1997

January and February of 1997 started off slow with just a few recorded events such as school resuming on January 2nd, school out for ice on the 13th and then again for Martin Luther King on the 20th. Gymnastics carpool and PTF meetings were in full swing and I was still trying for the perfect picture at Olin Mills.

Maggie had a "jumping party" for her birthday on February 1st which I'm visualizing in my head kids arriving while jumping and remained jumping until leaving....that's a lot of pressure. But even though I wish that were the case, it was really a big blow up jumper outside for all kids to join in and jump. It was a jumping good time. On John's and my 12th anniversary, February 16th, Billie June went to Dallas and Melanie went to Corsicana from the 19th to the 23rd. And even though I didn't write it down, I'm certain John and I went to Outback to celebrate our anniversary which is standard fair for that day. On the 27th, Melanie's birthday, I had a conference with Caitlin and Emma's teachers and I just hope Emma hadn't punched a little kid in the mouth. Just kidding.....but I'll kick you.

And as March always does, it came back around and our spring break was the week of the 3rd when Dale and Lydia went to check on Gran and Bessie from the 5th to the 8th and our Dallas girls' trip was March 13-16. And as time sped along, John and I continued to spend money furiously on dentists and orthodontists. And fast forward to present day at least I have the satisfaction of knowing that all my children have taken good care of their teeth with no cavities or fist fights that caused missing teeth. So I guess the billion dollars spent was worth it. But in order to help continue to pay for good teeth, John went to work in Perry Georgia on the 24th while Dale and Lydia somehow made it to Califreakinfornia from March 24th through April 6th. Is this the trip that the kids went with? And if so, why didn't I write it down? And here's yet another glaring example of my laziness in my journal/calendar not having enough information.

But, I did record that my family went to Corsicana on April 3rd and some of us drove up to Dallas for Becky's wedding shower that was on April 5th and then my family was home by the 7th. And I'm pretty sure there was definitely some skipping of school during that trip. Melanie and Randy went to Califreakingfornia from the 16th to the 20th. Which now means I'm the only one that's never been to Califreakingfornia and although many many weird people live there, I want to go so very much. Maybe someday....and if I do, I want to drive down the coastal highway with the ocean on one side and the whatever that's on the other side. It's so beautiful when I see it on TV. Sigh... Now don't forget April's also the month that softball and t-ball start gearing up and 1997 was no exception with a T-ball coach's meeting on April 20.

And then on the 22nd, a mass migration began to Dallas for a very special event on April 26, the wedding of Becky and Keith. It always takes lots of planning and phone calls (no email back in the day) for our whole group to meet at one location on one day at one specific time...ON TIME...WITH CLOTHES and this trip was no exception. And, it was one of the most important dates we'd had in a long time. So here's how it went. Mom and Dad left for Dallas April 22, Dale, Lydia and children left for Corsicana April 23 so they could bring Gran and Grandma up to Dallas for the wedding. Frank, Suzie, Melanie, Randy and children got there on the 24th and Meredith, Brooke, John, me and children got there on the 25th. Carrie of course was already there. We stayed in a hotel which was fun and I don't know why but I can still remember what that hotel room looked like and I STILL remember how harried it was trying to get 4 children and well as John and myself ready and to the correct church on time. But we all made it with time to spare and it was one of the all time great occasions in our family. Everything was quite lovely. There was dancing and the watching of bad dancing by me which is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE THINGS TO DO. And if there was bad dancing, that means there was lots of laughter so all in all it was a memory well made. It's also the day that will go down in history as the day Gran lost his pants on the dance floor....yep fell the whole way down. That could only happen to him and it will never be forgotten. It's also the day Liz and Andrew, with their northern roots became part of a big, loud, crazy, southern family....God bless em. And then as with all fun events, it was over lickety split and we were home on the 27th and the month of April was in the books.

