Happy Birthday to my craziest niece, Melissa!!

August 6th - A day that will live in infamy!! On that day in 1945, the U.S. dropped a bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Life there was never the same ....on that day in 1973, Sherry and John dropped a bomb on Ft. Worth in the form of Melissa Lynne Bryant and life as we knew it was never the same!! Famous people born on August 6th are Actor Robert Mitchum, Poet Alfred Lord Tennyson and Actress Lucille Ball of "I Love Lucy"...which do you think most fits our Melissa?!?!

What a mess! Her mom wrote in her baby book at an early age that she was "sneaky and evil"! Some things never change. I just witnessed about a month ago her putting a slimy frog down her sister's top while out on the dock. I don't know many girls that would even pick up a frog and I know none that would want it down their top!! This "free spirit" started at an early age. One hot summer day, the mailman rang the door bell and handed Sherry 3 baby kittens that he found in the mailbox. They were, of course, all sweaty and on death's door....Was she trying to mail them? Who will ever know! None died, I'm glad to report - just a little brain damaged...but aren't all cats a little crazy anyway?

Melissa was a cut-up at school and loved to entertain her classmates thus she was frequently in trouble; however, she was very likable so the teachers never really could get too mad! She had a way of making them laugh also. She talked a lot and was once relegated to sit at the table of very quiet kids in order to keep her quiet, figuring if none of them would talk to her, then she'd also not talk. After 10 minutes the whole table was acting up and laughing. So much for the teacher's best efforts! School was never high on Melissa's list - it was a social affair at best. She had no intentions of going to college, in fact, she never even took the SAT or ACT tests. Later in life when someone asked her where she went to school she replied, "Butler Elementary"!

Before she was "Mel" she was known as "Mo" - short for molasses!! Her Uncle Bill changed her name! Never was there a slower child! You had to literally hold her arms up to put them into the sleeves of her shirt - and she was 4 years old for Heaven's sake!!!...an age quite capable of doing such a simple task! She is still slow!!!! When we go shopping, we tell her we are leaving at 9:00 so she'll be ready by 10:30! I could go mow the entire yard, feed the dogs, paint the house, cook breakfast, take a shower, get dressed and be ready and she is still sitting in the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her wet head, putting on her make-up! This is the gospel truth - if I'm lying, I'm dying!! She stayed with us once and we went to the beach. I thought Bill was going to leave her on the side of the road in Galveston - Patience is not his finest virtue and neither is this beautiful shirt he has on here - and don't you love his capri pants!

Melissa loved her older sister, Robyn, and her cousins, Jenny, David and Jaime. They spent many holidays together and even put on a live nativity at Christmas time. She played the part of the "uninterested, lazy angel" as seen here holding onto the bushes to keep her wings spread out! Robyn was "Mary", Jaime was "Baby Jesus", David was "Joseph" and Jenny was....I don't know, but I'm sure it was an important part because she and Robyn always had the best parts! Melissa and David couldn't have cared less and Jaime was too little to voice her opinion. Mel liked being with all the cousins but none better than David...they are 9 months apart and equally "sneaky and evil". They always wanted to marry each other but Texas frowns on such things; besides, think of what their offsprings would have been like!? Heaven help us!

Her 2-week visit to Houston in the early 80's was an adventure of neighborhood terrorism. I cannot tell you all they did during those 2 weeks. One reason is because I don't know and don't want to know all they did, but also because they both might be put in jail - but let's just say they were not holding neighborhood Bible studies! It reminded me a little of "To Kill a Mockingbird" but I think they might have been doing more than knocking on the door of Boo Radley's ramshackled house!

One of their wildest escapades was taken out on the poor neighbors next door - the Divins! They had moved out and their unoccupied house made for a perfect Crime Lab. I honestly didn't know they were over there! One hot afternoon, I opened the back gate to see David, Mel and Jaime (the innocent) standing there white as a sheet and sweating profusely. Little did I know that while they were next door in their secret hiding place, the owners came home to find it - well, let's just say, not in the same shape they had left it in! The 3 terrorists hid in the far back corner of a walk-in closet, shaking in their boots, finally narrowly escaping through a window and into our backyard. It was some time later that I found out why they were so scared. The lady of the house had left her bottles of hair color in one room and they decided to "graffiti" the walls! They wrote "Party Blood" on the carpet and "Death to all" on the wall. We heard later, by the new owners, that every time they painted the walls in that room that "something keeps bleeding through"...Hmmm...wonder what that could be!? Their poor swimming pool had tons of leftover trash thrown into it - toilets, bowling balls, rakes, boards, pillows and even a hot water heater!! I don't know if these fine young people did this or not, as I was not there, but I'm just sayin'....... In 1973, the year sweet Melissa was born, the burglars who broke into the Democratic headquarters at Watergate were caught - They should have taken lessons from Mel and David....they were never caught!

Mel was not particularly interested in anything athletic. There were reasons probably! She once fell off of her moped and had 2nd and 3rd degree burns on her thighs. She was the basketball manager at Lamar High School and while mopping the floor, fell flat on her face in front of all the student body! She did ride horses and was pretty good at it until she broke 3 fingers - bathing the horse!! His name was Antar! It was one of those rent-a-horse things and I think this passion didn't last very long thus they didn't lose much hard-earned money on this short-lived hobby. She did love animals but showed poor judgement when she purchased an Akita named "Nikki".... the world's meanest dog! Melissa is shown here demonstrating her attitude! She now rests where all evil dogs rest - down below! It is the only dog I have ever been scared of! I think her parents were too closely related...all the more reason Mel and David didn't need to get married to each other!

The English language was always a challenge to Melissa and it still is. She could almost get phrases right which left most of us dying laughing. Did you know that JFK was shot on the "grassy mole" in Dallas? and OJ Simpson was "indicated" instead of indicted! If someone was really mad they got "up on their shoebox" to say something instead of their "soapbox"! When in Paris on a family trip, she was really confused when they visited Notre Dame. She asked, "well, where is it? Isn't it a football stadium?" Just lately she wanted to say something really badly so she said, "I want the table" instead of "the floor". She just went to Mexico with the family and she purposely took Riley's car seat so she could put it on the seat in the plane....one problem...she checked it in with the luggage and remembered it as it was going through the little shoot to the luggage below the plane. She was late to the airport, of course, and was in a hurry and perhaps was not thinking straight. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt here as she had 3 kids in tow plus all the baby junk and suitcases. She is constantly amusing the rest of us. This is the same girl that left her goggles on her forehead while getting a spray tan!

I wish we all had the same outlook on life that Melissa has. Every day is a gift from God and she chooses to smile through everything! She is a delight to be around; I, for one, love to be with her. She makes me laugh and she loves to laugh. She loves to entertain, throws great parties, buys great gifts, is a true friend, can find anything on the internet, loves her family and she can brighten any room. Her 3 babies, Reagan, Ethan and Riley, are the love of her life and she is the sweetest, most patient mommy I've ever seen. She has always landed on her feet and she will continue to do so. We love you, Mel and we are truly glad God gave you to us on August 6th, 1973 - a day we will always remember!!

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!!!

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?