Amelia the academic achiever

For the last few weeks Amelia has been going around singing a song about the 50 states to the tune of "Turkey in the Straw." I thought she had maybe heard this little ditty on television, but it turns out it was one of the featured songs in her school's end-of-the-year program and ceremony. 

In keeping with the geography theme, all the first graders at her school performed in the program while holding signs representing all 50 states, the seven continents and the oceans of the world while singing the aforementioned song as well as other catchy tunes that are still rolling around in my cerebellum. ("I've got the whole globe in my hands. The whole globe in my hands.")

Even though you can't see it here, Amelia is carrying the state of South Dakota while processing into the gym for the program.

Amelia racked up the awards during this shindig. She earned 102.8 accelerated reading points for which she received the Top Point Earner Award in her class. She also earned the award for getting the highest percentage of AR questions correct (93%). Additionally, she received an award for making "A" honor roll all year and was named to The Governor's Club, which is for students earning all A's and attending all AR parties.

That's a look of pride if I ever saw one

She got so many certificates that she had a hard time holding on to all of them.

I was so proud of her and beyond excited. I love that we find out at the same time as our kids what awards they've earned. It makes it so exciting for all of us. Anyone who attended this shindig was well aware of my high level of excitement because I was the momma down front snapping photos like a crazy person while shouting, "Yay!" "Way to go!" "Good job!" "Woo Hoo!" 

Amelia enjoyed a fantastic first grade year. She was blessed to have an exceptional teacher who encouraged her to push herself and be the best student she could be. Additionally, Amelia was able to make friends with a couple of little ladies with whom I hope she's able to forge friendships that last throughout her school years and maybe beyond. 

It's actually kind of hard for me to wrap my head around the fact my first born is going to be a second grader come August. I am blessed and lucky to be her momma and thrilled that I get to enjoy this academic journey with her. I just wish our trip didn't seem to be passing so quickly. I suppose we need to make more of an effort to slow down from time to time to savor these times because they'll be behind us before we know it. 

Our proud medalist

Amelia last week proudly accepted her medal for perfect attendance from her dance instructor Ms. Jane. My little ballerina also earned a certificate for completing her fourth year of dance, but was most proud of the medal, which she wore along with a big ol' grin from the moment she got it until she had to change clothes for bedtime.

The culmination of all her and her classmates hard work is the annual revue in which they strut their stuff and show off their skills. The revue was held Saturday evening at a lovely, state-of-the-art fine arts center in a neighboring city. The theme of the revue was "Television Memories" and each class performed a dance and tap routine to different TV theme songs.

Amelia's group performed a tap dance to the theme from "The Banana Splits" and closed out the show with the ending credits music from "The Carol Burnett Show."

Here they are tapping their toes to the beat. A big shout out to my friend Tela from whom I snatched this photo. That's her little man Gabe holding court in the middle of all these little ladies. 

They're getting ready to give their final bow after their ballet routine. Again, a big thanks to Tela for the photo!

 Amelia, having never seen or heard of either television show or their theme songs, cracked me up when she expressed her confusion as to why they were dancing to music "no one has even heard before." I tried to explain to her that most all the mommas and daddies as well as the majority of the grandparents in attendance would know the songs very well; but, ever my little skeptic, Amelia was positive these songs would go over like a lead balloon. She was happily surprised after the show to learn that so many people really liked the songs and took a trip down memory lane while listening to them.

Jeff's mom attended the show, as she has the last three, and our dear friend Ms. Hollie and her two oldest children Jesse-Grace and Duece came too. Amelia was thrilled to see each of them after the show and was so surprised when Ms. Hollie, Jesse-Grace and Duece gave her a necklace to reward her for a job well done. I managed to snap one photo of her before she took off to the bathroom to change out of her costume.

Lola wasn't going to stand for a photo being taken unless she was in it as well. She felt it was very important that I get her in the picture so she could show off her dress, which she loved so much she'd probably still be wearing it if I hadn't hidden it at the bottom of the laundry hamper. 

As Amelia and I were exiting the bathroom to meet up with Jeff, Grandmaw and Lola, I ran into my first-grade teacher Mrs. Harris. It was so nice to see her and really nice that she not only remembered me, but also that she remembered me fondly. I introduced her to Amelia, who is this week finishing up her first grade year, and Mrs. Harris shared with her that she recalls me being a good student and being "very smart."

I was thrilled with these accolades as was Amelia who thanked Mrs. Harris for her kind words about me. I wish I'd taken the time to thank her for being such a good teacher. I was so lucky to have her for my first grade year because she loved her job, loved each child and worked hard to help us hone our skills.

It was Mrs. Harris who discovered that I was a voracious reader and encouraged me to continue this habit. She also helped me to become a confident public speaker because she often picked me to read aloud to the class and never failed to compliment me on the mature way in which I was able to read to the group.

