Just Good Stuff

Well, I had some fun plans for today which were somewhat dashed as I have been told that I must wait for the guy to come and repair my oven and he will be here "sometime today". I was sitting around just looking for something to do and I picked up this book called "Pain is inevitable but Misery is Optional so, stick a geranium in your hat and be happy" by Barbara Johnson that my sister-in-law loaned me a million years ago. Yes, I still have it. I grabbed it to sit and read a bit. It was full of all these great things! So encouraging in fact that I decided I needed to share some with all my buddies. One of the sayings that I enjoyed the most was "Wrinkles are just God's little way of saying "I'm stepping on your face!" I laughed so hard!!! One from a greeting card she saw was :

If you love something, set it free
If it returns, you haven't lost it
If it disappears and never comes back,
Then it wasn't truly yours to begin with.

And if it just sits there watching television,
Unaware that it's been set free,
You probably already married it.

Also, "You really know you're getting old when you bend over to tie your shoes, and you wonder what else you can do while you're doen there." made me giggle.

"Youth is a brief time between buying training bras and wearing surgical stockings. Or, I'm living between estrogen and death, or, I'm living somewhere between the Blue Lagoon and Golden Pond."

"Encouraging thought for the week: Eat a live toad first thing in the morning, and nothing worse can happen to you the rest of the day!"

This woman is a true and passionate mother too. She gives great words to give us laughter as a tool to continue.

" Being a mother is like getting a life sentence in prison with no hope of parole."

She understands about life being full of pressure and stress.

"Sometimes I think I understand everything. Then, I regain conciousness."

"Don't take life so seriously-- you'll never get out of it alive."

She knows about life with hubbies and kids,

"Be grateful...
for husbands who attack small repair jobs around the house. They usually make them big enough to call in professionals.
for children who put away their things and clean up after themselves. They're such a joy you hate to see them go home to their own parents.

But she also has her serious moments. These, you learn to love the most.

"Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted."

Mother's Covers
When you were small
And just a touch away,
I covered you with blankets
Against the cold night air.
But now that you are tall
And out of my reach,
I fold my hands
And cover you with prayer.
-Dona Maddux Cooper

This book came at a great moment in my life. I hope any and all reading will be interesting in reading it. She reminds us to keep laughter in our lives no matter the hardship. Some more of her favorite sayings:

The ages of woman:
In her infancy she needs love and care.
In her childhood she wants fun.
In her twenties she wants romance.
In her thirties she wants admiration.
In her forties she wants sympathy.
In her fifties she wants cash.

I love you more today than yesterday. Yesterday, you really got on my nerves!

If only I could get that wonderful feeling of accomplishment without having to accomplish anything.

If we weren't meant to keep starting over, would God have granted us Mondays?

My mother was the travel agent for guilt trips.

He will fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy. Job 8:21

One laugh = 3 TBSP of Oat Bran

It's always darkest just before it goes totally black.

I feel so much better now that I've given up hope.

One day I shall burst my buds of calm and blossom into hysteria.

Just remeber that behind every dark and stormy cloud ..... is a ruined hairstyle and worms on the sidewalk.

This book reminded me that regardless of all the hard things that are going on in my life, it is okay to laugh. In fact, she tells me that I should laugh. That, no matter how unseemly it sounds, I should seek out things that make me laugh. " Life is about 10 percent how you make it, and 90 percent how you take it."

Help me to remeber, Lord, that nothing will happen today that you and I can't handle together.

