The Beat Goes On ....

The 40th running of the Peachtree Road Race was the 13th running for Andy and I. We (well I) thought it would be special to begin a new tradition this year by having Austin and Chandler join in on the fun. March - applications mailed; June - numbers received! We were placed in time group 3. Yay! I was so excited with our numbers this year.

As race day aproached, I put together our plan for wake up and leave time the day of the race. Also worked on the meeting plans for post race. Andy and I shared fun stories about things like Marta rides pre- and post-race and how pre is much more pleasant than post; the trombone player on the bridge who never actually plays a song just blows random notes; all of the cheering spectators along the race course; the run past Sheperd Spinal Clinic; the variety of cool bands playing along the way; and more. I was sort of anxious about being separated from Austin and Chandler during the race, and assured them there was no way to make a wrong turn or to be abducted from the course. They would be perfectly fine. Who was I trying to convince anyway? Me? :-) We went over the plan carefully and even reviewed the code word from daycare days. As a mom you can never be overly cautious. Right?

OK, so race day is quickly approaching and Austin's biggest concern is what our pre-race meal will be on Friday night. Austin and Chandler are not very happy and wonder whose bright idea this was when I tell them that alarm clocks need to be set for 4:30am and our leave time is 5:00am!! Race day: we left on time, made it to the race safely, finished the race, successfully met up at the end and made our way back home. The jury is still out on whether they will join us again next year .... and the beat goes on.

p.s. Recognize the title of this entry as a song? Give it a listen. Sonny & Cher The Beat Goes On or an updated version Britney Spears The Beat Goes On. Fun Song. :-)

Movin' On ...

Yippee!! I found them, I found them. Well, sort of "I" found them. The certificates are safe and sound still in the frames!! Much to my mother's chagrin, I still have many boxes of "stuff" at the trailer. For those of you who might not know, the trailer is where I grew up and where my mom stays when she comes to Georgia. It was another storage area during our move in 2006. Mama figures that after 2 1/2 years I must not need the items that are still there. She "reorganized" it all about a month ago and when I finally mentioned to her last week that I was searching high and low for the certificates ... low and behold she knew exactly where they were!! I'm so excited. What a relief!! Now I can move on.

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 .....