Christmas 2011

Let me start this whole story off by letting you know that I am not a humongous fan of the Thanksgiving/ Christmas holiday season.  I am not really sure why that is... It could have something to do with all of my years in retail or maybe being torn at Christmas time between all of my parents when I was younger or (more likely) it could be that families just kind of get annoying after you are forced to spend 48 hours in confined quarters with them... Don't even get me started on Christmas carols, ugh!

For the past several years, I have spent Christmas with my sister and her family and my Dad and his lovely wife, Ann.  I adore my nieces and nephews, they are like my own children and I am so excited that they love Cooper so much.  My sister Gretchen is awesome.  She is an amazing cook and channels her inner Betty Crocker around the holidays.  My Dad is great, but he is an adventurer, so he spends some time showing Ann the sites around Adamsville, the highlight being Amish country, he is enthralled.  That leaves the Memphis Lee's and the Lambert's in the house together for 2 solid days.  To say that chaos ensues is an understatement. Gretchen and I took to escaping to her room, locking the door and telling all parties under 21 to GO AWAY when we needed a moment.

Between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Gretchen and I spent a solid 20 hours in the kitchen.  I told her that I was the sous chef, ha.  The other time was spent getting presents ready and then waiting for the kids to got to sleep so Santa could come and Santa's helpers could go to sleep. (sidenote - Santa's helper almost had to go in and lay the smackdown on Eli because that kid WOULD NOT go to sleep!!!) After all was said and done, the kids were overall pretty decent.  There was not much whining and the kids were sublimely happy with their gifts.  Several years ago, Gretchen started a 3 present rule because if it was good enough for Baby Jesus well then... you get the picture.  That was a total blessing though Cooper tries to circumvent that rule by asking for every toy ever invented.

We have several little traditions and one is to go to Candlelight service at church on Christmas Eve. This year, Gretchen and Steven are going to a new church.  The new church celebrates with the Lord's Supper for all confessed believers.  Cooper DID NOT understand why he couldn't have any crackers or "purple drink" like the big people. Luckily, he was in good company there were about 3 other little kids begging their parents for some juice! I held Cooper (restrained might be a better description) while the service concluded with several songs and I tried to really understand how Mary felt that night 2000 years ago, snuggling the son of God.  It was pretty over-powering because of how much I love Cooper and he could turn out to be a bank robber for all I know.  Mary held the Savior of the world.  That very child would die on the cross for the sins of all mankind to be washed clean, how incredible is that?? My Dad brought me back to reality after I described my "moment" by asking me if I thought that baby Jesus would have screamed for a juice box too... Haha Daddy, moment over...

So, Christmas this year was great.  I got to spend lots of time with my family with very little new gray hair growth. I may be coming around with my feelings about the holidays, especially when I focus more on the birth of Christ and less on a fat man in a tacky red suit.  Next year though, Gretchen and I are campaigning for a beach vacation!

Are Childen Just Payback for What You Did to Your Parents?

Let me set the stage for you. Small Methodist church in Knoxville, TN, late February around 1984ish... I am thinking that I was around eight years old. The preacher finished his sermon and asked for prayer requests and no one was speaking up, so I decided that I had one.  My parents were getting ready to celebrate their anniversary and I felt like they needed some prayers. So as I am sitting in between my Mom and Tom, I raised my little chubby hand and asked for everyone to pray for them.  I proceeded to tell everyone that they had had a rocky year and really needed prayer and celebration that they had made it to another anniversary. To say my Mom gave me a murderous glare would be an understatement and my stepfather just sat there trying to look pleasant until he could get us out of there and finish me off in the car.  I don't remember what happened after, either I spent a week in ICU and have no memory of the aftermath or my parents forgave me and moved on, either way.. no recollection. 

My parents liked to remind me about the "incident" and how badly I embarassed them.  I am thinking there were many more, but that one is a particular stand out.

Fast forward twenty-seven years to the new scene.. Cooper is obsessed with having a baby sister.  We have some dear friends that are currently preparing for baby #2 and it is only fueling the fire, we may have to cut off ties for my sanity. He asks me all the time when we can get one of those babies.  I let him know that when the little hand was on NEVER he can start to get excited. So apparently, in Cooper-land that means, Mommy is expecting... So, now he has told everyone that Mommy has a baby in her tummy. 

My friend Michelle pulled me aside at church a few weeks back and asked me if I was pregnant.  Now, I have been losing weight so I was mortified that she even asked!  She told me that Cooper had told her about the baby.  Cooper and I had a long chat about how there was literally no way in "you know where" that Mommy was having a baby and to stop telling people.  In the next weeks, I had some serious conversations about me not being pregnant with his teacher, my neighbor and the check out lady at Kroger.  He even told my best friend Christy that I was having a baby and marrying his Dad and it was a SECRET!!! That was a hard one to explain, let me tell you!

