Stuck in Frump, Striving for Fab

It's been a year!

2020-01-01T14:05:00.002-08:00

December 13, 2018 is a date I will never forget.

Our eldest son had surprised us the day before by coming home from college for Christmas break a day early. Our committments were wrapped up for the year, and now our focus had turned towards getting Christmas gifts ready to be wrapped, cards in the mail, and packages ready to go out.

I was sitting at my desk in the living room, humming as I browsed Amazon for some final shopping. Hubs and I had been texting back and forth during his passing periods at school about last minute gifts for the kids. Christmas decorations had just gone up in our cheerful color scheme. I'd been inspired to do a couple of new artistic pieces around the home, which with our new artificial tree and garland in snowy white looked absolutely stunning. I was happily anticipating many fun days ahead while our boy was home, as well as the usual spate of Holiday entertaining.

Then, into my well ordered, perfectly decorated world, my new iPhone vibrated on my desk, and I glanced down to see hubs work number scrolling across the screen.

Odd. Why would they be calling me?

I picked up, and was surprised to hear a woman's voice. The secretary to Jeff's boss at his school. Calling to inform me that Jeff had collapsed at work, and that EMT's were with him now. There was slurring of speech, and talk of airlifting him to a trauma center.

Slurring of speech? That sounded like a stroke. But how? Only last week, Jeff had been at the gym lifting his personal best since college. 350 lb deadlift for an almost 50 year old guy was pretty good. He'd been eating clean. We'd been trying to take better care of ourselves after my own health crisis from the previous summer.

Our youngest, who is homeschooled, was working on math at the kitchen table, and our oldest was also doing some last minute shopping online. Everything came to a standstill when they heard my end of the conversation.

I remember feeling shaky. And strangely cotton-mouthed, with a coil of dread forming in my stomach as I ended my call.

"We need to go. Now."

Seeing my shakiness and the ashen look on my face, our older son volunteered, "Mom, I'll drive."

Even in that moment, I knew that the Lord had brought him home a day early for that very reason. I couldn't have driven that car if I'd tried.

We grabbed our devices and cords, hopped in the car, and got to the trauma hospital as fast as we possibly could...

Anyone there?

2018-11-11T14:41:00.002-08:00

Hi my bloggy peeps. I haven't been on this blog for ages as you can see, but I thought it might be a good idea to update it so that all I've catalogued here about my family life didn't get 'lost' somehow, as I want to save these memories until I'm able to figure out how to transfer them to a scrapbook or other digital format for posterity.

To bring everyone up to speed, our oldest is now in college, and our youngest is in 7th grade. My hubby and I celebrated 25 years of marriage this past summer. We tossed around the idea of moving out of State again last Spring, and I looked in earnest online for properties for us in the North Woods across several States, as I really suffer in the desert heat, and we're itching to get some serious acreage somewhere to begin farming in earnest, but the pieces just didn't come together for us. And the contest I entered back before Christmas to win an Alaskan homestead went belly up due to not enough participants. I was so sure we were going to win, and the odds were never better, but after much prayer, it became clear that it just wasn't meant to be. Neither was the 40 acre farm with outbuildings which we could have bought outright with the sale of our current home.

In May, we found out why things had worked out as they had. I was stricken with some strange and frightening health problems that all sort of happened at once. This turned into a months long quest to figure out what was going on with my body, because (as it became clear) my doctor really didn't have a clue and was just 'practicing' medicine. But I knew my body. Something was whacked out with my hormones and digestion. Foods and supplements were making me feel icky.

Then came the kidney flank pain. Which ended up being a kidney stone. And the CT scan that discovered that also uncovered gallstones and a mildly fatty liver all going on at once. SO MUCH sudden digestive upset. This after juicing and doing Kefir probiotic-rich smoothies for several months prior. (We joke that health food nearly killed me. Literally.) After the kidney stone was removed a few days prior to my birthday, it was discovered to be a calcium stone at the core, which probably would have exited my body on it's own, but the kale and spinach and ice tea I had been drinking had rapidly stacked oxylate crystals on top of that calcium stone like burrs, creating a large stone quite fast, which kept tipping and blocking off my Ureter and backing up the plumbing in that kidney. (Sorry for all the gory deets, but I figured that someone going through similar things might happen across this after a google search, and perhaps be helped by some of what I learned).

My doctor pushed for me to get my gallbladder out (common practice), but since it wasn't giving me too much trouble once the kidney stone was removed from my kidney, I refused. I'm pretty sure it's not an 'extra' organ as the doctor said, but created by God for a reason. To govern certain things within my body. With prayerful guidance to good sources of info in books and online, I have since worked to heal my fatty liver (which was the greater problem) using herbal teas (dandelion root, milkthistle, turmeric and ginger in particular) morning and night, and to eat low fat and gluten-free.

My health journey also uncovered the gallbladder links to all my other issues. With regard tofemale and thyroid hormone imbalances and, lack of sufficient bile makes it so that you you can't flush out excess estrogens, and your liver keeps recycling them over and over, creating imbalances. In addition, my congested liver not forming enough bile to digest fats and cholesterol formed a bunch of gallstones which further hampered good bile production, which in turn upset my digestion, and was at the root of some out-of-the-blue crazy anxiety episodes that were OFF THE CHARTS. I'd never experienced anxiety attacks before (except maybe once when I was on a flight that hit severe turbulence and it felt like we were falling out of the sky), but these were the norm. At first, I mistook them for a hot flash coming on (I'm at that age...), but they felt more like fight-or-flight adrenaline rushes, and every time I had one, it made the hair on the back of my neck feel like it was standing on end for a couple of hours, along with a stir-crazy, panicky feeling that left me fearful of being alone.

Through much prayer during that time (mine and all those wonderful folks praying for me), the Lord led me to keep a 'health journal' recording everything I had eaten or drank and any supplements I'd been on since my strange symptoms began, and from THAT I discovered that those scary anxiety episodes were, in fact, rather severe gluten-intolerance episodes.

For women of perimenopausal age in particular, these health issues can all slam them at once, especially on the heels of having burned out my adrenals while caregiving for my mother-in-law through her last couple of years of life. (Mind you, I would do all that over again, but I would take better care of myself through it all, knowing what I do now, to prevent the adrenal or caregivers fatigue.)

At first, eating Gluten-Free took a lot of the joy out of life, especially when my kidney specialist had me on a stone-preventing diet. The many restrictions left very few choices if I was to avoid upsetting the balance worse. For a while there, about the only thing I could eat was plain grilled chicken or fish, mashed sweet potatos and steamed broccoli or a broccoli cheese soup. But gradually, I learned that there were decent gluten-free options (so long as they didn't contain the common subsitution found in gluten free goodies, tapioca starch, as that made me feel miserable, too.

The plus side was that I lost 40 pounds (rather involuntarily, meaning that I didn't like going gluten-free one bit, but it was absolutely necessary to my health, and really, a Godsend of a discovery). Eating gluten free with lean meats and steamed veggies and drinking herbal teas have helped greatly, and I feel like my health is finally beginning to bounce back once again. Praise the Lord!

I still have an issue with heavy, irregular menstrual bleeding, but I'm beginning to think the herbal teas that are cleaning up my liver and gallbladder and to restore good bile function again, are also helping, slowly but surely to flush out waste hormones again. And all this without having to resort to regular coffee enemas and gallbladder flushes (though I would do that if I felt I needed to. May still, just to help flush things out quicker, but for now, the slow-going gentler course of action seems to be working well for me).

I rejoice, because the Lord led me through that very scary time (17 visits to Urgent Care and the ER, a couple of surgical procedures, and the borderline anemia issue that developed due to the heavy menstrual bleeding). I truly believe the Lord prevented me from getting my gallbladder removed unnecessarily, and led me to exactly the right protocols I needed to begin bouncing back.

I've also not had any further anxiety attacks since eating gluten free. I've been managing my iron levels through iron rich foods in my diet, and with the assistance of liquid chlorophyll supplements. It's also had the side effect of helping me to be more disciplined, as I still would like to lose a lot more weight, and now, slowly but surely I am on my way.

The best part is, I've gotten my mojo back, and have begun to have some of the vigor I had before caring for my mother-in-law depleted my adrenals, upsetting that balance and tipping off the beginnings of all these crazy health issues.

We've recently acquired our first clutch of chicks, and are ramping things up around here to put in a massive backyard garden where we will grow high brix veggies (beyond organic, nutrient dense) and fruits and nuts. The chickens will be utilized for their excellent composting abilities and for eggs, and we hope to eventually get a couple of milk goats or a small cow as well. We've had great success with the Back To Eden method of gardening, as well as hugelkultur here in our desert, and are getting ready to go BIG, finally realizing a bloom-where-we're-planted version of our 'homestead' dream. I believe that growing most of our own fruits and veggies in organic, richly amended soil will help greatly in restoring the imbalances in my body. I haven't yet come up with the name for our YouTube channel, but will try and post back here for folks to follow our journey via a Vlog.

All the best!
~Frumpmama

I’m Baaaaaack!

2012-02-04T23:01:00.001-08:00

**cough, cough** Whoa, the dust around here is something else!

Let's see...can I even remember how to do this? What? There’s a new format on Blogger?

Apparently it’s been a while since I last blogged!

Somewhere back during the summer I fell a little behind on my blog posts and couldn't seem to get caught up. Then I began babysitting our friends baby a few days a week, and that combined with the drop-off and pick-up schedule of our younger son's afternoon Kindergarten class hasn't left me with a whole lot of free time to keep up here (or anywhere else, truth be told). Some days it’s all I can do to keep the laundry caught up and dinner on the table.

However, I am still in the bloggy neighborhood and have so much to share...please don't hold my temporary blog negligence against me?

One of the things I so enjoy about blogging is that folks can just pick right up where they left off before, and that’s just what I intend to do.

So that I don't completely overwhelm myself right off the bat, this one will simply be a ~~braggy~~ bloggy post about some more recent happenings.

To start with, I've been doing a whole lot of this these days while waiting in school parking lots and to relax late at night.

Among our former youth group kids from recent years, there's been something of a baby boom, and I have found the need to have something to take to all the showers.

This was one of my favorite color schemes to work up in the ripple pattern. The reddish looking stripe is actually a very beautiful magenta yarn by Vanna (the Vanna, from Wheel of Fortune). It’s been ages since I’ve watched her show, but I know this…that lady knows how to select colors and texture when it comes to yarn!

Here was a fun little acorn cap I made for Baby Jack using the blackberry salad stitch:

I'm not sure why, but I’ve found that of my more relaxing past-times these days is watching a good DVD series put out by BBC while crocheting in the evenings. Somebody pass me some Geritol...I think I'm gettin' old!

I’ll admit, it’s kind of a strange feeling when the youth group teens that you worked with way back are suddenly getting married and having kids left and right.

We comfort ourselves with the fact we've not yet had a second generation come through our class at church. I hear that's when it's all over, haha.

* * * *

A few days ago, I cleaned out Judah's 'folder' from school (which is the Kindergarten version of the pony-express) through which we receive any important notifications from his teacher.

Among the 'graded' papers we pulled out were these gems:

Around Halloween he began drawing these like crazy.

Bats adorned EVERYTHING.

As we moved into winter, a blank house was sent home and the children were supposed to use found objects at home to transform their papers into gingerbread houses.

In an entry I’ve entitled, “Unclear on the concept” this was what he came up with:

He insisted he was supposed to have cotton balls for snow, but the rest he wanted to do with his little watercolor paint set. I offered grains, beans, cereal and even red hots candies, but nope, he was going to do the rest in watercolors. (I could hardly argue, as I can still remember the thrill of using one of those cheapo watercolor sets as a child. All the little ovals set into the white tray and filled in with bright cakes of color and the brush lying down the center ready to pour your imagination onto paper.)

So the cotton balls could resemble snow, and I give him kudos on the snowflakes which he painstakingly made with his newly acquired skill for writing the letter Y, with a brush that wasn’t exactly fine tipped.

The rest, however, was completely freestyle. Orange birds (because, as we all know, there are just so many of those out at Christmas time), a self portrait of him standing beneath the window along with what I first thought was a cat, but he informs me was his puppy. And for reasons completely unknown to me, there is also an octopus. It’s brown. All in all, quite ‘gingerbread house-ish’, don’t you think?

I took a photograph of his amazing Nativity Scene around Christmas, but being that it’s not with the rest of my photo files, I have a sinking feeling that it was on my old cell phone which is no longer in service. The bat-capes on Joseph and some of the wise men were awesome.

By far, however, our favorite one was this:

I like teacher!

She even gave him a sticker for his creativity.

I’m thinking that in her haste to correct two classes worth of work, she probably didn’t look at it very closely.

Which is probably a good thing.

* * * *

This past week, Judah received notification that the story he entered in his Young Authors competition at school was selected as one of the winners to be published!

"Here's your camera bag, mom...can you take a pitcher of me with my award by this wall?"

Not sure that smile can stretch much further across his face, but he was soooo proud. “It’s gonna be in a book? A REAL book?”

My kindergartener got published before me. **sigh**

* * * *

Jericho recently wrote a paper on why Creation should be taught as a viable explanation for the Origin of Life. It was for an Honors English project, and included a visual presentation along with his speech.

He ended up getting 198/200 points possible (which was great), but what I was most proud of was that he stood up for what he believes, and the class even applauded him at the end of his speech!

So proud of those boys!

I also have to tell a good one on Jeff.

Back when we first moved to this desert (14+ years ago now), Jeff worked at a trucking company as a supervisor. At that time, it was located just down the highway from a ‘gentlemans club’ (of the type that true gentleman would not set foot in). There were several times where some of the guys at work would invite him out after their shift to drink and frequent that seedy establishment, but always, he politely declined.

This brought about a lot of good-natured teasing on the docks at work, and earned him the nickname Ned Flanders.

When he eventually got back into teaching, his reputation preceded him. In fact, over the years I would venture to say that his integrity and ethics have only gotten stronger. He’s a keeper, that one.

In fact, there have been numerous times in which his boss at work has caught him in the act of doing good deeds, and not because he was trying to make it known, but because she just happened to take his same route to school where that morning he was helping a student’s mom change her tire in the rain on the way to work, or happened to walk by his classroom another morning before school and saw him praying for a fellow teacher whose wife was going in for surgery.

More recently, while walking through the student commons area where his students were eating lunch, he stopped to chat with a proctor who seemed like she was having a really rough day. Turns out she was having some problems at home and felt like her whole world was falling apart. Jeff, caring guy that he is, stopped right there and prayed for she and her husband.

A few days later, he saw her again and asked how things were going.She brightened, “They’re going great! We’ve had some really good communication lately, and things are on the upswing. In fact, I’ve even given up smoking!”

A couple weeks later, Jeff bumped into her yet again in one of the outdoor hallways during passing time and stopped to ask how she was faring. “Marriage wise, things are great, but my horse (which she’d apparently had for years) died unexpectedly, and it was so hard on me…well, I took up smoking again.”

Now Jeff had been filling me in on these little updates from time to time.

But the latest and best one happened this past week. I’d asked Jeff to swing by the bank on his way home, and as he was coming out the door, he glanced up and saw that same coworker step out of her car, flick a cigarette to the ground and grind it into the pavement.

She stepped up over a curb onto the sidewalk and spotted Jeff standing there. Rolling her eyes she joked, “Man, it’s like Jesus just caught me smoking!”

Bwahahaha!

While we do try to live our daily lives in a humble and Christ-like manner, and are pleased when anyone recognizes in us glimpses of the God we serve, we’d be the first to tell you that we are not perfect. We stumble. We fail. Being human, we consistently fall far short of the mark.

We’re just average folks, trying to let our lights shine in a dark world.

And hey, if that makes us a little strange…so be it.

Of course, there is the very real possibility that we truly are just…strange.

It’s just how we roll.

An Awe-mazing Birth Experience

2011-10-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: you may wish to skip this post if you are eating. It's not graphic, but, well...it's a birth story.

Over the summer we tried to go on vacation a couple of different times, but our attempts were thwarted at every turn.

We finally managed to go out-of-town on a little weekend getaway with our niece S.

The following are a series of photos I took in the water in response to a special request by Judah.

