May in Pictures

Pictures from April

Another great book from my youth

Its a story about a boy who is quite legendary but really for ordinary things. He has experienced some rough stuff but there is a calm serenity almost naivety about him. A boy on a journey through life and learns some along the way, we get to learn too!

This is dedicated to the ones I love

My friends far and wide. I have had this post floating around in my head and popping up every now and then but it feels like such a powerful message that I will not be able to convey. I don't know if everyone is like this but for ME music and memories are almost synonymous. They appear together a lot. Sometimes I'll hear a song and then be instantly reminded of a moment that occurred when that song played, a memory so vivid I can almost smell it. Then sometimes the memory will come first as I am reminiscing of someone I'll hear a song in my head that reminds me of them and I'll smile at the memory of that moment. I am flooded with memories right now. So here it goes...


The title of this blog post is a song by The Shirelles that reminds me of a friend that lived down the street growing up. We would play this on...are you ready...her parents record, as in LP, player. And we would dream about our future loves. Who I'm sure were one of the members of New Kids on the Block.


I have The Steve Miller Band in my CD player in the car right now. You know The Joker and so many more. This CD or any SMB reminds me of my friend Christa and that summer I practically lived with her after my parents split up. Steve Miller band and Chopin. Weird I know but we would listen to SMB while we got ready for the day at 2pm to do the things that 16 y/o do in the summer. Chopin was played at night when we went to sleep to help us wind down after a fun and possibly emotional day.


Led Zeppelin anything reminds me of my friend Aaron. We would ride around in high school and it would be a long ride because he never took the freeway anywhere, and we would listen to Led Zeppelin 99.9% of the time. He had some collector's edition or something and he would try and explain how he learned to play the drums to this band and they have a different beat and so his music will always sound different. Or something like that. And I would like to add that he never knew the title of the songs so if I am every around you and identify a Led Zeppelin song don't ask me the title because I won't know and I blame it on Aaron.


Oh my gosh Ryan F.- the funniest guy at my high school and all around nice guy. I am reminded of him when I hear Smashing Pumpkins Rat in a Cage. Just one of those things.


Tim McGraw's Live like you were dying reminds me of a friend from high school,  Andy, who has gone on to heaven. Why this song is significant is more that Tim McGraw and Andy are connected in my brain and this song feels like how Andy lived, even though his death was an accident he was full of life and loved,  and was loved by, those around him.


Also by Tim McGraw- his song Seventeen- reminds me of driving back from Panama City Beach my high school spring break with my friend Buffy. That spring break deserves its very own post but suffice it to say that I was feeling an emotional high after having been with my besties for a week in Florida doing things that we had talked about doing what felt like all high school. This song came on and I heard
"Seventeen only comes once in a lifetime. Don't it just fly by wild and free, Goin' any way the wind blew, baby. Seventeen, livin' on crazy dreams, Rock and roll and faded blue jeans,and standing on the edge of everything. Seventeen"
I remember thinking- hey I'm 17 right now- this must be a pretty awesome thing, I'd better soak it up.


Del Amitri (your asking, who?) Roll to me- "Look around your world pretty baby, Is it everything you hoped it'd be, The wrong guy, the wrong situation, The right time to roll to me.Roll to me" Anybody? Well this post reminds me of my friend Jess. Of all the songs that are potentially significant in our life long friendship (since 3rd grade whoop whoop!) this song will take.me.back. to her bedroom on Woody Hollow summer before our freshman year in high school. Listening to TAPES that we had made off the RADIO- gasp!


Dave Matthews Band- well the list would be too long since they have such a long play list and were liked by so many of my peeps but every time I hear Satellite I am taken back to my freshman year in high school, hanging out with seniors and thinking that things couldn't get better than they were at that moment. I was almost right.

Escape (The pina colada song ) reminds me of my college rommie and bff, Em, who thought that the line "Do you like pina coladas?" was in fact, "Do you like beans and potatoes?" I know I do. But who would write a song about that? Anyway I love her despite this fact and am glad for it actually because now I can be reminded of her anytime I turn on an easy listening station and hear this song.


