Lee Magazine - August/September 2010

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They’re a HOOT! EIGHT WOMEN KICK UP THEIR HEELS AND LAUGH

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2010 • VOLUME 3 • NUMBER 4

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Discounts on facility rental fees for events booked by December 31, 2010

The Place to Find

Your Healthy Balance

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For the smart, savvy Alabama woman Publisher: Beth Snipes Editor: Jenni Laidman Design and Photography: Beth Snipes Sales manager: Meg Callahan Sales reps: Betsy McLure Blake Copy Editor: Joey Harrison Web Designer: Brock Burgess Distribution: John Snipes

HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY

P

eople are searching for a hormone replacement therapy regimen that provides a resurgence of energy. You don’t have to have headaches, hot flashes, and a decreased sex drive. You can say farewell to mood swings and insomnia. With the results of a one-day saliva test, June Adams, a compounding pharmacist and bio-identical hormone counselor, will provide the natural human-identical hormones that your body needs. June’s problemsolving pharmacy provides natural progesterone cream, DHEA, estrogen, and testosterone. For some, it will mean an enzyme to reduce stress, or a glandular complex to support your thyroid.

Both men and women can benefit from this simple test for a personal hormone profile.

Accelerated aging, fat gain, mental fogginess, and general fatigue are not natural. They can be symptoms of a hormone imbalance for which there is a natural treatment. Find the right dose without the concerns of side effects from synthetic products.

Contributors Food: Fashion: Fitness: Garden: Momitude: Smarts:

Heida Olin Taylor Dungjen Lisa Gallagher Connie Cottingham Kelly Frick Janeane Barett

CONTACT US AT beth@lee-magazine.com editor@lee-magazine.com

334-332-2961

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1550 Opelika Road Suite 6-220 Auburn, Alabama 36830 334-332-2961

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Adam's Pharmacy & Home Care, Inc.

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Published by Pickwick Papers Publishing, LLC. Copyright ©2008 Lee Magazine.

All rights reserved. Reproduction and redistribution prohibited without approval.

For more information, contact editor@leemagazine.com.

editor’s note I

LEE

still remember the day I met Janeane Barrett. Beth Snipes, who is Lee Magazine’s publisher, designer, and photographer, and I, visited Janeane’s home for a story that would M A G A Z I N E appear in our very first issue. A photograph of Janeane and her daughter, Alison, would end up as our first cover, illustrating a story about women waiting for family members to return from AfHOME FRONT FAMILIES ghanistan and Iraq. At the time, Janeane’s husband, Doug, had WHEN A LOVED ONE IS IN been in Afghanistan for more than a year. (Major Doug Barrett is HARM’S WAY home safe and sound now.) fashion: I don’t worry too much before interviews any more. I’ve been TOOTSIES CENTER STAGE talking to strangers for a living for a long time. But I remember STRAWBERRIES… savor the sweetness being especially keyed up as we walked to the Barrett’s front door.

BEST ITEMS FOR I felt a lot like the Jack Russell terrier racing around our feet as THE home chef we headed into the house. For Beth and I, this was the start of something new: the story that would help us launch a new venture. I still couldn’t believe that people we didn’t know, who had no reason to believe in our magazine, agreed to invite us into their home and answer our questions. What were they thinking?

Right away, Janeane and Alison made us feel at home. We stayed a long time. We got way off the subject.

Janeane made coffee, and we talked a lot about her teaching at Cary Woods Elementary School — which seemed to involve constant learning on her part. She and Alison were both engaging storytellers. We probably could have hung out all day if guilt about an overstayed welcome had not prompted us to get moving.

Janeane and Alison made a beautiful cover and a wonderful story.

In time, I started chatting with Janeane on Facebook, and followed her travels – often educational – and her comments about her children, Auburn football, Doug, and other doings.

We’re happy to bring Janeane back to Lee Magazine, this time as our Smarts columnist. In that role, she’ll talk about how parents can help kids succeed in school and enjoy learning. Many Auburn folks know Janeane from her years at Cary Woods and, before that, at J.F. Drake Middle School. She also taught in Savannah and West Point, Georgia, before teaching in Lee County. At the end of last year she retired from Auburn City Schools. She told us two years ago that she’s always announcing fabulous plans for an imagined career: “I’m always saying I’m going to join the circus, or get a job driving the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile,” she said. We’re sorry we can’t quite give her an elephant to ride, or a Wienermobile to pilot. But we feel lucky to have her in our own little sideshow.

I already feel smarter.

April 2008

VOLUME I • NUMBER 1

Jenni Laidman

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contents

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AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2010

8 Food A Taste for Football

10 Garden A calendar of hydrangea

12 Fashion

22

Panache for the office

14 Momitude

Shop Till You Scream

18

10

16 Smarts Flavorful Fractions

18 Brawn

12

Three little words

8

20 Brain Busy = Happy

22 COVER STORY Full-Tilt Sass!

Meet the Yahooters!

28 Calendar

Lots of Doings in Lee County On the COVER: Yahooters Lorraine McCarley and Lisa Harrelson

6 LEE MAGAZINE

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Cover and table of content Yahooter photos by BURNETT PHOTOGRAPHY http://www.burnettphotography.com

STAY HOME!

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Let Bryan Waits Masonry turn your home into your getaway

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18 LEE MAGAZINE 7

By Heida Olin

E

very time I get near campus during tailgating, the smoky aromas beckon like a finger in an old cartoon, drawing passersby to float toward them wearing smiles of pure pleasure.

I’m in danger of floating away myself with savory goodies calling out to me from the tables set up under white tents. It’s a semimystical experience that makes tailgating more than just some tradition. This is nearer religion.

Our group (next to the Harrison School of Pharmacy) has several grills. There are a couple of those big plastic-covered bins for the paper goods, utensils, condiments, and tablecloths. Someone brings a generator for the television so we can catch other SEC conference games. The food is always good.

Sometimes we do a theme. But most of the time, we just bring whatever we want. My favorites are Beer Brats, Tomato and Havarti Stacks, Breakfast Sausage Wraps for those early tailgates, Quick Pasta Salad, Sopapilla Cheesecake, Symphony Brownies, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Praline Crisps.

There is no chance of parking close to our tailgate site on game day so my husband and I have one of our boys drop us close to College and Thach and we walk by all the other revelers and inhale the aroma of fine Southern tailgate food. I usually see bratwurst and hotdogs but also various kinds of chicken. And when the weather gets a little cool, I almost always see a turkey fryer going.

IStockPhoto

Tiger Chow!

TUNE UP FOR TAILGATING I’m so curious about what the rest of you tailgaters are doing that instead of just walking by your tailgate, I believe I’ll visit and you can tell me your favorite recipes. I’ll write about them in the next issue of Lee Magazine. Football season isn’t over until Thanksgiving, and since I predict we’re going to playoffs, we’ll be tailgating into December.

WAR EAGLE!

and refrigerate the brats until ready to grill.

Grill the brats over a medium heat (300 degrees), turning until all sides are well browned. Serve from the grill or wrap in foil until ready to eat.

BEER BRATS

16 breakfast sausage links 1 can refrigerated crescent rolls

Bratwurst and football just go together.

10 Bratwursts (uncooked) 2 bottles of good beer (not lite) 10 peppercorns Using a fork, poke the bratwursts several times all around and place them in a deep frying pan or Dutch oven so that all are on the bottom of the pan. Pour beer over brats so they’re covered and toss in the peppercorns. Bring beer to a simmer and cook the brats until no longer pink. Drain; discard the beer and peppercorns,

8 LEE MAGAZINE

BREAKFAST SAUSAGE WRAPS These are done in so many different ways, but here’s my version.

Fry the sausages and drain on a paper towel. Divide the crescent rolls into 8 triangles, and then cut each triangle in half to form 16 triangles. Place a sausage on the wide side of each of the crescent roll triangles and roll from the wide side to the point. Place on a cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray and bake in a 350 degree oven 8 to 10 minutes or until the rolls are puffed and golden.

