The Clifford's

Last weekend I had the opportunity to go to Houston for a friends wedding. My plan was to leave the hotel on Sunday morning, go to the cemetery, and then back to my BFF's house for the rest of my visit.  I was flexible and nothing was written in stone, so when the opportunity arose for me to take two of my newly met in person friends to the airport for their flight home I was more than happy to volunteer for the task.  The airport is on the way, just a couple of miles off the freeway and back, no big deal. 

Kelly, Tiffany and I went to California Pizza Kitchen for lunch.  I had a very yummy Waldorf Chicken Salad that I'm going to have to try and duplicate here at the house.  Then it was off to find Kelly a souvenir or two for her children and finally to the airport.  At first I was not at all concerned about getting around the airport.  Sure, it's been seven years since I was there but it all looked the same and getting them to the drop-off point was no big deal.  Hugs and farewells were exchanged and off I took.  I wanted I45, not I59, so I started following signs---I must have missed one because suddenly I had no idea where I was (although I knew if I turned around I could find the airport again.)  Then my BFF called to see where I was and how long it would be before I showed up at her house.  I explained where I was and she told me how to find my way to the freeway.  I missed another sign, or turn, or something because I found myself going the exact opposite way from where I wanted to be going.  I was getting more and more frustrated (do you know how much gas is?  Here I was wasting it on just driving around---I had things to do and people to see!).  Eventually I found myself on I59, so I knew where I was and how to get to the cemetery.  I was lost and driving extra places for over an hour.

I finally got on the road that the cemetery was on.  It has grown up so much!  Not at all the 'quiet' road that it was seven years ago.  New subdivision, gas stations, a Wal~Mart SuperCenter and dozens of fast food chains have sprouted up in the area.  I remembered the cemetery being hard to spot if you were going the speed limit and I remembered the landmark that was the sign to start slowing down.  Luckily that hasn't changed and I did not miss the entrance to the cemetery nor did I have to slam on my brakes in order to make the turn.  I drove around to the back where the Garden of the Innocence is, parked the car, got out, and immediately started bawling my eyes out.  I was not prepared for that.  I didn't expect to cry.  I'd been so matter of fact about the whole 'seeing Samuel's Spot' that the emotions that go along with it surprised me.  It had been seven years since I'd been there and I had forgotten that it wasn't easy.  So many new gravestones have been added, so many new broken hearts and life changing events.  I took a  couple of pictures before I walked up to try to find Samuel's Spot.

When Samuel was first buried here the grave markers did not extend to or beyond the statue of the little girl.

I  sobbed and cried for a few minutes.  Sat down beside his marker (making sure not to sit on anyone else's Angle).  I replaced his worn faded flowers that the cemetery workers put into vases when the old stuff starts looking too bad, with fresh fake flowers.  I took a picture.

Then I wandered the cemetery looking at the new markers and at some of the old ones that I remembered, like the triplet babies and the sisters buried side by side.  I mourned for all the old and new angels alike.  I ached for all of the parents, grandparents, and other loved ones left behind.  I spotted two markers side by side that are sunken into the ground.  I can only hope that the cemetery workers see it and get them leveled out before the parents come by for a visit and have their hearts torn up because their angel isn't getting good care.  The breeze was blowing making the wind chimes sing and dance, but there aren't as many as there used to be.  Samuel's wind chime is gone and the cemetery has a new rule saying that safety regulations keep them from putting up new chimes.  Soon, the Angel children that I have always envisioned running and playing making the wind chimes play will be silent forever.

Just like Samuel.

Jordan has officially finished the 6th grade.  Once again he was on the A-Honor roll and received four awards at the schools Awards Day.  We couldn't be more proud of him.  He has discovered the true joy of reading and has devoured a couple of books in the past week.  Maybe now he will go back and read some of the books he has been given through the years.  Hopefully they aren't too young for him now.

 

He went with Grandma and Grandpa Clifford to St. Louis to visit Great Grandma Clifford over Memorial Day weekend.  He had a good time visiting with Grandma and her new cat, and had a blast at Sandy and Joe's playing with Scott's dog, Winston.  When he finally got home Thurday he dropped a jar of mayonnaise on his toe and nearly broke it.  It is very swollen and purple...he may end up losing his toe nail.  It didn't stop him from doing his best in Karate later in the day, though.  He's been in karate for about six weeks now and received his first 'stripe' yesterday.  If he keeps his attitude and his determination up I don't see why he wouldn't get his yellow belt within a couple of months.

 

Check out the May pictures!

We got up Saturday morning and after getting packed and organized headed over to Tupelo for a short visit.  We kept food and water from Darcy for most of the morning and managed to give her the motion sickness pills the vet advised us to use.  She didn't throw up this time!  Unfortunately she did have a bit of diarrehea.  At least it happened on the sheet we put down just in case this type of thing happened.  We pulled over at the rest area and I managed to rinse off most of the stink before wadding the sheet back up and putting it back in the car.

 

After we got to Tupelo Chris and Dad headed off to Elvis Presley State Park for a bit of mountain biking.  Dad really enjoys it.  Chris, not so much.  Chris keeps trying to explain to me that it isn't the physical-ness part of the riding that he doesn't enjoy---it is the ratio of risk of broken neck/bones to enjoyment that is not in Chris's favor.