So anything CCR or The Beatles, oh yeah, and Simon and Garfunkel- is going to remind me of my dad. He was and is, big into music and lucky enough for him his generation did it right when it comes to tunes. He had a lot of options but chose the best when influencing me with wonderful lyrics and melodies. Our father daughter dance at my wedding was to Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge over troubled water. A mix of what our relationship was and is and what I hope it to be. The last verse being my favorite.

Desperado by The Eagles reminds me of my dad too. But that's another story as well.

the Wicked soundtrack and specifically the song Popular reminds me of my friend Sarah. Because we sing it together and its awesome. Also if you know her you know that its likely that any song could get itself attached in your mind connected with her as she sings A LOT. But again this one just sticks out for her and me.

And last but not least songs that remind me of my sweet love- Our song is Broken Road by Rascal Flatts and I think of him every time I hear it.  Also Nothing on but the radio by Gary Allan. We danced to this song and many more the night he asked me to go steady. Hearing this song takes me right back to that moment. Very PG I assure you, but sweet also. 

I could go on but this post is already monstrous. If you've read it all you are either previously mentioned or curious if you were going to be mentioned. I mean if I were you I would be.  If you were not mentioned it does not mean in any way that I never think of you. Hardly. Just couldn't think of you + song at this moment.

Spaghetti Head

As I mentioned in earlier posts I am starting to get paranoid about privacy. Not way paranoid but mildly. So as a friend pointed out if I am going to avoid names in posts then I might need to change my blog title. Hilarious. That I never thought of that. Seriously. So I came up with the title because I have adopted the concept that my brain is like a bowl of spaghetti. Things that would seem linear to others actually swirl around and touch on each other in my mind. That means that it may seem random to you but if you want me to "follow the spaghetti" for you I will. And it will all make sense. I swear.

If not, you'll at least get a laugh. Hopefully.

From the Archives "A Funny Thing Happened"

*This post never got published  (from December) and I was working with this same group today and thought it would be more than appropriate to fill you in ...


ORIGINAL POST


A funny thing happend
on the way to the store, okay not the store but it was funny. I was at work actually (boo! down with the power!) and I was covering for someone in our elderly program (think grandparents with mobility and attitude) for maybe like one hour. To fully appreciate what transpired in that time I need to fill you in on the last time I saw this group. It was a month or so ago when my sweet hubby was covering for this program and I brought him lunch. Apparently these old ladies had sniffed out that we were married prior to my appearance and had been telling him all morning about how he should get me pregnant. Literally HOW. Thanks for your help grandmas but I don't remember anything about rain, a tin roof and 3AM in sex ed. Thanks but um, that's ok. All day they implored "You better take her home, its raining, its a good day today." They of their own volition decided that we should reproduce. The way old people can just tell you what to do, boss you around, and get all up in your business. Geez!


So

Elderly woman#1: "Do you have any news to tell us?"


Me: looking confused and at the other staff member for some assistance as to what they could be referring to I'm thinking like gossip at the main building or something "No not really. Not a lot happening."


Staff member: "No they mean if you're preganant."

Me: "No, uh, nope" I'm still confused at this point and wondering why in the world they are asking me this. Believe it or not is not a common quesiton I get from them, or anyone.

Elderly woman #1: "Really are you sure, you look all spread out."

Me: Open face gaping

Ederly woman #2: " Yeah, well its been raining for days now. Whach y'all been doing?


Obviously not what you have been grandma- eeewwwwwwwwww gross.

Where I post 4 months worth. Or Its about to get crazy up in here.

No post since March! It couldn't have been that long ago. My/our life isn't that busy. Really in pondering the reason there have not been more regular posts is that I think whatever transpires in our life falls into one of two categories. One-its either not interesting enough to blog about or Two- its too personal- you know the ooey gooey that you don't want to be vulnerable and expose. I think that for the above reason it is perfect to blog about your kids- they are interesting, at least you as there parent think so and its not your "stuff" your "airing" for all the world. Alas that is my excuse for having a currently boring blog .One day it will be awesome. No day soon though. So in the meantime let me see if I can come up with something interesting.