Well, after making sure my five year old was not taking hallucinogens, I have now threatened him within the very last inches of his life if he tells one more person that I am pregnant.  Hopefully, I will be scandal free for a while until Cooper dreams up a new scheme to kill me with embarassment.

Meanwhile, I told Cooper that he is free to pretend that Cori and Shannon's little boy is his baby brother because that is as close as he is getting for a LONG time!

PS Sorry Mom and Tom, I hope you know you are avenged!

Sidenote - In February, they will celebrate thirty one wonderful years even with four children conspiring against them! That is LOVE!

More than you can fathom...

So, last night I was talking to my Mom and she told me that she loved me more than I could even fathom, WOW.  Okay, let me back up a little... My momma is a little sick right now, a bit of a tumor hanging on to her brain.  (She said it looks like a slice of bologna laying on the front of her brain - that's my momma!) So, we are very careful to make sure that there is nothing left unsaid, but when she told me that, it just took my breath away a bit.  She always said no one loves you like your momma, she even used to tell me a little rhyme: There once was a girl with one little curl right in the middle of the her forehead, and when she was good, she was very good, but when she was bad, no one loved her but her momma...

I think now that I am a mother, I can finally start to understand the love of a parent.  I always thought I knew about love, but unconditional love is a whole other ballgame. The kind of love that would put a 9lb 15oz wrinkly turkey on a pedestal about 3.2 miles above your own needs, wants, and dreams.  The kind of love that can watch your little monkey sleep for four hours just so you can watch his lips curl up in a smile during a good dream (probably about Spiderman.) The kind of love that puts aside the tumor in your brain to make sure that your needy, 35 year old daughter knows that you love her more deeply than she will ever fathom...

It kind of gives me a glimpse of how much God loves me...I mean sending his only son to die for me, that is a love that I cannot fathom!

So, back to my crazy Momma.  She is so fun and she thinks I am the bee's knees. I can make her laugh and she raised all of us to be independent and fun-loving.  She forced me to go to college, but I got the last laugh, my degree is in Recreation and Tourism Management, I win! She got mad at me for being an unwed mother at age 30, wouldn't talk to me for four months, but she left me voicemails every 2 weeks to let me know that she was still mad, but she loved me anyway and wanted me to know.

Now she is the loving, fabulous grandmother of my little man, as well as six other little anklebiters.  Last Thanksgiving, Cooper and I went to spend the holiday with  my parents.  It was just the four of us, we ate a great dinner, went to bed early and got up at 3 AM to do a little Black Friday line standing in... Then we went to my Mom's favorite restaurant Cracker Barrel for pancakes (seriously, how awesome is it that my mom's fave restaurant of all is CB!) After a little nap, we braved Chuck E Cheese for Cooper's birthday and my Momma got a little feisty with some little 6 year old hooligan that kept taking Cooper's tickets! We almost had a brawl, but he saw the light!

Those are the times of your life ( I think I have a Green Day song on repeat in my head now!)

The BIG 0-5

Today is Cooper's 5th birthday! Today is the anniversary of the day that my world was flipped upside down, but since right side up hadn't been working for me, upside down became a welcome view!

This morning, I gave Cooper his present and he loved it!  I got him a portable DVD player for long car trips and the occasional instance when Mom must have the television (hello Criminal Minds!) He was so excited that he wanted to take it to school to show all of his friends.  Of course, I smacked that idea right down and he spent the better part of this morning pouting, poor Cooper... (that last part was sarcastic in case it didn't read that way...)

Since I was so annoyed with my kid this morning, I was forced to pull up one of my favorite pictures of Cooper of all time to remind myself of how fabulous he is. Maybe I just like him when he is sleeping, that could be why this is my favorite picture...

Happy Birthday Cooper!

Musings on a tiny Christmas tree

So, tomorrow is Coopy's big 0-5!  Today he has been feeling sick, so after his three hour nap, he felt well enough to put up the Christmas tree.  Now, he does not understand why tomorrow isn't Christmas.  His birthday is no longer good enough, now he needs some Santa lovin'!!

This brings me to our Charlie Brown Christmas tree... I get so jealous of my friends' world class Christmas Trees.  Someday, I keep saying, someday. I bought a little 4 foot pre-lit Christmas tree last year because Cooper wanted a tree and it was really cheap, great reasons I know.  This year, I set it up on a box to give it some height, but it is still just a pathetic little tree.  Now that I have dissed my little tree, let me tell you why I LOVE it. 