You see, before he was born, I had decorated our bathroom with pictures taken of Jericho and daddy in various pools while we were on vacations over the years. The pictures had long since come down, but when Judah spotted them in a box in my craft room, he said, “That’s not fair! You don’t have any pictures of ME and daddy in the water” and actually started to cry. (Actually I have a ton, but they're all digital and not yet in albums or picture books, and so he never sees the evidence.)

Knowing we had nearly 10 years of family life together before he came along is a hard pill for our Judah to swallow, and it seems he wants to make sure everything is even-steven.

At the end of a hot but very fun day, we were hanging out in a yogurt shop when we received a series of three text messages.

The first was that our nephew J, a grown man and father of 3, had been in a motorcycle accident that crushed his foot. The second was that another neice K had been in a Sea Doo accident with her dad, and she was en route to the hospital with what they suspected could be broken ribs. The final text was from her older brother to inform us that his third child was due to be born soon. His wife was in labor.

The mother-to-be, our nephew’s wife, had already had a couple of false alarms, so we were a bit hesitant about cutting things short until we knew for sure what we were dealing with. We were two hours away at the time.

Things were progressing rather slowly with her labor pains, so we opted to go ahead and stay another night and head home early the next morning. This turned out to be a good idea, because labor came to a screeching halt at some point in the night.

The prego mama’s father and stepmom live 18 hours away, and the daddys family were all vacationing 4 hours from home. They, too, were a bit hesitant about cutting their vacation short unless they were 100% sure it was not another false alarm, as my sister-in-law had already been to the hospital 3 times only to be sent home within a couple of hours.

In fact, with their daughter K having been in the Sea Doo accident on the lake they couldn't have left right then even if they'd wanted to, as she hadn't even been seen at the hospital yet.

Meanwhile, in two other hospitals hours away, yet another of my sister-in-law’s (and her husband!) were both in separate hospitals for two very serious conditions, he had been in long-term care but had just taken a turn for the worst, and she having just had surgery to remove a cancerous portion of her lung with recovery being rather dicey. We honestly thought we might lose them both that weekend, but by God’s grace did not.

There we were on vacation, supposed to be relaxing and 'getting away from it all'…but life doesn’t stop just because our family goes on vacation. Babies being born don’t wait for ‘convenient’ (to us) times. Life happens!

We went to bed rather heavy-hearted that evening, after praying for all these extended family members who were all in various hospitals all at the same time and then the baby on the way.

Early the next morning, we rose early and got ready and headed for home. On the road we got the call, “Things are moving along again and starting to pick up speed. We don’t have anyone to stay with the kids, and I’m going to end up being alone at the hospital…I'm scared.” and the mama-to-be was crying.

Less than a year earlier, she’d lost her own mother in a tragic car accident. It was a difficult time for this little gal, and my heart went out to her.

After informing her we were already halfway there, it was decided that her husband would meet Jeff and the boys at the hospital so that Jeff could take their kids back to our house until the baby was born and her husband (our nephew) would join his wife and I in the delivery room as soon as the car seats were all switched over.

Here were a couple of the photos Jeff messaged to us at the hospital. Jericho and Judah did a great job of entertaining their cousin’s kids. They had a blast, and didn’t seem to have a clue as to what was going on at the hospital.

Little B, holding the soccer ball, was a bit confused as to what having a baby sister was all about. When they would ask where the baby was, he would pull up HIS shirt, haha. He would soon fall immediately in love with his squalling baby sister.

I brought my camera into the hospital, ready to document the entire thing for them and to be there to talk the little mama through it.

I’d also brought along my crochet bag, not knowing how long things were going to take, but ended up just visiting, our nephew reminiscing about hilarious childhood memories to try and distract his wife from her labor pains.

I had to chuckle at the little mama, posting minute-by-minute updates to Facebook.

We tease her mercilessly about her phone habit, as she even carried her phone with her to the altar at their wedding (even though everyone they loved and cared about were there in the room with them) because she couldn’t wait to change her Facebook status to Mrs. S.

Kids of this generation, haha!

All I know is that the very last thing I would have thought about during my own child birth experiences would have been giving real-time, blow-by-blow accounts of the experience to anyone not in that room with me!

Meanwhile, the baby’s father was kicked back in his easy chair in the corner trying to keep warm while his wife did hard labor. “It’s a bit chilly in here” he complained once or twice.

None of the women in that room bothered to acknowledge his complaints knowing what all the mama was going through.

After the flurry of medical personnel had come through, indicating that things were getting much closer, I invoked my auntly privilege (having babysat that daddy for years when he was a kid) and told him it was time he got his carcass up out of that chair and ‘helped’ talk his wife through the remaining stages of delivery.

Upon viewing things up-close and personal, this was his reaction:

I actually got worried at one point that he might faint.

You hear about that happening sometimes.

Actually, he did pretty well.

Childbirth…it’s not a pretty business. But oh…the reward waiting on the other side!

A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. ~John 16:21

Awww…so precious. Little Baby B!

So very miraculous and amazing.

Truly, every time a baby is born, I marvel anew at the absolute miracle that babies are!

How amazing it is that our Creator designed for them to live in a safe, cozy enclosed womb where they were nourished by the placenta through the umbilical cord one moment…to suddenly breathing with their lungs and being in the big, bright, noisy world for the first time. Incredible!

And did I mention precious?

Little B was born a tiny 5 lbs. 3 oz. She is a petite, dainty little thing, but when you’re born to a mom who weighs about 95 pounds soaking wet, that’s probably a good thing.

In the end, between Facebook updates and text messages, Nana and Tata did cut their vacation short. Their daughter had sprained her ribs in the Sea Doo accident, and though she was in pain as bad as if they’d been broken would otherwise be fine with some rest. They did their level best to get to the hospital in time.

They made it literally moments after little B was born, and here they got to see their first little granddaughter for the first time.

“Wow…that was hard work!” the dad was heard to say as he guzzled down a bottle of juice in his chair.

And once again, all the women in the room ignored his comments.

We well knew who had done all the real work in that place, haha.

:: :: :: ::

In the days that followed, there were lots of visits in which we all got to take turns holding our little Baby B.

Mama D and Baby B.

Awww…so sweet!

This is one of my faves. Big Brother B was holding his baby sister when she suddenly started crying. Brother B and our Judah were like, “What happened? What is it doing? What is going on?” They weren't quite sure what to make of the squalling little thing.

Then, a couple of days later at a family gathering we all took turns getting to hold little Baby B.

Here Nana T and Great-Aunt K are cooing over the baby.

Sweepy witto booboo.

GG finally got her turn. She’d been in and out of other hospitals a dozen times in the previous week, what with her daughter’s surgery and her son-in-law’s turn for the worse. To relax and hold her precious little great-granddaughter was like balm to the soul.

Awww, those cutesy little baby toes and fingers in Great-Grandma’s hands

Great Uncle Jeff got his turn

And finally, Great Aunt Becky got hers…

…taking Anne Geddes style photos in the same flower pot that we took pics of Baby B’s older brothers when they were newborns.

What a delightful bundle of joy and blessing little Baby B is!

Lovely Bits of Randomness

2011-10-02T23:00:00.000-07:00

So, one of the many projects finally completed this summer was decorating my entryway wall. It’s about time, especially considering that we moved into our current home in October of ‘08.

I was excited to finally do something with that box of mismatched frames that were taking up space in my craft room, and had just pulled out the camera to take a photo of the completed project for this here blog when I discovered that this would be next to impossible.

My guys think they’re hilarious photo-bombing my pictures.

This was the best shot I could get of the finished product.

When looking at it on my camera viewer, something about it struck me as oddly familiar. I got a strange sense of deja vu, like I’d seen something similar once before.

E.T. Phoning home? Nooo…something else.

Some cliffhanger movie I watched as a kid? Nooo…

Oh, yes…I think this might be it!

Michaelangelo’s Creation of Adam.

Recreated via photo-bombing in my very own living room.

:: :: :: ::

I went antiquing with my sister-in-law K this past summer, in search of some specific milk glass pieces to add to my collection.

Our niece K had told us about a large antique mall not far from where she lives. The owner had apparently bought out several smaller antique stores and combined everything very nicely into one location.

So, after a wonderful lunch with K and her kiddos at a little Italian Bistro, we went over to check this place out.

And we were not disappointed! They had some beautiful pieces there. Some were estate collections of specific styles of furniture that included several matching pieces, from hutches, to highboys to sofas, and everything was in beautiful shape. Never had I seen so many marble topped collections in my life. If I’d had a few extra hundred lying around, I totally would have redecorated my living room that day with a tufted sofa and chair collection.

However, I did not.

Which was probably a good thing, as the furniture was a bit overpriced in general.

Their dishes and other knick-knack type collectibles were another story…very reasonably priced.

The store was organized beautifully, keeping all like items grouped together in one area.

At one point while browsing, my sister in law was talking to me, and then noticed I wasn’t beside her anymore, having homed-in on this heavenly sight from clear across the room:

Milk glass heaven.

I may have squealed in glee. Perhaps even did a happy dance. I’m pretty sure I even heard strains of the Hallelujah Chorus playing over the sound system.

I tell you, looking through that collection was like hitting the motherlode!

I’m not gonna lie...I went a bit crazy. I totally blame it on the heat in that building…the A/C unit was down and it was easily 110 degrees in there. We were working up a sweat just lifting items off the shelf to the nearby table.

A few beautiful pieces were added to my collection that day. Specifically the plates stacked on the table.

Alas, though I have spent many weeks worth of days perusing numerous antique stores all over the great American Southwest, I have still not found the holy grail of my Milk Glass quest, the cake pedestal second from the top on the left:

I believe this photo is of Martha’s own personal collection which she probably keeps in her prop department for photo shoots and doesn’t actually use in any of her homes.

Which is a real shame if you ask me.

Here is a close-up of the puffy teardrop beauty, once featured in an ‘08 online auction. Which I learned about approximately 2.5 years too late.

But one day…one lovely day, I will finally find one of these.

And I will make an elegant and delicious cake to serve upon it in celebration.

And will take lovely photos for my blog.

Our (Belated) Anniversary & A Snake Story

2011-09-28T19:00:00.000-07:00

In Mid-June, Jeff and I celebrated our 18th Wedding Anniversary in what has come to be our annual tradition, dinner out at King’s Fish House. Yummo.

We had just come back from our trip to June Lake, the day before, and were happy to get away without the kids for the first time in a long while.

Around 10 that evening, we had just returned home from a long, leisurely evening spent perusing our favorite bookstore (did I mention kid free?) when we got a frantic call from Jeff’s niece.

“Can you come over? Please? We’ve got a huge snake in our house!”

A snake?? At their house? Wait, did she say IN their house?? Oh, merciful heavens!

She and her mother live a few miles away from us in a more rural part of our desert (rattlesnake country), and folks out there are known to get snakes in their yards from time to time.

Knowing we were celebrating our anniversary, she had first tried animal control and the local police…but in that area, there isn’t anybody that could help. Their dogs were going ballistic and her mother (my sister-in-law) was still recovering from lung surgery. They were desperate.

On a side note, we got a good chuckle when our niece mentioned that her mother (my sister-in-law) and her dog were locked in her bedroom during all of this, as though in grave danger of the snake trying to break down the door to get at her.

Now Jeff has had plenty of snake-handling experience over the years (and just to be clear, I mean the the "Crickey, ain't she a beaut" type of snake-handler, not the type you hear about in Appalachian Mountain churches). As a teenager, he and his buddy Eric caught and sold dozens of gopher and king snakes at a local flea market, and taking this as a challenge, rushed over to assist them.

Earlier, while their back door had been open for a cross breeze, the snake had furtively slithered in under their security screen, and they were alerted to it’s presence when their dogs cornered it somewhere behind or under the sofa and hadn’t stopped sounding the alarm since.

An hour or so later, alive and blessedly snake-bite free, Jeff returned from their house victorious …with the snake(!) Lord, have mercy!

And the kids, whom he’d picked up on his way home so they could see said snake.

Judah was beyond thrilled. “It’s my new pet snake, mama!” he said excitedly as they walked in the door.

“Um, no…it’s not” I replied firmly. Horrified. Completely freaked out.

We have had one too many close calls with Judah and all manner of venomous creatures to know that I wouldn’t get a lick of sleep for as long as that thing was sharing the same square footage we were.

Jeff was not sure what kind of snake it was, as he’d never seen one like it before, but the ‘huge’ snake ended up being only 14 inches long, and no thicker than a thumb at most, and the width of Judah’s pinky at each end. It didn’t have rattles or diamonds, so Jeff said he doubted it was in the rattlesnake family.

Still, it had fangs and was potentially deadly. Always a concern for this mama.

Knowing I would not have a moments rest until I knew for sure whether or not it was venomous, I immediately Googled snakes native to our area, and we were reasonably sure that what we were dealing with was a Western Long Nosed Slider. These are not common commonly found in our area, but not entirely unheard of.

The best news was that it was not venomous. Well, according to the internet sources, anyway, and we all know how sketchy some of those sources can be at times.

Anyway, as I’m prone to do, I was still second-guessing our amateurish identification of it, even though the cream, pink and black markings and descriptions and photos online were all spot-on, distinctive to that type of slider and actually quite a rare coloring pattern for a snake. I guess I was hoping for a lengthy clip of close-up video footage perhaps posted online by some University snake expert or something before I'd feel 100% at ease about my precious babies getting anywhere near it.

Late that night, after making sure the snake was secured inside an enclosed habitat, nestled deep inside a box out in our garage, with a pile of heavy stuff in front of the door leading out to the garage (so that we would hear Judah if he tried to move it to get out there to see it after we were asleep), we all wearily trudged off to bed.

“We’ve got to find another home for this thing,” I stated emphatically, just before falling into one of those fitful sleeps where you’re awakened by the slightest sounds all night long.

The following morning, Jeff and Judah rose early and headed off to the pet store in search of feeder mice.

Yes, we would be finding a home for it, but Jeff didn’t want it to die of starvation in the meantime. There was no visible bump from it's last meal on it's midsection anywhere.

They returned with this...

...which as you can see Judah played with the entire way home.

**shudders**

The man at the pet store said that from Jeff's description it sounded like a Western Long nose, alright, as they were a very distinctively colored snake, known for their cream, pink and black markings and the long narrow head. If it was, he said, it was not venomous.

There it was again, that oh-so-uncertain sounding little word...'if'.

We also learned that it was unlikely that the snake would eat the mouse, as they were very picky eaters and mainly feed on small lizards in the wild. They are apparently a very reclusive snake and prefer that their food did not have human scent all over it.

Too late for that, I thought looking over at Judah.

“Isn’t it so cute, mama?” he asked in that same sing-song voice he uses when crooning to his puppy.

“Yes, it is cute" I replied, heartlessly adding, "but I want that thing fed to the snake right away, so that neither one of them ends up loose in this house!”

But alas, it appeared Mr. Long Nose was leery of the squeaky little rodent, and shortly thereafter crawled into the nearby fake coral to hide.

Later, the poor little mouse had to be dispatched because it was suffering from hunger having not been with it’s mama for hours. Thankfully Judah took our word for it that it had died and did not ask how.

I am happy to report, however, that we did find a home for the snake.

Another niece with a young snake-enthusiast son, said that they would be happy to take it off our hands for us, and it was arranged that her mom would pick it up while she was in town for a visit.

In the meantime, reasonably confident that it was not venomous, Jeff and the boys decided to show the snake off to everyone who dropped by.

**feeling faint at the sight, and a little weak in the knees**

“Okay, now go wash the salmonella germs off your hands,” I warned as soon as everyone had touched the vile thing, and made sure the habitat was taped shut and it was once again deep in it's box out in the garage.

The snake did make it to his new home just a couple of days later where he happily feasted on wild lizards which his new owner so carefully caught for him in a net so that human scent would not affect his food intake.

His owner, our nephew L, has also informed me since then that he was bitten a couple of times, but nothing happened.

**feeling a tad woozy at the thought**

Unfortunately, while the family was camping a couple of weeks later, their cat inadvertently freed Mr. Snake from his habitat and he has not been seen since.

Because the snake was with them for such a short time, the only picture they have of him is the one they got with L's Flat Stanley.

