Fried Chicken

I love fried chicken.  I am pretty sure I was really young when I started eating it.  I made it tonight for supper.  My Grannie taught me how to fry chicken.  Her chicken was the best fried chicken ever.  So mouth-watering.  I was married with a couple of kids when she showed me how she did it.  She put salt all over the pieces and put it right back in to the fridge.  A few hours later she pulled the chicken out....  put it in a brown paper sack with some flour and went to shaking.  She heated that grease and she began to fry.  She fried it so slow.  She always said that was the key so that is the way I do it too.  Being at her house when she was cooking it was pure torture!!  The smell was amazing!  We had fried chicken every holiday....  Mother's day....  Christmas.....  you name it....  we ate her chicken.  When I was a kid and we would take road trips to certain places you never had to wonder where we were going to eat for lunch because Grannie was up before we left frying up a whole chicken and she brought it along.  Yep....  we had to smell it while we were riding along.  UGH!!  That was just not right.  But man it was yummy and it was well worth the wait.    When she got to the point that she could not cook the chicken for our family holidays that became my task.  When I would make it for the family I was always so worried that it would not taste like Grannie's.  The family ate it anyway.  I would ask Loren if the chicken tasted good and of course like any smart husband he would reply with a "yes".  Then my next question I would ask was if it tasted like Grannie's and he would reply "almost".  I was satisfied with an "almost".  If it was almost as good as my Grannie's fried chicken then that is good enough for me.

I REALLY don't like any of my babies growing up!!

Yep.....  I admit it....I am "that Aunt".  I am "the Aunt" that sometimes crosses the line of "aunt-hood" and "parent-hood".  I am nosey.....  and I do ask A LOT of questions to my brother's and sister-in-law's kids.  I often  put my 2 cents in when I probably should not.  I just cannot help it.  I love ALL my nieces and nephews just like they are my own children.  I have all my nieces and my nephew so close to me.  I see them all the time.  I talk to them all the time.  I text them all the time.  Sometimes I wonder if they roll their eyes when I send them a "bossy" text or a "questioning" text.  I am sure they do.  Today we had our family wedding shower for my niece Emilee.  I have to admit I am very happy for Em that she is in love and she is creating a new life BUT I am sad for me!!!  I am sad that she is old enough to get married.  I am sad that she is moving away.  YEP......  it is all about me.  I woke up around 2:45 this morning because I was dreaming that Loren was letting terrorist take over our yard (that is a WHOLE other blog).  So what else do you do at 2:45 am but watch dvrd episodes of The View and get on Facebook. Anyways.....  I got to Emilee's status update and she mentioned that she was "listening to songs that her and her favorite aunt (that is ME!!) used to listen to when she was little.  I COMPLETELY FELL APART!!!  yep.....  here came the tears....  not small tears but HUGE alligator tears!!  I was like "really????"  Pull it together!!!  I also lost it when we went wedding dress shopping and the "evil" worker at the bridal store pulled the veil down over Emilee's face!!  UGH!!!  You may have seen those pics!  Yep....  I was a mess right there in the middle of the store.  How am I going to make it through the wedding????  When she was little she loved to sit in the front seat of my awesome Monte Carlo care and roll the window down and stick her head out of the window and sing "Take another little piece of my heart" at the top of her lungs!!!  I mean she would belt out those lyrics.....  It is seriously one of my favorite memories.  Now she is grown, in college and planning her wedding.  She is not a little girl anymore.   I wish her nothing but complete happiness but once again.......  It is all about me and my inability to let go!!!!  I know I will have to prepare myself to go through this process with Sarah, Bubba, Adelia, and Christain and I am not looking forward to any of it!.....  not to mention my own children!!!!  UGH!!

Boys

I love my boys.  I REALLY love my boys.  I love their rowdiness.  I love the fact that they hug me when they are hot and sweaty.  I love that they "expect" me to cook supper every single night.  I love the way they look after their little sister.  I love the fact that I cannot keep them inside.  I love the fact that they think their Daddy is the coolest person ever.  I love that they talk about their Pops everyday.   I also love the dirt they track in.  I could stay upset about it but then I start to think.... "what if they were not here to track in dirt on the carpet".  In a sense, I cherish that dirt.  I have had a tube of crickets set loose in my house.  I have to buy a gallon of milk a day.  I buy Lysol by the 3 pack.  Camo is the most popular color in my house. My DVR is full of recorded episodes of WWE, Bill Dance, and Jimmy Houston.  My point is that BOYS WILL BE BOYS.  Why can't some people see that?  Why would we expect them to be anything else.    My mother raised 2  boys and she survived.  She loves to say that EVERYONE should have to raise at least 2 boys.   My Daddy always said "You are having the best time of your life.... you just don't know it yet."

