A very Good Friday indeed

Yes, I know there are two inherent problems with this post.

1. It isn't Good Friday, or any Friday for that matter. It's Monday.

2. I posted another post before this one, thus getting me out of sync and possibly ripping a hole in the space-time continuum.

(Or maybe just opening up the Pandorica. Yep, Dr. Who started a new season this weekend! Huzzah!)

But, it was such a good, Good Friday, I felt it needed to be documented. And since I didn't take a single, solitary photo all day, I'm having to rely on the kindness of strangers.

And Flickr.

Like this one:



This, my friends, is The Soul Fish Cafe.

mmmmmm

You see, I had the day off on Friday, for the first time in, oh, about nine years. And Anna Marie had school on Good Friday for the first time in her whole life, thanks to the massive number of snow days this year. The closer it got to Friday, the more resentful I became of the thought that I was going to have to get up early on my DAY OFF to get her to school. And since it was just a 60% day, I hatched a plan.

We played hooky. Don't tell anyone, m'kay?

I have never, ever asked her to stay home from school - and she did take some convincing. But when I told her we could spend the day with Aunt Manda, and spend the Burke's Books gift certificate Aunt Manda had gotten her, well, that was all the reason she needed to skip school.

(Editor's note: She has not missed a single day of school this year, except for getting checked out early in February when my dad was having open heart surgery. She said we had already messed up her perfect attendance streak with that one.)

We met Amanda and her friend Clark at Soul Fish, and I guess I don't have to tell you what type of food a place with a name like that has.

Slap yo mama food, that's what.

And for dessert - oh, for dessert we introduced Jason to one of the wonders of the modern world. YoLo.

(OOOH. I guess I told a story. I did take one picture on Friday.)



YoLo is one of those really dangerous places, because they weigh the yogurt after you self-serve. No good can ever come of someone with a scale and my food. I'm just sayin.

And you don't even want to know how much Anna Marie's yogurt cost. Trust me.

And then, we went to Burke's Books and let her browse. She spent a wee bit more than her certificate, but she was able to successfully talk Jason into fronting her a few more dollars.

(It didn't hurt that he bought himself a book, either. Seems he can't get the Kindle App to work on his phone, so he has to do things the old-fashioned way.)

We took Amanda back to Soul Fish, where she'd left her van, and took a little side trip to Lit, a local restaurant supply store. And who should appear? Why Amanda, of course! I had no idea, but apparently she'd told Jason she was coming. I think I liked being surprised better!

I don't even think I can put into words what a perfect day it was turning out to be. The weather was PERFECT. And then, you know how sometimes you go into a store, and the music is totally offensive and you want to get out of there as fast as possible?

They were playing soul music in Lit! I don't know if it was our local soul station (because we're in Memphis, so of course we have one) or a subscription service, but when I heard Al Green - man, I could have stayed in that store all day! It just totally set the mood for the kind of day we were having, running errands to special, Memphis-centric places.

Just. Perfect.

Unfortunately, we did have to leave and make our way back home. We stopped at JC Penney, and ran into about half a dozen families from our church - including our Senior Pastors. I love my church peeps, and it makes me happy to run into them in public!

We totally were taking over that Penny's store.

I felt so blessed by the time we got home. I haven't had a day like that in a long, long time - or maybe, ever. It reminded me how much I love springtime, and MEMPHIS, and hanging out with Jason, AM, and Amanda.


Overwhelmingly blessed.

Happy Easter!

This is going to be short and sweet, because I've been up since 5:15 a.m. and I have a sinus headache and it's about time for me to get to bed.

And the 5:15 wouldn't be so bad, except we had to be at church at 7:45 because we had an 8:30 service and we had to sing in both that and the 10:30 service.

At the beginning and end of each service, so we had to stay for all of both. On the platform. No sneaking out for a bathroom break!

(Thank GOD they put some chairs up there for us!)

Oh, and did I mention my coffee maker, which I haven't had quite a year, didn't work well this morning, at 5:15? That instead of 4 cups of coffee, it made one really, really strong cup?

Just like the other one that it replaced?

(Thank GOD I'd gotten some Senseo pods on clearance at Target last week, so I had a Plan B!)

Not surprisingly, there was a Harley in the sanctuary this morning.

Yes, on Easter.

No, no one was riding it. It was covered in a white sheet. I make that clarification because we have had people ride theirs into the sanctuary, on Biker Sunday.