TOMATO AND HAVARTI STACKS The tomatoes are so luscious this year, and this simple side dish

is something to dream about when the weather is cold and we’re planning next year’s garden. To slice the cheese, put it in the freezer about 15 minutes first.

Red ripe tomatoes sliced about ¼-inch thick (I like heirloom tomatoes) Creamy Havarti cheese sliced about 1/8inch thick Fresh basil leaves — 2 large leaves for each stack Small basil leaves for garnish (optional) 2 to 4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 2 to 4 tablespoons extra light olive oil Pinch of sugar Place tomato slices on a small platter.

Don’t crowd them or they will be difficult to serve. Atop each, place a slice of cheese, a basil leaf, and another slice of tomato.

Repeat, cheese and a basil leaf then top with a tomato slice.

Whisk together the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and sugar. Drizzle over each stack of tomatoes on the platter. Garnish with a small basil leaf.

QUICK PASTA SALAD

To keep the salad chilled, I put three soft ice packs into an upside cake carrier. I top the packs with the bowl I will use for my salad so the ice packs will form a nest. I put the whole thing in the freezer. The salad bowl is one with a lid. Just before we leave for tailgating, I pour the salad into the bowl and cover it with the lid.

1 box bowtie pasta 1 container picadillo (from produce section) 1 can corn 1 can sliced black olives ½ bag broccoli slaw Chopped chicken (optional) ¼ cup extra light olive oil ¼ cup seasoned rice vinegar with red peppers 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard ¼ teaspoon pepper 1 tablespoon sugar Prepare the pasta according to the directions on the box. Drain and rinse with cold water. Drain the corn and black olives right into the colander with the pasta, shake the colander to drain the liquid. In a large bowl whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, mustard, pepper, and sugar. Add broccoli slaw and container of picadillo

(this is a mixture of fresh, fine chopped onions, peppers, celery, parsley and or cilantro and garlic found in the produce section.) Stir in the noodles with olives and corn, and, if using, add the chopped chicken last. Stir well and refrigerate. This is best if made and refrigerated a few hours or overnight before serving.

SOPAPILLA CHEESECAKE I get many requests for this dessert at the tailgate gatherings. It’s a real favorite with the students. Although this recipe calls for Mexican vanilla extract, you can use regular. But this stronger vanilla is worth looking for.

2 -8 oz. packages Neufchatel cheese, softened 1 cup white sugar 1 teaspoon Mexican vanilla extract 2 cans refrigerated crescent rolls 3/4 cups sugar 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 stick butter 1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional) Honey to drizzle

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 13-by-9-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Beat together the Neufchatel, 1 cup sugar, and vanilla; set aside. Beat together the 3/4 cup sugar, cinnamon and butter; set aside.

Press one can of crescent rolls into the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle pecans on the dough. Spread the cheese mixture over the dough smoothing so it is fairly even. Carefully lay the second container of crescent rolls over the cheese mixture.

You can try to press the seams together before you transfer to the pan but I found it’s just as easy to press them together once you lay it on top of the cheese.

Drop the cinnamon butter mixture randomly all over the top of the dough.

You don’t have to spread it. Bake for 30 minutes or until nicely golden. When you pull it out of the oven, drizzle liberally with honey. -lm

Heida Olin is a local caterer and educator. You can reach her at heida@ lee-magazine.com.. Please visit her blog at www.lee-magazine.com

JUST HAVE FUN!

Let Christine’s take the work out of tailgating Fill your basket with her fabulous kabobs, imported cheeses, sausages, the finest wines and out of this world steaks, perfectly seasoned and ready for your grill. Tailgating has never been as easy or delicious. Come visit the retail shop for the finest steaks and wine in town 2272 Moores Mill Road, Suite 208 Auburn, Alabama, 36830 334-826-1408 • www.christinesgourmet.com

LEE MAGAZINE 9

Little Lamb

Hydrangea: More than a Spring beauty

By Connie Cottingham Mention hydrangeas and as a Southerner you would naturally think of pink or blue round flower clusters decorating shade gardens in May and June. After a bit, you may think about our native oakleaf or smooth hydrangeas that bloom a little later. But another hydrangea has been a part of American landscapes for one hundred and fifty years. It takes the sun and blooms in the fall. Panicle hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata) is a larger, coarser plant often defined as “rangy,” but in truth it is a beautiful plant that can be pruned into a small tree or a more compact shrub.

Cone-shaped flower clusters, six-inches to eighteen-inches long, usually age from white to wine-pink, creating a long and changing bloom season at a time when other shrubs are flowerless. With leaves up

Pinky Winky

Limelight

10 LEE MAGAZINE

to five inches long, they add a bold texture in the landscape.

They seem to have slipped into the background as more popular hydrangeas filled gardens in the past several decades.

But my 1957 copy of “Taylor’s Encyclopedia of Gardening” describes Hydrangea paniculata as “…The commonest hardy hydrangea in cult(ivation), … still the best, all-around hardy hydrangea.” Then again, that book was published in Boston.

Luckily, new, very desirable cultivars are bringing the late summer blooming panicle hydrangea back into the spotlight. Plant wholesaler Proven Winners highlights five varieties in a recent sales brochure.

Hydrangea paniculatas are hardier, easier to grow, are usually much larger, and can take more sun than the other hydrangeas.

This plant prefers moist but well-drained soil. This far south, look for afternoon shade.

Plan for adequate moisture if they are grown in full sun. They are among the hardiest of hydrangeas, growing in all but the extreme edges of the country (Zones 3-8).

Since the buds form in late spring for these summer bloomers, late frost won’t hurt these blooms.

Prune while the plant is dormant. If you want things to be neat, you may shape the

plant or cut it severely after leaf drop in fall. But if you appreciate the look of the dried flowers in the winter landscape, you can wait until just before the plant leafs out in early spring.

The character of a Hydrangea paniculata is literally shaped by the pruning method.

One very popular technique is to train this plant to be a multi-trunked small tree. This is especially attractive when grown in a container. If this is your goal, you could choose a plant with three strong leaders and train the plant yourself, or find a nursery plant already trained as a tree. Another technique is to prune this plant back to a foot or two above ground level in early spring. An oldfashioned panicle hydrangea could still be seven feet tall by the time it blooms in late summer after a severe pruning.

VARIETIES There are more than fifty cultivars of Hydrangea paniculata, which is why it is experiencing a resurgence of popularity among homeowners and plant breeders. Below are a few of the more commonly available varieties and mature sizes. Keep in mind, severe pruning will keep the plant at about half to two-thirds its mature size.

BRUSSELS LACE is a smaller variety

Photos courtesy of Proven Winners - www.provenwinners.com

LATE-SEASON SHOW-STOPPER

with lacy flower clusters. It tops out at five feet to seven feet.

CHANTILLY LACE is a smaller, more upright shrub with large cream-colored blooms that turn pink with age. Its foliage is deeper green than other varieties. It grows to seven or eight feet.

GRANDIFLORA is most commonly called peegee hydrangea but some refer to all paniculatas as “peegees.” It can become a small tree, reaching fifteen to twenty-five feet. This is the largest and oldest cultivar, with pointed bloom clusters ten- to fifteen-inches long.

LIMELIGHT is a strong bloomer with soft green florets (pale green to white in our heat) that slowly age to burgundy pink.

Flower clusters are much more rounded than most paniculatas. Color is best with afternoon shade. Grows to eight feet.

LITTLE LAMB offers abundant white flower clusters. Grows to four to six feet.

LITTLE LIME (JANE) Is a new dwarf form with rounder bloom clusters that transition from green to cream to pink.

Three to five feet at maturity.

PHANTOM Is an upright form with very large, dense, conical flowers.

PINK DIAMOND has pink buds that open to creamy florets that slowly darken to deep rosy red. Ten to fifteen feet at maturity.

