Friday, January 29, 2010

Upon Tam's birthday....

I have told you here and there about my friend Tam. Today she is a teency bit older than she was yesterday and to mark this occasion I thought it behooves me to brag on her a bit. Tam and I have been friends since 9th grade for me and 10th for her. It was love at first sight....well actually we both had thick glasses so I am not so sure how much of each other we actually SAW that first meeting! Anyway, Tam is a forever friend who has stepped in when the world stepped out. I was a bus/van kid nobody, and she helped make me a somebody, full of vision, love and wild imagination.


Grab a kleenex Tam, here are 34 reasons why I love you to pieces:

1. Yellow notepads.
2. Dune perfume.
3. For all your hand-me-downs that I soo needed in college.
4. For ALWAYS remembering my birthday even when I forgot yours.
5. "I Shall NOT Be Moved"
6. "The Sands of Time"
7. For helping me make maternity clothes.
8. Alphabet verses. (I think we should revive this, don't you??)
9. Tasty Taco Pie. (Man I love you soo much more than that pie with the stomach flu!)
10. The zillions of covers on your bed up in the loft.
11. For NEVER laughing at any of my hair-brained ideas. Ever. Even if you wanted to.
12. Waistbands. Frankly I still like 'em.
13. Brandywine Falls secrets.
14. For "bailing me out" of my own claw foot tub the night before my wedding.
15. For laughing at all of my jokes.
16. For roses and roses and more roses sent to me on YOUR birthday, the day we came home from Mongolia.
17. "The Good Ship Friendship."
18. For introducing me to Laura Ashley, thus all things pastel, flowery and dainty.
19. For hugs that say, "I will still be here 10 years from now."
20. For hiding in Patty's car with me from "the mob."
21. Iced tea with way too much lemon for my taste.
22. Talking with me until we both fell asleep the night before my wedding.
23. Watching everyone else live "Happily ever after," and never begrudging them while you patiently waited for your own Prince Charming.
24. "Hellen, Hellen, Hellen." (I am humming and tapping my foot right now too...)
25. The hushed way you talk when you are serious...REALLY serious about something, only to end up cracking up over the seriousness of it!!
26. Your "River rock" movin' faith.
27. The way you get tickled when I really "give it to someone" and then watch me fix my messes.
28. 30's music.
29. Your cleaning outfit.
30. Your handwriting and writing style that I adore.
31. For sending me Fall leaves in Mongolia, and glue to hold my water pipes together.
32. Your falling out french braid.
33. For finally forgiving me for the dime I still owe you from high school.
34. For loving me almost as much as I love you.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Your Chum,
Deena

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

You know you need a day at the Spa when.....

You use up ALL the hot water each time you take a shower.

While IN the shower you are tempted to write yourself a "To Do" list in soap on the wall.

You find yourself humming "The Wheels on the Bus" while ironing.

You leave the rug with the cup of coffee spilled on it because you actually like walking into the room and smelling coffee.

You find yourself speaking "Dr. Seuss" at lunch, saying things like: "try them try them, you will like them," "You can eat it in your seat," "You can eat it with your doll," and so on.

You stop and smell an article of clothing hanging to dry EACH time you pass by it, just because you are dazzled by the smell of your fabric softener.

While finally getting ready for the day, at 3 P.M. or so, you catch yourself just before you end up squeezing toothpaste in your hand to put in your hair instead of gel.

You have depleted every drawer with hidden candy.

Your son, who you allowed to help your 2 year old go "stinky," comes to you beaming, with fingers held up to show you just what size it was, and you actually look excited rewarding both of them with food items.

You can't remember sleeping one whole night through. Ever.In.Your.Life.

You want to give yourself a manicure and you cannot remember exactly what your cuticle is and what on earth you are supposed to do with it.

The sound of the washer emptying is calming and relaxes you.

Just LOOKING at books you want to read makes you tired.

You wonder if leftover pumpkin roll in the freezer has sufficient nutritional content to serve as a side dish for dinner.

You, instead of correcting the leaning framed verse, just tilt your head to the side to read it better.

