Day 298 of 365

Had a semi productive day doing ordinary everyday chores. Am really excited to think that in less than 48 hours I will see my oldest child's smiling face! Love you, Kyle!

Day 297of 365

I am just so tired :(

Day 296 of 365

Hi, my name is Liz and I am a multi-tasker. I have been this way for as long as I can remember. The truth is as much as I am a multi-tasker, there are times when I am a no tasker. This post is about the multi part of me though. Now as some of you know, I am having issues with my phone. It isn't charging properly and I will need to take it to Verizon tomorrow to see about getting it fixed. That little tidbit of knowledge is a precursor to the information you are about to receive. I am about to admit something that many of you are too embarrassed to admit. My phone is at my side always. Now when I say always, I mean ALWAYS. I have internet on it, email, list making apps, games. It does everything but cook dinner for us, although I do have dinner spinner on it by allrecipes.com. The point is, it even goes with me to the bathroom. There I admit it, I am a tinkling toilet texter. My newest obsession during this "private time" is words with friends. Well today, with my phone on the fritz, it made it difficult to do my business. I know that sounds silly, but I felt like something was missing from the experience. Now granted, it did make the experience quicker, but far far less satisfying. This makes me sad :(

PS. If you are one of the many people I play WWF with, bear with me, God willing and the creek don't rise, I will be back to playing at Mach speed ASAP!

Day 295 of 365

Had to take Jim's laptop in for repair. Turns out he had a cracked LCD. THAT SUCKS!

Day 294 of 365

Well my p didn't have to surf or swim the last leg of her trip, but they did cancel her flight for the last part. Her husband did have to drive five hours each way to pick her up in Philly, but they made it home safely. We stopped in to see Shirley and Steve on the way home, then at Old Navy and back home. Em had her friend stay the night and I crashed early in my chair.

Day 293 of 365

Had a relaxing day then we ran several errands after the honeys got home. Got the little angel's glasses fixed, had some YUMMO bbq, picked up a few things at walgreens and Walmart. Had a nice drive home. Tomorrow we head back to Dallas so my p can fly home. Just hoping she actually is able to fly into Providence and doesn't end up having to surf or swim the last leg of the trip LOL

Day 292 of 365

Today was a kicked back day of mostly relaxing. Did a load of laundry and grilled some sausage with potato salad and sauteed squash and zucchini. YUMMO! Tomorrow evening we have to go to Waco to fix angel girl's glasses and will have BBQ so L-Kay can get her brisket lol.

Day 291 of 365

Had a great day with my p again. After we dropped my honey at work, we hit the open road. We drove to Bryan and hit the produce store for some sweet berries and squash. Next stop was had, then off to Kyle field for pics of the stadium. On the drive to Snook, we stopped so she could "pick cotton" (the fluff that doesn't make it in the truck but blows all over the road) and to pick these baby melon things. In Snook we both tried chicken fried Bacon for the first time and I bought her a shirt to remember it! Next stop was the fried pie store for aggie pies (blackberry and vanilla) to bring home for dessert. We also washed the car, did the d box demo at the movie theater, and picked up Dublin Dr pepper. What a busy day out!

Day 290 of 365

Had errands to run today. Had to drive to Groesbeck to get a duplicate drivers license and hit the grocery store. Tomorrow we are planning on driving to Snook, TX. Eat your heart out, Bubba. Then we will come back through Aggie Land to hit a favorite produce store of mine :)

Day 289 of 365

Enjoyed the day playing catch up with my p (and my Pee for that matter!) Did a small tour of the town, prepped supper, colored her hair, and generally hung out. Made for a good day.

