so we met at the Burger King. hair all askew except for Barbie Doll oops Gina. only ones shorter than me was my little dennis the menace, Chance and Barbie, oops, Gina. they all have shot up like a bean stalk. chance so rail thin and tall. hair all over his doe eyes that woo you all the time
his hand in the
cookie jar. little rascal. sean so tall. hair all over the place. didn't dare ask him do you have any little hairs in the arm pits yet. ignorance is bliss. jalen might be a little skinner. crazy legs. jumping off tree limbs over the river granted him his new name. skin the color of cocoa and so shiny. Baby oil could never make your skin as smooth as his. my little reserved standoffish one, trevor. hair that was brown, then sandy and now blonde. some silver on the sides. gorgeous color. alot of stuff going on in that little head. very aware of others and their feelings. always asking, are you ok. do you want one too. very sweet. THEN barbie, oops, there i go again. gina. an age that has the world revolving around youish. symptons include continuous fretting about hair. the chip in the nail. all the normal stuff. she is gorgeous and smart and articulate and fastidious about most things.
it was really the boys and i the majority of time. laughter is what they gave me. so much so that my jaws actually ached many times. from the tree limbs they jumped off of into the river. the long rope with big knot at end for those little toes. my quiver is full. Thank you Lord. Laughter is good for the soul. then their little nail shop stories. chance sobbing and telling me they called him a "cry baby", huh? trevor consoling him. jalen pulling back and going into his corner. trevor going off by himself. sean looking off into the sky. never saying a word they always came back together. they always reached out to soothe the hurt. they always worked it out.
"mema i loved the river but i don't think this tent is for me."we fit 2 queen mattresses in that tent and had room for a full one still. once the one with the beginning of hair in the arm pits said it they were all relieved, whew! me too, me too, me too, me too. but i gotta say i had some real troopers in my stand!!!!! mema forgot to close the window flap and we got a rainstorm that you wouldn't believe that night. next evening we (in our area) broke the heat record ever. do you know what that meant? yeah it will be spring and/or fall before i put up that tent again. and will have a nice dvd to play. but let me say all of them got out camping site done, completed, swept clean (metaphor) in lickety split time and off we went to the river.
my pictures didn't make the mustard. surprise, like everyone didn't know i wasn't ann getty, haha. example of like the giant trees that the storms laid down on the beach coast line. great place to take pics but didn't turn out. they were fascinated with those little fiddler crabs. great bait. thats a great idea. next time we are going out on a charter boat and stay in a condo and get maid service and a limo driver and oh my, am i dreaming again?
sadly the day will come and probably soon my little barbie is not going to be coming up here much anymore. 17 going on 25. she'll have her own car, own job, school you know the drill. i'm glad she did come and wanted to come.
my sean probably won't want to come too many more times. may be the last time. he is a young man and what can a mema possbily know about entertaining a teenager. i'm grateful he came this time.
so that leaves my trevor, jalen and my little chance. but i'll have and will always have lots of memories. they will too! and that is what these summers are for, memories. "remember the time that fiddler crab got my finger?" or "how about when the horsefly bit me and i'm swimming from the florida side to the georgia side." "do you remember how mema bought that rope and we tried to make a swinging rope for us. sean was up in that tree and the rope wouldn't let us swing off it so we just started jumping off that huge limb?"
in Jeremiah Gods word says, I know the plans that I have for you and they are for good and not to harm you so remember with Christ all things are possible. Trust in the Lord with all your strength, all your might and all your soul and it will be good!!!
