Thing #13

I had never hard of Zoho before this class and I'm now hooked. I will definitely use this site to transport documents from home to school. Even though I use my flash drive, I have been known to forget the thing in the computer at home or school. This program will solve the problem.

In the classroom, I see Zoho as something my kids could use on the laptop and then those who have Internet access at home could use to finish their documents. I will share this site with colleagues and friends who will come up more creative ideas than I ever could.

I did find publishing to my blog easy and simple so that's something I will introduce to my Quest students also. Enjoy.

Dear Mom,

I remember when I used to get so angry with you for making me rewrite my homework because it was messy, or for making me make my bed before I left home, or bathe off my fresh layer of sand. I remember when I used to get angry with you because you would come into my room and take my flashlight to keep me from reading when I should have been sleeping or when you would discipline me for acting up no matter where we were. I still remember the temper tantrum I threw in McClellan's for a pair of flip flops and you had to buy the flip flops because they tore up when you spanked me with them. (Now someone would say that was child abuse even though the only thing hurt was my pride.)

Remember when I used to sneak your best cake pans outside to make "mud cakes", or when you would let us play outside in our underwear during a spring rain, or how I used to challenge you to our "animal name calling contest" and you'd let me call you a jackass. Remember how you would pinch my cousin and me for playing in church and when I told the preacher I wanted to be a madam. Remember when I used to ask you what a word meant and you would say, "Look it up."

Remember when you told me that, "I brought you in this world, and I will take you out." and I still believe that. Remember when you used to cook my friends and I thin T-bone steaks and eggs for Saturday breakfast and how all of my friends wanted to spend time in the country with us instead of at home. Remember the kegs of Kool-Aid and water on the porch, locking us outside to play because we would track mud on your freshly moppped and waxed hardwoods, the summer softball games in the pasture, and the kickball games in the winter in the pasture, and the Halloween party in the barn, and when I jumped out of the barn into the pond and chipped my tooth only to have it fixed and then I chipped it again and decided I like the chipped tooth better because it was a "war wound".

Remember how you taught me how to can food, make preserves, wash on a washboard, make lye soap, cook from scratch, dry fruit on an piece of tin, to sew, to unplug a drain (the old-fashined way), how to tell which plants I could eat if I was lost in the woods, how to build a campfire, how to cross the road when new tar was being laid, how to be a good respectful girl so that boys would understand that I'm marriage material, and how to climb in the "curving" if a tornado comes. Remember when the bike chain came off of my bike and I thought it would be a good idea to super glue it back on but ended up super gluing my hand to the chain. Remember when I got gum in my Kindergarten teacher's hair?

Oh, remember how you used to rent horror movies and we would watch them together and then when it was time to walk Keisha home you would sneak out and scare us. Man, you sounded just like Jason coming. Remember after I watched Psycho, I started calling you "Mother" like Norman when I was I angry with you. Remember when you and Daddy bought the GMC Jimmy with 23 miles on it and told me that, "it's yours if you want it and yours if you don't" and I was the first girl in Marshall with an SUV and who was driving at the age of 15. WOW!

Remember how you came to school to tell me that your grandmother had passed and when I went to pieces you were my rock and how even though Daddy would let me get away with murder you stood firm. Remember when I came in past curfew and you didn't yell, but gave me a blanket and made me sleep in the car during winter and you came out to check on me every hour. Remember when I started the food fight in junior high when you didn't yell or spank, but you made me eat crackers and water for lunch the next day and my friends refused to help me because you "whip people". Remember how Craig and Kenyatta came down the night before and morning of before I left for college because none of us wanted to go our separate ways and we stood in the yard and made plans to get together once a month no matter where we are and we still do.

Remember when you told me it was okay to stop playing softball because my ankles and knees would no longer let me even though it meant I would no longer be on ASA Select, remember your "how to use a condom" demonstration to my friends and I and you told us that if we were old enough to do what adults do, then we needed to be old enough to be honest with our parents before we did anything. Remember when I used to get stuck in the cedar tree because my pet geese would chase me and when I asked for a calf for a pet and named her Cherry because she was the color of cherries. Remember when Trigger kept eating your elephant ears and you reminded me that he was a Shetland pony not a dog and that if I wanted to keep him, I was going to have to turn him out in the pasture, but somehow he just getting back into the yard. (I'm sure you know, but I "accidently" left he gate open each night so he could sleep under my window.)

Remember when I graduated from high school and my whole family, cousins and all, stood up and yelled, "Bojangle". Remember when I graduated from college and I thought you would not get to come because you were recovering from having a breast tumor removed, but when I walked outside and saw you I couldn't walk to you because I had so many tears in my eyes. Remember when I graduated with a Master and you told me not to think I was Master of anything. Remember when I graduated again and you told me that I must have been serious when I said I was going to be a professional student.

Well Mama, I remember those things and I could not imagine not having you and my Daddy as my parents. Some people will never understand the power of time spent with their child is much more than the things bought. Some children will never understand what it's like to grow up the way I did, in the country, staying outside to all times of night, having everything I needed and most of what I wanted. Some children will never understand that having boundaries and expectations do make you a better person and some people will never understand that "sparing the rod" does make a spoiled child.

Remember how I used to love shelling purple hull peas and going to work with you to see your patients and how when you started working 11 to 7 I would go to work with you so all the "old people could play with me and treat me like I was their grandchild." Remember when I told you that I wanted to be a teacher and you said that you wanted to be a teacher but chose nursing instead because you weren't able to pay for college to be a teacher.

One last thing, I still don't appreciate all those spankings I got for cussing, because your grandmother is one who taught me how!

I love you Mama.