Another Month of Craziness

A weekend at the lake with good friends!

Photographing a wedding (my friend Niki, who I have known for 21 years, married her husband, Tim, in a Catholic ceremony, after having married him years ago in California.)

My sweet boy turns 9!!!!!

A visit from our nephew, Harrison!  Look at that cute face! 

Fostering a sweet little punkin' of a pup, named Turnip!

We came to vacation in Florida for three weeks, and Meg learned to swim right after we got here.

Playing on the playground at Destin Commons....

Working a puzzle before bed....

Watching a family of dolphins play below the pier...

And of course, watching out for "tar balls".

And while I'm on the subject of oil, let me just say that the media should be completely ashamed of themselves for what they have done to the people of the gulf coast this summer.  The oil has hit the beach where we are, but there is so little impact for vacationers that I don't really believe there is any reason people would have chosen to stay away this summer if they had known the real state of the beaches.  Tar balls, for the record, are hard black rocks that wash up in the surf.  They are about the size of a golf ball, or smaller, and they are NOT sticky.  There have been a few tar balls in the water (very few, maybe I've seen 15 since I've been here for almost two weeks) that are dark brown and those are a mushier consistency.  If you squeeze them, they do leave a filmy residue on your hands, but if you don't pick them up, there is no issue.  They are few and far between so they are very easily avoided.  The water is turquoise blue (as you can see in the dolphin photo) and the sand is as white as ever.  Don't get me wrong, the small crowds are great for me, there's no waiting at any of the restaurants and the low occupancy is what allowed me to afford coming for three weeks (for the price of one week.)  But still, I know that there are people here who are struggling to pay their rent and keep their businesses open and the media is completely culpable, in my opinion, for what they have done to drive business away from here this summer.

If anyone still reads this blog, I hope you're having a great summer too! 

Why haven't I posted?

Well, here's the proof that I haven't had time....

This month we have:

1.  Hosted a 2nd grade party

2. Cheered on my brother-in-law in the Memphis in May Triathlon

3.  Hosted the seasons soccer trophy ceremony

4.  Raised Painted Lady caterpillars to butterflies and sent them out into the world to do their thing.

  

5.  Spent time at my dad's. (And my mom's too, but I don't have any pictures of  that for some reason.)

6.  Successfully gotten our rental property leased after the last tenants gave notice that they are moving.

7.  Taken post-flood photos of our town

8.  Put together a slide show of our life together for my husband for our anniversary. (This is us at Yosemite in 1997.)

9.  Celebrated our anniversary.  We've put alot of living into the last 13 years!  I can honestly say that I love my husband more and better today than I did the day I married him. (By the way, we didn't color coordinate our outfit, I just now noticed that we were matching.:)

10.  Created some gnarly mohawks! :)

Of course, I should not neglect to tell you that we have also spent a fair amount of time at the pool between stroke and turn clinics, swim practice, meets, and just regular old pool days.  We've been on the boat every chance we get and we've been trying to enjoy the summer, even though it's 100 degrees with a heat index of 110 and the humidity is about 80%.  I'm trying to train for a 10k in September, but it's nearly impossible in this heat because if you aren't running by 6:30 you can just about guarantee you'll die of a heat stroke.  And I hurt my knee, which I'm trying to pretend is not a result of being 40.  Grrrrr!

So, there you have it, our very average, but busy, month.  Love y'all! 

Maybe I came out of retirement too soon?

Obviously, I overestimated the amount of time I was going to have in May when I broke my three-week black-out. But this weekend, my parents have the kids (do you hear angels singing? No?  Me either, all I hear is SILENCE! :)  Anyway, since I don't have the kids, I actually have some time to sit down and goof off on the internet.  And show you what we saw last weekend at my Dad's house.  Steel yourself because you're about to see a dose of gorgeous with a dash of "awwww"....

I don't know this mare's name, but her little colt is SOOOO cute, don't you think?

Oh yeah, definitely a cutie pie!

This is my dad's favorite mare, Dessie.  Her colt is sort of ugly though, it's called "creamella" (I don't know how to spell it) which is apparently not a "desirable" color in a horse (I see why) but this horse is so sweet that it makes me like her ugly colt.  :)

By comparison though, the palomino colt is much prettier.

But Dessie is a pretty horse...

This is the bay mare, she's not too friendly though, very skittish with me in the pasture, so I didn't get much opportunity to photograph her baby, which I think is the prettiest of the colts.  I think my dad said this color is chocolate palomino, which is apparently very desirable?????