It was part of the Pastor's sermon, about how that the value of an item is set by the buyer, not the seller, and that Jesus deemed us very valuable when he bought us with His blood on the cross.

Anna Marie went into childrens church for the first service, but decided she'd come into the sanctuary for the second.

(No, I didn't get any pictures this year. We had to be at church at 7:45 people! With less coffee than usual! I'll get pictures next time she wears her outfit!)

She did really well, sitting on the front row where I could see her (and next to her friend Chloe and Ms. Sandra, one of the more mature ladies in the church.)

After church, we went to my Aunt Esther's new house. And, just like at Christmas, I pretty much ate beyond all reason. Spiral ham? Check. Chicken and dressing? Check. Banana pudding? Check.

My mom had spent the night there, and my aunt and uncle from around the corner (who is my uncle twice over, I guess, because he used to be married to one of the other sisters who passed away), my Aunt Esther's younger daughter, and a couple of other family members showed up. Anna Marie was the only kid, but she survived.

(It helped that she had Cartoon Network, and her DS, and a Star Wars Clone Wars game for her Leapster.)

We finally left, and Jason said, "I think I ate too much ham."

I was all, "Dude. I know."

I can't believe this day is finally over, and what a good Easter week it's been. It started with last week's musical and then small groups, and ended with today's double header of a service and time with the family.

It didn't matter that the temperature dropped 15 degrees from lunchtime until we left, or that it's rained all day. We were inside, a family, something that sadly doesn't happen too much outside of funerals these days.

I'm testing my coffee pot, and loading myself up with ibuprofen and allergy meds, and soon I hope to be all snug in my bed.

I hope that all y'all out there in blogland have had a blessed Easter too.

He is risen, y'all!

One-stop shopping

Let me tell you about my one-stop shopping family.

We have preachers, teachers, singers, and musicians, and we know how to put them to good use.

Yesterday, we went to my uncle's funeral. The visitation was the two hours before the service, because my cousins felt that it was best to do the whole thing at one time and get it over with.

Can you tell they're both male?

Anyway - we got to the funeral home, and the person who was supposed to conduct the service never showed up. He had been the pastor at the church where my uncle attended for several years (before his health made it difficult for him to attend) but had since resigned his church in a blaze of scandal.

So, we Coleys (that's my mom's maiden name, and thus my uncle's last name) pulled ourselves up by the proverbial bootstraps, and in 20 minutes had put together a fitting memorial.

My oldest aunt is a preacher, so she did the service. My mom played the piano (which the other man was supposed to have done too) and she, along with two other siblings, sang several songs that they had sung together in church while they were growing up.

My mom helped write the obituary, and the only surviving brother read it.

After my aunt's impassioned funeral sermon (she's one of those fiery types) my mom got up to say a few words. Out of the 10 children in that family, she, her sister just younger, and this brother were the closest. There was probably a six-year span between the three of them.

She talked about how they were termed the "three termites" by someone, and how they always got into trouble together. She told how that my uncle would come up with these grand schemes, and, somehow, she and the younger sister wound up doing most of the work.

Because my uncle was the only one in their group allowed to wear pants, they always tried to figure out where to put him when the time came to line up for a dose of my Papaw's 'shillelagh' (as he called whatever he was spanking them with.) Did they put him at the front of the line, so Papaw would get worn out by the time he reached the girls? Or did they put him at the end, in the event that as their dad went along he got more and more worked up and spanked harder and harder?

I don't think they ever figured out the answer.

She told how that they'd dreamed up a "distress call" and that he'd used it once, only nothing was really wrong, and they couldn't figure out where in the world he was whistling from.

My uncle loved a good story, and he had a terrific sense of humor. If the day hadn't been in his honor, he would've thoroughly enjoyed the service.

The whole storytelling type of eulogy is somewhat unusual for our family, but I'm glad my mom did it - my cousins needed to remember that before their dad got sick, before he led such a hard life, and brought them with them on his journey, that he was just a kid who roamed the streets of North Memphis with his sisters, seeing what kind of mischief they could get into.

My uncle was one of a kind. He'd had a T-shirt made somewhere that said "Coley University" and told his sons he wanted to be buried in it - and he was. T-shirt and blue jeans and all. Just like he would've liked.

