A Song and a Brownie Frosted with Memories

Amanda's first chorus event at Deer Creek was a music and dessert review. It's an idea that was new to me, but it was a pretty good one. I mean, who would argue with free dessert while being serenaded? There were 2 long tables loaded with all kinds of dessert from homemade to store bought and 2 risers set up for a high school choir and a middle school choir. It was pretty crowded there, in the lobby of the Alumni Hall, and Amanda's group was set up to the side in the shadows so my pictures didn't turn out very good. The singing was great though and really helped the desserts go down. As if dessert needed any help, sheeeesh. The high school groups sang songs by class period and then in a combined group, then the middle school sang some songs and then all sang combined. The middle school group is pretty big, I didn't do an official head count but I'd say there was around 40 girls and 1 boy in the choir. All in all it was a pretty nice evening. I moved around the room and tried to get a decent picture, but I didn't do very well.

The stupidest thing occurred to me at one point. Mom had not gone to a lot of the kids events in the last year or so because she couldn't see to drive at night. It occurred to me that if she were still here that she surely would have been there to see Amanda sing that night, and suddenly I had the sads in full force. What's stupid about it is if mom were still here she'd be living at home and I wouldn't be and the kids wouldn't be at Deer Creek in the first place for her to come and see anyway. But, I thought it and it made me sad and on we go. I'm sure that this won't be the only reminder from Deer Creek that tells me that I miss mom and dad. After all, I'm living in their house.

I started a facebook of my own a few days ago. I never had any interest on my own, but a niece invited me, and a lot of the extended family has a facebook, so I joined up. They have started a group called I HEART the Lazy J, to remember all things Granny and Papa Dodgen. Well, I don't just HEART the Lazy J, I own it. It's my home. But if you HEART the Lazy J, and you're reading this, then you probably know why I'm crying right now and you know what I wish was different out there right now. So many years of memories of coming in the back door, not as the master of the house but just as the son. I guess I still wish on some days that I'll open that door and hear dad call out Hellll-oooo from the other room, or see mom sitting at the table drinking tea and looking out at her birds. Still though, it's home, and if I have my way about it I'll not live anywhere else from now on. And to everyone that is a HEARTer of the Lazy J, that back door is still as open to you as it has been for going on 30 years now. If you are nearby, stop in, anytime. It's a lot different now, but it's a lot the same too. There's a balance there that I guess I'm still learning. It's both comforting and saddening at the same time to look at Tandy sit and watch the television while she works with her needle and thread. It's new, and yet it sometimes brings a flood of memories of another gal that used to do the same thing. I don't know how to explain it, you either get it or you don't.

Come by, we'll have dessert and sing a song, then maybe we'll remember those that have led the way before us. After all, they were the HEART of the Lazy J, and they are the reason we love it so much.