Isn't it funny how Murphy's Law seems to work? Our family has been so very busy as the new school year has finally begun. Miss Abby Grace is playing freshman volleyball and has been going non-stop since August 6. Cole became a teenager on August 11, I celebrated my 29th birthday(for the twelfth time)on the 26th and school began for my 7th grader and freshman on August 27. Add an ailing father-in-law and a new business to the mix and you have EXHAUSTION! With the Nowell bus leaving the garage at 6:50 am, our day begins at 5:30. My little princess has a disorder called "I can't get up with my alarm clock, so my mom has to come upstairs and yell at me for half an hour every single morning," so I set my alarm for 5:29am M-F. Yes, 5:29. I also have a disorder called "I don't like to end my alarm setting with an even number." My day has been ending somewhere around 11 or so every night. This is NOT enough beauty sleep for me! Yesterday afternoon, I decided I was going to take an hour to myself before picking up Abby from volleyball practice. I raced to my closet and threw on a swimsuit and hightailed it out to the pool...ahhhh....I can't tell you the last time I had the entire house and pool to myself. After a quick dip, I retired to the lawn chair, sprayed my spf and closed my eyes. As I felt myself drifting into oblivion, I was startled right back into reality by the sound of a tree limb hitting the walking path below us. I jumped up and was face-to-face with a landscaper(no, not from Kevin's company) holding a long pole with shears on the end. He said,"Hello." Yikes! What in the world? WHY, of the 23 other hours in this day are they maintaining the small area around my house during the one hour I have taken for myself?! Soon, this guy's boss was pulling up on the walking trail in his four-door Dodge truck. So....the hour that was mine had turned into ten minutes of me time coupled with a near-heart attack and a quick jog back inside. It was then that I realized this was so very typical. I seem to find myself in situations that others could only imagine. It is a curse, I tell ya!
As I celebrated a milestone (29) this week, I began to look back on the great life of Donna Alyson Poole Nowell. Yes, in case you didn't know, my parents thought it was a fine idea to plague their first-born with the first name of her mother and then call her by her middle name. Brilliance, I say. Anyway, I can only smile when I look back at my years of laughter. I grew up with a dad who taught me how to find the funny in everything. Sometimes, I admit, we both sort of take that to the extremes. However, the two of us sure do think we're pretty dang hilarious! I have always been very hap-hazard. My mother never really knew what to do with me...at the age of three, I decided to run away from home. I just couldn't listen to Donna Jean for another minute! I owned a ride-on toy that was made to look like a duck. That duck was my vehicle of choice that afternoon as I grabbed my raggedy ann doll and took off down the road toward Mrs. Burrell's house. She was the most grand babysitter in all of McAdams and I knew that if I could just make it to her front door, I would be free as a bird(or a duck with wheels anyway). Somewhere between the Perry's house and the White's driveway, Donna caught on to me. I know it seems crazy that I remember this day as a three-year-old, but I do remember the look on that woman's face as she scooped me up and carried me back to the blonde brick house on that beautiful country road leading to Coleman Cemetery.
At the age of four, I visited the ER for an extraction of fine pearls from my ear canal. At six, I crashed my go-kart and demolished the family swing set. When I was eight, I convinced my four-year-old brother to capture a bumblebee with his bare hands while we sat in the backseat of Donna's Ford LTD waiting to go to church. When I turned nine, I was informed that we would be welcoming a new addition to our family. I answered,"No thank you." At ten, I called my mother every single day for a week because I had a stomachache at school. She refused to come get me after the third day. Therefore, I called my sidekick, Loree Wyatt Poole(aka Granny). Granny came to get me every time I called and took me back to the comfort of her house on the hill. On that Saturday, I planted myself in the floor of our bathroom while my mother proceeded to call me melodramatic. I know, right?! Granny convinced Mama to get me to the emergency room. A few hours later, I was under the knife with Dr. Coleman Pickle removing my appendix. Back in those days, an appendectomy was a big cut with 7 to 9 stitches and a week in the hospital. Granny refused to let Donna stay with me. She stayed by my side that entire week as we both decided that it was us against the world! The age of eleven found me watching as my dad's brother went into an alcoholic rage and held a gun to my father's face. THIS, I will never forget. It is a defining moment in my life. It was at that young age that I realized how precious life is. I realized that I must seize every single second and enjoy it.
At twelve, our family went camping at Holmes County State Park the week before school started. I was disgusted at the fact that my brother Jason had not yet mastered the monkey bars at the age of eight. SO, I took it upon myself to demonstrate for him. During my demonstration of monkey bar skills, those darn things threw me to the ground. I landed on my right forearm. **sounds an awful lot like a certain blonde boy's events on the second grade playground, doesn't it?** As I lay in agony, my parents told me to stop screaming and come eat supper. I cried all night. The next day, Donna found herself being chastised by Dr. Hartness as he fitted my arm into my brand new cast. Yep, I had slept in a sleeping bag on the cold, hard ground with a broken arm. Poor me. Two years later, I was carrying out my weekly manual labor at home while Jason sat leisurely in the arm chair watching cartoons after school. I guess Justin was still at the Pee Wee Patch daycare as Mama and Daddy were still at work. Somehow, that stinkin' Tilex bottle got turned around as I was spraying the sink and that stuff went directly into my right eye. I, being the quick thinker, immediately turned on cold water and washed out my eye. Jason came to my rescue and called Mama. Having learned her lesson by this time, she raced home! We headed back to my home away from home and were greeted by the ER staff at MJMH. I was treated and given some ointment and pain killers before going home to await my appointment with the eye specialist the next day. Fast forward to the next morning...as we were preparing to leave for Jackson, I was walking down the hall and suddenly found myself in my bed looking up at Dr. Gilliland. I had passed out and Donna Jean called our neighbor, Dr. G. He arrived in pajamas with a stethoscope around his neck. Talk about a house call! I spent the next five days in the hospital. My parents were told that I may never regain sight in my right eye. Weeks later, the glamorous black eye patch was removed and we were given the news--a miracle had occurred and I could see!!!! For the next 20 years, my right eye had nearly perfect vision! To say I was a precocious child is putting it MILDLY!!! My poor parents did the best they could with me. I was probably a hopeless case!!!
