Author: Big Mama

  • Show and a tale of an Indian

    Caroline’s school has show and tell once a week and we’re supposed to bring something that starts with the letter of the week. Last week was the letter “A”, so I did some serious looking around the house and found an arrowhead. Perfection.

    I showed it to Caroline and told her it was a rock that Indians had carved to make an arrow so that they could use it to hunt. She was intrigued and I could see the wheels turning in her mind.

    Mimi and Bops showed up a little later to see her and she wanted to show them her precious arrowhead. She launched into a long story about someone named (as near as we can tell) Nibblewise. Apparently this arrowhead belonged to an Indian named Nibblewise and it was very IMPORTANT. He used it to shoot “Hiyotes” (coyotes) and Javelinas. She was very serious about her story and it went on and on and on. At one point I picked up our phone bill to look it over and she said “Mama, you need to put down that paper and listen about Nibblewise”. So I did. And when she finished her tale, she looked us all in the eye and said “Now you need to clap”. We gave her a thunderous round of applause.

    The girl has a future in fiction writing. I can’t even do justice to the telling of the legend of Nibblewise. I’m not sure if the class got the same story during show and tell, but if they did, it was a real treat.

  • We will return to our non-football programming tomorrow

    There is a quote by General Patton that is famous in Aggieland and last night as we played Army it was seen on t-shirts and signs everywhere.

    Give me an Army of West Point graduates
    and I’ll win a battle
    Give me a handful of Texas Aggies
    and I’ll win the war
    Anytime I see this quote, it always makes me so proud to be an Aggie. I love the school and its rich traditions. They are the lifeblood of the school and one of many reasons that attending Texas A&M is a truly unique experience.
    We had a great time at the game last night, in fact my throat is much worse for the wear from all the screaming and the yelling. Being in a stadium filled with maroon clad fans was just like going home. We saw old friends, we laughed and cheered, and we sawed varsitys horns off. At one point I became nostalgiac as I thought back to how many times I had stood with Gulley and watched the Aggies play. It was a fabulous night.
    Then the game started. Y’all my Aggies almost got beat by Army. To put that in perspective, Army was ranked last week as one of the 10 worst Division 1 football teams and they came within seconds of beating us. Honestly (and it hurts me to say this), Army deserved to win. The Ags got lucky and were it not for the deafening crowd helping our defense, I think we would have lost.
    It’s not that we don’t have the talent, we do. What I saw last night more than anything is the result of poor coaching. At one point my soft spoken friend Gulley was actually booing the entire coaching staff and in 15 years of watching games with her, that’s a first.
    Coach Fran’s head is on the chopping block and well, it should be. The sooner he and his golf cart get out of Aggieland the better off Aggie football will be. The team he put on the field last night, with the exception of a few players including Stephen McGee, showed a complete lack of discipline and that’s a coaching problem. When they eeked out the last minute win, they started doing cartwheels and making snow angels on the field and basically showing no respect to the Army team that outplayed them all night. They should’ve been walking across the field to shake Army’s hand for a game well played. That’s what Aggies do.
    So for today, here is my version of General Patton’s quote:
    Give me a horrible defensive coordinator
    and I’ll lose some games
    Give me a terrible head coach
    and I’ll run a football program completely down the drain

  • All I have to be

    When I was 10, I went to a YMCA camp with a group of girlfriends. It was my first summer camp experience and I loved everything about it, except maybe the salamanders in the showers.

    My counselor was named Carla and I thought she was the greatest thing I had ever seen. She was so mature, pretty and grownup. Looking back, she couldn’t have been any older than 17, but to a 10 year old she was IT.

    Carla was a Christian and she played a song for us called Mountaintop by a singer I had never heard of named Amy Grant. I fell in love with her music immediately and for years she was pretty much the only Christian artist I listened to (well other than the occasional Petra song, but I’m not sure it stands the test of time as well).

    When I got home from camp, my mom bought me an Amy Grant casette tape. I can’t remember the exact name, but it was a live recording. I listened to it so much over the years that it completely warped. One song stood out to me more than any other. It was a song that Amy wrote when she was 16 and to this day when I am struggling with something in my life the words come back to me and envelop me like a familiar friend.

    When the weight of all my dreams is resting heavy on my head
    and the thoughtful words of help and hope have all been nicely said
    but I’m still hurting wondering if I’ll ever be the one I think I am.
    Then you gently re-remind me that you made me from the first
    and the more I try to be the best, the more I get the worst
    and I realize the good in me is only there because of who You are.
    And all I ever have to be is what you’ve made me
    any more or less would be a step out of your plan
    as you daily recreate me help me always keep in mind
    that I only have to do what I can find
    and all I have to be
    all I ever have to be
    is what You’ve made me

    Are the words simple? Yes, but they resonate in my core. I get so busy trying to be or do what I think God wants me to be or do, that I forget to stop and ask Him. Sometimes, I just press on and press on and work so hard to be something or do something that ultimately I’m not cut out for. I’m just me, but He created me and knows better than anyone all of my strengths and weakenesses and has plans for me just the same. All I ever have to be is what He’s made me.

    “O Lord, you have searched me
    and you know me.”
    Psalm 139:1

  • Incredible with a capital eye

    I mentioned in my previous post, with utmost sympathy and concern, that P was having Lasik eye surgery today. What I didn’t know was that I was going to be able to watch the surgery happen live on a video monitor.

    Now because of my job, I read alot of articles in medical journals so I am well aware of the advances that have been made in medical technology. Did you know that a study came out this Spring that showed that a certain drug can actually reduce the amount of plaque in your arteries and that they discovered this by sending a teeny tiny little camera through peoples’ arteries? I find it unbelievable that modern science is now at the point where it can undo years of eating at McDonalds and that they can send a teeny tiny camera through your veins to prove it.

