Saturday, April 24, 2010

Golf Anyone?

My middle child is a golfer.
She takes after her dad.

I went golfing once.
Back in the day when the Head of My Household and I were very young.
So young that he would actually take me out to the golf course with him.

I thought it was fun at first.
And then he started hurrying me along before I had a chance to hit the ball enough times to actually get it to the hole.
I looked around and noticed that we were backing things up...
er, ahem...I was backing things up.
It was taking me so many strokes to get to the hole that the other golfers were finishing their holes and beginning to form a line waiting for us to move on.
We were playing at the Country Club where my husband grew up playing.
Lots of men.
Friends of his dad.
You get the picture.

The Head of My Household was EMBARRASSED!

OF ME!

When we got to the car, I told him that I really liked golf and wanted to learn to play better.
My young married romantic self wanted to be able to do something my little husband enjoyed so we could spend more time together.

YECH!
Sappy!

The Head of My Household said that he would take me golfing again when I could actually hit the ball 50% of the time.

He has never been the romantic type.
And, I've never been the golfing type.

But, my middle child...
She can whack a golf ball like you've never seen!
She can also look pretty sassy while she's golfing!
Gotta keep things in perspective, you know.



Here's the backside of her famous swing.
Notice that form.
Notice those legs.
Her daddy taught her how to do that.


She has to lug her own bag though.
I don't think she likes that part.
I wouldn't either.
I always enjoyed riding in the covered golf cart.
My father-in-law used to let me ride with him.
At least he wasn't embarrassed.



Here's more of that stance her daddy taught her.



Her mommy taught her about sunglasses and earrings :)



At one point in the tournament my middle child found herself "in the rough."
Notice she decided to switch from her sassy white sunglasses to her real glasses.
Guess she decided it was more imporant to actually see
rather than just look cool.

She recovered though.
And made it to the hold a lot faster than her mommy would have.



That's my girl!






Friday, April 23, 2010

Moving Ahead

A fellow blogger Linda K has a video posted on her blog of 2 Bulldogs barking and trying to playfully attack a box.
I was watching this video today when my youngest came running into the kitchen.
She had heard the dog barking on the computer.
Her eyes were wide with amazement, "Is that BeyBey?" she said.

I had to remind her that "No, it isn't BeyBey."

On the way home from the high school musical "Grease" tonight, my youngest said she had a dream.
She had a dream that BeyBey fell in our pool, but we scooped her out and saved her.

It will be quite some time before we are not traumatized by this experience.

I have decided though to begin using BeyBey's tragedy as a learning experience and try to turn it into something more positive.

I called today and signed my middle child, my firstborn and I up for CPR classes in two weeks.
The Head of My Household went through training in January.

We are making plans to build a fence around our pool.
Immediately.

I have been sorely reminded of just how very fast someone can drown.
Since our youngest learned to swim, I've probably been much too relaxed about it.
I'm now on high alert.

We will have another Bulldog.
We will honor BeyBey's memory by loving her breed so much that we will give the overflowing love that we bestow upon our animals to another Bulldog.
I'm not sure when.
But, we will.

I am thankful for the short time we had BeyBey.
She made herself at home from the first day she arrived.
She sat in our laps, on my couch, would have slept in my bed if she could have reached that high, and liked for you to scratch her behind:)

I'm going to try and make this my last "sad" post about BeyBey.
We are grieving and we will allow ourselves the time we need to grieve...
but we're going to try and put most of our energy now into honoring her breed.

We heart you, BeyBey.






Thursday, April 22, 2010

Good-Bye BeyBey Part II

I'm still reeling from the stunning loss of our BeyBey.

Especially because of the senseless way it happened.

The Head of My Household is taking it extremely hard...I think he feels responsible...even though he was most definitely NOT.

She also seemed to have an aversion to anything with wheels.
English Bulldogs are not "energetic" dogs by any stretch of the imagination.
But, when the Big Wheel was rolling on the sidewalk or the lawn mower was out, BeyBey would literally lose her mind.
The Head of My Household and I were just discussing yesterday that maybe BeyBey had some kind of traumatic experience with a wheeled and motored contraption of some kind.
Sadly, now we'll never know.