Believe me, I am leaving out many glorious details that I will probably share later. I have so enjoyed reminiscing and solidifying the fact that I have ALWAYS been exactly who I am now. I have matured(a very little)and realized that some of the core things that I thought I believe in are actually much different from the way I was raised back then...another story for later...but for the most part, I have always been a bit brassy and sassy. I've always had a special knack for finding excitement even when there doesn't seem to be any around. I don't know why I was blessed with such an eventful life, but I am certainly thankful for it. I mean, how much fun would the days be without laughter? After all, isn't a day without sunshine just night? Put some sunshine in your life. Find the funny. It is so much more enjoyable that way!!!
At the age of four, I visited the ER for an extraction of fine pearls from my ear canal. At six, I crashed my go-kart and demolished the family swing set. When I was eight, I convinced my four-year-old brother to capture a bumblebee with his bare hands while we sat in the backseat of Donna's Ford LTD waiting to go to church. When I turned nine, I was informed that we would be welcoming a new addition to our family. I answered,"No thank you." At ten, I called my mother every single day for a week because I had a stomachache at school. She refused to come get me after the third day. Therefore, I called my sidekick, Loree Wyatt Poole(aka Granny). Granny came to get me every time I called and took me back to the comfort of her house on the hill. On that Saturday, I planted myself in the floor of our bathroom while my mother proceeded to call me melodramatic. I know, right?! Granny convinced Mama to get me to the emergency room. A few hours later, I was under the knife with Dr. Coleman Pickle removing my appendix. Back in those days, an appendectomy was a big cut with 7 to 9 stitches and a week in the hospital. Granny refused to let Donna stay with me. She stayed by my side that entire week as we both decided that it was us against the world! The age of eleven found me watching as my dad's brother went into an alcoholic rage and held a gun to my father's face. THIS, I will never forget. It is a defining moment in my life. It was at that young age that I realized how precious life is. I realized that I must seize every single second and enjoy it.
At twelve, our family went camping at Holmes County State Park the week before school started. I was disgusted at the fact that my brother Jason had not yet mastered the monkey bars at the age of eight. SO, I took it upon myself to demonstrate for him. During my demonstration of monkey bar skills, those darn things threw me to the ground. I landed on my right forearm. **sounds an awful lot like a certain blonde boy's events on the second grade playground, doesn't it?** As I lay in agony, my parents told me to stop screaming and come eat supper. I cried all night. The next day, Donna found herself being chastised by Dr. Hartness as he fitted my arm into my brand new cast. Yep, I had slept in a sleeping bag on the cold, hard ground with a broken arm. Poor me. Two years later, I was carrying out my weekly manual labor at home while Jason sat leisurely in the arm chair watching cartoons after school. I guess Justin was still at the Pee Wee Patch daycare as Mama and Daddy were still at work. Somehow, that stinkin' Tilex bottle got turned around as I was spraying the sink and that stuff went directly into my right eye. I, being the quick thinker, immediately turned on cold water and washed out my eye. Jason came to my rescue and called Mama. Having learned her lesson by this time, she raced home! We headed back to my home away from home and were greeted by the ER staff at MJMH. I was treated and given some ointment and pain killers before going home to await my appointment with the eye specialist the next day. Fast forward to the next morning...as we were preparing to leave for Jackson, I was walking down the hall and suddenly found myself in my bed looking up at Dr. Gilliland. I had passed out and Donna Jean called our neighbor, Dr. G. He arrived in pajamas with a stethoscope around his neck. Talk about a house call! I spent the next five days in the hospital. My parents were told that I may never regain sight in my right eye. Weeks later, the glamorous black eye patch was removed and we were given the news--a miracle had occurred and I could see!!!! For the next 20 years, my right eye had nearly perfect vision! To say I was a precocious child is putting it MILDLY!!! My poor parents did the best they could with me. I was probably a hopeless case!!!
Believe me, I am leaving out many glorious details that I will probably share later. I have so enjoyed reminiscing and solidifying the fact that I have ALWAYS been exactly who I am now. I have matured(a very little)and realized that some of the core things that I thought I believe in are actually much different from the way I was raised back then...another story for later...but for the most part, I have always been a bit brassy and sassy. I've always had a special knack for finding excitement even when there doesn't seem to be any around. I don't know why I was blessed with such an eventful life, but I am certainly thankful for it. I mean, how much fun would the days be without laughter? After all, isn't a day without sunshine just night? Put some sunshine in your life. Find the funny. It is so much more enjoyable that way!!!
1 comment:
Oh my. I could have written some of this. I remember deciding to run away and getting on my tricycle and heading down 35 Bypass! I don't think I got more than a few feet... Couldn't have been much older when I put on my fancy party dress (aka the red nightgown gifted to me by my great grandmother), climbed over the fence in my backyard to the Greens' yard on Hillcrest Dr in search of a party. I made it down Hillcrest and onto Valley Road before the Porters apprehended me and called my mama! I think I feel a post of my own coming on...
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