Monday's Signs of Aging

Today I've decided to try and write something each Monday about aging and all the benefits that come with it as well as all the embarrassing aspects of the ugly word!

1. With aging comes drooling....and that does not necessarily mean drooling over a handsome man! I mean the type of drool that uncontrollably drips down the left side of my mouth heading straight for my chin and southerly to the lap. Does this require me to carry an embroidered hankie with me or to keep a Kleenex in my coat pocket at all times? My mother used to drool...not badly...I don't want you to think of her as an old woman in a rest home drooling away. It was just a subtle little dribble that slipped out. She always caught it before it rolled off her chin. I guess that is why we found wadded balls of Kleenex in each of her coat pockets that we went through after she passed away. (We looked for money, but found old Kleenex!) Now it seems I'm carrying on this trait. I can be sitting watching t.v. and I'll feel a wetness creeping down the side of my face...it's so embarrassing! Please, if you see me drool, don't tell me.
2. Strange bodily noises have also begun to escape. It's quite humiliating. My children (my own flesh and blood) used to come home telling me that their teacher had gas and would blame it on them. I couldn't imagine any self-respecting teacher blaming a student on gas, but I'm getting ready to start blaming! Now back to mom...she never had gas that I know of. And you certainly didn't talk about it or heaven forbid actually "do it" around her. She called it "breaking wind" and I'm sure she never admitted to it. But as I age, I think she may have silently done so....I don't think its possible not to! I do solemnly promise not to blame this on any of my students this year...now I can't promise for next year, but for those of you who have students in my class this year, I can assure I won't blame them for any uncontrollable bodily noises.
3. Now a plus to aging is that you have grandchildren. That is worth all the drools and noises that come with age! I love them all so much. I can't even remember what life was like without them. I really enjoyed Christmas with them and they gave me wonderful pictures to enjoy. They put the pictures in a book...when I started looking at it, I began to cry! It is a treasure to always keep! They also gave me a calendar with their pictures decorating each month's page. The kids also talked Dillan into getting his picture made with them. I just loved it all!

Those are the three signs of aging that have been bothering me lately. Hopefully my memory won't fail me too much until my next Monday's post on the dreaded signs of aging!

Confusion and Frustratation

Sometimes I honestly think I must be the biggest idiot (that's i-d-i-o-t) in the world. I am not good at computer technology at all. All I have to do is get near a computer and it stops working! This makes me so sad and it even makes me want to cry at times. There are many things that I don't know how to do because I know if I ask for help, it is frustrating to those who are knowledgable about computers because it is as natural as breathing to them....and to me it's like I'm suffocating...literally suffocating...like putting a plastic bag over my face and taping off all air flow! I guess sometimes, I would rather be a computer i-d-i-o-t than to ask for help....and be given the "look" or be given the "oh that's easy! all you do is kjeo48rya4q9874tr g948y4r"...that's the language I hear for their directions and it's extremly hard for me to understand!
I don't even know how I can blog, but I can get the writing down. Now other things in the blogging world frustrate me and then I become infuriated and even want to say bad words. I have been trying to post pictures on my Christmas blog since early this morning. I just couldn't figure out how to download the pictures and get them in the order I wanted them. I mean MY GOSH..if you hit browse and find a picture and download it, you would think the pictures would download in the order I downloaded them in. But OH NO...they download in the reverse order and then they don't make any sense with my comments....After several hours of ranting and raging and threatening to throw the computer and even open a bottle of wine and consume it in 3 swigs...I decided to download my pictures in the reverse order that I really needed them to be posted. In other words, the last picture on my blog, was my first picture to download. This was much easier and it actually worked! Does anyone else have this problem or am I the true i-d-i-o-t that I'm afraid I am?????
Another problem I have has to do with m-e-m-o-r-y and that may have something to do with
o-l-d a-g-e! I can't remember how to sync my phone with my computer and I think once I learn again, I will sync it every day for a year so I won't forget! I hate being so unknowledgable (a better word than s-t-u-p-i-d). I know that I'm supposed to find my itune icon, but I don't know what the h-*-l-l to do after that and I don't know how to even begin to help Donald sync his phone with his new computer and this makes me feel very unknowledgable.
Okay...so this will maybe get my frustrations out .....until I try to download pictures for my blog again.....Any sympathy or advice will be greatly appreciated!