And there's our little cowgirl on Leon (Liam's horse.)  Doesn't she look tiny up there?  

She sort of looks like a natural on the farm, don't you think?

Is it Just Me?

Am I the only adult, mom, wife in the world who keeps thinking all these chores are temporary?  I mean, seriously, when I clean up the kitchen, I always think, "I just need to do this today", like some cleaning fairy is going to come in and tidy up tomorrow, the kitchen is going to stop getting messed up, OR I'm going to win the lottery (sort of hard when you don't play it) and have a live in housekeeper like Alice from Brady Bunch.  Where is my house with a live-in housekeeper?  And where are my six kids who can share two bedrooms without being up 'til ten every night?  :)  How DID we get so far away from the 7:30 bedtime anyway?  And who in the heck is wearing ALL THESE CLOTHES I keep washing?  I know it's not me because I only wear about three things in my closet anyway.

Calgon, anyone?

I survived!

My feet are begging me to lay down.  I've taken more Ibuprofen in the last 24 hours than my kidneys can process, but I'm alive and I actually walked 19 miles yesterday with 78 4th grade students and several parents.  I loved it.  It was worth every agonizing second to have my son wanting to walk right next to me the entire time.  I'm SO glad I went.  I'm so glad I did it.  I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.  And honestly, it was fun.  I would do it again (good thing because we will get three more chances to do this before our elementary days are done.)

We left the school at 9:30 yesterday morning and we were at the pick-up point at 5:20 yesterday afternoon. We broke for one hour for lunch and a few other shorter breaks along the way for water, etc. It was 86 degrees here yesterday, but we were in the woods a great deal of the time.  I honestly did not know a woman could smell as bad as I smelled by lunchtime.  And by the time we got back to school, I couldn't even stand the smell of myself.  Let me just tell you now that Secret Pl@tinum is not designed for intense activity! :)

I hope you all have a great weekend.  I will be sitting here with my feet up eating bon-bons if anyone wants to stop by! :)

Funniest Mother's Day Card of all Time

Today, Connor brought home a book that he made me in school.  This is how it goes, try not to laugh!  Connor's addition to the text the teacher gave are in quotations.

If I could give my Mom something special it would be... "my dad".

My Mom looks most beautiful when "she is on a date with my dad."

My favorite thing about my Mom is "looking at her diamond ring." (Which by the way, his DAD gave me!)

My mom makes me laugh when "we sword fight."

Well, at least that last one had nothing to do with Dad.  Geesh!  Is this a Mother's Day book or a Father's Day book anyway?

Who me.... non-committal?

I can't even commit not to commit to anything.  So here I am, breaking my "silence" after only three weeks.  I can't help it, I miss everyone.  I feel like I've not heard from my best buddies in weeks now and I'm just sure that your life is not the same without me! hehehe  Besides, our kids are out of school today because of the storms here over the weekend so Mama needs a little sanity break.

If you have seen the news you know that Tennessee is now pretty much under water, or at least a good portion of it.  Our house is fine, but I have three friends who have lost pretty much everything in the floods.  Two of them did NOT live in a flood plain and therefore had no flood insurance.  It's devastating to see how people have been affected by this and it's such a helpless feeling to sit and watch the water rise and know there is nothing that can be done to stop it.

In the meantime, please just pray for the folks who have lost everything and especially those who lost family members. It is going to be a mess here for quite a while.  And please pray for me that I haven't completely lost my mind.  Our 4th grade students are walking 26 miles this week and I signed up to walk with Jack the first day (which is the 16 miles stretch.)  What was I thinking?

Breaking Free

We just got back from a week at the beach.  Something about being at the beach is always very moving to me.  I think the enormity of the ocean and the fact that the sand stretches on beyond my comprehension?  I don't know, it's just always almost an overwhelming feeling for me to be there and how unbelievably mighty God is and how incredibly blessed we are as a family.

Part of us being at the beach, and away from phones, computers, video games, etc. really made me realize how much "busy" we create in our lives that is unnecessary.  I feel that I am running circles inside chaos sometimes and can't get it all done.  But at the beach, that never seems to be a problem.  So I have decided that I am going to take a little break from the blog for a while.  This is sort of a hard decision because I feel like I am leaving alot of dear friends.  I have made some friends in my real-life through blogging, like Gwen and Katie.  And I have friends in the blog world that I don't want to lose touch with (too many to mention.)  But for right now, I know I have got to find more peace in my home and my schedule and this seems a pretty obvious way to cut down on some distraction.

