The Snow is Falling The Snow is Falling!

For Pete's sake...just MENTION the word "Snow" in the south and people go crazy (or as Massey says "cray-cray.")
Granted just this past week I had to turn the A/C back on in our house and now I am sitting in flannels with my tights from work still on underneath with a pair of tube socks and my bedroom shoes. That's okay, in fifteen minutes a hot flash will hit and I will be peeling off the layers just as quickly as I put them on. Just call me a "Flashy Mom."
I went into work at ten this morning in my usual uniform...skirt, black tights and work shirt.  I came out of work at nine tonight and the minute I opened the back door of the restaurant and saw how far away my car looked , it felt like I was wearing Daisy Dukes and flip flops.  God turned the heat off and forgot to warn (or warm) me.

It's all  the buzz around here "The snow is coming the snow is coming!" Ask someone that lives in North Dakota...they would consider this a balmy breezy day!

So in anticipation of no accumulation but a slight wintry mix..us southerners have raped the store shelves of milk, bread , Red Man and Pabst Blue Ribbon.

I myself stocked up on what I consider the essentials...Tomato soup and Velveeta cheese to make grilled cheese sammiches.

It's not like an ice storm is headed our way... it's more like a break from the heat is headed our way. The power bill absolutely killed us this summer...obviously our A/C unit runs on 14K gold .

 We are dressing in layers and throwing an extra blanket on the bed if we can't get one of the pups to sleep on our feet.

When you live in the deep south you live in a totally different world. There seems to be a low tolerance for cold weather, Liberals and homosexuality. Thank the Lord I only hate cold weather.

Watch it snow a foot and make me look even MORE stupid...at least I have two pups and four cans of tomato soup...that should keep a hot flashing  ole woman good for now!

Til next  time...Cold Cotton!

A Most "IN-JOY"able Day

The sweetest bunch of Drama Queens you'll ever meet...The ECHS Guard. They can exasperate you to no end but pull it together when it counts and make it worth every tear...They are an awesome bunch of teens. The pic to the left is them saying The Lord's Prayer before a performance. I absolutely LOVE this picture!


I spent a lot of time with them at band camp this summer and made a lot of new friends..and a lot of those new friends have been so wonderful to Massey, which makes them "Wonderful" to me!




I'm finally beginning to feel like I fit in. I miss a lot of things because of work, but have spent more time this year with the Guard than ever before...and have thoroughly
"In-Joyed" every second.



The name of their show this season is "In-Joy." It's about when life was simpler and sweeter. The music is Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" and it is one awesome show.

Today was Atlanta Regional...a huge competition at a high school in a neighboring county.

I worked the past fourteen days with only one day off so I could spend the day helping with the props at Regional.

Their tarp is painted like a Monet painting...at least that's what it resembles to me and is beautifully done.

We have less than three minutes to assemble and place four huge swing sets made of two by fours, braces and huge steel pins and set up five sliding boards after unrolling the tarp and clear the floor to keep from getting penalized.

I was very nervous about helping...the other parents (and two teens) have been practicing for weeks setting it all up and taking it all down while timing the entire process.

This morning was the first time I have even touched one of the swing sets or seen how they were assembled.

I had to have Massey at the school by 6:30 this morning and came back home to shower and get back there before 8:00.

When I went into the gym the guys were rebuilding one of the swings that had broken apart during a run through (while Massey and another girl were swinging on it.)

Drama...always a factor!

They threw up the fixed swing in no time and were painting it as the Guard loaded the bus to head to Regional.

I was nervous for the Guards performance but more nervous about stepping in as Props help having never done it before.

The guy who built the swings and sliding boards walked me through how they went up, how to put the pins in and where to place them on the tarp...by this time I had thrown up a little bit in my mouth twice and was sweating like Mel Gibson at the Apollo.

The swings are bulky and the slides are heavy...and I had never touched one of them until we loaded them in the trailer, much less tried to assemble them in under 3 minutes in front of a gym full of people that thought I knew what I was doing and were most likely looking at the ninety pound weakling trying to carry a ninety pound swing across a gym floor and set it up properly so that one of our kid's wouldn't get maimed or the entire thing collapse (my biggest worry.)

GO TIME!!

I just listened to them and moved left when they said left and moved right when they said right...Or did they mean I was right about moving left?

My heart was pumping full volume and I was shaking when I sat down to watch them perform.

Oops...six minutes later we had to move the "Play ground" off the tarp as quickly as we moved it on.

By this point I was a total nervous wreck. I think I like the competitions better that I go to when I scream into the parking lot on two wheels with one minute to go...at least I get to sit down and watch and can get my heart rate back to normal while in a sitting position knowing I don't have to get up again unless I want to.

Not the case today! After prelims we of course :) made finals... and headed back to ECHS for lunch and more practice.

You know you are tired when you can fall asleep on a hard plastic bleacher in a high school gym, and I did just that while they practiced....I've been informed pictures were taken of me sawing logs but it was the best thirty minute nap I have had in a while.

Woke up somewhat refreshed and we headed back for Finals.

When we got there I was all "Are we doing it the same way, do I carry out the same swing, does it face this way or that and who's gonna tell me when to go?"

Before we left the prop room they came up and handed me two steel pins to go in either side of the swing set.

