sweet, sleepy dreams…

When I came home for Christmas break I never had any intentions of taking a break from this blog…however the negligence is obvious in fact that I only have one blog for the entire month of December as well as the comment made by Aunt Laurie last weekend: “Everytime I go to your blog it’s the same hair flipping one.” That said, it’s time to get back to business…

I could bore you with my endeavors over this seemingly endless break, or tell you all about my Christmas presents, but I would rather skip the junk talk. I don’t figure anyone really cares that much anyways. But I do have to give a shout out to a very reminiscent Christmas Eve dinner with the cousins at the “kids table”: we all laughed for about an hour over the goofy things we used to all do as kids. A few of the notable memories were the ridiculous games we used to make up and the extent of the holiday madness that fell upon Nan’s house with 12 grandchildren all under the age of 10. “Spence is the Monster”, “Around the House Tag”, “Lego Wars”, “Hide and Seek in the Basement”, “Yahtzee Pool”, and “Disappear” were among the favorite games we coined (aren’t the names so original!?). As for the holidays that we experienced growing up in my family, I cannot simply explain them in one sentence. Instead, let me paint a picture for you:

Christmas Eve night at Nans approximately 1998: KIDS EVERYWHERE. Presents stacked as tall as the giant Christmas tree in the tiny living room that was bursting at the seams with stressed out parents, hormonal teenagers, groups of little heathens in a panic over the excitement of the presents, and one set of overly active grandparents (Nan and Papa). The energy in the room was indescribably amped and the parents forced each child to sit in their “designated area” on the floor and wait patiently while the gifts were dispersed. There was always a little dispute when one  kid got to climb under the tree to get the presents in the very back…of course that was always the “favorite kid” which tended to cause a bit of hostility among the overly stimulated youngsters. Then all at once, the paper shredding began. Sparkly bows, pretty paper, and nametags were flying through the air while screams of joy and well-practiced “oohs” and “ahhs” rang throughout the room. Parents pretended to be excited about the noisy new toy that their child just opened, while figuring out to do with yet another tractor (or in my case, Barbie doll) that will obviously not fit into the already overflowing toy box. After all the toys were open we were all forced to be silent while Papa called “Santa’s secret phone line” and one by one we all took turns listening to Santa. Eventually we would all make our way home where Aunt Laurie would call with an update on Santa’s whereabouts according to the radar and we would all tuck into bed, secretly scheming ways to catch the fat man, until sleep overtook us and ruined the plan.

This was the typical Christmas for us for many years until we finally moved the holiday festivities to Aunt Sandy and Uncle Marks (at the time) new house. By this point, the heathens were all a little bit older, however no more mature- meaning that they now fought over who got the privilege of passing out presents. After opening the gifts, instead of calling Santa we played one of the most infamous original “cousin games”- Around the House Tag. It actually began as a game we played inside the house, which was absurd considering the number of people that filled the house, leading to multiple collisions and accidents. Needless to say, we were forced outside in the freezing cold, but everyone knows the resiliency of a kid is out of this world so the temperature was no threat to us. We would run as far and fast as we could for hours on end, eventually having to create very specific rules and guidelines because homemade games always present those tricky “gray areas” where no one really knows who is “it” anymore.

I know that was a little much to take in, but I thoroughly enjoyed our reminiscent moment and just wanted to share just one of the many crazy experiences that I had growing up as a child in an over populated family.

I will throw this out there one last time: sitting at home in Sikeston while everyone else has already returned to Stark really makes me sad. But in the end, I know that I only have one more semester at dear ole’ Murray, so I better get excited and soak it all up while I still can. (I promise I’ll eventually stop complaining about this….a surprise visit from Kelly last week helped get me excited for the return as we considered all the trouble we can get into our last semester in the MKY!)

Martin Luther King’s birthday is coming up so get excited….whoot whoot…

“Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing Thy grace” and “When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, It is well, it is well, with my soul.” Look them up…love them both.

Ok, now that I got all the BS out of the way, it is time for the list of the memorable moments of 2010:

1. SEC brought home the national championship
2. Alice in Wonderland, Twilight Eclipse, Inception, Toy Story 3, and Facebook finally gets a movie!
3. Antione Dodson- “Hide ya kids, hide ya wife”
4. All of Katie Perry’s songs and Jason’s new album
5. Rescuing the Chilean coal miners
6. H1N1 epidemic is declared over! (or at least back to normal)
7. The International Space Station surpasses the record for the longest human occupation in space
8. Lady Gaga’s outfits
9. CERN scientists actually trap antimatter…Angels and Demons flash back
10. BP oil spill
11. Earthquake in Hati
12. Bret Michaels and Hugh Hefner get engaged (not to eachother, of course)
13. Oprah’s last show…
14. WAYNE IS REALEASED FROM JAIL
15. Lynard Skynard came to the rodeo…yeah, I said it
16. Murray is a buzzer-shot away from the Sweet 16
17. State makes it to the Gator Bowl
18. Prince William popped the question…finally, a royal wedding in my lifetime!

