LG

Oops!

some random person taking a plunge at Lighthouse Park: Jupiter, FL
Picture provided by: jupiter-rope-swings

I just had to find a picture of a good rope swing before I tell you this story. Here is the best free picture I could find in ten minutes. (Hey, it’s time to make dinner)Some company wants a startling $129 for a picture just like the one above (Ridiculous)

Well, when LG and I had been married about a year, I was privileged to be a leader at another girls camp for the church. This camp experience was really fun. Probably because I didn’t have a whole lot of responsibilites except to teach some clases and help other leaders out as needed.

The camp lasted a week up in the mountains in Utah. It was a beautiful place. By Wednesday night I really missed my new husband. So, you can imagine my surprise when on Thursday morning my knight in shining armor drove up a day earlier than expected. I was so happy to see him! LG had brought his mom and dad and sister with him. They had come to just say Howdy, but I ended up leaving with them because my responsibilities were really through, and I REALLY missed my husband. Plus, I thought it was more important to spend time with his family who had come all the way from Tennessee.

Well, before we were to leave, I had to give LG and his family a small tour of the campsight. I showed them the pavilion, the biffies, the girls’ tee-pees, and all the other points of interest. We ended the tour or maybe I should say I put an automatic stop to the tour at the small lake. I showed them the canoes and told them about the lakeside meeting we had on the first night where there were candles all afloat and a fire burning in the middle of the lake. We all stood on a small dock as I played tour guide.

At the end of the conversation, I told them about the recreation time we had, just that morning. I said, “The girls really liked this rope swing.” There was just one small rope swing that hung off a pole on the teeny dock. As I said this, I grabbed the rope swing and swung out over the water. The only problem was, I didn’t land back on the dock as I had intended.

I plunged down to the bottom of the lake fully clothed, leaving my four family members there in astonishment. Now, you know I am Crazy Ali and so, they were really trying to figure out if I was playing some kind of joke or if I had my swimsuit on underneath or if I dove in on purpose for their reaction.

To my dismay and utter embarassment, it was none of the reason above. My hands had just slipped, leaving me under the water trying to figure out how I could swim away. I was thinking, “If I stay under here long enough maybe they will go away”. Well, they didn’t. I surfaced with a squeal, at which point, they knew I hadn’t intended to take the swim. Their howls of laughter almost made my embarassment worth it.

But, for now, I am not going near any rope swings when fully clothed.

J.D.

The ONLY tractor

Images Copyrighted by Historylink101.com & found at Story of Farming Page

When you apply for Law School, you have to submit what they call a “personal statement” Well, a friend of ours on a Law School acceptance committee advised LG to do something different that would make him stand out as an applicant. Much like what you see Elle Woods do on Legally Blonde. Now, LG was not about to jump in a hottub in his bathing suit, much less, talk into a camera, tape it, and send it to actual living breathing people. But, we did come up with something to start his statement out with a bang. It is based on a true story.

While growing up in the lush foothills of Northeast Tennessee, I had a small lawn mowing business. The pinnacle of my mowing career was purchasing the Cadillac of lawn mowers, a John Deere. Even today I reminisce about the power of my John Deere and how at ease I would feel at the wheel of it. Shortly after the birth of our second child and several months before graduating with my Bachelor’s, I told my wife I wanted to get a J.D. Initially she thought I intended to discard my degree in Computer Science and become a professional lawn mower. I quickly assured her that what I meant by J.D. was Juris Doctorate, not John Deere.

No turning back

August 15, 1997

Don’t we look so happy? Well, we were. And we still are. I am a very lucky woman. Will you please remind me of that on the days when we are fighting?

Unfortunately, everyone has to come home from their honeymoon and deal with each other. (We didn’t really have a honeymoon and so our “dealing with each other” started from day one) For us, the whole first year was a veeeerrrrrryyy long process of figuring each other out. When we look back on our lives, staying married for that first year will definitely be a “greatest accomplishment” for both of us. LG and I are so different and I am willing to admit that I am hard to live with, and he admits that he can be too sometimes. Part of the reason that we have made it in one piece for the past 90 months is that usually we both think that we got the better end of the deal. And, we also both came into this marriage with the attitude that there was no turning back.

Well, one time, during this year from H – E – double hockey-sticks, we had one of our “discussions”. We were not happy with each other at all. This still happens, but just not every day like it did that first year. I had been thoughtless towards him and committed the unpardonable sin of demeaning him in front of other people. And, he had struck back in the car on the way home with a thoughtless remark. (No need to share the details…I am already sharing way more than my VERY private husband would like) Well, I was shocked and hurt because as far as I can remember this was the only time LG has ever said anything hurtful to me. (And, even though we hadn’t been married that long, he knew exactly what to say that would hurt me the most.)

