All But The Kitchen Sink

As I'm sitting down to write this post, I'm letting out a great big 'sigh'.  Its been an insane couple of weeks around here. 

School has been tough, and I'm not even gonna lie about it.  I've got one that doesn't seem to mind it all that much.  The Gavinator may even like it, who knows?  However, those of you with these 8-year-old little bundles of excitement know that they'd never actually tell you that.  I mean, if they did, we'd just pile more work on, right?  (either that, or we'd swear that they were geniuses who were already on their way to Einstein-type intelligence before they ever even lost all of their baby teeth, and insist that they didn't need more work)  Ok, so I'm not the type to pile on loads of work.  I have a little bit of a life, too, that exists outside of the school room boundaries.

. . . and then there's Ryan. 

Precious, precious Ryan.  Ryan, who really doesn't like school.  And he'll tell you that . . . real quick.  The problem I have with this whole thing with him is that he's really smart, and when he puts his mind to things, he does a really good job.  Its just getting him to the point of doing just that . . . putting his mind to do it.  I know kids this age are all in the same boat and a lot of times their minds are swirling around all this extra 'stuff'.  Truth is, I really kinda feel sorry for the kid.  Now, I don't feel sorry for him when we're in the throes of an "I don't want to do this, do I have to do this, why do I have to do this" kind of tyrade, but right now I feel bad for him.  At 12, we all know that's kinda when you start trying to 'find' yourself, you know?  Combine that with all the 'boy' stuff, and you have a stout box of TNT sitting at a desk ready to spark. 

(Sigh, again)

We go through these phases.  They come and go, and we always love each other through all the mumblin' and growlin'.  Its just been a little trying, is all.  I love my boys a whole bunch, and I still say that I'm beyond blessed to be the wife of a super, fantabulous man who allows me to stay home and be the teach.  I think we'll all benefit from this one day.  Even as I begin to think that I'm JUST beginning, I'm thankful.  (yes, Daisee is comin' on up.  I'll be homeschooling from my bed in the nursing home teaching her the art of geriatrics.)

Ok, so that was fun, right?

Know what else was fun?  Family picture day.  Family picture day was FUN.  It was hot and we were in winter clothes, and it was FUN.  It was 1:30, which was Daisee's usual naptime, but it was FUN.  All sarcasm aside, it could've gone a whole lot worse.  Towards the end she got pretty cranky, but nothing a little TCBY couldn't turn around.  Most of our pics are on my Facebook page, but take a look at a few here:

. . . and the great finale sums it up . . .

She wasn't happy at all right here, but WE MADE IT, and I love how our pictures turned out.

Oh, but that's not all the fun, peeps.  REAL fun comes when the pets start to keel over.  Like Gavin's fish.  The two sharks died last Thursday, just a couple of days after he added an algae eater to the tank.  How suspicious is that?  The two itty-bitty sharks go stiff AT THE SAME time . . . tell me that's not kinda twilight zone-ish.  Funny thing was that they didn't seem to look, well, mutilated or anything, so I have no clue what happened.  I may be a self-proclaimed doctor, but I'm definitely not doing an autopsy on a fish, so its one of the mysteries of life we'll never figure out.   So, Gavin has a breakdown and DOES NOT want to flush his babies down the tube.  And me, being the oh-so-NOT-sentimental mother finally makes the reluctant call to drive down to the lake at 11 (that's in the nighttime) so we can properly send the fish to their natural 'dead fish are supposed to die in a lake' (according to Gav) habitat.  We said our proper goodbyes, and went back home to sleep.  However,  the party has just begun.   Oh, no, my friends.  This rodeo wasn't over, 'cause just a couple of days later the 'allergy eater' (as Gavin calls it) decides to croak, too.  If you've never seen a dead algae eater, you have no idea what you're missing.  I mean, this thing even grossed me out.  I'm gonna spare you all the nasty details, but just trust me.  If you can't handle disappearing skin, DO NOT get an algae eater.  Those things are ugly, anyway.  You know what happens next, right?  Yep, we make the trek back to the lake so he can join Jaws and Claws.  Needless to say we're done with the fishies for a while.  Don't worry, though.  Gavin is ok and I think that he's fine being petless in his room for a while.

One more fun story to tell and I'm done. 

I was getting Daisee out of the car Wednesday morning, and obviously had my hand in a bad spot.  I shut my finger in the sliding door.  I don't mean a little, my friends, I mean I couldn't move my finger and my brain just wasn't communicating to my other hand fast enough to OPEN. THE. DOOR.  Pain.  Serious, horrible pain.  I, for real, almost passed out.  I started sweating all over and telling Daisee that, "Its ok", and pretty soon she sat beside me on the steps and started saying, "its ok".  It was quite a scene, I'm sure.  I just don't think I've ever done anything like that before, and its DEFINITELY something I should include on this post.  My finger is good to go, though.  I even went to orchestra practice last night and had no problems with the keyboard.  I feel for little kids that do that, though.  Especially now.  All I can say is, be careful, mamas.

