No time for a title

This is a post to make myself feel better about, well, myself so that I can say I've blogged this month.  It's driving me crazy that I haven't written in awhile.  I've had so many good ideas to blog about and I haven't done any of them!  I promise I'll catch you up sometime soon.  My problem is that when I DO have time to sit down and write, I want to write about 5 different blogs, enough for a whole week!  I know nobody wants to read 5 at a time, but as far as I know, there's no way to write a post and set this thing to post at a certain date.  Is there?  I admit, I'm probably the least knowledgeable person about blogs and how to operate them.  Anyways, that's my post.  It is what it is.  :-)

Back to Reality

A couple weeks ago, things were abruptly put into perspective for me.  WARNING:  This will be a pretty somber post.  Stop reading if you are looking for something funny.

The first week of school is always CRAZY.  This year, things got busy right after I got back from our National Sales Meeting and I felt like I was working non-stop earlier than normal.  I had no idea how crazy it would get.  The Friday before classes started at Baylor, I found out that a custom book we had done for them was the wrong edition.  This was a huge deal.  It was so bad.  I was busy dealing with that and trying to make it to a training at BU in the morning and then heading to Temple for another training when my sister kept calling me.  I couldn't answer because I was with customers and then some other things came up so it was a couple hours later before I called her back.  What she had to say snapped me back to reality quicker than I could imagine....

One of her friends from high school, Maggie Moreau Meers, had been driving her little girl Avery, 6, to her friend's house which was about a mile away.  She also had her 3-year old son, Callan, in the car with her.  Apparently, she hit something in the road that caused her to lose control of the Tahoe she was driving and when she overcorrected, the car flipped and then hit a tree.  All three of them were ejected from the car.  Maggie was able to call 911 and the friend whose house they were on their way to.  All three were alive when the first responders arrived but little Callan didn't make it.  He passed away before the ambulance could get him to the hospital.  Avery escaped with a broken collar bone and Maggie suffered several broken bones and almost had to have surgery.  She found out about her baby boy when they realized she wouldn't have to have surgery.  Can you imagine?  You're taking your kids to play at a friend's house and then all of a sudden your life is turned completely upside down.  It makes my heart hurt to just think about it.  Avery and Callan were absolutely everything to Maggie. She was a wonderful mom and you can see the happiness in their faces on her Facebook page's pictures. 

As you can imagine, I immediately dropped what I was doing and went to pick up Robert Alan.  I just needed him in my arms.  My mom and Brittney headed to Abilene to be with Maggie, her husband, Bryan, and the rest of their families. 

Maggie and the family have been so strong.  I cannot imagine the heartbreak and the loss.  Apparently, her husband has been very understanding and they are strong in their faith, so they are calling on the Lord to help them through this.  If you're interested, you can see Callan's obituary and information on where to contribute here. 

The Meers family will be living with Maggie's parents for awhile until they have time to process what has happened and are ready to go back to the house where they all used to live.  Can you imagine?  I'd never be able to walk back into his room again.  It's such a sobering event that reminds you how quickly everything can be taken away.  I think my mom may have explained how to deal with it best.  She said, "When this happened to a lady I knew when you were about 2 years old, I just realized that you ultimately aren't mine, you are God's.  I am just here to take care of you for Him and to do the best I can.  When God is ready, you'll go back to be with Him."  There's not much comfort in this, but it helped me to realize that Callan is definitely in a happier place.  He'll get to experience life in Heaven!

My prayer to the Meers-Moreau family:

Dear Lord,

Please wrap your loving arms around the Meers family.  Please be with Avery as she struggles to heal from her wounds and learns to live life without her little brother.  Please help her to remember all the good times they had in the few years they were together.  May she always have fond memories of her brother and may she live a long, happy life and bring joy to him.

