Memories of Grandma...

Tonight, I am paying tribute to Elaine Roth.  My dad's mom.  My grandma.  She passed away today.  And while I know this blog will fall terribly short of doing her justice, I am just going to share some of what's been on my mind.

When I was a kid, we went to South Dakota several times a year.  We would spend time visiting my mom's side of the family (which I think I will blog about another time), and then we would spend time visiting dad's side.  When we were with the Roth's, we were at Grandma's house.  The farm.  I have so many great childhood memories of that place:

• I got to ride my first horse (with a very cute ranch hand):
  
 
• She made the BEST Root Beer floats.  She would make them for all of us, and she mixed them.  By hand.  And even though Mom would do everything the same way when we got back to Texas, there was always just something special about Grandma's. 
• Hanging out with the cousins.  And there were ALOT of therm.
  

• We would play outside and run around the farm.  We would pick cherries.  We would play in the creepy basement.  We would play hide and seek and tag.  We would play "Bloody Murder".  And we would LAUGH!!
• We would have to get to say the rosary together as a family.  And while we always feared making a mistake in front of her, and we always wondered what new prayer she would add, we always knew where she stood.  She was a woman of great faith, and she modeled that for us every day.
• When we got older we didn't visit as often, and we didn't run around playing games.  But we would drive 3 wheelers and 4 wheelers.  We would talk and tell stories.  And we would LAUGH!!
• When we became "grown-ups" we had less and less opportunities to visit.  But she came to our weddings (though she wasn't in good enough health to make it to Josh's).
  
• The last time I got to see her was the summer of 2010.  We had a family reunion, and almost everyone was there.  We had SO much fun!!  And while it had been YEARS since I had seen most of them, it was as if no time had gone by at all.  And we had the chance to take a 4-generation picture.  The only picture I have of Grandma with both kids.
  

Grandma I love you, I miss you, and I am proud to be your granddaughter.

 



7 Years...

Happy Anniversary to Me!!

No, it hasn't been 7 years since I got married.  Not 7 years since our first date, first kiss, first baby, or anything else like that.  Not even 7 years since I started teaching.  But it HAS been 7 years since I found out that I had leukemia.  And, no, it's not even 7 years since I've been in remission.  Because, technically, I'm still not.  But I suppose I'm about as close as I'm going to get...until a new treatment comes around.

So, you might ask, "Why in the world are you celebrating having leukemia for 7 years?!"  Why celebrate more bone marrow aspirations than I can remember (though I've been lucky enough not to need one for the last year and a half)?  Why celebrate having to take an oral chemotherapy pill everyday that gives me side effects ranging from slight hair thinning and fairly strong fatigue to abdominal cramping and severe bone/muscle pain?  Why celebrate the reason I cannot have more kids? 

Well, the reason is this:  Because after living with leukemia for 7 years, I am just that.  Living.

My type of leukemia, Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML), is not a particularly aggressive form of leukemia.  We caught it early enough, and I was lucky enough, that it was quite treatable.  But the doctors told me not long after I was diagnosed, that if it were to be left undiagnosed and untreated, it would run its course in 7 years.  I would only have 7 years left to be with my family.  7 years left to work...to play..to laugh...to love.

So, here I am 7 years later:  working, playing, laughing, loving...and healthy (relatively speaking).  So, yes.  Today, I am celebrating.  I am celebrating the doctors and the medical treatment that have gotten me this far.  I am celebrating those who have gone before me, who might not be here today.  I am celebrating the fact that, while it could be so much worse, it isn't. 

I celebrate, because I am blessed.  Happy Anniversary to Me.

Babies...

We all know that I've got (and have had for quite some time) a bad case of Baby Fever.  And surprisingly, no amount of cowbell has done the trick.  Well, this summer I have been repeatedly blessed with opportunities to get my baby fix.  I've got some lovely enablers in my life...and I am grateful!

Firstly, I have gotten to spend a fair amount of time with my bestie's baby, Quinn.  She was born in December, so I've had the pleasure of getting to hold her and hug her and play with her through various stages of baby-hood.  But it's been 3 weeks, and I'm going through withdrawals.  I mean, look at this sweet face!

But that's OK.  Luckily, several of the weekends that I haven't been able to spend with Quinn, I've been able to spend with my new nephews.

My sweet Jackson (my baby brother's baby) was born in June.  I wasn't able to get down there to meet the little guy until the end of July, though.  And let me tell you.  It was worth the wait.  He was just precious!  And you should all be impressed by my restraint.  I only flooded facebook with, like, 20 something pictures.  I thought that was pretty good!  Now he's over 2 months old, and he's already changed SO much!  I love his sweet crooked smile.  He just melts my heart!!

My sweet Noah (my older sister's baby) was born the day after I got back from visiting Jackson at the very end of July.  Since we had just gotten back from a weekend trip, we had to wait a little bit before getting to meet this little guy, too.  But we were lucky enough to not have to wait too long.  We got to meet him and hold him and kiss him on day 10!  He was just so little and so perfect!  I can already tell he just loves his Aunt Tracy SO much!!  I just love him to pieces!

