The Sanborns

It’s been a while since Chile graced the blog with his presence.

He’s still alive and usually anti-social for the most part. I’m sure he’s looking forward to Thanksgiving more than we are, he gets to be alone for a few days!

Two short stories that I’ve decided to share with you all.

Sunday morning we stayed home from church. We were exhausted from the party the night before and I had gotten the vaccine on Friday so I wasn’t feeling that great in general. It was around ten that morning that someone knocked on our door.

I seem to attract the crazies and wasn’t dressed properly so I ran to the bathroom where Gray was about to shower. “There is someone at the door!” “Ok, answer it….” I don’t want to, you do it.” “Um, dear, I’m not exactly dressed to greet them.”

Poor Gray had to grab some clothes very fast and run to the door. It turned out to be a local church who was handing out bags of toiletry items in the name of Jesus. They invited us to their church and were going in a minute.

As I was looking through the bag of goodies I’m pretty sure I said, “It’s just like Christmas!”

————–

The other story involves ATMS and checks. On Saturday morning, we had a few errands to run before I could begin cooking. I suggested that this time we withdraw money for our groceries so we’re not tempted to splurge on sweets/snacks during the middle of the week. So we drove our to an ATM and withdrew some money before going to Petco to get the chinchilla some supplies.

Flash forward to Sunday night in bed. I’m laying there and suddenly freak out. You see, my mom had sent me a check and Trina had written me another and I thought we had deposited them without signing them. I went into crazy mode for about a minute until Gray finally grabbed his wallet and pulled out the checks. My mind had made up out a memory that we had gone to deposit those checks, which was an intention but didn’t end up happening because we forgot. Gray called me crazy and we went to sleep.

I just thought I’d shared, since I needed something to write about for today.

We’re in Memphis for the week. Since Gray and I both have three weeks of nothing before school starts back, we thought it was be a great opportunity to visit with our families since the summer has been kind of dead in that category.

It’s definitely been an adventure so far. We walked three miles at Shelby Farms and did a drive by of Graceland. We also had a nasty run in at a McDonald’s downtown that had disgusting bathrooms. I’m sure you realize we didn’t stay there to get ice cream.

I’ve been reading the Sookie Stackhouse series and I’m almost finished with book one and luckily brought book two with me (Thanks Trina!). I’ve also started watching Lost season one and although I’m not addicted, I can see how people get obsessed with the show.

Today Gray and I are hopefully going to the zoo so my next post will hopefully be more appealing to read.

On a side note, what do you think about the health care reform? I think a lot of people are not reading for themselves and are judging it based on the misrepresentation of facts by others. I’m not sure exactly what I think about President Obama’s plan, but I do agree that the health care industry needs reform of some kind.

I turned 24 a week ago. Gray and I decided last minute to drive to good ole McEwen (my hometown) to celebrate with my family. I was excited to finally be able to share with Gray the famous Irish Picnic and its barbecue.  What ended up occurring was a lot of socializing.

Saturday turned out to be a busy day for us. We woke up early and headed over to the picnic to get the BBQ and explored a bit.

The annual Irish Picnic

Gray admitted that the BBQ was pretty good, we chowed down on it all weekend!

Other things that occurred that weekend included: picking up a cake for my birthday (red velvet and sadly it wasn’t very good), visiting my mom at work, getting some yummy homegrown green beans, and helping my sister move.

My mom, busy at her real estate office, Exit Now Realty!

We helped my sister pack up her old apartment and she gave us 20+ rolls of toilet paper!

The birthday cake my parents bought me.

OK, so all of that occurred just on Saturday!

Sunday was my birthday and I was pretty excited. That soon fell flat because let’s face it, turning 24 isn’t exactly awesome.  I went to church with my family where my mom insisted on telling everyone it was birthday. I actually appreciated that because I’m an attention whore on my birthday, always.

My mom actually made me try hula hooping that morning, while I was having coffee with a lot of sugar. My mom said something about me drinking coffee, COFFEE. I think she can’t believe I’m grown up sometimes.

I had to put a dollar in the offering plate for my birthday. It’s a tradition the church does and I asked my dad for that dollar. He already had one ready. My dad is pretty solid.