Amen

Families are weird

Today was a busy day for Corbin and I. We got up this morning and headed to Trinity School to volunteer. Corbin played in the fenced in playground with one of my friend's (Judy) daughters, Lissy. Lissy is in junior high and I have known the family for years. While this is going on I am diligently landscaping with the senior pastor's wife, Donna and a couple that I have not met before. I learned that architects do not always make pratical decisions about landscaping. If you have a bunch of Lutherans standing around, reading the plans, scratching their heads, ready to start swearing in frustration, you may have gone too far. I kid you not. Beyond that we are attempting to plant shrubs and ground cover and we find that just under the soil is the left-over gravel and crap from when they paved the parking lot. So, we started digging our holes with shovels and finished them with a pickaxe. My shoulders are very tired. About 2:00pm my husbands youngest sister shows up with her 10 month old daughter, Anika. I had promised to baby-sit till 8 or so tonight. This is not a problem. So after surveying the situation I decided that we were going to be done for the day and go home. By this point it had gotten pretty windy anyway. So, I pack up the children in the car and off we go. I figure this will be good practice for when(if) we have two of our own. The kids were great in the backseat on the way home. I was totally impressed. We get home and Corbin actually helps me collect all our things and get them in the house. I thought, this kid is awesome. We get in the house and I let them run around crazy for awhile. They are still doing good. Brandon gets home and has brought takeout for lunch, yay!!! We eat and after that, well things get interesting. At that point Anika becomes less novelty and more enemy as far as Corbin is concerned. If she picks up one of his toys, that becomes the toy he cannot live without. If she switches to a different toy, well then that becomes the toy he cannot live without. This kid was really trying my patience. Then Corbin decides to play a little game at the table that involves these little cardboard cards and he complaines several times that Anika has taken the cards. I chase her down and remove the slightly mangled card from her drool-dampened hand and give it back to him, reminding him each time that he needs to keep the cards toward the middle of the table where she cannot reach them. Imagine my reaction when I walk into the room and catch him. He has this sly, smug look on his face and is edging the cards close to the edge. The second she snatches one he smiles like a fool and bellows, "Mommy!!! Anika took my card!!" He is doing this ON PURPOSE. I decide in that moment that, at my first opportunity, I am going to repeatedly slam my head on the refrigerator door so that any sanity I have left will be right up front when I need it. The rest of the evening went about like you would expect. Grandma popped in with dinner and proceded to drink wine on my couch and cater to Corbin's every demand (like a good grandma should) and coo about how adorable Anika is. Anika's moomy eventually came to escort her home and Corbin went to bed.

The moral of the story?
Are you kidding me?!?! I haven't even figured out the point of it, let alone the moral.
Don't you people have something better to do?

Love,
The sanity-deprived Friend of Flappy (and Friend)

The School Thing...

Well, I should probably point out that I am going to school for the Dental Assistant cert. That is so I can have something to do for work that pays well and I can figure out if I like the Dentistry thing or if I want to pursue some sort of medical degree. The program can be as short as nine months or as long as you need it to be. As long as I am hitting 12 credits a term I'll be alright. It feels weird, though. When I went to take the placement testing I was by far the oldest person in there. In fact, I was the only person over the age of twenty. Two of these folks were still in high school. I was the only person with stretch marks or crows feet and I will admit that I didn't feel good about it. So, feeling a bit unsettled about that. Plus, and feel free to disagree with me on this, I kind of have a bit of angst about running off to school and finding out that I'm way dumber than I thought I was. I'm hoping this isn't the case, as I scored great in the tests on everything but math, which is my prerequisite. Still, you have one stupid bad dream and it follows you forever. So, a bit nervous and preoccupied today, and feeling like hiding in my house for the next couple of weeks. Not that I will do that, but it sounds fun. Also, being a short program, I think my mom feels that this is like, the cop-out not-quite-real education. I mean, she has a masters and a bachelors and she is terribly smart in a bookish, college administrator sort of way and I think she doesn't feel this is a "real" education. Ug. I think I should stop talking to my mother. At least for a week or so. That's about how long it takes for her to completely forget our last 8 or 9 conversations. Albert Einstein has nothing on my mom. She also has little practical know-how. She can tie her shoes, but when she wanted to watch a movie on the dvd player I bought her she made me come over and set it up for her. For an entire year. LOL.

School type stuff...

Well, gotta post it. Just finished filling out my financial aid stuff and registered for my prerequisite. This means that I will be going to school full time for fall term. That means that there will be two students in the house. Anybody wanna lay odds on who gets killed first? Me or Brandon?

Anyway, any person reading this who has gone that route and has words of wisdom, please feel free. I am interested to hear all stories be they horrible or otherwise. I of course will attempt to gain extra sympathy as the wife/mother/student. Come to think of it, maybe we should lay different odds, Me, Brandon or Corbin? My money's on the kid.

Just another day in paradise....