What you've missed since March:

• I am now 29 and hubs is 31.
• I have decided to not call my husband by name or other family members for that matter on my blog. I have decided that I am uber popular and so everyone is reading my blog and THEREFORE I must protect my privacy. So our aliaseses are as followed me- "I" hubby- whatever I feel like at the time, like hubby.
• Sometimes when I say the word "regularly" I get stuck on the 3rd syllable so it sounds like this "regulerlerlerlerley" There are a few other words in which this happens. However I can't recall them now.
• My Mom and niece came and visited us in the spring. I took too many pics. The End.
• We went to Ohio with hubby's family in June for my MIL and her twin's b-day.Have YOU ever been/driven to Ohio? I have twice in my shortish marriage. Be jealous.
• I am now working a flex schedule at work which means MWF I get off at 3:30. I feel like a human being now. Its awesome.
• Related to the above bullet I get to carpool with my main squeeze EVERY day. Its awesome. For real. I know some couples would go bananas if they were with their spouse that much but the Lord saw fit that he and I are not those people. And I love it!
• We went to my college roomie and bff's baby brothers wedding in b'ham (that was a lot of b's). It was so so so so so good to get to spend time with her and her FOO and her hubby and son. Love you Em! And good for Hub's to experience that- they were like my second family in college.
• We made our annual trip to Chattanooga for the 4th of July. It was nice.
• OH- Hubs  has been playing a lot of sports. As in 2 softball teams in the Spring added one indoor soccer team in the late spring and now is playing another round of indoor and one softball team isn't over. Wheeeewww! It's awesome though. I love it. It keeps us out of the house and in case you didn't know- he's pretty awesome at sports. So that means most of the time he leaves the games a happy little boy. Which is good for me in the car ride home. Ain't that right wives:)
• We did some marathon, floor to ceiling, cleaning. The kind where you're sore for days afterwards. It was motivated by the fact that we were going to have some out of town company that wasn't family. It was very much needed. I love a clean house. Why can't I remember that when I try and dirty it up. Sigh.
• Most recently we went out of town with my dear sweet gal pal to her family roots town of BEatrice Alabama. Where my gal pal goes from being Sarah to SArah.I capitalized the first two letters because that is where the phonetic emphasis is and to get the full experience you must know that we were in BEatrice Alabama and not Beatrice with SArah not Sarah. Where is it you ask. Well its in Monroe County the seat of which is a tiny (but bigger that BEatrice) town called Monroeville. Monroeville is the real life town that Harper Lee based Maycomb on in her famous book. In other news- Harper Lee is related to SArah. Or she is related to her. Get it. Oh yeah and if you ever make it there or probably anywhere in south west central Alabama make sure to ask for Wooder and not Water when you are a thirsty. You'll just have to trust me on this one.

So probably my next post will just be a bunch of picture that you can attempt to match with the aforementioned bullets. Please contain your enthusiasm. Your excitement is borderline embarrassing.

Another one about my Mamaw

If you’ve ever met her you would know she is worthy of many a blog posts.


Growing up my brother and I would spend almost every Friday night with her and my papaw. She would take us to her house right after school. On the way there she would stop to get a paper. She wanted us to get it out of the machine at the store, so exciting as a kid. Even more exciting was that she would sing “The song” as we go close. I have no idea what tune to liken it to. Ask me someday and I’ll sing it for you. I swear.





"DeLena’s getting the Chattanooga News

Chattanooga News, Chattanooga News

DeLena’s getting the Chattanooga News

Chattanooga News Free Press



She’s a gettin’ it for her Mamaw

For her mamaw for her mamaw

She’s a gettin’ t for her mamaw

The Chattanooga News Free Press."

 It felt so special to hear my name in a song. And sung by my Mamaw who could, even then, sing the phonebook and you’d buy the record/albulm/mp3.


Very, very, sweet and special lady.

My Raisin'

Hubby says I was raised in a convenient store. I would say “How Rude!” but the evidence against me is overwhelming.



• Little Debbie donut sticks for breakfast. In elementary school. On a regular basis.


• Earliest school lunch memory is me at k-4 pulling out of my lunch pail every day a hot pink coconut covered hostess snack cake loving called the “Snoball”


• On school holiday celebrations if my mom had to bring anything she would get my mamaw to make it. That means it was going to be cupcakes with homemade icing (Crisco and powdered sugar). As an extra special treat she would make a little extra and let me eat it that morning for breakfast. With or without my donut stick. Before school.


