Who doesn't want to be Miss America?

Is there a little girl out there who didn't, at some point, entertain the idea of being Miss America? I mean, even if only for the crown?  Isn't that why it is so easy to conjure up the tune...."There she is, Miss America......?" 

When I was little, my best friend Sonja and I, would always make a big deal about the Miss America pageant.  Her Mom was sweet enough to build the hype quite a bit as well.  We always had a sleep over and little pads for scoring but mostly I remember during the commercials sashaying up and down their center hallway in what I think might have been her Mother's crinoline from her wedding dress.  It was long and flowing and to two starry eyed little girls, beautiful and just like the gowns the young ladies on TV were wearing!  If only we had a crown and scepter to complete the look!  What fun we had.   

Of course, this was well before today's world of pageants and pageant "systems" run amok. It was a time when it felt glamorous, very exclusive and elegant.   I think the reason I still enjoy the Miss America pageant is that it still holds on to at least a bit of it's original mission and flavor.  So tonight, you will find me watching and pulling for my state's lovely contestant, Suzi Roberts!  I find myself particularly big fans of our Southern girls in general, and love that we are usually well represented in the finals! 

Harvey threw a punch at Texas last week and Irma is making a mess in other parts of the South tonight but I know our beautiful Belles will walk the runway and make us proud because that is what a steel magnolia does when she is on the hunt for a crown.

Miss South Carolina Suzi Roberts

Go Suzi!!!!

Hurricane Irma....

Living an hour inland from the Atlantic, a lot of focus this week has been watching this beast, named Irma, churning in the Atlantic.  The endless guessing (forecasting?) of where she was going to go kept everyone on constant watch.  I can't count the times I have been asked this week if I was going to stay or evacuate. After weathering Matthew last year, who was a baby in comparison, I was more anxious than I would like to admit. Irma had me nervous and not wanting to go through a repeat of last year, and the flooding the year before.  To say our area has had a string of rough weather events over the last couple of years would be an understatement.  Also, seeing the devastation that Texas faced only a week or so ago made it feel even more frightening, not to mention the wild fires burning away the lives and land at a frenetic pace in the West.

For now, we seem to be totally out of the danger zone.  After a week of seeing the forecast track right at us, it is a relief to see it turn...sort of.  Either way, there is devastation coming and lives at risk.  Now it is tracking towards my daughter and son-in-law, my parents, many friends and family and that doesn't feel better.  It feels a lot like holding your breath while you pray a hedge of protection around those in Irma's path. 

A few days ago I did my hurricane prep and already gasoline was running low in some stations, bread was nonexistent and water?  You could forget it...and that was several days ago.  I think I was not the only person planning not to be caught off guard this year. Hotels and dog kennels are filling up now as people who previously never dreamed they would ever need to evacuate towards the beach are coming here.

I will admit, this week is the first time I have thought that maybe moving away from the coast might be worth it...and then Irma shows me it doesn't matter. There is some kind of risk everywhere.  I think the issue of having to ride these storms out alone is more the drive behind my internal debate on just picking up and leaving.  It is tiring.  But, here today....it is a gorgeous, not a cloud in the sky day...who would dream a monster is preparing an attack on the state of Florida at this very moment and heading northward towards Georgia? 

Praying God's protection upon everyone.  Stay safe.

Happy Birthday, baby boy...

 

How can I remember this day, buying this outfit and that sweet, soft blue blanket like it was yesterday? Maybe because the years seem to fly by faster and faster and I feel the shadow of adulthood all around?  This was my youngest son's 1 year photo.  We lived in New York at the time and I had a beast of a time finding anything semi-dressy.  My Southern Self was looking for something with smocking and preferably puffy pants but that was no where to be found in the New York where I was.  My youngest always loved to rub your ear (or his if no one was available)...if you sat next to him on the sofa or rocked him at night he would gently reach up and rub your ear lobe.  It was his connection and comfort.  I can remember seeing he and his older brother on the sofa watching TV and my youngest would be absent mindedly rubbing his brother's ear.  It was sweet, innocent and a way that I am sure bonded them together.  Today my baby boy turns 16 (at 9:09 PM to be exact) and he is at rehearsals for Beauty and the Beast, being produced by a local theater company. Before that he rushed home to get his new basketball and basketball shoes and was off to the Y before heading to rehearsals.  He is my renaissance man. I am excited to see the young man he is becoming.



But, I look at this face and I wonder...where did the time go?  Where did my little man go?  In his place stands an almost 6 foot tall amazement.  Today is bittersweet.  I am so thankful and happy for all he has done and is becoming but I miss that sweet baby in my arms.