Day 288 of 365

I managed to pull off the second surprise on Emily in 4 days. First we surprised her on Thursday with a trip to the zoo to see a live Panda, then today I surprised her by telling her we had to pick up a friend of our neighbors at the airport because the neighbor wasn't feeling well. I told her what the person was supposed to be wearing and told her to help me spot her. After looking for a bit she finally said "I think that's her. Is that her? Wait, that's Auntie L-Kay! OH MY GOSH!" then ran across the airport, screaming and happy into Auntie L-Kay's arms. Both surprises had been planned for awhile and even though things slipped here and there, she never picked up on them so was completely surprised. I love when that happens and I get to see such joy on her beautiful face!

Day 287 of 365

Spent a great deal of time this morning trying to catch up on sleep and get used to being in our home again. We got the extra bedroom set up with the furniture Jim's sister brought down about a month ago. It was the furniture Jim used as a child and I must say, after 6 decades, it has held up wonderfully. They just don't make things to last anymore. Tomorrow I have errands to run and I am sure it will be a great day :)

Day 286 of 365

We managed to lounge in bed for a couple of hours after waking and before heading into the kitchen to spend some more time with Dave and Marian before we left. I just really had a good time talking with them. We left Texarkana around 1 PM and headed to Burleson to drop in on Steve and Shirley for awhile before heading back to Marlin. It's always good to see them and no one gives hugs like Shirley, and I mean NO ONE! She looked better than I have seen her look in awhile. It did my heart good to see them, for sure. We arrived home around 10:30 and all of us were glad to be there.

Day 285 of 365

By far the best surprise I have ever pulled off for my Emmy. Her dream was to see a live panda and I managed to keep my mouth shut and pull off a return trip that was different than our route there in order to go through Memphis to see her first panda. It wasn't easy keeping it a secret and wouldn't you know the weather was NOT cooperating when we woke up at the hotel across the Mississippi line from Memphis, but we waited it out and managed to keep it a secret until we drove in the Memphis Zoo parking lot. I was so excited for her!

After visiting the zoo we headed to Little Rock to have supper with Jim's first wife and her husband. I will admit I was a little apprehensive but everything was really nice. I enjoyed meeting them both.

After supper we went to Texarkana to spend the night with Uncle Dave and Aunt Marian. This was the first time Emily and Jim met them. We had a wonderful visit and I hope it won't be another 6 years before I see them again.

Day 284 of 365

Amongst many tears for both of us, I said goodbye as we left my daddy's house. Of all the things I am not so great at, saying goodbye is by far the worst.

Day 283 of 365

Have had a great time here with Dad. Going to be hard to say goodbye tomorrow.

Day 282 of 365

Managed to knock out all of Emmy's school clothes shopping this morning while dad was at the Dr. Dad lost another 9 lbs which brings his total to somewhere around 60 lbs! So proud of him :) It has been really nice to spend this time together, just wish the boys were here, too :(

Day 281 of 365

Had a great day with Daddy. He took us on a tour of downtown Macon. There are lots of beautiful old buildings, some of them were ones that survived when Sherman went on his tirade to burn everything from Atlanta to the sea. There is a house that still has a cannonball in it that came flying through the roof during the "War of Northern Aggression". Many of the streets are red brick and just gorgeous. We are thinking about going to Stone Mountain on Wednesday on the way out. I saw it years ago with my boys, my ex and my friend, Rich, but Emmy and Jim never have. Tomorrow we will do some school shopping for Emmy while Daddy is at the doctor.

Day 280 of 365

Arrived at Dad's house around 9:30. Had stopped at IHOP for breakfast and had some kind of allergic reaction. Not fun :( So very glad to see Daddy though.

Day 279 of 365

Driving... Lots and lots of driving.

Day 278 of 385

Even though I had planned well, this day was spent rushing around trying to get ready to leave in the morning. I did take time out for a pedicure though :)

Day 277 of 365

Trying to catch up. So very tired LOL

Day 276 of 365

I am really looking forward to our upcoming vacation. I look forward to being at each of our destinations. What I do not look forward to this time is the actual drive. The drive back won't be so bad, but the drive there is sure going to feel really long. The only thing that makes it better is knowing that at the end of that drive, I will get to give my Daddy a great big hug!