There was a time when I literally thought in blog posts.  Every thought was a post and every thought was something worth blogging.  But you can't be a blogger without reading other blogs too.  It's almost an addiction.  And whenever I blog, I always go check in on all my friends.  There are several of you that I will still keep up with, but I need to simplify.  This is a busy time of year for the kids (I swear it's worse than December when the school end rolls around.)  Brian is going to be traveling some and that will require more energy from me for the kids and myself.  I will miss him when he's not here.  In less than one month, Brian and I will have been together for 16 years.  It's amazing to me that I have loved this man for almost half my life.  And truthfully, I love him more now than I did the day we got married. I think that's because the day we got married, being "in love" was all about how exciting it all was, how handsome he was, and all the dreams we had together.  Now loving him is so much more than all that.  I've seen him looking not-so-handsome, seen him at his worst both physically and emotionally, and we've collected so many memories and shared so many moments along the way that love is no longer about being "in love" but about a deeper connection.  So, even though we've been together for so long, it's still very hard for me when he travels.  Beyond having the kids to myself, I just don't like us being apart.

Summer is coming up and I know that the kids will be running me in every direction from swim team to whims and fancy and I really want to enjoy this time with them.  I want more time to pray, to think about where God is calling us as a family, and to just play with my family without distraction.  I am also saying good-bye to Facebook, so I hope my blog family doesn't feel "singled out" in this rest period.  I am sure that some day I will be back.  I am pretty sure I will still record alot of things we do with the kids, etc. on this blog.  It's just that I won't be blogging every thought and emotion I have going forward.  So if you were one of those coming just for the cute kid photos, you're likely to still find that here.  It's just that I'll be spending less time thinking about blogging and more time thinking about what really needs to be done around here.

It's very hard for me to say farewell.  So I'll just say, "until next time."  Thanks so much for following along this bumpy road with me.  You've truly truly been a bright spot in my day.  There was a time when I lived for comments in my in-box.  And for those of you who e-mail me directly on occasion, (Barb, Lindsay, Kristine, Nicole, Michelle, Cory, Amanda, etc.) please check in with me.  I'll be checking your blogs from time to time, but I'll miss you al the most!

Jeremiah 6:16
"This is what the Lord says:  'Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.'"

Lousy Louse

Here's the truth of it... lice are gross and terrible and creepy and they ITCH!  I know... because I HAVE THEM!  Yuck!

Meg and Connor also had them.  I think hope we are all bug free now.  But just look what those pesky pests have done to my laundry pile.  Sigh!

Please notice that this is knee high to my 4th grader.  Laundry fairy, where are you when I really need you?  Wasn't I supposed to have a fairy godmother somewhere in the closet?  Well mine SUCKS!

And here's another shot of it, in case you didn't feel sorry enough for me the first time! 

Calgon, take me away!!!!!!

And here is Jack, who was NONE too happy about having to be de-loused, even though the alternative was shaving his head!  (Which Liam and Connor did!) :)

I think I'll save that one for bribery or black-mail later, don't you think?

I told Brian tonight that I have become an expert "de-louser."  He said I could probably put that on my resume, uh, maybe not... but it will come in very handy on future mission trips.  Either way, I'm glad that only 3 out of six of our house ended up with it.  I feel a whole new compassion for people who have to live with lice with no remedy because these buggers really itch! And not only that, but I feel like they are all over my body.  Oh wait, maybe that's just the twitching from looking at all that laundry! :(

I don't know how to title this one....

The following is a fairly long article that was written in a local newspaper this week.  It will take you about 15 minutes to read it, but it's worth it.  It challenges everything we know about "church" today!  It says everything I've been missing in our current "church" congregation.  Where, I want to know, is there a church near me that is throwing it's doors wide, emptying it's coffers, and actually TOUCHING people?  Not reaching them, but actually physically touching them?  I don't know, but if someone in my area knows of a church where the pastor makes less than the designation for the homeless, if the church building doesn't have plasmas everywhere while babies die, then that's where I want to be... I just don't know how to find you!  To be quite honest, I'd happily give up "church" altogether if someone could lead my family in "living" the Scripture on Sunday morning instead of hearing it!

Happy reading!