PINKY WINKY (DVPpinky) has showy bloom clusters that age to pink at the base of the long, conical cluster. Newer end blooms stay white. This plant will produce the best color show in full sun.

Six- to eight-feet tall.

PRAECOX is the earliest of the paniculatas to bloom and the only one that blooms on old wood, so prune it right Quick Fire after it blooms. Six to eight feet.

QUICK FIRE (Bulk) has blooms that turn pink quickly. Eight feet.

TARDIVA has upright stems and flower clusters, making it easy to train as a small tree. It blooms later than Grandiflora, with large white cones of blooms aging to a deep pink. Eight to fifteen feet.

WEBB’S has a heavy display of rounded flower clusters better for the South. Ten feet to twenty feet.

Where to buy: Always look to your local nurseries first, because local nurseries often offer larger plants suited to the area climate and are staffed with knowledgeable, helpful folks. -lm

Connie Cottingham is licensed in three Southern states as a landscape architect. You can reach her at connie@lee-magazine.com.

CUSTOM HOMEBUILDERS

IMAGINATION, ARTISTRY, CRAFTSMANSHIP … ECLIPSE

ECLIPSE When details matter

Framing Remodeling Home Repair

Contact Dennis Fussell of Eclipse Custom Home Builders 923 Stage Road, Unit F P.O. Box 1355 , Auburn, Alabama 36831

334 •663 •0355

LEE MAGAZINE 11

F A S H I O N

I’ve noticed the fashion world is paying more attention to the drab and unfabulous business casual, making new rules, and changing the name of the game.

I’ve noticed the fashion world is paying more attention to the drab and unfabulous business casual, making new rules, and changing the name of the game. It’s a good thing there are more options to mix it up because, according to a 2007 Gallup Poll, forty-three percent of Americans describe their work dress code as business casual, up from the thirty-two percent who reported they wore business casual two years earlier. enswear-inspired business casual is one of my favorite looks. To pull this off, stick to the general idea of the boring rules, but mix it up with a bit of androgyny. Instead of just any old khaki or dark pants, find a more fitted pant, one with a slim or skinny leg fit. Take caution, though, skinny or slim-fitting pants do not look good on everyone. As always, try before you buy. Pair the pants with a crew-neck sweater and button up combo

M

Ban the Blah!

Time for a bold remake of business casual

By Taylor Dungjen

S

ince I graduated college several months ago, I’ve had to reorient my brain from the “anything goes” college dress code to business casual for my grown up job.

Before I started work in June, I couldn’t have told you what business casual meant — I could spell out business and I could definitely talk casual for days, but the idea

12 LEE MAGAZINE

of marrying the two just blew my mind.

In the months leading up to full-time employment, I Googled “business casual” at least every other day to try and get myself in the right mindset. What I came up with was boring: khakis or dark pants, no cleavage, long sleeve dress shirts, leather shoes, and belt. My grandmother doesn’t even dress that blandly.

and, cap off the look with colorful heels or wedges as tall as you can tolerate.

The idea of an androgynous wardrobe doesn’t sit well with everyone; some prefer a more feminine style. Instead of longsleeve button ups or golf shirts, switch it out for a cami with lace detail at the neckline or even on the bottom hem. On top, find a tailored, well-fitting blazer and

you’re half way to business chic. Skirts are almost always acceptable — unless they’re super short — but denim pencil skirts with a nice belt are an attractive alternative.

You can’t ever go wrong with a pencil skirt, and denim is always comfortable. Heels or wedges will work best, but if you have a lot of running around to do, a nice pair of flats will work well. f the boss won’t have it or you can’t pull away from black or neutral dress pants and a blazer, go shopping for bold blouses in fun colors or interesting prints. This fall, floral, abstract, and animal-inspired prints are hot, so if you can find them in bold and bright colors, scoop them up.

Whether you’re, like me, starting a new job, or looking to reinvent a bland work place wardrobe, you can take business casual to a new level with menswear-inspired looks or ditching casual for chic. -lm

I

THE ELECTION FOR FAMILY COURT JUDGE IS NOT DECIDED, YOU HAVE ANOTHER CHOICE

JOANNE CAMP HAS THE EXPERIENCE, COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT AND KNOWLEDGE FOR THE POSITION OF FAMILY COURT JUDGE.

• Experience: practicing for over 26 years representing men, women and children in the Juvenile and Domestic Courts; 8 years as a contract attorney in the Juvenile Court.

• Community Involvement: Lee County Youth Development Board, District Chairman of Boy Scouts of America, Kiwanis, St. Michael’s Church.

• Knowledge: Governor’s Commission on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; Chief Justice’s Committee on the Future of the Juvenile Court; Presenter of Continuing Legal Education Courses in Domestic Relations.

Taylor Dungjen is a freelance writer who often covers fashion. Write to her at taylor@lee-magazine.com.

In the coming months, I would appreciate your support and your prayers.

PLEASE CONTACT US. JOANNE CAMP 334•749•9011 http://joannecamp.info and Facebook “VOTECAMP2010” Paid for by Campaign to Elect Joanne Camp, Family Court Judge, 2304 Gateway Drive, Suite A, Opelika, AL 36801

Dear Rhonda, My concern is that hair has started growing on my face and neck.

It’s just not attractive, and it even becomes ingrown. I think it’s also causing dark spots! The depilatory creams they sell at the drug store irritate my skin terribly. I have spent hours waxing and plucking; ouch!

Would laser therapy work for me, even though I have a dark complexion? Is the laser treatment safe? How many times will I need to have it done? How much will it cost? Is it painful?

Concerned in Loachapoka

Dear Concerned:

Q

Unwanted hair growth is a problem for many women. Laser therapy is the gold standard treatment to safely and effectively remove hair. It is very important that your medical aesthetician use a laser designed for all skin types. The fee for this service varies with the area being treated, as does the amount of visits it will take to remove all the unwanted hair. Our patients report little to no pain, because we use cool air, blown across the skin during treatment. And don’t worry about those dark spots. We have clinically proven products and services that quickly remove those, too.

During the month of August we will be offering a 20% discount on all our laser procedures using our most advanced technology, the Cynosure Apogee Elite and the Lumenis One . These lasers are used to remove sun spots (pigmented lesions), broken blood vessels, unwanted hair, and to clear up Rosacea. Just call for your free consultation.

Al I look forward to talking with you soon at Stewart Dermatology.

Tre l Lase Sincerely, atm r ent s

R honda

Stewart Dermatology

20% off

25 Medical Arts Center, Opelika • 334-749-5604

M O M I T U D E

The very small, almost microscopic, pleasures (ahem) of back-to-school shopping

Have credit card, will grimace

By Kelly Frick

B

ecoming a mother has taken the fun out of back-to-school shopping.

I couldn’t have said that six years ago when Emma started kindergarten. Or even two years ago when John started school.

But I can say that now, as I set out on another exhausting day of school clothes shopping that will drain my patience as quickly as it drains my pocketbook.

I mean, have you been in any major department store during back-to-school shopping? Believe me, not a whole lot of smiling moms or smiling kids like you see on the TV commercials.

“I want this shirt and those tennis shoes.”

“No, they’re too expensive. How about this shirt and the white tennis shoes?”

“BUT I want THEM!” “I said NO!” Last time I checked, gritting your teeth isn’t the same thing as smiling.

The average family spent nearly $550 on back-to-school shopping last year, according to the National Retail Federation. And the group says you can expect to spend about the same amount this year.

I’m guessing that $550 number is really per kid. Because I’m staring down about $1,100 on the Visa this month.

Listen up, moms of incoming kindergartners: It will start out fun. Little Emma will try on the most adorable outfits; jumpers with matching tights and plaid skirts with argyle knee-highs and cotton-knit dresses with leggings. You’ll pick up two pairs of shoes, perhaps black patent leather Mary Janes and pink tennis shoes with butterflies on the side. In the store mirror, your daughter will look like she walked out of a Fancy Nancy book.