I wish I'd taken the time to share with her the impact she had on me during that pivotal year of school, but I knew I had people waiting on us and, well, I knew she had, ahem, "business" to attend to in the ladies room. Maybe I'll see her again at next year's revue since Amelia has decided she wants to dance for another year. Hopefully, I can catch Mrs. Harris somewhere other than the restroom in order to have the time to express my gratitude to her for touching my life in so many special ways.

I am learning to let go of some of my burdens

Yesterday marked four years since I learned my momma died. I don't know her actual date of death because she died alone and, according to the coroner, had been gone for sometime by the time she was found.

Because I am an only child, the task of taking care of all her stuff as well as her business fell to me. My dear husband helped so much with the actual clearing out of her home as did a first cousin and aunt. I don't know that I would have ever finished had they not stepped up to assist me in that monumental task.

For almost three years after momma died I worked to settle her estate. She had no will because she'd erroneously been told she didn't need one. There were outstanding bills to which I had to attend as well as a mortgage. Additionally, I had to enlist the help of an attorney to guide this process through the probate court.

It was not fun and it was very stressful. I am glad it's over.

During the time I was trying to settle momma's estate, I was required to keep up with every bill, bank statement, attorney correspondence, receipt and any other sundry documents related to her business. Additionally, I was hanging onto heaps of seemingly meaningless stuff to which I'd attached sentimental value. It all added up to lots of stuff taking up lots of space in my not-so-big house.

I finally settled all of momma's affairs in April 2010. It was a glorious day. I felt as though a huge weight had been taken from me; but because I didn't immediately do away with all that paperwork I'd been required to keep as well as the other stuff to which I'd been clinging, part of my burden was still lurking in drawers in my office.

That all changed yesterday.

I figured the four-year anniversary of the day I learned momma had left me was as good a time as any to finally get rid of it all. I spent almost three hours shredding documents and emptying drawers. With each piece I shredded or tossed I felt a little more free. When I was finally done and had reorganized my drawers to suit the needs of my family, I felt really proud.

I credit my ability to let go of the things related to my momma to two sources: "Hoarders" on A&E and "My Mother-in-Law is Still Sitting Between Us, " a blog about a man's journey to clean up his childhood home that had become a monumental hoard. The posts are written by his long-time girlfriend, Sidney, who really loves him, tries to help him in the small ways he will allow and truly wants him to get done and come home.

Hoarding is in my genes. My grandfather was bad, but so much of what he kept - from reclaimed lumber to buckets of nails - was actually put to use in his profession as a carpenter. However, he had a propensity - likely from having lived through The Depression - to hang onto things for fear of being wasteful. He didn't like to throw away aluminum cans, he would reuse gauze pads and cotton balls if he thought a portion of them was salvageable, and he stockpiled fabric scraps and brown paper bags as well as tons of other junk.

His hoarding directly affected his oldest daughter, but her story diverged from his in that she shopped as a coping mechanism and acquired things to make herself feel better. She had a H-U-G-E closet filled with clothes and shoes, but felt compelled to buy more and would brag that she could afford to accommodate these desires because she shopped mainly at thrift stores.

My aunt was also not above stopping to dig through piles of discarded stuff people would put out for the trash man, she was always willing to take things others in the family were getting rid of (in fact, she took home car loads of stuff from momma's, which is the main reason - I think - she volunteered to help me clean out her house), and she almost never passed up the chance to scour the offerings at a yard sale.

The cycle of hoarding continued with my aunt's daughter whose home has been overtaken by collections of dolls, miniature shoes, magnets, books, craft supplies and heaps of tchotchkes as well as clothes and, rather sadly, animals. While she's not one of those people who don't take care of the animals she hoards, she is one who gets somewhat overly-attached in an almost parental way to the animals she takes into her home. If her husband didn't in some ways keep her in check, I know her home could become quickly overrun with critters of all sorts.

Because I am so attuned to the history of hoarding on the maternal side of my family and because I have taken to heart the lessons learned on the aforementioned TV show and blog, I have made the decision to focus on letting go of a lot of the stuff that's been holding me hostage. I still have lots of momma's kitchen items piled in our shop and a corner of the attic is filled with things I haven't laid eyes on in years.

It won't be easy, and I won't do a perfect job of purging everything - like my kids' old clothes, which I am just not emotionally prepared to deal with - but it will be a good start to hopefully breaking the cycle of hoarding that has literally crippled members of my family and hopefully simultaneously keep my girls from heading down the same destructive path.

An experiement that went all kinds of wrong

Since before Lola was born Amelia has talked about sharing a room with her sister. I, to be completely honest, cannot understand the desire to share space with a sibling. Of course, I am an only child so sharing anything has never been easy for me; but I tend to believe that even had I had a brother or sister I wouldn't have wanted to share a room (or likely anything else) with them.

