A Lifetime of Special People

Thanks to two very important people in my life, you will never  - EVER - never hear me shout "Rammer Jammer - Yeller Hammer, Give 'em H----  AlabamER" with enthusiasm. My Uncle Alan and Aunt Sheila have played an extremely special role in my life for many reasons. Reasons having nothing to do with something as unimportant as football. However, despite that fact, every year when football season approaches and it's time to pull out my Auburn wardrobe, I usually say a little thank you to my Uncle for saving me from a life of wearing red, seeking as many garments as possible in Houndstooth, or the urge to glue toilet paper to a detergent box on a stick.

Alan and Sheila (my Uncle and Aunt) 1985ish


Uncle Alan (known as Buzzy to the rest of the family)



 My Aunt deserves her own separate thank you as well for all the things she sowed and/or crafted in orange and blue for us.   My mother seriously blames Uncle Alan (her brother) for brainwashing us (my brother and myself) over to the "dark side."  Really, it was because we thought he was definitely the coolest and we wanted to be cool like him.  Plus, his Auburn fanaticism was contagious. 


The Sports mentor in all his coolness - 1981


For almost a decade, a little more than a decade in my brother's case, Brian and I had Uncle Alan and Aunt Sheila to ourselves before the first of their two daughters, Leah arrived.   It's an awesome feeling when you have not only parents and grandparents, but an Aunt and Uncle to dote over you as well.  They have from the time I was born and still do to this day (those these days it's directed at Dax - as it should be).  I've always felt just as special to them as I did in the days before the "Floozies" (Leah and Tracey).





As a kid I was fond of my Uncle not only because he was cool but also because he was fun and genuinely loved being around us or playing with us.  In those days at the Swann family get togethers, you'd find me either sitting in his lap, leaning against him, on his shoulders or being tossed around - pure fun.  As an adult I'm fond of him because he's still cool, of course, but I've come to the realization that he is a total closet nerd - something he passed on straight to me and Brian.  My Uncle, brother and myself can carry on a conversation that no one in the family is interested in whatsoever.  (maybe except for the Floozies of course).



I said before that I share a special bond with my brother because of our unique shared sense of humor.  That same sense of humor came from my Uncle.  No matter how dry, pessimistic, blunt but utterly harmless some of my jokes are, he gets them.  Every time.  When my own parents even sometimes are left baffled by my comments.  My Uncle is always laughing under his breath because he knows exactly how I meant it and what or where I'm coming from.  If he doesn't understand it, he at least appreciates the personality behind it. I like to think so anyways.  ;o)



And My Aunt Sheila?  Some people's relationship with their aunts by marriage are seen as nothing more than a long time acquaintance.  There's not really a sense of love, loyalty, devotion or genuine concern.  They are seen as someone that may not always be family and they could care less if that were the case.  I feel the absolute opposite is the case with Aunt Sheila.  For one, she's been a part of my family longer than I have.   I DO have the same love, loyalty, devotion and genuine concern for her that I do for my Uncle Alan, my mother's brother.



Besides that she has a personality I absolutely could not live without knowing.  She's really something else.  There's something about her nature that rubs off on even the most prideful/stubborn of those who need help but will never admit it.  My Grandfather is one of those.  After he had his stroke/heart attack and needed to be fed by someone else, Mom and Uncle Alan had a hard time getting him to eat when he really needed it most.  Even myself who could usually talk him into doing almost anything, couldn't persuade him to eat.  But he'd do it for Aunt Sheila. 

Aunt Sheila pregnant with Leah


Something about her - her kindness or no nonsense (not really sure which) makes you want to instantly do as she says.  What ever the case, we've always been impressed with her ability to calm my Grandfather's obstinate nature and the wish to please her.  She's definitely respected by everyone in our family. My late Grandmother was really fond of her and shared a special relationship with her Daugther-in-law as well.



What I really enjoy about her is her quick wit.  My Aunt has a tongue as sharp as a knife when pushed to it.   She never disappoints when it comes time for a smart comeback or a good opinion.  She has a way of putting things in perspective and can really be humorous about it.  Guaranteed to lighten the mood of any bad situation.  It's a nice talent to have - or to witness, really. 



