Together

Tonight I have been perusing old family photos. So much nostalgia. Even though I grew up with twelve siblings, I had no idea that our family wasn't normal. We did all of the normal things. We laughed. We bickered. We invaded each other's lives. We respected our parents. We had fun. Thank the Lord for pictures to bring back the memories. I had forgotten some of the things that made my family close. The pictures show it all. One thing I noticed - we did things together. And I believe it made my family strong. Better than normal? I think so.

Occasionally working together.

Learning from the best.

Praying together.

Traveling together.

Playing together.

Night-time excitement

I psychoanalyzed the creep who knocked on our door last night. I guess I don't know that he is a creep but he scared me, so that is what I am going to call him. This is what I decided he was thinking:

1. Saw woman who upset me somewhere near this building.
2. There is a light on in that apartment, ergo she must be in there.
3. I will carry my beer with me as intimidation as I knock loudly on this door at 1:30 am.
4. I decide my beer was no longer intimidating since they didn't answer the door, so I will set it down as I figure out how to climb the side of the house and peep in the window.
5. Aha, someone is looking at me. Now I must go back to the door and knock loudly again.
6. My strong cigarette odor must also be intimidating. I will use that as a weapon.
7. Sleepy woman on the couch is not who I am looking for, so I will go now, unapologetic.

Psychology of me after being thoroughly scared: I have no idea how to use my new phone to call 9-1-1, but I can assuredly figure out how to use my new facebook app to share my freak-out moment with the world. It provides comfort.

Cameron tells me that I will have everyone thinking we live in a horrible neighborhood. We don't really. I am just looking forward to living on our property where the only thing knocking on our door in the middle of the night should be a deer. The house cannot be done soon enough for me!

Veterans Day

I would like to tell you about two very brave, selfless men who changed my life in many ways. These men were both in the military, although in different branches, and both were set to serve their country in WWII. Thankfully, that dreadful war ended before they could be a part. However, both men experienced things I cannot even imagine in their service. I can only remember one of them, but he was a no-nonsense man who was firm but oh-so-kind. Both stood strong while still passing on the genes that cause me to get choked up at hearing the Star Spangled Banner being played over the radio. Happy Veterans Day to my grandfathers; to my grandmothers who stood by their men; to the men who have fought and are still fighting to preserve our freedom and to the families who wait for them at home. You have my thanks and admiration.

One o'them kinda days

A serious event happened in my life today and it caused me to learn many things about the milk of human kindness.

These are my shoes. They are on the floor at work. You are surely wondering how they got there. On my feet of course! Yes. I got up, got dressed and had been at work for an hour when I noticed this unfortunate circumstance. You know what I found out?

1. I always thought having your eyes open while dressing helped. It doesn't.

2. People didn't notice! I had no time to come home until now, and so I ran around town doing errands like this. I think one guy maybe saw. And he's male so there is a good chance that he was just looking at my feet because he has a weird foot fetish and didn't notice the shoes at all.

3. People not noticing made me wonder: Did they really not notice? Or did they choose not to say anything? And does this make them polite or mean? Is it the polite thing to notice that someone really hasn't gotten their act together and ignore it, or to pull them aside and kindly let them know that they really have issues? (Or at least wardrobe issues?!)

4. Cameron went hunting. Apparently that means that I immediately fall to pieces. Told you I needed a support group.

5. I was kind of hoping that by running around town with mismatched shoes, someone would think I was poor and offer to buy me a new pair of shoes. No such luck.

Ladies, here's my advice: Cute shoes (or even matching ones!) apparently don't matter. Don't let that keep you from buying them anyway, though. Mismatched shoes cause backaches, so you may as well have CUTE matching ones!

A good weekend to you all!

How to get an ulcer in FIVE EASY STEPS!

