Libby Regarding Summer at the Lake

Oh how I wish Memaw could read this!!!

This summer I went to Oklahoma To vis my grandma at the Ufalla Lake.  My cusin Jody, J.C., Ema and Samal.  My Uncles and Aints to.  I swam in the lake.  And I Drove the 4 wheeler in the forest with my cusins Megin and Buba and Frank.  Frank almost ran over a dear.  We sall lots of dear and rabbits.

And then my Aint had 3 cookouts in a row.  First night I don't know because I wasn't ther I was at my grandma's house.  The 2nd ay they had Fish they Fried us some Fish.  The 3rd day we had hamburgers and hot dogs. The Food was vary vary good.  That was the bestest thang I ate.

Then I go fishing with my grandpa evry morning.  It is vary fun.  I got to cut the fish.  And clean the fish.  And when were Done, I got to spash bleach water on the tables and floors.  And then get the hose and sprad the tables and floors.  It sormed bad 2 will we were cleaning the fish.

Then I went to My Memas house and we cleaned the houl house.  When we came back to the lake nobody was ther but us.  I was leving to come back to Kansas.  We met my Dad at Ponca City.  We at at a realy good Cina Star bufet.  The End

Libby Regarding Thanksgiving

My thanksgiving was awesome we went to my granny's house and when we got there the dog was barking and my pawpaw was on the phone.  My granny was standen at the door.  When we walked in it was 6:30 and it smelled like popcorn because my pawpaw was eating popcorn.  When my pawpaw got of the phone he started to talk to my granny about what happened to the car like if it was totel or not.  After that we at some dinner After dinner we watch 2 movies.  We ate popcorn, chip, and we ate ice cream

When it was time to go to bed we just could not find out how was sleeping with each other.   So about 10 minutes later I said Madi + Carlie sleep with mom.  I sleep on the couch Frank sleeps on the other couch dad sleeps in the back room and my granny + papaw sleep were they usely do.  So before we went to bed we had to brush are teath.  We went to bed and my mom in the morning was yelling she was having a nightmerror.  In the morning we had to get started cooking right away because we mad turkey, fruit saled, mashed potatos and gravey, and we also have to make pie.  whe we ate the food smelled so good I just keep eating.  When everyone was done eating we all just sat back and relaxed.

It is time to go home nobody wants to leave but it is time to.  When we got home it was about 5:00.  When we are at home every body just sleep.  At 7:00 we made dinner and we ate.  It is not time to go to bed but we all wanted to go to bed.

Libby Regarding the Coolest Place on Earth

The coolest place that I have ever been is Granny + papaws house. I like my granny + pawpaw's house because when I am there it is fun. Another thang is that I have my own refrigorater and I can get whatever I want out of it. In my refrigorater is all diffarent tipe like lunchables. In the freezer is popsycles. I get to eat whatever I want out of the frige + freezer because it is mine.

My granny and pawpaw's house is the coolest place because I get almost everythang I want, 1 is I got my own school set 2. I got my own cooking set 3. I am a queen.  I love my granny + pawpaw because they give me almost everythang.

My granny + pawpaw's house is the best.  I get to play my granny's laptop.  I get to sleep in my pawpaw's big and comphy chair.  I get to watch what I want to.  I get to have my friends over.

My granny's house is the best house.  I get to play bord games and get to do puzzles.  I love my granny's house because it is fun and there is alot of stuff to do there.  I love my grann and my pawpaw.

Libby's View on Family

I was looking for some paper and picked up a spiral notebook and found this.  They were dated Aug and Sept 2009.  Libby would have just started 5th grade.

All About My Family

My Mom's side lives in Madison a small town.  My Dad's side lives in the country in Savanna Oklahoma.  On my Mom's side I get mostly what I want.  And I get paid.  On my dad's side of the family I still almost get what I want.

On my mom's side I am spoledd.  I get paid, I get a wii all to myself.  I can eat what ever I want.  My mom's Dad has a cool chair that I get to sleep in when ever I want.  My Granny tot me how to sow like 2 years ago.  I enterd a geen contest for how ever had the best geen Disin.