BeyBey liked to be outside...as long as there was shade nearby in case it got too hot.
But, we were always very careful about watching her around the pool.
English Bulldogs are not the most graceful creatures nor do they have any semblance of balance.
Several times when we were outside, BeyBey would toddle over by the pool and I would say, "If you fall in there, I ain't comin' in after ya."
Knowing full well that if she had gone in, I would have rescued her in a flash.
I almost felt that it was inevitable that she would fall in...but I never imagined that it would be when someone wasn't there to help her.
I assumed that once she fell in, it would scare her and she would steer clear of the pool altogether.

Yesterday the Head of My Household and I were on our way home from Jackson, MS.
My firstborn was in charge at home.
She had to run to town and pick up my middle child.
When she left, she decided to leave BeyBey inside the screened in porch.
Unfortunately, the screened in porch had a hole in its screen.
The hole is up high enough though that my firstborn never even imagined BeyBey could reach it.

My youngest had been riding the Dora Big Wheel since she'd been home from school.
I'm sure BeyBey was beside herself wanting to eat the Dora Big Wheel.
After they left the house, the best we can guess is that BeyBey got herself out of the screened in porch because she just had to get a taste of that Big Wheel.
We figure that as she pushed and bit on the Big Wheel, it scooted closer and closer to the pool until it fell in with BeyBey right behind it.

I feel nauseous just typing this.

In the approximately 20 minutes my firstborn was gone, BeyBey drowned.
Soccer Boy and my firstborn found her in the pool when they returned home and realized she was not inside the screened in porch.
 Soccer Boy (bless his heart) got BeyBey and the Big Wheel out of the water.
I am thankful that the Head of My Household does not have that image to remember.

My hysterical firstborn called me on my cell phone to tell me what had happened.
A hysterical teenager on a cell phone is one of the most frightening things you can  ever experience...especially when she is responsible for your home and 2 other children...and especially when all you can understand is the phrase "fell in the pool" and the word, "drowned."
I had to yell at her through the phone to get her to calm down so that I could even understand WHO fell in the pool.

Thankfully we were only 10 minutes from home when she called.

After somehow holding it all together, the Head of My Household made two of the most difficult phone calls he's ever had to make.
He called the wife of the man who gave BeyBey to us.
And, then he called her husband who was umpiring a baseball game in a nearby town.
Because BeyBey had been theirs for 5 years and ours for only 5 weeks, the Head of My Household wanted to let them know before he made any further decisions.

Soccer Boy and the Head of My Household buried BeyBey in our yard while we women stayed inside squalling.
I went out once to offer moral support, but I needed more support than I could provide so I came back inside.
Talk about feeling inadequate.
BeyBey's previous owner stopped by on his way home around 10:30 p.m. to pay his respects as well.
We squalled again.

Needless to say, we didn't sleep well last night.
I opened my eyes this morning, hoping it had all been a bad dream.
But, it wasn't.







Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Good-Bye BeyBey

After only 5 short weeks we lost our BeyBey


BeyBey drowned in our pool tonight.

We are sick.

We are devastated.

My friend Missie said, "If only life had a rewind button."

That's all I can really say right now.


Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Sunshine on My Shoulder

Today is Tuesday... but it sure feels like a Monday.

I woke up this morning around 2 a.m. because I literally could not breathe...the crud is back...thanks to my croupy youngest child.

I got up, and against my better judgement took some Tylenol PM cough and cold medicine.
Meds and I, we go way back.
Especially anything that will make you sleepy.
If it makes you drowsy, it knocks me on my arse.

Anyhoo, I was desperate...so I took some of that vile tasting stuff.
When I woke up by chance this morning at 7 (at least an hour later than I should have woken up), the world was revolving around me...literally...
I was still in such a stupor for most of the day that I believe I could have had minor surgery and not felt a thing.

After a heavy duty nap after work outside in a lounge chair by the pool in the sunshine, I finally began to feel like I was awake.
Amazing what sunshine can do.

I found these picture in my NYC archives and they made me feel better too...







These tulips were planted in a small park area where vendors are set up downtown between the Brooks Brothers flagship store and Ground Zero.

Amazing what sunshine can do!
Please hurry, Summer.