(I'm sure he would've liked a pot of beans in there with him too, since he never thought he'd had a meal unless beans were involved, but that would've taken things a bit far.)

He would've loved hearing his little sisters and big brother sing again. He would've laughed at the stories, and interjected some tales of his own.

Out of all the deaths in my family, we got to have a funeral that, at least to Amanda and me, fit the personality of the person being buried.

Each of us can only hope for as much when it's our turn to exit this life.

Please take care of yourself

I implore all of you out there in blog-land: please, make a commitment to yourself, and to your family, to take better care of yourself.

I'm off work today, because I'm getting ready to attend yet another family funeral.

The second in two weeks.

Thursday night, we'd gone to my cousin's house for Christmas. His older brother lives next door, and their dad lives with the older brother. Consequently, I was able to see my uncle - my mom's brother who is just older than her, and the same age as my dad - for the first time in many months.

The first thing I said to my mom as we left was, "Mom, Uncle Joel looks really bad."

She said she saw in his eyes that he wasn't doing well. We knew he wouldn't be with us much longer.

Fast-forward to Saturday afternoon. In an odd turn of events, all of my family (well, besides the brother in Montana) was at my mom's house. (Despite the fact that two of my siblings have moved back home, and I live five miles away, that doesn't happen too often.)

My dad, my brother, and Jason were outside working on various vehicles. Amanda, Anna Marie, my mom, and I were inside. My dad walks in, calls my mom's name. When she stands up at the alarmed tone in his voice, he tells her to sit back down.

Her brother was dead.

My cousin had just called my dad to tell him that his older brother had tried to wake their dad up around noon, and he was unresponsive. The ambulance was unable to revive him - he was already gone.

He was 57 years old, but he looked about 77 when I saw him Thursday night. I remember looking at his hands as we sat around the dining room table talking, and the skin had the pale, translucent look of a much older person. He was wheelchair-bound and on oxygen, and he had lost a lot of weight.

The saddest thing about this is that he had told one of his other sisters on Thursday that he realized he had brought his health problems upon himself.

My uncle and my dad were friends in high school, a scheme which I'm sure my dad perpetrated to get closer to my (too-young-to-date) mother. The friendship stuck, though, and they were as close as any two brothers would be. But my uncle spent too many of his years in the proverbial "hard living" stage.

Although he had cleaned up in the past few years, the damage to his body was already done.

One of my cousins, who lives in New England and hadn't been home in several years asked me if he'd had cancer. No, but he had a host of other problems - cirrhosis, emphysema, diabetes, hepatitis - that were directly traceable to his lifestyle choices.

His sons buried their mother (he had since divorced her) two years ago, for much the same reasons. Those boys - we'll, they're 25 and nearly 40, but they're still boys to me - are minus both parents at much too early an age.

My uncle had survived Vietnam, but was done in by what he did after he returned.

So as we approach this new year, and people are evaluating what they've done in the past and what they hope to accomplish in the future, please, if not for your sake, then for the sake of your family - take care of yourself!

You've got a lot of living left to do.

The recovery phase

As much as I've been dreading Christmas this year, I have to say, it was actually quite nice.

I left work at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, and spent a couple of hours doing some last-minute running around. Apparently, so did everyone else in town, because the stores were PACKED.

Anna Marie and I spent Wednesday afternoon putting together our gingerbread house, and I was elbow-deep in icing and gumdrops when Amanda sent me a text message saying she was about to leave to come get us.

(Whoops! I had forgotten that we were going to her church's Christmas Eve service. We had to leave at 5 p.m., and it was 4:45, and neither Anna Marie nor I was presentable. I still had icing on my arm when I got to the church bathroom to freshen my lipstick.)

Jason stayed home, which turned out to be a good thing - the church is an hour from here, and we didn't leave there until 7:30, so he had dinner waiting on us when we got home. Dad and Jeremy were here too, and they were watching - what else? - A Christmas Story.

We had such a good, Christ-centered Christmas Eve. After we opened our presents (and Anna Marie had her screaming fit at the sight of the Nintendo DS box) we finished our Advent candles. I'm actually starting to miss it already!

Yesterday morning we stayed at home until lunchtime, when we went to mom's and had smoked turkey. We watched Patch Adams, which I've never seen, if you can believe it.