Day 275 of 365

Over the past several days, I have been learning more about my heritage thanks to facebook and our new family group. It's interesting to see just how many Bigbees there are out there and how we all tie together. We live in a time where families live on opposite sides of the country and rarely get to see each other. Keeping up with aunts, uncles, cousins etc has been made easier thanks to the help of the internet in general and social networking sites specifically. We can share pictures and details of our everyday lives in the blink of an eye. The miles may keep us apart, but it is good to know that we can keep up with the ones we know and love and even expand our family by learning about the "long lost" ones and growing to love them all.

Day 274 of 365

Today I am thankful for family, including those God blessed us with and the ones we chose as honorary members. Thank you all for being such amazing blessings in our lives.

Day 273 of 365

I am reminding myself once again that you cannot change the behavior of others, you can only pray that God changes their heart and they find a way to deal with their issues.

Day 272 of 365

Some people just do not realize the mental abuse they are putting on their children by their childish actions.

Day 271 of 365

Ran a few errands and helped a friend that is preparing to move away. Hoping they have a safe journey and things smooth out for them soon. Overall the mood of the day was somber for a few reasons. Hoping for a good night's sleep and a renewed spirit in the morning.

Day 270 of 365

Today I am thankful for good memories, good people and good air conditioning!

Day 269 of 365

In looking for a certain piece I wrote this morning, I looked back through many different things I wrote years ago.

Written around March-April 2001

ANGER AND URINATION JUST DON’T MIX
This is a true story. I wish I was making it up, but I have to tell you that when this happened, although I tried not to, I laughed for about an hour straight and it became the running joke for a week. Although an unlikely subject to joke about, this story is dedicated to urination.
My oldest son, Kyle, received a scooter for his birthday at his party on Saturday March 17th. He also received a water gun (not from Mommy and Daddy mind you, as we NEVER give toys guns as gifts). The thing with toy guns in our house is we don’t care if they are toys, you don’t point them at anyone. We have instilled this in them since they were tots and my brother insisted that he be allowed to give them guns.
Zachary and Kyle were outside playing in the backyard when all of the sudden I hear Zach screaming and Kyle coming in the back door. This is a direct quote: "Mama, Zachary peed on my scooter" I tried to keep a straight face as I knew that I shouldn’t encourage laughter at this point, but it was very difficult to do. I asked the normal mother question at this point: "What did you do to him first?" In response I got the normal child answer at this point: "Nothing" I summoned Zachary into the house to get to the bottom of
this peeing incident. As it turned out, Kyle had pointed a fully loaded water gun at Zachary, and somewhere in his adventurous little mind Zachary decided that he would use his own personal "water gun" to get back at Kyle. Again, while I am listening to Zach’s side of things, I am trying to keep a straight face as I don’t want to make him think I approve of his reaction. I sent him into the living room to finish off the afternoon, at which time I couldn’t control the laughter any longer and the tears were readily flowing
down my face. I was playing canasis online with L-Kay at the time and was trying to type in exactly what had happened and why I was having such a delay in getting back to the game. My fingers didn’t want to work right, but she got the gist of the story and she in turn was laughing so hard she was crying, as were the other two players at the table.
For the rest of the day especially, and throughout that next week, we all took turns, cracking up at the mental image of Zachary doing what he did. Now, I know that to some people this may not seem funny, and to you I say, YOU HAD TO BE THERE!
God bless our children!

Day 268 of 365

Long deep cleansing breaths.

I refuse to let someone who is obviously half mental dictate the type of days I have, nor the level of my inner, or outer for that matter, peace. I cannot control the behavior of others, no matter how ridiculous it might be. I would, however, like to remind them that whatever they do today, will come back to haunt them in the future. If they would stop for a second and look around them, they would see it is already starting. All I can say is that I will continue to pray for you.