They’re pretty sure it found it’s way outdoors, and is currently feasting on lizards in the wild.

Pretty sure? **feeling suddenly faint**

Not sure how niece K does it, but she's a much braver woman than I! Especially considering that this is not the first reptilian escapee in her house.

All part and parcel of rearing that boy of hers, I guess.

Which is probably why in about 10 years, nephew L will probably have his own show on Animal Planet or the Discovery Channel...

...with some name adventuresome title like "Reptile Wrangler."

Catching Up: A Graduation and One Sick Pup

2011-09-27T14:00:00.000-07:00

I can’t believe how the time slipped away from me since my last post…and me still not finished blogging about our summer!

For posterity, over the next couple of posts I must go back and record a few memorable things that happened the past couple of months.

:: :: :: ::

First, there was the high school graduation of my baby sister.

Here is little Boo Boo, peeking over my shoulder with her big baby blues, adorable as can be.

This photo was taken while I was home during Christmas break my Junior year of college.

I’ll never forget answering the phone in my dorm room the previous Spring and my mom saying, “Um, honey, you might want to sit down for this…” when she called to tell me that she and my stepdad were expecting.

My mom was keeping up tradition, after all.

You see, her grandmother, her mom and some of her aunts had done almost the exact same thing, having later in life babies or two separate sets of children within the same family separated by a big gap that had them fooled into thinking they were done with diaper changes and middle of the night feedings, and then "surprise!”.

But what a great surprise!

And just so you know, I will not be keeping up the “baby after 40” part of that tradition. The nearly 10 years apart was enough excitement for me, thankyouverymuch (although adoption is an appealing possibility…)

I remember ‘arguing’ that I should get priority on holding little Boo Boo while I was home on break because I lived so far away and didn’t get to spend the same kind of time with her that everyone else did.

None of us could seem to get enough of holding her.

I can still remember rushing off to the media center in college every time I’d get a package from home, because I was so excited to see the latest videos starring little Boo Boo.

The following summer was the frenzied summer that Jeff and I (and my sister J and her husband E) were married.

A couple of years after that, with a baby of our own, Jeff and I found ourselves living in my mom’s basement apartment and when mom was working, I got to watch little Boo Boo.

Rather, she got to help me watch Jericho. She was such a good little helper, and Jericho would coo and giggle and smile so big for his auntie.

I have a lot of wonderful memories of ny little sister during that time.

She was a huge fan of Toy Story, loved having me read Bible Stories to her, and helping me put Jericho down for his nappy-time before she went down for her own. She also loved ‘helping’ me bake, especially if it was cookies.

One of her favorite things back then was the old animated version of Peter Pan, particularly the character Smee.

She went through an all-things-piratey phase, and we often took her to play at a place we referred to as Pirate Ship Park. We kept a scarf and a fake earring and a toy sword in the car for her to play wtih whenever we took her there.

Here she is with her two oldest nephews, my sister’s oldest, T, and on the right, Jericho.

Little Auntie Boo Boo adored her little nephews, and they adored her!

Jericho would look at her so earnestly while she chattered at him. Here he seems to be replying, “Are you kidding me?”

And then…we moved far, far away.

It was like our lives had clicked into fast forward because all of a sudden, here she was graduating (as class Valedictorian, no less…little miss SMARTAY!).

And here she is now, my beautiful 'baby' sister, otherwise known around here as Auntie Alison. And she is every bit as beautiful inside as she is outside, and has a great sense of humor).

Sooooooo very proud of you, Ali! Looking forward to seeing what the Lord has in store for your future!

:: :: :: ::

Secondly, Parvo.

That dreaded doggie disease that usually affects puppies.

Oh, how we loathe it.

Years ago, when Jericho was in Kindergarten, we had a horrible experience with it…

(**cue wavy flashback effect**)

Mosely had wormed his wriggly self into our hearts from the moment we first brought him home, and we were all immediately and hopelessly attached to him.

How Jericho (and Jeff and I) adored that little pup.

Jericho wasted no time at all incorporating him into our family portraits.

Here, Cousin K is also pictured along with his pup Sarah, Mosely’s sister.

Mose was a fantastic and beloved part of our family. So much so that we planned to eventually breed him to carry on his legacy.

But it was not to be. Our beloved Mosely succumbed to Parvo at just over one year old (7 years in dog years).

Now I have cried over a few deceased pets during my lifetime, but never so much as our Mosely.

What made it particularly hard was that Jericho had just started Kindergarten a few days earlier, and while other children were happily chattering and excited those first few days of school, he was in mourning for his beloved puppy. To explain the whole thing to him was one of the hardest things we've ever had to do.

It didn’t help that during the previous school year when I would drive Jericho’s cousins to school in the mornings, Mosely would hop in the cab of the truck with us, so excited to ride along. After that, well, the drives to school just weren’t the same, and that reminder was with us for a good long while.

** end wavy flashback effects**

Fast forward nine years, and little brother Judah was weeks away from beginning Kindergarten.

One morning we noticed that our little Ticker began acting really mopey and sad. She wouldn’t touch her food.

At first, I thought it was just the ‘dog days of summer’, and that the desert heat was getting to her. I wondered if maybe she was just thirsty, because for some odd reason, our dogs’ water dishes kept getting overturned each day, and so for the umpteenth time went out and refilled the dishes with cool water.

But after keeping a close eye on her all day, she seemed to be getting worse.

A day or two before I’d noticed that our entire bed of flower bulbs (100+ bulbs) had been decimated. Dug up completely, bulbs scattered all over the back yard like so many green onions.

Then, I discovered she’d been sick, and it was evident she’d eaten some of those bulbs.

I was concerned that some of the bulbs might have been toxic to her and was kicking myself for not writing down somewhere what all I’d planted so that I could look it up.

I remembered my sister’s family having had a very sick dog years before who had eaten something toxic and was staggering around the yard in agony, miserably sick. After talking with her about it, she mentioned that the first thing their vet did was to pump that dogs stomach full of charcoal, and within 24 hours, that dog was back to her usual self.

It happens that we keep a supply of activated charcoal in our medicine cabinet in case of the flu or food poisoning and have even used it to knock out a bad sore throat that wasn’t responding to the usual gargles and echinacea. (It works by taking toxins out the other end, if you know what I mean). Good stuff, that activated charcoal.

Well, it couldn’t hurt to try, I thought. I sprinkled the capsules into a clean bowl of water, and after sniffing it, lo and behold she guzzled down a good amount and managed to keep it down.

However, she was still not her normal wriggly, excitable self, and rotated between sprawling herself out on the cool of the concrete or lying in her doghouse looking pitiful, her usually wet nose dry.

She looked pitiful…I’d only once before ever seen a dog look so sick, and that was--

…Mosely.

Dread filled my heart.

Not Parvo! Not just before Judah goes off to Kindergarten! Oh, Lord, please not, I prayed. We immediately gathered around as a family and prayed over our little puppy, and then decided that a trip to the vet was in order.

Our backyard neighbors to the right had a couple of pit bulls which had recently given birth to a large litter of 9 or 10 puppies. Puppies that had been whining and whimpering for the previous couple of weeks while we were trying to sleep at night and at the first light of dawn each morning.

At that time, the puppies were only 3 or 4 weeks old (too young to be weaned and given away), and I remember thinking how odd it was that they suddenly began to disappear one by one until there were just two remaining.

Of course, I didn’t think of any of this until we found ourselves in the Vet’s office…where we'd just learned Ticker had just tested positive for Parvo.

One of the longtime Vet assistants who had administered that test said that science has confirmed that it’s highly contagious (she likened it to touching wet paint, and then anything you touch after that gets paint on it) and can be tracked around on the soles of shoes, and the germs can remain in the soil for up to a year or longer in infected yards. Because of this, even indoor dogs can get it.

We would need to be especially vigilant to sterilize our patio area with bleach solution and also have designated backyard shoes and be sure to keep the dog messes picked up in the yard to try and keep it from spreading to friends and family (and possibly neighbor dogs) that came over. And so far, so good on that score, thank the Lord.

She also commented that it can be spread by nose to nose contact through fences, but that they always see a huge surge of cases as soon as the weather in our area turns hot and the flies come out. Because of this, she had her own suspicions that flies were carriers, landing on infected messes in one yard then flying over the fence and landing on a bowl of dog food in another. It’s just that contagious, dastardly virus that it is.

The Vet made us no promises, but said that it boded well for Ticker that she had not begun the lethargic drooling stage nor did she have any bleeding out the other end. We’d caught it early, which meant a greater chance of fighting it off.

He also explained that what usually deals the final blow to a puppy is not the Parvo itself, but a secondary infection to the blood marrow that can be aggravated and hastened by the dehydration brought on by the Parvo virus.

Long story short, they sent us home with an IV drip bag that contained a strong antibiotic to head off that secondary infection.

We had to administer it twice a day (by IV) into the skin at the scruff of her neck. Thank God Jeff was there to do that part morning and night while I held Ticker still, because injecting her with the IV needle made me a little woozy. This procedure gave her a temporary camel-back, as the fluids would leach into her system through the muscle tissues. We were thankful they gave us that option, because it saved us a bundle (hundreds of dollars) on overnight E.R. care.

The following morning, Jeff was up at the break of dawn getting the IV bag ready and thought, “I wonder how Ticker is doing?”

Just then, he looked out in the yard and saw Ticker loping around with a stick in her mouth, whipping it around in her usual playful, wriggly way. That fast, she was on the mend.

By God’s grace, even though she did get Parvo, it didn’t get her…nor did it affect our other dog Raisin. After seeing all those other neighbor puppies disappear one by one, we truly believe it was a miracle and a direct answer to our prayers.

And there was much rejoicing in our household!

On a side note, we also figured out why the dogs water dishes kept getting overturned.

A week or so after she was completely well, I saw her dip her entire head into one of her deep water dishes then rear back and shake off like she’d just come out of the water from a swim, tipping the big bowl over in the process.

Our desert-dwelling Lab/Retriever mix was trying to communicate to us in her own way that she needed a small pool to play in (those instincts for water play run pretty strong in these breeds!)

Of course we got her one, and now, not only has she quit tipping over her water bowls, but this is what we see off and on during the heat of the day:

Ahhh, yeah…that’s what I’m talkin’ ‘bout! Niiiice and cool. Now if only there were some fish to chase around being that I've scared off all the local pigeons…

And so, there was a wonderfully happy ending to this particular tale.

Judah continues to churn out his own artistic renderings of our dogs.

Ticker is the happy-go-lucky dog pictured at the top of this drawing, and the one below is our grumpy old dog Raisin…but, that’s a story I’ll save for another day.

Father’s Day Weekend at June Lake

2011-09-01T00:25:00.000-07:00

This is ridiculously behind schedule post-wise, but I could not let it go as this was a really fantastic weekend for our family.

It all began when we were packing to go away.

For the first time ever, Judah, age 5, was allowed to pack his very own suitcase.

Shortly before it was time to leave, Jeff called across the house, “You’ve GOT to come and see this…and you've got to bring your camera.”

I walked in to find that Judah had indeed packed the essentials:

Gun? Check.

Rubber knife? Check.

Water bottle? Check.

Green cap to the air mattress we weren’t taking? Check.

Bright red winter cap? Check.

Underwear? Check.

Socks? Check.

Actually, he did a pretty good job…were he staying only one night.

After adding a few other essentials we closed it and found this:

Because you just never know when a toy AK-47 with flashing lights and sound effects will come in handy while staying up in the mountains.

Did I mention that we left very early?

And that we had stopped to pick up grandma on the way?

Jericho was still not quite awake yet, and he'd put in a full week of grueling football practices the previous week.

Judah, however, was raring to go.

We drove and drove and drove.

Some of our journey was dry and dusty and not terribly impressive.

But the closer we got to our destination, the prettier the landscape.

We drove more.

“Snow in the summer?” the boys asked. “In California?”

"We're almost there" dad said at last. "Look at the lake!"

“Oh, isn’t it lovely?” I remarked, breathing in the yummy pine-scented mountain air as we beheld that beautiful, pristine lake.

At long last, we arrived: to find a most happily situated chalet style lodge awaiting us:

The boys were thrilled to discover that our stay also included use of a hot tub.

The view at our backs…and the setting for of an amazing adventure Jeff and the boys would have later that weekend:

We got inside, unpacked our gear into our rooms, and then looked out the big picture windows immediately smitten by the beautiful, peaceful valley view:

Us poor starved-for-green desert rats just couldn’t get enough of all that green.

All of us except Judah, that is.

“Take a pitcher of me, mama.”

As I went out to schlep the last of my gear inside, I snapped this photo of my sister-in-law K and her husband of 30-something years, P.

Not wanting to burn any daylight, we all hopped back in our vehicles to go see some of the sights.

These aspen with their greeny-gold leaves made a beautiful display among the backdrop of rock and forest green pines. Oh, and did I mention the heavenly scent of pine in the air? Mmmmmm.

K & P took us further up the mountain to see a waterfall they knew of:

Then a beautiful little valley with rushing mountain water:

Another beautiful lake in the area:

A high desert in the foothills of the mountains we would be staying on:

And then back to our beautiful chalet with the view:

What a beautiful place.

I think, were I fabulously wealthy, I would spend vast amounts of time here.

Everyone went off to get a closer look at the edge of this lake while I prepared dinner: Chicken Parmesan sandwiches.

We played games and then everyone crashed into their beds in anticipation of the very full day to come.

Not one to waste a moment of the day, our brother-in-law P had us up bright and early and on the road.

Up into the mountains we drove:

Until we reached this gorgeous little lake:

Check out how many feet we were above sea level!

There was still a layer of slushy ice on the lake…in June. The desert down in the foothills was about 95 degrees and hot, but here it was a bit chilly.

Oh, but just look at that crystal clear mirror image:

You’re welcome.

I should interject that it was here, while the guys were dropping fishing lines in the water, that I struck up a friendly conversation with a British tourist and fellow Nikon enthusiast.

He apparently assumed that I didn’t know a thing about taking photographs, and tried to tell me that I needed some fancy filter ring to really sharpen my photographs and differentiate their true-to-life colors.

And for a moment, I must admit I felt that my camera had shown up for the occasion very underdressed.

Until I saw these images on my view screen, that is.

Because what I was looking at in the camera was every bit true to the colors I was seeing with my own two eyes. The skies did look that blue up there.

Hmmmph. Who needs a fancy-schmancy filter ring anyway, I ask?

Of course, we couldn’t resist the snow, which to our desert-dwelling family is always a huge treat:

Jericho sank a line into the water on this side of the lake:

Later, he wound up back by dad once again:

Capturing a self portrait with the pretty scenery in the background proved to be a bit tricky to line up just so, backward, without a tripod:

I ended up looking like I had a very bad double chin because for some odd reason I kept leaning my head way back to hold the camera as far from us as I could manage.

It hardly mattered, however, because a commotion broke out nearby.

Cousin D pulled in the first and only catch of the day:

Judah, having not had much success with his fishing (read: hopelessly tangled and hung-up lines), had serious fish envy:

“Let ME see the rainbow,” he requested, wanting to inspect it more closely.

I’m still not sure that he understood that the opalescent sheen on the trout was what gave it the name, and not a child-like image of a rainbow somehow affixed to it’s side.

Aunt K and Uncle P

Cousin D and his wife S:

Wait…what’s that he’s saying?

A wild mountain critter was running through the nearby field of snow?

Indeed there was!

I tried to get a close-up:

We’re still not sure whether it was a wolverine, badger, fisher, or marmot. Fishers generally have longer tails, and marmots aren’t usually found at that elevation this time of year or some such. With a little help from Google, we’re thinking it was probably a badger or wolverine, judging by the leg and tail lengths and other distinguishing characteristics.

Our boys tried their best to get a little closer, but the critter hurried along on his way down mountain.

So I rounded up the fam and did what I like best on vacations and took a bunch of pictures:

Where was grandma all this time, you ask?

Well, it was a bit chilly for her tastes, so she went back to sit in the truck and read a couple chapters of a Francine Rivers novel while our party attempted to fish.

The truck was parked right near where I saw this little bird sitting on a rock enjoying the general splendor.

