Perfect Attendance ...

Here I am almost 3 years after we packed and moved from our old house and there's something I'm looking for that I can't put my hands on. Don't mind that I still have approximately 50 boxes in the basement that haven't been touched in over 3 years!! I've been on the quest to find some particular items for about a week now, and I'm actually losing sleep over it. So here's the deal - I'm trying to find Austin and Chandler's perfect attendance certificates. At one point, I had them in frames, hanging on the wall. Then there were so many that it looked terrible because I couldn't keep them all lined up. Took them all down. I think I actually wound up taking the certificates out of the frames and then donated the frames instead of moving them with us. I'm losing my mind over here!! I've been through so many scenarios about where those things could be. I even imagined that I forgot to take the certificates out of the frames and donated the frames, certificates and all!! That one literally makes me sick!! So I had (actually still have) boxes and boxes of Austin and Chandler's school papers. Seems as though I never threw any of their stuff away. Last week I tossed 3 trash bags full of papers that really had no meaning, other than having my child's name on them. I'm talking all the way back to Austin's kindergarten year in school!!!! Since Austin will be a senior next year, I had this fabulous idea that I should make a list of all the awards that he's ever received from the time he started school (even found some from daycare and Pre-K). This list will be good for what you ask? That I've not figured out just yet, but it sounded like such a good idea when I started. Now I can't stop!! Furthermore ... you guessed it ... OCD has taken over me!! I started the list, started going through boxes and boxes of paper, knew the perfect attendance needed to be on the list, hence my current situation. I'll let you know when I find them!!

Kids Say The Darndest Things....

Another school year gone. Looks like my 2008-2009 subbing duties have come to an end. Turns out, I really enjoyed subbing and I plan to remain on the "sub" list for the 2009-2010 school year. I subbed for 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th grades. Each was a real adventure. It's funny, really, the things that children will say. Thought I'd share a few memorable lines with you. Enjoy.

A few comments I received after introducing myself:

Are you related to General Bragg?
Do you live at Fort Bragg?
Do you like to brag?
I'm gonna be braggin' on you today.
That's a funny name.

Random comments from various times of the school day:

Can you tell us a joke?
What's your favorite song?
What kind of music do you like?
Why are you here?
Where did you get your shoes?
Are you going to make us do work today?
Are you someone's mom?
I'm going to irritate the sub today.

Have a fun summer!!

Happy Mother's Day....

Funny (and gross) real life mom story ..... It's approximately 1970. My mom was a young, working mom. At the time she worked at the IRS and she had just been laid off from her job. An important task that she needed to take care of was a visit to the unemployment office. When you don't have a job, you can't afford day care, so off she goes to accomplish this task with a 3 and 4 year old in tow. (that's my brother Gary and I) Once we arrived and were inside, she needed to get us settled in somewhere while she took care of business. She sat us in two chairs right beside each other and told us to stay there until she came back. We were never out of her site and stayed right where she left us. When she finished and it was time to go, she noticed that we were both chewing gum. We had not arrived at our destination with chewing gum and she had not given us any chewing gum, so the obvious question came to mind ... where did the gum come from? She asked the simple question and we gave the simple answer. We got it from the underneath side of the table in front of us. At that point, she did what any good mom would do ... she let us continue to chew the gum. Happy Mother's Day!

#happymothersday

My Jefferson Baseball Dragon...

Much to the dismay of my 11th grader, I'm still a doting mom. Here's the thing ... I still can't believe that (on the day I'm posting this) he's an 11th grader who is only 15 school days away from being a 12th grader!! It's almost unimaginable. I vividly remember the day we brought him home from the hospital. I walked through the front door of our cute little house in Auburn. I was wearing an outfit that was too small. I remember putting that dumb outfit on at the hospital and thinking to myself, why am I still this big? Somehow, I thought I would magically drop most of my extra weight between the time I went to the hospital to give birth and the time I went back home. I can be a little naive sometimes - good example of that, I suppose. Anyway, I stood in the family room holding our new creation in my arms and so profoundly I said (out loud) "what do I do now?" Andy suddenly wondered exactly what type of pain medication I had been given prior to being released from the hospital. He lovingly offered to remove his pride and joy from my arms.

We decided early on that baseball would be one of the sports that Austin should learn as a little guy. Andy was very good at baseball when he played in school, so it seemed a natural choice. We planned to sign Austin up every season while he was little in order that he would gain the know-how and experience should he decide to keep playing as he grew older. He began playing t-ball when he was 5 years old. You haven't fully enjoyed life until you have attended and watched an entire t-ball game. Cute, funny, confusing, stressful, loud. All that and more!

As baseball seasons came and went, Austin enjoyed every minute and continued asking each season to sign up and play again. I think it's important to add here that Andy was Austin's coach every season (with the exception of one fall season) until he started travel ball. The coach's son is not an easy position to be in. It's an early lesson in playing any position on the field, when asked, with no complaints. Austin could essentially play any position at a moment's notice and rather well, I might add. :-)

I'm proud of my favorite Jefferson Baseball Dragon and the contributions he has made to the team during the season. The Jefferson Dragons clinched the Region 8AA title last week against North Oconee.

