Life According To Sallie

Take a glance at this article and then let me know if it alarms you or if it is right up your alley. I will be back later to comment…..but right now the nasty bathroom upstairs is screaming at me……

be back soon…..

I have LOTS to say!

To try to please me……..
waa waa waa……
I like you just the way you are……
ooooooooooooo………….

anybody singing the song in their head yet?

Why must everything change? I mean everything around me is changing.

The seasons are changing and I love this change - this is probably the only change right now in my life that I like.

First Facebook - you went and changed on me. I have adapted to your new ways - but I am not at all happy with the new you. I liked you just the way you were!

Then Twitter - not you - you were the same as the first day you appeared on the scene. Why must you feel the need to update. Although I must say - I have loved your change. It has been great for me. You have served me well.

Then the one constant in my cyber world - iGoogle - what? Not you too! I had you just the way I liked you then Saturday when I click on my homepage - much to my dismay you had changed. You were no where near the old self. I do not like you - I do not like the feeder - I want the old you back. (Oh if you only knew!) Please give me the option to see the old you - to see the iGoogle that I love! Please come back to me - the way you once were!

I need constant in my life. I need things to be the way they were. I don’t need change - I need things to be just the way they always have been - except for the seasons - I LOVE THE FALL SEASON CHANGE - bring on the pretty leaves and cool breezes!

Don’t go changing…….to try to please me……………

I have been and I know it. The past two weeks have just been a little much for me both at home and work.

However, today is a holiday for my workplace. I plan on eating lunch with H and then enjoying the rest of the day. Matter of fact I am typing this while still in my pjs and I haven’t had my shower yet. I am truly a slacker.

I hope to get some post done today that I will get ready to publish this week. Thanks for checking back with me and I am sorry for being such a slacker. Sometimes life is just like that!

Seven years ago the sweetest bundle of joy entered into my life. If you would have told me the adventure we would be going on - I would have never believed you! You never disappoint. You are always willing and you are a true gift from God.

Miss B - you are truly a beautiful young lady inside and out. You are compassionate and loving. You are adventurous (sometimes a little too much) and you always are concerned about the next person. I watch you give to your brother and to your friends. You don’t ever want anyone to be without. I love that about you. As a parent, I was paid the highest compliment by your first grade teacher. She said, “Miss B is a leader, a great leader. Not a bossy leader. She is very concerned about her classmates and she is compassionate in her leading.” My prayer is that you always are a leader, in a positive and good way. And that you never cease to be compassionate in your leading. May you always seek God in what you do and chase after Him every day! I love you Miss B - you are my Angel Bug and my joy!

In honor of your seventh birthday - here are seven random things about you to share with the world:

1 - You secretly desire for a horse to live in our backyard. You want us to buy the “barn” at Home Depot (aka - storage shed that looks like a barn) and you think all we need is a small fence to keep it in. I hope one day you will have your own horse on a big farm!

2 - You love tomatoes more than anyone else I know. If I would let you - you would eat it like an apple. Anyone else know a kid who has taken tomato slices as a snack for school?

3 - You have kept your room clean for the last 3 weeks. This is huge in the book of records for the Lawrence household. Now if that would just spill over to the playroom.

4 - You are a fantabulous reader! Oh my goodness - the words have filled your head and you love to read them on the pages and then talk about it. I am in love with your passion for learning. The best part - you love to read your Bible to me. And I love to listen.

5 - Your kindegarten teacher once remarked that if she were absent, she really thinks you could handle the class by yourself. I think this is very true. The first time you had a sub, you came home and told me that you had to tell the sub what to do. “That she was doing everything the wrong way and had forgotten to send some things to the office that needed to be turned in.” That’s when we had to talk about she is the adult and you are the child and you need to let her be in charge - however I am quite sure the class would have run quite nicely with just you in charge.

6 - When you grow up you want to be a veterinarian or nurse. Both roles I see you doing very well. That compassionate leadership you have will be needed in either one of these careers. You go for it and tackle your dreams!

