Want To Be Even More Proud of Your Own Daughter? Watch Miley Cyrus at the VMA's.

You know it has to be bad when your 17-year-old daughter describes a musical performance by someone only three years her senior as nasty. 

Ren's New Chapter

Thirteen years ago when Ren started kindergarten I hid in the kitchen of the cafeteria at her school to video her first school lunch. 

Friday Night Lights

Just a few random, football-related thoughts tonight...

John-Heath Gets Court-Martialed

Three of the things I love most about my son are his tenacity, strong-willed personality and adventurous spirit.  Three things about my son that drive me absolutely loony bin nuts which cause me grief are his tenacity, strong-willed personality and adventurous spirit. 

If you've followed along with me on this blogging experiment very long you'll recall that my husband, children and I live on my husband's small family farm (I get amused when I see 5 acre tracts of land for sale advertised as "plantation-like", "grand estates", "horse ranches", etc.  I'm sure people in Texas find that equally funny).  Anyway, the 150 acres or so on which we live is far from plantation-like or grand but it is a pretty awesome big back yard.  One sister-n-law keeps a few horses on it.  The other sister-n-law's husband keeps a hangar and a few planes on it.  We have no horses or planes but John and the kids love to go for walks (Ophidiophobe me not so much - "ophidiophobe" is the technical term for someone who would pee their/her/my pants should they/she/I see a snake). Of the farm, we are all quite blessed to have been left with such a gift.

My son, aka Captain Winters or Captain Speirs or "Buck" Compton or "Babe" Heffron or any one of the fantastic men of Easy Company from Band of Brothers he may be portraying at the moment, could name few places he'd rather be than somewhere out on this vast playground.  Many times, like yesterday, he is dressed in his medals-adorned camo and boots and is on patrol - no doubt on the lookout for Nazis.

My son's creative, adventurous, role-playing spirit is often at odds with his somewhat helicopter mother.  One hundred fifty acres is not huge by any stretch of the imagination but can seem massive when I am looking for 65 pounds wrapped in camouflage.

 

After making phone calls which went unanswered and searching high and low, we finally found him on the other side of the farm...a mere fifteen feet or so from the old highway.  Decked out in his army green, he was lying flat on his stomach, Nerf rifle in hand shooting down passing vehicles.

 

And so, because he advanced beyond the approved boundaries and failed to follow the orders of his superior officers (aka his dad and I) he has been court-martialed (aka grounded from playing in his uniform until Saturday).

P.S.  I really wish I had had a camera on me when we first spotted him.  Of course, these times I set out to look for my missing son, taking a camera is far from the first thing on my mind.

John-Heath's Room Update

                                                Remember the blue?
Okay, we're not quite ready for a complete room reveal here but I do have a picture (or two) of the new paint job in John-Heath's room.  As you probably guessed from the paint chips I showed you in a previous post, we're going with a camo theme.  Yep.  Another stolen idea.  One day -one day soon I hope - my little boy (a lover of all things military) will have a room very similar to this - my inspiration.  Mind you, our version of this room has only been about two years in the making.

                                                A new camo pattern

                                    with a splash of color on the chair rail

windows in need of some TLC...bring on the fabric

Now, the only thing left is to have his curtains made and pick out some new furniture.  Bless his heart he asks every time we head out to go shopping, "Are we going to get my new furniture?" Patience, grasshopper, patience.   

Lexie's Luncheon

 

 

This past Saturday, Ren, along with another friend Sydney, hosted a surprise baby luncheon for one of her very best gal pals, Lexie.  These girls have all known each other for what seems like forever.  They've spent many a night at my house over the years and have bookoodles of stories to tell between them (Ren will always remember the night she ruined her favorite pair of Buckle jeans falling in a ditch...while running from a dog...while out trying to roll a friend's house with Lexie).  Shortly, they will all go their separate ways as they head off into life. 

 

Ren, Lexie, Sydney, and Alexis

 

 

"Let me apologize beforehand, Lexie, in case

I stick you with the pin"

 

How many monkeys does it take to pin on a corsage?

 

 

Waiting on some yummy food at

 The Chocolate Covered Strawberry.

 

and cupcakes from Gigi's.