God please be with Maggie and she struggles through this situation.  Please heal her neck, her back, her legs and all her physical wounds.  Please do not allow the enemy to allow her to place any sort of blame on herself.  It could have happened to anyone.  God please help her to see the sunshine each day at some point during the day.  Please allow her to enjoy Avery's smile and continue to be a good mom to her daughter.  Please let her allow Bryan to love her through this.  Please wrap Maggie in her arms and let her feel Your warmth and love, peace and sovereignty. 

Lord God please be with Bryan as he tries to lead his family through this tragedy.  Thank you, God, for his strength and his love for Maggie, Avery, and Callan.  I pray that You will help him through this and give him the words and the actions to help Maggie and Avery through this.  Lord please help them to take the time to mourn.  To grieve.  To cry.  To hurt.  Please then allow them to see that there is tomorrow.  Please give them something to look forward to.  I pray that You will be with Bryan and Maggie's marriage and that they will cling to each other and to You throughout this process.  I pray that whatever counselors they may talk to will have the right words at the right time.

God please heal this family.

In Your name I pray,

Amen.

Ode to Blog Readers

Before I begin this, I must confess:
1.)  I was an English major
2.)  Although I remember explicating "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and "Song of Myself," I had to look up "what is an ode" on ask.com so that I could do this correctly.  I won't, though, because it takes too much effort.
3.)  The two glasses of wine I just had have affected me more than normal.  Thus, the lack of effort.

Here goes.....  :-)

Ahem.....

Ode to My Blog Readers

To those of you who read my blog

And kindly decide to comment,

You are much loved--more than a frog.

You don't make me want to vomit.

I know that there are only three or so

of you who read consistently.

Wait, I think there's only four people in all

who about my blog even know.

I appreciate every comment you see,

Because each one of them makes me feel tall...

(er, significant but it didn't fit in with the rhyme scheme)

To the one of you who doesn't feel fit

To comment on what you read,

Don't you worry, I won't throw a fit (sorry for the duplicate word)

I'll just mock your stalker-like deed.

In fact, a blog-stalker is how I will feel

about you as long as I'm aware

that you read this blog and don't feel it necessary

to let me know that you're indeed real.

It's okay, go ahead........if you dare.

I know it's because you're a scaredy...

(pants--again, doesn't fit the rhyme).

There you have it.  A TWO-STANZA, traditional English ode, ladies and gentleman.  (and I mean, the two ladies and one gentleman who are reading) :-)  I've decided that I love it when I get comments, and the only reason I wish everyone commented is because I'm curious as to how many actually are reading this silly thing......still......   :-)  Am I kidding myself?  The two that leave comments are probably the only two that read!  Bless their hearts.  Whatever.  I'm out.

My angel is a lot less sarcastic at this point than I am.

The Lake!

One of my favorite things to do when I was growing up was to go to the lake. If my parents had owned a lake house, I might likely have been known as a lake rat. I loved it. I loved to use my friends for their lake houses. :-) I think I was in college when my parents finally broke down and bought a couple Sea Doos. I used them as much as I could, even conning them into bringing them all the way to Tyler, TX, so that I could play on them one weekend when I was a summer camp counselor.

Robert Alan made his debut at the lake this weekend. Brittney's fiance, Clay, has a lake house at Lake Granbury and it is, well, AWESOME to say the least. It's actually his parents' house, but who's counting? Anyways, we've been wanting to go for awhile, but things always came up every weekend, so we finally made the trip. It was perfect. Only 1.5 hours from Waco and a very pretty drive at that. The house is beautiful, like nice enough to live in full-time. It has a pool, hot tub, outdoor kitchen, and dock with jet ski and boat. We didn't get on the boat or the jet ski, Clay and Nick did, but RA and I had plenty of fun in the pool looking at the lake. He was wonderful during the trip. There were no interruptions in his sleeping patterns (by the way, does anyone else's kid wake up at 5:00 a.m. every morning, talk to themselves, and then go back to sleep around 6:00 until around 7:00? Just wondering because mine does. I have a feeling it's not normal. It's also probably not normal that I ignore him during that time and continue to sleep as best I can....but I digress.) He ate well, even though we didn't have a high chair. In fact, we successfully managed to use his Bumbo finally. Remember when his thighs got caught in it several months ago and he was very unhappy sitting in it? Well, those days are long gone. I think he actually enjoyed sitting in it. He had more freedom to try to grab everything around him than he does in his high chair.

