Update Kids - September 2009

Dream Manipulator!!

Laura was so cute; just lying in her bed sound asleep a few minutes ago. It's 2:40 p.m. so I figured she needed to get up.

 Rather than yell at her, shake her or cause her to be uncomfortable I decided to spray a light scented body spray over her bed and let the little tiny particles drift down to her face. You should have seen her reaction. First she was just laying there, no change - - but within a few seconds her eye brows lifted; and then the little smile. At first it was just a little showing of her teeth. Soon a little broad grin pulled across her face and I could visually witness her eyes rolling, knocking on the back of her sockets. Three or four seconds passed and the smile disappeared. Just as I thought Laura would drift back into her deep slumber I heard a little muted sound, something like a grunt, but it was pleasant. 

I saw my little girl's eyes open and shift from one side to the other and she back to blink.."Mommy, I had the best dream." She stated...then she thought about it and added "Why do I smell lemons? I smell lemons! I dreamed I was in a lemon pudding mom, it was weird, I was swimming and it was really warm, and ..." she trailed off. I grinned as I held up the spritzer (citrus). I figure I can do this to all my kids every day and have them become a lot more livable! 

 I guess it should be noted that the kid sleeps most of her life away but I don't mind as long as she sings and dances and has a good healthy life otherwise. She eats well, poops well, and works from time to time. Perhaps in the very near future she'll get her 5'8" frame to Tokyo and sing professionally -- we're hoping she can start that part of her life next week. To hear Laura sing online go to www.smule.com/lauraropen she was playing around with it, but she's pretty good! I love my kids.

HE IS IN AMERICA!!

I was in Hobby Lobby today, a store like Michael's Hobbies, when I got the call. MY SON REUBEN called me from an unknown number, but I always answer these because it could be him. He called for about 30 seconds to say "Mom! I'm in the U.S." Those were words of joy, prayers answered and WOW - Wow - Wow - Wow. "Mom!, I'm in the U.S." can you fully understand the impact those few words can make on a woman's heart after she hasn't heard from her baby boy in over a week - waiting for him to board a military plane to leave Iraq and make it back to what we call Stateside? I was so happy to hear him and receive those words I let out a big "Woo! YES!" inside the store, and then I shouted at the top of my voice "Hey Everybody, my son is home from Iraq!" Immediately I heard clapping and people hollering, cheering, and then they came up to me and hugged me, laughing, some crying - - my son laughing on the other end of the phone asking me where I was. "I'm in Hobby Lobby son." He laughed a little more and said "Tell them I'm OK and Iraq is where I left it." My son is home. Let me say that again; a hero has landed back inside the borders of the greatest nation in the world.

Thank you Baby Boy. I know you won't be in my arms until Christmas, but I feel you, I hear you, I know you are in America - - and that just makes a mother sing.

Thank you Jesus. Where my son has left Iraq, I hope and pray Christ never does. Hooah! I love you boy.

OUCHY! THAT One REALLY Hurt Everyone of US

OH.....the pop you could hear all the way to the National Championship banquet! Sam Bradford (Oklahoma University's Jr. Heisman Trophy Winning Quarterback) was nestled UNDER BYU's defensive end #41 deep into the 2nd quarter tonight in the opening game of the 2009 College football season - - and it didn't turn out good for us. Us being Oklahoma fans - - Nope, it did not turn out good at all.

I suppose if we had the time to play each and every play and/or penalty over and over again we'd see that the winners of this game were wearing black and white! Brigham Young hadn't beaten a ranked team in over 20 years. That's a fact that doesn't change overnight...they got a lot of help. Noted: their team is a good team, their coach is a good coach, but BYU (try as they did) is not Oklahoma. They won't win more this year just because they ended up winning this one; no, it's one of those "Wow, we did it" moments - - and the referees couldn't have been a better allie to the Cougars. Oh, did I mention that the teams, although hosted by the Oklahoma Sooners, were playing in what some called a NEUTRAL stadium? They were playing in Texas at the new Dallas Cowboy stadium - - the one with the hole in the top, the one with the GIANT screen that caused a problem earlier this year with high kicked balls - but I won't make any excuses about the stadium. I will however, defend to my death, the FACT that the referees were not, in fact they were ANYTHING BUT neutral.

We lost Sam and it was devastating - - but you don't get to OU and make 2nd or even 3rd string quarterback without being great. Landry Jones played a great game - he did. I mean, he had butterfly moments, and he had 2 or 3 passes that he didn't complete due to lack of snaps (he hadn't take a single snap before this game actually) but Landry completed 2 passes to his receivers that were called incomplete and if a ref thinks he's going to call holding on OU but not on BYU he really needs to ask himself if he's truly partial or if he resides in TEXAS a state quite known for NOT wanting Oklahoma to do well in this particular sport. WHAT was our General Athletic Director thinking by accepting the offer to play in TEXAS without playing a TEXAS team? Are you kidding me? I don't run a program at any university and I know that much - - please!

