School

John Denver

John Denver is the man!

When I found out that LG shared my love of John Denver, I KNEW he was the man for me. I thought that I had an unusual upbringing because my parents were always exposing us to JD’s music. Come to find out, my upbringing was pretty normal. LG was growing up 2,000 miles away and he had just as much exposure to the King of country-folk music.

While I lived in Alaska, mom and dad would put us to sleep with John Denver. They would play him as loud as he would go on their little portable battery operated tape player.

I still love John Denver. LG and I carry on tradition and listen to him while we take road trips with our girls. We teach them to sing the lyrics to his songs, which are quite uplifting. Here is one of my favorites:

Perhaps love – 1980

Perhaps love is like a resting place,
A shelter from the storm,
It exists to give you comfort,
It is there to keep you warm,
And in those times of trouble
When you are most alone,
The memory of love will bring you home…

Well, I was grief-stricken, like many others, when Denver died in a plane crash, October 12, 1997. I was mostly bummed because I never got to see him in concert.

At the time, I was taking a course in college, Public Speaking. Each student was to give a speech on a self-chosen topic. I did a bang-up job with mine on the life of John Denver. Did you know that his birth name was Henry John Deutschendorf Jr.?

Well, during my speech, I touched on Denver’s act of adopting two children with his first wife, Annie. In explanation of the adoptions, instead of saying, “They thought that John was sterile.” I said, “They thought that John was impotent.”

Hello, they THOUGHT that John Denver was IMPOTENT…isn’t that something that someone either knows or they don’t?

I still got an A on the speech. No one even snickered when I said it. I didn’t even realize what I had said until I was doing my mental speech replay later on during the day. I was mortified at what I had done. Luckily, most of the students in the class were really naive 18 year old Mormon girls. But, surely my hot young male professor from Michigan realized what I had done. I couldn’t believe it when I got my grade. Either the teacher was really impressed that I was the only student who accompanied my speech with a Power Point presentation, or he was so entertained that he decided to let my mistake slide.

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.

The Famous Sarcasm

Steve Young: If you were a single Mormon girl in the early 90’s, you wanted to marry him!

When I was a freshman at Utah Valley State College, back in 1991, I worked at a Malt Shoppe in Provo, UT, called Stevenett’s. It is now just, The Malt Shoppe, but you will still see the same faces, just years younger, cruising the place on Friday and Saturday nights.

Well, this one Saturday night when I was working, a really famous visitor decided to grace the place with his existence. I had heard of him and I wanted to marry him just like all of my 5 roommates, but I really had no idea what he looked like.

We were only open until 11PM on Saturdays, because the Sabbath starts at midnight and that would allow all the Mormon workers to get the place clean and home in time. This night, everyone was out on a date or hanging out with friends. The weather was great. It was 12:30 and our line was still out the door. I was frustrated.

So, this guy with outdated muscleman pants, a Jackson Hole baseball cap, and a highschool football T-shirt makes his way to the front of the line. I was working the register and thinking, “Boy, this guy is cute; he just needs some new clothes.” He was friendly; he smiled and asked, “what’s good?” Remember, I just want to go home and I am sick of these customers. I said, “I don’t know, you have been standing in line for at least a half an hour, have you not had a chance to figure it out?” He was taken back a bit. I polished it off with,”I like________, but everyone’s tastes are different, and so I can’t tell you what you will like.”

He sat there looking at the menu, and I questioned, “What is Jackson Hole?” He said,”You have never heard of Jackson Hole.” I said,”NO, sorry, I am not a Utah Native.” He said, “Where are you from?” I said, “Where are you from?” He said,”I asked you first.” I said you probably haven’t heard of it. He said,”Try me.” I said, “California.” He said, “Heard of it.” I said,”Carlsbad, bet you haven’t heard of that?” He said,”Actually, I have vacationed there a few times. It is a great place.” and he continued on to tell me about places he had visited in my town.

I said,”So, where are you from?” He said,”Several places actually, Connecticut, Utah, California.” I said,”Oh, you’re a military kid.” If you haven’t figured it out by now, the guy I was giving attitude was Steve Young. He is obviouslly not a military kid, but I am sure he found this rather humorous considering I was either making a really good front that I didn’t know who he was, or I was just a total idiot.

He later asked me what I was doing after work (I like to claim that he would have dumped his sister or his date and hung out with me), but I think he was just being nice. I told him I was preparing my talk to give in church the next day. He said,”Oh, that is why you want to go home so bad.” I said,”yep.” At this point, another guy came and took over the register for me and I went back in the kitchen. The cook said,”You sure were striking the fancy of Steve Young.” I said, “Who?” He said, “That was Steve Young.” I was mortified.

The next day, my roommate was in charge of a fireside (something that Mormon’s do on some Sunday nights…an extra gathering.) After hearing my claim to fame, my roommate decided that I had to give the opening prayer. As I walked up she claimed that Steve said that I looked so familiar and that she told him about the night before. She said that he said,”Oh yeah, she is hilarious!” Who knows if that conversation really took place, but I think if it is true that Steve Young thinks I am hillarious, then you should really continue reading my blog, right?

