It's time to say goodbye to summer

I have been back to work for one week and things are going well. It seems like the last few weeks of summer flew by and I neglected my blog, I neglected my diet, I neglected getting enough rest. Here is a rundown of what's been on my plate and on my mind.

*Hubby came home one day after a meeting and shared what he had heard in a meeting regarding teachers and social networking. Yikes. It's risky to put your personal business on the interweb/world wide net. After going through my district's training, I removed all professional/parental contacts from fb. It wasn't easy. I know it probably hurt some feelings, but I felt it was necessary to follow this advice... Better safe than sorry.

*Boy has had a banner summer. He's had the privilege of 2 vehicles... and I think he has finally settled on the H3. He and Too Tall (Dad) have been on a tour d'restaurants in the Wise/Tarrant/Denton County area along with all the car dealerships. I just realized he needs a hair-cut. Ugh. I prefer his long hair. It changes his look dramatically with short hair. He looks about 10 years old. Well, a 6'2 10 year old.

*Hubby has been my hero. He has continued to take care of me and pamper me and encourage me to get as much rest as possible. He has helped with the cleaning, cooking, laundry, yard work, etc... He searched and searched for a recliner type chair for my room at school and found one this weekend. He picked it up and delivered it to my classroom. He also assembled a new desk chair for me with nothing but an allen wrench. I think he wished I had spent the $8 to get it assembled.

*I haven't been on a treadmill or gone on any long walks since.... well, I don't even remember. I need to get back in the groove. I know it would make me feel better and I need to start training for our hikes when we go to Mt Nebo in October. Hmmmm wonder if Too Tall will let Hunter drive us up there in the H3. Now that's traveling in style. If not, my little Amy Lou mobile will make the trip just fine.

*I'm only about 3 chapters into my book "Fatigued to Fantastic" but what I have read has certainly made me realize it's not all in my head and I am not alone. I have tried to really curtail using the phrase "I'm tired". I am trying to put mind over matter and fake it till I make it, etc... but I also realize that it is physiological. My body needs rest. I can't keep up the pace of what I am used to. One day at a time.

*Speaking of tired... I'm there. I'm not proofreading. Forgive my grammatical errors, spelling errors, etc... Thank you for sticking with me as I blog.

Back to School

As a rule, I do not comment much or post details about my job, other than the fact that I love teaching. Every job has its ups and downs. Every work environment has its own dynamic, positive and negative. But as my summer winds down and teachers head back into the classroom and parents send their kiddos back to school, I want to share with you one thing you could do (if you are a parent) that would make a difference in someones life. Thank a teacher. It's simple, it's free, and it means more than you will ever know. I was attending Ia workshop yesterday and a teacher from the elementary school came up to me and introduced herself as the mom of one of my students from last year. She wanted to tell me how much her child enjoyed my class and that he often spoke of me and what we were studying at the time. That moment will be tucked away with me as I start the new year. When I hit my first bump in the year, and there will be bumps, I can pull out that compliment and remember that I do make a difference. I may not see the result of it right then, I may not ever be aware of it, but I know that it happens. A fellow teacher that was sitting next to me overheard this exchange and commented that as she was going through her desk this summer, she found a card that I had given her, as a parent, thanking her for taking the fear out of math for Boy. It had made her feel good when I gave it to her and it made me feel good and confirmed what I already knew... thanking a teacher makes a difference. So if you are reading this and your child comes home and says something positive about one of their teachers, let them know. It's simple. It's free, and it means more than you will ever know. , it's free, and it means more than you will ever know. I was attending

Family Reunion

We spent the weekend in Arkansas this weekend for a family reunion. If you read my Family bonds... post, you know the players and size of the family. We had a great turnout. 15 out of the 26 grandchildren were there. The food was plenty, the memories were precious and it was worth the toll it took on my body to make such a fast trip. I am so grateful for my sister who served as "captain" and drove us up there. Here is a run down of the events and I am trying to use pictures, but I am not the best at adding them to the blog.

*** Please note that in a previous blog I talked about "The 3" and as you can see, "The 3" have hit their marks on the front row. It's how we roll.

