Life in the Dorm: Episode 1, Sharing Spaces

The Medium Nanny has a roommate and her name is Dani. That's Dani with an I. When we arrived to the dorm this was her set up. She got there first and chose the bed with the shelf. I have to admit that I was a little jealous of the shelf. It would have been handy to have. But I decided to get over it when I saw the container of Clorox wipes that she brought. We forgot to bring Clorox wipes so I was relieved that she remembered and that the Medium Nanny actually had a roommate that thought Clorox wipes were important. I only "borrowed" four of the Clorox wipes to wipe clean the vinyl mattress , the inside of the dresser, the door knobs, the desk, okay, okay, maybe it was four or twenty...whatever.

And here is the Medium Nanny's side of the room.

Here is the Medium Nanny trying to get her internet connection set up. The internet connection is still not working.

Oh, this is their other roommate, Dani's turtle. This is her travel shelter. Don't worry, Dani brought a huge aquarium for her. It only takes up 1/3 of the dorm room. When I walked into the dorm room and saw a can of reptile food sitting on the desk, I immediately thought snake so I was relieved that it was just a turtle. And yes, I know I've been know to handle a snake every now and again but I don't want to share space with them.

Stay tuned to next week's episode of Life in the Dorm to see if sister becomes a sorority sister???

We've missed her

The Lil'Nanny and I have missed her so. We just haven't been the same without her. Every morning while we're getting ready things have not been the same. We've been lost and we are constantly trying to fill the void. I just don't know what we're gonna do.

The Medium Nanny took her to college and both of us have had a week of bad hair days. The Lil'Nanny has tried using 3 different curling irons to come up with an alternative look and almost everyday this week she had to go with a ponytail. I have resorted to wearing my sunglasses on my head for most of the week.

Although we are discouraged by our week of bad hair...we will persevere. We have won an eBay auction for a new blue flat iron, and I have an appointment with my beloved Hair Whisperer this Friday.

What Not To Wear

I just watched Obama give his speech....blah, blah, blah, yuck, yuck, yuck. Change, change, change. Hope. (None of that was necessary or mature but it's my blog.)

Because I'm so politically mature and I know so much about politics, I thought I would share with you what I found to be the most riveting observation of the evening...

SHE WORE FLATS!

Really, she did.

If my husband were giving a speech in front of millions of people and then I had to join him on the stage, give him a kiss and wave at people, I WOULD NOT WEAR FLATS! And that dress, that was the best she could do? Really? I love pink. You've got two little girls, I understand why you would play the pink card. Who doesn't love two little girls in pink dresses? But that dress? And those flats? Like Oprah couldn't hook her up with some Jimmy Choo shoes?

what. a. week.

Worn out. That's what I am. I had a lot going on with work last week and with taking the Medium Nanny to university. I think that's what I'm going to call it...university. It sounds all fancy, like we've got money and we've sent our daughter to...university. Anyhoo, I'm just too tired for a long marathon blog like I normally would post. I'm going to try and post small tidbits that have happened around here over the last week.


So here's the first...


Thursday 12:45 p.m., Lawnmower Man loaded the final box, hugged his daughter good-bye and looked at me and said, "did she pack her Bible?" I guess he thought she was going to seminary or the "parent talk" they gave him at TTU about "things" that happen on a college campus have him concerned.

Don't worry, she took her Bible and she's been hanging out the BCM (that's Baptist Campus Ministries to those who don't speak southern baptist.) She went to this church on Sunday. This church serves a meal to the college kids after the morning service every week. Lawnmower Man said this would be his choice. He'd pick that church. Hands down. That church is the winner.

Some people are so desperate for a home cooked meal. Who cares if you like the church...THEY HAVE FOOD!

The Great Sadness

This just in at 11:52 a.m.: TennTech just called me and they have her a dorm room and a room mate. This is what I've been praying for all week. Praise God! Lawnmower Man is loading up the car with the pink and brown comforter, the mini fridge and the rug as I write this. We're off in just a few! Now go on and read my crazy blog post and laugh....I'm here all week!


I know that is a line is from the book, The Shack, which I did not like by the way. And I assure you that I’m not trying to be overly dramatic and I’m not trying to say that my firstborn child leaving for college is the same thing as someone having their child abducted…because it’s not. I know that. But I don’t have any other words to describe my feelings today. I’m sad. Like wanna go to bed tonight and not get out of bed tomorrow kind of sad.


It’s not my child is going to mother’s day out for the first time kind of sad.




