Thank You

Today we had an author come and speak at our school. It was actually pretty good, and I was glad that my kids could see what you can do if you put your mind to it. During his speech he made all the kids turn around and thank their teachers because he never did. It made me realize that I will probably never win an award that will require an acceptance speech, so I made a list of people I should have thanked but never did:

1. Thank you to my parents for buying me a professional clarinet even though I wasn't that good and my dad had to give up his dream of owning a hot tub. My parents have always loved me for who I am forever grateful for that and so many other things they did for me.

2. My family for always being mostly rational. I never had to worry about them breaking into a fight over Thanksgiving dinner or beating up an innocent ice machine (that is for you dad).

3. All the teachers in my life who didn't treat me differently even though my dad was the principal.

4. Michael for taking me to my first formal. We were just friends but he didn't make an announcement to everyone at the door so they didn't have to know.

5. Jenny for always answering the phone and listening to me complain about pretty much anything, and Blake for being Tyler's best friend.

6. My grandparents for taking me and my cousin on summer vacations to places that most children have never been, and watching every synchronized swimming routine.

7. Everyone who sent me a package in college, but never received a thank you note. Packages are the best!

8. Tyler for marrying me and continuing to put up with me.

9. Monday night TV for being awesome!

10. My tiny church family that I grew up with and always made me feel like I fit in even though I probably didn't.

11. My high school band director for showing me what it means to be a teacher

12. Everyone I work with who has become my family 8 hours away from my real family.

13. My grandparents for always meeting me half way to take me to their house for weeks in the summer. Those are some of my fondest memories.

14. Everyone who has loved me and cared for me that I did not mention on this list.

I am so blessed to have so many people that love me and have done things to make me who I am.

Sports

I don't think it is a secret to anyone that sports is of no interest to me. I never played organized sports outside of a brief run on an 0 and 6 flag football team in college. In fact the only touchdown we made was because the girl running was too fat to wear the flags so she had tucked them in her shorts (it was not me, but easily could have been). I have always known the reasons I don't like sports. 1. They are usually played outside when it is hot and I hate to sweat 2. Uniforms that one must wear while playing sports are not very flattering to the plus size woman and 3. I have never been good at relying on others to complete tasks for me.
Not only have I never played sports, I never really watched them either. We would watch the occasional NASCAR race or go to a UAB game every now and then, but in my house sports was not an important Saturday afternoon activity. Now that I have married into a sports loving family I am trying to be a better wife by actually watching the game. Not to mention I do love wearing Alabama gear in Gator country. When this football season began I vowed that I would try to be more sport loving. Every Saturday (well almost every Saturday) I happily woke up and layered on the Crimson Tide gear. I actually enjoyed watching the games, and I think it made my husband happy, especially since I am the only other Alabama fan he knows within a 300 mile radius of here. Anyway, I had some good times this season. It also helped that Alabama won the national championship. I thought that would be the end of it. I thought I would be football free for months. But now I find myself staying up late to watch the end of the Saints/Vikings game BY CHOICE. I actually found myself pulling for a team. I was feeling anxious with every interception and punt return. What does this mean? Am I becoming a sports fan? Only time will tell...Luckily after the super bowl in two weeks I will have several months to work through these strange feelings...

I have always been a people watcher. I like to observe and report. I guess you could call me Pall Blart: Mall Cop. Over the past few months I have been to many prime people watching locations. My favorites are Wal-Mart, Winn-Dixie, and New Orleans. From my "travels" I have developed a list of fashion trends I find most unusual or that I just generally don't like. Now if you are reading this and you personally subscribe to one of these fashion trends, please do not be offended. If it makes you happy, keep doing it...just know that you might end up on my blog.

FASHION TRENDS I FIND UNUSUAL, DISTURBING, OR THAT I JUST DON'T LIKE

1. Boots with the fur...Now I know many people wearing this first fashion distraction might think it is cool because of the song. I have never been one to find my fashion statements in popular music, but understand that some people find this "hip". I just don't see the need for boots with fur in central Florida. If you do choose to wear these, at least make sure the fur is still the original color.

2. Skinny leg jeans...I have always wondered if you wear these because you think you have skinny legs, or because you want your legs to look skinny. If I put on a pair of tight jeans could I call them skinny leg?

3. Sequins...These are akin to glitter...which I also hate. I don't understand putting sequins on t-shirts, or jean pockets. Shirts with sarcastic sayings and sequins are my least favorite. It is almost like you don't want people to know you are wearing a sarcastic shirt so you put sequins on to distract them. And I for sure don't want sequins drawing attention to my butt.

