DIAMOND JUBILEE FOR THE QUEEN OF OUR HEARTS

My mother turns 75 years old on July 1st. She should be greatly celebrated. Not only because she has managed to stay alive for 75 years, but because she has done it with joy and determination unmatched in anyone else I know.

This woman was born in Michigan,worked on a farm, married a military man when she was a mere 17 years old, follow him 1000 miles south to live with his parents and delivered her first of five children on her 18th birthday. Happy Birthday, indeed! The importance of family to this woman cannot be overstated. This woman has spent her entire life doing for and loving others. Our family is as close and loving as it is BECAUSE of my mother. She deserves all of the credit. Whether she admits it or not.

My mother is a diminutive woman, but what she lacks in physical size she makes up for in sheer will and energy. She raised five children and saw them all achieve what she was unable to...a high school and college diploma.... many even went on to earn advanced graduate degrees. Our education was important to her and she would spend countless hours quizzing us on vocabulary, history and math. As her oldest children started college, she also worked to complete her GED and take courses in college. Something she said that she thought she would or could never do. She helped my father earn his BBA from Baylor while he attended night school in the 50's, my brothers earn their degrees in the 70's and my sisters and I in the 80's. She says, and rightfully so, that she has six degrees from Baylor...just not any with her name on them. I think my entire family would agree that hers is the name that should appear first. For without her love, support, and persistent none of us would have achieved all that we have.

She was a young mother, she always said that she grew up with her children. Her grandchildren came along at just about the time that her own nest was emptying. She was a grandmother at age 40 and relished her new found role. Nothing suits her more than being the Grandma and Nana of our growing brood. The second generation numbers 13 now and the third generation 2. She is always available for lunch or shopping with any of her grandchildren that call. She is always available for anything for her grandchildren.

My mother's legacy will live on long after she has hugged her last grandchild. Hers is a legacy of love and family. A legacy that is worth mentioning every day.....not just on her birthday. My mother is loved by many. My mother IS love.

JUXTAPOSITIONAL JIGSAW PUZZLES

I have never been a worker of jigsaw puzzles . I do not have the patience. Sitting in one place and trying to figure out how small pieces of fiber board fit together is not my idea of fun. Although, as a mother I feel that I am constantly doing just that. As I study the schedules of my children, husband, myself and our family as a whole, I see that this skill might just come in quite handy.

Or maybe that is why I do not wish to work jigsaw puzzles at this point in my life. The thought of fitting yet another group of things together to make a whole just sounds exhausting. As my children grew, I was inundated with schedules for school, church, dance, sports, tests, medical appointments and play dates. Times 4! Trying to fit together all of the drop off and pick up times for each activity was like getting a master's degree in organizational expedition.

A master Family calendar still hangs in my kitchen and is still the go-to informational device for my family and the last word on whether or not I told someone about a required activity....if it is on the calendar, it is their responsibility to see it. Color and shape coded for each member of the family, we can easily see who and what is involved and required for each activity.

Older generations who have raised their families will silently sit and wiggle together pieces of a puzzle for an entire afternoon. Some work from the outside in making a frame from the flat sided pieces to form a "big picture" view of the scene they are trying to recreate from the picture on the lid of the box. Others will work on the details first, putting like colors together, and end with the edges to finish off the big picture. We each approach a problem or task differently.

Certainly there will come a time in my life when I will crave the organizational brain workout that solving puzzles provide. Right now I cannot imagine the free time to do anything, much less work a puzzle. But then ten years ago, I could not imagine having time in my schedule to pen a blog....probably had never heard the term "blog". So who knows? Will I find the time to allow my family schedule and puzzle solving to exist side by side? I am told that kids will grow up...there will come a time in my life when there are no more family schedules to keep and juggle.

And what will I do to exercise those organizational areas in my brain when I get older and the kids move away? I guess I can start working jigsaw puzzles.

DADDY'S GIRL

I am a Daddy's Girl...always have been...always will be. My mother did a really good job of teaching me to love, honor and respect my father. He is a good father and has always been an integral part of my life.

Although I still contend that Mother's Day should be renamed "High Holy Day", where would we be without the men in our lives? Much to my husband's dismay, I am far more like my father than my mother. My mother is sweet, loving and an incredible cook. My daddy is a demanding, Type A, perfectionist....and he loves his children.