And this patch of lichen on a rock near the dam:

Love that color.

Not sure I’m brave enough to wear or decorate with citron, but I’m likin’ it nonetheless.

I’m likin’ the lichen.

Ahem.

Here were a couple of logs that served to funnel the chunks of slush over the appropriate portion of the dam:

Here was where everything went rushing beneath the walkway:

And then…down the mountain:

This little manmade walkway was the only obvious sign that this was in fact, a hydroelectric power plant cleverly hidden in this scenic ‘park’ area above the dam:

When nobody had any further bites on their lines and the Slim Jim beef jerky supply had run low, we once again packed into the cars to go see some more of the area.

Ahh, there’s grandma!

She was totally gunnin’ for me.

Another beautiful vista:

K & P

“C’mon, boys, could you just work with me here?”

“Nooo…no, Jericho. Noooooo….”

Too late.

Poor, poor Judah.

**hangs head in shame**

I try. I really do try to instill decency and manners into those two, but sometimes…well, boys will be boys.

Just keepin’ it real, folks.

Once again looking down the mountain:

Daddy dipped Judah’s toes in an ice-cold mountain waterfall at a scenic turnout so he could feel just how cold mountain water is:

Tired from fishing, hiking and playing, cold, cheeks pinked up from the brisk mountain air, we headed back to the chalet.

Our porch view at nearly dusk:

Everyone kicking back at the end of a wonderful day:

Now THAT is tired!

Judah was out the moment he laid his head back.

:: :: :: ::

The following morning, we all got up, had Uncle P’s blueberry pancakes, bacon and biscuits and gravy for breakfast, then walked around the little town of June Lake.

Afterwards, we girls went into Mammoth in search of outlet mall shopping.

Uncle P and Cousin D elected to do some more fishing.

Jeff took the boys on a hike up behind that house I mentioned at the beginning of this post. He took our extra camera, and captured several really great pictures.

It’s also how I learned that he lets the boys to much crazier stuff on his watch than I ever would.

Things like, oh, say climbing around on a precarious, very large dying tree that had recently been hit by lightening if the scorch marks were any indicator:

Our chalet was down somewhere below where Judah was sitting.

Oh, merciful heavens! I want to reach into the photo and tell him, “You come down from there this instant!”

Oh, Judah…not you, too?

**hyperventilating at the very sight of my baby so high up in the tree**

The view from up there:

It was beautiful.

That would have been enough to behold.

However, the Lord had other surprises in store.

Only steps away from the climbing trees, they rounded a giant pile of boulders, and happened upon a doe.

A deer. A female deer...grazing contentedly in her peaceful surroundings.

However, upon hearing the crackle of their footsteps, she lifted her head suddenly and bounded towards them, coming within a foot or two of my guys to get out of the narrow little glen she’d found herself suddenly trapped in.

She literally passed within reaching distance, but they were all so stunned and everything happened so fast that no one thought to take a picture or reach out and pet her.

But boy did that make for a wonderful, breathless tale for Judah to recount for me blow by blow when we arrived back to the chalet.

Later that afternoon, we reluctantly packed up our bags and left our merry party for the long drive home.

After saying goodbye to K, P, D & S, we took grandma with us, hopped in the truck and headed for home, tired but refreshed. Sunshine and fresh mountain air are good for the soul.

It also happened to be the day of our 18th wedding anniversary, which would be celebrated the following day, and boy do we have a tale to tell!

I simply couldn’t resist these photos of Judah at a rest area on the way home:

While daddy was in the store, Judah was sitting on the edge of the truck bed holding his new sunglasses which grandma and Aunt K bought for him.

I watched as he held them in a way that he seemed to think made him look very cool in the eyes of all those passing by.

The little scamp.

Gorgeous location, seeing wildlife in their habitat, having a relaxing and refreshing time together as a family...priceless.

A Weekend Getaway

2011-08-13T09:04:00.000-07:00

Somewhere near San Diego, California is a time-share type resort that was first begun by this guy:

For those of you who are younger than I am, you probably don’t have a clue who he is.

All I know is I spent numerous evenings at my grandma’s house as a kid watching The Lawrence Welk Show on TV and hearing his distinctive, German accent and his soft-spoken tone saying, “Ah-one, ah-two” as he would lead into a new musical number.

The show was also know for it’s propensity to have bubbles floating around during the opening and closing segments, lots of polka and big-band style music and ballroom dance numbers. At least to my recollection.

My grandparents had been fans of his show for years, and as a little girl, I remember thinking that they knew him personally, as everyone seemed to know his name. Lawrence Welk did convey a very likeable, neighborly sort of persona on-air.

However, we did not actually know him.

Ordinary folks like us didn’t know too many folks with the kind of money it took to build the resorts he did.

But I can tell you this…the resorts are beautiful.

The grounds and condos very nicely maintained, the condo we stayed in had a full kitchen and bedroom suites ideal for relaxing and enjoying time away from the daily grind.

The amenities are perfect for families with young children. They even have kiddie pools (which Judah mistakenly kept calling the Hello Kitty pools) and the shallow end of the bigger pools have large underwater ramps leading down into the water for the little ones to splash around on safely.

Judah couldn’t get enough of the pool. His favorite thing ever is to run and jump off the edge of the pool yelling, “Cannonball!”

He kept going strong all day long.

The main attraction at this pool area, however, was the waterslide, which spits you out into a long trough of water at the end

Big brother seemed to prefer the leisurely swim. He was exhausted from his grueling football practices earlier that week.

Judah really enjoyed ‘kickin’ it’ on the patio of the condo. Of course part of the draw was that Aunt K spoiled him rotten with all kinds of snacks.

“This is the life!”

Later, the guys went to check out the fish pond.

I’m not sure why big brother is lolling about on the lawn, but Judah took advantage of the great things to climb around on.

We left for a couple of hours to attend a family friend’s 15th birthday party.

Later we returned for a relaxing evening in the hot tub and for billiards, air hockey and ping pong at the Cabanna.

All in all, it was a wonderfully relaxing weekend getaway. Thanks K & P for inviting us to hang out with you!

Naughty Puppy and The 5K

2011-08-12T07:44:00.000-07:00

Totally unrelated stories here, but this was what I looked out back and saw one day earlier this summer:

"I didn't dig up your flower garden!"

:: :: :: ::

Around the same time that I injured my back in late Spring, the day came for Jeff’s first 5k.

He had worked very, very hard preparing for it.

It was a long road which began a couple of summers ago when he and I went on the South Beach Diet. That was the summer that Jeff (effortlessly, I might add) blew past me with this enormous weight loss, while I, eating the very same things, lagged behind, stuck at the 10 pound plateau. Hmmmph.

Jeff, however, kept going. And going. And in spite of my own frustrations in that area, I am very proud of him.

He’s got a family history of mid-life heart problems that he doesn’t wish to revisit, and so far, so good!

Fast forward to Mid-May...Jeff and our nephew entered a 5 K.

For weeks ahead of the race, Jeff not only got up early each morning to exercise but was amping up his mileage on his morning run.

Finally, the day of the big race arrived.

I was so bummed to have to miss it, but my back injury kept me at home, but Jeff made sure to get pictures for me.

Jeff and his mom just after the race.

Jeff was pretty proud of himself for staying middle of the pack on his very first 5K run. And for not having a heart attack in the process.

Jeff’s nephew and his sister after the race:

Yes, that is a first place medal you see hanging around his neck, and we ARE proud of him…even if he only ran a total of two times to prepare for the 5k, shows up, stretches a bit and then proceeded to blow past everyone out there including his uncle. Hmmmph.

Our nephew’s cute little family. His oldest little guy was SO PROUD of daddy winning that medal.

Jeff is currently continuing training, and hopes to compete in a MudRun next.

He and several other guys in our family were actually scheduled for one a few weeks ago, but that was the weekend 5 members of our extended family were all in different hospitals, four for health reasons or injuries, and the above little mama to have her baby…a story which I will save for a later post.

Back to School

2011-08-08T12:45:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back at a church function, a family friend bent down to Judah level and asked, “So, is your mom excited that you’ll be starting Kindergarten soon?”

Judah looked up very solemnly and replied, “Nooooo…she’s gonna miss me when I’m at school!”

And he was right! The house feels pretty hollow and empty with all my guys off to school today after several weeks of togetherness that was our summer break.

Our day began bright and early at 5:45 this morning. We got the whole family up and ready because we wanted to take pictures of the big first-day-of-school event. Jericho began his Freshman year of high school this morning, Jeff returned to teaching at middle school and Judah just got dropped off at his afternoon Kindergarten class.

I knew it was coming, but I still felt a bit surprised when I found myself back in the kitchen last evening preparing school lunches.

Here we were first thing this morning.

For the record, Jericho is actually taller than me now, but I was wearing heeled sandals.

A friend from church, Cassie, a senior at Jericho’s school, had offered to pick him up for his first day and show him around campus.

A senior with her own car? Are you even kidding? He was thrilled and immediately jumped on the opportunity.

It was a bright, bright sunshiny day.

Hmmmmph. I guess now that he’s a big kid he’s too ‘cool’ to have his mom trailing him around with her camera on the first day. Whatev.

Then they drove away…and that was that. My baby is now a Freshman. **sniff, sniff**

Jeff left moments later for his first day activities, and had a couple of tricks up his sleeve.

Literal tricks. With the help of some props and some things he recently learned from an illusionist, he intends to really wow his students on their first day.

Really, I think he’s just glad to have several more audiences to practice said tricks in front of before the wedding he learned them for this Saturday.

The wedding he will be officiating.

The tricks he will be performing in lieu of the traditional unity candle.

It seems that lately, every time I turned around, there was Jeff with props in hand, practicing those tricks again.

I think he’s got it down. It will impress his students for sure.

Anyway, once daddy and Jericho were gone, Judah had approximately four hours to kill.

But do you think I could talk him into going back to bed for even part of that time?

Negative.

First it was, “Take a pitcher (his pronunciation) of me with my lunch pack!”

Then it was, “Take a pitcher of me with my pack-pack.”

Then it was 3 blessed hours and 45 long minutes of him chomping at the bit to go.

“Is it time for Kindergarten yet?”

“WheeEen do we get to GO?”

“Mom, you better check the clock.”

Lying around on the floor whining, “When is it time?”

Finally, with about 20 minutes before grandma was to arrive to see him off on his first day, I sat down to take a couple of pictures of he and I.

Betcha can’t tell he’s excited, huh?

Well, this should seal the deal

Seriously, this was him after he'd been running around like a wild child calling out, “It’s almost tiiiiiime!”

You’d have thought it was Christmas or his birthday or something!

But then, he stopped and climbed up on my lap and asked very soberly, “Mama, are you gonna miss me when I’m gone to Kindergarten?”

“Of course! This house is going to be so quiet without you!” I replied, feeling a little melancholy tug on the heartstrings. **sniff, sniff**

He gave me a big old hug around the neck. “I’ll still be your baby even when I’m all growned up.”

Awwww…little stinker. Guess he knew this was harder for his mom than it was for him.

At long last, grandma arrived.

We piled into the truck and drove to school.

We took a couple of pictures and a little bit of video footage.

Here he sports his new shoes, which upon testing them out in our front yard he breathlessly reported to us, “They make me run so fast the dirt flies up!”

Which was kind of a strange deja vu moment, because Jericho came home from his first day of Kindergarten reporting that his shoes “made him run so fast the wood chips (on the playground) flew up.” **sniff, sniff, sniff.**

These shoes were the closest thing we could find to PF FLyers, which he’s coveted ever since seeing the movie Sandlot.

He looks so little. Like he still needs his mama all day long.

T minus one minute to starting time: Is that a little bit of uncertainty upon my big brave Kindergarteners face?

Nope. Just the sun in his eyes.

At last, he eagerly and confidently jumped in line, I told him to obey all the rules, he smiled and then his teacher walked the little procession into her classroom.

At the last minute, just when I thought it would go into his class without a backward glance, my baby turned around and called out, “See ya later, mom.”

The photo was a bit blurry, but that’s okay, because I think my eyes were, too.

And that was that. My baby is now a Kindergartener. **sniff, sniff**

The Frumps Visit The County Fair

2011-06-30T13:11:00.000-07:00

We recently attended the County Fair.

This is a big deal in our family and an annual tradition.

First, there is the fair food.

Judah was in the mood for an ice cream cone.

Jericho walked away with some deep fried concoction.

Surprisingly, it was not the deep fried Twinkie he'd been thinking sounded so great on the way there.

Ahhh...mini doughnuts. The gold standard.

They always remind me of the time we were helping my dad move a family member from suburban civilization way out to the boondocks on a very rainy Saturday in Washington. Suddenly, my dad pulled off the country road into the parking area of a remote gas station and went inside for a snack. He emerged, his hands full with a two paper trays filled with great big globs of greasy grimy something-or-other and sticks one in through our car window under our noses, announcing excitedly, "Gizzards, anyone?"

I was scarred for life.

Mini-doughnuts, however, aside from smelling faaaar better than deep-fried gizzards, taste heavenly. Which I’m pretty sure mean they’re like manna, and therefore good for you. Ahem.

Judah in his chili pepper sunglasses cracks me up every time.

Of course no trip to the fair would be complete without stopping to see some farm animals.

A friend’s pig.

And you just haven’t lived until you’ve washed your hands at a porta-sink while tapping your toes to a country tune playing loudly at the nearby bandstand.

There was one exhibit not far from the animal barns that included a whole bunch of exotic animals we don’t often get to see up close.

Kookaburras. Australia’s laughing birds.

I really enjoyed getting them to laugh, but have to admit I would find them terribly obnoxious in a tree outside my bedroom window in the wee hours of the morning. Even if they are cute.

Also from down under, the kangaroo and wallaby exhibit. Here the ~~giant rat~~ wallaby bit Judah’s finger. There was a sign warning of the possibility, but Judah is just too quick. Thankfully it didn’t break skin.

**sigh** He’s a very hands-on kind of learner that way.

He then looked up an noticed that the animal handlers were allowing folks to touch a select few critters.

“Isn’t he so cute, mama? I want a bearded dragon. Please? I’ll keep it in my bedroom and feed it and everything.”

My answer was immediate. “No!” Oh, heavens no!

Imagine finding a colorful critter like that darting out from between the washer and dryer after it got lost in the house?

Because that is undoubtedly what would happen, and I just can’t live with that kind of stress in my life.

Now these guys were almost big enough for Judah to ride, and seeing the wheels turning in Judah’s head as he grasped the low-walled sides, their owner said, “No climbing into the exhibit. You may touch their shells with your hands.”

They did, however, allow him to hold this little reptile.

And, just to freak mom out, he had to go and hold an emperor scorpion.

And charm a snake.

“Aww…look, mama…he’s playing with me!”

The snake didn’t scare me so much. It was behind glass.

What really frightened me was that delighted look on my boys face while interacting with the deadly creature.

Because we live in rattlesnake country.

And people within walking distance of our house have had to call out animal control to rescue them from snakes on their property.

I quickly tried to distract him by dragging him over to the cage with the adorable little African hedgehog in it, which seemed a bit shy.

Unfortunately for me, there around the corner was this gator.

Which reminded Judah again of the bearded dragon, and because the owner was still holding it, he ran back over to see it once again.

The llama looked spitting mad (pardon the pun), so we kept a safe distance.

My sister was once spat upon by a llama (while she was pregnant and morning sick, mind you).

Needless to say, it was not a pleasant experience, and we’ve all learned from it.

And this emu…well, frankly it looked a bit deranged.

It had orange eyes and turquoise skin.

And the way he kept leaning down and eyeing our boy let us know we should keep his curious fingers far from the enclosure.

I can’t recall the name of this fowl from the Amazon, but it had a body and legs like a turkey with a head and bill something like a black flamingo, topped with a curly feathered mohawk.

Perhaps the biggest attraction at the fair for our boys, however, was this:

Getting to stand inside a giant ~~hamster ball~~ bubble and roll around on the water in it.

The boys thought it was a huge thrill.

It was a lot trickier than it looked, standing up in a rolling bubble.

Ahhh...success. Pressing on the bottom and top at the same time, he did a complete turn around.