4. Cuffed pants (specifically on men)...If you buy pants that are the right length you don't have to roll them up, so why would you buy a pant that is the right length that looks like you rolled it up?

5. Bikinis...I actually have nothing wrong with bikinis. If I was about 200 pounds lighter I would totally be wearing one, but my problem came on a recent trip to Winn-Dixie. A 300 plus pound girl should not be allowed in Winn-Dixie with a bikini top that could potentially be worn as a bracelet. What happened to no shirt no service.

6. Socks and sandals...I have been known to occasionally sport this trend out to the mailbox, but in public is a whole different story. If you feet get cold wear closed toed shoes. If you want to wear sandals, man up and ditch the socks.

7. Banana clips...If you aren't going to an 80's theme party leave the banana clip at home.

8. Senior class shirt of '74...It is just time to let that one go. The wholes under the armpits and dirt around the collar should be a clue.

Like I said I am no expert on fashion and am not trying to offend anyone so if you enjoy these fashion statements do what makes you happy. And without these great trends what would be the point of leaving the house.

I recently asked my husband if he was finished with his blog. I thought perhaps blogging would join the has been closet along with bowling, golf, softball, and Atari. But alas I was wrong. He has since blogged twice, and I am feeling like a slacker. On a recent vacation with my family I found out that they are close followers of the blog, and that they are just now getting the word out about my blog. How can I let all my potential new followers be greeted by a week old post. I am now renewing my vow to the blog. My goal will be to blog once a week, and to keep my blog more interesting than Tyler's. Now with this renewed commitment to my blog, I will again try to make page long posts out of my love for blogging. I know this sounds exciting, so stay tuned.....

Oh yes and since I know my family is reading....I LOVE MY MIXER.

Blog topics have not been flooding my brain lately. It has been too full of to do lists. I have made list after list. I have happily crossed off 1 thing only to add 3 more. But now I sit in my home with the greatest feeling. The feeling that after 5 hours of work tomorrow I will have 2 weeks to complete lists. 2 weeks to catch up on Christmas shopping, house cleaning, blogging, and most importantly day time television.

An Ode to Blogging

I have really been trying to blog more. I know some of you may be thinking why, but I actually enjoy it. I like trying to come up with witty things to share with the world wide web. Well actually the 4 people that read my blog. Today I was racking my brain searching for a clever blog that would evoke many comments from the 4 reading this blog. I really couldn't think of anything, so I decided to google a poem about blogging. So I went to my trusty google search engine and typed in "A Poem about blogging". I thought for sure someone had come up with a super funny poem about blogging. Well I was wrong. I googled and googled and found nothing, but I am not very good at googeling. I then came back to my blog determined to write my own hilarious ode to blogging. I started typing away....An Ode to Blogging....That is about as far as I got. I then decided I had done something wrong. So I went back to google again looking for a poem about blogging. Still nothing. I cam back to my blog....The History of a Blog by: Jennifer...That is about as far as I got. I decided just a hilarious poem would do. So back to google. I googled hilarious poems...I found lots of poems none of which were hilarious. I decided then I would google "The funniest poem of all time", and whichever poem came up first that would be the one for my blog. Well after an hour of rewording the phrase and reading 100's of not very funny poems I decided to go with the funniest joke of all time. This search was also not very fruitful.....So I guess it is not meant to be. No funny poems, no funny jokes, nothing. What a waste of a blog.

Leaving Home to go Home

I am stealing the title of this blog from a post my brother in law made when he was leaving the Navy. I read his post many times thinking he should be excited to return to a quiet apartment, a comfortable bed, and his family. However, I now understand what he meant. I have been at my parents' house in Alabama for a week now. I have spent days enjoying my family. I have truly had a great time. I even got to spend Thanksgiving with 25 of my family members I rarely see. Though I have spent this week doing lots of fun things I have been missing my husband and dogs who had to stay behind in Florida. It is a strange feeling being home yet missing home. I am often reminded of how far away I am from my family when I say "I am going home this weekend". Someone will then look at me perplexed and say something like "Your home is in Florida now", or "Aren't you going home after work."It is hard to explain to someone who has lived right down the road from their family their whole life how the two homes works. I think I might be beginning to understand how children of divorced parents feel. Tonight I am packing. My dad will take me to Atlanta in the morning and I will return to my Florida home glad to see my husband and taking with me many memories of my Alabama home looking forward to returning very soon.