 

 

 Present time

 

The soon-to-be mommy with her mommy

 

 

I was really impressed with what a great job the girls did.  I think Ren probably worried the socks off the people at TCCS calling to confirm the reservations she had made, and reconfirming on one or two other occasions, but I am proud of how responsible she was about it all. 

 

This fun weekend was all about Lexie, though, with the luncheon on Saturday and a shower hosted by family on Sunday.  Come late September the real fun begins, and Ren and I can't wait to meet little Miss Adalynn.

Thanks to The Big Bang Theory...

..I knew what today's Google doodle meant and didn't even need to look it up.

Thank you, Sheldon!

image via Google.

Twenty-Five

Twenty-five years ago on this day, August 6 of the grand and glorious year 1988, my best friend met me at the front of a church (just as I had predicted four years earlier to another friend he would do).  He was in black, I was in white, and that friend to whom I had made my prediction stood on the other side of me with four others wearing peach taffeta.  My apologies, girls.

 

 

 

It has been a rip-roaring quarter of a century (sometimes quite literally) and I can think of no other person with whom I would want to share it.  My better half, my other self, the pater familias of my world. 

Here's to many more years, babe!  I love ya!

School Supplies Giveaway WINNER

 

Drum roll, please...

The winner of our little drawing for a bag of goodies to start this school year is Ms. Jean Carter (Ms. Jean, you can thank John for picking the card on which your name was written).  Give me a day or two and I'll get you your booty.  I know you've bought plenty of these items over the years.  Enjoy the freebies!!!

 

Today, my school system headed back to work...which meant the start of year 28 for John (and his 3rd as an assistant principal) and year 21 for me. 

 

It seems like just yesterday I was standing in the hall at my former elementary school with a few fellow teachers and we were all looking at our TCRS (Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System) statements.  These statements always list the years you've taught, the money you've saved toward retirement, etc.  They also list the year at which you can retire with full benefits (30 years).  I'll never forget what my friend Debbie, a 3rd grade co-worker who only had a few years to go before she was able to retire, said when she saw my statement..."If I had that many years to go I think I'd just shoot myself." 

I guess what they say is true...time flies when you're having fun.  Though there have been many "long days" over the years, it has been an awesome job and I feel blessed to have taught some wonderful students and to have worked with some fabulous people, including Debbie, who passed away this summer from her third courageous battle with cancer.  I was the baby on that team and what I learned from her, Susie and Wanda (plus so many others) cannot be learned from a book or a college class or professional development.  I salute you, one and all.

 

Today, was also the first day of third grade for my little man.  According to what he said just before I took the picture below, cool kids carry their backpacks on just one shoulder.

 

Here's to a cool year for us all!

 

P.S.  This first day back was just a little bittersweet, though.  It is the first year in many I have not been able to take a picture of my Ren on this day.  She didn't mind.  She thought sleeping in was so much better.

"'Twas the Night Before School"

In honor of the new school year upon us, I found this poem at Mostly Bright Ideas and thought you would enjoy it.  I sure thought it was funny.  Me thinketh the man writith the truth. 

" 'Twas the night before school starts, and all through the town,
Not a teacher was sleeping, just thrashing around.
Thoughts of the classroom brought a tear to each eye,
And all of them wished it could still be July.

The students, meanwhile, were doing just fine,
Texting and talking and typing online.
Yet they, too, were longing for more fun and games,
And hoping to hear that their school was in flames.

But the building was ready, the windows were clean,
The desks were now free of the rude and obscene.
The floors were well-polished and the lockers repaired,
All was in order, no effort was spared.

The next day the students will mope and they’ll fuss,
And with backpacks and lunch bags will climb on the bus.
The Welcome back, everyone! announcement will blare,
And the bell for first period will begin the despair.

Hallways will fill with the dazed and perplexed,
For nobody knows where they’re supposed to go next.
As the masses move slowly, lost and encumbered,
They’ll silently curse how the rooms have been numbered.

But sooner or later the classes will start,
Algebra, history, English, and art.
Summer vacation will fade from their minds,
As another semester slowly unwinds.

