Happy Birthday Week Benjamin Riggs

Last Thursday afternoon we started our journey north.  Across the barren lands...oh wait, we were just going to Springdale, Arkansas to take Riggs home.  For a moment I forgot myself.  Riggs had been with us for two weeks!  Wow!  That's quite a bit of time for a boy turning 8 years old.  Riggs had spent an enchanting day with us a couple of months ago when we had visited a miniature farm and bought some sheep.  He had then helped us build the sheep pen.  Riggs is an animal lover.  His dad, our third son Ben, called at the beginning of May and said Riggs wanted to come and spend a couple of weeks with us when he got out of school.  Of course Pappy said, "Yes!"  I was still in school and in fact getting moved out of our building and getting ready for summer school in another building.  So Riggs spent most of his time with Pappy.  Ben called me and said, "Mom, Riggs has really looked forward to spending his 'Birthday Week' with you guys." 



When Riggs turned 5 he got to pick out a puppy.  Ken & I took him to a Jack Russell Breeder.
We still keep Underdog for him at our house!

 Seems he's heard stories about how Ken & I handled birthdays with our children.  We had four darlings and when birthdays seemed to be going "out the roof" with all of their friends, I decided to do a week of birthday.  They got a "treat" or small gift everyday for a week, they found it beside their plate at breakfast.  They did none of their chores during the week, another family member picked it up for them.  The birthday honoree got to plan their special birthday dinner with me and then of course there would be birthday cake and ice cream.  This worked very well for my family, I still enjoy it for myself!  It also worked well for Riggs.  He got a small prize every morning, and actually had 2 birthday cakes with ice cream here. 

Riggs helps to make birthday cupcakes for his cousin & sister!

His Uncle Jonathan came over with a bag of toys and his children.  On Wednesday evening, after Prayer Meeting, the church also gave him and 2 other members a Surprise Birthday Party.  Riggs thought he had hit a gold mine.  When he got home his mom had made a special Thor Hammer Cake and there were more cards and presents!  Benjamin Riggs Evans is a wonderful, vivacious person.  He delighted us for two weeks and we miss him already!!!  But he's coming back for Mammy & Pappy Camp along with 7 of his cousins second week of July!  Wahoo!!!

May 29, A Very Special Day!!!

Tafta, me, Ken & Joe

Today is sweet baby Joe's 29th birthday, it is also Tafta and Matt's 7th wedding anniversary.  What a pleasure Joe & Tafta have always been to me!  Even when I was carrying Joe and sick as I could be, he was wanted.  I knew the fourth child, the sixth member of our family would complete us until they all grew up to get married and started having children of their own. 

Some things I didn't know was that he would marry a wonderful girl, Casondra, and have 2 beautiful girls, Sadee & Sophee.   I also didn't know Tafta would bless our lives with Matthew Rogers and 2 wonderful girls, Audrey Jane & Ava.

When I first got pregnant with Joe & I mean morning one, Ken said to me, "Well, he'll be born May 28th."  I said, "We'll see."  Thinking that man is crazy.  I still had prenatal vitamins left over from Ben and I was so very sick.  I couldn't get to the Dr., because of the severe nausea.  Best diet I ever went on.  When I finally called the Dr. that had delivered the other three, he jumped all over me...I was at that time six months pregnant and he was going to be out of the country when the baby was due to be delivered.  He sent me immediately to another doctor.  This doctor told me he didn't believe I was pregnant.  I wasn't showing at all.  I told him I knew I was because I was so very sick and the baby was already kicking.  He was emphatic that sometimes women want to be pregnant so much that they can give themselves all the symptoms.  I thought well if you don't get the show on the road, I might deliver my symptom at home.  But I kept that comment to myself.  He called in his technician to do an ultrasound.  This was the first one I'd ever had. 

Sure enough there was our boy sucking his thumb.  You could almost see him grinning!  The technician ran out of the room and in came the doctor, "Well, I see you are pregnant!"  Again I kept my mouth shut.  Amazing...  He set my due date for May 21, because the baby was big.  Ken said, "Wrong, May 28."  He knows his math but he forgot about midnight...anyway.  Joe weighed in at 9 lbs 15 oz, May 29, 1982.  He came so fast that the doctor that delivered him did so in cut off jeans and a t-shirt.  That fits Joe.  He has been a delight ever since...a wonderful baby, a delightful child, a courageous man.  On this Memorial Day Weekend, I salute you Joe!

Joe & Cas as he departs for Iraq.

While Joe was training for his "stint" in Iraq, Tafta married Matthew Steven Rogers.  I remember right before their wedding, we called Joe and sang "Happy Birthday" to his answering machine.  Then it was on with the wedding.  It was  beautiful...there was a gorgeous bride and a handsome groom.  Her brother Ben married them because Tafta wanted her Daddy to give her away & sit by me.  That was a trip.  The part I always wanted to do was sing "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof, Ken & I did that too!  Well the wedding turned out with a hitching!  And all is right with the world...I love you guys and wish you many more years of married bliss...