Tennessee Judiciary

Courhouse for the 6th Circuit of the Eastern District of TN

Alright, here’s another funny story.

My friend had knee surgery on Monday and because her husband was unable to go with her, I offered to accompany her. She gladly accepted my offer, so I got my mother-in-law (she is such a saint) to take the kids.

When we got to the same-day-surgery unit, I instantly realized that these people were all thinking that we were a “couple”. I had just had my haircut short, we both had wedding rings on…etc.etc. When I went in with her and she had to get her gown on, it became a little too much for me to keep quiet about. I just HAD to tell the nurse that, “I AM HER FRIEND, her husband couldn’t be here today.”

When the orthopedic surgeon came out and called for my friend’s family to come and get the scoop….I stood up. He had a VERY surprised look on his face. My friend is very wholesome and innocent and I could see the look of utter astonishment in his eyes. My husband got a chuckle as I told him the first words that I said to the surgeon (we’re going back to my obsessive need to explain myself). I said, “I am just a FRIEND of hers; her husband had to work today.” The surgeon looked somewhat relieved, but also dissapointed…go figure?

Well, I went and sat back down in the lobby, waiting for my friend to come out of her anesthesia (they said they would call me). I decided that after two hours it was time to strike up a conversation with the man sitting closest to me. He looked in his 70’s or 80’s. I asked him who he was waiting for. He said, “My wife is having surgery on her breast today.” (I guess when you get to a certain age, you don’t blush saying the word breast to a woman who is a total stranger.) He went on to relay that him and his wife were in the their 60’s and then he proceeded with their whole medical history. His wife had a tumor in her breast and he had lung cancer in 1996, but came out just fine. (I was astonished when he went for a smoke break a little while later)

Well, as he was talking on and on about his family’s medical history, I thought to myself, “Oh no, I am going to be stuck hearing all about this for the next hour.” I then caught a glimpse of his baseball cap…it said, “Tennessee Judiciary”. Then, I thought, score, I may have just made my husband a contact with a judge or somebody important. I then proceeded to tell him that my husband was in Law School and I made reference to his hat. He said, “I worked for the TN Supreme Court for 29 years.(or some high figure like 29)”

I said, “Oh yeah, what did you do?” He said, “I was in the maintanence department.” Well, there went my contact, unless LG wants to clean the floors of the courthouse for the rest of his life….I don’t think that would pay off the student loans, though.

Well, I didn’t want to make the man feel bad, and so I said,”That is what my dad does for a living. He is in maintenance.” [My dad is a contractor and can do or fix anything, but he maitains all of the LDS church buildings in Southern Utah]. He smiled as if to say, “Well, I am glad that you understand.”, but he didn’t say another word until I probed him for more private family information. It is amazing what you can learn about a person in one hour. He turned out to be a really nice guy; the best guy I know in the Tennessee Judiciary.

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 Night Tremors

How trashed we look after a full day

This is a picture that we took of ourselves, shortly after we got the kids to sleep last night. We were so tired as you can see by how trashed we look. Raising kids is hard work. Parents really need to relax more than they do, epecially us. Someday we are going to check into a spa and stay there for a whole year to make up for all the stress we have had in the past 7+ years. I think that relaxing is impossible for us right now. We stress trying to plan time to NOT stress.

The good news was that the girls were asleep. We could then move on to our own agendas: cleaning house, doing homework, and SHOWERING for the first time in 3 days (that is when I know I have it good….when I get a shower). I got on to blog after all of that and could only do it for 10 minutes before my medicine kicked in.

News through IM

He’s in!

lgee_97: hey

lgee_97: I’m in class

alice_goldenchild: hi…we got a letter from the mba program. would you like me to open it now

lgee_97: yeah

alice_goldenchild: it isn’t big, but kind of thick

lgee_97: open it

alice_goldenchild: so far, a leather UT MBA coaster…..looking promising

alice_goldenchild: first word…..CONGRATULATIONS!

lgee_97: cool

alice_goldenchild: in hand writing at the bottom….CONGRATS LEGRAND…SEE YOU HERE NEXT FALL DONNA

alice_goldenchild: I am SO PROUD OF YOU

lgee_97: she’s who I interviewed with

lgee_97: Donna

lgee_97: yeah, yeah

alice_goldenchild: what a relief…i thought that you would bottom out, if you didn’t make it

alice_goldenchild: really…that is awesome…other peopel can’t even get in and you got in while attending law school

alice_goldenchild: i have to take credit for my essays though

alice_goldenchild: did you tell jeremy already

lgee_97: yes you do

lgee_97: he’s not in this class

alice_goldenchild: YOu have to go

alice_goldenchild: I want you to

alice_goldenchild: so, you could still IM

lgee_97: we’ll talk about it

alice_goldenchild: alright..i am blogging about penelope…check it out in a few

lgee_97: he’s not online right now

alice_goldenchild: did you know that the perkins paid $750 for their wills to be written

alice_goldenchild: man, we could have made some money

alice_goldenchild: I LOVE YOU>>>>>>CONGRATS HON>>>>NO one deserves it more

lgee_97: thanks

alice_goldenchild: news over IM….this could be an entry on my blog i should cut and paste

alice_goldenchild: except I would have to take out the part about ….. (which I did)

lgee_97: you’re so funny

alice_goldenchild: i’m going to do it

What we do for love

What in the world have we come to in America? We can commercialize anything. I was reading a publication produced by my Congressman the other day. It stated that America is the home to less than 4% of the World’s population, yet we are the consumers of 25% of the world’s goods….no wonder we are so fat.