Then three things will happen.

You’ll get up to the counter to pay and

14 LEE MAGAZINE

realize you have spent more than your monthly mortgage payment.

Little Emma will take a growth spurt in October and won’t fit into the darling jumper, or the Mary Janes, anymore.

And finally, Emma will decide she really prefers to wear jeans and T-shirts decorated with monkeys every day to school and on weekends, except for when you force her to wear the ill-fitting plaid skirt to church on Sunday morning.

The same goes for boys, although I’ll admit I didn’t even try too hard by the time John started school. We went straight to jeans and Ironman T-shirts. But he still took a growth spurt and his jeans looked like clown pants by November.

As a kid, I loved back-to-school shopping. That one time a year when my mother loosened the purse strings and splurged. She’d gasp as the clerk rang up our items. She’d whisper, “Let’s not tell your dad about the Calvin Kleins.” I happily obliged.

(Because nothing could come between me and my Calvins.)

And when I had Emma eleven years ago, I envisioned the day when I’d take her by the hand and we’d shop all day looking for the perfect First Day of School outfit.

And on that First Day of Kindergarten, she looked like a million bucks. (Which is only slightly less than I paid for the shoes, outfit, and matching headband.)

But on Day Six of kindergarten, when I pulled out that same outfit and headband, Emma said in the sweetest of voices that can annoy only their own mothers, “Mommy, I don’t like that outfit anymore.”

Oh, really? Cuz you loved it in the store where you begged me

to buy it. Where I had to sign over that week’s paycheck to purchase it. Where you said all the girls would be wearing it.

Over the years, I’ve gotten slightly wiser.

I buy jeans a little big. I buy white T-shirts in bulk because they go with everything.

I pay extra for shoes because cheap shoes fall apart too fast.

I allow for one great First Day of School outfit, but it has to cost me less than a week’s worth of groceries.

Still, I’ve been known to be a sucker, just like my mom was for me and those Calvin Kleins back in 1982.

“Mom,” Emma said as we shopped the other day. “Look at those blue sparkly shoes! They totally match my headband!”

Fortunately, I brought my credit card. -lm Kelly Frick is a writer and mother of two.

ADVERTISMENT

D

iane should be proud of herself. At just twenty-five, she is a registered nurse with a great job, but she doesn’t often smile. For as long as she can remember, she has been embarrassed by her teeth. She often puts her hand up in front of her mouth when meeting a new person, or when smiling or laughingnow, she must break this habit, thanks to O’Brien Dental.

Diane’s first visit to O’Brien Dental was unlike any dental appointment she ever experienced, and she has been to a lot of dentists. After her cleaning she received a complementary professional whitening kit, complete with custom-fitted trays.

Other dentists had offered this service, because Diane’s teeth were so discolored, but the charge was two hundred dollars.

She knew she needed whitening, and really wanted it, but just couldn’t afford

SOMETHING TO SMILE ABOUT it. She was so excited, she couldn’t help asking the staff why there was no charge.

The staff explained that the whitening kit helps patients maintain clean and healthy teeth and gums. The complementary kit meshes with their goal of offering procedures that are as cosmetiMichael O’Brien DMD cally pleasing as possible. Patients leave O’Brien Dental with more confidence and truly feeling better all over.

During Diane’s check-up Dr. O’Brien used a wand-shaped camera to take pictures inside her mouth. For the first time she could actually see what the dentist saw, giving her a clearer understanding of her problems. Dr. O’Brien provides this service because patients cannot see or feel

Monday and Tuesday: 8:00 am–5:00 p.m.

Wednesday: 7:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m.

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ninety-nine percent of dental problems.

He showed Diane what was needed while explaining the best treatment plan.

After her appointment the reception staff offered to file Diane’s insurance, and then asked if she would prefer to be contacted by email, phone, or text message. The multiple communication options made it easy for her to keep track of her appointments.

How did this technically advanced, professional practice come to Auburn? r. Michael O’Brien graduated from Auburn High School, then Auburn University, and completed his degree from the dental school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He spent his first year of general practice dentistry at the Naval Base in San Diego, then came back home in 1985, opening his own practice. Since then he’s been named the Director of the Regional Center for Dental Medicine, a group of dental practices dedicated to helping physicians and hospitals

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take care of their patients. Dr. O’Brien is also a member of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry.

O’Brien Dental makes it their mission to help you keep teeth for a lifetime, and to render any treatment required in the kindest and most professional manner.

Dr. O’Brien and his highly trained team understand the effect of oral health on overall health. Proper dental care helps patients control diabetes, and reduce risk of cardiovascular disease.

Diane came to O’Brien Dental feeling hopeless, sure that nothing could be done.

Not only did she feel the need to hide her teeth, she also couldn’t bite or chew correctly. Dr. O’Brien developed a treatment plan that included crowns and veneers, and was able to realign and refunctionalize Diane’s teeth in just six weeks.

Hopeless to happy, Diane says that finding O’Brien Dental “was the best thing that ever happened to me. It changed my

whole life.”

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334•821•8800 LEE MAGAZINE 15

S M A R T S

MATH BY STEALTH

Seize the moment and make fractions tasty

By Janeane Barrett

W

hen my children were preschool age, we’d sometimes have cinnamon rolls on Saturday morning.

If my husband was home we could easily divide eight cinnamon rolls between the four of us. But when he was away, we had a problem, and I had a chance to sneak in a math lesson about fractions and division.

I told my children to divide the rolls fairly. The first part was easy: “One for you, one for you, and one for Mom,” until we each had two rolls with two left over.

The kids decided that they should each get one more. “That’s not fair, “I complained. “ You’ll each have one more than me.”

Through trial, error, and discussion, they figured out we could divide the two rolls into three equal pieces. If we each took two pieces – two thirds – it would be fair.

By using math terms in the discussion, children learn math vocabulary. “You get two and two-thirds, your sister gets two and two-thirds, and Mom gets two and

16 LEE MAGAZINE

two-thirds.” They also learned about division with remainders, fractions, and mixed numbers.

Learning how fractions are named is an important concept and one that elementary students stumble on. Young children often think any part of a whole is called a half. When you divide things such as pie or pizza, count the parts and explain why the pieces are called tenths, fifths, or fourths.

“These pieces are called fourths because it takes four of them to make one whole. “ n the classroom I used chocolate bars to assess who understood these concepts. “Today I have some chocolate bars. I don’t have enough for everyone to get one whole chocolate bar, but I do have enough for each of you to get a fraction of a candy bar. “Then I gave the students a piece of paper with the fractions 1/3, ¼, 1/6, 1/12 and 1/24. They had to circle the part of the chocolate bar they wanted.

Later each of them selected the share they chose. The challenging part was when

I

someone chose to eat 1/24th. I would say, “You must not like chocolate very much” as they realized they had to cut one of the small pieces in half for their tiny morsel of chocolate. fter that candy bar activity, when the discussion of comparing fractions came up, we would always draw on, “Remember the candy bar activity and how small a twenty-fourth was?”

That one activity helped my students remember that one-third was a lot more than one-twenty fourth and they could explain why.

Look for ways to show your child how you use math in your everyday life.

Whether it be cooking, counting money, or looking for patterns, if you seek ways to show how you use math, you will help your child make abstract concepts real, which will carry over into success and positive attitudes in math class. -lm Auburn resident Janeane Barrett recently retired from Auburn City School

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B R A W N

Andrea Fox knows what works for her.

(Energy) Balancing Act Three magic words: Intensity, duration, frequency

By Lisa Gallagher

S

he hit 219 pounds and decided that was more than enough. Although she comes from a large — and I mean pasta-loving large — Italian family, Andrea Fox at 19 chose a different path. She had a vision of herself based on many childhood hours watching her father, a police officer, work out at the local gym.

