Saturday, May 22, 2010

Happy Birthday to my niece, Robyn!!!

Picture it......I'm 21 years old, "studying" for finals on the sun deck at my dorm at Baylor in my finest of bathing costumes and I get the news that my sister had a baby girl!!! May 23, 1968, Robyn Leigh Bryant graced our presence at a little more than 6 pounds and not very long! I don't have all the details....I'm not her mother....but I know she was little and cute! She was the first grandchild and niece of the Brooks-Bryant-Bain clan; 4 more were to follow but none cuter!

Robyn loved puppies, purses and shoes!! She still loves purses and shoes but couldn't care less about puppies! She had one of my schnauzers, "Wolfy", and he turned out to be crazy and they gave him away, twice, and now he rests in the land of wherever bad dogs go! He cured her of ever wanting another dog!

Bill, aka "Uncle Bucky" (affectionately named by Robyn and Melissa), and I kept Robyn when she was about 4 for a short time and one hot afternoon she tried to escape our backyard by climbing barefooted over our cedar fence! The thought makes my feet hurt now!! She must have had 200 stickers in the bottom of her little feet; Bill was elected to try to get them out! You think I'm not very gentle and tender!!! Bill makes me look like Mother Theresa! He sat her out on the back porch and proceeded to pull them out with the tweezers! She screamed until CPS came and rescued her!! I think this is when she started thinking of new names for her uncle and she came up with Uncle Bucky!! She probably wanted to nickname him something worse!!

When she was 3, I remember she couldn't say words with the letter "L" in them very well and we would always try to get her to say things with "L" in them so I guess we could laugh at her. I once said, "Robyn, can you say yellow?" and in her quick wit said, "No, but I can say pink"!! She had high ambitions as a young lady; she wanted to grow up and be a cheerleader!! Wonder where you go to school for that? Not Baylor!! and that's where she wanted to go. I don't think she ever tried out for Baylor cheerleaders; by that time she had discovered her other talents.

She wasn't exactly athletic and didn't like to sweat! (I might add that she still doesn't like to sweat and would love to live where there is zero humidity!! She complains about Houston's climate to this day but she sure does like to come visit my lake and jet ski!!!) She found a sport that was cold and didn't require sweating. When she was 7, she attended an ice skating birthday party and the rest is history! She took private lessons and then what followed were costumes, early morning practices, lots of driving over to Dallas, competitions, special blades, custom boots and only two scars to show for it!! She skated at the age of 10 for the opening of the ice rink at Prestonwood Mall with Jojo Starbuck - (wonder if she started the coffee franchises after her days on ice???). She was asked by some pro if she could move to Chicago and train!! (Wish someone had asked me if I wanted to ship one of my kids off to Chicago - I might have been more tempted!) She was nicknamed the little "dragonfly" because she was little and skated really fast. Her main goal was to skate fast enough "so her skirt would blow in the wind". She was a better skater than a cheerleader and she can still skate. She proved it to us a few years ago at Christmas when all the kids went skating one night. She even beat her cousin, David, in a race!! She never fell; can't say that for the rest of them - of course she still had her special skates and the rest of them had old rented skates!!

She took dance lessons, tap and baton like all little girls and loved the costumes and performing. She and her cousin, Jenny, were always putting on shows for the family and loved to try to organize the other two wild ones in the clan. David and Melissa were definitely a challenge and didn't cooperate very well so they were always given the bit parts while Jen and Robyn were always the lead roles with lots of lines and costume changes. I think Jaime was too young to have to be included; just as well....one less to organize! These performances came in handy when she went to Baylor and had to be in "Sing" for her sorority, "Theta". (I think that is how you spell that; I never was in one....P.E. majors didn't have time for such frivolity!)

She was not without faults!! Once she and her little friend across the street, who will remain nameless, went door to door to collect money for the Girl Scouts.....only thing wrong with this is that she wasn't in Girl Scouts....or Brownies....or Boy Scouts.....nothing!!! She simply stole the money and then, like all of us that get caught at our sins, promptly blamed it on someone else!! "I didn't ask for the money; the other girl did......but I took it!!" They spent the rest of the hot afternoon sweating, going door to door to return the money! What she didn't know was that all she had to do was buy some GS cookies and sell them for a profit!! Everyone loves Thin Mints and would have gladly paid extra for them!! Wish I had some right now....

