Top 100 Days

February 3, 2003 – Brainy Bird was born.  I remember the first thing that I ever said to him, “Sweet baby, I hope you grow up and have a child of your own someday.  Only then will you know how much I love you.”  My relationship with my mother really changed when Brainy Bird came into this world.  The two of them were the best of friends!

March 27, 2008 – Little Chirp was born.  The day was perfect.  Unlike when we had his brother, there was no worry, complications or stress.  I simply had a perfect little baby boy in my arms.  He was one hungry little bird 🙂

April 21, 2012 – Day 1 of the MS150.  AWESOME DAY!!!!

October 9, 2010 – BB & Gameboy’s Wedding.  The wedding was beautiful, the reception was a blast.  As Mr. Late for Everything would say, “Fun was had by all.”

The Day the World was Supposed to End – Spent Armageddon in New Orleans with NOLA Girl.  We kicked off the night with a fabulous dinner.  I had my first lamb.  As a local she usually steers clear of Bourbon Street, but it was too hard to resist with the predicted end of the world.  All the crazies were out.  I wore my highest black heels, and she spent the night a little nervous about every guy that glanced my way.  The best part of the night was sitting at her favorite dive bar telling stories of when I was a kid.  She is about five years older, and remembers all sorts of fun family factoids that I was too young to understand back in the day.

Christmas 2008 – It was the first time in a decade that the whole family was together.  NOLA Girl flew in from China to be there.  Mom spent the entire next week telling everyone that called about her niece flying all the way from China.  I am not sure how, but Mom managed to cook up a feast for everyone that day.  The food was awesome, and it made mom feel so good to see everyone enjoying it.  We played our usual games with gift cards as prizes.  A major highlight was Brainy Bird “robbing” (more like relieving) the Colonel of his McDonald’s gift card.  When you are four it doesn’t get any better than chicken nuggets and a toy from Mickey D’s.  I love looking at the pictures from this day.  Everyone was so happy.

Spring Break 1998 – The first time that I ever held Princess W.  It was the first time that I had ever held a baby.  She was about nine weeks old, and she was such a beautiful little girl.  This week would later alter my life plans in a good way.

Summer 1996 – Aggieland Bound – The day that Banana and I moved into our apartment in College Station.

Fall 1994 – High School Kid Kicks Collegiate Ass – The day in my college sophomore political science class when we got our term papers back.  I was under 18, and I was supposed to still be in high school, instead I was at SWT.  I worked full time as a “computer person” at a manufacturing place, and I had a terrible time trying to fit in with jobless sorority girls vs. the much older working commuters.  Shortly after the paper was assigned, a guy probably around 25 or so, who was critical of everything, especially me, the under age girl in a sophomore class asked me what book I was going to write my paper about. (He felt that I lacked life experience and therefore could not have an opinion about anything political).  There was a list of 200 or so books that we could write our papers on.  I told him that I was going to do mine on To Kill a Mockingbird.  He actually patted me on the head and laughed at my unsophisticated book choice.  He muttered something about it being a high school read.  I thought to myself, well I am supposed to be in high school right now.  The assignment was to write a paper, not to read a big book.  I was sure my paper would be good.  The papers were graded on a curve.  There would be just 10 A’s in the class of 200+ kids.  I wanted one of those A’s.  I wanted it bad.  Finally, the day came when the papers were returned.  The professor began his short presentation of the A papers.  He said, “One paper stood out to the point that I could not find 9 others to stand next to it.  There will be one A, and 9 more B’s than planned”  My heart sank.  I so wanted one of those A’s.  Then he called MY name and asked me to come and get my standalone “A-paper”.  It was a shorter walk to the professors podium if I went out the left side of the aisle, but my nemesis was on the other side, and I owed the boy a pat on the head as I walked by.

May 2002 – The day that the doctor told me that I was pregnant with Brainy Bird 🙂  I remember we wondered if he would be born on Super Bowl Sunday.  The little bird missed Super Bowl 2003 by being more than two weeks late.

August 9, 2003 – We had a surprise birthday party for my sister.  Brainy Bird was just six months old, and he loved all the people.  The day was a big deal to my dad.  It was a couple of weeks before her birthday, but he insisted we have the party for her then as he had the weekend off.  Dad could not put Brainy Bird, his first grandson down, and he made no apology to those that wanted to hold him too.  I am glad he did not waste a minute of that day.