Unto Us A Child is Lost: A Lenten Tale of Metanoia

Favorite Photo Friday

I'm taking a photography class.  This week's subject/homework was "portraits."  FINALLY... something I like to photograph.    I've spent the last 7 weeks photographing "stuff", which is extremely difficult and uninteresting to me.  These photos have to be "untouched" or "straight out of the camera" so I couldn't do any editing to them, which is very difficult for me because I want colors to pop, edges to blur, etc.  But still, these are my fav photos of the week because they are of my fav people.

This is my neighbor's son.  Don't you love those soulful eyes?  That furrowed brow?  He looks so serious, which belies his goofy, daredevil nature.  I also really love the freckles, which you don't notice so much when you look at him in person. 

If you notice nothing else about this photo, please note how dirty his knees are.  That says it all.

And on the same day, my daughter was clean and looking for the tiny little purple flowers that are coming up in our clover.  This photo is just screaming to be monochrome, but I can't touch it until after class! :(

My precious!

This is the brother of the boy in the first photo.  Isn't he just the yummiest?  Oooh!  And he squeals with this high-pitched delighted squeal that drives his mama insane, but secretly I think it's cute!:)  The focus is way off in this photo.  I zeroed in on his hands instead of his nose and my aperture was too large to capture everything crisply.  See, I KNOW what I'm doing wrong, I just can't seem to correct it. 

I love this photo of Liam.  I think I love it because it so captures who he is.  One of our portrait assignments was to capture the essence of the person we were photographing in one shot.  I had planned to get a photo of my friend Melanie with her daughter, Hope, because I think above all else, Melanie is a defender of children the world would discard and Hope embodies that.  But this photo, which I was just goofing around with, "accidentally" captured the essence of my son.  He looks like this a great portion of the day.  Notice how you can't tell if he is smiling or growling.  Yep, that's him!  Plus, that little cleft in his chin is not at all obvious when you look at him.  I love it! 

This was a shot I took yesterday trying to work on my indoor lighting.  But I love the composition because Connor is so intently focused on his Lego ship, which is pretty much life around our house.

Does anyone else have trouble if they put their photos on "xtra large" in blogger?  Mine get cut off on the right.  Is that because of the format I am using on my blog?  

Sorry, I told you way more than you wanted to know about what was in my brain while looking through the lens, but photography class has been pretty introspective for me! :)

TGIF!

1 Corinthians 10:10

"And do not grumble, as some of them did-and were killed by the destroying angel."

It's Raining, It's Pouring, It's Cold and It's Boring!!!!

"I've had enough of this...I'm calling customer service!"

"Yes, can you tell me who I need to speak to about this weather?"

"I'd like to lodge a complaint!"

"Listen mister, I know the bulbs need water, and the grass needs a drink, yada yada yada..."

"But I really can't do a thing with my hair in all this humidity."

"And my new spring sandals are just not going to be cute covered in mud."

"And I have a dozen new dresses that are gathering dust in my closet.  Plus, these winter clothes are just SOOOOO yesterday!"

"Are ya feelin' me?"  

"Then could you please send some sunshine over ASAP.... and I'll need at least 65 degrees if I hope have any sort of fun.  I'd like to get that immediately or some heads are going to roll around here!"

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Marry into an Irish family and St. Patrick's Day practically becomes a national holiday. We want to make sure our kiddos know that they have MANY different cultures to celebrate and enjoy.  So tonight, the Leprechaun will visit us.  He will most likely spill something green on the sink, leave a little "green pee" in the toilet, drink out of the milk carton, maybe even bring some kind of special snack for breakfast in the morning.  There is not telling what that rascal will get into, but it's never disappointing when the kids wake up to find the results of his shenanigans.

Dearest Anonymous

It has to be said, I can't take it anymore.  I have noticed on my blog and many, many others, dissenting opinions are always left anonymously.  I have never once had a positive comment left anonymously.

So here is my question, "If you own your opinion and your belief, why not just sign your name to your thoughts?"  I mean, I sign my name to my beliefs every single day.  I put my thoughts out there for the world to see, agree or not.  And I don't think I have ever given the opinion that if you don't agree with me, I don't welcome your comment.  On the contrary, I am happy to learn something and I don't pre-moderate my comments because I am open to dialogue.  For example, on my post about "Breasts", I had two comments, both left anonymously, who didn't totally agree with me.  The thing is, I disagreed with one of the ladies (the man is so CLEARLY NOT looking at Katie's breasts!), but from the other, I would have liked to ask some questions about what she said.  I really and truly was hoping to learn from her on the Scriptural teaching she referred to.  I really do want to know because Katie or I neither one would want to be going against Scripture in the way we dresses (believe me, my bared chest would not be cause for any man's temptation, but that's a whole other story I'll save for a Not Me! :)