And what month is it if there's a field day, gymnastics recital, piano recital, baseball, softball, t-ball, and an award's banquet? It would be May. And all those things happened in May 1997. But a rarity occurred for us on the 10th when we had a silent auction at church to benefit the youth for something....I don't know what....maybe to pay for a bus for youth camp? Anyway that's not the important thing. The important thing was that at the silent auction, I beat out a girl named Connie for an afghan that said something about mothers on it. It was a furious bidding war with my competitive side rearing it's ugly head until I beat her down so bad she needed crutches to leave the building. But, I WON! WOO HOO! She wanted it for her mom...BOO HOO...and I wanted it for myself! Doesn't sound selfish AT ALL. And it's only taken me 13 years and this writing to ask myself the question, "Why didn't I give it to Billie June instead of keeping it for myself?" Hmmmm...selfish had a great place to live back in the day.

May 10th was a busy day because we also attended a party honoring a man that changed my life forever. NLU (now ULM, don't even get me started) was honoring Dr. Neil Douglas for his many years of work in the Biology department as well as the museum he founded. I can't say enough about how he impacted my life as well as the lives of Randy, Melanie, Carrie and John. I met Dr. D. through Randy when he was in graduate school and I loved him immediately. We all did. He was smart and fun and funny and wanted the best that we all had to offer. He's the reason that I loved Biology and wanted to study it. He's one of the few teachers that inspired me to want to do better. And if I didn't, I was terribly disappointed because I never wanted to disappoint him. I remember him fussing at me only one time and knowing that although I didn't like what I was hearing about myself, I knew what he was saying was true. It never happened again. We saw him recently when again he was honored by the Biology department and he's still wonderful. We listened to him tell old stories and we laughed about all the fun times we had as if it was the first time we'd ever heard them. One time Carrie, who worked for him as a student, typed out a formal letter for him and it was excellent until the very end when she typed, I would versy much appreciate your quick response. He of course caught the typo and harassed her forever. People were always pranking him by putting chalk in the man's coffee...but he insisted that it only added to the flavor and one professor rigged his phone with a "popper." When he answered it, and I'm telling the truth, it was the president of the university who thought Dr. D. had possibly been shot. It was always fun working in his office because you never knew what might happen at any given moment. And as a teacher, even though his tests were deadly and I had to work my butt off to pass, it was worth it. The time I spent working with and for him was some of the best times in my life. I always remember him with a full heart. He is greatness in human form.

And since I'm on the subject of Biology, the other thing I came away with was a husband. The semester I changed my major to biology was the very first time I met John. We were both in Dr. Douglas' class called Fisheries Biology and one of the requirements was we had to make a fish collection. Which meant, using seines, we had to find the fish Dr. Douglas wanted for the museum. So most of the time, with Carrie as my guinea pig, we drove around to little creeks nearby looking for the fish that had the most points. One afternoon, we were at Chenerie Creek and as we were leaving, John drove up. We talked for a minute and he was impressed with the fish we'd caught and then the next day, he was very interested in helping me sort my fish. At the time, he was a hairy beast with long curly locks and a beard, but something in me could tell he had a tender heart. And I was right. And 28 years after that "chance" meeting, I know I made a good decision. Just like all married couples, we've been through a lot together, and there have been plenty of times we were NOT each other's favorite person, but we've stuck it out and always will. I can't imagine my life with anyone else.

And now after all that, don't forget we're still in the month of May where school ended on the 13th and kindergarten graduation took place on the 15th as Emma and Maggie ended their first school year with a bang. And 14 years later, with both of them attending ULM, they hold the record of attending school together the longest. Congrats to both girls....there are no prizes.

And also that May, a very unusual thing happened at gymnastics recital rehearsal on the 12th. Yes, they rehearse for the actual recital so just imagine the horror of sitting through an 18 hour rehearsal only to have to follow it up with a repeat performance on the real night. Oh, it's a super fun couple of days for reals! BUT, on this afternoon my kids and I had to go to a gym in West Monroe for the rehearsal and I was driving my green suburban, not my present one, looking for a parking place. Owen was in his car seat asleep so I was looking for a close spot so he could stay asleep in the car. A friend took my girls in for me as I continued to look for a place but I finally gave up and decided to park anywhere and just stay in the car with the boy. I had just passed a spot and decided to back up to get it and as I did, I felt an immovable behind me. Oh yeah I had run into a sedan that must have been the size of a clown car because I never ever saw it. I killed that car quick. They had to call a tow truck because I killed it so bad. I mean I killed it.