You hid your exercise DVD because of the immodest picture on it, now cannot find it to save your life, and pray that no one else finds it before you do.

You don't really even know what all goes on at a Spa, but know you need to spend a day there!

Thanks Herbert

I came across this poem and it really resonated with me in my present stage of life. Hope it inspires you to tighten your apron, smile at your kiddos more and enjoy something smothered in caramel with them.


To get his good night kiss
He stood beside my chair one night,
And raised an eager face to me
A face with love a light.
And as I gathered in my arms
The son God gave to me,
I thanked the lad for being good
And hoped he'd always be.
His little arms 'crept round my neck
And then I heard him say
Four simple words I can't forget,
Four words that made me pray.
They turned a mirror on my soul,
On secrets no one knew,
They startled me, I hear them yet,
He said,
"I'll be like you."

~
Herbert Parker



Thanks, Herbert

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Revival in the Basement




Friends, we here on Haywood took the coming of a New Year rather seriously. We were even summoned to the basement while our kiddos preached a downright revival challenging us all as a family, and adding one more thing to look back on and smile.
















Caleb opened the service, more smiling and pointing than anything, but we enjoyed every minute of it!
















Isaac then had his turn preaching, challenging us to have faith in this New Year akin to the faith of Daniel. Gotta love our make shift pulpit which consisted of a kerosene heater, a book and a trophy!!















Abbs kept the spotlight because, of course, all basement services are held in the dark, are they not??? ;-)

















The kids formed their own band, which oddly enough reminded me of Emit Otter's Jug band Christmas I saw when I was their age!











Isaac even had a violin, er, I mean a coat hanger solo with Abby conducting.










We thought it was sooo sweet that refreshments were offered and they said they DID also have some cheese for us.













We did eventually find out where the complementary cheese DID go...........















Joel thoroughly enjoyed the festivities, as did I!














They struck up the band with one last song......










.......And Anna closed the service!

Friday, January 15, 2010

Much Ado about a Date

hello all. I am going on a date with Joel in One hour and 35 minutes. I.Am.Excited.

I am always excited to go anywhere with him.

Forgive me for not having more thought provoking posts as of late, but I HAVE started them only to save them in my drafts because I have not the sufficient time and brain activity to complete them.

They will come though.....so....back to life here on haywood.

Yesterday Caleb asked Joel, over spaghetti and garlic bread, if THIS was the bread that the disciples ate. I seriously could NOT stop giggling. Partly because I imagined the disciples handing out the chunks of lightly toasted garlic bread as the Lord blessed it and broke it when feeding the 5,000, and partly because he was so serious about his question. Caleb just listened to Joel explain to him, while stifling a laugh I might add, what kind of bread they did in fact eat in "those days." Another one of the kiddos remarked to them both, "It was a LOAF!" To which Caleb replied, "This IS a LOAF!" And as I continued to giggle, wondering if Caleb inherited my overactive imagination.....

Anna has a cold and so when she has to eat something with her mouth completely closed (a rare occurrence..) her nose whistles. No really. And by whistle I don't mean a little squeak....I mean a whistle. One that makes us all hover around her as she eats just to hope to hear it and giggle. Joel asked her the other day if she was "Whistler's Mother." :) I love jokes the kids don't get. It is so cute, but NOT as cute as her looking at me with a stern face last night and asking me if we were gonna listen to "Fuucus onna fammey." THAT was adorable plain and simple.

Abbs acquired a cat for her last birthday and Josie and our dog Buddy just run through the house periodically acting like baboons. When I began typing this I was getting so sick of them wrestling and caught myself getting ready to say, out loud, "You two fight like.........(and then I laughed to myself) CATS and DOGS. Just can't stop that sense of humor of mine I tell ya.......

Isaac likes to draw and then bring me his creation. He shows it to me and then tells me to "find something funny in it." And then I proceed to mention how the camouflage on his airplane really looks like a green plane with a hoard of groundhogs stuck to it, and so on it goes, until Isaac is SO tickled that he can no longer stand, leaving you to give a running commentary on his masterpieces while he squirms and buries his head in your shoulder laughing like a hyena unable to talk. at.all. He Will occasionally come up for air.

