Author: Big Mama

  • Memes can make blogging so much easier some days

    Barb at A Chelsea Morning tagged me for this meme and I really like it. It’s hard to come up with the memories because there are so many, so these are the moments that came to mind. I’m sure I’ll think of other things later and wish I’d mentioned them. But for now, here they are.

    1. Favorite Memory of your Mother?
    One thing I’ve always loved about my mama is that she can be spontaneous. I remember going to visit her one weekend while I was in college and a big ice storm was blowing in. The newscasters were warning everyone to stay off the roads and just stay home if you could avoid going out. Well, always being wise and cautious, we decided that if we were going to be stuck inside the rest of the weekend, we better get to Walmart and stock up on some things while we still could. We walked up and down the aisles for at least an hour and a half loading up our cart with essentials like new makeup and bunny rabbit houseshoes. It’s just a fun memory of the two of us laughing together.

    I remember when we got home there were about a million messages on the answering machine from my Nanny who was worried to death about us and we had to call her back and explain that we weren’t in peril, but had just been at the Walmart. I think she wanted to kill us both which made us laugh even more.

    Another thing I’ll always remember about my mama is how well she took care of us when we were sick. She’d make me a comfy little spot on the couch and fix me some cinnamon toast or anything else I wanted. This probably caused me to be more than a little bit of a hypochondriac because I loved all the back scratches and pampering I got when I wasn’t feeling well.

    2. Favorite Memory of your Father?
    I have great memories of going to stay at my dad’s house when I was younger and he would let us play Colecovision or Blind Man’s Bluff (in the house, which tells y’all he didn’t have a lot of breakable stuff) until late at night and then sometimes we’d all camp out in the living room to sleep.

    I will also never forget how irritated he was with the baby nurses at the hospital the night Caroline was born. He watched them clean her up through the window and was so annoyed at how rough he thought they were. It was just the beginning of his love for Caroline and a small glimpse of what a wonderful grandfather he is.

    3. Favorite Memory of your Siblings?
    I have one younger sister and she is almost 4 years younger than me. When I was little, I was scared of the dark so we shared a room. Some of my favorite memories are of the two of us staying up late talking as I shared my 5th grade wisdom with her and told her about the dog eat dog world of junior high. We’d scratch each other’s backs, play games and pretend to be asleep if my mom came in the room.

    I’ll also never forget that she and her husband came over when I was in labor with Caroline and took my car to get vacuumed out. It was a true act of love because it was hotter than blue blazes outside. I can be a little OCD (see post below) and in spite of my labor pains was obsessed with the fact that I could not bring my new baby home from the hospital in an unvacummed car.

    4. What one skill would you like to wake up tomorrow and be able to do (though you’d never learned it)?
    I wish I could sew. I would love to be able to make cute outfits for Caroline. I adore looking at fabrics and imagining all the possibilities, but I can barely sew a button on.

    5. Which one of your dreams has come true?
    I always dreamed of being happily married and having a family of my own. God has done more than I asked or imagined and I’m grateful.

    This was a fun one. If you decide to do it, leave me a comment so I can come visit!

    Have a great day!

  • A little OCD never hurt anybody

    Since I can tell y’all anything, I have a true confession. I really am a little OCD. I tend to get a little obsessed about things. There is really no rhyme or reason to what my obsession of the week will be, it just depends on what’s going on.

    One thing that is consistent though, is my obsession with decluttering my house. I can go along for days and be just fine. There can be papers on the kitchen island, toys in the living room, the playroom can be a complete disaster and I’m okay with it…for a while.

    But once I start to get a little stressed about something or Caroline has already thrown 3 fits and it’s only 9 a.m. I start to suffer from what I like to call clutter anorexia. Y’all know how you hear that one of the reasons people become anorexic is to gain control of something in their lives? That’s like me, but with cleaning up clutter. All of a sudden I need those papers off the island IMMEDIATELY and if you’re drinking from a glass you better have it in your hand or it’s going straight to the dishwasher and those Legos in the living room need to be back in the playroom this instant.

    I’ll wait until Caroline isn’t paying attention and I’ll walk stealthily into the playroom and load up a grocery sack to send off to the McDonalds Happy Meal playground in the sky. I need order restored to my little corner of the world. I need to feel in control of something.

    Doesn’t this make y’all want to come visit?

    Anyway, I know that I have this in me and I try to keep a reign on it and not inflict my sickness on the other members of my household, although P will tell you that he has been the victim of me throwing away more than one important piece of paper. So far, Caroline hasn’t seemed to notice that My Little Pony now only has one hairbrush instead of an entire set, but apparently she does know her Mama well as the following story will prove.

    Friday night she went to spend the night with Mimi and Bops. They are currently in the middle of replacing their back patio, so it is a huge mess right now and Caroline hadn’t seen it since they started the demolition. When they walked into the house, Caroline immediately saw the destruction through the glass doors and put her hands on her cheeks and kept shaking her head and saying “Oh dear me, Oh dear me, Oh dear me” and then she said “My mama is not going to like this”.

  • The Prodigal

    I originally posted this on August 13, but am reposting to participate in Lauren’s at Created For His Glory tour of testimonies. To read more testimonies, go visit Lauren here.

    I grew up in church, so I can’t remember the first time I heard the story of the Prodigal Son. It was just another Bible story like Noah and the ark, Joseph and the coat of many colors, or Moses and the parting of the Red Sea. I never gave it much thought.