    Anyway, my point is that when you read about this stuff it’s one thing, but to see it was incredible.

    When we arrived for the surgery they offered him a Valium, which he declined. If I had known what I was going to see, I would’ve asked for it but I wasn’t thinking ahead.

    So he heads into the little room with all the big scary looking machines and I stand outside the door watching the whole thing on the monitor. Y’all they sliced into his eyeballs like they were pearl onions. Just watching it made me cringe and make noises like “Ooohh” and “Owwww” which probably explains why they didn’t let me be in the actual room. The whole thing lasted 20 minutes. I kid you not.

    Now it’s 4 hours later and while his vision is still fuzzy probably due to all the slicing and lasering, he can already tell that his vision is vastly improved which seeing as how they diagnosed him as legally blind is probably a good thing. Y’all he couldn’t even see the huge E at the top of the eye chart and tomorrow he has a 98% chance of having at least 20/20 vision. I think that’s incredible.

    I’m editing this to include the email that P sent out to his friends pre-surgery because I think it’s funny.

    I am going in for my Lasik at 1:30 today and would appreciate your prayers that all goes well. Statistically there is a 98% chance I will have perfect vision and 70% chance that I will have better than perfect. Please pray for the better than perfect. Recovery is supposed to be nothing and they say I can drive tomorrow if I think I can see well enough. Thanks for the prayers.

    P

    p.s. If I write yall tomorrow to give an update and it looks like this: uevn lnfvkbne foip nvoe;fnvj eqnd nqduj docndn doiqnnqd c vqo d qoivjr . You know it didn’t go so well.

  • I love you tomorrow, you’re only a day away

    I haven’t even told y’all about the biggest excitement in my week. Tomorrow I get to go see the Aggies play. They’re playing Army right here in town and Gulley’s stepdad, Big Roy, got tickets for all of us. Even better, they’re on the 50 yard line.

    P can’t go because he’s having Lasik eye surgery today and will be wearing goggles for the next 24 hours, but being the concerned wife that I am I made sure that his surgery wouldn’t interfere with me getting to see the Aggies. His doctor assured us he’ll be fine, so I’m going to the game with Gulley and family.

    It is going to be big fun. One of our other best friends from college, Meredith, is driving in from Shreveport with her husband and they’ll be tailgating with his family so we’re going to go up early and hang out with them for awhile. This alone will provide more entertainment than should be allowed. We spent many years in college tailgating with Gene’s family and sufficed to say when Gene’s dad, Leo, gets the pit going there is barbecue and fun aplenty.

    I brought Caroline over to Gulley’s house the other day so that she and Jackson could play for awhile. While the kids were busy playing, Gulley’s husband (we’ll call him J) came home from work and we started talking about all the things we were looking forward to about the game. Watching the Aggie band and the Corps march in, seeing old friends that we haven’t seen in a long time, and most importantly watching the Ags beat the hell outta Army. We were having a great time laughing about different college football memories.

    As if on cue, Gulley’s youngest who we call “brother” came toddling into the room and started dancing to some music. He was bobbing and twirling and all of a sudden just fell over. I said “Hey, I think I did that same move once at Hurricane Harry’s (which is a bar we used to frequent at A&M).” And then Gulley brought up a college memory that has made me laugh out loud every time I have thought about it this week.

    One night we were at Hurricane Harry’s hanging out and Gulley decided to have a seat so she put her bottom on the edge of a barstool so that she could hoist herself up. She gave a powerful hoist only to come to the startling revelation that what she had actually done was hoist herself into a trash can. There was Gulley with arms and legs askew hanging out of what had to be a filthy trash can. Being the good friends that we are, I immediately offered her assistance.

    I am sorry, that’s a complete lie. I was laughing so hard that I couldn’t stand up and had tears running down my face. It was a good 3-4 minutes before anyone in the crowd gained enough composure to help her out of the can.

    As she was retelling this story, her husband J was just looking at her shaking his head and said, “That’s one of the things I love about you. Your grace and delicate nature.”

    There is going to be alot of that grace and delicate nature on display tomorrow as we’re yelling our heads off on the 50 yard line. Good times to be had by all. Gig ’em Ags!

  • The little black and white dress

    For those of y’all who watch Project Runway, how glad were you that Laura won last night? Not only did I love her little dress, but I felt so bad for her because she was so down about last week. I mean this woman is pregnant with her 6th child. I have one child and have days where I can barely manage a coherent thought, so the fact that she is on this show coming up with brilliant designs amazes me. I’m not sure she’ll win the whole thing, because my money is still on Michael.

    Loved Michael’s white dress and the judges are so right that he has a great eye for the whole look. It just “worked” as Tim would say.

    Jeffrey’s outfit (and I use the term loosely) was as horrendous as his attitude. I don’t like Jeffrey. I don’t like the way he treats people and I am tired of his arrogant attitude. I took no small amount of pleasure in seeing him parade that truly hideous outfit down the runway. I knew Kayne was the one getting kicked off but I was glad Jeffrey was in the bottom two.

    Poor Kayne. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. He will be great at designing pageant gowns in the South. I was sad to see him go though because he really was the best personality of the bunch.

    Angela and Vincent. I knew they would both quickly be gone again once Heidi announced that they had to win to stay in the challenge. They did not disappoint.

    And last but not least, Ulli. I think the judges are finally starting to tire of her silk printed flowy dresses. They really all look like different versions of the same dress. Maybe she figures that Diane Von Furstenburg built her career with the wrap dress, so she can build hers with the dressy caftan. We’ll see what happens, but I’m betting if she doesn’t come up with something different there is no way she’ll win.

    So on that note, I’ll sign off. The casino episode of The Office is coming on and it’s a must see.