Monday, April 19, 2010

eat pray love



Elizabeth Gilbert's yearlong search for inner peace has been on my bookshelf for a while. 
I knew that this book wouldn't be a light read, so I've been choosing lighter reading for quite a while instead.
Life hasn't exactly lended itself to deep reading lately.
I finally decided the other day to finally pick it up and check it off my list...once and for all.

This was not the first time nor probably the last time that I will misjudge a book.
Reading Eat Pray Love was like a daily devotion.
Elizabeth Gilbert's travels through Italy, India and finally Indonesia are therapeutic to anyone who's ever searched for inner peace.
I'm not sure I know anyone who's not searching for inner (and outer for that matter) peace.

There's quite a bit of pasta, yoga and other cultural tidbits throughout the book but it's not a dry read as I expected it to be.  Elizabeth Gilbert has a keen sense of humor and keeps the tone of the book realistic rather than some of the other New Age stuff that's out there.

Not saying this is a "New Age" book...
unless New Age is about getting to know yourself and acceptance of that self as it is...
and learning how we can sometimes be our own worst enemies
by trying to control everything around us
and not letting God take control as the universe commands.

There's also quite a bit of that forgiveness, acceptance, and responsibility for our actions stuff going on in this book...
We could all use a reminder every now and then. 

Elizabeth Gilbert doesn't preach...nor does she judge...nor is she trying to tell anyone how to live their life.

She takes the reader with her to Italy...a time of pleasure...a time of giving to herself...for healing...

Once she feels her wounds are less raw, she goes on to India where she learns how to delve deeply into her own self and come to terms with her place in the world.

At the end of her journey she heads to India to find balance...her time in India seems to serve as the segue from her journey back into the real world.
We've all been to retreats where we've left renewed...only to return home and lose all our energy once faced with real life again.
In India Elizabeth Gilbert learned to live again...but to wait...not force things to happen...and to slow down.

One of the things that I thought Elizabeth Gilbert did very well in this book is paint a picture of achieving true peace through acceptance, not just of herself but others in the worlds around her...
even others who come from different backgrounds, cultures, religions or maybe don't live their lives the way she chooses to lead hers.
And, heaven forbid, that we might even learn something from others...
if we'd shut up a minute or two and LISTEN.

Once you decide to let God be in control of the universe, it becomes easier to accept that we should step out of the judgement role.
Who are we to judge something that we did not create?
Who's to say that all these different cultures aren't all just interpreting the same concepts, just in different ways, with different names, and different rituals.
And, again, who's to say we get to make these decisions anyway?
I'm going to try a lot harder not to make decisions for God...to interpret His word the way I see fit, etc.
I doubt the Creator of the Universe needs my help :)

Will life be perfect if we all follow Elizabeth Gilbert's path?
Nope.
Life's never going to be perfect.
Life is all about waking up each and every day and striving, purposely being the best person that we can be...
not only for the good of ourselves and those closest to us...
but for the rest of humanity as well.

I loved this book.


Sunday, April 18, 2010

The 80's and Brooksie

My kids think they invented the 80's.

They tell me all the time about what people wore in the 80's, what kind of music was popular in the 80's, and they even repeat lines from movies that came out in the 80's.

Like I'm some kinda doofus.

I am 41.
Which means not only do I already know all of the 80's trivia my children try to educate me about...
But I WAS the 80's.

I remember the first day of MTV.
I had bangs and big curly hair (after rolling it on hot rollers for 6 hours).
I saw Ferris Beuhler, Sixteen Candles, St. Elmo's Fire and every other brat pack movie in the theatre.
The material girl Madonna I remember doesn't even resemble the vogue Madonna they know.
I wore leggings, blouses with shoulder pads, and Calvin Kleins.

I also wore these:


Tee Hee Hee!
I found these shorts in the flagship Brooks Brothers store in NYC.
Brooks Brothers!

That's my new buddy Brooksie in the picture with me. 
My youngest, who did not travel with us to NYC, had instructed me not only to bring her a prize, but to bring her a BIG prize. 
Because airlines are not fond of BIG prizes, I brought her several smaller prizes, and Brooksie was one of those prizes. 

Proceeds from sales of Brooksie go to the Make a Wish Foundation.
Because I want to do everything in my power to help children with cancer, I didn't think twice about purchasing Brooksie.

He was also wearing my shorts!!!
Tee Hee Hee!