Diary of a Former School Bus Rider

Today, as most days, I get stuck behind a school bus on my way to pick A up from school.  The school bus - ugh!  Seeing a school bus, no matter where I am, makes me cringe.  Seeing a school bus always invokes painful memories of being made fun, picked on and taunted.

In Jackson, Missouri if your mom did not stay home all day, if you did not lived close enough to walk or had an older sibling pick you up, you rode the bus.  Everyone rode the bus.  This was the thing I dreaded most from 6th grade until I was a freshman (my sophomore year got better - I had friends with drivers licenses :)  I remember at least one day a week I would come home and cry after getting off the bus.

See, I was the fat girl on the bus.  Looking back, I was not big at all by today's standards, but I seemed to always be the biggest girl.  As like a majority of them, middle school boys can be mean - very mean.  I was always the target of fat jokes and the such.  I vividly remember buying a candy bar (okay, I know) from someone selling them for a club fundraiser and these 2 boys - Travis and Mark - started up.  It took everything I had to act like I couldn't hear them and try not to cry.  These are the same 2 who taunted me for a week after falling down on the way to the piano in the 6th grade Talent Show (I went on to play a perfect "Fur Elise" by Beethoven with a room full of happy applause, thank you very much :)  

I'm sure everyone has those moments from school they can't forget no matter how hard they try.  We aren't perfect.  We've made fun of people and have had people make fun of us.  I think this just helped me develop a thick skin for that kind of ridicule.  It's funny though, once we got past 9th grade (which was located at our junior high/middle school) everything stopped.

The 2 boys?  I don't know what happened with one - he just kinda faded into ordinary.  The other, he started dating a girl 2 years older than us, "fell in love", they ran off from their parents bound for Vegas to get married (he was 16, she 18) but got apprehended by the cops somewhere in Colorado (I think it was...) after their parents alerted the police.  They broke up a year later.

I'm thankful that A goes to a school that they only way you would ride a school bus, is on the way to a field trip.

Ben

Yesterday my husband calls me to make fun of me for 1.  creating a blog, and 2.  posting it to Facebook.  I asked him, "If I did a post about how great of a husband you are, would you still make fun of me?"  His reply, "I would "like" it on Facebook."

Soooo.....

This is a post about how great my husband is.  He's a great friend, listener and father.  He cooks a mean steak.  He know how to make me feel better.  He loves me at my best and at my worst.  He's been with my since I was 18 and is my best friend.

So sweetie, are you going to make fun of me now????  Love you!

My Tuesday 10

Just glancing at this blog, you know I love Top 10 lists, so today I present...

My Top 10 Favorite TV Shows Of All Time
(10-2 in no particular order)

10.  Boys Meets World
9. Felicity
8. Friends
7. Dawson's Creek  (I know, I know, I'm a dork!)
6. Avonlea (it was on the Disney Channel in the early 90's - an Anne of Green Gables spin-off)
5. Fringe
4. Kids Incorporated
3. The New Mickey Mouse Club (you know, the one where Britney and Justin were still kids)
2. Glee

and my all-time favorite show is...

1.  LOST

All About Me

My Wednesday morning Bible study just started back this week and this semester we are doing  Priscillia Shirer's "Jonah".  It's all about life's interruptions.  I was doing our daily homework yesterday and came across something that struck a chord with me...

"Your life involves you but is not ultimately about you."

I had to read that 5 or 6 times to let it sink in.  I am the most selfish person I know.  Everything is about me - how can I do better, what will make me happy, what do I want, I want it now, etc.  Aside from my girls, which I tend to be sometimes selfless about, I am extremely selfish.  Bless my dear husband for putting up with me.  After reading this, it got to me.  I am a Christian and I strive to live out God's will for my life, but whether or not you know it or I show it, I'm selfish.  Just ask my husband or my sister.

Reading this statement and it's passage stuck with me.  We are put here for God's glory.  We are a miracle in and of itself (seriously, 2 cells make a human being?).  She says "In the tale of your life unfolding right now, HE, NOT YOU, must be the One in the spotlight."  My emphasis on the bolding.  Whoa nelly.

I know this study is not about that statement alone.  It's a tiny piece to the whole puzzle.  So I will aim to do better - put my husband and my girls more ahead of myself.  What they want, not what I want.  If I can show that change, it would be a true testament to the Lord himself.

I listen too much to...

I love my iTunes.  I love my iPod.   I listen to it daily while I work on my laptop.  Since I LOVE Top 10 lists, I figured, let's list out the Top 10 Songs I've listened to (or played most) on iTunes on my computer...just don't judge - LOL.