So, I'm sure all you who look on my blog are aware that my dad died at 10:45 May 12, 2005. This would be the reason that I have not posted for a while. I appreciate all the loving thoughts and prayers sent by all and I am looking forward to things feeling normal again. If they ever do. His obituary may be viewed in the May 17th edition of the Bulletin. The memorial service will be held on May 27th at 6:30pm in the gym at Kenwood Elementary. My dad, while being something of a distant father, was a great blessing to the kids he taught at school. He taught them to always try as hard as you can, and you can do anything. He was also a great husband to his wife, Kathi, a good step-father to his step-son Nathan and a good brother and friend. He worked hard and did the best he could at everything. We will miss seeing the goofy things he was always capable of doing like dancing with his headphones on while mowing the lawn, and the goofy things he said like, I'll take away your birthday. He was something of an enigma, my dad. However, he affected many lives in a very positive way, and for that, I will always be thankful. My deepest prayer was that he heard the Lord's voice so we can have the relationship in heaven that we couldn't have here.

God's Blessings to all.

Just Stuff (insert dirty word here)

Happy Mothers Day to all my tired, stretch marked, cellulite dimpled, puckered, saggy, baggy, partners in arms out there. If you are not of the Christian persuasion, you did not get your little angel up early this morning and try to drag him and your bleary-eyed husband to Sunday School. If, by some chance, you did you will have almost instantly realized your mistake. You will have unloaded your child at the church in the pouring rain and totally screwed up your tidy hair-do. You will have placed him gently (mostly) in the nursery at chuch and hurried off to the sanctuary to start class and end up so sleepy that you miss most of it. And you will have ended up sitting next to the biggest suprise crack up in the entire congregation who, by pure timing, when the pastor reads the parent tip of the week and states (gravely) that as a parent you can destroy a kid's self esteem in about 3.2 seconds, turns to you and quipps; "faster, if you practice!" making you snort and laugh which earns you a gritty look from the pastor himself. You will also bust butt to pick up your adopt-a-fogies and return to the church late and then be later as you have to unload the fogies at the door (with their walkers) and park in the overflow lot as the hadicapped spots are all full and because of that you will miss the baptism taking place that morning. When you actually get in to the service your 3 year old angel will proceed to make your hair steam and your teeth grind by the creative ways he finds to make a boob of himself (and you) and you at one point attempt to poke him in the shoulder with your (my) long fingernail to show him that you are not kidding and that truck noises do not belong in the sanctuary when you miss his shoulder and poke him (rather hard) in the neck. This will preface the long, pitiful, overly dramatic wailing that draws every eye in the place. Some sympathetic, some smug. All unwelcome. You will then drag your kid to the cry room (how apt) and proceed to give him something to cry about. At this point you are seriously miffed and feeling guilty about pounding the behind of this child IN CHURCH. As you are pulling yourself and him together he proceeds to remind you why you shouldn't feel guilty but should feel miffed by telling you that he doesn't like you. At that moment you glance out the cryroom window and notice that your husband is still in the sanctuary smiling slightly and actually listening to the sermon. You think, this is mother's day. Woo-hoo. On Father's Day, I'm flattening his tires.

Seriously, though, I received garden stuff for mothers day. It is all beautiful, fragrant and very much appreciated. I also was told about 30 times today by my three year old angel "Happy Mother's Day!" which I loved. And to top all of that perfection, my darling and perfect husband made me (I absolutely swear) the most perfect cup of coffee ever. What a strange and glorious blessing my family is!

Corbin and Reagan hangin at Auntie Bean's house. 

Me and my little man! He is just the cutest ever!!! 

by the way....

Just so you guys know, the kid I am sponsoring is named Biru, he lives in Ethiopia and he was born October 6 1998. He lives with his parents and two brothers and his villiage is being destroyed by AIDS. This is pretty much wiping out his parents' entire generation and grandparents aren't able to offer much as they are having a hard time feeding themselves. We are so happy to have him and I hope we will one day be able to use the program World Vision has to visit. Amen!!!

under duress

Well, I've been chastised by my buddy Sabrina for "not updating my blog. At least leave a post." So, posting away. Life has been interesting. Still seeking gainful employment and trying to keep my house clean. What fun. However went to a concert last night with Doug and Jenn and had a great time. That was awesome. It was Warren Barfield, Barlow Girl, and some other guy who's name I just blanked but I enjoyed his music and bought a CD. Also signed up to sponsor a cute little guy in Etheopia. (or however you spell that) We should at some point receive a letter from this cutie. Looking forward to that. Not much else to report. Or at least, not much that I'm going to tell you people. Hee hee! Take it easy.