Andrea wanted to join the Air Force. To qualify, she needed to lose seventy two pounds. Weight Watchers gave her the tools and accountability to lose the first forty, and she learned a lot about what and how much (or little) she needed to eat to be a slimmer version of herself. The rest of the weight came off slowly, through daily exercise to prepare for basic training.

Twelve years and three kids later, Andrea is drop-dead gorgeous —five-foot, six-inches and 140 pounds of muscle and curves. She is a tremendously motivating fitness instructor who routinely tells the people in her classes that she has been overweight and knows about the struggle.

In addition to being an obese teenager, she relates, she gained sixty pounds when

viewed research papers, and its rudiments are contained in public health recommendations generated in 1995 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American College of Sports Medicine.

Then in 2003 an expert panel, including physicians, epidemiologists, exercise scientists and public health experts, updated the information, reviewing scientific literature on physical activity and health through 2006.

In a nutshell, the recommendations — which deal with dura. tion, intensity, and frequency of activity — call for a minimum of thirty minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise five days a week, or twenty minutes of vigorous activity three days a week for eighteen to sixty-five year olds.

This is in addition to activities of daily

In addition to being an obese teenager, she relates, she gained sixty pounds when expecting each of her children

18 LEE MAGAZINE

expecting each of her children. She lost those sixty pounds within months of delivery, all three times. How did she do this?

It’s no secret. In fact, it’s published in government documents and peer-re-

living, such as walking the dog or grocery shopping. The recommendation for musclestrengthening is eight to ten exercises targeting the major muscle groups on two or more non-consecutive days each week. The strength-building exercises should employ enough resistance that eight to ten repetitions results in volitional fatigue – or more simply, you can’t lift one more time.

Blah, blah, blah, right? But here’s the interesting part. The updated document made clear that more is better. There are additional benefits to working out more intensely including more fitness in less time and reduced risk for chronic health conditions and death. The report also said some adults need to do more. It could be due to genetics, body composition, health status, age, or other factors, but to achieve an effective energy balance, some people need to exceed the recommendations.

Andrea found this out the Army way,

and it has worked for her and her clients ever since. She knows that out of three components — duration, intensity and frequency — that the intensity made the difference for her. If you haven’t gotten the results you want in the past, maybe you haven’t found the right intensity level.

If you’re not willing to join the Army, you might consider joining a cycling or BODYPUMP class with a motivating instructor like Andrea. Options for those who prefer to go it alone are a heart-rate monitor, or a Bodybugg — sort of a fancy pedometer that includes Web-based diet management. Good luck, and as always, check with your physician before beginning an exercise program. -lm

Lisa Gallagher, director of the Fitness Center at the Opelika Sportsplex, is a wellness coach, personal trainer, and group fitness instructor. You can contact her at lisa@lee-magazine.com.

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LEE MAGAZINE 19

B R A I N

y s u

B y

s u B

By Jenni Laidman

I

do not feel like writing this column.

I didn’t feel like writing it yesterday, and I didn’t. By the end of the day, I had the blues.

I find from a recent study by University of Chicago researchers, published in Psychological Science, that I could have predicted my down-in-the-dumps mood had I given thought to my choice of inactivity. In fact, I would have been happier by dinnertime if I had done nearly anything at all; even stupid activity would have made me happy.

The study found that while we’re more likely to be happy if we’re busy — even if someone else forces us to take up a task — we will opt for idleness unless we can come up with some justification for work, even weak justification.

Christopher Hsee, the first author of the study, goes so far as to say that Sisyphus — the guy in Greek mythology who rolls a boulder up a hill only to have it roll back down just as he reaches the top — was actually happier doing that frustrating task than he would have been goofing off for eternity.

In Hsee’s study, groups of students filled out surveys and were allowed no other activity. As they finished, they learned it would fifteen minutes before the next part of the survey was ready. In the meantime, they should take their surveys to one of two locations and turn them in. One location was

20 LEE MAGAZINE

EVEN A BAD EXCUSE TO WORK CAN MAKE YOU HAPPY

right outside the door, the other required a ten or fifteen minute walk, round-trip.

Upon turning in the survey, they received a piece of chocolate, either dark chocolate or milk chocolate, their choice.

A second group filled out the same survey and faced the same fifteen-minute delay, but they were told that at one location they would receive dark chocolate, and at the other, they would receive milk chocolate.

When fifteen minutes passed, all rated their level of happiness on a scale of one through five, with five being the happiest. hen the reward was identical no matter where a student dropped off a paper, most students opted to turn in the paper just outside the test room door.

Only thirty-two percent took the longer walk to turn in their surveys. But when the reward differed depending on where the paper was turned in, fifty-nine percent of the students took the long walk. Hsee writes that offering a different type of candy at each location provided enough justification for students to choose busyness over idleness. They could tell themselves they preferred the far-away candy, even though the study showed no real preference among those being tested. In both experiments, those who took the long walk rated their happiness level higher than those who just dropped the survey off nearby.

In a second experiment, participants

W

were told where to return their surveys.

They had no choice. Then they rated their happiness. The researchers found that even when students were forced “stay busy” with a long walk, they rated themselves happier than those who were assigned the short walk did. This seems to carry a message for parents. Your daughter may not want to clean her room. Make her do it anyway. It will make her happy.

In a final experiment, participants received a bracelet while waiting fifteen minutes. In the first group, they were told they could take the bracelet apart, but must put it back together exactly as they found it, a sort of purposeless task. Most people sat idly. A second group was told they could take the bracelet apart if they felt like it, but they should put it back together using a different design. This time most participants took the bracelet apart. In both experiments, those who reassembled the bracelet rated themselves as happier than those who sat idle for fifteen minutes. he bottom line, it appears, is that we require some justification – even minor, almost silly justification – to give up our idleness, but once we do that, we’ll be happier.

Hsee writes that earlier researchers have said that humans work in order to search for meaning. “Our study suggests that people search for meaning in order to work.” -lm

T

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LEE MAGAZINE 17

“WE WERE SINGING, ‘I WILL SURVIVE,’ AND LOOKING AT THAT CROWD, SEEING THEY WERE SINGING ALONG WITH US, THAT WAS PROBABLY THE MOST TOUCHING MOMENT,” ~Lisa Harrelson

YAHOOTERS

Sisterhood, singing, silliness & survival

By Lindsay Wood

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onna Layson was showering before church when she felt wet gobs of blond hair come out in her hands. She put her hands back in her hair and there it was again: two handfuls.

After weeks of chemotherapy, her hair was falling out that Sunday morning.

She called for her husband, James, crumpled into his arms, still wet, and cried for her hair, for her kids, and for everything.

James cried with her on the bathroom floor.

“I didn’t go to church that day,” Donna, a member of First Baptist Church in Opelika, said.

This was Donna’s second battle with breast cancer. The first was in 2006, when doctors performed a lumpectomy followed by radiation. Then, earlier this year, only days from the anniversary of her first diagnosis four years earlier, she found another lump in her left breast. Donna visited her oncologist immediately. Tests revealed a highly aggressive form of metastatic breast cancer.

Flash forward to May. Donna stands on stage in Marilyn McCarley’s back yard, a pink boa flung around her neck, stepping

22 LEE MAGAZINE Saintly Vicious

9

and swaying in tandem with other boabedecked women. Her daughter-in-law, Ashley Layson, belts, “I Will Survive!”

“At first I was afraid, I was petrified,” Ashley sings. It’s a feeling Donna knows.

But as the rousing chorus begins, the song is no longer about a woman clawing her way back from abandonment by a man, it’s a personal anthem covering all challenges, a slap in the face of fear, a song all the dancing women claim as their own. “I will survive!” And then someone giggles.

And Miss Molly, Ashley’s tiny terrier, dashes onto the stage for a quick twirl, and someone cracks a joke, and the terrier runs away, and now they’re all laughing.

