Love Of My Life

October 3, 2011
     Remembering when my first grandchild Scott was born, reflected a lifetime of past births.  The first birth I actually can recall with some visual picturing in my mind, was when my cousin Lance was born.  I don't recall the actual birth, as I was left back at the house to care for his two older brother's, Mitch and Rodney.  I was around 11 or 12 years old at the time.  What I do remember is how tiny he was when he was first placed in my arms for only a few moments.  I was mesmerized at the tiny fingers, tiny toes, tiny mouth, and teensy tiny little nose holes. 
     The next birth I recall, was that of my first nephew, Paul Scott.  WOW!  He was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen.  I was crazy in love with him from day one.  My brother Floyd, Paul's dad, left for Vietnam when he was about a month old, and he and his Mom Kay, only lived one block from my house. 
     I practically lived with Kay and Paul Scott.  I couldn't wait to get over there and see Paul Scott everyday after school.  I thought he was the best thing since peanut butter!  I was 13 at the time.  Paul Scott and I were always together.  I took him up and down the street in his stroller, and crawled around the floor on all fours with him, and learned how to feed, change, and bathe him.  Then his Daddy came home and moved him off to San Angelo I think.  Not sure, but where ever it was, it was the other side of the planet as far as I was concerned.  I was devastated!.  How could they take the baby from me.  WE NEEDED EACH OTHER!
    I survived!  And then came Josie Kay, love of my life!!!  Soon to follow, Tanesa Deann, and Alonna Denett.  Each one the love of my life!!  How could you ever ask for more love in the whole world?  HOW??
    Then came Gerimie Floyd.  My first son.  He was not only the love of my life, he was my life.  I realized then that there could never be any other person of more importance in my life.  No one could ever be so connected to me, or matter to me.  NO ONE, could ever be more a part of me than this angel sent from God for me to love and take care of.  He truly was the LOVE OF MY LIFE!  I was complete!  Finally!  I was One with another human being and there was not anything better than that!!
     Then came Dana Star.  The finally complete with Gerimie Floyd theory blown completely out of the water!!  WHAT!  How could this be?  How can I love another child as much as I loved my Gerimie?  How could this little baby girl come between me and the love of my life?  For reals???  How?  But she did.  And now I knew that no matter what, I had been given the Loves of my life!  No one could ever come between the three of us! No one except.....
   Alexander Holland.  That's when I learned the true meaning of together forever.......He fit right in between Me, Gerimie, and Dana.  I somehow knew, then, that I finally had the Loves of my life, in my life.  I knew there would be no more, and I knew we would be together for the rest of lives......Total Bliss, with all the ups and downs, and laughs and tears, and friends and foes, and ills and wellness........NOTHING.....could ever be more in place than my kids and I.........through all the turmoils, and there were a lot, we were still together.  I for them, and they for me...At no time was it ever just some of us.  It was always Me and the kids no matter what......no matter when........no matter how far......no matter............
     Dana says, "We're gonna name him Thomas Scott."  OH MY GOD are you trying to tell me there is more than having my own flesh and blood running through the veins of my children?  Are you going to tell me I have more love to give?  Are you going to tell me I am finding love I have never known before to share with this tiny little child that I had not before? 
    Yes!  That is exactly what he was telling me and I was enchanted by God's gift once again......
     So when Mandy Grace came along, I didn't doubt that I could love more....and when Margaret Beth came along, I didn't doubt that I could love even more again........and then Ember Rain came into my life already a year and something old.  Now that was a love I learned had to grow.  But it did!  It nurtured, and watered, and breathed into again, one of the loves of my life.......and then came Allie Mae.  My Mae Mae.  My Mammers.  My Allie Boo Boo.  My Allie Boo.  My Boo Boo.  My Boo.  My Allie Mae.  Love of my life once more~~ 
    My Allie Mae is 4 now and reminds me daily of all the things my Scott used to do and say.  He is fixing to be 12.  She brings back all the fun my Scott and I had watching Toy Story for the hundredth time, and wanting to jump in the jumping chair and yell yippee yippee yippee!  Wanting to read me a story book and has memorized all the words. 
     Remembering a couple of years ago when I was taking Scott home and told him I'd get him something to eat on the way, and not to even think about McDonald's!!  He says what else is there?  I said "Well we'll see as we drive down the street."
     We are driving and I am saying, "There is Sonic, there is Arby's, there is Taco Villa,"...... and he says, "There is McDonald's." .........and I say, "There is The Bar-b-que Barn, there is Wendy's, there is Subway,".........and he says "There is McDonald's,"........and I say, "There is Star's, there is Mama's Kitchen, There is Long John Silver's,".......and he says "and there is McDonald's........and I say "What ever happened to that cute little boy, who always did what I'd say and never gave me such a hard time?"  Then that 9 year old love of my life, sincerely looked me in the eye and said, "What ever happened to that Gramommy who used to let me eat where ever I wanted?" 
     I realized at that moment the love of my life was no longer learning from me, but teaching me instead.  Ha!  He had now become the boy who Gramommy was losing to growth!  My first grandchild is almost 12 now and is already sort of experiencing the first loves of his life as he has 5 sisters!
   