March 25, 2008 – Day with Mom in Kemah.  A couple of days before Little Chirp was born, I took the last few days off from work, and Mom and I drove down to Kemah.  It was a Tuesday, and it was cool outside.  There was no crowd, which was nice.  It was as if the world around us stopped and it was just the two of us, and Little Chirp kicking away in my tummy.  We went to the Flying Dutchman for lunch.  Mom wanted go there again after the night many years ago where we had gone their with their best friends.  I laughed at Mom’s delight when we walked in and she asked if she could possibly get a table by the water and the hostess said, “Most definitely!”  We walked in further to find that we were the only customers.  The waitress gave mom lots of special attention.  She actually put together a little a la carte plate for mom.  I had the cash in my pocket to buy mom one of everything on the menu, and I gladly would have, but Mom never wanted to be a burden, and she hated to be wasteful.  This special little plate made mom very happy, and it saved her from ordering all of the different things that she really wanted.  We talked about lots of things that day.  We laughed, we cried.  There was  something very calming and soothing about the cool gray skies casting over the water that day while we enjoyed Mom’s special lunch.  This was one of those days that you get down on your knees and thank the Lord for before you go to bed at night.

Spring 1993 – The Cheeseball Prank 2 of 4 – I can’t remember what all we did the day that Red, Heather 1, my sister and I stole the Big, Big Cheese banner from Little Ceasar’s Pizza to put on Cheeseball’s car.  Cheeseball had broken Red’s heart, and bragged about his conquest to our male friends.  You didn’t mess with one of us, and he learned the hard way.  The whole ordeal was ridiculous.  The banner stretched all the way across the counter.  It was Heather 1 and Sis’ job to grab the sign, while Red distracted the employees by ordering a lot of pizza.  It was my job to drive the getaway car, so I just sat in the car.  My sister and Heather 1 were too scared to do anything.  Thirty minutes must have gone by with them all just standing in the store.  Finally, I went inside, and I grabbed one end of the sign, and our group leader (Heather 1) took the cue to grab the other side.  We ran out of the store with the sign, and were ready to take off when we realized that Red and Sis were still standing inside totally unaware that we had grabbed the sign.  How did they not notice us running out with the seven foot banner?  It would have been exciting if we had made a mad getaway.  Instead once Red realized we had the sign, she negotiated with the manager to let us have it.  Apparently, the Big, Big Cheese campaign was nearing the end and the banner was headed for the trash.  That Monday at school, our English teacher caught us putting it all Cheeseball’s car.  I thought that we were all headed for detention, instead she showed us how to make the sign difficult to get off.

February 24, 2007 – My 30th Birthday Party – This was supposed to be a surprise it took about 24 hours for Brainy Bird to spill the news.  The party was the best of the many parties we threw at our place on Memorial Blossom.  I had lunch that afternoon with my Mom and BB, who flew in from Ohio. We got home to find that the B’s dad had everything set up.  The evening began with a family event.  All of my awesome neighbors and all of my friends were there.  The kids ran wild and ruled the hot tub.  The food was delicious.  My Godson made my favorite birthday cake.  Funny, it reminded me of the cake his mother, Sunshine had made me for my 18th birthday, minus the cake toppings.  Then the sun set, and Beautiful Bride packed all the kids into her suburban and left us adults behind.  We played drunk Jenga, and Sunshine had made me a pinata stuffed with liquor bottles and this time around, the cake toppings were in the pinata.  Someone had a “clear minded” idea that the night could not be over until all the little bottles of alcohol from the pinata were finished.  We had so much fun.

December 2011 – Cozumel – Shore Excursion with Brainy Bird – The B’s and I took an eight day cruise to Mexico.  Brainy Bird and I left Little Chirp with Camp Carnival, and we went on the Amazing Race shore excursion in Cozumel.  For about two hours, we solved puzzles and we ran about the streets of Cozumel.  Our little team was out manned, but we held our own.  There were 17 teams, and we finished fourth.  We should have been third; a team that was ahead of us cheated.  All the other teams had at least two adults.  It was just us.  Brainy Bird hates to run.  He told me later that he just ran really fast because it was the day of Mommy, and he wanted me to be happy.  I was very happy 🙂