A very nice man got out of the dead car, walked up to my window and kindly told me his "company" car was beat to hell. It must have been the perfect storm for car killing because to look at it, it was a 12 on the 10 point scale. Another man was with him and they were both so nice but said they had to call the "office" and get a tow truck and yada yada. So, after exchanging insurance info and more phone calls and a tow truck, we parted ways and as he was leaving, he gave me his card and said, "Take care of those babies." I was already mortified because of the killing but then I looked at his card and saw that he was the captain of police detectives! And I had killed his car. My car on the other hand didn't have ONE scratch on it. Awesome! And so we wrapped up May with a police incident and another piano recital on the 18th and the school awards banquet on the 28th where 100,000 trophies were given out to 45 kids and also Carrie came home for Brooke's high school graduation on May 30th. It's odd to me that Carrie Anna NEVER attended a piano recital or award's banquet or gymnastics fiasco. Hmmmm why would that be Carrie Anna?

Now June 1997 was huge with Jared and Austin playing baseball and the girls in softball and t-ball and the grand total of games for the month was somewhere in the neighborhood of 15. And we tried to make each game even if for just a smidge. Carrie went back to Dallas on June 2nd, my family went to Corsicana from the 5th to the 9 and then Dale and Lydia went from the 10th to the 14th. Help me Lord Vacation Bible school was the week of the 16th and I'm sure there were 4 million kids and it was hot. John was still working feverishly going to Cincinnati for the week of the 23rd and with a blink of an eye, we blew through June.

And throughout the months of 1997, I've been noticing these little notes that I made over and over and it caused my girls and I to recall a regular occurrence of sleeping arrangements when they were little. Almost all of their lives my 3 girls have slept in the same room and at times, it ain't been pretty. But, when they were little, we did this thing. Because they didn't have a TV in their room, they'd ask if we would bring a portable TV in, move the beds, make pallets and let them sleep ON THE FLOOR instead of comfy beds. They would stay up late and watch movies and because John and I are AWESOME, we would make a HUGE pallet for them and let em have it their way. It stayed like that for lots of the summer. BUT there were coveted sleeping spots so I had to record who slept where on what night and keep a rotation going so as to prevent a regular hair pulling amongst the sissys. So on my trusty calendar, there are cryptic notes that say, Caitlin-chest, Olivia-middle, Emma-TV OR Caitlin-TV, Emma-middle, Olivia-chest. It was a brilliant system. And while we were at home keeping tabs on sleeping spots, Melanie and Randy went to Corsicana July 16-20.

And then on July 19th, because John had some work to do in Minnesota, our little family made the trek north to Brainerd Minnesota where the mosquitoes are the size of rabbits and John worked for 3 days. I've lived in Louisiana all my life and I've never experienced mosquitoes like in Minnesota. The state of 10,000 lakes shouldn't brag. It should instead be called the land of 10,000 breeding grounds for bugs that will try to hunt you down and make your life as miserable as possible. But we either adjusted or bought 30 gallons of bug spray because we went to places like Paul Bunyan Land, Gooseberry Falls and drove within 100 miles of the Canadian border. And again for someone from Louisiana, July in Minnesota with 55 degree temperatures is completely unnatural. And after John finished working, we continued our travels to Pennsylvania as well. Over the course of the entire trip we saw lots of corn in Iowa, we stopped at Notre Dame in Indiana, we saw Lake Superior, Michigan and Erie. We drove through Chicago and was there long enough to get taken for $20 and then spent time in Butler PA. The final tally in miles was 4000 miles but the memories were immeasurable. We had a blast! Our kids were so good and we saw so many different and beautiful places. I'd love to do that again someday. But because Dorothy was right when she said there's no place like home, we made it back on the 30th of July. And to finish off the month, Dale and Lydia made a 7 day trip to Corsicana. And then on July 31st a bunch of people went to Florida but my family did not. And I'll not say anything else about missing a beach trip. It still pierces me.

