I live for Saturdays. Saturdays are my "get-things-done" day. Saturdays are my "stay-in-Tshirt-and-PJ-pants until 4:00 days. Saturdays around here are unstructured; they are free; they are laid back.

This morning held all the promise of a usual Battles' Saturday. Then, around 10:00, that promise began slipping away. Mowing was at the top of the agenda. Today was my second time to use my new, used Cub Cadet. Dad had warned me that the belt would throw if this and this and this didn't happen just so and so and so. I think the belt had maybe been trying to say it was ready to retire. After replacing the silly thing about four times, it finally broke in two. Thankfully, I'd mowed the top yard and the right side of the driveway before the belt and I parted ways. I'm going to wait until Jamie gets home and he can deal with this because...

At 1:45, the bottom fell out. The girls and I were making some progress cleaning. I was barking orders to them while they were to be tackling their near-condemned rooms. Lilah was not cleaning; she was dancing in front of her mirror in ballet shoes; the ballet shoes are slippery; she nearly bit her tongue in half. Shouts of "She's bleeeeeeeding!" came from her doorway as her big sisters were first to repsond to her cries. I now understand that should I ever need to clean up a bloody crime scene, I won't be doing it in a hurry. I'll spare you the picture; it's on Facebook, though. Did you know they don't stitch up tongues? The doc said he knew of one instance when a peer did stitch up a kid's tongue, but it was barely hanging on and it required surgery. The nurse was surprised -- she'd never seen a tongue stitched up, but thought Lilah's might be her first. She was given some good pain medicine and Lilah is funny enough without narcotics. Poor thing. I just hope she sleeps tonight.

The big girls and I spent the evening following our high school's prom via our Facebook friends. Beautiful girls, handsome boys! I remember sitting across the street from the Eastside cafeteria in Sallisaw with my mom and our neighbors to watch the big kids "promenade" from their cars (or their parents' cars -- no limos in the mid to late 80s in Salli). Now, we can see everyone in their finery from the comfort of our own home. That's not creepy at all, is it?

Because I have a tween and teen, we found ourselves doing a little window shopping. If I were 16, 17, 18 today, these would be my top dresses.

This would be my #1 pick (and it's PJB's, too).  Look at those rich colors!  Love, love, love this.

Here's #2.  This could easily be #1, but at the tune of nearly $600 it has to be #2.  Leave it to me to choose the most expensive gown.  And I wonder where Parker gets it? 

If I still weighed 102 pounds, this would be THE dress.  It came in about five other colors, but I like the plum.  I love the way it flows; it's very delicate.

I loved prom; I still love prom.  The next prom I will chaperone in our faculty rotation will Parker's junior prom.  Wow.  Where has the time gone?  Let's take a little trip down memory lane?  Are you ready for the BEST of the early 90s?






Those were some really great times!  Sometimes I miss being young and carefree.  And skinny.