This is it. This is what survival is about when you’re a Yahooter. It’s about laughter.

Anyone who has attended a Christmas parade in Opelika and Auburn knows the Yahooters. Governor Bob Riley knows them. Thousands of Montgomery citizens know them. People who watch Montgomery TV know them. These eight Lee County women are using their pink boas to hoist themselves toward regional stardom as a self-styled, silly, triumphant sensation.

But these women are so much more than performers. It’s almost as though their public antics – bopping around stage carrying blow-up hot-pink horns they pretend to play, cooing and flirting like an octet of Marilyn Monroes in blonde-bombshell wigs, cranking back for killer solos on inflatable guitars – all that is the external expression of internal wealth. Think of it as the grin of happy women.

The Yahooters were conceived in a vehicle by accident. Unlike other such vehicular germinations, this was in broad daylight on a day trip to Eufaula. The women, whose ages span thirty-three years, had no grand plan that day. Ashley, in her former role as a Montgomery morning and noon news anchor, had scored free tickets to a tour of the city’s Antebellum homes and invited her mother, Marilyn McCarley, and Donna, her mother-in-law, telling them to invite their friends. In addition to those three, on board that day were Jan Cook, a mother of two grown children who works in human resources at Auburn University; Lisa Harrelson, who has two sons and is administrative assistant to Opelika Mayor

Lorraine McCarley, Donna Layson, and Ashley Layson perform at a backyard shindig this spring.

Gary Fuller; Lorraine McCarley, mother of two who, with her husband, Danny, runs two heating and air conditioning businesses; Melody Stiff, who has two children and works in risk management at East Alabama Medical Center, and Sylvia Whorten, who has one son and is retired from a career in human resources.

That first trip spawned others, with Ashley seizing the reins, planning monthly get-togethers for which no one took a rain check. Ashley is the director of public relations and marketing for Alabama Ag Credit.

“Ashley’s the spark plug,” says Lorraine, Ashley’s sister-in-law. “In the very beginning she organized every single outing.”

Sylvia branded that first trip a “hoot,” and Ashley later coined the name “Yahooters” — stealing the prefix from the Ya Ya Sisterhood. Cementing their identity, they wore pink for every get together.

Lorraine, at twenty-nine, the youngest in the group, knew from the first trip that this was something special. “I never experienced anything like it,” she says, “the laughing, the cutting up.”

“I knew right off” that this group was special, says Sylvia, one of two women in the group who are not related to the others. The other is Melody Stiff.

Each trip, each dinner out, was a release, “just being able to discuss things with no men around,” says Marilyn, who has three children and runs the office for her husband Clyde’s paint contracting business.

“You get together with these ladies and you don’t notice the age difference,” says Sylvia. “We mesh together so well. It’s just age. Hey, that doesn’t mean a thing to us.

We just all click.”

To a woman, each describes their fellow Yahooters as “sisters,” and “family.”

“I have seven sisters now and I never had a sister,” says Donna.

When Donna told her fellow Yahooters her cancer had recurred and she faced a double mastectomy, the sisterhood went into action.

“The first thing we did was get together and pray,” says Lisa Harrelson, Ashley’s sister. The women cried and hugged, and when Donna went in for her surgery, “We all crowded into a little waiting room,” to wait for news, Lorraine says. In fact, the women say, they and Donna’s family were kicked out of the public waiting room for making too much ruckus and were given their own waiting room.

“Donna is the strongest woman I’ve ever met in my life,” Lorraine says. “It was hard to kind of take it in. She’d already had it once before and then it came back with a vengeance.”

“The thing about Donna is, we’re more worried about Donna than Donna is worried about Donna,” Lisa says. “She has been such a trooper and said, ‘I have the LEE MAGAZINE 23

The Yahooters prepare for a Christmas parade performance. On the left, from the top: Marilyn McCarley, Sylvia,Wharton, Lorraine McCarley. On right from top, Jan Cook, Melody Stiff, Donna Layson and Ashley Layson.

faith I’m going to be OK.’ ” Donna says Ashley looked after her the day of her double mastectomy. “She just came over, cooked all day, and froze meals for us,” says Donna, a real estate agent and mother of four. Emails from Yahooters filled her inbox every day during her treatment. They called, they sent cards.

“They cried with me. They laughed with me. They danced with me. Everything that I needed, they did,” Donna says.

But Donna was anything but needy.

“She didn’t really let us help her very much,” says Melody. “If you wanted to take her supper, she’d say ‘Only bring supper if you stay and eat with us. I’ll do the salad.’ You couldn’t just drop stuff off. She never let it get her down.” onna’s second encounter with breast cancer underlined the importance of the group’s annual participation in the Opelika Think Pink walk for breast cancer awareness sponsored by the American Cancer Society, East Alabama Medical Center, and Opelika Main Street.

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24 LEE MAGAZINE

“Now it’s even more important that it was before,” Lisa says. Part of the proceeds from an upcoming Yahooters cookbook will go toward breast cancer research, as do any proceeds the group earns.

In other years, the group walked along with other Think Pink participants, but last year they performed. This was before Donna’s second diagnosis. For many of the Yahooters, it was a singular high point.

Jan Cook, Donna’s aunt, recalls: “Looking out in the audience and seeing all those people who lost their hair from going through chemo, or walking for their mother or sister, or in memory of someone — obviously some of them are very sick — and yet they come to the Think Pink walk in Opelika, and we get up there and act crazy, and people you would think didn’t have a thing to smile about were laughing.

To me, that’s really touching.”

“We were singing, ‘I Will Survive,’ and looking at that crowd, seeing they were singing along with us, that was probably the most touching moment,” Lisa says.

The crowd went wild when three of the Yahooter husbands, Bryant Layson, Ashley’s husband; Dennis Stiff, Melody’s husband; and Gary Harrelson, Lisa’s husband, came out in drag and joined the wild antics on stage. This from a group of guys whose initial response to the women’s stage antics were rolling eyes and teasing.

The entire singing and dancing craziness started as a lark. Ashley, of course, was the instigator. It was 2005 and the group was eating at Provino’s Italian Restaurant, “seems like everything we do includes a lunch or a dinner,” Ashley says, when she suggested they put together a float for the Opelika Christmas Parade. At first, only Ashley thought this was a good idea. She’s a veteran performer, singing for people since she was a little girl. She even twice auditioned for American Idol.

“We could never do that,” the others told her. “But the more we talked about, we started to think, ‘This could be fun,’” Ashley says.

“It’s not like we’re all twenty years old and one hundred pounds. How hysterical would that be to see a bunch of working women and housewives up there?” Ashley says.

The husbands helped build the float.

The women’s plan was simple —so simple it wasn’t until they were lined up with all the other floats, waiting for the signal to roll on, that they realized that maybe it was too simple. Ashley would sing “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and the rest of them would sit on the float and wave.

“We’re gonna look dumb just sitting here doing nothing,” Jan says they suddenly realized. “So Donna came up with hand motions.” This last-minute arm choreography elevated Donna — whose musical background included leading the children’s choir at Opelika First Baptist Church and playing piano — to group choreographer — “If you want to call it choreography,” Donna says.

girls!’ and they started shouting and doing the arm movements.” h, and since many of the Yahooters are really shy people, they all wore feathered Mardi Gras masks to hide their identities. (The Opelika-Auburn News blew their cover the next day by publishing a photo with each masked woman identified.)

“I am a very shy person,” Melody says. “I am probably one of the shyest people you ever want to meet.” On stage, she says, “I have an out-of-body experience. The first parade, I didn’t want anyone to see me. I cannot believe we’re doing this!” she thought.

But as they went on, “I died laughing. It just seemed so special. I thought, this is something I just don’t want to quit doing. It kind of clicked. When the parade was over, we didn’t want it to stop, we wanted to drive on over to Auburn. We had a good time. I we laughed so hard, everyone was watching us, and they got a good laugh on us.”

