Z is for The End

Blogging from A to Z in April has been another great exercise in dedication. I am sad to see it end and yet relieved to go back to my blog when I get the chance ways. :-) I am so thrilled to have new followers and hope y'all stick around to see what else Aunt J-Me has to say. I do apologize for this being so uninspired...Darling Daughter had asked that I save Z for her. Alas, after her telling me, "No, don't write one...I'll do it" humpteen million times, she finally said, "Meh...sorry. I don't know what to write." 


Z is for Zoo and Zebra so here are some pics from our recent trip to the Zoo.

Y is for Youth...

I murmured to Darling Daughter, "Youth is wasted on the young," as we watched a little girl run back and forth in front of the bleachers at Hubby's game last Friday. The little bitty's LOVING parents were telling her to run to the end of the rink and back so they could time her. She would happily race off in what was surely her best sprint, and DD and I would see her LOVING parents giggle and shake their heads at her...THEY TOTALLY WEREN'T EVEN TIMING HER! buttheads...yeah...I said it!


Nevertheless, MY darling daughter told me in that lovely teen-agery, I-am-smarter-than-you-and-you're-just-dumb tone of voice, "J-Me, that like makes like no sense at all."


Me: "What? 'Youth is wasted on the young'? It is an old saying...I didn't make it up, but it makes sense if you think about it."


DD: "No, it totally doesn't make any sense at all."


I let it go because I don't wage wars with teens (JUST PISS POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE LIKE DAVID'S BRIDAL!). Anywho...I couldn't think of a Y is for ...I kept coming back to Youth and Young. So here it is Darling Daughter....the research for "Youth is wasted on the young."


George Bernard Shaw penned this little ditty, and he meant that young people waste their time being young doing senseless or "youthful" things that have almost no value or use. The mature people who have useful ideas and such wasted their youth and have little time or energy to make their ideas useful (paraphrase of the answers.com answer).


I wish I knew how to speak French because this would be a fun one to learn: "A 16th century Frenchman, Henri Estienne, had much the same idea and said 'Si jeunesse savoit; si vieillesse pouvoit' (roughly: 'If only youth had the knowledge; if old age had the strength') which is a well-known saying in France" (Source).


SCHOOLED YA!

X is for Hugs...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MYMAMA...THE WOMAN WHO COULD TEACH THE WORLD HOW TO LOVE! (xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo) to the (><) power...yes, I am a geek, but I am HER geek! I can't wait to see her this weekend!

Ever wonder why X in xoxoxo is for hug and O is for kiss? When I was little, I used my genius brain to switch it up the other way because the X looked like two arms crossing in a hug and the O looked like an open mouth or puckered lips. Urbandictionary.com says it should be like looking at the two participants in the hug/kiss from the bird's eye view. I can see that for keeping it straight, but I liked the following history info (once again being a bad Ex-English teacher and using Wikipedia): 

• Hugs and kisses or xoxo is a term used for expressing affection or good friendship at the end of a written letter, email or SMS text message. The common custom of placing X's on envelopes, notes and at the bottom of letters to mean kisses dates back to the Medieval Ages, when a cross was drawn on documents or letters to mean sincerity and honesty. A kiss was then placed upon the cross, by the signer as a display of their sworn oath. It was also used in early Christian history as much of a display of the same. Since most of the common people were unable to read or write, the 'X' was placed on documents, and a kiss placed upon it as a show of their sincerity, gradually, as it was used so often, the cross was hurriedly drawn and often resembled an 'X'.
• The 'O' is of North American descent, no one really seems to know how it was started. It has been said that when arriving to the US, Jewish immigrants would use an 'O' on documents, not using the sign of the cross, and shop keepers would often use an 'O' when signing documents, in place of an 'X'. Perhaps now it is used as the 'O' being rounded represents arms encircling another, as in an embrace.'X' is used to signify a kiss and 'O' is used to signify a hug. The use of 'X' to signify a kiss dates back to as early as 1765.

Anyone else feel like they learned something today? Go hug and kiss your loved ones! 

W is for Wisdom...