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2009 has come and gone....all in all, it was wonderful! I always think that Christmas is the highlight of every year! Dillan slept on the couch and luckily didn't scare Santa away!

He loved his hunting boots that he got from Cabela's...I think he has waded through cold water 2-3 times this year looking for a shot deer! Maybe these will help!

Santa brought Tristin "Sophie the Giraffe" and he loved it! Cari and Hillary get in the Spirit of Christmas.....as well as Gina.

Sweet little cousins, Averi and Madilyn, waiting for the gift opening!

Tristin just didn't even quite make it through the stockings!

I found Derek's old Cowboy jersey and gave it to Denver (along with a new Aggie helmet and uniform!) Noone in the house knew who #11 was! How sad!

Dillan's friends, Nic and Ernstes joined the festivities!

Dillan sang and played for us on his new guitar! We had a wonderful day....I guess I should start buying for next year!

Dancing Anson Style...Memories of my Childhood

As you know, I took the kids to see The Nutcracker on Sunday. It's a beautiful ballet...I can't say I'd ever been to a "gen-u-ine" ballet before. I did go to Hillary's ballet recital when she was only 4, but I don't think that counts. But when Lisa and I were younger we would pretend to be ballerinas. We made our nephews join us. Mother had a collection of old albums of the classics and several of the songs from The Nutcracker were on that, so we would gather in the living room (the forbidden room...no playing in the living room) and dance. I remember loving the "Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies" and "The Flight of the Bumblebees". We whirled and twirled and jumped and laughed. I was always the leader, so I'm almost positive that I was in charge of the choreography. Thinking back, I had no idea what these songs were from. I had no knowledge of The Nutcracker, so I have no idea how I knew to "boss" my fellow dancers into a frenzy of whirls and twirls and ungraceful leaps. None of us had any type of formal dancing instruction. We were just "country bumpkins" with huge imaginations. However we danced our hearts out. Now, I really don't even know how we were allowed to dance in the living room. Our parents must have been involved in some serious Wahoo game or maybe a game of 42 or 84. If they had known we were dancing in the living room....we would have been in major trouble. WE WERE FROM ANSON AND THERE WAS NO DANCING IN ANSON, much less in the living room.

Our other favorite dance and act was to our favorite album "The Royal Guardsmen" and their songs "Snoopy and the Red Baron" , "The Battle of New Orleans", "Peanut Butter" and our all time favorite "The Man who Shot Liberty Valance". We actually acted these songs out...so they were much more "religiously correct" than the dancing we did to the classical songs. Jeff and Greg were more eager to play along in these songs. We entertained ourselves for hours with the songs on this album.

Life was simple then. Thank goodness for our imaginations...and for parents who would occasionally forget the NO PLAYING IN THE LIVING ROOM RULE! Oh the memories of childhood!

Tristin and Maddie

Couldn't resist sharing a picture of Tristin and Maddie! Aren't they just adorable? Tristin was so excited to see someone more "his age" when he woke up! He was so happy to see her and she was just as happy! It was a fun morning!

Silly Dilly

We went to San Saba on Saturday to watch Dillan play basketball. Afterwards we went to Harry's. Donald's brother owns this store so we thought we'd stop by to check out the boots and hats and other western wear. I wanted boots, but couldn't find any that I could afford! Dillan found lots of hats. He had a blast trying them own....didn't buy one, but he did try on quite a few and we had fun while we were at it!

Christmas and The Nutcracker

Denver, Madilyn and Averi after seeing The Nutcracker in Austin on Sunday afternoon. Do you think the kids were a little exhausted after sitting through the ballet? Can you tell they are working hard on posing??? My sister and her daughters, Bonnie and Brianna; Gina, Denver and Averi; Hillary and Maddie,;Cari (Tristin got to stay with his daddy!) and I all went to see the ballet! The kids looked adorable and we all had a wonderful time. We drove back to Cari's in Buda afterwards and we let Averi open some of her birthday gifts.

Wishing all a Merry Christmas!