Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Happenings in my Life

Where to start... Here we go, buckle up your seat belt and hang on.
On Saturday, I went to the grocery store and when trying to pay for everything, was informed that my driver's license was expired. Apparently, DPS no longer sends you a reminder. When I got home, I discovered that my amazing hubby had started working on our messy bedroom. I jumped in and by the time the evening happened, we had cleaned up the mess that had been building up. It was wonderful. We were working together and talking and I enjoyed it so much.
On Sunday, we had birthday lunch for Grandpa and my youngest. I did really well. I didn't cry in front of anyone. I made it through lunch and then our church dinner club that happened that night. I waited until I had gone to bed to let out what I was feeling. My youngest is turning 14 and this was a time when I felt the loss of Jeff's mom once again.
On Tuesday, I went to renew my license. I went during my conference period and got there a little before 10am. There were 5 people behind the desk and only one happened to be working. One lady was actually filing her nails. I finally got done at 11am. It was so annoying.
The high point of the day was when the mail came at school today. My principal came in carrying a box. He was like a kid in a candy store. He read the letter that was sent to my class. In the box with the letter was a mini helmet signed by the coach of the Philidelphia Eagles, Andy Reid. There were bookmarks, pencils, and lanyards for the kids. It was so great!! I had blogged previously (I think) about my letter writing campaign. It is now paying off. Although a lot of people have asked when I am planning on writing to NBA, WNBA, Hockey, and Baseball leagues. I just sent out over 100 letters. I am getting ready to send out the next set. I am just working my way through. My Wall of Fame is growing by leaps and bounds. The kids are excited and so am I. We can hardly wait from one day to the next.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Can you believe it?

First, don't go into shock that I am writing 3 posts in one day. My hubby tells me to spread it out but lately, if I don't just do it then I tend to forget. That is a posting for another time.
I know I have probably mentioned in previous posts that I write letters to all kinds of people. It isn't to get stuff...well it is to get a letter but that's all I am asking for. About 4 years ago I started writing letters to famous people in an effort to get them to write and encourage my students. I wanted my students to know that they could fulfill their dreams, wishes, desires of becoming someone. (Heaven knows, I became someone.) :D Anyway, that first year, we heard from the Queen of England, President G.W. Bush and Mrs. Laura Bush, Emmitt Smith, Troy Aikman, Carl Edwards, and another race car driver. One of my students got Bill Bates to autograph a napkin so that we could hang it on the Wall of Fame. After that, every year I would send out 100-150 letters to athletes, politicians, actors, actresses, singers. For the longest time, we received nothing. This year, I decided to be aggressive. I went after addresses for David Letterman, Jay Leno, Clint Black, Reba McEntire, the entire NFL, the president, local blues singers. Anyone that I could think of, I sent a letter or an email. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs.... No one is beyond my scope of getting a letter to them. I am even considering Fidel Castro. (You never know, one student might be seeing dictator as his future goal.)
This year so far, we have had a personal letter from Joe Biden, Ms. Marcy and her Texas Sugar Daddies, Billy Worthington, and the Buffalo Bills. I did receive an email from the San Fran 49ers. They only support California students. At least they wrote and told me that instead of just never answering my letter. I am still on the hunt. Tonight, I was given several other names of famous people to write to. I am hoping that we continue to see more and more people write to the students. They love reading the letters and they are amazed that the people who do write care about them enough to write to us.
I will post a picture of the Wall soon.

Pink Out!!!

Today, our community held its first annual Pink Out! What is that? Well, Pink Out is Cancer Awareness Day. The Pink is mainly for Breast Cancer Awareness but we also wore ribbons that were yellow and turquoise. Those represent other types of cancer. The district had a pep rally and we honored 3 people who are fighters of cancer.
One was a 9 year old boy who had tummy aches starting in April 2010. In June, they discovered that he had stage 4 cancer. This next week, he gets to have surgery to remove the tumor because it is now 50% smaller than when they discovered it.
The next person was Vicki Williams, our high school secretary. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2008 and within the year, she was in remission. Sadly, earlier this year, it was discovered that the cancer was back but now it had seeped into her hip bone. She is fighting daily through the chemo, radiation, and medicine they give her. She always has a smile and never lets on how really sick she is.
Coach Farda is the other person we honored. He has had cancer return to him. He is a fighter and he comes to work; hurting, sick, etc. yet he smiles and stops to talk to you.
All 3 of these people are amazing! I cried over each of them. I cried over the fact that we too have dealt with cancer in our own lives in this family. But today, I wore the pink shirt with pride. I love the slogan on it that says "Pink Out for the survivors, the fighters, and the taken." So I will Pink Out and I will continue to pray for those who are fighting.

