The start of my next new adventure...

     Today at 1:30, I locked the door of Room 114, walked down to the office, turned in my key, and then left  8th Street Middle School, my home away from home for the past 7 years.   The classroom is totally empty of anything that screams "Ms. Tucker Lives Here!!"  It is a room of a few desks and other pretty sad looking pieces of furniture.  But it is also a room filled with the memories that only over 700 hyperactive, emotional, hormonal 8th grades can make.   I did my best to help teach these youngins some history in addition to some life lessons.  How well I succeeded only time will tell.  I know that I will never really know the impact I have made-for better or for worse on my former students.  I know the impact they have had on me. 
     Today is truly the first day of the rest of my life.   What will happen tomorrow remains to be seen.  Exactly what I will be doing this time a year from now, God only knows.   
     People have asked me where I am going... My answer to them is "I'm going on Faith ---and taking life one day at a time...

Memories...

     I have this picture in my room of Mom and me.  It is actually my favorite pic of us.  We are sitting on the stage area of the Leroy Rogers Center at one of the last family reunions we had there.  Mom is wearing a beautiful blue pant suit and I am also wearing blue--a denim dress.   She has such an amazing grin on her face that every time I look at that picture, I just have to smile.   I guess I love that picture so much because we both look so happy.  I am happy to have so many special memories of just Mom and me.  
--Nursing Grandmomma McGhee through the last week of her life because Momma had just had leg surgery and could not do it.  Because I had time off from school, I became Mom's surrogate.  I remember her saying how proud she was that I didn't mind taking care of her momma-even if it wasn't always a pleasant experience as her health declined.  I remember calling Mom and Dad in the middle of the night that Grandmomma died.  When Mom arrived, she told me how glad she was that I was the one who was here with her. Just about every year since her death, Mom and I have had the chance to talk about that experience.
--I cannot count the hours I have spent cooking, pouring over cook books, organizing recipes with Mom.  Everything I know about being adventurous in the kitchen, I learned from her.  Because of those experiences, I have been able to not only support myself at times by cooking, but I deal with stress in my life by cooking.
--If you look in the dictionary next to the word "Grandmother", you will find Mom's picture.  She is everything anyone could ever wish for in a grandmother.  And she is so darn cute, too !

Momma is getting on in years and may not be the vital, rambunctious lady she once was.  But she still loves each of her children, grandchildren and great grand children unconditionally.  She loves her "eternal companion" the way only someone who has been in love with someone for almost 60 years can.   I don't know of anything I would change about the way Mom raised me.  I think I turned out pretty well.  (It was when I left home that I began to fall apart ! )  If I could change anything now about Mom, I think I would ask God to relieve her of her many physical aliments so the "little ones" in the family could see just how magical and cool Mom really is.

Train up a child...

     I am sitting in my chair in my room. God must have decided to give the mothers in South Georgia an additional present because it is an absolutely beautiful day today.  My personal Mother's Day has been really quiet.  Travis and Sarah are both working, so couldn't make the trip up.  But that is okay.  I realized today that since they have both grown and flown the coop, we probably have spent more Mother's Days apart than we have together.  But I have learned that distance is relative when you are talking mothers and children.  Two years ago, this weekend, I was with Travis and Sarah when they received their Bachelor's Degree from SIU-E.  That was such a cool, but humbling experience-not to mention how awesome a Mother's Day gift it was!  Having been a single parent for most of their formative years, I have asked myself many times if the choices I made while they were at home would help or hinder them as they got older.  I am still not sure of the answer to that question.  I just know that without the help of a loving family, especially Mom and Dad, who nurtured not only me, but also Travis and Sarah through some really difficult times, my children would not be the independent, gainfully employed, driven, but grounded in the Gospel people they are today. 

So, thanks to Mom and Dad... Thanks to Aunt Carol, Aunt Nancy and Uncle Jimmy... Thanks to the surrogate mothers in Primary and Young Women and the father figures in Scouting and Young Men....Thanks to all those who had even a smidgen of influence in making my kids into who they are today.

I am their mother and for that I will eternally be grateful...   They make me feel proud and humble just to be around them..

I love you, Travis and Sarah.......