December 2011 – The Beach with Little Chirp – The B’s and I took an eight day cruise to Mexico.  Brainy Bird stayed on the boat at Camp Carnival, and Little Chirp and I headed for the beach.  The sky was beautiful.  The sun was shining, but there were large gray clouds looming in the sky.  It never ligthened, thundered or rain, but the clouds made for a beautiful sky, and they provided us with a nice shade.   We spent the day running up and down the beach.  The clouds extended the time that we could be out there without worrying about sun exposure.  People were coming up to me, and telling me what beautiful, happy little boy I had.  Little Chirp’s blonde hair glowed in the sun light.  He amused himself by taking pictures with a water proof disposable camera.  I should probably spend the eight dollars to have the film developed just to see what is on it.  Late in the afternoon, Little Chirp finally admitted he was hungry.  The little bird loves to eat, but he loved the beach more.  We sat down at a table there on the beech in Mexico next to the cabana bar.  The wait staff was very attenative, and before I knew it Little Chirp was chatting it up with a little girl his age.  Her parents worked there on the island.  Her Mom worked in the gift shop, and her dad was working at the bar.  Little Chirp was so sweet to her.  He shared his lunch with her, and then the three of us spent the rest of the day running around the beach together.

Salado, Texas – Lunch with Aunt Carol – I can’t remember exactly when it was.  I was out of college, but still very green in life.  My beautiful Aunt Carol had Lou Gehrig’s disease.  It was one of the first periods in my life when I began to think about how valuable time with family is.  Us ladies all packed into a mini van and we drove to Salado, Texas just to have lunch.  I remember there was a traffic jam, and we worried we would be late for our reservation.  That seems funny now.  We had a wonderful lunch at the famous Salado Inn.

February 26, 2012 – Princess Marathon – Long story how we got there, but 3DayOldMilk and I found ourselves at Disney World when the clock turned to 5 AM.  We were there to participate in the Princess Marathon.  I want it noted on the record that he invited me to this event; it was the last place on Earth I wanted to be.  It was cool outside, and there was the painful moment of removing our jackets and checking our bags.  We parted ways, he was running with someone else, and they were in a further back corral than I was.  I nearly got myself disqualified.  I think that would have been nice actually.  I refused to go to my assigned corral, because according to my past race times, I belonged in the first corral.  After a bit of exchange with an overzealous Disney employee, I got into my rightful starting place.  She assured me that I would be disqualified.  We waited at the start line for a long time.  People gave terrible speeches.  The worst of them was the Fairy God Mother (really a woman dressed as a Fairly God Mother speaking in a high pitched voice that made me want to throw something at her).  Finally the gun went off.  I had one of my strongest runs ever.  I loved running through the Magic Kingdom.  I really wanted to finish under 2 hours, which would be my best half marathon time ever.  I finished in 1:58:40.  Everything about the day from the time that the race gun went off until the time I went sleep that night was perfect!

December 2010 The “Dream Skillet” Christmas – My sister, her man, my brother and the the two B’s and I were celebrating Christmas.  The day started with yummy breakfast tacos and homemade salsas.   The boys were really excited about opening their Christmas presents, so that was next on the agenda.  Brainy Bird had begged for an Ipod Touch.  I had in fact gotten him an Ipad.  An Ipad at age eight is the gift of the century.  I wrapped the Ipad up in a gag gift box.  According to the gag box, inside was a dream skillet.  It was a skillet attached to an alarm clock.  Supposedly, you could put your eggs, bacon and little sausages on the skillet the night before, and then when the alarm clock goes off in the morning, the food would begin to cook.  It was a ridiculous notion.  I had not told anyone about my little joke.  The moment was classic.  Brainy Bird was too sweet and polite to do anything other than seem to appreciate the gift.  My sister, her man, and my brother bought into the gag, hook, line and sinker.  Sis couldn’t pull herself together she was laughing so hard.  I acted as if I could not understand why everyone thought it was anything other than the perfect gift.  My brother, the engineer of the group, began to analyze the situation, wouldn’t you burn yourself trying to hit the snooze button? He had asked.  My sister just had to have the dream skillet for herself to show her friends, she offered Brainy Bird $200 dollars for it.  Brainy Bird’s shy response was, “How much does an Ipod touch cost?”  Finally, my brother suggested that we open the box and try it out.  To everyone’s surprise there was a new Ipad inside.

