Patience Under Pressure? That's My Mom

I've written about my family several times, so those of you who take a minute to read my blog already know that God saw fit to give me an exceptional family.   As we were growing up, my sister and I never saw our parents argue.  I suppose they did, but we just never knew about it.  They also rarely lost their tempers with us, which wasn't all that hard where my sister was concerned.  I'm guessing patience took a little more prayer where I was concerned, since I was a little on the rambunctious side in my younger years.  If you don't recall, just go back and read the Koolaid-Gate story.

See the photo at the top of this entry?  That's me on the left,  the little copycat watching my sister like a hawk.  Whatever she was doing with her hand certainly seemed like the thing to do.  Although I don't remember specifically, I'm guessing this photo was taken a split second before my left hand flew up to cup my own face.  After all, if my sister was doing it, it must be cool.  That beautiful lady behind us?  That's our mother.  Do you see how calm and serene she looks?  I don't know how, but she always looked like that, and I'm happy to say she still wears that same sweet expression to this day.

Now if you were to ask my mother, she would deny that I was a "high-strung" child.  Bless her, she has such a selective memory, or maybe she has simply chosen to block out some of the more memorable escapades.   But...there is one little episode that was so outrageous that it sticks out to this day, even in her memory.

I was in college, but had gone home for a weekend to go shopping with Mom at the New Orleans Lake Forrest Plaza.  That mall was brand new at the time, and had all kinds of great places to shop.  Maison Blanche and D.H. Holmes anchored dozens of great little pricey boutique shops, all built around an ice skating rink, which was a novelty in itself in the deep South.  I spotted a white one piece "jumpsuit" with a wide, stretchy red elastic belt.  Now don't laugh.  A get-up like that was quite stylish back then, in an Austin Powers kind of way....I promise!  I tried it on, and it fit me like a glove. A quick glance at the price tag landed it right back on the rack, though.  We continued to shop 'til we were almost ready to drop, then decided to stop for a quick lunch.

While we were eating I decided I'd break some pretty big news.  Remember I told you I was in college?  Well, I was almost done.  In fact, I had only one term left before graduating, but had decided I'd had enough of college.  I'm ashamed to say, but the fact that my parents had picked up the tab for my entire education never really occurred to me.  In fact, I was a little surprised that my mother didn't seem to take my news too well.  For some reason she thought my backup plan for supporting myself...which included the phrase "Would you like fries with that?"...was not my most sound career decision.  We had quite a heated discussion, and both of us shed a few tears.

Then, in a moment which can only be described as sheer genius, my mother played quite a trump card.  She said, "If you'll stay in school, I'll buy you that white jumpsuit".  I think I considered her offer for...oh...about a half second...before flashing a big smile, and saying "OK!!"  We finished our shopping and both of us headed home quite happy..me with a snazzy new jumpsuit, and her without a college dropout for a daughter.

Now, before you label me as the most shallow woman on the face of the earth, let me assure you that I've matured quite a bit in the past few decades.  I went on to graduate a few months after that, raised two children of my own, and have spent the past 30-something years teaching.  I don't kid myself that I've been the patient woman that my mother is.  But I can say that she has set the bar quite high, and I continually strive to be the kind of mother to my children that she is to me and my sister.

My mother is a blessing to her husband (our Dad!), her grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and a multitude of friends and extended family.   She is having a milestone birthday this summer, and we are going to celebrate in style...(so don't argue, Mom!).  Until then, though, I wanted the world to know that I love her a bunch.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

Sixty Years Ago Today

My Dad was in the Army, and stationed at Fort Jackson when he and my Mom married.
They had planned a small wedding, but my Dad's leave got cancelled at the last minute,
so they had to postpone the wedding.  A couple of weeks later, Dad managed to get a 48 hour leave,
so he drove all night to get home, he and my mother went over to the local Methodist church
and got married, then the both of them drove back overnight to Fort Jackson.  Mom was 19 years old,
and I believe that was probably one of the first times she had been away from home.
I remember asking her one time several years ago,"Weren't you homesick?"  and I'll never forget what she said.
"No, I was never homesick, because I was with your Daddy.  I was home".
That little wedding took place 60 years ago today;  I thank God every day for them and the love they share,  and the example they've set for me, my sister, and our families.
Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!! We love you both and appreciate you more than you'll ever know!