On my Dads side of the Family I get to drive the four weeler every ware.  I get to go shoping.  It is alot of fun.  My Pepa alwas takes me to the lake.  The alwase are fun even thow they are 68 years old.

About by brothers.  My older brothers can be anowing.  Frank can go into my room and take my Dairy and Privet stuff and read it.  Witch I think is rude.  My oldes brother JB can pull me down and hurt me.  JB smokes and he has to share a 4th of closet with me.

My sisters can be rude to me and each other.  My sisters are a messy.  They have a messy room.  When they get out of the warpool they have the floor like the water had fluded.  My sisters ar picky.

Carlie is vary pike about what she eats or wares.  Carlie is strong and she can bite like an animal (stopping here in my typing to fall out of the chair laughing).  She is vary rude.  Madi is a rude person.  She all sweet at school but at home she can be a rude girl.

Lois my oldest sister is vary nice and sweet.  She plays 3 insterment.  She plays clarinet, and Drums and guitar.  I love Lois.  The End

I'm blind, I'm blind!!!!

So Thursday was the first Jr High dance of the year.  Frank is in 8th grade and Libby is in 7th and they both wanted to go.  It was from 7-9pm.  Bob took them.  I was getting my hair done...so I was coming by the middle school on my way home.  It was 8:30pm so I thought I would just grab them a little early.

When I pull up there....I see a sign and it says "7th graders picked up here....8th graders picked up here.....AT 9PM"

I go up to the front doors and sure enough, they are all locked.  The doors are glass.  I press my face to the glass to see if I could signal a teacher to let me in.  What I saw HORRIFIED ME.  The kids were in the atrium....it was DARK.....Miley Cyrus's The Climb was blaring from speakers....and the kids were  SLOW dancing...with their arms wrapped around necks and waists.  The was a disco ball flashing.

I staggered back from the door screaming "I'm BLIND.  I'm BLIND!!!!"  The sight of my "babies" slow dancing in the dark....well it doesn't even bare things about....no...not yet....PLEASE.

When I was in Junior High....the boys stood on one side of the room drinking punch and the girls gathered on the other side giggling.  And one or two "fast" couples might be out there in the middle dancing.  What the heck HAPPENED!!!!

Then the principal finally noticed me and let me in.  I walk into the office, and I see row after row after row of cell phones lined up on the counter.  The 7th graders had on color of sticky note with their names on them...and the 8th graders had another.  Holy Smokes, Batman!!!

Bucket Lists

How would you describe me: White, Female, Upper Middle Class, an IT Manager, a Mom of Four plus, a Christian, a Daughter of two solid parents who are still married, a Football Coach’s Wife of ten years, a Sister, an owner of a Master’s Degree in Mathematics. I have a solid 401(K), building a new house, have nice vehicles, I have 3 months of living expensive in savings, I’m healthy. I’ve been a Step Mom, a Foster Mom, an Adoptive Mom, a Biological Mom, and a Substitute Mom. I just turned 40. Pretty good, huh?

I don’t have a bucket list.

If I died right now, the only regret I would have would be time missed with family and friends. But mostly watching my beautiful children grow up.