I do understand that men are driven by site. I'm raising three boys, after all.  I understand alot of things about men as the mother of boys that I never knew before!  Sure they notice breasts.  But we don't make a big deal of it, in fact, we tell them that we know they are interesting to men because they are different, but then we teach them the honorable way to respect differences in men and women.  I truly believe that things that remain a mystery are more enticing than things that are not taboo.  There are very few subjects that can be broached with us that would cause a shameful or strong reaction.  Thoughts and curiosities are natural, it's the job of parents to teach their children how to deal with the "things of the world" through a Scriptural filter. My boys have all expressed curiosity, but they move on after being allowed to talk through what they are seeing/experiencing.

And I'm not trying to change America.  I want to say that my friend who wore "revealing" clothing (you all seem to have figured out that it was Katie Davis at The Journey) is very conscientious about men.  In Africa, it's inappropriate for women to show their knees.  She is very careful to always wear long skirts or dresses and keep her knees covered.  But in Africa, breasts aren't that big a deal.  She is being culturally appropriate, which, in my opinion, is the correct action.

I'm going to get off the subject of Katie's boobs because this is not what the post is about.  The post is about the fact that I want to understand the motivation behind posting anonymously.    If you are a friend of mine and are afraid I will think differently of you for your disagreement, please know that I can absolutely respect differing opinions.  I'm not always right and I'm happy to be proven wrong any time, particularly on a misinterpretation of Scripture.  But I do ask that if you don't have a blog id and therefore have no way to claim your beliefs, then just have the courage to at least sign your name to the comment. I am putting my thoughts out there for you to agree or disagree, but I find it hard to respect differing opinions when they are shared in the shadows.

1 Corinthians 16:13-14
"Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong.  Do everything in love."

Not Me Monday

Being married to an Irish guy has it's benefits.  Sometimes it's fun to be Irish, even if it's by marriage.  This is a St. Patrick's version of Not Me Monday.

We did not attend the Brew Festival this weekend where there were somewhere around 90 beers to sample.

I did not go all out for the occasion and neither did my friends!  See!

We did NOT have a new babysitter, who my children loved.  They did not ask me today if I would please go somewhere so Amy could come back over.  Oh brother!  I wonder if it had anything to do with her brow piercing that they loved????  Seriously, this is one fun young lady, and VERY sweet.

Brian and I are not still in the "reentry zone" from our vacation.  I think coming back after being away is harder than staying put because you get "out of the groove" with all the schedules and routines.  My mother-in-law, of course, did NOT have all the entire house in tip top shape, only to have it wrecked by us in about an hour.  Seriously folks, I think the uncommon denominator is me and Brian.  She managed to keep the kids and the house clean and my nephew was here with her so she had 5.  Brian and I managed to let it get completely out of control in less than 24 hours.  Oh well, maybe it's 'cause we're still in vacation mode?????

We are not at all excited about Wednesday because of the Leprechaun shenanigans at our house.  Remember last year when the leprechaun peed in the toilet, drank out of the milk carton, and used up all the pop-tarts?  I am sure he will have some equally impish tricks up his sleeve this year!

On a non-St. Patrick's note, our cat is quite a good mouser.  He comes up with moles and mice about twice per week. But last week he came up with... gulp... a baby bunny.  Meg and I did NOT stand over the body of that bunny and gawk speechlessly at the poor thing.  Then Connor and my neighbors son did NOT walk up five minutes later and say, "Cool!  Let's get something and poke it to see if it moves."  I ask you, if anyone ever told you that the differences between men and women were "learned" behaviors, did that person ever raise a boy?  I think not!

Hop on over to MckMama's and see what other folks aren't up to this week.

Here's where I've been....

I realize I haven't blogged in a while, cause I was here:

Note to self, "You are beyond the years in your life where you can stand square on of the camera." 

And while we were gone, this is what I missed, but my mother-in-law experienced.  Ever heard of the old saying, While the cat's away, the mouse will play?  PLAY is the optimum word here... I'm not sure how many rules there were, but who cares, I was at the beach! :)

Even the dog was either, A) singing the praises of grandma or B) exhausted

Um, all I can say is that I WILL be using this against him later.  

Connor and my niece, Reilly, on our new sofa... finally!

I'm pretty sure these two SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN HELMETS!!!!