    As a teenager, I slowly turned away from the Christian foundation I had been given as a child. I had always been just on the fringe of being really popular because I didn’t drink and go to all the parties, and by my junior year I was sick of it. I jumped in with both feet and pretty quickly found myself dating one of the most popular boys in school, going to all the good parties (you know the ones that involved parents being out of town and kegs of beer), and rebelling from all I knew to be right.

    My downward spiral continued throughout high school and well into college. I knew what was right, but I was so stubborn. As I became more and more unhappy with the choices I was making, I started looking for answers. Finally, one night during my senior year in college, I picked up No Wonder They Call Him the Savior by Max Lucado.

    His account of the prodigal son rocked me to my core. I had never before understood how much God loved me, how much He wanted me and how His grace completely covered every mistake I had made.

    The next week I started attending a Bible study called Breakaway led by a student named Gregg Matte (who is now the head pastor of First Baptist Church in Houston). I walked into the room feeling a little intimidated. A guy named Chris Tomlin (maybe y’all have heard of him) started leading worship and sang a song called Grace Flows Down. Y’all I cried like a baby, not just a few tears but a full on ugly cry.

    Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
    Amazing Love, now flowing down
    from hands and feet that were nailed to a tree
    Your Grace flows down and covers me
    and covers me
    and covers me
    and covers me
    I didn’t care how I looked, I didn’t care who was watching, and I didn’t care what it cost me because for the first time I realized that it had cost Him everything and He did it for me. And like the prodigal son, I went running home and the best part…my Father came running to meet me.

  • I’ll be alone, dancing you know it baby

    Yesterday I had a little time to do some shopping, so I headed out to our fancy new shopping center here in town. I’ve already discussed at length the return of 80’s fashions, so I won’t bore y’all by repeating my thoughts on the subject.

    Consider it a public service announcement when I tell you that the 80’s fashion is out in full force. I saw leggings, I saw vests, and I am not lying when I say that I saw knickers. I went in Forever 21 to get a good look at what these crazy kids are wearing and it was like a flashback to my closet in junior high and high school.

    I got in my car and I promise y’all that Don’t You Forget About Me was on the radio. I was thrown full force into a huge bout of 80’s nostalgia. Added to this recipe for a walk down memory lane is the fact that I currently have braces on my teeth. I am one Junior/Senior prom drama and bad perm away from fully reliving my teen years.

    Hearing Simple Minds belting out their 80’s anthem, took me back to the days of crying over my 8th grade crush. His name was Kendall and why, oh why didn’t he like me back? Never mind that he was 15 and a sophomore and I was a mere 13 year old 8th grader. Did he not see how cute I looked in my splatter paint pants with my oversize yellow sweater and matching yellow flats? Did he not appreciate the fact that I could make my hair three times the size of my head? Why couldn’t it work out for us the way it did for Andi and Blaine in Pretty in Pink? Why couldn’t he be waiting outside a church for me leaning against his red porsche like Jake Ryan did for Samantha? Why? WHY? (other than the fact that he drove a ’82 blue Toyota Camry)

    Then, fate stepped in and we saw each other at a church lock-in. We held hands during a compelling viewing of Rocky III. I went and bought the soundtrack because it was “our movie”. And then…he moved away. It took like a week and a half of listening to Air Supply and REO Speedwagon before I was able to move on.

    I don’t know why I’m telling y’all all this, maybe because the pair of skinny jeans I may or may not have tried on yesterday completely cut off the circulation to my brain.

    Y’all have a great weekend!

  • I use the term "celebrity" loosely here

    I haven’t had the chance to finish watching this week’s Project Runway. It is currently taunting me, waiting for me on DVR. I’ll get to it right after Greys’ Anatomy tonight. But until I do, here is a little Project Runway information.

    Gulley called me last week to let me know that her sister Sarah had a celebrity sighting a few nights before while eating dinner in New York City.

    Before I tell y’all who she saw, let me tell you a little about Sarah. She is Gulley’s younger sister by 8 years and she is our expert on all things fabulous. Sarah graduated from the University of Texas but we don’t hold it against her. After graduation, she moved to New York City and she’s so cool that she can just refer to it as the city. She worked for a big PR firm and met real celebrities like Delta Burke.

    Gulley and I went to visit her in 2002 and she showed us all around New York. We went to every restaurant we could think of in hopes of spotting a celebrity. We did see the girl from the movie Simone and right now y’all are saying “who?” My point exactly. She also took us shopping on Canal Street to help us find THE perfect accessories for the upcoming season.

    If we have a fashion question, Gulley will get on the horn with Sarah to get the answer. If we need to know anything slightly “hip” or trendy, you can guarantee that Gulley will call Sarah. She is like our very own Carrie Bradshaw, but younger and without any of the promiscuity.

    Anyway, back to my original story. Sarah is now married and no longer lives in the city but she lives close enough to visit. She was there the other night having dinner and who did she see at the next table? Angela from Project Runway.

    The first thing I wanted to know was what she was wearing and the answer was baggy cargo pants and clunky boots. No big shock there. I wonder if the cargo pants had those little rosettes on the bottom?

    Thank you Sarah for keeping us in the big city loop and thanks for always being fabulous.

  • In a kingdom far, far away

    Last night before bed, I sat Caroline down on the potty so hopefully she could have one last tee-tee before she went to sleep. I was kneeling down next to her and she wrapped her arms around my neck, pulled me close until our noses were touching and said, “I’m going to tell you a story. Once upon a time, there was a beautiful, beautiful girl named Mama”.

    Does it even matter what the rest of the story was? My heart exploded into a millon tiny pieces.