Sunday, March 24, 2013

Truth

  • Wine + freezer + forgetting you put the wine in the freezer to chill = popped cork wine slushy mess

  • Banning little boys from all things technology related causes them to remember how to be little boys



  • THIS is what 100 calories of Easter candy looks like:




  • The idea that "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" is a total lie.  The Cadbury Mini-Eggs pictured above taste JUST as good.  I just won't be tasting the whole stinkin' bag anymore.


  • I have been to San Diego every year for the past 15 years and I think I love it more each time.


  • Matt and I have been together for exactly HALF my lifetime.



  • Doubt kills more dreams than failure.


  • There is no pain worse than stepping on a Lego barefoot.


  • Grant's bed head is the best.  




  • Trucks were meant for girls



  • When the youngest child finally corners you wanting the truth about Santa/Tooth Fairy/Easter Bunny it is overwhelmingly bittersweet and TOTALLY FREAKIN' LIBERATING!
  • Sometimes I like the cats.




  • The book is always better than the movie with only 2 (or 4, depending on how you look at it) possible exceptions:  LOTR and The Hobbit.


  • Lastly, there's nothing better than an 8 year old in thermal underwear running through the house screaming, "Don't take pictures of me in my thermal imagers!!!"









Saturday, March 16, 2013

Mulligan anyone?

I had an interesting encounter today.

76 degrees, blue sky, non-hurricane force winds.  It's this kind of day when the golf course starts calling to me.  Of course, I didn't get a single swing in through the winter months so I packed up Grant and headed to the driving range instead.  We got a giant bucket of balls and I set up the boy several spots down from myself (he will be an amazing golfer someday if he chooses to pursue it, but in the meantime, he's a little unpredictable).  About 10 balls in, an older gentleman sets up shop a couple spots  down.  He chats a little, I turn and listen, respond, and go back to my practice.  Ahead of me, Grant's getting a little wild, swinging so hard that the club wraps around him so far and fast that he can't maintain a two handed grip on it.  I jumped right on him about it and the gentleman behind me chimes in, "No no, don't get onto him for it.  He's taking a good full swing.  That's great!"  Politely, through gritted teeth, I respond, "Yes sir, I understand, but you've never seen how far that club flies when it slips out of his little hand."  The guy just chuckles and keeps talking.  And talking.  And.  Talking.

He talked about his family, why he was in Lbk, where he was from, property taxes in the Northeast as compared to the Midwest, planes of motion in baseball and golf as they pertain to one's swing, and the list continues...  He mentioned several times, as he was trying to instruct me and also instruct me on how to best instruct Grant, that he was once on the PGA circuit.  The more he talked, the more annoyed I got.  As I finished my last few balls, he launched into a sweet story about how in 1978 he played in a PGA tournament in Florida.  When he discovered he was playing with Bobby Cruickshank he was elated because this was obviously the son of the legendary Bobby Cruickshank who played in the 1920's.  But when the son arrived, this gentleman discovered it was not the son at all, but Bobby Cruickshank himself!  "He was 75 at the time and shot a 75 that first round and he was pleased as punch because he'd shot his age!  It was 50 years after he'd finally beaten ol' Bobby Jones in 1928 and he was still playing!"

When I'd finally escaped and we were headed home, I got to thinking how rude I'd been not doing a better job of engaging in that mans conversation (as distinctly one-sided as it was) and how I didn't even introduce myself or Grant or even find out the man's name.  And then it occurred to me that he might have been a perfectly famous pro-golfer himself and I might have missed a fabulous opportunity.

Thoroughly dejected by the time we got home, I had decided not to even tell anyone my story of how I met a pro-golfer that played with Cruickshank in 1978.  Sigh.  On a whim I Googled Bobby C on the off chance I might learn the name of the pro-golfer at the driving range, and do you know what I learned?  Cruickshank retired in 1969.

And DIED in 1975.

He was born in 1894 which would've made him 75 in 1969, not 1978.  And I can't find any record of Cruickshank ever beating Jones.

Things that make you go hmmm...

Oh well.  I still love getting out in the sunshine with this big hitter:





Friday, February 1, 2013

Pinteresting?

Pinterest.com

Easily the most fascinating and ridiculous creation in the last year.  Somedays it's perfectly intriguing and I find myself spending hours a little too much time pinning hoards of brilliant ideas, travel destinations, and recipes.  Other days it's perfectly stupid and idiotic and I find myself spending hours a little too much time pinning hoards of witty memes, Star Wars fan art, and pics of kitty cats sleeping.

Never before have I been so compelled to have a baby, get married, lose 20 lbs, and become a professional photographer.  All at the same time.

My attitude towards this phenomenon waxes and wanes depending on the phase of the moon.  And what kind of day I've had at school.  And possibly how much I've had to drink.

For instance:  tonight the moon is waning gibbous, I had a great but exhausting day at school, and I'm not disclosing my wine consumption.  Let it be known, however, that I left school early today (yay!!) to come home and meet the plumber over a busted pipe in the wall (boo!!).  Discern what you will regarding my consumption.

Pinterest brillance:

Witty meme...


Seriously.  How could you NOT pin this?




This one encompasses both "have a baby" and "fan art".  You know this would be adorable in a SW nursery.





Actually gonna do it.  April.  DFW.




Pinterest idiocy:


Um....  Not only no, but hell no!  Cupcakes baked in eggshells decorated like footballs...