Raising children in the 1960's and 70's was a challenge. His was the generation that simply sent their wives into a delivery room far down the hall from the father's waiting room only to be called hours later to see the product of her labor and be called a "father". Children were a mystery to a group of men who lived in a society where women's work was women's work and lines were not crossed.

So, given that my daddy was a part of that culture, I think that he was a typically involved father of the times. He attended baseball games, football games, and dance performances. His role was bringing home the bacon and providing financially for his family. This he did quite well...a measure of success in those times.

It was only as an adult that I have been able to really appreciate my father as a man. His kind heart and generous spirit are qualities that I hope to emulate. Family is very important to him, but his generosity extends to strangers in need. He has always willingly given money to someone down on his luck. I think that his humble beginnings are always in the back of his mind. He lives what he preaches. To those much is given, much is required. We are blessed by God so that we may bless others. And he doesn't only preach, he practices. He is a Good Man. A Man of God. He is my Daddy..... and I love him dearly.

Sports & Southern Showers by Violet

I had a wonderful weekend. As I ended my work week on Friday, with all of my projects for the week finished, I left a little early because I was so anxious to make my way down to Dallas. I am usually very content with staying in Waco and having fun here, but I guess now I have a reason to venture outside my box and am very happy to do so.

So Friday afternoon I headed into Dallas to meet my boyfriend Nick up at a Vietnamese/Sushi restaurant called East Main. Both of us coming from work, we had set up a meeting time of 6:37, and both of us of course, were early (as we often are). Like most Wacoans, I like to sample different food when I leave home base- and I love Ethnic/Asian foods. Last weekend we had samplings of Thai and Indian, and this weekend started out with a little Vietnamese. Mmm. Although my mother isn’t as adventurous in culinary choices, I think I get my taste for variety from my father- who will literally eat anything once. I mean it’s no Kitoks, but it was definitely good food and a nice change of pace.

After dinner I got to meet one of Nick’s friends, Dan, who was the guest of honor at the wedding shower that we would be attending the next day. It was fun to relax and spend time talking about sports and Baylor, two topics that I had hoarded information on all work week with my law firm full of male Baylor fans and Big 12 supporters. I have always been able to pick up sports talk- growing up the daughter of a Chicago all-sports fan, but only like to use that part of my brain when big events are going on - especially like this big 12 conference fiasco. Some call that fair weather, I call it culturally attentive.

Another interest I recently picked up was the World Cup- again – culturally attentive. And knowing about these topics really helps at firm lunches, and apparently it goes full circle because info drawn from firm lunches then go on to impress my boyfriend in our sports conversations. So after interval training at a local high school track (I never even ran the track in my own high school), Nick and I sat down in front of a big screen TV to watch US play England. It was a great game, and certainly surprising to see USA pull through a goal, but I definitely enjoyed watching the game. Its a lot faster paced and attention catching than other sports with all the TV breaks and time outs. I think I could really like soccer, as I did once before on Chi O B Team Intramurals. Really, I just ran into other girls attempting to get the ball to another one of my teammates.

So after the Futbol game, we went to the reason for the weekend, the couples wedding shower. Now , I have no idea when showers began to be couples events and not just a bunch of girls, but I really like it, and it makes it a whole lot more fun, and twice the people. Being a South Carolina wedding, the whole theme was very Southern and sweet. As Nick and I walked up to the adorable house (early of course), they were setting up lawn game and lawn chairs as well as mixing up some kind of lemonade punch. It was put together so extremely well, I thought Martha Stewart must have been there early to set-up. As I offered my help in the kitchen I noticed that the fridge was stocked with homemade treats to be brought out throughout the night. Little Caprese tomato hors d’oeurves and an artichoke dip for starters; carefully mixed turkey burgers and beef burgers with some thing thrown in that made it look like the cover a cooking magazine- and of course for our health conscious generation, whole wheat burger buns; roasted corn on the cob; sliced water melon; and my FAVORITE- for dessert, homemade sugar free mixed berry popsicles. I really don’t think if I planned all week I could throw a party together like this. It was incredible the details that were laid out, down to the color coordinating napkins and cups. Nick was even surprised they didn’t just use paper plates- instead they had bright white summer dishes to eat on in their impeccable house. The house was also so fun to be in, the bright whites and blues seemed like the house was designed just for a Southern Summer day, and I would gladly have used any of the kitschy furniture in my own décor. It was the ideal starter house for the young married Dallas couple who threw the shower. Just think, I was excited just to get Nick’s large Crate and Barrel present wrapped, let alone throw a shower that could have been used as a spread in Southern Living. Where did all the party-throwing and arts and crafts skills that Cindee and my mom have always had disappear to in me? Maybe law school pushed away all the creativity I ever had, or maybe that’s where the math side of my brain overrides home decor and party planning. That is something I would like my mom to answer- why I can never hold any of those creative pearls of wisdom in my head.

