Sunday, March 31, 2013

Easter Blessings

Do not be afraid,
For I know you are looking for Jesus,
Who was crucified.
He is not here;
He has risen, just as He said.

Matthew 28: 5-6



image via

Friday, March 29, 2013

Megan's Getting Hitched

In just a few months, on June 8th to be exact, my only niece will be getting married.  For several years, before Ren came along and ruined everything for her, Megan seemed as much like John's and my daughter as she did her own parents.   Nieces and nephews aren often the best kinds of kids to have around.  You can dote on them, spoil them rotten and then send them back home. 


When Megan was born I had already twice been made an aunt - each time to a boy.  Shane, my first nephew, was only eighteen months or so younger than me so he felt more like a brother.  And we could sure fight like siblings, too, at times.  Then Jonathan came along when I was seven.  Now, he also felt like a brother, but there was enough of an age difference that I really babied him...even when he was older (which, I'm sure, could be kinda embarrassing at times).

I was almost eighteen when Megan was born and ohhhhh how I was so happy she was a girl!  She pretty much ruled the roost and lived a little life of bliss as the only granddaughter and niece for seven years...until one day in September of '95, when a new girl came to town.  Ren. 

Things were pretty dark for Megan those first few weeks and she even contemplated running away from home (at least as far as the outside storage building).  None of us will ever forget her little seven-year-old self stomping into the living room, where we had all gathered to oooh and ahhh over the newest member of the family, and blurting out I've got my phone and some clean panties and I'm going to the building!!!

Well, despite their rocky beginning as cousins, they've grown pretty fond of each other over the years and Megan even asked Ren to stand with her as the maid of honor on her special day.


What is it they say...cousins are friends that will love you forever.  Of course, they also say God made us cousins because he knew one mom couldn't handle us as sisters.  Both are applicable in this case.


Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Time Well Spent

When I picked John-Heath up from school this past Friday the first thing he did was explain to me how he was going home to pack and that I would not see him for a whole week. We are out of school this week for spring break and my son had travel plans. His break was going to be spent at my parents’ house (mind you, we only live about fifteen minutes up the road and see each other at least a couple times a week).  As I began to explain all the reasons why a whole week would be impossible, he was having none of it and cut me off. “Mom, you and dad have had me for seven whole years. You can let Ma-Ma and Pa Gene get to have me for a week!”

My dad is 81 and mom will turn 80 in June. They do well for their age but taking care of an energetic, attention-lacking, into everything, seven-year-old for a solid week would be a bit much. Heck, there are times the only way I handle it is to lock my bedroom door, run a hot tub of water and sit gazing out my window at the stars (or across the fields if I happen to give in to the idea of a bath in the middle of the day).

When Ren was young she stayed with them all the time. She still stays with them a lot. They also kept John-Heath a lot when he was a baby. But when he began walking they just weren’t as able to keep up with him as they had been Ren. Keep in mind, this is a boy for whom we have had to launch countless “search parties” when he has taken a notion to take a hike, go on patrol, or scout a good place for a fox hole in our backyard -which consists of roughly 150 acres of fields and woods- without telling a soul.

John-Heath stayed from Saturday afternoon until late yesterday morning when I sent John after him. After they returned, I called my mother to ask if she and my dad were catching up on their rest. She told me how much they enjoyed having him and how they were going to miss him - and about what all he had done during his visit, what she had cooked for him each day, how much he ate of everything, how he eats more than any kid she has seen in her life, how they watched ballgames together (it’s March, you know), how he’s so smart but she’s worried because he wouldn’t even play with one set of toys for very long before dragging out something different, how when she gave him his baths he loved how soft the baby powder felt and said I (me...Tyla) never use baby powder on him, and how Pa Gene let him look at his guns and he came bounding down the stairs with a shotgun pretending to be a soldier and scared her to death. Of course, it was unloaded. And my dad, I’m sure, got a tongue-lashing.

Then...as she began to tell me how she had recently washed his little baby cups, saucers and spoons up (she’s kept them in the cabinet all these years) and planned to put them in a drawer...she began to cry.

This past Halloween, John-Heath dressed up as a soldier -complete with dog tags and medals. He is wild about anything military and is adamant he will be a soldier when he grows up (John and I have told him the only way we’ll let him join is if he does well in school and we can get him accepted to West Point). My mother and dad were so tickled to see him in that costume. My mother has said so many times since then that she was glad he dressed as that because, even though she won’t live to see him become a real soldier, she knows how he’ll look when he does become one.

Life is but a vapor and even eighty or ninety years seems too few and leaves you wishing you had more.

Ren and John-Heath with my parents - Dec. 2010

There are a lot of options out there for people on spring break, but I don’t think any could have been better spent than the three days my son took a trip down the road and stayed with my parents. I know they will always remember it and I hope he does, too. I’m pretty sure he will.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

And there, in My Latest Copy of Southern Living,...

So, the other day John was thumbing through my latest copy of Southern Living and came across this...


Notice anything?  Take a closer look...



