Family Reunion - Finally

The Thompsons are not known for their family reunions. We rarely all get together. We don't live near one another. We email now and then. My niece and nephews keep up a little bit on Facebook. But that's about it. We're just not close - and for the most part I think we're ok with that. It's the Thompson way.

We tried to have a reunion two years ago for Dad's 90th birthday. But Hurricane Ike completely messed that up and we never rescheduled it. While I was down during Spring Break, Betty (my sis-in-law) came up with the idea that we could have a 4th of July party out at the Bayou. And...it actually worked out! Except for Hurricane Alex which threatened, but ended up making landfall south of Brownsville. Bryan isn't sure if it's my fault or Sharon's fault that hurricanes seem to make themselves known when we're both going to be there. Or maybe it's Richard's. LOL

Anyway, following are just a few pictures from our 4th of July Family Reunion. It was a fun time and good to be together. Only two nephews were missing. That's pretty good for our family.

Kristy and Ryan

My nephew Matt, his wife Lori, their baby Calista (the newest member of the family), Rylee and my sister-in-law Betty

Rylee (Kristy's daughter) enjoying the battleaxe.

L-R: Richard, Chris, my brother Bryan, my brother-in-law Kichoon, my daddy Ralph

L-R: Bryan, Kichoon, Dad, my sister Sharon

Rylee and James - They share a name

This is what happens when you try to take a picture and someone who just can't stand to not be a part of something. Can you guess who this is?

There's a Lesson or Two Here Somewhere

We were on our way home from Texas City last week. We left really late that afternoon, so somewhere in the Conroe area, we decided to pull off for some dinner. There was a sign that said there was a Chili's off a certain exit and off we went. Then another sign said that Chili's was to the right. So we turned right. Crossed a railroad track and curved right again. That's when we saw this sign.

Seriously? Better not get lost down this road. You'll never get home again. Once we had u-turned anyway (we've never been much for following traffic laws, doncha know), Richard insisted on getting out of the car and taking a picture. At first I thought it was silly, but the more I've looked at this picture, I'm really glad he took it.

There are so many lessons here. The silliness of government at times - or at least bureaucracy. And I'm absolutely sure there are some gospel lessons in this picture. I haven't really sat and pondered them, but I know they're there. Is there really a point of no return? Where is that point? Or maybe Satan just wants you to think there's a point of no return - hence the sign. But you don't have to do what the sign says. You can u-turn anyway. Hmmm...this is going somewhere. I'm going to have to think on this some more. (Why do I have a feeling a talk or lesson is coming up in my future?)

Monday Musings

I'm better today. I've discovered over my life that I tend to want to write whenever I'm feeling down. It helps me think. It helps me vent. Mainly because there's no one in my life right now that I can really vent to just whenever I want/need to who doesn't try to fix what I'm venting about - or who isn't exactly the person I'm venting about. The problem with this is that one of these days, when my children or grandchildren go back and read my journals and/or blogs (do you think they'll still be around?), they're going to think I was nothing but a depressed, insecure harpy. I guess what I'm saying is that I need to write more on ordinary days.

We survived cub camp. John had a really great time. He likes being busy. He likes building things even though he can get frustrated and I'm no good at building things so I'm not much help. But he went the whole week without a single meltdown. That's a great thing. And he's acting so much more mature - except for right now when I hear him screaming at his video game. Figures. Maybe it's time to come read together.

Richard and James are off at scout camp. Technically, James is only 11 and "shouldn't" go until next year, but I think Richard secretly wanted to go and so - off they went. Off to Slippery Falls Ranch in Oklahoma. They had a difficult first night, but things seem to be getting better today.

I cleaned my living room today. I've gone back to Flylady and it's working. Hopefully I can get in a good routine this summer and I can keep it up during the school year. I say that every summer. Ya gotta have hope, though, doncha? My living room is clean, my bedroom is decluttered (my side anyway) and my kitchen is clean - except for the floor. I didn't mop today. Maybe tomorrow.

