Happy Birthday, Son

Hot Rod turns 11 today. He's had a rough last couple of months at school, but *knock on wood* I hope all is back on track. We are so proud of you, son. School science fair winner. Winner of the 'best interview with the judges for fifth-graders' at the districtwide science fair. Commended on both reading and math TAKS tests. Baseball all-star. You're my baby regardless of how big and strong you are and I love you.

Happy birthday, son.

Fun fun fun fun fun

Ok, that's a lot of funs, but we had a good time as the guest of a local municipal economic development organization at the Byron Nelson today. We had to sit through a 3 hour and 44 minute weather delay ... that sucked majorly, but it was nice to spend some time together and it didn't cost us a penny other than his vacation day from work. I managed to sneak some work in while we were in the villa having lunch.

All-Star

Army of Dad has been singing All-Star to Hot Rod since he was a baby. Now, he FINALLY was picked to be one. And, Army of Dad will be one of the All Star coaches.

Yep, we are mighty proud.

Flying High Now

No, not like Rocky. Literally, flying high. Army of Dad and I got to fly up in Zebra Air in a zebra-striped helicopter over the Trinity River Audubon Center in Dallas for an article I was writing about the Texas Horse Park (which is in the planning stages.) The THP sounds like fun. Equestrian competitions, riding trails and the ability for young people to come volunteer there in exchange for horsemanship instruction. Very cool.It was so much fun. I had never been in a helicopter before, so I was a little nervous anticipating it. But, once I was in there, it was awesome.

The view from the copter of the Great Trinity Forest. Those are my shoes and the clear floor from where I was sitting! Wasn't bad after the first shock of seeing through the floor!

My handsome hubby was a natural. But, he had been in open helicopters in the Army. 

The Trinity River Audubon Center from the copter. Really neat place to visit. I plan to take the kids this summer.

The critters were everywhere. It was really pretty.
My own critter tried to take a bit of me, too. But, overall, really pretty scenery.

This is for AMJ who hassled me for not posting very often any more.

Happy Mother's Day

All I am, or can be, I owe to my angel mother. - Abraham Lincoln

That is one of my favorite quotes. My mother was never an angel. But, she has done the best she can despite all the challenges God has given her. I think I turned out ok. Not great, but good enough. I don't think my children will ever use that Lincoln quote for me, too, but I hope they know how much I love them and how I have tried and continue to try my best to be a good mom. I know my mom has given it her all.

My friend Kelly posted "The Special Mom by Erma Bombeck, 1980" on her blog. I think it is worth reposting here, too. My oldest has had many obstacles to overcome in life from a chronic condition resulting from a birth defect to Asperger's Syndrome. But, he has never let it stop him from doing what he wants. It took me many years not to try to fit him into the one-size-fits-all mode that I expected from my children, but I'm doing my best. I know I fall short often, but I'm trying.

Here is the Erma Bombeck piece:

Most women become mothers by accident, some by choice, a few by social pressures and a couple by habit. This year, nearly 100,000 women will become mothers of handicapped children. Did you ever wonder how mothers of handicapped children are chosen? Somehow I visualize God hovering over Earth selecting his instruments for propagation with great care and deliberation. As he observes, he instructs his angels to make notes in a giant ledger.

"Armstrong, Beth, son, patron saint, Matthew. Forrest, Marjorie, daughter, patron saint, Cecilia. Rudledge, Carrie, twins, patron saint, give her Gerard. He's used to profanity."


Finally, he passes a name to an angel and smiles, "Give her a handicapped child."

The angel is curious. "Why this one, God? She's so happy."

"Exactly," says God. "Could I give a handicapped child to a mother who does not know laughter? That would be cruel."

"But has she patience?" asks the angel.

"I don't want her to have too much patience or she will drown in a sea of self-pity and despair. Once the shock and resentment wear off, she'll handle it. I watched her today. She has that feeling of self and independence that is so rare and so necessary in a mother. You see, the child I'm going to give her has his own world. She has to make it live in her world, and that's not going to be easy."

"But, Lord, I don't think she even believes in you."

God smiles. "No matter. I can fix that. This one is perfect. She has just enough selfishness."

The angel gasps, "Selfishness? Is that a virtue?"

God nods. "If she can't separate herself from the child occasionally, she'll never survive. Yes, here is a woman whom I will bless with a child less than perfect. She doesn't realize it yet, but she is to be envied. She will never take for granted a 'spoken word.' She will never consider a 'step' ordinary. When her child says 'Momma'* for the first time, she will be present at a miracle and know it! When she describes a tree or a sunset to her blind child, she will see it as few people ever see my creations."

"I will permit her to see clearly the things I see . . . ignorance, cruelty, prejudice . . . and allow her to rise above them. She will never be alone. I will be at her side every minute of every day of her life, because she is doing my work as surely as she is here by my side."

