Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Manic Monday

I know it's unusual for me to break tradition and actually have something serious to say but with your permission...yesterday was a doozie!

After doing a few chores and home school, I let the kids go out to play before it got steaming hot. Soon, the boys came in to tell me that there was an ambulance at Shea and Tivan's house. (two of our regulars) We watched from a distance for a few minutes but there wasn't much movement in the house. I decided to walk across and see if the neighbors knew anything. They did not know and really didn't seem interested in knowing. Which was a bit frustrating and momentarily made me question myself. What if they start thinking of us as the "nosy" neighbors? Then I figured it wasn't likely our family could appear any weirder than we already do and what the heck do I care. Clearly something was wrong in the home of some of MY kids and I wanted to help if I could. Fortunately, Shea and Tivan came out just as I was crossing back by their house. As I walked over and asked what was up, Shea broke into tears and explained that her great grandma had fallen and they were taking her to the hospital. Being nosy paid off. I was able to comfort the kids, talk to their grandfather and ultimately bring them home with me until later in the day when things had settled down. This was from noon 'til 3:00.

Nancy and her coveted treasure box arrived and soon the yard was hopping with yungin's. They did their story, got the new verse for the week (a very appropriate "Is anything to hard for God?" Genesis 18:14), and enjoyed snack. The crowd began to disperse around 5:00.

I started on dinner until Jayla (and Zion -2 more usuals) came and asked if I could help them do homework because their mom was in a car wreck and wouldn't get home in time. I've met and really like their mom. I agreed to help them and they began laying out papers on the table while I walked across to check with their grandma and see if everyone was okay. Turns out she rear ended someone and her car was badly damaged but she was fine -just stuck in Raleigh waiting for a rental car. So, dinner was put on low and we worked on homework. This was from 5 until about 6:30 with Tim coming home in the midst of it and graciously feeding the screaming 7 month old who didn't give a rip who'd been in what accident she just wanted her strained peas, dog gone it.

The house was cleared of little people except the four who legally reside here and we sat down to eat an overcooked but still enjoyable dinner. The kids mom, Demetrius, came over and thanked us. She was shaken, frustrated, and by today, probably very sore. We chatted for a while and then again we were back to just the six of us. It's amazing how quiet six people can seem after a day like that.

You may now commence to feeling sorry for me. No. I'm kidding. That's not why I shared the craziness of Monday with you. This is why -because sometimes I have a passing thought that because Haiti didn't work out, God didn't "send us" to the mission field. But as Miss MJ (one of the sweetest ladies in our Sunday School class) just reminded us, we ARE on mission. You ARE on mission, right where you sit and read this... home, work, whatever. I was not as gracious about or even aware of the God-ness in all those circumstances yesterday as I should have been but as I plopped down in an exhausted and weepy heap last night He gave me the hindsight to see that it was all worth it.

Thanks for listening fellow missionaries!

Friday, August 24, 2007

The Pot and The Kettle

For many, MANY years Tim has tried to encourage, remind, rebuke, guilt, and otherwise nag me into locking the doors to our van when I get out. It's a good habit -albeit slightly paranoid and I try to remember, I really do. But to no avail. It's just not ingrained in my get out of the car ritual. There have even been a few times when I've left the car keys, my purse, etc. in the van all night while unlocked. I know you're all thinking someday she's gonna learn the hard way and you are probably right. But in the meantime, we continue on this cycle: I leave the doors unlocked, Tim says "I wish you wouldn't do that," I say "okay", I leave the doors unlocked, Tim says "I wish you ...." I think you get the point.

Here is an interesting turn of events which happened today. We loaded up the van and met a friend from church to do a "Pastor's family photo" shoot at the seminary near our house. We parked in a nice shady spot at the back of the student parking lot. (shhhh, don't tell the little dudes on the security golf carts) We unloaded and went into the building for a few shots then walked a 1/4 to a 1/2 mile down the road for some outdoor poses. Maybe twenty minutes later we returned to the parking lot and as we neared the van, I asked this obvious question, "Tim, why is the driver side door wide open?"

You know those moments when somebody does something really stupid and you are about to rail on them (in love, of course) and then they completely own up to it and it just sucks the wind right out of your sails? Then you felt my pain. Humbly and matter of factly, he replies, "because I apparently never closed it." hmph. I decided to drop it and move on. YEAH RIGHT! I goaded him on by saying with sheepish melodrama "It's a good thing I didn't leave my purse in there." Refusing to crack, he confidently pointed out that it was not a problem since "at least the doors were locked."