Within a few days they’ll resume their routine,
The relaxed and the happy will grow grouchy and mean.
Instructors will gripe that the kids are all lazy,
Students will swear that their teachers are crazy.

Quizzes will take the class by surprise,
While films will just teach them to all shut their eyes.
Lectures are met by simple, blank stares,
Tests will result in complaints of “Not fair!”

Assignments and projects and homework forgotten,
Answers unclear and writing that’s rotten.
Pupils will wonder what that book was about,
Exams will be graded, report cards sent out.

And the months will fly by, every one of the ten,
Then suddenly June will return once again,
Causing all parents to feel sad and unsteady,
Shocked that it’s summer vacation already.

So let’s be glad as September approaches,
Our kids are returning to the teachers and coaches.
We say to them now, as their hearts fill with fear,
“Good luck to all, and to all a good year!”

Charles GulottaMostly Bright Ideas

Happy new school year, everyone!!!

Picture via

P.S.  I shamelessly stole both the poem and the picture.  What can I say?  I am a teacher and we are the best at seeing something great and stealing it (to share, of course).

P.S. Let's hope our year goes a little bit better than the one depicted above.

School Supplies Giveaway

Don't forget...our giveaway for some fun school supplies and gift cards will be tonight.  Go here to enter.  A winner will be announced on Monday (my first day back for another school year -YIKES).

Have a great weekend!

Bouquets of Newly Sharpened Pencils (GIVEAWAY)

"Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address." - (You've Got Mail, 1998)

I don't know about you but I love back to school shopping for school supplies.  I do...I love it!  Yes, this is one time I am not being sarcastic.   Maybe it's because I am a teacher or maybe it's because I loved to color as a young girl and I get truly excited about a pack of new crayons. 

 

I realize sometimes the lists of things requested can seem a little over the top, but I promise you...there is a rhyme and reason behind every item and 90% of teachers will put them all to good use. 

To the mom in Wal-mart the other night:  I wasn't eavesdropping (you were just being a little loud and dramatic), but I overheard some of your complaints.  I would ask that you re-read my preceding paragraph...rhyme and reason, mam...rhyme and reason.  The pencils requested will last much longer than the cheap ones...they sharpen easier and have much softer and more supple erasers for better clean-up.  Ditto on the Fiskars.  Few things are more irritating to a child than to be attempting to cut something with scissors that won't cut.  Go ahead.  Splurge.  Get the Fiskars.  Your child will appreciate this.  Finally, a box of Kleenex and a tub of antibacterial wipes may just keep your child (and others) from getting sick.  $5 for the both of them is much cheaper than the going rate for a visit to the doctor.  Finally, madame, I understood from your comment this is your first foray into being a school mom, as you mentioned to someone your daughter is entering kindergarten (this is when you remarked something to the effect of "Gah...you mean I have twelve more years of this?").  Try to chill a bit.  Enjoy.  Cherish.  These next thirteen years will go by in the blink of an eye.  I promise you that. 

Myself?  Sometimes, I get a little too carried away with the process and end up with a lot of stuff not on my child's list.  This year, though, I have been sooo good (so far, at least).  At Target the other night, I almost succumbed to all the cute Dr. Seuss items in the $1 bins, but I resisted.  After all, I teach at the middle school level and my son is entering the 3rd grade.  He's an adult now, you know.

A GIVEAWAY...

One week from today, folks in my district will be returning to school.  Yikes!  Can it really be the end of our summer break?  In celebration of going back-to-school I thought it would be fun to have a little giveaway.  Anyone may enter and entering is easy.  You have three chances to win...1.  Leave a comment here and share with us your favorite school supply or back to school memory  -mine still has to be a box of new crayons- and 2.  Follow my little blog and leave a comment letting me know that you do.  3.  Share my Facebook post about this and leave a comment letting me know that you did.

And just what will you win?  Well, I'm not exactly sure yet...but I'm leaning toward a goodie bag packed with back-to-school fun (with a gift card or two thrown in for good measure)!!!  You will love it!  Your kids will love it!

The contest will end at 10:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 3.  A winner will be picked at random and annouced the following Monday.

P.S.  You do not need a Google account to leave a comment.  Just use the anonymous option and make sure to leave your name (and perhaps email address) in the comment...just some way for me to contact you should you win.