I’m sure there were many more noteworthy events that I am overlooking, but I am drawing this blog to an end. Sleep is creeping its way into my body and is quickly taking over. I promise to write again soon!

Love always,

Addie

“You know that place between sleep and awake, the place where you can still remember dreaming? That’s where I’ll always love you, Peter Pan. That’s where I’ll be waiting.” -Tinkerbell

Architects and Destroyers

I was privileged enough to get to spend the entire day with my dad last Sunday (which happened to be Fathers day). But before I share a little bit of our insightful conversation from the day with you, I must first paint the picture of my dad for those of you who don’t know him:

My dad and I are “on the same wavelength,” so to speak. We tend to understand what each other means without many words and we laugh at the same things. However, unlike my dad, I am not the “modern day John Wayne” that he is known to be. And I mean that in all seriousness. No matter how hot it gets, he wears long-sleeved button downs and jeans almost every day, he doesn’t stray far from his pistol, and he even rocks the “denim on denim.” Tomatoes and potatoes are “maters and taters,” and his accent can sometimes cause problems when we are ordering at restaurants. His “ice tea” was once mistaken for an “asti” better known as asti spumante.

Going to the lake was always interesting because he wore boots with his swimming trunks. He claimed that he didn’t know how to walk in sandals because “they just keep slippin’ off my feet!” and he refused to wear the “ninja turtle shoes” that mom bought him a few years ago. All I can say is thank God for Sperrys. They are the only other shoes that he will wear besides his boots. (And they look much better with his swimming trunks.) Also, this past weekend at my cousins wedding, he told my uncle (the father of the bride) that he was sure that I would not make him wear those terrible, shiny “Bob Barker” shoes to my wedding, whenever that day came.

Here are some wise words that my daddy once told me: “A cowboy is not a person, but a way of life. It’s not someone who plays pool all night and drinks ‘til they fall over. It’s not necessarily someone who wears the hat and chases the buckles in the big circuit either. Cowboy, to me, means a hard work ethic, good morals, values the environment, and loves animals and kids. That’s why I’m not a true, cowboy ‘cause I don’t like kids ‘less they’re mine.”

The fact that my dad doesn’t like babies has always been a long standing joke in our family because for some reason babies usually really like my dad, but as he says “unless they’re my own, I don’t want anything to do with them.” Honestly, I don’t think that my dad doesn’t like kids in general—he just doesn’t like crying kids. But he likes to stay on the safe side, so his “signature move” to keep babies at bay from him is to stomp his foot really loud. After that, kids usually don’t want to have anything to do with him. “Works every time.”

My girl friends all think my dad is funny, though maybe a little quite at times, and most of my guy friends think he is “cool,” as Jeff once quoted. But people that don’t know him very well think he’s intimidating, and I can’t quite figure out why. Truthfully, my dad is a giant goofball, but for some reason he finds amusement in the fact that he is capable of intimidate people. I guess it’s a dad thing.

Now that you have somewhat of a mental picture of my dad, I will go on with my original intent: to share with you an excerpt from our conversation last Sunday. (I will not post this in conversation form; I’m just going to write it as a general thought.)

American Cowboy magazine (one of the many magazines that my dad subscribes to, go figure) recently did an article about Ted Turner, the entertainment mogul, better known as the “mouth of the south.” In his interview, Turner discussed his views on people’s actions. Here’s a little summary of what he said: We (the human race) have been responsible for creating wonderful and beautiful things like the Mona Lisa and Beethoven’s 5^th Symphony, but we’re also responsible for things like the holocaust. When Turner spoke of the comparison, he meant it in a forgiving manner, to show that though humans have done bad things, we are also capable of good things. I like to think of it like this: you are in control of yourself and all of your actions- take responsibility. You can be the hinge of fate for everyone’s destiny- an architect of goodness and justice, or the destroyer- it’s ultimately up to you.

It absolutely blows my mind that some people can hurt people and not think a thing of it. On the same token, we can hurt people every day and not even realize it. Always be conscious what you say and how you react. Chain reactions occur from people’s decisions, so always have good intentions in whatever you do. Karma is a b**** -don’t forget it!

I know that’s really random but Ted Turner has a pretty cool article in the magazine that is worth reading. And I know that my dad really had nothing to do with the whole point of it all, but hey, he’s a pretty entertaining guy so I just felt the need to share a little bit of him. I think we were actually taking about the article because it also said that Turner owns the worlds largest bison herd…and so, of course, dad wants to add bison to the zoo that we already keep. Anyways, hope you all are having a great day! Don’t get too hot, but get outside and soak up some vitamin D- it’s got good antioxidants!

Love always,

Addie

“The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be.” –Marcel Pagnol