RA also made his first trip to Wally World over the weekend. David and I didn't want him to wake everyone else up in the house when he got up in the morning, so we decided to go buy a cheap, smaller stroller so that we could walk him around the neighborhood for a little while. I have the best stroller ever at home, but it's not really the kind that you would keep in your car and take to the mall with you, although I have a couple times, so I thought it would be good to go ahead and get one and keep it in the car. Well, our little jaunt to Wal Mart lasted over 45 minutes as we had to buy David some shirts (he left his hanging in our room in Waco because I was rushing him out the door too quickly he said), and then we found some Rangers gear for RA which, of course, we had to buy. Well, needless to say, we bought the stroller, but by the time we got home, people were up and ready to play, so it never escaped the box it came in. Oh well. At least we have one for next time.

While I'm on the subject of Wal Mart, might I say that I can't stand the place? Nothing seems to be where it would logically go, and the clientelle are less than desirable. I almost got into an argument with a lady there, and I was in a particularly good mood that day, so it took a lot to irritate me. Here's the scoop: David found a Rangers shirt that he wanted for himself, to match RA, of course, and he needed me to find him an XL. As I was going through the shirts, all I could find were XXL and 3XL, so I'm going deeper and deeper into this cavern of shirts. Meanwhile, this lady and her two teenage daughters (I'm guessing) walk up to the row of shirts next to me. They don't find what they want there, so they proceed to start looking at the row of shirts that I'm looking at. I quickly find myself pinned in by 3 women who obviously have never heard of the concept of wait your turn, don't push others, and chill out about the Wal Mart t-shirts! I couldn't believe it! I backed out as best I could and said, under my breath but as loudly as I could under my breath, "Excuse us!" David freaked out. "Maybe there are some over here, dear!" he exclaimed as he walked to the other side of the grid so that we could get out of sight and earshot of the 3 little piggies. "Traci," he said. "Calm DOWN!" "David," I said. "Can you believe what they just did?!" "Traci, it's Wal Mart," said my every-so-calm-and-rational husband. "Consider the source and chill out." "Oh yeah. Wal Mart, land of the dilinquent shoppers who don't know how to act in public," I thought to myself as I slowly stopped the steam from shooting out my ears. In the end, the heffers left, David found an XL shirt, and we went on our merry way, but if that happens to me again next time I'm in Wal Mart (and there's a reason why RA has never been there before--I avoid it at all costs), well, you can imagine what I'll do. :-)

So, enough about Wal Mart---back to the lake. I got really excited on our ride home thinking about how RA and his cousins are going to grow up together going to the lake all the time. I can't wait to put them on the banana and pull them behind the boat, although I believe he'll have to wait until he's 14 and mom feels comfortable with him being on such a dangerous thing. I don't think I'll even want him on a boat until he's 5 or so.....okay, maybe 3. :-) I am excited about the experiences they'll have and the stories they'll tell as they grow up and have fond family memories of the lake. I have those same memories, and I am so happy to have the chance to provide that for my son. Below are some pics that Aunt B took this weekend....

"Good morning, Everybody!  Let's play!"

Trying really hard to get to the dog outside.

"Hey Mom!  Can you come help me?"

Maybe I can slide this door open...

If I could just get through this glass, I could kiss that thing on the other side!

Dad sleeping.  Not abnormal.

My kid does not know how to smile for the camera.

There is way too much stuff to do at the lake.  We had a hard time focusing on the bottle.

Aunt B made me model the Big Red Hat.

I found my belly button.  It's so cool.

Hanging out with Funcle Nick in the big boy rocking chair.

Finally!  Smiling at the camera in the outdoor kitchen.

 

"Wow, Dad!  That's a big bathtub!"