I am trying to exercise and eat healthy. TRYING is the key word there. I am consuming more spinach than Popeye and use these disk like things on my feet to attempt to get into shape. Seeing me do one or both of these two things is comical........... and a little scary.

Joel referee's basketball games on the side and sometimes I get to go along. The last one I attended, I brought my new camera and sat in the bleachers with Alayna thinking how fun it was that I was here and no one knew who the "Weird skirted lady taking WAY too many pictures of a jr high game" was. What was even more interesting was the man 3 bleacher seats up and to the right of me. He musta had a bad day at work, and for goodness sake none of Joel's or the other Ref's calls made his day any brighter. And he let us ALL know it. I felt just about every emotion possible in the span of that game as I listen to that man, and kept my cool. (THAT is my friends, a modern day miracle of gigantic proportions.) I DID think of turning and frantically unloading snapshots of that man telling him that it was a hobby of mine to get pics of every loudmouth at each game........Yeah I refrained. After the game as the bleachers began to empty the woman sitting behind me leaned over and said, "Your the Ref's wife, aren't you?" I nodded. She began to tell me that she could have never kept her cool in such a situation. I told her I was so much more spiritual that anyone on earth............Ok I couldn't resist that......actually I had overheard her talking about her son to another couple, telling them about his cancer. So I told her I overheard her talking about her son, told her my sweet husband was also an Assistant Pastor and told her that if we could ever do anything for her or her family, we sure would be glad to. The Lord is able to do so much more with me when I mute myself......

I am going on a date with Joel in 1 hour and 4 minutes.

I have ALWAYS loved dates with Joel.

Give me a date with Joel and I will give you a Wife and Mother who will mend anything that needs mendin', clean the house spick and span, and will somehow make 2 meals out of one pound of hamburger. It just gives me that pep in my step.

There is such a thing as an "UNdate" though. An "Undate" is a way overdue date, or a date with way too much stress hovering, where you spend too much money trying to figure deep things out and iron out your relationship wrinkles that cannot and will not be worked out in 2 hours worth of time. Gone are the moments you pictured of you both smiling sharing a milkshake at McDonalds. Most likely you will play with your straw while he doodles on a napkin, knowing that you must choose your words carefully or you may begin World War III. Into all of our lives a little "undate" must fall. You know they need to happen here and there, yet you wish you could skip them and head into the real "date."

I know this. I had an "Undate" last week. This is why I am so thrilled to go out tonight. No relationship wrinkles, no discipline problems involving the hoolagins.....no money either, but hey it's still a date! I always wished they would change the coined phrase, "Love is blind" to "Love is broke." Hey there Jeanette Oake, if you are reading this I get full royalties (no pun intended) on that one if you make that your next book...You know something like, "Love Finds a Quarter."

Or not.

45 minutes and counting........

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Who knew????????

Ok ya'll get this breaking news:


Job came first.


Mmmhmmm, yeah.

Seriously am I always the LAST to know or what????


And..........by last I mean like 4,ooo years last to know.


Seriously.

Call me naive, call me plain ole' unstudious (I opted for this instead of dumb.) but I just found out on Sunday mornin' that Job was the first book of the Bible written.

Seriously.

From a man recently released from prison, sporting tattoos and way too many ear holes.

Seriously.

Guess for the 4 plus years he was in the pen he was completing course after course from Rock of Ages Prison ministry.

At the beginning of Sunday School I sat at the way end of the table in my freshly pressed outfit, eating my granola and blowing my nose with my cutsie packs of Kleenex trying not to smudge my Clinique. I made sure not to make eye contact with "Scary-just-out-of-prison-man."

At the end of the class I was scooted over next to this fella and just about had my arm around him and inviting him for dinner. I kept patting his arm and telling him how glad I was to have him in our class.


Ok so it takes me just a wee bit to warm up...

Seriously.

My now new best friend was telling me that he had a spare Chronological Bible he would "let me borrow next Sunday."

