That's my girl!!!

She's my girl. She may not always think so. After all, she's the teenager, and I'm the mom. She's busy growing those wings just as fast as she can. I'm busy saying "no". Saying "not this time". Saying "you're 13, not 21". Saying "not yet". And, once in awhile, saying "yes". But yeah...she's still my girl.

FOOTBALL!!!

It's the sport of kings...better than diamond rings... Or at least it was to Goldie Hawn in Wildcats. For me...not so much. You can take me to a baseball game anyday!!!! LOVE IT!!! Watching my kids play sports...THRILLING!!!! But football...I've tried, but it's just not my thing. However, this week it made me a WINNER!!! Every week during football season, our local radio station runs a contest. There are cards all over town, and my husband brings them home faithfully every week. You simply check mark the team that you think will win each game, and then for Monday night's game, you choose the winner and predict the score. Now...I'm not saying it was pure luck. Being surrounded by some sort of sports media pretty much anytime my husband isn't snoring, and even sometimes when he is, I think I absorb a lot of information that I'm not really aware that I know. As we dropped the cards in the drop box last Sat., I confidently told my husband, "if anyone wins, it will be me". Imagine my surprise when the phone rang on Tues., and the caller id told me it was the local radio station calling. There was a split second where I think my heart stopped...the GRAND prize is $5000. However, I knew my picks weren't perfect, so that only lasted for a split second. Believe it or not though, I...Miss Don't Know Anything About Football...was the FIRST PLACE WINNER!!!!!! I won $50!!! So today, I proudly walked into the radio station. There was a bell with a sign that said, "if you are a winner, please ring bell for service". Heck yeah I'm a WINNER!!!! I rang that bell loud and clear, and when the guy came to the front, I smiled and said, "I'M A WINNER!!!" And you know what he said??? He said, "Wow...you sure must know a lot about FOOTBALL." "Yes", I said, "I sure do!!" (I could tell he was impressed) And you see...that's the nice thing about ME...it doesn't take a lot to make me happy.

'ello Scone

My husband said, "I just don't get it". But I did, and I smiled and said, "that's because you were never a girl". It was coming from the backseat. It started with a silly phrase, "'ello Muffin". Which was returned with, "'ello Scone", and echoes of giggles surrounded us, followed by more and more giggles and silliness. For the moment, it wasn't about peer pressure, or growing up too fast. It wasn't about girl drama, or growing pains. It was about silliness and being thirteen. It was about not yet being a woman but no longer being a little girl...just trapped in that in between place, and, for the moment, relishing in it. Some things have changed, but some have stayed the same, and yeah...I "got" it. It was about wearing each other's clothes and keeping half of your wardrobe in your best friend's closet. It was about making total sense in that nonsensical sort of way. Mostly though, it was about being a girl, and that, my dear husband, is something you'll never completely "get".

A HULA BOWL?

Somehow it turned into a Hawaiian themed party, which is, of course, always a great idea for a November day in Wyoming. It would have been just a bit more festive except that I vetoed the swimming suits. I know, I know...I really should try to be a little more fun sometimes.

Somewhere around the 8th frame, the girls decided that tearing the flowers off of the leis and watching them hover over the fan at the ball return was PROBABLY even more fun than bowling.

We did have some very talented bowlers among us. We managed to have a ball stuck in the gutter, despite the use of bumpers, and personally, I think that's an indication of some great skill.

As for the cake, some blue sugar sprinkles for water, crushed vanilla wafers for sand, green sour strings for palm trees (atop the Twix trunks), a surfboard cut from a piece of gum, some candy rings as floaties, an old paper umbrella found in a drawer, and some Finding Nemo fruit snack fish made for a great BEACH cake. And hey...since most of them weren't mine, I figured why not send them home all sugared up.