10.  Hoedown Throwdown by Miley Cyrus
9.  Poker Face by Lady GaGa
8.  Just Dance by Lady GaGa
7.  Waterloo by ABBA
6.  I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas
5.  Never Think by Rob Pattinson (Twilight Soundtrack)
4.  Let Me Sign by Rob Pattinson (Twilight Soundtrack)
3.  Bad Romance by Lady GaGa
2.  Naturally by Selena Gomez and the Scene

and #1 is....

Right Round by Flo Rida

I said don't judge!

Side Note:  I recently updated iTunes, so this isn't 100% accurate :)

The Carpool Line

Ahh, the carpool line.  Nothing frustrates me more than idiots in the carpool line.  The private school my oldest attends has, what I would call, an unorganized carpool line.  If you get there early,  you can pull right on up and station yourself in front of your child's classroom. A's room is the last room, which just happens to be at the front of the carpool line.

I usually get there REALLY early so I can be right there in front of her room.  Sometimes, I'm just not quick enough.  Here's what frustrates me...

1.  Grandma of a child in the other kindergarten class stops just far enough that a car cannot fit in front of her.  She just does not pull up ALL THE WAY!  She lolly-gags and blocks the line while waiting for her older grandchild whose class is all the way at the other end.  When grandpa picks up, same thing.  Grrrrr....... if you are going to be first, PULL ALL THE WAY UP!  I don't want to walk down 3 classrooms to get my child when if you had just pulled up in the first place, I would not have to.

2.  When you are the first one in the carpool line, there is not a parking space in front of you.  The end of the building is where the line begins.  People will just pull up in front and cut you off from turning out or leaving so they can bypass the line and "hop out for a minute" (which is like 5 or 10) to get their child.  If it's not an outlined parking place, IT'S NOT A PARKING PLACE!  Take note, Wal-Mart shoppers who do the same thing!!!!

We do have a nice gentleman who does "police" the carpool line....only he does it when a car without a driver has been idling a while.

The school is great, it's just some of the picker-uppers need to know the rules.

Back In the Saddle Again

As you can tell, I'm getting back into this blogging thing again.  I may be weird, but several times throughout the day, I'll have random thoughts or commentaries run through my mind and I'll think, "that's a good Facebook status"  or "I really need somewhere to vent".  So I decided to get back on the old blogging wagon or train or horse or whatever you want to call it.

Thanks y'all!!

Bruster's!

I SCREAM!  YOU SCREAM!  WE ALL SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM!

Yes, this is a plug for my job.  I am the Marketing Manager for Bruster's Real Ice Cream/Nathan's Famous of Statesboro.  I've been doing this for a year and a half and I LOVE IT.  Marketing is truly my calling and as my hair stylist commented when getting my hair cut Thursday, "You really love you job.  You just light up when talking about it.".  That sums me up :)

So in an endless plug for my job, we are currently booking fundraisers and seeking Ice Cream Eating Contest Opportunities for this Spring/Summer!  Contact me for more info!

Things I Love

After posting things I can't stand, I feel I must offer something positive....now, Things I Love.

1.  My girls.  Without end.  (Amen...sorry, George Strait comes to mind)
2.  My husband
3.  My Lord and Savior
4.  Cuddle time with my girls
5.  Snuggling with the hubby
6.  PIZZA
7.  My friends
8.  The feeling after a great Georgia Football win
9.  Listening to my children laugh
10.  Watching Ben with the girls
11.  A nice morning of coffee talk with some of my favorite ladies
12.  My job - seriously.  I am so meant to do what I do :)

These were in no particular order.  It was much easier to come up with things I love rather than things I can't stand.

Things I Can't Stand

Okay, so today I was not in the best mood.  Rudely awakened by my eldest and the mood swings from a new medication are horrific.  So, in light of this aggravated mood, I decided I would just flow with the negativity and list things I cannot stand (or just dislike)....

1.  People who do not drive at least 10 over the speed limit
2.  People who drive SLOW in the FAST lane
3.  Stupid People
4.  People griping about the Georgia football program when they did not attend school there and/or are not season ticket holders (come on guys, unless you have a financial claim to the school - hush!)
5.  Children who do not listen
6.  Hypocrites
7.  Stupid People
8.  People who are on Welfare and will not get up off their lazy rears and get a job (yes, there are jobs out there people!)
9.  A messy house

So 9 things was all I could come up with.  Hmm....