10. Poor Choices make great stories.

  9. A sincere apology makes it hard for people to hold a grudge.

  8. Never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly.

  7. Perception is reality to the individual.

  6. Keep "ex" phone numbers in your phone but mark them all as "DO NOT ANSWER!"

  5. I smile when people call names because they are basically saying, "I am (insert whatever name they just called you)."

  4. Once you reach the age of 18, you are responsible for making your life whatever you choose so you have to stop blaming whomever you think screwed you up.

  3. Marry your best friend.

  2. Learn something new every day.

  1. Love is the best gift to give yourself as well as others.

bonus: Make someone happy every day, even if it is yourself.

Share with me your truism wisdom...

V is for Verdict...

Meh...I have been stumped on this one for a few weeks. I first thought something to do with Bills becoming laws, which led me to Law, which took me to the thesaurus and so on and so forth...I decided on verdict. Blah-di-blah...

PHOTO SOURCE

I was dream storming with the Hubster on Sunday night and told him about what I really really want to do. I want to put my time and energy into helping change the laws in Texas regarding deaths and injuries caused by distracted drivers. So we don't want to pass laws restricting cellular use while driving...THE ALL KNOWING PERRY (NOT!) says we shouldn't be trying to regulate the behavior of grown people....der! Isn't that what all laws do?


Nevertheless, in today's world of technology, there has to be a way for law enforcement to have the ability to find out on the spot if an accident that resulted in death or injury was caused because a driver willfully used his/her electronic device, was distracted and caused the accident. YES...IT IS AN ACCIDENT. However, it is a willful act to use your electronic device even if it causes an accident. The charge would be manslaughter just as if you were drinking and driving and injured/killed someone. Texas Penal Code: § 19.04. MANSLAUGHTER (a) A person commits an offense if he recklessly causes the death of an individual.(b) An offense under this section is a felony of the second degree. Punishment: 2 to 20 and $10K. 


MY VERDICT--that still doesn't bring back the life you took but it might slow you down if you knew you would be busted. I didn't break my parents' rules as a kid because I was afraid of the belt, not because it was wrong. I was a kid; I didn't know right and wrong completely, but I knew the pain of that belt on MY behind!

U is for Umbrella...



PHOTO SOURCE

i LOVE u umbrella

u keep me dry (unless the rain comes in sideways)

u keep me shaded (except when the sun is anywhere but overhead)

u protect me (unless the wind blows you inside out)

u ...awwww pppppbbbbllllttttt!

u work when you want and i just have to pray you want to work today...

at least you're pretty to look at.

T is for Teaching...

In 2003, I worked for SuperPages.com and was less than satisfied with where my life was going. I had just had a visit with my girly doctor who told me that if I was going to have children, then I should do it before I turned 30. With less than a year before that deadline, I thought to myself, "I just need to do something where I work with children."

I started researching what it would take to be a teacher and was disheartened at the expense of going for an alternative teaching certificate. I prayed about it...God, if you want me to be a teacher, then I know you will provide a way." The VERY NEXT DAY SuperPages' CEO sent an e-mail to everyone in the company announcing an voluntary reduction in force. I looked up and said, "Alright! Answer received..." and I didn't hesitate to take the package that would take care of me financially while I pursued my next adventure.

I spent the next 9 months substitute teaching and attending the Educator Alternative Program. On the final day of our intense summer school program, I drove from Flower Mound, TX, to Queen City, TX, to interview for my first teaching job. I was so excited and nervous that I ran off and left my big-girl grownup shoes at my apartment. I knew Queen City was the place for me and that Charlotte Williams and Steve Holmes were the principals for me to work for when Mrs. Williams put me totally at ease about having to wear flip-flops to my interview.

I spent two years at QC and loved every minute of it. I also spent two years teaching English at a middle school in Flower Mound and loved the students and my fellow teachers. In my excitement about teaching, I thought I would love teaching special education but was proven wrong by the politics that engulfs that arena. I let two of the adult versions of school-yard bullies stress me out and cause me mental trauma. I left teaching, something I loved so dearly.

In six years, every student who entered my classroom became a child of my heart. I was not their mama, but I loved each one of them as a mother would. I taught them English and Reading and, from what I have heard from them over the years, so much more. Some of those first "babies" are now grown and have friended me on FaceBook. I hope I still provide some sort of knowledge to them each day. If I could, I would go back to teaching at QC in a heartbeat and be the teacher I was back then. I miss making a difference teaching.

