small town social circles

So. Lets play six degrees of separation...

Eileen's daddy does business with the sister of my coworker who goes to church with the husband of my brother-in-law's childhood best friend from South Carolina who now lives here.  

And the three of us were on treadmills next to each other at the gym the other day.  We all knew each other but we didn't know that each other knew each other. And now we know.

I've done my public service for the day: providing my devoted readers with a bit of a mind twister.  Cheers!

As of Thursday afternoon. we had no plans for the weekend. A snow day, sleepover, playdate, basketball game, campus tour and a new cat later.. we still have another day to go before the work/school week starts!  

Can we handle it!?

Knoxville (or any Southern) Snow is the best. It is pretty. It is fun. It is quite out of the norm. There is a Christmas-like excitement in the air. Everything shuts down at the mere mention of the s-word.  And in most cases, schools close and offices open late.  And. Within hours. It is gone.  

After early dismissal Thursday and a day at home with Mommy on Friday, Eileen was all kinds of stir-crazy. SLEEPOVER! Hannah came over. Movies and nails and tattoos and glitter and reading and dolls. It is possible I have more fun than the kids. 

Saturday we went over to Lucas and Preston's. Pizza, brownies, movies, dogs crazy kids who love each other and mommies who had mommy drinks.  And Lord Help me, I have become MY MOM. It was cold out. Jenny was in sweats. I'd had a long run that afternoon. So I.wore.my.house.shoes.  Now, in my defense, they look like Uggs. BUT STILL. Eh, well, I was comfy. And while I used to be mortified when Mom did it, I now understand it's more about what a good friend it is you're going to visit. 

That goes for Eileen too. She's made loads of new friends in Kindergarten. And will make loads more in her future. But the kiddos we hung with this weekend are the ones who have all known each other since roughly 4-5 months of age. They're all in different schools, but they still have a BLAST together. Crazy to watch. 

Eileen came tearing upstairs last night at L&P's house. THEY'RE TRYING TO KISS ME! AND THEY SAID WE'LL GET MOLES! 

Um, what? 

Oh. right. Because if you kis ssomeone and you're not married, you GET WARTS.  (lets just say if you can read this you're probably super glad that little ancedote is NOT TRUE). 

Spur of the moment we decided to go to the Lady Vols game. We met Kath & Ron, along with Grace and her buddy. Eileen was SUPER excited to go, but somewhat zoned out by the second half.  So we'll have to wait til that attention span grows a bit... but still super fun. Plus the Ladies won. It was a Conference Game and Coach Summit was there. All good stuff.

Heading home I wanted to drive through the new Sorority Village bc I hadn't seen it yet.  Eileen was blown away by the "Mansions" and decided she wants to live in them. And Riley (friend from Kindergarten) HAS to go with her. 

We stopped and took an awesome picture. I'm already plotting 13 years from now when I am sending in this shot along with her Rush (ahem, Recruiting) application.

I know you guys are all still back on that opening part about the 'new cat.'  And you know that this girl is all about dogs, and not usually too concerned with cats. 

This cat will be at Daddy & Sarah's house. And Eileen has been counting the minutes until he arrived. Sarah went to go get him today, and even I was stunned at how pretty he is. So Eileen is staying there tonight. I think if she'd stayed here it would have been the equivalent of Chinese Water Torture - knowing that cat was home and she wasn't with it!

I am picturing Gracie will go B O N K E R S when she comes back here. 

I'd say this is one of my more rambling posts. {shocked face}  .... but a fun one.

 

 

what is wrong with people?

Regardless of your thoughts on gun control. Regardless your thoughts on background checks. Regardless your thoughts on potential ties between mental illness and access to weapons (guns or otherwise).

To think, imply, believe, support a theory that the Sandy Hook Tragedy was a conspiracy? REALLY?  

I don't know enough about it - what this conspiracy supposedly is. Is the government supposed to have done it? Gun Control Supporters? People with purple hair and green eyes? 

I do know it is sickening. The idea of Sandy Hook having been some group's plan for pushing Gun Control. 

I am not totally naive. I have no doubt our government - and any other government anywhere - does things most of us would rather not know. I have no doubt there are facts and truths so horrifying that we'd never again sleep. 

But. 20 children? 20 innocent precious babies? I daresay this isn't some radical Big Brother secret. 

It was one very sick young man who didn't get, or wasn't able to get, the right care. It was a very frightening day when this ill man broke in a way that is incomprehensible to most of us. It was a day that words will never do justice, in which innocence was shattered, families destroyed, and we were all reminded just how fragile life is. 

What it should BECOME is a close look at ways in which to put ourselves back together. To recognize that mental illness is just the same as physical. It should not be ignored, just as cancer should not be ignored. It should be treated with therapy and medicine in the same way cancer patients receieve medicine and can join support groups. 

Guns are not going anywhere. The guns themselves are not evil. They can provide defense, they can provide food, they can provide sport.

This shouldn't be Republican or Democrat. Radical or Conservative.  

It SHOULD be an opportunity to educate. To stop pointing fingers.

We're all entitled to an opinion. Well. This post is mine. Blame gets us nowhere. Acceptance and education takes us miles and miles. 

Things I forgot...

 I think in my last post I mentioned Eileen's school play.  Anyone who has ever been a kid remembers these plays. And unless you are MORK, every single one of you has been a kid. 

