The beginning.......

Well, I have always wanted to write about my children and I thought, "Heck, why not try to blog!" After reading some other blogs, I thought I might as well try.

It all started March 14, 1975...........oh yeah, that was a long time ago. Back in the age of bell bottoms and hip huggers. After our Jr./Sr. banquet we drove around our small town of Anson looking for something to do. There was a new guy in town sitting so proudly in his new yellow Camero. We decided to stop and ask him if he had a newspaper because we needed to know what was showing in Abilene so we could tell our parents that we had been to the movies. Well, drool drool..........he was the best looking guy I had seen in this neck of the woods. His name was Don Hayes and his younger brother was going to school in Anson while living with his granny. His parents were still in Mexico and he (Mike, the younger brother) wanted to play football. Don was going to school at the big ole college of Cisco. Somehow I ended up in his new shiny car and we drove the drag from one end of town to the other, several times. As the story goes, we ended up getting married May 20, 1979. I turned 20 a week later. Dang I was young! I would cringe if one of my kids decided to get married that young!
We continued going to school and I ended up going to ACU, McMurry, then off to San Angelo where I graduated at ASU. I was lucky to get a coaching job in La Grange, TX. (Home of the Best Little Whorehouse) We actually watched the movie in the La Grange theatre. After 4 years of coaching, I had my first child, Byron Austin Hayes.
Byron was born 5 months after my dad died from leukemia. I was able to tell my dad that I was going to name my child, Byron, if it was a boy. It took me about 5 years to forgive my daddy from dieing on me. He was the best dad in the world and the best Papaw. I was so angry that my child was going to miss out on the chance to know his Papaw. (Future: Byron body style is exactly like my dad's) I was angry that he would never get to play "rummady rummady rummady buck. How many horns do I have stuck up?" with his Papaw. He wouldn't get to go fishing or hunting with him. He would never get to experience the unending love he had for his grandchildren. He wouldn't be there for Byron to sit in his lap while they played 42. My dad wouldn't be there to watch the Little League games, the football games or just watch him grow into a man. My dad wouldn't be there for me to ask questions about life. I miss my dad:(
Plus in January, Don was in a horrible accident. A pipe blew up in his hands and hit his arm, head and stomach. Don went through major surgeries and endless rehabilitation. I am surprised that I made it through the pregnancy without any major problems to my unborn child.
Well, Byron blessed us on May 2, 1985. (This was regional weekend for the girls track...I was upset that I was unable to be there with them) Mother and I had gone to Brenham to look for baby announcements. We were in a baby store when all of a sudden there was water everywhere. I looked at Mother and she looked at me. Luckily the owner of the store came over and said, "Honey, I think your water broke." Well, I waddled to the restroom and couldn't believe what I was experiencing. I was so embarrassed. We headed back to La Grange so we could find your daddy and tell him that you were on your way. Remember this is before cell phones, so we had some trouble locating him, but he did finally show up. Our friends, the Ptaceks, came to the hospital before you were born. Ed, a vetinarian, showed up with a calf puller. I didn't find the humor in that at all.
I will never forget Cheri and Mother trying to poke their heads into the delivery room before you were born so they could help me out. I was thrilled that they were there to welcome our new baby. After an epidural, I was able to bring my boy into the world. I didn't know that my legs would be like jello and I had no control over them. Plus I didn't know they would come in, press on my belly and it would hurt like h---
Bringing Byron home was terrifying! I was so afraid that someone might hurt him or step on him while he was laying a blanket on the floor. Mother, Cheri, Barbara and James, Larry and Sputter, and Don's parents came. That was the weekend Don told Sputter to be careful when she met his dad, Tobey. "Make sure you call him Tobey not Tubby" Don told her because his dad was a "big" man. Well............guess what Sputter called Tobey? You guessed it....Tubby.
At first, Byron was long and skinny and sort of looked like Popeye. It didn't take him long to start gaining weight. He was ADORABLE! He had dark hair and dark eyes. Big feet and big hands. He was a beauty and I couldn't stop looking at him. I have hours of tape of him just laying there. We borrowed Larry and Sputter's video camera. We didn't have one or the money to go out and get one. They were gigantic and cost a lot of money back then, around $300.00.
After several weeks, I realized that this breast feeding was for the birds. It hurt plus he ate ALL the time. I continued for 3 months and then it was time to go back to work. I don't think Byron ever got on my work schedule:( He cried and had colic. I remember walking him around the block at night trying to get him to stop crying. He liked the swing, but you have to remember that this was back in the day when you cranked the swing, it woke up the whole neighborhood. His little arms would go a flying when I would need to crank it up. Why didn't I invent the swing that started quietly and without a top so you can get them in and out easier???
Three months hit and I fell in love again. He started laughing and giggling. His eyes would twinkle and my heart would melt. He was full of sugar. You could find good sugar on him anywhere. He was always in the 95% growth range which meant he was growing fast.