Brevin at Percy Priest Lake

This is Brevin at Percy Priest Lake, he and I went last weekend just the two of us, it was a great afternoon. He is all boy, give him some water, rocks and a stick and he is happy as can be. So it was a great time. After we had our picnic lunch and hiked around the lake, climbed on rocks for a few hours, then watched some people flying kites. We got in the car and drove over to the Dam, I thought he would like to see it. So I have driven past this Dam many many times, but I have never parked and walked over to see it. So it seems that this is a very popular thing to do as the parking lot was packed, so we walked down the stairs where there is a cement walkway where you can stand and there were people taking pictures, fishing, kids running up and down the stairs, just lots of activity. So Brevin and I are walking around he is picking up rocks and throwing them into the water one of his favorite things no matter where we are, and I really do think he has an amazing arm and great accuracy for a three year old. So after wandering near the water we head back towards the parking area, to a higher elevation but still we can see the dam and we are just standing there looking and all the sudden Brevin heaves a rock he still had in his hand, the same rock he had tried to feed to someones dog moments ago, they didn't seem to mind though, but now we are not near the water and there are people standing between us and the water. As soon as the rock left his hand I had that panicked feeling THIS CAN'T end well, in slow motion I can see the rock flying through the air directly dead center towards the back of a woman's head, her beautiful family all around her, so by some miracle her husband turns slightly and sees the rock coming and just raises his hand and catches the rock the moment before it makes contact with her head. So all I can do is say I am so so sorry.........they were very nice about it, but still I felt terrible..................so I apologized profusely and we left........
You can never know what to expect when have children!!!!

Fear of English

I must confess the one class in school that my parents did send me to a tutor for was English (I don't think I learned a thing, I think it was one of those things where they taught me how to pass the test). I have never really had a very good grasp of the English language. I know I speak it every day, but putting it down in type is a totally different thing. I have been told I should write a book a dozen different times in my life, and honestly I would really like to but I am afraid of the judgement.
I come from this amazing family where everyone has attended college except ME!!!
Just one more reason "I will never be my mother", she is so smart she went to college and became a nurse. So my point is..............if you want to read my blog, read but please don't judge..........I know that the grammar may be poor, but hey this is me, and at this point in my life, IT AIN'T goin' to change or I Choose not to change.....

Family traditions...

Those family traditions that you create. Sometimes don't turn out exactly the way you plan or would hope....no matter what I am grateful for any day that I can spend time with my children.
Running out of time to get to the pumpkin patch as Halloween is just around the corner, and if we don't go this weekend we won't get to go at all, because our schedules don't permit us to fit any outing in during the week, Cailey has football practice every day after school (she is a football manager). So after church today we get in the car and head to the pumpkin patch............OH MY GOSH, has every parent in Smyrna waited 'til today to go to the pumpkin patch....my memories of previous visits were so happy as we stroll through and take our time, enjoying seeing the baby animals, feeding the goats, the girls taking pictures in the sunflower patch, Brevin searching for his little pumpkin, going through the hay maze, corn maze, lots of great photo ops.......today just was not that day.........
Cailey did not want to be at the pumpkin patch, Alex came I think because she knows how much those little family traditions mean to me, even though this would only be the 4th year we have been, still a tradition. And Brevin was a wild man, he gets really excited in crowds, and today there was a crowd....hundreds of people trying to create those beautiful memories of their children at the pumpkin patch. I think for me the best moment was when Brevin spotted a basketball hoop and attempted to heave the pumpkin over his head towards the hoop....who could blam him, the thing is round and orange and isn't that what we throw into the hoop.....he's a genius I have known it and still know it.....
So we did not spend the time we normally would, it was chaotic and loud, and so we decided I could bring Brevin during the week when it was more peaceful...maybe I will have to adjust my traditions...Cailey is a teenager as this is not her idea of fun anymore....So it may just be Brevin and I going to the Pumpkin Patch next year...a new family tradition, but still a tradition, and how I love them.....where might I have gotten that from??? I'll never be my mother!!!

The joys of life unexpected!

If only life really worked out the way that we planned when we were little girls.....I did have those dreams of the beautiful wedding, handsome husband and a cute little house (no white picket fence) .......when I was conjuring pictures of what my life would be, all that I knew for absolute was that I wanted to be a mom.
I thought that being a mom must be the best thing in the world, because I saw my mother day in and day out being a fantastic wife and mother, and she always seemed to me as happy and contented, what more could you want in life.
To me she was so perfect always put together, could get us all off to school with a packed lunch, have my dad's white shirts ironed, all the beds made. When we came home, the house was in perfect order, all the laundry done, and somehow my brothers and I had dance lessons, music lessons, skating lessons, played sports and dinner on the table ( I now know there was some trick she has yet to share with me, because there is no way to do all of the things my mother did in one day and still look perfect) and a snack ready for us. Of course as I grew older my view of this position in life changed and I thought continually "I'll never be my mother" she was horrible, the rules, oh my gosh the rules.......I will never have so many rules for my children!!!
That is when I became what I now consider my mothers nightmare........that story for another day.....
I had one miscarriage, one adoption, one set of twins by C-section, and two natural births = five fabulous children that are the passion of my life.......and I now know that "I'll never be my mother" there is no way I could ever do the fantastic job that she did, I can only aspire to it.