I have traveled to most major cities in the US. I’ve also been to Jamaica, Canada and China. I’ve flown in a commercial plane, a Cessna and a float plane. I’ve been on a cruise. I have walked on a glacier. I watched someone be born, and I’ve watched someone die. I’ve been pregnant and given birth. I’ve stood in court and made three special children mine. I’ve lived at ten different addresses as an adult. I’ve spent long periods of time in: Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Indiana, Nebraska, Missouri. I’ve been diagnosed with Epilepsy. I’ve been taken by ambulance to an ER. I’ve totaled a car. I’ve bought brand new cars. I’ve been laid off. I’ve been a high school teacher, and a Manager of 22 people. I’ve built software systems that people still use 10 years later. I’ve played flute and piccolo on many a stage. I stood up and played the piccolo solo in Stars and Stripes Forever in a crowded auditorium. I’ve become an amateur photographer. I’ve held and comforted my sick child in the ER. I’ve dipped my toe in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Gulf of Mexico. I’ve been to Disney World – twice. I helped start a church. I’ve been Baptized. I’ve been fishing – and caught fish. I have drank water from a pure stream in the Flint Hills. The longest I’ve ever worked at one company was 5 years. I currently own 4 inch heels, sandals, running shoes, steel toed boots and cowboy boots. I have ridden horseback. I have helped put out a prairie fire. I’ve had numerous dogs, cats, fish, goats and a donkey as pets. I have driven a go-cart. I’ve been married - twice. I’ve been divorced. I’ve stood up to a bully at work- twice. I’ve seen Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserable.  I've been in a tornado,a flood and experienced an earthquake.  I’ve been to the ballet, the opera and a symphony. I’ve had stitches. I keep a blog about my family. I’ve taken in two 17 year old boys who needed a place to stay. I’ve been blessed with a loving, faithful, loyal husband and four beautiful children. I’ve been snorkeling. I’ve fired a gun – and I THINK I killed a crow with it.  I flunked suba diving class.  I have suffered infertility. I heard Pavarotti sing in person and shook his hand. I have touched a wild buffalo and watched a wild bald eagle in flight. I watched more ballgames (of various varieties) that I care to count. I have lain in the bed of a pickup truck and watched the stars. I’ve seen an eclipse. I have been canoeing and rafting. I spent the night in a hammock on a beach in Jamaica. I lived through the Challenger Explosion, The Oklahoma City Bombing and 9/11. I’ve been to the top of the Rocky Mountains – but I have no desire to go skiing. I’ve put two loved ones in mental institutions. I went to court and watched another one be sentenced while he was wearing an orange jump suite and leg shackles. I’ve been to the World Expo in Shanghai and I’ve walked to the top of the Great Wall of China with my Dad. I’ve cried on my Mom’s shoulder too many times to count. I’ve been kissed by tiny sticky mouths and hugged with tiny sticky fingers. I’ve been pooped on. I’ve been a witness in a jury trial. I’ve been to the top of the Sears Tower and stood on the clear ledge and looked down. I’ve never been drunk or high. I’ve been in a TV commercial. I’m friends with a convicted felon – actually more than one. I have gained and lost 110 lbs. I put a hard drive in my computer. I have hired people and I have fired people. I have run a 5k race without stopping. I won a hair and make-up make over. I’ve cried while I held a dear pet while he was put to sleep. I’ve miscarried a dearly wanted baby. I have brush-hogged with a tractor. I made straight As in High School. I’ve called the Suicide hotline for a co-worker who was threatening to kill himself. I was Salutatorian of my Senior class. I started college when I was 17, got my college degree in 3 years and graduated in the top 10% of my class. By the time I was 22, I had a Master’s Degree. I’ve gotten a speeding ticket I deserved. I went to court over a speeding ticket I DIDN'T deserve and won my case! I have cut down a tree with a chain saw. I have let ducklings swim in my garden sized whirlpool tub. I’ve potty trained who knows how many kids! I have included into my wonderful core family: wonderful in-laws, multiple birth families, foster kids, step kids.

I have loved, and lost, and let go….and I understand the difference. I am confident in who I am. I’ve been loved….deeply loved.

I don’t have a bucket list. I don’t quit, ever. Can’t Don’t Live Here.

Food Fights

As they say in "A Christmas Story"....every family has one picky eater.....in ours it was.....Carlie.

School lunches have gotten so expensive that we have the kids pack a lunch four days of the week.  One day a week they get to have a hot lunch.  They look at the lunch calendar each week....and each kid carefully selects and plans which day they will have a hot lunch.

Well Carlie's tastes are just too refined for a sack lunch.  She hates anything we suggest.  Turkey sandwiches taste gross unless we buy her the expensive deli meat.  She won't eat peanut butter and jelly.  She can't take soup or anything like that because they don't have a place to heat it up.   She will only eat GREEN apples....not RED.....etc, etc.

Granny went up to the school one day to pick them up, and they told her that they were concerned about Carlie's lunch.  One day all she brought was a green apple.  And one day just a small kids' yogurt.  Ummmm.....well thanks for sharing.....but you can look at her sister's lunch to see that I don't starve my kids....and look at both of them to see that they don't miss too many meals.  One day she had no lunch at all.  So on these days they let her get a hot lunch.

