This past weekend at Mamoo’s 90th birthday party I had a chance to sit down and read some of the journal entries in the scrapbook that my mom and sister created for her. They had several family members and friends contribute a note to my grandmother about how she had impacted their lives. Then, they combined the note with some photos of that person and Mamoo.

The entries were funny, touching, happy, reflective, and encouraging. Each of them unique, but all with a common theme of how one person had affected several lives.

One stood out to me.

My cousin Judd – the son of my mom’s sister, Bobbie – was killed in a car accident when he was just in his 20s. I don’t remember the exact date, but I do remember the day – that is, I remember exactly where I was standing, how I was standing, and how I felt when my dad woke me up early on a Saturday morning to tell me the horrible news. I remember sitting in our TV room – silent and reflective – as my mom made phone calls to our very large extended family. None comfortable, but all necessary.

I sat there thinking about Judd’s wife Lisa and his young son Zach. Being just a teenager in high school, I didn’t have the grasp on the gravity of the situation as I do today, but I knew that they would be hurting and that there was a new void in their lives.

So, when I sat down to experience Mamoo’s journal, it was bittersweet when I turned to the page with Lisa’s entry.

Lisa wrote about how when she and Judd were first married they were staying with Mamoo and my late grandfather, Papaw. One night Papaw had down a few more beers than he might should have – as he was wont to do on occasion – and he told my grandmother (as Lisa so accurately recorded), “I waaaaaaaaant a saaaaandwich!!!!” Anyone who knew my grandfather, Lucien, could not help but smile at reading that, as it was said not as a command, but simply a request out of a strong desire! Some of us want IHOP when we get hungry after a few drinks — my grandfather wanted a sandwich.

Lisa recalled that her face showed concern at the situation, but Judd told her not to worry. Then, my grandmother dutifully got up and made my grandfather a sandwich. Lisa quickly told Judd not to ever think about telling her to make him a sandwich in a similar situation!!!

As I read Lisa’s journal entry outloud, all of us laughed at her assessment of the situation… How absurd to think that my grandmother should get up and make Papaw a sandwich!!!

Then, I read the next line of Lisa’s entry…

“I wish I had made those sandwiches for Judd.”

Filed under: Personal
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I travelled to Dubach, Louisiana this weekend for my grandmother’s surprise 90th birthday party. While we certainly did debate whether it was a great idea to “surprise” our 90 year-old grandmother, we knew should would handle it with ease. She was pretty shocked to see all of her gathered family and friends in the First Baptist Church’s Fellowship Hall!!

One of the very cool things about her birthday celebration, which was held a week before her actual birthday – April 3rd, was a scrapbook that my mom and sister put together. They gathered photos from all of the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and even great-great-grandchildren to put in the book. More importantly, however, they had everyone submit a note to Mamoo (or “Mother” or “Grandma” as some in our family call her – depending on how old they are and which nickname was in vogue at the time).

I didn’t get to read through the entire book, but my sister Natalie and I browsed through a lot of it and read many of the entries – it was impossible not to get choked up at the wonderful memories that were included in each person’s note.

I thought that I would share my note to Mamoo here…

It’s hard to sum up Mamoo in just a few words! When I think of Mamoo, I think of summer visits when I was a kid – hanging out and playing all day, but mostly trying to behave enough to avoid the dreaded switch!!! Visits at Mamoo’s were special because they included things that you didn’t have at home – Frosted Flakes, whole milk, cool ice cube trays, dumplings and corn bread, and fried apple pies – but best of all, Mamoo!

One of the best Mamoo memories that I have is when she and Pappaw made a surprise visit to us in England. We all went to the airport to pick up a “business associate” of my dad’s – or so we had been told. As soon as we entered the terminal I asked my dad which flight we were looking for – he immediately found one that was delayed and told me that was the one. I watched for updates every few minutes and at one point remarked, “Hey – there is a flight from New Orleans today!” Of course, I never caught on until we saw Pappaw and Mamoo come out of the terminal doors. Richele, Natalie and I all yelled “MAMOO!!!” and made a mad dash for hugs!

I was happy to turn the tables on Mamoo a little last year, when I showed up for a surprise visit! Visits to Mamoo’s haven’t changed all that much – there’s still always an abundance of corn bread and fried apple pies (especially when her grandchildren come around) – and still best of all, Mamoo is right there in the middle of everything!

Mamoo is very much the heart and soul of our extended family. She is the reason that all of the sons and daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren all come together during holidays. Now 90 years old, I’m not sure that I should say she is “wise beyond her years”, but she is… Mamoo is the true model of wisdom, giving, selflessness, and love for our entire family – for which we are all incredibly thankful and indebted to her.

We love you Mamoo! Happy 90^th birthday!!!

Filed under: Personal
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Ok, it’s not Carrie’s actual birthday, but it is her blog birthday!

Exactly one year ago today Carrie started her blog! Cool!

I’m sure that you all have enjoyed reading her posts about life, family, work, faith, and yoga as much as I have! Oh, yeah, also posts about the wedding (said like “The blessing!!” by Uncle Lewis in Christmas Vacation)!!

So, be sure to stop by Carrie’s blog and wish her a happy blog birthday!

Filed under: Personal
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This is why the NCAA Basketball Tournament is the best sporting event ever. Jermaine Wallace of Northwestern State (14) nails a fallaway 3–pointer from the corner with 0.5 seconds left to upset Iowa (3).

Awesome.

Filed under: Officiating, Personal
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Entered a $3 rebuy tourney last night. Again, while working — this time on our wedding website – cool

For those that don’t know, rebuy tournaments allow you to buy back in when you bust out. You get 1500 in chips for $3 and can rebuy if you have 1500 or fewer chips. Thus, normally at the start of the tournament everyone immediately rebuys so that they can start off with 3000 in chips. I played very aggressively, which is the right way to play a rebuy tournament, for the first hour. I doubled up, busted out, and doubled up again. Right before the end of the rebuy period I flopped a boat with the flores (6 3), only to get all the chips in the middle and get sucked out when a king fell on the river, giving the other guy kings-full (yes – he had pocket kings!)

No problem… I still had 2600 or so in chips and used them wisely! The top 7 places paid and a few hours later I had “won” (note that “winning” in a satellite tournament like this means coming in the top 7 places – all of them “pay” the same).

So, Sunday I will take my shot in the PokerStars $1,000,000 guaranteed tournament. I’m going in with no expectations, which is good because there are already 800+ players registered and will probably be almost double that by the time the tournament starts! I hope and plan to do well, but you never know what’s going to happen.

Filed under: Poker
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