P.S.S.  If you do have a Google account and want to follow, just look on the right of the screen under "Wanna follow?".

Our Summer at the Movies

Who doesn't love going to the movies during the summer?  Here at the Tire Swings hacienda we are big movie buffs, though John and I have not been able to go out and see them as much as we'd like (unless you count the times we were accompanying an eight-year-old to a "Disneyish" movie on Discount Tuesdays).  Ren, it seems, has lived there.  I think this last one she saw just the other night (The Conjuring) did a number on her.  After seeing it and dropping a friend off at his house (who, by the way, called his mom and asked that she turn on the porch light and meet him at the door), she called us every few minutes as she was enroute home to give an update on her location.  Me thinks she just wanted a person to talk to in order to keep her mind off what she had just seen. 

One of the best decisions we made when building our house was to create a media room upstairs by partitioning off one end of the bonus room.  Our media room - or "movie room" as John-Heath calls it - is not a large or fancy one (and is actually still somewhat a work in progress even after six years), but it is one of our favorite spots in the house. 

During the school year we don't have time to use it very often, but we certainly make up for it in the summer.  This summer we've run the projector so often, I cringe each time we turn it on for fear the bulb just might blow.

A couple years ago Ren requested a book as a present called 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.  The edition begins with A Trip to the Moon (1902) and ends with Atonement (2007).  As she read through it she began to make a check mark on each page featuring a movie she had already seen.  Then the rest of us took turns doing somewhat the same.  I sign my first name and John adds his initials.  John-Heath has even written his name here and there.    It's fun (albeit in a can-our-life-get-anymore-insipid kinda way) to mark off newly watched movies. 

Anyway, the other night Ren and I were talking about some of our favorite movies and I thought it would be cool to compile a list of such.  Again, we lead simple lives, people. 

 



Some Tire Swings Favorites

 

REN

(at the moment, at least)

Million Dollar Baby
(her absolute favorite)
Gangster Squad

The Help

Gone With the Wind

Remember the Titans
Sex and the City - both 1 & 2
(for the fashion)
The Devil Wears Prada
(again...the fashion)
Blazing Saddles
Psycho
(the original)
Star Wars
(the whole franchise)
Troy
Les Miserables
 

JOHN

Tombstone
Cool Hand Luke
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Glory
Empire Strikes Back
Last of the Mohicans
Zulu Dawn
Indiana Jones Series
Movies set in the South
Out of Africa
Old W.C. Fields movies and Marx Brothers movies
Vacation and Christmas Vacation
 

JOHN-HEATH

Oz - the Great and Powerful
The Little Rascals
Star Wars
The Goosebumps Series
Indiana Jones
(all of them)
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Despicable Me 1 & 2
Glory
Band of Brothers
(I tried to explain that BoB was a mini-series, but he insisted I include it in his list)
Madagascar (all of them)

MOI

Gone With the Wind, The Help, etc. 
(pretty much any and all Southern flicks)

Made of Honor
Out of Africa
Tombstone
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Sneakers
I Dreamed of Africa
(even though I am terrified of snakes)
Absolute Power
(I am a huge Clint Eastwood fan, and who doesn't love Laura Linney?)
What Lies Beneath
(I love the movie and the set.
  I would leave my home and move to Vermont this very day
if I could have the house and lot from WLB.  Sadly, the house was built for the movie and then torn down when filming wrapped.)
All the Vacation movies
(MINUS European Vacation)
Sense and Sensibility
 

Did you recognize any of your favorites?



P.S.  How could I forget Billy:  The Early Years...Ren's first "job" in a real movie (albeit as an extra).  If you'll look really, really close you'll see her approaching the tent in the tent revival scene.  She is wearing a white hat, with a dark shawl around her shoulders and passes in front of a mule.  You can also see the side of her head in the bonus features.  When we see Armie Hammer (now starring as the Lone Ranger) in ads, she loves to joke that she was once his "co-star."

P.S.S.  I have now seen The Conjuring.  It was very good.  I had to sleep with the lights on and hold my bladder til morning.  That is all I am willing to say about it, out of fear I will scare myself even more.