 

I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him.
1 Samuel 1:27 (NIV)

 



Labor Day 2017

Do you have big plans for today?  I have had a house full this weekend since my daughter and her friends  came home to attend the Nascar race at Darlington, which was nice and always fun to have lots of laughter about.  They are scheduled to head home today and my son has rehearsals for Beauty and Beast (yes, today because the show opens on Friday) so it will be quiet around here.  I will be studying and trying to get a jump on the week. 

 

Remember, though, even on quiet days filled with solitude: 

Mama Drama: where did the time go?

I just got back from finalizing all the details for my baby boy's 10th grade year of school and we will be at Open House tonight, ahead of the first day of school tomorrow.  From the time I woke up today I was filled with melancholy and nostalgia for those days when I had three to get ready for school and the little things we used to do to celebrate the arrival of a new school year. 

This year is so different.  My daughter is now a year+ into her marriage and living several hours away, my oldest son has started a new college several hours away and living on his own, and my youngest son is going to get in his own car tomorrow and drive to school by himself.

 Gone are the days of everyone having breakfast together, prayers on the way to school, first-day-of-school after school celebrations, and the sound of their voices sharing all the details of that first day. No more days of excitement over new school supplies, backpacks and lunchboxes. Life has been transitioning to this for years, but I think the realization that I only have my youngest for 36 more months really is hitting me hard now that my two oldest are out and on their own.  I am missing the days that felt simpler and full of  fun.  I miss field trips and class parties and even them getting excited about picture day.  Now, I am lucky if I know when picture day is!  I miss the anticipation of report cards and the arrival of yearbooks. I miss picking them up from cheerleading, football, baseball or basketball practice and all the games that went with it.  I even miss those forced back pack clean outs that often found moldy snacks long forgotten.

I am not sure why the nostalgia has hit so hard today.  Across the state my older son is having his first day of school and my younger one will have his tomorrow.  Maybe it is because my daughter was home this past weekend and it was good to see and hear lots of voices in the house and my Mother was here to visit last week?  I loved life when I had a full house and being Mommy.  It is the greatest gift I have ever received.  Seasons change and growth happens and, even though I miss my babies, I am proud of who they are and are becoming.  I have been blessed.

Happy New School Year!!!

It is August hot....in the South....

Photo: Kinship Christian Radio

Yes, it is hawt....not just hot....but hawt.  For those of you lost in this vernacular let me try to define it. Hawt is a temperature that reaches beyond what those outside of the warmer climates refer to as summer heat. Hawt is a heat that reaches inside your lungs to make the air feel 10 lbs heavier, all the while, squeezing you from the outside like a big, old sticky hug from the uncle you really never want to hug you. 

It is a level of heat and humidity that makes you contemplate whether getting the mail today is really a necessity and you pray a huge thanks over the geniuses that made central A/C a reality. My dogs even are opposed to these levels of heat as they have to practically be pushed out the door to do their business and return to the house acting as if they have run home from California.  Oh, and heavens if you decide to take them on a walk!  They look at you like you have lost your ever-loving-mind!  You can hear them thinking, "If you think you are going to hook me up to a leash and drag my furry tail all over the neighborhood...even if the temperature has dropped into the mid 90s, you obviously are new here....I will stay right here on this A/C vent, thank you very much."  And there they lay, until pretty much 10 or 11 PM when apparently they deem it acceptable to enter nature.

Now, I grew up in Georgia, with no Central A/C but I swear the minute I moved out my parents installed the ice-cap of central A/C units.  It was probably some kind of crazy 60's influenced parenting trick to make me tougher....well, all it made me was hawt (and somewhat suspicious of their parenting techniques...my brother STILL lived at home at the time....coincidence?  I think not!)  I suppose the only good thing that came out of it is I did learn to how important setting spray was to keeping my make up in place and how you need just the right kind of hairspray to truly fight humidity.  It is easy to spot those who never learned those particular lessons (i.e. northerners who have just moved down south.) I will admit those are important skills to possess...but I wouldn't have minded a little A/C love growing up either. 

P.S. I am still not ready for Fall.

Are you ready for Fall?

Photo: www.Kirklands.come

Are y'all ready for Fall?  I have to admit I am not quite there yet.  Fall is my favorite but this year I need a little more summer....even if has been 755 degrees with 300% humidity this week. 

It just seems summer has flown by!  All the stores are filled to the brim with adorable Fall décor but I just haven't mustered the interest.  I know, I know...I am resisting the inevitable but come on now.....the beach isn't done with us yet!

Maybe by this time next week I will be out of denial that Fall is upon us and embrace the everything pumpkin movement but for now I am still looking for pink & green summer joy!