The first week of August found people enjoying the beach without me and I took my kids to play at someone's house and I didn't even like the people. What was I thinking? But the beach trip ended just in time for school to start on the 13th and it's a good thing because that's the day Olivia Grace started kindergarten. And with the blink of an eye we had 3 kids in school. Kids growing up goes by so fast. Then for some reason, Melanie and Randy decided to rub it in to all the rest of us by going back to Florida from August 21-24. Whatever! And then a theatrical group came to church to perform August 28th and I'd have to say that that one Christian group of people was the rudest I've ever encountered. Needless to say I wasn't sad when they picked up, packed up and left.

In our family, we always liked to cap off the end of summer with a big Labor day extravaganza and that year, it began on August 29th. Carrie brought Gran and Grandma, Frank and Suzie and the kids came as well as Becky, Keith and Andrew. And again if we were together, we had fun and everyone went home on September 1st. A few more highlights of September was Olivia being student of the week September 8-12, school was out the 29th and 30th and I was still recording middle, TV and chest for my little girls. In October my family went to Corsicana from the 2nd through the 6th for Gran's 90th birthday and then the Pennsylvania peeps came for a visit on October 5th. Melanie and Randy went to Corsicana from the 15th through the 18th and the quiet October, according to my records, ended with Celebration of Life on the 31st.

November wasn't packed full of many events but we had a Thanksgiving dinner at church on the 12th and that means Melanie, BJ and myself went around "collecting" things to use for decorating the tables. We borrowed quite a few berries over the years from various sources and that's all I have to say about that. November 26 was the day my family headed to Dallas for Thanksgiving and because I must have dropped the ball on arrivals, I have no record of anyone else going. Oh well. I'm sure I was the life of the party.

Besides December 1st being Carrie's birthday, it was also another of those wonderful Christian events at church called Chinese Christmas. You know the game where you steal another person's gift if the one you got sucks? Well I play to win and there's no crying in Chinese Christmas. One year Billie June "fell on the sword" and took from Melanie THE UGLIEST sugar plum tree that was ever born so Melanie could choose again. I however played the game in true Christian fashion and made sure everyone knew with a well practiced stink eye that you'd better not kill my dream by taking my gift. So, I went home with the cutest miniature nativity scene (purchased by Melanie) and I didn't have to hate someone forever for stealing it from me. Billie June showed a mother's love for her daughter but my winnings ROCKED! Jesus was proud of one of us.

Now on December 2nd, Caitlin got bangs and the ACE convention was December 3-5. I wonder if that's when Caitlin did a monologue as Noah's wife? She was just precious and not corny at all. The kids at church performed The Littlest Angel on Sunday, December 7th and I have absolutely no recollection of it at all. Grandma left for Dallas that same day and Becky's Christmas party was on the 13th and now I remember that's why Billie went to Dallas every year. It was for Becky's party. And once again my brain says, OOOOOHHHHH. School let out for Christmas on December 19th with a school party at Shoney's and once again that was far too late for the holidays to begin. I have no idea why but apparently I helped Whitney paint a shirt on December 23? I don't have a clue what that was about but Carrie, Becky and Keith came home on Christmas Eve and were able to stay until the 27th. Those were the best kinds of Christmases when people got to stay for several days. Frank and Suzie always came on Christmas day after their kids opened their gifts at their house and then it was a big party at Big Frank and Grandma's.

And once again as a family, we ended a great year full of memories made and wonderful times spent together. And if I could, I'd go back and burn every single moment into the fabric of my being so it would be like a movie I could replay over and over again. I wish I could remember it all better than I do. Because 1998 was coming and it would change all of our lives forever.