It was an unseasonably cool and windy day at the fair that day, but because our boys were laughing and having such a good time, they brought in some extra business for the attraction, and the operators let them stay in extra long.

They did not complain once.

Afterwards, the operator pushed their 'pods' over to the exit.

Jericho emerged headfirst.

Judah in breech position.

Jericho reported afterward that the inside of the bubble had a sour sponge smell. Eww.

Germaphobe that I am, I took one look at their now filthy socks and opted for another stop at the porta-sink to scrub down all their exposed skin.

Both boys talked about the attraction for days afterward, so it was a definite highlight for them.

And last, but not least, my favorite part of the fair:

The home and fine arts exhibits.

Though I love visiting these buildings anyway, this year was extra special for us because the boys and I had each entered items and wanted to find out if we’d won any ribbons.

Jericho entered this marvel. Captain America.

Jericho had been hoping for a first place blue ribbon, but he still got best of class.

Though as you can tell by his expression, he wasn’t too happy that his ribbon was pink.

This was Judah’s abstract work, painted last summer while his cousins were visiting.

And that is his blue ribbon for his division. He was thrilled beyond words. “I won? I won a ribbon?! Oh…I’m so proud!!”

I suppose it chafed a bit for Jericho to see his kid brother win a blue ribbon for what appeared to him to be more of a happy accident than a purposeful, time consuming rendering like his Captain America.

But when his attitude turned a little south about the whole issue, we had to stop and explain that we ‘can’t win them all’, and that he still needed to be happy and supportive in his brother’s success, just as Judah had been when we stopped first and found the pink ribbon hanging on Jericho’s work.

The photography exhibits were nearby, so we dropped in to see how my photo had done.

Nada. No ribbon in sight. Oh, well…cute kid/kitten photos aren’t for everyone.

We then meandered over to the textile arts building to see if my quilt and crocheted items had won.

I’d scrambled to get my pinwheel baby quilt done in time for the entry deadline, and knew it wasn’t my best work, but they were kind enough to still include it in a colorful display.

Wandering around to another portion of the large building, we happened upon my woolen granny square afghan, which apparently didn’t make the cut and was crowded together with other ‘losers’ on a rack up against a barren wall.

Hmmmph. They don’t know quality work when they see it, I thought indignantly upon seeing the 3rd of my 5 entries without a ribbon.

Then my earlier talk with Jericho came to mind and I felt the sting of guilt.

A winter scarf that I crocheted won a 2nd place red ribbon, but the item displayed in front of it blocked both my ribbon and my name and was in a glass case so I didn’t bother with the picture.

Finally, we located the display with my ripple afghan, and was delighted to see that it, too, had won a 2nd place red ribbon!

Afterwards, in keeping with our usual trip-to-the-fair tradition, we all went out for dinner at a diner near the fairgrounds.

All things considered, it was a winner of a day for our family at the fair!

A Mother's Day Girfriend Reunion

2011-06-22T09:53:00.001-07:00

When most people go to Las Vegas, it's probably for entirely different reasons than us.

It had been 14 years since my college roomies and I had all been together in one place.

After talking things over, we decided that Mother's Day weekend was the perfect opportunity and with all of us coming from different parts of the country, Las Vegas seemed the obvious location for spending a weekend together without breaking the bank. Money isn't exactly growing on trees these days.

It helped that our former roomie Tour Guide Mary, was along with us on the trip. She's the one on the left.

She's a travel agent, and knew from her contacts all the best places to eat, shop and stay.

We're all moms with growing kids at home, and none of us wanted to spend any more than necessary to to make this reunion happen. Especially with one of us having recently gotten engaged and needing to pay for the upcoming wedding.

At the last minute, the other three of us put our heads together and decided to spring a little impromptu Bride-to-Be Scavenger Hunt on her.

She's a good sport, and set about fulfilling every item on her list.

Being in Vegas worked in our favor because there were so many crazy things we could make her do wearing the hat and the boa.

What we hadn't counted on was the surprise heat wave, and the itchy misery inflicted on poor Lynette when the feather boa kept sticking to her in the heat. Not to mention shedding white feathers nearly everywhere we went.

And for four Bible College roomies in "Sin City" for a weekend...well, it was an eye opener, let me tell you.

It is true what they say about there being Wedding Chapels on nearly every corner.

My general impression had always been that this would be a little like a fast-food version of a 'real' wedding, but we passed a couple of chapels located in the bigger hotels which actually turned out to be very classy establishments.

There are also a lot of beautiful locations throughout the strip in which to hold weddings and to take photos.

We passed a beautifully landscaped veranda near a pool in the Hilton which was preparing for an outdoor wedding with a gorgeous view.

There was also a piazza area overlooking the Bellagio fountains that is probably a sought after wedding reception location.

The Bellagio Fountains were a beautiful sight to behold.

They are choreographed and set to 'dance' to music. Pictures simply don't do it justice.

There were many fun and beautiful fountains around the strip, all of which looked very refreshing on the really hot day we were there.

Here, to fulfill one of the items on her 'list', our bride-to-be had to climb into a fountain.

Here I tried to get Lynette with a fountain statue's wings as her own, but they came off looking more like antlers, haha.

And I can't tell you how many different Elvis' we saw in that city.

Including this one (with our bride-to-be) which frankly didn't look very authentic or legit.

He was, however, happy to help Lynette mark one of the items on her list. Perhaps overly so.

I was amazed by all the decor we saw in the various buildings along 'the strip' where we stayed in one of the Hilton Hotels.

Copius amounts of money had no doubt been spent to encrust the casinos and the shopping areas in the glitz the glittering city is known for.

This was a gold bubble ceiling that looked very heavy hanging above us.

This fixture was made of hundreds of thin cable wires suspended from the ceiling and each holding a couple of crystals on it, one forming part of the top of the globe and the other part of the bottom. It was a huge installment (bigger than a VW Bug, I'm sure) and beautiful from every angle. It must have taken an enormous amount of planning to get each cable the right length and for all the crystals to form the perfect orb.

This entire hallway had these lights above us.

And another one in green.

This light fixture was, like, was totally tubular.

These colorful umbrellas were suspended from the domed glass ceiling at the top of an escalator.

This gorgeous stained glass also served as a skylight by day.

This display consisted of hundreds of strands of crystals, draped in such a way as to completely encrust the space in 'jewels'.

While most of it was interesting to look at, and some of it tasteful, on the whole, instead of being breathtakingly beautiful and awe inspiring, most of the decor in Las Vegas came across as rather...gaudy. Bordering on tacky.

It rather reminded me of a verse in the Bible: Like a gold ring in a pig's snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion. -Proverbs 11:22

This city was no lady.

Earlier in the day, the city streets felt like any other city to me. After dark, however, things changed, and took on the Vegas vibe.

In one very public fountain crosswalk area, we saw a rather second-rate costumed Hello Kitty dirty dancing.

C'mon...Hello Kitty?

All the other costumes a panhandler might have chosen to use (most likely without permission) to turn a buck and they had to dance for dollars in Hello Kitty? Cover your eyes, kiddos!

But what was even more appalling to me was when we drove past one establishment and saw my boys' favorite Disney characters...good old Buzz and Woody, standing out front.

I'm not sure if you can see it or not, but it would appear that the Las Vegas version of Woody has recently undergone a tracheotomy. He was pouring a water bottle into a hole in his neck!

Yes, boys and girls, this is what happens when Woody the Cowboy smokes all his life.

Disney should really look into licensing infringements, because I'm not sure these particular versions were sanctioned by Walt's people.

There was also a particular group of people in bright orange shirts, who along one section of the strip kept trying to thrust nasty advertisements into the hands of each passing person.

We were pleasantly surprised to observe that the vast number of people passing by refused to touch it, let alone look at it, and in fact seemed appalled by it.

Gave us all a little glimmer of hope that perhaps there is still some decency left in the world.

Being known as a city that never sleeps, we found that very little along the strip in Vegas ever closed down. If we had been inclined to go somewhere at 3 am, we would have found plenty of places open for business.

We had all heard tidbits over the years about how in gambling meccas like Las Vegas and Jersey City, the casinos have spent untold billions honing their money-making schemes into the most profitable establishments possible.

In my college art classes, I remember a unit which touched on the 'psychology' of colors, and doing a paper on how fast food restaurants employ the use of certain colors and flooring and arrangements of furniture to encourage people to eat quickly and move along.

Likewise, in the multi-billion dollar Casino and gaming industry, colors, patterns, lighting, music and even 'aromatherapy' scents are used throughout casinos to keep patrons awake and on a seeming adrenaline rush, enough to keep them sitting at their slot machines or gaming tables frittering away their money.

We also observed that you can't usually see the out-of-doors from the casinos because they don't want you to think about how it might be your usual bedtime or breakfast time...they want to keep you focused on one thing...~~wasting~~ spending your hard-earned money.

After seeing the sights during the day, we were all exhausted and crashed back in our hotel suite where we talked long into the night, having so much catching up to do.

The hotel casinos were arranged in such a way that even if you wanted to get a late night coffee or a snack from one of their little bistros, you had to first wend your way through casinos which they hoped would entice you to sit down and play.

We noticed that all the carpets in every casino we passed through were wildly patterned and colored versions which had been very carefully researched and selected to contribute to guests spending.

We determined amongst ourselves that it's all a very elaborate scam.

It was sad to see how many elderly people were sitting alone at machines, as though they'd come in alone on a tour bus, and aimlessly whiled away their time and money.

Nobody ever seems to 'win' anything, but many play on the slim chance they would, and far too many get sucked into spending way more than they should.

As we wandered around the hotels and other sights along the strip, I found that I craved the sunlight and out of doors. Probably because of all the smoke hanging in the air. In Las Vegas they permit smoking indoors. I'm so thankful for the clean air laws in public places back home.

During the course of the weekend, that smoke triggered more than one unpleasant episode for me and one of the other girls (who didn't even have asthma). Nasty stuff, that second-hand smoke!

We girls did have a fantastic time catching up, hanging out by our hotel pool, shopping and catching up over meals.

It was awesome how things just picked up right where they had left off the last time.

We had such a blast together, just as we always did back in college.

I sure do love these gals, and am so glad the Lord dropped us into each other's lives as roomies 20 years ago.

By far, our favorite place of the entire weekend was located just beneath the Eiffel Tower replica.

It was an indoor mall of sorts which had carefully rounded moldings throughout the vast space and was painted in trompe l'oeil, with store fronts built to resemble the streets of Paris or old Europe. Much like an elaborate set in a movie studio.

While it was creative and beautiful and fun to walk through, something in there triggered a serious coughing attack that I wasn't sure I would recover from.

I suspect now that it was probably a combination of an inadequate air-exchange, filtering and ventilation system for as many people as were crowded inside, cigarette smoke, and possible off-gassing from whatever materials they used to recreate the faux base of the Eiffel Tower, which extended into the building there as though we were walking beneath it.

Whatever it was, it had the same musty, asthma-inducing odor that certain places in amusement parks have when they employ large amounts of wire mesh and that expanding foam stuff they use to sculpt fake rock and whatnot to create a semi-realistic 'look' to a ride.

Whatever it was made for a constant tickle in my throat that didn't go away until we entered the nearby restaurant for dinner.

This was perhaps our favorite place in all of Vegas.

The French restaurant, Mon Ami.

The food was a bit spendy but spectacular.

The cool thing was, we didn't feel terribly guilty eating there, because we hadn't lost money in Las Vegas.

As a matter of fact, we had all earned a little extra cash during our weekend in Vegas.

There were two places Tour Guide Mary knew of along the strip, both tied to major TV studios, where you could preview upcoming, in-the-works TV programs, take a computerized survey afterward and get a handful of Vegas coupons and $15 or $20 for your efforts, depending on how long the process took. Both were under an hour from start to finish. In the end, we each earned $35 cash.

We all sat together and previewed the same program, but could not speak to each other until after we left. They also requested we put our cameras away. It was clear they wanted our direct individual attention and opinion, not influenced by anyone else.

In both places, we were given a handheld device with a button on it which you either held or depressed at various points throughout the preview, depending on whether or not you liked or would walk away from whatever you were watching. In this way you 'rated' the entire episode moment by moment.

Afterwards there was a multiple choice survey which you took on a computer and depending on what your gut reactions were to the programming using the hand-held device earlier, you had the opportunity to explain your like or dislike of it.

We were glad to be able to give our input on one show we hope never goes into production because of a very poor portrayal of family values, and another which had a fresh and interesting take on the whole 'big brother' thing, but involved too much senseless violence and reckless behavior by the main characters in the story which never showed the reality...the naturally resulting consequences of their actions, which we all felt would be very misleading to younger, more impressionable viewers.

While this was an interesting experience, we all felt a bit dismayed with the types of things showing up in TV shows today which are deemed to be 'entertainment' by the producers and networks. A lot of garbage, for sure.

We also walked away with a very real awareness of how much money the studios were willing to lay out to hone their upcoming TV shows, with distinct agendas, which are then foisted upon an unsuspecting viewing public who may not even realize they are being influenced and shaped by what they view/hear on a regular basis.

A great deal of money is being spent to dictate what Television and Movie viewers see, and like it or not, the standards are nowhere near as high as they were 30 or 40 years ago and are far more influential to the course our society is on than we might like to believe.

While we did appreciate the cash that helped pay for our dinner, the experience only served to further cement in us the desire to limit network and cable programming, as well as a host of other influences in our homes.

My roomies and I found plenty of time to kick back, rest and reminisce. Here we found a little outdoor cafe where we could rest beneath the palm trees and misters as it was a scorcher of a day.

Andrea and I roomed together on campus during our freshman summer.

Lynette and Mary were my Freshman year roomies.

We've all been great friends ever since. We all still have so much in common and share so many memories from that golden year of our lives.

Though it was hot, and we all got a bit sunburned, we had a fabulous time catching up.

It's something we all hope to make an annual event, maybe switching to a beachy locale next time around.

When Lynette and Mary boarded their earlier flights on Sunday, Andrea and I headed off for more shopping at an outlet mall, and took in a movie and grabbed a bite to eat before I dropped her off at the airport for her flight home.

Exhausted, I made the long, unusually windy drive back home to my own family. It had been a most wonderful weekend.

:: :: :: ::

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Jeff had decided to take the boys and their cousin K on a little nature hike on Saturday.

It involved a huge outcropping of large rocks

a rather daring climb (along with a bunch of the resulting battle scars, scrapes and skinned up knees)

a nest of owlets

a giant gopher snake (which they encountered way up high on the rock formation, mind you) and which Judah poked at with the toy sword he'd brought along on the hike.

I know it looks like it might be, but that's not the snake near Judah. At least I don't think it was. Oh, mercy... However, he is in a cave or animal den of some kind. I'm quite sure I don't even want to know the story behind that picture.

The view from the top was all worth it, though, at least from their perspective.

Beautiful, yes, but I must say I was relieved that they did this particular trip without me.

I'm afraid I don't do dangerous climbs with rambunctious 5 year olds or knife bearing teenagers or snakes very well at all.

Easter and Scary Back Problems

2011-06-22T09:05:00.000-07:00

Easter Sunday is a highly anticipated Holiday in our household.

I always enjoy that we get dressed up a little more than usual for church that day, because wrestling the little guy into dress clothes ever is next to impossible. Dress clothing is apparently too constricting for someone of his energy level.

The kids always enjoy finding their Easter baskets (such as they were). Jeff really makes them work for it by hiding them somewhere in the house.

Then little man had to watch out for the puppy who kept snagging the colorful items in his basket and running off with them.

Here was Jericho's Easter gift to us

It was hilarious when the puppy went and got her head stuck in a box in the few minutes she was allowed inside for pictures.

Then, we went to church. My favorite part of the day.

Our church choir always puts on a Cantata that tells the Resurrection Story beautifully.

I will never tire of hearing about my Savior's love for me.

Then, there is the big family gathering at my sister-in-laws home afterward.

The kids love the Easter egg hunt and the telling of the Easter story.

It's always great catching up with everyone

and getting to hold the newest baby in the family (though I had to wait in line behind this little babies auntie K...who didn't want to give her up).

In fact, I think she's saying, "I got her first" in this picture.

That's how our Easter Sunday celebrations usually unfold.