*Our first stop was to visit my Aunt Sena Bell at her new digs. She moved into an independent living retirement home. This was a big move for her and her family. She is 91 years old and is a firecracker. She still quilts, crochets, goes to church and visits other homes singing with one of

her nephews.

While visiting, we noticed this sign on the wall. I want to meet Joe.

After the reunion, our cousin invited us up to what we call "the home place". The house is no longer there, but a couple of the out buildings are: the wood shed and the potato house. The wood shed is where you did NOT want to go because it meant you were going to get "it" and by "it" I mean a whoopin', spanking, your butt busted for misbehaving. However, we did like to climb up an old wire bed frame to get on top of the wood shed and jump off. Yep, doesn't seem like a good idea now, but it was cool back then. I can still smell the dank, musty smell of the potato house when you stepped down inside. Of course, Grandmother always warned of snakes before she sent us out to gather potatoes for dinner/supper. It was always worth the risk when those potatoes were fried up to a crispy, golden brown. Mmmmm.mmmm.

Another iconic part of the "home place" is a giant tree and if I had inherited any of the green thumb that the other 24 cousins and one sister have, I would tell what kind of tree it is...oak??? This tree is where we gathered in the back of the house. It is under this tree where we would sit and shuck corn, slice watermelon on the tailgate of the farm truck and eat without utensils. It is under this tree where many family pictures were taken. This tree would serve as base in many games of hide and seek. This tree saw a family gather in the good times and in the times of loss.

It never seems like enough time when we all get together. We have decided that next year, we should gather at the home place after lunch for homemade ice-cream and watermelon (credit to my sister for this brilliant idea) and continue our reminiscing under the tree. Mark you calendars Whorton Cousins, Kin and Friends. It'll be a fabulous time.

Family bonds...

Before I start talking about family bonds, I want to comment on my last 2 blogs. First of all, I need to explain why it took a trip to OKC to get Hubby the shirts he wanted instead of ordering online. It's a 2 part answer. A) He is really picky about how shirts fit, so I was not chancing having to return things via mail because that is a pain! B) You can't get Hideaway Pizza in Springtown. And I really wanted Hideaway Pizza before summer was over. And you know by now that as princess of this house I can usually find a way to get what I want. Secondly, I want to say a big-hearted "thank you" for your response and comments on my "What's all the blogging about..." post. And no worries. I am not going to stop. I love reading blogs. I love writing this blog. You are stuck with me if you want to be.

Now, Family bonds... We are headed off to Arkansas tomorrow for a family reunion. Every vacation as a child was spent in Arkansas visiting grandparents and cousins. I loved it. It wasn't until I was an adult that I realized that there were other vacation options like Disney World, etc... In my world we had Six Flag season passes. We had camping in Oklahoma. We had Arkansas. No complaints from me.

The reunion is with my mom's siblings and their children. Here is a mathematical breakdown of the family... Dee & Roxie Ann had 7 kids; Sena Bell, James Franklin Lafeyette, Willie B, Margaret Palestine, Rita Joyce & Reba Lois (twins), Patricia Ann (my mom). From here we have 26 grand-kids... nope, not going to name them all, but I thought you would enjoy the names of my aunts and uncles. And right about now you are smiling and shaking your head up and down because Amy Lou makes perfect sense for a great name.

One of the joys of going on a road trip with Mom to Arkansas is the family history lesson. With that many kids, grand-kids, and I can't even begin to solve the algebraic equation it would take to figure out the second cousins' chart, we have a lot of history to cover. In fact, I got a little preview yesterday. I was telling Mom about a new treat that I made which was delicious. I call it Blue Bell & Baileys. I put about 3 scoops of Milk Chocolate ice-cream in a glass and covered it with some Bailey Mint Chocolate liqueur. Hello! It was dessert and a night cap all in one glass. I'm in love. Back to Mom. So after telling Mom about this, she proceeds to tell me about her mother's hot-toddies. She would take roots from a plant (and I am drawing a blank on the plant) and boil them down, almost to ashes and then put them in a jar with whiskey. In the winter, she would warm it at night, put a little lemon juice in it and drink it for medicinal purposes. The boiling roots thing really comes from her descending from American Indians on her mother's side. This story that Mom shared with me is everything I love wrapped into one; family, history, and yummy drinks...ok, just kidding on that last one, but I am really looking forward to this trip. I'll collect stories and share next week.