Tafta, Ava, Matt, & Audrey

Who is Caren Delet' Murphy?

I get asked this quite a bit.  My answer...I dunno...I love a good Urban Legend!  And that is exactly how this story started out.  I taught Speech and Drama for years and if you do a good job with that your trunk must be full of good stories.  Mine is!  I saved this particular story in the deep recesses of my brain and I bring it out EVERY Halloween.  I love it and who knows it MIGHT be TRUE!!!  Mama & Daddy would know best.  Here's the story I tell to my dear class.

Us older 5:  (front) me, Charlotte, Frank Jr.
(back)  Lenora, dog Daddy won at fair, Caren

There were 7 children born to Frank & Juanita Murphy:  Charlotte Ann, Caren Delet', Debbie Lynn, Lenora Kaye, Frank Jr., Elizabeth Faye and Sandy Elaine.  We grew up in the country...and I mean the country.  The only people that lived on the road I grew up on was us and our grandmother.  At one end of our road there was a turn around spot and at the other end there was a graveyard.  When I was growing up, our family tended to that graveyard.  I've spent many hours raking and mowing the graveyard.  Quite a bit of our family is buried there, the dead ones that is.  Anyway, we ran and we romped all over that road and those woods.  We also played on the railroad tracks between our house and our school, Swartz Elementary.  Lenora even skipped school one time because she walked to school on the tracks and played too much along the way...or something like that.   Back to my original story.  My dear sister, Caren, was a little over a year older than me and a little under a year younger than Charlotte.  She also enjoyed walking to and from school, but not as much as Lenora and me.

All the Murphy Girls:  Elizabeth and Sandy (front)
Mama, Lenora, me, Charlotte and Caren (back)
Just a few days before that fateful October day...

 One day however, she missed the bus and decided to walk home.  It started raining.  It was one of those deep, dark, damp, chill you to your bones rain.  Caren was a little frail thing anyway and if she had called Mama or Daddy they would gladly have come and picked her up, but she CHOSE to walk home in the rain.  Well being frail and sickly, sure enough Caren caught pneumonia and she only lived a week after that fateful day.
A couple of years after Caren's untimely departure, on a Sunday afternoon, my parents were taking a nap when a cute young man knocked on our door.  I answered, as was my habit when cute young men knocked on my door.  Anyway, he asked for Caren.  I thought he meant my friend Karen Jinks, who lived just a few country roads down.  I told him he had turned off the main highway too soon.  He needed to go back and get off on Morgan Hare Road.  He argued, "No I dropped her off here just yesterday."  I told him I thought I knew who lived here and Karen lived a few roads on down the line.  He then saw our 8 x 10 school pictures hanging on the wall, all 7 of us there in a row.  He pointed to dear Caren and said emphatically, "HER!"  I stumbled, I stuttered, I fumbled, and then said, "Caren is ddddeeeaad."  I got him out of the house quickly so as not to disturb my mom and dad.  They would have been deeply disturbed.  He spoke of Caren as if he had just seen her.  He told me how he had seen her walking home the day before in the rain.  He had picked her up and gave her a ride home.  He swore he had dropped her off at our front door.  She was so cold that he had given her his black leather jacket and she had told him he could come the next day and pick it up.  So here he was.  I swore back at him that my Caren was indeed dead.  To prove it I got in his car and rode back to Springhill Cemetery where there we both got a surprise.  Indeed he saw Caren Delet' Murphy's grave, but I saw hanging there on her tombstone his black leather jacket.

Caren today...perhaps...

Many of my friends have seen or heard from Caren since this time.  Some don't seem to remember her.  All I can say is the memory of dearly departed is so sorrowful sometime we do the best we can...
The journey is but a wisp of wind, enjoy it while you are here!

Send Mama to the Rescue!



My earlier blog, "Is That You Mama?", reminded me of another story I heard one time.  It goes like this.
Seems an older woman called her daughter one afternoon to check in on her and the family.  The young woman was in tears.  The older woman asked, "Baby, what in the world is wrong with you?"  "Oh Mama", the younger woman explained, "The house is mess, the children are running around like wild heathens, and that crazy husband of mine just called to say he's bringing his boss home for supper!"  The older woman felt the young woman's pain and responded, "Don't worry anymore.  Go pack the kids an overnight bag and you go take a soothing bath.  I'll come and on my way over I'll pick up some Chinese take-out.  When I get there, I'll help you clean up the house and then I'll bring the children to spend the night with me.  It will all be OK."  The young woman was extremely relieved, as any of us would be, and she exclaimed, "Oh Mama, thank you so much!  Richard is going to owe you big time!"  She heard a silent pause on the other end of the line...Then the older woman asked, "Richard?"  Then she repeated the number she had dialed.  The older woman sorrowfully said, "Oh honey, I think I've got the wrong number."  The younger one now in deeper anxiousness said, "Wait a minute, does that mean you're not coming?!" 