So, this is my first official entry. My husband did my real first one because he created this blog for me for Valentine’s Day. Ahhhh….let’s hear it….how sweet. I guess he called it “I’m so funny” because I think that I am, and he likes to tease me that way. He thinks I am funny too, just not as much as I think that I am funny.

A little background and then back to Valentine’s Day. I am a 31 year old housewife…yeah, stop reading, I can only be BORING. My husband, whom I call, LG, but has a “real” name that I am not so crazy about, LeGrand. I only like his name because it is his; it is not a name I would ever wish upon my children. Although, if we ever have a son, he will probably have the misfortune of having his dad’s name at the middle of his. We have been married since Aug. ’97 and have three kids…Abigail (5), Sophia (3), and Isabella or Bella (19 mos). My husband is in his second year of Law School at UT and we are as poor as poor can be. So, most of my entries will probably be about this wonderful predicament of poverty.

Going back to the commercialization of Valentine’s. Abigail had her first school valentines party today. Remember we are POOR, therefore, Abigail goes to a “No Child Left Behind School”. Today I went in for Abigail’s school party. I am somewhat of a regular face. Only one other mom and I ever volunteer. All the other parents are either working or it seems that they don’t care as to whether or not their kid ever learns anything. Mind you, I know that education is a huge focus of mine.

On with the story. Many of the children in Abigail’s class often go to school with dirty clothes on and/or hair that hasn’t been brushed in days…. not their fault, by the way. I think that all of these kids are just awesome, but they do have their problems….mostly their parents. (not that I am perfect by any means) At least 40% (numbers could be higher) of the kids at Norwood Elementary eat the FREE breakfast that the school provides because their parents can’t even manage to feed them before school. My guess is most of the kids get FREE school lunches also.

Only 5 kids in the whole school participated in the free summer reading program. Abigail is the only one in her class who EVER gets Tigger tickets for actually reading at the open library day at the school. So, for the majority of the year, the parents of these children are doing close to nothing to show their kids that they love them.

But, today, wow, you would think that these kids were the most loved in the world. You would not believe the junk food that the parents sent in for this party and the valentines that these “poor” kids brought. I guess I should be happy that the parents are doing something for their kids and the kids really were having a blast, but I find it sad that the only thing we can do for our kids on a holiday about love is buy them into the ground.

Leave it to Americans to ruin a holiday that was named for a Saint. Kids don’t make their own Valentines anymore; the schools only allow pre-bought treats; there are no more handmade mailboxes or the nice letters that the parents send in. All of this stuff is way too much work. Going to a party at the school to actually celebrate with your kids is too much work, but we can all buy each others’ love…or so it seems.

Yeah, we don’t have room to talk. You’re 100% correct in your assumption that we let Abigail have the free school lunch. But, we are poor, remember, and for a good reason….education, not just because we are too lazy to go and get a job. We are poor enough to be on welfare but we are not. But, we do get the free school lunch. And we are the awful parents that let her go to the “no child left behind” school because we are too lazy to drive her across to a “good” school that we transferred her to.

But, I tell you what, every morning when she eats that bowl of cereal at home instead of at school, she knows that she is loved. Every time I make the huge effort to get a sitter for my two younger kids and go into her class to help her teacher, the smile on her face tells me that she knows I love her. When she’s bathed and has brushed hair and clean underwear…she has to feel something warm fuzzies coming from her Mama.

Well, this first entry is kinda mumble jumble. My mind is a little fried today. This morning I got to go to the TN State Dept of Human Services to renew our TennCare, which thanks to Governor Bredesen we will most kindly be kicked off this year. Then, I went to my daughter’s school and witnessed the Valentine phenomenon. Then, we delivered Valentines to my girl’s little friends from the neighborhood and church.

I then had the joy of finishing off the errand day with a trip to my local Health Dept. I went to get my refill on my birth control. Yes, I do know what that is. Well, what was supposed to be a really quick trip turned out the exact opposite. I should have known. This is normal when you get the “free” services for the poor that the health department provides. I left with my prescription in hand a totally frazzled hour and 1/2 later. The nurse practitioner (because when you are poor you never get to talk to an actual doctor) had the nerve to tell me my blood pressure was high…..duh, I just had to reel in my three wild animals in your lobby for the past hour.

The longer I am poor, the more I realize why there are parents out there who have seemed to give up. After being treated like poop everywhere you turn, you eventually will feel that way and act that way. I have been fortunate not to buy into that thinking yet. I hope that I can come out of law school with my pride restored.

What we do for love.