Amelia is like me in soooo many ways, but this is one area in which we differ greatly. She has been eager to give over part of her space to Lola for a long time. Since Jeff and I are not seriously considering moving the girls into one room, we decided rather to give in to Amelia's request for Lola to sleep in her room one night.

We figured since Lola is crazy for her sister and going on three years old, now would be a good time to try letting them sleep together one weekend night and opted to make it happen last Saturday night. Amelia has bunk beds in her room and was keen on having Lola sleep on the top bunk, but Jeff and I nixed that idea very quickly because we would have spent the night on pins and needles listening for any ominous thuds emanating for Amelia's rooms.

We went through our regular bedtime routine of singing songs and dispensing lots of kisses before tucking our little dolls in for the night. I couldn't resist snapping a picture of them snuggled together on the bottom bunk.

The fact Amelia is already dozing off to sleep whilst Lola is wide awake should have signaled to me that things were about to take a turn.

Within seconds of snapping this picture and closing the door, Lola decided sleeping with her sister was completely overrated and she was having none of it. Because Rip Van Winkle would have been roused from sleep by the fit Lola was pitching, Amelia was awake within seconds and did her best to calm her little sister.

Lola was bound and determined to escape from this sleeping arrangement and was very relieved when her daddy entered the room to rescue her from this bad decision. She calmed down very quickly after Jeff deposited her in her crib and reassured her she didn't have to sleep anywhere else.

Amelia's dream of sleeping in the same room as her sister was still fulfilled, though, just not in the manner she'd planned. Jeff allowed her to sleep on a twin bed we have set up for us in Lola's room for those times when she wakes up in the middle of the night and wants someone to sleep in her room. (Don't judge. It's easier than getting her into the habit of sleeping in our bed - something which Jeff just cannot tolerate. He's barely able to sleep with me. He swears his dream is to have two twin beds like Lucy and Ricky on "I Love Lucy.")

Anyway, both girls slept like angels after moving to Lola's room and declared the next morning they wanted to do it again sometime, which is fine with us. However, Amelia voiced she'd still like for Lola to sleep in her room sometime. I explained to her as gently as I could that she is just going to have to understand that her baby sister will be calling the shots when it comes to any future sleeping arrangements because after this experiment failed so thoroughly, I know Lola's not even going to entertain the idea of sleeping in Amelia's room anytime soon.

I thought Amelia would have been all kinds of disappointed, but she wasn't. Instead, she announced she's determined to convince Lola it will be fun to sleep on the bunk bed in her room. I told her it couldn't hurt to try, but in my mind I was thinking "NEVER going to happen." I'll eat those words if Amelia somehow gets Lola to give in to her wishes, but I don't foresee that happening.

Betcha' can't look at these photos without giggling

My little water babies

The recent surge in temperatures here in Alabama is the impetus behind Jeff undertaking a bit early this year the annual ritual of putting up the swimming pool. He pulled it from its hidey-hole under the house last week after which he patched a few spots and conducted a thorough inspection of all its parts.

Amelia and Lola must has a sixth sense as to when the pool comes out of storage because they were both buzzing with anticipation even though Jeff hadn't made much mention of his plans to get the pool ready. Each girl made a beeline to their respective bedrooms in order to change into their bathing suits. However, before changing into her swimming attire, Lola wanted to make sure her pool gear was in working order.

I think the dress adds a little something special to this ensemble. Don't you?

After Jeff finally got the pool ready to go, which, if you ask the girls took FOR-EVAH, Amelia and Lola wasted no time jumping into the rather cool water. They didn't care how cool the water was, though, and spent close to two hours splashing around.

Amelia swims with such confidence now that one would never guess she used to be terrified of the water.

Lola, we think, must be part fish because this child has loved the water since she was a tiny baby.

Jeff will let anyone who asks know that it was too cold for him. He didn't get in the pool by choice but rather necessity since we discovered after it was nearly full that there were four leaks that needed to be patched thus requiring him to don his trunks and dive in. Trust me, he wasted no time in getting out after his job was done.

The girls have swum every day since Jeff put the pool up so I am going to go out on a limb here and guess that the better part of our summer will be spent doing much of the same. Now, if I can just get a swing with a canopy to post beside the pool for those times we don't want to be in the water, our set-up will be complete.

I'd like to thank my bosses ,,,

... for providing me with the most rewarding job I've ever had. I am constantly being challenged to be a better employee and hone my skills in an ever-changing work environment while simultaneously keeping abreast of new requirements that will be coming my way.

I am lucky to be able to do the job I've dreamed about having since I was a little girl, and I am even more blessed to be able to work for such fine, albeit often demanding and short-tempered, employers. On Mother's Day and every other day of the year I am grateful for the fulfilling job I have been given and I look forward to many more years in this position.