Yep.  That would be a picture of Ren and some other queens riding on a float in the Middle Tennessee Strawberry Festival parade.  The picture is actually from 2011 when she won the teen title.

If you live in Tennessee you'll find her on page TN13. Alas, if you live elsewhere in the South, your middle pages are probably different.  And while Ren's brief moment of "fame" may not have covered much territory, it was still pretty cool to see.  



P.S.  We are all off on spring break this week.  Look at what a beautiful spring day we awoke to find this morning...


Jealous?


So much for mowing the yard this week.

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Springing Forward...



...also known as "my least favorite weekend of the entire year".  Ughhh!  Wanna take a guess at who'll be late for church tomorrow?  Oh, wait. I'm always a little late for church...and work...and family get-togethers...and meeting friends for dinner...and....

Monday, March 4, 2013

On Being Buck Naked and Dead

My sweet-as-a-pumpkin-pie-with-extra-cool-whip-on-top son made a couple humorous observations this past week and I just know if I don't write them down I'll be asking John in a few months...Now what was it John-Heath said that time that we thought was so funny...  

He's seven and, as such, is prone to the following vein of thought. So, keep that in mind and don't be too priggish when reading (especially the last one). 

Observation #1:
One evening while riding with his dad past a cemetery John-Heath noticed the lights on in the mausoleum and asked John about it.

John-Heath: Why are those lights on inside that place?

John: I'm not sure. Maybe in case someone wants to visit and read.

John-Heath: Read??? What are they going to be reading. They're dead!!!


Observation #2:
One morning while sitting buck naked on John's and my bed practicing the art of procrastination - aka "dressing for school" - he picks up my small magnifying mirror. Holding various items to the mirror (make-up brushes, tweezers, mascara bottle, etc.) he marvels at how big each one now appears. I didn't have to be a genius to know what was coming next...yep...you guessed it...and it was followed by this proclamation... "Hey, mom! When I hold this mirror to my private parts it looks just like a pink torpedo!".





Friday, March 1, 2013

Ren's "Beauty Mark" (and Why We Chose to Remove It)


Ren
10 months old

After this past Wednesday's post, someone remarked to me they had forgotten that Ren once had a birthmark on her face.  We are not particularly easy to offend and questions and comments about this have never bothered us.  Well, let me qualify that just a bit...when Ren was a baby John was fine with comments and/or questions by friends and acquaintances, but he was extremely...sensitive, shall we say, when it came to stares or too many questions from strangers.  He got quite angry once when someone in a store asked him in an accusing tone if he had "burned that baby".

As you can see in the above picture, Ren had a congenital pigmented nevus on the right side of her face.  When she was born it was actually reddish in color and the doctors thought it was likely a portwine stain.  Soon, though, clearly turning dark brown, we were told it would possibly become what is called a "hairy nevus".  It did.


Looking straight at Ren you wouldn't know she had a birthmark. 


Birthmarks are very common. Most of us have at least one somewhere on our body and never think twice about it. Having a large one on your face is another story. Our reasoning was very simple...kids can be cruel and school/life is hard enough without supplying people with added ammunition. So, over the course of a little less than two years and three surgeries, we chose to have Ren's removed.

Luckily, in the years before her surgeries Ren was not the least bit bothered by her birthmark. On the first day of kindergarten she was asked by another little boy in the class if she had chocolate milk on her face and she proudly told him that it was, in fact, her "beauty mark." It was good to know that Ren was self-confident but, again, kids can be cruel (even when they don't mean to be) and John and I saw no need to have hers needlessly tested over and over again.


After the frst surgery. 
It would take two more to completely remove it.

We were able to select Dr. George Yarbro, a plastic surgeon out of Nashville who had privileges at our local hospital.  He was just fabulous!  He was so gentle and kind and Ren loved him.  Going in, John and I thought it would only require one surgery but Dr. Yarbro told us if he took too much at one time the scar would be worse than the birthmark.  So, three it was.


After the second surgery.  Eating the prerequisite popsicle.


Her first surgery began shortly after she started kindergarten and the third one was done during the first grade.


You can see just a bit of her scar in this pic.


And, if you look hard enough, you might see it in this one.  Or you might not.

Today, if she is wearing no makeup and has her hair pulled back in a ponytail, you can see a faint line down the right side of her face, which is more easily visible after she's worked out and is hot and sweaty.  Every now and then someone will ask her about it.  Ever a drama queen an actress, her two favorite go-to stories are as follows:

1.  Once, she and her best friend Lexie C. got into this huge fight and Lexie took a knife and slashed her.

and

2.  (after pretending for a moment that it conjures up bad memories and she would rather not talk about it) She and I were shopping at Wal-Mart once when she was little and this crazy person (just like those you sometimes see on peopleofwalmart.com) attacked us. 

She assures me she always comes clean and tells them the truth...

...but only after seeing them get really remorseful for "bringing up such painful memories."



Have a great weekend!  It's cold and cloudy here and we may get snow...which figures...seeing as how it's the weekend.