Cat's In the Cradle

In today's Sunday school class, Jake's class talked about what they wanted to be when they grew up. Can you guess what he'd like to be?


.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
If you guessed Youth Minister, you're correct.

I wonder if it's the shorts and t-shirts, the trips, the work with kids, the on-call work, the nutso (sometimes) parents, or the 20-year-overnight-sensation of a job well-done.

Or maybe he just has a sweet heart and admires his dad.

99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall

Now that we've practiced counting to ten...

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN???????????



I always thought it meant that if you had 10 items or less, you may proceed through the line. Obviously, I was wrong tonight.

I, blissfully, got in the ten items line. I had 2 boxes of Kleenex, 2 packages of toilet paper, 1-12 pack of Caffeine Free Diet Coke, and 1-750 ml of Myers's Rum. Let's count, together, how many items that is: 2, 4, 5, 6.

The two ladies in front of me had WWWWWAAAAAYYYYY more than 10 items. In fact, the first lady wound up with 3 completely full, large bags of clothes; one piece she wound up having to go back into the clothing area to get another so the original could be scanned. The second lady had a complete basket-full of groceries. $146.38 to be exact. AND, knowing full well that she had more than 10 items, she picked up 2 bags of chips and a Sprite from the fridge!

You might ask why I didn't move lanes. You know darn well as I, that if I moved lanes, I'd get stuck and my original lane would've wound up moving along. So I just stayed there. By the time I checked out, there were at least 5 people stacked up behind me...with less than 10 items each.

Whatever. Just one more reason why I HATE Wal Mart. You know, I'm all for saving money. I'm all for a corporation making money. It's not that. Why, oh why, do they have express lanes?

Ride a painted pony

...Let the spinning wheel spin.

What a great day I've had.

Up, promptly at 6:00, started the coffee, showered (even shaved my legs), woke Zac and finished getting dressed. I wore my new black pants with my hot pink collared shirt. My make up was great, as was my hair, I might add.

I took Zac to school. We were on time. Then I headed in to Baton Rouge for the auditions.

I arrived at the Sheraton around 8:00 and valet parked. I didn't want to fool with trying to find a parking spot on a work-week downtown. I met my new best friend, Sherrie, in the restaurant at the Sheraton about 8:05. We had coffee and breakfast. I had a delicious omelet with fruit; Sherrie had the buffet with eggs, bacon, grits, and biscuits. We got caught up and walked over to the ballroom where the auditions were being held.

There were about 50 people there. I recognized some. Our friend, Carla, was not there. Some of the people I didn't think would get chosen were there too. But for the most part, all of the truly engaging people were called back.

We filed in and sat in the chairs they had for us and began filling out the contestant application. The producers and scouts (I guess that's who they were) started giving instructions on completing the ap: if you're in the military, a teacher, a pet lover, or here with your friend, add those things in the margins of the ap. One producer had everyone go one-by-one and say their name loudly so she could fill in her seating chart and get name pronunciations. When that was finished, the other 2 producers let everyone know that they're looking for enthusiasm, loud voices, and logical letter calling. They reminded us of the importance of buying vowels, and showed us how they would run the game. They randomly called names off the seating chart.

First name called: Jana.

I jumped up with a "woo-hoo!" and the producer spun the wheel. I called a letter and directed her to spin again. I called another letter, and spun again, called another letter and bought a vowel, then spun again. The final spin landed on lose a turn and my turn was finished.

That's pretty much how it went for everyone in the room. You could really tell who was excited and interesting and who they wanted to see again. The real trick was to buy a vowel so your exposure time would be a little longer. After everyone had a turn we played again, only select players were called.

They called me after about the 3rd or 4th player. The puzzle on the board was "Show Biz." When the puzzle got to me it showed: J_W-D_ _ _ _I_G _ _ _ I_ _ _ _ _ _ _. I called an 'N' and bought an 'A,' then asked to solve the puzzle: JAW-DROPPING ACTION SCENE.

It was awesome. We were all clapping for each other and cheering each other on. The producer gave me a tote bag and I sat down. Sherrie got called a few minutes later. Honestly, I can't remember exactly how she did, but she did well.