7 - You have the BEST LAUGH EVER!!!! You get yourself tickled at dinner and then everyone else starts laughing just because of your laugh - you are contagious. You throw your head back and your laugh comes straight from your belly. You close your eyes and just giggle until you can’t giggle anymore. When I have had a horrible day - nothing makes the worries of the world go away - quite like the laugh of Miss B. Laughter truly is the best medicine.

I love you Sweet Girl - never change - remain who you are always and you will go wherever you desire in life!

So we are on the way to dinner yesterday before church and Little Man informs me that “Jane” had given him a note at school yesterday. Oh course when he said her name, he was smiling. I asked the content of the note and he told me he couldn’t tell me. That’s when I gave Mommy Speech #106 that states, we don’t keep secrets from Mommy and Daddy. We always tell them everything - no matter if it’s good or bad, No secrets in our house.

He said he didn’t want to say out loud cause Miss B was in the car and then she would know. We agreed that when we got to the dinner place of choice that he would whisper it in my ear. So we got there, he jumped out of the car and ran to me. I leaned down, he whispered into my ear and I smiled at him. I said “really - she did” and he said “yeap she did”. He smiled and I smiled.

I think she got him - hook, line and sinker!

Not gonna give the details of the note, I promised I wouldn’t tell. I will tell you this - it involved Lego AND Star Wars!

Just yesterday, or at least it seems that way, I was holding this sweet baby girl in my arms in a hospital room. Anticipating the joy that was coming into my home in the form of Miss B.

Fast forward 6 years (7 in just 12 days)….I come home today, the phone rings, Miss B quickly answers it and smiles at the sound of the voice on the other end. I think - that’s sweet - her daddy is calling and she is loving hearing his voice over the phone. She starts talking and walks off. I say - “wait one minute chick - who is that?”

Miss B quickly informs me it is Katherine. Miss B informed me that she had called Katherine earlier and she was calling back. She walks off talking alot - ALOT and with her hands. I hear her talking about what she has done since she got home and about something at school - I couldn’t quite catch the whole conversation. Then she hangs up. I inquire - because inquiring minds want to know. Why in the world is she calling Katherine - I mean they are 6 years old for goodness sakes! She informed me that they just like to talk. Like I have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out - Miss B has words - lots of them and she’s not afraid to use them! A few minutes later, the phone rings again. It’s Katherine again. Apparently Katherine had to do something earlier and she was calling back to finish the oh so important phone call. They get all chatty again. THEY ARE SIX YEARS OLD PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!

It is blowing my mind that Miss B knows how to use the phone and calls Katherine apparently every afternoon from what I discovered over dinner (by the way - I have cooked two nights in a row). I mean - where is my sweet baby girl. I know the years go by quickly - but I am not prepared for how quickly.

I will put this out there - she gets her phone talking ability honestly from Fluffy (her grandfather) - love ya dad!!!! But we all know it’s true!!!!

On another unrelated note…..If you see Little Man and you mention “Jane’s” name (remember the names have been changed to protect the identity) he gets this big ol silly grin on his face. We tested it at dinner and everytime we said her name he smiled - I do believe he is smitten. Next time you see him - test it out and see for yourself. Ask me and I will share her real name with her so you can see that big smile come on his face and his eyes light up! It is precious! Maybe one day they will live in a house that Legos built!

Anyone who knows me or has read this blog for any length of time knows I hate mornings. I really do not like them. As I have stated before, 10:00 AM is a good time to start the day! I needed to establish that fact so that you will relate to my following story.

One night (early morning) last week - around 4:30 AM my sweet son came in my room, awoke me from a wonderful deep sleep to tell me this throat hurt. Being the good mom I am, I gave him a swig of Tylenol and sent him back to bed. As he walked out our door, he said “Mom, there is dog poop in the hall.” Great I thought - just what I needed to hear at 4:30 in the AM!

Pause in story, we have a new dog living with us, her name is Poop Queen - I mean Molly. She has anoited every room in our home since her arrival. Well not Little Man’s only because she can’t find a spot on the floor that isn’t covered in Legos. Since her arrival, our other dog who has lived poop free in our home for 12 years has joined in the bandwagon of leaving random deposits around the house. It has been a nightmare. You see, most of the time it happens at night - that would be the reason Dog 1 and Dog 2 are now permanant residents of the back porch!