Pregnancy announcements?  Ok.  So maybe I giggled a little when I saw this one.  But do people really send these out?  Am I that old fashioned?




Watermelon keg.  Nope.





WTF?  Think before you pin people.  Even if you've never snorkeled the Molokini crater it's pretty obvious this is Photoshopped.





Ninjabread men?

Okay.  I'm actually going to do this one because that is just pure awesomeness!!

Don't judge me.

You know this is WAY cooler than the ginger version.



Bliggity Bloggity Boo.

I'm not even going to pretend to have anything amusing, witty, or remotely interesting to say.  The ol' blog is going the way of all things hobby related in a busy girl's life....onto the "To do" list.  Someday.  When there's no basketball/football/baseball game/practice/tournament to attend.  Or papers to grade.  Or potties to scrub.  Damn my life is glamorous.  

That last statement was both genuine and facetious.  

Yin and yang.  Light and dark.  Strangely it's all the same thing.

Ketchup:

Red Raider football...



Growing up.  Definitive style and personality.  Too smart for his own good...




September sunrise on my way to work...



Same day.  September sunset on my way home.  Yeesh...








Ridiculous ball of fur.  Notice the claw caps?  I anticipated a good blog for you over this one but it was relatively uneventful.  Except they require WAY too much upkeep and attention.  $500 later there are no claw caps in my house anymore.  Or claws for that matter.  



Got to take some family pics for one of my fave families...



And pics of my crazy beautiful nieces.  3 out of 5 of them anyway...


Smile NOW or I will ground you...




Pretty good little defender playing corner and tipping the ball.  First tackle football season...



Watching the monkey show at the fair.  Or was it tigers...

something...



TTU football.  And because I never get to be in my own blog...




Some of my fave peeps and Psycho Uno...



10th bday.  Skate and sleepover.  Best buds...


8th bday.  Mr. Gattis.  Happy boy but the pizza still sucks...



Consider yourself ketchup-ed.  More or less...

Monday, September 3, 2012

Photographica.

For those of you that don't already know this, I've been blessed with 7 stunningly gorgeous nieces and nephews over the course of the past 19 years.  I was SO honored (and stunned) a few weeks ago when one of them asked me to take her Senior pictures.  I think my reply was something like, "Um.  What? Me?"  But how could I possibly say no to such a beautiful and amazing young lady?!  

Math teacher by day.  Photog by night.  
















My sweet Lauren:  Thank you so much for trusting me with this honor.  I have had so much fun over the last week.  You are truly beautiful, smart, and amazing in every way.  I am so proud of the young lady you've become and I can't wait to see what mountains you move in the next few years.  Love you lots!!



Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Squeerill !!

I no longer seem to possess the capacity for sustained and coherent thought.  Is there such a thing as adult onset ADHD?  Perhaps it's an affliction of all mothers of young children.  Or wives.  Or teachers.  

Squirrel!

My boys loved The Wiggles when they were little.  If you're not familiar with The Wiggles then you should pull a clip up on YouTube.  You'll be banging your head against the wall in no time.  Okay, so maybe you shouldn't check them out on YouTube.  They are, or were, are they still around?, an Australian children's TV show.  And they pronounce squirrel as 'squeerill'.  I couldn't say the stupid word properly for years.

I find TV to be a most fascinating entity.  It elicits the most random flow of verbiage at the most random of times....

Matt -- Holy cow!  Serbia is AMAZING!

Grant -- Would you ever work on a crab boat if it was the last job in the world even though you hate crab and would probably die?

Jaden -- Well Mom, that wouldn't be an issue if you had some Pajama Jeans.

We don't even really watch that much TV around here (please don't ask me what my children are doing while I sit here spewing randomness at you).  Okay, it's possible that the boys may have watched more than their fair share this summer.  Don't judge me.  That's what summer is for.  Laziness.  Relaxation.  Whole days of absolute worthlessness.  But truly, we have been equally busy as we have lazy.  I have at least 1,726 photos of our lazy/busy summer but they're all on my phone as it has become my primary photographic device.  And they're all stuck there.  As smart as my phone is, it will no longer communicate with my Mac and so, you are hereby going to be spared the agony of an endless stream of  Potts family pics.  

Instead, here is an abbreviated stream...

The annual 4th of July parade out at LRC has become pitifully thin.  There were only about 10 "floats" this year and my family comprised four of them.  Here's 3/4 of them...J is on the little 4-wheeler, Papa Pat and G on the big one, and Matt is in the Jeep.






Baseball has been an all consuming affair since March.  Grant eats, sleeps, and breathes baseball and after a 2 year hiatus, Jaden is back into it full swing.  Pun sort of intended.  G is currently playing on his 3rd team of the year and earlier in the summer the boys were able to play on a team together.  This was a rare treat.  It was heartening to see them put aside their fierce competitiveness and work together as a brotherly team.  Of course, they were doing this because they actually make a powerhouse duo (and they were well aware of this) and they wanted to show off to anybody within eyeshot.  But whatever.  One small victory at a time.  Right?

Here they are at Tech's baseball camp...











And I hate my cats.  They are destroying my house and I would deport them back to Kittyville except two little boys are ridiculously attached to them.  I'm ready to declaw every paw in the house but Matt is adamant that we try Soft Paws Cat Claw Covers first.  This will surely make for a memorable blog post in the coming days.  

Squeerill!