It’s not my child is going to kindergarten for the first time kind of sad.

It’s not my child is going to middle school for the first time kind of sad.
(Middle school pictures are hard to find.)

It’s not my child is going to high school for the first time kind of sad. (She wouldn't stand in front of the IHS sign like I wanted her to on the first day of high school.)

It’s not my child is going to graduate kind of sad.

It doesn't feel like any of those days.

It’s a... I’m going to leave my daughter in a hotel room in a town she doesn’t know kind of sad.

Yuck! I guess it's slightly better then the Days Inn on Dickerson Road. (I stole that line from Radke.)


Because there aren't enough dorm rooms kind of sad.


It’s a... I can’t unpack her and get her all settled kind of sad.


It’s a... I can’t organize and label all of her stuff kind of sad.


It's a...I can’t put her pink and brown sheets that match her pink and brown striped comforter on her extra long twin bed kind of sad.
It's a...I can’t put her pink and brown striped rug on the cold dorm room floor kind of sad.


Those are all just things that needed to be done. By me. For her. To make me feel better. To make me feel in control when I drive away and leave her there.


And then there is the sleep. The change of sleeping in a house that doesn’t have my child, in a bed, down the hall kind of sad.


And then there is the change. The change of when she does come back home she will look older and be much wiser. She will be influenced by teachers that I’ve never laid eyes on. She will hang out with people that she hasn’t known since the first grade. She will be different then she is today. She might even, heaven forbid, become a Democrat. There’s no way of knowing these things. (No offense to the democrats. God loves you too.)

It’s not all happening like I planned it in my head. Like I needed it to be. And I am sad, oh, yes I am. Sad I am.

P.S. Please don’t leave me a comment in a form of poem that reads: mother’s hold their children’s hands blah…blah…blah..for a short while…but their hearts 4 ever blah blah blah…you get the picture. I will throw up all in your inbox if you do.

Oops! I did it again

It all started last Wednesday when I received this stress inducing phrase in an email...

ok! Our table has been asked to bring something sweet for Thursday night.
Ashley

(this would be for our Thursday night Bible study that I wrote about here.)

It took everything in me not to click delete and pretend like this email never happened.

Whenever I get a request for food service, I have to think about it for like three days and then come up with a reasonable excuse. I would rather go into the kitchen, take everything out of my cabinets, re-organize everything and put it all back. I don't enjoy making desserts/meals/food products for public consumption. You could say that I'm lacking self confidence in the area of cooking, and I have no desire to kick it up a notch. And nothing I make is Yum-O. Let's just say that I've had a failure or two in the past.

What will I make? What will I buy? I didn't have much time so it needed to be quick. And easy. It really needed to be easy. Oh, I also didn't want to go to the store to buy ingredients. So I looked in my organized pantry and found this...

The only difference was my mix was butter recipe fudge. So it was a chocolate cake mix and it was going to have chocolate frosting. How could I go wrong with cake mix from a box. I'll just whip that right up.

So around 4:30 on Thursday I threw my ingredients in my fancy Kitchenaid mixer. Here is my ingredient list:

• cake mix
• 3 eggs
• water
• 1 stick of butter

Pop in a 350 oven for 30 minutes or so. I even had Lawnmower Man listen for the beep while I went to take a shower. No way was I taking a burnt cake. And I didn't want to have to run to Publix and cut up one of those bundt cakes into pieces and place it on my own platter. Not that anyone would do that.

So it was all good. I came into the kitchen at 5:50 and my cake had been cooling for a few minutes. I was taking a nice, fresh, warm, cake to Bible study. The Lil'Nanny helped me frost it and I was good to go.

I arrived at Bible study with my cake in hand. I placed it on the food table and realized that I forgot to cut it. I didn't have a knife but I had brought my mini Pampered Chef spatula thingy and went to cuttin'. Or sawin' was more like it. By the time I was finished it looked like Kids on the Korner Pre-K cooking project. Seriously. And I had gotten frosting all over the white tablecloth and my shirt. It's okay though because I covered up the tablecloth spot with some one's plate of Chex Mix. Talk about taking the easy way out.

Anyhoo, I made my plate which included a piece of my cake and sat down with my table group. I will tell you that I was sitting at a table with Ashley C and Heather. Ashley is a baking snob. She will not eat store bought baked goods and Heather likes to make fancy recipes that are shown on the Food Network. Even Giatta's recipes. I know, I thought Heather had standards too but I guess not. I wasn't worried though because my cake was chocolate and it was fresh. I took a bite or two and I kinda thought it was a little dry, considering the recipe called for a whole stick of butter. I wasn't really into the cake because I was trying all of the other offerings so I didn't give it a second thought.