So I called the school and told them that Carlie is allowed to have ONE hot lunch a week.   And she might just have to go hungry for a couple of days before she figured out she couldn't manipulate the system.  She was very helpful and said she would let me know if there were any more problems.

So the other day I got this email.

Julie,

Thought I should let you know that on Tuesday Carlie only brought a bag of grapes in her lunch. When a asked her about it she said that she didn’t have time to eat breakfast so she ate part of her lunch on the bus and that she eat some more of it during morning snacks in Mr. Oliver’s class. Yesterday she ate a hot lunch and I didn’t think anything about it but when she ate one again today a said something like “Oh it must be a special week.” She looks at me and says, “I’ll tell my Mom when I get home. I slept to late and didn’t have time to pack my lunch!” Thought you might like to know.


GLM
Coe Food Service Secretary

Sigh.  Now every time she has TWO hot lunches in a week, she doesn't get one at ALL the next week.

Contractual Agreements!

Carlie got a new pair of glasses at the beginning of the school year.  Her vision wasn't horrible, but she did need some.  So I took her to pick out a nice pink pair.  Within the third week of school someone had stepped on them and smashed them.

Being the bad Mom that I am....I couldn't ever remember to order her a new pair.  So Monday, she got frustrated with me and she presented a "Contractual Agreement" for me to sign.

"I Julie K Pool will get Carlie Pool a pair of glasses by Saturday"  with signature lines for each of us.   She persisted until I signed it.   Today was Friday....I still hadn't ordered them yet.   My phone chirps when I get a Facebook Message.  Mine chirped at work today.  When I looked of Facebook, I see the following.

Carlie Mae Pool



mom I need you to get me glasses


Julie Morgan Pool

Thanks for the reminder :o)


Julie Morgan Pool

I ordered them!

I stopped what I was doing right then and there and picked up the phone and ordered a new pair.  I made my deadline......barely.   Maybe she'll be a lawyer some day??


5 hours ago · LikeUnlike.Carlie Mae Pool no

about an hour ago · LikeUnlike.

Who's a Puss?

When the girls came back from seeing the movie Puss and Boots, I asked them "What's a Puss?"  I wanted to see what they would say.  Carlie goes "It's the name of a cat."  Madi says "No it's not....that's what Frank is."  Hahaha.  That's what Bob calls Frank all the time.

Love in the Third Grade

I didn't know it, but Carlie has apparently been dating Jacob G.  He rides the bus with her, and they had been sitting together on the bus.   His older brother is a Senior on Bob's football team.

So the last home game, Libby and Carlie went with me.  After the game, Carlie grabbed my hand as we walked out of the stadium.   She said, "Well, Jacob broke up with me tonight.  It was awful!"  I asked her what happened and she said "Well Mom, I don't really know.  I was sitting by him in the bleachers.  And he threw this little football at me and the end of it hit me in the head....and said I don't like you any more...I'm breaking up with you!!!"
I told her that I was sorry that happened to her.  She said "It really broke my heart in two.  In fact, it broke it into millions of tiny little pieces.  I had to go sit in the stands and cry.  I put my head in Olivia E.'s lap....cause she is like a sister to me....and I cried and cried in her lap."

Again I told her that I was sorry her feelings got hurt, but she was really too young to be dating any way.

Then her green eyes got a sparkle in them and she said "But I took him down and pinned him to the ground, Mom.  And that made me feel alot better!!!!"  Ahhhh, has a bit of her Mom in her.

The next school day, I asked her how her school day went.  She said "It was GREAT.  Jacob didn't really break up with me.  It was all just a big misunderstanding!"

So Carlie is dating the younger brother of our Senior Linebacker, and Madi is dating the youngest brother of our starting quarter back.  Hmmmm....I'm thinking this is a picture of my future!!!

Date Night

Papaw took his little girls out on a date to see the movie Puss and Boots.  He bought them Dairy Queen, let them buy candy, pop corn and pop that had SUGAR in it at the movie.   And even let them play some of the arcade games at the movie theater.  I don't know what they liked the most.....the movie or the junk food!