Don't Mess With the Cherries

So this past week has been filled with sickness and laying low. Ugh. First the kids, then me, then the Iz-pie and Bry ate some bad cherries and spent the next 36 hours puking. So, so, so much fun. The only good part was I got to flex my Wonder-Wife muscles. Now Bry's pulled something in his back today, and I'm wondering if we're just on a downhill bend. Making up for so much time with no ill health.



And on top of everything else, our financial plans always get put on hold, this time for the stupid HOA's version of let's-pick-on-the-corner-lot. Apparently they want us to paint our house. I'd love to point out so many other houses that are in so much worse shape than ours, but since we're the corner house ont he main drag, we get picked on. A LOT. Any time I see a light at the end of the tunnel, here comes the good ol' HOA waving a threatening letter. Usually to the tune of way, way, way too much. They've gotta take classes about this to be this good at putting us back, I mean... geez.

So, here's to hoping the weekend gets better...

If You Add Potatoes, Is It Still Eggs Benedict?

Today was the last day of VBS. Honestly, I could've gone another week. I loved it, and I loved seeing the kids love it. Not just mine, but all of them. We had so much fun, and everything was so well done. My favorite part was watching the little kids worship. They put their soul into it, everything they have. They raise their hands and bounce around with glee and fight to be on stage for all the world to see them honor God. And I loved listening to my Izzy walk around all week singing songs from VBS. It's such a blessing. And I was blessed to be a part of it. The least of the blessing being that I know all the moves to the songs and all the words, so I can sing along, too.

Another great part was building relationships with these kids. I had a great group of girls, and a couple of tag-alongs in my crew. I had four, but sometimes I had six following me and my co-Crew Leader. I watched a wallflower bloom into a charming little lady once she got to know us, and another child having a difficult time, today, on the last day, run from her Daddy's arms to mine as soon as she saw me (and if you know her, you know how unusual this is). Both his and my eyes were as big as saucers, I'm sure. It was an unexpected pleasure to know I'd meant something to her.

And I can say without fear (even knowing that one of the VBS coordinators regularly reads my blog) that I would love to do it again next year. 'Cause it was awesome. Yes, I know. Hit 'em in the head with a big fat possum. Ooooh. Ah ah. Oooh ooh, ah ah.

To wrap it up, I got a whole five Susan Brockman books at the library today (yay!). And I fixed Eggs Benedict for dinner. I haven't done that in a while, and I usually don't do it without help, so when Bryan came home feeling ill, I inwardly groaned but outwardly smiled and told him to go lay down. Just 'cause I'm such a darned good wife. I was trying to juggle constantly stirring the hollandaise with stirring the cooking ham, putting the English muffins in the oven, baking the diced potatoes, poaching the eggs, keeping the kids out of the kitchen, and trying not to trip over either the dogs or the dog food container that the kids were using as a stool to get up on the counter. Sounds like fun, huh?

And for those of you who knew I wasn't feeling at all well this week (hopefully none of the VBS people noticed, but just in case you're worried, it wasn't contagious), I feel much better now thank you.

Tomorrow's probably going to be a rainy day, and so we're going to attempt to smoke some ribs on the front porch, which is thankfully long enough to not flood the house with smoke or catch it on fire. Hopefully we'll also be doing a trip to Chick Fil-A. Golly, we're such boring people.

So I guess I'm going to go and write again when I have something interesting to say.

Oh, the Lord's been good to me
And so I thank the Lord
For giving me the things I need
The sun and the rain and eternity
The Lord's been good to me
Yippie kai yay...
Yippie kai yo...
Yeeeeeeeeeehaaaaawwww!

Haaaaahhhh - lelujah!!!

I am car-ed again. I guess that's what you are after you're carless. At the ingeneous suggestion of my wonderful Mommy, I'm going to bake those guys a cake.

