Word UP!

...or my WORD!
2013-2017...lotta news boys and girls!
Twins are SIX and headed to first grade in the fall.
And surprise! They have a little sister, Sadie, who came along to run the place now! Papa says...she's a hoot! With a head full of curls! 14 months old right now. Crawling everywhere...taking a step here and there... it's coming!!
And did I tell ya ... we got us a little fella in the family now. Clinton Austin Owen. 26 months old. LOVES a big truck! And that sits pretty well with his daddy and Papa Rick.
And soon to be little sister...who is walking everywhere... she's 14 months old. Busy little Lizzie...
MY heart is full! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
PS. GG is retired now...but papa is still working. Somebody's got to! 😉

September

...used to be the first month of school. I remember getting excited about that day after Labor Day...the first day of school. New shoes. New outfit. New pencils. New binder. New paper just waiting to be written on. The first date I learned to write began with these numbers...195-. Now. I'm writing 2013 on a white board for a classroom of 4th grade students. That's a long way from that chubby pencil in the 1950s. I learned to read Holt, Rinehart's Alice, Jerry and Jip books. This week I am teaching Who is Neil Armstrong? To a tech savvy bunch who has never known life without 24/7 TV with hundreds of channels and who daily text and have Facebook access. Are they smarter than me? In so many ways...you betcha.
...begins a new year for teachers and students. What's all that fuss about January 1st? The REAL new year for most families is September.
...ushers in a new season. The one that brings crisp air. Pumpkins. Georgia Football. Falling leaves. Birthday Season for most of our family.
...prompts me to begin to-do lists for family gatherings. Thanksgiving and Christmas.
...causes closet rotation. Goodbye summertime easy wear. Hello sleeves and sweaters and closed-toed  shoes.
...serves up pots of chili. Soups. Stews. Grilled cheese sammies on the side!
...and fresh boiled peanuts...and hayrides...and carnivals...
...lotsa memory making moments. But I think EVERY month yields that!

Technology and ME

Yes...Amy...I can only work as fast as technology lets me.  AND as fast as my memory allows me to access an account I have not used in almost 2 years.  Several emails and 45 minutes later...I'm back in my blog.  Sigh!  Now to keep this up and going...we'll see...we'll see.

Daddy

Doesn't seem like such an impressive word does it? Daddy. Dad. Papa. PawPaw. Grandddaddy. But when you attach the person to the word...well...it's magic. Daddy's can do ANYTHING! They are smart! They are strong! They know about fishing and hunting and cars and bugs and electricity and ... all that stuff that Mama's don't know. I'm trying to think of my very first recollection of my Daddy. One is that he had those long lanky legs that when he sat down and crossed them I could sit in that hole in the middle. I would walk up to him and push his foot up so I could sit in that hole. I remember dancing with Daddy and Mama. He would hold me in one arm and her in the other. Then I got too big for that so he would let me dance with him standing on his feet! Don't Be Cruel. Yeah...Me and Daddy and ELVIS! He could jitterbug TOO! He was a guy who loved to pull a joke. When Ricky and I started dating, Ricky drove Randy's doodlebug. We left one night to go somewhere in MY car and when we got back. Daddy and Randy and I suspect Bubba, had put that bug between two trees in the yard. Bumper to Bumper. Tree to Tree. And then there was the time that Ricky and I were getting ready to leave and the bug wouldn't crank no matter what he did. Daddy had taken the "coil" (that may not be right...I'm a girl...how would I know...) off the thing! Oh yeah! He loved to laugh! Another Daddy was my Mama's Daddy. Good to the bone, Granddaddy Tomlin. A quiet spirit and gentleman...but a dry sense of humor. Mama had a pair of figurines that sat on the tv that had belonged to her mama. Granddaddy said they were George and Martha Washington. Well, we were being some kinda silly and laughing hysterically. I bumped the tv...George's head went flying off. G'daddy Tomlin said. Huh! He laughed his head off!!! I can still see his deadpan expression to this day! He had a nickname for everybody. I was Teetny. Ricky was Tricky. Bubba was Bud. Midtown shopping center was Centerpoint. Piggly Wiggly was the Piggy Wigg. And it went on and on. He got up at 7 each a.m. Scrambled 2 eggs. Had a side of light bread. A glob of Apple Jelly. And a cup of Maxwell House Coffee. He smoked "Selmas" (you guessed it...Salem Cigarettes) and said...Little Teetny when I die they gonna say smoking killed me...it didn't. He was 86. A bone in his leg broke causing him to fall. This resulted in a blood clot in his lung. I loved that man with my WHOLE heart! Daddy. Granddaddy. They were my past. Today...(next post)...

Beach Bum Boozle!

Dateline Mexico Beach, June 2, 2011, 5:47 p.m. WHAT am I doing on the COMPUTER? Six fun friends...sun...sand...salt...sangria...await... This annual event is one I look forward to as I wind down an exhausting schoolyear. Each of the six fun friends serve up just the right amount of hilarity, compassion, sassiness, wisdom and SNACKS that kickstarts the summer for me. What could be better than this? Wayul, this year's added dimension is Kindle books...not just the traditional paperbacks. Yeah, we are techno-trendy-savvy, TOO! Don't let our age fool you! Anyway, anyhow...back to the tasks at hand...listening to ZBB and JB on the SoundDock, watching the waves and sipping island fruit drinks...be back in a minute...only worry in the world is the tide gonna reach my chair?

Flashback!

It has been four months since my last post. Changing diapers? 92 a week. Formula - make that 3 "tall" cans of Gerber Good Start a week. Sleepless nights...almost...and truthfully, the sweetest days and nights of a lifetime. So small in size yet so large in emotion. Ada (Baby A) and Dottie (Baby B) entered this world on October 18, 2010 just before 6 in the afternoon. I (GiGi) was driving cautiously and deliberately straight to Kennestone to greet them...I hoped to see Amy before the surgery...but didn't quite make it. Laura called me on Barrett Parkway to say...Mama, I just saw pictures! I cried. Ricky was on the east coast...trucking back towards Albany when we got the call. He insisted that I go on. I did. He arrived much later that night around 11 or so...and oh! What a proud PaPa he was! What a relief it was to see Amy with my own two eyes and know she was okay and then to hold those 2 precious little ones. I thought my heart would burst! I called family on my way up. Bubba and Karen who were in Florida and would not be there when I got to the hospital. Shirley. Uncle Bill. But...who I really wanted ...really really wanted to talk to was my Mama. In Uncle Bill's words...now Dot would have really loved this...two little girls! This is what I know. When my heart was was so broken that I didn't know what I was gonna do...Mama kissed those little spirits and just sent them right on down to us...she did.

October...really...already...

I have to say this is the month that we have been waiting on to get here! Dottie and Ada should arrive very, very soon now. I asked Amy last night ... do you have everything packed for the hospital... do you have everything you need for the girls to come home? I'm a listmaker. Ticking things off just plain feels good to me. Problem now is...I get a list started...now where did I put that thing?! What was it I needed to get done TODAY?

All in all, things are mostly in place for the BIG DAY here and in Dallas. Just gotta tweak a few things for school a little later ... A friend once told me, "If you wanna see your life flash before your eyes...teach school!" She's right. The busyness of my days make turning calendar pages look like a rush of wind came through. I want to stop, though, I want to remember these moments of anticipation. I want to remember how I felt. What we said. What we did in these days of wait.

Changing seasons. Changing leaves. Changing lives. (...and soon...changing diapers!)