ShoppePro.com and Our New Website!.....well, almost.

This may not be a newsflash to those of you who know me best, but I have been known to have a bit of an impulse control problem.   Not about everything now mind you.  For example, I never jump into the deep end of a pool without first testing the water.  (In fact, after testing the water, I generally tend to forfeit jumping into the pool at all.  See, that would be a lot like exercise, which is another thing I don't impulsively jump into.)  BUT, I digress.  

There are certain facets of my life in which I leap before looking, however, which leads me to the topic of this post.  My sister and I have a new website!  We have decided to go with Shoppepro.com, which is a fabulous e-commerce site that targets entrepreneurial women like us.  I wish I could tell you I'd found Shoppepro first, but the impulse-control impaired portion of my brain would not allow me to be patient and wait until I found the site that was a perfect fit for us.  I foolishly assumed, since I have a little bit of photoshop knowledge, that designing a website would be a piece of cake.  As a result, we have two domain names, both hosted by other domain hosts.   After four false starts with other web hosts, three major glitches  from a different e-commerce site, two downloads of website building software, and too many failed attempts at building a website template to count, I am officially humbled by the skills of website designers. 

The moral of this story is simple:  Do a little bit of homework before jumping into the deep end of website design and domain hosting.  There is a perfect site for you, and I am grateful to have found ours in Shoppepro.  They wrote the manual on how to be user-friendly, and they included no codes of any kind!  Their customer service is also second to none!   So far I've only had to contact tech support twice, and they were very prompt in responding to my questions.

So....back to our new website.  Our address is www.jbguess.com.  We are still under construction so you'll see links to our etsy shops.  Bookmark the link and visit often, though, because we'll be adding all kinds of new goodies.

Thanks ShoppePro!!....and thank goodness for free trials.

Swearing Off Resolutions & Some Exciting News!

Well friends, it's official. I cannot keep a New Year's resolution for the life of me. If you recall, I had set myself an "annual goal" to post here on my blog at least once weekly. (I also set a goal to clean out all my closets, but we aren't EVEN going there.)

Fast forward to August 18th, with a long expanse of uncharacteristic quiet between May 3rd and today. We had a few bumps in the road last spring, and I lost my bloggy mojo for a while....hence the lengthy silence from me, the woman of many words.

I've learned a little something about myself. It really doesn't matter if they are called annual goals or resolutions or promises. If I try to hold myself to some kind of commitment around the first of the year....chances are it just ain't gonna happen.

Now, on to the awesome news! J. B. Guess & Co. is now J.B. Guess & Co., LLC! My sis and I are partners and we have expanded our product lines. In fact, we now have two etsy shops to accommodate the different categories of items. The original J. B. Guess & Co. is still on vacation, but will be active within the next day or so. Hope you'll pop over because we have new gift items that are exceptionally unique and cool, in my humble opinion.

The new shop is called Mimi & Pinks Fun Stuff For You! and it's live now.
We carry paper and party goods in this shop. You'll find cute bottle labels, and stickers for parties, showers, weddings, and identifying baby items...and yes, some of our items are a little on the snarky side! Oh, by the way, speaking of snarky....we're moving Snarkalicious Greetings to the Mimi & Pinks site.

The coasters and tiles will still be at J. B. Guess & Co. I'll let you know when it's back up and running. I promise to also fill you in on how we came up with the names for our shops. There is a story there, of course.

So the purpose of tonight's post is to make two official announcements:
Announcement #1-We're back in business with bells on!
Announcement #2- Aside from saying "Please pass the black-eyed peas and cabbage" I'm through with New Year's proclamations of any kind. Do me a favor and remind me of that around Dec. 31st, okay? Thanks.

Saying Goodbye To a King

Dear J'Bo,

I remember the day we brought you home. You looked like a big, blond, four-legged powder puff. We put you down in our house, and you proceeded to investigate every corner, as if you were casing the joint to see if it met your expectations. As I recall, it took about 5 minutes for you to get yourself into a bit of a sticky wicket. We'd had an unwelcome visit from a mouse, and I'd completely forgotten about hiding a couple of glue boards behind the furniture. Of course you found them, and they found you...with a vengeance. That "too close" encounter led to your first trim.