I don't have to find a ride to VBS, I don't have to skip the gym, I don't have to wait to run errands until all hours of the night. Yesssss.... *happy dance*

So, in light of this new happy mood, I'm going to regale you with the things over the past few days that I've enjoyed:

- Showering in the dark while it rains. I know it's crazy, we've been getting so much rain lately. But showering while it's raining is the closest thing a non-exhibitionist extremely modest person will get to feeling the rain on bare skin. And apparently that's important, because they wrote a whole song about it. And apparently, as well, no one else can feel it for me. It's relaxing and exhilirating at the same time.

- Swimming. Yes, we actually made it to the pool! It let up raining on Sunday afternoon long enough to let us go for a few hours. Eli learned to swim without anyone holding on to him (wearing a vest of course), and Izzy jumped off the diving board for the first time (without a vest, of course). And, as always, it's just nice to be in the pool, swimming around, freefloating or doing laps, I don't really care. I just love to swim.

- Free CDs. A friend gave me three of them, and it was quite unexpected. How did she know I've been on a CD kick lately?

- The first ray of sunshine in my new teaching career. A band director I'm working with called and wants me to do a week-long methods class with his clarinet section during band camp. It's unusual for it to be during the day, but it's just that week. Afterward it'll be in the evening. I'd be there for an hour a day, teaching clarinet basics, and I'm so freakin' excited about it I'm about to jump out of my skin. Anyone up for watching the kids one of those days? I promise it won't be more than 2 hours, allowing for driving time.

- Talking with old friends. A friend from high school called today, and we caught up for about an hour. I miss her, but hopefully I'll be seeing her soon. She's planning a trip down here next month, and we'll probably take the kids to the zoo and the aquarium and all the other touristy-type stuff. Although I think it's funny that she doesn't seem to remember our last trip to the zoo. When we left, we were so thankful to see the parking lot that we both seriously thought about getting down and kissing the ground. I hope she plans to stay long enough to recover from each expedition, or her trip down her might just kill me!

On that happy thought, I'm going to go to bed so I'm well rested to play with the kiddos at VBS tomorrow at Avalanche Ranch. Yippee kai-oh kai-ay!

Survivor: Emotion Edition

Sense has been kicked off the island.

The past several days have brought an onslaught of high emotion, whether it be elation, anxiety, warm fuzzies, or situational depression. At this point I'm just begging for some middle ground so I don't feel so much like a rollercoaster.

We're having some major car problems that may or may not wind up getting fixed. I may or may not get my vehicle back. The shop may or may not own up to their mistake and handle it like professionals, instead of forcing us to take them to court over what is obviously their fault. And until we get this all sorted out, I am carless.

And it's VBS week.

And I volunteered to be a crew leader. Not really thinking about that situation, you see, because I just saw a need and filled it. But now I'm worrying that if the shop doesn't 'fess up this morning then I'm going to have to scramble to ask favors to get me to church every day this week. So much stress.

On the other hand, a friend of mine gave me 3 new (some to me, one actually new) Vineyard CDs at church. And a band director I'm working with to find students called and wants me to do a methods class all week the week of band camp. Just the comforting thought of all the money that I'll bring in that week, and the relationship I'll form with the students so that they say, "Hey, I want private lessons from this person" is enough to lift my mood.

So here's praying for no more high hills and deep valleys, but maybe for just some nice flatlands for a little while.

Happy Birthday, Eli!

I don't have the link to the Picture People pics yet, but here's a few pictures from Eli's birthday party...

The "Super" cake


Izzy waiting for some cake with her friends


Blow out the candles, Eli!


A very happy birthday boy


The party was small and short, and that's just the way I wanted it. Eli now has a great new collection of all things Superman! Plus, Daddy took him out for boy time this morning, and they went to a car dealership, to buy some presents for him, and they went to the local airport. One of the pilots let Eli sit in the plane! He loved it, of course, and came home with birthday presents from the people at the airport... a pair of pilot's sunglasses, and a couple of balsa wood airplanes. At the store he picked out a soccer ball, a new pair of Camo Crocs, and a new toy car that dances and sings "Walkin' on Sunshine." If you haven't seen a car dance, it's pretty cool.

Looking forward to a nice evening, hopefully I'll go out for coffee with a friend. I promise I won't be so boring next post.

Pain!

Imagine that title during a screaming metalhead song.