And then last night - the grand finale - we went to my cousin's house. Our extended family hasn't gotten together in years, mostly because we can't get along well enough to be in the same house for any length of time. I don't know what was different about last night, but as far as I could tell, everyone had a good time. I think part of the solution was that it was a really big house, so pockets of folks could gather and talk. At my grandparents house growing up, we were all shoved together, and, as they say, familiarity breeds contempt.

(Or maybe the troublemakers didn't show up this year. Whatever.)

And now - well, I'm needing a major detox! I did nothing but eat yesterday, most of it stuff I had no business eating. My cousin who lives in California sent my mom a box of See's Candies, and oh my goodness - I told my mom that those were fancy chocolates, and I was not disappointed! Mom, Amanda, and I sat on the couch watching movies, cutting the chocolates in half to see what was inside, and almost making ourselves sick!

(In fact, I told Amanda that this was going to be remembered as the year we sat on the couch, cut mom's fancy chocolates open, watched movies, and just about made ourselves sick.)

I was fortunate enough to leave work at 2 p.m. today, and, miraculously, the house had recovered from the Christmas melee! Unbelievable!

Anna Marie has barely put that Nintendo down, but we have a slight problem. One of the games is playing some music that I find entirely inappropriate for a seven-year-old. We've promised to take her to a used game store so she can trade it in towards something better - something that doesn't ask the question Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me?

(And it was rated "E" for everyone, or so the box would lead me to believe.)

I'm so glad I have another two weeks before Weight Watchers meets again, because I'm going to need it to recover from the feasting we did yesterday. I'm surprised I could zip my pants this morning.

I hope everyone out in Blogland had a good, blessed Christmas too - and that you could get your pants zipped today as well.

Pictures? You wanted pictures?

Did I hear someone say they wanted pictures? Oh, you there in the back. I heard you!

And I'm happy to oblige.

Here are the pictures I took JUST THIS MORNING of our new chandelier. I'm glad I waited, too, because you'll notice the new curtains on the window in the background! Yes, we've managed to live in this house for four years and never adorn that end of our living space. But now it's official - all the windows have curtains! Hooray!







(Oh, ha ha. I just noticed that the table isn't centered under the light fixture. Oops!)

Anna Marie says now our dining area looks even more fancy with the curtains than it did before. If we get any fancier, I just don't know what we'll do with ourselves.

Speaking of Anna Marie (nice, segue, huh?) she handed me this photo when I picked her up from children's church yesterday.



It was taken last week at Biker Sunday (naturally.) That's Pastor Bob, our childrens/assistant pastor, and his Harley that he rode into children's church. She said not all the kids got their picture made on it - just the ones who wanted to, and of course, she wanted to.

She also wanted to make sure I was going to put it in my "picture book" (a.k.a. scrapbook.) I think I see some Harley Davidson paper in my future!

I was going to post some pictures I took with my phone at Pei Wei in Memphis last night, after Mom, Amanda, and I attended a Fernando Ortega concert at a church there. Alas, I could not get the computer at home to recognize that I'd plugged in the phone, so I couldn't get them off. Perhaps Jason will help me later, and you can be so jealous of the fun we had.

(Not really. It's just a couple of pictures from dinner. But we did have fun! And Fernando Ortega is just about as cute as a button! I'm so glad we went!)

And…

I uploaded the magazine on Friday afternoon! Hooray!

There will be revisions and re-sends, of course, but that is a HUGE weight off of my shoulders. No, seriously - I literally felt lighter after I was finished!

Hopefully, some of that will show up at the scales on Thursday.

Happy Birthday Amanda!

She is totally going to kill me for dredging up this picture from last summer. Especially since she donated her hair to Locks of Love and got a cute haircut in return.

Problem is, she's always behind the camera. Never in front of it. So, not many pictures of her exist.

Like the Loch Ness Monster. Or Bigfoot. Only she's a better baker. And, of course, she isn't a monster.

Oh, what's this? Something I found in an old email? Tee hee!



She's one of the most giving, loving people I've ever met. She'll do anything for anyone.

And the sad part is, from what I can tell, there are those in her circle who don't appreciate her. Take advantage, in fact.

But she keeps on doing and loving anyway.

Because that's the kind of person she is.

She's filling in at the paper this month, not because she needs the money (which she probably does) or because she loved working here so much (which she definitely didn't.) She's here to help me and the GM, Shirley, because she knows what a strain it would be on us without the regular graphic artist here.