You soon settled in and began to hold court in true pekingese fashion. You claimed my eldest son as "your boy", and would not hear of any young female coming near him. You loudly proclaimed that you were the boss to anyone who would listen.

Your short, stubby little legs served you well, especially when you wanted to play your favorite game of chase. You invariably decided to play this game when we were trying to get out the door on school mornings. I still have vivid visions of you dashing madly down the street, furry ears flapping in the breeze, tongue hanging out in a wild doggie grin, with two little boys running full steam after you screaming at the top of their lungs for you to stop!! That never did work, yet they would fall for your game again... and again... and again.

You were a bossy boy, and you loved to have the last word. If you had something to say, by golly, you were going to say it. We'd tell you to hush, and you would, but only after one last soft..."woof". You loved nothing more than telling off the neighbor dogs, even if the neighbor dogs outweighed you three to one. We always said you thought you were a rottweiler, and apparently, so did the bigger dogs in the neighborhood. They always backed down and gave you a wary look like they thought you were a little bit of a loose cannon. You could almost hear them saying, "Better not mess with him. He'll cut you."

And so it went. You were king of the hill, and wore your banner proudly. Of course, as always happens, your back and legs eventually began to fail you, but your attitude never faltered. Even after you were forced to slow down, and ultimately came to depend on the humans in your life to carry you everywhere you went, you still reminded us of your royal position in the family. Make no mistake about it. You were still in charge. Baby Jayne and Yogi, your canine siblings, deferred to you even when you reached the point where you were helpless to defend your position in the family.

We knew you were getting older, and talked often about it. We tried to prepare ourselves, because we knew the day would come. But no matter how hard we tried, we found that there was only so much we could do in order to prepare to say goodbye to you, our little king. One recent afternoon, after 14 and 1/2 years, you suddenly made it clear that you were ready. We just surrounded you, laughing through our tears at the multitude of memories, and told you it would be okay as you took your last breath cradled in the loving arms of your boy.

I still wake up at night with a startle, worried that you haven't informed me of your need to go outside. Your boy still looks for you when he walks in the door from work. The stabbing pain is beginning to gradually fade into a dull ache as the holes in our hearts slowly heal, but in their place will be a special little spot where the love and memories will forever reside.

And...in the back yard two little dogs sit, keeping watch, next to a small mound covered with smooth white stones...still deferring to their brother, the king.

Love,

Mom

Chicken Fiesta Soup and the New Weight Watchers

I am no stranger to dieting. I've tried almost every weight management strategy known to man, with a few notable exceptions. I say "almost", because there are a few diet strategies I have steadfastly refused to try. Among those are the placement of bands in locations where bands do not naturally occur, the stapling of any portion of my body (including my ears), and the surgical bypassing of certain portions of my digestive tract that God felt were important enough that they should not be bypassed.

Pretty short list, huh? Well, now you get the picture. Like so many, I have struggled with my weight for most of my adult life. I've tried Atkins (in which I discovered I'm not really all that crazy about meat anyway), Sugar Busters (lasted about 2 hours), the Carbohydrate Addicts diet (yes, I'll willingly admit I'm a carb addict...next!), the hot dog and boiled egg diet (which came with it's own unique set of side effects), and the colon cleanse (trust me, you'd really rather I didn't blog about that one).

Twenty-five years ago, needing to drop about 25 lbs, I decided to go with a friend to a Weight Watchers meeting. The meetings were held in the fellowship hall of an Episcopal church, and were led by a sweet lady by the name of Mildred, who would begin each meeting by introducing herself and telling her story. Mildred had lost 125 lbs on Weight Watchers. Sometimes she would bring her "before" photos, and sometimes she would bring a pair of slacks that she wore pre-Weight Watchers. She could fit her entire post Weight-Watchers self in one leg of those slacks. Mildred was very inspirational. I never got tired of hearing her tell her story, and I also loved hearing her say, at every single meeting, that we could have a hamburger from Burger King and stay on plan.