Chris is off with the missionaries today. Is he helping to teach a lesson? Is he driving them around to different lessons and activities? Is he visiting families with them? No. It's p-day. He took them to the library to send email. It's Elder Sevy's birthday today. After email, they're headed over to the stake center for a rousing game of Nerf Wars. Imagine. A whole district's worth of elders running around the stake center (but staying out of the chapel, of course) shooting at each other with Nerf guns. Chris's even has a laser site. And he took a Nerf sword as well. He's a boy scout - be prepared.

The problem with him doing this is that he has the car and Richard has the other one, so I'm stuck at home. Darn. Guess I'll have to read a book or something. :-) See? I can blog about happy things.

Old Insecurities Never Really Go Away

There are times when, even at age 44, the insecurity of my teen years rears its ugly head. When I think about it honestly, I realize I've always been insecure. I've covered it well. I had a few friends in elementary school, a few in middle school, and finally a rather close-knit few in high school. But try as I might, I could never really get in with those I wanted to be in with. And that hurt. I was never the cool one. Never the popular one. Never the pretty one. So...I compensated.

As a child, I compensated with laughter and jokes in public and lots of singing, dancing and piano playing for publicly and privately. I expected that my musical talent would somehow propel me into the limelight I craved so badly.

As a teenager, I compensated in much the same ways, but something new reared its ugly head - BOYS! Uh-oh. The ones I really, really liked only liked me for my cheat notes, test answers and any "availability" I might have. By high school, I had found my niche mostly - in places like choir, Thespians and newspaper/yearbook.

But still...those old insecurities stayed with me. All through college - I had a small group of friends, but I was never part of a sorority (truly didn't want to be, but that can limit who your "friends" are) or part of student government or anything like that. I had choir friends, dorm friends.

I've always felt like any friendship I have has been something that *I* have to take the lead in. If I don't call or write or email or text or whatever, my friends certainly won't call me. If I don't make the effort, no one is going to make the effort to know me or contact me or care about me.

There can often be a vast difference between truth and feelings, can't there? In my heart, I know that my current friends would move Heaven and earth to help me if I really needed something. But the insecure part of me wonders, would they really? What if they had a dinner date with their cooler friends? What if they had to choose between lunch with me or working on their "cooler" church calling?

It sounds really stupid, doesn't it? Maybe that's why I'm writing it down and putting this out there. Maybe I'm just looking for people to comment and tell me how sweet and funny and cool I am. But that would be just like those yearbook comments, wouldn't it? "You're a great friend. I'm glad I got to know you this year. Stay sweet and funny." Yeah, yeah. Whatever.

I don't know why this is bothering me these days. I just had the best. day. in. a. long. time yesterday with my "old" friend Sandy. We hadn't seen each other for eight years, but it was just like we'd never been apart. I love friends like that. So see, Stacy? You do have them.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just depressed because I had to pay bills today and I can't really afford to go to Utah and I really wanted to. Yeah, that's probably it. Or not.

The Week From...Well...You Know

I've been sick all week. Ugh. I absolutely hate being sick. I should've stayed home from school, but it's just as much work to prepare for a sub as it is to put in a movie and sit there myself.

This started at 2am Tuesday morning - stomach bug. 'Nuff said. 24 hours. I feel like I still haven't fully recovered. By mid-morning on Tuesday, my voice started going out. I was achy but no fever. No energy. Rescheduled my chiropractor appointment and took myself home that afternoon.

Wednesday - absolutely no voice. Nothing. It's been years since I've had laryngitis that bad. But at least the tummy bug was over. Still achy. Still no fever. Still no energy. But had to go to a Court of Honor for Chris. So I went and couldn't speak.

Thursday - voice was coming back. Still somewhat achy. Still no energy. But...still had to go to the chiropractor, take John to his counseling appointment. Mom's work is never done.

By Friday I knew what I had to do. I had to go to bed. And that's what I did. I assigned the boys some Friday afternoon chores so the house wouldn't look quite so atrocious when Richard came home. I got in my pj's and took to my bed. I stayed there all Friday night and all day Saturday. And my boys were great. They did everything I had put on their lists. And they did it without complaining. (Really!)