And for everyone else...that is exactly what happened that day.

Unfortunately for me, in the wee hours of the morning, I'd returned to my bed after a trip to the restroom and found that my pillow corner of the bed seemed to be tipping oddly towards the floor.

I got down on my hands and knees and saw that the caster had fallen off the metal frame underneath.

Wedged down there between my nightstand and my bed, in my half-awake state, I somehow thought it would be a good idea to heft the bed up (with Jeff on his side, no less) and put the caster back on, lest our floors get gouged.

And I did it...but unknowingly wrenched my back pretty good in the process.

Satisfied all was well, I stood up and felt an odd twinge of pain, but figured it was nothing a heating pad wouldn't take care of, and promptly fell back to sleep.

When the alarm went off to get up and get going a couple of hours later...I found that I couldn't move without tremendous pain. Like "10" on a scale of 1-to-10, 10 being worst kind of pain.

I felt almost paralyzed.

It was a very frightening sensation, a combination of the utter helplessness and the absolute most excruciating pain I'd ever been in in my life...and that includes the back labor I had during my first child's birth and post-emergency c-section pain and recovery with the second one.

The muscles in my core seemed not to be working properly, and my body did not seem to be responding to the signals my brain was sending it to move.

In addition, I was just getting over a cold at that time, and I found that each cough caused pains to shoot up my spine, the muscles spazzing and tightening in a way I'd never experienced before, ever.

One place in my spine felt like it was breaking apart from another with each cough, and the very thought of getting a chiropractic adjustment sounded too painful and scary, as my spine was in almost too much pain to even touch it.

The worst part, however, was that it took a full half hour to get out of bed. Rolling, psyching myself up for the pain that would zing along my spine, moving to sitting position, then standing up while keeping my back rigid, using only my leg muscles to rise...it was awful.

Getting a shower and getting dressed on Easter morning took twice the usual amount of time, too, as I couldn't lift my left foot up more than a couple of inches without agonizing pain, and my back was so stiff that bending was out of the question so pulling on my clothes was tricky.

It felt so surreal. The day before I'd been 100% mobile and able to do anything I needed, and on that morning I woke up feeling almost completely helpless my back weaker than I ever remember it feeling.

But I was determined not to miss Easter, and soldiered on, even though I could not sit straight up. I ended up standing in the nursery the entire morning and viewing the service through the two way glass window in there.

Thankfully, with the assistance of pillows and a reclining seat in the truck, I was able to rest on the long drive to my sister-in-laws afterward.

Incredibly, they had just purchased one of those devices in which you strap in your ankles and then it flips you upside down to relieve back pain.

I tried it, and it was wonderful...for as long as my feet were above my head, but the slightest tilt back up to standing position was utter torture. Whatever I'd done to my back, it was bad.

You may have noticed the grimace on my face in the above picture.

At the doctor late the following afternoon, I was diagnosed with a bulging disc and sciatica and given a couple of prescriptions and sent home to ~~suffer~~ rest.

Walking around was super-painful those first couple of days afterward, so I spent a lot of time lying flat on my back on a heating pad, trying to relax those muscles. Although Judah was a great little helper during the day and Jeff and Jericho were in the afternoons, and though I had plenty of books and movies to keep me occupied, I felt so...trapped. Low. Stuck. Depressed. Not a feeling I wish to revisit. Ever.

After many prayers, very slowly over the next few days my back began to improve. I knew I had to take it easy and not do anything that could aggravate the injury.

I made myself get up and walk. When Jeff could drive me, we went to the mall, to Costco, Lowes...wherever I could walk on level ground.

It helped. My back slowly began to loosen up.

Within a couple of weeks I was feeling much better. Still in pain, but able to walk and get out of a reclining or sitting position much easier.

My prayers were answered!

Which was great, because my college roomies and I had been planning a get-together weekend for months, and I sure didn't want to miss that!

Lessons learned from this experience? Take good care of my back...it's got to last me the rest of my life, after all!

Oh, and never trust my foggy, middle of the night reasoning with regard to casters on my bed.

Sleeping on the sofa for the rest of the night would have been soooo much easier!

Tales of an Almost-Freshman

2011-06-09T11:02:00.001-07:00

We recently had a whole slew of end-of-the-school year functions to attend.

First, there were the final Track Meets of the year.

His personal best in the high jump in track this year was 5 feet 4 inches, and he also did pretty well in high jump. He usually came home with medals for both events from each meet.

This year was also his best Cross Country season yet and at the Sports Banquet his Athletic Director gave him the award for most improved.

Here were a couple of pictures of his wrestling team.

Jericho will no doubt go on to participate in some of the same sports in high school, and for that reason didn't seem too sad to see the athletic season come to an end.

Jeff, however, might be feeling a tad melancholy.

Not only have he and Jericho spent the last 3 years riding to and from school together and getting in some good male bonding time, but Jeff has always been one of the coaches on Jericho's various teams.

He was one proud dad these past couple of years, getting to watch his son learn and excel in various sports.

But now...well, the boy is moving upward and onward. Striking out in a new arena, having recently gone out for the football team.

It's probably a good thing, then, that he's been the longtime announcer for the football games at our son's high school.

Getting to announce his own son's football games should help ease him into this new phase of our son's life. =)

:: :: :: ::

Jericho had been in student government at his school for the past two years, and they had their big awards ceremony a few weeks ago, just after the new officers were elected and their terms came to an end.

These were a couple of pictures I took just before the ceremony.

His teacher in ASB did such a great job with them both years. He really learned a lot under her, and she had a really great rapport with all the kids.

Jericho was feeling really melancholy about that chapter of his life coming to a close, because he'd made a lot of friends in that group over the past two years, and now things were changing.

Mrs. R also did a beautiful job with the Awards ceremony itself, having taken time to gather photos of each student from over the past two years worth of ASB events, and put together a collage of each student, which was displayed on the big screen behind them as she gave out their individual awards.

Mrs. R had some very nice things to say about Jericho. Among other things, she said that he was one of the politest young men she'd ever met, had great leadership skills, and also kept everyone laughing.

Now we know our son can be hilarious. At times throughout his childhood, there have been occasions in which we knew we should correct a certain behavior, but we'd look at him just as we were about to mete out the diciplinary action and there would be this impish grin on his face or, worse, barely contained laughter, and I found it absolutely impossible to discipline him when I was trying to keep from laughing myself.

As a mom, though, it was especially meaningful to me to see that others have recognized the leadership potential in him, and that they know him to be polite and well mannered kid.

I'm glad to know our son comports himself in such a way in public, because, although we've worked hard at training him and know him to be fully capable of both, mom doesn't often get to see much beyond the sibling rivalry and the petty disputes it seems I'm always handling here at home, haha.

Later, on the way home, Jericho mentioned that two of the girls in his ASB group (who are going on to a different high school) had come up to him afterwards and said that they always really appreciated that he was such a gentleman towards them.

That totally blew me away. Made me feel enormously proud of the young man he's becoming. The training that has been poured into him his entire life is finally beginning to bear fruit in his life...the boy is growing up!

Ahhhh....makes me hopeful that by the time he graduates, he will in fact be ready to be on his own!

:: :: :: ::

Perhaps the single most exciting thing for Jericho at the end of the school year was when he came home one afternoon saying that he'd been nominated for 8th Grade Court.

The court was to be announced at the dance that evening.

Obnoxious parents that we are, we took pictures of him going into the dance.

It was to be held in the outdoor commons area of the school due to the ASB having selected the theme as "Under the Stars".

I decided that this distance shot simply wasn't going to cut it for scrapbooking and blog purposes, so I asked Jeff if he could go inside and get a close up.

This was the best we got.

Jericho apparently didn't want his dad following him around. I'm pretty sure the kid on the right is saying, "Hey...no parents or teachers allowed!" haha.

Jericho DID make court, too, but to his dismay it wasn't for King.

He did, however, get an overwhelming number of votes for Court Jester.

Perhaps he should have capitalized more on being a gentleman and less on being class clown, haha.

Tales Of A Rambunctious Almost-Kindergartener

2011-06-08T08:34:00.000-07:00

I bought a little doll house hutch at Michaels several months ago with a particular wall-hanging idea in mind for my craft room.

However, like many of my 'projects', there are usually a few stages to the process, and this one needs a coat of primer as it's first step.

While I was working on my entries for the fair this year earlier this Spring, Judah would keep me company in my craft room which was where he first discovered that little hutch, and for weeks afterward I would find it in various places throughout the house, Judah having incorporated it into his play.

After rearranging my hutch for Easter, for instance, I turned around and found this, and upon closer inspection, I learned why

Apparently hutches make really great manly cases for guns and ammo.

:: :: :: ::

Judah has observed things around here for long enough to know that if I need to remember something really important, I stick a post-it note reminder somewhere I know I'll see it first thing in the morning.

Bright pink and green post-its can be found around my house at any given time with reminders or notes from Jeff, usually on my fridge, my bathroom mirror or my desk.

And recently, after asking me what they all said, I found this attached to my desk.

Awww... a love note from Judah.

Not sure what it says, exactly...as he's only just gotten a handle on writing his name and all the letters of the alphabet, but it was the thought that counts.

I sure do love that boy.

:: :: :: ::

Jeff's oldest brother-in-law has been living in a Veteran's home for the past couple of years. He has had kidney failure for many years, and requires routine dialysis and other careful monitoring of his health.

Recently, he was moved to the hospital due to a serious blood infection that nearly did him in. Being on dialysis puts a person in a high risk category for these things, and there have been several occasions in which we've nearly lost him, but by God's grace he's pulled through.

Last month, I had just returned from a weekend getaway with my college roomies when we learned from Jeff's sister that he was in a coma.

She was sick and dealing with some serious health issues of her own, and unable to get any clear answers to her many questions from the overworked staff there, so we offered to go to the hospital on her behalf to get a better picture of what was going on and to pray over him while we were there.

We arrived at the hospital in a rather somber state, thinking it might be the very last time we saw him. To our absolute astonishment, he could be heard talking to one of the nurses as we walked down the hallway towards his room, having just come out of the coma. He was still very ill, but once again the Lord had spared his life.

After our visit, we walked through the beautifully landscaped grounds around the hospital to where we'd parked our truck.

Our desert-dwelling sons were enthralled by the bunnies as well as the ducks and geese which could be seen meandering the green lawns.

We saw several mama geese with their little rows of goslings swimming in the various ponds we passed, as well as a duck with her fuzzy little ducklings in tow. So cute.

This was a photo I took on my cell phone, trying to capture this scene, where the mother goose had just gotten up off her nest (by the pipe works on the left) for a bite to eat.

As Jeff and I stood marveling at our brother-in-law's recovery, the kids were gazing at all the wildlife in this serene environment, and Judah suddenly darted off across the lawn in pursuit of the goose. Usually they just run from him, and he enjoys the thrill of the chase.

But this time, just as I was about to warn him, "Careful, they'll bite!" he gained on the unsuspecting creature and managed to grab it from behind!

Funniest thing ever!

I tell you, I just never know what that kid is going to do.

I think he was just as surprised as the goose, who suddenly arched it's neck around trying to defend itself, and Judah dropped it and quickly retreated.

It skedaddled off in the opposite direction, incensed.

I only wish I could have captured a picture of what happened next, and the expression that crossed Judah's face when the male goose began to chase him, head bent low, hissing and flapping it's wings at him.

We've never seen Judah's little legs move so fast...nor the look that passed over his face as he glanced over shoulder while running to see if it was gaining on him.

Jericho, too, was forced to run, though he was laughing his head off the entire way.

Boy did we get a good laugh out of that!

:: :: :: ::

Recently, we had to take our boy in for his pre-K physical, after which we had to get the rest of his paperwork into the school for registration.

My husband, who is a Middle School teacher, has a long-running tradition in which he cuts his hair into some crazy style for the last day of school. This is always shaved off before Church the following Sunday.

When Judah learned Jeff's haircut was to be a mohawk, he begged to get one, too.

I agreed, only if he would get it shaved off before Sunday as well.

However, we were invited to a birthday party at the home of one of Jeff's best high school buddies, and Jeff wanted Judah to keep his mohawk just until then so his friend could see it.

Which meant two weeks of church services in which Judah sported that hideous haircut. **cringes**

As a mom, I've always tried to stress with my boys from an early age that they will be taken more seriously, look more respectable and, when older, be much more employable if they are clean-cut.

Mohawks totally go against my grain.

Anyway, he was also sporting this same haircut on the day we went to the doctor, along with a host of scratches from our puppy and scabbed over knees and elbows because of his newish bike.

I felt like his newly assigned doctor, who we'd never seen before, would get a rather inaccurate first impression of him as some little thug-ruffian, and stressed on the way there that he needed to be very polite and answer all the doctor's questions.

Unfortunately, he'd not been anticipating having to undress and put on the hospital gown, and that immediately got his nose out of joint (figuratively speaking, anyway).

He was particularly mad that I had to tie a bow in the back.

"I look like a GIRL with that dumb bow!" Clearly not a happy camper.

I knew then it would probably be a good idea if I just kept to myself the fact that his Star Wars underwear were peeking out the back of the gown.

The hairstyle was already a strike against him as far as first impressions go. We didn't need a meltdown to go along with it.

Later, as we turned in all his registration paperwork, he could barely contain his excitement when the lady in the office said, "Well, Judah, you are now officially a Kindergartener!"

Once again, however, his disposition changed when he learned it would be weeks before school started.

**sigh**

At least he's excited about starting school.

He's just sure it's going to be all fun and games, because big brother 'gets' to go, and he's just sure he's been missing out all this time.

And for now, I think we're just gonna roll with that.

:: :: :: ::

I know it's probably hard to believe (after some of the stories I've recounted about Judah here) that Judah is usually a polite, obedient and well-behaved kid. Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but he makes friends everywhere he goes, gets along well with others, and I often get compliments for his good behavior and his manners in public.

It's taken a lot of training to get him to this point, and of course there are still the occasional times in which he throws caution to the wind and does crazy stuff out of the blue, but for the most part he's a well-behaved, if rambunctious, little boy.

Nevertheless, to keep things real, I'm recounting for posterity the following tale:

We've been having a little problem around here lately with Judah taking things that don't belong to him.

His grandma's old cell phone which had been recently replaced with an upgrade (which I didn't recognize and thought he'd stolen from one of the youth group kids recently at our home for a party) was recently found stashed under his bed, along with a bunch of coveted Lego sets and Star Wars figurines which Judah had gone pillaging through his brother's bedroom for while big brother was gone to football practice.

He'd been disciplined repeatedly for this behavior and we thought we had a handle on it up until this latest incident.

Yesterday he came up to me and asked, "So when do I have to apologize to grandma for stealing the cell phone from her?" This was one of the terms of his discipline, along with grandma's enlistment to read him the riot act when he does.

I replied gravely, "Probably tonight. You do know, she's going to be veeeeerrry disappointed that you stole from her. Daddy and I are very disappointed that you stole from her... and from your brother. Stealing is a SIN, Judah. Sins are what put Jesus on the cross. It makes us very sad that you continue to steal and sin when you know that it's wrong."

Of course I said all these things with a grave tone to my voice, and he was squirming and avoiding eye contact, switching from foot to foot as he stood in the kitchen where the conversation took place.

This may sound overly harsh to some, but I was doing my best to use the opportunity to put things at his level of understanding, and incorporating in some other things he'd been learning recently from the Bible and Character training stories we read to him at night.

Instead of being repentant, however, he tried to use the feeble defense, "People do it."

To which I replied very soberly, "Stealing is a very bad thing to do. And just because other people do it doesn't mean it's okay for you to. Any which way you try and look at it, stealing is a sin!"

Then, I dug out the old tried and true reasoning of generations of parents in my family, "If everybody ran and jumped off a really high bridge would YOU do it?"

I mistakenly assumed this would bring to mind the big bridge we'd seen from the freeway a couple of days before and marveled at how high it was and that it had to have a high fence along both sides because if a person fell off, they'd die.

However, my question had the opposite effect. It stopped him dead in his tracks and his eyes jerked back to mine, "Wait...is jumping off a bridge a sin?"

Epic parenting fail.

