I used to ....but now

I used to…but now
By Benita Tomlinson


I used to live in the metropolitan, Arlington to be exact,
But now I live in the country, Pittsburg without a H.

I used to be young and immature,
But now I have to act like an adult!

I used to think I knew it all,
But now I pretend to know it all!

I used to think about being a mommy,
But now I soak in every momma moment!

I used to be single,
But now I am in a loving marriage relationship.

I used to be lost, a sinner,
But now I am found and forgiven, a christian.

I used to be very active and skinny,
But now I have a baby belly that has decided to never leave me.

I used to live in my parent’s home,
But now I have a home of my own.

I used to be quiet and shy,
But now I am outgoing.

I used to live 3 hours away from my family,
But now I am much closer.

I used to dream of my future,
But now I dream of my son’s future.

I used to cruise around in SUV’s
But now I am a proud minivan mom.

First attempt at poetry

I am in my writing course for grad school. I have to write. Here is a poem I wrote. My first ever! I will also post my 2nd poem I wrote.

This one is called I am....

I am…
By Benita Tomlinson

I am a daughter of loving parents.
I am a sister with an unique relationship.
I am an identical mirror twin.
I am patient and kind.
I am a friend who is always there.
I am a student in the ever changing learning process.
I am a high school honor graduate.
I am a spoiled rotten grandaughter.
I am an organize freak at some things.
I am a child of God who loves me unconditionally!
I am from a divorced family.
I am a college graduate of Mary Hardin-Baylor.
I am an alternative certified teacher.
I am a niece that loves to tease!
I am the educator of 18 eager first graders.
I am a procrastinator although I hate it.
I am a planner of everything including life.
I am a wife of a supportive husband
I am an in-law as sister and daughter.
I am a computer nerd and proud of it.
I am a youth minister’s family that is always at church.
I am a cool aunt of 4 girls and 2 boys.
I am a step daughter and sister.
I am a fluent reader of many books.
I am a struggling and scared writer.
I am a mother of a handsome miracle.
I am busy and stressed!
I am beautiful, on the inside especially.
I am the future!

Texas Weather

For my Master's course I have to write for 30 minutes every day. It can be about anything. Below is tonight's writing. ENJOY :)

I talked about stress in my first writing. Tonight’s writing is also about stress but not from this course! I HATE STORMS. We had several storms go through the East Texas area tonight. These were rough storms with tornadoes. The weather man was freaking out saying over and over that he had never seen storms like this since he has lived in East Texas. So that of course freaked me out. Here I am with my 18 month old son BY MYSELF! Did I mention I really dislike storms?

Needless to say I got ready. Step one – pull the car into the carport to prevent hail damage. News reported there were golf ball to baseball size hail in the area. Car under a year old, priorities people! Step two – Get tornado closet kid ready. I pulled out both shoe racks and some of the clothes on the bottom rack to make room. Gathered the items, here’s the list – snacks, drinks, portable dvd player, dvds, books, games, coloring book, crayons, blanket, pillow and the list goes on. Step three – we are dog lovers! Have to protect our four legged babies. In went the dog blankets and chew toys. Now where was I going to sit?!?! Step four – get kid and dogs in closet and make them stay. Nope didn’t happen. Finally got Hayden to sit and watch his Mickey Mouse movie. Dogs were at least locked in the bedroom with me. Step five – Is this tornado over yet? The whole time all of this is happening I am monitoring the news and calling friends and relatives and they are calling me. Not sure how I got it all done.

We are ready for the bad weather now. And of course, no bad weather comes our way. Yes we have bad thunderstorms but no tornadoes. I was prepared though. I watch the news of the other areas that were hit. One story hit me. A moving van full of someone’s belongings was blown over and the contents thrown everywhere. We recently moved and I understand having your whole life in a moving van (or two or three). I pray for that family and that their needs will be met.

So during all of this I was supposed to be working on my reading response, mentor text and of course this daily writing. Did it happen? Of course not. So now I am stressed over the bad weather and double stressed over not getting enough done tonight that I had wanted to get done.

O the joy of Texas weather. Got to love it!

Happy New Year!

Click below:

Christmas 2009

Some of them are out of order. ENJOY! :)



Christmas tree this year prepresents. Wasn't sure how Hayden would react so we waited until last minute to put them down. Notice most of the ornaments are on the top!

All the grandkids at Gigi and Gramps house!

Opening Santa presents on Christmas Day morning.

Mickey Mouse coloring book from Santa.



Hayden and Camryn getting tickled! They came over for Christmas Eve Mexican food!



They were dancing! Maybe dancing lessons for Christmas next year!


:)


Boy you better not look at her that way!


Camryn and Hayden. They had so much fun together.


Kissy kissy!


All smiles!


Well if she will not get off I will just sit on the steering wheel!


He sang into that mic (flashlight) for about 15 minutes. It was so cute!


Christmas Eve Service.


Playing with the truck from the Wilsons.


Loving his pillows that Aunt Patty made him.


Helping mom open her presents! He could have fit in that bag!

Kissing Mickey!


Going in!


Hmmm....what's in here?!?!


A peek a boo Christmas book from Nana Penny.


Opening presents. He understood more this year!



Watching Santa lite up and sing.


Daddy helping Santa put together the gift.


Eyes glued on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!


Nighty nite!


Awww. They were taking a nap. Not really!

Thanksgiving now and then

Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving 2009

Hayden and the dogs.

Hayden and his daddy!

Christmas Now and Then

Christmas 2008



Christmas 2009



I don't think he likes Santa very much this year!

Hayden walking

Hayden has finally figured out the walking thing! He also loves keys and knows what they are for!

Hayden feeding the dogs

Hayden likes to feed the dogs!!

Today is my Mom's Birthday!

Today is my Mom's ______ Birthday! I can't fill numbers in the blank or she'll beat me up! HAHA! Love you mom!

Below are some pictures from her birthday dinner at Jalapeno Tree Saturday night.





Eating up! Gammy with her grandsons on each side.




Lots of food!



No Comment!!



She looks so happy!!




Can't you tell she was excited about them singing to her!

walking

Hayden is walking! Here a video of him. We will try to get some better videos soon!

updates

So now that we both have Facebook most of our updates are from there. But for those of you that still read this blog....

Check out what we did this weekend.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=97727&id=579817861&l=f7a4365f17

Even though it is on the facebook website even if you are not a member you should be able to see the pictures.

4th of July Fun

After a year off, the Tomlinson's rejoined the Webb of Fire Pyrotechnic Crew over the 4th. I got back from camp on July 2nd at 1:40 p.m. and we ran home and threw a few more things in the truck and left for Grapevine by 2:45 p.m. Benita had everything packed and ready to go. We stopped and picked up a travel trailer (see below) and we camped out at the shoot site with the Webbs. My mom and Brenna stayed with us. Brenna worked on the crew and my mom watched Hayden. We did a small show on Friday night, the 3rd and then a huge show on the 4th. It was so much fun. Lots of work but great time! Congrats to Dan and Holly and Webb of Fire for celebrating 10 years of blowing stuff up! Thanks for letting us be a part of the fun!


This is our redneck son bathing in a plastic tub on a parking lot. He loved it!


Benita is going to kill me for putting this picture on the blog, but she got shoot the show on Friday. It's all done electronically and synchronized to music. She did great. The show was perfect and everything went off.


This is the trailer after it was wired for the Friday night show. The Friday night show ran about 10 or 11 minutes. Then on Saturday the entire trailer was the finally and went up in under a minute. It rocked!



This is a shot from Friday night. The sillohettes are Dan and Benita.