if you havent seen this…it will blow your mind. thoughts??? what, in your opinion, would cause a young lady to behave in this manner? and what do you think would be the appropriate consequence?

im tired.

that is all.

oh…leave a link here to your own favorite post from this last week.

fridays have become a reader, of sorts, for blogs…all my faves   its been great..would be lost without it!

one more thing…target has all their christmas items out and decorations up. like, the day after halloween! isnt that a little soon?

aint that the truth? smart little kid, in my opinion. to know just because he may not like someone (or most likely something they did or didnt do, or didnt allow him to do) doesnt mean he no longer loves them.

i can relate, kiddo.

oh my sweet heavens! just found out today that kota has basketball practice every single school morning.

you know what that means, right?

wake up call… 5:45

did i mention it was every school day?

i know. thats not early for some of you. and several of you east coasters are already up. but we’re on the west side and should be dreaming of rainbows and lollipops at that hour.

i had just made a plan to start writing at nights after everyone is in bed. its when i do my very best thinking and writing. miss mandy pants has so lovingly and firmly been kickin me in the rear with this book gig and ive been evaluating and reavulating goals, plans and strategies all week. night writing being the most exciting of them all!

seriously. whats the deal here.

i am typically very distracted and preoccupied during the day, but…mandy gave me a long list of tips to use to inspire a creative environment with a soothing/calming flair. that coupled with a few other ideas, i will experiment with determination to write. write anything

so. this is life for the next 12 weeks.

and no. i am not complaining. we are all extremely excited for and proud of kota! he works very hard to maintain honor roll status and play sports. he has earned this privilege.

im simply trying to frantically reorganize my thoughts and work up a new plan.

i’ll let you know what i come up with.

until then…

ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz

i really wanted to write a decent post today but had absolutely no time. ive been sick since thursday. went to the docs monday, ran a test and it was negative. thats good…but im still not “well”. not bad – just not well. so…im tired and brainless’er

also…its 10pm’ish and i get to get up waaayyyyy before the sun rises tomorrow morning to take kota to basketball practice!!!

yay???

i am super excited he made the team. we’re very proud of him!

um…whatelse…

oh…a long time ago i started a birthday list (i just had to delete that last word cuz i spelled out lust) anyhoo…i cant find the list now. it was on paper. ive lost that paper. but…my birthday is this month. mark stegalls birthday is this month. is yours? if you have a november birthday let me know in the comments. k? k.

“Some minds are like concrete, thoroughly mixed up and permanently set”

yes. im changing the title from pimp MY post to pimp YOUR post. it just makes more sense.

you know what to do. leave a link to your favorite post youve written this week, or a link to another post youve read that you enjoyed.

well, we find out if kota makes the basketball team today. he has had try outs all week long. the boy has been worked to death. he’s hoping to make varsity cause j.v. practices before school varsity…after school

i stayed away from sports in school. besides a brief affair with volleyball. i quit immediately following our championship game after i ran across the court and smack into the net. yup. my head went right through the sucker. why, no…not embarrassing at all

that coupled with the seagull pooping on my head during lunch in high school right in front of the most popular senior boy who i was crushing on badly and somehow eventually snagged him possibly out of pity but who cares really.

care to share any of your embarrassing high school moments??

i always wanted to_______

but never have because_______

the scene…a tiny one bedroom apartment, 500 square feet – max, i’m sleeping in my bed. it’s almost time to get up for school. i dreaded 2nd grade. mostly because i didn’t like being away from my mother. i didn’t have separation anxiety, i was just afraid her boyfriend would beat her a little too much before i got home and i wouldn’t be there to help her.

my mother and i shared the one bedroom, while my brother slept on the couch. he didn’t mind…he sneaked watching t.v. all night and raiding the fridge. bachelor in training i guess.

this one particular morning, as i was slowly waking, i heard my mother sobbing on her bed tucked in the corner. she didn’t cry very often. in fact, she rarely did even when her boyfriend would pummel her. she was very strong. or stubborn. or both. so, to hear her cry was very difficult for me.

in between the sobs i could hear her ask herself, “what am i going to do?” over and over. of course, i had no idea why she’d ask that – all i knew was that she was crying and hurt – i couldn’t bear that.

so there i lay…eyes closed, pretending to be asleep, heart breaking for my mama. what can i do? not long before, my mother shared some invaluable words with me. she told me that no matter what happens in life…find the funny. you can always laugh at something – find that thing.

and i did. i slowly, slightly, opened one eye to see where she was facing. she was looking my way. i quickly closed my eye, but not before noticing a small folded towel at the end of my bed near my little feet. throughout the night i had made my way out of blankets and was lying on top of them all. so…i decided to reach down, pull up the folded towel (while keeping it folded) place it over my shoulders as if it were a big blanket keeping me warm.

writing about this now, it seems so completely stupid and not funny. but for some reason…it made my mom laugh. she burst out in hysterical laughter assuming i was sleeping, cold, thinking that little towel was my blanket and determined to get warm with it.

several seconds into her laughter i began giggling. i couldn’t hold it back. my tiny shoulders were bouncing up and down causing the towel to move rhythmically along. she hopped off her bed, came over to mine and crawled in beside me. she put her arms around me and said…“you knew exactly what you were doing, didn’t you tam? and you knew exactly what i needed.”

it’s so strange how some of the worse moments of my childhood are also some of my best memories. lessons and learning often come after having to endure pain. i certainly don’t want to miss those opportunities to learn and grow.

i certainly don’t want to miss the funny moments either. they’re there. we just gotta look for them.

my friend, nicole wick, is doing a series on grace this week at her place. and…she asked me to be a part of it.

wow.

sincerely honored, i offered her this