I suppose I should have used "cliff" or the "Empire State building" instead, especially so close on the heels of yet another exchange Judah recently had with Jeff:

"What is it called when you tie the rope around your feet and jump off a bridge?"

In an effort to avert catastrophe, Jeff replied, "It's not a rope they use...it's a special kind of stretchy cord...and it's called Bungee jumping."

**Spoken in breathless excitement** "I wanna go bungee jumping...and grab the soda out of the river."

You may recognize this gem of an idea from a soda commercial on TV in recent months.

Marketing agencies and companies, in their bid to incorporate 'extreme' stuff into their commercials to make them extra appealing and 'cool' to the younger generation have no idea what mothers of impressionable 5 year old boys like mine suffer as a result!

I believe Judah files all these ideas away as things he's going to try the moment his mom turns her back. (In fact, I'm thinking that I should probably go gather up all the accessible bungee cords I've seen in the garage and the one used to hold the BBQ cover in place just as a precaution...)

Trying to head off at the pass any of Judah's harebrained ideas, Jeff replied, "No-noo-noo...that's not a good idea."

"Why? It's too dangerous for kids my size?"

Jeff nodded. "It's even too dangerous for me."

With a gleam in his eyes he said, "I can't WAIT to do it when I get big!"

This kind of thing strikes fear into my heart, especially when my sweet, adorable little 5 year old, who it seems was just a baby in my arms last week, informs us with that same gleam in his eyes after the Osama capture, "I wanna be a Navy Seal."

I knew it! I knew his fearlessness and all his daredevil antics were leading up to something like this.

Pray for me.

Puppy Love

2011-06-06T10:14:00.000-07:00

So a couple of weeks before Easter, we took Judah out to our friends little hobby farm in a neighboring rural community to 'see their animals'. Their kids are in 4H and they have pigs, goats, horses, chickens, dogs and cats.

Such a thing is always a treat for little Judah, as ~~mama isn't ready~~ we aren't yet set up for our own goats and chickens.

What Judah didn't pick up on right away was that this was really a covert mission for him to select his very own puppy from their almost-ready litter. He has been yearning for his very own puppy for ages.

I regret to say I have no pictures of that day, as my trusty, seven year old camera was on the fritz.

The mama dog is a papered, purebred Golden retriever whose owners had high hopes of breeding her next year and selling the puppies.

Unfortunately, the gate was left open one night, and half of the puppies in her littler bear a striking resemblance to a neighbors black lab.

It mattered not to us. They were all roly-poly, cuddly and adorable, and in the end, one of the pups chose Judah.

Here is our adorable little puppy Ticker.

Judah named her all by himself, saying, "Don't 'ticker' off or she'll bite ya!"

Just his kind of pup, apparently.

She can take it just as well as she can dish it out. Judah has got scratches all over his arms and legs to prove it (though he is known for using every possible excuse to get to wear a band-aid).

Ticker is an adorable but wily little thing, sneaking indoors at every opportunity.

Her cuteness is in her favor, because after my bulb bed was decimated, the tops strewn about the back patio like discarded green onions...well, Ticker really ticked ME off.

She has since buried and unburied the remaining few bulbs a half-dozen times, each time coming to the back porch looking very dusty and oh-so-guilty.

It's really hard to discipline and train such a cute little thing.

The day after the decimation of my bulb bed and her subsequent trampling to death of all the bean sprouts and young squash plants in another of my garden beds, I was seriously reconsidering the whole idea of puppy ownership.

Wouldn't you know that was the very morning that Judah's Sunday School teacher told Jeff she was glad to hear Judah had finally gotten a puppy of his own. Apparently that had been our boy's heartfelt prayer request each week for months.

The choice was clear...we simply HAD to keep her.

She continues to dig up the backyard, has chewed the basketwork off the leg of one of my wicker chairs out back, gives Raisin a real run for her money and consistently attempts to play tug-of-war with any loose article of clothing on anyone entering the backyard. I had forgotten all about the damage that a puppy's milk teeth will do to kids clothing.

But then, I see my boy holding his beloved puppy and my heart melts into a puddle.

And I find myself crooning, "Oh, my little Ticker-Wicker-Woo" (a name that stuck long before she began teething on my wicker chairs) to her all over again, all her past offenses forgiven.

It probably helps that when the boy 'sneaks' her inside, she always finds her way to me.

Isn't that how it always is? The one member of the family that wasn't keen on the whole idea of a new puppy to begin with, and she makes it her mission to win me over?

Napping under my desk

or on my foot

or in my hands

She's pretty much wriggled her way into all our hearts.

Well, except for our older dog Raisin.

"You have usurped my throne...you will pay!"

It's not all sunshine and roses around here.

In fact, the advent of a new puppy has resulted in some rather strange behavior from Raisin.

In an apparent bid to be as endearing as possible, the old girl has suddenly reverted back to puppy-like antics, gnawing on every puppy toy or bone she finds, frolicking in the yard, and racing for the glass sliding door every time it's opened lest she miss out on some offered treat.

When she thinks we're not looking or listening, she also growls possessively when the back door opens, as though to say, "Get away, Ticker...they were my people first!"

It's shameful, really, to see such overtly jealous behavior in a dog of her years and supposed maturity.

Being 49 (in dog years), we had recently begun giving her a Glucosamine Chondroiton supplement to help with the stiffness she seemed to have after sleeping curled up all night in her dog house. We even went so far as to bring her indoors on nights when the desert temperatures dipped into the teens over the winter.

Judging by all the exercise Raisin has been getting since the puppy joined our family, I'm beginning to suspect that either the supplements have worked a miracle or the 'arthritis' was all a big ploy from day one.

I am such a sucker!

Little Ticker, sensing Raisin's disdain of her, has turned her cute puppy charm on the old girl and I believe has finally begun to wear her down.

Begrudgingly, but they're sharing nonetheless.

It's a start, I suppose.

Lately...

2011-04-09T20:40:00.000-07:00

So over our Spring Break, we took advantage of a trade in deal on bikes through a large toy retailer to get Judah his very first big boy bike.

The little toddler-sized bike he had before was still in great shape, and got us $20 off of this beauty. Not a bad deal considering I got his previous bike for only $10 from a thrift store!

:: :: :: ::

On the first really warm day of Spring this year, I gleefully opened the windows to air out the house, reveling in the wonderful Spring air and the bird songs pouring in from outdoors.

While opening the windows, I'd absently noticed that Jeff and Jericho had forgotten to close the gate when they left for school.

I didn't think anything of it until I passed through the living room later that afternoon...and about had a heart attack when I saw this guy leering in my window.

Then I laughed myself silly upon realizing it was just a very strange shadow cast by the awning on our porch swing.

And speaking of Spring...the bulbs I planted two years ago finally decided to come up. Apparently they experienced a freezing period sufficient to prompt their blooms.

The tulips are a beautiful color, but have the shortest stems I've ever seen...literally, maybe 3 or 4 inches from the ground to the flower.

Guess that's what I get for buying castoff bulbs from the dollar store.

A recent, heavy rainfall caused our previously barren desert backyard to suddenly spring forth with life...almost overnight it was knee-high with wildflowers, wild grasses and ladybugs.

Jeff maintains that it was his expert pruning earlier in the season that was responsible for the bumper crop of almonds growing on our fledgling tree.

Because the late Spring rain and the wonderful spate of warm weather just as the tree budded couldn't possibly have had anything at all to do with it.

Last year, we harvest 12 almonds. This year...many. Well, providing the ravens don't get to them first.

My favorite sign of Spring, however, (aside from the hot pink blooms on our Red Baron peach tree that is) are these gorgeous little wildflowers that coil up out of the desert sand and somehow manage to thrive in this harsh climate.

I've heard of them being called everything from Triplet Lily to Queen Fabiola and from Wild Hyacinth to Blue Dicks, but they're formally known as Brodiaea laxa. Photos don't do them justice, making them appear more purple or lavender, but in person in my backyard, they are an absolutely gorgeous shade of periwinkle blue.

I know they grow from little bulbs. I wonder if they would survive my digging them up and replanting them all in one flowerbed?

Awww, scratch that. Perhaps what I like most about them is that our little Judah is always first to spot them growing in the yard and lovingly rushes into the house to present me with a big bouquet of them.

:: :: :: ::

This was a rather ominous looking sky we woke up to a few mornings ago. It had been in the high 80's for a couple of days, then the temperature dropped suddenly, and we woke to frost on the roof that morning. Straaaange weather for April.

:: :: :: ::

My brother in law Butch requested our entire extended family get together at his house for his birthday this year.

He lives near Los Angeles, CA where a person can grow just about anything.

These are the gorgeous blooms one one of the large aloe plants in his back yard.

That citron yellow color is fast growing on me.

Later, uncle Butch was demonstrating with yogurt covered bunny treats how his pet rabbit Hopper will eat right out of your hand.

I was unable to get a picture of that, as the rabbit was a bit skittish around Judah. A sentiment shared by most of the pets among our friends and family, haha.

I did, however, capture a picture of his dog Jumpy and his rabbit, who live in perfect harmony together in his back yard while he and his wife are at work.

Hopper and Jumpy.

The lion and the lamb.

Their getting along so well is of utmost importance, because it was the condition my brother-in-law had set down if he was to keep the dog.

Which happened to be the same little dog we'd rescued from certain death a couple of years ago when our next door neighbors moved out overnight and left the poor thing to die.

Look at little Jumpy now...happy and healthy as can be. I do believe he is smiling!

This is Hopper.

Hopper was cowering next to the wall not because Judah was harassing him or because he was leery of all the people that were suddenly meandering through his normally quiet, serene backyard...but because of the shriek emitted when he bit our niece.

The die-hard, college-aged, animal-loving vegetarian niece.

Apparently Hopper didn't get the memo that she's on his side, haha.

:: :: :: ::

On a school night earlier this week, we made a long trip to Jeff's old stomping grounds.

Destination Joe's Pizza in Moreno Valley, California.

Back in the day, this place was to Jeff and his buddies like "The Max" was to Slater, Screech, Zack and the gang.

Jeff, Don and Eric. The Three Amigos.

Back in the day, Jeff did wear his hair like Slater.

Or so he's been told.

At Joe's Pizza, Judah and Jericho sat next to Don's wife Christine who doesn't look a day older than the day she and Don married.

She is also my age but has not yet had to dye her hair, and routinely donates long thick pony tails to Locks of Love. Sooooooo not fair!

I tried to console myself with the fact that their son (who was on a school outing with his grandfather that evening) was a calm, more docile child than the daredevil type that Judah is, and that was why she had not sprouted a single gray hair to date.

It didn't work.

I sat beside their two daughters, the eldest of which is going to graduate in the Spring.

I don't want to embarrass him, but a certain adolescent in my family agreed wholeheartedly with my comments in the car on the way home about what beautiful girls they were inside and out.

Especially the one on the right, who, as he said, "Had beautiful yellow-brown eyes and a beautiful smile." Oh, dear.

And she does. As does her sister. Sweethearts, both of them.

It's just really hard to wrap my mind around the fact that the girl on the left was just weeks from being born at Jeff's and my wedding. Wowza...how did THAT happen?

There was much reminiscing and guffawing coming from this particular table. These guys have a loooong, hilarious history together.

The following was the only non-blurry snapshot of Eric's entire family (sorry, Monique).

Amazing how fast their kiddos have grown up.

They are also some of the sweetest, best-behaved children I've ever seen, conversing quietly with those around them at the table. They didn't dance on chairs or nearly knock over a waitress with a full tray of drinks or anything. And their little girl can sing like an angel.

Judah seemed rather neanderthal in comparison.

We were excited to learn that they had been looking at homes while visiting her folks, with an eye on relocating back to the area from their current home back East.

It's easy to envision many more such gatherings in the future.

:: :: :: ::

Today, my dear friend Chrissy and I took a little road trip to beautiful Camarillo, California to visit our friend Cecilia for a (belated) 50th birthday celebration. Inclement weather a few weeks back prevented our being able to be at her actual birthday party, so today was our make-up day.

We had a fantastic time catching up and hearing about all the wonderful things that the Lord has been doing in our friend's life lately. The birthday girl has had some difficult 'storms' in her life these past few years, but I must say has weathered them beautifully, the Lord blessing her for her faithfulness.

After visiting with her, I couldn't help but to think of the scripture passage from Psalm 16:5-8,
"LORD, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the LORD. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken."

It was a wonderful day, with wonderful friends, blessed by a Wonderful Lord.

A Perfect Day

2011-03-24T08:29:00.000-07:00

Our 2nd day of Staycation began with a picnic to the L.A. Arboretum.

When we arrived it was nearly lunchtime, and Jeff had packed one of his amazing picnics for us, and we sat on a picnic table overlooking a beautiful, pristine, hedge-trimmed expanse of lawn. The perfect location for a picnic.

We had planned on spending the entire day touring the grounds, but it was spitting rain and there weren't enough people visiting the place to warrant the guided tram tour around the 127 acres.

Instead, we shopped the Arboretum's awesome garden store and spent our entrance fees on some hard to find heirloom seeds and also some organic heirloom tomato starts which already had flowers on them ready to bloom. Score!

My lovelies...

Here's hoping I manage to keep them all alive, because we've got several interesting varieties in there which I hope to see to fruition...including striped, ruffled and a creamy white colored tomato!

There was also a small portion of the arboretum around the garden shop which we were free to explore. My boys had never seen how bananas were grown before

And then these beautiful plants

They were a deep indigo blue color (the photo does not do the color justice) and smelled wonderful. Anyone know what they are?

Then, there were some of my favorites

There were several gorgeous rhododendron and azalea specimens around, but this was the only photo I got because ~~Judah was making the peacocks really nervous~~ Kodak moments where happening nearby

He was a beautiful fowl, as was his much plainer though still lovely counterpart, the peahen.

I had to laugh, because Jericho was narrating this peacock behavior

with such comments as, "Heeeeey, ladies...check. me. out!"

Alas, in spite of the peacocks best efforts, the nearby peahens seemed largely unimpressed

The males of the species come by their name rightly with their cockiness and strutting their stuff, but one had to admit...he was a beaut.

I love the blue glitter on his head. And that color of blue...fabulous!

We plan to return on a gorgeous, warm day and explore the entire place.

There is a Queen Anne cottage on the property that I would love to see, as well as a lake and large separate garden areas that include native Australian plants, as well as species native to Asia and Africa.

My kind of fun.

Though perhaps I'll be nice and ask for that for Mother's Day so my kids won't whine about 'having' to get dragged around the place on a regular family outing, haha.

After taking our purchases to the truck, our boys again spied that gorgeous expanse of lawn and, starved for green desert-dwellers that they are, couldn't resist taking a run on it.

Run, Forrest, Run!

Daddy even obliged by giving Judah 'rides' on the lawn.

Which...didn't work quite so well for Jericho.

Though his dad is a strong man, this feat is much harder to accomplish now that Jericho is officially taller than his mother.

There were numerous Birds of Paradise flowerbeds about the property.

Which begs the question...which type of birds are we talking?

or

??

After the Arboretum, we stopped off in Pasadena for some antiquing and thrift store browsing. They had a gorgeous selection of art and antiques in the mall we went to, but the prices were astronomical, being a high-dollar city area and all.

We instead went to the city of Citrus, and we actually came within a block of IKEA, but wonder of wonders, I declined Jeff's offer to stop. I know that place is as boring as the fabric store to my guys.

Instead, I poked around in some antique stores in the old town area while the boys went to a soda fountain and played in a park in the rain.

Later, we stopped off at a huge Salvation Army thrift store there, and Jeff and the boys went in there with me to look for snow gloves for our trip to the mountains later this week.

No luck on finding gloves, but as Jeff walked down an aisle in the dishware section of the store, he saw something white that looked a lot like the milk glass I have on my hutch, picked it up and asked, "Is this that stuff you like?"

It was exactly like the milk glass platter I got a while back...except for only $6.99! What a steal!

You da man, Jeff!

Having scored the best deal of the day, I also think he might finally understand the thrill of the hunt, as well.

Hopefully this means more stops at thrift stores in other communities. **big Cheshire grin**

We're On Staycation!!