I love my tree, because Cooper LOVES the tree.  It is truly OUR Christmas tree.  We turned the television and computer off and spent an hour together unpacking decorations and putting everything together, it was such a precious time.  We unwrapped every precious ornament and I told him about why each one was important to me and to him.  I got to share the ornament that I got for my first Christmas, the first, second and third Scarlett O'Hara ornaments my mother got me to satisfy my lifelong Gone with the Wind obsession, the Smokey dog ornament that my parents got me for my first year at UTK (go Vols, next year we will overcome!), and my favorite ornament of all time... My favorite ornament is the little black baby in a basket that my sister, Erin, gave me for Cooper's first Christmas.  We scoured Hallmark for our options and we both agreed that a little white baby did not really work for us! So, my little mocha baby had a little mocha baby ornament... PERFECT! All of the completely mis-matched little ornaments on this little four foot Christmas tree work for our little family.  It is a great analogy for me and Cooper, a completely mis-matched, little work in progress. Each year, we add an ornament and the tree grows a little taller in our minds.  Maybe next year we will graduate to a six footer, but this year the four foot will do.

So, now, I am going to hop off this blog and go bask in the glow of our fabulous Christmas tree while doing a little holiday Facebook stalking...  TAKE THAT eight foot live tree with color coordinated peacock feathers sticking out of the top with your handpainted Portuguese ornaments, TAKE THAT!

Spiderman Jr.

Cooper has a new passion in life.  Rock climbing.  He is a natural.  All that climbing on the back of the couch, and climbing up ladders at Home Depot has really paid off...
Last night, he finally climbed all the way to the top of the wall and rang the bell.  Please tell me why, I was more thrilled than if he scored a three pointer in a basketball game.  Maybe, we will not be in the NBA... Now if we can just find some company willing to give a rock climber millions in endorsement deals... We'll work on it!
(Sidenote: please note how I said we when describing Cooper's future!  I am keeping a running expense tally and that kid is paying me back!  His wife will hate me because I will live with them! Seriously!)

Let's Start at the Beginning

So, about five years and eight months ago, I found myself in quite a pickle.  My nephew Eli was in the hospital with pneumonia and had to sit in an oxygent tent.  Well, as any of you with 2 year old children know, he wasn't staying in there alone, so I crawled in beside him.  After laying there a few minutes, I started to get real woozy and sick.  The nurse asked me if I could be pregnant and of course, I said Gosh NO! In my head though, I was thinking aw crap.  I wrestled with this for a month and honestly, my first thought was to not have the baby.  Ha, what a "choice!" I finally told my best friends and my sisters and they were all very supportive, though my older sister did have some choice comments to make first, haha.  So, I gathered the courage to tell my Mom, BIG MISTAKE.  I should have just had him and then apologized later...
The pregnancy was miserable, I was sick and I never felt that excitement because of the situation I guess.  I reluctantly began to prepare myself and when the day came, I made my friend take me to Methodist Germantown via Southaven, for those of you out of Memphis, calling that the long way is a serious understatement...
I had a 36 hour labor with no movement, so the doctor finally told me a C-section was the way to go.  When I had Cooper, I was just not sure what to do with him.  My sister held him first and then I just studied him, I was not sure what to think.  Looking back, he was fabulous from the first moment, chubby and mocha with dark hair and dimples that you could drown in, but I was just still in shock...
My Dad and sister stayed with me in the hospital and my friends all came to visit often, when they would leave, I shipped Cooper right back to the nursery.  I just didn't want to be alone with him. I took him to my sister's house to recover and the first night was miserable.  He stayed up all night and would not stop crying and even though I was at my sister's house, I realized that I was all alone.
I remember walking in my sister's room the next morning and telling her to take him away.  I was going to take a nap and when I woke up, I wanted that baby gone!  She very kindly (not) told me that I was being ridiculous and to lay down.  When I layed down, she put Cooper in my arms, turned the lights off, and walked out of the room.  At that moment, it literally poured over me, I fell in love.  I fell in love with that chubby little ball of crybaby.  I knew right then that I wasn't alone, I was the captain of the ship, but Cooper was going to be my little first mate (like that analogy?)
I still think about that on tough days.  I saw a glimpse of how much God loves me through the eyes of a parent.  It is pretty indescribable.  I love that little kid more every day.  He looks like my little mocha twin and he knows how to work his Mommy like a little pro.
Well, enough seriousness, I pretty much laugh about Cooper every day now, he is a mess even when he acts up, he is funny...
This is our story, still being written every day!

Inspiration

So, my friend Katherine has become a blogger and she has inspired me.  I am going to give this whole blogging thing a try... Stay tuned for my first post...