Hold the coconut, please!

To help you understand this story, I have to rewind back several decades...



When I was a child I loathed anything that contained coconut. It didn't matter what type of yummy dessert it was, if it contained coconut, I would gag uncontrollably with every taste. So, I just avoided it. This never seemed to bother my mom, especially since I was usually skipping the sweets. I just couldn't stand coconut!



Fast forward to the summer of 2003. I was on my lunch break from the dentist's office eating at a Chinese buffet. We were in a hurry, so I just piled some food on my plate, trying not to think of the ally cats that were probably stewing on the buffet table. After I had been back at work for a little bit, my mouth started itching and my lips got warm. One of the dentists asked what was wrong with my mouth, so I immediately ran to the bathroom to see what was wrong. Just imagine this...a little kid's lips who constantly licks and licks and leaves that yucky red ring around them...yep, that was me. I splashed some water on my mouth and went back to work, albeit a tad bit self-conscious about my face. It couldn't have been 30 minutes after that and my lips started tingling. Again, I returned to the bathroom, fearing what I'd see. Well, the sight definitely wasn't pleasant...my lips were swelling! Dr. Moore told me it was probably an allergic reaction to something, and threatened that if I didn't take a full dose of Benadryl, then he'd give me a shot of it. I'm so sensitive to medication, I knew that if I took even ONE Benadryl, I'd need a nap. Cautiously, I swallowed the pills and continued work...only to find myself dozing off in a patient's mouth during an extraction (no kidding). Oh my! Good thing that was only a summer job...



Fast forward again to 2004. I made a trip to Florida to see my sister. We decided to eat at Joe's Crab Shack as our final meal before heading out later that evening, and I ordered a huge platter of Coconut Shrimp. Even though I'm not a coconut fan, it sounded absolutely fantastic, and it was! I devoured it without thinking twice about it. So, we finished eating and hit the road-- Mississippi bound for a race the next morning. Before we even made it across the Florida border, I got that funny feeling again. Hello, mouth swelling! We swerved into a Publix and I once again tanked up on Benadryl so I wouldn't look like Jennifer Lopez after she consumed nuts in Monster in Law. I was hoping the effects of the medicine would wear off before the race...WRONG. I was so sluggish it wasn't even funny, at one point during the race I worried I was going to doze off and plummet out of the kayak into the murky Wolf River never to be seen again...never fear, my partner yelled at me and snapped me back into reality and I dragged myself through the rest of the race.

Later that same year, I had to go to a conference with my principal and two other teachers from school. After the last run-in with coconut, I was back to intentionally avoiding it. We went to eat dinner, and I ordered a Golden Crusted Tilapia. Nowhere on the menu did it say the golden crust contained coconut, but when it arrived, it was smothered in the stuff. I have to admit, I was a little bit disappointed when I saw this. I was on a very limited budget and couldn't afford to order anything else, so being the crafty person I am...I simply scraped the golden crust off my tilapia. I obviously shouldn't have eaten the fish because before we even got back to our hotel my mouth started burning! We had to make a pit stop at a Harps in the ghetto to once again purchase some Benadryl for my ever swelling lips.

Through several other encounters with coconut over the next couple of years, I found I didn't just dislike it, I was allergic to it!


Fast forward again to the present. I'm just curious...has your scalp ever itched so badly it was all you could do to will your fingers from pulverizing your head until the itch was gone? Well, embarrassingly enough, mine has been that way all month! I was seriously considering sneaking into WalMart and purchasing some Scalpicin. OK, on with the story... Earlier this month I decided I'd try out a new shampoo, don't know why I did this...I was just tired of the way the stuff I've used for the past 2 years smelled. I noticed shortly after I started using it, my head felt a little tingly. I just chalked it up to the arctic conditions we've been experiencing lately and didn't give much more thought to it...until I started to notice the itch every time I sat down at my desk. Being the germ-a-phobe that I am, I immediately became obsessed with the thought that I might have caught head lice from my sweet little kiddies at school. Never fear, after closely inspecting my head in various types of lighting from several different angles, I determined I was indeed louse-free, but the itch was still there. I became a closet head-scratcher. I found myself scratching every time I thought someone wasn't looking...I scratched so much earlier this week that I thought I saw some of my scalp scratching off. I had scratched so much I gave myself dandruff!! So, today I got the grand idea that I would leave conditioner on my hair for an extra long time and moisturize that gross dandruff away. And I did just that, until my scalp started burning horribly. Right away all kinds of bizarre worries shot through my head, and I fully expected to see large chunks of my hair falling out as I furiously rinsed the conditioner. As I was turning off the shower to get out, I happened to glimpse at my new shampoo and conditioner, and this is what I saw on the bottle: 'A fusion of orchid and coconut milk'. A rush of relief flooded over my burning scalp as I read those words...I don't have a horrible scalp disease! I'm not going to have to wash with Head and Shoulders for the rest of my life or take out stock in Scalpicin! It's just the coconut! It turns out my skin is allergic to it too. Whew. I'm chunking that shampoo.

Out of the mouths of babes (or toddlers)

My mom came up Wednesday night to celebrate Paige's birthday with us, and she brought my sweet, rowdy, picky little nephew with her. I cooked dinner for us, with his pickiness in mind, and attempted to make something he would eat. I was so excited to finally come up with a great kid friendly meal...I made him a grilled cheese (since he wouldn't eat the chicken I made...or the green beans...or the rice), so I opened up some of the blue box thinking he'd love his cheese filled supper--and only be slightly constipated from all the cheese. Besides, what kid doesn't like mac and cheese??? Obviously, Zayne!! He politely informed me with a grin on his face, that he didn't like mac and cheese! So, being the awesome example I am, I called him a goofball. Well, he thought it was so funny he laughed his biggest laugh and smiled his goofiest smile EVER!! I guess he'd never heard the word "goofball"!