She loves to bake birthday cakes - in fact, she's made herself one this year. Strawberry. MMMM!

And she's making me a Boston creme pie for mine next week (did I mention, we're exacty three years and 51 weeks apart?), because she's got a new recipe she wants to try out. Even though I've never eaten BCP, I'm sure it'll be delicious. And vegan. And not-at-all points friendly.

For her birthday this year, I secured an official coach's notebook. From the coach of the Memphis Grizzlies. Autographed by the Grizzlies.

Yep. Those Grizzlies. I had to fight a little old lady for it. (No, really, I did. And seeing my obvious superiority, she gave up.) And if I see it on ebay, I'm gonna kill her.

Amanda's had a dream for years to go to England. So she saved her money, quit her job, and went.

Just like that. Like it was just that easy to go to the other side of the world, all by yourself.

She's the best Aunt Manda in the world. And Anna Marie should know - she's got two of them.

Everyone needs an Aunt Manda.

She's such a great Aunt Manda, that as soon as she found out I was pregnant with Anna Marie, (and we lived 500 miles apart) she started trying to figure out how to be with us when the kid was born. So she spent nearly a year with us, going to school at the University of South Carolina at Aiken. And all she ended up with from the experience was $6,000 in student debt.

And the first year of Anna Marie's life. Totally worth it in her book - being there in the room when her first (and so far only) neice was born. Being able to take the baby's very first photograph, in which the 15-minute-old looked straight into the camera lens. It was love at first sight for both of them.

It was Amanda, not me, who chronicled Anna Marie's first year of life in pictures. Without her, I wouldn't have a completed first-year scrapbook, but a bunch of empty pages. Because I was in no shape that whole year to do anything constructive.

I'm sorry about all the time I wasted, when we were younger, being awful to her. And the occasional awful moment we have now. I'm just glad that we've been able to have a relationship as adults.

Because my sister is one of the coolest people I know.

The tragically unhip Turners

Now with bandannas!

No, we haven't joined the Crips or the Bloods. Even though my uncle, who recently retired from teaching at an inner-city high school in Memphis, asked if I was given any problems when I bought these.

Um, no. I don't guess the folks at Dollar General in Senatobia were too suspicious of me and a little red headed girl.

(Unlike the people at the Atlanta airport, who thought a nine-month-old Anna Marie and I were terrorists because we'd bought a one-way ticket. And made me miss my flight. So that we had a two-hour layover waiting for the next flight. And I didn't have a stroller because I thought we wouldn't be there long. But I digress.)

It was all in the spirit of Memorial Day, and I might add, Jason only wore his for the purposes of this picture.

Did I mention Anna Marie LOVES bandannas? They're so multi-functional. Not only do they enable her to be a rock star (like the Naked Brothers Band on Nick) they also double as capes.



Very handy.

And! And! Anna Marie had her first non-immediate-family sleepover last night! She was playing with my cousin's daughter, Savannah, and Savannah didn't want her to go home, and neither did my aunt (Savannah's Gandy). So, she stayed.



(She insisted on having the can of Sprite in the picture.)

No, I didn't call to check on them, because I figure that if she wasn't thinking about us, and I called, and she "remembered" us, it might upset her.

I guess everything went OK, because they didn't call me to come get her in the middle of the night.

Jason had to go to the auction today, even though the sale was moved to tomorrow, because he needed to get his food order. I sent him with some clean clothes, and he's going to pick her up in a few minutes.

I guess if she needed to have her first "sleepover," my aunt's house was as good a place as any.

The best laid plans

I had such great plans for this weekend. Especially yesterday.

I was going to clean the house! Exercise! Take Anna Marie to the movies!

I got basically none of that done, mostly due to a lack of sleep. Both on my part and Little AM's.

I was going to get the movies part done. We have a small, four-screen theater about a block from my house, across the street from my office. It's called the Tobie (short for "Senatobia" - clever!)During the school year, they only have matinees on Saturday and Sunday, and then during breaks like Spring Break and Christmas. Meet The Robinsons was playing last week, but was gone. It was going to have to be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which, although AM had seen it before, was OK with her.

Then, my mom called from a trip she's on to Georgia with three of her siblings, and said that Amanda was at home, alone, and sick.

I morphed into Florence Nightengale.

She required Benadryl and powdered sugar. Anna Marie and I sprang into action.

