Let Them Eat Cake

So, it's the anniversary post for the Franks' today.  I have been very reflective this new year and wanted to choose a special memory, so I thought about my wedding cake.  When planning the wedding, I knew I wanted a white dress, real flowers, and a tall wedding cake.  I like everything about wedding cake and I love to look at them and smell them and eat them.  I will abstain from it today, seeing as how I don't need the calories (at all), but I did love my cake, even though I picked out one that was entirely too big.  I think of it this way:  the bigger your cake, the smaller your butt looks.

We were such babies then.  We had no perceived fears other than car troubles.  The economy of 1996 was the least important issue then.  Scott was planning on an entirely different career.  I had no clue about the day-in, day-out life of parenthood and wifehood.  Our role in church never went beyond just showing up and going to bible class.  We were young and cute, with tons of potential.

What a strange feeling!  On the other side of 14 years, I am proud that we have accomplished much.  I feel like we are wise beyond our years, and at the same time just as ignorant as we were then.  Incredibly, I have affirmed about 5,000 times that I am glad that Scott is my husband and I am his wife.  And in another 14 years I will look at pictures taken today and shake my head, remembering how we were just babies, so naive, and so cute :)

Happy Anniversary Ball Game

Today Scott and I went to the Georgia Tech vs. Duke game in midtown Atlanta.  It was so fun!  Georgia Tech has some great players this year and they pulled out an exciting win.  But Duke is very scary good.  They are such a finely tuned machine and so smooth and quick, I feel bad for everyone that has to play them.  But Georgia Tech played with a lot of heart and their stadium is very old, very cool, and very loud - a great place for a game.  There were lots of students wearing shirts donated by Waffle House, which seemed appropriate considering where we live.  (I know Jamie would appreciate that tidbit of info.)  And, as a special half-time presentation, the Tech team from 25 years ago was there to celebrate their anniversary.  John Salley and Mark Price came out and the crowd loved them.  I felt like my mom, standing there clapping, because I was proud to see an outstanding Oklahoman (Price) recognized for his career.  John Salley worked the crowd and pumped them up and it was a good moment for the school.

I am now an fan of their fight song.  (I will not be able to sing it, though.  Words shown below...)  I heard it over and over and it really sticks with you.  It kind of sounded like a thousand pirates were singing their theme song at the game today.  The song became associated with the school in 1890 and it was inspired by a trip to Athens, Georgia for the Tech vs. UGA game.  The words to the song were added to the tune "Sons of the Gamboliers" sometime around 1910.  Scott and I were clueless about what a gambolier was, so we came home to ask our family's bizarre information expert.  Darby didn't know, either.  Oh well.

It turns out that this song gained even more popularity over the next 50 years.  The song got recorded on many popular records.  According to the university program, Richard Nixon and Nikita Krushchev sang this song together at the historic Kitchen meetings in Moscow.  I looked it up, and Wikipedia says that this is true, so that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I close my post with the words to the Ramblin' Wreck.  I did have to edit for profanity ( I am the wife of a preacher man, you know.)

I'm a Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech and a @#$% of an engineer,

A @#$%uva, #$%^uva, $%^&uva, %^&*uva, ^&*@ of an engineer,

Like all the jolly good fellows, I drink my whiskey clear,

I'm a Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech and a @#$% of an engineer.

Oh, if I had a daughter, sir, I'd dress her in White and Gold,

And put her on the campus, to cheer the brave and bold.

But if I had a son, sir, I'll tell you what he'd do,

He would yell, "To #$%^ with Georgia," like his daddy used to do.

Oh I wish I had a barrel of rum and sugar three thousand pounds,

A college bell to put it in and a clapper to stir it around.

I'd drink to all good fellows who come from far and near.

I'm a ramblin', gamblin', @#$% of an engineer.

Things to Accomplish on a Snowday

1.  Stay up late watching football, listening to the sleet fall on the snow.
2.  Burn up all the good firewood.  Then burn up the bad stuff, too.
3.  Finish reading a good book, like I did an hour ago.
4.  Make plans for the 14th anniversary, because for the first time all week the two of us are stuck together and can decide what to do :)
5.  Play lots and lots of legos.  Good thing we hit the Lego store in OKC.
6.  Make pumpkin chip muffins and snack on them throughout the day.
7.  Block stupid stuff on Facebook.
8.  Cuddle with the girls.
9.  Laugh at the drivers attemting to go up the hill outside our neighborhood - it is not going to happen yet, people!  We need some sunshine before we can come out of hibernation!
10.  Organize all the 2009 documents in preparation for the tax season.  It's the most wonderful time of the year :(

My husband is still stuck inside with us because most all of Atlanta is still shut down.  I suggested he go into cleaning mode again, because we aren't getting anywhere any time soon.  I think if he has to listen to Roxy play Bon Jovi on Guitar Hero again, he may lose it.