What's all the blogging about...

I am so ticked off right now and I need to get over it. Actually, I need to get over a lot of things but this item in particular has me clenching my jaws every time I think about it. I have really enjoyed the blogging. I think I started out pretty well. I think I was snarky without being mean. And I made Hubby laugh. It was his idea to start this. He named it. So if he's happy, I'm happy. Not that I don't care about the rest of you... All of that to say, if I put something on a public blog, which I do, then it would be a reasonable expectation for people to talk about it. Right? Or am I crazy? I read a lot of different blogs. Some are funny. Some are witty. Some are newsy. Some are personal. But the one thing they all have in common... they are on the Interweb. The world wide net. They are public. Which I take as an open invitation to TALK ABOUT THEM TO MY FRIENDS. So if you hear me talking about something and want to accuse me of gossiping, or how did you put it? Spreading information? Check yourself before you wreck yourself. Perhaps I came across that information from a blog. A public entity. I have told Hubby that I want to end this blog with a public service announcement containing information I read on a blog, but I cherish the few friends I have left in the world and it might put them in an uncomfortable position and have to answer questions from people who are not my friends. In fact, the people that need to read this will probably never see it. They won't see the link on fb and they probably don't know this little corner of the internet exists. That's ok. It accomplishes what I said from the very beginning... my blog would be a place for me to say what's on my mind. You have my permission, considering this is on an open website, to call your peeps and tell them that Amy Lou has just about gone crazy and she's getting mean again. It won't be gossip. Just the gospel. And you read it here first.

Daytripping... OKC

Hubby and I took off to Oklahoma City last Friday for a quick trip with very specific goals. For two years, Hubby has wanted a nice polo-golf shirt with the OKC Thunder logo and another with the Oklahoma State logo. And not the new fangled logo with "flames shooting out its ass", the older logo that stayed true to the original brand. We left at 7:30am and were back in the driveway by 6:00pm. Here is a rundown of the day's fun...

*Stopped in Paul's Valley at Braum's. As Hubby was trying to check out with a bottle of water, he ended up behind a lady with a few grocery items. She was insistent on telling the cashier how to bag her groceries then proceeded to use a check to pay. Holy smokes. I didn't even know stores still took checks. She was obviously a lady of leisure having all sorts of time to give detailed instructions on bagging and taking the time to use her best penmanship on her check. I know this to be true because she hopped into her lady of leisure 2-seater, red, convertible BMW to zoom out of the parking lot.

*The parking lot of Braum's was a foreshadowing of things to come throughout the trip. After I gave up waiting on Hubby to get checked out, I went back out to the car. As I was sitting in a nearly empty parking lot, a lady cruises up and parks right next to me. Seriously, I was in the second row from the curb, lots of empty spaces right by the door and you ride up and park 6 inches from my door. Okies!

*First stop in OKC was at a store called House of Bedlam. Hubby struck out on finding his O-State shirt, but a truck pulled in while we were shopping and you guessed it. Parked right on my door. Another empty parking lot. Front row spaces galore. He parks right next to my car 2 rows out. Okies!

*We head over to downtown and Hubby points out that the Arkansas River was officially renamed the Oklahoma River as it flowed through OKC. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? They renamed the river? So.... Can you imagine every town trying to rename the great Mississippi as it runs through the city limits. What about the Missouri River? The Red River. Scratch that. Texans would never let that happen. Seriously. Okies!