And this last one is not from the week I was gone, but it is the one I promised of my two moms SLAVING AWAY when they came to clean my house.  I call them Thelma and Louise because when those two get together there's no stopping them! 

Breasts

Now that I have your attention, I have to climb up on my soap box for a minute.  A good friend of mine has a blog.  On her blog, she has a picture of herself in the header.  In that picture, she is wearing a v-neck T-shirt.  It's not revealing, it's just a v-neck... not particularly low cut, just a plain old v-neck.  She is a very big blog figure, has thousands of followers.  You, in fact, probably read her blog.

Recently, on Facebook, it came out that several people think her shirt is "immodest."  One person even said that she couldn't let her husband read the blog because of the photo.  I promise you, the photo is not revealing.  In fact, I have never once noticed what she was wearing in the photo until it was pointed out. I just saw her full beaming smile and her contagious enthusiasm, the shirt was short of shocking or even noticeable.

So, my question is this.... and those of you in other countries will probably laugh about this because I think it's totally an American thing.... why is it that we sexualize breasts to the point of obsession here in this country?  Yet we segregate and shame people who are using their breasts for what they were designed to do.  I can't tell you how angry it makes me to see "nursing mothers" areas with doors.  Putting a mother in a closet, separating her from the world because she needs to feed her baby, is not sending the right message to our children or our brothers and sisters.  Worse yet, even my OB/GYN office has a "nursing closet."  YET, we tolerate Victoria's Secret parading half naked models around on commercials that are run at 8 PM.  We tolerate soft-porn bra ads on the billboards and covers our of catalogs.  We don't make the lingerie retailer at the mall wrap their windows in brown paper, even though the mannequins are in the "doggy position" and my kids always ask me why the girl is crawling on the floor in her underwear.  (To which, by the way, my response is, "She probably dropped the back to her earring while she was getting ready.")

If that is the way we live, why would we attack someone who is living boldly for Christ because she's not wearing a turtle-neck in the process?  If you can't let your husband read her blog because she's in a turtleneck, I guess you can't let him watch TV or look at the billboards on the interstate either.  Why on earth is a breast something that we should be so obsessed with anyway?  Seriously, I truly get the modesty movement.  I don't want my daughter running around in tight, revealing clothing, even at 3, much less 23.  I want my children all to be mindful of what they are wearing, the reaction they are causing from the opposite sex, and respect themselves enough to have some modesty.  HOWEVER, if my daughter chooses a v-neck over a crew-neck, I don't think I will obsess about her lack of taste or question her commitment to Jesus.

I guess this post was really spurred by a fealty to my friend.  I get my back up when someone criticizes her.  But it's also about how backwards our values have become in this country.  I could be wrong here, Lindsay and Barb please tell me if I am assuming something incorrectly, but I bet in most of the European and other countries around the world, nursing mothers are a natural thing to see in public and there's not as much fuss over a booby as we make here.

Get over it people!

Warning! The Sky is Falling!

Chicken Little here, just shouting out a warning to you all that the sky is most definitely falling.  "How do I know?" you might ask.  Well.....

1. I have not blogged NOR looked at a blog in about two weeks (thank you very much Apollo Ohno, Lindsey Vonn, and Julia Mancuso.)  
2. It's March 2 and it's SNOWING.... AGAIN!  Thank goodness the kids are not out of school this time.  
3. HOW CAN YOU TELL WHEN PEOPLE HAVE HAD ENOUGH SNOW? 
     
   
4. It's snowing again today AND we are out of coffee AGAIN today!  Grrrrrr!  (That's twice in one month.  There must be armageddon coming!)
5. Brian and I are going away this weekend.... ALONE!  Now if you need more proof than that to prove the sky is falling, then you obviously have a much more exciting life than me.  Come to think of it, you probably DO have a more exciting life than me. 

Which is the other reason I haven't blogged in a while.... there's NOTHING happening in my life. Not that I'm complaining in any way.... nope, nice and boring is just fine with me.  Seriously!  When I consider the alternative and how I USUALLY live in a life of upheaval, I'm pretty sure that boring is a vacation from the norm around here.

We have a foster dog staying with us right now, his name is Garcia.  Which got me thinking about another foster we had, a few years ago.  Her name was Meg.  (yeah, good thing we didn't keep her, right?)  Anyway, I don't think I ever posted the video of her.  She was a narcoleptic.  Have you ever seen a narcoleptic dog?  If not, then you MUST see this.  Please ignore the commentary as I am on the phone AND fussing at my kids.



VIDEO OF MEG THE DOG