It became my routine to go to my Weight Watchers meeting each Tuesday night (always wearing the same outfit, because I knew how much it weighed). After the meeting, I would drive through the Burger King on the way home and treat myself to a Whopper. Within about 4 months I had lost that 25 lbs, plus a few more, and had won the coveted Lifetime membership. With that membership came a gold "key to the future", and a little plastic card to carry in my wallet. I'll always remember that night, because I was so gratified by my accomplishment, but also for the little extra tidbit of info that Mildred provided in that meeting. As always, she encouraged the members to treat themselves to that Burger King burger, but, for the first time, she followed that comment with, "Not a Whopper, though....just a regular hamburger!" Really???? Oops. The very next month I discovered that I was expecting my first child, and with that news, I stopped going to my meetings. I did not, however, give up those Burger King Whoppers.

So.....twenty-five years later, and carrying almost double what I needed to lose the first time, I decided to take the plunge and give Weight Watchers another try. I'd lost my key to the future, but had managed to hang on to that plastic card, so I whipped that baby out and proudly showed it to the cute little girl who was handling registration. As it turned out, my little card created quite the stir. The Weight Watchers ladies had never seen a card like mine, and they were quite impressed that I had managed to keep up with it all these years. I briefly pondered the possibility of loaning it to the Smithsonian, but decided that I would rather use it to save myself the thirty dollar registration fee.

Like so many things, the 21st century Weight Watchers is new and improved. It revolves around a point system, which is really simple to follow, especially with a nifty little points calculator. The meetings are led by a cute, bubbly lady by the name of Kristi, who has lost 82 lbs and gone from a size 18 to a size 2. I haven't seen Kristi's pre-Weight Watchers slacks yet, but I have seen her "before" photos, which are very inspirational. I've been listening intently for some mention of Burger King, but so far have heard nothing. I'll tell you this, though. One of the first things out of Kristi's mouth at that first meeting was, "If you want a Krispy Kreme doughnut, have yourself a Krispy Kreme doughnut....5 points". Wonder if that's for a regular glazed doughnut, or an eclair? Oh yeah. I think I'm going to like it here.

I've been Weight Watching for 2 weeks now, and have lost 5.5 of the 43 lbs. I'm hoping to shed.

One of my family's new favorite foods is Weight Watcher's Chicken Fiesta Soup. I triple this recipe and freeze it. Indulge yourself!

Weight Watchers Chicken Fiesta Soup

1 can fat free low sodium chicken broth
1 10 oz. can chicken, or 5 chicken tenders, boiled and chopped
1 can Rotel tomatoes
1 can kidney beans
2 cans whole kernel corn
1/2 lb 2% Velveeta

Mix first 5 ingredients and heat until boiling. Reduce heat, and add cubed cheese. Stir until cheese is melted.

1 cup = 1 point

I Have Great Friends...and They're Funny, Too!

Those of you who know me best know that I love to laugh, and thank goodness life presents plenty of opportunities for laughter! I'm not ashamed or embarrassed to laugh at myself, and it's a good thing, since I am a bit of a goofball. I also have some wonderful friends, online and off, who share my twisted sense of humor. Laughter among friends really is the best form of therapy, too, don't you think?

Have you ever heard that saying, "If you want to appear intelligent, you need to surround yourself with intelligent people"? Well, as luck would have it, my friends are funny, which comes in very handy in view of the fact that I create funny greeting cards. (Now, in saying that, I don't want you think my friends aren't intelligent, because they are...so don't go telling them I said otherwise.)

Most of my buddies know I create snarkalicious greeting cards. They realize that I pretty much keep my nose to the ground, constantly sniffing around in my pursuit of wittily wicked inspiration, and they readily give me the green light to take their words and run with them. Here are just a couple of examples. This card came about about as a result of a life observation made by my friend, Pat.

This next card was created a while back, and came to me during a conversation with my friend, Bren. She was actually referring to a family pet in making this observation, but it occurred to me that this philosophy has some merit where human beings are concerned as well.

The last card was inspired by a conversation between myself and my friend, Stacey, about those awkward moments when we run into someone at a store, have a nice conversation which always ends with a "we need to get together and catch up", and parting ways all while completely clueless as to that individual's identity. Now if this has never happened to you, then you can just do us all a favor and keep that little tidbit of info to yourself....because I can guarantee you that it will happen, and when it does I'll be around to make a card about it.

Thanks Bren,Pat and Stacey! These cards will be making their maiden voyages to you!