Trip down Memory Lane

I know, I know, I have sucked when it has come to blogging here lately. I usually am chomping at the bits if I go check out a blog and its the same freaking title as last week. Well, I am guilty. I have no real excuse except for the fact that my life is basically boring right now and I haven't had anything interesting to talk about. Still don't so bare with me.

I'm still in school and its going pretty well. This is the third out of four weeks so its getting crunch time. All assignments are due this and next week so I'll have my head buried in books for the next few days.

We have twelve days before we leave on vacation to Branson. I am excited but also dreading it all in one breath. Eight hours with three arguing kids isn't my idea of relaxing but, no fear, I am bringing duct tape.

Soon we will be getting ready to have our twenty year high school reunion. A lot of the people we graduated with didn't stay in the area, so its always a treat to see everyone that we haven't seen in a while. Some I haven't seen since the 10 year reunion, so it will be interesting to see how gracefully we have all aged. I have to say that I am probably more comfortable with the way I look now than I did when I was in high school.

I was the youngest child of a cotton farmer, so we never had much. My parents grew most of our food from the garden and canned and froze plenty to get us through till the next season. They never had a lot of money but there was plenty of love and life experiences of growing livestock, stomping cotton, digging potatoes, learning how to drive a standard 1964 Chevrolet at age 11 in the pasture. I was a daddy's girl so anything Daddy did, I wasn't far behind. I drove cotton pickers, combines, drove the cotton trailer to the gin (at age 13), helped put rings in hogs noses, helped deliver calves, bailed hay, and cooked and took care of my daddy while my mom was at work most nights. No, we may not have had money to afford the popular brand name clothes or some of the other things I was so jealous of back then, but now that I look back on it, the things I learned and the experiences I made with my family far outweighs those Chic or Gerbaud pants or Hang Ten or Esprit shirts. So, no I wasn't popular and didn't hang out with the "elite" but I liked to say that I was personable enough that I could hang with the most elite or the trashiest of trash. I was just good that way :), lol.

I did have some wonderful high school experiences, one of those being in the Mu Sigma Honor Society and attending a two week trip up the East Coast, touring Virginia, Washington, D.C. and New York and many other cities in between. We got to see the Macy's Parade, tour the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Liberty Bell, Plymouth Rock, Washington Monument, White House, and many more landmarks in that area. It was totally awesome and an experience that I would never ever have been able to do in my lifetime - or at least got it all in one trip.

I also developed several incredible friendships with some truly inspiring and incredible people. Unfortunately, we have lost many members of our graduating class since 1987. Young lives that were lost for reasons unknown to us and friends and family left behind with a terrible void. But we will live on and we will use this next reunion as a celebration of life and friendships and goals accomplished. I can't wait. Its hard to believe that we are all quickly approaching forty, I really don't feel that old or think I look that old, even though I could technically be a grandmother right now if my 18 year old fell on his head and produced a child- Lord help us all.... but at least I'd be a young looking grandma. Oh I don't even like the thought of being called that... too scary. Maybe he'll be smart and wait till he's 25 to have a family. We can always hope.