LG had let his passive-aggressive side OUT, and it came OUT with a vengence. I was so angry, hurt, shocked, broken-hearted, and depressed all in one. I retreated to our bedroom with the cordless phone. (This is what I do when we fight; I call in all my troops…my sisters, friends, mom, even his mom sometimes) Well, usually my support group just listens and gives me small tips of how they would work out the situation. Well, this time my mom had some WORDS to say to me. I called her in tears and told her what he had said. Instead of defending me and telling me that he had acted like a jerk and I shouldn’t forgive him until he came groveling, this is what she said:

“Alice, that is the best man that you are ever going to find.”

And although I hate to admit it, she was right!

My Fortune

Proud Daddy

Since Friday, my husband, LG, has been reformatting my hard-drive. It seems that this blogging business has been a little much for our 7 year old PC to handle. This is the reason I haven’t been on much. I still am and will be working out kinks in my system.

I came across this picture, and I just LOVE it. Look at how Happy the new daddy looks. This was Sophia when she was two days old. Sophia is LG’s spitting image now, but we never would have guessed it when she was so little. I love my husband, and seeing him as a GREAT father makes me love him even more. He is so tender with our girls and me, his wife, too. I am so FORTUNATE.

Now, don’t get me wrong. There are days that I want to strangle the guy. After all, he is a guy and we all know that us women and men have our differences. Take for instance, last night. We were sitting at the kitchen table for hours talking about our plans for the future; mostly, about whether or not it will be worth it for him to do the joint JDMBA. (Another year of this poverty seems like pure torture to us and our kids)While we “discussing” LG kept playing with the girls’ new plastic paperclip toys. It was so distracting, and I kept asking him to put them down while we talked. He would put them down, but somehow he would have them back in his hands ten minutes later.

Right, at the pinnacle of our conversation, the paperclip chain violently split in two and one half went flying through the air and down the heating vent. The other half were laying as guilty as could be in his hand and simultaneously, we both looked down at them. He then instantaneously tossed the leftover paperclips to the other side of the room like a red-handed robber. NORMALLY, a little thing like this would set me off. Little scenarios like this are caused by “the man gene” (all guys have it). They just HAVE to play and fidget. But, lucky for LG, I am medicated now and so I was able to just chuckle about “the man gene” just forcing my husband into playing with those darn paperclips, until like always, some kind of destruction occured.

Her name is Pixy

What happens when you don’t buy your kids a dog

This morning, as we were running out to go and help the knee-surgery friend again, Sophia pulled a rock out of her “special” drawer. I think it is a 3-yr-old thing to like rocks because every time we go out to play, she comes back in with a pocket of them. (I can faintly remember Abigail doing the same thing at this age) Well, all of the rocks are special to her and I usually can get them either back outside or in the garbage without her noticing. So, I was slightly surprised when she pulled out this rock, which is brown, has the face size of 2 quarters, and the thickness of her little finger.

I am trying to rush both Phia and Bella out the door, and to my even bigger surprise, Sophia says,”Mom, I am going to take my pet rock, O.k.?” I said, “Sure, of course you can bring your pet rock” (hmm….i didn’t know she had one, but, whatever, she probably learned about pet rocks on Sesame Street, and off we went. Well, I was very entertained the whole morning as we ran arround town; I learned more and more about this pet rock. As we were getting out of the van, Sophia says,”Mom, I can’t forget my pet rock, Pixy.” I said, “Pixy, what is that?” “That is my rock’s name, Mom”,was her reply. I said,”Did you name her?” She said, “Yes” I said,”Where did you get her name?” “I just made it up”,was the response from my all-knowing 3-year-old.

Well, she took the rock out to let it rock in the rocker at the dr’s office. She held it in her lap, talked to it, showed it off to my friend’s kid and her sister, Bella. We later went to pick up Abigail from school and we all ran to Wal-Mart to pick up some stuff for my friend. While I was trying desperately to reign my kids in and find the specific baby food on my freind’s list, Abigail and Sophia decided to fight over the rock. I reminded them to be nice and to stay by the grocery cart, and I also confiscated the rock. Sophia cried, but I told her that the rock needed a nap, and she could play with Pixy when she got home. This sufficed.

So, we get home, and the rock comes out. It is nice out today and the girls wanted to play outside. The next thing I know, Sophia is wailing. I mean absolutely freaking out, as if someone had died. I run over to where they were digging to see what the problem was. I ran as if someone had cut a finger off. Abigail quickly explained that Sophia had buried her Pet Rock and she now couldn’t find it. I didn’t want to not validate Phia’s feelings by laughing hysterically at the sight of he “rock” back where it came from in the first place. To her, this rock was buried alive.