 

Image via

Signed, the Girl With the Lisp.

Another school year will soon be starting.  I know, I know...don't remind you.  One thing many schools will be focusing on this year (in addition to the curriculum, data, standardized tests, data, close readings, data, PLCs and PBLs, data, etc.) is the topic of bullying.  I have several thoughts on the topic - some even conflicting - and may one day write a better post about it.  Today, however, I thought I would share with you one that I wrote as a parent at the end of this past April.  It is one I came across the other night while going back through old posts and drafts.  Reader beware:  It is somewhat of an angry mom letter, which is really not like me at all (for the most part, I want my writings to be light-hearted).  You see, even being the child of teachers does not make one immune from mockery .  So, to keep from going to jail this past spring and losing my job - and my house - and the ability to eat out more than I cook - I wrote to rid myself of anger.  I wrote, re-wrote, wrote even more, revised it, cooled down somewhat and removed the R-rated content until I was left with the ramblings you will read below.  And there it remained - a draft - until today.  It may seem a little like beating a dead horse - after all, Ren is now out of high school and excited about college and a new, wonderful life before her - but the issue was/is too important to me as a mom to be kept forever as a draft. 

April 2013
Growing up, my mother would often say to me, "I can read you like a book."  I always hated that expression, as it was usually used when I was doing a subpar job of hiding something from her...bad grades, an admission of guilt for something, the fact that I had already eaten a candy bar before supper...you get the idea.  Now, when I hear those words...I can read you like a book...they are produced in my mouth, spoken in my voice.  I have become my mother. 

I haven't "read" my daughter as often as my mom "read" me, but when I have, especially in the past year or two, hurt feelings are usually at the root of it.  I miss the days of hidden stains, failed tests, and candy wrappers.  Why must it be so hard to be a teen today? 

Few people like being the recipient of undue attention, and high school - at times -can be a breeding ground for just this very thing.  I have never understood how some people feel they have license to highlight the inadequacies of others, even thrive on doing so, while being far from perfect themselves. 

My daughter is an outgoing, talented, confident, beautiful girl.  She does quite well in pageants, has been approached on more than one occasion by Nashville-area talent/modeling agencies and, by all appearances, leads a pretty charmed life.  Yes, she's a teen and, yes, she's far from perfect  -  I have to remind her quite often to clean her room and there are times she can cop a sassy mouth and attitude, mostly towards her father or me - but she's a good girl.  She is also a strong girl, one who doesn't like for others to see her as weak or, heaven forbid, pity her.  I think she would rather eat glass than have someone see her cry.  But I'm a mom - and moms know when their children are hurting.  This year, I have had about all of it I can take.

What's that quote...sometimes the strongest people are the ones who love beyond all faults, cry behind closed doors and fight battles that nobody knows about.  Everyone has a weakness, a vulnerability they would prefer go unnoticed.  Ren's achilles heel comes in the form of a lisp - a lateral lisp to be more precise  - of the 's' sound.  When she was about 6 we were told it was the second hardest impediment to correct.

Today, it is not as noticeable as it was then.  I don't think a lot of people she meets for the first time notice anything at all out of the ordinary and most people she's known for a long time pay little attention to it. 

Of course, there are always those two or three who, for whatever reason, keep some sort of internal file on the people they know.  These people, it would appear, take a sick delight in tormenting others.  Why else would someone act like a parrot and mimick each and every word coming from my daughter's mouth (adding a lispy 's' to all her words - not just the ones with an 's' in them) or team up to hijack a reading rehearsal of the school play and call her out on the word "sweetheart" - getting in her face to pronounce it correctly. 

To you that did this...has making fun of her made you less fat? Are you suddenly not from a dysfunctional family?  Has your own speech impediment been reversed?  Was there a little more swag in your step that day?  And when you found that note in your truck...you know...the one telling you how you hurt her and asking why...the one she signed "the girl with the lisp"...did you even feel an ounce of remorse?  If you did, you have yet apologize. 