*Hubby did extensive research before embarking on this trip to find all of the places that would likely carry the merchandise he was looking for. He found that the OKC Arena (formerly Ford Center) was closed to the public as they expand with luxury suites and sky-boxes, so they opened a Pro Shop in a downtown building. We found it easy enough and even managed to find a place on the street to park. I plopped in my coins for the meter and we made our way to the shop. Disappointment. It was small and they didn't seem to have a lot of choices. The man working behind the counter was very nice and told us that the Pro Shop at the arena was actually still open and it was just a 7 minute walk if we wanted to avoid the hassle of re-parking. Yay. We take off on foot and run out of shade from the buildings about half-way there. It was hot. We get to the Pro Shop and begin browsing through the great selection of shirts. Wait. Scratch that. Yes, they had a lot of varieties. One problem. They did NOT HAVE ONE XL polo shirt in any style. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? You have a store filled with merchandise and not one XL. Ugh! I asked the sales person if this could possibly be true and she did a 5 second walk through the back only to come back and tell me that it was indeed true that they did not have one XL in the store. Hubby decides to go back to the first store because I remembered seeing an XL in a navy shirt that wasn't his first choice. We trek back in the heat and the nice guy working was shocked to hear about the situation at the Pro Shop. The nice lady he was talking to as we re-entered the store happened to be an executive with Guest Relations and gave us her discount for any merch we purchased. Sweet! Hubby did find a polo shirt and a t shirt! Score! Go Okies!

*It was time for lunch and that means one thing for me in OKC. Hideaway Pizza. Yummy. We had a short wait. Totally worth it. The service was great! The pizza was fabulous. Hubby cracked me up as he asked the waiter what it would take to get one of the Hideaway magnets from the side of the coke machine. Uh, because we might need their number in case they decide to expand their delivery area to 180 miles. Oh, and in case you were wondering, yes when we parked the car, a lady rolled up next to my side and parked leaving all the empty spaces in the next row available. It was laughable by this time.

*When it was time to head home, after Hubby found the perfect OSU shirt at Dillard's, we needed some go-juice. My iPhone had been 100% spot on when navigating us from location to location so why not use it to find cheap gas. GasBuddy located a great deal at a Shell station not far from the highway. It was actually kind of cool because it was taking us through this artsy neighborhood, The Paseo. And that is actually all it ended up being. A tour through a neat neighborhood. When we got to the red pin on Google Maps for the gas station. Not there. No Shell. No cheap gas. GasBuddy failed. I am going to assume that matt57 who posted to GasBuddy was an Okie.

I love these kinds of trips with Hubby. We are great travel buddies. Always up for an adventure. And even though it may have seemed like I was picking on Okies in my blog, remember, I married one.

10 things on my mind...

Oh, I know you are all chomping at the bit to read about what's going on up in my brain...

10. Spent Friday at Hurricane Harbor with Boy and 3 of his friends. Do people not look in the mirror before they head off to the water park? Good grief. If I ever go out looking like that, someone stop me. (I posted a pic on fb so you can see if you need to have a conversation with me about my water park fashion)

9. Boy is keeping the roads, restaurants and stores hot with his dad Too Tall. It warms my heart to see them hanging out.

8. I can't stop eating. I did a great job getting a little slimmer to fit into my camp clothes. All I have done since returning home. Eat.

7. I have to fit into my work clothes and only have until August 8 to get there. Ugh. (see #8)

6. I am having a hard time with my getting back into a church home thing. I am just not ready. It's freaking me out a little bit because Hubby is ready.

5. Summer is flying by. Quickly.

4. I have become a broken record. "I'm tired." I am sick of hearing this out of my mouth. I can only imagine how Hubby and Boy feel about it. I am taking my vitamins. I added some soft chew Calcium + D to the mix. I am on the verge of depression. I can feel it. I walked in to my sister's house the day of our shopping spree and busted into tears because I was late and it was because I was too tired to start getting ready. After 10 hours of sleep. I was too tired to get up. This is getting stupid and I am getting frustrated. If I could take a vacation from me I would.

3. Boy is going on vacation with his Juju (my sister) and her family. Their destination is Florida. He'll have a great time. (see #4)

2. Getting to see friends from high school is really cool. One of my fellow bloggers is in town from Florida and it was great getting to hang out. According to her blogs, she is having a great time with family and friends alike.

1. I get to go on vacation. Next week. To Marble Falls. Booked the room today. Heck yeah! I get to hear my favorite preacher and go to the one church that doesn't make me break out in a cold sweat. I get to eat at the Alamo Springs Cafe. The burger made the cover of Texas Monthly a few years ago. It's worth the drive. It's worth the wait. It's worth the 3 lbs you gain after eating it. I get to see my FF and her family. They make me smile.