Cleaning out Clutter

I know that Spring is when you are suppose to clean out and do all the deep cleaning but for some reason, this mood hits me in the fall. Maybe it's the cooler weather or maybe it's the fact that I get tired of having a lot of stuff around. I recently told some family members that I would love to take EVERYTHING out of my house and then only bring in the most needed items. This would apply to everything from pots and pans to clothes, shoes, etc.
We have lived here 3 years now. There are things in my attic that I haven't used or missed so I know that it is time to get it out. I still have books in my garage from when we moved in. I am still waiting for the promised bookcases to appear. Hmmmmm..... There are still boxes in my bedroom that are filled with things that my hubby deems important and "he will get to one day". (Hopefully that one day is this weekend.)
I am just tired of the clutter. I used to think that I didn't contribute so much to it but I am as guilty as the rest of them. I haven't bought any magazines in almost 4 months. All my subscriptions have run out so, I have eliminated that form of clutter from my pile. Now if I could just get a handle on the rest of my clutter.
I want, desire, dream, and wish that my bedroom was a calming, soothing place to go to but right now it is the storage center, the dumping grounds, whatever you want to call it. There is so much clutter in my bedroom that I hate going in there. Hopefully that will change this weekend. I intend to spend my weekend just cleaning up and getting rid of a lot of clutter. Goodwill, get ready cuz here I come!!!!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Fashion

Well since my birthday, I find myself becoming more eccentric. One day this week, for absolutely no reason, I decided that I was tired of being beige. That is a figure of speech of course but basically it was this: I have always been brought up to match my clothes, shoes, purse, jewelry with whatever color the outfit is. I have had enough matchy matchy. I decided to kick it up a notch and break out. Now part of decision came about when I was flipping channels on television and some fashion show was on and the host was telling the camera that fashion is what you make of it. No one really knows what fashion is. Put something together and wear it. What makes it fashionable is wearing it with confidence. If you wear something and are obviously uncomfortable with doing so then you just look awkward but exuding confidence while wearing whatever shows others that you are a fashionista and then you pull it off. That being said, I decided to start breaking out of the mold. I wore red shoes with a black and white outfit this week. I had more compliments on that than I have ever had before. It was amazing. One thing and everyone noticed. So, I am now determined that I will wear something bright and unusual everyday. Today, I wore one of my grandmother's pins. It was a big blue flower with a bright green stem. Again, compliments over one little accessory.
I am thinking about creating the "Lynne Look" and seeing how that goes. Mind you, I am all about the comfort zone and keeping certain things covered. Maybe if I were skinny and a size 6, I might be all about high heels and such but I am what I am for now. I just need to remember "Be Bold, Be Strong. Right or Wrong." I encourage you to step out and be your own fashionista. Why let society dictate what is in and what isn't. We are who we are and we should be proud of that.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

It's been a while

It has been quite a while since I blogged. I was reminded about this not too long ago. Someone told me that they missed me writing and that I needed to get busy on it. They were right. I have missed writing. I know that I don’t write novels or such but I do write about what is on my mind at the time.
I recently turned 44. Yes, I am proud of my age. I don’t try to sugar coat it like my grandmother use to. She would tell everyone that she was 39. When she died, we had a horrible time finding out how old she really was. Turned out she was older than my granddaddy and that was what bothered her. That is the reason she would tell everyone a fake age. Jeff’s grandmother was proud of her age and she told everyone how old she was all the time. She died when she was 92. She didn’t look more than 70 something. I want to do that. I love the thought of living to a ripe old age and living life to its fullest. I seriously try hard not to give into the whining about aches and pains. I feel if I give into it then I will end up an old lady way before I am ready to be an old lady. I am also learning that 50 and 60 are not that far away and aren’t looking so bad. Happy Birthday to my aunt Betty Lou and Jeff’s uncle Jimmy in the month of September. We remembered you.
For my birthday, a small group of ladies and myself went to Salado for an entire weekend. It was so much fun! We went to every antique store, hole in the wall shop, and little venues that we could find. We ate at a little bakery and had amazing food. That night we ate at the Stagecoach Inn and was absolutely blown away by the amount of food they served us. It was really good. We intended to play games and talk but the travels of the day had worn us out. We were all asleep by 11:00pm that night. We hit the trail again the next day going to places we had missed. We also did some sight seeing of houses and trudged through the local cemetery looking at the historical markers and graves. We meandered home, refreshed, and relaxed.