"And what about her patron saint?" asks the angel, pen poised midair. God smiles. "A mirror will suffice."

I agree with Kelly that us moms of special aren't saints. We're far from it, but we're doing the best with what God has given us. My middle child will be the one to keep me up late at night wondering if he's making good choices. The youngest? She is so inquisitive, she'll be the one looking for answers and stepping into ... well, you know. They're all special to me and I'm so very blessed to be their mom. And, my special mom? Yeah, she taught me how to mother, too. Her love is fierce despite all her faults. I definitely got that from her.

Happy Mother's Day!

Fight Night

Does anyone else wanna start singing "hello, is it me you're looking for?" This dude looks just like Lionel Richie to me. He was the one clapping the wood things and then ringing the bell during the boxing matches. Where was I, you ask? Army of Dad and I were able to go to The Real Estate Council's Fight Night fundraiser event. I think tickets were $650 a piece. We didn't pay that since I was working. That was before I had about four cosmos. Best part, my company is working a deal with a hotel right across the street from where the event was and we got a hotel night comped, so we drove about three minutes to get to our hotel room instead of the long trek back to the burbs.

The guys were loving the ring girls and our waitresses in hot pants, low cut blouses (no bras) and hot pants. You could see the eyes moving (of the guys with dates) and the necks craning of the dateless dudes. This would have been the ideal place to pick up a guy. 1,000 people there and I suspect 60 percent were men.

I was shocked to really enjoy the boxing matches. There were three of them as the featured entertainment (along with casino games and a live band). This one featured Abraham Han (from El Paso). He whipped this poor kid's ass. I think it was only three or four rounds and ended in a TKO.

Not sure what the 620 stood for, but the scenery was pretty nice to look at amongst the boxers. Although we had dudes that I outweighed, which is always disturbing to me.

We got vouchers with our tickets (which were comped since I was "working" covering the event for my publication) for $100 in chips a piece. I gave mine to Army of Dad. He was doing great until I showed up.
This match was pretty gruesome. The dude in white, Alicio Castenade from Cut and Shoot, Texas (swear to God, I'm not making that up) won. He had Jesus Rodarte's blood all over him. Jesus got cut early above his left eye and was bleeding all down Alico's back and trunks. By the end of the match, he had this giant goose-egg over his left eye. I kept fearing he was going to explode.
Great muscle tone. Was weird to watch these guys after watching my kids do karate. The guy in white didn't keep his guard up, but he was getting the best of the other guy in spite of it.
If you click on this pic, you can see the goose-egg on the dude in the black trunks. Ick.

And, here we are. My honey cleans up really well in his new suit. Me? I am wearing the same cocktail dress I've been wearing since 2000. Although I guess it says something that I can still get it on! Not as roomy as it once was, but hey, I'll take my accomplishments however I can. I did get some nice compliments from fellow business writers there. That was refreshing.

How cool is this?

Dentonite and RHS graduate Austin Jackson was named the AL rookie of the month. We got to watch him hit his first major league homerun at The Ballpark at Arlington when the Tigers came to play the Rangers about a week or so ago. It was pretty exciting to see a hometown boy do well in the majors. And, it is fun to watch him in the highlight reels on ESPN and the MLB channel.

MIA AoM

I've been a bad blogger. Some of it has been this stupid Blogger migration process totally ticking me off. One of my wonderful IT friends moved everything for me and set everything up. Unfortunately, Blogger has flubbed up the migration of all of my archive photos. No idea what to do or if they'll ever come back. We have submitted requests to them and I guess we're in line behind the other 3,249 bloggers who the same thing has happened to. And, as it is, I can barely figure anything out. Last time I tried to blog and move something, the whole damn thing disappeared. So, I just gave up. So anyway. You can see where I've been and why I haven't been blogging. Anyway. I got drafted by Army of Dad to help pitch for Little Bit's coach-pitch team. *sigh* I soooo did not want this job, but I want to help the kids and they all seem to like having me as a pitcher. That's Little Bit catching one inning. She's so darn cute. She's getting better, too.

Hot Rod has had ups and downs. Fortunately more ups than downs. His team is in second place in their division. That's him on the mound. He does ok. Had a stand up double with two RBIs in a come-from-behind win on Saturday afternoon. That was nice to see.

Little Bit won her sparring match on Sunday, making it eight in a row that she's won. That's here in the red headgear on the right. She got the kick in before the girl jabbed at her. Hooray.

She left her chest wide open here, but fortunately got the kick in before the girl could get to her.


Here she is with her first place medal. She was very excited.

Pickle won his kata again for the second time in a row after never placing in any of his previous attempts. Has been a confidence builder for him. And, with his first place trophy, below.
Army of Dad and the little kids replacing our dead peach tree. Was so sad that the bugs got into it last year. So, we put in a nectarine tree. Hopefully, it will thrive. So, I'll try not to be quite so missing in action, but no promises.