There are so many people I owe Special Birthday posts to and it's really hard to do them because though I love these people equally it's not as equally easy to verbalize what's so special to me about them.  That's why I combined Aunt Sheila and Uncle Alan's post.   Uncle Alan's Birthday was July 7th and Aunt Sheila's was August 12th.  So I got a bit out of order and of course I'm didn't wait until now to wish them a Happy Birthday.  I really didn't even wait until now to write this post to them as a gift.  Just took me this long to post it.

Ha ha.  


Uncle Alan and Aunt Sheila, I love you both so much and I pray that Dax will grow up knowing you as I did and experience the love you've always shown me and Brian.  It is truly a blessing!!!

Our Place

Clint and I so represent the bumpkin side of Alabama. If we want to go somewhere special to make wonderful memories as a family we don't have to board a plane and go somewhere romantically spectacular like Rome.  We just hop in the car and travel to McCalla. A place were we made a very important promise/a covenant made legal and of course, ahem, our honeymoon...

Brother Doug holding the Ring

May 27, 2006

Winter 2009

Before you go all thinking spending your honeymoon camping out at Tannehill is "WOW, that is SO... red," it's because my brother and his family at that time lived in Brazil and were only visiting for a very short time.  I didn't want to travel out of town because I only got to see my nieces and nephews once a year IF that often. So, we put it off until a later date.  Clint and I spent one night and the next morning celebrating marriage and then spent the rest of that week with my nieces and nephews.  I don't regret one second of that decision.

We have a lot of great memories there and the list keeps growing. Most of them are unmentionably funny.  Hilarious to only us.  A sort of "you'd had to been there."  Like the night of our wedding after everyone had gone home and we sat around a campfire celebrating the day with me drinking a bottle of  Seagram's Dry Cham-pag-ne (Tannehill convenient store's finest) sans the champagne glasses (basically, straight out of the bottle) and Clint eating smores while laughing at me once I'd gone full buzz.  I'm not one for drinking champagne, of course, but I was celebrating.


Surprisingly I was saved from the huge hangover headache.  However, while watching the Tannehill Memorial Weekend Civil War reenactment  (bahahaha, can we say "hick!").  I'd say redneck, but everyone knows I prefer to be called "country" instead.)   Every time they'd shoot off a canon I'd shriek with pain.  That is also hilarious to us.  When we pull out our so called "honeymoon" photographs, they are from a Civil War reenactment.

Reenactors

Our sweet memories are not all from our wedding of course.  We have many from that place!  It's just special to us in a way that it's hard to explain. 

May 27, 2006 Reception

So if we find ourselves getting into arguments over stupid stuff constantly or if the looks of disgust become a little too common, we go to everyone's  favorite grade school field trip spot. There's basically nothing there but old construction representing a long but not forgotten war/way of life and gorgeous scenery. Especially in Fall.

Winter 2009

It's not very big and we've seen everything there is to see (which is not very much) a million times BUT we never grow tired of it.



Like a few others, we carved our initials on the tree on one of the trails behind the creek the day after we got married.   CP/TP = 06.  This last time when Clint was tracing back over it, one of the initials got chipped - bummer - so he carved out a separate place.  We keep intending on putting Dax's name in it, but  - well one of these days we'll get to it.

October 2010 Riding the Train

Chicken Soup For The Silly Soul

Around midnight I awoke to a huge drop in temperature.  So, I got up to put warmer clothes on Dax (we got home late after watching the AU game at a friends house, so we just put him down in the shorts and sleeveless shirt he was wearing that day).  He also needed his diaper changed, so I was hoping to achieve all this without waking him up.  To my surprise, I actually succeeded.  Amazing considering all the commotion!