A lot of MySpace questionnaires ask what my first thought was when I woke up this morning. If I had filled out this question today, it would've been:

Owowowowowowwww! Gosh darnit! Cheese and crackers!

Because, you see, I'm an idiot. Yesterday I allowed myself to be talked into having a session with a personal trainer at the gym. It was one of those types of things where you see what it's like to have personal knowledgable attention during your workout in an effort to get you to hire them. Andy, my trainer-for-the-day, decided we should work the legs and... *cough*... rear. After a lot of interesting exercises I left the gym with legs like Jell-O and had a heckuva time driving home. I went under the speed limit, stayed away from other cars, and tried to use my legs as little as possible because I didn't trust my reaction time.

But if I thought yesterday was bad, it was only a shadow compared to the full sunshine of today's discomfort. It hurts to walk. It hurts to sit. It hurts to bend down. I can point out every muscle in my legs and... *cough*... rear that I use to push down the clutch in my Jeep, because they all ached running my errands today.

If I had the cash, I would certainly hire a personal trainer. I mean, I couldn't possibly do this to myself, even though I know it's the fast track to my goal. Son of a gun, I hurt.

On a better note, Eli took his 3-year pictures today. When I get the link to the online store, I'll post it so you can see them. The session was incredible, he's such a ham for the camera. I had a really tough time narrowing it down, and walked out with 2 more sheets than planned, and I plan now to go get the rest I wanted when we hit the next payday.

So that's it for now. I'm listening to the sound of thunder and rain splattering everywhere. I seriously don't remember a summer here that's been as wet as this one. It seems like there hasn't been a single day in weeks that it hasn't rained. It's kept the legendary Houston heat at bay, but it does nothing for the spiders, ants, and other bugs that are taking to my house for shelter. I've taken to keeping the fly swatter out just to save time. And I've spent the past three days with Avey (our Jack Russell) barricaded between my legs in fear. She hates the rain.

At least the rain let up enough for fireworks on the 4th. We sat in our back yard and watched them throughout the neighborhood. We have a ban on them, but nobody pays any attention to that. It was actually quite amusing to watch Shanna (our mixed-breed) run around the yard barking at them. Poor dog, she probably thought we were surrounded.

Izzy's going crazy, because there's something about the words "quiet time" that make her act like she's drugged. I personally think it's a psychological, rebellious reaction. Gonna go take care of that, and those that are coming tomorrow to the party, I'll see you then!

Now, to get out of this chair...

Owowowowowwwwww!

Latte Lost Sleep

Last night started like any regular night. Until my best friend called at 9:30 and wanted to meet for coffee in an hour. Since the kids were asleep and my hubby was busy playing online Hold 'Em, I decided to go. We had a great time, talked about lots of stuff, and just enjoyed being together. The only problem was that while she needed extra shots to stay awake on her drive home, I should've ordered decaf.

I thought about that on the way up, how I needed some sleep and I would order my regular, only in decaf, but when I got there I got sidetracked by Raspberry Mocha and forgot.

Big mistake.

Even after a good middle-of-the-night romp, I was still too wide awake to do anything but be irritated. Realizing that being irritated wasn't helping me relax and fall asleep, I began practicing the beginning of a hypnosis tape I once heard. Start by relaxing the toes, and work up one muscle at a time until your whole body is relaxed. The only problem was that by the time I reached my ankles, my toes were doing the samba again. Pesky little things.

I'm sure I drifted off somewhere around 3:30 or 4:00, but when exactly I'll never know. Luckily the kids decided to sleep in a little this morning, all the way until 7:30, so I got a little more sleep than I was originally irritated about.

So this morning I'm going to the gym, hoping a little exercise will wake me up. And next time, I'll have it tattooed on my forehead, "Give me decaf."



You are on non-stop flight to Dallas to play at a concert with your orchestra, you have your flute tucked securely in its case in your overhead compartment. You sit quietly in your seat, while munching on a purple Fred Flintstone shaped vitamin. Someone walks by and you get some dust in your eye causing you to wince and try to blink it out... then you have to wonder... Does this make me a one eyed, one horned, flying purple people eater?

~Jill