Smarty Had A Great Day

I saw Smarty for all of about 10 minutes yesterday. Tuesdays and Thursdays are very busy with fencing lessons after school. Mr. C and I leave around 3:30 and don't get home until after 7:00. So I don't get to see the girls much on those days.

During the few minutes I did see her, Smarty announced: she made homecoming court, she was voted "kindest" in her class, she's getting a 98 in AP Biology, and wasn't there something else? Oh, yeah, she was accepted at Auburn! What a great day!

At bedtime, M talked back to me (quelle surprise) and rather than ignore it I took her phone for the rest of the night. Later S brought M's phone charger to me and stated how much she approved of me taking away the phone. The icing on her perfect day was her little sister getting in trouble.

If I was into child psychology I would probably recognize that M is frustrated from always living in her big sister's shadow, and as a result acts out. But as it is, I'm not about to take her smart mouth for whatever reason. Lest you think I don't give M equal time and attention, I'm going to her pinning ceremony after school today. It is for a club that she belongs to but S doesn't. Apparently you have to be invited to join. So there!

Usually the girls get along. But there are just some of those days.

Bugs, Natural and Virtual

Mr. C took some pictures of a Mama Spider and her Babies in our driveway last night. He wanted to print one out and take it to his science teacher today. I tried to connect the camera to the big computer and then Hubby tried to get it to work. After much fiddling and cursing, Hubby came to the realization that something is wrong with the USB card in the computer (???don't ask me). He was confused because the mouse and keyboard still worked and they apparently are plugged in through the same thing. This morning I went to try the picture print again, and couldn't get the computer to wake up by wiggling the mouse or hitting the keyboard. So I guess that USB thing is completely dead. I hope it is a cheap fix. We really can't afford a new computer right now.

I hope you enjoy the spider picture! The shiny spots on her back are more babies, hitching a ride. Isn't it cool how the flash reflects in the spiders' eyes?

A Peek Into My Inbox

Usually I ignore the emails that are forwarded, instructing me to pass them along to 10 friends or the world will end. But about a week ago I got one that I thought I would send along to Smarty, Marvelous, and Mr. Creativity. Since they rarely check their email I didn't expect them to get it for awhile. Today I got a response from S. Following is the message and reply.

Paul Harvey Writes:

We tried so hard to make things better for our kids that we made them worse. For my grandchildren, I'd like better.

I'd really like for them to know about hand me down clothes and homemade ice cream and leftover meat loaf sandwiches. I really would.

I hope you learn humility by being humiliated, and that you learn honesty by being cheated.

I hope you learn to make your own bed and mow the lawn and wash the car.

And I really hope nobody gives you a brand new car when you are sixteen.
It will be good if at least one time you can see puppies born and your old dog put to sleep.

I hope you get a black eye fighting for something you believe in.

I hope you have to share a bedroom with your younger brother/sister. And it's all right if you have to draw a line down the middle of the room,but when he wants to crawl under the covers with you because he's scared, I hope you let him.

When you want to see a movie and your little brother/sister wants to tag along, I hope you'll let him/her.

I hope you have to walk uphill to school with your friends and that you live in a town where you can do it safely.

On rainy days when you have to catch a ride, I hope you don't ask your driver to drop you two blocks away so you won't be seen riding with someone as uncool as your Mom.

If you want a slingshot, I hope your Dad teaches you how to make one instead of buying one.

I hope you learn to dig in the dirt and read books.

When you learn to use computers, I hope you also learn to add and subtract in your head.

I hope you get teased by your friends when you have your first crush on a boy\girl, and when you talk back to your mother that you learn what ivory soap tastes like.

I don't care if you try a beer once, but I hope you don't like it.. And if a friend offers you dope or a joint, I hope you realize he is not your friend

I sure hope you make time to sit on a porch with your Grandma/Grandpa and go fishing with them..

May you feel sorrow at a funeral and joy during the holidays.

I hope your mother punishes you when you throw a baseball through your neighbor's window and that she hugs you and kisses you at Christmas time when you give her a plaster mold of your hand.

These things I wish for you - tough times and disappointment, hard work and happiness. To me, it's the only way to appreciate life.

The reply I received from Smarty: I love you!~smarty~

The Cotton Harvest

A cotton field ready to be harvested

This is the earliest I've seen the cotton in. We had a really hot streak toward the end of summer--the first week of school it was over 100 every day when I picked up Mr. C. The heat seemed to scorch the cotton plants and I thought they were ruined. But even though the leaves turned brown early, the cotton bolls just seemed to explode. By the end of August the fields were white.

A cotton bale--the red truck in back is what harvests the plants

The green truck is what smashes the cotton into a tight bale--see the yellow mechanism on top that pushes the cotton down.

The bales sometimes sit for a couple of days before they are loaded onto a semi and taken to a mill. I don't know if you can see it in the pictures, but there is quite a bit of cotton left on the ground. It eventually just blows away. Before machines did the harvesting, these would have been hand-picked and not gone to waste. But who wants to get their hands all bloody picking cotton when there is a perfectly good machine to do it for you? Hope you enjoyed a taste of our southern agriculture.

Walk to School Day

Today is International Walk to School Day in the USA. I'm not sure if that means that only people in the USA are to walk to school, or people all over the world are to walk to school, or if Americans who may be going to school anywhere in the world are to walk to school.

Mr. C's school participated in the event. Since we live about 8 miles from his school (over a bridge and down a 5 lane highway) I drove him to the church parking lot that is 4 blocks from school and he walked the rest of the way. Most parents were dropping their kids off in the same parking lot. I'm not sure that really constitutes walking to school. There are no sidewalks in the neighborhood either, so everyone was walking in the street. Fortunately the police arrived to direct traffic.

When I was in elementary school everyone walked to school. We had neighborhood schools and of course I grew up in town. Hubby always rode the bus to school because he was a country boy. There are hardly any neighborhood schools left now. Everything is consolidated and encompasses such a huge area. I'm sure in some ways it saves money to have larger, and fewer, schools but I miss living in a neighborhood with sidewalks and kids walking to and from school. I must be getting old and nostalgic.

What are the girls up to? Here is a link to what's happening at their school. You might recognize one of the students mentioned under "Announcements". What you won't see is any reference to the big drug bust they had this week. One of them was the quarterback, who was expelled and arrested as an adult. I asked S if she knew any of the kids. She said No, she doesn't hang around any of those kind of people. Mostly the girls hang out with their friends from church. Yeah!!!

A Fall Fire

The weather is changing. This morning it was 49 when I drove Mr. C to school. Brrr!

On Saturday night we had a fire and burned up a bunch of branches we had trimmed. The fire died down to ashes and went out. Or so we thought.

On Sunday, Mr. C went out and poked around the ashes and blew on them and after 45 minutes of this he got the fire from the day before going again. He was so proud of himself. He insisted we take a picture of him with his fire, which he used to make s'mores. "C'mon, blog about me Mommy!" he told me. How can I resist that? When he finished his s'more (& I finished mine!) he used the hose to properly put out the fire.

By the way, no one here reads my blog. They all know I have one and occasionally I say things like, "I put that picture on my blog," or "I blogged about us doing that." But for the most part it's just my private little journal.

You Can't Drink and Drive, But You Can Drink and Control Alabama's Finances

It's almost that time again. Election day. I'm not sure it is ever not election time, or at least campaign time. I don't have much to say about this candidate personally, but what about that name? Can't you just hear the old guys sitting around the checkerboard at the general store: "What the hell's the matter with this here economy?" "Well, what do you expect with that Young Boozer in charge of the money?"

You can Bing this guy and see he's a serious candidate, and this is his real name.