Seriously.

And I was COM-PLETE-LY tickled that he did NOT know I was the Assistant Pastor's Wifey and supposed to know all this stuff.

Well then again who says I am supposed to know it????

So, Instead of keeping anyone else in the dark I decided to get on here and tell anyone like me who did NOT know that Job comes first, that, well, it comes first.

(Ok Mr. M you can stop laughing now........"

Monday, January 4, 2010

Into the New with the Same Ole'

Winter is in full swing here on Haywood. And I am enjoying the morning monotony and thought I would key you in on what are all the little things that start my day that make me thankful to be a Mom and Wife.

Sweetie Hubby (sorry Beck that just "came out" can I borrow it for today?) wakes me by kissing me "Goodbye" as my head is on the pillow. He brings Anna into the bed with me to snuggle a bit. He has single handedly clothed and fed the three oldest hoolagins and possibly reminded them to brush their teeth before high tailing it to school. He.Is.Awesome. And he can make a killer omelet, but that my friends is a topic for another time.

At this point I either get up and feed Alayna and get movin' or snuggle with Anna-banana for Oh just a WEE BIT LONGER. How MUCH longer is between me myself and I. (big grin) Today I opted for the wee bit longer since Sunday nights have become serious fellowship with folks from church heading way into the night hours. It was worth it to laugh and almost beat Winston at Play Nine. Almost.

Getting Alayna out of bed is one of my favoritest things in the day. She, all warm and snuggly, looks up at you while lying on her stomach and gives you the, "Oh yeah there is my favoritest person in the whole wide world!" smile and that my friends makes me in my old nightgown and Bride of Frankenstein hair feel like a million. I snatch her out and seriously kiss her from now until dinner time. Just want to eat her up most days. While I feed her I usually wake Nase (Nathan) who commonly first wakes from the door closing when Dad leaves, comes into the living room and decides to take up semi-permanent residency in moi's blue chair all cozied up like a cat with his one of three favorite blankets. He then proceeds to fall back asleep and waits for me to feed Alayna on the couch where he then wakes for the second time, asking the same question e-v-e-r-y day..."We gonna eat breakfast?"

I send him in to get all dressed warm because he is just such a peanut and I guess I think the warmer he is the better it is???? Yeah, dunno. I am getting bowls out, spoons and milk for granola that we made the other day, (sorry just had to throw that Betty Crocker moment in there) and catching glimpses of the snow falling outside in spurts, secretly wishing it would become a blizzard, sending my three older hooldums and Hubby home to be snowed in with me.

Anna like clockwork hears the granola scooping, climbs up to the table in footy p.j.'s, groans about the granola (well so much for Betty Crocker..) and then renews intrest in it when I plop a few banana slices in it. Nathan prays remembering to ask God to bless everything except the FOOD. I remind him with one eye open and allow him to carry on. I check email, kiss Alayna a thousand times, referee Nathan and Anna who are accusing each other of having "Bad mannurs," and coax Anna to eat two more bites every 5 minutes or so.

David Smallwood is playing, the house is warm, the kids are persnickety, and there is a clean something or other for me to wear in the closet. It is gonna be a good day friends. Monotony? Sure thing. Wonderful to have purpose, those who love you and need you, and needs met from the Lord? Youbettabelieveit.

Presently Anna is doin' a jig to impress Alayna lying in her boppy, Nase is attempting to understand a Halloween chick tract he got from who knows where, chicken is cooking on the stove for me to make into way too many meals than is humanly possible with only 5 pounds of chicken breast, and I am thrilled like a kid in a candy store to have not only a new box of Earl Grey but also my favorite raw sugar to put in it which makes it just the best. Ever.

I have life, healthy children, strength to care for them, and my house. I have a desire from the Lord to love everyone who graces my doorstep, to make my husband feel like he is the king of the place, and zeal to find every single spare dime and nickle while cleaning to save for a date night.

Who says "Out with the old and in with the new?" I say into the New (year) lovin' the same ole'!"

Alayna needs smoochin'......

Happy New Year friends. Go enjoy your same ole'.......