O

What’s going on in Downtown Opelika

Opelika Main Street Farmers Market

continues Every Tuesday 2:00-5:30 p.m.

SAVE THE DATE!

Opelika Main Street Night at Sips and Strokes Monday, August 23 A Portion of proceeds will benefit Opelika Main Street

Opelika Main Street

Dinner/Auction Fundraiser Saturday, September 11th

Miss Molly retreats from her moment on the stage performing with, from left, Lorraine McCarley, Donna Layson, Ashley Layson, and Melody Stiff

The crowd loved it. There was something irresistible about seven women in white turtlenecks, dark pants, elbowlength black gloves, and pink boas performing synchronized arm movements while Ashley sang.

“It was AMAZING!” Ashley says. “People were there, they had their little video cameras out to take pictures of their little baton class kids, and we’re just average everyday women, and people are yelling, “Go

T

he performances seemed to further enhance the bond. Lorraine says she hasn’t had friendships like these since junior high. Melody says it reminds her a bit of her close friendships in high school, “but even then it was different. Then you were in the cheerleaders or this group or that. Yahooters, this is just like a twist of fate put us together.”

More parades followed. The next year in Opelika, Ashley sang “Santa Baby,” and

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they all dressed like Marilyn Monroe — this time graduating from arm movements to simple dance steps. They took their float to the big Montgomery Christmas Parade and blew everyone away, earning first place in their class three years in a row. They amped up their performance by adding snow, using a machine that creates a snowy effect with foam.

The Auburn and Montgomery Christmas parades are at night, which seems to loosen up the crowd, Lorraine says. “Everybody is so into it, they’re dancing and rocking. I can’t help but laugh and be giddy all the way. My face hurts from smiling so much.”

Somehow, word of the Yahooters made its way to the governor, and in 2007 they were invited to perform in his inaugural parade.

“By that time, we did it without disguises,” Donna says. “The governor and his wife — they stopped us in front of where they were sitting — they got up and danced while we were doing ‘Dancing in the Street.’” riving the floats in these parades, and a big force in their construction, was Sylvia’s Whorten’s husband, LaDale, a building contractor. In February last year, LaDale died of stomach cancer.

“Oh my goodness! It was so quick,” Jan says. “He went in the hospital, and just a few days later he got out, and they had to go back in for surgery, and he was gone.”

The Yahooters went to Sylvia’s house immediately, en masse.

“I can’t even tell you how much they mean to me,” Sylvia says. “Oh my God, I couldn’t have done it without them. I was in a comatose state. They were so good to me. They came in and cleaned my house, put things in order, organized the food coming in, the friends, the phone calls. I was not even myself, you can imagine.”

“Words don’t come to mind how much they mean to me.”

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26 LEE MAGAZINE

Ashley Layson and husband, Bryant, pose in the cutouts at Marilyn’s backyard bash.

LaDale’s death was the group’s loss. “He was just a joy to be around,” Jan says. “He was always joking with everybody.”

“LaDale would have made a good Yahooter, Marilyn says on a May evening with the Yahooters gathered in her back yard. Her yard has twice been recognized by the Opelika Beautification Council, “And she has the water bills to prove it,” Ashley says. “Amen,” Marilyn agrees.

Marilyn’s hosting the monthly Yahooter meeting, and like always, she’s turned it into a big party with twenty-five guests.

There is a stage, a microphone for karaoke, frosty lime margaritas, and three six-footlong buffet tables covered with Southern favorites like barbecue pork sandwiches,

deviled eggs, lemon squares, watermelon, and sweet ice tea. The Yahooters are in celebration mode, although it will be another month before they hear the news they’ve all been waiting for.

In June, Donna has a PET scan. It finds no sign of cancer. While Donna is careful to explain that it is impossible to say someone is entirely cancer free, cancer patients cannot get a better result than the one she received.

Donna says eating dark fruits and vegetables was part of her recovery strategy, and in fact, the upcoming “Yahooter Classy Sassy Southern Cookbook” features some of her healthy recipes, although just as many of the Yahooter recipes Sylvia de-

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“I don’t know I’ve ever had a group of friends like this,” says Jan. “I’ve had good friends, and I still have good friends. This is just a special group of friends. We’re really just like sisters.” -lm

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Lindsay Wood is a local freelance writer and a graduate of Auburn University.

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334•444•3020 www.ctiea.com

calendar JAN DEMPSEY COMMUNITY ARTS CENTER GALLERY, 222 East Drake Avenue, Auburn. Hours: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Admission: free. Information: 501-2963.

JULE COLLINS SMITH MUSEUM OF FINE ART, 901 South College Street, Auburn.

Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Monday through Friday; 10 a.m. to 4:45 p .m.

Saturday. Admission: free. Information: 844-1484.

LEE COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY, 1140 Ware Drive, Auburn. Adoption hours: Tuesday through Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Drop offs strays or pick up found pets: Tuesday through Sunday, 8:30 to 5 p.m.; Tuesday, 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Information: 821-3222; lchs@leecountyhumane.org.

LEWIS COOPER JUNIOR MEMORIAL LIBRARY, 200 South Sixth Street, Opelika.

Hours: Monday and Tuesday, 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.; Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Information: 705-5380 LEE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 6500 Stage Road (Highway 14), Loachapoka. Hours: Second Saturday of every month, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Information: 887-3007, webmaster@leecountyhistoricalsociety.org.

LOUISE KREHER FOREST ECOLOGY PRESERVE, 3100 Highway 147 North, Auburn.

Hours: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission: free.

Information: 707-6512.

28 LEE MAGAZINE

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AUBURN CITY PUBLIC LIBRARY, 479 East Thach Avenue, Auburn. Hours: Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 2-6 p.m. Information: 501-3190.

TELFAIR PEET THEATRE, at the corner of Samford and Duncan avenues. Tickets: 844-4154 or http://goo.gl/Osvn. Information: 844-4748 or theatre@auburn.edu.

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AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2010

EVERY MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, AND FRIDAY: Walkers of all ages can join the Auburn Stride Walkers at 11 a.m. For complete

walk schedule: 501-2948 or 501-2946.

ONGOING: To celebrate that there’s nothing so nice as formal wear, the Lee County Humane Society, 1140 Ware Drive, Auburn, offers Tuxedo Tuesday discounts for “tuxedo” wearing pets. All adoptions of black-andwhite cats and dogs, as well as solid black cats and dogs, are $50.

ONGOING THROUGH AUGUST 14: The exhibition Views and Re-Views: Soviet Political Posters and Cartoons continues at the

Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art. ONGOING THROUGH AUGUST 21: Summer Invitational 2010 at the Jan Dempsey Community Arts Center features puzzles and sculpture.

ONGOING THROUGH AUGUST 28: The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art exhibit American Luster: Select Examples of Contemporary Studio Glass continues. Admission: free.

ONGOING THROUGH SEPTEMBER 6: Auburn City Pools are open for the summer. The

pools are located on Drake and Samford Avenues. Daily admission is $2 per person; children younger than one, free. Summer passes are available for individuals for $50 and for families for $100. Information: 501-2690.

ONGOING THROUGH OCTOBER 30: Audubon’s Final Achievements: The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America Version II

continues at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art in Auburn. Admission: free.

ONGOING THROUGH NOVEMBER 6: Old Master Drawings from the John and

Mable Ringling Museum of Art, an exhibit featuring master drawings from the 16th through the 19th centuries, at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art. Admission: free.

AUGUST 3, 10, 17, 24, 31, SEPTEMBER 7, 14, 21, 28, OCTOBER 5: Children ages five to twelve can enjoy a Discovery Hike at

the Louise Kreher Ecology Park from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Admission: free.

8Bp AUGUST 3, 10, 17, 24, AND 31: Opelika Main Street Farmers’ Market takes place

from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on South Railroad Avenue in downtown Opelika. Information: 745-0466.

