make and I have ALWAYS been proud to boast that. We were not only a good group of musicians, but we were a sentimental group as well. We had pictures in the bandroom as well as in the showcase by the office that we looked upon admirably to remind us of where our band came from. We kept that picture in our bandroom all those years of the previous band director and the first few members of the Central High School Marching Band. It made us "family" to keep them with us.

It has seemed to me since that time, that my era has been forgotten. It has hurt my pride to know that I had been a part of the band INVITED to go to Australia and participate in the World Expo in 1988. I had marched in an Inaugural Parade for President Ronald Reagan and I had played in the Atlanta capital building as well as in Gatlinburg Tennessee and New Zealand. I've even had little children (who didn't know any better) ask for my autograph as if I were truly "somebody". So to be forgotten after doing such "splashy" things still hurts my pride.

This year, the band has been included in the Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena California and they'll march this coming January. It's a costly trip I'm sure, so fund raisers are running rampant around town. How well I remember what THOSE were like!....although I've not seen even ONE of those kids picking up aluminum cans off the side of the road like my mother made ME do! Anyway,... so I'm pleased that the band I was a part of forming is good enough to be noticed and that some of my friends children are a part of that. Helping them have this kind of trip would be nice as well, since I know exactly how they must be feeling right now. And then I heard what the fundraiser was.... THE HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS COMING TO TOWN!

I headed straight to my facebook account and found my friend Annette. I sent her an inbox note and told her I WANT TICKETS! Next time I saw her, she told me some details about it, and then a few days later, I sent the kids to meet up with her and take her $90 so all 6 of us could go to this ball game. What a chance of a lifetime! The next day, my tickets were in hand and my calendar was marked! I have been on pins and needles ever since!

May 4th was the day, and it finally came! I had to work that day, and I worked hard so my boss (who was also working that day, thank goodness!) wouldn't have a problem letting me off early so I could get to the game and get a good seat. It was at the college and I couldn't wait. That Tuesday morning, Annette sent me a text telling me the doors would open at 6pm. I sent her one back saying I'd be there at 5:30 standing in line! At 5:30pm, I walked up to the door and she commented to me that it was exactly 5:30, just like I'd said! I was thrilled to see her there as well, and thrilled that I wasn't one of the ones standing in line in the street nor did I have to park at Z6 (the cafeteria of the school which is down the street from where we were....quite the walk for Tommy). So 6:00 finally comes and we go in and get seats. The Globetrotters were playing against our community leaders, so the Villa Rica chief of police (he was my neighbor as a kid!) was on that team, and so were at least 2 guys I went to school with plus one of the coaches from when I was in school and one of my homeroom teachers (who was also a coach and a geography teacher I had) was coaching the team,.... lots of other people like a couple preachers, a pediatrician, and get this: THE BAND DIRECTOR FROM CARROLLTON high school when I was a teenager!!!! That was just WRONG DUDE!

Ok, time for the game to start and the pictures to click.

See Meadowlark Lemon in this one? WOOHOO!!

There are more pictures, but you get the idea. Now,.. want to SEE the game? 'Cuz I have video too!

I wish my daddy could have come sit with me and watch the game like I sat with him when I was little. Tennessee got flooded just days before this game and he wasn't able to come. So Daddy.... you get on your computer and look at my videos. That way you can see the game with me :)

Now before we call this blog done,... the game ended and there was an announcement that the boys would sign autographs for 30 minutes upstairs. Well did you get an idea how many people were in that gymnasium? Quite a few! So I didn't really think I would be able to get an autograph and didn't plan to try. It cost us $28 just to get 4 bowls of nachos and a couple bottles of water, so I figured a piece of paper and a pen would cost a pretty penny too... no autographs. That was ok because I had the experience, the memory and lots of pictures and video. Mesa had sat next to me and said something about the great time. I said to her "Yeah, I had a great time, lots of good pics but no proof that I was here...I'm not in any of the pictures." She grabbed my hand and pulled me down to the floor where the guys were shuffling off to sign autographs. I was horrified at first. She walked with me right up to one of these guys, Larry "Gator" Rivers, and asked if he would let her brother take a picture of him with her mom. He told her she was a liar,...I was her sister not her mom, and then he grabbed us both tightly (and I do mean TIGHTLY! WOW!) and said he'd just take both of us pretty ladies. Manti took the pictures and told the man he could have us! So he got a good picture of that and now I have proof that I was actually there. WAY COOL!

So there you have it....wasn't it a great game? A dream come true!

Friends

I had the greatest adventure last night,... but that I will blog about tomorrow when I have all the pictures and videos online to show off. For now,... I have thoughts that are in need of spilling out. So you are stuck with this blog while you wait for the great one full of excitement later. (Was that mean? I don't think it was mean.... did you think it was mean?)