Now, if we could just schedule some time to talk about my salary?

Short and sweet

My opinions may be unpopular, but I am entitled to them thus the beauty of living in this country and being able to blog about my opinions.

We weathered the weather

Last week brought record-breaking, once-in-a-generation storms to our home state of Alabama. People are suffering mightily after tornadoes tore their homes, schools and businesses apart. It's a sad, sad situation that will take months and millions of dollars to recover from.

Thankfully, we were spared any damage. Although I don't know how we weren't affected since Mother Nature brought down her wrath less than five miles from our home. Lola and I took a sight-seeing ride in the van on Thursday and were shocked, jaw-droppingly shocked, I tell you, to find just how close the storms came to our home. We are blessed and thankful to have been passed over in this round of storms - especially since were suffered damage last year from a minor tornado that decided to visit our address.

Because the nuclear plant that supplies electricity to most of this area was unable to do its job after the storms, we as well as hundreds of thousands of other Alabamians were without electricity for days. The first 24 hours without power were somewhat miserable - mostly because I spent a good portion of that time in search of a gas station that could actually provide fuel and anywhere that had ice for sale. I scored a fill-up for my van about 15 miles from home, but couldn't find ice after driving for more than 30 miles. Thankfully, Jeff's bosses at his office allowed him to fill up a cooler from their break room.

Once we had ice and fuel as well as a supply of flashlights and kerosene lanterns, we - for the most part - were good to go. I settled in to read "Freedom" by Jonathan Franzen, which I'd been holding back from reading until I had plenty of time to tackle this hefty tome that turned out to be quite the page-turner. Jeff, ever the restless soul, had a little more trouble adjusting, but found comfort in listening to the local radio station provide coverage of the aftermath.

The girls handled the outage rather well, I must say. Lola had quite a bit of trouble I think because she was confused and upset by being out of her routine. It also didn't help that she had a smidge of a stomach bug during this whole ordeal that caused her to feel less-than-chipper, shall we say. At first, she had a really hard time understanding why she couldn't watch television, but came to accept, if not fully grasp, that it wasn't going to happen no matter how much she asked. Amelia managed to occupy herself really well, but  also missed getting to tune in to the latest offerings on Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon.

However, thanks to the wonder of batteries, my little ladies were able to play with the Leapster Amelia received a couple of years ago as well as other gadgets that kept them entertained enough to not miss television too much. Lola, as shown in this photo, also indulged her love for dressing up by playing in her Minnie Mouse costume from Halloween.

Our most trying time during these days without power was at night when bedtime rolled around. Lola refused to sleep in her crib, and Amelia would only sleep in her room if Jeff or I slept with her - so we spent our nights without lights sleeping where the girls felt most comfortable.

Lola and I ended up on the couch one night while Jeff and Amelia took over our king size bed. Another night, Lola and I slept in the big bed while Jeff and Amelia snoozed in her bunk beds. The rest of the time Jeff stayed on the bottom bunk in Amelia's room while the girls slept with me in the master bed. While not our preferred sleeping arrangements, this worked for us and kept everyone feeling safe and snug.

By Friday we had procured a generator from our dear friend Mark that allowed us to power our refrigerator, a few lamps, our laptops and the television and DVD player. We felt like we were living the high life! Additionally, one of Jeff's coworkers loaned us a propane camp stove and battery-powered lanterns - all of which were very appreciated (especially the lanterns which we used to shed some light in the bathrooms for those trips in the dark).

Our power was restored late Saturday night and by Sunday morning our cable, Internet and phone service was also up and running. While I was immensely happy to have our electricity back on and thrilled to be able to again use our washing machine since, let's face it, washing clothes in the sink just doesn't leave them feeling spring fresh; I know we could have managed without power for many more days if we'd had to.

I am honestly so proud that through this trying, but ultimately livable, time, Jeff and I were able to pull together to make the best of this bad situation and were able to show our girls that together we can weather any adversity that comes our way.

It was truly very empowering to be able to stay in our home during such a trying time rather than seek creature comforts by taking a mini-vacation at a hotel or condominium in a city or town that had not been affected by the storms. I know many people chose to do just that, but for us this wasn't something we could have considered because (a) we couldn't have afforded such a luxury had the option actually crossed our minds, (b) I would have felt guilty taking off to a hotel or condo when so many others literally didn't have a home to go to, and (c) we think doing so would have set a bad example for our children.

I hope that when Amelia and Lola look back upon this time they will remember that we stayed together and stuck it out. We may not have been comfortable, but we had all we needed. We faced adversity head-on and came through, I think, stronger and closer and with the knowledge that Amelia and Lola have seen first-hand that we don't run when times get tough, but stay put and weather whatever comes our way.