So, I sat there for fifteen minutes, with that darn shovel, reassuring my sweet, sweet, sweet, tender-hearted daughter, that I would find Pixy and all would be well, while digging frantically. I kept coming up with different little rocks and I knew they weren’t Pixy because they weren’t even the same color or size, but after about five minutes, I was worried that I would never find her, and I thought that I could trick Phia into believing that one of the other rocks was her beloved pet. She never fell for it. I offered a prayer of thanks when I finally found her real Pixy. By this time Sophia had wandered to the other side of the yard. You would have thought I was three to hear the excited tone to my voice as I yelled over,”Sophia, I found her, I found her….Here’s Pixy.” As my 3-yr-old ran over to retrieve her most prized posession, I couldn’t help but think,”Supermom to save the day” and I handed it over with a very wide smile that said,”I love your pet-rock too.”

Kids say the d a r n d e s t things

Watermelon

Following up on my last entry. Kids are so FUNNY! They cannot resist at stating the obvious. When you are driving down the road you will hear, “Mom, there is a cow.” “Dad, you are driving too fast.”

At the grocery store, “There are Fruit Loops, there is Cocoa Puffs, those are Cheerios.” You get the drift.

One day, I got out one of the girls’ piggy banks and as I was getting it down off the shelf, the lid slipped off and change spilled all over the kitchen floor. It was no surprise to hear,”Mom, you spilled all the money.” I laughed and said,”Oh really, I know, Sometimes I am so clumsy, Should we pick it up?”

A little while later, in the same day, I got a watermelon out of the fridge. No joke, this is what I hear coming out of a little voice behind me, “Mom, you are fat, just like that watermelon.” Well, gee, thanks. No, “oh really”, was going to work for this offense. We have taught our girls to only refer to things as fat, not people. I think that she thought this was OK, because she was talking about the watermelon.

I tried not to crack up as I gave her the very brief reminder that it isn’t nice to call people fat. I resisted from saying what I was really thinking,”Hey, you little snot….would you like me to crack this watermelon over your head, so that you can feel what it is like to get pregnant and fat and give birth to a child that will just call you fat one day.” Of course I wouldn’t say that, all I could think of was, “Aren’t you clever with your use of words; you are only three and you just used a really good analogy.” What in the world? You know I must be a mother.

GO UT LAW

Everybody needs a cheerleader

I have another confession. Poor LG. I don’t know how he lives with me.

Last year, during his first semester of Law School, I took a field trip to his classes. I really wanted to see what he was doing all day every day, and my mother-in-law offered to take the girls.

So, all was going off without a hitch. (LG had made me swear not to raise my hand, ask any questions, or make any comments) I tend to get excited at times. I really enjoyed his first class. The teacher was good and even a dummy like me learned something (I now have no recollection what the class was about, but at the time I felt enlightened.)

When we were waiting for his second class to start (which was really BAD, by the way, the most BORING teacher, and that is all I will say because LG will probably even make me change this) a girl walked in and sat down in the row in front of us. We had been talking with her friend, and as this new girl sat down next to her friend she greeted me.

Here comes the clencher part of the story. EVERYONE in law school has to have a laptop (mostly so that they can IM during class). So, of course as this girl is getting ready for class, she opens up her laptop. As I saw her laptop, I was VERY surprised to see on her screensaver, a picture much like the one above . I couldn’t believe my eyes: because here is this girl in LAW SCHOOl, with the world at her fingertips and she obviouslly put a lot of emphasis on cheerleading (I didn’t think that UT LAW had cheerleaders…Can you say GO VOL ATTORNEYS)

So, I proceeded to ask her about the picture; assuming that she had cheerleaded during her undergrad, which would have made some sense because more than likely that would have been the previous year. She responded that she didn’t cheerlead in college and that this was a picture of her HIGH SCHOOL cheerleading squad. I was in shock! Is this ALL that this girl felt that she had going for her? What in the world was she doing in law school if she was still glorying her HS days? (Mind you, I do recognize that maybe I don’t understand because LG isn’t the traditional law student and I am not the traditional spouse of a student – I am in my thirties and he is no spring chicken himself)But, still…don’t you think that this was a little bizarre?

So, me and my big mouth, I say, “You think that you would grown out of that at some point?” I am such an idiot sometimes. I just HAVE to say what is on my mind. I regretted the question as soon as it came out and I cried when I got home for embarassing LG. LG had given me that look of surprise. (yes, I am still able to surprise him at times) Luckily, the girl never had a chance to respond because the teacher started class not a second too late.

Well, it was no surprise to me when my husband told me that this girl had dropped out of law school before her second year. I REFUSE to take the credit for her discouragement, but maybe I did cause some introspection and she decided that she was doing the wrong thing with her life. Maybe she decided that she was needed more on the sidelines of her High School’s football field. I hope that she is enjoying herself.