And this weekend was the piece de resistance.  I got to be with BOTH Jackson and Noah.  Together.  For a whole weekend!!  They both got baptized on today, and I was absolutely thrilled!  While my mind has been racing with worries and anxieties about school starting on Monday (TOMORROW!), these boys have been making my heart sing with joy.  I am blessed to be their aunt.  I am blessed to be their godmother.  I am just plain blessed!

End of Summer...

As we are approaching the final days of summer, I have mixed emotions.  While I am SO sad to see summer end, I am SO ready for a break from my awesome kids.  (Albeit, I'll be trading days of my own obnoxious wonderful kids for days of other people's entitled amazing kids...but that's another story.)  My kids also have some mixed emotions going on.  This last week, they have been fluctuating somewhere between completely and totally bored to...wanting to kill each other.

Today was a perfect storm of those two feelings.  I had to resort to drastic measures:  toilet paper and bubbles.  Toilet paper?  Hmm...down to my last 4 rolls.  That's OK, I'll go to the store tomorrow.  Bubbles?  Hmm...don't actually have any.  That's OK, I've got dish soap, kitchen utensils, straws, and duct-tape.  Throw in a specially created playlist of the kids favorite jams (from Taylor Swift and B.O.B. to Aerosmith and the Beastie Boys), and the end result was 5...that's right...5 hours of argument and gripe free fun.  Take a look:

TP Bowling

TP Fight/Dance Party

...all cleaned up quickly in order to do...

TP Mummies
(which, of course, required one of them to be still and quiet for a good 10 minutes while the other one quietly concentrated on getting the broken, wrinkled TP to stay put)

...also quickly picked up so they could go outside for...

Homemade Bubbles

 ...and...

 Water-hose Fun
(AKA...do not come back into this house until that soapy mess is cleaned up)

Whew!  I did good.  We're all cleaned up, back inside, and what do I hear?  "Now, what can we do?!"

SHEESH!!!

Six Degrees...

We've all heard of the "Six Degrees of Separation":  that every person on earth is connected to every other person on earth through six connections or less.  This could be all the more true in this very modern social media connected world we live in.  With all its vastness, it is indeed "a small world after all". 

I'm sure we've all also heard of the slightly less deep and thought provoking "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon".  My sister used to LOVE this game.  And for those who may not know, it literally is a board game:

But even without the actual board game (which we did have at home, by the way), it was a fun way for us to waste spend some time.  With my sisters vast knowledge of movies and actors, she could connect most people pretty quickly.  I got pretty decent at it, myself, but she could either do it faster or in less connections than I could.  (That's OK, though.  I just added it to the ever growing list of things she could do better than me.  But I digress.)  And this, of course, while not before internet was way before internet at our house.  Shoot, we didn't even have a computer.  But if she ever got stumped, we would just drive on down to Blockbuster.  They had this really great reference book there where you could look up an actor to see all of the movies they had been in, or look up a movie to see all of the actors who were in it.  So with a few flips of the pages (which would now be clicks of a mouse), she had her connection!

Well now, I think I might tell you about something that maybe you haven't actually heard.  Surely I'm not the only one who didn't know about this.  I know what you're thinking:  "Of course you're not, but don't call me Shirley."  OK, so maybe that's not what you were thinking, but it should have been.  And again, I digress.  What I'm going to tell you about is a way to find these Kevin Bacon connections with a lot less mouse clicks.  You can go to Google, and in the search window you type any celebrity's name followed by the words "bacon number".  For example, if you type "Charlie Chaplin bacon number" you will very quickly find out that he is connected to Kevin Bacon in 2 steps.  So his "bacon number" is 2.  Now, yes, this might take the fun out of the game, but I still think it's pretty cool. 

Kevin Bacon seems to be a pretty good sport about this whole thing (while you're welcome to watch to whole clip, the part I'm referencing doesn't start until minute 1:30...but I suggest starting at minute 1:17 if you enjoy a good pun as much as I do):

He has also used this idea to springboard some philanthropy.  His website, www.sixdegrees.org, is a way to make charitable donations.  But what I think is particularly cool are the "good cards".  These are basically gift cards for charity.  We've heard about people giving gifts that say something to the effect of "a donation was given in your name to such-and-such-foundation".  And that's great, but I suppose you always run the risk of that person not necessarily wanting their name associated with a particular foundation.  So maybe a better way of giving a gift of a charitable donation on behalf of someone would be to give one of these "good cards".  These cards are basically like a visa gift card, in that you are not limited to one specific place to spend them...but it does have to be spent in a charitable donation.  You just go to the six degrees website, and you can choose from over a million charities to give the money to.  I think that's pretty cool.  Here's a little video that explains a bit about the site, if you're so inclined.  It's a little long (16ish minutes), but I didn't mind watching it.

While it used to be a challenge to get some people connected to him in less than 6 steps, now you can have the challenge of using Google to find someone who's bacon number is higher than 3.  It's harder than you might think.  Now, GO!