Stinkin' pot.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Sixteen and counting

Sixteen days! Can you believe it? Sixteen days and the boy still hasn't checked the blog. I'm beginning to feel sorry for him myself. He's a very busy guy and he is a wonderful husband. Maybe I should....well, I could just....perhaps it would be best if....NAH! I'm not telling and neither are you, right?


I'm guessing there are some of you who've wondered to yourself on some occasion what did Tim look like when he had hair? You've seen him sporting the cabbage do but that's not the only interesting style to grace his sweet bald head. Today is your lucky day. Come with me on a journey through the land of happy hair:










I think he has one of those faces that just works with any style, don't you? ;-)








Sunday, August 19, 2007

News for the sake of news

We've had a busy weekend. Grandparents visiting, babysitting, and dog sitting all in the same few days.

Ron and Chris if your reading this Raleigh is doing just fine. He has shadowed me since day one and has no regard for personal space whatsoever. I have managed to pee by myself once or twice but not without him pawing and whining at the door to let me know that he would much rather be supervising my activities from within the bathroom. I suppose it's only fair considering that he is forced to do his "business" with me attached to him by a short leash. hmmmm. Great. Now I'm gonna feel guilty for trying to have a moment's privacy.

My parents got a quick breaking in on the new 'hood. Children, children, everywhere. But they hung in there and inherited a few new adopted grand kids.

Tonight, we are chillin'. No plans, no agenda. Just relaxing and looking forward to a normal week. Which reminds me -I will post pictures of the new house but not until after Monday Mop-Up Day.

Have a great week, everyone!

Living Dangerously

As I am typing this post, Tim is sitting no more than 6 feet behind me playing Play Station with Nathan. I feel confident that I won't be caught because when he's "gaming" he may as well be on another planet. But I do admit that my heart rate is up a bit and my palms are sweating. Like sneaking away to see a secret lover. Are you feeling completely freaked out by that? =) Well, it's clear that I would never survive (and have no desire or intention to) as a cheating spouse. Every time he gets on the computer I ask what he's doing and then have to walk out of the room before I bust out laughing.

The picture to the right is one that I took, believe it or not, in the middle of one of our few and far between fights. I was REALLY mad at Tim for something that was probably very important at the time (in other words -I don't remember why) but as the sun positioned itself just right, all my mad flew out the window. How can you be mad at someone whose ears are on fire? I couldn't do anything but laugh. Fight over. Score one for the Creator of back lighting.

Uh-oh. Game over...gotta go! yikes.

Friday, August 17, 2007

The votes are in....

and it appears that we are a like-minded bunch. With the exception of a few (who I presume to be men taking pity on Tim so that he will some day return the favor when their wives decide to make them the brunt of a cruel joke). And so, this leaves me with an ethical challenge. How much fun can I really have with this and still be a loving wife? It isn't a matter of submission. I mean, Tim never told me NOT to use him as fodder for my slightly demented wit. It's really just a matter of boundaries. I can do boundaries. HA! Let the games begin.


This won't completely humiliate Tim and it will be fun for all of you. When Nathan was two-ish we must've had some spare time on our hands because we created a new Fortune 500 company ---(drum roll please)


CRS -The Cabbage Replacement System

Looks and feels like real hair.

Women will want you. Men will envy you.

Your children will want to be JUST like you!

CRS -available in produce stands everywhere.


=)

Monday, August 13, 2007

Clueless

Several of you have asked and well, believe it or not the boy is still clueless. Hasn't checked the blog and doesn't know what he's missing. A few of you weak-hearted readers have even suggested tipping him off via email or other hints. I'm ashamed of you. How could you ruin this fun for me? I'm glad you love Tim but come on...all's fair in love and yadda, yadda. I just want to be in the room on the day he finally checks in.

But since I am not completely heartless (okay, I am but let me have this one delusion please) I have posted a viewer/reader poll -see top right corner of web page. I figured dear Tim may fair better if his future is in YOUR hands and not mine. =) So, vote away and we'll see what's in store for my unsuspecting hubby.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.....

This is a test. This is only a test.