But it was an amazing weekend, not only did I get to stay with my good friend Allyson, but I also got to spend a large quantity of quality time with Nick and his friends, in many fun social settings. So far every weekend of the summer has been a blast, and a complete balance to my work life during the week.

TODDLERS, TIARAS, AND TRAIN WRECKS

I don't know if this is called a guilty pleasure or simply so odd that it is fascinating, but Anabeth and I religiously sit down on Wednesday evenings and watch the train wreck of a reality show known as Toddlers and Tiaras. Hideous....yes! Yet I cannot look away! What in world possesses these mothers to subject their small toddler daughters (and sons) to the subjective viewing of people judging them on outward beauty alone?

Like all reality shows there is very little real about it. Most of the content is heavily edited, if not scripted, to deliver the views of the network producing the show. The producers obviously wish to portray the southern ritual of well-meaning(?) mothers entering small babies through preteens into pageants that promote subject their children to a form of judging whose results matter much more to the mothers than to the contestants.

The amount of money spent on chasing the crowns, sashes and Grand Supreme titles would certainly qualify as an economy all of its own. We are talking entry fees, hotel, food, spray tanning, dresses, costumes, hair and makeup. My goodness,wouldn't anyone be consider beautiful after all of this? You may not be able to buy happiness, but it looks like you CAN buy beauty. I would like a rundown on the amount spent on these pageants versus money won on these pageants. I certainly hope families budget these contests as entertainment. Because I am sure that they cannot come close to paying for themselves or even hope to bring a profit.

Some of the little girls featured really do seem to be having a good time wearing the pretty dresses, hair pieces and false eyelashes. And while I do believe in giving a child a passion, something to work toward, and public speaking being beneficial in developing a self confidence..........this whole thing just seems wrong.

That being said, I will continue to watch with Anabeth and hope for a better outcome for these little girls. But I seem to think that once a pageant brat, always a pageant brat. Which ain't pretty or cute on older girls.

AND ANOTHER THING.....

Before we get to far from this subject...let me interject that after the initial laughter that this article from the Waco Tribune Herald provoked, I was appalled.

I decided that I was actually offended by this article. It degrades women on so many levels. Why was it written...and in such detail? And written by a woman (for the imagination and enjoyment of men). There are young women in this world that feel the need to expose themselves to earn a living. They have disputes, are arrested and charged for crimes committed only to have these disputes graphically described in a local newspaper for the amusement of others.

I am sure (I hope) there will be op ed letters written about it. I await community outrage.

In Local News... by Violet

Perhaps what threw my mother into her tangent about our society being at the bowels of hell was this morning’s local newspaper--- the wonderful Waco Tribune Herald. As a former teen writer for the Tribune, I understand the wonderful quality of writers that they employ.

This morning I received a text at 6 o’clock before I left for work, as I do most mornings- from my mother. The only person that I get texts from besides Nick Taylor. The wonderful text from my mother read:
“Go get your morning paper and read story on bottom of local section. You will lol. You are defending the wrong people”

So as I picked up my breakfast burrito this morning from Lolitas, I glanced at the local section at the register and saw the headline of “Waco stripper found guilty of punching, biting fellow stripper during argument”

This was the story that I later found online: http://www.wacotrib.com/news/crime/95933044.html

First of all, I thought there was a rule to brevity in headline writing. The tribune writers would have learned this had they competed in high school UIL headline writing.

Second of all- only in Waco would we have in our newspaper the news of a girl-on-girl stripper fight.