1. Pick out a the cheapest kind of shingles you can.
2. Find out that when they talk about shingles costing $65.00 a square, that means 100 square feet.
3. Wake up on Saturday morning, and while laying in bed with a sleep fogged brain, try to guess what the square footage of your roof is. Multiply that by $65.00 and freak out when your phone says your roof is going to cost $15,600.00. Especially freak when you remember that number is NOT in the budget.
4. Go to see your husband at your property where he has been working on the house.
5. Listen as said husband tells you that the roof on the house is too huge and so we are hiring a crew to roof it.

See, it's easy! You can do it too.

Tune in for my next post on how to get rid of an ulcer in one easy step. Ok, nevermind, I'll tell you now. Talk to your husband about the roof cost, and let him tell you that you have not moved the decimal properly. You guys do the math (I was guessing 2400 sq ft). Trust me, it's a WHOLE lot nicer than what I first figured out.

PS - I said I would praise God from the rooftops for the price being less than I thought it was going to be. And then I amended it to our attic. Now I'm amending it again. I'm praising Him from my blog. What a relief to know that things aren't as expensive as I thought!

Thankful.

Yesterday a friend put something on Facebook that made me think. She had seen on a friend's status the question, "What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday?" It had caused her to stop and thank God and it stopped me as well. Several of the lessons at church lately have been on the necessity of thanks, bringing out the scripture that links unthankfulness with being unholy and a whole heap of other bad things. I can tell you, I didn't tell God thanks yesterday for a LOT of the things that I woke up with this morning. The health to get up with my husband at a dark hour, to have the food to feed him and my male in-laws before they went hunting. A husband that is always thanking me for the things that he could easily take for granted: doing his laundry, the dishes, grocery shopping. He always notices when I have cleaned, and tells me the house looks nice, even if I have only vacummed. (I love being able to brag on my man!) A country where I am free, a God who loves me, an enormous amount of family who accept me exactly as I am, friends who listen when I obsess over strange things and tell me to breathe, family who also happen to be friends, a job that gives me something to do during the day as well as being a good environment in which to work. Sunshine. Oh how I am thankful for sunshine. I know we don't have much of it left and I try to be careful to thank God for that enormous blessing.

Something else HUGE that has been making my heart sing lately: I wrote a post a while back about Cameron's uncle who has Lyme's disease. This sweet man has suffered for 8 years with this awful disease. Just over 5 weeks ago, he was unable to eat most things that all of us take for granted. His body would only accept certain kinds of seafood and a few different types of greens. That is what he ate for three meals a day. He was starving to death, weighing only 118 pounds. Yet, he always was positive, rarely complaining. This sweet man is SO much better today. He can eat many many things again. He can eat fruit, which he hasn't been able to eat for FIVE YEARS. He can eat grains, a food his body has rejected for months. He has gained FIFTEEN pounds in the last five weeks, and it is so obvious that he is feeling better. He has been unable to sleep right for years; he had cut holes in his mattress where his hips and shoulders would rest because they were so sensitive he couldn't stand to have the pressure on them. He has filled in the holes and can sleep normally again. His eyes are getting better: he said he has been able to go work in his shop for little bits each day. (He cannot tolerate sunshine and really cannot use his eyes much at all, they are so sensitive to light.) He has been able to walk and exercise. Oh, how we are all thanking the Lord. He has really turned things around for Uncle Brook and we get to share in the blessing.

What a great God I have today. Thank you, thank you, thank you for everything.

The Street Vacation

In these troubled economic times, Elko, Nevada has got it figured out. As a town, they have banded together to create the ultimate staycation: The Street Vacation. They have even made it a part of their municipal code in an effort to promote contentment from the too-poor-to-travel among them. So, Elko citizens: Has it succeeded? Are you vacationing on the street? What are the comforts of home that you miss while you camp on your neighbor's sidewalk? Do you resist the urge to sneak back into your own bed when you think no one is watching? Have you mastered the art of cooking over a campfire assembled from newspapers robbed from the recycling bin down the street? Did you think to bring matches or did you have to use the rubbing two sticks together method? And the most important question of all: When it comes time to vote for the people who create the laws in your town, will you pick new ones or do you think they are doing a great job of promoting unity in this time of hardship?

Please, Elko. I want to know.