Long post, but there was lots of things to talk about.  Oh, and if anybody wants a shihtzu, I have a dog named 'Flash' that needs a happy home.  Another fun story, but another time . . .

Love,



P.S. - And for those of you that know my pet problems, just keep your mouth shut.  I know I get and get rid of way too many animals.  This time its a for real problem, though.  I LOVE Flash, he just doesn't love others that come into our house anymore.  Don't believe me?  Come on over.  I hope you'll enjoy being cornered on the couch :).

.MOM Conference

**So this post was originally written on September 25th.  It's been that kind of week...


I had an incredible opportunity to attend the .MOM conference in Birmingham this weekend.  Me, my mom and Aimee hit the road early Friday morning and we arrived at the Sheraton Hotel around 10:00.  I was quite excited about this trip for two reasons:  1)  I knew the conference was going to be absolutely phenomenal, and 2)  we were staying overnight in a hotel room.  I know this doesn't sound like a huge deal to most of you, but let me tell you . . . I love staying in hotel rooms.  I really, really do.  I don't care if its for one night or for six, but that feeling of 'being on vacation' can't be beat.  I realize that this euphoric feeling may come to an end faster than you can say 'madagascan flying cockroach' if I were to stay in some sleazy, bug-ridden nightmare of a room, but as of yet, I haven't had a bad experience.  I'm sure the clock's probably ticking, but until the timer goes off, I'm gonna keep lovin' me some Sheraton, Hyatt, Marriot . . . you name it, I'll probably be all about it.

Ok, so we get checked in and settled into our room and we head down to a little diner called 'Sophia's' to eat.  It was a greasy-spoon type place, but I had myself a killer cheeseburger.  We walked down there, ate, and got back to the BJCC in about 30 minutes.  We headed into the hall where the conference was gonna be held and walked around in the Lifeway marketplace for a while, just until the conference kicked off at one. 

Melissa Greene (formerly of Avalon) headed up the worship time, along with her band (which also featured another former member of Avalon . . . if only I could remember his name) and they were really, REALLY good.  They had no problems getting everybody there into a sense of worship and ready to hear what God had to say.  The main speakers for the event were Angela Thomas, Angie Smith, Vicki Courtney and Priscilla Shirer.  There were also two 'breakout sessions' that you could attend during the day that were hosted by several other well-known Lifeway contributors and authors.  And of course, we have to mention that The Duggar's made a surprise visit Friday night.   I'm not a big Duggar's follower, but some of you would probably like to know.

I have to say that my favorite speaker was Angie Smith.  Not because she was the most popular, or the most eloquent, but because we're a lot alike.  She lost her baby, Audrey, after just a couple of hours of her coming into the world.  I've kept up with Angie through her blog, and she wrote a book that was of great encouragement to me called 'I Will Carry You'.  Her husband, Todd, is the lead singer of the group 'Selah', so if you're a Christian music follower you may have heard the song with the same title.  She spoke on Friday night to this group of 1300 women, but she also hosted a breakout group to about 30 of us that had lost babies.  I can't tell you completely what a fabulous time with her that this was.  She didn't speak from a podium on a stage with a microphone, and she didn't want to dominate our time together.  We all sat cross-legged on the floor and she began to tell us about Audrey (if you want to know her story, click the 'Bring The Rain' button on my page).  She then told us that she just wanted this to be a time of sharing . . . all of us, not just her.  After a couple of minutes, she prayed and then the stories began circulating around the room.  Story after heartbreaking story of loss, love and redemption started falling on my ears, and for the first time in a room full of people other than my family, my tears started to fall.  Not just a little, but I was weeping, and for once, I didn't care.  We were all there for the same reasons, and this person that so many people know, respect and admire was there listening and guiding us.  I never got a chance to share my own story, but that feeling of belonging and being with people that knew the pain that I had experienced was enough.  We had an hour to be in there together, but we took a good 90 minutes sharing one another's hurts.  It felt so good to be there, and I'll never, ever forget what that was like for me.  Breakout session #3 was definitely the best part of the conference for me.

We ended up our .MOM weekend with Priscilla Shirer, and she's one that can get your fire going.  If you've never heard her and you have the opportunity, DO IT.  She gave us a good 'whatever you do, don't give up' word, and we were on our way.  Or, we thought we were on our way.  We got out of the hotel parking lot, only to find that that weird, creaking noise we heard wasn't the just the 'way the tires sounded on the pavement' (Jan's fine reasoning), but it was the sound of (pretty much) not having a tire.  The tire was so bloomin' flat that we were carryin' this buggy on the rim.  After a quick call to CAPS, Mr. Tireman came, fixed the tire AND the trunk that was givin' us fits, and then we were on our way . . . really, this time.

The .MOM conference will be back in Birmingham next year on this same September weekend, so all you mamas out there need to go!  Hey, if you do, maybe we can get adjoining hotel rooms.  Wouldn't that be FUN?!

Love,