• When my mom cooked supper if I was hungry before it was ready I could “snack” on a can of Vienna sausages and crackers.


• Individually wrapped chocolates (found at impulse points in the store) know me by name. Cherry cordials are amazing. As are Cadbury Easter eggs.


• I was probably in high school before I ever had a “good visit” to the dentist, you know- the ones when they didn’t find a cavity. We went every six months.

Me+ Baking =

I wanted to bake Jeremy a pie. I wanted it to be so so special. He loves fruit pies and dessert. Me not so much. But this dessert was going to be for him. I had seen it on Oprah (clue #1 it was going to be FABULOUS!) and on that show it was Cindy Crawford who said she makes it all the time and keeps it in her fridge constantly (clue #2) So I set out to make it, as a surprise, for the very first time for Valentines day. The day of love. And this pie would say so.


Buying the ingredients to said pie was fairly easy until I had to find rhubarb. What the @^%$ does rhubarb look like? The word on the street was “red celery.” So the search began. And continued. And continued on. I mean if it’s not in the produce section of Kroger I have no idea where to look. Miracle of all miracles I ran into one of Jeremy’s high school buddies in the middle of the hunt. She’s super smart but also a nutritionist so I knew she would be able to lead me to the promised plant. Vegetable? Fruit? She confirmed that there was no fresh available and advised me to look in the frozen section. Genius.


The hunt continued. So while in the artic I am finding many new things but not rhubarb. Rhubarb?! Rhubarb?! Where are you?!!! So the cold caused me to remember something. Sometimes things that are frozen are also found in cans. Who is the smart one now!


The can aisle. Looking up and down. All around. Finally there it is! I grab 2 moderate sized cans to make sure I will have enough. Purchase all my ingredients and walk victoriously with my head held high to the car. Kroger did not defeat me this time!


When I got home I stripped the labels off the cans because it was a surprise, remember. And I still had a few days until the big day and I didn’t want him getting any ideas. I mean what else do you use rhubarb for?


So when the love day comes I commence baking. First let me say that I realized the first four or so ingredients just made the crust. Disappointing. I could’ve bought that. I tell myself that it will be better since it is homemade and press on to the filling part. This was easy. You just mix strawberries, rhubarb and sugar (maybe one or two other things small amounts though) together. This is going splendid. So the canned rhubarb is working out but it doesn’t look like red celery. Who was it that told me that? They must not know what they’re talking about. This was more like red/brown mush. Hmmm. So I cover the pie with the second crust and begin to bake.


The mush keeps sitting in my head. It really didn’t look like anything that would go with strawberries. Or in a pie. But then again, neither does “red celery”. I think about pulling the cans out of the trash but I remember I tore the labels off days ago. What to do? I tell Jeremy my dilemma in secret code. I may have messed up and I don’t know how to fix it.


I can’t shake it off. The pie is starting to emit an aroma but not that sweet smelling. Then I remember. Sometimes on can lids they give you some data like expiration etc. So against all odds I check it. This is what I see…






3/12/2012


RUTA






Now that is exceptionally odd. How do you spell Rhubarb. R-U- B something, something… I’m thinking.






Holy Holly Hobby!


I just made a strawberry RUTBAGA pie. For my hubby. For love day.


Yay.

Something to ponder when naming children

In this new day and age of search engines it makes it pretty easy to locate someone or at least get more info than if it were a more common name. hhhhhhmmmmmmmm. This is officially a new dislike for my name.

My Comeback Post

No pressure right. Well this post will not live up to any expecations I promise. If you even have any. I don't. What am I going to say...
Last night while laying in bed I acclamied (don't worry it's PG)
"I could be a Jehovah's Witness" What I meant was who needs holidays when every day is wonderful and a blessing from God. Every day I get another chance to live and love and worship and enjoy. I'm good with that. Every day Jeremy makes me feel special so it really really is okay that we never celebrated Valentines Day for officially the first time in our relationship. A fact which still makes him feel horrible. Which further proves my point.

Also I decided that the hours between 10pm-2am if by some chance I'm awake and not drooling on my pillow already, consistently cause me to reminesce and feel nostalgic. And last night I wondered if that would always be true. And then I was thankful again that I can be nostalgic and cheerful at the same time. I want that always to be true.