So anyway, when I was in high school, I had 2 friends whom I called my "best" friends. They were the "best" because they were the ones who called me every day, looked for me in a crowd, chose to sit next to me at lunch and in classes, invited me to parties and shopping sprees and sleepovers, and would come if I invited them to something I was doing. They would tell me their honest opinions of things like how I looked or how did I do or "do you think he likes me?" and they made my teenage years in high school something I could live through. And then something less than positive happened to me and it came between me and my friends. The only thing that saved my feelings at the time was a new best friend---who became my husband. He is STILL my best friend and has made my dreams come true (literally! but like I said, I'll blog that tomorrow if I can...haha!).

There came a time in my life where I became lonely for MORE companionship, though. It isn't that Tommy "wasn't enough." I just needed female friendship TOO. I needed to feel like someone would look for me in a crowd, or would come sit next to me if they saw me sitting down. I needed to know that I mattered enough to someone that they would invite me to their parties or to go shopping,... and I had lost that before graduating high school. We moved out to Idaho and I did have one friend that I felt was a pretty good friend. She's still a friend, although I've not seen her since we moved back to Georgia and contact with her now consists of facebook posts. Still, it eased my ache for friendship and a sense of belonging.

I'm a lot older now (*sigh*) and my yearning for a close girlfriend has fizzled out a little. I don't know if its because i gave up or what, but I don't ache as much, although I still think it would be nice.

Last night, I had my eyes opened wide. Ok, so you get a preview of my next blog...

We got tickets to a Harlem Globetrotters basketball game. What made it even better is that it was a benefit game with proceeds going to the Central High School Marching Band to raise money for them to go to the Rose Bowl Parade in January. That's my band... so it was just all the better. I have a friend who teaches at the school, and she got me tickets to go. I thought that was nice of her (she could have paid for them...that would have been EVEN NICER...but that's ok). I've been on pins and needles waiting for the 4th to come, and finally it did. The doors to the WGC (yeah its still West Georgia College to me) colliseum were to open at 6pm. My friend Annette sent me a text message to tell me what time,.... and I sent her one back saying I would be in line waiting for the doors to open at 5:30!! Well,... at 5:30pm, I stepped up to the door and got a place in line. I looked up to see a hand waving at me and saying "You DID come right at 5:30!" She looked for me in a crowd.

Just as the doors were getting ready to open, she looks back to where I am and asks "Where are we going to sit?" and I called back "as close to the floor as we can get!" She wanted to sit next to me! So we get inside and of course the crowd is rushing in like water bursting out of a dam. Annette heads off to get a good seat and we're not far behind her. She starts on one side, and we're just a little ways behind her trying to keep an eye on where she is... she's looking back at us and waving us in. We had to finagle our way to where she ended up,... and she was holding seats for us. She was serious about sitting by me! And it was more than just sitting there to be sitting there,... she laughed with me, joked about things we saw and enjoyed the game WITH me. It was like I was invited to her party.

During the game, Mesa came to sit next to me. I asked her what was wrong since she WAS in a less compacted end of the row where she had elbow room... why did she want to sit in the tightly packed section of the row? She told me it was because of the people sitting in front of her smelled like cigarettes and bubble gum and it made her sick. But... shortly after, she went back to that seat. Maybe 15 minutes later, she was back to sit by me and I asked her what was up. She told me "Manti isn't as much fun to sit by as you are."

*inserts proud mama tears*

So look at my friends,...

My daughter and Annette are not my ONLY friends,but I would dare say I can count my BEST friends on one hand, and that my daughter and Annette are amongst the first fingers in that count!

Thank you both for being my BESTS!

If I were a guy....

I wonder, would life be easier if I were I male?

If I were a man, and judging by the men in my life, it seems to me that I would worry a lot less about things, such as wearing clean clothes everyday or brushing my hair. I think I would only have to be concerned with my work schedule and all other schedules wouldn't exist...stuff gets done when it gets done. I would only have one calling at church (instead of my current 3) because NOBODY calls a man to more than one, right? And I could eat anything I wanted anytime I wanted, because my metabolism wouldn't be tied to my hormones or to my moodswings. And speaking of moodswings, I wouldn't have those either because I would have a wife who did all the worrying over kids and details and duties, leaving my nerves fresh and rested at all times. No longer would I worry about how I look or making sure I presented myself well, because men age so well and don't need Mary Kay or Miss Clairol to make them look good.


Now I know that if I were a man, I would lose my ability to accomplish 1000 things at one time with a child hanging on to me while I did them. I would no longer be so safe from botulism and salmonella poisoning and my taste buds would get burned out from the scary things I would put in my mouth just to see if I could live through the experience. I would not get to enjoy bubble baths because "that's not manly" and I wouldn't enjoy chocolate as much anymore. I would have to give up clean clothes and pretty shoes and I would have to start shaving my face. I don't like shaving my legs.....so I really do NOT want to shave my face too!

I'll stay female a while longer, but I do wish that there were a compromise in there somewhere, so that I could stop worrying ALL the time and could spend more of day in the bubble bath with chocolates.

A girl can dream....