I began to panic again and said "I don't think I was a pin-pusher-in er" this morning, who should I give these to?

They informed me that I indeed WAS a "Pin-pusher-in er" that morning and was obviously expected to do it again.

More bile rose in my throat, somehow getting past the pounding in my teeny weeny chest .

No time to panic..."WE'RE ON...Let's move!"

I scrambled under the set and weaved and snaked ...I worked that swing set around the poles and somehow got it into place with three other people dragging my 90 some odd pounds quickly through the process.

I ran back to the bleachers to see those kids give a performance that almost took what little breath I had left away!

They had huge smiles on their faces and in Guard speak "HIT IT." The crowd loved it and my heart melted to hear the response the show got.

No time to dawdle...it was time to run out on the tarp and carry off what seemed like a "Home Edition Extreme Makeover" off the floor in two minutes.

After we loaded the props back on the trailer I went back in to sit with Massey's best friend and her Mom. No less than four people stopped me to comment on our show.

I went to concessions to get a coke and three more people spoke to me about the extravagance and showmanship of our Guards show.

I wanted to say "I was the skinny one dry heaving beside the swing set on the far left."

It was great to finally feel like "One of the Guard."

I have bruises on both my hands and my legs got beaten to death when I "Snaked" the wrong way coming off the tarp...but I DID IT!

No penalties for taking too long setting up or taking down and hands down we were a "Crowd Favorite."

I worked fourteen days to "In-Joy" one day with some of the most amazing people I have ever been blessed to know.

It ended up to be fun...we had a million laughs and saw our kids give a priceless performance.

Life should always be this good.

At least today I started to earn my wings, spent the day with my daughter and learned what a "Pin- pusher- in er" is... It's ME when I can take time to "In-Joy" what my girl loves.

I am beginning to love it too!!

Til next time "Cotton with a Cause"

If We Didn't Laugh We Would All Go Insane

Got home from work last night around 11Pm. Did laundry and blogged til almost 3AM. Got up this morning and went in at noon and got home a little after 10:30PM.

My job isn't always easy...but it is always easy to laugh at work and that makes it easier to do day after day. I was at my old job for over 13 years and found it easy to laugh for about the first 11 years. The last two years, not so much.

It's a bad sign when you cry more than you laugh ... that should have been my first warning. I should have jumped ship before they so coldheartedly pushed me overboard without a life jacket.

Lucky for me I am a strong swimmer. I did the "Dead Man's Float" for a while and then "Dog Paddled" over to my new restaurant. It took a while and after being thrown MANY life preserver's have begun to feel buoyant again.

The new place I work can be insane, but it is a comforting insane. We have a good time and are a pretty close knit family. Of course every family has a crazy Aunt Edna or a whacked out Uncle Earl but that's what makes a family unique and interesting.

Let me just say we have a VERY interesting family at work.

I work usually work nine or ten shifts a week. What makes it easier is that I laugh every chance I get and Earl and Edna give me plenty of material to work with. Sometimes Earl and Edna are fellow employees, sometimes they are the customers but when you work in a restaurant there is always plenty to laugh at.

Jimmy Buffet said it best "If we didn't laugh we would all go insane."

I swear I laughed so much today that I had actual tears in my eyes a couple of times. I worked the day shift with Hoke and that's always a hoot. We are a lot alike in the respect that "You gotta laugh...getting bent outta shape doesn't solve anything and usually works against you."

We have a really sweet new server that just started. She has gotten her butt handed to her several times when we were balls to the walls busy but she just keeps on chugging along. She has a heavy French accent and when she first started I called her "Pepe LePew" (I don't know many French names.) I didn't like that name because Pepe was a male so I tried to remember the name of the female cat Pepe chased, thinking she was a skunk.

Barb helped me out after shaking her head in disgust at me for calling the new girl "Pepe" and said "I believe it was Petunia."

See...I get everybody on board with me! I don't even have to ask, they just like being on "The Cotton Culinary Comedy Cruise" and I don't blame them...it's pretty stinkin' funny (no Pepe Le Pew pun intended...or maybe just a little bit.)

It's so nice to be in a place that I enjoy working and a place that seems to enjoy me working there.

I think I am a hard worker at least I try to be. Believe me, if I wasn't...they would have told me to shut up a LONG time ago.

The new guy (Uncle Earl) is hanging in there and beginning to see the big picture..."It ain't all about you...it's about the team, we all look good together or we all look bad together."

Bless his heart he's young and I can still remember being young like that, but our restaurant ain't no Olive Garden and it's a lot of work given the extensive menu and wine list we offer...but that's what puts us ahead of the game.

The dryer just beeped...signaling that my blogging time is over and my maid service has resumed.

Headed back Monday morning for another double shift (performance) and another two show performance on Tuesday. I am cramming in the shifts so I can be off for Massey's competition this upcoming weekend.

It feels so good to be laughing again.

"If we didn't laugh we would all go insane."

Til next time...COTTON

Winter Guard Video of Massey

This is a VERY amateur video (I made) of one of Massey's competitions that I attended. It gives you a sense of how talented these thirteen year old girls are in their first season of performing EVER...especially in front of hundreds of people.

Hope you enjoy the show!! It only took me two hours to figure out how to upload it (Zach is off with a friend and Massey is asleep). Where are teenagers when you need them?!!