The Milkman

My three daughters

As you can see, our girls all have their own distinct features. We always tell people that Abigail is a mix of both of us, Sophia is just like her Dad, and Bella is a spittin image of me. The people that know us well definitely agree when we say genetics can be crazy.

It is when I tell complete strangers this that I have a problem. Whenever they approach me it is the same routine, “Are they ALL yours?” I say, “Yes.” Then they look at me like they don’t believe me or they look away and whisper, which to me, means that they obviouslly think they all have different daddies.

Because I am me, I can’t let people think what they want. I ALWAYS have to explain myself. Something that I am trying to work on (don’t think this blog is really helping). So, it isn’t uncommon for me to say to complete strangers…”And, if you are wondering, they all have the same mom and dad…there is no milkman involved.” It is fun to see the strangers’ reactions to my boldness. They usually don’t know what to say. What can they say when they know I have just read their minds?

This could be very interesting in a few years down the road. My girls are probably getting subliminal messages that the milkman is very much involved in the baby- making process. I will certainly have some explaining to do.

Wal-Mart Proposal

Boys, you gotta have the flowers

Alright, it’s about time that I tell on myself again. Here’s the latest episode of brain lapse or “talk b4 think”.

I went to Wal-Mart late Saturday night. While I was checking out I noticed a cute young couple behind me in line. Of course, I had a LOAD of groceries, and so my check-out took a while. I was brought up to be TOO friendly to strangers and of course I decided to strike up a conversation with these two.

The young girl had a dozen roses in her hand. She was standing behind the guy. I said to her, “Are those for you?” She replied with a yes. I chuckled a bit and looked at the guy and said,”Is she showing you what kind she likes?” She said, “Yeah, I guess you could say that.”

I said, “Funny, I just called my husband on the phone and told him that roses were finally coming down in price after Valentine’s Day. I asked him if I should buy some for myself.” I continued,”Now you shouldn’t have to buy flowers for yourself until AFTER you are married.” They laughed.

I then looked at the guy, elbowed him, and said, “you know what that means for you, huh? Guess you might be married real soon.”

The girl then decides to pipe up again. I think that she was trying to save her new fiance from my torture. She said,”Actually, he just proposed tonight.”

Everyone in line gave the oo’s and the aw’s….all I could think about is how absolutely crappy I had just made this poor guy feel. He proposed and then his new fiance had to go and buy herself some flowers to remember the night by.

Moral of the story: Never propose without flowers. Just do like my husband and don’t propose at all; then you won’t have to worry about it.

Bedtime and Parenting

Here are the girls. They are finally asleep. Notice that they all sleep on their stomachs. (they want to be like their Mom)

Bedtime is easy for us. The girls go to sleep pretty good most of the time. After watching Super Nanny, I have learned that this is not the case for many parents. I would like to give some really good parenting advice here (even if yougottawanna thinks that I don’t know what I am doing):

I read this yesterday in a book that my sister recommended. I wish that I could photocopy it and give it to some of the ladies at church. 🙂

Parenting Young Children
There are three main styles of parenting. The three that are most common are giving orders, giving in, and giving choices.

Giving Orders: This Style of parenting is often called authoritarian. The parents are strict. They set a lot of rules. The children are expected to obey the rules exactly. Often strict parents reward of punish children to keep them in line.Rewards lead the children to expect payment for ‘being good’. When children are punished for ‘being bad’, they may learn to fear and resent parents. Children need freedom to grow and learn. They also need the chance to make choices [all you homeschoolers who are afraid to let your kids out of your sight]. This lets them learn limits and responsibility.

Giving In: Giving in is also called permissive parenting. Permissive paretns set no limits. Children grow up without guidelines. The parents give in to whatever the children may want. We often say that these children are ‘spoiled’. Without limits, children will have trouble getting along with others. These children usually learn to do as they please. They don’t learn to care about the feelings and rights of others. Society sets limits. Children with no limits on their behavior will have difficulty learning how to behave in society. [so, all you parents who think that you are letting your children be creative and do whatever they want, you aren’t doing them any favors.]

Giving choices: ….the democratic method of giving choices is the most effective.Democratic parenting is based on equality and respect. We all have different abilities, responsibilites, and experiences. But we are still worthwhile as humans.Does this mean that your child has the same privileges as you do? No. It means that you recognize the importance of your child’s wishes. It also means that you involve your child in decision making when appropriate. Democratic parents give a child choices that fit the child’s age and development. Young children’s ablility to make choices is limited. They can’t yet depend on themselves to keep the rules. They need adults to set limits for them. When children go past the limits, they need parents to follow through with consequences. The democratic method helps children become responsible. It does this by giving choices within set limits.A democratic parenting style gives young children freedom within limits. Children learn that their choices count and carry responsibility. They learn respect.