GUEST BLOGGER--S is for Solace

MyMama, OURGayla, Sister/Daughter-inLawDana,
JamesIII and me, March 2010

A few weeks ago, my beloved mother guest blogged "H is for Happy Home" to help me with the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. This is the second piece I told you that she wrote for me at that time. Is it possible to burst with love and pride? Each tear I shed while fixing this up for her, was filled with so much love and so much pride. Welcome back to "Aunt J-Me Says So"....my hero, MYMAMA:

When my beautiful talented daughter (that's me!) made the offer of guest blogging I looked at her list of available letters and jotted down "happiness", "home", "religion", and "William". What I write about each of these my beautiful talented daughter (that's me again!) knows she may edit change or ignore and no offense will be taken (I WOULD NEVER MESS WITH GREATNESS...okay, I'll stop now). I have complete trust that my beautiful talented ex-English teacher of a daughter (sorry, one more time...that's me!) knows the limits of my education and would not want me embarrassed by said limits (I KNOW NOT OF WHAT SHE WRITES).   So having covered "happiness" and "home", I have moved on to where my solace has come from. In times of grief, solace comes in many forms. I parted ways with organized religion many years ago. However, when we lost our oldest child a year ago, religion showed its purest and most saving grace to me. A group of people whose only connection to my husband and me was that our son and daughter-in-law were members of their church, opened their doors for our dear Gayla's memorial service. Dennis and Debbie are not just a minister and his wife. They are people who came into a stranger's home, tried to give comfort and, in so doing, renewed for me the belief in the goodness of people in general. On the day of that memorial service, my daughter-in-law's aunts served food to a flood of people who came for the BBQ that our daughter-in-law's parents had furnished. They felt our pain and our children's pain and gave the solace of their service. We will never be able to express to these ladies and the church's ladies group, who furnished desserts, how they personified the love of their fellow man to a heartbroken family. Will-I-Am and JamesIII, March 2012 The solace that is William has come over the course of the first year of his life. The night he was born was three days after his Aunt Gayla's death. I spent part of that evening trimming 100 photographs of Gayla to be stuck to her memorial programs. William's great aunts eventually helped me finish that project. His very pregnant mother had helped me write the obituary and order the photographs. The solace of having such a wonderful woman as a daughter-in-law should not be left out of this story. She and my beloved son have allowed us to keep William and his big brother JamesIII for a couple of days a week. JamesIII was born to unadulterated joy more than three years ago. Happiness followed him into this world, and the night he was born, my only tears were joyful tears. There is a movie of me grabbing my son and crying those tears of joy for all the world to see. Also, there, just at the edge of that movie, is his dear Aunt Gayla, watching in the crowd.  DarlingDaughter and HerMemaw March 2012 As much joy as came with William, there also came sorrow that his Aunt Gayla would not be there to see him born. Now at one year of age, William is the one that brings my husband's smile. He may become the family dare devil. He cannot be convinced that just because he CAN climb up on low furniture that he will not be immune from falling off said furniture.  Solace comes from my family. Our grandchildren range from one year old to fifteen years old. That is quite a spread, but where the two littlest give solace through their innocence of the pain, Darby was not spared that pain. Her solace comes in shared acceptance of what cannot be changed. She has seen me distressed and stepped a little closer to give her solace. She may not even be aware she does it, but I am.

R is for Rain...

I fell in love and fell pretty dang hard the first time I ever heard Gary Allan's "Songs About Rain." When I was dream-storming about R is for???? I instantly thought of Rain and how I have been falling asleep to a hypnosis relaxer that is rain falling on a roof and wind chimes. I always image this porch bed that I found on Pinterest and a lazy Saturday listening to the rain and napping on the porch.

Q is for Quit...

This is how it feels...
PHOTO SOURCE

Quit, abandon, leave, abdicate, bail out, bow out, check out, chicken out, cop out, cut out, decamp, depart, desert, discard, discontinue, ditch, dump, drop, drop out, evacuate, exit, flake out, fly the coop, forsake, get off, give up, go, go away from, hang it up, kiss goodbye, leave, leave flat, leave hanging, pull out, push off, relinquish, renounce, resign, retire, run away, run out on, surrender, take a walk, take off, throw over, vacate, walk out on, withdraw, yield...