25 Random Things, Part 7...

1. Hello.  My name is Tracy, and I am an addict. I am addicted to chap stick.  I need it.  I want it.  If I could only bring a small number of items with me to be stranded on a deserted island, chap stick would be one of those things.
2. I have a serious love/hate relationship with summer.
3. A childhood friend of mine who moved away before 3rd grade just found me on facebook through a mutual friend...my prom date.  How crazy is that?  Small world, huh?
4. I've thought A LOT about working out this summer.  It's the thought that counts, right?!
5. Sometimes I think about all of my fun memories and have a hard time believing that the best is yet to come.  But I believe it anyway.
6. One of my favorite commercials of all time is the Orbitz chewing gum commercial where the one girl calls the other one a "lint licker!".  It just makes me laugh.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, Google it...it's great.
7. I love coffee.  And yes, I know this is in direct contradiction of my 2nd "25 Random Thoughts" post in which I said it was gross.  But alas, I have seen the error of my ways!  It took some time, but I've come around.
8. My brother-in-law, Joel, just might be the most generous person I've ever known.  Just thought everyone should know that.
9. Just like I edit myself when I'm singing songs with curse words (I know, I know...goodie-two-shoes!), I try to skip past them when I read them in books.  They just seem that much worse if they were to come out of my own mouth or my own voice in my head. 
10. My twin nephews are so much fun!  And they make me feel so loved.  I mean, how can you resist a sweet 4-year old, "I SOOOO love you, Aunt Tracy"?!?!?
11. I started watching Dexter during its 4th season and was able to get caught up via Kevin and certain flash-backs/references on the show.  So how is it that even though I basically know how things turn out and end up, I'm still finding the first few seasons (finally going back and watching them) so suspenseful?
12. We watched  Back to the Future with Hannah the other day.  It was so much fun to watch her watch it.  She REALLY got it!  She was all caught up in it.  It was pure awesomeness!
13. For a movie that was rated PG, Back to the Future sure had a lot of G.D.'s and J.C.'s in it.  How did I not notice that before?!
14. This parenting business is hard work. 
15. I think of my sister every time I hear "Kiss From a Rose" by Seal, because it reminds me of going to see Batman Forever with her.  We then came home, and did a pretty awesome and accurate reenactment of the movie (complete with awesome background music) for our mom. 
16. I think of my older brother every time I hear "Enter Sandman" by Metallica, because he could sing a spot-on rendition of that song (complete with creepy "Now I lay me" voice).  And I'm pretty sure that I need to give him at least partial credit for my love of certain metal/hard rock songs/bands.
17. I think of my little brother every time I hear "The Joker" by Steve Miller Band, because it reminds me of the short time period when he lived with us in our apartment in Lewisville.  Hannah was almost 1, and he came with us to the pool.  That song was playing, and we had the best time just singing loud and proud and silly while splashing with Hannah.
18. I think of my old BFF from third grade (who I'm still friends with now) and her mom every time I shake a bottle of mustard, because I did that once at their house and didn't realize the cap wasn't on.  So I ended up flicking mustard on their ceiling!
19. This is by far the laziest summer the kids and I have ever had.  And my guilt about that is just barely outweighed by our delight.
20. They say opposites attract, right?  Maybe that's how a "passive aggressive, mind-your-own-business, keep-your-mouth-shut" person like me ended up with an "instigating, pot-stirring, button-pushing" guy like Cakes.
21. I'm SO excited to meet my baby brother's baby boy this weekend!!
22. I stumbled across this question while online the other day, and it made me chuckle, "Why are the British always talking about pimps and Cheerios?"
23. I think that right along in the ranks with Big Foot and the Loch Ness Monster should be The Baker's Dozen.  In all of the dozens of doughnuts, cupcakes, and cookies I've bought, there has never been an extra. 
24. "I believe in pink.  I believe that laughter is the best calorie burner.  I believe in kissing...kissing a lot.  I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong.  I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls.  I believe that tomorrow is another day, and I believe in miracles." ~ Audrey Hepburn. 
25. I LOVE being a parent to Hannah and Mason...and parenting with Kevin.  I couldn't ask for anything more!

History...

I have always loved history.  Now, this doesn't mean I "know" history.  But I do enjoy it.  Some of my favorite teachers were history teachers.  Case in point:  Mike Thomesen.  He was my World History and AP European History teacher in High School.  He was a favorite of just about anyone who was lucky enough to be in his class.  He fostered a love not only of history, but also Monty Python; specifically, MP and the Holy Grail, which is of course, historically accurate.

My love of history has continued to grow and evolve over the years.  And as music has played an important role in my life, it has also been a big part of our human history.  Which brings me to some very important "historical documents".  Some of these relics may be older or more famous than others, but I urge you (even if you've already seen them) to watch them again to further your own historical appreciation:

History (evolution) of Dance:

History of Rap part 1: (excuse the poor quality of video here...I guess that's what happens when artifacts aren't properly cared for)

History of Rap part 2:

History of Rap part 3:

 

History of Rap part 4:

History of TV Theme Songs: (I know...music, history, AND tv!!)

History of Music:  (a bit less awesome, but kind-of-fun nonetheless)

Just a fun little blog today, but I hope you enjoyed the little history lesson!!