Ok back to my story…..so being the good wife and not wanting the wrath of Ed to come down, I clean up the pile of mess left behind. I go back downstairs, get the carpet cleaner and come back up and scrub the floor. The time now is around 4:45 in the AM!!!!! I get everything cleaned up and crawl back in bed. I felt something on the side of my foot, it felt wet. I thought there is no way I got anything on my foot, maybe I rubbed up against something in the bathroom that was wet. I touch it - then I realize - I HAVE REMNANTS OF SAID PILE OF MESS ON MY FOOT! Great! So I get up and clean it off. I crawl back in bed, but the smell is still there! As I move my legs into sleeping position guess what - I rub across something wet. No stinking (ha ha - I said stinking!) way I think - but yes, there are more remnants there! I get up, jerk the covers back to find where I had spread the love across my sheets. I get a rag and start cleaning. Ed opens one eye and inquires to why I am frantically scrubbing our bed. I explain the WHOLE story to him. At this point I give up - I mean the smell is embedded in my nostril hairs at this point and is going no where!

I head for the laundry room, why you may ask. Well at this point I am awake - really awake. No going back in that bed for me until those sheets get changed and who wants to wake the sleeping husband up at 5:00 before his alarm goes off? So I figure laundry is the quietest activity I can participate in at this time, so laundry it is.

I successfully got 2 loads done that morning before heading to work……oh and did I mention, this was a morning I could have slept 30 minutes later because of a later time needing to be at work this day! But no, I was awake at 4:30 with a “I think I am sick child” and poop that continued to spread the love all throughout the house!

Good day!

Since Miss B’s unplanned outing she has been on a lockdown of sorts. She has been allowed to leave the house, but only when she has asked and received permission. She had very strict boundaries. Our sidewalk and our neighbor’s driveway. Not one step past either. She could go to our neighbor’s house - but only when she called to let us know that is where she is. It has worked. She has been very conscience of her boundaries. One day last week, the kids in the neighborhood were all our riding bikes. Miss B just stood in our yard and watched. It made me sad, but then I remember me standing in my yard crying and praying and looking desperate and I wasn’t sad for her any longer. Our comment to her was when we got tired of her not being able to go down the street, we would lift the ban. Well, I wasn’t tired yet. Not even close!

Yesterday, I was standing in the kitchen cleaning dishes. I have a window over the sink that I can see down the street. It is a great view of the neighborhood. I can see a lot from that vantage point. I watched as the kiddos were running down the street, bikes, scotters, jump ropes - they were having a blast. As soon as Miss B got to her boundary, she stopped dead in her tracks. Sat down. And waited for the friends to come back up the street. I was so proud of her. This time, it did make me sad. Everyone went on without her. She sat, picked up a leaf and started playing.

A few minutes later, Miss B and Little Man were back in the house. Ed came in from cutting the grass. He had observed the same thing I did. He said, “Miss B - we have been very proud of you. You have obeyed us and not gone outside of the boundaries that were set for you. You have not asked if you can go past them. You have done what we asked you to do. Because you have done this and been so very good, You are free. You may now play with your friends in the cul-de-sac. BUT remember, Mommy and I have to know where you are at ALL TIMES. You can not go in someone’s house without calling us first!”

I wish you could have seen the smile on her face. You would have thought that we had just given her the entire kingdom plus some. Well I guess we did. We are letting her out of her 50 feet of territory that she has been fixed to for the past three weeks. Let’s just hope we never have a repeat of the night of horror again.

I will say this - I was very proud of her - not once has she asked to be allowed to go past her boundaries. Her teacher told me that I apparently made a statement to her that night that has sunk into her. She was telling Mrs. C what happened and she said, “My mommy thought I was dead.” Mrs. C said that made quite an impression upon her. I hope so. I hope she always remembers my face from that night anytime she thinks about visiting a friend a half mile away again!

Next time, I will lock her in her room and she won’t ever see the outside again!