I don’t remember the rest of the day very well, blame it on my old age.

So now I’m 24, and really there isn’t much to look forward to is there? Well except, maybe, babies.

Aragog, the spider that made it all the way from McEwen to Murfreesboro!

For the 4th, Gray’s parents and brother came up to Murfreesboro to hang out with us for the weekend. We gathered up in the van with Chad and Trina and drove to downtown Nashville to see their fireworks/music/4th of July extravaganza. We ended up getting there are 1:30 in the afternoon and the fireworks weren’t scheduled until 9pm. Obviously we had a lot of waiting to do.

Nashville’s display is ranked pretty high in the nation so we knew the all day camp out to watch them was worthy of our time.

We found a really good spot and spread out some blankets to stake our claim. There had been some discussion about coolers because the official websites said they weren’t allowed. We ended up getting ours out of the van because there were definitely coolers everywhere!

There were some fun things to do, like inflatables and walking around downtown. They also had a misting tent (my favorite part, it was HOT!) and freebies like ice cream… which helped in the tremendous heat. Trina and I actually stayed under umbrellas for a few hours because of the heat. Who cares about a tan, I just want to stay alive!

Then came the rain… we were prepared with umbrellas and ponchos and the first rain wasn’t so bad. It cleared up and we could hear a few of the performers  (none of which I knew) while we waited. Sam showed up around 7:15 and by then it was getting so packed, she couldn’t find the stairs to come down to us! Once she got down to us, it was time for a last minute bathroom break. The port-a-potties were available but by this time we had realized that the restauraunts were much better. After a 15 minute wait, we made it into one and out. Of course, we realized we had to fight our way back down to our seat. Let’s just say, we all brought out the guns… we’re not really mean people unless we have to be… So Sam, Trina, and I fought our way back, not without a few people cussing us out and Sam had to push a child away from us. I’m pretty sure Trina was groped in the process. hah.

We made it back to our seats just in time. Wynona Judd had just finished and since it was about to rain AGAIN, they decided to go ahead and light the fireworks. Gray and I captured a small taste of the show to share with you all, it’s from the very beginning. I wish I had captured the finale because it truly captured the idea of being in a war zone, it was insane! For the record, usually the Nashville Sympony  plays live alongside of the fireworks. This year because of the rain, they played beforehand and we listened to a recording.

Fireworks from Becca Sanborn on Vimeo.

P.S. – While we were in Nashville, the body of Steve McNair was found, just a few blocks away from where we were. It turned out that we drove past it just as they found his body. We found out before they announced it thanks to the technology of a cell phone. It’s a heart breaking loss for the Tennessee Titans, he took us all the way to the Superbowl back in 1999, the only time we’ve ever been.  Please keep his family and friends in your prayers and thoughts as they mourn him in this horrible tragedy.

Everytime I think of something to blog about I’m not near a computer. So I think to myself, “Oh, I’ll blog later.” HAHAHA Never happens…
A few things have happened lately that I think are blog worthy. First off, Chile celebrated a year of being with us on the 17th! I totally meant to dedicate an entire entry to him but that went out the window because I forgot!!

Thursday morning I experienced something rather frightening at work. A co-worker was drunk and being unruly. That is pretty much all I can say about it, but for a while I was really scared and at the same time, I wanted to punch him for making sexist remarks. We ended up calling campus security and well, that’s all I know about the situation.

I had to go to class after that incident and I was still a bit shaken up from the experience. Luckily, we are so far ahead in class that she let us go early! Also, I got my lab practical grade back and I got an A! I have my second lecture test on Monday and I’m not feeling good about it yet..

The only other semi-exciting thing in my life right now is my mini herb garden. I recently transported the plants into their own pots (aka empty coffee containers) and now I’m just waiting and watching to see if they’ll survive the move.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and Happy Father’s Day to all you dads.

As I previously posted, my Uncle Jim passed away on the same day my sister got married.

Uncle Jim had been sick for a while, although I did not know about it. That happens a lot in our family, mainly because it’s so huge! He was married to my mom’s sister Helen and had two or three children. It’s rather surreal for another death to occur, and I think that is because they aren’t rapidly dying off. I know, that sounds morbid, but let me give you a brief history. My mom was one of ten kids and my dad was one of eight. Out of the 18, 4 have passed, two on each side. However, multiple spouses have been lost, making many of my aunts/uncles widows.

