herbiehancock

I thought I'd share a few moments with you that made me smile recently. My Mom Wow man at the nursing home seems to have taken a shining to my mother.  My mother finds him annoying, and she avoids him as much as she can.  The other day I was pushing her down the hall in her wheelchair and Wow man was coming towards us from the other direction. There was no way to avoid him, so we kept going, but he leaned way over towards her, talking to my mom and making funny faces at her trying to get her to laugh.  My mom just scowled at him.  Many of the residents at the home have personal alarms attached either to their wheelchairs or to their clothing.  These residents are at risk of falling if they try to stand on their own.  The alarms go off if they move too far out of their chair which warns the aides to check on them. Anyway, Wow man was trying to make mom laugh when he leaned too far out of his chair and set his alarm off.  It was very loud and sudden, an...

My days have been filled with beginnings and endings lately. They are running together in a dreamy watercolor painting sort of way---blending one into the next, the edges soft and muted. Sometimes it is difficult to tell where one stops and the next starts. My younger son starts back to school today. He's a freshman in high school now. I'm not sure how that could be possible, but here we are. So this is a beginning for him. We have been busy with all the usual back to school things: buying clothes and supplies, filling out the umpteen forms that are required by the school every year, he's had his physical from the doctor so that he can play in sports, he has his class schedule set up, orientation meetings have been attended, he has toured the high school building and knows where his classrooms are, and he has met his teachers. He has decided against playing football this year, which is an ending. This was his decision completely, but I have to admit, I am just as hap...

We took my Mom out to lunch today. My older son (in the green shirt) was able to come home for the weekend from college, so I got to see both of my boys for Mother's Day. It was a good day. Hope yours was too. If you would like to participate in Smiley Sunday, click the badge below.

This is a photo from a few years ago of my Mom holding a birthday cake so that one of my nephews could blow out the candles. This is my brother's oldest child. With both my Mom and nephew dressed in yellow and the yellow walls of my kitchen, I thought it seemed like an appropriate choice for Mellow Yellow Monday. To visit other bloggers posting for Mellow Yellow Mondays, click on the butterfly badge below.

I heard from my older son today. He is away at college as many of you know. He sent a photo a friend took of him pole vaulting at a recent indoor track meet. When he vaulted last week, he cleared twelve feet and just missed making it over twelve feet six inches. At that meet he placed seventh place out of fourteen vaulters. As a freshman in a college-level competition, he was pleased about that. I'm pleased that he is pleased, of course. What I am even happier to report is that the cut above his eye has healed up nicely now. He was left with a scar, but he is doing fine. Mostly, it made me smile to get to hear his voice. Lord, for healing, for communication, for reassurance, and for the joy felt at hearing the voice of a loved one, let me be truly grateful.

As a follow up to my previous post, I have received, via the power of the internet, photos of my son's pole vaulting injury. If you would really rather not see his injury (and I can't say as I blame you for that!), you may not want to finish reading the rest of this post. I was under the impression that the cut he received was higher on the forehead. Now that I see where the pole made contact with his face, I must say I am both cringing and thankful. I am cringing at how close it came to his eye and thankful that it did MISS his eye. Motherhood is not for the squeamish. Ai-yi-YI-yi-yi! Yes, I know he will be fine. It will heal, but still it is hard for me to see this.

My older son was home for the past two weeks for his Christmas break from college. It was so good to have him home for a while. While he was home, we were going someplace in the car when the song below came on the radio. He began singing and knew every word. It made me laugh. This song came out as a single in 1977, the year I graduated from high school. I sang along with him, of course. "I didn't know you knew this song," I said to him. "Everybody knows this song, Mom. It's a classic. It's part of our culture." "I didn't know you liked disco," I said next. "Sure, I like disco. It's good stuff. I don't know why it died." (Well, he is MY son, after all! Poor kid--- HA HA HA!) I explained to him that it hadn't died, that it was still around, and that it was "Stayin' Alive" just like the song, but he didn't seem to believe me. So this song is for my son. It's funny, people always talk ab...

Actually, the other guy didn't have a scratch on him, but my son did pin him down and earned the bragging rights for the win. No, my son wasn't in a fight. He was in a wrestling match yesterday and took an elbow to the eye from his opponent. I would have liked to have been at the tournament, but perhaps it is better that I wasn't there. Whenever my sons come away from an athletic event with an injury, I sometimes think it almost hurts me more than it does them. They just shrug it off. I cringe and worry and fuss, and they just get up, dust themselves off, and go on. They just take it all in stride as part of the game. I had to work at the library and missed the wrestling tournament, but my husband took the pictures below. My son is in the purple on the left. He actually wrestled in four matches, winning two and losing two. He finished up placing fifth in his weight class out of twelve contenders. It's a "Mom" thing, I suppose, but I am much happier ...

My fourteen year old son (on the right in the picture above) wants to buy a moped. I told him, "No." He is not happy with my decision, and we have been "discussing" it. He feels my decision is unfair and unreasonable. So much so, in fact, that there is a good chance I will be nominated for meanest mom of the year as a result. He wanted me to ask my blogging "peeps" what they think about the situation. (Peeps is his word not mine. To me, peeps are those little sugar-coated marshmallow chicks you get at Easter time. Like this: Or maybe like this: since it is now Halloween time, but I digress.) I told him that it didn't matter what my "peeps" thought because I wasn't going to change my mind. He, however, thought it was worth a try, thinking you all could sway my opinion in his favor. So here is the situation. His side of the "discussion": He is a responsible individual. He will be a careful and safe driver and will fo...