Tribute to my Aunt Mary Ann

Mary Ann was a beautiful, wonderful, gracious, giving, faithful, loving, daughter, sister, mother, friend, aunt, co-worker etc. As seen at her funeral. So many came out to show their love it was a blessing to know that she had touched so many lives. She will be missed but not forgotten.

I would like to tell you a fond memory I have of Aunt Mary Ann and her family. First I have to explain to you that the people in my family have many pronunciations of their names. Such as my cousin Darryl pronounced Durl. And yes I did call him Durl to his face once. To which he replied "Missy(my aka), hun you do know that my name is Darryl?" Me, "Of course I do, what do you think I am stupid?" Ummm OK.... How was I to know? I had never heard him called anything else..

So one New Years week several years ago my Grandmother (aka MawMaw, Thelma, Thelmer, Thelmoo) and her sister Dot were going to visit their sister Mary Ann (aka May-ree Ann, May-ran) and ask my cousin Jennifer and myself to come along. After we checked out schedules (we were very popular high school girls, OK maybe she was but I was not) we decided to go. The ride there was not very memorable. The ride home was a whole other story. I will save that for another day.

Disclaimer: If any of this sounds like it might be about your OBGYN you are sadly mistaken. Your OBGYN is a (and always has been) a very serious mature person.

OK so we get to May-ran's where you are always made to feel welcome and invited. When I grew up I wanted my family to be like theirs. They would all pile up in the bed together. May-ran and her kids and their spouses. Who ever was there would watch a movie together or whatever "the" show was at the time. When we got settled the whole clan decided to go out for Chinese. I believe there were at least 10 of us and we each ordered a dish and passed it around. So we could each have a taste. Well when we got home Chinese did not settle well with someone. And the un-named person visited the bathroom outside "our" bedroom several times. I am not sure how it all came about but half of a can on Lysol was sprayed under the bathroom door. I am also not sure how the person in the bathroom did not slip and fall coming out. We laughed until we cried. How we did not get in trouble is beyond me???

The next day one of the doctors that worked with Mary-Ann had given her tickets to the Charlotte Hornets game. I believe it was New Years Eve. So being such a gracious and giving person she gave the tickets to my cousins and I. Back then there was a place called Hayden's, it was a bar, and they provided a bus ride to and from the games. The bus was called Hayden's Hornets it was for people who got too drunk at the game to drive back (or teenage girls who's moms did not trust them to drive in Charlotte traffic on New Years Eve). We loved the game and we had really great seats(floor seats maybe?). A guy asked us if we wanted to buy a program for $15. And we said no we can't afford that. And the guy said how did you get these seats if you can't afford a program. We said we paid for the seats and that's why we could not afford it. The people behind us agreed. It was after mid-night before we got home. The next morning was New Years Day, so the sisters {had} to fix the traditional meal, greens, black eyed peas the usual. We had planned to sleep in. No such luck the pressure cooker exploded at about 9:15. We shot up in the bed. It sounded like a bomb had gone off and the sisters were in the kitchen screaming and running around with dishcloths cleaning up the mess. It wasn't til later that we noticed that there were collard greens on the ceiling. We always had fun at Aunt Mary Ann's and I always felt like one of her kids. She would love on me but she would also fuss at me if I needed it.

If you live over on Lake Norman and you can't figure out what the green stuff is on the ceiling don't worry it's not- mold it's just collard greens.

Goldfish....Circles?????

I saw this recipe for homemade goldfish crackers on The Pioneer Woman's facebook page.


She showed the cute little goldfish/pac-man cookie cutters made out of a soda can. Amazing right?

Nice neat little rows. BEAUTIFUL... if I say so myself.

Perfect little goldfish/pac-men.

OK so none of those were my photos. I wish! I stole/borrowed them from PW's facebook page. These are mine.

Future circle crackers.

Cheesy goodness. Notice the laptop in the background, so that I can read directions while I work.

Rolled out to desired thickness. After I washed my rolling pin. Jaden decided to roll Buzz while I was blending. Speaking of blending the blender does NOT work. I don't have a food processor so I tried to use the blender and it only blended stuff at the bottom. I am sure my friend Anna's girls would never try to roll out the dog!

Ta-da ready for our cookie cutter/ mini-medicine cup.

Tiny circles. If this turns out well and the boys like them, I might go to Michaels or Hobby Lobby and get fondant cutters to make different shapes.

Look at that perfectly rolled dog. Man, does that boy love his dog!

I think the feeling is mutual.

Finished product. To me they taste like cheese straws. The big question is "What did the boys think?

Jaden "Yucky, I not like dem."

Jack "Those are good, but why aren't they crunchy?"

Morgan "I don't want to hurt your feelings Mom but, Not Good."

If they had liked them I intended to make some parmesan or pepper jack. So the moral of the story is if you like them because they are crunchy you will not like these. Well I guess this saves me a trip to Micheals/Hobby Lobby were I would probably end up buying tons of other stuff that I really don't need.

Confessions!!

I must confess I am a terrible mother....

First off. My middle son lost a tooth last night before dinner then my oldest son proceeded to lose two teeth. What is a tooth fairy to do. Well Mrs. Tooth Fairy did not have a dime to her name. Mr. Tooth Fairy had a twenty in his wallet, and said over his dead body! And there was the fact that there are two boys with missing teeth. SO what else is the tooth fairy to do, but raid the piggy bank. I mean really are they going to notice???? NO WAY.... SO Mrs. Fairy tucks two dollars under One pillow and one dollar under the other. All this is going down while Mr. Fairy is telling me how terrible I am (I mean Mrs. Fairy is). In the am the Oldest says "Wow, I got two bucks!" "Ummm why does one of them have Santa's picture on it?" CRUDDDDD!!!! That would be the dollar bill the tooth fairy's aunt gave the boys two years ago for Christmas!!! Ohh well to my advantage the oldest is like his mother and said "That's what I'm gonna do to my kids."

Second.... Today was my baby's first day of preschool. And did I take one picture??? NO, I did not. While trying to side step the Santa's pic on the dollar bill get three kids fed and dressed and teeth brushed I did not grab the camera. Then when we thought we were ready to walk out the door I realized the preschooler did not have shoes on. I asked him to go get said shoes and he did but he was saying something. I figured he was talking to himself or singing. I sent the older boys out to the car and told Jaden to hurry up we were going to be late. He said "I can't look for it." Look for what? I said. My nother shoe! Ohhh You have to be kidding me!!! So we look in the playroom(landfill), we look in the piano room (the room with a PIANO! duh), we look in the bathroom no such luck. Thank God for MiMi. I went to the shoe drawer in his room. MiMi has a little bit of an obsession with buying the kids shoes (I am NOT complaining). It has saved my tail on many an occasion. He wore dressy shoes with his orange shorts and Orange striped T-shirt. I really needed a picture of that. And we ran from the house like we were on fire. Got Jack to school on time and Morgan by the skin of his teeth. Crazy....morning. When I came home from dropping him off I found the shoe in Morgan's clean clothes pile.

Is is so bad if we have a do-over tomorrow? He is not supposed to go to school tomorrow but I might take him and take pics in front of his school with his bookbag.