July 29, 2011 – Nightmare House SOLD, Perfect Home Purchased – I lived in what I guess would suffice as a mansion.  The house from hell had two dishwashers, two laundry rooms, two guest rooms, two game rooms, a bar, a wine grotto and even a secret room.  Nothing about the house made me happy.  It felt cold.  I hated that I could not hear the boys when they were upstairs.  Oddly, that was the biggest thing.  They just felt so far away.  I was out washing my car one day, and I called Princess Mommy/Engineer Smart Chic, and I told her I wanted to move.  Go figure, the beautiful mom with an engineering degree does realstate on the side, and she offered to list my house.  The horror house was an impossible sell in a down economy out in the middle of no-where in a neighborhood, which is now doing great, but at the time had a bit of an uncertain future.  I would not let myself imagine the house being sold.  I wanted it to happen to badly; I did not want the heartache of it not happening.  The day the offer came in, I walked over to Mommy Bear’s desk and did a little happy dance.  Then the fun part came.  I got to choose where I wanted to live.  I got to pick out my own home.  My realtor (Princess Mommy/engineer) and I went house hunting.  I had decided I wanted to move back by Sunshine and my Godson.  We looked at over sixty houses.  She never tried to pressure me into picking one.  She was content with looking at houses until I found the one that I wanted.  She made me spreadsheets of the houses that I liked, comparing the different features.  She was completely committed to finding me the right house.  Finally, we walked into the house that was meant for me.  We were there for a few minutes, and I was talking to the lady showing us the house (it was a new build and the sales rep for David Weekly was showing us the house), and I said, “This is the house I want!”  My realtor did a double take and mutter, “What?”  (After all the looking, I had made such a quick decision)  Then she looked around, and saw what I saw.  It was the house we had been looking for, and she knew it too.  She knew that there was one thing missing.  All my favorite houses so far had custom paint, different rooms with different colors.  Except for the media room, this house was all the neutral same color paint.  She jumped right in, and informed David Weekly that they would be painting the dining area, my study, my room and both of the B’s rooms the color of my choosing.  At first, they said no, but a week later, I was picking out my paint colors.  I was thrilled the day I walked in the house and saw the house painted.  Then the waiting began.  I could not get my little dream house if my other house did not close…would everything get done correctly to close on my new house…I fired my movers that packed my stuff into my pods, how am I going to unload all my stuff???  We were closing on both houses the same day, what could possibly go wrong, if it goes right who is moving my furniture?  About a week before, I decided to just not worry.  Good decision.  By 9 AM on this awesome day, I was closed on the house from hell.  I went to target to buy the B’s house warming gifts.  As I was walking out of Target, my maid called to ask if I would hire here at my new house (I had told her that I was moving away).  I said that I would call her as soon as I had my furniture moved in.  She asked if I needed help moving….SERIOUSLY?  She promised that her husband and friends would be there at four to move my stuff.  I left Target and met my favorite realtor/Princess Mommy/Engineer smart chic for lunch.  I secretly like the Landry’s there in the Woodlands.  It was a great lunch.  I had a bit of a buzz afterwards.  It was not long after that, I was signing the paperwork on my new place.  I drove straight to my new place to find my maid’s husband and his crew waiting for me to move my furniture in from the pod.  These gentlemen worked their tails off.  I was moved in by end of day.  This day had a recipe of disaster, and it turned out perfectly!!!!!

Summer 2010 – Fredricksburg with Friends – The day wasn’t planned.  My brother and I went to visit my our sister, and my brother called Banana to see what she was doing.  We lived in Houston and she lives in San Antonio, near New Braunfels where my sister lives.  The day was perfect, so I am going to assume that we ate lunch at my Sister’s restaurant that day.  I love Adobe Verde in Gruene 🙂  That afternoon, we met up with Banana, and we decided to drive to Fredricksburg.  My sis never takes off from work, and she decided to come along.  I needed her that day, and she knew it.  My brother, Sis, Banana, Jokester and a good friend of the Jokester’s and I all drove to Fredricksburg on a whim that day.  We did some wine tastings, but then decided we really wanted to sit down and talk together.  We found a great winery with an little courtyard outside.  The guys got some bottles of wine and the girls went to a little grocery and got some snacks.  We sat out there for a couple of hours and just hung out.  Nothing was off limits.  It was a great combination of people I have known forever, and people that I had just met.  We were all single and we talked laughed about all the chaos of being single in our 30’s and the fun too.  Being the only newly single person in the bunch, surrounded by true friends, the day gave me a since that I was not alone.