Do you know that she left school early each of those days because she couldn't face seeing you all again somewhere?  Or that when she came home she cried for hours in her room?  And that when she finally came down she begged to be sent for speech therapy (she had googled local therapists and prepared a list)? That she spent more time watching You Tube videos of how to correct her speech than you did practicing your lines for the play (and by the way, it showed)? Or that she asked that we talk to the drama teacher to see if he would be mad if she quit the play, a play she had waited four years to perform?  Luckily, her confidence (or determination) returned and she did not quit.  Do you think because of who she is she is immune to pain? 

You know what, though...that's okay.  My daughter will be okay.  I firmly believe in Karma, and I only hope I am still around to witness your dance with it.

Posted with my daughter's permission

A Yummy Delivery

Despite how it must look, this is not a Christmas in July post.  Actually, I was going through some older posts (this one being from 2011 I think) and I came across this, which was showing up as only a draft.  I decided to hit "publish", thinking it would keep it within its original placement, and what do you know...it was moved to the front of the pack.  Oh, well...enjoy.

Sooo...a couple weeks back I signed up to receive some samples of gelato and sorberro from the Roba Dolce company. We here at Tire Swings consider ourselves ice-cream connoisseurs and were eager to jump on the gelato bandwagon.

Thursday evening I thought I would take my camera outside and snap a few pics of the day's new snowfall. It's a good thing it had snowed or it may have been days before I ventured onto the porch. Anyway, a lovely parcel was waiting for me there and I knew instantly what it was.

When I first signed up for the giveaway I thought the samples would come in small, personal size cups - like those kids buy in the school cafeteria with the little wooden spoons.  Wrong!  We got an assortment of flavors in an assortment of sizes.  There are certainly perks to this blogging adventure!

Naturally, the kids wanted to try out some of the chocolate as soon as it was unpacked. 

If you ever see any of the Roba Dolce products in the store, you might just want to give them a whirl.  You won't be sorry.  They are Y.U.M.M.Y!!!

The Perks of Growing Old

Old age, schmold age.  Who cares about crow's feet, receding hairlines, and forgetting where you put the car keys when you get such great gifts in the mail? 

Thank you, AARP!!!  I didn't think it was possible for my stylish, good-looking husband to get any sexier. 

Would You Like That Water With Crickets or Without?

Like a near-Exodus invasion, the outside of our garage door has been covered lately with tiny green crickets.  Well, actually I think they are grasshoppers because crickets are nocturnal and our visitors are always here during the day.  Anywhooo...John-Heath has just been in awe of how many there have been and has, like any dutiful, juvenile member of the male race, been trying to do his part to rid us of our fine fiddling friends.  Then his father gave him the idea of catching some to use as fish bait. 

Enter one of my double wall plastic tumblers with the screw on lids.  John-Heath proceeded to catch and secure several of the tiny grasshoppers in one of these cups.  Then, for added measure, he placed about five more lids on top - just in case.

Set atop a kitchen counter, the grasshoppers waited patiently for a meeting with some fish at the pond.  Instead, they became a garnish when a hot, sweaty girl -thirsty from a morning workout and run- reached for the nearest cup and filled it full of ice and then water before she headed up the stairs to her room.

I always thought grasshoppers received their nickname because of their color and the fact they hop around in the grass.  Turns out, I have it on good authority that another reason they are so named is that they are actually the same texture and taste of grass - or, at least, their legs are.

Image via

And Suddenly, the Sky Turned Yellow

Looking westward from my front yard

 

Wednesday evening, the kids and I were watching a movie upstairs - an older version of the sci-fi/horror film The Thing.  At some point, John-Heath decided to look out the window to see if John was home. When he pulled the curtain back it revealed a really beautiful - and equally creepy - sunset, so the three of us put the movie on pause and headed out to get a better view.  We ambled around outside, looking upward like the people you see in alien movies.  It had been a hot day and rained a little in the afternoon and we were left with this.  I'm glad I grabbed my camera on the way out, because within ten minutes it was gone and darkness arrived.  Take a look.

Beautiful and ominous all at the same time.

Looking south/southwest from my back porch

 

A westward shot from the back porch

 

Looking from the front porch through the river birch and crepe myrtle trees and the laurel shrubs

(which all need a good trim)

 

A northern view

 

A final look at the house. 

There's something about this shot that makes us of think of some kind of Alfred Hitchcock house.

What do you think?