Richard came home Friday evening. We had already talked about what was to transpire this weekend. I was staying in bed. He was great about it. He cleaned the kitchen, took the boys to a movie on Saturday while I napped.

By Sunday, I was feeling better, but still not great. I considered not going to church, but then remembered it was the Seminary program and I wanted to be there for that. Well, that was inspired because Chris gave an absolutely fantastic talk - and so did the other youth. (That should probably be another blog post.) It was also inspired because my very in-tune friend asked me if I thought I needed a blessing. Uh...YEAH! There's an idea. (Why do we not take advantage of priesthood blessings like we should? Afraid of overuse maybe? I don't know.)

So I came home after sacrament and put my feet up again. Brother Mac came by later and he and Richard gave me a wonderful blessing. I felt better almost immediately. Maybe my "very in-tune friend" was right. Much of my feelings this week - the not-being-able-to-fight-this-off-well is due to the stress of the end of the year.

We still have 8 days of school. E.I.G.H.T. Everyone else in the known universe gets out this Friday. We get out next Thursday. I've given up cleaning. I've given up cooking. As long as the boys have clothes on their bodies and some type of food in their bellies, I'm good. I'm not even sure if I care if they're clean. And so my blessing was very much needed and told me exactly what I needed to hear.

My back still hurts, my head still hurts, my neck still hurts and I'm still coughing. (Yeah, I'll be chatting with my chiropractor about the first three things.) But I *feel* better. I know that I can make it now. It's going to be a good eight days. I've been promised that and I believe it.

A Good Weekend

It's going to be a good weekend. It's been a pretty good and relaxing Saturday. I still have to put together my sharing time for tomorrow. But we've all tried to just hang out and relax today.

We're trying to recover from a really busy week. Chris had his awards ceremony this week. He's in the top ten in his class again. James is just trying to get through the year. We've had so much trouble with his teacher this year. He believe that she doesn't like him and I'm beginning to believe it too. She doesn't communicate, she doesn't pay attention to what's going on in class and she doesn't enter her grades so that we can keep up with what he's missing. She also nails him for "missing" assignments that were assigned while he was in LEAP. We're talking with his LEAP teacher about that. It's just so wrong. John is in counseling again. He really enjoys going and I hope we can help him better this time.

Richard didn't come home this weekend. He has final exams next week and so he will spend the weekend making up multiple tests. Boo.

I feel like I want to write, but I feel rather disjointed in my writings. I especially want to write about James's experience this year, but I've started and deleted two posts on the subject. I just can't seem to get it all down the way I want to without feeling like I'm bouncing from point to point to point to point with no real map between them. Maybe I need to put it down in a timeline form or something. Or look back over my blog and see if I've written about it before.

See? There I go again. I guess I'm still just too angry about it to put it into written words properly.

Back to the positives: Chris taught John how to mow the back yard. I made pancakes and bacon for breakfast this morning. I've gotten some laundry done. And I've rested. And that's been the best part of the day.

Hey...since I made breakfast, doesn't that mean I don't have to make dinner?

Blessings from Trials

After my very whiny post of yesterday, I got to thinking about the blessings. There were blessings in those trials of the last week.


There were plenty of people who were willing and able to help us throughout the week. Kathy, Suzanne, Allen, Sabrina and Griff are just a few. I mean really...we could've walked to and from school, but ew! And I couldn't have walked to Chearon (not Chevron) to pick up the car. Even the tow truck driver was friendly and our insurance people called the tow people for me.

But...the biggest blessing of all is that the brakes didn't fail until *after* it was parked in the driveway. Not while I was on my way to school with the boys and most especially not while Chris was driving to or from Target Monday night.

It's so easy to get bogged down in the truly petty problems of the day. Yes, I had to spend $400 to fix the brakes on the car. But...I had $400 set aside for vacation this summer. Somehow or other we'll manage the rest. The blessings will come - and many have already. I just need to remember to focus on the blessings and the lessons - not just the problems.

That's mortality.