Commotion?  Right after I got his diaper changed and was getting ready to put his pants on, out of nowhere a loud noise rang out.  A long extremely loud whoopy cushion sounding fart.  Now, whether it came from Clint, Dax or [ahem] someone else the barking spider,  is beside the point.  I looked at Dax, hoping that didn't wake him up.  Still in a deep sleep, Dax laughed out loud and with eyes still shut gave this huge sly grin and then proceeded to make loud poot noises with his mouth.  He did this about 3 times - the whole time never opening his eyes.  Dax's reaction is what caused me to get so tickled I couldn't keep quite.  Me laughing out loud myself at this point didn't even wake him up.  Or Clint for that matter. 

Sorry, to take this blog to the toilet - literally.  ha ha.  But I had to share.  Hopefully you got as tickled as I did (or maybe it was a "you'd just had to have been there").

I've tried over and over to stop being so silly about gas humor and I always think I've started to succeed, right up until it happens again.  The unsuspecting passing of gas will get me every time.  Embarrassing as it may be, I'm starting to make peace with the fact that flatulence will always be hilarious to me.  I mean it's almost as if it's in my DNA.  Not cutting the cheese, cracking up over it.   My smart, sweet, pillar of the community and good Christian Grandmother Mildred would get hysterical over the walking poots.  My mother would have to spit her drink out from laughing if someone let one in a fancy restaurant and everyone heard it (I use that example because that did actually happen.  With the offender being my older brother when he was a baby).  After Dax laughing out loud in his sleep, I'm convinced it's in our humor DNA.

After listening to Rick n Bubba (who I never liked until recently) this morning, I don't feel so bad.  They had recorded footage of a city council meeting in which someone let a loud one right in the middle of a proposal.  It took them a while to proceed because no matter how hard the speaker tried to ignore it, she couldn't because everyone else was still trying to contain their laughter. 

A Late Goodbye To July

Since I'm way behind on posts, I'm going to skip my usual discourse and just leave you mostly with pictures from July.

I so envy all of you Mama-bloggers that are able to manage your time wisely enabling you to not only keep your blogs up to date, but keep them well written and interesting. Even with my excessive multitasking, I still can't seem to find the time - or the "right" time anyway.


Let's do this...

Dax playing hide n seek. He actually thinks I can't see him.




Any of you waste money on buying sunflowers from the grocery store?  Don't. All you have to do is till up fertile dirt, toss sunflower and zinnia seeds out and 70-90 days later: wallah! Easiest thing in the world to grow.

 


Some people prefer the couch, some have a favorite old recliner.  My kid likes to sit in a basket.

 


Early stages of OCD? He does this with his cars, alphabet letters on the fridge - anything



And he wears mittens in summer?




Isaiah and Dax (Isaiah is a tank) He does look stout.  But you wouldn't believe how heavy he actually is.  I'm barely strong enough to pick him up and can only hold him for a couple of seconds.  It's as if he's made of solid steel!  If he plays football...



His older brother Isaac. Isaac is our (Clint and myself) one and only Godson.



Isaiah is 4 and Dax was scared of him for the first year and a half of his life - now he's crazy about him.



Lulu and Ian.  He's the absolute happiest baby I've ever seen.  I'm keeping him while Isaiah has surgery on his teeth this week and I can't wait. 




Think Isaiah gets called firecracker often?  I can hardly quell the urge myself.







Eric (Isaac, Firecracker Isaiah and Ian's Pop) and Dax










Papa John and Ian take a snooze after the long boat ride.  Dax is in there somewhere.


 

My nephews, Owen and Caleb




Nieces and Nephews, Claire, Isaac, Owen, Caleb and Natalie Ellen.  Notice Dax's legs.  He's so tough on them.  Never fear, Paw Paw to the rescue with Mecurichrome (sp). It's saves everything.




When I cook, Dax circles my legs and leans on them like a cat begging for scraps.  So, I let him lick the pan of excess homemade spaghetti sauce.


 

Evan and Dax at the Play Place in Trussville for E's B-day.



Dax got to try out the same big wheel that we got for his Birthday early.  Good to know he was going to like it.  Of course his feet can't reach the peddles, but that doesn't stop him.