The Pistol

Most everyone that knows me knows that I love basketball.  I have always loved basketball.  I am pretty sure basketball was my motivation to go to school and make descent grades......  that and the two people that brought me into the world.  When I was in high school, I went to Arey's to rent a movie.  I ended up coming home with "The Pistol".  Had I ever heard of The Pistol?  Nope.  But guess what......  it was a basketball movie so it caught my eye.  I took it home and showed it to my parents and of course they had both heard of The Pistol.  Before I even pushed play on the VCR, I knew quite a bit about The Pistol through the eyes of my Daddy.  The thing I remember Daddy saying most about The Pistol is that he was "way ahead of his time" and like usual Daddy was correct. The Pistol wore a pair of slouchy looking socks in every game.  He passed and shot the ball from his hip like a gunslinger hince the nickname "The Pistol"  Do any of you reading know who the Pistol is?  I watched this movie with my parents as we only had 1 VCR in the house at the time...... I know ..... the Stone Ages.  I can remember so many converstations me and Daddy had about this movie...... about this person.  I only rented it that one time.  But as luck would have it one of the stations would play the movie around the time of the NCAA tournament and my Daddy and I would always watch it then.   We were also fond of "The Hank Gathers Story" but not as much as we loved The Pistol.  The Pistol was a classy basketball player who elevated the type of basketball played back then to an all time high..  But to me, The Pistol was more then a person.... more then a movie.....  he/it was many memories I have of me in my spot on the couch and Daddy in his chair watching TV and talking that will be mine forever. 

My family ROCKS!

I have an unusually close family.  We pretty much know where each of us are and who we are with at any given time and if one of us happens to be misplaced, we will call, text, and yell until we are located.  We are very nosey.  We ask alot of questions.....  but we do it with love.  I don't know of many secrets my family has.  Someone once told me I need to distance myself from my family and our closeness was not healthy.  Well.......  you probably don't need to read what I said back to that person.   Snow days with my family are the best, they are tiring but they really are the BEST.  As soon as the first snowflake falls, the grandkids began asking... "When are we going to Grandma and Pop's house?".   We all gather there to cook, eat, watch tv, eat, play, cook,  eat, nap, eat, and so on and so on.   Today I made many different memories.  I cooked with my favorite Mother, I flipped through my Grannie's recipes, and I grossed my nieces (Emilee and Adelai) and mother out when I showed them how I seperate egg yolks and egg whites.  I made homemade chicken and dumplins at the request of some of my favorite nieces.  I had to use tortillas for the dumplins instead of the small white biscuits and I have to admit, I was a wee-bit nervous about that.  But apparently they tasted the same.  After my belly was full, I went to take a rest on my mom's bed.  Eventually I was joined by Sarah, Easton, Adelia, Laci and Christian.  Not all at once but pretty close.  We laid and watched a movie and little Easton slept in between me and Sarah.  At one point, I thought how lucky I was to have my nieces and my great-nephew snuggled up next to me.  How many Aunts/ Great-Aunts get the chance to enjoy these moments.  It was very peaceful.  I never said it was quiet.  It is very seldom quiet when we are all together.  This ALL  happened because of what my Mother and Daddy started over 4 decades ago.

Opinions

Hmmmm.......  so this is blogging........  I can't think of much to blog about except for my opinions on certain matters.  I have many opinions.  Some I say and some I just keep to myself.  Some that I say...  I am sure I should have kept to myself as I am sure my family and friends would agree.  I do get the occasional "eyeroll" from some of the younger peeps that I bless with my knowledge.   I do, however think this world would be a much better place if everyone shared in my opinion.    Some blog for the fun of it, some blog to share their story, some blog because they say it is like therapy......  I think I will blog to share my opinion on things.  I actually think I will stop here just to see if I am doing this correctly.  :)