Fall 2008 – Vacation of a Lifetime – We knew that Mom wasn’t going to be with use much longer.  We took Brainy Bird out of kindergarten, and went on a seven day cruise.  I remembered being worried about being gone from work, and my boss shaking his head and saying that there are more important things in life than data and reports.  I think he had a better grasp of the situation than I did.  Mom would die about six months later.  Brainy Bird’s kindergarten teacher, said not to send a note, that she would handle his absence.  We all went on a cruise out of Galveston.  The best day of the cruise, was the day that we got off the boat in Cozumel, and Mom said she was tired, and just wanted to go back to the boat.  Brainy Bird wanted to go back with his best friend.  They went back to the ship, and Brainy Bird’s Dad and I spent the day on the island.  We got back to find out that Brainy Bird and his Oma had a special day just hanging out together in their little ship cabin that they shared.  The ordered room service and some movies and they played cards.  My mom talked all about it at dinner.  I am really glad that they had such a special day togehter.

May 1999 – The day that Grape Ape got his acceptance letter to A&M’s Vet school.  He was always the life of every party, and everyone’s go to guy through out school for advice on just about everything.  Grape Ape is one of the most intelligent people that I have ever met.  He was normally very laid back because school came so easy to him, and he never minded working through school.  Towards the end of his last semester, he was worried about what he would do if he did not get accepted.  Everyone was so excited when the good news came that he had gotten in.  We threw an instant party with a keg and everything that night.  It was a fun night.  Grape Ape, Coast Gaurd Guy, Banana, and I were sitting around the coffee table with a few others trying to bounce a quarter into a shot glass when we heard what we initially thought was a fire alarm.  Then I realized that it was my alarm clock.  It was the next day, and I had a 7 AM running class.  The day that followed the day of Grape Ape’s celebration did not make the top 100 list.

Spring Break 198? – Trip to Astroworld with Sis – Mom had some kind of meeting in Houston, and we tagged along.  She left us at the hotel for her day long user group meeting.  We were bored.  Before lunch time, Mom came back to the room, and said that she heard Astroworld was open for Spring Break.  Back then, it was awesome place.  She dropped my sister and I off and headed back to her meeting.  We such a great day riding the rides and playing games.  By today’s standards we were too young to be there by ourselves.  We won a big white panda bear, and we named him lucky.  Our big win was just before it was time to meet Mom at the exit, so we did not have to lug him around all day.  It has been more than two decades, and I still remember my sis giving me a hung and saying that she was really glad she had a sister.  I still think about that day; I am really glad I have her as my sister.

August 26, 2013 – Little Chirp’s 1st Day of Kindergarten – Little Chirp wanted nothing to do with kindergarten.  He has never liked “school”.  All summer he scoffed at the mention of starting kindergarten.  By the end of the summer he admitted that his reservations were based on two things – 1) That kindergarten would be too hard.  2) That he loves his pre-k teacher, Ms Keasha, and he simply did not want to move on from preschool.  I spent the summer worried that Little Chirp would hate going to school.  Then it was meet the teacher day, the Friday before school was to start.  I practically dragged Little Chirp up to the school.  The only thing that he liked about it on the way there was that we could walk there.  We went into the classroom to find that he was seated next to one of his best little friends from pre-k, and apprehension began to transform into anticipation.  He liked his name on his desk, and all of the cool toys and charts in the classroom.  From there, Brainy Bird took us on a tour of the elementary school that was his own school just a few months ago.  The library, PE teacher, art teacher, and music teachers all greeted us with a  great deal of excitement.    They were excited to get Brainy Bird’s little brother.  When our tour was over, Little Chirp asks if we could see his classroom one more time, and I knew that he was starting to get excited about kindergarten.  By Monday, he could hardly wait to put on his new red Converse shoes and trot off to his new school.  I took more than a dozen pictures of his walk to school, and I waited the whole day to pick him up and hear all about it.  When we got into the car, Little Chirp had one word to describe kindergarten – AWESOME.  Being Little Chirp’s Mom is one of my greatest blessings in life.

Many more awesome days to come…