If we're playing a Texas team the refs can't be from Texas, but that doesn't hold true if we're just playing in their stadium against a team from another state. Don't think for ONE SECOND that these men didn't want to see OU fail. Texas was playing at the same time OU was playing, just not in the same place - - if Texas had played and won earlier in the day these refs would have probably been a bit easier on us, but not now - - not when they don't know where Texas will end up on the weekly ranking. Imagine being given the chance to play in the best stadium before anyone else in college - - OK - - that's heady stuff, but NOT IN TEXAS!! Not if you're an Oklahoma team! C'mon, the Red River Rivalry isn't a hoax - - it's IN US. It's deeply seated in our blood. It doesn't matter if a good half of the Oklahoma Sooners are from the state of Texas, the REFEREES were from the state of Texas! They see CRIMSON and suddenly they see RED! (That last statement, infact, this entire blog only really makes complete sense if you're from either side of the Red River.) When you wake up tomorrow and go about your day without bitching about this one - - YOU ARE NOT from either side of the Red!

Well, it's over. It's in the books. A team that hadn't beat a ranked team in 20+ years beat the #3 (should have been #1) ranked Oklahoma Sooners by 1 - - and ONLY after our Heisman Trophy winning quarterback was hit (late by the way) and hurt. They won because they weren't from Oklahoma. They won because they don't really matter to anyone living in Texas - - they won because they showed up and ran their game well enough to slip by the "all-seeing" eyes of the cameras, which by the way caught much more than will ever be told on record - - unless you happen to have taped it like we did and can take out your own John Madden yellow marker and etch up your big screen like we do, and we will for the next 11 seasons -- it takes 11 full years for Oklahomans to get over something like this. We're rather thick - - but that's OK; we earned the right to be where we are, and it shouldn't be taken away JUST because a group of men with the power to do so make bad calls - - I will ask this; why the HELL didn't Bob (Stoops) challenge? That much I will ask.

Congratulations to the Oklahoma STATE Cowboys who beat Georgia today. They'll brag about this one for awhile, which is another very good reason why it takes a full 11 years for Sooner fans to get over a loss like this.

Godspeed Sammy boy, Godspeed!!

Tis Gettin' Close to the Season

THIS year, THIS Christmas will be a bit different - - by "different" I mean it will be 100% traditional. REUBEN is coming home at Christmas. Now, for the rest of the world a traditional Christmas is probably somewhat ordinary, average, the norm, and certainly from time to time predictable, but in our family - - well, it's OUR family.

Reuben was born under the Sun sign of Aries, so he really should be (and most of the time is) gregarious, happy, fun-loving, giving, and above all friendly - -right? NOT when it comes to traditions. This man is a hard-ass about every tiny detail right down to the FACT that you can't eat Little Smokey sausages before or after the holiday season - - I don't eat them at all, as I am a vegetarian and that FACT pisses my traditionally traditional son off as well. I can't say he's ever held me down and forced me to eat meat; but I would NEVER put it past him to think about it. I think I hear him now - - screaming from Iraq, what, what is it son? "WE WILL BE A TRADITIONAL FAMILY MOM...and we'll love it! You hear me, we're going to have FUN AND THAT'S ALL THERE IS TO IT!"

This is the kid that used to come into my room and stomp his foot until I looked up from my iPod-induced trance and demand that not only do I turn the music down so I can hear him ranting about his sisters; I had also apparently forgotten that the Christmas SEASON does not start before Thanksgiving. Baby Boy called me from Iraq on my birthday (November 22) last year to bitch...he'd called his sisters first and found out they'd pulled the Christmas tree down from the attic early. EARLY. (I didn't know there was a TIME for that sort of thing.) He wanted to know "WHY IN HELL" did I pull the tree down from the attic? WHY IN HELL did I allow the girls to plug in the lights - - even if it's just to see if they work? WHY? WHY? Because Target has their lights on sale NOW and if the ones we used last year aren't working I want to save $1.00 if I can, is that such a bad thing? It was. It was a bad thing. That ONE dollar of savings cost me hours of lecturing, listening to the reasons why I can't have Pumpkin Spice coffee in the summer - it's not to be drunken until the first Monday Night Football Game! NO Preseason games get the Pumpkin Spice, that's a FALL drink Mom, a FALL drink. (WHERE did this kid come from?)
His father and I weren't this way - - his father invented the Christmas light game in JUNE - - we played it just before...yeah, OK...never mind. Reuben comes from outer space, not his dad.

Maybe because Reuben came into this world under NON-traditional Christmas activities he feels the need to re-track and get me back in line or something. Wow, does he have a ways to go. I was 24 years old before he came around! What did I do without him? I know I had to have survived somehow! LOL Kids can be so freaking demanding - - He'll come up with "Mom, I'm really a simple man. Very simple man. Just feed me, give me a job -- I do it. Why can't you get that through your head? Put the damn lawnmower back in the garage Mom, it's February! GOD will kill the grass, you don't need to cut it." That's when I explained to him I was going to sell the mower at the garage sale Saturday morning - and then I actually ASKED MY SON if that was OK. I did! I asked my son for permission to sell MY lawnmower - - well, that's OK really. He's been the man of the house for more than 12 years now; he's been a Christmas-Nazi longer - - but this year - - this YEAR....HE IS THE MAN!!! The BEST present God could ever ever ever give us was HIS Son, this year, He's giving me back MINE. If that means I have to keep my clothes on and turn the iPod down, hang the wreath with a red bow on the door - and drink PEPPERMINT MOCHA, well, BY GOD and all things HOLY I will do it! (and fall on my knees thanking my Lord for His grace and his mercy for protecting that hard-headed, narrow-minded, in-the-box thinking man I call my Baby Boy!)

Merry Christmas!!! MERRY MERRY MERRY EVERY DAY!