Three Things About My Kid Meme

Barb tagged me for a meme, Three Things About My Kid. This will be considerably shorter word-wise than Barb's and Bev's considering I only have the one kid, but I did dig up several pictures for this post. For those of you who might be sick of hearing about Jessica, feel free to skip this post altogether and move on to someone who's posted something funny or, you know, meaningful. :-)

This will be more than three things before I'm done, but I have to start somewhere, so here goes.....

I can't say too much about Jessica's personality without talking about myself, too, because Jessica is so much like me in so many ways. She is generous to a fault. She is quick to jump to the defense of those who cannot defend themselves, especially children and animals. She is soft-hearted and easily hurt, but she tries to act tough as a defense mechanism. She is sometimes quick to anger, but just as quickly the storm passes and is sunny and calm again. Laughter is never far from her eyes and lips. As evidence to her sometimes impulsive nature, read this, but she is also capable of long-term goals. She has wanted to be a clinical psychologist since she was 13 years old. Give her a task or an objective and she'll get 'er done. She's a natural leader, but she is willing to follow as well. She is scared to death of spiders, but loves snakes, rats, mice and hamsters, etc.

Jessica is a dishwater blonde, but she "helps" it with frequent visits to the beauty shop. She likes to give the impression that she's a dippy blonde, and she does have her moments, but I think she's been called a dumb blonde and called herself that so much that she's beginning to believe her own press. She is very intelligent in some areas, and dumb as a box of rocks in others. She can do college level trigonometry and calculus but she can't calculate how close the freezer door is to her nose. (She fractured her nose--black eye, the whole works!) She won a four-year academic scholarship to Arkansas State University and plans to pursue a degree in clinical psychology.

Jessica was born on November 3, 1987 at 3:03 am. That was a Tuesday, and I came home from the hospital with her on Wednesday afternoon. I wanted to go to church that night but my Mama and some of my sisters strongly suggested that I needed to stay home and rest a few more days before getting out. So I waited until that Sunday before I took Jessica to church with me for the first time. She was 5 days old, and she's been in church ever since. Except for the rare times I'm away for a short vacation or for illness, I never miss church, and she didn't either. When she started working, her jobs have required her to work some on Sundays and Wednesdays so she's not attended church as regularly as I would have liked, but I hope that she never strays from the way she's been taught. I hope she always remembers to keep God first in her life. I love her so much, and I think I might have to challenge Barb's statement that it's not humanly possible for a Mama to be prouder of her kids than Barb is of hers. Let's just call it a draw, shall we? ;-) We're both blessed with our kids, and Bev is just the teeniest bit proud of her kids, too. :-)

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

I'll post several more pictures, but I think that's enough Jessica for now.

The trip to Mountain View has been postponed until this weekend, so I'll be leaving Friday afternoon unless something comes up to change our plans again. Hopefully that will give me time to recover from last weekend and perhaps get some things done around the hovel here. I'd like to line dry some laundry, especially some sheets and bedspreads, but it's dangerously hot here again. The actual temps are a little cooler, but the humidity is so high the heat indexes are over 100*. The heat index here on Tuesday was 112* and it's not supposed to be any better for a good while. I am SO looking forward to Fall and Winter. It can't get here fast enough to suit me.

I saw my first open boll of cotton Sunday, so I know Fall and harvest time isn't too far off. I love the smell of fall. The crisp air, the smell of cotton being picked, soybeans and rice being combined, smoke from a wood fire on a frosty morning....So many wonderful smells. I love a hayride, and marshmallow and hot dog roasts over a wood fire. Marshmallows should be browned on the outside and gooey in the middle. Yum! I'm more than ready for fall!

I haven't canned or pickled

anything in a week or so. The produce is beginning to slow down, but the rain we've gotten

lately should revive the gardens

around here. I'm looking forward to getting some turnip greens, mustard greens and maybe even some fresh spinach. I'm pretty fond of turnips cooked Diane Style, too,

with bacon, brown sugar, salt

and black pepper. I used to despise turnips, but when Lamar and I first married, we had some lean times and I learned to eat a lot of things I wasn't particularly fond of before that. A neighbor had a garden, and I've pried frozen turnips out of the frozen ground and peeled them to cook lots of times. I brown some bacon then throw in the sliced turnips and some brown sugar, salt and pepper and it's some good stuff, now.

xxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Most of these pictures are pretty self-explanatory, but a few of them might need a little description. Click on any of them to enlarge them.

The 4th pic from the top is Jessica and my Mom.

The 5th pic from the top is Jessica and Lamar's Granddad, Easter Sunday 1988. Jessica is 5 months old.

The 13th pic is Jessica and my sister, Donna, back to the camera.

The 14th pic is Jessica and my sister, Cecil, holding Jessica's leg up.

The last one is Cecil, Jessica and my sister, Ducky, at Jessica's graduation.