I was informed that Uncle Jim was on life support a few days before he died. It kind of hit me how for granted I take my family. I really should visit them more often because you never know when someone’s called home.

The death got me thinking about a family reunion a few years back. My mom was asked to bless the meal and she start crying during her prayer! When we asked her what was wrong, she said that she had realized it was probably the last meal they would all be together and alive. However, we must not forget to mention that my mom had a sister  named Shirley who died about fifteen years ago from cancer, so they were not all together and alive, just the majority. The following year my mom’s sister May passed away and so began the reality that my family would start getting old and dying.

I sometimes forget that detail of my life. You see, my parents are actually in their 60s. They had me in their late 30s/early 40s and my mom is the youngest in her family, so the fact that only two of ten kids has died, that’s amazing! My dad has lost two siblings, both were sisters. I actually never met my Aunt Evelyn, but I do remember when Aunt Dottie died. I remember being overwhelmed with grief and not understanding why I was so upset.

I realized after Dottie died that you never truly realize how close you are to someone until they pass away or get sick.

So this weekend when Uncle Jim was first put on life support, I felt weird. I’m not very good at handling grief, even though I’ve been to many funerals. I actually have skipped out on a few funerals just because I know I will cry. It’s the emotional part of me that comes out, even if I’m not truly emotional connected to the grief. I will not be attending Uncle Jim’s funeral, but that is due to the fact that I’m currently in a class/work. I think that the part of me that wants to grieve is actually crying out for my Aunt Helen. I can’t imagine the pain of losing a spouse, but I know it must be hard, especially if you’ve been together as long as they had!

This brings me to the second part of this post, my big sister got married. My brother and sister are 17 and 19 years older than me. I was 3 the first time my sister got married. She was married for about ten years and had a baby when she got divorced. I had never experienced a divorce in my family up until then and realized how hard it is on everyone. She has dated a lot over the past ten years and has had a few good men, and a lot of jerks. Mostly jerks that looked like good men. When she moved back to McEwen a few years ago, she got a job at a local law firm as a secretary. My mom actually tells the story about how she got the job, but instead referred Mike to Tracey saying, “You’re going to love my daughter.” She just had no idea he really would! Tracey has worked for Mike a few years and after a year of dating, he proposed. They got married June 6, 2009 in New Orleans.

It’s such a joy to see my sister finally with a man who loves her and will treat her right. It’s also nice to finally have a lawyer in her family.

Over the weekend a lot has happened. My Uncle Jim passed away on the same day my sister eloped in New Orleans. I’m stuck in Murfreesboro for the entire month because of work and school and I can’t help to think about how perfect all that timing was…

It’s hard to believe that I finished a week of summer school and only have four more to go.

There is much to say, but unfortunately, no time to say it currently.

I was checking up on Chile this weekend and I noticed his water bottle was low. I thought this was rather odd, considering he doesn’t drink that much and we had just filled it up. So I grabbed the bottle and went to fill it up. Yeah, that’s when I noticed this:

Yes, Chile chewed a hole in his water bottle. This prompted us to run to the store and buy him a new, chew proof water bottle.

I am so proud of this purchase because it’s like we can rub it in his face, “You can’t chew this one buddy.”

I know, I’m a bad pet owner. Seriously though, we’ve had him for almost a year and he chews everything. First we had to replace his hay basket (seen in the left corner of the photo) because he chewed it off and caught himself up in it. It was actually kind of hilarious because I discovered him at three in the morning.

Notice the rubber ducky? It’s to let us know when the water level is getting low, in his new GLASS water bottle. Try to chew on that kid.

Gray got a haircut yesterday. He has been complaining since his last haircut that his hair is too long. That is what happens when you tell them you want a “trim” and not a few inches off.

So we went to Wal-mart because it was cheap and close. After wanting for an eternity, Gray was seen and I wandered off in the store in search of entertainment.  When Gray finally caught up with me, he looked like this:

Well hello, Grady Jr.!