However, as a result, we missed the 2:00 p.m. matinee.

And since neither of us had slept, I made us both take a nap. We each slept for something like two hours.

After dinner, I told her we would go outside and she could ride her scooter. But, she was in some kind of bad humor, and we ended up coming back home after a couple of blocks.

The night ended with us watching the second Pirates of the Carribean. So, technically, we did get in a movie.

Today, I made up for it.

After church, we walked down to the Tobie for TMNT. I made a great discovery - our theater sells single-serve bags of pretzels! Yeah, they cost $1, but it's something she and I can split and I don't have to feel too badly about.

We walked back after the movie, and spent the next hour in the backyard exploring, playing TMNT, playing soccer, and playing baseball.

It looks like I smushed all my plans for the past two days into two and a half hours.

(Except for the "cleaning the house" part.)

No wonder I just ordered pizza for dinner.

Here's the post I promised

We spent Saturday at the Lichterman Nature Center in Memphis.

It was a free day, so there were about 42,456,234 kids there.

It was great!

The sun was shining, a breeze was blowing, and Anna Marie learned that not all skulls come from dinosaurs.

Seriously - they had a table with animal skulls on it, and every one she guessed either "dinosaur" or "sharp tooth" (like off The Land Before Time.)

Then, she got to feel some pelts. They had pictures of their former owners attached.



Where was PETA when these animals needed them?

We also saw a puppet show about bees called "Zzub zzub." Anna Marie was in the front row and gave her two cents worth at every opportunity.

(On a side note, there were two other kids on the floor, a boy and a girl who I gathered knew each other. The boy kept hitting the girl in the back, and she kept telling him to stop. Their grownups were behind us, and all they would do was say "Look, he's hitting her. I wonder why he's doing that?" Excuse me, but if my parents had caught me doing that, especially in public, I'd have been in a whole heap of trouble.)

After the puppet show, we went outside. These are some Canada Geese that were in the "marsh" area. Hopefully, they were unaware that a flock of their kinfolk were stuffed and hanging from the vaulted ceiling of the main room.



Anna Marie was trying her best to speak to them in their "honk" language, but for some reason they weren't responding. Hmm.

She was also treated to seeing a really big turtle swim across the lake, and something I've never seen - one of these geese coming in for a landing and splashing water on all his goose friends.

In another building, there were all sorts of animals that one might find in one's backyard. The dangerous ones were just plastic, though. That building also held the crafts tables, and she made a butterfly from a clothes pin, a little figure from pipe cleaners and beads, and a bookmark from feathers and dry flowers.

After a trip to the gift shop (and a lesson on staying within her budget of about $3.50, earned by doing chores for my aunt) we headed back home.

I really wish I had gotten more pictures, but the batteries died on my camera. They're rechargable, and we forgot to charge them, so we put them in the Jeep with the power inverter on the way up. It wasn't a long enough trip to charge them all the way.

She was so excited, she said she wanted to come back more often. I'll have to make sure my dad (who was running a water line for his new next door neighbor, my aunt) and my mom (who was in Texas helping said aunt pack up some of her worldly belongings) can come with us.

(Oh, and the way we got to go for free - someone donated a heap of money to the center, in honor of someone. They must be pretty fond of her, because she isn't even dead yet and they're giving money for folks to come for free.)

Happy Birthday dad!

That's my dad, holding Anna Marie on a family trip a couple of years ago.

Today is his birthday! He's 56 years old.

No, he isn't a biker, despite the do-rag. He does like motorcycles, and has owned a couple in his life. He wears the bandannas to protect the delicate skin of his bald head.

Love ya, dad.

Last night we traveled about 40 miles to meet him at an Italian restaurant he really likes. He was supposed to come there after he got off work, but as we pulled up, we realized the place had gone out of business.

Oops.

Guess where we ended up. Go ahead. Guess.

Give up?

Cici's Pizza.

Yep.

He really likes Cici's. It was his idea. He gets them to custom make his favorite pizza - tomatoes, onions, sausage, and green peppers.

So there we were - awash in a sea of noisy kids. It was great.

Afterwards, he wanted Cold Stone Creamery for dessert.

You'll never believe what happened next.

They were out of business, too!

We came back to my house, and ate a peanut butter pie (made with tofu, by the way) that my sister had made. Peanut butter is just about my dad's favorite thing in the whole world, so that worked out well. He doesn't even mind the tofu. Much.