.... Austin then ....

.... and now ....

Balance .... Where Did You Go?

I began working at the ripe old age of 18. October 15, 1984 to be exact. And I worked at the same company for over 15 years. From the beginning until March 1986, it was only me to worry about. Not too hard to figure out where I want to go, what I want to eat, not too many clothes to wash, an apartment to keep clean, no lawn to worry with, a few bills to pay, pretty low stress as it were. I was perfectly in balance with me.

Andy and I married in March 1986. From then until 1992, it was again a fairly easy game of balance to play. We were young and care-free. Balancing our daily life: family, church, work, home, and pets was a fairly easy thing to do. We balanced well together.

June 1992. Austin comes along. I went back to work when he was 6 weeks old. September 1996. Chandler comes along. Again, back to work at 6 weeks. With both of these wonderful transitions, I learned there was a little more to balancing life as a working mom and then working mom of two. I should mention that it certainly helps to have a husband who is willing to pull his weight when it comes to housework and caring for our children. I probably wouldn't have had such an easy transition if not for him. ;-)

Fast forward to December 1998. I leave the corporate world to become a stay at home mom. Surprisingly, it took a little bit to find balance in this new phase of life. Once we got there, it's pretty much been smooth sailing for the Bragg family. Here we are today and I feel like balancing life is a challenge again. I'm not even working every day, so what is the problem? Maybe it has something to do with this quote I found: "For many people a job is more than an income – it's an important part of who we are. So a career transition of any sort is one of the most unsettling experiences you can face in your life." ~ Paul Clitheroe

I'm not sure who Paul is, but I think he's on to something here. Maybe what I'm feeling isn't necessarily the loss of balance in my life, but instead unsettled for the moment. Of course, there are are only 15 school days left after today. I'll sub when called upon over the next three weeks and then back to full time stay at home mom for the summer. Oh, I think I see balance just around the bend .....

i'MtheMoM ...

Last week on Monday was my 6th day to sub at the middle school. Thus far, I've subbed for 7th and 8th grades in the subjects of Social Studies and Language Arts. Chandler has escaped the total embarassment of having her mom as her sub. I should mention here that I feel I've made great strides in the realm of subbing at my child's school. Why, you ask? Chandler and a friend actually came to the class I was subbing in the week before. She walked through the door and in my head I hear an angelic choir in unison ... I waited for her to say she was just coming by to say hello and then maybe a hug and my day would be complete ... insert sound of dragging a needle across a (vinyl) record or maybe screeching brakes of a car coming to a stop while traveling at 100 miles an hour - she needed money. Well, I still enjoyed the fact that she came by.

OK, back to my 6th day of subbing. I get a text on the drive to take Chandler to school - they need me to sub in a 6th grade class and I recognize immediately the name as Chandler's science teacher. I get a little nervous as visions of Bill Nye The Science Guy dance in my head, but surely I won't have to perform any experiments! Chandler asks who I'd be subbing for, I tell her, and her slightly delayed response is ... oh, I have her. I then get a quick run down of do's and don'ts. I promise not to embarass her, send her off with all my love, and assure her that this won't be the worst day of her life.

As Chandler and friends arrive to class, I make it a point not to act overly excited to see her. It was sort of funny that we kept slipping each other glances and smiles during class. I couldn't help but stare at her and watch as she worked, but I'd quickly look away when I caught her looking at me. Fast forward to the last period of the day ... as I introduced myself to the class, someone raised their hand and asked ... are you someone's mom? I said yes, Chandler Bragg's. The response? A simple "cool".

The Vent ....

Camping + Rain = me very ill

pic of our little home away from home ~ obviously not taken on this trip

So, we decided to go camping at Fort Yargo for Spring Break since Austin needed to be around for baseball. Fort Yargo is close enough to home that it wouldn't be a huge hassle to drive back and forth for games and practices. Plus, we LOVE to go camping! Can you believe that the last two camping trips we've taken (fall break in October 08 and now spring break April 09) it rained every single day that we were there?! I can handle one day of rain during a camping trip, but the entire trip? Not so much.

We arrived on Tuesday to rain; it stopped and then started again at about 1am on Wednesday morning; rained on and off all day Wednesday; started raining again on Thursday at about 2am and has rained on and off all afternoon again today. Currently (3:56pm 4/2) there is an 80% chance of thunderstorms tonight, which is supposed to be our last night of camping. Yay. And I thought we were in a drought? Maybe I missed a newsflash that we're finished with that?

I know we need the rain and I should be thankful, and I probably will be .... in a few days. I woke up in such a bad mood this morning, but my spirits soon were lifted when Austin sang "I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart, where? down in my heart" ..... you know the rest of the song. I did manage a smile and then we played spoons for a long time and that too brought a smile to my face.

Not sure why I'm even writing this post. I'm not overly thrilled and don't have anything great to say. I guess I've come up with one more use for this blog .... venting.