It's funny how many of our memories fade to gray over the years and others stick out in your mind like snapshots in a photo album, so clear they seem to have only happened yesterday. I have a memory of my sister that remains so clear in my mind, I can almost taste the cherry limeade I was drinking as we sat in my car on Walston Bridge Road in Jasper, Ala. waiting to cross Highway 78 on our way home.

We were laughing hysterically as we blasted Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and sang at the top of our lungs. There was head thrashing, air guitar and no shortage of cracked notes as we assaulted the song with the vigor of an American Idol contestant.

When the song ended I looked at my younger sister, Blair, and said, "I can't wait until we have a carload of kids screaming, 'Momma! STOP IT!'"

"I know!" Blair said, "It'll be so much fun to embarrass our kids!"

Not that either of us was ever easily embarrassed by our own mother. We had plenty of opportunities: there was the time she donned red and white striped leggings and a tennis skirt and came to our elementary school on roller skates.

There was the time she dressed up like a California Raisin with some of her friends and danced to "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" as part of the half-time entertainment at a Walker College basketball game.

This week my sister and her little boy, Tucker, came to visit. As we were driving down Highway 82 in Greenwood and bellowing "Do Re Mi" from The Sound of Music, I had an epiphany. My sister and I finally had the chance to fulfill a dream. It was our turn to attempt to embarrass our kids, and we had some big skates to fill.

We sang in our best opera voices, as loudly as we could. The song ended and our children didn't bat an eyelash.

Blair looked at me, baffled. "What? No applause?"

When we were faced with an unexpected power outage this week, after a few hours in the stifling house we loaded up the kids and headed to Wal-Mart to be in the air-conditioning. We only needed a couple of items so we moseyed on over to the toy aisle and let the kids wander around a bit. That's when we spotted the hula hoops.

Again, the perfect opportunity to embarrass our kids had presented itself. I grabbed a hula hoop and tried to swivel my hips the way I had as a child. It was a no go. The hula hoop clattered to the floor. I tried again and failed.

My sister looked at me in disgust and said, "Give me that thing."

"Get your own. I'm gonna do this if it kills me."

My sister grabbed a hula hoop and shook what our Momma gave her. My nephew exploded with laughter and my daughters clapped their hands. We were successfully entertaining our kids, but apparently they think it's completely normal to hula hoop in the toy aisle at Wal-Mart.

Later my sister and I followed my best friend Lizzie out to the country club pool with a total of seven kids.

There were kids everywhere, and while my older two are finally big enough to be mostly independent in the water, I still have to keep a really close eye on my youngest, Sadie. I got distracted talking to other moms in the baby pool and saw Sadie running towards the deep end. I jumped out of the pool and ran to catch her, while yelling, "Nobody look at me while I'm running in my bathing suit!"

I snatched my baby up, put her on my right hip and turned to walk back to the baby pool on the scorching pavement. I got close to the edge of the pool and felt my feet blistering. I could have walked the last six feet to the pool's entrance and walked down the steps but my feet were on fire and all I could think about was getting them in the water. I stuck my left foot in the pool to step down into the baby pool and as it turns out, two and half feet is a lot further than I anticipated.

I fell into the pool with a splash so enormous Shamu should be jealous. I almost knocked my swim suit off of my shoulders and my sunglasses off of my head. I caught myself on the bottom of the baby pool with my left hand and I fell so hard, I skinned my palm. I surfaced with Sadie still securely in my arms. She was patting my back and saying softly, "Momma? Momma?"

"Oh no! Are you okay?" the other moms asked in chorus.

My sister and the lifeguard were laughing so hard their shoulders were shaking.

My sister said, "All I saw was you take a step and fall sideways. You never even bent your knees! One second you were standing upright and the next you were gone! What in the world were you thinking?"

"Is Sadie okay?" I asked. I was so confused as to what had just happened I wasn't even sure if she hit her head or been briefly submerged under water.

"Her head didn't even go under!" My sister choked out the words through her laughter.

"That's because I'm the best mommy ever!" I crooned in Sadie's face.

I did a quick head count and made sure all the other kids in our group were still above water. They were all swimming happily and equally oblivious to my unpleasant episode. I had drawn my own blood and was going to need a trip to the chiropractor to undo the damage I had just inflicted on my shoulder, and it was all for nothing. My kids were oblivious.

Looks like I'm in the market for a pair of skates, after all.

(Robin O'Bryant is a former Mount Pleasant resident and mother of three. Read her blog online at www.robinschicks.com or e-mail her, robinschicks@gmail.com.)