After Bible study, I went over to the food table and I had trouble finding my cake. Why?

Because my cake pan was empty. (Insert applause here!)

I'm not used to seeing an empty pan when I bake 'n' take. I usually go back to the table and I've got two pieces taken out. One time I went to a New Year's Eve Party and no one even touched my homemade brownies. Not. one. person. Oh, they tried to cover it up with the ol' we had so many chocolate things to choose from. I think Lawnmower Man is ashamed of me when this happens. He was quite surprised when he woke up the next morning and saw my empty cake pan. Wow, they ate all of the cake. Yep, they sure did. (insert smugness here)

And then this happened...

Lawnmower Man opens microwave and says:

Why is there a whole stick of butter in the microwave?

The Last Day

I'm sure that there are many pictures just like this floating around the blog world today. It's the first day of school and I always take a picture on the porch. Every year, no exceptions. Of course, the Lil'Nanny doesn't argue with getting her picture on the porch because she loves to have her picture taken.

My title may seem a little off but it's not. Today was the "last day" that I will take a child to have a "first day" at the elementary school. I'm playing close attention to all of my "lasts" because I know how quickly the time flies.

This is what 5th grade looks like.

And she really loves to get a picture when she has a new outfit from Justice.

Please know this outfit was well thought out in advance. The hair was flat ironed and head banded to perfection. Those little pieces right by her face...that didn't happen by accident.

And this is Mr. A.

That's what they call him. He's rumored to be the best, fun, nice, encouraging, good story telling teacher ever. Or at least those are all the words that the Lil'Nanny used to describe him when I picked her up today. She started hearing these rumors in 2nd grade and she has been hoping ever since. We've never seen her so excited for school. Really. Seriously. Ever. She also has two of her best school buds in her class.

Some of you know why this is a big deal and some of you don't. It doesn't matter. Just know it's a big deal and why my heart speaks these verses, when I see these pictures and write these words...

Oh, give thanks to the LORD! Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples! Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him; Talk of all His wondrous works! Glory in His holy name; Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the LORD! I Chronicles 16:8-10

P.S. Stay tuned. Some way or another, there will be a first day of college picture. Right? Like right in front of the big TTU sign. Yeah, right. Like that's gonna happen.

Favorite Foto Friday

Please turn to page 217 in your hymnal...

I got this in the mail today. Tammy Faye sent it for my burfffday.

It's a travel hymnal. It doesn't look little but it is. Isn't it cute? There are 588 hymns in this little book. And responsive scripture readings in the back. We can have us some church on the next road trip.

Lawnmower Man and the Lil'Nannies don't really care to hear me sing on the road trips. They would prefer to listen to the radio, watch a DVD or LM is listening to his new friend the Garmin...

turn left in 0.5 miles, turn right in 0.2 miles, your exit will be in 0.6 miles. The Garmin has the most obnoxious voice ever. But that's okay, the Fruit Bowl Girls like me to lead'em in some hymns (well, some of them do) and Tammy Faye does too.

I have it turned to page 217...At Calvary. Why?

This was the first hymn I learned to play. I say the word "play" loosely. It involved a piano but I'm not sure the piano felt played. The piano probably felt a little violated. It's a rather choppy version of At Calvary. I'm sure if you listened closely you could figure it out. I play it from the heart so I believe it to be a rather soul stirring rendition. Tammy Faye can play better than me but don't tell her I said that. I can also kinda play...

A Shelter in the Time of Storm

Cleanse Me

These are not my favorite hymns. Three of my favorite hymns are...

Blessed Assurance

Great is thy Faithfulness

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

So what's your favorite hymn?

If at first you don't succeed...

Today's post is an inspirational one.

The first thing I would like to point out is the red mark in the center of my forehead. I got this earlier in the day when I was skiing. I fell down and the ski hit me smack dab in the forehead. But that's okay! I'm a keep on keepin' on kind of girl. So if your feeling like you can't go on...
then this post is for you!

This is me putting on Abigail's skis. Why? You'll see...

This is where you insert the song: Fallin' by Alicia Keys. It just seems right.

Only one set of adult skis?

Oh, don't worry, I can cram my foot into an almost 7 year old little girl's ski boot.

Really, don't worry, I can. I know their not as long as a regular ski, but I can make it work.

Excuse us why we do a reload.

Try,

Try again!

Just wait until next time!