He spent his birthday helping others - he looked at an electrical problem at my house, and then he went to get lumber for my aunt who just had a new manufactured home moved onto my parents' land.

That's my dad. Always helping every one else.

At supper time, he decided to go to Western Sizzlin. When we got there, the most wonderful thing happpened.

He got to eat for free!

Seems that if you come in on your actual birthday, they give you either a steak or a buffet for free. He decided on the steak.

So all in all, he had a pretty good birthday. I don't know what other folks got him, but I found him a clock shaped like a tire. He's a mechanic, so of course, he loved it. I don't know if mom will let him put in the house, though, or if it'll be relegated to his shop outside.

Let me say it again - Happy Birthday dad!

Hooray for Build a Bear!

Gah - I can't believe I just typed that title.

I wish I had a picture of Anna Marie at Build a Bear, but I left my camera at home! And yes, I have a camera phone, but it gave me an error message about too many applications open or something. Huh?

Anyway.

I never would've guessed how much fun my little one had at that store. I even had a good time.

I'm taking her back soon to make a lamb for Easter.

So, if you ever have a chance to go to one of those parties, or to just take a kid to Build a Bear, I highly recommend it.

Here's how it went down:

All the kids sat in a circle with their "party hostess" and got a name tag. (Funny, but the "hostess" kept calling Anna Marie "Anna Nicole." Too much E News, huh?)

Then they tell how they know the birthday kid. And under the plan we had, they got to choose a bear - either a "chocolate" or a "vanilla."

Anna Marie took the chocolate bear. She's my kid, alright.

Then, they got their flat bears and took them over to the stuffing station, where they took turns pushing the foot pedal as the hostess stuffed the bears.

Those Build a Bear folks, they're friggin' geniuses. They devised a game for the kids who weren't stuffing to play - hot potato, except with a little satin heart. That way, the kids were occupied while someone else was stuffing their bear, and it was an arbitrary way to decide who went next.

Speaking of the hearts, each kid got two - one for the birthday boy, and one for their bear. They each put a heart into Aaron's bear, after wishing on it and such.

Then, before they stuffed their bears, they put their hearts in.

Anna Marie's wish - "That I would be with my bear FOREVER!"

Aww.

I always wondered how the bears were sealed in the back, but they've thought of that too. The bears are pre-sewn, and the hostess pulls it tight and ties a knot. I'm thinking that part taks LOTS of practice.

When the bears are stuffed, the child tells the hostess what the bear's name will be. True to form, Anna Marie named hers "Power Ranger Bear."

The bear then got a T-shirt. Instead of a pretty pink one, you guessed it, we ended up with one with flames that said "All Star." She said Power Ranger Bear was a boy's name, so she would have a boy bear. And although the pink Supergirl shirt looked tempting, no self-respecting Power Ranger Bear would be caught stuffed in one.

Flames it was, then.

After each bear was issued a Cub Condo (a cardboard box - the bears are apparently bums) and a birth certificate, we went across the road to McDonald's for the rest of the party.

It wasn't an "official" McDonald's party, so we just grabbed tables and took over half the restaurant.

I'm enjoying that some of my cousins have kids not too much younger than Anna Marie, and it gives us another excuse to get together. Especially since Anna Marie's other cousins live 500 miles away.

And I finally got to see Ameila, the baby sister of the birthday boy and daughter of my cousin Cheree.

Oh my gosh - I don't know how my aunt Esther, the youngest of the 10 Coleys, ended up with more grandkids that look like that side of the family per capita than any of her other siblings. I guess the rest of us cousins just married people with stronger gene pools or something.

But! My camera phone was working at McDonald's, and I got a picture!



Just look at those cheeks!

And I think she's going to have the Coley blue eyes!

(Pardon me for the baby excitement, will you?)

So, to sum up: Build a Bear was fun. We're going back - maybe not the "99 times" that Anna Marie wants, but at least once more to make the lamb. Even Jason is on board with this one.

And Amelia is cute! And I finally got to see her!

Saturday was a good day.

I'm back!

Whew!

As Amanda once titled an email to me, "We came through it with our lives."

Really, as bad as it was, it could've been worse.

Lunch on Thursday was lovely. We stopped at Cracker Barrel and had their Thanksgiving lunch. We went ahead and stopped about 11 a.m. when we came across one, and figured that if we waited any longer we wouldn't be able to get in the door.