 

While Chris and Dad were out risking life and limb I headed off to PetSmart to get the Dragon a new UVA/UVB light.  Unfortunately for me my fear of snakes has not lessened any and once I spied the little suckers moving around in their cages I couldn't force myself down the aisle I needed to go down.  I managed to see what I needed, but I couldn't force myself to put my back to the moving snakes to get it off the peg.  Luckily a nice lady happened to walk by; she saw me standing there shaking and she offered me her assistance.  With her help I was able to pick up the much needed light for the Dragon.  (He's been 'sunless' for about at least three weeks.)

 

We all finally got back to Mom and Dad's where she had a most yummy meal prepared in celebration of my birthday. (a week late, but I'm not complaining as they were out of town.)  We had brownies with ice cream and hot fudge for desert.  No wonder I gained two pounds.  ~sigh~  There were a couple of presents, too.  Paul gave me a purple crystal dragon that lights up; very cool and I have it on my desk here in the office.  Annie, John and the girls gave me a most gorgeous purple stone necklace.  The stone is a Charoite and the necklace is just beautiful.  I can't wait until I am wearing it with an appropriate outfit to show it off and get pictures taken. 

 

Sunday was a lazy day.  Chris and Dad played golf and the rest of us did nothing.  Late afternoon we (Chris, Paul, Jordan and I) went to see the new Chronicles of Narnia movie.  It was a good movie and was enjoyed by all four of us.  Chris, Jordan and I got home in plenty of time for Jordan to get to bed on time.

 

Today was Awards Day at Jordan's school.  He received four awards this year: an award for participating in the Living Wax Museum, one for AR reading, he had the highest grade point average in his Science class, and he got an award for being on the all A-Honor Roll.  After the awards was field day at the school and since Jordan has an 'issue' right now, we just brought him home so the 'issue' wouldn't be aggravated by being hot and sweaty.

I had a great weekend and was treated like a queen.  Saturday morning I slept in until 9:00, I proceeded to make a grocery list, and sor laundry.  Chris and Jordan went to the grocery store they made supper and baked a cake.  I got to clean out, straighten, organize my closet at my leisure while watching TV and doing laundry.  Chris created a really yummy baked chicken recipe that was just too awesome.

I went to bed Saturday night and had my sleep interupted at least four times by the weather radio going off announcing severe thunderstorms and/or tornados in the county.  None of them were within 20 miles of us, so I would promtly go back to sleep.  Until the one that went off at 1:30---I proceeded to get out of bed to see if Chris was aware of the weather and walked in on him preparing my birthday/Mother's Day surprise.  Oops.  At least I didn't have my glasses on so I didn't see details.  All I saw was a fish tank.

We got up early on Mother's Day because the plan was to go to Tupelo to pick up Chris's golf clubs from his folks house (they are in Boston visiting Annie, John, and the girls), eat brunch at IHOP, hit Kroger for some good quality steaks and then off to PetSmart for some Dragon supplies...now I got to pick some fish, too.

My fish tank is great!  It is the perfect desk top size and I've got nine little fish in it, six guppies, two platies and an algea eater.  I love it.  See the picture below.

We got home, I took a nap while Chris watched some golf.  He started fixing supper while I watched the Survivor season finale.  I got several phone calls from several people singing "Happy Birthday".  Loretta's sweet little voice was one of the best, though.  Tressa and Christopher called and even Steve called to wish me a Happy Birthday. 

I had a great weekend.

I'm having serious doubts about letting Jordan continue to ride the bus to and from school.  He's complained about Ms. LuNell since day one and I've brushed his complaints off as being-well-childish.

These are some of his complaints:

• Not being allowed to have the windows down on hot days.  My response was: The bus has an air conditioner, she doesn't think the windows need to be down.  He's come home with a soaking wet head from sweat.  Maybe they should be allowed to put the windows down.
• She hit a UPS truck.
• She took the mirror off of another vehicle.
• She won't let the kids talk in normal tones of voice.
• She drives too fast
• She drives too slow
• She has zero patience.  If you are not waiting on the bus she will leave you behind.  She drove off w/o a child once because he wasn't outside when she stopped.  She picked up his siblings, but wouldn't wait on him as he was running after the bus.
• There have been numerous times that she's taken the kids back to the school and just sat there waiting on them to quiet down.

You know we live on a dead end road that only has four homes on it.  The only reason the bus comes down our road is to pick up Jordan.  Two of the other homes have school aged kids, but their parents either drive them to school or they are old enough to drive themselves.  The bus uses our driveway to turn around.  She acts like she owns this particular section of our circular driveway.  If there is ever anything blocking the driveway she makes Jordan tell us to move it.  She's even had Jordan tell us that we needed to trim the bushes because they were scraping the bus.  Thursday morning we had some work done on the house so Chris parked our car on the bus side of the driveway and forgot to move it.  LuNell drives up, drops Jordan off and proceeds to try to get around the car.  (Remember we forgot he'd moved the car.)  She pulled up a little, back a little, then up a little and back a little....then she drove through our yard!  She didn't honk to try to get us to move the car, she didn't do squat!  Except run over and kill a bush, then she proceeded to almost hit the house and our second car....then she drove through the ditch to get back on the road!

She killed one of our bushes and left tire tracks in the yard and through the ditch.  Chris, being his sarcastic wonderfully funny self went out and bought some poster board and created a 'tombstone' for the bush.  He put it out Friday morning after Jordan had left for school.  When the bus dropped Jordan off Friday afternoon you could hear the kids hooting, hollering, and laughing all the way into the house.  We are still undecided on whether or not to call the school and complain.

Oh, later we learned that she debated on whether or not to come down the road to get Jordan Friday morning.  I wonder when the old bat is going to retire?