I tried to get him to tell my mom what I called him, and he wouldn't repeat it at first. He did the same thing with Michael and Paige. Now, Zayne isn't ever shy around me, so I was having a hard time figuring out why he was acting weird, and making me whisper the word in his ear before he said it.

Well, here's why: yesterday evening at his home, he called my step-dad a "do-do ball"! Oh my! Yes, I'm teaching my nephew to have the finest vocabulary of any 3 year old! Leave it to Aunt Jody Gruff...

Happy birthday to Paige!

Yea! It's Paige's birthday! Today my sweet (big) baby turns 13...I can't believe it.

I still remember Paige's sweet little face the night she was born...round and chubby with big blue eyes. She looked around for hours, taking it all in as everyone (and I mean everyone--grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends) passed her around, not crying once the entire time...just trying to figure this world out. She was such a beautiful and sweet baby.

When Paige was a little thing, I went to school and had to work a lot, but on the Saturday's I didn't have to work, it was our day to hang out. We would always start by cleaning the house (yes, she actually liked helped out back then!), and end at her Little Tykes picnic table in her play room. We would both crowd around that tiny thing, me with my knees squeezed underneath, and munch down on breakfast or lunch or have fantastic little tea parties. Tea party was always one of her favorite things to play (at home and with Gigi), along with jumping on the bed at Nana's house (thanks, Nana)!
Paige has always loved music. I remember one night she called me to her bedroom saying she had a surprise for me. She made me sit on the floor while she crawled up on the bed, stood up like she was a superstar on stage, and turned on her CD player. She serenaded me with "Your Heart Will Lead You Home" from the Tigger Movie! I'll have to say I had to fight tears back on that night...it was so precious! Paige was such a sweet little girl, and that was one of my favorite memories.

As an elementary schooler, she always had the sweetest, most caring nature of any kid I'd ever been around. She had (and still has) such a giving spirit. Another of my favorite memories with Paige is the year she wanted to buy Christmas gifts with her own money. We got up super early on Black Friday and hit Lowe's in Russellville because they had big flash lights on sale that she wanted to buy all of the men in our family. I thought we were NEVER going to pick out all of those flash lights. She went through each one, picking out the color that she thought each person would like the best, not paying any attention to the ever-growing grumbling crowd behind her.

Then came the double-digit years. I knew friends were becoming more important to her than I was. Especially in the last two years, our house has been filled (and I mean filled) with laughter and giggles when she has friends over for the night. Although the giggling gets loud on occasion, I wouldn't trade it for anything (I do wish we had designed our house a little differently on some nights, though)! I am so thankful that she has great friends.

I have so many memories of Paige that make me laugh and smile that I couldn't begin to share them all. I am so blessed to have seen my sweet baby grow into a sweet young lady. It's hard to believe she's not a tiny little thing that likes to play with toys anymore, but that doesn't change the fact that she's still my sweet baby doll, even if she is as big as me!

Happy birthday, Paige!

What a counselor does...

So, if you're reading this, odds are you know me well enough to know I've taught middle school for the past 6 years. This year, however, I was blessed enough to change positions and become an elementary school counselor. Yes, that's right, elementary school. I used to believe this type of place would be my worst nightmare (the germs, wiping snotty noses, tying dirty shoes, grubby little hands, kids touching me...you get the idea), but I'm proud to say, I was wrong!
From the first day on, these kids have kept me rolling...I mean laughing my butt off! But they would probably say "uuuummmmmm, you said 'butt'" if they read that, so to put it in kid friendly terms, laughing my bottom off. When I come home and tell Michael and Paige about what the kids have said or done, they both tell me I need to write this stuff down so I don't forget...so this is my attempt to share some comical stories (while writing them down so I won't forget)!

On the first day of school, I had my first class of kindergarteners. They were scared, I was scared, we were all in the same boat (even if it was for different reasons). Since kindergarteners obviously have never been in school before, I thought it would be a grand idea to tell them what a counselor does. My *best* explanation was 'a counselor is a person who can help you with problems or listens when you need someone to talk to'. Immediately I had a sweet face with strawberry-blonde hair ever so slowly ease his hand into the air with a weary expression on his face. I asked him if he had a question, and he politely told me he had a problem and then ripped right into telling about it. He said, "Well, I've been having this problem...with, um, with...with diarreah. My mom keeps giving me medicine, but its not working and I still have that dirreah. Can you help me?" Oh my! He didn't give a second thought to what the other kids would think, in his mind dirreah was his biggest problem! It was all I could do to keep a straight face and not humiliate him by laughing... My first response was, "Do you need to go to the bathroom?" Geez. How counselorish.

On the second day of school, a teacher approached me and told me about one of her friend's kid (from the same class as the first day) who went home and told her mom all about her first day at kindergarten. On the first night, the little girl was attempting to watch a TV show after a long day at school, and the satellite went out. The little girl had obviously had a super long and stressful day because she went bonkers, crying and saying she needed to call a counselor. He parents couldn't understand where she heard about a counselor or had seen one, finally the little girl told them she just had to call the school counselor right then because 'at school today the counselor told us she could help us fix our problems'! Oh, if the satellite going out were my biggest problem, what a day it would be!

Although I love and miss my hormonal, onery teenagers from the middle school, I really love the innocence and sweet, trusting nature of these little fellas!

My first attempt at blogging

I'm not certain I'll have anything interesting to say, nor does this blog have a specific objective...
But here we go, that's life at the Robertson's house!