People are Crazy

There is a song that comes on the radio (yeah its country) that is about 2 men. One is a young-middle aged man and the other is a much older man. The 2 meet in a bar and strike up a conversation over drinks. They talk for a couple hours, and laugh about the weird things in life,...and then the old man stops, looks at the beer in his hand and says "God is great.... beer is good... and people are crazy." The 2 go their separate ways and never meet again. Sometime later, the young man is reading the newspaper and sees an obituary for the older man. He'd died quite wealthy and left all his money to someone he didn't even know, making his kids quite angry. At the end of the song, the young man goes to visit the old man's grave and leaves a 6 pack on his grave and sings to him "God is great...beer is good... and people are crazy."

Ok so we've started teaching classes at the herb shop each month. Last month, Linda taught about allergies and ways of preventing symptoms, treating symptoms, and etc. This month it was my turn, and since we're doing a huge emergency preparedness fair (strike that, I'm not doing it... but its being done) and the herb shop is going to set up there (even though I'm told nobody cares if we do or not), I opted to teach first aid kits and how to use the herbs you would put in such a kit.

It starts out with lady #1 showing up. Then shortly after, lady #2 comes in. Lady #2 calls before she comes to the shop because she says she is allergic to cigarette smoke and "that other lady makes her sick." So when I see her pull up in the parking lot, I run to Linda and forewarn her that this lady has a hard time with cigarette smoke and doesn't mind expressing that, so be aware. No problems so far!

Now its time for the class to start, so I have a video I played for the first half which tells the categories of items you need in a kit, and of course it gives examples of those things but since there are so many options, you can pick and choose and actually customize for your needs. Cool huh? :) Before long, in comes lady #3 and UH OH! She's brought 4 more people (and a puppy!!!) with her! So I raced around and got out extra chairs and found extra hand outs while lady #2 moved from her chair to a different one and everybody was tucked in to my classroom all snuggly.

Towards the end of the time, I went through the product options that fill those categories of things you need in a kit and everybody was all smiles,... until.....

DUN DUN DUN!!

I suggested they all look underneath their chairs for a raffle ticket that had been taped there, which was the winner of a door prize. YAY LADY #3! You win a bottle of peppermint oil! But oh no... Lady #2 is not happy! That was where SHE was sitting originally and she got up and moved over to make room for her. She told lady #3 that should have been hers since she had been sitting there first. Lady #3 just looked at her, smiled, and collected her bottle of peppermint oil from me.

Now you might think this is the end, but no.

Lady #2 had questions to ask. So I answered has best as I could and gave her 20% off all the things she chose to purchase. That wasn't enough! She wanted the video too! I sent her to Linda to ask how she could get one. I don't know the answer to that,...and am not asking! Well, remember the handouts? I gave 12 pages of info that followed along with the video so closely that they really didn't need to take notes, but if they wanted to, I also let them use a notepad and pen from the shop. Everybody gave the notepads and pens back,... except lady #2. When she got to the cash register to check out, Linda asked for the notepad back. The lady had not taken any notes on it, so I don't understand where the attachment came from,... but she did NOT want to relinquish her grip on that notepad! AND she told Linda how ugly lady #3 was to her by taking her free gift and informed Linda that she should give HER one as well! That was only fair! I'm not sure how Linda put it to her, but the lady didn't get the notepad, the pen, NOR the free gift and got real lucky to get the items she purchased for 20% off!

Today, lady #3 came back to the shop to sign up for next months class ---- blood pressure!

..... people are crazy!

Showing Off

The month of March has seen some beauty I just had to show off. On the 11th, Mesa went to her boyfriend's "cadet ball" which seems to me to be something like a JROTC prom type event.

Next was this past Saturday where she went to a church dance. I think this one is where she was the MOST gorgeous.

And would you just look at that awesome hair and makeup? Yep! I did that :) I'm so awesome. Now if I could just make myself look even a fraction that good :S

Here's a slideshow with more of the pictures.

My Top Ten

There are things you should consider THINKING about before actually SAYING when you come into an herb shop,.... and if you are coming into the shop I work at, I'm begging you to give it one more thought before you say any of the following to me:

1. Do you know anything about herbs?
2. When is the other lady in here? She knows more.
3. You wouldn't know anything about this stuff would you?
4. You only know whatever you've learned since you started working here, right?
5. Wow! You know more than I thought you would!
6. Are you SURE the other lady isn't here?
7. Are you hiring? (the answer is no, and then...)Oh ok, well I need something to help me pass a drug test, whatcha got?
8. Oh,... you're not Linda.
9. This stuff right here will give you cancer.
10. I'll just come back when SHE'S here.

For the record, there are store clerks I prefer as well. It doesn't always mean I think the others are any less capable of doing the job I need done. It's just because I've gotten acquainted with them and enjoy the opportunity to be around them and be uplifted by their character qualities. Just the same, I would NEVER EVER tell one of the other store clerks "you don't know what you're doing, right?" How rude!

So in a nutshell, think first. It actually encourages me to be nicer in return. And believe me,...I DO know which herbs will give you diarrhea or make you throw up!