When they got a look at everyone they needed again, they passed out a test. It was a page full of hang-man-type of puzzles with some of the letters filled in. We had 5 minutes to complete as much as we could. Five minutes flew by in a flash and they took them up to grade them. We were dismissed for a bathroom/water break. While they were out with our tests, they played clips from old Wheel of Fortune shows with funny contestants knocking down Pat or picking him up or saying crazy things. It was funny. We got to see Vanna's audition tape and a taped message from Pat and Vanna congratulating us on how far we'd come.

When they came back in, they let us know that while they're looking for great game players, etc., etc., the cut-off point is at the puzzle test. They congratulated us for making it this far and encouraged us to continue watching Wheel, then began calling the last 10 people they wanted to see again.

Alas, Sherrie was called, but not me.

Everyone else was dismissed. I went over to George's office and we went out to lunch. I wasn't hungry since I'd just had that huge omelet, but George had a hamburger.

It was a great day, even if I didn't get chosen. I figure that for me to make it to the final 20 or so out of a pool of approximately 2000 over the 2-day initial open auditions was very special.

WHEEL!!!!!!!!!!!

It's been a while since we last spoke. All is well. I'll catch you up soon.

In the mean-time...

I GOT A FOLLOW-UP AUDITION TO WHEEL OF FORTUNE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A public service question...

Because I serve my public.

Tell me if you HATE the google-ad thing that comes up first on my blog. I'm just trying it out to see what happens. Apparently, I can earn $$ by allowing google ads on my stuff. If it's too annoying, I think I'll pull it off.

And the award for mother-of-the-year goes to...

Me, of course.

If it wasn't enough that we've just had Christmas and family time like crazy, Jake talked to his friend, S, on Christmas day and invited him to spend the night Friday night.

We were going to take Zac's friend, K, out to dinner with our family so he could give her his Christmas gift, but she had to go out of town with her grandmother. Since the girlfriend plans were cancelled, and Jake was having S over, Zac asked if S's brother K could come stay with him. I, still being drunk on egg nog, apparently, added S and K's brother J to the mix. I didn't think it would be very nice to invite their #1 and #3 boys without having #2 also. All the boys are good friends anyway, and S, K, and J are SUPER GOOD boys, so it wasn't any trouble.

The boys' mom and dad went in to Baton Rouge to look at some furniture and dropped the boys off on the way. We had a great night. Everyone played outside until way past dark, played the Wii, played on the computer, and ate hot dogs and gingerbread house. The little boys slept in the living room on sleeping bags and the big boys slept in the bedroom. I finally fell completely asleep around 1:00 am and could still hear Zac and K giggling.

We had pancakes for breakfast, then everyone loaded up the rip sticks, skate boards, roller blades, and scooters to spend a couple of hours at the skate park.

Jackie came to pick up the boys from the skate park around noon. We came home and had lunch and did some house work and nap. Zac left later that evening to spend the night with another friend.

Unfortunately, the voting academy will not remember this award and the hard work it has taken to get here. They will only remember the demands for baths, tooth-brushing, room-cleaning, homework-doing and all the other things it takes to get to be mother-of-the-year. I'll bask in it for these few fleeting moments.

It was a beautiful day, incidentally. About 78 degrees.





The boys were wiped out. Zac slept for about an hour and Jake almost got another night's sleep with his 3-hour nap!




P.S. They (we) love their snuggies. We're cheesy like that! Maybe I'll remember to bring them to football games for extra warmth! Like that, Billy?

Having a Wonderful Christmas Time

That would be the reason for the lack of posts lately.

By the way, I hate that song I used as my post title. It's one of those tunes that, at first, seems happy and benign, but then wraps itself completely around your brain and chokes it to death, much in the same way a wisteria plant can kill a 100-year old oak tree.

The festivities always begin, for me, with Thanksgiving. I've already told you that this year's Thanksgiving was the best ever. Part of the reason for that was the planning the girls in my family did for our annual trip to Salado, which we ditched, incidentally, for something much, much better. Usually, we go to Salado, in central Texas, north of Austin, for shopping, visiting, dinner at neat restaurants, crazy gift exchanges, game playing, movie watching, Christmas card addressing, shopping and more visiting, always with a few adult beverages mixed in for good measure and extra good visiting.