Robyn has a great sense of humor and quick wit. We want her to write children's books but so far I haven't been invited to a book signing. I think she is ignoring God's gift but there is hope. She is quiet in a large group until you get to know her - then she has a loud, infectious laugh! She loves her family, especially her sister. They love to shop and are great buddies even to this day. Two of these pictures prove their love - a banana pudding fight at New Braunfels. I think Robyn got the worst end of the skirmish. I wish they had used the salad instead of the pudding!! Her cousins are more like sisters and a brother to her. They have had many hours of fun and laughter together. She has many pictures to prove it - she loves photography like her favorite aunt - OK.....I'm her only aunt but I'm still her favorite! She, too, always has a camera for every occasion and will probably be buried with it. Some people want to be buried with their books around them; we want our pictures around us! We call and talk photography all the time...some people talk about recipes and cooking.....not us!! She doesn't like cooking either but does it more than I do! She has to - she has 3 hungry boys to feed! My one hungry boy can drive through McDonalds.

After graduating from Baylor in 1990, Robyn married her high school sweetheart, Rich Rogers. They met at church at age 16 and they married on a cold wintry night in January of 1991. She wanted little girls but God gave her two of the cutest and wildest little boys with lots of energy! She says she's glad now...Harrison and Griffin aren't as expensive as girls, don't whine as much (just hit and fight!) and they won't borrow her shoes or purses! She's the queen of the house has learned a lot about baseball, football, dirty uniforms, crummy umpires, games in the rain and heat, mouthpieces, cups, stinky socks and rally hats. She also has learned how to sweat with grace!!

Robyn is a great niece to Bill and I, a great cousin to Jenny, David and Jaime, a wonderful granddaughter, mom, wife and sister but she is a absolute delight and blessing to Sherry and John!! She is everything they have ever wanted and they are very proud of her, Rich and the boys. Her love for the Lord is evident in all she does! Happy Birthday sweet Robyn. I love you and to prove it, I left out a lot of pictures that I could have used!!!





Wednesday, May 12, 2010

this is a practice test.....

you don't have to read any further....this is a practice test and I have nothing interesting to say except when I was swimming today some man got in my lane and ran into me. I thougtht at first it was an alligator......now on to practice something with the pictures. this is keely on the right. she is one now. this was turkey day when she was sick and didn't go to Ft. Worth with the rest of us. they probably ate turkey dinner from Luby's like Bill and I did the first year we moved to Houston. He was a pilot and on call so we couldn't leave so we ate at luby's and we were one couple of 4...all in different corners of the room. I found a match stick in my dressing. that was in 1970.

Now I have to write another paragraph so I can practice putting pictures here because I don't know the easy way to do this so I will just type a little more junk here and then try to drag a picture here. I'm an old dog and don't know how to be very computer/blog/email savvy....is that how you spell that. time for another picture.

Isn't he cute...don't you love the mullet hair do. This was his senior year after he pierced his own ear and grew this hair then went off to college and wrecked my car.

He then came home and was told to cut the hair and get rid of the earring. He went on to texas tech with no car and a roommate from Maylasia that he didn't know into an unairconditioned dorm. He didn't have a car all year and then when he got one it was his great aunt's old oldsmobile with valour seats..it was a piece of junk. teach him to wreck my mustang. time for another picture.

everyone needs some construction pictures in their blogs. I know, it's sideways, but it would look the same if I turned it 90 degrees. what is a degree? something you get in college but what is 90 degrees? who invented that? it's hard to explain that to an 8 year old....I tried the other night when I told him to do a 180....he didn't really catch on but then again, neither did I. where do you learn things like that? now it time to view this lovely post and see if it is doing the same goofy things it was before and then I'm going to try to find a way to fix it. see ya in a minute.

it finally snowed in shreveport when jenny was actually at home. aren't they cute. we are going there this weekend for the lovely 2 dance recitals. why 2? why can't they be in the same one.....it will be delightful and they will look cute in their costumes. Kate is in one dance and allie is in 3. In 3 weeks allie will be the part of "wind" in the downtown musical of aladdin. it will be great. 2 years ago she was in Lion King and her part was "grass". what next? Fire maybe or tornado in Wizard of Oz.....when will she get a real part? I don't know if I can keep driving there for non-human part. gotta go do another picture......




well this is Charlie and Jackson's first day of school picture. It is that day that every mom waits for until they bring all those papers home to fill out. They always look cute on the first day so the teacher will like them and she'll think they are sweet and will always act cute.....she will soon learn differently. the second day, it's back to cutoffs and a t-shirt with a dragon on it or a baseball or skateboard or last night's spaghetti. time to practice some more pictures.
This is a picture of Suz and Camryn,,,,,well part of cammie. she is at Grace Presbyterian for her baptism. She was really cute and stole the show from the other 2 babies there. Now I'm going to preview this and see what I need to repair. remember this is a test and why are you still readying this?