Moral:  Sometimes any mama will do...Just please send Mama to the rescue...This journey can be too crazy to take alone!

Is That You Mama?

The last six week period, following i-LEAP & LEAP is a good time for projects.  As I told you in an earlier blog, "Things That Make You Go Hmm", our Science teacher sent the kiddos on a virtual scavenger hunt.  The project was worth MEGA points and it was due yesterday.  Its due date was brought to my attention yesterday morning when one of my honor students came begging to get in my room to see if she'd left it there.  She had not.  She found it though when I gave her my keys and let her look in the science room...hmm...
The best search happened yesterday afternoon.  We have a 7 period day, with a break between 5th and 6th period.  On that break I usually make my way  to the office (bathroom break, snack, cola, conversation, copy machine...).  It was there that I witnessed hilarity at its finest.  Sarena, one of the seventh grade girls, was on the phone with her mother explaining exactly where she left her project at home, on the stereo.  She explained how it was due TODAY and that she needed her to bring it to school immediately.  She was on the phone pleading for several minutes when she heard "her mama" say "We don't have a stereo on our four-wheeler."  Don't ask about the four-wheeler.  But it was then that Sarena realized she had just poured her heart out and pleaded to a wrong number.  Poor kid.  She called again.  This time her grandmother answered.  I thought the kid was going to ask for birth date and social security number.  She did ask her something, then I heard her say, "Aw, this is my MaMaw!  Can I talk to mama?"  She got her project there in time...Sometimes the journey takes us up the wrong road, but we'll get there eventually.

7th graders are not the only ones apparently that lose projects.  You can google "lost projects" and find a whole list of different web sites for a whole bunch of lost stuff.  Wow!

Test Scores are in, Let's Get on with the Ride!

If you are a tried and true reader of my blog...ahem...then you remember or have read "Come Smile with Me a While"  as well as "Testing the Football Version".  Well I have something to smile about...testing is over, scores are in for another year, and we lived through it!  I didn't even have to coach an inning of football, but I was ready.  Some of the kiddos knocked it out of the park, I guess that's baseball.  Some scored a touchdown.  Some got their body slammed.  Some got the wind knocked out of their sails.  I REALLY try to put this all in perspective.  It's just ONE test on ONE day and there are so MANY factors that weigh in on this monster.  Coach Freddie Hallman, whom I respect a whole heapa bunch, use to tell me "Mrs. Evans, we prepare best we can.  We hit the field hard and alert, but on any given night any given team could beat anybody."

Coach Freddie Hallman & wife Jodie
Freddie knows football!

 I think that describes this testing stuff too.  We  prepared the BEST we could.  I gave it 100% and so did the children I teach.  I require it of them.  I expect it of them.  Even the ones who fell back a few yards or got yellow flagged or  a penalty, I felt did the best they could in that moment.  Some of the darlings brought a lot of "baggage" with them that fateful morning.  It's hard to run hard when you're carrying a bunch of unnecessary weight.   Some ran straight in for a TOUCHDOWN!  One sweetheart told me she was praying for an Advanced, she's never made one.  And what do you know, she made her very first one this year in MATH!  I'm extremely proud for her.  I'm also proud of my students that leaped from an Unsatisfactory to a Basic this year.  Just as I celebrate with them, I hurt with those that had a setback.  But that's all it is, a temporary setback.  In basketball, when you foul someone and the ref blows his whistle and calls your number, you put your hand up and get back in the game.  We will put our hands up, study our successes (to repeat them), study or defeats (to delete them) and get back in the game.  THAT'S HOW WE ROLL!!!

Bring on Your A Game!

I always hear the latest quip when it's yesterday's news.  But I heard one today that made my laughter jump straight out and holler!  State test scores came out for our 8th graders.  Our Principal called each 8th grade student into his office and delivered their scores to them and gave them their options:  congratulations or summer school.  Our 7th graders witnessed for the first time the tears in the halls, the emotions felt by their peers, good and bad.  My third hour class entered my room very somber.  I thought it was a good time to deliver my "Remember This Mood" speech.  I was expounding on the importance of delivering your "A Game" every time you come to school, when an innocent interrupted me with, "Mrs. Evans, what does the A in A Game stand for?"  Get ready here comes the zinger!  One of her classmates looked at her, rolled her eyes and said, "Girl, if that's your A Game you better bring the rest of the alphabet!"

Oh yeah, both girls are in this picture!  They are BETA kids, the smart ones!!!

 I whooped and hollered.  I love it!  So here comes my A Game and a whole can of Alphabet Soup!  That sweet sarcasm is why I can teach Jr. High & keep on rolling.  The journey is SWEET!!!