Additionally, the story was a masterpiece of written word, including statements like:
“Waco stripper Amber Renee Cheek was found guilty Tuesday of assault for striking another stripper in the head with a Mountain Dew bottle, punching her and biting both of her surgically enhanced breasts.”
And,
“Staci Fox told the jury she was wearing only a string thong throughout the Dec. 10, 2009, brawl with Cheek at Sonny’s BYOB in Waco, said Fox’s attorney, John Hand.”
And,
“Fox testified that she couldn’t strip anymore because of the unsightly bite marks on her breasts, Hand said. “

And My PERSONAL FAVORITE:
“Crime scene photos show the bite marks, located next to her tattoo of the name “Bucky.””

The guilty party will be sentenced at 10 a.m. today in County Court-at-Law Judge Mike Gassaway’s court. Very interesting considering I just went to a hearing last week in his court room and I am currently trying to find a way to pop in on this ground-breaking dispute. Who would complain about jury duty on a day like this??? Who would not be entertained with a story like this. This story really needs National coverage. Somebody call Nancy Grace.

My mom was completely correct. I did LOL. And then I sent the story to anyone I thought would get a laugh out of it. I cannot tell you how much I wished I could send it to the attorneys at my firm, but that would hardly be appropriate. Instead I chose to expose the news story on my Baylor blog.

So this definitely must be why my mother chose to go off on her soapbox about the depravity of our society and the proverbial “line” that we have continued to inch across. Little does she know, Ace was most likely at the scene of the crime handing the Mountain Dew Bottle to Miss Amber Cheek, also known as Miss Nasty Suarez, while Harrison was the bouncer refusing to let her cash out her dolla bills.

WHERE IS THE LINE ????????????

I have held my tongue long enough. Okay, so maybe I NEVER hold my tongue. But I have to say this..... WHERE IS THE LINE THESE DAYS? The line of which I speak is the Moral line, the Decency Line, the "Can They Really Show That?" line. The line that is drawn to show civilization how far we have (or have not) come. And who should be keeping track of this line?

I have long since given up on watching MTV or VH1 music videos. Our kids are banned from watching those channels until they are in high school at which time they may watch but only if I get to sit in the same room and discuss how morally degrading these visual interpretations of blasphemous, sexist and racist lyrics really are. As you might imagine...it is usually not worth it to them. Freedom of speech is one thing, abuse of that freedom is another. I exercise my right to turn that mess off and tell anyone and everyone who will listen how degrading it is to women, minorities and humanity in total.

My children know exactly how I feel about about certain music and videos, movies and video games. But I recognize that I can only protect them for so long and must impart my values and views on them while they are still under my roof. My soapbox lectures are used to prepare them for the time when they are no longer in my nest. Let's face it, they will grow up and will need the skills to discern for themselves right from wrong and I would be remiss in not exposing them to appropriate amounts of the "world" at appropriate stages in their development. So the actual viewing of these videos and movies along side my kids allow for teaching moments and exposure to information that will hopefully help them process it as they need it. My poor kids!

But, back to the "line". Since my first child hit her teenage years over ten years ago, I have been vigilantly watching as music videos have become increasingly vulgar and, frankly, offensive. Children are bombarded with images of simulated sex and naked body parts. What is wrong with these people? Is it me or is the population of this country simply desensitized to this depraved behavior? Have we silently slipped into the depths of hell to construct and draw the "line"? Is this what it felt like to live in Sodom and Gomorrah?

All I know is that my children have been given to me to raise and protect. Despite their groans and reddened faces as I interpret, describe and define the way I see things, I will continue to guide and instruct them in the way I see fit. The media today sure isn't making my job any easier.

SUMMER SCHOOL MORNINGS

It's summer....which means only one thing around the Fuller household....summer school college classes! After each of my children finish their sophomore year of high school I have them on the fast track by taking summer school classes for college credit. English, Psychology, Religion, Math......and this year, SPANISH !

Anabeth and Ace are taking a six week summer session of Spanish I together at our local community college. They each have had some Spanish at their high school, but as we all know, college Spanish is entirely different. If taking a Spanish class wasn't bad enough, they are signed up for the 8:00 a.m. section! Anabeth is NOT a morning person in her first language so she is NOT happy in her second language...Spanish! Ace just doesn't like school, so the time of the class isn't the problem....the class is the problem.