Never the less, I have yet to meet love of my life number 6, Logan, coming in at 2 years old already............................... .................................................................................and "The Love Of My Life number 7 will take the first breath of life sometime around April 25, 2012.
    

Until then, there is never just one love of you life.  After all - Life is forever and Love..........well it's even longer~~~

Pin Curls

     As I passed by the beauty salon in the front of the local Walmart, I witnessed an array of hair care products to shine, smooth, sculpt, and moisturize your hair.  A display of cosmetics for your finger and toe nails was centered there in the midst of rows of barber chairs, and tables for nail sculpting.
     As I passed slowly by I observed the make over routine preformed by the hair dressers and their clients wanting to become transformed into beauty queens, if only for an evening.  I watched briefly the careful sculpting of the nails, and relaxing laid back resting while feet were soaking in bubbly bliss, and with my eyebrows raised, and my lips slightly smiling, I was taken back to a, shall we say, more prehistoric type of beauty makings.
     It all started before I could walk I guess, but Let's go back to say Saturday morning, 1963, in a small town in West Texas.  I was 7 years old back then and playing around in the front yard with the toy I found in the cereal box that morning.  My Mother yelled out the front door, announcing that my sister and I are to come in immediately to get our hair washed for Church tomorrow.  My sister eagerly runs inside and I, rolling my eyes, and kicking my feet at the ground, and wishing they didn't have Church so I wouldn't have to get my hair washed, reluctantly enter the house and head to the kitchen.
     There, my Mother already has my sister laid up on the cabinet with her head hanging over the kitchen sink in my Mom's one hand, while getting her head throughly scrubbed with her other.  Her eye brows are rapidly raising up and down on her forehead with every stroke of my Mother's hand scrubbing her scalp!!  She is holding her tiny five year old fingers over her eyelids, clamping them tightly shut.  She is making a long steady sound out of  her mouth, that is quivering with every scrub, sounding like someone humming while riding over a bumpy road.
     Now my Mother has the essential top of the line hair car product for making our hair shiny, silky, smooth, and tangle free.  Yes, she has the Tame out on the counter.  That's it!  Nothing else!!  She shampooed our hair, and used the Tame cream rinse for the tangles.
     We then left the shampooing area, and proceeded to the styling chair area, the living room floor.  There my Mother would yank, pull, yell, and crack me on the head with comb, to get the tangle free cream rinsed hair ready for the curling stage.
     Now this procedure had to have special tools to achieve the desired affect of the hair for Church tomorrow.  They were the comb, the hair pins, and the paper towels.  First she would carefully part our hair into even half inch squares, straighten the hair and wrap it in the paper towel cuttings, and then roll the covered hair into tiny little curls, and place the pin, sometimes two, into place to hold the curl secure, taking half my scalp with it!  This procedure was then usually followed by "Get you shoes on we have to go the store."
     Now at this stage I am really not liking the whole Church tomorrow every Saturday ritual at all.  Now we are parading all over this SMALL West Texas town, looking like something straight out of the Weird Theater show on TV every Friday night.  It's Saturday afternoon and every Mother in town is out shopping with all our friends in tow.  This was probably one of the most embarrassing things of my childhood, but this particular day I noticed something different.  Something I had never seen before, probably because I had my head down most the trip before, but I was shocked!!!
     There, in the middle of town, were girls I had seen hanging out with my older brother's groups, parading around town with their hair rolled up around tomato, and orange juice cans.  Some of them were even using tomato sauce cans!!.  Great big tin cans all over their heads!  I wanted to laugh so hard.  They looked totally ridiculous!  Something out of the "Twilight Zone" for sure.  There were also paper towels hanging out from under some of the cans, I suppose to keep the gook they had on them from running in their eyes!
    They had some kind of spacers between their fingers which were sporting really, really, red nail polish and most of them had really red lipstick on and lots of eye liner!  I had never noticed this before.  I laughed out loud and pointed them out to my sister, and then in the same breath, stopped, and thought to myself, "Am I going to have to do that when I get big?"  I was horrified!
     After supper and baths, we were tucked in and my sister and I tried our best to sleep without being head punctured as best we could.  The next morning after breakfast, and dressing for Church, the pins and paper towels came out.  What a relief!  All I wanted to do was scratch my head till it bled.  Instead my Mother yanked the comb through all those tight nit curls until she was satisfied we looked like beauty queens, and off to Church we went.
    I must say I was rather proud to have all the ladies of the Church compliment us on our beautiful curls and lace dresses my Mother sewed for us and we indeed did look like beauty queens!  Church never seemed to last all that long and Sunday Roast and Potato Dinner awaited us at home after Mass.
     Still, it brings a smile to my face to think how beauty was achieved back then, when I see the ladies pampered in the Beauty Salons of today. ~~