Since we were just a group of three, and it was early yet, we didn't have to wait very long. Anna Marie and I split the dinner, and the waitress brought her a piece of pumpkin pie of her very own - and didn't charge us. We left her a nice tip, seeing as how she was having to work on Thanksgiving and all.

We took our time getting out there, and arrived about 8 p.m. Eastern. Little did we know, my MIL was holding dinner! She had some leftover turkey and dressing from lunch at her sister's, and she made some macaroni and cheese and other vegetables. It wasn't ready until 9 p.m. Which means that the kids there didn't eat until then, and stayed way too late, considering -

considering that they'd be back the next morning at about 6:30 a.m. My SIL had to work a 7 a - 7 p shift at the hospital where she's a Certified Nursing Assistant.

Over 12 hours. It was maddening. They were maddening. We HAD to get out of the house, so we took them to Zaxby's for lunch. I was a little apprehensive, but Jason threatened them within an inch of their lives and promised them Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes if they were good. Christmas Tree Cakes that we had to travel to three stores to find, because Jason was determined to keep his promise to those kids.

Well, for the most part, they were good during lunch. Kimberly, the middle kid, who will be 8 in January, was the instigator. The other kids would be minding their own business, and she'd start kicking, or rip away whatever toy they had, or just generally cause a ruckus. I actually made her stand in time out during lunch, because she was bothering her sister and Anna Marie.

Here is a picture of the little darlings:



From left: Kimberly (7), Anna Marie (5), Christopher (8), and Rebecca (5).

Notice the sidelong glance Anna Marie is giving to Christopher. Not really sure what that's about.

We did get a bit of a break on Saturday, since they left the house so Anna Marie could get a nap and didn't return. I thought my SIL was mad, because we were gone at supper time and she didn't call - I figured she'd gone back to the house, and followed her normal M.O. of calling to see where her mom is. Because, obviously, she can't be at her mother's house with her kids and her mother not be there. However, she was with her ex-MIL because it was her birthday.

I did get to see Jason's brother Charles, who I'd only seen once or twice before. He's the other red head in the family. He also has a red headed daughter, but she's an adult - Charles is probably in his 50's.

(Word of explination here: Jason's dad was married and had six children, and then his wife died of cancer. He then married Jason's mom, who was about 25 years younger than he was, and had two more children. He died in 1995 when he was about 75 years old.)

At least the weather was nice, so the kids could play outside. Get them all inside, and boy howdy, what a crew!

So, we're back. I did pretty well about my eating, and, if Amanda's scale holds true (I weighed myself Thursday morning when we stopped by mom's on the way out of town) I "released" a couple of pounds last week. Thursday's weigh in should be interesting.

Amanda comes home tonight. Anna Marie and I (and Jason, if he isn't too tired) will go pick her up in Memphis, and then hopefully go out for Vietnamese food.

I'm going to get a piece of paper and make a sign for Anna Marie to hold that says "Aunt Manda."

I'm trying to keep my spirits up

So, I won't talk about how I gained 1.5 lbs. this week. (Although, it could be because I ate dinner shortly before I weighed in, because I had to take dinner to my mom, because she had foot surgery last week and thanks to her refusal to take it easy, is still in her cast.)

And I won't talk about how I took half a day off from work to put my only sister on a flight to London. And how I didn't cry (!) until two hours later, when I looked at my watch and figured out that she was about to board the plane, and I started praying for her safety and general well-being, and busted out in tears.

So, I'm going to talk about last night.

We didn't make it to Spaghetti Warehouse. We actually only made it to Fazoli's.

But that's OK.



(Sorry for the poor lighting quality of the picture. My batteries were going down, and, according to Amanda, the camera wasn't metering the light correctly.)

Jason, Amanda, Anna Marie, and I headed up to Southaven for dinner, and my dad was on his way home, so he met us. In honor of his birthday the day before, Jason had some turtle cheesecake.



And Anna Marie had spaghetti.

And we went to Target, where I ended up with a new t-shirt on clearance, and a new case for my iPod on clearance.

And now, my only sister is somewhere over the Atlantic in an airplane full of strangers, and I have no idea when we'll hear from her. Her cell phone is on the fritz, and we don't know if it'll work over there or not. She's supposed to email us at her earliest convenience.

But, we won't talk about all that just now.