This is that school play where every single child is included. Horrible actor? Scary voice?, EH, you are IN the play! All kids in grades 1-4 in the 'chorus.' All kids in Grade 5 have a part in the play.  And the Kindergartners come in at the end to sing Silent Night.

(sidebar: i have distinct memories of trying out for the school play when i was in third grade, it was "Down by the Creekbank" - and I was devastated to have not been given a part. So I guess I get that whole inclusion thing...)

You get the picture. Lots of singing, instrumentals by the Elementary School Band, interesting acting. A 'rite of parenthood' - if you will. It's hilarious, fascinating, fun, cute, precious - and at the same time when it ends you're kind of glad. Maybe a LOT glad.

After dropping Eileen at Josh & Sarah's...

Bill: Want to go get a drink?
Me: YES PLEASE.

*take note: this is roughly 9pm on a Wednesday night in Farragut - the PINNACLE of Suburbia. 

"lets go to Aubrey's"  
"crap, I think they close at 10, I'll call.... ugh, yeah, they close at 10"  
"Irish Times?"
"No, its their Christmas Party"
"Brixx?"
"Eh. Nah. Lets try Smoky Mountain Brewery"

Agreed. Pull into parking lot. Get out of Car. 
OH GOOD GRIEF DO THEY HAVE A BAND? 

When you can hear the band in the parking lot, and you're old and have spent several hours with singing kids, and you know the 'stage' is roughly 8feet from the bar... this is SO NOT APPEALING.

 Sigh.
We settled on Buffalo Wild Wings, also known as the most well-lit brightest bar on the planet. And apparently it was trivia night. We ordered wings, of course. The hot ones. MISTAKE MISTAKE MISTAKE. Were they always that hot? Holy Crap my food is making me sweat. 
We actually had to send them back to get 'washed' and bring them back as medium. 

Then, we headed back to the Retirement Home from which we apparently had escaped. 

Who wants to be our friend?!?!? You know you're laughing. ;)


 

I Always Forget to Assign a Title...

Well HI. 
As has been my habit of late, there's been loads going on in recent weeks. Which means I haven't blogged. Which means that if I attempted to COVER all of the recent events we'd all be here much longer than we'd like.

Therefore I'll go for the Brief Version. This should be fun. Seeing as how you all know I don't have a very solid grasp of the term 'brief....'


We've had Thanksgiving. And Christmas. And New Years Eve/New Years Day. And with this family, you can multiply each of those by at least three.  Plus Edie's Baptism and First Birthday and work parties and school plays and school parties. 

Thanksgiving (the first one) for us was in Memphis. While in Memphis I went for a run on Thanksgiving morning, I face planted about 1/10 of a mile from my dad's house. Two skinned knees, a skinned shoulder and a busted up hand... fast forward to almost exactly one month later, on Friday Dec 21.  

 Having just wrapped up Eileen's party at school, followed by lunch with R and her Mommy, it was time to run some errands. Being four days before The Big Man was to visit, Eileen was a smidge hyper. And then, she saw a piece of gum on the grounds. And certainly, she did NOT want to step in it. So of course, apparently with no other option, she stepped in front of ME. In a split second I went from standing 5ft8 to eating pavement. AGAIN.  A man came running over - but after all these years of falling I can morph back to standing pretty quick. 

Other than busting the OTHER elbow and my pride, I somehow came out ok. I daresay, if I can make it to January 23, my body will go into shock. From staying upright. 

------>> I implore you to study the picture to the right. We (FINALLY) lost a tooth.  Well, actually Eileen pulled it out herself. She came sauntering downtairs on Christmas Afternoon, bloody kleenex hanging from her mouth, and one less tooth.  And I do mean, one.less.tooth. In her eagerness to pull it out, the tooth went MIA in her bathroom. We presume it went down the drain.  The tooth fairy must grant the First Tooth as special, because she came to visit anyway, even tho all she got was a BUTTON. And that beeatch left FIVE DOLLARS.  

Here are Eileen and Edie up at the Bryant Farm.  And no, that is not a green screen backdrop. It is real.  

We've made cookies and played with play-doh and had sleepovers. I have set up a second home at the gym. I had grand plans of all sorts of social activities for ME, but I have developed a not very friendly cold. 

 We sent out 99 Christmas cards But maybe that should actually be 98, because I apparently mailed two of them - not two in one envelope- but two addressed, stamped, sealed and mailed cards - to one family. I don't think we're actually that popular.. we just have a super large family and a few friends.:)  This year I tasked Bill with envelope stuffing, and Eileen with envelope sealing. No, I didn't have her licking the crappy glue a la Seinfeld. Scotch tape is our friend. 

 So, as of today 2012 is history, and 2013 is a blank slate. 2012 had a lot going on. We got married. Eileen started Kindergarten. Bill got promoted and I took on a new role. All good things, of course. 

I can't say I have any resolutions for 2013. I'd be OK with a somewhat boring year. 

I want to run more and train hard. I'd love to get in three halfs and maybe a full. 

I want to be on time to meetings and appointments. 
I want to not be such an airhead (ok, we all know that probably is IMPOSSIBLE). 

I want to cook more and eat less frozen pizza.  

I want Eileen to run track or play basketball or play golf.  

I want to hang out with my husband. All the time.

 I can't wait to see my brother in law graduate from Nursing School. 

I want to read more books and take more pictures and blog more and make it to church more.

Are those resolutions? Or is it just knowing what matters? 

Knowing what matters and trying to keep that in mind, every day. 

Happy New Year friends. May it be a healthy, happy positive year for all of you.