Some days, the depression and anxiety are so intense any one of those would apply. But then I think, what would I do if I did? If you quit one thing, aren't you just beginning a new thing? If you shut the door, didn't you just go somewhere new?

Quitting is easy...surviving makes you your own hero.

P is for Party...and Pressies!

Darling Daughter turned 15 and wanted to go to the zoo. It was a party to celebrate her birth! Each of us found some laughter throughout the day. My heart healed just a bit more. I felt more like my old self. DD is my reason for moving forward each day. Having our family and friends around us gives me peace in my soul (no anxiety all day!). We are both blessed to have such wonderful family and friends with whom to spend the day, and my greatest wish would be to spend every day that way. I had a pretty good time playing with the snazzy work camera too (I know what I want for my next pressie day!). Even through that joy, I still felt the missing parts. I guess that will always be.

NOTE: I have heard several times this week, "Give yourself permission to heal." How does one do this? Do you just say, "J-Me, you have your permission to not be sad." Is it something I am supposed to think, say, or do?

O is for Opposable Thumbs...

Darling Daughter and her bestie Dew have been struggling recently with growing up and being independent and making wise choices. Dew's mom and I have been tag teaming our girls to try to make it easier for them to understand that it takes a village to raise them and not totally warp them beyond repair. In my efforts, I shared this parable with Dew and told her I was totally going to include it in my blog.

ME: Dew, you have your puppy, Chester. He's your baby. You have to make sure he eats, drinks, and is well loved. You have to let him out to potty and give him baths.

DEW: Uh-uh

ME: In return, Chester loves on you, snuggles with you and gives you big wet kisses. He loves you because you take care of him.

DEW: Yeah-huh.

ME: Now imagine that when you get home today, Chester has grown opposable thumbs and a working brain. He has fed himself, bathed himself, let himself out to do his business.

DEW side glances at my crazy-ness and tries not to smile.

ME: To add insult to injury, Chester tells you he doesn't need you any more and that he would prefer sleeping in his own bed. Every time you call Chester to come snuggle and be loved on, he ignores you or flat out says, "Nah, Dew, I don't really like being hugged and petted. I have thumbs now. I can take care of it if I need to."

DEW: Eew!

ME: Now, why did you go there? I was keeping this very PG. You know that is NOT where I was going.

DEW: Sorry...(she still giggles)

ME: Carrying on...any who...how would it make you feel if Chester didn't need you anymore? How would you react if during all of this, he also started playing in the street and leaving the house at night to roam the neighborhood with all the other dogs who recently grew opposable thumbs? They trash their owners and say, "She just doesn't understand!"

DEW: I get what you're saying, Ms. J-Me.

ME: Do you? Cuz I think I got lost in the idea of dogs with thumbs. Anyway, your mom and I are doing the best we can. We get that y'all are ready to be grown and independent of us. Maybe we are not ready. Also, when we see y'all make unwise choices, you just prove that you are not totally ready, and that scares the bajeezzers out of us. I guess I am saying, give your mom a break and a hug.

DEW: Okay.

Did the parable of the dogs with opposable thumbs fix our problems...no. Will she remember it someday...yes. Now we just pray we get them to grown without too much permanent damage along the way.

April 16 is Eggs Benedict Day!

NOTE: It is also Darling Daughter's big 1-5...man I feel old!

This is not part of the A to Z Blogging Challenge, but I just couldn't resist letting everyone know to celebrate the incredible edible egg today because it is Eggs Benedict Day. No, I am not into tracking my favorite food awareness days. However, The Pioneer Woman sent me an e-mail today (RSS feed) letting me know it was a cool kinda day like that. I have made her recipe before...my only attempt at this intimidating meal...and had some success. It's really not that hard to make! Try it!


Today, however, I opted to try a little Breakfast/Brunch/Lunch restaurant in Addison, Texas. It's called Benedict's...what else! I even played my great-big-dork card when I walked in at lunch and asked, "I know y'all are called Benedict's, but do you serve Eggs Benedict?" The friendliest waitress ever to work in a diner immediately started singing the praises of their lovely eggy dish. I don't remember everything she said, but she had me at "everything from scratch." Can I get a D-I-V-I-N-E!?!