2011-03-22T08:37:00.000-07:00

Rarely does everything align as it has this week: plenty of time off, no other commitments to have to stick around for, vacation money set aside...we were soooo excited to get away for a week of camping and hiking just the four of us.

Then our lovely springy weather from last week disappeared as winter made a comeback.

Gale force winds and lots of driving rain (almost snow) and bone-chilling cold.

There went the camping plans.

And our back-up plans up plans to the beach and the mountains.

We decided instead to take a series of day trips instead.

So, after a restful day of making plans on Monday, we went out that evening to see an impromptu movie. All of us.

It was awesome.

We saw Tangled in 3D. Even our teenage son enjoyed it.

Then Tuesday, we rose early and headed for Universal Studios, Hollywood.

Poor Judah couldn't ride on half of the rides there being such a short stuff, so he got his face painted instead.

Most memorable throughout the day was the House of Horrors...where characters from various Universal Studios horror flicks jump out at you while you're wending your way through the exhibit.

Jericho reported that the lady behind him grabbed him a couple of times so great was her fear.

Jeff said I was hanging onto his backpack and shrieking the entire time, and that the workers probably got the signal over their earphones, "Screamer in the white shirt!"

Believe it or not, poor little Judah was terrified. We didn't see the sign until afterward that it could be too scary for kids under 12. Bad parents!

It amazes me that in spite of the fact that the scary scenes from movies of 50 years ago don't affect today's children in light of all the high-tech, much more realistic special effects that they have in the movies nowdays...yet it is still so freaky to walk through a low-tech haunted house and have scary characters jump out at you...or to have an actor dressed like Norman Bates run towards your tram with a knife.

Judah did lean back a bit when Jaws rushed up out of the water towards our tour tram

but had no problem whatsoever with climbing inside the sharks mouth afterward.

It almost looks as though he's being spit back out, haha.

I never can get a serious photo of big brother, however.

:: :: :: ::

Day 2 of our Staycation is wide-open. We'd planned on the Arboretum near Pasadena, but the weather in that area is supposed to be rainy today.

Guess we'll be spontaneous and go anyway, and if we find it too miserable, we'll find something else to do in that area. There is always IKEA...

:: :: :: ::

On Monday, while driving around town, we saw a coyote on the loose. In our city. 5 minutes from the nearest WallyWorld.

We speculated that with all the recent rains, perhaps it's home got washed out or something. It looked kind of desperate and hungry.

Judah pipes up from the back seat, "Would a coyote bite a little boy?"

"They've been known to attack and even kill little kids."

"It wouldn't get me! I would do push-ups and sit-ups and then knock down a tree and use it to hit the coyote and kill it!"

What an elaborate and time consuming scenario, my son. Hahahaha!

:: :: :: ::

Jeff recently shaved off his goatee to begin fresh and new.

Judah saw him in the hallway and came to a screeching halt and stared.

Later that afternoon, when Jeff picked him up as usual, Judah grabbed both his cheeks with his hands and asked in an earnest voice, "Are you sure you're the same dad I always had?"

To which Jeff responded, "What? Why would you even ask that?"

"Because you're not the dad with the goatee that I remembered."

:: :: :: ::

We've been letting our outdoor dog in on cold nights as she's getting old and starting to show signs of arthritis when the temperatures dip. Now she gets to sleep on a thick comfy pillow on the boys bathroom floor.

I swear, sometimes I see her shivering outside on mild days, totally faking it while trying to look as pitiful as possible hoping for an invitation indoors. I'm thinking she might have a little Chihuahua in her somewhere.

So anyway, the other night, Judah had to go in there to brush his teeth after our dog was settled in for the night.

Not long afterwards, big brother went in to brush his teeth as well. From our bedroom, we hear him yell, "Judah?! Did you put toothpaste on Raisin's back??" And worse, "Did you squeeze it straight out of the tube?"

Sometimes, Jeff and I just look at each other and shake our heads. What possesses that kid to do such things?

:: :: :: ::

We have a rule that if anyone in the family is sharing a bottle of water, you have to 'waterfall it' so that nobody's mouth touches the bottle.

I become a real stickler about this during cold and flu season, especially, but have found that it works quite well to prevent 'floaties' in the water after a certain small member of our household has eaten and decided he needs a drink. Aaaack.

So for some reason, Judah was mulling this over the other day and says, "Why do we call pouring the water 'waterfalling it'? Why?" (He has been adding this very persistent WHY? on the end of every question he's posed to us lately...and the questions are legion these days.)

So I explained to him how if the water falls into our mouths, it helps to prevent the sharing of germs.

"I want to go down a waterfall someday."

**curling up in fetal position** Lord, have mercy.

The Worst Cookbook Title EVER!

2011-03-14T11:14:00.000-07:00

How in the world did the folks at Scholastic and Disney let this title slip past their editors?

Recipe For A Nightmare

2011-03-07T21:22:00.000-08:00

Tonight, Judah was demonstrating with his toy suction-cup bow and arrow what knights (I'm assuming Medieval) used to do when they would "shoot em into the castle".

A little later, I heard him saying, "I need to get some fire on my arrows..."

Why do I suddenly feel like I should a.) destroy all household matches and b.) sleep with one eye open all night long?

Family Funnies

2011-03-03T11:00:00.000-08:00

Daddy has had Jury duty all week.

Of course Jeff can't talk about the trial, but that hasn't stopped little Judah from peppering me with tons of questions about where daddy's been all week.

His 5 year old understanding about our legal system was a bit sketchy, and all he knew was that police arrest the bad guys (and gals), and that somehow they go to this place called a court where somehow a judge is involved and that people can end up going to jail.

After fielding an unusual number of questions about trials and courts and judges and jails, I finally said to him, "If the jury determines that the person on trial did break the law, then the Judge will eventually say, "Guilty" and the person who broke the law will go to jail."

"How long do they have to be in jail?"

"Well, that depends on what the person did. For a speeding tickets, you usually just have to pay a fine at the courthouse and attend defensive driving school. But if you get caught drunk driving, you can go to jail for a long time and get your license taken away. If you do something really bad like kill another person, you can go to prison for years. Sometimes people even have to go to prison for the rest of their lives for what they've done. That's why it's so important to obey the law."

I looked in the rear-view mirror and Judah looked crestfallen. "But I don't want daddy to go to jail!"

"Daddy's not going to go to jail...he's a juror."

Poor kid...no wonder he had so many questions!

I suppose now would be a good time to dig out a movie with a legal trial in it to show him exactly what being a juror is all about, to allay his fears as to why his daddy was at that big place called the courthouse.

:: :: :: ::

You know your child was born in the 21st Century when they are snuggled beside you on the sofa while listening to their favorite storybook being read then suddenly jump up to go to the restroom and say, "Can you please pause the book until I get back?"

:: :: :: ::

Judah has begun a new phase of life...learning his letters and numbers.

He's also a budding artist.

If I do say so myself, he's getting quite good at both writing and drawing.

Unfortunately, I've been finding evidence of it all over the house.

And I do mean all over the house.

And occasionally, when he sneaks into mom's scrapbooking supplies, on himself.

Because that wasn't enough of a canvas for his work, he also opted to spread out onto one of daddy's Bible commentaries. He's very proud of his penmanship, even if his J's tend to end up upside down most of the time.

**note to self: hide all spray paint and sharpie markers, stat!**

:: :: :: ::

Last Sunday morning, on the way out to the car for church, I overheard Jeff commending Judah for being fully prepared for the service, having remembered his Bible and everything.

Not seeing a Bible in Judah's hands, I wondered what Jeff meant, until I heard Judah mention, "It fits in my pocket."

Judah long ago lost his little orange Gideon's Bible.

Upon further investigation, I discovered a darling little black pocket-sized Bible with shiny gold edges on the pages...which I recognized from the Youth Group room at church.

Yes. The church Youth Leader's son stole a Bible!

Aghast, I mentioned this to him, and he quickly replied (albeit a bit shamefacedly), "No...I borrowed it."

**shakes head in shame**

Perhaps a little refresher course on the 10 Commandments is in order?

:: :: :: ::

Judah has had a playmate over this week.

They have gotten along famously this boy's boy and a girly girl.

Instead of playing house, they play "Campeen". Using Judah's very own little shovel and rake, they take along a couple of stuffed animal dogs and their coats, and they set up various camps around the back yard.

It's kept them happy for hours out in the fresh air and sunshine.

It wasn't until they cracked open Judah's costume tub that we ran into a little snafu.

Having dual sets of both cowboy and knight costume sets left over from the days when big brother was a little guy and we watched Cousin K on a regular basis, the kids were happy to pretend for at least an hour.

But our darling little guest drew the line when they switched from "Cowboy" to "Knights", and in her charming little girly girl voice said, "Dis knight helmet messes up my haiow!"

This morning, they've been playing with bathtub toys in the bathroom sink and it's gotten awfully quiet all of a sudden.

I'd better go check on them as I don't need any repeats of the toilet water incident.

Silly Boy

2011-02-26T08:20:00.000-08:00

The other evening, we were driving home late from a day trip. The kids were wiped out in the back seat and Jeff and I were chatting about a situation we know of that has been heavy on our hearts recently.

In reply to something I'd brought up, he said, "That's like that passage that says, 'When your child asks for bread would you give him a Scorpion?'"

He couldn't remember the exact wording of the passage, but the principle was there, and was a perfect analogy for what we were discussing.

From the back seat, Judah says brightly, "I would like a scorpion! For a pet! Or a tarantula."

Oh, mercy.

Poor boy wants a pet of his own so badly.

Perhaps we'll need to be getting him a puppy sooner than we thought.

Somehow, caring for a puppy doesn't seem quite so bad in light of poisonous desert creatures living in our house. With us. With Judah as their caretaker and the ever present possibility of them escaping. Or inflicting injury on members of our household.

I wonder if we could talk him into a Pygmy goat?

Observations From The Back Pew

2011-02-20T18:40:00.000-08:00

When our youngest was a baby, we had grand intentions of keeping him in the church service routinely so that he would learn to be quiet and attentive and reverent from a young age and remain so throughout his childhood. "Train up a child" and all that.

It seemed to have worked quite well for big brother.

But since our second son's birth, things...haven't quite worked out that way.

Little brother has a completely different personality.

Where big brother was compliant and eager to please mom and dad, rarely ever getting into trouble in church, little brother simply can't sit still. If he's not talking far too loudly, he's exploring the territory, checking for gum beneath the pews, drawing on the backs of offering envelopes, loudly getting his offering money ready for the ushers to collect, playing with the short pencil or pulling out the little gold plastic stopper thing that holds the empty communion cups on the back of the pew.

I find myself constantly on alert, trying to anticipate his next move and hopefully avert disaster.

I shudder to think what this will translate to when he gets to Kindergarten.

Anyway, on Christmas Eve, our family was sitting in our usual spot on the aisle within steps of the back door of the sanctuary. The quicker we can escort our ~~distruptive~~ dear son out of the sanctuary, the better for everyone.

That particular night he was hopped up on sugar from a jumbo candy cane and who knows what other goodies had been in a little stocking a friend had given him just before the service but which I hadn't discovered until he was nearly through with it, foil wrappers and cellophane hanging out of the pockets of his Christmas slacks.

The poor, sugar-deprived boy works pretty quick when goodies are involved, because there is always the possibility that mom will intercept it and opt to put it in her purse and 'save it for later'.

At any given time, I have at least a couple of suckers and some hard candies rattling around in the bottom of my purse from these search and destroy type occasions. Yes, Judah dislikes that I do this, but this mom wants to control the sugar intake around here as much as possible because I loathe taking care of sick children and expensive dental visits.

So our Music Director got up and said, "In a few minutes, we're going to have someone turn out the lights for our candlelight carol sing...but first, our Pastor will come and share a few announcements."

Singing Carols is one of my favorite things to do at Christmas time. But as I tuned into what our Pastor was saying, I was kind of surprised to see the stage lights above him flicker off. Then on. Then the left bank of lights flipped off and on. Then the right.

Judah was no longer sitting with us in the pew. A quick glance to the light switches in the back of the sanctuary confirmed my suspicions. Yes, little brother had taken it upon himself to that 'someone' to turn out the lights. Only without having been asked to do so.

Talk about mortifying.

And yet oddly hilarity inducing.

I started to giggle silently. I tried to hold them back, but as I pondered over what might have possessed Judah to do such a thing, I ended up in a shoulder shaking silent laugh that I'm pretty sure was every bit as distracting as our boys antics.

By this time, Jeff had assessed the situation, grabbed him, returned the lights to their previous settings and was already back, little brother firmly wedged between us in the pews.

Then Jeff saw me trying not to laugh.

And then his shoulders began to shake, and we both went through that whole self-talk thing, Don't make eye contact...don't do it.

Failing miserably, we both ended up acting like a couple of misbehaving kids in church.

How could we possibly work up a good 'stern' face to discipline our son when we ourselves were acting up in church?

Anyway, all that to say how happy I was when little brother was invited to go with the elementary aged kids to Children's Church even though he's not yet a Kindergartner. Though I had my suspicions at first that she'd been asked by the powers that be to please, please take him out, we were pleased to hear week after week since that he's done very well in class.

Win-Win, I say. We get to hear a sermon--in it's entirety--without distraction and he gets to hear a Bible lesson in a place where it doesn't matter if he's got the wiggles. WooHOO!

So last evening, Jeff got a call asking if he could fill in for the Children's Church leader as she was moving to a new house this weekend.

This morning, we found ourselves waaaay out of our comfort zone, teaching little kids and singing every single Sunday School song that has motions to it during the course of the morning.

Just a quick aside: If you have small children and haven't worked with them in a classroom setting before, you might want to give it a whirl just once, because otherwise you have NO IDEA the kinds of information they unwittingly reveal to their teachers about your family.

Stories that for whatever reason are indelibly marked upon their brains are blurted out during the course of the class to the wide-eyed shock of their teachers.

After listening to a couple of sisters tell just such a story, which painted a very vivid picture about their household, I sat back feeling pretty confident that thus far, my boys hadn't ever been so... indiscreet. Started patting myself on the back for it, actually. In fact, I believe I may have actually got a little sanctimonious and proud.

Maybe you can see where this is going? That whole pride goeth before a fall thing?

Well, it all started when Jeff told about the 10 Lepers that were healed by Jesus, but only one returned to thank Him for it.

Jeff asked if any of the children knew what leprosy was. There was a hum of speculation and one very bright little girl raised her hand and said, "A skin disease that is very contagious."

"Very good!" Jeff replied. "In fact, it was so contagious that people who had it were kicked out of their homes and even their villages or cities, and had to live far away from other people because they were considered 'unclean'."

He went on to talk about how it was a "dread disease. It was incurable. Nobody wanted to catch it. It began with spots of discolored skin, which would then become somewhat gangrenous and gross and which would result in large, horrible, smelly sores which would eventually deaden nerve endings and could cause fingers to fall off."

Unexpectedly, Judah pipes up and says for everyone to hear, "Oh...like what my mom has!"

Say WHAT???

Being that I haven't had so much as a band-aid on my fingers in the last year I was mystified as to what would give him that idea.

As we laughingly discussed it on the way home, I thought perhaps Judah was referring to the 'Science Project incident' in which my thumbs were lacerated by a broken Christmas bulb.

Then Jeff reminded me that maybe it was the time I'd contracted ringworm from a friend's cat.

The time I may have overreacted just a tad because I knew how contagious and hard to get rid of that stuff was, and didn't want anyone in my family to get it.

Perhaps Judah had just picked up on the contagious part.

Incidentally, nothing works better for ringworm than lavender essential oil rubbed into the area and allowed to dry, then liquid bandages (in the nail polish type bottle) painted over the area and worn for 3-5 days until it smothers the ringworm to death.

Believe me...in the two weeks before I finally hit on that remedy, I tried everything from tea-tree oil on down to wasabi powdered horseradish...the latter of which about burned off the top three layers off my skin.

Anyway, after discussing this with little brother, we're pretty sure that's what he was referring to. Although there is a HUGE difference between ringworm and leprosy.

Oy, I cringe thinking about the kinds of word pictures our son has routinely painted about our family in the few short weeks he's been in that class.

It just doesn't get much worse than insinuating that your mom has leprosy!