Ace's real conflict with the class is that it is 3 1/2 hours long with only one short break. About 45 minutes into the class, his stomach starts to grumble (I am guessing that the desks were shaking and the noise was deafening). Ace generally eats about every 1 1/2 to 2 hours. He is a growing boy. He had packed honey nut cheerios in a ziploc, but break time could not come quickly enough. Which reminds me of when he was little and would come home from Vacation Bible School with a string of yarn tied loosely around his neck. Seems it was Fruit Loop Necklace day and Ace never got home with as much as Fruit Loop sugar dust on his shirt. The teacher said that, while he did eat numerous handfuls while he was stringing the fruit loops, he did manage to make a necklace. There was just nothing left of it after 30 minutes. Somehow constructing a cereal necklace to be eaten later did not appeal to a young boy who was hungry NOW.

Anabeth is fresh from high school Spanish 2 and is coaching Ace who is a little rusty on his Espanol. The funniest part of my day now is listening to the two of them exchange stories of the other unlucky kids who are taking an 8:00 a.m. Spanish class in the summer....no one's idea of fun. But misery does love company and I am hoping that they each will later in their lives draw from these experiences and determine that nothing is quite as bad as "that summer we took 8:00 Spanish."

So Ace's bag of Cheerios was the envy of the entire class and I am guessing that more students (boys) show up with sustenance tomorrow. Ace is a true leader among (hungry) men.

Age of Technology- by Violet.

Computers. It has recently become an interesting topic of conversation of how much we actually use them in both work and play. Although MIS was my least favorite class in undergrad, I always wish I had paid more attention. All of those Excel tricks and Word formatting instructions would have been a lot more handy than I had originally thought in future finance, accounting and business writing classes. Even in law school I constantly would want to throw my computer across the room and wish I had paid more attention in computer class. So believe me, I maintained a wide-eyed vigilant attitude in my three MIS classes during my MBA this past year. The problem is, we don’t just learn about how to make a computer work, we also learn about how a computer works in a business and how to network and use the infrastructure and system maintenance. “IT Governance” was a term that was constantly on our exams, and I thought, again wrongly… it must be completely irrelevant to me.
Well, it seems I have again been confronted with a problem involving information that Baylor’s MBA program tried to drill into my head over and over again. My computer that I spend ten hours a day on at least- is shot to hell. Of course, it’s not a cool dramatic burst-into-flames story, but it might as well be for the time that I have lost on productivity.
At the firm I have been working for all summer, my big girl job entails me spending copious amounts of time researching law, typing memos and basically spending my entire days and nights work on the computer. The damn thing. So instead of being a regular desktop like my un-secured laptop at home, there is an entire system I have to log onto every day that provides me with (I guess) security to work without any one hacking into my brilliant work product (right..?). Up until now, I have had no problems whatsoever, so I say “if it ain’t broke, why are you fixin’ it?” But last weekend, over the memorial holiday, it was announced that the firm would be switching system providers to make things more efficient *(emphasis intended).
This memorial day fiasco has caused the computer to log people out continuously, delete their personal files, and set back appointments on outlooks calendar by hours. This new “system provider” has efficiently set us back more than a week. I have been able to research some, and attend hearings and trials, but I have wasted probably about ten hours a week just calling the IT people to reboot my computer. If I have to talk to Ricardo from IT in Austin, Texas one more time, I might just reach through the phone and show him a piece of my mind.
And it’s not just ME complainin’ (although I have been a little of a squeaky wheel), all of the administrative assistants on my floor and the other three floors have been voicing their doubts over our new system. Today, as my computer works perfectly, I lean back and think that this seems exactly like a case reading in our MIS class: system switches, change happens, and employees are dissatisfied. Just like Dr. Kayworth said, the transition time in switching system providers is always a rough patch in a company’s computer scheme, but usually the IT people are trying to do their best to put a more efficient system in place. Even if the efficient system takes some inefficiency to get used to. So today, I will hold my head up, print out law articles to read in case my computer crashes again and be positive that the IT people know what they are doing and wait for the system to fully integrate into a functional business process.