We wound up going to my aunt's lake house in Marble Falls instead. We did sneak in a little side trip on Thursday to Salado. It was really sad. The stores had hardly anything in them, there were only a few people, the great Mansion restaurant was closed up, and worst of all, the candy store was gone!!!!! They had the coolest candy store, called Sweet Nut Things, with all kinds of old-fashioned and interesting candies like candy cigarettes, bubble gum that looks like pebbles, gummy rats, individually colored m&ms, and lots of neat little toys and doo dads. I think that was the saddest of all for me, that the candy store was gone. We decided we would not go back.

In order to completely change the weekend so as to not compare to Salado, we did some completely different things.The weekend at the lake was almost like a dream. We had snacks, beverages, movies, a gift exchange, a hot tub, lake scenery, MASSAGES, manicures, dinner. Friday night was the official kick-off dinner at a restaurant in MF, Russo's. It was fantastic, I had the pepper-crusted salmon, which was a special of the day. After dinner we went back to the house, not to leave again until Sunday! Long story short, the massage was spectacular, the food/snacks/beverages prodigious, and most-importantly, the company beyond compare. You know, I have lots of girlfriends, but none, anymore, who I'd like to spend the entire weekend with except the girls in my family. Alas, I forgot my camera, so there is no photographic evidence of the revelry! However, Jake did lose his first tooth on Wednesday night after I'd left.



When I left the lake on Sunday, I brought my mom home with me. We had a great trip home. We listened to talk radio and the 70's channel on XM. When we got home, the Christmas lights were decorating the yard and George and the boys had cleaned up the joint. All of the laundry was done--not folded and put away--but done. They'd worked hard for me while I was relaxing all weekend.

George and I, both, worked Monday and Tuesday, so Mom stayed with the kids. We ramped it up into high gear getting ready for Christmas. Mom kept the kids Monday night so George and I could get some shopping done. We were going to get a bunch done on the 11th, but if you've been reading lately, that was Sneaux Day. We got everything finished that night.

The next couple of days were pretty low key. We went grocery shopping Tuesday, went to Christmas Eve services at church Wednesday, had lunch at Piccadilly after church, the boys worked on a gingerbread house kit (well, mostly Jake; Zac got in the picture just to irritate Jake), sent George back to church for the 5:00 service (he had to help serve Communion), and prepared our traditional Christmas Eve buffet.




The buffet came about several years ago, even before Jake was born, I think. We lived in Longview at the time and my mom was with us for Christmas. I was going to fix something nice for Christmas Eve dinner and asked Zac what we should have. He said, "Just make me a buffet of everything that I like." Zac has always been a good eater, so that was a tall order. I pared it down to appetizers: cocktail weenies, chips and salsa, guacamole, tamales, taquitos, veggies and dip, and cheese and crackers. Pair that with sparkling cider for the boys and wine for the adults, and you've got yourself a traditional Christmas Eve feast.



The rest of the night was the usual. The boys went to bed around 9:00, Mom went to bed around 10:00, George and I stayed up all night wrapping presents. At one point, both Zac and Jake wandered into the living room for water. Luckily, Santa hadn't come yet, so nothing was spoiled. When we finally went to bed, we took Zac with us. He was having a hard time sleeping. He tossed and turned and cried all night. He was so anxious that he couldn't sleep and was afraid he would ruin Christmas for Jake because Santa wouldn't come until he fell asleep. All was saved when he finally fell asleep around 3:30! Nice. Three and a half hours of restful sleep. Everyone was up about 7:00.

The rest of the day went as usual. The boys played with the Wii Santa brought, tried on almost all the new clothes they got, and cracked open the new art supplies. George made a delicious lunch of stacked green chile chicken enchiladas-New Mexico style. I took a nap.

Here is a quick picture wrap-up:

Santa calls the boys on Christmas Eve. Yes, Zac believes. As long as you believe, Santa still brings you gifts.



We had been threatening coal for some time with this one.


Zac finally got some American Eagle clothes. We got him that. Santa was NOT taking this credit!


Jake is quite an artist and loves all kinds of art supplies. He also loves his new Old Navy clothes. Santa didn't get to take that credit either.