AUGUST 3 & 17, SEPTEMBER 7 & 21:

Bi-weekly Bingo Lunch for seniors at Dean Road Recreation Center. Admission is free; bring a covered dish. Located at 307 South Dean Road. Information: 501-2930.

AUGUST 3, 10, 31, SEPTEMBER 7, 14, 21, 28, OCTOBER 5: Baby Time at 10 a.m. at

the Auburn Public Library is a story and craft

“It has been an honor to join this great community! I sincerely thank all of our wonderful clients for their support.”

-Dr. James F. Moore IV

THORNTON ANIMAL HOSPITAL

time for babies age six months to eighteen months and their parents. Admission: free.

AUGUST 4, 11, SEPTEMBER 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, OCTOBER 6: Preschool Story Time is for

children age three to five and their parents, 10 a.m. at the Auburn Public Library. Admission: free.

AUGUST 5, 12, SEPTEMBER 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, OCTOBER 7: Toddler Time is a story and

craft time for children aged eighteen months to three years and their parents at 10 a.m. at the Auburn Public Library. Admission: free.

AUGUST 5, 12, 19, 26, SEPTEMBER 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, October 7: Enjoy a Nature Walk

AUGUST 14 AND SEPTEMBER 11: Second Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., features a performance by the Whistle Stop Pickers and demonstrations of frontier arts. Admission: free.

Dr. James F. Moore IV & Dr. Bruce F. Thornton Small Animal Medicine • Surgery Dentistry• Separate Boarding Facility for Dogs and Cats

AUGUST 14: Support the Lee County Hu-

mane Society and create a work of art at the Bottles and Brushes fundraiser from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Brass Brassiere, 1806 Marvyn Parkway, Opelika. Tickets are $50 and cover the cost of art supplies, wine, and an appetizer.

Information: 749-6122.

continued ←

Nellie Boland

Artistic Dog Grooming 229 COLUMBUS PARKWAY OPELIKA, ALABAMA

745 • 2541 OFFICE HOURS:

MONDAY-FRIDAY 7:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.

SATURDAY 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

www.thorntonanimalhospital.com

at Louise Kreher Forest Ecology Park. The walk starts at 8:30 a.m. and Admission: free.

AUGUST 5, 12, 19 AND 26: The Market at Ag Heritage Park takes place from 3 p.m.

to 6 p.m. at Ag Heritage Park at 107 Comer Hall, Auburn. Information: 321-1603.

 AUGUST 7: Children from kindergarten

through high school make and string glass beads from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Saturday Art Club at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Arts. Instruction is tailored to each age level. Parents are encouraged to attend and discuss preparing for the school year.

AUGUST 10: Lake Martin Jazz Masters Big Band Sound and Route 66 perform in Opelika Municipal Park as part of the Summer Swing Series. Music begins at 7 p.m. The Opelika Band Boosters will be selling Summer Swing Sack Suppers from 6:15 to 7:30.

The vintage train, Rocky Brook Rocket, will be giving free rides.

George H. Blake lll ATTORNEY AT LAW SPECIALIZING IN:

General Legal Services • Real Estate Closings Business law, LLC • Divorce and Family Law Adoptions • Bankruptcy • Wills and Trusts Probate • Guardianship/Conservatorship Mediation Services

334 • 887 • 3866 203 Cook Street

(corner of East Glenn Ave and Cook Street)

Auburn, Alabama 36830

www.georgeblakelaw.com

calendar continued AUGUST 16 THROUGH 19: Hospice needs volunteers to answer phones, build

ramps, produce videos, read to patients, and many other things. Training is from 9 a.m. to noon at the Opelika SportsPlex, 1001 Andrews Road. Information: 826-1899 or 745-7676 AUGUST 19: Third Thursday Late Night at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art marks the start of the school year with its Welcome Back party from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Galleries will be open, entertainment on hand, food available and a cash bar. There will be information on programs planned for the coming academic year. Admission: free.

AUGUST 23-SEPTEMBER 3: Adventures in Art Exhibition features letterpress works

at the Jan Dempsey Community Arts Center.

Admission: free.

AUGUST 27: Randall Bramblett performs

in the Sundilla Acoustic Concert Series, in the Auburn Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 450 Thach Avenue. Tickets: $10, students $8, children 12 and under, free. Information: www.sundilla.org.

at the Jan Dempsey Community Arts Center.

Admission: free.

 Run to

d

R ea

SEPTEMBER 11: Help get books in the hands of at-risk children at the Jean Dean Reading is Fundamental Run to Read at Floral Park in Opelika. The fundraiser includes a 1.5-mile walk, a 5K run, a bounce house, and other inflatables for kids. Registration begins at 7 a.m. Information: Rich Bailey at 6632197 or visit www.jeandeanrif.org.

SEPTEMBER 11: Children from kindergarten through high school are invited to attend Saturday Art Club at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Arts. Instruction is tailored to each age level.

for dogs and their people, takes place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Kiesel Park, 520 Chadwick Lane, Auburn. The event includes a dog agility course, pet safety demonstrations, and children’s activities. Admission: free. Information: stacee@leecountyhumane.org

opens at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art. Admission: free.

through high school celebrate the opening of the newest exhibit, As Above So Below, as part of Saturday Art Club at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Arts. Instruction is tailored to each age level.

SEPTEMBER 1: Magic Tree House Club, for children reading the Magic Tree House Club

book series, takes place at 3:30 p.m. at the Auburn Public Library. Admission: free.

SEPTEMBER 7- OCTOBER 9: Fall Invitation Exhibition showcases the work of local artists

30 LEE MAGAZINE

SEPTEMBER 19: The Louise Kreher Forest Ecology Preserve presents Hummingbirds with Fred Bassett at 2 p.m. Admission is $2 for members and $3 for non-members.

SEPTEMBER 21: The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art shows “Dive” as part of the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers. The film is a documentary about people who scavenge for discarded food in trash bins; discussion follows. Film begins at 6 p.m.

Admission: free.

SEPTEMBER 11: Woofstock, a celebration

AUGUST 28 THROUGH NOVEMBER 27: Recent Works by Scherer and Ouporov,

AUGUST 28: Children from kindergarten

SEPTEMBER 17: Dirk Hamilton performs in the Sundilla Acoustic Concert Series, 7:30 p.m., in the Auburn Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 450 Thach Avenue. Tickets: $10, students $8, children 12 and under, free. Information www.sundilla.org.

SEPTEMBER 11: Experience butterflies in the garden as part of the Beautiful Butterflies program at the Louise Kreher Forest Ecology Preserve. Presentation starts at 10 a.m. Admission is $2 for members and $3 for non-members.

SEPTEMBER 14: Puppet Play takes place

at the Auburn Public Library at 3:30 p.m.

Admission: free.

SEPTEMBER 16: American Girls Club, for children reading the American Girls book series, takes place at the Auburn Public Library at 3:30 p.m. Admission: free.

SEPTEMBER 21: The Auburn Public Library hosts a presentation by Mental_Floss Magazine at 7 p.m. Admission: free.

SEPTEMBER 23, 24, 26, 28, 29, 30, OCTOBER 1: Auburn University Theatre presents The Birthday Party at Telfair Peet Theatre. Tick-

ets: $15 and $10 for faculty, staff, seniors, students with a valid ID admitted free. Show time is 7:30 p.m. except on September 26, when there’s a 2:30 p.m. matinee.

October 5: A performance by the 5 Browns, a family of pianists, at the Opelika Performing Arts Theatre at Opelika High School, 1700 Lafayette Parkway, Opelika. Admission is $40 for adults, $35 for seniors, and $26 for students. Performance starts at 7:30 p.m.

Information: 749-8105.

OCTOBER 8: The Sundilla Acoustic Concert Series presents Cosy Sheridan, 7:30 p.m., Auburn Unitarian Universalist Church, 450 Thach Avenue. Tickets: $10, students $8, children 12 and under, free. Information: www.sundilla.org.

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