So tonight we are sitting around the dinner table having casual dinner conversation. For once it didn’t consist of, “Stop that”, “sit down”, “please eat your food” and the likes of that. While this pleasing to the ear conversation was taking place, Little Man out of the blue said, “I called a girl - guess who?”

I looked at Ed, Ed looked at Miss B and I looked back at Little Man.

“You did what?” “WHO”?

“Guess”

“I have no idea. Seriously - you called a girl?”

“yeap, guess who”

“Jane?”**

“Yeap - I did” with a big ol’ smile on his face!

“So what did y’all talk about?”

“Legos” (Now there’s a surprise. You must understand, Jane loves Legos about as much as Little Man does!)

Little Man informed us that Jane had just gotten a new Star Wars set and she wants to bring it over for him to see. He asked if she could come over this weekend. We told him we would try and make it work for him. (Big ol’ smile came across his face again!)

I asked him who answer the phone, he said, “Jane’s dad”.

Here’s how the conversation went:

ring ring ring
Dad: Hello
Little Man: This is Little Man, is Jane there.
Dad: AHHHH Little Man, just a moment I will get her.

I wish you could have seen his face when he was telling us this. You see, Little Man has had a little crush on this particular girl for some time. She is as tomboy as they come. Hates girlie stuff. Loves frogs, worms and all things Legos. Matter of fact, for her last birthday - we had to buy her a very special Lego set. He knows his woman. While I was trying to buy something girlie - he kept going for the Legos. When she opened it - she screamed. She L-O-V-E-D it!!!! He knew the way to her heart.

I am blown away that he called her. I am further more amazed that he told us! We will be interested to see where this is going to go!

Y’all he called a girl! What am I gonna do?????

**Jane’s real name as been edited to protect her identity. I don’t think she’d appreciate me blabbing her business to the world!

As the kids have gotten older, more activities have had to be scheduled on our family calendar. We have worked hard not to overbook ourselves or the kids. Matter of fact, we have elected to not participate in some events so that we wouldn’t have to be gone from the house every stinking night! As you read just recently, third grade is about to do me in and I don’t know that I could handle one more thing being served up on my plate. (Friday we have four tests AGAIN!)

We have been blessed that all of the kid’s activities fall on two nights of the week. Wednesdays are church night and then Thursday is our activities night. Miss B has gymnastics and Little Man has flag football practice. I usually take Miss B to gymnastics. I enjoy this for several reasons. One, it is a chance for me to catch up with two dear friends who are there with their girlies. Last year, this was a sweet time of fellowship for Jaime and I. We got to talk about life and all the good stuff and bad stuff that was happening in our worlds! Sometimes we wouldn’t even talk. We would just sit there in silence - it was great! This year we have added Shelli to our mom time. But you know the part I love most…..riding with Miss B there and back. Oh what a sweet time this is for us! She talks and talks and talks. No boys, just girls in the car and we talk about everything. I hear all about her day, her thoughts, what she has learned new at school, all the good details of her life. It is wonderful. I cherish this 40 minute round trip that we make once a week. No brother to interrupt us and give us the boy’s take on things.

Ed and I were talking about this the other night. He said he too LOVES his time with Hunter. They sit at the table for few minutes and study - getting Little Man ready for his tests the next day. (We can tell too! One week they missed this time and the Little Man didn’t do so well.) Then when they are in the car together, just the two of them - they have “boy talk”. Ed said it is amazing the thoughts that come out of Little Man’s mind! Ed said he truly cherishes this time alone with his son. They eat dinner together on these nights and Ed said it is so refreshing just to have the two of them at the table talking - no girls to interrupt. (You know us girls - we like to get our words out!)

These moments are fleeting. I often ask my Little Man if he will always sit in my lap and tell me about what’s going on his in life. He says he will. I want to always carve time out of my schedule for my children - some together time, some just girl time and some just mommy/son time. I want them to know I am listening and that I am concerned about what is going on in their life. And if it is important for me to know what “SoandSo” did at the lunch table - I have an ear to listen!

Oh moments - please don’t go so fast!