Snowy Night

Roxy and Darby had a great surprise on the church front lawn tonight - lots of man made snow.  Some garage heroes from our church rigged up their water hoses, air compressors, and whatnot and made snow.  It is a big deal for the kiddoes around here who NEVER get snow.

My brilliant daughter (the one in second grade) wanted to join in the snowball fight following class tonight.  But when you take three small stuffed animals with you wherever you go, it is difficult to keep them dry!  Roxy throws a snowball, but drops one animal, picks it up, throws another snowball, then drops another animal, and the vicious cycle continues.

And if we are lucky tomorrow, Atlanta will get the 1 inch of snow that has been predicted and the entire population of 6 million will begin to run amok.  I can't wait!

The Peril of a Motivated Husband

New Year's Day is supposed to be a day of relaxation, of family time, of black eyed peas and football.  At least that was how I was raised.  On Wednesday I battled the frantic shopping carts at the grocery store and stocked up on treasures for our special meal:  a chicken, black eyed peas, Heritage Dr. Pepper made with pure cane sugar.  I buy only the necessities.

Having stayed up past midnight with my eldest daughter, I was not in the get-up-and-get-em kind of mood yesterday.  My pace was slow, at best.  But there was a mysterious peril looming in our house.  I had a motivated husband.

He was not raised as I was raised, where you spend a relaxing day with your family around the dinner table, the television, and a huge, challenging puzzle.  At 8 am, he was ready to work.  I believe, in retrospect, he was trying to eliminate every possible chore for all of 2010 on day one.  It was kind of terrifying.

He got the girls to working on their rooms right away.  I secluded myself to the confines of the dining room, where I was reorganizing every Christmas item into better boxes.  I was also purging various Christmas items that I never want to see again.  Roxy got a headache from all her cleaning.  Darby got her room done, but was afraid to turn on the TV because it would bring attention to the fact that she is no longer cleaning.  No one talked to each other - at all.  We don't know where the motivated tornado will hit next - basement, attic, living room - AACK!

Being the kind and thoughtful mother I am, I take off for a movie.  I leave Scott as he is pulling out all of the living room furniture, vacuuming behind and under and over and through it.  When I get home, the house is calm.  I begin to cook dinner to find that the entire pantry has been thoroughly reshelved and the cabinet of baking pans has been restructured, too.  The Tornado sometimes hops in to the most surprising of places.

Dinner turned out fine, even good, and the girls enjoyed the relaxation of helping me with it.  By 7:00, Scott did not know what to do with himself.  The Peril of the Motivated Husband had lifted, and he was somewhat listless without anything to clean.

My dear motivated husband had worked himself out of a job.  Thank goodness.  I'm glad he embraced the cleanness of 2010, and I'm glad I have no more chores for another month or so.

Strange Things in the Bargain Bin

I happen to be one of those people that waits until after Christmas to get a calendar so that I pay half price.  There are multiple problems with this scenario, because depending on the year, you wind up with unspeakable things to choose from in that half price bargain bin.  I also happen to be a preacher's wife, so anything with a reference to a housewife drinking martinis would raise eyebrows amongst my small group families.

This year was especially profane.  I found lots of cursing on calendars, entire calendars dedicated to naughty housewives and pinups, and more references to tasteless jokes and alcoholic behavior than I have ever encountered.  Where are the tasteful calendars?  Hanging in people's homes because they paid full price, I guess.

The only calendar that was remotely close to my personality was the one pictured below.  It makes me remember my brother.  In the seventies, he would get the stickers from gum packages and stick them on his bureau.  And I would read all of them and be too young to get the humor.  My brother's old bureau is still in my parent's garage and you may still be able to see a faded sticker or two on it.

I will enjoy the nostalgia of this calendar all year.  It is also funny that it included some free stickers in it, but they were all about alcohol and smoking.  Those will not be stuck on Roxy's bureau.  Let it be said, let it be done.