It has been brought to my attention that there is a person out there who NEVER (unless he happens to look over his wife's shoulder) reads the blog. If you are reading this right now then you can safely assume it is not you. So, this is just a simple test to see how long before I hear from that certain person about this post. This will give me a good idea of how often he actually checks in on people who are of great importance to him. =)


Tuesday, August 7, 2007

America's favorite past time

Tim thinks I hate baseball. I don't. On the contrary...I actually give partial credit to baseball for the fact that Tim and I were virgins when we got married. Seriously, Tim would come to my house for a date and end up watching the Atlanta Braves play on TV with my grandparents. I would fall asleep and he would wake me up a few hours later. Abstinence was a lesser struggle during baseball season. =)


But despite the games contribution to our moral fiber, I honestly can't think of a time that I would, in my right mind, look at Tim and say, "hey, let's go to a baseball game." Nonetheless, at the prompting of my husband and excitement of my children we loaded the crew up and headed out for a Durham Bulls game on Sunday night. We chose the cheapest tickets available..."the lawn" was our designated seating area. I should warn you in case you decide to take a similar outing some day; the lawn isn't what you think. In the name of true advertising, I would like to petition the Durham Athletic Association to more accurately name this area "the grassy lump". It's a hill. One small and quite steep hill at the back of the stadium just behind center field. Steep enough that we had to form human barriers to keep Bella from rolling head over heels. If she ever got going there would be no stopping her until she hit the concrete wall at the bottom.


To make matters worse, we were sitting right in front of the digital time/temperature screen and we were facing the sun -97 degrees when we arrived. Add to the heat my utter stupidity. It wasn't until the third inning that I realized I was the only one whistling and clapping when the team in blue made a good play. This may have been because the Durham Bulls were wearing WHITE uniforms. I didn't feel quite so stupid when the blue team won the game but I kept my enthusiasm in check lest we add "mauled by crowd" to my reasons for not enjoying baseball.


Are you with me so far? grassy lump, potential death for my youngest child, 97 in the sun, did I mention no sunglasses, and I can't figure out which team to cheer for...what's not to love about this? Well, perhaps it was the moment when I reached to get something from the diaper bag and felt an instant shot of pain through the back of my arm. It was a horribly familiar pain- honeybee. I haven't been stung in years! After a string of frantic euphemisms, Tim removed the stinger from by arm. I'm allergic to honeybees. Swelling, rash, hives, the whole nine yards. I regained my composure and took slow, steady breaths. It had been so long since my last sting (maybe 8 years old) I had no idea how mild or severe the reaction might be. We decided to wait it out and I figured if need be I could get immediate medical attention by simply rolling down the hill and onto center field. Could anything salvage this night for me?


Yep. The clouds rolled in and temperature dropped to a breezy 84 degrees, the itching and swelling only covered most of my left arm, my husband got to eat "the best hot dog ever" (it just tasted like a hot dog to me. I think his taste buds were affected by how much he paid for it), I got to see Nathan's big ol' smiling head on the jumbo tron during the seventh inning stretch, and using my trauma as leverage, I downed almost an entire bag of cotton candy all by myself. I still don't LOVE baseball but I do love my crew and if they decide to love baseball well, bring on the Benedryl.

Friday, August 3, 2007

Snack Shack update

Snack time is going well and continues to grow. We've added several kids to the list of regulars and they are hanging in there with the verses. This past week we added a new dimension to the program. On Monday, Nancy Foss -teacher and friend from church who lives just down the road- came to do a Bible story with the crew before they got the new verse. I had no idea how it would go. I knew there was a good chance the kids would love it and an equally good chance that they would be annoyed by so much structure and just choose to leave. BUT I underestimated my partner in community. She was on the ball.

Nancy brought a "treasure chest" and gave each child 3 tickets. If they caused any disruption during the story, they lost a ticket. If you lost all your tickets, NO treasure chest for you ("Soup Nazi" style =)). A few got close, losing two of the three tickets but in the end everyone pulled it out and got to choose a prize. The story was David and Goliath and our verse for the week was "People look at the outside but God looks at the heart" 1 Samuel 16.7. (the New Amie/Easy For Kids to Memorize version) We had 15 kiddos plus one young mom listening in the wings. Very cool. Next week -Queen Esther.

While I've encouraged the kids to really learn the verses, they usually hover around the picnic table before I come out and remind anyone who can't remember it. Technically, sure, it's cheating BUT as my pastor's wife says, you learn to measure success in different ways. 10-15 kids "cheating" to say a Bible verse feels like a success to me.